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satforsatoru · 4 months

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𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭

➪ 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮? 𝐟𝐭. 𝐠𝐨𝐣𝐨 𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐮

no warnings

“You shouldn’t have gone on that mission by yourself.”

The corner of your lip twitched, dangerously close to a frown. Satoru had been nagging you nonstop about the three-day mission you had just returned from, and your patience was getting thin.

“I think I got that the first… I don’t know, three times you said that?” You snarked, still trying to focus on the book in your hands.

You’d been looking forward to finishing it after your mission, but Satoru had barged into your apartment, pissy and demanding that you indulge his complaints. “You’re not getting it,” He hissed, approaching you from where he was pacing a hole in your living room carpet.

“I was available to go on that mission with you!” He insisted. That one phrase sent the rest of your patience up in flames and you slammed your book shut.

“I am well aware since it was me who asked that you not go with me!” You hissed, unthinkingly. It took a long moment of silence from Satoru for you to realize exactly what you had just said.

“Wait, Satoru, I didn’t mean-”

“You asked for me not to come?” He repeated lowly. You blinked back at him, your mind running rampant with possible responses, but none of them could be forced from your lips. Truthfully, the idea of going on a mission with him terrified you.

How could you compete, or even keep up, with him? Sometimes you couldn’t help but wonder what it mattered to be a sorcerer when Satoru existed. After all, what could you compare to the strongest there is?

Someone so powerful that the very earth shook at the beginning of his existence. What did it matter if you exorcized curses or not? Try or give up? You would never amount to even half of what he was on his worst days.

You didn’t used to be so insecure, you were strong (or you used to think so) and took care of curses that others couldn’t. It wasn’t until that fateful day that Satoru confessed and promised to always be yours that you began to have doubts.

Insecurity hovered closely behind you as he told you of his missions or how easily he’d taken care of curses that you couldn’t even begin to imagine facing off against. Worse yet were his promises to protect you, as if you were a helpless thing (but wouldn't you be, compared to the strongest?) that only he could save.

It was your painful, little secret, your feelings of incompetence. You knew it was foolish, that he would never hold the difference in power over you, but having to see it in person? You feared that it might be too much for you.

“Why?” He stressed, impatient with your tense silence. You just shook your head. “I handled it fine! I didn’t need you to babysit me,” You shot back, tired of the stinging in your chest. Your lover scoffed, as if unable to comprehend your words.

“‘Babysit’? You were gone for three days! I could have helped and had you home in one! I just missed you!” He cried incredulously. The meaning of his words was lost on you the moment he mentioned just how much quicker he would’ve succeeded.

“I don’t want to go on missions with you, Satoru,” you confessed, “I don’t think I can handle it.” The frustration seemed to melt from his features at your defeated tone.

“Handle it? Baby, handle what?” He murmured, hands reaching to hold you. When you didn’t move away, one hand made its way behind your head, and the other landed on your back holding you to him. “What use do I have… when around the strongest? Nothing I do can really matter if you can do it twice as fast and so much better,” You whispered brokenly.

“You don’t truly believe that, do you?” Satoru sighed, pulling away from you. The corner of his lips raised in a small smile and his thumbs gently brushed away your tears.

“What does it matter to be the strongest if there’s no one else? Not even the ‘strongest’ can do everything by himself… I need you, and every other sorcerer who risks their life every day, so baby, don’t ever think that what you accomplish doesn’t matter.”

His words were earnest, but your insecurities were strong. Even when you buried your face in Satoru’s chest, you couldn’t hide your feelings from him, six eyes or not. He knew you.

“Do stars lose their worth because they’re not as bright as the moon or the sun?” He murmured into your ear and you laughed around a sob. “When did you get so smart?” You sniffled. Satoru pressed a heavy kiss to your cheek and you could feel his grin.

“I know right? I saw it Pinterest!” He exclaimed, far too proud of himself. You couldn’t help but giggle a little, feeling a little better.

“And here I thought you came up with that all on your own,” You snorted, hugging him tighter. “Let me come on a mission with you and I’ll impart all of my Pinterest knowledge onto you,” He promised, only half joking.

You lifted your head to meet his gaze and his smirk softened into a fond smile. “Whenever you’re ready, sweet thing. I hate being away from you, so let me go with you, yeah?”

The idea of it scared you still, but you had faced worse, and this time, the strongest was going to be beside you as you did so.

requests are open and reblogs are appreciated!!

#💎diamond encrusted #jujutsu kaisen #jjk gojo #gojo satoru #gojo x reader #gojou satoru x reader #gojo x you #gojo angst #gojo fluff #gojo hurt/comfort

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punksocks · 10 months

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Astrology Observations No.17

*just my opinions, only take what resonates

-Combine your Venus and rising for something you love to do and how you do it. I like to travel somewhere new (Sagittarius Venus) and start completely fresh (Scorpio rising)

A Leo Rising, Libra venus may like to be the center of attention in a new relationship and may be inspired to create with new love; a Cancer Venus, Virgo rising may really decompress by organizing their home; etc

-How come so many comedians have sun conjunct Mercury?? I’m guessing the charisma you gain when you speak from the placement and also being able to like cleverly convey what you mean. (Also heavy Sag placements bc ofc. But also a lot of Virgo/Gemini/Scorpio placements as well)

-Aquarius suns are more competitive than Leo suns imo. I think when Aqua suns compete they often ride on their intelligence so that ups the stakes for them.

-Leo suns have a very like specific approach you gotta take if you’re gonna critique them though. They’re sensitive and they are not going to take criticism from just anyone. They get sensitive about personal experiences over general competition compared to Aquarius suns imo.

-I think out of all the signs either Aquarius or Scorpio suns are the most proud of their sign. (My mom used to compete with me to name Aquarius characters and celebrities and throw Capricorns she didn’t like in my face. When I was like 8. It was too much lol)

-I think Leo suns pride typically themselves on pop culture knowledge to some degree (like keeping up with critically acclaimed films and shows)(I think this applies to Leo Asc and moon as well)

-Wherever Pisces is can highlight where you need to take care of your mental health.Pisces moon can indicate being very emotionally affected by your family and general environment. Pisces Venus can indicate being affected by your relationships and friendships. In general Pisces/Neptune means a detachment but also being vulnerable to illusions and energies other than your own.

-Capricorn can show where you need to find the strength to stand up for yourself. Capricorn moons have to defend their emotionality. Capricorn suns have to defend their sense of self. Capricorn Mercury may find themselves in several debates over things they believe in.

-Sagittarius can show where you are attractive to foreigners* (meaning people you travel to/that are outside of your culture) Sag Asc/Sun/Venus or Sun/Venus in the 9th house could point to being charismatic and attracting friends when you travel.

-Chiron hard aspects (conjunct, square, opposition) to moon can make you a very private person

-Saturn in Cancer could indicate trouble with an emotionally unstable father or father figure

-Virgo placements (Sun, Moon, Rising, Mercury, Venus, Mars) don’t just like to complain, they need to complain to blow off steam by highlighting all the little inefficiencies of life. Sometimes it’s worse to offer a solution to their complaints (I’ve definitely done this before lol)

-I think Aquarius suns like having unpopular opinions on popular things. Aquarius moons will go for more obscure/underground stuff. Gemini/3rd house moons or 3rd house Jupiter or like Gemini/Virgo mars can go super deep on those topics. (Ex. My Aquarius moon dad showed me indie movies when I was younger but when I showed him and my siblings Everything Everywhere All At Once and called it artsy and didn’t understand it lol, but like with my partner with Virgo mars we’re watching 10 movies from an obscure surrealist 60s Japanese director for fun.)

#astro observations #astro notes #astroblr #astro community #scorpio #aquarius #capricorn #pisces #gemini #astrology #cancer #Saturn #Leo #Sagittarius

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voidcat · 1 year

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a follow up to roommate!kunikuzushi bc i can and i will and i need this. Dk how long this is (not very long im sure), gn!Reader as always, enjoy, I still don’t like storms or rainy days

when kunikuzushi returns back to your shared place from a night out with childe, he does not expect to find you back, sprawled on the couch and deep in slumber.

whenever it is holiday season, you always go and stay until the last minute, savoring your precious time at home.

so why are you here now?

for now, kuni lets you rest, it is far late into the night and he knows he needs the time and energy to recover from another night spent out with childe.

he does poke around and bother you the next morning but not pressing into it too much, just a jab here and there, some complaints about how his time alone is now cut short because of you– the last day to yourselves, you settle for a movie day, back into your routine so easily. too easy at that your head falls onto his shoulder and he does his best to protect his position.

the topic of your life back home goes over kuni until you need to go back home and retrive few items one weekend, looking for someone to accompany you, preferably with a car and all.

sitting down at the dinner table with your parents, kunikuzushi finally has a grasp of the why. your mindless nods and sounds indicating you are listening– when he knows for a fact that you are not, he has spent far too much with you to know the signs.

loading the items and furniture to the trunk, with kuni grunting every five seconds that this is not merely 'few items', that you are back on the road.

it has been an idea floating around for some time to keep up the whole roommates deal now, just thrown around here and there, even by childe and few mutual friends.

it is ideal, the two of you have grown used to one another's way of living, tricks and antics, ticks and kicks. it is only logical to keep this up, graduation or not.

