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otmaaromanovas · 5 months

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Hey would you mind Could you give us a huge insight of Maria and Anastasia Nikolaevna's personalitys? in some rare quotes said by someone who met them both ?

I would love to read more facts and quotes about the little pair .

Hello! Of course! I'm going to split this into two parts: this part will be about Maria, and another post will be about Anastasia.

Here are some rare, lesser known quotes, about Maria Nikolaevna (or writings from Maria herself) that capture her personality well.

"Marie was kindness and unselfishness personified" - Olga Voronova, Upheaval

Letter from Olga to aunt Xenia - "1916 August 26th … Papa brings an attendant with him to dinner, and Mordvinov comes every evening and we torment and scare him. Yesterday we discharged the conductor and drew a beard, moustache and eyebrows with a burnt cork on Marie and put her on the train. Of course, he didn't recognize her, and he was terribly tormented when during a game of hide and seek in the dark, she ran into him in the corridor and rudely pushed him. He said that it was some kind of half-drunk conductor, and found her impudent, because we gave her cigarettes and she paced about importantly, smoking them." - George Hawkins, Correspondence of the Russian Grand Duchesses: Letters of the Daughters of the Last Tsar

"The other Grand Duchesses were still children. Marie Nicholatevna was a robust, well developed little girl with big blue eves, of a typical Russian beauty. She had an excellent memory and every time somathing to be remembered her sisters always turned to her. - Alexander Spiridovitch, Last Years at Tsarskoe Selo, Volume 2

"One day the little Grand Duchess Anastasie was sitting in my lap, coughing and choking away, when the Grand Duchess Marie came to her and putting her face close up to her said, " Baby, darling, cough on me." Greatly amazed, I asked her what she meant, and the dear child said, " I am so sorry to see my dear little sister so ill, and I thought if I could take it from her she would be better." Was it not touching?" - Margaretta Eagar, Six Years at the Russian Court

The following are from George Hawkins, Alexei: Russia's Last Tsesarevich - Letters, diaries and writings - volume 1:

Note from Alexandra to Alexei, dated 1 December 1914: "Don’t tease Maria."

Letter from Tatiana to Alexei, Spring-Summer 1916 "...Taube [patient] (the one with no legs, do you remember him?) and Marie yell so you’d think the whole infirmary can hear them, they make such a fuss, and they all shout and argue. It is awfully funny to watch them."

Letter from Maria to Alexei after Alexei asked Maria to draw Joy the dog: "16 December 1916. My dear darling Alexei! I don’t know how big you want me to draw Joy, but I will give it a go, and if it doesn’t turn out, I can do it again…. I have just tried to sketch Joy but it didn't work out because I don’t really remember what he looks like and it ended up looking nothing like him, so I won’t send it to you. When you bring Joy to me, then I will be able to draw him."

The following are from Joseph T. Fuhrmann, Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna. The complete Wartime Correspondence April 1914 – March 1917:

Alexandra to Nicholas "[January] 24 1915 …Marie stands at the door & alas! picks her nose..."

Alexandra to Nicholas "January 2 1916 …Baby began writing his first diary yesterday. - Marie helped him, his spelling is of course queer."

Alexandra to Nicholas "April 2 1916 …Marie is in a grump mood & grumbles all the time & bellows at one, she & Olga have B. [Codeword for 'Becker', meaning their periods]"

The following are from George Hawkins, Correspondence of the Russian Grand Duchesses: Letters of the Daughters of the Last Tsar:

Fanmail letter from American girl Dolores Sybilla Adam to Olga and Tatiana: "Jan 24 1913 …I cannot ever thank you enough for the picture that was sent to me… But tell me is Marie the only one that ever smiles…?"

Letter from Maria to Tatiana: "Tatiana my darling. Thank you very much for the note and good wishes. Although I have not seen my husband [an inside joke amongst the sisters, most likely referring to their crushes] yet, I did see him in a dream. Today we will go to the Grand Palace and I hope that Provotorov (i.e.: your husband) will tell us a lot of nonsense. It’s boring without you. I hope that I will see ND [Nikolai Dmitrievich Demenkov, her crush] again… 9th Dec. 1914"

Letter from Maria to Olga Voronova: "Dec 29th 1914 …The other day we were at a Christmas party at Mama's nanny school. There are now many children of the reserves, so awfully sweet! We gave them all toys and they rejoiced in them, and each showed his nanny what he received. They are so appetising. Some are very small, some are even only two weeks old. I really love young children, and play with them, holding them in my arms. Do you like little children?"

Letter from Pierre Gilliard to Maria: "10 December 1916 …Be careful, Maria Nikolaevna, if you continue to tease me, I will avenge myself!!!!"

Letter from Olga to Nicholas II: "16 August [circa 1904] - Peterhof. Dear Papa …Maria went to sleep in the afternoon, and Anastasia crept under the mattress and slept there with Maria on top of her. When she got up we all laughed, and so did she." - Maylunas and Mironenko, A Lifelong Passion

Letter from Alexandra to Nicholas: "14 June 1915 - I congratulate you with all my loving heart for our big Marie’s 16th birthday… Pity you are not here. She enjoyed all her presents, I gave her her first ring from us made out of one of my Buchara diamonds. She is so cheery and gay today." - Maylunas and Mironenko, A Lifelong Passion

Letter from Anastasia to Nicholas: "26 August 1915 …I am sitting on the couch near Alexei as he is having dinner with M. Gilliard, while Maria is running around like crazy. …This morning [Doctor] Ostrogorsky came to see me, but Maria and I were still in bed, then Maria covered herself with the blanket, then he entered and listened to my [lungs], but when he finished, I quietly uncovered the blanket and Maria had to climb out, and she was very embarrassed." - Helen Azar, George Hawkins, Anastasia Romanov: The Tsar's Youngest Daughter Speaks Through Her Writings

"When I first knew the Grand Duchess Marie, she was quite a child, but during the Revolution she became very devoted to me, and I to her, and we spent most of our time together — she was a wonderful girl, possessed of tremendous reserve force, and I never realised her unselfish nature until those dreadful days. She too was exceeding fair, dowered with the classic beauty of the Romanoffs; her eyes were dark blue, shaded by long lashes, and she had masses of dark brown hair. Marie was plump, and the Empress often teased her about this; she was not so lively as her sisters, but she was much more decided in her outlook. The Grand Duchess Marie knew at once what she wanted, and why she wanted it." - Lili Dehn, The Real Tsaritsa

"Count Grabbe says of the Tsar's third daughter, clearly his favorite: "With her large gray, luminous eyes, her classical features, and languorous movements, she was the true type of Russian beauty, the most good- natured and artless of the four sisters, with endearing qualities which drew people to her." More outgoing than her older sisters, Maria Nikolaievna loved children and used to talk to soldiers about their families. She knew the names of many of the Koncoy Cossacks and Standart sailors, took an interest in their affairs and managed out of her $9 a month allowance to send little gifts to their children. With all her gentle ways, she was strong and solidly built, like her grandfather Alexander III. Her sisters called her "Mashka" and sometimes "Little Bow-wow."" - Count Alexander Grabbe, The private world of the last Tsar, in the photographs and notes of General Count Alexander Grabbe

"The Grand Duchess Maria Nicholaevna was a young wcnnan of broad build. She was very strong; for example, she could lift me up from the ground. She had lighter hair than Tatiana, but darker than Olga. (Olga Nicholaevna had brown hair, of a golden shade, and Maria Nicholaevna had brown hair with a light shade.) She had very nice, light grey eyes. She was very good looking, but got too thin after her illness. She had a great talent for painting and always liked to exercise it. She played the piano indifferently and was not as capable as Olga or Tatiana. She was modest and simple and probably had the qualities of a good wife and mother. She was fond of children and was inclined to be lazy. She liked Tobolsk and told me that she would be quite happy to stay there. It is quite difficult for me to tell you whom she preferred — her father or her mother." - Examination of Sidney Gibbes, The Last Days of the Romanovs

"The Grand Duchess Maria was eighteen ; she was tall, strong, and better looking than the other sisters. She painted well and was the most amiable. She always used to speak to the soldiers, questioned them, and knew very well the names of their wives, the number of their children, and the amount of land owned by the soldiers. All the intimate affairs in such cases were always known to her. Like the Grand Duchess Olga, she loved her father more than the rest. On account of her simplicity and affability she was given the pet name by the family of "Mashka." And by this term she was called by her brother and by her sisters." - Examination of Commissar E. S. Kobylinsky, The Last Days of the Romanovs

Hope you found it interesting or learnt something new! Will post Anastasia's a little later :)

#Maria Nikolaevna #Maria Romanov #q #ask #answered #Romanov sisters #Romanov family #Imperial Russia #sources

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magicalyaku · 9 months

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Ok ok, let's get back on track. Work was draining these past weeks, but I'm on vacation now, so time to catch up! June was the month of the library books. I put a bunch on hold in April and May and they all came in at the same time. And after up to 10 weeks of waiting I was not about to push a single one back further, so I had to work a bit there. 8D Also, according to my list I've read 51 books in the first 6 months of the year. I seem to remember wanting to read less this year? Yeah. Not going well.

