#red dead redemption amazing facts

[pine4pple-b0i]

listen i have my own reservations about bill as a character but steve (his actor) posting this on his instagram has me screaming

[carnellousthecat]

I think a huge part of the failure of Starfield, besides the fact of its lack of design documents (And Pagliarulo in general as outlined by PatricianTV on Youtube) is the complete and utter failure of aesthetic. The Elder Scrolls has very clear aesthetics unique to every culture, and fallout has a very prominent casette futurism and retro sci fi aesthetic, but I think in an effort to avoid comparisons to fallout they completely scraped all the aesthetic personality out of the game.

Like think about it. They say "nasapunk" but what does that mean? And it can't just be the fact that they're still using no.2 pencils. The ships, though they have subtle elements of outdated nasa technology, look absolutely nothing like anything NASA would have made. It's so bad that people don't even realize it's going for an aesthetic at all beyond Red Dead Redemption and Cyberpunk 2077.

They just like, have absolutely none of the recognizable nasa iconography. They have no rovers or unmanned craft, they have no separating pieces of a ship in space. I know it would have limited the ship building but the least you could do is attach the ship to a vertical rocket a la space shuttle. They could have a separating bit of the ship you can use to land like the moon lander, and it wouldn't be hard to implement, just make every cockpit double as a moon lander.

And the suits. The outfits. Good god they are all awful. Like I get that adding "punk" to the aesthetic means it becomes more stylized but it shouldn't be so much so that it's unrecognizable as the "nasa" part of that term.

I know this might tickle some feathers, but in past content Destiny 2 did an incredible job with that aesthetic already. In the now removed location "Titan" there used to be a "golden age" research base that kind of looks like a space oil rig, and EVERYTHING from that location just screams nasa, from the armor you can get there to the design of the habs, how buildings are connected by airlocks with that cool crinkly foil looking stuff on them, it's amazing. Even Bungie was able to beat Starfield at its own game when they tried ONCE like five years ago or something

[rookthorne]

Today marks my ONE YEAR anniversary of writing! 🥳🥰

God, it feels like just yesterday that I decided to sit down in my lounge room, with my ancient laptop in my lap, absolutely terrified for what I was about to do. That day I started what would be The Outlaw’s Heart - the very first chapter. I had Red Dead Redemption ambience playing in my pink noise cancelling headphones, I had my water bottle next to me, and I had this gut feeling that what I was about to do was big.

I never, ever, imagined just how much that single decision - to put my fingers to the keyboard and just type - would change my entire life. In the biggest, and best way.

I remember writing about 900 words, and I remember feeling on top of the fucking world. The first chapter was done. I went screaming to my best friend, @d-desrosiers, and lost my mind. I remember just crying.

I was crying because I was happy, and I felt proud, for what I had just accomplished. For someone with my limited capabilities, fuck, it was a lot. And I did it.

When I first got into this fandom I never would have imagined ending up where I am. I was well aware of what fanfiction was - having read many video game and band fics in my past - but actually creating them? I never would have thought that would be me, but here I am. Sitting on an approx 300k word count, and counting; I have 3 collections published, but several sitting in my WIPs that you guys are yet to see; I have 2 fully written fics ranging between 14 to 25 chapters sitting in my drive that you guys are yet to see; I have handfuls of oneshots that are yet to see the light of day.

It is insane.

And the friends I have made? Fucking hell, I have never in my life been amongst such amazing, kind, and thoughtful people. These people are my friends for life, and they all know every time I talk to them how much I love and adore and cherish them.

It is gonna get sappy as FUCK under the cut. So buckle in.

@buckyismybicycle, my very first idol - the woman that I looked up to well before I started writing, because she is beyond fucking talented. Not only that, she is the kindest, sweetest (when she’s not laughing at my misery) person there is. HR, you have been through thick and thin with me, and it still stands for disbelief that I get to call you a close friend. My idol, my friend - that is INSANE. Here’s to many, many, many years more of friendship, of laughs, of brainstorming, of love. I love you. 💗

@writing-for-marvel… wow. It’s at this point I get speechless. I found you thanks to my most favourite Ari fic, and it’s just been heaven since. We bonded first over the fact that we were Aussies (a rare breed in this fandom)! I don’t know how, but we just evolved and I have never had such ease, such comfort, with someone as I do you - and I am so fucking grateful for that. We are one another’s cheerleader, and we are one another’s shoulder to cry on. We are so much more but frankly I would be sitting here typing for hours and I would become very nonsensical because I’m emotional (sue me). You will always be my baby, and I wish I could just hug the shit outta you. I love you. 💗

@duckybarnes1917. Haylie, Haylie, Haylie. Girl, where have you been all my life? You are chaos in a cauldron overflowing with thots and thoughts. I don’t know where I’d be without you. We have become such fast friends, and thanks to that, I have someone that I trust so intimately with my thots and thoughts. You are a space that will always be free of non-loving judgement (because I know you do, but lovingly 🤣) and you are always fun. We may live continents away from one another, but your love is the warmest hug that I could ever get. I love you. 💗

@sgt-seabass, my faerie. It was like finding me in someone else when we found one another. You have been the light in some of my darkest days. I love our calls so much, and talking with you is always the highlight of my day - whether we’re just chilling or whether we’re brainstorming or whether we’re venting, it doesn’t matter. I know I can come to you for anything, and you to me, and that is so special. I am so grateful that the universe brought us together. I love you. 💗

@wifeofbarnes. My little menace. The fuel to my thots, the sweetness to my fluff. It still amazes me that all that time ago, that I recognised you when you found your way back to me - and fuck, I’m so happy you did. Not only have you been an endless source of inspiration, but you are now a dear friend that I adore. You’re always down for my ideas, and you always lend an ear or kind words when I need the support. I love you. 💗

@navybrat817, holy shit. I’m gonna start off by saying that this is insane to me, that I even get to talk to you (okay, starstruck moment over). You have been a blessing, and I am ever so grateful to call you a friend. Brainstorming with you is an out of this world experience and you always bloody know how to murder me, every single fucking time. It’s amazing. Not to mention your support, for which you are ever so generous with, for literally anything; whether that be moral, hyping me up, or just listening, and let’s be real, there’s been times that I’ve been so out of it when I’ve messaged you and you still manage to decipher what I’m saying, so kudos to you! 🤣 I love you. 💗

@buckycuddlebuddy, I don’t know where you have been all my life, but holy shit. We have not been talking for very long at all, but look at us - I feel like I’ve known you for so long and the way our chaos matches so perfectly? 👌🏻 it’s amazing. Your patience and your kindness have been a blessing, and I appreciate you more than I can express. I love you. 💗

@jen-with-a-pen, MY OUTLAW WIFE, bound in holy matrimony with our husband, Arthur. God, to tell you I was over the moon when I found out you loved him as much as I do, it would be an understatement. Not only are we in a thruple marriage, you are also a dear friend. Your excitement for everything gives me life and so much joy, it’s beautiful. I love you. 💗

This last bit is to all my beautiful followers and moots - fuck, I am grateful for you all. I am grateful for all the support this past year, and your continued support in the future. I hope that as a content creator, I get to push my boundaries even further than I have in the past 6 or so months. There was a time when I was terrified to write smut, now look at me! 🤣

Thank you all for coming on this journey, and may we have many, many more years to come.

I love you all. 💗💗💗

[sktls-ig]

would you like to tell us about your current hyperfixation?

Why yes I would

DO NOT GET ATTACHED TO ANYONE IT WILL HURT

OKay so recently I've been getting into red dead redemption 2, so far I think I"m on chapter 6, maybe five, and boy oh boy this game has me by the balls, I've even taken to playing the online version (where all my horses happen to magically "die at war*")

Basically it's about a gang of outlaws trying to escape the law and (mainly arthur, the character you play) their past, you go around the game making choices to increase or decrease honour and such with side missions and random npcs you find while riding, the main storyline consists of you trying to get away from the pinkertons, who are being paid by a man named leviticus cornwall to find you and kill you, and you have to keep moving camp

Personally my favorite characters are hosea matthews, javier esculla, and charles smith, hosea is (one of) the father figures in the game who kind of keeps dutch sane and all, majourly gay those two, in words of the game 'the curious couple and their unruly son' , then followed by the fact you can find this at seans party

Throughout the story your gangs leader who is (the other one of) your father figures slowly loses his damn mind and now he wants to flee to tahiti and become farmers but not without making some noise, he wants you to have some damn faith because he always has a plan, though for this one you needa rob a bank in saint denis and I won't spoil much but it goes shit and now you're trapped on an island near cuba, which also does not go the greatest, but you get home and then run into eagle flies and rains fall who need help with their troubles with the army, which I think goes better but that's about as far as I am, I also recommend reading arthurs journal when you can because i think that's pretty fuckin neat

I fucking hate micah bell he's such a prick like actually, little racist dill weed, wish he would stay alive when he needed to (like main missions) and die for the rest of it

I love this game so much, it's so much fun to play the storyline is amazing, it's a tad glitchy every now and then but it is fantastic, seriously I do not recommend getting attached to the characters, it will make you cry

Oh also when you buy horses in story mode it lets you name them so now I have two horses named too much mayo and second cumming, overall fantastic game tbh it is very pretty as well, tumblr won't let me post images rn I assume it's the wifi but it is very pretty, can't wait to get the first because that's a sequel to the second

[alphawolfstabs]

BILLY

Drop some gun facts on me because I could show you some Red Dead Redemption guns on Discord.

