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skylermadness · 3 months

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Cosmic Adoration (Ophion TF/PMC)

(Original Date of Upload: February 14, 2024)

Hey look, I'm uploading something in the same day it gets uploaded on my other accounts. Woah.

Original Description:

Happy Valentine's Day! I've sort of become infrequent when it comes to holiday-themed TFs, but this was actually a story I've wanted to write out for a long time! Quite literally since I started writing it back in January of last year before getting burnt out and never finishing it... until now, anyway. Now I have it done and I can upload it publicly for all to see! I'm quite proud of how this turned out. I typically don't deal in PMC but I feel like that would have been the best route to take this story, and full MC would have tarnished what little themes I was trying to convey with this. I don't think I have much commentary besides all of that though. I guess I could mention there was going to be a reality change segment in the furthest end of the post-TF, but with how I led that segment of the story along I couldn't really fit it in without it feeling needless and awkward.

Valentine's Day.

Initially the very concept of the holiday had eluded Hugo for a good chunk of his life. This had mainly been because he had trouble discerning the purpose of the holiday. Why did such a holiday need to exist to celebrate love? Especially when such a thing could be celebrated on any day of the year. To him, at least originally, it was just a way for stores to boost sales. The most he'd usually acknowledge is the price drops of confectionaries after and that was it. So as far as he cared the holiday was nigh-nonexistent…

That pattern of thought lasted for about twenty-five years. Then he met… Jace…

Dating had always been outside of Hugo’s range of social skills. He had originally thought himself as never really feeling the desire for it. He was content with being single, or at least he tried to tell himself that as to avoid confronting any weird feelings he might have. This thought pattern had quickly changed over the past ten months however, and it was all thanks to the introduction of his boyfriend into his life.

It was… strange, really. Having first fallen in love all that time ago. Was it love at first sight, or was it gradual…? Hugo had originally just been sitting in a coffee shop waiting for his order before going to work, but had encountered Jace after they seemed to recognize him as someone whom he shared a few high school classes with so many years ago. He'd be lying if he said he knew what the guy was talking about, but the thought of being recognized so randomly was quite pleasant.

Their encounters at that shop became frequent, almost weekly. Casual talks about life between the two, sharing their interests and enjoyments to one another. Admittedly Hugo had been the more reserved one of the two, but he always enjoyed listening to Jace talk about their own life. He loved hearing his voice, he loved hearing him speak so passionately about things, he loved… him…

It was definitely a little awkward whispering those very words beneath a breath while in mid-conversation. And even more so when they decided to take things outside and less public so they could talk it out. That awkwardness had quickly faded though, their conversation shifting more into the hypotheticals of dating each other. It was silly and lifted Hugo's spirits up a bit after what he felt like was one big act of making a fool of himself.

Then Jace said he would like to date.

Hugo was surprised, stuttering and sweating and being filled with complete and utter confusion. Jace then gave him a small kiss on the cheek, the man's mustache ticking the skin and making Hugo feel even more flustered.

That was enough to settle everything though. They were officially getting together… but now Hugo had a new problem.

It's been ten months of them dating now and he felt… inadequate? He always felt like his way of expressing love was lackluster in comparison to Jace's. Jace was the more expressive and outgoing one of the two, meanwhile Hugo always had trouble trying to properly express his own emotions in a way that didn't sound like he was forcing it out of himself. He just always had trouble trying to say things properly. Trying to determine what to say, what to do. Was he romantic enough? Was he receiving without giving back in a perfectly equal amount? Of course Jace had been left unaware of these concerns. Hugo had chosen not to tell these fears to them, which in truth might not be a good idea…

He shook his head, then whispered to himself. "Why am I such a mess…"

Realizing he had his head down in thought the whole time, Hugo raised it and looked forward. He was currently walking down the sidewalk of the city's shopping district. It was currently February 13th, the eve of Valentine's Day, and Hugo had decided that with the day of celebrating love fast approaching he should do something for it. It wouldn't necessarily be something grand, but he at least wanted to give his boyfriend something that would commemorate his own love for them.

That's easier said than done though. Fortunately Hugo had a plan! He was on this particular street for a reason, to visit an antique's store and locate something of value there that would be enough to encapsulate his passion. Unfortunately, that was also easier said than done. He wasn't even sure he'd find something there, especially considering how… odd the wares seemed to be, at least just by a casual glance at the store's website.

Still, it was an adequate starting point. His steps began to slow as his peripherals caught onto the deep brown wood of a building. Hugo turned, gazing into the windows and finding shelves lined with various peculiar objects. Too many to discern properly. He lifted his head for one final check, staring up at the letting that spelled out the store's name.

Maurice's Audacious Antiques. The very place he was looking for. Perfect…

A bell above the door silently rang as the young man walked in and the wooden floorboards softly creaked beneath the new weight introduced upon them. The place had an odd and comfy feel to it. Hugo would describe it as cabin in the woods-type vibes. And considering the rusting of the shelves to his left, this place definitely has age to it.

His eyes then caught a singular person here. To the right, behind a counter was a rotund man with a balding head and a thick, tied up beard. His head constantly went back and forth between two objects, a laptop and a notebook with poorly scrawled wording in it, while mumbling random things that Hugo couldn't discern. Hugo took a few steps forward before he was in front of the counter, the younger man noting that the older one hadn't seemed to notice him yet.

"Uh, hi…?"

The burly bear of a man raised upwards with his eyes wide, sharply inhaling. "Got damn, ya' startled me!"

Hugo rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Sorry about that… sir?"

The man's face suddenly shifted from startled to smiling. "No need fer formal'ties! Jus' call me Maurice!"

"Er, right. I just uh, came here to…" Hugo started to trail off. Should he say the reason why he's even here? Will it even help?

Maurice raised a brow. "Ya' alright, son?"

Hugo blinked a few times, then swallowed the forming lump in his throat. "I-I'm fine! I just uh, wanted to find a… gift for someone close to me."

The older man nodded, stroking his beard in thought. Silence filled the space between the two for a few seconds before one of them spoke again.

"Don' think I've gott'n a reques' like that before. Ya might be able to find somethin' in one a' the furth'r shelves though. They have all kindsa trinkets 'n knick-knacks." Maurice advised. He then repositioned his hand to lean his head on its palm. "With our recent batch a' stuff, ya' should find somethin' you like!"

Hugo nodded in response. "Th-thank you… Maurice-"

He turned around and went to the area he was advised to go to. The store's amount of stock was unimpressive with only a single row of five shelves filed one after another, but he had settled on checking the fourth one for anything interesting. It looked like it had small stuff in it after all. Although he was a little curious about the store owner's usage of should and would. It felt like they didn't know their own stock. They tried to ignore that though. They had to focus on finding a gift for Jace.

It was now that Hugo truly saw how strange the objects on these shelves seemed to be though.

Some seemed pretty normal. A few intricately designed rings, sets of jeweled earrings, and weird looking necklaces with a design-scheme that felt expensive to look at. However, oddities seemed to pop up left and right. A red, glass-looking orb; sitting beside it was a blue orb with gold metal zigzagging across the middle. Some weird sharp pen-looking thing, a golden chalice of some kind, and… was that a marble pauldron???

"This is so weird…" Hugo whispered to himself.

Finding a gift was already hard enough, but the pure absurdity here made things feel more challenging than they needed to be. At least finding something perfect was a non-issue. He casually picked up one of the many spheres, one that looked like it contained an entire galaxy inside, and stared at it in utter confusion.

He whispered again, "What is your purpose??" while pushing his face close to the object. He then set it down again, suddenly worried that he might break it.

"This isn't going to work…" he sighed, slowly stepping closer to the shelf's end and the window beside it. He sounded off more objects in his head as he continued forward. Weird blue crystal, a pair of sunglasses, a censor thing, some kind of… cap??

For an antiques store all of this felt absurd-

His confusion was momentarily broken as the peripheral of his eye caught onto something glistening. He turned his head to look and found… another necklace? A fairly simple one at that. It was a single golden string with a white elliptoid object on it. For some reason he felt compelled to pick it up, gently cupping the elliptoid and putting it in his hand.

"What is this…" he asked himself, lifting his hand towards his face a little. The elliptoid looked almost like an egg. Its shell was adorned with beautifully designed spirals, rigid enough that rubbing a thumb over it allowed him to feel them out a little. It felt nice. Nice and warm. He wasn't sure why it was warm, probably because of the sunlight, but it was oddly calming to him.

"It does look pretty neat," he said with a smile. His mind was wracking over all the possible representations this single object could hold. The warmth he feels around Jace, the way they have slowly have made him try to come out of his shell, the newness he felt upon realizing his love for them. A small laugh escaped his throat. All of those sound so cheesy, damn. But… they're the truth, are they not?

It feels so embarrassing though. His smile falters, his emotions dimming. What if it's too cheesy though? What if it comes out horribly and he makes a fool of himself in front of Jace? Damn it, damn it, damn it, he felt so fucking stupid!!

He sighs. "I-I'm overthinking this, I have to… I have to calm down. I just…" he looked out the window, sighing. "I just wish I could better show my feelings…"

Right as these words left his mouth the egg on the necklace began to glow. Bright gold shone from the unknown material, the object slowly shaking as it seemed to move closer to him. Hugo had felt the object moving in his hands and looked towards it, but barely got any time to process it as the object practically flung out of his hand and around his neck.

"Wh-what the hell-" he exclaimed, feeling a tickling around his neck as the string tied around it. He reached up both hands to try and grasp the mysterious egg-like object and pull it off. However, the moment his palm made contact with it he felt an intense warmth run throughout his entire body. He took a few steps back, bumping into the shelf behind him, as an intense golden glow entered his irises.

"What is… hhhaaa…."

A hand opened, fingers unfurling away from the elliptoid as they began to twitch. A strange energy was filling his body, coursing through it painlessly and warming it to a strangely comforting degree. All the while strange changes was beginning to form into his form.

His hands were the part of his body that first made contact with the necklace, which meant they were the first to have begun their transformation. As Hugo's fingers twitched his nails began to lengthen. They grew longer, the tips getting sharper and curling as if they were becoming claws. Their translucency was lost as they gained a golden tone as well. The skin on his hands started to lighten, a cream color entering them as the softness hardened. A leathery texture had steadily etched into them while their composition became less fleshy and more scaly.

As the cream-colored scales started to form across his hands, their size was beginning to increase as well. Both hands had stretched out to become larger and thicker. His fingers were getting plumper and meatier. As his hands got larger in size he gripped both of them into fists, his knuckles proceeding to ache for a moment before short, sharp golden spikes erupted from beneath the scales.

The scales quickly started to move upwards to his wrists and forearms. The area increased in size to match the proportions of his hands. However, this new enlargement had also been due to a gain in muscle mass. Comforting heat surging into his forearm muscles as they began to gain bulk. At the same time the coloration of his scales had steadily shifted, hue changing from its soft cream to a brilliant gold. All the while more short golden spikes erupted from the back of his forearms at evenly spaced intervals before seemingly ending at his elbow.

His elbows got larger, the scales rapidly transitioning to his upper arm and running beneath the short sleeves of his polo shirt. The sleeves proceeded to constrict, his muscles now bloating beneath the lustrous scurf he was gaining. His biceps bulged beneath the fabric to a quickly noticeable degree. His triceps mirrored those changes as well, Hugo's once skinny arms now having been mostly consumed by his newfound musculature. Rips started to form within the fabric of his sleeves as his delts ballooned, his shoulders widening drastically as everything soon began to flow into his body proper.

Hugo leaned on a shelf, breathing deeply as he stared down at a hand. His mind was feeling… conflicted, to say the least. A fraction of him wanted to be afraid, wanted to attempt to pry off this necklace from his neck. His other arm was slowly raising itself up to fulfill that desire. But his fingers that were slowly curling around the elliptoid never closed the gaps between them.

There was still another fraction of his mind. Curiosity as to what was going on, as to what this object was doing to him. A strange desire to let that curiosity flourish and let these changes progress. What was happening to him, why was it happening?

His breathing slowed just slightly. "What does this necklace want to do to me!?"

It had to be the necklace's will after all. Such a thought felt so absurd, but in the back of his head he felt it was correct to assume to.

A sharp exhale exited his mouth as he felt a sharp heat enter his torso for a second. His shirt began constricting even more as he felt his own collar bone widen, his entire frame being made more wide and broad. The one button of his polo he had fastened started straining as a result, his frame clearly getting larger than his shirt had been accustomed too. Shortly after that the comforting warmth entered his torso as well. The light of the necklace's egg glowed brighter for a moment, Hugo beginning to feel a strange feeling well up inside him as it did so.

As the scales started to converge on his chest their color lightened back to its previous cream tone. Meanwhile, his chest began to swell in size. His pectorals got larger and rounder, packing on mass at a steady rate as his polo filled out more and more. It wasn't long until their thickening pressed up against his shirt, steadily testing its limits each passing second as his cleavage got deeper and more visible within the fabric. The new roundness of his pectorals were quite visible in general. The one fastened button of his shirt would suddenly pop off, unable to hold itself against the slabs of meat that were now his pecs.

