#castaway castle | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

kneesheee · 4 months

Text

50 Things to Know about the Disney-verse

1. Ursula and Maleficent are rivals so Uma and Mal being rivals also tracks.

2. The Evil Queen and Maleficent are rivals for Hades' affections and for the status of "The Evilest of Them All'.

3. The Evil Queen claims not to be Hades' girlfriend, but they just had "an interesting weekend" on Castaway Cay. And therefore, I headcanon that she is Hadie’s mom. Probably conceived sometime around Evie’s banishment.

4. In the Disney Villains: Top Secret Files, Maleficent is featured in her own section. According to the pieces of information provided, Maleficent's last name is Faery.

5. She was actually invited to Aurora's birth ceremony and that the invitation simply never got to her castle because she burnt the postman to death (believing him to be a trespasser) before he could deliver it.

6. Her dragon form also appeared in The Little Mermaid series episode "Heroes" as a sea dragon.

7. Captain Hook tried to charm her, only to be zapped away leaving behind his hook. Jafar also tried to woo her while they sat together, only to end up being literally burnt.

8. It was revealed in "A Christmas Cruella" that she did want a puppy before becoming her villainous self.

9. Cruella has a brother named Cecil and a niece named Ivy. However, Cecil is not Ivy's father, meaning that Cruella and Cecil must have another sibling (most likely a brother) who is Ivy's parent.

10. In 102 Dalmatians: Puppies to the Rescue, Cruella has set up a toy factory next to DeVil Manor. She seems to have tried online dating, where she has supposedly wed herself to Professor Farzboom, a meek professor who helps her make her toys. So there’s Carlos’ dad.

11. In "Max's Embarrassing Date", she went on a date with the Beast and asked if he came in a medium, which the Beast became annoyed of. After the Beast gets soaked with soup he was eating, Cruella is unhappy as she would have to get him dry-cleaned.

12. Walt Disney's early vision for The Rescuers revolved around the kidnapping of a polar bear from a city zoo; writers considered reusing Cruella as the main antagonist (presumably driven by her desire for the bear's fur).

13. The concept art of the film shows Cruella wearing an outfit made out of crocodile leather. Because The Rescuers was set more than a decade after 101 Dalmatians, Cruella was given a period-appropriate update. Aside from her '70s alligator-chic outfit, Cruella is accessorized with Sly and the Family Stone-style sunglasses. In other sketches, De Vil is depicted in bell-bottom pants and a pair of platforms. Other concept art showed Cruella driving a water vehicle similar to the one Medusa uses in the final film.

14. The Prince is usually known as Prince Charming, though some source material shows that his name is Henri, or Henry. However, he was never referred to by name anywhere in the film. Not even mentioned as "Prince Charming".

15. The story takes place roughly in June. In the movie, the sun rises slightly before 6:00 AM (in France), as it would within a few weeks of the summer solstice. Also, by this time, a pumpkin would have grown to 20–40 pounds.

16. The debate of the setting of Cinderella has always been a problem, but most people can agree it is French; however, there is a small amount of people who think it is Spanish because the female names end in "A" but that does not really cut it so deeper research shows that the thing on Anastasia's head is a peineta or headdress used in Spain along with formal attire also the French furnishings and the Spanish furnishings within the same time period are very similar in style.

17. Cinderella is the “oldest” princess in the official franchise being 19 while Snow White is the youngest being 14. Also, Snow White’s prince was suppose to be 18 according to Disney’s records.

18. In the third movie, Cinderella’s shoe size is mentioned to be a size 4½ in women's. According to Disney's Villains' Revenge, Snow White has smaller feet than Cinderella.

19. Cinderella was actually rich at the beginning, even before she married the prince. This was exempted, however, as she was forced to work as a servant.

20. In some stories, Cinderella's real name was Ella (short for Eleanor), and because she would always lie in cinders, her stepfamily would call her CinderElla. However, in the Disney film, "Cinderella" is truly her name by birth.

21. Cinderella's last name would likely have been Tremaine since her stepmother's name was Lady Tremaine unless Lady Tremaine kept her maiden name.

22. According to Disneystrology, Cinderella’s birthday is September 6.

23. According to the Disneystrology book, Snow White’s birthday would be on March 6.

24. Cinderella is magical. She has a special ability to empathize with animals, perceive what they say and communicate with them.

25. Melody is the very first human-merperson hybrid in history, making her birth a significant historic moment in both human and Atlantican history.

26.She is also not considered a canon descendant’s character and considered to be from an AU, but apparently, Beauty & The Beast, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and The Little Mermaid are considered to be happening roughly around the same time in the disney timeline.

26. Melody's bedroom is Ariel's guest room when she first took human form and stayed with Prince Eric, albeit recolored with brighter colors.

27. Contrary to popular belief, Jasmine's age has never been confirmed or even referenced in any of the Aladdin movies, television series, or other spinoff projects. In the original film, the Sultan declares that Jasmine must be married "by her next birthday", but never specifies how old she will become on said birthday.

28. An early story concept for the original film had the Sultan saying, "Jasmine, the law says you must be married by your sixteenth birthday.", which would have made her fifteen years old. This concept was scrapped when Jeffrey Katzenberg became worried about sending the wrong message regarding the idea that fifteen year old girls can get married. Thus, the line was changed to "married to a prince by your next birthday.", leaving Jasmine's canonical age unknown.

29. One of the Disney Princess magazines has a story about two of Jasmine's cousins named Farah and Nadine. Whether they are considered canon is unknown.

30. Although the exact date is not clear, Jasmine's birthday is in late January or early February. This is because when Aladdin and Jasmine fly on the magic carpet, Chinese New Year is being celebrated over in China. This holiday can fall anywhere from January 21 to February 20.

31. She also has another cousin named Sharma who teaches at The Royal Academy.

32. Nasira is the better sorcerer between her and her twin brother, Jafar.

33. According to Disneystrology, Tiana’s birthday would be on December 25, Christmas Day.

34. The trailer implies that Gaston may have been aware of the Beast's curse, and had ulterior motives besides wanting Belle as his wife for attempting to kill the Beast, as the trailer described him as being "one man who wants to keep the spell alive," although it is unconfirmed whether this was the case in the film itself.

35. Despite various concept materials, as listed above, give Gaston the surname of LeGume, the Bimbettes during the song of "Belle" refer to Gaston as "Monsieur Gaston" and Belle in the reprise twice sarcastically refers to herself as "Madame Gaston" suggesting that Gaston is his surname in the final version.

36. The Bimbettes (individual names Claudette, Laurette, and Paulette) are blonde identical triplets who fawn over Gaston. They are inspired by Belle's sisters from the original Beauty and the Beast fairy tale.

37. They are the first Disney characters to possess green eyes without being villains

38. These girls worked their asses off in the comics to get Gaston to notice them. 😩

39. Its implied in one comic that Belle and Gaston were friends when they were children.

40. Ironically, despite Belle being considered by the village to be the most beautiful woman in the village, Laurette once disguised herself as Belle flawlessly enough to fool Gaston initially, which conflicted with the claim that Belle's looks had no parallel.

41. Even though he is referred to as a prince in the opening, none of the characters directly refer to him by that title. In addition, the first draft for Woolverton's take of the film indicated that the Beast was intended to be a duke instead of a prince.

42. According to the first stained-glass window featured in the film's opening sequence, Adam’s family motto is "vincit qui se vincit" (meaning "The winner is who wins himself").