"so tell me again how you got ajax agreeing to lend you his car?" your voice draws him out of nowhere, a glass of cold water thrown at his face.

taking a deep breath in and out, making that right turn and keeping his eyes on the road, kunikuzushi tries his best to sound neutral.

"this is my car."

instead of your quick replies, all he gets from you is silence. casting a quick glance at you to make sure you are not dead or asleep or anything– only to be met with your curious face eyeing him, he is taken back.

"no shit." "what's so unbelievable about this?!"

he can hear you mutter under your breath, avoiding his question, "i didn't know you were rich."

despite knowing how one another works, the two of you really lack when it comes to your family backgrounds, turns out.

so when the two of you are back home– home, it has a nice ring to it, though odd at first, when you think too long about it– you mumble something about how it is exhausting to exist at your house.

he can tell that much, especially with the way you acted over the weekend compared to how you normally act under the same room as he does.

There is a sliver of moment when you are still you, the you he knows and a truer image of yourself. Parents away for the time being, you invite yourself into his temporary room and open the lid of tye instrument by the wall– only sitting down do you offer a sheepish smile, as if coming to realize his presence by your side only now.

Yet you still sit there and play, chuckle inbetween and say you’ve gone rusty but kunikuzushi does not care. He watches his breath held, fascinated, yet careful to remain that passiveness of his face, do not show anything, do not reveal how your insides feel.

So in turn, he offers a view of his life back home– or when he was still there, about his mother and her wife, his sister that he only mentions out of technical details if anything.

He sounds bitter almost, hurt, lonely– until a smile forms on his lips, one he is yet to he aware of, that he says your cooking reminds him of ‘auntie buer’

the two of you drop the topic of families as quick as it began then. Now the talks of keeping this housing arrangement up gaining a sense of possibility, taking a more solid view in your minds.

Whenever you attend a night out youre invited, kuni begins to accompany you– you are almost certain it first began with ajax’s invitations but you know he would rather die than to ever admit that.

It does has its perks though when game nights turn into nights out without a notice and strangers come up. All it takes is a look from kuni to scare them off, granting you invincibility.

there are downsides to this little agreement however; just because kuni and you have gotten used to throwing silly nicknames and terms of endearment– be it for an act or not, does not mean your friends have.

ajax almost spits his own drink, lumine just stares at you as if you have gone crazy, perhaps you have, some however see this as an invitation to chaos and make the matters worse for you two, teasing you at every chance they get, calling you doves and all that, even kissy faces on the nights you leave earlier than the rest.

kunikuzushi finds himself unreasonable for such petty feelings but with each passing day, the presence of that stray cat you let in gets on his nerves more.

you insist again and again that the cat has all her vaccines done, going for regular check-ups, no parasites internal or outside, a well mannered cat that does not even enter the kitchen area– all your pleas and debates come empty handed because none of these are the real cause.

he simply finds himself more and more agitated whenever he sees you cuddle with that cat– on the couch after a long day, at night when you leave your door open, keeping the cat close to your chest, her head on your arm, your lips almost touching the top of her head, how you gently massage her scalp and give her pets–

he needs to get himself together.

when kunikuzushi is called back home for a meeting, he finds himself dragging his feet.

not exactly dying to see his mother or that vixen, or that robot for a sister he has, not dying to be looked down once more for expressing humane emotions, displaying human behavior and overall... existing.

who will make sure you do not starve yourself when he is away? the finals season is close and he knows you were not prepared for it, once again. with how it has been going with you lately, he wouldn't be surprised if you forgot to use the bathroom altogether.

all that food you've been consuming is not healthy for you either, a little change of cultures once in a while would not hurt. he knows your digestive system would appreciate it, as would you, even though you always roll your eyes when he tells you to 'just shut it and do the dishes at least, will you?' whenever he cooks for you.

the list goes on, he can go for hours counting every negative thing that can happen during his absence– a weekend is too long a time to be away, too long to be dealing with them, staying would be the logical optio– "stop with the excuses and grow a spine already!" you exclaim, half joking, half serious, "how bad can it be?"

kunikuzushi has an answer for that too but he decides to keep that one to himself. though he did not care much about his home life before, spending the holidays on campus alone with himself, or accepting childe's never ending invitations to join his family certainly spoiled him to an extent.

One foot out of the door, then another, one by one descending and hearing the familiar beep of the car, only when he is about to shut the door and start the engine does your hand hold the door still and grant him a gentle smile.

“Hey, if things go sour with your family and all, you can always join mine, yeah?”

Closing the door, you wave as he stares at you, at a loss for words. What is it you mean exactly, were you not dreading the recent time spent with your family, what does that make you– the two of you, have you been noticing the recent changes within your dynamic too?

With a smile you send him off, splashing a glass of water after him just as he has put a decent distance between you both.

He supposed it’s another weird cultural thing you’ll have to explain him and receive his eye rolls in return.

When Kuni wakes up groggy and checks his phone, every cell in his brain yells in unison to return to the warm embrace of his bed, his throat however begging for a sense of relief itself.

On the way to the kitchen in the absolute silence and eminent darkness of the hour, he hears a sound— trying to make itself small with his signaling footsteps.

The street lights coming from the window and illuminating the room answers his questions before they can bloom– you sit there in nothingness with a plate in front of you, wrapped tight in your favorite blanket, your face worse than he has ever seen.

The thunder thickens, the drops of the rain begin to hit against the windows like iron nails and he notices the state of the weather then.

Without a word, he walks past you, ignoring your half assed attempts of watching him from the corner of your eye, opens the fridge and closes, getting himself a cold glass of water and downing the liquid in one go.

placing the glass away, he retraces the path he took, or so you think until his footsteps grow louder, closer and coming to a halt right by your side. Without a word uttered, he plops down next to you.

"Stop being a selfish hag and share that blanket."

Harsh words but no poison to his tone, when you finally raise one arm holding the edge of the blanket, he gets under your wing right away, settling in.

You should not be awake at this hour when you have a long day ahead in a measly two hours. Not when you have been neglecting sleep and proper meals for the past days, probably a side effect of not studying ahead, as always the case with you– and now the stress catching up to you, sinking its claws with dread.

By the time the sun is up, you have calmed down somewhat and fell back into sleep, that much he can tell from your breathing and the faint up and downs of your chest.

It is a technical detail maybe that your positions have shifted over the dawn, your head falling to his chest and Kuni holding you to himself with an arm wrapped around.

He supposes the distate and discomfort for storms is another thing the two of you have in common, another thing to get through and handle, together.

#genshin impact #kunikuzushi #scaramouche #modern au #genshin x reader #genshin x you #scaramouche x you #scaramouche x reader #kunikuzushi x you #kunikuzushi x reader #wanderer x you #wanderer x reader #scara x reader #scara x you #scara drabble

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literary-illuminati · 7 months

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Book Review 49 – Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

Introduction

I forget who initially recommended me this book, but I owe them an incredible debt. Really the only disappointing thing is that I hadn’t heard of it even sooner, as this really is just perfectly tailored to appeal to me specifically. First science fiction/fantasy novel I can remember reading in a long time that I actively wished was longer. As a testament to how much I liked this book – this review is long enough to need subheadings.

So! Some Desperate Glory is a space opera, following Kyr (Valkyr, technically), a 17-year-old cadet and genetically enhanced ‘warbreed’ golden girl of Gaea Station – that being the quasi-fascist statelet of militant dead-enders who fled to a desolate planetoid in a dead system to continue the war after aliens destroyed the earth/most of humanity. After she gets assigned to Nursery (read: breeding the next generation of soldiers) instead of a combat wing and has a crisis of faith, she talks herself into running away to help her brother on the suicide mission terrorist attack he was deployed on. With the help of one of her brother’s friends and a captured alien, she manages it, discovers that her brother had absolutely no intention of actually following orders once he’d made it out, and take it upon herself to do her own, better, terrorism. From there the plot gets weird, and I’m going to spoil it shamelessly talking about it, but if you value surprises when reading at all just stop this review and go read it.

The Heroine

Kyr is, and I say this lovingly, the most insufferable bitch of a 17-year-old military brat I’ve ever spent time in the head of (at least at first). Even compared to the other indoctrinated child soldiers she’s the cop nobody likes. She then spends the first third to half of the book unlearning this indoctrination, by which I mean very arduously and painfully reaching a point of ‘the fascist cult was a corruption and black mark on the good name of the death cult vengeful crusade, I’ll do it better’ and ‘it’s probably okay to not, like, personally hate aliens who were too young to have been alive when the earth was destroyed. Torturing them for no reason is wrong, like abusing animals was, back when there were animals’. She spends the entire book expecting on a bone-deep level to get herself killed for the cause, and at the end of the book is only like 10% of the way better (one of the last beats in the entire story is, standing with one of her only friends and sure they’re both about to run out of life support, offering to snap their neck for them because ‘asphyxiation’s a nasty way to go’). Whenever she is confronted with the idea that some people aren’t constantly aware of the possibility of physical violence or get to live their lives as something other than a bullet in the gun seeking vengeance for a dead planet she wants to scream and smash things at the unfairness of it all. I adore her.

