#we're not going to see rendering like that again for a while lol

[palabarian]

[rui-drawsbox]

hey dude

how did you develop your art style? ive been drawing for years and I cant seem to get a handle on ANYTHING

4 almost 5 days late sorry dude you shot right into my inability to put thoughts into words properly HAHA

alright so first of all, i don't even think a style is something you need to do art. I'm a hobbyist apologist and as long those people enjoy creating it doesn't even have to look "good".

That aside i'm assuming you want to take art at least a little seriously so i'm just going to be straight forward and say that the only way is ping-pong between styles/techniques/themes and just stick with the stuff you feel more comfortable doing.

Now going into my personal experience, that's what you asked after all lolol (from now on this is just yapping so feel free to ignore it)

alr soooo im skipping my first steps into art and going into the humanoid phase. I actually started with sonic! Specifically the show Sonic X, of course i picked up mannerisms from the anime when it was time of doing comedic doodles (and cuestionable taste on fashion)

(im going thru my big inspirations so bear with me here)

2015 came and i discovered my two main inspirations for a long time: fnaf and Ed00chan! (link to her abandoned deviantart so yall can see the style of the time). As i was completely enamored by her anime-yet-cartoony style i was also hyperfixated with fnaf and those two things combined perfectly into (the infamous in the spanish side of the fnaf fandom) fnafhs! bing bang boom there it goes my personality for the next 5 years!

sprinkle a few power puff girls z too why not

anyway at that time i wanted to become a pro like ed00 so i had to understand anatomy, and my go-to channel was Bgm94! But the elders said that to broke the rules you have to understand them, so i just kind-of started doing more "realistic" bodies while maintaining the cartoony-ness i liked so much. Which to be fair, didn't last long before i got bored and jumped straight into cartoon/chibi again

also since we're entering my digital era i'm including some drawings with wild style changes since the experimentation never ends owo9

anyway that was 2018 and before! it was around 2017-18 that i dropped the general tutorials and just started experimenting on my own style/anatomy and trying to improve my skills (im ignoring my sketchbooks bc from now on they just become- well, sketchbooks, instead of doing full drawings i just doodled in classes and leaved the detail for digital stuff)

i would love to include all my 2019 folder bc i consider it was a year full of love for my silly doodles but tumblr has a limit for images HAHA. Hopefully you can see how i go trying out stuff and pick little stuff from every stage with me lolol

2020 hits and you can *see* my hyperfixation with twisted wonderland here, at least my folder is 60% twst drawings i made for my fanfic at the time LOL. Not so many style jumps here tho so let's keep going

2021 and 2022 here! at the second half of 2022 i found my oh so beloved crunchy brush and i also fell hard for Arashi Narukami, so basically my tumblr became an arashi fanpage lol

stuff at 2023 keeps pretty the same until now tbh, the only highlight would be the re-inclusion of noses bc of spiderverse 2. My style also has been pretty well maintained since i started doing commissions so i don't really do so much experimentation anymore, at least not with proportions and such.

alr so that was my journey on artstyle! Of course it's not like you're gonna guess all my process just by looking at the images so i'll say what type of stuff i feel influenced my decisions.

i'm very lazy and for a log time i just abandoned my projects if it prolonged more than a day or two, that obviously made me lean into the cel/plain shading rather than spending hours and maybe days rendering (not that i don't try rendering every now and then but i don't enjoy spending so much time in a single piece)

everyone around me always has been extremely supportive so i had the privilege of dedicating all my soul to drawing silly characters haha, i feel like since i never felt the need of comparing myself to others i could actually experiment so unapologetically with my style until i was satisfied

finding an actual brush that i like is always crucial to me tbh, even in traditional i'm pretty picky with how the ink and type of pen i'm using. Of course, i also tried multiple traditional art techniques (watercolor, acrylics, crayons, pencils, pastels, my favorite are pen+markers)

i dont like feets. that shows until today.

in general i think an artstyle is something extremely personal that every person has to shape themselves and that it can't really be a permanent thing, it's gonna fluctuate with the artist whenever they like it or not.

[tblsomedoodles]

Now that we're entering into 2024, I'm asking some artists and writers that I follow:

1) What is the one piece you're most proud of from this past year?

2) What are some pieces that you would have liked more people to see? If you can include links, I'd love to go check them out!

3) What were your top three favorite pieces (art, comics, fics, etc) that someone else has made this past year?

(As always, no pressure to respond! Feel free to just ignore, or let me know if you'd rather I not send you these kinds of asks in the future.)

Oh let's see!

1 ) Fic wise, i'm really proud of "Proud Family Tradition". I was actually able to finish it this year, which i'm super excited about and, in general, i just love how it turned out vibe wise.

Art wise, that's a hard one. Um...I'm going to go with the "Non-cannon Leo meets Clara comic" b/c i love how it turned out. The looser render style mixed with the limited dialogue and not-overly-distinct panels look so cool together. and it helped me start experimenting with other brushes by doing so.

