Self-indulgent personal PMD × TLT AU conjured up with @dulcineaseptimus

what if i went to the aquarium with @radjerda a lot and then made an entire Dishonored AU around an aquarium that then became an entire modern AU? :)

✍ a lil seto? :D

don't mind the sound of my sobs in the breeze

You ever think about how scary an Enerjak Silver would be.

admittedly, i’ve never read archie, but from what i’ve read on his wiki, i can see enerjak is some sorta demigod-spirit that possessed a few echidnas and has practically limitless power? so yeah if silver got possessed by enerjak it would be terrifying. silver’s already powerful as he is, so if he was possessed by this being with god-level strength, psychic abilities, and reality-warping, it’d be all over. he could probably turn the planet to dust with the flick of his wrist. the universe itself would be the thing at risk, the planet would already be gone. enerjak silver would be cool as hell to see. completely undefeatable psychokinetic armoured boy? it’d look so awesome.

anyway since i’ve never read those comics so i couldn’t go too in-depth with this question due to not knowing enough about enerjak, i decided to try design enerjak silver! :]

enerjak’s armour is seemingly inspired by egyptian royalty and armour, and since silver is italian, i decided to base enerjak silver’s armour on roman soldiers! i don’t know if that ended up coming across in the finished design, but i swear the inspiration is there ehfjejfjwjf. i tried to have it so silver’s quills came out the top of his helmet like the crest that some roman soldiers’ helmets had, also i imagine the visor covering his face is moveable, so he can lift it up off his face :]

What do you think would've happened if Contessa simply picked Bonesaw up and put her somewhere else, where Jack couldn't reach. Like Earth Aleph. What would she do!!!

This is probably unsurprising, but I've thought about this idea a lot. First of all, I think it really depends on what Contessa wants to do with her. Really, in almost any circumstance, I could see a conversation first. Probably setting a room up so Riley feels safest, with Contessa sitting in just the right way that she looks like Riley's mom when she first sees her so she doesn't attack (similar to what she did with Taylor). She spars words with Bonesaw about capes, powers, and passengers, basically laying the ground work for how she'll start to question herself, then drops her through unceremoniously, before Riley can work up the annoyance to attack.

After that, I think Riley lays low. Maybe kills one or two people for parts she needs, but she has someone watching her who is powerful and she's probably still very unsure exactly what is going on and why. And she's been with the Nine for a while, she knows how to be inconspicuous. Her relative anonymity on Earth Aleph really helps. They just aren't prepared for a powerhouse like Bonesaw.

But things start to break down. Riley is not used to being alone and we know that she has horrible nightmares about the day of her trigger that she eases with comfort from Jack and the Siberian. Eventually all those issues are gonna start to pile up and with no one there to push them away, Riley's gonna be forced to confront. This probably goes badly. I could see her breaking down here, the stuff from Contessa's talk finally coming home to roost, and in absence of that comfort she goes and seeks it out.

It doesn't go well.

I think at this point she finally starts to catch the eye of the local heroes. I don't think they make the connection, I doubt they ever will, but they understand a dangerous villain and go to try and stop her. This could play out any number of ways, but I think in the end, Riley runs, probably doing some things she regrets. People she tried to latch onto hurt in the process and for the first time she's feeling genuine guilt about all this.

She moves around but things are getting worse for her, she's really questioning who she is and without Jack there to whisper in her ear she's not sure she even wants to be this anymore. Maybe the heroes catch up with her, and she allows herself to be brought in. In the end, finding out Cauldron's reach extends to the hero agencies even there and she willingly joins Contessa's side. Maybe she just disappears to reflect, waiting for Contessa to come out and finish their talk whereby they reach an agreement. Maybe she doubles down, bringing more destruction and pain until she feels hollowed out inside, turning to Cauldron because they're the only group she feels can redeem her.

Either way, I wish I could see it.

