#this paragraph does not pass the vibe check

[howtodrawyourdragon]

"HUR, HUR, HUR." Dogsbreath laughed so hard that snot came snorting out of his nose.

Hmmm.. No. No, this paragraph is not a vibe. I regret reading it.

[ozzgin]

I just finished playing Firewatch and the cozy, lonely vibes gave me another monster idea! You got a summer job as a fire watch for the closest National Park. All you have to do is to sit in your tower, and...watch. For fires. Sounds boring? Worry not, your supervisor is there to keep you company over the radio. Content: gender neutral reader, monster romance, obsessive behavior, suggestive ending

"And? What are you running away from?"

"Excuse me?"

You raise your eyebrows at the unexpected question coming from the radio. The deep voice belongs to your supervisor, the man who'll guide you throughout your stay at the National Park.

"No one picks up an isolated job in the mountains out of sheer desire. Especially someone as young as you." He chuckles briefly, then resumes in a more professional tone: "My apologies. You don't have to answer that."

What a strange way to begin the conversation, you think to yourself. Yet this nonchalance and casualty is all you have for the following months. The other watchtowers don't talk much, if at all. You're entirely alone in the wilderness, save for the mysterious man on the radio.

Slowly, you begin to warm up to his chatty nature. He likes to ask a lot of questions. A terribly curious individual, though you can understand his reasoning: he's been working for the Park for over a decade. How does one survive without another human being?

He never leaves his tower, and thus you've never seen his face. He's content, you're indifferent. Occasionally, he'll mention sketching you to pass the time.

"How would you describe your eyes, (Y/N)?" he'll ask between his pencil scribbles. "I see. I'm sure they're beautiful. Why are you suddenly quiet? Have you forgotten how to take a compliment? I'm just messing with you, kiddo."

You haven't witnessed a single fire since coming here, despite the torrid summer heat. Your days are spent hiking without aim and talking to your supervisor.

One morning, you wake up to the grating beep of the radio instead of your alarm. You pick up the small device with an irritated grunt.

"Would you like to meet?"

You need a moment to process the words. Are you finally going to greet the one man who's kept you distant company for weeks? Intriguing. You mumble your agreement, still half-asleep.

As you make your way down the hill, you notice a supply station covered in moss and overgrown vegetation. You check your map, just to be sure. There shouldn't be anything here. What a peculiar thing to stumble upon. You approach the old wooden box and lift the lid carefully.

The musty inside is filled with rows of newspapers and some scattered notes. You pluck one newspaper out, and rest your eyes on the first headline.

"National Park is saying goodbye to its employees. The area will be permanently closed after the devastating fire."

You gawk at the title, then at the photographed location.

It's your watchtower.

You scramble to read the rest of the paragraphs, words slipping behind in your frantic search. This forest has been sealed off for years. You recognize the name of your supervisor in the report: a father of three, loved by everyone, died tragically before a rescue team could reach him.

"Found anything interesting, kiddo?"

You turn around with mild hesitation. Whoever this impersonating maniac is, or what he wants, is rather irrelevant at this point. You're trapped alone with him.

Across from you stands a creature, resembling a chimera more than a human being. Long, grotesque limbs ending in black claws, hollow eyes, and mangled rows of razor-sharp teeth put together in a grin. Monstrous.

You're out of breath.

"That looks great", the creature remarks cheerfully.

"Don't use my voice to talk. It's embarrassing to hear myself like that", you lecture it as you spread out the food onto the picnic blanket.

It switches back to the supervisor's soft, masculine tone.

"Sorry, I did not mean to make you uncomfortable."

The monster extends one bony hand over your head, fanning out the fingers and dragging them across your hair in gentle strokes. What a precious little human you are.

You did not run away. A terrifying thought: losing you after all the time spent together. It didn't want to chase you down and make it even worse for you. But you stayed, you truly did.

"By the way", you say as you bite into your sandwich, stretching out your legs. "Is it you who prevents the fires? Usually it's a common occurrence here, especially in summer."

You recall the scorching flames from the newspaper.

"Yes. To keep you safe, you understand."

"Not only did you lie to me about the job, but you kept me out of work, too", you whine. "I got bored to death! Days on end!"

You're suddenly pushed down into the blanket, and you stare into the spiraling, empty sockets, confused.

"I can entertain you to your heart's desire, (Y/N)."

Its snout widens in a flirty smile, releasing a bizarre succession of clicks. Is it laughing in its natural voice?

You blush.

"I suppose there are some ways..." you suggest cheekily, unbuttoning your shirt.

[More Monsters] | [More Original Works]

[rheas-chaos-motivation]

How to fight writer's block (45 ways)

If you are indecisive like me, use a 1-45 number generator and do that one

Listen to music that's the vibe of the scene you need to write.

Set small goals, like one sentence a day. Majority of the time that will make you want to write more

Get an accountability partner

Use writing sprints, write for 5 or 10 minutes without stopping. Then take a break and repeat.

STOP BEING SCARED TO WRITE BADLY

write something random, maybe just a paragraph to get in the flow

write while doing something else, like eating lunch or watching TV if you can focus

read a book you wouldn't normally read

do some physical activity

do writing games/writing prompts

imagine people making fanfiction about your work

watch a movie/show to inspire you

write the scene you've been wanting to write

do something else creative (doodle, paint, cook, etc)

edit a scene

rewrite a scene in a different setting

take a shower/bath or just wash your face

pick up a random book/remember a book you've read and "pick a fight" with the author. What did they do that you didn't like and why don't you?

listen to your favorite song (with lyrics) but imagine it in a different context. imagine it a scene from a show/a show.

make a list of things you want to include in your work, eventually you will come across an idea you will want to write.

use pen and paper

create a check list of things you have to do (make them small like open computer, open google docs, write one paragraph, etc.)

identify your strengths

identify your weaknesses

write from a different pov

remember why you started writing this project

remember why you started writing in general

dress up and pretend you are in a movie about a writer

reread your writing and find your favorite part

create a writing ritual, do two thing to get you in the mood of writing

take a break

write for one imaginary reader, what does that one reader want to see?

write some bad poetry (helps you "feel" your emotions)

use this game, you have to write an amount of words that you choose before the opponent knocks you out: Fighter's Block! (cerey.github.io)

write with a friend

write badly on purpose. And when i mean bad or cringe i mean commit. Write a dicord mod x discord kitten Wattpad fic (maybe dont post it though 😭). Just make yourself laugh

If you are stuck because you dont know what to do come up with something stupid that can be changed later (for this one scene the hero a has fourth leg that allows them to dig through the wall)

Figure out why you can't write and address that first.

imagine someone reading your story for the first time and it inspires them to do something they wouldn't have done otherwise (confess to their crush, start writing too, come out, etc)

GIVE YOURSELF DEADLINES AND STICK TO THEM

OR HAVE SOMEONE GIVE YOU DEADLINES

write about having writers block

write something that isn't yours (dont steal peoples work and try to publish it/pass it off as yours). Like a scene from a show or incorporate song lyrics into your scene.

create Pinterest boards based off your characters/plot/scenes

STOP BELEIVING IN WRITERS BLOCK AND WORK THOUGH IT. WRITE IT BADLY. WRITE IT BADLY. WRITE IT BADLY. WRITE WHEN YOU DONT FEEL LIKE IT. WRITE WHEN YOU THINK YOUR TERRIBLE. WRITE WHEN YOU ARE UPSET. WRITE IT BADLY.

