#though it was very hard not to add a shit ton of puns

[kirisaki-daichi-scenarios]

can i request.... yandere hara with a pet play kink ?????

Sharp nails dig into your shoulder, as his teeth sink into your flesh, at the base of his neck. He purrs, and his tongue drags slowly over the red marks on your skin.

“I’m your favourite kitty, right?” he murmurs, right in your ear, close enough that you can feel the breeze of his lips and breath, and there’s a hint of a growl in the back of his throat, like he’s a tiger and not a house cat.

“You’re my favourite,” you repeat with a shiver.

“And I’ll always be your favourite.”

“And you’ll always be my favourite.”

His chuckle brushes your ear, as he leans even closer to you, arching his spine, his legs still straddling yours, his arms like chains around your torso, his chest heavy on yours.

“It’s good you remember that,” he whispers, and there’s a wide grin across his face as he licks up the saliva from the edge of your lips - truly the cat who got the cream, “I’d be so disappointed if you abandoned me. I don’t know what I’d do…”

The heat of his body burns as he adds, in a mutter, on the skin above your collarbone, “you know what they say about cats and their being ever-so-territorial?”

His teeth running up your mouth, lips curled back in a mix between a snarl and a smirk, and, though you can’t see his eyes, you know they’re gleaming.

[justholdingstill]

skee-ball wizard, E, 1.6K

This one goes out to @doctorprofessorsong for suggesting in the @spnbangbang chat that Dean n’ Cas in an established relationship would get stupid competitive over arcade games and start betting over who gets to choose the next depraved sex thing they do/make with the shit-talk and start trying to distract each other from winning. The rest is all my fault. Enjoy. ;) PS please join the bang, we are having a ton of fun! (This is not my bang fic, for the record, just something that wouldn’t leave me alone.)

Involves kinky dirty talk in a semi-public setting. 

Nine times out of ten, Dean’s gonna stomp Cas on the classic cabinet games at the arcade–he grew up playing them in the lobbies of the better motels, in the movie theaters he snuck Sammy into, after school with whatever friends he might have made in the town of the month. He learned to pick locks just to jimmy fistfuls of quarters out of laundry machines, to buy himself short windows of time, thirty or sixty minutes long, where it was just him with a steady eye and both hands on the controls, aiming to put his initials up on the leaderboard before he hit the bottom of his pockets. Cas never stood a chance.

Cas likes Pac-Man for himself, and has an alarming gift for Big Buck Hunter ever since he started getting comfortable with the weight of a real rifle in his hands, but he prefers the games with more of a physical dimension to them: pinball and the air hockey table and that claw thing full of stuffed animals that Dean has forbidden him from playing unless it’s a very, very special occasion. He does not need a back seat full of plush rabbits, damn it.

Skee-Ball, though–Cas loves Skee-Ball. He’s fucking fantastic at it too, which Dean figures has got to be a hangover from rolling off the factory line with the physics comprehension and the hand-eye coordination of a celestial warrior despite how human he is now. Turns out, Cas is kind of a competitive motherfucker. And that would be just fine except that he’s also picked up Dean’s skill of talking smack with a fluency.

Because Dean is a competitive motherfucker too, albeit one who can’t stop running his mouth when he’s in the heat of it and gunnin’ to win; he knows this about himself. He accepts this about himself. He’s chased the impulse headlong into all kinds of fun and trouble over the years. It’s even kind of an art, he might say, if you get enough tequila in him.

He should have known better. Because Cas wears his shirts now (and fills them out nicer than he ever could, but that’s beside the point), and Cas steals sips of coffee from Dean’s cup when they’re driving, and Cas pops the tip of his tongue out of the corner of his mouth when he’s concentrating really hard on something just like Dean does—Cas is a quick study and an incredible shot and he doesn’t miss, or miss anything, so of course he was was going to hone shit-talk into a weapon sharper than any blade. 

That’s probably some kind of sin, Dean figures; add it to the list, right next to the hustling suckers at pool and the gambling their earnings just as fast over which one of them can put their big wooden ball into that tight little “100” hole first, pun absolutely intended. 

Dean doesn’t worry too much about sinning any more–he’s pretty sure he maxed out that limit an angel-handjob or twenty ago–, but he remembers all too well what it’s like to bring the laser-focus of heaven’s wrath down upon himself because it’s scarily similar to the look Cas is giving him right now, right after he’s decided that playing for money is no longer exciting but competing for who gets first pick off their growing “kinky shit we should try” list later tonight is.

Dean licks his lips. “Yeah, okay.” 

So that’s his first mistake. 

His second is not telling Cas to back up out of his space while he’s lining up the shot of a lifetime, because just as he’s calibrating the flick of his wrist to put the correct spin on the ball, Cas sidles even closer. He puts his mouth dangerously close to Dean’s ear, so that his hot breath sends shivers racing down Dean’s spine when he whispers, “when you lose, I’m going to put you over my knee and spank your ass so red that when you sit across from me at breakfast tomorrow, all you’re going to be able to think about is how I own it even when my hands aren’t on you.” 

Dean flubs the shot, but still manages to score thirty points. He’s a goddamn champion, all things considered; Cas is gonna have to try a little harder than that. 

“Yeah, well,” Dean says, just as quiet, “I’ve seen the way you’ve been lookin’ at that big purple dildo we got last month. Maybe when you lose, it’s gonna be your turn to find out exactly how hard it is not to come when you’ve got all that girth up inside you. Think you can handle that?” 

Cas actually drops the ball, but he snatches it out of the air before it can hit the ground. He scores fifty points, and then he glares at Dean with one eyebrow arched in a threat. 

His third mistake is looking at Cas at all; his pants situation is already inappropriately uncomfortable, and it doesn’t help in the slightest to have Cas looking at him like that when Cas fires back with, “I promise you that I could ‘handle it’ with far less whining than you manage to do. I might even enjoy it. Too bad for you that your skill of sucking here in the arcade is going to translate nicely to you sucking me on your knees this evening as an apology for thinking you could challenge me. When are you going to learn, Dean?”  

The answer is never. Dean is never going to learn, because winding Cas up is way too much fun for all parties involved. His ball glances off the edge of the hundred-spot and lands him a mere ten points instead, but he doesn’t even flinch. He doesn’t break eye contact with Cas. He doesn’t say another word until Cas finally manages to drag his gaze away from him and reaches for another ball from the dispenser. 

“I dunno, man. I’m hearing a lot of jaw-flapping about losing, but I haven’t seen you win yet. Maybe it’s you who’s not learning.” 

See? It’s an art form, and Dean is some kind of maestro, because Cas’ eyes immediately jerk back to him, full of fire. “Maybe it’s you,” Dean continues, “who should be showing me a little respect.” 

The exit sign is glowing red above a door not far behind them; he half-expects Cas to drag him out to the alley right then and there. He wouldn’t complain. He never does. Instead, Cas goes still, a predator who’s caught the scent of his prey on the shifting wind, every sense and every muscle honed in on Dean, daring him without words to make the wrong move. 

Dean licks his lips and adjusts himself. He glances down the length of the arcade–there’s only one other couple nearby, too engrossed in Space Invaders to notice their existence, and the handful of other patrons are lingering at the bar or over by the pool tables. He looks back at Cas, and Cas just gives him this dark little smile. 

Cas takes his shot. He scores another fifty points like it’s nothing. He wraps an arm around Dean’s waist and presses a chaste kiss to Dean’s temple with a thoughtful hum. To an outsider, it’s probably sweet as hell. They’re gross and in love–Sam has told them so about a billion times, wearing various shades of nausea. 

“You really should just give up now, beloved. You’ve put in an admirable effort. There’s still time to bow out gracefully.” He tips his forehead against Dean’s; Dean sucks in a ragged breath. “Nobody here would judge you for an honorable forfeit, knowing what I know: how much you love it when I bind your wrists and ankles so all you can do is squirm while I ride your gorgeous cock. Hmm?” 

Dean shudders, the mental image of it dripping arousal honey-thick down his spine, clouding his senses. Cas is right; he does love that, especially when Cas gets to flicking and pinching at his nipples, too, making him whimper uncontrollably. It’s almost worth losing. 

Almost. 

“Dunno, Cas,” he sighs, stepping away to pick up another ball. He throws it up in the air and catches it. “You know what the thing about you is?” 

Cas tilts his head and squints. “I do not.”

“It’s just that you’re always underestimating me,” Dean tells him. He catches the ball again, once, twice. “Always forgetting that I know shit about you too, buddy. You know what I know, Cas?”

“Tell me,” Cas says, his voice sounding like it’s been torn to shreds. He shifts from foot to foot—subtly, sure, and his jacket’s obscuring Dean’s line of sight, but Dean’d be willing to put every dollar he still has on his guess that Cas is hard enough to pound nails right about now. 

“You like being tied up just as much as I do. More, actually.” 

He does; a lot more. They have dozens of feet of soft black cotton rope that can attest to that fact, and where Dean has a complicated relationship with restraint, Cas seems to find a whole-hearted joy in wrapping intricate patterns over and around his own skin, gets breathless over the idea of being able to limit his own physicality, his own movement. Dean thinks he understands why, and he loves it too: tying Cas’ wrists to his thighs so he can’t touch himself, his hands to his chest, tying those broad thighs apart so that he’s open and helpless to Dean’s hands, his mouth, his heart. 

He’s beautiful like that, bare and vulnerable. He thinks Cas knows, hopes he knows. 

“Maybe I’ve been thinking about that,” is all Dean says. 

He lines up his shot.

He shoots. 

He scores. 

A hundred points, like he was born to do it. 

The machine starts pouring out tickets, but Cas is already halfway to the door, to the car, and Dean? Dean’s hot on his heels. 