I wanna hear you break down Davy

@ileadacharmedlife

Y'ALL SO LOYAL

How I feel about this character

davy cadwallader is the diseased mouse i want to befriend. he's such a fucking pathogen. he's so fucking annoying. davy's hobbies include: being a goddamn nuisance. he is a professional inconvenience. why the hell is he dressed like that? nobody knows. yes, i think he's hot. lmfao, ok. but real talk: without writing an essay here (my beloved and most loyal companion @drowninginships can attest that when i really get started on my davy mage meta bullshit i just don't shut the fuck up about it), the long and short of it is -> i think davy blows chunks but he's so interesting. his story is so fucked up. davy is claude frollo with a robin hood complex, that's my favourite way to look at him. nobody in their right mind is out here saying davy isn't god-awful, right, but he's not as black and white as people make him out to be. the whole point of davy's character is that he viewed himself as good, he wanted to do good. but it was to such an extreme that he was willing to do terrible shit for it, and the deeper he spiralled, the more his vision tunnelled and the more amoral his actions became. he's a really, really well-written villain.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

i like davy and lucy. i don't like how shit ends, obvs, and i don't like the shape their lives take before that, but i dunno. their story is a tragedy. i think they really did love each other, even though it wasn't good. i think both can be true. and yeah, malmage. i wasn't into it at first, but then i started reading cautionary tale by @confused-bi-queer and it snapped me in half. rotted my brain to slop. holy fuck, it is so good.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

davy doesn't want friends. lucky for him, nobody wants to be his friend bc he sucks! 👍 but, headcanon: davy has a cousin named corianne he gets on with alright enough. i mean, kinda. he thinks she's dumb as rocks, she thinks he's an asshole. only one of them is correct, and it's not davy. but they have a brother-sister type thing.

My unpopular opinion about this character

most of my opinions are unpopular ones. 😂

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon

sorry if you’ve been asked this before, but what do you think Eiffel’s stance on horror movies would be?

also what movies (any genre) do you think he would want to show Hera?

eiffel is jumpy, just kind of by nature, but for the most part i think he's the kind of guy who can laugh off / will make jokes about a horror movie while he's watching it. his problem is that he has a very active imagination, and, afterwards, when he has to go to sleep or - worse - get up in the middle of the night and make his way to the bathroom in the dark, he will convince himself that horror movie killers are real and waiting for him and freak himself out. like, whimpering before he yanks open the shower curtain, just in case. he will still say he didn't find the movie scary.

as for what he'd want to show hera... i think the honest answer to that is just "his favorite movies." it's a sincere desire to share the things he loves, but i think he does have kind of a bad habit for prioritizing his own preferences. to be somewhat fair, it's not like hera has had a chance to develop her own taste in movies. and maybe that's a turning point for him at some point post-constructive criticism, if he thinks of a movie (as he often does), and actually thinks about why hera would like it, and not just that he thinks it's a good movie. i don't know if i can say what that movie would be, though. and it won't free her from having to hear about star wars. that's unavoidable.

(i've said before that i think lord of the rings would be something they could agree on, and i stand by that, though hera would definitely prefer the books. i think éowyn is the kind of character she'd like.)

don't you worry, im a bit of a teather kid if a show is what it takes for rook to finally kiss you...then a show is what you'll get

[Continuation of this] [Next]

Oh my— it’s super effective!

not sure if i actually ship bartylily but i am very intrigued by them….would definitely read if u ever wrote anything for them 👀👀

how do u think them and jeg would interact?? i feel like the existence of bartylily would throw james & reg off so much lmaooo

CASS I ADORE U AND I’M KISSING U SO HARD FOR THIS it’s such an honour to hear that you’d read them if i ever write anything for them <3 (which i definitely will, they’re in my mind too often)

