#what commentary tag could I possibly add to this

[krazieka2]

Fe3h did not have a beauty pageant sequence, but if it did I'm 99% sure this is how it would go

[mejomonster]

In case tumblr ever does go down, im mejomonster on twitter insta discord too. Please add me

[puroresu-musings]

NJPW WRESTLE KINGDOM 18 in Tokyo Dome Review (Jan 4th, 2024)

New Japan Rambo **

IWGP Jr. Tag Team Championship - Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney vs. TJP & Francesco Akira ***1/4

NJPW World TV Championship - Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi ****

Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Uemura ***1/2

Shota Umino & Kaito Kiyomiya vs. EVIL & Ren Narita ***1/4

NEVER Openweight Championship - Shingo Takagi (c) vs. Tama Tonga ****1/2

IWGP Tag Team & STRONG Openweight Tag Championship Double Title Match - Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI vs. El Phantasmo & Hikuleo ***3/4+

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship - Hiromu Takahashi (c) vs. El Desperado ****1/4

Inaugural IWGP Global Championship Match - Will Ospreay vs. Jon Moxley vs. David Finlay ****1/2

Kazuchika Okada vs. Bryan Danielson *****

IWGP World Heavyweight Championship - SANADA (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito ****1/4

Photos.

This show ruled. Full disclosure, I've fallen behind with NJPW in the last couple of years, and only really get to fully see the major shows, so going in this looked like a solid little card on paper, so my expectations weren't exactly sky high. However, the New Japan crew knocked it out of the park with an excellent, Show of the Year contender. Things started as they always do: The annual "cram everyone humanly possible onto the card" Rambo. We all know what to expect here, and this was better than a lot of previous offerings, but the surprise appearance of Fujita "Jr" Hayato in this years really raised it up for me, as I'm always super pleased to see him back in the ring after all he's been through. Takashi Iizuka turning up was also a nice surprise (absence makes the heart grow fonder, and all that), and it was a kick to be transported back to 2013 with him mercilessly going after poor Shimpei Nogami on commentary. The ending though was very deja vu, as I could have sworn some incredibly similar variant of this was the outcome last year. The final four of Great-O-Khan, Taiji Ishimori, YOH and Toru Yano advanced to face off for the KOPW Title tomorrow.

The main show started in style with the prerequisite Jr Tag Title Match, which featured TJP debuting his new demon gimmick, The Aswang, because he was locked in a casket when last we saw him, you see. My English feed froze at the opening bell on the Aswang mask for ages, and by the time I'd gotten back onto the Japanese feed, I'd missed like three minutes of this, there were brawls all over ringside, The Aswang was wearing a dog collar, and Moloney was bleeding. The final 5 or so minutes I did see were pretty damn good though, so that's what my rating is based on. TJP got this win for him and Akira after he blew the dreaded Dokukiri into Drilla's face, then Catch 22 hit the double knees to regain the titles at 9:38. Next up, President Tanahashi put an end to the 365 day TV Title reign of ZSJ in an excellent 8:53 sprint. These guys always have excellent matches together, and this was no exception. They worked a fast-paced thriller, which boiled down to them hitting a sequence of cradle reversals, before Tana counter a Zack Victory Roll into one of his own, and won the belt to a big pop. President Ace thanked everyone for coming in the post match, and wished us all a Happy New Year. Godly.

Career rivals Tsuji and Uemura had their first non-Young Lion outing on a major show next. This was a very good little match, I've always been high on both guys since they were rookies, and I firmly believe they have incredibly bright futures in New Japan, and are destined to be focal points in the years to come. Even though I do wish they'd do more with Yota. The guy came in super hot, with a ton of hype, and now he's kinda just floundering in the mid-card. And more mid-carders is most certainly not something this company needs! They always have really good matches, so add this one to that list, which ended at just under 11 minutes, when Uemura got the much needed win with his beautiful Deadbolt suplex. Fellow future superstar Shota Umino drove into Tokyo Dome on a motorbike to start his and partner, NOAH "Ace" Kiyomiya's tag match against HoT goons EVIL and Ren Narita next. This was going along really nicely, the three young guys all looked great, and the crowd were very much into, until the standard shenanigans started, which lead to a fairly abrupt finish, which saw Narita deck Umino with a steel plated push-up bar, then score the pin with his Double Cross finish at the 7 minute mark.

The fifth bout saw company MVP Shingo defend the NEVER Title against Tama Tonga in a hard-hitting war, which was by far the best match on the show up to this point. The near 30K in attendance were going crazy for this as they hit all their big spots, massive Lariats and Gun Stun counters. After Takagi scored a great near fall with Made in Japan, Tama went to the Bullet Club well, hitting a Gun Stun, Bloody Sunday AND a Styles Clash, before putting Shingo away with the DSD at 13:46 to claim his 4th NEVER Championship. Excellent stuff here, though seemingly Tama announced afterwards that he's finishing up with the company at the end of the month, so him winning is an... interesting decision. The double Tag Title match followed, which was a rematch of the Tag League Final between Bishamon and GoD. This was another great match, a fun sprint which saw the STRONG Champions win both sets of belts after ELP hit Goto with CRIII, and Hikuleo came off the top with a massive, but very unattractive, Big Splash to win the belts in 9:47. Just before this match, Nic Nemeth (the former Dolph Ziggler) and his brother Ryan turned up to sit at ringside. I think we all know there's some kind of angle coming here.

Speaking of career rivals, Hiromu and Despy faced off for the Jr. Heavy Title in the next bout. We've seen many versions of this match in recent history, and they're pretty much always excellent, so this fit that mould no doubt. Things started hot as Despy hit Hiromu with a Tope con Giro as he made his entrance, and they worked 100 mph from there. The challenger worked over the champions leg to set up the Numero Dos, but it wasn't to be. The finish saw Desperado escape the Hiromu Roll, then hit a Jay Driller, kept a hold and nailed Takahashi with a second Pinche Loco to win the strap at the 14:21 mark to end another great outing. We crowned an inaugural IWGP Global champion next, as Ospreay, Moxley and Finlay had a wild Triple Threat Match. This started with Mox and Ospreay agreeing to work together for the first 5 minutes in order to take out Finlay, then turn their attention on each other, before BC War Dogs Alex Coughlin and Gabe Kidd ran in. The babyfaces rallied a comeback though, which saw Ospreay put the invaders through tables with a Swanton Bomb to the outside, and Moxley took a post bump and gigged himself. Which I'm sure will shock many. The finishing stretch was insanely hot as Mox kicked at one from a Hidden Blade, but was put down with Stormbreaker, only for Finlay to hit Ospreay with his new Overkill finish, which is essentially a Brainbuster into a Go 2 Sleep, to become the inaugural Global champion in 22:17. In the post match, Finlay got into a shoving match and pull-apart with Nic Nemeth at ringside, which culminated in Nemeth chasing him to the back. So that looks to be Finlay's first title programme. Finlay going over was 100% the right call, with Ospreay leaving as a full-timer, they need to start making some top guys, and he's a good place to start.

Semi final time, and a true dream match next as Okada faced Danielson in a match I'd spent a good decade fantasy booking. After their slightly disappointing first encounter at Forbidden Door in June, due in no small part by Dragon legit breaking his arm during it, they came out with a lot to prove. And they certainly didn't disappoint this time as they had a superb wrestling encounter based around aggression and emotion. As anyone who's been watching Danielson since the ROH days can attest, when Bryan has a grudge with someone (Morishima, Nigel), he goes all out with the intensity, and it usually produces classics. The pacing, the limb-work, the storytelling, the drama... everything about this was essentially perfect. After Okada broke Danielson's arm in their previous match, Dragon obsessively set out to do the same here. And it lead to his downfall. The American Dragon was coming into this one with a fractured orbital bone, so Okada worked over that for a while too. Okada kicked out of a Busaiku Knee, Danielson locked on the same arm submission he tapped Okada out with at Forbidden Door, but The Rainmaker made the ropes. Dragon then stomped his f'n head in and locked in the LeBell Lock, only for Okada to hit a Rainmaker, but he was in too much pain from his devastated right arm, and couldn't make the cover. Danielson hit a big head kick and another Busaiku Knee, but rather than go for the cover, he elected to do the "Yes!" gimmick in the corner, and try another knee, but Okada hit an Emerald Flowsion, a Landslide, then another Rainmaker to fall on top of Dragon, and score the surprise win at the 23:24 (which it felt half of, by the way). This was a masterpiece, and I was legitimately shocked when the three count came. I could have watched this for an hour, it left me very much wanting a rubber match, and this is easily the best match of 2024 so far. They bowed to each other and shook hands in the post match.

The Keiji Muto fan club imploded in the main event as former LIJ stablemates Naito and SANADA (who was even dressed like Muto circa 1995), battled for the World Title. This was an excellent match, one that I didn't have a massive amount of interested in going into this show, but they had a really great clash. It's worth mentioning that something happened to SANADA here, I don't know if it was the biceps injury he's been dealing with since G1, or if he seperated his shoulder or something, but he was in noticeable discomfort through this, and it let to some wonky botches near the finish. They tried multiple times to do a Destino counter, but they couldn't pull it off. SANADA hit Dead Fall for the double down, then an Asai DDT, but Naito escaped a second Dead Fall attempt, and went for Valentia, but SANADA countered into an O'Connor Roll for a super close near fall. A Shining Wizard followed, but Naito turned another Dead Fall attempt into one of his own, finally hit Valentia, then finished the champion off with Destino to win his first World title at 25:42. It's worth pointing out that they clashed heads on the way down on the Destino, and Naito got busted open pretty bad over his eye. With Naito having finally won again in the main event of Tokyo Dome, he was about to Finish His Story, when EVIL and Dick Togo, of all people, ran-in in an attempt to ruin things like KENTA did in 2020. However, they hadn't bargained on SANADA, who nailed his former tag partner with a Shining Wizard, and Naito sent Dick packing with a low dropkick. SANADA then let Naito finish the story a decade in the making, and do his "De-Ja-Pon!!!" roll call to end the show and send everyone home happy. Whilst I applaud NJPW for giving SANADA a go, or just giving ANYONE NEW a shot at the top of the card (it's been very Groundhog Day for a long time up there, and this is something I've been encouraging since NAito at WK8!), I don't think it payed off liked they'd hoped. SANADA is a very good worker, and amazing athlete, but he's just missing something that would make him that major star. Which is obviously something Naito has in abundance, so I'm very pleased he got his big win here, as it was pretty much last chance saloon.

This was a tremendous card, not quite as good as last year's, I don't think, but still great, great stuff and well worth checking out. Especially the Okada/Danielson match!

NDT

[ultrastupid]

Do not expect me to post in main tags often, I just had to post all this because Sunny, my love, my chaotic little bird man. I had to share all the stuff I've found and/or screenshotted about him with you all because I'm obsessed to an insane degree. Commentary will be included on stuff. Hit the "read more" for more, LONG POST AHEAD!

Some of the few bits of info we have about Sunny, from Clown's old deleted blog. Things of interest include him being friends with Barnaby, an inkling of what his house looks like and where it would be located, and what puppet type he was. Also, the hidden text on his picture. Keep in mind that "being quiet" was a large theme back in the old Welcome Home lore.

An actual high quality version of the Sunny-getting-grabbed-by-puppet-hands pic, since I've seen too many versions of it looking crusty, along with a high-contrast version of it to show the hidden background details.

Group photos of the OG six puppets. Also where my favorite image of Sunny screaming comes from lol. Of course, can't forget that Sunny's name is upside-down in the second pic, hinting at his nature of being different.

Ooky Spooky™️stuff that happens to have Sunny in it. If there is a smidge of Sunny in it, I save it.

Sunny merch. I don't know what on earth this thing is but I'd buy it /lh Also of course, getting rid of him and all that. Note, I believe Clown when they say that Sunny is truly removed and the removal isn't a part of the story or whatever... I can dream otherwise, though, because man that'd be cool if he was removed on purpose FOR a story point. But again, Clown said he was just removed because he didn't fit into the story and they don't like "hero types" for it.