Meanwhile the changes were running down his back as well. The back of his shirt was tightening as his trapezius muscles broadened and enlarged. A sudden surge zipped down his spine, the vertebrae decompressing and getting thicker steadily forcing his height to increase by a few inches over the course of the next few minutes. But the strongest feeling was in two points of his upper back, a massive pressure slowly mounting into them. Two bumps slowly rising from the skin-turning-scales, hard spikes emerging from those bumps and beginning to poke holes in the fabric of his shirt. This pressure only seemed to increase as time went on, Hugo stumbling forward a bit and hunching. He gripped his abdomen with his left arm while he grasped onto a shelf with his right, the sound of metal crunching piercing the air thanks to the strength of his grip and sharpness of his claws.

Hugo practically growled at the mix of senses he was enduring right now. "F-fucking hell-" his voice cracks slightly, sounding slightly deeper as it crackles. "W-where'd that comfort go…"

The warmth he was looking for still remained, albeit now drowned out by the insurmountable pressure in his back.

His abdomen started to churn, the region rippling as his entire lower half was consumed by scales. Hardened slabs of muscles arose from the area, abs pushing forward row by row. His shirt was riding up his belly during the process, his new muscles being granted increasingly better visible. It wasn't long until a solid eight-pack of abs formed. An even stranger addition occurred in his abdominal as well, golden gemstones formed on the perpendicular folds of his muscles: a massive diamond-shaped one at the bottom of his pectoral cleavage, a smaller one at the base of his first row of abs, and the smallest at the base of the second row.

Beneath a hand he felt his side getting indented as well, the muscles in his obliques shifting and gaining in muscularity, strengthening as his chest was barrelling out. All these changes tightened his polo shirt to an even stronger degree, the threads on his sides unstitching due his much larger body size. The size of his newly formed muscles had resulted in the crevices his muscles had produced being visible from indents in the fabric. Due to his increasing height the hem of his shirt continued to rise even more as well.

By this point, the holes in the back of his shirt has been stretched even larger by the formulating spikes. Although at this point the spikes had grown larger enough to prove themselves as the pointed ends of an external bone growth. This growth had continued to extend and expand, a pair of large triangular bulges swelling up at his back. Pressure just continued to build up as these bulges got larger and larger. More and more of the back of his shirt continued to tear, and the bulges gained more and more definition in their shape to point that they were proven to be more than just bulging scaley growths. But after a few more seconds of pressure building, everything came to one big feeling of relief.

“GGRRRAAAAGHHHH!!!” Hugo roared, the sound of splitting fabric piercing the air as his back was finally granted escape from its discomfort. What had emerged from the region was a pair of magnificent wings. They were draconic in appearance with the flesh and membranes possessing the same golden scales that the rest of his body had formed. Furthermore his newly developed wingspan was noticeably large, and as the new appendages curled into themselves it became evident that the fingers of his wings were long enough to descend down to the ground.

The young man could feel the heat of his blood pumping through the newly emerged wings. Strange tingles and sensations coursed through his nervous system as his brain was forced to get accustomed to them, and in truth he could feel his muscle memory rapidly getting used to having them there. Once all the pressure and tightness had subsided, Hugo shakily straightened his back and looked behind him.

“These… things…” he stated, his voice continuing to deepen in tone as he spoke. Like the feel of something commanding was seeping into it. “Why does… having them feel so… nice…?”

Finally unhanding the shelf in front of him, he moves a hand over to give his new wings a gentle caress. That desire to be afraid had been dispelled now, the man filled with a feel of familiarity at the sight instead. These wings were his, and this body…

This body is yours, a stray thought pierces his brain. The Celestial Egg is granting what you desire…

Hugo blinked a few times at the thought, and the pupils of his eyes seemed to get thinner which each blink. He then stops caressing the wing and pulls his hand over to rub a thumb on the egg that adorned the necklace.

“The Celestial Egg…” he whispered, the meekness of his earlier tone of voice almost completely replaced by an almost deific level of deepness. Meanwhile his mind dwells on the object and thinks about what it's done, what it's doing to him, and as he does so he feels a tinge of pressure at the base of his spine.

Instead of sitting around waiting for what he knew was about to explode from his body, he decided to just move his other arm behind him so he could push down the back of his pants a bit. It was a little hard considering his legwear was already at the point that it could barely fit around his waist, but he managed to push the top of his jeans just enough that he could let whatever pressure in his rear relieved itself without having to fight against his pants.

The act had unveiled a small, pointed growth at the base of his spine. Its size wouldn't remain diminutive however as pressure continued to build up within it, that pressure causing it to quickly extend downwards. At first it started out being rather thin and small, like an unimpressive snake slithering out from above the waistline of his pants. However after a few inches it became noticeable that the lengthening appendage was beginning to get segmented, and each segment was slightly larger in diameter than the last. Come ten segments long and it was undeniable that Hugo was gaining a tail, and it was only getting longer. Twelve segments, fifteen, eighteen, twenty two; all with a sequential increase in diameter by almost an inch. Come the mid-twenties and the tail would be about a ruler in thickness. A few more seconds and the segment count reaches the thirties, in which the rate of growth begins to slow down. Thirty two, thirty three, thirty four… then it comes to a halt at about thirty five segments. By then the tail’s width was about a ruler and a half, and the length itself could only be about four times that long. It also formed with the tail’s aforementioned pointed tip, a series of spikes running across the top of certain segments, and a shine from the golden scales adorning it.

Concurrent with the growth of his new appendage were the swath of changes entering into the lower half of his body. The sea of scales cascaded down all sides of his body, flowing down his waist and hardening the skin of his legs to match the nigh-reptilian nature the rest of his body was garnering. Beneath the shifting scales on his thighs were his muscles which, just like in his arms, were in the process of bulking up and discarding their once skinny appearance. His quads and hamstrings grew in conjunction with each other, absolutely bulging in strength as the denims of his jeans were forced to strain against his rapidly developing musculature. At the back of his legs were his gluteus muscles, them too in the process of swelling up to the point his rear was rounding out a fair bit.

Pressure surged throughout the bones in his legs, and the bottoms of each pant leg rose up the crus of his own limbs indicating that more height was being added to his body. All the while a low heat burned in his calves, those muscles also ballooning out of the back of the lower half of his legs. By this point all the crevices that divided his muscles were indenting into the material of his pants, splits and tears forming in the sides of his jeans and revealing the shining gold his body had attained. It was like the changes had finely sculpted his form to a body type akin to the Grecian marble statues, except looking like he himself was worth billions.

The final change in his body’s lower half came to his feet. By now they had already undergone a process to have grown in order to fit his new bodily proportions, larger and wider and thicker. His chunkier toes were pushing up against the fronts of his shoes to such a degree that the footwear themselves was bulging in its attempt to contain them. The heels of his own feet dug into the back of his shoes, and the sides pressed up against their sides. Even a few rips could be heard as the strings began to snap against the bridge of his feet.

And then came the sea of scales…

Once beyond his ankles the hardening of his flesh went from the pristiness of the rest of his form to getting mixed with a shade of vermillion around his feet. As his soles were covered in scales an almost reddish-orange hue formed in the area. Meanwhile the top of his feet seemed to practically harden as a scute-like segmenting broke apart the skin, perfectly dividing itself to align with the ligaments of his toes. And by the time this plating extended to the ends of his toes, an almost bronze shade of brown dispelled the translucency in his toenails as they gradually restructured and sharpened. Rips could be heard from the cloth of his shoes as a quintet of pointed claws emerged from the front, curved and pointed and almost bestial.

Yet none of the sounds of his clothing shattering or the feeling of his form practically improving on itself were as much a distraction for Hugo as they could have been. All during that segment of the transformation his mind was instead focused on his own thoughts. Because the longer the changes are pressed on, the more his body becomes less human, the more information his brain seems to attain. The more the Egg puts into his mind to make his mentality compatible. And he knows it's the Egg that was doing this. His mind registers it as his unique Sacred Artifact.

“Holding all that is and ever was in the very palm of my hand…” the changing man speaks cryptically, a low and deep chuckle escaping his throat after he makes the comment. He could practically feel the power of his own voice resonating through the walls of his throat. Although that could also be from the scales rising up his neck.

A grin then forms on his face, any emotion he was feeling earlier cast away as a feeling of pure confidence had overtaken him. “…and out of everyone within you you're making me one of the most powerful there is? I should feel honored considering just who I used to be~”

He could only grin wider as he felt pressure wracking his very skull. He lets out a laugh of triumphant glee and exclaims, “Yes! Give me that visage and make this Ophion complete!” For a moment the Celestial Egg around his neck glows brighter as if in response to him, then Ophion (who has at this point cast out the name Hugo) continued to grin as his face finally began to push out with his entire skull structure shifting alongside it.

The way his skull was restructuring was a complicated series of events to say the least. The lower half of his face was being pushed forward, and his lower jaw seemed to be extending and growing to be a bit wider in size in comparison to the upper portion. That portion of his face would only continue to push out more and more into a muzzle, the very features of his face being reconstructed to fit this new development. His nose melted into the muzzle’s tip as the nostrils became holes at the furthest end, meanwhile his lips quivered as small portions of them reshaped into points and hardened as they did so. By this point his new snout was looking to be one that belonged to someone draconic in nature, much like how the rest of his body had. This was further proven by how the dome of his head was being reshaped, humanity rapidly being lost under a deluge of shifts that made his entire skull structure that of an entirely different species.

The shape of his skull wasn't the only thing changing either. As the scales washed across his head, rushing past his neck and circling the base of his muzzle, bony protrusions began painlessly erupting from certain areas of his face. On each side of his head a triad of bone spikes would emerge. The series of spikes just barely obscured his ears, which themselves were in the process of repositioning themselves to protrude at the sides of his head while also gaining an almost elfine pointedness to their structure. His eyebrows were quick to fade beneath the scales, quickly replaced by juttings of golden spikes that layered over yet another set of bone spike triplets that would rise from his browline. Even right in between his eyes a very small spike would emerge. And although these weren't spikes, a pair of short and pointed protrusions would extend out of both ends of his chin.

All while these changes had occurred, Hugo’s somewhat lengthy hair was being steadily sloughed off. With each inch of his scalp the sea of gold claimed clumps of hair would slip off his head. It's once luscious fullness thinned out, each follicle being shoved out at the root by his magnificent scales. As more of his hair continued falling off it would also reveal one last set of growths on his head. The first of which was rising from the middle of his head’s apex, a series of short brown spikes that would soon run down the middle back of his head. The second of these changes however was significantly more substantial. Two brown points erupted from a portion of the upper region at his head’s back, and those points were quick to grow outwards and upwards. Unlike the rest of his face’s pointed protrusions, these ones were noticeably less bony despite possessing an appearance of hardness to them. And as the duo of brown growths continued to rise out from his skull, diameter getting a little larger as they got longer, it was evident that he was gaining a pair of horns.

Perhaps the last major change came to Ophion’s teeth. The omnivorous nature of his humanity was quickly shifted, incisors and molars quickly sharpening to fit his new species well. The most drastic change would come to his lower canines though as the reasoning for his lower jaw’s protrusion finally came into tangibility. Much like the horns atop his head the left canine of the two lower teeth would extend upwards a fair bit while sharpening itself and, after a few seconds, shift into being more like a prominent fang. The rightward canine didn't get that luxury however as instead it seemed to practically atomize and leave the gum to harden and scar in mere seconds.

The pressure that had enveloped the anthropomorphic dragon’s head finally began to subside. A glint of red overtook Ophion’s irises as the pupils finally properly slit like a reptile’s. “This feels so… good,” he muttered to himself as he raised up a hand and gently caressed his own face. “Makes me wish I had a mirror to see just how divine I look now!”

Because at this point that's just how he felt: absolutely divine! His brain can register memories of a world beyond this one, a life beyond this one, all of which has been meshed and mixed with his own thoughts of his previous humanity. The Egg had taken his desire and, inevitably, went a bit overboard in fulfilling it. But Ophion hadn't cared, the personality overhaul he had garnered was absolutely wonderful! No more pitiful fears about how he acts, no more staggeringly low amounts of self-confidence, no more worries about… about how he can show his love to…

“Jace…” he whispered beneath a breath. The very name carried the same familiarity that it had when he was a human. And thinking about it… about him made Ophion’s brain register the same emotion the dragon had towards him: an intense feeling of love. But now that intensity practically burned inside him, he felt a devotion that not even those atop the System of Olympus could fell. It was an unquantifiable feeling and was something he just couldn't hold himself from expressing!

“I can finally do what I've wanted for so long~” Ophion proclaimed. He turns and takes a step forward, but is stopped in his tracks almost immediately as he feels a knee of his pants split over his own. It was at this point that the dragon had finally taken full notice of his extremely ill-fitting clothing. His polo was somehow still hanging on for dear life, meanwhile his jeans were a few stitches away from ripping apart at the sides.

“I'm going to need something better than this if I'm going to look more presentable…” he sneered.

