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maxwell-grant · 6 months

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Thoughts on the master of fear, Scarecrow? Also, fave design, he has so many good ones (second BTAS, his trading card one, mistress of fear, Gaslight,, fear for sale, the Arkham Games etc)?

Hey so, do any of you remember Batman Live? It was this really fun, extravagant stage show that touched on a lot of Batman hallmarks and was generally a really fun time as far as I recall. I went to the São Paulo premiere with my family, and I was a little too young to really recall most of it now, but some things I definitely remember like the huge Joker hot air balloon made of performers in bodypaint, or the comedy sequences in the Iceberg Lounge. The one thing that stuck with me the most was when the Scarecrow showed up. Batman goes to Arkham Asylum and the entire comedy camp tone drops dead, as he walks in and finds all these bodies in straightjackets hanging from chains, and the doors open as The Scarecrow walks towards him in stilts, summoning loud smoke eruptions that are poisoning and weakening Batman as he leers over him. That part actually did scare me as a kid, and it was probably the first time I had any kind of feelings on Scarecrow imprinted in me.

I was introduced to The Scarecrow as this uniquely horrifying villain who could terrify through presentation alone. I didn't particularly understand what the fear gas was, I was too taken with that ungainly thing up there with the stilts and all those people turned into cadaverous decorations, lurking from the endless halls of the asylum, who towered over everyone and placed Batman into a writhing breakdown with a few gestures, and never appeared again until the cast roll, completely absent from the rogues gatherings after. Granted, of course that's because the stilts prevented him from joining the fight scenes, but that helped to reinforce his mystery. He wasn't someone Batman was going to punch back, no no, the Scarecrow simply vanished as soon as he was done with disarming Batman, and you'd just have to pray for that unfathomable creep to never show up again.

And I'd say this might be part of why I've never been too big on the fear gas, in part because I was first enraptured by a version of The Scarecrow who clearly didn't need it that much, or at least, could do much more besides it. The Scarecrow is, I'd say actually one of my top 10 DC characters, half of that on the basis of his designs, but he's a character who tends to really, really struggle under a lack of cohesion and being subordinate to his gimmick, much more so than the other rogues. The fear gas is a good gimmick, but it is just that, a gimmick, and one that's usually reliant on how far can the story push the horror and the visuals to at least make it effectively scary for us, otherwise it gets incredibly boring very fast, and it's not even a gimmick exclusive to him since so many other characters have similar mind control/illusion abilities/gadgetry at hand (and to say nothing of Hugo Strange, who first used fear gas and who quite frankly kicks the Scarecrow's ass in terms of quality storylines, although Hugo does that to most of the other Batman villains too)

The Scarecrow has become the go-to character for hallucination sequences / revisiting character traumas, which frequently makes him less of a character and more so a convenient plot device, a problem heightened by the larger issue here that is his inconsistent motivation, or lack thereof. He lacks the kind of "breakout" stories that his fellow major Batman villains have had that usually cement an ongoing characterization, and his most famous/celebrated appearences in mass media don't really do much to combat the assertion that he is shallow and weak and whose only asset is the gas (namely, his boss fights in Arkham Asylum, which are all about the fear gas hallucination scares, and his role in Nolan's Batman, which is very fun, but also purposefully plays him up for ridicule and lack of depth next to the other villains)

These days, the Scarecrow is a tedious pip-squeak. His schemes lack verve, his cruelties stir little in the way of frissons. Haunted by cliché to an even greater extent than the other rogues, he’s often brought low with a single sock to the jaw delivered by Batman, or by finding himself on the receiving end of his own fear-inducing concoctions. He often acts as a pawn in the hands of bigger, badder third parties. He’s ostensibly a stand-in for the figure of the reductive, smug and hypocritical psychologist, nicely bundled up for the audience to humiliate in effigy - TheMindlessOnes's rogue review for Scarecrow

In "Nothing to Fear" it is explained that Jonathan Crane has always had this "thing" for scaring people. (Just as Snidely Whiplash had his "thing" for tying women to railroad tracks, I suppose.) But this is a wan kind of motive. One senses sadly that the real motive for the Scarecrow's behavior lies in the writer's need for someone to do something reprehensible. At the root of the matter may be a difficulty in sorting out the Scarecrow's ends from his means, with a consequent confusion between the goals the Scarecrow intends to reach and the tactics he employs in reaching them.

As a psychologist specializing in phobic disorders, Crane knows how to induce fear and trembling in his victims. But this tells us nothing about what the Scarecrow wants to accomplish. And without a sense or statement of what those goals are, the writer will be tempted to substitute means for end and make the Scarecrow's goal simply the scaring of people. Usually his actions are woefully underexplained - Dreams in Darkness' review by Toonzone

You might think that I'd be advocating for the Scarecrow, then, to disregard a need for a motivation and become as unknowable and horrific as possible, to recapture the awe I felt at his Batman Live self, but no, not at all. For one, I don't think the best version of anything is necessarily the one that made the most impact on me as a kid. Two, there have been some attempts over the years to remove Scarecrow from the toxin or seriously amp him up as a threat, and frankly, most of those have only made the character dramatically worse and more boring (I don't remember the name, but there was a Batman story a while ago where he goes on a big scary killing spree with no toxin just to prove he can and it was fucking terrible). Three, and the big one here, is that this pretty much forces you to get rid of Dr. Jonathan Crane, and I think that does a disservice to the character's potential. I think that's giving up on trying to make him work as a character and I don't think you have to do that.

My preferred characterization for Crane is one that emphasizes his nature as a scholar turned supervillain. The cold and misanthropic and neurotic nerd professor who spent most of his salary on books and took to terrorizing the city as a costumed criminal in part because he wanted money to buy more books. Who takes off the costume mid-crime spree to school his henchmen on specifics of brain chemistry, who gets revenge on those that wrong his students or even employs them as henchmen, still the same guy who thinks there's nothing wrong with firing a loaded gun in a packed classroom as a demonstration. Far less interested in human connections than he is in human reactions, things that can surprise him or that he can catalogue or research or write about. Someone who's not a sadist for sadism's sake, but who doesn't really see you as a person so much as he sees a test subject. I like Crane as a snarky humorous heel who thinks of himself as amoral and mature while doing horribly immoral and childish things, the Herbert West or Rusty Venture of Batman villains (James Urbaniak is definitely the voice I'd pick for him).

My preferred kind of motivation for him is something along the lines of how he's portrayed in most of Kings of Fear, where he puts Batman through the wringer in part as an attempt to get to him and cure him once and for all, or issues #4-5 of The Batman Adventures where he induces city-wide illiteracy in part as a protest against the city's failing education. In Gothtopia he makes all of Gotham hallucinate their perfect ideal lives, eliminating the crime rate but causing the suicide rate to spike up in return, and yes it does turn out to be the set-up for a really generic "fear gas everyone with blimps and make everyone twice as scared" pay off when his involvement is revealed, but I always thought Scarecrow being able and willing to do that, to create these huge and even benevolent-seeming social experiments, as an idea with legs. Fear State was frustratingly halfway there, with the initial set-up of Scarecrow pursuing a theory for fear-based social upheaval, but on top of not being very good, it also wound up that he was just doing the same old thing again and had Batman call him out as someone who just wanted to gas the city and make everyone scared again and never changes and does anything different, which seemed like Tynion defeating his own purpose of trying to make a defining Scarecrow story and address his lack of one, completely failing to address the why the character has that kind of problem and upending itself for meta commentary before doing anything interesting.

Even Kings of Fear, easily the best Scarecrow story of the past decades if not outright ever, kinda ends in a bit of a cop-out where The Scarecrow has to be wrong ("Even when he's telling the truth, he's lying, and even when he's right, he's wrong", Gordon tells Batman to reassure him, to nullify the past 5 issues criticizing and tearing into Batman from every angle imaginable), and he has to be a sadist who just wanted to fuck with Batman and uncover his worst fears because it's what he does. Why does Scarecrow want to unravel people and wrench their worst fears into the surface? Because he's a sadist who gets off on it? I guess that's the canon answer most of the time, but it's such a boring, weak one. Because he wants revenge on the world / bullies? Still weak, done better by other villains even. Because of an unspeakably traumatic childhood that taught him the world was ruled by fear and therefore driving him to become it's master? Okay, but it still doesn't actually answer what he wants to get out of doing what he does.

We know that Jonathan Crane was a fragile youth routinely terrorized and abused by others and plainly traumatized by his experiences. We know that he is learned and brilliant and given to introspection and fantasy.

From this base it is not hard to imagine Crane turning into a man fiercely devoted to solitude and study and capable of a murderous rage when his privacy is violated. It is possible, in other words, to imagine him as a reactive force, in the mold of Freeze, systematically terrorizing and destroying anyone who crosses him but rarely wanting to start trouble himself.

Or we can imagine him as a mercenary, a specialist hired by others for nefarious purposes, but who is not himself strongly motivated by particular rages or desires.

But if the Scarecrow is going to remain a sadist and a sadist only—if he is going to be moved only by the psychotic desire to harm others—we ought to be made to feel the seductive power that sadism has over its practitioners; we should be made to feel and appreciate the hot and sour joy that comes from the purposeful humiliation of another - Dreams in Darkness review by Toonzone

It's kind of a frustrating pattern in a lot of his stories where he gives a reason for doing something, and it turns out to be a cover for yet another sadistic fear gas attack, but his cover reason was a more interesting motivation for him than what he actually was going for. A villain who mainly just gets a kick out of hurting people and concocts bullshit excuses and reasons to justify said hurting? The Joker does that already, but the Joker always clearly states what he wants and has all those ways to make cruelty for cruelty's sake entertaining. If that's all The Scarecrow is also, no wonder he's going to be so incredibly lacking most of the time (nevermind the fact that he's never going to be the guy most infamous for gassing Gotham City).

Yes, he may be sadistic and cruel, he may enjoy what he does too much, and maybe there really isn't any kind of realistic explanation as to why a man would dress up as a scarecrow to commit terrorism and spray innocent people with chemicals to make them terrified, but refer to the guy he's fighting. "Realistic" is the wrong term. The issue here is less "why" the Scarecrow does what he does, and more what is he hoping to get out of it. Granted, this is less of a concern if you're playing The Scarecrow as a figure of horror, someone who's not even really human underneath that outfit. But I think that locks away much of his versatility. The Scarecrow needs Jonathan Crane, and I think there's good stuff to like about that awful man.

