#like I know that it's literally not that serious and mobile is kind of a deep cut but god

[enigmaticvariation]

I get that the wallace and todd thing in the scott pilgrim anime was funny but I'm lowkey getting upset by the ppl mad they weren't endgame like you literally don't get it!! wallace didn't see sparks and then in the epilogue he met mobile, his psychic boyfriend from the comics who he settled down with and then he finally saw sparks!! I do not want to see any mobile slander that is wallace's man!

#like I know that it's literally not that serious and mobile is kind of a deep cut but god #as a fan of the comics wallace spending the whole show having flings and not thinking sparks are real #and seeing the sparks with his boyfriend from the comics? that hit! that had me giggling and kicking my feet #this is not todd slander btw I love him and I felt bad for him #scott pilgrim #scott pilgrim takes off #spto spoilers #wallace wells #mobillace #todd ingrahm #scott pilgrim mobile #enigma musings #scott pilgrim vs the world

[cerealandchoccymilk]

Trigun Bookclub: Trigun Vol.1, Chapters #00-01

all | next

lets fucking do this

I'm annotating every chapter of trigun, both the Japanese original print (reread) and Overhaul 1.0 (first read). Literally just writing down everything I notice about details, version differences, translation notes, etc. and also being gay about the characters. happy pride month

I had other stuff to do today yesterday so I only got through a little bit but pace will pick up tomorrow today (1 volume/week is faster than i thought...)

Here are the beloved non-analysis sillies...

And there are just so many annotation images so I just put the rest under the cut <3 read my notes boy

[edit: why aren't the images not being side by side like i want them to i hate this. here's the url for my blog page with correct formatting] [edit 2: i guess it's only on desktop, not on mobile. so that's good]

First thing I noticed was the difference in the number of volumes, or the number of chapters in each volume. In my JP copy, volume 1 ends at Chapter #07: Rem, while Overhaul (and I assume every version after the first JP print) ends at #12: River of Life.

Anyways onto the actual images

21st of July - !! didn't notice [that the July incident actually happened in July] during 1st read b/c months are only numbers in Japanese 11 hours after destruction - July incident was 2am

For some reason I thought he was standing this whole time. unneccesary details georg

Estimated age: 24 - Official age for his appearance? dang he's young Appearance - "Place of origin/birth," not "what he looks like" The worst kind of outlaw, and an unrivalled killer. - Added in a later version? (not in my JP copy but the phrase is familiar)

This blank space originally had the Japanese translation for the board.

We see his serious expression already! I don't remember '98 doing so this early on so it's pretty notable to me...

Just thinking about how Vash counted each individual gunshot being fired during all that chaos... dear god.... During my first read/watch I thought it was just silly Rule of Cool protagonist moment but not really. This guy actually has Insane perception, either from being a plant or sheer practice. Or both.

Also immediately after all that, I really love the way the aftermath is shown here. The only things you can hear are the creaks of the light and the crying boy. It really brings out the tension in the atmosphere.

Finally, something other than unneccesary bits! If you look at the flooring under the toy gun, the perspective lines are pointing SW-NE. This corresponds to the flooring on Vash's right, whose right arm is also suspiciously out-of-frame... This is definitely the moment he took the toy gun. I can't express the amount of Holy Shit I felt when I realized this. The detail!!!!! man!!!!!!!!!

There's a little translation error here - it should be something like "Even if he were still alive, he wouldn't be able to move an inch!"

One of my favorite Vash moves with one of my favorite Tumblr heritage posts.

This is not really based on any drawn details, but I think this is the moment that Vash readies the toy gun, puts it in his pocket, and picks up the ketchup. Do Not trust this man when his arm is not visible. Also finger still in gun <3 doing his part blocking one bullet at a time

And here we have Vash's first COOL cool moment!!!!!! cue my homo screaming. goddddddddd im so mentally unwell about him. agh I also absolutely love when Nightow does that thing where he screen-tones a character's skin just because. It pops!! It's unique!! I love it!! I eat it up every time!!!

Here's where I realize that Vash's hair antennae are pointing straight up. I should be on the lookout for when he makes the transition to the M-shaped antennae we know and love.

Also, a little untranslatable joke from the Japanese version. In Japanese, this guy calls out at Vash like "And you, don't provoke him!" except it's written with the kanji for "Hunter" (狩人 karyūdo), with a ruby pronunciation note saying "you" (おまえも omaemo). These kanji/ruby mismatch jokes are never not funny and it's so sad that there's no way to keep them in without doing...this lol

The "I counted!" reveal never fails to get me. holy shit. I love the little boy's expression when he gets his gun back :) You helped!!! and you don't have to have the real deal to be cool as balls!!!

Just lumping this with the previous two because it's a tall image, but another small translation error. Rather than being about doing harm, he's talking about recieving it (～～はゴメンだ is a hard-to-catch phrasing/idiom; it's already been discussed with the translator on a different instance). It should be more like "[...But] nobody likes getting hurt, right?"

THE GIRLIES YIPPEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not including the dialogue because. y'know. At least they get (accidentally) Bonked by Millie :) get their asses

Here, the order suggestion is made by somebody off-screen, but in the first edition, it was made by the cook himself. (left image annotation says "the storekeeper(cook) is so nice!")

That's it for chapters #00-01! I'm going to keep having Category 5 Autism Events every day aren't I.

It's literally 1:20am as of finishing this post because my computer won't stop crashing. Posting this first thing in the morning tomorrow <3

Also, the Japanese copy of the annotations will be in the reblogs for anyone who wants to see them. The emotions are Rawer and they're phrased way less awkwardly... if you can read them lol

#trigunbookclub #trigun annotation #i guess? #trigun #trigun manga

[weirdthoughtsandideas]

You know, as much as Simbar is spicy while also so cute, I just thought how funny their dynamic can be too.

Here we have Ámbar. Little miss perfect. Straight A student, rich af, always needing to put up an act, literal girlboss (like, literal, she becomes a BOSS at age 19), always have been raised to be as proper as possible. Probably grew up faster than most kids, because she was always expected to act more mature than what she was.

Then we have Simón. Silly guy. Wears beanies. Wears shorts that a surfer would wear. Says corny lines. He’s never been rich in his whole life. Shares an apartment with his bros. He always looks and dresses a bit messy. He likes to joke around and loves to make his friends laugh. He's not immature, but he's also not the kind of mature that Ámbar is - he just has... you know, normal dudebro maturity.

We see the clear difference with them kind of shortly after they kiss for the first time. Ámbar tries to keep it cool, yk, act like she usually does.

While Simón... well Simón is like this.

He's blabbering, he's awkward, he wants to kiss her again, HE CRACKS A CORNY JOKE ABOUT THE "SIMÓN MOBILE" AND THEN JUST LIFTS HER UP AND RUNS WHILE CARRYING HER.

But most of all, he's being himself with her. He doesn't care that she's the high class rich girl Ámbar, who's so proper and elegant. He's his messy, awkward, corny, yet charming self around her.

What gets funny is that in season 2, while Ámbar still puts an act around Simón even while they're dating, when alone she becomes a silly girl in love. She talks to her mirror, going "Simón is all yours now 🥰" with a bright smile, before immediately catching herself. She goes to choose clothes for the date and loudly speaks to herself "I'm gonna find the perfect outfit for mine and Simón's date 😍". She becomes what she considers "immature". She can't be in love? She can't be like that? She has to be in control! Behave herself!

Things then get complicated in season 3 - as Ámbar is going through stuff, she creates essentially this imaginary version of Simón. Simón keeps being the silly dude, but in Ámbar's head he's cool, tough, very masculine... she even, and I don't think I'm exaggerating, thinks he's rather sexy.

The best example is when she has the Solos daydream.

When looking at Simón play, she imagines him like this

When in reality... he looks like this

And idk, there's something so inherently funny to think that Simón's just looking like every guitar guy ever and Ámbar's over here imagining him in leather jackets grinding at her. It's extra funny if you can picture her doing that every time she sees him too.

To add to this, Simón during S3 also has a version of Ámbar in his head that isn't how she actually is at the moment. Only that his version of her is the version that she was in the past - the version of her that he fell in love with. From his side, he just wants to help her get back to "being herself" again, because he knows she isn't right now. Ámbar doesn't wanna go back, because while she did have genuine feelings for Simón in S2, it was also a version of herself she wants to forget about. Cause even if what she felt for him was true, she was still putting up an act at all times, since she still was under the influence and watch of her godmother. And she just wants to break free from everything, both the bad and the good.