[bropunzeling]

as someone who also hates (!!!) the editing process do you perhaps have any tips to share? 😿

you 🤝 me

im not sure how helpful these tips will be to you, but here's my two cents:

so you finished your first draft. yay you have a draft! a messy, incomplete one? aren't they all! feel free to coast on finishing for at least twenty-four hours. you want to vibe in the still writing, not editing phase. otherwise i (at least) start feeling discouraged and overwhelmed, instead of pleased that at least i have a starting point.

try to think about the goals of the editing process before you even open the doc. for some fic, it can just be a general spelling & grammar & removing repetition & fixing weird errors check (what's a weird error? one time in a first draft a character finished her beer three times in six paragraphs. that's a weird error). for others, you may need to check that the vibes feel right, or the pacing seems appropriate, or the world building is internally consistent. write down your goals in a notes app note or a comment! that way when you go in, you aren't overwhelmed; you know what you're trying to do

as you do a first pass, don't be afraid to leave shit for later. i constantly highlight sentences or paragraphs or half a scene and leave a comment like, "fix somehow" and then move on. often the way to make it better will strike me ten or twenty or fifty pages later. it's better to have momentum than get stuck on one frustrating sentence.

at some point, you have to stop word smithing. not because every sentence is perfect, but because you're going to annoy yourself if you keep trying to figure out why something doesn't flow right. done is better than good, and if you are planning on using a beta, they might be able to pinpoint the issue

don't be afraid to cut things. put them in a comment and keep it to the side if you don't want to lose the words. half the time you don't need them!

you've finished a first pass! this is generally when i call in a beta for anything over 5k. tell them what you're looking for when they read it over! this time, im probably going to ask things about pacing, relationship development, world building, if there are any moments where something comes across weird and not in a way i intended. sometimes, it's just line editing. you'll know what you need.

you've addressed their edits! my last and final process is something my pal ohtemporas suggested: use ctrl f and look for "filler words" - words that make your sentences less direct and immediate. things like "just," "a little," "still," "feels like". it's going to be mortifying. you don't have to cut them all, either!!!! but you'll be amazed what it does to make you really think about what you're trying to convey

at some point, you just gotta be done. this is fic. it will never be perfect. it doesn't have to be! go forth and hit publish

i hope this is at all helpful!!!! and you don't have to do all of it!!!!! at the heart of it, this is fic, and community, and stuff we do for love (and comments). it's nice to check for spelling and grammar errors (or at least i think so!), but anything else is gravy.

[renegadeknight]

Can I be super obnoxious about the ask game? ‘Cause I’m gonna.

2, 4, 17, 18

If you only want to answer one… 17 or 18. (You know I’m a whore for the snips.)

love that for me 💙

2. a character whose POV you're currently exploring

I'm actually currently trying to wrangle some Tommy POV, which has been harder than I thought it would be 😅

4. a story idea you haven't written yet

Ugh so many but one I'm really excited to get to eventually is another alt meet au where Joel finds an injured Ellie in the woods while he's on a remote-ish Jackson patrol and then he has to deal with the fallout when some raiders/fireflies come looking to take her back

17 got a little long so I put it under the cut with 18, thank you for the ask!

fic writer ask game!

17. talk about your writing and editing process

it feels like a chaotic mess to me but I usually start with a very rough just bare bones draft of something, I usually call this "word vomit" cause that helps me combat the perfectionism and just get shit on the page. some parts will be more fleshed out than others on this initial pass if a certain scene/moment strikes me, but sometimes it's literally just "Ellie says something that makes Tommy want to walk in front of a train" like vibes and what I want are easier to jot down at first even if I don't know how it's going to play out quite yet then I go back through for a second pass and try to flesh out the structure of the scene, what's my goal and who goes where and does what to achieve that goal. this can be more or less polished depending on how many mental drafts I've done of the scene. sometimes if it's a lot of convo I'll cut that to another document to work on just the dialog with no narrative distractions and then cut it back in to work out the body language interactions etc. but I still sometimes leave carrots like "<something something he asks one more question and she snaps something back" and leave it for future me to figure out and then the third pass is where I start to finalize things and paying more attention to how I'm saying things instead of what I'm saying. I try to work out all the carrots that I left behind and make sure I've hit all the story beats I was aiming for. if I'm not completely done with it after that, I'll read through one more time just for a flow/vibe check, pick up some typos if I'm paying close enough attention and then post it immediately because if I don't then I will keep picking at it until my eyes bleed

18. if you keep them, share a deleted sentence or paragraph from a published fic

This was some very early drafting for Stubborn Love where I thought Joel might push for Ellie to get a say that first time Tess came to take her to a permanent placement, and then Ellie promptly disappeared from said placement. Obviously I ended up going a different way with it, cause I felt like it was too early in the game for her to be running away and Joel to know exactly where she went. So I used that later 😉

And this was also very early SL drafting of the "not your dad/not my daughter" conversation where initially I had this idea that Ellie thought Joel was just estranged/ghosted Sarah and so she sort of stepped in it a bit. Ultimately I decided to let Ellie figure that out before this conversation cause it felt like she would piece that together. (also an example of mostly keeping to the dialog in early drafting, and "Silence for a hot second" would defs get revised to something more eloquent lol)

[sixminutestoriesblog]

moonstone

Let's wrap up the end of June with more stories about one of its birthstones. Alexandrite is actually a ''new' gemstone. It wasn't discovered, or at least classified, until 1830 in an emerald mine in the Ural Mountains. Since it was discovered in Russia and on his birthday, no less, the stone was named for Prince Alexander II. At first everyone thought it was simply an emerald but Alexandrite has the unique ability to change colors depending on the light its under and the stone tipped everyone off it was something entirely new when it went from the green they expected to red.

Which is all fascinating to me - but it does mean the stone hasn't been around long enough to really got much traction when it comes to folklore or legends around it.

For that, we'll look to June's third birthstone, the moonstone.

Before I get started though I feel as if I should point out none of my books on folklore include gemstones. This means I get just about all my information when it comes to superstitions about them from digging around on the internet or little bits of things I remember hearing in the past, like pearls being tears. Usually this is okay. I try to cross-check all my stories, only using ones that show up in two or preferably three different places and trying to avoid 'modern' sites that seem to be more about vibes than historical superstitions. I'm not here to tell you how to cleanse your house, I'm here to pass along old stories associated with items or moments our grandparents and their grandparents might have told each other. Point being, I ran across a couple different sites that listed off moonstone superstitions almost word for word of each other, which makes me suspect they all got the stories from one of the websites and just passed it around between them. It's not a good way to fact check whether they're real old superstitions or just a story one website made up and the others assumed it was factual and ran with it. The entire paragraph above me is basically just me saying 'Take all of this with a grain of salt'. I will try to keep everything true to its historic roots, leaving out things I find suspect, but I will also make misjudgements. In the end, these are all just stories and should be treated as such.

So - moonstones.

To the surprise of no one, moonstones are associated with the moon. Their milky luminescence and the way the light reflected through them seems to wax and wane as the stone is moved around are what give the stone its name to begin with. Any society comparing one to the other would automatically give the stone many of the properties they gave the moon. Hindu and Roman stories claim that moonstones are formed of moonbeams themselves, the rays solidified into something touchable. The Greeks and the Romans associated the stone with their goddess of the moon. In India, it wasn't permitted to lay the stones out for display in shops for sale unless they were cushioned in yellow cloth, a sacred color for a sacred stone. It's even been associated with Monday, suggesting if you were born on that day you shouldn't need to be a June child to enjoy the stone as your own since Monday is named after the moon.

Like the moon, the moonstone is good for lovers and prophecy. A moonstone in the mouth during a full moon will give you a hint of your future or perhaps just a future love. In fact, in India, the moonstone is considered a traditional wedding gift. Lovers who both wear moonstone rings will find their love deepened and increased and exchanging moonstones after a quarrel is supposed to help ease over the difficulty and restore the relationship. Since the gem seems to carry its own light inside of it, it was considered good luck both for a marriage and for all other aspects of life as well. Association with the moon also meant it was associated with fertility. It is supposed to help people retain their youth.

You know what else is associated with the moon? Sleeping. Put a moonstone under your pillow before you go to bed to enhance your dreams and let you sleep tranquilly. Not interested in sleeping? The moonstone is also supposed to protect travelers, especially ones that travel at night. The same protection extends to anyone traveling over water. Intriguingly, wearing a moonstone ring is also supposed to be a charm when playing cards, tipping the game in the gambler's favor and making the people playing against him more likely to follow the card shark's lead.

Do you want a full harvest and have money to burn? Bury a moonstone in the middle of your garden on the night of a full moon for an abundant harvest or hang it from a fruit tree for the same if you trust your neighbors.

The moonstone has enjoyed popularity all through history and in modern times, both the Art Nouveau movement and the 'flower child' hippy culture of 1960s America have seen a revival of interest in the stone. In 1970 the moonstone was named Florida's official state gemstone in honor of the moon landing that launched out of Cape Canaveral - even though the stone is not native to the state.

So what about that? When birthstones were handed out, June babies didn't do too badly at all, did they?

[soundofseclusion]

5. Turnip Boy Robs a Bank

Release: 2024, PC/Switch/Xbox One Beaten: January 27th, Xbox Series S (Game Pass) Playtime: 6h 49m (100%)

Turnip Boy Robs a Bank, the sequel to Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion, is a strange game in many ways. Aesthetically and thematically it matches the vibe of the first game, albeit with humor and writing that's just a little bit tighter. Mechanically, it is considerably different from its predecessor, focusing on a run-based system that relies on a bit of randomization. It pulls off both its tone and its gameplay, for the most part, very well. This review will be long, and Tumblr is letting me implement "read more"s again, so I'm using one here.