Wake up babe, the OG Frank ship is here. Franks's phone not having a 3, and also having a 6 on it could have meant something, who knows (Edit, it's their numbers from that one pic, I was tired lol). Also more "behave" and "listen" stuff included as well. Anyways observations aside, I just love how floofy Sunny is in the second pic, it gives me life. It's one of the more polished images we get of Sunny, too.

Screenshot of the text that came with the group picture. Again, "being quiet". I'm sure that people could run with this theme for their fanart and fanfics if they wanted to, since I know beta designs have been getting some comeback.

Some more information on what Sunny was planned to be. Points of interest include confirmation that him and Frank indeed were going to be in a relationship, Sunny being a "hero", and Sunny's purpose involving "blow the whistle", which when you pair it with the "be quiet" stuff and focus on "being quiet" really starts to paint a picture and makes me go nuts over what he could have possibly have done. Add the "you're FREE" and again, more things just fall into place. Anyways, "attributes already covered (bird)" makes me laugh.

Anyways onto the more inane stuff (/pos), Frank and Sunny as Ducktales OCs. Everything about the Sunny pic makes me feral and bang my fists on my desk, because he is SO flaming queer, LOOK AT HIS FACE, HIS BODY LANGUAGE, HIS MOVEMENTS, FRANK'S REACTION, THEY ARE BOTH FLAMING GAYS!!! LOVE, ENDLESS LOVE FOR THESE TWO!!!

And lastly to end this all off, Gay People Jumpscare: Electric Boogaloo 2. Sunny's beak being CONE makes me happy. Frank and him physically so close together and Frank blushing makes me happy. Them explicitly being called gay makes me happy.

These two are so delightful, and I like to imagine that in a canon where Sunny still exists, he's accepted into Eddie and Frank's relationship and it's poly and everyone is happy, THE END.

Thank you for coming to my rant about a scrapped character for something that technically hasn't even started and is a flaming queer.

[notemily]

actual guide for new tumblr users, from Twitter or otherwise

yeah so I decided to do one of these. I'm just someone who has been here since 2007 and wants to help people who are new to the site and have no idea what's happening. Twitter seems to be in its death throes as I write this, and while the posts about driving down the property values are funny, I'd like to actually try and help out.

many people have made posts that are like "get an icon and post something or else people will think you're a bot" so I'll just assume you've seen one of those already. I want to focus more on the things you need to know to acclimate to tumblr culture. so:

general tips:

like things if you want to like things. people will tell you liking doesn't do anything, that only reblogs do stuff, but that's not quite true. only reblogs will get the people who follow you to see it on their dashboard (circulating the post further through the tumblr ecosystem), but likes will let the OP know you liked it, let the person who reblogged it onto your dash know you liked it, and probably do something complicated involving the "based on your likes" algorithm but I really don't know how that works. also, the like will stick around, so if you see the post reblogged from someone else much later, your little heart will still be highlighted in red.

you can control a lot about what you see on your dashboard from the settings page! on desktop, go into settings - account and settings - dashboard to change things. most people turn off "best stuff first" and just use the chronological feed, but you do you, new user. I personally hate endless scroll, so I turned that off, but I love timestamps, so I turned those on. for bonus fun, go into settings - labs and there are extra tabs you can add to your dash.

but what about turning off anonymous asks? on desktop, this setting, weirdly, is in the "Edit appearance" page for your blog. you can also turn replies off there, allow only people you follow to message you, and hide your blog from search results. there are a lot of random settings in there, so make sure to take a look. (app results may vary.)

you might notice that one of the settings is for filtered tags and filtered post content. this is why it's important not to censor things here that might be triggering for some folks - because someone out there has "rape" filtered, and if you go around saying "r*pe," that's not going to be caught in their filter. also, at this time there are no word police who will come after you for saying "kill" or "die," so you don't need to use euphemisms like "unalive" on tumblr. you can also swear as much as you want.

blaze: tumblr blaze is a relatively new feature where you can pay actual money to have your post forced onto random people's dashboards. beware, if you use this for something people don't want to see, you will get mocked. if you use it to show everyone your cat, you're probably fine.

there are two basic uses for #tags: organizational (putting your post into a category, like tagging it with the name of the fandom it's relevant to) and editorial (adding extra commentary that you don't want to add in the post itself). a lot of people will use both, a lot of people will use neither. when people like your editorial tags enough, they'll copy or screenshot them and add them to the body of the post. this is known as "passing peer review" and is a compliment.

memes and inside jokes You Should Know:

do you love the colour of the sky? is an extremely long image post (showing all the colors a sky could possibly be) that takes a long time to scroll past, and back in the olden days (2012) it was ubiquitous on tumblr. these days you can shorten long posts automatically using your dashboard settings (see above), or use the "j" keyboard shortcut to go directly to the next post if you're on desktop, but we still remember it fondly and refer to it constantly because nothing dies here, especially not memes.

the color theory children's hospital post is another one of those things you'll see a million references to if you're on here for any length of time.

you cannot kill me in a way that matters is a post that you might have seen in screenshots elsewhere online, but it started here! other memes that originated on tumblr: spiders georg, me an intellectual, graphic design is my passion, etc.

blorbo from my shows is a phrase used to refer to your latest favorite character. it started as a joke, but tumblr has a way of taking jokes and making them a thing, so now it's a thing. see also poor little meow meow.

tumblr holidays: anything people on tumblr can make into a holiday or anniversary, we will. most of them you'll see as they happen, and they're often self-explanatory, but you should probably read up on November 5 2020 if you don't know about it already.

horse plinko: tumblr loves this one for some reason.

I like your shoelaces / thanks, I stole them from the president: this was supposedly the "secret code" to identify a tumblr user in real life. (you can buy shoelaces directly from tumblr now, but that's a recent development.)

then perish: speaking of the president, if you see Obama's eyes with a very orange tint, this is the meme it's referencing.

ball-shaving ads: ads from the personal grooming company Manscaped were/are(?) ubiquitous on tumblr, to the point that some have theorized that tumblr was deliberately saturating people's dash with the ads so that they'd be more likely to pay for ad-free browsing. and one of the ads for ad-free reads "shave off ads from your dashboard," so like, they might be onto something.

world heritage posts: there are various tumblrs that compile the best of tumblr, anything that's particularly iconic or has become a meme. there are even heritage post blogs for specific fandoms.

tumblr history:

there are three basic eras of tumblr history:

classic tumblr era 2007-2013: David Karp started tumblr in 2007, and it grew in popularity and weirdness for many years. porn was allowed: the original tumblr adult content policy read "sure, go nuts, show nuts, whatever."

Yahoo/Verizon era 2013-2019: Yahoo famously bought tumblr in 2013 for $1 billion. ads started showing up on tumblr in 2012, so this is also around when tumblr started to monetize. Yahoo was eventually bought by Verizon, and in December 2018, they announced they were banning porn, which sucked. everyone predicted the death of tumblr, but it limped on, with about a 30% decrease in traffic. (source for that statistic)

Automattic era 2019-present: in 2019, Automattic bought tumblr from Yahoo for like $3 million or something. Automattic owns WordPress, and they seem to understand tumblr's userbase better than the Yahoo folks did. they've recently instituted a more nuanced adult content policy, but because of Apple's strict policy for what gets included in the App Store, credit card processors refusing to process payments for porn, and other restrictions, tumblr can't go back to being the porn-allowed free-for-all it once was. see this post for a full explanation of why.

various April Fool's jokes have included Coppy (2015), Mishapocalypse (2013), and most recently, the button that makes crabs. expect April 1st to be extra chaotic on tumblr.

Tumbeasts - the tumblr version of the Twitter Fail Whale, designed by Matthew Inman of the Oatmeal. not sure if they're extinct now, or if the site just doesn't go down like it used to.

Dashcon - tumblr tried to have a convention once. it didn't go well. the photo with the sad ball pit is used as shorthand to reference the disaster that was Dashcon.

SuperWhoLock is a name for the fandom crossover between Supernatural, Doctor Who, and Sherlock, which were all juggernauts on tumblr at one time. the fandom supposedly "died off" after 2014, but see above re: nothing dies here.

female presenting nipples - when tumblr introduced the Porn Ban in 2018, they used this phrase in the community guidelines. they've since updated their nudity policy, but the phrase will live forever, because come on, tumblr is a website full of queer and/or trans folks. if you think you're getting away with a weasel phrase like "female presenting nipples" without being mocked all over the website, you're extremely wrong.

John Green: an author who used to be on tumblr, back when you could edit someone else's tumblr post when you reblogged it. his text posts were regularly edited to make it look like he had said things he didn't. someone edited one of his posts to be about how much he loves a certain sex act, which was probably not THE reason they removed the ability to edit others' posts, but like, it didn't help. John Green was eventually harassed so much he left tumblr. opinions are divided on whether this was hilarious or sad. (something I discovered while researching for this post: the author of the Your Fave Is Problematic tumblr [which was part of the wave of anti-John Green content] wrote a confessional New York Times article in 2021. pull quote: "I just wanted to see someone face consequences; no one who'd hurt me ever had.")

XKit: used to be THE browser extension for tumblr. it was made by "the xkit guy," who seems to have been harassed off the site in 2015. the extension was replaced by New XKit, which worked for a while. these days a lot of XKit's features have been either rendered obsolete by tumblr adding them to its settings, or broken by tumblr interface updates, and the new hotness is XKit Rewritten. want to block a specific post from ever appearing on your dash, see who your mutuals are, stop seeing notifications on one specific post (great feature for if you accidentally go viral)? install it and play around with the settings. there are accessibility features too!

...and now I've made it look like people regularly get harassed off tumblr. WELCOME, NEW USER, TO THE HELLSITE! but for real, part of why I put this post together was so if someone starts in on tumblr Discourse and mentions people who have been harassed off the site, you can nod wisely and go "ah, yes, I have heard tell of this." just to give you some kind of context for things.

anyway, I'm always happy to Explain The Joke, provided it's a joke that I get, so if you see something that looks like a tumblr in-joke and want context, my ask box is open. just don't ask me about Homestuck. I know nothing about Homestuck and at this point I'm not sure I want to.

in conclusion, new user: go forth, be weird, become a part of the culture. I hope this guide has helped!

[eschergirls]

Hi everybody!

It's a new month, so that means it's time to thank our supporters of Patreon and to give a monthly update on the site!

First, The Patreon issues I mentioned last month I think are now resolved, so hopefully that means there's no longer any issues.  If you are having any issues with subscribing to Escher Girls on Patreon, please let me know!

The big news this month is I've restored several posts to the Escher Girls archives that I think people would be interested in, especially if you haven't seen them before.  The coolest one is this old redraw by Ghostarin/Cloudarin of a Star Wars comic cover.  What's really cool is they did 4 different versions of the poses to show different ways you could position the characters to make the action make sense.  As part of the restoration, I've also added additional commentary because I've had more time to appreciate just *how good* their ideas for alternative poses were. 

As well, I've restored all three posts of X-Blades/Blades of Time, and consolidated the series into one tag. Previously, each post was actually filled under different tags: X-Blades, X Blades, and Blades of Time, now they're all under X-Blades (which is also labeled Blades of Time so searching for either title brings you to the same place).  The three restored posts are here: 1, 2, 3.  One of the posts doesn't seem to actually exist on Tumblr anymore, possibly because Tumblr thought it was too adult, or the original submitter deleted their blog and this was when I was still using the Tumblr default autopost for submissions. 

On that note, I'm still working on unflagging posts on Tumblr, in most cases it seems to only add a mature flag to posts, but in others the posts seem to just be missing (or the tags seem to be empty if there's a flagged post).  If you experience any issues on Tumblr with missing content or empty tags, please let me know!  I'd like to appeal everything I can or just fix anything I'm able to.