*

[pluraljerma]

Did an exercise where i wrote out my ocs genders! here they are! i’d love to hear if anyone relates to any of these and feel free to add/make a post telling me your ocs genders!!!

lorna has more gender than she realizes. it glows like a sunset that’s so bright but you can’t look away. it’s heavy but not dense. it’s a pancake platter from a diner where they don’t hold back on portions sizings (they also add rainbow sprinkles). it really is the ocean: vast and wild, beautiful.

duncan has less gender than she realizes. it’s cold and hollow. it’s a cement floor covered in peeling paint. it’s a picture of a forest (no pun intended) so foggy you can hardly see the green on the trees. what is there is ridged but brittle. all of this is distant though. she’s a girl because that’s what the assumption has always been.

floribeth is a girl for simplicity. really she’s less of a girl than she has the energy or interest to explore. she actually has two genders i think. one is shards of femininity. it’s a necklace you lost. one is something else… it’s not being able to sleep, knowing you have an early morning the next day. it’s murky paint water. it’s a memory of shining a flashlight in your eyes. it’s half obscured, theres more to it that neither i nor her have discovered.

quin is a girl out of spite. her gender flares out. it explodes. it’s a half empty- no, fuck you, half *full* iced coffee from burger king sitting on a sidewalk. it’s the mommy issues <3

honeydirt’s gender is a dusty dollar store fake flower in your grandma’s backyard. it’s an overpriced iced and matcha tea. it’s plastic and glittery and sun-faded. it’s #girl. its very defined but light. like a chiseled block of marble if marble was weightless. it’s an art installation.

entrah’s is #girlboss. it’s pink and glittery. a smile coated in thick sticky pigmented lipstick.

logan’s gender is like if a wayneradiotv vod was a boy. i’m not going to elaborate but you can think on it if you wish.

keith’s is hidden to him right now. but it’s light and airy but not weightless. it’s finding your footing. it’s feeling your limbs slice through the air as you fall… or fly. its angel food cake. it’s fresh linen, or a candle with that on the label. definitely waxy.

chris’s gender is hard to pin down. it’s dense and solid but tossed around like it’s nothing. it’s a worm on a string, a sore throat, it’s running in bare feet like they won’t be sore when you rest. it’s the feeling of waving your legs or arms through water real fast. it’s a rush of adrenaline. it’s abstract, neon, and fluffy and grounded at the same time.

mortis is an old gay man. and that’s a big part of it for him. his gender is a children’s half used watercolor set. it’s the bleach isle of a dollar tree. it’s an inside joke that doesn’t get less funny the more you tell it, just takes a new form of humor. it’s a firm hug.

porter is a circle. what kind of question is “what is your gender?” i don’t know, round? it’s hollow but high up and airy, filled with a gas. it’s a balloon. a ball pit ball suspended on a stream of air that little kids use as a tee to hit with a plastic bat. or maybe it’s nothing at all.

rocket doesn’t have a gender. he’s too busy shitting his pants and being possessed by a catgirl. he has a very strong identity and sense of self but that isn’t tired to gender!

scotty is a boy like a rock. rough, gritty, sharp. it may smooth out and become a stone in time but for now it’s gonna hurt if you step on it.

yttym has multiple genders that glob together like play dough being mixed. that glob is made up of anything. it’s the stars, a bottle of glue, an analog television, a lost shoe, a rainbow. it’s this that and the other thing. there’s so much of it that it sticks to everything like juice stains an antique rug. it grows and warps and seeps and blends into everything until th*y can’t tell what’s gender vs anything else. her gender is her perception of her gender. it’s a slime someone dumped a shit ton of ingredients into.

[retroellie]

The Last of Us Headcannons

Summary: Headcannons about TLOU2 characters 

A/N: I’m sorry I haven’t posted in a bit, I’ve ben stressed so I thought I’d write for my comfort characters lmao 

Warnings: Slight NSFW mentions, TLOU2 spoilers 

Word count: 2.4K

Ellie

-This girl is the best girlfriend i swear

-She will always tell you she loves you when she leaves or even if she goes into the other room

-She’s lost a lot of people so she’s always telling you how much she loves you just in case

-Helping her when she has nightmares, especially after joel's death

-”Please don’t leave me.”

-“Ellie, I’m not going anywhere.” 

-She’s definitely a lover of old music

-80s and early 90s was definitely her favorite eras music and movies wise

-Gifting her records you found in abandoned buildings

-She draws you a lot, especially when you aren’t paying attention

-One time she couldn’t sleep so she drew you, she thought you looked peaceful asleep. That drawing is probably her favorite she’s ever done.

-You basically live with her in the garage she lives in

-Winters are always cold in the garage so y’all are basically attached to each other

-You both are cuddled up watching movies with tons of blankets on

-This girl is horny all the time, like if yall are alone she’s on top of you

-Dancing together at the dances

-This girl is so clingy omfg

-Ellie worries about the looks and comment yall get when showing affection in public so she tends to tone down her clinginess

-Joel loves you, point blank period

-When ellie tells you what joel did for her, you didn’t know if you should be happy or sad

-They were gonna take ellie away from you, you probably would've done the same

-”My life would have mattered.”

-”Your life matters to me.”

-You tried to make her feel better about it though, telling her that there would still be bad people and infected in the world

-Neck kisses from the back, my heart is melting holy shit

-She asks maria to put you on routes with her cause mama you are not going without her

-Puns, just puns all the time and you love it

-Definitely calls you babe and baby, you always make fun of her for it but she knows you loves it

-Yall make fun of each other but it’s all in good fun she will never take it too far

Joel

-You’re this mans baby idc

-No one hurts you or they will get tracked down and their knee caps will be gone

-Joel knows full well you can take care of yourself but he just gets so mad

-This man is so soft for you

-He tries to spoil you the best way he can, going out of his way to get you presents from abandon stores

-Teaches you how to play guitar

-He will have you sit in his lap and play the chords

-”Is it sounding better?”

-He just nods and kisses along your back

-He will sing you to sleep if you ask him

-This man has shown you some good ass music, yall sometimes just lay in bed and listen to old records

-He loves the way you look in his shirts, this man melts or bends you over the kitchen table

-He doesn’t cry often but this man is hurt

-The first time you saw him cry was when he broke down to you about ellie and the fireflies and what he did

-It hurt him a lot to admit it but he was so relieved that he could let go and someone be on his side for once

-Tells you all about sarah and how she would like you

-”She would’ve loved you.”

-”Yeah, casue i’m the coolest.”

-”You're a nerd.” He chuckled out

-He would happily tell you about life before the infection, what it was like to not have to look over your shoulder all the time

-He would never tell you about his time in boston

-He didn’t want to scare you, so you never asked but you had a good idea of what happened because of tommy

-Slow dancing in the kitchen while dinner is on the stove

-Forehead kisses in the morning when he has to leave for rounds and your dead to the world

-Calls you Babygirl and princess, IDK HE JUST SEEMS LIKE THE TYPE OKAY

-His voice in the morning>>>>>>

-Will watch you dance from a far while at dances

-Takes you out on little dates, he doesn’t even care about the stares yall (The age gap)

-He is prepared for anything to happen so he loves you like it’s his last day

-Talks about having kids with you but is okay if you don’t want them, i mean he’s not sure if he wants another one but hell, He said he wasn’t going to date anymore but here we are

-If you want kids he doesn't care hold old he is, he will try and try and try to give you a child 

-”Damn it i got my period.” 

-”Well then I reckon we gotta try again, huh baby girl.” He says with a smirk 

-This man has a daddy kink and that’s all i gotta say about that umm anyways

-He is madly in love with you and he shows it, he has lost too many people and he has the mindset of “Good things don’t last forever”

Tommy

-I love this man with all my heart, he’s my baby

-He’s very caring and will hold you anytime you need to be held

-He just wants to help people and make the world a little easier for them so he overworks himself to the max trying to keep everything in jackson in order

-”Tommy, it’s 3 am and you got rounds in the morning. Come to bed.”

-”Yeah i'll be in there in a minute, i just gotta figure out the food supply situation.”

-Having to drag his ass to bed

-He loves cuddling, he loves feeling close to you

- Your the fighter of the relationship, tommy doesn’t like to fight if he doesn’t have too so he lets you deal with the violent stuff

-Although tommy loves his brother, he has a hard time forgiving him for the violence he exposed him too

-He feels very undeserving of you and everything good in his life., you have to constantly reassure him that he is a good person and is doing a great job

-He does have nightmares of being in Boston but you were always there for him, he was so thankful for you.

-He loves your cooking, like it can be the most simple thing ever and he’d be like 

-”This is the best Cereal i have ever had, who taught you to cook like this?”

-He has mommy issues, like his mother wasn’t really around so he has a lot of issues with that ig

-He is the best kisser i said what i said

-He’s very passionate and possessive, it’s cute

-He gives you his jackets all the time, he thinks you look so cute in them

- This man is literally the softest i can’t

-He doesn’t cut his hair just because one time you told him you liked it long

-”Jeez honey, your hair is getting pretty long.”

-”Shoot, do I need to cut it again.”

-”No...I like it long, it flatters your face.”

-”I will literally never touch my hair again ever again now that you said that, Okay”

-You have expanded this mans music taste

-He only ever listened to country cause i mean he’s a simple man but then you came along

-You got him a walkman just so he can listen to the music you recommend him

-He tells ellie all about you and asks her for help because he doesn’t want to mess up anything

-He’s not good in relationships and he believes he’s not a very attractive man so he doesn’t really try but he sees himself marrying you

-Spoiler he asks you to marry him because he can’t see himself without you, he doesn’t want to imagine how the world would be so dark without you in it

-He’s not into cute nicknames so he’ll just call you honey

-After joel's death, he was broken and you didn’t think you can even put him back together, but your willing to try

Dina

-I think you would be dina’s first girlfriend but she would love you with all her heart 

-She kissed you at the dance and everything kinda clicked from there 

-She would sneak over to you house in the middle of the night 

-”Jesus, i could've killed you.”

-”But you didn’t silly, come on i’m cold lemme in.” 

-”You're gonna be the death of me dina.” 