Honestly my only real complaint is how quickly she starts mellowing out in the second and third acts of the story. There’s extenuating circumstances (whole extra life of memories, time loop bullshit, forcibly confronted with what she said she wanted and what it looks like, etc), but past the one real big hump it did rather feel like her character development suddenly became a bit smooth and easy/. This is one of the things I’m talking about when I say I wish the book was longer – everything after the first big climax and the time travel/universe editing felt kind of rushed and abbreviated.

As far as being a #problematic fave goes, Kyr was also very carefully kept from being, like, directly personally culpable for anything really unforgivable. Which I do understand why from a wanting people to sympathize with the racist homophobic fascist child soldier, but like – you’ve already introduced time travel and retroactivity. C’mon, don’t get cold feet now. Let her and Avi really share the ‘killed trillions in a universe that retroactively never happened’ credit.

Also, and entirely tangentially – you know how in a lot of action shows, the hero has incredibly emotionally tense rivalries and/or camaraderie with other guys, and then also an extremely conventionally feminine girlfriend off to the side somewhere who does like two things in the entire story and mostly seems to exist to prove he’s straight? Kyr has that, except she is textually gay (if incredibly repressed about it and like 90% of the way to asexual in terms of libido). Sorry Lis, but you are literally barely a character. Cleo’s right there, and already has a personality that’s more than two bullet points and is actually involved in the plot in ways beyond ‘love interest’.

Gaea Station

The shitty fascist asteroid habitat that Kyr grew up on is (if barely) the primary setting of the story, and as far as portrayals of incredibly unbalanced and fundamentally broken society just full of cultlike and ultranationalist neuross. I kind of love it as a dystopian setting, though I feel like the author kind of over-egged the pudding on it by the end of the book.

Society is organized into what feels like an intentional parody of a lot of YA dystopia setups, where you live in a tightly integrated mess all through adolescence (each with their own heraldic animal to idenity with!) but then at 17 your exams determine the branch of society you will be assigned to for the rest of your life to do your duty for humanity. Of course, unlike most YA dystopias, the System isn’t the result of some leviathan-state ruling the fates of millions or a tradition that’s going back generations upon generations – it’s a ramshackle mess that can barely consistently feed its warrior elites enough protein slop to take advantage of their genetically engineered hormone levels for muscle growth. It’s all so clearly and intentionally artificial and fake that it loops around to feeling extremely realistic.

Also do love how the elder generation all have names like Joel or Ursa or Elena, while the younger generation are all Valkyr and Magnus and Avicenna and Zenobia. The only really surprising thing is that they don’t specifically call out how children are raised in common and without individual families as following Plato’s Republic – it’s exactly the sort of attempt to create a grand unifying mythology for all of Earth’s true and vengeful children.

I really do wish Tesh had trusted the reader a bit more about it, though. Like, we can tell that almost all the names of the younger generation are either historical figures form the Mediterranean/Greco-Roman world or Norse mythology (with a few exceptions like Avicenna who fit the general aesthetic if not those exact conditions), which puts a bit of a lie to the whole ‘pan-human’ bit. It’s a clever bit of characterization through worldbuilding! You don’t need to call it out twice in dialogue between characters and then again in an in-universe scholarly essay excerpt at the start of a chapter. I can’t complain too badly though, she’s really not even close to being the worst for that I’ve read recently.

One thing I did like especially because I don’t think it was ever called out and brought front and centre is just the sort of, like, perfect irony of both Kyr and her brother Magnus – ‘warbreed’ engineered supersoldiers with physical capabilities beyond any baseline human, blonde aryan ubermensch, the golden children and eugenic future of Gaea Station/true humanity – both being queer and totally unsuited to their assigned gender roles. If it was, like, specifically brought up in a big monologue as disproof of the Gaean ideology or something it’d feel much too on the nose, but as just a set of facts underlying the characterization of the protagonists I liked it quite a lot.

Trio Dynamics

They don’t actually have all that much pagecount spent together, now that I think about it, but as far as I’m concerned the absolute heart of the story is the dynamic between Kyr, Avi (Avicenna, genius-level hacker and cynical rat bastard discontented Gaea Station restaurant) and Yiso (young and rebellious Prince of the Wisdom, taken captive by Gaea when they’re personal ship came too close and then liberated/kidnapped by the other two in their escape attempt). It’s peak trauma-bonding in that the first time it involves a) Avi torturing Yiso to force the alien supercomputer to let him access it and b) Kyr shooting Avi in the head after he uses access to the supercomputer to wipe out 90% of galactic civilization as payback for the whole ‘destroyed Earth with an antimatter missile’ thing (she got a case of morals when confronted with what ‘winning’ would mean. Also her brother shooting himself.)

By all rights they should absolutely hate each other and after two temporal recursions and oceans of retroactively unspilled blood on all their hands they’re the only people who even slightly understand each other. At one point Kyr tells Yiso ‘just so you know, I don’t really care about you as a person,’ and then immideately thinks ‘that was a lie. Why did I say that?’ Avi and Kyr both deprogram themselves from the cult that raised them but only the ‘loyalty to the cult’ bits and not the ‘alien race war vengance death cult’ bits. Yiso meets Kyr in an atemporal training simulation and gets retroactive Stockholm syndrone even though the first time they actually meet she breaks their ribs for repressed teenager reasons. They all drive me absolutely insane and I absolutely adore them. Even if Avi’s redemption felt waaaaay too rushed and unjustified in the final recursion, willing to forgive it here.

Time Loops

The big twist of the story is that, having fucked up and enabled Avi taking vengeance for Earth by doing the same thing to every other alien species, Kyr jumps into the alien supercomputer time manipulation buisness wholesale and goes back to prevent the destruction of Earth. Which then fast forwards to her being a newly minted officer in the Terran Expeditionary Fleet that is the imperial power dominating the known galaxy in increasingly high-collateral damage ways as time goes on. Yiso, in this timeline the beating heart and soul of the main alien resistance group, seeks her out and restores her memories and they go back to try and hijack the alien supercomputer before the government office whose hijacked its crippled remnants (as helmed by the alternate-timeline version of Gaea Station’s great leader, now a fleet admiral of the ‘Providence’ division) manage to literally destroy the universe.

It is mostly down to all the fanfic I’ve read, but I really, really adore timeline divergences that ropagate out and leave all the major characters different but similar people in alien yet appropriate situations. I also adore time travel stories about someone turning the timeline into swiss cheese trying to brute force their way to the one and only golden ending. So I adore this whole conceit. Really my only complaint is that there were only two (one and a half, really) recursions. Not that I’m demanding a full groundhog day here. But, like, it’d have been nice. And Kyr/Avi/Yiso continuously bumping into each other in different configurations and usually ending up at gunpoint would have been ann absolutely amazing bit.

Space Orcs

I can’t be sure Tesh actually had any exposure to the whole online meme of ‘humans as space orcs’, but I do and it’s really impossible to read the book as anything but an examination of the idea. Compared to every alien species ever encountered, humans are tall, heavy, muscular, impulsive, and violent. In a one-on-one confrontation they’ll snap any other species’ neck. The very first pages of the book are an excerpt from an in-universe text writing for an aliens about how actually really humans are very intelligent, and then talking about how threat displays and ‘human culture’. In the original timeline they even fit into the usual social niche of orcs in a lot of fantasy these days – the scattered and diminished remnants of a brutal empire that was defeated and mostly-exterminated in their attempts to conquer the universe.

The book’s handling of this doesn’t really have a point, as far as I can tell – the worldbuilding’s sufficiently divorced from anything real that trying to call it a commentary on racism or genocide or conquering empires is a stretch. (It is after all a fundamental point of the book that the obliteration of earth and extermination of the vast majority of humanity really was the only way the Wisdom could prevent the Terran Federation from conquering the known galaxy. Which is I’m extremely sure not something the author intends to be a historical analogy.) I found it a fun bit of worldbuilding and interesting subversion of normal space opera tropes regarding humanity’s relative abilities, anyway.

Theodicy

Is an incredibly pretentious way to title this section, but also in a sense kind of the core of the book’s plot? In an interesting way, and I think it’s really the book’s greatest weakness that it doesn’t explore or grapple with it enough.

Which is to say – the Wisdom is at the heart of galactic civilization. It’s an alien AI with vague but vast (though limited) reality-warping and precognitive powers. It does not rule the civilizations that accept it, but guides them as a benevolent god towards best, happiest outcomes with whatever support they ask for or need. To determine what ‘best’ means, it creates its Princes, vat-grown heirs to the dead species that created it, with a lifespan of millenia spent going through simulations and interacting with the world to provide the data and decision-making it requires to make that sort of strategic decision.

