#i did not have the skills to execute the ideas but the ideas were fun and interesting and i can appreciate the intent!

[eggluverz]

Dan Feng's disciple! Reader x Dan Heng IL Synopsis Idea: She tried to stop them from taking him away from her, she really did. But Jingliu and Jing Yuan were quick to stop her. She spent so many nights alone... Until she saw him. The man she loved and would give up her life for. She's not letting him slip away from her this time. Thank you~~❤️

AFTER ALL THIS TIME

PAIRING. dan feng x f!reader; dan heng x f!reader

WORD COUNT. 3,741

SUMMARY. you were the great imbibitor lunae's disciple. he trusted you with his life and you with his. but when the time came, you weren't able to save him. what happens when you run into his reincarnation years down the line?

SOF'S NOTE. i had so much fun writing this!! i wrote it 2 days ago now but i just haven't had the time to post it t-t but i'm finally moved into my new place and managed to squeeze this post in <3 i rly rly enjoyed writing this so i hope y'all enjoy reading!! and special ty to the anon who requested this!! ^-^

The art of cloudhymn magic was difficult to master. Even as a high elder yourself, there were intricacies you could not figure out on your own. But you trained daily, practiced in seclusion, and read all the books passed down from the most renowned masters. 

Each day, your knowledge grew. Your natural talents aided you in perfecting your own personalized form of cloudhymn magic.

Still, Dan Feng noticed flaws in your execution. Movements that should be more precise, patterns that should flow more intricately. You noticed him silently watching you on the vast training grounds. He wasn’t much older than you, yet his magic was already intricately refined— The makings of a leader to the Vidyadharas.

He saw great power within you, he told you in passing as he took you under his wing. There was much you could gain from him, he promised. 

Years went by as you studied under Dan Feng. He has many supporters and people who looked up to him, but he only allowed you as his disciple. You were the only one who could rightfully address him as master. 

As he grew in his status as a member of the High Cloud Quintet and later the Imbibitor Lunae, you too grew in your mastery of cloudhymn magic. You were able to learn Dan Feng’s signature combat skill of deflecting iron, making arrows of most enemies fall flat at your feet. But your skill shined in the illusions you were able to create. Not even the Imbibitor Lunae was as skilled in that art as you. 

Your power grew and as such, Dan Feng recognized you as more of an equal than a disciple. Out of respect for all the teachings he imparted on you, you still called him master. There was no way you would reach your level of strength in this short amount of time without someone like him fostering your talents.

Along the way, you found yourself viewing him as more than your master. When he began treating you as someone who matched his power rather than someone with much to learn, you were able to feel confident in all your abilities.

One late night, Dan Feng took you to his sacred training grounds for a sparring session. He had just returned from a stressful battle and while the casualties were low, they were more than he felt comfortable with. 

“If anything happens to me, at least I will know the Vidyadhara will be in good hands,” Dan Feng commended as you blocked the tip of his spear from grazing the base of your neck. 

You quickly shifted your gears from defending to attacking, knowing if you let Dan Feng get too many attacks in, he would be almost unstoppable. Spinning your spear in your hands, you imbued the weapon with water and launched it directly at your master’s chest. 

A normal man would have fallen dead before even realizing you attacked him, but not the Imbibitor Lunae. He sidestepped, the scene appearing like a mirage due to his speed. 

“Nothing is going to happen to you, master,” you scoffed. “You’re the strongest Vidyadhara alive. Not even I could defeat you in battle.”

He hummed, tapping his spear to the back of your neck, signaling you lost this spar. “Battle is not the only way someone can fall.”

Wiping a bead of sweat off your forehead, you sighed, sauntering away from him and back inside his living quarters. “Continuously speaking of your self-proclaimed inevitable downfall is unbecoming of you, master. What would the people think of a disciple who follows someone without faith in his own ability to live?” 

Dan Feng chuckled softly. “A pitiful disciple, is what outsiders would say.” You nodded and he stopped you in your tracks, running his index finger against your jaw. His fingernail dug into the bottom of your chin to lift your head until your burning gaze met his sharp one. “But we never cared much about what outsiders think, did we?” 

You placed your palm against his chest, feeling the detailed fabric of his garments. They were thick yet light, a sign of great craftsmanship that only the highest of elders could afford. You allowed your hands to roam along his body before Dan Feng grabbed your wrist, his long fingers wrapping easily around its circumference. 

He smirked. “Wait until we’re indoors, my beloved.” 

“Yes, master,” you complied with a roll of your eyes before releasing the front of his outwear. You held complete respect for the Imbibitor Lunae, and you revered him as such. But those moments when it was just you and Dan Feng—just you and your partner—you weren’t one to shy away from meeting his biting remarks. 

This night, like many, led to moments of passion on the silken sheets draped over Dan Feng’s mattress. It was a mixture of love, respect, and the intense craving for more. 

Your master, the Imbibitor Lunae, a member of the High Cloud Quintet— Dan Feng was many things. But most importantly, he was yours. 

Until he wasn’t. 

No good thing was meant to last, Dan Feng once said during an endless night of reflection as he laid in bed beside you. Friendships, relationships, entire civilizations, built to be destroyed from the start. 

No good thing was meant to last. But he would fight his damned hardest to ensure they did. 

And for once, his hardest wasn’t enough. 

It was the middle of the night when your living quarters were barged into. You woke with a start and noticed Dan Feng quickly wrapping your robes around your naked body. 

The noises weren’t at the bedroom yet; you heard the thuds from outside and you immediately called for your strongest weapon. Noticing even the slightest of your movements, Dan Feng softly placed his hand on top of yours. Almost imperceptibly, he shook his head. 

Your eyes widened, wanting to ask what he could’ve possibly been thinking. There was a large group of men outside with hostile intent, did he not want to protect himself from an attack? 

“I am going to see what they need,” he said calmly, pulling you into his arms and leaving a kiss on your forehead. “Please, stay here for me.”

A few members of the High Cloud Quintet—Dan Feng’s closest friends that easily became yours as well—were staying at the guest chambers at the Imbibitor Lunae’s invitation. At the commotion outside, Jingliu came in with a groggy look on her face, tired from being woken up, but not an ounce of surprise in her. 

Dan Feng nodded to her and a silent Jing Yuan that filed in behind her. “Jingliu, Jing Yuan… Make sure she stays out of harm’s way.”

“Of course,” promised Jing Yuan, a soft smile painting his lips despite the sad look in his eyes. 

As he spoke, the doors to the bedroom burst open, a trio of Vidyadhara Preceptors breaking down the defenses you and Dan Feng had set. Your spear was in your hand in an instant and you tightened the knot on your robe with your other hand. 

Dan Feng stood straight in high alert, though his expression remained as one of nonchalance and arrogance. “Can I help you?”

Without a single moment spared for niceties, the Cloud Knights charged in to grab the Imbibitor Lunae. The Preceptors sent chains of rope instead of metal to wrap around Dan Feng. Your eyes blazed as you immediately called upon your cloudhymn magic. Water danced around your spear in sharp droplets, and you pointed it directly at the Head Preceptor. 

He narrowed his eyes in your direction. “Stand down, or you will face the same punishment.” 

“That’s only if you can beat us,” you laughed with disdain. Despite the big group, you were certain you and Den Feng had the ability to hold them off together. 

“Don’t,” Jingliu called out, gently placing her hand on your shoulder. “We can’t help him anymore, Y/N. Not after what he did. Don’t get hurt in the crossfire.” 

You knew what Dan Feng had done. For Yingxing. And you both knew the crime he would have to commit to help his best friend, but you never imagined the punishment would be so severe. A crowd of Cloud Knights and even a group of the Vidyadhara Preceptors here, together, all to subdue the Imbibitor Lunae. 

But it didn’t matter the crimes he committed or the consequences he may have incited through his actions. None of it mattered because he was your Dan Feng. Your master and your lover who you would protect with your entire life. 

Unfortunately, Dan Feng seemed to know that, having gotten Jingliu and Jing Yuan here to hold you back.

Before you could move, Jing Yuan held your arm back and prevented you from using your spear. Your eyes widened in shock. 

“Jing Yuan…?”

“I’m sorry, Y/N. It’s too late for Dan Feng, but not for you.”

The Cloud Guards briefly turned their attention towards you and the members of the High Cloud Quintet. Their swords raised as they noticed the fire in your eyes. 

Dan Feng snarled when he saw their focus on you. “If you hurt her, you will all pay,” he warned, his voice a low growl that would’ve made an ordinary man quiver. He began to move his arms in a way that could only be described as the start of a cloudhymn spell and in an instant, all eyes were on him. The ropes tightened, restricting his movement in a way that caused immense pain. 

“I love you,” were Dan Feng’s last words as he was forced out of his own estate. “Take care of yourself, my beloved.”

“Why do you speak as if you’re going to be gone?” you cried, refusing to believe someone as strong as your master could be subdued even by a group as large as this. “I’ll come get you—!”

You felt the sharp point of a sword on your neck as you summoned your spear. The nick was only a warning, but it was enough to draw blood. Your eyes widened and you stilled under the mercy of Jingliu’s weapon. 

“I’m sorry,” she said. “You cannot.”

Feeling helpless and pathetic, all you could do was fight to not lose consciousness as Jingliu swiftly knocked you out. 

Your eyes drifted open and shut, your hand that was wrapped around your spear instantly loosened and the weapon that contained so much power fell at your side like a dull needle. 

The next time you woke, you were at your own residence. You had left this place to have a sanctuary with Dan Feng. Your sanctuary that was invaded, attacked, and taken from you. 

You went back on forth between two states of mind. One was complete and utter numbness at the loss you suffered. The other was uncontrollable pain and sadness. 

You spent your days and nights crying, refusing to see a single soul. You turned your meals away even when your loved ones begged you to take a bite. There was a hole in your heart at the thought of your master’s punishment. 

In your eyes, Dan Feng’s own best friends betrayed him, betrayed you. And after that night, you knew you would never want to be in contact with any of them again. 

To save a life, to save a friend who no longer regarded Dan Feng in the same light… You never could have imagined the punishment would be forced reincarnation. 

Uncontrollable sobs racked through your body, throat hoarse from the amount of crying you’ve done for weeks straight. It wasn’t only forced reincarnation, but also torture and imprisonment you knew he was facing. 

You had the strongest Vidyadhara alive as a master, yet you failed to learn enough to save him. When it mattered most, you couldn’t help.

Days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, and months turned to years. Those thoughts ate you alive before you were able to finally continue on with your life. 

You were no longer a Xianzhou resident. You refused the help the Vidyadhara with any advances in medicine and combat, keeping any profound knowledge of cloudhymn magic that Dan Feng shared only with you to yourself. The Preceptors couldn’t be trusted with anymore power. They had made themselves and enemy to you. As did the Cloud Knights, and inadvertently, the Cloud Knight General himself. 

Still, you tried not to let the hatred consume you. Vengeance would only breed insanity. Your mind would be consumed with sorrow and pain and you would never be able to heal. 

Dan Feng wouldn’t want that. 

You had to continue to live, for the both of you. 

Using your privilege as a Vidyadhara, you were able to travel around to different planets with relative ease. There were so many things to experience, such beautiful things to see—when you weren’t tangled in constant politics and battles. Your only wish was that Dan Feng was here to explore the universe with you. 

There were places where he didn’t need to have the pressure of the world on his shoulders. He wouldn’t be Imbibitor Lunae. He wouldn’t be a member of the famous High Cloud Quintet. Instead, he would just be Dan Feng, and you would get to explore the world as such. 

You wondered if his transition into the modern world would have been as smooth as yours. As you reminisced about your past, a nostalgic smile formed on your face. 

As you walked around this new city, you stared up at the flurries of pink and purple in the sky. The scenery was amazing here. With vast bodies of water and a bustling area of commerce and entertainment on the shorelines, you couldn’t help but look around in awe. Amidst your sightseeing, you felt yourself run into someone, dropping the map you held in your hands. 

“Oh!” you gasped in surprise. “I wasn’t looking at where I was going. I apologize.” 