-Your rounds with her were never boring, it was always an adventure with her 

-Making out behind building because she couldn’t wait till yall got home 

-This girl will tease you until your bright read in the face

-She will definitely love kissing you, like she will just randomly kiss you 

-She will try to smash you literally anywhere, when she’s wanting to do the nasty it doesn’t matter where you are she will pull you into a random room or bathroom

-She never bores you in bed too, she’s always up to do new things especially since your her first girlfriend 

-When she found out she was pregnant she wanted to give this child the best life so yall decided to move out into a farmhouse 

- Having a kid didn’t really change how she loves you

-She’s still crazy and wild but now she just has a kid on her hip

-You guys were co parents so you both would hunt and take care of JJ 

-You guys would do almost anything to make that kid laugh even if that was dancing like lunatics for an hour straight 

-You guys almost never get alone time so just laying in bed without the kid felt nice 

-Yall are cottagecore lesbians idc, yall are the best parents and i said what i said 

-From behind hugs and kisses, she will grab your hips and kiss your neck until you have no choice but to rip her clothes off 

-Vintage records and slow dancing with JJ 

-I feel like being in a relationship with dina feels like a vintage song about love 

-There's lots of dancing in this relationship because dina loves dancing 

-She’s always afraid that you will feel left out in the family though since your not JJs real parent but you always tell her you don’t mind and you love JJ just like how Jesse would 

-She finds it so hot when your all protective parent when it comes to JJ, as soon as he falls asleep mama yall wont get any sleep 

-Yall are the best parents, dina will fight anyone who hurts JJ and you make him feel loved 

-When he gets older you guys try to tell him about Jesse without making you seem like the outsider of the family if that makes sense 

-Taking care of the animals and plants as a family and reading books about how to while laying in bed 

-Dina makes the best food and she tries to teach you but it just doesn’t add up to what she does 

-Okay we don’t know much about her sister but by the picture we saw she looks hella cool and i think you would be like best friends with her 

Jesse 

- yall sleep on this man i swear, so this one is to all my jesse stans are there 

-He’s kinky, that’s all 

-He knows he’s hot and he’s super cocky about it 

-He’s not much of a cuddler ngl but he will fall asleep and wake up spooning you 

-Your really close to his mom, like she loves you so much 

-He’s very reckless and your kinda the opposite so you kinda tone him down abit so you think that’s why his mom likes you so much 

-Jesse isn’t much of a dancer and he doesn’t really listen to music but he does like to play video games 

-You always pick him up video games randomly and gets so excited 

-You force him to dance with you at dances and he’s so awkward about it 

-”I hate this.” 

-”Awe you love it.” 

-Always trying to grope you while dancing, like will have his hands on your ass and theres kids behind you like sir stoppp but like keep going 

-”Hey! watch those hands.” 

-”I have no idea what your talking about”

-You and dina are pretty good friends like even after their weird relationship, she’s happy for the both of you 

-Okay so let's pretend jesse didn’t die and he is alive and well 

-When he finds out dina is pregnant he freaks out, he’s still pretty young so he’s terrified he won’t be good enough 

-When the baby comes though he’s so excited, when he’s in the infirmary with dina your happy for him but you can’t help but feel an outsider 

-Dina is so sweet and tries to make you feel better 

-”You're gonna be the coolest step parent ever. I’m glad my son gets such a badass step mom damn.” 

-Dina does move out of jackson still though so yall only get JJ every other week, that was the agreement 

-He cooks in the morning for you and JJ while yall are laying in bed 

-I’m sorry but he’s literally the coolest dad, his entire life changes because of that kid 

-When JJ leaves to go over to his moms house Jesse won’t let you get out of bed, this mf hasn’t got any in a week

-He gets a bunch of cook books so he can better his ability to cook for little JJ 

-You guys decorate JJs room together and it’s the cutest thing ever 

-He takes you to romantic places in the abandon city when yall are on rounds together 

-Jesse has a lot of friends but he would much rather hang out with you 

-Yall call each other stupid and dumb a lot but it’s never used as an insult its just for fun 

-”Damn it, why do i always get the nasty ones.” 

-”Because your stupid, dummy.” 

-”That’s right, i forgot.” 

-Your guys bed is never made, you guys don’t even bother at this point. Like either the kid messes it up or you guys mess it up so what's the point 

-He picks you up when he hugs you, literally pick you up from the waist and lift you up 

!Credits to gif owners!

[popculturebuffet]

DWD Reviews: Dry Hard or The One and Only Liquidator.. Episode.

Happy Birthday Liquidator! I nearly missed this, I procrastinated a bit too much, but thankfully I got this in time for the anniversary of Dry Hard. Now technically, by airing order LIquidator first showed up in “Just Us Justice Ducks”buuuuuut since that applies for a good chunk of the first appearances there, I choose to go with his first chronological appearance instead. So i’m breifly dipping back into the road to just us justice ducks for one quick review before getting back to life and times and three cabs. Thankfully there’s only one major Disney Birthday next month, and it’s Panchito, so I can fold it into the ride of the Three Caballeros, and hopefully by then i’ll be into the legend of the three cabs itself. But enough insight into my creative process let’s talk about Dry Hard and ole Liquidator himself? I won’t be doing my usual play by play.. partly due to time constraints, as I got to this review far later than intended due to a bungled sleep schedule and another, real world stuff related project I wanted to finally get done. And partly because this episode, while excellent, is pretty simple in it’s plot and being more of a comedy episode, as most Darkwings are honestly, ther’es no real space to dig into a lot of character stuff and most of it would be spent saying “that’s really funny”. And if i’m going to be doing more Darkwing reviews, and try and branch out into more comedy shows period, I’m going to need to try some things once in a while.  The plot in short: It’s an incredibly hot day in St. Canard. While Drake is trying and failing to set up his new sprinkler system, he needs a 3/4 picniey flange as everyone keeps telling him, Gosalyin is profeteering and is in full “little shit” mode, offering consturction workers nearbye complimentary oversalted ships to get them to buy her lemonade.  To make matters worse Bottled Water around the city is turning up gross, as is the tap water, we get a great bit with some yuppie valley girls over that, and an overly hot Darkwing, I mean he’s always hot but still, finds only two brands haven’t been poisoined. His and launchpad’s faviorite and one ran by Budd Fludd. Given his name and his schister apperance, it shouldn’t shock you Budd is behind things and while posioning his competitors and being confronted by darkwing, and acompanied by his two backup dancer’s/minons, he falls into the water, melts, jesus bud what’d you put in there, and seemingly dies.  Naturally Darkwing isn’t that lucky, and instead it’s a super villian origin story as Budd has become the liquidator, and after giving Darkwing a through beatdown and Darkwing narrowly escaping turns all the city’s water hard, just go with it, to blackmail people into paying 5000 dollars for his product. Darkwing persues him, in a swim costume Liquidator chuckles at and compares to his cousin as seen above, and finally using that flange beats him temporarily.. and then for good when Bud shows up at his house, using wet cement to make his new foe into a statue.  The reason for my brevity is this episode is the plot’s fairly simple.. but not bad at all. It provides a great origin for liquidator, and a creative foe for Darkwing to fight, one he can’t gas or punch and has to use clever tactics to fight, while Liquidator keeps pulling out new powers to fight back. But all make some logical sense, except for him being able to turn everything into hard water but hten we wouldn’t have a plot so kay, and up the stakes and his solution is both creative and makes sense given Darkwing was doing some work on the house,so the cement was well set up. It’s not bad by any means, in fact i’d call it excellent, it’s just a bit simplier than the last few episodes i’ve talked about and more about getting more gags and action in and given how creative and funnyt his one is I can’t complain. And character wise Drake is just being his usualy stubborn self, insiting he’s “the original mr.fixit’ when tha’ts clearly not true. It’s a simple standard comedy sueprhero setup: there’s a problme in their life, and solving that problem beats the bad guy. I’m mostly familiar with this sort of set up from the early 2000′s as the boom of teen hero shows really loved this trope and it’s generally a good one. 

As for Liquidator himself.. he’s utterly fantastic. His pitch man gimmick is great, his minions, two sinigng showgirls who repeat what he says, are never not funny, and he himself has good banter with darkwing and intresting powers. It’s a shame this is his only solo apperance as the guy had a LOT of potential and most of the crew’s arguments... just kind of fall flat. 1) He’s too Powerful Then just scale him down like you ended up doing. The show has a wonky timeline and two diffrnet negaducks, it’s okay if a character comes back with less powers so you can use htem more. Just being able to shape himself and blast water is enough. You can remove his hydrokenisis with other water that isn’t part of him (though he could always gain the abliity to add more to him to keep it intresting), ablility to transmute water, ablility to boil himself, and abliity to turn into tiny gremlins when split up. No one would’ve carred for a good few decades and I would’ve understood.  2) His gimmick of talking like he’s out of a commerical is limited Not really. HIs debut had times where he talked normal and advertising has a long history. It’s TRICKY to write for but the payoff is a really funny runner.  3) Coming up with ways to defeat him This one’s a bit more understandable but as creative’s that’s your job, and there’s tons of ways to beat a water based foe, as spider-man can attest. 

MY point with all that is, there’s a lot of ways around the issue set up here, and it’s a real waste of one of darkwing’s best foes. Especially since his origin is intresting, he has unique minions, and a REALLY cool apperance. That might of also been part of it: The liquidator is animated, to use a pun, very fluidily you can see his water bubbling when he stands sometimes and the animation is REALLY beautiuful and well done. So that easily could’ve been part of it: unlike the other villians he’s also harder to animate so they just went iwth theo nes they already had who were easier to deal with. It’s really a sad, wasted opprotunity and the character deserved better.  So yeah overall, a fun, slight episode, with a great villian who again, deserved way better and could’ve been written around more. But if you have D+ check out Dry Hard. It’s a classic and if you haven’t checked out Darkwing it’s an excellent episode to gage wether you’ll like the series or not.  Coming up we finally take a look at one of my faviorite Disney shows, House of Mouse, then dive back into scrooge’s life stoyr. Until then you can comission reviews for five bucks via a direct  message on here or my discord, which is avaliable via my askbox. Until then, there’s always another rainbow. 

[lightsandlostbells]

Druck season 2, episode 7 reaction

Goddamn, Druck. I’ve been dragging my ass with the rest of the S2 reactions because honestly, the content is pretty rough and rewatching it requires a certain amount of emotional fortitude, lol. 

Anyway, here’s me putting myself through S2 hell so I can catch up to recap S3 hell!

Episode 7

Clip 1 - Interesting choice of entertainment

As I mentioned in the last reaction, I thought we might start with Mia calling off their relationship, as if last night was her way of saying goodbye to Alex, getting in just a little more time together because she did as Kiki asked. But obviously that wasn’t the case, because Mia and Alex are very much still in bed together.

They are sitting up and watching a movie on a laptop. In the movie, a woman kisses another woman. We cut away to Alex and Mia sitting there stiffly, sneaking glances at each other, as we hear the scene get sexy, with zippers unzipped, lots of panting and wet smacking sounds. Both of them clearly getting turned on by this video. Alex shifts and I think he covers his lap a little more, lol. He shifts closer to her and “subtly” puts his hand out for the taking. I love that Mia notices and smirks a little but doesn’t seem to take his hand. 

This whole part of the scene was so weirdly true to life, lmao, if you’ve ever ended up watching a film that was more explicit than expected with someone. I had a friend who ended up watching Y Tu Mamá También on like a first or second date, neither of them knowing what the movie was about, and it was apparently very awkward.

