#the first and probably most common one is collecting it with your player character where they'll just gather it normally

[gamebunny-advance]

I honestly don't know how many of these comics they're gonna make, but I want to make certain that y'all see comic!Oatchi with his mouth full (plus a couple extras that didn't make it into volume II of the skrunkly Oatchi collection).

[havendance]

hii haven! thinking of getting a comic on steph to join my favs and start reading about her, but i'm not the most knowledgable when it comes to her character and have no idea where to start. do you have any suggestions for me? thanks! <3

So to start, the thing about Steph is that she is very much a supporting character throughout most of her time. This means that comics with her are going to be very scattered and it's harder to find stuff focused on her. If you're the person who likes long lists of comics, I'll link you to this (very indepth) reading list by @bitimdrake. This basically has every comic she shows up in post-crisis broken down into eras so it is very informative, but also has the potential to be intimidating.

Now for specifically buying comics featuring Steph, I'll point you in a few different directions (Note: this will be focused on collected editions since I am of the opinion that if you're looking for single issues, your best bet is to go out and dig around until you find something with her on the cover and then go for it. It may be bad, it may be good, but I think it will certainly be fun. That being said, if you do want recs for individual storylines/issues, feel free to send a followup):

Batgirl: Stephanie Brown Vol. 1 -- This collects the first half of Steph's one and only solo run. It has what no other option on the list has, and that is a complete focus on her. It also has the advantage that it's being reprinted and will be released on October 22nd, just a month from now, so it will be easy for you to obtain. A lot of people really like this run and think it's fun. The main downsides I can think of for this is that it's set right at the end of post-crisis and also features her as Batgirl rather than spoiler so if you're interested in exploring an earlier era for her, it's less suited for that.

(Honestly, the trade that features the most both as spoiler and a key player post-crisis is probably, uh, War Games which is... it's own can of worms. I do not think I need to tell you that while this was a significant storyline for her it was not good and you should not start here at all.)

Batman: The Dark Knight Detective Vol. 8 -- In contrast to the first item on this list, this volume goes all the way to the beginning of Steph's history and collects her introduction storyline. Pros to this comic is that it was released just last year so it should still be easy to find and it's her introduction--which is iconic. Downsides: she only shows up for 3 of 12 collected issues (this will be a common thread through the rest of these recs). That being said, if you're interested in more than just her I think this is a pretty good volume for that as it also contains a Batman and Robin (Tim Drake) team-up storyline, an annual that has wormed it's way into my brain, and also the story that reintroduces Huntress into bat comics.

Robin Vol. 3: Solo -- Once again, Stephanie shows up for a three issue storyline, this time in Robin comics! Most of the points for Dark Knight Detective apply here, honestly. It has a team-up story with her and Tim that I remember enjoying and otherwise collects Robin comics.

Finally, I'll toss out trades from Tynion's run on Detective Comics. This is from rebirth rather than post-crisis continuity wise and I think Steph fans tend to not like this series as much for her. I personally enjoyed her arc in it. That being said, this is a team comic and she is a member of the ensemble in it. I think I'd probably recommend the first two trades of this in terms of where she has more story focus.

Hopefully this helps and gives you some ideas!

[wazda-the-great-penguin]

DEVBLOG 01: Finding The Game Direction.

This blog post will take the role of being the central mood board (?) for the game that I am developing. It will go into detail about the inspirations for this game, fundamental game info and mechanics, development tools and methods I will use and stuff like that.

About the Game.

The game will be a Topdown 2D pixel art action RPG/loot collector type game. This game will take place on a HUGE open world with a lot of unique regions for the player to discover. They will have towns with many unique interact-able NPCs (and sometimes the player can battle and kill them to get their items), forests, caves, dungeons and so much more! There will be a huge verity of creatures both hostile and friendly that the player may encounter. And sometimes the player can even tame them

And there will be a very complex combat system too!!

Key inspirations for this game.

Where do I even begin ToT

If I were to be honest I’d have about 100 different inspirational elements I can list down for this game but for the sake of being readable I’ll list down only the a few key ones

1. Terraria and Stardew Valley

Probably THE biggest inspiration for this game are these two games (they have had a huge impact on my late childhood)

The game I have in mind will at its core be something like terraria with open world mechanics, tons of bosses and creatures and loot to collect, but it will also be top down like Stardew Valley. But make no mistake I don’t plan to make a rip-off of these games!

2. The Binding Of Isaac.

The combat system (at its basic level that is, I plan to make the combat mechanics much more complex later on) for my game will be similar to the one seen in TBI. Even though it’s a pretty standard and popular mechanic this game is the first instance I’ve been exposed to it so I shall credit it here :)

3. Final fantasy (anime), JJK, That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime, Overlord

These anime are also very important inspos for a lot of my ideas that I wish to incorporate into my game.

Basic Game Info.

Name: I still haven’t come up with a name for this game. If you have any suggestions please let me know ;-;

Game style: this will be a 2d pixel art game with a topdown camera.

Genre: Action RPG and Loot Collector

Combat mechanics: the basic combat mechanic will be the same as the one seen in TBI, where you move the character using the W, A, S, D keys and you attack using the arrow keys. Pressing any arrow key will result in the player initiating an attack in that direction.

There will be two main combat classes each containing their own sub classes.

1 . Mele class

• Sword subclass

• Sword and shield subclass

• Dual sword subclass

• Spear subclass

2. Ranged class

• Bow and Arrow subclass

• Mage subclass

• Projectile launcher (gun) subclass

The Reputation system, Item system and NPC battle system.

See I plan to include a mechanic where depending on the situation you can kill any NPCs which will have a positive or negative on your player reputation. It works like this and is tied to the game’s collectible item system.

See each item you can collect are scarce and limited. For each play through, there will be a set number of a particular item that the world will contain. And guess what, almost all NPCs have the same likelihood as the player to collect these items.

So for example:

Let’s say a single play through of this game can have 10 instances of a common item x, meaning the player or NPCs can only find a maximum of 10 copies of this item for this entire play through.

And the rarer the item, the less copies of it will be available in the game world. (Legendary and Mythical items will only have one instance per play though)

While most items can be traded, some items become bound to the person who discovers it. And these items can not be traded by anyone, and to obtain a bound item from an NPC the player will have to challenge them an kill them to get it. As that is the only way to unbind such an item. And since all items are limited, if an NPC finds a Legendary or Mythical item before the player, the player will never be able to discover or obtain that item unless taken from that NPC

And doing so will forever kill the NPC and bar the player from certain story quests and game endings. And on top of that depending on the situation it may either positively or negatively impact the player’s reputation. A mechanic that determines how other NPCs interact with the player.

Development.

Development has officially started on 02/05/2024!!!

The team: Me ToT, and sometimes I’ll ask my close friends to help out with game assets and stuff cus they are mad talented when it comes to art ✨

Game engine: Unity, I was originally opting to use Godot but I ran into a lot of walls cus there just isn’t enough free tutorials available to implement all the mechanics I want into the my game.

Final words

Just wanted to let you Im still a student so I’ll only be developing this game on my free time and so it will probably take years to finish development. I plan to finish it with in 3 years hopefully. And if you have any suggestions at all please feel free drop them in the comments:)

That’s all for this blog folks!

- Wazda the Great Penguin

[onestepbackwards]

More on that Ninetales concept

In the game there are two versions, the Ninteales that shows up on the volcano of Cobalt Coastals and the ones in Alabaster Icelands. The version of the Ninetales that you transform into depends on your personality, if you're a head strong trainer with a lot of passion for adventuring then you'd probably be the og Ninetales (fire type). But on the other hand if you like taking things slow and look at things in another perspective then you're the Alolan version of Ninetales (ice type). Perhaps you could become a mixter of the two or something completely different.

Honestly I really like the og Ninetales but I've always thought that the tails were kinda boring, so perhaps sprinkle some of that Alolan type Ninetales into it and it would look great, also because I like the fluff.

Now for something more personal, remember the four star badges that would give you the ability of four pokemon with no other pokemon has? Yeah it's about that.

First off is Zoroark, because you know shapeshifting.

Second of all is Lucario's ability to sense someone's presence from miles oway (and to an extent their patience).

Next up is Chimecho, although their voice is mainly used as a weapon and in hindsight Chatot would probably be better, I still like the idea of sounding like I'm carrying chimes wherever I go. It brings a sort of mystery, besides I don't need to mimic human speech to understand it.

And the last one, Dusknoir. Dusknoir guides souls to the afterlife, even though it isn't very helpful in a world where survival is harsh. I think it builds character and is a fun callback to when the player went around collecting wisps, it also shows that I can be benevolent despite my nature.

And now for my pokemon, as i've said before that you'd get your pokemons powers but i've decided to make it so i can only use one of their types, so if they have multiple then i must choose one. Also since there's six stats I've chosen from my pokemon which ones to use.

Gengar: 312 speed: Ghost

Carnivine: 232 defence: Grass

Samurott: 347 HP: Dark

Rapidash: 244 attack: Fier

Luxray: 243 sp. Def: Electric

Beautifly: 199 sp. Atk: Bug

Like you said about becoming a trickster god it wouldn't be too far from the kitsune's nature. They are known to trick the unlucky few which can range from mischief to malevolence, specifically overly proud samurai, greedy merchants and boastful commoners. On another note, sorry if I was unclear, you don't need to be in another form to deal that much damage, though it is a fun idea and a great part trick, too bad you'd probably not get invited to any considering your track record. Otherwise you would bring in the same energy as Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty whenever you show up unprompted.

Another thing is that if you were killed in exile then who's gonna save the day? Sure, you might have been resurrected but that's not gonna motivate you to get up and do something about the red sky. So what if instead of you doing it alone you become a sort of guide for the rival, teach them the ways and strategies that you once used. I mean Nine tailed foxes are credited to have infinite wisdom and the Ninetales in game is based off the fox spirit so it isn't too presumptuous to think that it would be too far off. But instead of lets say, knowledge of the great beyond its more about the world in general and how it works. Besides, if you knew about the vast unknown it would be hell to communicate it when you can't speak, even in a human body.

Oh! This is interesting! It's a good read (❁´◡`❁)

ngl i'm still interested in the idea of becoming a Trickster god of sorts if you were killed during exile. You no longer really care for most the people, but you still hold a few close to your heart. Your rival, Ingo, Cyllene, Professor Laventon... The only people who really seemed to care about you before your demise. The only ones that were good friends for you, besides your own pokemon. So you don't bother to save the day, but you also don't want the world to be destroyed either. You live here, after all. So you guide your rival here and there. They have the potential to become a hero that Hisui had needs. You silently protect the other few who were there for you. The others though? Depending on who it is, you either leave them be, help guide every so often, or straight up lead them astray. Adaman and Irida? The wardens, besides Ingo? Kamado? They all have your ire now. Add that to the idea of having similar abilities to your other pokemon, you'd be a real force to be reckoned with...

Thank you for the fun submission! ヾ(•ω•`)o

[punkrockbuttrfly]

Can I have 8, 12, and 22 for the fandom asks (for Gallifrey)?

8) common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

season 5 is good. Listen, I've heard all the arguments about how it's boring and how nothing is achieved by the end and how it spins its wheels and is just padding until season 6, and maybe it felt that way when it was first coming out, but I love season 5.

It is such a good insight into the characters we love, because it's about Romana and Narvin on one side and Leela on the other, all sticking so hard to their principles while feeling like the other side has betrayed theirs and betrayed them in turn. Romana and Narvin relying so hard on each other in this universe where it's normal and expected for upper level politicians to turn on each other constantly and challenging the norms of the society they feel stuck in, while Leela tries so hard to get back to her own roots and help the people who were so screwed over by the people she feels Romana and Narvin are now defending, all of them doing exactly what's right but having differing methods on how to do it and ending up struggling to actually do good against the real monsters of this society.