That some posts just vanish from Tumblr is one of the reasons why I decided to self-host and why I appreciate any support I get because it helps me to keep the site independent and keep the archive as something I control.

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

If you have any suggestions for upgrades to the site that would make it more readable and usable to you, please let me know!  Especially if there's a particular commenting service or style you'd like us to use since i know the interaction is part of the fun, and I don't know how many people use Disqus anymore.

And now, I want to give a huge thank you to our August Patreon supporters:

So thank you so much to:

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

Oh, and there's also *one more post* I restored, which I decided to save for the upcoming 12th anniversary post of Escher Girls next Monday.  It is definitely something people will want to see, so hopefully you all enjoy it!

And again, I want to thank everybody for reading, interacting, commenting, and submitting things to the site because you're why Escher Girls continues to exist into it's 12th anniversary! :D

Thank you all so much,

Ami

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

[decepti-thots]

I’m genuinely interested in what the difference between a visual novel let’s play and actually playing the game. I’m guessing it’s something about making your own choice in the moment rather than watching someone else make *their* choice, but I’d like to hear your thoughts if you’d be willing to share.

For those wondering, this is in relation to my tags on this post!

So the thing I'm discussing in the tags of that post is specifically games criticism and theory, which needs to be understood in the way you might understand "film criticism" or "literary theory", to be clear. We're discussing the kinds of analysis of games-as-texts, games-as-art, which you might see in academia and critical circles around literature or film.

So one of the things that comes up when starting to talk about games this way is: what's a video game 'text'? Think about it. Any game that allows any amount of choice, any, however small or inconsequential, is a game that you can start arguing about what its 'real text' is, if nothing else. Does a video game text constitute all possible permutations taken as a collective whole, all considered with equal weight? (If so, is any analysis of really complex games 'complete' if it does not take every possible tiny permutation into consideration? Do glitches count?) Does the text comprise one specific playthrough? If so, is every critic or analyst technically approaching different, if interrelated, 'texts'? Does it just comprise the stuff in the game program in the abstract, and if so what does the player have to do with it in that case? All sorts of weird shit comes to the forefront when you bring the whole idea of 'a text' into games, basically, because it's harder to intuitively understand the boundaries of most games compared to, say, a film.

This has been a thing folks argue about for as long as serious discussion of games has been a thing, which is to say, decades. Personally, I favour an approach put forward and codified by academic Brendan Keogh, who focuses on looking at games as primarily understood through a phenomenological framework. In his book A Play of Bodies, he describes his understanding of the video game 'text' as being located not in a single static 'place', so to speak, but the 'circuit' that is created by the interplay between the person physically playing the game and the game program itself, and how each responds to the other. The game isn't what's on the cartridge or what the player does, it's the way those two things combine to create meaning. A game's text is the way that players interact with what a game 'is', and so the text inherently includes the act of playing it.

This is true even in experiences with low or functionally no interactivity, I will add, because the experience of not 'acting' in a situation where interactivity could be present but isn't is fundamentally different to not interacting because the medium does not allow you to, even if it seems at first glance the same. You expect most games to be highly interactive, so sitting and not being able to interact with them produces a specific experience that is not necessarily present in mediums where non-interactivity is taken for granted.

Which brings us to Let's Plays; even a non-commentary uncut LP video of a completely linear game/VN is a meaningfully different text to watch someone else play as opposed to playing it yourself, because the text of a video game involves what you are doing with it as part of that imagined 'circuit', even if what you are doing is very little to nothing. A video you cannot interact much with and a video game you cannot interact much with are different experiences even where all other information is functionally identical; thus, an LP of a linear visual novel and the visual novel as played are two interconnected but distinct texts, and while the former is both interesting and a valid text in itself, they are not the same thing.

Most critics probably won't take this exact view, to be clear- as I said, arguments about what's a video game text anyway are extensive and different approaches favour different ideas! But basically all of them will have some element of this in it, that even 'low interactivity' games are fundamentally imparting some kind of artistic experience to a player by the fact that you are playing them in a medium that takes interactivity to be the default. The infamous game Mountain lets you "do" almost nothing, but that carries different meaning when playing a game than when watching a video, because you know that the reason you can't is not the medium, but the choice made by the dev(s). In this way, anyone insisting that watching a video of a game gives you the same story information as playing it and so can be used to identically analyse a game's text is... it's like saying I can do film analysis because I read a novelization. I can do an analysis of the novelization, and that's a worthwhile thing to do, probably. But it's not exactly the same as the film, because some amount of information is lost and/or changed in the transmission between mediums. Different folks may take stronger or weaker stances on how important this difference is and what a game's text is best defined as, but you won't find many who argue even very very linear games lose no information in the swap from game to video format, and the ones who do I think are. Wrong. LMAO.

[whattraintracks]

25. Laser Tag Gone Wrong - The Next Mutation

Let's take a trip to Joe's Laser Funhouse

Some thoughts on "The Good Dragon" (S1E23). I've said before Venus and Raph are besties in this show, and I stand by that, but they also give off baby sister and big brother vibes, especially in this episode. It adds an interesting perspective when they butt heads over Raph being too protective and Venus declaring she doesn't need protecting. This is true; she kicks serious shell, and Raph knows it.

ACTUALLY WAIT, DO YOU KNOW WHAT INTERPRETATION WOULD BE SO MUCH BETTER?? THEY BOTH THINK OF THEMSELF AS THE OLDER SIBLING. This is perfect. Venus was so sad when Leo said they weren't related (part of my list of things to ignore). I swear she wanted to be their mysterious, long-lost sister so bad. So I imagine she gets to New York, meets the guys, and is like, ah yes, four little brothers, how exciting I've always wanted to be a sister. But Raph, who is the protector ever, meets Venus and is like, ay sweet, baby sis acquired. You guys, I'm so big brain for this. Okay, on to the actual episode.

Brief Inexhaustive List of Ignorable Things:

every incorrect use of the term shinobi, forget the word exists in this show it will make your life easier

weird out of sync running sound effects

weirder dragon noises

the dragons do not look like dragons, they look like humans in baggy clothes, green body paint made to look vaguely like scales, and red-eye contacts

on that note Venus' plastron

don't know how I never realised this before, but there's a scene in the opening where Leo's in yellow instead of dark blue??

whatever puns you don't like, it's 70-30 for me on which land or not

My Commentary:

We open at Joe's Laser Funhouse

Raph and Venus are playing laser tag

Raph: "Oh, Venus! I'm coming for you!"

Raph could probably afford to sound a little less serial killer, but that would be boring, actually

R: "Ya mess with the best, ya fall like the rest"

Raph might just be posing

BUT

I choose to believe he is actually the laser tag champ in this version

R: "Raph rocks"

yes, you do, honey, never change

or maybe do because Venus immediately tags him

or not

not sure if she completely missed him from five feet away or if Raph did actually cheat somehow like she insinuates

R: "Want fair? See a judge"

what could you possibly know about the US judicial system

Venus: "This here town ain't big enough for the both of us"

who showed Venus a Western!! I'm not mad, I just wanna talk!!

literally the cutest thing ever

V: "Draw!"

except it's NOT Raph it's a dragon

good thing he's super dramatic and ominously inches his laser closer to Venus so that OTHER dragon can come in and knock him out

you know, the titular Good Dragon

R: "D'you know why they call them dragons? 'Cause they're a major drag"

Raph saves the day with the power of ninjutsu and puns

After two PowerPoint transitions, we arrive at the lair

obligatory Venus getting mad about it Raph rescuing her all the time

R: "Ah, quit being such a weenie, I'd've done it for anyone"

which is not inaccurate

but we know the truth, he just wants to watch his sister's back

proceeds to jack Mikey's food and leave

Quick jump over to the Dragon Lord's Lair

turns out Joe's Laser Funhouse is actually the Good Dragon's hideout

Mikey: "Hey, Raph! What's the mutatious babe up to?"

you know Raph's hovering when folks start asking him what Venus is up to

he is, in fact, just watching her meditate in this scene

yes, Mikey calls her that. no, I don't know why

I've just been reading it as a silly Mikey thing

Back to Joe's Laser Funhouse

can't believe Venus got past Raph to Joe's Laser Funhouse by herself

V: "Good doggie! Sit! Stay!"

Good Dragon v. rabid dog

FIGHT

R: "Ay, yo! Mei Pieh Chi!"

never mind, there he is

comes in a-shoutin', but it's really sweet that he uses her real name!

alternatively, calling her by her legal name for the full big brother effect

R: "Where you hidin', huh?"

she sneaks up on and judo-flips him

why? why not

as far as I remember, Raph is the only turtle Venus consistently chooses violence with

V: "Goo!" R: "Uh, that's boo, Venus" V: "No. When you're packing these it's 'goo'"

excuse you, Raphael, she got that colloquialism wrong on purpose

they are very physical and constantly in each other's faces in this episode, such sibling behavior

oh no, he fell for the classic made you look + mystic goo ball getaway!

R: "I've been psyched out by a peace-loving mutant!"

hilarious because she gets into and out of as many fights as he does

Raph, I hate to break it to you, but you are also a mutant

V: "Being hunted isn't so bad, trust me I know. Sometimes I even enjoy it"

girl, we need to get you some new nemeses and professional help

V: "Gee, Raphael, you see kind of angry"

metaphorically and then literally pokes the beast

see could be little or big sibling behavior, I don't know

R: "Oh, boy"

he says, after getting kicked into a dumpster and dragged away

V: "Raphael's in the trash!"

how she chooses to announce to the lair that Raph has been kicked into a dumpster and dragged away

Leo: "There's no dragon alive that Raph can't wail on"

okay, Leo's faith in him is really sweet

Donnie: "A . . ." L: "B. . ." M: "3. . ." D: "Shouldn't that have been C?"

Donnie, why do you even bother

Splinter: "Teenagers! Ugh, can't get used to them"

Splinter when nobody ever tells him anything

he's like, where are you going? where is my son???

and they just leave

PowerPoint transition to Props Props Props

that's the name of the prop warehouse Raph is being held captive in

Raph is tied up with tinsel and string lights

why would a dragon who likely has no concept of Christmas also put a star on his head?

Did Raph tell him to do it?

who knows, but Raph is very bothered by looking like a Christmas tree, and the Christmas music in the background sells it

R: "There's no shame in, uh, being good"

Raph's attempts at negotiation

unfortunately, said dragon reacts like he's been called a slur

Good Dragon: "You're my only hope . . . I'll sacrifice you to prove my loyalty"

you have been chosen

farewell, Raphael

you go on to a better place

R: "Here's the concept: you untie Raph, Raph will fight, okay?"

everyone just leaves him tied up while they have an epic fight scene

guys, please, he just wants to fight

this is like his third or fourth entreaty to be untied

V: "Merry Mutant Christmas!

as she drives a pair of dragons pulling her around on a sleigh

one is wearing a zebra mask, and the other has a sombrero that she put on them to blind them? I think?

Venus goes ham in this fight

R: "You know, I sorta liked that Good Dragon dude. He wasn't like a dragon. He was more like, uh, like a turtle!"

Raph has two categories: turtles and everyone else

if he decides you're chill, you get to be an honorary turtle

L: "Raph finally makes a friend, and it turns out to be the enemy!"

Leo, don't do him like this

this is like the fourth to last episode, he's made other friends

like Andre and the gorilla

does the baby turtle count?

Raph gets along well with animals

R: "Hey! He wasn't my friend! He was Venus' friend!"

the turtle doth protest too much, methinks

goes to sulk on the couch with his sister

jokes on him, she will not be a reprieve from the mocking

V: "Actually, I think he liked you best" R: "Oh yeah? how's that?" V: "Well, you guys have more in common . . . You're both pig-headed!"

Venus never wastes an opportunity to make fun of Raph

such big sibling energy to me

gets laughed out of the lair and goes for a ride on his . . . hog . . .