Finally he turns off the film and kisses her. She leans away eventually and starts asking him about the scene - whether he was turned on by her or the scene. He’s like … both? He asks whether Mia watches porn and she says yes.

There was some debate about like … whether it’s in-character for Mia to watch porn or whether it’s hypocritical of her to do so as a feminist, and I don’t want to even get into the larger debate about whether porn can be feminist because holy shit is that a can of worms, but whether or not you think it’s compatible for Mia to watch porn with her being a feminist, people do a lot of stuff that isn’t 100% in line with their ideals. A lot of feminist criticism also opposes makeup and believes it to be a product of patriarchy, but Mia wears lipstick anyway. So just on the level of whether this is consistent with her as a character, i don’t think it’s wildly OOC.

There was also a lot of (understandable) debate about them watching a lesbian sex scene while still dodging a clear answer about Mia’s sexuality, especially right after Kiki made that comment about Mia being bi in the previous night’s clip, which again went unanswered. By the end of the episode they did give us an answer, but watching in real time made it feel more like they were drawing out the answer. I guess I’m wondering just why they chose to do so? Was it to tease the audience, or were they trying to find a way to drop the answer in naturally (because I can think of places where they could have done so earlier), or was there intended to be a reason story-wise that Mia’s a little vague? Is it just because it’s related to her romantic history, and it’s difficult for her to mention? Because she could mention her bisexuality without talking about specific relationships, although it’s true people might ask whether she’d ever been with a girl.

I think the most likely reason is perhaps that the Druck team didn’t expect just how much people wanted from them about Mia’s bisexuality, and they wrote in more scenes mentioning it after they saw fan reaction.

About the video they’re watching - it’s called Wach and it’s apparently by Funk (the channel that does Druck). You can watch it on YouTube although it seemed kind of dreary so I confess I didn’t watch much of it, lol. If it’s really good and I’m missing out, let me know! Anyway, the movie’s about two girlfriends but in the scene Mia and Alex are watching, they’re having a threesome with a guy. Not sure if there’s any bigger significance other than the nod to something else from Funk, and nudging at the topic of Mia’s sexuality, or the sex topic between Mia and Alexander.

He suspects she has a bigger reason for asking and draws a question mark on her forehead. This dude needs to take improv classes already, that’s clearly where his heart lies. Also, I think Mia might be asking why he’s turned on to get his opinion about two women together? I mean, I guess that could be the in-universe explanation why the talk about her sexuality is a little vague is that she wants to see how he’ll react first.

They have a pillow fight and she shoves him out of bed, he runs back into the room and tackles her and they roll around. WATCH THE LAPTOP! Eh, I guess Alex can afford another one.

They’re playful and cute. Things get heated and he slips his hand to crotch level, which makes her shake her head and back off. He asks her what’s allowed. LOW BAR, I know, but at least he doesn’t pressure her to go father than she wants. It’s sad and I don’t want to praise him for showing basic human decency, but William’s comments when Noora didn’t want to sleep with him, saying it was a funny joke and such, or that he’d managed to sleep with her soon anyway, always bothered me, so I’m glad this wasn’t recreated in Alexander.

Mia gives him the finger, and then adds another, which is deeply fucking iconic, and we end as he slides his hand down her pants. Well, damn. A big departure from Noora, not so surprising because Mia has a lot of differences from her (such as drinking alcohol when Noora did not). Part of me is proud of Mia for being upfront about what she wants and setting boundaries for what she doesn’t, the other part is like ohhhhh nooooo, girl. You told Kiki you’d break up with him, you don’t want to go any deeper with him! (...pun intended.)

Clip 2 - Bubble bath

Mia and Alex are taking a bubble bath together, lying at opposite sides. That’s quite intimate. They are doing some types of The Sex at this point even if it is not The Whole Shebang so maybe not surprising, but certainly we’re seeing their physical relationship escalate as a faster pace than Noorhelm. They seem comfortable in there together. Alex says they should stay in there as long as they can. Like, days. Well, if you can tolerate pruning, cold water, and marinating in your own filth for that long, go for it.

Mia offhandedly mentions Alex’s grade retention and he looks tired and not ready to talk about it. That water just got a few degrees colder.

He asks why she’s so cautious, if it’s because of Kiki. Mia lies to him that she talked to Kiki and everything’s cool. MIA, NO. Really???? Not a good idea. You’re not only disrespecting Kiki with what you’re doing now, and lying to your friends, but now you’re lying to Alexander, too. I know that she probably just wants to stay in this bath and in this bubble of Alexander’s apartment where everything’s OK and she gets what she wants and no one is mad and her personal life isn’t messy, but this is not the way to go about it. 

OH SHIT he actually asked about negative experiences and whether that’s why she’s bi. Errrr, is he implying that she likes girls because she’s been burned by men? YIKES. Mia tells him that statement alone is reason enough to only date girls from now on. Okay, so is that confirmation of her bisexuality? (I guess if I have to ask, probably not the clearest it could be.) And she says that she could also ask why he only does one-night stands and moves fast. He says it’s complicated. So basically, despite becoming more intimate, literally lying here naked in this tub together, both of them still have some friction, both aren’t completely opening up to each other. 

She chides him for his so-called hard life, with his nice car and apartment, and he reminds her that this is his sister’s flat, and we finally get an answer of sorts that his sister is in Bali. (By now we know the truth, but when this aired I wrote in my notes: “Super dark theory: the sister is dead and he means they scattered her ashes in Bali or something like that.”)

He talks about it’s hard with his parents and then says he wants to get out of the tub as the water is getting cold, which is one hell of a turnaround from wanting to stay in there for days like a minute ago. Mia says things are difficult with her parents, too, and she’s sorry. That makes him lie back down in the tub. Tension averted for now. They fist-bump. I guess their couple thing is hand gestures? Like Jonas has Hanna’s nose, meanwhile Mia and Alex are just flipping each other the bird and knocking knuckles. I can get into that, they certainly have a lot of options.

Clip 3 - Truth or dare

Mia and Alex step outside and turn off airplane mode on their phones. So they’re really hiding from everyone, huh, not even letting text messages come through. This is shady as hell that Mia’s doing this when she told Kiki otherwise. She’s lucky because this is holiday break, but she can’t camp out in Alexander’s apartment away from the rest of the world forever

Mia told the girls she was ill. DUDE. All of them were worried and checking in on her. I wonder how many of them truly believed her and didn’t have any suspicion of what she was really doing? Kiki in particular seemed to wonder how she was doing, and I’m not sure she totally bought Mia’s excuse. But whether she did or not, that must make Mia feel a ton of guilt. (Though she still doesn’t break up with him...)

I love this shot of Mia and Alex looking so small and uncomfortable once they stepped outside, like it’s overwhelming and harsh to leave their bubble.

They go back inside because it’s cold, or because they don’t want to face the outside world, and Mia is pensive. She spins around the thermos like it’s spin the bottle (and lmao when it lands between them, fixes it to point toward Alex) and says truth or dare. I wonder why she chose that moment to get some truth between them? Because she feels guilty about the lies she told her friends? Because she wants to know this thing she’s lying to them about is worth it, and that means she has to open up?

He says truth. She asks, “Why me?” He says it’s because she knows who he is. Which true, if you assume he means all the way from when she told him off about Kiki back in season 1. She’s been pointing out his flaws all along. And I mean, maybe he has a shit opinion of himself, but she wasn’t wrong about him (at least not entirely) and she didn’t fall for an idealized version of him, Alexander the rich bad boy with the cool car who’s the most wanted guy in school. She saw through that and she saw him at much of his worst, and yet somehow she’s here anyway. And I don’t know if this is exactly what he meant, but she also knows him in the sense that they have some things in common, like dealing with difficult parents, being Christmas orphans, etc.

Mia directs the thermos at herself and says truth. Bold move considering she knows what he’s probably going to ask; she’s really just ready to talk to him about it, and this is maybe an easier way to do so, framing it as a game. Alex takes a moment to think about what to ask and then asks why she’s so cautious. She tells the story of when she was 13 and she had a crush on her friend’s older brother, who was 18. He paid her a lot of compliments and she thought he liked her. He pressured her into sleeping with him, she didn’t want to but did it anyway, and then he never texted her again. Some people are school knew about it. She felt bad about herself and couldn’t talk to anyone.

The age of consent in Germany is 14, making what happened to Mia statutory rape. This adds perhaps even more impact to Mia reporting Bjorn later in the season, because it doesn’t sound like the first guy faced any repercussions for what he did; with Bjorn there is hope that justice will be served.

I think this explains a lot about why Mia was cautious about Alexander in particular, because he’s the kind of guy who was feeding girls compliments, sleeping with them, and cutting them off. Didn’t Alexander compliment Kiki’s stomach or something? And then of course Mia had a front-row seat to him ghosting Kiki after sleeping with her, and then seeing it all happen again like a slow-motion car crash. I really, really hope this makes him think about what he was doing with girls before Mia. Remember how he tried to justify himself in episode 2 about what he did to Kiki, not making her promises and saying how he couldn’t have torn down her self-image all by himself? Here he sees the long-lasting effects of that behavior on someone. Just think, there are probably Mias out there who will end up telling their stories to someone else, and the guy they’re talking about will be Alexander.

Alex is about to turn the bottle back to himself, but Mia stops it and says she also had a thing with a girl that ended before she came to Germany. No details on why it ended, if it was something really bad or more of a mundane breakup. Since she’s not going into details, I’m assuming whatever happened wasn’t horrible, but I’d still like to know more details about it.

Could they have handled Mia’s sexuality better? Yes, of course. But at this point I was just glad they addressed it directly. It would be nice if they touched on it in the future: we haven’t yet had the build-up of Matteo living in the flat, or being rescued by Hans, but with both Hans and Mia being members of the LGBT community, it would be really nice if they were able to support Matteo, and then we could hear more about Mia’s sexuality, too, like her past relationship, how she realized she was bi, etc.

He says no pressure, they have all the time in the world. THANK GOD. Low bar, I know, but I also still think there’s value in showing men being respectful and not pressuring women into sex? If you consider that the target audience is teen girls, this is a message that they need to be hearing - that they are allowed to set sexual boundaries and that boys have to respect them. And for teenage boys, while Alex has done a lot of messed-up stuff regarding girls, this part can still be used as a model for respecting boundaries and getting consent.

Clip 4 - I bet Hans and Linn ate the soup later

Mia and Alexander are in Mia’s room, ostensibly trying to study but very clearly hot for each other and making this a kind of foreplay. However, they don’t get very far until Hans comes into the room. He asks whether Alexander made “grumpy cat” angry, lmao. I love that nickname for Mia. He flops on the bed as if checking out the view of Alexander. Hans, what about Michi??

