#and i just know im going to lose this momentum

[foggysirens]

when the fic is fic-ing but you have to get up and go do things

#sobbin into my hands #i honestly am strugging with this fic SO MUCH and its supposed to be a fun little oneshot like not even a long one #and im afraid im never going to write anything passably good ever again #and rn its actually kind of going okay but i have to get up and make my bed and shit before it gets too late #and i just know im going to lose this momentum #and i just wanna write so bad cause its fun and i love it but i just cant help but think this im also just so bad at it #ANYWAYS HAHA #mj.chatter #personal

[ironmanstan]

.

#realized my adhd is in fact not being better managed i am just severely stupid and have become a workaholic on accident!! #wow my life is so structured and i am so productive so this must mean i am being healthy and normal -> uh oh #if i constantly have things to do... when i lose focus then i can just focus on something else... #but this requires one to have 4 million responsibilities #and well. well. #i am like sitting here and coming up with more and more and more to work on and its like god i cannot just do it bc i know i can #in theory i can but also in theory i would like to continue to be funny and have every other anxiety disorder except for anxiety #stares at the wall at 5 am about all of the deadlines i have and how i must structure my silly little life around them like a fool #maybe i will get my momentum back when i go to school again. maybe i will be sane when my parents arent killing me #<- if they ask again if i got my portfolio results . as if i would not be telling everyone if i got in or not THEYRE STILL BEING GRADEDDD #myyyyyyyyy godddddddddd weeoigh #i am being normal and functioning again tho we are slaying i guess. i need to organize everything still but we will be fine #the gamer speaks uwu #vent #i guess . im just commenting on my behaviors

[andr0nap-wf]

Ok, but now youve really piqued my interest. What do you think Deimos looked like pre-infestation? And, yknow what? Even if you dont yet have the skill to draw it well, do it! Make a shitty landscape sketch of the Son of Mars, the personification of terror himself!

ohboy this ask activated my worldbuilding worms.. probably not that different from how it looks now:

a barren stony wasteland.

except it used to have 30 hour days. i say "used to" bc it seems deimos stopped spinning over time (possibly due to the infestation tearing it apart and making it lose momentum), locking our part of the moon in permanent night. which is. bonkers to think about.

limited terraforming couldve been done since it seems like it served as a research facility outpost for the entrati first and a home second, so just enough has been done to sustain life (which might be even limited to the region around the necralisk, who knows).

they mightve introduced pioneer organisms:

simple, resilient flora like grasses, mosses and shrubbery (like the blue plants we see by the necralisk entrance. the wiki speculates they might be remnants of the original vegetation which i like)

and a small selection of animals: insects, fish and pre-infestation variants of the vulpa, preda and avichaea to propel and maintain the ecosystem.

which can give us a barren, desert-like biome:

think nevada desert but in space? i guess? the grass is supposed to be tiny shrubs but i am not drawing those sorry

besides that we also have plenty of entrati ruins littering the plateau:

like remnants of a suspended road system.

the buildings(?) that housed the requiem obelisks

and other facilities (some of which seem to have collapsed below the surface and lead into the iso vaults)

so i came up with this messy thing thats mostly headcanon, speculation and wild guesses based on what we can find around the necralisk and what i think is cool:

(inclusion of the garden based on sons dialogue (iykyk), attached to the necralisk for convenience. with extra roads. for convenience)

this was fun to brainstorm and i had the game open in the bg while drawing to make sure i got things semi-accurately. im not trusting everythings position on the landscape 100% since a lot seems to have shifted around or is like. missing completely (the roads that lead off the plateau and into the infested abyss. fun!) which imply that the drift used to be bigger before the infestation tore it apart

thanks for the question! i hope this was... helpful? insightful? a fascinating glimpse into my sleep deprived and overthinking mind because i pulled an all-nighter for this and am going to bed now?

#warframe #my art #my screenshots #inbox #chronicler-of-narrative #dont worry about the allnighter its not your fault #your ask inspired me and my illness is very mental (adhd) #im going to bed GOODNIGHT

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

for funsies and because the Writing Motivation gripped me, here's a snippet of a modern human au scene. no-context edition. it's unedited and also its 1 am, so if it's a lil wonky take pity on me <3 im just a lil guy <3

~

“It’s addressed to one, uh, Wally Darlin' -”

“That’s me.”

“Oh, is it? Great! I was hopin’ I wouldn’t have to return it. Good thing I carried it with me, huh? Y’know, funny thing - your last name kinda reminds me of mine.”

Wally takes the offered letter. “It does?” 

“Yessir! It’s not often you meet a Darling, let alone a Dear-”

“Eddie Dear!” Wally says, his eyes widening and his smile growing. 

Eddie blinks. He checks his shirt to see if a nametag manifested. There isn’t one. “How’d you know my name? Is - is this a prank? Am I being filmed?”

“Ha, no, silly. I knew you looked familiar. It was bothering me,” Wally says, looking completely unbothered. “We went to high school together.”

“High… school?” Eddie frowns, wracking his brain. “But I don’t… oh. Oh! You’re the funny lil’ fella who hung with the weird kids!”

Eddie slaps a hand over his mouth as soon as the words spill out of his mouth, blanching. He stares at Wally in horror, waiting for the smile to sour. Why did he have to go and open his big, stupid-

“Ha ha ha, ha ha” Wally enunciates, his smile turning into a grin. He points at himself, eyes narrowed with mirth. “That’s me. I’m happy you remembered! I was starting to think you didn’t.”

“I almost didn’t,” Eddie says. He slowly drops his hand, relieved beyond words that Wally didn’t take his words as a slight. They weren’t. “You seemed familiar as well, I just couldn’t quite put my finger on it.”

“Luckily, now we both have. It’s nice to see you again. How have you been?”

“I’ve been… well enough, I suppose.” Eddie carefully swallows the word vomit rising in his throat. 

He doesn’t have time to catch up with Wally, as much as he’d like to sit down and chat. Or maybe he wants to hightail it out of here… the mortification is blending so strangely with this awkward reunion and Eddie’s own past issues rekindling. Eddie’s tempted to just sit down and hold his head in his hands until his mind stops spinning. 

Wally hums. “Would you like to come back later to tell me more? It’s been a very long time, Eddie.”

“It has, and I’d like that very much, but… I’m not sure. I’ve got a packed schedule, Mr. Darling.”

“Call me Wally,” Wally says immediately. A strange sharpness underlies his tone.

“Wally,” Eddie corrects. “But it was awfully wonderful to see you again.”

“I agree. Maybe I’ll see you again tomorrow?”

Only the endearing uptick to the sentence tips Eddie off to it being a question. He adjusts his hat. “I can’t say for sure. I got a late start today, but my job doesn’t really offer a reliable timetable. It all depends on what I got to deliver, you know?”

“No,” Wally says. “But I can imagine.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I hope we do run into each other again! I’m just real busy.”

Wally nods. “I understand.”

Eddie nods back. They stand in awkward silence for a beat too long, though Wally seems perfectly comfortable with the quiet. And the prolonged eye-contact. 

“Well.” Eddie clears his throat and takes a step back, preparing to say goodbye. 

Naturally, his foot misses the step and he falls backwards. Wally’s eyes widen and he lunges forward, but Eddie twists and manages to turn the fall into a jarring stumble. He staggers halfway down the path before losing momentum.

“Hoo, that was a close one!” Eddie readjusts his hat and huffs, putting his hands on his hips. “That would’ve been a nasty fall, let me tell ya.”

“Please watch where you’re going,” Wally says, standing halfway down the steps. His cat is still where it was told to sit. The brief glimpse of surprise Eddie caught has been replaced by that sleepy, neutral expression. Eddie wonders if he even saw it. 

“Don’t worry, I’m pretty talented at survivin’ tough tumbles,” Eddie laughs. “I’ll get to my truck in one piece - it was nice seein’ you again, Mr. Darli- Wally.”

Wally holds up his letter. “We’ll see you around.”

He says it like a promise. Or a threat?

Eddie smiles and tips his hat before leaving, struggling to keep his pace casual. He nearly throws himself into the truck and slumps into his seat with no small amount of relief. He grips the steering wheel and rests his forehead against it.

#and i have a headache now so im gonna go sleep! #i have to get up early... ough.... #anyway thinking so hard about the human au tonight #the layers!!! The Layers!!!! #ough headache getting worse No Rambles Tonight folks bye #i. dont know how to tag this #chucking that tiny problem at future me. you can deal with tagging #edit: future me here! fuck you! i had to look through my archive for this! #wh modern human au #snippets from the bog

[rinbowaman]

heelel+handkink/choking kink= pls make it happen (im just desperate for his hands and i admit it)

I'll have to make this one quick since i've got so much WIP that i'm invested in, but i can't leave any reader behind. Plus, it's been a while since we got any Heelel (Heeseung/Helel) material and i do miss him. so here we go....

MDNI 18+ below.

Heelel has alot of kinks, one of them is seeing his hand wrapped around your neck, while his thumb reaches up to brush over your lips. Or the way one of your breasts fills his palm when he squeezes it as he's thrusting in and out of you, watching his length sliding in with ease as he's fucking you so good, making you bounce up and down, left or right, or side to side--you name it.

He also loves it when he's making direct eye contact with you, and as he's licking the flat surface of his tongue over your mouth, he takes your hand and slowly guides it down to the base of his shaft, not exchanging any words or breaking eye contact. Once he feels your soft and delicate hands ringing around his thickness, he'll start to thrust, making you get a taste of what he's about to do to your womanhood.

Each time he's inside you, this man cannot stop holding you by the neck, where he controls your momentum and fucks you relentlessly; bouncing you up and down with your skin slamming down on his balls, making it an absolute gooey mess down there. His grip would tighten, and his black feathered wings would flare up, the thorns of their structure pierces the air as he eludes a powerful and eerie aura, yet tells you to "sit on it....yeah, now fuck it." all the while holding you by your sweet neck, covered in bite marks and bruised kisses. inch by inch, his grip tightens more during the entire time he's pumping you, until you scream out that you're about to cum and he releases the same time as you, and you barely can breathe as he slightly chokes you out, but releases just in time as your cavity drools all over his creamed member. You think he's done, but he's not...he pumps his cock in and out of you deep and slow a few more times, and then buries it deep, and that's when he releases your neck and lets you fall atop of him, where he cradles you in his arms.

Now, lets not forget that there are times where he goes absolutely feral, and more of his demon side comes out. He hasn't gone fully devil like he did the first time, he knows that actually scared you. Instead, while he fucks you, you feel the claws of his hands grow, and slightly scratches your skin as he grips onto you. His eyes flare red, and, and his fangs grow, his tongue comes out and he licks you painfully slow while breathing harshly as he continues to choke you out. The tip of his shaft taps against your soft spot, and the immense pleasure of being fucked out while losing air from his rough, yet careful grip causes you to clench and pulsate until finally you release and gasp out your moans as he jolts EVERY SINGLE DROP of his seed inside you, slamming into you as the sound of skin slapping echoes throughout his hellish realm.

#heeseung x reader #heeseung scenarios #heeseung smut #enha x reader #heeseung hard hours #heeseung hard thoughts #enhypen hard hours #enhypen smut #enha heeseung

[bropunzeling]

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

you 🤝 me

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#ask #editing is the worst so i hope this makes you feel better about the process!!

[piffany666]

Ok just one more punk progeny won't hurt~

Chapter 2: barging in

(Ftm Bright eyes - he/him)

Bright eyes thought about what he'd say to William as he ran down the hallway, up to his study.

He had never met him officially but its not as if he's worried about making a good first impression, I mean he's on his way to accuse him of the vampire equivalent of adopting him without consent.

He didn't exactly have long to think about this though as it only took him a couple of seconds to get to his study. He still wasn't exactly used to (or particularly good at) this whole super speed thing, anytime he'd train with Sam Bright would get upset that he wasn't as fast as Fred and that just made Sam mad at him.

Losing no momentum, Bright burst into William's study.

"Hey!-" he was about to begin but was shockingly taken aback by William and his appearance.

He didn't look up at him when Bright burst through the door, he just continued writing. He had long light blonde hair that elegantly flopped forward, covering his eyes slightly as his head leaned forward over his desk.

Bright wasn't sure what came over him, it was as if a wave of respect washed over him as soon as he opened the door.

Then he snapped out of it.

"Hey!" He repeated, he managed to finish his sentence this time only he was louder.

Either William didn't hear him the first time or he was ignoring him but his eyes looked up at Bright, however he kept his head down.

As mentioned before, Bright didn't have a lot of time to prepare a speech and he'd already lost his composure, so he just figured he'd say whatever came to mind.

But before he could start, William began, with a welcoming and soft tone that almost made Bright eyes completely at ease. Almost.

"Ah Bright, I've been meaning to talk with you~ actually we've never officially met have we? I'm William solaire and you're the one they call 'Bright eyes' ? I'd love to know where that name came from. Please sit."

Bright had to shake his head around just to convince himself not to comply.

"Cut the crap! I know what you and Sam plan on doing with me. That you're supposed to 'take me off Sam's hands' cos crist knows that southern bastard can't handle me on his own.

But before you seal the deal....

Could you at least give me a chance to think about it?"

You'd think William would be confused at this but he's smart enough to figure out what's happened here.

He looked to his antique clock on the wall beside him that looked like if you sold it you could buy a house with it.

He sighed and pinched the skin between his eyes.