2 ) Probably anything with Jenny (from Family Web). For whatever reason she doesn't tend to get very many notes at all, especially compared to anything else really.

For specific things, ummm...probably My Good Omens doodle from september. I redid a panel from an old animatic of mine and I love how the whole thing turned out, but it didn't do well at all. And Maybe my Forever Alone animatic. Again, love how it turned out, but it's for an au that i haven't really done much with beyond this and a donnieverse stop so it didn't get seen as much as i would have liked. It's based on the first thing i wrote for rise (though i haven't quite posted it yet. I've got to get on that) and i learned a lot making that video. Heck, i even got a decent looking fightscene in there lol.

3 ) Only 3?? ok, i'm gonna try lol.

ok, so no particular order (b/c i'm literally just going through my bookmarks on ao3 lol)

"things that ought to Crawl" by mudlarkspur (WisteriaParfait) (AO3). A very good "Draxum finds a little feral donnie and accidentally becomes a parent along the way". Very cute. Love it. Been meaning to do some fanart but haven't gotten the chance (or courage) to do so yet.

"Minor Interference" by bambiraptorx (AO3). Basically The turtles accept Draxum's offer to train them so they can prank him while doing so and everyone starts catching familiar feelings along the way. Super cute. definitely recommend if you want some chaotic shenanigans and occasional fluff : )

oh last one...um....ummm....ummmmmmmmm........Oh!

"Rotten Reflections" by Nicoforlife (AO3). Rise Leo and Donnie end up in 12tmnt, but it's dark/suspenseful, and they're both feral and injured. Idk, i just love this fic in general. I've read it 3+ times over the last year (i don't really reread that much that quickly, so that's significant) and will be rereading again so to catch up. (i'm behind on all my reading atm. it's sad) I just vibe with it. Again, another fic i need to do fanart for but haven't yet.

(this was so hard! There's just so many i love. picking only 3 was very difficult)

Thank you!!

[kyogre-blue]

CF, let's go!

Immediately more amusing than SS by virtue of the fact that I care about the enemy units. Yes, Rhea looks so cool, Flayn is so cool, Catherine yeeeeeah. Very nice, I'm very happy.

Jokes aside, CF is looking very interesting from the perspective of speculating about 3H's production process.

From what I recall of the interviews, it seems they added CF comparatively late, due to simping reasons. That's interesting in itself, because Edelgard was given a lot of focus in development, given stuff like the early drafts of her also being able to Divine Pulse. But I guess it was only later in that they realized that, yeah, giving her a route would be cool and probably the most unique thing they could do.

Anyway, given its weird development, CF has a lot of strangeness about it. It's the shortest route by a good margin (VW and AM have 10 chapter each, SS has 9 due to Gronder being cut, but CF has only 6). There is only one actually unique map, I believe (Tailtean), but the chapters are reshuffled in completely different order from VW-SS-AM having basically the exact same progression. At the same time, is a very obvious lack of pre-rendered cutscenes and even in-engine scenes to some extent.

So the impression I get is that it was added late, so they couldn't produce certain assets like cutscenes or more than six chapters, but at the same time, they had a lot more passion for it, since they created a unique progression and honestly Edelgard has been emoting more in one scene than the entire Academy phase.

My dudes.... perhaps you should have started from the villain route and just gone full in, instead of the limp-wristed SS stuff, which supposedly was written first out of everything.

Live blogging notes:

I like how Edelgard is in her school uniform during the pre-battle scene in the Holy Tomb, but is then in the Flame Emperor outfit post-battle. Girl took the time to change, I see. It's not really a huge deal, but it's so lacking in attention to detail, sigh.

Man, furious antagonist Rhea is so cool. Very nice.

The Immaculate One is just a still here, where it was always a cinematic in the other routes.

"The monsters that have controlled Fodlan in secret for far too long" Edelgard again attributing things the Agarthans have done to the Nabateans.

We book it. Only respect for Rhea.

Hum... all the BE students escape with us to one of the Imperial army's provisional camps. Except Flayn, obviously. The students give a mix of reasons why they're siding with Edelgard, and they're fine. Kinda mild, but whatever. The music really gets me. Cute bubbly track while everyone is like "well, I wasn't thinking and just ran" or "I have political reasons" and then it switches to Edelgard's imperial march theme, and man. It's really something.

Yeah, Edelgard's anti-Church pitch is kinda... lol. Given that her own henchmen was like "steal all the bones! desecrate those graves! kill everyone!"

"[The Church's] control over the lords of the Kingdom and the Alliance is nearly absolute" L M A O

This is hilarious. Admittedly already more fun than SS.

Edelgard admits to being well aware of how much chaos and destruction she is bringing about based on just her own will. She knows she is the cause of countless deaths. But she still says she wants to bring down the church.

