#bonus commentary: at the time of drawing this i was still figuring out how i wanted to draw hanzo. he's so fucking hard to draw

[gophergal]

Life on the farm

#gopher art #mortal kombat #subscorp #mk subzero #mk scorpion #kuai liang #hanzo hasashi #mortal kombat legends #been holding onto this one for a bit! finished it more than a month ago lol #i was originally going to save it for subscorp week but then i was like. nah. that wouldnt be entirely fair lol #and besides. ive been wanting to share it for long enough and my resolve has kinda worn down #anyway - snowblind but AU'd! heres my concept of this (which i may use later on for something idk): king kano got his shit wrecked #like way before the events of the movie. by the revenants in fact. i want him torn to shreds. you still have random roving assholes #making trouble across the wastes. but its much less dire. kuai still retires to his farm. kenshi still falls for shang tsung's bullshit #and kuai mentors him. hanzo becomes warlord of netherrealm. BUT. he and kuai keep in contact. its long distance and they make it work #sometimes scorpion vacays to Kuai's farm. as a treat. thats what this drawing is #i cant deny that i literally just want them to be happy ok. thats literally all i want for these gay old ninjas #bonus commentary: at the time of drawing this i was still figuring out how i wanted to draw hanzo. he's so fucking hard to draw #when i draw him without his mask or beard he looks so fucking off. but if i draw him with the beard it feels weird too. #babygirl why are you so hard to draw?? dont you want me to draw you?????

[inventors-fair]

Preferential Treatment: Partial Decree Commentary

Back again for the commentary! This week was such a blast, honestly. You all made killer designs, and while this is certainly not a contest I’ll run very often, it did give me lots of new ideas for other contests, so stay tuned. It is interesting that people heavily focused on the copying aspects, when I honestly wouldn’t even say that’s my absolute favorite part of magic. I’m curious to hear thought processes behind these designs, so if anyone wants to share how they came up with their idea, I would love to hear about it. Anyways, here’s Wonderwall.

The Tattered Timepiece by @dabudder

At first glance, this is an incredibly cool card. I love the idea of repeatedly taking extra turns but losing a bit of each one, essentially leaving you with nothing by the end of it. You have to use it very carefully, but the concept is cool. However... it runs into some logistical issues. First off, skipping your end phase also involves skipping your cleanup, which is not something black-border magic ever wants to get into, since “Until end of turn” effects would stick around, and damage wouldn’t be removed. In addition, There are cards that skip either untap, upkeep, or draw steps, but not all of them all at once. I think this design would be better serviced by looking at existing “skip step or phase” cards like Fatespinner, and picking some appropriate choices from among those. However, the logistics issues don’t detract from the fact that this is still as super cool card.

Absolute Decree by @nicolbolas96

One of our few non-blue cards this week (I was going to ask if I’m that easy to figure out, but I guess it is literally in my username). I do like flexibility with removal, and I do like political maneuvering, and this has a good amount of both of those! However, I just can’t see any situation in which your opponent ever lets you copy the spell. I understand that the intention was probably “Hey, if you let me copy it, I’ll blow up this other thing controlled by player 3”, but... I’m not sure there would be many people likely to agree with that when the original copy is pointing at one of their permanents. I’m not necessarily sure what the fix is, but this card relies on blowing up someone’s key piece, and then asking them nicely for a favor, which doesn’t seem like it will go the way you want it to 90% of the time.

Nadan, Dean of Imitation by @yd12k

Okay, so between the name, the art, and the flavor text, I’m a little confused. Is this supposed to be a different iteration of Naban, but was a typo? Is it Naban’s evil twin? A parody? I definitely appreciate the pandering to the judge, but I’m confused about who exactly this is supposed to represent. The ability is one that I’m honestly surprised we haven’t seen before, though it feels more at home on a mid-cost enchantment than a 2-mana legendary creature. There could still be lots of fun things to do with it, but I think the potential card advantage is way too much for this to be coming out of the command zone on turn two. However, bonus brownie points for playing to the audience.

Unseelie Meddling by @hiygamer

There’s a reason I have Mystic Reflection listed as my favorite blue card, and this plays in a lot of the same space. I do like the attempt to broaden it from just creatures, but as others have stated, this gets into some weirdness with auras that can make this “destroy target nonland permanent” in certain scenarios, which... yeah, that unfortunately needs some black to justify. Equally unfortunately, the workaround is clunky, so at least you stuck to your guns. Beyond that issue, I like this card, though I feel like 3 mana might be too expensive for something that doesn’t give you any nice ETB triggers, and only lasts for the turn. I think it could have either been cheaper or more permanent, though with the latter there’s obviously memory issues. Also, WOW that’s some dark art direction. I love it, reminds me of some of the older magic art.

Hysteric Laughter by @col-seaker-of-the-memiest-legion

It is interesting that we got so much Cipher this week, considering... I don’t actually care for it that much. Yes, I like instants and sorceries, and I love copying them, but Cipher always felt like there were too many moving parts for my liking. This one is pretty good at addressing some of my issues with it- it’s simple, effective, and easy to tack on to any creature without making them a huge magnet for removal. However, over time, that card advantage can really add up. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying this should cost 4 mana like Last Thoughts, but I’m not totally sure if 1 mana is the right place for this either, especially since an evasive one-drop into one of these is two cards right away, and that multiplies if you have more copies. Cipher as a Maestros mechanic is also interesting- obviously they like copying instants and sorceries, but it doesn’t seem to me that they would match with the skulking, cryptic flavor of Cipher. They seem pretty loud and proud. However, like I said before, you’ve done a good job of making me reconsider Cipher, so that in and of itself is a commendation.

Quell, the Living Storm by @helloijustreadyourpost

This card is a very interesting cross-section between Elemental tribal and spellslinger, which I don’t think is something we’ve seen before? The power buff not only makes it so that you can swing with these guys pretty hard, but also enables the casualty ability, which is some neat self-synergy. This guy clearly wants to be a commander, I’m just having a hard time picturing what you would want in the deck. Elementals obviously, but what kind of instants and sorceries? The red ones that make more temporary elementals, I guess? Don’t get me wrong, this is a cool card, and could definitely see print, but it’s a bit too linear for my tastes. There are some hints of Ball Lightning tribal in here, which could have been really cool if you doubled down on that a bit more? I dunno. However, big bonus points for being the first custom card designer ever to put “storm” in the name of a card that has nothing to do with Storm.

Mirageherd Matriarch by @pocketvikings

Noncreature/ small creature token payoff. Iiiiinteresting.... I like it. There’s some obvious parallels here between this and Poppet Stitcher/ Poppet Factory, but obviously it has a bit of a different intended use. I’m not totally sure I get the flavor of how an elephant turns Treasures and Clues into other elephants? Some flavor text definitely could have helped here. Also, the repeatable investigate does make for some nice creature sac fodder, but in a deck with literally any other token generation, it would never happen. Maybe it could be something like “if you didn’t create a token this turn”? Anyways, lots of cool shenanigans to be done with this, especially since there are some noncreature tokens you can make for pretty cheap rates, but I think it straddles the right power level.

Throk, Prismari Alumnus by @snugz

I had to do a double take at this card because I thought it was full hybrid for a second, which would have been a bit pie-breaky, but this is styled after the strixhaven cycle, so all good there. However, for future reference, those cards do use a gold frame to avoid confusion. Onto the mechanics- mass granting your spells Cipher for just 4 mana seems very very strong. Cipher cards, though a bit overly cautious, were costed as much more expensive than their non-Cipher counterparts, because you get to repeat them several times without having to spend cards each time. Add that to the natural evasion granted by ciphering cards, and you have one heck of a powerhouse for 4 mana. It’s still a really cool idea, but it needs some limits on it to make it work nicer. Maybe the first spell each turn has Cipher? Or you pay N as you cast it to gain Cipher? There’s options here, but I do think it needs to be toned down a bit.

Well of Discordance by @hypexion

This card went through some pretty major iterations in the Discord, and there were some solid ideas throughout the process. I do like where this card started. However, this would just be an absolute mess of triggers- essentially, untapping with this would turn a commander game into a 40+ minute game of solitaire as you debate whether or not you have enough mana to continue the cascade chain or not. My issue isn’t the power level, per se- I think as a 6-mana legendary artifact that costs an extra one per spell, it’s in a good spot. I just think there’s too much decision paralysis that comes along with it. Additionally, I can also see this confusing some players who think there’s a period between seeing what you get off the cascade trigger and casting it. That happens immediately, though, so you have to grant cascade blindly. All in all, it’s a neat card, but very complex and not fun to play against.

Gossamer Twin by @nine-effing-hells

“Clone with downside” is always a bit of a fun concept to play around with, though it’s hard to beat Phantasmal Image. Making it more vulnerable to damage but not necessarily to spot removal is a cool take on it, and I do like the flavor of some sort of miniature thread-like copy of something much larger. However, there’s not much to it beyond that. The card feels very plain, and not too exciting. Maybe if it overlaid flying in addition to the abilities of the copied creature? I think flavor text helps sell this too, since Gossamer twin is such a cool, evocative name that is begging for some contextualization. It’s a clever card, and definitely one that tickles my fancy, but I don’t see myself having fun playing this one.

The Bolstering Matrix by @dimestoretajic

That sure is an effect that’s a dream come true for anyone who likes cloning and copying. Obviously, I love this effect. It’s great, and I would love to build around it. However, it’s hard not to compare this to my main man Riku of Two Reflections. For the same mana value, you get the same effect- except you have to pay two mana every time you use it, and its stapled onto a fragile 2/2 instead of a harder-to-remove enchantment. This definitely needs to either be more expensive (in which case you’ll have likely played all your good creatures before this comes down) or have some sort of other limitation (creature type? Mana value? Paying mana like Riku?). The second ability is the cherry on top- I do like that one quite a bit better, and it’s a nice complement to the other one. However, the power level of this needs to be adjusted before I can truly love it.

Bankshot Technique by @deg99

You said “Hypothetical 2-headed Giant set on Strixhaven themed around Mage Tower”, and I fell in love. You went into my brain and pulled out a set that I literally want more than anything I’ve ever wanted in my life. And the card is neat! It’s just not the best proof-of-concept for this amazing set idea. Moving counters is solid- feels like a Quandrix-y thing to do, and it’s established as a possible UG hybrid effect (even though this is also a gold card like the Cipher legend above), and the team reference is neat. I do wonder if there’s a way to clean it up, but that’s not my main problem. I just don’t see demonstrate working in a 2HG set, since so many people would assume they can give their teammate a copy to get two copies themselves. It just works against the concept of 2HG, which is unfortunate, cause the concept is cool. Also, this seems like a rough card to have 3 copies on the stack of- counters would just get madly shuffled around and doubled like crazy, and math would be hard. The name even implies it wants to be an instant-speed combat trick, but that would make it even more painfully complex, so I don’t know what direction this card is pulling in.

Derivative Subversion by @reaperfromtheabyss

...How is this not a card again? Copying and countering spells are costed pretty much the same, and making it modal just makes sense. The entwine is a nice touch. I will say that, even though we can copy permanent spells now, not every copy spell has to be able to do that, and this card feels like it should just copy instants/sorceries. It would ruin the symmetry with the counter half, but still. Also, I’m not sure what the name is getting at? Like, those are just fancy words for “copy” and “interfere with”, so I get how they match up to the modes, but I don’t get what it means in-world. Flavor text? AD? Something to give more context, even if it’s “snarky blue mage quote”.

The Halls of Maurer Estate by @wolkemesser

So this card is cool, but... it’s red. Red red red, all the way. Attack trigger? Red. Temporary tokens? Red. I’m not feeling the esper here at all, except maybe from the name and art. Speaking of which- the “haunted mirror” thing is cool as hell, and I wish the card leaned into that more mechanically, because wow, that’s such a neat idea for a card. I do wonder though, was this card intended to copy *every* attacking creature? As is, you not only double your own board when you attack, but (apart from corner cases) you get a 1:1 copy to block every single creature coming at you. That makes this a HUGE value card for ETB/value decks, while also being a nigh-impassable pillowfort, unless the opponent has huge tramplers or straight unblockable stuff. I do like where you were going with this card, but the concept needed some adjustments.

Chiwit, the Living Leyline by @i-am-the-one-who-wololoes​

I’ll admit, this is definitely a different direction from most of the cards this week, and I like where it starts. Rewarding you for manipulating your mana generators to individually produce multiple mana would make for a super cool deck. However, I wish it had a more exciting reward than “draw a card”. Also, this gets really fuzzy when you look at the limitations. What counts as a single source? Is Dawn’s Reflection separate from the land it enchants? What is the “source” of mana? (Hint: it’s not the obvious answer)? What’s the difference between Nyxbloom Ancient and Caged Sun? These questions all have answers, but they aren’t exactly intuitive. I understand wanting to be inclusive of ritual spells, but there’s a reason most effects are phrased with regards to “tapping permanents for mana”. This is such a cool idea, too, it just lost some stuff on the execution.

That’s that for this week! Have fun with the current contest, and I’ll see you all again soon!

~judge @naban-dean-of-irritation​

#mtg #magic the gathering #custom Magic card #Inventor's Fair #partial decree #commentary

[penguinkinggames]

“Cerebos: The Crystal City” Actual Play Part I: Introductions

This is the first in a series of posts recounting a session of actual play from Cerebos: the Crystal City, currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter. If you’ve been wondering what on Earth players actually do in a game of Cerebos, read on!

This session was conducted on March 20th, 2021, with Matthew Dorbin as GM, and Amelia Gorman, Ashley Flanagan, Will Mendoza, and Kevin Snow playing. The events of play were recorded by Zach Welhouse.

Preamble

For this session of Cerebos, the GM volunteered to run a session with the Adventure! Conductor. The conductor’s Atlas Obscura power invites the players and GM to work collaboratively to create a Stops table unique to their journey. They exchanged a few ideas over e-mail, which the GM codified. He added this new Stops table, which was heavy on the hells, to five other Stop tables to create an Atlas. Then he selected six Event tables to create an Almanac.

Everybody met in Discord and talked about unrelated matters for a bit. Then it was time to introduce characters. Each character clings to three touchstones: objects that represented their past in the City by the Sea. Each touchstone has a single Trait.

Dramatis Personae

Tinderling. A woman who looks like a burnt match.

Iron rail spike (Odd Jobs)

A single match (Burns at Both Ends)

Bird bone sewing needle (Piercing Insight)

The Unqualified Robot. A mechanical figure with a light projection screen for a head. It indicates expression by placing a large slide with the image of an emotion on the screen.

Expression slides (Toxic Positivity)

Backpack of unsold gadgets (Abandoned Junk)

Flask of motor oil (Guzzlin’)

The Lady in Blue. A woman who is as regal as she is soot-stained: exceedingly.

Gun with a single bullet (Single-Minded)

Feathered hat (Life of Luxury)

Burned handbag (Lost Sister)

The Lonesome Seafarer. A sea captain far from shore.

Patchwork coat (Coat of Theseus) (“I like it because it’s vague and we’ll find out what it means during play.”) 

Blue tricorner hat (Air of Authority)

Spyglass with broken lens (Grizzled Survivor)

Some players came to the table with their whole starting concept, while others were less certain about their starting Traits. Everyone helped brainstorm starting Traits for the players who were less certain. This early riffing was the first sign of the collaboration to come. 

One player noticed they gravitated toward useless items or objects of purely sentimental value. The travelers themselves were quite worn, so we were already establishing a contemplative mood. These were travelers who had been beaten down by the world, but hadn’t given up yet. Their stories would be ones of struggle and inspirational determination or grim warnings about challenging forces larger than themselves.

Goals

Based on these introductions, each player determined why another traveler was headed to Cerebos. They shared the goals with the GM over DMs, so no one knew why their traveler was on the road. The truth revealed itself over time through flashbacks

Tinderling: Her newly unionized shop got shut down by union busters. She’s looking for a place with less draconian labor laws.  

The Unqualified Robot: Cerebos is home to a famous scientist who specializes in reprogramming obsolete robots for new jobs.  

The Lady in Blue: The Lady in Blue's sister, the Lady in Red is a criminal ringleader in Cerebos. The Lady in Blue aims to kill her and take over her crime empire.  

The Lonesome Seafarer: The Lonesome Seafarer is looking for someone lost at sea, and old rival/loved one who was believed to have perished but was seen alive in the City by someone the Seafarer trusts. They have something they want to ask them.

Based on their answers to the GM’s initial questions, the players were interested in telling a story about labor, power, and human connections.

For example, the GM asked the players if they intended to pay for passage on the train. One player suggested they might have company scrip from Tinderling's employers. The GM asked if the company had a name, at which point Inferno Heavy Industries was born. It had just opened its newest station for business, to (according to the fresh posters) was "bringing luxury to a land with so little of value".

The Journey Begins

When the travelers arrive, workmen are still unloading plants and doing their best to landscape the surrounding wasteland. The local ecosystem will probably recover. Tinderling notices a panhandler passing among the large crowds, who she recognizes as a scab from the City by the Sea.

The train still has that new train smell. It has fancy cushions and a conductor who’s knowledgeable and friendly, but not pushy. Only the best for the engine’s maiden voyage!

The Lonesome Seafarer follows the automated snack cart from car to car, loading up on the bounty of the rails. The Unqualified Robot, never having been on a train before (presumably), keeps getting in the way until Tinderling recognizes a proletariat in need and guides it to a seat. The Unqualified Robot slides a winking face into its project slot, gladdened by the kindness.

The train sets off and the GM rolls for an Event in the Almanac. The train plows through the desert, passing through a region of low hills and hexagonal pits that seep gas into the air. Plague doctors patrol the perimeter, keeping pit owls from approaching the train. 

This terrain is a Danger 3 Event. If the Danger level (that is, the total Danger of all active Events) is 4 or greater by the time the train reaches a Stop, the Stop will be especially dangerous. If the Event’s individual Danger is reduced to 0, one of the travelers will receive a keepsake of the encounter.

At this point, everybody takes an action with comments, suggestions, and general role-playing filling the space in between.

First Round of Train Actions

Tinderling is familiar with gas from mines and factories. It may be dangerous! She suggests people put on wet masks. She takes the Engage Event action and rolls a Success to lower the danger to 2. Several passengers see the wisdom of this advice and mask up.  

The Lady in Blue shares a story with whoever’s sitting next to her (it doesn’t matter, really) about the importance of staying calm and composed during times of danger. Take it easy, eat a little food. It will all work out. She uses the conductor’s Easy Confidence Train Action to understand Tinderling. Just a little. She gains a bonus to the next time they work together.  

The Lonesome Seafarer believes the unruly owls to be a problem. She shouts out the window and waves her hat at them: “Hey! Owls! Listen to those plague doctors! They have good medical advice!” Another Success. The Event’s danger lowers to 1.  

The Unqualified Robot, shocked by all the action, takes the Lady in Blue’s advice. It tries creating a meal from the snack cart, mashing snacks against its face until it’s a custardy mess. The Lady in Blue offers a napkin and they talk through the comedy of manners. Next, the Robot tries its flask. Empty. The Lady in Blue suggests whiskey for the both of them. They both Share a Meal and earn a keepsake: a tasty beverage that provides a one-time reroll of a 1 or 2.

The first round of Train Actions has ended. The train speeds on into the evening. A few owls follow, hovering just out of reach.

Second Round of Train Actions

Tinderling asks the Lonesome Seafarer about her spyglass. The Seafarer has a flashback to a terrible sea battle against a kraken. She orders her crew to battle stations!   Second mate Scurvy doubts her, shouting, “Are you mad, captain? We can’t fight this!” The captain disagrees, jumping into action and fighting back the kraken almost single-handedly, saving the topsman from a tentacle that may very well be an arm. After the battle, Scurvy is nowhere to be found.   During this flashback, Tinderling set up most of the action, while the Lonesome Seafarer filled in with her actions. Everyone else offered suggestions, commentary, jokes, and bit parts like sailors screaming in terror. Everybody spitballs ideas about what this scene reveals about the Lonesome Seafarer and agrees: the spyglass gains two ranks of the Tunnel Vision trait.  

The Unqualified Robot sees passengers all around it talking, and emulates them by asking the Lady in Blue a nice, innocent question about the gun she’s carrying. It seems like a safe conversation opener, but draws her into a flashback!   The Lady in Blue is playing cards in a seedy tavern. One hand is on her gun, which she’s holding under the table and pointing at her opponent. It’s a game of chance, but the Lady in Blue is exuberantly talking about her masterful strategy. Her opponent throws his hands in the air in disgust, knocking over several drinks. He goes to pick his mug off the ground, narrowly missing as the Lady in Blue passes her gun off to an accomplice who walks past. Her name isn’t Margaret and the Lady in Blue’s name isn’t Angela, but that’s how they refer to one another.   The Lady in Blue’s player had no idea how this game would turn out while it was happening. The accomplice was probably the lost sister alluded to in her Lost Sister trait, but only future flashbacks would tell. Everyone talks about what they learned about the Lady in Blue, and her gun gains two ranks of the Nick of Time trait.

At this point in the journey, two flashbacks have flashed back. The GM rolls on the Almanac for an Event, prompting an announcement from the conductor: “Hello passengers. It’s rare for a train to get lost, but we have.”

Inferno Heavy Industries hired several competing rail gangs for its line, leading to a labyrinthine snarl of tracks. Worse, the turbulence woke a swarm of chandler beetles that had been roosting in the overhead bins. Their waxy secretions have a way of ruining any train ride or picnic, most immediately threatening the Lady in Blue’s sippin’ whiskey. This is a Danger 3 event, which raises the Danger level on the train to 4.

The second round of train actions then continues:

The Lonesome Seafarer continues her conversation with Tinderling, ignoring the beetles for the time being, prompting a flashback. Encouraged by the Lonesome Seafarer’s tale of adversity, Tinderling recalls a time she had to stitch up a friend in the mines with her bird bone sewing needle. Inferno Heavy Industries at fault. That’s when she got the idea to blow up the mine and let those hateful ghouls know their workers had dignity.   Everyone decides the bird bone sewing needle gains two ranks of A Rough Patch.  

The Lady in Blue decides needs must. She sacrifices her hat to scoop up the chandler beetles that are threatening her drink. It’s a snap decision that she instantly regrets. That hat was a link to who she used to be, and possibly who she would like to continue being. It was an exclusive. A very nice hat.   The Lady in Blue rolls an 8 on her roll to release a touchstone. It’s an Ugly Break, so one of her other touchstones gains one Momentum. Even though her luxurious hat has been tainted by insects, she still has her fancy bag.   On the bright side, she gains one Contemplation for taking a step away from her all-controlling past. She doesn’t know much about who she is or who she wants to be, but her hat and the memories connected to it certainly aren’t going to hold her back.