All in all, a delightful episode. Love the new insights I had about Venus and Raph's relationship. Laser tag gone wrong in the funniest way possible.

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

Bonus: memes for Splinter in these trying times.

[kvothe-kingkiller]

Edit: No longer looking for Alpha Readers but I’m keeping this up for posterity and info

I’m looking for alpha readers for an ongoing fantasy project which I am currently releasing chapter by chapter. I’ll also make a post when I finish it in case you are the type to prefer to read it in one go. 

You do not need to have editing skills or experience. I am only looking for basic commentary.

Blurb: In an unsteady time of peace following a generations-long war, Mila, an 18 year old farmer, finds herself unexpectedly thrust into the world of nobility upon discovering she can wield a power thought only to be possessed by the upper class. Struggling to find her feet in this new environment and shunned by those around her, she juggles learning about her abilities, her identity, and the truth of the war behind the propaganda. When her equally ostracized mentor gets a tip about a plot to assassinate one of the country’s leaders, it’s down the dysfunctional teacher with a shady past and his apprentice who can barely control her powers to prevent the country from falling back into conflict.

(This is adult fantasy, not YA)

tags/highlights/themes: non-european-based fantasy world, adult fantasy, many queer characters and relationships (including aces), discovering sexuality, struggles with mental health and addiction, physical disabilities, dealing with trauma and taking responsibility, race relations, eat the rich, government propaganda, political intrigue, war is for money, war hurts the most vulnerable, etc

more info under the cut but if you’re interested or have questions, please DM me

(scroll down for info about setting, plot, and characters. content warnings and ‘rating’ under plot)

General Info:

Like I said, no experience needed. All I want to hear about is what you like/dislike, what is clear/unclear and any theories you have (for foreshadowing). You can be as detailed as you want or you can leave a single sentence comment for each chapter, anything helps. 

This is a first draft to be clear. I want alpha readers so I can make large changes to plot before rewriting everything for the second draft. On one hand it’s still fairly rough, on the other hand you don’t need to know anything to help. I just need opinions on plot and pacing and characters and foreshadowing etc etc. Again I am still writing it, I usually do ish a chapter a month sometimes faster sometimes slower. The chapters are usually ~10k, and I already have 27 out. (it is long)

This is going to be done through google classroom (yes, google classroom) because I need it to be inaccessible to anyone not invited and because I want people to be able to comment without being influenced by others and google classroom was literally the only thing I could find to do that for free. This does mean that whatever name you have on google will be seen by me and possibly others, just as an fyi. Also I have to add you to the ‘class’ but I can send you the prologue first if you want to try-before-you-buy (tho be aware the prologue is a bit more action packed than the start of the plot)

misc. pros for doing this: it already has art! because I do be an artist as well and I only ever draw my characters because motivation be finicky. Also, if you get through the entire thing I’ll do a commission for you (for free). plus I’m always looking for art ideas so if you say ‘it would be funny/cool if x did y’ then chances are I will actually draw it lol. also, free book ig?

Setting: 

Magic: Low fantasy with scarce/rare magic. The magic is called forging and is basically element magic but I wanted to explain all the hand movements people do with those so I incorporated more rules and ‘science’ to make it more rigid. there are ten basic ‘facets’ (air fire water stone earth wood iron copper blood bone) and people can be born knowing any number, or special different ones, but it gets exponentially rarer with more facets. the magic is genetic and mostly confined to the upper class and has become a way of oppressing the lower class. this actually gets addressed rather than mentioned then ignored (cough, korra, cough)

Culture: The culture of the main country, Odrad, is based on african, middle eastern, and mediterranean cultures, with a bit of southern asian. However most of that is simply due to the setting being dry and hot, and so developing dark skin and loose clothing and making most things out of stone and plaster due to the scarcity of wood. Religion is polytheistic based around an all mother type goddess and the god of the sun with the biggest festival being the start of the wet season. Other important countries include Acrait, the biggest on the continent, which is more south asian based, and Sheiro, which is steppe-type culture. Odrad is an ex-monarchy ruled by a council that has morphed into capitalism and feudalism’s horrid little baby with ‘nobles’ controlling everything. 

Queer Culture: First of all I use the word queer a Lot lol so if you aren’t into that, might not be for you. There is oppression since I am one of the queers who prefers an overcoming story than a setting with no oppression, but it is similar to current western culture in the sense that it’s not Horrible (so no like legal death sentences for gay sex etc), not As bad as it used to be, is worse in rural areas, and is rapidly changing in the cities. for the most part people hide their queerness but there is underground culture. Most of the characters are queer so there’s a lot of rep including ace and nb

Plot:

So far, it is Long. I am 200k words in at chapter 27 and probably only halfway through and this is only the first book. A lot of the first bit is just Mila’s struggles at the school where she’s learning forging. It is taking a turn into much more political intrigue than I planned but I’m leaning into it. so just know that its long and not just constant action, there is a lot of downtime since I enjoy my character interactions and developments and fluff etc. 

It is very R rated. Mostly due to dark subject matter, blood/gore etc, and lots of swearing (I come from a family where they’re just used as emphasis words really lol, so that’s somewhat leaked in...and it’s a first draft so I can’t be bothered to spend that much time removing them). There is a Lot of discussion around sex but no actual sex scenes. It has many things which could be triggering so just lmk if you want me to warn you about anything specific. It is dark and has dark themes, however, it is not a grimdark vibe, the vibes are actually fairly light all things considered. The characters have a lot of bantz and mess around and have fun, so it’s much less constantly serious than most ‘dark’ adult fantasy. I wanted to make them more relatable as people rather than just ‘whatever badass magic user’ (they’re actually mostly fairly pathetic pft)

General CW list: violence, gore, emotional abuse, abusive relationships, child abuse, sexual harassment, bullying, homophobia, transphobia, racism, ableism, frank depictions of mental illness, alcohol/drug use, addictions, intrusive thoughts, self harm, suicide ideation/attempts, war, war crimes, torture, mind control

CW list of things mentioned and discussed or that happen but not shown directly ‘on screen’: rape, pedophilia, forced pregnancy

Characters:

I’ll just give a very brief (and not great) description of the main three

Mila: (pron. ‘mee-luh’) the MC, disaster lesbian but more in a cringe fail way than a messy bitch way. tiny (4′10) but v powerful, just can’t quite use it yet. country kid way behind on the times. needs a break so badly

Ardev: imagine if you gave a wet rat the power to take over the world but he couldn’t be bothered. gay/ace and has so many things deeply wrong with him. short king

Endel: the only competent one. bi. BDE. femme. a slut. perfect at everything. his biggest flaw is that he likes Ardev. also has things deeply wrong with him.

thx for reading and again, DM if you’re interested or have questions <3

[ghostwise]

Tagged by the lovely @ghoulsbeard for a writing commentary exercise! Thank you so much, this was really fun! Tagging @coldshrugs @thevikingwoman @scionshtola and tbh I'm not sure who has or hasn't been tagged in this one... tagging all my writing friends please!! 🙌🏽💖

line(s) that made you laugh

“This pair claim to be enchanted to more easily spot nugs,” Alistair calls from the other end of the shop. “Could be useful.”

“How?” Hamal asks.

“If you have Sandal alter them to spot…”

“Traps?” Zevran asks.

“Darkspawn?” Leliana adds on.

“I can already sense those,” Hamal groans.

“The possibilities are endless,” Alistair says, quiet, awed, and mostly to himself.

- the reading stone

I don't write ensemble silliness often enough, and I had a lot of fun setting up this scene where they're all kind of goofing off. I fully believe that if you take the stress away from them for a moment they revert to dweeby antics.

line(s) that makes you sad

“I’m so glad you’re doing well. So tell me,” she scoots closer and looks at him eagerly, “What sort of life did you have, after you were adopted?”

“Adopted?”

By the kitchen counter, Hamal catches the subtle edge in Zevran’s tone. He pauses, holding the knife in his hand as a lull falls over the kitchen table, but he doesn’t know enough Antivan to guess what’s happened.

What’s happened is this: Zevran and Adelmar came from the same place, and know enough about that life to instantly understand that a lie has been told.

“Oh,” Adelmar breathes after a moment. “You… you weren’t adopted.”

Zevran lets out a laugh. It’s his ‘stalling’ laugh, and now Hamal is looking over, arms crossed, searching his face for clues.

“I was not adopted,” he says. “But do not trouble yourself over that.”

- not a homecoming, but something like it

It's obviously upsetting that Adelmar was lied to about what happened to Zevran, but I think in this moment they are both standing in the shadow of the life they could've had. Adelmar loved Zevran before the Crows ever touched him. The tragedy is, though, she was very much a child herself, so it's unfair to expect her to have been able to save him... but damn if she wouldn't have tried.

line(s) that you’re proud of

People think the desert is barren; the land harsh, the people unforgiving. They couldn't be more wrong. In all Refugio’s experience, scarcity creates generosity—not greed.

In the desert no one survives alone. It is a simple necessity to share resources, to freely give of one’s food and water and laughter. The desert gives people reason to band together. He’s never given it a second thought.

He remembers it fondly, how with each rainy season the desert comes to life.

People think the desert is barren. They don't know: the desert makes you kind.

- lovesong of the buzzard

Genuinely truly, Refugio is one of my favorite characters to write. 🥹 His voice comes easy to me; he's so vibrant and clever and funny and deeply emotional always, and this little piece is so wistful and homesick... it truly is an exercise is poetry I hope to continue to emulate. It's one of those bits of writing that make me think, oh if I can make more like this... I'm set.

line(s) you think could’ve been done better

The group ate and moved on. They chatted as they went, Cammen and Mathuin ultimately deciding on forgiveness. Not for any particular reason; just because it was easy and kind. Zevran was grateful for it.

The further they went, the thicker the forest became. Tree branches crowded overhead, but never overlapped, creating an unusual patchwork ceiling. Between the gaps in the canopy, daylight fell in dancing columns that tricked their eyes.

- for suffering is such a part

This one's kind of tough. I feel like every line has a job to do in writing, but they can't all be masterful and brilliant and insightful; that'd be silly. Some lines and passages are just there to efficiently get us from one bright spot to the next.

That being said, I could've done more showing rather than telling in fsisap. If I were to tackle it again I think it'd be really different in style, not to mention much longer 😵

line(s) that makes you want to punch a character

Atanasio was right about one thing: A Crow did not lose his composure. Even with a line of blood beginning to form at his neck, the man looked at Zevran with a wholly unimpressed expression. He remained thus, quietly thinking, before answering.

“Who?”

- quinta de talpa

This guy suuuuucks. I have this image of a man who has been tasked, for decades, for most of his life in fact, to just torture children--and he rationalizes it to himself so fully! Perceiving him through Zevran's POV makes it all the more impactful. This encounter is a nightmare from his childhood. This man is a monster he survived, when far too many didn't.

line(s) that makes you go “awww”

Hamal hums softly, happily.

“I dedicated the fight to you,” he says. “The Paragons will favor you now, I think. All of Orzammar will know.”

Zevran presses a light kiss over the dressings and gauze on his arm.

“Ah, but your favor is the only one I need.”

- tengo la vida muy corta (y tu la mirada decente)

Tender wound bandaging is a good trope and I think this little excerpt is sweet. I don't think I ever posted it here.

line(s) that contain an easter egg

For a moment she focused solely on Hamal, lying across from her. Zevran saw a moment of unmasked feeling, a deep sadness welling in her eyes, and she lifted a hand to brush against Hamal’s face.

“Is he alright?” she asked quietly. All the usual edge was gone from her voice.

“He will be fine,” Wynne responded. Morrigan’s eyes shut. She drew her hand back, and held it against her chest like it burned.

“Good,” she said softly, and Zevran got the impression, only for a moment, that she knew something no one else knew. “Good.”

