#they should give me the deleted scenes i'd make such good use of them

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

this is the video i watch every time im thinking abt pre-time thoschei btw

[calliesmemes]

JAMES CAMERON’S TITANIC (1997)

ROLEPLAY SENTENCE STARTERS PULLED FROM THE SCRIPT FOR THE ICONIC FILM TITANIC (1997). DELETED SCENES INCLUDED.

CHANGE gendered words and in-universe phrases as needed.

SPECIFY muse for multimuses.

“   You’re a treasure hunter. So what is the treasure you’re hunting? ”

“   She’s a goddamned liar! A nutcase! ”

“   ls there anything you'd like? ”

“   Well, here it is, the moment of truth. ”

“   I know how hard it is for people who care greatly for money to give some away. ”

“   This was mine. How extraordinary! It looks the same as the last time I saw it. ”

“   Just tell us what you can-- ”

“   I don't see what all the fuss is about. ”

“   Your daughter is much too hard to impress. ”

“   You act as if you're going to your execution. ”

“   Outwardly I was everything a well brought up girl should be. Inside, I was screaming. ”

“   You lost our money. I'm just trying to get it back. ”

“   Somebody's life's about to change. ”

“   We are the luckiest sons of bitches in the world! ”

“   Just another example of the men settin' the rules their way. ”

“   Do you know of Dr. Freud? His ideas about the male preoccupation with size might be of particular interest to you. ”

“   She’s a pistol. I hope you can handle her. ”

“   Stay back! Don't come any closer! ”

“   Don't presume to tell me what I will and will not do. ”

“   You're distracting me. Go away. ”

“   Don't be absurd. You'll be killed. ”

“   Come on. You don't want to do this. Give me your hand. ”

“   I've got you. I won't let go. ”

“   Women and machinery do not mix. ”

“   Good for you son, well done! ”

“   Perhaps you could join us for dinner tomorrow, to regale our group with your heroic tale? ”

“   I know you've been melancholy, and I don't pretend to know why. ”

“   It's for royalty. And we are royalty. ”

“   Open your heart to me. ”

“   I’m afraid I'm feeling a little tired. ”

“   Look, I'm running out of time. I need your help. ”

“   Maybe she wants to make peace with the past. ”

“   Could I speak to you in private? ”

“   So, you got a name by the way? ”

“   That's quite a moniker. I may have to get you to write that down. ”

“   I feel like such an idiot. It took me all morning to get up the nerve to face you. ”

“   Look, I know what you must be thinking! Poor little rich girl. What does she know about misery? ”

“   I was trapped in it, like an insect in amber. ”

“   Oh God, I am such an utter fool. ”

“   Please don't judge me until you've seen my world. ”

“   You have a gift — you see people. ”

“   I was hoping I'd catch you at tea. ”

“   Why can’t I be like you? ”

“   They didn't teach you that in finishing school? ”

“   Do you have the slightest comprehension of what you're doing? ”

“   You're about to go into the snakepit. I hope you're ready. ”

“   What are you planning to wear? ”

“   My, my, my... you shine up like a new penny. ”

“   I didn't recognize you. ”

“   Amazing! You could almost pass for a gentleman! ”

“   Remember, the only thing they respect is money, so just act like you've got a lot of it and you're in the club. ”

“   It’s a pity we’re both spoken for, isn’t it? ”

“   Where exactly do you live? ”

“   You find that sort of rootless existence appealing, do you? ”

“   It’s a big world, and I want to see it all before I go ”

“   Something like that teaches you to take life as it comes at you. To make each day count. ”

“   All life is a game of luck. ”

“   A real man makes his own luck. ”

“   What are you doing? I see you everywhere writing in this little book. ”

“   It'll be all business and politics, that sort of thing. ”

“   So you want to go to a real party? ”

“   You're not one of them. There's been a mistake. ”

“   Look! A shooting star. ”

“   My father used to say that whenever you saw a shooting star, it was a soul going to heaven. ”

“   What would you wish for? ”

“   I had hoped you would come to me last night. ”

“   You will never behave like that again! Do you understand? ”

“   I will not be made out to be a fool! Is this in any way unclear? ”

“   You are not to see that boy again, do you understand me? ”

“   Oh, stop it. You'll give yourself a nosebleed. ”

“   This is not a game! Our situation is precarious! ”

“   How can you put this on my shoulders? ”

“   How can you be so selfish? ”

“   We're women. Our choices are never easy. ”

“   Look, you're not supposed to be in here. ”

“   She's a goddess amongst mortal men. ”

“   You're a spoiled little brat! ”

“   You're the most amazingly astounding girl I've ever known. ”

“   You're amazing... and I know I have nothing to offer you. ”

“   I can’t turn away without knowing that you’ll be safe. ”

“   They've got you in a glass jar like some butterfly, and you're going to die if you don't break out. ”

“   Sooner or later the fire in you is going to go out. ”

“   It's not up to you to save me ”

“   I changed my mind. ”

“   I want you to draw me like one of your French girls. ”

“   I expect to get what I want. ”

“   I want to always remember this night. ”

“   You’re trembling. ”

“   I can feel your heart beating. ”

“   It doesn't make any sense. That's why I trust it. ”

“   There’s no cause for alarm. ”

“   Say, did I miss the fun? ”

“   Something serious has happened. ”

“   You can't be serious! We're in the middle of an emergency! ”

“   Don't listen to them... I didn't do this! You know I didn't! You know it! ”

“��  I believe you may get your headlines. ”

“   Please dress warmly; it's quite cold tonight. ”

“   Please tell me the truth. ”

“   Tell only who you must. I don't want to be responsible for a panic. ”

“   Do you know who I am? ”

“   I'd rather be his whore than your wife. ”

“   That man tried to take advantage of me! ”

“   Help!! Somebody!! Can anybody hear me?! ”

“   I'll do this with or without your help. But without will take longer. ”

“   I'm through with being polite, goddamnit! I may never be polite the rest of my life! ”

“   So... how did you find out I didn't do it? ”

“   Where you go, I go. ”

“   Don’t argue with me; you know it does no good. ”

“   I will never forget you. ”

“   It seems we've been dealt a bad hand this time. ”

“   You're a good liar. ”

“   I always win. One way or another. ”

“   You're so stupid, you're such an idiot— ”

“   You jump, I jump, right? ”

“   What could possibly be funny? ”

“   Won't you even make a try for it? ”

“   We can't expect God to do all the work for us. ”

“   Shhh. Don't cry. It'll be over soon. It'll all be over soon. ”

“   No... don't say your good-byes. Don't you give up. Don't do it. ”

“   You're going to die an old lady, warm in your bed. Not here. Not this night. Do you understand me? ”

“   You must do me this honor... promise me you will survive... that you will never give up... no matter what happens... no matter how hopeless... promise me now, and never let go of that promise. ”

[eschergirls]

Hi everybody!

It's now October, so that means it's time for another monthly site update and to thank EG's amazing Patreon supporters!

This month, as I mentioned in the previous She-Hulk post, I fixed and merged the She-Hulk tag because it was previously split between "She-Hulk" and "She Hulk" (due to Tumblr's older behaviour putting dashes instead of spaces in tags and therefore using a dash in a tag made it unreachable, so a lot of older tags don't have dashes, like "X Men" instead of "X-Men" but I've tried to fix those when I find them now). I also fixed the subject titles of the posts, and I'm working on adding image descriptions for every post.

I also restored two amazing Avengelyne redraws and the post of the original panel they're re-imagining.  I added image descriptions for all 3 posts.  You can see a preview of the posts above.  The redraw on the left is by Marshy-tan, and the one on the right is by Overeducatedhillbilly, and I was excited to fix up those posts because they're some of my favourite redraws I've received on this blog because of how they tried to capture the emotion of the scene despite using different drawing styles, and I love seeing different people try to reinterpret the same panel/scene. :)  It's also a big contrast to the original's weird bored expression on the other woman's face when she's supposed to be worried about Avengelyne.

The restored posts are here:

Original Avengelyne post (now sourced and in higher definition)

Marshy-tan's redraw

Overeducatedhillbilly's redraw

I'm still working on unflagging posts on Tumblr, and if you notice any missing content or empty tags here, please let me know!  I'd like to appeal everything I can or just fix anything I'm able to.  And if you notice anything that I should fix on the main site, I'd like to know as well!