The Terran Federation’s attempt to reverse-engineer or hijack the Wisdom put it in a situation where the only solution its princes could find was to destroy the better part of humanity and even more of their industry and culture. Through the plot of the first acts of the book, Kyr and her genius-level-hacker friend hijack a node of it and Kyr convinces/forces it to accept her decision-making instead of its prince (who they just killed). This results in an explicitly colonialist human empire ruling over aliens as oppressed subjects, and using the half-wrecked and poorly understood Wisdom to eliminate threats before they occur (shunting the reality backlash off to alien worlds they don’t care about). The next acts of the book mostly resolve around fixing or reverting this, and end with Kyr diving back into a node and having another conversation with it.

A conversation which is basically it giving up. It reverts things back to the human-genocide timeline, then shuts down its infrastructure and goes dark, leaving the entire mostly pacifistic and loosely governed galactic civilization it had protected suddenly on its own. Humanity were such assholes we found a loving god and then convinced it to kill itself.

Which, like, could 100% totally work. As far as high concept short story prompts go its incredible. But as far as actually driving the action goes the Wisdom is the one who makes the most important deciisons in the entire book, and determine the entire shape of the plot. For it to land, it really really needed more than two and a half short conversations on screen, at least to me.

TL:DR

Good book, lesbian doing space atrocities, should have been longer.

#book review #sff #some desperate glory #emily tesh #lesbian space atrocities #space opera

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streaminn · 1 year

Note

I don’t know if this would be very exiting. But for the streamer enid au.

Someone already asked for one where weds popped up on stream.

So to build on that.

Weds either off stream, partially on stream like the previous Drabble. But Weds is just speaking french sweetness to Enid. And Enids just staring at her complete lovestruck expression or something. And when Weds stops talking, Enid has some simp response. And chat just roasts the shit out of her.

this is from a chatter's point of view btw:

you're there, vibing, having fun, watching a werewolf streamer scream like she's getting murdered. You wonder if there were any possible noise complaints with the amount of times it happened but you're here to enjoy the show.

you're a new chatter, so you don't exactly know much other than she really is a big fan of Viper de la Muerte and the amount of collectables strewn in the background just makes it all the more obvious.

You can respect it.

Endespair looks comfy, dressed in sweats and a worn pink sweater as she lounges on her chair. The aesthetic is all over the place. You expected an edgelord with eyeliner, not a blondie with dyed hair but its definitely a nice contrast. The scar wasn't that bad to look at either.

Its giving retired adult who looks young or basement dweller who takes care of herself.

Honestly, if you've seen her in the street you would ask for her number but judging from the "Adult werewolf who is totally married to Wednesday Addams" in her bio, she's either taken or a huge stan.

You've known of the author for a lil bit and she's a rather private person so it wouldn't be that surprising.

well you win some, you lose some. So you go and focus onto your work, the screams and ushers of paranoia turning into white noise until... is that french?

You blink when a hand, very much pale compared to the werewolf, grasps at her chin and tilt her head up to someone off cam. Theres a gold ring on the newcomer's hand and you think back to her Endespair's tagline.

Oh yeah, if you thought that she was single before then you were proven absolutely wrong now. You don't know a lick of french but its not everyday someone spits the words "amor" and caresses a persons face like that without some form of romantic intention.

Also, Endespair's blushing very very hard and you didn't need to look too hard to see blue eyes blown wide open.

When pale over here stopped talking, a garbled mess of words came from Endespair in reply and you can't help but laugh. Yeah, there's no way they aren't dating.

stream ends soon after and you open up your twitter to post something real quick.

Man, you'll definitely pop up in for more streams.

nerdemoji @popularnormie who's going to tell me wednesday addams has such a cute wife?? Totally digging the whole the opposites attract she has with @endespair

500 Retweets 3,694 Quotes 9,205 Likes

wednesday'swife @marriedtowa YOU'RE LYING?? THERES NO WAY

Stan Endespair @numerounoe NAWH 🤣 ENID WISHES THO

#may aswell be writing the fanfic rn HAHAHA #streamer enid au #wenclair #writing

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sl-newsie · 3 months

Text

American Woman (Thomas Shelby x American OC) Ch. 6: Accomplice

All confidence and security I’ve accumulated is depleted. The Shelbys have helped keep me safe from the unpredictable world outside, and as the cop pushes me through the ash-filled streets I’m reminded of just how vulnerable I really am. Yet I still keep my head held high and mask my fear with stern eyes. I’m led to what must be the police station and down the hall to a small waiting room with a single desk. The cop shuts the door, closing off what little light there is.

“I demand to know what’s going on!” I shout at the door. “I will not be imprisoned without official charges! If there is no official complaint then I shall inform the authorities in America!”

“No need for that, Ms. Steenstra,” a familiar voice speaks from the shadows. Campbell steps forward smoking a pipe and I see he’s holding a file.

I tighten my jaw and refrain from yelling again. My state of mind is much more fierce compared to our last encounter. “Hello again, Inspector Campbell.”

He slides the file onto the desk and sits down. “Last time I saw you, you were trying to get home. Scared of Small Heath and all its glory.” He points a finger at me. “I told you to stay away from the Peaky Blinders. Now I’m told you’re working for them.”

Keep calm, Steenstra. Remember what Polly told you.

“I’m a tutor, nothing more,” I say firmly. “I know nothing about their real business so if that’s why you brought me here then you’re wasting your time.” I turn away and face the door.

“If you’re interested, we could set you up for an inside job,” Campbell offers.

Did I hear that right? “You mean… spy? On the Shelbys?” I ask.

“Yes. And if there is any odd behavior then you can report it to me.”

Thomas was right. This man is out to get the entire Shelby family. I can’t be an asset to his cause. Not only because of my feelings for the Shelbys, but also for the loyalty of my employment.

I turn around and stare the inspector straight in the eye. “Maybe it’s done differently in England, but in America we are loyal to our employers. The answer is no, Inspector.”

The man takes a puff on his pipe. “What if certain arrangements were made? You still wish to return to your country, yes?”

The thought of going home is a spark of hope in my chest. But I can’t cave into this.

“Correct.”

Campbell shrugs. “Well, if you decide to join our cause we could arrange for a plane ticket, as well as better lodgings here for you.”

Just as I thought. “If you’re trying to bribe me, it won’t work. I’m sorry Inspector, but I cannot be bought.”

I grab the door knob and find it’s unlocked, no doubt because they don’t see me as a threat. Yet. Just as I start walking back to the front door I hear Campbell call out:

“Be careful, miss. Never know when the wolf will step out of its sheep's clothing.”

But in this scenario, who’s the wolf? I have no desire to be connected to this intricate web of lies and deception. I am in good relations with both the law and the Shelbys, and want to keep it that way.

I make haste to get back to the Shelby house. All previous angry thoughts are long gone and I don’t care if Thomas is still mad at me. Once I close the door I take a deep breath and take in the familiar kitchen. Calm down, you kept quiet. Just stay here and ride out the storm until you can go home.

My invisible mask falters and my eyes start to tear up. In a quick panic I grab a damp cold cloth and head to the living room to sit on the small couch. God, how did I get caught into this? All because I was an idiot and got myself lost!

“Ah, you’re back.”

No. No. Of all the Shelbys to walk in, why does it have to be him?

“Hello, Thomas.” I keep my head lowered and hastily try to block away more tears. “I’d like to apologize again for earlier. My mind hasn’t been very clear these past few days.”

Fate must have a sick sense of humor because Thomas decides to sit next to me. His weight pushes the cushions down further and has me leaning slightly towards him.

“Nobody apologizes to me unless they’ve done something else against me,” Thomas speaks in a dangerously calm voice. “What did you do after you left?”

Fighting my screaming nerves I lift my head up to face his cold eyes. “I was headed to the chapel when one of Campbell’s officers temporarily apprehended me. I was brought to Campbell’s office, where he questioned me.”

Thomas’ eyes flash. “He what?” Thomas grabs my neck, drags me over and pins me against the wall to shout in my face. “Well? What did you tell him? What did you say?!”

I try to choke out a response. “I- I didn’t say anything, Thomas!”

“Why? We never bought you over!” He releases my throat and I gasp for air. “We don’t own you-”

“You don’t have to, Thomas!” I seethe. “I didn’t say anything because A, I honestly don’t know much about the guns. And B, it would be betraying you.”

Thomas doesn’t budge but his eyes soften a fraction. Why must every encounter with him end so violently and not as romantic? I- No. Don’t flatter yourself, Steenstra. There are far more important issues at the moment!

“Really?” Thomas’ voice is calmer, yet still suspicious.

I take a deep breath and put both hands on his chest. “You may not think you’ve bought me, but I still owe a debt to the Shelby family. You took me in. You gave me a job and a roof over my head. If that’s not buying me over, I don’t know what else there is.”