It's so good, and the way they do come together at the end is such a wonderful conclusion and lead in to series 6. Season 5 is good and I will hear no arguments against that.

12) the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

I don't know if there are any unpopular characters in Gallifrey. I'll admit that sometimes Ace feels like the writers didn't want her there given how little she actually does in the series, but everyone else loves her.

Seriously, I really wish Ace got more to do, she brings so much of that rebellious energy that exasperates everyone around her but also makes them question themselves, because even if she's definitely naive and very loud, she's got probably the strongest (or, at least, the least battered and worn down) moral compass, so if she disagrees with them, they're probably in the wrong.

I'm choosing to defend Ace in this because it feels like she was only there as a mandate to the writers, given that she spent most of Intervention Earth under mind control, most of Enemy Lines dead, and then got written out halfway through Time War 1, and she deserved better.

22) your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

the fact that Braxiatel legitimately cares about the rest of the cast. He manipulates everyone, and that's what I see most people talking about with him, he's the master chess player who sees everyone else as a piece on the board, and, like, maybe, but he does legit love these people.

He makes a joke about how many times he's rescued Narvin "by accident" but every time he does it because he's helping Romana, and he's perfectly willing to help out someone he (ostensibly) hates just for Romana's sake, and he is never anything but curteous and lovely to Leela.

Like, his loyalty to Romana is talked about, but I often see people talk about how he's only loyal to the President, ignoring the fact that he murdered an earlier President the second he gave him an order he didn't like and covered it up by acting as his own investigator. He could get away with messing these people over easily, and he would probably be better off doing so and fucking off back to his Collection to spend the rest of eternity doing his own thing.

But he doesn't. Because he cares about them, whether he admits it to his enemies or himself or not.

[ultrace]

With the advent of December and the heart of winter, the holiday season is upon us. You may celebrate Christmas, Channukah, Kwanzaa, Yule, or even just a non-day-specific appreciation of surviving another year. Regardless of the occurrence, if you're a DM or GM deserving of a little extra appreciation, may I suggest you gift yourself the venerable Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (1st Edition) Dungeon Masters Guide.

This is, quite simply, my favorite RPG rulebook of all time, and if you have it in your collection, you probably know why. It's not for the rules -- those are antiquated, clunky, and absolutely brutal (as demonstrated by the sample of gameplay where one of the characters, in the party's first enemy encounter, is instantly devoured in a surprise attack by ghouls following one bad die roll).

What makes this book great, in my opinion, and deserving of a spot in every GM's collection, regardless of what system they actually run, is how it speaks to the experience of being a GM, not just in rules, but philosophy. Every section discussing various rule sets (and there are a ton of them) explains not only the numbers and processes but the rationale behind them. These explanations make much of the book surprisingly rules-agnostic and malleable for GMs skilled in their own games.

This is clearly a work of passion and, regardless of what anyone may think of Gygax and Arneson as game designers, their early work such as this is overflowing with creativity and style. While it is true that an editor could have been used to trim some extra fat here and there, this is perhaps the single most diverse gaming book I've ever possessed, with everything from the magical properties of gems and flowers, detailed (yet non-codified) discussion of physical and mental illnesses, and a lengthy explanations of medieval occupations which adventurers may hire. There are rules for creating magical items, a dice-rolling list for mixing potions together, extensive tables for the powers of mighty magic items, and an incredibly cool list of the ways to destroy artifacts (to this day, discussion remains about just what a "humble ant" is and how its foot could crush an ancient relic.) It is 230 pages of tiny-fonted information.

(It also, after 45 years, still provides the single best explanation of the concept of hit points in a role-playing game that I have ever seen, and one I refer back to when trying to get players to understand why their warrior might sustain 10 attacks with a longsword while the commoner on the street dies after one stab of the dagger.)

Despite its age, copies can still be found for $25-35 in many places, although prices are slowly starting to creep up after all these years. If you can't afford this (and believe me, I understand), scans of the book are also available online in a number of places. Though it's not the same tactile experience as flipping through the book, you can still absorb this old, sometimes off the wall wisdom. Treat yourself, you deserve it.

[the-ufo]

A guide to creativity

A lot of people, especially beginners, struggle with being creative and coming up with new and innovative ideas. When you search online for how to be creative, it's tough to find a practical solution, something that will actually help you think creatively, and not just set the stage for you to do so.

I'll be focusing here on video games, since it's the medium I am most familiar with, but this can be applied to any form of art you want.

I think creativity is best described by the saying "think outside the box", and to do so, instead of randomly throwing ideas and hoping they will land outside of the box, you should try to understand what the box, or in this metaphor the usual trappings of the art form you're working with.

For this example lets use a 2D platformer games. Let's say that you want to create an innovative 2D platformer game, but can't think of any ideas to what would set you apart from the others. First thing you should do, is try understanding what the box is, and in this case, what are the constraints of almost every, if not all, 2D platformer games. In other words, write a list of what is common between almost all 2D platformer games.

TO BE CLEAR, i'm not talking about the neccecary ellements that makes a platformer game a platformer, but the things that almost always appear in these games. Our point is to find the rule to be able to think of exceptions, so don't think about exceptions with writing these. After you did it your list would probably look pretty short, probably like this:

Jumping

Platforms

You moving a character with the keyboard.

We could use this to move onto the next step, where we pick one of these words and subvert it.

For example, we can say "what if we made a platformer without jumping?" or "what if we made a platformer where you don't move the character?" And This is a great start, but if the "box" is defined with so little words, even tough it gives you a lot of opportunity for exploration, it only really give you a vague direction to where "outside of the box" is, and you still need to do a lot of thinking creatively yourself.

So for a beginner with, someone who need a more strict direction, it would be best if you try to include in your list as much as possible, and everything that is typically in a 2D platformer should be there. This is still not an easy task, you need to understand the medium you're working in pretty good, and pay attention to things that almost always get under the radar.

Here is a list of everything I found is commonly in the mechanics of platformer games:

jump arc- the jump activates when you press its button on the ground and always follows an arc that first goes up, eases in and out at the peak and then goes down.

basic movement is controlled with right and left that move along the x axis

health - the player usually has a relatively low amount of health that gets reduced by one each time they perform an undesirable act such as falling, hitting an enemy or touching obstacles the health does not affect the player unless it reaches 0

death - when the health of the player reach 0 they are set back to a previous point and need to redo some actions

checkpoints - set points in the level that save the players progress which they are sent back to upon dying

platforms - objects in the level that the player can't pass through, and refresh the jump when stood on

obstacles - objects in the level that the player can't pass through and damage the player apon impact

enemies - obstacles that have some sort of movement pattern, or create objects that move in attempt to impede your progress

gravity - a constant force downwards that forces the player to stand on platforms to not fall

collectables - items throughout the level which are collected upon touching, usually can be traded for upgrades

goal - the goal is most of the time to simply arrive at a certain destination, usually found in the end of the level

Once you understand how restricting all these limitations are on the standard platformer, it becomes incredibly easy to just change, remove or subvert some of these "rules" and come up with a unique twist.

So let's try it! let's take a random "rule" and change it!

Lets for example take the jump. Like I wrote, every platformer jump goes up, eases in and out and then goes down, so what if we just change its arc to down, up and then down? Will it make for an interesting game? There might be something there, but i would rather try another idea...

Let's try the platforms, they are always solid objects, so what if we just remove their collision? Now we have an area that refreshes the players jump like a platform, but still allows the player to fall. So pretty much, we got an infinite jump zone! This might have been done before, but it can be a fun gimmick for a level. let's move on to the next.

Well... Enemies usually impede your progress, so what if we make them helpful instead? In this case what we would get is creatures or people that try to help you through the level! For me that sounds like a really cool idea!

What if we made the character not move through keys, but with the mouse? What if made the collectables not be collected when touched but when they reach a certain place, so you need to carry them around? What if we removed gravity, and the player needed to find their way to the floor to refresh their jump? What if we change the goal to survive some amount of time?

With this process it's much easier to think out of the box, and figure out what have been done before, and what haven't.

Obviously, coming up only with ideas for a certain genre will be limiting, and eventually youll have a hard time coming up with new ideas. you should try this approach on many genres and combine the ideas you come up with, and maybe even take a single game with a unique mechanic and write this mechanics components like this.

It should be said though, not every change will be successful or unique. Some changes or removals will result in something that has already been done, something that barely changes the formula or something that simply doesn't work. You still need to apply logic to the ideas you think of, and think for yourself if they are interesting, unique or good at all.

Most of your ideas from here will still probably won't be that amazing, but what this approach allows you to do is start generating ideas. Your job after it is to dig through them and pick the ones you want.

If you're reading this, thank you so much for taking the time to read my rambling; I really appreciate it. And lastly, if you have anything you would like to ask or add, I would love it if you did.

[profoundangelqueen]

The Best Advice You Could Ever Get About new world gold

7 Solutions to the Most Frequently Asked Questions About new world gold

WOTLK Typical GOLD

Introduction:

WotLK Typical Gold is the most crucial currency from the Wow Classic: Wrath of the Lich King, it can be named Wrath Common Gold or Wotlk Basic Gold or WOW Vintage WotLK Gold.

Who is the most reputable WOTLK Gold seller?

With Just about every expansion in the first WoW, the new world gold sport In general was turning into less difficult, and so would be the gold farming system way too. Nonetheless, Wrath in the Lich King continues to be regarded as one among the hardest regarding gold creating, and whilst it is a little bit simpler to generate profits On this enlargement, it even now would need a while.

In order to be more robust and level up just one action forward of Other folks in WOW WOTLK Basic, I feel it is essential to decide on a fantastic occupation and method, but the greater important factor is WOTLK Common Gold. Gold is An important useful resource in this sort, and Additionally it is a very important microcosm from the financial system in the game. Since the First WOTLK, Gold has mostly determined players’ game progress and ability to encounter strong enemies.

But For anyone who is in a very problem where you have to have WOTLK Common Gold urgently in a short time, the best way is to order WOTLK Vintage Gold from a third-party match support provider, and through my own working experience, MMOPIXEL is completely remarkable Amongst the many stores that promote WOTLK Vintage Gold in the market. They do every thing a hundred% Safe and sound, make sure players obtain the products inside the shortest time, and they may have 24/seven on the web customer guidance assistance.

How to buy Wotlk gold on MMOPIXEL?

There is a very simple process you would need to abide by to buy WOTLK gold on MMOPIXEL:

SELECTING THE Supply

Basically you need to select the offer you that is certainly practical and available to you personally within the specified server.

Click on into the include to cart . so that the provide is becoming picked.

Put THE ORDER

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/G40CsLh5LBw/hqdefault_176800.jpg

Now place the purchase by deciding upon the server after which you can the amount that you are wishing to obtain.

Click to pay now.

Picking THE DELIVERY METHOD

- Now after this you have to choose the delivery means of your preference and advantage . and this will count on the strategy you might pick out , the website may check with you many questions determined by their facts requirements.

FILL THE INFORMATION FORM

You will have to now fill the data you will be redirected to using your Call information.

Pick out THE PAYMENT Strategy:

Pick the payment approach and commence your cart to checkout.

The amount gold need to I've going into WotLK Typical?

This kinda relies upon how fast you believe you can expect to burn up by way of anything. I'd advise a minimum of 2k per character you plan on participating in in stage one. This tends to cover duel spec + chilly temperature flying. You'll get gold for skills just by questing much more then most likely.

How MMOPIXEL shipping and delivery technique works?

The gold is sent through 3 principal procedures .

Auction household trade technique

In game mail

Head to head trade .

AUCTION Residence :

In auction house they may request you some concerns using your character identify and product name.

Length OF AUCTION

The period of auction room is most likely 24 several hours.