Also, as a reminder, you can follow Escher Girls using RSS. (For newbies, RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and is basically a feed you can read using an RSS reader. Simply copy and paste https://eschergirls.com/rss.xml into an RSS reader and it will keep you up to date on Escher Girls!)

And as usual, if you have any suggestions for upgrades to the site that would make it more readable and usable to you, please let me know!

And now, I want to give a huge thank you to our September Patreon supporters, your support helps us pay for domain and hosting costs, as well as allowing us to make upgrades to the site. Being able to self-host EG means that the site can exist without worrying about Tumblr rule changes or posts being flagged and deleted suddenly.

So thank you so so much to:

Anne Adler Cat Mara Chris McKenzie Em Bardon First Time Trek Greg Sepelak Ian Cameron Ken Trosaurus Kevin Carson Kim Wincen Kristoffer Illern  Holmén Leak Manuel Dalton Mary Kuhner Max Schwarz Michael Mazur Michael Norton Miriam Pody Morgan McEvoy mors_d randomisedmongoose Rebecca Breu Ringoko Ryan Gerber Sam Mikes Sean Sea SnigePippi SpecialRandomCast Thomas Thomas Key

Also, there's another caption contest coming this Saturday, and I think it's going to be a really good one, so look out for it if you're interested in participating!

And again, I want to thank everybody for reading, interacting, commenting, and submitting things to EG in general because you're all so cool! :D

Thank you all so much,

Ami

(If you wish to support Escher Girls, you can subscribe to our Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/ami_angelwings or donate through Ko-Fi at: https://ko-fi.com/amiangelwings.)

[bizarrelittlemew]

IDA do you have any advice or pointers for gif-making? yours are always so high quality with such great colors! i just started trying to make gifs and i feel like I'm constantly struggling with the export settings trying to make it look decent without being a gigantic file 😭

hiii and thank you so much 💗💗💗

I'm not really sure what to say since I've mostly learned by trial and error, so I guess the biggest piece of advice would be practice!!

I'm sure there are loads of gif tutorials out there and I may make my own one day but here are some tips I can give related to quality (I use Photoshop so these are probably specific to that):

The higher quality video you have to begin with, the easier it will be to make the gifs look great. I go for 1080p or higher (if possible)

When you import video frames to layers, be aware of duplicate frames as they will make the gif look choppy, it's a framerate issue - I use a very simple video editing software to cut out the scenes I want to gif, but if you have a more advanced one, you should be able to adjust the framerate so PS won't create duplicate frames. idk I'm not an expert on this exact thing I just delete the duplicates manually

For tumblr posts, the full width is 540px, half is 268px, go for these to avoid tumblr compressing the gifs

I usually set the frame time delay between 0.06-0.09 seconds since always prefer them a bit slower, which allows for seeing more detail. I check the speed by going into File -> Export -> Save for Web (Legacy) and clicking the Preview, because just playing the gif in PS will usually have lag

After wrangling frames, cropping and resizing etc., I convert to video timeline and convert all the frames to one Smart Object before sharpening and coloring. I use Smart Sharpen and Gaussian Blur filters with different settings, making copies of the smart layer and playing around with the opacity settings (I have this process recorded/automated as an action, but often have to adjust afterwards based on the clip). There are many different ways to do this and probably some tutorials too.

As for coloring, I don't use any automated processes, but just play around with adjustment and color fill layers. A gif with my usual sharpening and relatively simple coloring may have layers looking like this:

I think this is where the practice mostly comes in, because you'll discover new things with every gif you make. it's also the most fun part for me :) again, there are a lot of tutorials out there, and some scenes require more adjustments than others (especially dark scenes). really, Selective Color and Curves may be the most important adjustment layers (to me at least lmao)

As for file size, these are my usual export settings:

reducing the number of colors will always reduce the file size, but I'd usually rather trim the length (or split it into two gifs) or the image size (cropping a bit more off the height). Going for 40-80 frames is usually reasonable, and you can do more for very static gifs or smaller image sizes!

I hope some of this is useful, good luck and happy giffing 💗💗💗

[horizon-verizon]

I'll never understand the excuse Ryan gave for the deleted Baela scene. It was less than a minute, when HBO would have been in mode: Oh no, does the episode last too long? They made several episodes longer than HOTD's in other series. We are still talking about a scene of less than 1 minute… As luck would have it, it is the character of Baela who toasts, because what? Oh character development isn't important or essential right now? Seriously ? For a main character at the dance is not important? Don't tell me HBO couldn't have made an exception for this scene at least?! Of course, Helaena is not cut off from the edit with her dialogue on greed. It's so much more important to characterize her than Baela who will have a real direct role in the future. We're talking about a scene of less than a minute, there's no excuse for me that it was removed, even less because it added too much time to the episode… My ass Ryan.

Pt.2 of this ask:

I am the person who sent a message for Baela's deleted scene. Another detail that I don't understand, and that if this scene is judged as canon by Ryan Condal, why isn't it in the fucking DVD? At least this scene?! It is less than 1 minute long and does not change the context of the other scenes in the series at all, it is, again, a very good development / characterization of Baela's character. If he loves this scene so much, why wasn't it put on the dvd?! It makes no fucking sense!

If there are any of you following me who have a better grasp for why tc producers and showrunners would make a decision like this, or why HBO/Max would pressure them into compressing the story/cutting scenes never to reveal them ever, this is the post. Please. Because I don't even know how to answer the question with the consideration it needs.

I'll just say this: with what the show is, I'd much rather hear Baela talking about defending herself and her family (doing what TV!Rhaenys should have already considered) over Helaena giving us nearly nothing other than something to feel sorry for her about.

[zombeebunnie]

Game development Trembling Essence update:

Hi guys and welcome new followers, I hope you all had a great and awesome spooky month! :] This update is a bit late because I wanted to give my mind some time to adjust back to working on the game since everything was fairly scattered around last month. This will be slightly long but I tried to condense everything. :]

In good news, another route into day 4 is now 95% done! Both of my play testers went through it and gave a good amount of advice/guidance but overall enjoyed the additions I added to it along with a new CG! I won't show it right now but to give a little back story, It's actually a redraw of an old scene I was trying to create in the early part of the summer. At that time I was trying to strictly keep things updated weekly and rushed a certain angled CG pose so I could have something new to show and not reuse the same CG thumbnails over and over. I tried to make it work but i secretly didn't like it and eventually deleted it since it looked so awful. I rewrote the entire scene recently to fit the new CG that's there now and in a way, it brought everything together a lot more now then it did before. :]

I've also been going through and fixing up a lot of the volume differences within the game. There were times in the game where certain SFX's were too loud and not adjusted well to whatever song/ambiance was playing at the time. I'd say more of the commonly used SFX's are all fixed but I'll keep looking through and hopefully catch any of the ones I accidently missed.

There were also a few more adjustments done in the start of Day 3 when you enter the cabin most of which were quality of life changes ranging from simple dialog fixing to alterations depending on your closeness with Noah.

I also tested adding a small animation to see how it would play out and I do like it but I still need to learn a bit more about it before adding it in.

I also fixed more transitions since some were outdated and I missed a few of them.

Along with this, one of the choices you could make towards the end got a drastic change. The reason being is that the reaction from this was too similar to another option you could make. I was originally going to cut this choice out entirely since I was having issues with how the story would progress from it. Changing it kind of gave me an idea on how I could make it work without it feeling forced. This is still up in the air though and I can't guarantee anything for it right now. :[

Lastly, I've been looking at one of the endings you could get in Day 3 and I came up with another idea for how it should end. I'm still coming up with CG ideas but I think the new ending will fit the theme I'm going for a lot more which will make it fairly long, some time in the future I'll come back to this. :]

With all that being said, I think that's everything I have to share right now! Thank you guys very much for all your support and appreciation for what I'm working on! :,]

[an-idiot-in-a-costume]

i made my own pokemon creepy pasta :D

I think you've all heard about those haunted pokemon game stories, ones about kids that commit suicide over a game song, or ones talking about a kid getting killed by a Pikachu on a mountain, but this, I think this was more than some hacked game, I think this was an awakening of some sorts.