The second round of train actions has now concluded! The Danger level is still 4.

Third Round of Train Actions

Tinderling finishes her conversation with the Lonesome Seafarer and looks across the car to the Unqualified Robot. It’s sipping whiskey from its refilled flask, watching the Lady in Blue go after the beetles with her hat.   Tinderling notices the flask looks like an oil can. The Unqualified Robot notices it’s being watched and becomes self-conscious.   It thinks back to when it liberated the oil can from an Inferno Heavy Industries factory. It was scrounging for oil, always finding just enough to keep it going. Even though the factory was out of commission, automated guards were still protecting its assets. The guards were large and dystopian, while the Unqualified Robot was small and scrappy. It scraped oil off the silent factory machinery with a tiny spoon. It listened to messages on the foreman’s answering machine. The electricity bill is due in three days. The Robot dutifully writes down the messages from the answering machine and takes a sip of oil.   Everyone agrees the Unqualified Robot’s story is going to go some dark places. The oil can flask gains two ranks of Drowning Sorrows.

Two more flashbacks have occurred, so the GM rolls for another Event. The players recognize the Danger is adding up, but are cavalier about it. “How bad can it be?” That’s how they get ants. Ants that are crossing the tracks in a line that stretches to the horizon. They’re carrying the components to build a death ray. Components that look suspiciously similar to the inner workings of a robot. The Event’s Danger is 1; the train’s overall Danger is 5.

The third round of train actions continues:

The Unqualified Robot Engages the Event. The ants know Morse code, as does the Robot so communication is not a problem. Understanding is more difficult. The Robot slides a diplomatic slide onto its projector screen and solemnly taps out, “Please don’t build a death ray with the components of robots. They are living creatures, demanding of dignity.” It rolls a 1 and a 2. A Setback.   The Robot takes a long pull from its whiskey, using the meal keepsake to reroll the 1. Its new results are a 2 and a 2, which is still a Setback. Worse, it’s rolled doubles. If the Robot chooses not to reroll at this point, it’ll gain a point of Momentum in addition to the penalty from the Setback. However, it still has several Traits it could use.   The Unqualified Robot decides a Setback makes more sense. It receives one Damage and gains a point of Momentum to its face plates. Everyone shares a good-natured laugh at how unlucky the robot is and how it will receive a Bad End at this rate.  

The Lady in Blue feels a looming sense of dread and takes a Stop the Train Action. The conductor cheerfully reminds everyone that due to paperwork they signed when purchasing their tickets, the train will be making a brief, unscheduled stop to investigate several findings of industrial importance. Naturally, the NDA also applies.  

Ordinarily, after calling for a Stop, any travelers who have yet to take their train action for the round would receive the opportunity to do so before the train pulls into the station; however, in the group’s eagerness to get away from the assorted owls and insects, the Lonesome Seafarer’s turn was accidentally skipped!

The First Stop

Inferno Heavy Industries scientists unload delicate instruments and set up camp. This is a burial ground, but the skeletons interred in the sands have beards and wigs made of precious metals. If they could determine how to extract metal from living bone, profits would be sure to follow.

In normal circumstances, this wouldn’t be an especially dangerous Stop. However, the travelers let the Event Danger pile up. The last remaining owls have lost interest and the conductor deals with the chandler beetles, but bad karma and the ants remain -- and they’ve decided to complement their death ray with silver and gold, both fine conductors..

In fact, the silver and gold threads are so conducive that several of the skeletons spring to unlife, animated by the scientist’s tools. They give of sparks and judder through the sands, inconveniencing scientists, passengers, and ants alike. Passengers watch the train in shifts, keeping the electric dead at bay with long poles.

The Stop has Danger 5. Since it’s so high, the travelers are unable to rest and take in the sights. Moreover, they’ll need to be very lucky if they want to leave with a fond keepsake or without suffering Damage. The train will remain for one round of Stop Actions. Tune in next time to find out how the travelers fare!

#gaming #tabletop roleplaying #tabletop rpgs #cerebos #kickstarter #violence mention #death mention #food mention #alcohol mention

[hufflesocks]

Tf2 Mercs playing Portal/Portal 2

Scout:

-struggles to get into the games, so he just decides to watch Miss Pauling play

-during her play through of Portal he would let Miss Pauling destroy the companion cube. Despite her warnings he got attached to it and even named it Scout Jr.

-I like to headcannon that the two play a lot of video games together. So when she finally manages to convince him to do the co-op mode with her he just does a bunch of goofy stuff like placing one portal directly above the other and just messing around in general

-and while she is meticulously trying to figure out the puzzles he just accidentally solves them by screwing around

Soldier:

-Struggles a lot with the game, often getting stuck on the puzzles

-keeps going to Engie for help to the point where, he just decides to walk him through the games since he’s already finished his own play throughs

-refuses to listen to Wheatley because of his British accent

-“Engie I can’t go down there because the little robot told me to!”

“Soldier that’s the only way you CAN go.”

“America fought good and hard for its independence! I won’t take orders from the enemy!”

-when Wheatley betrays hims he’s like “I told you he couldn’t be trusted!”

-enjoys the boss fights the most, especially Wheatley’s

-thinks the turrets are neat, and likes their signing

Pyro:

-Pyro is pretty decent at the game, and likes to try and solve the puzzles by themself. But if they’re really stuck they’ll go get Engie

-thinks GLaDOS is mean, but they forgive her. They really enjoy her songs

-is genuinely hurt by Wheatley’s betrayal

-and even more heart broken when they had to destroy the companion cube. Actually they weren’t even the one who did it in the first game, they had Engie take control and do it for them

-feels bad whenever they have to kill a turret, so they try to avoid. This usually ends up with them solving the puzzles in very unusual and creative ways

-loves finding the hidden drawings made by Rattmann

-plays a lot of community test chambers with Engie

Demoman:

-had to wait to sober up before playing the game, because it made him a bit motion sick

-got through the puzzles fairly easily

-wasn’t expecting Wheatley’s betrayal, but he really didn’t mind losing the robot

-was a little disappointed though when he had to put the companion cube in the incinerator

-really likes how at the end he gets to shoot robots with explosives

-full heartidley agrees with Rick’s explosion day

-has memorized the two songs and will occasionally belt them out when drunk

-when he and Soldier play co-op mode they spend the entire time figuring out ways to kill each other. One can often hear them yelling at each other from their rooms

Heavy:

-enjoys the critical and creative thinking that the puzzles require

-it took him a minute to get used to the mechanics but now he is really good at “thinking with portals.” One can occasionally hear him mutter to himself about a good portal spot on the battle field

-found Wheatley pretty annoying. Scout one time walked in on him playing and Heavy said, “look leeltle Scout, tiny robot ball talks to much like you.” Scout was very offended that day

-thought it was really funny when GLaDOS was put in a potatoe

-also really liked the end songs

Engineer:

-One of Engie’s favorite games. Will gush about them to anyone who asks

-found the puzzles to be a lot of fun and very creative. He has even tried making a few community test chambers when he has free time. Miss Pauling tried one once, but got stuck on it for four hours.

-Loves all of the robots, and may or may not have developed something resembling a crush on GLaDOS

-teared up at the end

-after playing the games he tried to redesign his sentries to sing like the turrets

-has a blue print in the works for a portal gun, but it’s a very secret project that he will do anything to prevent the BLU Engineer from finding out about

Medic:

-thought the games were ok, again he would rather be working on his own experiments then playing video games

-if Heavy asks nicely then he will play the co-op mode with him

-what he really likes is the science behind putting a human conscience into a robot

-after finishing the second game at like 11:30 at night he rushed into Engie’s work shop ranting about experimenting to transfer someone’s intelligence into a computer. The two proceeded to stay up all night making plans for it. They are still deciding who should be their first test subject at the moment it’s between one of themselves and Scout. Actually the Administrator found out about the project and demanded that she be transferred onto a computer in the event of an “emergency”

Sniper:

- thought the game was fun, but wasn’t into the puzzles that much. Did enjoy exploring the areas “behind the scenes” and places like old Aperture

-his favorite parts were the times when he had to stratigically place a portal to hit a turret with another object. Found that to be the most like sniping.

-When playing co-op, he likes to grab turrets and shoot at whoever he is playing with

-enjoys the soundtrack and will occasionally listen to it in his van if he is trying to relax.

Spy:

-Only plays them because almost everyone else on the team was bugging him to at least try it

-thought it was fine, and thought the puzzles were ok

-did enjoy GLaDOS’s commentary

-called Wheatley’s betrayal in the few minutes of encountering him

Bonus:

Miss Pauling:

-really likes the game, like a lot

-thinks the puzzles are super fun, loves the soundtrack, thinks the graphics are amazing, and loves the game mechanics

-REALLY and I mean really likes GLaDOS.

-For some reason Miss Pauling feels like GLaDOS sounds like someone and she can’t figure out who. She pointed it out to the others but they didn’t really notice. One day for fun she and Engie where playing with her voice settings. After a while Engie had altered it so that it would sound less robotic. That day Miss Pauling found her answer and both agreed to never mention it again

-wasn’t really surprised when Wheatley betrayed her, and was very happy to put GLaDOS back in charge

-like Engie she also cried a little, especially during Cara Mia

-Didn’t mind having Scout watch during her play throughs. He added some funny commentary; such as offering to punt Wheatley like a “soccer ball” to the moon during his betrayal scene. Does wish he would take the co-op mode more seriously though

I know some of the headcannons make it sound like I don’t like Wheatley, but I swear I do

#tf2 #portal 2 #tf2 headcanons #I know that the events of portal most likely happened within a similar or the same universe as tf2 #but I thought it would be fun to have the mercs play it anyways #tf2 scout #tf2 soldier #tf2 demoman #tf2 pyro #tf2 medic #tf2 heavy #tf2 engineer #tf2 sniper #tf2 spy #tf2 miss pauling #GLaDOS #wheatley

[alch3mic]

If I may, I would like to send a matchup too! X3

I should tell something about myself, hmm..

Others would describe me as shy but friendly nonetheless. They are right about that, but what many do not know is the sacrifice with which I look after my loved ones and my loyalty to them. If I really trust and love a person, I would move mountains if possible to help that them. Sometimes I go so far that it is not so good for my own health.

But I am always there for my loved ones and can be very patient if necessary.

Quite I'm also a clumsy girl. Wherever and whenever I can, I run into doors, furniture, trip over my own feet and many more. XD

I'm not religious, but I believe in fate. I think everyone has their own destiny and is guided by it. But we can still take the destiny into our own hands.

(Remember: everyone can follow their own belief! This is the way I see things and I am perfectly fine if others do not share this opinion with me! =) )

Now something about my hobbies.

In addition to reading and drawing, I also do origami or do various things. This is also the reason why my loved ones always get something I have made by myself for their birthday!

Thanks to my love for nature, I like to go for a walk in the fresh air, regardless of whether if it is wind, rain or snowfall. The bonus of the walk is also that I can take photos. I love to take photos of the nature and never miss a chance for a good picture! =3

But my absolute favorite hobby is and will always be playing video games! There is no way around it for me, thehe! ^^ I'm quite a nerd about that sort of thing. I've even gone so far that I've already played almost every genre. However, my heart beats for adventure and jump and run games!

I would never say no to play games together! ^^

Things i like..

Foxes and nature, obviously! My favorite season is autumn, thanks to the many bright colors.

I also love spending time with my loved one! Whether games, activities or just cuddling, I'm up for a lot. Especially cuddling, I looove cuddling!

And how much I like video games, I don't think I need to mention. X3

What I don't really like, however, are big cities, spicy food and swimming. Yes, even in summer I don't go swimming. (Sorry my dear Noodle, but swimming is not my thing ^^")

In addition, I absolutely cannot stand if someone underestimates me or even treats me like a child. I may be a sensitive person, but I am strong willed and can be quite determined. Unless I'm arguing with my loved ones, then I want it to go over as quickly as possible.. ^^"

By the way, I'm sometimes afraid of the dark. I love the night and the stars, but sometimes I find the dark scary. Just like bugs and spiders. I find this living beings fascinating, but only as long as they don't come too close to me. XD

I guess that's all I can say to myself, I've probably written way too much by now, but I'm still looking forward to the result. But please, please take the time you need and even if you don't answer this I wouldn't be mad at you at all !!

And of course I would like to thank you for making this possible for us at all 🧡

Have a lovely day/night❣

(English is not my first language, please have understanding X3)

It’s undeniable, you and PAPA BEAR are made for each other!

🤍 Someone who’s patient, loyal and attentive? Well, sign Papa Bear up! He enjoys people who are willing to be patient with him, because he tends to take life rather slowly since he wants to savor the moment. He’s also the kind of guy who would also move mountains for those he cares about, so to have that reciprocated by his pumpkin would really mean the world to him! He’ll be sure to keep an eyesocket on you though, just to make sure you’re not overexerting yourself too much because he cares about you and your wellbeing.

🤍 A fellow nature lover! Papa Bear is a big outdoorsy kinda guy so he really just enjoys getting the chance to spend some time outside. Fishing, hiking and camping are among some of his favorite things to do, and his favorite season also happens to be Fall! He also really loves some time indoors too though. He’s really not the best at video games, but he’d be more than happy to play them with you or even just watch! Plus he gives some pretty funny commentary and is pretty good at figuring out riddles and shortcuts.

🤍 He’s really not a big fan of the city either which is why he relocated his home all the way out into the woods. It’s cozy and peaceful without the whole hustle and bustle of an actual city, but he is close enough at least to where he can make a small daytrip of heading into town if he needs to. Makes for a wonderful place for lots of great photos too, and there are a few views he’d love to take you to see some stellar views of the mountains, city and ocean!

🤍  And a fellow cuddle bug too? Goodness. He’s quite the cuddle bug, mostly due to the fact that he’s a huge teddy bear when it comes to his significant other. It’s how he shows his love aside from showering them in gifts and doing his best to say words of encouragement to them. He just loves how you’re smaller than him and how perfectly you sit in his lap, plus he adores bundling up in all kinds of soft blankets because they feel nice. Have no fear, he’ll happily let you hold on to him even in the dark!

#here you are my friend #thank you so so much! #you're always so wonderfully sweet #so i hope you enjoy your match! #matchup!event #vhikoune

[daleisgreat]

Shawn Michaels: The Showstopper Unreleased

WWE has release a few Shawn Michaels DVDs over the years, but continuing on the theme of my last few wrestling-centered entries, WWE Home Video stuck with their “unreleased” brand of DVDs in 2018 with the three-disc release of Shawn Michaels: The Showstopper Unreleased (intro - I could not locate a trailer for this anywhere!). In that clip Shawn quips that the producers deserve an award for finding previously unreleased matches. I believe the criteria for this release is still similar to previous “Unreleased” collections where they may have aired on television (and thus likely in the WWE Network archives) or long discontinued VHS tapes, but this DVD will mark the first time the matches are available on disc. Also included is a new interview with Michaels that they broke up in several parts and sporadically inserted throughout the collection. The first disc is something special as it essentially is a “Best of Rockers” DVD. The first two matches are from Shawn’s rookie year in 1985 for Mid-South in quick enhancement matches for Hector & Chavo Guerrero and Jake “The Snake” Roberts. Matches serve their purpose, but it is nonetheless fascinating to see how Shawn had that already apparent potential in him way back in 1985. The remaining 11 matches on the first disc are all Rockers matches, with the first three tag matches being from their Midnight Rockers AWA days with two bouts against Doug Summers & Buddy Rose and one more with Brian Knobbs & Dennis “I’m not booked” Stamp. The two Summers & Rose matches are show-stealers that had exhilarating beginning/middle/end structures, and was fun to watch the 1980s crowd go nuts for.

The first disc is almost all AWA & WWF Rockers matches!! For the eight WWF Rockers matches, they consist of almost an all-star lineup of a golden age for WWF tag teams where they square off against the likes of Demolition, Brain Busters, Hart Foundation, Natural Disasters and Legion of Doom. The sad thing about The Rockers back then is that as charismatic and agile as they were back then, they mostly made other teams look good in their WWF run and that is the case here as they lose six of those eight WWF matches. Even worse is the two matches they win is a DQ win against the Rougeaus after Jimmy Hart’s megaphone is used, and a countout win against the Orient Express. That said, a lot of the other matches are pretty damn good, with high honors going to the Brain Busters bout, two Demolition matches and surprisingly working in a lot of good stuff against Legion of Doom. Worth pointing out is another good match against the Hart Foundation where it seems noticeable the teams missed their cue to go home because the match starts to feel there is no end in sight when out of nowhere during an abdominal stretch a bunch of wrestlers run in and an awkward impromptu brawl ensues and the match is declared a draw.

Disc two has 12 matches from Shawn’s first singles WWF run from 1992-1998. Some highlights from this are an unsurprising technical showcase with Mr. Perfect, oddly having a positive dynamic with Bret Hart to team up against the Blu Brothers in 1995 and predictable-yet-high quality formula matches during his first WWF Title run against 1-2-3 Kid and Steve Austin. Disc two has a disappointing triple tag elimination match with Shawn, Diesel and Undertaker against Psycho Sid, Tatanka and Kama filled with lots of stalling and headscratching booking for the eliminations. There is also a questionable match against Vader a month after their controversial-yet-excellent Summerslam match, where in this match Shawn takes 95% of the offense and quickly squashes Vader in three minutes. There is also a fascinating bout against Yokozuna from the summer of 1996 in Kuwait, when Yoko is nearing the end of his WWF run due to him putting on excess weight, and the match kind of expectedly plods along, until something must have clicked for Shawn to motivate Yoko into a pretty watchable match in the back half, and the two show respect afterwards which was awesome to see….until Yoko suddenly darts off to the back like he really has to go to the bathroom. The third disc consists of 10 matches from Shawn’s return run to WWE from 2002-2010. All the matches here are from RAW, so that means they follow the formula that still holds true for WWE TV main events today where it is either a cobbled together tag match, or a really good one-on-one match with interference or a hokey finish. There are a couple exceptions with worthwhile clean matches against Ric Flair during a Japan 2005 tour and against Christian in 2004 when he was building momentum with Tyson Tomko by his side. HBK’s matches against Rob Van Dam, Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho are the highlights on disc three, but all three contests have varying degrees of interference to effect the finishes, and in some cases it actually benefits the match as is the case with Angle with the story they were telling. I was delighted to see a post-RAW dark match included with Shawn teaming with Batista against Triple H and Edge. WWE is notorious for usually doing a fun untelevised promo or bonus match for the fans after the cameras go off the air with some quirky moments that would never fly in a televised match. That is the case here with Triple H doing lots of exaggerated selling and fun jawing with the crowd that absolutely ate it all up for a fun time.

Shawn didn't disappoint in his 21st century run, with matches included here that don't disappoint against Ric Flair and Kurt Angle. A couple of promos are uncovered like Shawn doing an open Q&A with the fans when Sensational Sherri was managing Michaels early in his singles run. Another amusing bonus promo is Shawn and Diesel doing a Times Square workout session to hype up their upcoming WrestleMania 11 match with the one-and-only Todd Pentigill hosting. The several interview clips inserted throughout the DVDs has Shawn hitting on certain parts on where he was at that stage in his career and reflecting on the infamous Barber Shop break-up with Marty, his 2002 return, rebooting a less edgy, more goofball version of DX in 2006 and retiring in 2010 (this was filmed before his ill-fated Saudi Arabia return match). From these series of introspections, it was fascinating to hear Shawn think back on why he was not all-in for teaming with Jose Lathario in his WWE Title run, and hearing him settling on being a family man in retirement and turning down multiple

WrestleMania return matches. There are also a few sets of interviews with NXT talent commenting on how lucky they are to have Shawn as a teacher at the WWE Performance Center. Shawn comments a few times here too on being proud of passing on his knowledge, and it is obvious he is genuine on his passion for his new role building talent in NXT. WWE has once again amassed another recommended collection of un-vaulted matches. I am digging this format following the Piper and Macho Man sets where they break up the action every few matches with a set of interviews. Wort mentioning is about a quarter of the 35 matches here have no commentary because they were either dark matches, or from arena shows WWE use to film at regionally in the 80s and 90s and never recorded commentary for and/or lost the rights for the commentary. While there are some skippable matches, the good-to-bad ratio is largely in the positive here, and the not-so-good bouts usually at least have an entertaining backstory or era they emanate from. This all adds up for Shawn Michaels: The Showstopper Unreleased being another must-have installment of the Unreleased branding. Past Wrestling Blogs Best of WCW Clash of Champions Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2 Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 3 Biggest Knuckleheads Bobby The Brain Heenan Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes DDP: Positively Living Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials ECW Unreleased: Vol 1 ECW Unreleased: Vol 2 ECW Unreleased: Vol 3 Eric Bishoff: Wrestlings Most Controversial Figure Fight Owens Fight: The Kevin Owens Story For All Mankind Getting Rowdy: The Unreleased Matches of Roddy Piper Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection Hulk Hogans Unreleased Collectors Series Impact Wresting Presents: Best of Hulk Hogan Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story The Kliq Rules Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman Legends of Mid South Wrestling Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story Memphis Heat NXT: From Secret to Sensation NXT Greatest Matches Vol 1 OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History OMG Vol 3: Top 50 Incidents in ECW History Owen: Hart of Gold Randy Savage Unreleased: The Unseen Matches of the Macho Man RoH Supercard of Honor 2010-Present ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery Scott Hall: Living on a Razors Edge Shawn Michaels: My Journey Sting: Into the Light Straight Outta Dudley-ville: Legacy of the Dudley Boyz Straight to the Top: Money in the Bank Anthology Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder Then Now Forever – The Evolution of WWEs Womens Division TLC 2017 TNA Lockdown 2005-2016 Top 50 Superstars of All Time Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season True Giants Ultimate Fan Pack: Roman Reigns Ultimate Warrior: Always Believe War Games: WCWs Most Notorious Matches Warrior Week on WWE Network Wrestlemania III: Championship Edition Wrestlemania 28-Present The Wrestler (2008) Wrestling Road Diaries Too Wrestling Road Diaries Three: Funny Equals Money Wrestlings Greatest Factions WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015 WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015 WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2016 WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2016 WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2017

#Wrestling #Shawn Michaels #the rockers #wwf #WWE #awa #marty jannetty #ric flair #kurt angle #Christian #Bret Hart #diesel #psycho sid #dennis stamp #jake roberts #mr. perfect

[zoe-oneesama]

Good god, you're a genius at taking the canon bs and making it not only make sense, but making it better over all. The compromise was fantastic and even better coming from Adrien instead of Marinette the producer. How do you come up with such great ways to rewrite and fix the original material? How much time do you spend rewatching the episode before writing/storyboarding that chapter? And if you've answered this before I apologize, but how long do you spend on each chapter? Many chef kisses!

lol all these compliments went straight to my head! You are so sweet, seriously XD

So in order of your questions:

In reference to “the compromise” specifically, it just irked me a bit that they were still trying to replace Mylene for the scene and that Marinette got roped into replacing her when she was the most adamant that Mylene keep her role (Chloe made sense because she’s Chloe). But even more importantly, I had to think “The one who wants the kiss to happen is Adrien, so how could Adrien bring Marinette into doing the scene when she has no personal motive to do so?” Combine that with my irk and I thought of “the compromise”. I felt this is the kind of idea that would convince me to give it a shot, so it would probably work on Wants Best for Everyone Marinette. Bonus in that it shows Adrien’s sneaky and slightly selfish side since his motive’s weren’t as pure as his idea XD.