UNFORTUNATELY the doorbell rings and Linn opens Mia’s door, saying there’s a girl with soup. We hear Kiki’s voice. UH OH. Damn, Mia didn’t even really have time to like, try to shove Alexander under the bed or anything, did she? 

Alexander says it’s totally OK with him. Um, I bet it is. Would be a great opportunity to be like, hey Kiki, sorry for dumping you on NYE? Although he doesn’t look totally OK with it, though that might just be because Mia is so visibly worried.

Lol, Hans thinks for a moment, clearly recognizing Mia’s distress, and then strips off his robe and throws it over Alexander, and hey, he was the only one doing anything smart in the moment? Maybe not honest, but smart? OK, not smart, but it was ... something. 

Well, Alexander ain’t up for hiding under a robe, he takes it off as Kiki walks in with a big pot. She eyes Alexander and Mia, saying she made soup. She looks stunned at first, but then gets pissed and says it’s one thing for her to fuck up and apologize, but this is the worst. I have to agree, honestly. Mia put the burden on Kiki to tell her what to do, and then she didn’t even respect Kiki’s wishes. And then she lied to everyone. After that whole performance with cooking Kiki a nice dinner to talk about how sorry she was? This makes it seem like Mia just doesn’t give a shit about Kiki’s feelings, her crying and apologizing was an act to make Mia feel better, not Kiki.

I wonder if Kiki was really thinking Mia broke it off, or if she wasn’t suspicious. Like she was definitely suspicious after Sam put it out there a few episodes ago, and some of her moves were kinda calculated toward figuring out the truth. The soup may have been genuine goodwill, but maybe she also wanted to see if Mia was really sick, or if she was hiding something. Kiki did look very shocked when she saw Alexander, but maybe she was telling herself that no, Mia wouldn’t lie, Mia meant what she said, Mia cares about her. So this moment was confirming her worst fears.

Kiki angrily puts down the bowl of soup and I have to give her some credit for not throwing it or dropping it, which is what I was expecting.

Alexander asked her why she lied, and Mia says she doesn’t know. Errr, not a great answer, Mia. I have an idea why she lied. She wanted the moral high ground of “making things right” but didn’t want to actually give anything up. She wanted to ignore or run from the problems instead of dealing with them.

Mia says she can’t do this to Kiki. Alexander is pissed. Honestly, I can’t blame him for that. He has his flaws, too, for sure, and has been a shit to Kiki, but he also asked Mia if things were OK with her and Kiki, and she said they were, and now he’s finding out they weren’t and she’s using that as a reason to break up. I’d feel pretty betrayed. She also gave them a few days where they were extremely open with each other, took their relationship to the next level physically, got vulnerable with each other, and after that, she’s calling it off. When she knew all along that it was a bad idea - like she could have nipped this in the bud at the benefit concert. Instead it’s like she dawdled and made their relationship more intense and meaningful before ending it for a reason that’s been there the whole time, which is so much worse. (For Alexander, a dude who doesn’t get close to people? Even worse.)

Mia has massively fucked up but from a story perspective, I don’t mind it? I mean … that’s good for the protagonist’s growth. I like how messy Mia has been. I think it takes her off the “perfect girl” pedestal. 

Clip 5 - Panic attack

Mia is lying in bed in the dark at 21:00, so you know, she’s called it an early night. I feel you, girl. She reads her texts from earlier, where she and Alex flirted and discussed him coming over to study. How nice things were just hours earlier. No new messages. 

By the way, I can see the tear streaks on her face when she’s in bed, nice detail.

However, after she puts it down and rolls over, her phone lights up. She checks it and Alex is telling her to come over. Typing in all caps so it seems extra urgent.

As she’s running to Alexander, you hear some heavy breathing and rewatching the scene, it definitely sounds masculine, but when I first watched this clip I was so surprised by this development and why Alexander needed Mia that I wasn’t paying super close attention (also not watching with headphones), and I thought it was Mia’s breathing as she’s worried and running out the door. The reveal that this is Alex’s heavy breathing during a panic attack really stunned me. It adds so much tension to the scene as Mia is running to his place, obviously heavy breathing is something that reminds you of dangerous or tense scenarios.

She runs up the stairs to his place and his door is open, the lights are dim. The way the camera follows her is really disorienting, it’s hurried, it’s shaky. The lights make everything eerier - it’s dark and the sign on the wall makes the room pink, it’s not unnatural. Watching Mia run through his apartment trying to find Alex feels like navigating a maze.

Mia calls out for Alexander and eventually finds him in his underwear in a corner, sobbing and hyperventilating. You can see him clearly in the light but there’s still something unfocused about it. Mia grabs a paper bag from the kitchen and has him breathe into it. He’s crying and saying he wasn’t there. Holy shit, this is a panic attack?

Mia holds him as he cries and gasps for breath. He asks her to stay, she says she’s not going anywhere. She makes a joke about it still being 50 euro with breakfast and he manages to laugh.

This pose at the end is definitely giving off Pietà vibes.

The camera goes from extreme closeups as Alex is gasping to pulling back once he lays in Mia’s arms and calms down a bit, once he’s able to breathe and laugh at her joke. Like we’re getting breathing room. The music also goes from really tense to something more gentle once he relaxes in her arms and she says she’ll stay.

Goddamn. So instead of Mia having panic attacks/trauma, it’s Alex??? It was Noora who was panicking in OG, but we’ve switched the roles, Mia is the one to calm down Alexander. 

Props to Druck for showing a dude having a full-blown attack like this, in a very non-glamorous and vulnerable way. Panic attacks in general can be pretty visceral and they’re not pretty, and I think some media shies away from showing male characters in really fragile states like this. And it’s definitely a reversal of a lot of media gender roles to have Mia the fully clothed one who’s “in control” helping out Alex, the half-naked, sobbing and shaking one. And for this not to be portrayed as something weak, but something healing. Also, big props to the actors. Chris Veres didn’t hold back in this scene.

This clip really got to me, especially as someone who has experienced panic attacks. The earlier scene with Kiki discovering Mia and Alexander together had ratcheted up the drama, but this was one of those clips where I couldn’t really do anything else after I watched it for a little while, it had gotten under my skin that much. It’s hard for me to unpack it. Even rewatching it unnerves me, though Mia’s gentleness and compassion, and the ending where she says she’s not going anywhere, make the experience more uplifting. Bravo, Druck. 

I think it helped that it was so surprising too, like we already got a very important clip earlier in the day, and it was the drama we were all expecting, the next step in the Kiki/Mia/Alex situation, but this definitely was not what I was expecting next, both in that it’s a divergence from the original storyline and that I figured the next clip would build on Mia dealing with estrangement from both Kiki and Alex.

Clip 6 - Giddy up

Mia wakes up in bed with Alex the next morning. I like the contrast here from the last scene, just what a difference the daylight can make, feeling so much less threatening, and I like Mia’s reaction, as if she’s taking in all that happened last night. She looks at a Polaroid picture at the side of the bed, of Alex and his sister. The fact that it’s beside the bed tells you how much Alex probably looks at it and misses his sister.

Alex stir and wakes up. Heh, the crinkles of their pillows and sheets are so damn loud? I kinda love it, though, it reminds me of how good it feels to slowly wake up after a good night’s sleep. He tells Mia that he had a dream where he was feeling bad and cried in front of Mia, weird right? Mia agrees. It’s very quiet and they’re whispering. Comforting, talking about it and acknowledging it without having to go into the ugly details right now. And Mia isn’t grilling him over why he was having a panic attack or anything, just being gentle. She strokes the hair behind his ear and kisses him. They kiss softly and it gets a little more intense until Mia reaches for the jar next to Alexander’s bed and grabs a condom. They smile and Mia sits up on him and takes off her shirt. The music helpfully proclaims, “I’m a cowboy” so I mean, we know what position they used. Not surprising Mia would be on top.

I have zero problems with Mia and Alexander having sex sooner than the season finale, as with Noorhelm, although I was kinda like … is this reeeeally the best time to take this step, kids? Not because of Alexander’s panic attack, but more about Kiki walking in on them and finding out, and Mia thinking she can’t do that to Kiki, and what the hell they were going to do. It felt like they had a lot to talk about. But even so, I can definitely see why Mia felt it was the right time to take this step. There was no way Mia was leaving Alexander after last night, and clearly they care about each other a ton. It must have felt not just like waking up in the morning, but that they survived the night. The panic attack made Mia realize the total depth of her feelings, I think, and so I can fully see why it led to increased tenderness and intimacy.

Comparing Mia and Noora, Mia has trust issues and a bad experience with sex like Noora, but William did more stuff that would’ve broken Noora’s trust and made her question her feelings for him before they had sex. Noora and William kissed, then William was cold to her in front of his brother, so Noora was upset, then they made up, then William smashed a bottle over a guy’s head, then Noora was upset at that and questioned whether she could be with William, then before they could get back together, Niko happened. Since they’ve kissed, Mia hasn’t really had so many reasons to be upset with Alexander himself - it’s all about the situation with Kiki putting stress on their relationship. So I can see why the sexual element of their relationship, and the relationship as a whole, escalated much faster; Mia had more time to build up trust with him without that getting interrupted.

Clip 7 - Crew love is true love

Hanna and Mia are in the bathroom and Mia’s been telling Hanna how fast everything has gone in the last few days. It sure did! By the way, Hanna’s looking very pretty.

I like how they went from the cowboy song in the previous clip being a non-diegetic song and transitioned into this one as a diegetic song, with it playing at the Abi party now. That kind of stuff is clever, and it’s smoother than just choppily switching songs between scenes.

Alex is going to therapy now, which I love. I love that we have the Bad Boy Rich Dreamboat character seeking professional help for his trauma, I love that Druck is mentioning therapy rather casually, normalizing it. It’s not something that’s considered shameful or embarrassing, just a potential avenue for help. Mia says she doesn’t think it was his first panic attack, but she doesn’t really know why. (I’d understand if people were ehhhh about Mia telling all this to Hanna if you want, like IDK if Alexander gave her permission to tell people about his panic attack. Mia and Hanna seem to be pretty trustworthy about stuff like Matteo’s sexuality and they’re not trading it as juicy gossip, but I would get it.)

Hanna says Jonas also won’t talk to anyone, not even Matteo. Ohhh no. That boy might need some professional help, too, if he’s that much of a mess.