“I wasn’t looking either,” the stranger said in response, picking the paper map up for you before the wind could sweep it away. “Here you go.”

As he handed you your belongings, you finally managed to get a good look at his face. Surprised by what you saw—what you felt—you accidentally dropped the map once more. 

The man gaped at you before hesitantly reaching down to pick up your map once more. This time, he held it instead of giving it back.

“Would you like your map back?” he asked slowly, this expression unsure.

The memories of the past slammed into you as you looked into his turquoise eyes. The bright green burned into yours. This man in front of you did not have the characteristics of a Vidyadhara. He did not don horns, a tail, or sharp ears like he once did. But there was no doubt in your mind— This was Dan Feng. At least, the person that emerged from Dan Feng’s forced reincarnation.

Tears started flowing down your face as you wondered what to say. Should you even say anything? You didn’t want to lose him again, but you wondered if the man in front of you would even want to get to know you. Dan Feng was a high elder, a powerful one at that. This man must’ve had some dreams about his past life— What if they were bad? What if they were all of the punishment? The crime? What if no part of him remembered you?

As you stood there, stuck in your thoughts, you noticed the stranger staring at the horns on top of your head. Then, at your tears. 

Without saying a word, he seemed to understand. “I’m not him.”

Your breath caught in your throat and you felt choked up. You knew that. Of course a reincarnation wouldn’t be your Dan Feng. But would it be close enough? 

Shaking your head, you scolded yourself internally. This man is not Dan Feng, he said so himself. And it would be twisted to project the qualities of your lover onto him without even getting the chance to know him.

“I know,” you said sadly, a disdainful smile on your face. “I just…sensed some of him in you.”

He nodded, a guarded look on his face despite the tilt of curiosity from his neck.“What were you to him?”

You smiled sadly, clutching the map in your hands and relaxing again. “His disciple. A close friend,” you said. You gazed into his eyes with an unwavering look. “His partner.” 

“I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to apologize for.”

He hesitated for a moment, looking around the area. You were at the beachside with patches of sand, grass, and pavement lining the ground. “Would you like to sit somewhere and talk?”

Deciding it would be rather tiring for you to stand and talk all day, you agreed with his suggestion. Silently, you walked over to the sand with Dan Feng’s reincarnation in tow and took a seat. The ground was warm and soft as you ran your fingers through the rocky granules.

As you watched the waves crash against the shore, you felt your body relax. Cloudhymn magic often   well with the element, and you found you had a natural affinity towards it yourself. 

After a few moments passed, you figured that, since he wasn’t Dan Feng, it would be rather rude of you not to introduce yourself. “I’m Y/N, by the way.”

He gazed out into the water before turning his head to you. “Dan Heng.”

Although you attempted to hide your amused grin, you felt the corners of your mouth lifting upwards. “Creative.”

He shrugged, fighting off a smile of his own.

“So, Dan Heng… Do you remember anything about your past life?”

“Some things,” he admitted, resting a palm on the sand behind his back. “None of them are good.”

You frowned. There was no doubt you blamed the Preceptors for that. Dan Feng lived years and years of life, love, and even sorrow. But for his reincarnation to only know him as something negative? That didn’t sit well with you. 

“Although, I have to wonder,” he continued, gazing at you with an inquisitive look in his eyes, “if he was capable of love and partnership, could he be more than the arrogant criminal my memories have painted him out to be?”

You softened. Any hatred he felt towards Dan Feng wasn’t his fault. And he was certainly struggling as Dan Feng’s reincarnation. 

“He was certainly more than a criminal,” you promised. “More than the Imbibitor Lunae, even. Dan Feng was a real person who experiences emotions and feelings, like any other.” 

Dan Heng’s brows furrowed, but he said nothing. 

“If you want to learn more about him, I’ll always be here for you to ask.”

“And if I don’t?” 

You smiled sadly. “As much as that pains me, it’s your right. Each Vidyadhara can choose how much of their past they want to remember or embrace— Or if they want to start anew completely.”

“I do.”

A long exhale escaped your mouth as thoughts of your past filled your memories. You made no mistake— The man in front of you was not Dan Feng. Dan Feng was deceased, and holding on to any hope would only be futile and lead to more main. 

Instead, the man in front of you was Dan Heng, a reincarnation of Dan Feng. A Vidyadhara who deliberately chose to not incorporate his past life into his current. And that was okay.

“I am remorseful,” you admitted. Dan Heng nodded in understanding. “However, I am comforted knowing his reincarnation is here, and he looks happy. Dan Feng would be happy for you.”

He laughed quietly. “I find that hard to believe.”

You gave him a look. “You don’t know him like I do.” 

“Yes, you’re right.” 

Dan Heng sighed in contemplation, conflict evident in his expression. You weren’t sure what exactly what he was thinking, but you sensed deep turmoil within him. It was only natural, you assumed, after something he had such conviction for was shaken at its very foundation. 

“Do you want to board the Astral Express with me?” he asked hesitantly. 

You blinked at the sudden question. “Pardon?”

“Sorry,” said Dan Heng, clearing his throat. “That was impulsive.” He paused before continuing. “From talking to you, I gathered that maybe you’re being held back by your past, too.”

Your eyes widened in surprised. You didn’t except him to be so blunt. Perhaps he had some similarities to Dan Feng after all. 

“If you’re lost or want a place to call home, maybe you can pay it a visit,” he offered nonchalantly. “We travel the universe and occasionally assist some planets. I have a feeling you’d like it.”

The Astral Express? You wondered how a place like that would be. For so long, you’ve been traveling alone, avoiding the Xianzhou and even some Vidyadhara who might know of your existence as Dan Feng’s disciple and lover. 

A part of you longed for a social connection again— A place to belong. 

After some thinking, you asked, “Do you want me there?” 

“Yes— As Dan Heng though,” he reminded firmly. “Not Dan Feng.”

You laughed in amusement. “Good. I’m interested in getting to know your new life, Dan Heng,” you said, extending your hand out for him to shake. “Thank you for inviting me in.”

He took it gently, his hand lingering on yours even after the handshake was over. “Maybe you can tell me more about Dan Feng once we arrive at the Express. The parts that aren’t so bad.”

The look on his face told you he was genuine. You smiled. “I’d love that.”

Understanding passed between the two of you as you sat there in contentment. The wind whirled around you and the steady sound of the waves soothed your soul. 

“I want to learn about Dan Feng’s life,” concluded Dan Heng, unwavering. “Still, I think it is best if we look forward to making new memories of our own more.”

You nodded in quiet agreement, eyes never leaving his. 

The past was something you held near and dear to your heart. Dan Feng was someone you would always love and respect. But perhaps the future would have more in store for you, if you only allowed it. 

And as Dan Heng smiled his small smile and offered you a hand up from the sand, you thought, This time, you would. 

#dan feng x reader #hsr x reader #dan heng x reader #dan heng il x reader #imbibitor lunae #dan feng #dan heng #honkai star rail #honkai star rail x reader #hsr imagines #hsr fanfiction #hsr x y/n #hsr x you #imbibitor lunae x reader

[mitraoki]

genshin men brainrot!

note; just something to ease my way back into writing. i truly miss it a lot - considering how much i abandoned it during my recent semester(⊙_⊙;) i hope you guys enjoy it!

cw; a little suggestive, they're just smitten for u, violence but against other people!!

masterlist.

+ wriothesley has this thing where he likes being yanked by the tie. only from his beloved, of course. someone else comes into play and he’s choking them next. the way your fingers wrapped around the fabric, twisting them around your fist, bringing him in closer till your foreheads touch, and your breathing syncopates with his. whether it's for fun, or when the two of you are left alone in his office, that little smirk is painted across his face and the next thing you know, he's smothering you with kisses.

"someone's needy. not complaining, just anticipating is all."

+ on stressful days, alhaitham forgets reality. no, it's not the kind where he forgets to eat or drink, it's the kind where he becomes a full time machine. all he does is take orders, execute them perfectly, and tend to the various other tasks piling up on his desk. for someone always assuring you that his workload isn't as concerning as you thought it was; it was fearsome to see his questionable demeanor when he meets up with you in public. though, it all comes to end when the two of you are alone - did you flip a switch in him or something? - he's wrapping his arms around your figure from behind, leaving a trail of kisses down your neck and whispering continuous apologies.

"...what can i do to make it up to you?" + neuvilette loves giving you gifts. it was that one time when you'd mentioned you loved the way he crafted it from scratch, bringing his ideas to life. in a way, it's another huge step for him to understand the little things of a human's life; and you were his number one supporter. there he sits during his free time, getting ideas from some of the melusines about what he should give you next. he takes notes of your likes and dislikes very quickly, but everything has to be perfect, just for you. anything to see that smile of yours bloom time and time again.

"if one's not enough, perhaps i can get you tons more! ....no such thing, this was a piece of cake."

+ kaveh loves styling your hair. he's definitely not the kind to judge the length of your hair - he can work with anything you prefer to have. from hair clips to peonies - his skillful fingers work through your locks, getting them done in a jiffy. he makes sure to not hurt you in the process, too. sometimes he even comes home with a new collection of hair clips, claiming that 'it would definitely look good in your hair!' every single time he finishes, he makes sure to get a good look at you, admiring every facial feature of yours. it ends up making you feel flustered, but he's just so in love with you. just what did he do to have such a lover like you...?

"as beautiful as always, my love."

+ not everyday is sunshine and rainbows for ayato. there were even times where your hand would reach out for nothing but a note on your shared bed, stating that he was off to settle yet another matter which frankly, did not require him at all. it was just regulations he had to follow. though you could see the slight changes in his handwriting, indicating that he wrote them all with a heavy heart. except for the 'i love you.' he wrote that with ease, a reassurance that he will return to your arms. when he does, he swings you around, pulling you in for the biggest embrace. he peppers kisses along the bridge of your nose, lingering around your lips, trailing them down to your chin, your neck. any place he could catch a glimpse of in the moment.

"i've never cursed at time as much as i did today. i hope it treats us well tonight."

all created content belongs to mitraoki. reposts/remakes are not allowed.

#snow.writing #genshin impact #genshin x reader #ayato x reader #alhaitham x reader #kaveh x reader #wriothesley x reader #neuvillette x reader #kamisato ayato #alhaitham #kaveh #neuvilette #wriothesley #genshin impact x reader #genshin imagines #genshin fluff #genshin impact imagines

[creatorping]

“What if the boys were moodulated”presented in 4 doodle pages!

credits to @flowery-laser-blasts for the og idea! check out her post

This is my take on how the scenes would go if Drakken and Ron are controlled by emotions. Generally, I think that both of their skills shine more when they have confidence and let it loose (especially Ron).

For example, Ron’s charisma will increase along with skills like crafting and being the Jack of all trades. Drakken will be able to create his inventions a lot faster due to heighten emotions. His decision making is stronger but may execute them recklessly.

In Love:

Ron has all the confidence that he rarely shows, and directs it at Kim, only her. Every move he makes to woo Kim chips away her barrier of resistance. Ron would continue to show the puppy love affection, including physical touch (hugs galore). Ron asks her to the parade festival, convincing her with flowers.

Drakken goes full The way of the Househusband mode: cooking, cleaning, and showering Shego with gifts and affection every chance he gets. Heck, he’ll even make new gadgets just to benefit Shego in any way. Shego is weirded out by his behavior but inwardly crumbles at his affections. However, she gets concerned when Drakken gradually loses his ambitions to take over the world, which she didn’t want him to lose that. Well maybe a bit more love time wouldn’t hurt as Drakken begs her to go with him to the parade as a date. (He gave her the pout and dinner)

At the Parade:

Shego of course agreed to the festival date for fun. After overhearing about the moodulator she wants to get it to break Drakken out of control and get back to evil ambitions OR perhaps control Drakken for herself and make things easier.