"Damn it Vincent, its been less than 20 minutes and you're already gossiping about matters that barley concern you"

He took a deep breath and looked at Bright with his silver eyes that seemed to illuminate his face.

"I can understand why you'd think that is the case, however im sorry to inform you that there has been a slight miscommunication. Either Vincent misinterpreted what I told him in the meeting or you heard him wrong, in any case that is not what my intention with you was".

Bright gave a look of disbelief, then looked down.

"R-really?"

He had no idea what it was about this man that made him want to respect him almost instantly but William still smiled and answered him.

"No. The plan was that I'd ask for Vincent's council on the matter, then ask if you'd like to be transferred as my progeny and IF you agreed I'd go to Sam and ask for his consent to 'take you off his hands' as it where"

Brights eyes widened

"It was always going to be your decision, Bright, I apologise for any hardship this mistake may have caused you"

Bright looked to the floor for guidance. He felt so stupid now. He didn't know what to do.

But William did.

"So now that we have that out of the way, please sit."

Bright would be exaggerating if he said that William's tone was sturn but he had a feeling that he didn't want to know what would happen if he declined.

So he hastily sat down at one of William's chairs facing his desk.

"This meating is certainly happening faster then i has expected, but I suppose there's no point in sending you away now".

Bright stayed silent.

"Well you've already told me your decision on the matter so I suppose this could be a way for me to get to know you before you make your final decision".

"W-what?"....

"When you came in here you said you'd like to think about it, so while you 'think about it' I'd like to get to know you

For instance, your name".

Bright's brown thurowed "what about it?"

William smiled and closed his eyes in a way that reminded Bright of when he was alive, when the sun would wake him up by blinding him and he'd have to choose between a warm bed and eyesight. Eventually he'd always close the blinds....

Damn it why I this French f*k making me spit poetry?! Thought Bright eyes to himself.

"It's very interesting~ where dose it come from? I think its safe to say that you weren't born with it and it's not uncommon for young vampires to change their name upon being turned. So

Where did you come up with a name like that?"

Bright felt more at ease at this, maybe it was the fact that he was no longer being blinded by his piercing eyes.

He thought about this question for a second and was briefly brought back to a time befor he died, before he got top surgery and when there was literally no part of his body that he didn't hate.

Apart from his eyes. And the only reason for that......was Fred telling him basically every other week just how "bright his eyes where".

He stopped himself from smiling at this. Because that wasn't the reason why he called himself that.

He called himself "Bright eyes" to remind himself of what Fred had taken from him that night. When he first looked in the mirror after being turned he was met with the loss of the one thing he actually liked about himself, he also hated the irony of the one who made him love his eyes was the one who took the light from them away.

He then looked at William with his usual cocky smirk that had become like a resting face for him.

"You know when someone complements you and then you make that one complement your whole personality?"

Bright regretted this question immediately after asking it. How was he supposed to know if William understood what he was telling him? Dudes like a thousand years old!

But then William gave a short giggle, still keeping his eyes closed.

"Oh yes~ there's a woman from the house of Benit that was once told that she 'looked good in red' and I honestly can't recall a single time she's worn anything else In the last century".

They both laughed at this.

"So there was somone in your life that complimented your eyes?~ and now you call yourself Bright eyes?"

Bright gave a sturn "yes" hoping that he wouldn't ask anymore of him.

William was about to ask him about his realationship with Sam and why HE thinks William wants to take him in but then he got a sharp wiff of something that made his eyes go sharp.

It was blood. Vampiric blood.

Bright was bleeding.

William shot up from his desk, making Bright jump in the prosses. He didn't mean to scare him as much as he did but he had to know what was hurting him.

He went around his desk to where Bright was sitting and bent down. It was coming from his palms.

"What happened?" His voice didn't contain pity as much as it did concern, that combined with a sturn look made Bright feel weak. Like he was about to cry.

Not from the pain, he hadn't noticed he was bleeding until just now. No.

He was just surprised to hear somone caring about him again...

"O-oh i-i scrunched up my fist up kinda tight when I heard what Vincent said, i-i guess I squeezed a little to hard huh? Haha...." his voice was braking up.

He needed to get out of here before William noticed the state he was in.

But he already knew.

He grabbed him softly by the shoulders and said "stay here"

Upon turning Bright's hand over for inspection, he noticed that there wasn't just blood coming from his palms, there was marks on his knuckles that implied blunt force trauma.

Maybe now wasn't a good time to tell William that he punched his wall so hard he cracked it, thought Bright.

William pondered whether or not using healing magic was a good idea. Bright wasn't used to magic just yet, not only that but his bad realationship with Sam may have made him not exactly....partial to healing magic.

But then he looked up at Bright, he had THAT look.

The same look Vincent gave him that convinced him to save him.

The look he historically couldn't resist.

He took Bright's hand and it flinched as if he had electrocuted him.

But then Bright took a deep breath and gingerly placed his plam in William's hand.

William gave a look of reassurance and began working on his hand.

Bright winced and hissed and tried to pull away, but William didn't waver in his attempt to heal him. He squeezed his hand to keep him still in a way that didn't hurt him but so that he couldn't let go.

Afterwards, William let go and Bright's hand shot away from him,he began breathing heavily.

Now William DID have a look of pity on his face but he didn't let Bright see it.

Bright looked up at him and for a moment the two sat there in silence just looking at each other softly.

Bright was then the one to brake the silence.

"Right well...now that that mishap is all figured out I really should get going" he didn't exactly have an excuse but he didn't want to talk to William any longer.

Not because he had any problem with him, he actually felt better and more comfortable than he had been In ages after spending less than 10 minutes with him.

But William said that he wanted to "get to know Bright" and he liked William to much already to let him realise just how terrible he really was and the mistake he was making.

If William wanted him as a progeny now....better keep it that way.

So he left after making a motion with his body that resembled an awkward excuse for a bow, his face was bright red (ha!) After that.

William smiled to himself and finally opened his eyes.

"It seems I have my work cut out for me with this 'Bright eyes'"

He was disappointed that their time was so short but he shrugged it off.

He picked up his phone and began to make a call to Samuel.

"Hello Samuel, I like to request a meeting with you"

.............

"In a few days"

..........

"Alright~ alright~"

When he finished his call he made a new one directly afterwards.

"Hello, yes it's good to hear from you!~ do you have any free time to come by the house and fix a crack, presumably also a hole, in one of my walls?~"

..............

"Thank you, goodbye~".

(Credits go to @darlin-collins for the idea and thanks for proof reading and all the complements 💙🧡)

#redacted asmr #redacted audio #redactedverse #redacted bright eyes #redacted listener #redacted solaire clan #redacted william #redacted vincent #redactedsam #redacted fanfic #trans mc #trans masc #ok just one more punk progeny won't hurt~

[samarecharm]

Bouncing off my bi ryuji awakening post, im gonna add these tags from it: (separated to make it easier to read)

[#anyway. akira is the guy ever. and ryuji is exploding#‘i have died. badly’#i like thinking of akira like this; hes ryujis first exposure to nb ppl and gnc adjacent stuff#even if akira is p masc by most standards hes still got a bit of. aloofness. about his gender stuffs#ryuji is just really into the way akira carries himself#and it takes him a while to go oh. oh i think its cause i like this dude#um.#😳.

#also i wanted to clarify#but ryujis mom just doesnt know Who akira is in that picture#and in my head hes like. looking down at mona and petting him (while sitting)#(AND hes with ann and theyre both kind of a distance away from the camera)#so at a quick glance; hes just Some Girl#and even though shes wrong; it kicks off the mental chaos olympics in ryujis head#‘what hes not a girl’ to ‘where would she even get that from’ to ‘well akira said himself he didnt rlly care what ppl thought about it’#to ‘well. where DID she get that from?’ to lookin at what his homie does a little closer to ‘aw fuck. man.’#but i love that for him

#ALSO. RYU/GORO IN TAGS…..#but ryuji going oh my GOD oh my godddd 😨😓😓😓 when something clicks in his head about goro#his voice is so practiced and naturally softspoken and his public facing persona is very demure#and once he gets past the initial anger over goro being a pompous prick who shittalks about the thieves. hes like. god fucking dammit.#There Is A Pattern and A Type He Has and Its Killing Him To Realize it.#hes literally sitting in his room w his head in his hands]

Ryuji definitely finds Conventionally Attractive Girls pretty, but he realizes around postgame that he genuinely formed crushes on THREE people; Akira, Makoto, and Goro. And all three of them are people who carry themselves as a bit Soft and Delicate (akira and makoto w their personality and mannerisms, goro w his appearance) while also being deceptively strong. Yusuke WOULD fit into this but hes only strong in the metaverse. Also if u tried to argue that he still finds yusuke pretty, Ryuji would just say ‘yeah duh? Of course???’ and would not elaborate further.

I just think. Its cute 👉🏾👈🏾 Ryuji loves someone whos pretty and capable of knocking him flat on his ass lmao He LOVES a challenge and he likes that they can all challenge him in different ways.

Akira is way stronger than he looks; hes very toned and he used to be quite active before being shipped off to tokyo. And after fighting in the metaverse, hes gotten way better at using an enemies mass and momentum against them. Yeah he can properly knock someone down, but its way easier to let Ryuji charge him and use that momentum to sweep and pin. Which Ryuji remembers vividly for Weeks. Akira is not allowed to spar w him and Makoto for awhile after that.

Makoto is just strong as hell. But shes very defensive, and extremely patient. ‘Ill wait and see before I decide What to do’. Shes got good reaction timing and its hard to catch her offguard. Its very difficult to disorient her so oftentimes, his spars w her are more about endurance. And if he ASKS her to do so, she’ll actually fight him back. He never wins 😭 but she is very patient w him and she doesnt treat him like an idiot. She likes to give him tips and redirect his strengths to make up for his weaknesses and it makes him a bit warm in this chest

Spars w Goro are just fun. Theyre fun! Goro is way more aggressive and reckless than Makoto and Akira. He is looking for openings near constantly and Ryuji has to either keep up or tank hits. Its very. Engaging. For him. Sometimes he loses and Goro is giving him a look so smug, Ryuji wishes he could kick him in his fucking teeth (something he clearly couldnt do bc hes already been knocked flat on his ass). And sometimes he wins, and hes so shocked and HAPPY about it; he doesnt miss the way Goro looks away from him pouting like a brat (‘no fucking way are u POUTING man, what a sore loser 😭’). Goro and his uptight personality is thrown out the window completely and its so fun and refreshing to see. Hes tall and imposing w broad shoulders and toned arms and if Ryuji is staring, he finds himself immediately distracted when Goros cheerful, softspoken voice asks if hes willing to go another round.

I love it 👉🏾👈🏾 Ryujis got a complicated relationship w violence but it helps to have people he trusts engage with it in a way that doesnt make him feel like some brute. Theyre all kind of itching to beat the shit out of things for multiple reasons, but instead of taking that out on each other, they spend time training one another so that they can beat the shit out of OTHER things better. Its an efficient system 😊

#chattin #i dunno how to tag it; dont wanna add ships in here bc theres not alot of NonPego/ryu fans in the pego/ryu tag lol #but ye. ryuji likes a pretty face and he likes getting his ass whooped sometimes #i mean he likes to fight and WIN; he is not trying to roll over like a defenseless tortoise #but he likes the deception a little bit…. #what do u mean ur shitty shirt or sweater is hiding those arms ??? what do u mean u can bench more than ur own weight???? #its insane. #its a little 😳 #also oops i am writing essays in tags again. i will continue to do this im sorry #i just have so many thoughts that dont feel like they fit in the body lol #my approach to the thieves is . they are very angry and prone to violence and violent thoughts #and they have an questionable outlet w the metaverse #BUT #if the metaverse was to poof away; where does that outlet go? #and thats the foundation for my idea of their ‘found-ish family’ #i HATE the actual family stereotype but i am thinking of like #they are bonded in a specific and unique way #and they stick together because of it. no one will understand them as much as they understand each other #i know i mentioned only the four of them #but i am thinking of ALL of them #they are a little gang of their own now lmao if u mess w one u mess w the rest of the hounds #and they all have some warped perspectives on good and ‘evil’ and justice #maybe the others arent as readily capable to physically hurt someone. but they are more than okay with bad and cruel things happening- #-to bad people. #anyway. this post was about ryuji having a thing about getting roughhoused bc hes a rowdy boy #i can see it being something ann teases him about #and definitely as they get older its something that just doesnt leave him. his brain has already made the Connections #i love my homies they beat the shit out of me when i ask them to and vice versa 😊 #naw theyre not really HURTING each other that bad #but its the idea of it 👀 like look at me bearing my weaknesses to u so you can make me a better person

[decepti-thots]

Do you have any tips for getting back into reading?

I do, anon!

So for context, as I said previously, I went from reading 50+ books a year to 5-6 a year max for about half a decade. Most of this related to a longterm downswing in my overall health and my executive dysfunction specifically. I would pick books up and never finish them; my attention span was dead in the water, as was my motivation to even try half the time. It took a couple years of active effort to get back to a 3 book a month average. So here's a few subjective tips I personally found helped. They may not be useful for everyone, but this is what personally helped me!