OOOOOOH I JUST GIGGLED OUT LOUD i think their reactions would be . very fun and wildly different. like reg would be surprised at first and i don’t think he’d get it. like barty, he has this specific view of lily in his mind and he doesn’t understand how barty could’ve fallen for her in the first place and viceversa. they don’t make sense to him but he isn’t . mean or judgemental about it, i feel like none of barty’s friends would be (they’d tease him and take the piss out of him all the time tho, bc that man is Down Bad). after he actually Sees them together a couple of times he starts to get it. they shouldn’t make any sense but they do and they work surprisingly well together so . he stops questioning it at some point and is just supportive

james however. is Appalled. Baffled. Disgusted even. this might just be one of the worst things that’s ever happened to him. it’s not even about jealousy, he’s with reg (sorry it’s the jeggy obsession) and only sees lily as a friend but barty is his Least Favourite Person in existence. he already has to spend too much time around him bc he’s reg’s best friend and now??? now he’s with lily??? bc not only they get along but they’re also dating??? yeah no Fuck That

don’t get me wrong i feel like almost all of lily’s friends wouldn’t take kindly to the news at first (obviously this depends on how u portray both friend groups and their opinions of each other but to me . they never truly get along u know) but i think that they’d grow to accept it at some point. even if begrudgingly. marlene and mary at least. the jury is still out about sirius + remus + peter

but james??? oh he Hates it. and Hates it forever. he’s happy to see lily happy, yeah, but that’s about it. he’s the man who gets up in the middle of the wedding to try and oppose even if he knows there’s no stopping them (reg is incredibly embarrassed and hating his life choices and trying to get him to sit back down) (barty finds it absolutely hilarious and is delighted to know he’s causing james this much turmoil even after so many years) (lily is very much Done and this is exactly why she didn’t want to invite james) (but barty needed reg there and everyone knows that reg and james are a package deal) (anyway i digress)

Thinking about 'the ending where you finally find your way home'. Thinking about Jamie living with Sam and Dani. Thinking about Big Ben and Jude. Thinking about how 23 year old Jamie being smuggled home by Sam and Dani, handed a cat, and them telling him that the cat is his, actually.

Thinking about this bristly kid with the world on his shoulders and his hands stuffed in his pockets to hide the shaking, and a cat twining around his ankles purring up a storm. And a dog with a big square head and a wagging tale who's happy to see him.

Thinking about the way he shrivels under the hopeful attention of Sam and Dani. The way he cautiously holds his hand out to let Jude sniff it.

Thinking about this painfully younger Jamie muttering, "Wasn't allowed to have any pets growing up."

Thinking about the way Dani and Sam's faces fall, because they already know that. And they know why.

They were so excited to offer him everything he loves, everything that's his to love, that they'd forgotten how once upon a time he wasn't allowed to love at all.

(and then Dani has to make up a lie about how no, actually, the dog is technically his (incorrect; everyone is everyone's, but baby steps) but no Jude always sleeps with Jamie and so does the cat. Yep.)

yes. yes! YES!!!!! YEESSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i think about this all thee time as WELL.

Jamie lingered on the last porch step while Sam unlocked the front door, hands twisted into the hem of his shirt, grateful that Dani was ahead of him in case he needed to run. He could be fast, he knew he could. Neither of them’d be able to catch up. He’d run, and run, and run until his skeleton fled its body and there was nothing left to go back to.

But the door swung open, and something—something within him, some bone-deep instinct, stopped him from bolting. Maybe it was the way the flowers in the window boxes were blooming, full-petaled and bright. Maybe it was the way there was already light spilling out onto the pavement from inside the house, like it had been waiting for them. Maybe it was the way Sam and Dani were looking at him, all soft and stupid, as if they couldn’t imagine spending their night doing anything except this.

And then Jamie didn’t have a chance to decide what it was, ’cause there was a sudden flurry of movement and a massive dog was leaping into Dani’s arms and licking him all over the face. His heart skipped a quick beat before settling, certain for a moment that the shadow he’d glimpsed had been someone else’s, and his fingers loosened around his shirt.

“Jude!” Dani was scolding, even as he laughed and puddled into the porch with a lapful of slobbering dog. “You’re not supposed to run out like that, mi amigo. Very dangerous.”

“We’ve tried to explain it to him via a Powerpoint presentation,” said Sam to—to Jamie, which was strange. “It didn’t take, for some reason.”

Jamie scoffed. “Yeah, no shit, mate.” He flinched immediately, remembering again that this wasn’t his Sam, that this was another Sam who was older and taller and could most certainly take him to the ground if he wanted to. He imagined the impact of flesh on flesh; the crimson flash of pain; his body scattered on the floor and the door to the house shut and the light vanishing as fast as it had arrived.