GUN FACTS GUN FACTS GUN FACTS !!!

[Also tagging @alkivm and @smashlovesscream because I saw your asks as I was writing this!! <3]

I’m gonna be telling you about THREE KF MY FAVOURITE GUNS. BE READY. I TALK ALOT.

•The FAMAS

-The FAMAS is also known as the “Fusil d’Assaut de la Manufacture d’Armes de Saint-Étienne’ which translates to “Assault rifle from the Saint-Étienne Arms Manufacture" I believe-

-It’s a French gun, given by the name. It’s actually a French bull pup assault rifle. One way to tell it’s a bullpup is by the magazine being located behind the trigger!!

-it was developed in the LATE 1960s and was entered in the French military around 1978 I believe.

-THE CALIBER AHHHHH. It’s a 5.56x45mm NATO. Which is the basic caliber for most modern military rifles

- So fun fact about this! It’s a selective fire rifle. MEANING. It could fire in semi auto or full auto

-I believe it was also featured in a Solid Snake game- it had nothing to do with the lore but due to the FAMAS being kinda Bulky, it was easy to put into the game at the time [I don’t remember the game but it was pretty old.]

• The P90

-The FN P90, often referred to simply as the "P90," is a compact submachine gun designed and manufactured by the Belgian firearms company FN Herstal!!

-CALIBER. The Caliber is a 5.7x28mm. It has low recoil but good penetration capabilities.

-the P90 Is another BULLPUP. I like bullpups- anyways. Like I said, the magazine is behind the trigger which helps for a shorter overall length while maintaining a longer barrel, which can improve accuracy and muzzle velocity.

-It's also another selective firing, so it could so semi or full auto and I find it so AMAZING

-IT CAN ALSO BE configured for left-handed use, thanks to its ambidextrous design. The P90 features controls and features that accommodate both left-handed and right-handed shooters. AHHHHHH.

-The Iron sights on a P90 are so deliciously beautiful. I just. I love.

• The Winchester 1873 Lever Action Rifle

-So this was introduced in 1983, given by the name, and was instantly a success due to its innovative design, versatility, and reliability. It was designed by John Browning, who would later become one of the most influential firearm designers in history!! AAAHHH!!

-The rifle was originally chambered for the .44-40 Winchester cartridge, which was a popular and versatile round that could be used for both rifles and handguns- although, later it was changed. sighs

-The 1873 was equipped with a rear ladder-style sight, which was adjustable for elevation gdhjkfgdsfjgdsfdsh

-So!! Its often associated with the American frontier and is deeply rooted in the history of the Wild West. Its introduction marked a significant advancement in firearms technology dhfhfkhf

YOU GUYS PROBABLY DONT KNOW A SINGLE THING I SAID BUT I PROMISE IT'S INTERESTING FDHJFGFKFHJFG

I LOVE GUNS AHHHHHHHHH

[trivial-writing]

Ever since watching voltron, my bf and I have been having our little neurodivergent rants about it. Like, for example, the queer baiting. Shiro was gay. What do you mean? Give us sustenance people. Give us food. Shiro married a blank slate. How about you don’t kill off Adam. Hm? How about you don’t make Shiro marry a blank ass slate. Like, seriously, who was Curtis? Making Shiro gay isn’t representation to me. That’s lying to your audience and virtue signaling. You make Adam such a big deal, but he dies thirty seconds after. That’s terrible representation..

My boyfriend and I both agree that Shieo should’ve been asexual instead. I mean the black lion uses purple. So much so that I call it the purple lion instead. And, as a former aces ourselves, we think that would be excellent lgbtq+ representation.

I’m not done with my lgbtq+ representation thoguh. We, as the audience, got baited into Klance. I’m pretty sure there were some tweets talking about how they, the creators, knew Klance would be popular. They give us gay-coded scenes, but they aren’t gay enough. That’s the problem. The creators play it too safe. They shouldn’t care about what other people think. Pushing against stupid “criticism” is the first step to being a good writer. (Also, they give us two dead lesbians. Why?)

We also talked about the lions. The lions don’t show how the Paladins fit them. Allura just says, “oh, you fit because pfft.” Awakening Blue was amazing because of the setup. The rest weren’t given the same amount of gravitas Blue had. Pidge literally jumped in the vines, and that’s it. She pilots the Green Lion now. Hunk gets sort of the same gravitas as Lance, but still, it kinda sucks. Why doesn’t Blue go to the other Lions, then go to the other Lions? Why am I the only one who thought of this? Oh wait, my boyfriend made a fanfic about it nvm.

My boyfriend had a fanfic idea that was just a fix-it fic. If he wants to, I’ll post it. I think his ideas were really good. If you want to read some of his ideas, let me know.

My bf really liked the setup for Lotor, and I did too. He liked the fact that Lotor wanted a different way to expand the Galra Empire. He was like Azula and Zuko mixed together. If you look at one of my older posts, you’ll see my little mini rant about Lotor’s redemption arc. I want Lotor to be a Zuko-like. He’s an interesting character who deserves a redemption arc. Btw, my boyfriend wanted the fem!Keith member of Lotor’s group to be Krolia’s(am I spelling her name right?) daughter. We both wanted Lotor’s team to be redeemed too. More me because I actually watched Avatar, and I want an Azula redemption arc badly.

So… I didn’t know where season three ended and season four started. I just watched. The whole switching the Lions was weird. If the Lions choose certain characteristics for their pilots, then how come Lance got the Red Lion? Lance didn’t develop into a Keith-like person. If Red is stubborn and hard to tame (or something like that), how come Red doesn’t show that. You can’t say something and do nothing to affirm what was just said. SHOW Keith having trouble controlling Red, and Red disagreeing with him. SHOW Hunk being reliable. SHOW Pidge’s requirements for Green.

I felt the introduction to Zarkon was weird. I like how Avatar set up Ozai. Avatar showed Zuko being a bad person. Zuko was just the Banished Prince. Then Azula showed up. My boyfriend exclaimed, “This is Azula!? She’s only his daughter?! Wtf, Zhing?” Give us two or three seasons with Zendak, then have Shiro die, then fight Zarkon, then fight Lotor, then fight Zarkon again. This way better. How come no one thought about this? Oh, wait, my bf wrote a fix it fic.

Anyways, that’s enough writing for me. This is a long post. I’m gonna sleep.

[dausy]

Ok, so Im using a doodle I drew of Cloud just to represent video games in general.

I finished Xenoblade2. It was on my list of games to entertain me while my husband was deployed. Honestly thought Id make a bigger dent in that backlog but alas, my spouse has been gone for 9 months and I only played 1.5 games. I started Zelda:totk prior to him leaving and it took me half his trip and 220 hours to finish. Been playing XB2 since finishing Zelda. Well, I lie I haven’t been counting Disney Dreamlight also which has an absurd amount of hours on it too.

Other games on my list to play are Octopath Traveler 2, Xenoblade 3 and possible Red Dead Redemption 2 (my only one for the ps4)and I had another possible for the switch also. I didn’t necessarily want to play XB2 and in fact the internet suggested to skip it but I felt guilty having played 1 and skipping to 3, so I gave it a try. For the record, my spouse returns home within the month and I’m not making it through my backlog.