Except, of course, the Church hasn't done anything to her lol Edelgard's manifesto will expose "the foul practices of the nobles from the Kingdom and Alliance" like what tho

Byleth is going to lead a special "Black Eagle Strike Force"

oh ho.... we're exploring a non-monastery area! very nice

Quickly noting: We skip the entire last month of Academy Phase, going from 2/29 for the Holy Tomb directly to 3/30 for the pre-assault camp.

Edelgard B: takes place in her monastery bedroom, which is funny at this juncture. She talks about how she'd like a day to just idle away and eat sweets, and also how without Byleth she would have become a harsh leader with a heart of ice (ok, sure) and how everyone else always treated her as an untouchable princess or emperor, didn't look her in the eye, etc. Ferdinand does not exist, I guess. It's very staple as a concept, but the details aren't really in place for this. At best, you can say this hinges more on her own perceptions -- she never respected anyone else until Byleth enough to let them approach her as anything except pawns and vassals. Self-imposed trials and all that.

Roundup of the kids: Ingrid wants to try to persuade her father to join Edelgard but thinks he probably won't, Caspar's father is leading the "western units" and he'd have had to fight him if he stayed at the monastery, Linhardt calls out that the biggest nobles in the empire stripped Edie's dad of his powers but are now supporting her to smoothly take the throne (weird!), Ferdie acknowledges that his father is greedy and arrogant but feels that he did a lot of work for the empire only to now be disgraced (stripped of his rank and under house arrest), Bernie has less thoughts in her head than Caspar, Felix has like two lines lol, Leonie is just directly with Byleth and no one else, Ashe emphasizes that he can't trust the Church after Lonato and Christophe, Sylvain is kind of mess, thinking of his father, Dimitri, how he might die in the fighting, etc.

Hubert says it's not up to Edelgard to bring the students to our cause, which is... kinda wild. Why is it not up to her. Based on the rest of the dialogue, he means the recruited students from other houses, but uuuh given 3H quality, I expect he says this even if you haven't recruited, and also the phrasing is very vague to begin with.

Garreg Mach has never been attacked, so no one really knows how well it can stand against assault. Edelgard is confident in our power "from a mathematical standpoint."

Ladislava leads Edelgard's personal guard. There's also Randolph von Bergliez. His mother married into Caspar's family but this was after his birth. Unclear if this means he's from a previous relationship of hers, or if he wasn't legitimized despite being from a Bergliez fling. That explains one random battle line I got from him when attacking as Caspar on SS.

There's a couple stray comments from NPCs about Rhea turning into a beast (which happened down in the Holy Tomb where only a few people were, so... curious an NPC knows) and about not entirely believing Edelgard but supporting her for now.

Overall battle plan for the assault: Edelgard (+Byleth) leads an elite force that strikes as close to the monastery as possible, planning to draw attention of the elite Knights and Rhea's ire. Meanwhile, the main forces that marched in from the capital will surround and "annihilate" the remaining areas.

Another still of the Immaculate One after the battle, no CG. The entire scene is just one still, headshots of models talking and some filter to show that "the castle" is "crumbling." And that's it, wow.

Without Rhea fighting Thales and trying to save Byleth, she's well enough to flee to Faerghus. Nice!

Dimitri is King <3

Claude "strategically stirs up conflict between Leicester lords in an effort to maintain neutrality" lmao

Sothis is cool with you even after the Edelgard simping shenanigans, I guess.

The Imperial Army is holding the monastery, which is different from the other routes.

Edelgard emotes?? At the reunion with Byleth. WOW

Another still, no cutscene.

Edelgard's dialogue here... has almost the exact same beats as Claude's which is a bit funny.

Recap again that Dimitri is King and supporting the Church, Claude is being neutral, though Edelgard makes it clear this is a negative. His leadership "has thrown the Alliance into chaos."

OK, so Edelgard directly says we're going to eliminate the Church, the Kingdom and the Allaince. We're out to get them all, and the first target is Claude because Riegan has been standing against the Empire. To secure a route for imperial troops into the Alliance, we'll take out the big bridge first. At the same time, we'll take out Judith and since her territory is on the border with the Kingdom, getting her out of the way will be useful too.

[heinzpilsner]

So, apparently, miracles happen - we finally get to overanalyze Zuko's jealousy rampage in "The Beach" today. Yayrgh!

(... I had to rewatch this fragment 10 times in a row, can you imagine the depths of my misery?)

I finally remembered Ruon-Jian's name spelling though, that's handy

I have to dissapoint some people with the promised Zuko roasting though - as it turned out, we're dealing here with a much more complicated psychological bundle than just "Zuko's being an inadequate and possessive little caveman"!

It doesn't necessarily mean he isn't though lol

So, let's try and untangle this ugly mess.

But firstly...

Wtf is it with Zuko constantly dropping Mai's food in this episode? Was it "he can't provide for his female" agenda or something?