All facts is collected for Harmless transactions .

You may full your transaction by the next techniques:

Opt for auctions .

Decide on the item to the cart.

Set time duration to max 24 hrs.

Choose the buyout selling price .

Then pick the option of making an auction .

IN Sport MAIL DELIVERY Strategy:

In this technique you'll be requested some thoughts like your character identify . After you have entered your character title , find the solution with get now . so your system is concluded .

Your gold will probably be gained to you personally by using mail.

Nose to nose TRADE :

In this technique the supplier will produce the gold for you head to head in the sport .

Can it be necessary to prepare WOW WOTLK Common Gold upfront?

Certainly,obviously! To be able to struggle the undead Scourge led because of the Lich King and in the end defeat the Lich King himself With this icy continent, There's a good deal you'll want to do. By way of example, get far more WOW WOTLK Gold to create the character solid more than enough.Since the gold supports the in-match financial system, its benefit is acknowledged by all gamers. What this means is You need to use gold to order equipment from other players when you need to acquire more powerful, for example weapons, armour, and shields with bigger merchandise ranges. It's also possible to use gold to hire some far more Skilled players to fight together with you Should the forthcoming enemy needs a strong group to beat.

Is Boosting for gold permitted in WoW?

Providing in-match products and solutions including carries or boosting for genuine cash is not permitted. Businesses who offer you boosting, matchmaking, escrow, or other non-common companies, such as Individuals available for gold are prohibited, Primarily individuals that work across a number of realms.

Can it be an excellent option to acquire WOW WOTLK GOLD on the web?

Certainly! Time saver, if you work a whole lot and don't want to spend a lot more of your spare time on World of Warcraft, You should purchase some gold, have fun, and keep up with your mates and guild. Equip your character with the most recent equipment with no sacrificing your other passions.

In that circumstance, quite a few gold websites genuinely add income to some deserving charity brings about. If you are a brand new player or simply just want to present your character a head begin, purchasing WoW WOTLK Gold and working with it to invest in top quality machines and speedily advance in degree is an excellent possibility.

How can I buy far more WOW WOTLK GOLD with a lot less income ?

There are numerous Internet websites offering WOW WOTLK Gold, you can search. But you should pay attention to the security of your account, there are lots of phishing Web-sites on the web site.

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[letapollojusticesayfuck]

today i have spent far too much time thinking about aa characters' coffee mug collections (both at home and at work)

-Phoenix: Phoenix Wright owns maybe five or six coffee mugs mostly because this means that he does not have to clean them immediately and can go about a week before he really, actually has to do the dishes. The one thing these mugs have in common is that they are all chipped. All of them are at least five years old--there's an Ivy University mug, a couple plain-colored ones from the thrift store, and a cheap Steel Samurai mug that Maya bought

-Apollo: Apollo is the epitome of the intersection between "will attend university events for free stuff" and "only keeps what's functional." He's got a fairly curated mug collection that also includes a few travel mugs and thermoses, mostly branded with logos from clubs/organizations he didn't actually participate in. He probably still has a Gavin Law Offices mug somewhere, which he feels very conflicted about keeping but it's functional and it's not like he didn't work there and really would it be weirder to give it away to a thrift store where someone who didn't know would buy it?

-Trucy: Trucy's mug collection (separate from Phoenix's, at least at first) includes a variety of trick cups and also the most brightly-colored magic-themed mugs she can find. She has a handful with truly awful puns and slogans in comic sans on them. These are all mostly used for drinking hot chocolate.

Athena: Athena doesn't really have a mug collection--she's got three coffee mugs and a travel thermos. One of the mugs is bright yellow with a quote about positivity scrawled across it, one of them has a print of sunflowers, and one of them has some sort of awful psychology joke on it that she's the only person that understands.

The Wright Agency: The Agency's mug collection is an unwieldy representation of the office's many occupants. There are a couple old Fey and Co. mugs still lingering; there's a series of comedy mugs Maya keeps buying Phoenix with increasingly specific phrasing ('World's Okayest Piano Player,' 'Dad to a SUPER AMAZING magician daughter who KNOWS WHEN YOU'RE LYING'); there's about five old Gavinners merch mugs that Klavier keeps leaving behind whenever he visits; there's at least one trick mug that will dump your coffee on your lap if you overfill it; and there's one single, solitary fine china teacup that lives on a high shelf and doesn't get touched except for when the Chief Prosecutor visits.

Edgeworth: Miles Edgeworth has a matching set of fine Wedgwood teacups, saucers, and teapots. He has a distinct set for the office vs his home. Anyone who visits his office lives in fear of breaking them.

Klavier: In addition to just using his own merch (look, I fully believe that whenever Klavier needed a new household item he'd just pester the Gavinners merch people to make him a personalized, themed version. they would sell this as "merch" but really it only exists because Klavier wanted a new shower curtain or toaster or something), Klavier has a series of mugs with absolutely awful legal jokes on them. He also has a basic four-piece mug set in deep purple for any occasion where he needs to be Professional, but these are shoved to the back of the cupboard because he usually reaches for the novelty mugs before anything else. Klavier also has a variety of shapes/sizes of mug for lattes/cappuccinos/espresso/etc because he has a super fancy espresso machine at home.

Blackquill: He's got both anime mugs and a series of bird-themed mugs that he got in return for recurring yearly donations to the Audubon Society (bird conservation)

The Prosecutors' Office: The office has its own branded mugs for the breakroom. Unfortunately they keep getting stolen and/or lost, and the prosecutors continue to leave their own personal mugs in the common area, slightly ruining the professional aesthetic that's being aimed for

[myc-ology-whore]

If you want request, maybe andre playing video games w/ his s/o and it's all playful and fluffy ans cute!!! Or just them relaxing together and stuff it would be really adorable

of course! thanks for the ask <3

below the cut to conserve space, this is sfw :)

honestly i think he's definitely the most into video games out of The Gang, followed by myc and then gigi, so this would probably be pretty common with him! i personally think he'd be more into single-player adventure games like Skyrim and Fallout, but when he gets into a relationship with someone, he just really wants to introduce them to the things he likes, so even though he definitely had a few multiplayer games already, he'd go out of his way to buy more so that the two of you could play together.

he absolutely sucks at racing games; it is not hard to beat him in things like Sonic or Crash Team Racing. he's okay losing for a little bit, but before long he'll probably get pissed and suggest you play something else. don't worry if you really like racing games, he just needs to play something different for a bit before he goes back to getting his ass beat by curves in the tracks.

if he's had a long day, he likes to play comfort games like Minecraft or Subnautica, games where he can just explore and build and collect things. if you sit behind him and give him a little shoulder rub while he's playing, he'll practically start to melt into you, his eyes getting droopy and the game being forgotten as he just lets himself lean back into your thighs and relax.

fighting games are really where it's at for him if he has to play with someone else. i headcanon that he had two or three siblings growing up, and they were a lot more accepting of him than his parents when they found out about his sexuality (it's clear in the show that he likes people of all orientations, and i doubt his Hardcore-Christian Korean Parents really appreciated that). he'd play Mortal Kombat all the time with his siblings when he was younger, all of them taking turns fighting each other, so he got pretty skilled at it. it's also super nostalgic for him, so if you ask to play something with him, that's almost always one of the first options he throws out there. he's one of those freaks that has literally every character's combos memorized, so there's pretty much no chance of you winning unless A) he lets you, or B) you're ALSO that big of a fanatic over the MK franchise.

he always goes easy on you in any PvP games if you're new to the game, and goes out of his way to go slow and explain things if you need help. he really wants you to enjoy the games that he likes, so he wants your experience with them to be as fun and easy as possible. don't get cocky, though; if you start getting smug about beating him in something he's good at, you'll eat those words faster than you can press "X."

overall, he loves playing with you after work; it's one of his favourite ways to wind down. he also loves games with extensive lore, like the aforementioned Skyrim and Fallout, and if you'll let him, he'd love to give you a whole history lesson on those series. i'd say to indulge in him; watching his face light up as he rambles on and on about his favourite games, seeing that sparkle of excitement in his eyes at getting to share his interests with you, it's more than worth sitting through a whole presentation's worth of information on a fictional world.

thanks for this ask, it was really fun to write! i hope you like it <3

[my-name-is-dre]

Mettaton is a False Prophet [OLD THEORY]

To start things off and make sure we have a reference, we need to list off the eerie yet superficial similarities between Mettaton and Asriel:

They both have multiple forms, with Mettaton having his normal form at the beginning, his EX form during his fight, and his NEO form in the No Mercy run. Asriel has his flower form throughout most of the game, his child form at the end of the True Pacifist run, and his “God of Hyperdeath” form also at the end of the True Pacifist run.

This is a minor detail, but they both possess the power to change the application’s name, with Mettaton turning it to “Undertale The Musical” during the track Oh! One True Love and Flowey turning it into “Floweytale” during his boss fight at the end of a neutral run. With the ability to change meta elements like this being traditionally associated with possessing determination in fan theories, we can conclude that there’s a case of overlap here. Another minor detail is that they’re the only two characters who can audibly speak, with Flowey’s creepy “that’s a wonderful idea!” and Mettaton’s famous “oh yes!”

One big similarity is that they’re both products of Alphys, with Mettaton being an attempt to purposefully enfuse a monster soul into an inanimate robot initially with the purpose of being efficient at killing humans, while Flowey was an incident caused by injecting determination into an inanimate object that had the remnants of a monster soul within it.

This is a bit of a stretch, but both characters are artificially inserted into your journey in an attempt to please an ulterior motive, with Flowey enacting his agency at the level equivalent of a player to toy with the same experiences and reconnect with whom he believes to be Chara while Mettaton was conscripted by Alphys to set up an elaborate stage play where she can rescue from him to feel better about herself, acting only at the level of agency as a monster.

The biggest emotional similarity is that both possess a mournful attitude towards a lost sibling, with Asriel on an endless quest of ironic spite against Chara for severing their old friendship by dying while Mettaton leaves Napstablook behind to pursue hedonistic dreams of fame and beauty, destroying the potential they had as a performance duo. Both rectify the holes these relationships left in them, with Asriel destroying the very thing that led to Chara’s death and Mettaton humbling himself reconnecting with Napstablook.

Goal-wise, they both obsess over humans but for very different reasons: Asriel has an obsession with only one human, and the reasons for this are very deep-seated and personal. Mettaton’s obsession however is more vain and is concerned with growing his audience beyond the borders of the Underground and being seen as a sort of vanguard for monsterkind among humanity. Or more insidiously, he feels as if he can assimilate into them. Both seek a form of transcendence that comes with obtaining a human soul: Asriel, as Flowey, seeks one so he can restore a bit of what he lost when he became a flower. Mettaton wants one again for vain reasons; those being to deprive Asgore of the opportunity and claim the title of the “Savior of the Underground” to himself.

Despite this being the most superficial similarity, it’s likely the most important: Both of their ‘ultimate’ forms—Mettaton NEO and God of Hyperdeath—have some interesting similarities between their designs. The most obvious is that they have these large wings jutting out, with Asriel’s having intricate color patterns while Mettaton’s flash between a brighter and darker shade of grey. Other similarities include excessively large shoulder blades and heart patterns on the chest area that are also shared with Undyne the Undying, indicating that this design motif is a trend among all major bosses considered to possess determination. Finally, this form also vaguely resembles the Delta Rune symbol, which I will elaborate on what they mean later. Despite all of this, it’s mainly the wings that are the contentious point of comparison, which I’ll get into later.