Gwen & Art are Not in Love (Lex Croucher): I read it in the very first days of June, which was basically an eternity ago, so my memory is a bit wonky. I do remember I had lots of fun! It was funny and sweet with a solid story and serious times when needed, nice characters, good adventure. The female lead did not get on my nerves! There was a cat! And a girl with a (legendary) sword! I think, though, it's a bit unfair that both boys ended up with permanent bodily harm while the girls got away scratchfree … Go read it!!

Thief in the Night (KJ Charles): I didn't know anything about this other than the summary when I put it on my waitlist in the library. After 10 weeks it finally came in and my first thought was "Is it broken?!" because it's only about 100 pages! It is a full story, mind you, I was just so suprised by it (and because I waited for so long!). It's a companion story to The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting, featuring the brother of the protagonists of that one. It's pretty cute. Super short, but just the right length for a simple story. We can have a simple story once in a while. I had a good time reading this.

The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting (KJ Charles): I borrowed this right after Thief in the Night. This is a full-length novel, so it has a lot more time to dive into characters and intricacies. It's nice. Like not groundbreaking, but very enjoyable. There's this thing about (pseudo-historic) British aristocracy that just calls for mocking them. I liked a lot how the climax and ending played out!

Flowerheart (Catherine Bakewell): Now this was another difficult book for me. I thought with time I'd get a little more chill with YA fantasy heroines. Seems I'm not there yet. The heroine here has these whiny self-pitying phases that really annoyed me. She's like "Oh maybe he never liked me in the first place" just because the guy didn't want her help at one thing. But: 1) He was her very close childhood friend, that was not a lie. 2) She has like one day of training in and can't control her magic, so her help would be … probably no help at all. And 3) when he told her before that he needs her on the weekends she said no, she can't … So why is she getting upset?! I hate characters like this. /D But thankfully, this is only half of the time, the other half she's pretty ok (the guy as well) and I actually found myself liking the book. The romance is acceptable and it does have some nice imagery going on with all the flower magic and stuff.

Sounds Fake But Okay (Sarah Costello & Kayla Kaszyca): My one non-fiction book of the year. :D It's about seeing the world from the perspectives of a_spec people. Like taking apart all that amatonormativity and all these ideas about romance and family and stuff that most of our world sees as right and normal. So it's not just a "let me tell you what aromanticism and asexuality are"-book but dives a bit deeper. I found it insightful. I think, both a_spec and allo people can take something away from reading this. Challenging our social constructs in thought at least can't hurt after all. Regarding the ebook library edition I read I didn't quite like the layout as the incorporated community quotes where not well marked and I stumbled over them a few times before realising it's another quote. That's probably no issue in the paper version though. I also struggled to tell the authors Sarah and Kayla apart. They introduce themselves and their stories in the beginning but I immediately jumbled them up ...

Captive Prince Trilogy (C.S. Pacat): I borrowed the English edition from the library … and didn't want to return it! Which is stupid because I own the German version in paper. But that kinda sums up how I feel about these books. Captive Prince was not the very first gay fantasy book I read almost two years ago but the first one I liked. (The actual first was Rowan & Ash by Christian Händel which had a terribly selfish love interest and shied away from all the important conflict. (And yeah, long before that I did read The Raven Cycle but I picked that one up for the Ley lines and the no-kiss-promise. The gay was just a pleasant surprise, so I don't count it.)) Which is funny, because especially the beginning is so filthy! I remember being quite put off by this the first time around, but apparently it was intriguing enough to continue reading. I like the incredible slow-burn of Damen's and Laurent's relationship. The slow building of trust in a surrounding where trust is so rare. How shit happens between them and they have to sort it out on page before progressing. How you only catch glimpes of Laurent's true self for a long time. I like it when authors feel smart through their writing and writing Laurent's and the Regent's intrigues and all the different settings with war strategies etc. sure does feel smart to me. I like the slow-burn in stories as well when things start at some point and only get important much later and all weaves together beautifully. It's so rewarding. Look, where we started - look, how far we've come! Hah. u3u

Riley Weaver Needs a Date for the Gaybutante Society (Jason June): For the end of the month I went for something light and funny. Of all the authors I read last year F.T. Lukens and Jason June stuck with me the most. Lukens for the cozy charming fantasy and June for the slightly silly noisy onea. Riley Weaver is no exception to that. It does have a serious undertone and message, though, but due to the framework of the story it manages to never feel dull or preachy.

I also tried to read Dragonfall by L.R. Lam, but gave up after just 50 pages. I can't even say if it's good or bad, because I don't know. I couldn't stand the viewpoints. Like, there's three people. The first one is a 1st person narrator, who refers to the second person as You, but in the narration, not dialogue! That put me off so much. It was so … icky! The second person narrates 1st person as well. If there's another "you" I don't know because I didn't make it to the point where they meet for real. And then the third person comes along and … it's 3rd person?! And I screamed! God, I hate that. I mean, it can work and I have read books that I like with inconsistent viewpoints but there was nothing here for which I was willing to endure. To be fair, I don't like dragons in the first place, so maybe we never were a good match from the start. :'D

That's it for June!

#yaku reads #books #bookblr #lgbtq books #queer books #queer lit #kj charles #the gentle art of fortune hunting #thief in the night #cs pacat #captive prince #riley weaver needs a date #gwen and art are not in love #flowerheart #sounds fake but okay #dragonfall

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study-with-aura · 27 days

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Tuesday, April 2, 2024

I finished up a little earlier than usual today with everything, so I went out to the park behind my house to walk and get some fresh air. It was nice. I really enjoy the trail because it goes into an area full of trees and there are cute bridges and a little stream and some wooden platforms and a gazebo at different points. There is also a rock garden on the outskirts near the main road, but the hill to get up there is slightly steep. You can take that path or go up the stone stairs. It's relaxing. I like to do walking meditations there. I used to go with my brother a lot, but since he's away at university, I go mostly by myself when I'm not with my parents. Don't worry, I have things to keep me safe when I'm by myself, but the neighborhood the park is in has a very low crime rate and there are usually several older individuals on this particular trail too.

I hope everyone is having an enjoyable week thus far.

Tasks Completed:

Geometry - Reviewed independent probability + learned about probability of independent and dependent events + practice + honors work

Lit and Comp II - Reviewed Unit 22 vocabulary + read chapter 49 of Emma by Jane Austen

Spanish 2 - completed the Interior Designer assignment

Bible I - Read 1 Samuel 3-4

World History - Read intro to WWII unit + copied key terms + looked over WWII reading notes + read about WWII on the home front

Biology with Lab - Completed dichotomous key creation assignment

Foundations - Read more on sincerity + completed the next quiz on Read Theory + created an advertisement

Piano - 60-minute piano lesson + practiced for one hour

Khan Academy - Completed World History Unit 6: Lesson 10 (parts 1-3)

CLEP - Completed Module 12.0 introduction video

Streaming - Watched Hitler’s Circle of Evil episode 7

Duolingo - Studied for 15 minutes (Spanish, French, Chinese) + completed daily quests

Reading - Read pages 288-318 of Beneath the Wide Silk Sky by Emily Inouye Huey and finished the book

Chores - Laundry

Activities of the Day:

Personal Bible Study (1 Peter 2)

Ballet

Pointe

Journal/Mindfulness

What I’m Grateful for Today:

I am grateful for funny squirrels that are always doing cute things around the park.

Quote of the Day:

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.