I want to hone in on that element of randomness though, because I made the mistake of going into this game expecting it to be constructed like a roguelike. The way the game is actually set up is that there's a consistent map with mostly consistent enemy spawns, but certain locations on the map ("elevators") lead to pre-constructed rooms that will be rolled randomly each time you begin a run anew. These "elevator" rooms seem to be basically a few different levels whose layouts are mostly not randomly generated; the only major element of randomness in terms of navigation is whether the consistently-placed elevator door is going to teleport you to room A or room B. The weapons that drop in each run are an actual element of randomization that feels more akin to a roguelike, but the world itself does not feel random.

So what that leaves is a gameplay loop where you enter the bank on a timer (which can be expanded), and make choices between progressing through the non-changing portions of the bank--consisting of picking up side quests, discovering obstacles which you need to get an item for to progress through in the next run, memorizing the layout for easier navigation, defeating bosses--and entering the randomized elevator rooms that appear in that run. The consistent thing in every run is trying to snag money, which can be done in multiple ways and is pretty fun to minmax. The money can then be used on upgrades and story-progressing items.

I actually ended up liking this core gameplay loop a lot. I found that as time went on, I was able to be more efficient with my time, which felt pretty satisfying. It's overall a pretty well-designed core experience that doesn't get tiring or boring and gives you a lot of things to do during its runtime. It's not designed to be an infinitely replayable game like most roguelikes, but I think it's probably better for that.

There were mainly two things I didn't like. The first was actually a pretty minor gripe, and it was that I went through about 2 hours of gameplay continually checking for a side quest NPC but never getting the elevator room that would take me to interact with them. I couldn't remember what that room looked like, and so I spent a ton of time checking every room that spawned in case it was the one that would house that NPC. It ended up being the final thing I did in the game, and I did spend a good 20 minutes exclusively trying to get that one room to spawn. The reason this is still a "minor" gripe is because, for the most part, I had other things I was completing during the act of looking for this NPC, so I didn't feel like my time was totally wasted. But still, the randomness can sometimes be to the game's detriment.

The other thing is a major gripe, and it's the ending of the game. The only spoilers I'll be providing here are spoilers about the mechanics of the end game segment and why I didn't like it; feel free to skip to the last paragraph if you want to avoid that.

The "story" ending itself was fine. Pretty good even, I'd say. Gameplay-wise, it fucking sucks. You're expected to do a boss rush, which in the case of this game, consists of navigating through four corners of the map and defeating each boss located there. It's not as simple as "fight boss 1, fight boss 2." You have to actually navigate through rooms filled with enemies and obstacles to get to each of those boss fights. On its own, that boss rush isn't that bad, and actually becomes kind of fun as it tests your knowledge of the map layout, a skill you've honed naturally throughout normal gameplay.

Unfortunately, the boss rush is followed by a chase sequence in a new but equally large version of the bank that again asks you to navigate to each of the four corners of the map. The chase sequence involves attacks that basically take out a third of your health if you get hit by them, alongside tanky, new enemies and strange terrain. Again, on its own, this is fine. But if you die during this phase, you have to redo the boss rush again on the next run, meaning you need to redo a reasonably difficult thing that takes about ten minutes before every attempt at the final boss chase sequence. It's weirdly punishing in a way that feels deliberate and I think it was a pretty bad choice.

But like, okay, I still ended up really liking my time with the game. I was salty about the end game for a bit, but after some rumination, I don't think it ruins the experience. I also have a feeling that ending is going to get patched to be easier at some point in the future, because it seems like a pretty obvious misstep. All in all, yes, I'd recommend Turnip Boy Robs a Bank if you're a fan of the first game. If you've never played the first game, I think they're both worth checking out, but this one is a vastly superior game.

[incohorace]

Tell us about fitzgerald air!

hi yay!! i get to talk about fitzgerald muahahaha

so fitzgerald air (temporary name) is set in an alternate 1920s london in which an immortality-obsessed airship magnate competes with a fanatical cult to awake an ancient, powerful pantheon from where they lie dormant beneath a monolith in the centre of westminster. yeah. such a slay

it's centered around unemployed engineer elias digby, who has finally been released from the grip of his family; an airship pilot named andrew spencer who is on the run after discovering a dark secret at the heart of the famous company fitzgerald air, which has a monopoly on airships and is headed by sir hugh fitzgerald, who is incredibly rich and influential; nora atkins, a wealthy and glamorous heiress who also happens to be a mathematical genius; adrien bennet, the owner of a motor car company called merlin motors who are attempting to improve the design of the airplane so it can become a rival to fitzgerald's airships.

after stumbling upon the scene of a seemingly sacrificial murder, elias, who is bored and smart and has nothing better to do, starts to investigate, and gradually uncovers a secret and terrifying cult who worship a mysterious, ancient being.

meanwhile andrew, on the run from fitzgerald's hitmen, hides out with his close friend nora (because she owns two whole mansions) while attempting to decipher some strange blueprints he stole from fitzgerald after a fellow employee's death, as well as a map, centered around westminster monolith (where big ben is now) with what seem to be ley lines stretching out around it.

eventually the three join up, and adrien bennet enlists their help to bring the two organisations down and stop them before they've awakened this sinister eldritch entity, which could endanger the fate of humanity

and also elias helps adrien design a new and improved plane which is cool

it's not the most developed idea as of now but i'm kind of obsessed with it <3

elias digby – sarcastic, smart, talented engineer, SO traumatised, can quote shakespeare any day, internally screaming every time andrew or adrien so much as looks at him (he has a type)

andrew spencer – THE bisexual, flirt, literally has never taken anything seriously in his life (not true he loves everyone around him very fiercely), reckless, loves flying as in he can't live without it, for someone who seems so confident and sure of himself he sure blushes a lot whenever he makes eye contact elias......

nora atkins – fashion icon, mathematical genius, somehow manages to keep andrew in check (how does she do it), actually SHE'S the bisexual of all time and i'm obsessed with her, she owns a motorbike which is hot

adrien bennet – a bit similar to andrew but with more mad scientist vibes, he's also a very charismatic leader and just generally really good with people and makes friends easily

and here's the opening paragraph because it's one of my fav things i've ever written:

That morning, London had awoken to a great downpour, the first storm after a long, dry summer, but it was evening now and its inhabitants were grumbling about the weather as if they were well into autumn and had been wearing their raincoats for weeks, trudging along rain-soaked pavements and dodging puddles with the ill-tempered resignation of a country famous for its rain. The walkers’ umbrellas groaned and sagged beneath the water that tumbled from the sheet of grey above, and they cast envious glances at the occasional passing motor car. The airships trundling high over the grimy streets suffered a similar fate: the water washed over their sloped tops and surged down their furrowed sides, collecting in gutters and gurgling down rickety pipes or simply streaming down and onto the people below. An airship hung heavy in the sky above one construction site, shielding it from the pouring rain like a great, ungainly umbrella, and a young man stood a little way from the ramshackle scaffolding, a dark blue bicycle propped up against him as he rummaged around in his pockets. He was lean and serious and his eyes sparkled with intelligence, though his face was a little pinched and his chin rather sharp; his black hair was sopping wet and flattened to his forehead, sending a steady stream of water down his nose. He payed it no mind.

[seeyounexttime]

As you probably know, Black Clover is getting a movie! It's set to release worldwide on Netflix on March 31, 2023 June 16 (and at Roadshow in Japan). And of course, to promote the movie, a website has opened up:

https://bclover-movie.jp/

The site has some information about the movie that may interest you, and that's why I created this "guide" so that you can have a better idea of what it says.

A few disclaimers: I did pass these through google translate, but I have also taken four semesters of Japanese so I have an idea of why and where the online translation is messing up. I double-checked the words and sentence structure, and tried cleaning up the translations into something that is hopefully more coherent... 😅 But if you know more and can provide some insight, then that'd be cool 🤙

Note0:

Japanese doesn't use pronouns nearly as often as English (this includes "I" and "you"). A lot of "I, you, he, she, they, it" that you see in something that was translated from Japanese was added so that the sentence would make sense.

Japanese doesn't have words for definite articles ("the") or indefinite articles ("a"/"an"). That's added in when translating because otherwise the sentence starts sounding off. So don't get caught up on that.

