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tahthetrickster · 3 months

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a recipe for pound cake

i was born and raised in the deep south. food has always been one of my love languages. making food for someone, accepting food someone made for me, sharing meals, sharing recipes, to me, all of these are different ways to tell someone i love them.

this is especially true for any sort of treat, as i call them. any sort of confection tbh. some of them are baked, some of them are just "fixed," they are all just Treats to me. i have a vicious sweet tooth, and that comes out in the treats i like to make.

this particular recipe comes from my late grandmother's recipe book. she compiled it years ago, had multiple copies printed through some on-demand make-your-own-cookbook printing service she found online, and gave them out as christmas gifts to multiple family members. this specific recipe, she mentions in the book, comes from my great-grandmother, her mother, who we all called mi-ma.

and if there is anything that little old southern ladies know how to do, it's make a mean cake.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 pound (2 sticks) of butter, room temperature (~227 g)

2 1/2 cups, plus 3 tablespoons, of sugar (~672 g)

6 eggs, separated

3 cups all-purpose flour (~375 g)

1 cup sour cream, room temperature (~240 g)

1/4 teaspoon baking soda (~1.5 g)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (~5 ml)

1 teaspoon lemon extract (~5ml)

DIRECTIONS:

cream the butter and sugar together

add the egg yolks

add the baking soda to the flour

alternate mixing in the flour mixture and the sour cream to the sugar mixture

add vanilla and lemon extracts to the egg whites, and beat to soft peaks

fold the beaten egg whites into the batter; mixture will be thick

grease either a bundt pan or a loaf pan about twice as much as you think you will need to. i am not joking. this batter is so incredibly sugary sticky and you will hate your life trying to get it to release if you don't grease the hell out of your pan.

put the pan into your COLD OVEN. COLD. DO NOT PRE-HEAT IT. PUT IT INTO THE OVEN COLD. then turn the oven to 300 degrees F (~149 C). bake 1 1/2 hours

let cool on a baking rack

be annoyed because you probably didn't grease the pan well enough

this is a dense, deliciously savory vanilla pound cake with a very lightly caramelized outer crust. they freeze well for make-ahead purposes, and they ship well for i-have-a-long-distance-friend-who-needs-a-treat purposes.

the first time i made this cake was after my grandmother died days before my father's birthday. it was my birthday cake for him that year, and i thought (hoped) that a cake from his mother's—his grandmother's—recipe might ease the heartache for just a moment. i did tell him as i cut each of us a slice where i got the recipe from, and joked that i'd never made it before, so it might not be as good as mi-ma or grandmama made it. he laughed and cut into his slice with a fork and—his eyes closed when he took a bite. and another. and then he smiled for the first time i'd seen in several days.

since then i've made the cake several more times, for friends and family in grief: frightening medical diagnoses. losing other friends. depressive bouts. and while i will not be boastful enough to claim that this pound cake actually cures anything, i WILL say that being sad with a slice of pound cake is a much nicer feeling than being sad without one. and you know what? that seems to be the general consensus among the recipients, too.

this is a pound cake that tastes like love.

i hope that this recipe helps other people to pass along some of that love too, whether to themselves or to someone else.

i think mi-ma and grandmama both would've liked that. :)

#recipe #baking #tah bakes

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videobobbo · 9 months

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Detoxing

I’ve used this Tumblr, since returning, to kind of back-door vent frustrations about my old WoW guild. It was a social situation that went poorly, people who treated me poorly and bristled when they were called out on how their behavior looked to others and affected other people, and I made the right decision to bail, take the folks who had been chafed by them away with me, and start our own thing.

But it has bugged me a lot in the 8-9 months since.

Learning I’m on the spectrum has actually made it pretty easy to see why, at least partially - it’s a hyperfixation for me. I have a strong sense that what I did is right and was good, and I’ve held that up for the time since I left. The hope in my mind, in some ways, is that things would get better - I would never want to go back, but I had at least held out some small hope that maybe things would blow over, that they’d recognize their position and role in the exodus and come around with some apologies or mending.

They haven’t, obviously, and I know they won’t now, but it was a good hope.

For my part, I’ve been annoyed enough about it to write about it in brief on my actual gaming blog, not a lot, but it’s been referenced twice since we left at least, and my most recent one, I admitted in the post it was a petty victory lap - that I had seen them whittle their raid size from 26 to 11 in the space of 1.5 tiers of raiding, and that maybe it would have been wise to heed my requests. Honestly, the funniest thing about the whole exodus is that if they had apologized to the people they hurt, even just an insincere half-baked one, they could have avoided the whole thing. But they couldn’t fucking do it!

This upset Tim, their raid leader, and he left me a comment under a fake name and email on that post. I know it was him because I know where he lives (by his invitation, not like in a doxxy bad way lol) and he’s literally the only person I know from that place, which is the same place the IP address that left the comment came from. The comment also had his mannerisms, like being so far up his own ass that no light can be seen, and some specific turns of phrase he has used before in this situation. He told me I was full of shit, that I was delusional, that my whole narrative was playing the victim to the “evil” guild, that he had receipts of me shit-talking my current guildies, and that he hoped I “grew up” and “found some self-worth.”

I won’t lie, I was sort of irritated and bothered by it at first.

Regardless of thinking I made the right call and did the right thing, I think it is a good character trait of mine that I consider the viewpoint of the opposing side to my own, that I put myself into his shoes and think about how it might have felt and what he might have thought. I don’t have to come to agree or find his case compelling, just to think through it and understand the place it comes from the best I can. Ultimately, conflict always bothers me, and since we left, there’s been little actual conflict, so it flaring up again did ring that bell in my brain. I also know that I was being a little antagonistic - like, I’m not going to say I wasn’t poking them with that post - I obviously was. I have my justification for it and I would stand by it, but I was absolutely taking my shots after they had taken so many at me. It was a part of a bigger analysis that stepped far outside of that conflict, of course, but the core of it as the post I wrote unfolded became about the topic of guild recruitment and player group formation through the lens of how they’d met with challenges and how Tim’s recruitment post was a good example of a bad and poorly-conceived attempt to bring in new blood.

But then I thought about it, and the thing that sort of amused me is that he answered nothing I had to say about the leadership he had exhibited since I left. Literally nothing. It was empty pot-shots at me, a demonstrated lack of reading comprehension, vague and empty threats, and childish projection (if I didn’t have self-worth, I’d still be in your raid group, pal!). The more I considered it, thought honestly about what he was trying to say and trying to do, the more I realized he was just being a dick - in the time since we all left, he hadn’t considered in the slightest that he might have been even 1% in the wrong, and all he can do is point fingers, mostly at me, and claim that I am the villain of the story - scheming in the shadows (a literal thing he included), planning behind everyone’s backs, not doing anything to help the situation (I mean, we had a literally 5-hour long text conversation about the issues which should still exist in the old Discord, but hey), and he basically just wanted to vent. Which, like, whatever, I think you’re wrong and I think I can substantiate my claim much better than you can, but go off, I suppose.

Where I think he genuinely made a point, though, was in the self-worth thing. Not how he intended it, obviously, but there was a part of it that stuck with me.

In the months that have passed since we left, I’ve been hyperfixated on their activity. I generally know when they kill bosses, I know when they have roster changes, I see their raids whittling away because I look, I’ve watched them push people out by being assholes on video. In my head, I wanted and needed that justification that I had done the right thing - that I wasn’t just chasing shadows or inventing some larger cultural rot within their structure, but I wanted that hard evidence to give me the calming that I thought I needed. Of course, the fact that enough people agreed to come with me even when I hadn’t broached the topic as being about some guild conflict or behavioral issue should have been enough, and the way they behaved when we bailed should also have been enough, but you know, sometimes you just need those layers of peace. But the thing I realize now is that I wasn’t getting peace from it.

I was paying attention to them while doing my own thing, and sure, they were churning and burning raiders left and right. Sure, they had already needed to open recruiting less than halfway into the expansion. My points and ideas were being proven bit by bit. But knowing that wasn’t giving me any comfort. I would laugh a bit and remark to myself that I had made the right call, I would sometimes show stream footage to people I trusted and get that validation of my view on the matter, but then I kept wanting more. I hadn’t reached a point where I felt that peace, and instead, I just wanted to see more evidence. It was past the point of being useful or validating.

On some level, I can acknowledge that I made the right call, and no one with me has ever questioned that. But in my ASD-addled brain, it was never enough. I wanted more, more validation that I did a decent thing and that it had improved the situation for my people. I knew I had handled aspects of the issues poorly over the years - I’ve never hid from that. Most times I reference the issue at all start, end, and are laced with callouts of myself - that I could have done more, better, and more directly, and I failed on that level. In the end, I could have done a lot better, but I ultimately still had a good guiding truth leading me to my course of action and while I regret aspects of that path, it ultimately led to a better place and removed some layers of the tension for a lot of folks. I’ll never regret the outcome of those actions, even while I can acknowledge that the path could have been a better one.

But of course, the tricky thing is that Tim will never acknowledge that I have been open to that extent, that I apologized multiple times including going in-person to him to do that. He always pushes to resolve things in private and in voice chat, and I know now that is done because he doesn’t want a record. If things go pear-shaped for him, he can just throw the other person under the bus - “they didn’t even try to fix things!” - and, conveniently for him, my chats with him are private or locked in officer channels and in-person, so he can poison the well and move on. I don’t think he’s a master manipulator or anything of the sory, god forbid - he’s just reading-averse and would prefer to not have a trail for this kind of thing. He even made people delete VODs of blowups and assholery in the past, which is the kind of level of shady I should have known was not to be taken seriously or trusted.

I know that any vague threat Tim makes about receipts of me shit-talking current guildies would be like 3 years old and also very minor raid leadership notes - plus, like, even if he wanted to share his “truth” with people, how was he going to do it? Crawling back through officer chat in the game client or scrolling and searching years of Discord chat would be silly, stupid, and probably blow up in his face - assuming again that there even was anything, it would look incredibly small-minded and petty to go back 2-3 years of chat to find a couple of soft comments about group compositions or performance, and I’ve discussed those issues with people in my group as is! The only intent he could even have is to hurt other people with that, which is an interesting thing, because it wouldn’t hurt me as much as anyone else involved, and he doesn’t even want most of my raiders back, so it just feels like a pointless bit of assholery. I’m pretty sure even he knows this, because he made the idle threat and claimed the screenshots exist, but hasn’t made any effort I can see to drop them, whatever they would even be.

This whole situation was a great object lesson in how I might handle conflicts going forward, what I did right and wrong and how I can work with other people to get a better outcome. It’s also a great lesson in when my interlocutor isn’t interested in the truth or finding agreement as much as they are just “winning,” whatever form that takes.

But the biggest thing I am learning is that it is also a lesson in when I need to step away from pains and issues I have, when being right and justified and finding more evidence of it is just not going to serve me well. I made my case, publicly and privately. I’ve provided evidence through screenshots and contemporaneous accounts of conversations I had with people to attempt to mend fences before I decided the fence could not be fixed. To my foes on the other side, it was never going to be enough, and even as I’ve gained new, neutral evidence of the issues I presented being everpresent even as they deny it, it was never going to be enough to provide that new evidence. All they wanted - all Tim wanted - was compliance. Shut your mouth and raid, or don’t, we don’t care. You can’t stop us from being assholes, so don’t even try, because somehow, trying to stop that made me the bigger asshole in their eyes.

For the last 9 months I’ve let myself be embroiled in brain poison. I watched VODs, I watched their raid roster kill to kill, observed how they play and how they behave. It completely validated my take on them, but that doesn’t really matter in any real sense. It hurt to watch, and it kept tearing open the wounds of that period.

The thing I noted early and then stopped noting is that a big part of early Shadowlands for me was trying to meet them where they were. I wanted to be friendly, I wanted people to like me, and I tried really hard to enmesh myself with them so that I could maybe, just maybe, change the culture from within. At a point, I thought Tim was maybe a friend. We had talked about meeting for lunch sometime, hanging out, I wanted things to be good, and I took that responsibility seriously. And I can also acknowledge that me changing my mind after things went poorly, calling him out, was probably something that hurt him because of that. It’s not an outcome I wanted, obviously, but at the same time, it had hurt me to see him be so dismissive of my take and my asks. We don’t have that much in common and it would probably never have been a meaningful friendship in that way anyways, but I had been game to try. I defended him to my friends, because that needed to happen since he was a tiresome individual. When we were co-raid leading, he had been excluded from a single Mythic Plus run that made him call out the guild as not “behaving like a guild” and then leave Discord and the game for 3 months! - he was hard to deal with, even often at his best. But I still tried.

I did achievement runs and dungeons with people I would come to loathe, the main irritants that kept pushing people out both before and after my new group left, because I was making a good faith effort to integrate with the group. I tried really hard to put aside past judgments and observations and just hang out. I succeeded at times, but that just made it sting more when things went bad.

I self-flagellated into going back after I first left in the summer of 2021, pushed myself to try and make it right, but it was very obvious in hindsight that they were never going to make that effort with me. I apologized to Tim, but he never apologized to me. I apologized to the guild, but I was never welcomed back by the core that remains in the old guild. They didn’t need to roll out the red carpet, but after a few months of steady raiding and playing with them, they could at least have tried to be friendly. And I know now that I misjudged a lot of them in that early Shadowlands era, thought better of them than they were. That’s not a thing I say lightly either, like I’m not trying to rack up points here. I wanted to befriend them, they weren’t willing to make the effort in kind, they made that clear when shit hit the fan, but I was the hopeless optimist still trying. I gave up, obviously - I stopped playing in November 2021, uninstalled the game in December that same year, and I kept it out of my system until October 2022.

But I tried.

In the end, the thing I have learned most is that I need to detox better - that I need to learn when to expel the poison and leave it all behind. I’ve let the poison sit in my veins for months, even years now, and I’ve kept adding more through my attempts to justify an already soundly-justified decision. In the end, constantly shooting up with more poison has only left me feeling sick and tired. Tim’s little diatribe, his complete lack of reflection, actually did offer me something beneficial - the knowledge that I was never going to find peace down the old road. Poking and prodding them, justified though I believe it to be, was never going to make them apologize to me or anyone else. Watching them from afar and remarking upon their issues was never going to make me feel any better - it was just going to annoy me that they had chosen to not listen to me and pretend everything was just great. I wanted a clean break, I got one, but then I insisted on dragging the old dirt with me. It’s pointless and something I should not have done, but I wanted that justification in the wake of all their finger-pointing and conflict - to know I had been right. And I was, but being right wasn’t enough. Watching them self-destruct has been somewhat satisfying but that satisfaction has been empty. I took my victory lap but it also made me sad for the people I do like, stuck on the sinking ship. Of course, they’re not stuck - a fair few could reach out to me anytime and I would pull them off in seconds.