- for suffering is such a part

Not sure if I'm interpreting 'easter egg' correctly, but this is Morrigan talking about the dark ritual.

I hope to write a little more exploring Hamal and Morrigan's dynamic because it's very bittersweet.

line(s) that are shocking

“Zevran, I don’t know how to shut the damn thing off!”

Hamal’s hands were mere inches from the looms, but he gripped the assassin’s ankle, trying to pull their body free.

“Leave them, amor,” Zevran said.

“But they’re—it is crushing them!”

“They’re gone. We have to leave!”

- (wip) quinta de talpa

A little snippet from a scene in QdT. It's one of those scenes where things just go terribly awry and I'm excited to edit it up and share it.

line(s) you want to talk about more

Zevran thought carefully. The story had the cadence of a very long riddle, and he had the suspicion that there was no wrong or right answer to it. He also got the impression, judging from Mathuin and Cammen’s inquisitive gazes, that the story would not be complete until he answered. It was his turn now to conclude the narrative.

He thought about it at length. Mathuin and Cammen waited patiently, silent, full of anticipation for his response.

“Alright,” he said finally, having thought about it for quite a while. He stopped by a large tree and looked up at its branches, as the others listened.

“I think both stories punish the clan, not for cutting the tree, but for their treatment of Abelas. In the first story, they should have been watching the child more closely. They knew he was destined for challenges, so they should have worked doubly to keep him from harm. In the second story, the clan should not have sought to drive the man away. They knew he had suffered all his life, so they should have helped him get back on his feet, not ostracized him. The moral of both stories is to protect the vulnerable.”

- for suffering is such a part

I am SO delighted by this scene where Zevran gets to participate in Dalish culture and storytelling, while bonding with his companions in a way that invites his natural curiosity and cleverness and creativity!!

I knew early on that I wanted to incorporate The Rowan Grove in fsisap somehow. It's one of my favorite codex entries, but it always felta bit dissonant when I considered it along with what we know of Dalish culture; so I wrote an entire scene where characters share the story in various iterations, and have a discussion about its meaning.

The added layer to it of course is metaphorical. Zevran is in many ways the central character from that tale. The comparison comes up again in later chapters.

It's an allegory on various levels, and I personally love allegorical tales. They're a great way to dig deep into a character and world. :)

[darklydeliciousdesires]

Beyond the Blood Tie - Chapter Thirty.

Huge thanks to all of those offering their commentary on this. You’re so wonderful to me! :)

Previous Chapters - One  Two, Part One Part Two  Three  Four  Five  Six  Seven  Eight  Nine  Ten  Eleven  Twelve  Thirteen  Fourteen  Fifteen  Sixteen  Seventeen  Eighteen  Nineteen  Twenty  Twenty One  Twenty Two  Twenty Three  Twenty Four  Twenty Five  Twenty Six  Twenty Seven  Twenty Eight  Twenty Nine

Words - 4,917

Tag list - In the comments. Please DM to be added/removed

Warnings - 18+ content throughout. Minors DNI!

Edie's POV

"So there I was, and I could see the manhole cover moving, and I knew what was underneath it. I got down low on my stomach, so my gun would be right at the right level to get it right between its eyes, and then a fucking car drove straight over the manhole and smashed its head off just before I was about to shoot it! That's the closest I got to any of 'em, and I was just nineteen years old so this was when most of them had been eliminated by you guys and the military," Vic explains to Angel, while I sit back and laugh along with Ahmed at the story, who joined us unexpectedly about a half our ago. He was out already but not having a particularly good evening after meeting an old girlfriend from school, who he described as dull as dishwater these days, so he made his excuses and called me to see where I was at.

"See when I joined up, there were very few of them left and most of them were confined to the sewer systems. That's something I'll never forget, at my fucking height having to bend almost double to navigate my way through the Vegas sewers with a rifle, popping off any the reanimated who got in my way. You know, I heard there's still some alive, when I was still with the military. Apparently, they had a few locked up in labs doing tests on them to find out exactly what the D11X virus did to them, how it was possible for them to die yet walk and have a compulsion to eat other people as well as anything else they could take sustenance from," Ahmed adds to the conversation. Being the youngest here, and still just a child when the last of the reanimated were killed off (I've never seen one, and by the time I was born they were all driven underground, living off rats) I'm mostly sitting here nodding. I then supress a giggle when it occurs to me that I'm the girlfriend of the oldest sat here.

"I'm going to leave you guys to it for a minute and head to get another round," I quickly interject, just before Angel is about to speak, excusing myself and heading back indoors. It's fairly busy in here tonight, and because of which I have to wait for a while to be served, but when the people thin out the girl with the blue black hair and the beautiful rosy cheeks behind the bar dashes over to me.

"Two draught beers and a double bourbon on the rocks please," I recite, watching her fetch two beer glasses and put them under the taps before switching them on, picking up the glasses again and tilting them at an angle. There's definitely an art to pouring a beer right from the tap. Donny, the guy who owns our usual hangout let me and Max try one time. Oh boy, the mess we made. Foam everywhere, with a drunken Max and I flicking it at each other.

"Do you mind if I ask, that guy with the short, black hair, are you with him?" she asks, looking a little nervous and wincing slightly.

"Yes, he's my boyfriend," I reply with a smile to indicate she's nothing to feel nervous about. She can look and admire; she just can't have.

"Ahhh, damnit, he's hot. I like vampires too, they're just…" she says, trailing off.

"They're a better fuck than humans are?" I suggest, after leaning in closer to her over the bar.

"Hell yeah.” We share knowing laughter as she hands me the beers before turning to sort my drink.

"Twenty-two dollars darlin', and you enjoy him for me too, you hear me?" she says with a wink as I hand her the right money.

"Oh, you can bet on that!" I wink, picking up the drinks and heading back to the outside area.

"Hey honey, don't be so fast to leave, you have the kind of ass I'd like to get to know," the guy who was standing next to me at the bar says as I walk past, my feet stopping when I feel him touch my butt.

"You get that one for free because I have my hands full. Try it again and you'll be wearing these drinks, shortly before I punch your fucking teeth out. I'm a punisher, don't fuck with me 'honey'," I spit at him, putting extra sarcastic emphasis on my last word to him before I turn and head back outside without further incident.

"Why are you angry?" Angel asks as soon as I sit down opposite him again, reaching for my hand and then kissing my palm.

"Just some jerk giving me the come on is all, nothing to worry about," I say dismissively, feeling a flare of anger rise within him only to settle again quickly. I like how I can physically feel him trusting my word. It's a lovely bond we have with each other, through our blood tie. It makes us a lot closer than your average human/human relationship. He then seems to become less interested in the conversation and more interested in staring at me. After eyeing me for a time, smiling with a certain look in his eyes, he pulls me around to his side of the table, and onto his lap.

That's the thing with Angel; he has no boundaries with public displays of affection. If he wants to drag me onto his lap and begin kissing my neck and whispering both loving and very sexual things to me then that's just what he's going to do. I just sit and giggle, while Vic gives me a surprised and slightly shocked look. When him and Ahmed both then look at each other before getting up at the same time and moving to the next table down, it causes me to begin laughing much more loudly. It's just a shame it has to be ruined when I step inside to go to the bathroom a half hour later.

"So now you've got your hands free, you can grab my ass back when I grab yours. How about it, pretty girl?" the same creep from earlier offers, blocking my way.

"Do you not fucking listen? What are you on, a deliberate mission to piss me off or something?" I fume, folding my arms.

"No, I just want me a piece of what you've got," he shrugs, suddenly making a grab for me.

"You fucking dare! Don't you fucking touch me!" I yell, pushing him away, Angel arriving at my side and then reaching out and pulling the guy back. Oh, god. I know what this is, the suspicion going off in my head like an alarm.

"Did you just try to touch her? I don't take kindly to that, human pieces of shit like you laying their hands on my girl," he snarls at him, while the human just looks defiant. Okay, Angel, you need to see this for what it possibly is.

"Put him down, you know you can't hit him. You know why too," I whisper quietly while he continues to hold the man by his throat and growl at him. Three seconds later and he drops him, staring at him dangerously as he fights for breath again, and then begins to laugh.

"Ain't even gonna give me a slap for it. You fucking pussy ass dead man," he taunts him with, riling him up hugely while I put myself between them, staring at Angel pleadingly as I grasp his face in my hands. “Don’t do it.”

"He might not slap you down, but I sure as fuck will," I hear the voice of Ahmed come from behind us, his huge form coming past at speed, grabbing the guy and literally throwing him over his shoulder with one arm and marching him straight outside. When he returns moments later, he's wiping blood from his knuckles.

"I broke his nose on your behalf," he tells Angel, cracking his blood knuckles.

"Thank you," he nods, doing a very un-vampire thing and shaking hands with Ahmed.

"If he decides to report you, your ass is getting disciplined and fined, you know," I warn, giving him a hug in thanks. It's not every day my friend here breaks someone's nose in defence of my honour.

"It was worth it, because I managed to slide his wallet out of his pocket and get this before I dropped him and his wallet back on the floor and punched him. I followed Angel in, but your back was to me, and I heard you telling him not to go for that dude, and I figured why pretty quickly, the discrediting Ursula business," Ahmed replies, handing the driving license card to Angel, who takes it from him with a look of mild surprise.

"I'd planned to follow him, but this is even better. I can give this to Ursula and she can have him watched. Good thinking, big man." Angel praises, before they turn and head back outside and I finally get to go to the bathroom. After I'm done, I head back out, all of us deciding not to tell Vic what went down inside. He's none the wiser anyway, being lost in conversation about boxing with a guy a table over from ours. It'd be pointless to upset him. Plus, it means he'd be another person we'd have to involve in all of this, and as it is Ursula wants to keep as many of us out of it as she can. We (Angel, EZ and I) still don't even know exactly what she's doing to try and prove her innocence and get to the bottom of Elias's little scheme, so we have to keep everything on the down low.

Our night comes to an end at 1am, when Vic informs us all he's too old to be out drinking that late any longer, so after picking up a bottle of bourbon for Ahmed and I to share, we head back to Angel's place, ready to tell Ursula about what happened tonight. Except when we all arrive, it would seem the lady herself has her attention distracted from the minute her eyes land upon my buddy.

"Who are you, you beautiful creature?" She asks, arriving right in front of him with a look on her face that shows her interest loud and clear.

"Ahmed Khamir, and you must be Ursula. Wow, Angel didn't tell me you were such a fucking knock out, damn," he says approvingly, taking her hand and kissing it while Ursula smiles in an almost bashful way.

"You're of Arab blood. I like that, perhaps more than I should," she confesses, her eyes not leaving his. Do I sense an atmosphere building here?

"Because you're married?" he inquires.

She shakes her head. Oooh, she even did a little hair swish. Get it, girl! "No, my husband and I are not monogamous. It is because I have never, ever been able to resist a good looking Arab, and you are definitely just that.”

"Pardon me, but before you get too involved in tripping over your tongues, Ursula I have to speak with you for a moment," Angel interjects with, trying not to sound as amused by this as he actually is. I can tell he's dying to laugh at how utterly enamoured his creator is with my friend so quickly. "Let's just say you'll have another reason to like this guy when you hear what I have to tell you." Ursula looks at him curiously before seeing us through to her sitting room, still hardly able to tear her eyes away from Ahmed. I think I know what she'll be doing later. My friend, by the look of things.

Angel's POV

"Well my boy, you were right. I do like him even more now I see just how quick witted he is. Ahmed, I thank you greatly for this. This is perhaps the first concrete lead I might have over which vampires are involved in all of this on Elias's behalf. I can now have eyes put upon this human, to identify any of my kind coming to converse with him," Ursula explains, while looking down at the card license in her hand.

"You're welcome, and could I trouble you for a couple of glasses so Edie and I can get stuck into this?" Ahmed replies, putting down the bottle of bourbon on the table.