A lot of the changes I go for with the AU follow a similar thought process. “Character X feels/believes/is motivated THIS way now, so what do they have to do get the plot moving the same way it did in canon?” and sometimes the answer is “the plot moves a different way than canon”. These changes will build on each other as time goes on. 

I watch the episode once in French, while leaving a typed commentary on discord for me and a small group of friends. They usually add their own two cents from what they remember from the episode, since I watch it on my own. A few hours after that I watch it in English to note certain differences in dialogue and when a sound effect or line of dialogue is changed or dropped and tend to choose whichever version I like better. For example, for the most part I choose the French dialogue when I borrow lines, but when it comes to Nino I borrow from English to communicate his vibe better.

I have three stages of writing: 

1. General Outline of the Canon Episode2. General Outline of the Scarlet Lady Episode3. Script Writing.

Of these, the level of difficulty rises between each step, with Script Writing being the hardest and most time consuming, thanks to this being where I plan out facial expressions and some stage directions as well as the jokes. Fitting them into the 4koma style is also difficult. This stage can take me half a day or two days to think of.

Storyboards I don’t do all in one go. I can fit two “pages” (so 4 rows) onto one sketchbook page, so I’ll storyboard 2 pages in my sketchbook and then fill the other page of the sketchbook with drawings for my Patreon. Then when I turn the page, I do it again. I tried doing all the storyboards for Lady Wifi one after the other and they started getting really messy and illegible as I ran out of steam. 

The actual sketching/lining/coloring part really depends on how much detail and how many repeating panels are in a page, but usually I could make about one per day, especially now that I’ve figured out a rhythm that works for me. For a full episode of 15 pages, well….

Mr. Pigeon took about 2 months to do digitially (from Aug 3 - Sept 25).(Unreleased) Rogercop took about 3 weeks (Dec 23 - Jan 13). 

#sl ask #scarlet lady au #process #horrificator

[commentaryvorg]

Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Part 5.15

Be aware that this is not a blind playthrough! This will contain spoilers for the entire game, regardless of the part of the game I’m commenting on. A major focus of this commentary is to talk about all of the hints and foreshadowing of events that are going to happen and facts that are going to be revealed in the future of the story. It is emphatically not intended for someone experiencing the game for their first time.

Last time in trial 5 (trial 5!!!), they discussed Kaito’s brilliant heroic plan to uhhh threaten Kokichi with a crossbow or something, Monokuma jumped in before they concluded Kokichi did it because he still isn’t even sure who’s dead, Kaito got to be himself again for a bit – or at least his idea of Kokichi’s idea of him – in what might partly have been a belief that Shuichi can prove he really is alive already, Shuichi finally accepted that he’s always known Kaito has to be dead, and even the narrative agreed that Kaito was definitely dead, because look, they had a whole Debate Scrum about it! – one which really should have gone all metaphysical and involved Shuichi arguing with himself rather than everyone else.

Having firmly established that Kaito is definitely dead, then, everyone decides to get back to talking about what happened with the crossbow.

Exisal Kokichi:  “O-kay! Let’s discuss that then!”

Himiko:  “Why are you acting like you’re in charge of things?”

Because that’s always the kind of thing Kaito does in trials! It’s not about him being in charge, just about him trying to bring everyone onto the same page and make sure they know where the discussion is going next. Kaito is ad-libbing again now that we’re back to talking about the crossbow, so his natural trial style is slipping through a little bit even here. This is the best way Kaito knew how to be helpful in trials (trial 4 aside, where he was trying far too hard to help in ways he wasn’t good at) – whereas the way Kokichi always acted in trials was never about communication and co-operation and was just presenting whatever arguments he had in mind, whether they were actually helpful or just an unnecessary tangent rooted in his trust issues.

Conveniently, this still does come across like something Kokichi might do anyway, just because of him having the audacity to act this way when he already knows exactly what happened and presumably doesn’t want them to figure it out.

Exisal Kokichi:  “So, if we assume that Kaito and I shot each other with the crossbow… then the most efficient way to solve this is to set up a timeline of events!”

You know who previously suggested setting up a timeline of events when they weren’t sure how to proceed, in more than one trial? Shuichi! Kaito has learned from him! He’s trying to pretend to be someone who is better at trials and deductions than he really is, so he’s doing that by thinking about what Shuichi would do!

Himiko:  “Hey! I said, why are you—”

Exisal Kokichi:  “Alrighty then! Let the debate begiiiin!”

Cutting someone off and ignoring them is of course not Kaito’s usual trial behaviour when trying to lead the discussion like this, buuut he’s got to be believably dickish enough somehow.

Actually, this whole thing of leading the debate is not entirely something Kokichi never did, because he did act this way in trial 4, in which he was pretending to be helpful while blatantly concealing the absolutely everything he knew about how the case went down. That’s basically what’s going on here, too. And back then, Kaito got annoyed at Kokichi for leading the conversation and ignoring his protests… so Kaito is probably partly drawing off that here. (Specifically, there is an exchange just after trial 4’s intermission which is extremely similar to this one, except that Kokichi was better at cutting someone off with more actual logic and discussion, whereas here Kaito is clearly just thinking “I should be cutting her off now, ummm, WORDS”.)

Tsumugi:  “The crossbow was in Kaito’s possession first…”

“Yes! I, Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars, had it!”

What an absolute dork. Kaito had just been switching characters a minute ago, so apparently he decided that’s a perfectly good excuse to keep doing that because that’s totally something Kokichi would do to be a dick to them. If Kaito were being genuinely himself and confirming that this is what happened, he wouldn’t waste their time being so over-the-top. But because he’s pretending to be Kokichi, Kokichi would totally take the piss out of how ridiculous Kaito often is… which gives Kaito an excuse to actually be that ridiculous!

Keebo:  “Then Kokichi disarmed Kaito, took the crossbow…”

“Yeah! That’s exactly it!”

Keebo:  “…and returned fire.”

“I really messed that up…”

The second white noise line here is definitely Kaito as himself again, but it’s less clear whether the first one is also in Kaito’s voice, or if he switched to Kokichi for that line and essentially simulated a conversation between them. Either way, I love how Kaito is messing around here and clearly trying to have some vague semblance of fun with this (or at least, trying to take the edge off how much he hates being Kokichi; “fun” might be a strong word here), even if he is also being a dick by “pretending” to be the person everyone just fully accepted is dead. None of this is scripted right now.

Exisal Kokichi:  “I didn’t take the crossbow from Kaito… I secretly brought a different one!”

…Actually, this proves that that previous white noise line was Kaito’s voice after all. “Kokichi”’s story here is not that he disarmed Kaito, which is what the white noise was agreeing with. Which then also makes it pretty amusing that Kaito is having the two “characters” he’s playing disagree with each other.

Maki:  “But only one crossbow was taken. The other two are still in my research lab.”

“Crap! She testified!”

And here’s Exisal Kokichi being all “oh crap, caught out in my lie!”. Which… is also not a thing the real Kokichi ever did. If he ever admitted to being caught out, it was always a playful “ya got me!” that never made it sound like he had a problem with being caught.

Exisal Kokichi:  “By the way, crossbow shots hurt a looot. My wound is still aching something fierce.”

“Shall I put you out of your misery, then?”

Aside from the amusing implication that you can try and disprove the fact that being shot hurts, and some fun white noise from Maki…

…“Wound”? Singular? But, “Kokichi”, I thought you were shot twice?

Now this is a line which is genuinely meant to explicitly hint that it’s really Kaito in there. But one thing that’s also quite fun about it is that it’s something the localisers added in without having even especially meant to. See, in Japanese, nouns aren’t any different in the plural, so the line here would have been perfectly ambiguous as to how many wounds he was talking about. It’s possible to specify the singular, but then you’d have to go out of your way to phrase it as “my one wound”, which is obviously not a mistake Kaito would make. But when the localisers translated this line, they couldn’t leave it ambiguous and were faced with a choice of whether to have him say “wound” or “wounds”… and they decided to make it so that Kaito slipped up for a moment there.

(Not that Kaito’s arrow wound is even remotely the only part of him which is causing him a lot of pain right now.)

Shuichi:  (…What? What was that just now?)

Shuichi is actually referring to the fact that Himiko just claimed there was only one arrow, which happened a little earlier in the debate. But since the wound line was the very last line of the debate and this is his summary-thoughts line before the debate repeats, it amusingly sounds like Shuichi is reacting to that and that he realised it was off.

It would be really delightful if there could be an alternative solution to this debate using that. Move the joke weak spot to the “my wound is still aching” part, and have Kokichi’s clothes be one of the possible bullets (which it sadly isn’t here), and then it turns out that’s not actually a joke weak spot and you can make Shuichi notice that contradiction, not about the wound aching, but about the fact that it’s just one wound. It’d give him a moment of fleeting hope despite his despair last time, because Kaito was the one with only one wound so surely that must mean Kaito’s really in there after all! Kaito would have to frantically improvise and be all “Haha, I’m sure you’d like that, too bad for you I just misspoke, or maybe I said it wrong on purpose to get your hopes up then dash them again, sorry not sorry for messing with you!” (which he’d hate every word of) to desperately try and get him to drop it. Then Shuichi would ultimately have to admit to himself that it was just wishful thinking and there’s no conceivable reason Kaito would be in there and lying to him and he shouldn’t still be running away from the truth. It would be really fun!

Which, of course, was never really an option because this slip-up doesn’t and cannot exist in Japanese. That and the actual alternative solutions to debates that exist in this game were all written to require lying, even though that’s kind of arbitrary as I’ve just shown that there can absolutely be interesting alternate routes that use the truth. (I haven’t been covering any of those back routes during the trials because there’s no reason to assume any of them are canon, and most of them are pretty silly anyway. Some of them have some interesting bits, though; there’s one in this trial which is kind of similar to what I just talked about. I’m already planning to do some bonus material on here once I’ve finished the main story, so I’ll be covering the back routes in that.)

So instead we have to proceed by addressing the much less interesting contradiction about the singular arrow instead of the singular wound.

Himiko:  “Kaito even told me to only bring him one. He said he wanted to avoid fighting.”

I guess by that Kaito meant he was intending to simply threaten Kokichi with the arrow and preferably not actually shoot him at all. That sure worked out well. And after that point, since he only had the one arrow, he couldn’t even threaten him any more. I suppose injuring Kokichi would also help give Kaito a slight edge if it did come to a fight, since Kaito was otherwise far weaker than him at that point thanks to his illness.

Even if he wasn’t planning on using more than one arrow (or even ideally any arrows), there was still no reason not to ask for multiple arrows to make the threat more convincing, or to allow him to continue to threaten after shooting once. So I think that Kaito might have asked for only one partly as a measure to keep himself under control. He absolutely did not want to kill Kokichi, but he knows he has a tendency to lose control and lash out when he gets riled up, and so he wanted to limit the damage he could potentially do without really meaning to in that situation. And it seems that might well be what happened, given that Kaito shot Kokichi anyway despite knowing he’d lose the ability to threaten him once he did so, so that probably did happen out of anger.

And now for the most awkwardly mood-whiplashy Psyche Taxi of the game. Shuichi has only just accepted that his best friend is dead – now to pretend to drive a goddamn taxi through his mind in order to figure out the clearly very difficult concept that someone else brought the other two arrows and it wasn’t Kokichi because he can’t assemble a crossbow. Totally necessary and totally fitting Shuichi’s current emotional state. We’re not even specifying that the third party who brought them was Maki yet, even though she’s the only candidate who makes any remote amount of sense, because nope we can’t possibly have the taxi segments make any kind of significant progress despite taking so long.

Maki:  “That’s just a guess, though. There’s no way a third party exists.”

It’s really not a guess, Maki. There is no other reason for there to be more arrows there. You are looking very suspicious by questioning something so basic.

It should already obviously be her, at least to Shuichi, because he and she are the only others who can assemble a crossbow and he knows it wasn’t him. He doesn’t mention or think about this yet, though, probably because he doesn’t want to think that it was her. Despite what Maki accused him of earlier, Shuichi still very much does not enjoy suspecting his friends!

Exisal Kokichi:  “So the third party didn’t hand the arrows through the window… Instead, they went to the hangar and shot the crossbow themselves?”

Kaito is still doing his summarising thing! If he weren’t in the Exisal and didn’t already know how everything went down, this is exactly the kind of thing he would be saying to try and follow along with Shuichi’s logic and make sure he and everyone else was understanding it properly.

Shuichi figures out that the third party got into the hangar unimpeded using an Exisal.

Exisal Kokichi:  “By the way, I just wanna confirm something with Monokuma. Would the alarm still go off if there was a person inside the Exisal?”

The notion of confirming this with Monokuma to make things clearer seems surprisingly thought-out by Kaito’s standards, which makes me think that this might be one of the bits he spent some time thinking about and adding into the script last night. He’d know they’d eventually get onto talking about how Maki entered the hangar, so this’d be something he could prepare for.

Tsumugi:  “But… can just anyone pilot an Exisal?”

Keebo:  “…Well, Kokichi?”

Exisal Kokichi:  “It’s surprisingly easy. If you use both hands, both feet and both nipples, you can do it.”

It’s been a while since we’ve seen some words that were actually chosen by Kokichi. Even though we’re deep in ad-lib territory, this particular part could easily have been in the script as a response to being asked how he was piloting this Exisal, which didn’t necessarily have to happen in this context. This is not remotely Kaito’s flavour of ridiculousness and therefore not something he’d have come up with on his own.

Kokichi was probably having a good giggle to himself when he wrote this line. I bet he wrote it less because this is actually what he’d say in this situation and more because he knew Kaito would be obligated to follow the script and wanted to force him to say the word “nipples”, nee-heehee, how dastardly of him. Kaito went along with it anyway because he doesn’t want to risk deviating from the script unless he has a very good reason to, and this is not one.

Maki:  “There’s no way you can get through security if you pilot an Exisal. It’s… not possible…”

Maki, your insistence about this is making you look incredibly suspicious, especially since Monokuma just lengthily explained that it is possible.

Shuichi:  (Maki… what are you talking about? What are you thinking? What do you know? Why are you trying to hide it? Why…? Why won’t you tell me?)

Shuichi hates the realisation he’s beginning to have that his friend is hiding something important from him in a situation like this! And even then, he’s still not coming to the conclusion that this likely means Maki is the culprit, because he still hates doing that until he has incontrovertible proof.

Tsumugi:  “Is operating the Exisal… really that difficult?”

“Nope! You just gotta use your nipples!”

Credit to Kaito, he is going all in on this nonsense. Reiterating this point when asked again probably wasn’t specifically in the script, but it seems like the kind of dumb thing Kokichi would do, so why not. Certain parts of Kokichi’s expected behaviour, Kaito will not play along with even if it would help make the lie more convincing. But this? Sure, whatever, he’ll talk about nipples all day.

Exisal Kokichi:  “Nee-heehee… Shuichi is getting warmer. How about you say the answer right now? Who did it? Who is this third party?”

Kaito is doing what he usually does, encouraging Shuichi to voice his deductions! He knows Shuichi has almost certainly already figured this out and the problem is just that he’s hesitating to say it out loud because he doesn’t like accusing people, especially if it’s his friend. So Kaito’s giving him the nudge he needs to do that!

…And it’s probably also because Kaito really wants to get onto the part where Maki confesses as soon as possible so that he can understand what the hell is going on in her head and hopefully she can start feeling less that way.

Shuichi explains how it has to be Maki because she was the only one without an Electrohammer this morning… and then adds as an afterthought that she could also assemble the crossbow. That second point proved it was her several minutes ago, Shuichi, come on.

Maki:  “Why… are you doing this?”

Shuichi:  (…What?)

Maki:  “Why… are you getting in my way?”

Maki’s showing a lot more emotion in her voice here than she has for most of this trial. She is still just desperately clinging to the notion that she has to kill Kokichi no matter what sacrifices it takes, otherwise she’ll have killed Kaito for nothing and she can’t bear that thought. It’s also irrational of her to be acting like Shuichi would even know that he’s “getting in her way”, since he obviously doesn’t know what she’s trying to do.

Shuichi:  “Getting in your way? Maki, what are you—”

Maki:  “Yes, I’m the third party.”

So as soon as Shuichi quite reasonably questions that, instead of explaining what she means, Maki just cuts him off and changes the subject back to the actual logic.

Maki:  “But I didn’t kill anyone! I’m not the culprit!”

Note the way she doesn’t phrase this as “I didn’t kill Kaito”, even though she’s been adamant this whole time that Kaito is definitely the victim.  She does not want to frame her crime that way even as she’s denying it.

Rebuttal Showdown typography time again! This is pretty similar to Maki’s first one, with the words in simple, straight arrangements – but this time they’re moving even faster than before, and their movement changes direction partway through, making them a lot harder to cut. It’s not as deliberately all over the place as Kirumi’s was, because Maki’s giving a straightforward argument and not trying to misdirect Shuichi with her words, but she is trying to prevent him from reaching the truth unlike last time, and she’s a lot more desperate emotionally.

Maki:  “Think about the locations of the wounds. They were on his arm and back.”

Kaito wasn’t shot in the back, though. She is still not framing this as being specifically about killing Kaito – which on the one hand makes some sense because she was trying to kill Kokichi and doesn’t want them to know about that either, but on the other hand she just doesn’t want to think of this as her killing Kaito.

Her argument for this Rebuttal Showdown is that neither of them could have been killed with a crossbow alone based on those wounds. Which sure is something we should have brought up sooner while discussing the crossbow and acting like someone could have apparently murdered Kaito through the window by shooting him in the arm. Maki kept quiet about that earlier to draw less attention to herself (since if the possibility of poison came up, she’d be the one who’d seem most likely to have thought of that) and is only mentioning it now because it’s her last line of defence.

It’s also very notable that she’s not remotely trying to defend herself on the basis that she would never *want* to kill Kaito. That would work better than anything as an argument to make herself seem innocent, since nobody has yet brought up the possibility that he could have been killed by accident. While arguments involving people’s character aren’t usually the best to use in class trials, it should at least give Shuichi pause, since he would also firmly believe that she’d never do that.

But of course that’s irrelevant. She’s just someone who kills people, so naturally Shuichi should think it’s perfectly possible that she could have killed Kaito too. Her feelings on what she wanted to happen don’t and shouldn’t matter one bit. (Especially because thinking about what she did want hurts too much.)

Tsumugi:  “Th-There’s no way she is! Cuz… why would she kill Kaito!?”

Maki:  “…”

Maki’s face looks just a little bit more troubled once this notion is finally brought up by someone else, though.

(Three guesses why Tsumugi has decided to pretend to be invested in this, ugh.)

An extremely important thing to pay attention to here is that Exisal Kokichi is being completely quiet during this whole discussion. The real Kokichi most certainly would not be. He never missed an opportunity to rub in the idea that Maki is a heartless killer, and he would especially jump at the chance to do so when it’s Kaito she supposedly killed, proving that Kaito really was an idiot all along for trusting her and trying to help her because she was only ever going to repay that by stabbing him in the back, and Kokichi is totally right to say that nobody is trustworthy ever!

None of that would have been able to be scripted, of course. But Kaito definitely knows that something along those lines is the kind of thing Kokichi would say. It would benefit the plan for him to say something like that, both in terms of making him sound more believably like Kokichi, and in terms of emphasising any theory in which the culprit is someone other than Kaito.

But no. Never on his goddamn life is Kaito ever going to do that to Maki. She’s already suffering far too much; he will not make it any worse than he has to, not even if it would help the plan. It’s not worth it. Overt cruelty for the sake of making the plan just slightly more likely to succeed is never worth it.

Kaito is being just barely enough of a dick to make people think “yep, I guess that’s Kokichi”, and not a single bit more. He’s had to cause a lot of pain for this plan to stand a chance of saving everyone, but he refuses to cause any more than is absolutely necessary. This is what turning yourself into a villain because you truly, selflessly care about saving everyone looks like, and it looks nothing like the real Kokichi. This is probably the single biggest hint that Exisal Kokichi is really Kaito.

It’s just a good thing this hint is easy for everyone to miss because it involves a lack of saying something Kokichi would, rather than saying something Kokichi wouldn’t. That’s probably why Kaito kept quiet here, rather than trying to say anything about Maki’s crime that might sound too strangely favourable towards her.

(But also, conveniently, there are very few things that Kokichi very obviously wouldn’t say. He was so insincere all the time that even if he said something that sounded kinda off, everyone would just assume he doesn’t mean it. None of them are going to think in detail like I’ve been doing about the precise ways in which Kokichi was insincere when they’ve got a trial to focus on.)

Shuichi:  “Maki is trying to kill Kokichi in this class trial. She wants to kill the mastermind, a Remnant of Despair!”

Exisal Kokichi:  “…”

The narrative’s panning-to-Kaito-saying-nothing game is still on point. He even shifted poses there, making it seem like he was caught by surprise. I… don’t think Kaito did realise until this moment what Maki is trying to do. He knew all along that she believed she’d killed him, but why would she hide that when it’d get all her other friends killed? Kaito is only just now realising that Maki’s pain caused her to be willing to get everyone else killed in order to kill Kokichi after all. (Yet he still can’t quite grasp why killing Kokichi is so necessary to her. Sure, she still thinks he’s the mastermind, but killing the mastermind is pointless if everyone else dies too! What’s all this Remnant of Despair stuff even about?)