When you go the site, the first thing you see is the poster. The words at the top of the poster say "Not giving up is our magic"

The smaller words above the movie title:

Original Work - General Supervisor - Character Drafts

Yūki Tabata (serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump)

Under the poster is two rectangles

I'm sure that you can guess that the one that says TWITTER goes to Twitter (it does), but what about the first rectangle? Well go ahead and tap it...

Comment from Yūki Tabata-sensei

It seems that the visuals and the special report for the Black Clover movie has finally been revealed!!

I was worried about whether to do this movie based on the original work; I had a story depicting the "Wizard King" transformed into film!

Said story is "this wasn't done in the original work" but I think it's going to be a movie where you can enjoy a large-scale flashy battle between Asta's group and a group of tough enemies!

Right now, Studio Pierrot, including Director Tanemura, are putting all efforts into creating this...!!

Thank you soooo much!!! Look forward to March next year!!! I'm looking forward to it too!!

*This comment was made in December 2022, so "March next year" means March 2023 (this year)

Note1:

For the record, the second paragraph doesn't actually use the word "I" but one would figure that the worried one would be Tabata – or maybe it's "they"? "They" who? The studio? Idk

There was no full stop after that clause, just a comma, but the verb wasn't in te-form, it's in past tense so... it could function as a complete statement on its own, couldn't it? But I guess the clauses are related, right? I put a semi-colon as compromise 😅

The next clause ends in the past tense form of morau もらう which means "to receive" but can also mean "had (someone) do (something)" if it follows a verb in te-form... And it does here 化してもらいました kashite moraimashita. Which I guess leans towards it being something Tabata would like to be done?

I think ~temorau is more of a "soft" had-someone-do, not something made to be done by twisting your arm or anything (there's probably a different verb for that kind of had-someone-do).

Note2:

「原作でやらないんだコレ」という物語 confused me somewhat... The words within 「these」 is the "this wasn't in the original work" bit (and those corner brackets are the equivalent of quote marks). Then after that is という物語 where 物語 is "story"

という [to iu] is something used when calling something a name, like in the Black Clover episode "A man named Fanzell" = ファンゼルという男 Fanzell to iu otoko (otoko means "man")

"A story named 'this wasn't in the original work'."?? That sounds...odd...and idk why, maybe because of his afterwards, but I kinda get a "sorry that I never included this before" vibe?

Idk idk but apparently there are *somewhat* alternate uses of という? link one, link two, link three

Idk bro 助けて 読めない

Now continuing onto the next parts... 🚶

There should be a CLOSE button on the upper right-hand corner. Tap that and go back to the home page. Under the Twitter button is the release date and a video.

The part titled UPDATE is pieces of news (like voice actor updates) concerning the movie, and the rectangle that says ARCHIVE is an archive of those newsflashes. Then it's another link to their Twitter.

INTRODUCTION • STORY

Weekly Shonen Jump's heart-shaking magic battle action serialization — a story of the "wizard king", that was not revealed in the original work, is made into film!

Black Clover is a world where magic is everything. Asta, a boy who was born unable to use magic, has an eye on the pinnacle of mages, "Wizard King". The white hot noble path, magic battle action!

"Never giving up is my magic!" — With that conviction in mind, Asta faces a formidable enemy; that aspect of his fires up the hearts of those who see him. Serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump, and later adapted into a TV anime, this work has charmed not only Japan but also the world. And then 2023, it's at last decided to make it into a movie.

Produced by Studio Pierrot, that has handled many hit anime works such as "Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War", "Naruto", and "Yu Yu Hakusho" from Weekly Shonen Jump. The staff who handled the TV series and opened up the world of Black Clover are taking part in the long-awaited production of the movie version. The vast world of "Black Clover" drawn by the original author, Yūki Tabata, will finally manifest on the big screen…!!

What is depicted in the movie is a story of the Wizard King that was not revealed in the original work. The four most sinister Wizard Kings who were resurrected and the 「帝剣」 "King Sword"; their objective is the destruction of the kingdom. Asta during Clover Kingdom's biggest crisis... And what of Asta's Wizard King dream–?

All magic knights total war! Magic battle action that surpasses limits will begin!

To push forward with his dream, that aspect of never giving up, the hearts of those who watch will quiver! Everything that is Black Clover will be here!

Note3:

"King Sword" is what I chose to translate that word as. Maybe that's the name of the sword since it was in quotes?

The movie title, "Sword of the Wizard King", is written as 魔法帝の剣 <- so it contains the kanji used for the quoted word. We'll see what the official translation is and what the "king sword" even is later on…

Note4:

Also that's not me filling in the pronoun – there was finally a pronoun used in the Introduction section! Karera 彼ら is "they" so all four of them are bad huehuehue

STORY

Standing in the way of Asta's dream of being Wizard King are successive generations of Wizard Kings—

Asta is a boy who was born unable to use magic in a world where magic is everything. In order to overcome adversity and prove his power, Asta, together with Yuno, aim to become the pinnacle of mages, the "Wizard King", and have fought many tough opponents.

Asta has been accumulating results and walking the path to becoming Wizard King. Before him appears the former Wizard King Conrad and three successive Wizard Kings who were feared as the worst and sealed. The "King Sword" and they who were resurrected aim to destroy the Clover Kingdom.

"The boy who dreams of becoming Wizard King" VS "Past Wizard Kings"

A fierce battle involving all the Magic Knights has begun around the Wizard King!

PART 2 HERE

[daja-the-hypnokitten]

Jukebox reviews part 12! For context, see my post “A Project”   under  this same tag. If you want to see a full list of his EMCSA   stories,  they can be found here, sorted alphabetically.And if you want to see some of his drabbles, check out his blog at @jukeboxemcsa  

Suddenly I See

 date uploaded   date updated     Tags

10/31/2009                                   mc ff

I'm the wrong target audience for this. It's all sex-focused, and it feels magical in a way that just doesn't work for me. If you like a woman being overwhelmingly compelled, in a magic- feeling way, to perform sex acts on another woman, though, you might like this one? But I'll give it a pass.

  If You Leave

 date uploaded   date updated     Tags

11/8/2009                                     mc mf md

We all realize that Paul is acting completely unethically here, right?Cool. Now that that's out of the way, this is hot AF. Seeing how she's affected by his suggestions, how there's a level on which she DOES clearly want that... well. I *enjoy* that sense of futile resistance quite a lot actually, though maybe not quite the way he goes about it here. But trying to resist, even as a partner piles on more and more suggestions that make me give in is one of my favourite things. It's literally *why* I brat - and everything I love about it so much is captured in how it feels to Charlotte here. Just... ETHICS, Paul. Get her to consent to all of this free from trance first. Is that too much to ask? 9/10 spirals.

  Help Me Rhonda

 date uploaded   date updated     Tags

11/14/2009                                   mc ff

Heh, I can't help but shake the feeling that Louise may have been dealing with some internal homophobia at some point. The way she takes to this, the language she uses ... it just gives me a general vibe of someone who needs *permission* to want what - who! - she wants. And seeing her reinforcing the programming by telling Rhonda about it is really good. This would be sweet if it weren't so obvious that Rhonda doesn't necessarily have Louise's best interests at heart. 8/10 spirals

  Nothing Else Matters

 date uploaded   date updated     Tags

11/21/2009                                   mc ff md fd ma

Gosh, I do hope *someone* thought to go outside and turn Nancy's car off. She sure doesn't seem likely to any time soon. I don't *do* visual memory, not really, but the first couple paragraphs of this story are so well described it pulled up a visual memory for me of being caught up in a partner's gem, hanging from a chain, enough so that I was jolted out of the story some when the gem in the story was described as being red. My mind was focused on purple. But it's a well done induction, the use of sexual pleasure is just used to reinforce the hypnosis/control, and in general it's a really good story! 9/10 spirals, because darn it I wanted the gemstone to be purple.

  Here Comes the Rain Again

 date uploaded   date updated     Tags

11/28/2009                                   mc

An induction using water imagery, and the images of things being submerged? Not for me, in any way, shape, or form. Nope. Y'all may enjoy it though, I suppose, though skimming the end it definitely looks like it has arousal/orgasm suggestions, possibly other suggestions? I noped out too hard to be sure.

  Wake Up Call

 date uploaded   date updated     Tags

12/5/2009                                     mc ff

*giggle* oh, this is ADORABLE. Poor Debbie, caught between conflicting commands and with no win condition (or is that no lose condition?). It's a charming, sweet story that I can *absolutely* see happening between some of the folk in our community, and I adore just how real it feels. Seeing a happy hypnotee - hypnoslave, honestly - so aware and so clearly *enjoying* everything going on makes my heart sing. 10/10 spirals.