About a week ago, one of my friends sent me a text message asking me if I wanted their copy of pokemon diamond, since they had just finished the game. I remember diamond used to be my dream pokemon game, but I never got to play it, so I decided to take it from them. I popped by their house a few hours later, mainly because we planned on hanging out anyway, and after we were done, they handed me the game on the way out, saying “I already deleted my old file, so you don't have to feel guilty about deleting it or anything.” After that, we said our goodbyes and I left and went home.

I was incredibly excited to play it, so the moment I got in my house I ran to my room and practically shoved the game into my ds, the game start-up was normal, the entire thing was, it was practically just like buying an unused version of the game. I choose piplup, and kept my eye out for any glitches or anything, just to make sure everything was just like a normal game and that my friend didn't just hand me a hacked game.

Eventually, I came to the 6th gym leader, Bryon, his steel type pokemon we're just a bit too over leveled for my team, so I went to a pokecenter to heal my pokemon, and just decided to talk to the other people in there. I came across an NPC named dean, he was your standard NPC that asked to trade pokemon, he said for a gallade, hed trade me a garchomp. I just decided I'd be a good training opportunity, plus a garchomp is a good pokemon, so I went and found a male ralts after a lot of hunting, and after lots of training and opening lots of poke balls for a dawn stone, I finally had the gallade that dean wanted.

After a bit of traveling, I finally got back to that pokecenter and went to give dean his pokemon, but in the middle of the trade sequence, a text box came up with his name on it, saying “no.” The screen went back to the pokecenter, and another text box of deans popped up “I don't want a gallade, why did I ask you for one? Why am I in this pokecenter? I dont even have pokemon to heal.” Dean then just shook his head and ran out of the pokecenter.

This was the only weird thing that happened the entire game, but I wanted to know something,was this just ment to happen? So I texted my friend who gave me the game.

Me: hey, if you went to the pokecenter by bryons gym, did some npc while you were trading with them run out?

Friend: nah, that npc is the reason I got a garchomp

Me: seriously? Because when I tried to give him that gallade he said he didn't want it and left

Friend: bring it to like game stop or something that's where I got it.

The only problem was that I was pretty far from the nearby game stop, plus it was midnight. I decided to just go in the morning and continue the game for now.

Everything in the game was pretty normal, no glitches, couple of shinies, but everything changed when I got to Spear pillar, suddenly the whole game was in black and white, and small red pixels were seen going towards where giratina would steal Cyrus, but instead there was that npc again, and a cut scene happened. The NPCs name box no longer said dean, it just said npc, and he was yelling, things like “why did you give me consciousness!?” And “I didn't ask for this!” I couldn't tell if he was yelling at arceus or giratina or a different legendary. But suddenly a glitchy scream came from my ds speakers, and the npc fell over, I went up to them and hit A…

“This npc has died, they're lying in a pool of blood and missing an arm and both of their eyes.”

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

Please give me honest criticism on it! Id also love to know if you guys think I should post this on the pokemon creepy pasta wiki too!

[eleanorfenyxwrites]

WIP Wednesday

So 'Technically A Cutsleeve?' is very...wishy washy for me lol. Like I know the general direction I'd like the fic to go in, I have the major beats planned out and I have since I first got the idea for it back in 2021. But how I get there is still very much up in the air, and I've written a lot of scenes that I don't even know if I'll use or not anymore. In one version of the fic (that currently exists and I can post it if y'all are curious) Mo Xuanyu and Lan Jingyi admit their feelings to each other when Lan Jingyi is laid up sick in bed while visiting Jinlintai for the first time and Mo Xuanyu comes to help take care of him since he'd already been helping out in the healing pavilion anyway when Jin Ling came to fetch some medicine for him. The problem is that that timeline/series of events doesn't really work out for the fic anymore because of other choices I've made, but I do still love the idea so I can't bring myself to delete the scene.

I also have a short follow-up scene after Jingyi is well again and he and Mo Xuanyu are enjoying their new relationship...but it doesn't make sense anymore, because I can't use the sick scene anymore, and also the timeline really doesn't work out by then. But I still really like that scene too, so I don't want to get rid of it either 😂 All of this to say, since I don't know if it'll make it into the fic or not but I still love it, I thought I'd post it here for WIP Wednesday, so here's that follow-up scene of the two of them walking through the gardens a little while after they've established they want to be together:

-/-

“You’re awfully smug,” Mo Xuanyu notes with a little jostle of their linked arms. “Would you like to share with the class?”

“Nope,” Jingyi replies, not even attempting to stop smirking. “Nothing to share that you don’t already know.”

“Oh?”

Jingyi readjusts his hold on Mo Xuanyu’s arm a bit to bring him in tighter against his side and his smirk only grows as Mo Xuanyu sighs gustily.

“A-Yi it’s been a month, are you still this smug that you wooed me while on your ‘deathbed’?”

“I was on my deathbed!” he protests, not missing the sarcasm in the question. “Sizhui had given me up for a lost cause and was just waiting for nature to run its course! It’s not my fault your taste in men runs towards those who are sickly and coughing up a lung.”

Mo Xuanyu sighs loudly again and for the sake of their bickering Jingyi pretends not to see that he’s smiling. “Fujun’s memory is stunningly accurate and does not at all lean towards exaggeration.”

Jingyi stumbles gracelessly over his feet at the title – Mo Xuanyu is eerily good at that, finding precisely what form of affection is going to hit him the hardest at any given moment. “You do not play fair,” he chastises even as his ears and cheeks burn.

“And you need to find a time to tell Xuan-ge that we’re courting since we’re really doing this. I know I’m eccentric, but we should still do this the right way.”

That sobers Jingyi up quickly and he stops in his tracks to turn to Mo Xuanyu so he can study his expression. He’s beautiful today (as he always is), wearing a full face of makeup and one of his best gowns, miles of fluttering deep blue silk with an orchid huadian between his brows.

“You being weird doesn’t mean I’m not going to court you properly,” Jingyi protests immediately and he sees something tight around Mo Xuanyu’s eyes relax just for a moment. “A-Yu, why wouldn’t I court you properly?”

“Who said you wouldn’t?” Mo Xuanyu deflects instantly, making as if to turn away to continue on their chosen path through the gardens. “I didn’t say you wouldn’t.”

“A-Yu.”

“A-Yi.”

“A-Yu-“

“Okay stop, we already know we can argue like this for hours,” Mo Xuanyu huffs and Jingyi smirks again as his partner gives up so easily. He’s rewarded with a shove that he immediately counters with one of his own, though after a moment he turns it into an excuse to reel Mo Xuanyu in, tuck him against his chest to hold him close. They’re alone in the gardens, no one yet aware that they should be accompanied by a chaperone, and so he brings Mo Xuanyu in close and presses his cheek to the side of his head.

“I’m going to do this right,” he murmurs quietly against Mo Xuanyu’s silken hair, currently caught up in a complicated updo full of little pins and a pair of blue-jeweled buyao pins. “You deserve all the same things that everyone else gets when they’re courting, anything you want, and I want to give them to you.” Jingyi’s breath catches when Mo Xuanyu slides his slender hands up his chest to curl around the back of his neck, cool and comforting and tugging him downwards so Mo Xuanyu can lean in and press their foreheads together (being mindful of his own huadian and Jingyi’s ribbon, which he hasn’t touched yet).

“What if I wanted to say fuck it and elope?”

Jingyi snorts at that and nudges the tips of their noses together for a moment before he straightens again, arms still loosely wrapped around Mo Xuanyu’s waist. “Fine, let’s go find your brother then and bow to him and then you can come back with me to Gusu so we can bow to Qingheng-Jun and Lan-xiansheng.”

“Oh gods you’d actually do that, wouldn’t you?” Mo Xuanyu marvels and Jingyi smiles widely.

“Anything you want, A-Yu, I’m serious. So be careful what you ask me for.”

Mo Xuanyu stares at him for another handful of moments like he can’t quite believe what he’s hearing before he gives himself a visible shake and withdraws to link their arms again and the gesture makes Jingyi’s heart stutter in his chest just as much as it had that very first time. They don’t get much longer to enjoy each other’s private company as they’re soon joined by one of the nursemaids bringing little Jin Ye to Mo Xuanyu, but even then his heart doesn’t get a break.