So I have thoughts about XB2. In a way I don’t know if it was as bad as the internet says it was. Probably seems ok because I haven’t played 3 which is apparently one of the best modern jrpgs so my opinion will probably change. My biggest gripe was traversing the map. I enjoy a good, open world and stumbling upon hidden nooks and crannies but this game did not make it easy to get to certain locations. I was trying hard not to google information but sometimes I had to just to get to some of these tunnels. Particularly in Gormott. Nothing pissed me off than trying to get around main Gormott area and then if you weren’t just lost the game punished you by having random level 90 monsters swoop down and murder you. I guess the murder isn’t exactly new. XB1 had similar but exploring was so much easier. It may have also been a switch problem but keeping the character in auto run was a challenge itself. I almost quit this game because of it. Rex would be in a sprint and then get stuck walking stupidly slow.

That reminds me too of the controls. It took me a long time to get used to opening the correct menu. I kept accidentally opening the settings/save screen instead of the main menu or the map screen. Also on the world map I would keep accidentally opening up controller help button. This is fine except they don’t make it super easy to back out of them. You have to click through multiple screens. Again, some of this might be because I was pushing certain menu buttons for Zelda for so long it took a while to get used to backwards controls.

Other control problems were my fault. I do not want to read a manual to play. I don’t like tutorials. I feel like the buttons should always be obvious. I did not read any instructions. It took me far too long (90 hour mark) to realize if I press start, a chain attack would occur. I learned this while trying to pause during a boss fight, which I don’t even know if you can pause still. Also, around the 120 hour mark I learned that each blade had little mini quests to unlock power ups. I just assumed you used them to level them up. I never actually clicked around in the screen (which also had stupid controls) lmao. /failgamer/. This one’s kinda annoying because I had to run around the world again to excavate and open all these chests I couldn’t before because nothing was leveled lol.

All of these things were very frustrating when trying to set and perform regular quests and missions. Some of the quests were very vague and difficult to follow without a guide.

Then we have the story and characters. The giant boobs I could ignore as they usually come with jrpgs but the story and characters lost my interest almost immediately. The gameplay being more fun despite being clunky. I honestly don’t know if I could name every character. The final boss was also just meh. I don’t necessarily need a challenge but he was no more amazing than any regular fight. I felt nothing when the credits rolled.

I will say I liked the atmosphere of the game and the voice acting except for tora. Dude..shut up..the mini game tiger tiger wasn’t so bad either. Thought that was going to be painful but they were pretty lenient.

Overall I think it was maybe just under Tales of Arise. I played SEs Harvestella last year and XB1 and 2 are both far superior than it. I wasn’t expecting to get almost 140 hours in this game tho and I didn’t even complete some of the side quests. I tried to go for completionism but I just couldn’t get lost on the maps anymore.

I’m considering dropping immediately into XB3 but the new FF7 is about to come out. I don’t know if I should get invested when I’ll have to stop in the middle to play another game. I won’t be able to play ff7 until my husband comes home next month tho because he has the ps5. I also never got to play ff16 and I’m considering baldurs gate…all the cool people played it already tho and I’m behind.

But ff7. Rebirth has sparked a resurgence in an old obsession.

[hotchology]

So. I heard you write stuff, would you be interested in doing maybe a drabble or headcanons for modern! Javier and gn! reader thats an ice skater but he found out about it when reader said they’re going to see their family or smth for vacation and suddenly they appear on TV during a european free skating program 💀 (or maybe more cowboys and cowgirls but hes my toaster strudel so)

Or just general Javier headcanons because he deserve it, thank you <33

infatuation

— fandom :: red dead redemption 2

— character :: javier escuella ( modern au ) x iceskater! gn reader

— note :: I AM SO SORRY I LITERALLY WROTE THIS AND POSTED IT AND THEN MY LAPTOP DIED AND IT DELETED AND WHEN I WENT TO CHECK HOW IT DID ON TUMBLR IT WASN'T THERE SO I HAD TO WRITE IT AGAIN 😣. ty for the request btw, also i tried my best so if it’s not quite right just let me know and hopefully i can fix it.

— word count :: 0.5k

ice skating was a beautiful mix of art and sport. you competed in the sport professionally, although you weren’t the most popular, you still did well.

you were living with your flatmate because after the few years of your college life, you were still in debt. but you also had a boyfriend, javier escuella who had ZERO idea that you were even had an interest in your job.

it wasn’t a personal thing, the topic was just never brought up. it was understandable though, you had only been together for around 5 months.

but tomorrow you were scheduled to go on a trip to go see your parents in the next state over. you hadn’t seen them in a while and wanted to check up on them. you had told javier prior to today, wanting to at least hang out with him before you left for your flight.

you arrived at his house, suitcase in hand because your flight was technically tonight but you landed early the next morning.

javier opened the door smiling and eye lighting up when he caught sight of you. that expression of his was by far your favourite, you had been together for what felt like a really long time and his love for you never died down.

“hey javi.” you said wrapping your arms around him, engulfing his scent into your nose. he smelt like a general men’s cologne and cigarettes. at first you didn’t like the fact that he smoked at first but once you learned that he only smoked on a weekly basis you calmed down a bit.

—

after a few hours of watching mexican tv shows, cuddling and eating food, it was time for you to go. you kissed javier on the cheek and hugged him tightly before leaving in a cab outside your house.

javier watched as the car drove away, smiling intently as he savoured your aura around him.

the actual headcannons now

— the next day after waking up the channel javier had the tv on previously was showing ice skating.

— he was debating on changing it but that all changed when he saw your name and face on the screen in front of him.

— he was dumbstruck, surely there was some other person who had a similar name to you, but you also shared the same face so..

— the channel was showing the contestant's best performances and when you were shown on the ice, doing a triple axel, javier was by far impressed.

— the man had no idea about figure skating but he could tell that the move you did was difficult.

— once he got word that you landed, he called you, gushing about how he was proud of you.

— "you look even more beautiful on the ice, baby." you blushing like a fucking chili pepper, although some people think that the compliment is generic, you found it just as flattering as everything else javier says to you.

— once you got home he begged to go watch you practice, because he wanted to watch you talents in real time.

— you found it adorable and complied, he was so amazed by your beauty on the ice, you found it a bit odd but appreciated it nevertheless.

the end.

— second note:: sorry if that was short that's all i had in me, pls like and maybe follow if you like my stuff (this is literally my first post u don't have to lolol)

[scarfacemarston]

I know this is going to sound controversial and bitchy but it’s my tumblr: but I don’t understand how some metas get so popular. I’m not amazing myself. FAR from it but I see things like  Red Dead Redemption :“OMG Arthur is an artist ! a really good one, look at his journal!” (The game literally shows you immediately this.)  If someone includes more and dives in , then that’s awesome, but if it’s left at that, then I don’t know how much of that is truly meta. I know I’m gatekeeping a bit, though.   Red Dead Redemption again: “Dutch treated Arthur poorly even though he was a father figure” (That’s one of the points of the game.) The type that annoys me the  most is something that is shown and answered in the cut scene. The literal cutscene is the subject of the “discovery”. Stating you noticed say. (I’m making this up) You saw that the Pinkertons came into camp in the early chapters and came in again at the end of the game - the same agency. That is NOT meta. That is a fact. Dutch tried to abandon Abigail in chapter 6. That is not Meta. That isn’t an observation. That is a fact. He bluntly says this. That is not meta.  Sadie and Charles were injured in the epilogue so John had to do xyz alone. That is not meta. That is a fact shown in the cut scene.  Marvel: or “Bucky has ptsd and has a lot of nightmares because of his time as the winter soldier. He carries a lot of guilt” (did you watch...any of the other captain America movies?) Did you know that Natasha was close to Clint’s family? Yes. It’s literally a big part of the movie. or Star Wars: “Leia is so much like her mother Padme because they’re both (insert extremely obvious reason like being strong willed, being political, etc)  (Did you watch the movies? That’s the point.) Luke’s love saved Darth Vader - literally says that.  Did anyone notice that Chewbacca wasn’t given a medal? Yes. That has been pointed out since 1977.  Interview with the Vampire: “Lestat treats Louis and Claudia horribly, but they still care for each other! (Literally the ENTIRE reason for 80% of the book. Literally Louis cannot be anymore blunt.)

