I dunno why but I feel like Gepard can handle liquor. Like Sampo has the gift of bein smart knowin his limits and what to drink and when, so he gives off the vibe of being able to handle a lot but he's not that heavyweight. He's jus big brain conman XD. Get enough in him n he'll go down like the rest.

But Geppie. Man's sippin vodka from the bottle and not even slurrin his words. When he was a trainee the older guards decided to prank him with a glass of absinthe n called it a weak alcohol only for him to get halfway and not even bat an eye, only stopped cuz it tasted like ass. Dude takes the path of preservation seriously. Even his liver is beyond destruction XD.

Which is why I find two situations very freakin funny, which I'd love your opinion on:

1) Sampo starts up a drinking competition with him. It's on one of his guardian mandated holidays, so Gepard doesn't have to be responsible, and Dove 3 in 1 won't leave him alone anyway, so he agrees. Partway thru Sampo realises he's losin but Gep insists on gettin the drinks so he can't even cheat his way to victory. Cue Gep having to drag a very drunk, incredibly flirty Sampo back to Natasha but he keeps running off. Even being drunk doesn't stop him from havin smoke bombs up the wazoo.

2) Sampo manages to cheat, scheme, girlboss his way to victory. He comes out on top but now has the problem of an incredibly drunk, dangerously curious Silvermane Captain who won't stop flooding him with the oddest of questions. "Why are your eyes so green? Is your hair natural? What happened to the rest of your shirt? Do you really enjoy crime or is it jus something you fell into?" Whi- okay that one was oddly specific and he doesn't have the capacity, as tispy as he is, to answer.

He really needs to get him back home, before he asks the wrong person the wrong question, but isn't cognitive enough to face being questioned by Bronya and would sooner die than face Serval. So he opts into takin him to one of his more obvious hideouts which poses 10 million problems in and of itself when he keeps freakin touching everything!

ANON YOURE RIGHT YOURE A FUCKING. GENIUS. I been thinkin bout this A LOT ACTUALLY prob cuz for some reason fandom seems to lean towards gepard bein a horrific lightweight (i mean i know Why the lightweight trope is very much seen as 'cute' and childlike n whatever but i digress). But tbhtbhtbh i agree w u 100% like.

Gepard is a Tank of a Man. Homie can handle anything. Mfer the living embodiment of preservation like dude could be like 'serval this drink sucks' and hes gulping down perfume, unaffected. Dudes prob ate weird shit out on the front lines n questionable rations. The stuff in his fridge is expired n hes jus shrugging and eating it anyways.

I think w sampo its like. He SEEMS like he can handle his liquor. And hes not bad w it. But hes an Actor. Mfer could be plastered and you wouldnt know. Dude could convince a breathalyzer that hes only a Little Tipsy. But theres a threshold for him where he jus Caves at some points. Like u said tho man is Always competent w bombs. Like drunken boxing but w daggers dude could be blown over by a gentle breeze but still kicks ass.

I imagine that gepard doesnt Usually drink in that he jus. Doesnt care much. But absolutely his drink of choice is the hard shit. He jus has whiskey w ice or vodka w tonic water like a freak. Maybe a white russian if hes feelin zesty. When his guards convince him to go to the bar n challenge him to take shots he shrugs n jus packs them back no big deal.

But oh my god like. The 2nd scenario. I imagine it in order like first sampo realizing gepard has an Inhuman tolerance n making it his missiom to get the good ol captain fucked up. N it takes a while but like. Gepard jus gets more... blunt. But in a strange soft questioning way where he asks the things he wonders bout but never says aloud. The kinda soul reads like 'sampo youre a criminal not because you need to be but because you enjoy the thrill and attention right?' N sampo is just like holy fuck. But its like his inhibitions are gone and hes so Curious about everything and everything. He hangs onto sampos every word n it drives sampo crazy

please tell us about deep sea expedition

yes.... finally......... i can SHILL..........

basically, deep sea expedition or WHATEVER it would be called would be the salmon run dlc. wave THREE of splatoon THREE's dlc waves. you feel me?

so i've done just two posts before about this idea, but it would star agent 4 as our player character. reasons why?

agent four and agent 8 both having dlcs in splat3 would be a great way to pay homage to splatoon 2, since both were the protagonists of that game

grizzco and salmon run were introduced to the series with splatoon 2, might as well have the protgaonist of that game be the one to end the salmon run story line since return of the mammalians focuses more on mr. grizz himself instead of the salmonids

the basic idea for gameplay i have for this DLC would be a mix of a more open world approach (think security breach: RUIN) alongside a the PVE horde gameplay from salmon run. agent 4 would have to fight through hordes of salmonids and other deep sea creatures to descend deeper to reach a sort of salmonid capital. think maybe like... sparta? since the salmonids are inspired by that. maybe a giant ass collesuem (i know thats in rome i do not care).

point is, you start near the surface and have to descend to defeat the bosses (ha get it. cus side order has an elevator where you go up? im clever i think sometimes)

actually this sounds a bit like doom. oh well

i'd like to think there's some sort of phenomena of like... underwater air pockets. like underwater caves? where a bunch of civilizations are maybe? would be pretty neat to see all the stuff where salmonids go when they arent doing the salmon run part, among other species that could live in these areas considered the deep sea metro

(the naming coincidences are not lost on me but i have no idea what else to call this hypothetical salmon run DLC)

story? agent 4 has been stranded in hostile, salmonid territory with no backup, a faulty pair of grizzco (tm) dualies, and her wits. 4 meets a goldie salmonid, named chrysos, who takes 4 under their fin (ha) to help them find a way home. 4 and chrysos must explore deeper into the heart of the sea to find enough super golden eggs (name and idea pending) to have enough power to send 4 home.

thats the working synopsis anyway, excluding major spoilers and all

apart of the open world sections of the DLC would have the player controlling 4 and chrysos in a kind of open world diving situation. four is equipped with a prototype pressurized underwater scuba gear that makes it safe for ink-based people to go underwater! its grizzco brand and needs many upgrades (that could be acquired thru out the story).

im thinking for these sections you'd be timed to find an air pocket or new treasure of sorts? and if you run out of time idk 4 runs out of air or something and gets splatted. dw they have a life preserver which chrysos would reactivate to save four, basically restarting the level from the beginning.

chrysos would be a very straightforward character with a dry sense of humor and a natural curiosity for all things from the surface. they're helping 4 out of the goodness of their heart and to satiate that curiosity of what inklings are like, among other reasons.

they pluck one of their scales at the beginning of the story to help power up the faulty grizzco dualies, which would also be a tutorial on how to like.... level up? get upgrades? not sure

this was long! if you have any more questions feel free to ask. i love the salmonids and i love agent 4. mwah

ok i caved and made a pinterest board (which i can add u as a co-creator on if u want? and if i can figure out how to do that?) but i definitely agree on mike wearing darker colours/more punk stuff. in the board i have better refs w more of that vibe. i would luv ur thoughts on hairstyles tho, as i feel like he would keep his current hairstyle, but a bit longer. more reminiscent of eddie but still his own style, yknow? also accessorizing . he definitely seems to luv Things so i feel like he would Own quite a bit of jewelry (mostly necklaces and bracelets?) but probably wouldnt Wear a majority of them lol (no this isnt me projecting idk what u mean)

as for the will fits, i get what u mean abt more form fitting stuff and will definitely b taking that into account (in my head the shirts r for sure tighter but wow is it hard to find good refs like that) the only thing im not 100% on is his hair? i mean i definitely think he would do the middle/sorta side part swoopy 90s boyband bangs but.. hm. idk. maybe i am 100% on his hair lol. and for accessories i think he would like fun matching belts for different outfits (see: the colour-coded belts in s4) and maybe some bracelets and that would b his way of adding More to his fits w/o being super out-there? yknow?? like he definitely doesnt seem like the person to wear smth attention-grabbing like super bright stuff (like u said) but he would like to dabble/play w that kinda style thru smaller more subtle accessories? if that makes sense at all.

im glad it wasnt super weird ! this is fun to discuss imo :)

ok so i have Zero Opinions on hair, though it’s become commonplace that will gets his little swoop and mike grows his hair out more. you could get fun with it and give them a little color!!