“Do you remember A-Ling’s friend Lan Jingyi?” Mo Xuanyu asks the toddler perched in his arms as the three of them walk together (now spaced appropriately apart). Jin Ye shakes her head ‘no’ and pops her thumb in her mouth as she regards him with evident imperious distrust. Jingyi does his best to look properly chastised by her glaring rather than utterly charmed. “He’s Yu-shushu’s second favorite person in the whole world, so you have to be nice and show him what to do since you’re my very favorite, okay?” Jin Ye considers that for a long moment, little bottom lip pouting out impossibly far, and then she nods and Mo Xuanyu gives her a smacking kiss to the cheek that makes her giggle. How in the world is Jingyi not supposed to fall in love?

[what-do-1000-swords-look-like]

Sansa vs Dany Contrast: Treatment of Tyrion

How they view him as an advisor:

Sansa:

Sansa: "Tyrion is a good man. He was never anything but decent towards me."

Dany:

"I didn't ask him to be my Hand simply because he was good. I asked him to be my Hand because he was good, intelligent, and ruthless when he had to be."

&

Dany: "He never should have trusted Cersei."

Sansa: "You never should have either."

How they handle his wanting to fight:

Sansa:

Tyrion: "If I was out there right now--"

Sansa: "You'd die. There's nothing you can do."

Tyrion: "You might be surprised at the lengths I'd go to, to avoid joining the Army of the Dead. I can think of no organization less suited to my talents."

Sansa: "Witty remarks won't make a difference. That's why we're down here. None of us can do anything. It's the truth. It's the most heroic thing we can do now. Look the truth in the face."

(this works with Tyrion because we see him thinking it over and then him remarking that maybe they should have stayed married - Sansa is in the same position as him, she wants to help, to do something, but she knows she can't, that she would only get in the way, which is why she listens to Arya - so it makes perfect sense that later she and Tyrion step up to the plate to take on the Wights in the crypt together [I will never forgive the show for deleting that great scene but making sure Dany's out-of-nowhere sword skills were kept in, it's a lot easier for someone untrained to use a dagger compared to a big heavy sword, just sayin'])

Dany:

Tyrion: "When the time comes, Ser Davos and I will be on the walls to give you the signal to light the trench."

Dany: "Ser Davos is perfectly capable of waving a torch on his own. You'll be in the crypt."

Tyrion: "Your Grace, I have fought before. I can do it again. Alongside the men and women risking their lives."

Dany: "There are thousands of them and only one of you. You can't fight as well as they can but you can think better than any of them. You're here because of your mind. If we survive, I'll need it."

(notice how they show Jon's, Varys', and Jorah's reactions here; Jon's reaction is less than complimentary most likely due to Dany speaking against the plan they already had in place & knowing that Tyrion could be useful; Varys agrees with Dany because he and Tyrion are friends; Jorah's is more passive but these three are shown at a time they didn't need to be when this sequence is purely Dany and Tyrion so why show them? because they're showing you that this is something Dany should not have voiced in front of everyone else [it's also a play on the previous scene of her biting Tyrion's head off], the previous season and even this episode, Dany's ire has grown towards Tyrion & she made it clear to Sansa earlier why she has Tyrion as her Hand - this on the surface looks like Dany caring about him and not wanting him to get hurt but she makes it clear she's keeping him around for only one reason)

How they speak of him to others:

Sansa:

Sansa: "Tyrion's not like the other Lannisters. He was always kind to me."

(the 8x02 library scene from above is another example, she defends Tyrion when Dany blames him for Cersei's deception)

Dany:

Dany: "He's made mistakes. Serious mistakes."

Jorah: "As have we all. He learns from them."

Dany: "You're advising me to forgive the man who stole your position?"

Jorah: "I am."

Dressing him down in front of others:

Sansa:

Sansa: "Cersei told you her army was coming North to fight for you?"

Tyrion: "She did."

Sansa: "And you believed her?"

Tyrion: "She has something to live for now. I believe she wants to survive."

Sansa: "I used to think you were the cleverest man alive."

(Sansa does not say anything critical of him in front of others, she waits until they're alone)

Dany:

Davos: "You'll want to discuss this amongst yourselves."

Dany: "You will stay."

Tyrion: "Commit to the blockade of King's Landing. We have a plan. It's still the right plan."

Dany: "The right plan? Your strategy has cost us Dorne, the Iron Islands, and the Reach."

Tyrion: "If I have underestimated our enemies--"

Dany: "Our enemies? Your family, you mean. Perhaps you don't want to hurt them after all."

(not to mention the 8x02 scene where she dresses Tyrion down in front of Jorah and Varys)

[noblechaton]

so ultimately I really enjoyed season 5 as a whole and think it might be my new favorite season of ml in general since most episode were bangers and the finale eps weren't really any different lmao

but there's two elements that - like other folks I've seen - are kinda bugging me and bog it down a good bit I feel and I kinda wanna ramble about em. ml spoilers below (no salt tho I am complaining somewhat)

the first thing was something I'd caught a glimpse of just before I passed out last night thanks to some lovely blogging from a few mutuals and that I caught onto midway thru the second part of the finale and that is of course the weird attempt at seemingly redeeming? Gabriel in some capacity

now of course he's not at all redeemed to us, the audience, and it doesn't feel like a redemption so much as like. absolving him? but either way like....why at all? 5 seasons (2 specials and a video game too) across like 8 years I feel sorta showed that the guy legit could not be redeemed, especially S5 itself with multiple instances of him doing just. unforgivably heinous things to everyone including that son of his he kept talking about protecting and like for a time in the show maybe I could have seen that path where he was genuinely doing this to improve Adrien's life but that was tossed a long time ago lmao, he's actively tormented Adrien more than anything and that's without factoring in his beatings of Chat Noir, threats towards Marinette, etc.

Gabriel sacrificing himself at the end was something I sorta always knew was coming bc nothing else really made sense. no way he'd go to jail, he couldn't just be absolved of all he'd done and there was no real other option and yet they tried to absolve him anyway?? not to mention how little sense I feel it makes for Adrien to believe this in the least after even just the last few episodes, let alone the season and then some

Paris in general treating Gabriel like a hero sucks - most of the class at least should know better - and while I think there's a chance it'll lead to some juicy drama between Marinette knowing the truth and Lila knowing what she knows, one of them feels bound to take it to Adrien, I'm concerned it'll just be a flat point never to be addressed again

now I've often felt the show is more clever than ppl give it credit for but idk. something about it just feels weird and wrong and not just bc of what it is on the surface - Marinette building a lie into her relationship with Adrien is fascinating and it should absolutely come up in the future, but I'm worried it won't

and the reason I'm worried is bc of how Adrien was handled in the finale - in that he wasn't really handled at all

I understand that the story had him locked up in a cube, I get that he was purposefully tossed aside by that same father he supposedly believes is heroic now but like....why did we get nothing from him past him forfeiting the ring? why did he give up so easily? why was he a total nonentity in the finale of what is, essentially, his arc? in this story that has the most bearing on Adrien, Adrien himself was just....gone for most of it, arguably all of it

I feel like it flies counter to a lot of what the show's been doing especially lately with him in how Adrien is basically stripped of any and all agency by the end of the finale and honestly I hate it lol. him having no say on anything, no knowledge of anything or any real reaction to....anything that happened. we don't see him really react to the lie of what his father did, to Nathalie being returned to health or to the mysterious blonde woman at the pool who may or may not be his actual mom (the storyboards and deleted scene apparently confirm it was, at least, at some point), we don't even see him get his ring back. like I wasn't expecting a reveal at this point - I don't think we're gonna get one tbh - but....nothing??

which is part of why I feel the stuff at the end with him and Marinette in the garden - while very nice and cathartic after 8 years of watching - felt so off, almost hollow. Adrien didn't really get to be a character in the finale and just sort of reappears to finally kiss Marinette again? that's it? he's all smiles and sunshine again after being genuinely, undeniably tortured by his father that he again somehow believes is heroic in some manner? huh??