I know not everyone picks up on the same things, but sometimes it is literally the easiest and low effort thing that is shoved in the player or viewer’s face. It’s been happening a lot on Reddit, too.  Like, it’s stuff like that where I truly wonder if it’s something they truly don’t know and are excited to share or are wanting easy likes. If someone is genuinely excited and didn’t notice something, that’s one thing and is different, but  I think it’s more the second.  Everyone wants to be valued and heard and have some attention /acknowledgement and people who say they don’t are likely the minority, so it’s understandable why some people do that, it’s just annoying to me.  I have heard a theory that since Literature classes are being cut in a lot of preschool through highschool (and it’s equivalent world wide) and colleges are actively trying to lessen general education requirements like history, writing and literature -s ome people truly may not be picking up on points that seem obvious because things like symbiology and tropes aren’t being taught.  If that’s the case, it’s quite sad and sadly another reason why the “Humanities” are needed. 

[kitausuret]

17, 24, & 46 with literally any character of your choosing :)

Oh, this should be fun.

17. Tell me about your least favorite editorial decision?

(Amazing Spider-Man #545)

At the risk of being the most predictable Spidey fan ever, I'm gonna say... One More Day. Am I sad about the PeterMJ marriage being over? Yes. Do I think it was stupid? Yes! BUT the main reason I don't like OMD is because of the massive step backwards it took Peter's character. Like the difference in his how character is written even just in the main story of Amazing Spider-Man #545 vs the very end is stunning. The implication is that Peter is kind of a huge loser when he's not married, which I don't think should be true, but the writers have largely MADE that true.

The way OMD is written is that Peter and MJ are making this huge sacrifice, and it's built on further in One Moment in Time (though, not very well, in my opinion), and it's very sweet and sexy and it seems like they are still red-string-of-fate lovers etc etc and YET. And yet. With only a few exceptions, Peter continues to slip backwards in his development. And I hate it.

24. Ship(s) that makes you cringe.

I'm gonna say this probably is referring to canon ships? I already talked about Carlie once so, I'm gonna leave her alone, so let me move on and say... okay, don't hurt me for this, but Simon Williams/Wanda Maximoff kinda makes me cringe. I don't hate it hate it, it's not like the WOOOORST ever but it's mostly the fact that Simon is basically Vision's brother is a little uuuhhh awkward? And there's also the whole like... having the same brainwaves thing...

Don't get me wrong, they've had some cute moments! Like this one from Scarlet Witch always makes me laugh:

(Scarlet Witch, 1994)

But honestly I think they are better as friends. And also Simon is very gay-coded (to me, at least) so, yeah. Love them as friends! They need to stop being pushed as lovers. Bring back Jericho!

Another ship that makes me cringe is especially early Kitty/Piotr but I don't think that one needs too much explanation. :/

46. I wish they killed off ___ instead of [x].

Admittedly, I JUST read Kindred so it's fresh in my mind, but I 100% wish they killed off Norman Osborn instead of Harry. Harry's death in Spectacular Spider-Man #200 was perfect. But you know what? His resurrection, which was a joint effort to establish canon about by Dan Slott and J.M. DeMatteis, was also pretty damn great!

(Amazing Spider-Man Family #4)

Harry was in the middle of trying to rebuild stuff with his life! Even during the Slott run he was trying to repair his relationship with Normie (do not talk to me about him and Liz getting back together) and he was moving on from what Norman had put him through, frankly I wish he had kept the Lyman name (minus all the stuff with his mom being not-dead).. like.. he was in the middle of so much potential development and they killed him so, what, so Norman fucking Osborn can get a redemption arc? Bullshit. BULLSHIT.

Norman has outlived his usefulness in Spidey comics. I wish he would've fucking died. And that Harry's characterization hadn't been murdered right before the character himself was.

Ask me salty comics questions!

[danjon3711]

Twitter’s sinking quicker than a boat made of swiss cheese so I guess I should board the lifeboats and post a intro into who I am and what I’m about. Even if this is the only piece of OC/non-go-live-post I post here lol.

So Hi, I’m DanJon! I’m a twitch streamer and video editor. I primarily play Destiny 2 and games with campaigns or story modes. Recently I’ve played through all of the RGG/Yakuza games [0 is the best but that’s hardly a hot take], Detroit Become Human, both of the Red Dead Redemption games, and a whole lot more. My complete list of streamed games can be found here. I’m live Tuesday through Saturday at 14:30 UK / 9:30a ET.

Destiny wise, I main Voidwalker Warlock and have done since the D1 Beta. Attatched to this is a couple of pieces of art of my main character; Sabrina. She also acts as my PNGTuber avatar. The art of her sitting is by my friend Argonncept on Twitter [LMAO] and Twitch. The black and white art is a gift from my friend, and clanmate, Runesael [Everybody should follow him, he’s amazing]. I’m a former member of the clan Peasant Guard, known for being the clan of MyNameIsByf, and I’ve featured in a number of his That Sounds Like A You Problem episodes, I’m the loud Welshman known for causing audio damage with sneezes. I’m currently a member of the clan Endless Gremlins, and the name is apt when you tune into our D2 streams on Saturdays.

Other things about me. I studied documentary filmmaking and editing at the University of South Wales, and got to work with the RSPCA on a film project about exotic animals. Fun fact, seals smell AWFUL. I was also part of a film (script writer, co-director, and editor) that got nominated for Best Film at the last Zoom Cymru awards. I don’t think we deserved it, but hey, a nomination is a nomination.

I love soccer/football (FC Dallas and Leeds United are my two teams), Formula 1, and making jokes about white viscous substances and their propulsion methods. If you think anything here interests you, then I hope you follow me here, or on my Twitch page.

[freedfromthegalactichivemind]

Of Echoes

She-Ra fanfiction Rating: Teen and up      Main characters: Catra, Hordak (sort of).  Tragedy, Comedy, Science Fiction.  (Mostly comedy, despite the subject-matter).  

Summary:  In the years after Etheria's last war, Catra and Hordak had learned to accept each other - kind of of - in an uneasy alliance for the sake of their wives. They also had an ongoing prank-war with each other. It is now Hordak's funeral and Catra is uneasy. She attempts to step out for a breath of fresh air. There is something that doesn't feel right - and not just the awkwardness one would expect at a memorial service for a long-repentant ex-warlord. Strange things are afoot at the Crypto Castle.   A loose sequel to Project H.O.R.D.A.K.      Also found here if you prefer Ao3: Of Echoes                                                                                                                                                                                               

Of Echoes She needed to get away.   It was amazing how stuffy such a cavernous room could feel.  The high, vaulted ceilings and long dark walls seemed only to catch the echoes of the multitude of murmuring people.  Bits of conversation pinged off them like ball bearings in a washing machine. Her ears were sensitive and could catch far too much of low-speech and whispers uttered by people with far less acute senses.   She really did not need that one guy’s sexual fantasy; that was for sure.   That was from some Maker’s Guild inventor she did not know – someone who had a taste for Horde-clones, apparently, as well as scars and deformities.   Catra cringed and flattened her ears. She wasn’t about to kinkshame monsterfuckery (she was of a rare species, herself, and, despite appearances, her wife was the member of an even rarer one), but this wasn’t exactly what she’d wanted to hear conspiratorially whispered within her earshot first thing in the morning.  Well, okay, it was more mid-afternoon, but the sentiment still applied.  It absolutely wasn’t anything she’d wanted to hear about a…friend? Enemy? Enemy turned friend? Frienemy? Lover of a friend who was kind of an enemy and then a friend again?   What had Hordak been to her, anyway? Difficult to figure out, yes.   Most of the conversation going on in the room concerned philosophy (particularly as it related to the concept of “redemption,”) invention and technology, politics, personal interactions both positive and negative, the old long-disbanded Etherian Horde and the half-forgotten Fright Zone (now New Scorpionia), history, health matters specific to space-born clones of a long-dead galactic emperor and a few snippets here and there of small talk about snacks, pets and the weather.   Adora and Bow were talking with Entrapta on the other side of the room.  Catra had greeted her earlier, but was avoiding her now.  She did not like the sleet that she saw in her hair.  Most of it was as purple as ever and seemed to have grown longer since the last time she was up in Dryl.  Entrapta was among the oldest of them and of course would probably start graying early with all of the stress everyone had gone through, not that she’d ever seemed stressed at all.  In fact, in situations that would have the average person a puddle of misery in a corner, Entrapta would just build robots, usually ones designed to explode. Fireworks during holidays at Dryl were legendary.   Catra ducked and weaved between bodies, careful to avoid Entrapta catching a glimpse of her.  It was not hard.  The woman had a welding mask down over her face and had been wearing it that way for most of the day.   Catra did not know what she could say that had not already been said.   The altar at one end of the room burned with many candles – red ones, black ones and a few small ones that were dark blue. Pictures in frames were laid out upon it including one large painting in the center. Of course, the table also held a six-sided hex-driver.  Most of the little photographs had a shock of purple hair in them, as aside from the Royal Portrait, there were very few pictures of Hordak where he was alone. He and his mad scientist were practically joined at the hip… …until now.   The formal part of the memorial service had gone smoothly.  The Horde Clone Reaper’s Guild of Etheria had done a respectful job – to the point that one could be forgiven for forgetting that Hordak had once been a vicious warlord. It wasn’t like Catra, herself, was innocent.  Adora assured her constantly that she had more years of making the right decisions than of making the wrong ones.  Hordak had done his part, too.  He and Entrapta had developed many useful technologies together, things that had saved and improved many lives.  Catra, for her part, didn’t like to think about abstract philosophical questions regarding the number of lives positively impacted versus the number of lives negatively impacted or lost due to any given person’s actions or existence. Lives didn’t really work that way – individuals were not a numbers-game.   Maybe that was one of the core-reasons why she found the clones so unnerving.  Catra didn’t bear any particular prejudice against them, not in their post-Prime lives, in any case.  She could never bear any gathering of them singing in unison (and had avoided part of the funeral-proceedings for this very reason) due to some of her long ago and far away initial experiences with them, but she had long accepted their victimhood under Prime.  