Slowly, Thomas’ hands snake up to grab mine. His breathing has calmed down. He must believe me.

“No one’s this nice, Ms. Steenstra,” he whispers. “You’re not like any other person I’ve met. If you really are this loyal it would be a shame to see you go home.”

I sigh in relief. “So I’m not fired?”

He chuckles. “You always fret about being fired.”

“It’s my first job,” I reply sheepishly. “I’d hate to lose it in such a short time. Plus I really don’t want being fired by the Shelby family to be on my short résumé.”

“You’re fired?!”

We both look over to where Finn is standing, having just entered from the hallway. He’s holding another one of my books, no doubt having finished it already.

“No, Finn. She’s not fired.” Thomas gives me a smirk. “I don’t think she’ll be leaving for quite a while.”

My face falls. “Are you saying you’re going to keep me here against my will, Mr. Shelby?”

He quirks a brow. “You said you owe a debt to us, yes? How’d you like to have your Birmingham experience lengthened?”

I frown. “Meaning…?”

“That you are to stick around until you’ve earned a ticket home and we feel you’ve worked off your debt,” Thomas replies coolly and leans in closer. “Deal?”

A week ago I would have declined on the spot, but the few days I’ve spent here have snatched my interest. Maybe a while longer in Birmingham wouldn’t be so bad?

I smile. “Deal. My only request is that I’m escorted around town in order to not be snagged by Campbell again.”

Thomas tips his hat. “Your wish shall be granted, Verena Nora Steenstra. Welcome to being an accomplice to the Peaky Blinders.”

Accomplice. The word brings a whole new meaning to my job. I’m no longer a simple tutor. I’m part of something much bigger now. It scares me a little, but it’s also rather exciting.

“Yes!” Finn celebrates. “Can we do another lesson now?”

Aw, Hell. I can’t say no to this! My family’s not perfect and neither am I. I was always going to do something drastic someday, and if this is it then I’d love nothing more!

Thomas walks off to the kitchen and leaves me with his brother. You are one peculiar individual, Thomas Shelby.

I smile. “Yes, Finn. Let’s get started!”

#peaky blinders #peaky blinder fanfic #peaky blinder imagine #peaky fucking blinders #peaky fookin blinders #thomas shelby x reader #thomas shelby #arthur shelby #john shelby #finn shelby #polly gray #grace burgess #cillian murphy

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ordinaryschmuck · 1 year

Text

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 made me cry three times.

Hey, that’s one per movie...Yeah, this movie’s awesome.

If you couldn’t tell, this is a very emotional film for sure, and a part of why that works so well is because it’s these characters. The Guardians are some of the most likable characters in the MCU, so seeing them go through a lot of hard stuff in this movie hits ya where it hurts because of how much you care about them. Especially Rocket, who I might not see the same way again after this movie due to his crazy tragic backstory.

Speaking of which, shit gets DARK with Volume 3! Do you like animals? Then maybe don’t watch this one, because there are scenes where animals get tortured, mutilated, mutated, and even killed throughout the film. You don’t see the REAL brutal stuff, but the implications that James Gunn puts in might actually be worse than SHOWING us. But don’t let that make you think we DON’T see any gruesome stuff in this. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 is one of the few MCU projects that EARNS its PG-13 rating, having some VIOLENT imagery and deaths. For example, there’s a moment where you see what a character really looks like, and it might just be the goriest thing the MCU has ever had, which is the biggest compliment I can give.

But despite all that, it’s still funny! Like, REALLY funny! And the jokes don’t spoil and dramatic or serious moment in the film, either...Well, except for maybe one or two scenes, but that’s NOTHING compared to films where the jokes completely harm the final product like Thor: Love and Thunder. Here, the jokes are perfectly placed, are rarely forced in, and are ACTUALLY funny. Me and everyone in the theater were cackling with laughter a LOT throughout the movie. I could barely restrain myself from belting out a laugh or two half the time.

And the action. Holy SHIT, the action! These “trilogies” in the MCU really know how to save the cool stuff for the third movies. Iron Man 3, Captain America: Civil War, Thor: Ragnarok, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and now THIS FILM all feature some of the most epic, creative, and fun action scenes and set-pieces in the MCU. There’s a hallway fight that might just top Daredevil’s due to how violent and creative it is with these characters, their powers, and how they kill people. It really does feel like James Gunn wanted to give the fans a few final cool battles before leaving the MCU forever.

Which brings me to another thing about what makes this movie awesome: It is a clear send-off for James Gunn and the Guardians. The movie makes it VERY clear that this will be the last time all these characters will be together. Hell, the credits features pictures of the Guardians throughout their journies and adventures in the MCU. The most we’ll PROBABLY get are cameos, but other than that, this is the end for most of these characters. And WHAT an end it was.

If there’s anything to complain about, there’s two problems.

#1, Adam Warlock. The character isn’t...bad and Will Poulter nails the voice I always pictured this character having. But he doesn’t really nail who Warlock is in the comics and, overall, he’s kind of...pointless. You can easily write him out of the movie and make a few extra tweaks NOTHING would be missing. Honestly, it feels like the only reason why he’s here is because Volume 2 teased his appearance and James Gunn had no choice but to...bring him in for this last ride. Also, Warlock has the worst costume in the MCU. I mean, look at this:

What even is this?

Which brings me to #2--Which is my most nitpickiest complaint: Star Lord doesn’t wear his mask. Ever. Throughout all two hours and a half hours of this film. It’s part of a bigger complain I have where characters don’t mask up as much as they should in these movies, but it doesn’t stop how distracting it is. I don’t want see Chrisp Ratt’s stupid face in this. I want to see STAR LORD.

THIS! I want to see THIS! And the crazy thing is that Volume 3 finally gives the Guardians their comic accurate uniforms, but don’t go all the way in giving us Star Lord’s mask. Not even the original one they made for these movies. Part of the fun of superheroes are their cool and iconic costumes so it sucks that we don’t get to see enough of that. Imagine if Spider-Man: No Way Home or Captain America: Civil War didn’t have Peter and Steve wear their masks for the big and epic fights, including the finale battles. It wouldn’t be great, would it? Seeing Tom Holland and Chris Evans fight instead of Spider-Man and Captain America.

LET YOUR HEROES WEAR MASKS, YOU COWARDS!

...But other than that, this movie’s a near perfect 9/10 for me.

Now, does this mean Marvel’s back on their game and they’ll be making good movies again?

...We’ll see.

For now, I’ll remain hopeful. Because while the MCU is going through a bit of a rough patch with its films and recent shows, there’s still some fun to be had. I’ll always keep an eye out for what they have next, even if it’s not always as good as it could be, it’ll always lead me to seeing...

A fun, nostalgic thrill-ride that honors Spider-Man and what makes him so awesome.

A touching tribute to Chadwick Boseman and how much he and the character he portrayed meant to others.

And this final ride that’s fun, tragic, and complete in all the right ways.

#marvel cinematic universe #mcu #mcu reviews #guardians of the galaxy #guardians of the galaxy vol 3 #rocket raccoon #star lord #adam warlock #quick thoughts #what i thought about

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masterqwertster · 10 months

Note

"You don’t have to tell me what happened if you don’t want to, but I want you to know that I’m here for you." And/or “Would you like a hug?”

With Ashton and Laudna, please?

Oooh, definitely a Laudna and Ashton conversation vibe. Nice pick! Setting will be exploring Hishari.

Laudna finds Ashton tucked under a knot of roots that are so tight she's surprised the genasi managed to squeeze himself in there. Honestly, it's a bit of squeeze to follow him down herself, and her shoulders aren't nearly so broad as his. ...Though given the scraping she's noticing on the bark, he may have just forced his way in, thick stone skin immune to the potential splinters she's trying to avoid.

With a bit of squirming, Laudna manages to get herself seated next to Ashton, not quite touching, within the hollow they've found.

"You know, the others are worried about you," she says conversationally.

Ashton grunts and hugs their knees a bit tighter to their chest, while the lights in their head flicker at a quick, unsettled pace.

"I won't ask what you saw or what happened back there. But, if you want to talk about it, I'll listen," Laudna offers.

She really hopes he'll take the offer. It's about time she repaid him for all his emotional support over the Gnarl Rock Incident and... Bor'dor.

He doesn't say anything, doesn't really acknowledge her presence, but that's okay. Waiting is a game Laudna is long used to, and this is certainly a time for patience. She easily occupies herself with puppetting Sashimi, making the marionette dance to the tune she hums. And maybe she's losing her puppeteer chops, what with Paté being alive now, because she swears she could do a better dance than that-

"It's too much," Ashton mumbles.

And oh, they're talking now! That's good!

"Ah, what is 'too much'?" Laudna gently queries. Truly, there is a range of things Ashton could be referring to.

"Whatever happened to me here. Whatever I've got going on now," he lifts a hand to gesture towards the hole in his head. "They're piling together-"

It takes a moment for Laudna to identify the choked off sound they make as a sob. She's never seen them sad upset, never seen them scared like this. They're always mad upset, always a controlled scared. It's rattling to see them so rattled when they often stand so strong.

