#yeah i wish i'd written some of it but most of it happened in the early stages of when I Wasn't Writing This Fic

[sharkneto]

Are there any deleted scenes/excerpts from when number’s siblings were going to be in HIT?

I don't think I actually wrote anything with the other siblings, but it did live in my brain for a good while. I was mostly enamored with the idea of Number's Luther also being there (called One, for keeping him straight from our Luther). I think, of the siblings, Luther has had the most immediate growth throughout the series, and the idea of having him juxtaposed with his twenty-three-year-old self is just so... Something.

Here's this other Luther, who hasn't gone through the Horrors yet (isn't ape-ified, hasn't gone to the moon, still believes in the Academy and Reggie). And there's that really delicious, quiet pain of that as Luther has to confront it all again and grappling with where he is now, on the other side of all of that, and if that was worth it for what he knows now. Obviously no - he shouldn't have had to go through any of that, but also he can understand that he was abused and better understand his siblings because of it. Meanwhile, here's One, still Number One, who's suddenly being slammed into all the things Number has been trying to tell him the whole time, and proof with this future version of himself that he's Wrong, and things will go very badly in the near future if he doesn't accept that (which... he might not).

And, of course, we have Number and One's relationship, which I'm always soft for. Number is an asshole to him but he also so obviously loves his brother. One is so done with Number but he also so obviously loves his brother back. And they're there being Siblings in front of our Hargreeves, so they all get to mourn again what they didn't get to have with Five.

Adding even more siblings is not what HIT needed, it's already packed and adding literally any more Hargreeves would cause it to explode, but god did I still spend a lot of time thinking about that before I ended up actually writing the fic.

[eastern-lights]

Ok so we all know how amazing Baldur's Gate 3 is. I could talk for hours about everything it did perfectly.

But rn, I want to talk about what I think Dragon Age Inquisition did better. And this is not to judge which game is better overall, but what still makes DAI so special to me despite its flaws.

1. Voiced protagonist

Yeah, starting off controversial. I know some people prefer silent protagonists, but I just find myself wishing we could have a fully voiced Tav, even at the cost of fewer dialogue options. I'm sorry, but Tav's silent indifferent face just always breaks the immersion for me, especially when contrasted with the award-worthy acting and animation of the characters they're speaking with. In DAI (and DA2, although to a lesser degree) your character could be heavily customized, but they were always an actual person who fit in with the rest of the universe and flowed seamlessly with the story.

2. Mystery and dread.

BG3 is full of heavy, scary, traumatizing stuff hidden all over the place (or in plain sight). But it can always be explained in some way. There are dreadful things in Faerûn, but we always know what they are (mostly due to most of them having to have precisely given stats as the result of being based on DnD). We know what happens after death and what we can do to bring people back from it. The closest you get to truly dread-inducing mystery in BG3 is "Do Illithids have souls" and "where do illithids come from" and (at least in Act 1) "who is the Absolute".

In Dragon Age, the whole world is made of existential dread. What happens when you die? Dunno. Is God real? No idea and if He does, He hates you. What is the Blight? Are all darkspawn capable of independent thought? What is lyrium singing about? What happened to the titans? What happens when all of the Old Gods die? And this is just the Big Questions. There's a myriad of small things, small mysteries you encounter that just have no answers. Stuff that reminds me of those creepy Goldshire children forming a pentagram in World of Warcraft. While having an explanation for everything makes for deeper worldbuilding, a world full of mysteries without answers makes for a much scarier and, in some ways, exciting experience.

3. Group dynamic and party banter

I enjoyed the party banter in BG3. Hell, it had some of the funniest lines in game. But it didn't do enough to make the group dynamic feel any less Tav/Durge-centric. You hear the companions exchange banter, but you never get beyond stuff like "Karlach and Shadowheart both enjoy wine" and "Gale enjoys Lae'zel telling him about the Astral plane". The protagonist forms amazingly written relationships with each of the companions, but they never seem to have such a bond with one another. The closest we come to what I'd like to see is Karlach and Wyll's friendship, but even that's kind of shallow, I feel. The companions do comment on the others' personal quest, but it's always one sentence reaction, before going right back to being mostly indifferent. DA2 had the same issue, if to a greater extent (srsly, the companions had the same attitude about one another over the span of 10 years)

The banter in DAI was superb. It told a story. It had arcs. You could watch in real time as Solas and Dorian became friends over their shared magical nerd-dom. You could even take part in it, such as when telling Blackwall to stfu about jousting for a moment, or telling Sera that what you and Solas do in private is none of her business. You could see Dorian and Bull fall in love. You could watch Varric slowly chip away at Solas' worldview until he arguably came closer to changing his plans than Lavellan ever did. The relationships grow over the course of the story and by the time of Solas' betrayal, you're not just sad because he betrayed you, you're sad because he betrayed Varric, Dorian, Bull, Cassandra and everyone else. Because you saw how they cared about him, each in their own way.

There is nothing more heartbreaking than Varric's "Chuckles, what have you done?"

In BG3, the relationships are mostly left to your imagination, which has its perks, but still, the group dynamic feels more like a wheel with Tav at the centre rather than a web.

4. Having limits on the romance options

Let me start by stating what I am not saying: I am not saying that bi and pan people shouldn't be represented. Far from it. But I don't think making the whole group pan is the way to go about it. I can't help but feeling it is, in a way, pandering to players, making every single companion interested in them as long as they have a sufficiently high approval.

Making some companions explicitly bi, pan, gay or straight made for a more real experience. Getting rejected by Sera on the grounds of "We have a lot in common - we both like women" felt disappointing, yes, but also real. This also allowed the writers to make the characters' sexual/romantic preferences a part of their, well, character. We got Dorian's personal quest, which I think is great. Limiting Solas' options to just Lavellan allowed the writers to make it about him realizing that his people are not mere shadows. It allowed them to write the Vallaslin scene. None of this could have been done if he were romanceable to all races.

When you have diversity in romantic attraction among the companions, suddenly the pan and bi characters (in Bull and Josie respectively) feel like their orientation is part of who they are, rather than a game mechanic to prevent players from missing out on content.

[aleksanderscult]

Favorite Darkling quotes

I'm gonna write my favorite Darkling quotes 'cause a) I'm bored b) I love him and miss him so much.

Anyways I'm not gonna rate them cause every one of them is fucking iconic (as he is).

Let's get into this!

"Blue sky. Once more. Speak my name once more... Don't let me be alone."

These might be my most favorite quotes of his. His last words. 'Cause with his last breath he showed that he was only human after all. Cruel and damaged, yes. But still human.

There is no safe place. There is no haven. Not for us. There will be, he promised in the darkness, new words written upon his heart. I will make one.

I ADORE these lines. Less than 24 hours ago two Grisha tried to kill him (one of them a supposed friend) and what did he tried to do after that? Create a safe space for his kind in order for them not to go through what they went through. If he's the villain for this then I wish we had this kind of villain in our world.

‌"All men can be made fools."

OKAY OKAY LISTEN. I love this line for two reasons. Firstly, cause it's true. Every person can be made a fool. BUT! Secondly and most importantly, he hints to Mal and Alina (Alina actually cause Mal didn't know he was there) that he was made a fool too because of Alina. He fell in love with her and felt hope for the first time after centuries that this new person would be like him, live with him and spend eternities together. He would no longer be alone. And she seemed that she wanted him too as far as he could tell. And then what happened? She run off, found Mal and turned her back on him and their country. That mostly disappointed him, I think. In a large degree. And he must have thought what a fool he was to trust her and fall for her. Hence that amazing line.

Let me make a mark on this world before I leave it.

And boy did he not make it? Years after his death in R&R and people still talk about him. He made a mark not only on the world but on people too (no pun intended for Genya I swear. I love her😭). He made a huge impact and even antis have to admit that. Actually more than the actual protagonist but anyways *coughthe fact that the villain made bigger impact than the heroes in the storycough*

"Fight me as long as you're able. You will find I have far more practice with eternity."

You fucking iconic legend with your fucking iconic lines. And yes, I believe him. No matter how many decades Alina would fight him, he would be unmovable.

‌"It’s harder when you like them. You mourn them more."

That line is so true. The more you care, the more you get hurt. I'm sorry but a quality that people often overlook about the Darkling is his wisdom. I would sit and listen for hours to him talking about life, love, death and people. After so many centuries he's so knowledgeable.