 She’d even accepted Hordak’s, not that he was ever someone to be coddled.  He’d done many crimes against her that could not be erased, but they had come to an understanding over the years.  

 The closeness of their wives had pretty much forced it.  

Bonding between them was what most outside observers would have called awkward, if not a bit toxic. Conversations were often peppered with physical threats and descriptions of various tortures they might put each other through should a mission fail or one of their significant others be made to cry. They’d had martial-contests, testing out the latest model of Entrapta’s body-armor against a new training-regimen. Sometimes, bonding meant joining forces to evacuate their lovers and friends when a negotiation between them and one council of one nation on one planet or another had gone south or narrowly avoiding a full intergalactic incident.  There was, of course, the barbeque they’d hosted together in which one quarter of the Whispering Woods had burnt down before being healed by the touch of She-Ra.  

 Good times.  

 It was some good barbequed sand-drake, too.  Who knew that both the ex-warlord and his ex-second-in-command would take so well to culinary delights and the making of them after they’d gotten out of a military-mindset?   Catra was feeling trapped.  Entrapta had assured her that she had disabled all of the traps in the Crypto Castle – not just for her guests – but most of them had been disabled years ago for the sake of the number of Hordak’s brothers that lived there.  There were so many of them here... not all of them that were on the planet by any means, but a great number.  They all had differing eye-colors, hair colors and clothing now, whatever suited them. Still, each and every one of them carried a certain melancholy that went beyond mere grief.  It was something unique to them, even in joyful times – something that Etherians, or, indeed, any member of a people born free – could not touch. They outnumbered Etherians here. After all, Hordak had helped many of them in regards to accepting their independence in a post-Prime universe. Most of the Etherians here were ex-Horde, but Hordak had never had many friends.   The friends he did have… well, that had started with Entrapta – his first and for the longest time only true friend. Catra shivered as she caught a glimpse of her again.  She ducked behind a doorway.  She had to get out of here.  She couldn’t face Entrapta again right now.  Just let Adora talk to her…that’s right.   When she’d spoken to her earlier today, she had said the strangest thing. “Oh, don’t worry!” she’d said with a smile. “Hordak’s all around us!”   Catra shook her head thinking about that, trying to dislodge the notion.  Such a saying was so…unlike Entrapta!  That was the kind of fluffy, quasi-spiritual annoying thing that Perfuma would say, nothing at all suitable to the mad scientist that she knew.   Hordak had died two weeks ago, so the report went.  It shouldn’t surprise her that Entrapta was taking it in a weird way.  In fact, Catra was surprised that they weren’t seeing some kind of hastily-built Hordak-bot walking around.  The pictures of Entrapta’s Parental Units she’d seen told Catra that Entrapta did that very thing when she was missing someone – their image in mechanism, attempts at replacement.  However, Entrapta had grown in the years that they’d known each other – not just in a few more wrinkles about the eyes and the few long strands of gray in her hair (as motile as the rest), but she seemed to understand friendship with organic beings more.  Well, as much understanding as could be had.  Catra wouldn’t say she understood people much, either.   Whatever.  She knew that she couldn’t go through the main room with the milling people and way too many somber clones to go outside to get some fresh air, but maybe one of the corridors lead that way, or, at least, she could find a set of stairs to one of the balconies.  Melog, for their part, had gone to one of the gardens.  They had wanted some space away from everyone’s strong and varied emotions and Catra had told them to go ahead and go and that she’d meet up with them when she could, and not to worry.  It was much easier for someone in four-footed animal-form to get out of these things. Swift Wind had the excuse that he couldn’t fit through the front door! (It wasn’t true, Entrapta’s main room was huge, but he pretended that he couldn’t get his horn under the doorframe). Lucky horse…  In any case, a balcony sounded like just the thing for a breather. Her ears pinned back when she remembered that time that Entrapta had threatened to tape a slice of buttered toast to the top of her head and push her off the edge of the topmost balcony – For Science! It had come from some conversation between her and Hordak after his motor-skills had become iffy and he was dropping some items at breakfast – an observation of the rate at which toast landed on the floor butter and jelly side-down versus the old legend of how cats, when falling, “always land on their feet.” Entrapta had wanted to see if “a feline, properly affixed to a prepared slice of toast might suspend itself in midair and form a perpetual-motion kinetic spinning machine.”   It was a joke, of course, but something in the gleam of Entrapta’s eyes told Catra that she’d wanted to test the hypothesis in earnest.   Of course, Entrapta had not wanted to hurt her, but it had taken Adora to intervene to keep curiosity from killing the cat. She walked down a dimly-lit hallway, listening to the soft clack of her toe-claws echoing on the stone.  For all of the technological advancements that Entrapta had made to the place, the Crypto Castle had been built in an old style – solid construction in stone, punctuated by added metal elements.  Force of habit had Catra’s ears turned to the absurdly spacious ventilation-shafts above. She didn’t want Entrapta to come popping out of a vent to scare the willies out of her and, as usual, she had no idea where Imp was.  Hordak’s old experiment had grown up and had a life of his own now, but he was short and of a small-build.  Much like Entrapta, he could fit into small spaces.  Catra was pretty sure she’d last seen him out in the main hall, but she was cautious over being tailed.  The lack of beeps and boops in her proximity told her that Emily hadn’t followed her, at least. “Forgot how confusing this place was,” she muttered to herself.   As she stepped through a doorway, she heard a low groan and then a quick sliding sound.  In an instant, a door came sliding down right on top of her! She leapt ahead and came just seconds from it slamming down on her tail!   She panted on the floor and caught her breath. She stared wide-eyed at the closed-off path behind her.  The tip of her tail had lost a few hairs.   “What was THAT?” she yelped.   Light streamed in from a window.  As she picked herself up, she looked around for any kind of control-panel.  There wasn’t one visible – it would seem that this was a door that could only be accessed from the other side.  

“HEY! What is this?” she yelled at the door. She gave the door a swift kick with the flat of her foot.  “Dumb malfunctioning piece of junk!  What I get in Entrapta’s castle, I guess.”  

 The door began sliding open. It hitched up and down, up and down, making a sound akin to… laughter?  It slid back into place.   “Weird,” Catra concluded as she shrugged and continued on her way.  She ascended the spiral stair.  If this was where a window was, this stairway led to one of the balconies – probably. It had been a while since she’d been here.  It was this moment that her brain decided to remind her that she had no navigation-pad and that even Entrapta couldn’t get around the place without a map. Catra grit her teeth.  