And worse, she's not sure there's anything she can say to comfort Ashton in this. Powers growing in inexplicable, potentially dark, ways aren't a new experience, but there's no necromancer ghost to banish, no haunted moon monster to keep imprisoned. It's all Ashton and the magic instilled in their blood and soul without ties to be severed or restrained. And you can't run from yourself. Not for forever.

"I- Would you like a hug?" Laudna helplessly offers. She's found solace crying into his strong shoulders, the least she could do is offer her own brittle ones in turn.

There's a strangled hitch in Ashton's breathing before she finds herself somewhat entombed in rock, as the genasi has practically flung himself into her lap.

He's very heavy. If she were of lesser mental fortitude, she might whine about the weight pressing her deeply into the dirt and roots. But the tremors passing into her through arms wrapped uncomfortably tightly around her, the tears soaking her blouse, the muffled sobs, all quickly stifle any thought of complaint.

She barely manages to slip her own arms around his back, seeing as her biceps are thoroughly pinned to her own body, to give a, quite honestly, comparably pathetic squeeze of a hug back. Laudna rubs her hands up and down his back with as much pressure as she can muster just to make sure it's felt through all that dense stone.

"Shhh. It's going to be alright. We haven't given up on solving anyone's issues in this family. We're most certainly not giving up on yours," she whispers into their ear, disregarding the crystals that dig into her cheek to do so.

If everyone can put up with her on-again-off-again necromantic patron, Imogen's moon-bullshit, FCG's well-meaning stupidity, Fearne's fey-ness, Orym's quest for justice, Chetney's... Chetney-ness, they can certainly handle Ashton's elemental galaxy brain slurry.

#MQ&A #MQfic #critical role #ashton greymoore #laudna #noticing trauma prompt

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talenlee · 2 days

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Game Pile: Sheriff of Nottingham

Sheriff of Nottingham is one of my favourite games that I will probably never get to properly play.

The core mechanism of Sheriff of Nottingham is a simple game of bluffing. It’s hide-and-seek with a deck of cards. The group are all playing merchants, and in each round, one player takes turns being the Sheriff of Nottingham. The Sheriff gets to inspect each of the players’ offerings, with a penalty if they inspect someone innocent and a reward if they find someone guilty.

That is the core of what goes into the game. Things like tallying scores, the distribution in the deck, burn cards and comparative weight of contraband, that’s all stuff that’s there to lend it texture, but in its absolute heart of hearts, this is a game where one player watches as two to five other players all line up to not tell them lies, honest, officer. Complicating it from just a straightforward ‘do you believe me?’ vs ‘do you not?’ is that players can wheedle and negotiate during the phase where the Sheriff is deciding whether or not to bust your chops, but also complicating that further is the way that the game is set up to have a clear and distinct boundary between whether you’re being investigated or not.

See, you could just have this game built around a deck of cards; you set say, four cards in front of the Sheriff and say ‘hey, this is all apples, please don’t look,’ but they pick it up to look at it – when in that process is it too late for the Sheriff to turn back? How quickly can you blurt a bribe that’ll stop the whole affair out? It’s a really interesting thing where when you deal with physical, material objects, truly binary boundaries between two game states can be very challenging to maintain cleanly.

What Sheriff of Nottingham does to facilitate this is a little purse in which you slip your cards. Once you do, you’re committed; there’s no almost-in, or not-quite in cards. You choose, you put them in, and then you close the purse with a clasp. That clasp is a push-clasp, which also means that pulling it open is a little bit of effort. The player commits when they submit their bag and the Sheriff commits to searching the bag once they pop that clasp.

It does not escape me that this effort creates an access problem for players with weaker hands. This is along with the way that this game of pretty much pure bluffing discourages players who don’t like to lie or can’t lie, and the way that the whole game presents real challenges for players who struggle with on-the-fly mathematics. See, one of the complaints of Sheriff of Nottingham is that the actual resolution of the game is a bit fiddly; once you get to the end of the game you work out how your score works based on the number of cards you got, and to facilitate that, you get a little paper pad. Trust me, a game that ends with everyone doing complex math has to be satisfying at every step of the way, or, you know what, no, it has to be Wingspan. Wingspan can end the game with fiddly math and note taking, that’s how good a game has to be in order to make this not a pain.

Sheriff of Nottingham is an introductory game in disguise. You don’t need to buy into an elaborate fiction to understand it, even though the narrative supposes a modest connection to a Robin Hood kind of story. The fiction of the game is that the players represent traders who are moving into a market, in irregular groups, and each time they move in, they get their carts checked (or not) by the local sheriff who is of mercurial mood and disposition. In fact, buying into the fiction creates a question of why bribing the guards goes into the pockets of another player, so really, it’s for the best you don’t. The gameplay loop of trying to fool one another presents itself very obviously and by pushing all the scoring complexity to the end game, nobody needs to track exactly how well they’re doing while they learn.

I think that a scoring system that doesn’t rely on doing math but instead relies on dividing your end-game cards would be the best way to do things. Make it so it’s not that apples are worth 2 points and the player with the most apples gets a bonus, but instead, you keep every third apple card, and have scores be much lower. Numbers would need tweaking to ensure that the coinage scores weren’t that important – the fiction clearly indicates that

The problem of course is that when the game is this simple, built around a mechanism so tightly defined, is that it’s essentially, a tension engine. Not only is it a matter of a game where you have to lie to people – even if only to not seem completely honest! – it’s a game where you’re presented with a non-stop sequence of tense experiences. It might as well be Shoplifting Simulator for the way the game’s mechanics inspire people to start sweating!

And therein lies the barrier for entry.

I love this game. I love watching this game. We use it in our classes to teach students who have never played a board game before how to go from ‘nothing’ to ‘proficiently playing.’ It has a beautiful, almost predictable arc where poeple play the first rounds in quiet silence, then someone gets away with their first lie and suddenly there’s a layer of tension and people start to laugh. Then someone bribes someone else to investigate another player and suddenly there’s a new source of laughter.

I love to see it! I love to see the way players learn to tease one another, the way players learn to mess with one another.

Now remember that my play group often involves children and my mother.

This is not a game that fits my playgroup! And that’s okay to know and it’s okay to remember it! But then I get to enjoy watching people play it, either on the internet or in class.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#Game Pile #Games

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eggtrolls · 14 days

Text

Good: got interviewed by the Wall Street Journal (HELLO) about the artificial turf situation and then spent a few hours hanging out with the angry mothers (+ the single cool nb person) at the park and gave them much of my cool park organizing wisdom (and ended up coming up with the name of their organization 💁🏻‍♀️). They’re super enthusiastic, they were really receptive to my ideas, and I’m jazzed to see what they come up with. They’re getting their name, website, and social media gang together and I’m going to hook them up with some park resources so they can turn up to the community board with at least one notch under their belt

Not good: They’re so brand new! None of them know anything about plants! They had never considered trying to clean up the park! They have no idea how the process of [checks notes] ANYTHING works and they’re snotty about it because they assume(d) everyone would immediately jump to address their complaints! ‘The park administrator lady was dismissive of us’ yeah because you were telling her how to do her job when you have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about re: the larger issue. What actions are you presenting besides saying ‘we don’t want you to do this’? You say you don’t want turf but you’ve presented zero alternatives, you have no plan on how to move forward given that construction has already started, you have nothing organized, you presented no factual information just a bunch of highly repetitive and emotional anecdotes including comparing synthetic turf and the lack of a report about its composition to the Soviet government’s handling of Chernobyl!!!!

Very not good: the majority of people know each other from a mother’s group so while we were being, you know, interviewed for a front page story in the WSJ, every! single! one! had their child either attached to their faces like a fucking barnacle or running around and pingponging off their bodies. At one point a little boy walked up a random woman, who was not his mother, and started hitting her leg and screaming I want cookies I want cookies like hello???? Whose fucking kid is this! And she just acted like it wasn’t incredibly annoying and he kept doing it until I said ‘other people are talking you need to wait your turn’ and then he was completely silent until a full five minutes later when his actual mother showed up. She then gave him a) a cookie b) an iPhone to play a video game (full volume) while seated directly next to the WSJ reporter until I suggested they move down the bench. Are you fucking kidding me. This is the metro New York reporter for a newspaper of record interviewing us about a major environmental cause. All of these kids are under THREE YEARS OLD WHY ARE THEY HERE when I’m trying to tell this journalist about the lack of a Parks capital budget!!!!!

Bonus: the park moms were joking that I don’t like kids because I was the only person childless who told a kid to stop behaving badly (insane and authoritarian behaviour To Them) but then they left and a tiny 5 year old girl named Esmé on a scooter zoomed over to me and asked if I would race her because she didn’t have any friends and we chased each other around for a bit while her parents smoked on a bench and she ran over my foot but apologized. When they left, she gave me a single piece of popcorn and two huge hugs and said that we were best buddies 🥺🥺🥺

#not even playing favourites but the nb person had the cutest and best behaved kid #but then their partner showed up and was the cishettest white man to ever cishet and I was just like aren’t you tired of this #dispatches from the park

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crusherthedoctor · 19 days

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📞 a character others dislike but you don’t?