But throughout the season she's also still a bit awkward and acts like a "silly girl with a crush" about Simón, especially when Emilia questions her about him. "Whaaatt??? Pfft, I don't like Simón, he likes me, come on I'm just teasing him it's not my fault it's him who's obsessed with me hahahaha-" She doesn't want to, she wants to keep in control and hide it, but she can't.

Simón always keeps being himself. He can be serious with Ámbar, he is incredibly patient with her and while he tries to help her, he also tells her off when she goes too far. But when he wants to, he's still the silly and corny guy with her.

My final example is the rose scene. The rose scene is beautiful. It's magical. It's very romantic and their tension is off the charts.

But also, only Simón would do a thing like throwing a bunch of petals on the floor to make a "romantic road" down the hallway. Also...

I counted and it's about 6-7 seconds from when he knocks and when Ámbar opens the door (side note that is a very short sleeping gown for a kids show lmao...)

The amount of planning for this romantic gesture must have taken so much. He had to...

Go and spread out all the flower petals. He needed to do this while knowing no one else was around, because someone else def would question what he was up to.

He'd need to make sure Ámbar didn't hear him walk around outside her bedroom door.

He had to knock

He needed to get back downstairs VERY quickly, and if he did not run then I guess he just slid down the railing? He was very good on doing it so smoothly, because he could have easily been tripping or being overheard with loud running steps.

He's gonna have to clean up all of this later

Nonetheless, this scene is still so heartwarming and beautiful. But, also, it's such a chaotic thing that only Simón would properly pull off.

Also, it's the way Ámbar just genuinely brightens up.

How she first goes "oh gosh, this is so cheesy, but adorable". But then she smells the rose and just goes in a little "yes!!" moment. Because that's her cheesy but adorable man! And he did this for her!

Side note, I need to comment on the difference between their outfits. Ámbar is here in a beautiful white nightgown, all barefoot.

And Simón is dressed like this.

It's a contrast.

But it's so pretty at the same time too.

They were from different worlds, and seeing them separate on their own, you wouldn't think it would work. But then they get together and it just... does.

-

Ok, so this was just gonna be a "lmao I love how Ámbar is just the perfect upper class girl and then Simón is just this silly beanie boy" but then I just decided to dive deeper.

There's much to analyse with Simbar, and it's really hard to keep it short.

#simbar #this random analysis was very spontaneous I just came up with more stuff #soy luna #ámbar smith #simón alvarez

[taffywabbit]

im also anti proship but calling rugrats porn drawings "child porn" really dilutes the severity of actual child porn. we shouldnt be confusing actual cp that hurts real children with just weirdos drawing porn of cartoon characters that happen to be kids, the two things are not at all on the same level

ok i suppose this was inevitable, i may as well get into it.

(CW for some discussion of CSA and child pornography, obviously)

first off, "i'm also anti proship but" is a terrifying way to start your message, and to go and follow it up with some extremely common proship copypasta i've heard a million times about "taking attention/resources/severity/etc away from real CSA victims" or whatever kinda makes me wonder how "anti proship" you actually are...?

kind of the point of this whole debate is typically that "proship" folks insist that fiction, or in this case "porn of cartoon characters that happen to be kids" as you put it, has no effect on reality or people's mindsets. and so-called "antis" like myself generally respond to this idea with something along the lines of "well it sure seems to affect the reality of your cock and balls", and point out how repeatedly consuming media with a particular focus or message has been shown time and time again to quantifiably influence the way people view the world around them, in ways that subsequently affect how they act, or desensitize them to things that might otherwise upset/offend them. y'know, like political propaganda! or blockbuster movies about killer sharks! obviously some people are going to be more resilient against that sort of influence when the real-world equivalent of "porn of cartoon characters that happen to be kids" is something so blatantly unacceptable, and nobody is really claiming that the impact of fictional CP is "on the same level" as its IRL counterpart.

but at the very least, most people who would be considered "anti proship" WILL tell you "hey, i'm not trying to say that you jerking it to twitter porn of Gwen Tennyson or Tails or whatever is LITERALLY THE SAME as committing CSA, but it's still really fucking concerning and creepy that the majority of your sexual fixations are all specifically cutesy vulnerable cartoon characters under the age of 12, many of whom also have canonical adult designs that you conveniently avoid in favor of sexualizing the ones that are barely old enough to learn long division. you should maybe do some introspection and figure out why that is and whether or not you're really comfortable with what it implies about you. personally i know I'M not comfortable with that shit and i'm not going to keep hanging around you unless you make some serious changes." except usually in my experience the conversation ends up being a lot shorter and ends in a block pretty quickly. like i'm not a psychologist and i don't keep a bunch of studies on hand to throw at you about how fictional CP is often a factor in grooming, but i DO have a brain and can pretty clearly see when someone is rationalizing behavior that will lead them to places i'm not willing to follow.

ANYWAYS to focus more specifically on the actual reason we're talking about this (which was, to be clear, a mobile ad Tumblr served me that depicted one of the dads from Rugrats having sex with his 3yo daughter): yes, actually, that shit IS illegal to create or distribute. it's not the SAME as literal photographs of real children, OBVIOUSLY, but it's still also extremely fucked up in its own right, and any reasonable person in your life would probably stop talking to you if you told them you got off to it.

don't believe me about the legality part? check this out:

so like, I GUESS you might get some legal leeway with cub furry art or sonic porn or stuff that isn't always obvious in how much it's intended to parallel real children? if you really care? but this ad was literally multiple illustrations of a human adult man having intercourse with a human toddler. it's pornography centered around openly fetishizing the sexual assault of a child by a parent. i fail to see how referring to that in shorthand as "child porn" is inaccurate in any way that matters.

and Tumblr is a US-based company, beholden to the laws shown above, so they are at least somewhat responsible when illustrated pedophilic incest porn gets shown to thousands of their mobile app users in an ad they got paid to display. THAT was the original point i was making in my post. but thank you for trying to derail it to interrogate my "anti proship" views or whatever, i have had multiple people send me fairly nasty asks about it in the past year and you finally caught me in a moment when i was already pissed enough about something else that i felt like going off about this stuff. sorry if you actually agreed with most of this and i came off as overly rude/harsh, but if that's the case then this response is for all the other anon asks and replies i've gotten too, i guess.

now we're all clear about where i stand and i hopefully don't need to talk about this again - it's kind of a fucking bummer to think about this stuff and i've been avoiding the subject intentionally. you are always welcome to just block me if you have a problem

#buny text #ask #anonymous #cw CSA mention #nsft

[bumofthewild]

what are your thoughts on the stormblood characters. did you like fordola at all

i wanted to organise my thoughts (oxymoron) on the sb chars actually so this is a good opportunity to start. none of my thoughts are positive though bc i think sb's writing is really bad so when i probably start to sound aggro during this while remembering this expansion i'm sorry.... i try not to be mean when criticising things but i have very little respect for stormblood. also this is about to be extremely long like im not kidding but i figure ppl expect that by now? i hope

i can't really talk abt the stormblood chars without mentioning how much this expansion worships whiteness. and thats even after playing heavensward????? with all of the stuffy white (though beloved) elves who love their white elf history??? fantasy rpgs in general ig. and from square enix. idk why i was so shocked by sb... its a fantasy rpg from square enix....that was truly my bad...................

but fordola isn't who bothers me the most anymore at least. while i was playing sb she used to be the worst sb character to me bc i just thought she was silly and hard to take seriously. initially i was just uninterested in her personality solely being a traitorous attack dog for the empire. that's not to say i don't think sellouts are interesting--i actually think characters like that are very interesting, hence why yotsuyu is one of the more interesting chars (but not by much). it's more that i dont think a single stormblood character was doing anything interesting enough for me to really appreciate, or if they were, it went nowhere or was so poorly developed that any new thing i learned about a character felt random. i feel like anything that could have been interesting in sb was squandered constantly. a lot of them had the potential to be interesting, but were instead so bizarrely flat and almost kind of cliche that i genuinely struggle to put it into words how sb managed to achieve this. possibly bc the story was so preoccupied with repeatedly driving home the same uncomplicated ideas about war and oppression (this would require a separate post) that any sort of actual personality was more or less lost? maybe because it didn't really have a foundation it was working from to keep itself focused? i feel like a lot of time would pass with the characters making the same realisations over and over again (we have to defeat zenos...!) and then when it came time for actual developments it had to rush, thus the feeling of being random. of course, unless, the character was from othard, which the game obviously gave more of a fuck about developing as a location.