But I can’t constantly subject myself to streams, VODs, watching the roster week-to-week on RIO for each kill, and keep thinking about it, letting it hog my brain space on a daily basis. The hardest part of letting go is letting go, knowing that I’ll never get the things I think I should in terms of apologies or polite conversation, but continuing to think about it isn’t going to suddenly manifest any of that.

So I’ve said my last piece, let the poison boil in my veins one last time. I’m done looking at them, peering in from the distance. I am focused on me, on my group, on being the best leader I can be and the best person I can be for my own benefit. Good luck to them and good riddance.

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blockgamepirate · 2 years

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Okay, since this is somehow STILL a source of discourse even well over a year later, let's talk about the massacre at the Red Festival on Dream SMP

In detail

Now first off, Techno obviously did not know that the rocket launcher was that powerful.

I mean okay, he knew a direct hit would be powerful but he had no idea that the area of effect was that strong, which makes a huge difference because you can do significant damage to multiple people in one go and you don't even have to actually hit them. He didn't know it would be that effective!

That’s WHY he’s so surprised when it also kills Schlatt and Quackity even though he was only aiming at Tubbo. That's WHY he's so surprised that he gets five kills by just randomly launching the fireworks at the crowd, without even aiming at anyone in particular.

I don’t know why this is so hard for people to understand. Sometimes characters don't have all the information when they make decisions!

^ that's Techno reacting out of character. If even the CC didn't know how powerful the crossbow was, how was the character supposed to know?

Secondly, let's actually look at the people he killed (non-canonically) and who specifically it was effective against:

The first three are Quackity, Schlatt and Tubbo at the podium, obviously.

Then we have Ponk, Schlatt (yes he got killed twice; he was running back towards the podium from the boxing ring where his spawn was set and got hit again), Callahan, Niki and BBH.

So first three people, then five people, one of whom was a repeat kill. Also one of them was an ally who got caught in the crossfire.

Here's the crowd, note Purpled (in full netherite) on the side, also Fundy (mostly in netherite) and Punz (also full netherite)

None of those guys died. I wonder why.

Ponk and Schlatt (neither of whom had any armour on) die in two hits.

Callahan (who also had no armour) dies in three hits.

Finally Niki (two pieces of diamond armour) and BBH (leather armour) die in four hits.

Total number rockets Techno fired into the crowd was five, but the last one didn't kill anyone.

Yes, the rocket launcher is impressive and OP and can hit multiple people at once, but the death messages make it look a bit more impressive than it actually is. It only killed people who didn't have proper armour on. (And not even all of them died, Sam and Ant both survived all five rockets in leather armour.)

Techno himself makes this point in his next stream too:

You can also see this in the November 16th battle where he launches twelve fireworks in succession at Dream & co. and kills none of them. He does soon after manage to kill Karl (who's in netherite but wearing no helmet) after hitting him four times with the Orphan Obliterator, setting him on fire, and even then it takes three direct hits from the rocket launcher to kill the guy. That's what a difference proper armour makes.

And that's Karl.

Without a helmet.

At the festival Techno would have been against Punz and Purpled in full netherite.

Anyway here's Niki's POV of the fireworks:

First shot doesn't hit her directly, does 1.5 hearts. BBH blocks with a shield.

Second shot is a direct hit, does 4.5 hearts, as she tries to run but she's running right in the direction where the rockets are being fired. (BBH makes the same mistake.)

Third shot hits close, does 2.5 hearts. She's still running in the line of fire. (Antfrost runs to the side, which takes him out of the line of fire.)

Fourth shot takes the remaining 1.5 hearts.

Note that she has 5.5 armour bars worth of armour, which is barely better than full gold armour. (And when I say better I mean it's the same armour points but diamond has the toughness attribute so basically she's wearing the equivalent of full gold armour plus four points of toughness (which I think reduces damage from critical hits? I have no idea if that applies to firework rockets.))

She was also not regening at all between hits because she hadn't been eating.

She did also have prot IV on her chestplate to be fair, that must have helped, although of course normal protection is less effective against explosions than blast protection would be.

But yeah you can see why this weapon would not work equally well against a full set of enchanted netherite. Or even full enchanted diamond.

... or literally just someone with a shield lol

Ant got hit once right in the face for 6.5 hearts and then took zero damage after that because he put up his shield which negates 100% of the blast damage. As you might be able to see, Bad tried to do the same but then decided to drop his shield and run away instead which meant he got hit in the back. (Bad respawns at the boxing ring and immediately puts on full diamond armour.)

So yeah, with six rockets Techno managed to kill five people with no armour (one of which he killed twice) and two people with bad armour who didn't take cover. That’s cool. That's definitely more than you could do even with the best possible bow with the same number of projectiles, even assuming you hit every shot.

But it's not as effective against people with actual defences. Even literally just a shield.

Imagine he had done this from the start, while trying to rescue Tubbo: would he be able to fight off both Punz and Purpled, both in full enchanted netherite, both good at PVP? Plus Fundy who was almost in full netherite too? Alone? While protecting an unarmoured Tubbo?

And he would have had to take out Schlatt and Quackity too, to get Tubbo out, which is not that hard on its own but it becomes tricky when you're surrounded and could be shot at while you attack them.

I really don't think it would have been as easy as some people in the fandom assume.

That said I do kinda wanna talk about how he maybe could have still done it and what the risk levels of those maneuvers would have been and also how they would have worked in the narrative, but this post is getting too long so maybe another time.

#technoblade #dream smp #dsmp discourse #red festival #salty post #feel free to correct me if i made any mistakes tho

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mattoyaki · 3 years

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F2P Yanfei Build Tips

I mentioned in a previous post that I really think pulling on the upcoming Zhongli banner is a great idea for newer players and especially f2p players that have been saving their primos/are nearing pity. This is in large part because the new character Yanfei is looking like a very good character to add to your roster if you lack a main carry or Pyro DPS character.

Pyro is by no means required in this game, but Mihoyo definitely favors it over the other elements. It has access to the two best reactions in the game, melt and vaporise, and can be used with electro for overload to break shields with ease. Dendro when Mihoyo?

Yanfei seems like a f2p player’s dream character, she’s basically a budget Klee. Plus, she’s adorable and has a unique back story akin to Ganyu’s! Unless you just don’t like her design for whatever reason, I highly recommend trying your luck to get her!

Here is a little f2p friendly guide to help you build her should you pull her ! :)

Talents and Ascension

Prioritize Yanfei’s normal attacks when building her talents. Most of her damage will come from Charged Attacks, so her damage will scale better by leveling up her autos first.

Her burst should be second priority since it has a higher damage multiplier. Her skill can be saved for last.

She will require a boss drop from Azhdaha, Bloodjade Branch. Azhdaha is the new weekly boss being introduced in 1.5. Be sure to challenge him once a week!

Other items you will need to ascend her as a character are Agnius Agate, Primordial Jade, Noctilucous Jade, and Treasure Hoarder Insignias!

Weapon

If Yanfei is as much like Klee as she sounds, then the Widsith will likely be her BiS 4 star weapon. Obviously, if you have a 5 star catalyst then use that! If you don’t have either of these, don’t fret! The Mappa Mare is a craftable weapon and is a great choice!

Mappa Mare scales with Elemental Mastery, which is fantastic for a character that relies on reactions to do damage. It’s passive is also useful, granting a 10% elemental damage bonus when an elemental reaction is triggered. This effect can stack twice and scales higher with refinement.

Other great weapons if you have them on hand are the Blackcliff Agate and Solar Pearl. These weapons are great because they provide additional crit dmg and crit rate respectively. Blackcliff can be purchased in the shop with star glitter while the Solar Pearl is a BP exclusive weapon.

Artifacts

*If you are not AR45+* I do not recommend wasting your resin on artifacts. Wait until you’re world level 7 and challenge Lv 90 domains to get guaranteed 5 star artifact drops.*

I’ll also use Klee again for inspiration here. The ideal artifact set for Yanfei would likely be Wanderers Troupe 4pc set. WT is very hard to farm though so Crimson Witch or Lava Walker sets would be good alternatives. In terms of priority I’d say it’s WT > WT/CW > CW > LW but it really just depends on the quality of the artifacts.

For main stats your timepiece should be Atk% unless you have very low Elemental Mastery. If you’re using Mappa Mare and have at least a 2pc Wanderers Troupe set then I’d go with Atk% as a main stat. I’d also use Atk% if you plan on pairing her with Sucrose, since she provides free EM to her teammates. If you are not using Mappa Mare or you don’t have good rolls for EM on your artifacts than shoot for EM as the main stat. So, Atk > EM unless your EM is <100ish.

The cup should 100% be Pyro Dmg Bonus. If you don’t have a single Pyro cup you can run atk% until you do get a Pyro cup.

The circlet should be Crit rate or Crit Dmg, depending which one gets you closer to the ideal 1:2 crit ratio. If your crit rate is <50% I’d say go with Crit Rate over Crit Dmg for more consistency. If you have >50% crit rate then prioritize Crit Dmg.

Sub stats should be prioritized as: Crit rate = Crit Dmg > atk% > elemental mastery > energy recharge > flat Atk and pray you don’t get too many Def or HP rolls.

Team Comp

Yanfei will preform best in a quick swap reaction based team. She will have the best synergy with Hydro, Cryo, Anemo and other Pyro characters. And wouldn’t you know it? Diona will be given away for free in 1.5!

Diona is a fantastic support character, and especially to Yanfei for several reasons:

Cryo application for Melt procs. Diona can apply Cryo with her skill as well as her Burst.

Diona has one of the better shields in the game. As a charged attacker, Yanfei will benefit from the interruption resistance that a shield provides. Diona’s shield scales with HP, so it’s relatively easy to build. It also provides a movement speed increase which is pretty cool and can cleanse other elements off of you to remove unwanted debuffs.

Her burst heals while dealing Cryo damage. This synergizes great with Yanfei. If you happen to have her at max constellation, Diona provides a hefty elemental mastery buff to her teammates inside the AoE of her burst too!

Diona can make use of multiple artifact sets. The new Millieth set looks fantastic for her on paper. She can also utilize the 4pc Maiden Beloved set or pair it with Scholar/Exile. If you lack a Energy Recharge weapon such as Sacrificial Bow or Favonius Warbow, then a simple 2pc Scholar/2pc Exile will work exceptionally well on her. Stack HP% on her timepiece, cup, and circlet to get the most out of her healing and shield.

There are several other characters you could pair with Yanfei and Diona to get a solid team comp. It ultimately comes down to which characters you have in your roster, but for the sake of this build we’ll rely on free characters that everyone has access to.

For the third slot of this team comp, an Anemo character that can utilize Viridescent Venerer artifact set would be great for shredding Pyro resistance for Yanfei. Don’t have Venti, Sucrose, or Jean? Don’t worry, Anemo MC works great as a VV support thanks to their ability to reliably swirl! They also have a fair amount of crowd control and can reach c6 very easily.

For the last slot in this specific team I recommend Bennett if you have him, but if you don’t have him, Xiangling works great! Either way we will be using this slot as a burst support/nuke. I choose these two characters because they are Pyro, which gives the team Pyro resonance, increasing party Atk by 25%! I also chose them because they can both utilize 4pc Noblesse Oblige artifact set. The idea is to use their burst to increase the overall damage of the team. Again, Bennett is perfect for this role but I’ll focus on Xiangling since she’s free to everyone.

Yanfei + Diona + Traveler + Xiangling is a team that will use quick swap play style. Quickswap is a form of play that relies on swapping characters in and out more frequently for higher combined damage, as opposed to Sustained play style where one character is dealing most of the damage. This team can be used in a 4 step rotation:

1.) Start with Xiangling and use her skill or burst to apply Pyro to enemies/activate the NO boost.

2.) Once Pyro is applied, swap to the Traveler and use their skill to swirl Pyro against enemies. This will activate VV 4pc boost, which shreds swirled enemy’s resistance to Pyro by 60%

3.) Swap to Diona and apply Cryo with her skill or Ult.

4.) Finally, Swap Yanfei in and use her charged attacks/burst to proc melts and do big pp damage.

Other 4 ⭐️ characters that can be used with Yanfei include Bennett, Barbara, Chongyun, Sucrose, Xingqiu, Xinyan, Rosaria, and Kaeya. Shoot for Pyro resonance for that sweet Atk buff. Hydro or Cryo for vape and melt procs (Xingqiu is fantastic for this if you have him) and a VV user for resistance shredding (unless you have Zhongli as his shield will shred resistance for you!)

Yanfei can also be used with Electro characters like Fischl for niche shield breaking. Keep in mind that Overload does push enemies back and often requires you to sprint to keep up with them. Charged attackers like Yanfei do not like to sprint too much.

Geo resonance is also a solid choice for her if you have Zhongli, Albedo, or both. If you lack these 5 ⭐️ characters I’d use her in the standard Pyro + Anemo + Hydro/Cryo comp because she doesn’t really have the greatest synergy with other geo characters.

TLDR:

Yanfei is a Pyro DPS character very similar to Klee. She can make use of the 4⭐️ craftable weapon, Mappa Mare; use Wanderer’s Troupe, Crimson Witch or Lavawalker artifact sets with Atk/EM timepiece, Pyro Bonus goblet, and Crit circlet. She ascends with Noctilucous Jade and Primordial Jade, and her talents level up with Bloodjade Branch from new weekly boss Azhdaha. She pairs well with quick swap teams that focus on vaporise and melt elemental reactions!

I hope some people find this helpful! Again, I think Yanfei has really good potential and would make a great addition to your team if you’re looking for another main carry. If you’re new or f2p she’s a great alternative to characters like Diluc and Klee for both overworld and Abyss. Zhongli is also a very good character to have so you really can’t go wrong pulling on this rate up.

#genshin #genshin impact #genshin 1.5 #genshin impact 1.5 #gentry of hermitage #Yanfei #zhongli #f2p

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ketchupkio · 3 years

Text

Pillow Talk

co-written with @mizuriii!!