Some of the techniques I used:

Follow your interest and enthusiasm, and don't be afraid to hop around books. I was stuck in a rut for ages where I'd start a book, lose steam, and vaguely want to read another one instead... but I insisted to myself 'no, I need to FINISH this one, I can read that one when I'm finished!' Obviously, I just never finished the books period, rather than methodically finishing everything one at a time, as I'd hoped I would. I read less, not more. The most important thing period is getting momentum back up; better 4 'still not finished'-s on the way to the book you unexpectedly finish in one sitting than nothing finished, and just a vague sense of guilt. If a new book calls to you and your current one feels interminable, seize that urge and start the second book so you can keep your motivation going. At least you're reading something then; the alternative was usually just not reading either book, for me.

Try some shorter books. I read a lot of novellas to get myself going again last year especially, and it was fantastic. Again, it helps get the momentum going, to be continually working up to longer stuff. (Plus novellas are just a great medium in their own right! Length =/= depth. SFF especially is having a real Novella Moment rn!) Hell, read short story collections, read poetry chapbooks, read plays- if you can only read 75 pages before losing steam, find a 75 page book worth reading. There's tons of them.

Try and carve out reasonably consistent times to read. For me, I started saying that after work most evenings if I was still awake really late, that was now book time, not Twitter/etc time. I read on my lunch a lot at work, and on Sunday afternoons. You don't need to be rigid, that can just be restrictive, but make it a routine you can easily make time for on a predictable basis without hoping you'll spontaneously 'feel like it'.

Read shit you love. This sounds obvious but like. You can't easily branch out of your comfort zone into more challenging-to-you stuff til you have the momentum going, IME. Start off reading the shit you know you like, heady intellectual ambitions be damned. Yeah yeah, reading outside your usual lane is often rewarding, but it'll wait a year til you get back in the swing of it. Read 50 romance novels in a row if that does that for you. The other books will wait. Likewise: reread shit you know inside out. Your to-read list will be here once you got a few of those old familiar faves in.

Those are the big things I guess. A lot of it was locating what really resulted in bottlenecks for me and tailoring what and how I read to them, instead of trying to force past them. Finding the books that fit what I could manage helped me reach a point now where I can read more broadly again. It's like building endurance, you can't start at 110%, I found.

[reinnette]

post game 4 thoughts: a bit annoyed becoz the 0ilers r scrambling for structure and I know we have so much of it. we should've taken advantage of them being on their backs and kept that momentum going.

but it is game 4 and the series is 2-2. the world isn't ending. today was another wake up call in the way game 2 wasn't (bcoz that win wasn't hard fought by the 0ilers ngl, that was just an unfortunate tip in by ian cole). play 60 minutes. and as much as they trust the system, they gotta PLAY the system as well.

everyone talking about petey needing to step it up (I agree but do u think he doesn't know that?) but everyone needs to step it up. if there's anything the canucks have prided themselves over its the fact that we're a rag tag group of guys. we arent our stars, we're a team first and foremost and the system works because the TEAM works. quinn tilts the ice, brock makes the goal, but chances are set up when everyone shows up. all today showed was that the canucks win with a team, and they lose only because of themselves.

im attached to the team i wont lie, and it makes me sad as heck that we're seeing such terrible performance in the playoffs. but o well I don't stop believing :"> and if its canucks against the world I don't mind

also I just admire the culture tocc has built here and the fact that he's definitely prepared the team mentally and physically for a postseason no one expected them to make 🤓 experience became a nonfactor when we saw how well they're taking the pressure.

i also really liked the accountability from the canucks. this team plays with their heart and this loss will hopefully fuel them and redirect their vision to playing hard. i have so much belief yall its a bit delusional.

well that was game 4,, onto the next one back on home ice 🤝 see u on Friday

#marcie yaps #marcie's postgame thoughts

[mccnstruck]

tag , you're it !!

akito shinonome, an shiraishi, kohane azusawa, toya aoyagi + reader

notes: ooc?, hurt/comfort, some personal headcanons added, reader can access street sekai, swearing, platonic vbs

a/n: zion going through his drafts?????? for real????? ok but actually this has been in my mind for how long but yea enjoy !!! (also you know how fun it would be to play any games in the sekai??? like hide and seek??? i would be so down for that)

( also this is my first time using honorifics, please do tell me if i messed up because i did my research but im still worried :') )

the days were long; and practicing for the new event next week was at full speed.

practices took more time and were much harder in order to improve their confidence and to assure them they were prepared for this.

yet as 'ready steady' played and you were all taken to the sekai, you notice something was.... off.

kohane shoulders scrunched in on itself, toya was silent, and an and akito weren't bickering with each other. in the short walk to the crase cafe, you observe their mannerisms and realized how tired they looked.

morale was significantly decreasing, and you could only scrunch your face in worry as miku greeted you all, her smile turning to concern as well.

"welcome back! would you like... are you all alright?"

akito sighed. "yea, just need to practice more."

meiko sighed and smiled lazily. "good performances need good meals. would any of you like anything to eat? i just made some pancakes recently if you guys wanted to try?"

all of you looked at each other to decide if you wanted anything to eat. when you opened your mouth to speak up, akito was faster. "i'll pass on that offer for now, thanks."

now that was weird. akito? skipping pancakes?

you lightly teased the group. "all of you don't want to try the love that meiko-san poured into her stuff?"

an tirely smiled. "we'll just practice a little more, yea?"

everyone nodded their head in hesitation and walked out of the cafe.

"hey, you guys never usually reject meiko-san's coffee... actually, you've been looking all sad. and tired. how much sleep have you guys been getting?"

kohane spoke quietly. "we've been so focused on our performance next week.. we've been out of it a little...."

quiet, yet cold words left akito's tongue. "and yet, we're not even close to performing half as decent for next week."

"our synchronization hasn't been as good as we need it to be. and our choreography is still in practice," added toya.

silence. everyone was in thought and in distress at the realization.

uncharacteristically, an mumbles out, "i'm not one to back down from a challenge, but should we... should we sit this one out?"

akito snapped out a response. "what? we've been practicing for so long now, we can't just back out now!"

"look where we are now! do you really want to go in next week looking like a dumbass?!"

silence, once more. akito and an glare at each other, before looking away. an clicks her tounge. akito pressed his lips together and huffs under his nose. kohane and toya stay silent. you watch as the once dedicated group slowly fill their ambitions with doubt instead.

you couldn't let them lose their momentum to some temporary doubts. so, you were going to solve this your own way.

by acting childish.

you gently tap akito's arm and whisper.

"tag, you're it."

akito deadpans at you and twitchs his eye. "seriously out of all times, [name]-san?"

"if your slowass is gonna quit, you might as well say im faster than you."

at your remark, akito's competitive side sprang up and soon enough, a gingerhead started chasing you down street sekai. the memory of him winning a race while carrying tenma suddenly rings in your mind, and you have a regret of tagging akito out of all people.

he suddenly stops, and turns the way he came from. you furrow your eyebrows in confusion...

until an's scream echos through the sekai. your smirk grows as you hear running echo afterwards.

akito yells out, "shiraishi's it!"

loud footsteps echo throughout the sekai as everyone spreads out.

"you- i swear i will haunt you to your grave!!"

as you make your way through the sekai, you walk cautiously to make sure no one's behind you.

but someone creeps up to your back and...

"holy fucking shit!"

you turn back to see kohane alarmed by your profanities.

"i'm so sorry, [last name]-san! i didn't mean to scare you..."

you let out a sigh of relief. "it's alright, kohane-chan. i didn't mean to swear that loud either...did you see her?"

kohane looks back her path. "i saw an-chan, but i ran off just in case she saw me. i don't know if she did though."

"phew... we can finally catch a break."

"are you sure about that?"

an ran from behind and her grin widens with pure evil.

"holy fucking shit, run!!"

you instantly felt bad, but in a time of life or death, you grab kohane's hand and run for your life. you both part ways at two paths, hoping she would go for kohane.

your hopes were crushed when you still feel the heart dropping tap to the shoulder.

"[name]-san's it!!" before running off to her own safety.

you groan, and drop your arms in disappointment.

"fine then. my turn to cause chaos."

a few minutes of searching for someone turned out to be not too fruitful. you thought of sacrificing your dignity and giving up, until you see rin and len walking towards you.

"hey! what's with all the commotion?"

"oh, hello! we're playing tag, wanna join?"

len sighs. "i don't think i'll play.."

rin huffs. "fine, do whatever 'grown-ups' do," she air quotes and mocks len, "but you can't stop me from having fun!"

len sighs. "fine..who's it?"

you innocently smile. "oh! who's it...? it's..you!"

you tap len's shoulder and run off. "len-san's it!"

you snicker as you imagine len's face, and soon you hear rin's laughs echo throughout the sekai.

the game went on for quite a long time without hearing anyone get tagged. cautiously, you make your way towards crase cafe and wait for any scream or tag. but surprisingly.. you don't hear anything.

you walk around to find toya in the same predicament as you.

"oh, toya-kun!"

toya smiles. "hello, [name]-san."

"do you know who's it? i haven't heard anyone in a while."

"i don't know, actually..."

you laugh a little, but create a distance between both of you. "are you sure you're not it..?"

toya's eyes widen. "what do you mean...?"

you laugh and walk faster from him. "toya-kun, you've never been good at lying."

he sighs. "...it never came naturally."

he dashes for you, but you were much, much faster. like, are you sure he was trying?

when you look back at him, he was breathing much more deeply, and you couldn't help but chuckle.

"pfft... toya-kun, do you wanna tag me?"

toya sighs again and high fives your hand. "i promise i'm not this bad.."

you laugh, and shrug it off. "don't worry about it, toya-kun! now, we just have to find the others.

you walk back to crase cafe to see miku and meiko sitting near the entrance. coincidentally, akito, kohane also walk back.

akito smiles. "[name]-san, who's it?"

you rubs your hands and grin in mischief. "me."

you catch up to akito and he is left with a wall behind him. he scans for an escape, but he is left with only calling defeat. you grin widens, and you start to creep closer. he runs to the left, and you put all your force into finally tagging him...

until he suddenly runs to the right. you try to turn around too quickly, but you accidentally stumble into an. she trips, yet finds balance, while you fall head first.

"damnit- oof!"

your head hits the floor first, and you groan in pain. you see an, kohane, and toya quickly rush to your distress.

"omg, [name]-san, i'm so sorry! i didn't mean to trip you.... are you alright?!"

"yea.... although i'm gonna get embarrassed thinking about this later."

you hear howling laughter coming from akito a bit further. "the way you fell....i swear i saw terror in your eyes!" he laughed even harder, while you could only stare at him with disappointment.

"shut the hell up, akito-kun! that dirty ass move should have you going to jail!!"

you laugh with the adreadaline racing your body, and soon, everyone is laughing along with you.

miku walks up to you with smile lines evident in her face. "you alright?"

"yea, thank you miku-san."

she holds her hand out. you grab it and pull yourself up, dusting your clothes afterwards.

you look back to see an, akito, kohane, and toya, but you only see confidence in kohane's shoulders, toya's laughter, and akito's and an's bickering once again.

when you see the crinkles of joy in their eyes, you smile in relief. you've done your part.

"now, what do you say? we feeling ready to surpass RAD WEEKEND?"

an's smile only turns into determination in how she clashes her fist again. "oh hell yea! let's do this!"

the rest of vivid bad squad gently laughs, and you could only laugh and look back at miku and meiko, who were smiling with coffee in their hands. rin and len are grinning and laughing while walking.

the days were long, but with your closest friends by your side, you knew surpassing RAD WEEKEND was turning from a childish wish to a event worth seeing.

and you couldn't wait.

all rights to mccnstruck. any reposting or translation is not permitted.

#vivid bad squad x reader #akito shinonome x reader #an shiraishi x reader #kohane azusawa x reader #toya aoyagi x reader #akito x reader #an x reader #kohane x reader #toya x reader #[ the lost library ] #vbs x reader #vivid bad squad #project sekai x reader #pjsekai x reader

[celestie0]

How do u write such long fics......and method and tips u follow ^^...

Luv you recent choso fic chap 💗💗

hiii my dear tysm for the love for my new choso seriess i appreicate it :”) also apologies for the delay on answering this!!

ahh yes i think for me it’s just easier to write longer fics bc im able to get into headspace of characters a bit better (opposed to having a concept n getting into meat of things straight away perhaps like w a oneshot, i’m super bad at conceptualizing things easily unless there’s a more prolonged plot i guess) but also i think i just prefer longer length stories (always been a series over movies kinda gal)

kickoff is my first series n one of the first fanfics ive ever written so im most definitely still figuring things out as i go along 🤣 but sure i can share some of the methods & tips ive used!!

as for methods, i just plan out a general idea and premise at first that can help two characters get closer (kickoff case was just gojo n reader’s lil agreement to help eachother out w their favors) cuz i think thats really important to get a ball rolling. n then i sort of loosely planned the rest of the series but tbh i’ve scrapped soooo many ideas along the way lmfao. but that’s ok! there were chapters n scenes where certain things i had planned out just didn’t make sense or fit in the way i thought they would’ve, and i made a last minute decision (sometimes even mid writing a preplanned scene i would suddenly switch directions lmfao) but i think w longer fics its important to be flexible. it’s ok if plans change, sometimes better answers will find you along the way!! and that’s only a testament to how well you’re getting to know your own story and also your own characters

i think the hardest thing to do w longer fics is finding motivation to continue w it (instead of just starting it n then you lose interest in writing more lmfaoo i did this w a nanami fic unfortunately) but the thing that helped me w kickoff was having a scene later on that i was really looking forward to writing, one that i had planned out in very early stages so that it gave me something to look forward to! and by the time i ended up finishing that scene, i had written enough at that point to want to keep writing it n i found momentum w the story. so that can definitely help w regards to keeping up motivation while you’re in the early stages of writing a longer length fic

yeah i’d say these two are my biggest tips for writing longer works in general :”) i hope this helps in anyway if you’re also a writer!! thank u for the ask bb <3

#writing tips #asks #anon

[yellowymellon]

He looks at you with a smile, his cold voice echoes, you are Abt to lose the 50/50 on his banner :

i first need to talk abt sunday's jp va CUZ GOD DAMN

since sunday talks more in 2.1 it's much more noticable, his first 3 lines or so are extra friendly and gentle, sweeter than his customer service voice, and then slowly start to become more apathetic till he uses the harmony powers and it becomes ruthlessly cold, and at the end when aven started losing it his voice returned to being drippy sweet, like he's mocking him. then when he meets acheron and welt his voice is pretty back to his real tone, apathy! thanks hoyo im someone who's heavily attracted to voices you just had to awaken my unhealthy obsessions again!