ACCESSORIES. i completely forgot those were a thing BUT for mike:

- necklaces but they’re dangly and usually the charm piece is metal because he likes to bite/chew on it and metal tastes good, but the charm itself could be anything

- bracelets i imagine Suck for him because of his bony wrists and the way things are constantly sliding (my sister has a similar body type to him and bracelets never sit for her so thats what im going off of) except for those soft friendship bracelets you can tighten because 1) comfy material 2) adjustable

- i can see mike getting his ears pierced and THAT is where the stupidness goes in his accessories. he and will and el go out to shops and buy the ones they find funny or cute so he has like. this range

but he can cover it with his hair 90% of the time, only tucking his hair back to show them to people to make them laugh or show off a little

and then for will, accessory wise, i imagine him enjoying those little leather cluster bracelets

like this kinda stuff + friendship bracelets (naturally)

- i don’t think he’d wear necklaces with the Sole Exception being a chain with the ring of power on it (not a fan of anything being near his throat usually but being a nerd overpowers trauma trust me)

-

jonathan gave him a photo of the demogorgon when he got home after s1 and hopper gave him a copy of his possessed brain scan. i think he’d get a kick out of wearing stuff like this around the house for fun . not even to be scary he just thinks it’s Funny

[me staring at sea treaders] wow so cool ::-) [sees a warper's beam attack thing whiz by my head] YOU

no yea it was SO good and the funny thing 2 me is that it was published in 2015 but it works soo insanely well with the whole 'hamster wheel' idea at the end of spn like...i wish i could travel back in time and make meredith glynn read it bc like. its abt the desperation and the vicious cycle and its so..horrifying idk. anyway this is me just talking about how good it is like. tbh i just read it head completely empty & im totally willing to accept the fact (uh spoilers ig) that all of it was a dream post-the first time they went into a cave bc. maybe it was. but still rlly interesting 2 examine the threads u could trace thru it... godddd it's just so good and last thought but it's so extremely delicious that you only get cas' spiral into unreality thru deans pov bc it's that much more disturbing when you find out how bad it is. and last last thought but like. u cant really get jump-scared by written media (at least i never rlly have) but the scene where dean and cas are kissing and then dean suddenly bashes his head with a rock legitimately did give me a jump scare like. i can still tap into that adrenaline i got ohh my gosh ok i should save this for komodobits' comment section but thank u for letting me rant in ur inbox<3 literallythe sea it swallows me

I ALWAYS FORGET ABOUT THE CAVE THEORY. oh god the fucking cave. The two things that stuck out to me theory wise was counting “and then he woke up”s to see if they ended on an even (awake) or odd (dream). The other thing. Is that near the end cas snaps and tells sam to ask Dean about his dreams but I’m 99% certain that Dean only told cas about his dreams IN a dream. So WHAT does it all mean. Also the fact that cas and dean are experiencely such sharply different Symptoms. Cas is getting told to come into the sea but dean is seeing Weird Shit and having dreams that mess with his ability to parse reality. My completely unfounded theory is that deans hallucinations are correct and those are real and happening and they stop he gets pulled back into his unconscious world. Like the overflowing cups at the landlord’s house that she didn’t notice. Hypothetically it COULD be argued that the entire town is under the thrall and the congregation n landlord stuff is real. I googled so much stuff about halia and found NOTHING but my bonkers wouldn’t it be fucked up if theory is halia feeds off cycles of emotional highs (yay cas is my boyfriend we have a home) and lows (oh god im going to be murdered by a dozen old people at a church) and both are just nightmares and dreams playing back to back. I had a variant in this bjt it’s 6am and I can’t remember.

AND YEAH THE HORROR THE HORROR. the scenes where dean like tests out his surroundings and comes to the conclusion it’s real and then he’s sitting up on his shitty couch. Really good. Made me feel so jarred. Like I was the one who was having known things ripped away from my knowledge as true. ESPECIALLY. the one where he talks to sam. Zoo wee. Actually now that I think about it tracing sam thru the story would be an interesting stone to turn. Fuck. See I need to have ack physically so I can put stickies in it and flip between them.

Anyway. WOW! A COMPLETE KINGDOM!

Lmfao I’ve been too deep into drawing life studies that I sort of embodied AUs or even post Eva stuff. I’m kind of either wanting to write fanfic or draw a mini comic. But here goes this synopsis:

Proposal #1. Shinji is nervous, today he has to go to work alone as Mari takes a sick day off. Shinji is nervous because he’s still not used to his new work environment, the thought of it makes him a bit nauesous. Though, to calm his nerves, Shinji starts to plug in his air pods and listens to classical music.

It was sparsely crowded, but Shinji had his own seat on the car. He clutched onto his backpack and whilst thinking about the music, and eventually drifted into a state of unawareness. Closing his eyes as he knows the ride home will take half hour, he’d hoped to get shut eye and wake up in time. Though as soon as the first song ended, he didn’t realise the presence of another person next to him.

“Was that ode to joy?” The person who sat next to him said.

Shinji’s alertness was displayed in a jolt, a little disorientated from being half asleep he turned to his left. His eyes widened without saying anything.

A tall white hair man dressed in...Shinji knows him, though Kaworu doesn’t realise it. Without another second to think, Shinji asked, “would you like to listen together?”

Kaworu was boldly surprised, and his shyness was displayed, something Shinji knows he’s never seen before.

“I little surprised by your question, but I just wanted to tell you about your tapping.” Kaworu said with his hand on his face and looking at the floor.

Shinji traced the direction of his eyes and saw his foot slightly lifted, which meant he tapped unconsciously. Embarrassed for himself now, Shinji apologised and offered to find another seat. Flustered he was thinking of moving until Kaworu pulled him arm sharply to make Shinji forcibly sit.

“I think you’re misunderstanding something.”

“Is that so—?” Shinji replies, looking away (still embarrassed of what just happened).

“Yes, that song is my favourite, you often don’t find people who know classical music” and he points to Shinji’s foot, he continues “do you play the piano?”

Shinji’s face turned to from dumbfounded to a small smile.

“No but I play the cello actually, though I do know someone who played the piano and they introduced me to some pieces”.

Kaworu smiles back and he takes out his phone and asks for Shinji’s number . A bit flustered Shinji exchanges information with him. Within moments, he texts “hello 👋 “ and Shinji looking at the screen in disbelief; he takes a slight look at Kaowru who scrolls thru his phone and then a bzzt notification notifies Shinji of a new message, it’s a playlist.

I guess I never introduced myself, but my name is Nagisa Kaworu, he smiles gently. And Shinji stares in disbelief and returns with another smile, my name is Imari Shinji, but you can just call me Shinji

The bus stops and calls out the destination and Kaworu says oh this is my stop, I have a younger sister and she’s actually starting to get lessons on the violin.

“I’ll see you later Shinji-kun let’s meet again.” Kaworu says with an ease-ful smile before heading out.

Shinji smiles and replies with, “Mmh (yes)” with a small nod.

Proposal #2. AU Where Kaworu is a student from the countryside and lives with adopted relatives a.k.a Ryoji and Misato; his “brother” is Misato’s son younger Ryoji. He goes to Tokyo to study agricultural engineering but he really wants to be a music producer. He enjoys the piano a lot and tries to find the music room and stumbles across Shinji who is playing the cello.

He’s a math major and wants to be a home room teacher. He’s childhood friends Asuka who has a one sided crush on him but he doesn’t feel the same way. Asuka later actually goes out with Kensuke. Rei and Kaworu are classmates but find themselves to share similar interests which leads them to be friends.

Rei is later introduced to Shinji as a initial love interest by her going to a university “mixer” party (more like all the students in their year/grade go to party). Rei and Kaworu actually go together, though Kaworu is very stubborn until caves in. With his looks, he attracts a lot of attention from everyone. Though he enjoys the interaction, but he sees Shinji and remembers the piano incident.

Shinji did have a crush on Rei, though he later realised he likes her for the wrong reasons/for mistaken reasons and both stay good friends. Sometime later Rei discovers she and Kaworu are siblings but separated at birth. Kaworu also realizing he likes Shinji a lot and the more time they spend together Shinji also reciprocates.

In this AU Kaworu wants to be a music producer lol tho he still likes environmental engineering; Rei wants to save earth so she’s a environment science or a human resource/social services major cause she likes kids and people, Asuka is an civil engineer/or computer science i guess and that’s how she meets Kensuke🤷🏻‍♀️. Toji is premed/prenursing/pre-PA he’s unsure and Shinji is a math major though considering engineering just like his father. However he still wants to be a home room teacher. Mari I think I’d put her in chemical engineering 😴 cause ig she’s the “Mary sue” of the series.

✶ 𝐇𝐗𝐇 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐒: 𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 & 𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒, 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇 & 𝐃𝐀𝐌𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍   Long story short, I have been thinking about this for wayyyyy too long now and wanted to get some ~thoughts~ & analysis written down! This post is going to be...fairly long, lol. Apologies in advance :D

  Also, if you can’t see the last gif (the one for ‘holy’), click here. Tumblr keeps fucking up the image when i try to upload it :////

  This post is probably going to be about 2/3 yorknew & phantom troupe/kurapika focused, 1/3 chimera ants, maybe with some references to other arcs (including manga-only arcs) mixed in. so, ofc, tons of spoilers ahead! also, i realize that my blog theme is hard to read (and i’m p sure clicking ‘keep reading’ sends you to the og post itself), so i’m linking the post w/ full text copy/pasted in on my art backup side blog (which has a more legible font) here. 

✶ 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇   I’m sure absolutely nobody is surprised with me starting here - there is just. SO. MUCH. DEATH. in hxh. & right from the start, one thing I noticed that togashi really emphasized was the #4 and its connection to death. in japanese, chinese, and im p sure some other asian cultures the number 4 is pronounced like the word for death so it’s associated with death in general, and boy oh boy does the ‘deadly number 4′ thing show up E V E R Y W H E R E. we get to the hunter exam, and hisoka is applicant #44. kurapika is #404. i didn’t notice it at first, but this was so intentional holy shit. togashi is NOT SUBTLE.

