#probably do a v2 another day. or year

[deefighter2739]

This handsome vampire wishes you a happy halloween 🍭🦇

He thinks it's the best day of the year…

[qsycomplainsalot]

Re: Pervertin or how German Supersoldiers High on Crack travelled through Space and Time Buy my Book

I came across a post on the bird site yesterday calling into attention the use of pervitin, more or less adderall, among German troops during WW2. For context pervitin tablets were indeed issued to a lot of military personnel back in those days, specifically to aircraft pilot and sometimes tank crews on long missions. The drug as some of you may have heard keeps you awake and alert, along with a slew of side effects and a non negligible chance of addiction. In a discussion that brought to view just how willing people are to buy into Nazi propaganda in the year of our f*cking lord 2023, I pointed out a few things, uphill and having to indulge a lot of sidetracking. The use of pervitin has always been a little overstated ever since it came to the internet's attention, and I certainly would never call it a key component of the Blitzkrieg when, in the theaters of war where actual Blitzkrieg was employed, its success was more due to a combination of innovative doctrines, intact fuel supplies and a big fat helping of dumb luck. It was a bold move highly relying on capturing enemy fuel depots with fast, surprise deep strikes supported by a lot of armored and air forces, and it was only sustainable in neighboring, industrialized countries. One can argue if the USSR was industrialized at the time, but it stopped mattering when the Russians removed their entire industry from the West to beyond the Ural mountains. The Blitz stalled there.

"But if it didn't work, then why did the Nazis do it so often ?" Well the answer to that is twofold. The first, longer answer is that Nazis were a bunch of f*cking morons. Maybe not one by one, but as a government in charge of military procurement, they were one bunch of goofy motherf*ckers. Gaggle of functional shit-for-brains really. The Nazis gave every one of their tanks in the middle of the war two coats of anti-magnetic paint, which took almost a full day to cure, despite being the only major nation to use magnetic antitank mines. The Nazis kept using slave labor drawn from their prisoners of war, including in the manufacturing of their overengineered armored vehicles, resulting in poor quality products or, you know, a few rivets in your magnificent Tiger tank being replaced by a cigarette butt. The Nazis spent more than half the cost of a strategic bomber on every V2 rocket, not including design costs, for less than half the payload. It ended up killing more Germans and slave workers than British people in London, for literally no strategic or tactical result with 0.4 person killed per every rocket. The second, shorter answer is that pervitin was not used that much. A lot of the arguments trying to boost its importance come from a single book, "Blitzed" by Norman Ohler, now available in twenty languages apparently, where grand claims are made by a historian who was probably more than a little tired of seeing Buzzfeed rack in the big bucks instead of him.

End note; I was called out by a bird siter after the conversation that inspired this post for even beginning to fact-check this, which they considered, and I quote, "fangirling over nazi stats". I cannot stress this enough, learning the 'bad' parts of history does not make you bad person, it is how you interact with the resulting knowledge. Unlike what they implied, I had to look for those supporting evidence. I had a hunch that such a grabbing headline about super-drugs would be fake, I knew offhand that V2 rockets killed more blues than reds, but when I had to research all that jazz about Nazis and their superweapons it was to dunk on them, not make another History Channel documentary about a time-travelling bell. Stay critical, fascists can eat shit.

[catsharky]

I've just discovered your Rolan x Tav comic.

It's SO neat and accurate, in matter of deign and details!

In case you don't mind, of course, I have some questions you maybe have answered before:

What software do you work with? What kind of pencils do you use? How do you manage to set so neat and clean results? Do you need many references for that or is just a gift you have? How many years have you been drawing to achieve those results?

I don't mind at all! And I don't believe I've answered any of these questions before, at least not since I started doing my comics.

For software I mainly use Clip Studio, though I do also use PaintTool Sai (v2) for certain things that I feel it does better. All of my Mass Effect comics are lined in Sai, for example because things like armour have a lot more inorganic shapes and require long, sweeping, unbroken lines, and I like the pen stabilization in Sai far better than CSP's for that sort of thing.

For how long I've been doing art, I've been at it basically nonstop since I was 9 (so 20 years now, jeez). I was in an art program throughout highschool, went to college for art/animation for 4 years, and I'll have been working professionally as an animator for 8 years in May! So there's a lot of practice there for sure.

And yeah, I use a ton of references. Usually a good chunk of the time I'll spend on something is just collecting or making the reference material I need for it.

I'm putting the rest under a read more because it's pretty long:

(Tumblr keeps eating my formatting so sorry if this is a little scuffed)

Because I'm normally working full time and doing this stuff in my free time after hours and on weekends, if I know I'm going to be drawing something a *lot*, I'll usually put together some kind of reference for myself in 3D so I can take some of the brainwork out of it and get more out of my evenings even when I'm feeling fried. It also means I put as little extra strain on my wrist as possible because I injured it a number of years back and it gets angry at me if I go for too many hours in a day.

But to give you an example, for Ember I have a Sculpt of her head that I can use to reference any angle I want, or to draw directly over top of for tricky angles. How I draw her isn't quite 1:1 to the model, but it gives me a base structure and landmarks I can build on top of.

My basic workflow is to take the angle I want, draw over it using the model as a guide (while picking and choosing where to stay true to it and where to say fuck it and do what I want), then I get rid of the 3D and do another pass, tweaking and redrawing anything I'm not totally happy until I'm satisfied with how it looks. I draw Ember with a slightly softer, more rounded face than the model has, for instance. Just because something looks right in 3D doesn't always mean it looks right once translated to 2D and I don't care if something is technically "correct" if it doesn't feel right or isn't conveying what I want it to properly.

I'm also always checking reference screenshots to make sure I'm in the right ballpark of how something should look. I actually have a wall of photos next to my desk and while I didn't put them up for that purpose, it has come in surprisingly handy for quickly checking face or hair details when needed. I also just have a big folder of screenshots and other saved reference material.

I don't have a problem noooo~ 😅

Additionally, if my art has a background these days, there is a 100% chance that's a 3D set I built in Blender because I hate drawing backgrounds, but I do like building them in 3D.

Here's two examples: the area around Astarion's bed, which I built out of some of the in-game assets like a lego set (this was a pain in the ass, it probably would have been faster to just build it from scratch based on screenshots 😩) and a closet I modelled for something that's still a WIP.

I'll get the angle I want, have Blender generate some linework from it and then grab a basic render of it to slap into CSP so I can draw the characters over top of it.

And as for brushes: the main brush I use in CSP is just the default 'Real G-Pen', with opacity effects turned off and these pressure settings: (I like to keep it simple, and I have a bit of a heavy hand so the altered pen pressure just helps me get a smoother taper). I change up the stabilizer settings depending on what I'm doing. Lower for things that need short, quick lines like hair and higher for most other things.

For Sai, I use a 9B pencil I found a number of years ago on Deviantart (I think?) and I wish I could link you to the original post I got the settings from, but Deviantart's search is... bad and I'm unable to find it again.

I hope that answered all your questions! If not, feel free to ask more!

[late-to-the-party-81]

For the very first time - Chapter 1

[or 5 times the Cap Quartet slept with eachother and one time they slept all together]

AN: So here’s a thing for the CA:TWS ten year anniversary and a big thanks to @catws-anniversary for the inspiration. It’s all just smut, but a few chapters do have some feels sprinkled in.

Each chapter is a different pairing of the Cap4 - this is your warning.

Beta’d by @kingofsorrow20

Likes are loved, reblogs are golden

Mood board by me and dividers by @firefly-graphics

Join my tag list here

Bingo and Challenge fills:

@stuckybingo - N2 - 5+1 format

@steverogersbingo  - B1 - First time

@stuckygeekevents  - V2 - “You’re my best friend.”

Master list | SRB Master list | Stucky Bingo Master List | Stucky Geek Bingo Master list

Chapter Summary: Steve feels so much for his best friend and roommate and he wishes Bucky felt the same. But there’s no way he would, is there?

Chapter Relationship: Steve x Bucky

Chapter Word count: 2.7k

CW: Pining, Accidental Nudity, Realisation of feelings, Friends to lovers, First time blow job, Facial, Confident Bucky

Steve and Bucky - 1936 

Despite his protests following his mother’s funeral, it only took two weeks for Bucky to wear Steve down and persuade him of the advantages of moving in together. Steve would’ve liked to have said that, despite his stubbornness, he’d seen the sense in Bucky’s suggestion. However, despite the fact that his health often meant that he couldn’t work properly and he’d probably have issues maintaining rent on his own, he had to admit to himself that it was more that he would do anything for Buck. And again, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t convince himself it was just because Bucky was his best friend. The sight of Bucky made his mouth go dry and took his breath away - a bit of a problem for someone with asthma - and he couldn’t say no, despite not knowing how he’d actually cope living with Bucky. 

Being around him every day. 

Sharing a bedroom. 

Seeing Bucky walk around in just his undershorts.

His feelings about Bucky were a conflict within him. It wasn’t as if Steve didn’t like girls. He did, had touched himself in the privacy of his own room thinking about them. But he’d also thought about Bucky too and now he was going to have more fodder for his imagination but precious little alone time to do anything about it. Then there were the feelings of ‘wrongness’ and shame - he shouldn’t feel like this for his best friend, for another man. But he wanted to feel Bucky’s arms hold him, like Bucky held dames when dancing. He wanted to hear those sweet nothings being poured into his good ear. He wanted to smell the Bucky’s cologne on his skin the day after the night before. He wanted to taste Bucky on his tongue. The thought of it all tortured him.

It continued to torture him over the next few months. Every day when Bucky came home from working the docks, covered in sweat, he’d start stripping off as soon as he walked through the door, discarding his clothes in a trail all the way to the bathroom as he yapped away about this, that and everything. Then he’d come out again, a threadbare towel, precariously anchored, low on his hips as he rubbed his hair dry with a matching one, his damp chest with its sprinkling of dark hair that Steve just itched to stroke, just there for anyone to see. He’d be making small talk with Steve, asking him how his day was and what was for dinner, as though Steve was his wife. The images this conjured in Steve’s mind did not make things any easier.

Then, to top it off, Bucky was a toucher. A hugger. Steve would often find himself pulled into a surprise embrace, or dragged down onto Bucky’s lap. Sometimes, if he were already on their ratty, lumpy couch, Bucky would sit down next to him, then lay his head in Steve’s lap and place Steve’s hand on his head, like a puppy asking for head scratches. Anyone of these could also happen when Bucky was still just in his towel. Steve didn’t know how long his heart - already not the best at doing its job - would hold out. It was inevitable that at some point, Steve would embarrass himself, he just didn’t know when.