42. Though the Beast's official age is not mentioned in the movie, it is strongly indicated by the narrator's statement that the rose "would bloom until his 21st year." As the rose has already begun to wilt by the time Belle arrives at the castle, it is very likely that the Beast is 20 years (i.e. on their 21st year) of age by this point.

43. In authorized supplementary comics, most notably The New Adventures of Beauty and the Beast, the Prince is never shown as being older than a preteen when he's shown as a human; moreover, the palace staff all refer to his pre-curse self as "a young boy" or "child". Two individual comics show that the Prince was originally a few years older than Chip, who didn't age during the curse, and shows him as being a couple of years older than Belle herself. The comics also show that the Prince has had a few run-ins with the disguised Enchantress, meaning that he'd still be a preteen when he was cursed.

44. Despite her slim figure, Belle seems to have considerable strength. She may have lifted the Beast, as evidenced by the Beast being placed onto Philippe's back, although this was never shown on-screen. Later on, she was able to pull the Beast up onto a balcony.

45. Belle is currently the only official Disney Princess to have hazel eyes.

46. In the beginning of the original 1989 storyline, found on the Diamond Edition DVD, Belle's birthday is celebrated, and the cake reads "Happy 17th Birthday Belle", providing evidence that she is 17 in the movie, or at least that she was originally planned to be 17.

47. Contrary to popular belief, it's not made clear whether Belle was actually born a peasant, as she implies that she wasn't born in her home village in the opening song, but rather moved there. In addition, her owning books at her cottage implied that she is, or at least was, considerably wealthy (as back in the time period of the film, books were considerably expensive).

48. In the musical, specifically the song "No Matter What" one of the lyrics had Maurice stating "You are your mother's daughter; therefore you are class ... crème de la crème", implying that Belle was part of the social upper class. This was also supported by Belle having a portrait of her and her mom in the Enchanted Tales of Belle attraction.

49. In earlier drafts, Aladdin had three human friends named Babkak, Omar, and Kassim.

50. In the episode "Two to Tangle", it's revealed that Aladdin has unexplored magic powers hidden within his soul. This may possibly be a link to him being "The Diamond In The Rough".

#descendants #disney descendants #uma descendants #mal descendants #carlos descendants

50 notes · View notes

ratinayellowbandana · 5 months

Note

Hi!! I love your fics so much, and was hoping you could possibly do these prompts (or combine them!):

Hug

"You're safe here, I promise."

Thank you!! And no stress if you don't do this particular prompt, I'm just happy to read anything you write ❤️

ok so.. this ask if from September, but we're going to ignore that because I finally got around to filling it (with a slight variation). so thanks so much for your patience on that one. tossing my ep. 78 brainrot into the ring with everyone else's. here's a canon-divergent take on laudna bolting after the ziggurat and recounting old memories.

what if she retreated to the old laboratory instead of the woods?

cw: mentions of torture (canonical)