like i think fordola's really serious and unwavering personality, the fact that she would do literally ANYTHING to accomplish whatever it is she wanted, could be interesting. if there wasn't so little else going on with her. and also that unlike her fellow ala mhigans she's white. i can't stress how ridiculous it was to watch her or lyse be presented as so important/be the more relevant ala mhigans and everyone else is brown and they're just white. but it wasn't only that she was white. there was just nothing else really going on with her whenever you saw her that provided any kind of intrigue or texture to her scenes. nothing about her character ever changed. until they reveal her motivations for joining the imperials (????)

ok anyone can correct me if i'm wrong, but her goal is to free the ala mhigans from the imperials.....?????? like i'm 100% sure that's what she said. but how does upwards mobility in an imperial nation that relishes in using the word "savage" to describe your people seem even remotely like how that's going to happen? i actually could not fathom for a long while that was what she had said. like i fail to find another way to describe this aside from idiotic, and i often try not to consider things in those terms, but i really don't know how else to describe this. like. this is what i mean when i say the backstory for the characters feels so poorly constructed it genuinely feels random. nothing about her behaviour to me suggested she gave a fuck about ala mhigo. it didn't turn out to be some grand farce when she had her skulls or whoever stomping on the brown guy who they collect dues from in the middle of the road the first time she was introduced. so i just have no idea why that's what her goals are or how i'm meant to believe that's what she wants. i have no idea why she would care about ala mhigo except that her father does or something? but that explained so little to me bc it was lazily done and she definitely does not demonstrate any resolve re that memory except for the one time you see it so okay

similarly, nothing suggests to me that she's deluded enough to believe this path she's on will lead to freedom, either. she didn't seem unaware of the cruelty of the imperials. she's actually meant to seem very capable and smart considering she's established her own unit amongst the other garleans and ends up getting the apparently desirable prize of being zenos' little pogchamp but then what???? why does she think that zenos will give her what she wants?? i literally do not understand what her angle is supposed to beeeee

so i considered the angle that what she said is actually not what we're meant to believe and we're actually meant to extract from the story that she's on a revenge quest for her father against the ala mhigans, and the best way to enact that would be to join the side that's oppressing them. except how she's expressed her motives and how the game makes it clear shes carrying on her father's beliefs for a better ala mhigo doesn't really imply that this is out of revenge either? also she'd be doing the exact same thing yotsuyu is doing, which could be possible bc this expansion can't write. but i just don't think that's it. i think if she truly believes that's what will help ala mhigo like her father did i don't care about it being wrong or right and whether she learns that won't work... but then it just seems so silly.......like girl there is literally no way..................... i am stumped trying to think of what this was supposed to mean or what insights her character could possibly be providing aside from the extremely banal "everyone deserves forgiveness" argument stories about colonialism are OBSESSED with trying to make. hmm i wonder why that is, square enix japan? why cant you properly research colonialism? why is media so obsessed with sympathising with colonisers and pretending its even remotely original to keep saying "if we kill this imperialist...we're just as bad as the people who have been systematically oppressing us for decades...." well...!!

im ngl i actually forgot about fordola until u brought her up bc post-sb really seemed to be gearing her up for the aforementioned redemption arc. but then i forgot how much ala mhigo gets pushed aside to put the spotlight back on doma. bc after she helps you fight sri lakshmi (another character who they just had to make white btw despite the vira/qalyana being brown bedlah babe snake women. they worship a white god. whatever i hate my life) she just vanishes. i thought that was maybe the most interesting thing they did with her character even despite my hatred for lazy redemption arcs for colonialists and cheap backstories about dead parents, bc i liked that she wasn't forgiven and that she herself didn't seem to know what was in store for her own life anymore, but stubbornly chose to help everyone fight and was still really driven despite all her L's. and then you just never see her again. as far as i can tell anyways, and i do not want to know actually bc im still in shadowbringers.

in a parallel world where stormblood is well-written i see myself liking fordola a lot. but this is not that world and i can't keep spending my time imagining a world where sb could be good. like... she just lacked a foundation that really made any of her actions make sense to me. was i meant to feel bad her dad got stoned for selling out to garlemald? i'm not being sarcastic i genuinely dont know if thats what the game wanted. i assume it is bc this entire expansion reeks of endless humanisation for white characters, but ive said the writing is so bad as to leave me genuinely confused abt its purpose many times already.

anyways the absolute worst waste of a char to me is zenos. i haven't had such a hard time taking a character seriously in a long time, and asahi gets introduced shortly after so competition was definitely fierce. i think part of it was that he was one of the few chars id seen fanart of b4 i got to him in the game which gave me the impression he was going to be insightful or something, so maybe i had given myself expectations. but ultimately i was left with maybe the most simplistic main villain this game has produced thus far. which is a shame, bc like fordola there's aspects of his char that i found really interesting, only for them to be routinely squandered with each new cutscene. initially i thought his disinterested, calmer demeanour was interesting in comparison to the other imperial chars, like gaius, who had a lot of thoughts about/passion for what he was doing. i like characters who feel a sort of existential boredom...like a real dead inside char who discovers a sort of esoteric way to live or regains meaning thru someone else--i love that trope! wanting to forever be locked in a cycle of violence with wol. sure. why not! i like that sort of thing! i was even willing to ignore the blonde hair and blue eyes (i wasn't) like i've done this before as someone who used to devote a lot of time to dimitri fe3h. this is not new to me.

but the thing is the moment zenos started talking about the thrill of the hunt i felt something in me wither and die. that trope is not interesting! i will never find it interesting!!!!!!!! if you do i'm happy for you but not me. his nihilism could have been interesting if it wasn't manifesting itself thru the subjugation of the fantasy brown people this game invented just to subjugate like...can we be serious. even just the scale of that was so beyond moronic to me. i had such a hard time suspending my disbelief whenever he opened his mouth... that i was supposed to care about this prince who was deathly bored of it all but somehow still gave a fuck about maintaining the occupation and fetishising the struggle? it was so hard to reconcile any of what he said with his actual apparent years of behaviour. like okay, i already know whiteness is synonymous with violence and ppl are unwilling to take that seriously, but seeing that realised in the sheer scale of colonial violence zenos apparently engages in and then for him to turn around and be like grr i'm gripped by such potent ennui and this is really deep. what about this was supposed to be complex or interesting or well-thought out. i genuinely have no clue

what made it even funnier (worse) to me was that before i got to stormblood i was back at home watching my dad play two separate video games where the main villain was a white guy with the exact same motivations: everything else in life now bored them except for this very specific (and not socially constructed at all apparently!) thrill of hunting real people/framing life as some social darwinist thought experiment that definitely has to be true bc look at how many ppl ive killed and conquered? what's left for me in this life now that i'm at the very top of the very real and not invented and not racist social pyramid.........? but it's not just a me thing humans are just like violent and actually love killingand i am very smart <- like how is this not just a blatantly normalised concept in life in general. nothing about zenos having this outlook reads as crazy or interesting to me, it actually just feels monumentally simple. he was just reading from the coloniser textbook. my sis actually told me while we were talking about the game that there's a book called "the most dangerous game" where i'm assuming this trope as it exists in media probably stems from, if not just the like usual racism/unfortunate fascination with imperialism over and over and over and over again. i just...that his thoughts on the consequences of his actions, the sheer amount of conquest he's engaged in, are largely due to some fatalistic boredom that comes from just being way too strong and too powerful and elevated above the savages. like okay dude.