Rating: G

Category: M/M

Relationship: Legend/Warriors

Words: 2123

Contents:

established relationship, the rest of the polycule is mentioned, trans male character, fluff, like some cavity inducing fluff, light angst, nightmares, prophetic dreams, phantom pain, chronic pain, comfort, Legend and Warriors being mushy, sleeping in the same bed, lullabies, contains like 1.5 references to sex lol, also a reference to Plot??? OWO???

Summary:

Legend and Warriors get some rest... or try to.

An excerpt of something that was supposed to be canon in the AU, but we didn't think hard enough about the timeline first so it's not lmao. Hope you like it!!!!!

Context: Legend, Twilight, Sky, and Wild have just come back from a excursion and traveled the whole night, not sleeping, because they got freaked out by something. Warriors couldn't sleep either because he was worried about them (...but mostly about Legend, let's be real). Legend saw him and immediately went cling! but Wars started spouting theory and strategy and that wasn't super appreciated by the sleep deprived heroes.

The hero with his face currently buried in Warriors’ scarf groaned in protest. “Babe, c’n it wait until ’ve had caffeine or a nap? Please…”

Twilight looked like he didn’t absorb half of what Wars had said. “Strategist brain is appreciated, but a nap would be good, yeah.”

"Er.... s-sorry. We've got these rooms for the next two days, so you're all welcome to head back upstairs if you want...?"

Legend tugged on his scarf, trying to get his eyes to focus enough to glare at him. “You’re coming too. Ya didn’t sleep either, dummy.”

"I-- .... okay, okay, I'm coming. I just wanted to let them know they don't have to rush."

Warriors smiled at him and let Legend push him toward the stairs.

"Your rooms are the three at the far end of the second floor, and the first right hand door on the third."

“Their room is on the third, if you wanna avoid it,” Wind sneered. Hyrule pinched his ear and Legend flipped him off before managing to successfully shove Warriors into the stairwell.

"Are you really alright?" Warriors asked, slipping an arm around Legend’s body. ".....You look exhausted, love...."

Legend hummed. “No one got hurt, but… haven’t been sleepin’ well recently. Barely got any ‘n past few days… Nightmares… ‘N I have a hard time without you...”

"....Me too. When I turn over and you're not there, it's--.... it's cold, you know? But more than cold."

Warriors kissed his temple as he led up to their room, and produced a spare key for Legend in case he wanted to get up and get breakfast before Warriors woke later on, unlocking the door with it before slipping the key into Legend's waist pouch.

"Come sleep with me, okay...? We'll actually get some rest for once."

Legend nodded, and after the door closed, he let Warriors unbuckle his belt and open his tunic. Legend would have dropped them on the floor, but Warriors laid them over the back of a chair, along with his scarf.

“Stays and boots off,” he instructed, and Legend complied with barely an insubordinate tongue sticking out in return. Warriors chuckled at him fondly as he climbed into bed and reached for him, trying to snag the hem of his shirt as he changed into something softer.

“Love you…” Legend murmured. “C’mere…”

"Your wish is my command," Warriors hummed, settling in once he was changed himself, and nestling up under Legend’s chin. His hands pressed gently against Legend’s side and his back, and Warriors took a minute just to breathe in the smell of Legend’s presence. "I love you more..."

Legend would have protested if he hadn’t been so damn tired, so all Warriors got was a (frankly adorable) grumble as the younger hero slung his arms around him and pressed his cheek against the golden hair at his crown. Warriors could feel the tension leaving him as he relaxed, and with Legend’s steady heartbeat under his ear, he could finally breathe easy enough to relax too.

"......Goddesses, we're such anxious wrecks," he laughed after a minute. "Fuck me sideways..."

"Mmh. Maybe tomorrow."

Warriors snorted, then kissed his neck before settling again.

"Sleep well for me, love.... My night depends on it."

…..Legend tried his best. He did.

There were flashes of the desert, of a different era’s Hyrule Castle, of the shade of a king and a jaded prince taking the throne from a corrupt queen, a furious Sheikah founding a rogue organization, and an old, bitter sorcerer with a young face making a deal he couldn’t refuse. Then, dark, choking mists of acid, plants and grass melting at their feet as they advanced, searching, hunting--

Legend shot awake, gasping as phantom pain shot through his arms and back along old, white scars that coiled and branched off like vines through his blood vessels in place of the stinging, corroding pain of acid from his dream.

He didn’t even hear Warriors calling his name until the pain receded to a strong, but not overwhelming ache.

It was dark, he could hear rain hitting the shutters of the windows, and he could feel the storm in his hands and knees and hips.

“Link…” he managed, in an effort to let his partner know he was alive.

Warriors loosed a gasp of relief and worry, and then pulled Legend tight to his chest.

"Y-you were wailing," the captain said, tripping over his words, "a-and crying for me-- are you okay?"

“Sorry…” he rasped, trying to get his bearings. Gods, his throat was raw and he could feel sweat rapidly cooling on his skin in the chill the rain brought. It’d be nice if he could flex his hands at all, or move his anything without it hurting. “I-I ruined your sleep, didn’t I?”

"To hell with my sleep, y-you're in pain, aren't you? Is it the storm? ....Fuck, where'd I put my potion bag--"

“‘S okay, don’t rush… Potions don’t help a lot when there’s nothin’ to heal, babe,” Legend muttered, sluggish even as a sense of urgency crept over him. “...Had a dream. Been having similar ones lately… I have a bad feeling about it.”

"....... Can you tell me about it?" Warriors asked. "You sounded like you were in agony, it scared me...."

Legend leaned into him as best he could. “O-old pain trying to come close to dream pain… It had a sorcerer in it, and a rogue Sheikah… Didn’t Wild say the Yiga from his era used to be Sheikah? This might have been the first of them… Something about Hylian royalty… I-I had prophetic dreams before my first quest…. This feels like those.”

".....A prophetic dream you have bad feelings about....?" Warriors grimaced. "....Should we wake up Sky and the sprite? If you're having prophetic visions, they might be too, but if they're not we can maybe rule out that there's an evil sorcerer on our case."

Legend wanted to ball his fists in Warriors’ shirt, but he couldn’t make his fingers do more than curl loosely. “If I could move, yeah, but that’s probably not going to be for a while… You could get them if you wanted.”

".......Later. When the storm passes, because I'm not leaving you."

Legend let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “Thank you…. Come here and hold me? I’m cold…”

He didn't have to ask Warriors twice. The captain practically wrapped himself around Legend, and pulled in close and tight.

"I've got you, love. I'll keep you warm."

Legend kissed whatever part of Warriors was closest, which happened to be his jaw. “....You’re wonderful…”

….Something nagged at him, though. Warriors hadn’t been a part of his dream that he could remember, but…

“Hey… You said I called out to you…?”

"Yeah.... I think you were asking for help...."

“That… doesn’t bode well,” Legend grimaced. “Can you promise me something, though? I mean like actually promise, no matter the circumstances.”

"......You're scaring me a little.... What is it...?"

“Don’t throw yourself in front of anything for anyone. Not even me. Don’t do reckless bullshit that would get yourself hurt instead of others. That’s not to say you can’t defend anyone, just… don’t jump in where you know you’re gonna overextend and get hurt as a result. Does that make sense? I know that’s both specific and not at the same time, but I can’t explain it. I just… have a feeling. Promise you’ll be careful about that?”

"Don't do something reckless that'll get me killed out of some white knight complex and lack of self preservation? Is that what you want from me?"

Legend tried to shrink further into Warriors’ chest. “....Yes….”

"......You're asking me for quite the tall order," Warriors hummed, pressing kisses against Legend’s temple. "Aren't I supposed to be your dashing knight in shining armor, astride a white horse, keeping all the scary monsters at bay?"

He was trying for humor, but humor wasn't a given promise.

Legend huffed, but the kisses were sweet and he liked the attention. “Yes, and I know that’s a whole personality archetype for you, but Link… I’m worried. Please. This wasn’t in my dream, but it’s got the same feeling. Can you promise me that you won’t do something stupid like that?”

"I--"

Warriors hesitated.

".....Legend-- if something happened to you--"

“No, no, that’s not relevant. Link. We carry fairies and spells and items as countermeasures so if we do get into a dire situation like that, we’ll survive and not have to endanger anyone else in the process. There would be no need for you to risk yourself like that, which is why I want you to promise me you won’t. Hyrule has the goddamn triforce. I’m sure if something were to happen to one of us, there would be some way to help that wouldn’t involve you needlessly throwing your life away. Especially if it’s me, who has items so overpowered that I don’t use them, but keep them in reach so if I need to, I can…. You’re not making me feel good about this.”

"......You didn't hear what you sounded like tonight.... I'm sorry, I just-- ....There's not a whole lot worse than having someone you love screaming for you to help them and being helpless... I don't want to repeat that when there's someone trying to kill us."

Legend scowled, then gave a long sigh. “...We also have three partners at home. We have to think about them too. Minimum number of people getting hurt…”

He… felt like he wasn’t going to get his answer at this rate. Goddamnit.

"............That could also go for you, you know.... but that isn't what you want me to say."

Warriors sighed.

".......If you promise not to get into a situation I feel like you won't come home okay in, I won't do anything stupid. Deal....?"

….That was also a hard thing to guarantee. But…

“I’ll try my best. Deal,” Legend said with a note of finality. “...Now kiss me to seal it. We’re making a contract.”

Warriors smiled and tilted up Legend's chin with his fingers, and pressed a soft, but long, luxuriant kiss against his mouth.

"I love you, love.... Please, goddesses above, get some rest..."

Legend stole another kiss because he needed it. “And I love you, Sir Knight… I’ll try, if I can. Tired…”

".... Should I sing for you...?"

When Legend looked up, Warriors wasn't looking at him, and instead trained his eyes on a particularly interesting lump on the old earthen wall as his ears burned.

"Y-y'know.... t'help you sleep...."

Goddesses above, Legend was smitten. Every day he fell a little bit harder for this man.

He kissed Warriors’ cheek. If his hands worked, he’d be tempted to stroke those beautiful, flushed ears and run his fingers over the scarred edge of his left one. “...I’d love that, baby.”

"M'kay..... Tell. No one. Okay?"

“Why would I? This is just for me. Wouldn’t wanna share it with anyone else…”

"Three reasons. Guess their names."

Legend grinned. “Why wouldn’t you want them to know? They’re our partners, we love them. Two are very musically gifted and would love it. While cute, you’re also being silly.”

"Mhhhhhhh because!! It makes me self conscious and people used to stare.... A-anyway, are you gonna hush and let me, o-or what??"

Warriors’ face was so, so red, and Legend was having some very dangerous thoughts about proposing marriage. Nonetheless, the younger hero conceded.

“Gods above, I’m so in love with you. Okay, yes, I’ll be quiet,” he said, tucking himself more comfortably into Warriors and the pillows.

Warriors kissed him again, and sighed, letting his thumb rest on Legend's cheek, the circles it ran over his skin serving as his metronome. A gentle lullaby brought Legend back to gentle shorelines, warm sand and easy, soft sunlight. It nestled him against merchants fabric that smelled lightly of spice and fairy dust, to old books with knowledge ancient and timeless. It brought him round to soft white linen and blue silk, and rocked him gently on the heels of someone taller than he was, pulling Legend over to a gentle heartbeat.

It brought him home even though home was a thousand miles and goddess only knew how many years away from now.

There was something to be said for song magic, because Warriors was doing it, whether he intended to or not. Legend could feel the intent of a spell woven into his voice. It made him feel warm and safe, eased the pain and fatigue of his body, and relaxed him enough that he immediately started to drift off, awash in the calm sea of Warriors’ voice.

He was out like a light.

Thanks for reading!!! Reblogging and/or screaming in tags/replies/inbox is SO appreciated!!!

#new au #new au fic #not lu #this was too adorable not to post #am screm #hope y'all like them!!!!! writing leg/wars is so comforting i just vbjdsvdsjvsl #also don't y'all fuckin listen to mizu if she tries to say she didn't write just as much of this as i did #or that she's not JUST as stunning w words #we wrote equal amounts of this #this is as co-author as it gets #really i'd never get anything done if it wasn't for her #aaaah i'll shumsh now lol #REBLOG AND SCREM IS HIGHLY ENCOURAGED #ageless soul au #ageless soul au fic

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fatesdeepdive · 2 years

Text

Entry 76: Twenty-Five Turns of Waiting

These next DLC classes are all based off Fire Emblem lords of past games. Specifically, the lords who appeared in Smash. Each of these lords is recruitable via Amiibo, justifying their unique classes.

Class Profile - Lodestar

A sword-wielding class with high Speed and Skill. Class of the Marth Amiibo. In addition to innate boosts to Hit, Crit, and Avoid, they learn Charm, which makes nearby allies inflict more damage, Dual Guardsman, which causes them to charge Dual Guards faster, and Speedtaker, which boosts Speed when the user defeats an enemy. Design-wise, they dress like Marth. Who doesn’t have design I have any strong feelings about, but is at least an iconic design.

Class Profile - Vanguard

A buffer version of the Hero class that wields Swords and Axes. Class of the Ike Amiibo. Heavy Blade increases Strenght by 3 while reducing Speed by 1. Veteran Intuition boosts Crit Evade. Aether is a fantastic activation skill that effectively hits the enemy twice, once with Sol and once with Luna. Finally, Strengthtaker is Speedtaker but with Strength. Once again, the class give characters Ike’s design. His Radiant Dawn Hero design, not his Vanguard Design. Ike’s Hero design is great, though, so who cares.

Class Profile - Great Lord

A Sword and Lance wielding class with stats like Paladins, except not mounted. Class of the Lucina Amiibo. Charm and Aether do what they say in the previous paragraphs. Dual Striker boosts damage on Dual Strikes when supporting an ally. Awakening gives massive boosts to Hit, Evade, Crit, and Crit Evade when the wielder is below half health. Lucina’s design is great, but it doesn’t really work on other characters. It, and really all of these classes, look more like cosplay than actual outfits. Also again that’s not what Lucina’s Great Lord design is, that’s her Lord Design.

Class Profile - Grandmaster

A class wielding Swords and Tomes. Unlike the nukes they were in Awakening, Fates Grandmasters are an ordinary class with good Magic and Resistance. Tactical Advice boosts the Hit of Guard Stance supported units, Solidarity boosts Crit and Avoid by adjacent allies, Ignis is an activation skill that gives a 1.5 boost to magic/attack, and Rally Spectrum is a rally skill that gives +2 to all stats. Again, the design doesn’t really work because Robin’s Tactician design, not their Grandmaster design because it isn’t used, was so specific. Why is Corrin wearing a black and purple hoodie with the logo of the Grimeal on it? Actually, wait, now that I think about it, it is fucking wild that no one realizes Robin is connected to the Grimeal from that cloak.