She decided to use the E.M.A on the moodulator (even tho she has no idea how it works but she’ll try it) after eavesdropping on Kim and the Inventor. But girlie doesn’t know shit about inventions so she accidentally charged the moodulator to extreme anger

Extremely angry Drakken… bites. ha r d.

yeah he wrecks havoc and she loves the power he shows but he lacks the direction he had in the first place. So Shego ultimately tries to shut him down from being a mindless zombie

Shego had to use her upmost ability to shut Drakken down and not destroy himself at the parade. So at the end, she puts a muzzle on him after dragging him out of the scene. Then perhaps an aggressive kiss sets Drakken on a sudden emotional overdrive that broke the chip, which set him free from the moodulator.

In my take of Kim trying to reject Ron is that she feels he’s been a bit off and not truly himself. Like she loves the affection but the sudden bursts of emotions during the whole time makes her suspicious. Therefore Kim tried rejecting Ron at the festival

but then right as Kim tried to tell Ron her suspicions, the moodulator changes and angry Ron misunderstands the rejection and yeah…

Kim found out about the moodulator… and internally was torn about whether or not Ron’s emphasized feelings were genuine.

Ron channels his anger on not being enough for Kim and explodes with monkey kung fu, wrecking havoc at the parade. (I noticed that Ron gets the powers when his emotions take over him)

And of course kim isn’t going to be a sitting duck so she gets back with her martial art skills. They had a battle similar to what Hiro and Kim had in the exchange ep. Lowkey Kim finds it attractive of him fighting like that.

The chip breaks after they come at a draw in the fight. Ron panicked after realizing what he did to Kim and frantically apologizes but Kim kept the conversation playful to cover up the awkward confrontations until SO THE DRAMA MOVIE

#kim possible #doodle #doodle page #FINALLY #HOPE THIS MAKES SENSE #ron stoppable #shego #drakken #drakken x shego #kim x ron

[thankskenpenders]

So I wrote a whole long thing about Amy's tarot cards, but what about, you know... the rest of the Sonic Frontiers DLC? The new alternate story route, the hours of new gameplay, all that?

Having now played it, I'm not sure Sonic has ever had this specific combination of good ideas that make the future of the series look bright, and execution that I fucking hate.

(Full spoilers ahead.)

The good

There's a lot to like here, conceptually.

First and foremost, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy are finally playable in a new mainline 3D Sonic game for the first time since 2006! Seventeen years! We've been begging for this for so very, very long. Nature is finally truly healing from the fallout of Sonic '06. Early on I hedged my bets and expected them to be locked to Cyber Space or something like that, assuming that there was no way they'd be fully playable in the Open Zone. But sure enough, while they're a bit limited compared to Sonic, they're still all full-blown characters with skill trees to unlock and lots of exploration to do.

We also got a more bombastic alternate final boss fight, after the first take on The End kind of underwhelmed. And it's obvious that Sonic Team has listened to our pleas to focus on the 3D platforming over the forced 2D sections, and to reduce the amount of automation in the level design. This update is chock full of Actual Platforming. Wow! I can only pray this means we never get an area as agonizing to explore as Chaos Island again.

Sure, there's still some jank - especially with Knuckles' movement, which is kinda rough. But if this is the stuff they're trying out so that they can refine it further for the next game, then I'm really excited.

On the other hand, good fucking lord is The Final Horizon tedious. And that tedium sapped most of the fun out of it for me.

The frustrating

The new scenario massively increases the difficulty over the base game, seemingly out of a desire to give the hardcore players who were posting speedrun videos and whatnot more of a challenge. It's the Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels of Sonic. This difficulty comes in many forms throughout your playtime, some worse than others, and continues to ramp up over time.

Rather than giving you a tutorial level, the new scenario dumps you directly into a remixed version of the final island and makes you do some fairly precise platforming with Amy, Knuckles, and Tails - new characters with new movesets that you won't have any experience with. You'll also need to find character-specific Koco that give you free levels, because Sonic's friends all start at level one and certain locked moves in their skill trees will be mandatory to progress. They don't even have Cyloop unlocked at the start. And because they're all low level, that means you'd better steer clear of the beefed-up bosses scattered around the map, which will absolutely annihilate Sonic's friends. (I honestly just avoided them and never bothered beating any of them, not even with my high-level Sonic. I have no idea if they're beatable with the others.)

None of this is explained to you particularly well. I spent my first few minutes with Amy wondering why the attack button did nothing, only to eventually think to check her skill tree and realize that I had to unlock her basic attack. If you don't bother to take the time to read through the skill trees, you'll very quickly find obstacles you have no way of getting past with no clues as to what exactly you're supposed to do.

Adding to this confusion is the fact that objective markers often tell you to go half a kilometer into the sky, and you'll have no idea how to get up there because all of the relevant platforms are out of your draw distance. Many objects seem to only pop in for me when I'm within about 60 meters of them, which isn't a long distance for a high-speed open world platformer like this. I was having this problem running the game with high graphics on PC, so I can only imagine how obnoxious it is on Switch. I'd frequently find myself poking around nearby clusters of platforming objects and praying that they'd lead me to a spring, rail, or cannon that would eventually point me in the direction of the floating objective marker.

There were always complaints about the art direction in Frontiers and the way it relies on floating rails and prefab platforms that are visually disconnected from the natural scenery of the islands, but it's even more dire here. The new platforming sections are dense and complex, but they seemingly didn't have the budget to change the topography of Ouranos Island at all, so it all takes the form of these prefabs. It very strongly gives the vibe of a Forge creation in Halo 3, back when there were no blank canvas maps and people just had to make "new maps" by jamming a bunch of shipping containers and barricades together in the sky above one of the default arenas.

I was still more or less having fun, though, despite the jank. It's a big creative swing, I told myself! They're trying stuff out! They're experimenting!

And then I hit the towers.

The towers are agonizing because they're SO close to being great. The logical part of my brain understands why some people love them, but god, I just fucking hate them. The platforming there IS cool! These layouts are cool! The individual challenges along the way are a bit tough, but totally doable. You know what's not cool? Making one mistake and slowly falling 800 meters all the way back down to the ground, forcing you to start over. Because none of these towers have checkpoints. For me, this one decision transforms what should have been a fun set of platforming challenges into a massive, unfun difficulty spike.

I enjoy some masocore platformers, but those are typically games with quick deaths and restarts like Celeste, Super Meat Boy, or VVVVVV. Hell, the Mario games tend to get way more difficult than the average Sonic game, and those are obviously all great. Quite frankly, unlike those games, Sonic Frontiers is nowhere near tight or polished enough to make this difficulty feel fair. Bits of jank that I could ignore in the base game due to its lower difficulty are now matters of life or death. Missing a jump because I boosted off an incline in a way the game didn't like for reasons I don't understand is not fun. Falling off a tower because the camera was pointing in the wrong direction while I was in midair and I couldn't see the next thing I was expected to homing attack is not fun.

And it's such a jarring spike when moving from the base game to the DLC that it feels like the game is suddenly quizzing me on skills it never bothered to instill in me. Maybe if you've spent the last year labbing out the movement tech in this game this is all a no brainer, but for the average returning player it's a kick in the dick.

I'm sure I could've beaten these towers normally if I gave them enough tries. They aren't the hardest thing in the world. But I very quickly decided I had better things to do with my life and turned on easy mode, which adds tons of extra springs and homing attack balloons to make all of the platforming piss easy. I wish there was a middle option between Only Up: Sonic Edition and this extreme hand holding, but when given the choice between the two I gladly picked baby mode. I just wanted to see the story.

(The new Cyber Space levels are also long, challenging, and devoid of checkpoints, not unlike the towers. But I only ever found the entrances to two of them. So I only did two. They're theoretically required, because they give you "Lookout Koco" that you need for... some reason? But in a rare act of mercy, Sonic Team put Cyloop treasure spots that give you free Lookout Koco all over the map.)

As I continued, so many little things started adding up to piss me off. Why do you only reveal like five tiny squares of the map at a time? I would've loved to find all the new 1-on-1 dialogue scenes, but not if I had to do dozens of hard mode versions of the stupid little puzzles and challenges to reveal the whole map. Why does every character need their own unique collectibles? What is this, Donkey Kong 64? Why can't I just grab this EXP for Amy when I find it as Tails? Why can I only manually swap characters by talking to an out-of-the-way NPC unlocked right before the final boss? Why is fast travel disabled? Why are the new vocal themes you hear when playing as Amy, Knuckles, and Tails so monotonous, with a single verse repeating over lo-fi beats ad nauseum? Why is the jukebox feature completely disabled throughout the DLC, even after rolling the credits? Why can't Tails homing attack? Why do I have to wrestle with the camera so much while also holding the jump button to fly as Knuckles and Tails? How many right thumbs do they think I have? Why is this animation for picking up animals in the Cyber Space levels so incredibly slow, and why can I still take damage while it's playing? Why does the stupid starfall event have to make it so hard to see what I'm doing when climbing these towers? Why does this shitty combat trial have a popup that makes it seem like I should be using the Cyloop when the actual strategy revolves around repeated parries? And on and on and on...

The story

What about the new story? Well, there sadly isn't much to chew on here. Most of the DLC has the cast running around and finding different macguffins for arbitrary reasons, as part of some sort of plan to divide up the work on the last island so that Sonic can go train with the spirits of the Ancients and harness the power of his cyber corruption. What the fuck is an Impact Form? I don't know, but Knuckles needs something to do, so go find one.

It's a thin excuse plot meant to make you do platforming challenges around Ouranos Island, with little room for Ian to add any real flavor of his own, even though he certainly tries. Having Sonic meet the spirits of the Ancients who controlled the Titans, who are revealed to directly parallel the personalities of him and his friends, is kinda neat, I guess? It's something. The optional conversations seem to have some fun bits, including both conversations between the supporting cast and additional lore. But again, I only found a few of those because of how tedious filling out the map was.

The writing is also let down by the voice acting - or I guess the voice direction, because I know this cast can do better. Roger's voice continues to be weirdly, distractingly deep as Sonic, which was clearly something that was requested of him just for this game. (For a recent example of him going back to his regular Sonic voice, see this LEGO trailer.) The performances of Sonic's friends are also WILDLY mismatched. This is most clear when they start feeling the effects of the cyber corruption. Knuckles seems to be barely affected at all, Tails sounds like he's moderately hurt and low on energy, and Amy starts completely overselling her pain out of nowhere. The extremely strained performance makes it sound like Cindy's literally being tortured in the fucking booth. I have no idea what's going on over there.

The final challenges

People have debated whether or not things like the towers and the new Cyber Space levels are fair challenges. What's not up for debate is the fact that Master King Koco's Trial is complete and utter bullshit, and I can't believe they shipped this.

Before you can fight the new final boss, the game forces you to do a boss rush of the first three Titans - INCLUDING the pre-Super Sonic climbing sections - with a hard limit of 400 rings. For all three lengthy, heavily scripted fights. Back to back. You can't even cheese it with the leveling system, because you're forced to do this at level 1. This all but forces you to look up speedrun strats for the Super Sonic fights so that you don't run out of rings and fail the trial.

And the real kicker? They changed the parry just for this trial! Originally, you could just hold down the bumpers endlessly and Sonic would ready himself to parry the next attack, whenever that may hit. Now it requires you to do a "Perfect Parry" with specific timing. And you HAVE to hit those parries if you wanna clear this trial and get to the new ending. Miss a few and you're probably fucked. You just have to reset. Time to go through all those fights, all those climbing sequences, all those QTEs, and all those unskippable mid-fight cutscenes all over again. This is by far the most egregious example of the DLC deciding to quiz you on new skills that the base game never required of you, and it's one of the most absurdly unfair things I have ever seen in a Sonic game.

Easy mode does make this trial easier by making the timing window for Perfect Parries much more generous, but that's all the help you get. It's still easy to lose time failing to parry Wyvern's hard-to-read animations, or to lose rings by getting hit on the climb sections, or for things to just fuck up because these fights were always kinda jank. I gave it a few shots. I looked up guide videos. I tried the Quick Cyloop and stomp combo strat that seems all but mandatory. But I quickly decided that, again, this wasn't a worthwhile use of my time. It just sucks. And I really, REALLY didn't want to overwrite all my fond memories of these Titan fights, some of my favorite setpiece moments in any Sonic game, with memories of this shit ass boss rush.

So I cheated! And if you're on PC, you should too.