This silence would seem on the surface like Kokichi being evasive about the idea… but I think the real Kokichi would probably be likely to react to this in some cruel, flippant way. Kaito, however, is too busy being horrified at this realisation to try and think of something Kokichi-ish to say here.

Shuichi:  (The sacrifice that Maki is talking about must be…)

I’ve seen quite a few people get this question wrong at first and assume that the sacrifice was Kaito’s life, but no. Even though she was determined to kill Kokichi thanks to the Flashback Light, there is no way Maki would have been willing to sacrifice Kaito – or anyone else, at first – just to achieve that. It’s only because Kaito ended up being killed against her will that she became despairing and desperate enough to sacrifice everyone else as well so that she could achieve what she set out to do in the first place and make his death not be in vain.

Which is a very serious case of the sunk cost fallacy, but Maki is not being remotely rational about this, even if she’s compartmentalising enough to make it sound like she is.

Exisal Kokichi:  “But that mischievous plan was ruined alllll thanks to Shuichi here. Too bad, Maki! I already predicted this would happen.”

Of course he predicted this! Because Shuichi is amazing and always figures out the truth!

This line has nothing to do with what Kokichi predicted, because he didn’t have time to put any of this in the script. But Kaito has spent this whole time wondering why the hell Maki wasn’t confessing to her belief that she killed him, only knowing that it must have something to do with the pain she’s in and being completely powerless to help her with it from his position in the Exisal. The only way to help her with how she’s feeling would be to bring what she thinks she did out into the open, to get her to confront it and start talking about it, and the only person who could do that is Shuichi. Kaito may have been unable to help her himself, but he dealt with that awful feeling of helplessness by holding onto his belief in Shuichi. He knew Shuichi would be able to save Maki in his place.

(And remember how I pointed out a few posts back that Maki and Kokichi’s podiums happen to be directly opposite each other? This would also mean that, even if the Exisal’s camera has a narrow field of vision, Kaito would nonetheless have had a very clear view of Maki’s face this entire time.)

I also like that he calls her plan to get everyone killed “mischievous”. He’s still using the least biting ways to talk negatively about her, even when it’s about this. Because of course Kaito would understand that she’s doing this out of despair and already knows it’s wrong and hates herself for it, and that calling her out and being harsh on her about it isn’t going to help at all.

Keebo:  “You knew all along that Maki was the culprit. That’s why you’ve been so calm.”

A plausible idea, but of course the real reason he’s been so calm is that everybody is still convinced he’s the victim, and so long as they’re only discussing the possibilities of Maki or Kokichi being the culprit, then Monokuma will be fooled and the plan will succeed. But even later on when Monokuma becomes aware that Kaito might be alive, it’s still not going to make Kaito panic that much. His worst-case-scenario isn’t himself dying, or the plan failing, but rather everyone else dying – but that’s never going to come to pass. If things look bad, he can always just reveal himself and confess, ruining the plan but keeping everyone safe. No matter what happens, Kaito already knows that he’s the only one who’s going to die at the end of this trial… and he can live with that.

(This is also the exact situation Kaede was in during her trial.)

Shuichi:  “We have a choice to make. We don’t have to follow where the evidence leads.”

Tsumugi:  “Huh? What do you mean?”

Exisal Kokichi:  “Does this mean… you’re gonna vote for someone else, even if it’s not the truth?”

What Shuichi is essentially saying here is that they could theoretically all choose to sacrifice themselves in order to get Kokichi killed, like Maki wants. Kaito would probably be very horrified at this possibility if it wasn’t also a perfectly satisfactory outcome to the plan that won’t get them killed at all.

Shuichi:  “Kaito told me that only I would be able to grasp what lies beyond the truth. That means finding the truth is not enough. We need to grasp the hope just beyond it.”

That is not remotely what Kaito meant when he said that. Shuichi is assuming that Kaito was talking about their meaningless buzzwordy concept of “hope”, but of course he wasn’t; he never saw that Flashback Light and never even used the word “hope” at all. If the truth really is that Kaito is dead and Maki killed him, there’s no hope in that. And getting themselves killed just to kill Kokichi, even given that they still believe he’s the mastermind, certainly isn’t hope either.

I see what Shuichi is getting at in that just because Maki is (supposedly) the culprit, they don’t necessarily have to follow that truth in terms of the vote they make just because it’s the truth… but that still isn’t even slightly what Kaito was talking about back then. Kaito probably really wishes he could correct Shuichi on this; he has to be worriedly bewildered as to why Shuichi seems to think Kaito was telling him to kill himself and his friends for no good reason.

Shuichi:  “So, Maki… please tell us the truth! The truth that only you know!”

That is a rather overdramatic way of putting it, considering that the person in the Exisal clearly also knows this truth.

Maki:  “… So Kaito… said that to you. Then… does that mean you guys made up before he died?”

Maki Roll! This whole time she thought she’d killed Kaito before he even made up with Shuichi like she’d so badly wanted them to! Hearing that they got to do that after all has to make this just a tiny, tiny bit more bearable, perhaps enough that that’s why she can go on to talk about it here.

This moment was also a real gut-punch to first-time-me who was at this point convinced Kaito was the victim, because for the first time in this trial he wasn’t just an object we have to make deductions around, but a person and their friend who’s now gone and guh. This really hammered home that he was dead in a way that simply becoming factually convinced of it from the Debate Scrum didn’t.

Maki:  “…Okay, I’ll talk about it. Especially since it’s my responsibility for involving everyone.”

No matter how much Maki had brokenly convinced herself that sacrificing her friends was a worthy cost for killing Kokichi, she never truly wanted to get them killed, and she probably felt especially awful about the fact that she was planning to have that happen without them even knowing. It’s better if sacrificing themselves to kill Kokichi gets to be their choice as well, and after Shuichi saying that they might be willing to make that choice, she’s able to accept this option.

(Sacrificing themselves to kill Kokichi is still not a remotely sensible idea, but they’re all brainwashed with the completely inappropriately-worded notion that ~hope must defeat despair!~, so, you know.)

Maki:  “Shuichi… you’re so persistent. Were you always like that?”

Shuichi:  “Ah, you think so? Maybe Kaito’s charisma is starting to rub off on me…”

Of course he wasn’t always like that! Of course it’s because of Kaito! It doesn’t even need to be because of specific words or specific advice Kaito has said to him – just Kaito being there and being Kaito and being his friend is enough to give Shuichi some of his strength and confidence.

And the person in this room who has the most trouble believing this idea at this point is most likely Kaito himself. It has to mean so much to him to hear this. Shuichi absolutely means this, Kaito. You are the reason he’s become this strong. You’ve always been a hero to him.

Maybe it’d be a little easier for Kaito to really accept that Shuichi means this in this situation, where Shuichi doesn’t even know Kaito is listening and so can’t possibly be saying anything just for the sake of humouring him and making him feel better. Kaito, please take this to heart as much as you deserve to.

(I say this, but, uh, based on some things he says at the end of the trial… I’m not at all sure he does.)

Maki:  “That guy… could be pretty stubborn.”

Maki’s smiling as she says this! She’s finally not just desperately suppressing how much she cared about Kaito and is able to let herself fondly remember one of the things she liked the most about him!

This has to help Kaito a lot too. Not just the fact that Maki cares about him, but the idea that this is how he’s going to be remembered when he really is gone. He’s not just going to have lived for nothing. He’s going to leave a huge impact on the people who were most important to him, and that’s the best thing he could ever hope for.

(You might like to know that I am doing myself an emotion thinking about this. Heartless Journey is not helping.)

After a little more inconsequential dialogue in which everyone else asks Maki to tell them her story and Monokuma awkwardly starts narrating for some reason…

Exisal Kokichi:  “… Well… I guess this turn of events isn’t exactly boring either.”

Uhhhh this is totally still Kokichi in here, you guys!

Kaito apparently got so caught up in being deeply touched and taken aback by the things his sidekicks were saying about him that he completely forgot for a moment that he was supposed to be being Kokichi and that Kokichi would probably have something to say in this situation. It took him a while to remember that, but here he is awkwardly throwing out a sentence that is totally believably something Kokichi might say because it’s about things not being boring, right?

It’s pretty telling that this is exactly the same kind of this-is-definitely-Kokichi behaviour (invoking the concept of boringness) that Kaito pulled out the previous time he’d been distracted by having emotions about the things Maki and Shuichi were saying and wasn’t sure how to respond to it as Kokichi. At least this time was a lot less painful for Kaito than last time, and his words this time aren’t trying to change anything but are just an awkward reminder that Kokichi is totally still here. This… doesn’t actually make much sense as something Kokichi would describe as not-boring, either, because he was never really a fan of just pure unadulterated friendship and people proving that believing in others is actually worthwhile, was he.

(Did you know this game is about FRIENDSHIP.)

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#danganronpa #danganronpa v3 #drv3 #ndrv3 #chapter 5 #class trial #commentary

[kingdomofkitten]

Rant on Disney’s New Star Wars Blu-Rays

So, this is a touch out of the blue, I suppose. But I found enough time to sit down and write about this, so I figured I might as well get to it.

I also know the combination of Disney and Star Wars tends to cause some....friction, amongst people. Please, let’s not turn this into a brawl of Star Wars fans. This isn’t about how George Lucas felt betrayed, or Rian Johnson killing the series, or that anyone who hates the Sequel trilogy is a Trump supporter, or whatever the hell. Please don’t do that. In fact, let us join in unison. Why? Because no matter if you’re for or against Disney’s Star Wars films, if you happen to support this, there’s a decent chance you’re getting royally fucked over.

I was over at my local Target, just killing time (I had sent my dog to get cleaned up, and would need to pick her up in a few hours), and went over to the movie section. Not really looking for anything in particular, just up for browsing. And then I spotted this.

That looked a bit interesting, so I opted to look a little closely. Turns out, it seems Disney themselves (under Lucasfilm) decided to re-release all the Star Wars films they own on Blu-Ray. Presumably to hype up The Rise of Skywalker, which will be coming out in about 2 months from now. At first, I thought that sounded cool! Now all three trilogies can live under one roof! Plus, the cover design for all the films (including Rogue One and Solo, as you can see) are nice and consistent overall.

Then I decided to look at the back of one of them. Ya know, just to see what kinda cool new extras they would include.

I-wait...wait, is...is there no extras? Wha, that can’t be right, what does that sa-

.....deadass?

So, yeah. No bonus features on the Blu-Ray disc. Just on the digital copy....so, if you don’t download that copy in time, tough shit, you just get the movie.

Now, I’m sure some of you are thinking, “well, that’s probably for the Original and Prequel trilogies. They probably just couldn’t get extras ready in time.” Except I double checked.

Please pardon the crumpled up paper quality, apparently no hi-res scans of the backs are available as of now. But yeah, if you look closely, this The Last Jedi Blu-Ray has the exact same thing. No extras on the disc itself, just on the digital copy. Now, here’s the thing. I own the movie on Blu-Ray already. I know, some of you are weeping for me, I never claimed to be a role model. But let’s take a look at that back cover, shall we?

Hold on, there are extras here! A documentary, deleted scenes, commentary, even an Andy Serkis thing! And yet....none of that is in this new re-release? I’m sorry? And you can’t make the argument that Disney couldn’t have gotten the extras ready in time, they released this film already! They couldn’t have just taken the existing Blu-Ray disc, slap a new label on it, and call it a day? They could’ve done that with all four of the Disney Star Wars films so far, and yet they decided to leave them baren.

But okay, I hear some of you going, “well, that’s The Last Jedi, how about some REAL Star Wars films, like Revenge of the Sith? Surely these are all one needs, then.” Well, let’s go back to that first pic, shall we?

Firstly....not sure if you noticed, but Revenge of the Sith and The Last Jedi kinda look very similar here, so you might make a mistake there, and buy TLJ instead. Wocka wocka. :3

But secondly, notice something in the corner? Right next to The Force Awakens? Lemme zoom in for ya.

That is the Star Wars Complete Saga Blu-Ray set 20th Century Fox put out a couple of years ago. There have been a few re-releases of it over the years, sometimes with more stuff, sometimes with less, but as far as I know, it’s still in print. This contains the films from The Phantom Menace, up to Return of the Jedi. Not sure if you can read the sticker, but it has “over 40 hours of extras”. Speaking as someone who has that set, I cannot confirm it, as I haven’t dived into all of the extras, but I would not be surprised. While the movie discs themselves are relatively sparse on extras, they still HAVE some, mainly commentaries by the cast and crew. But if that’s not enough, alongside the six movies, there are THREE discs dedicated to just bonus features. One with behind the scenes material for the original trilogy, one with behind the scenes material for the prequel trilogy, and one full of documentaries and spoofs of Star Wars. Yeah, they went as far as to include PARODIES of the franchise in their big box set. The set was made to where you can dive into the saga, and also get a bunch of added goodies for the hell of it. All for a hundred bucks.

Now, I’m sure some will argue, “well, that’s a premium set kind of thing! This is more budget releases, meant for those who can’t afford that kinda set.” Well, let’s put that to the test. How much are each movie going fo-

JEEZUS

The fuck kinda budget release is that?! For just a movie, I’d expect...I dunno, $5? But okay, fine. That’s the price they want to go with, that’s okay. Now, like I said, that big box set, with the original 6 films is about $100, not including tax. So, let’s just put the prices for those six in. We’ll just round the price to $23, to be fair.

So, the price of those six barebones movies in total, not including tax?

$138.

Again, not including tax. You are quite literally paying more for less here!

My advice, if you want the whole series, get the Complete Saga set, and see if you can find the regular releases of the Disney films. As far as I know, all of those are still in print, and if you know where to look, you can get great deals on them. The big kicker about that? The Complete Saga set was made by 20th Century Fox...who, if you remember, Disney owns now. So if you buy that set, you’re giving them money, AND getting bang for your buck! It’s a win-win scenario, and I don’t understand why Disney didn’t get that!

I don’t speak as a major Star Wars fan. I mostly acquired the movies from my family. But I speak as an average consumer. Disney, I don’t give a shit what you’re doing to that world in a galaxy far, far away. But when you start bordering on scamming people, THAT is where I draw the line. People, no matter where you stand on these films, if you decide to buy one of these things...you’re probably being ripped off. Even for a company as stereotypically evil like the Magic Kingdom itself, this is just fucking gross.

P.S. I am aware there is a possibility that the original trilogy ones may have the original Theatrical versions, as opposed to the Special Edition versions with Greedo shooting first, and all that CGI, that’s on the Complete Saga set. If that’s the case, then to die-hards, MAYBE I can see a reason to buy these, but....again, to an average consumer, does that really add much? I don’t really think so.

#disney #star wars #blu ray #rant

[tassium]

#TAYLOR SWIFT APPRECIATION LIFE

PART 2 - Fearless 

(click here for part 1)

So. This was supposed to go up yesterday. But then work ate my soul. And THEN it was supposed to go up this morning.... and I slept half the day after how tired I was from work eating my soul.

So! My timeline is all sideways but I’m GOING TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN DANG IT.

Without further ado, let’s get into @taylorswift‘s sophomore album.

1. Fearless

This! Song! I love this this song so much, oh my gosh. It opens perfectly - that drum hit and then that iconic guitar riff, which bleeds into TWO lead guitar pieces and then her VOICE comes in and just. Aaaah, I am a heart-eyes emoji over this song, honestly. I love the way it builds, the way it goes from, like... yeah, all the instruments are involved in the first verse, but they kinda kick it up a notch for the turnaround into the second verse, and then... the chorus hits. The drum build into the first chorus is so fun, but it’s not my favorite one - that title goes to the drop at the end of the third verse. The drums behind “capture it, remember it” are the best thing e v e r.

This song for me is absolutely all about the instrumentation, if you couldn’t tell. I like the lyrical content, and I think Taylor delivers a great vocal performance, but the production overshadows all of that for me. This song is definitive dancing-around-my-bedroom countrypop for me, and I think it is the ideal way to kick off this album.

2. Fifteen

I have... kind of a love/hate relationship with this song. I always have, thought I have to stay I’m a LOT less bitter about it than I was when it first came out. I won’t go into the gory details of it, but suffice to say that 15 was the age when I kind of... self destructed a little (it was the Disorder finally rearing its ugly head) and I was super bitter about the idea that for some people being fifteen meant ‘feeling like there’s nothing to figure out’ and first dates and meeting new best friends when I was like. Literally falling apart at the seams.

BUT! Now that I’ve grown up and started to come into being A Person with a metric ton of perspective dumped on me along the way, I think this song is really cute and endearing and nostalgic for a life I didn’t have, but in a good way. ESPECIALLY is this true when I listen to “in your life you’ll do things greater than dating the football team” and remember that this album came out a year after Taylor won the horizon award (”definitely the highlight of her senior year” oh my god don’t get me started about that speech)

And you know what? Time really can heal most anything.

3. Love Story

This album is just packed with iconic guitar leads, and I love it to pieces. This track is another excellent example of Taylor’s habit of building a track from softness into something a little more intense. I love her vocals on the second verse especially (that little oh-oh! in the middle just fills me with an unexplained joy) and then... there’s the fiddle turnaround into the bridge, which. If you read part one of this series, you know I have an obsession with those. (And it comes back for the play down to the outro, which. yes, good, I’ll take it.)

I’m something of a Romeo and Juliet fanatic, so maybe that’s part of what draws me to this song, I like the idea of a happy ending to the concept - Marie Kondo says throw it out if it doesn’t bring you joy, so. You know.

4. Hey Stephen

*Dreamy sigh* god I love this song. It’s such a feel good jam, and there are parts of it that I just find delightful, even though objectively they would drive me crazy in another setting (that electronic church organ sound in the background is one of them). And then! Taylor is just! so cute! that GIGGLE at the end of the bridge. Gosh. Who legalized this?

I think my favorite vocal thing that Taylor does in this song is the last post-chorus that leads into the actual final chorus and the way she leans into it. And if I was pressed to a pick a favorite ‘ad-lib outro’ thing, it would be this one.

5. White Horse

This song is such an interesting track to have on the same album with Love Story - they’re just total opposites and I think it’s an excellent choice of alternate narratives. (And yes, I’m aware that Romeo and Juliet isn’t technically a fairytale, shhhh)

I don’t have particularly strong feelings about this song until the bridge, because I love the bridge so so much. Honestly this song feels like a more mature version of Should’ve Said No (and if you read the first part of this series you know how strongly I feel about that song so...) Because it has the same sort of “you say you’re sorry but it’s too late for that” feeling to it.

Overall this track is an excellent example of lyrical storytelling - especially that “small town there in my rearview mirror disappearing now” is such an evocative lyric. I don’t have hierarchies for any of Taylor’s albums, but if I tried, I think this track would settle comfortably in the upper middle.

6. You Belong With Me

I. Love. This. Song.

It wasn’t until this listening to the album, actually, that I realized how much of this album contains more mature versions of the messages from the first album. Like, tell me this song isn’t like a more assertive version of Invisible or Teardrops on my Guitar. This feels like Taylor looking back at those experiences and saying ‘hold up, i’m not letting this happen again, get BACK HERE and let me tell you how I feel!’

But. Listen. We need to talk about this music video. This music video is like the ultimate coming of age ten movie condensed into 4 minutes. Tell me I’m wrong.

Never in my life have I felt so connected to Taylor Swift than during that dancing-in-her-bedroom scene. that’s exactly the kind of shenanigans I STILL get up to to this day. (Also, I will fight anyone who says they don’t love the Junior Jewels shirt.) I vividly remember seeing this video for the first time and thinking that having the Other Girl played by a brunette version of Taylor was just. Brilliant. And of course we have the classic scene of the girl entering the school dance and stealing away the boy for the happy ever after - still not sure why he would have that piece of paper with him, so I’ll just chalk it up under suspension of disbelief.

...But, really, Taylor.... who holds books like that?

7. Breathe

This song fills me with such a melancholy feeling - not that I’m complaining, because I love this song to pieces. It’s permanently connected to one of my friends, because we recorded a cover video of this song at about 1am the night before I left the first time we met in person.

I love love love Colbie’s harmonies on this song - a whole lot better than how I felt about some of the male harmonies on the tracks from Taylor’s debut.

I don’t have a lot to say about this song, but that doesn’t mean I love it any less. I like the more stripped down quality to the song, even though it’s not really that stripped down - all the same pieces are there, it’s just all in how they’re applied.

8. Tell Me Why

Once again, what an arrangement! I love this song for the lyrical content, yes, but this is another song that I love for the instrumentation more than anything.

Speaking of the lyrical content, though, this song is a look at a surprisingly toxic sounding relationship for Taylor’s usual topics. A lot of the things about this track sound like classic abusive tactics - though I don’t think that’s exactly what she’s trying to portray. This song doesn’t even have to be about any kind romantic relationship in the first place. It could just as easily be about a toxic friendship (god knows I’ve had enough experience with that to know just how applicable this song’s lyrics are)

But to talk about the music as well, real quick, just. The fiddle opening!! and the drums!! and the tasteful small additions of steel guitar! and Just. so much about this track that I love. Is it just me or does it seem like this album has a much more driving backing track on most of the tracks than we saw on the self titled?

9. You’re Not Sorry

It’s fascinating to me that Taylor paired this song with the previous track for her album lineup - they’re very similar themes - but this song seems... angrier, almost. That’s not quite the word I’m going for, but I don’t know what word I AM going for, so it’ll have to do.

I just. need to talk about Taylor’s vocals on this song. This is another one I would love to hear Taylor perform with her current vocal abilities, because I feel like it would be absolutely outstanding. There are spots in this track (’tired of being last to know’ and ‘there’s nothing left to beg for’ in particularly) where she leans into them a little bit, but I feel like given just a little bit more, they could really knock it out of the park.

10. The Way I Loved You

I have... mixed feelings about this song. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike this song, and I think it builds really beautifully, but... It’s just not one of my favorites. I just don’t have particularly strong feelings about this one either way. I’ll still sing along to it in the car just as intensely as to any of them, and there are moments of it that I like - the almost military beat in the second verse and her strident delivery of “he calls exactly when he says he will” is a very nice piece, but... overall, it’s just not my favorite.

11. Forever and Always

THIS SONG HOWEVER. heck man. I love this song. I will go ham for this song anytime any day. There are so many good choices in this track - the drumming is brilliant and I think Taylor’s vocals on this song are better here than on the previous track, which makes it kind of refreshing.