Also, this line makes me wonder how many people he had loved, lost and mourned. Because obviously he talks from experience. *Sigh* I would die to read a book about his whole life before Alina.

He only wished that it wasn't winter. He wanted to turn his face to the sun and feel it warm him. He'd been a long time in the dark.

Yeah he's cruel and manipulative and the villain and blah, blah, blah. But again this line proves his humanity. He loves the sun (how much are you willing to bet people that his favourite season is Summer😏), he loves the sunlight, its warmth and light (another clue that Alina is his soulmate dc what anyone says). Our baby was resurrected and first things first he wanted his wife beside him and the sun to hit his face (priorities people🥹😍).

"Then I'd be alone too."

(*whispering*don't cry, don't cry, don't cry)

So. Heh. I may have a soft spot for fictional characters that suffer from loneliness. Probably because I have suffered from it too most of my life (🫠). I'm sorry but you can hate him all you want alright? No one can stop you. But people that don't feel an ounce of sympathy or pity for him and what he has gone through are just useless to talk to. Most of all he wants someone to make him company to this endless sea of eternity.

Deep blue like the True Sea. Red like the roofs of the Shu temples. The pure, buttery color of sunlight—not really yellow or gold, what would you call it? All the colors you couldn't see in the dark.

(fuck. lost control of my tears after all)

Baby shadow summoner can control the dark and its blackness and yet he loves all colors that are bright. But most of all the sunlight.

(DARKLINA STANS RISE)

Also, he made the Grisha keftas blue, red and purple because he loved these colors the most, change my mind *sip tea*

‌"Fine. Make me your villain."

Ah, yes. The cult classic one. Honestly, this line makes me feel bad for him. Cause he has tried the peaceful solution so many times (not with just Alina but generally). At this point he's like: "Fuck it. If I have to become a monster then so be it." They leave him no choice and furthermore he's obviously grown tired of trying diplomacy.

"I’ll be certain you hear it when I make her scream."

I froze the first time I read this line but now I laugh every time I do. Here he shows how petty he can be and how much shame he doesn't have (in your face Mal😚).

‌"My Alina. You cannot run from me."

OKAY LISTEN

I know it sounds creepy but "my Alina" and "I'll always find you" MY DARKLINA HEART GUYS

‌"I know what you thought, what you always thought of me. It's so much easier that way, isn't it?"

My strategic baby. But this line is also sad. Cause he knows how Alina views him and, even if he hides it well, deep down I bet it hurts him.

‌"You two have a bad habit of acting like fools and calling it heroic."

Isn't that the truth tho? Our boy spitting facts once again. Also this line can be applied to other characters from different fandoms as well.

‌"I seem to be a victim of my own wishes where you are concerned."

TRANSLATION: I TEND TO FORGET ABOUT THE WORLD-DOMINATION PLAN CAUSE I WANT TO BE WITH YOU, LIVE WITH YOU, LOVE YOU, MARRY YOU, HAVE 7 KIDS WITH YOU AND DRINK SOME TEA ON THE PORCH TOGETHER WHILE THE SUNLIGHT HITS US

TRANSLATION NO2: I GOT MY ASS KICKED CAUSE I WAS TOO BUSY THINKING THAT I WAS KISSING YOU AND WOULD FINALLY HAVE THAT WEDDING THAT I WAS PLANNING BABE

Is this line a kind of love confession or what? 🥺🙃

‌"We all have our secrets."

Mostly I love this line cause it just sounds cool. But after I read the book for a second time I realized that it could tie with the "Demon in the Woods" book. It's a nice little nod. If you get it, you get it😉.

‌Why did you go to her? Because with her he was human again.

A nice (though bittersweet) little way to end this post. 🥹

With Alina he felt human again. That part that was buried deep beneath him and rarely if not ever got out. Do you remember how she made him laugh with her honest remarks on "Shadow and Bone"? How his eyes closed and his breath stopped when she reached to stroke his cheek on R&R? How he broadly smiled when she laughed about how common his name was? That was Aleksander Morozova (especially that last part). The boy that grew up forcefully and was thrown to a cruel world too soon, too violently. They were these 400+ years that made him cruel. It was eternity that broke him. Loneliness and pain that made him withdraw. Until Alina came. And she could bring to the surface that buried, broken boy. And it felt good to him (although inconvenient too). She made him feel vulnerable. And when he was resurrected he seeked her out to feel that way again. Human.

*sigh*

Thanks for coming to my ted talk guys. 😔✌️

Feel free to write in the comments your own favorite quotes of him 😊❤️

[stargazer-sims]

Written In the Stars

Nikolai: It’s been quite the year, hasn’t it?

Mishka: It’s been a good year, despite everything.

Nikolai: Are you happy?

Mishka: Why would you ask that? I'm always happy when I'm with you. Even when things aren't the greatest, I feel safe with you and that makes me happy.

Nikolai: I just wish things had gone a little differently.

Mishka: Why? Aren’t you happy?

Nikolai: I am, but I feel like I could’ve handled everything better.

Mishka: What do you mean? You came when I really needed you, and you took care of me while I was recovering from my surgery back in the spring. I know it was difficult, but you handled it like a pro in my opinion.

Nikolai: I was a wreck, honestly.

Mishka: I couldn’t tell.

Nikolai: You weren’t inside my head.

Mishka: Can you talk to me about It?

Nikolai: I was worried about you most of all. About how much pain you were in and about your recovery, but there were other things on my mind.

Mishka: Eden?

Nikolai: Yeah. I was really worried about leaving Eden, Then, once I was home, I knew I couldn’t go back to Japan and I felt terrible because it was like I forced him into coming back too. And before I even made it home, there was Ginger. I basically left you on hold while we wasted five months on something we both should’ve known wouldn’t work out.

Mishka: Hey… look at me. I’m not upset about that, you know. And I don’t think it was a waste of time.

Nikolai: You don’t?

Mishka: You learned something from it, didn’t you? That you love Ginger, but you’re not in love with with her?

Nikolai: I did learn that.

Mishka: I learned something as well. The two of you are still friends, and now I know that I have no reason to be jealous of her, so it all worked out in the end. Plus, Ginger seems to have managed to chase Anna-Valentina off, so I’d put the whole thing in the win column.

Nikolai: Yeah, Anya… I’m hoping we won’t have to worry about her again. I don't think I could cope with another confrontation or any more of her drama.

Mishka: You don't have to be afraid of her.

Nikolai: I'm not afraid of her. Not any more. I just... I feel guilty for letting her come between us before. For not standing up to her. We could've been together all along if I'd been more brave. It's my fault for making you wait.

Mishka: Don't forget, she wasn't our only issue.

Nikolai: I know, but—

Mishka: No 'buts'. I won't lie. Waiting was hard and I didn't like it, and sometimes I was sad and scared, but I never stopped loving you. I always believed we'd be together again some day. And look... we are.

Nikolai: No thanks to my stupidity.

Mishka: I don't want you to stress yourself out about this any more, okay? We can't change anything that's happened, can we?

Nikolai: No, I suppose we can't.

Mishka: The important thing is to focus on where we are now. Isn't that what you're always telling Eden? Not to dwell on past mistakes because it holds you back from making the most of the future?

Nikolai: That does sound like something I'd say to him.

Mishka: Then, please take your own advice. We've got a lot of future left, and I want to make the most of it.

Nikolai: So do I.

Mishka: Just to be clear, you were absolutely worth the wait, but I don't want to wait any more. I want to be with you from now until the end of our lives and I want us to create our best future together.

Nikolai: That's what I want, too.

Mishka: That's what I hoped you'd say. It's going to make the next part easier.

Nikolai: What next part?

Mishka: Nikolai Pavlenko, will you marry me?

Nikolai: Are you... are you proposing to me?

Mishka: I wish I could've done it years ago, but when I think about it, I'm not convinced either of us was ready.

Nikolai: I'm ready now.

Mishka: Does that mean the answer is yes?

Nikolai: Yes. I will marry you, Mikhail.

Mishka: There's one little snag. Or maybe two. If I kneel, you might have to help me up, and I hope you don't mind that I don't have a ring for you.

Nikolai: It doesn't matter. I don't need a ring. All I want is you. All I've ever wanted is you, and I'm sorry it took me so long to get my head on straight and figure that out.

Mishka: No looking back, remember?

Nikolai: No more looking back.

Mishka: I love you, Kolya. Never doubt that.