  A Hard Day’s Night

 date uploaded   date updated     Tags

12/12/2009                                   mc ff

Heh, somehow I don't think that's what most hypnosis files that are designed to help the listener drift off to sleep are designed like. But hey, Sandy sure doesn't seem to have minded. I do wish we got more hints at just what was included in the rest of the file, as it sounded like it was going into *really* fun places. I wonder just how much Sandy may find herself up for over an email exchange with the lady of the gorgeous voice... 8/10 spirals

  Joy to the World

 date uploaded   date updated     Tags

12/20/2009                                   mc mf fd

There are a number of reasons that reading this should feel awkward. It *shoud* hit the same sort of "I feel slightly voyeuristic reading this" space that some of Jukebox's other stories (such as Voices Carry), and it's much more sex-focused than I usually like. And yet. Somehow the clear, pure connection between these two, the love that is so clearly there, makes all of that so much less awkward than I would expect it to be. Things like the moment of Michael, as deeply entranced as he is, caring so much for Lynn and her health that he checks in to be sure she's feeling better enough for what happens, or the way that the moment almost pulls out an "evil" laugh from Lynn - I *know* the sorts of emotions that can drag that sort of laugh out of a hypnotist, having that kind of chuckle myself, and it just is such a relateable moment. I do appreciate Michael asking what it is said about things done on Solstice Night, though, because much like Michael I'm a lapsed Catholic who wouldn't have known. 10/10 spirals (and idly wondering if Jukebox was thinking of the Christmas Carol or the 3 Dog Night song with this title)

  Here Comes the Bride

 date uploaded   date updated     Tags

1/3/2010                                       mc ff

Oooof, poor Abby. (Addy? Her name changes when she puts on the dress) Parents can make weddings stressful AF, even when they're trying to be more helpful than stressful. And I'm not so far removed from my own wedding that I've forgotten the stress of planning it, so I can see why Abby would lean into that chance to relax, especially given over a year of Geneva hypnotizing her to help her relax and building that trust. I have some questions about how the torn seam in the dress works, because how is the ripped seam kept hidden during the ceremony, though? and was the edge finished enough that it won't unravel during cleaning and preservation? Because Abby *definitely* seems the type to do that. Regardless of the silly "Daja, learn to suspend your disbelief already" things, though, it's a good story. Betrayal is never going to be something I like, and this does hit me as a betrayal, which makes me personally enjoy it less, but that's just personal taste. 7/10 spirals

  What’s On Your Mind

 date uploaded   date updated     Tags

1/9/2010                                       mc mf ff fd cb

... I am having SO MUCH TROUBLE with this, because Tori reminds me so strongly of Jean "Kill me so I don't become the Phoenix Force again" Grey, and she would NEVER. Look, Claremont X-men was formative for me, ok? I don't get her reaction to this; me? I'd be so busy trying to put up walls or isolate from the complete OVERWHELM, so I just can't understand why Tori reacts the way she does. But ah well, people get to be different, but it does mean between that, the very magic nature of what happens, and the focus on sex and sharing folks secrets? It's not a story I like very much. 4/10 spirals.

[bloodybells1]

On Your Marx

“How many different translations of Das Kapital does a man need?” 

-my Aunt Martha

I recently paid a much overdue visit to my uncle who lives in Bogotá. The last time I was in Colombia, where a good chunk of my family resides, was in the mid-aughts, back when the aspect of the man I was greeted my family with a different mixture than today. They knew me as a nephew or a cousin, depending on who we’re talking about, who managed to become wildly successful in the music industry and they also knew me as someone with a slightly jaundiced complexion. The two were not unrelated, of course.

My aunt—married to my uncle who is the brother of my mother—has confirmed this impression, if perhaps without the hyperbole I’m certain the above paragraph contains. All she really said was that today, as compared with that erstwhile visit from over a decade-and-a-half, I seem to be a much more open human being, owing perhaps slightly to my greater facility with the Spanish language, but not exclusively so. There’s been a change, she said.

I mention this anecdote because it illustrates most directly how wonderful it is in life when time passes and someone confirms that change has indeed occurred. I may be more restless than average, but, regardless, it seems to be a universal truth that life is about change, so it’s good when there’s proof. 

My uncle is a respected political scientist in Colombia and was instrumental in “El Proceso de Paz” and it was easy to detect all this in the way his impromptu lectures unfolded over the first handful of evenings I spent at his house the other week. He has that steady diction of a professor well-accustomed to spontaneous aggregates of clauses and arguments and he deploys rhetorical devices, such as self-questioning aloud, that move his cases forward. I learned more about Colombian history from him during the first part of my stay than in my entire life, along with my own family’s involvement with it.

I’ll write about the particulars of that involvement some other time. Today I’m enjoying looking at the image I’ve pasted at the top of this blog post. This is the view afforded by my uncle’s desk in his study. 

As an artist I often question why I’m so drawn to politics. I am especially inquisitive about this recently, as my art has sought to evoke much quieter spaces, such as wilderness settings, than the boisterous and contentious atmospheres that characterize the political sphere. When I engage in political discussions, whether on Twitter or while talking with neighbors, I notice immediately the much more piquant vibe, a saucier texture of staccato rhythms and higher blood pressure, than, say, the singing bowl tintinnabulation of all of my meditation music and nebulous sound baths.

Why, then, do my interests in ideological contestation persist?

I think it’s just the way I’m made. Thanks to my father, I grew up suffused in politics. He was adamant about checking the progress of what he saw as liberal propaganda in the schools and on the television with the alternative framework of his conservative vision. Mostly this turned out to verge on the paranoiac and was almost singularly trained on the illumination of the moral failings of the liberal world view. I grew up with a steady stream of “owning the libs” rhetoric, before that was even a thing. 

Sadly for him, his worldview could not compete with the persuasive power of modern media and education, both of which turned out to factor greatly into my turn to the left in my late teens.

I started out on the right and not just because of my dad. Patriarchy and racism were part and parcel of the working class Elmhurst, Queens of the ‘80s which was my home, along with the “small town” car mechanic culture I aligned with in the New Jersey suburbs as a metalhead in the early ‘90s.

Then a real big change happened when Grunge swept through the zeitgeist, when I ditched my suddenly uncool headbanger threads and got interested in more “real” musics which were becoming fashionable in the wake of Seattle’s incursion such as punk-hardcore. The friends I kept in this new circle were decidedly anti-racist—if not entirely non-patriarchal—and were instrumental in ushering me towards the pursuit of a more leftist politics than what I had known up to that point. When I read Kurt Cobain’s slightly hysterical antiracist/antisexist manifesto in the liner notes of In Utero, Nirvana’s follow-up to Nevermind, I hear an echo of the same unease I felt with being connected to a scene with a much more regressive politics than I had come to appreciate by hanging out with all of these leftist punks. 

What I learned at that juncture basically stayed unchanged for about twenty years. I went around thinking I was very leftwing, not even aware of how I’d really only learned to appreciate a rather topical issue. Being on the leftwing side of cultural issues is only half of the puzzle, but I still didn’t know that all those years. 

I stayed this way until 2020 when I discovered Bernie Sanders and the last vestige of my class interests dominating my politics cracked. I had noticed a sharp drop in my sense of status when I left the music industry and this was fairly traumatic for my ego. I’m still learning from this occurrence—even to this day. I think the reason why I’m so attracted to socialism is because of what that trauma made painfully clear to me: that the higher status I experienced in the music industry occluded my awareness of my own class interests. Socialism, then, with its rational deconstruction of the way social relations are defined by, and occluded by, capital, feels quite logical to me.

I’m struck by the difference between my politics today and the last time I saw my uncle all those years ago. Though I’d been a liberal for quite some time by that point, I still couldn't even define “leftism” back then. The spiritual change in myself that my aunt Martha noticed and took pains to point out correlates with a political one: despite my liberalism (or, some would say, because of it) my class interests when she first saw me over fifteen years ago dominated my politics. I read the New York Times every day and believed every neoliberal word that jumped out of the page. I could only see in the binary of left and right a difference in culture and failed to see the much more troubling economic consensus of class interests between both the left and the right that characterizes that paper’s program. In other words, when I looked at the above image over my uncle’s desk, I saw only a dude in a long beard and knew very little of the radicalism behind his thought, how Marxism demolishes the neat binaries of mainstream media.