length: 1431 words

also on ao3

~~~

“Laudna, sweetheart?”

Imogen’s voice is a distant echo, resounding off the stone walls that warp and twist her words. She cannot see Imogen, cannot let Imogen see her. The veil that creeps over her face flickers in and out of existence, the phantom pressure of the choker heavy around her throat. Laudna bites back a low whine in the darkness. Shadows congeal around her feet, cloaking her from Imogen’s searching eyes.

“Are you in here?” The question fades into heavy silence. The broken bookshelves and shattered vials give her no reply.

Imogen had known just where to look, her clever girl. Laudna’s feet, guided by Delilah’s sweet whispers, had returned her unbidden to the laboratory. The scent of dried blood lingers in the groutwork. The metal table lies on its side, overturned during their spat with the castle’s vengeful spirits, its shackles dangling loose.

Laudna curls against the furthest wall, her form lengthening, cracking, shifting into something more. The thrumming in her chest urges her to lash out with cruel talons and jagged teeth. To tear and shred and protect until no one would dare cross her again. To snarl and fight until she is left alone once more.

Her mama always said she was too trusting. Too gullible. It would get her into trouble. Trusting the wrong people. Lady Briarwood had been welcoming, so accommodating in her beautiful castle. She had seen something special in the farmgirl from the outskirts of the Parchwood. Her invitation had been a gift from the gods. The promise of private tutelage lured a girl below the city.

Flashes of memory, scattered as fallen leaves, reveal racks of knives beside the door. The bite of iron into famine-thinned wrists. A throat screamed raw. Lady Briarwood’s traitorous sneer.

“Laudna?”

The tunnels promised safety. It was easy to lose herself among the twists and turns. Carving a nook for herself was simple enough. A few well-placed crates disguised a forgotten passageway. She snuck up to the castle kitchens for castaway scraps. Pupils grew accustomed to the dark. Discarded trash became the foundation of her odd collection of possessions. Chipped bottles and forgotten tokens decorated her first home.

They searched below the city for any traces of the Briarwoods’ nefarious projects. Laudna was flushed out of hiding when an unsuspecting guard stumbled across her enclave.

Laudna?

The sting of betrayal sits fresh on her tongue.

The spell is workin’, so you gotta be close.

Her fingers stretch and claw at her hair. The fear of waking up alone again. A bed of moss tucked into broad tree roots.

She wants to bite and mangle and–

Everyone leaves. True colors will show; it’s only a matter of time. They’ll learn what she is. They always do.

Please don’t run from me.

Purple light dances overhead, casting Imogen in a familiar glow.

“Where are you?”

Laudna hunches into herself, a growl bubbling in her chest.

“Stay away,” she spits, hating the way the words fall at her feet.

Imogen turns in the direction of her voice, eyes flitting over the swath of shadow hiding Laudna’s quivering shape.

“If you really want me to go, I’ll go,” she says simply, ignoring the high notes of fear in Laudna’s voice.

“I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to hurt anybody.”

“You won’t.”

“You can’t know that.”

“But I know you.” Imogen sighs, says softly, “Will you let me see you?”

“Her influence is stronger here,” Laudna rasps.

Imogen stiffens. “That’s alright. We’ll fight her off together if we have to.” Laudna doesn’t miss the barely concealed rage hidden beneath a layer of steely nonchalance Laudna suspects isn’t solely for her benefit.

“She wants me to kill him and take the shard.”

“She can’t have it.”

“She needs it,” Laudna whispers, “and I’m afraid of what she’ll do to get her way.” She drops the shroud of darkness. “She always gets her way.” A broken sob tears from her throat.

Imogen rushes forward, stopping short two paces away. “Oh, honey, can I–” she reaches out her hand, and Laudna nods. Imogen collapses at her side, taking Laudna into her arms. Laudna clings to her, trembling in the warm glow of Imogen’s lights.

“I hate it here,” Laudna rushes. “I hate this city, I hate this fucking castle, I hate the gods-damned moon.” It bursts out of her in a wave as Imogen caresses her hair with gentle, practiced hands. “I hate Ashton,” she confesses through a choked cry, “I hate them, Imogen. Why would he betray us?”

“‘Cause he’s a dumbass,” Imogen replies. “A dumbass who doesn’t think about the consequences of their actions and hurts everyone around them ‘cause he thinks we don’t care.”

“He hurt Fearne. And he hurt you, and he hurt me–”

“Yeah, they did. And I’m fuckin’ pissed at ‘em ‘cause of it, but I don’t hate him.” She sounds weary and world-worn.

Silence falls between them, save the dripping of a distant pipe.

Laudna speaks quietly. “She– she tortured me here, you know?” She feels Imogen tense beneath her, her hand faltering its steady course through Laudna’s hair before recovering once more. “I don’t… I don’t remember most of it. Probably for the best, really. Awful business, torture. I’ve heard it’s terribly messy.” Imogen isn’t smiling, and Laudna drops her attempt at lightheartedness. “I’m sorry. I don’t– I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable. Being in this room, I suppose–”

“In this room?” Imogen realizes, horrified. Her head swivels, taking in the overturned table, the broken beakers, the discoloration of the floor. “I didn’t realize– gods, Laudna, you never… We should go–” She moves to stand, but Laudna stops her. “She wanted to remind me, I think, of what she’s capable of.”

“You’re safe now. I promise.” Imogen murmurs fiercely, pressing her lips to the crown of Laudna’s head.

“My ears,” Laudna continues, because Imogen knows this story. “She promised me lessons. Said I would be able to hear her better with my ears just so.” A dry laugh escapes. “I suppose she was right.”

There is something about being here, in the room of her nightmares, with another living person. With Imogen, who grips her tighter, holds her a little closer. Who does not flinch away, but extends herself as a comfort.

“I don’t think you’d have liked me when I returned the first time.” Laudna swallows. “I was… lost, callous. I hurt people.”

“You did what you needed to survive.”

Laudna shakes her head. “I was angry and bitter. I fought recklessly and killed without thinking. Not every shack I came across was abandoned, Imogen. And when Delilah began her meddling… I felt it was justice for the harm done to me.”

Laudna sits up, leans away from Imogen and twists her fingers around themselves.

“There was a little girl once. She was kind to me, the way young children are with their imaginary friends.” She smiles fondly at the memory. “I do love children… I loved her, I think. She snuck me kitchen scraps and apples, and we would play games into the twilight hours before she had to return home.” Laudna’s face falls. “One day, she brought her parents to meet her spooky friend in the barn. They were not so kind to me.” She rubs self-consciously at a spot on her hip. “They attacked me, and I–” She swallows thickly. “I killed them.”

Another sob resurfaces.

“I didn’t mean to, I swear it. They were shouting at me, and then I was shifting back into my body, and the little girl was crying. And I ran.” She exhales a shaky breath. “I betrayed her trust. I’m no better than Ashton or Delilah or–”

“You didn’t deserve that,” Imogen says softly. “Any of it. Then or now.”

“I’m sorry.”

Imogen holds out her arms again, and Laudna falls into them.

“You did what you needed to survive,” Imogen repeats. “We’ve all done things we can’t take back. All we can do is move forward and strive to be better.”

“I don’t hate Ashton,” Laudna whispers into the fabric of Imogen’s dress.

“I know, Laud,” Imogen murmurs, “I don’t either.”

They sit in the ransacked laboratory until the last of Laudna’s cries subside, and Imogen’s back is sore from leaning against the wall at an awkward angle.

“What do you say we go find the others?” Imogen asks gently.

Laudna nods and gets to her feet, dabbing ichor from her eyes. Imogen squeezes her hand.

Together, they climb the stairs of the hidden passageway behind the bookcase and do not look back.

#not totally sure what this is #[gestures vaguely]#but it was sitting in the brain and needed to come out #fic #my fic #imodna fic #imogen temult #laudna #critical role #critical role fanfiction #cr3 #imodna fanfiction #imodna #delilah briarwood #ask #anon #prompt fill

35 notes · View notes

l-1-z-a · 1 year

Text

All the stuff in The Sims 3, The Sims Medieval, and The Sims 4 was originally concepts and ideas for The Sims 2. And that's what's important - the developers of The Sims 2 had elaborations on these ideas that were removed or implemented in later games of The Sims or in spin-offs

In April 2006, a survey was held on the official website asking players what they would want to see in later expansion packs.

A large chunk of those ideas would not make it into the final, but in later Sims-related content.