I like Jonathan Crane the sardonic pragmatic scientist who still embraces his hopelessly ridiculous life, a guy who's not nearly as above it all as he'd like to be and has wants and needs moreso than he really likes to admit. I like him as a book lover, as a fan of horror, I like him as the kind of guy who'd send fan mail to Elvira and break out of Arkham just to catch a Halloween parade and guest star in a Scooby-Doo movie for a change. I like him as someone who'd have a decent working relationship with the other rogues and pal with the Legion of Doom and get into a physical spat with Riddler over a chess game. Someone who custom-makes his own outfits and equipment, who makes scythes out of animal bones to fight Batman with, who picked the scarecrow motif in part because it was a term of derision his colleagues used on him.

Who pours himself over his research as he records his theories in a tape recorder, the kind of guy who grouses at having to clean another cell because he's getting annoyed at his test subjects killing themselves, seriously guys the cleaning supplies for this batch were as fresh as they could be, and the iguana amygdalas I used should be stopping your neocortexes from overreacting this strongly. Subject #3 over there got over his fear of centipedes yesterday and he hasn't screamed all morning, I'm gonna need the rest of you to stop being such babies, okay?

It must be terribly liberating for Crane, to transcend mere ugliness and become inhuman. Of all the rogues, he’s easily the one who takes Batman’s “I need a disguise; I shall become a beast of the night” schtick and runs with it the farthest - TheMindlessOnes's rogue review for Scarecrow

And that's for Jonathan Crane, man of science. The Scarecrow, however, is not science, he is unreason incarnate, and to me what most makes The Scarecrow work as a Batman villain has nothing to do with "they both use fear as a weapon", I always thought that was a bit shallow of an angle to pursue (most, if not all, the villains rely on fear, it comes with the whole "crime" thing). The two have a stronger connection via the costume, the theatricality, the becoming a creature of the night angle. None of the other major Batman villains are going into their costumes the way The Scarecrow is. They have their personas and varying degrees of division between them and their "real selves", but few of them are wearing outright identity-separating Halloween Monster Costumes with separate names and personalities they can dip in and out of at their convenience.

And I'm gonna interrupt myself to answer your second question. I couldn't pick just one design, so counting the Batman Live one above, I picked 10. These are not in order and they're not necessarily how I'd design him, I'd say my actual favorite Scarecrow designs are fan-made, but if I was going to pick out of "official" material these are the ones I'd go for. It's time for:

(Left-to-right: George Pratt's Scarecrow pin-up, Phil Jimenez's Scarecrow design, Ed Natividad's concept art for Suicide Squad)

(Left-to-right: His TNBA design by Bruce Timm as drawn by Luciano Vecchio, Alex Ross's design for Justice, and Tim Sale's Scarecrow)

(Left-to-right: Kelley Jones' design for Kings of Fear, Jeremy Raapack's design for Legends of the Dark Knight #25, Scarecrow's design in Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo!)

*cough*, anyway: Most of the other rogues with their signature suits or masks or body distortions don't tend to have closets full of different variant Batsuits and scarecrow costumes to choose and devote to their cause and ideal, that they sit at night tailoring on how to make scarier or more loaded with weapons, that they might even have conversations with, things that sit in their closets waiting because both of these brilliant men, men who have (or at least had) different civilian lives, men who could stop doing this at any time, who both decided that becoming a Halloween monster prowling the streets to inflict terror is a necessary, even productive use of their time.

And I think that's the key word I want to end here, productive. I think The Scarecrow needs to be more productive. Because even if he's not aware of it, he is achieving progress via his research, and there is one way he's proved his ideas: Batman walks out of every fight they have stronger. Every encounter they have is a test that Batman resists and walks out of more able to cope with his own traumas, or at least, better able to resist them being weaponized against him. I always wanted to explore the idea that Crane is genuinely convinced he's doing people a favor or at least achieving something via all these horrible Scarecrow campaigns, and one thing he has achieved is that Batman is never not prepared for chemical attacks or assaults on his mind, Batman resists ungodly trials of willpower and determination and courage, in part because he has to deal with the Scarecrow pumping terror juice in his brain semi-regularly.

The fact that Crane loses and gets beaten up and has to retry schemes again and again and kill people and join the costume parade just to lure Batman is fairly inconsequential to him, so long as it gets results. He's not interested in dissecting Batman's brain or being more like Batman, that's Hugo Strange's thing. Hugo Strange needs Batman to be fearless, allmighty and perfect, where as Jonathan Crane wants nothing more than to unearth and study the fears and kinks in the armor, the dead last thing he wants is a perfect man. Hugo Strange wants to crawl naked into the mask of the great and terrible fascist and never come out, where as The Scarecrow wants to crack open all the masks in the world and feast luridly on whatever seeps out.

Batman isn't just the ultimate trial against his fear-ruled worldview (or even affirmation), and he isn't just a breakthrough waiting to happen: he might be his greatest success as of yet. A case study on the success of exposure therapy, proof of potential medicinal applications for his formula, the greatest guinea pig of all time because he won't die no matter what you pump into him, you name it. So what if all those other people couldn't stomach the procedure, so what if those precious innocents are too weak and stupid and useless to not get in the way of research, it's clearly worked wonders for those who could take it.

And if the future belongs to men like Batman, if all of these superheroes and supervillains are the way things are going to be like forever, if the future is Bat-shaped and as vast and uncertain and horrible as the forces shaping it, the future needs to be prepared. The future needs to grapple with it's past and face it's greatest horrors and become stronger for it. There is no such thing as overcoming fear, there is only living with it, embracing it, bowing to the primordial instinct that knows the answer before you do. Mankind grew and developed it's intelligence and tools out of fear, fear of the bigger predators out there, fear of the other cavemen, fear of starvation and death and everything they couldn't understand and master until they learned to fear it. What better knowledge to pass along than fear? And who is better qualified to teach about fear?

Maybe Crane isn't just another monster with a grudge, maybe he isn't another costumed revenge killer, maybe he isn't just a power-tripping sadist bully out to torment others because he can, and maybe he isn't a hopeless traumatized madman who destroyed his professional and personal life in a monstrous quest to satisfy an obsession ruling his soul.

Maybe he is a sane response to an insane situation. Ever heard that one before?

#replies tag #superheroes #batman #dc comics #scarecrow #the scarecrow #jonathan crane #gotham city

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theresattrpgforthat · 2 years

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hi there! do you have any recommendations for what to check out in the TTRPGS for trans rights Florida bundle? there's so many of them I don't know where to start

THEME: Mint’s Faves from the Florida Trans Rights Bundle

Damn, you beat me to the punch! I’m very excited to talk about these recommendations, hold onto your hats!

Disclaimer: Yes, I am aware that both Wanderhome and Thirsty Sword Lesbians are good games. I agree with you, they are good games and you should play them. I figured I’d shed a light on some games that are not the two games that are consistently brought up every single time someone mentions this bundle. If you haven't yet bought the Florida Trans Rights bundle, you can buy it here!

Eco-Mofos, by David Blandy.

ECO-MOFOS!! is a mid-future ecopunk ruin-delving survival game, as player characters (PCs or Punks) seek a safe homestead to start a new community, Weirdhope not Grimdark.

Around two hundred years ago, everything went to shit. The wealthy, who created this mess, fucked off to Mars while the lucky ones hid in vast underground bunkers. We were left to fend for ourselves on the surface, eeking out an existence in the broken world they left behind, searching for remnants of a past world to help us survive, searching for a place to call home.

Play a group of misfits who have found each other in the wastes and ruins of the fallen world. The past is just a hazy legend, the story scattered over thousands of usb sticks and servers, but the future is there to be written.

Blandy has niche ideas that slap, including Lost Eons, Lunar Echos and this game. Eco Mofos is designed to run off of the same rules as games like Into the Odd and Cairn, two rules-light OSR systems that get you to the table fast and force players to think creatively. There’s an Adventure Template also available for folks who want to make their own adventures, and a game jam that’s going on right now as well, so you’re really primed for a maelstrom of content if you get into this game!

18XX Dreams, by Deep Light Games.

THE DREAM REALM WELCOMES YOU: This land has always been here, visited by some, forgotten by many. Something changed. An increasing number of people have been waking with fantastical ideas and feelings. Now, dreams are becoming more solid: books, paintings, scores…

The barrier is thinner. Some are trapped here, some search for what they can’t reach elsewhere, some just roam, exploring and helping others. What meaning is hidden in your dreams?

DREAMS is a 24XX microgame. See more at jasontocci.itch.io/2400 or make your own using the SRD.

This is a quick game, only 4 pages long, and is deeply surreal. Each 24XX game uses the same basic rules - roll a d6 for most things, with bigger and smaller dice for skills and hindrances - but the creators of these games usually find one or two special rules to make the game unique. This one includes Emotions that can feed into player Traumas, changing the worlds the characters travel through and affecting a character’s arc. There’s also steps for creating maps, which are common in OSR games, although less common in 24XX (which is odd, considering it was birthed from OSR).

My favourite thing about these 24XX games is the roll tables provided for the GMs, giving quick ideas for plots and encounters, making this game runnable with little to no prep.

A Diner at the End, by Bammax Games.

You find yourself seated at a table among a group of people you have never met before, in a place that feels…familiar. You have never been here, and yet the atmosphere is comforting, disarming. It feels a bit like home.

A Diner at the End is a collaborative, improvisational storytelling game that invites at least two players to share the experiences, dreams, and regrets of characters whose time has been spent. Players take on the personas of people across space and time, using a standard deck of playing cards as a means to guide their characters' conversations and reflections.

This game celebrates the lives we lead—in all of their joys and sorrows—and challenges players to find contentment in the limited time afforded to us all.

Getting this game as part of the bundle doesn’t just get you the game, it also gets you the Menu Print version, which can be really handy as it provides you with character ideas. The game itself uses a deck of cards to prompt players to recall their memories prior to their death, holding onto a card that may be the last memory they carry with them onwards. This game has the potential to be deeply emotional, and yet the entire game fits on one page.

To Care is to Cairn, by Kai Medina.

Our town is changing.

We are left with artifacts that hold us to the past. They seem to betray history by breaking, altering, and growing beyond a generation. This is not a betrayal. We do not expect the past to hold such power over the present, and we forget that the present accounts for history just the same. Rubbish will always forge itself into a monument, and we will always be a part of that.

To Care is to Cairn is a world-building tabletop roleplaying game that carries players through a civilization of their making, from a bird's eye view of once everyday objects. Artifacts will become part of a tapestry to a community's developing history, using real world archaeological influence. This 40 page game can be played as its own one-off session, or as a tool to add complexity to approaching established campaigns.

This game is inspired by The Quiet Year, which I also adore. It is perfect for combining with a longer campaign - if you want to create your own world for Thirsty Sword Lesbians, this would be an excellent way to do it! You’ll track a number of events and brainstorm how they affect artifacts over the course of time using a deck of cards.