With the worst hurdle out of the way, I turned cheats back off and moved on to the new final boss. It was pretty cool. It's much flashier than the original fight against The End, that's for sure. It's still kinda annoying, and it requires you to do very specific shit without properly telegraphing it, but it's nowhere near as bad as the preceding challenges. I was hoping for one last new metalcore song to go with the new fight, which we sadly didn't get, but at least the new version of I'm Here is good.

The ending is... mostly the same, with a couple altered scenes that don't really change anything in the long run. But overall the new finale was pretty good. I just wish it hadn't been such a slog to get there.

Closing thoughts

Sonic Frontiers: The Final Horizon wants to be three things:

A patch that adds a new alternate ending that was probably supposed to be in the base game in the first place.

An experimental take on making Tails, Knuckles, and Amy playable again, presumably testing things for the next game. And...

An official Kaizo Sonic Frontiers mod for the sickos.

The thing is, the people showing up for #1 and #2, the main things that Sega hyped up about the update, are not necessarily going to be down for #3. If they had announced some uber-hard new Cyber Space levels for the arcade mode or whatever, I'd be like, neat! And then not play them. I would never touch Master King Koco's Trial if it was an optional challenge. I would leave that for the sickos. But instead, they made the hardest content mandatory for anyone who wants to see the new Good Ending where the final boss gets an actual budget.

I'm mostly left in a state of shock that it shipped like this. I cannot believe they playtested this and decided this was the state The Final Horizon should be released in. That this should be the note Frontiers ends on. That this should be how we remember those Titan fights. That this should be the lingering taste in our mouths as we wait however many years for the next 3D game.

Armchair devs always love to say that things would be "easy to fix," but like... there really would be easy fixes for the insane difficulty and general tedium here! Add a few more tutorial popups explaining what the game expects of you with Sonic's friends. Give the Cyber Space stages and the towers a couple checkpoints. Give the combat trials more generous time limits, especially on the lower difficulties. Remove half of the map puzzles, and make the ones that remain uncover twice as many squares. Skip the startup animation for Knuckles' glide. Let me turn on the goddamn jukebox. Since so much of this update was designed around fan feedback, I can only pray that Sonic Team is still listening, and that they tweak at least a few of these things with a balance patch.

But still, after those many, many paragraphs of complaining... this still somehow makes the future of 3D Sonic seem pretty promising?

Sonic's friends are FINALLY playable again, and the focus is back to proper 3D platforming, rather than railroading players into awkward forced 2D sections in what's otherwise an open world. These are the things that they hopefully want to carry over to the next game. The difficulty? Well, that's just because it's the postgame DLC that's supposed to be the toughest challenge in the game. It's just an unreasonably cruel one of those - an example of how designing and balancing for a vocal minority of your fanbase can really hurt your game. But Sonic Team is onto something here, and I hope that they can learn the right lessons from this expansion and not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

#tkp post #other media

[valkyrieromanoff]

PIZZA TIME: ANAKIN SKYWALKER X READER

synopsis: you and Anakin decide to cook together, but the problem is that neither of you know what you're doing.

warning: fluffy

words: 644

a/n: it had been a while since I wrote anything about Anakin,I was left with an inspiration hangover. But this idea came to me when I was rewatching Little Italy. I know it’s short, but I hope you like it ;)

“Are you sure this is how it’s done?” You asked, frowning, looking at what should have been the pizza dough, but looked more like a gooey mess.

“Maybe if we add a little more flour, we can reach the point.” Anakin suggested, taking the bag of flour and turning some into the bowl, the white powder scattering across the table as he stuck his hands back into the dough with the intention of shaping it.

You looked at the mixture biting your lip, looking for your datapad to check the recipe. It seemed simple, at first you thought it would be a fun way to pass the time, cooking as a couple's hobby, but things started to go wrong, when you didn't have all the ingredients in the fridge, and Anakin decided to innovate, making some adaptations. And it was these and other adaptations that led to this pizza dough that did not gain consistency, no matter how many cups of flour were added.

Anakin sighs in frustration as the 'pizza dough' refuses to cooperate, looking more like floury sludge than anything edible. He wipes his flour-coated hands on his already stained tunic, running a hand through his equally messy blond locks.

"This cooking thing is more difficult than battling droids," he grumbles, giving the bowl an experimental stir. More flour wafts up, dusting his face and the surrounding surfaces.

You stifle a giggle at his disheveled appearance, unable to resist planting a kiss on his powdery cheek. "We'll figure it out, my love. Maybe we were too ambitious starting with pizza," you offer gently.

Anakin glances down at the recipe on his datapad, still futilely attempting to decipher the instructions. "This is why I rely on you for the thinking. My expertise lies elsewhere," he teases with a wink.

"What if we use ready-made pizza dough? Then we just need to make the topping?" You suggested, remembering that there was a package of pizza dough lost in the fridge.

Anakin taps his chin thoughtfully, dusting more flour onto the floor as he considers your suggestion.

"There you go again, solving problems with that brilliant mind of yours," he says proudly, kissing your forehead. "Ready-made dough—why didn't I think of that?"

Wiping his hands, Anakin eagerly rummages through the disorganized fridge. "Now where did I see that package..."

A triumphant "Aha!" echoes as he emerges holding the dough aloft like a trophy. Ripping it open, he breathes a sigh of relief seeing its pliable texture.

"Let's get cooking," he says with renewed enthusiasm. As you prep the toppings, Anakin preheats the oven, wiping down the baking sheet.

You stare at the dough in surprise and amusement, taking in Anakin's handiwork. Though crooked and imperfect, the heart shape is unmistakable.

"Well, I'll admit shapes aren't my specialty," Anakin shrugs with a boyish grin. "But I thought a heart would be fitting, considering." He squeezes your waist affectionately.

Warmth blooms in your chest at his tender gesture. Despite all he's seen, he somehow maintains an earnest romanticism that continually draws you in.

"It's perfect," you assure him gently. "Everything you do, no matter how questionable the execution, always comes from here." You place a palm over his heart.

Anakin's eyes soften, embracing you in a lingering kiss. You pour all your care, acceptance and affection into it, leaving him smiling happily when you part.

"Now come, before our dough gets weird. The toppings await!" He winks and you get to work, sneaking soft looks and smiles throughout the process.

Though skills in the kitchen may need honing, here in privacy you each demonstrate a deep caring that nourishes body and soul alike. For you, these moments together are as delicious and fulfilling as any meal could be.

Your love, like Anakin's heart-shaped dough, may be imperfect but runs unfathomably deep. And that is more than enough.

#anakin skywalker x you #anakin x reader #hayden christensen #anakin fluff

[utilitycaster]

…so I decided to check out Polygon’s D20 coverage, and frankly I think you were entirely too kind to them. Good. GOD, some of that stuff read like they’ve never watched AP that *wasn’t* CR, D20 or the first season of TAZ. And have somehow made it thru the 2010s without encountering urban fantasy…

Anyway, to further nudge you towards your destiny of AP journalism (and with the understanding that you have a Real Job and a life outside TTRPGs and the internet); can you please expand on what you think D20 brings to the table?(pun unintended, but I stand by it) Because speaking as someone who has watched a handful of eps and enjoys the concepts, the praise PG were offering was damningly faint.

Hi! Thank you, and for what it's worth I don't think most of them have listened to the first season of TAZ either, given the way they talk about WBN as inventing the actual play longform podcast. I do want to note: I like writing longform stuff about actual play but I am adamantly not a journalist. I am not investigating or interviewing or reporting; I'm doing analysis and editorial. Amateur critic is the most I can claim to and that's a stretch (and even there I have a particular privilege in that I'm writing all this for free, anonymously, by choice, and don't need be be nice or maintain relationships with actual play performers within the space because I could burn every bridge and still make rent.)

Anyway. I think a major flaw of Polygon is that it's so focused on novelty and subversion that it forgets a well-worn concept, executed with skill, is actually great and for many people, preferable. Brennan, from everything I have heard him say and from how he actually runs games, has a deep respect for fantasy as a genre, and the stories he tells in D20 are ones he is clearly familiar with and loves. I also think to subvert things you must be a fan, and when D20 does successfully subvert or twist a genre, it's coming from a place of respect and understanding.

Anyway, just covering a few Intrepid Heroes seasons: I think Fantasy High (and I haven't gotten to the latest episode of Junior Year) is actually increasingly a brilliant deconstruction of D&D as a game by making the world aware that it's in a D&D game. What does it mean to be in a D&D party and be an adventurer and have that be a significant part of who you are? What does it mean to be a commoner in this world? What do you do when you're sort of a broke teen in generic suburbia but also you need the loot that an adventurer would theoretically get from dragon hoards? Why do you have to know what your life's calling will be when you're 14? One of my personal favorite things, as a lover of mechanics and TTRPGs as a system of storytelling and more generally as someone who believes that your medium of choice should be informing the story you tell, is when people engage with character roles and classes instead of treating them as just a set of cool things you can do, and Fantasy High very much pushes the players to do this. I also mentioned elsewhere that the downtime stress mechanics are a brilliant addition to one of the genuine gaps in D&D, namely, while downtime is a time for open RP, there's not a good way to handle things like stress or crafting or prioritizing well.

The Unsleeping City is one I like, honestly, just because I lived in New York for a few years and Brennan lived there far longer (as did much of the cast, though not all) and his love for it is apparent. I don't think it's groundbreaking; I just think it's really good. The characters are excellent and the story is fun. It's true that, for example, it allows you the satisfaction of making Amazon's and its attempted move into Long Island City the BBEG and smiting its ass instead of having to harangue your senators and councilpeople (as I did, and I wasn't even living in Queens) but really it's just a good story. It doesn't need to be more than that. It did not invent urban fantasy or the idea of a secret magical version of a real city or "most myths are real"; it's just a good story!

I think A Crown of Candy is also just a fun setting and, by making everyone food, emphasizes how petty and arbitrary the alliances in a Game of Thrones-esque milieu can be. It casts a scathing eye on religious interpretation as a tool for conquest without clumsily proclaiming the mere concept of religion is the problem. It has one of the best explorations of character death I've seen and Brennan's acting as Caramelinda remains a tour de force for him. Bringing the entire story of succession and war down to a final choice between two half-sisters remains a brilliant decision, the setting is supported by the mechanical limits Brennan imposed upon character creation, and it's overall beautifully done.

Even Neverafter, which I think have openly said didn't live up to its initial promise, had that promise with the fantastic handling of the TPK; I have a love for metanarrative and honestly my issue is that it was the wrong place to do metanarrative, but it was a bold choice to do in the unpredictable medium of actual play.

That's really only covering a fraction - I think some other standouts are Mentopolis, A Court of Fey and Flowers, Coffin Run, and Escape from the Bloodkeep, and while Shriek Week is just not a genre I'm personally super drawn to, I think the Mythic system is a great system for the story being told and Hicks does a great job running it.

Really what it comes down to is that D20 falls in between what a lot of shows are. It doesn't have the freedom but also the burden of a very long-running campaign (indeed, WBN exists because its performers, all of whom have featured in D20, wanted to be able to do longform actual play), nor is it quite as rushed as an all-miniseries or one-shot show. It has space to explore one or two things really well without having to carry a thousand different threads (and believe me, Brennan tries to put in as many as he can in that space - I actually wonder if the reason Fantasy High Junior Year feels a little more streamlined to me is that WBN was by that time in full swing). But it's not the first edited actual play, it mostly uses very widespread systems, the production values are high but not unheard of elsewhere (and I think that production values in AP beyond the basic 'can you hear and, if relevant, see things clearly and does the set look nice' are overrated though that's a personal preference), the cast is strong but not the first group of professionals or even comedians, and they didn't invent the concept of filming remotely or scrims or having an anticapitalist message.