  So pika & hisoka are, right off the bat, associated with death. okay. and then there are even more clues to drive the point home: hisoka is member #4 in the phantom troupe, kurapika’s birthday is april 4th (aka 4/4). 100% not a coincidence (!!). with hisoka, it’s pretty obvious why togashi’s throwing all this death 444444 stuff around - dude is a psycho murder pedo clown, literally gets off on killing people (and there’s also the fact that judas sits 4th from the left in the last supper painting, and he’s sort of the judas equivalent for the phantom troupe). with kurapika, though, it’s a bit more subtle and woven deeper into his characterization, which i LOVE. togashi puts the mans in blue & gold & white (traditionally ‘pure’ or ‘heavenly’ colors), makes him so fucking kind & so good-hearted.....when he’s not relentlessly pursuing his revenge, ofc. more on this in the next section, but pika = death. togashi has made that v v v clear.

  Backtracking a bit to hisoka, though, I also just wanted to point out the 4 is death symbolism in the fortunes too (GOD i love the fortunes): in one translation, he’s the false fourth moon, and in the og japanese (i think), he’s the false hare (4th in the lunar zodiac or w/e it’s called. i don’t know the japanese cultural influences here, but in the chinese legend that established the zodiac animals, they race across the heavenly river & the top 12 animals got zodiac slots. the hare finished 4th, so it’s #4 in the cycle). 

  And just as a final note, Tserriednich is the fourth prince of the kakin empire, and also another dude who has a hard-on for murder & other gory shit. again: togashi is not subtle with this, lmfao

✶ 𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐘, 𝐔𝐍𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐘   As probably everyone who’s gotten to yorknew knows, togashi is so 0 fucks given when he wants to be. I mean there’s the whole thing where he just. took New York and decided, Yorknew. LMFAO, but also, he made the main antag of that arc be named chrollo lucilfer, sit around in a ruined church, have a reversed cross coat, pale & dark-haired/dark-eyed, generally dressed in dark colors, very terrible murder guy. liiiike......chrollo x devil symbolism game is 1000/10 at this point lmaooo

  And i know absolutely nothing about christianity in general, but pt/kurapika & yorknew arc is just so full of christian imagery/symbolism! one thing that i L O O O O O O V E though is how togashi really blurs the traditional christian-coded good/evil, holy/damned boundaries.

  Back to kurapika: he wears gold and blue, his coloring is very stereotypically ‘angelic’, he’s precious and good and kind. his chains are all about ~judgment~ and ~healing~ - some of the chains are also in literal cross shapes, aren’t they? And the chain dagger in his own heart...the imagery is very startlingly similar to the immaculate heart of mary, where the swords stabbing thru the heart apparently represent seven sorrows. IDK much about this stuff other than the visual similarities; literally had to google ‘daggers through heart christianity?’ to even get the name of that thing LOL. anyway, at first, it seems like togashi establishes him as the ‘angel’, the ‘good’, the ‘holy’ in the angel/devil, good/evil, holy/damned dichotomy between him and chrollo.

  But that’s not the end of the story. his entire storyline is driven by a huuuuuuuge giant desire for vengeance, first of all, and then there’s the scarlet eyes, which canonically are seen as demonic/cursed/what have you (according to one of the movies or smth? where they show pika as a 10 y/o?), and then we also have red eyes in modern culture being associated w pretty much the same thing (vampires, anyone?). the fight scene with uvo has everything in b&w besides the blood on his face & his red eyes & the moon (<<< more fortune foreshadowing & symbolism, i love to see it), and there are tonssss of scenes where he has to suppress his rage. so all of that is obviously not very angelic of him i would say LOL. in fact, what i find super interesting is that the scarlet/red eyes (which are ‘demonic’) is actually the driving factor behind his super powerful nen abilities; this ties in so well with the fortunes & death associations imo! the fortunes call him the ‘death-bringer’ in one translation, or ‘half-angel, half-death’, so that’s one side of pika = red eyes = death, but there’s also the fact that emperor time is literally draining his life force. so pika = death for both himself and others namely the pt, question mark?

  Now for chrollo: togashi’s devil symbolism is EXTREMELY overt with him, but i love the subtler jesus references too. the church thing, obviously, and the st. peters cross which is cuz st peter respected jesus too much & didn’t think he was worthy to die in the same way as him (or something like that, i am the most atheist person in the world & hxh is literally my entire christian education pls) but is also used as an anti-christianity symbol these days. bandit’s secret looks like a bible, lbr, and mans has a cross tattoo.

  Other things beyond visuals - 12 spiders, 12 apostles; hisoka’s betrayal, where member #4 can be thought to correspond to judas sitting 4th from left at last supper. and this miiiiight be a bit of a stretch, but i think the meteor city being the place of origin may also play into the blurred line between angel/devil and holy/damned here; meteors are defined as space rocks that are in earth’s atmosphere, becoming incandescent in the process. meteorites are for the kinds that actually reach the ground. and idk, lucifer was cast out of heaven / sky too right? so i think there might be some subtle fallen angel imagery/symbolism playing into the pt as well

✶ 𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 (𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒)   Last section yay! i don’t have as much to say about this, besides when i was making chimera ant arc edits & realized that there might have been some subtle gon/meruem parallels???

  So obviously, everyone knows that line killua says to gon - “you are light” - and then i was just remembering that meruem’s name means.... “light that illuminates all” (!!!!). maybe it’s a coincidence, but knowing togashi, i’m leaning towards nahhhh. there HAS TO be some kinda meaning there (!!).

  Going back to the events of the chimera ant arc....ooh boy. let’s see: gon is optimistic & hopeful even in the face of kite potentially being dead, killua says he’s light, they find kite & dude is fucked up, gon is pissed. gets all angry & ~dark~, especially during the palace invasion when he’s staring pitou down as she fixes up komugi. then the actual fight against pitou: more darkness, more anger, but through it all there’s still light, namely his jajanken being very orange & fiery lookin.....and that final sequence, where he puts all his possible nen he’d ever have into his ~final form~ or wahtever & turns into a male version of true form!bisky but dressed in a crop top & short-shorts (i am SCARRED, btw. s c a r r e d !). there’s just huuuge flashes of light as that’s going on, and it reminded me of supernovas or dying stars when i was thinking about it, where the star is like, collapsing under its own weight? & burning thru its own fuel, until there’s nothing left except a dwarf or black hole or what have you. one final, extremely deadly burst of light & energy before death.

  On the meruem side of things: born into a dark cave, exhibits a traditionally evil/cruel/wicked/whatever personality/traits so that has ppl associating him with darkness. then he gets to know komugi, starts to appreciate other aspects of humanity, seems like he could have actually turned into a decent person who doesn’t want to eat everyone - so that’s a ‘path to light’, maybe? - and then the extermination team yeets themselves into the palace, netero takes him out to bumfuck nowhere, they fight. netero’s fighting is just ALL light, from his giant ass golden 100-type guanyin bodhisattva to the poor man’s rose. again, there’s the sense of finality to it all, in a similar vein to dying stars: netero comes in determined to kill meruem no matter what, and we all know netero doesn’t flake. then we see netero get destroyed after the zero hand, and he triggers the rose, and everything is burning & on fire before the flames are put out and all turns dark again.

  But wait!!! pouf & youpi revive meruem and all he does is play gungi with komugi, even with the poison of the rose. he eventually dies, and the gungi pieces in that final shot of them together (i am BAWLING just thinking about it holy shit) has one that’s all white, one that’s a black ring and white inside. i assume all white is for komugi, who has never done ANYTHING wrong in her LIFE, so i like to think that the 2nd one is for meruem - born “into darkness”, literally & figuratively, but he turns something like ‘good’ by the end. it’s interesting how togashi has sort of gone for a bit of a subversion here: the hero going from light to darkness, and the main antag from darkness to light.

✶ 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍   AahhhhHHHHHhhh so if you read all the way down here through my LONG rambles, tysm! i would LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear what other people think about all this, and i’ve FOR SURE missed tons and tons of stuff - chimera ants is just. SO MUCH. and i don’t know it as well as yorknew eeek.

  I’m not sure if i’m really ~knowledgeable~ in any other areas relating to hxh, so this might be the only one of these that i do, but i definitely think about some of this - esp all the religious symbolism & #4 stuff - a ton! so in the meantime, if it’s of any interest, i’m just going to shamelessly plug my hxh x religious beliefs/superstitions edit series :D lots of love to all!!!

My Backstory (IRL)

Before I begin, if you want nothing to do with hearing about abusive relationships, possible eating disorder, anxiety disorders/depression/suicide, sexual assualt, manipulation, gaslighting, sexual harassment, etc, SKIP THIS POST.

So, I would like to start off by saying the NSFW content I *try* to write always falls stale, 1. being because I get embarrassed or ashamed by my writing my own thoughts, and 2. because of the rest of this post.  So the Albedo NSFW may not happen, but I asked just in case (i have some of it written out, but it is very stale).  And also because I may or may not have accidentally triggered a trauma response as I was writing the Albedo post (oops...)

To begin, freshman year of high school, 14 yrs old, (I’m 20 and in college now), I started dating this guy that was in my grade.  I have an anxiety disorder, so when we started going out, I immediately stopped eating because I constantly felt sick to my stomach.  It wasn’t because I thought I was fat or anything, I just felt sick.  Think butterflies in your stomach times 10 and ALL the time.  We dated for a month before he broke up with me.  During that time, he had suddenly brought up the idea of me sending nude or bra/undie pics to him.  Him and his friend (who was in the call with us) tag-teamed and said that it was normal and asked when I would be ready to send pictures.  Both of them asked that.  Red flag number one.  I said 3 months just to please them, not that I was actually going to do it.