i think if they had just removed that shit (except idk if thats possible the colonialism is so entrenched in this expansion bc ff couldnt conceive a non-white race without oppressing them) then his character would have been a lot better......maybe..? idk all that shit he says to you before he goes shinryu mode about violence or his being self-serving wouldn't have been original but at least it'd have been a lot easier to believe as his ideology without this nonsensical pile of bodies behind it that i literally could not take seriously. his final monologue was hard to sit through bc it all felt so random. my sis also pointed out that he doesn't feel relevant to the story, especially ala mhigo's story, at all, and i genuinely agree. i feel like they must have had a lot of ideas for him separately and then shoved him into this expansion because they needed a strong villain or something to keep their already thin plot running. with other villains you can see where they get their ideas from or why they're doing what they do and how their actions might progress the story. gaius for eg is a char i find really interesting bc i thought his opinions on primals in arr which is about primals was really interesting, and his conceptions of an ideal empire as well. like he actually has a leg to stand on and compelling things to say. nidhogg is also a good enemy to me, and i dont care so much for thordan but i still think he had interestingly selfish motivations and contributed ideas to the story. maybe that's because hvw didn't wallow so much in a simplistic good vs. evil like stormblood did...like hvw isnt just war its revising centuries of propagandized history and learning to change your own beliefs and going thru a lot of interesting discomfort (to put it mildly). stormblood i thought tried to be complicated at times when for eg meffrid (one of the only chars i liked in sb btw) would occasionally argue with lyse on what's "right" for occupied ppl to be doing during their occupation, like how a lot of ala mhigans wanted to keep their head down. you can see where that idea gets used throughout sb like in namia, but it never actually gets complicated into something worth thinking about bc again the chars are constantly reachign the same realisations over and over by the end (we have to kill zenos...! ANDTHEN THEY DONT EVEN FUCKIGN KILLGHI). like the ideas don't go anywhere, which might be for the best bc in my perfect world this game would not be writing about any of this. and now meffrid is dead bc ff doesn't give af about the ala mhigans or developing their thoughts/beliefs beyond the occasional potentially interesting idea on the map dialogue. atp i just feel blessed zenos doesn't have a backstory so that his personality isn't the result of some lazily done traumatic event. well i say that but the game couldn't even keep him dead so fuck my life. who knows what's in store for me. plz dont tell me.

all the thoughts i have are negative i'm so sorry but the chars i actually liked like gosetsu just get ruined by the time post-sb gets its evil evil hands on them so this expansion is genuinely just dead to me. i used to like gosetsu a lot, and i thought the shame he carried with him for abandoning hien a long time ago was a fun addition to his character. one of my favourite tropes is when a character just wants to die...like they feel like they've emotionally exhausted themselves and don't know what to do with the end of their life. i find that kind of thing really poignant. and i'm pretty satisfied w how they wrapped up his arc, actually, with him deciding to go on a sort of pilgrimage. it was just how they got there i absolutely hated.

it just keeps going back to an inability to write. for eg, if what they wanted was to complicate gosetsu's character by demonstrating how someone extremely self-sacrificial and devoted to his country's cause could actually really want to indulge in something, they choose to do it by having him play an uncomfortable game of house with someone who's murdered an innumerable amount of their country's people. but its okay bc instead of giving that idea any meaningful thought, here's a throwaway line about how he had a granddaughter so it makes sense he's doing this, also we're going to age regress the coloniser so its okay she's basically a child now which isn't a total slap in the face for everyone involved including the player, and then we're going to play these scenes for laughs and everyone is totally fine with it and it's not lazy writing at all.

asahi too i thought was an example of just poor writing, bc why is a single almost zero-context scene of zenos saving him supposed to do anything to explain his behaviour. does that not just seem lazy? he doesn't like zenos for any other reason...? we don't see asahi's thoughts on zenos except for this one cut scene where the chars could be replaced with how meaningless it is and then from then on his suddenly passionate behaviour is just supposed to be engaging...? i personally thought he was a lot more interesting when he seemed to genuinely believe in the bullshit he was saying about the empire being gracious and forgiving and rubbing his hands obsequiously at wol and being overly flattering and just a sort of greasy spoiled bastard. but then of course this totally obvious reveal happens and he's just some "crazy" guy who just wants to be his coloniser's lapdog bc he's sooooooo strong. fascinating. post-sb felt like a bad tv drama. its like the ideas in somewhat isolation are alright but they just stopped caring

tbf to asahi i did like his moments with yotsuyu. if they weren't so steeped in like....the weirdest plot points ever (random-ass yandere behaviour and yotsuyu behaving like a child) i would have been a lot more invested in the punishment they enacted on their parents for grooming one to be an imperial officer and the other being sold off. yotsuyu's backstory is still kind of typical but i thought she was like. interesting enough. she was ok. i could believe in/enjoy their callousness a lot more readily than a certain other character ive already said too much about. i think their truly awful sibling relationship had potential. dare i repeat myself about what happens to potential in this expansion

i wish i had more to say about hien and yugiri and lyse but they kind of just...idk. they just feel kind of shallow......... i don't think they really get developed much, i mean i definitely have things to say but there's just nothing really there that inspires me to do so and this post is already way too long. maybe when i finally write like an essay on how mjuch i dont respect stormblood. i like yugiri though. her hometown is very cool but she just gets relegated to "dutiful ninja" that they use when something needs to be done that wol isnt going to do, and they don't go into much detail about what really pushed her to leave or how exactly she felt, they just kind of have her parents tell you thats what she did. i liked the part though where she was like WE NEED TO KILL ZENOS RN bc it suddenly seemed out of character almost but then well where did that go...ok. hien just feels genuinely evil to me like his vibes are so off and i could not tell you why but he's kind of just there to move the plot forward so i really don't have much to say about him. and talking about lyse would just make this post even longer and more hateful. i used to really like her too.

time for something positive...? i really liked the azim steppe when it wasn't being so randomly misogynistic. that was where i was most interested in what was going on bc it had less to do with the war, but then you bring the war to them so...*screaming*. like it's a shame to me that the xaela are still framed by a focus on war, but the dotharl's concept of rebirth and the other practices the different groups had were maybe the most interesting things to me in the entire expansion. also how gosetsu had that moment with one of the dotharl warriors who died without it being some weirdly ignorant clash of beliefs. i liked that part a lot. sadu and magnai and cirina arent developed enough for me to have much of worth to say about them rn bc like yugiri and hien they kind of just become channels for the story, but at least they have a lot of personality and there's a lot to work with. also its 2am. i'm hoping to have more ideas re the xaela when i get around to doing the sidequests in that area, which i think will help me round out their characters more. i called cirina having a thing for hien from like a mile away btw bc this game is so unserious. anyways i think there should be like a spin-off about sadu magnai and cirina and if it doesn't come to exist soon i will grow like ten extra hands and make it myself

#ffxiv spoilers #stormblood spoilers #post-stormblood spoilers #seriously like actual spoilers #asks #anonymous #maybe my longest reply to an ask yet #goodnight #spoilers

[hellkeepers-if]

Okay kind of a depressing af ask but kinda in lime with the job they do. How would the ROs react to finding out MC got hurt and they are the MCs emergency contact.

(nothing serious bt they had to go to the emergency room)

Kazu would be baffled that he's the emergency contact because um? What about your twin? Or your sister? But he'll be happy that MC thinks so highly of him like that.

He'll finish up a mission he's currently on before rushing to MC's aid. Or he'll leave in the middle of a work day because no one (literally no one) can tell him what to do.

S would be there in 30 minutes, no questions asked. Whether in a platonic or romantic relationship with them, they care a lot about MC and their well-being. They'll probably freak out inside thinking that it's something serious like a big accident, and get embarrassed when they find out MC's fine.

Reyna would be one of the first to know even without being MC's emergency contact, considering they're training under them. They would fuss over MC like a concerned parent with a sick child, and then scold them if they overexert themselves once they're out of the ER.

Qwen will whip out the TTY right away to ask for information about where MC is at. He'll probably wonder why he's the contact info because he'll have to communicate a lot with the medics, and thinking about it makes him queasy. But he'll brush it off because he'll do anything for MC, staying by their side and making sure they're feeling comfy during their stay.

Huayun...she doesn't even have a human mobile phone LMAO her ways of contacting humans are by teleporting in front of them (and scaring the living hell out of them). But they'll probably tell MC's twin about it before visiting them in the ER. Scold them for putting her as their contact info because she doesn't have time for that.

"What did you call me for? You're not dying."

"You'll never make it as a human here."

"Good. I would rather sacrifice myself than become one."

#hellkeepers if #hellkeepers #hkpasks #arins hellspawns #nishimura kazuo #quentin khanh #reyna santos #song huayun #lin s

[murielsbottombitch]

If you genuinely believe that people never fake being disabled, you must be sheltered as fuck. I can't count the number of people who saw my mobility aids and bought a $20 splint from Walmart while pretending they broke their leg/arm/wrist, and I'm guessing you never had the experience of being a deaf person who had to put out someone faking ASL or a hearing person randomly losing their hearing for an hour around you.

Lucky you. Still not okay to excuse abuse and mockery by those with factitious habits.