My issue with the journalists, to reiterate that, is that they're not really doing much journalism, actually; and that their bias is horribly apparent. There's little analysis - just shallow reviews that show little understanding of actual play as a medium, fantasy as a genre, or TTRPGs as a system. And while being entirely free of bias is unavoidable - we are people, and we will bring our own interpretations and experiences in, and there are people who will love D20 and dislike Critical Role without doing so in bad faith - the fact that several of the journalists have openly crowed and preened about their special access to the D20 cast really makes it apparent that they like D20 because Dropout gives them early access and says nice things about them. And it's a feedback loop; Critical Role is going to keep saying "well, you constantly shit on us, so no, you don't get early access" and they'll keep writing bad reviews because they don't get early access.

But to return to the point, D20 is legitimately great and yeah the bias in my mind is only hurting them because, speaking only for myself, if there's two things I like and people heap fawning and inaccurate praise on one and nitpick the other? I'm going to start looking into that praise and find more flaws, and I'm going to start defending the nitpicked one. I really love Fantasy High Junior Year but the Polygon article is so bad I have to remind myself that it's just because the person who wrote it is an idiot. I probably would have gone into Kollok much more neutrally if people didn't act like it was the fucking invention of television. Do give D20 a try if you can! Don't read the articles.

#answered #greatgodempresspan #d20 tag

[finalfrontierpublishing]

A Great and Gruesome Height by @moku_youbi. 

So this bind was a wild ride, with experimentation galore. It’s my 10th bind (HURRAY) and I started this bind knowing I wanted to play with thread, given I had so much fun with the stab binding. I had some red thread which i had originally purchased for the VTE bind - and just the right shade i was going for so i went for it.  

the original idea i was going for was ‘red thread of fate, but make it MURDER’ and so this tidy little concept was born. half way through the design conceptualization phase i had a little epiphany while watching season 3 of hannibal that blood spatter stringing was ALSO red thread and i just couldn’t resist (yes i know hannibal’s little murder tableaus seldom have blood but the string! MORE STRING!) 

More photos under the cut. 

Statistics: 

115559 words || 426 pages

Body Text: Crimson Text 

Chapter Headers: Cormorant Garamond

I quite like the experimentation with body fonts and trying to divert away from regular Garamond. So far, I’ve only used Baskerville, Garamond, Liberation serif and Cardo, but I do like this one. I lack the typography terminology but it feels fancy and posh and something Hannibal would enjoy. 

I also aggressively rounded this book - boy is it ROUND, perhaps a little too so. i had a difficult time getting the spine piece to be as round as I liked. 

Also, it was my first time putting a quote on the first few pages - i have zero regrets. Also featuring my new imprint page with AN ERROR (IT’S DECEMBER 2022 NOW OOPS). 

I didn’t have enough heat-reactive foil and this fic has 40+ chapters so I could only foil the last couple of chapters which were actually short mini-sequels to this fic which I also added in. I have to say, using a laminator over an iron for heat-reactive foil is MUCH superior. I didn’t have to work myself into a frenzy trying to get an even layer of foil on it. 

Endpapers are a little bunchy because of the thread. But i had to put butterflies because THE CHRYSALIS has hatched (i will never tire of hannibal metaphors).

See below for the conceptualization phase on cricut and er paper. I have zero art skills and have aphantasia so I had to print it out to try and figure out where everything needed to go. 

This bind is also the bind where I won my blood sacrifice badge - don’t use rusty tools guys. The spouse had borrowed my rotary cutter to cut wrapping paper for christmas wrapping and is RIGHT-HANDED. Self is LEFT-HANDED. Tool returned to me as is and I did not check if the blade protector was on the correct side as the tool will get flipped direction wise depending on the handedness of the user. So guess who needs to get a tetanus shot today? :joy:

 All in all, still a successful bind. It is a little busy, and if I had to do it again, I might not put the titling on the spine (always a little crooked, cause I roll that way). The Siser gold and silver metallic HTV for the hands fought me the entire way, and I’d probably not use it for such delicate lines - only part of it adhered and it made me very upset at first but since the bind is for myself it’s fine. 

I’d also use a thinner red thread next time (the thick waxed linen thread for leather work doesn’t fuck around, WILL NOT BUY AGAIN) because as you can see 3-4 rounds around the finger looks like it’s choking it and i had some space limitations at the edges. 

Well, a fun idea, with less than perfect execution but I’ll probably do it again one day if i ever summon up the courage to consider making this again (perhaps for the author if i get over my massive to-bind pile). PROBABLY NOT IN WHITE - gad WHITE IS SO SMUDGEY - nothing to remind you how dirty your hands are than white bookcloth. this is off-white pearl BUT fingerprint smudges!!! 

Resources: Page dividers made by evil-robot-cat here. 

EDIT: THE AUTHOR WANTS A COPY!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH  🥳  😱 🫠 yessss AUTHOR COPY!!!! 

#mokuyoubi #a great and gruesome height #hannibal #hannigram #fanbinding #bookbinding #fanfiction #my books #renegade bindery

[kinoshita-asuka]

dodge, dodge dodge! (sagau)

being put into a foreign world would be a problem, for a normal person. but, you are not normal. never had been. also have a very skewed sense of common sense, and also a super duper secret agent. (also known as reader being weird and being ridiculed by me for it)

sagau x eccentric battle junkie imposter reader

sorry if you're bald. hair is mentioned (i dunno if i need to add this???) also if you the lines from this character that this is based on... comment!

"wow, you're pretty skilled at this!" you shouted as you dodged yet another arrow aimed at your head. the force from the arrow fluttered your hair in the shape of a circle and took a few strands off. maybe a few ends burnt too.

"I don't need you to compliment me, imposter!" sara said. "how do you keep dodging these arrows?!"

"wow, what a hostile attitude!" you beamed as you dodged yet another arrow from the electro-charged bow. "for your question, no comment."

you also stepped to the side as soon as a spear barely grazed your clothes. the water from your foot contacting the water splashes.

"not a bad surprise attack, but not good enough either!" you shouted, again, as you saw the soldier manning said spear.

"this is fun! the adrenaline! the rush!" you tripped the spear-user as you side-stepped. the solider rested flat on the ground, with his face engraved into the ground and wet with the water. how disgraceful.

"don't underestimate me, imposter! this is disrespect to the shogun!" she then activated her burst after deciding to avenge her loyal soldier.

"see if you'll survive this!" as the lightning struck the ground, you then smiled, again.

a bad idea for sure, in water...

let's rewind back, as to why you're here.

-

as an agent of a very shady organization, you are very skilled at your job because failure means death, at the hands of the enemy or the organization. thus, you have gained the miraculous ability to dodge anything, even bullets, if you can see the shooter's weapon or hand. or in some cases, the projectile.

also, you are trigger-happy and love fighting! the rush you feel when your head barely misses bullets meant to kill. kind of like tartaglia, your battle-hungry comrade in-game, who is as thrilled as you when getting into dangerous situations and triumphing. a great trait to have in the job you currently work in.

bang! rang out as you dodged the bullet and shot your pursuers. it was really surprising you were shooting so accurately, considering your arm was contorted for the upside down glock in your hand to shoot behind you.

"one, two, three, down!" you said as you kept shooting behind you. but, you suddenly heard a loud bang as your vision blanked out. you chuckled in your last moments, accepting your ended life in this dangerous job. sniper (no sniping!)

-

"huh? where am i?" you rubbed your eyes like an awakening young deer fawn, not that you were. at least your eyes looked “innocent” enough. you smacked the floor, a very natural instinct. 

not concrete, but soft grass? when have you felt this in years? you looked around for any threats. haha, threats? this place looked straight from a fairy-tale, from....... genshin impact (or the after-life, maybe a drug-induced fever dream).

everything looks unreal and picturesque. the trees are way too green and fluffy, the skies are way too blue...

'in a different world? why do i feel like something's gone wrong?'

you struggled to stand up, as you soon saw the sky, the trees, and... thunder?

uhhhh, you're in inazuma, and in the sagau. that means....

the sound of thunder crashes down near your body. "imposter, under the shogun, you shall be captured and executed!"

yes, your gut feeling has come true. how did they even know you were here? a tracker???

the sound surprised you, especially so close to your ears and head. thunder, especially from this distance, would probably shatter your eardrums, but they haven’t? 

thunder crashes down yet again at your body, shocking you and blinding your eyes, yet it only feels... a bit warm? thunder keeps striking down, but you haven't died? even the luckiest man on earth has survived less. in fact, the energy has seemed to disperse back to the ground, almost like returning back to nature, like a certain trait of a certain creator...

but nope! just reinforcing their beliefs, you shouted,

"hey, hey, hey?! i've, i've become a human lightning rod!? what a dream! the lightning feels like a massage!"

maybe shouting that wasn’t a good idea in this scenario, but you are weird and have no idea what situation is in, just that you’re acting like a toddler after getting struck down by lightning. has the lightning gotten to your head and fried your brains? maybe the extra electricity just overcharged your body into hyper-gear..

you then very promptly escaped the scene, leaving the commission soldiers very confused. you basically ran really fast.

before this, an arrow decided to try to pierce your head. it was swiftly dodged a few centimeters from your skull. 'i've never dodged an arrow before?' you thought. in fact, the only thought you had in this situation, great.

this left them with the impression you were even more of a cheap imposter of their kind, loving god with a psychopathic mentality and an indestructible body. and you wear weird clothes, not the holy robes that the creator wears.

coming back to a shred of rationality, you suddenly launch into a large thought process of what a god might become after being omnipotent, complimented by your own personality.

to be honest, if the creator was oh so holy and knew everything in teyvat, why wouldn't they be a psychopath? a god who watches over everything is bound to become mentally "weird" after being so powerful, thus may become a thrill-seeker/hedonist who does whatever for entertainment. they could always deceive their subjects and act nice. you would. you have developed being a thrill-seeker after beating everybody at your now ex-job.

this situation may have even been manufactured by themselves, if you were the actual imposter.

it's a bit weird that they didn't mention your god-like abilities and instead decided to focus on your attire and attitude.

(this fic is also known as insulting the and constantly being described as a dumbass)

#sagau #sagau x reader #genshin cult au #genshin impact x reader

[eichisnewgroove]

i was saying this to @xenospects but one of the big reasons behind why eichi "can never get bored of wataru" is because he has no idea how to copy him. eichi is used to basically just being able to acquire any skill he admires. in circus he teaches himself how to do challenging circus performances without having to do much actual practice by obsessively watching videos of how they're done, carefully memorizing the details, and doing them over and over and over and over in his mind so when he is able to physically practice he's already done the bulk of the mental work. in milky way, after shu really rattles him and bests fine, eichi sits on the rooftop going over everything shu did in his head, deconstructing it, learning it. he can't mimic the process of shu's creativity (which is why he's jealous of him) but he can learn to execute the kind of routine shu can come up with. he talks about this with tori in dance time as well. eichi isn't "creative" but in terms of acquiring skills he's confident that anything he puts his mind to he can learn to do. he's always drawn toward people who can do what he can't do, like leo and his ability to compose music, but he can still learn to play leo's songs.

and that's where wataru's tricks become limitlessly fascinating to him. wataru isn’t just a genius, he's highly specialized in a way that completely fuses his genius with his execution. his tricks are unique, advanced, and mechanically complex. eichi frequently complains that no matter how much he thinks about it he can't figure out how wataru does his tricks. wataru's physical skills are also really difficult to replicate; even the twins who have been pulling off complex physical performances since they were children find it difficult to keep up with him. wataru is complex on every level: his execution is so flawless that it leaves even eichi, who is extremely attentive and scrutinous, and actively trying to figure out the mechanics, completely clueless as to how he pulls things off. second, his methods are very advanced and complex, so even if he were to explain it it may be too difficult to understand. third, the skills wataru has and makes use of to pull off the tricks are also very complex, difficult to understand, and difficult to replicate even by other geniuses and experts.

wataru's magic is something eichi would never be able to do. trying to make sense of how wataru does it is a fun but ultimately futile exercise, and this really frustrates him but also keeps him forever enchanted and intrigued. this is why when wataru tells him in diner live, it's not real magic, it's all sleight of hand, eichi says, well i have no idea how you do it, so to me it's the same as real magic. eichi isn't just a regular fan who can't figure out wataru's tricks; he's the kind of person who can normally figure out how anything works. imagine his shock the first time he saw wataru do magic as part of one of his shows broadcast to the TVs, when after rewinding it several times, looking up special effects, watching hours of magic how-to tutorials trying to figure out how the hell wataru did it or at least get a hint, he was still completely stumped. but that's the kind of person eichi is and the kind of effort he'd go through to make sense of it.

what balances out eichi's frustration with and jealousy of wataru is wataru's kindness. wataru is truly, to the bone, everything eichi idealizes in an entertainer. he has a loving heart and doesn't look down on his audience but wishes to please them. he smiles at eichi when eichi feels completely useless, and it's not a pitying smile but a genuine one. for all of his show offy antics, wataru is very much not all about himself. he's genuinely interested in and attentive to the happiness of his audience, and once eichi has his attention, he turns that impossible talent directly into making eichi smile. for all of his frustration and jealousy it's impossible for eichi not to love wataru, and his respect for wataru as an artist is unparalleled. eichi finds himself thoroughly enchanted by him because wataru has something so unique to offer the world both in terms of what he can do and the kind of person he is.

that's why wataru will never stop surprising him. that's why eichi will never get bored of him. wataru is everything eichi finds loveable in the world and he inspires eichi to think of others, like tori, who admire eichu for what he can do, and to hone in on his own uniqueness he has to offer to the world. even if it's "not real" like the geniuses he admires, it may still be magic to someone he loves and wants to inspire.