 Just as she ascended the spiral stair, up around a central pillar, the stairs collapsed.  Each stair shunted into itself, interlocking with the other stairs, forming a rather slick slide.   “Aaaaaaaiiierrrgh!” Catra screamed as she slammed her claws into the former staircase.  She scrambled with her back legs, her tail puffing out, as she held on desperately with her hands. She felt a couple of her claws chipping as she slid right down, leaving pale streaks in the stone.   She was left at the foot of the staircase and the door that had almost pinched her tail was mocking her.  It slid up and down, up and down – a gaping mouth laughing at her.   “I disabled the traps!’ Entrapta’s such a liar!” she grumbled.  “She probably forgot all about this wing.  No wonder Sparkles still has nightmares about this place.”   She stormed down another path.  If she couldn’t go up the stairs from this wing, perhaps she’d try another.   That’s when she ran into the trap door that plunged her into a dank pool of water.   “Hiiissssss!”   Alright, something strange was going on here! And not the usual Entrapta-strange, but strange-strange!  Catra climbed out of the hole – it was quite shallow and she was subject to a tidbit of memory: Way back when he was first being domesticated, not all of the government officials in Dryl had welcomed Hordak as Entrapta’s “boy-toy” – er, “Prince Consort.”  Not all of them had welcomed the idea of Dryl becoming a clone-haven, either, or of any of the other ways Entrapta had wanted to do things upon re-taking her birthright-queendom.  In a bit of playful sadism, she’d installed a trap-door in the Royal Reception Room.  A button was placed on Hordak’s throne to control the door and whenever they had to deal with a particularly bothersome bureaucrat, Hordak had the freedom to send them into a rather cold pool located in the basement.  Pretty soon after that, people had stopped complaining about Entrapta’s methods of rule.

Hordak had tried to pull that trick on members of the Princess Alliance and visiting ex-members of his Horde many times; as he had found the trap door way too amusing (only Kyle consistently fell for it – quite literally).  The trick to it was that the trap door was made moveable and they’d never put it in the same part of the floor twice, so it was difficult to dodge. (And if they had, there was another door that would open up right under them!) – The entire Reception Room floor was probably made of false tiles! Glimmer had, of course, been able to teleport whenever she’d felt a hint of gravity.  Bow had rope-arrows.  Adora and Catra had acute reflexes and could dodge whenever they heard the tell-tale click of it opening, but even Adora had taken the plunge a few times. Hordak was lucky he hadn’t been arrested for it, but Entrapta INSITED that he was just being playful. After all, no one had died. This one had apparently been installed with a silencer. Catra tried to shake herself to dislodge the uncomfortable wet.

 Catra had heard a rumor that Entrapta had started building robots for Hordak to send through the doors to keep him entertained… The Reception Room trap-door had been a Decant Day present, after all.   Entrapta was eventually commissioned by Queen Glimmer to install one in Bright Moon as well.  Prince Consort Bow successfully kept the queen from using it (most of the time). It did not surprise Catra that there would be a few more of the things around this place.

“Alright, don’t trust the floor,” she said to herself as she tiptoed down her new chosen path, hoping to find some stairs that did not become a Super Happy Fun-Slide.  Before committing to step anywhere, she cautiously tapped each tile ahead of her with her toe-claws.  There would be a tell-tale sound if the floor was hollow.  She hopped and skipped and figured out a solid path.   She found another path and turned right. Ah, yes!  She actually remembered this part of the castle and that it led outside!  Catra was feeling better already.   She almost stepped on the vacuum-cleaner. A disk-shaped robot beeped and whistled indignantly at her and raised its circular scrubbing brushes in an argumentative gesture.  It then spoke to her with a synthesized voice.  Green letters appeared on a screen on the top of its chassis, reading out the same words:

 “You have made it this far, Force-Captain. Congratulations.  Greetings, Force Captain.”

 Catra suddenly felt heat by her ear and heard a “SHOOM!”  There was a tiny, smoking hole in the wall in front of her in an instant. She felt the ions in the air as she jumped and rolled, dodging a barrage of lasers fired from rotating turrets in the ceiling!   She found a moment, caught her breath, jumped, dodged and clawed out a turret.  She jumped between the walls, doing the same for as many as she could find. She grabbed a debris-fragment and flung it straight into the last one at the end of the hall.  She found herself at the end of it all panting heavily, her hands on her knees.

She wasn’t a spring chicken anymore.  She was still young, but this was like the obstacle courses in the Horde!  

 The robot came scuttling by her feet again.  She was about to kick it until it spoke to her again.  “Are you feeling too old for this shit?”  its tinny voice asked.   She thought she’d heard the same question echoed from somewhere up above her, but in a voice that was deeper, somewhat more familiar… Her eyes widened.  “Hordak?!” she asked her surroundings.

 Okay, that was IT!

 “WHERE ARE YOU?” she demanded.  “I swear, I will find whatever control room you’re running this shitshow from, I’m gonna break your kneecaps and I will drag you out for all to see!”  She shivered in fury.  “It is just LIKE you to fake your own death!  What did it for you?  Tensions with Sparkles?  That negotiations-breakdown with Aarboria?  The bounty you’ve got on five planets because you and Entrapta blew up that moon?”  She sighed and laughed bitterly, “Oh, don’t tell me it’s some kind of ‘ultimate penance’ of yours!  Some kind of plan to free Etheria from your shadow!  I thought you’d gotten over that! Pathetic!”  

 Catra stormed through the hall, every hair on her body bristling, wary for any new tricks.  “Oh, and it’s just like you to mess with me! I’ll find out where you’re watching from!  I’ll get past all of your little traps…and lasers…”   She looked around, checking for any cameras or screens.  She found a vent-grate and hauled herself up halfway into it.  She wasn’t a nice fit for scuttling around in the thing like Entrapta was, but she could get a decent look around with her gifted feline eyes. A few robotic cockroaches skittered about and there was nothing to be seen.  She hauled herself down.  

 She walked down the hall, ears swiveling, senses alight.  Catra remembered the prank-war that they’d had going on before Hordak had gotten very sick.  It was all delightfully stupid.  Sure, there were the threats they’d made to each other and the many insults of endearment. Glimmer had taught Catra many an interesting swear-word to tag onto Hordak.  Hordak, in turn, had taught her many Hordish-language insults by using them on her.  He’d also managed to convince her that the sentence “I want to lick Horde Prime’s lubricated asshole” was “Hey, can I borrow your screwdriver?”  This led to many puzzled and offended looks among clones when she had been trying to borrow tools that Bow had requested of her.  It took her a week to figure it out and when he’d shared what the words really meant, he’d laughed and laughed.   For her part, she liked knocking things off his lab-tables when he was working (a “typical cat”) and of course, there was the time when she’d replaced his hair dye with razzleberry syrup, leading to much unwanted attention from the Freedom Forest bees.  She’d also one time (after she’d learned a little baking) crafted him a pie with fruit that was found to have a certain laxative property in spacebats… And, of course, there were the fisticuffs. They always knew how much of a beating they could take.  (And Entrapta had redesigned all of Hordak’s armors with Catra’s claws in mind:  Try as she might, she couldn’t ‘equal the playing field’ by taking out any of his power-drive crystals).  

 Until now, Catra had always been able to dodge Hordak’s trap-doors. “I just know you’re running things from somewhere, Hordak!  How about you stop being a coward and show yourself?  You’ve had your fun faking your own death, but it’s over now!”

She rested her hand against a wall and suddenly found the wall flipped.  She was suddenly in another room.  It was dark.   “Okay, you can come out now.  I won’t tell your bounty hunters or Sparkles, I promise, but Adora ought to know that you’re okay.  She was beside herself when she couldn’t give you a healing the last time… when it was….too much.  She was broken, you know?  She’ll be so happy when she finds out that it actually wor-”   Catra paused mid-sentence and went stark-still. In the gloom she could make out the shine of long glass-pods.  A chill ran through her bones.  No…not here, anywhere but here!   Her gaze caught a sign along the top of one wall, a screen with lighted green and red letters.  “Techno-Organics Laboratory 5: Morgue.” Now, one strange thing that Catra had learned from working with Bow was that there were different definitions to the term “morgue.”  It could, indeed, refer to a paper-filing system in which old designs – both graphic design and technical, as well as old publications were kept.  Entrapta probably did keep one or more of these kinds of morgues around but Catra knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that this was where Entrapta and the medical-clones that lived in Dryl kept the bodies of clones that had been donated to science.

  In the years post-Prime, the sacred mission of finding clones that had fallen in the war was complete, but the Horde Reapers’ Guild of Etheria had turned to normal undertaking services for clone-kind.  Very few had died post-Prime, as they had been designed to be healthy and apparently long-lived (although their true lifespan was unknown, due to them being slated as cannon-fodder).  Until the post-Prime era, no clone had known a “natural death.”  To be killed as part of violent conquest for the Glory of Prime (or to otherwise be decommissioned for imperfection) had been their fate. After the Last War and the initial rocky adjustment-period, some did die via accidents or the occasional manifest genetic-illness such as the one that Hordak had, although it was few and far-between enough for the Reapers to almost not be needed at all and they all, indeed, did other kinds of jobs independently.  Part of the time, fallen clones were buried or set upon a pyre as per the custom of whatever Etherian family or community they had been adopted into, but donation to science in Dryl for the furtherance of understanding of clone-bodies among Etherian healers, particularly of pathologic specimens, was common.  