Unlike my father, my uncle had no say in my turn to the left, the more recent, much more authentic, turn I have taken. Or, if he did, it was all rather indirect. The internal reverberations of the things I learned on this trip to Bogotá about my family’s political history, on the Colombian side, my mother’s side, are going to echo within me for a long time. Yet, already, I can see something that has happened conclusively and maybe it’s something that actually points out of the political arena, to a truth about what it means to be part of a family in general. 

For if there is indeed an invisible line that ties us to our blood relations and to our ancestors and to our descendants, if there is some kind of spiritual thread that binds members of clans together, irrespective of narrative or persuasion, something, that is, ontological which links us as members of the same family, irrespective of conscious awareness, such that one might be able to talk with objectivity of family curses and family spells and family spirits, if all of this is indeed true, then it was with some wonderful recognition of the homecoming of a journey that I was able to see this poster hanging up on the wall in front of my uncle’s desk and notice that, independently of any possible influence he could’ve had over the last fifteen years, I had connected with a spirit within me that was older than I was.

[ihatetbrlists]

Review #29: Financial Feminist

Financial Feminist, by Tori Dunlap

From my TBR? Nope, read the day after discovering it.

First book of 2024 and my first book about financial education as well. Lately, I've been getting really into this sub-genre of YouTube channels and blogs about financial education content specifically directed at women. This book was recommended by Bitches Get Riches in one of their recent articles.

I picked it up expecting it to be something like Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Pérez but more specifically about discrimination in the workplace or the wage gap but it's actually an actionable guide to getting your finances together as a woman.

Now, I'm not an expert. This is, after all, the first book I've read about financial education. But I do think that someone with a bit more knowledge than I do would have found Financial Feminist to be pretty basic. I did too, at least for some chapters.

The book covers what your relationship with money should look like, how to get out of debt, how to budget, how to start investing, how to negotiate for a raise, how to be a feminist consumer (kind of) and more.

Considering that there are also many mini-essays by other (I assume) famous authors in the field, the book doesn't have the time to get into detail about any of these topics, giving us a bird view. That's fine for stuff like "how to budget" but not for the chapter about investing or ethical consumerism, something I would have really enjoy reading more about.

This book is at its best when it's explaining step-by-step how to get out of debt, create an emergency fund and set a budget — and even then, it assumes that the reader already has a high income. Jessica, the fake person we follow the financial journey of, earns 4k and budgets almost 1k for her fun money every month. In what world does the average reader of this book have 1k left after accounting for necessary spending and debt repayment

This book is also very US-centered and I'm not American. In the chapter Investing (my favorite) (since I know nothing on the subject) I had to leaf through a lot of talk of Roth IRA and 401k and you'll die in poverty if you don't start investing NOW. Useless to me, but at least it made me appreciate the social security in my country.

Other things that didn't pass the vibe check:

there are various mentions of how people of colour or LGBTQAI+ members or people with disabilities have it even worse than white women, which is not the same as actually discussing their challenges.

the author mentions Dave Ramsey disparagingly a bunch of times — like, we get it, he is Bad (and you are therefore Good).

lastly, the author used this book to self-promote her other products. Which, fair, I suppose. But also very annoying (you know when you are watching a video on YouTube when the Youtuber starts going off on a tangent that is so obviously a prelude to the inevitable "and that's why I use whatever product I'm supposed to be sponsoring". That's what some paragraphs felt like)

Verdict: This could be a good book for you if you know nothing about financial independence and want a light read. But if you want to save a few bucks, you can probably find the same information by scouring the author's blog.

[runin-reads]

More wholesome Poppy War Trilogy headcanons

Check my navigation (pinned post) for 1st headcanon post.

No war just vibes because I’m sad over the 3rd book. Canon divergence, let’s pretend nothing bad happens to them. Ever.

Venka grew up around boys (Nezha and Kitay) so she’d be secretly excited to befriend with Rin. She would insist on trying new clothes together, painting nails, anything that she didn’t do with the boys. Rin goes along with it because she likes seeing her happy!!

Rin, Nezha and Venka absentmindedly braid each other’s hair when relaxing together. Kitay always has short hair so Rin just runs a hand through it whilst he reads a book (or does taxes lol)

Nezha puts a hand on Rin’s lower back to gently move her out the way if he needs to pass by in a tight space

Nezha gives really good massages and head pats. Rin is often the receiver of these. He likes to tuck her hair behind her ear and pile food onto her plate. In return she gently traces his tattoo and scars.

Rin and Venka sneeze loudly. Nezha and Kitay sneeze quietly

Jiang never remembers the names of Rin’s friends. He often says “what’s the name of the guy you hang out with? You know, the one with freckles”

In another life Daji would be the hot rich single aunt that never goes to family reunions. Jiang is the crazy uncle that encourages the kids to rebel. Riga is the uncle the kids are afraid to approach because their parents warned them not to go near him

Vaisra would either be a lawyer or a politician in a modern au. He does the Asian dad stance in front of the tv and in the grocery store with his hands behind his back. He drinks tea religiously.

Rin is sexy but she sees herself as ugly because of her internalised colorism

Nezha the type of guy to correct other peoples posture, especially Kitay. I just know he’s hunched like Quasimodo when reading stuff

Venka’s eyeliner is so sharp it could kill a man

Ramsa would be a Leash Kid

Nezha, Venka and Kitay (he’s smart but he’s a rich kid at heart!) do not know what rent is

Jinzha the type to say “you’re ugly anyways” when his crush rejects him

Mingzha is the random kid that says “you got games on your phone?”

My intuition tells me Kitay’s older sister is hot even though she’s mentioned once and never again. If Rin met her she would spend a paragraph describing her attractiveness just like she did with Daji lol

[buckys-little-belle]

hi belle. its my first time making a request from any writer. i'm a big fan of your work especially on the cafe bignsmall. your blog is such a safe place 🥺🥺 if you don't mind, can i request for bucky's little going to the dentist and she is anxious because she felt helpless during the check up. and daddy bucky is trying his best to soothe and comfort her.

thank you 💕

Blue baby

Bucky x Fem!Little!Reader

Warnings : dentists, talks about what goes on in a dentist office but nothing graphic, sad lil reader, soft!daddy!Bucky, reader sheds a few tears (dentists are scary i don’t blame her!)

A/N : I hate the dentist so this fic hits close to home! - I’m trying to see if maybe my paragraphs wont repeat if i don’t put a “read more” section! Sorry if they still repeat!

SFW - please keep all interactions with this blog and fic SFW

Dear anon : It’s a blurb, I’m sorry, i really wanted to make it longer but i wasn’t sure where to add more! I hope you like it my love and i hope this fic is all you wanted and maybe even more. If not please send me another ask and i will gladly rewrite it for you and change anything you want me too! <3 also im so happy you felt comfy making a fic request on this blog! I love you and your vibes my love! <3 - belle

- - - - - -

Bucky drove y/n to the dentist this morning at 10am, a reasonable time for a dentist appointment he thought. Only y/n woke up grumpy and uncomfortable, already dreading her dentist appointment. When she went in she was “big”, something Bucky wasn’t expecting though he was secretly thankful for. Trying to make sure a little y/n could make it through her dentist appointment was not something he wanted to do today.

At 10:30 he heard the car door open, averting his attention from his book towards a very sad looking y/n who currently stood in the doorway of the passenger seat. From her demeanour he could tell she had regressed, her lips more pouty than ever, her eyes puffy and full of tears, honestly he could tell just from the way she stood, her shoulders curled in making her look and feel small.

“Hi baby, how did it go?” Bucky softly spoke, a reassuring smile present.

“Not good at all” she admitted, handing Bucky a small bag that contained a new toothbrush, dental floss and some gum. Peeking inside he found y/n’s staple green toothbrush, the only colour and brand she would use.

“Why’s that baby?” He cooed, helping y/n get comfortable in her seat, passing her a hoodie from the back seat to help warm her up, her arms covered in goosebumps.

“It was cold” she whispered, a tear falling down her cheek. “and my teef hurt now” y/n said, her voice defeated as she smiled big to show Bucky her irritated gums. “Dey made me jus sit there, it was so loud” y/n sobbed, her emotions now taking over her, her mind was no longer logical and only emotions were felt.

Bucky got out of the drivers seat and walked to the passanger side, the door still open, y/n sitting in the seat slumped over a bit. He crouched down, getting on y/n’s level and placing a hand on her leg, rubbing soothing circles along her upper thigh. “You were very brave baby” Bucky said assuringly “you were so good, so so good”

“I still feel icky doe” y/n mumbled, clearly still uncomfortable with the situation and how her mouth felt.