Tw fakeclaiming, eating disorder mention

I never said people never fake disability. I said it's rare.

my belief is that fake claiming is far more harmful than faking, granted they aren't making money off faking or spreading misinformation.

pretending to know sign language is way different from pretending to be deaf, in my opinion it causes far more harm to deaf people than someone faking. they're literally making money off a lie while making something that should be accessible, inaccessible. that's far more harm than going online and going "yep, uh huh. sure I'm deaf. totally."

fakers still have mental health issues that they need help for. people don't do that kind of shit just to do it, being that desperate for attention means something is wrong. munchausens can be really serious. people will go to terrifying lengths to get validation. just like anorexia, it's trying to look sick on the outside to get people to notice that your brain is sick. fakers need help.

fake claiming every disabled person you see online does not help anyone. it doesn't help disabled people. it doesn't help fakers. it doesn't help anyone.

I am genuinely sorry if people have seen your disabilities and faked them for whatever reason. I am not condoning that behavior in the slightest.

that is something that happened to you personally though. there's a huge difference between seeing someone online and jumping to calling them a faker and knowing someone personally who you know isn't disabled faking it in front or you.

I literally knew someone who would say they "had autism and aspergers" to make it sound like they had more going on, I guess hoping I wouldn't know they're the same/aspergers isn't real. this person had serious mental issues and would lie constantly for attention. lying about their conditions in order to minimize mine. I'm well aware that it happens. I hope they got the help they need. it does hurt people when it happens irl.

it's a horrible coping mechanism. that's why it's part of a mental illness.

this isn't about coddling fakers, it's about not abusing disabled people online because of your paranoia. you can't tell through a screen if someone is disabled.

#tw fakeclaiming #fakeclaiming mention #fakeclaiming cw #fakeclaiming

[polychaeteworm]

Seeing some stupid shit making the rounds in a disability community.

I get y'all think people with glasses can still move if they take them off and that's why they aren't mobility aids but none of the people saying this are actually legally blind or know what it feels like to lose your glasses when you have serious, profound vision impairment. Like the kind of eyes that glasses can't even fully help.

Like sure, if your eyes are just a little bad but totally fine with glasses/contacts, your glasses are not a mobility aid. If your nearsightedness gets better at even three feet in front of you, you can probably move through space safely without glasses.

This is NOT the same for everyone with glasses.

I just need people to understand that when your vision is profoundly bad (think 20/600 and worse) and you cannot see more than an inch in front of your face, you will not be able to safely move around a space without injury if you aren't wearing your glasses and THAT makes them a mobility aid, IF your eyes are literally that bad.

I am literally as impaired without my glasses as a blind person is without their cane. If the white cane is a mobility because it helps you to ambulate your body through a space without injury then so are my fucking glasses. You don't get to tell me I'm fine and can move without them because I lived without them for a week and it severely impacted my physical mobility and I did actually injure myself. They literally fit the definition you people seem to have for mobility aid.

I'm less able to move my body safely through space when I loose my glasses than when I lose my cane, so yes they are a mobility aid for me. I already struggle with dyspraxia and depth perception.

Nevermind the fact that people with profound vision impairment usually have to pay WAAAAY more for glasses, and we often don't get to pick transitional lense or colors because of the index needed for such a strong prescription (which colored lenses would help my irlen syndrome but I'm too blind to get that apparently)

Pretty much all of the ways glasses are fun and cool are not available to people with insanely strong prescriptions and when they are it's gonna cost you.

If you aren't legally blind then sorry but it's not up to you if someone considers their glasses a mobility aid. I don't call them that for fun or to be part of a "club" or something. I call them that so people don't snatch them off my face to try on and see how bad my eyes are, I call them that so people understand I'm going to need to stop walking so I can clean them because if I remove them while I'm walking I WILL bump into something.

#glasses #mobility aid #legal blindness

[egg-emperor]

Hopefully Fang gets some literal booty in the future 🍑🥚

Oh yesss 💜 I really wanna see them interact more to further fuel it. Every time they do, my mind very easily goes to thoughts of Fang getting some Egg Booty and vice versa 😋

All my Eggman x Fang concepts are very ns4w with it being a gay4pay situation where Fang will accept Eggman's advances with the promise of money. But instead of Eggman treating them like favors Fang does for him on command for that purpose alone, he acts like it's a "reward" for Fang instead

He's like "look at how generous I am! you get paid and the lucky chance to experience me~" And Fang is like "wtf gay this isn't what I signed up for" and tries to act disgusted when he kisses him and other things but there's a blush in his cheeks and he's very flustered by the strange feelings he has hehe

Eventually it gets to the point that after a successful mission, Eggman bends over and presents his ass to him as his "reward" and Fang is like "when I said that I'm out for booty I meant money and treasure!" Really Eggman had secretly wanted this from the start and had planned for it to get here.

But who could possibly resist the opportunity to play with such a big round thick booty like his? 😍 Fang certainly can't, so Eggman will get exactly what he wants and then try to pass it off as such a generous extra reward after lol. Oh yeah I have actually seen art exactly along the lines of this with them 👀

I should finally finish this one concept I have and put it on my ns4w blog 🥴 Here's a little mostly sfw preview:

Fang sees his job as very serious business despite being a goofy klutz, he tries his best and will do anything for his pay. Eggman is showing obvious interest in him from the start with the way he blatantly checks him out whenever he's near and he hypes him up like in the Fang's Big Break comic (that was pretty gay ngl) but Fang just takes it as him trying to charm him to keep him working with him.

After Fang has found and captured Trip to make her work with them, Eggman says he wants to give Fang an early reward and that he needs to sit in his Egg Mobile for him to give it to him. He's confused but jumps in and Eggman grabs his back and pushes him down onto the space of the seat between his legs, so he's wedged between the man's big round soft belly and the dashboard.

Eggman has a big sly smirk on his face and puts his hand under Fang's chin to tilt his up head up, then quickly steals a kiss on the lips. Fang reacts with great shock, and tries to look appalled and disgusted by screwing up his nose and sticking his tongue out because wtf that's gay. But there's a faint blush in his cheeks. He's about to ask what kind of a reward that was but Eggman suddenly grabs his butt and squeezes it.

He reminds him that they made a deal, he'll pay him well if he does everything he says. Fang didn't expect it to get gay as fuck but he has to do it now. He'll do anything for his pay, is what he tells himself. He's grumpy and huffs, rolling his eyes with a "fine!" He's all flustered but Eggman finds it amusing. Fang half hopes that it just means letting him kiss and grope him occasionally but he should know it won't stop there.

- And it doesn't because it all gets very ns4w from there so it'll have to go on my blog for that when it's done lol

#dr eggman #eggman #dr robotnik #dr. eggman #eggman x fang #asks #suggestive #my post #eggfang #ns4w

[practically-an-x-man]

Your OCs wake up tied up in a strange place... Actually kidnapped. What happens next?

*I get out the popcorn because I suspect I might know the answer for at least one of your OCs*

Ooooh very interesting! Thank you!!

Rae: Sits there for a while, chattering away. She keeps a shield up the entire time, preventing her captors from trying anything physical, though she's restrained too well to do anything offensive herself. She just keeps mentioning that her "guardian angel" will save her - they all think it's some kind of religious plea and laugh it off... right up until Warren shows up and picks them off one by one. Rae didn't even break a sweat.

Robin: I mean, she's broken out of prison before, and on multiple occasions. She probably sustains a few injuries at the beginning, especially after she busted half her captors' eardrums with a sonic blast and they got pissed, but she slips away as soon as they make the mistake of leaving her alone. She finds the nearest phone and calls Peter, and he picks her up a moment later

Jasper: Honestly... wouldn't do as well as they'd like to expect. I mean, there's a difference between saying "Oh yeah if I was kidnapped I'd just use my empathic powers to give my kidnappers panic attacks and escape while they're incapacitated"... and actually getting kidnapped. I don't want to say they'd die, or come into serious bodily harm, but it would take them a while to pull themself together enough to come up with a plan to escape.

Madison: At first, would get a spike of panic at the situation - she hates feeling helpless, and she really hates having her hands restrained, so she wouldn't have a good time. But once she recovered her bearings a bit, she manages to twist around to her multitool in her pocket and is able to cut away at her bindings. She's always got at least one knife on her, they really should have known better than to use ordinary rope to tie her down.

Ophelia: It only takes her a few moments to get her bearings, and then she's working on getting herself untied. She's taken more than her share of self-defense classes, so her escape is actually fairly by-the-books. By the time Peter swings in to rescue her, just a few minutes later, she's walking right out the front door.