♠️ favorite protagonist?

🕷️a character you feel is underrated?

📞 - a character others dislike but you don't?

Elise has gained more appreciation over time, but you still get people who think she's to blame for everything wrong with '06. She was a decent if underdeveloped character who simply wasn't used in the story that well, and anyone who thinks turning her into a Not-Sally is the only way to fix her isn't trying.

There's also Zor and Marine, both of whom I will always defend. Isn't it wild how I can barely remember anything from The End's three minute tough guy Reddit copypasta, yet everything Zor says is solid gold... shout out to IDW for missing the point and making him an unironic tryhard like every other villain in the comic. As for Marine, people act as though her character development never happened, which isn't helped by Flynn being one of those very people, and I don't understand why they give her flak for her stereotypical accent, yet make no such complaints about Bunnie.

For a couple of non-Sonic examples: King Sombra kind of went through the same arc as Elise in retrospect. As in, nowadays he has more open fans, but back when he made his debut, he received a disproportionate amount of flak for being a mostly silent villain, and the way he was used. I personally appreciated what they were going for with him, mainly cause of how they conveyed his Crazy Prepared defenses and the like, and honestly, by the time FiM concluded, I think he ended up better off than certain other villains lmao.

And of course, Moneybags. Not counting the first game (cause he didn't exist yet), I don't consider it a true Spyro experience if Winnie the Shit doesn't pop up in increasingly improbable locations to make deals in exchange for, *ahem*, a small fee. He also has some of the best lines. ("What are you going to do, sue me?")

♠️ - favourite protagonist?

Gex is unironically a better written character than everyone in Frontiers and IDW put together. This realisation makes me want to drink tap water at Jerry Garcia's.

Tails has always been my main bro out of the Sonic good guys, cause of how smart he is and how much he wants to help. :D It's also why I'm vocal about how much I despise it when fans double down on reducing the franchise to Just Furry DBZ due to super forms and whatnot, since it means Tails and other characters not named Sonic/Shadow/Silver are guaranteed to be treated even more like they're not good for anything meaningful. >:|

Then there's Spyro of course, which I know will be considered ironic to some given my complex feelings on Sonic, but truth be told, Spyro isn't really that similar to Sonic beyond some snark. He does admittedly act like a dude with tude in the first game, but it's clear that he's younger in that one. From the second game onward, where he's slightly older, he's considerably more chill... at least compared to Bubsy and many others from the 90's. And speaking of, despite his dialogue consisting entirely of WOAH, I respect Crash as well, since it was the bandicoot that got little me into the world of video games.

And many things change, but my fondness for Fluttershy will never die. Just as I have a preference for funny robot-loving villains who nonetheless remain a legit serious threat instead of being a joke, I have another preference for kindhearted quiet characters... which is why I also enjoy Trip... and Tikal... look, we all have our types, I'm sure you can sympathise. ;P

🕷️ - a character you feel is underrated?

The Hard-Boiled Heavies have mostly been pushed aside since Mania came out (aside from that one IDW story, but that's not a blessing), and it makes me madder than YouTubers who pretend they're mad because there are villains with dialogue who have less personality than these guys. They're so much fun, and despite all of them having the same Egg Robo template, their designs remain distinct from each other, even in silhouette form.

I also took to Ariem early on. Like the Heavies, "underrated" refers to general lack of fandom buzz compared to other characters, since although she appears to be quite liked, the acknowledgement given to her is somewhat limited due to her being stuck in an Android-only game for the time being. Some people also have an obsession with comparing her unfavourably to either Sage or Lanolin, for reasons I can probably guess in both cases. Me? I love her design, and her interactions with Cream and Knuckles are cute. :> I know it's not likely, but I hope she appears elsewhere so that she can be brought to more fans' attention... provided she doesn't get IDW'd.

Finally, a more complicated example: Metal Sonic. Now yes, he's very popular and beloved, and remains so to this day, but during the last couple of years, I feel I've been seeing two growing sides in the community when it pertains to him: the side who loves Neo Metal Sonic, and believe he's only a threat in that form like Flynn apparently believes (given how he often turns regular Metal into a jobber), and the side who consider him lame or essentially worthless because of his minimal characterization compared to others. He might not say much, and he might be a hedgehog-shaped tool of Eggman's ambition rather than a complete person of his own, but I believe there's a lot you can do with Metal that wouldn't require turning him into Usurper the Elf Shoes. OVA Metal ain't S-tier for nothing.

#Crusher's Asks #Opinion #Miles Tails Prower #Princess Elise #Marine the Raccoon #Ariem the Sheep #Metal Sonic #Zor #Hard-Boiled Heavies #Fluttershy #King Sombra #Crash Bandicoot #Spyro the Dragon #Moneybags

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ask-warmer-hues · 6 months

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What do you think about the future imaginings of the friendsim 2 au?

Hoo boy, this is a loaded question.

Full disclosure: I think the fact that Friendsim 2 exists at all is fantastic. It’s clearly a passion project and it’s had so much effort put into it, it’s untrue. Obviously, the game isn’t finished yet either, so maybe my opinion will change when I can see the project as a finished whole. I also want to establish that I don’t believe my own work is the end-all-be-all.

That being said, I just find FS2 incredibly boring. I’ve played through most of it and, honestly, I was just bored. Every fan-creator has biases towards characters, but the biases in FS2 are so obvious and it feels like they didn’t really know what to do with a lot of the cast, which leads to some really messy storytelling and poor characterisation.

Another similar complaint I have that I suppose is more relevant to my own AU is the fact that, despite there being a whole revolution route, it is once again primarily dominated by mid-highbloods. FS2 is very biased towards jades and above anyway, but it feels particularly egregious when one of the routes you can go down is literally rebellion based. I get that everyone is damaged by the Alternian system, but let’s be real here: I don’t think you can compare Mallek and Marsti’s circumstances, can you? Many of the lowblood members of the cast are either completely ignored or given significantly smaller parts than their cooler hued peers. Now, I understand that in canon the lowbloods don’t have as much going on but, in my eyes, that just means there’s better opportunities to develop them and do some creative world-building. (A minor thing I want to mention also is that I dislike MSPAR a lot, just in general, and I think their inclusion limits a lot of creators).

The best Volume, in my opinion, was Volume 4, because it not only ACTUALLY focused on the lowblood experience, both as part of the Empire and as part of a rebellion, but it also highlighted the differences between lowbloods. Marsti’s conversation with Cirava about her being a burgundy and them being a gold and what that means was genuinely the best part of the whole thing. If FS2 had more of that, I probably would’ve enjoyed it a lot more.

As I said before, I’m very glad a project like Friendsim 2 can exist on such a scale and I understand that, despite said scale, it’s ultimately produced by people who aren’t professionals; just talented fans who care a lot about this Homestuck spin-off. However, there are a lot of flaws that stop me from enjoying it, personally.

#ask warmer hues #not warmer hues #friendsim 2 #fs2 #anonymous #hiveswap #hiveswap fanworks

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ravenfirelair · 26 days

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My GodzillaXKong review *SPOILERS!*

So I went to see godzilla x kong yesterday and omg, this was probably the wildest and craziest godzilla movie yet! There was so much kaiju action cramped into this movie and all of it great. There was so much kaiju action in fact that is was hard to take it all in. a lot of insane stuff happens in this movie that you would not normally see in a monster movie. The movie is indeed very much showa godzilla era vibes, a lot of mythical ancient tribal elements in it. the closest movies I can compare it too is the 1960s mothra vs godzilla movie and the godzilla vs megalon movie. I think this movie is visually stunning, I liked how this movie explored more of the hollow earth and gave us a lot more creatures and environments to make this world feel more alive and I liked the crystal temple area of the Iwi tribe.

I actually really liked kong in this movie because he had a lot more emotion and personality then any of the other previous monsterverse movies and you get a sense of connection with him. With godzilla even though he's not in the movie much, still all his scenes are pretty awesome too, he mostly has these short fights scenes with other monsters for him to gain more power and his rematch fight with kong in cairo is pretty insane, a lot of wacky stuff happens that you don’t normally see in a kaiju fight. I do wish godzilla and kong had teamed up earlier in the movie so they would have more time with each other. Skar king was a great villain, they put a lot of personality into him, he was just one of those villains that is very charismatic and loves being an asshole. Suko is actually a little shit in this movie, I was expecting him to be just this little cute baby ape that people can fawn over, but no he isn’t. At one point in the movie he attacks kong and by the end of the movie he actually stands up to skar king and attack him too. I thought shimo was a pretty good monster, I liked that she was not a true villain in the movie, but more of a kaiju that was being abused and controlled by skar king and that they don’t kill her off at the end. And then of course mothra, I kind of knew she was going to show up in the movie before hand because of spoilers leaks on the internet, but I loved her appearance in the movie. She is not just there for no reason, she does serve a purpose in the movie, mainly to just get godzilla and kong to stop fighting each other and help in the final fight in hallow earth and I’m glad at the fact she does not die at the end.