Also… you can play this game as a precursor to my game Mischief by Moonlight, a game about artifacts trapped in museums, and the small gods that inhabit them.

Bump in the Dark, by jexjthomas.

It's 1994 in the region of the fictional Ontonagon Peninsula known as "Iron Country," a belt of mining towns barely clinging to life. These towns are surrounded on all sides by the Sylvan Wilds, a forest known for old-growth pines and strange happenings. All of Iron Country seems to be teeming with the supernatural, a fact those in power would like to conceal.

You are a hunter, and you’ve promised to keep regular people safe from the horrors in the darkness. Will you stand strong with your found family and community or will you sacrifice yourself to spare the ones you love? Will you be lost trying to find solace wherever you can?

Thrilling, gritty, and utterly human, Bump in the Dark is a tabletop roleplaying game about a group of people who’ve dedicated their lives to hunting and dealing with monsters. There are gruesome attacks, tense investigations, nasty cryptids, nefarious factions, powerful demons, action-packed showdowns, and regular folk caught in the middle.

I’m a little bit feral about Forged in the Dark games, I love how focused they are and how they can cycle between moments of intense action and downtime periods where characters can explore more personal storylines. What makes this even better is the inspiration it takes from the Redacted Materials system of External Containment Bureau, in that the players will use clues to help figure out what exactly they’re up against.

I also fucking love monster games.

Games in this bundle that I’ve recommended in the past

Visigoths vs. Mall Goths, by Lucian Khan.

Europa Base, by a grumpy little critter.

No Sacrifice Without Blood, by hyphenartist.

Gubat Banwa by makapatag.

#dnd #game recommendations #asks #indie ttrpgs #tabletop games #mint recommends

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rakumel · 9 months

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Raku Plays Her Faves: Pocky and Rocky 2

Part 2: The Colorful Cast

Hi! Me again! Talking about this game I like!

Or, I guess if you want to be more accurate, this game with characters in it that I like. Last time I went over some of the technical changes they made in the sequel. With that out of the way, today I'm going to talk about the story and the characters.

Most of the story we get at the very beginning, before the game even starts.

There's a harvest festival going on in the unnamed village where Pocky and her friends live. Princess Luna and her rabbit entourage come to visit, I'm assuming as the guests of honor.

Everyone's having a great time until some monsters crash the party and kidnap Princess Luna on behalf of their master. So it's basically the same "rescue the princess" plot that was in practically every other game at the time. Meh.

But instead of a dude doing the rescuing, it's a shrine maiden, her friends, and a small cast of other characters she meets along the way - provided you take the correct paths in some of the levels.

And that's about it for story. We do learn along the way that the monsters' master is named Dynagon, and he got all pissy because Princess Luna rejected his marriage proposal. I don't consider that a spoiler because just about anyone could have guessed that much.

So the plot's not anything super exciting. But the cast of characters is what redeems the game for me. While they're not deep, they are cute, and you can tell the developers at least tried to give them a little personality.

Let's meet 'em, shall we?

At the beginning of every level (aside from the auto-scrolling ones), you get to choose one of three friends to accompany Pocky into the level. Even though you can find up to four more, these three are who you always start with; once inside the level, usually you don't have to go far before you're given the option to change partners.

Side note: I'm using the names as they're given in the English translation, because for most of them I honestly don't know with any certainty what they were in the original Japanese.

First of all, good ol' Rocky is back. As far as CPU-controlled characters go, he's the best one. He tracks extremely well with his leaf projectiles, hitting enemies that come even remotely within range.

Unfortunately, his Magic ability with Pocky is pretty useless. He can indicate hidden treasure, but in most cases you can't get to it without another character, which you don't find until much further into the game.

Throwing Rocky at an enemy turns him into a tanuki statue, like you might see outside some shops. I like how they kind of dodged the censors by curling his tail under in a way that suggests the comically massive nutsack that would ordinarily be there. Or maybe it was always that way, no dodging intended, I dunno.

Next up, in the pigtails and green uniform, is Little Ninja. Naturally she throws shuriken for her projectiles, but while she throws them super fast, she seems to be very picky about when she'll throw them, and more often than not just stands there like a bump on a pickle.

When Magically merged with Pocky, Little Ninja can attack with her katana at close range, but more importantly, can open locked treasure chests without using up a key. VERY handy in some levels.

Throwing her at a boss causes her to burst into a column of flame. I don't know if it's some secret ninja technique, or if she just shouldn't have used that kerosene shower gel.

Speaking of explosives, next we come to Bomber Bob. Instead of small rapid fire, Bob's projectiles are these huge land-mine looking things that are slow, but deal a lot of damage when they hit.

His Magic ability is probably the most useful: he can lift heavy boulders to clear a path, or just get the item or money underneath.

When thrown at a boss, he turns into a flaming character that I can't read, unfortunately. Probably something obvious like "bomb" or "flame" or "screw you, boss."

The first character you can find, or potentially miss, is Tengy the Tengu. In his own words, he's a "walking dictionary," but it's kind of a waste because there's never a situation in this game where we need to know the definition of a word. Which is too bad, because honestly I'd love to discuss etymology with a crow monster. He does, however, fly behind Pocky (with kind of an annoying wing flap sound) and fire leaves in a V-pattern.

When Magically combined with Pocky, he can fly across open gaps to reach treasure, though there's only a couple of instances where you need that. Oddly, he can't fly over most obstacles, I guess because that would break the game.

There's a couple of boss battles where I try specifically to bring Tengy along, because the magic electric field he turns into when you throw him goes from side to side a little bit, as opposed to the others which stay still. It's good for hitting enemies that like to move around a lot.

The second optional character is this lanky fellow simply named Scarecrow. It's near impossible to miss him, unless you just don't go into the house where he is. He describes himself as a "master of using a sickle" and says he's very handsome. I don't know about the latter, since we only see part of his face up close, but he does throw sickles in a wide circular pattern in front of him.

Scarecrow's Magic ability is, as far as I can tell, completely useless. Pocky doesn't merge with him really, more like uses him as a pogo stick. You can charge the jump and leap clear off the screen, but there's never really any need to do this.

Throw Scarecrow at a boss and he turns into fish swimming upstream, for some bizarre reason. (Is it a fertility thing? Help me out here.)

Take the correct path on the snowy mountain level and have a key handy, so you can find Digger the mole. He offers to help (despite the fact you broke into his house) because he "wasn't doing anything special" and doesn't want to "lose face in front of my friends". Did he brag about being brave and have to prove it, or something? We never find out. He attacks enemies by sending little bitty moles after them.

With his Magic ability, you can dig underground to find hidden treasure. But you also kind of have to know where to dig already, which Rocky could help with, but since you can't rotate out the partners at will - you can only change them at certain points - it's not much good.

Throw Digger at a boss and he turns into a monster mole in a black hole, which not only rhymes but is unexpectedly badass for such an unassuming little fellow.

On the lava covered shores of Demon Island, you can find the lab of Dr. Kabuki and his invention, Ottobot. Dr. Kabuki enthusiastically lends you Ottobot so you can "beat up all the bad guys." Sounds cool, but in practice Ottobot just fires little missles that hover for a bit before launching. Like Tengy, Otto also has kind of an annoying flying sound.

However, its Magic ability is kind of interesting or a cop-out, depending on how you look at it. Pocky appears inside Ottobot, like it's her own personal mech suit (which I love, kind of like a nun on a motorcycle), and can both fly across gaps and pick up boulders - both Tengy and Bob's Magic abilities combined.

Throw Ottobot at an enemy and it explodes into a red-colored blast. Pretty straightforward. It also doesn't seem to last as long as the others do.

So that's all the playable characters in Pocky and Rocky 2. But I'd also like to point out a couple of other interesting characters that appear in the game.

In some cutscenes in between levels, Pocky is led by a dog, monkey, and a pheasant to help rescue their friend "Captain Peach." But this is pretty clearly Momotaro, or Peach Boy. Just a neat little cameo in a game with lots of Japanese folklore already in it, one that probably went over a lot of Westerners' heads at the time. (It did mine.)

But as you can see there, someone tied him up. Who the hell did that?

This demon did, actually. This is Impy, and they're sort of Dynagon's second-in command. We face Impy twice: once as a level end boss, and again as a mid-boss in the final level. As far as boss characters go, Impy's probably one of the toughest ones - they're small and jump around a lot, so they're difficult to hit, plus they've got a wide range of attacks that they cycle through at random.

Impy's also likely the most complex character in the game, although that's not saying much. At the beginning Impy's just a full-on adversary, appearing occasionally to taunt Pocky. When you defeat them roughly halfway through the game, Impy seems to gain a grudging respect for Pocky's fighting ability. Finally, as a midboss during the last level, Impy says that they know Pocky's strong, but hey, gotta prevent you from reaching my master, it's kinda my job. On defeating them, they give the whole "you better not lose to anyone but me" speech. So yeah, Pocky made a frenemy.

Sadly, this is the last we ever see of Impy. They didn't appear in any subsequent games or in the remake of the first one (that I know of). So nothing ever came of the rivalry, which is kind of a shame, as they could have had that rival/forbidden love tension going on. And Impy's at least more interesting than the main villain.

What happened with Dynagon, anyway?

Welllll....he shows up at the end of the final level, all threatening-like.

Pocky and her partner of choice defeat him, and then purify him, I guess?

He then apologizes for being a toxic jackass, and that's pretty much it. Good on him for owning up to his behavior, though.

And everyone rides home on a dragon's back. The End.

Actually, while I was writing this piece I was thinking: Man, there's a lot of unused potential here with the characters. Wouldn't it be great if this game got remade and fleshed out too? Hey, I didn't expect the first one, and it happened, so why not?

But even if that never happens, on its own Pocky and Rocky 2 is still a decent little game, with its own little charm.

I don't know yet if I'll do a full review of Pocky and Rocky: Reshrined. If I do, it won't be right away. I've already picked out the next game I'd like to talk about, but I'm going to do it a little differently. Or possibly very differently, depending on how much I can do in my free time. I already know that work's going to be even worse than it was last year, so...we'll see.

#raku plays her faves #raku plays her faves: pocky and rocky #I've had the main body of text for the next game ready for like...#a couple months now #it just needs a couple of...drawings...to be complete #yes drawings #what *could* I be planning eh?#:) hee hee

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lucifers-horror-harem · 2 years

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Fic authors self-rec! ✨ When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you’ve written, then pass on to at least five other writers.