Quinn: Doesn't make any drastic escape attempts (not much she could do, being tied to a chair and having limited mobility to begin with), but she manages to annoy her captors enough that they eventually just let her go. They tried to "shut her up" with torture, but she's got such a high pain tolerance that she just kept going. She catches a cab and limps home before the other Ghosts have even realized she's gone (though she does have to explain all the blood and injuries to Billy, of course)

Kestrel: Is gone almost before the capture begins. I mean, what restraints can hold a literal shapeshifter? By the time their kidnappers enter the room, all they see is a flash of rusty-red feathers flying out the nearest window. And that's assuming they were somehow able to capture Kestrel to begin with.

Katherine: probably freaks out a bit at first - I mean, hell, it's not like she's ever been kidnapped before! - but gets ahold of herself after a few moments and ends up reaching for her magic. She's home safe by suppertime, and her captors are discovered the next day with huge, gruesome claw marks littering their bodies. The police claim a lion escaped from the local zoo, but they can't quite explain it...

Nikoletta: Wakes up, looks around, realizes she's captured... and then the sun passes behind a cloud and she jumps into the resulting shadow to escape. Her captors are extremely confused.

Eris: Ohoho, this is the one I've been waiting for so I saved it for last. Eris wakes up, realizing the situation immediately but still being completely unconcerned, and asks their captors for a phone call. They're just confused enough to oblige, sprinkling in a threat that no matter who he calls, they won't get there in time. Eris just shrugs.

"That's cute. I'm not calling Rick to rescue me. I'm calling him to get the tarp and bucket ready for when I'm done."

Needless to say, their kidnappers last a whole five more, very bloody minutes.

#my friends!!! #answered asks #my ocs #madison douglas #ophelia octavius #jasper wilson #oc quinn/aces #rae mckinney #robin cassidy #oc kestrel #oc katherine johnson #nikoletta bordeaux #oc eris

[softxsuki]

please could i have an urgent request? i'm chronically ill and suffer from intense chronic leg pain due to my illness, this makes it very hard for me stand/walk/go up stairs. i've found out recently that i'm going to need a crutch or cane within the next 3-6 months and i'm incredibly distraught about this.

could you write about marius von hagen with an s/o who uses a mobility aid like this? if this makes you uncomfortable in any way then it's no problem, thank you very much

Marius With Reader Who Uses Mobility Aid

Pairing: Marius x Gn!Reader (MC)

Warnings: mentions of using mobility aid (crutches/cane), feeling hopeless, crying, hints of depression

Genre: Comfort

Post-Type: Headcanons

Word Count: 460

Summary: In which you find out you have to use Mobility Aid due to the affect your illness has on your legs, and how Marius reacts to this/comforts you through this.

[A/N: Hey babes, I'm so sorry you have to go through this. You're very strong for dealing with chronic pain each day, and having to deal with such devastating news like that. But I know you can get through this, no matter how hard it may be. I hope these headcanons provide you with a bit of comfort. It's my first time writing for Marius! I haven't gotten any tot requests so this was nice. tbh tho I haven't played tot for a while (i've been busy with work and other things) so I don't know how in character he is NFJEKAF. Hopefully it's alright and i hope you enjoy! Praying for you and sending you lots of love <3]

Marius:

Let me just put it out there that you using crutches or a cane doesn’t negatively affect Marius at all 

He’s so incredibly in love with you that NOTHING would ever change that, EVER

He of course hates how much this change has impacted you–seeing you sad breaks his heart, but he’d never let that show on his face

He remains the same cheeky, flirty, Marius you know and love and tries to get your mind off your negative thoughts by treating you like he always has

Your chronic leg pain was something he grew used to over time, doing everything in his power to try and find a solution to your illness, using as much money as he needed to blow off on doctor appointments and literally any other resource that could possibly help you

But when the ultimate answer was using mobility aid, Marius continued to remain positive in hopes that his attitude would rub off on you and make you feel a little more hopeful about your situation

He goes out to do anything and everything with you, your disability won’t stop him from taking you to your usual spots

He makes easier walking routes for you to get into his company and home so you don’t have to worry about that

Other than that though, he treats you like he always does because he doesn’t want you to feel like he’s treating you a certain way or that he’s only with you out of pity, but this man really loves you and you better believe he’ll make sure you know that for a fact

On days where your situation hits hard on you and you just feel so depressed and hopeless, Marius is right by your side supporting you

“I know this isn’t the kind of life you would have chosen for yourself. Hell, even I wish I could do more to help you so that you wouldn’t have to go through this, but we do. You have this illness and it’s affecting your legs, so we just have to work through it, babe. You’re not alone in this, you have my 100000000% unconditional support and love. I love you so much and nothing will ever change that. I know some days will be harder than others, but we’ll get through each day together, alright?”

Usually he doesn’t get so serious, but when you look so dejected and sad,  he has no choice but to straighten up and be there for you emotionally as well–his playful attitude still shines through though so look forward to that

Rain or shine, Marius will find a way to lift your spirits and not have you focus on the negative side of your illness–he’d do anything to keep a smile on your face

REQUESTS ARE OPEN :D

Posted: 11/4/2022

#tears of themis x reader #tot x reader #marius von hagen x mc #marius x reader #tot marius #tears of themis x mc #tot x mc #marius von hagen x reader #marius x mc #tears of themis headcanons #tears of themis comfort #tot headcanons #tot comfort #marius von hagen headcanons #marius von hagen comfort #marius headcanons #marius comfort

[howtofightwrite]

I've got a protagonist and an antagonist who are part of small rival kingdoms with their own armies. Guns and other such items don't exist (and I have a plausible explanation). They want to kill each other. How can I allow them to enter in combat with each other multiple times and have both of them walk away alive and able to fight another day (even if it takes a few months of recuperation) and still make it realistic? They're both trained in combat, one uses a spear and the other uses a sword. I need to keep them alive for Plot but also need them to fight for Plot and I don't know how to write them realistically fighting without dying. Also there's magic involved so healing is slightly less of a problem but necromancy doesn't exist.

So, something useful to remember about most feudal societies: There are much larger pressures acting upon the individual participants. You could have two kingdoms who want to eradicate one another, but, aren't able to because it would result in fatal reprisals from other powers.

Narratively, stories like this tend to operate in a bipolar structure (in this case, bipolar literally means that there are two relevant powers, your protagonist's faction or alliance, and those who they're arrayed against.) However, in many historical cases like this, there would be a wide array of other competing states (or kingdoms, if you prefer.)

The entire system maintained (relative) stability, because any aggressive action by one participant would leave them weakened and vulnerable to other nearby powers. In European history, this stability was further, “encouraged,” by the Roman Catholic church, whose scribes were often responsible for reading and writing the diplomatic missives sent between lords, with those communications not always, completely reflecting the original intent of their illiterate kings.

So, while full mobilization against a rival kingdom is an option, it's a very dangerous one, even if your king feels they're in a relatively strong position with their other neighbors.

And then they want to kill each other. This is pretty reasonable. However, it's very dangerous for your character.

There a lot of social structures in Medieval Europe were designed to keep anyone from killing the nobility. A bit part of that is the risk of reprisal from your neighbors, or a larger power. Defeating a hostile king on the battlefield would often see them captured and ransomed back to their relatives (or in some cases, simply held hostage for years because their relatives were happy with their new throne, and didn't want to cough up the cash to recover their lost lord.)

If your king wants to kill their rival, they're going to need a very good cover for that slaying, or they'll be branded as a kingslayer, and may face serious consequences, up to and including the loss of their title, excommunication, or a coalition of the dead king's relatives coming for them, with the assistance of other kings who aren't eager to be the next name on your character's hypothetical climb to the top.

Also, again, if we're using Medieval Europe, there are a lot relatives spread around. The nobility in Europe mingled and intermarried, creating a fairly complex web of different blood relations. So, while your character's rival may not have any relatives at home, it's quite possible that he'd have siblings and cousins in dozens of other nearby kingdoms, and potentially even be a blood relation of your characters as well.

There are exceptions to this, such as if they're a non-royal usurper, but in that case, they wouldn't have any protections, and your character would probably have a pretty easy time forming an impromptu alliance to stomp them out, before “restoring” someone with a legitimate claim to that throne. In that case, if their rival really was a peasant usurper, your character could probably get away with executing them on the battlefield with little fanfare. However, if they're actual nobility, even if their claim is shaky, that kind of a killing could have serious consequences.

So, the short version is, your character probably can't politically afford to kill their rival. It really is that simple, and they'd need to find a way to politically insulate themselves against the consequences, or make sure that their rival's death in battle looked like a normal casualty, and not a directed murder.