Conquest Chapter 25: Ryoma

Storytime! I first played this game when I was 16. I distinctly remember where I was when I played this chapter. I was part of a church youth group at the time and got roped into working as the projectionist at a church movie night. They showed God’s Not Dead, which is a fucking awful movie that I hate with every fiber of my burning. This game’s bad writing is nothing compared to that shitstain of a film.

Anyway, I distinctly remember playing this game that night, because I had the volume on and got in trouble. There’s no point to this story, I just felt like sharing it.

Moron and Azura rush through the castle to try and find Ryoma before Iago does. Iago mentions that his team killed every single Hoshidan they ran into. Moron lies and says that they killed Hinoka. Iago speculates that Moron spared Hinoka, but Garon doesn’t give a shit because he’s a bad villian. Iago monologues, again, for the tenth fucking time, about how he’s going to make Moron suffer.

Moron and Iago run into Ryoma, who draws his sword, lighting a dozen nearby torches. Iago tells Ryoma that Sakura is being held hostage, Takumi killed himself, and Moron murdered Hinoka. Moron, having stupidly forced themselves into this situation, confesses to murdering Hinoka. Ryoma takes the news well and tries to strike down Moron. Xander intervenes and Ryoma challenges Moron to a one-on-one duel to the death as sunset. Xander tries to stop the duel, but Iago and Garon insist it goes on.

Saizo and Kagero show up with reinforcements and a battle breaks out. Much like the Birthright chapter Xander, you can end this one early by actually respecting the duel and fighting Ryoma with Moron. Alternatively, you can fight through an army of high-level enemies and lose half of your army to break into the dueling grounds. This decision is made even harder by a terrifying time limit; after a measly 25 turns, Ryoma will attack Moron. This barely gives you enough time to sit around for fifteen turns after taking out the retainers. Side note, I made Kaze kill Saizo, there wasn’t any unique dialogue.

After being defeated by Moron, Ryoma begs for death so he may be reunited with Hinoka. Moron reveals that Hinoka is still alive, something they could have said before Saizo and Kagero died pointlessly. Moron leaves Ryoma alive and goes to meet with Garon.

Moron tells Garon to seize the throne, but Garon demands Moron kill Ryoma. Moron suggests sparing Ryoma to make him suffer the dishonor of losing his kingdom, but Garon brings up the whole kill everyone so they can’t get revenge thing. Ryoma intervenes and kills himself to keep Moron from doing it. As he dies, he whispers to Moron that he’s counting on them.

I count this as Moron breaking their promise to Hinoka, by the way. This is Moron’s fault. Ryoma died for Moron because Moron was a shithead. And the worst part is, we’ve already been through this exact fucking scene! The Rainbow Sage did the same thing for Moron, our special boy who can’t be forced to make hard choices. Ryoma dies and Garon relishes in his absolute victory that we granted him, at the cost of countless innocent lives.

Fates is a game of parallels. This chapter parallels the Birthright chapter Xander, that game’s best chapter. This is not this game at its best. This is everything wrong with Conquest. Instead of Moron fighting for good against their brother, an honorable but misguided man loyal to his country, it's Moron fighting against good out of loyalty to their country. We’re the fucking bad guys, we’re the ones who killed Ryoma, and fuck this game if it pretends otherwise.

Moron wanders off and sobs about Ryoma dying. It is touching, or at least it would be if it wasn’t fucking stupid. Azura says that Ryoma was proud of Moron and that Moron shouldn’t waste his sacrifice, because her purpose as a character is to keep Moron from feeling sad about anything ever. I’d feel sad about the two semi-siblings crying together over the death of their big brother, if it wasn’t their damn fault for being dumbasses.

Support: Kaze/Selena

C: Selena interrogates Saizo to see if he'll be a useful ally. Kaze points out that they're both aloof and suspicious.

B: Kaze observes Selena in battle and realizes that she's been fighting for her entire life.

A: Kaze realizes that Selena, Odin, and Laslow are all keeping the same secret, but doesn't investigate further because Selena is his ally.

S: Kaze and Selena have a moonlit chat where Kaze begs Selena to stay in Nohr, vowing to protect her because he loves her.

Review: Kaze’s moonlit begging for Selena to stay is great. Other than that, this one is fine.

Support: Azura/Laslow

C: Laslow, who is up late practicing dancing, runs into Azura, who is up late practicing singing.

B: Laslow dances and this is somehow enough for Azura to psychoanalysis him and realize A: that he has a dead mother, and B: he has stage fright. Somehow.

A: Laslow dances despite his stage fright with Azura's help. Azura says that she used to worry about not being as good as her mother, Arete, until Mikoto told her her voice was beautiful. Laslow says he wishes he could inspire people to move again like Azura can. Azura says she can only do that because of her pendant, confirming that Olivia is a metahuman who could kick Azura's ass.

S: More psychoanalysis of dancing, the standard can't date a royal thing, blah blah blah.

Review: It’s fine, but I don’t really think it went far enough with either character.

Support: Benny/Mozu

C: Mozu, thinking Benny is a bear, tries to hunt him.

B: Benny says he doesn't eat bear because he played with bears as a child.

A: Mozu asks Benny to help her befriend a bear.

S: Mozu says she misses the rice paddies from her village. There are like twenty different Supports where Mozu talks about farming and this is the first time she mentions rice, which is weird. All of her other Supports have her farming other plants, so I assumed she was some sort of vegetable farmer. Whatever. Benny offers to help her farm, which is his idea of a proposal.

Review: Benny is a bear, amiright? No but seriously this one is just okay.

Support: Beruka/Charlotte

C: Charlotte tells Beruka that men won't like her because she's standoffish, which is flat out not true. Beruka says she doesn't care about what other people think, only about if she can kill them. Charlotte claims she knows a different way to kill a man.

B: Charlotte tells Beruka to wear skimpy clothes and make people food so she can take control of men's hearts. Also Beruka mentions that she wears Camilla's old armor, which is a neat character detail. Presumably from when Camilla was a child, because Beruka's clothes clearly wouldn't fit Camilla now.

A: Beruka confronts Camilla about lunches not killing men. Charlotte says she wasn't being literal and that her methods drive men to serve her, which works because men without free will are basically dead.

Review: This one is bland and also makes Beruka an idiot.

#fire emblem fates #azura fire emblem #ryoma fire emblem

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kyogre-blue · 3 years

Text

Azhdaha’s development video

There is a new video out with developer commentary about Azhdaha.

It’s very.... hm. Genshin standard, I suppose. General tidbits:

Azhdaha’s design started early, far before his release. This makes sense, since there are several quests about his lore before 1.5

They discuss that they specifically chose "Azhdaha" due to its meaning and sense of something arising from the depths, so this isn't some casual decision from the localizers.

Azhdaha’s design uses a lot of different real world animals for his shape and movements. This includes crocodiles, box turtles, komodo dragons and stegosauruses.

His design seems to have gotten chonkier and chonkier as it progressed, haha

The art and concept aspects are nice as always. I honeslty don’t have much complaints about Genshin in this direction.

“Creative Concept” and “Writing Team” are two different groups. I think we can guess which one I think is much better than the other.

Azhdaha "integrated himself into human society" and lived among them. But I’m not sure if this is supposed to imply that he had a human form. It doesn’t seem like he could have lived among humans otherwise, but who knows.

I’m going to mostly leave out my impressions of the Zhongli angle here because I know I’m unreasonably harsh on him. But there is this one line that he "lost many things on the way of saving his friend" that I just can’t.... Azhdaha screams about being in agony for a thousand years. How was he saved?

It’s also mentioned that this matter of erosion hints toward what could happen if Zhongli didn’t step down, so I guess Eroded!Morax is a thing.

One point that they discuss is that Azhdaha is supposed to touch upon the relationship between humans and nature. He represents nature, while humans represent "the spirit of expansion and development." So this aspect is intentional... just completely undeveloped.

The idea was to explore the contradictory but “symbiotic” relationship between man and nature. This “symbiotic” is repeated twice, but I feel like it’s misused here because it’s very much a standard humans exploiting nature deal.

The writers also seem to be quite... unclear about what led to the situation with Azhdaha. On the one hand, they blame erosion for Azhdaha being in conflict with humans, but on the other hand, there is the man & nature message. Which is it? These two points don’t seem to connect in any way at all.

This is one of the big problems I have with Azhdaha’s writing. The humans were clearly in the wrong, having exploited nature and harmed Azhdaha (and the Ley Lines, which definitely is not a good thing). But Morax is not mentioned taking any action to address this, he just seals Azhdaha away because it’s a violation of their contract. Then, the unclear element of Azhdaha’s erosion is brought up, but it seems to only say that, if he’d been in his right mind, he would have... endured silently? Not attacked? We don’t know. This is not properly elaborated. It’s very messy.

One final bit:

They provide the lyrics for Azhdaha’s boss theme. It's supposed to represent the relationship between him and Zhongli, and the guy in the video (apologies, I missed his name and title) says he interprets it as the hatred Azhdaha feels toward being sealed away alive and forgotten by the world. (This whole business of hating that you are forgotten seems to occur quite often.)

Here are the lyrics:

(Long ago) in the field of stars, expelling the dark shadows

(Now) lost in the mountains and wilderness, with no way to go

Show yourself!

Since you left, this country has fallen into a terrible state

Hatred, sorrow, and grief accumulate day by day

Panicking and not knowing where to go, I embark on the treacherous journey ahead

It's time to return!

The steep rocks and mountains withstood the test of time

Thousands of rivers rush rapidly, seemingly swallowing the sky

(But even if) Mountains fall and the earth tremors

How can the evil (which caused all this) be eradicated?

(Fate) lonely and wandering, trapped in such a harsh place

There is no way out of this miserable generation

The mountains are precipitous and lush, hiding the path that diverged (between you and me)

Recounting how I had lost my way and wandered away from you, engulfed by the shadow of a mountain ridge

#genshin impact

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aperrywilliams · 4 years

Text

Love and concern (Dad!Spencer Reid x Fem!Reader)

(Not my gif!)

Masterlist

———————

Summary: Spencer is concern about the first school day of his daughter.

Word Count: 1315.

Rating: General Audiences. Dad Spencer Fluff.

Warnings: Mention to bullying.

A/N: Happy Father’s day to the dad that was robbed from us, Spencer Reid.

——————–

The alarm rang at 6:00 am, as scheduled. Sleepily I turned to face the nightstand to turn it off. After a groan of dissatisfaction, I turn to the other side and saw I was alone in bed. Spencer wasn’t next to me. I rubbed my eyes to shake some of the sleep out of my body. I got up on the way to the kitchen and saw Spencer busily making coffee and carefully cutting some fruits and putting them in a tupperware. He was still in pajamas.

"Spencer... what are you doing already up? It’s only 6:02 in the morning, the alarm rang two minutes ago…”. I said in my usual drowsy voice.

"I just wanted to do a few things before going to shower...". His voice was a combination of concentration and concern at the same time. Spencer didn't even look up to speaking to me. I approached the kitchen counter where he continued the task of cutting fruits and settling them in the tupperware.

"My love, I think she won’t eat all this amount of fruit today...". I told him while I watching the tupperware was full of slices apples, oranges and bananas.

"What if she gets hungry sometime?. I think a sandwich probably isn't enough. What if she gets anxious?. The best thing would be for her to calm anxiety with something healthy. Furthermore, we know the nutritional content of snacks in schools is standard for all kids. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but if she needs something else I wish she could have it…”. Spencer said it, now focus on carefully wrapping the sandwich next to the tupperware with fruit.

"Maybe… could it be you are the anxious one?". I asked with a frown. Having said that, he looked at me for the first time this morning.

"Me?… No!, I just want my daughter to have everything she needs on her first day of school”. Spencer said solemnly, taking the sandwich and putting it in the lunch box, the item prepared for that specifically purpose.

"Spencer Reid, I’ve known you for 8 years, you can't hide it from me you are nervous or worried about something". I said him with a severely tone for to take me seriously this time. Deep down myself I thought I knew what his concern was about, but I wanted him tell me about it. He was silent for a few minutes. Spencer put his forearms on the counter and looked at me with a pout.

"And if she doesn’t like it?, and if happens something?... it supposed school should be a good experience for her. I don't want her to have a bad time on it…”. I could see how Spencer clenched his teeth just thinking in that worst scenario. I approached to Spencer to stroke his back and help to release some of the evident tension of his body.

"I can realize your apprehension, but we already had the Kindergarten experience and I think it was quite successful, don't you think?" I said now, nudging him gently in the ribs.

“I know, but Kindergarten is a much more controlled environment, there are fewer children and there is more flexibility in activities. At school there are more children and teachers has less control. The prevalence of bullying in the first year of school increased from 25% to 30% between 2015 and 2019… it’s a huge ratio!... what's more, the latest NCES reports say the gap between boys and girls is widening. That means our daughter has almost 1.5 more chances of being bullied just because she’s a girl!...”. Spencer said the last sentence in a high pitch which denoted it was something extremely disturbing to him.

"Spencer, stop it now if you don't want to get the divorce papers by mail". I said flatly so he stopped talking. He begun rambling further than I was able to bear in that moment. I was beginning to terrify myself. That was enough for him to stop talking and nervously start fidgety his hands. I took his hands with mine to try to calm him down before speaking. "Hey, I know you are nervous, I’m too, but this is all about the things she has to experience...". I said trying to encourage him.

"I know. I really know all things are you saying, but I love her too much and I couldn't stand to see her suffer because some asshole says something hurtful to her or they ignore her or...". I could see the gears in his head spinning endlessly.

"That doesn't have to happen. You are trying to anticipate all possible outcomes and we don't know how it’ll really be like. Why should it be a bad experience for her? It doesn't have to be…”. With one of my hands I started to sort his hair and stroke it to cheer him up a bit. I knew exactly where the conversation was going.

"But it happened to me. And I don't want something like that happened to her. (Y/N), school can really be a nightmare…” he confessed with a grimace of evident discomfort.

"I know it my love. I didn't have a great time at school at first either, but I think our daughter will be better able to face the challenges of her new life than either of us. She is as smart as you and as stubborn as me, she’ll know exactly what to do. Plus, she has her parents who love her very much and who will always be there to support her…”. Spencer let out a sigh as he took me by the waist and burying his head on my shoulder.