I think I'd feel better about things if we at least got his reaction to things - if he somehow rolled up on his destroyed house or found Nathalie walking around under her own power or w/e but there's just nothing. like he's an action figure that got lost under the bed for a bit. and again there's a chance we get some of that next season but like, not only do I think we shouldn't have to but I also see it as less likely than the Gabe stuff proving to be a plotline since that feels much more like a lingering presence that sorta needs to be dealt with and honestly Tomoe needs to be dealt with too idk how Kagami could ever go back to her after this

which really has me excited about season 6 more than I was - I admittedly kinda groaned when they revealed there'd be more seasons since I knew about the 5 season arc (especially since main villain Lila did not interest me in the least at the time lol, and still kinda doesn't tbh) but if I'd sorta softened on the decision across the last few years, I've fully turned around with this - so long as they address some of this stuff going forward at least bc I feel like if nothing else there's some really juicy drama and story potential in the Gabriel lie coming undone

ultimately again I loved this season and felt the finale was appropriately crazy - the kwamis in their ultimate forms, Gimmi's appearance, Bug Noir and the fight across the mansion, it all worked really well imo and there was a lot of payoff still in the finale even if I feel they didn't really stick the landing with a couple of rough edges and odds and ends hanging out

I also wanna say that I kinda like the ideas I've seen floating around about how the epilogue might not be what it seems - that Gabriel's wish wasn't so pure in nature, it kinda fits him to warp reality in just such a way after all but idk if that's what's going on here for sure yet. think it'd make a really cool twist if that evil AU special thingy came straight off of this tho, or if we got midway thru S6 and it's like, oh dang we're living a total fabrication!! I love stuff like that lol

also also ngl I am not excited about the whole team being back at all in any capacity lol. think a smaller team - which would now be Ladybug, Chat, Carapace, Rena, Ryuko and Argos maybe - just works better

also also also - addendum that ties into the Adrien stuff - it feels really weird that Chat Noir wasn't present at all during Monarch's defeat right? like. idk that just doesn't sit well with me, like he should have had some impact there, some role. maybe he could have broken out and given Ladybug the ring himself (albeit in a mask or something) or done literally anything. idk. really weird

[grat10grottenblog]

Using Pixelart in OBS

This Tutorial is also on, Newgrounds & SteamGuides

Intro

Ayoo Grat back, i had a discovery while setting up stuff for a date stream or something

you can aprently use nearest neighbour (though it goes under another name) in OBS

OBS has an easier time scaling images up than scaling them down, like you exporting your pixelart at 3200% of its original size to make it fill about a 1/25 of the screen, thats kinda bad cpu wise.

and scaling them at the default 1000% aseprite may not be enough sometimes ether!

*Resized by 1000% pixelart*

Lets make this run better and always look Crisp shall we?

Through Scale Filtering

One way to do This is through Scale Filtering!

This was the first way i discovered, its pretty easy to do too! this is what i'd use if i had a Lot of images to place it on, like a date scene that needs switch-able icons and a level up bar and such

Import your pixelart into OBS i'll use the smallest size for this example, this is 100% Aseprite's default export size

*very blurry no good *

By right clicking the images you can go to Scale Filtering and choose a scale filtering

The Ones that seem to work like nearest neighbour is Point & Area

i'm honestly not the best or very knowledgeable about OBS at all, so i cant explain the why's

Picking Point or Area you should have your pixelart be scaled by nearest neighbour aka like it should,

Sha-bang boom pow drum roll now

Through The Filter Tab

Another way to do this is through the Filter Tab, Scaling Filters are also filters so they're also in that tab!

Thanks to BokiBokiPixelart for the info that there was a way to do it through the filter tab! :>

You can Enter the Filter tab by right clicking an images in the sources or the display window!

Here is an Images without a filter, we'll need to add a scaling filter,

this images is 100% (aseprite default export size)

thas a bit blurry :/

By adding a filter you'll be able to specify a Scaling method and a ratio, ( 1:1 is good :> )

Bye bye :>

Okay i hope this was useful to you! i'll never need to delete a scene again because of lag,

oh and also try checking that the images should unload when not shown to improve performance even more!

please check out Boki they we're really helpful on giving insight in on how they do it :>

as always you can comment if you need help, i'll try. thats all i'm gonna promise.

if you make something you'd like to show me or something then you can dm me on my Twitter and.. if that date stream sounded intresting then check out my Twitch!

bye bye !

[memento-morri-writes]

Happy STS Morri!!! I hope you are having a good day/night!

@ink-fireplace-coffee here, so get ready to answer some questions if you don't mind me asking...

If you could only eat one (1) dish or food from All the Queen's Horses, which one and (if its a dish) what is it made of? why would you choose that one?

Do you have any alternative titles for ATQH??? Were you deciding in between more options?

Is there a favorite deleted scene you can show us?

Tells us about a time when you were proud of yourself bc of your writing

Give us 3 (or more) songs that you associate with Duncan

If Nora was a color/place/object/food/element, she would be...?

If you could insert any of your characters in any other universe (think books, series, movies, whatever) which character would you choose, in which universe and, would they be happy there?

tell us about the Moment (tm) when you decided to start writing! Not just this wip but ✨writing✨

Oooh, okay!!! This is fun!! Thank you so much for all the questions, Carmen!!

If you could only eat one (1) dish or food from All the Queen's Horses, which one and (if its a dish) what is it made of? why would you choose that one?

Hmmm... I honestly have no idea. There's these straberry jam pastries that Fallon loves, but doesn't eat much because they remind her of her mom, but the problem is...... I don't like strawberries. So, maybe I'd just want some very fresh hommemade bread, because I fucking love bread.

the rest under the cut!

2. Do you have any alternative titles for ATQH??? Were you deciding in between more options?

I am 100% sold on the title ATQH. I'm never going back. But, when I started writing it, it had a horrible, horrible temporary title that was abbreviated RTQ. (Romancing the Queen) I only even named it that temporarily because I needed to call it something other than "that story in my head", and all I knew was it was going to be a romance. Although I very quickly stopped thinking of it as anything other than RTQ, and sometimes I forget that RTQ actually stood for something, ajsda.

3. Is there a favorite deleted scene you can show us?

Not a deleted scene, but oneshots that take place in the wrong timeframe to be included! I actually have two!! HERE and HERE.

4. Tells us about a time when you were proud of yourself bc of your writing.

There was this short story that I wrote in 9th grade that I entered into a short story contest. My teacher (who was a harsh critic) said it should be in the top 10 for the contest. It didn't make it, but I'm still pretty damn proud of it! Maybe I should revisit it and post it on here... It was a really kind of strange experimental short story about aliens finding Earth, but all the humans are gone, and what they assume about us based on what we left behind.

5. Give us 3 (or more) songs that you associate with Duncan

Oh god, I don't know. I actually don't have a single song I associate with him. It's sad, but I'm really picky about my songs. They have to be spot on perfect or else I won't associate them to anything. I have songs for Fallon and Kris, and for the whole story/certain scenes, but none for Duncan. Which is TRAGIC. I love Duncan. He deserves better.

6. If Nora was a color/place/object/food/element, she would be...?

Nora is definitely purple. I associate her very vividly with the color purple. All of my characters have A Color, and hers is purple, adsjak. As for an element, I'm thinking water, since yk, she's a pirate, and also because water can look calm on the surface, but have very strong currents.

7. If you could insert any of your characters in any other universe (think books, series, movies, whatever) which character would you choose, in which universe and, would they be happy there?

Can I say our universe?? I really just want to bring Kris here and give him a hug, or Fallon and have her be my badass older cousin. Fallon would absolutely rock a pantsuit, btw. I think if she were here, it would be very freeing for her to not have the weight of being Queen on her shoulders. She'd find a way to make herself be able to do something though. Maybe she'd run for office, maybe she'd be a businesswoman, maybe she'd start a charity, I don't know. But she would do something, because she can't do nothing. And Kris would just be happy to be where Fallon is, and also he'd be happy to be out of Oryn.