The page mentions of Sims as castaways on another island, where they need to build a new home in the rainforest to farm, fish and build stuff to survive. The idea would be released as a spin-off called The Sims Castaway for consoles and handhelds, and The Sims Castaway Stories for Windows. Oddly, farming isn't a feature in the latter, despite having dozens of leftovers for it.

There was going to be an expansion pack focused solely on functionable hospitals, separated into four different careers referred to as "medicine, physical therapy, surgeon, or psychiatry" in order to cure illnesses from Sims. The would be revisited in The Sims 4: Get To Work expansion.

This paragraph details the gameplay. And they complement what Mike Seller, one of The Sims 2's game designers, described in response to a question about the goals set during its development:

Add more meaningful jobs and locations -- this eventually came out, sort of, in later releases, but a ton of work we did for this was dropped. For example we had gameplay for creating your own doctor's office with waiting room and treatment room. The more chairs, magazines, fish tanks, etc., the longer patients would wait. The worse your diagnoses or procedures, the faster they would leave (if you made the patient scream because you chose the wrong procedure, the Sims in the waiting room would get upset and run out the door :) ). Unfortunately, we were also beset with frustrating technical issues involving the underlying scripting language (Edith), so making all this was incredibly difficult.

An expansion pack that would be released as Pets is mentioned in the survey, but it also refers to training pets, suggesting that it was going to play a slightly bigger role rather than teaching them tricks. Coincidentally, The Sims Pet Stories does feature a pet training system in the form of an obstacle course.

What would be the Seasons expansion is mentioned in the survey, mentions the feature of a "sand volleyball" activity. An unused volleyball graphic can be found in the base game, suggesting the feature was going to come to fruition.

A time travel-themed expansion pack is explained where Sims are travelled back in time to a fantasy neighborhood "where they can live like royalty or enjoy the simple things in life", and have access to building castles, having enourmous feasts and working on small farms. The whole idea would most likely be the basis of The Sims Medieval, but the castle-building aspect would be released in the form of a The Sims 2 Store set, coming with medieval-themed furniture.

A mystery-solving expansion pack, involving socializing with specific Sims all over the neighborhood to figure out the mystery would be most likely revisited in The Sims 3 Ambitions in the Detective Career.

But when reading the description, this trailer comes to mind, which supposedly refers to The Sims Castaway Stories, but there's nothing Castaway about it. It really makes you wonder what happened in the town and why people disappeared:

youtube

A similar Seasons-themed expansion pack is mentioned where Sims could put on parties specific to certain seasons (Despite the idea being released as the New Year's Party in Happy Holiday Stuff), with the mention of a party planner. Seasonal-themed parties would likely be revisited in The Sims 3 Seasons.

The last option mentions enjoying the best years' of the Sims' youth, with features involving birthdays, playground antics, slumber parties, building tree-houses and forts, sports practice, and prom nights. The idea sounds a lot like what would eventually be in The Sims 3: Generations, but the mention of a sports practice could also loosely tie into the FreeTime expansion with the soccer goalposts. There's also an unused model of a Slumber Party Memory in the base game, suggesting that the feature was going to return in an expansion pack before getting scrapped again.

After the expansion-related ideas came the addition of specific objects that players would like to see in future expansions;

Furniture workbench (create your own furnishings)

Pool toys

Camping - would be introduced in the Bon Voyage expansion pack.

Water parks, zoos, amusement parks

Apartments - - would be introduced in the Apartment Life expansion pack.

Slot Machines, Roulette, Craps tables - Would be introduced in The Sims 3 Lucky Palms.

Casinos

Pets - would be introduced in the Pets expansion pack.

Weather and Seasons - would be introduced in the Seasons expansion pack.

Concert lighting and stages - would be introduced in The Sims 3 Showtime.

Snowball fight - would be introduced in the Seasons expansion pack.

Gardening, growing food - would be introduced in the Seasons expansion pack.

Sports and other active events - would be loosely introduced in the FreeTime expansion pack.

Skating, snowboarding, skiing - would be introduced in the Seasons expansion pack.

Cooking materials, food items - would be loosely introduced in the Seasons expansion pack, but would come to full use in The Sims 3 base game.

Prom parties - would appear in The Sims 3 Generations.

Health and sickness - doctors and nurses making house calls

Fishing - would be introduced in the Seasons expansion pack.

Frisbee

Going shopping - Not to be confused with Open For Business, which came out a month prior.

Yearly calendar - mark, plan special events

Natural Disasters - would be loosely introduced as the meteor death in The Sims 3 Ambitions.

Celebrities

Create your own holiday

Movie Theater

Croquet

Hotels - would be introduced in the Bon Voyage expansion pack.

Sources:

#Youtube #sims 2 #ts2 #sims2 #the sims 2 #sims 2 beta #ts2 simblr #simblr #the sims #the sims 3 #the sims 4 #sims 3 #sims 4 #the sims medieval #survey #the sims stories #the sims castaway stories #the sims pets stories #the sims life stories

115 notes · View notes

dreamlandcreations · 9 months

Text

Thank you for the tag @kayhi808

Rules: reveal the titles of the documents in your WIP folder and tag as many people as there are documents. Let others ask questions about the ones that interest them and post snippets or explain the contents as you see fit!

I'm starting a new post bc I have too many WIPs (and these are just the ones in my drafts) 🙈

tag as many people as there are documents... but but but there are more than a hundred drafts 😭 anyway

tagging: @zablife @raincoffeeandfandoms @cinebration @marvelmusing @massivecolorspygiant @celestialspecial @stardustmorozov @startrekkingaroundasgard @oneeyedvisenya @happilyhertale @drabbles-mc @withmyteeth @runnning-outof-time @storiesbyrhi @nickfowlerrr

Little Miller - Benny Miller x Reader

Not tonight - Boba Fett x assassin!Reader (x Fennec Shand)

Speak freely - Boba Fett x half alien!Reader (platonic)

Games - Boba Fett x Mandalorian!Reader

Just a simple man - Jango Fett x half alien!Reader

Happily ever after - Bucky Barnes x Steve Rogers

Hey, Kid - Poe Dameron x Skywalker!Reader

First - Poe Dameron x Skywalker!Reader

The King - Tattooed Biker!Boba Fett x Reader

A deal is a deal - Raymond Smith x half Asian!Reader

Day and Night - Brother Day x Reader

Second Chances - Boba Fett x force sensitive!Reader

One King - Bishop x vampire!Reader (Night Teeth!au)

Reality - Boba Fett x force sensitive!Reader

I know what day it is - Bishop x Reader

Slave to Sensation - changeling!Billy Russo x psy!Reader

Angel's crush - Bishop x tattoo artist!reader

What you need - Billy Russo x autistic!Reader

What you want - Billy Russo x autistic!Reader

What you have - Billy Russo x autistic!Reader

Tangled, twisted or maybe something right - Billy Russo x Stark!Reader

Best friend - Bucky Barnes x Wilson!Reader

Stranger - Billy Russo x Reader

Apprentice - Doctor Strange x sorceress!Reader

Misery loves company - Venom x Reader x Eddie

We broke up - Eddie x Reader x Venom

Once upon a time - King Arthur x royal!Reader

Wicked - shifter!Santi x witch!Reader

Desert Flower - shifter!Benny x (non)human!Reader

Reaper - Venom x Reader x Eddie

The proposal (Would you like to series) Tommy x Reader x Alfie

Kissing Alfie Solomons - Alfie x Reader

Lighten up - Darkling x Fjerdan!Reader

Faeted hearts - fae king!Alfie x half-fae!Reader

Castaway AU - Billy Russo x Reader

Grimm AU - blutbad!Alfie x grimm!Reader

Fearless - Alfie Solomons x Shelby!Reader

I'm here for you - Billy Russo x Reader

Scheming, games and secrets - Alfie x Reader + Tommy

Fortune Favours the Brave - Eddie Munson x cheerleader!Reader

What women want - Billy Russo x genderfluid/nonbinary(afab)!Reader

Slayer - dragon shifter!Alfie Solomons x warrior princess!Reader

See you at the office - Alfie Solomons x ex-assistant!Reader

Weave it into words - (clan leader) king!Alfie Solomons x Shelby princess!Reader (Brave AU)

Crave the love - prince!Billy Russo x princess!Reader

Jeweller - Alfie Solomons x Tatiana's cousin!Reader

What's underneath? - Alfie x Reader

You only need to ask - Raymond Smith x aristocrat!Reader

What about dessert? - chef!Alfie x manager!Reader (modern!au)

The bright side - FO!Poe Dameron x Jedi!Reader

More than seeking comfort - Eddie Brock x Reader

Bait - Derek Hale x hunter!Reader

Cosy on the throne - Tattooed Biker!Boba Fett x Reader

This is not your color - Eddie Munson x Reader