“Hey, Stevie, d’ya know where my cologne is?” Bucky’s voice echoed across the small apartment while Steve stirred the soup on their hot plate. It was Friday night and Bucky was planning to go out, hence searching for his cologne. He’d also been trying to persuade Steve to come with, and Bucky would find a ‘nice dame’ for him to practise dancing with. 

Steve was not in the mood. He didn’t want to go out and meet girls. And he absolutely didn’t want Bucky doing it either. But he couldn’t say that, so he just stewed in his thoughts instead. If Bucky noticed, he didn’t say anything, but Steve had decided Bucky was oblivious to most things by now, because there was no way otherwise that Bucky couldn’t see the heart Steve was wearing on his sleeve.

It didn’t help that last time they’d gone out, Bucky having persuaded two girls to meet him and his friend down the Irish Bar, that the girl who had been designated as ‘Steve’s date’, had barely looked at him, let alone talked to him, and Steve had felt like a spare part the entire time, Bucky taking it in turns to dance with the two girls, while sending Steve sympathetic glances. Steve had ended up drinking too much that night and Bucky had had to practically carry him home. Steve still held onto the memory of Bucky’s hands holding him, even if it wasn’t in the way he wanted.

“Steeeeevieeeeeeee!”

With a sigh, Steve turned off the hot plate and turned towards their bedroom, aiming to retrieve Bucky’s cologne right from where it had been left last Sunday. 

“Buck, you’re my best friend, not my child,” he chastised. However, at that moment fate decided it had had enough of Steve’s mooning and needed to put things to right in the most mortifying way possible. 

As Steve crossed the space, Bucky exited the bathroom, as usual only wearing a towel. Distracted by the sight of a rivulet of water running down between Bucky’s pecs, Steve tripped on his Ma’s rug and went sprawling towards the floor. He put his hands out in front of him, desperate to break his fall and not a bone, and his fingers automatically clutched around the fabric in front of him.

It was as he landed on the floor, cracking his right elbow, that he realised that whatever he’d grabbed wasn’t sturdily attached to anything. He shook his head and as his vision cleared he saw that in his hands was a towel. 

A damp towel. 

A towel that had been wrapped around Bucky, but wasn’t any longer.

Steve looked up from his position on the floor, then immediately closed his eyes, but it was too late. The image of Bucky’s bare cock had seared itself onto his retinas within those few seconds and suddenly Steve was worried he was going to have a panic attack and set off his asthma. At least if he died he wouldn’t be mortified for long.

“Hey,” Bucky asked, voice full of concern. “You okay there, pal?”

Steve swallowed, his tongue feeling thick and oversized for his mouth. “Yeah,” he somehow managed to force out. “I’ll get up in a moment. Just let me…” He knew he was blushing - it didn’t take much - and he hoped that Bucky would think it was because he was embarrassed from falling rather than seeing him. However, Lady Lucky was not on his side.

“Steve. Look at me.” There was something in Bucky’s voice. A tone that Steve hadn’t heard before, and it commanded him - he had no choice except to obey. He opened his eyes again and raised his head. His gaze lingered a moment too long on where it shouldn’t, before meeting Bucky’s eyes. Steve gasped at what he saw. Bucky’s eyes were dark, their normal ice blue reduced to a thin ring around widened pupils, and there was a flush on Bucky’s cheekbones. “You seem a bit taken with my cock there, buddy,” Bucky teased darkly and Steve blushed more, completely unable to hide his feelings any longer, consequences be damned. He was kneeling on the floor in front of his naked best friend - the man he loved damn it - eyes wide, mouth open and with what he was sure was a very obvious tent in his pants.

When Bucky’s voice dropped an octave and he asked “Do you wanna touch it, Stevie?” Steve’s whole body shuddered. “You can if you want,“ he coaxed. “Can even get those pretty lips on it as well if the feeling takes ya.”

Steve moaned, his eyes fluttering shut at just the thought. His fingers clenched into fists before opening again, spread wide as if searching for purchase. 

“I’ve seen you looking, doll,” Bucky continued. “Was wondering when you were gonna say or do something. Knew you had to get here in your own time. But fellas liking other fellas is more common than you think. I like you, Stevie. More than you know.”

Steve felt Bucky’s hand land on his head, Bucky’s calloused fingers threading through his straw coloured hair and Steve couldn’t help but lean into it. He wanted to do what Bucky had said, but he couldn’t do it on his own. He needed help.

“Buck….” he whispered, a plea to the man who was as important to him as god. He was going to hell with his eyes wide open.

“I gotchu, sweetheart,” came the answering drawl. “Put your hands on my legs to start with. They’re just my legs. You’ve seen ‘em lots before.”

Steve did what he’d been told, eyes open only a crack, and he felt the thick, coarse hairs of Bucky’s thighs tickle his palms. He couldn’t help but gently rub them up and down, hypnotised by the sensation, and heard Bucky chuckle.

“That’s it, Stevie,” Bucky coaxed. “Touching me’s not scary. What about a little higher?” Again, Steve did as he’d been asked, hands sliding up to grasp Bucky’s hip bones. Bucky’s cock was right there in front of his face, and through his hazy vision Steve could see that it was chubbed up, thick and heavy looking. Bucky was cut, befitting his religion, and there was a small drop of pre-cum on the very tip of it, inviting Steve to sin. 

Slowly, as if swimming in honey, Steve moved his right hand. He extended his index finger and gently ran it down Bucky’s length, swiping the drop from the end and then placing his finger in his mouth to taste it. He groaned as the salty, musky flavour burst over his tongue.

Bucky’s hand tightened in his hair and he let out a groan. “My sweet, dirty, Stevie. Fuck. Touch me again, sweetheart. Please.” Bucky might have been in charge of this encounter, but it seemed he wasn’t above begging. A thrill rippled through Steve at the realisation, buoying his confidence, and he extended his hand again, this time wrapping all of his fingers around Bucky’s rigid flesh. 

They both let out a sigh and Steve gave Bucky’s cock an experimental tug, delighting in how another pearlescent drop appeared from the slit. He couldn’t hold himself back any longer. 

Steve leant forward and flicked his tongue over the tip of Bucky’s cock, collecting the liquid straight from the source and then a moment later he was taking his first, experimental suckle. It felt so right!

“God, Steve! Can’t believe this is finally happening.” Bucky babbled away and his other hand joined his first on Steve’s head, holding him in place as Steve explored with his lips and tongue, his right hand still lightly jerking the lower half of Bucky’s cock. His left hand slid from Bucky’s hip to cup his heavy-hanging balls, and Steve marvelled at how strange it was to be touching genitals that, while familiar looking, were not his own. However, he must have been doing something right, because Bucky’s hips kept jerking slightly, as though he were trying to keep still but was having a hard time doing so.

Feeling emboldened, Steve wondered how much of Bucky’s cock he could actually fit in his mouth. He relaxed his jaw and slid forward even further, until he felt the tip bump against his soft palate and he gagged. He drew back quickly with a spluttering cough, and tears rolled down his cheeks. A feeling of dread washed over him. Had he fucked up? Would Bucky push him away and call him names? However, much to Steve’s relief, Bucky instead moved his right hand and wiped Steve’s tears away with his thumb.

“Easy, doll. You gotta work up to that. Just do what’s comfortable. I can assure you, it’s perfect.”

Steve preened under the praise and returned his lips to worshipping Bucky. He increased the speed and firmness of the strokes of his hand, touching Bucky the way he touched himself, hoping that Bucky liked it. He sucked and licked at Bucky’s cock and fondled his balls with his other hand, feeling the undeniable urge to make Bucky come. He had to do it, had to prove to himself and Bucky that he could.

Bucky’s fingers in his hair hurt a bit, but it was a good hurt, each wave of sensation making its way to his own cock, trapped inside his pants. His knees ached from kneeling on the floor, but he didn’t care - all there was, was Bucky.

The only noises were those of Bucky’s panting and the wet slurps from Steve’s lips, until Bucky stilled Steve’s head, causing him to glance up.

“‘M gonna come, Stevie. Need to let you know that’s what’s gonna happen if you keep going.”

Steve pulled off reluctantly, but knew he had to answer. “Want you to come, Bucky. Wanna taste you.” He’d heard tales of girls who did this to boys and he wondered if any had done it for Bucky? Whatever the truth of it, he was gonna do it too. Show Bucky how much he loved him.

“Fuck, doll,” Bucky groaned. “Gonna kill me with that mouth.”

Steve couldn’t help but grin. “That’s the plan,” he retorted and then went back to what was probably going to become one of his favourite things to do. 

Bucky hadn’t been lying though. His breathing got more ragged and his little hip thrusts became more frequent and intense as he lost the ability to control his reactions. Steve felt Bucky’s balls draw up within his palm and readied himself as best he could, taking as much of Bucky’s cock into his mouth as possible and sucking hard.

Bucky exploded with a drawn out moan, his cum filling Steve’s mouth at an alarming rate. Steve had no choice but to pull back to avoid choking. However, Bucky’s cock continued to spurt, and jets of white splattered over Steve’s face, dripping down his chin and onto his shirt. He swore some was even in his eyebrows, but he still continued to stroke Bucky’s cock until the flood reduced to a trickle and Bucky’s hand relaxed in his hair.

“Oh, God, Steve. Shit. Look at you!” Bucky dropped to his own knees and lifted his towel from the floor, using a corner of it to wipe the worst of his cum from Steve’s smiling, dopey expression. Then, in the next moment, he cupped Steve’s face in his hands and kissed him. Steve squeaked, taken aback by Bucky’s action and somehow finding this act more intimate than what they’d just done. 

Lips still joined, Bucky pulled Steve to his feet, and it wasn’t until Steve found himself scooped up in Bucky’s arms that he managed to find his way back to reality.

“W-what’s going on, Buck? What are you doing? Thought you were going out?” Confusion was writ large over his face. As much as he wanted Bucky to eschew his social life in favour of him, he hadn’t thought for a moment that it would happen.

“Like I’m gonna go out now? Why would I need to? I’ve got my best guy right here, and I’ve gotta treat him right.” He gave Steve a cheeky wink, and Steve realised what all those girls must have felt like.

“What d’ya mean ‘treat me right’,” he queried, intrigued as to what Bucky meant.

“Well,” said Bucky, cocking his head towards Steve’s lap as he placed him on his bed, “looks like you got a bit of an issue there, and thought I might return the favour if that’s alright with you.”

Steve grinned, his heart flipping in his chest in a way that wasn’t related to his ill-health. “More than alright, Buck. I can’t wait. I just apologise if I don’t last long.”

“Don’t worry, Stevie - I’ll just take it as a compliment.”