-Franklin D. Roosevelt

🎧Romance Op.16 No.2 - Reinhold Glière

#study blog #study inspiration #study motivation #studyblr #studyblr community #study community #study-with-aura

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chickenstrangers · 4 months

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2023 gifs in review tag game

tagged by @khaotunq (here!) to post my favorite/most popular gifs throughout the year. thank you!!🩵🩵🩵

I only started making gifs partway through this year, so there was a big learning curve and i still think i'm pretty newbie but it has been a lot of fun and it's nice looking back on how much i think i've improved, though i have so much left to learn next year

i am going to ramble too much because this is my post, fair warning, forgive my self indulgence

april

this was the very beginning, back in the photopea days before i tried photoshop (i am still quite fond of photopea, 1. because it is free and 2, for stills i think it's just as good as photoshop, but i could never figure out how to make gifs look good with its dithering system. i have seen some remarkable gifmakers using photopea tho so that's a my limited skill problem, and i'm glad i used it to dip my toes into the process!)

i only posted 1 set for abaab this month which looks not good but is still a very fun scene, but this was not actually the first thing i made (see below).

may

most popular: msp finale, tinn knowing all the words to gun's song <3

favorite: moonlight chicken, my first ever gifset and the reason i got into gifmaking because i wanted to capture the way moonlight chicken visually returned to locations and shots to underline its theme of loneliness being replaced by community, which is the mlc repetitions series

june

most popular & favorite: kiss me again (2018) and the lovely way june say's goodby to his friends (i learned how to add text to gifs for this one, and not only that but timed text! i thought it would get like 5 notes. it's very messy and doesn't look great, but i'm proud that i learned something with it, and i think its very funny and that's all that matters to me)

july

it's photoshop time now!! photoshop beloved you make such beautiful gifs and also you are So Slow and my computer cannot handle you.

most popular: only friends original trailer set

favorite: jimwen looking at each other set (the start of my most belovedest of series, the followup to the first ever meta i wrote)

august

most popular: part 1 of the can't i look at you edits, cool tones edition

favorite: part 2 of the can't i look at you edits, warm toned edition (i love them both but this has two of my all time favorite wen faces)

hey its my profile picture and also i find it very funny that the Os line up with his eyes, and the second gif i love how impossibly happy they look

september

my busiest month in terms of gifs, in large part due to only friends

most popular: topmew and fire

favorite: alanwen poetry edit i spent soooo long learning keyframes for the heartbeat effect and then the ghosting effect was a happy accident thank you person in the background walking past at the right moment

(i also love my charn laws of attraction set because he was a surprise favorite character this year, i loved collecting the quotes for how he speaks of himself)

october

most popular: only friends sandray finale parallel set (it is. very very close to 1k which is. so many).

favorite: he's coming to me edit because it was so fun to make for @dudeyuri

november

most popular: not me sean and black getting along super duper well!

favorite: moonlight chicken haunted house edit, accompanying this meta/creative writing thing. i loved choosing liminal feeling shots for it and i liked how the simple typography turned out

december

most popular: a little jim and wen set i am very fond of

favorite: the moonlight chicken new years set i posted today. i love this little chicken diner

hey look i managed to mention moonlight chicken almost every month (i swear, i watched so many favorite shows this year but i loved making mlc gifs so much)

and that's that! thanks for reading if anyone read til the end.

no pressure tags for some amazingly talented creators who have made some of my favorite sets this year (if you feel like talking about some of your highlights, whether monthly or not, because you all make so much incredible work and i'd love to hear about it) : @hoppipolla @sollucets @icouldhyperfixatehim @celestial-sapphicss @chinzhilla @krystaljungs @moonkhao and anyone who wants to, consider yourself tagged <3

#tag game #bl superlatives 2023 #rambling rambles #*mine #this was a fun retrospective!#thank you to all of the amazing creative people in this community that inspired me and taught me so much

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bugslaststraw · 1 year

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Overwatch: the art of writing bad stories on purpose

Clocking in at just over 4k words: a semi-coordinated rant on the topic of Blizzard's history of lawsuits, Overwatch'es history of canonical queerness, and the strange marketing techniques that tie the two topics together. Written by someone who got into the game less than a week ago and likes it in a hatewatch "I love garbage" sort of way, intended for those less familiar with the topic at hand. I tried to source claims but it didn't work so let it be known that I did actual research but I'll probably get stuff wrong anyway so I tried to be funny about it here we go:

Section 1: Frat Boy Snowstorm and it's attempts at being progressive.

Try to focus. This is the most boring part.

So as I hope you all know by now, Blizzard is a pretty shit company. I say shit, because controversial sounds too unbiased. Most of us are familiar with the lawsuits against the company relating to sexual assault charges, unsafe working conditions for female employees and a quote "frat boy environment," of which they've been under fire for since 2018, but recently (early April '23 to be precise) they've also faced a lawsuit for sneakily coming up with a way to underpay their eSports champions. (Both of these are easy to look up if you want more info.) However, the company is a giant, that along with Overwatch released Call of Duty and a bunch of other games I don't recognise (fuck me I'm not an FPS person,) and, aside from the money they easily paid out, they really haven't faced any major consequences for their scummy behaviour.

This is exactly what they want, of course: for the whole thing to blow over as quickly as possible. Keep this in mind as we move on. That's the whole reason Section 1 exists: to remind you that Blizzard, like Disney, is a Big Corporate Company that will go to ridiculous lengths to make sure that the actually relevant controversies are forgotten in favour of smaller stupider shit.

If there's one thing Blizzard loves to do more than make their female employees uncomfortable, it's to tote around their progressiveness. Of course, this usually doesn't extend to Call of Duty or any of their more "grounded" "gritty" and generally masculine domains, but Overwatch specifically is a testing ground for all kinds of bullshit and we can't go a season without one billion articles about "Overwatch first game to have character of xxx nationality on playable roster" etc etc etc. People absolutely shit their pants every time the game announces a new queer hero or whatever, because since it's a Big Corporate Company and it's just barely achieving the bare minimum of inclusivity, of course, that's got to be a big deal right? Except of course that like Disney, Blizzard will do literally fucking anything to make sure their games stay relevant and that more people buy and play them, and these attempts at inclusivity can be assumed to be preformed mainly out of a desire to make money and cover up their scandals, and not because the people who call shots actually care. It becomes incredibly clear how Blizzard sees inclusivity as an idea when you consider their viral invention from last year, the Diversity Space Method.

To some of you this may look like a good thing at first, and originally I think it was, as the idea was to keep track of how many of their characters weren't any of these things displayed above so that they could keep that number down, but as soon as someone came up with the idea to assign a certain number of points to each character, the whole concept crashes and burns. You see, according to this chart here, (and as another Tumblr user famously put it), Torbjörn (3) is older than Lucio (2) is black. And I'm pretty damn sure that's not how that works.

No doubt a percentage of the artists and writes for the game had some sort of passion. After all, there is genuine treasure to be found in the character designs, animations and even some of the voice acting. But you know how it is when it comes to inclusivity; the artists so often never get to do more than drop hints and leave people guessing. Which leads us neatly into the next section.

Section 2: This game's kinda shit!

And I don't mean the game itself. Idk about that, I never played it (and my friends who do all have wildly varying opinions.) I am talking about the stories. When I first started "researching" (hatewatching) the shorts and comics for this game, I was angrily wondering why they all felt so hollow. It was like looking at AI generated art, it was like looking into the eyes of what you thought was a person and seeing two camera lenses staring back, it felt empty, it felt bland despite all the good character designs and the lore and the concepts and the colors and the nice clean lines. Something was missing, and it was uncanny as hell! Eventually though, I managed to narrow it down to a few key issues:

A lot of comics and shorts feel like ads above eveyrthing else, they're made to sell the game rather than be good, and they therefore lack passion.

Possibly as a result of this, they operate almost entirely on "tell don't show" rules, thereby feeling even more empty.

These stories still manage to lack substance and they don't really canonise a lot about the world or characters, especially regarding relations between characters, and,

the really interesting storylines are usually left uncontinued or unexplored, possibly due to aformentioned lack of passion and an egotistical but sadly fulfilled hope that people will download the game or at least read the rest of the comics to find out more.

All this put together make for a very strange experience in which you can, if you squint, see the fuzzy outline of a good story, good worldbuilding and interesting characters, and imagine that the details make sense. Which, granted, is usually what people do. If you use your brain or have experience in writing, however, it all falls apart.

Section 3A: Overwatch is a knock-off

Well, not exactly. But it does have a strange habit of borrowing from other games. For example, did you know I'm a TF2 fan? Probably. Did you know each individual TF2 class has an Overwatch equivalent? Me neither, until now. Scout and Tracer, Medic and Mercy, Sniper and Widowmaker, Spy and Sombra, hmm I'm sensing a pattern here, Demo and Junkrat (we'll get back to him later,) and so on.

"That's a coincidence," you say. "They're similar games, of course there are equivalents," you say. To that I says: you may be right. We may all collectively be overthinking this. We may all also collectively be overthinking the Omnic crisis as a whole and why it's so damn similar to Fallout's synths, they've both got robot racism and violent groups who want to kill the robots one of which is in Australia, which is a plot point in TF2 as well oh look at that, but again I'm sure it's all a big fucking coincidence right and sorry sorry I'll stop now.

It is actually genuinely possible that those are coincidences, no sass intended, but considering how Blizzard operates on the whole, I doubt it. They've already proven to be rather lazy with their stories. There's nothing wrong with having similar ideas or being inspired, but when it's as noticeable as this, along with everything else, I just can't help but feel disappointed.