Nikolai: I've never doubted it for a second. I love you too, and I promise I'll never do anything to make you doubt it again.

Mishka: Would it surprise you to know I never did? Some people might call it naivety or wishful thinking, but I like to think of it as faith. We were written in the stars. That's what I believe.

Nikolai: Written in the stars. I like that.

Mishka: Body of a warrior, soul of a poet. That's what a journalist wrote about me once.

Nikolai: They were right, and I'm glad I get to see the poet as well as the warrior. You know, the next time I look up at the sky, I'm going to thank those prophetic stars of yours.

[cy-cyborg]

I'm seeing a lot of people here and on other platforms getting angry at people who have come from Tik Tok (and youtube to a lesser extent) who refuse to say words like death, racism and anything relating to heavy topics. Sometimes they won't even say the names of minorities either.

Any I get why this is frustrating and just not a good practice. The people criticising these folks are absolutely right, we need to get comfortable saying these words and discussing these topics. Not to mention the fact that self-censorship can cause issues for people who are legitimatly triggered by those topics (e.g. due to trauma), But as someone who spent a lot of time on Tik Tok and youtube before coming here, I think there's some vital context missing here.

I'd say a good 75% of the people on tik tok, and by extention, people who have moved elsewhere from Tik Tok, using words like "unalive," "r#pe," "sewerslide" or whatever else aren't using it because they're uncomfortable with the topic. In fact, it's quite the opposite. They want to talk about it, but Tik Tok's content moderation is so wildly strict that they can't. Even saying the words would get you flagged by the algorithm, ESPECIALLY if you had captions enabled or the actual word written in text from the in-app editor. This was especially true for people from minorities trying to talk about issues affecting their community or even just themselves (hence the hesitation to even say the minorities name sometimes).

This isn't just some conspiracy theory either. Tik Tok staff admitted to doing this intentionally on several occasions as a way to "keep the peace". I remeber when I first joined, it came out that they intentionally limited views on videos of visibly disabled people, both to prevent bullying but also because "some users find that content disturbung." I couldn't even show my stumps in videos without my videos getting stuck on 0 views at best or account warnings for "inappropriate content" at worst. I got DMs from several people after my video about disability pride month in July asking why their comments wishing me a happy disability pride month got removed, when I went into check the filtered comments, they'd all been hidden for "bullying". The same thing was happening with people commenting and saying the word "autism." And that's just the disabled community. I know similar stuff was happening in other communities too.

Most of the time, you had to speak in coded language to get your point out there. It's not that they're uncomfortable with it, it's because the videos would be dead in the water if they didn't. Getting the message out using these "toned down" replacements was better than not getting it out at all.

"OK, but this isnt tik tok, they shouldn't do that here" yeah, I agree, but for a lot of kids, Tik Tok was their first real experiance with social media, it makes sense that they're going to assume other platforms will be the same. YouTube is just as bad, if not worse, in some respects. Tumblr even has its fair share of censorship issues, too (e.g. queer people's posts being flagged as mature for seemingly no reason). It's not a stretch to make the assumption they'd need to continue the practice of self-censorship here, too.

This isn't to say that NO ONE is using the censored words to avoid hard topics/because it makes them uncomfy, but in my experiance, those people assume this is the best thing to do because everyone else was using it. They don't stop to ask why. They just repeat it, which in turn contributes to making them umcomfey with the real word.

I'm not saying don't pick people up on this stuff. We NEED those words, and we need to be more comfortable with them so stuff like the above situation doesn't happen and become a self-perpetuating cycle. But it started from a real, genuine need to censor ourselves to even get the message out, and I think it's important to keep that in mind. It's not just kids being "too sensitive."

[jezmmart]

Chamomile Comic Trivia #31

#159 - Notice

It's Sam! I wish I had written down more about my decision to add her, although at this point I'm fairly sure I wasn't certain she was going to become a main character - in fact it was RIGHT around the week this posted that I began work on the first proper cover art for the series which of course did not include her.

Her design was based off this old one-off pin-up girl art from 2017, technically making her the first ever major Chamomile Comic character to exist, sort of.

She was named after Sam Lloyd, likely known for his portrayal of Ted the Lawyer from Scrubs. The news of his death had recently broken and I had just recently begun listening to Fake Doctors, Real Friends, the Scrubs rewatch podcast, as my go-to background entertainment when colouring the comic specifically each week. It still is now, albeit intermittently since they don't always produce an episode each week and I no longer have a backlog to catch up on. Now granted, I don't love the podcast as much as I used to - can be a bit cringey at times as these two hollywood actors chat about utterly unrelatable anecdotes from their lives - but it's overall been enjoyable and it'll be weird to find something new to accompany my colouring if it does come to an end or stops being enjoyable once they permanently pivot into... whatever they plan to do after they run out of Scrubs episodes. It's been part of my colouring process for the comic for longer than it hasn't been now, haha. So... yeah it felt right to honour that connection to my comic with Sam's name, on top of the fact that Scrubs is just straight-up one of my favourite TV shows and Ted was always a character that gave me big laughs.

Of course... I realised after that I'd introduced yet another character to the comic ending in "-a"! ...But whatever, it's a common thing. Not so long ago I had 5 co-workers simultaneously whose names also ended in -a, lol.

The decision to have had her always be around simply came from not having any strong ideas to introduce her and preferring the idea that at least some of the cast already knew her. The gag's been done before, but I thought it'd be extra funny to introduce her with a scene in which she is specifically announcing her departure from being a regular face in Cammie's life, which typically would mean the same for the audience in most works with actually established characters.

Final little bonus note - in panel 1, Cammie once again is entering with a handful of steaming coffee.

#160 - Official

I didn't really mean for it to be so small it's barely legible at web size, but the little sign on the panic alarm button behind the till says "Real emergencies only Cammie!", in reference to #50.

#161 - Before

All that Scrubs talk regarding Sam is kinda fitting, because they did the "this character was always here!" gag there too. For their one, they edited her in on various memorable shots and pretended the main character didn't notice her being present, here I obviously extended the frame on the end of several punchline panels from previous comics.

Here's a gif that shows the original panels compared to the new ones, showing both the new and old art isolated as well so you can see exactly what I drew to extend the older panels which naturally weren't drawn originally knowing that I would one day be extending them!

The second of the three Sam flashbacks is just a nice little bridging one, but it did take me a while to decide for sure which way around I wanted the first and third flashback panel. For the first: while there's been a little bit of mild bad language in the comic once the seal was broken here, Sam's "bitch" is the first time such language has appeared so it amused me to place it in a scene that has already happened long ago just barely outside of the audience's perspective. For the third: the joke is of course that the reveal of Sam's additional dialogue is particularly adding nothing to the scene whatsoever - like, as if Cammie making a fool of herself would even be remark-worthy at this point. I felt both these two goofs had a good punch to them in their own way so yeah, I remember being conflicted over whether I had chosen the funniest possible flow of these three gags.

Of course, the final joke of this one, in case it wasn't obvious (I could see it being subtle for some), is that Mimi's whole running gag is she's a side character who also has existed in the comic for long before her first on-screen appearance, yet Cammie never remembers her.

#162 - New

The art and dialogue structure of the first two panels here is identical to #160. I think it being a time-saver on my workload for the week was definitely a factor - for whatever reason I needed it at the time - but I also remember going for something with that choice beyond just that... But I can't for the life of me remember what. I don't think the parallel between the two comics adds anything reading them back now.

Anyway here's Newt! I really thought at the time that he was going to be as significant an addition as Sam, and I did come up with the idea of introducing a regular male character at the time I chose to bring Sam in, with Sam's introduction - and exit - being an amusing way to introduce a surprise new character.

...Then I proceeded to never really get any super strong story ideas for him lol. More detail on that in a second. I haven't forgotten him though, frustrates me that he keeps getting sidelined!

#163 - Training

Standard behind-the-scenes retail frustration humour here. I can neither confirm nor deny how much is based on my current employment. A little detail of authenticity/flavour is that they're watching a DVD intended for widescreen on an old non-widescreen TV that's clearly been in their staff room for at least a decade. Such was the case for my painful training videos too! (It's all online now as of a few years into when I started, so some progress has been made I guess).

#164 - Huh

It's not made clear yet, but the new status quo that Sam is a receptionist at a primary school is established here - the coloured hanging letter signage on the wall that is too perspective'd to read says "WELCOME TO OUR SCHOOL".