Chapter 2

Tag list: @km-ffluv, @wheezy-stucky, @kmc1989, @kombatfather1796, @christywrites, @alexakeyloveloki, @doasyoudesireandlive, @galactusdevourerofworlds, @crayongirl-linz, @mightstill, @endlesstwanted

[mofffun]

Music Collection vol.3 repo

note: i don't know a thing about music somebody please please do a musical analysis of king-ohger some day

There's still no "Mysterious Debut" from ep4!!! Did you guys forget it??!!

1: I didn't even knew i needed the narration bgm but thank you narration bgm. recgonized it immediately.

2: this is my favourite (non-obstructing) version of instrumental Zenryoku King so far

Shugoddom 2 years after: there's still kind of a solem march disciplinary rhythm but it feels more upbeat and cheerful than authoritarian

N'kosopa: my instinct reaction is: freedom. contrary to Shugoddom, i don't hear a single instrument as the melody it feels more background noise in a good sense. As in it suits the environment as opposed to dominating the scene. Maybe you can make a theory about there's no single driving force and N'kosopa is all about community

Ishabana: I don't have much of a reaction to it but i think it's more… subtle? as in v1 was very much announcing Himeno's appearance and you're supposed to fall head over heels for her and v2 is "I'm exerting beauty regardless of your worship"?

Toufu: it's so fun. you know you're in for a ride. wouldn't be out of place if it plays at the mall during new year.

Gokkan: I LOVE YOU. this part brainwashed me back in 27 and i kept thinking if this is the Gokkan theme or the Shugddom theme because they share that orchestral repeat and it plays into Jeramie and Gira transforming (btw Jeramie is not in that medley). In the middle it turned sombre again but the melody comes back on it's like regaining control and the song is proper balanced!

8: i think this is an earlier bgm we don't hear as often now. very comforting while alluring you to a bedtime story. i like the strings 1 minute in

9: YES JERAMIE'S CHOIR DEBUT SONG IS HERE. *blast it at highest volume* love the wind chimes 0:37-0:50 you really need to turn it max to hear, and it stops when the drum starts building tension. there's beats of "8. A story wiped from history" at the end too.

10: i see it… ep26… buganarok national day *wipe tears*

11: 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 RITAAAAAAA

12: violin INFERNO!!! i love this one. my strongest impression of it was in ep11 the orphans griefing about Gira. What do you mean it's called "A king's compassion for his peole" 😭😭

13: the! the touching bgm!

15: love Dugded's theme. SW vibes if i say so, knowing Hidetsuna did use SW as an inspiration for chapter 2. strong impact the first time i hear it.

16: i can sing along to this

17: ?… OH "Racles's schemes"!! Hello old friend! Another one to sing along.

(these dug themes are melting together for me…)

20: Does this share some sounds with "18. Uchuuoh's Iron First"???

22: compared with "Assemble! The five kings", I like the ch2 assemble theme is more [穩重]… more mature and grounded. There's still the same insipiring quality but a sense of you can really trust them to take care of everything instead of just raging on an adventure. I guess it's they are working better as like a team.

ringtones:

gira/racles: evil vs hero. will believe racles's ringtone is the official shugoddom anthem.

yanma: THAT'S OUR PREZ! (anything i can say will never be as GOAT as Hidetsuna-san designing a wblue matching ringtone)

himeno: afternoon tea

rita: i hadn't noticed there's a "dun-duh" after the chibi moffun chirps. Rita is always getting calls and always cutting their ringtones short 😂 sorry Rita but gotta say the sharp chirps is not good for my ears

kagu: i almost forgot his bgm is like this 😂 very fitting i guess

jeramie: medieval european bard

out of the 8 the only one i'd consider using is probably jeramie's. and maybe yanma's racles song 😂

now we need a retro rpg with the ringtones as bgm

insert songs:

Pride and Brave: ooh the full song is much better than just the ed segment! something about Takatori-san's voice being nostalgically reassuring. Like the crossover itself, very traditional-flavoured sentai. I always thought of "Waking the King" as an "ura-OP", the OP King-Oh would have if it's born 10 years earlier, and this is the special edition crossover movie dancing ED.

Just we go: This is the "image song" of ch2 so it hasn't been used in the show yet. Contrary to "Waking the King" this feels more like an "ura-ED" but not a dance one, closer to a Rider ED. The lyrics is very affirming of the kings' journey this past (three) year(s) - that i feel like, a message that i receive from the show, is you can always make up for your mistakes and you always have a second chance, and the lyrics is saying that. It maybe the same vague hopeful words but it's about taking everything that happened to you, ackowledged how hard you fought, to protect your home and then facing the future without reservations. cliche of cliche but it works!

I'm still alive: I love this song. I've waited for it since ep 2. TWO. (now it's released the crown of longest-waiting bgm is passed to Mysterious from ep4).

and I feel so sorry and mean if I critique the grammar because the artist and team worked hard on it and musically it's wonderful! The grammar just takes it a little bit out of immersion. Now i'm curious if the lyrics has a japanese blueprint that better convey the message. Reagrdless, it's interesting to think of the english language is part of Yanma's antique/retro hobby. Maybe English is an antiqudated language on Chikyuu so the gramma is odd to modern Chikyuu ears.

[muzzleroars]

idk if you intentioned it like that, but as someone with chronic pain and fatigue, mike's condition half rotting condition makes me feel at least a bit more seen :,D

Sometimes days are harder than other, overworking is always on the table when you used to be an overachiever before your illness, the constant horror from other people too that , and the fear of some days being worse than others, the fear that you have overdone it so bad that you cant go further like the day before.

There is a fear some disabled people with this stuff dont talk about often because of not wanting to be pitied or looked for, so the more visual depicton of the rotting rather than the internal feeling is a way to kind of emphasize "This is pain. There is a limit he reached and keeps overcoming, even as he is falling apart"

This though also allows for the plant regrowth of mike to also be a hopeful thing of what comes when you finally respect the limits of your own body and learn how to treat it. Allowing your body to heal and you to learn new ways of enjoying time, even if its not the same as it used to be. Its not the same and might never be, but there are other, gentler ways to enjoy things now. Now you are even enjoying the bird chirp you never heard as you were rushing from task to task.

Once again sounds probably like rambling, but mike is just his own little garden of eden and learning how to tend to it means learning how to tend to himself too

thank you so much for this message, i'm really happy to see that this aspect of michael's character comes through because that's exactly what i'm trying to portray. michael is very much meant to show the physical and mental burnout one is left with after years of overachieving and perfectionism, coupled with becoming ill in a way that prevents him from continuing to achieve that standard. some days he tries to work to that same capacity, but he realizes more and more he's pushing himself to extremes when he's left combating much more severe symptoms as a result. at first, he fights against his body, treating it as an enemy, an obstacle, a weakness, forcing it beyond what it can now do because acceptance is just too difficult. if he can still perform as he once did, if he never slows and carries out his duty as the prince of heaven and warden of hell, then nothing has changed. he can make himself sick over and over again, trapping himself in a vicious cycle that only breaks down a body in desperate need of more care, but if he can still, eventually, force himself through another day of how he once could serve, he can deny his illness. but through the care of his siblings and v2, he gains an increasing appreciation for his body as it is now and what it is capable of. understanding his limits is a slow process, but as his fear and anger and grief are attended to, so can he now attend to his body, feel love for it and for the plants that grow in it now. they're so happy to have life and he starts to feel through them, finding himself in this body like he never before had the chance to.

i was diagnosed with a chronic illness a few years ago, and i went through these stages to arrive now in a place where my life is very different from before but i'm okay with it. i wanted michael to be similar, and that's also why i don't find a way to just "heal" characters - they are not broken because they are ill, and i want them to achieve fullness in that illness. michael actually lives a much more peaceful life in this new body, one that initially invoked so much hatred and fear but becomes beautiful as its own little garden even though it is the same as it has been ever since it died. there is still difficulty no matter how long it's been, there is still frustration and hardship through what has been lost, but he, overall, is happier, calmer, and more connected to himself than he was before his illness. disability is a complex thing and i know we don't all relate to it the same, but i just drew on my own experience and im so glad it could resonate with you too.

[sessakag]

Hey, just wondering... which mods are you using with The Sims?

I use so, so many mods it's ridiculous, lol, and my game is absolutely crazy I swear, but it's incredibly fun so, oh well!

I'll give you the creators name if I can remember and the mod name of course. It's a pretty long list 😅

Deaderpool: MC Command Center (must have!), MC Woohoo

Turbodriver: Wicked Whims 🤭(another must have for me at least)

KawaiiStacie: Slice of Life(a must! Adds life to the game!), Memorable Events, Explore Mod- Accessories, Explore Mod- Gambling

Sacrificial Mods: Road to Fame, Zombie Apocalypse, Life Tragedies, Deadly Toddlers, Extreme Violence(for the gangs of course 😏), Passionate Romance, Torture & Chaos (I don't really use them all at once, I switch them up for whatever save file I'm in the mood to play in)

Adeepindigo: Education Overhaul, More Premade Holidays, More New Years Resolutions

Caradriel: Better Babies and Toddlers, My Wedding

SimRealist: Banking, Real estate, Private Practice(adds allergies, heart attacks, doctor visits and all kinda fun scary stuff), Mortem, Home & Land. Co, Organic(the reason why Naruto and Sasuke have beards in my game)

Basemental: Drugs, Gangs (it is just as bad as you're probably imaging, lol, I should have took picture of the aftermath of their keg party after they graduated from university. I let them do whatever they wanted at the party.... they all got wasted. Hinata passed out several times, Sasuke used his vampire powers on innocent bystanders then passed out, Naruto fought a few people, went streaking then passed out, lmao, they almost missed graduation the next day they were so messed up!)

Kuttoe: Lifetime Quirks, Basemental Addon (bruh, the "sketchy lot" trait in this is crazy 😂all kinds of sketchy sims show up)

Carl's Guides: Gameplay Overhaul

Chingyu: Faithfulness, 100 Custom Traits V2, Supernatural Traits

Cinerotique/Peco: Cinerotique TV

Mercuryfoam: Ballroom Dance

LUUMIA: Height Slider, Shorter Teen Pre-set

Iced Cream: Hybrid Stabilizer

LittleMsSam: Way too many to list, she has a huge list of behavior mods that can remove or add little(or big) details. I have 24 of her mods, my favorite three are: Ultrasound Scan, ATM Cards and Credit, New Vampire Powers

Lumpinou: Road to Romance, First Impressions, Memory Panel, LGBTQIA Mod(love this!), Open Love Life(responsible for my throuple alongside Wicked Whims and MC Command Center, bless their creative and open minds 🥹 love this the most)

MissHissy: Lore & Order (Spellcasters and Vampires), Custom Wants, The Hobby Mod, The Hope & Fears Mod, The Personality Mod

MizoreYukii: SimCity Loans

PolarBearSims: Personality Please!, Sims Learn Info

TwelfthDoctor: Magic Bloodline For Aliens, Occult Hybrid Unlock Stablizer

Pandasama: Childbirth Mod

Simsmodelsimmer: Realistic Reactions

roBurky: Meaningful Stories

thepancake1: Cute Romance, Remove Sims From Conversations (because omfg other Sims just butt into to A B conversations and make everything all awkward and unpleasant when my Sims be talking to each other, minding their own dang business 😑)

KiraSims4Mods: I Love you (this is so sweet! Sims can tell each other they love each other and the response are so adorable! 🥰)

SrslySims: Srsly's Complete Cooking Overhaul

SpinningPlumbobs: Werewolf Mod (very impressive since this added werewolves before the EA werewolf gamepack even came out!)