Section 3B: Overwatch is also a porn category

Oh yeah, speaking of never properly canonizing relationships between the characters (and aging their underage characters up to eighteen for hitherto mysterious reasons, and releasing all those horny fanservice skins,) here's an utterly ridiculous fact: when Overwatch dropped in 2016, quite a lot of people didn't know it was a game because there was so much (animated, drawn etc) porn of it that it flooded and quickly rose to the top of the "games" category on most popular sites (hard to source for obvious reasons, but I've had a friend check for me.) It still sits up there, by the way, surpassed only by funny space bean game (I'm not kidding.) Why? Two reasons. One: all the game's female characters are impossibly beautiful and (in every case but like two post-launch releases) skinny and generally conventional as well. No surprise there. Two: the game models are well rigged, high quality and incredibly easy to get at, making it so that people can tank them down and use them for whatever they like without issue. Rumour has it that this is on purpose.

My question is, what has this influx of smut done to the game? You see, if there's one thing Blizzard loves more than making their female employees uncomfortable, bragging about inclusivity, and copying other games, it's pandering. And they pander to everybody, or at least to as many people as possible, usually all at the same time if they can get away with it. This, I have to theorise, is why all the characters seem to be flirting with one another, but only one or two actual relationships are canon. They simply don't want to piss off any part of their demographic, which they force as wide open as possible because money money money money money. This means embracing the porn and making sly references to that part of the fanbase with skins, voice lines, and odd comments in interviews.

Anyway, back to the lawsuits, or rather the consequences of them. You see, canon queerness in Overwatch comes in threefold. This is the story of two thirds of it.

Section 4: Toy Soldier and Knock-off Scout Adventures

This is Soldier 76. And he's gay.

Everybody clap for Blizzard now. It's coyly canonised in a short story titled Bastet. 76 here was never a very popular Overwatch character, lore wise, so I guess this move makes sense. I can see why, too. He's very plain and simple design wise, almost grounded, but not enough that you notice it at a glance. He looks like a plastic toy. Anyway, his queerness wont piss off too many dudebros long-term, since fewer people play him, but it gives everybody else something to chew on, so everybody wins right?. When was Bastet released again? Oh, January of 2019? What else happened around that time? The settling and aftermath of the first lawsuit? Great. That totally wasn't a cover-up for anything. Definitely not.

It's not like 76 is the first character to be confirmed as queer though. Blizzard's favourite Overwatch character Tracer is too, being confirmed as having a girlfriend named Emily all the way back in 2016.

That's good right? I mean, that was before the controversy even started! Surely they did this for normal, innocent reasons and oh who the fuck am I kidding she's a conventionally attractive female character kissing another conventionally attractive female character in a game dominated by male players with male devs and a porn category more expansive than the Bible and we know damn well why that happened.

We can but pray that someone who was in on this gave a shit. Maybe the artist. The writer. Somebody. But this is a barren and cold world and I dare not hope even for that.

Not to mention, both of these things were distinctly one-off notes. It's mentioned once, and then never again, and after 2019 there was a four year radio silence on the whole subject of queer characters that didn't change until the release of OW2. And yet, Blizzard loved to brag about how inclusive they are at every turn even back then. "Look at us," they say, as the characters stare at you from the computer screen with their dead, hollow eyes, "look at how good we are! Please buy our game."

The status quo would change significantly in 2023, however, with the introduction of their latest addition to the roster; Lightweaver.

Section 5: The most annoying twunk to ever grace the earth flings you into the stratosphere

This is Niran "Bua" Pruksamanee, also known as Lifweaver.

He debuted on the 11th of April, 2023, and he's The First at a lot of things, which, of course, made headlines. "First Thai character in a major FPS game" was probably the most common one. I'd feel better about that if I didn't know it's most likely the result of Blizzard trying to cash in inclusivity points. The second First he has is the more controversial one, however: First Overwatch character to be confirmed queer on launch. That's right, after four years of Jack Shit, they're back on it! And, well.

You see, to fully understand my emotions about this you need to know who Lifeweaver is. Despite Overwatch being a game with Mr black-hole-head toes-out "yet another poor-taste representation of DID" Sigma and a football-sized foul-mouthed hamster in a mechsuit in it, neither of them manage to be very funny. Lifeweaver, however, is objectively fucking hilarious, for these main reasons:

His amicable, light hearted healer-character personality clashes with his backstory, in a way that actually works. Lifweaver is a scientist who dropped out of a prestigious academy to stop people from trying to A: steal and B: jail him for his invention: biolight (which is exactly what it sounds: light that grows like plants, or vice versa.) Because of this biolight stuff, he is canonically wanted in seventeen countries and counting. And yet he's so glad to be here, you can hear the smile in his voice, he's kind, he's carefree. And he flirts.

With, like, everybody. Notably Mercy, and apparently he was roomates with Symmetra and speaks very fondly of her. On top of that he's (very) low-key implied to at least want to flirt with Roadhog of all people (can't say I blame him, anyway I'll get back to him,) and, uuh. Baptiste? Who's Baptiste? Nope, never heard of him. Ex-mercenary who regrets his actions and now plays support to make up for all the murder he did? Is what you may be asking yourself. Seriously, nobody talks about Bap. Maybe that's why he's being brought back into semi-relevance now, as Lifeweaver canonically (and smoothly) asks him on a date at a nice restaurant, to which he, unsurprisingly, says yes. He's always been very flirty himself. That should technically make it four canon queer characters in the game, but Baptiste still has some plausible deniability because of his personality, so arguments can still be argued, as they say.

Back to Lifeweaver. More specifically his playstyle. This bright pink healer wants nothing but to help people and further science! His players, however, will gladly ruin your day for shits and giggles. You see, it's become a bit of a gimmick of Overwatch as a whole to let you move your enemies around the battlefield. Junker Queen has her magnetic gauntlet thing, Roadhog has a hook, everybody and their mom have knockback, etc. Lifeweaver, however, can move his friends around. He has an ability to pull his teammates towards himself which he can also use to sling some of them across the map if they cooperate and/or move wrong. He can also raise a platform under any player that tosses them (or their lifeless corpse) into the air. This is incredibly useful in a coordinated team where everybody's using voice chat, eg. the way Overwatch is actually meant to be played. Overwatch is, however, never played how it's meant to be played. Hilarity ensues.

The circumstances of Lifeweaver's release. Here's the thing. On the 4th of April 2023, exactly one week before his release, Blizzard was sued again, this time for underpayment and mistreatment of their eSports champions. Although it's impossible to create a whole character in a week, it's fully possible that at least some parts of Lifeweaver's personality and some of the stuff he calls to canon (we'll get to The Thing later I promise, be patient,) were influenced by this. It's comically well timed that such a controversial character dropped so soon after that scandal, and while the model and animations were definitely finalized before that, any given set of voice lines could've been phoned in on the night of April 4th for all we know.

Put together, all of this is either infuriating or ridiculous. Some days it's one, some days the other, and some days, I'm just not sure. Originally I hated Lifeweaver. He felt predictable to me, a cheap coverup, a stereotype, and an annoying one at that. But eventually I sort of came around, because he got so annoying that I kind of had to respect him for it. From there, I eventually ended up here. And I think a lot of other people, notably the players themselves, felt the same. Go figure.

Section 6A: No scummy marketing tactic is complete without queerbait!

Valuable life lesson: it is very, very hard to tell wether or not something is queerbait by looking at the media itself. The possibilities that the perceived homoerotic tension is an accident, or a hint that's left vague for stylistic reasons, or simply a slow burn, are all present and impossible to rule out. The real way you find out if something is queerbait is by looking at the actual marketing. Listen to what devs say in interviews. Look at promotional material. Et cetera. Because I don't have the patience to watch those interviews, I can't actually say wether what I'm about to discuss is queerbait or a series of unfortunate accidents made as a result of Blizzard's bad habit of pandering, so I'll let you form your own conclusions and possibly go look it up on your own. (And then come back here and tell me about it because I'm so so curious.) I am probably going to go into excruciating detail on this next part. I am so sorry. I can't help but have favourites. So without further ado;

This is Jamison "Junkrat" Fawkes.

Or at least, it was back in OW1. (I promise the full body transparent background image is crucial.)

Anyway, this absolute bastard is a favorite of mine. (Having favourite OW characters? I am cringe but I am free.) He was in the game from launch, and remains one of the more interesting and, shall we say, least soulless characters in the game to this day. Not that there's that much to him. He never shuts up, he's clinically insane as a result of several concussions and a lot of radiation, and he really really likes blowing things up. Together with Roadhog, he's a freelance mercenary with little to no morals whatsoever, taking on whatever job gets them both cash, action, and buildings to explode.