But Sam only lifted one shoulder in a shrug and said, “It was your idea.”

“It was!” Dani said cheerfully, though he looked a bit sad at the edges. His fingers ran along the dog’s—Jude’s—ears in nervous, frenetic motion. “We could show it to you, if you want.”

“I—” Jamie swallowed. I need to call me da. It was what he wanted to say, yet couldn’t. He already knew how they would respond. And until he figured out what the fuck was going on and how he could get everything to go back to normal, he’d just have to keep his mouth shut and his head down. He wouldn’t do anything that would make them upset. He’d gotten lucky thus far, but it wouldn’t last. The anger always came, eventually. “Sure. Yeah, I s’pose we could.”

“Excellent,” said Dani. He seemed to mean it, though Jamie couldn’t trust that he really was. “Until then, this is Jude. Jude, this is Jamie. You remember Jamie?”

’Course Jude wouldn’t fucking remember Jamie. He tensed as the dog’s head swiveled towards him, those big brown eyes wide and limpid in the late light. His body prepared itself for the low growl, the biting snap.

Except Jude’s tail began to wag, fiercer than before, and he crawled from Dani’s lap and loped in Jamie’s direction. His big boxy head bobbed in time with his strides, and then it bumped into Jamie’s knuckles, hidden still by the fabric of his shirt.

Jamie’s breath caught. His fingers crept out, and Jude’s nose nudged them, damp and cold. “Hi,” he whispered, shamefully aware of Dani and Sam watching them. “Hi, Jude. Nice to meet you. You’re a good boy, eh?”

“He is,” said Sam, quietly. “And he loves you very much, Jamie.”

“Mm,” said Jamie. He dared to scratch behind one of Jude’s floppy ears and was rewarded with an enthusiastic full-body wiggle. “I ain’t ever had a pet before.”

The glance that Sam and Dani exchanged was fleeting, but Jamie caught it all the same. His cheeks went high with heat, hating the fact that they knew so much about him while he knew next to nothing about them. He was exposed, vulnerable. His heart had been pried out of its chest and now lay on the table, ready to be dissected, unable to be put back where it belonged. He rubbed Jude beneath the chin to scrub the sensation away.

“It’s all right,” Dani said, at last. There was a gentle quality to his voice that inclined Jamie to believe him, although he didn’t want to. “You have two, now.”

Hang on.

“I have what—”

Interested in hearing about the TL 1x05 Canon divergence fic if you have thoughts to share!

I do have thoughts and you are a darling for asking about them!

So, concept: Ted doesn’t bench Jamie, Jamie goes on to score a hat trick, and Richmond wins the game… only no one but Jamie is feeling particularly good about it. The dressing room is subdued, but our precious prick couldn’t care less, he’s being his very best (worst) arrogant self. Roy is fed up to the point where he, realizing that Ted isn’t about to do anything, follows Jamie home and knocks on his door to have a very civil and polite word about what being part of a team means.

Predictably, the conversation quickly devolves into shoving and growling and – less predictably (to them, not to any reader) – it then takes a turn for the sexy and the messy when Roy realizes that Jamie isn’t exclusively pissed off about being pushed against a wall. Not a particularly original set-up, granted, but it’s a classic for a reason, so.

This is basically pure kink, fulfilling all my enemy ship and sadist!Roy and bratty subs being taken down a peg needs (except that last bit might not quite work out in the way Roy imagines, and in the end there’s some actual conversation and vague hints at vague Feelings because I’m bad at not letting them be a little bit vulnerable too. At the end of the day my true kink is character studies, so a little bit it's that, but disguised as sparkling pornography).