TwistedMexi: Better Exceptions (helps me keep track of broken or conflicting mods messing up the game in real time, absolute must have!)

Zero's Sims 4 Mods&Comics: Another too many to list, I use a lot of his tweaks for vampires and spellcasters, my top three are: RoM Master Magic, Immersive Vampires, Mental Health

I also have several hundred (maybe a thousand?) custom clothing, accessories, make-up, eyes, hair, etc. Several customized aspirations, and miscellaneous mods I didn't add to the list.

I think I'm up to almost 2,000 mods total now 😅thank goodness my laptop can handle it all and still make the game look pretty.

[trappedtowers]

Trapped Towers Dev History ~ How We Got Here (Part 1)

(Middle art piece done by @/evilredyoshis)

Hey everybody !!

Today I'm going to be introducing another type of post I can end up doing - development history/update posts! These will likely be rarer than other types of posts (after this 3 parter anyway), purely because development on this project is just pretty slow due to my lack of ✨ focus ✨ and all that. However, there is definitely some old development stuff I can talk about! Plus, for those of you who are new - you get to learn more about this project that has been ongoing since early 2018!

So lets get into this, shall we? It's going to be a lengthy read.

February 2018 - August 2020 ~ The Beginning/Undertale AU Era:

February 2018 was a time, by this point I'd spent almost a year making music for my friends and very small audience in the Undertale community. One day, I was simply bored and had no ideas - so my sister told me "hey make an Alton Towers megalo"... how I hadn't done it yet shocked me, I'd been going since 2014 and loved the place dearly. However, with a laugh I agreed and got to work.

A few days into creation, I began theory crafting the basics for an Undertale AU. The first ever concept for what would eventually become Trapped Towers - explains a lot about the name and premise though huh. I eventually uploaded a song or two for the AU, including the megalo I did finish - "Ministry Of Death".

One person found and covered the megalo. Then another. And another. And soon enough the whole thing spiralled - I would consider it to this day my biggest impact on the Undertale Community, even if it was still relatively small and not long lived. Either way, it got me to take the project a little more seriously... but quickly it spiralled into development hell. I was only 14 after all, if you asked me what a leadership style was I probably would have no idea what you were on about or given a dumb answer.

Reboot after reboot was attempted. New server after new server. Eventually though, one server was made and kept. However, the project had already fallen into more obscurity and my motivation was low, so I moved to new things. Every so often a new Trapped Towers post would occur, mainly new Smiler content as that's what really brought in people. Things would stay like that for a bit unfortunately though...

Old Content:

How about some art and concepts from the time though huh? For an Undertale AU it was... something. Tom wasn't called Tom and was literally just called Frisk. The world layout was just Undertale and I just made stuff fit - The Beornen were almost located in X-Sector because of Wickerman being the Grillby replacement. Th13teen wouldn't have really even been in the story as she was Gaster. Half the characters didn't even have designs! People loved Smiler and Enterprise, and any serious work focused on the Ruins portion with Terra. They were still trapped because Nemesis was too dangerous to be let free, however Nemesis was also in a permenant sleep - only prophisised to reawaken. It wasn't an active threat.

(I don't entirely remember who made what here, so I'm sorry for no credits)

OLD SOUNDTRACK LINKS:

Trapped Towers V1 Soundtrack

Trapped Towers V2 Soundtrack

It's all quite funny to look back on. There's so many bits that clearly influenced the project as it is today. Many old designs haven't had drastic overhauls either, which is quite funny to think about... maybe I should get on some...

Anyway, with that brings the conclusion of part 1 of this 3 part blog series. The next two parts will come out day after day, with tomorrow being "August 2020 - June 2021" and Friday being "June 2021 - Present Day". Figured it'd be much easier for reading if I split them into a couple parts !! Also gives me a few extra days to consider what else I want to post haha.

Until then, cya ! - JustDaniel

[mockingbirdshymn]

for someone who loves preston to hell and back i do not post about him as much as i should

OK dusts off jeans ITS TIME FOR PRESTON TIME (headcanons v2?)

he overthinks everything all of the time. like, all of the time. he needs things to Be Perfect, and he wont allow them to not be. he drafts and redrafts and redrafts every play he writes. this is potentially a reason his plays arent as... quality as they could be. he overthinks things and ends up with a rigid, rushed storyline, but at least it has proper grammar.

preston does most of the chores around his and gram gram's apartment, mostly because it hurts her hips/back to do them herself. she gives preston chore money in return.

preston has a photo album of his family dating back to his great grandparents. it has entries from them, their hopes for the future, and pictures of their lives. preston finds it interesting.

preston backseat drives pretty often. this is mostly due to the fact his grandmother is not the best driver out there and he often has to correct her.

preston gets very emotional over movies/games/books. especially dog movies. he loves them, but every time he rewatches them, he bursts into tears.

preston writes in mostly cursive, unless hes being rushed.

when he was a kid, gram gram knit/sewed most of his costumes for his one-man plays

preston loved english class in elementary school because of the poem projects. he always made wild interpretations of popular poems for these. most of them were wrong, but he got points for effort at least

preston would have a plant, call it his pet, end up killing the plant, then hold a funeral for it

he is very good at improv. this makes him very funny, because he easily expands upon already funny jokes.

preston's back hurt like shit after the wcc episode. you cant tell me his spine isnt severed in half or some shit

preston writes letters to himself a year in the future, asking himself questions and reminding him to do things if he hasnt already done them.

preston is very extroverted. he needs to be around at least another person or he'll get very upset

preston has a google document of blackmail (jokingly) of his friends

hes worried his gram gram is slowly getting dementia, because of her forgetting so much. he doesnt know if thats because of dementia or something else

whenever preston sends letters, he uses a wax seal. he got it from a kit off of amazon. its his favorite part of sending letters

preston has so many blankets. throw blankets, comforters (just ones in a closet, not even for his bed), fort-blankets, weighted blankets, super soft blankets, knit blankets, quilts, everything you can imagine. this makes blanket forts very fun with him

before wanting to be an actor/playwright, preston wanted to be a baker, then an artist, and then a singer. actor/playwright stays as his dream job after he gains it.

preston often sleeps in on school days by mistake. its rare he actually gets up on time. probably because he stays up incredibly late most days

preston would burn the house down in case of a spider, no doubt

preston was so upset at the dear evan hansen movie and how it turned out. he was So Angry

preston cant watch horror. if he does, he will faint

speaking of fainting, thats something he does a lot. he also has low iron. is that connected? he doesnt know

preston gets very motion sick, and he does not like rollercoasters at all

preston is very dedicated and stubborn. if you say "its nothing" in regards to something that is very much not nothing, he will find out what that something is.

[magpiejay1234]

Taking a bit break from Days, let's discuss KH4.

****

So I hope Strelitzia is at least as useful as Marly in Days, at least by using magic instead of physical attacks. If she is less useful than Specter Nobody, why do we even have her here.

****

Stickman Sham's video made me finally understand the Yozora thing. So not-Noctis already had his Verum Rex adventure but didn't get to Episode Lunafreya, and Noctis, so KH4's quests with the not-Chocobros will likely involve them.

Stinger of KH3 vanilla I guess happens before Yozora, and Sora's dialogue in the anti-Final World.

If that's the case, then either Riku, or Sora is the Gladiolus of the group (makes sense because of early KH instant ramens, look them up), which doesn't sound good for either of them considering what happened to Gladiolus in the leaked Versus 13 script (also look it up).

Given the structure of the true ending though I guess the Verum Rex Yozora was in was the Verum Rex in the Toy Story world, though. I guess this is a meta joke about how VS13 was originally intended to be trilogy to contrast regular FF13, then condensed to a single game, then to incomplete FF15. Alternatively, it might have been referring to the earlier demos of FF15, like the one with Carbuncle, and the other with, drum roll, Gladiolus, which will be the basis of Verum Rex stuff that will have the regular VS13 storyline when Sora dies the third time due to saving Strelitzia from death, and breaking rules of the multiverse once more.

Anyway, Yozora's sparkly end is probably supposed to be based off Goddess Etro taking Lightning back to realm of death (since FF13/FFV13/Type-0 all alternate timelines are supposed to be dreams of different of iterations of Etro, she is a weird mixture of Gnostic Sophia (also the basis of Minerva in FF7, and goddess form of Kingdom Hearts in this franchise), and Lovecraft's Azathoth). Sora's crystallization is instead a reference to how the l'Cie (people chosen by fal'Cie, the demigods), branded by fal'Cie (false robotic demigods) become crystals until they are needed by fal'Cie for another job, then they either become fully crystal, and "live" eternally, or become Cie'th (crystal zombies) if they fail.

Of course, the skies are brighter in the good ending for Yozora, and Luxord's Somebody, even though in VS13 Insomnia is supposed to have eternal night-time, though early trailers flip-flopped on that.

Granted, there is no way except the most hardcore FF fans will know of this, and even then, this contradicts crystallization lore within KH (with Xion in Days, and Kairi in KH3), which is closer to classic FF games, than Fabula Nova Crystallis games, whose lore haven't been followed upon since years. This is even worse since this is just a concept trailer like the one for BBS V2 that will eventually be recontextualized, and Nomura is still disappointed about not making that.

Don't ask me where the Assassin's Creed stuff goes into the KH, though, beyond the hoods of course.

[glassmarcus]

Pokémon Violet has Transcended Embarrassment

*Played in November 2022, Written in December 2022

Pokémon Violet does a surprising amount well. I still think it has a ways to go both as a Pokémon game and as an open world game, but it's still head and shoulders above what I expected and honestly MOST Pokémon games. I didn't presume much because this was rushed, but that's really not a new issue. This franchise is categorically rushed at this point. The last new batch that was actually finished cooking was Generation 5, and those are what I would classify as outliers.