Oh yeah, right. Mako "Roadhog" Rutledge, the quiet, stoic and occasionally terrifying two meter tall shit brickhouse with a stitched gas mask shaped like a pig snout and a massive hook on a chain. Sadly, although he's crucial to the segment, I can't really discuss him as much as I would like to because he has like five voice lines in total (an exaggeration) and half of them are just him telling Junkrat to shut the fuck up (not an exaggeration.) "Stoic, silent characters can be interesting without speaking," I hear you say. Yes, I reply, if they're well written. But this is Overwatch. Never ever get your hopes up about Overwatch.

Anyway, the trash rat and Mr Whole Hog here have an interesting history. Originally, they were simply friends, running around and doing Hilarious Antics™ (that were never very funny, other than in concept.) They feature in several comics together (none of which are very good,) they chat a lot in game and they have their own animated short called The Plan (which is the first Overwatch thing I ever consumed, also not very good, but hey, it landed me here.) And before I get into the queerbait part of this segment, let me just say that studying just this small part of Overwatch tells volumes about the writing all on its own. The tell-don't-show, the inconsistencies, the rampant ludonarrative dissonance... Stars, the comics want you to take Roadhog so seriously. They're leaning super hard into the edge with a brutal backstory and focus on making him as menacing as possible. Meanwhile, in game he, and I cannot stress this enough, walks around ass out the entire time. Google at your own risk. Don't say I didn't warn you!

There is this one voice line, triggered when interacting with one another, where Junkrat says somthn' like "You'll hook 'em, I'll cook 'em!" and Roadhog just sighs in frustration, but then there's another line, triggered the same way, where HE begins the saying, "I'll hook 'em..." "And I'll cook 'em!" In short, fuck you consistency, and this contrast could be really interesting if it was well written. But of course Overwatch will Never Ever elaborate on this, as per usual.

As the years went by, however, things got... A bit weird. Junkrat has always been friendly. According to him, he and Hoggie (he calls him that, not me) are the bestest of friends. And although Roadhog acts as though he hates Junkrat a lot of the time, this is very obviously just tsundere behaviour used to mask the fact that he does really like him quite a lot. But in what way? "Gayass," said half the fandom. "No, fuck you," said the other half, "this is clearly a father-son dynamic." "You're all homophobic," said the first half. "Maybe we are," said the second, "what are you gonna do about it?"

And Blizzard... Did nothing. Well, they did canonise their ages at some point, and there is about two decades inbetween the two (Junkrat is allegedly 25 although I find that hard to believe, I mean look at him, and RH is in his late forties) which one would assume suggests their support of the father-son thing, right? Man, if only it were that easy. First of all, the writing is so nondescript and vague that their actual dynamic doesn't resemble a parental one even in the slightest, especially not on Junkrat's tounge, and seeing as he's both more affectionate and more talkative I'll lend that it's appropriate weight. Predictably, there is also one line that is inexplicable, unexplainable and clearly an innuendo, where if you run Junkrat and eliminate an enemy RH, he'll say something like "I guess we know who's on top now, don't we?" This doesn't appear to be a reference to anything, trust me, I've tried to check. Excuse me while I take a sledgehammer to Blizzard's servers. Again, we can't assume anything's ever on purpose, but c'mon. Who greenlit that?

So, unsurprisingly, Blizzard is being annoyingly non-commital again, so as not to piss off either half of their fanbase. Things went kinda quiet after that. Anything released was, again, purposely vague.

And then OW2 happened.

Section 6B: Subtlety, lack thereof, and the art of applying a metallic texture to a default Blender orb

This is Junkrat, as his current in game model. Sad, right? How they forced him to take a bath before letting him into OW2? How they regrew his hair and ripped off his cooler patches? It's a fucking travesty. People are calling him "Cluttermouse" as a joke now. Why would they do this? They massacred my boy.

Anyway, if you're observant you'll notice he's got an earring now. Yeah, on his right ear. Yeah. What's that? You were on Tumblr in 2016? You remember all the circling posts about "earring on the right ear means person wearing it is gay" posts? You grew up a bit and assumed that was made up or blown out of proportion? You asked your mom one day and she confirms it was a very widely known symbol until around the century change? Some fans must've noticed. Most of them didn't, though, because most of them are twelve. Anyway, I tell myself (and you) that it doesn't actually have to mean anything. If you look at the design again you'll see Rattie here is very asymmetrical, and leaned to his-right-your-left, both of his prosthetics being on that side. (He even walks unevenly, which I love.) It's likely that the modellers simply had no clue about the earring symbolism thing, and just wanted to play into that asymmetry. Right?

...and then Lifeweaver dropped.

And then everyone lost their fucking minds.

Ya see, dearest readers (thank you for making it this far,) Lifweaver, Pink Petal Supporthero McGoodguy, has not one, but two conversations with Junkrat in game. One of them feels fairly normal, with them discussing the price on Lifeweaver's "noggin" and laughing about it a bit. The other one, oh boy, the other one goes like this:

🌸"Are you and Roadhog together?"

🐀"Do~ you ever see us apart?

🌸"No. I meant: are you couple?"

🐀"Yes!! A couple of dashing rouges! Not sure... What you're missing here."

Yeah. I'd lose my shit too. I guess I kind of did, but not for the reason you think. You see, this right here, in terms of pure writing talent, is fucking genius, because it manages to be controversial without actually confirming anything. By that I mean, that because Fawkes said "yes" quite enthusiastically, the half of the fandom that said "gayass" think he meant yes, but because he noped out of that yes with the "couple of dashing rouges" bit, the other half of the fandom think he meant no! This is where I really start to wonder if they called Junkrat's voice actor at 2 in the morning and went "hey bud take a few extra grand and help us record another few lines will you? We just got sued again."

This shit is simultaneously funny as hell, sad, and absolutely infuriating. In reality, Junkrat has approximately two braincells rattling around in his skull, of which he is constantly frying, due to all the concussions. He probably doesn't even know what his relationship to Mako is. That might've been the case, and it would've been a good joke, had Overwatch been a well-written game. Sadly, it's all shitfuck at worst and boring at best, and this latest little oddity just makes me even more convinced that Junkrat and his partner have been banished to Queerbait Limbo for the foreseeable future.

Section 7: In conclusion,

Blizzard is shitfuck company, Overwatch is shitfuck game, I spent at least three hours writing this up and probably more editing it together and in less than a month, it's June and Overwatch'es first in-game pride event drops. Needless to say, I'm scared.

How much time did you waste reading? Did I state fake news? Do you have additional trivia? Do tell. I'm so curious. This has been four thousand words of nothing. Goodbye.

#essay #rant #long post #blizzard entertainment #overwatch #uuuuuuu i spent hours on this #btw i am not ripping on your favourite characters I feel bad for them for having shit creators and they're my ocs now #i won them over in the divorce. g'bye.#blizzard #bbugseye taps #tjs worst fix ever

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ma-lark-ey · 5 months

Text

Lark Liveblogs Literature Part ???: All For The Game Series - Nora Sakavic

I'm doing something a little bit different with this one! In the business of full disclosure, I read TFC (and about a chapter of TRK) in April this year, decided "I can't mcfucking do this" and then gave up. And then didn't stop thinking about Neil Josten for the next eight months and now we're BACK. So, instead of properly 'liveblogging,' unlike most first-reads I do, I'm actually annotating this one because it's too good to NOT.

That means I have a customized (so totally legal mhm) word doc, highlight/unline privileges, and audacity.

Here's what I knew before I read back in April (stolen from my beta version of this post);

Andrew Minyard: Gay(?), funniest bitch alive if Tumblr brackets are to be trusted. Murderer? Has Boyfriend???

Sports. Maybe. Yes? sports.

Drugs are involved. Somehow.

Now, here's where I am going in now;

Ranking the Foxes goes; Neil, Aaron, Dan, Kevin, Andrew, Renee, Matt, Nicky

I have no idea how exy works, I do don't plan on figuring it out.

Do not remember if I read TRK but what I remember happening is far too much to be just the 230 page doc that is TFC so I MUST HAVE right?

Do know his real name's Nathaniel because I did read that scene reveal and get JUMPSCARED by my brother's name.

How this is going to work is that I'm going to put in my annotations for each chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter 1:

"You can't be serious." "Very serious, and very out of time,"

"were a team of talented rejects and junkies because Wymack only recruited athletes from broken homes...nice in theory, but it meant his players were fractured isolationists who couldn't get along long enough to get through a game."

"God damn it, Minyard. This is why we can't have nice things."[1] "Oh, Coach," someone said over Neil's head. "If he was nice, he wouldn't be any use to us, would he?" "He's no use to us if you break him." "You'd rather I let him go? Put a band-aid on him and he'll be good as new."[2]

[1] This is why we can’t have nice things, darling. Because you break them. I have to take them away

[2] Andrew I’ll kiss you

"blond and five feet even"[1]

blond? wrong. five foot even? correct.