Hanna’s totally hugging turtleneck guy/not Gereven when they enter the club. Mia looks around and sees Kiki with Carlos. KIKI, TREAT HIM RIGHT. CARLOS, TREAT HER RIGHT. Kiki glares at Mia. 

Carlos gets a drink the same time Mia does and says, “What’s up Judas?” Not gonna lie, that’s mean, but it made me laugh. He does the typical “ugh girl drama BITCH FIGHT” thing, and lmao, I can’t help but think of like Jonas/Toilet Sam tussling in the stairwell in S1. Yes, it’s all girl drama, boy fights just don’t exist, ever!

Carlos is like, it’s none of my business, he doesn’t want to get involved, but he’s getting involved (lmao) and tells her how Kiki was in a very bad state the last few days, and says it would be a good move to smooth everything out. He’s like, good talk, and walks off. Without paying either, lol. Mia pays for him. Well, I guess she has some groveling to do. God, that talk was ridiculous but benevolent of him? He’s looking out for Kiki’s well-being. 

"Two angry birds” aka Sam and Amira (and lmao I love that nickname) come up to Mia. Indeed, they look angry. Mia says she’ll make it up to Kiki. I mean, she should probably apologize to the other girls, too, for lying and putting them all in this awkward position where they’re torn between friends.

Heh, there’s some banter among the girls about Sam being the only one who’s single and when Amira is like helloooo, Sam says she has Allah. Although it’s played more as a joke, this follows the same pattern of people disregarding the Sana character as someone who can have romantic relationships and feelings. She doesn’t count in the conversations about who in their group is alone and who’s not.  

Mia follows Kiki to talk to her. She apologizes and Kiki just looks annoyed. I don’t blame her considering that Mia’s last apology with the dinner turned out to feel hollow, all words but not backed up with actions. Kiki points out she was a hypocrite. I love Mia and I feel sympathy for her, but Kiki is really really not wrong.

Maybe this is obvious, but I’m seriously just realizing how close this situation is to Eva/Jonas/Ingrid in S1 (or Hanna/Jonas/Leonie), even more than Vilde, Noora, and William were to that situation. Mia fucked it up with Kiki to a level Noora didn’t with Vilde. 

Kiki interrupts and tells Mia what’s what - that if she had been honest from the beginning, Kiki wouldn’t have stopped her. But instead, Mia went to her when Kiki was heartbroken and basically made Kiki tell her what to do and give her her blessing. That’s exactly what happened! Mia put the burden on Kiki and basically said her happiness was in Kiki’s hands, like either Kiki had to be the villain and tell Mia to break up with Alex, or put aside her own feelings and be OK with it, even when she was the person who was wronged. Kiki didn’t feel like doing giving her blessing when she felt like shit and had been betrayed by a friend. And she didn’t expect Mia to listen, but Mia should’ve cared about her from the beginning. Kiki calls Mia out on being honest not just with others, but with herself. Kki used to compare herself to Mia, Mia gives all these moral lectures that sound smart and clever, but it’s not about what you say, but what you do. Well, shit. She’s right. And Mia needs to hear this. I’ve said this before, but I think their relationship is really complex this season. Messy, but complex. And this dynamic between them, with Kiki feeling like Mia didn’t really care, or was judging her, goes beyond just Alexander’s involvement. It’s not just fighting because of a boy.

Mia is apologizing and Carlos comes in to ruin the moment and be like “You straightened it out?” Lmao dude, don’t interrupt. He gives them all a shot, which is his attempt to play mediator, I guess, so he’s dumb but he’s trying. Kiki clinks glasses with him, then walks out. When Mia calls after her, Kiki says you still want my blessing? But you need yours. Whoaaaa.

Carlos and Kiki walk off hand in hand talking about her breasts. Well, I guess it’s nice that they’re appreciated without the surgery. Though obviously it’s about how Kiki feels about her body, not Carlos.

Mia stays behind and has a Moment, I guess she’s thinking about how she needs to go all in with Alexander, get rid of her remaining doubts. Then she goes out to meet her girls, they smile and dance. Finally Kiki smiles at Mia and they dance together. I love their little glance of reconciliation. The girl squad has a group hug. Awww! 

Toilet Sam comes in and greets everyone! He’s talking to Hanna and OF FUCKING COURSE that’s when Jonas and Matteo roll in. Jonas sees Hanna and Sam and legit pulls a Granpa Smpson exit, lmao at Matteo’s exasperated exit after him. Poor Matteo.

Mia and Kiki dance together in the closing moments of the clip, and it’s a fitting ending. Yay, they’re happy again! Truly the next three episodes will only be good times and no more suffering!

Social Media/General Comments:

LMAO, I fucking lost it at all the passive-aggressive Instagram stories that Kiki posted after the dinner from last episode. She tagged only Amira, Hanna, and Sam, not Mia, posting pictures that didn’t include Mia, set to Little Mix’s “Shout Out to my Ex” for that extra bitter flair. Which you know, fits Kiki’s relationship with Alexander, but honestly feels more like Mia is her ex going by the pictures, lol. Then Amira, Hanna, and Sam respond by posting Kiki’s posts WITH Mia, like good lord, the dramaaaaa of it all. I mean, they’re all making a statement, that they’re not ditching Mia, but how must that make Kiki feel? But it’s all so teenage and petty and immature that I love it. 

Jonas flakes on Matteo, saying he needs to study, but it’s more like he’s staying home and getting wasted. Matteo is worried and says they barely see each other anymore. Jeez. This is a total reversal of what we’ll likely see in S3, unless they are BOTH total messes in that season. Then it’ll be up to wise men Carlos and Abdi to step up for their bros. We did see Carlos having some sage advice in this episode, so maybe it’s not such a wild idea?

Matteo and Hanna talk later and Matteo lets Hanna know that Jonas isn’t doing well and that he failed a math test. I don’t think it’s Hanna’s duty to fix Jonas’ problems at all, but it’s nice that Matteo and Hanna are talking together and trying to help Jonas.

The other girls were gossiping about Mia and Alex. Amira figured out that Mia probably wasn’t answering because Mia was at Alexander’s place. Sigh, Mia. How long did you think you could keep your relationship a secret? It always gets out, as you just learned last week!!

Kiki posts a LOT of stuff about fake friends on IG after she discovers Mia and Alex together, and it’s pretty juvenile, but you know, hashtag relatable. And understandable. Super teenage.

I like that Amira reached out to Kiki and said she was there if she needed to talk. Kiki has been a shit to Amira on multiple occasions, but Amira remains a true friend. And I hope Kiki keeps this in mind the next time she wants to say something racist or insensitive (not that she would recognize it as such, probably).

Druck gave out hotline information for teenagers after the panic attack clip, encouraging them to talk to someone, which is great. Again, I love how they’re encouraging teenagers not to go through their problems alone, whether it’s through therapy, hotlines, or talking to trusted friends and family.

Amira talked about religious discrimination on Instagram and how difficult it is to get into public service in Germany when you wear a hijab. She’s mentioned this before, when the girls were meeting with career counselors, and I really hope that we somehow get a S4 despite the girls’ graduation so we can get an Amira season. I would love to see her story talk specifically about her ambitions and how she tries to achieve them despite people constantly telling her she won’t be able to make it as a Muslim hijabi. Just send Amira to Australia and she can have a life-changing backpacking adventure. It would be amazing. (Skam never gave us the Evak + boy squad Morocco trip we deserved, so I am down for Druck providing that awesome travelogue content.)

I am not German so please feel free to correct me or clarify me on cultural and language matters.

If you got this far, thank you for reading!

[playchoicesconfessions]

I decided to make this a separate text post because i have a lot to say and a lot of tea to spill. So i need the read more.

Imma spill the tea right now and remember these are all OPINIONS and people are bound to get BUTTHURT. You can agree or disagree with me I couldn’t care less. I just need to let free of those things that I’m holding in before going on break.☕☕☕☕☕

I personally really enjoy it and don’t get much of the bitching around tbh? And this is coming from someone who doesn't really like sci-fi too much.

The LIs look amazing ( although Titania is bugging me the wrong way and Meridian’s arms are far too bloated. This aint a swimming aid). Even the ones of the siblings.

Moving on, I do not really get the comparison to RoE??? Except that the main characters has siblings tbh. I expected it to be more like Endless Summer (without tons of stuff to buy or relationship meter) or TcaTf and so far my expectations has not been proved wrong at all. The plot finally settled in lately and I can expect a train of feels to rush over the next few chapters.

I think the reason why people are complaining so much about it is because they expect it to be like your general romance story. The book is not introduce Li -> romantic scene with them -> introduce next 2 LI -> Event -> romantic scene and rinse and repeat. This book follows a clear story line and sets the romance on the back burner. I’m pretty sure if TCaTF would have been released right now it would face the same criticism tbh. About it be RoE like because you can also control Dom etc…

This is what I love personally. I’m not that big on romance stories so having a more adventure style is amazing. Now before you come and say “why are you playing choices then???” Well Hon, this is Choices STORIES You Play, not Choices romance you play or Choices pixels you fuck

Back to where I was, I love it even more since it has a morality meter. I love these in games especially when they severely alter gameplay and stories like in your usual Shin Megami Tensei games. But knowing choices, the alterations would be very minor if not that would mean the writers would have to make 3 chapters a week as opposed as one. Plus keeping the choices super drastic will make it hard to get a sequel book to it because the writers would have to write again 3 chapters per week and ATV2 will be essentially 3 books.

I also get the complaints that MC does not get much to act and we get to play as the siblings more. First of all I find this questionable but mind you i haven’t counted the scenes. Anyway I’m pretty sure MC has more scenes but the thing is, they are just not as remarkable as those with Pax and Eos. You are just so used your regular cut of mill MC that they no longer feel special and rhe scenes with the siblings feel different. They might not let you feel awe constantly but they amek you feel something else and you have to adapt to fit the new perspective you are playing as.