Distraction - Max x Reader (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Three is still a company - Billy Russo x Reader x Frank Castle

You missed a spot - Brother Day x Reader

Behind closed doors - Darkling x Sun Summoner!Reader

Don't mind me - Alfie Solomons x Reader (x Tommy Shelby)

Feeling adventurous? - Eddie Munson x Reader

I can wait - Alina x Reader (Darkling x Alina x Mal)

Why the f*ck not? - Alfie Solomons x Reader x May Carleton x Tommy Shelby

Solace - Boba Fett x Reader

First time - Billy Russo x Reader

I'm all yours - Billy Russo x Reader

Patience - Billy Russo x Reader

The Happiest Day of Our Lives - Darkling x Sun Summoner!Reader

Mirror, mirror - Aleksander Morozova x Reader (xAlina)

Perfect - Darkling x Reader

Necessary evil - Darkling x Inferni!Reader

King of the Seven Seas - Atlantean king!Alfie x Reader

Don't you f*cking dare - chef!Alfie Solomons x manager!Reader

Do you doubt me? - James Delaney x Strange!Reader

Remedy - James Delaney x Reader

Unexpected - Matt Murdock x Reader x Elektra

Sweet torment - Alfie Solomons x Reader

Mr CEO - Billy Russo x Reader

Complications - Darkling x reader

Preying on you tonight - werewolf!Billy Russo x Reader

Sweet victory - Jake Seresin x Reader

The fun kind - Jake Seresin x Reader

Catch me if you can - Jake Seresin x Reader

Black and White - Darkling x Fjerdan princess!Reader

Stay Forever - Jake Seresin x BFF!Reader

In my corner - Billy Russo x Reader

Heartbeat - Milo/Lucien Crown x Reader

Just friends - modern!Alfie Solomons x Reader

That's the rule - Jake Seresin x Reader

Fire and Blood - Daemon x daughter!Reader (platonic)

The Bronze Witch - Aemond Targaryen x Daemon's daughter!Reader

Unity - Darkling x Fjerdan!Reader x Nikolai Lantsov

Risk and reward - Jake Seresin x Reader

Late night visit - Aemond x Reader

Peace offering - Aemond x Reader

The first warning - Darkling x Grisha!Reader

Stay with me - Darkling x Grisha!Reader

Like calls to like - Darkling x Grisha!Reader

Darkest hearts - Darkling x Nikolai's twin!Reader

Nothing - Darkling x Grisha!Reader

Heartbreak - Jake 'Hangman' Seresin x Reader

The eternity of this day - Darkling x Sun Summoner!Reader

A dream come true - Eames x Reader

A debt to be paid - Aemond x Reader

Honourable Quest - Xenk Yendar x Reader

Honouring a Debt - Xenk Yendar x Reader

Sacrifice of Honour - Xenk Yendar x Reader

My Queen - Daemon Targaryen x Stark!Reader

Naru - Sesshōmaru x modern!Reader

Fire and Blood, Ashes and Dust - Daemon Targaryen x niece!Reader

Give him to me - Daemon Targaryen x niece!Reader

The Taming of the Dragon - Daemon Targaryen x Stark!Reader

The day you died - supervillain!Darkling x superhero!Reader

#wip tag game #i'm the worst #🙈

34 notes · View notes

whenthegoldrays · 1 month

Text

ELLY’S PLAYLISTS

k-dramas

Lovely Runner

sol x sun jae 🍄

Marry My Husband

kang jiwon / jiwon x jihyuk 🧸

jeong su-min / su-min x min-hwan 🧸

Tell Me That You Love Me

moeun x jinwoo 💌

Twinkling Watermelon

eun gyeol x eun yoo 💌🧸

yichan x cheong-ah 💌🧸

yichan and eun gyeol

Live Up To Your Name

im x yeon kyung 💌

Crash Landing On You

jeong hyeok x se-ri 💌🧸

dan x seung-jun 🧸

The Matchmakers

jung woo x soon deok 🧸

Castaway Diva

seo mok-ha / mok-ha x ki-ho 🍄

Our Beloved Summer

yeon-su x ung 🧸

Familiar Wife

ju-hyeok x wu-jin 💌🧸

Hometown Cha Cha Cha

hye-jin x du-sik

The Wind Blows

do-hun x soo-jin 🧸🍄

Hidden Love (c-drama)

zhizhi x jiaxu 🧸

period dramas

Emma, Jane Austen

frank x jane 💌🧸

The Blue Castle, Lucy Maud Montgomery

valancy x barney 💌

Mansfield Park, Jane Austen

fanny price / fanny x edmund 💌

maria bertram / maria & henry 🧸

Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

jo march / jo x friedrich 🧸

Poldark (TV)

morwenna x drake 💌🧸

Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare

romeo x juliet 🧸🍄

other

anna x william (Notting Hill) 🧸

diana & charles (The Crown) 💌🧸

margaret & peter (The Crown) 🧸

milo x amanda (Milo Murphy’s Law)

phineas x isabella (Phineas and Ferb) 🧸

candace x jeremy (Phineas and Ferb)

barbie & ken (Barbie, 2023) 🧸

💌 = favorite

🧸 = play in order

🍄 = needs work

#navigation #i did this instead of sleeping #elly's posts #spotify playlists #dividers by cafekitsune

10 notes · View notes

sapphireblueandfire · 1 year

Text

and the war ends with a king and queen and a wide, still fresh wound dividing their kingdoms and― with them, almost all alone, far away, far away from everything they’ve ever known, married as a symbol of goodfaith between their families then discarded on driftmark, two no longer useful, too scarred by the war, too uncontrollable second sons. and their mutual hate inhabits the old empty spaces of the castle, follows them around like a tired ghost and― avoiding each other seems easier, at the beginning, but gets unbearably lonely, unbearably quiet and cold as days pass and pass and pass, becoming grey and blurred as they turn into months and,

here, surrounded by the wild sea and the tempest, slowly, slowly, they start drifting into the other, like castaways, trying to find something to hold on to after the wreckage and,

lonely dinners in their separate rooms turn into silent nights not really sharing food on opposite sides of the world-map carved on their table, turn into sparse conversation sat before the fireplace when the cold becomes too harsh to be alone in the surrounding dark, turn into― hands accidentally brushing right after goodnights, laughter echoing against the clear warmth of the morning when their conversation finally finds some light, dancing over a bet the both lost to the quiet rhythm of nightfall because why not, if nobody else is there to watch, there to judge― how they fall in love, how it is not accidental anymore, that light brush before goodnight, or the way they eat dinner together, or the way the fill up the wide, empty corridors of the castle with each other’s laugh.

and luke says it, one night, despite how terrible it is, despite how it could make this fragile thing they’ve built go crushing down “i regret it and i don’t. because it was that and not any ring on our finger what marked you as mine” but aemond kisses him, so hard that it hurts and heals and seals, what’s been silently growing in the darkness, blooming quietly out of the rough nature of this land: lovelovelove, like getting feeling back on scar tissue, like the sea molding the sharp edges of the rocks, like spring when it's finally coming, coming to the shore like driftwood, like the way they now sleep on the same bed at night.

#lucemond #lucerys x aemond #aemond x lucerys #lucerys velaryon #aemond targaryen #more variations on the same idea but i needed to get this out

121 notes · View notes

episodeoftv · 8 months

Text

Round 1 of 8, Group 6 of 8

propaganda and summaries are under the cut (May include spoilers)

Downton Abbey: 3.09 A Journey to the Highlands

tw car accident, dead body of matthew visible although nothing gory about it.

The Crawleys go to Duneagle Castle to celebrate Christmas with the MacClares. Everyone is delighted as they fish, hunt, and dine. Unfortunately, when the Crawleys return, tragedy strikes. Will things ever be the same again?

OK so. For the last three seasons, we had the build up, ennemies to lovers, will they won't they, of Mary and Matthew's romance. The romance only started in the first place because Matthew was the heir to Mary's father's fortune for ~reasons~ and the previous heir had died. There are a LOT of scares. Matthew goes missing in action during WW1, Matthew gets engaged to another woman and Mary to another man for some time, Mary's little sister's life was saved by Matthew, the third sister tries to snatch him for herself, etc... AND THEN THEY FINALLY GET MARRIED! And in the episode we're talking about, Mary discovers she's pregnant despite earlier difficulties to get pregnant, and then she gives birth in the hospital and Matthew takes the baby in his arms and kisses Mary and all, and then says "i'll go home get you a change of clothes" or something and takes his car. And. Freaking. Dies. In an accident. There was absolutely no build up for that, actually it was just the actor's decision to leave the series after that season, which is absolutely gut-wrenching because they finally were happy and then he DIES.

Lost: 3.14 Exposé

Nikki and Paulo are two more of the castaways with a past just like any of the others. What have they been doing since the plane crash?

This episode is insane. It focuses on two background characters, and how the main cast is trying to solve a murder mystery (they both died). The plot twist at the very end made me go “WHAT THE HELL”

#downton abbey #lost #lost tv show #lost show #poll #polls #round1 #r1g6

28 notes · View notes

fnafsb-truecolorsau · 2 years

Note

Hey, I Love your Knight animatronics especially daylight. Can we see more of him?

{ ask and ye shall receive anon, I’m glad you like them :D }

11 notes · View notes

shiningqueen · 6 months

Text

silvertongue, hawk eyes part 2 / mihawk x fem!oc