EEEE THANK U BEX <3 <3 <3 I'm so excited to share my faves cause gahhh I do not get the opportunity to talk about them nearly enough

Heaven's Night (Pyramid Head)

So this is one of my more recent faves just from how much love I put into it. After all the trailers for the new Silent Hill games came out, I was NEEDING to write something for Pyramid Head, and so I included some settings and monsters from Silent Hill 2 into my smut fic as well as some descriptions that emphasized how a lot of these monsters symbolize James' desires (I know those monsters are his but it was for horny purposes so I'm allowed lol) and it's just so dear to my heart. Every time I see someone like it or even reblog it I get a smile on my face.

2. Kinktober Fic: Quickie with Freddy Krueger

Okay now I KNOW this one is your fave of my Freddy fics, and honestly, it's mine too. I loved being able to have Freddy terrorize the reader both in the waking and dream worlds in a unique way (dozing off in class but continuously waking up during it), plus I added a lot of humorous moments that are just SO Freddy that it makes it one of my faves.

3. Kinktober Fic: Predator/Prey with Doom Head

This one isn't even my smuttiest of fics, especially for Kinktober, I was debating between this one and my Dr. Frankenstein Kinktober fic, and this one won me over. I just had way too much fun getting into the mind of Doom Head, he's such a strange and fun character in 31 and I don't see too many people write for him. But I had too much fun with the cat-and-mouse game I wrote in this fic.

4. Unfair Game (Poly! Lost Boys)

Holy Shit, I almost forgot I wrote this fic. It took me sooooo long, especially as it was my first time writing more than a three-way, as this fic is essentially a five-way. I was tearing my hair out over it on more than one occasion, worrying it wasn't good enough, and I think you and some other people were the cheerleading I needed to finally push this fic through. And man, am I proud of it. It was SO MUCH but it was such a fun fic to write.

5. Mine (Blissfield Butcher)

OKAY so I never thought I would want to thirst over Vince Vaughn but I do for this fucking movie, and holy shit I wrote this so fast afterward. I rewrote some of the ending too because fuckkkk he's just so horny and slutty during that final scene and for what??? Insane. INSANE. I love that stupid asshole so much but I am so proud of this fic because of how I went ABSOLUTELY off on this.

Bonus Fic but if y'all want another fic of mine that's not slasher-related I compiled all 3 of my originally posted as one-shots but are actually related fics, Dangerous Games, a Darth Vader/Wilhuff Tarkin/Reader fic. And I'm still proud of it to this day because of how many people continue to tell me I wrote porn of Vader super in character (no one talks about Tarkin but WHATEVERRRRR) so I'm just very pleased with this story and how I developed it.

#ask #about me #charlotte speaks

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snow-slayer · 1 year

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C - A ship you have never liked and probably never will (be nice) D - A pairing you wish you liked but just can’t (again: be nice)

L - Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves (chars you’re neutral on are fair game, as are chars you dislike)

Q - A ship you’ve abandoned and why

U - 5 favorite characters from 5 different fandoms

V - 3 OTPs from 3 different fandoms

W - 5 favorite ships and 5 kinks you like best for said ships

X - top 5-10 characters who are yoUR PRECIOUS BABIES AND YOU WILL DIE DEFENDING THEM

Many thanks! I will enjoy most of these XD

C - A ship you have never liked and probably never will (be nice) I'm just not a fan of Jack and Ashi. I was super hoping for a mentor/mentee dynamic and not a ship. Do I get why it happened and does it make sense that Jack fell for her? Yeah, but also I'm 100% busy shipping some bots.

D - A pairing you wish you liked but just can’t (again: be nice) For a fandom I'm not in: Soljiwan from Nevertheless. Sorry @nothing-of-a-builder! I wanted to be into it to read your fanfics because I know they're good, but I'm just not feeling it. Hit me up with Kirisaya though! Check out all the fics here (including some Franmouche content that stabs me in the heart every time I read it) For a fandom I am in: Probably Scaramouche and Demongo. I love Scaramouche and I'll take whatever fanart/fanfics exist of him with whoever, but this just isn't my ship.

L - Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves (chars you’re neutral on are fair game, as are chars you dislike) Can I go with Vile (Megaman X) on this? Maybe it's sort of cheating by assuming people think I like him a lot more than I do. I don't really care for him and he's annoying and definitely didn't enjoy listening to him in Maverick Hunter X BUT I love what he represents, and that's not being on either side, which was especially well done in Maverick Hunter X. It's funny because I did cosplay as him and it's one of my better costumes, but it's honestly because I went to a foam armor making class for beginners and we made a helmet that suited him so perfectly. I don't think he would have been an option otherwise. Long story short, I like Vile as a concept, not a character.

Q - A ship you’ve abandoned and why Sorry, calling out Scaramouche and Demongo again (which I want to say the ship name for is Fandango, not to be confused with the OC character Fandango XD). I wrote a fanfic for it (and also, sorry everyone, 'tis my least favorite fic I wrote with Scaramouche) and consumed all the content, but after I was blessed/cursed with Franmouche, that was it. This is the ship!

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending, about anything at all (gender identity, sexual or romantic orientation, extended family, sexual preferences like top/bottom/switch, relationship with poetry, seriously anything) You will see a theme later but I'm too tired to want to defend fandom stuff that hard, especially since this is headcanons ask. I will say I love writing Francis as a demiromantic, sex-neutral ace. Love seeing him other ways, too, but this is the primary way I write him.

U - 5 favorite characters from 5 different fandoms Francis the Mercenary - Samurai Jack (honorable mention to Scaramouche, always), Boomer Kuwanger - Megaman X, Mr. Freeze - Batman, Maximillion Pegasus - YuGiOh, N. Gin - Crash Bandicoot

V - 3 OTPs from 3 different fandoms Franmouche (Scaramouche x Francis) - Samurai Jack; Mr. Freeze x Nora - Batman, N. Gin x N. Brio - Crash Bandicoot.

W - 5 favorite ships and 5 kinks you like best for said ships Franmouche - massage, hurt/comfort; Scaramouche x Fandango - interfacing while linked; Gal x Jared - mutual masturbation, voyeurism/exhibitionism; Fandango x Ginkgo - aftercare, cuddling, hurt/comfort, the finance pillow talk; Riddler x Devin (OC) - praise, pampering, katoptronphilia

X - top 5-10 characters who are yoUR PRECIOUS BABIES AND YOU WILL DIE DEFENDING THEM Immediately, I am rebelling because I've killed my favorites at least once, I'LL DO IT AGAIN! In seriousness though, I suppose if I read this in "I'm taking them away from you and you have to fight to keep enjoying them" then definitely: Francis, Scaramouche, Mr. Freeze, N. Gin, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Scooby-Doo, Freddy Krueger, Maximillion Pegasus, Joltik, Boomer Kuwanger.

#Thanks for asking!

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whoredmode · 2 years

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Speaking of kinzie and sriv I LOVE her and SRIV's main menu music (oh yess!) dubstep weapon and I ALWAYS freeroamed with her and Josh as homies while listening to K12 radio in StatusQuo and reinstalled sriv JUST to get max notoriety with her and Shaundis BUT it irks me how people just say that "sriv is bad bc it's not SR1-3" instead of POINTING MORE CONCERNING ACTUAL FLAWS MAKING SRIV A FLOP- Sriv gets so bland after completing it and even lacks identity unlike previous 2006-SRIII era (yes I had ALL sr games from 1 to GOOH and did them chronigically), LACK OF RACES AND THINGS TO DO (no I'm not saying Sriv should've necessarily had Fill Up Reputation To Proceed Further from SR06 but we really wanted variety and big world and bonus activities bc SR06 and 2 HAD THIS and went ahead of game eras thanks to THAT, plus Kinzie's sublot in one of her missions were A HORROR I want to wipe out this crap out of my memory... oh and while I loved the stomping supepowers, the Powers idea was.... ekhem, heavily based from a game called PROTOTYPE

I AGREE! as much as i like to take jabs at sriv and while i’d still say overall it’s easily my least favorite of the main games, i think it’s super dismissive to just say it’s a bad game with no redeeming qualities. or like, not actually getting into the specifics of what’s good or bad about it. i’ve talked about it several times before but i absolutely LOVE the psychological horror in sriv. it’s incredible. i could talk about that shit for hours. if anything we needed more of it. (<- would do anything for several more hours of a pleasant day-esque gameplay)

and same, i really love to just roam around in that game. kinzie’s one of my faves of the whole cast and i really appreciate that sriv gave her a much more overt main role. also i agree the music is really fucking good. one subtle thing i love is the music changes when you’re just running around and how whatever powers you use change the tune slightly like?? it’s so good?? the ambience is incredible. the powers themselves were admittedly kinda lame imo (and that’s interesting re: prototype, i’ve heard of that game but never really looked into it), but whatever. it definitely gets dull fast since it feels like there’s less to do in the open world compared to, say, sr2. but i’d argue that’s more an issue of steelport than anything else😭

i’d almost say sriv is just kinda what you make of it?? i think the couple of good things it has are REALLY good but comparatively the things i disliked are much larger in size so it’s just. eh. still my least favorite. it’s fun to take ideas from sriv and rework them into stuff like rewrites though. or just sit there and overanalyze the horror of the personal simulations. whatever works.