I chose this as a job for her based simply on the fact that my Mum has often worked in school offices for most of my life. She wasn't a receptionist but it was the sort of job where I have some... vague enough memories of the "behind-the-scenes" enough to draw something along those lines when I needed to show Sam at work.

Getting back to Newt, obviously the goof here is that Cammie is just being a sore loser about her friend leaving and Newt is about the most cool-sounding interesting person you could imagine meeting. Unfortunately that involved specifically coming up with fun sounding stuff that are not super common to do or know people that do, so despite the super interesting combo of cave-diving, stand-up and polyamory these are all things I feel like I'd have to do thorough research on to represent in the actual comic accurately... which is something I'd like to do but, time is finite and I have so much pre-existing experience with being a silly nonsense person. Would you believe it, there's another character in the comic for whom that experience lends itself very well!!

Speaking of whom, the first appearance of the bell on the door in Repeat 1 Records was only a month after Cammie got the job. She works fast!

[Trivia Archive | Browse from most recent]

[mutable-manifestation]

Hello, I’m Ameera a 23 years old Muslim lesbian who is trying to come out, I’ve been in the closet with my girlfriend for way too long, because of how dangerous and hard it is to come out as a lesbian to a religious Muslim family, but me and my girlfriend have decided to do whatever it takes and risk it all to come out, do you mind supporting and encouraging us?, though I know we all have what we dealing with, so I’m not imposing we just need all the support and encouragement we can get, check my pinned post for more information on how you can support, if you are a Muslim queer and you are out, please help with tips on how to make it less complicated, any word of advice is also really needed, we really wanna come out but we need y’all 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ pride please come through for us, I believe pride is for all

Hi Ameera!

I saw on one of your other posts that you already have an exit strategy and are prepared to move out and cut contact should that be necessary for your safety, so I don't see any reason why you shouldn't come out if it's what you want!

I shall be wishing for your family to surprise you with acceptance and support, and for your contingencies to be unnecessary.

I am a Christian rather than a Muslim, so I can't speak to the specifics of your situation, but - if you haven't already - I'd recommend looking into what your religious text(s?) say about the LGBT+ community.

The first thing I did when I realized I was a lesbian was research.

The most I'd ever heard about gay people growing up was "gay marriage bad >:(" and even that only seemed to crop up around when gay marriage beginning to get legalized, so I looked into all of the relevant verses and tried to reconcile my sexuality with my faith.

I didn't want to go looking for validation, I just wanted answers, information, so I could gather my thoughts from there. So I looked at both sides.

The arguments I found that explained the bible as not against LGBT+ were all rooted in study and logic - meanings of words that were oversimplified in translation, historical contexts that I had been lacking prior, etc. All of it was rooted in trying to understand the original texts as and when they were written.

The arguments against LGBT+ all seemed to parrot the modern bible and "homosexuality is a sin" with no other arguments - or at least, no other arguments that could be applied only to homosexual people (example: "but gay couples can't have children!!!" yeah okay neither can infertile/sterile people and they can still get married/it isn't a sin for them to be in relationships). They were also all written with a hostile, hateful undertone (or overtone in some cases). Which. Christians are supposed to be known for our love, so any rhetoric based in hatred... and not even logic to back it? yeah. No.

The arguments explaining gay = okay were all based in love, compassion, and understanding - in logic and research.

So.

It was easy enough for me to reconcile my faith and my sexuality because, as it happens, there was nothing incompatible about the two!

(To any side b or x christians who may read this: this isn't an invite to debate, you literally cannot change my mind and also I will simply block you. This is not my Theological Discussions account)

I'm not quite sure how Islam sees the LGBT+ community in terms of religious rhetoric - from my (very) brief research the only thing I could find was a quote or two about Sodom and Gomorrah, which I've seen plenty of break-downs regarding, though what the Quran (or other Islamic texts?) says may differ.

Once you've done your research and come to terms with the information as needed (again, if you haven't already), I'd write a list of common questions and arguments you're family might make and come up with responses.

I don't know your family. They may shut down and simply tell you to get out and never return. (the worst case scenario [I hope - I don't know your family but if you think there is any possibility of physical violence I would definitely recommend either a video call - so you can see facial expressions - or staying near an exit while coming out])

They might ask you for space to think (okay scenario - kinda in limbo here).

They may surprise you with acceptance (best case scenario)

But they may ask questions and try to argue (middling case scenario).

They may ask things like why you're gay, argue that it's against your religion, etc. In this case, you have a chance to talk them into being supportive.

So.

Lists.

Brainstorm questions with your girlfriend - as many as you both can think of - and go through them. A lot of answers will be easy, some you might need to think more about/do research on (at least, that's my experience). But at least you'll both be armed with all the information you might need in the middling scenario (and it makes it harder for them to make you doubt yourselves, if that's something either of you might struggle with).

Of course, if you've already accepted the possible need to cut contact and gotten ready to move out you might've already thought of all this. Still, I hope this has been of at least some help to you, even if that's just by serving as a reminder that you aren't alone in this and that there's a community out here that supports you.

I'll be wishing you luck; I hope both you and your girlfriend get the best case scenario :)

[invested-in-your-future]

You mentioned not liking the idea of Blake having parents in general, I would love to hear your thoughts on how Blake’s family should have been handled! And the rest of team RWBY too if you have any more ideas for them! Personally I think Jacque should’ve had a noticeably different color pallet than the “Schnee” colors.

For me, personally, the way Blake is written just does not mesh with her family or her backstory that MilesWBY adds to it.

It either reflects really badly on Blake or on her parents OR both. And to such a degree that I don't think you can really fix.

All the times Blake actually managed to chastise Weiss? It's suddenly reframed as hypocrisy. All her talk about focus on survival? Pointless because she grew up in an equivalent of tropical island castle. Blake suddenly becomes "some dumb teenager who threw a fit at her parents and ran away to join a terrorist cell a continent away". Why does that happen and why are her parents like "oh geee well, what can you do maybe after few years she will come back randomly due to tragedy and we can just act like nothing"?

Intentionally or not, Blake becomes just like the right wing strawman about how "all the people who campaign for equality and justice actually just have been living life of privilege and thus shouldn't".

Everything in terms of how Ghira is written though? Boondocks epitomizes well on how I feel about it:

So yeah... I'd just throw entirety of Menagerie portrayal away because yeaaaah...the show does enough weird decisions in regards to faunus portrayal in it's first three volumes already.

Menagerie is getting completely redone. Most of faunus population just have conflicting hearsay about what the place is actually like (since there's no communication tower of its own, Menagerie solely relies on Mistral relays) and Blake never actually really even had a chance to go to Menagerie ever. In my draft, Menagerie is many things - a propaganda topic, a historical event, a reminder of hardship, but its not an "escape" and its not a tropical resort. A lot of Faunus have NEVER been there and at the same time officials in Mistral government REALLY want to ship everyone off to there.

In my outline right now, Blake was born in Mistral. Due to specific circumstances and experiences, she ended up joining the White Fang and then slowly over time grew disillusioned. Her views on Vale overall are influenced by her experiences growing up. Blake did not have the easiest childhood - life wasn't exactly fair and in part her love of books comes from an aspect of escapism that books can deliver. She is someone who formed her ideals her head in a book, but facing the cruel and dangerous reality around her makes her feel like merely "wanting to do good" means absolutely nothing without a more practical "how". However, she doesn't like any of the "hows" presented by people around her because it makes her feel like she can't ever live up to her own expectations she set for herself. And thus she runs. Again and again. And while enrolling at Beacon worked as a wish-fulfillment/escapism of sorts too (she gets to be a Huntress and help people!), her experiences here still gnaw at her conviction and ideals. In my set-up of Remnant, Vale is considered to be "less" dangerous for Faunus, but even here she can't really escape sights of inequality and discrimination, as well as reminders that she has absolutely no idea how to make her dream come true and if it's even possible. What does Fall of Beacon and her experiences there mean for her? She left everything and tried to live an entire new life for herself and it only made her go back to the start all over again. What does that feeling like she is stuck in a cyclical routine that always ends without her taking a single step forward mean for her?