This is the fic I’ve got the most stuff already written for and I’m very excited about this idea, but it’s also the piece I’m least confident about writing. We’ll see how it goes!

ok now u got me thinking. aki coming back as the Cold devil. or the Winter devil. or the Snow Storm devil. and he looks the same as he did when he was human but his irises are like a powder blue and there’s always snow in his hair and his lashes. and contrast that with falling in love with you again who he thinks of as so warm and kind and loving….. thawing him….. much to think about - 🍊

the same year the gun devil was eliminated, japan experienced a particularly hard winter season — perhaps that's why he was reborn as the snow devil. when he first opened his eyes, he was met with a dark and cloudy sky, he could hear the lull of the ocean, his ears were still ringing from the hum of a chainsaw and the only thing he can remember is his first name, and particularly not his last.

public safety is quick to follow through on the reports of a humanoid-looking devil wandering the outskirts of hokkaido, leaving a trail of frozen water and dead trees in his path. upon capturing him, since he seemed to not pose much of a threat, he's escorted to the headquarters in tokyo rather than slain.

once the devil gets there, he's apathetic, quiet. doesn't speak unless spoken to. his skin is pale, his lips are chapped, his eyes are a pretty shade of blue and his eyelashes are pure white. he'd pass as a human if it wasn't for the twist of icicles sticking out from his head like horns, covering his hair and his shoulders in tiny droplets of snow, or for the intricate marks on his skin, faint tattoos in the shape of snowflakes.

he looks familiar. like someone who's face was in the obituaries a while ago.

in the mail, you get an unexpected letter from public safety. it includes train tickets, and it's telling you to come to tokyo on urgent business. the minute you've arrived, some devil hunters explain the situation: you need to have a look at this devil — the snow storm devil — and tell them everything you might know about it.

of course, you've never heard of such a thing before. you don't know anything about devils, how are you supposed to give them any valuable information? but when the hunters unlock the cell for you, when you take a step inside and they tell you, don't worry, just keep your distance and you won't get hurt right as they flick the lights on, you realize exactly why you were called here.

it's him.

it's aki, this devil looks exactly like aki, his hair is long and dark and messy, he's got the same face as aki and the same voice as aki when he opens his mouth to ask who you are. he doesn't get to finish his sentence and tell you how damn familiar you look to him because you're already running over, reaching out to touch him even though the devil hunters are yelling at you from the other side of the door, telling you it's too dangerous.

and his skin is cold, he's freezing. you grip his hands, you wrap your arms around him and hug him and it's aki.

aki isn't sure why, but right then, he feels like crying. he's felt nothing but coldness since he came to this place, but you feel so, so warm. his heart twists in his chest, he hugs you back even though he doesn't really know why. he could kill you, he could press his palm to your back and watch you freeze until you're nothing but dust and ice. but he doesn't.

he holds you close, he breathes frost-filled air into the nape of your neck. his body shakes, you mutter into his ear that you've missed him. you pull away, and there's a look in his eyes that's familiar, it's one you've always known.

and yet, when you nervously ask him if he knows who you are, if he remembers you, aki answers honestly, and it's the most the devil has ever spoken: "I don't. But I feel like I should. I'm sorry."

okay okay hear me out maya and diego for the duo bingo

I KNEW I COULD COUNT ON YOU GUYS youre my bestest friends for ever and ever. thank you for indulging me. ok ok ok frankly its literally CRIMINAL that for a relationship that is like literally half the crux of the final case of aa3 there is like. no content . at all. and it breaks my poor heart into PIECES its really truly does. like ok the thing is people only ever seem interested in exploring this relationship via mia but the problem is 1) i dont want it to just be about mia. yes obviously mia is the springboard for this relationship's existence in the first place since she's maya's older sister and diego's girlfriend but like come on guys you are all SO..... sigh. this is such wasted potential. come on 2) THEY NEVER DO ANYTHING INTERESTING WITH ITTTTT

okay because like. personally i think mia & maya's relationship is infinitely more interesting if maya has incredibly complicated feelings that she simply is trying really really hard not to address. like because in aa3 i think if you present mia's profile to maya, maya says that she really misses her and phoenix asks why she doesnt just ask pearl to channel her, and maya gives some complete bs non response of "ohhh i wouldnt want to burden her" or something. which makes no sense. like come on guys. really. anyways maya is the kind of person who really doesnt hold grudges - when people to terrible things her first response is generally more to sympathize with the victim and less getting angry at the perpetrator. even with the mask demasque case where she was a literal victim, she gets mad at phoenix for wanting to defend ron for like a few minutes before letting it blow over and moving on. furthermore, like any ace attorney character, maya also really loves avoiding her problems and trying super hard to Not Think About Them.