"Yes, I know. She’s a wonderful little girl. Like her mother". After saying it Spencer moved away from my shoulder to look at me and give me an intense kiss on the forehead.

"And like his father. Don't forget that. You have done an excellent job Spencer. She loves you and trusts you utterly. There could be no closer bond than yours. Believe me that makes me even jealous sometimes…”. I said managing to get a smile out of Spencer.

"Do you think so?..." he asked some blushing. He knew I was telling the truth.

"Of course I do! Do you know who is the one who doesn’t want to go to sleep because 'daddy' has not read her good night story?. She only accepts I do it when she knows you are traveling”.

“(Y/N)… I just want her to be happy. I don't care what I will have to do to make sure she will happy”. I knew he was genuine. If Spencer had to sacrifice himself for our daughter, he wouldn't even think twice.

"I believe it. I believe you. And I’m sure if you think it’s necessary to go to aunt Penelope to chase some idiot who hurts her, you’ll do so regardless of what I say or how much I protest…”. We both started laughing. I looked at the clock on the wall and it was a little after 6:30. "Okay, go to shower, I'll wake up the sleepy beauty and we'll make breakfast, ok?". Spencer nodded, catching my lips with his.

“I love you. Thanks for understanding me and supporting me... always”. Spencer said whispering in my ear.

"I love you too. So much. Now go… go to shower”. I instructed him. Like a child with a commanded task he walked to the bathroom. Before closing the door he peering his head out to say something.

"Maybe I should ask Emily for the day off... and I don't know, stay out of school in case she needs something...". The look I returned must have been so much intense and harsh enough for him to give up on his idea himself. "Or maybe not…". That said, he closed the door and turned on faucet of the shower.

———————

#spencer reid #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid x fem!reader #dad!spencer #criminal minds #spencer reid fluff #dr. spencer reid

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ghostietoasty · 4 years

Text

Why Sherlock Holmes FGO is Sus: Theories and More

Before I begin, I’d like to give thanks to my wonderful friend for all the points, art, and info searching that have been made to produce this piece, I can’t appreciate you enough for the effort you put in. 🥺🙏💕

Alright now on to it!

INTRODUCTION: Humble Beginnings (Identification of the Abnormal)

If you’ve played the app Fate/Grand Order for a while you’d know about the Heroic Spirit we first encounter in a hole within Camelot’s dessert whilst going to the Atlas Institute. Smart, handsome looking, and sharp enough to discern our True Name, this man of mystery has been seen as an oddball by many long time players of the game. There are many aspects about him that raise doubt about his credibility, is he truly what he wants us to think he is? That servant is Sherlock Holmes (Ruler) and there are many theories about him having some secrets, about him either being a Foreigner class, Beast class, or something else entirely. We are attempting to catalogue all this information in one place for maximum clarity.

SECTION 1: Other Character’s Reaction (First Impression is the Best Impression) *WARNING LOSTBELT 1 AND 2 SPOILERS AHEAD*

From the first encounter in Camelot right until the end of Lostbelt 2, there are many instances of characters reacting to his presence in….interesting ways.

Bedivere, when first coming in contact with Holmes in Camelot says that "I suppose I've never really been good with people like him. He reminds me of Merlin."

It could refer to the mysterious manner in which both Holmes and Merlin conduct themselves, but better to keep in mind that Merlin is a Grand Caster, and that he manifests as a servant due to specific circumstances (he is not dead).

In Camelot, Mash assumes that Holmes must be Caster class and that the original novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle must have been biographies penned by Dr. Watson under a pen name. Holmes corrects her, saying that: "My true identity, my essence, is slightly different from what you may think. And sad, but that is not the purpose of our gathering here today."

This dilemma is also present in the Sherlock Holmes Trial Quest (which mostly tackles the debate of whether he's a fictional character or someone who actually existed). Holmes has a line where he says:

"Ah, yes. I mentioned I was a Caster. Forgive me, I lied."

This is however immediately followed up by:

"A jest. My apologies. I couldn't help myself."

This sort of backpedalling raises a doubt as to whether he was really Caster class before, so the nature of his former class is still a mystery. He later mentions that his Ruler class is the World telling him that not all illusions and dreams need to be laid bare.

When meeting with Salieri in Lostbelt 1, Holmes introduces himself as such:"I'm Sherlock Holmes, Chaldea's administrative advisor. I became a servant through unusual means, just like you."

Salieri was only summonable as a servant because of his reputation caused by the fact that he killed Mozart. He is under the effect of Innocent Monster. It can also be said that Salieri is a lostbelt servant and is significantly more sane than he would have been in a normal summoning, that was the unusual summoning that Holmes was refering to. Does this mean Holmes is not from Proper Human History?

Sigurd (who's under the control of Surtur), while attacking us in Lostbelt 2 says this: "So, a human and two Heroic Spirits. No, wait. Neither of you are pure Heroic Spirits, are you? You've both got something else mixed in. Hehe, hybrids then. Interesting"

This is in reference to Holmes and Mash, who are alongside the master at this moment. Mash is a demiservant (human+servant) hence the "Hybrid" comment makes sense, but Holmes? What is the "something else" mixed in with Holmes?

Later in LB2, Holmes requests the assistance of Scáthach-Skadi in beating Surtur. Skadi says that normally she would never pay mind to what a mere Heroic Spirit had to say but: "...but in your particular case…I sense wisdom in those beautiful eyes. You remind me of Baldr, god of light." Quite a bit later, she also has this to say:"Perhaps those piercing eyes of yours in fact surpass Odin's? Mystic Eyes, perchance? ….No, that's not it. They merely reflect your wisdom born of human history's cumulative accomplishments."

She says that's not it, but the fact that it was the first thing she thought of shouldn't be ignored.

Baldr is the god of light. Holmes' attacks consist of beams of light, and his cane lights up when he's using it in battle.

In Norse legends, Odin is said to have sacrificed one eye to the spring of Mimir in order to get ancient wisdom, the ability to perceive everything in the world.

SECTION 1.5: More Reactions (From JP Only)

Since it is JP only and there is no official translation for NA yet, this information cannot be 100% confirmed in any way. (Most of this is from Reddit translation done by fans). But as these are also important, it's best to put this information separate section.

Moriarty's interlude involves him finding a micro-singularity in London. At some point the transmission between Chaldea and the master gets cut and Moriarty reveals he created this scenario, made the singularity and everything to get one on one time with the master. He tells us not to trust Holmes. When the time comes, we as master should choose Moriarty over Holmes.

It has to be kept in mind that Moriarty is not a good guy, he is a character created entirely to oppose Holmes so it is natural that he doesn't trust him. For all we know, it is just emotional manipulation.

Moriarty's very nature is tied to being the antithesis of Holmes. Holmes might theoretically go against us for the sake of humanity while also trying to keep us safe (the master is in a way, a Watson replacement to him after all) while Moriarty would gladly let humanity burn for the sake of us but also for the sake of being completely opposite to Holmes and keeping his identity as such.

However he does raise valid points, how was Holmes able to rayshift? This part was never explained, and he also mentions that his hypothesis has a fatal contradiction in the fact that Holmes risked his life to save ours. What can be inferred from this is that Holmes is a good man and is on our side, but there is something very weird about him that should not be ignored.

In Lostselt 5 it is mentioned at one point that Zeus called Holmes dangerous, he mustn't look at Zeus or the other gods and that his eyes are enemies of the world.

It has to be mentioned that this is some heavy emphasis on Holmes' eyes (Skadi mentioned Holmes' eyes twice, and she was a god as well). Is it because of the nature of Holmes that he is the one that reveals all truth? Is that in some way detrimental to gods, magic and the world in general?

Recently, from Holmes' skill upgrade interlude there was a section about Holmes saying that he is always an ally of justice and that while he may be on our side, he is still capable of evil but it doesn't change the fact that he is our ally. Even then it seems he has some secrets that can't be understood by himself.

By now with the presence of Dr. Jekyll and Helena and their recounts on what happened, it is confirmed that Holmes was actually "alive"(?)

Some of the adventures penned by Dr. Watson were actually censored versions of the original happenings, which were magical in nature.

Holmes was traumatised(?) by Helena's death back when they were both alive. He swears he would never let that happen again. (remember what happened in lostbelt 2…)

It seems that Holmes himself is not fully sure of what is secret about him. Since he utterly dislikes talking about something without being 100% sure about it (this tendency of his has gotten us in trouble before) plus his general secretive nature, it can be said that this is why he wouldn't talk about that.

SECTION 2: Weird Things That Holmes Does (And Other Questions)

Heroic Spirits are anything but normal, but there are few servants who break the norm even further, and Holmes is one of them.

Holmes is able to Rayshift (presumably) from London, to Camelot, and then to Shinjuku. There are very few servants who are able to manifest themselves.

Musashi also appears here and there, but it's not a deliberate choice on her part. She is not able to predetermine her next destination.

Arthur travels from a parallel world to this world, but this is due to "chasing after a certain powerful antagonist, evil omen" - so he tells.

Beast class has the skill of Independent Manifestation which would allow the servant to manifest anywhere they'd want. Merlin, Tamamo Vitch and Shiki possess it. However, it has to be noted that Holmes' rayshifts have a significant toll on his saint graph, as he is unable to fight or defend himself by the time we meet him in Camelot. While normal Independent Manifestation shouldn't lead to the depletion of the user's saint graph. Holmes' class is unknown at the time of his rayshifting.

At the time of summoning, Heroic Spirits usually reveal their class and True Name (there also are exceptions to the rule). At the time of his summoning, Holmes doesn't reveal his Class: "Are introductions necessary? I am a detective. If you were expecting a hero, my apologies...But if you wanted a detective or an investigator, you drew the right card."

In the case of EOR Servants whose names haven't been found, they reveal their class.

Who summoned Holmes? The only thing we know regarding his presence was that it was first clearly there when he tampered with information in London.

Holmes' illustrator is Yamanaka Kotetsu, who was also the illustrator of the beasts Tiamat and Goetia

The artists who design and illustrate the characters tend to do it in groups of servants who are related to each other in some way (Pako with Arjuna and Karna Chacha and Nobunaga; Miwa Shiro with Brynhildr and Sigurd). It is strange that Kotetsu designed only Holmes, Tiamat and Goetia.

(NEW ADDITION) It should also be noted that as an illustrator Kotetsu has had previous works in a Lovecraftian Guidebook and is also the artist to the Alien God Preistess, somewhat showing how their work leans more to the outerworldly.

SECTION 3: The Design

It is a very commonly noticed fact that Holmes' coat in his third ascension has a very similar shape to that of the Foreigner card artwork.

The pattern work on the coattails of the foreigner art and the inside (blue) part of Holmes' coattails have a very similar, if not exactly same pattern running down the entire length of it. The sphere summoned in Holmes' Noble Phantasm also has the same pattern on its sides and front.

There is a "fog" around Holmes in his third ascension, which is reminescent of the smoke in the card art. (Also can be the London smog).

The glowing section of the abdomen of the being reminds one of the metallic corset that Holmes wears.

There are 4 notches of smoke on either side of the being (total 8), under their cape. If we stretch our interpretation, then it could mean Holmes' arms and the metal arms that he has is also equal to 8.

In that tangent, the shape of the coat is also similar to that of Saver class Buddha, the fantasy trees from Lostbelt 3 and 4, and the Shadows made by the 6th imaginary element.

The Endless Knot / Shrivatsa symbol on his shoulders is one of the many references of his connection to Tibet (faking his death after the Final Problem). It is an important symbol in both Jainism and Buddhism.

Some of its interpretations include:

The eternal continuum of mind.

The union of wisdom and method.

Since the knot has no beginning or end it also symbolizes the wisdom of the Buddha

the endless cycle of suffering or birth, death and rebirth within Tibetan Buddhism.

The cane that Holmes wields has a pattern on its handle in the shape of a Prayer Wheel.

However, we are not able to find the meaning behind the script on the cane. Both of us attempted to translate it but failed. If anyone can translate the meaning it would be greatly appreciated.

The holographic books in the base of the unidentified sphere have a pattern on their front that greatly resembles a lotus.

In Holmes' third ascension, there are a number of magical circuits on his coat.

The circuits are almost only on his left side, with very few circuits on his right side. It's not like it was woven into it, were that the case the circuits would have been all over his coat in a more even distribution. It's almost like an impact radius.

The circuits are very similar to the ones visible on the title screen of the lostbelts, as well as the patterns seen on the fantasy trees.

CONCLUSION SECTION: Something's Up (It's Big Brain Time)

It's clear that something is very strange about Holmes, from his interactions to his design, it's clear that there is too much effort into throwing these hints that it's not just a red herring.

Is he a Foreigner? Beast? Counter Guardian? Some other unknown extra class? It cannot be said at the moment. Holmes' role as a revealer itself is dangerous to mystery and magic, so it can be anything.

It is also not necessarily true that just because Holmes has all these abnormalities, that he will betray us, or is on the side of evil. When has there been a clear cut side of good or evil anyway? It can be argued that we are the villains in some way, as we bring about the end of these timelines to safeguard our own proper human history.

Holmes has always been on the side of humanity and will continue to be, the question is what the reveal will be, why and how. That, only time and future chapters can answer, all we can do is speculate.

#fate #fate grand order #fgo #Sherlock Holmes #lostbelt spoilers #foreigner theories #fuccyoutumblrfuccyoutumblrfuccy #hope yall enjoyed!! feel free to give yalls thoughts!!#and again thank you soso much fremd🥺🥺🥺🙏🙏

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melonlord-ramblings · 3 years

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✨Yowu Cardcaptor Sakura Limited Edition Headphones Review✨

Service and Shipping Rating: 4/10

Product Rating: 8.5/10

Service and Shipping Rating: 4/10

I rated their service 4 because of something that happened after I ordered my headphones. I ordered their headphones on a Wednesday and I emailed them (twice) on Saturday after getting no shipping updates - I went to check on my order status, it said it was closed (I got nervous, I don’t shop online a lot, let alone internationally). I got my answers on the following Tuesday - with the first one saying that nothing was wrong and that it was still waiting for delivery. The second response was the answer that I had needed. They answered saying that my package couldn’t ship out because it was stuck at customs because my package needed an “Unified Identity Authentication”. I didn’t even know what this was, and Google was no help. Miraculously, I was able to find out what they were needing by looking up customs regulations for my country and was able to quickly sign up for a personal customs code. I quickly sent them a reply and they answered back saying they’ll send it to the company. I wasn’t as angry as my sister, but I do agree with what she said. Were they ever planning on telling me that I was needing such a thing? There wasn’t a box asking for such information when I was inputting my address so I was unaware that was required. Five business days had passed, and I only found out they needed an important piece of information because I emailed them. Thus, the reason for a low service rating. I will give them credit that within the time frame of Tuesday and Wednesday, they did answer back rather quickly. But the late initial reply and the fact that I had to reach out to them to find out why my package wasn’t shipping, is why I gave them this rating. After sending them my code, I finally got a confirmation email on Friday.