How Entrapta could keep enough of a detachment to do these kinds of studies on people she’d considered valued friends (she’d practically adopted every clone that came her way) was something that Catra would never understand.  

She remembered when she was with Adora, Glimmer and Bow when they’d entered one of the old offices in Bright Moon shortly after the end of the war… They’d found a few sparkling feathers, shed at some point by Queen Angella on the floor and Glimmer freaked out.  She’d had a full-on panic attack at being confronted with the remains – and they had not even been the full-remains.  It was just a reminder that her mother was gone and it had hit her in full-force after the immediacy of surviving Prime had been taken care of.  King Micah wasn’t in great shape that day, either.  

Eventually, the “late” Queen had been recovered.  Entrapta and Hordak had worked to create another portal, one that could reach into that “in-between” place that had been created by the prior existence of Despondos. Catra had been a part of the retrieval, wearing an Entrapta-created personalized exploration-suit.  She wasn’t about to let Adora risk her life again – not for something that had been her fault to begin with.  Getting Angella back was on her, Entrapta and the old bat – it was their thing to make right.  Angella had thankfully survived her ordeal and the fact that the place she’d been to wasn’t as empty as everyone had assumed it to be had helped her keep her sanity intact.

Funny how they’d all gone from being enemies to how, for several years after that, Angella and Hordak would meet to play Chess on Tuesday afternoons…

Angella’s recovery was long ago, a story that Catra could recount at another time when it was more relevant.  

What was relevant to her in the moment was the memory of the panic-attack over a few feathery remains and how… well, Hordak and Entrapta had been so…different.  Some… did not like the idea of keeping any remnant of a body in a place of the living.  Them? Well… Catra blamed the way that clones were built and raised in the Hell that was the Galactic Horde, a system where death was a way of life, for the way that Hordak could have a certain detachment from his brothers at the right times, such as with aspects of medicine.  She blamed Entrapta’s views toward greater goods, such as the pursuit of knowledge.  She’d always had a bit of morbidity to her – what with her fascination with explosions, apocalyptic potentials and how, on every space-journey in which she was a part, she’d rattle on about the many different ways that one could die in space with an…admiration for natural powers greater than themselves.  

Catra’s heart-rate increased and her palms sweat.  In time with a “Rrrzzt!” sound, several pods lit up.  She bit off a scream.  They were empty – just pods from Horde Prime’s ship, empty of all but green fluid, lined up in a row.  One of them was covered in a black sheet, held by robotic clips.  With a “Click! Clack!” they un-snapped systematically, dropping the sheet to the floor just as the pod lit up…  

All of the hair on Catra’s head, tail and body bristled.  He had an undergarment on, at least, a set of black shorts, close to the skin. Everything else was in full-display – every scar, every bit of discoloration… the grotesque holes in his arms… His hair – dark blue, that had not changed, flowed with the subtle motions of the fluid in the tank, as if in a gentle breeze.  He had no black liner over his eyes, which were thankfully closed. This looked unnatural for him.  

It was definitely him.  He wasn’t hooked into anything, no tubes or wires.  He looked very much like the specimens of creatures that Catra had seen in Shadow Weaver’s old alchemy room back in the Fright Zone when she’d wandered there as a kid.  The stillborn Whispering Woods four-eyed piglet had stood out the most in her memory, although she also remembered the shed-tail of one of the Horde’s lizard-troops being there.  

In any case, Catra stared up in shock at a pickled Hordak.  

She stroked the glass and whispered to him, noting his concave stomach and how thinned out even his once rather muscular thighs were.  “You look… so much sicker since the last time we saw each other.”  

After she paused, just looking at this very-much-a-corpse, she set her gaze to the floor and her ears down.  “So what is going on here?”  

Words came in machine-echoes throughout the room, screens lighting up with corresponding text.  “SHIT!” she shouted as she clutched her chest and frantically looked around.  

“As you can see, I am very much deceased,” the voice intoned.  It WAS made up of a recordings of Hordak, although the words were stilted (much like Imp’s were when he spoke via playback of various recorded voices).  

Catra grit her teeth and held her claws out. She looked around the room.  Her eyes kept darting back to Pickled Hordak.

“My original body is very, very dead,” the voice said, “Yet, thanks to Entrapta’s brilliance, I remain.”  

“This has got to be some kind of stupid joke! Where are you?  Did you two set this up just to mess with me?”

The lights shut off on all of the empty pods, leaving only Hordak’s illuminated.  Catra remained bristling.  

“Alright, you’ve had your revenge for that time I benched you over that table… and for that time I gave you that pie that made you fart for three days…”

“Heh, heh, heh…”  

Screens along the walls pulsed with green light, shutting off into dark in fluttering sequences.  Catra pawed along the walls, looking for some source of a pre-recording.  

“Take a run, little cat.”  

A section of wall flipped suddenly back around as she was inspecting it, putting her back out into a hallway. Several humanoid robots with dubious levels of functionality and red eyes were there to greet her.  

Catra breathed heavy.  She took off in a dead heat, followed by murder-bots, laughter and lasers.  

Every single laser missed hitting her, but came close to singing hairs.  In the insanity, Catra started to notice that it seemed deliberate that they were missing her.  The robots, too, seemed to know just where to not swing their crowbars and chainsaws.  

Metallic laughter echoed through speakers set into the wall. A large screen craned down from the ceiling and she almost ran into it.  It bore a cartoon-style image of the face of a Horde-clone, winking and making a two-fingered “peace” sign in mockery.  The icon’s one open eye, in contrast to its white-green lines, glowed red.  

A trap door dropped out from beneath Catra’s feet.  She screamed as she fell an entire floor down…

… right onto the plush purple couch of one of Entrapta’s tea-rooms.  

People screamed.  

Mourners were gathered into the room – Hordak’s first liberated brother, Kadroh, wearing a black dress with a veiled little black hat (which looked quite odd against his pink-dyed hair), Adora, Perfuma, and Scorpia who was having quite a difficult time trying to hold a tiny teacup in one of her enormous claws, Emily, settled beside Imp and, of course, Entrapta.  

“Are you alright?” Scorpia asked, dropping her cup, which Entrapta grabbed in a tail of hair before it hit the floor.  

“What happened to you?” Adora asked, “You just disappeared… I thought you were just getting some air, but you obviously got lost…and you look like you’ve seen a ghost!”

Catra gripped the couch cushions.  “You… you won’t believe this, but…”  

“Chamomile tea?” Perfuma offered.  

Catra caught her breath.  “Hordak’s still alive!” she huffed.  

“What?!” Scorpia yelped, dropping yet another teacup she’d picked up to enjoy some chamomile tea with.  Once again, Entrapta caught it with her hair.  

Adora looked down.  “I couldn’t heal him, remember?”  

“No!  He’s messing with me!  He’s in the castle! Like, wired in somehow! Some kind of Horde non-local consciousness tech bullshit!  I don’t know how, but…”  

“I told you - Hordak is all around us,” Entrapta said, lifting up her mask and coyly smiling.

[samprestonbigbadabruce]

John Wick...the Video Game?

With the upcoming fourth iteration of John Wick, which will likely be another awesome event, there has been recent discussions of a possible video game based on John Wick by the CEO of Lionsgate. While not a gamer myself, this would be a great decision, capitalizing on the popularity of the series and allowing fans the dream of representing Wick in action. In fact, there are some clips already on YouTube of John Wick in the Unreal Engine 5 world.

The question I have is what type of game could they incorporate? A simple adaptation of the movies seems a bit obvious and underwhelming, so what could they make instead? Unquestionably it has to be an open world style, possibly in the guise of Grand Theft Auto or more likely, Red Dead Redemption, allowing side quests to accomplish alongside the main gameplay.

You’d have to include three different types of gameplay, which would cover the three main parts of John Wick’s appeal:

Car chases

Gunplay

Hand-to-hand combat

The style could be akin to the most recent iterations of God of War and God of War:Ragnarok, a one-shot camera that follows the protagonist as they travel the world, mixing between distance attacks (gunplay) and hand-to-hand combat, while using the horse riding of Red Dead Redemption to replicate the car chases for Wick.