"Of course, just one moment," she replies before disappearing momentarily, returning in a couple of seconds with two glasses. As it turns out, the conversation had is mainly between Ursula and Ahmed, who it doesn't take a genius to work out will be naked together at some point before the morning arrives, by the way they're acting around each other. In light of this, Edie and I just sit and talk quietly together, before leaving them to it. They don't even notice us leave. Just as we're about to head upstairs I notice Charles arrive, my wolves running to the front door, barking and wagging their tails happily, gratified when the vampire himself walks through and bends to pet them warmly.

"Stop spoiling them," I say with an eye roll when he pulls out two cookies from his pocket and gives them one each.

"The human guests we had in from the USAC food and drink division for a meeting over the introduction of Synthiblood onto the market didn't eat them with their coffees, so I thought it a shame they go to waste when these two would appreciate them," he replies as he grabs Thor's tail and gives it a shake, making my big wolf spin around and growl at him, yapping excitedly as Charles teases him with his hand before ruffling his ears. "Have you both had a pleasant evening?" he then goes on to ask us politely. I inform him we did before the incident with someone trying to grab a handful of Edie, and then what followed it.

"Well, he could very well be some random pervert, but it was quick thinking on Ahmed's part just in case he was there for a reason, to cause trouble and throw a bad light on Angel and ultimately Ursula too. Yes, I shall thank him personally once my wife is finished with him. I knew she'd want to play with him as soon as I met him." he replies, sounding amused. Of course, he knows Ahmed is here, even if he couldn't hear him, he'd smell him. To us vampires, all of you humans have a unique smell we can detect to only come from you. Edie and I head upstairs after our brief chat with Charles, where she takes the bourbon she decanted into a plain decorative bottle Ursula lent her to share out the drink between her and Ahmed, and pours herself another glass before she heads to the window and sits herself on the end of the couch to have a cigarette.

"I'm sorry," I suddenly find myself telling her.

"Whatever for, my gorgeous vampire?" she asks me with a slight note of concern in her voice, reaching for my hand after I've walked over to her.

"For the fact that since you met me, I've brought you little more than a fucking lot of trouble. For the way I was when we first met to what we now face, becoming involved in all of this mess with Ursula. That's what I'm sorry for," I state, moving her so I can sit on the arm of the couch and perch her on my lap.

"You've also brought me the most beautiful, amazing love I've ever known, and anything I have to go through for that is fine by me. You've nothing to be sorry for, none of this is your fault," she reassures me, taking another drag on her cigarette.

"I just hope the arrival of Constance will prove of some use in getting to the bottom of all this," I sigh, moving her hair from her shoulder to rest my chin against it, kissing the side of her neck.

She leans into me, stroking my forearm. "Have you ever met her before, Constance?"  

"No, I haven't. She lived down in Texas briefly for about twenty five years after the disaster before she left, and she's been in France ever since with her youngest offspring, who'll be coming with her," I say, adding a little 'no!' for Icarus, who is trying to pull one of my socks off my foot. That was his favourite trick to do as a cub, and not much has changed since. Another thing I blame Charles for, since he taught him to do it by shouting 'socks!' and pointing at his feet before Icarus would run up and pull each of them off, but then rag them around like toys. I lost count of how many pairs of socks we all collectively lost to that wolf.

"Are you looking forward to meeting her?" She then asks, taking a sip of her drink.

“I guess.” I’m not that much of a fan of Constance, being that she abandoned Ursula so early into her vampirism. “I am looking forward to the fact she'll more than likely get to the bottom of this mess. Anyway, I don't want to talk about Ursula's creator any longer. In fact, I don't want to talk at all.” She giggles filthily when I reach to begin squeezing her tits, softly biting her neck.

I pick her up and carry her over to the bed to put her down in the middle, kissing the side of her neck as my hands wander all over her body, traveling across every fabric covered curve before I use them to remove those clothes. The feeling of her hands moving under my t shirt and stroking my abs with her fingernails makes a low rumble of a moan emanate from somewhere deep in my throat, her touch as potently erotic as ever, and she doesn't even need to touch me in an sexual place. Edie can stroke my hand and I'll feel aroused, simply because she's the one doing it.

As soon as she's bare to her waist, I begin running my fingers up and down her arms and sides, all the while my mouth moving to kiss and lick at each of her tits, paying special attention to her nipples until they're hard as bullets against my tongue. Her body quakes with little judders as she reacts to my touch, her legs winding around me as my hands travel under her body to grip her ass momentarily, before I slide them up and down her thighs, reuniting my mouth with hers. I then move to sit up and pull the rest of her clothes off, grabbing her just below the knee and pulling her down the bed a little before turning her over onto her front, and kissing my way back up her body from her legs to her shoulders. Running my hand through her hair, I take a handful at the roots and pull her head sharply to the side which causes her to gasp, that gasp turning into a slightly whimpered moan when my fangs bite into her neck. I use my free hand to run over her gorgeous skin as I feed, kneading each of her ass cheeks before my fingers slip between her legs and push into her wet warmth.

I feel the inner muscles grip onto my middle and fourth finger, her moans soft, again my actions forcing a considerably louder noise to exit her mouth when I bite down onto one of her gorgeous ass cheeks, and then quickly move beneath her to begin licking her clit while my fingers remain deep inside her. I work her to the point of no return quickly, wanting to feel her come undone at the moment I intend to plunge my cock into her as deeply as my fingers are burrowed currently. That point arrives just seconds later, Edie's gasps and shouts in exclamation only becoming louder when she feels me move to sink every last inch into her. I pause for only a moment to feel her wet heat fluttering around me before fucking her senseless for the next three hours. I'm at my happiest when sexually entwined with her.

"I need a drink," she croaks once we’re done, still out of breath as she rests her forehead to my chest. I've never known another human woman with the leg strength able to last on top for quite as long as my beloved. She's been riding me for the last hour, and now she's all shaky and very sweaty. Gently moving her onto her back, I shoot out of bed and return with her booze, but she shakes her head when I put it down on the nightstand.

"I need juice, could you go fetch the bottle from the fridge please? I'm too sore to move still," she laughs.  

"Of course, I will. Be right back." Kissing her forehead, I throw my jeans back on and zoom out of there, arriving in the kitchen and grabbing the juice from the fridge, turning to see a shirtless Ahmed standing in the open kitchen doorway, smoking a cigarette. I'm too busy laughing at the state of his back to leave immediately, putting the juice bottle down on the table and laughing even more when he turns around with a raised eyebrow, and I see puncture wounds to his neck and shoulders, and blood still glinting in his black chest hair. Damn. Mama got herself some.

"Needless to say, you've enjoyed yourself," I exclaim through my laughter. I could have heard it for myself, or even felt as much through Ursula's emotions, but we vampires can shut off that connection and tune out to any noise we don't want to hear. I was busy myself at the time though, of course.

"I'd ask the same of you, but I know your answer matches mine, bro," he replies, laughing a little.

I smile smugly at that. “Hell yeah, I did. Oh, watch your head in approximately five minutes, that's when the shutters will automatically drop over the door.”

“Appreciated, man.” he smiles, before making a beckoning motion with his hand, pointing outside. "There's a vampire just around the corner from here, but I guess you knew that, huh?"

"Yes, I know," I confirm.

"Have they been following us since we left the bar?"

"Yeah, but I didn't want to say anything. You feel our presence a lot more strongly than anyone else I've ever met, Edie and Aileen included. You have some exceedingly sharpened senses. You'd make a damn good vampire, you know." I leave him with, moving within a blink back upstairs. Who the fuck knows who's following us now, though? Vampires sent by Elias or the vigilantes against the TVM, or the TVM themselves. It could be any of those options. I'm getting sick of this, being followed, having trouble turning up on the doorstep and dead bodies being unearthed in the back yard. Elias needs to make his move and try his best hand or stop with the games and back the fuck off. Either way, he won't win. Ursula is too smart.

"Thank you," Edie tells me as I pass her the juice, dropping my jeans and then getting back into bed with her, lighting a few candles melted onto the nightstand as the blinds come down, shutting out the dawn. "So, you haven't told me yet. What do you think of Vic?" she then asks, after sipping her juice and putting the bottle down on the nightstand.

"He didn't irritate me at all, which is quite exceptional for humans, but then again the people you keep close to you aren't overly annoying to us vampires. I thought he was quite a remarkable man, and he obviously cares for you a hell of a lot. I enjoyed listening to his stories of his days as a boxer, and everything he told me about you growing up too. It was nice to hear of your life back then from someone other than you. He's a good guy," I say, feeling drowsier by the moment since the sun is coming up.

She beams brightly, moving to cuddle against me. "I'm glad, because I think he liked you a lot too, and you should take that as a compliment since Vic is wary of vampires. Anyway, your beautiful eyes are growing heavy, time for sleep. I love you.”

"I love you too." Wrapping her in my arms, I gladly close my eyes, sleep taking over. When I wake up again, I find Edie is gone, but there is a note in the space she once occupied. It says she's gone for a run with my wolves and she'll be back by about 6pm, and with that I get up, shower and dress before quickly heading out to procure a feed (since my usual food source is off running) and then return home to sit out in the back yard with EZ talking.

"Do you think the arrival of Constance is going to help any in all of this? I just wish there was something Ursula could do about what evidence she's gathered so far, such as the link between this and Dawn Cavendish, because of course as soon as Elias gets wind of it, we're fucked," I tell my brother, watching him nodding.

"You're right there, and as for if Constance can shed any light on these events, well I hope so. I can tell how frustrated Charles is at present, he has more on his mind than he's willing to reveal to me. I respect them for the fact they're trying to keep us out of this, but at the same time, I'd do anything to help them," he reveals, something which I immediately agree with.

"Yeah, as do I. Even something as small as following Dawn and tracking her movements, or tailing that human guy in the bar, anything to help them with this," I sigh. "I'd give my own life to protect Ursula."  

"I know you would, but she wouldn't let you do it. She'd sooner die herself than see you meet your end, just as Charles would with me. To speak of the devil," EZ says, Charles appearing out of nowhere.

"Constance has just called. She is on her way here from the airport, where she and her offspring have been resting throughout the day in the vampire suite. She said half an hour, give or take with the traffic, so make yourselves presentable and do it sharpish," he informs us both. The vampire suite in case you wondered is a large room containing nothing but caskets, either ones provided there if vampires are flying in close to dawn, or vampires flying into the airport already within a flight casket, should their journey have been long enough to warrant them to travel inside where they're protected from the sun.

"I thought we were quite presentable as we were," EZ comments casually, but with amusement in his voice. He knows how fussy Charles can be when guests visit.

"At least have the grace to put a shirt on, my boy." Charles states in a slightly pained voice, making EZ and I laugh.

“Chill out, Charlie,” I can’t help but tease, earning a glare.

“Do not call me that.” His stony face has us in hysterics, Charles further complaining. “Bad sons, naughty sons. Should be put in a bloody cage!”

“Don’t threaten me with a good time,” I smirk, Charles making a throttling motion at my neck before he leaves us to it. We both go back into the house, and it's only another five minutes before a very hot and sweaty Edie arrives home with my wolves, and also a big bag on her back. I suggested she go get some clothes to bring here to she has a good supply of everything else she needs when she says with me, and it seems she's taken me up on that suggestion. After she's showered and dressed in fresh clothes, a long grey dress I bought for her recently, I help her put away her stuff and then we sit and talk for the five minutes remaining until I see headlights lighting up the front of the house through my window. Constance has arrived.

"EZ, Angel, come on," Ursula calls, as I hear the doors of the car opening and closing, taking Edie's hand in mine and walking down the stairs, EZ behind us ready to meet my creator's creator. As soon as the door is opened to her, I get such a shock that I feel like I'm going to faint for a second, and we vampires cannot pass out. My shock, it isn't over Constance at all, it's over the vampire who is with her, and that shock is shared by both me and EZ. We both stand and stare at him in utter disbelief, until one word comes from both of our mouths at the exact same time.