Another reason for a low shipping rating is that they gave me the wrong shipping service, so it took me a while to even figure out which shipping service my tracking number was valid for. At that point, I only figured out what shipping service it was once my package arrived in my country.

After that, I received an email from the Korean branch of the shipping company confirming my address and all that. Later, they too, provided a tracking number, but again without a specific courier service. Thankfully, Naver has some sort of feature where you can input all available courier services and the tracking number to see which one it belongs to. Overall, I’d say it was a surprisingly slow delivery. Maybe I’m a little spoiled from fast shipping in Korea. After it passed through customs, it did get here somewhat quickly. They said minimum it would arrive Thursday, it came around Friday at lunchtime.

Thinking back on it, I guess it was pretty fast shipping - around a week and a half to two weeks, but the lack of information needed from the company really lowered the rating.

Product Initial Rating: 9/10

Oh my gosh, it’s so pretty!!! From the pictures, I was a little worried about how the gold would look with the pink, but there was no need to worry, the color scheme is so pretty. The earcups are also nice and squishy which is nice. It’s a little on the cheap feeling side because it’s made of plastic - which unfortunately, makes it creaky and a little stiff. I’m worried about potentially breaking the adjustable area because it’s so hard to pull out and push in. Other than that though, everything is so pretty and nice. I will say, it smells very strongly of paint when you first open it. I don’t know why, but especially the earpads smell so strongly of paint I gagged a little.

I love the details that let you know it’s Cardcaptor Sakura! The fact that they even gave three Clow cards?? I love it! The wired audio cable is based off of her star wand handle and the headphones themselves have aspects of CCS!

My package also came mainly in good condition, only a few minor bumps here and there - very minimal; which is surprising because it wasn’t that well protected. Maybe one layer of bubble wrap and then plain plastic packaging.

The headset case is absolutely beautiful! I thought it would be hard, knockable leather, but it’s actually a little squishy! I think it’s based off of her uniform, and it’s so cute! I think you can use it as an actual bag, but taking out the mold and stuff was a little hard, so I gave up because I didn’t want to risk it.

Product Final Rating: 8.5/10

I am in no way an audiophile or an expert on headphones, but I really like them! The sounds are nice and clear and crisp. I’m not sure if they’re for gamers because I’m not one, but when I used them playing Genshin, it was even more fun than usual! I could hear the fire crackling, the winds howling, and even what I think were wolves howling in Dragonspine! I could hear the little details and I think that was pretty impressive. I haven’t tested them with various genres of music, but I did like what I already heard.

I wore these for around an hour to an hour and a half and I didn’t even realize that much time passed! The earcups are really comfy and not bothersome, even with glasses. I will say, it’s a little on the heavier side and it weighs down from the top because of the cat ears and I did notice that a little near the hour mark. They also are a little tight to put on and that makes it a little hard to take them off, but hopefully they’ll stretch out over time.

The fact that it can be wired and wireless is also nice in case you run out of battery or just don’t feel like using bluetooth. The USB-C type means it’ll charge faster! Using the volume and function buttons really did make me realize how plasticky it was because it would make a plastic echo-y sound every time I pressed it.

I don’t think the mic is that good. On the few times I used it to talk with, the person on the other side said I sounded too quiet and I guess it doesn’t pick up on my voice that well. But I have also read other people say it’s good enough for calls, so it’s up to you.

You can manually change the lights and colors or you can do it through the app - which by using the Clow cards, can also unlock new colors. I don’t know if I’ll use the app because you need to input your phone number and I generally avoid inputting such information.

As for the battery life, it is not that good. It definitely is much shorter than the advertised 20 hours with lighting wirelessly. I can’t say exactly how long because I don’t and can’t wear headphones for that long, consecutively. But I do wear them for around 2 hours a day or so, and I only use them for around 2 or 3 days before I have to charge them. So I’d say around 6 hours total? So yeah, way less than advertised and “guaranteed”.

The headphones are definitely on the pricey side, which makes sense because of intellectual property and licensing - plus the cards and the leather bag headset case. I love this headphones and hopefully I’ll wear them a lot! I recommend these if you aren’t an avid gamer (because I don’t know if they’re good enough for that), love CCs, and have the money to spare!

extra note: I will say, if you have the money to spare, it is pretty worth it! Especially if you compare it to the airpods pro! These headphones, including shipping, turned out to be slightly cheaper, and it comes with more!

Ramblings:

I don’t know if it had to do with me, but it seemed like I could hear better from the left earphone - it was clearer and louder than the right - I actually had to move the left away to see if the right was even working lol. My sister also said the same thing, so it’s possible that this pair of headphones isn’t in the best shape? It’s not so obvious that it’s jarring, but it’s a little obvious in that it makes it uncomfortable.

I am wondering if Yowu will eventually offer extra accessories like earpads in case we need to replace the ones we have, or if they’ll give instructions on how to wash them?

I also would have liked it if Yowu had more details on their shipping and refund policies (mainly shipping) and clearer details and information on the shipping service.

I was watching Genshin Impact’s 1.5 livestream, and I don’t know if it was cause it was a livestream, but near the end, the audio started to occasionally short out, so there’s that.

Overall, I’d give this pair of limited edition Cardcaptor Sakura headphones a solid 9/10!

#ccs #cardcaptorsakura #yowu #yowuheadphones #yowustyle #review #headphones #yowureview #melonlord #melonlord-ramblings #melonlord-reviews

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lligkv · 3 years

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almost calculated to rivet the reader

I was recommended the book The Bestseller Code: Anatomy of the Blockbuster Novel by another editor at the publishing house I work for, who was impressed at the thought of an algorithm that could predict whether a book would be a bestseller with 72 percent accuracy.

As someone who reads “literary” novels, has a disdain for tech evangelists bordering on the visceral, and regards the development of data-driven publishing with mistrust, I expected to be annoyed by the book. But it’s ultimately not quite as offensive to those sensibilities as it might seem. Rather than a “code” to help people write novels that’ll sell, or an algorithm of some kind that might drive book acquisitions in years to come, The Bestseller Code is about exploring why bestsellers like The Da Vinci Code or Fifty Shades of Gray appeal the way they do. And it offers support, through text mining (the process by which one discovers and extracts particular textual features from a book) and machine learning (the way one might process those features by feeding them into a machine that goes on to make predictions about, say, whether a given manuscript will achieve bestseller status or not), for research that was already done by folks like the scholar Christopher Booker, who read hundreds of books over decades, the old-fashioned way, and identified seven main plots for fictional narratives that authors Jodie Archer and Matthew Jockers find are corroborated by their own data.

Granted, there’s a bit of Jennifer Weiner-type “the commercial lit popular authors write keeps getting badmouthed by critics and the Literary Establishment!” stuff in the book. There’s also one baffling moment where Archer and Jockers make a claim that “the range of existential experience was much greater in bestsellers,” and defend that claim by talking about particular verbs that appear more often in bestselling novels than in non-bestsellers: “bestselling characters ‘need’ and ‘want’ twice as often as non-bestsellers, and bestselling characters ‘miss’ and ‘love’ about 1.5 times more often than non-bestsellers.” Verbs and isolated actions do not existential experiences make! But at root, Archer and Jockers’s research is the product of curiosity about what makes mainstream bestsellers sell the way they do, and whether readers have figured something out that acquisitions editors at big houses may not have yet.

As it turns out, there’s a degree of technical sophistication in Fifty Shades of Grey or The Da Vinci Code in the way these books follow a plot arc that manages to perfectly satisfy a commercial-fiction reader’s desire to be thrilled by dramatic stories and the fantasies they play upon. Specifically, for these books, it’s the “rebirth” plot, in which a character experiences change, renewal, and transformation. Which doesn’t sound revolutionary. But if you look closely at the plot structure, and the sequence of emotional beats in both novels, you see a rollercoaster shape that’s almost calculated to rivet the reader: these peaks of high, low, a high-high, a mild low, another smaller high, a low, and a final high (unless, like Fifty Shades, you need another low to set the reader up for the sequel). Authors and readers alike seem to have stumbled on such perfect, sophisticated structures. The writers happen upon them, rather than consciously being educated in them or consciously crafting them as more literary writers often do; readers seem to hunt them out by instinct: the books that best follow one of the seven plot structures are the ones that rise to the top.

There’s also one moment in The Bestseller Code that’s genuinely affecting, in the context of a discussion of Maria Susanna Cummins’s novel The Lamplighter, which in its time was scorned by Nathaniel Hawthorne and James Joyce. As Archer and Jockers put it, bestsellers and commercial novels are set in emotional terrains, more so than public ones. That is, they’re about their characters as they feel and act, within a world that’s taken as a given, rather than what novels classified as “literary” are often about—characters having to navigate a sociopolitical world that is itself a subject for the author’s comment, or an author’s self-aware exercise of and experimentation with language. And these novels “work for huge numbers of readers not because of what they say to us but what they do to us.” As such, these novels “need no shaming”: they just exist on a separate plane from the literary ones.

In the end, I didn’t mind getting this dispatch from that plane. I make occasional trips to other such planes: sometimes I’m in the mood for, say, Joe Abercrombie’s brand of fantasy, and I’ve read all the Harry Dresden novels; I also love some books that are the literary equivalents of summer blockbusters, like the Expanse series. But I know I won’t descend to the bestseller plane very often—and I do consider it a descent. To my mind, craft and thrill alone don’t give novels the most merit. I don’t read just to be entertained or to be moved, which is what bestsellers offer. I read in order to be made to think, in precisely the ways those literary, public-terrain, sociopolitical novels make me think. And I value them because they linger. They don’t just do things to me, work on me, crash over me like a wave and then recede; they speak to me, just as Archer and Jockers say, and what they say to me lives inside me for years to come.

What’s more, I already suffer enough with the tendency to “identify” with the characters in books I read without venturing into ones that indulge or depend upon that instinct as bestsellers do.

Finally, while Archer and Jockers’s algorithm does a fine job anatomizing bestsellers in a way that speaks to the merit they do have and the function they do serve, I don’t know that I’d trust its recommendations even if I were a passionate reader of bestsellers, considering the book the algorithm picked as the absolute best representation of what it considers a bestseller is Dave Eggers’s The Circle.

Which does reinforce that what an algorithm can’t understand is context. What keeps The Circle from being a bestseller, to my mind, is that the conceit—a woman who goes to work for a tech firm and is schooled in the particular inhumanities she needs to adopt in order to succeed in that increasingly human environment—is not the most engaging. The story may be too close to a specific reality, as opposed to the everyday worlds (e.g., in John Grisham, Jodie Picoult, or Danielle Steel) or the heightened settings (e.g., in The Da Vinci Code or Fifty Shades) in which bestsellers are best set. Perhaps the world in which The Circle takes place is so specific, and its concerns so urgent, that it doesn’t even need to be fictionalized to be of most interest; it seems that representation of Big Tech in memoir, like Anna Wiener’s Uncanny Valley, does better in the marketplace. And finally, Eggers himself is more a literary than a commercial author, something buyers of commercial fiction might be mindful of and trust less than one of the established names in the bestseller market. And he represents a different, past era in even literary fiction. We’re not in the age of the “Brooklyn Books of Wonder” anymore—the humorous triumph over adversity, the twee search for meaning and for love that characterized books of a certain time in the early 2000s. Really, all Eggers’s attempts to succeed beyond that trend—Zeitoun, What Is the What, The Monk of Mokha, A Hologram for the King—seem to me to have been tepidly received. The culture has moved on from his particular moment, and it moves in vogues an algorithm can’t always track.

I’ll also say that, seeing how Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, another book I reread recently, did so well in its day, and how it holds the fuck up—the plot and writing remain absorbing, and the atmosphere as seductive and pleasurable as ever; and that it gets namechecked so often in trends like dark academia suggest teens are exercising their beautiful prerogative to learn all the wrong lessons from that book to this day—I’ll say it’s a safe bet you can write a literary bestseller too, if you wanted to.

Anyway. Perhaps you’re reading this piece hoping to learn how to write a bestseller yourself. If so, here’s the skinny:

Keep your primary focus on two or three themes. And keep those themes basic. Archer and Jockers list ones like “kids and school”; “family time”; “money”; “crime scenes”; “domestic life”; “love”; “courtrooms and legal matters”; “maternal roles”; “modern technology”; “government and intelligence.”

Make sure your book has a central conflict—and make sure your protagonist is an active agent in that conflict and in her life generally, knowing what she needs and going for it, acting and speaking with a degree of assurance. Characters in bestselling novels grab, think, ask, tell, like see, hear, smile, reach, and do. Characters in lower-selling literary novels, on the other hand, murmur, protest, hesitate, wait, halt, drop, demand, interrupt, shout, fling, whirl, thrust, and seem.

Shape your story to fit one of the seven archetypal plotlines the authors identify:

A gradual move from difficult times to happy times

The reverse, a move from happy times to more difficult ones

A coming-of-age story or rags-to-riches plot

A “rebirth” plot in which a character experiences change, renewal, and transformation

A “voyage and return” plot in which a character is plunged into a whole new world, experiences a dark turn, and finally returns to some sort of normalcy

Another “voyage and return” plot in which the character herself voyages into the new world, fights monsters, suffers, and finally completes some sort of quest

A story in which your protagonist overcomes a villain or some threat to the culture that must be eliminated so she can change her fortunes back to the good

And make sure you time the emotional beats of your story to follow the curve of your plotline. For instance, The Da Vinci Code and Fifty Shades both follow the “rebirth” plot, and the respective authors ensure the arcs of the romances in both books match the curve of the plotline too, keeping the reader hooked in a way that’s, ultimately, structural.

Be sure to pepper your plot with scenes in which characters are intimate in casual ways. Much is made in The Bestseller Code of the intimacy reflected in a tactic John Grisham uses in a couple of his novels, which is to have his protagonist go over to a love interest’s house with wine and Chinese to just hang out and let her in on how he’s feeling.

Sex that doesn’t drive the plot forward doesn’t go over well. Avoid it. Even in romance novels (as opposed perhaps to erotica), sex is usually in service of the storyline.