Well, I for one refuse to give up on the boy before I see him hunting a mammoth.

...Okay, and now back to analysis.

My quota of unfunny procrastinating jokes is exhausted anyway

Firstly, we need to answer the question: what exactly is going on between Mai and Ruon-Jian when Zuko sees them?

Well, not so much, actually. It's basically their first interaction. Mai is sitting on the couch, Ruon-Jian is talking with her. Mai's body is kinda turned towards him as she grins a little, but there's nothing outwardly troubling or incriminating.

What Zuko did when he saw this picture?

He aggresively pushed Ruon-Jian away from Mai:

"Stop talking to my girlfriend!"

...looked at Mai angrily, and then he threw Ruon-Jian away again when the guy tried to reason with him:

"Relax, it's just a party".

Ugh, I hate it

After which Mai finally confronted him (but that's a story for different time).

So... What can I say?

Zuko's intense reaction in response to the sight really can be called many things. But "completely inadequate" and "unmotivated" would be some of them only if we were sure Mai values him highly at this point.

The catch though is that it isn't the case, is it?

The scene happens right after Mai sent Zuko away for her food like some kind of servant boy, and this little detail actually changes quite a lot.

At this point, Mai's possible interest in the other guy stops being an imaginary problem and becomes a tangible danger. Because Ruon-Jian is an uncharted territory with potential, while Zuko's value in Mai's eyes was already established as pretty low.

This context doesn't magically turn Zuko's physical assault into a normal thing or a brilliant strategy though - regardless of his motivation, his actions were wrong and barbaric as heck.

But before render a verdict on our little Othello here, there are some other questions that need to be answered - it will help us to look beyond the "caveman" label and reveal different facets underneath Zuko's cringe-inducing behavior.

1) Did Zuko realize that Mai is a subject with her own will, and not some object for him to keep?

Probably.

The thing is, if he believed Mai was really into Ruon-Jian, and realized she didn't value Zuko that much at the same time, his behavior really would be an indicator that he didn't respect her will.

And yet, when Mai decided to break up with him, even in his agitated state, Zuko didn't try to argue. It could say a lot about his respect of Mai's desires - unless by this time he simply lost all motivation to try and hold on her, that is.

Anyway, so far, we can't state for sure that Zuko was trying to "claim his property" or something along the lines with his attack.

So, the thing we need to detect is...

2) How aware Zuko was about the real state of things?

And... It's a bit like dead Jet's situation - very unclear.

We know that Zuko's initial assumption of Mai's interest in Ruon-Jian was ungrounded, so he was obviously overestimating it. But to which extent, we can't tell.

What about Zuko's awareness of his low value in Mai's eyes?

Oh dear. Outload, he acknowledged two problems with Mai's behavior:

- she is "cranky"; - she "doesn't have passion for anything".

Both of these things could be just Zuko's rationalization in order to avoid the painful reality: "Mai values me, she's just... such a person? And she's in a bad mood?"

Oh, sweet summer child.

Which would mean he noticed Mai's lack of affection initially, but just couldn't bear to reflect on it consciously.

But there's also possibility that at some point, Zuko realized the real problem, but was just too proud to aknowledge it outload.

(And yet, he wasn't proud enough to refuse Mai's food order or prevent himself from admitting he keeps dating a girl whose personality he doesn't really like all that much. Huh.)

...Anyway, we can't detect the exact picture in Zuko's head on the basis of this information.

But it's not such a bad thing, actually - because it opens a loophole for different interpetations, and we can use it both to roast and defend Zuko in court.

3) Did Zuko value Mai as a unique person and not just as an abstract girlfriend?

Well... According to him, he likes when she "expresses herself" and "hates the world"?

Ugh.

I guess it counts.

So, we can't say for sure his attack was motivated just by "don't encroach on my female" logic. And yet, it was "stop talking to my girlfriend", not just "stop talking to her".

4) Did Zuko value Mai enough to try and fight for her - not just for his male ego?

Perhaps. When Mai put him in front of a choice between her and his self-respect ("bring me food"), he chose her. So at least at this moment*, he valued her more than she valued him.

*The situation itself shold have cooled Zuko off towards Mai to some degree though.

(A sidenote: this quiet act of submission was one of the biggest Zuko's mistakes during the whole disastrous day, actually.

Because in the long run, girls don't love boys for their obedience. They love boys who respect themselves.

The gender here doesn't really matter though - submission from any person who is ready to betray themselves for crumbs of your affection is actually repulsive.

Unless we're talking very specific E-rated context here, if you try to sacrifice your self-respect for the sake of love, you will lose both in the end.)

5) Was Zuko's reaction to the scene totally his own?

Not exactly. I mean, we can't just dismiss the influence of audience's reaction - namely, the boy who bumped into Zuko, - on the character's behavior.

There's always a possibility that Zuko acted the way he did because he decided it was socially expected from him.