The Celestial Egg sparkled a bit and glowed for a few seconds, prompting his clothing to sparkle themselves as a bright light enveloped them. A few seconds later and his clothes would begin to grow, expanding over his form so they could all cover him properly. The hem of his shirt was quick to descend over his abdominal region as the entirety of it enlarged enough that his muscle mass wouldn't indent so intricately into the fabric. But then a different change occured, a deep brown beginning to overtake the coloration of the shirt at a rapid pace. As it did so the small placket of the polo began to extend down the middle, golden buttons lining it but not even bothering to fasten themselves. The once small collar would also lengthen, popping itself upwards as it raised higher and higher. And as the shirt’s split finished its full formation the entirety of the shirt would open to now fully reveal his muscled torso. Meanwhile the back of his shirt was seemingly being restitched, the giant hole formed by his wings altering to become more intentional rather than a byproduct of the appendages tearing through it.

The sleeves of the shirt weren't left unscathed as any rips were fixed almost instantly. The constricted feeling was alleviated, changed to a more snug feel as they more comfortably outlined his upper arm muscles. By the time the sleeves were enveloped by the brown coloration they would also bulge as if they were simultaneously extending in length while still trying to contain themselves to their shortness. This would eventually manifest in the form of his shirt sleeves now taking a rolled up appearance.

A similar discoloration had entered his enlarging pants, although this time it was more beige in tone that was enough to shift the denim into a different and finer material. The shifts within his legwear were a little less intense as they would also only enlarge enough to allow movement yet still be tight enough to outline his muscles, all while fixing themselves of the damage his unexpected growth in muscle had incurred. The button that held the jeans closed gained a golden tone, as did the zipper, both of which being left completely open despite the fact his pants fit him now. And with no belt the only thing that held the jeans on his body was a pair of suspenders that snaked from over his shoulders and down his torso before promptly buckling on his legwear.

The last piece of his attire that remained were his shoes which after being enveloped by the Egg’s magical light… straight up dematerialized into motes of light and leaving his feet bare. The motes of light didn't disappear however, instead floating upwards and behind the dragon before seemingly rematerializing into something else entirely. Fine silken material layering onto his back, amorphousness quickly dispelling as it gained a menagerie of whites and browns, all with trims of gold lining. It was hard to fully realize at first but it would seem that some kind of suit jacket had manifested behind him, being worn casually as it was just clinging onto his shoulders.

With that the Egg’s glow finally dimmed, Ophion now sporting a look that could only be described as both distinguished and casual. With a smile he held the Artifact with two claws and brought it to his face. “Really abiding by all my wants today, hm?”

For once the Egg didn't shine in response. The dragon wasn't expecting any though, so he unhanded the object and let it drift back to hang over his chest. He then sauntered forward, making his way out of the aisle… and into the eyeline of a very awestruck Maurice who was still behind the counter.

“Was wonderin’ if I needed to check on ya’...” Maurice commented as he made eye contact with the anthropomorphic dragon.

“Does this not happen often?” Ophion inquired as he stepped forward towards the counter. “I can practically smell the stench of anomalous magic from this place now…”

“Err…” Maurice looked away.

Ophion chuckled. “Do not think I give much of a care with what you do here. Although I do give thanks for your wares allowing me to attain such a brilliant form~ I don't think I've felt this great in ages!”

“Uhuh…” Maurice nodded, face still in a mix of awe and surprise. “Well, that’ll be-”

“I'll be deciding the price here…” the dragon practically demanded. He fished around a back pocket for a bit and pulled out a wallet, although upon opening it he was greeted with his former self’s image in the ID photo window. “…and I have a feeling I won't be here for much longer.”

Ophion then placed the wallet onto the counter, then turned to make his leave. “Thank you for your help, Maurice! Your actions shall be etched into my memory for as long as time flows!”

Maurice is just left dumbfounded as he watches Ophion leave the store and, after a good few seconds, jet into the air as one would expect a dragon to do.

“...still not quite sure how to process that,” the storeowner muttered as his gaze drifted to the wallet the dragon had left behind as payment.

----------------------------------------------------------

The sound of a blender pierced the air of the apartment, Jace idly watching as the fruit within the object was shredded into a fine paste. He was never quite sure how to spend days off from work whenever he was left alone. Especially since he had his hopes on spending the day with Hugo, but it was almost 5PM and Hugo hadn't gotten back from his mysterious shopping trip yet.

The apartment falls into silence and Jace eyes his phone. Not even an indicator that his last text was read. “What could he be doing…?” the man muttered in concern.

Then the melancholy serenity of the room was broken in an instant by the sound of a thump from the apartment balcony. A giant shadow being cast through the glass, easily visible from the kitchen’s adjacency to the balcony door.

“Uhhhh…” Jace backed up a bit, eyeing the shadow with a slowly building fear in his chest. He couldn't make out what it was, it was just large and… monstrous?

He then hears the balcony door slide open. A sound that prompted him to turn around and scramble for a knife or something to-

“Jace…” a deep voice called out, interrupting his actions. Jace promptly squeaked in response, heart rate skyrocketing. He very slowly turns around to see the form of a golden-scaled musclebound dragon anthro staring straight at him.

“Wh-what are you?!?”

The dragon tilted its head, a spiky brow raised. “How undignified, I probably should've…” he shoved a hand in a pant pocket and pulled out a phone. “Please give me a moment.”

Jace just stood there in fearful silence as he watched the dragon futz around with their phone, the sound of claws tapping on glass being the only thing fully heard in the apartment. Then after a few moments a look of satisfaction formed on the dragon’s face.

“Here,” the dragon held the phone out, its wallpaper fully visible to Jace. The man’s eyes widened as he saw the image: a picture of himself and Hugo. This was Hugo’s phone.

With a shaky step forward Jace began to verbally panic. “Where did you- what did you-”

A look of realization then formed on the dragon's face. “Jace, my love, it's me. Hugo.”

“Your love???” Jace exclaimed, eyeing up the golden dragon with some level of fury in his eyes. “I don't- you can't be! For one, Hugo’s a human!”

“Was, I was a human,” the dragon corrected. “It would be hard to explain it all fully but,” he raised up a hand and tapped what looked to be an egg that was hanging around his neck. “This? This changed me into this glorious form.”

Jace was far from convinced though. “Please, people don't just suddenly transform into dragons! You- you have to have done something to him-”

“Our anniversary is in two months, the receipts for the bracelet you bought me for it are in the dresser next to our bed, and you’re still trying to reserve a date for that one restaurant with the shrimp,” the dragon listed out in rapid succession. He then stepped forward with his arms outstretched. “Now do you believe me, my love? Or must I go into your personal confessions?”

Jace swallowed a lump in his throat. All those things the reptilian spoke of were correct, and there's no way he could've garnered that information unless he was somehow spying on the two of them. “I-I was hoping you wouldn't have noticed any of that!”

“We live in an apartment, love,” the dragon, Hugo apparently, stated as he leaned over the kitchen’s island. “It's almost impossible to hide such sensitive information.”

Jace just nods as he stared into Hugo’s eyes, and just looked at his draconic visage in general. He appeared so nonchalant, so calm, and his face seemed to look more tender the longer he looked at Jace.

“I'm… still trying to process this,” Jace began leaning onto the counter behind him. “How the heck did you get that… thing that transformed you into this, Hugo…?”

“I'd like to start by saying I go by Ophion now. In truth I was trying to find an adequate gift for this coming Valentine's Day,” Ophion began to recount. “I found an interesting antique's store a few days back and decided to pay a visit today. Although in truth it seems that place is some kind of front for magical artifact vending but well…” a somber look formed on his face as he took hold of the necklace’s egg and held it into view. “Truthfully I've always felt like an inadequate lover to you. I was hoping to get you something that'd prove myself, and perhaps make up for my lackluster approach to our relationship. Once I picked up the Celestial Egg it resonated with my desires and made me into this. Transformed me physically, mentally…”

The dragon leaned a little closer, a fervorous look in his eyes. “Perhaps it even deepened my love for you…”

Jace let out a sharp exhale, then stepped forward to gently caress Ophion’s face. “Hu- Ophion. You don't have to give me some trinket to prove your love to me. And truthfully for me, I never found you lackluster at all! Perhaps a little neurotic but, you were always still a wonderful person…”

He then gave the dragon a kiss on the snout.

“...but I should really ask if you feel better about yourself?”

“I do,” the dragon confessed. Ophion lifted his head out of Jace’s grasp and straightened himself up. His form from the waist up was visible from behind the kitchen island: strong muscles, glistening scales, those weird crystals embedded in his body. Jace couldn't even help but give a glance at Ophion’s wings, the man wincing at the thought of having to suddenly grow those. Nonetheless, the golden reptilian had a certain confident aura that Hugo seemed to always have trouble mustering.

“I can't say I'm the same person I was as a human,” Ophion admitted. “The way this Egg works, it put so much into me to make me fit an identity I desired. But I will also admit a fraction of that was because I wanted to be able to better show how much I love you, my love~”

“I don't think you had to change yourself into a literal dragon to show how much you love me,” Jace said with a laugh. “I'm glad you're happy though. I will admit I'm getting used to being called your love, it's so dignified!”

He then paused. “Now how will we explain to the landlord that my boyfriend has become a real life scalie…”

Ophion let out a hearty laugh. “We don't need to deal with that now…” he then walked around the counter to properly stand near Jace. “It's just me and you, today~”

Ophion then brought Jace into a warm embrace. This mostly meant Jace was being pressed up into the dragon's meaty pecs as he was put into a hug. It made the man blush a bit…

“Now then…” Ophion’s voice lowers to a whisper, and Jace could feel himself being lifted. “How about I show you how a universe can be made…?”

Jace raised a brow. “What's that supposed to mean?”

Ophion just chuckled, and Jace turned his head and found himself being moved out of the kitchen. It took a few more seconds for him to fully register what was about to happen as he realized they were moving into a hallway, and everything finally clicked.

They were heading to the bedroom…

#character tf #tf #transformation #muscle growth tf #species tf #bara tf #male transformation #reptile tf

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when-life-gives-you-lemons-if · 7 months

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I enjoyed writing book 1, I love those characters and I know I will enjoy writing book 2 as well. This book was my first self-published game and I take pride in that even though it didn't do too well financially in comparison to the games I publish with Hosted Games. 😅

Could you talk a bit about your experience and the difference between publishing with Hosted Games vs self-publishing? Like the pros and cons? I feel like you're one of the few writers on here who has experience of both, knows the numbers behind the scenes, etc.

Oh, this is going to be a long one, but I’ll do pros and cons to make it easy. Please keep in mind that this is my personal experience, and it might not be the same for every author.

Pros of self-publishing.

You get the full cut of your sales: as some of you may know Hosted games takes 75% of the sales of your game, and you get 25% (this amount is after the platforms takes their cuts, Apple cuts is 30%, Steam cut is 30% and Goggle cut is 30% however, if you are a small indie Dev, Apple and Google cut go down to only 15% which is great.

No content revisions, no content restrictions: Hosted games sometimes will ask you to change the title of your game or change some content, when you self-publish you only have to follow the platform rules, and make sure to answer the appropriate questions for the platforms to properly rate your games. Depending on content, Steam will block your game for certain country, also Adult-only content gets less views since people need to sign in to see them. So, keep that in mind.

No queues: Hosted games once you submit the game to them, they put you in a queue and they decide when the game will be published, with self-publishing as soon as the platforms give you the green light, you’re ready to publish and sell your game.

You can do Steam-key giveaway: You have access to the game dashboard so you can request keys from Steams and do giveaway.

Cons of self-publishing.

Less reach. If you’re a small author like me, your game will not sell much because you’re doing your own advertising. Small authors = small following and fewer eyes on your game for people to buy it.

You need to pay for the platform fees: Google is $25 one-time payment. Steam is $100 for each game you put on their platform. And Apple is a $99 yearly subscription, so if you don’t keep paying that $99 your game will be removed from the platform, which is a pity because the release month is the only major sale you get, after that, your revenue falls to $100-60 every month which is the case for me.

You’re doing all the leg work yourself: There’s going to be a lot of watching YouTube videos to find out how to upload your games to Steam, and Google. Apple uses something called X-code and I had to buy a MacBook to recode the game in X-code in order to publish with them. Being a small indie Dev, your game might be rejected for the silliest reason such as you forgot to click yes or no on a questionnaire somewhere. Testing, bug reports, and complaints, they all go to you because you are the dev. Unless you have a team helping you, get reading to make time to fix every little issue because the platform will not fix them for you.

Remaining anonymous might be an issue: Apples need your real name in order to publish with them unless you have an LLC, your anonymity is out the door. Google requires your country and home address.

Pros of publishing with Hosted games.

More reach, more views, more sales: They are the go-to for those types of games and they have an established clientele so your game will reach more people.

They do the work for you: You don’t have to deal with the platform fees, rejections, uploading, bug reports, they do it all.

You can be fully anonymous: Although, you’ll have to disclose your legal name to them for tax purpose and money transfer.