8. tell us about the Moment (tm) when you decided to start writing! Not just this wip but ✨writing✨

Carmen, I'm going to be honest and say I don't remember. I've been writng my whole life. When I was in 3rd grade, I wrote 42 pages about the Titanic. When I was in 7th grade, I wrote an epilogue to a book we read in class and successfully predicted the plots of the next two books in the seires. When I was in 9th grade, I wrote that short story. But I was never able to get more than a few pages into something until ATQH. Before ATQH the only projects I had ever finished were short stories that were for class. Because I never was this invested. I don't remember learning to read (I taught myself and was reading road signs by 3.), and I don't remember starting to write. I've always done it, even if it was just making up random stuff in my head. When I was a kid, all my toys had to have plots. The lego girls knew a secret portal into the dinosaur world. The little animal figurines had very complicated politics. Everything had a story, I just didn't write them down.

Thank you so much for the ask!! And I'm sorry I don't have good answers for some of these.

[casspurrjoybell-26]

The Contract - Chapter 23

*Warning: Adult Content*

It was my last day in my hometown just outside NY and I saved the best thing for last until I left to drive back home.

I walk down the halls of my old high school and so many good memories come flooding back when everything was perfect and my dad was alive and a teacher here.

I find my old locker and touch it, remembering the first day of school and my dad trying to talk to me in front of other students... I got so embarrassed that my dad was a teacher and that he was asking if I made friends yet.

Thinking back, he'd always been there and he'd always ask if I had a good day when nobody was around after that, realising it now, I was probably not the best son to him, even though he was always the best dad to me.

I walk down the hall until I reach his old classroom and then try my luck to open the door and then turn it only to see that it's unlocked.

I walk inside and admire how nothing has changed, everything was the same.

History.

I used to love listening to my dad talk about the great adventures of the world while keeping things fun so nobody fell asleep, it was one of the best lessons that every student looked forward to, just because of him and his enthusiasm to teach.

Sitting in my old seat, three rows from the front, next to the window, I sit down and take it all in as I look around, as so much nostalgia hits me about being here.

Those were good times, if only I appreciated them more, then maybe I'd have been nicer to him, told him I loved him more, that I was lucky he was my dad.

"Evan?" a soft voice says, startling me. "Oh heavens, I thought it was you."

My English teacher, Mrs. Rue comes over to me with her arms open wide as I get out of my seat and go over to her and wrap my arms around her tiny body.

"My, you are so tall now and still handsome I see," she says, patting my back and looking up at me. "How long has it been?" she asks a tear in her eye.

I laugh and look her over, seeing that she hasn't changed a single day, other than she's gotten older.

"Six years to be exact," I say, smiling widely, not thinking I'd bump into her. "What are you doing here on a Sunday?"

"I just came to get some things from my classroom." she waves me off, before smiling widely. "I retired on Friday, my thirty-th year of teaching I decided it was time to relax and spend some time with my daughter and grandkids."

Wait. Claire had children?

"I had no idea, congratulations on being a granny," I say cheekily. "When did Claire give birth?" I ask, following her as we head out of the classroom and into the halls.

"Two years ago," she smiles, remembering the day. "She has two boys now, married a lovely fellow, a doctor who works in the local hospital," she said, beaming with pride.

There was a moment of silence as I enter the hallway, looking around one last time before I drive back to the city.

"Richard would have been proud of you Evan. You've grown into a good man," she says, catching me by surprise as she smiles warmly at me. "We're all very proud of you."

"Not just a week ago I finished your show with my daughter but I'll have to admit now, I had to look away on a few occasions," she says, fanning her face, making me laugh out loud, knowing exactly what she's talking about, and what scenes.

"I should get going, it's a long drive back," I sigh, glad that I came as I hug her once more. "It's been good seeing you."

"Take care okay?" she rubs my back. "And don't be a stranger, you're always welcome at my home."

I pull away and smile.

"Thanks Rue."

After saying my goodbyes, I make my way back to my car and then shut the door, deciding to turn my phone on and check my messages, after not turning my phone on since Friday.

Coming alive, my phone blows up with missed calls, emails, texts and voicemails but despite the overwhelming hundreds of people trying to get into contact with me, one catches me off guard.

I knew this number. It was Donovan Steele's number.

I deleted his phone number a week after leaving Desire, even going as far as to send back everything he gave to me, that includes the laptop, phone and gym clothes I got from his private member gym.

Since then I'd not heard anything from him other than what premier he went to in the news or who he was currently dating but of course, those were just rumors, he'd never let the press get that information, he's too private.

Do I read it or do I delete it and just call Robbie and let him know I'm heading back, considering he left me a sizable amount of missed calls.

"Fucking hell," I mutter out, getting annoyed at myself.

I decide to phone Robbie before anyone else since he had left the most messages.

Robbie picks up almost instantly.

"Where the hell have you been?" he shouts out, panic in his voice. "I've been worried sick. I even phoned the police thinking you'd done something or worse, that something happened to you."

"I'll come to get you, where are you?" he asks again, hearing the sound of keys rattling in his hands. "I'll leave right now, I just need to find my shoes..."

I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose.

"Rob, slow down, I'm fine. I just spent a few days back home to recharge my batteries. I'm fine, seriously," I tell him, rolling my eyes. "I was just about to drive back to the city."

Robbie sighs out loudly, making me wince, moving the phone from my ear.

"You should've told someone Evan, I've had people come to my apartment looking for you," he snaps angrily. "You can't just vanish like that, what if some crazy fan followed you there and kidnapped you? I'd have to find out about it from the news."

I snort at how that'd never happen.

"Now you're being ridiculous. I'm a grown man.

"What people came looking for me?" I ask curious, starting my car and putting my phone on the phone holder as I pull out of the school's parking lot whilst putting my seatbelt on.

The line goes quiet for a moment, making me wonder if he hung up on me.

"You still there, Rob?" I ask, turning onto the road back to the city.

"The police Evan. Someone broke into your apartment and trashed the place."

My eyes almost pop out of my head as I stare at my phone in confusion.

"What?"

"Yeah," he cringes. "Looks like they stole some things but I couldn't say for sure. The police wouldn't tell me much... but Evan, you should phone them, it's made the news and the fact you've been missing all weekend... just call them okay?"

My head starts pounding as I feel a headache coming on and I haven't even gotten back to the city yet.

Who the hell would break into my apartment?

"I'm on my way back. I'll call them as soon as I reach the city."

"Did they leave a number?"

"I'll text it to you," he says sighing in relief. "You're gonna be the death of me Evan," he adds, before ending the call.

Stopping at a red light, I put my head down on the wheel and groan out, so annoyed that it's barely been two days and something like this happened.

I glance at my phone and decide to open the text message from Donovan because let us face it, life couldn't get any more dramatic or worse.

When I open his text, my chest tightens as I read out his text, not understanding why he's contacting me now, after so long.

ᴅᴏɴᴏᴠᴀɴ: Please get in contact with me, I need to know you're safe.

[stormblessed95]

Hiiiiiii I hope you are doing well!!

Do you have context on this one? 😄 I just saw this for the first time!

https://mobile.twitter.com/7_Miniekookie/status/1481964834388418568

Oh man, this tweet really bothers me because we are supposed to be BETTER than this as jikookers. 😅 the way that this feeds into misinformation so easily by just simply leaving out some parts of what happened to make it sound as if it was more than it was.... Hopefully they really just also didn't know, but then I mean, this is why we fact check things....

Yes, that person was a backup dancer, yes they posted that after Dynamite was released in support of BTS, which is so sweet. But what is left out of that tweet is that it wasn't a photo of jikook at all. It was a video clip that was posted to Instagram of the last like minute of the MV. Which started with the Bridge, which in the MV includes jikooks piggyback jump and then moves onto all the color explosion of the last verse and chorus of the song. Which you know, the rainbow hearts and rainbow emoji probably had more to do with all the rainbows of colors happening in the MV than Jikook and gay pride if we are honest.

^ For anyone who needs a refresher lol

And we don't know why they deleted the post, I'd guess it wasn't because it was sus or because it was going to out jikook or anything. But they probably deleted it because they got hoards of shippers in their comment section being super inappropriate. Tkkrs being crappy asking wtf he thinks he is doing or saying weird shit about TK being real. Jkkrs being shitty by asking for jikook confirmation or if that's what this was or just screaming about jkk being real. Some yoonminners and jinkookers and namkookers doing the same shit too. So that's honestly probably why, if I had to take a guess.