You can look at games like Pokémon Platinum and Emerald and view them as easy cash grabs because dumb kids will buy the same game twice without reservation. I didn't buy Platinum when I was 11 because I thought I was getting grifted. "Why would I buy ANOTHER version of Pokémon Pearl?", "That game was awesome! There's not much to improve on", "I'm not gonna save up my allowance just so I can get a third option for a fire type" were the thoughts I had on the matter. It was after returning to Pokémon in my senior year of high school, when I replayed every Pokémon Generation, where the illusion shattered before my eyes. Pokemon Pearl...is really slow. Every action you take in that game is as slow as a Shuckle. It has the lowest speed stat of any Pokémon game by far. I didn't realize it before, because my perception of time was suspect when I was a preteen, but that game was not optimized at all. It wasn't recycling the same product, it was charging for the completed version. It's a patch, you put up money to get. That doesn't make it excusable really, but at the end of the day I'd rather a finished version of a game exist than not.

It probably wouldn't have been good to market it as Pokemon Diamond and Pearl: Actually finished edition, but it would have made it clearer to me as a consumer what was on the table. That's pretty much what they tried to do with Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon a decade later, but the complete versions of those games just happened to be worse than the betas. Plus, it's not like there is no precedent in the series for transparent updates that should have been there at release. It's just that most people don't know about them. The versions Pokémon that were released world wide had drastically better sprites and a few bug fixes to boot when compared the original Pokémon Red and Green. And even then, every version of Generation 1 is still full of holes. Pokemon, at its bare foundation, is a franchise that is OK churning out products that could use another year of development. Games like Yellow Version and Crystal looking back were honestly the only ones I'd consider pure cash grabs. Pokémon Yellow didn’t fix much from Red V2 and Blue. Gold and Silver were more or less complete. Ruby and Sapphire though, while they weren’t egregious in any way, the lack of post game content left them feeling like they were hurried in development, especially compared to the previous games' massive post game. This makes Emerald feel necessary in retrospect. People whine and cry about the lack of battle frontier for a reason. It wasn't just an additional thing, it completed the experience.

Platinum was the first case where a fix was implemented mainly for technical reasons rather than content ones. And because of those technical kinks being ironed out, the rest of Gen 4 and Gen 5 were as polished as the series has ever been. Then Pokémon X and Y happened. And while the performance wasn't an issue, it certainly had the same problem of feeling like a ton was left on the cutting room floor. Gen 6 is probably the most reviled generation of Pokémon and I can't help but think that's because A) they really are the worst games, and B) they had no “patch release” to fix any of its problems. I have fond memories of Gen 6, but that's because I had too much free time on my hands and they made EV training and online battling painless. The games themselves I've beaten twice and don't remember any of. It's the essentials with no flourishes, and as much as people would have welcomed another version with some meat on it's bones, a Pokémon Z would never happen. Sun and Moon had a dearth of content and a surplus of technical issues. An update for that game felt more necessary than in Gen 6. And like I said before in Ultra Sun and Moon’s case, they barely fixed anything and made that story worse and added content that was bad.

This marked the end of the "Third Version" era. If the things added just detract from the game, then why bother making them at all? Downloadable Content always seemed like the obvious route for Pokémon to go, but was never feasible due to the hardware. Any extra content they can't add on release, can just be developed later and sold for the price of not an entirely new game. Things like performance and bugs can be fixed in updates as well. So there's no real need to buy an entirely new version. Sword and Shield came out, lacked content, but announced DLC to make up for that lack of content. The DLC was decent, but that didn't really sway public opinion about the game itself. Its legacy is that of a paint by numbers poké. This is all based off the osmosis of opinions I absorbed from the circles I hang around in. Still haven't touched them myself. It's getting to the point where I'm about to play Sword and Shield for the sake of having my own opinion on it when I spend far too long developing context for these essays. It's agonizing having this gaping fissure in my Pokémon knowledge, but those games do look painfully mediocre, so I have no drive to try them.

People can look back at Gen 4 and think fondly of it because while it was initially a slog, it was improved later. Not just because it was optimized, but because the adventure itself was tweaked to be improved. DLC fixes the amount of content that can be contained in the game, but it does nothing to fix the distribution of said content. The main journey is still underwhelming and no additional content will change that. The third version wasn't just a patch, it was a second shot. There are design decisions and story beats which can be tweaked. Changes that would be awkward if done via an update. No matter how polished an addendum is, it can't make up for a rough draft being so rough. And that's what I was worried about for the new games. Because I knew they would be drafts just like almost all Pokémon games initially are.

Pokémon Violet has issues. It has spelling mistakes. It has busted grammar. It has misused vocabulary words. But it's still coherently formed and carefully crafted. It just turned in its work without using spell check. The base game is strong and nothing about it is broken. It's just kind of embarrassing, but the game confidently shrugs it off. Violet is populated with glitches, but the only one that really matters is the memory leak one after a long play session. Violet has extremely rough looking animations, but you will get over it and not really care after a few hours. The indoor exploration feels like a cheap visual novel, but that ends up being a small percentage of play time. Violet has low fidelity graphics, but the art direction more than makes up for it.

It might be because I played them back to back, but Pokemon Violet reminds me a lot of Sonic Frontiers. It's not Broken and Embarrassing like Sonic 06; It's not Broken, but polished on surface level like Sonic Lost World; It's just Embarrassing sometimes. And that’s funny. Most of the wild bugs you find in the game are things you laugh at and move on from and Violet is the same way. I'm not condoning games lacking polish, but I really can't get too upset at it. The only true killer is performance slowing down the pace of battles to near Gen 4 rates, and that is something I would call a major issue. Especially after how quick it was in Pokémon Legends Arceus which released in the same year.

I'm of two minds about this. Yes, they should give the game more time so that it's polished and presentable. I don't want to support smooth brained upper management and I wouldn't say I PREFER things to look awful, but when you change your perspective you can appreciate how hysterical this game turned out. We're at a point where Pokémon is unstoppable and the vote with your wallet approach is futile. So all I can do is be happy with the product being good enough. And yea, this is good enough. Probably the best Nu Pokemon game, an age bracket I’m gonna say extends from Gen 6 and onward. Not sure I can say it’s better than any of the old ones though. Why? Because they are far different experiences with different goals. Old Pokémon games were about building your team and overcoming obstacles. These new ones are about exploring and finding your favorites. There's probably more challenge here than in any from the past decade, but I still had to really try to not be over leveled. I was training like 20 Pokémon at the same time here, and caught 300 by the time I got to the credits. It's a middle ground between a traditional Pokémon and a Legends game. Which makes it not great at either. There's no satisfaction in overcoming anything, but exploration isn't as smooth as in Arceus. There's just...more of it. I remember areas in Arceus because they were smaller and had land marks and locations where only certain things happened. Violet is just larger and more connected, but it has the same motifs spaced out further. This game lacks interesting locales and events, and while the things you do are fun, I'd rather just do them in Legends where it's faster. It does nothing old better. Battling and catching is not what you go to Pokémon Violet for if you want the pinnacle of those activities.

The new it brings to the table is the best part though. Multiplayer works. Just being able to point out where things are to people and experiencing new Pokémon in stereo is the most magical part of this game. The synchronous wonder you feel during unions do a lot to enhance the feeling of adventure. It wears off once you're near the end of the game and things are inherently less exciting, but it's still relatively seamless and only additive. It starts to feel like a MMO. But instead of massive it's micro. People have been asking for a Pokémon MMO since the dawn of high speed internet access, and while it's not there yet, it's at least something.

The story is also the best the franchise has had due to its approach. Instead of 1 story arc that takes itself far too seriously and takes too long to tell, you are given 3 story arcs with a final one at the end. Each story arc is easy to follow and character driven, endearing you to the setting and cast. All 3 are genuinely touching tales. And when things started to pop off and get serious at the end, I was more engaged in learning the outcome more than other Pokémon games aside from maybe Sun and Moon. I can attribute a lot of the strengths of this story to those games as well, but they’re held back by linear structure and can feel like you are getting pelted by story at all times. In Violet, no storyline feels like they are interrupting your adventure because you can do them at your own pace. I liked this game about as much as Moon, but I will never replay that game. The story is far too obtrusive. So I have to prefer Violet just based on how much replay value it has, not just because the story is structured better, but because I'm certain my next play through will be FAR different.

The non-linearity is yet another thing this game brings to the table. A lot of people were bothered that this game doesn't have level scaling for gyms and other equivalent goals. I expected them to do this so you can do things in any order you want. But they didn't and it was a great decision, because now it feels like I’m breaking the rules by doing things out of order. It feels more free when there are structures you can surmount. I liked doing gyms out of order in the first two Gens and this is the logical extension of that. Having the challenges curve with badge amount makes it feel like you've been placed in a bounding box and would make it impossible to attempt to punch above your weight class. Personally, I think it's good for players to have the freedom to get bodied by lv 30 Pokémon near the beginning of the journey. It builds character.

Having a variety of goals also helps break Pokémon out of its linear structure. You can swap between storylines whenever and in any order you like. And each one gives different rewards. If you prioritize movement, you take on titan sized Pokémon to get traversal upgrades. If you want higher level Pokémon to obey you, take on gyms. If you want a wider variety of attacks for your Pokémon, you take on Team Star. The path the player walks along is not driven entirely by curiosity, but by implementing a system that supports prioritizing some modular aspects over others. Players who beat the game will end up at the same place, with the same abilities, but with a different story. Pokémon has sort have always been that way. Everyone becomes champion with a different team that you bonded with along the way, with their own tale of how they succeeded in each challenge. But now that those challenges have no order, there's an even greater variance the narrative you can craft.

I wish this game was finished. I want there to be free updates that enhance performance and fix memory leaks. I want there to be DLC with more to explore. But I do not want a third version. Because the bones of this game are strong and Game Freak is really onto something.

[walker-extended-universe]

WIP Wednesday

(stolen from @kedreeva)

Rules:

Post up to five (5) filenames of your WIPs; not titles, file names.

Post a snippet from one of them. Snippet must be words you wrote in the last 7 days. We’re posting progress here. If you haven’t made any, go make some and come back to post!

After you’ve posted, people can send you an ask with one of your file names. You must then write 3 sentences in that file. If the filename is one you can't share from (for example, an event fic), write 3 sentences on it anyway, and then 3 more on another to share.

That’s it!

Cassie/Cordell fake marriage but also they don't hate it AU

Cassie burst into the hospital emergency wing. “I’m here to see Cordell Walker. Can you tell me what room he’s in?” she asked the receptionist, a bit out of breath from running. “He should’ve been admitted a few hours ago with two gunshot-”

“I’m sorry, I can only give that information out to family.” “But-” I am family was right on the tip of her tongue but she knew that wasn’t the kind of family that the hospital would accept. No matter how many family events she attended or how much she bonded with the family, she wouldn’t be on any emergency contact lists. As far as the law was concerned, they were just coworkers.