Lastly, they both seek a form of integration outside of themselves, with Asriel seeking once again the fusion of their soul with Chara’s, while Mettaton seeks total unification of their soul with their new body, and this is represented in the designs of their ultimate forms, with Mettaton’s ensignia featuring two hearts (one empty and one a monster soul) opposing each other, while Asriel’s features an empty soul within another empty soul. This is likely a metaphor that, despite all of the power he possesses, he’s still empty because he doesn’t have his friend with him. Conversely, this can apply to how Mettaton, despite achieving everything he basically dreamed of (as written in his diaries), feels empty because he abandoned Napstablook.

We’re finally done with comparisons to lay down the evidence for the main point. Now, we’ll get onto the Deltarune prophecy and what it means:

As most of you probably know, the Delta Rune is an emblem that represents the Kingdom of Monsters and is seen on the garments of every Boss Monster. In Waterfall, there are glyphs that describe a prophecy: “The Angel… The One Who Has Seen The Surface… They will return. And the underground will go empty.” If you ask Gerson to elaborate on what this means, he says that some monsters believe that this refers to a bleaker outlook: That the angel prophesied is actually a harbinger of death, and that this freedom actually refers to death.

If you connect the dots, you end up with two conflictingly obvious solutions: The first is that the player is the prophesied angel who appropriately fits both outlooks, being able to destroy the barrier and free monsterkind or free them mortally by attempting to slaughter all of them. However, another conclusion that can be drawn is that the angel prophesied is actually Asriel, and that you’re merely a vessel for his unwitting divine plan. While both are valid interpretations, the second is far more relevant to my point.

Also mentioned in those glyphs is the fact that not a single human soul was taken in the war between humans and monsters, alongside this is the missed opportunity to uncover that one can achieve godhood if they combine a human and monster’s souls. This implies a type of dualism as to whether or not the angel symbolizes the player or Asriel, as it’s more accurate to say that both the player and Asriel—the fusion of their souls—is the angel. This makes sense in both the contexts of the True Pacifist and No Mercy runs (and technically neutral), as both are attempts by Asriel to integrate with Chara again, with the former favoring Asriel’s determination while the latter favoring the player’s.

Now, what if I told you that Mettaton’s character in the story is his attempt to fulfill this prophecy artificially, thus making a false prophet of himself?

It seems hard to believe at first, but considering all the weird similarities between the staging and capabilities of both Asriel and Mettaton, it seems to imply that there’s some similarities between them in the context of the fate of monsterkind. Not only is it common knowledge among all monsters to speak of the prophecy, we also know Mettaton grew up in Waterfall alongside Napstablook and Shyren, meaning that this prophecy could’ve had more meaning to him specifically.

Now, it’s unknown whether or not the intentions to save monsterkind came about because of his hubris or because they were suggested to him by some higher command like Asgore, but considering that he states directly that he wants to kill you to prevent Asgore from taking your soul, it implies that Mettaton’s attempt at fulfilling the Delta Rune prophecy is entirely selfish.

One point of evidence in the camp that Mettaton was intentionally made to fulfill the Delta Rune prophecy is that Mettaton was made to impress Asgore according to Catty and Bratty. If this is true, then his position as a celebrity implies that he was made to be a beacon of hope that could be predictably grown and made to accomplish a purpose that fulfilled everyone’s collective desire. But the hair covering his right eye and its further concealment in his NEO form tells that, if he was created to fulfill the prophecy, then he wasn’t finished for this task and still required further tinkering from Alphys.

It may be entirely coincidental that Mettaton’s motivations as a character parallel and complement Asriel’s, but I find that hard to believe especially given the similarities of being separated from a lost sibling, seeking an integration of souls that’ll grant extraordinary power to embrace humanity to a degree, and possessing soulless objects. What I think really drives it home for me is the similarities between Mettaton NEO and the God of Hyperdeath, both of which are depicted as being angelic with prominent wings, which I’ll go on record to state are the only two boss fights in the game that feature wings prominently.

If Asriel is fulfilled as the angel of death, then the depiction of Mettaton NEO is given a newfound authenticity as he serves as the image of a guardian angel meant to stop you in a place where there is nobody to onlook, forcing him to act in authentic spirit. He now has the duty of protecting both monsterkind and humankind from you, even if he utterly fails at it.

One thing that’s hard to answer is how Mettaton is able to perform actions that imply metatextual awareness of the game and other similar actions Flowey does despite never being implied or hinted at possessing determination. Does this imply that, like Flowey, the process of integrating monster souls into inanimate objects grants them some form of determination? If so, it would grant greater proof as to why Mettaton has such a vested interest in fulfilling the Delta Rune prophecy beyond merely hearing about it. Yet, we know from the True Lab logs that Flowey was injected with determination while there’s no such implication that the same was done with Mettaton. However, we can gather from Napstablook being able to avoid being absorbed into Flowey as he transforms into Asriel that ghosts, as a type of monster, are seemingly immune to things other monsters aren’t. Perhaps this implies that they have metatextual powers like monsters with determination?

Now, here comes the really fun (and fortunately last) part where I draw parallels between these characters and the real-world mythology that may have inspired them:

Now, it’s a factoid among some that Asriel’s name may be inspired by Azrael, who is described as the angel of death in Judaism and Islam, and as part of that title, he separated souls from their bodies. His appearance has been described as being cosmically large, having an insurmountable amount of wings, and possessing a body formed of an amount of eyes and tongues representing every human being. Right away, we can see parallels to the God of Hyperdeath, who also has very large wings that appear to project a cosmic pattern within them. While its appearance may not correspond literally, he is a being composed of every human and monster soul in the Underground, eerily matching the description. Not to mention that Asriel absorbed Chara’s soul into them, equivalent to Azrael’s job of severing souls from their bodies.

Another factoid is that Metaton’s name is possibly inspired by Metatron, another angel of Judaism that, unlike Azrael, isn’t found in the Tanakh but is mentioned briefly in the Talmud. He has a similar job to Azrael in that he records the sins and merits of men, similar to how Azrael was able to see which names were blessed or damned. However, Metatron holds an even more lofty title in Kabbalistic mysticism as God’s mediator between men, being described as one “whose name is like that of his master”, even going as far as to be called “the lesser YHWH.” This is obviously a heretical dualistic proclivity in an otherwise monotheistic Judaism. Further, Metatron is related to Enoch, being described in Jewish apocrypha as the name Metatron used to have before he was transformed into an angel. Now, for all of that backstory, it parallels to Mettaton specifically in transformation: It seems as if Mettaton’s obsession with human reciprocation and the very humanoid appearance of his EX form imply that he wants to integrate into humanity similar to how Enoch entered angeldom.

The hot topic is whether or not Metatron’s power compared to that of God given the texts stating he was a secondary power in heaven with YHWH, but the answer most Rabbinistic scholars give is that he obviously wasn’t despite that it was written that all other angels bowed before him. However, this idea of there being dual power in Heaven is what later laid the groundwork for understanding the nature of Christ in Christianity. But in most Jewish sects, this doesn’t fly and is seen as a dualistic heresy, implying that there’s a falseness to Metatron’s power. Just like how there is a falseness to Mettaton’s power and intentions in all runs of the game. Another neat thing to note is that, as part of accepting Metatron as a real angel, one believes that any time a human believes God has directly spoken to them, it’s actually Metatron acting as his vessel. Perhaps this is parallel with how Mettaton is the voice of the Underground and it’s desire to be free despite himself possessing relatively lacking power?

The angel required a fusion of both a monster and human soul, and while Mettaton is the fusion between a monster soul and a soulless object akin to Flowey, it wasn’t enough to fulfill the role of the angel, falling short of his lofty dreams of being a savior. However, this disillusionment isn’t cruel, especially when you spare Mettaton and he receives a call from Napstablook (implied) that reminds him of his importance to monsterkind, making him reconsider his lofty ambitions to appeal to humanity. This is telling Mettaton that he is not a mediator between monster and humankind that he thought of himself as, for he never had the ability to combine both human and monster soul like Asriel. Perhaps he had the determination to be able to foresee the realization of the prophecy but not enough to put it into effect?

That’s just about everything I have to potentially support this theory, including referents to Jewish mythology. I firmly believe that Mettaton’s presence in the story was to serve as a false prophet to fulfill the prophecy of the Delta Rune, and that explains why his character and origin is so similar to that of Flowey.

[itsnothingofinterest]

So with the end supposedly approaching (relatively speaking), people have started giving some thought as to who the final threat is really going to be; Tomura Shigaraki or All For One. It’ll definitely be one of them, they’re the strongest and most established villains by a mile; but both have their own reasons for people to think they’ll be the “final boss” of the series. And far be it from me to keep my opinion to myself; I really think it’s going to be Tomura.

I’m not sure if that’s some level of controversial among the fans hoping for Shigaraki’s redemption, as I do believe the alternative’s gotten a lot of traction lately. Because understand that I’m still expecting his redemption too, and don’t expect his hypothetical final boss status to really prevent that. (Practically nothing can, it’s as much a guaranteed outcome at this point as Deku getting his sixth bonus quirk.) Realistically, the only difference would be if he & Deku then team up to fight the evil potato head, or to...just start fixing stuff I guess.

On that note, the eventual redemption is actually one of the reasons I think he’s the better choice. Almost every point of comparison between the two villain I can think of makes Tomura seem like the better choice, actually...with maybe one or two exceptions. So I wanted to go over all those points of comparison & everything they’ve got going for them as endgame villains and why the comperrisons overall seem to favour Tomura as the final boss.

1. Someone who was defeated to the power of just one man

For one, just looking at pure power levels, AFO’s just not as threatening as Tomura; and there’s not really a way to bridge that gap.

Like, Tomura’s obviously more of a threat personally; he’s got the stronger body that was scientifically enhanced, and only he has Decay on top of the AFO quirk and the collection that came with it. It is just a fact that right now, Tomura is far more powerful. And before anyone thinks that AFO could become an equal threat by just taking over & fighting in his body; that’s not true because, along with just more combat experience that doesn’t rely on an arsenal of quirks, Tomura also has that Shimura trick where you remember your origin and become super bad ass. You know, the trick that All Might used to beat AFO in Kamino. In other words, the most dangerous individual in the series right now is the AFO!Tomura body with specifically Tomura in control.

And as long as the slight edge in mentality in Tomura’s favour exists, there’s not really a way to bridge that gap and have AFO take Tomura’s place as the biggest potential threat. Restore or enhance AFO’s original body? That’s just catching it up with AFO in Tomura’s body, which is still behind Tomura in Tomura’s body. Have AFO boost Tomura’s body with him in control? It would still be better with Tomura in control. There’s no scenario where Tomura isn’t the most powerful character in BNHA.

(Well, except maybe AFO weakening him by, say, stripping him of his quirks; but if he has to make things easier for the heroes to become the most powerful, I think that kind of proves my point anyway.)

But one person can only be so dangerous, so lets talk followers. Tomura has a close knit group of friends & allies on top of a vast army super loyal to him specifically that reaches a six digit figure, and AFO...just doesn’t. And I’ll get back to this later; but I don’t think he wants one either. He sticks to just a handful of people useful to him and what’s left of his Nomu. And while maybe that is the better way for him to accomplish his own personal goals, it’s simply not as threatening as the force which Hawks thought could’ve conquered the country if the heroes hadn’t struck first.

Tomura is a country ending threat, who in the right circumstances could fight literally all of the heroes with a chance of winning, and AFO simply isn’t.

2. His own little world

And to return to what I was talking about earlier, I’m not sure he really cares to be either. Like, people say he wants to conquer everything, and I imagine he’d think regaining lots of money & power would be great down the line; but evidence seems to suggest he doesn’t really care much for the country as a whole or any of the major themes being discussed by the actual main characters at the moment.

I mean if he did, he’d probably have rescued the PLF, that army capable of competing with all of hero society. And he probably wouldn’t have told ~10,000 dangerous and powerful villains indebted to him for their freedom to just run amok while he keeps contact with only the ones useful for his personal goals. And he definitively wouldn’t be laying low & sleeping through his enemies lowest moment & giving them a month to recover, also in service to those personal goals. That activity seems to imply those personal goals matter a whole lot more to him than societal conquest.