Seek for a balance between features in your prose that speak to the more literary, refined style that often comes from institutions of education and letters, and the more journalistic, conversational, everyday style of writing one might intuitively associate with commercial fiction (shorter sentences, snappier prose, with more conversational and casual writing, more words like “okay” or “ugh”). These aren’t especially rigorous categories, I’m aware. Just use your best guess; you’ll probably be fine.

#books #literary #jodie archer #matthew jockers #dave eggers #anna wiener #brooklyn books of wonder #commercial fiction #e. l. james #maria susanna cummins #jennifer weiner #donna tartt

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battlingbooks · 3 years

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book battles: the greatest superpower

the greatest superpower by alex sanchez

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free ebook in exchange for an honest review! This has not affected my review in any way, all opinions are mine.

1.5/5 stars

Jorge Fuerte is about to start high school when his father comes out as a trans woman, flipping Jorge’s life upside down. Now, on top of normal high school things like bullying, a crush, and friend problems, Jorge also has to deal with his parents’ divorce, accepting his dad, and the rift this has caused between him and his twin brother, Caesar.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Although Norma is a trans woman who uses she/her pronouns, she asks Jorge and Caesar to continue calling her ‘dad.’ Additionally, while I am not a trans woman, I am a nonbinary person of color. I can relate to Norma on certain levels, but want to acknowledge that I do not have her experience and ask that you read reviews by other trans women, particularly trans women of color, for more detailed opinions that trump my own.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Mentions of transphobia, deadnaming, misgendering, and racism.

I had a very hard time writing this review, because ultimately, this is a book that attempts to deal with many many MANY issues, but ends up resolving almost none of them. It left me feeling as though the story wasn’t completely finished, or the author didn’t know how to resolve the situations that had been created. Because of this, I really didn’t know what to say. Or I went back and forth between having too much to say, and risk spoiling the entire book.

Reading this was difficult. And eventually, I came to this conclusion: this book is a book about a trans woman, written by a cis people, from a cis character’s point of view, for a cis audience. It’s so binary. And there is a genderfluid character but…most of this book sticks so strictly to a gender binary. Even the comic plotline, where there’s a “trans superhero” (I am REALLY tentative about calling the character trans) is so binary.

The idea that being a woman makes you more open to emotions and willing to work out issues through talking than physical conflict… And that changing depending on what gender the superhero is? It made me personally really uncomfortable, as well kind of sexist. These traits have nothing to do with gender and everything to do with socialization and the society we live in, as well as our own personalities.

And while I believe there is a place for stories like this, about cis kids understanding their trans parents, I do not think this is this book. The amount of misgendering Norma goes through in this book made me feel physically ill at times. Even Jorge, who accepted Norma much faster than other characters, misgendered her for such a huge majority of the book. It took him so long to use the correct pronouns. And other characters went the entire book without gendering her properly.

So much of this book presents Norma’s coming out as something she “did” to her family. The characters ask how Norma could do this to them. It talks about how difficult it is for them to get through. But at the same time, it never really explores how hard this is for Norma. How being rejected by her family feels (which is in part very confusing and I won’t get into this review due to spoilers but the whole thing with Jorge’s mother is really confusing to me), the violence she faces as a trans woman of color. AND WE SEE THIS! We SEE Norma face transphobia head on!! Jorge sees it! And it’s only brought up like two times and is never really explored beyond that!

Also frustrating was the fact that there is a gay uncle who is just there randomly to be gay and have no character or arc other than ‘hey he’s gay’ and only show up/be mentioned like twice. And there’s a genderfluid kid in Jorge’s grade/class who also has no character and essentially exists to be bullied, explain what being genderfluid is, and be a very stereotypical nonbinary character. Now that isn’t to say nonbinary people like Noah don’t exist, but when you only have one nonbinary character, and they don’t have much of a character, it feels incredibly stereotypical. Neither of these two characters are CHARACTERS. They feel like they were put here so the author could be like “See! More non cishet characters!” opposed to fleshed-out people with like. Personalities.

But stepping away from the portrayal of trans and non straight people in this book. The comic plotline felt so underdeveloped. It felt like it was constantly getting lost in the shuffle. I didn’t really care for the attempt at the love triangle, but I suppose the romance was sweet. I HATED the reason the romance fell apart which I will not get into because spoilers but it annoys me. Racism (Jorge and Caesar are half Mexican), racial profiling, and transphobic violence, specifically TOWARD WOMEN OF COLOR, one of the most vulnerable portions of our population, are touched upon but never explored really in-depth. The relationship between Jorge and Caesar felt like it needed more time and the ending… I get the real world isn’t perfect but for a middle grade novel especially it felt so bleak. Realistic, maybe, but not only did it feel incomplete and unsatisfying, it made me wonder what the point of going through all this really was.

Look, at some point this book made me cry genuine tears. I think it was during a conversation Norma and Jorge had. It had a few moments I enjoyed. There was a chance this book could have been good. But it tried to tackle a million things both major and minor (like did we need a comic contest AND a talent show?), and ended up falling so flat. Parts of it felt slapped together haphazardly. If a cis author wants to write about trans people, that’s fine, but I do not think this was the way to go about it. I think more sensitivity readers were needed at least, because so much of this felt so insensitive and was so painful as a nonbinary person to read. And if this is meant to be a way to help cis kids who are around Jorge’s age understand trans people and the struggle of being trans, I absolutely do not think this is the way to go about it.

Instead of buying this book, I suggest donating the money you would’ve spent on it to support trans people of color instead. A few charities to look at include the Transgender Law Center, the Lavender Rights Project, the Trans Woman of Color Collective, INCITE!, and the Sylvia Rivera Law Project. (Note, I have not researched these organizations in-depth, and always recommend researching charities before donating!)

goodreads page for the greatest superpower author’s website

#the greatest superpower #alex sanchez #netgalley #arc #earc #full review #book review #booklr #book reviews

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traincat · 5 years

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how many relationships has Johnny had? did they /all/ end badly or does he, like, actually have some good ones in there

I wouldn’t say all of Johnny’s relationships are bad. He has some bad ones, some real bad ones, some good ones, some utterly forgettable ones, and some weird ones. I sometimes think a character’s first relationship kind of sets the tone for their future relationship history, like Peter Parker being in the middle of two love triangles and being the hot item in both of them. In Johnny’s case, his first relationship involved his girlfriend lamenting that he wasn’t more like other boys and saying she wished he wasn’t so flaming all the time. It’s a metaphor. But Johnny Storm’s relationship history, the quick and dirty version. For the sake of simplicity, I won’t be including one off mentions of celebrity dates and only addressing on page relationships.

Dorrie Evans: Johnny’s high school girlfriend who, as noted above, hated his flaming on and often compared him unfavorably to other boys, such as Peter Parker. Their relationship ended when Johnny ghosted her until she broke up with him, although they apparently remained on good enough terms for Dorrie to lend Johnny her car shortly afterward. When Johnny and Crystal broke up, Johnny tried to get back together with Dorrie only to find out she was married with kids. And that’s why we have Facebook now.

Valeria of the 5th Dimension: A beautiful blue girl who developed a crush on Johnny when he briefly ended up in her dimension during his Strange Tales days, Johnny mostly seemed awkward around Valeria. They kissed once later after Johnny broke up with Crystal (you may notice Johnny has a habit of revisiting past relationships, usually unsuccessfully) and then nothing ever happened with them again, and it’s unlikely to come back up seeing as Johnny now has a niece named Valeria (after a third totally unrelated Fantastic Four Valeria).

Crystal Amaquelin: Probably the most popular and well known of Johnny’s relationships, and for a good reason. Johnny and Crystal started their relationship as star-crossed teen lovers from different worlds yearning to be with each other, a superhero Romeo and Juliet without the murder-suicide, and once they are together, they’re honestly pretty cute.

(FF #67) They’re cute! That it’s probably Johnny’s happiest, most stable relationship is probably the reason it gets revisited a lot in AUs and future What Ifs, although I personally think the charm of it is in the teenage puppy love and that returning to it isn’t the best move for either character. The relationship falls apart when Crystal, who can’t tolerate the outside world’s polluted atmosphere, returns to the Inhumans and falls in love with Quicksilver, who she later married. Johnny took the break up hard, and he and Crystal later had an emotional affair when Crystal was on the Fantastic Four after leaving Pietro and when Johnny had only just gotten married, but things never progressed to a physical level mostly because Johnny refused to cheat.

Frankie Raye: Originally created by Roy Thomas, Frankie Raye was a beautiful redheaded girl with a deep-seated fear of fire who seemed tormented by Johnny’s status as a superhero. Thomas originally intended for her to be the daughter of Toro Raymond, the sidekick of the original Human Torch, but Frankie dropped off the pages before that could be revealed. Johnny briefly dated a girl named Lorrie Melton who he met while racing, but Lorrie broke up with him when it became apparent he was more interested in a serious relationship than she was. Frankie Raye resurfaced in Byrne’s run, where Byrne reworked her backstory so that, instead of Toro’s daughter, Frankie was the step-daughter of Phineas Horton, the man who created the original android Human Torch. As a child, Frankie suffered an accident that gave her flame powers. Horton hypnotized her to give her flame powers and to make her dress in a golden leotard to help control her powers. Frankie’s powers reawakened and for a time she joined the Fantastic Four, but her deep yearning to be wild and free -- an interesting contrast with how tightly under control Johnny keeps his powers -- led to her making the decision to become Galactus’ new Herald, a decision that left Johnny near suicidal when she left the planet.

(FF #244)

I don’t think there was anything wrong with Johnny and Frankie’s relationship during the duration of it, although I will note that it does the opposite of heat up, so to speak, once Frankie gets her powers, and that they had certain ideological differences that didn’t speak to a great future together. (Frankie occasionally displayed a violent side that on at least one occasion worried Johnny.) Much later, an alternate universe Frankie Raye who expressed feelings for Johnny violently assaulted him in the middle of battle, kissing him before throwing him to the ground, though.

Julie Angel and Sharon Selleck: Julie Angel was Frankie Raye’s roommate who, after Frankie disappeared with Galactus, Johnny developed a crush on, attending the same acting classes as her, although she didn’t seem to reciprocate his feelings. Her friend, Sharon Selleck, developed a crush on Johnny but when she made a move on him he rebuffed her:

(FF #259) If you read Fantastic Four, Johnny will occasionally say he used to date Julie, but it’s simply not true -- Julie does kiss him once, but he doesn’t reciprocate the embrace, and laments afterwards that he’s over her anyway, so. Mark those down at not relationships.

Zsaji: An alien Johnny shared a flirtation and a few kisses with during the original Secret Wars event. Johnny wasn’t very emotionally invested in the relationship, which is odd for him given he usually goes from 0 to 60 on the “now we’re in love” meter. Colossus was very emotionally invested, though. Very, very emotionally invested.

“Alicia Masters”/Lyja: Retroactively revealed to be the Skrull Lyja, Johnny and Alicia started dating in secret after Ben remained in space after Secret Wars. While Lyja would later admit that she got close to Johnny specifically for her mission, she claimed she only originally meant to be a confidante before falling in love with him, but it’s hard to tell with Lyja what you can and can’t take at face value when the character frequently lies. Johnny and Alicia officially get together in Fantastic Four #275, which marks Johnny’s first “sex scene” in the form of a morning after scene where he appears regretful about the night and might even be trying to break off the relationship before Alicia convinces him to continue it:

For reference, Peter’s first published “after the deed” scene is in Amazing Spider-Man #150, published 10 years before this. Though it caused problems with Ben when he returned from space, Johnny and Alicia got married in Fantastic Four #300, although pretty immediately there were relationship problems, including a lack of chemistry. Johnny had 1.5 emotional affairs, the first with Crystal. Later, when he was bodyjacked by Ravonna Ravenslayer in guise of Nebula, who used his powers to kill people and hit on Gladiator because I don’t know, she thought he was into blond twinks, I guess. Though the bodyjacking by Nebula is depicted to be both physically painful and emotionally traumatizing, with it being specifically compared to an incident where Johnny loses control of his powers, and overall a not so subtle rape metaphor, Johnny laments afterwards that he can’t stop thinking about how beautiful Nebula was and is guilty over the fact that he’s more attracted to her than Alicia. (I think the attempt was to make the original story both consensual and straight when it was neither.)

Shortly after this, “Alicia” is revealed by Ben and Alicia’s father to be a Skrull impostor and it comes out that Johnny never was with the real Alicia at all, her having been switched out when he was off planet. I have a couple of long posts unpacking The Lyja Story -- it’s a long, long story -- linked in this post but I think it’s important to note that Johnny thought he was consenting to a romantic and sexual relationship with a friend he trusted and not with an alien spy who had a mission to harm his family. Not only that, but after the Skrull reveal, Lyja attempts to murder Johnny, lies to him twice about a baby, once in an incident that could’ve led to the deaths of him and his family, and when Johnny specifically told her he didn’t want to see her anymore she invented a new identity -- Laura Green -- so she could continue to be with him without his knowledge, explicitly stating that she knows if Johnny knew it was her he wouldn’t want to be with her. She also used the Laura identity to insult and belittle him, calling him “trite and simple” and “pedestrian.” So when you want to talk about bad relationships Johnny’s been in, I think it’s hard to beat the one where he was raped, gaslit, abused, and stalked. A lot of writers tend to refer to this genuinely as a romance but I think it’s important to talk about what actually went on in the relationship and how it’s a pretty horrifying violation of Johnny on every level.

Alysande “Caledonia” Stuart: After Lyja disappeared from the pages following Heroes Reborn, Johnny rescued a woman from another Earth named Alysande Stuart and essentially hid her from the family in the basement. (They all knew.) Though Johnny implied he had feelings for Alysande and Alysande swore a deep loyalty to him, nothing physical ever happens between them, and the relationship never evolved beyond the platonic. They did go to Comic Con together once.

Namorita: Johnny briefly dated Namor’s cousin Namorita after they discovered they were a hit with the paparazzi, in the first of Johnny’s “celebrity” relationships that seem more based on their respective profiles than any honest attraction. Namorita and Johnny never spend much time together, something Fantastic Four itself remarks on. They break up off-screen. The comic itself doesn’t make the link that Johnny might’ve been targeted because of his former connection to her, but after Namorita dies in the Stanford Incident that incites comics’ Civil War, an angry mob beats Johnny into a coma.