Cons of publishing with Hosted games. (Those cons won’t apply for everyone)

I think the biggest cons is that 75% 🤣 but hey, what are you gonna do?

Changing content and name of your game.

Long queue.

No direct access to your game info, if you need anything you need to ask.

Other: People will pirate you game whether is you doing it alone or you publish with Hosted Games. Get ready to cry in a corner like I did.

Take away, I’m still planning on self-publishing and publishing with Hosted games. At the end of the day, do what you think is best for you.

Number comparison: To give you an idea of the numbers:

Self-publish numbers Sold overall on all 3 platforms Goggle, Apple Steam.

Around 1,500 copies

Hosted Games copies Sold overall on all 3 platforms Goggle, Apple Steam.

Around 6,500 copies.

I’m working on a how-to self-publish guide, for all 3 platforms so I’ll post that when ready. 💕

#self publishing

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pudding-parade · 1 year

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Geotic by karmatical

Back to the Exchange we go! Generally speaking, with these world overviews, I mostly want to focus on complete worlds, or at least worlds that are complete enough that you can just plunk down a sim or twelve in the world and play, without having to do any set-up. But, for those who like to build, I will also give a shout-out here and there to empty worlds that I think are nicely sculpted/painted/decorated and that have good lot lay-outs that would be easy to create a nice-looking town in, whether you build the lots yourself or plop down EA or downloaded ones.

This is one such world. It's a recent one, uploaded in January of 2022. It has lovely mountainous scenery full of evergreen trees as well as quite a bit of water and three waterfalls. The lot layout is great, too, with discrete sections that make it easy to create various types of neighborhoods within the world as well as a centralized city/downtown area, complete with a waterfront.

Some stats:

I'm not 100% sure what size the world is, but I think it's 2048x2048. Not all of it is routable, though, so the playable area is smaller than that. It shouldn't take sim-hours to get anywhere.

I'm terrible at recognizing what landscape items come from which EP, but I did see trees that I know for certain come from Pets and Ambitions. I thiiiiiiink the rest is all basegame, though? Maybe? There is no Store content or CC.

I counted 114 lots, with 84 designated as residential and 30 as community, but since they're all empty, you can change that however you want. All of the lots are flat, other than half-a-dozen or so that overlap water so that you could build/place ports/houseboats on them. The "bay" area would be a great place to add some diving lots, too. Some of the lots are odd sizes, particularly long, narrow strips between other lots which are obviously meant to be greenbelts. There are also some other lots that are just a bit "off" from normal sizes -- like 45x40, for instance -- but this wouldn't mean that you couldn't place pre-built "normal" size lots on them. You'd just have a bit of space left over in some cases, which can be a good thing.

There are no spawners in the world. None. Not even fish. Minor pets do not spawn, either. So, if you want to be able to fish or collect things in this world, you'll need to add spawners yourself.

As usual, the title of this post is a link to the world's enormously unhelpful Exchange page, but if you don't want to deal with the Exchange/the Launcher/sims3packs, I have uploaded a .world file here. If you download that, it goes in your install files under GameData - Shared - NonPackaged - Worlds. If you like this world, the creator has two more similar ones, also empty, which you can access from the "Creator" tab on the Exchange page.

So, all that being said, let's have a look at some more pics and info, behind the cut!

First up, some Edit Town pics of the various sections of the world. As I said, the world is broken out into discrete sections meant for different purposes. I don't know about anyone else, but this is something I look for in worlds. So here we go:

This is the area where all of the lots designated as community lots (except for one out by the lighthouse) are. Me, I'd put luxury houses on the lots on the causeway bit on the left, but as-is they're designated as community lots. Anyway, this is obviously where the city/downtown is supposed to be.

This is a little rural area, with three larger lots for farms.

This area has a bunch of small lots. The ones in the grid layout are 15x20, and the ones in the other bit are mostly 20x20 with one or two more 15x20s. So, this would be a good place to put starter houses or small-footprint multi-story houses.

The lots on the back of the central "mountain" are large and have nice views of unroutable wilderness with a lake and a waterfall, so pretty obviously meant for fancy houses. The area in the upper right has smaller lots but also with a water view, so also good for smaller but more-expensive houses. The lots in the red rectangle are kind of odd, though. They're 15x40. I suppose you could build narrow but very deep houses on them, like urban brownstones or whatever, but I would replace them with fewer but square-er lots.

Annnnnd this is the area that's mostly meant to be mid-level suburbia, I think. Larger lots laid out in a grid, tree-lined streets, blah blah. There are some larger and more isolated lots there in the bottom right as well as the upper bit along the river, though.

And that's about it! Since the world is empty, we're left with scenery, so...Let's have LOTS MOAR SCENERY!

#sims 3 #world overview #world overview wednesday #sims 3 scenery #sims 3 pictures

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bogleech · 10 months

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In 2010 I illustrated the party game "Chimera Isle," by Kevin Lanzing which randomizes creatures from heads, bodies and tails, but for both convenience and fun I drew them together as complete creatures that would be split apart later, based on simple lists the creator sent me for "attributes" he wanted in the game; like a card that would make a creature the fastest, or the tallest, or a grazer or a scavenger. The game went through some rules changes by the time it was released, and my real-life friends felt the unreleased beta rules were the easiest and most fun. For $10 patreon patrons I've uploaded a zip of all the creatures in high resolution, an extensive text file detailing my conceptual rationale, and a PDF of what those original gameplay rules were like, but I'll also include a little bit of the art stuff right here:

"GRASS EATER head," "JUMPING body," "DEXTROUS" tail: Lanzing really liked my first concept for a grazer head, a goatlike animal with a lawnmower-like trunk. I reused his concept of spring-shaped legs for the "jumping" body, and then I assigned "dextrousness" as a tail piece with a cluster of tentacles, wielding a spear. I guess most people would expect dextrousness to be tied to the torso limbs, but this was approved for being unexpected and fun.

"SCAVENGER" head, "FLIGHT" body, "FASTEST" tail: for a scavenging creature I went all out with my personal tastes, making a vulture head that's also a fly head that's also a coiling earthworm, so the all-purpose "flight" body card became condor-like. Lanzing didn't assign attributes to body parts for me, but let me decide what should be what, so I made the "fastest" attribute a tail piece and designed it like a many-finned shark. This originally had a rocket jet on the end, but we changed it to a propeller because we already had a different fire-spewing tail.

"SENSE OF SMELL" head, "SOCIAL" body, "SYMBIOTIC" tail: for sense of smell I designed a bison-like head with a huge, comical nose on the end of a little trunk and no visible eyes. Kevin's notes also included "SOCIAL" and "SYMBIOTIC" as two different attributes he wanted in the game, and they were the most fun to think of ideas for. I assigned "social" to a body card, and I drew it so whatever head card you drew, it would end in a little round rump with legs, with the rest of the body card featuring a band of different creatures: a little piglike thing, a flying eyeball, and a stalk-eyed flightless bird who leads into whatever tail card you drew. I then assigned "symbiotic" to a tail card resembling a tree branch with a little weird bird perched on it, and I decided to draw these three attributes together so they'd be a whole pack of creatures relying on a blind leader who sniffs out the food. Again these "original combinations" wouldn't be seen by players, so they're just my own internal behind-the-scenes combos. I didn't include the following in the patreon file but if you're having a hard time picturing it here's how the Symbiosis Body card looks on its own, like all body cards still lining up with any possible head and tail:

In retrospect, we settled on pretty bad background colors, the cool grey way too close to the dull green template of the creatures, especially given that they were done without any lineart. Should have gone with totally white backgrounds, but we thought that looked too cheap!

You can still buy chimera isle on the gamecrafter here, but I don't get royalties or anything, it was all one big commission, which did prove to be more money than I would have made off its sales!

#art

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dirtytransmasc · 1 year

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I don't see it talked about enough (outside of Song of the Banshees) but the whole thing with the recoms kinda brings up a philosophical conversation about the nature of cloning in terms of identity, and whether Quaritch is really Quaritch.

Like he has the memories, but they aren't his, are they?

There do seem to be some key differences between Colonel Miles Quaritch the human, and Miles Quaritch the recom.

Like from the source material that I can find, human Quaritch didn't really seem to care all that much about his kid, and we kinda see that when he first wakes up as he doesn't seem to ask about Spider at all. You'd think a parent, knowing that how that war ended, would want to know about the fate of their child.

But then, when the recom's come across the kids and Quaritch realizes it's Spider, you start to see the change. It's slow at first but even in the beginning, he does things that I'm not 100% the old human Quaritch would have done. The big one for be is that he doesn't push Spider to give up the Sully's and respects Spider's loyalty to them, and frankly, I don't think human!Quaritch would have.

Bringing Spider along is also interesting for me because sure it serves a purpose, but it's also relatively risky. Tracker in the mask aside, Spider could have easily led them into a veritable death trap.

Then we have that clip, the one with Spider ducking under Miles' arms and him smiling at Spider when he does it. The body language (something I'm usually shit at reading because of autism) reminds me of a father finding amusement in something their kid did.

It's all the little things that add up for me that don't match up with the Quaritch from the first movie.

Giving Spider the dog tags. I have family who served and giving someone their dog tags is not a small thing. (One family member used their dog tags to propose to their partner after their last tour.)

That first time in the interrogation room (where he gives him the dog tags) it's obvious that Quaritch is being mindful of his strength when grabbing Spider and once Spider 'calms down' a bit, he makes an effort to be non-threatening.

Spider is with them for months, and not only does he still dress and act like a na'vi, he still has his blue stripes. Quaritch doesn't make him dress in human clothes, doesn't correct his behaviour in regard to the climbing/crouching, and someone had to either get the paint for Spider or let him gather it himself, and then help him apply it.

Quaritch burns the villages instead of killing any of the metkayina. He planned to -he was going to- but he didn't because Spider begged him not to.

watching the premade identity the RDA created devolve and fade away, slowly being replaced by who we know as recom quaritch was so interesting and well done, even if by chance, not intentional.

they are clearly 2 different people, human and recom quaritch, with the 'identity' that makes up the recom when he first wakes up, "the puppet" as I typically dub it, being the transition between the two.

spider was the breaking point, he broke through the haze, caused recom quaritch to form contradicting memories, thoughts, opinions to the "puppet" identity, compromising him.

I think spider also 'woke up' some memories in recom quaritch. I think with the uploaded memories, they put emphasis on certain things, things that would help make a better "puppet" or toy soldier. I think they would make other memories dormant, not wanting to risk wiping them completely which could raise alarm, even in the best made soldier, he is still conscious. I think seeing his son, woke up some of those fonder memories, ones not of war times, and it started a domino effect.

we start to see him act more "human" he stops acting so cold and detached, the anger dials back a bit when he has moments to back away form his mission, he has empathy and mercy.

he connects to eywa's creatures (his ikran) and claims her the way any other na'vi would, he proves himself worthy. he shows mercy to the metkayina. he shows true care and love for his son.

he makes so many risks to keep spider at his side, as he flip-flops between 'identities' as if both sides are fighting for control. even if its a subconscious battle, it's clear he's devolving.

he is truly having the most classic clone crisis, "to be or not to be", fight or obey, do whats right and risk it all or let it happen and stay numb.

#quaritch #avatar 2 #avatar the way of water #spider socorro #miles spider socorro #miles socorro #avatar spider #spider avatar #I can't wait to see how this plays out next movie

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7grandmel · 4 months

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Todays rip: 13/01/2024

RNR (Rip No Riffs)

Season 1 No Album Release (Read More) DND (Do Not Destroy) - No More Heroes

Ripped by Triple-Q

youtube

Alright, uh, WHEW - I hope everyone's had a great day in a post-Christmas Comeback Crisis Episode 11 world!! I've been absolutely giddy with excitement and joy ever since I watched it and I'm so glad that the reception has been so universally positive all around. I'm trying to wind down from all of it, and figured I might as well push a rip I had down the pipeline to cover up earlier in the schedule. And hey - RNR (Rip No Riffs) is also somewhat Christmas Comeback Crisis-related! If you haven't heard the rip on its own, you've DEFINITELY heard it within that series.

For those out of the loop, RNR (Rip No Riffs) is used as the theme to the Rapper's Union HQ in the CCC, the hub of the story's chill resistance faction fighting against The Voice. Yesterday with 9来4s I wrote a fair bit about how excellent a job dante and c.o. have done in giving the series a very distinct soundscape, but the thing is - that doesn't just apply to composing new songs for the series. Plenty of rips from the channel's life have been used for music in the series without being explicitly made with that purpose, and RNR (Rip No Riffs) is probably the most widely recognized of these tracks?