But it also can be a point to "attack as protection of Zuko's ego" hypothesis.

6) Would Zuko's behavior be okay if he was calm and didn't assault Ruon-Jian physically?

Honestly, it's a very complicated topic. A person in a relationship kinda has a right to try and protect it - if free will of all partners is respected in the process, that is. So I guess as long as participants okay with their rules, whatever bizarre, it's their business.

And it's interesting that Mai herself didn't seem to mind "stop talking" part - only Zuko's anger.

Regardless, we don't know if Zuko would try and prevent her from talking with other boys in different circumstances.

So... I guess it's all.

And my final verdict is...

It's totally up to your interpretation! Surprise!

Zuko's attack was extremely impulsive, and we have no way of detecting which motivation prevailed here - especially with his general tendency of translating complex emotions into anger.

...But I must say, if the idea was to save his relationship, Zuko probably chose for this the least efficient method possible lol.

In addition to his insecurity and lack of self-respect, the physical aggression definitely didn't make him more attractive in Mai's eyes - and his main problem was her lack of affection!

The most important thing to understand about it though...

By the moment Zuko saw Ruon-Jian with Mai, for him, there was no beautiful way out of this position already.

Like, at all.

Chan's grandma's vase could be saved in different scenarios, but for Zuko's pride, it was 100% too late.

The thing is, from the very beginning of the party, Zuko's psychological state made him physically incapable of seeing things clearly and making right decisions. So, the sequence of his mistakes surely led him to this deadlock. I'm an expert in it - I write all my posts in a similar state pffft

And the tendency only continues during Maiko's following heated confrontation...

Which sounds like a topic for the next part of 'Analysing beach Maiko' series, yay! Until then...

Pheeew, I finally did it! Thanks for your attention.

As usual, I ignore all the notifications.

(Ugh, why on earth Zuko decided some random dude needs to know what this food was "for his cranky girlfriend"? I hate this cursed episode, honestly.)

[idealisticrealism]

Hey Anon! Thank you for the ask! :D Just in case, I'm going to put it under a cut because it contains a slight spoiler and I don't want anyone to see it who might not want to.

(Also heads up, I'm actually staying spoiler-free too– but it's totally okay bc you didn't know that and it's only a minor spoiler anyway, so I'm not bothered at all)

Well, this info certainly puts an interesting spin on things! I definitely don't think these events will make Arman and Nadia closer though– as in, I'll honestly be surprised if they haven't officially broken up for good by the end of 2x09 (please, writers, please lol)

However, I could see them getting closer again in the sense that the argument about the marriage certificate– and how Arman used her to get access to the office– might lead to Arman revealing that RK forced him to kill an FBI informant, and that revelation might just be enough to shock Nadia out of her fury towards him and realise that he's been in a much worse situation than she thought/has had no choice but to resort to extreme measures to get free of RK. She'll most likely be angry and hurt that he didn't trust her enough to just tell her the truth earlier, but still, she may then be able to forgive him enough to put everything else aside and instead help him to take RK down.

Also, what if RK had told her that the marriage was annulled, but she finds out that he never did it (or faked the paperwork) so technically they're still married? She would be pissed, and even more determined to help them make him pay. (Not to mention it would technically render her and Arman's marriage null and void, which would be great news for both him and us haha).

But anyways, the TL;DR is that I am not at all worried about Arman and Nadia's 'reconciliation', and while I certainly don't think we're in for any Armony fluff any time soon (sorry Anon; the current situation is just too intense for that lol), I do think that some absolutely incredible Armony moments are coming our way very soon.

[booasaur]

Do you think they’re dragging out the angst? Because I don’t. I feel after what happened, is really unreal if Lucy forgive Kate.

I feel like they are doing this in a natural way.

Sad we haven’t had so that much scenes between them, but still we got so many scenes about how the break up is affecting them.

I feel that’s nice.

Lol, this ask on late Tuesday night arrived at such a good time. I'd been thinking about how Leyren, Kacy, and Marina handled their respective major conflicts and I have to say, I feel like Kacy gave theirs what it deserved the most.

Marina got over it so quickly, Leyren took a long time but kept Leyla off screen for most of it and seem to have jumped several stages of their reconciliation without showing how onscreen, while Kacy's taken a full half a season, with lots of screentime and discussions and involvement of other characters to discuss things. I really don't think it's taking too long, it's not as if there hasn't been progress, it's just been the more realistic two steps forward, one step back kind. Together or not, their scenes are still about how love they still are. We're gonna miss the pining and yearning stage when it's over, I'm telling ya!