Once he broke up with me, I was DEVASTATED. I feel A LOT, and it was my first ‘relationship.’ Exactly a month later, he texted me, saying he wanted to be friends.  I said okay.  He never acknowledged my presence at school, often avoiding my eyes.  Sometime into that he had asked me what I would do if he had asked me out again, and when I said I’d say yes, he immediately texted back and said “i am so sorry, my friend [insert name] was texting you on my phone and I didn’t know until now.”  Red flag number two.

Then, after we had stopped being friends, a month passes.  He texts me again, this time saying “It’s been 3 months.”  Yeah.  Did you read the part where I said I’d consider sending pictures at 3 months? That only applied if we were dating for that long (and I still wouldnt do that), so where is his logic?  Now, I don’t know why I even got back together with him, but I did.  For a week.  And just like the first time, I felt sick to my stomach.  I always look back on this as a warning from God.  And this time, he wasn’t hiding his intentions.  He was CONSTANTLY making sexual jokes, sending inappropriate emoji ‘jokes,’ and asking for nudes.  He did not stop asking even when I told him to, and even when I told him it made my stomachache worsen.  I did not trust him, but I stayed for a full week of hell.  Eventually I slightly caved, showing him on facetime me in my bra and underwear (My thinking: he couldn’t save pictures that way).  He covered his camera.  Did he take screenshots or something? I don’t know.  It was awful.  I kicked him to the curb the next day, still feeling like *I* should be the one apologizing.  He eventually “tried” to apologize thru text, but was too much of a coward to apologize in person when i requested that.  He says he had cancer or something, I honestly don’t care. His actions were inexcusable and it was pathetic that he used it as an excuse.

I hated him so strongly for the next 3-4 years, but the story doesn’t end there.  A new guy, senior, 17 yrs old.  End of my freshman year.  We get together.  He didn’t properly ask me out, just assumed we were dating after we confessed our feelings EVEN THOUGH I told him my dad said to wait 3 months.  Red flag number three.  So, by the bf’s standards, 6 months into the relationship, I stay over at his place for New year’s.  I will admit that we did stuff over the phone prior to then, but I consider to be fine with that timeline.  At some point while we were planning to do stuff (if ya know what I mean but NOT full on hoo-ha stuff okay) for New year’s, he said “Who knows, maybe we’ll get carried away ;)” Red flag number four.  This immediately made me uncomfortable, and I was not fully comfortable when the day came either.

We were making out (consensual, but I feel like i was forcing myself a bit), I let him touch me down *there* (which he sucked at lemme tell ya) (also it was fine when he touched me before this day), and then he asked to touch my chest.  *Previously, he had stated if i wasnt sure, hed touch over my bra first and go slow.  He did not do either, instead immediately slipping his hand under my bra.* That is when something inside me snapped, and I felt number than I already was. Red flag number five.

I didn’t stop him because I wanted to feel something, anything.  I got nothing.  And then came the time when he decided to say “Now its your turn,” grabbed my hand, and put it down his pants, ignoring me, who was saying “I don’t know how to, I’m not sure I want to.”  

I felt nothing for a few days, and then depression set in.  It didn’t feel connected to that incident, and i didn’t connect the dots until later.  It got so bad I had almost decided to kill myself three months later.  My anxiety was through the roof, and every day my trauma manifested itself in the question “Do I actually love him?”  It was a living hell to be inside my head all the time.  He at one point asked me “Are you sure you were okay with what happened on new year’s? You’re acting like you’ve been raped.”  When I said I wasn’t, he said “oh.” and we never talked about it again.

The relationship continued for another year despite my obvious depression and anxiety that revolved around him. He lied to me on several occasions, disregarded my boundaries (i.e. continued to make sexual jokes even though they clearly bugged me after the assault), and refused to get a job so he could smoke weed all day.  My parents urged him to prove himself (he was out of high school by this time), and when I eventually took their side and gently nudged him along, he said “You are in a relationship with me, not your parents.  Its either me or them.”  Red flags six through ten right there.

When I managed to break it off with him, a ‘friend’ apparently took his side.  This is the girlfriend in the “His Reaction to Your Ex(es)” post(s).  This friend was actually an adopted cousin of mine, and we were not on speaking terms at this point because she had taken my first bf’s side, saying that *I* had to forgive him and that I was in the wrong for not wanting to talk to him or accept his half-assed apologies. (She was not at our school during the time me and that guy dated so she literally knew nothing).  I cut her off because of that.  Turns out she had a massive crush on the dude and he was already taken by someone else.  

So, this same chick sides with the second bf, telling people that I’m the one who hurt him and whatnot.  I come to find out that him and her are now dating and honestly, it is hilarious.  Even I think she deserves better.  He has no future, and I came to realize that, knowing that if i stayed with him longer I would have 100% actually killed myself, or died spiritually.

So yeah, that’s my story, hopelessly in love with fictional characters now because I am too traumatized by what they have done.  I cannot be touched sexually without reverting to a depression or an anxious mess.  Even if I did manage to be in a relationship after that, I don’t think I’d ever be able to have sex with someone. And finally I cannot have a healthy relationship, because what is that, really?  I’m just gonna live alone with some goats LOL.

LISA: the grim

owo whats this......a lisa fangame? well, actually, a potential lisa fangame, but yknow.

lisa: the grim is a hypothetical lisa fangame abt 2 men, bentley n donald, who meet through a twist of fate. they accidentally wander on2 enemy gang territory n get attacked after hearing the cries of a distressed child n wanting 2 investigate. after slaughtering countless gang members, they finally find the source of the screams. a badly beaten n anxious little girl tied 2 a tree.

ben n don decide that they must find a safer place 2 raise the girl, named greer, no matter how hard it will b 2 do so. along the way they keep being confronted by the brothers, the enemy gang they stumbled across b4 finding greer, n the leader of the gang, simply known as “the true brother,” wants the girl all 2 himself.

characters:

bentley wickerbach

bentley wickerbach, also known simply as ben, is considered by most 2 b a starving artist, often doing graffiti on the walls of caves n such rather than taking care of himself. hes heavily inspired by the works of banksy, n has been since a young age. his mother died due 2 complications after childbirth, n his father died after a botched surgery 2 get rid of a tumor in the right side of his neck, leaving him 2 live with his aunt (she wasnt abusive or anything, she rlly did try. she was just extremely poor). art is a coping mechanism 4 the childhood trauma he had 2 go thru, n so he dedicates his life 2 it. hes brutally honest, serious, n tends 2 b sarcastic sometimes. also hes trans n gay bc yeah lol.

donald frances

donald frances, or don, legitimately cant b described in a serious way. i cant capture the essence of his being w/o saying “hes chaotic neutral n cursed as fucking hell” bc thats exactly what he is. hes just gay n likes pranking ppl. probably eats cereal w/ a fork. like, he just fucking stabs it in there. hes an absolute utter dumbass n thats why ben both loves n hates him. a complete fucking disaster gay. like if u look up disaster gay in the dictionary he’ll b there. n no, i never said as a picture.

greer (wow no surname)

greer is a mysterious case, being 1 of the only females left in olathe after the flash. shes young, n with that comes a natural curiosity 4 her age. the only thing holding her back is her debilitating anxiety. she struggles w/ trauma she cant remember thanks 2 the fact that the blows that were inflicted 2 her head during her time w/ the brothers caused very bad amnesia. she couldnt remember anything by the time ben n don found her, except 4 her own name. she uses a makeshift scythe made out of wood n an old, decaying tooth from a mutants carcass. she cant remember where her locket is from (yet again, thanks 2 her amnesia), but its very special 2 her. she babbie

the true brother

the true brother, being the main antagonist, is always there 2 try n slow ben n don down. hes cold, vindictive, n tough, making him a difficult opponent in battle. a very proud leader of his gang. hes always attempting 2 recruit ppl he thinks might have potential. yes, the skull is real. yes, those r teeth/claws on his shoulder pads. he may have some connection 2 ben...

the mysterious stranger

an ominous figure who has been following ben around. they dont ever try 2 actively hurt him, they just...stalk him. the skull they wear indicates that theyre affiliated w/ the brothers, but other than that they dont appear 2 b a threat.

other things:

the ability to graffiti things on2 walls n stuff. it wouldnt rlly add 2 the plot but yknow. it would b fun.

homoeroticism. lots of it.

exploration of mental illness and trauma. especially thru ben n greer.

u get 2 kill child predators. or, the brothers.

baby holds a scythe. babys 1st murder victim.

all original sprites n backgrounds. ok mayb not the backgrounds part but i wanna test out my sprite-making skills ok.

original music. not all of it but there will b original music.

idk u get 2 hug greer. hug babey

im. uh

its planned that it will b available 4 free on gamejolt or something if i ever make it but idk. if i ever make this itll b my 1st full length fangame so it will definitely not b perfect. is anything ever perfect, tho?