(btw i play in jp so im talking abt it, i by no means think jp is the elite dub)

okay but i love this scene SM

aventurine was confident abt his advantage over sunday, he first comes strong trying to overpower him in their silly mind game, basically asserting his dominance by telling him how anxious and antsy he is, and how he already knows everything sunday is thinking abt, leaving sunday unable to impose much demands. it was a good deal for aven, he gets to corner and benefit sunday at the same time.

that was until sunday channeled the harmony's power ( i think everyone guessed it he should be an emenator), it might've been a bluff that not answering has consequences, but it was far too risky to actually try, it was that instant of doubt and fear that threw all of aven's momentum and the dynamic shifted, he not only understimated sunday but didnt expect him to carry xipe's will.

i think it's telling of sunday's character when he uses exact seconds to tell time, that is 1.8 minutes not even a full 2

i think it's also a bit weird how sunday keeps talking as if he is a conveying xipe's will when he is mostly doing stuff on his own, it's almost like xipe's will aligns with him not the other way around.

unrelated but this question was at first too random that i double looked at sunday "what ? are you also racist??"

tho i do like how these characters are realistic with their insults, sparkle judged aven based on his race and the both of them made fun of sunday based on that too xD

do you actually think that sunday could see the truth in aven's heart but he himself couldn't answer it? this time around sunday adds "truly" and thought aven's response was interesting the first time.

actually i'm less mad abt dr ratio betraying aven since he shouldnt have known sunday has this power or was going to well, execute him, but more mad abt his every micro aggression like, have you not heard of rhetorical questions?? jokes?? silly banter that alludes to nothing?? LEAVE him alone

i think that even if dr ratio didnt sell aven out, sunday still had his ability to expose lies and he didnt trust aven in either case, also something worth remembering ( when i finish the story that is) is that in his deal with dr ratio sunday mentioned "the" stellaron and not just in general, the family is very much aware of it, well....it makes sense for stellaron hunters to be here ig 😭

Fun fact : the one who was supposed to be in penacony was opal not aventurine, and the thing we know Abt opal is that, um, well he was going to threaten the family then strike, no negotiations no nothing, wonder how that would've went...

#yall i'm unwell #you don't understand how much screenshots of Sunday i currently have it's... it's illness #I've replayed that like 3 times i'm no good #oh and i didn't appreciate the aventurine real life simulator i had a bad headache while he had one too #okay but i felt bad for aven I don't like him but #i can sympathize with being robbed of a childhood #it's incredibly sad for someone to lose their Innocence and be thrown in a life where they had to forcefully change #star rail #hsr

[serve-cunt]

HELLOOOOOOO IT IS I, CONFUSED AND BEFUDDLED NEW TENNIS FAN ANON, BACK AGAIN WITH MORE QUESTIONSSSSS

however this time I am a fair bit LESS confused and befuddled because that was a WONDERFUL explanation of everything I asked, thank you so much zoe you are literally the loml this helped so much

so what I have deduced is that the next grand slam tournament is the French open (muddy one lmao) which sounds SO fun and cool and I will be watching

more questions if you do not mind (i am sorry)

how much does grass/clay/hard court affect play??? Is it like a MASSIVE difference???

you mentioned a thing called Break Point in the fic which I thought was a made up tennis equivalent of drive to survive but APPARENTLY IT IS REAL AND EXISTS, so should I watch that????

how does the scoring work? I know the basic concept is bonkity bonk hit ball back and forth and try to make it touch the ground in your opponent's court, but I think it's like points within sets within games within matches???? am i right or do I have the order fucked up (I probably do) and what are the details of all that????

is there a lot of bias towards men's tennis vs women's? Obviously there are almost no girls in f1 ever and I know a lot of sports like football have HEAVY bias towards men, is tennis like that? I feel like not as much because it seems like I hear just as much about players like the Williams sister and naomi osaka as I hear about people like Roger Federer and Andy Murray? is that true?

who are the top 5-10 players in the world rn? who's number one? and like pls point me to somewhere where I can find a very basic fact file of sorts on each of them, I need to know who's the lewis and max and sebastian of tennis....

what's the next big-ish tournament in the next few weeks ish that you think I'd be able to handle??? like an atp 250 or 500 or smtj??? bc I wanna start Watching but the French open is SO far away

gimme a few basic facts on each of your favourite players because im sure you will appreciate the opportunity to infodump about your faves just as much as I will appreciate the introduction :))))

any good tennis movie recs? I've seen that thing with will Smith about the Williams and that was SO GOOD it was ages ago that I saw it though so I remember nothing lmao

obviously feel free to drop in random facts or anything or WHATEVER, I WANT TO KNOW ALL OF THE THINGIES

i think that is most of my questions???? how are you??? how is life??? i hope you know how much I appreciate you because you are SAVING MY LIFE here, it is now time to go stalk those other blogs you recommended....BYEEEEE ZOE ILYYY <3

HELLO AGAINNNN back for more 😈😈😈 this is how people get HOOKED .. the way I rubbed my little goblin hands together to start typing up an answer to all of this LMAOO ok here we go …

"how does grass/clay/hard court affect play"

a LOT! in simplest terms, different surfaces change how a ball bounces. but that has a huge impact on the play: clay is the slowest surface, because it's kind of grippy so the ball loses momentum. that's good if you like to stay at the baseline, be patient, and wait for somebody to make a mistake (which is why I gave that surface to Oscar lol). Grass is fastest because it's a slick surface (no grip) but it's unpredictable because it will be more uneven & different courts will feel very different. another issue w/ the season being short! but if you're a quick learner and you like to play close to the net, grass is for you. Hard court is like. "neutral" surface. it's the most common so everybody knows how to play it! you'll often hear players talk about different hard-court tournaments being "slower" or "faster", generally what they're talking about is the specific surface material, which is the cushion over the concrete that can vary in terms of bounce & grippiness.

"should I watch Break Point"

hahahahahahahahhahahahahahahha. oh no!! idk ….. I really don't like Break Point, I think it's a failed attempt to bring the success of DtS to tennis .. but idk, maybe watching BP as a newbie is helpful?? you will at least start to recognize some names which might be fun?? but yeah it's not as good of an entry point to how the sport is played (imo) and because tennis doesn't have the contained cast of characters that f1 has it doesn't actually help you THAT much with recognizing players on the courts, lmao. also certain episodes made me hate certain players ... looking at you episode about the american men ... taylor fritz my enemy ...

but!! it might help you to pick a few faves based purely on vibes hehe

"how does the scoring work?"

akdjfhalksdjfhakjh how DOES the scoring work … great q … no jk it's actually not too bad you just have to let it settle into your brain lol!! okay so:

within a GAME:

players start at zero, or "love". Why "love"?? who knows!! but here we are. then scoring proceeds through: 15, 30, 40. why?? WHO KNOWWWSSSS

you HAVE to win a game by two points. if you're ahead 40-30 and you win the next point, you win the game. HOWEVER, if the game is tied at 40-40, you are at "deuce", and you have to win TWO points in order to win the game. if you win one point you have advantage: that will look like "A-40" on most scoreboards. if your opponent wins the next point you lose the advantage and you drop back to deuce. so a score could look like this over the course of 6 points:

40-40 — you win a point -> A-40 — they win a point -> 40-40 — you win a point -> A-40 — they win a point -> 40-40 — you win a point -> A-40 — you win another point! -> game!

did that help or did it make everything MORE confusing?

within a SET:

so you won your first game! the set is now 1 game to zero, or 1-0. Time to play the second game. Oh no!! your opponent is serving for this game and they won it, the set is tied 1-1. No worries -- your turn to serve again. You hold your serve! 2-1. Ah shoot, so do they. 2-2. Okay, great, you hold again. 3-2. oh my god you BREAK THEIR SERVE!!!! 4-2 BAYBEEE!!! and you hold again! 5-2! they hold: 5-3. okay moment of truth ….. YOU HOLD SERVE AND WIN THE SET 6-3 GOOD JOB YOU'RE DOING GREAT SWEETIE !!!! <3

you also have to win a set by two games. remember this rule! win by two is the tennis mantra. if a set is tied at 6 games all, it's time for a tie-breaker, and you have to win the tie-breaker by two points. (mostly you play a tie-breaker to 6 points, but this can vary by tournament)

within a MATCH:

you won your first set!! great job your mom is so proud. however. you aren't done yet!! usually you are playing best of three sets, so you still need to win one more set. in Grand Slams if you are a man you are playing best of five, so you need to win TWO more. um. GOOD LUCK!! Here's what a score line might look like:

^You can read that as Bertens being up a set, so the match is currently in the second set, which is currently tied at 1 game all. Venus is serving (that's what that dot by the numbers means) but Bertens is up 2 points. (lmao. 30-love = 2 points up. I apologize for tennis)

omg you lost a set. NO WORRIES YOU CAN COME BACK. best of three: I believe in you <3

"Is there a lot of bias towards men's tennis"

do you even need to ask 🥲🥲🥲 yes unforch. men consistently get the best broadcasting time-slots on tv, they often get more prize money, and they generally have more name recognition. however!! I think tennis has benefitted from some amazing personalities in women's tennis -- the Williams sisters of course, now coco gauff -- and the prize money sitch is improving for sure. there's hope!! but yeah -- it's a scheduling feedback loop!! give the women better tv times and more eyes will be on their matches!! ajdhflakh it's so frustrating to watch tbh!!! anyway.

"who are the top players and how do i find that"

Here are the ATP singles rankings and here are the WTA singles rankings! If you click on each name you will see their official stats page :))

"what's the next big-ish tournament"

here's the list of upcoming ATP tournaments and here's the list of upcoming WTA tournaments - there are some upcoming small-ish tournaments that look fun (atp in rio, wta in dubai) and then … THEN!! Indian Wells :D :D

I'm an Indian Wells DEVOTEE ,, the players really like it, the vibes are so good, celebrities come out from LA, everyone has a nice time, it's SO FUN. all the hype & fun of a slam with slightly lower stakes

"tell me about your favorite players"

HAPPILY OMG.

jannik sinner: part of the "next gen men" wave that includes carlos alcaraz, loooooong of leg, skinny of limb, floofy of hair!! methodical and hard to shake, emotionally and mentally, beautiful clean and powerful play. also !! just!!! seems like a good guy!! def a "class pet" on tumblr lmao (thank you @advantage-sinner )

carlos alcaraz: part of the "next gen men" wave that includes jannik sinner, a phenom, natural talent, all-round player, people are predicting great things for him -- he plays gorgeous, interesting, creative tennis and he has FUN DOING IT, really a joy to watch. the 2023 wimbledon final between him and djokovic (our local villain, but an all-time great in men's tennis) was an incredible, amazing, show-stopping match that he WON and I will remember that day forever and ever and ever amen

coco gauff: crazy athletic, big hitter, hit the scene young, super charismatic on and off court, just very fun to watch

iga sviatek: gorgeous gorgeous player, aggressive as heck, quick as heck, loves clay, loves to put spin on the ball, SUCH A WEIRDO I LOVE HERRRRR she likes lego and she reads a lot, she's such a funny little introvert who happens to be #1 in the world LOL

daniil medvedev: stands so far away from the baseline to return serve he's often out of camera frame. he's so tall and his limbs are just … everywhere … andrey rublev (another fave) calls him "the octopus" … he has the BEST INTERVIEWS HE'S SO FUNNYYYY AHHH

ons jabeur: "minister of happiness" except that lately .. she has not been super happy … she wants to win a slam SO BAD my heart hurts for her … when she's on she's a lovely lovely player, very creative, but when she's off she's hard to watch, just a lot of unforced errors (which is an error that is your own fault, vs an error that you make because your opponent hit a ball that was hard to get to or technically very tricky to return)

I have the occasional emotional fling with andrey rublev (hehe sad wet dog), karolina muchova ( :( sad wet cat), daria kasatkina (…sit on me), caspar ruud (…SIT ON ME), and alex de minaur (cute!!!)

I literally have no tennis movie recs I can't think of a single one BUTTTTTTTT Challengers comes out this year 😈 mike faist my beloved… zendaya in tennis whites ...

I can't believe how many words you let me spew at you @ivystennis and then ASKED FOR MOREEEE I LOVE YOU thanks for "coming out" as it were lmaooooo.

#ask #TENNIS AGAIN #tennis 101

[olivesrealities]

ANOTHER close shifting experience.

• so i was basically going to sleep on my side right and i was doing an alunir meditation, but my dad came in and i had to pause it.