I think it's an excellent choice for a lot of reasons, quality aside, because of just how well it slots into the series' tone and feel. The original DND (Do Not Destroy) is the laid-back lounge theme of the original No More Heroes, playing whenever Travis Touchdown is at home rather than slaughtering people en masse outside - it's a chill calm before the storm, so to speak. At a first inattentive listen, you may not even notice that RNR (Rip No Riffs) is edited at all, as its edits aren't exactly explicitly out of tune or in contrast to the original tune. As the track's chill vibe plays out, elements from All-Star are inserted into the backing, eventually being replaced with the guitar from Linkin Park's In The End - a song typically associated with pent-up anger, frustration, rage, hatred, the works. Yet the rip builds it all up so subtly, it never interrupts the chill lounge beat that laid the foundation for the original track, and so this change in emotion never truly registers as sounding out of place or wrong.

And to me, that's what makes it such a perfect fit for the Rappers' Union's theme - it's a home where these people relax, where they talk to one another and lounge, yet its also the place where all their bubbling rage against the oppression they face is being stored - the last remaining home to all of these damaged souls. The Christmas Comeback Crisis, for as silly as its premise is, and for as many lighthearted moments that it does have, is still fundamentally a story about strife and conflict, about a bubbling state of disarray that's slowly exploding into full-on warfare. RNR (Rip No Riffs) feels like the perfect theme to embody all of those emotions, a breezy jam playing in the background to a downtrot apartment space that slowly bubbles to become something far more serious, with far more grit and rage.

I certainly don't believe this sort of vibe was what Triple-Q had in mind with the original upload - at the end of the day, it's just a silly, classic Season 1 rip, changing just enough in a familiar song to sound different while still sounding recognizably like the original. Yet I find it so fascinating that the rip still stands on its own two feet, whilst adding some genuine gravitas and mood to the series it was eventually grafted on to - althewhile being such a relatively-obscure pick for a rip to use, that it didn't feel played out whatsoever when it showed up again.

A lot of the stuff I've covered for Season 1 on this blog has been of a sort of "higher" status, be it all-time classics like Live and Ooooooooooooooh and Pikmin Park, the emotional highs of Epic Flintstones and Stone Halation, or just generally ones tied to more well-remembered passion projects like Everyday Goodbyes (SiIvaGunner Band Cover). And in comparison, rips like RNR (Rip No Riffs) may end up feeling kind of...normal, kind of basic and simple in their edits. Yet that simplicity has never been a bad thing, and its never been anything holding rips down from striking pure gold, and there's something just so sweet about knowing that any rip, of any kind, any popularity, can eventually get this kind of association, this kind of retroactive use and meaning, that ends up drawing so many more associations and thoughts to it than were originally intended.

#todays siivagunner #season 1 #siivagunner #siiva #tentative rip name #Triple-Q #Youtube #no more heroes #nmh #suda51 #christmas comeback crisis #siivagunner lore #siivagunner ccc #the voice inside your head

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tame-a-messenger · 2 months

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This is going to be unhinged. LOL But, Damangela drought has brought the brain to weird places. So, Smosh got a new HR guy named Nate at the end of 2023. In one of Damien’s late November/early December streams, he mentioned that he was not having a good mental health day but he still wanted to stream (because streaming makes him feel better) so he called HR to ask if it was okay because they would be able to clearly see him doing it. He said at the time they said it was okay. But, afterwards is when he kept talking about having more time coming up.

My theory…HR fucked him over. I don’t know why people think HR is there to help you. They help the company. I think Damien may have been thinking about how to ask how to reduce his workload but HR probably “strongly suggested” he go freelance and convince him it was best for both him and the company. HR isn’t going to get rid of him completely because he didn’t do anything that egregious and he is a popular personality. Now, Damien is busy and it seems it worked out but I don’t think this was entirely his choice. On top of that, this was around the time that the jokes between Angela and Damien breached HR territory (“thank you mommy. Sorry for calling you mommy . We’ll talk about it in HR” “I know Damien’s!”). I think HR may have asked to separate them after a while. LASTLY, on top of that, Damien and Angela always ask for jokes to be removed so maybe they don’t put then together to prevent that as well.

Is there proof of this? Absolutely not. Is this unhinged? Yes. But, thanks for creating a safe space for this. At the end of the day, I think we’ll see more videos of them together but I think it will be in the structured video formats (ex. TNTL, SwordAF) so we’re less likely to see their off the cuff remarks to each other, which sucks because I love those.

Side note: I love Smosh but it’s a business. I think the new HR guy and the Pressalike/Smosh leadership coming together passed its observation stage and moved on to its change stage. I think some crew members felt this as well and this why we’ve had some people leave - Rachel, Heidi, Greg (sound guy), Kimmy, etc.

OOo interesting goss you have, I didn't know they got a new HR guy.

I'm a little confused as to why Damien would have to ask Smosh HR for permission to stream? unless you meant he was asking to go home early/not go into work to stream instead?

As unhinged as your theories could be, I think there's merit in them.

I could see them suggesting to Damien to go freelance (Idk about pressuring him into it, maybe just presented it as a good option for him) because of how much work he's been getting. He does talk about how much he really loves doing voice over, I totally see him wanting that to be his main gig, and wanting to have more time for it.

"the jokes between Angela and Damien breached HR territory (“thank you mommy. Sorry for calling you mommy . We’ll talk about it in HR” “I know Damien’s!”). I think HR may have asked to separate them after a while."

I want to say this seems a little outlandish, but I can't help but focus on how little we've gotten them in videos the last 2 months. EIOYI last supper and a TNTL being the only things they've been in the same room for, seems a little odd? (if we want to include the Mythical cookbook party and the recent VidCon group photo that only makes 4 times the last 2 months they've been publicly next to each other)(and they both appeared in the "Guess Shayne's Favorites" but weren't together) So I honestly can't totally write out that it could be on purpose..

It just feels a bit out of place, they used to be in a large portion of uploads together and then all the sudden we're getting almost nothing?? I get him being busy outside Smosh but he's still in some uploads? like how come Angela has been playing more video games (And getting really good at them) while he's been playing card games? seems like a subversion?

Not to mention how often people around Angela (and Angela herself) bring him up. I'm pretty sure most videos with Ang recently they've mentioned Damien?

"I think we’ll see more videos of them together but I think it will be in the structured video formats (ex. TNTL, SwordAF) so we’re less likely to see their off the cuff remarks to each other, which sucks because I love those."

Yeah, I think so too, it seems like they've pretty much finished doing all of the bi-weekly(?) uploads (like BAF:L, SwordAF) where we knew they'd both have to be there.

Sad times rn.. I just hope Spring has better things in store <3 (and maybe they start up a new playthrough of something? 👀)

"thanks for creating a safe space for this."

You're welcome! I don't think y'all understand how awesome it is to have this space. I get all kinds of different perspectives and new info all the time! I feel like this blog is a newspaper with all the asks about stuff that's going on! like we have our own hub for info about anything them! I want to thank you for sending in asks! <3

"Side note: I love Smosh but it’s a business. I think the new HR guy and the Pressalike/Smosh leadership coming together passed its observation stage and moved on to its change stage. I think some crew members felt this as well and this why we’ve had some people leave - Rachel, Heidi, Greg (sound guy), Kimmy, etc."

THAT IS SUCH A GOOD POINT! We have had a lot of cast/crew leave!

Oh to be a fly on the wall~!

(Side note- SOUND GUY GREG LEFT!!??? HE WAS MY FAVORITE he was like an easter egg in videos! IM GONNA MISS HIM)

Thank you for this Anon! There was a lot of really good information in this! I'll be keeping it in mind for the future! <3

#ty Anon! <3 #smoshblr #Damien Haas #Angela Giarratana #Smosh #Damngela Dynamic Enjoyer #Smosh Games #Smosh Pit #Damangela #Damien and Angela #Damien x Angela #Damngela #Damien/Angela #Angela has been crushing it on the games channel and the too many Chosen's was crazy #it almost feels like we're watching the training montage of Angela preparing to beat Damien lol #new HR guy #info

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jokeringcutio · 6 months

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e-books & Financial support

If you are into Dark Romance, like older men and villains, then I have just the thing for you ♡ Prepare to be ravished by dangerous men.

About this e-book project: Some of you have kindly shown interest in supporting me financially, either as a thank you for my writing or to help me out with my health costs. I wanted to give you something in turn and even shut down my ko-fi for a while so people couldn't donate. And I came up with a way that you can donate me a bit of money and get something in turn.

As you can see on my new website, I have given The Chance to Make A Change a rewrite that I am offering to you as an e-book. Yes, a rewrite to avoid it being a pure fanfic - the tale will be mostly the same but with alterations, name changes etc that make it more acceptable for me to offer it to you as an e-book. I have some rewrites of shorter reader x (mostly older men) villain tales, that include a brand new tale that hasn't been posted anywhere online. It's called (very uninspired) Beauty and the Villain and is also available as epub and mobi. I have been working on my bigger Joker tale The Man Who Claimed to Be Yours and on a rewrite of it. Because of my health and all the drawbacks, I am focusing on finishing the rewrite first and am considering to only post the full rewritten version e-book version. This tale is not in my shop yet but I am working on it and it should be there somewhere at the start of the new year, possibly the end of this. Why now? As some of you who have been following me for a while know, I have been ill on and off since 2020 and this year they made several discoveries that have me in and out of the hospital. I have been hesitant to accept donations before - those who supported me, I thank you so dearly ♡ But with all the costs, this seemed like a good time.

Do the Rewrites mean the Fanfics will be taken offline? Whatever I have already uploaded will remain online. But I have found, over the years, that fanfiction isn't online forever. And by rewriting these tales, I hope I can offer a way for you to keep them with you even if the internet versions one day fade. At the same time, it provides you with a way to show me support with me giving you something in turn. And the rewrites are done in such a way that I dare to offer them to you without being fully fanfiction, but having been turned into more of an original tale (even if certain fandom readers can guess what they are inspired or based upon, at least in the cases of the two multi-chapter tales). So your website? If things go well, health-wise, and I am on the mend (hopefully somewhere during the new year) then I plan to post more reader inserts on my website as e-books and possibly as paperbacks of entirely original tales ( - not like the CTMAC and TMWCTBY stories. They are exceptions I have made for the purpose of allowing you to help me out financially). I also wish to offer free e-book versions there in the future, so it won't just be to sell books, I have plans for free stuff up there as well :) . You won't find me selling pure fanfiction on there. Not only is that not allowed, but it should remain free for fans to read. Proper fanfiction I will post here or on AO3 like I always have, nothing will change. My website is there to offer extra tales and I will tell you about them when they appear.

For now, I want to say thank you to everyone who has supported me so far. Thank you for letting me know that my tales helped you through a difficult period in your life, that you have returned to them time after time again, that you want to keep reading them.

Thank you <3

#dark romance #e-books #dark romance ebooks #support a hobbyist writer #health update #personal update #tctmac #tmwctby #beauty and the villain #reader inserts

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voiddemon · 1 year

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can i ask what is kinyarn 😭

I think it's about time I explained Kin-Yarn to the new generation instead of jokingly brushing it off and making people do their own research.

Please note I will be spelling Kin-Yarn with the hyphen, as god (me) intended. Kinyarn is still hella valid and the more commonly used name. I also wont be going into my interpretations too much since it's complicated and long i do not actually ship it i promise.

Kin-Yarn is the greatest Kirby ship of all time. It's the ship between Yin-Yarn from Kirby's Epic Yarn, and Kine the fish from hell. There isn't anything canon for it, these characters have never and will never interact in HAL's eyes. However we, the fans, know better.

After reading my thesis I'd strongly recommend checking out all of the content the long dead kin-yarn fandom has to offer. Most of it is like, really old, since those around for Kin-Yarn's inception have either left tumblr, moved onto new and cooler fandoms, or don't think it's that funny anymore. (It isn't because it's a fandom in-joke from two years ago.) Thankfully there are many great relics of the past, of the days when new Kin-Yarn content showed up every like five posts on your dash. AO3 has most of the Kin-Yarn fanfiction that's been written, but some of it is hidden away within blog archives and dusty links to google docs. Kin-Yarn videos also exist, including some (two) AMVs and the classic Kin-Yarn ASMR made by yours truly. The Kin-yarn/Kinyarn tag on tumblr.com also has a lot of posts so just go through that.

I. HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

Kin-Yarn was made at some point in October 2020. Out there on the internet there is a site called FanficMaker. It's a pretty basic website. I don't know exactly how the creators found the material to make this, but there is a okay-ish sized pool of sets.

These sets are fairly generic stories, with the program plugging in the names of characters you input into specific slots. There's a surprising amount of variation between these sets, but after you play with the site too long you start seeing the same ones over and over.

So Voiddemon a few years ago found this website, and decided to make some fanfiction and upload it to tumblr.com. On one occasion, the website generated the sentence "It was Yin-Yarns gay wedding party..." It didn't say who he was marrying, but I found it funny and uploaded it to tumblr.com. On a separate day, in a separate prompt, I put Kine in and it gave me a similar result. "Meanwhile, Susies mind was wondered back to the past. It was Kines gay wedding party..." I also found this funny because. Kine. And uploaded it to tumblr.com.

Here are the two screenshots together <3

I will now introduce Ninikins (Who has since changed their username and moved on from the Kirby fandom), who suggested that the two of them were getting married to each other. Everyone in my circle online at the time found the idea hilarious because.