As for Weiss, honestly I think it's fine to use Blue as Jacques color. Given, I also don't think its that fair to separate the Schnees and Jacques as much - he is a parasite but does he really not represent SDC? Weiss might have her own thoughts on what SDC "was/could be" and her own idealized vision on what came before her father married into the family, but there's no such thing as "benevolent/good corporation". Corporations are always profit driven and I don't think its fair to write off everything bad as "Jacques was that one bad apple". In reality though - Jacques is the worst because he really does epitomize everything wrong and bad about SDC and corporations and rich people overall. He is a very "efficient" at being a "rich person". Jacques is everything like that taken to the ultimate extreme end. How many years has he run SDC now? SDC is what SDC is and it makes sense that Schnee name is associated with his actions now and thus his color. Also I don't quite think blue was ever truly SDC color before. He introduced that element of aesthetic. Before that Schnee name was associated with white like snow, but now Schnees are blue like ice. Different levels of coldness and different implications and metaphors.

Even if one were to carry over the idea of Weiss looking up to her grandfather as a hero, I don't think its fair to completely whitewash her grandpa either - he merely was "better than Jacques", but Schnees are still Old Money rich family with a legacy and history and whatever her grandfather's views were, he was still basically a nobility at the head of a well-oiled machine that has extreme influence over Atlas (and before that Mantle).

I think its pretty important that Weiss SHOULD re-evaluate her overall views and which parts of her worldview are merely based on wishful thinking or ignorance. What should "being a Schnee" mean for her? Should she define herself by her family history(good or bad) or should she rebuild herself from scratch? She spent quite some time away from Atlas and those experiences in Vale, meeting Ruby, Blake, etc, her viewpoints and thinking being challenged by others, should absolutely make an impact on how she sees Atlas. The way I see it, her return to Atlas at the end of V3, SHOULD make her see everything in a new light. Not just as an abuse victim, but also as someone who is forced to take a look inside and re-evaluate her experiences and memories. It's not JUST about Jacques, its about getting to re-experience her "routine of usual" but with new experiences making her view things differently.

So yeah overall Blake and Weiss both would have to have very different journeys from the ones MilesWBY present. In a way its pretty interesting parallel, because its the case of two characters from very different backgrounds and with very different experiences (beyond both having suffered abuse) having to essentially reinvent themselves (and to find themselves again) after a tragedy.

[case-of-traxits]

for the ask meme: Reeve

For the Opinion Meme || Still accepting!

Sexuality Headcanon: Bisexual, but functionally gay. Because I write Reeve as being Cetra (I feel the need to link this every time I mention it because it's such a wild-ass take that any time I don't, I have confused people messaging me), he's basically extremely paranoid about sexual situations that could end in children. Especially since his mother is always trying to set him up on dates (and he's half-wondering if she's trying to arrange for him to produce more little part-Cetran babies) and the President is always setting him up on blind dates (I have a whole headcanon about this, but basically, Reeve's concerned that President knows).

So with him being so paranoid about it, he just... doesn't have sex with women. Ever. It's much safer that way.

Gender Headcanon: Cis man. Although, that said, I used to RP as girl!Reeve, and that was fun as hell.

A ship I have with said character: HAHAHAHAHA. All of them.

No, but seriously, there's very few people I haven't written/read/shipped Reeve with.

Reeve/Tseng? Delicious.

Reeve/Lazard? Omg, yes, please.

Reeve/Genesis? Don't mind if I do (ship of my soul, currently).

Reeve/Reno? Talk about fucking up my heart okay.

Reeve/Rude? They're wonderful together.

Reeve/Sephiroth? Yep. I could do that.

Reeve/Veld? I can get behind that.

Reeve/Vincent? Mm. So wonderful.

Reeve/Barret? I expect some angst in there, but that's delicious too.

Like, not all of these work with all of my HCs, but I am happy to jettison/rework HCs to make things happen.

A BROTP I have with said character: No matter what I'm doing, if Reeve and Tseng aren't an active couple, then they're best friends. I just. I love the two of them together, especially with all the potential angst between them with their secrets and everything. It's just wonderful.

A NOTP I have with said character: I think the closest thing I really have to a NOTP is probably Reeve/Hojo, but that's a holdover from an old RP partner who uh... we did some pretty dark stuff with that. Like, I can see it, but man, it is fucked up. Especially with my Reeve in particular.

A random headcanon: Hm... I've already talked about Reeve being a Cetra and Reeve being an Inspire... Here, since I went light on the ship descriptions this time, have a small handful of random headcanons instead:

I would say my biggest "obscure" headcanon is that Reeve lives in a 3,000 sq foot custom-built penthouse in Upper Eight.  And yes, I have a floorplan.  One day, I'll do some drawings of the rooms.

Reeve’s blood type is type O negative.

Reeve requires every single Urban Dev employee to wear a carbon bangle with Restore, Ice, and Lightning materia equipped.  They’re also required to annually attend a training known as “Materia Camp,” to ensure they’re comfortable with the basic use.  This is because Urban Dev employees are, statistically speaking, the most likely to be first-on-the-scene of any sort of emergency situation.

Reeve has three small tattoos along his spine.  They’re three Wutaian characters in a straight line, each character a few inches from the previous one, and from top to bottom, they read: Courage, Inspiration, and Resilience.  They’re the same characters his father wrote in the front of each of his sketchbooks.

General Opinion over said character: My babygirl. Look. Reeve is my angel and ... yeah, I'd say he is probably my favorite character in the game.

BONUS! A song I associate with the character:

Where am I today? I wish that I knew 'Cause looking around there's no sign of you I don't remember one jump or one leap Just quiet steps away from you lead I'm holding my heart out but clutching it, too Feeling this sort of a love that we once knew Calling this a home when it's not even close I'm playing the role with nerves left exposed

-- "Reasons Why," by Nickel Creek.

[ellzilla]

Finally finished watched Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

Good god this is the most mixed feelings I've felt after watching something. Spoiler warning ig if you care about the almost 10 hour long show that has 5 minutes of total godzilla but If you don't want spoilers, I rate the 60's segments an 8/10 and the 2015 plot a 3/10 I really REALLY wish the whole show was about the trio in the 60s, that or they were the main focus and not the 2015 group. Cate was good at first bc I liked the angle of "G-Day PTSD and survivor's guilt" because it was cool! And then I found the plot of the Dual Families super interesting but then. It felt like nothing happened. And also she went from enjoyable to annoying because she started acting like a teenager and not the almost 30's she's supposed to be Kentaro was just kinda there but yknow what, I relate to being a tired sad artist who's dragged into family tragedy so whatever. His mom was also super sweet and I felt so, so, SO bad for her. May uh. Yeah she's there. I guess. It feels like she's just there to be [maybe?] Cate's slow burn love interest and is there so someone can betray the mcs. In the last few episodes it feels like she's only there for Apex to be connected to the show in some way and it's like? Okay? I guess this is happening. Pretty cool that she's Bi tho. Bill, Kei and Shaw on the other hand? Oh my GOD I LOVE THEM. I love Bill and Kei's relationship so much. I love how sweet Shaw and Kei were and made me actually care about a LOVE SUBPLOT!!! Which I always find boring or forced!! But they were sweet!! I love how the writers were a little too accurate with how the uh.. social climate? was back in the 60's. I think it was also smart to have Kei's kid be neither Bill or Shaw's, but instead her husband who died in the bombings, although I do NOT like the man he grew into. Really wish they didn't 'sacrifice' Shaw in the way they did because it was really stupid imo. Like bro, how aren't you being dragged towards the portal? The GIANT METAL BALL was, how are you not? I would have preferred he simply sacrificed himself while trying to plug the machines again. The way I would of written it is that prior to getting out the Orb, he and Kei have their sweet n' sad final moment together while in the safety of the metal coffin. He jumps out and has his struggle with the cables, only to be eaten by the Ion Dragon the very moment he succeeds. The machines get tossed around by Ion flying with the cables in his mouth, only for Godzilla to legitimately save the day and knock Ion tf out the way he does regularly and The Gang gets thrown into the portal that way. Also I'd make the fight scene last longer than like. 1 minute. It was over before I realized it and I was so bwomp :( Also I liked the ice dog thing earlier in the show. uh yeah that's it from me.

[pinkandpurple360]

Honestly, I wish supposed to the show babying Fizz and treating him as if he was helpless, I'd like it if they would show him trying to be as self reliant as he can because you know, people with disabilities can take care of themselves they just have to make adjustments/find ways of doing things they may not have been able to do before. But he wants this because he doesn't like the feeling of being vulnerable let alone wants people to view him that way. Yes there's no shame in asking for help, sometimes you do and it'd be bad writing to have a disabled character able to do everything a able person could do but we're not children.