"Coco?"

No, that can't be... but it is. There he is, the friend, the MC brother we thought we lost to the disaster. Oh my fucking god!  

[twocubes]

What on earth is so special about these notes that they require more than a textfile? Specifically so special that they can't be replicated by existing functionality in all the extent note-taking/outlining/organizing software that currently exists?

i mean. that's the thing, i'm being silly. i could probably just write stuff on paper, even.

it's just. i basically want a booru, in particular with the tags having corresponding wiki entries, but with arbitrary contents besides images, along with some way to add commentary to specific chunks of the things (think the way you can write translations on the boorus, only it also works for, say, parts of a pdf, or a section of an audio file, or etc) which are in turn treated as taggable objects, etc

i just. i like the idea of a workflow where you collect a bunch of things relevant to your interests in a booru, tag them or the parts of them that are relevant to some particular strain of thinking and write in the tag wiki what you're getting to there, and then synthesize all that slowly as you add further thinking possibly as other non-tag wiki pages in there. also store histories of all the changes to all this.

this workflow isn't well-enough-enabled by extant note-taking software so far as i've found, so i have some plans, and I've ended up... irrationally wanting to not start on notes on anything until ive made this thing i want. which is dumb, but, well, it was partially a way to try and ensure i focused on one thing rather than being scattered over a billion different projects, since i wanted to learn rust anyways. also i'm bothered by my tendency to not produce output.

anyways.

[spectrearia]

double-tag time lol

got tagged in two different question things by @galactictides52 and @gonturan0 xD gonna fill both of 'em out at the same time I guess haha! thanks for the tags!!

going under a cut because there's quite a lot here haha

tagged by @galactictides52:

Last song I listened to: Follow by Survive Said the Prophet

Favorite content to watch: uhhh.. hm. depends on my mood. I usually gravitate towards let's plays or documentaries on a whole variety of topics? speedrunning, electronics, abandoned places, and critiques on a wide variety of media are some of my go-tos for documentary/commentary-style content. there's a lot more tho that I can't think of off the top of my head. I just like listening to people discuss random stuff haha.

Favorite games: Oooh, quite a few. Minecraft, Super Mario Sunshine, Luigi's Mansion, Professor Layton, Ace Attorney, Hitman (World of Assassination), and recently Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Mega Mix are some that immediately come to mind. There are so many more games I could add but I gotta keep this kinda simple xD

Favorite colors: I love all colors for various reasons but any shade of purple is my absolute fave <3

Favorite animal: CATS!!! though I'm sure that's pretty obvious, haha xD I can't help but relate to them so much lol

Favorite food: mmmm. maybe my mom's beef and potato hash? it's the ultimate comfort food to me and she doesn't make it often, but it always Hits Just Right whenever I do get to have it.

Sweet, spicy, or savory: savory all the way, baby. don't mind a bit of spice alongside the savory sometimes but it depends on what it is.

Current obsession: my own OCs (and some friends' OCs as well). I literally talk about them all the time and I could say I'm sorry but I'm really not. xD if we're talking media in general tho? I guess the Hatsune Miku game I mentioned earlier counts, lol

Last book I read: oof. I can't even remember. for published books, I want to say it was Mayday at Two Thousand Five Hundred by Frank E. Peretti? but if not, then it was probably my friend's original story draft. I hardly ever read anymore, honestly. I just write what I want to read instead.

Last thing I googled: don't use google, per se. but I think the last thing I searched online was the lyrics to King by Kanaria because I want to learn how to sing along lol

Fun facts: I always suck at these haha. can't really think of anything so I might just have to leave this as-is, rip ><;;

---

tagged by @gonturan0:

3 ships: lol I don't do ships so I don't have much to put here xD I guess I kinda "shipped" some characters when I was younger (like Mario and Peach or whatever), but not? to an extreme degree or anything? was never my focus. still isn't. Honorable mention does go out to Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable, though. I felt their relationship was handled really well, even though I typically really don't like romance in kids' media at all.

first ever ship: idk probably Mickey and Minnie when I was like 5??? haha

last song: (see #1 in previous list)

Last movie: oof, memory is bad. it's been a while. the Mario movie???? in theaters??? i think. I can't remember. I don't watch movies as often as I used to tbh

currently reading: nothing right now, unless you count this list ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

currently watching: not "currently" but I'll probably watch the newest update of a Voices of the Void let's play that I'm keeping up with sometime later tonight :0

currently consuming: waterrr. stay hydrated, my dudes~

currently craving: sushi;;; specifically my Fave Big Roll with shrimp tempura, crab, cucumber, and a bunch of other good stuff (also SPICY MAYO, my beloved) <33

ayyyy, that's all, folks! I don't really know who to tag with this so i guess if anyone sees it and wants to fill it out, u can just say I tagged you xD I don't mind, haha!

[lukewarmkraftsingle]

hello, tumblr user adekuscrub.  i am the anon who sent you the ask about reigen's divorce.

i would firstly like to apologize for the demeanor of my previous ask: from what xkit tells me, it was 27 minutes after the ball dropped for new years and i was facing my most cathartic experience yet.  following a dream where i was in love with reigen (note: i am aroace), i fell madly obsessed with mp100 and was desperately searching the tags, posting like a kpop girl and her bias. in that sudden delirium (where i was also screaming silently in a discord voice call), i had stumbled upon a fateful video.

if it was any other night, im certain i would give a good chuckle, queue, and move on. but it was not that night. i was absolutely taken. even now, as i think of what to say next, i am replaying the video in another tab because it tickles me so. im going to leave it on loop now. anyways, as you might have guessed: your video had sent me into a frenzied state of dire need.

surprisingly, i didnt have any of the questions you delved into. i believe the mere idea of reigen, a 29-year-old man, being wrecked by divorce and now raising a 14-year-old teenager, was enough to launch my brain into the stratosphere. as i recall, the feeling was akin to being High As Hell and discovering birds can fit in your mouth. (small birds, anyway. im not sure someone can fit an eagle). all i needed was context, information, anything that could add into the brand new fantasy my mind had begun to leech on.

and, as i had asked, you delivered. i greatly enjoyed the screenshots, by the way. and the cat ears gamer headset reigen rendition. i have saved that image to my photos folder for my private enjoyment. i am grateful for the response, as it has brought me several fits of giggles and satisfaction to my mp100-riddled mind. and now, after three unnecessary asks (my apologies. i know its a lot), i will go into my own commentary on the mp100 divorced au.

Of course hes gay. Why wouldn’t he be? as a serirei fan myself, i imagine the ultimate continuation of reigen’s disastrous love life would be finding comfort in his anxiety-riddled employee/business partner (i feel like they addressed his title in the reigen spinoff, but i cannot remember at the moment).  in this same line, yes, it would be difficult imagining reigen married to a woman.  but, as you have already addressed, this is an alternative universe of our own making.  more so, this is a story of discovering oneself through messy trial and error. course, i dont think hes actually been through several divorces, as “trial and error” implies. just the one.

as for with whom: i didnt know what a ‘lavender wedding’ was either, but found it entertaining all the same. i imagine they would have met at reigen’s old job, maybe bonding over similar feelings of loneliness. and maybe the divorce is what lead reigen to quitting said job. something like a not-so-midlife midlife crisis. but, as i mentioned, i enjoy the theme of self discovery. this reasoning is also why i cannot bring myself to entertain the ‘ex-husband from reigen spinoff’ pipeline, because it would the same thing.  sorry, gays.

unfortunately, this has brought me into a rut, because i cannot for the life of me think of an identity for our mysterious ex wife.  i suppose the ex-coworker idea would work. if it means going into my tastes, her lesbianism would get retconned.  though now that i think about it, who said she had to be a lesbian during their marriage? maybe she went into self-discovery, too.  yes, i think i like this idea more.  it would bring up the possibility of an epilogue, a rehashing of old dirt and patching up sore feelings.  maybe a friendship shaped from divorce.  i dont know.

to end this dialogue (as i am suddenly aware that the google doc is nearing 800 words), however or whoever reigen settled this divorce with is up to viewers discretion, of course.  i find more enjoyment in the emotions reigen would experience post-divorce.  how would it feel, knowing your confidant wouldnt, couldnt, accept such an integral piece of you?  how would that loneliness sink into you, as you struggle to find another partner who stand to be near you, much less deal with your lies and fakeouts?  you want to be someone, but nobody wants you to be that person, their person.  its sweetly disgusting how these thoughts swirl in my head.  i guess i just like to push this guy’s buttons.

my apologies. i meant to end it there, but i went on another tangent instead. either way, i hope my thoughts brings you something to consider.  you probably werent expecting a letter.  and im sure some of these thoughts were a bit irrelevant… nonetheless! i open my sincere feelings to you, spurred by passion, delirium, and some sort of disease in my little head. thank you so much for reading, if you ever got to this point.  feel free to respond at your leisure.

p.s. you might be wondering why im speaking like this. you see, your reply was a surprise to me: it held the cadence of some sort of indie author receiving their first fan letter, passionate and inquisitive. have you ever watched a film or video with an accent or way or speaking, and, whether by accident or on purpose, you adopt said accent? you could say this was what happened. because no i dont normally write like this. Also i love that ACNL track; it brings fond memories.

[the previous ask. for posterity. what can i say. i like to be thorough]

thanks for the follow-up! the situation unfolds. this was received in a similar manner to the previous one, first thing in the morning, but much earlier, i must admit. as the invigoration of the holidays fades from view, unfortunately, i am being reminded that i have items that i am responsible for, and life is slowly fitting itself back into the typical slog. lovely way to begin such a day, however! that little blue dot on my inbox was as a freshly received, carefully sealed letter which i could not wait to simply tear into. an excellent letter indeed, the sort that i want to read many times over and fully soak in. unfortunately, i am quite bad with envelopes. i can never get a clean peel, or tear across the top, without the entire thing going into little pieces. it's a bit of a weak point for me, but i am too stubborn to use a letter opener. i suppose it doesn't matter. the envelope is not as important as the contents, and you have certainly given me some contents. truly, the envelope icon is a lovely skeuomorph.

enough of that, though. i am absolutely floored. this is all i ever could have hoped for in response. i will attempt to address things in an orderly fashion.

i understand your frenzied circumstances, certainly. it reminds me somewhat of how i felt after i watched mob psycho. well. it reminds me a bit too much of how i watched mob psycho.

this needs to be approached as i approached it. i am not an anime watcher. certainly not. i have dabbled previously, but not with any depth. it's not an uncommon thing on the internet, especially when you have friends who are into anime. the most i had seen was some of my hero academia, some of ouran high school, and the game theory ddlc videos, which may or may not count as anime. i am not a man of anime experience. however, i am a man of mishandling television.

please ignore the current state of my profile. a recent development. it doesn't matter. my profile picture was certainly not reigen at the time.

this is a message sent moments before disaster. and the verdict?

all within 6 days. it's not a terribly long show. could have been worse, yes?

but oh. i have now remembered. i have repeatedly neglected to clear my browser history. for months. many other things stuck in a similar purgatory. it's fine. it provides me with information such as this:

(not to worry. all watched for free, so subbed at the time, with the most powerful ad-blocker known to man, mind you. this is a screenshot of firefox history, okay, and those blocker things run like crazy. my ad-blocker does not mess around.)

started september twenty-third at 9:11 pm, ended on september twenty-fourth at 4:19 pm. all within less than twenty-four hours. i feels as though we are taking part in some sort of mental illness competition. no one is winning. and i say this with affection.

i shortly after dragged gf into this, and we both watched to the end of season 3, through, ah, let's say, alternate means. lovely. and mob psycho is now my go-to thing that i absolutely will not shut up about. my divorce musings should be sufficient proof.

i can't say that it was driven by any sorts of uh. dreams. as yours was that night. but my god. what a way to kick off the new year for you. that is just. i don't even know what to do with that information. i simply need to take it in, over and over. what a couple of paragraphs. what a description. i love it.

i am glad that the cat ear headphones reigen has been well-appreciated. i suppose i only have one other tidbit to add about that image: they are based on a pair i had myself when i was younger. a dearly beloved pair of headphones. i have since misplaced them. they are not fully lost, simply lying in wait, in the depths of some sort of storage area type of situation. the sort of thing you find when you decide to re-organize your room one day.

well. i could elaborate a bit more. there are, in fact, more mspaint drawings.

here is one based on the artful combination of my old discord status and picture, and

here is one that gf used as a profile picture! matching profile pictures! adorable. hers changed shortly after mine did. we were both holding out to see who would change first. an unspoken war. i lost to that one piece of art for the show, made for the urban legends episode, i believe. the one that is in the screenshots from the last post. but how could i not? it is such a beautiful image. to me. i love it dearly. as to avoid repeating myself, i have left some Normal tags on a post containing it, if you are inclined to dig a bit for them.

i am glad that you have garnered such enjoyment from my video, though. personally, when i make something like that, i'll open up my videos folder occasionally and watch it a few times over. that happened more with the video i made for the last response, though. i quite like the feel of that one. i just end up being entirely too pleased with my own silly videos.

a handful of my postings betray a similar appreciation for gay business men. this is the clear follow-up to divorce in my mind. and as i recall from the reigen manga, there was an addressing of Serizawa's title: i believe that it is officially "my man," of course, the highest honor an employee can be given. incredible.