From here everyone went crazy and just started. Kin-yarning all over the place.

II. Fan Interpretations

Memetaknight, creator of the greatest Kin-yarn fanfiction of all time Yiracle (It's my favorite :shrug:) created a Kin-Yarn Essay. Today it is a great time capsule that brings us into the culture around Kin-yarn in the past. It's just over two years old now so happy birthday Kin-Yarn essay. It delves into the two primary interpretations around the ship. I'll just quote the most important bits of it since I'm lazy you can go check my sources ok.

"A common Kin-Yarn characterization is to ship either both brothers with Kine (as a V shape relationship), or just one of the brothers with Kine... This interpretation has many specific tropes... but it has one extremely interesting idea that is unique to it. In the spirit of Kirby’s Epic Yarn’s final battle... it has been theorized that something similar could apply to Kin-Yarn, in which the brothers would catfish Kine .. Kine, either on purpose or on accident."

"The other interpretation sees the yarn body previously mentioned as a third entity... which is referred as Yin-Yarn separate from the needle brothers. This characterization idea arises from the fact Yin-Yarn is referred as a singular character"

There is a third interpretation that stems from the two of these, which is that both the Yarn Body or puppet is in love with Kine and so is at least one of the knitting needles.

Often in Kin-Yarn works, it is unclear which one of these the creator interprets the ship as, since artwork and fics include all three characters (The puppet and the two needles) with no clear distinction between them. A distinction being drawn is more commonly in artwork, due to the nature of the medium.

III. Love and Marriage

For the most part, Kin-Yarn is portrayed as a perfect relationship. With Kine and Yin-Yarn being madly in love. The nature of one being a hero and another being a villain is not often explored, but when it is explored the most common interpretation is Kine accepts Yin-Yarn despite his past wrongdoings. Oftentimes Yin-Yarn will reform and become good for Kine.

they also have sex

III A. Who are Prince Fluff's Parents?

Prince Fluff (Also from Kirby's Epic Yarn) has no stated or seen parents within the series. Originally KEY was called "Keito no Fluff", and featured Prince Fluff himself as the protagonist. He was supposed to be searching for his mother, but this was removed from KEY so he has. No parents.

A semi-common headcanon within the Kirby fandom is that Prince Fluff was created by Yin-Yarn, which is what originally spawned this interpretation. A few perceptive Kin-Yarnians noticed that Kine and Prince Fluff have the same exact color scheme. Like it's kind of uncanny actually Kine is just a little desaturated.

This caused the creation of the Yamily Tree, an. absurdly large family tree but it's kinda bloated and not that funny anymore. Here's the condensed version

Usually Prince Fluff is not actually biologically related to Kine. Since that has horrifying implications. Instead it implies that after Kine and Yin-Yarn are married, they adopt Prince Fluff (Which he usually isn't happy with).

III B. KINE'S DIVORCES

Ok so Kine Kirby is married to Mine canonically. However we haven't seen her in a very long time, and in Kirby Clash Kine is sleeping on a bench. Leading to the idea that he and Mine got a divorce. This is accepted by everyone who ships Kin-Yarn because Kine cheating on his wife isn't a laughing matter, but Kine leaving his wife for Yin-Yarn is. (Usually the interpretation is Mine leaving Kine)

Even though Kin-Yarn is interpreted as perfect most times, other interpretations are that after they get married the relationship becomes volatile. At the core the two still love each other, but due to one reason or another they've grown apart. This is best shown in the Kin-Yarn Fanfiction named after the ships national anthem, "The One That Got Away" on AO3 by HeavyLobster77.

This is very popular both for the drama and because it's very funny.

IV. Historical Kin-Yarn Events & Holidays

-The Great Kin-Yarn Porn Scare of 1969 Someone uploaded an explicit Kin-Yarn fic on AO3 tagged as explicit with very SUS tags. It wasn't real though and the fic is just among us.

-Kin-Yarn Discord There's a Kin-Yarn discord out there that's dead as hellll and I'm. Not sharing a link good luck finding it

-Kin-Yarn WORLD TOUR I blazed a Kin-Yarn post when tumblr Blaze first came out. Spending real money to force people to look upon Kin-Yarn was a powerful move.

-Feared Anon creating the best AUs of all time Kinederella (Technically theres no real au just funny images)

-Kin-Yarn Blog Wars ok i cannot find many of the blogs but for a bit everyone made blogs dedicated to loving or hating kin-yarn. Also KinYarn-Archives was created at some point around this time I think.

-Kin-Yarn BANNED from the Shipping Wiki Tumblr user Kaissauce tried to create a page on the shipping Wikipedia, but it was deleted by the mods lmao. Here's what the page originally looked like.

-Urban Dictionary somehow it got on fucking urban dictionary. this was my doing but it should never have been allowed to happen.

-Kin-Yarn: The Movie Released on July 29th 2021

no comment needed we've all seen it

-Kin-Yarn Day Kin-Yarn day is a national holiday beloved and celebrated by all, on February 14th. No other holiday is celebrated that day <3

V. Conclusion

idk how to end this thing. love wins and it shouldn't. do your own research

#kin-yarn #kinyarn #long post #i gave up with it i am tired :pensive:#here u go anon

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shadowisles-writes · 1 year

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ACOTAR Writing Circle 2

Hello everyone! After the success of the first writing circle I organized last fall, I’m coming back with a second edition of it for winter. You can sign up here! There will be some tweaks so that the organization runs a little bit smoother than last time but for those of you who didn’t see this the first time around:

The concept is pretty simple, a writer starts a fic, someone else writes the second part, and someone else writes the third.

There is no limit to the number of people who can participate. Each writer will start a fic, then write the second and third parts to different ones. There will be as many fics as there are writers involved.

If you’re interested, please read the rest of this post and fill out the form at the end!

How will it work?

Ideally, each fic will follow basic lines to make sure we get a complete story:

Part 1: Sets the scene and potential events Part 2: Main events unfold Part 3: Resolution

You have full creative freedom but I will post a list of prompts you can choose from to help spark inspiration

The minimum word count for each part is 1500 words. There is no maximum.

Writers of the first two parts of each fic must leave it with a loose end to allow the next person to continue it.

Each work will be tagged “acotarwritingcircle”

I will make a general masterlist to link every part to every fic

Are there restrictions?

This is for everyone, there are no rules in terms of ships involved, whatever makes your heart happy will do

I will need to know which ships you are willing to write about to make sure there are at least 3 people willing to participate on that fic

Based on the amount of writers involved and their comfort zones, 18+ content may not be allowed in some fics.

Canon and all sorts of chaotic AUs are welcome.

Be kind! The main purpose of this event is fun

When will it take place?

Sign up will be open until January 7th, after that the form will be closed and everyone will receive the details they need to start writing.

Writers will have two weeks to write each piece, though that is subject to change depending on the answers in the form.

The posting dates may change but should be January 21st, February 4th and February 18th

Where will we post?

I’ll be running the event on tumblr so fics will be posted there.

They will also be posted to AO3 with the co-creator feature. If you don’t have AO3, you can make an account or the other writers of your fic can upload your part and credit your tumblr @.

If you’re interested, please fill out this FORM so that I can get an idea of how many people would participate and for what ships!

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to send an ask or just dm me <3

Lastly, please reblog this to spread the info to as many people as possible!!

Tagging the people who participated last time: @headcanonheadcase @shadowsingerofnight @ofduskanddreams @velidewrites @the-lonelybarricade @hlizr50 @violet-shadows @thehaemanthus

#acotarwritingcircle #writing event #acotar #acotar fanfiction #acotar writing #writing challenge #rhysand #cassian #azriel #feyre archeron #nesta archeron #gwyn berdara #gwyneth berdara #elain archeron #lucien vanserra #eris vanserra #morrigan #helion spell cleaver #lady of autumn

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tellthemeerkatsitsfine · 2 days

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Report on new directions/future plans in my longterm comedy podcast listening.

Well, I’ve reached the end of the long-term thing that I listened to constantly and nearly exclusively for four months. The Elis James/John Robins XFM/Radio X years, plus a side project of anything else John Robins did at the same time. When I got to the end, I said in a few posts that it felt like it in its last few months it was changing direction a little bit, in a way I didn’t love quite as much, and I knew it the move to the BBC would send it sharply more in that direction (more mature, more professional, among a few other more specific things).

So I wasn’t sure if I would jump right into the BBC episodes, even though I have them all downloaded. Because a while ago I got concerned that they were deleting old episodes, as I’d opened a podcast feed once to find them there and then again later to find the first 24 gone. I’ve since realized those were two different podcast feeds, the official one that for some reason is missing the first 24, and an unofficial one that has them all. But anyway, I became concerned about whether they might disappear, as I always do with any media I like but do not own (in the form of an mp3 or mp4 saved to my hard drive, not just accessing it through some other platform). So I got a very helpful friend who knows about programming scripts to download them all off BBC Sounds and send them to me, and did the same with the XFM/Radio X episodes for good measure, so now even if the podcast feeds take those down for whatever reason I’ll still have them. Not that I expect that to happen but, you know, it does sometimes. Also, cutting out clips is easier if I already have the mp3s and don’t have to keep downloading it every time I want to do that. I am probably a bit overly meticulous with my need to download and save everything I like on the internet, not trusting that it’ll just stay up there. But I’d rather be overly cautious than not cautious enough and lose stuff when it disappears.

I thought I might just move on from the Robins/James stuff after I achieved retro oner status from the Radio X years, but then I went exactly one day without it and immediately found I missed it. It really was perfect for my purposes. I had in on constantly for months during the commutes to and from work, on break or while doing admin at work, and most of the time I was at home. I took a break for a few weeks just before I finished all the episodes, and missed it then. I just got used to it, that many hours of this one type of humour, I decided a day later that I couldn’t just leave it there after all, and I would at least start the BBC ones.

And then. Okay. This is fine. This is objectively fine. It upset me for entirely subjective and pointless reasons. But. Okay. Some time ago – maybe six weeks, I’m not sure and I don’t want to look it up and check – I posted an old video I found on YouTube featuring John Robins. It was a nice video but also clearly from a long time ago and not something he’d chosen to upload as part of his current career, and as such I almost hesitated to share it, but then I did anyway, because it was a nice video and it’s fine.

The other day, it was brought to my attention that that video has been taken off YouTube. That is definitely my fault. It sat there unnoticed for 14 years, since it was uploaded in 2010, and everyone forgot about it, and it was doing fine on there. Then I share it on Tumblr, which brings its existence to the attention of people who’d forgotten about it, and it almost immediately gets taken down.

I of course still have the video, due to my policy that I’ve already outlined in this post. I downloaded it immediately after finding it. But while I downloaded that one, I did find myself thinking, this is a bit silly, even for me. Obviously I don’t need to worry about this one disappearing from the internet. It doesn’t have any kind of copyright issue that could get a strike, it’s a home video just owned by the people who appear in it. It’s been there for 14 years. That’s not going to suddenly change. But I downloaded it anyway, because, I don’t know, what if there’s some wild scenario where they suddenly remember it’s there and get rid of it? It did not occur to me for a moment that me sharing it on Tumblr would be the event that causes that happen. But that is definitely what happened.

Normally, in a case like this, I would make a Tumblr post about how a video I liked has disappeared from the internet, but don’t worry, everyone, I have heroically saved it, and I’ve now uploaded it to Tumblr so people can enjoy it once more. But I won’t do that with this video, because this time, they took it down for the specific reason that they did not want it shared on my specific Tumblr blog. That’s the thing they were trying to prevent.

I will of course respect it, but also, what the hell? Something getting shared on my Tumblr blog does not mean it will be spread around. Any given post of mine is read by like four people. There is no one here, guys, it’s absolutely fine. I do try to have some amount of respect and discretion on this blog with the things I get to listen to that aren’t supposed to be a matter of public record, but I pretty much do that out of theoretical, hypothetical principle. I could say anything, it wouldn’t matter, because no one is reading this. Okay like four people are reading this, but statistically, in the grand scheme of things, no one is reading this. And I promise I won’t tell Steve Bennett. It’s all fine.

It doesn’t actually matter that a short video got taken off YouTube. I’m pretty sure no one actually saw my Tumblr post and thought it was a huge problem and I’d committed a grave error by sharing it. It was an 86-second video of a digital DJ singing a Bob Dylan song in 2010, he wasn’t saying racial slurs or anything. But I had been posting a lot about that radio show over the last few months, including posting some stuff that was probably too personal and getting too into digging up all the stuff I could find around it, and did feel self-conscious that I was taking the fandom too far, and now that I know something I put out there actually did come to their attention and cause them to decide they don’t want that out there, I feel like a child who played with a toy too hard and broke it. And now I don’t want to poke at that toy any more in case I break it further. By which I mean listening to more John Robins at this point will induce what he refers to as the shame well.