what do i put @ the end im sorry guys no 1 ever taught me how 2 talk

By @mang0tree BECAUSE I FORGOT TO PUT YOUR USERNAME IN THE LAST ONE

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hdsfjdsf helo i am Back 2 ramble abt my ideas :] uhh this might b a bit more scattered then last time bc i dont have as solid of an idea for the rest of the story so this might b more just talking abt concepts more then anything else sweats (i have ideas involving gameplay and all here too so i might fit that in somewhere)

SO we left off w/ divinus telling yuelia and the protag that he figured out lava lamp dragon (hdxkgfdg thats its name now i have decided everyone settled on calling it lava lamp dragon) can go poof between dimensions w/e it wants and theyre all just there like "well fuck this aint good" bc this means the drago can now go w/e it wants basically to get itself more energy, and the protag is just like "ok well i can go chase after i-" but then divinus shuts the protag down saying that they still dont know what this drago is abt or where it came from or even what it wants to Do exactly and that its too dangerous for a human like them 2 go after

after that the protag is walking back 2 castele with their arms crossed all >:[ bc Divinus Wont Let Them Chase After Lava Lamp Dragon, and yuelia notices and says "hey, it's nothing personal [player]... not even me and lili could stand up to that thing. i think he's just trying to look out for you." and thats not. Extremely relevant or anything i just had the idea for that dialogue in my head

yuelia splits up w/ the protag once they get back 2 town 2 go uh. Do Stuff and the protag just stands there for like 2 seconds before thinking 'ok im gonna find a way to travel 2 a different dimension Myself if nobody else is gonna help' so uhhh Commence Research Montague (i dont actually know how they figure out this thing yet ok just pretend they found an old book on it or somethin) and after looking around they find a source talking abt some sealed up treasure that probably has the kind of thing theyre lookin for oh boy!!!! but they dont recognize the location, and so they ask around 2 a few other ppl who end up suggesting they ask lili since she travels around a lot and might recognize it

and lili's doin mostly ok by this point, shes awake and can move around fine and all but ppl still want her 2 rest 2 regain Al her strength before goin out adventuring again or anythin (despite her protests otherwise jfgkdfg) so the protag goes up and asks lili if she knows abt the location they found, and lili thinks for a moment before responding that she recognized the description where what theyre lookin for might be and has a vague idea where she might b able 2 find it, and then looks at the protag all like "why are you so curious about this place?" so the protag ends up explaining what happened with divinus and how they think if they find the Thing in this Place that itll make them able 2 help stop lava lamp dragon, and lili goes like 'hm' and sits there for a minute before going "you know im going to come with you, right?"

dsjsdkf and even if the protag tries 2 argue w/ lili shes like Set on coming bc she wants to see what the fuck this thing is too, so lili gathers her gear and her and the protag sneak out of town 2 go explore spooky place ooo!!!!! so after making it thru the Place (i um. havent decided what it is yet maybe a sort of ruins or cave) at the end u notice that there Is somethin at the end there, so u go up and investigate and it turns out its some kind of funky lookin gauntlet and the protag just goes 'oh cool!' and puts it on immediately and um side note this gauntlet May be slightly cursed and you May not be able to take it off once u put it on but ykno still thinkin on that part

so ANYWAYS the protag puts on the gauntlet and lili goes "oh wow we actually Found something here! we just, uh.... need to find out what it does now, i guess." so the protag thinks for a moment, before deciding to see what happens if they hit something w/ the gauntlet, so they smack the wall w/ their hand and BOOM the wall cracks open 2 make way 2 a portal 2 an unknown world that the protag and lili end up getting pulled into

and um. this is the part where most of my concrete ideas for Story kinda end but my idea for this world was sorta like what reveria would look like if celestia hadnt come in 2 help everyone by creating lives so like. mostly nature and not much of civilization to see except for the occasional ragtag group of survivors but also ofc not just reveria itll also b its own world w/ its own unique stuff 2 it and all, i just thought itd b interesting 2 explore what would have happened if celestia never came 2 help reveria in the first place

so basically then its just lili and the protag exploring this new world, meeting a group of survivors that explain everything that happened in this world and all and u try 2 help them out before u head back (considering having something of a Lava Lamp Dragon Encounter here, not rlly a fight persay but you might spot it from afar and try 2 chase before it escapes)

after u make it back 2 castele Not Dead lili mentions to the protag she wants to look into that gauntlet they found more mostly bc shes never seen or heard of it before (and shes been a lot of places) and wants to be sure it doesnt have like Sinister Origins or anything

and basically after u unlock another world thru Story Progression ur essentially free 2 stop at any time and go back 2 explore that place, u can like go there 2 complete quests and theres also somewhat of a Side Story in each world where u can learn more abt the world and also help the ppl solve some other issue they got going on in their world Aside from the lava lamp dragon that might b planning on destroying everything (so for example in the first world their issue would be that uh. theres a lot of monsters everywhere)

the second world ive been thinkin could b somethin of a steampunk world with legally required scrappy mechanic and a tiny robot friend named beep bop bip (bip for short) and uh. the third world is the one ive thought out the least but i wanna go for some kind of Mythical foresty place, maybe with non human inhabitants like bird ppl or somethin

and then the 4th world (the final one u unlock) i want 2 b all spooky and ominous, bc thats the world that the final boss is going to happen in where u fight Lava Lamp Dragon for the last time

so that sorta. all i have in terms of ideas for now i think?? unless im forgetting something jdfgkdg but i definitely think i wanna go w/ the whole celestias sister being behind this thing bc that would be a very interesting thing 2 explore........ at the end i feel like celestias sister would b like trying 2 command lava lamp dragon but it has gone cazy w/ power and ends up not listening 2 celestias sister so the protag is just (pulls out sword) "guess im gonna have to save you from your own hubris" and UM another side note but i also do wanna include the guys from the first fl game too jdfgkd there is just a Lot and it is kinda complicated 2 try and fit everyone in when the story is sorta still a wip so they are There. Somehow

im thinkin abt that cursed gauntlet idea atm and idk if thats like. Generic or not but i feel like it would be interesting if the protag somehow just forcibly got themselves involved in this whole thing w/ celestias sister and Lava Lamp Dragon just by getting this gauntlet stuck on them jdfgdlgk but yea either way im donw now woo!! no more ramble

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The protagonist sounds quite lively in your story xD putting on the gauntlet just because it looks cool. I think the gauntlet should jump at the protag instead, or maybe it could be alive, like it came from the other dimension to search for a hero/chosen one and our protag happens to be there. It would be like yuelia/flutter and dogu.... But a gauntlet I guess xD

(Also it would cool if the gauntlet can control the protag too, like once you reach the final boss battle, the protag lost control and we have to play as our old protagonist, lili in this case. Or the other way round. I just love it when games makes us battle our previous protag. ❤️❤️)

But a dimension where celestia didn't come to reveria sounds interesting! ... there's so much you can make of it! The current characters in reveria would still exist in the other dimension but living their life differently!

Guess who's gonna cave and get the album, also guess who spent 2 hrs looking for a new album site with the help of mags because yesasia just DELETED the whole zone 3 where India was 🥰🥰 I'm going thru an trouble to get it istg I'm close to fighting chrisidjdjdb also hello! How are youuu 💕💕

WHAAAA, WHYYYY. Bro my friend told me a lot of albums are having stuff change for album shipping so I feel like a lot of places might have the same issue :/ I WISH YOU LUCK THO!! May you have success in your album find and may the album be full of your bias 😔😔😔 And hi XD 💕💕💕💕💕 I'm struggling with getting the album too cuz 😔😔😔😔😔 Sigh lolol

Day 87 (Sunday June 7)

I woke up from a dream where I was creating an ad for ATLA and I got into cosplay and had to find a filming location. I went to the pool and a bunch of my friends were there. I showed off my stardew farming skills to Zuko and others who were around. At some point someone started closing the pool cover while people were still in the pool, and we had to pull people out before they drowned, including Judy Hopps. The scene changed to where I was in a new school. My hair was in a bun/ponytail, partially dyed, and really messy. I accidentally wore the school gym uniform on the first day. For some reason I was really excited about the school bathrooms having tiny sinks. I stood in front of the mirror, fixing my hair, and it was beautiful like Katara’s. Back to the pool party, I had brought along a blanket that I own irl to use as a prop to make it looks I was riding on Appa. Someone said they had a real fur throw I could use, but I said that it went against my ways to use things taken from animals, and as I was saying that, two giant ferrets wrapped themselves in the blanket. My dad tried talking to me about the video I was making, asking if it was through the school, and I got annoyed with him saying that it was an online competition. At some point I was trying to take a shot of a beautiful sunset to use in the background of my flying on top of Appa, but no one would help my film.

I woke up and we drove 2 hours to my uncle’s house, picking up my grandfather on the way there. We stayed for a while and talked and had food and went on a walk with my aunt and her service dog. I felt a little awkward the whole time. My aunt’s father (so I guess my great uncle?) showed up and told the same story he always tells whenever college is brought up, so pretty much every time we visit. He always says that when choosing your college major to make sure there are jobs available now. His friend went to college to make cabinets, and when he graduated, turns out no one wants professionally made cabinets. He tells that story all the time and shuts down any option I mention I had been thinking about for college. But eventually we left and drove another 2 hours back, getting Arby’s on the way back. There was a boy at the window and my sister thought he was Absolutely Scrumptious. We talked and talked on the way back, and I talked a lot because I got a soda in the drivethru and got a little hyper. I had a headache the whole drive.