with this in mind i think the most interesting way to interpret her relationship with mia is that she does actually feel resentment towards her for frolicking off into the distance to become a lawyer and to some degree kind of abandoning her in the same way that their mom did, but the problem is because its maya her internal thought process goes "i am frustrated at mia for leaving me alone -> but mia loved me -> if mia loved me she wouldnt have wanted to hurt me -> therefore, the problem here is me unjustly feeling hurt as opposed to mia hurting me even if it was unintentional" and she would feel so guilty about having any sort of resentment towards mia (especially now that shes literally Dead) that she loops back around to pretending everything is Normal and Fine and Good so that she doesnt spiral into a guilt feedback loop. NOW. with this in mind.

ive already talked about this a bit between my art post and my mildly extended thoughts which im not going to bother repeating here so go read that if youre interested in the cuter details but objectively i think the best possible ending for diego is after he does his prison time, maya & pearl invite him to come live with them (he doesnt have a job, he presumably has no living relatives, and most importantly he's adjusting to having a significant disability in the world after spending the past like 5 years in prison and therefore absolutely somebody who should not be living alone right now). now ive already talked a bit about the cute stuff because like ok yes . i do enjoy some good domestic shenanigans. however . the fey family period drama is nothing if not full of mental illness and this needs some addressing.

both maya & diego have like . severe issues. with avoiding their personal problems but fortunately for us, . in the words of my good friend. avoiding your problems is really really hard when you invite them to live with you. because like the thing is - and something i think frankly doesnt get addressed enough in anything attempting to explore this relationship in the direction i want - is that ...... maya literally. she couldve died. yes he did put his life on the line to save her and yes that does mean something but also he literally let her walk into that situation in the first place, absurdly bad mental issues or not. and frankly i think maya SHOULD have complicated feelings on it i want that for her. obviously this would follow the same train of thought process as with mia in the sense of "well he saved me and if he wasnt there i Literally Would Have For Real Died and pearl wouldve been forced to live with my blood on her hands (dahlia possession or no) so i cant feel resentful a bit at all or else that makes me a Bad Person". and of course there's the wonderful added complication of the fact that the entire BttT situation is intimately connected to mia with whom she Already has Complicated Feelings That She Is Trying Really Hard To Pretend She Doesn't Have on. there's been a million things said on diegos many many mental issues and i already touched on that very briefly anyways in the earlier linked thought post so im not going to repeat the whole spiel but in short its my opinion that he definitely wanted to have his little redemption by death by the end of BttT but I Won't Let Him. hes not getting off the hook that easy. anyways obviously by the end of this whole thing the Issues come to a head and there is some sort of a serious conversation about the current Situation and obviously not everythings magically fixed, but now that we're not aggressively boxing up our uglier emotions and pretending they dont exist they can actually start getting addressed.

on a lighter note 1) this is very much like an edgeworth & kay situation where its like. diego is too obnoxious to not have a weird little girl following him around and making fun of him all the time to take his ego down a peg or two and 2) also as i said in that other post i wholeheartedly believe maya deserves as many older sibling figures as her heart desires <3 hes like basically her older brother in law anyways . also wait before you go take the gif thats looping in my head like a good 20% of the day

did we enjoy hanging out at the virtual bar last night ..... sorry i didn't finish answering the asks i fell asleep on the floor listening to lover you should've come over on a loop for 3 hours anyway here's the rest 😌 i may not be drunk anymore but i answered them quick fire mode for that authentic experience fjkjsds

i feel like as she's gotten older, caroline became the retrospective/morose kinda drunk and that's beth's natural state so it would be like a healing therapy session for sure. mikaela gets sloppy lmaooo so she would be blabbing about things no one asked, probably dropping some crazy anecdote that no one can tell if it's true or not. danny just gets stupid horny fjksjds sorry, gotta kick him out after 2 drinks or you'll see a lot more than you ever wanted to

he earned it!!!