So I’m going back to my decision to leave the BBC podcasts, though I will keep them downloaded in case someone suddenly decides to remove them from the internet. And instead, for my next long-term thing that I play on the way too and from work and whenever I get a break or any free time nearly anywhere… I’m not proud of this choice, and I’m not saying I’m definitely going to stick with it. It is possible that this brand of terrible offensive humour will get old quickly, and I’ll want to move to something else because I listen to all the hours of this. But for the moment, I have downloaded every episode of the Ray Peacock Podcast and the Peacock and Gamble podcasts. Downloaded the mp3s off Fourble, because the RSS feeds seem to be missing some stuff, and I just like have these things saved.

I listened to the first seven or so episodes of Peacock and Gamble a while ago now, it repeatedly made me laugh but also made me check to make sure my headphones were definitely connected and no one in the centre for disabled children where I work could hear the kind of filth I was listening to during my breaks. Elis and John never made me feel the need to check on that, which was nice.

I’m just really craving some unprofessionalism in my comedy right now, and that’s got to be the best way to get it. I listened to the first three episodes of the Ray Peacock Podcast today, and Jesus Christ. A lot of different types of offensive going on there. Some that I think are objectively fine even if offensive to some (explicit sexual talk), some not so much (no need to get too specific about that, I’m sure you can imagine). But it was really funny. Made me laugh out loud on the bus, and also check to make sure my headphones were definitely connected on the bus. I'm pretty sure nothing that comes out of Ray Peacock's mouth is true, so that does help.

It's a very easy listen, the way drunk food that's terrible for you is easy to eat. Twice now, I've reached the end of an episode and been surprised because it didn't feel like I'd been listening for that long.

Any comedy radio show or podcast where someone unironically plugs their MySpace page - that's my favourite era. And that's right where we are, in the early Ray Peacock Podcast (I started with Peacock and Gamble when I was just trying it out months ago, but as I might stick with it this time, I'm starting from the beginning). Ed Gamble appears for the first time in episode 4, so that’ll be fun. I haven’t even got to him yet.

That’ll be fine, right? Peacock and Gamble doesn’t feel like a toy I could break, because it has so little respectability to begin with that I couldn’t tarnish it. And unlike John Robins, it’s not like Ed Gamble said anything in a recording around 2010 that he’d prefer not to have someone dig up in 2024 and share on a blog. (That was of course sarcasm, but also there genuinely isn’t a danger of that, because there’s a difference between what level of unacceptable joke I’m willing to laugh at privately, and what I’m willing to publicly endorse by sharing on Tumblr. Someone might cancel Ed Gamble someday, but it won’t be me. And it wouldn't be me even if I posted transcripts of the eight most offensive things he said in 2009, because there are a maximum of four people reading this.)

Seriously though, I might get sick of this after a few more episodes and go back to where I left off the Pappy's podcast, which is my other option. Or even back to BBC Elis/John, after some time for the initial shame well to dry a bit. It's fine. It'll be fine.

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anxiousgaypanicking · 9 months

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Handjobs

!a series of me uploading the kinktober fics/drabbles i made years ago because i didnt back in 2020 for some fuckin reason. if these are bad/poor quality its because theyre old, and ive improved since then :)!

Dukemile (Remus x Emile) Day 1: Handjob Warnings: handjobs, obviously

"Ya know, when Jan said he was sending me to therapy, I pictured more of like... conversion therapy," Remus admits, falling onto the couch in Emile's office.

Emile let out a short laugh. "No, of course not. That'd be inhumane. Besides, I'm gay, so it'd be kind of hypocritical for me to run one of those, wouldn't it?"

Remus grunts in response, as he kicks one of his feet up onto the back of the sofa, the other one dangling off of the couch entirely, as he rests his hands behind his head. He tilts his head slightly, cracking open one of his eyes so he could look at Emile's annoyed face.

Because who wouldn't be annoyed with Remus rubbing his extremely dirty boots on their furniture?

Janus and Logan constantly told him to get his feet off the table, or off the couch, or off of the ceiling, so why wouldn't Emile do the same?

So, he was pretty surprised, when he saw Emile just sitting there, holding his notepad in hand. He simply smiled and cocked his head slightly when Remus looked at him.

"I see you've made yourself comfortable," Emile states, in a rather playful tone.

Remus's cocky smile falters. Huh.

He quickly shakes his head, a smile reappearing on his face. "Indeed I have; I see you have eyes. Well, four eyes, considering the glasses." Remus cackled at his own dumb joke, while Emile just continued smiling.

When Remus saw that he was still just peppy, he couldn't help the huff that escaped him.

"Janus tells me you haven't been your usual self lately," Emile suddenly begins, Remus's eyes snapping over to him. "Care to tell me what that's all about?"

Remus rolls his eyes, his smile falling into a bored frown. "Janus is a liar. Don't know why I even let him send me here anyway. He probably got the idea from Mr. Innocent. That bitch..." Remus didn't notice he was fiddling with his sash as he spoke, his eyebrows furrowed.

Emile let out a hum, his smile finally disappearing, and a considering look appearing on his face. "Do you have an issue with Janus right now? Or with... Mr. Innocent?"

"Yes! I do, actually!" Remus immediately pushed himself into a sitting position, criss-crossed on the couch, although this time he wasn't keeping his boots up there on purpose.

"I just wake up one day, and Janus is gone! No note, no goodbye, and I head over to the light sides to see if Thomas became a nun or something so that he couldn't lie, and Janus is over there, laughing and smiling with Patton, as if all is well and good!" Remus was letting out all that had been built up.

He'd always tended to ramble, but now that Janus was gone, he's had no one to ramble to. And now the intrusive thoughts have been swarming his head due to the loneliness, which was heavily impacting Thomas and his mental health.

That's the only reason Janus sent him here. He came back to the dark sides just to tell Remus that he'd scheduled him an appointment with Emile.

And he originally didn't plan on showing up, but his loneliness got the better of him.

Remus let out another huff as he crossed his arms over his chest. "The only reason I actually showed up was because I'm lonely. And maybe a bit sexually frustrated. Janus and I used to be fuck buddies! And now that he's gone, I'm left to get off on my own. Do you know how much more boring that is?"

Emile was clearly caught off guard by the change of subject, although that was to be expected when it came to Remus. He opened his mouth to respond, but Remus kept going.

"Sometimes, I get so upset that I just wanna chop my dick off! I tried that, once, with my morning star, but I ended up just puncturing my stomach."

"Oh," was all Emile managed to say, a slight pink tint over his cheeks.

He was doodling in his notepad as an attempt to calm himself down before Remus noticed he was blushing, but it was too late.

"Oooo, Doctor, did hearing about my sexual frustration fluster you?"

"I'm just... not used to my patients being so open about their sex lives."

"Well, I'm open about everything," Remus responds, with a shrug, leaning back and spreading his legs. He grins as he lets his hand slide down his torso and down to his thighs, before it comes to rest over his crotch.

Nasty man.

"I'm also opened up down here, if you-"

"Nope! Remus, we should really get back on topic-"

"But the topic we were on was about sex," Remus buts in, closing his legs and scooting to edge of the sofa. He leans closer to Emile. "You said, and I quote, 'Janus tells me you haven't been your usual self lately, care to tell me what that's all about?' And I'm telling you what it's about. It's because I'm constantly horny and I have nobody to relieve myself with."

Emile's unresponsive, so Remus throws himself back onto the couch with a groan.

"I'm actually being good for once and now I've probably weirded you out!" he whines. "Is this why Janus left me? Am I just gross? Well, I mean, of course I'm gross. It's one of my charms. But-"

"Remus, please," Emile suddenly pipes up, causing Remus to look over at him. His cheeks are still pink, albeit a darker shade, and he looks almost... nervous. "I assure you, I'm not weirded out. Some people have... higher sex drives than others, and I understand that not satisfying yourself in a satisfactory way can have some negative impacts on your mental and physical well-being-"

"Is this a long winded way of you telling me I need to have sex with someone, because I already know that-"

"No, listen," Emile interrupts, standing up and setting his notepad down. Remus raises an eyebrow, before his eyes widen and he sits up straight. What was Emile doing? Something kinky?

"I... gosh, I can't figure out a way to word this without it sounding weird."

"Then let me word it for you," Remus says, with a grin, as he grabs Emile's hand and tugs him down onto the couch. Emile falls onto it and into Remus's arms. "You want to help me relieve some of my pent-up frustration, yeah?"

Emile's face was burning at Remus's explanation, but he nodded.

It was the only thing he could think of in order to help him. He would have maybe suggested asking someone else for help, but who else could he ask?

Janus left him, and he and Patton clearly seemed to be one of the main sources of his stress, Virgil and Remus didn't get along, Logan didn't want really anything to do with sex, and he couldn't ask Roman for obvious reasons.

Remus's grin widened, before it completely disappeared.

"I know you're technically offerin', but I don't want to force you to do anything you're uncomfortable with," Remus says, and Emile looks a little surprised at the words.

He then smiles softly, and shakes his head. "You're not forcing me into anything, Re," Emile assures him. "I'm not uncomfortable." Maybe a little embarrassed, but not uncomfortable.

Remus's smile returns, and he mumbles out a "good," before he pulls Emile in for a kiss. Emile squeaks as he's suddenly pulled forward, but closes his eyes and leans into the kiss as he realizes what's happening.

Before he could even register what was happening, he felt Remus's hands trail under his sweater-vest and shirt, and run over his sides, before they went down and squeezed his ass.

Emile pulled away from the kiss with a red face, as he whimpered out a "Remus."

Remus just chuckled, before he sat both of them up. His hands went back under Emile's shirt, and he went to go pull it up, when Emile suddenly grabbed both of his wrists, stopping him.

Remus looked at him, his hands pausing where they were.

"We're not having sex in my office," he rushes out, quickly. Remus groans.

"Lame."

"Call me what you want, but I would rather not have sex in here."

"Then what can we do!? You said you'd help!"

"And I will," Emile states, running a hand through his hair, as he peeled Remus's hands off of him, and instead used his own hands to quickly tug down Remus's pants.

"Oooo, a blowjob?"

"A handjob," Emile corrects, and he hears Remus mumble something about blowjobs being better, but he just smile when Emile looks at him, honestly looking relieved to just get any form of stimulation.

Emile isn't that surprised when Remus's cock springs out, just simply glancing up at the man.

"No boxers?"

"They make my dick itch."

Emile let out a small laugh, hesitantly reaching his hand to Remus's cock. He wraps his hand around the base, before giving it a few small strokes. Remus's breath hitches, and he leans back on his elbows.

And Emile would be lying if he said Remus didn't look kind of cute right now. Light pink cheeks, eyes half lidded, as they watched Emile's hand slowly work his cock.

Emile continues to move his hand slowly, as he's distracted by Remus's expression, but a whine from the man quickly snaps him out of it.

"Faster, Em," Remus begs, sounding surprisingly desperate. How long had it been since he's been touched, for God's sake?

Emile obliges, and starts moving his hand faster, Remus letting out a quiet moan at the action. He bucks his hips, and Emile moves even faster. His other hand goes to fondle Remus's balls, as his thumb comes up to run over the slit. Remus throws his head back and let's out a loud moan. Emile's face heats up at the noise.

"Fuck, Em- Em you're doing so good," Remus praises him, and that does something to Emile.

He moves his hand faster, subtly grinding against the couch to appease his own boner, and he lets out a shaky breath as he does so, squeezing his hand around Remus's cock. Remus moans again, bucking his hips as Emile focuses on making Remus come.

"Emi, I'm so close," Remus moans, continuing to buck up into Emile's hand as Emile stroked him, running his thumb over the slit one last time, before Remus arches his back and lets out a whine, coming with Emile's name falling past his lips.

Emile strokes a few more times, working Remus through his climax, before he pulls away.

Remus is panting as he comes back down from his high, and he sits himself back up, reaching out and grabbing Emile's wrist. He pulls the therapist into his lap, before sticking the man's hand into his mouth, eagerly licking his own come off of it.

Emile's torn between disgust and arousal, because Remus didn't even hesitate when going to suck on his fingers, even if it was to get the come off.

He then shifts his leg a bit, moving so that Emile is straddling his bare thigh.

He grins at Emile, a mischievous glint in his eye. "C'mon, Emi. You deserve to be able to get off too." Emile's face heated up, his hands moved to Remus's shoulders, as he slowly began to grind against Remus's thigh.

#agp kinktober 2020 #kinktober 2020 #i refuse to tag these with agp smut because they make me cringe rereading them #sanders sides smut

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manonamora-if · 2 years

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hia. errr... its kinda a weird ask... i read your guide thingy (im trying to be more supportive but i have hard time enggagin) and you said to not behave like a bot. im mainly a lurker (not comfortabel sharing stuff about me online) but i don't want my fav author think im a bot when i like thier stuff. what do i do?

Hi Anon,

I (and your favourite author) appreciate your efforts. <3

Lemme make you a small tutorial to not look like a bot when you are liking their stuff.

HOW NOT TO LOOK LIKE A BOT

What is a bot?

A bot is an autonomous program that interact with systems and users on the internet.