#asks

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crazy-form · 2 years

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omg in my playthru of ds1 right now i just rung the second bell and did i think the next two/three bosses after that but now i'm stuck again TT i would say that imo… having played all of them except demon souls.. perhaps a bit controversial!!! but i personally found dark souls 3 and elden ring to be the easiest! mostly in terms of like, most user friendly esp towards new players! 3 was the first one i actually finished finished, then i played bloodborne and i really love it sm that one is my fave and i think that one can be a bit easier if you like playing at a faster pace? if that makes sense? it's def more fast paced! but the hardest ones for me have been ds2 bc the mechanics are soo so different and then sekiro was a really steep learning curve for me!!

i've seen lots of rumors and theories going around that the dlc could be something like miq's dreamworld in his egg thingy and that godwyn could be involved SO im hopeful 👁️👁️

im doing a faith+elden beast greatsword run in my ng+ now to mix things up but im honestly a big big fan of the dex+arc builds hehe my first playthru i did rivers of blood!! i played like right on release so i didn't deal with all the patching and enemy scaling so when i did it, the weapon was a lot less op imo i dont know why they even patched it to begin with kkfddfkd but i really wanna try a moonveil playthru then i THINK i wanna try using a halberd bc i always have so much fun with those after i do my faith run but like you said the holy damage sucks so bad in this game that i'm not sure if i'll be able to stick to my plans 😭

it's funny bc in each game there's always one thing that kinda sucks… like in ds3 the bleed damage is like ULTRA trash bc they patched it to be worse but ds1 tbh has a good balance? i'm currently using a morningstar for bleed buildup in my playthru of that one and it's been going well for me so far!

no i agree with you!! especially elden ring really is very beginner friendly!! and i think that's kinda what fromsoft aimed for with this game 🥰 i have yet to play ds3 tho... and ALSO i have heard a lot of bad things about ds2... i try avoiding spoilers as much as i can, including game mechanics and such but even the little i heard about the game, i can confidently say i'm terrified of playing it 🧡

ohhh that's fun though!! yeah sorry to say dex+arc builds are easy mode sdjafkhlasdjfh but i respect it!!! seriously!! it feels higher paced and it's a nice change from strength builds! but personally i prefer feeling like i didn't cheese the boss with frost + bleed + god knows what else jdfhljdsaf i do that when helping someone kill a boss though jsdfhasjdfh can you believe i never in my life touched moonveil... i feel like i should have at LEAST tried it but... yeah... but i can only recommend using halberds!! the golden one from the limgrave tree sentinel is especially fun! and holy damage sucks but honestly unless you're on ng+3 or higher it doesn't make that much of a difference 🥰 i went for a holy build on ng+4... regrets......... so many regrets......... all the late game bosses have 80 resistance to it..... sdjfhsjdfhs

oh yeah i used morning star in ds1!! then i found claymore oops. but i'm definitely taking notes for when i play ds1 again 👀 but i love my claymore so much sjkafhljksfh

#🍑 mail #sanchelinz #luna <3 #good luck with your tattoo btw!! 🥰 saw your post hehe #hope whatever you decide for will make you happy!

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bunchofdoodlesinspace · 2 years

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19, 25, and 27 for that ask game.

19. Tell me a story about your writing journey. When did you start? Why did you start? Were there bumps along the way? Where are you now and where are you going?

Oh god. I have no idea when it started KJFKL I feel like I've always liked writing honestly. it sort of goes hand-in-hand with my art journey. I'd make characters, draw the characters, and I'd have stories for those characters too. It's so rare for me to make a character design without SOME amount of lore being made for that character. It's almost inevitable.

Of course there have been bumps. Creative projects when you're a full-time student are, for lack of a better word, a pain in the ass to manage. NSN has been on a sort of impromptu hiatus for several months because of how busy university has been, and I'm always kinda sad when I think about it. But I couldn't handle both at once and the last thing I want to do is cause myself burnout. There are a lot of projects like NSN that I never completed or went through with because they were too big of a project for this little ghost to handle on her own on top of life stuff. I don't think I've ever really figured out how to not get over-ambitious with stuff, but I'm trying to make things easier for myself. At least a little.

Which actually kinda ties back to NSN again, honestly. I haven't posted any updates in ages, but I am actually working on occasion in the background on more solid planning for future pages. My plan is to have a strong foundation to build off of when my free time opens up more again. Can't say much about what I have in-store for it, but hoo. I am Excited.

And I have a few other lil ideas floating around in my head too for when I have time and resources. I mean, I do have this Whole Ass Country sitting here, and I think at some point I'd like to talk about what's been going on with That outside of the rps I've done with the characters that inhabit it. Not sure what that might look like yet, but. :) Perhaps

25. What is a weird, hyper-specific detail you know about one of your characters that is completely irrelevant to the story?

OH I AM SO FULL OF SO MANY OF THESE. I'm just gonna list a few faves because they're so fun (some of them I've def told some of you already, but have yet to subject the whole of tumblr to them):

-Fred is (was?) double-jointed somewhere in his hands. And he did, in fact, use this ability to freak people out. -Magician can do the tongue-flick thing reptiles like snakes and lizards do to get a feel for the space they're in. He often does it subconsciously in a new area, and it's so fast that it is near impossible to catch him doing it. -Also he can unhinge his jaw, have fun with that mental image :D -Xander has some of the best understandings of how intense periods can be despite never having had one, because one of his vampiric abilities is to be able to pick up on heavy bleeding.

27. Who is the most stressful character you’ve ever written? Why?

Oh dear god I could almost make a list for this too tbh. I think as of recent, though, Corrupted!Cupcake is uh. Definitely up there. Since I don't think I've talked about this on tumblr yet: she was used as part of an rp I've been doing focused on her backstory (which I rambled a bit about here). It's funny, because I also loved playing her, but oh dear GOD the rabbit hole of angst that spawned from that was insane (to the point that one of my friends who was also participating had to message me to make sure I wasn't about to permanently destroy the relationship Cup had with one of her characters. We were treading THAT kind of territory). I don't think I've been so stressed and excited at the same time playing a character in ages.

#answered #illyriashade56 #cupcake rambles #I should talk about the ones and zeroes plot here more some time #bc it has been. a Wild Ride

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easypeasylindyvesey · 5 months

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Whats ur favorite dessert? Also, aside from the Rangers, who's ur favorite hockey team? Least favorite(s)?

my fave dessert? ok let’s see

i’m obsessed with ben & jerry’s ice cream. i could literally eat that for the rest of my life same thing with party cake ice cream. i also love chocolate chip cookies, but i like the ones that are soft. they’re legit in another tier. it’s funny because as i’m typing this, i’m realizing that i don’t have desserts too much, and i’ve been craving sugar/sweets recently. luckily i have some oreos on my nightstand right now🤭

as for my other favorite teams besides the rags, i really enjoy watching carolina & colorado. they’re so freaking fast and add so much pressure to their game. they have a huge load of talent and i’m rooting for both of them to make it to the 2nd round. i also like vegas too, but they’re getting shit on by the media recently with mark stone & the LTIR & cap situation. even i don’t understand what the exact issue is, but i guess everyone wants to hate on an expansion team. i’m also rooting for them to go to the 2nd round too.

so for future clarification:

the rangers are my besties (hence what i reference them in some of my posts)

carolina, colorado, and vegas are my pookies. i’m not deeply rooted into their team and not entirely invested, but they’re all entertaining to watch.

a least favorite team? honestly, i’ve never really had one, but now that it’s playoff season, i’m first gonna say the islanders. they’re just boring. and it’s funny because i live on long island, and i’m sure everyone would want to be committed to their actual home team, but i branched out🤭. and right now, i’m currently not liking the caps. some of their roster is filled with actual grown babies who wail to the refs when they don’t get a call (yes, tom wilson, this one’s for you).

and for a little while, i did not like the oilers, but it was only because of how much the media sucked mcdavid’s you-know-what. yes, he is definitely a generational talent and totally worth his contract (5 assists in EDM’s first playoff game this season vs. LA? unheard of). it just annoyed me because i don’t think the media realized there are other great players on that team: draisaitl, hyman, nugent-hopkins, etc. that they can focus their attention on. it seemed as if mcdavid was the only player on the team, so that’s why it bugged me, but now, i’m not as judgmental. they’re definitely a team to watch out for during the playoffs. they definitely have the talent and depth.

the same thing went for chicago as well with all the bedard talk. again, he’s a good player coming into a team in the midst of a rebuild, so he’s definitely going to make an impact on them in the future. i think when the media is continuously shoving all of these players and their achievements in your face, you start to become sick of them because it’s not as if everyone already knows about it. long story short, they gotta chill out a bit.

i’m so sorry this is so long but if any one of y’all read the entire thing then i appreciate you putting up with my ramblings🥰

#abby’s asks answered #silly little questions

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thescrapbookingscientist · 1 year

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Biweekly Media Roundup

- All Saints Street (Anime) - Adorable and underrated, been enjoying s3 and happy to see Crystal be animated!

- The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady (Anime) - One of the many yuri-centric anime I missed from last/earlier this year, I have been enjoying this one for it's fun 'magic-technology fusion' plot and interesting central characters. I still have a little left to go so I'll save most thoughts till the end, but for now I think it's cute, Anisphia is a fun mad scientist lead, Euphie is adorable, I hate the stupid "evil faces" they pull but appreciate that they do at least give her brother a valid motivation, even if it wasn't built up great, and the vampire reveal was unexpected but kind of funny so it's fine.

- Chainsaw Man (Anime) - Rewatch for my sister's benefit, still love and fear Makima.

- The Locked Tomb Series (Books) - Lagged a bit on finishing the audiobook of Harrow due to the books intentionally confusing first half not jiving with my usual "listen while working" habit, but I took a couple days to clean through my room and in the process finally got through, and boy did I have to say the second half really returned my interest, this series is insane. I do prefer Gideon's narration over Harrows, I like them both as characters and can appreciate the more serious tone of Harrows thought process but Gideon's is just more my speed with how fun and memorable it is, at least in audiobook form. Anyway Ianthe is great, I miss griddlehark interactions, would've loved to see more of Harrows canon ship AUs, and excited to see what level of f-ed up Nona ends up being - this series is very good.

- Link Click (Anime) - Rewatching s1 in preparation for season 2, which is airing now. Not much to say yet, I like the backgrounds.

- Voltron (Cartoon) - This is a weird add here as I didn't actually watch Voltron recently, but I have been listening to multiple video essays on the series as a whole and the very weird way it went downhill before it's awful finale. With series like this with a decent premise but poor execution I can't help but want to rewrite it in my mind, so Step 1 way more of the team needs to be aliens, the aliens need to look more, you know, alien and not just like elves, Lotor should have stayed a sympathetic doing f-ed up things for good reasons villain, and while I did like Shiro during the first couple seasons I actually did watch, he should have died in order to make the surviving team members dynamic fit better/character development reasons. Can't believe they made Keith here essentially a space werewolf and then had the gall to only show that with 1 purple scar and 1 frame of yellow eyes like, commit dammit!

- Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (Video Game) - This sure is a game so far.

- Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Video Game) - Got the Ember set and it looks dope, as well as finally fighting the gloom hands/ Phantom Ganon which were not as frustrating as I assumed they would be, and they do have awesome designs. In general, I really like how much they upped the monster designs in this game, I'll have to do a ranking of them on my monster blog sometime.

- Crazy Ex Girlfriend (TV) - S4 has been pretty slow paced compared to the previous seasons, which works fine for the narrative and themes but does lead to me watching it a bit slower rather than the cliffhanger binges of previous seasons. As usual the songs are still bangers, with "I Always Never Believed in You" and "I Want To Be A Child Star" being recent faves.

Listening to: Sway Cover and Eat Your Young Cover by Reinaeiry, Fast Car by Tracy Chapman, It Was A Shit Show and Hello, Nice To Meet You from Crazy Ex Girlfriend, Let's Get This Over With by They Might Be Giants, If We Have Each Other by Alec Benjamin, Fight For Me by AlicebanD, I Wish by Haley Kiyoko, Crush by David Archuleta, Not Another Song About Love by Hollywood Ending, Fences by Paramore.