Favorite parts include the bassline in the first verse, the way everything drops out from behind “coming down to nothing” except for the drums, and the “you didn’t mean it baby, I don’t think so” instrumentation, which builds up into the solo so well - and then we get the bridge. which is. just. stunning. I have no other words for it. 

I love this song!!!!

Bonus commentary from the platinum edition:

The piano version of this song is so much more heart wrenching than the standard version. Her delivery is so much softer (those soft high notes are my favorite), there’s a lot more hurt in her voice, and I love her harmonies over her own vocals. Beautiful. Especially the bridge, those harmonies and her delivery of those lines... I get chills every time.

And. Listen. It’s called the piano version, but the strings added onto the second half is such a good choice. A++

12. The Best Day

Okay, so. Listen. This song is absolutely every bit as saccharine as people say it is, but I really think it’s entirely a choice. From my perspective on it, it’s supposed to read as if it’s got the point of view of someone much younger than Taylor’s, what, 18 years at the time of release? I love the line “I’ve got my big coat on” because that’s SUCH a great choice for a line about a five year old.

Now I just. Need to talk about my FEELINGS about this for a second.

u g h god this song kills me every time. From hearing other people talk about this song, it seems like it doesn’t hit you as hard if you aren’t a daughter or if you don’t have a good relationship with your mom. I am privileged enough to have a great mom, just like it seems Taylor does, and so I can barely listen to this song without crying through half of it.

Then again, that might just have more to do with the fact that I’m a total crybaby.

13. Change

WHAT AN OPENING. I will never not love the way it just blazes into life from the word go and then goes a little softer for the verse, as if giving you a moment to breathe before it throws that chorus at you. There are some incredible examples of instrumentation choices in this song (it all comes back around to the drums for me, I don’t know what it is)

And then there’s that one note - which, comparatively speaking, isn’t really impressive, but it certainly blew me away the first time I heard it. The build-up to it is so well done, with the quiet bridge-y bit leading into the explosive drop into the full chorus and then that instrumental outro-- be still my heart.

Time for the bonus tracks! All six five of them. >.>

14. Jump Then Fall

I love this song. This is tied to a friend of mine as well, primarily because of the line “I realize your laugh is the best sound I have ever heard”, which is also my favorite line in this song.

There’s a quality to the instrumentation at the very beginning of the song that makes me nostalgic for the days of recording tracks off youtube and ending up with these horribly compressed versions of them - even when i’m listening to it on spotify part of me questions if I have a corrupted mp3.

I can’t not smile while I listen to this song, especially to the second verse - “I like the way you’re everything I ever wanted” is the cutest thing ever and if you disagree, get out of my face.

There’s something so youthful and fluttery and cute about this song, it makes me feel as if I really am the one with this unbearably huge crush on someone in the best shivery way possible.

15. Untouchable

I didn’t know until I was listening to @stateofswiftpod (and yes i’m going to continue repping them because. amazing.) that this track is a COVER. I was blown away because... okay. Listen. I looked up the original version and... Taylor worked magic with this track. The original really is just... an average to mediocre pop punk song, okay? It’s exactly the kind of vibe I’d normally be into but then it just. doesn’t hold me.

But Taylor’s version is just Stunning. Her vocal delivery is spot on, and the final chorus makes me so happy, with the alteration of the melody. Honestly, her mind. To think that she listened to the original song and heard the potential for this piece of musical art just blows me away.

16. Come In With The Rain

This isn’t one of my favorites - honestly I have no strong feelings about any of the remaining bonus tracks - but there is something about the message of this song that hooks me. The idea that you’ve been wishing and hoping and thinking about something so much for so long that you’re just. tired. Too tired to keep worrying about it, so you just leave the path for it open and let yourself focus on something else.

17. SuperStar

This song also kind of fascinates me. The concept of Taylor as the fan instead of the star, set at possibly the very last point in her life where she could realistically sing the bridge - “I’m invisible and everyone knows who you are” - is just... there’s something about it, you feel? It’s like a time capsule from that exact time of Taylor’s life, and it’s wild to think how many people feel like this about her now.

18. The Other Side of the Door

I’ve elected to ignore the obvious read of this song where it’s just. Young failure to communicate and unhealthy relationship dynamics.

Here’s my take on the song: It’s about that feeling where you want things to go like a 90s teen movie, but that ideal teenage experience isn’t real, it’s all fictionalized for those exact movies. And you know that’s the case, you know that it’s all too good to be true, but you’re still kinda salty about it.

Side note, I really like the delivery on the ending lines, with the way it kind of contrasts against the music behind it.

Roll credits, we’ve made it to the end of another album! I don’t know about you guys, but I need a break. So I’m gonna do that, and we’ll be back with another review after a word from our sponsors.

Next up: Speak Now

#taylor swift #fearless #album review #taylor swift appreciation life #Our Lady and Savior Taylor Swift

[rockmiyabideusexmachina]

2019 Megaman Valentine’s Day (Talent) Contest Results!

Part two of results day, even though I always label the Talent category as Cat. 1, these results are in reverse. Oh well.  Again, raffle prize winners will be contained in both posts, so keep an eye out after my commentary on your art. Not all raffle prize winner are contained in this post. I’ll be contacting all winners soon enough, so sit tight!

To see the Humor category results, please head to THIS POST.

Will any of our Iron Chef contestants be able to create an artsy meal with these ingredients?:

To find out, along with your Talent category winners and full gallery of entries, click here after the break:

Category 1 (Talent) - The Way To A Mega Man’s Heart Is Through His Stomach

This category had the larger amount of participants, and was honestly a lot harder to judge. I really was going back and forth on where to place people, because I love so much about all of them! Your delicious culinary character combos were all delectable in their own right, whether they were actually edible pieces of art or not. I did leave this category up to interpretation a bit more, despite the initial description wording it as a food-themed pinup. As long as it contained some sort of food with a character, it technically fit the theme. 

Thank you once again to all who participated. You all make holding these events fun year after year!

I know imgbox gallery gave people some issues before, so as always, let me know if images or links appear broken. Crossing my fingers this works smoothly this year! XD

After each entrant’s name, there will be a link in the character description to the entry, too, just in case the external inserted images don’t load for you.

[Full Talent Gallery]

1.) @prar-draws​ - Zero and Ciel

While most entries focused on sugary sweets, such as pastries or candies, prar thought outside of the box just enough to stand out against the rest. Taking Zero and Ciel’s already long hair and turning it into ramen and soba noodles, the pair are relaxing together in an overflowing hot tub bowl of their pasta-y strands, broth, veggies and then some, while they enjoy their own bowls of noodles. Despite being heavily layered in clothing, *warning* this is one steamy, saucy pic! XD

*For coming in 1st (in back-to-back years, no doubt), prar has won $100 via Paypal, or a prize of their choice up to that value.*

2.) @digitallyfanged​ - Tron Bonne and Megaman Volnutt

Ever the tease, Tabby’s Tron is wooing Volnutt with a sugary-sweet sensory overload at the hands of both her, and her Servbots. Or maybe at the head, too, based on that 2-tier strawberry cake that doubles as a hat on happy Servbot. While including so many treats were definitely eye candy in this piece, so too is Tron in that dress, causing Volnutt to deeply blush. 

The soft glow of the lighter transparency background, along with the usual shine of your lighting on the pair in the foreground, help them stand out. Even if my mouth is watering more at all the Servbot’s treats. Hahaha.

*For coming in 2nd, Tabby has won $50 via Paypal, or a prize of their choice up to that value.*

3.) @irischroma​ - Nana

Nana is ready to split her banana split sundae with you. I see what you did there. Your mission is to follow her every command as she feeds you, in her bonus rpg/sim screencap. I really liked the use of multiple halftones to accent the shading on both her and the background of the full image. The background itself is really cool, to incorporate the ice cream mounds, syrup and sprinkles, which also actually align nicely with the sprinkles on her apron. Truly adorbs.

*For coming in 3rd, Iris has won $25 via Paypal, or a prize of their choice up to that value*

And the remaining wonderful entries, in alphabetical order by alias:

@bracedshark​ - Marino

The first entry to embrace food-themed clothing, Marino is the living embodiment of the chocolate peppermint sundae she is holding. I love mint chocolate chip ice cream, so Marino’s green hair and clothing accents fit that ice cream color perfectly. Also while tying in your traditional peppermints as accessories on her, as well as the sort of melty pinkish mascara dripping down the side of her cheeks. 

*Bracedshark is the winner of Raffle Prize #1 - The cel of Duo*

@drewblossom​ - Ice Man and Roll

Another great use of food-styled clothing, Drew made a precious cinnamon roll dress for Roll, and an ice cream cone vest with a more whipped topping trim for Ice Man. Ice’s hair also adds to that whipped cream feel, yet despite dancing around, does a good job keeping that cherry from falling off the top of his head. XD This is a super cute scene, and has even better apparel style. 

*Drew is also the winner of Raffle Prize #4 - The Tamashii Nations Zero figure and Zero emblem wristband*

@hyperbole1729​ - Tundra Man, Top Man, Snow Robbit and Eye Ice

The first of two yummy cookie entries, which I’ll assume were baked around the same time, feature both real world treats, and 2D ones. I give Hyperbole big props for making the Snow Robbit and Eye Ice enemies into cookie shape form. They look super delicious, and I’m a guy who loves cookies with tons of frosting. XD Taking the pic on a wintry snowflake plate makes them stand out even more, so I totally loved your creativity with that. 

That baking didn’t only take place in Hyperbole’s kitchen, as Tundra and Top also spent the day making the same treats. I think their cookie cutter shapes have given me a clue to how you made yours. LOL Very cute!

*Hyperbole is the winner of Raffle Prize #3 - The Zero plush and framed X 3D sprite art*

@larytello​ - Zero and Ciel

Strawberry cake seemed to be the most popular choice of romantic treats, and here lary has Zero feeding Ciel her slice. Your digital airbrush shading has really improved, and it shows in this piece! It really gives a nice depth and definition to their arms and legs, not to mention the folds in Ciel’s dress, or the shine off of their helmets. Even with the heavily pink background, with all the hearts, they both still stand out nicely against it, despite their color schemes. Super cute!

@papillonthepirate​ - Roll.EXE

Our other real world food entry is a sugar frosted Roll.EXE cookie, complete with rosy cheek sprinkles and lemon-flavored ribbon candy antennae attached to her. Again, like Hyperbole’s submission, Papillon had the perfect heart decal plate design to help accentuate her creation, along with the doily it’s sitting on. I’m sure she was delicious! I appreciate the extra creativity taking the theme of the contest literally and making an actual tasty Mega Man character treat!

@peach35​ - X and Zero

A very cute scene of X and Zero sharing desert and a drink with swirly-shape sippy straws at a quaint little bistro off the shores of Dopple Town. And I’d imagine the pair of strawberries left snuggling on the table also sort of symbolize the hunter couple cuddling up after their cake and conversation, too. Pardon the pun, but I like the slice of life feel to the scene, that sort of gives it this Norman Rockwell-styled feel. The detail on your strawberries and lemon slices really turned out quite great; they look pretty real!

SockMonkii - Ashe

Ashe is so busy devouring that chocolate/strawberry filled cake slice, I don’t know if she fully realizes how much she has missed on her face. XD In fact, I think she’s likely eyeing the rest of the whole cake as the booty she’s after, rather than of any admirer. LOL The ribbon and bow background, along with all the hearts, help emphasize the cake as a romantic gift. Again, I see a lot of growth and improvement in your art style after a year’s time, and I think this pic turned out great!

@star-crossed-swords​ - Blues and Tempo

While definitely a sweet and romantic drawing, this entry felt like it fit in more with last year’s humor category theme, Beauty and the Beastman.EXE, that I almost wondered if you got mixed up with an older contest post. ^^; So I decided to go with the assumption that Quake Woman/Tempo had something delicious leftover on her hand that Blues was kissing off of her, to fit it within the content requirements. :D Their formalwear looks very nice on both of them. I like the sparkles on her dress coordinating with the starry sky outside the window. 

SubZeroIceSkater - Tundra Man

I totally read that tagline in Tundra Man’s voice. And the more bittersweet, the more pure chocolate, so it sounds good to me! Containing most of his stage enemies in cacao form, this box of chocolates is like a your chances at an extra life in item roulette. You never know what you’re gonna get. That’s sort of reverse Forrest Gump logic...right? I love how the box is designed just like his helmet’s rupee with icicles protruding, along with all the beautiful sparkling snowflakes and hearts in the background. I want a box, badly!

#Rockman #Megaman #Mega Man #Rock Miyabi's 2019 Megaman Valentine's Day Contest #Fanart Contest #Too many tags to list

[inventors-fair]

From Text to Title Commentary

This contest went a little haywire, and I’m not super certain why.

The basics of this contest were simple: make a card based on a mechanic. I said mechanic instead of ability or keyword because some stuff isn’t quite either. Devotion and Party are just sort of counting tools, and ability words aren’t even rules text. But some people took it a very strange direction. I thought it was pretty clear what counted, and there were plenty of things that very obviously counted, but people just kept asking about other things. While I understand that that is part of the brainstorming process, and you might come up with a cool idea and then not know if it works or not, I really wish you would have just assumed the answer was no and work on something you know would have counted. Why make a card called “Hybrid Mana” when you could just make a card out of any of the dozens of existing mechanics? It felt like you were trying to be unique at best, and purposely trying to mess with me at worst. But how uniquely you answer the prompt isn't important. What’s more important is that the card itself is good, or even clever. The prompt are just that: prompts. I am not challenging you to answer the prompt most creatively, I’m asking you to make a creative card that fits within the prompt. That was the important part.

Which gets me to the next thing. I specifically didn’t want players using the ability on the card. Part of that was just because it would be too easy, but part of that was because I wanted to see you guys get creative. What are some other ways to represent trampling? What else can life be linked to? I didn’t want to say that they could have nothing to do with it, because that’s hard. Would a metalcraft card that mentions artifacts at all count? But I think the point was still clear: I wanted to see cards that had nothing to do with their originator. Sadly, I got a lot of those. Some spelled out the ability. A lot were enablers: a bloodthirst card that dealt damage once a turn for creatures, a card named constellation that makes enchantment tokens, etc. I really wanted to see stuff completely different, and I don’t think I got that across. For that, I apologize. I should have been clearer about that, or put it in the mandatory section instead of the encouraged section.

Sorry for the downer. This was a rough week. Hopefully my commentary form here on out doesn’t sound too bitter. But here it is:

@azathoth-the-bored​ - Decayed

So while I specifically said that you’re not allowed to use the mechanic on the card, I also said I didn’t want you to just spell it out, as you did here. This gives the enchanted creature decayed, just not literally. If you had removed that and just had the last ability, I think this maybe would have been a fine uncommon as a slow removal spell.

@bread-into-toast​ - Daybound

Alright, you got me. Technically, this does not have the ability daybound. It just interacts with the day and night cycle, just like daybound does. While that’s allowed, it’s not really what I was asking for. I wanted to see a new interpretation of the ability, completely unconstrained from the originator. So, faire-wise, I’m disappointed with it. As for the card itself, I think it coils use work. The fact that it can’t transform no matter what feels like a strange restriction. A lot of the creatures are better on their night side, including abilities, so you might end up sealing a creature on their more powerful side, and when it turns to day, they will end up buffing their team better, even though they can’t attack. If you seal them on their day side, then they just attack worse at night, which I guess is fine. The fact that it can hit planeswalkers is just so weird. There’s only about 10 planeswalkers that can attack, only 2 that can transform, and only 1 that does both. Why even put it on there? It’s just going to confuse players who might expect it to stop them from activating. If it just said “permanent” I’d be fine, because then it could hit Westvale Abbey, or Poppet Factory, stuff where the transforming is a bigger deal than the attacking. What you ended up with is a card that is just trying too hard to fit a very specific role, and I think you’re worse off for it.

@decayingbooks​ - Fortify

I don’t think this card is as good as you think this is. I do like that it can be used defensively and “offensively,” but both of those options aren’t particularly good. If you target yourself, that’s a very small amount of benefit for four mana. To Arms does the same thing for two mana and draws you a card. If you target your opponent, it’s a fog that leaves your opponents creatures untapped. The utility of a card that does both is not worth the mana cost. This card could be one mana, and I still don’t know how often it would be played. I love the flavor though, and it’s a good way to make a card using the name fortify. NOTE: I wrote that all before you updated your submission to change it to a sorcery. Yes, it makes more sense, but it loses half of its utility, and becomes a far worse card. I think you needed to look at cards that already exist to get an idea for how to cost your cards or what players would want to play. Flavor is good, but it’s more important to make a well-designed card.

@deg99 - Dethrone

This card has a lot going on, and I think you could have toned it down a touch. The center ability is the main thing here: kill something and its controller loses life. A time-old tradition, and probably fitting at 5 mana. The fact that it gets super cheap targeting something the monarch owns is also cool! It fits the theme, and now you get their best blocker out of the way, amking it even easier to get the monarchy from them! Except then you become the monarch anyway. I think the top and bottom ability are detracting from each other. The top part punishes a player for sitting on the monarchy by making it easier for you to target them, which is good! The bottom part is just sort of insult to injury. It removes the coolest part about the monarch: the interaction among players. Most cards that grant monarchy in some way protect you, giving your opponents something they have to team up to fight through. This one sort of protects you, but is clearly made to be more aggressive, which doesn’t work well with the monarchy mechanic. Lastly, the flavor text I think kind of goes against the rest of the card. Regicide kills a creature, despite in theory killing a king. Queen Marchesa makes you the monarch, even though she is technically one. When I read this card without flavor text,I completely understood that I was killing a monarch, then becoming one. The flavor text muddies that by claming the thing you killed isn’t the monarch, and while that is technically true, it doesn’t match the flavor as well.

@demimonde-semigoddess​ - Escalate

What a weird little card! The name fits the first ability, that’s for sure. At first I wasn’t sure if that was just worse than a copy spell, but the second ability changes that for sure. It goes from a weird combo card to something you can just sort of play for free that maybe has a bonus bit of text. While I get the desire there, since it feels bad to have such a narrow card, I think the player playing this card WANTS it to be bad. If you see this card as a johnny or a timmy, you think of how cool that first ability is and just kind of ignore the last part. Other players will play it as just a normal tormenting voice with maybe some utility if you happen to have an X somewhere. The fact that there’s two completely different abilities means I can’t figure out which is the reason to play this and which is the extra part. That first ability does have some issues in and of itself, though. I don’t like that it’s a flat bonus. I wish it either doubled or reduced the cost or added mana. Currently, you can just cast a spell with X=0 and get three free bonus out of it. While that is sort of the point of this card, it’s freeness is a little scary. Mostly when you get to things with multiple Xs. This lets you deal 15 damage for two mana with Crackle with Power, or make a bunch of hydras with Hydra Broodmaster for 1 mana. If this card was more clearly focused on the X part, maybe just being a cantrip at one mana, I think I’d be more okay with it. If it doubled X, then at least you’d have to sink something into it. Also, I’m not sure if it’s just a typo, but so far as I know, this works with X costs that are not mana. I believe that it would affect cards like Chatterfang and Storage Lands, which could cause some problems. I also don’t know if it would affect things like Devastating Summons or Firecat Blitz’s flashback, where there’s an X in the cost, sort of. Last thing I’ll point out is you don’t need to phrase it like you did. Unbound Flourishing does almost exactly what you want, just with doubling instead of adding, but it still makes it clear you can change X with the spell or ability on the stack, not “as it resolves.” Sorry if I sound harsh, I just wish you would have committed to this being a combo card so it would feel like a fair trade-off for the amount of power it offered, or that you reduced its impact so that the X part can feel more like a bonus than the focus.

@dimestoretajic​ - Living Weapon

This is a strange one. First, it’s got a triple colorless mana cost. We’ve never seen a card with one of those, even 2 is reserved only for a 10 mana spell, therefore being only a fifth of its cost. But I can see why, mostly. Artifact creatures can be dumped onto the board extremely quickly, so you want a fairly restrictive cost. Even so, it being such a small creature kind of makes the restrictive cost feel even less worth it. You really need a board of creatures in play for this to be good, and it’s hard to know if this is ever better than just a chief of the foundry, who pumps toughness as well and is always castable. In eternal formats, though, this card could be a beast. The legendary clause is kind of what holds it back there, though. Again, you normally want to dump your hand, so the fact that you can’t play two of these if you have them in hand is a bit aggravating. Lastly, there’s that tap ability. Why is it there? Thematically it doesn’t seem to fit at all with the concept of a living weapon. Mechanically, it doesn’t seem to fit with the type of deck you’d want to pay this in. If you want to give your entire board of creatures double strike, you’re usually doing it because you have a lot of small creatures that want to attack. Having to tap them and him for mana goes against that strategy, and what are you even casting with that mana in a deck like that? The other thing it does is give a spell or two pseudo-affinity, which just seems unnecessary. Would a deck play this for just that ability and ignore the double-strike stuff? It all just seems so odd.Still, this is one of the better entries this week. It’s got some issues, but I like how it knows exactly what it’s here for and is very good at it, as well as working with the name. It’s just tacking a bit too much on top of that.

@fractured-infinity​ - Constellation

I think you’re overestimating this card. This is a 5 mana card that requires an extra three mana to do anything. Yes, it doubles itself every turn, but those copies don’t do anything other than trigger constellation. That’s good in a constellation deck, but this is a card that’s ONLY good in a constellation deck. If I play this and survive three turns and have 8 of these in play, there’s no way I’ll be able to activate them reasonably effectively. The flavor of this card is also tied too closely to the mechanic. None of this quite feels space like, or like I’m connecting things like constellations connect stars. I would suggest trying to find some other way to make it useful without the ability, or limit the number of tokens it makes but make the whole card cheaper. Right now it’s just too narrow and hard to use, and even the deck that wants it may be dead by the time it really starts being useful.

@ghoulcalculator64 - Banding

Ah, I see. It’s a rubber band joke. Fair enough. I think this card is not good. Four mana is a lot for this small of an effect. Yes, icy manipulator is a famously strong card, but Pacification array was not (though it had a lot of utility because of improvise being in the set). Two mana to tap each turn is a lot, and the fact that this doesn’t have a body like Fan Bearer or Gavony Trapper is a heavy cost already. I think you needed to do a little more research into what other cards of this type existed when making this.