-Starke

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#Starke answers #writing advice #writing reference #writing tips #world building

[toast-tales]

(Tumblr mobile is being weird about emojis, I apologize lol)

If it isn’t too much trouble, I’d like to know about (hmm thinking emoji) for Danny, Christopher, and Nathan! Can be silly or serious, whatever you want :)

(Also dress emoji for Sam perhaps…?)

🤔 - What’s something they’ll never understand?

Danny: People's obsession with sex and romance. Neither of those things have ever really appealed to her, and she just cannot understand what people enjoy about either. She's very sex-repulsed, and very uncomfortable with the idea of being in a romantic relationship. She's the type of person to either laugh or cringe at sappy romantic scenes in movies (Christopher's a romantic at heart, and good lord movie night with these two can be pretty funny sometimes). And no matter how many times an allo friend has tried to explain it to her, it just Does Not Compute to her that someone would want either of those things. She likes her personal space.

Christopher: Meme culture. I'm sorry, he's a lost cause. The internet is a strange and scary place, and he takes things too literally sometimes. He's also just...behind on a lot of references and things.

I've said that before, though, so he also doesn't understand people who don't clean up after themselves. Just...to him it's so simple to just clean as you go, do the dishes, make the bed, etc. He just doesn't understand how other people live with mess. (He's got bad memories of a really messy household as a kid, so in a way he's overcompensating for that.)

Nathan: How some giants enjoy eating humans. Nathan is far too worried about how other people feel, and he just isn't able to put those worries aside when it comes to eating humans. Even if he had willing prey, he'd get too far in his own head about it. He has no idea how people like Christopher can enjoy an experience that, for him, is so incredibly nerve-wracking.

But since that one's been kind of gone over in the story already, he also doesn't understand people who don't return the carts when you go grocery shopping. Like seriously. The cart return was two feet away. He's so concerned with thinking about others and anything he might be doing to inconvenience others (to a fault), that selfish people make no sense to him.

👗 - How comfortable would they be wearing a skirt or dress?

They would HATE wearing a skirt or dress. They got forced into a few as a kid but they fought their parents tooth and nail over that as they got older.

#thanks for the q's kate! #oc danny #oc christopher #oc nathan #okay but the movie night idea came to me and now I have ideas lol #christopher is absolutely the type to watch chick flicks #danny would probably just make fun of them lmao #itwom #toast asks

[saberamane]

Now that I'm home from work, here's my thoughts on Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.

Overall, loved the game. I love the fact that you literally start off where you ended in AC2, and that you get to see the grand escape from the Vatican. I wish there was a bit more story before Cesare's attack, allow you to really feel the victory, you know? Mainly because the fact the Cesare attacks you literally the day after you beat up his dad and took the apple seems a bit...fast? Like how did he not only get informed of the incident, but he was able to rally his army at Monteriggioni with siege towers and everything? I don't think he'd actually be able to mobilize that fast.

I do love that when Ezio wakes up in Rome he immediately begins to fuck with the Borgia. The day he wakes up he kills an executioner and burns a Borgia tower?? He certainly works fast.

I do love the 'recruits' part of this, how you can find people to become assassin's, send them on missions that help you get money and items, I only wish that you could continue to personalize their outfit after they become Assassin's. And maybe give us a selection of weapons they can use? Instead of them basically being copy and paste.

Story wise, I think they could have given us a bit more background on some of the other 'big' assassinations, like Juan Borgia. He's related to Cesare and the pope, but we only know him as having a risque party and being a banker? Give us more reasons to hate this guy and want him dead! Overall, he didn't seem like an 'evil' guy.

The Romulus lairs were fun, but overall kind of pointless? You never ran into any of these guys actually harassing citizens or anything, so they didn't really have a plot point that we could see. They could have made them random encounters in the more ruin-like area's, like the hundred eyes thieves who would randomly attack you.

Fuck the checkpoint system. The whole point is to save your progress so if you die you can 'reload' to that point in time. Meaning if you fail a 100% synch requirement after a checkpoint, reloading should make it that you still have that progress and not make you REDO THE WHOLE FUCKING THING. I'm looking at you flying machine. If I'm at 100% synch so far, get a checkpoint, fail the 100% synch and then die, I should be reloading at my checkpoint with the same status as when I got the checkpoint. Meaning health, weapons, notoriety, and SYNCHRONIZATION!

The Copernicus Conspiracy was kind of pointless. It was just a bunch of assassinations of 'important' npc's.

The Da Vinci Disappearance, however, was great. Lots of story and purpose behind it, and the missions were fun and interesting. 10/10.

I also liked the modern bits. Leaving the Animus and walking around as Desmond, seeing the modern differences in Monteriggioni, was great. And also added subtle characterization. Shaun and Becca were friendly and joking with each other through email, Lucy was a bit more 'mission oriented' trying to stay serious. And poor Desmond often got ignored. He basically just got the schedule and emails that were sent to everyone. And I get that they had limited dialogue options, but after you spoke to everyone about 3 times they began to just brush Desmond off. I would say arguably Desmond is doing the hardest work, putting his very mental state on the line for these people (with little to no actual, genuine, consent from Desmond) and they can't even have meaningful conversations with him? I don't think anyone really ever asked if he was alright??

And finally, the ending. Honestly, from the climb of the castello to find the apple to the literal end of the game, was very rushed. A 'point of no return' if you will, that is not even hinted at really. And literal years pass from one mission to the next. It's all very quick and leaves little to no emotional connection to what's happening. One scene Cesare is being arrested, and the next he's leading an attack? When did he get out of jail? Did he get out himself or did he have help? And how, exactly, did Ezio know just from the apple? I don't believe the apple would have straight up said 'yo, Cesare is out of jail and attacking Viana'. That part didn't really make sense. And getting the idea to 'ask' the apple because Cesare said something along the lines of 'no chains will hold me' or whatever? Why did that make Ezio believe there was cause for concern of Cesare being freed? I'm sure a lot of people say that when being arrested.

To end this, I just want to say that I know it's an older game, and bound to have issues. I'm not saying it's a bad game, but I am saying that some of the issues could have been patched by now if Ubisoft cared to. And those patches might make it a better experience. But overall, it's a great game with 1 great DLC. (I just wish there was more Leonardo interaction! <3)

[huntunderironskies]

Rating the GW2 Mounts in the most Unhelpful Way Possible

I can now say I have thought about the most useless worldbuilding exercise for GW2: how mounts would theoretically feel to ride. This is, as I'm sure you can tell, the most important thing to consider in a video game. What's a mechanic? Never heard of her.

So a quick prelude: if you've never rode horses before: you cannot actually sit still in the saddle or you will, probably literally, break your crotch and/or fall off if the horse is doing anything faster than a trot. Because the horse is, well, moving and its muscles and legs are going to shift you around on its back. In order to not die or be seriously injured, you have to use the stirrups (unless you're going bareback in which case…yeah, I'm not sure what you'd do because I've never tried, I assume you would have to grip pretty tightly with your legs around the horse's side so you can still keep with the horse's body motions) to lift yourself up and then back down with the horse's gait. There's a rhythm to it and you kind of get used to it over time. Now, as we all know, horses don't exist, but the techniques should be roughly comparable, so now I have given unnecessarily in-depth consideration to what the different mounts would be like to ride.

Raptor

I'd imagine this would be pretty rough-- having its center of gravity towards its back end and therefore jerking forward a lot would make it a bumpy ride even if your balance and technique is really good because you'd have the additional complication of needing to lean forward while keeping your rhythm. Also the raptor bobs forward a lot when they're moving, which again makes it hard to keep your balance. 5/10, but that long jump looks like it'd be really fun until you get the mastery where it gets to be an absurdly long jump.

Springer

God, this looks like they'd be a nightmare to ride. All of the bouncing around means it'd be hitting the ground hard which is probably fine for the springer since they're built like kangaroos but not for you. This would be particularly bad in its high jump since you'd need to stay high in the saddle for the duration of it before the springer hits the ground. Even with the backpiece on the saddle giving you more of a seat to settle in, it seems like there's a serious risk of sliding off. 3/10.

Jackal

Among the most comfortable looking other than the turtle which doesn't have a saddle so much as a mobile command center. That said, briefly heading through the Realm of Torment while porting would probably be a little scary. 8/10. Probably no different than riding a horse, honestly, if the horse went to hell whenever it needed to travel somewhere it couldn't otherwise reach.