Kourtney: A model Johnny briefly dated. This is another celebrity relationship -- and one where they don’t even seem to like each other very much. Kourtney complains about attending Franklin’s birthday party and breaks up with Johnny when the Fantastic Four lose their fortune, although they later briefly get back together. Nothing much to write home about here.

(Marvel Knights 4 #2)

Psionics: A bad girl bank robber Johnny briefly had a sexual relationship with -- before she helped a future version of Sue abduct him to use him as a power source in a move that might have killed him. Psionics later kisses Johnny, but the art suggests he doesn’t reciprocate before departing for a new planet. When they next see each other, Psionics attempts to kidnap Val and kills Alyssa Moy, a family friend of the Fantastic Four, in front of Johnny, before she’s murdered, also in front of Johnny.

Daken: This one is a doozy in part because the actual relationship is in a bit of a canonical grey area -- it’s only ever implied, although the implications are not at all subtle, that Johnny had a romantic and/or sexual relationship with Daken, Wolverine’s 70 pansexual son.

(Daken #4) Like I said: the implications aren’t subtle. Daken ingratiates himself with the Fantastic Four mostly through Johnny, including engineering his meeting with them by shooting Johnny through the thigh with an arrow. (Johnny doesn’t know Daken shot him, but also, holy penetration metaphor, Batman.) Daken later tricks Johnny into thinking he’s dead, fakes an attack on Franklin so he can stage it to seem like he rescued him, and then mostly likely, going by the above panels, had sex with Johnny right after, though again, that’s just an implication. I say this is a canon grey area because, while Marvel the conglomerate hasn’t acknowledged any canonical attraction to men on Johnny’s part, Marjorie Liu did say in a tweet that the subtext was intentional and readers were meant to sense something was up. After this encounter, Daken steals from Reed’s lab, and the next time Johnny sees him (which is after Johnny’s stint in the Negative Zone) Daken tells him that “real people stay dead.” Then Daken tries to murder Reed. I do hope that if/when Johnny comes out it’s revealed he’s head other relationships with men because this is a hell of a first one if otherwise.

Darla Deerling: Another Johnny celebrity relationship. Johnny dated pop star Darla Deering for a hot minute before getting her to take his place on an emergency replacement Fantastic Four, where Darla met and fell in love with Scott Lang. On his return, Johnny wasn’t too broken up about it, telling Wyatt Wingfoot that he was more attracted to Darla’s rock star lifestyle than to Darla herself. Lot to unpack there.

Rogue: Rogue and Johnny dated, allegedly, during the time skip after the 2015 Secret Wars, but we never see it on the actual page, and it’s acknowledged by most canon that Johnny is a huge mess during this point in time, grieving very badly for the family he thinks is lost. They flirt a little bit after their alleged break up during their time together on the Uncanny Avengers team but I have to admit, it can very easily be read as friendly.

(Avengers #689)

Medusa: Yes, as in, Crystal’s older sister, Medusa. This one’s a mess largely in part to the fact that the writer didn’t do the research and backread the Fantastic Four issues where Medusa was on the team with Johnny, where they were actually quite close although not romantically involved. Medusa and Johnny keep their relationship secret, which of course blows up in their faces when Crystal inevitably finds out and is furious with them. I think it’s easy to read this relationship as Johnny trying to latch onto what family he has left -- Ben is in space and not talking to him at this point in time, Reed and Sue and the kids are presumed dead -- in an effort not to self-destruct in a way that doesn’t quite work. The relationship ends with a whimper and not a bang when Medusa leaves Johnny.

So there you have it! The relationship history of Johnny Storm.

#johnny storm #marvel comics #*replies #long post/#traincat talks comics #assault ment//#Anonymous

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elisaminimeneghini · 5 years

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Italian Nats 2019 Recap

The 2019 Italian national championship was held in Meda on September 13-15 and it was also a trial for the upcoming worlds. Asia D’Amato won the AA competition, followed by Desirée Carofiglio and Giorgia Villa. Alice D’Amato came in 4th, Elisa Iorio in 5th, and Martina Maggio in 6th. These 6 gymnasts make up the team plus alternate that will compete in Stuttgart. My personal recap below the cut.

(Pic from GAI on FB)

- Asia D’Amato showed up in really good shape at this competition. She was the only one among the Brixia girls to hit 4/4 which allowed her to win the competition with a 55.200 (no bonuses). Her vault boosted her total with a 14.900 for her DTY which clearly shows that she’s been working on an Amanar lately (which hopefully she won’t debut before next year). Together with her Yurchenko half-on half-off she qualified in 1st for VT EF and went on to win that title (easily) with a 14.375 avg. On bars she struggled a bit with a close pak catch, but recovered and still made UB EF where she then counted two falls but it really wouldn’t have mattered as this is her worst event. On beam she was the only one to hit consistently at nats and also at the previous friendly meet in the Netherlands, even though she only has a 5.1D. On floor she brought her FTDLO (pretty piked and not landed very well) + DLO. She still needs to do a lot of cleaning up on the landings but I’m glad they worked on her stamina, since she finally managed to hit the full routine twice without dying. Casella revealed that the long term plan is for Asia to bring back the double arabian in third and only do 3 passes total (FTDLO, DLO, double arabian...send thoughts and prayers).

- Desirée Carofiglio also looks in an amazing shape. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen her look this confident and solid AA as she is now and I’ve been stanning her for ages so I know what I’m talking about. She was second only to Asia (who had a huge advantage with the big score her DTY earned her) in the AA and only by .2! Absolutely crazy. On vault she has her good 1.5Y back and a second vault which is a fhs pike. She unfortunately sat her 1.5Y in EF which kept her out of medals, but that’s clearly a fluke. She hit bars both in quals and EF, and she’s showing a lot more confidence and cleanliness of execution. Her Nabieva, while still on the pikey side, is getting consistent and her handstands have improved a lot and she scored a 14.000 on both days on this event, finishing in 4th in EF only because the 03s are excellent here. On beam she consistently hit her solid routine, going 13+ on both days and earning again a 4th place. But it’s FX where she truly shines with her beautiful front tumbling and great choreo. She brought back her front layout to double front tuck and her Dowell which she landed extremely well every time and this plus her awesome artistry (with a little help from Lara Mori not being very clean and Giorgia Villa not making FX EF) earned her the gold medal on floor. Overall, an amazing competition for her, and I hope this showed Casella he can count on her for more than just floor at worlds.

- Giorgia Villa, despite not having the best day in qualification (oob by two miles on her triple twist on floor and fall on beam on her tuck full), with her huge vault and bars she managed to snatch the bronze AA medal ahead of Alice D’Amato (who wasn’t exactly thrilled about her 4th place LOL, see pic, she’s in the pink leo)

Anyway, Giorgia still managed to make UB and BB EFs (beam was a bit of a splatfest in quals) and she won gold in both with superb routines. On bars Giorgia now has a consistent 6.2 routine which is full of connections including ricna-pak-maloney-bhardwaj which she sometimes connects to the VL. On beam, the roundoff tuck full has a decent hit rate, but since it’s such a hard acro, it will forever make me nervous. I’m very happy that (for now at least) she has taken out the double pike dismount in favor of a simple double twist which she can stick and, since her twisting form is great, gets wayyy less deductions. It should be noted that there have been hints from Brixia and GAI that both Asia and Giorgia are training Amanars (which is not surprising as both their DTYs are looking really good and you can tell they’ve been working on that extra twist lately, from the way they land the DTY). Hopefully and realistically, we won’t see them before next year but this is both exciting and terrifying. On floor, I’m also pretty confident that a Silivas is in the works for Giorgia, since her full-in is beautiful and high. I hope she ditches the DLO forever in favor of that. At nats (or at the dutch friendly) she hasn’t done the DLO so yay for that.

- Alice D’Amato looked like she was going to medal in the AA over Giorgia but she counted a fall on beam on her new double wolf turn and that put her in 4th place instead. Vault and bars looked great for her as well, however her floor needs extra work as her opening DLO is still short and so is her triple twist in second. This was particularly clear in FX EF, where she landed both passes kinda badly and then scratched the rest of the routine while touching her ankle...It *looks* like it shouldn’t be anything major, but she will undergo some checks before she can be declared fine. Hopefully she’ll be ok, it would be such a shame if she got injured again after all the struggle with her previous comeback. She won the bronze medal on bars with a great 14.200 routine.

- Elisa Iorio looks like she will be the one not doing AA at worlds out of the 03s right now, unless they’re having her peak riiiiiiight before worlds. She’s looking strong on bars, her best event, but on beam, the other event where she should shine, she’s still inconsistent. On vault, she brought back her DTY which, despite not looking dangerous, is not up to speed with the D’Amato and Giorgia’s, “only” scoring a 14.400 (for comparison, Desy’s 1.5 scored a 14.3). This has me wonder whether she’ll be vaulting or not. She definitely won’t be doing floor I’d say, since she got a 12.900 for a hit routine. I think unless her DTY improves in the next few days (unlikely) they should just have her do UB and possibly BB. I don’t know if I would bet on her or Desy’s consistency more tbh. Right now I’d go with Desy. She won silver on bars with a good routine. She didn’t connect out of the pak but she did connect Ezhova-VL which is very impressive. I wish she’d be able to bring back her endo dismount combo but I think she’s been having issues with it since she’s grown quite a bit. So now she’s just doing a double front.

- Martina Maggio proved once again that she can be a great backup asset and she will most likely be the alternate at worlds. She brought back her 1.5Y that is looking strong. Her bars and floor have a low D, but because she’s so clean and precise, she gains in E what she lacks in D. It’s on beam that she could offer the most to the team, with her cleanliness and consistency. She has added a double wolf turn on beam With her 5.3D, she managed to win silver in EF on this event, right behind Giorgia Villa. I’m so happy that she’s back on all 4 events after being injured repeatedly for such a long time.

- Lara Mori didn’t do AA and generally didn’t look too sharp BUT this is definitely understandable as she’s not planning on going to Worlds. This was her decision, she specifically asked Casella not to go because she wants to try and go the world cup route to qualify for Tokyo and get a spot no one will take away from her (smart). For this reason, she doesn’t need to do AA or to peak until Cottbus. Despite this, she still managed to make BB and FX EF and to win a silver medal on floor after a good routine, if a bit unpolished, with a .2 oob. I truly hope she will manage to qualify for Tokyo, however unlikely. It breaks my heart to think that it’s gonna be either her or Vanessa (or neither), but tbh if I had to pick one I’d 100% go with Lara, no matter how sentimental I am towards Vany. Lara is an amazing gymnast and she deserves so much more than what life (and Casella) has dealt her so far. Best of luck to her.

This competition also marked the return from injuries of Giada Grisetti, Maria Vittoria Cocciolo, and Noemi Linari. Giada especially looked very sharp and ready on all 4 events, despite some downgrading. I hope all 3 of them will manage to stay injury free because they can really be assets for the future.

Another notable result is Irene Lanza’s solid AA performance. She made all EFs but beam (where she was third reserve) and snatched a bronze medal on vault with just a FTY. For someone who seemingly came out of nowhere last year (in terms of national team assignments), she’s grown immensely and she should be really proud of herself.

Here are the EF rankings.

#assoluti 2019 #asia d'amato #desirée carofiglio #giorgia villa #alice d'amato #elisa iorio #martina maggio #lara mori #giada grisetti #irene lanza #noemi linari #maria vittoria cocciolo

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knifebucket · 4 years

Text

This is what my last month working from home has been like.

My boss: what are you working on? Are you working?

Me: I am working on these three long-term projects that don't require talking to people because we have a stay at home order

My boss: we need to set up a check-in time. Send me a calendar notification and I will call you at that time.

Me: *does that*

My boss: *unable to be reached*

Co-worker: can you help me with a project by writing something very specific?

Me: sure. Send me an example of what you want done so I have a framework and can include everything.

Co-worker: ok

Co-worker (on a different mode of communication): can you help me with a project by writing something very specific?

Me: yes. Please send me the example.

Co-worker, again, in a third mode of communication: can you help me with a project by writing something very specific?

Me: yes. Please send me the example.

Co-worker: can we set up a time for you to come into the office so we can share ideas?

Me: I will not come into the office because we have a stay at home order and my partner is immunocompromised. We can talk on the phone; what do you need help with?

Co-worker, through a different mode of communication: will you come into the office to discuss ideas?

Me: again, it's unsafe for me to come into the office, but I'm happy to talk with you about anything you need help with. What do you want to talk about?

Co-worker: *doesn't answer*

Boss, including both of us in an email chain: great teamwork guys. I know this project is due soon and you are working on it together.

Me, in a new message to co-worker: can you send me the example of the type of story you need me to write?

Co-worker: yes, but it will have to be after lunch.

Me: ok.

Co-worker (posting in all-office teams group): *posts a paragraph's worth of hashtags from "corporate"* this is some of the stuff I've seen other people use.

Me: ok, I can work with that. The write-up I made last week should fit this nicely; is there anything else you want me to include?

Co-worker: ok great. Can you fluff it up? It needs to be 1.5 pages and include some heartstrings stuff

Me: ok I don't know if you read it but it's 2 pages of a very caring and very determined woman and her journey against some unbelievable odds. I think the heartstrings are there and I know it's on brand. What else do you want me to include?

Co-worker *silence*

Co-worker: can we set up a meeting once or twice a week to share ideas?

Me: I'm not sure we need to schedule a meeting; what if you just call me when you have something you want to talk about?

Co-worker: ok

Co-worker the next morning: can we set up a meeting once or twice a week to go over ideas?

Me: yesterday you said you would just call me when you had a question. What do you need help with?

Co-worker: I'm working on these projects and I need your help.

Me: ok, I remember you saying that. Here's where I am on all of them.

Co-worker: ok.

Me: turns off my phone for the weekend

Co-worker, leaves frantic message acknowledging it's the weekend and asking if I got any extra information

Me: *calls him next work morning* hi, sorry I missed your call, I don't have my phone on when I'm not working. I don't have any more information.

Co-worker: can you send me some pictures of and for this project.

Me: yes.

Me: here are some extra.

Co-worker: I can't use these. Can you send me some different ones?

Me: here are some more.

Co-worker: I sent the project in without them. Can you help me on a new project? I need a write-up for it.

Me: ok. Can you send me an example of what needs to be done?

Co-worker: I will send you some of my thoughts since we aren't in the same room discussing, ok?

Me: that's great, but please send me the example you said you had last week, it will be the most helpful.

And on. And on. And on.

#long post #i scream literally every day

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