#weekly roundup #my post

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hypaalicious · 2 years

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I first watched my aunt play some X but she wouldn't let me because I was "too young to understand it". I was 8. So my mom bought it for me. It was our thing for her to watch me play. I wouldn't ever go on in the game without her because I loved having her there while I played. Then I delved into vii and viii (didn't like vii at first but I love it now) and I've binged most of the games from there. I didn't like XIII at all.. But I enjoyed its sequals quite a bit. Mostly for Caius. And I liked xii a lot but I've never beat it because it's combat is hard for me 😞 but xv got me in a way I never expected from any of the games besides x. And I'm planning to continue them all for the sake of my love for the franchise at least lol

Omg family bonding over FFX 🥺🥺🥺 that is so great, I can’t! Who is your fave character? And did you ever play FFX-2?

Honestly, going backwards in the FF series can be… rough. No voice acting (even tho FFX’s was pretty terrible looking back at it LOL) and ofc the lower graphics quality and harder gameplay can be hurdles to adjust to. Sephiroth truly was the only thing keeping me interested in FFVII, and FFVIII I got attached to the characters and wrote a whole multi chapter fanfic before I even played the game for myself. 😂 All those things factored into me loving the older games. FFIX isn’t even on my radar even though it was a very visually beautiful game.

FF1-5 all blur together in my head a bit because I played them all on my phone and they’re all the same chibi pixel JRPG dungeon format so I couldn’t tell you anything about the storylines 😭

FFXV was def a pleasant surprise. I know there was so much controversy cause it didn’t match the darker concept footage or whatever, but I lucked out and wasn’t even checking for any news of it so when it came out I literally just went in blind. I remember finding the cover not being “fantastical” enough for me (it seems Squenix is leaning more heavily into magical realism lately) and going, “idk about this one fam, but we outchea anyway”

Fast forward to me having PTSD hearing “Stand by Me” and still thirsting over the characters years later 😂 I played myself!

#what a fun ride it was tho #also the English VA for XV >>>>#I initially balked at playing it in English cause we went YEARS not able to hear the Japanese audio in games as an option #but I’m glad I gave in cause imo all of them killed all of their roles #what an improvement over Tidus’s forced ass laugh in Luca and Yuna’s I… have become… a summoner! bs 😂#not so Anon ask

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n0bamak1s · 4 years

Text

distracted - mai zenin x reader

request: “could you write a fluff for mai please? also can the reader be gender neutral? thank you have a nice day.” - @hitchsimp

summary: reader and mai are interrupted in their baseball practice when mai’s daydreaming about the reader causes her to get hit in the face by a baseball and reader tends to her injuries. takes place before the baseball game in episode 21. (genre: fluff, friends to lovers, slice of life-ish)

word count: 1.1k

warnings: mentions of violence and blood (nothing graphic), a couple swear words, lowkey oblivious reader lmao, the tiniest bit of angst

a/n: since the request was pretty broad i decided to go with some friends to lovers since it’s one of my fave fluffy tropes but if u wanted just general fluffy hcs or something else feel free to let me know!!

“hey! wait for me!” mai heard your all too familiar voice behind her as you jogged towards her to keep pace. your cleats dug into the dirt with each step, and mai could feel her steps halt as she waited for you. personally, mai felt that the baseball game was a stupid and childish way to determine a winner to the exchange event, but that didn’t seem to stop her from agreeing to practice with you in the days leading up to the ‘big game’ as you liked to call it.

truth be told, if it had been anyone else asking her to practice, mai would have probably scoffed and chosen to practice on her own, or even not at all. but for some reason, she couldn’t seem to help herself as she followed you to the small baseball field that went mostly unused by the school.

she’d always seemed to have something of a soft spot for you, that everyone else seemed to notice but you. the usually blunt and sometimes rude girl let her guard down around you, allowing you to see her soft side.

however, even you seemed to test her patience a little bit now that you hit her square in the nose during your practice.

to be honest, it was more so her fault, though she’d blame it on you, saying you distracted her. as you began to warm up with a simple game of catch, mai felt herself zoning out. it wasn’t her fault you looked so damn good in that baseball uniform the school had gifted everyone for the game. her baseball glove stayed up, sure, but she let her mind wander when her eyes glanced from the hair that peeked out from your cap, to the way your uniform hugged your body so well. she swore you were gonna be the death of her.

except, you might literally be the death of her after the ball you tossed to her bounced off the top of her glove and hit her straight in the nose.

“oh shit! are you okay?”

immediately, you rushed over to her side as she clutched her now bloodied nose. pulling off your glove, you grabbed her free hand in yours.

“i have a first aid kit in my dorm, it’s the least i can do to say sorry.” you said, your voice filled with concern.

“don’t worry about it,” mai muttered, hoping that her flushed face could be attributed to a bruise, rather than her embarrassment at how casually you held her hand “i’ll sleep it off, it’s no big deal.”

“ah, come on! we can’t have our star player being injured, can we?” you turned to her with a smile and gave her a wink. she tried her best to seem nonchalant as she let out a scoff, despite how she let you tug her along to your dorm. she hoped that you would also ignore the sly look todo gave the two of you as you made your way down the hallway hand in hand.

once you entered your room, you gestured for her to take a seat on your bed and gave her an ice pack to keep her nose from bruising, which she did without protest, surprisingly enough. meanwhile, you rifled through your drawers looking for some tissues, holding them up triumphantly when you managed to fish them out.

she felt the weight of the bed shift as you took a seat next to her, and turned her gaze to make eye contact with you. with a surprising amount of gentleness for a jujutsu sorcerer like yourself, you grabbed her wrist and moved it from its spot hovering over her nose so you could move to stop the bleeding. her breath hitched slightly when you leaned in even closer to dab her nose with a tissue.

“sorry again about this.” your voice is so soft that she can almost feel it on her face due to the close proximity of you too. sure, she was used to her injuries being tended to, it was only a part of daily life as a sorcerer. but there was something so different about when you did it, rather than a school nurse. you were so gentle, like you were afraid that one wrong move could break her. it was so refreshing to her, growing up around maki, who seemed to only want her to toughen up, you on the other hand just wanted her to feel cared for.

truth is, the reason mai has such a soft spot for you is that you’re one of the only people who makes her feel like a teenager. you aren’t so stuck up about your status like some of your other classmates, you just want to enjoy life. to her, you’re so comforting, because she feels she can be her true self around you instead of putting up a ‘tough’ front.

snapping her out of her daze, you waved a hand in front of her face. “maiiiii?” you drew out her name as you said it, “don’t tell me i gave you a concussion or something.”

she wordlessly raised an eyebrow at your teasing smile.

“you know, now that i think about it, you’ve been kinda spacey all day. do you need to see a nurse?” despite your lighthearted tone, she could tell you were legitimately concerned that she may have hit her head during the group battle.

mai broke eye contact, worried if she looked you in the eyes you’d completely break down her tough exterior. “just some bruises, no big deal.”

you put a finger to your chin in thought for a moment, before looking up, clear that you’d come up with an idea. “i’ll kiss it better for you!”

now this got mai’s attention real quick. she turned her head so fast she might as well have gotten whiplash. “what?!”

“well when i was younger my mom would always kiss my bruises better, it always seemed to work for me!” you said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. mai shrugged in response, figuring that if she remained stoic, she could indulge in this moment with you, even if it was just for a few seconds.

she fluttered her eyelashes closed as you leaned in, expecting you to kiss her on the nose where the bruise was. what she was not expecting, however, was the feeling of your lips pressed against hers. not that she was complaining, obviously, she was quick to kiss back, as if it was her only opportunity. she felt you smile into the kiss, signaling that you knew the feelings were mutual.

“by the way,” you said as you pulled away “i think you look really cute in your baseball uniform too.”

god, you really were gonna be the death of her.

#mai zenin x reader #mai zenin #jjk x reader #zenin mai x reader #zenin mai #jujutsu kaisen x reader

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stefanmikaleson1864 · 3 years

Text

I’m Thankful for You

A/N: Hope everyone who celebrates has a Happy Thanksgiving !! or have Happy Holiday Love to all during this time of year !!

Maggie Bell X Reader

I’m Thankful for you

Thanksgiving was by far your favorite holiday because you always saw her. She would come in with her “famous sweet potato pie that you knew was just store brought but you never mentioned it.

She was so beautiful. Her smile always light up the room and she had this energy where you just wanted to be near her.

You guys had been best friends sense middle school. Some kids were picking on you and in true badass fashion Maggie walked over and beat them up for you.

Ever sense then the two of you were inseparable. Even when she moved miles away to new york you guys always visited each other and Maggie loved showing you around the city. You always had a crush on her.

From the moment she beat them kids up but sense you didn’t want to ruin the friendship you never said anything. She was to good of a friend to risk it. But it was always hard. You tried to move on.

You had some good relationships where you were genuinely happy. You were even so happy for her when she married Jason.

And was crushed for her when he passed away. When he died you left everything behind and moved to the city to help her.

That’s what best friends were for. You helped her through every stage and when she got back on her own two feet it was time for you to pack up and move home. Holidays is when you saw her again.

This thanksgiving was something that was different though you missed her at the the last one because she had such an important case and couldn’t be there. It crushed you but it made this one so much more special.

You had such long and hard decision. You wanted to risk and tell Maggie how you felt. No matter what the consequences are. You wanted to be honest with how you felt. You at least owed it to your self to express it.

So when Maggie said she was coming home this year your heart leapt out of your chest. You felt so much anxiety mixed with excitement. Thanksgiving came up so fast and you spent to much time getting ready.

Picking out the right outfit to make sure you looked your best and making your famous mac and cheese and making Maggie’s fave sweet potato casserole.

The drive over to Maggie’s parents house seemed like it took forever. You just wanted to be there already and stop imaging five hundred scenarios.

When you pulled up to the driveway it was already packed with cars.

You found an open spot and pulled up. Gathering your things you went inside and the usual Bell family was packed. The football game was on and kids were running around the house.

The smell of food filled the house. Turkey cooking in the oven and mashes potatoes with cranberry sauce filled the house.

You went into the kitchen to drop the food off you brought over and there she was. She was dressed so casual. In a sweater and Jeans and her hair up in a ponytail.

God she looked so beautiful you thought. She was laughing probably something her mom said. Her laugh filled up the house.

It made everyone around her laugh and filled your belly up with butterflies. She looked over and saw you and ran right over to you. Her smile was so big and bright and she gave you one of her famous hugs.

It felt like a big bear hug that made you feel so loved and cared for. You squeezed her right back. When the hug broke she looked at you and smiled so big.