genre: slice of life, relationship growth, slow burn. rating: sfw / e for everyone warnings: none for this part. characters: dracule mihawk + fay (a female oc) summary: a storm brings a castaway to kuraigana and with his interest midly piqued, mihawk allows fay to stay with him temporarily. after sleeping for two days, fay and mihawk have a proper sort-of conversation.

author's note: fay does not speak the common/english tongue of the one piece world very well. she can read and write it adeptly, and understand it spoken just as adequately but she struggles with speaking in complex sentences. that explains why her speech seems a bit off.

When Fay awoke to the dismal gray of pre-dawn, she felt heavy and sluggish, like a weight is pressing upon her chest and made breathing difficult. She couldnt remember where she was or how she got here, disorientated that there wasn't the open sky above and the steady rocking of her boat beneath. The events of the past several days trickled in like water beading through hairline cracks in glass.

A narrow escape from pirates that damaged her boat beyond capable repair, then the maelstrom roaring in to sweep her in its chaotic currents for two whole days. She hadn't slept for at least four. Fay rubbed her eyes as the remainder of her memories flooded in; her vessel capsized and sinking, she'd swam to the shore of an island her Log Pose had latched onto. She'd been too exhausted to properly digest anything at the time but now? Now, she rolled over and wheezed hysterical laughter into her pillow. Of all the places to end up in, she'd come to the doorstep of a Shichibukai! There must be irony in that stroke of fate.

Her emotions are turbulent and nauseating, mirth dissolving into sobs as her experiences sharpened into focus and what she had ultimately lost with her boat sinking carves a hole into her chest.

She did not have many tears to shed in the scheme of things, a headache beginning to throb behind her eyes from being dehydrated and that forces her out of bed. Thick blankets pooling around her waist and the bitter cold of the huge room, in an even larger castle, makes her shiver violently. Her discarded clothing from when she'd stripped down before passing out is at least dry, yet sea stained; not that she had anything else to wear. Fay numbly pulls on her long sleeved shirt and trousers, shaking as she rubs warmth into her arms and tackles the absolute disaster of her hair.

Only when her hair is tamed and braided into order does she paw through the remainder of her belongings; a small journal and pencil, her log pose and a necklace weighed by trinkets are fished out of her belt pouches. Toeing feet into her deck shoes, the early dawn light creeps into the room through a series of windows on the east wall. The chamber is spacious and only had the bed as its sole furnishing, there's a connecting door into an adjacent room she peeks into curiously. It's dark and filled with things, probably more furniture, stashed under dusty and moth-bitten sheets.

Fay leaves it, the need for water scratching at her throat like she'd swallowed thorns. Stepping out into the gray stone hallway has her pausing outside the door - she was in Dracule Mihaw's home. The man lived in a castle, by himself, on a gloomy island with weird shaped hills.

She bites down on the impulse to laugh again. Priorities. Fidgeting with a trinket on her necklace, she retraces the path Hawkeye had shown her last until the stairwell came into view. Her eyes wander over every inch of the fortress, deducing that the clean places were what she ought to look for. She doubted the warlord would bother to dust the whole building when he likely only needed to use a dozen or so rooms for himself.

Ten minutes wandering that results in discovering a library and a sitting room, both of which are filed away in her memory, Fay finds the kitchen and is relieved there is no sign of her infamous host. The ambience is still gray but the hum of electric lights washes the space in a white-yellow halo, her hands wandering over cold marble counters as she explores. There are some modern amenities like a coffee press, kettle, a fridge and stovetop.

In a polished wood cabinet, she finds a clean glass and fills it with tap water rather than be presumptuous and make herself tea or coffee. The island countertop also serves as a place to sit and that is where she settles after drinking two full glasses of water, a third time filled and she sets it down to partake more slowly.

Fay still feels sluggish and drowsy but the worst of her exhaustion has abated, she just ignores the gnawing grief (or is that hunger?) churning somewhere in her guts. There just wasnt time to wallow when she had to figure out how to move forward from here. The mere notion of asking for anything beyond the generous hospitality Hawkeye afforded her is off the table instantly. She loathed the idea of owing anyone anything and she doubted the Warlord would care to have a favor from a nobody like her. The most logical step was to pen a letter to her younger sister, whom had mostly free reign and connections that could prove useful.

At least owing her sibling didnt come with weighty strings attached. Fay thumbs through her journal for empty pages and rips out four, deciding she'd also write to her older sister to keep everyone informed of her situation. Between sips of water, she scrawled messages out and hoped a NewsCoo visited regularly.

-x-

It is some unmarked hour past dawn when Mihawk rises from slumber and lazes through his morning routine, being home meant he could dawdle as he pleased throughout the day. Not that he didnt keep some semblance of structure but there was no reason for haste in any capacity. There is an absent awareness that the presence of his guest is still dormant - wait - she was decidedly not in the upper east hall anymore. Yoru humming in his grasp as he sauntered down to the main floor and into the kitchen, wherein he discovered Fay seated at the island and asleep.

Her head is pillowed on her folded arms and she is slumped onto the countertop, which he takes a moment to just observe her. He cannot see the whole of her face but he notes her tidied hair and the absence of her over-shirt, leaving her dressed in all black. There is too a bulbous Log Pose resting against her arm and the shaking needle reminded him it would be a few days yet until it settles.

Mihawk walks forward to rest Yoru against the island and that is when he realizes his guest is not fully asleep. He is not certain if it was his movement or proximity but her face shifts and a single gray eye opens to settle on him. He keeps his face impassive and holds her stare, seeing the drowsy appraisal in her eye before it slides closed again and she luffs out a muted sigh. It made no sense to him that she could be so relaxed enough to doze. No words are exchanged between them whatsoever as Mihawk decides to not give a fuck right now and make himself coffee. It was too damn early for anything.

By the whimsy of being courteous, he does make a second mug of coffee and sets it down in front of the napping brunette. He considers taking his own elsewhere but ends up seating himself at the opposite end of the island, hands warmed around ceramic and the comforting resonance of his sword nearby.

Fay stirs and he's watching her again as she rouses, a red imprint on her face from where she'd been resting against her arms, which stretch out and up as her posture straightens. Her eyes dart from him to the mug he'd placed before her and in lieu of speaking, she Signs her gratitude before pulling the coffee into her grasp.

"Are you not well rested enough to speak?" Mihawk breaks the disconcerting quiet, recalling how she'd forgone speech earlier due to her exhaustion.

She peers up at him from nursing her coffee, dark brows crinkled in a perplexed manner, "Sleep fine, just words hard in your tongue." The lilt of her accent is more pronounced now and he doesnt recognize it, but the fact she cant speak the common language well enough is just another layer of intrigue unto his guest.

The warlord makes a pondering sound, "Where are you from? You seem to understand me adequately." His tone is kept neutral so as not to betray his idle curiosity.

"Farore," she annunciates carefully and sets her mug down to take up Sign again, 'It is three weeks or so from here, and it gets travelers from all over. I just am not used to your language.'

He vaguely recognizes the name of her island but nothing specific comes to mind, so he doesnt dwell on it too much. Though he intended on inquiring further, the rustle of wings swooping through the halls signals the arrival of a NewsCoo. Mihawk tilts his head to regard the seabird as it swoops down and lands primly before him, dropping a newspaper with all serious aplomb. He wordlessly pays the bird but before it goes to take off, Fay makes a noise.

She croons at it. A soft and melodious sound that makes his ears tingle. The NewsCoo hops around to face her attentively, head bobbing with an answering coo. Mihawk is baffled at whatever he had sensed in that brief vocalization she had made to garner the bird's focus.