Now the Zekei thing… I actually think if you love Zekei that is actually an amazing situation you are in because think of it. You will be basically getting 2x more Zekei scenes if you romance him both on MC and Eos. Remember that you are the one controlling both of them, it is not like there js another person beside you and the two of you are in competition to win Zekei’s heart. And if you do not want X to romance him, just don’t romance him. No need to be cry babies and claim Y stole your man when you are clearly the one that led up to these actions 🤷‍♀️

Now Pax and Eos themselves…These characters are definitely flawed but thing is … I remember people asking PB for more morally grey and flawed MCs. Now you get them and just diss them out??? Conclusion : you ain’t really for morally grey characters and should try not asking for stuff you can’t handle. I think playing as them is actually a good thing to be honest. I’m 100000% sure that eventually the family will separate as Eos goes complete Vanguard and Pax goes Jura. The different perspective during the war will help lean the players to either side and also pull the strings of the player as they will be opposing the siblings’ own blood. Unfortunately I can’t really explain what I mean through words so I’m just going to summarize it by this:

ATV is definitely neither a romance or adventure book and sci-fi is just the setting. The true nature of Across The Void is a familial tragedy imo and it will shine if it continues delivering in that essence.

This is an entirely new genre PB is going for and a really interesting one and I sure hope they go in that angle. If they do continue like that it might actually end up at my favorite choices book and trust me, I love ILITW so much that there are barely any books that come close to it to me.

However, I won’t deny it. ATV does have glaring weaknesses. Namely:

1.Too many shades of purple. Purple is a beautiful colour but in such excess it feels a bit nauseating.

2.Eos X Lyra is a car crash that will be really hard to salvage. It is super cringy. I’ll be doing anything in my power to avoid it. Eos X Zekei is super fluid and natural though and I’m really liking it.

3.Labelling your twins as annoying. This is bad marketing. Naming people that the users are going to play as annoying gives people a bad foretaste and will obviously affect their future experience with them. I think if they didn’t call the twins annoying, people would approve of them more. But Pb already seeded the annoying mindset in people’s mind and so it because hard for some to enjoy them because of it.

4.I’m probably going to get a lot of flame for it but Titania. I’m not really liking her and her design to be honest. Like one of our previous confessions said her appearance is very strange, even for the book she is in. Plus she is giving me Drake vibes (minus the whiskey) who is someone I do not really approve of.

5.Too much going on!!!! This time I’m not talking about plot wise, this time I’m talking about content. You have 4 Lis ( possibly 5 if Zekei is available to MC too) to give time to for MC. Plus each sibling I’m guessing has at least two. I’m guessing Zania and Holmes for Pax and Zekei and Lyra for Eos. You have the robot and bartender sub romance going on. Passenger and Crew Management. Moral Alignment. Huge story that requires a lot of time to properly bloom. Eventual sex with LI option that probably 60% of you have been lusting for. There is just too much to fit in just 1 book! And repeating what I said far above, with the Moral Alignment thing, it will be hard to get a sequel. The book is already at its 6th or 6th chapter. If they intend to wrap everything up in this book we will end up with probably a 35 chapter book and thats just redundant by choices standards. I think the highest amount of chapters a book has is 22 i think with RoE2 and any book with 20+ chapters feels too long so yeah.

6.Also talking about Zania she should have already got a proper introduction when we are using Pax because the gears of the plot are already turning unless they want it to be a super slow burn but that would be a bit redundant considering how she is after Pax based om the chapter in which she is introduced.

7.The most glaring weakness though had to be the lack of lore and background information. We are thrust into a fictitious world with no information about it will alienate the player (no pun intended) and make them less likely to be engaged. No background information worked in the case of endless summer as the cast also didn’t know about what was going on. Noth the player and the characters understood what was happening at the same time. One way they could have set it up is that …. Do you guys remember the Sol, Kepler etc… teasers? Well instead of showcasing the LIs they should have posted lore bits. Like say for the Devinee (did I write this right? Its the tree people). They make an image with Lyra, or any other devinee on it and explain the race, their characteristics and tid bits about their planets. They could even go further and add another button, just like the one for the closet that would bring you to another menu where they would have all this information plus other general important ones like what exactly are the Vanguard and Juras. Why the war is exactly happening. Artemis and her company and stuff and get even more background information as we complete more options. Plus if PB wanted money they could even monetize them like they did in ILITW with Mr.Red’s origin stories that you got from the crow. It is entirely optional and not need to understand what is going on but is still interesting and puts things under a different microscope.

Anyway thats all I had to say. Again it is all my OPINION you are very welcome to disagree. I won’t be replying to anything so if you intend to attack me and stuff well then, congratulations you lost 5 minutes losing your shit and attacking me. Now I’m going on break, see you guys when I’m back. I’m sure I’ll have an amazing break since i emptied my trash!

thank you for sending this question @choices-addicted by the way!

-Mod Frosty

[holdharmonysacred]

I guess while I’m in a Dank Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Discorse mood, here’s my dank ideas on how to rewrite and fix FFTA’s story to make it less Unfortunate:

Make it explicit text that the kids are not being Isekai’d to another world, but forcing that other world on top of theirs, and that that causes harm to one or both worlds. There’s a lot of subtext, especially early on, that rather than journeying to another world, the gang has warped their world into a fantasy world, turning the townspeople into monsters and the local bullies into zombies among other things. In order to fix the game’s plot, this has to be made explicit text rather than just subtext. Have Marche recognize the zombies as the local bullies. Have various folks in the fantasy world mention vague memories of their old lives, or hell, have them full-on remember their old lives completely and make it clear they are not happy about their current situations as weird fantasy monsters. Marche’s case for restoring the old world gets a lot stronger if it’s made clear that the kids getting their wishes granted has come at the cost of the town getting turned into their playthings.

Make it explicit text that Marche has nothing to gain from the whole fantasy world arrangement, and is in fact worse off than he was before. This is another thing that’s trapped in subtext that also ties in with the first point. Mewt and Ritz get to be in positions of authority, with Mewt even being the prince of the kingdom, while Doned gets the ability to walk and use his legs. Marche... basically loses his home and wakes up in a ditch with no clue where he is or what the fuck happened, and would’ve either gotten beat up or sent to a jail cell near immediately had it not been for Montblanc’s intervention, nevermind that it’s only thanks to Montblanc that he even got a home and a job in Ivalice. You could argue that Marche “gets to be the hero of his own story”, but that doesn’t seem all that worth it given how he’s constantly at risk of being thrown in jail and his so-called “friends” hate his guts for understandably wanting to go home. Make the shittiness of Marche’s own situation a lot more apparent, and Marche’s motivation for trying to bring the old world back will at least be understandable.

Tweak or rewrite the kids’ problems into things that, with time and effort, they can solve or recover from. As-is, the kids’ problems hold a ton of weight and Marche seems like an ass for trying to make them go back to that, and the message of actually facing your problems instead of running away falls flat. Doned especially, seeing as how the poor kid is disabled and sending him home means rendering him disabled again. Mewt and Ritz need to have their issues presented in a way where it’s shown that there’s hope that their real-world situations can get better, while Doned needs to have his plotline rewritten from the ground up. If you don’t want to stray too far from what’s in the actual game, perhaps Doned could be rewritten so that, rather than having been disabled and ill his whole life, he was critically injured recently and lost the use of his legs, but with time, effort, and physical therapy, he could eventually walk again. This would change things enough that Doned doesn’t get screwed over if he goes home again, while at the same time reframing Doned’s desire to stay in the fantasy world as him trying to take the easy way out and thus, gives the “running away from your problems” element some actual weight.

Make it very explicit text that the fantasy world is turning the kids into worse people, and that in the process of getting their wishes granted they’re losing themselves to the fantasy world. This is something that they could take out of The Neverending Story’s book (no pun intended), and once again ties into the first point. Even in the actual game, the kids are brats when they’re in the fantasy world. They don’t care that they basically left Marche in a ditch to fend for himself, they don’t care about the harm they’re causing to the people of the fantasy world, they don’t care that they might have turned the townsfolk into monsters in the process of getting their cool toys, Doned doesn’t give a shit that he’s nearly killed Marche multiple times... these guys are just jerks, and them getting their every wish granted has only turned them into worse and worse people. This element getting amped up to anvil-over-the-head levels would make the game’s point clearer, and would make it clearer that Marche is less Party-Pooper Asshole and more of a voice of reason who can see how his friends are losing themselves and being consumed by Ivalice and is trying to hold an intervention for them. You could also add an explicit cost to the kids’ wishes the way Bastian in the Neverending Story’s wishes come at the cost of even his dearest memories, which would, again, add weight to Marche’s goal of “let’s get everyone the fuck out of here:.

Take Continuity Marching On into account, and establish that Ivalice is its own world that was forcibly merged with the kids’ world, and that far from Marche destroying Ivalice, he’d be restoring both worlds into a healthier state. Probably one of the biggest complaints about the game is the idea that Marche bringing back the real world means destroying Ivalice, even though later games such as Final Fantasy Tactics A2 and Final fantasy XII have long confirmed that Ivalice is a real world of its own that existed long before the events of FFTA and will continue to exist after the events of FFTA. This part would require a remake to add, but retroactively adding later continuity to the story would do wonders for at least making it clear that no, Marche is not destroying worlds. Implementing this could be yet another thing that ties back into point 1, with the fantasy world of Ivalice being just as hurt by being dropped on top of the real world as the real world is by being warped into Ivalice, and that it’s healthier for both worlds to be separated again and for visitors from one to the other to travel like normal isekai protagonists.

Overall, the game’s plot as-is is fine as a base, it’s just that the bulk of what would justify the premise of Marche dispelling the fantasy world and dragging his friends back to reality is buried deep in subtext rather than established in actual text. It’s not that hard to make a plot like this game’s that’s actually good - there’s a reason I keep citing The Neverending Story in comparison here - it’s all just a matter of properly establishing why staying in the fantasy world permanently is a bad, harmful thing. FFTA is the kind of game that would benefit greatly from the rewrites that would come with a remake of the game, and I hope if the game ever does get remade it tackles some of these issues with the game’s plot.

[panic-in-tarir]

One year in review

That’s it! The OH IT’S BEEN ONE YEAR post is here!

The closer my first anniversary was, the more excited I got, and the more thoughts I gathered for one “summary” post. Now that it’s time, suddenly, bam, all of them gone. :’> *wipes sweat*

Recently I had someone asking about my progression and how I managed to get there (???? where? derp). Well, I guess, I could just start telling about my first deeds in GW2, and then see if I can add something.

This might or might not be relevant, but I come from Wakfu, a colorful 2D game with turn-based combat. It’s cool visually, but also has terrible management issues, lack of developer care, one of the worst customer supports ever, list goes on.. I played it since 2012, and year by year, only grew angry, disappointed and hurt. That was like an abusive relationship I couldn’t get out of. I refused to try different genre and engine games. Finally, @aketan​ / @flame-squad​ / Rika got me lowkey interested in GW2 (she was commenting expressively while playing, and I peeked over her shoulder), I decided to try it. And stayed. Migrating to a real-time 3D game wasn’t easy! Yet, it was my lifesaver decision. GW2 has everything that I wish was there in Wakfu. It took me several months, if not a year, to get fully “healed”, to recover from the bad game and start believing that good games exist. When I had to contact GW2 support, I was touched to tears.. Everything and everyone is so nice here.