• then once he left i went back to bed, still on my side, and just decided to sleep and not continue with the meditation since i was interrupted.

• then like out of nowhere, i think i was maybe just about to fall asleep, i felt the tingling sensations and symptoms and i was affirming that i was going to shift and all that?? im pretty sure i heard my own muffled voice saying the affs but im not sure if it was in this reality or my dr 😭

• as i was lying there i was trying to put myself in my dr bedroom and trying to feel the surroundings around me and, yk when you can feel if you have a wall around you kinda? i remember literally sensing the little rail on the side of my bed?? (i have one of those beds with a barrier) and the wall behind me even though i didn’t have a wall behind me in my cr bedroom.

• when i started to realise what was happening, i was just saying affs so quickly and kinda panicking, which i need to stop doing. like why tf am i so excited im gonna wake up in my dr and probably make a cup of tea and do everything i’d do in my cr, so why tf am i stressing??

• i know i need to fix the panic i experience each time i try to shift, but i have no idea how to fix it! i lose the zone im in once i kinda gain consciousness before i’ve fully shifted, and then feel myself slipping back, like getting just to the top of a hill and then losing momentum and falling back down yk??

• new year’s resolution stop being such a stupid idiot and forgetting to actually put effort once you feel yourself half-shifting ❌❌❌

#reality shifting #shiftblr #shifting realities #shifting motivation #desired reality #shifting experience

[larrythefloridaman]

Rewatch notes, Dr. Order arc edition! My notes are getting longer and longer as the story gets denser. I fear what comes when we start hitting The Big Ones. Pray for me. These are just notes for 15 and gaiden 2, and this post will be updated as i make my way through.

CPUK15. goggle……………

Representing Calibur, Google, the green roy! Google being created from the base of Bing after she lost to him last tournament 'with Bing's weaknesses buffed out,' is established out the gate as a strong local theory. Comona believes in Google's potential, praising his pedigree and ability to analyze data and general knowledge base about combat, being that he's a search engine.

Cash Money, Instajennifer! Instajen is on a quest to become the biggest influencer on the planet, and film a sponsored makeup tutorial between her matches. Here to show up and show off. She will beat you to death and take a selfie with your corpse.

Team Cones, the Red Shadow. A funny prankster type. A greninja with the prankster ability. Puts whoopee cushions on benches and replaces sugar packets with salt and such.

Team Clutch, Alabaster Uppercut <3 funny punch man

Team Chonk, in his first solo debut since death, The Gruuuuuunk, back and better than ever! Comona: "im going to kiss home md on the mouth for bringing him back." Ryan: "its what he deserves."

Team Charm, described here as a team of positivity and niceness and such rather than the usual very explicit do-gooder description, represented by Prism. Hi prism. here to right crimson's wrongs :)

Team Cracken, Patchman! The pac is back. Man of the earth.

Team Cross, a celebration of all things crossover, today we have the one the only Miles Edgeworth. Or so he claims.

Exhibition match, Minecraft Steve vs. Therapuppy! Guess steve didnt get kicked out like i thought, forgot this match happened. I forgot a lot of exhibition matches. Therapuppy makes simple work of him.

TWOOOOOOO bamamas

Google vs. Prism. First match of the night. Comona thinks Prism has an edge in this match by her command of her lil creatures, but based on bing's performance and what hes heard about Goog being more reliable, Goog won't be going down without a fight. Prism lays down a LOT of damage very quickly but Goog takes first stock with a good edgeguard and dashdances on her for good measure. Commentators note Google is very different from bing in terms of combat behavior- strong reliable momentum and much less reliant on comeback factor. Google gets good damage on her and spikes her with a viciousness for the second stock before prism can even take his first. Google doesnt want to let you live past 70%. Prism manages to take it to last stock with some careful comboing. Google takes round one after a nailbiting match.

Ryan: "Spoiler Alert, can't wait for the round three." Comona: "you say that as though you know its already going to happen." Ryan, smugly: "hmmmmm."

They discuss how Google does his best taking stocks as early as possible, when he's fighting from a position where he doesn't have to be afraid to commit to an action, and so if Prism can survive until Google starts getting nervous, she can win. Prism has advantage on the second match stage, and makes quick work to combo him to death, dragging him down to last stock before she even has 50% on her second. Google is trying So hard to spike her and its not working. Prism baits google offstage at just the wrong time and he SDs, using up his jumps and upsmash trying to make it back up to the stage as it moves upwards away from them, Prism's squirtle able to make it back where he can't. The prophesied third round comes and Prism keeps firm control of the stage, losing one stock but taking all three of google's, the last stock with a vicious spike to match the one Google landed on her in their first match, sending Google to Loser's.

Alabaster vs. Red Shadow. Commentators comment on the big color theme going on at the moment. Ryan: "fortunately none of them are crimson specifically." Comona: "just regular ol red." Ryan: "just normal red. crimson is gone." lol. lmao. yeah he sure is

This match is so silly-goofy. Red Shadow a pride and joy of team cones with regard to getting funny with it. Goes stock for stock, until the Red Shadow dominates the last stock with a viciousness. Hes getting silly with it but he still doesn't want to lose to Al. Game 2 Alabaster is taking things more seriously too, the commentators plead with him to remeber who he is, to not lose sight of it, and hes doing good, aaaaaand he sds right on time for it to be a last stock situation. and then shortly after Al chokes again. Ryan: "now he's gonna have to fight Google in losers, thats not gonna be fun for him!" Lives are about to be changed 👍

Team Clutch and Team Cones are described as having an interesting specific sort of rivalry- Salt of the Earth training buffs and tricksy bitches.

The Gruuuuuunk vs. Patchman. Patchman is going to lose and the commentators know it. Grunk takes round one as predicted. Patchman did better than expected but the grunk cant be stopped. Patch manages to take first stock in the second round but, as predicted, the Grunk aint losing this one.

'Miles Edgeworth' vs. Instajennifer. Weird ass matchup. Commentators have nothing to say about it its weird. The commentators DO comment on how odd Miles' general willingness to scrap is. Comona comments on how weird it is that 'Edgeworth's' using some sword from the evidence room. Ryan points out how illegal that is "but its fine." Instajen is parrying for the clout. She was in the lead for a wild amount of time before 'miles' took it. Instajen's taunts are tiktok dances. 'Miles' is being Cruel in the second round. I do not know how jen took round 2 but it did piss 'edgeworth' off enough to threestock in round 3. Instajennifer #autopsyreport

Ryan: "I dont know if we're gonna have a fun character arc this week like we did last but we've got plenty of fun matches on hand regardless." He says during a break, immediately before Google vs Alabaster,

Google, a creation made to be perfect but already in losers bracket vs Alabaster, a guy who's never made it past 5th place but intends to make a name for himself regardless. Comona and Ryan discuss the idea of doing a 'worst of the worst' tournament featuring the most shameful, embarrassingly bad fighters immediately after introducing Al. Mean to him. Not wrong but mean to him. Anyway theres no faith in Al's chances against goog. Goog's peeved and has something to Prove. This desperateness to prove himself makes him easier to rattle, and Al does pretty damn good right up until google fucking Gets him at the end.

Comona says what ive been thinking since season one and forgot they said, that being. Again. Al is very strong hes just not up to par with insane battle freaks. Hes yamcha or tien or krillin hes good! Hes good as fuck! he just cant fucking keep up with superhumans! Hes a star member of team clutch not for his record, but for his spirit. Al takes stock one in round 2 with Pinball Variation. They're trading blows and it's all very anime. Al keeps a lead for a while in the second match until Google pinballs his ass right back and then takes his last stock at 200%.

Field report: Al laughs off his loss with a respectful thumbs up and starts to walks away. Google: "I don't GET IT. You always come back for more despite the fact you've never put up a performance befitting that of a competitor- what brings you BACK, alabaster uppercut?" Alabaster: "take a look around, google. Take a look around this great world we live in. Maybe then you'll see why I keep coming back." iconic moments in kerfuffle history. Comona's goog voice is so funny its so growly and anime-arrogant compared to what Holly does with him later that sticks, the whole 'a bit odd and softspoken but fiery' vibe he gets later

Google, starting to have his identity crisis: "do you think i was born yesterday?! I mean, it was last week, technically…" and then gets real quiet. 

Patchman vs Instajen. Comona anticipates a long set. CPUK provides coca cola as refreshments to workers like the social media interns who are not allowed to leave their desk while a tournaments running. and if you want pepsi theyre giving you coke and you have to be okay with that. you have to. Patchman is described as one of the more particularly intelligent salt of the earth types here

Patchman dominates a bit first match but, instajen, always dedicated to style, after taking patch's first stock, almost zero-to-death's the second. Doesn't pull out a win though. Ryan: "I will point out that in this tournament every fighter except Alabaster Uppercut has won a game. F." Second match is pretty close and goes to instajen with a decisive stomp Ryan says her stans would be envious of. Third match goes pretty similar, sending patchman home downtrod and disappointed.

Corn is an instajen stan. and freaked out about her dad getting to meet her in bracket. funny to me.

Prism vs. The Red Shadow. :) prism is built different and is not intimidated by some romhack'd red greninja. Red shadow canonically laughs like tim curry pennywise. Prism fights vicious and red shadow struggles hard to find a kill. Prism wins match one and she's white woman smiling at a glaring Red Shadow. The Red Shadow is 3-stocked on Dracula's Castle and becomes The Prismatic Shadow, after Prism has a little conversation with him :)

Ryan: "he's joined the prism club." Comona: "yeah, prism has that effect on people. I wonder if this means he'll- not FULLY take a step back from, still team cones, right-? But try to keep the prankster mischief to more of the tactical use rather than trying to be tricky at every turn." Ryan: "less about being unexpected, and more about being unexpected EFFECTIVELY." Comona: "when you can expect the unexpected its not really unexpected anymore." :)

The Grunk vs. 'Miles Edgeworth!' Pikachu weight. Goes very very close, but the grunk keeps a strong lead until last stock of the first match where 'Miles' takes it. 'Miles Edgeworth' lives in northern crater. Ryan: "where was this sauce when we actually introduced sephiroth?" Comona: "maybe its because its red sephiroth?" Ryan: "maybe. its that crimson magic*. *not actual crimson." Next match progresses much more evenly, with miles taking the lead at stock two. The Grunk pulls out the win in the end though, as predicted, and does so for the last match as well.

Chat Member: "Miles was the prosecutor in the Grunk's murder trial before he got revived and he's salty because he didn't get paid because the trial was canceled when The Grunk came back." The commentators laugh and roll with it, canonizing it. Ryan: "and the defendant was just an interdimensional demon! Whatever." Okay I just want to pick this scenario apart for a second because holy god its so. Its just so. Every time i remember this and that the Grunk's death was an accident i lose it all over again. Captain Crimson just standing over the Grunk's crimson-melted corpse while Val and Crimson do that one scene from one tree hill people animate their morally bankrupt ocs to (crimson, realizing uncomfortably its taking a weirdly long time for the grunk to arise anew as a Cool Evil Corrupted Beast: "well. I guess he could be dead by now." While Valentine panics about a body in a soundstage, HIS SOUNDSTAGE,) in his head. Captain Crimson got dragged into detention and might've plead oopsie daisies. The Grunk presumably canceled his own murder trial and pursued no other charges??? Valentine is the only person in this scenario probably having a relatively normal emotional reaction to being made an accomplice to manslaughter because this whole thing is a goof and a bit. Valentine brings up very pointedly the grunk's own murder charges in cpuk23, presumably either shortly before or after learning they're all fictional characters given its around this time he starts more officially becoming a full part of staff and not just an event emcee, and is understandably Fucking Stunned by Grunk's 'wheres my trophy?' response. Crimson, who has known this is comedic fiction the whole time but doesn't tell anyone that because it would be 'more trouble than its worth', as of CPUK Orange, does not appear to understand why his manslaughter accomplice doesnt want to hang out anymore when he's like, pretty sure there were no LASTING consequences. its all, just SO MUCH,

'Miles edgeworth' vs. Google. Ryan: "imagine trying to sue google." Googles described as having kind of an introspective air about him, thinking on his conversation with Al. Google SD's first stock, and never quite gets the momentum going enough to manage more than one kill, 'miles' capitalizing on his distraction. Comona: "somethings fried his circuits a bit." Ryan: "somethings Up with google." Comona: "definitely not feeling the same as he was at the start."

Miles is taunting him. "Fool. You consider yourself to be an antagonary force? You're such a fool to think so- you don't even have the power to take down someone like myself! After all, who else have you lost against- that Prism fellow? Please. If you wish to be an antagonist, and see the world as truly dark, you have so much to go. Dr. Order created you to be the perfect being- and look at you. You're nothing. Trash." Google: "Listen… here, 'Miles.' I was made to be the Ultimate Fighter. I was made to win. But now I'm realizing- theres more to this than winning, theres more to this than kicking your ass! But thats not going to stop me!" And round 2 commences.

Comona: "are we even sure this is miles edgeworth-? I know he can be cold but-" this thought is interrupted by some Sick Plays. 'Miles' does some serious damage to goog, but goog takes first stock and Fast. 'Miles' takes it right back. Goog is getting fiery and 'Miles' stays cool under pressure. Ryan and Comona describe how quickly Goog's flipped from antagonism in his match with Al to more antiheroic behavior. The match is fast and frenetic and Google just barely survives offstage and manages to take 'Miles' last stock. 'Miles': "Finally acting like the competitor you're supposed to be." Goog is silent. They go to warioware. Goog demolishes the first stock. Miles Edgeworth has a bad history with elevators. Goog keeps a firm two-stock lead and completes the win. 'Miles,' after losing, pulls out a phone: "Doctor? The deed is done." And walks out.