And what are those goals? Seemingly, taking over Tomura’s body so he can finally steal One For All. To what end, we’re not 100% sure of, but I believe it’s either a) a weird pride thing where he finally has control over his brother who’s rebelled against him for decades upon decades or b) an attempt at immortality as a sentient & transferable body-controlling quirk. Either way it’s some selfish personal thing he just gets others wrapped up in.

He’s incredibly disconnected from the greater themes and conflicts of the story. He seems to have no opinions on heroics besides how people are stupid for attempting them, and no opinion on society besides that it just naturally sucks. He’s mainly just a nuisance for the actual main characters. This self-important old man stuck in his own little world is supposed to be Deku’s final opponent?

Oh, and on that note-

3. Deku who?

We’re also talking about who’s going to be the final obstacle for Deku to face; and the problem with the being AFO is that...they don’t really have much to bounce off of with each other. You might be able to argue slight foil-ment, but they don’t really know each other, nor do they have any kind of connection to each other besides Deku having OFA so he’s AFO’s enemy by default.

(In fact their latest & 2nd convo, which came out as I was drafting this post out, kind of proves that with how AFO basically just shallowly made fun of him for trying to be a hero. That’s basically the extent of their antagonism.)

In fact, I’m like 80% sure this is a major reason for the Dad For One theory existing; just to give them some connection, something to talk about. Because otherwise AFO is just an evil guy known by people Deku knows/wants to save. He’s basically just another, more dangerous Overhaul; who Deku's already fought. And to AFO, Deku’s just another OFA holder acting all high & mighty; which we also already saw him face in the Kamino fight. So what little they do offer each other has already been done for both of them. And there’s nothing wrong with that for carrying a fight, I just wonder if that can really carry the final fight.

Compare that to Shigaraki, who foils Deku in ways so numerous & obvious it’s almost hard to talk about, such as: their position as successors, strategic thinkers, very similar origins, very similar core characters, team players, red shoes, they looked really similar as kids...just to name a few parallels. Contrasting AFO, there is a lot to work with here that would contributed to a good fight that’d double as a battle of ideologies. And admittedly, we know this because it already has, this is also something we’ve seen before; but there’s a lot more unexplored with their conflict, a lot left unsaid that we could see from them arguing their viewpoints. A lot more than from Deku & AFO anyway.

I mean for Pete’s sake; All Might & Shigaraki have more in common and more to talk about than Deku & AFO. That’s a major problem if those two are meant to carry the final battle; which is why I don’t think they are.

4. Just punch him

There’s also the fact that AFO doesn’t really challenge Deku in any real way; and I’m not just talking about how All Might solo-ing him (twice) should logically mean endgame Deku should also be able to solo him. I’m more talking about how...that’s kind of all he’d need to do. If you can just beat AFO up enough then...that’s it, threat over. Wrapped up in a neat little bow.

To compare, Shigaraki is the greatest threat the heroes have ever faced, the victim most in need of saving, and to top it off, he’s got the gall to be both of those things at once. What’s a hero supposed to do with that? That’s a serious question characters are going to have to think about when deciding how to deal with Shigaraki. His position is that of, not just the greatest challenge, but a set of the greatest challenges a hero could face. And that’s before you get into his side representing those oppressed by serious systemic issues that need to be addressed as well; quite possibly simultaneously.

No one needs to address systemic corruption or prejudice to beat AFO though. They just need to punch him real hard. The biggest challenge AFO presents the heroes is “how do we make sure this guy stops being a problem for good when neither our most secure prison, nor removing his head, did the job?”

(Personally, my answer is to have Tomura do it. Because unlike Deku, Tomura actually does have a proper antagonistic relationship with AFO, so he has reason to be the one to end him besides just being the protagonist. Plus he’s under no obligation not to kill, so there’s that.)

And like yeah, that does make AFO the easier guy to deal with, and thus write an ending around (to say nothing of how he's also the most satisfying person to see punched in the face); but does that really mean Horikoshi would want to use him instead of the more interesting option of Tomura? I mean I guess we can’t be sure, there is merit in writing the easy resolution; but I’d prefer the complex finale if I were in his shoes.

5. Horikoshi’s favourite

And lastly there’s just the issue of which of the two Horikoshi’s put more work into. Spoiler alert: it’s not the guy that spent like 200 chapters in jail being menacing every one in a while.

Tomura is by far the more developed between the two, having constantly evolved over the course of the series. And more than just as a character, as described above he’s been developed as the more threatening and challenging conflict for Deku while also reflecting him in a lot of important ways. We’ve seen the growth of his power & influence, we’ve gotten to know & understand his motives, we’ve seen how he’s been failed by heroes before. Everything about him has built him up as the ultimate villain, the most desperate victim, and overall greatest challenge for Deku and the story as a whole to face.

And AFO is...nearly one of those things. Which is pretty much what he was from his first appearance. He has not developed at all over the series, and from what we can tell from his flashbacks, he hasn’t developed at all over the past ~200 years either. (I’m half tempted to call him more inciting incident then character.) What we have with AFO, as far as a character and a villain goes, is pretty much what we’re getting until he’s done. And, well; if Tomura is a better villain & a better pick for final boss than he was then, that gap’s just going to keep growing.

Like, I doubt it really needs stating how Shigaraki is probably the character Horikoshi has put the most work into in the entire series. And a lot of that work, a lot of his development, has gone to the idea of him surpassing AFO or being a villain foil to Deku, who himself is mean to surpass All Might. For his roll to be usurped by the guy he’s meant to surpass just feels like it’s going against that. Like, it’d feel almost as wrong for his character and the story around him than it would for Deku is All Might got his powers back and took over for him as main protagonist. It just doesn’t feel right for Tomura not to be the final villain, is what I’m getting at.

6. ...One saving grace

Okay, but I will admit one thing AFO has going for him that I would be remiss not to bring up. Besides being the most hated character in a series that also has Endeavor in it, I mean. He’s got this one trait that makes him an effective antagonist to anyone in the series; his complete disregard to pretty much every major theme in the series.

I mean think about it; the major themes of Shigaraki’s circle all revolve around trying to fix the society that rejected them; but AFO believes Society just naturally sucks that way as part of human nature, so their cause is doomed. And the heroes’ major themes all revolve around how to become/what it means to be a hero; but AFO believes trying to do good in that society can’t really be done & also it’s ridiculous to believe comic books are real, so their cause is also doomed and they look stupid doing it. So despite not really interacting with anyone’s core conflict or goals in favour of wrapping them up in his own, he still manages a one-sided ideological opposition with nearly every major player in the series; and that’s not nothing.

But, and I completely understand that this is just a matter of opinion, that kind of just leaves him feeling to me like a good antagonist, not a good final antagonist. I’d still prefer it be Tomura even from this perspective, because he’s able to oppose the ideologies of his opponents on purpose & with proper ideologies of his own.

To summarize:

Shigaraki feels the better choice for final boss because he’s more threatening, more interesting, both as a person and as an opponent for Deku specifically, he’s far more directly tied into the themes of the story and their resolution, & he’s had far more set up. AFO is more hated, and his callous disregard for everything everyone else holds important is something I guess, but that’s pretty much all he’s got going for him in compression. I don’t know about you, but I know who I think would carry the conclusion to the series better.

But I also know this isn’t the most popular take among my villain fan colleagues right now. So if anyone disagrees, I welcome any civil discussion about these two & their viability as final boss.

[kuiperblog]

Deathloop sure is a video game

Every October, there's pop-up entertainment venues like "haunted houses" (or other haunted attractions) that attempt to artificially recreate the motifs common in horror movies, complete with live actors who are dressed as vampires or zombies or serial killers or whatever who leap out and scare the guests who squeal in delight, if only because it gives them an excuse to tightly cling to their partner.  It's more exciting than going to a horror movie, because it's a more tactile experience, so you're mostly just there to experience the various horror motifs without being concerned about a plot.

The thing is, there are actual horror movies that are set in haunted attractions.  And while this does make for some fun early reveals (like when the teenagers laugh at the knife-wielding man who they assume is an actor and part of the attraction, only to realize that he's actually a homicidal madman), the very idea of a horror movie set in a haunted house kind of feels like cheating.  Haunted attractions are, in a way, a simulacrum of a horror movie, which I suppose is an odd thing to say considering that haunted attractions are real and the events in horror movies are not, but I think that is the main level on which most haunted attractions are designed: a haunted attraction is a "horror movie IRL," so to then make that the setting of your horror movie “horror movie IRL but in a movie” is like a simulacrum of a simulacrum.  It’s shortcutting past the part where you would ordinarily come up with some kind of lore-based explanation for why the teenagers are hanging out in a creepy house and why there’s a demented killer or vampires or whatever who are trying to kill them.

I sort of feel this way about one of the first levels I played in Deathloop, which is a video game both in medium and form. It's a bit like Dishonored (one of Arkane's earlier titles) in the sense that the core objectives boil down to identifying an assassination target, and hunting them down in their mansion or laboratory or whatever.  The first target I assassinated was a fellow by the name of Charlie Montague, who is obsessed with games, and has populated a section of the world where you can speed-run an obstacle course to be rewarded with a gun, because this is a first-person shooter video game that is set on murder island, where everyone's favorite hobby is killing each other because they’re in a timeloop where everyone will revive the next day.  However, when I found Charlie Montague, he was in the middle of a LARP session.  This is literally how the game describes it: Charlie is hosting a game where he invites guests to participate in a game somewhat akin to a murder mystery, or maybe more like Among Us. When I arrived, Charlie announced over the loudspeaker to all of his guests that the killer monster (me) had arrived, and the objective was now for them to hunt me down.  (I, for my part, did my best to avoid the guests, but I had to gun down the entire party before finally getting to Charlie at the top floor.)

So, this is a video game level that felt very much like a video game level.  Which I don't really mean as a knock against it -- it was a fun environment, I had fun hunting down the game designer Charlie Montague and murdering his LARPing buddies, and the environment was set up in a way that made the confrontation with Charlie himself interesting, since Charlie possesses the blink power that lets him teleport across gaps and between floors.  But it kind of feels like cheating to have a video game level where the setting premise is, as explained by the game's fiction, literally a game created by a game designer (as opposed to trying to sell you on the idea that the level you're traipsing through is just some rich dude's mansion, or a military base, or whatever).  It is the video game equivalent of setting your horror movie in a haunted house attraction.

As an Arkane Studios fan (who started with 2006's Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, and counts Dishonored among my personal top 10 games of all time), I quite enjoyed Deathloop.  But it is by far the most video game video game that they've ever released.

Games like Dishonored and Prey (2017) exist in what is sometimes described as the "immersive sim" genre, where there's a big emphasis on player choice and giving the players a bunch of tools to approach objectives without giving them a prescribed route through the game.  Dishonored pushes you in the direction of being stealthy and quiet (with a "chaos" system that causes the world to become more desolate if you kill too many enemies in each level), but there are many routes through the levels -- and sometimes, you'll find your way to an objective through what feels like it isn't a prescribed "route" at all. The objectives are often quite simple -- "infiltrate, kill a dude, exfiltrate" -- but a level that could be completed in just a few minutes might take an hour to complete the first time you play it as you spend time scoping out the target, gradually getting a feel for the environment and learning which parts of the level have lots of enemies and which parts are safe and easy to stealth your way through.

The immersive sim's emphasis on carving your own way through levels leads to a phenomenon where a lot of the progression that you make is "meta" progression that exists entirely outside of your avatar -- you might spend an hour prowling around a level, and your character hasn't gotten any stronger (apart from maybe finding a few optional collectibles), but you as a player have "leveled up" to the point that you now know the level like the back of your hand, which is how you have people who spend hours exploring a level in Hitman so that they can do a perfect 5-minute speedrun of that level.