In the olden days, main pairings took YEARS to get through this kind of thing, and I do think they were written to be the central season-long arc, with the reconciliation finally in the season finale. Which means they were writing backward, to reach the narrative climax this late, it was always going to take this long. I don't think people would been happier if Kate had done something even worse to justify the length. :o

I will say, I hadn't expected Lucy to be this angry or hurt for this long. I had kind of wished we'd had a little more insight into Lucy's background and why in particular this--well, it's been framed as a mistake on Kate's part, right, but even as an incredibly stupid hurtful mistake, just ending things and keeping them ended when she was still so in love? With the depth of her feelings for Kate, I wished we'd seen something like a past betrayal of trust, maybe a parent cheated, just something that'd explain it being such a dealbreaker. I didn't need it but I just wanted more insight into Lucy and her background. But even without it, we could make reasonable guesses like this could be the first time she's been this hurt and is unwilling to risk it again, or maybe she's dealt with dishonesty when it comes to her family and refuses to deal with it her partner, that kind of thing

But then the one thing they DID add was past context specifically for their relationship, which shifted things majorly. This wasn't a brief fling, it was a years-long physical and then emotional romance, FINALLY culminating in what seemed to be this gorgeous perfect love, and then it's ruined, in a way that rendered everything that happened before false. I never did gif the cute early parts of ep 11, on purpose. It wasn't that I didn't get around to it, I didn't want to because at the time, it felt like it was just to set them up as all happy and in love so the breakup later would hurt more. I just didn't realize till we got the backstory that it wasn't to make us hurt more, but LUCY. At that point, the relationship was meant to be so comfortable, she said herself, she can sit there quietly watching Kate read. How mortified, how HUMILIATED she must have felt to almost let slip an ILY in the morning and come back to a gf in the afternoon. I can get how she's just like, nope, you threw THAT away? Either this didn't mean as much to you or it did and you still treated us like that.

Anyway, I realize that I've taken so long to type this up the season finale's about to finish airing in east Canada in about 19 minutes, so let's see how it ends. :P

[a-pale-azure-moon]

Midnight Plays Azure Gleam: Prologue & Chapter 1

I'm playing on Normal difficulty. I picked both female Byleth and female Shez; I'll try to use neutral pronouns for them both, but it's highly likely I'll slip.

The opening cutscene is awesome! I love seeing Rhea/Seiros being badass. And the Saints are there, including Indech and Macuil! Pity we don't get to see Seteth and Flayn in their dragon forms, but I like the confirmation that they dyed their hair (poorly) too.

Wait...Rhea just morphed into the Immaculate One in front of everyone. Are we supposed to believe none of the other soldiers noticed that?

Assuming that cutscene was Shez's dream, this is exactly how 3H starts. I appreciate the symmetry.

Aaaand right into battle. And I immediately have no idea what I'm doing aside from mashing buttons, lol.

...Except there's a tutorial window popping up every two seconds. I love it when games just relentlessly shove information into my face, breaking up any flow I might be starting to find. /s

Byleth! I love their intro/music. Really badass, as is watching them fight. This cutscene makes it obvious why the house leaders were so enamored with their skills. It's also great hearing them actually speak. I always liked female Byleth's voice; it's stoic, yes but the cadence of it is almost...soothing?

Super mode activate! And it barely matters because hopeless boss fight. Saw that coming. Byleth hits like a freight train.

Calling it now; Arval is evil/aligned with the Agarthans. I'm sure a million other people have made that same guess. It's just way, way too obvious.

If Shez is a discount Byleth, Arval is the dollar bin Sothis. All of the snark with way more condescension and absolutely none of the warmth. Ugh.

A Chance Encounter (I see what you did there.)

OK, so Shez is more of a generic idiot shonen protagonist. That's at least fairly inoffensive, but pretty disappointing all the same.

DIMITRI!! <3 <3 <3

I'm going to sidebar for a moment: I don't think his student design gets appreciated enough. Everyone talks about his hair looking funny, but please consider that the game engine is bad at rendering hair and cloth. He's 100% adorable, and I love all the little details in his uniform, like the sword and the bits of armor the others lack, immediately telling you he's a soldier too.

Man is this nostalgic. And I just replayed 3H a year ago.

Ah, it switches you automatically between the leaders to demonstrate the weapon triangle. That's neat, if a bit jarring when I was suddenly Edelgard.

Oh my god these tutorial windows just will not stop for five seconds! I obviously want to learn how to play, but the pacing with telling me this info is flatly awful.

The character banter in the background is entertaining. Too bad I can barely pay attention to it because there's so much going on.

Alois is here! And I somehow S-Ranked that, even though I have no idea what I'm doing.

Ah, so this is the point of divergence; by killing Kostas, Shez made it so the leaders didn't have to go to Remire and find Jeralt's group. No Dimitri, you need to go to Remire and meet your beloved!

Now we're at a base camp. I'm shocked that the characters aren't voiced here, considering all of the Garreg Mach dialogue in 3H was. It's pretty jarring.

The character models are significantly improved, much smoother and cleaner looking than before. There is a strange (but minor) bloom effect going on with them in some lighting though.