Miles picked that stage. Miles Edgeworth Would Never Set Foot In An Elevator. Thats Not Edgeworth. Thats just sephiroth with a red coat.

Google shows a 'return to form' with that match, by the commentators observation.

Prismatic Shadow vs. Instajen. If instajen wins shes gotten farther than the person who three-stocked her. Instajen fumbles round one hard and shadow takes it. Instajen zero to deaths shadow for the first stock of round 2. Instajen's the kind of person that doesn't take flops hard, Instajen: "just make another post girl. Just make another post." Instajen pulls out a win for round two, taking it to game 3.

FUCK spectrum. Commentators are venting about the internet provider. Comona: "the only spectrum I care about is the spectrum of colors these fighters bring to the stage. Round three!" The shadow drops stocks way too early, and ultimately Jen takes it.

Prism vs. The Gruuuuuuunk, winners finals. The connection starts getting Crunchy and Prism loses her first stock Very early. Grunk bodyblocks her off the ledge to take stocks twice, and the third Prism loses all on her own as frames continue to drop. A chat member suggests shes throwing on purpose because she wants to meet Instajennifer in losers. Second Round is on Prism Tower, PURE homecourt pick, but to the Grunk, Everywhere is home, and it doesnt take long before he crushes Prism's first stock. Prism takes the lead before last stock, but again as the frames are dropping, she fails to recover. She do be performing worse when the connection is weak. 15 is sliced into two vods due to technical difficulties.

Ryan: "spectrum iiiis dead. im killing spectrum personally, actually. Spectrum is the final boss of CPU Kerfuffle. The crimson is spectrum." All of these statements are hilarious in their own ways with time

Google vs. Instajennifer! Insta fumbles round one pretty hard. Ryan: "round one goes to google in a heartbeat of a match! I dont know what that means." Chat suggests the stage was bad for jen because it was a bad environment for selfies and such. Round 2 gets off to a better start for Jen, the two of them dancing around eachother and Jen landing her smash attacks much better, and this match looks considerably more even, but goog still takes it, beating Insta 2-0. She takes one more selfie in front of the stadium and makes her exit.

Goog vs. Prism- the runback. Google doesn't do too hot against Prism's charizard in particular, losing two stocks before taking one of hers. Google's so off his game at this point and cannot seem to find an opening against her. Prism seems to favor her Charizard, Fuschia, somewhat, throwing out flare blitzes like candy, taking first match. Goog's composure between his and Prism's first set and the runback has changed dramatically- the first angry, standoffish, but this time, he's laughing off his loss. Chat Member: "hes reading the results page for how to beat Prism." 

Prism keeps a lead on Goog throughout their second match as well. Ryan: "if im google, im going in on this second match. Granted, I'm not Google. Maybe he knows something I dont." :)

Google, slowly standing up after getting 2-0'd by Prism: "...huh. Thanks Alabaster." And he walks out. Ryan: "not sure how well thats gonna go over with Dr. Order, but I guess we'll see."

Grand Finals! Grunk vs. Prism again. Ryan points out how hard Prism threw in their last match, so anything's possible here. He suggests that maybe the reason she threw was wanting to see google again for some reason, but he's not sure. She sure did take both his sets.

Squid Jenny's investigation of 'miles edgeworth's' identity is still ongoing, but its looking like he IS in fact sephiroth from sephiroth- and while saying this ryan gets a dm from sephiroth asking if there's a purpose for followers only chat.

Grunk and Prism on Pictochat, Prism loses first stock before the Grunk even has 40% and Prism's Ivysaur comes charging out in defense of their funny turtle friend. Perhaps Prism's pokemon do have personalities and feelings and such; she just ignores them because they're tools and extensions of her as a fighter. Would make sense. Prism manages to put damage on the grunk fast enough to take his first stock before he puts much on her second, but the Grunk takes her second stock with a viciousness and her third with a footstool.

Thank you Sephiroth For The Follow!

Round 2: Pokemon Stadium. Funny lizart fight. Grunk SDs, but takes Prism's first stock right back pretty quickly. They scrap, Fuschia and Grunk fuckin. Beam struggle with their fire breath before Prism finishes Grunk's second stock with a flare blitz. Last stock is pretty even right up until Prism pulls out Viridian and Grunk sends her straight to hell. The Grunk is our First Place Winner of CPUK 15! The Grunk's feeling the thrill for combat is extra special now after he spent a bit being dead. The Grunk only lost one match the whole tournament to miles. came back Strong.

Title Match! Ryan: "imagine dying and coming back just to become champion. Absolute zombie madman. Love him." Grunk vs. Captain Valentine! All things considered? Pretty awkward. There is no comment made on it before match start, however. Capn Val always a people pleaser, keeps it stylish, keeps it even, keeps it a show. Ryan: "I wonder if Captain Valentine's ever faced the Grunk- back when he was Captain Crimson, I know, but I wonder if any of those memories were retained from the experience." Does that happen? Does getting possessed by Crimson fuck with your memory? Do crimson'd bitches got partial amnesia? It doesn't seem like it with his other hosts, and Val's characterized later as just. Really Not Wanting To Talk About It with regard to the whole Crimson debacle so it honestly wouldnt stun me if he lied about not having much memory of the whole ordeal to. Again. Avoid Talking About It.

Last stock situation. Chat: "Wasn't Val kinda the one to kill him?" Ryan: "well, it was the crimson specifically, not sure if he was the one it was possessing at the time but it was, again, the Crimson specifically." Huh. I guess mayhaps Val Could've been the one in control of his body when appraising the potential candidates for moving forward with the distaste for ICEE and Dadondorf, while Crimson himself was off elsewhere doing a Corruption, in theory. when he's not in crimsonaut specifically and healthy enough to manifest physically he Can operate separate from a host, after all. Buuuuuut, the Grunk seems to be not particularly happy with or fond of Val- described as being particularly irritated with his loss to Val in this championship match but walking off reminding himself that 'at least hes not Dead this time,' which i think is. Strong enough evidence for me that Val was Physically Present for and Part Of that interaction. oofa doofa

After a chat member asks Ryan to stall for time while they finish their fanart, ryan pulls up a grudge match he'd meant to do earlier and forgotten- Outside the arena. Squid Jenny's catching a live feed. Google shouts for someone to come out, because he knows they're watching. And, out from a bush, Dr. Order appears. Order, who apparently either wasn't watching or is checking to see if he'll lie: "so. did you succeed?" Google, laughing: "you think it's all about winning, huh?" Order: "you were supposed to win the tournament and become the champion." Google: "yeah, well, I didn't. What the hell are you gonna do about it?" And so the match begins. Order takes first stock and Fast, but google puts on damage real fast too, uppercutting her AND sending her soccer ball back at her at the same time for a very funny series of hits. funny ball classic. 

Goog takes her second stock before she can take his, but she takes it to even last stocks shortly after, but Order cant put damage on as fast as goog does and takes it. Google: "I'm done with you." Order: "Good! I don't want losers on my side." And the live feed cuts. Ryan: "soooooo. Google might need therapy. But that's okay, that's what therapuppy's for."

Its gaiden time bitch!!!! This ones gonna be fuuuuuun to make notes for what with the whole point of Gaidens being expanding on The Lore.

Order offered Comona a pastrami bagel sandwich from the 'concession stand' (the fridge.) Ryan Does Not Trust The Food Here. They're recording live from the labordertory for, not a kerfuffle proper, but an inhouse tournament. The commentators were invited both to keep things entertaining, and show off her fearsome creations to the world.

Ryan: "Dr. Order's got one goal- well, a lot of goals but the main thing right now is that she wants to create the ultimate fighter, a being capable of winning CPU Kerfuffle." 16 person single elimination tournament, because Order's got a lot of bastards to evaluate and she doesn't tolerate losers. She wouldn't let her champion be someone who'd proven themself capable of failing.

Order, in order to set up this tournament, set off a 'biological amber alert,' placed in every one of her creations' bodies that recalls them to the lab. Ryan: "not ALL of the creations answered the call to come back- if you recall google from last tournament, he isn't here- but there are other creations who didn't bother to come back due to, y'know, just general dislike." This is one of those little lore bits thats so fucked up. So fucked up. Dr. Order can and will just ping a fucker's brain. Imagine being traumatized by a fucked up science lady and finding out she can just ping your Fucking Brain whenever she wants. No ignoring her! No pretending she can't hurt you anymore! She's in your Fucking Brain Now! Between this and things like the nccts' remotely triggered perfect spriteman transformation and Larry and J0hn's whole Bit. 'someone has done something to your body. A violation. A permanent damage. You might have agreed to it in theory, you might not have, but it doesn't matter. it wasn't supposed to be like this, and either way, things will never be the same. you don't have the same control over it anymore. All you can do is manage what comes in the aftermath.' hits. sci-fi flavored medical malpractice trauma

Also between this ping system and Quad's fucking bio-signature radar shit for finding her that led him to susan (which her other creations potentially also have, assuming theyre not One And The Same Function, given Larry's vague comment of 'also getting the vibes' from Susan when Quad and the tests came back positive for a match, the arrogance is on full display. Woman with SO many experiments that hate her: 'i will give them all an innate radar for finding their all-important creator. Surely they will not ultimately unionize and kill me' its more shocking that they mostly didnt than if they would have. Im not even ten minutes into this episode,

First up- the Dimensional Bus. Jay usually takes it to get here for commentating, being from another dimension and all, but he's not here because the bus is busy with this. Chat member: "is this just the magic school bus?" Ryan: "kind of, it is a living, breathing bus, except this one can go between dimensions while that one could only really go through Arnold."

Returning fighter, Dan in his miserable new job as a lab assistant! Allegedly got fired from his ICEE job because he uppercutted an ICEE machine and busted it, so now hes here. People's champ! 

Another returning fighter and fan favorite, Machiavelli! He was excited for this! His first tournament was so fun!!! He's excited for this!

Mach 2! A supposed evolution upon Machiavelli's floorplan, created as a backup in case Machiavelli ever defected, and, due to this and how beloved Machi is, (and by design, as we later learn when CPUK Orange rolls around,) Mach 2 has developed a bit of an inferiority complex and intends to prove himself the better of the two. According to the submission, not exactly a clone of machiavelli, but made from the same core genetic base but with alterations, taking loose inspiration for the shape of him somewhat from Machi's friendship with genfour, previously genwun, hence the pokemon-ish appearance. I think Mach 2 brought this up in 23, i don't remember the exact words but I recall him taking offense to the label of Clone and going 'im not a clone! Im not a clone! I read my file Im Not A Clone!'

Perfect Spriteman! The commentators were surprised to learn Spriteman's new and dreadful form had been the Doctor's doing. He has been a plant for months please god someone help him

Winston Overwatch fell from the moon and got taken in by Dr. Order in exchange for his collaboration and Winston's fine with this as long as he gets some ankles out of the deal. Winston, audibly smiling: "Im only going to be using my ultimate in this game! Because Im Mad As Fuck!" His guns and such are not allowed in the lab because Dr. O doesn't trust him not to break anything.

Google Plus. She just made another one. partly out of spite, partly just to even her roster back out after his defection, with what she deemed Google's biggest flaws removed. 'It doesnt feel, think, or grow- just a series of if-then statements that does nothing of its own volition.' Ryan: "I think Order's goal here is to just. Not get the shit beaten out of her by a web browser anime boy gijinka this time." Comona: "never again." Ryan: "I mean. We'll see what happens."

Hackerbot J0hn! Ryan talks about j0hn like a fully robotic, fully artificial guy who can just disguise as being realistically human if so desired for much of this episode, although this is later determined not to be the case. Dr. Order's primary goal in modifying john was apparently exactly what was technically achieved- to create a machine that appears human in every way- finding means of emulating emotion and appearance and everything through machinery- and is capable of modifying and improving upon itself. she just apparently achieved this by extensively cyborg-ing a hacker and roboticist who already knew how to do that stuff to other robots. with ryan later implying she did very little to ensure his survival of the process of getting cyborg'd, and how her creations keep wising up and ditching her, boy howdy j0hn really was just a trial run in every way for her. She was a total lamo to j0hn's entire body indeed. With how much monitoring she did of all her creations and the tournament overall, I wonder if she ever attempted to plagiarize any of j0hn's self-modification or did he and larry rip the spyware type shit out of themselves first and foremost. Could larry even safely remove that stuff given hes much more uh. Flesh-y? questions questions questions. 

Anyway. j0hn can in fact switch freely between -bot and -man form without issue so again, the sweating and discomfort described from his intro ep switch is Interesting, especially considering other instances of what can be retroactively ascribed to some level of script-awareness.

My Grunk! Its zombie! Mean-spirited parody of Home's revival of the grunk. Comona: "not only poorly executed, but tasteless!" Ryan: "yeah, dr. order, wheres your ethics? Your Hip Of Cratic Oath?"

Subzero Amalgam- this one was just order fucking around. She was curious about the experience of sustained extreme cold, and so she made a guy who is always extremely fucking cold. She, apparently, just found other uses for him and his nature later. Its interesting to me that subzero is one of the doctors' only creations that remains loyal to her and probably the only one that remained loyal that isn't being naive as of the nccts and is also one of the only ones that wasn't made with a particularly restrictive goal in mind- he was made to be cold. Hes cold. Hes succeeded by nature of birth and cannot fail her because that was all he was meant for in the first place, everything else is just a bonus.