Sometimes, this sense of "meta-progression" is further emphasized by making some of the collectibles information that you as a player can store.  I remember a part in Dishonored where I found a locked safe, and I had to root around the game environment and find the code to the safe before I could come back and get the goodie inside.  But if I wanted to, I could write that number down so that on any subsequent playthrough, I could just go right to the safe and open it right away -- which feels a bit like cheating, but it's no less cheating than sprinting through a specific route through a level because I know from previous playthroughs that the path I'm taking has no guards.

Deathloop isn't quite like that: the game is filled with combinations and whatnot (in one "puzzle" I had to insert specifically-labeled tapes into a machine in a specific order), but all of these are generated randomly: you can't take that information with you across playthroughs, and you can't look the number up in a walkthrough like some older immersive sims would let you do. But Deathloop takes this meta progression and makes it actual progression: it's a time-loop story, and your character (Colt) remembers everything that he encounters across playthrough, so when you find the combination to a door, Colt will make a mental note of it (no need to bust out your pen and paper), and the next time you come to a locked door that requires that combination, you don't even have to punch in the numbers: just hold the triangle button on your Playstation controller and Colt will automatically punch in the numbers that he learned during an earlier loop.

Deathloop is full of little things like this that, on first glance, almost just feel like QoL improvements.  But there's something that feels very different about how things are done in Deathloop: in gameplay terms, it basically boils down to, "Go to this place and press square to read the password, then go to this other place and unlock the door," which is really not that different from "go to this place and press square to pick up the key, then go to this other place to unlock the door."  The "passwords" that exist throughout this game are basically just keys that Colt can store in his brain and take with him whenever you advance to the next loop.

And to be clear, that's not necessarily a *bad* thing.  In fact, immersive sims are kind of a niche genre that don't have a very big audience, so anything that helps streamline and make it more like, well, what you'd expect from a "video game," is probably going to make the game accessible to a lot more people.  And they streamline a *lot* in this game.  The game is all about planning the "perfect loop" where you manage to kill the 8 big baddies in a single day, and everything before that point is just preparing for that final loop.  Even though that seems like an abstract thing that might require you to hold a bunch of disparate information in your head, the game is actually *really* good at making it so that Colt is already mentally mapping out the game plan as you go, to the point where you can just go into the quest book, select a thread, and then just follow the waypoints.  Colt is planning for the "perfect loop" and collecting all the information he needs (including passwords, and memorizing information about how to get certain bosses to go to certain areas where they'll be vulnerable), and Colt is so good at remembering these things that the player never has to: you can play the entire game from start to finish just by traveling from waypoint to waypoint and stealthing or shooting your way past anything that stands in your way.

That is, of course, incredibly reductive.  The process of getting from point A to point B in Deathloop is fun for the same reason that getting from point A to point B is fun in any other game.  The guns feel good to shoot, the levels are interesting to navigate, and the game lets you earn the ability to take certain pieces of gear with you between loops so it always feels like there's forward progression.  But I think that there's a critical thing that's missing:

Immersive sims aren't just about getting from point A to point B.  Before you can get to point B, you have to discover where point B is.  *Where* in this mansion is the assassination target?  Better spend some time skulking around and listening to his staff gossip about his daily habits so you know which parts of the mansion he's likely to appear in.  Oh wait, I don't want to just get in the same room with this guy, I want to get myself in the same room with him *when he's not surrounded by his guards*.  How do I do that?  Better do some more snooping.  And in a sense, Deathloop *sort* of does this.  Before you can follow the waypoint objective marker to your target, you have to find out where they are.  But the "find out where they are" is often, "follow this *other* waypoint objective marker to find the slip of paper that tells you where they're going to be, at which point you can follow the waypoint objective marker to their exact location!"

And to be fair to Deathloop, it's not *all* like that.  There are some times where the game sort of just points you in the right direction and leaves you to figure it out, like one dude who has hosted a masquerade party where he and his guests are all wearing the same masks, and so you have to figure out a way to ferret him out.  (Or you can just murder everyone at the party to figure it out by process of elimination -- which is actually much easier said than done, because this is murder island and everybody is packing heat, and this is an exclusive party so his guests are the type of people who carry around heavy weapons.)

Another way that Deathloop takes the "meta progression" inherent to immersive sims and makes it explicit in-game progression is by having a time loop where you can encounter and kill the same targets over and over again.  That's the kind of thing that tends to happen in immersive sims across multiple playthroughs -- Hitman doesn't *require* you to play each level multiple times, but you generally want to, because each level is filled with tons of different routes to explore and different ways to deal with each of the targets.  But that's all on the player: it's not as if in the fiction of the Hitman universe, Agent 47 is repeatedly murdering a bunch of people who magically revive so that he can kill them again, whereas in Deathloop, that is very explicitly what is happening.

The thing is, because Deathloop is kind of designed with the assumption that you'll kill each target multiple times, the first time you encounter them and blow their head off, it doesn't feel like the grand emotional climax.  In fact, in a way, it feels like the *start* of a relationship.  "Goodbye, Charlie Montague.  I hardly knew ye.  But I'm sure I'll know you better by the third time I'm leaving your LARPing session with that slab upgrade you're carrying."  I feel like that robs the kills of some of their impact, and maybe that's just inherent to what kind of game this is: in Dishonored, you feel as though over the course of a level, you get to know your target as you snoop through their quarters, overhear what their staff have to say about them, read the journals of their rivals while looking for possible weaknesses, and so on.  Because it's a stealth game, it makes sense to hide in the background and learn about their life.  Stalking a character through a level while waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike can actually feel incredibly intimate, because as  the eponymous Visible Man in Chuck Klosterman’s novel says, to truly know who someone is, you have to see them when they’re alone at home; their behavior anywhere else is just a performance.

But when I'm chasing down Charlie Montague with an SMG in one hand and a pistol in the other, the only thing I really know about him is what he's announcing over the loudspeaker.  (I don't really remember exactly what he said, but the subtext is that he's mentally unstable, and he's obsessed with games.)  And even though Charlie Montague was shouting at me what kind of person he said, I feel like I never really got to *know* him like I got to know some targets in Dishonored.  In fact, the moments when I got to know Charlie best weren't when he was yelling at my over the loudspeaker as I ran through his level as Shooty McFPS guy, but the moments when I got to read his notes or chat correspondence (which is *entirely optional*, because even if I don't learn the relevant facts from Charlie Montague's notes, Cole will -- and he'll verbally narrate the cliffsnotes version of them as I'm headed to the next objective)

Despite feeling like a clear descendant of Arkane’s earlier titles, Deathloop feels neither "immersive" nor "sim."  It's constantly doing things that remind me that I'm playing a video game -- which, to be clear, is not a bad thing!  It’s fun to be Shooty McFPS guy without worrying about hiding guards bodies or making noise. More than any other Arkane Studios game, it does everything it can to minimize player frustration, whether that means feeling lost, or feeling like you're not making forward progress, or feeling like your progress is being gated by a huge spike in difficulty.

Dishonored is a game that rewards patience.  This is one of my favorite things about it, but the fact that it rewards patience so generously means that it also *asks* patience of the player in order to get its best moments, which means that some players will never experience them.  Deathloop asks very little from the player.  Deathloop is a very "even" and "smooth" experience, but that's both for better and for worse.  The lows aren't as low, but the highs aren't nearly as high. Deathloop is a good game.  And it will probably be a "good game" to a greater number of people than Arkane's previous titles, but it didn’t have nearly the same impact on me.

Anyway, more than anything, my time with Deathloop has convinced that I should go back and play Prey (2017).

[blingywitch]

Good Feelings - Chapter IV

Hi :) sorry it’s been a literal month since the last chapter of this. School has been a mess and I suffered from some really bad writers block for a while. It all good tho cuz chapter IV is here! :))

Full Masterlist & Good Feelings Masterlist

Characters belong to the lovely, @lumosinlove

CW: food and drink

Surprising absolutely no one, Logan and Natalie had become inseparable. You’d think that they’d be a horrible match, seeing as they're two completely different people when it comes to personality but as they had learned, the two had a lot of things in common.

Their friendship had actually become quite personal very fast. It startled Logan at first, how he felt so completely comfortable around this girl who he had known for all of a week, but that’s how Natalie was. She was so open and accepting that Logan felt like he could tell her anything and everything about himself without being thought of differently. She helped keep his mind off things, was someone who he could call anytime of the day or night without any complaints; serious problem or not, Natalie was always down to talk. She had quickly become an escape for Logan; a distraction. Whether it be from the stress of work or from two boys who he hadn’t seen in close to two weeks.

Today’s distraction you may ask? A team dinner. Whatever that was.

“C’mon Logan, Please?!” Natalie drawled while pouring creamer into someone's cappuccino. “It’s just one night and everybody just got back. I wanna introduce you to my friends.”

“I don’t know, maybe.” Logan answered. Sure, meeting Natalie’s friends sounded fun but he didn’t want to just show up to, from how Natalie described it, what sounded like a family event. He didn’t know these people and these people didn’t know him, Logan didn’t like being the outsider. “Am I even invited?” He asked.

Natalie scoffed, “Of course you are, anybody is welcome. Plus,” she smiled at him. “I just invited you.”

Logan said nothing, only cast his eyes down to the floor.

“Lo,” Natalie set down the cup she was holding and walked over to Logan, she placed her hand on his shoulder. “If you really don’t want to go you don’t have to, but it’ll be fun and you’ve been down lately, I can tell.”

Natalie always knew what to say didn’t she?

“Fine.” He looked up at her, smiling slightly.

The smile that took over Nat’s face was blinding. “Yay! I can’t wait for you to meet everyone!” She brought Logan into a quick hug and pulled away, holding him at arms length. “Kase and I will be at yours by seven to pick you up, be ready!” And with that she spun around, picked up the cappuccino and left the kitchen, leaving Logan chuckling after her.

—

The car door slammed behind him as Logan sat in the back seat of Natalie’s car. “Hi, Lo!” Natalie greeted him through the rear view mirror. “You excited?”

“I guess you could say that, yeah.” Logan replied.

“Don’t worry,” Logan looked to the driver’s seat where someone had spoken up. “The team is always up for new members, I’m sure you’ll fit in great.” He turned in his seat and smiled at Logan. “Kasey Winter.”

This was Logan’s first time meeting Kasey. He knew of him of course. Natalie had mentioned him a couple times, her eyes lighting up every time his name was on her lips. From what he remembered, Kasey Winter was Natalie’s best friend— first love. Logan would have to get to know him, because he had a feeling he’ll probably be around a lot.

“Logan,” Logan looked down to buckle his seatbelt. “Tremblay.”

Kasey looked like he thought about something for a few seconds before smirking. “Nice to meet you, Tremzy.”

“Tremzy?” Logan furrowed his eyebrow and looked between Kasey and Natalie, confusion etched onto his face.

Natalie shook her head. “You’ve known him for a whole two minutes and you’ve already given him a hockey nickname?”

Kasey looked towards Natalie and shrugged. He started to say something, along the lines of, “What? It’s mandatory.” But Logan didn’t catch the rest of it before his thoughts took over. That’s right, another thing Natalie had mentioned about Kasey was that he was a professional hockey player. He was a little confused at learning this, thinking he’d heard that before. In fact, he had, and when he figured it out— who else had told him they were professional hockey players— the only thing he could think was, what are the chances? Now, the chances were seemingly getting slimmer by the second and everything was clicking into place. The team dinner. Would Logan run into them? Suddenly he found himself hoping that maybe the city of Gryffindor had two professional hockey teams.