I thought the human characters were fine, I was not expecting to get a huge amount of screen time with the human cast and I was not expecting the movie to go too much in depth with them because that is not what this movie is for. The best character I thought was actually trapper, he was a very charismatic fun kind of guy. He was pretty much the steve irwin of this movie, as he kind of an animal naturalist for the monsters in this movie. Jia was still good in this movie even though she didn’t have has many scenes interacting with kong. Ilene was just okay as she just served her purpose in the movie. Bernie I didn’t really care for, he started out being funny but as the movie went along he just got annoying because he just wouldn’t shut up and ruined certain scenes.

Some complaints I do have about this movie are I do think it was a bit too rushed, especially with the final battle and the movie kind of ends too quickly. I do wish godzilla was in it a bit more, he just felt more like a plot device just to help kong in the final fight of the movie and not much character development was given to him as it was with kong. And like I said, I wish godzilla and kong had teamed up earlier in the movie so we would get to see them play off each other more. But overall, I had a good experience watching this movie and I would want to watch it again later on.

#godzilla x kong: the new empire #godzillaxkong #godzilla x kong spoilers #godzilla #king kong #monsterverse #moviereview

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dirty-bear-rick-sanchez · 7 months

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What do you think is going to happen in the season seven finale?

Firstly, thank you for sending this and sorry it took so long to answer! I’m struggling to find the time to interact in this fandom the way I used to unfortunately. Answer under the cut because I am incapable of being either brief or concise 😅

I think it’s hard for me to distinguish between what I want to happen and what I think will happen so this answer might end up being a bit of both 😅

I think that the ending scene is going to be very hard hitting, since we’ve seen the trend develop over the seasons from the initial ‘haha funny’ drunken Rick rant while Morty suffers, to both Rick and Morty being equally excited, to Rick starting to realise he’s shitty and to heal, and finally back full circle to having Rick drunkenly rant at an unenthusiastic Morty but this time played straight and with Morty realising the horror of Rick’s abuse but still not being able to break free.

I’ve seen people mention the idea of having an equivalent ending scene with Prime and Morty instead of C-137 and Morty which I think would be very interesting, especially if we do get more exploration of Morty’s character and his perspective on his relationship with Rick in the broader sense of Ricks in general, rather than just with C-137. I think the show does a very good job of using sci fi concepts such as clones or different dimensions to explore characters and their relationships and I think it would be very cool to have this with Morty and Prime. However, I don’t know if the Prime stuff will develop that quickly, especially if he’s intended to be the big bad of the latter half of the whole series. Equally, Prime could turn out to be only a small piece of the bigger puzzle and maybe he’ll become relatively insignificant compared to other plot elements. Only time will tell I guess.

I think the most common complaint about S6 (from this corner of the fanbase at least) was the lack of Morty, so I hope this is something that gets addressed in S7 and that his character gets a turn in the limelight. At the same time, I appreciate that the show is trying their best to build off of pre-existing canon but also to complete a big tonal shift so I have faith that Morty will get his time to shine, especially since his dynamic with Rick was explored more in the final two episodes (and at the end of Analyse Piss). I definitely want to see the complexities of Morty’s feelings towards Rick and his family as a whole and I’m excited in particular for the Morty and Summer episode that seems to be about the mindblowers - we haven’t really had an exploration of the way Morty feels about Summer getting all these privileges. After all, he’s always tried to protect Summer from Rick and be a good brother despite being the youngest but now Summer is working with Rick and becoming like him. She also has that sort of power over him when it comes to the mindblowers, which is played for laughs in the episode itself but I’m interested to see them explore the darker side of this - after all, Summer is aiding Rick with editing Morty’s memory, and she clearly has a fair bit of power and control over this, given that Rick trusts her to restore both of their memories and wander down there at her leisure. Morty’s Mindblowers definitely marks a whole new era of Rick’s manipulation of Morty, where we start to truly see just how much Rick is deliberately and intentionally controlling Morty’s perceptions and memories. I’ve spoken before with @hazelnut-u-out about how mindblowing is very much a metaphor for gaslighting - Rick is influencing what Morty remembers and how he remembers it, not only removing memories he doesn’t want but even editing them so Morty has no hope of ever getting the true memory back even if Rick does allow him to keep any of the memories permanently. It’s not hard to draw the parallel between this and the way that trauma can permanently shape the way you view things, even if you are able to remember them or process them. However, Summer is clearly aware of this and seemingly makes no effort to stop it or tell Morty. Obviously she is also being manipulated by Rick (‘I don’t get paid enough for this shit’), but she’s still involved and I can imagine that affecting their relationship a lot. I would like to hope that this episode has Summer choosing to tell Morty and trying to heal, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he finds the room accidentally and is discovered by her instead of Rick, or maybe they’re forced to take shelter from something and Summer takes them into the mindblowers room since it’s the only safe place, leading Morty to question how she knows the room exists and has a key to it.

On a lighter note, we had better see Birdperson again (and hopefully his daughter). I would definitely love Rick having to help look after her and she absolutely hates him.

I’m very excited for S7 and I wonder how much my thoughts on this will change when the trailer drops Monday but these are my thoughts for now!

#rick and morty #rnm #rick sanchez #morty smith #summer smith #birdperson #birdchild #birdtammy

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ramshackledtrickster · 2 years

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Listen listen listen

Hear me out

Assassins Creed college l AU

-Connor lives off campus with his mother and “landlord” Achilles (when in actuality his mother hasn’t paid rent to Achilles in ten years and Connors yet to realize that)

-Alexios and Jacob are what they call “bang bros” (fuck buddies but more manly according to them) who switch majors every other week

-Haythem is a professor and is by far the most hated, he’s been the target of the most amount of pranks from the school since year one of his teaching. He’s also had the most complaints about him to HR about his shitty politics and playing favorites in his students (yes his favorites happen to Hickey and Lee when they have the worst grades in the whole class)

-Shao is a transfer student who crotchets and paints in her free time. She’s primarily known as the lady who out drank party animal Bayek

-Bayek has a baby mama and visits his kids on all weekends and holidays. He’s known as one of the best students on campus. Who turns into an absolute party animal when drunk/high but deletes all evidence of it afterwards

- Everyone knows Edward’s password to his phone, cause he spends so much of his time drunk he either straight up tells people the password. Or they need it in order to call his buddies to pick him up

!!! I do have a college au I have a list of info of with my friend but I love these ideas and some of what we have is kind of similar !! I hope you don’t mind if some of these aren’t canon

-I still love your ‘landlord’ idea don’t worry it lives in my head rent free and it’s sitting in my ask box for when I could make a drawing with it

-Jacob and Alexios share dorms with Arno and Henry (I think I gotta check again). I can absolutely see Jacob changing his major a lot!! This kinda ties in w how I feel like he’s very indecisive and he’s intelligent in a lot of fields but he feels it’s hard to find a learning style that actually suits him so academics sucks like that (plus he has a poor history of constantly being compared to evie in school and having a bad rep in class with the teachers growing up). But he gets to explore and figure out what works best for him because everyone learns differently.

-Haytham isn’t a prof and the rest of his entourage is middle aged like him, however, William Johnson is one of the professors and I had a couple old doodles of him being at the receiving end of some pranks pulled by Connor’s friends :)) Haytham got Connor into this current college but he’s trying to get him to transfer to a “better” one (more private, one of those super elitist types, somewhere Maria Thorpe transferred out of because it sucked so much for her mental and social health). Connor’s friends hate Haytham and he 100% doesn’t live with Ziio (the request I’ve done with ziio and Haytham sending Connor off is unfortunately not canon in the au :(()

-I LOVE SHAOJUN CROCHETING AND PAINTINH,,, she’s maybe very secretive about her stuff but she loves making quick doodles of people around her in a tiny sketch book and has some really nice brush pens. I don’t know much about Bayek but my interest is piqued. It’s fair to note Shaojun is one of Ezio’s students when he eventually becomes a prof in my au! Along with Yusuf.

-LMAOO FUN I really really don’t know anything about Bayek but that fun side i honestly don’t see much in fan art so I’m curious ?? I always imagined him being the main gang’s philosophy professor and they love him.

-POOR ED LMAOSBKEV I love that I love Ed. Its super fun to hear other takes on Ed in modern au especially in relation to the other kenways bc I always pictured him in the au as an actual grand dad— graying hair, sick Hawaiian shirts collection, probably stole a yacht, tries and fails to regain a connection with Haytham and absolutely loves Connor and sees him as 100% part of the family

Please don’t take any of this the wrong way I love your ideas !! I thought it’d be fun to share and compare and contrast what I have in my head vs your ideas bc modern aus can be taken in so many different directions even in a college setting <:))

Thank you again though I love your thoughts !!

#assassins creed #modern au

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