The Carrot Collective! Was supposed to be an olimar. lol. According to the submission information, a psychic hivemind of carrots grown by patch farms in collaboration with Dr. Order. Each individual body's life is very short, but more sprout up to replace them and the collective mind lives on unaffected. The fighter bodies we see are little mechas the carrots pilot for smash purposes because its difficult to have a traditional and fair 3-stock game against an army of regeneratively immortal psychic carrots. Likes to be called C.C. for short. 

Crimsonaut. Little guy!!! Beloved!!! Dr. Order launched this little dude into The Crimson (location) to research it's nature and he came back from that little expedition Perfectly Fine, aside from some very permanently dyed gear. Totally uncontaminated otherwise, he was carefully screened upon his return. (lol. lmao.) Does have a bit of a personal bone to pick with the doctor due to the overall inhumane and scary nature of said forced research trip, though. The carrots like him, so some of them have a tendency to follow him around too.

Zapmouse! Angy rat that hates the doctor so so so much. so so so so so so so much. Dr. Order subjected him to Fuckt Up Experimence and he showed up to the tournament looking for an opportunity for revenge.

Nuke Suit! Somewhat unstable robot suit powered thoroughly by nuclear energy.

Recon Riley! Dr. Order's intel specialist, modified for stealth and acting as her spy on kerfuffle since the tournaments started. If Dr. O needed to know something about any given fighter, Riley's on the job. Genderfluid and uses any pronouns interchangeably.

There was one last open position that the doctor expected someone to arrive to fill- specifically Not google- but they never showed up, and so Sephiroth stepped into that empty placement in the Doctor's tournament. Think the implication with the twist grudge match at the end of this gaiden is that this spot was meant for Larry.

Dr. Order and Sephiroth fight for the exhibition. Sephiroth takes the win as expected.

First match- My Grunk vs. The Carrot Collective! Ryan: "I think Dr. Order's operating on a misled hypothesis- I think she thinks what's made The Grunk so strong is being brought back from the dead, but i think its more complicated than that. the grunk has a spirit that doesn't really… translate. My Grunk is very Zombielike. No life in him. No spirit. Now the carrot collective? I see spirit there." funny

My Grunk struggles with KOs, a single carrot surviving to almost 200% on first stock. Ryan: "My Grunk being this archetype of character requires a lot of micromanaging and planning the original grunk was not slowed down by. The Grunk was not and did not need to be… cunning." Comona: "theres a difference between a natural raw fighting instinct and battling with a spartan mind. and the grunk is not the latter." The match keeps close, but the carrots take it. Ryan has to fix the overlay and almost accidentally puts captain crimson in trying to put up the carrots. Comona: "that man is never allowed back in here again. That man is banned. From Life, even."

Chat member: "dr. order is just recording everything you guys say commentating, are y'all like… okay with that?" Ryan: "shes been monitoring everything thus far already and she hasn't gotten anything from our commentating so far, I don't see what difference it makes." Comona: "we broadcast on public channels, the information's already out there regardless." Ryan: "its about as much our fault as anybody's." sure bud.

Grunk WOULD play minceraft. But not hardcore mode he'd last all of seven minutes

My Grunk manages to take it to a game 3, munching on some nerfed meat. Comona: "NEVER NERF GRUNK'S MEAT!" Ryan: "I had a bit of discussion with Dr. Order about the Carrot Collective- we dont know a lot about these fighters, a lot of these guys are new- and while my grunk is pretty self-explanatory, just kind of mindless, yknow, like a zombie, Carrot Collective actually, is a collaborative effort with patch farms and is a relative to Corn on the Cob and the like." Comona: "I like that, its nice." Ryan: "just a nice little happy family!"

The carrots have a very funny SD and do not successfully climb out of the deficit it puts them in, and theyre first out of the tournament to the commentators and chat's disappointment. Dr. Order mentions disinterestedly the Collective's interest in joining up with Team Craken, so its not like they're going away. Ryan almost gave the win to the carrots by accident and the commentators reassure us that they would Never alter the results of a tournament in their own interest because theyre a respectable, upstanding establishment. Somewhere plum sneezes 

Round 2, the unstable nuclear suit, vs. Machiavelli! Comona: "a lot of people arent gonna want to fight that, theyre gonna be like 'oh no, i dont know, what if something goes wrong-' Machiavelli does not care about that." Ryan: "Machiavelli's here to have a good time even if that means endangering everyone." Machiavelli LOVES to smash nuclear weaponry with comically oversized looney tunes mallet

Nuke suit was designed for anti-air capabilities and Machi loves to float, so round one is mostly a learning experience. I wonder how, with how order is, that Machi's so thoroughly decided 'fighting is for having fun and playing <3' moreso than winning. particularly in ncct 1 that interaction where they excitedly say they think larry's closer to the ultimate fighter because he's so versatile, 'shifty all the time!' even though he lost, and all.

Machi does a silly little happy dance when he takes nuke suits second stock in the second match. Machi's playing baseballs with Rockets. Machi, lets nuke suit take it to last stock for fun, for the Excitement, and eats a 2-0 for it. Nuke suit moves on. Order doesnt particularly react to this, just keeping a close eye on the nuke suit's instability. Machi and the Carrots leave to hang out in the lab's breakroom.

Zapmouse vs Winston Overwatch. A haunted rat in a haunted lab, seeking the most violent sort of revenge… and a funny monkey also. Winston wants to use zapmouse like a gun and zapmouse is Not Having It. Zapmouse plays careful and smart and gets a solid damage lead at the start in the first match but unfortunately, his opponent is A Fucking Gorilla. Zapmouse prevents a 3 stock but Winston wins handily. Winston has made an enemy today. Second match is much more even. Zapmouse loves zapping people off ledges. Winston swats him like a fly for last stock, winning 2-0. Zapmouse wanders off snarling.

Sephiroth taking the absentee spot and subzero amalgam is introed with Hey Ya- WHATS COOLER, THAN BEING COOL. Ryan: "so, we dont really know much about subzero amalgam personality-wise, but we do know subzero was only made to make a guy that knows what itd be like to be very very cold. So judging from that I cant imagine subzero's a very big fan of doctor order." Comona: "Subzero's actually so cold, its vocal box doesn't work properly, so it all just comes out as beeps. If Subzero was able to be warmer he would sound like a relatively normal man." nccts said 'lol. lmao. subzero's actually one of her only creations thats loyal to her still and is probably one of the most eloquent of them all when those beeps are translated <3'

Puzz asks in chat if subzero amalgam has any connection to ICEE and ryan says ICEE might be willing to eat him if you artificially flavored him. if he weren't sentient making that effectively cannibalism, of course. but there's no connection. awesome

Commentators keep ascribing a deathwish to subzero due to the horrors of being cruelly made just to be so very VERY cold. Subzero loses and Ryan says subzero's mostly just upset he isn't dead yet. Also that Subzero and Zapmouse are suffering buddies. Subzero left pretty much immediately after losing 2-0 to sephiroth, wandering off for whatever reason. 

Spriteman vs. Hackerbot J0hn! Comona praises J0hn and Spriteman's professionalism, and Ryan says the report from the field is that J0hn will swap back to human form if bot form proves disadvantageous. It proves disadvantageous. Perfect Spriteman is vicious and playing honest with the projectiles is NOT helping, and Bot form is going in his pocket for now as we get a scene, heard through the Copious Amount of Recording Equipment in the lab, Because the Dr. Is A Freak About It. J0hn: "you… you bastard. You used to be just like me- what happened? Why did you abandon who you were?" Perfect Spriteman, trying to speak and failing: "sprite… sprite…" J0hn, clearly disturbed: "....what the Fuck? Okay??? Alright??? I mean I went with this form because I was expecting a pushover, but maybe I was wrong. Let's do this motherfucker."

Comona speculates Dr. Order doesn't really like or want J0hn hanging around the lab in -Man form because that hacking sword is Worrying for her. Also suggests J0hn can hack opponent's minds to read for what they're going to try next, which... thats an application of script awareness/sensitivity ive wondered about before- if you can read the script and someone's current thoughts are important enough to get logged in it wouldnt that make you effectively Slightly, Incidentally capable of reading minds, if only usually for the Narratively Important ™️ bits, and communication over the script in a telepathy-like form is smthn that happens a few times during the nccts between people capable of percieving and manipulating it, particularly cosmic with the other non-cobalt gods. Certain workings of the script appearing to function like supernatural psychic phenomena to the unknowing eye. Chartreuse and Crimson have had unsecured script-based twin telepathy and known they were fictional characters since they were like. born probably. and just. never directly told or explained any of this to cobalt ever and still havent. Im rambling this tangent's barely relevant to the gaiden at hand

J0hn takes first stock with an effective usage of glass cannon protocol (smash art.) Sprite is dissolving the plant's brain and he is playing DUMB this match, j0hn taking it to a round 3.

Perfect Spriteman is just gasping and sputtering 'sp-sprite…' and J0hn looks on. "Jesus Christ, what'd Doctor Order do to you…? Looks like I gotta get you back to the way you used to be, my man." Ryan sets the rule as: if J0hn wins with two stocks or more, spriteman will be cured. J0hn is decidedly doing considerably better in -man form, but alas Spriteman is still a vicious battle freak. J0hn, after losing: "wish the best for ya, my man. If you ever feel like coming back to reality, I'll be right here for ya."

Crimsonaut vs Google Plus! Crimsonaut described as being of a nervous disposition, but again, Ticked Off about Dr. Order abandoning him in an alternate evil dimension that he 'barely made it out of with his life' and Google Plus as not really… having a personality yet. Just if/then statements. Crimsonaut, to Dr. Order and about Google Plus: "I want to destroy you, and everything you stand for, and I'll start with your little pet project here!" Considering the slimey hiss of a voice Comona gives him here and how Crimsonaut stands guard during the raid and how Crimson attempted a coup in the bad timeline and calls the doctor a freak when orange rolls around this bit is fun. This bit is fun.

Their first match has Plus in the lead to start with, but Crimsonaut evens out the damage and although plus takes first stock, Crimsonaut takes them back to even shortly after. However, an unfortunate offstage fumble Plus takes advantage of costs the little man an early second stock, Plus having a little throwback to Bing in terms of enjoying those offstage dunks. Crimsonaut takes it to a close last stock anyway with a lot of careful play, but Plus takes it. Ryan: "Crimsonaut's been working with the Doctor for a long time. if you trust a guy to take your stuff into a different dimension you probably trust them with a lot- he's probably been familiar with her if/then programming pretty long, granted he's been away for a while now, but he still knows her style."

Crimsonaut embarrassingly early first stock in round 2 😔 but crimsonauts got good momentum and puts enough damage on fast enough to even things out again. Plus appears to begin… malfunctioning somewhat. Having some weird reactions intermittently. The match goes down to last stock, evenly high damage playing ledge games until Plus throws out an illogical move that Works, taking Crimsonaut's last stock and winning 2-0. Comona: "i hate to bring this up, but… d'ya think google's gotten into Google Plus's head? That didnt seem like an if/then scenario." Ryan describes Dr. Order looking worried about the situation unfolding and covering the window she's watching the combat from when she noticed him looking. Ryan looks at Orders cybersecurity monitoring setup and can't See any outside influence causing the apparent disruption, but he's not sure, they'll have to wait and see. Comona describes how if they were Order, they'd be keeping a close eye on their creations because yet another rogue element could be dangerous for her.

The Dimensional Bus who abandoned Jay at the station, vs Mach 2! Mach 2 is mentally locked on doing better than his predecessor, who got out round one, by taking this chance and kicking the bus's ass. The Dimensional Bus was with Crimsonaut when they ventured into the Crimson and made it out just fine. Unclear if this means the Bus was stranded with Crimsonaut and came back with him or ditched him there by himself at some point to return to its job of ferrying people between worlds, but the latter seems more likely as it sounds like Crimsonaut only got back really recently and the bus was In Use in previous episodes. The Bus was also thoroughly screened for Crimson contamination and came back clean, but considering Crimsonaut smuggled Crimson in unnoticed through the same screening process, the only reason I trust that is because Dan beats the hell out of the Bus later and not a thing comes of it crimson-ways.

Mach 2 takes round one, but in round 2 as the commentators completely fail to pay attention to the match discussing music tastes instead, he does markedly worse, feeling even more inferior that the people being paid to be here to commentate on his fight could not give a shit less because theyre more concerned with talking about Nickelback. Pour one out for Mach 2's round 2, run over by the vengabus.

Round 3 opens STRONG with mach 2 footstooling the bus into a pit, but the bus takes mach 2's first stock and pineapples him for the second, creating a reversal of the lead that mach 2 cannot climb out of the pit of. Mach 2's absolute nightmare scenario. He loses. 

Mach 2, very upset, calls out Machi to come settle a score. Machi: "Okay! :D" its grudge match time! Comona: "I know this is probably a fairly even match but i can't help but get like, yamcha vs. the saibamen vibes." Ryan: "yeah, mach 2's about to get yamcha'd." Chat member: "vegeta level complex, yamcha level winstreak." The match IS actually quite even, although Machi keeps at least a small lead the whole time. Machi, in his littol baby voice as he closes last stock: "nothing personal, Mach 2!" and teleports behind him kicking him into the blast zone. Mach 2 is left facedown in a crater yamcha posed while Machi gives his limp, motionless body a hug before walking off.