Now his gaze is fixed intently on the brunette as she reveals two envelopes and offers them to the courier, and it hops obligingly closer so she could tuck them into its carrier bag. Fay makes a slightly different pitched croon, again tingling at his senses, and the NewsCoo takes off for its next delivery.

"What was that?" Now he dared to let a trickle of his intrigue show.

Her lips twitch and there's something secret in her eyes, she Signs, 'I wrote to family, asking for help. NewsCoo will carry letters if you ask nice.' A pause and she gestures to her Log Pose, 'How long until it settles?'

Ah, so she had picked up on certain vocal cues to persuade NewsCoo and that certainly could prove handy for someone traveling alone on the seas. Furthermore her proactiveness around her situation lend further to the notion she's reasonably competent. Good. He couldnt stand people who wallowed in their problems.

"Another three days, how long do you expect to wait for a reply from your family?"

'A week at most?' Fay's hands twist and fidget in a pensive way, her posture going from relaxed to ridged with anxiety as she Signs, 'Hope is my sister is near to collect me.'

Mihawk drops his gaze thoughtfully and mulls over assumptions of just how long he might be hosting the wayward sailor, he picked up on her reluctance to ask him directly for any further involvement beyond offering her a roof over her head. It didnt really matter to him her reasoning behind the anxiety though, "There are spare boats here, if your plans fall through." That is all he says on the matter, permission she stay to await replies to her letters.

Fay's hands drop, one to her mug and the other to the log pose that is rolled into her palm and vanishes from sight. She says nothing else and neither does Mihawk for that matter. He contents himself with perusing the newspaper, thumbing through new bounty posters without vested interest in who was who or what crimes they were accused of.

-x-

In the ensuing stretch of silence, Fay drinks her coffee and contemplates the chances of making it back to the beach she'd landed on. Would any of her belongings have drifted to shore? Some of them had been equipped to be borne on currents for a few days in the event of disaster. Was there any dangerous wildlife to consider? Was it worth asking her host about?

She eyed the scowling Shichibukai briefly and decided against it. Trying to indulge in more conversation this early in the morning felt like a chore, even with caffeine simmering low in her veins. Fay slipped off her stool and stifled a yawn, taking time to rinse and wash both of her dishes just like she'd do at home.

Well, not much point in idling around in the vaguely uncomfortable company of Dracule Mihawk. She looped the island with the intent to head towards the foyer and venture outdoors, but is stalled when the swordsman speaks up again.

"Where are you going?"

Fay turns back to regard him properly, "Outside, to the beach." Absent hands toying with a trinket on her necklace again, rather than use Sign.

"Why for? It's dangerous to wander here without a weapon." He doesnt sound concerned, just bored. The glint of his sharp gaze settling on her, again though she doesnt flinch from it.

"Eh, was fine before. May be things of mine to find." She stumbled over a few words and grimaced at how awkward the language sounded to her own ears.

Mihawk sort of scoffs at her, she bristles a bit at the snideness of it, "You may get killed for being unwary."

Fay weighs her options on the warning but ultimately shrugs, "Not unwary, I will take care." She turns away and adds, "Can come if you like."

It's as she reaches the threshold of the kitchen that she hears the swordsman sigh, "Wait for me."

She thinks him quite contrarian for that.

#|lumi's tidbits|#|mine|#mihawk x oc #dracule mihawk x oc #one piece fanfiction #fanfiction

13 notes · View notes

bulletbilltime · 10 months

Text

Pikmin 4 verdict: Ok this is gonna be the best game in the series isn't it

Stray thoughts below:

SPOILERS FOR THE PIKMIN 4 DEMO BELOW

The caves are... actually interesting and well designed?? no more half-assed roguelike random cave attempts (sorry pik2 fans but that game's caves just cannot compete IMO)

That being said... I'm a bit disappointed so far that we're only seeing the same styles of caves as Pik2. They do look gorgeous though, mind you.

Industrial Maze was such a cool cave, simply by virtue of actually having a proper puzzle it's already my favourite cave in the series not named Submerged Castle.

Oatchi my beloved!!! he actually works way better with the game flow than I expected when I first saw him in the trailer. He doesn't feel too overpowered; he's basically an upgradable super pikmin but he doesn't ever particularly feel like he truly outshines the actual Pikmin. (Maybe he could if he gets all the upgrades but

YOU CAN FUCKIN MOVE BASES I'M FSBGFJKSHSAJKDLHS I WAS PRAYING TO THE GODS WE'D GET AN OPENWORLD PIKMIN GAME WITH MULTIPLE BASES AND IF THIS IS AS CLOSE AS WE GET I'M FINE WITH IT

The 20 pikmin in the overworld thing might feel super limiting after being used to squads of 100 piks in the previous games... But honestly I think it's a very inspired design choice! It makes it so the early game stuff can still wreck your shit if you're not careful. You can't just easily roll up with a squad of 100 piks on day 3 and destroy everything in your path. It allows for your in-game character to become progressively more powerful which I think is more satisfying in the long run

I love how you don't just automatically get the onion upon finding new Pikmin types. Makes them feel more precious. Basically: the wild pikmin mechanic is really neat! And it could allow for the return of Purple/Whites without feeling too unbalanced.

"Olimar is the fuckin leaf boy" basically confirmed. Question is: what's with Moss? My current theory is parasite pikmin are involved.

And speaking of... the wild pikmin mechanic means we could possibly get overworld bulbmin if they add them... if this happens, I imagine the entire fandom will go nuclear (in a good way)

If you look through the controls, the Form Line controls basically confirms that you will obtain some form of SWARMING as an upgrade!!! C-STICK FANS REJOICE (The text mentions cardinal directions only but I feel like the odds are high that you will be able to actually swarm your crew with this mechanic. I'd say 70-30 odds of it being true. Don't quote me on that. But if true, then fuck yeah)

Honeywisp is back 🥹

Collecting raw material is so much fun, and

I feel like this game is really leaning on fan service, but also manages to balance it with new things to make it feel fresh!

Someone said it felt like all 3 previous games mashed together and yeah I absolutely get that feeling

Very disappointed that they only have the co-op star bits thing. This game in genuine co-op would rule.

So far the music of the game doesn't quite strike me quite as strongly as the themes from the previous games. Hopefully this will change with time.

Is this game like... an alternate timeline to Pikmin 1? Moss was definitely NOT in Pikmin 1, and the story segment seems to hint that Olimar met Moss during that first crash... Giving the "bad ending" theorists more food IMO.......

This game really, really drags out the wait between Y/N landing on the planet and the first Pikmin huh. It felt a bit too much that you went through the first cave before even getting a single pikmin IMO.

I really like the crew in this game!! They're fun, though they do talk a lot and I could see that bothering some ppl.

Honestly I was super disappointed when I thought there were only 6 crewmates to find in the entire game... but then I found the first castaway and I was back to being excited

I like that you have a little base to meet ppl and discuss tasks!

One of the castaways I saved wrote notes on the Treasures I collected. This implies that we will probably get a biologist who will make notes on the creatures 👀

TL;DR: July 21st can't get here fast enough. The 2 hours or so I've played of this game is already my GOTY and it could genuinely challenge for GOAT (game of all time) if it sticks the landing with the rest of the game.

#pikmin 4 #pikmin 4 spoilers #might make more thoughts if I think them #anyway HYPE MODE ENGAGED #I will be normal (lie) for the next 4 weeks (absolutely not I am going feral)

22 notes · View notes

ccohanlon · 7 months

Text

how i live

I woke at midnight, last night, to a hard sou’westerly and the floor moving in three directions at once — pitching, rolling, rising-and-falling. Now, six hours later, the wind has moderated. Everything is still. The rest of the world is obscured by grey mist and sporadic showers, as if the sky has fallen across the shore.

I climb up a short ladder to the companionway to check that all is well on deck — it’s the first thing I do every morning — then I return to my bunk to download email and read a couple of news sites on a laptop before my wife wakes and we have a cup of coffee together across the varnished teak table that separates our bunks.