“Hey Y/N omg look at you your so beautiful. I missed you so much.” she said

“Maggie look at you so pretty. I missed you too. I can’t believe your here.” you squealed.

“Is that my fave sweet potato pie just for me.” she asked grabbing it and sniffing it.

“Of course just for you.” you said laughing at her.

She put the pie down and thanked you for it. Then she grabbed some wine and poured some and guestered for you to follow her. She took you outside and plopped down on the hammock and pulled you down next to her.

“So i wanna know everything how have you been how have things at home been.” Maggie asked

“You know the same old same old. I keep thinking of leaving this boring town but it never happens work has been boring lately not much news or stories to write about. The big story i wrote about this week was the thanksgiving parade in the park it was a huge break.” you said laughing

“I keep telling you to come to New York so many opportunities and you could live out your dream of being a screenwriter. You could even stay with me as long as you need I’m never home anyways.” Maggie said

“Yeah but I don’t want to be a burden on anyone. Or take advantage of you.” you said looking down at your wine.

Maggie moved closer to you and put her glass on the ground and took her hands and placed them on your face.

“Y/N listen to me are you kidding me you would never me a burden we would have so much fun and it would be like old times. And it would be nice to come home to someone again.” Maggie said quietly at the last part.

You couldn’t go with this big secret. I mean it would be just too hard. You felt like Maggie should know the truth and know was the perfect time to tell her.

“Look I want to it would be so amazing i would love to. But i feel like there is something i need to tell you because if I do it might change your mind.’ you said looking at her

Her face was filled with concern and her bright eyes just had worry in them.

“Y/N what ever it is I’m sure it’s not that bad.” she said to you

“Maggie I love you like I have been in love with you sense like forever and I never told you because i didn’t want to ruin our friendship.” you said not breaking eye contact with her

She just sat there for a minute and didn’t say anything and it felt like your heart was beating a million miles per minute. You were scared about how she would react. Then she leaned in and she just kissed you.

You kissed her back and her lips were so soft and you felt the million of butterflies erupting in your stomach. It felt so right like nothing you ever felt before. The kiss broke and Maggie pulled back and just looked at you

“ I love you too I have and I know it’s hard I always thought I would say something but then I didn’t and you were in a relationship and I meant Jason and he passed and now it was hard but I do love you y/n” Maggie said

Before you had a chance to answer her back her mom called and said dinner was ready. Maggie smiled at you and got up and helped you and you two went into dinner. When you sat down.

Maggie’s mom got up and clapped her hands together and every groaned because they all knew what was about to happen.

“My fave time of the year and now we get to around and say what were all grateful for this year.” Maggies mom said

Everyone just looked around at each other debating on who was going to go first. You laughed and stood up first, Maggies mom looked at you with thankful eyes.

“I want to say that this year i am thankful for all of you who have been my second family and treated me like one of your own.” you said before Maggies dad cut you off

“Boo stop being so dramatic and fake be real and say how thankful for your damn apple pie mom made you and move on.” he said and it made everyone bust out laughing.

“Well dad I am thankful for that always of course thanks Mom i appreciate it. But this year is something different i want to say this year I am thankful for Maggie because i finally got to tell her how i feel and what she really means to me.” you said

Maggie was smiling and her face was blushed red

“It’s about damn time” Her dad yelled out

Maggie got up and said

“I am thankful for all you and especially for Y/n my best friend and the person I have been in love with for so long who never made me feel alone or scared and always made me happy. I am so thankful to have her in my life and she has a big announcement to make,” Maggie said

“Well what is it.” her mom asked

You looked at Maggie like are you sure ?? and she nodded at you yes. You got up and held hand with her and looked at everyone

“I am moving to New York to pursue my dream of being a screenwriter.” you said

Everyone cheered and Maggie’s Mom got up

“ I think I can speak for everyone here when I say we are so happy and proud of you and we know you are going to achieve amazing things and Maggie we love you and you know how proud of you.” Her mom said choking up with tears which made you both start to cry.

“Thank you mom were so excited to start our new life together.” Maggie said

“Now let’s cut all this dramatic sentimental crap and let’s eat the damn turkey is getting cold.” her dad yelled.

You all sat down and Maggie leaned over and whispered to you

“One of the best thanksgivings ever it’s my fave holiday.” she said

“Mine too.” you said back

Like i said before this is why I love thanksgiving so much i get to see her. Now this holiday has a new special meaning.

#maggie bell #maggie bell x reader #maggie bell imagine #maggie bell one shot #fbi #fbi cbs #FBI show #fbi x reader #missy peregrym

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shijiujun · 3 years

Note

i feel kinda bad for shl cos all the fans of hyx and spl are blaming shl since their dramas are being delayed :(

LMAO I really don’t get that altho i can see that the timing might be a little back to back, and i’m not a SHL-only stan by any measure but:

For HYX especially,

Firstly it was already having problems since the end of last year with censorship and review. This is mostly due to the reason that 2ha is a pretty big fandom and is the cult fave in the danmei industry - what this means is that there are three types of fans basically right, (1) Normal fans who love the novel + show (2) Those who fanatically love the novel in some extreme ways haha (3) Those who hate it and/or are HYX-onlys - so you get it all in a bag.

The first type of fans is definitely the easier ones to deal with, but unfortunately in big fandoms you get a lot of (2) and (3). It’s not something that’s exclusive only to 2ha/HYX but because it’s a cult fave, and a controversial one at that, problems definitely arise.

(2) are the ones who head down to the filming scenes, take photos and footage despite crew telling ppl not to do it, not to sneak around filming sites and definitely not to leak photos or footage. They do it anyway. Yeah sure of course it’s a couple of photos every few weeks or a tiny video every few weeks but word gets out. They’re inevitably hurting the show and the fandom with their actions, because shit trends on Weibo really fast, and the censorship committee (not just for the film industry or shows) is always lurking on the site to catch any sign of you know, hate speech for the country etc. and more. Not related, but the point is that social media is watched very closely. It’s not a myth or an exaggeration, you really just got to be careful, and HYX is a show that, despite not having been broadcasted, has consistently trended on Weibo over the last few months. Not always because of leaks, but yeah, HYX is in everyone’s faces. Fans themselves put a fucking huge spotlight on the show BEFORE we even have any content at all, and of course this isn’t enough to like create huge trouble for the show but then we have-

(3), which I believe creates the most trouble - the thing is 2ha and meatbun who wrote the book, has a long line of haters and antis, way before HYX came into the picture. I shall not go into details of how I’ve seen some big accounts on Tumblr here spit vitriol at the book without even reading it just based on the content/trigger warnings and playing the morality card (and I think most ppl who’ve followed me for a while know just what I think about that). Like this was way before any footage or leaks or even HYX being a thing came about - as a cult fave it has its share of haters, and this share is a huge. There are those who get off on their moral high grounds XD and I think especially these ones are the most troublesome, all they have to do is report that HYX is immoral, bad for culture etc. etc. hahaha and yeah the censorship team is always ready to step in on reports, especially on BL stuff.

And of course the larger part is the change in censorship processes - honestly even way before SHL came out in end Feb, HYX was no closer to getting passed by the review committee than it is now. Maybe yes, SHL scenes may be now used as reference for comparison but seriously? People are deluding themselves if they thought pre-SHL HYX was going through the review process smoothly and only hit roadblocks after. I mean, we’ve all seen the leaks, some of them are truly like god-tier scenes that may be hard to explain away. It’s not like they can repackage the script especially because they have to submit everything to the review committee.

I mentioned this in a post yesterday but how SHL passed reviews is due to the fact that they didn’t have to submit a full script. They only had to submit a partial script, and that makes a world of difference. Basically a team, under these requirements, can repackage the script to include the more het looking parts even I feel, and of course some heavy misdirection by the team, it could work. Now that you have to put an entire script up for scrutiny.. I mean, it’s hard. This is just a game of probability.

And the last reason I think is still Tencent. Honestly, I’ve never seen a huge ass MNC like this handle a show this terribly.

1. No control over leaks - This is honestly the dumbest shit to do

2. Terrible crisis management response time - When fans leak footage, it’s standard and practical business sense to control it IMMEDIATELY. They shouldn’t just leave it up to the crew to put up notices and as the company that owns the rights to the show, it’s up to them to possibly threaten legal action as well. Basically a sterner stance would have helped a lot, but Tencent is a motherfucker of a company who only cares about free marketing and publicity without any considerations over impact to the show itself

3. Terrible at communicating with fans - Seriously, I’ve never seen a company or team that’s been this bad at confirming delays etc. and providing updates about a show. I understand that it’s mostly due to them not wanting to affect the review process or create more chaos within the fandom but lmao Tencent allowed the hype to build so much and then goes absolutely silent at crazy rumours. I mean we had to find out about a delay from Cai Bao, their cat mascot, like??? In a really veiled and poetic message that didn’t outright say the word ‘delay’ like damn these ppl have a lot of time

As for SPL,

Lol we don’t know anything about this show. We don’t know if they took out or left in the Yifu part that would supposedly make it less gay or whatever, we don’t know anything about how gay it should have been or could have, so this one might be a tad more ridiculous. I mean none of us have seen any good leaks, and we haven’t seen any of the script, we got ZERO idea about this. Maybe they really went hard on the bromance, how would any of us know hahaha so all the more it’s like people have zero basis to go on, to say that it’s because of SHL. Seriously, everyone’s shooting in the dark.

Technically if laws didn’t change last Feb, I think SPL/WIK should have been passed in the same way as SHL did, but it’s just inopportune time for them.

===

- So tl:dr HYX already had tons of problems, that I doubt were going to go away just because SHL didn’t air, honestly. For SPL, it’s really hard to tell what failed the review, because none of us know what’s going on in the script.

No one cared about SHL, even I only realized the show was airing on the day itself and then made a rec post after I watched the first 4 eps. And if it truly was anything to do with SHL, I’m telling you that the first thing the censorship committee will do is basically shut SHL down, get Youku to take it off sites etc. until it’s reviewed again etc. etc. That hasn’t happened yet, at least not before HYX and SPL were stalled.