#analysis #eichi tenshouin #wataru hibiki #eiwata #wataei #eichi #wataru #ink spills

[tiredandcaffeinated]

fun fact : the reason mummies are so rare is because ancient Europeans used to eat them!!

contains mentions of : blood, medical cannibalism and highly consequential misunderstandings

tagging: @trashmeowcan @waitingforthesunrise @thebestieyoureinlovewith @malteevars-kee-devi @decaying-vampire @paysomeonetopaysomeone

Europeans used to eat mummies as they believed this to be a cure, a near magical remedy for all diseases ranging from headaches to epilepsy and even the plague. This practice peaked in the 16th and 17th centuries, and was so common that remains were sold in apothecary shops along with other medicines. They believed in this "like cures like" sort of philosophy. So for example, if you had a headache, you would consume ground up skulls. They would rub fat on external wounds, or shove moss growing on skulls, up their nose. King Charles II drank a special mix of powdered skull and alcohol (called the King's Drops) . They would also mix powdered skill with chocolate. Consuming mummies as medicine became so common that the mummy supply started running low.

Sidenote: They also drank blood to cure diseases of the blood. Blood was actually preferred warm and fresh, and a lot of people that could not afford the apothecary blood would pay a smaller fee to collect fresh blood in cups at public executions. None of this was new, as ancient Romans used to drink the blood of gladiators, believing that it would give them strength and also possibly cure epilepsy.

But why did they do this? Why did it even occur to them in the first place?

Well, that's where the misunderstanding part comes in. Bitumen, also known as asphalt, is the black substance that covers our roads. It is a naturally occurring hydrocarbon was commonly used in constructions in Middle East for ages. It is vicious when heated but it hardens very quickly when dried and hence, it was used to stabilize broken bones. People also dissolved it in vinegar to remove clotted blood and consumed it with vine to cure dysentery and coughs.

What does this have to do with mummies?

In the 10th century, Persian physician Rhazes made the first known use of the word mumia for bitumen. It was named after the word mum, meaning wax. By the 11th century, a different physician Avicenna used the word mumia to specifically refer to medicinal Bitumen. When Europeans saw the black stuff that was coating mummies, they assumed that it was the same as this medicinal Bitumen and thats how they started calling them mummies in the first place. So the word mumia started meaning both, bitumen and the black coating on mummies (some of them did contain bitumen, but not all). When availability of bitumen started dropping, they decided to start sourcing it from these mummies. It started with the outward coating, but eventually the misunderstanding grew, and people started believing that it was the mummies themselves that had medicinal properties.

By the 19th Century, this whole craze was gone, however people still held "mummy unwrapping parties". And by people, I specifically mean the rich. Owning entire mummies was obviously expensive and they used this as a way to show off their wealth. They would hold gatherings where they would unwrap mummies for entertainment purposes.

Another thing to consider is that while the Europeans themselves were fine with consuming mummies, Native Americans (and some other races) were looked upon as "savage" for similar behaviours. Negative stereotypes about them were justified by saying that they practiced cannibalism. The hypocrisy and racism cease to surprise but not disappoint.

I don't really know how to end this so pretend I had a proper conclusion. Thanks for reading this I guess and sorry for any possible typos/other errors. Also, I'm planning on doing more infodumpy posts so lmk if you would like to be tagged/have any ideas etc. Have a nice day :)

#tw blood #tw cannibalism #cursedblr #amara rambles

[tangibletechnomancy]

The problem with AI and the entertainment industry in particular is that...okay, fine, technology marches on. Digital art made physical ink-on-cels animation into mostly a hobbyist novelty (though boy howdy did it ever make it an impressive one). Photography turned portrait painting into a luxury, rather than something everyone who could afford it saved to do at least once for every family member because it was the only way to keep their likenesses alive. Photo editing has gone through so many changes that it's almost unrecognizable compared to what it looked like as recently as the 80s and 90s, and the older methods are, again, super impressive hobbyist passion projects now. Digital painting made physical painting less viable in an economy of scale, but way more impressive as an art form. These kinds of changes always really fucking suck for some people, but you can't really prevent them without stifling human development in general.

But.

The entertainment industry wants to make it suck way more than it has to for everyone but their executives and shareholders. They want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to take advantage of the inherent marketing power of celebrity culture without ACTUALLY involving, let alone paying, the people whose names and likenesses they're using. That, I hope we can all agree, is vile.

Now, the logical endpoint of this is that we push back against that, and as an alternative we get more fictional celebrities in the near-ish future, and as a Vocaloid fan, theoretically, I dont see much of a problem with that. Theoretically, at least. In the best case scenario, I think it could be a lot of fun! But the problem is, well...

See, in the early days, Vocaloid producers tended to take a very backstage role. Very few people were fans of specific producers; they were fans of Miku or any other character. Eventually, though, producers just kind of came more into the spotlight on their own because everyone has their own style and taste. We still love the characters, but we all started to notice when half our favorite songs by Miku were produced by the same person, well, perhaps we were fans of that producer as well!

But in American-born entertainment culture...

You may notice that CGI was conspicuously absent from my Technology Marches On breakdown. That's because while, yes, it has made for an interesting highlight of practical effects, with love for the work and nostalgia for their jank the same way other new art media has shone a spotlight on its predecessors, it hasn't actually gotten to be recognized as an art form the way the others listed have. We've barely moved on from the attitude that got Tron disqualified from the Academy Awards for SFX because "the computer did those effects, not you" (in 1982). In fact, I'm strongly of the belief that if Disney were a halfway decent company, they would be bragging about how they're pioneering photorealistic animation, rather than trying to pass off 90+% CGI animated films, usually (but not always; see: The Lion King remake) with live celebrity actors' faces composited in, as "live-action". Instead, they treat the VFX department as mindless dancing monkeys, and perpetuate the idea that VFX is just "select material, press button, get polished scene" - because to brag about it as its own art form might imply that the people doing it are skilled artists who deserve to be paid fairly and treated like human beings, and oh, we can't have THAT, now can we?

VFX labor is all hidden; very few people have a favorite VFX artist or director, instead we treat the artists, who put the time and effort into wrangling code and semiconductors and routines and layers into creating a professional-looking end product, as just part of the machine themselves, to save the companies some money - and culturally, I fear we're well on the way to regarding AI exactly the same way but worse.

As such, I fear that we wouldn't have the same effect with any digital idols produced by Silicon Valley.

Now, I don't fear virtual celebrities being able to fully replace human ones. Half of the draw of celebrity culture is the illusion of human connection. As much as the word "parasociality" has grown to be associated with only the negative effects of this, in reality, it's also the driving mechanism behind why representation matters. It's fun to be able to feel a connection to a fictional celebrity, but it doesn't replace the feeling of knowing that your fave is a human being with a real life - ...whether you use that knowledge for better or worse.

What I do fear is the fight against using AI to replicate real humans without their input, or with their manufactured consent, being long and drawn-out and doing a lot of harm before we can fully put a lock on it, and virtual celebrities being used to hide the work that the human directors and producers put into them for the sake of saving a parent company a buck.

#not art #it's always #ALWAYS the damned devaluation of newer art forms that causes all the problems

[lionsgane]

It baffles me how so many viewers still don't understand how Steve is successful against the Demogorgon in season one. 

If you have to boil Steve down to one word, one clique, one stereotype, one demographic, what is it? Jock. What is Steve's biggest contribution to the group across the seasons? He's the jock. And we can lovingly poke fun at him being a dumb jock all we want, but his athleticism is damn helpful.

He leaves the Byers unwanted and freaking out. The lights flicker, signaling the monster's return; he steels himself and goes back in. Because he wants to help. He wants to protect Nancy. He wants to let this speak towards his apology to both her and Jonathan. But most importantly, he knows what to do now. 

He goes back into that house knowing the plan - lure the Demogorgon into the bear trap and set it on fire. Solid idea. Jonathan is down. Nancy's bullets have no effect. The nail bat is available. 

Steve has likely never used a baseball bat as a weapon before, but he's on the varsity baseball team, so he is undoubtedly familiar with the tool. Steve isn't book smart, but he has a whole wealth of athletic intelligence. He can read a field. He can work with a team. He can decipher which play he needs to execute and follow through. He can follow a coach's order. Steve isn't an idiot. He knows the plan. The bat is free. He gets some great hits in, driving the monster back where they need it to be, and Jonathan lights it on fire. They don't even kill it, but they succeed because Steve was there, and he used his athletic experience. 

It is canon that Steve was on the varsity teams for both basketball and baseball. And now we know he was also the co-captain of the swim team and a certified lifeguard, which also requires first aid training, another valuable skill in the narrative of Stranger Things the writers could tap into. (I loved that the Duffers had that callback to when they told Keery before season one that his character was a swimmer, so he did a bunch of swim training, and then they cut that detail. Yay for Joe!)

I headcanon that they let Steve keep the bat because, as the newest inductee to the Upside Down, he's the most disturbed; plus, he wielded the weapon the best. Because he's the jock. This is what he does. This is his skillset. This is how he helps - in the tunnels, in the elevator, in the junkyard, in the Upside Down, etc. 

If we divide the characters into a classic 'brain or brawn' category, he's brawn. He is the only non-powered main character to overwhelmingly fall into the brawn division. (Hopper is the character with the next highest brawn percentage, he's 50/50, maybe 40/60 as his base statistic.) Steve has helped with the mystery-solving and clue hunting before, but are we supposed to be surprised that the jock is the warrior? Where's the disconnect?

It didn't matter so much that the Demogorgon was a supernatural opponent. Once Steve was in the zone, he executed the play flawlessly. If the Demogorgon was shifting/teleporting/portaling/speeding around, and Steve miraculously managed to strike him each time, I'd be suspicious, too. But the Demogorgon stayed in his sight for that sequence, which was a pretty dumb move on the monster's part. 

"Then how did Jonathan beat him in the fight???" Because King Steve of early season one is all posturing, all bravado. He's used to getting what he wants, used to being on top, and used to no one questioning his popularity. He'd probably never been in a real fight before that moment. Any scrabbles he'd been in were perhaps a few punches tossed around by another preppy opponent before they backed down to the King. Not to mention, he royally pissed off an already emotionally stressed Jonathan. 

"Then how come he's the one who always gets beat up?" I've already gone on a massive rant in this post, and that typical Steve-related question could take up another. Here's a smidge - because he's also "the babysitter" - he constantly puts himself in the line of fire because he's the protector. Because he's self-sacrificial. Because he feels like it's his job and only contribution to the group. Because the group, excluding El, is so heavily brain-aligned that he's left as the sole fighter in some sequences, so he takes the brunt of it. I could go on and on...

Steve is the party's soldier. Their jock. No shit Sherlock, of course, he'd be helpful in a fight. If I see one more article about Steve vs. the Demogorgon and how it's not believable, I might flip a table. 