But to add to this: they could have had Fizz still have insecurities around his disability but not because of him being so more so in the fact he doesn't want people to pity him or feel the need to 'protect' him all the time. Even when Ozzie means well, his overprotectiveness can be a bit too much at times.

They eventually talk about this all out and set boundaries and the such and I like the idea that he learns some physical self defense (those arms likely can choke a man if used in the right way just saying) because he doesn't need any training on that in the verbal department (well, before Viv took away his bite anyways but ssssh I'm reconning here). The man will bite your head off with words even when his life is in danger I don't make the rules Viv this is how he should have been written Fizz and Ozzie are mine now!

Also, the show diving into Fizz worrying about Oz becoming more of a caretaker than a lover after ditching working for Mammon because health care is expensive it was Mammon that likely provided most of that. The last thing he wants is to be dependent completely on others, or at least feel that way could be something to explore but noooo Fizzomdous is perfect and there're no possible problems or conflicts that could happen even though all healthy relationships suffer from that time to time that's why communication is key. Viv doesn't want to write nuance just Wattpad Yaoi.

I'm not completely cohort here being I'm sleepy so this is me rambling than anything else but yeah.

-TA

Yes this all of this. Insisting a disabled man centre his whole life and self worth around his boyfriend and caretaker is bad. Fizz and Ozzie feel soooo Diane and Mr Peanutbutter coded.

No relationship is flawless and the ones that appear so have the biggest issues.

[miracleandplagueau]

What are your thoughts on the season 5 finale?

INHALE (S5 finale spoilers, duh)

Before I start, disclaimer, I didn't watch most of the season 5 episodes in full. I mosty watched the important lore things and completely gave up on filler. That being said I didn't need to apparently, so let's just get on with it.

✦ PART I. What the actual fuck just happened.

The entire episode felt like some kind of fever dream, like it was written by a 10 year old just starting their journey with original characters, power systems and stories on general and had little idea how to tie the plots together in a satisfying way. Unless we count the mass reunion of everyone from the past whereas I hoped that the NYC and Shanghai specials were just ""fun episodes"" in the vaccum.

The whole plot of both episodes is basically Marinette is badass for 1.5 episode, but fails at recognizing that Gabriel (cough cough THE Monarch) is way beyond redemption and fucks up the entire world (not really, will be explained later)

I'll say it right now, I hate how miraculous went from a magic-focused story to ending on so many science involving plotlines. I mean, come on. He suddenly got himself a laser to turn the miraculouses to rings, created brand new jewelry with floating displays. It sucks, I hate it all over.

✦ PART II. Gabriel and his shenanigans

Personally, I hate the one-wish quota. No matter what happens, I've always seen it boil down to two outcomes - either the villain is stopped from making the wish and he has to be dealt with in a regular way or he succeeds in making the wish and faces no consequences in the end because the world has changed so much

It's the latter with Gabriel, but at the same time not exactly. He succeeded in making the wish, bailed on everyone and get this - he not only got what he wanted, he also got away with it scot free. No, I don't care If he was trying to do the "good" thing by bringing back his dead wife because he loved her. He did horrible, horrible things to get to that. I'll tackle the lack of consequences a bit later on.

✦ PART III. After-wish consequences

HA what the fuck am I saying, CONSEQUENCES? IN MIRACULOUS LADYBUG? That's fucking hilarious. Apparently, not only Marinette doesn't have to worry about being called out, because Gabriel put n the earrings and suddenly he's the most lucky bastard in the universe. Spoiler alert: that's not how it works.

During the scenes that showcased how Emily and Nathalie are alive, how his house is no longer grim and is instead filled with life and roses and bushes. It was nice, It really was.... visually. It's one to look at it and think "yeah, that's a nice finale" and other to look at it while knowing the context.

Oh and by the way, Emilie. So happy we got to see her.... for 5 seconds without counting the video. SHE'S SUPPOSED TO BE THE MOTIVATION FOR GABRIEL TO REWRITE REALITY?!? I'll forever be salty about that.

Going back to the wish for a second and the outcome of making the wish,,, are you fucking serious. I thought the world was supposed to be rewritten when the wish is made, not fixed? What kind of wish did the fucker make, because clearly he brought back TWO people and nothing else seems to have changed. And do not get me with the "Oh but he sacrificed his life for the wish!!--" BULLSHIT. HE WAS AN HOUR AWAY FROM TURNING INTO DUST SMARTASS, THAT IS NOT A WORTHY SACRIFICE OF BRINGING SOMEONE FROM THE DEAD AND HEALING SOMEONE.

I'd at least enjoy it a little If he vanished. Like went poof, gone, no more Gabriel, because then the sacrifice would hold some weight. He gave up his existence so that Adrien is happy, but nooo motherfucker got a STATUE IN HIS HONOR.

Nobody took the blame for the Hawk Moth/Monarch situation either. To people of Paris he just appeared, caused chaos and destruction before fading away after GABRIEL AGRESTE SUDDENLY HAD THE POWER TO GIVE CIVILIANS WITH HIS NEW RINGS POWERS OF A HERO. Nobody found it weird? No? Just me? Okay.

✦ PART IV. Marinette more like Marynette Sue

Marinette was especially unbearable this finale. The fact that she was the only one who fought Monarch, that she's the only one that knows his identity, that she just casually got two most powerful miraculouses all for herself. It just. hurt me physically.

She thought she can be steven universe fr

✦ PART V. Can Adrien stop being a plot device FOR TWO EPISODES

I'm sorry, is this too much to ask for? Is it too much to ask for Adrien to have a part in anything here. During my watch, I can confidently say that I forgot that Adrien existed and yes I know that he's closed off in a padded room, because Gabriel wants to "keep him safe", but come ON at least give us a take away back to him seeing Gabriel on the screen, struggling with the nightmare or considering taking the whole Miraculer deal. It shouldn't be like that in the first place where the secondary main character, the second hero is left to rot while the strong female lead do everything seamlessly.

In the end, the only thing he did is kiss Marinette and take Gabriel's rings. He didn't even find out about his father being the literal Monarch, It felt so cheaped out I dunno. It could've worked If he had a bit more part in the actual fight.

✦ PART VI. Oh yeah, and about Lila's cliffhanger (and season 6 and 7)

WHO THOUGHT OF THIS BRIGHT IDEA?! (I know damn well who did)

I hate the fact that Miraculous will actually continue with Lila as the new butterfly holder. I hate the fact that she got what she wanted and that she will continue to BE there. I do not give a single fuck about Lila and I will not be watching beyond season 5 because for me, the show of Miraculous: Adventures of Ladybug and Chat Noir has ended and it has ended horrendously at that.

✦ PART VII. The little positives the finale had

I liked Bug Noir's design. VISUAL DESIGN. and the animation in Agreste's garden.

I also actually really enjoyed Tikki and Plagg's true forms and Gimmi's fun attitude. They really gave them that great look where you go "Oh yeah, these guys aren't JUST bugs and are actually something greater than a human being" and I like that a whole lot..

PART IX. Finally, final thoughts

There are so many things I still have to say about the finale like the Adrienette, other characters like Luka, Nathalie, Kagami's mother also getting away scot free (for now) and blah blah blah but I am TIRED. I'll likely talk about it in the future or just hopefully forget that it exists.

This one is rough as fuck I know but I'm just writing it as I go

In short, man, am I glad this is over. Am I glad this is over.

Thomas, get your fucking shit together, because middle schoolers write better and more consistent stories. Bringing in all your half-assly written characters to just fight a distraction of sort and having your main character face the villain all alone because she's a strong female lead is not good writing thank you for coming to my ted talk

[wordsandrobots]

So the problem with my brain's capacity to plan stories is that it doesn't know when to stop.

Because here I am, 6000 words into writing the final part of Wishing on Space Hardware, which is essentially a superfluous coda to make up the numbers and tie off a few loose emotional strands from the main plot, and of course I'm already thinking about the other Iron-Blooded Orphans stories I'd like to write. Indeed, some of them I have already started, because of course I have.

Now, to be fair, most of those ideas are slash. Smutty slash too. Did you know writing sex scenes triggers the same 'choreography goes brr' synapses as writing fight scenes? I didn't until a couple of years ago and now here we are, with at least two collections of explicit short stories in the offing.