honestly i never do anything for my sims birthdays because there's just so many of them 😭 but tom bought him a brownie from the dining hall and stuck a candle in it, then they gathered some friends and went out for drinks later but casper paid the whole tab with danny's money lol and his friends back home got on a group phone call to wish him happy birthday 💖

it suuuuuucks :( i know it's necessary and someday it will feel good and hopefully my relationships will be stronger because of it, but in the meantime i just feel like a toddler who doesn't have the words to describe how i feel so i just cry a lot fjkjsds it's definitely easier to give austin the benefit of the doubt because i can relate, but that makes me want to see him improve more than anything. i don't want to live my life in such a closed-off way anymore and austin probably doesn't either... he just isn't at that stage yet where he realizes it's a problem, so it's frustrating to witness him act like this 😭

BETHHH all of the above!! (well except HOA, because fuck HOAs) we've seen her volunteer as a chaperone for school dances, she's definitely asa's most involved parent in his school & general safety. caroline liked interacting with other parents when asa was little, because she was a young parent she wanted to soak up as much parental experience as possible. on the other hand, mikaela felt embarrassed about how she was the youngest parent in the room when she was putting casper through school/sports so she tended to keep to herself, but she did eventually embrace her status as a soccer mom and then football mom lmao. i can see her and beth in a bookclub :')

yeah he's at the tail end of his tour right now, he only has a few shows left. in the last post with caroline & asa in the hospital, mikaela was actually on the phone with danny but it didn't really make sense to include in that scene, so i moved it to the next time we'll see asa's parents. so i can't say too much about him yet!! but yeah he did take a SUPER long break, so his team is not going to be happy if he asks for another. he tries to keep his family out of the spotlight and only shares nonspecific information about them, but of course he taps into his emotions when writing music so i'm sure a lot of his family struggles come through, just maybe not in the way a casual listener would hear and think "oh his son has had mysterious health problems his whole life" or anything like that!

it's honestly been really fun to write!! he's such a stoic figure and his inner monologue is too, but there's a lot he doesn't say even to himself that's just simmering under the surface...

@forgotten-pixels omg it's funny you bring this up!! when i first introduced mac in the story, i wasn't thinking at all about genetics, i just picked a coat pattern i thought was cute and randomly decided he would be a boy, but then right after that i switched my major to biology and took a genetics class where i had to do a whole research project about chromosomal abnormalities and used male tortoiseshell cats as one of the focuses because they have an extra X chromosome which can also occur in humans (though obviously we don't get cute patterns because of it..... sad!) but male tortoiseshell cats tend to have a ton of health problems & lowered life expectancy because of this abnormality, so if we were being entirely realistic mac probably wouldn't have survived into adulthood. but since this is the sims i decided pets can never die fjksjds i did think about doing a silly retcon where once mac is no longer a kitten he runs away for a few days and returns pregnant because oops he's actually a female cat but 1. again, this is sims so who cares about realism and 2. there is no way in hell beth would be irresponsible enough to not get her adopted stray cat fixed as soon as possible. so i just scrapped the whole idea lmao but yes!! mac is just an exceedingly rare kitty :P

aww i'm sorry i think you sent this a couple days ago, but thank you for thinking of me 🥺 i hope you had a good day!!

noo you didn't make me feel rushed at all!! i totally get wanting to know, i wish i could be more consistent but i've given up on expecting that from myself jfkjsdj but yeah don't fear, he's not really dead dead hehe

oh i love this for them, thank you so much 💖 i don't know anything but just from what you've said, i think leo & aries makes so much sense for finn and asa because like they literally were never supposed to be together or even meet in their lifetimes but by god they will NOT let that stop them 😌