#steve harrington #stranger things #season 1 #long post. sorry. but not really. the number of people who still don't get it amazes me.

[daipeanutsaiban]

Hii is it okay if I ask you about what you think everyone's relationships are like for a fanfic I'm planning to write? Like, since you're a multishipper, what do you think caused Genshin to report Klint to Stronghart before confronting him? Why do you think Lady B was alone, far away, during her hour of need? What do you think of their characters in general (you mentioned you like Klint having parallels to Kazuma, do you have any more ideas?) or who they are like/who they contrast? What role does your version of Mycroft play in this story? I'm sorry I'm just so curious to know everything- sorry if this is weird or creepy and promise I'm not trying to idea steal for my fanfic, I have a lot of ideas of my own I just wanna get other people's perspectives!!

hi, not weird at all! i'm happy you're asking me!!

when it comes to genshin, i feel like that hinges on how you choose to characterize him since there is little that we do know. genshin came to great britain as a visiting student to learn about their police and judicial system. as a guest in a foreign country, it's not unsurprising he would choose to defer to stronghart's authority on the matter (of course, this is before he learns about stronghart's direct involvement). on the other hand, we know that klint and genshin were friends- close enough that klint knew he couldn't lie his way out when confronted by genshin (due to genshin's skill as a detective, or affection, or both. and by this point...klint wanted to be stopped). if genshin was aware of this, it wouldn't be unreasonable to think that a part of him wished to avoid coming to terms with the fact that he'd be ruining a lot of people's lives by exposing the truth (in a fun parallel to ryuunosuke), such as lady baskerville's. following that train of thought leads me to believe that he was close enough with her, or at least well-acquainted through his friendship with klint and barok that he weighed the decision to report klint with serious consideration. it's implied by his conversation with yuujin in the prison that genshin is the one who relocated her to the house where she gave birth in, so i can't help but believe he prioritized her and by extension her child's safety as he is a father himself. (and therefore was disappointed and angry at klint for jeopardizing their well-being with his actions.......which he ended up doing as well in a deliciously ironic night of bad decisions. lmao)

i have MANY questions about lady b (what did they do with the body after iris was born?? did holmes take care of that? it's not like they could report it to the authorities, that would defeat the whole purpose of being low-key...like did they make a deal with lowgate cemetery or some med students ...again😭). honestly, in answer to your question, i was surprised that she was completely by herself with zero staff but that does speak to the gravity of the situation so i understand the logic. however, and this might be an unpopular opinion/hc, that leads me to think that she believed her own family to be untrustworthy to look after her and iris. it's my headcanon that klint and barok's parents passed away when klint was around 14 (paralleling with kazuma losing his father, and then his mother the following year), so she would not have had any relatives on the van zieks side either to entrust her child to. i really wonder what her (and maybe by extension genshin's) plan would have been, had klint been executed following a proper trial. (i have some ideas, but that's for a later comic..)

regarding klint and kazuma, i fully believe that they are meant to be narrative parallels with the additional irony of ryuunosuke being more similar to genshin than his own son, because just like klint, kazuma has been "corrupted" in his pursuit of justice- until his friend makes him see clearly again (which is perhaps one of, if not my favorite moment in the entire game. i love ryuunosuke so much waugh). hm, they're also both older siblings now that i think about it haha. i wouldn't say i have many hcs adding to their similarities though, canon already does a good job at it so i don't have to say anything LOL. although in an everybody lives; no one dies modern AU setting i'm absolutely convinced that kazuma would consider klint to be the most annoying person on the planet, but that's because i love when things are funny lmao.

finally, thanks for asking about mycroft! he's not relevant to the main plot of the games, because i like to keep my fan characters as canon-compliant as possible- and since he and sherlock are both people of extremes, it's believable for iris to not even be aware that she has another uncle outside of barok, at least during the game timeline. mycroft has a low threshold for social interaction on a daily basis, and with his younger brother being a "world-famous great detective", he's asked sherlock to not talk about him. (mycroft does know about iris's existence, and might have met her once as a baby.) as for what role mycroft plays, he's a huge influence on sherlock and pushed him to pursue his ambitions in establishing himself as a detective, even if he questions sherlock's approach sometimes lol. while mycroft, like in ACD canon, would be considered "more apt" at deduction, sherlock has more social aptitude and mycroft actually considers his younger brother to be the better detective since he's hurt a lot of feelings in the past. he's the kind of person who looks like he doesn't care, but actually cares a lot. he's also arrogant but hates attention because i love characters who are a walking paradox.

as you might have seen in a previous post, i decided to have him and klint be childhood acquaintances (and later on, friends). keeping in line with my hc of the van zieks losing their parents very young and klint becoming a Lord way too early, having contact with people who aren't nobles like the holmes family from a young age helps to ensure that he stays more open-minded than his fellow lords who are likely all at different stages of corruption, and the same goes for lady baskerville. mycroft and klint are both older brothers, too, so there's something to start relating to each other with in spite of their very different personalities (their first impression of each other was not very good to say the least haha). the doodles in the post i linked are actually concept drawings to figure out everyone's dynamics because i really want to make a fan game where all the kids have one day to solve a mystery. it's extremely self-indulgent and might never get made but working on that project is super fun 🥰

there was a lot to cover for this question and i feel like i've barely scratched the surface since i could talk about dgs for hours but this post is probably super long already LOL. if you or anyone else wants to ask more specific questions on this or literally anything else please go for it!! and of course, best of luck to you with your fanfiction 🙏🐰💖

#the great ace attorney #dgs spoilers #tgaa spoilers #replies #anonymous #i phrased my answer about kazuma and klint weirdly- they ARE narrative parallels. shu takumi put on his manicure to type those lines

[sunstaar]

Perfect Harmony

Shisui Uchiha x gn!Reader

Word Count: 0,5k

Ao3

Author's Note: can you all tell I have no idea about dancing??

Summary: You and Shisui dance in perfect harmony.

“Would you do me the honour of dancing with me?” dressed in his finest attire, Uchiha Shisui held his hand out for you to take. A charming smile tugged at his lips and joy shone in his dark mesmerizing eyes, a shade of charcoal if you had to guess.

Executing the perfect etiquette instilled in you, you nodded, looking up at the man from under your eyelashes. “I would love to.” You replied, taking his hand and rising from your seat.

You allowed Shisui to lead you toward the dance floor, his hand resting on the small of your back as he did so. From how close you were, you could see the crinkle forming near his eyes as well as smell his perfume, an intoxicating scent. He was everything the Uchiha men were raised to be, charming, captivating and alluring most of all, a representation of the clan’s power and of its might.

And yet, even without all that, Shisui would have still wormed his way into your heart. It had been a pleasant surprise that, besides his exceptional skills in battle and his undeniable natural charm, he was also a gifted dancer.

His hand was intertwined with yours, the other still resting on the small of your back as Shisui pulled your body to his. You recognized the song starting in the background and adjusted your position as such, your hand moving to rest on his shoulder. 

Shisui’s movements were fluid and graceful from his first movement onward, almost as though the Uchiha was a puppet of the music, feelings its every melody deep in his bones. There was a finesse to his movements, one that you gladly matched with precision of your own. There were no missteps or mistakes made when the two of you danced, sucked into your own world as the music entranced you, and captivated you fully. Staring into Shisui’s eyes and seeing him stare back, you glided across the dance floor, your bodies moving as though one.

The intricacy of each movement was pure muscle memory, the chatter surrounding you and Shisui fading into the background. In his deep charcoal eye lit a spark, a flame of passion shining in yours. Matching smiles played on your lips as Shisui dipped you, and you sucked in a breath. Your lips parted as though to say something, but no words came out. For a moment, it was as though the world around you had fully stopped, no one but you and Shisui existing in your shared little world.

Then, he pulled you upward again in one fluid motion, your bodies pushed flush together.

Applause erupted from the onlookers as well as the other dancers occupying the dance floor. You could feel Shisui’s breath on your face as he breathed in heavily, beads of sweat glistening on his forehead. The same could be said for you, savouring every breath as the world around you finally stopped spinning. Shisui’s hand on the small of your back kept you steady, and your hand on his shoulder held him grounded as the two of you stared at one another, your lips almost touching from how close your bodies were.

“Thank you for dancing with me, my love.” Shisui said, his words coming out with a pant.

You smiled at your partner, “It was my pleasure. I had a lot of fun, as always.”

#uchiha shisui #shisui uchiha #shisui #shisui x reader #shisui x you #shisui x y/n #uchiha shisui x reader #uchiha shisui x you #uchiha shisui x y/n #shisui uchiha x you #shisui uchiha x y/n #shisui uchiha y/n #fluff #hehe

[teecupangel]

OG anon of the Reborned Desmond in Unity. I'm mighty proud that my ideas spur you fun writing. I'll confess you a secret, I'm also og anons of the ideas I've sent you prior but I don't wanna have you see me aggressive or pushy because I enjoy your content immensely (I had bad experiences of people's harsh words in irl and online on my personality). Anyway, it's similar in Unity idea. What if Desmond is reborned in AC Rogue, like became Shay's childhood friend or Liam's older or younger brother. Or possibly in a time earlier so can Desmond be established in Brotherhood maybe master assassin for Connor's happiness. Haytham's confusion and frustration in some point in the plot that Desmond won't kill him but has a look of a disappointed or pained look of a family member and Lisbon is saved. Desmond and Shay could become platonic soulmates or slow burn childhood friends to lovers (up to you) or better yet Desmond unintentionally became mentor (he was supposed just be an assassin in the background damn it lmao) and Shay is like a bodyguard or right hand which had these intense sexual tension between the two. Sorry for messy and long ask

Ah, well, I don’t see a problem with your personality and I like the ideas you throw at me. To be fair, I do try to limit my time with everyone’s asks to a certain time so I can still write. So if you don’t see an answer, that only means it’s been pushed to next day or something.

Alright, let’s think about how to make this work.

As usual, we’ll keep the same limitation as the Unity AU one

Desmond remembers his life as Desmond Miles

Desmond will have his ancestors’ memories and skills but those memories will be vague

So he either gets reborn as Shay’s childhood friend or Liam’s older/younger brother. Since Liam is Shay’s childhood friend, we can combine the two and make Desmond’s Shay’s childhood friend who is also Liam’s sibling.

Now, according to AC wiki, Liam was Achilles’ first acolyte and it was Liam who also recruited the rest of the Colonial Assassins. He’s pretty much Achilles’ second in command and maybe even being groomed as the next mentor.

In this scenario, Desmond and Liam would both be inducted into the Brotherhood together (whether we keep the whole “Liam’s father got executed to save his son” part of his backstory is up to you, nonny) with Desmond being more of Liam’s shadow. Many will see him as the little bird who whispers in Liam’s ear. Everyone in the Brotherhood knows that if you want Liam on your side, you get Desmond on your side.

We’ll get to Shay later as we need to talk about how Desmond’s inclusion would affect the Colonial Brotherhood as a whole.

Achilles Davenport

Desmond would still remember how Ratonhnhaké:ton thought of him as a father-figure. He also remembers how Achilles sometimes treated Ratonhnhaké:ton like a stubborn child so he has mixed feelings for Achilles. What he does remember is that Achilles’ family would die. Here’s where we get a bit creative with this. Desmond doesn’t have actual medical know-how. What he did had was a Shaun who was more than happy to explain what killed Achilles’ family and how that could have been prevented, which literally boils down to “cleanliness”.

So, in this scenario, Desmond is kind of a clean freak. People assume it’s because he used to live in a dirty place and Liam never tried to correct them that Desmond had always been a clean freak since they were children. The homestead is always clean, especially the kitchen. Achilles learned to live with it because his son loves the ‘wash your hands’ song that Desmond taught him. In this case, Abigail and Connor live and that means that Achilles would be ‘milder’ than his canon characterization. (Maybe Abigail even treats all of Achilles' students like her children as well?)