First up is Sympathy and Other Mistakes, which I would already call done if not for the inexplicable urge to add more chapters to it. This is the one that I previously mentioned goes well to Great Night by NEEDTOBREATHE and is for the . . . let's call it 'crack-ship taken seriously' that I'm still not sure I want to publish anything for. I'm fairly nonplussed by moral-purity hand-wringing over age gaps and so forth, and firmly of the belief that getting laid is the least problematic thing anyone in Tekkadan has ever done, but it's a pairing that essentially requires the entirety of Wishing on Space Hardware to have happened to work. So, about a decade of character development beyond the show, which probably narrows the audience past the initial 'wait, what' filter. Thing is, it's an interesting pairing that I think actually works incredibly well with established canon. A thoroughly unromantic thing that swerves from dubcon to somewhere that's honestly kind of sweet, rooted in a search for redemption both characters know is ultimately hopeless. So . . . yeah. We'll see.

Second is the one I suspect would be most popular, You, Me and Everyone Else, which is the logical extension of deciding Shino and Yamagi are poly i.e., how much of the rest of the cast can I ship them with?

Technically, I suppose the bit I've written most of already isn't actually that premise at all but rather them unlocking the most blindingly obvious kinks imaginable. Still, it's fun and should be interesting when placed alongside the other ideas I've got planned. To whit:

Yamagi/Shino/Eugene/Sri (OC) -- The poly relationship I've been building throughout WoSH, in a situation I can't discuss yet

Yamagi/Chad/Shino -- Because I'm curious if I can make that work. If you've been following along so far, you'll have noted the emotional heft in the Yamagi/Shino/Eugene relationship is skewed such that Shino/Eugene is more intense than Yamagi/Eugene. I kind of want to play with that in the other direction, by giving Yamagi a partner he's more strongly attracted to than Shino is. Also I want Chad to have nice things.

598/Yamagi/Shino -- Look. My perfect gremlin child managed to squeak out of that game in one piece and so I get to imagine him grown up and happy, OK? And by grown up I mean roughly barrel-shaped and capable of out-wrestling Shino, and by happy I mean slightly drunk and blurting out “You're really pretty" at Yamagi in the middle of swapping 'holy shit, you're not dead' stories. It'll be fine.

(Chapter titles are already themed: Fantasia for Chains, [REDACTED], Variation on a Theme, and Guest Soloist. Because yes.)

Beyond that, I suppose technically that idea of cadet!Cyclase trying to come on to young officer!McGillis is also slash but I don't believe it would actually go anywhere per se. More that McGillis would take one look at Cyclase and go 'not today, thank you', and Cyclase would get to a point in the conversation and come to the realisation that killing McGillis wouldn't achieve much. I don't know. I'm intrigued by the idea of McGillis accidentally prompting Cyclase off the path of vengeance and on to the path of whatever-the-fuck he was trying to achieve in Urdr Hunt, and there is the challenge of actually writing the bastard's POV (I scrupulously avoided writing either McGillis or Orga's perspective in WoSH).

Oh, speaking of POVs, I was considering doing something with the Venus gang as the other side to Eugene Sevenstark and the Hesperus Treasure, but the idea's not really stuck past how the Urdr Hunt plot wound up going. Maybe if the theatrical presentation version gives me more food for thought? (I am crossing everything that they don't pull a diablous ex machina on us and kill anyone else; I already wrote 598 a cameo in the fic I'm posting at the moment, damnit.)

And then, well. Then there's the actual . . . calling it a sequel to WoSH would be a stretch. It's set another ten years on in the same version of events, but it's very much detached from WoSH's plot and would be my attempt to do a 'what if Akatsuki grew up and starred in a Gundam show' story. The short answer is that he's the most throw-himself-on-the-wire pacifist you could hope to meet and he's gone and got himself caught up in a big mess involving interplanetary medical testing, pirates, and the IBO equivalent of the Gundam Fight because mobile suit battles for sport and the Jupiter equivalent of Las Vegas feels like a fun setting to explore. He'd be a dutagonist alongside a female Gundam pilot who I know lots about but don't have a name for yet. And the story would also feature me performing an act of character necromancy so devilish, you'll probably curse me for it. Because I worked out how I could pull it off and now I think I've got to. Overall this would very much be a one-and-done thing. I'm thinking like Narrative is to Unicorn: a story technically following on and handling some of the same themes but with much punchier pacing and an entirely new cast. No idea when I'd get to it and I don't expect it'll have as much traction as WoSH on account of largely being OC-focused, but I think it could be fun.

OK. There we go. Those are the currently-percolating ideas. I will answer questions on them if you have any but this is mainly just me jotting them down in the hopes that if I just focus on these, I won't spontaneously generate more.

*laughs hysterically*

Yeah, we all know it doesn't work like that. But I tried, damnit!

[freeced]

TRIGUN LO-FI // Typhoon's Eye | Freeced [Trigun Stampede Song] Hey, it's been a while! I know I've skipped a few songs...I'll get back to them...probably...but this is my newest one and it's the one I'm excited about right now so this is the post you get! TRIGUN LO-FI // Typhoon's Eye is my soft and poetic tribute to Trigun Stampede as well as a retro nod to the anime's roots. I've done a few lo-fi rap tracks, and though I did include a short rap verse in this one, I really wanted to leave a lot more room for the instrumental and melody to shine through by doing a little more singing and a lot more shutting up. As with a lot of my more singing-focused songs, it bears a strong melancholy tone and enough queerly-flipped religious imagery to make you ask if I'm okay. I am okay! The music video for this song was edited by my best friend and longtime collaborator @carovt, which meant I could do things like shoot some live-action footage for once and throw it at her instead of figuring out how to fit it into an AMV myself. I had a very good time leaning over her shoulder and going "Make this nearly imperceptible change I want" while she calmly explained how complicated my requests actually were in After Effects, a program I have come to despise with a passion usually reserved for programs I have ever used. And then she'd make the changes anyway, because she's the best. Thank you, C. I did all the live-action filming myself. I waited till kind of late in the day, which is the main reason why there isn't much, but I got really lucky when a train just happened to be passing right behind the spot I had picked out. I don't often get chances to show my favorite places in the city where I live, because most of them aren't the sorts of places you'd take someone. I've always had a thing for the broken-down parts of town, the train tracks, the empty roofs, the paint-marked alleys, and the rubble piles left over from construction projects that never seem to end. I'm glad I got to show you one of those spots, even if it's nothing really special, because it's where I live and it's where I am alive. I wish I'd been able to shoot the rap part while the train was still going by, but I'm so bad at remembering my own lyrics that I couldn't get a solid take before it passed. Ah well. I'm proud of what we got. Anyway, that's TRIGUN LO-FI. If you've listened to it already, I hope you liked it! And thank you! If you haven't yet, I hope you will! It's for Trigun fans, it's for queers like me, it's for anybody who just needs something calm to listen to while the wind and grit and gunsmoke fade away. Oh yeah, and it's on streaming platforms too. If that's where you go for anime-inspired lo-fi songs that are melancholy and written by queer folks with obvious comfort characters. For instance. - Freeced

[idyllsoftheabyssalforest]

Celetere Clinic Overview

The next in the timeline would be EO4's Celetere, formed in Tharsis! Admittedly, I don't really feel like writing their bios and attacking their game images just yet, since this is the story that I'm working on currently. Instead, please enjoy this little uhh... decompression? post-mortem? self-debriefing? it's under the cut as usual since I hate to be a bother, though I do warn that it's very rambley and probably doesn't make sense. <:') Hope it's entertaining though!

While EO4 is the first EO game I ever completed (~first week of November), I think I'm still trying to make sense of it and the plot divergences that I wanted to implement since I kind of rushed through it. Probably not the feeling I'd wanna have when finishing succeeding EOs <:")

It was also probably because EO4 is the game whose story I was most unfamiliar with. I don't know what was up with 15-year old Marty (since a lot of these characters have existed from then), but for some reason the conflict of EO4 didn't click with him. Either that or he was so enraptured with EO1-3's plot twists and then EO5's character creator that EO4 kinda fell by the wayside. Bubu Marty.

(as an aside, I'm glad that I'm old enough to be able to distinguish the nuances in both the characters and the story <:"))

One of the things that made me a bit sad was the lack of documentation too on EO4's actual written text. I did manage to find some decompiled text, but it didn't really have later game events in Maze 5 (particularly the "town square" events that seem to change if you have KG or WF in your party, as well as similar changes in Maze 5 proper). It's a little bit of a shame since I do really like WF and KG, and I adored the event where the Sentinel defended the Imperial soldier from the Vessels' anger.