We talk about what we want to do today and waste a minute or two trying to agree a time-table before giving up. For half a decade, we have scraped by with a minimum of routine or planning. We are singularly unadept at making lists or coordinating diaries. We end up doing most things together. Today, we will pick up some paint and shackles at a chandlery and find a local metal fabricator to repair or replicate a damaged stainless steel stanchion. We also have to buy some groceries. But first I want to repair our rubber dinghy.

My wife and I live on a 32-foot sailboat. It is a life-raft of sorts. It is also an island on which we are trying to regain an unsettled but sheltered freedom after several years of being homeless. Most days, we feel like castaways, with no hope of ever being rescued.

It’s hard to explain how we ended up here. Moving aboard was not a ‘lifestyle choice’ but an act of quiet desperation. We had dropped out of a life in which I had somehow ended up running two well-known, medium-sized companies, one of them publicly listed — before those roles, I had been a musician, gambler, seaman, smuggler, photographer, magazine editor, and governmental adviser — and we had taken to wandering slowly across Europe, the UK, and North Africa. After a year holed up on the southern coast of Spain, a few miles east of Gibraltar, riding out the worst of the pandemic, we moved to southern Italy, where we acquired, and set about restoring, a small ruin, part of servants’ quarters attached to a 16th century Spanish castle, in a village not far from Lecce, in Puglia. We had just completed the work, two years later, when the local Questura, the office of the Carabinieri that oversees Italian immigration, rejected our third application for temporary residence and issued a formal instruction to us to leave Italy — and Europe’s Schengen zone.

The boat was not something we thought through in any detail. I had spent a lot of time at sea in my youth and had lived on sailing boats of various sizes on the Channel coasts of England and France, as well as in the Mediterranean. Which is to say, I had an understanding of their discomforts. But the prospect of resuming a life that, before we ended up in southern Italy, involved moving every three months — not just from one temporary accommodation to another but from one country to another, so as not to contravene the terms of our largely visa-less travel — had exhausted us. I made an offer on a cheap, neglected, 45-year-old, fibreglass sloop I had come across online and organised a marine surveyor to look it over for me. He gave it a cautious thumbs up.

I won’t forget my wife’s dolorous expression, a month later, when she saw the boat for the first time. It was in an industrial area of Southampton, on a dreich morning in early spring — bitterly cold, windy, and raining. Around us, the Itchen River’s ebb had revealed swathes of black, foul-smelling mud. Raised far from the sea, on the plains of north-eastern Oklahoma, my wife told me later she had been praying that our journey to this glum backwater was part of some elaborate practical joke.

There is a whole genre of YouTube videos created by those who live on sailboats full-time and voyage all over the world. The most popular, the so-called ‘influencers’, are young(ish) couples or families with capacious, often European-built, plastic catamarans or monohulls. Their videos focus less on the gritty, day-to-day grind of boat maintenance and passage-making and more on sojourns in ancient, stone-built harbours in the Mediterranean, white, sandy beaches and palm-fringed cays in the Caribbean, or improbably blue lagoons and solitary atolls in the South Pacific, where they barbecue fresh fish, paddle-board, kite-surf and practice yoga and aerial silks for the envy of hundreds of thousands of followers. My wife’s and my life aboard together is nothing like any of this.

We are both in our sixties — I am just a year away from seventy — and we have spent more than a decade on the move around the world, at first following eclectic opportunities for employment then, when those opportunities receded, in search of somewhere we might be able to settle with very little money. Four months after moving aboard our boat, we still think of ourselves as vagabond travellers, our boat a shambolic, floating vardo that we haven’t yet managed to turn into a home. We’re not really ‘cruisers’, despite the sense of community we sometimes find among them, but we are seafarers — historically, a marginal existence driven by necessity. A recent, 150-nautical-mile passage westward along the south coast of England was a shakedown during which we learned how to make our aged, shabby vessel more comfortable and easier to handle and to trust her capacity to keep us safe at sea.

She bore the name Endymion when we bought her — after my least favourite poem by John Keats (“A thing of beauty is a joy forever…”) — but we re-named her Wrack. Depending on the source, ‘wrack’ describes seaweeds or seagrasses that wash up along a shore or the scattered traces of a shipwreck, either of which might be metaphors for my wife and me in old age. It is certainly how we feel when we’re not at sea. Life aboard Wrack is spartan — fresh water stored in a dozen polyethylene jerry cans, no hot or cold running water, no refrigeration and when the temperature drops, no heating either — so, from time to time, we concede the cost of berthing in marinas to gain access to on-site laundries, showers, flushing toilets, and wi-fi. Whether we’re berthed or anchored somewhere, we shop for food once a week — mainly vegetables, fruit, bread, pasta, and rice but little dairy and no meat — and eat one meal a day, cooked in the mid-afternoon on a two-burner gas stove.

The days we spend in close proximity to others’ lives ashore remind us how disenfranchised ours have become. We were homeless before we acquired Wrack, but now we are without a legal residence anywhere, even in our ‘home’ countries. We enter and exit borders uneasily as ‘visitors’, our stays limited to 90 or 180 days, depending on where we are. We have no access to banking, insurance, social services or, with a few exceptions, emergency health care. Even the modest Australian pensions we have a right to can only be received if we have been granted residence in countries with which Australia has reciprocal arrangements — and we haven’t. It’s hard even for other live-aboards to understand how deeply we are enmired in this peculiar bureaucratic statelessness. It’s harder for us to deal with it every day.

But life afloat provides consolations. We are ceaselessly attuned to the weather and our boat’s responses to subtle shifts in the sea state, tide and wind even when we are tethered to a dock. We appreciate the shelter — and surprising cosiness — the limited space below decks affords us but the impulse to surrender to the elements and let them propel us elsewhere is insistent. Our best days are offshore, even when the conditions are testing; the world shrinks to just the two of us, our boat and the implacable, mutable sea around us. Whatever problems we face ashore become, at least for the duration of a passage, abstract and insignificant. We sail without a specific destination — ‘towards’ rather than ‘to’, as traditional navigators would have it — and without purpose. Time drifts.

At least half of every day is spent maintaining, repairing, or re-organising the boat, an unavoidable and time-consuming part of our days, especially at sea. When we’re at anchor or berthed in a marina, we do what we can to sustain ourselves. Most afternoons are spent prospecting for drips of income from journalism and crowd-funding — a source inspired by those younger YouTube adventurers — or adding a few hundred words to a manuscript for a non-fiction book commissioned by a Dutch publisher, whose patience has been stretched to breaking point. Because of our visitor visa status, we can’t seek gainful employment ashore, and we have long since lost contact with any of the networks that once provided us with a higher-than-average income as freelancers. Our existence, by any definition, is impoverished and perilously marginal, we have little social life, yet we make the effort to appreciate our circumstances, even if it’s just to sit together in silence and absorb the elemental white noise of wind and sea, to do nothing, to not think.

Our precariousness burdens our four adult children, who have scattered to San Diego, Sydney, Berlin and Rome: “Where are you now?” our youngest asks. “How long will you be there?” We speak to each at least once a week. Not all of them long for fixedness but they do want desperately for us to have a ‘real home’, somewhere we can assemble occasionally as a family. We will be grandparents for the first time, soon. Like our few friends, our children worry that we might become lost — in every sense.

My wife and I are uncomfortably aware of our financial and physical vulnerability but at our ages, we can no longer cling to the faint hope that there’s an end to it. We have committed to an unlikely, reckless voyage. All we can do is maintain a rough dead reckoning of its course and embrace the uncharted and the relentless unexpected.

First published in The Idler, UK, 2023.

#life #living #poverty #sea #seafaring #memoir #theidler #uk #vagabondlife #liveaboard

13 notes · View notes