Look at all these familiar faces! It's getting me emotional, especially seeing Ferdinand. (RIP Billy)

Edelgard tells me I can trust Hubert. Riiiiiiight....

Bernadetta didn't come. Good.

Sylvain's flirting with Shez, of course. Never change.

Once again, Dimitri raves about all of his friends while saying nothing about himself. Where the heck is my "Press X to hug" option?

Alois says Shez should come to Garreg Mach for payment. Shez says it sounds like hush money (Church Bad!). Arval calls it a threat. Claude says to make the best of it, Dimitri's remorseful, and Edelgard's all, "This is a prime opportunity for us to get to know each other!" Subtle game. /s

Pfft. Shez's observations on the leaders are pretty much the polar opposite of Byleth's.

Really nice establishing shot of Garreg Mach.

Rhea! Seteth! And free tuition for Shez to the Officer's Academy, because plot's gotta plot. Though at least this generosity is a big bright positive for the Church.

My Lions! The gang's all here! <3 <3 <3

...Jeritza is our teacher? OK, sure, that makes total sense (it makes no sense. WTF game? Did one of the writers spend too much time on Reddit? This is going to suck...)

Hearing Shez voice their chosen responses is good. And it makes me more angry that it wasn't done for Byleth in 3H. I don't really mind silent protagonists overall, but in Byleth's case, it would've benefited them a great deal.

Not a bad start. The gameplay pacing is an issue, but so far, so good.

[bansheeoftheforest]

My question for the revival au is just.... What would happen to Hyde? Personally, if we're going down the angsty route, I think Hyde would still be there. In Jekyll's mind. But the problem is, the HJ-7 doesn't work anymore. Whatever chemicals and tools Frankenstein used to bring Jekyll back messed with his system too much, to the point where his body can't process the ingredients the same way anymore, and even if it did work, what would that do to their, essentially, undead body? Jekyll doesn't know. All he knows is that he can't run the risk of dying again or mutilating his already delicate body. So Hyde is just... Stuck. He can't get out, he can't talk to others, and unless he can get Jekyll to snap again, he can't find a way to tell others he's still here. It's up to Jekyll to decide if he wants to spill their secret or not, and it haunts Jekyll. -💙

That is absolute horrifying to think about. Hyde's biggest fear was to be trapped in Henry's mind forever, and now he is and he would honestly rather be dead. Would he be able to still show up in reflections and shadows, or would he be stuck inside of Henry's mind for all eternity; would be be stuck within the mindscape, or would be see everything from Henry's POV? Would there still be a mindscape? Maybe Hyde would do all he could to get Jekyll to die again, not because he wants to die but because he rather have both of them be dead and no one being alive rather than Jekyll "getting his life back" while Hyde is stuck forever and ever and ever. Would Henry essentially be immortal unless he gets killed, like Creature? Ooh, maybe he would "wait" (*ahem*) until Frankenstein is dead and try to die again to keep the Lodgers from being able to resurrect him again?

Also would like to bring up @/Lemonlinelights' comment (Idk you would have wanted me to mention you but??? Just remembered that when I got this ask lol)

You are bringing up a very good point... If Hyde isn't stuck inside of Jekyll (lol), perhaps he himself would be more like a ghost? The resurrection process only focused on getting Henry's soul back into the body, somehow splitting Hyde's part away from Henry's, rendering them with a Zombie!Jekyll and a Ghost!Hyde? Since they only share one body I'm unsure if Hyde would be able to get one, maybe it's like @/imincrediblexo's separation au and Hyde is just... Goop? So many possibilities for what would happen with Hyde and idk which one is my favourite <3

[spicymayo1983]

Hiya. This is part 4 to my flirting with disaster series. It wasn't supposed to be this long but I keep coming up with ideas. Lol.

You are now nearly 6 months pregnant. Poe has spent those months nurturing and caring for you and his unborn child.

You're both nervous but excited at the same time. You still feel rough but Poe makes the pain melt away with his massages, kisses and gentle caresses.

As the two of you prepare for the arrival of your little one amongst a time of galactic turmoil you can't help but feel pangs of guilt for bringing a new life into the unrest.

What will life be like for you and your little family?

Warnings, smut, oral sex, childbirth, not for anyone under 18.

Flirting with disaster part 4

You're having a baby boy. You've both seen 4D scans and holograms of your little one. He's active, healthy and strong and ahead in development. It's clear that he already strongly favors his gorgeous father.

You are both experiencing waves of emotions. Excitement one moment and then fear the next. Poe is concerned that you're going to have a difficult delivery.

Both of you have been talking about getting married.

He wants to do it before the child is born but you want to wait until your son is older.

Poe is not 100% okay with your decision. This is causing a slight rift in your otherwise great relationship.

If he had it his way the two of you would immediately be married. But you're not ready just yet. You are still feeling rough and you don't feel like going through even the smallest wedding ceremony.