A part of me wants to bring up WW too, though I fear that I might spoil something if I talk too much. But something funny that happened to my wife and I (I was sharing screenshots and short videos to her since we live apart) was that we had a whole debriefing session after the fight with him. A dialogue choice has never made me wish so hard that I could go back and change it to something else (referring to "extend hand" choice).

but yeah! even though I rushed through the lategame, there were still a lot of serendipitous moments that I hope that I will be able to illustrate as time goes on :0. thank you for listening (or reading rather) my ramble, and hope that the weather is fair to you today.

[seerofmike]

mike 2023 year in review

whats up, this is something i started last year where i decided at the end of the year i would talk about 7 movies + 7 viddy games i enjoyed this year (the movies will be 2023 releases, the games will be all over the place). this is so i can look back on the future on the things i enjoyed this year but since im posting it publicly most of these will be written as recommendations i guess

also i did not have a lot of money to see movies this year so most of these will be IP movies :( sawi. also also 2023 was a mega good year for gaming. or so i've heard. most of the big 2023 games this year either came out on consoles i don't own (nintendo + sony releases), are next-gen only as far as xbox goes or unable to run on my dinky little laptop (AW2, the finals, re4, etc) or are just games in genres i dont really give a shit about (bg3, starfield, sea of stars). significant 2023 games i did play this year were dave the diver and dredge but not enough to be on the list. maybe next year hehe

anyways without further ado. my top 7 movies and top 7 games this year, in alternating (movie/game/move/game/etc) AND alphabetical order:

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

yeah you knew this shit was going on here. i saw this movie 8(eight) times in theaters. the first two times were because of the audio issues with the first cut but the rest was because the movie fucked babeeeeey. you don't need me to tell you how good this was

The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood (2023)

ok listen before i recommend this game i have to be mean to make a point first. if you know anything about me you know i think tarot is stupid as fuck and i think witchy nonsense is. well. just that. nonsense. it makes me roll my eyes especially the particular brand of like. r/WitchesVersusPatriarchy stuff. man i just dont like any sort of spiritualism or religious stuff. with that being said this game fucks tremendously and i cannot recommend it enough

you get to design your own tarot deck and each card will be unique and have meanings based on the templates you're given. you can then use these cards to tell your friends' fortunes. except it goes way deeper than that but i dont want to spoil the twist for you. also it kind of becomes a different game midway through but i like management games so its fine. anyways good game and very repayable with all the card designs you can make and fortunes you can read. art style is also very nice.

(more under da cut)

Barbie

man i know a lot of people dont like this movie after the hype wore off because its Baby's First Feminism. and that's fine. i don't really think it was trying to achieve some uber deep commentary. but the set design and costuming was great and you could tell the actors and crew were having so much fucking fun and as someone who wants to go into movies i will always like movies where the people making them are having fun.

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog (2023)

i like the visual novel where everyone dresses in a funny costume and sonic fucking dies ok. it was so cute and had very good characterization for people i didnt think would ever be in the focus of a game again like espio ........go play the murder of sonic thee hedge

Bottoms

this one is probably my 2nd favorite movie of the year tbh. i need more absurdist gay comedies. i wish i could go on about how hilarious this movie is but i dont wanna give away all jokes but anyways go watch the lesbian incel movie and have a good time

Potionomics (2022)

if i had a nickel for every gay witch game i played this year with significant card and management mechanics and appealing art i'd have two nickels. which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.

anyways potionomics is absolutely my favorite game that i've played this year. it's not all that similar to cosmic wheel sisterhood despite the basic concept and some gameplay elements. CWS is more like a visual novel. potionomics is a fucking nightmare and i love it SO much.

you brew potions and then sell them by haggling with customers using cards. customers can haggle back and it can get VERY difficult. everything you do takes up limited time slots such as gathering ingredients and brewing potions and visiting your friends and btw you can visit your friends and all of the characters are incredibly charming and i had trouble picking which one to romance. (roxanne my beloved <3) (also the white haired character in the screenshot above is a nonbinary goblin :) ) (this game has CAT PIRATES)

the game also rewards you with befriending the characters and gives you cards the deeper your relationships become and new gameplay mechanics open themselves up to you until the last couple stretches of the game. it's very fun, very stressful, but very rewarding once you figure out how to maximize your profits and use up your time slots effectively. i had a fucking blast.

also the animation is so good. literally the best animation on this sort of stylized 3d model in a game i've ever seen. PLEASE play potionomics.

Guardians of the Galaxy 3

god man. i just love the guardians so much. tbh this is my least favorite movie of the trilogy but all three of them are easily better than nearly every other marvel movie regardless. i love nebula and rocket so much and seeing small moments between them like her choking up when she hears he's okay fucking Gets To Me. i loved me asshole mercenaries who become a found family and try to be good people.

Prey (2017)

prey is not my favorite game this year nor my favorite survival sim but the first five or so hours of this game were the most engrossed i was in a game this year. towards the middle and ending portions it starts to lose me a little bit (the game is still good!) but the beginning was absolutely the best part.

being trapped in space with aliens that can mimic items in your surroundings leaves you extremely paranoid, and combing through the station finding recordings and notes and evidence of the lives of the people who were once there, knowing that most of them are probably dead--while monsters lurk around the corner ready to fuck your shit up--was deeply engrossing. i wish i could erase my brain and experience those first hours again being terrified of everything that moved before i got a shotgun and figured out how to win fights pretty regularly lol

Killers of the Flower Moon

if you're gonna watch a 3 hour movie this year about atrocities committed in the past i'd recommend this one over The Other One tbh. i found it deeply engaging and thought lily gladstone gave a great performance that easily outshone leo. the events of the movie are deeply harrowing and i think there is definitely some discussion to be had about how the movie centers on the white men despite scorses's intentions but the technical work was great and i think it really does a good job of showing just how deep this shit went in the community as opposed to being 'just a couple of bad whites' or w/e other narrative people will try to spin.

Psycholonials (2021)

im gonna go ahead and say right now i don't really recommend this game unless you are familiar with andrew hussie and HS/their other work. i think the game was fine but tbh it probably would not have been on my list if it was made by anyone else. that's not to say it's bad, just like. nothing mind blowing.

that being said i did very much enjoy this game in the sense that, as someone who DOES know a thing or two about andrew hussie, the way they feel about their work (especially HS in the years afterward), it was interesting seeing them make a game about starting a cult by accident, with all the gender fuckery and feelings of paranoia about being cancelled and how out of control its become feeling like a little glimpse into them. watching how manic and obsessive the protag gets with several years of Hussie Context(tm) makes this way more interesting than the game itself if im being fully honest.

if the game truly sucked it wouldn't be on here but do take my word for it that you'd probably appreciate it way more if you were a HS fan LMAO

Skinamarink (2022)

ok so technically skinamarink came out in 2022 BUT it got a theatrical release in january 2023 which is when *i* saw it so i'm counting it as a 2023 movie. anyways skinamarink is simultaneously very scary and also boring as shit and i could never actually recommend this movie to anyone but the fact that it was made at all and made a PROFIT is outstanding to me and i'm obsessed with it as an aspiring filmmaker. an hour and fourty minutes of staring at a dark corner to build atmosphere. fuck yeah

Venba (2023)

this one's very short but i found it very compelling despite how short it was. it almost felt TOO short but i like it for what it is. as the son (and grandson) of mexican immigrants who often regretted migrating for cultural and language reasons this really connected with me and the cooking puzzles were fun but i really wisht here was more of them. it's less about the puzzles though and more about the narrative and i thought it was really smart to make the throughline food. very good game. buy it.

TMNT: Mutant Mayhem

look at my fucking sons. everyone say thank you spider verse for changing the animation industry. i love how the boys' VAs were just goofing off and having fun and bouncing off each other it was great

This War of Mine (2014)

this one is a survival management game where you have to scavenge for materials somewhere in war-torn eastern europe with some stealth mechanics. some of your characters die very easy and some characters have 'negative' traits like being unable to sneak out or fight or drink up all your alcohol and it's not like the best in its genre but i did spend a ton of time in it. i still need to finish like a single scenario and not a custom game LMAO