“I know baby, why don’t we go get a special juice?” Y/n perked up at Bucky’s offer, her tear stained face turned towards Bucky’s, a hopeful look plastered on it. Fancy juice meant a drink from Starbucks, something Bucky hardly ever got because of how expensive the drink were.

“Really?” She whispered in disbelief.

“Yes really” Bucky chuckled, his heart swelling as his baby seemed to glow with excitement. Sure he was going to be out $5 by the end of this little ‘reward’ but it would be worth it.

Bucky quickly buckled y/n in, giving her a kiss on the cheek before closing her door and walking towards his. Sitting in his seat and giving her his right arm to cuddle while he drove.

“Thank you daddy” he heard y/n whisper as she placed a small kiss on his forearm, her arms wrapped around his and her face smooshed against it.

“I love you to baby”

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 328: Pandora’s Box of Discourse

Previously on BnHA: DEKU TOOK A BATH.

Today on BnHA: 

Also Naomasa grew a beard. Goddamn. 

please let this be a cool chapter that plays nice with my ADHD lol

(ETA: lol I feel guilty because a lot of people hated this chapter, but I’m just happy there was a lot of stuff to make fun of, and also that I have another week to work on my backlog of meta posts since the kids were MIA.)

around one month ago?? ah, okay, so we’re gonna find out what was in that Tartarus security file huh

I love that they just randomly set the place on fire

was it necessary to do this in order to escape? no. was it a good idea to set the island they were occupying on fire while they were in the midst of still occupying it? uh. was it cinematic as fuck? fuck yeah

wow it’s a pervert!!

that’s so great that the villains set loose this fine fellow who I’m sure is definitely not a serial rapist. truly the LoV is so noble and misunderstood. they’re just trying to free society from its chains people

oh my god??!

SHANKED!!! oh my god I cheered for Stain before I realized what I was doing. time to have an identity crisis I guess

so he’s all “hey what’s going on.” which, while a respectable question, is something I personally would have waited to ask until I had put a bit of distance between myself and the fiery murder island. but that’s just my personal preference

Stain you really are tenacious I’ll give you that

“what’s the point of escaping prison if you’re not gonna be smart about it” well shit. anyways yeah you’re dead right, society is in the process of collapsing and the outside world is in total chaos, good call there

oh shit

I mean it’s not like we really expecting anything otherwise, but still. fucking brutal. I feel like these guys’ fates were decided the minute that one guy called AFO “scum” back in chapter 94. AFO is unmatched at getting long-term revenge

??

ahh, was it the security footage??

fdsdfk he’s still alive??

and he’s immediately launching into an inappropriately theatrical monologue even as the darkness closes in on him fdlfksjdlk. you know, was it ever confirmed that the other guy back in chapter 297 was Seiji’s dad? I’m just saying

very impressed that he’s still coherent enough to weigh the pros and cons before making the decision to gamble on giving this info to Stain, who at the very least has his own moral code and isn’t allied with AFO. it was definitely still a risk, but as we now know it was also the right call

what a weird alliance. so Stain tells him that he’ll give it to a just person, and the guy is all,

okay for real though I’m gonna need someone to run a DNA test on this guy. maybe it was some kind of cuckold situation?? the other guy had the family resemblance, but this guy absolutely 100% raised Shishikura Seiji and you are not going to convince me otherwise

anyway, so Stain is all,

PRISON GUARD: “???? ??????? what the hell. what the fuck does that fucking mean. I’m dying here, jesus christ, whatever man fuck you”

(ETA: I kind of feel like this might have been Stain’s last appearance in the manga, given all the fanfare. there’s not really much else he can do for the story at this point, and he seems to have gotten all the character development Horikoshi was planning on giving him. so if this really is it, hasta la vista and good riddance I guess.)

DWLFDKSLDK MEANWHILE, OUTSIDE

(ETA: I feel like this is meant to be evocative of that Sermon on the Mount painting, but in a really fucked up way lol.)

if it were me stumbling upon this scene I would just shake my head and walk right back into the flaming building. not getting involved in that mess. sorry not sorry. I’ll take my chances with the fire, especially given that it’s half-assed neutered BnHA fire lol

blah blah blah and so he decided to pass the info on to All Might -- HOT DAMN, HOLY SHIT

NAOMASA HOLY SHIT. THE APOCALYPSE LOOKS GOOD ON YOU, BOY

“I really like that facial scruff thing Aizawa’s got going on, I think I’m gonna get in on that” yes sir. “also thinking of ditching the tie in favor of the bulletproof vest look. also thinking of getting totally fucking jacked.” good lord. except I’m pretty sure that’s just body armor, but also I don’t care. anyway I should probably stop staring and actually read the fucking speech bubbles here lol

“All Might first handed this information over to Nao, and then went to see Deku, and then came back to Nao” thanks for that tidy little summary Horikoshi. we are capable of piecing events together in sequential order, I just want you to know that. but thank you

“so has Deku finally gotten a bath? also, sucks that Stain saved the day, but what are you gonna do” Nao I missed you so fucking much and didn’t even realize. how am I just now realizing that you are the perfect man

for a second I was gonna ask why Tartarus’s security systems would be cut off from the outside world, and then I remembered that’s a basic security control, and then I actually got impressed by how sensible that is. like, it’s been a while since I could genuinely say that the good guys (excluding class 1-A) did something smart. not that it helped them much in the end, but still

anyway so they’re talking about how AFO was able to coordinate the attack by communicating between his horcrux self on the outside and his ugly peanut-faced self on the inside

huh

okay you have my attention. I am taking notes here lol please continue

ah okay so he says that prior to Jakku, the transfer of information between him and his Vestige self was only one-way. but post-Jakku when Deku was in the hospital, he was able to tell what was happening inside the OFA Radical Lisa Frank Dead People Book Club Realm when he touched him. I feel like we established that before, actually. but he didn’t talk about how it actually felt, though

boy we already know this lol. yes AFO can talk with his horcrux self. and he can also communicate with his little bro in OFA too, let’s talk about that sometime why don’t we. what exactly does that imply, based on the rules we’ve established here

my god I cannot get over Naomasa and his fucking facial hair

no wonder All Might was in such a hurry to leave Deku and get back here

like I have no idea what this radio waves nonsense is but my god, people

that jawline. also so it’s a quirk, I see. except last I checked Deku didn’t have a radio waves quirk, so that doesn’t really explain his connection to AFO. but whatever, hopefully we’re at least getting closer to some kind of reveal here

(ETA: since I sometimes forget that other people’s lives don’t revolve around my theory posts, here are the two relevant links if you by chance want to know my thoughts about this.

Hagakure is still The U.A. Traitor™ regardless of whether Deku is passing information on to AFO through his psychic link, which he almost certainly is.

speaking of said psychic link, Deku is a horcrux.

just posting these now, because whenever trippy OFA stuff happens I tend to get an influx of theory asks. so hopefully this will be a bit of a time saver lol.)

-- wait, what

THAT’S what the recording was??!? holy SHIT. I genuinely was not expecting that. y’all wiretapped his fucking telepathy. fucking quirks, man. wild

AND THEY USED THAT POWER TO DETERMINE WHAT WE ALREADY KNEW, HUZZAH. GOOD SHOW

-- oh shit wait lol, except I forgot we’re not talking about 38 days from the present, we’re talking about 38 days from the date the conversation was recorded. heh. um

yeah that’s the face I would make too if All Fucking Might just casually told me we had eight days left until the end times

oh, pardon me. three fucking days

r.i.p. anyone who thought we were going to have another band arc sob. I sure hope Deku is enjoying that nap

(ETA: I realize people were hoping for a longer rest period here, but given that the man warned us all the way back in chapter 306 that we were entering the final act, you can’t really blame him too much when that turns out to be true. anyway but I do recognize that we’ve reached the point in the story where this kind of discourse is going to become a weekly occurrence, simply because there’s no possible way for Horikoshi’s actual endgame to line up perfectly with the variable headcanons of millions of fans, all of whom have wildly differing and in many cases contradictory expectations which can’t possibly all be fulfilled. anyway, so I’m already bracing myself for that lol. this coming year is going to be a wild ride.)

damn, U.A. out here looking like the motherfucking United Nations

-- is this U.A.?? I actually just realized, U.A. is four interconnected buildings, not two. wait holy shit is this Shiketsu?

wait holy SHIT

based on the overwhelmingly powerful vibes of bureaucratic incompetence, I’m thinking this really is the (future) U.N., or whatever organization it is that deals with international hero stuff

“just let them handle it themselves I’m sure they’ll be fine” yeah okay, thanks guys. appreciate it

wait oh shit did he say that it’s not just Japan?

soooo, what you’re telling me is that AFO is this close to bringing about the end of not just Japan, but the entire world, and you guys don’t think it’s a good idea to help the Japanese heroes stop him? so, genuine follow-up question: are you guys already planning your rich people exodus into space a la Wall-E, and that’s why you don’t give a fuck?? like, what??

omg international heroes

these guys are from World Hoodie Mission, right? is this Horikoshi’s way of reminding me to buy tickets

(ETA: and it worked too lol.)