This tweet gives off the same misleading by telling the truth but leaving off bits of information that changes the story a bit as everyone on Twitter losing their minds over Tae posting a lesbian kiss on his instagram.

And when i saw that SS going around, I was AMAZED and so excited. I was like WOW TAE! Of all the screenshots to post to share you are watching this movie?! Turns out that was also a video and he was sharing the whole scene in the movie where the MC sang Dynamite and complimenting her on it. He still shared a WLW kiss which is amazing, but he also mostly just shared the song and the movie. And it got narrowed down to the kiss by a lot of people on Twitter. Lol

So yeah, not everything that got implied in that tweet you shared is worth being implied. It was just a message of support to the whole group for their new song from someone who used to work with them. And is probably super proud of how far they've gone too! Context is good people! We should always make sure we have it

Thanks for asking! Hope this helped 💜

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

Hello! Your answer to that last request absolutely ruined me (in the best way possible)

If you'd like to leave it completely ambiguous that's fine, but I was wondering about an Impulse POV of what goes through his mind when he wakes up and sees Tango? Depending on whether the game ends immediately after that, whether him and Brody have to do something extra to end the game, or if you want to go full bad ending and have the game carry on in that broken state forever.... It could be very different each way, but I'd certainly love to read that aftermath if you would enjoy writing it (because obviously I'm not in enough pain already :D /s)

this is a sequel to this one :D very glad that two of my favourite requesters liked it enough to ask for a follow up!

I also love my Patented Vaunna Uncertain Endings (as Shade put it lol) bc it leads to at least one person yelling at me and at least one follow-up request demanding to know what happens (/pos ofc i love all you guys’ requests)

also yes i’m so sorry Raven i only just realised i wasnt following you asdfghjkl i thought i already was

…

Impulse opens his eyes. Letting out a groan, he sluggishly pushes himself into a sitting position. His head feels like it’s being clamped in a vice, but he has enough wits to register the scene in front of him.

Tango is lying in a pool of blood just a foot away from him, arm outstretched towards him as if trying to reach him.

He can’t stop staring at his best friend’s body. Tango is clearly dead, and Impulse remembers causing it. So why hasn’t the game ended? It should have ended when Brody killed Endless, but it didn’t. Now the only two people left on the ship are the two imposters. There’s literally nothing else that can be done to end the game, except…

Impulse glances down at Tango’s tablet, then at the upload panel. At this point, he’ll do anything to end this game, even if it means losing.

So he picks up Tango’s tablet, ignoring the almost painful tingle shooting through his hand. The game’s code is uncomfortable with him picking up a crewmate’s tablet. And even though he can’t see the screen, he knows what the last task is. So he hopes that the game will let him complete it. There shouldn’t be any protocols in place to stop this; after all, when would an imposter EVER want to do a crewmate’s task?

“What are you-?” comes Brody’s voice suddenly.

Impulse turns to find Brody freezing at the sight of Tango’s body.

“We’re the only two left,” Impulse confirms. “We gotta finish the last task, even if it means we lose. Otherwise we might be trapped here forever.”

Brody slowly nods. He and Impulse are in an odd state; the imposter bloodlust is slowly starting to wear off, leaving him with an uncomfortable mixture of satisfaction and horror at the sight of his old friend’s dead body.

“I think I might throw up,” he groans, turning away and doubling over, hands pressed to his stomach.

Impulse just keeps going with the task, his heart starting to beat faster. He hopes this will work. If it doesn’t…

...he can’t think about that.

As the upload finishes, he squeezes his eyes shut and holds his breath.

He feels something shift around him…

…and when he opens his eyes, he finds himself back in the lobby.

But only one other person is there with him.

Impulse and Brody slowly look around the room, registering their situation, before simultaneously meeting each other’s gaze.

“This is really bad,” says Brody after a moment, stating aloud what they’re both thinking.

Impulse nods, trying and failing to suppress the feeling of cold terror rapidly growing in his stomach. “Y-Yeah. Where are our friends and why aren’t they here?”

Recalling Etho teaching him how to access the code, Brody pulls up the admin screen. Impulse anxiously watches him tap away at it.

“Is it possible to go back to that exact game?” he asks hesitantly.

“I think so. Gimme a sec.”

After a tense few minutes, an open doorway appears in the side of the lobby. Through it, Impulse can see the Skeld cafeteria.

“I’ve altered your code slightly so you should be able to see and hear ghosts,” Brody says. “Go see if you can find out where our friends are. I’ll stay here and make sure you don’t get trapped there.”

Impulse takes a deep breath. “Okay.”

“Good luck, my friend.”

“I’m gonna need it.”

Impulse carefully steps through the door, half expecting it to vanish behind him. But to his relief, it doesn’t.

Where the heck is he supposed to start?

After a moment, Impulse goes into admin. But the admin table tells him nothing except his own location. Next, he rushes over to security. Again, however, the cameras yield nothing useful.

Time for Plan C.

“SKIIIIIIIIIZZ!” Impulse shrieks, running madly through the hallways. “TANGOOOO! ETHOOOOOOOOOO!”

For a worrying minute or so, there’s no replies at all.

Then…

“Impulse!”

He skids to a halt in the hallway between weapons and shields, his head automatically snapping round to face the direction he heard the voice yell his name from.

That’s when he sees two ghosts flying towards him from navigation. “Tango! Etho!”

“Impulse, you can see us?!” yelps Tango. “And hear us?!”

Impulse nods. “Yeah! Oh my gosh, a-are you two okay? I’m so sorry!”

“This isn’t your fault, Impulse,” Etho says firmly. “You were just playing the game. And don’t worry, I’ve managed to save everyone else.”

“What?” Impulse’s heart skips a beat. “How?”

“I was able to access their code and send them back to their respective servers. Skizzle, Joker, Astro, Mrs Tango, Endless, and Evil are all safe.”

“Oh, thank God,” breathes Impulse. “What about you two?”

“I couldn’t manage to access Hermitcraft’s code,” Etho responds. “So I couldn’t send us back there. I think it’s something to do with the firewalls X put up a few years ago.”

“Damnit. What’s going on, Etho? Why’re there so many glitches?”

“I don’t know. But if we get out of this alive, we should definitely give this game a break for a while until it’s fixed.”

“I’ll second that,” Tango mutters. “But wait, how did you get here?”

“Brody managed to open a door here from the lobby. Oh, wait! Maybe you can come through it with me!”

He takes the ghosts to the cafeteria, where the doorway to the lobby is still shimmering.

“Brody, I found Tango and Etho,” Impulse reports to his friend. “Everyone else is safe. Can they come through the doorway?”

Brody hesitates. “They should be able to. Come through first, quickly.”

Impulse goes through the door again and turns back to face his friends.

“Will it be safe for us to come through in ghost form?” Tango asks nervously.

“Ah…” Brody grimaces. “It should be fine.”

Tango is not encouraged by his friend’s tone. “Are you sure?”

“I’m not,” admits Brody. “The likelihood that the game will either glitch or not let you through and delete you forever is worryingly high, but… I think this is the only way. If we don’t give it a go, you’ll be stuck in this weird purgatory forever.”

Tango shoots a glance at Etho, who’s gazing at the doorway anxiously, and makes a quick decision. “I’ll try it first. Then you’ll know if it’s safe for Etho or not.”

“What?” Etho glances sharply at him. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah. 100%. I’m terrified outta my mind right now, but there’s no way I’m watching you go through that thing and disappear forever. No way in hell.”

Not daring to meet Etho’s eyes, Tango turns to the doorway and takes a deep breath.

“Tango, wait.”

Tango pauses and turns back to his friend. “Yeah?”

After a moment, Etho grabs him in a hug. “If we never see each other again, I want you to know that I’ve cherished every second with you and I’m honoured to call you my friend.”

Tango blinks, a lump rising in his throat. “D-Don’t. You’re gonna make me cry.” But he hugs his friend back. “I love you, buddy.”

Finally, he releases Etho and turns to look at Impulse through the doorway. Their gazes meet and Tango sees his own fear reflected in Impulse’s eyes.