But what would the story be? Personally, I feel the perfect choice would be based on a scene from the first movie:

A masterclass scene that introduces the mythos of who John Wick is and why you should be terrified. I personally would have the opening of the game feature Wick undertaking a hit (which can count as a training sequence getting you used to the guns and combat system), with Wick afterwards meeting his girlfriend Helen and deciding he needs to leave the business.

Based in New York City, you could have Viggo Tarasov as the leader of the Russian Mafia based in Manhattan but the weakest of Five Families, and Wick is given the task of eliminating the other four families, to allow the Russian Mafia to take over New York City completely.  Each family could have their own borough, working through The Bronx, Staten Island, Brooklyn and Queens as you battle through each families mob and eventually kill the leader of each family.

As you kill enemies, you can earn new gold coins that you can use in a Continental Hotel (one based in each borough) to upgrade weapons, outfit and contacts, meeting a different Sommelier in each one, cameos from Winston, John Lequizamo’s Aurelio (when upgrading vehicles) and other assassins from the movies. As you take over different areas of the five boroughs, the reputation for the Russian Mafia builds up, with the aim to reach 100%.

The option of variety in antagonist you can have, the different guns and vehicles, but more than anything, the possible size of this world could be amazing. New York City has a square mile of 302.6 miles, There are only twelve games supposedly bigger as of 2022, which includes Just Cause 3, Final Fantasy XV, The Elder Scrolls II and No Man’s Sky. I for one would love to see this game.

What about you, any thoughts, things you’d like to see, ideas you’d incorporate?

[thecertifiedgaymer]

Review 1: Red Dead Redemption 2

SCORE: 9.5/10

General/Overview

Lets start with one of the best games I've ever played. Red Dead Redemption 2 is a beautiful example of what games can be. The graphics are realistic yet stylised. The game play is good. The audio is crisp and the sound design of weapons is punchy but not super loud. The story is probably the best I've played in any game. But that's on the surface so lets get down to details about each of these.

Graphics

The graphics are beautiful. Everything is so jam packed with details, everything from the biggest of buildings to the mud on the road is all rendered beautifully. The games graphics can be tweaked as much as you want. The graphics are either max which is basically movie quality or lowest possible in case your computer is comparable to a toaster. The game has some settings that can tank performance so be aware of that.

Gameplay

The game play is amazing and fluid but that sentence comes with an asterisk, as at least on pc which is the way I played it the game has some minor problems. Such as when riding a horse its as if the a key gets stuck and the horse keeps turning. Also when on a horse hitting a direction other then forward your horse does a full turn which is always inconvenient as it either sends you off the path or straight into a tree. Putting markers on the map to a specific location will sometimes make the map snap to that are throwing you off when placing a marker, it makes sense when you play it. And the gun play is fun at the beginning but after a ton of gun fights where you use the same load out it gets kind of boring.

Audio

The audio is all the guns are just right as they all pack a punch just as you'd expect. It all just feels right. Nature sounds just like the normal nature that you can see outside.

Story

When it comes to the story, go in blind, I know its a common sentiment but its true, the less you know the more the story just hits. Even if you know the ending the journey there is very much worth it. It was just 2 words that made me cry. The games story did in fact make me cry which rarely happens.

Details

The most notable thing about the game is how much detail is just in the normal game. NPCs have daily routines, the dirt roads keep the tracks of anyone that passes on the road, from the steps of NPCs, the wheel tracks of carriages, or the hoof marks of horses. As I'm sure you've heard the horses testicles do indeed shrink in the cold. The NPCs do eat food accurately, and guns do degrade if not maintained. It's amazing that this game even happened as the devs had to put in a lot hours and commit to some serious crunch time.

Extra notes

Modding the game is an absolute blast as you can contribute a lot more to the realism or just make the game silly. In the end Red Dead Redemption 2 is one of my favorite games of all time and I think everyone should at least try it.

TL;DR: One of the best games ever made, play it. Buy it if you don't have the 60$-100$ waiting for a sale never hurt anyone.

The next game will be Red Dead Redemption 1 as it does happen next and I played Red Dead 2 first. I might put Red Dead Revolver as a bonus game as it is shorter. I'll figure it out as I go along.

The game is an accurate depiction of living in Ohio in current times.

[imthefailedartist]

You know in West World when the Man in Black was talking about how ugly the hosts have become because they're making them basically human?

That's how I feel about CGI, video games, and animation. People used to create art now everything is focused on making it look real that was cool but now it's taking the fun and creativity out of things.

There used to be a balance. A mixture of the practical with the digital. It was great. We took that time for granted.

Look at the "live action" Lion King. I have never seen the animation but I know everything about it, why? Because everyone else loves The Lion King they never shut up about it, do you know what I've heard about the new one? Bubcus, nothing, zip, zilch, nada. Because it was a soulless cash grab and everyone could tell. They spent so much money to make it look real just because they could and because it had to look real they took away all the color and artistry. I'm so scared for The Little Mermaid. Hopefully the fact that it's underwater and a fantasy it forces them to be creative and embrace the fantastical because I don't want to spend two hours looking at realist fish. If I wanted to do that I'd watch a nature documentary.

Look at Marvel movies. They are starting to look like plastic. They don't even make half sets anymore. In Dr. Strange Mystery of Madness they walk down a city block and it's all fake and it looks terrible. Marvel is over working and underpaying their graphics departments and its showing. We've become reliant on it and the film industry is suffering for it.

I've been watching older movies and the practical effects are amazing. Slither looks so gross because its real. No CGI creature has beaten the Graboid in disgusting. The Blob amazing. AvP. The Fly. The Exorcist. A Werewolf in London. All look incredible sure its not all realistic but who cares it's art. The miniatures they used to make amazing. Look at Coraline and how creative they got, popcorn flowers.

Parents used to complain that N64 James bond with its square hand and rectangle gun was too violent and realistic. Look at games today. When Red Dead Redemption first came out NPCs had so many different death falls that it would take 30 kills before one repeated now you can kill 100 NPCs and still never see a repeat. That's insane. I'm in no way saying violent video games correspond to real life violence etc. but making everything so real is definitely going to have an effect on the way people react to certain things.

This was a late night rant maybe I'll make a more clear point some other time. In the meantime damn realism and get weird.

[kursed-curtain]

Oh hey! Tagged by @thewatercolours and I love a good ramble about my favs

comfort show: I don't watch a lot of TV lmao, but I love falling asleep to stuff on HGTV, watching those people improve old antiques and seeing their reactions. Alternatively, Phineas and Ferb, because thinking about the show makes me happy lmaoo

comfort movie: Again I don't watch a lot of TV lmaooo but I love love love animated anything way too much. There's nothing that I watch when I need comfort but thinking about recent didneys is the funs

comfort book: wow I don't read a lot, buut (and sorry for the book recc in the middle of a ramble lmao) Pendant of Hyacinth is some good shit, I love dipping into a different kind of fantasy worldbuilding! one of the main characters uses they/them pronouns, another has ADHD hehe, there's a one off side character who is a kiddo with a cane, and there's also cool fantasy companions made of pure light called dreams ✨ it also discusses a lot on relationships, what can be healthy or not, and it's got that sorta happy jokey sorta vibe

Also I have a few Minecraft books I reread sometimes cuz they're sweet :3

comfort article of clothing: on the contrary, I have too many. This one pair of fuzzy sport pants (the type of fuzz that's thin but movable enough that you can draw with your finger on it). I have many, many comfort shirts (I remember being very proud when I chose them cuz I liked the designs on the front lol). And! There's the red coat I talked about that flares behind me when I walk like a cape hehe. I feel like a closet cosplay Graham at this point

comfort song: what isn't my comfort song? I love songs... Oh to choose one... The West Was One by The Stupendium, a Red Dead Redemption song despite the fact I've never played. It doesn't really matter that I haven't played though because it's so perfect when a song can be used out of context. Yeehaw!

comfort game: I don't play many games like on the daily? The Sims 4 and Minecraft are ones I often jump to when I'm bored, I love replaying Ch1 of King's Quest 2015, and Assassin's Creed Syndicate is good if only I knew how to reset the game (because I have excellent memories of learning how to play and being great at strategizing and being a coward lmao)

comfort food: pasta... (人*´∀｀)｡*ﾟ+ I love so many kinds! Lasagna is amazing, the spaghetti my lola (grandma) makes is sweet and nice, I love olive garden with the cheese and the good and the chicken hehe lmaoo

Tagging @phoenixistrans @devinchee @book-birb @deanthegay and @goodbi-bitches (sorry for the tag) (don't feel obligated to do this game lolol)