Cassie is pregnant and Kevin is dead whoops

“Let’s just keep the list at who needs to know right now,” Abby suggested. “Just talk to your brother first and go from there. No one else needs to know until you’re ready.”

Cassie nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, alright. I’ll text him and ask him when he can meet up.”

“Sounds good. Do you want me to be there or….”

She shook her head. “No. I think it’ll go better if Ben thinks he’s the first one to know.” She scooped up another bite of trail mix. “I’m probably going to need you when I talk to Walker. You know how he is….”

Emily Walker: How One Woman's Death Kickstarted the Downfall of the Travis County Legal System

DELILAH: Please state your name for the record.

JAMES: Larry James.

DELILAH: Thank you. Can you tell me a little about your relationship with Ranger Cordell Walker?

Katherine AU v2

“This isn’t how I wanted William to meet Stella and August.”

“I know. But it’ll be good for him to meet the family. And there’s strength in numbers….”

“He’s been hospitalized with a stroke, Bon. What exactly do you expect him to do to me?”

“It’s not him I’m worried about. I know you can hold your own against him. It’s this Katherine woman I’m worried about. Who is she? How does she know your brother? Why was she the one that called you and not the hospital?”

Abby sighed. “I don’t know. But she seemed pretty worried over the phone. She must care about him a lot.”

August got Sadie pregnant and now there's drama

If there was anything Cordell learned during his many years working in law enforcement, it was that getting a call in the middle of the night was never a good sign. Having that call come from a family member didn’t make that uneasy feeling go away.

“Liam? What’s going on? Is everything okay?” He was already getting out of bed, ready to answer the call.

“Sadie gave birth. I’m on my way to the hospital now to check up on the baby. August is going to need to come and handle some of the paperwork.”

[dokiyeom]

DWWW u will see that from now on I'll just pop on ur inbox with random pics or just . rants LMAOOO hihiih do u have maybe dc or twt?? i feel like that would be easier to interact on yk? + i have a little something i wanna show u 🤭 PLS SHARE THEM WITH ME YES!! im such a sucker of ranting about fics & fic ideas with friends istg..

ill try it when I can but i live in a small village so they don't have that here 😞 ill go to the city for uni though so ik ill explore more diff foods since im a big fan of that yk!

mmmm ok ok now ik when to send u an ask 😝 && that's so interesting?? do u still have family there or will u go alone if u move there! tbh france is only cool from a touristic pov 😭 like i could write an essay about how much i hate certain things here it's Awful BUT i do like the museums and more artistic side so yayay OHHH??? HELLO that's so cool i love how u remember only that 🙏🙏 i love tulips they are my fav flowers too 😞💔

TWT THEORIES SAID SO TOO !! that would be a very unique announcement actually ohh :O for my friends 18th bday party another friend lent me a black dress w a v line collar? it was very light and just overall v cute but simple so i might just go for something with the same vibe ngl bit im picky too and i haven't really been able to find clothes i like for a few years rn so it's a bit of a problem 👎

OMG WHAT ALBUMS?????? i want to have the carat bong so bad but ill buy it (for now) if they come here in concert yk & if i can still use v2 for concerts! i hope u soon can get ur carat bong 🙏 omg show me PLS PLS PLS i have one too and i love seeing other people's collections 😞

i have . a lot 😭 rn i have 18 albums with 2 more for my bday...... PREAPRE URSELF. i have aespa girls, astro switch on, atz treasure ep fin all to action, bts love urself answer & proof, enhypen dimension dilemma & manifesto day 1, lsrfm antifragile (I PULLED SAKURA YAYYY), nct dream glitch mode, svt director's cut (THE LUCK I HAD FOR THIS ONE got it WITH PCS for 20€) semicolon & face the sun, skz no easy & christmas evel, tbz maverick, txt minisode blue hour & tcc fight or escape and woodz only lovers left!! for my bday i alr bought enhypen border day carnival + bss second wind hehe 🫶🫶

THAT NEW THEME WOULD BE SO COOL!!! omg tell me when u did it i wanna see it first hihi 💥💥💥

omg i have both !! but tbh i don’t think i’ve logged into discord in months,, but i’ll send u my twt :D AND RIGHT !! i feel like just talking abt ur fic ideas helps a lot w the writing process

oo id rec just making it at home if it’s possible !! i feel like sukiyaki would b a bit pricey at restaurants,, but the ingredients may b a bit inaccessible :0 && agh dw abt timing for asks !! i have an extremely turbulent sleep sched so pls just send them whenever it’s convenient for u :D

&& yesyes i have family there !! but tbh id probably want to move there alone if i could,, && that makes a lot of sense !! is it like the short stay that makes france fun for tourists ? or like general novelty of things wear off over time :0 ALSO HELLO SVT DIRECTORS CUT ?? that’s so cool hello ??? whod u pull :000

and dori,, i’ve unfortunately been collecting¿ buying albums for a while now,,, like i quite literally cannot list them all fjdjshs but i have svt, lsfm, twice, stayc, aespa, nct, txt, enha, ive, nmixx, izone, red velvet, and itzy albums :D i got really lucky w where i live bc there’s an album store nearby,, so sometimes my friends n i go together :D AND YES DEF U WILL B THE FIRST TO SEE THE NEW DOKIYEOM CARRD !!!

[golden-falcon-aviation]

The Set of Mistakes That Drove Galaxy Airlines Flight 203 to Lose in 1985

On January 21, 1985, 38 years ago, Galaxy Airlines Flight 203 crashed, ending the lives of 70 of its total 71 crew members and passengers. Definitely a bad day! The Super Bowl charter aircraft, operated by Galaxy Airlines, was sponsored by the Lake Tahoe, Nevada-based Caesars Casino.

A 25-year-old Lockheed L-188 Electra with the tail number N5532 and four turboprop engines was the plane that crashed and led to such serious damage. The aircraft parts and burnt human parts marked black day!

At that time, beginning the new day at SEA, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Galaxy Airlines Flight 203 was Galaxy Airlines Flight 201 headed for OAK, Oakland International Airport. The aircraft built with super-efficient aviation parts, which is presently recognized as Galaxy Airlines Flight 202, departed from Oakland towards Nevada's RNO, Reno-Tahoe International Airport.

A powerful team of high rollers from Minnesota was flown to Lake Tahoe for a Super Bowl party, and the prospect of gambling appreciated the arrangements prepared by Caesars Tahoe. Do you know? Casinos were not as reputed back then as they are in the current scenario. The only spots in the US where you could gamble in 1985 were Tahoe, Reno, Las Vegas, and Atlantic City.

Gamblers leaving Lake Tahoe were boarding the aircraft in droves.

The gamblers were on the plane, preparing to take off for Minneapolis after a weekend of partying that concluded with seeing the San Francisco 49ers defeat the Miami Dolphins 38–16. The flight's first officer called Reno Tower at around 00:59 and asked for taxi directions. He was ordered to taxi to Runway 16R for takeoff.

Once A Plane Full of Gamblers

The full gamblers were on the plane, ready to take off for Minneapolis after a weekend of partying that resulted in witnessing the San Francisco 49ers defeat the Miami Dolphins 38 to 16. The flight's first officer contacted Reno Tower at around 00:59 and ordered taxi directions. He was suggested to taxi to Runway 16R for takeoff.

The first officer spotted and ordered clearance to take off. The request was approved just after four seconds, and the aircraft accelerated as it descended the runway. There was a unique sound as the aircraft flew through V1, and then it happened once more as it approached V2.

Lowered the Power to the Engine

There was strong shaking soon after taking to the air. The captain reduced the throttle because he thought the engines or the propellers were the reason for the tremor. The pilot turned the aircraft, which was built with the best aircraft parts, to head back toward Reno Airport when it was about 250 feet in the air.

The now underpowered aircraft stalled at the turn and crashed into a field, catching fire. That was the sad thing that happened that day! A 17-year-old child who was just ejected from the plane during the impact was the only person to escape the disaster. The only good thing!

A Clear Investigation of the Crash!

The NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) entered the point that pilot error was the most probable reason after doing a great investigation. They emphasized that the first officer's fault for not controlling the airspeed of the plane was due to the captain's failure to correct it. They claimed that after the vibrations, there was a breakdown in communication between the copilot and the captain.

Another major reasonable point to the accident was the inappropriate closure of the air start access door by the ground crew. The NTSB came to the point that this was what was causing the tremors. Finally, the captain's big error was turning the engines back on because he thought they were the source of the vibration. If he hadn't done it, the aircraft would have been capable of reaching cruising speed and making it without incident to MSP, Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport.

Even in 2023, many plane crash news is in the light! In the current world, the aviation industry is very dedicated to producing super efficient, secure, and great planes to prevent negative news from their side. Even the associated fields, including MRO aircraft maintenance, aviation leasing companies, Boeing parts for sale, aircraft consignment inventory, AOG air freight, surplus aircraft parts for sale, aviation logistics services, and aviation parts for sale, are working great for the best service in the aviation industry.

[michaelsbigreddick]

Bad at Love-E.M x f!reader

Y/n and Eddie are far from perfect but they always find a way to make it work. Or at least she thought. After a petty argument over what movie they should watch, y/n goes to apologize to eddie. Only to find out he already had company.

Warnings! Mentions of drug and illegal activities! Mdni 18+

Pairing- Eddie x female reader (she/her)

I didn't post this yesterday because I worked all day then stayed up to watch V2 and then proceeded to cry the rest of the night, so my apologies for being late.

This is pt 1 out of maybe a 2 or 3 part series:) Hope yall enjoy! <3

_________

"Robin I can't deal with what I just saw! I think its because I just can't, I can't fucking believe it! 

“What happened this time y/n?” her tone was flat, tired of anything and everything that had to do with your relationship. But it didn't stop you from sharing anyway. 

“Guess! Guess what happened!” you were pacing around her room. Yelling once more about your on and off boyfriend, and love of your life, Eddie munson. 

She was used to it by now, the fight picking you both did because neither of you felt good enough for the other for one reason or another. Maybe you would feel insecure when some chick would try flirting with him during your trips out of town together, or he would feel like you found someone at college. Regardless of what it was, or who was in the wrong you were never on the outs for long. And when you were, Robin would have to sit there and listen. Sometimes over the phone, but when you were in town, in the comfort of her room. 

She was laying comfortably in bed running ger glittery green fingertips down the back of her purring cat. A bored expression sitting her face. 

“You know what? Don't guess because, Jesus it's so unbelievable you won't be able to guess it.’ you took a deep breath trying to put the words together. 