===

ALSO!! Don’t have to feel sorry for SHl fans hahaha I’m telling ya a lot of us definitely weren’t OG SHL or TYK fans, seriously! All the bigger accounts I see on Twitter are a combination of CQL/SHL or MXTX/SHL, SPL/SHL and I am personally 2HA/HYX/SHL. The fight is all out on Twitter HAHAHAHA but it’s not that bad, we’ve all got practice. Seriously WHO ACTUALLY is an SHL only stan I’ve honestly not seen much?! HAHAHA the point is we’re all yelling on behalf of SHL as a cross fandom fan, easier for us to do so as well. We’re talking about 2ha/HYX/SPL/Priest dedicated accounts that delved deep into SHL championing for no-nonsense in the space hahaha

#asks #shl #hyx #spl #and while i've never worked for the chinese film industry #i was in film and production #so i half know what i'm talking about #and i did ask a friend who works in a chinese film company #and yep ;/#if you need to know how disastrous big companies are #tencent is a prime example

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otakusheep15 · 3 years

Text

SFW Alphabet - Belphegor

My last post about Levi seemed to do really well, so I thought I would continue with this series. Belphie is my other fave, so I hope I do him justice. Also, sorry if anything seems weird, I wrote this all super late (for me anyway) so there might be some mistakes.

A = Affection (How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?)

At first, he isn’t super affectionate. Verbal affection is just hard for him in general, and he’s scared that he may hurt you with physical affection. However, he eventually comes around and becomes super affectionate with you. Sleeping together is a must for him, and he’ll often pass out on your shoulder or lap when you two hag out. Verbal affection is still often a challenge, but he does try is best to tell you just how much you mean to him. He also loves both giving and receiving head pats.

B = Best friend (What would they be like as a best friend? How would the friendship start?)

You two often hang out in the attic together. Whatever you decide to do depends on the day, but most activities will end up with him (and sometimes you) falling asleep. Beel also joins you during hang-outs. You guys will also platonically cuddle all the time. Most conversations between you are very sarcastic and filled with banter, but it’s only (partially) joking. He also likes to ruffle your hair since he likes the reaction it gets out of you.

C = Cuddles (Do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?)

This boy is the king of cuddles. He can honestly fall asleep anywhere at anytime, but he finds that he sleeps the easiest in your arms. While he likes any cuddling position, his favorite is when you lay on your back and he rests his head on your chest. He also likes when you run your fingers through his hair. In his demon form, he’ll wrap his tail around your leg as a small sign of possession. He’ll also bump you with his horns so that you’ll pet those as well since they’re sensitive and helps him fall asleep faster.

D = Domestic (Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?)

He doesn’t really have a preference one way or another. If you feel the need to settle down, he’ll join you without question. However, if you wish not too, he wouldn’t really care. While he is not a fan of cleaning, he is a surprisingly good cook. Since Beel is his twin, and they have that special connection, he often knows when Beel is particularly hungry and can’t control it. Because of this, he learned how to cook in order to make sure his twin had enough snacks for the day. Even though it started as simply something for his twin, he’s found that cooking is quite fun, and enjoys cooking with you.

E = Ending (If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?)

He’s the kind of person that would just straight up tell someone that he’s breaking up with them. To him, if he feels the need to break up with someone, then that person’s feelings no longer matter (at least, to him they don’t). He could care less if the other leaves the situation absolutely heartbroken; he just doesn’t have the time or energy to care. Maybe if it was someone he actually really liked and wanted to keep as a friend, he wouldn’t be as harsh, but he’d still be blunt regardless.

F = Fiance(e) (How do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?)

As stated above, he doesn’t really care either way. He’s down to go along with whatever you want as long as you don’t make him work too much. If you want to get married, he’ll go along with it as long as Beel gets to be his best man. And if you decide you don’t want to get married, he’s fine just living with you and being with you without the ring.

G = Gentle (How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?)

At first, he’s very gentle. After the incident, he is so afraid of hurting you again. There’s even a point where he goes into a near-panic when he accidentally touches you, and it gets so bad that the brothers have to stage an intervention. Once he’s calmed down and you’ve assured him that you trust him, he’s less cautious, but still gentle. He knows that demons are much stronger than humans, so he still tries to be careful even if he knows you’re not made of glass.

H = Hugs (Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?)

Hugs are one of his favorite forms of affection. He’ll hug you all the time, especially in front of the brothers in hopes of making them jealous. A lot of his hugs consists of him coming up behind you, wrapping his arms around your middle, and placing his head on top of yours. He’s even managed to fall asleep like this a few times. Out of all the brothers, his hugs are the best due to their warmth and softness.

I = I love you (How fast do they say the L-word?)

It takes him a while to actually say the phrase, but it’s obvious that he loves you. He’s not one to really express his feelings through words, so he’s never actually thought that saying it was necessary. However, when you say it during one of your late-night cuddle sessions, he finally decides to say it as well.

J = Jealousy (How jealous do they get? What do they do when they’re jealous?)

He’s not as bad as Levi or Mammon, but he’s still pretty jealous. Although, he won’t actually say or do anything about it. If he’s jealous of one of his brothers, he’ll leave it to you to actually figure it out for yourself and then come apologize to him. But, if it is some random demon that’s trying to hit on you, he will try to drag you away with some excuse of him being tired and wanting a nap.

K = Kisses (What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?)

His kisses are super lazy and tired, but that’s to be expected. His favorite spot to kiss you is on your neck. He likes how flustered you get, and he likes teasing you about how sensitive your neck is. His favorite place to be kissed is on the forehead. He finds it super comforting, and he especially likes it when he’s about to fall asleep.

L = Little ones (How are they around children?)

Of all the brothers, he is, surprisingly, one of the best with children. It’s not that he likes them, or that he’s even good at controlling them; he just knows how to put them to sleep really quick. He can have them out in a matter of minutes, no matter how energetic the child. And, fun secret, he actually doesn’t mind children all that much. He just hates when they get loud or go all crazy.

M = Morning (How are mornings spent with them?)

Mornings are usually spent cuddling in bed until you two have five minutes to get down to breakfast before Lucifer beats y’all half to death. Most of the time, you wake up before him, but it’s impossible to get up since he’s always wrapped around you and refuses to let go. Once, Beel had to come in and actually drag you two out of bed because he refused to get up on time.

N = Night (How are nights spent with them?)

Nights are usually spent with him trying to stay awake while y’all watch a movie or something, but you both know that won’t happen. Instead, he usually falls asleep on top of you, leaving you with two options. One, you can try to drag him to bed, which almost never works. Or two, you can just fall asleep there and hope you aren’t sore in the morning from the weird position. Eventually, and no matter which option you go with, you both end up asleep in each other’s arms and sleeping peacefully.

O = Open (When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?)

He is a very secretive demon by nature, so opening up is really hard for him. He really wants to, and he knows you also want him to, but he just can’t. And when he does finally start opening up, he takes it very slow. This is so that he doesn’t overwhelm you, or himself for that matter. He’s scared that showing too much of himself at once will make you leave him, and that’s the last thing he wants, so he tries to hide it for as long as possible.

P = Patience (How easily angered are they?)

He isn’t ever angry so much as very passive aggressive. He’ll make snide comments, give mean stares, and make rude gestures whenever pissed off. This usually happens when he gets jealous of a lower-level demon, but it never usually escalates past that. However, there are those few times in which he does get legit mad, and that’s when the yelling starts. If he knows he’s losing against whoever he’s fighting, he’ll storm off to either his room or the attic until either you or Beel comes to get him.

Q = Quizzes (How much would they remember about you? Do they remember every little detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?)

He tries to remember things, he really does, but he just seems to forget things really easily. He’ll remember big things - birthdays, anniversaries, and your favorite things (shows, games, etc.), but he always tends to forget smaller things. He doesn’t mean to, and you know that he is trying, but sometimes it can be difficult when he forgets that date you two had planned and went to sleep instead.

R = Remember (What is their favorite moment in your relationship?)

His favorite moment is when you two were cuddling together one night after he got into a fight with one of his brothers. He was really upset after that argument, and he didn’t have the will to do much else other than lay down and sleep. But, as always, you came to his aid and stayed with him all throughout his self-loathing party. At one point, you began humming quietly in an attempt to make him feel better, and that’s what did it. He began crying quietly, letting all of his insecurity flood out to you. The entire time, you sat there, listening patiently. When he was done, you kissed his forehead and told him that everything would be okay, and that everyone loved him no matter what. It was also this moment that made him truly fall in love with you.

S = Security (How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?)

He would never admit it like most other things, but he loves the idea of being protected by you. He knows that scenario is a bit weird, but he just loves it so much. You’re so caring towards him, and he loves the thought of you protecting him from something that he could obviously handle on his own, just because you love him. It makes his heart melt a little. And, of course, he also protects you from anything that seems even mildly dangerous. He vowed to never hurt you, and he also vows to never let anything else hurt you.

T = Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?)

He puts in about as much effort as you would expect from him. He does really try, but he just never has the energy to do much. Plus, he knows that you prefer smaller, less extravagant things anyway. Most of the time, special days will be spent with just the two of you (and maybe Beel) either in the attic or the planetarium. You two will spend the whole day together, cuddling and just enjoying each other’s presence. He usually always tries to make you some sort of food, usually a sweet of some kind.

U = Ugly (What would be some bad habits of theirs?)

Obviously, he has a bad habit of sleeping in too much. At first, it wasn’t a problem, but now it happens more often than it should, and for far too long. He also has a bad habit of being overprotective of you. In his mind, you are a weak, fragile human that needs to be protected from even the smallest of things. Eventually, he does learn that you can take care of yourself, but that doesn’t stop him from taking it a bit too far sometimes.

V = Vanity (How concerned are they with their looks?)

One of the last things on his mind is how he looks. Like Levi, he spends most of his time inside, so why should he bother with something as stupid as appearance? He often gets into petty fights about this with Asmo, who is always trying to get him to try harder on his appearance.

W = Whole (Would they feel incomplete without you?)

He honestly thought he could do fine without you, but when you went home after the exchange program ended, he was falling apart. True to his character, he didn’t let it show, even after you can back, but it always stuck with him from then on that he needed you. He couldn’t stand being away from you, and if it happens again he will go on a rampage.

X = Xtra (A random headcanon for them.)

As I stated previously, I headcanon him to be really good at cooking. At first, he’s shy about it, but soon you two are sharing kitchen duty with each other all the time. He originally learned so that he could cook for Beel, but he also likes cooking for the rest of his brothers (and you too).

Y = Yuck (What are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner?)

He’s not too fond of extraverted people, or people who have a lot of energy in general. It’s fine if you have some energy, but too much is where he draws the line. He has enough of that going on with his brothers, so he prefers someone quieter to enjoy peace and quiet with.

Z = Zzz (What is a sleep habits of theirs?)

He has a habit of sleeping with other people. It’s easier for him to sleep when someone else is in bed with him, so that’s what he prefers. Prior to the attic, he would actually go to Lucifer and ask to stay with him (if Beel wasn’t available). Now, he usually just sleeps with you or Beel or both.

#shall we date obey me #OBEY ME #obey me belphegor #obey me belphie #scenario #sfw alphabet #headcanon

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