When I got home I was just ready to lie down and play sdv and webkinz, so I did. I seriously considered buying the husky pup webkinz because 1) it’s the pet of the month and I’ve never owned one during its month and 2) I was looking for webkinz to buy back in like January to renew my full membership and that was one of the options I wanted and 3) I’m planning on making a nursery and I need a baby webkinz for that. I don’t think I’ll actually go thru with it tho. And while I was playing stardew, I took too long watering my field and missed the sdv fair event so I just reset the day and quit. I miss festivals more than I would like because I made my farm too big 😔 I really need to make more iridium sprinklers, but sometimes I forget to buy them from Krobus on fridays and I don’t have easy access to iridium in skull cavern because I die so easily. Im waiting until the end of year 2 for that statue grandpa gives you, but I’m still in the middle of fall. I DID complete the community center tho. >:) and I built a shed the other day perfectly tucked away in a nook behind the greenhouse (I’m on the forrest farm layout) and I used all the wood/copper/iron/oak resin I had saved up filling it with about 30 kegs, but I still need like triple that to fill it completely. Maybe I could make that my winter project.

I was just walking around my kitchen eating snacks at 1:30am and thinking about stardew and had an idea. Eric Barone (the creator) mentioned that at one point in development there was a cave farming mechanic where you could plant and harvest crops in the game. I was also thinking about how you can take the mineshaft directly to the 120th floor, but there’s nothing you can actually do down there. I was thinking about what if when you reach the bottom, you could hoe around or something and find an item called jagged rock or mysterious pebbles, and get a quest to bring it to Clint, since he knows blacksmithing and rocks n stuff. Maybe it’s labeled as a geode and when you go into the processing geodes menu and click it onto his anvil it doesn’t break, or maybe his hammer breaks instead. He tells you that he’s never seen rocks like these before and doesn’t know anything about stuff that far down in the mines. You’re prompted to find someone who knows about deep in the mines so you bring them to the dwarf, and he’s like “oh my! These aren’t rocks, they’re seed pods for rare plants farmed by my people before being attacked by the shadow people” (or skip Clint part and a cutscene begins with the dwarf as soon as you come up to the cave entrance) and he would bring you down to the bottom of the mines and reveal a secret chamber with like stalagmites and stalactites and dripping water. He tells you about how these plants take months and months to grow and are extremely sensitive to light, so they cannot grow outside this cave. You don’t have to come water it or anything, but it takes a full year to grow. You only get one seed and if you check on it throughout the year you get to see long vines grow and streatching over what was barren rock. It’s not like nice green lunch vibes, but grey scraggly thorny ones. Maybe bringing it different cave items twice a week like giving gifts to villagers can effect the quality of the fruit. Each quality would have different descriptions, the lowest saying how it’s inedible and desinagrates like ash in your hands. If you grow the highest quality one the dwarf is amazed and thanks you for reminding him of his family and home or something. A very moving scene. Or it could be revealed to be a star drop plant?? Idk. You could only grow one star drop tho, and the rest are just high-quality fruits that could be cooked into a really good everything filling dish. I’m just making stuff up as I go but I like this idea. If it turns out to be a star drop fruit plant, when you walk into the secret room for the first time with it ripe on the vine there’s a cutscene with the dwarf who can’t believe his eyes and the whole room is glowing slightly purple and with little purple sparkles everywhere. Moving scene yadda yadda. Eric take fucking notes. This scene could happen weather it was a star drop or not with some modifications.

I tried writing this entry throughout the day as it was happening, idk if it makes a difference, but I might do that more often. It leads to more rambling about whoever’s on my mind at the moment instead of just what I can remember from the day

baratrongirl replied to your post “Really do not understand why GameFreak took out the Hall of Fame...”

I'd be interested to hear what you don't like about Sword/Shield. For me, it's quite the opposite. I played the hell out of the 3rd and 4th Gens, then struggled to finish White and didn't buy White 2. Didn't finish SoulSilver, or whichever of X or Y I got, and became completely bored about 10 hours into Alpha Sapphire despite being all motivated to play the game with my original Sapphire team only now I know what I'm doing. Didn't even BUY Sun/Moon.

Then I hung out with my Pokemon friends over Sword/Shield launch weekend, watched them playing on the TV, and had to immediately borrow a spare Switch so I could play too. By the end of the weekend I'd bought the Switch and paid to download my own copy of Shield. I have a few issues with it, mostly relating to the lack of clothing options for male characters, but otherwise I'm finding it the blast of fresh air that I needed to get back into the Pokemon games.

I’ve heard a lot of people say something similar, that SwSh was a nice upgrade from the past couple gens. I started slipping around XY - didn’t wanna buy a 3DS and didn’t until Omega Ruby came out, since Ruby was the first one I’d played - and after I finished the Team Flare plot of X I just gave up for three years and only last year finished the 8th gym and the league. I honestly don’t remember much of playing OR. I think it was a weird kind of frantic nostalgia-fueled haze but I genuinely cannot comment on what I liked about that game. It’s a blank in my memory. Really enjoyed Sun and Moon, like Sword but get bummed the longer I think about it. But I did buy it because I did see a ton of people saying it was a change they were enjoying, quality-of-life upgrades, fun new features, etc. Different strokes and all.

My biggest gripe on Sword is that the world feels pretty empty. Besides the Wild Area, and its few secluded corners, though it’s really a straightforward place, there’s nothing to explore. The plot grabs you by the hand and pulls you to every location. There’s nothing off-the-way that you don’t go to for the main plot. There’s nothing like Kanto’s Power Plant, or Alola’s Power Plant - which I didn’t even realize was there on my first pass through, and then I was like “hey what’s this little place, OH MY GOD WHAT THERE’S MORE STUFF HERE.” The region is a linear loop. There’s no weird little caves that aren’t plot relevant that you get scrambled up in. There’s nowhere that’s locked until you beat the League, like the other half of Poni Island or those last upper bits in Unova or the Battle Frontier in Sinnoh. I had canvassed the Wild Area for everything by the time I went to the final tournament. There’s nowhere else to go. Sure I went back through the Wild Area to catch more stuff to fill out my Pokedex, but new places? Nothing. There’s nowhere to go back to once you can cross water except the little lake by the professor’s house. Not like in Sun/Moon where there’s bits on prior islands to go back to with Lapras. That cave underneath the starting island to go check out I’m thinking of. Galar is a pretty bare-bones region and the Wild Area doesn’t fully compensate.

Which ties to my other biggest gripe, which is, there are three legendary Pokemon in the game and one of them is the opposite version’s exclusive that you can’t get. Two legendary Pokemon! Two legendary Pokemon you can catch! And you catch them both in the course of the plot! There’s nothing like the Regi trio hidden by batshit puzzles, or Cobalion/Terrakion/Virizion tucked in out-of-the-way corners. No wandering Lati@s or beast trio. No Tapus or anything. You can catch two legendary Pokemon.

I think we really peaked back in Gen 3 with its visual Braille puzzles and Gen 4 with whatever the everloving fuck the Turnback Cave was on about. The weird locations that hurt your brain. I miss those. I miss the tricky caves you get lost in and spend time figuring it out. Galar didn’t have caves. The mines were basically a straight shot, yknow? When I’d like to go deeper and have more to explore instead of feeling like I’m taking a walking tour of the whole region.

And the DLC looks like it’ll deal at least with that point with more legendaries, which really grinds my gears. In all the discourse about whether or not the DLC is good or bad or neutral, whether the price of video games has needed to go up or the DLC is cheaper than a third version but some people wait for the third version, which I didn’t seek out said discourse but saw pass me by on Twitter, I saw no one mention that we’re paying to get more than two legendary Pokémon and I felt like I was losing my mind for a little while there. I feel like I’m paying extra for something that’s been in every game since the beginning of time, that being more than two legendary Pokémon that I can catch.

And my lesser little gripes: level balance of the game felt a little wonky with the wild Pokemon toward the end higher leveled than all the trainers except Leon, and the always-on exp share made it worse because when I dragged out the plot by catching everything in the Wild Area, my team got way overleveled for the back half of the game and I could curbstomp everyone that passed me. Team Yell were an egregious roadblock and while Pokemon has always had those, the prominence of Team Yell was exasperating. I prefer environmental roadblocks, like water and back when we used to have other HMs, those feel a little better than two dudes standing in the middle of a wide road.

And why, oh WHY, did GameFreak downgrade after XY and only have fitting rooms in boutiques instead of also in Pokemon Centers? I don’t want to fly to another town to change my clothes! Not every town has a clothes shop but everywhere has a Pokemon Center! I was crusading on this point through Sun/Moon and I will not be stopped until GameFreak puts changing rooms back in Pokemon Centers! (They will probably never do that but I refuse to stop. Forget Dexit; this is the real issue of our time.)