That wall of text was a foreword! Or explanation why I’m so excited and grateful about every aspect of GW2.

I started without putting too much thought into the char creation, as a result, now I have yet another main whose name is literally foreign language swearing or pun. GG me. After having been completely lost and confused by the controls (I LITERALLY ran backwards and yelled), after having a short but comprehensive lesson from bff, I started derping around on my own. I think I was only guided until lvl 5 or so, then my buddy let me do whatever I want. I come from a sandbox-wannabe game so it didn’t take me forever to get comfortable and set my first goals. Of course, I had a shit ton of questions, which I didn’t hesitate to spam Rika with. It’s cool to have someone ready to explain you the basics and patiently show you things. :D My several first days, or even weeks, were intense. I didn’t rush levels, but was eager to see the world. It was so amazing to me that I was spending 8-10 hours a day, running around, completing maps. I started in Metrica but quickly wandered away to Caledon (”oh! a portal?!”), where I spent a handful of time then.

With such a desire to discover and observe, and after having seen the title you’re awarded for 100% world map completion, I set it as my first ultimate goal. I approached it rather seriously, and had an incredibly fun time, at least until I had only Orr left undiscovered. x’D As a squishy (and slow, and dumb) ele, I was frightened and a bit discouraged by the amount of, well, deaths here. If I recall correctly, I still wore yellows at that time, although I was 80. Rika helped me and accompanied me for a bit. Orr was tough and I legit cried out of anger and frustration when I was alone, but that was the only unpleasant moment in entire year, and only because I wasn’t good at the game yet.

In the meantime, I was leveling my first alt, human engi. Do you actually remember that f2p accounts only allow 2 chars? Later, after buying HoT, I finally got loose.

They say, you always remember the place where you finished your first world map. For me, and oddly enough, for Rika, it was Field of Ruins. We reached the last POI at the same time, and, boy, did it feel great. My first big accomplishment. It dropped like.. Like a norn fart in a moot (c) Jory \o/ I still use the title btw, “been there, done that”. \o/

Then, there was a relatively dull period before buying HoT. I focused on doing my personal story, maxing out my alt and getting into crafting. The latter quickly became addictive to me. It’s so smooth, fun and exciting in GW2. Artificer was my first discipline, and after getting the hang of it, I breezed through 100-500 in a single day’s course.

That’s what the progression of my first 4-5 months looked like! I still was f2p, did only open world content and had one person to play with. I’m my own boss so it’s up to me to decide if I want to spend 30 minutes or 8 hours ingame.

HoT was a blessing in every aspect possible! I never regretted buying it, never regretted taking my time and not buying it earlier though - I needed that f2p scrub time to learn the basics, and to appreciate all the convenience and QoL improvements that come with HoT.

That’s where the real game starts, if I could say that. Core Tyria is by all means amazing, but you can go only this far if your account has those market and mail restrictions.. I used to enjoy playing market in Wakfu (while it was still alive) and I was excited to try it in GW2. When I bought the expansion and got my account fully functional, I got some skins and dyes ahead of all, then proceeded with crafting since I was really addicted to it and excited to max all the disciplines as my medium priority goal.

GW2 is encouraging altoholism! So I found myself leveling a third character (tried revenant and didn’t notice how I got her to level 20-ish and it was too late to delete), then fourth, fifth, then more char slots.. You see my weakness. I quickly realized the perks of having alts: storage, gathering, alternative personal stories, so on. When you’re an altoholic, plus you have yet to finish gearing up your main, plus you can barely hold yourself from leveling another crafting discipline.. RIP GOLD. I never had more than 30-100g at that time period.

Since market and wealth are one of my biggest passions ingame, I learned ways to earn me some coins, one by one. It’s not that hard if you’re a patient gatherer like me. Just run around, chop trees, collect ore and herbs.. I enjoy it so much, maybe it’s grind for someone, but I find it relaxing. Also it brings you gold. \o/ I found a few niche crafts that I could keep making and selling, then got familiar with market flipping, still not doing it like “big daddies” do, I might be too inefficient and lazy at it. But still, I found my own stable sources of income. Not gonna lie, the game just seems to like me and spoils occasionally. I don’t wanna brag, but there was like 4 precursor drops for me, 2 from mystic toilet, 2 practically dropped from the sky. I might be a little luckier than the average player. But that’s well deserved given how much suffering I had in Wakfu. :’D

When we talk about luck, we can’t avoid mentioning gambling. I learned about mystic toilet quite early, but never was a slave to it. Tarrktun has a bit more power over me, but I’ve never lost too much, only gained little by little. Black Lion Keys are the most evil gambling aspect if you ask me, I’ve spent quite a bit of money on those, though sometimes got nice things in exchange. Either gold to gems or gems for real money, I don’t mind spending it on Anet since they very, very well deserve it.

Given my passion, patience and luck, you must think I should be filthy rich by now.. Hah. :’DD Sadly, I’m just as good at spending as I’m at earning! I blew a lot of money on my own “needs” and “wants” and “why not”s, I keep investing into long term sales, I also often buy gifts for my buddies, mostly Rika. Money comes, money goes. GW2efficiency says my account is worth 14k gold currently. Not a bad progress for a year, I suppose.

So.. My biggest interests and playstyle are gold wars, fashion wars, altoholism.. I became quite a lore geek, completed PS, LS2, available LS3 episodes & most of current events, most of HoT? I should finish it but I procrastinate for some reason.

My current achievement number is 7610, mastery rank is 129 iirc. I’m not a casual derp anymore, but still too afraid to fail in front of strangers so I don’t really do dungeons or fractals. I mean I DO, when my bff literally holds my hand and goes there with me, then 3 strangers vs two of us is tad bit less scary. My combat skill, my reflexes and reactions are rather pathetic, even if I got significantly better after HoT and LS3 maps. I must train more, so recently I made a tanky character to practice, I hope to get good enough to clear story mode dungeons and low level fractals alone. Maybe I’m being too hard at myself, but combat skill has practically the biggest influence in this game, so I must git gud, at least acceptable, so I don’t feel ashamed to play with other people and don’t let them down. :’D

I’m a pve trash. Tried WvW and don’t mind coming here again, but not too much. PvP is a big no-no. Just.. Not my thing. Never. Not with my current skill and mindset (people = stress).

I’ve still got a mind-boggling amount of things to do. Personal goals, mere achievements, secrets and mysteries I’m yet to uncover, lore things to read. Maybe I’ll play GW1 one day, if there’s ever a discount sale. \;w;/ I’m super curious about every tiny bit of lore, also want some skins that are exclusive to GW1. That pleasant, sweet feeling that there’s so much interesting things ahead. I will take my time and never grind anything to frustration, for example, I’ve been working on my first leg, Sunrise, on and off and I’ll wait several months more, until I get all the clovers from the monthly chest. I don’t sweat it and just enjoy the game however I see it. Feelsgoodman.

I hope I managed to answer that person’s question, how did I get where I’m currently? Just took my time, learned my own pace and enjoyed every minute I spent online. Love the game, and it will love you back. \o/

[who-wants-some-steak]

Liveblog #1: Bakemonogatari

(the light novel)

This isn’t really going to be “blind” at all because I’ve seen the anime of this. Though to be honest I was mostly paying attention to the insane visuals there and barely remember the details of the story at all. And from what I’ve heard the story has a lot of depth, so I’m curious how it’ll be to just dive into the original work and see what’s so great about this series that it’s now by far Nisio’s longest running... err actually im not sure if the entire Zaregoto universe of novels adds up to more... well, regardless.

According to the table of contents, this half of the... let’s call it a “season”... covers three stories: Hitagi Crab, Mayoi Snail (actually written as Mayoi Maimai, which I never knew), and Suruga Monkey. I’m pretty familiar with these stories from the anime, which is good, because it’ll allow me to focus on deeper stuff than just trying to follow the plot.

By the way, I’m reading this in Japanese which is not my native language, so my interpretation may not be perfect.

First of all, can we talk about the name? If Nisio was trying to evoke equal parts spooky and hokey as fuck, then he hit the nail on the head. “Monogatari” is definitely a fancy word, but the pun is just... so inelegant that it clashes hard. Plus, on a surface level the meaning is so absurdly generic that it hardly describes anything at all, besides that it has to do with monsters or ghosts probably. I still can’t decide if I hate the name, or if it’s a genius calculated 4D chess move from the god-author Nisio Isin who can do no wrong....

On to Hitagi Crab, because I’ve already read the first page.

So, I knew going into this that anime tropes and archetypes were things that Nisio plays with, or at least explores, in the monogatari series as a whole. And yappari indeed the very first lines of the novel are already navigating that sort of space. (That’s right, it doesn't open with a random Hanekawa panty shot for no reason).

The first sentence establishes Senjougahara in broad strokes as the “sick girl” archetype, and the rest of the paragraph explains the basis for that (she often sits out of gym class/other mandated outdoor activities, never moves energetically, frequently seen in the nurse’s office or not at all).

The second paragraph clarifies though, and basically paints over the first layer with a similar color: she may be a sick girl, but she’s also a graceful, delicate princess type girl.

It’s fun how Nisio immediately cuts to the chase with his agenda here, which is to throw a ton of goddamn archetypes into the story. Because already Senjougahara is the embodiment of two archetypes which, interestingly, now that Nisio has made me think about it, act basically the same as each other. Like the lore doesn’t really matter in the end, her behavior as a character will be the same whether she’s a dainty princess or literally coughing up blood about to die at any moment.

(Note: “Boku” aka the first-person narrator is established here too, but I already know it’s Araragi.)

But wait, Nisio’s not done yet because not only is Senjougahara always at the nurse or away in the hospital, she’s also an inscrutable loner smart girl reading books in the corner of the classroom all day and topping the grade rankings. But also quirky because sometimes she reads shit-looking books too.

What I’ve come to realize from this first page is, Senjougahara is the most powerful kuudere in existence. She embodies literally all the tropes associated with kuuderes even when they don’t exactly make sense together, because she’s just that much of a kuudere. Find me a kuudere who Senjougahara doesn’t eat for breakfast. I’ll wait.

(Okay technically there’s no “dere” yet, but shush)