"They were champions, and Neil was a jumble of lies and dead-ends."[1]

[1] Neil your self-loathing is showing

"It's not a good idea." "Your opinion has been duly noted and dismissed,"

"It was proof he existed, same as this game they both played. Kevin was proof Neil was real."

"It's about second chances, Neil. Second, third, fourth, whatever, as long as you get at least one more than what anyone else wanted to give you." Neil had heard Wymack referred to as an idealistic idiot by more than one person, but it was hard to listen to him and not believe that he was sincere

"It sounded like a dream; it tasted like damnation"

notes:

nothing much to say on chapter one--- it's a standard introductory chapter to a contemporary(ish) novel.

Wymack sets up the series' key theme with his line, "It's about second chances, Neil. Second, third, fourth, whatever, as long as you get at least one more than what anyone else wanted to give you."

Kevin's demeanor in this chapter is very similar to the Kevin we see up until Raven's come into play--- He's very good at acting very standoffish and tough.

The shift in Kevin when Riko comes into play was actually so dramatic I didn't recognize him here, I was afeared

some of the quotes I've added here are obviously because I thought they were funny exchanges--- others are me English Majoring(tm), and others are just me marking plot, characterization, facts, etc.

admittedly what i've put here is about half of what is actually highlighted/underlined in my doc.

I want to study the dynamic between Neil & Wymack under a microscpe

#all for the game #aftg #the foxhole court #lark says #lark liveblogs #neil josten #kevin day #andrew minyard #coach wymack

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lizzemeavisualnovels · 6 days

Text

All Things Visual Novels

A collection of links to current, interesting visual novel related stuff and information from around the web, for adults interested in the medium

Current features: Visual Novel OST Song Recommendation, Visual Novel Recommendation, Upcoming Game Jams, Visual Novel Fanart, Reviews, Ebay Finds, and Visual Novels On A Budget

✨Today's Visual Novel OST Song is Clear from My Merry May, by Takeshi Abo

youtube

✨Today's Visual Novel Recommendation is: Our Cinderella

"Our Cinderella is a winter fairy tale themed stat management sim / texting sim created for the Once Upon a Time and Winter VN jams. Help Iggy make it to the party and find love with one of his childhood friends!" art and quote from the itch.io page

This free visual novel was an absolute joy to play, with very funny&witty dialogue. Each character felt alive with their varied vocabularies and various texting styles. I chose to romance Orlam and the whole ride was fun, romantic and in the end quite sweet. It's not very difficult, I beat it on my first try. Highly recommend for anyone who wants a short funny romance that relies on wit, with zero needless fanservice.

Upcoming Itch.io Game Jams 🎮

For visual novel developers, these jams accept visual novels

Otome Jam 2024 (for making Otome Games) Starts April 30th, 1 month duration

Josei Jam 2024 (for making games aimed towards woman) Starts April 30th, 1 month duration

Preggo Game Jam #2 (for making pregnancy themed games) Starts May 1st, 3 weeks duration

Cyberpunk Game Jam (for making cyberpunk games) Starts April 26th, 9 days duration

Wierd game jam except it's spring🌷🌸🌹🌺 (for making weird games) Starts April 26th, 4 days duration

Visual Novel Fanart From Around The Web 🎨

Found or made some fanart relating to the medium? feel free to message me on tumblr with the link! I'd love to see it

Simon Blackquill and Athena Cykes from Ace Attorney Dual Destinies as drawn by ichi2co

Various Drawings of Luke Atmey with other characters from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney − Trials and Tribulations drawn by ryu1

Hoshino Yumei from Planetarian as drawn by ふにまる

"Enter The Void" An art of Monika from Doki Doki Literature Club by Shirakawa Shuu

Amane from If My Heart Had Wings as drawn by redhoodedicosahedron

VN Reviews ✏️

disclaimer: I have not always read the following visual novels myself

Utakata no Uchronia (泡沫のユークロニア) reviewed by orenjipekolatte

If My Heart Had Wings reviewed by Andrew Barker

The Coffin of Andy and Leyley reviewed by LewdNekoNya

Too Many Santas! reviewed by William Worrall

Upcoming Visual Novels 🆕

Visual Novels currently in development

Love Can Only Go Up: A Visual Novel About Stock Market: Romance whilst navigating the stock market. Partly funded, ends May 5th

Without a Voice: Blooming Edition: Kickstarter for Physical copies of the pay-what-you-want yuri horror visual novel Without a Voice. Fully funded including stretch goals, ends May 5th

Save The Villainess: Guide a romance novel villainess, and try to save her from being murdered. Kickstarter upcoming

Ebay Finds 💸

Visual novels and merch currently on ebay

Phantom of Inferno JP Visual Novel DVD Port

Clannad Sony PlayStation 2 PS2 JP Best Version Sealed New WATA 9.6 A+ Graded

Full Metal Daemon Muramasa Collector's Edition English JASTUSA Nitroplus Opened

Rewrite Limited Edition Japanese Import PC Visual Novel Key Windows JP US Seller

Fate Stay Night Limited Edition Game Windows PC TYPE MOON Japan

Yoake Mae Yori Ruriiro Na Feena Fam Earthlight 15th anniversary 1/7 PVC Figure

Visual Novels on a Budget 💰

Current sales and free games

For 8 bucks USD, The Itch.io Palestinian Relief Bundle ends in about 12 days and features 373 games, some of which are visual novels

Wanna play the og tsukihime? A fan has ported it to the web

The GOG visual novel sale has 2 days remaining including noteworthy titles "Please Be Happy" (15.99 USD), "Higurashi", "Long Live The Queen" (2.49 USD) and the point and click game "Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures" (2.99 USD)

The Asenheim Project aims to emulate several old pixelated Visual Novels in browser with javascript (NSFW)

The game jam Nanoreno 2024 has recently ended, resulting in several new, free to play short visual novels

Emily is Away <3 is currently $1.99 USD on steam until April 29th

Itch.io has several free visual novels available to browse through, including Contract Demon and Doki Doki Literature Club

And that's all folks! ✨

I hope this was informative! Wanna see more? Got any ideas? Let me know, and feel free to message me with any art, announcements, sales, reviews, or any links at all relating to the medium of visual novels

#visual novel #visual novels #vn #vn news #itch io #liz posts #kickstarter #vns #our cinderella #All Things Visual Novels #Hoping to do more with this on a future date #let me more if I should make another one of these

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mythicalmagical-monkeyman · 9 months

Note

What zodiac would everyone be? (Blame Tabs)

@tabsters for that exact reason :3

oky, so personality wise and birthdays, I can do.

---

Macaque:

--(Birthday) Mac is 100% a dead of winter birthday so Pisces (February 1-5)

--(Personality) A leo. loyal, consistent, theatrical, ambition and determination. good fit :3

(bonus incorrect quote: Macaque: Like the zodiac sign? I'm a Leo. Ma: No, stupid, Azure's a Leo. You're a Macaque.)

Wukong:

--(Birthday) Brain is telling me Wukong needs a spring birthday, so he'd be Aries just barely (aka middle of April for birthday)

--(Personality) He's a virgo surprisingly? Like logical, kind, attuned to the ingredients that make up a whole, hardworking, smart but he's almost a different flavor of Virgo if that makes sense?

Ma:

--(Birthday) Gemini for the fact that it'd be funny if she was one of those "my-zodiac-personality-matches-my-real-life-personality" people

--(Personality) Ma is a Gemini that is all. creative, fearless thinker, communication is key, playful and curious.

Sandy:

--(Birthday) Sandy needs a summer birthday me thinks, so Leo

--(Personality) Cancer (but he also could have been a Scorpio) and definitely not just because they are both land and sea creatures. loyal, commitment, emotional depth, excellent host, comfort food, comfort, self-care, and caregiver.

MK:

--(Birthday) Scorpio for no reason.

--(Personality) Libra me thinks? Art, intellectualism, harmony/equilibrium, relationships are key, and social.

Nezha:

--(Birthday) Brain neeeeds to have Nezha's birthday be Christmas day for reason so that would make him a Capricorn

--(Personality) my bro is an Aquarius, misconceptions, innovative, progressive, rebellious, teamwork and humanitarian, seems somewhat cold.

Tang:

--(Birthday) Cancer, he's also summer but a different type

--(Personality) (this one was hard but) Pisces: fantasy vs reality. empathetic, compassionate, imagination, and kind.

DBK:

--(Birthday) DBK seems like a fall birthday guy so Libra

--(Personality) Aries :3 Bold, dives headfirst into even the most challenging situations, passionate, confident leader and has relentless determination.