I didn’t mind the limited Pokémon at release because I never transfer my teams thru the games anyway - I’m a sentimental anxious idiot afraid of decisions and commitment and I can’t commit to the one-way transfers to move my teams up to new games. And that plus the Wild Area having trade-evolution Pokemon walking around made me feel like completing my pokedex was actually attainable. So I did!

I don’t hate the game, but I am disappointed by it. I’ve never been a Battle Tower or shiny-hunting person, but I’ve ended up doing those because I don’t know what else to do.

So that’s my opinion on why SwSh has bummed me out more as time goes on, since you were curious.

(Joker from Mass Effect 2 when you ask him for gossip about your teammates voice: “But that’s just my opinion, no need to go spreading it around.” ;) I’ll gladly chat with friends but the poke-discourse got too intense on twitter and I am not inviting that kind of bad energy into our lives. None of us deserve that.)

I’ve still got a lot of endgame stuff for Sun and Moon, UB hunting and I haven’t made it to the Battle Tree yet because my Moon team is getting its ass kicked by everything because I turned the exp share off and overcompensated in the wrong direction and am chronically underleveled. There’s a certain charm for me in being underleveled because I used to have endless patience to overlevel my team to extremes because my childhood anxiety was something like “if I die in the game I die in real life???” and I was terrified of losing and now I’m like “blacks out twice in a row in Moon as I go toward the postgame stuff yolo”. So when I feel like playing Pokemon I’ll probably spend more time in Alola, when I’m not trying to hatch that damn shiny Rookidee because I accidentally committed to that.

@thaliatimsh​ - im so sorry!!!! a vague ‘riffing off of (tm)’ what i was saying? (trying to say) last night  - but Mostly// word splurge everywhere :/ - unsure if theres either a/t Clear or!! tbfh a/t of worth here, but yk :T :S !

thaliatimsh said: I thiNK you are RIGHT re: distance n i wonder. … why. Considering distance in gibson bein murdererererd scene… tins of mystery… (like a week previous MAX). I wonder. Why. Im not very good at bein clear anyway im. Fffff.

=> fgksdhfg, idk if youve had the same thought w this as i have, or mabs,, its lead to/from the same thought but like. Hickey’s plan was always probs gonna end/hinge a lil on cannibalism? [‘Lads Gotta Eat! People Made O’ Meat!’; Hickey’s Personal Sledge Hauling Song, 1847.] Ofc they all already know tht the cans are making them Weak & WEird™ .

so im Not getting confused!!! Just #FAx: at some point theyre gonna run out of food With Them, so Options~: 1) take tins proffered by crozier, 2) somehow they manage to find game! 3) boys were made for eating

So assuming tht no ones gonna keel over anytime soon, theyre deffo gonna have to kill /Someone/

Once gibson ‘runs out’ [[ :(( ]], they gotta go back to tins, or they gotta get another Body p much. ppl who CAnt be ate!: Hickey (ofc), Diggle (For Now/, until Armitage gets his HACCP qualifications), Goodsir (butchers are hard to train up, lads might get queezy chopping up their M8s)

Gkdsfhgk, distance as a food preparation method, a book by cornelius (EC) hickey !! - is what im TRYINBG to get to as my point !!! jfc, idek

but idk if thats rly necessarily a v strong (or tbf, Accurate) Take yk? i gotta think it over, & leave this pot boiling someplace else temporarily or smth

=====================

[[i think,, what i meant w/ Deliberateness, as much as i like. ½ tried to articulate it there last night (& now having read over a lil of tht, have v little clue WHat Exactly i was trying to be saying there tbfh), is that Of Fckn Course// hickey is deliberately setting him Apart “DELIBERATE isolation of hodgson during that scene (plate, cutlery, separate space, different /meat/)” like u said!! But i think up Til tht point, its one of those weird cases where its not being Enforced~ as such? [tht might just be my own reading tho? Which are.. while Not ~Notoriously Off-Base? But often taking the ‘’wrong part’’ of a thing as the important element, or just straight up Confused, rip lmao]

Like /Like/. The Hodgester™ has just turned up into a place already filled w dudes who are all a lil asshole-ish & starving! - & enough of them are running from a hierarchy issue, rather than a deep abiding love for EC, i suppose? Uhm - && they all wanna Be There (for want of a better descrip/). So, i was ½ at it thinking(?) abt if it was mayhaps (originally) one of those things where u accidentally(?) isolate yrself from the rest of the group bc u dont wanna bother/intrude/dont feel welcome [The Sk00l Feelingz] & thru that slight gap you end up falling thru the cracks as twere & /Actually/ becoming Set Apart. 

&& like. Idk, on #mutineers side; hes just turned up! Hes Hierarchy!! & yk still,,, Officers/Men Divide~ the line drawn in the 6ft X 4ft ice-cave separating the messdeck & the wardroom ! which despite no longer /Rly/ being in place now, or honestly nearly as much as gone post-walkOut, has gotta be subconsciously embedded ? dunno [tbfh, im word vomiting rly Badly// now - i think u were & Are!! Right abt it, & yr fic Felt Right// abt it!! Which means it may as well be True & Canon & Real, etc: Often Always thinking abt the different ways of saying lieutenant, oof :( ] ]]

maybe what i mean is like; I'm Not Sure! (personally :S ) if it started out Accidentally, Deliberate Banal, or Deliberate Malicious, yk??

&& Whether its been a gradual progression, or happened much more Starkly when they decided to captainnap crozier, or spatchcock chicken gibson & other stuff? dunno

((i gotta [REally Gotta//] rewatch the last couple of eps, so i get the planning/timing etc right in my head? bc idr if the plan to marry tuunbaq was ‘hatched’ pre or post captainnapping, or if they were related At All -> do feel like the hermitage i mentioned going on has gotta be extended just so tht i can think things into #clarity, as well as actually watch the show again before making up shit, lmao)) 

--- thinking abt: 

possibly hodgester’s confession & inability to kill hickey in contrast w fitzy’s confession & offering up of his body? but idk what that IS or MEANS, or if its even THERE [yr talk of him as,, ‘the average mans james fitzjames’ is,, im Lov,, Truly Banger & Deeply Upsetting :( ]

smth poss to be said abt how Much// of what george says/dialogue is abt food & his big monologue is abt cannibalism & transubstantiation yk? Idk [hodgester, location: North Artic Circle, likes: etymology, religious guilt, languages, musical instruments, food & learning abt how its prepared :(( ] other than, yk, Mood, Big Same There Lads

===

To Conclude, yr 100000% right, Magnus Manson Good Boy, Packed The Plates & Forks

this is a totally personal rant btw bc i have nothing better to do rn

I hate a lot of more recent video games. Theyre so focused on making 'ultra 4K realistic graphics biggest open world in existence' that the story, character development, humour, actual enternainment is totally lacking. Im only focusing on Dragon Age in this rant bc i have a lot to say about it.

Dragon Age Origins is one of my favourite games; it has humour, fantastic character development, great storylines etc. and the graphics, they are pretty shit compared to stuff nowadays. And your MC doesnt have a VA. But its so fun! I love the beginning scenes a lot; how theres so many backgrounds to choose from n each has a super unique story! I enjoy the dialogue choices too. You can choose for yourself who you want your character to be, n theres options to encompass it all really! The combat system sucks. Its slow and boring. But overall, this game has a special place in my heart. It was a fabulous introduction to the world of choice based RPGs and what really got me into them! I do wish I could go back and experience it for the first time all over again.

Dragon Age 2.... yknow i find it pretty fun. The combat system in 2 was a big step up from origins; its really fluid and, unlike in many other games, i tend to enjoy the fights and engaging in them feels rewarding. I find the character development in 2 pretty great as well. Each romance is pretty rewarding and the friends/enemies system works well for the most part. Same with the dialogue; I like how your choices shape your character's personality. I wouldnt say its an 'improvement' from Origins; as I said I like the system in that game; but i think its a just as good alternative. Some things i dislike about 2. Some parts of the story really dont add up imo but i wont get into that bc i cba. And the repetition. Like... a lot of the quests are 'go to this cave/warehouse - it looks exactly like that other cave/warehouse you went to on the last quest but its a different one i promise' shit like that. Also that there wasnt the choice of different races & bgs - it was just human. I can see why they did that though and i dont see it as too big a flaw. Overall though I do enjoy it a lot! The characters are iconic, Hawke is such a fucking beauty of a MC.

Alright. Dragon Age Inquisition.... Right. Okay. Well I guess I should start with the good things anyway. The graphics - wow! theyre great honestly! And the character creation is pretty detailed n the whole different races & bgs thing is back - not as innovative as Origins but its there. I do like a good bit of the story line. The wicked eyes and wicked hearts quests is one of my favourites in all of the games. and i love the mage/templar questlines, which depend on which side you pick. Theyre really well done n the fact they made the choices so different is something new! Now onto the bad things. The graphics. As wonderful as they are. The game is slow as shit on my computer because it just cant handle that shit. At times its been actually unplayable because of the immense lag. Ofc that is just a personal issue - im not rich enough to afford a gaming computer so. And the map. So big. Wow. No. Bad. Its so boring. I dont want to be traversing all over the hinterlands for hours on end looking for some bullshit rat ass for this random i met in the woods. Ok. That reminds me- FETCH QUESTS. fucking shit dude these are the most boring fetch quests ive ever suffered thru. And its not like you can just ignore them either - You HAVE to do them because you need to obtain 'power' before you continue with the main quest. Fetch quests in 2 were done great imo. They normally involve fighting and so theyre enjoyable there; as i mentioned I love 2s fight system. Inquisition tho - the maps are so fuckin big, and the fighting is so slow and boring I cant stand them. Combine these with the insufferable lag - no thanks never in a million years. Get this. The main character is so fucking boring. whichever race and class you play, no matter what dialogue options you choose - theyre boring, character development where? Other characters. Eh. Theyre better than the MC i suppose. But the majority of the development was still pretty shoddy. Cole, Sera, (i cant even remmeber the other characters omg they were so unmemorable - theres prob a couple others..) they have good development if you establish friendships w them / romance them. The rest kinda suck. DAI really makes me sad. That the game went from something I adorded, something I hold with deep love and nostalgia - to this shit tip.