—

“Blizzard!” Logan whipped his head around at the loud greeting, walking out of the porch and into the house Natalie and Kasey had brought him to— huge house might he add. If he knew hockey salaries payed this well.... “Bilzz,” the voice said again, passing all three of them by doorway and clapping Kasey on the back. “‘Bout time you got here. Nat.” He greeted, nodding at her. His eyes landed on Logan and he smiled bright. “A new face! James Potter, you?” The man—James—said, holding out his hand.

“Logan Tremblay.”

“Nice to meet you, Logan.” He started walking backwards into the living room. “Welcome to the team.” James winked horribly and turned around, sitting down on the couch and wrapping an arm around a girl who was laughing with some of the others, her red hair being twisted in the hands of a little boy sitting on her lap.

Kasey followed after him with a kiss to Natalie’s cheek and a pat to Logan’s back, he leaned up against the wall starting a conversation with one of his teammates. Because he didn’t look like he was going to, Natalie took the lead and led Logan into the living room where everyone else was chatting and laughing.

Logan took this opportunity to scan the room, no sign of blonde hair and brown eyes just yet. He hadn’t decided if that was good or bad.

—

Something Logan really wasn’t expecting when he got here was how friendly and calm the environment was. He wasn’t a huge hockey fan, he didn’t really know much about it. But from what he had seen over the years most hockey players weren’t the calm and collective type— and don’t get him wrong, these people were chaotic. But... in the best way. The chirps and jokes never had any malicious intent behind them, the room he was in was always filled with laughter; these people were more than just a team, they were a family. And maybe he already knew that coming in, but he never would have guessed it would be to this extent. They’d accepted Logan, a newcomer, who didn’t know a single thing about the sport of hockey and had only been in the state of Gryffindor a little more than a month. It didn’t matter who you were or where you came from, these people will take you in and make you one of their own; a lion.

He’d been ‘“Welcome to the team.”d’ more times than he could count and he was getting along well with everyone. He had taken a liking to Sirius— the team captain, he learnt. He had also learnt that Sirius was from Quebec as well, the two had quickly got to talking about everything and nothing in their native language and it made Logan happy to have someone to relate to like this who wasn’t his sisters. Pascal, or Dumo as the team called him, had introduced himself in French and he was pleasantly surprised when Logan answered back, completely unfazed and started a conversation up about his kid— Katie— who was resting on Dumo’s hip.

Natalie handed Logan a drink from where she returned from the kitchen. Kasey had joined them on the couch sometime earlier and Nat took a seat next to him, between him and Logan, handing him a drink as well just as someone said, “Nat, Kase, who’s your friend?” He walked over and sat on the arm of the couch next to Kasey. His name was Thomas from what Logan had heard, and he was yet to make a formal introduction to him.

“That would be my boss. Logan Tremblay.” Natalie joked, sending Logan a smirk.

Logan made a noise of disbelief and sat up straighter. “I am not your boss.” He exclaimed, incredulously.

“No, your sister is my boss.” Natalie corrected herself. “But you just as well may be too.”

Logan furrowed his eyebrows and chuckled at her antics before putting his attention back on the man next to them. A small smile upon his face after Natalie and Logan’s interaction. “You're Thomas right?” Logan asked.

“That would be correct! Heart and soul of the Lions!” Thomas’ smile beamed with pride. “You can call me Talker though. Do you have a name, Logan?”

Logan chuckled nervously. “But... I just told you my name?”

Talker was about to respond but was interrupted by Kasey, who suddenly joined in on the conversation. “This,” he reached behind Natalie and patted Logan’s back. “Is Tremzy.” He smirked at talker.

“Tremzy, huh?”

Logan knew he wouldn’t have gotten this lucky. The three of them, Talker, Kasey, and Logan, looked over towards the new voice; low and behold, there stood a beaming Finn O’Hara with a slightly surprised looking Leo Knut at his side. The two with drinks in hand and looking as beautiful as always. They walked over, Finn sitting on the floor in front of the group, while Leo chose to squeeze between Natalie and Logan, draping an arm over his shoulders. “Hi.” The blonde smiled sweetly and lay his head against Logan’s.

Finn brought his knees up to his chest. “Fancy seeing you here.” He winked, actually winked, and brought his cup up to his lips. Logan tried his very hardest to fight back a blush.

Logan thought he was going to die on the spot. He had no idea where this new behaviour was coming from from Leo and Finn but he definitely wasn’t complaining.

“What brings you here?” Finn asked, tone still teasing.

“I came here with Natalie and Kasey, if you’re asking.” Logan teased back.

“Oh,” Finn said. “And how do you guys know each other?”

“Well, Natalie and I work together.”

The redhead’s eyes widened slightly. “Oh?” He repeated, then looked towards Natalie. “Since when?”

“Finn, she literally told us that she got the job before we left for Florida.” Leo joined in.

“Oh yeah.” Finn drawled. “Forgot about that.”

“Speaking of,” Leo looked towards Natalie, about to ask how the job is, but before he did he burst out laughing. “What’s that look for?”

The look on Natalie’s face was priceless. It was a mix of horror and confusion, her eyebrows raised, eyes flickering between the three of them like she had just seen a ghost. “You okay, Nat?” Logan asked trying to hold back a smile and failing.

“I- I’m just confused on how you three are talking to each other like you’re best friends.” She answered. “Are you best friends?! And how come I never knew?!” She shot towards Logan.

“I wouldn’t say best friend-” Finn was shushed by Natalie’s finger, who was still looking at Logan expectantly.

Logan laughed. “They’re regulars of ours.” He said, referring to Finn and Leo’s daily coffee visits. “You just didn’t that because the entire time you’ve been working here they were in... Florida you said?” Logan asked Leo, who nodded. “Florida.” Logan explained, still laughing at how utterly confused Natalie looked.

“Oh.” Said Natalie, voice small. She put the pieces together finally. “Oh, yeah that makes sense.” They all just laughed the weird coincidence off and that was the end of it.

—

Not long after that Celeste came into the living room announcing that dinner was ready; they had all migrated to the kitchen, chatting and eating. Celeste Dumais’ cooking had been the best Logan's had in a while. One of the biggest things he missed about being home was his mother’s cooking and no matter how hard he and his sisters tried replicating Iva Tremblay’s home cooked meals was something they could not achieve. So to have this same sense of home was something he enjoyed every once in a while. 

After dinner most of the team started to clear out. With Lily and James leaving with a sleeping Harry that left only the Dumais family, Remus and Sirius, Natalie, Kasey, Leo, Finn and Logan. It was comfortable, everybody had started their own small conversations amongst themselves, Sirius had switched on the radio in the kitchen, the soft music flowing out into the living room. Leo, Finn and Logan were sat on the floor in front of the couch, Leo leaning against it, fingers carding through the redhead’s hair who was lid down with his head in Leo’s lap. Logan was sat next to them, shoulder to shoulder with Leo. They’d had a couple short lived conversations but now they were just sitting in silence and content to do so. That was until Finn got up.

“Where you going?” Leo asked, shivering ever so slightly now that the warmth of his boyfriend was gone.

Standing up, Finn took his cup off the coffee table and held it out, “Refill.” he answered. “You coming?” 

Leo got up without hesitation, already following Finn into the kitchen. He turned around, looking at Logan and raising a questing eyebrow. Logan knew what he was asking and got up as well, Leo waited for him and then they walked into the kitchen together. 

Finn was at the counter pouring himself a drink when they walked in, he turned around upon seeing them. “Can I get you something, Peanut?”

Logan just about melted at Finn’s nickname for his boyfriend. He’d have to learn the meaning behind it. It was moments like these where Logan realized he knew barely anything about these two boys. He wanted to know things about them, he wanted to know everything about them. Everything from their favourite colours to their middle names. Hell, he didn't even know their last names. He wondered if he’d ever get to know these details and when. He hoped it was soon. 

“No, i’m okay. Thanks.” Leo shook his head.

“Lo?” 

Logan snapped out of his thoughts at Finn’s voice directed at him. “Quoi?” 

“Can I get you anything?” Finn repeated.

“Oh. Um yeah, a coke?”

Finn screwed up his face but got Logan his drink anyways. “Here,” he said, handing it to Logan. “have your disgusting cup of sugar.”

Logan scoffed, “Says the person who drinks black coffee!”

“There is nothing wrong with the way I drink my coffee.” Finn pointed his finger at him.

“Whatever.” Logan rolled his eyes playfully and the look that crossed Finn’s face had Leo chuckling. 

“You know, Lo...” Leo started after some time had passed. “Last time we saw each other you said something about having to talk about something, our career was it?"

“I did say that I think.” Logan had forgotten about that.

“Yeah, I think we should talk about that.” Finn joined in. “But its getting kind of late and Le and I will be leaving soon.” And for the millionth time that night Finn smirked at him, “How about tomorrow? Maybe... over a coffee?”

Logan smiled, making the decision before he thought about it to much. “Yeah. I’d like that.”

[leoneslover]

𝐇𝐚𝐢𝐤𝐲𝐮𝐮! 𝐚𝐬 𝐎𝐛𝐞𝐲 𝐦𝐞!༄

Hello my dear fellas, today I bring to you the crossover I think we all needed for this Halloween, Haikyuu! characters as Obey me! characters.

In case you don’t know, Obey me! (Also shortened to om) is a Japanese otome game (dating sim) where the MC is sent to the demon realm (also known as devildom) as an exchange student for a year. In the game you get to live with the Seven Brothers (each one representing a deadly sin) and y’know, date one of them lol.

But what if instead of demons we get cute volleyball players... let’s find out!

━━☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ

𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐈𝐅𝐄𝐑 𝐀𝐒... Sakusa!

Alias: The Avatar of Pride.

❝ 𝑇𝘩𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑓𝑙𝑎𝑤𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑠𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡.

𝑇𝘩𝑒 𝑚𝑖𝑔𝘩𝑡𝑦 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡-𝑏𝑜𝑟𝑛.

☆彡 I don’t know about y’all but personally I can clearly see Sakusa as Lucifer. If you played the game then you know that Lucifer, being the oldest of the seven brothers, is the most collected and responsible one. Guiding the MC with advice and always knowing how to keep his brothers from causing any harm.

Many people strike Sakusa as straight up mean, personally I think he’s just reserved. He knows how to keep his cool, and even tho he’s not a crowd person, I think he’d play well the role of “leader”.

━━☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ

𝐌𝐀𝐌𝐌𝐎𝐍 𝐀𝐒... Oikawa!

Alias: The Avatar of Greed.

❝ 𝐺𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑦 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑.

𝑇𝘩𝑒 𝑠𝑐𝑢𝑚𝑚𝑦 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑-𝑏𝑜𝑟𝑛.

☆彡 Mammon, one of the favorites within the players, I think. Annoying and self-centered as hell, but he’s not as bad as many people think. Like Oikawa, I feel like a lot of people might kinda hate him at first, probably due to their obnoxious personality and witty comments. But in reality they’re both a couple of sweethearts.

I personally don’t see Oikawa as a greedy person, however he has very clear goals and as we’ve seen, he’s willing to do everything he can to reach them, pushing his boundaries for something he loves. So I think he’ll fit the role pretty well.

━━☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ

𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍 𝐀𝐒... Kenma!

Alias: The Avatar of Envy.

❝ 𝑁𝑜𝑡𝘩𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑠 𝟸𝐷!

𝑇𝘩𝑒 𝘩𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑢 𝑡𝘩𝑖𝑟𝑑-𝑏𝑜𝑟𝑛.

☆彡 Do I even need to explain this one?

Levi and Kenma are literally the same person and you cannot change my mind. Not only in their interests (both obsessed with games and geeky stuff), but also in personality. Their usual calm and soft spoken demeanor only broken by really specific situations. And yes, I know that Leviathan is more prone to have rage outbursts than Kenma, but we’ve seen Kenma get angry a couple of times (literally the last two episodes of haikyuu) and besides, he’s a gamer, so you can’t tell me that he doesn’t get angry when he plays games.