Hope Jensen

The main difference for Hope in this scenario is how she controls her gangs. Desmond knows it would be impossible to stop crimes from happening but his words and his adherence to the Creed would resonate with Hope. Instead of having something akin to a Proto-Rooks, Hope would be in charge of something similar to how the media portrayed the golden age of the mafia. They’re criminals, yes, and they sell illegal shit but they’re organized and they have a code. They protect the people in their district and take care of crimes not their own. In exchange, the people (and maybe even the police) look the other way when they do illegal stuff. (Hope becomes a mix of Vito Corleone and Red Hood in this scenario… does this mean Desmond accidentally created the mafia in New York during the 18th century?)

Kesegowaase

Not much would change for Kesegowaase although he would consider Desmond as a close friend. They’re also hunting buddies and Kesegowaase would notice how many of Desmond’s movements are very similar to him or to other tribes that he knows of. Desmond would just wave it off as a coincidence or maybe even say “I had a great teacher”. Kesegowaase would seesaw between thinking Desmond had been trained by one of his people (or one of the other tribes) and thinking Desmond may have been blessed by one of their spirits.

Louis-Joseph Gaultier

Oooohhhh bbooyy. This one… okay. So… Gaultier will be the one that keeps butting heads with Desmond. A lot. Desmond would even argue against his inclusion as he sees Gaultier as violent and arrogant but Achilles will argue that his connection with the French army made him invaluable. Even his suggestion of just keeping Gaultier as an ‘ally’ would be denied because Achilles sees how loyal he is. “He is loyal to a master, not to the Creed!” will be Desmond’s main argument. So there are a lot of times that he and Gaultier would argue on what it means to be an Assassin and what the Creed means. Gaultier would emphasize on Desmond’s Irish immigrant heritage to belittle his knowledge about the Creed and Desmond will argue that blood doesn’t matter. On the flip side, Desmond’s constant arguments with Gaultier and critiquing of Gaultier’s actions make all the other Assassins have a better understanding of the Creed and what it means to be an Assassin.

Liam O'Brien

Honestly, I think Desmond should be his younger brother, mainly because that would make Desmond be of a similar age as Shay and because Liam just has big bro-vibes. Just imagine him being a protective older brother who likes to tease Desmond. In this scenario, Liam would feel responsible for Desmond’s safety (especially if we do decide that their father still dies for Liam’s mistakes) and he’s a bit overprotective at times which Desmond finds both tiring and also makes him feel warm inside. Liam would also be torn whenever Desmond and Achilles would butt heads. On one hand, Achilles is like a father to him, on the other hand, Liam also knows his brother long enough to understand that everything Desmond does is for what he believed is right. Achilles may have been the one to choose Liam to be an Assassin but Liam knows that it’s Desmond who embodies what being an Assassin is supposed to be.

And now, we get to Shay Cormac.

Shay met Liam first and Liam was the one to introduce Desmond to him. Desmond has no memories of Shay at all since, even before the memories of his Bleed took a hit, his memories of Haytham stopped before Haytham met Shay. Not only that but Achilles never told Ratonhnhaké:ton anything. All Desmond knew is that the Colonial Brotherhood will be destroyed by the Templars while Ratonhnhaké:ton was young. So he grew up treating Shay as a friend. They separated due to their family situations but Liam later reunites with Shay and invites him to the Brotherhood.

And this is where Shay gets hit.

Growing up, he saw Desmond more as Liam’s little brother. A small kid that Shay needs to keep an eye on because he can be a little strange and has a mischievous streak that no one would believe. Shay has lost count of how many times Desmond had made some asshole’s life hell without anyone realizing it was him.

So when he heard Desmond was one of the high-ranking members of the Brotherhood, he wasn’t surprised. Desmond had always been a sneaky little shit.

Then…

He saw Desmond as a young adult for the first time, maybe while he’s looking over reports Hope was showing him concerning the current situation in New York, and Shay just…

Stared.

Desmond as a child was cute. Maybe a little too thin but that was unfortunately normal for them. He always wore Liam’s old clothes which were too big for him.

But Desmond in his Assassin robes? Wearing clothes that actually fit him? Having grown up into a fit young man?

Shay gets hit hard. And Desmond is simply too happy to see him again to see it.

But Hope notices it.

And Liam freaking notices it too.

And now Shay doesn’t have to just deal with his growing affection for an oblivious Desmond. He has to deal with Hope’s teasing and Liam’s seesawing erratically between teasing him and threatening to eviscerate him. Shay’s crush is going to be the worst kept secret in the homestead that even little Connor Davenport knows about it.

But Desmond doesn’t.

Why?

Because Desmond is too focused dealing with the whole Kenway drama at the moment.

Because no matter who Desmond gets reborn to… He will always prioritize the three men he cared for the most.

And, at this point, Haytham Kenway was already in America (but Desmond has no idea where) and there were even slow ongoing talks of an alliance with Ratonhnhaké:ton’s tribe that Desmond has taken charge of.

And this is where I go back to my try-and-tested idea of Desmond spending lots of time with baby!Ratonhnhaké:ton and being bff with Kaniehtí:io. (*whispers*Ratonhnhaké:ton and Connor Davenport being brothers *whispers*)

But let’s focus on the first part of Rogue for this one.

One way for Desmond to learn that Achilles is messing with Isu bs is thanks to Hope. Hope and Shay were the ones to be ordered to find and analyze the precursor box and either of them could tell Desmond about it but, at this point, Shay is still ‘new’ and may be trying to get some brownie points from Achilles. On the other hand, Hope has long been converted to Desmond’s side and would definitely tell Desmond about all of these because she’s heard of how dangerous these items are from Desmond himself.

Desmond would strongarm his way to being part of the mission and might even sneak into Morrigan as a stowaway and only show himself when they were nearing Lisbon. Thanks to Desmond’s ‘affinity’ with POEs, Lisbon will definitely not happen (hell, we can even use some of the plot points from A Pirate's Son for this part XD) and the second part of Rogue would be changed to Desmond and Shay trying to secure all the other POEs in the manuscript they have.

And… maybe they start getting close during their travels and something develops between them during that time… (nudgenudgenudge)

Sidenote: This is also a bit similar to the idea I was thinking of based on @twitcherpated’s suggestion in AO3 of Desmond being reborn as the actual Connor Davenport. The only difference is that Desmond would be a bit young in that one and won’t be able to stop Lisbon but, even if he’s young, he can still comfort Shay and stop him from doing anything drastic while still in shock.

#i focused too much on the colonial assassins #but yeah full on look of disappointment for haytham #plus a dash of 'i expected nothing less from you yet i am still disappointed' #assassin's creed #desmond miles #shay cormac #liam o'brien #achilles davenport #hope jensen #kesegowaase #louis-joseph gaultier

[fioras-resolve]

please talk about rock paper scissors 2 and game design

okay, so Angie Nyx's Rock Paper Scissors 2 is a game i've been wanting to make since high school. functionally it's a bunch of rock paper scissors variants, but conceptually it's a lot deeper than that. see, at that point i was getting into fighting games, and i wanted to capture the dynamic of reading into your opponent without the execution or reaction barrier. i figure that since fighters already have an rps dynamic (you know, strike > throw > block > strike), i could just do a variant on rock paper scissors.

i bounced that idea around in my head for a few years, before i realized a couple weeks ago that i can just make a pdf of it. it hasn't gotten as many downloads as i'd like, and i'm realizing the unique problem of trying to make a multiplayer game as an indie dev. but it's been fun as hell playing with my friends, trying out different rulesets and seeing what works. and i'm learning a lot about game design in the process, and that's what i wanna talk about today.

Ruleset 1 -Win Condition: Win once with each throw, or three times with a single throw.

the first thing i wanna say is that rock paper scissors is kind of boring. my least favorite part of playing rps 2 is any time i have to play rps 1. what this means is that playing a completely balanced game, or even a balanced round, isn't particularly interesting gameplay. like, the start of the match, where every option is weighted equally, feels very arbitrary to play. it feels like i'm just flipping a coin and seeing what comes up. later on in the match, when there's actually some points, this ruleset becomes more interesting. it's about pursuing your own goals while preventing the opponent from pursuing theirs, and trying to catch them in that pursuit.

or, maybe not? i won this ruleset once with a random number generator. i didn't tell my opponent i was using rng, but it still calls into question whether this is really a game of skill. i think there's this common conception of competitive games as a test of who's better at the game, but what does it mean be "better" at a game like this? the conclusion i've come to is that competitive games are about outplaying your opponent, not being strictly better than them. the better player can sometimes lose, and that's often what makes a game like this exciting.

Ruleset 2 -Win Condition: Win three rounds -You can't use Rock twice in a row -You have a Gun you can use once a match, that doesn't win or lose to anything

this is an experiment in what i'll call disadvantaged state. like, if you throw rock, you can't use it again next turn. you have to use either paper or scissors, and the opponent has options for either of those. moreover, if the opponent throws scissors, there's literally nothing you can do to beat that. they actually have a completely safe choice, and safety is an important concept in this game. because if they go scissors, my only option is to throw scissors. but they can get a bit greedy and try to push an advantage, and i can try to read that option with paper, at the risk of losing to scissors. one player clearly has a leg up on the other, but both players are involved in trying to predict the other.

outside of dis/advantage, what the rock restriction does is make both players afraid to use rock. it's an innate risk, which gives people a bit more reason to use scissors. when i played with this ruleset, both of us were incentivized to use scissors, and kind of leaned on it with the knowledge that both of us would be afraid to use rock. scissors does become a safer option, and if both players are too scared it puts them in a deadlock. but, disadvantage isn't the worst thing to come out of using a throw, so eventually we did ease off.

one more thing i wanna point out here is about the gun. basically, the gun has two uses here. you can either throw it in disadvantage to get out of it free, or you can throw it in neutral to bait out a rock. i think this is just a cool game design feature, but it also does speak to the idea of safety with a kind of absolute safety. i feel distinctly vulnerable once i don't have a gun to play. it's similar to like, burst in a fighting game? it's your get-out-of-bad-situation-free card that you've gotta use sparingly. good stuff!

Ruleset 3 -Win Condition: Win three rounds -Can't use Rock twice in a row, but winning with Rock wins the match instantly -Gun puts the opponent in disadvantage

this is an interesting one, and it's a ruleset i find really compelling. rock is the ultimate risk/reward. it's both risky and safe to use scissors. now, different players will respond differently to this, but in my experience players don't tend to win the match with rock. maybe me telling you this will give you an idea if you decide to play it yourself. i'd say this is the most intellectually compelling ruleset i've made. like you'll definitely have highs and lows with this, and probably a lot of disadvantaged states that put you in a unique position.

and i will say, playing this actually gave me a bit more clarity when it comes to neutral. because pure rps is compelling at the end of the match, when it's down to the wire and both players are a single win away from victory. it stops being boring and starts being tense, because it's an explicit consequence of how both of you have played.

Ruleset 4 -Win Condition: Win 3 rounds -Winning with Scissors wins the match instantly -No Guns

i was tentative about trying this one out. i figured that it would be too arbitrary, that an rps without disadvantage wouldn't have any interesting dynamics. i was wrong, it's amazing! one match i lost immediately. one match i just kept playing playing scissors, losing to rock three times in a row, and then my opponent was like "surely she won't do it again" before picking paper and losing immediately. one match where my headmate highwind played instead of me, she realized the opponent was really relying on rock, and so decided to play paper twice in a row, which worked. she then went scissors and won. it was pure chaos, and we embraced that chaos.

what this really did for me was prove that what makes rps 2 good isn't just the dynamic created by disadvantage. the problem with rock paper scissors isn't the dynamic of three options vs. three options, it's that there's no meaning to any of these options. rock paper scissors 2 works because every throw has a distinct meaning. different throws will mean playing it safe, or going for a read, or trying to get out of a bad situation. it's this meaning that gives you the sense that you outplayed your opponent, even in a game where skill is a nebulous concept. fighting games work because they aren't just rock paper scissors, because every option has a different purpose and meaning. and when it is a 50/50, when it is just a game of rock paper scissors, it's a result of everything that happened before. i look forward to seeing what else i learn from this game, and i hope you try it to get something out of it.

#game design #gamedev #game theory #fighting games