Ao Lie:

--(Birthday) I see Ao Lie having a winter birthday so he'd be a Sagittarius

--(Personality) um so tabs how do u feel about Ao Lie being a Sagittarius? Look he's passionate, curious, intense (sometimes), explorer, seeker of knowledge and adaptable.

(side note: Erlang is also a libra)

source

#I will happily do others if someone wants #birthdays are vibes mostly #took awhile cause I had to research zodiac personalities #reincarnation au #2nd chances au #zodiacs #lmk au #lmk #headcanons?

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lettheladylead · 1 year

Text

quadrell

Minima the beloved... also Adélia

Adelia De Spell first because she’s super easy: she’s been in one comic and never mentioned in any other comic ever lol

Thank you to @myrskytuuli for doing a lil scanlation of the comic way back when (link) (part 2 link) so that’s a lot less work for me. What do we know about Adelia? She’s Magica’s cousin who made a decision to stop being a witch and be a fairy instead. It’s funny to know that’s a decision someone can just make. Will Matilda or Minima make the same decision? You never know

We also learned that the process of going from a witch to a fairy involves many trials, the last of which is trying to convert another witch into becoming a fairy. Very specific. Part of me thinks Adelia made that up ‘cause she wanted to hang out with her cousin Magica but who knows.

Anyway that’s all we know. She’s trusting and a little airheaded, but the fact that she was born a witch and gave it up as an adult is interesting. It’d be nice to see her again. Also here’s some fun images/dialogue and then I’ll get to Minima under the cut:

cute

“everybody knows, bitch”

magica’s physical age fluctuates depending on the author but its fun to wonder if she’s immortal or not

anyway MINIMA TIME! Minima De Spell:

Minima is interesting. She was created specifically for DuckTales 1987, but then they never got to include her in the show, just in the one DT87 comic. But it’s funny ‘cause Magica had a number of young nieces and nephews that they could’ve used instead of making up a new one, but (shrug)

I think Minima might be the only DuckTales cartoon creation that was notable enough to become canon in the comics?? Don’t quote me on that tho

I’ll start with her DT87 comic appearance even though it has zero relevance to her characterization in the regular comics. Minima doesn’t seem to be very close to Magica, only staying with her temporarily while her mother (a sister/sister-in-law/cousin/fellow witch of Magica’s?) is busy. She befriends Webby and then tries to use Webby to get Scrooge’s dime, but then realizes she likes Webby too much to do it. It’s very cute, reminds me of Weblena.

(hanging out on a playground jungle gym is also reminding me of weblena lol)

(sorry for the bad quality pics i just took them with my phone ‘cause i can’t find the digital copy i thought i had of this comic)

Overall, here Minima is loyal to Webby and doesn’t care much about Magica’s life goal. She gets bullied by her peers and has magic powers but they’re not super powerful.

THENNNNNN four years after that was published, Minima made her first Topolino appearance! Funny enough, her original comic was never translated into Italian, so this was her first appearance in Italy. Also the first appearance of Magica’s not-fiancé and her granny’s apprentice, Rosolio Rhododendron.

There was a couple of comics between 1995 and 2002 where Minima/Granny De Spell/Rosolio showed up and caused mayhem for Magica, but Minima’s presence in them is...minimal. She likes Ratface and she plays pranks and is a very silly kid. Also kind of a bit sadistic towards the poor bird. More interesting than that, Magica apparently put a spell on Granny/Minima/Rosolio where they’re trapped in some magic dimension for 77 days at a time and can only come out every 33 hours (in this screencap it says 333 but later they say 33). They’re doing really well despite this.

Oh hey look she’s in the little witches version of the Woodchucks! Junior Witchhex Guidebook...cute. I guess there’s a lot of magic things going on in that other dimension she’s spent several years of her life in

very philosophical child

well that’s it for officially translated comics. I was able to find 1 out of Minima’s 3 other appearances...

Here she’s just telling Magica to stop playing videogames so much

One of the other appearances is something to do with Halloween and it includes April May and June so I’d love to find it but I really struggle to get my hands on stuff from the Netherlands lol

anyway so that’s Minima! She definitely likes to torment poor Ratface but she’s also very good at magic and she’s barely experienced any of the human world since she’s mostly trapped in a magic dimension all the time

#adelia de spell #minima de spell #magica de spell #quadrell #carro answers #duck comics #topolino #ducktales 1987 #duck family tree #family tree

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warrioreowynofrohan · 2 years

Text

If anyone wants it, for the Aug. 1 Dracula Daily, here’s my attempt at translating Mr. Swales, though it lacks the colour of the original. People who are more familiar with this dialect, let me know if I’ve got anything wrong - there are places where I’m guessing about certain phrases.

Mr Swales: “It’s all nonsense - these ghost stories and legends are only fit for getting children and silly women to make a fuss. They and all of the supposed supernatural omens are all invented by preachers and busybodies and salesmen to scare and scam fools and get folks to do something they don’t otherwise want to. It annoys me! Why, they’re the ones that, not content with priting lies on paper and preaching them in pulpits, carve them on tombstones too! Look all around you [they’re in the graveyard] - all these tombstones are falling over from the weight of the lies written on them. ‘Here lies the body’ or ‘Sacred to the memory’ written on them, but in near half of them there’s no body there, and no one cares about remembering them! It’s all lies! My God, but it’ll be a strange sight on the Day of Judgement when the dead are raised, all trying to drag their tombstones with them to prove how good they were, and some not even able to hold onto them because their hands are so slippery from their bodies lying in the sea all those years.”

Mina: “Oh, Mr. Swales, you can’t be serious. Surely these tombstones are not all wrong?”

Mr Swales: There might be a few that aren’t wrong, except when they make people out to be better than they are; for people will think a little bowl is like the sea, as long as it’s their own. All lies! Now look, you come here as a stranger and see this churchyard. [Mina nods.] And you think that these stones are about people who are buried here, safe and snug? [Mina nods again.] That’s where the lie comes in! Why, there are loads of these that are completely empty! And my God! how could they be otherwise? Look at that one, read it!

Mina: Reads: ‘Edward Spencelagh, master mariner, murdered by pirates off the coast of Andres, April, 1854, age 30.’

Mr. Swales: “Who brought him home to put him here, I wonder! I could name you a dozen whose bodies lie in the Greenland seas up north, or where the currents have carried them. And there are their tombstones around you! You can read the lies from here. This Braithwaite Lowrey - I knew his father, lost in the Lively off Greenland in 1820; or Andrew Woodhouse, drowned in the same seas in 1777; or John Paxton, drowned off Cape Farewell a year later; or old John Rawlins, whose grandfather sailed with me, drowned in the Gulf of Finland in 1850. Do you think all these men will have to make a rush to Whitby when the trumpet sounds at the Judgement Day? I doubt it! I tell you, when they got here there’d be sho much shoving and crowding and jostling that it would be like a fight up on the ice in the old days [when he was a sailor in the far north], when we were trying to hang up our catch of fish by the light of the aurora borealis.”

Mina [paraphrased]: But surely you don’t think people will need to take their tombstones with them on the Day of Judgement.

Mr. Swales: Well, why else would people have tombstones?

Mina: To please their relatives, I suppose.

Mr Swales: Ha! To please their relatives! Why would it please their relative to have lies written over them, with everyone here knowing they’re lies? Read the lies on that tombstone?” [The seat where they are sitting is on top of this stone - it’s a flat tombstone, not an upright one.]

Lucy: Reads: ‘Sacred to the memory of George Carson, who died, in the hope of a glorious resurrection, on July 29, 1873, falling from the rocks at Kettleness. This tomb was erected by his sorrowing mother to her dearly beloved son. “He was the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.” [That last line is a Bible quote.]’

Lucy: “Really, Mr. Swales, I don’t see anything funny in that!”

Mr. Swales: “You don’t see anything funny! Ha! But that’s because you don’t know the ‘sorrowing mother’ was a hell-cat that hated him because he was hunchbacked and lame, and he hated her so mich he committed suicide so she couldn’t get the life insurance she bought on him! He blew the top of his head off with an old musket that they had for scaring the crows. It wasn’t for crows then - it brought them to him! That’s how he fell of the rocks. And, as to hopes of a gloripus resurrection, I’ve often heard him say myself that he hoped he’d go to hell, for his mother was so pious she’d be sure to go to heaven, and he dudn’t want to be where she was. Now isn’t that stone a pack of lies? and won’t it make Gabriel laugh when Geordie comes panting up with his tombstone on his hump, and asks it to be taken as evidence [of how good he was]!”

Lucy: “Oh, why did you tell us of this? It is my favourite seat, and I cannot leave it; and now I find I mudt go on sitting over the grave of a suicide.