“I was, I was going to Eddie's house, ya'know, like I told you I was going to. I started it this time, my turn to apologize. As im pulling up to his house, I see fucking,” the tears begin to swell in your eyes. “fucking Chrissy Cunningham!” 

She sat up mouth agape. “No way. No, Y/n tell me youre joking.” she walked across her bed on her knees. “No way, are you sure it was her?”  you nod your head scared you'd break into tears if you said another word.

“Maybe he was like selling her something? Or or or, god I don't know,” she started to bite on her lip looking for something to comfort you. 

“No he does his fucking drug dealing. anywhere but home Robin. Why else would they go to his trailer after the game?” you sat down at the edge of her bed. She moved herself next to you. 

“Maybe he forgot it?” she gave you a weak smile. You offered one back but your trembling lips couldn't hold it together for long.  A sob escaped them. 

You never thought it would ever end, Not really. You would yell and scream and swear it was over, but then you would both cool off. Everything would fall back into place and you would have the best make up sex imaginable. 

You thought there was nothing that could ever really keep the two of you apart for long. Especially if the fight was over something as dumb as what movie you were going to put on to pretend to watch but them ultimately end up catching up on all the sex you missed out on during college. 

“Its alright. It probably was just a drug thing. And doesn't she have a boyfriend? ” she tries to reassure you. 

“Everyone knows she's as clean as a whistle Robin, and... I had a boyfriend when we first started hanging out too, remember?” she hummed remembering. 

“Yeah well you guys are in love. He's literally stupid for you y/n! Thats part of why he's still in high school. You distracted the hell out of him last year, remember? It's a miracle you even graduated.” She wrapped her arm around your shoulder and pulled your tear stained face into her.

  You sniffled remembering the good times. When things were still fresh, all the angst and build up to him finally having the guts to make his first move. You were both such bad influences for each other when it came to school. You couldn't help it, and neither could he. As cheesy as it sounded, you couldn't stand being apart from each other. 

“I just, I'm really scared I finally pushed him over the edge. And God chrissy? She is easily the second prettiest girl in school.” Robin smiled, accepting that you were calling her the first. 

“He couldn't go for the first of course, That's my best friend.”

“That would be crossing a whole other line.” she laughed. “Look, why don't you just call him tomorrow? Talk things out when you're a little more calm…I mean really, what are the chances he and the top chear leader are hooking up right now?”

Your stomach churned at the idea. You imagined him laying her down in the same bed you were supposed to be laying on instead of the soaking chest of your best friend. A loud sob escaped again followed by more. 

“God I am not very good at this huh.” your best friend said sighing at her failure to make you feel better. She leaned you down on her bed, taking your shoes off that you were too distracted to take off earlier. 

Getting into bed she sat up against her headboard, and threw the blanket over the both of you. You scooted over to her and lay your head on her lap.She begins to caress your head letting you spill out your fears and worries, and the last of your tears till you ultimately fall asleep. 

_._._._

You wake up the next morning to the sight of Robin wiping last nights eyeliner off. 

“Morning.” she says groggly.

“Morning.” you smile. You would apologize for coming to her house and crying so hard you stayed the night, but you were so close all you had to offer was a thank you. 

After having a quick breakfast, you dropped her off in time for work. Nearing your house a knot began to grow in your chest. Three cop cars were pulled up in front of it. You were barely able to park. 

Exiting your car your mom comes out of the door screaming your name. 

“Jesus, Y/n honey! You're safe.” she engulfs you in a breath squeezing hug. 

“Why wouldn't I be mom?’ that was when you remembered that you hadn't called home to let her know you were going to stay at Robins. 

“I was at Robin's mom. You should have called hers instead of…” you looked around at the police officers. A mixture of relief and concern plastered on their faces.

“I'm home. You can all go now.” you rub your moms back slowly trying to pry her off of you. 

“Thats, that's not the only reason they're here hun.” she looked at you with sorry eyes. They led you inside to your living room. 

'Let's take a seat lovebug.' You sit down on your couch facing the officers across from you. 

When the words left their  mouth you didn't think you were hearing them correctly. You couldn't believe that the words had even come out of their mouths just then. 

“We found a student of Hawkens High, Chrissy Cunningham, dead in your boyfriends trailer.”

"And so what? You think Eddie did this?" You knew you probably sounded like a delusional girlfriend. That was exactly what all the signs made it look like that, but it was Eddie. Your Eddie, you couldn't help but get defensive. 

“We're not saying anything. But his uncle was at the plant all night. Can you tell us where you were again, Miss Henderson.”

“For christ's sake I told you guys once I got here! I was at Robins last night!”

“Your mother told us that you were going to spend the night with,”

“Yea well that didn't happen. If you're so concerned about where I was you can ask the Buckleys. I'm sure they heard my embarrassing crying last night.” you roll your eyes, holding on tighter to your mothers warm hand. 

“Why were you crying honey?"

“Was there an altercation with Mr. Munson? If that were the case did he try,” you held your palm out signaling them to stop. 

“Don't you even dare try finishing that sentence. Eddie wouldn’t hurt a fucking fly. I need you to leave my house.” you got up from the couch, dropping your mothers hand. You were trembling, with anger, fear, frustration, whatever it was it had taken over. "Get out of my fucking house!”  You were confused on so many different levels. But there was one thing you were completely sure of, Eddie didn't hurt her. 

You saw your brother peeking his head out of his room.You knew he was hearing everything from the other side of the wall, he wasn't dumb, and the walls were thin. Eddie meant a whole lot to him too and there was no way you were going to let them make such claims under your roof. 

“Get out!” you screamed at them one last time. The slim cop with a mustache jumped, and slowly backed his way to the door. The sheriff took a quick glance at your mother then back at you. He nodded at your mother. She walked them out. You could hear them talk behind the door. The sound of them pulling away from the house followed.

You sat back down on your couch with your face in your hands. This felt worse than any feeling you had felt the night before. You couldn't keep it together. The facade of the strong older sister, the role of the supportive daughter, it was slipping away, melting off with each tear. 

Your mom came back in and sat on the recliner aside from you. Dustin finally slipped out of his room.

“Y/n?" He walked over to you slowly. Maybe he was worried you'd snap on him too. Regardless he knelt down in front of you and placed his hand on your knee. 

“I don't know what happened last night. Or what your dumb fight was about, which was probably the reason you went to Robins house… Whatever it is..whatever happened. It's gonna be okay.” you leaned down onto him, holding him as tight as you could.

When you get up from the couch and give him another quick hug. 

“I'm going to take a quick shower then we’ll talk more okay?” 

Dusting nodded. There was a loud knock at the door. He walked over swiftly to answer it. Your face softened when you saw who it was. Max Mayfield. She greeted you all quickly, pulling Dustin into his room. She looked different. Sadder even. You didn't expect her to be the same after the death of her brother. But there wasn't a touch of paranoia in her eyes that was unsettling. 

“Hun, the police want you to go in for questioning. They also want to have you escorted till they find him.” your mom says pulling you from your thoughts. 

“What? I told them to screw off and they want to baby sit me now?”

“They just think he might come looking for you…honey I think it's better to be safe than sorry.” she was looking at the ground when she said this. You couldn't believe she would consider the thought of it being true. She knew him. He was always so great with her. And even with your constant bickering, she knew the both of you loved each other like no one else in the world. 

“ I don't think he did what they said he did, I really hope not.” she said, squeezing your hand. 

“Mom!”

“Im being honest here bug. I just, even if he didn't do anything, I don't think it's a good idea to be seen anywhere near him right now. Not till things cool down.” she caressed your cheek. You knew she was doing her best. But god was it annoying that she didn't believe in his innocence.

You showered till the water went cold. Leaving the warm safety of the running water would mean that it was all real. You took even longer to get ready. Just as you were about to leave for questioning you noticed your open window. You had sworn that you closed it before going to Eddies. 

You started to look around your room for anything that was out of place. The last place you checked was where you found what you were looking for. A sign of him.

You plop onto your bed. Your hands shake a single folded up piece of paper. Your name was written across the first fold. 

"y/n, I really wish i let you choose that movie. You're right, you're always right. The Breakfast Club is one of the best movies to ever exist."

You chuckle knowing he was just saying that to stop the fight. 

"You might start to hear some things about me. Maybe you already have. I just want you to know that whatever it is that they say, it isn't true. I know that you're able to see over everything else that they've ever said, but this is different. I wish I could tell you what happened but I don't even know what went on. Chrissy Cunningham, the cheerleader, slipped me a note after class. She wanted me to deal her something. I met with her after the game because she wanted something stronger than weed. I didn't want to carry that shit around with me. I'm not an idiot. So I drove her to my uncles so i could give it to her there. She was in the living room when I was looking for the stuff. When I came back with it, she was off, and then everything happened. I don't know how to explain it. I came here to tell you what happened, to apologize about the dumb fight. I wanted to see you one last time before whatever happens, happens. I'm scared but I'll be okay knowing you believe me. At least I hope you do. I'm going to where we had our first kiss.  

Love you so fucking much

Eddie"

You were relieved that he was safe. The place where you had shared your first kiss was the lake across from his dealers house. The guy was out of town and Eddie took advantage of that. You spent a day there. Turning the music up as loud as you could, smoking and drinking, making the dumbest jokes imaginable. By the end of the day, still high and a little drunk but definitely more sober than before, he pulled out the boat from the shed and you paddled to the very middle before realizing it had a motor. You were laughing so hard you were on the verge of rocking the boat. 

It was perfect the way the moment just presented itself. On the lake, both of you high enough to hear the water beneath and around you move with such a clarity, the reflection of the stars above you cascaded off the water, lighting up his pale skin, and showing you the lustful look in his eyes. 

“I want to kiss you” he had said to you. 

“So kiss me.” he smiled and leaned into you. His soft lips fit into yours like they were made for them. You'd never felt that before. The need or want to kiss someone the way you did him. With others it felt like something you had to do, up down, take a breath, touch their neck, maybe slip some tongue in. But with him, it was easy. No thought was necessary, you could kiss him all day if he'd let you. 

Your mind went back to how he said he couldn't explain what happened. The last time you had heard someone say that to you it had to do with the upside down. You hoped to god that it didn't have to do with it. You were so grateful he'd gone so long in the dark about what has been going on in Hawkins. This was the last thing he needed. 

If it wasn't official before. It was now, you were going to find him and help him prove his innocence.

[bad-fucking-omens]

The Diner (Eddie Munson x OC)

Summary: I had left Hawkins in my rearview mirror five years ago. But the moment I saw a letter from Wayne Munson hidden in the stack of bills waiting on my counter, it felt as if I was back in my hometown, a heartbroken nineteen-year-old who had just had her entire world turned upside down - literally.

But Wayne deserved to know why I had left Hawkins. I knew he thought that he already knew why I left, and he wouldn’t be entirely wrong, but there was another reason I had to leave that Godforsaken town far behind.