@gollumni​ - Grandeur

Well this is a bit of a dud. It’s very hard to find a good way to use this card. It’s a fog, but what isn’t? It lets you get in one hit with one creature for sure, but at the cost of not getting to hit with anything else, and not being able to block anything for a while. The exact templating of this card has some minor issue, but I do want to point out you were clever not to make it target, so they can’t kill the targetted creature in response. Instead, you choose upon resolution. It’s a bit of a shame you HAVE to choose something, meaning you can’t just use this as a fog when you’ve got nothing in play, but maybe that’s for the best. Better to avoid turbo-fog making a resurgence. The last sentence also sounds a little off. Looking at Duneblast, I might just say “tap the rest.” I also really wish there were some way to not make this rare, but this would probably be an annoyance even at uncommon, so maybe it’s necessary.

@helloijustreadyourpost​ - Fateseal

Cool idea, execution is a bit off. One mana removal spells, even slow ones like this, are probably too good, especially at common. I could maybe see a card like this being pushed in a set where they really want playable enchantments, like a set with delirium or constellation. I know the big downside is that they still get a chance to swing with the creature before it dies, but I don’t think that offsets the massive upside of being an unconditional one mana kill spell. Conceptually, I like it. It’s definitely the complexity level of an uncommon, and the flavor is spot on. I think the fact that it triggers on your upkeep is mechanically a good idea, but a little awkward because a lot of people will assume it cares about the creature’s controller’s upkeep, like most similar cards. That’s not really on you, though, and if the rest of the set doesn’t do that, it’s fine. I could almost see changing it to grant the creature “sac this in your end step” instead. However, if the set has death synergies, that might matter, too. I guess this card is hard to judge because I could see it doing a lot of work in a theoretical set, but outside of any set, it’s just way too good. I like it, though, and it’s a great fit for this week, it’s just too strong.

@hiygamer​ - Hidden Agenda

I like the concept here, but I think you maybe underestimated it. The most obvious comparison here is Profane Tutor and Wishclaw Talisman. Both get you your cards a little later, but with some downsides compared to this Hidden Agenda. Being better than the two most recently printed tutors is a pretty big sign you’re maybe too strong. The exact phrasing also lets you pay the one during your opponents turn, so you can have the card in hand by the time you untap. Flavor-wise, I think it works. It does feel like you’re up to something, and you’ve got it hidden away, but I kind of wish it could be MORE hidden some way. Right now it feels a lot less like its hidden and more like it’s just in your hand but costs 1 more. But that’s getting nitpicky. It still feels like a good fit of card and name, which is the focus of this contest. I just think you could have pumped the brakes a little more, either making a more expensive tutor or a more hidden card.

@hypexion​ - Will of the Council

I was certain someone would do this. William of the Council. Bravo. But why does he have to do with voting? Surely there are other councils than Paliano’s. For this week specifically, I would have really wished you kept further away form voting. Yes, this doesn’t have Will of the Council, but it cares about it. Anyway, the card itself? I like it. I think the last ability is really cool, and adds some wrinkles to time when everybody is already agreeing on how they’re going to vote. You can also do some silly things where you purposely vote a certain way to get a bunch of treasures or get the result you actually wanted. I also like how playing him encourages you to be t he good guy: you want to make sure other people want what you want. That’s a cool way to build a deck. The first ability messes with all of that, though. First, there’s a lot of math. There 5 permanent types you’d have to count every time you vote, with the number of artifacts changing after each one. Lands would be the tough one, but creatures would be annoying, too. In a conspiracy draft, there’s also probably be some confusion to if conspiracies count, or Tribal, or Snow. Then there’s how it messes with the second ability. As soon as you get one extra vote, all of the fun of the second ability goes away. Most votes only have two options, so you just get to pick both. You were clever with the name and clever with the ability, but maybe a little too ambitious with the card itself.

@i-am-the-one-who-wololoes​ - Haunt

This card is a little weird. Flavor wise, I mostly like it. I like that the spirit is the same size but behaves differently than its originator. The name feels a bit mismatched, since this is less haunting something and more letting something else do the haunting. I would expect some sort of spirit to haunt the creature, not for it to die and come back to haunt others. As for the card itself, it’s not as good as it looks. For reference, Undying Evil, Supernatural Stamina, and malakir rebirth are all one mana. This is three mana to make a token that is almost strictly worse. It loses abilities, has to attack and block, but at least it has vigilance? I don’t understand the flavor of those abilities, either. Is it just an aggressive spirit? I would have expected it to have gained flying, but without it I don’t understand what exactly this spirit is. I keep thinking I’m missing something, but as I see it, this card is just not quite there on mechanics or flavor.

@kellylogs​ - Vigilance

It’s been a while since we’ve seen a card like this, but I remember the time when Mardu Ascendency, launch the fleet, and similar effects were all the rage. I like how this one specifically doesn’t create the token tapped and attacking. It sort of sells the flavor that they are leaving someone back in order to stay vigilant. I think this card is fine, but I have one giant issue: why did you specify “taps to attack?” All that does is make this card say “whenever a creature without vigilance attacks, make a token.” I know I said you’re not allowed to use the ability on the card, but specifically not using it feels even weirder. If it didn’t say that, I would feel perfectly fine with this card, maybe even make it a runner-up, but the “taps” part in there makes it clear that you didn’t feel confident enough in the design, and though you needed some way to tie the card back into the ability, something I specifically said I wasn’t looking for.

@loreholdlesbian​ - Encore

What a show this is. I like this card, but it’s very hard to judge. In some formats, this would be a powerhouse. Four mana for an extra turn with some extra cards is a great rate, and the lose clause is not nothing, but might be ignorable. Otherwise, though, this card could be a bulk mythic. We’ve seen two similar cards in the last few years, it’s hard to know what the rate on this card would be in this day and age. I’ll say what I can: this is a really cool concept and a really great way to answer the prompt. I just am so scared of extra turns in this day and age, what with the prevalence of them in recent years. Yes, this loses you the game, but is that enough? I just don’t know. I’m sorry, I wish I could help more. I like this card, I just am failing a bit as a judge right now.

@maispace​ - Bloodthirst

I think you came at this challenge from the wrong direction. It seems like you started by thinking of the ability of bloodthirst, then made a card around it. This is an enchantment that basically makes it so you always get your bloodthirst triggers. I don’t really understand how the card itself is bloodthirst. Is the idea that the creature spells are bloodthirsty? And so when you cast them, they’re “going for blood,” dealing damage? I don’t quite get the flavor. What the card does, though seems cool. It’s effectively damage that ramps up every turn. I like how it messes with strategies. Normally in aggressive red decks where you want to be playing burn like this, you also want to be playing a lot of low-cost creatures. But this card wants you to just play one creature a turn in order to get max value from it. I like that this sort of encourages a different type of aggro deck: one where you’re trying to tap out for big creatures every turn. Or maybe playing flash creatures? Or maybe you have a lot of activated abilities, so you can still use your mana? There’s a lot of cool, unique ways to take advantage of this card, and it might be worth it. If you trigger it at least three times, you get 6 points of burn for 3 mana, which is good! Feels a little odd at uncommon, but I could see this being a lame rare. I would just hope there’s enough enchantment removal in the set that this wouldn’t just be that oppressive. Even one damage a turn can add up in limited.

@mardu-lesbian​ - Improvise

Oh my. First, the flavor mostly works. I get that you’re sort of doing what you can with what you have, regardless of its utility. It’s a little odd that it doesn’t do things with your hand and is stead almost sort of reanimatey, but I think that’s a fine stretch to make the mechanics work without being too wordy. As for the ability, oh boy! It is very easy for this card to kill someone. I could easily see a combo deck forming from this. The random part I both like and dislike. I like it because it gives you a need to build around: you can’t just put the one big card you need in there to combo off, you’d need some way to partially empty your own graveyard to ensure it works. I also don’t like it because if you don’t keep your graveyard clean, you still have a chance of it woking anyway, meaning whether you win or lose is basically decided randomly, which is not super fun. Another strange quirk of this card is that it can actually be used relatively fairly. In a modern blitz deck, you probably won’t get more than one or two power out of it (maybe three if you’re playing those spectacle cards), but just being a spell that grants trample and maybe a bit of power is really all they need. This card being at common feels really strange as well. It’s a little bit complex of a card, in that it requires paying very close attention to the board state and also your graveyard, and needing to randomize it. While that might be fine, the swinginess of it would get tiresome in limited. It’d be pretty easy to get to the point where you have every mana value from 1 to 5 in your graveyard and your opponent is at 4 and, again, whether you win or lose the game comes down to randomness. I really like the idea of this card, but I wish it was a little less randomized.

@martianjune​ - Evolve

Evolving is the idea of growing and adapting to circumstances, and this catches that flavor, but maybe has one too many effects. Adding a counter is a nice base line, and growing when dealt damage is great flavor, and fighting works with the damage part and kind of works to represent evolving to adapt. But as a whole the card gets a little messy. The biggest issue is it’s not clear whether you fight when it’s dealt damage or when you cast the spell. I think you’d want to grant the creature the ability. Perhaps: “Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control. Until end of turn, that creature gains ‘whenever this creature is dealt damage, put a +1/+1 counter on it.’ Then it fights target creature you don’t control.” That would be less confusing. Unless you do want it to keep fighting infinitely. There’s also some weirdness in that this does the same effect twice back to back, putting counter on it before and after, which is a little weird, but hardened scales decks prefer it that way. As an instant pump spell removal spell with extra utility, I think this is maybe too complex even for uncommon. It also doesn’t really have a great way to include the reminder text that the creature needs to still be alive to put the +1/+1 counter on it, which confuses some new players. For the most part I like the design of this card, but it’s just too complex.

@misterstingyjack​ - Threshold

You’re playing with fire, here. A tutor on a land is incredibly powerful, even one as weak and slow and narrow as this. We’ve seen the incredible power of Urza’s Saga, and while this is weaker, it may fall into the same trap of assuming that cheap is the same as weak. I also don’t get the flavor at all. A threshold is like a barrier, so I kind of get that it’s a land, but is this supposed to represent specifically the barrier between the rest of the world and presumably the legendary land you’re tutoring? Okay, now that I write it out I kind of get that. But why is it legendary? Normally that wouldn’t bug me that much but A) on lands its a big deal and B) the card itself cares about legends, so it’s kind of relevant. I think if this specifically stated lands this might be fine, but this card seems specifically made to try and be broken, which I think is not a great idea.

@nicolbolas96​ - Eternalize

Well that’s quite the removal spell. It even removed the oxford comma from the reminder text! Seriously, though, this card is pretty scary. While it can be used fairly as a removal spell, it also has some random combo potential, like magus of the abyss or leonin abunas, or other stuff I’m probably not thinking of. It also seems absolutely devastating in commander, where it’s entirely possible you completely remove their commander from relevance, or protect yours somehow? This is a really hard card to evaluate, because we’ve only seen one other card similar to it, one with the stars, but this is also an instant with a permanent effect. I’m not a huge fan of the latter aspect, though I appreciate that the name at least clues people in to the fact that it lasts indefinitely. I’m very glad it’s at rare to make up for the many confusions that will come from this card. Lastly, this is pretty cheap for this effect. It’s basically two mana instant speed removal in white that can’t be protected by indestructible or even reanimation. This kills things that shouldn’t be able to die. Maybe that’s fine? Like I said, hard to evaluate, but I think I come out on the side of positive. Not great, I think it’s more trouble than it’s worth, but it’s at least something new and exciting.

@nine-effing-hells​ - Planeswalk

There’s some templating issues with this card that makes it unclear to me what it’s trying to do. Let’s say I have eight lands in play when I play this. I shuffle them into my deck, then each player reveals cards until they reveal 8 lands. Then I may put any number of those lands onto the battlefield. I’m going to assume under my control? It would need to says so, because right now they would just go under their owner’s control. Next, players shuffle “the rest” into their library. The rest of what? As written, it implies the lands, but I’m also shuffling the other cards revealed, right? Though they never left the library, so either way they’d get shuffled. I think you’d want to say “You may put any number of land cards revealed this way onto the battlefield under your control, then each player shuffles the rest of the revealed cards into their library.” Mas polymorph is the closest I could find to this. Anyway, the card’s mechanics: I think this is a little underwhelming. It’s a lot of counting and shuffling and stealing for very little gain. You’re doubling your mana for 8 mana, which is actually one above boundless realms or nyxbloom ancient and two above mana reflection. But with this you get to steal your opponents’ lands! That’s kind of just worse than your own lands, since they won’t tap for the right colors of mana all the time. You’re also thinning their deck by a pretty significant amount, meaning your opponent is actually getting some amount of benefit out of this (unless they’re mana screwed, in which case you were winning anyway). I think this only really has any use in commander, where the “each player” part means you’re more likely quadrupling your mana. I guess that’s pretty good for eight mana. This is also insanely good in landfall decks, obviously. I think I like this card, but there’s a lot of things pulling me from it. It’s a cool mix of scapeshift, oblivion sower, and boundless realms, but kind of feels bloated. It’s just trying to do so much, and because of that it’s got a massive mana cost and a lot of annoying to deal with shuffling and counting, nto to mention the amount of confusion that stealing lands usually leads to. Lastly, and I almost missed this, all the lands come into play untapped, which feels excessive. Eight mana to double your mana permanently that also doubles your mana the turn you play it is just begging for trouble. I think this would be a card everyone at the table would groan when they see, potentially even the player playing it. From a purely mechanical angle it seems like a good idea, but there’s just so many little issues that add up to make it a hassle of a card.

@Partlycloudy-partlyfuckoff - Dash

I think this card doesn’t do enough. I tink the “if” part is unnecessary. +2/+0 and haste is easily something worth 1 mana, even at common. The fact that it rewards targeting a creature that actually needs hast feels redundant, and I feel like it’s an attempt to get this card closer to it’s ability, which goes against the goals of this contest. I think you might have needed to step back and think about another interpretation of the word dash to try and come up with something more original.

@pocketvikings​ - Amass

I have one very important question about this card: why would you cast this for X anything more than 0? There’s reasons too, of course, but the card doesn’t really encourage it in any way. I can see this being played in a Rosheen Meanderer deck, but just a mana filterer, which seems weird. You can play it in a mizzix deck or other mana value matters decks, but that also feels really narrow. I think the most common use for X is cost reduction, like if you have a Baral and a Goblin Electromancer. Then that mana really is free, and it does feel like you’re amassing it. Sadly, those are the exact kinds of decks where you really don’t want to be limited to one more spell. So you have a card here that doesn’t really know where it wants to go. I think you either really needed to encourage big mana some way (like by doubling outright instead of adding), or by encouraging small mana (like just adding X mana alone, but allowing multiple casts, so you just get to double dip on mana reductions). As is, there’s just not a place for this card.

@reaperfromtheabyss​ - Threshold

I don’t quite get the reference with vampires. Is it a reference to them not being able to enter a house without being welcomed? Is that a threshold? Anyhoo, card seems fine. I don’t think it needed to be an artifact: plenty of walls in magic aren’t artifacts, and I don’t think they need to be. The last ability is just Baird. This is a wall that makes it hard to attack you. That’s all, folks! It hink it does a fine job of that, but it feels hard to feel that this card is necessary when Baird is already out there and has power and vigilance and only 1 more mana. I don’t think this card is bad, I just think it’s the most literal interpretation of the name.

@shakeszx - Bury

Spooky. Love the art, and kill spells are great places for one-name cards. The flavor really comes together. As with any creature-type based removal spells, you get some nitpicky things like “can you bury an elemental? Can you bury an ooze?” But that’s just what I expect pedantic players would say. I think non-spirit is fine trinket text. My biggest issue with this is that it’s very clearly a reference to the original ability. Bury got changed to “kill it and it can’t be regenerated,” and you swapped out the regeneration for indestructible, it’s current substitute. I wish I could have seen a card further from its source for this challenge, but I can’t argue against how solid of a card this is. I do wish it had found a way to stray further from terminate, which is almost exactly a reflection of this card. Also this is kind of going to be a boring rare (I say as someone who opened multiple dreadbores).

@snugz​ - Eternalize

Love me some gold counters! I remember putting aurification in my old defender decks. This really fits the theme. I like how you put the counter on it even though it wasn’t “technically” necessary: you could have just had it gain all those things. But the counter is a very useful tool for remembering, and the fact that it can be interacted with, unlikely as it is that you can remove the counter, it still technically gives you something you can do about it. The defender and can’t activate abilities is neat, but the other two parts seem odd. Turning it into a treasure doesn’t really do anything other than random stuff like counting towards Revel in Riches. I think you wanted to grant it the treasure ability. The fact that it can still activate mana abilities is what tipped me off to that, since that seems incredibly narrow otherwise. I also think this is closer to a white card than a black card. It’s extremely similar to both Guard Duty and Minimus Containment, both white cards. Black would be much closer to just outright killing the creature, especially for a 3 mana uncommon. Still, I like the flavor of it.

@starch255​ - Extort

Well this is not something I was expecting. I can really respect the attempt to make something new with what you’ve got. You may be pushing the boundary a bit harder than I liked, but at least you had fun with it. The card is strange, but I think I like it. Haste is a weird ability because it doesn’t scale evenly, so 5 mana for 4 power haste is kind of in line. The “flying when attacking” is a nice way to power it up and down a bit, and the one toughness makes this really fragile. It also sort of helps with the flavor: high toughness is the one thing most commonly associated with turtles. Still, something about this card feels off. Even with haste, 5 mana for a 1 toughness creature is a hard sell. In the right format, this would be a beating and a half, and in the wrong format, this would be last pick every draft. Ravnica, where this card seems to be from, is famous for its many 1/1 flyers. Especially with conditional flying, you could probably have pumped up the toughness at least to two. But hey, funny card, okay in some formats probably, and a cool two color design.

@stellarlight​ - Encore

Visual: A magic show. Three identical magicians jump through the air with happy smiles on their faces, an outfit identical to theirs is on the floor. The audience is mesmerized.

Now this is a strange card. First off, I think this card is a little close to the original ability, which I tried to discourage, but not so close that I’m disqualifying it. I just think you maybe played it a little safe. As for the ability, how strange! At first it just seems like an incredibly overcosted Kaya’s Ghostform, but the fact that it hits opponents things means it’s a little closer to Minion’s Return. The fact that it makes a token instead of reanimating the creature has upsides and downsides: it means you can still do graveyard things with the creature card in the yard, but it means that bounce spells are kill spells. If you’re taking your opponents cards, it’s the opposite. The bonus ability on this is pretty cool, though. It makes this card really cool in blink decks, since you can enchant your guy at the end of their turn, untap, then blink it on your turn with a charming prince or something. The tokens stick around, too, so you’ll end up getting three ETB triggers in addition to the one you already were going to get from blinking it in the first place. Still, I think this card is a mana too much, maybe more. Minion’s return is the closest basis to this card, and it was an uncommon that almost never got played. This requires setup to ge the most benefit from, and still costs two more, including another color! Aura’s are already so easy to mess with, sinking 5 mana into one just to get blown out with a removal spell on the stack, or having someone mess with your blink effect before you untap is very likely. I think just four mana, or even 3 might be fine. I think it’s a really cool idea, though, and other than the cost (and the similarity to the ability), I like this card.

@wilsonosgoodmcman​ - Fateseal

They’ve been trying to design a card like this for years I feel, and you got a pretty good version of it. It’s a bit like spell queller and a bit like Oblivion Ring. I think the name fits pretty well, and I like how you reinterpreted the “seal” from meaning “decide” to meaning “trap.” The templating on the bottom is a bit off: you could probably steal it whole from Spell Queller. The cost also seems right on the money: just a touch more expensive than O-Ring, same price as Cast Out or Ashiok’s Erasure but with comparable downsides to both. I think this would se play in a lot of blue white control decks. Part of me wants to complain and say that this card is boring and too close to things that have been done before, but I think I’m wrong on both accounts. This is a role-player in the format, not a headliner. A good card, and a good answer to the prompt.

@wolkemesser​ - Grandeur

Making a Lorwyn style incarnation is a really clever way to get that name to work. Your reworking of the shuffle clause is pretty interesting, and is a clever way to set up that last ability. And that last ability sure is something. It gives this creature basically a permanent on-death effect. It still needs to be cast and die, but after it does, you’re good. Your opponent has to 20 you in one turn. But as a mythic that needs to be set up is that fine? If you play a temple garden into avacyn’s pilgrim or bird of paradise, you can get this out by turn three or so. If you play a sacrifice outlet before then, you can set up this combo nearly immediately. Even so, graveyard hate can hit it, just not all graveyard hate (many players use grafdiggers cage in historic, for example). If I were in charge of deciding if this card sees print, I would be terrified. It’s a really cool and maybe balanced ability, but I’m worried it would turn quite a few games into do-you-have-it games of combos vs. graveyard hate. It’s probably fine though. I like this card.

~

And that’s everybody. If you want to talk to me about anything in particular, feel free to contact me at our discord.

-Mod Mr. ShinyObject

#commentary #mtg #magic the gathering #text to title #custom magic card #inventor's fair

[superchartisland]

Magic Land Dizzy (Code Masters, Spectrum, 1990)

Gallup all formats individual format chart, Computer & Video Games Issue 115, June 1991

Magicland Dizzy is not quite the final Spectrum game I will review, but it definitely sees the series hit its prime just as the curtain is coming down on the 8-bit era. Well, the era of its games topping the charts, anyway. Some games would keep coming out for the old computers, and people would keep playing them. I was still playing games on Commodore 64 only well past this point. And once again, time and memory can do some funny things.

I loved the Dizzy games I played as a child, and in the field of games where you progress by solving puzzles through the use of items I also loved Lucasarts’ Monkey Island graphic adventures (I’ve written before about why Monkey Island 2 is one of my favourite games ever). Because I played the latter several years later and on more advanced computers, I always thought of them as being the product of a slightly later and more developed time. In fact they were pretty much contemporaries, with The Secret of Monkey Island sitting right alongside (appropriately) Treasure Island Dizzy in the chart at one point.

Behind the technical curve and fine with it, Dizzy being developed with 8-bit computers in mind meant that there weren’t any big technical advances to mark out Magicland Dizzy from its predecessors. Instead, Dizzy’s new creative team (less series creators the Oliver twins and only carrying over David Whittaker from Fantasy World Dizzy) could focus on improving the experience in other ways. Like a plot which goes beyond getting to one location and/or rescuing damsel-in-distress Daisy! Instead a whole carton of Dizzy’s egg friends are trapped in different unfortunate fairy tale fates. As an added bonus this includes a new character called Dora, so Daisy is also no longer the Smurfette of the situation.