Late one night you are both relaxing in bed, nude. Poe is laying next to you, gently caressing your breasts and your large belly.

"You look so beautiful tonight". Poe tells you as he gazes deeply into your eyes. "I can't wait for him to be here".

"It's been rough but we're on the home stretch". You reply as you gently guide his hand lower. "He'll be here in just a few months".

"Mmmmm you're feeling frisky tonight, aren't you?" Poe whispers into your ear as he gently fingers your wet slit. "I want to eat you out so badly and then make love to you".

Poe's head immediately dips down below your stomach and he begins to gently kiss and suck on your swollen, wet labia.

You spread your legs for him and he gently slips his tongue inside of you, you arch your back and moan from delight as you grind into him and cum.

When you're ready for him you relax on your side and Poe gently enters you, kissing and nuzzling your neck as he gingerly makes love to you.

"I could stay like this forever, inside you". Poe whispers into your ear. "Your body feels like home to me".

"Oh Poe you feel so good too". You whimper softly.

He plants some soft, wet kisses on your neck as he cums with a light moan.

The two of you quickly fall asleep, nude with your bodies entwined. Poe kept a protective hand on your belly all night.

The beautiful moment is shattered, however, when you are awakened early the next morning by what feels like contractions.

"Poe! Wake up!" You shout as you slowly sit up and nervously shake him awake out of a sound sleep.

"Huh? What is it?" Poe replies, his voice sounding groggy and his eyes popping open.

"I think I'm having contractions". You explain, fighting back tears. "I need to see a doctor".

Once at the hospital wing of the rebellion base the doctor examines you and explains that you were experiencing false contractions.

The baby, and you, were both doing fine, much to everyone's relief.

As a precaution you spend the rest of the day in bed. Poe pampers you with foot rubs, full body massages and cuddles, lots of cuddles.

You're drifting off to sleep again when you feel the baby kicking, Poe is next to you, already sleeping peacefully when you gently nudge him awake.

"He's kicking, Poe". You tell him with a smile.

Poe immediately wakes up and places a hand on your belly, the little butterfly kicks make him smile.

Feeling his first born son's kicks render him speechless. He's in absolute awe, he's seen and experienced many things but this tops everything.

"Wow, just wow". Poe says with a slight laugh. "The little guy sure has some legs on him, what does that feel like?"

"It feels like a tiny little foot kicking the wall of my uterus". You explain, smiling. "It doesn't hurt, it just feels unusual".

Poe tenderly kisses your belly and whispers,

"This is your daddy, and it's way past your bedtime, young man".

You both laugh as the kicking promptly comes to a stop.

"You just got lucky, Dameron". You tease.

You enjoy the last few months of your pregnancy. There are many more moments just like that one, you had no idea Poe had such a nurturing, caring side to his personality.

You have your birthing plan set. You want to have the baby at home with no medication and a doula on hand to assist you if there are any complications.

The two of you want an intimate birth, with as little medical assistance as possible.

You go into labor right on schedule, early in the evening. Poe massages your back, holds your hand, and kisses you tenderly through the entire ordeal.

"I don't know how you can do this". Poe says with a slight smile as he holds you in his arms. "If I were in your position I'd want every medication on the market".

He is lying in bed with you, cuddling you, massaging your back while you are in active labor. The two of you have been like this for several hours already.

You couldn't have asked for anyone kinder or more supportive.

This is what you wanted, you wanted to give birth in his strong, loving arms. With all of the unrest, war and horror going on in the galaxy you wanted your son to at least have a beautiful start to his life.

With a loud wail your son, Maxim Bey, comes into the world. There are no complications and both of you are doing great. He's beautiful, with a full head of dark hair and dark eyes. With tears streaming down his face Poe kisses you tenderly and says,

"He looks just like me, y/n".

You are shaking and crying from a mixture of relief and emotion. You can't believe you did it. When you sit up the doula hands you your swaddled and cleaned up baby boy, his eyes are closed and he's still crying a little.

You stroke the top of his little head, admiring the thick hair.

Poe leans in and kisses him on the forehead, Maxim calms down almost immediately and wraps one of his Itty bitty hands around his father's thumb.

From the start it's clear that Maxim is daddy's little boy.

"I can't wait to teach him how to fly". Poe says with a slight smile and tears in his eyes as he cradles his son in his arms.

"He needs to learn how to walk and talk first". You quip, laughing a little.

"Now will you marry me?" Poe asks, a tender smile appearing on his face.

"Of course, stupid". You reply, leaning in and kissing him.

"Can we have 10 more kids?" Poe teases, gently rocking little Maxim, his face beaming with love and pride.

"Only if you could carry most of them". You tease, giggling a little and leaning over to kiss him on the lips.

"Daddy loves you so much". Poe coos, giving his newborn a little kiss on the cheek. "And daddy loves mommy for having you for me, she gave me such a special gift".

The end