In conclusion TLDR: DAO is beautiful despite the graphics, DA2 also so, DAI is unredeemable pile of shit even with the 'amazing beautiful HD graphics'. graphics dont make a game. If I want aesthetics Id just make an aesthetic tumblr blog.

A Dragon and his Fairy

Chapter 2

A Dragon and his Fairy

Rating: T 

Gajeel cursed as he came back inside his cave, the ground vibrating as he stomped his way to where Lily sat.

“I take it they got away?” Lily said as he patched up the last of the fairy’s injuries.

“When they come back I’m turning their asses into iron statues,” Gajeel spat as he laid down next to the roaring fire. “How’s she holding up?” He inquired as he watched his friend clean up and put away the medical supplies.

“Well, she’s still alive, thankfully. Mostly bruises and scrapes, save her wings,” Lily replied, his voice light with optimism. He reached over for a bowl, and filled it with soup, nodding at the dragon.

“Tough little shrimp that’s for sure,” Gajeel smirked as he looked over to her, she looked so small in the huge nest. Now that he had a moment to look at her, he saw that she had pointed ears that poked out slightly from the wild blue hair. Her face was delicate and soft, reminding him of the smooth opal stones that he had locked away in his hoard. He realized that he’d have to put some extra measures to prevent her from venturing too far into his hoard; not because he was a territorial dragon, but due to the several black magic items locked away. Items that any human would kill to have even just one of them

“I’ll be leaving tomorrow before sunrise. I’ve made enough ointment to help her heal, but she’ll need warm clothing to leave that bed, or her wings can freeze and shatter. I’m sure you have something considering how much stuff you have in your hoard.” Lily chuckled as he took a sip of his broth.

“Shut up cat!” He growled as he continued to watch the little fairy with curiosity, “Good thing I made sure that I went over to Natsu’ Kingdom and bought enough food to feed a village.”

“Right you are. Well, I’ll see you in the morning, and please for the love of death don’t scare her half to death while I’m gone!” He scolded, earning a chuckle from Gajeel.

“Believe me if anything I’ll fatten her up first!” Gajeel joked as Lily receded to a smaller room that was his private chamber.He looked down at the fairy and saw her shiver; even under the piles of blankets, she was still cold.

“Gosh shrimp, you fairies are definitely not creatures for the cold,” He muttered as he gingerly picked up the thick furs that were scattered along the edges of his nest and laid them down on top of her, hoping that it would help her. He curled himself around the nest, thinking that by shielding her a bit she would have some more warmth.

Never in his life did he ever think that he would care so much about someone other than himself or his best friend, but there was something about her that just seemed to make him want to her keep her alive and happy.

Levy’s body felt like lead as she felt herself drift into conscious. Her arms felt as if though they had been pulled and stretched, but the worst feeling was the dreaded feeling that something had been torn from her. A piece that could never be given back ripped from her violently. She didn’t want to wake up, quiteshe couldn’t handle it if what she feared was true. However, something felt off. The forest never sounded quietor had a rumble to it and the ground never this soft.

She opened her eyes and saw that she was in a large and crudely constructed bed. Sheets and furs entangled her body providing a warm cocoon that felt safe. She saw that her arms were bandaged along with the countless other injuries that she had. Levy quickly sat up and looked back to find that both her wings were enclosed in bandages as well.

“Either I’m dreaming or they are healing my wings to be ripped from me again,” She thought to herself. Nonetheless, she didn’t want to stay and find out and began to untangle herself from the sheets.

“I wouldn’t leave that bed if I were you, Fairy,” a deep voice growled

“Who said that!?” She screamed. Adrenalin shot thru through her body and her blood turned to ice as the looked around for the source of the voice.

“Gihi, why don’t you look next to you?” the voice laughed. She looked to her left and felt the blood leave her face as a blood red slit eye watching her. Gajeel uncurled himself from around the bed and loomed over her, smirking.

“A-a-a-a dragon?!” She quaked with fear. Without thinking, she bolted from the bed and collapsed onto the floor before picking herself back up and charging towards the entrance. She nimbly dodged his first attempted to catch her. Her size made it easy to slip through his claws and bolt away from him.

“Oi stop!” Gajeel yelled as he chased after.

“Not even awake for two seconds and she’s already causing me trouble!” He thought, noticing that as they reached the entrance it was foggy outside. She continued to run not even knowing where she running to.

“Oh fuck! Oi, Fairy! Stop, you’re gonna…!” He yelled just as she slid to a stop, finally realizing there was a cliff in front of her, but not soon enough as she tumbled over the edge screaming.

“I swear, next time I’m tying her to the damn bed,” He groaned to himself as he leaped off the cliff to catch her.

Heights typically never scared the little fairy, but without her wings, there was nothing Levy could do but scream in terror as she plummeted towards the sharp rocks. Just before she hit the ground, she felt something cold snatch her up and lift her back to the sky. She looked up she saw that the dragon had been her savior as he securely held her in his claws. Once they landed, Gajeel brought the fairy up to him so that they can see eye to eye.

“Listen shrimp, next time you jump off that cliff I’m going to let you fall.-”

“I didn’t jump off the cliff, you scared me! And my name is Levy! Not shrimp!” She snapped at him. He raised a brow and chuckled. He liked the spitfire she had.

“Well shrimp, I’ll just tell you this now; we aren’t the bad guys, so next time someone saves your life don’t go jumping off a cliff, got it?” She nodded her head as the cold air started to take its toll on her body. He gently put her down and herded her back to the warmth of the cave, lightly nudging her on with his claw.

“So what’s your name?” Levy asked as the dragon she grabbed a massive bear fur, wrapping herself in it and sat by the fire.

“Name’s Gajeel Redfox, but a lot of people know me as Black Steel.” He said, settling down in front of her

“No way, you’re THE Blacksteel!!? As in the iron dragon who single-handedly defeated Zyair Baleful the ice dragon and took down the northern empire Blacksteel!” She squealed with joy.

“Heck yeah, I’m him! Old Zyair was a piece of cake if you ask me,” he laughed his chest puffing up in pride. Truth be told he had nearly lost to that ice dragon and still had the scars to prove it.

“I’ve read so much about you! Is it true that you stole all the gold from a dragon named Acnologia and have it buried in a cave that no one can find?” She asked her brown eyes widening with excitement.

“I didn’t know I was that popular in fairy folklore,” He chuckled, “Gihi, I stole that bastards hoard after he stole something my father gave me. So I did him a favor and relieved him of his.” He had kept most of it locked in the lower chambers of his cave as Acnologia had cursed several portions of his hoard, rendering it too dangerous for Gajeel to want to leave it carelessly around.

“Not quite, in fact, most of the the books I read say that dragons are monsters and destructive beings,” she softly said.

“Well they aren’t really wrong,” He grumbled. He looked behind him and saw Lily leading against the black obsidian cave wall watching the duo and smiling.

“I thought I told you not to scare her.” He laughed as he came closer. “Good morning, my name is Panther Lily, Lily for short. I see that you’re feeling a lot better. He didn’t threaten to eat you, did he?” He joked.

“Hey, I like some meat on my humans, not skinny like twigs!” Gajeel retorted before laying his head on his paws.

“Don’t worry unlike most dragons he’s mostly all bark and no bite,” Lily grinned. Levy smiled back the two; they seemed like good friends. Gajeel rolled his eyes in annoyance.

“I’m Levy, I believe I owe both of you a thanks for saving me,” She (thanked)(said) as she pulled the fur tighter around her. Gajeel picked up another blanket off the bed and plopped it on her.

“Gave me something to do instead of patrolling the borders, besides I don’t want people to think I’m going soft.” Gajeel grunted, ignoring the look that Lily gave the fairy, smiling when her eyes widened.

“Well, how about some food for us all before I leave?” Lily smiled as walked over to the fire to began to cook a warm meal for the trio

“So Miss Levy, how is that a Fairy from the Southern Magnolia Forest managed to get herself all the way to the Northern Iron Kingdom?” Lily asked as he chopped up some vegetables.

“I know fairy wings are valuable and all but why were they after you? They seemed pretty pissed that they didn’t get you.” Gajeel chimed in.

“Well, my guess is that I’m the daughter of one of the four Royal Fairy lines.” She stated. Silence claimed the air as both dragon and exceed looked at her in awe.

“Wait you’re royalty!?” Gajeel nearly roared.