Skimmer

So the skimmer seems to be more or less frictionless other than air resistance, which would probably make it very comfortable to ride. It's just hovering all the time meaning there's little adjustment to deal with. The saddle being set that far back looks like it'd be a little odd to get used to but at least skimmers don't really do sudden stops so much as sliding to a stop so overbalancing wouldn't be too much of a problem. I'm not sure how going that fast underwater would feel because they have not invented underwater jetpacks yet, but I imagine that much water pressure whooshing past you would mean you'd have to work a lot harder to not fall backwards off the saddle especially since they are fast underwater. The aileron roll that it does during its engage animation seems like your primary trick riding stunt and would take a lot of practice to do right but that wouldn't be something a beginning rider would deal with so I'm not counting that. 9/10 on land, 3/10 underwater….probably? Who knows.

Griffon

General speculation I've read is that winged creatures would be particularly difficult to ride because you're right behind their wings most of the time which would mean more motion right in front of you, making balancing harder. Also, if you fall you die. Griffons do flap their wings but spend most of their time gliding which would make this a little less bad. Diving, on the other hand, would be absolutely terrifying especially having to pull up from one because the shift in direction would make you lurch around no matter how good your technique is. However, I love their weird chimerical non-traditional griffon-ness, and they make cute trilling and cooing noises. 7/10, solely docking points for the fact that I would probably die riding one. Worth it. I want to pet one. That's not what I'm supposed to be grading on but I'm making an exception here.

Warclaw

Same thing as the jackal but bulkier and slower. The difference between riding a hotblood and a coldblood. Probably not fun for short people, I know I never was very fond of riding draft horses given that back when I was riding I was able to ride fairly large ponies with how underweight I was. Condolences to all the Asura who do WvW. 8/10 if you are of reasonable height, 5/10 if not.

Roller Beetle

A mixed bag. On one hand this would clearly be quite smooth since the saddle is levitating and therefore it'd be another frictionless ride. On the other hand the current estimation for top beetle speed is around 137 mph. That is a lot. I'm also not sure how you'd give guidance to the beetle without reins, my current guess is you'd lean into the saddle like you do a motorbike and somehow the little parts that make the saddle float cause the roller beetle to feel a shift in sensation on its carapace so it knows to turn in a direction. That's sort of what it looks like in the animations. I really hope there is some kind of gravitational field on that saddle or if you hit any kind of obstacle you are going to launch yourself out of the saddle and die, so given that doesn't happen I assume there has to be. 6/10, about as dangerous as the griffon but not as much fun to pet (that said, they are still extremely cute.)

Skyscale

Man, I need to log on to check again but from what I remember that hover animation looks like it'd be uncomfortable for the rider with the way the skyscale's back is curved. I don’t have a skyscale, don’t look at me, the quest is a pain in the ass. Anyways, same issue as the griffon with more flapping. The speed boost being another aileron roll would realistically be a bad idea in the air but you make it work between g-forces and probably at that point having an insane amount of riding practice by the point you get one.

In summary: 2/10. All of you who let your commander sit on their Skyscale in midair while camping events are monsters. I have sympathy pains in my calves whenever I see that.

Siege Turtle

I don't have much to say. The luxury touring bike of mounts. Comfortable seats and you can shoot things (note: you cannot shoot things on a motorcycle without a great deal of effort and probably breaking the law depending on where you live), though the jump jets and stomps might cause some jarring. I feel like being that close to cannons might necessitate earplugs but otherwise 10/10. Somewhat confused about the fact that when it sinks to the water you don't start floating out, so I guess there's invisible seatbelts, but that still makes it more comfortable than a skimmer underwater.

tl;dr

The commander probably has calves of steel from riding around all the time though I guess some saddles could have like, magical stabilizers that help, I know a few saddles use stabilizers as an ingredient when you're doing the collections to get them, also this is what I think about at two in the morning.

#guild wars 2 #gw2 #tagging in saint and mal since they're my gw2 mutuals

[imaginarianisms]

okay so. one thing ive been meaning to talk about in the rpc over the years is. the blatant ableism, sanism, racism & overall downplaying & watering down of serious issues such as cults to the point where nonsurvivors are rly out here making cult jokes which, to actual survivors, are like a massive slap in the face.

that's telling us "you don't matter".

on disabled characters & representation. i& genuinely don't remember the last time i& saw someone with a character who had a mobility aid or a wheelchair... if at all. i& genuinely don't remember the last time i& saw a disabled character actually Talk about their disability if it's even mentioned at all in threads & if it is it's usually a skinny cis white character, mostly cis white male characters, with the disability & fuck me& if there are any disabled characters of color at all.

i& genuinely don't remember the last time i& saw a character go indepth about the ableism & sanism they face. & i'm not saying that a disabled character has to let their disability define them but just like gender & orientation, a disability affects people & this doesn't just apply to physical disabilities. & i'm& not even getting into the way disabled & neurodivergent MUNS OF COLOR are treated, ESPECIALLY if their disability and/or neurodivergence is stigmatized.

i'm& not even getting into the stupid fucking way ppl go around throwing "delulu" everywhere as if they somehow have that right to mistreat schizospec & psychotic ppl & stigmatize us further. no, worstie, you're not fucking "delulu" for wanting your unlikely ship to be canon. no, you're not fucking "delulu" for wanting your crackpot theory to be true. it isn't some cutesy fucking trend you can hop on, theyre serious fucking issues. no worstie you're not "delulu" you're just sanist & hate psychotic people. stop using my& fucking symptoms as a stupid joke while stigmatizing me& for having them. i see a lot of nonpsys (for the unaware: nonpsys are people who dont have psychosis & aren't on the schizospec) using the word as if it's this cute quirky word to describe their fantasies & desires. its. literally not. delusions can INVOLVE fantasies & desires but arent those things on their own. it's not fucking funny to call yourself delusional as a joke & it's definitely not funny to just armchair diagnose people when a) you're not even a fucking doctor, psychologist or psychiatrist or any kind of medical professional & b) it's dehumanizing & c) i'm& betting y'all who use "delulu" have never even actually experienced a delusion, this isn't something you throw around for fun, it's an actual serious symptom with serious consequences for people who experience it. & as a schizospec did system myself i'm& Very Fucking Tired. noah fence but i& don't get delusions that're mostly trauma based & persecutory delusions just so y'all nonpsys can make it into another fun quirky thing & the same shit apply to ppl who use "psychopathic" "sociopathic" & "narcissistic" as an insult when most of the time personality disorders come from TRAUMA. & ESPECIALLY if you're autistic, you fucking know better

also. ppl are like "yeah i support systems!!!! :)))))) except fictive heavy systems, systems with lots of members, systems that share everything about themselves and systems who won't shut up about being systems. oh sorry your did and/or plurality makes me uncomfortable :(((((" i've& had people just. straight up refuse to acknowledge my& system at all & act like everything was fucking fine even when people claim to be my friend & give a fuck about me. my& older sister literally told me& to my& face that i& was lying for attention then she heard i& was actually dxed & she shut her ass up real quick. ive had people literally REFUSE to use our names or our pronouns despite KNOWING we're a system & some of us& were Also talking to these people. even from people who claim to be all like "oh i'm all for disabled people!! i'm all for respecting everyone's pronouns" but when it comes to our& plural ass they shut up real fucking quick. like. it won't kill y'all to ask about the rest of us&, about our& lives, showing us&.. idk, the latest episode of a show we've& never seen or a psd you made or introducing memes to us& & it definitely won't kill you to use an "&" by our names & pronouns or at the VERY FUCKING LEAST refer to us& as "y'all" or "you guys".

as someone w/ undxed aspd i& can tend to be very blunt especially if i'm& irritated. does that make me an evil person? uh. no. i& don't think so. someone w/ a personality disorder doesn't automatically mean an abuser & that goes ESPECIALLY with people with narcissistic personality disorder & antisocial personality disorder. disorders by themselves cannot be abusive. not everyone who's abusive has a personality disorder & even if they did, it's bc of their actions, not the disorder itself. & sometimes people just suck & are downright cunts.

if i& sound irritated its bc i& am. i'm& your local angry mean madcripple tryna tell y'all that this is a rpc. rp COMMUNITY. there are people who see this ableist shit. there are trauma survivors in your community. yes, this is worded aggressively but i& need y'all to understand that y'all Need to be able to engage with the anger of people with more stigmatized disorders & ESPECIALLY trauma survivors w/ more severe trauma & not just when we're being informative or entertaining to you if the rpc's gonna be better.

#out of the galaxy. || ooc. #all of this is /nbh btw this is just. like. a general messy vent at the entire rpc not at any particular person. yall are chill. #/ ableism #/ sanism #/ psyism #/ pluralphobia