Length: 2.2K words

Warnings: ST4 V2 spoilers and minor grief/mourning

Read on AO3 or read below

ELIZABETH

I sighed as I finally began to sort through the tiny mountain of mail that I had been ignoring for the past couple days.

“Bill, bill, bill,” I muttered under my breath, setting each envelope aside to deal with them later.

My breath caught in my throat when I saw the smaller envelope tucked between two bills. My name and address was scrawled on the front in a familiar hand.

As soon as I recognized the handwriting, I felt as if I was back in Hawkins, five years younger and so overwhelmed with grief that I could barely move.

My hands shook as I turned the envelope over and opened it. I took a deep breath as I pulled the folded letter out of the envelope and slowly unfolded it.

‘Dear Lizzy (I hope I can still call you that),

I know that you’re probably wondering how I got your new address. Believe me, it wasn’t easy to find. I had to hire a private investigator to find you. I hope you can forgive me for that. But don’t worry, no one else but me knows where you are and I would never tell anyone about it.

I just couldn’t stand not knowing if you were alive or dead. Eddie was like a son to me, and you were like a daughter. After we lost him, I couldn’t handle thinking you were dead, too. I mean, what else could I think? You just up and left one day while I was at work. I couldn’t find you anywhere. I know you had your reasons for leaving and I doubt you meant to hurt me, but losing you felt like losing Eddie all over again.

I understand if you never want to see me again, if you want to just forget about the life you had before you moved, but I was hoping that you would meet me one last time. I just want to talk to you one last time. I’ll be at Freddie’s Diner on Jackson Street just outside of Indianapolis at 11 A.M. on August 12th. I hope you join me, but if you don’t, I promise I won’t bother you again.

Uncle Wayne’

I let out a shaky breath. I read through the letter one more time, then glanced at the calendar hanging on my kitchen wall. Wayne would be waiting to meet me tomorrow morning. I glanced down at the letter again, wondering what I was going to do.

But truthfully, it was an easy decision for me to make. He deserved to know why I had left Hawkins — why I had truly left. Wayne obviously thought that he already knew why I left, and he wouldn’t be entirely wrong, but there was another reason I had to leave that Godforsaken town far behind.

I spotted Wayne sitting at one of the booths in the diner the moment I walked in. Thankfully, he was sitting so he wasn’t facing the door, and he hadn’t turned around when the bell above the door announced that I had walked in.

It took me a moment to finally walk over to the booth he was sitting in. Wayne looked up at me when I stopped at the edge of his table. His warm, brown eyes flicked up to me and a soft, somewhat sad smile formed on his lips. Then, his eyes fell to the little boy I was holding on my hip and I could see tears form in his eyes as his mouth parted in shock.

“Hi, Wayne,” I greeted nervously. I slid into the booth, sitting across from him as I adjusted my son so that he was now sitting on my lap.

“H-Hi,” he said quietly. Wayne’s eyes were still locked on my son, who was playing with the stuffed bear I brought to occupy him. He stuttered quietly, “Is . . . i-is h-he . . . ?”

“He’s Eddie’s son,” I confirmed. I reached out and put my hand on Wayne’s, which made him finally look up at me again. “He’s the reason I had to get out of Hawkins, Wayne. I-I couldn’t just wallow in my grief and waste away, not when I had him growing in my belly. And I don’t think that town would’ve taken too well to me having Eddie’s baby. Not with the things they still say about him.”

“I understand,” Wayne said quickly, covering my hand with his own. He looked down at our hands and slowly moved his hand off of mine. He gently brushed his fingertip over the diamond ring I was wearing on my fourth finger. “You’re still wearing it.”

“I never took it off,” I said.

Eddie had asked me to marry him, before all the shit with Chrissy and Vecna happened. He had been confident that he would finally graduate this year and he wanted us to start our lives together as soon as we finally walked across that stage. I had been so shocked when he got down on one knee, his brown eyes wide and his hand shaking slightly as he held his mother’s engagement ring up to me. He could barely get the words out without stumbling over them, but it was the most adorable thing I had ever seen. I had of course said yes. Eddie had grinned up at me, quickly sliding the ring on my finger before pulling me into his arms to kiss me fiercely. The ring had been on my finger ever since that night.

“What’s his name?” Wayne asked, glancing down at my son again.

“Edward Joseph Munson. Hope you don’t mind me using the last name, by the way. I’ve been telling everyone who asks that I’m a widow. It’s easier than being an unmarried single mom.”

“Of course not. A few more months and you would’ve gotten the name officially, anyway,” he said. I nodded, mirroring his sad smile.

A waitress walked over to our booth and asked for our order. Wayne got a refill on his coffee, I ordered a hot tea, and got little Eddie a couple pancakes.

When the waitress walked away again, I looked back at Wayne and said, “I’m sorry I stayed away for so long and kept him from you–”

“Don’t apologize,” Wayne insisted, squeezing my hand. “I understand, Lizzy. You had to do what was best for you and the little man.”

I smiled, brushing my hand over my son’s long, curly, brown hair. I hadn’t cut it since he was born, other than a couple little trims. As his hair grew longer and longer, it reminded me so much of Eddie’s unruly curls and I didn’t have it in me to cut his hair.

Eddie looked up at me with his wide, brown eyes that were exactly the same as his father’s. My son grinned up at me and I pressed a kiss to his forehead.

“Hey, Ed, I want you to meet someone. This,” I pointed to Wayne, “is your uncle Wayne. He was Daddy’s uncle.”

“Hi! I’m Eddie!” the young boy exclaimed excitedly at Wayne.

“Hey, there,” the older man said, smiling at my four-year-old. He laughed a little, pressing his hand to his mouth. “God, he really is the spittin’ image of Eddie, isn’t he?”

“Acts like him, too,” I laughed. I teasingly tickled my son’s sides, making him giggle loudly. “I’ve got a little troublemaker on my hands. . . . But I wouldn’t change it for the world. God knows I miss Eddie’s crazy antics more than I ever thought I would.”

“Me, too,” Wayne said. He grew slightly somber again as he continued, “No matter how much trouble that boy got in, no matter how much stress he caused me, I would give the world to have him back again.”

“I know. I would, too.” I sighed and said, “I wish he could have known that I was pregnant. . . . I know that he would’ve been so excited to be a dad, no matter how hard it would’ve been for us to figure out how to be parents.”

Wayne laughed. “Yeah, he woulda been thrilled. Woulda been a nervous wreck about it, too.”

I grinned. I had imagined how Eddie would’ve reacted to me telling him I was pregnant so many times over the past few years. I could see the grin that would immediately light up his face before the reality set it and he would begin freaking out about us becoming parents. I knew that he would have done his best to make sure our baby had the best life we could give them, but he would’ve damn near had a panic attack over every decision we would have had to make.

“Does he know about Eddie?” Wayne asked, nodding to my son.

“Of course. Well, he knows as much as he can know, being only four. Really, all he can do is recognize Eddie’s picture and say ‘That’s Daddy’, but I’ve never wanted to keep who his dad really was a secret from him. I’ll tell him the truth about Eddie when he’s older.”

Wayne hesitated before he asked, “Will you . . . will you come visit me sometime? I just . . . I don’t want to lose either of you again.”

“You won’t lose us,” I promised. “I never meant to stay away from you for so long. It was . . . it was just so hard to even think about returning to Hawkins, or even seeing you again. Seeing you reminds me of Eddie and, I know it’s been five years, but that man still holds my heart in his hands, even now. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to move on and, honestly, I’m not sure that I’ll ever want to. I’ve done pretty well all on my own, anyway.”

“You know that if you ever need anything, all you have to do is ask,” Wayne said. “I don’t have much, but I would share it all with you both if you need it.”

“I promise I’ll call if I need anything,” I assured him. “And I promise that we’ll visit. I-I’m not sure I can go back to Hawkins, but–”

“I can come visit you,” Wayne offered. “Wherever you want, Lizzy.”

“Are you sure? I know it’s a pretty long drive–”

“Seeing you and the little man is more than worth the long drive,” he said, smiling softly at me.

I smiled back at him, just as the waitress brought over our drinks and the plate of pancakes. I took Eddie’s bear and set it on the seat beside me before sliding the plate directly in front of my son. I began to cut the pancakes into bite size pieces for him. Wayne grinned as he watched Eddie chew on the pancake pieces.

“Oh, I have something for you,” he said.

Wayne pulled something out of his pocket. He held it tight in his fist for a moment before he set it on the table and slid it over to me. My chest tightened when I saw that it was Eddie’s guitar pick necklace.

“I think you should have this,” Wayne said. “I know you have the ring, but maybe . . . maybe the little man can have this. Something from his dad.”

“Thank you,” I murmured softly, taking the necklace in my hand. I brushed my thumb over the guitar pick.

Eddie never took the damn thing off, even when he slept or showered. I thought it had been lost when he died. Wayne was right — my son should have something from his father, something that he could keep forever.

I carefully brushed my son’s long, unruly hair aside and put the necklace on him. Eddie took a break from eating his pancakes and looked down at the guitar pick. He looked up at me.

“Daddy?” he asked.

“Yeah, baby. This was Daddy’s necklace,” I said. “He wore it all the time. It was his favorite.”

“I keep it?”

“Uh-huh. Just be careful with it, okay?”

Eddie nodded eagerly. “I promise, Mommy!” I grinned and leaned down to kiss his cheek.

Wayne and I spoke for a while longer about what we had been up to recently before we both decided to leave the diner. Eddie was getting tired and soon he would get cranky if I didn’t put him down for a nap. Wayne followed me out to my car, watching as I buckled Eddie into his car seat.

“Bye, little man,” Wayne said, waving to Eddie.

“Bye, Uncle Wayne,” my son mumbled, tiredly waving back. Wayne chuckled and I smiled before I shut the door quietly.

I looked at Wayne. I hesitated for a moment before I hugged him tightly.

“I’m glad I came today,” I said. “I missed you more than I realized. I promise we’ll visit and talk soon.”

“I’m glad we met up, too. You really are like a daughter to me, Lizzy. I’m glad you’re doing well, and I’m so happy I got to meet the little man.” We broke apart and Wayne said, “Have a good trip back home, and be safe. Y’all are the only family I got left now.”

“You won’t lose us, Wayne,” I told him. “I promise you. Me and Eddie will always be here for you. You can come visit us any time, alright?”

“Thank you,” he said, smiling slightly. “You should get goin’ before it gets dark out.”

“Yeah. . . . We’ll see you soon, Wayne.”

“See ya, Lizzy. Thanks for coming.”

I smiled. “Thanks for tracking me down. It was nice to reconnect.”