Anyways, this one is pretty self explanatory lol.

━━☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ

𝐒𝐀𝐓𝐀𝐍 𝐀𝐒... Sugawara!

Alias: The Avatar of Wrath.

❝ 𝐴𝑙𝑙 𝑠𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡𝘩𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑐𝑡.

𝑇𝘩𝑒 𝑐𝑦𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑡𝘩-𝑏𝑜𝑟𝑛.

☆彡 Again, do I even have to explain this one?

Even tho he’s the avatar of wrath, Satan is shown to be the most composed brother (except when it comes to Lucifer but for the sake of this crossover we’re gonna leave their feud aside), however that doesn’t mean he never gets angry, he’s still the avatar of wrath after all.

Suga is always shown as “the mom” of the group, very polite and calm when it comes to serious things. However we all know he has his volatile side, as seen during the Shiratorizawa match were he starts shouting at his own team. This is why I think he’s literally perfect for the role.

And I could go on about him as Satan honestly but I don’t wanna make this too long so let’s move on.

━━☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ

𝐀𝐒𝐌𝐎𝐃𝐄𝐔𝐒 𝐀𝐒... Terushima!

Alias: The Avatar of Lust.

❝ 𝑇𝘩𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑 𝑎𝑑𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑠 𝑚𝑒!

𝑇𝘩𝑒 𝑛𝑎𝑟𝑐𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑓𝑖𝑓𝑡𝘩-𝑏𝑜𝑟𝑛.

☆彡 Not gonna lie, I almost put Oikawa in this one too. Almost.

I’m a little conflicted with this one to be honest, the reason being that Asmodeus, even tho he’s the avatar of lust, it’s not your usual fuckboy. He’s more of a romantic seductive person, meanwhile Teru is literally just a fuckboy.

However, imagine the power Teru would have if he behaved at least an ounce like Asmo. Yeah, I’d love to see that.

So for the sake of that mental image (and the fact that Teru can pull hella bitches I’m telling you) we’re gonna give him the role <3

━━☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ

𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐋𝐙𝐄𝐁𝐔𝐁 𝐀𝐒... Ushijima!

Alias: The Avatar of Gluttony.

❝ 𝑊𝘩𝑎𝑡 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑟?

𝑇𝘩𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠-𝑓𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑠𝘩𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑖𝑥𝑡𝘩-𝑏𝑜𝑟𝑛.

☆彡 The way I struggled with this one. Anyways, before you say anything hear me out.

For this one I went more for the looks (clearly). Beelzebub is not only the tallest, but also surprisingly the most fit of all the brothers. Needless to say, our boy Toshi (who’s not the tallest but it’s still quite big) can fit into that role so easily.

Also, not only that, but their personality. Both really quiet guys except when it’s strictly necessary for them to speak, and literally the embodiment of no thoughts, head empty, like all the time (with the exception that they do think of something, but sadly it’s only one thing and that’s it).

Anyways, kinda doubting on this one for the gluttony part, but besides that, perfect match 10/10.

━━☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ

𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐏𝐇𝐄𝐆𝐎𝐑 𝐀𝐒... Suna!

Alias: The Avatar of Sloth.

❝ 𝐶𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑡𝑜𝑜 𝑚𝑢𝑐𝘩 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑏𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑟𝑒𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑜𝑛?

𝑇𝘩𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑛𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡𝘩-𝑏𝑜𝑟𝑛.

☆彡 And last but not least we have the avatar of sloth, Suna Rintarō.

Now I’m not gonna lie to y’all, I struggled with this one too, and I’m still not sure if I made the right choice. But since I’ve seen everybody saying that Suna is a lazy guy, I’m just gonna go with the flow and pretend this is a perfect match lol.

And not only because of that, but also because I can clearly see Suna being the type of person to fall asleep literally everywhere. Which is a common thing they have with Belphie 🥺

But yeah anyways, kinda see it, kinda not. You’re free to disagree with me on this one lol.

And there it is! Haikyuu as Obey me characters. Hope you enjoyed and let me know if you want a part two! (Including the side characters like Diavolo, Solomon, etc).

[earthstellar]

TFP Megatronus x Orion Pax Experimental Concept Playlist: The Timescale of Cybertronian Lives + Music from 1890 - 2021

I know there are tons of playlists for these characters out there, but I’m trying to do something a little less conventional with this one; Please hear me out! 

Two Playlists in One: Love Throughout The Ages 

The first half of this playlist is almost all new music mixed in with some hits from the 60s, 70s, 80s, etc. to give variety, plus tracks from different genres so that hopefully everyone has a song they can enjoy in there somewhere.

For the second half of the playlist, I wanted to emphasise the idea of how long the war on Cybertron has been going on for, and just how old this conflict and the people involved actually are. 

Cybertronian Timescale: Long Lives and The Perception of Time 

We think of the Orion Pax / Megatronus stage of their relationship as being relatively brief, which it was in comparison to how long the war has been going on for as of TFP, but these are people who live for centuries. The scope of that is staggering. 

Optimus Prime and Megatron have known each other personally (either positively or negatively) for longer than modern human civilisation has existed. 

So to me, the best way to touch on that idea of time, musically, is to have the first half of the playlist be modern music, remixes, etc. and then the second half is well known and lesser known hits throughout early radio/TV (with many tracks on this playlist pre-dating those forms of media as well). 

What’s on the Playlist, Then?

My grandmother was born in 1914, and her music collection spans nearly 100 years. It’s all good stuff.

I have included some of her favourites, which she always called her “sweetheart jingles”, on this soundtrack. I think many of them work surprisingly well for the Megatronus/Orion Pax relationship.

Many of these songs will probably be unknown by the vast majority of people who might want to listen to this playlist, which is also appealing to me. (I hope if this is your first time hearing some of these, that you enjoy a few of them!)

My parents were born in 1944, and I remember all of the classics they would play; Some of those tracks will be more recognisable as this was the era when radio and TV became far more common and accessible, but I picked the tracks that I think best apply to the pairing and the relationship between the two characters at that point in their lives. 

The link to the playlist is below after some notes on Cybertronian language evolution! 

Quick Thought: Cybertronian Language Over Time and Era Specific Speech Patterns 

While thinking about my grandmother’s music collection as I assembled this playlist, I thought about some of the words and phrases she used commonly that are now totally non-existent in modern conversational English. 

She had what would probably sound to most people like “1930s radio voice” or a more Trans-Atlantic Accent way of speaking; She grew up in the Northeast USA and so she had a very distinctive way of stressing the vowels in words. It’s not just the words themselves, or how they were pronounced, but the tone and pace of speech was also very different. 

This got me thinking about Cybertronians, age, and speech:

Bots as old as Ratchet may have grown up with a totally different spoken language version of Cybertronian, and we already know that there are regional dialects, multiple written forms (glyphs), and era-specific types of Cybertronian language. 

But the way they speak, as I mentioned above with the stressing of vowels and the tone and pace of speech, might still be different due to the different eras, even after language packs/programs are downloaded and updated periodically as needed. We already know Cybertronians have regional accents, so it stands that generational accents would also possibly exist as well. 

Such a difference in speech patterns could possibly be used as a primary indicator of relative age on Cybertron, as physically they don’t age in the sense human beings do. 

Back to the Playlist: Link + Track List + Notes on Audio Prior to 1930

The playlist is here on YouTube. 

Scroll down to get to the second half (oldies section) if that’s what you’re here for! 

Please note that the songs are not arranged in any particular order aside from the first half being newer music and the second half being far older music.

Also note, where original recordings are available on YouTube for some of the older songs, I have used those original recording versions. 

However, keep in mind that there may be a couple seconds of “fuzz” at the top (start) of those older tracks, because they have been recorded from records or wax cylinders, which are formats of music that typically had a “pause” on the track to allow for needle and speed calibration when playing them manually. Modern records don’t do this in quite the same way and nobody uses wax cylinders anymore, but older records typically did. If this bothers you, skip ahead about two seconds or so, and it will resolve. 

Tempo may seem slightly “fast” on two of the tracks due to difficulties with the medium and modern recording tech/methods, and one track has some persistent “fuzz” throughout due to the original recording being rare and therefore it is a “best copy available” type archival recording, but otherwise I’ve managed to find the clearest audio possible for the vast majority of the older songs! 

(Fun music note, the “click track” in modern digital music was partially inspired by the clicking of the needle hitting the “countdown grooves” on old cylinders and records, which creates an audible mild clicking sound as the needle finds the groove and provides time for usually a half rotation or full rotation of the record before the track actually begins to allow for adjustment before the music starts! If the clicking is too fast, dial down the rotation speed, for example. 

This itself was inspired by classical metronomes as well as the actual physical method of playing the music in this way, but it’s cool to see how this persists throughout musical history even now when we don’t need the click for digital production for quite the same reasons/applications. It’s all about timing, no matter the medium or era!)

Due to the method of how some player piano rolls were credited, often by roll company and not by individuals, the actual artist name is often not available for those tracks. Where possible and where known, I have included credits to the artists/musicians. I have done my best to research and find the artists in these recordings. 

I have also included orchestrions and other “automated” music in addition to a player piano track as I think it’s interesting; These are often very old compositions being played on these machines, and as such are designed to reflect the earliest days of their relationship. 

Songs range from the years 1890 to 2021, and I will add more as I manage to find YouTube videos with some of the older songs I’m still looking for. 

By the way, if you need a love song for like an actual partner or crush that you have, I’m just going to say it now and point out that a lot of these classics are great to use in real life for cute purposes. My partner of ten years agrees, and my grandparents were married for over 60 years and sang many of these daily, so obviously something here works well. You’re welcome. ;) 

Below the cut is a track list of the second half of the playlist, as it’s 7 AM and I’d like to emphasise the “classics” section here as it’s the central theme of the concept.

I will add to this list as more tracks are added:

You’re the Top - Cole Porter

What is this Thing Called Love - Leslie Hutchinson 

I Get a Kick Outta You - Cole Porter 

Puttin on the Ritz - Phil Spitalny Orchestra

What a Day - Carl Fenton

Come Fly With Me - Frank Sinatra

Earth Angel - The Penguins

Ring a Ding Ding - Frank Sinatra 

In my Merry Oldsmobile - Billy Murray

Singin in the Rain - Gene Kelly

Dream a Little Dream of Me - Doris Day

Unforgettable - Nat King Cole 

Can’t Help Falling in Love - Elvis Presley 

Good Golly Miss Molly - Little Richard

Bei Mir Bist du Schoen - The Andews Sisters

Shine on Harvest Moon - Ruth Etting 

1920s Dance Sequence from Don’t Knock the Rock

In the Mood -Glen Miller Orchestra

Dream Lover - Bobby Darin 

When the Ragtime Army Goes Away to War (Artist Unknown) 

After You’ve Gone - J. Lawrence Cook 

My Sin (Artist Unknown) 

Flick Flack by Albert Vossen (Unsure; Song + Artist Unknown; Orchestrion) 

Lotosblumen Walzer by E. Ohlsen (Hupfeld Violina) 

Waltz no.2 - Dmitri Shostakovich 

Jupiter - Gustav Holst 

Love Potion no. 9 - The Clovers (Please note, this song mentions the word “g*psy” once in the beginning of the track. Skip this song if you would prefer not to hear it; I have done my best to only include songs that are friendly to the modern listener, but where needed I will make annotations such as this one to ensure nobody has to hear anything potentially offensive, as is unfortunately often the case with older music/lyrics.)

Come a Little Bit Closer - Jay and the Americans 

Sh-Boom - The Crew Cuts

Oh Boy - Buddy Holly