Mr. Swales: “That won’t harm you, my pretty girl; and it may make poor Georgie happy to have such a pretty girl sitting on his lap. I’ve sat here on and off for nearly twenty years, and it’s done me no harm. Don’t worry about the people lying beneath you, or those that don’t lie there either! It’ll be the time to get scared when you see the tombstones run away with and the place all bare! There’s the clock [chiming], and I need to go! Good-bye!”

This isn’t just local colour - there is one thing in this conversation that’s relevant to the plot (in addition to the things other people have mentioned about how it ties into the themes of the book, which I hadn’t thought about before!).

#dracula #dracula daily #mr swales #cw suicide #tw suicide #tw ableism

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twwpress · 1 year

Text

Weekly Press Briefing #41: April 2nd - April 8th

Welcome back to the Weekly Press Briefing, where we bring you highlights from The West Wing fandom each week, including new fics, ongoing challenges, and more! This briefing covers all things posted from April 2 - April 8, 2023! Did we miss something? Let us know; you can find our contact info at the bottom of this briefing!

Challenges/Prompts:

No current challenges or prompts that we know of this week! Do you have a challenge or event you’d like us to promote? Be sure to get in touch with us! Contact info is at the bottom of this briefing.

Photos/Videos:

Here’s what was posted from April 2 - April 8.

Amy Landecker posted a photo of herself with Otis the boxer.

Amy Landecker posted a weekly roundup of photos of her and Brad with their pets.

Bradley Whitford posted a funny screenshot of him getting an email from himself.

Bradley Whitford posted a photo of his dogs snuggling.

Janel Moloney posted a selfie where she’s twinning with Heather Severs.

Janel Moloney posted a photo of a magnolia tree blooming in Brooklyn.

Janel Moloney posted a throwback photo of herself and a friend on their graduation day.

Janel Moloney posted a photo of a Good Friday event happening in her neighborhood.

Josh Malina posted the logo for Leopoldstadt’s Broadway Show League baseball team.

Josh Malina posted the cover of Backstage Magazine, which he’s featured on.

Josh Malina posted a video of himself and Tom Stoppard appearing on Morning Joe.

Kim Webster posted a photo of herself in a lot of blue tulle with a funny caption.

Marlee Matlin posted a TikTok of her dog eating matzah along with a wish for a happy Passover.

Rob Lowe posted a photo of himself under the Unstable billboard in Times Square.

Rob Lowe posted a video of himself talking about nepo babies on Good Morning America.

Rob Lowe posted a video of himself talking on the view about his sobriety journey and getting to share it now with his son.

Rob Lowe posted photos and video of himself and his son Johnny appearing on Late Night with Seth Meyers.

Rob Lowe posted photos of himself and his son Johnny appearing on the Drew Barrymore show.

Rob Lowe made a post promoting his live show Stories I Only Tell My Friends playing in Las Vegas June 9 and 10.

Rob Lowe posted a video with quotes from and screenshots of his character on Unstable.

Rob Lowe made a post comparing himself and his son Johnny to Tom Sandoval and Tom Schwartz.

This Week in Canon:

Welcome to This Week in Canon, where we revisit moments in The West Wing that occurred on these dates during the show’s run.

Season 1, Episode 18: Six Meetings Before Lunch aired on April 5, 2000.

Season 2, Episode 18: 17 People aired on April 4, 2001.

Season 3, Episode 17: Stirred aired on April 3, 2002.

Season 4, Episode 19: Angel Maintenance aired on April 2, 2003.

Season 6, Episode 22: 2162 Votes aired on April 6, 2005.

Season 7, Episode 16: Election Day aired on April 2, 2006.

Edits/Artwork

#JOSHDONNA: all i need is on the other side of the door by @therollyjogerYT [VIDEO EDIT]

#ABBEYANDJED: i won’t hurt you anymore. by @livsbenson [VIDEO EDIT]

Editors’ Choice:

April 4th was the anniversary of Josh and Donna’s anniversary! (Or not-anniversary, depending on who you ask.) Here are a few of our favorite Josh/Donna fics relating to their “anniversary”, for we are fans of occasion!

call it what you want to by mikaylawrites | Rated G | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | Complete | These flowers are undoubtedly some strange Joshism that will take her another full year to puzzle out, but she’s no longer sure they’re the mean-spirited jab she initially assumed they were.

Donna has a complicated relationship with April fourth.

Admissible Evidence by tornandfrayed | Rated T | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | Complete | “Anyway, I was wondering, can I still send you flowers in February?”

A Man of Occasion by Arpad_Hrunta | Rated G | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | Complete | Even working on separate campaigns, Josh remembers to send flowers to Donna on their anniversary. In April. Donna decides to talk to him about this. Set in Season 6. One-shot.

S.W.A.L.K. by auditoryeden | Rated M | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | Complete | He's sent her flowers, and not just a grocery-store bouquet or the sort of flowers a florist might call "emergency level one". These flowers are at least emergency level five, possibly even emergency level “I-cheated-on-you-with-a-teenage-hooker”.

In Full Bloom by eowyn_of_rohan | Rated G | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | Complete | "This is the first time you sent me flowers in April that I actually welcomed.”

affections and affectations by joshatella (shuuuliet) | Rated G | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | Complete | In which Josh goes to the florist to pick out flowers for Donna for their "anniversary" and is confronted by the feelings he's been trying to avoid.

Flowers and a Few Forevers by JessBakesCakes | Rated T | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | Complete | Donna’s given him nearly fourteen years of marriage, and a family he’d honestly never thought he’d have - in return, he’s given her flowers. Nothing he can give her seems like enough. But he’ll spend the rest of his life and a few more forevers trying. (Present Day Josh and Donna!)

Fics:

Presenting your weekly roundup of fics posted in the tag for The West Wing on Archive of Our Own. If you are so inclined, please be sure to leave the authors some love in the form of kudos or comments. Be mindful of posted warnings/tags for each story.

Josh/Donna

Domestic Days by spooky_spacegirl | Rated G | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | In Progress

Where He Needs to Be… by JayeReid1 | Rated G | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | Complete

baby, isn’t it crazy by dusktillmidnight | Rated T | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | Complete

feel the edges start to burn by dusktillmidnight | Rated E | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | Complete

Search & Rescue by pipisafoat | Rated G | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | Complete

The Theory of Entropy by Jane_3yr3 | Rated M | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | In Progress

C.J./Danny

None of Us are More than Caretakers by onekisstotakewithme for daylight_angel, miabicicletta, Luppiters, hondagirll | Rated T | Danny Concannon/C. J. Cregg | In Progress

Ten Weeks by Jxjxjx | Rated T | Danny Concannon/C. J. Cregg | In Progress

Other Pairings/Gen Fic

One Cream, Two Sugars by arborealstops (Ted Lasso crossover) | Rated G | C.J. Cregg & Trent Crimm, C.J. Cregg/Kate Harper | Complete

it started off with a kiss... now it ended up like this by imawkwardlysoc | Rated G | Sam Seaborn/Original Female Character | In Progress

Still Here by TemperanceCain | Rated T | Jed Bartlet & Josh Lyman, Josh Lyman & Leo McGarry | Complete

the divine office by violet_storms | Rated M | Abbey Bartlet/Jed Bartlet | Complete

In Conversation with Ronna Beckman by Hackney123 | Ronna Beckman, Annabeth Schott, Original Characters (no pairings listed) | Complete

A Different Life by PreppyPrincess5103 (JAG crossover) | Rated M | Sarah "Mac" MacKenzie/Sam Seaborn | In progress

sleep through the night by Anonymous | Rated T | Jed Bartlet & C. J. Cregg & Josh Lyman & Leo McGarry & Sam Seaborn & Toby Ziegler (no pairings listed) | Complete

Multiple Pairings

Paradise City by casliyn | Rated E | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss, Josh Lyman & Donna Moss, Amy Gardner/Josh Lyman | In Progress

Golden State by miabicicletta for Luppiters, onekisstotakewithme, hondagirll, ballroompink, stars_inthe_sky | Rated M | Danny Concannon/C. J. Cregg, Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | In Progress

Donnatella Moss from Wisconsin by loliwrites | Rated T | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss, Donna Moss/Jack Reese | Complete

THE WEEKLY PRESS BRIEFING TEAM CAN BE REACHED VIA THE FOLLOWING METHODS:

Twitter: @TWWPress

Email: [email protected]

Feel free to let us know if we missed something, if you have an event you’d like us to promote, or if you have an item that you’d like included in the next briefing!

#the west wing #tww #bradley whitford #janel moloney #amy landecker #joshua malina #josh x donna #joshdonna #josh lyman #Donna Moss #Danny Concannon #cj cregg #cj x danny #Leo McGarry #jed bartlet #jed x abbey #abbey bartlet

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