“See you on the other side,” he says, his voice cracking audibly. “One way or another.”

With that, he steps through the doorway.

[lokiondisneyplus]

Holy crap. Look at Kate Herron's shirt. When the Loki director pops up on Zoom, she's donning the most glorious image anyone will see since we laid eyes on Alligator Loki: A Teletubby wearing the Loki horns. Are the Teletubbies Loki variants? Sure, why not!

"I got it on Instagram," Herron says. "There's an amazing comic book artist and he designed it. He made it into a T-shirt for me because I saw it and was like, 'That's incredible. Can I get it for the press junket?'"

Herron, no big deal, just pulled off an MCU miracle. Entering a mammoth franchise with, notably, some of Sex Education's best episodes under her belt, the director deftly brought a plot involving multiverses and Richard E. Grant in a cape and superhero mumbo-jumbo to brilliant, beautiful life. Following Loki's tear-jerking, mind-bending finale, the series has been dubbed by critics and fan's alike as one of Marvel's best efforts—which is no small feat. Of course, we needed to ask Herron how she stuck the landing. Following the most epic finale you, me, or any Teletubby can remember, Herron talked to Esquire about the Miss Minutes jump scare, filming the finale's introduction of He Who Remains, and why she won't return for Season Two of Loki.

ESQ: How are you doing?

KH: I'm good. I think I feel very relieved that I don't have to sit on the secret of He Who Remains anymore, It was a very big secret to hold, but for an important reason, right? Because it's such a good character to be launching. So yeah, I feel good.

ESQ: Loking back at your old interviews, you have such a good poker face when you're avoiding spoilers, but you're also incredible at giving aggregator crumbs.

KH: I play a lot of board games, so you need to be quite good at strategy and poker faces so people can't always read your hand. So I think weirdly board games have prepared me more for working with Marvel than anything else.

ESQ: I have to start with the Miss Minutes jump scare. What went into the decision to make her a memeable, creepy apparition in that moment?

KH: I love horror, and my executive, Kevin Wright, knew that. Me and him were talking about Episode Six and I remember that he was like, "Oh, maybe you could do something creepy of Miss Minutes." And I immediately was like, "We have to do a jump scare!" Because I haven't got to do a good jump scare in anything yet and I really wanted to, because a lot of my friends are horror directors. I was like, "I can't let them down." So I was really excited to have a shot at doing a jump scare. And Miss Minutes, it was really fun testing it because we'd kind of bring different people into the edit, me and Emma McCleave, the editor, and we'd just play it for them, watch them, and check that they were jumping when we cut it.

ESQ: One thing that I think is getting missed in all the craziness is that we see a peak moment of the love story between Loki and Sylvie. Where does the finale leave the companionship that they found in each other?

KH: When I started the show, that was always in the DNA of it—that Loki was going to meet a version of himself and they were going to fall in love. And that's honestly what drew me into the story, because I directed Sex Education. I love stories about self-love and finding your identity and your people. Loki is such a broken character when we join him, and seeing him go on this amazing journey with all this growth and finding the good points of himself in seeing her—I think that was very beautiful. It's also paying respect to the fact that Sylvie's in a very different place to him. She hasn't had the Mobius therapy session. She even says, in Episode Five, "I don't know how to do this. I don't have friends." You really feel for her because she has been on the run and her whole life has been this mission.

It's almost funny because these characters are thousands of years old, but it's almost teenage the way they both talk about their feelings for each other. I think everyone can relate to that, right? In any new relationship, there's always that kind of awkwardness and like, "Oh God, am I too keen? The important thing was the hope—like when Sylvie and him kiss, I think it is genuine and it is coming from a place of these feelings they have for each other. Obviously she does push them through that door, but for me it was a goodbye and it was with heart. But it's kind of a goodbye in the sense of like, I care about you, but I'm going to do my mission because that's where I'm at.

ESQ: I would pay for you to direct the Sex Education episode where Otis falls through a portal into the multiverse, into the main MCU.

KH: He really looks like a Loki as well, which is so funny. I always thought that. I was like Asa does look like a Loki. It didn't come to pass or anything, but it would be interesting to do a Sex Ed-Marvel crossover. I wonder who all the different characters would be within the MCU, but it would be quite funny.

ESQ: You're right, he could pull off a teenage Loki.

KH: Yeah, like a teen or a very young ’20s, maybe. But it was just funny because I was like, "Oh yeah, he looks a bit like Tom." I wonder how they could do it. I'm sure they'll find a way to do a crossover anyway.

ESQ: Can you just take me back to filming with Jonathan Majors? And you capturing him in such a compelling, quirky, scary way—I'm sure your direction was such a big part of that.

KH: I was just so excited because Jonathan is an actor that everyone was so excited about. He's like a chameleon in everything he does and he's so talented. I just feel as a director so lucky to have worked on this because I feel like I've got to work with some of the best actors out there. And when you're with Jonathan, you know you're in the presence of just someone really magnificent. For me as a director, it's giving him the space to play and feel safe. Because we filmed it all in a week, but it was a lot to film in a week. So I think it was really about creating a space where he could have fun and find this character because he's going to be playing him for a long time.

ESQ: What went into the decision to introduce us to the good guy first?

KH: I remember in the script, he comes up the elevator and it was so casual. I was like, "Oh man, that's so fun." And then Jonathan, when he plays it, he's relaxed. And I the thing he used to talk about a lot was that this is a character who's been on his own for a long time. Because at the beginning, we introduced him in a space in the universe that feels like this very busy, loud place, but actually, when we see the Citadel, he's surrounded by the Timeline and he's very isolated. Even in his costume with [designer] Christine Wada, for the idea of his outfit, he's a character who's existed for multiple millennia. So it's like, OK, let's pull from lots of different places so you can't necessarily pin down which time or which place he might be from. Also the fact that his clothes look comfy. They were like pajamas because he's living at home. He loved the idea of the office [being] the only finished part of the citadel and that the rest of the citadel was like this Sunset Boulevard kind of dusty, dilapidated space. And just again showed that he probably just keeps himself to his office. All those elements definitely fed into Jonathan's performance in terms of balancing the extrovert, but also the introvert of someone that would be living by themselves and only talking to a cartoon clock.

ESQ: It really is incredible how you pull a nail-biting finale with this battle of wits and dialogue.

KH: It was really exciting because I feel like Episode Five was a lot of fun because we got to play into all the joy of the different versions of Loki, but also just the fact that it was our big usual Marvel third act, right? Like it was where our big spectacle was as they were fighting this big monster. But I love that our finale bookends, right? We began with a conversation and we ended with one.

ESQ: I also loved that there was no end-credits scene—I think it makes the ending that much more impactful. Was there ever an end credit scene on the table, or any kind of a stinger?

KH: I think no, because weirdly, we never went after the kind of mid-credit sequences. I think we always just were thinking just of the story and where we knew we wanted it to end. For example, Episode Four, originally Loki was deleted and then we went straight to him waking up. And it was only in the edit I was like, “I think it'd be really cool actually. We should move that scene to mid-credits because then we'll really feel like Loki has died." Because if I watched that moment and then it went to the credits, I'd be like, "What?!" And then when we were talking about the best way to talk about Season Two, we were like, "Okay, well, let's do that like a little mid-credits at the end because that is exciting to confirm it in that way." I'd say we found both of those in the edit just because we wanted to kind of do it right and have a fun nod to something that Marvel does so well.

ESQ: Is there anything you can tell about the future of the story you've told here—or even where you personally would like to go with the studio or otherwise going forward?

KH: Yeah, so I'm just on for Season One. So I'm so proud of the story we told. I mean, it was amazing getting to set up the TVA and take Loki on this whole new journey. And I mean, I think we've left so much groundwork for his character, and as people see in the comics, there's so much more to be delved into. And I just am excited honestly to just see where all the characters go. Like, who is B-15? What did she see in those memories and where did Ravonna go and where is Loki? I think for me, we've set up these questions and I look forward to seeing them being answered as a fan in the next season.

ESQ: Absolutely. Well, can we please work on the Asa Butterfield Loki?

KH: I will call him and I'll be like, "You want to do some crazy Marvel crossover?"