On Tumblr, they may follow or like account (or send users some weird spam links). They often will not have a personalised account (avatar, colour, posts and reblogs, etc...) or will be very obvious spammer (risqué/famous people avatar, weird letter/number name combo or obvious p*rn words, spammy posts/links). The second one usually don't follow accounts.

Aside from the spammers... I don't understand why the other ones exist.

The annoying thing about bots following you is that you can't be sure if this is an actual lurker person who just want to enjoy the ride or an actual bot. For someone following a bit the stats and guessing the potential engagement for posts/announcements, they are really a bane.

You could block and report them, but I can't be bothered (unless it's too obvious) because there are a lot of them. I know some people who block any account that is not a little personalised (see below).

For example, this is what I have in my Follower list for @crimsonroseandwhitelily (I blurred the name, in case the accounts are real people). I think 2 or 3 of those are actually account, but I am not sure.

[ID text: In the Tumblr dark mode, the image shows a screenshot of a blog followers list. All names are blurred, personalised avatars and some blog description are blurred too. /end ID]

What can I do not to look like a Bot?

[ID text: Screenshot of the top of the Edit Appearance Page, showing a basic, newly created account. The account is named "not-a-bot-temporary" and has one of Tumblr's basic lozenge avatar and grey dotted background. /endID]

This is my totally not a bot account made for the purpose of this post (will delete it later). It is very plain and has nothing. Aside from the name, it could pass as a bot (i just need to mass-like stuff and sent people weird links :P).

So what can you do?

1. Change your avatar.

Below are the basic Avatars.

[ID text: a screenshot of Tumblr's basic avatars. /endID]

The easiest way not to look like a bot is to change it to any kind of image. It can be literally ANYTHING you want: something you like, something you hate, your fav celebrity/author/artist/..., a planet, a flower, a meme, the letter R...

Here, I made a few of them on Canva:

[ID text: an image with 10 spaced-out squares. The background is Tumblr blue. The squares represent the following: the letter r in a white background, a lineart of a flower on a green background, a picture of a nebula (?), a drawn plate with 3 sushi (salmon, egg, shrimp) on a yellow background, a picture of Terry Pratchett holding an owl with spread-out wings, a vector picture of a forest, a rainbow on a light blue background, a picture of dew on a green leaf, a lineart of a lion on an orange background, a picture of a pizza. /endID]

Use that, take your own picture, do whatever. But change the basic avatar.

How to do that?

In the Edit Appearance page of your blog, click on the Edit Appearance, then the Avatar picture and Choose photo. Upload the one you want.

[ID text: same screenshot as the second image, but the avatar is the letter r on a white background. /endID]

Not-a-bot me chose the letter R.

2. Chand the background picture.

Same thing as before. Add whatever you want. Don't want to show yourself to the internet, no worries: it can just be a picture of a colour.

How to do that?

In the Edit Appearance page of your blog, click on the Edit Appearance, then the little pen under the Save button and Choose photo. Upload the one you want.

[ID text: same screenshot as the previous image, but the background is green. /endID]

Not-a-bot me chose the colour green.

3. Change your tag line/description.

When the description is empty, it shows as Untitled in the follower list (or in the user's language). You can change it to whatever you want. It can be a quote you like, your nickname/pronouns, what you enjoy doing on tumblr or key smashing...

A few options if you can't think of one:

I am not a bot, just a lurker.

Lurking is my passion.

Fancy seeing you lurking here.

GREEN.

What am I doing here?

How to do that?

In the Edit Appearance page of your blog, click on the Edit Appearance, then the empty line under your blog name. Click Save to save what you added.

[ID text: same screenshot as the previous image, but the text now shows "Def Not a Bot" as the title and "I promise I am not a bot" as description. /endID]

Not a bot me added a tag line and changed the visible title when you click on the avatar.

And you are done!

If you want to go further:

Add a post to your blog

Reblog posts of stuff you like

Change your Blog Theme (Edit Theme button in the Edit Appearance Page)

I hope this helps! Enjoy your lurking!

#ask box #tutorial #long post #free avatar

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thevindicativevordan · 2 years

Note

Any chance you've seen Bewate My Power?

I have yeah. Someone uploaded the entire movie briefly to Youtube and when I saw that I said screw it and gave it a watch. SPOILERS BELOW.

First off: if you're one of those John Stewart fans who has been complaining incessantly that John deserves better because he was the DCAU GL, you better buy this movie. This one is for YOU guys. Gives John the top dog status the way Stewart fans have been begging for, in fact this movies goes out of it's way to cater towards that group's wildest dreams. Flopping means all the claims that John is the most popular and well-known GL because of the DCAU are either false, or the situation has changed enough that John being the DCAU GL doesn't mean much anymore. Time to show DC how large the Stewart fanbase actually is!

Animation is good, they've been steadily improving with each movie released set in the Tomorrowverse, and that trend continues here. Final fight between John and Parallux is especially cool looking, they tried hard to make the GL constructs look powerful, and for the most part they succeeded. Everyone gets at least one moment to contribute to the fights and it makes me wish we had gotten more time with the group bonding. Music score, when it played, reminded me of Mass Effect's OST which is a upside. GL franchise would be in a better place if it took influence and inspiration from Mass Effect in my opinion.

Story wise BMP is typical for a DC animated movie: First two acts are pretty good but the quality drops hard in the final act because they bit off more than they could chew. BMP is trying to be a John Stewart origin story, and an adaption of the Rann-Thanagar War, Sinestro Corps War, and Emerald Twilight storylines. Just one of those could be a great movie but it's trying to do ALL of them, and the end result is underwhelming. There's just not enough time to give all of these plot lines the focus they need. We're introduced to the Green Lantern Corps and then almost immediately after it's revealed to have been destroyed. Rann and Thanagar get a little fleshing out but then it's revealed that actually Sinestro is behind the conflict. Sinestro gets some backstory, as does Hal/Parallux who is the real "Big Bad" of the movie, but no one else in his group even speaks. Result is that everyone feels undercooked because the focus is spread too thin. Even John isn't developed to the level I would like.

In line with the DCAU take, John here is a Marine and that's all he is. His interest in architecture doesn't come up once, I was hoping for a mention of that when he was practicing his constructs, but no such luck. Suffering from PTSD, John is looking for a purpose in life which arrives when a Guardian crashes in his backyard and gives him a power ring. Tasked with figuring out how he ended up with the ring of Hal Jordan - the previous owner, first human Green Lantern, and founding Justice League member - John sets off with Hal's best friend Oliver Queen aka Green Arrow. Along the way he learns about the history of the Green Lantern Corps, the conflict between Rann and Thanagar two planets with a history of warring, and the machinations of the fallen hero Sinestro. By the end he's met his predecessor Hal, who has secretly become the evil mastermind Parallux, and beaten Hal in a contest of willpower to cement his status as the new Greatest Green Lantern.

Aside from a minor arc about coming to appreciate what it means to be a GL, nothing is really done characterwise with John. His PTSD is barely relevant to the larger story (apart from a sequence where he almost murders Shayera and Hal attempting to corrupt John by saying he can tell John is sick of war and conflict too). Topics like that deserve to be handled with care and respect, and while there's nothing offensive, I don't have any clue how John's relationship with PTSD has changed as a result of the story. Is he "better" now? Why, because he found a new purpose with the Corps? Will he continue to struggle with that affliction the way real life vets do? Ending is a pretty straightforward "John has found his new mission and is happy" which just makes me wish they hadn't even included the PTSD. Felt superfluous and could have been cut easily since it didn't add anything. Aldis Hodge's voice acting is ok, he does have a few good deliveries like when John is exasperated at the corniness of the GL oath, but mainly he's stoic and flat. In-line with the DCAU characterization for sure. Ollie is entertaining and his VA is great, easily my favorite Green Arrow VA since the DCAU.

Neither Rann nor Thanagar gets much in the way of fleshing out, and the same holds true for the the two characters meant to represent the two sides: Hawkgirl and Adam Strange. Shayera is just a hotheaded warrior here. There's a tease of a romance between her and John at the end but it isn't built up believably and comes out of left field unless you go into the movie knowing that those two are "supposed" to get together because of the DCAU. Adam is a reasonable figure, but he's seemingly the same Adam Strange from the titular short that was released, and if you haven't watched that - I have not - then you're going to be left wondering who the hell this guy is and why he's such a big deal. Sinestro's depiction is terrible to be frank. He's a mustache twirling bad guy who dies like a complete idiot in a way that has you groaning at how cliched it is.

Ending is especially weak. We don't get to actually see John and company negotiate an end to the Rann-Thanagar War, it happens entirely off-screen. How were they able to compel the two factions to end their conflict when all of the conspirators were dead? All John and friends have is their word that Sinestro was responsible for everything and Hal went insane. Adam is gone so there's no reason for the Rannians to believe John that actually Sinestro was behind everything. Shayera is a low level soldier from what we've seen, and even if her side believes her that doesn't fix the problem of Thanagar and Rann being close in proximity to each other, or the long-standing animosity between the two sides. At best I could buy a temporary ceasefire from Thanagar in return for Rann trying to send the planet back where it's supposed to be, but there's no mention made of how the heroes resolved the conflict, we're just left to assume I guess that the war is over and everything is fixed. Never mind the exorbitant loss of life on both sides - that's sure to have resulted in some members wanting to keep fighting until the other side is utterly annihilated - I guess somehow they shook hands and let bygones be bygones.

Meanwhile Ollie is pretty nonchalant about killing his best friend, to the point he and John are seemingly new best friends. They spent what, the equivalent of maybe a week together? How long were Ollie and Hal comrades? Did they even bring Hal's body back to Earth for burial? Man was a founding Justice Leaguer! Writers had it out for Hal here, he gets dumped on relentlessly. Lipservice is paid to Johns' depiction of Parallux as a "fear parasite", but the writers still make Hal out to be a bad guy. At the end there's no dying moment of clarity where Hal tearfully begs for redemption, he dies with a spiteful "fuck you" line about how it's too late for them to stop his genocidal plan. Some have claimed Hal was at his most interesting as a villain but I sure as shit didn't see that here. Typical generic power hungry maniac, with a halfhearted "sympathetic" angle about how Hal was corrupted because he was tired of conflict. Doesn't really make sense given Hal was seemingly in charge after being possessed, and had to be giving Sinestro orders to continue provoking the Rannians and Thanagarians to keep fighting, but whatever he's evil now. Logic isn't his thing anymore.

More I think about this movie the more baffled I am about the creative decisions made, and the worse I rate it. They shoved an entire trilogy into one movie, and left the GLC in their brand new shared continuity completely destroyed. Why would the first thing you do with the GL franchise in a new continuity be destroying it? Where could they even go with a hypothetical GL sequel in the Tomorrowverse? Hal is dead and died unrepentant, kinda ruling out Spectre Hal and an adaption of Johns Rebirth storyline. Sinestro and his fledgling Sinestro Corps are all dead too. No way could they adapt any of Johns storylines in the Tomorrowverse, something I'm personally glad about given how they treated Hal here. Guess maybe they could steal some of Kyle's stories for John?

Like I said at the start, this movie is for John fans. By the end he gets everything Hal had - his friendship with Ollie, his status as the "Greatest" Green Lantern, seemingly his place on the JL - and everything of Kyle's - he's the Torchbearer who will rebuild the GLC, the Last Lantern, the one who surpasses Hal - in a way that's going to piss off those two fanbases. John and Hal are my two favorite Lanterns, and I hate how the two fanbases are at each others throats. Plenty of John fans will eat this up the same way Batman fans eat up another "Superman turns evil and Batman has to kick his ass" storyline, but it just doesn't feel satisfying. John graduates to "Greatest" status over the course of a week and is so powerful he can outwill a god-tier Hal, armed with multiple rings, who was able to destroy the rest of the GLC. It's too fast to really feel believable that a rookie John is that good. While I think it's long past time that John got his due, elevating John at the cost of everyone and everything else is not how I wanted them to do that.

Spreading the story out over a trilogy could have worked. Start the first movie with Hal recruiting John to help him with the Rann-Thanagar War, and have Hal seemingly die at the hands of Sinestro at the end. Next movie do Sinestro Corps War with Sinestro leading his army against Oa, have John lead the GLs to beat them, then you end with the reveal that Hal is possessed. Final movie you do Emerald Twilight where John and Hal face off and the GLC's future is at stake. That would give you time to flesh out John, Sinestro, and Hal in a way that makes the events feel impactful since we'd get to see Hal and John be friends, as opposed to here where the two don't even know each other.

Final verdict for BMP is a 6/10. If you're a hardcore John Stewart fan: go buy this. Show your support for John because if this movie fails you guys are unlikely to get anything else. DCAU fans will have a good time too. Hal fans should stay away, there's nothing for you here and this movie doesn't care about extending an olive branch to you. I do hope we get a sequel because I'm genuinely curious where they go from here, and I wouldn't mind seeing a John/Shayera romance. Make that the focus and stop trying to cram three movies worth of plot into one.

#green lantern #john stewart #green arrow #shayera hol #hawkgirl #green lantern beware my power #tomorrowverse #dc animated movies #hal jordan

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