WHO??? WHAT???

don’t tell me you’re introducing yet another badass new female character for me to fall in love with only to watch as you dismember them and/or blow them up, Horikoshi. I’m getting tired of playing this game my dude. don’t lie and tell me this time will be different. we’re not doing this again goddammit

noooooooooooooooooooo

god fucking dammit lmao. [sighs and rips the previous paragraph into shreds]

on behalf of Americans I apologize for our superheroes always being Like This

I also apologize because I love her already and I’m gonna be shameless about it. so fucking shameless you guys

is her fucking hair red white and blue. it is, isn’t it

this is the volume cliffhanger, 100% lol. it will take every ounce of Horikoshi’s willpower not to put her on the volume cover. he’ll have to settle for the spine or the inner cover this time because Deku VS his class 1-a superpals takes precedence. but it will be a close thing let me tell you

tbh it’s that smile that does it for me. she’s definitely All Might’s protege. get out there and show them how it’s done girl. and maybe call Salaam and BRD and see if you can’t convince them to play hooky from their governments as well. why not. world’s ending in three days you guys. “sorry, I’m busy this weekend” ain’t gonna cut it lol

so while I am not fully caught up with Vigilantes, I have read far enough to know that there’s an American hero named Captain Celebrity whose superpower from what I recall is being a humongous douchebag. and while I haven’t read far enough to know what happens to this guy, I can’t say I’m very disappointed to learn that he’s no longer the number one hero in the U.S. (actually, didn’t they kick him out and that’s why he moved to Japan to begin with?). anyway, so my thanks to Horikoshi for having a marginally higher opinion of Americans than Furuhashi, even though we have definitely not done anything to warrant said opinion lately, and you may have inadvertently opened the door to a pandora’s box of discourse lmao

(ETA: lol I went into the tags and they don’t disappoint. “why is she dressed like a flag” because she’s an homage to Captain America and Major Victory and literally every other character on this list. again, I apologize for fictional American superheroes being Like This. “oh boy another thicc waifu to make the fanboys happy” look, tumblr fandom never seems to have a problem thirsting over Dabi or Tomura or Aizawa or Nao, lol, I’m just saying. “where is Captain Celebrity” idk, probably murdered by the exploding bee cartel, let’s just be grateful for our good fortune and try not to Beetlejuice the man.)

anyway, so let’s see if Horikoshi’s recent character development with regards to making Mineta not terrible anymore will apply to other aspects of his writing as well. I know I was making light of discourse just now, but I do think the complaints about him introducing yet another new character at the 11th hour to be cannon fodder in the final battle are absolutely valid. and again, it wouldn’t be a problem if he didn’t keep maiming/killing off his female characters one by one instead of developing them and letting them kick ass long-term. but that said, I will never complain about Horikoshi adding another female character to the series, regardless of how clumsy the attempt may be. go ahead and pander away, just give us more girl power lol

anyway so we’ll see how it goes, but I think I’m gonna be optimistic and let myself hope once again, even though I’m probably gonna regret it lol. it is what it is. she is standing on an airplane just chilling for fuck’s sake. I’m only human. anyway fingers crossed

[poisonhemloc]

ignore me im putting outer wilds headcanons together rather than write

this is a couple paragraphs of text cause its thoughts and not. edited well for comprehension sorry also spoilers

Hearthians first

It seems like the trend is a handful of kids born at about the same time then no new kids for a while? Oldest are Spinel, Gneiss and Tektite, then the middle agedish group which is Rutile and Esker are oldest, Hornfels, Slate, Gossan and Feldspar all seem about the same age, I’d put Porphy and Gabbro next, then maybe Moraine and Chert, Riebeck and Marl, Hal and the Hatchling, then Galena, Arkose, Tephra and Mica. It is just how I ordered it but. Now I’m wondering if one of the older Hearthians recently passed away so (it’s august i posted this in march) I forgot Tuff. None of y’all noticed and neither did I, but they’re probably either Porphy&Gabbro’s or Gossan&Hornfels’ age. That does ruin the nice neat ‘pairs are born around the same time’ but eh, it was too good to be true or someone from that age range died recently too

The pilot order is Feldspar then Gabbro then Chert then Riebeck. We know Feldspar was first (Gossan stopped traveling they don’t count here), and I feel like Gabbro is the logical second choice because 1) low energy, you know where they are, they aren’t pinballing around the solar system and if you get them to listen they’ll actually go check on equipment if you need someone to vs Feldspar is Exploring, 2) Spacesuits. Gabbro looks like they have a full body suit like Feldspar and Gossan; it’s harder to tell with Riebeck, but I think Chert does have a full body suit but it’s two different materials, top and bottom, and that’s when Outer Wilds Ventures started moving towards keeping the torso/head pressurized and hope your pants are okay. unrelated checking the images again Chert has constellations on their bandana it’s cute. Which leads into Chert probably being third, since similar suit design but also Hornfels and Gossan realizing the overcorrected for Feldspar being Feldspar with Gabbro being Gabbro and luckily the next Hearthian who wanted to go wanted to do actual work, too, with the stars. Then Riebeck, when the Hatchling first gets to them they say something along the lines of “Oh you launched, I guess that means I’ve been out here a while!” And that (...and their suit, their pants look separate from the top bit) makes me think they were the last ones out. With all that, Feldspar is the oldest (Probably a bit past middle aged honestly), then Gabbro is like, equivalent of late thirties early forties, Chert’s early thirties, Riebeck’s late twenties, and our Hatchling is like. Late teens early twenties.

Hal is writing fluent with the Nomai language, since they translated it? Despite some of the Nomai’s stuff saying it’s a recording I think everything is written down as well including on their recorders, but none of the Hearthians are fluent with spoken Nomai. Riebeck is writing fluent too, they were on Timber Hearth when Hal and I think Hornfels and whoever else was free started combing through everything Feldspar brought back and pictures and started figuring the language out.

Nomai stuff-

So there’s a big emphasis on the written word for the Nomai? To the point where they leave writing from the crash near writing from building the ATP. I get the vibe it’s all preserved, somewhere- like, everything is scaled down to make the game manageable (time, planets, writing, etc) and if you tried to make it “realistic” there’d be shelves and shelves full of writing they’ve preserved.

So the point I’m leaning towards, I don’t think deafness is a huge cultural disability for the Nomai? Because everything is written down, and with Solanum we see one of the tools they carry can just project writing wherever. Vs vision issues might be a bigger problem especially until they can get facilities up to make some kind of glasses.

Owl people stuff-

Since it was the entire moon’s worth of Owl people who went to the Eye, I feel like there were several different groups? And that’s represented by the three main areas- the River Lowlands tribe lived more in a swampy type area, the Cinder Isles tribe were islanders, the Hidden Gorge tribe were cliff dwellers.

They were cooperative on the trip, finding out and blocking the Eye, and then making the simulation. Once they went into the simulation, I feel like they rarely travel to the other group’s areas? Everyone reverted back to “my tribe my place I might come check on you but not really” and that’s partially because the simulation is of where each group prefers to live and partially because of the Prisoner from the Cinder Isles group releasing the signal and partially because I think the Owl person who found the signal in the first place and led the charge to build the Stranger was from River Lowlands? And most of the Owls who built the Simulation were from the Hidden Gorge. A couple of them go to check, once the simulation is in daylight, after the night the dam breaks but no one’s really torn up that the other tribes are gone. The Hidden Gorge tower was built explicitly to stay safe in case of dam issues.

The Lowlands tribe tends to have more greenish coloration, the Isles tribe are more blue, and the Gorge tribe is more grey and tend to have more streamlined horns. Lowlands and Isles Owl people generally know how to swim but the Gorge tribe doesn’t- part of why jumping into water was coded put out the artifact because c’mon they did not have to code that in.