The change in plot structure is followed through in other structural improvements. To get anywhere much at the beginning of the game, you do have to make a rather tricky traversal of a moat, via a travelling pointed fin. Once you have jumped the shark, though, large numbers of screens and objects are immediately accessible. Coupled with the many small objectives that are clearly there to be worked towards, this gives a lot of different options of what to do next at any point, which is a great design decision for a hybrid platform-puzzle game. To progress you have to get better at platforming and figure your way around obstacles, and you also have to solve puzzles. Having a basket of different puzzles to work on means that you can take on something new each time you get a game over, honing your platforming skills without the deadening repetition common to early games.

All of that is enough to make Magicland Dizzy the best Dizzy game so far, but it’s not why I remember it so much more fondly than the others. That’s in the nature of the puzzles it has. There was one puzzle in Fantasy World Dizzy which involved trading a tiny cow for a bean and then planting it in some manure to grow a giant beanstalk, set up by a character telling you to do what Jack did. That’s the template for just about everything in Magicland, except it doesn’t give you the set up. It just lets you work out that you need to, for instance, take transformed-into-a-frog-Dora to Prince Charming, use a gold cross to fend off a vampire, rub a lamp to summon a genie.

We’re not talking anything with commentary on its source material even on the level of Shrek, and yet the intertextuality is rather magical. Games involve learning a set of rules to follow, but instead of just its own rules, Magicland Dizzy invites you to draw on all the rules that fairy stories and fantasy tropes have already taught you (assuming that they have -- there is admittedly an inherent exclusivity to this approach). Joining up the familiar dots gives a different kind of intellectual buzz, and it opens new avenues for humour. There is a screen near the start called The Haunted Swamp which you can’t get past because of a couple of ghosts. What do you need to defeat them? A power pill! Pac-Man is given a place in the fairytale canon, and expectations are brilliantly undercut. Elsewhere, if you don’t remember your Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland well enough to correctly decide which of the eat-me cake or drink-me potion to use with a magically enlarged Daisy, things will go very wrong, in the best reward for failure the series has offered yet.

Magicland Dizzy’s way of showing how games can be in conversation with a wider world and don’t have to be hermetically sealed, or open only to imitating blockbuster films, remains charming and surprising. Dizzy really wasn’t all so backwards after all.

#every number one #Magicland Dizzy #ZX Spectrum #retrogaming

[justanotherdumpingground]

Chapter Reviews: June 4-8, 2019

Wishful Thinking Chapter 9:

Man, that was mildly depressing to say the least, especially on the MC and Ellen bickering. At least there's Jaime and the pets to keep me company. Honestly, those three kept me from feeling down in this chapter. I didn't pick the premium option to be with Jaime, but I consider picking him as my LI, so it's likely I'll pick it, and all other scenes with him, in the future.

To be honest, I'm not "celebrating" Ellen getting fired despite how much of a jerk she is. In fact, what she said about the MC in a viper den comes off as ominous. As now-former head reporter, her words sound like a warning on Charlie, who has been acting fishy since his debut. Considering Ellen's level of experience on the field, it's hardly a surprise. Not to mention that Anna having something to say in the end of a chapter seems to take my suspicions into account.

Note to self: get Alec fired and replaced by someone else with a better judgment on the importance levels of news. That would be the ultimate cathartic moment. I heard that he suspends Ellen for a month if the MC says Ellen has been scaring guests like Anna, whereas he fires Ellen if the MC says she caught Ellen snooping around his office. I get that his privacy needs to be respected, but he should also be mindful of guests, and his job includes making sure they're respected. I certainly dislike Ellen for her behavior, but at least she has made the occasional point (e.g. her frustration at her story on environmental disaster sidelined in favor of MC's story on the local library losing a book), and she also has at least one moment that feel human (e.g. overworked but choosing to hide it out of fear of people seeing it as a weakness). They don't paint her in positive light, but at least she still makes sense as a character. Alec, on the other hand, has none of that and therefore deserves none of my respect.

Nightbound Chapter 8:

I'm glad the plot continues to move onward from the previous chapter. I love Vera's dress, and my MC in a period outfit looks fine. A pity I didn't buy it.

Well, hello Josephine Vance. Man, I miss the It Lives series and hope it returns in October as usual. As for Katherine, I have to comfort her and help her move on from her loss. I admire PB giving her some fleshing out on her insecurities, but still miffed that this information is paywalled. Nevertheless, it was a no brainer for me to pick it.

Man, the fight against the ghosts was tough, and it was fun to use the premium dagger and punch a ghost. Not to mention my respect for Cal and Vera has just increased when they chose to protect the MC from danger. Bonus points for Vera, who finally resolves to user her power for good.

Now that we're going to meet The Fate, I'm just anxious how ths figure will react and when we'll encounter Lord Elric again. Looking at the mirror in the premium scene with Katherine shows his reflection looking back at the MC, so it might be possible his monster tear will be acquired at some point.

Passport to Romance Chapter 13:

I think it's for the best for Elliot to be kicked out of his family's company's board of directors. All he does is mooch off of his brother's money as he travels around the globe. It's time he grows up.

The competition between Sumire and Bronwyn (premium scene but I can't resist it) is fun to watch. I have no love for Bronwyn and Carlisle, even if Bronwyn gave meaningful critique Sumire can use to improve her art. It was satisfying to watch Sumire win and call Bronwyn out for looking down on others and touting her own art as superior. Bonus points for the rooftop garden scene with Sumire, where her victory was mentioned, even though she and the MC got cockblocked.

To be honest, I paid less attention to the showdown between Marisa and Carlisle than to the drawing contest. Sure it was great to see Marisa winning against Carlisle, but that was because of Elliot distracting him, which lessened the satisfaction. I swear, Carlisle's worse than Bronwyn, who may be a jerk but still gave valid criticism in the previous chapter. Carlisle, on the other hand, is just a jerk who acts sore for the sake of it. As for Yvette, she made another point on the MC's friends moping too much on their emotional crises. At least Marisa has gotten over it, and I kinda helped with Sumire. Nevertheless, all four of them need to sort out their own messes while MC has to devote their focus on the vlog.

A Courtesan of Rome Chapter 20:

I had to recruit Sabina to my cause, but as an added bonus, it also features her talking about what she wants to do after Caesar has been dealt with. I may not be romancing her, but I have faith she'll get her plans sorted out, especially if she chooses to take over Locusta's apothecary.

Honestly, what was PB doing to Xanthe? Not digging into her character is already a huge disservice to her and the potentially meaningful commentary she can provide as a "regular citizen" trying to get on with her life. Shipping her to Sicily as a way to write her out reeks of human trafficking, which is a very. Moreover, I'm pissed that PB used hee to tear her down and make the MC look good in the process. I don't like Xanthe, but PB's use of the female rival trope just to tear her down reeks of misogyny. This doesn't give women a free pass. Instead, it means PB should write them with the care and nuance they deserve as part of their characterization.

Anyway, off to the gaining allies part. I managed to convince Cleopatra and Senator Lucius, but failed to convince Senator Cornelius because I don't have a high enough reputation. No matter. At least I have the support of gladiators thanks to Victus and Cingerix, so the finale better be epic.

Platinum Chapter 3:

I feel like there's not much to say in this chapter aside from this story starting to remind me of America's Most Eligible. Made up story about one's past, tough competition, and the pressures of being on the big screen. Jaylen should train under a more sensible singer instead of Ryder, and I feel like that won't be the last time we'll see Shane. What if we see him on occasion?

As for how this story is so far, I'd say it's okay. I've been losing interest in the romance aspect as of late, so I'm just focusing on how the MC's story unfolds. It better not make her rise to fame too easy, however.

Open Heart Chapter 17:

The hearing was surprisingly smooth. Only two doctors opposed the MC because of Deflan's meddling, I'm not sure of some other doctors, and I'm glad Naveen arrived to have my MC reinstated. The patients I treated or their relatives (I picked Shonda, who thought the panel's lame, Remy, who thanked me for giving him a reason to surf to the fullest, Sharon, who said I was a bit distracted but still credited me, and Annie, who was nice about my MC e-mailing her often) and the doctors I persuaded helped, though I cringed at Dr. Calais saying that the MC's skill at golf is enough to prove their good character. My only regret is that I didn't pick the option to punch Declan. At least Ethan managed to persuade Mrs. Martinez's son to drop the lawsuit by showing him a picture of his mother in Paris.

Man, I'm glad Aurora stood up to her aunt by saying that she had enough of being assigned cases and told her that the MC has proven to be a capable doctor. It appears that this scene affected Harper's decision to vote in my favor, and I'm thankful for that. Even better, she's planning to move to the MC's apartment now that Landry has moved out and transferred to Mass Kenmore.

Speaking of Landry, I decided to talk to him before it's too late. I'm still angry that he got away with disrupting patient care when he sabotaged the MC, and him bringing Naveen into the courtroom doesn't erase what he did. At least I don't have to deal with him and his unrepentant ass anymore, though at least I said good luck to him.

One thing I noticed is that since Ride or Die, there's no announcement for a sequel at the end of the finale. Instead, it's announced by PB itself outside the story. I guess this is gonna be a new thing from now on. Whatever that is, I'll get used to it.

Man, this story surprised me. I thought it's gonna be average because of my doubt in the quality of the stories as of late. It turned out to be better than I thought because of the colorful cast of characters and emotional moments when treating patients. It was sad to hear of the deaths of Dolores and Mrs. Martinez, heartwarming to watch Remy decide to make every moment to use his limbs count, and scary to treat the patients during the triage. There are also moments to feel awesome, such as helping Sienna break up with Wayne and getting reinstated at Edenbrook. I really look forward to Book 2.

Red Carpet Diaries Chapter 1:

I nearly considered writing into detail on how much I still have no love for this series, but because I don't want to rain on other people's parades, and my own anger has receded somehow, I'm not doing it.

Not surprised that there's no option to say I have no love interest. I may already have one, but I don't think this story should end in a wedding. On the bright side, I get to be with Victoria.

A pity I couldn't bring my beloved ocelot with me on vacation, though at least everyone else is doing well, though what's with Hunt having a beard? It makes me cringe.

Who on earth thinks it's a good idea to feature a boat accident during a vacation? That's just bizarre. And no way am I ignoring Victoria when she's trying to put on a life vest. Especially when she proposed to me at the end of the chapter.

Bloodbound Chapter 4:

Dang, this is one awesome chapter! MC is a cunning badass by tricking Mr. Klempf into freeing her, then the fight scene where she uses a giant mace on him, followed by another fight scene with the love interests and Cal. Man, everything is so intense that I have to applaud the inner circle and Cal for their badassery.

I'm starting to feel worried for Adrian after he killed Langdon in cold blood. I wonder whether this is the result of the serum injected to his body that causes him to become more like the First Vampire, who I'm convinced is Rheya. I also wonder whether she turned more people into vampires besides Xenocrates and Gaius.

Sad that I couldn't afford to find and free the other fantastic creatures. I would've freed them for a backup army like the Baron's prisoners back in Book 1. And that dream MC had with Adrian is starting to make me wonder if Adrian will really turn to the dark side.

#choices stories you play #chapter reviews

[kae-karo]

Sea Glass - Bonus Scene

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEN @laddyplester you deserve to have a lovely day. this is for you, i hope you enjoy <3 and the most gracious of thanks to @imnotinclinedtomaturity for betaing this for me!!!

read sea glass first! (x)

bonus scene: Pearlescent (one year later) - 3.1k - internalized angst and soft comfort

read on ao3

I exhale a loud sigh - it’s childishly petty, sure, but I can’t be bothered to care.

Phil’s sat in the lounge with some show or other turned on, though, and I apparently didn’t express my annoyance loudly enough because he doesn’t react. So I exaggerate it a little more, until I’m sure my sigh can be heard over the sound of the TV.

“Dan?” The show pauses, silence following Phil’s voice. I frown down at the page under my fingertips; the drawing’s good, but not what I need.

“Nothing,” I lie. Which is exactly how Phil knows, I think, and he’s soon stood behind me, hands resting on my shoulders. He sets his chin on my head and it digs in, reassuring in spite of my headache. Comfortable, even, because it means he’s here. He understands. Or he’s trying.

“It looks incredible, Dan.” He says it every time I complain - or rather don’t complain - about some project or other I’m meant to be doing for class. This one’s a sort of free assignment, at least, but for the life of me I can’t get it right. And I’ve been trying for three fucking weeks.

“It’s meant to express true happiness.” I clarify, even though Phil knows. Because I told him. Three weeks ago. And pretty much every day since, when I pulled out my damn sketchpad or set up an easel or pulled out a pen to doodle a thumbnail on the corner of a takeaway napkin.

Phil never failed to encourage, not once, and it’s been...well, it’s been sweet, but I still can’t get it right.

And not for the first time, I wonder if maybe I just can’t. If maybe there are insurmountable limits to what I’m capable of, and I’ve finally hit them. I’ve peaked, and my art will always be good but not what I want. Aesthetically pleasing in the kind of way I can make - and have made - a few bucks on, perhaps, but there’s a difference between creating something that pleases the arbitrary audience and something that means something to me.

For this project, for happiness, I’d started with the cave - a thing I’ve not seen in person in nearly a year, in spite of my grandma’s insistence I visit her at least once a semester, because it’s always storming or rainy or some other inconvenience has stood in the way. Except the cave hadn’t felt right, not really.

So, after much insistence from him that I should try a new subject, I’d decided to draw Phil - he’d dutifully posed in spite of his slight embarrassment, made comments using terms he’s heard but really doesn’t fully understand about techniques and shading and angles, and asked if any of the drawings had The Spark.

He says it like that, too, when he’s talking about that spark I’d described to him - he can’t see it, he’s admitted, but I tried to explain it and he’s tried to understand and it means a lot.

But even still, it’d been...wrong. Not wrong in a bad way, but I’ve failed a thousand times now to capture the happiness I see when I look at Phil - I know it’s there, but every drawing turns into a mixture of something beautiful and light and something bitter or melancholy or darker. And it’s never his fault, he’s always bright and sunny and everything I could ask for, but I can somehow never really get that on paper without something less positive dripping into it - the apprehension I’d felt when I met him carved into creases between his brows, my occasional sleepless nights reflected in dark circles under his eyes. And the few times I’ve managed to keep some layer of unnecessary gloom out of it, it ends up lacking depth, looking and feeling tacky, plasticky.

Phil doesn’t quite get it, but it’s there. It’s like...I can’t get the real meaningfulness without something more harrowing, some layer that takes away the fake-ness but makes the whole thing a shade too pensive or too intense.

It took a while, but I think I’ve figured it out - I just don’t feel that happiness without other layers, without some background mental commentary that drags things down. I can’t draw the uninhibited happiness Phil exudes, the kind I’m meant to be drawing - or maybe that I want to be drawing - because I’ve never actually felt it.

“‘Incredible’? No, Phil, it’s really not,” I argue, though I know the reaction I’ll get and it never makes things better. I’ll probably scrap this one and start again, draw the same unrealistically false-looking grin that exists in reality but can’t possibly be captured on a page. Or, I guess, it just can’t be captured by me.

“Dan?” There’s a sudden warmth wrapped entirely around my shoulders, Phil’s warmth. His incredible, uninhibited warmth. Everything about him is genuine, true. Bright and real and most definitely uninhibited, untarnished by the layers of melancholy I can’t keep out of my drawings. I even fucking tried with color this time, but even the lightest blues look too dark and pull the yellows and bright oranges down with them, into something more fitting for a drawing of me.

It’s not til the third teardrop splashes on the corner of the page that I realize I’ve started crying - because of course I have.

“I can’t,” I shrug, though Phil doesn’t let go. He never does if I have a bad day, if I’m not feeling good or confident or whatever it is I happen to be feeling or not feeling, if it’s a day where I need him.

“You can’t?” He mumbles into my ear, low and soft and perfectly comforting. I’ve long since stopped saying I don’t deserve him, not out loud, but it’s days like today I really feel it, deep down in my bones. I don’t deserve the light he brings, the patience and caring and the effort. He tries so fucking hard to understand, even when he doesn’t.

In place of a proper response, I shake my head and slide the paper aside. Phil won’t let me throw it out, I know, but it’s getting really painful to see the growing piles of failure in every corner. I can’t even work at the desk in my room anymore, now stacked high with imperfect pages; I’ve relegated myself to the breakfast bar, where only a few discarded drawings sit in the corner. I flip the page over on top of the pile, hiding the latest in my line of not-right creations.

I recall one of the first classes I’d taken, early on in the summer last year, the professor reminding us over and over and over that imperfection is the first step on the path to perfection, but it just sounds like a false platitude now that I’m not the recipient of compliment after compliment on my excellent technique or realistic depictions. Sure, I can draw, but I’m starting to feel like a proper failure at capturing.

Because it’s there, I know it is. I see that happiness when I look at Phil, but I can’t feel it. I can’t put it down on a page and make someone else see it. I can’t feel it when I look at the drawing afterward. Phil says he can, but I know he’s just saying what he thinks I need to hear. I’ve asked him to stop.

“Maybe take a break for a bit, love?” Phil’s suggestion feels almost like an assault at this point, he’s said it so many times. It’s sweet, and I know it’s because he cares, but the project’s due in a few days and I’ve got nothing.

“I don’t have time.” I argue, though my voice comes out hoarse and unconvincing. I’m just sick of it, sick of pretending to be something I’m not, pretending I’m capable of something that’s clearly just an impossible task for me. Pretending I’m capable of feeling that happiness, of capturing it and putting it down on a page.

“Maybe…” Phil trails off, hesitant and clearly cautious. I dip my head into the crook of his arm and hum, just enough to hint at my curiosity. “Maybe just turn in the best of what you’ve drawn so far and be done?” He says the words into my hair, as if he can use it as a barrier to prevent whatever backlash he’s clearly expecting, and his arms shift around me anxiously. “If you want?” His trademark ‘softening the blow’ technique, when he says something he already knows I won’t like hearing.

I almost fight - it’s in me, I can feel it, that desire to argue and lash out, but it isn’t his fault. How could it ever be his fault that I’m incapable of capturing something? That my skills have turned out subpar, that I’m the failure? So I blow out a soft breath, one far less exasperated than the one that’d drawn him over from the sofa.

“Okay.” If he’s surprised at my answer, he doesn’t show it, but I can’t exactly see his face, so I’ve no real idea.

Besides, I’ve resigned myself to giving up, and the low relief and overarching sense of failure, of incompetence, swell up and roll over me, replacing whatever thoughts and emotions I’d been feeling toward Phil in that moment.

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

“Did you turn it in?” Phil’s stood frowning at the calendar on the far wall, one of the few things he’d insisted I get made to sell properly, featuring a selection of seasonally-appropriate nature drawings I’ve done over the past few months. People ate that shit up, apparently, as I’d sold out in a matter of a few weeks.

“Turn- shit,” I grumble, pushing back from the chair so quickly it tips and nearly clatters to the ground behind me - I manage to catch it at the last second, then I’m off to my room and rifling through the sketches scattered across my desk with frantic fingers.

I probably shouldn’t have put off the choosing of my subpar ‘true happiness’ drawing until the literal last minute.

“Do you need help?” Phil follows me into my room, and I can feel his presence at my shoulder even though he’s not touching me. I think it helps, though my mind’s running at a mile a minute and I can hardly think straight; as I page through each sketch, staring critically at the lines that stare right back at me, I’m thrown into the same melancholic funk I’d been in a few days ago, because none of them are good enough.

But, I suppose if I’m sifting through old sketches anyway, I can go further back, right? Not like the professor will know.

So I slide open the desk drawer, the only one not stuffed to the brim with various utensils and miscellaneous cables. It’s funny, now that I’m tugging the pages out, but I don’t think I’ve even looked in most of these drawers since I requested my grandma ship the worn old desk out to the new flat in Manchester.

“I haven’t seen these,” Phil presses closer to my side, peeking down at the sketches. I guess I haven’t taken these out, then. I go slow, letting him appraise each page as I sift through them - most are too old, really, and I think my style has evolved far too much to pass them off as recent, but my hands pause on a single page.

“Forgot I did that,” I note, my cheeks flushing with warmth at the unusual and almost childish styling of the cartoon doodle; Phil’s hand tugs the drawing from mine.

“You did this?” His tone comes out soft, and I’m suddenly nervous - it’s a silly kind of nervous, I know, because he’s never been anything but honest and kind about everything I’ve ever done. But he’s never seen this sketch, and it feels a little childish and maybe a little sad - these simplistic outlines are a far cry from my proper drawings.

“I mean, yeah,” I mumble, “like ages ago, though. They’re pretty rubbish, just, like, scribbles really.” I hate the feeling in my stomach, the one I’d kept at bay for so long, the one that’d reemerged with the advent of this project, that one that feels a hell of a lot like failure. Disappointment. Insignificance.

“Remember when I got stuck outside last week?” Phil says, then, and it throws me for a complete loop; I huff out a breath of laughter at the unexpected turn in conversation. And at the comical image of Phil stood outside the door in his emoji pajamas, peeking through the frosted glass window.

“Yeah, of course, but I don’t-”

Phil holds up the drawing toward me, as if I’ve not actually seen it properly myself - as if I didn’t draw it myself - and grins.

“Do that, but like this!” He’s nearly shouting, that excited, high voice he gets when he’s seen an animal and he nudges into my arm and says my name to get my attention before pointing it out.

“Do- what, for my project?” I can feel my face scrunching up, but he can’t be serious, can he? How pathetic and unsophisticated would that look? I’m meant to be evolving my skills, not falling back to some childish doodling and cartoon panels.

Phil doesn’t respond aloud, though, just nods and grins that bright, impossible grin and grabs my hand and drags me back out and into the lounge. Before I can properly process it, he’s shoving down on my shoulders and sticking a pen in my hand and flipping over the page of the half-assed drawing on the coffee table in front of me - I’ve long since filled the breakfast bar with failed sketches as well, and I briefly wonder how long Phil’s going to put up with the mess.

“I can’t-”

“No, no, shush, just- just do your thing, it’s perfect, trust me.” He’s stood on the other side now, between the table and the TV, and he’s grinning again - I’m honestly not even sure he’d ever stopped.