Chat member asks if mach 2's like, actually dead and ryan clarifies no, he doesn't like killing off characters for anything less than big stakes and even then he brought the grunk back, they didnt even kill crimson really, just banished him. Chat Member: "except light pit." Ryan: "oh SHIT i forgot, light pit DID get canonically killed by palutena."

Lab Intern Dan vs Recon Riley! Ryan intros Riley with a homestuck reference. Recon Riley is the ninja, the secret agent, the silent watcher thats so hard to come to terms with the presence of this whole time due to their skill in moving unnoticed and untouched. Dan and Riley are both employees here, but Riley's the one with the status, that actually gets to sit at the meetings that Dan brings coffee to. Comona: "Dan's not an avaricious man, but he probably thinks 'man, it'd be cool to be the one that gets a seat at the table.'" Riley is stated to be genderfluid here because Ryan noticed he was playing fast and loose with the pronouns in regard to them so hes deciding thats because she uses any/all of 'em. 

Despite TWO self-destructs from fumbled kill attempts, Dan takes Riley to last stock, and then he SDs again. dan's said to put so much time into 9-5ing that he has almost no time for doing or practicing things he actually enjoys. Feel that buddy 😔 Riley's only real combat strength is being a mosquito. Being fast and hard to hit and unmerciful. But that wont help when dan has the Giant Fist. Get uppercut'd nerd its game 3 time. After that uppercut kill dan's feeling CONFIDENT and he gets out to a strong strong lead. As things go to last stock and dan has a dramatic damage lead, Riley's only beginning to panic about losing to the rank and file employee right as its about to happen, and Dan socks riley with a jab for last stock

My Grunk vs Nuke Suit! Comona praises that nuke suit is just a learning combat ai suit with no sentience at all whatsoever and that's what Dr. Order's stuff works best as. Ryan reminds that Nuke Suit is potentially very dangerous due to its nuclear nature, and also compares its robotic nature to Google Plus's. First match between these two- if you get distracted for even a moment you will miss nuke suit losing its first two stocks. My Grunk takes it. Nuke Suit shifts to what the commentators call an 'unstable form.' Ryan: "my grunk? Sweetie? Be Careful."

My Grunk, immediately: (makes a dick shaped dirt sculpture between bullying nuke suit with fire, trying to blow it up with dynamite and taking apart a plane with his bare hands)

Commentators start considering evacuating the building before getting messaged by J0hn that they can relax, nothings gonna blow up the nuke suit's full of shit. He was monitoring the situation and it was just in Intimidation Mode, using the appearance of instability to try to get an edge in combat by making its opponent panic. Dr. Order: bad person, interesting ideas!

Sephiroth vs Winston Overwatch. Sephiroth hates this fucking ape and wants to prove he can get further than midway into a tournament. Winston yeets sephiroth's twink ass like an empty can for the first stock and its VERY funny. Most of this first game is vine jokes, match commentary and very silly kills. Funny Monkey GETS him. Round 2 is more in sephiroth's favor, and a lot of the commentators begging for winston to fucking GET him with the funny donkey punch in his very punchable face. Winston ALMOST reverse 3-stocks. but sephiroth HAD to rob us of it. Sephiroth: "how could you take me to my limit?!" Winston: "Hehe, hi there, im a funny monkey." Sephiroth, responding to the audience: "...how do they know… about the weights in my shirt?" And goes shirtless. Winston wonders what he'd look like with pink hair (due to a silly skin misclick), completely disengaged from the anime dramatics.

Sephiroth: "This Is More Of A Tits Out Kind Of Look." Chat Member: "sephiroth now weighs as much as a pichu." Winston overwatch sends him straight to hell with a stomp. Hell is said to be in paris but i think this is just ryan making an overwatch map joke in context. This being said it would be very funny. Sephiroth wins with his shirt off in an electrically close down to the wire match. Winston then immediately raids Dr. Order's breakroom for its stock of peanut butter and immediately dips. Ryan: "respect the grift, my man." Winston overwatch becomes accomplice to war criminal for some fucking peanut butter

Spriteman vs. Google Plus! Spriteman's still lost in that sauce called sprite. Perfect Spriteman takes advantage of Plus's general predictability to read him again and again. Google Plus is still behaving a bit erratically- possibly due to outside interference, possibly not, it's unclear yet, but it could be contributing to why Plus is losing here. Ryan: "both of these people are… very very damaged by Doctor Order and need to come to terms with it- Plus being entrenched in pure objectivism and Perfect Spriteman is just all about… obsession." I know what ryan Meant here but hearing 'Google Plus is into objectivism' took a year off my life never imply Plus reads ayn rand ever again even on accident please and thanks (lighthearted)

After losing to Spriteman and after certain weird aspects of his match with Crimsonaut, Plus questions the effectiveness of the if/then logic format he's been acting based on due to it returning inconsistent results despite being based on consistent reasoning, and decides to reformat his thought processes and seize control, 'becoming sentient' in his words. He just sort of decided "ok this isnt working perfectly 100% of the time. ergo clearly i have to be at least enough of a person to figure out what actually DOES work.' Doesnt make him do any better fighting perfect spriteman in though. Plus checks his database for what to do about failure, finds nothing, decides next action based on newly acquired 'sentience' and wipes both his queries and an unnamed External Force from mind and demands a battle with the Doctor.

Doctor Order's head is in her hands. She doesn't know why this keeps happening. (My money's on 'cant make a thing Detect spectrum if it cant understand what spectrum is at the baseline, that being art and connection, something that requires complex nonliteral thought and the ability to process communication and emotion to thoroughly get. Not to Philosophy of Art but elephants can slap abstract strokes of paint on a canvas and AI can recombine assets to make a new image but far as im concerned without communication and interpretation its not really anything grander than the blunt sum of its parts by itself, and while you can interpret both those examples if you feel like it you cant feel a communication of intent bc to an elephant the paintbrush might as well be a stick with mud on it thats fun to smear on things and to an ai its just data because it doesnt Think like we do. There isn't the same Artistic Intent in the action because it couldn't begin to process art the same way we do. We can make it art through interpretation but it was not created with intent of making art by what made it, even if the zookeepers and the users of the AI or the people who had their data scraped to train it had artful intentions, because art is a Human Thing, so there is something always just. Missing. anyway.) Plus is kicking her ass. Stop making animeboy web browsers. You only have yourself to blame doc. 

There's the suggestion made in this episode that maybe there's something special about Bing thats lead to Goog and Plus's awareness, but honestly Especially in hindsight i don't buy it he's just a guy to me. No amount of Technique (nccts) can convince me otherwise. I think Bing could do that where Dani couldn't because he is simultaneously so relevant (by extension of goog and now dani) and irrelevant that he could both enter the void and not be claimed by it and no other reason. I think making him special is unnecessary and would be distracting, although he'd probably disagree with me. The idea that goog and mac have to be made from someone special to be special is rey palpatine logic to me

Comona: "i think that Google Plus playing reactively now instead of distracting himself trying to process a bunch of different scenarios all at once bodes well for the mechanical being that he is." Ryan: "yeah, for a guy made of flowcharts hes reacting very well, abandoning the flowcharts is probably the best decision hes made." Doctor Order loses to an uptilt and goes back to her viewing box grumbling irritably about it happening again, and snaps that it doesnt matter, Plus might not have emotions or whatever but he still lost the tournament, so if he wants to leave then go AHEAD, because she won't be using him anyway. Plus: "Victory achieved. Seeking further victory." And marches out of the lab to go pick some fights like an unbothered king

Dan vs The Dimensional Bus! Dan can, should, must and WILL demolish a FUCKING bus. He did get tazed in the ass in the process but its fine its fine its fine. Dan prints out memes and puts them on the fridge in the breakroom and is also good as fuck at peggle. Thoroughly destroyed that fuckin bus in both rounds. Ryan: "if you told me at the start of this tournament that dan would be in top 4 i would have laughed you out of the room."

My Grunk vs. Sephiroth. Sephiroth fought grunk proper last tournament so thats funny. Ryan: "oh god, i've just realized that of the 16 people here only a few of them weren't created by doctor order and two of them are in top four. I think Dr. Order kind of sucks." Sephiroth, stuck in a minecart: "i will show this minecart despair." Alas the zombie cant compete well with Sephiroth From Sephiroth, and round one is Cruel. Chat asks if Riley is a creation of Dr. Order and Ryan replies yes, but only in the sense that Riley was Modified for stealth by Order, they were born a regular person.

Perfect Spriteman vs. Dan! Perfect Spriteman takes first round pretty easily and handily, but someone gets sent down to let Dan know how many people are cheering for him. Dan: "...What? They're cheering for me? What? I'm just a Guy. You sure? You're not confusing me for someone else? Me? ME? I feel like you've gotta be messing with me here, but I win, I lose, its for you guys, aight? Stay frosty, motherfuckers." Commentators discuss how cpu kerfuffle true ending is Dan getting to be champ and how he should be in charge actually as Dan takes first stock, and the match is fun and tense as dan works hard to successfully pull it to a round 3. 

Dan apparently knows and feels next to NOTHING about what's specifically going on with the labs, he's just here for the paycheck. He doesn't even know Perfect Spriteman used to be a guy. which i mean yeah makes sense his first fuffle was already after Spriteman transformed. Ryan: "hes just here to punch." Comona: "hes just like 'oh theres a monster? I mean thats kind of normal for kerfuffle so whatever'" Ryan: "I was here for like. kerfuffle 5 to fight hamburger helper. this is nothing." Ryan makes a comment on the match about CPUs not being smart enough to make a particular play a human could go for and Comona shushes him and Ryan goes "oh yeah i forgot." Match is tense enough the commentators dont comment on much else. Ryan: "The pressure is on- but I don't think Dan's feeling it because he doesnt realize just how many people are watching and rooting for him, and I dont think perfect spriteman even realizes he's in a tournament right now hes just acting on base instinct." Spriteman takes last stock, winning 2-1.Dan pushes Spriteman out of center stage a little bit to say something. Dan: "that guy on the side said there were people watching this and… cheering? for me? So I still don't know if this whole thing is a bit, so I'm gonna preface this whole thing with that because if I'm being played for a goddamn idiot right here and like, you're gonna put this in a cringe compilation or something thats some Bullshit- but to all you people out there cheering for me… thank you so much. Im not sure if you all know it, but god DAMN does that mean so much to me. To know that like- even though my life's been Failure after Failure that like- theres still people out there chanting my name- APPARENTLY, according to that guy- so uh- if this is a cringe compilation you BETTER not post that shit- but if it isnt… thanks you guys. I'm gonna hit up steak and shake." I want to hug him. I want to hug him so bad it makes me look stupid. 

Sephiroth vs Perfect Spriteman, Grand finals! Fast and tense set. Sephiroth takes game one, directly demanding to be taken seriously as an antagonist and like, with the metanarrative element grand kerfuffle and the nccts introduced with time that's Funny. Commentators reiterate how funny sephiroth doing so well is when he wasn't even supposed to BE here, someone just didn't show up. During the second match, the commentators hear something go off somewhere in the lab- some kind of distant siren or alert. Second match goes to a last stock situation, and Spriteman clinches it, taking it to a game 3. The shirt comes off, theyre on new donk and sephiroth is leading and hes being scary scary scary and then he sds, choking in the silliest way possible and never recovers. The tournament's winner, and calibur's representative for the next tournament is Perfect Spriteman! 

But before the commentators can finish announcing that, Dr. Order arrives on the scene with an urgent announcement: "Listen, everyone, theres been a break-in, and we need to lock down and take care of the problem, every stay where you are and once the intruder has gone away-" and shes interrupted. "Ho ho, you want to stop NOW huh? Maybe you should've stopped when you gave me all of this… bullshit! Don't get me wrong, I love the bullshit, but I still think you've gotta pay!" And Larry appears, first as himself, and then as his 'true form' melts away to get set for a random roll: "Listen, you made this bed, time for you to lie in it!" Dr. Order: "I've had enough of this shit anyway. Doesn't matter what happened. I will have Perfect Spriteman as my champion, and you'll see, in the next tournament, Perfect Spriteman will-" Larry, cutting her off and starting the match: "Yeah, yeah, whatever." Comona, as Larry: "Pull up those yoga pants and come for a fight, 'cause I'm looking for one."

Larry rolls ryu. This does not bode well. Ryan, now looking into the Doctor's files, determines Florida Man was once just a joker, but after interacting with Dr. Order, became what he is now with the powers of shapeshifting. Dr. Order takes first stock. Order: "you think I couldn't best my own creations?" Larry: "yeah, I talked to google!" Dr Order keeps a strong lead, but Larry IS out here playing street fighter. Larry, comboing her: "hey doc Google Plus showed me how flowcharts work Check This Shit Out!" Alas, while Larry does Pretty Damn Good for a Ryu, he gets footstooled and loses his last stock. Doctor Order, looking down on him: "you really thought you could come back, and you could defeat me? After all this?" Larry laughs, on the ground. "Yeah, its called making it past seventh in a tournament. But hey, you know the curse you gave me. You win some… you lose some. I'm getting the hell out of here. I know you're so PROUD of ~Perfect Spriteman~ but you aren't so proud of yourself, are ya?" Dr. Order tries to snap back "I dont NEED to be-" but larry, not letting her finish, turns into meta knight and teleports away with his cloak, and Squid Jenny delivers the finalized cast list for the next episode.

#rewatch