(i know what you are actually referring to, but i do not have the actual part on hand, terribly sorry.)

i do appreciate your placement of self-discovery and trial and error as a vital point for all of this, and as it has brought me to further thoughts. i would like to elaborate on that a bit more in tandem with societal expectations, all while getting vaguely personal, as that is the only way i can think clearly to properly get my ideas across.

like most, i would venture to say, i have lived a very large portion of my life in an environment where heterosexuality was very much the standard situation. a place where any sorts of marriages followed by gayness-induced divorces or lavender weddings would be born. my younger years were filled with a specific idea of what an "attractive person" should be, how "crushes" should happen in pre-teen through teenage years, and other items along those lines. i figure these typical standards are familiar. for myself, they birthed a sort of good ol' 'merican suburbia-induced conundrum. out of an unshakable and then unidentifiable confusion from these standards, i shut myself out of entertaining any sort of thoughts of relationships outside of platonic ones, and, to a degree, i found comfort in aroace labels as i learned those terms, simply because i did not experience attraction in the ways that people around me were peddling. for myself, my distaste for such things was not born of a very healthy place. being the young and generally introverted person i was, i found it much easier to shut out anything romantic, rather than partaking in any sort of aggressive generic heterosexuality, as a certain divorced au man may have. that man interacts with complete strangers so much. it scares my poor, fragile, introverted heart.

do not be mistaken. i deeply respect the Aroace Grind, dearest anonymous tumblr person, my belovèd. i impart my blessings unto you. may your lack of such attractions be born of the beauty of self-acceptance. i wish you the best in whatever Degree of Not Being Romantically Attracted to Reigen Arataka you partake in outside of the world of dreams. keep it real. etcetera.

anyway. i do not remember if there was ever one deciding moment, but i gradually started to realize through some amount of reflection and experience that i did have desires for romance and other sorts of things that follow, but not on the "typical" terms. and it was certainly a long process of self-discovery for me. in fact, it was only a couple of months ago that i thought slightly more than what would be normal about a side character in a television show who did not match the typical image of Hyper Attractive Male Actor, thought about it a bit harder, then realized that i, traditionally not a man, have successfully been duped by male beauty standards for my entire life. this is my official announcement. i do not care for famous men alarmingly toned 6 foot tall jawline whatever. memories of my mother and old school acquaintances talking about actors following that description being attractive rush to my mind. unfortunate circumstances. but i am allowed a bit of heterosexuality. as a treat.

i do not know if you have had similar experiences in coming to understand yourself, dearest anonymous person, but that is the story i have generated to understand myself. i am quite a fan of narratives that allow me to compartmentalize my own mental processes. and thus, it is how i have come to think about divorced au. reigen, raised around similar expectations, figured that as an adult man, he should be in a typical heterosexual marriage. i think this fits in with what little knowledge we have of his family, mostly from the recent fanbook. they all seem to want him to have a "normal" life, and maybe they quit talking altogether after the divorce. although there is some hope, as he does want to rekindle that relationship. the true reasons for the marriage and depth of awareness of other sorts of attractions are up for interpretation, as i am not offering anything terribly concrete, but my thinking about divorced au comes from my own experiences of suppression, trial, and frequent error.

is it okay if i come up for air for a moment? a brief moment of self-awareness? because this was born of a complete one-off stupid video i made in maybe an hour max from idea to completion. and i'm now projecting my own problems and insecurities onto it. what the hell. actually what the hell. what am i even doing man. i have other ideas about mob psycho characters, hell, i have an au idea that i have been obsessing over born of personal experiences first (i might be tempted to go into that at some point too who knows), but the divorced au is the one that gets thousands of words???? the divorced au????? the one that's only out there because i made funy mob drawing???????????? anon person i am grabbing you by the shoulders and shaking you back and forth like some kinda cartoon character

anyway. enough of that. enough of the hater part of my brain. i'm having too much fun with this.

bringing up the fanbook has brought another thought to mind: one of the major parts that was hyped up for it was information about reigen's past love life, which, in beautiful reigen fashion, was a showstopping display of dodging the question entirely. if the man is divorced au, it could be a touchy subject, or a situation too complicated to explain. it gives off that very generic perception of heterosexual romance.

i appreciate that you've also fit in some of the themes straight from the show shockingly well. that really stands out in the part where you're talking about how reigen would take it. his struggles with loneliness, with his family's expectations, his other side especially, taking into account his conversation with mob in the finale. feeling unwanted. he may already be a bit more than 16% divorced in vibes. i don't even have anything to add to that, i love how you put it.

straying completely and entirely from the mob psycho discussion, your noting of my tone completely and fully warms my heart, truly. i think it's strange that we tend to do that, pick up on how other people speak. personally, my vocabulary has certainly been completely wrecked by reading a large amount of books when i was younger and a vast quantity of stupid posts on the internet. always glad to be writing things for fun, though. i see it as a sort of puzzle. i enjoy finding the exact words i want to use and meshing them together to flow from one sentence to the next, ensuring that i don't repeat too many as to maintain healthy variety, and frequently re-reading parts to convey my ideas as clearly as i can, even if they still end up mildly incoherent and silly - such a roadblock is inevitable in considering divorced au. i get myself into a certain mood when i want to explain something, and it is electrifying, especially when i do it out loud. i am usually an incredibly timid speaker, reserving myself to only a handful of words at a time and letting other people lead in conversation, but once i feel comfortable and reach a place where i have knowledge and ideas to provide, the cadence of my speaking quickens, i give more thought to the arrangements of my words, my voice reaches the height of its volume and full timbre, and i feel as though i could just talk for hours. it is definitely one of my favorite feelings. i still keep my usual stutterings, but rather than dwelling on them, i find myself gliding over them as i do in performing music; a finger slips, but i continue to the next phrase all the same.

that type of speaking does not translate over exactly to my typing, but when i begin typing anything with great length, i fall into a similar style. for myself, this sort of tone is typically reserved for writing in more professional or academic settings, but occasionally, i offer myself the opportunity to splurge on a silly idea or a niche passion, and it restores my soul, in a way. it places me in that mood where i could go on for hours. of course, if i am writing something in a different setting, it does contain capitalization, but outside of that, i'm really not a capitals kinda guy. i am a huge advocate of attempting to type as speech, generally, especially while texting, and my voice simply isn't that poignant, i suppose. the google dictionary claims that my usage of "poignant" is both archaic and metaphorical, but i do not particularly care.

i meant to add the profile picture, but i didn't want to cut into the pace of my writing. here it is. in all its mspaint glory. whatever sort of conversation led up to it was absolutely, definitely, mind-numbingly stupid. it's fine.

and to wrap it up, once again, i feel the need to reiterate, this is the most incredible response i could ever receive from my ramblings. the most incredible.

oh. let me go ahead and stick the second ask into here too, for the sake of brevity:

much appreciated! god has given me very limited knowledge of html, and i will use it to create a barely functioning hodgepodge of a blog. i hope they're okay with that. gf doesn't like it. i think she just fears my power. my favorite detail is resizing the window. almost everything is decently configured for that.

i hope this addresses your concerns, and maybe adds on some new ones, too!

[watermelon-mafia]

got tagged by @ghostboyjules in this so here we go! btw anything in brackets like this -> [] is not part of the song title it's just commentary i wanted to add

choose an artist you like and use the name of their songs to answer this as close to the truth as possible!

name of the artist: paramore! i love that band a lot and they popped into my head first :)

what is your gender? where the lines overlap

describe yourself: for a pessimist, im pretty optimistic

how do you feel? here we go again

if you could go anywhere, where would it be? miracle [there isn't a great choice for this one, oops 😔]

describe your best friend: my heart [ily jules 💖]

your favorite time of day: brighter

if your life was a tv show, what would it be called? caught in the middle

what is life to you? ain't it fun

what do you fear? be alone

jules!!! thank u for tagging me i had fun doing this! 💖

i will tag... @croakings @caprisun-wizard @fenrisforyourself annnnnnd @casualavocados

[mtsilvermute]

((OOC Changelog + Updates 9/29:

Changelog:

I updated my tag list (which is part of the "OOC" page here) to add "dash commentary tag," "headcanon tag," and "IC."

I retroactively tagged some posts using the above tags.

I added a section to the above OOC page detailing that I primarily post in journal entries and prioritize first-person perspective over third-person commentary. That's just been the M.O. of this blog from the start, tbh, but I can absolutely understand how it might be initially jarring to read, so I wanted to acknowledge my goals publicly.

I adjusted Red's IC age! He's 24 now. Yay! (If it wasn't apparent, 9/28/1998 is the release date of Pokemon Red/Blue in the United States, so I've been using that as a benchmark for Red's age - even though he's canonically ten in said games.)

To-do:

Make a roster page. There's a lot of information regarding Red's roster that I'm showcasing in my journal entries, most notably each Pokémon's personalities and temperaments. However, the sheer volume of text in those entries (not a humble brag, just an acknowledgment of how I can get carried away, haha) makes retroactively accessing that information a bit difficult. That's somewhat by design: I want to create an immersive experience in which you get your knowledge of Red's world straight from the Trainer's mouth. But immediacy is a blessing in its own right, and I'm hoping to consolidate my ideas in a more accessible manner as soon as I'm able.

Implement more open starters into my posting routines. Open starters are fundamentally difficult given Red's isolation, but since the birthday festivities, I've been brainstorming potential "office hour"-esque times that could facilitate literal and figurative drop-ins. These ideas are works in progress, but they might be fun to execute!

Finish Jasmine's starter omg I promise it's in the works 😭

As an aside, I've been following more blogs - namely people I see frequently on my dash - and I've noticed a distinct lack of follow-backs in recent days. I try to make my presence known by unintrusively liking posts (particularly promotional posts) here and there, but I don't know what follow-back request etiquette looks like around here and I don't want to initiate contact with someone who doesn't wish to interact with me. (I've just been kind of assuming that following back IS the way of signalling interest, and if you don't receive one, that's a conscious decision on the other roleplayer's part.)

If anyone reading this post has thoughts on what might be implicitly or explicitly keeping others from following back, I'd appreciate feedback: I've been overthinking everything from my response length to the possibility that other roleplayers don't want to interact with another Red when there might be one already in their camp, but these are entirely conjectures and generally unproveable. Thoughts from those more experienced in this subculture than I would be super helpful; thank you in advance!

Anyway, this has been a post! Have a Snorlax for your time. Journal entry coming your way soon!