“Phil, I can’t turn in-”

“Shush, just do it!” He’s stood and staring and he even gives me an overexaggerated fake frown when I widen my eyes and quirk a brow at him, but if there’s anything I’ve learned about Phil, it’s that he’s a force to be reckoned with when he gets determined like this. Besides, a quick few doodles about Phil getting stuck outside? Shouldn’t take me long, and it’ll be funny at least. Maybe I can hang it on the fridge, a continuous reminder for us both of his hilarious misadventure. Hilarious for me, anyway.

He stands over me and stares while I draw - I hardly mind, it’s not the first time he’s done it and it certainly won’t be the last, and I’ve already decided I’ve no intention of turning this in. It’ll be better to just get it over with to appease him, then I’ll send some other proper drawing in later tonight, just before the deadline.

I fall into my zone quite easily, so I hardly notice when Phil moves closer, when he settles on the sofa behind me and watches over my shoulder. The lines come effortlessly, hardly any real requisite technique involved, and I find myself done before my hand even starts to cramp up.

“There,” I mumble, peeking over at Phil. “Satisfied?” But he’s just grinning, so I shake my head, roll my eyes, and prepare to leave him to it. He can enjoy the doodles, at least, while I decide on something proper to submit.

“Dan, you- it’s-” he stops mid-attempt-at-speaking, then, and I frown at the unblinking wide blue eyes. Surely it’s not that bad, is it? I mean, not that I’d really been trying, but...it still fucking hurts to do something poorly, no matter how casual the attempt.

I turn back to scan the page with twisted lips and a discerning eye, but I can’t pick out whatever Phil must be seeing - the whole thing looks technically simple but pretty clean, and aside from the slightly lopsided framing of the panels, the drawings themselves do a pretty good job of capturing- of capturing.

My eyes race over the story again, the comically wide eyes of the cartoon Phil, my own lanky limbs as I climb down the stairs, rubbing my eye with a fist. It’s good, it’s light and funny and...it’s happy. It’s not incredible or perfect or whatever I’d been chasing so desperately, but I actually fucking feel it.

“I really really like it.” Phil says, and I can hear the grin in his voice without looking. I sort of don’t want to, not yet, not until the light feeling in my chest dissolves a little - I really don’t feel like crying right now, not even a good kind of crying. I just want this drawing to be what it is, to mean what it means without any extra unnecessary layers.

Because it doesn’t need them, the depth is there, it’s in the domestic comedy of errors that’d left me literally belly-laughing at the face glaring at me through the window. It’s in the garish design of Phil’s emoji pajamas that’d almost made me let him in just so nobody else would see him. It’s in the frustrated ‘Dan!’ whisper-shouted through the crack in the door, too early on a Sunday for a proper yell. It’s in the taunting and the elicited promises of laundry done for a month and that candle I’d really wanted and actually picking up his socks for once, in the exasperated ‘finally!’ once I’d given in, and the dramatic arm-crossing and foot-tapping that Phil couldn’t even manage for more than two seconds before devolving into a fit of giggles.

“Yeah?” I ask in spite of myself, and my cheeks hurt from the grin that settles there the moment Phil nods into my shoulder, presses a kiss to my cheek.

I’m not sure why it had to matter so much, but it feels really fucking good to be able to create something that exists in its own right, that doesn’t require hours spent on technique and perfection and meeting impossible standards but still manages to mean something.

“You should do that more.” Phil’s hand slides up and down my arm, soothing and comforting, and I tilt my head until it’s leaned against his and consider it - the simplicity, the raw and unmanufactured vibe, it actually feels good in spite of the urge to correct and nitpick and improve tingling under my skin. But it doesn’t feel necessary, not the way it usually does.

“I think I will.”

#phanfic #dnp #dan and phil #sea glass #emotional angst/comfort #ya lads are back nearly ten months later #ironically that's about how long has passed #both in the fic #and since i last wrote for sea glass #anyway jen #hope you enjoy b! #happy birthday #sea glass fic

[chaostheoryy]

The Jealous are Troublesome [Nick Stokes X Reader]

Summary: While the rest of the team is out in the field on cases, you slip into the locker room to prep for a long night in the lab. To your surprise, however, there’s one CSI that’s one step ahead of you and, as you quickly discover, is up to something interesting.

Word Count: 3,894

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Masturbation and images of sexual fantasy

Notes: I’ve been sitting on this idea for weeks and have finally gotten around to writing it. It’s my first NSFW piece for CSI so apologies for any kinks in the characterization of our boy in the heat of it all. (Tagging @5teacherdream as requested!)

It was a busy night for the team. Everyone, including Grissom, had been assigned to a case which left Greg and the lab crew working overtime to keep up with the requests. You’d been given 401A just east of Mandalay Bay on Russell Rd. — a motorcycle had been struck by another vehicle, leaving the motorcyclist and his bike mangled beyond salvation. He was pronounced dead at the scene. What the other vehicle was and where it had sped off to, you were going to find out.

It only took a few hours to process the scene and collect the evidence. With the victim on his way to the coroner and clean up crew en route to clear the street, you hopped in your SUV and headed back to the lab to start piecing it all together.

“The first of the valiant knights has returned,” Greg beamed when you strolled in to drop off some of the trace evidence for him to analyze.

You raised your brow. “Really?” You huffed with a sense of pride. “Figured Nick would wrap up that 407 pretty quick. Sounded like a routine robbery.”

“Guess you got lucky. Now you…” — he snatched the paper bags from your grasp — “…get to stay here with me all night long.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

You rolled your eyes. “Okay, don’t be creepy, Sanders.” You laughed and turned to head out.

“Where are you going?”

“To the locker room. You think I wanna run trace in a jumpsuit?”

“Oh, I see. Slippin’ into something more comfortable.” You could practically hear the smirk in Greg’s voice.

You stopped in the doorway and jabbed your pointer finger his way. “Hey. What’d I say about being creepy?”

He raised his hands in surrender. “Alright, alright! No más,” he exclaimed with a grin.

You made your way down the hall to the locker room where you and the other members of CSI stored their personal belongings and several changes of clothes for the shifts that left your original garbs reeking like death and decay. You pried open your locker and unzipped your jumpsuit and were about to hang it up when you became aware of the sound of running water. One of the showers was on, which meant that you weren’t the only team member back from the field.

You turned your attention back to your locker for the briefest moment before another sound caught your attention — a male whimper. It was very faint, almost undetectable underneath the constant patter of water against tile but there was no doubt you heard it. You were instantly concerned. Was he in pain? Was he washing off a fresh injury? Did he need help?

You quickly hung up your jumpsuit and made your way over to the showers but a heavy sigh reverberated off the walls and brought you to a stand-still. It was then that you became aware of the sound of slick skin sliding over slick skin. Realization draped over you like a blanket. Those whimpers and sighs weren’t ones of pain — they were ones of pleasure.

Your cheeks went pink. Determined not to draw attention to yourself, you pressed your back against the wall dividing the lockers from the shower stalls and scrapped your original plan to call out to the person. It was clear that whoever it was in there thought he was completely alone. He was keeping it quiet, no doubt, but if he knew that there was even a remote possibility that another member of his team had returned, there was no way he’d be doing such a thing in a semi-public shower.

You listened closely to the breathless sighs and groans for a moment. You knew it was inappropriate to be snooping like this but God were you curious. Who in their right mind would be jerking off at work?

A particularly loud moan and a thick Texan-accented murmur of “oh, baby, that’s it” soon made it clear to you that Nick was the guilty party. Your heart skipped a beat at the discovery. Nick Stokes was masturbating no more than 10 feet away from you.

You swallowed and closed your eyes, leaning your head back against the wall. You felt guilty. Sure, he was doing this in a shared space that you had every right to be in. Did that mean you should be listening to him lose himself in the throes of pleasure? Definitely not. But you couldn’t help yourself. Your curiosity had been peaked the moment you heard a man’s whimper in the shower. The discovery that the whimper was coming from a very oblivious, very occupied Nick Stokes was just an added bonus. And you’d be damned if you didn’t find the situation sexy as hell.

As you listened to his breathless moans, your imagination ran wild. You could practically see him in your head — his wet, black hair sopping over his temples, forehead pressed against the cold tile as his soap-slicked hand methodically ran over his cock. Droplets of water traced the line of his spine like ghostly fingertips. His pink lips were parted, his brow furrowed as he lost himself in the heat of it all. You wanted nothing more than to drown in a sea of ecstasy beside him. Your stomach tightened as you thought about it — your body caught between the tiles of the wall and his firm chest, his lips pressed against your neck as you dragged your palms over his abdomen. His hands were at your waist and his mesmerizing voice whispered sweet nothings and filthy suggestions that made you shiver under his grasp. His teeth grazed your collarbone and a single, calloused hand slipped from your waist to glide up your thigh until masterful fingers found their way to your-

You were drawn out of your fantasy when the steady fall of water suddenly ceased. Your breath caught in your throat. Oh shit. If you didn’t move now, you were busted and neither you nor Nick were going to enjoy the conversation the two of you would have.

Just as you heard the lock on the stall door click open, you bolted for your locker and quickly threw your jumpsuit back on. Leaving it half zipped, you faked prying open your locker just as Nick came in.

“Hey.”

You looked over your shoulder and were pleasantly surprised to find him dripping wet with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. Just when you thought you were going to let go of that fantasy of yours… You forced an innocent smile. “Hey.”

“You just get back?”

“Yeah,” you lied, gesturing to your locker with your thumb, “Figured I’d dress down since I’m gonna be here running trace with Greg for a while.”

Nick nodded. “I got a couple of prints off the register at the pawn shop and a whole mess of smudges from the cases so I’m sure I’ll be seeing you quite a bit tonight,” he said before prying open his locker to grab a clean set of clothes. You were surprised by the look in his eyes. He seemed hesitant, almost ashamed. Did he know you had been listening? No. That wasn’t possible. You hadn’t made a sound the entire time. Maybe he was just feeling guilty about letting himself go in a place like this.

“I’ll make sure Greg and I are working double-time so those prints don’t get back-logged,” you reassured him.

He threw you a small smile. “Thanks, (Y/N). I appreciate it.”

You quickly removed your jumpsuit — for good this time — and hung it up where it had been no more than a minute ago. Then, you changed shirts and closed the locker. “I’ll see you out there,” you said before leaving him to dress in privacy.

Unsurprisingly, Greg was relentless that evening. Overt flirtations and sexual innuendos were spewing from his mouth like a broken sprinkler. If it weren’t for the fact that you loved the guy like a brother, you would have clocked him in the jaw after the third joke.

You were in the midst of running the first set of prints from Nick’s 407 through CODIS when he poked his head in just in time to hear Greg fire off a particularly filthy remark about pubic hair. “Are you always this disgusting?” Nick asked from the doorway, arms crossed.

You couldn’t help but grin when you noticed Greg jump. “Only when there’s someone in the room for him to talk to,” you remarked.

“Not true,” Greg chimed in with unabashed pride, “I’ll have you know that the unspoken thoughts in my head that I conjure up during my solo escapades are far more interesting.”

Nick narrowed his eyes. Greg went silent.

“How are those prints coming?”

You took a deep breath and shrugged. “They’re coming sooner or later.”

You heard Greg whisper under his breath. “That’s not the only thing that’s coming tonight.”

You nearly jumped from your stool when Nick snapped. “Hey! Knock it off, would ya? Those jokes weren’t funny in college and they sure as hell aren’t funny now.”

“Easy, Nick,” you said quickly, completely taken back by his sudden outburst, “It’s alright.”

He turned to look at you, a fire burning in his eyes. Never before had you seen him so worked up, especially about something as insignificant as Greg’s commentary. “No it isn’t. It’s childish and inappropriate.” He threw a sharp look over at Greg. “Keep flapping your gums like that in here and it’ll only be a matter of time before Grissom takes a yardstick to the back of your hand, you hear me?”

“Okay!” You rose from your seat and slipped between the two of them, diverting Nick’s unexpected rage from his dumbfounded victim. “I need to have a word with you.”

You dragged Nick from the room and down the hall to the currently unoccupied meeting room. The second the door closed behind you, you spoke. “What in God’s name was that about?” You shook your head. “You practically gave Greg a heart attack!”

“Serves him right,” Nick argued, “If Grissom heard him talk like that, Ecklie and the rest of his bloodhounds would be on his ass in seconds.”

“Grissom and I and everyone else in this lab know better, Nicky. Greg’s practically still a kid. He doesn’t mean anything by it.”

Nick put his hands on his hips and clenched his jaw, teeth grinding together. He was quiet for a brief moment. Then, after scanning your face, he added, “Yeah, well, I don’t like it.”

You sighed at his stubbornness. “Like what?”

Nick’s voice lowered drastically. “When he says stuff like that to you. It practically makes my skin crawl.”

You were stunned by the sudden shift. Nick’s rage had vanished and was replaced by a strange sense of hesitancy. He seemed timid, almost as if he were afraid of being honest with you. There was more to this outburst of his and you were curious to know all of the reasons behind it. Right now though, you just needed to make sure he had completely cooled off.

You smiled softly and reached out to squeeze his arm — and boy was it firm under your grasp. You shook the thought and focused on comforting him. “Look, I know it’s gross and stupid, but this is Greg we’re talking about. Everything he does is gross and stupid but I love him nonetheless. He’s the little brother I’m glad my mom never had.”

Nick chuckled at the statement and nodded in agreement. “You can say that again.”

You were glad to see him flash a glimmering smile again. No doubt the worst was behind him now. “Why don’t you check-in with Bobby while we wait for the prints to finish their run through CODIS? I’m sure he’s dying to try and match those casings you found.”

Nick nodded. “Good idea.”

You patted his arm in support and headed for the door.

“Hey, (Y/N),” he said quietly.

You stopped and looked back at him.

“I’m sorry if I freaked you out back there.” There was a guilty look in his eyes much like the one you had witnessed in the locker room earlier. “I’ve had a lot on my mind lately. Guess it finally got the best of me.”

Your heart ached hearing him say that. You gave him another tender smile. “Don’t worry about it. There’s only so much we can take, y’know?”

The shit-eating grin on Greg’s face that you returned to nearly had you flying over the counter to wrap your hands around his throat. You narrowed your eyes at him. “What?”

“Nothing,” he replied slyly, “Just amused by our dear Romeo and his glorious outburst.”

You rolled your eyes and made your way back to the computer on the other side of the room where it was still chugging through the database of prints. “He’s on edge for some reason, okay? Don’t go making it worse by being a douche.”

You heard him press a few buttons on one of the machines. “I guess I would be on edge too if I were him.”

“Oh yeah?” You blurted sarcastically as you looked closely at one of the smudged prints Nick had collected from the casings at his scene. “Why’s that?”

“‘The jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves’,” he boasted in a shoddy English accent.

You put down the magnifying glass in your hand and turned to look at him. “You think he’s jealous?”

Greg raised his brow in cocky affirmation.

You eyed him skeptically. “Why would he be jealous of you? Cause you can get away with cracking naughty jokes at work?”

He slipped around the counter and leaned back against it, that annoyingly sly smile still tugging at the corners of his mouth. “Not exactly. Think more along the lines of with whom I make said jokes.”

You took a second to process Greg’s suggestion. When it settled in, you were immediately floored. “You’re telling me that he’s jealous of you because you’re flirting with me?”

“Bingo.”

As much as you wanted to accept this “fact” — and man did you wish it were a fact — you had your doubts. Hell, you had a heap of doubts. “Okay, pump the breaks, Jeff Gordon. What makes you think he’s even remotely interested in me?”

“It’s amazing what the sense of sound can reveal to an individual,” he mused.

You threw him a look, silently imploring him to elaborate.

“Look, the guy is constantly gushing over you. It seems like every time him and Warrick pass by he’s going on about how eager he is to partner up with you on a case or fawning over the way your eyes match your shirt.” Greg grinned as he reached over to grab his coffee cup from beside the computer. “It’s like watching a high-school book worm crush on his math teacher.”

You shook your head. “You have got to come up with better analogies.”

He swallowed the sip of his special Hawaiian blend. “Sorry.” He placed the mug back down and crossed his arms over his chest. “In all seriousness though, (Y/N), Nick likes you. A lot. And if it weren’t for the fact that he thinks you’re way out of his league, he’d be on you like white on rice.”

“He thinks I’m out of his league?”

“Um, yeah, ‘cause you are.” Greg laughed as if it were a fact everybody but you was aware of. When he saw you were baffled by the response, he raised his brow. “Come on. I’m being serious. You’re smart and funny and literally the coolest person in the whole lab. Not to mention that — and don’t take offense to this ‘cause I mean it from the bottom of my heart — you’re smokin’ hot.”

You all but snorted at the remark and shook your head. “You really know how to boost a person’s self-esteem don’t you,” you teased.

He grinned. “It’s a personal hobby.” He tilted his head in curiosity. “So, what about you?”

“What about me?”

“You’re not as easy to read as CSI Cupid,” he mused, “Are you into him?”

You brushed a rogue strand of hair behind your ear and nodded. “Yeah. Probably more than I’d like to admit to myself.”

“Then how come you haven’t made a pass at him? I mean, not that it’s any of my business. I just can’t wait to see him crumble at your feet like a saltine.”

“‘Cause I’ve been sitting in the same boat as him. I’ve spent all this time watching from afar, thinking he was way out of my league.”

“Well, I don’t know a thing about baseball,” Greg remarked as he grabbed his mug and slid off the counter, “But I think you two need to get on the same team and start scoring some touchdowns.”

“Home runs.”

He waved his hand and smirked playfully. “Whatever.”

When CODIS finally spat out a match to the pawn shop prints, you gathered the suspect’s record and personal information and set out in search of Nick. Sure enough, you found him seated at the main computer in the video room scrubbing through security tapes.

“Hey.”

Nick looked up from his screen, eyes lighting up the moment he saw you. “Hey. What’s up?” He spotted the printed sheet in your hand and grinned from ear to ear. “You got a match for me?”

You nodded and handed the sheet over to him. “Robert Wilkins. Arrested for robbing a gas station seven years ago. Turns out he was released back in January.”

Nick read over the document and clicked his tongue in disapproval. “Well, he won’t be cruising free much longer if we have anything to say about it.” He seemed to exhale in relief knowing he had a proper lead. He looked up at you and smiled softly. “Thank you.”

You returned his smile with a gentle grin of your own. “‘Course.” You hesitated for a brief moment, thinking about the discussion you and Greg had less than an hour ago. If he was right — and you had reason to believe that he was — then you and Nick were one conversation away from meeting in the middle of a very important causeway. “Before you get back to work, can we talk?”

He furrowed his brow, clearly concerned. “About what happened earlier?”

“No, no, not about that,” you replied quickly, wanting to reassure him, “Well not exactly.”

“Okay… Then what about?”

You took a deep breath, wondering how you were going to go about this. You were taking a risk. Crossing the boundary between friendship and romance was terrifying, especially when those friends were people you spent hours on end with in a high-stress work environment. If you pushed too hard or too fast, you could scare him off and create an awkward situation for the two of you. But, whether or not you were entirely prepared for it, this was a conversation you needed to have.

“For starters, I think I understand now why you snapped,” you said cautiously.

You could see his jaw clench. “And why’s that?”

“Because you might have feelings for me.” Your voice was soft and quiet as you explained your discovery, “And if that is true, then I think you were angry at Greg for being flirty around me because you wish that you were the one making shameless passes at me.”

Nick’s eyes were wide, his mouth agape. He looked stunned. There was no doubt that he hadn’t seen this conversation coming and, judging by the way he kept quiet rather than lash out in denial, it was true — he was into you. And, for the first time since you’d met him, the charming, confident Nick Stokes was putty in your hands.

“How’d you figure that out?” He asked after a moment of silence.

You flashed a coy grin. “Greg told me.”

Nick closed his eyes, mumbling under his breath. “‘Course he did...” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I swear, one of these days he’s gonna earn himself a kick in the gut for how nosy he is.”

“Yeah, well, if it weren’t for his big mouth, I would probably be dancing around my feelings the rest of my career.”

Nick looked up at the comment, brow furrowed. “Beg your pardon?”

You couldn’t help but smile. “I didn’t swing by to throw you under the bus for being attracted to me,” you said softly.

He blinked. “Really?”

You nodded.

“So, you, uh-“ He struggled to find the words and merely settled for a gesture of his index finger, pointing at you and then himself — a silent question of so you like me too.

You giggled and nodded again. “Yeah, I do.”

“Oh.” He let out a heavy breath that registered somewhere between a sigh of relief and a huff of laughter. The corner of his eyes crinkled as a brilliant smile once again found its way to his face. “Well that’s…good.” He chuckled to himself, reaching up to scratch the back of his head.

You placed a gentle hand on his neck. You then bent over, keeping your face just inches from his. “You mind if I…?”

His eyes widened and flicked down to your lips before locking with your own eyes once again. “Not at all,” he replied in a hushed tone.

You pressed a chaste kiss to his lips. You couldn’t help but smile into it when you heard him hum in content.

You pulled back a moment later and watched as his eyes ever so slowly opened back up. He looked completely blissed out, as if he were lost in a dream come true. The innocence and pure content on his face nearly made you giddy.

“Not to ruin the moment or anything,” you said slyly, your thumb soothingly rubbing against the back of his jaw, “But were you thinking about me while you were in the shower earlier?”

His lower jaw nearly unhinged itself and his cheeks flushed a bright shade of pink. “Oh God…” He covered his eyes with his hand, lowering his head in shame. “You heard that?”

You flashed him a guilty smile. “It was kinda hard to ignore.”

“Great,” he muttered under his breath before looking back up at you. “Well, it’s safe to say that’s the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever done.”

You traced the line of his jaw with your thumb. “I don’t know about that,” you replied playfully, “I thought it was kind of hot.”

His brow hiked up his forehead. “Oh yeah?”

“Definitely,” you whispered before leaning in to steal another kiss. You let your hand linger on his cheek for a moment afterward before stepping back. “I gotta get back to work. God knows what Greg is up to with me not being there.”

Nick laughed softly and nodded, the softest of smiles stretching across his face. “Make sure he’s not burnin’ the place down, would ya?”

“Will do.”

You headed for the doorway, stopping just before you rounded the corner into the hall when Nick called out to you again. You looked back.

“You wanna get breakfast with me later?”

You couldn’t help the massive grin that tugged at your lips. “I’d love to.”

#Holy moly this is a long one #But boy is it SOLID #This may be my new pride and joy #Reader Insert #My Fic #CSI #CSI: Crime Scene Investigation #CSI Imagine #Nick Stokes #Nick Stokes X Reader #Nick Stokes Imagine #5teacherdream