@morrigan-sims AHHH yeah i honestly have nothing to add to this fjkjsds you said it all !! i could comment more but that would be spoilers territory so i'll just leave it with saying i love hearing everyone's predictions, it makes me happy that you know these characters well enough to see into the future a bit 🥺

he wouldn't do anything to hurt (physically or emotionally) asa's family, nor would he knowingly let asa hurt them himself. so...... honey you've got a big storm coming i guess 😭😭

she loves animals, particularly reptiles & amphibians, she'd be so great working in conservation or education about animals especially for kids 🥺

she has a vague idea of how certain people would react... she thinks stevie would probably believe her (at least partially) because she's always been pretty open to unexplainable phenomenon, but she falsely believes that stevie wouldn't be able to keep a secret (she doesn't know that stevie has been keeping asa & finn's secret for a decade now...). she would never want to tell elaine, because she knows elaine doesn't believe in anything supernatural and would probably assume she's experiencing actual delusions. that just leaves asa, who she might have considered telling, except that she knows how badly he's struggled with his own mental health so she would never want to potentially make it worse by confusing his reality in a sense...

oh yeah i definitely cannot comment on this one jfkjsds

asa truly does not think about consequences or the future. you wouldn't assume this is the case because of how quiet and thoughtful he seems, but he chooses to live in the moment and deal with problems as they arise, not a minute sooner. for him, there's just no way he'll ever be without finn, no matter what he has to do to make that happen or what he has to give up..

Leorenz Commission for @aurora-boring-alis --

Commission Info Here

Tell me the Pokémon music thoughts??? :000

TWO whole Pokemon music asks WOOHOO!!!!! These past few days I’ve been on a kick of listening to Scarlet and Violet’s OST and downloading my faves (since I wanted to wait until the DLC had been released and then play through it fully before doing so) and it might be one of my favorite soundtracks to date. That being said here are the tracks I’m currently the most feral about:

Battle! (Team Star Boss)

The loop for this one is almost SIX MINUTES LONG which is a smart choice for how long and difficult some of these fights tend to be—and it’s six minutes of pure unadulterated musical goodness. Obviously the killer synths and guitars are a highlight here, but what really makes this theme (and the rest of the Team Star themes) special is how the harsh instrumentation is contrasted with sections containing emotional melodies and harmonies that give a sense of determination and hope—which fits in with Team Star’s storyline as former victims of bullying and doing their best to persevere in spite of that. All their themes are also composed by one of their bosses in-universe which is a fun lore detail (shoutout to my boy Giacomo I love him <3)

South Province

This one basically functions as the theme of the Paldea Region—this leitmotif (composed by our beloved Toby Fox) appears a LOT in various places within the soundtrack, particularly in cutscenes. It’s a great theme for exploring out and about in the game’s open world, and the sunny A major is a great key choice which is always a win in my book. I’m also a big fan of the piano version that plays while you’re walking in the overworld (as opposed to using your mount Koraidon/Miraidon) as well as the beautiful arrangement used at the end of the main story (if I had a nickel for every time a piano theme at the end of a Pokemon game made me cry I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice).

Showdown! (Champion Kieran)

I haven’t had a lot of time to get myself acquainted with much of the DLC soundtrack, but I wanted to include at least one in this list because there’s a lot of quality stuff worth shouting out. This is the last of Kieran’s three battle themes (technically there’s four but the final one isn’t a full battle and is mostly comprised of Terapagos’ motif as opposed to his own so I’m omitting it here) and there’s an interesting transformation that happens across each of them—it starts out mostly with traditional instrumentation and only mild chromaticism (which almost all battle themes have at least a little of) but transforms into something harsher by adding electric guitars/synths and more dissonant, darker harmonies (this one makes heavy use of Phrygian and Locrian elements—Phrygian is a mode that’s very similar to the minor scale but uses a flat 2nd scale degree, so for a piece in E minor like this one that would mean using an F natural as opposed to an F#. Locrian is the same as Phrygian but with a flat 5 added as well, meaning B♭ as opposed to B natural. These flat notes serve to darken the overall sound), which corresponds to Kieran’s arc of becoming bitter and resentful as he suffers repeated losses at the hands of the player. I’m also tickled by the fact that his battle themes are all in E minor which is the softest and gentlest minor to my ears—you can hide under those edgy guitars all you want Kieran but we all know you’re still baby :3

Area Zero

And we’ve saved the best for last because this is hands down my FAVORITE theme from this game; it’s not even a contest. I have such a vivid memory of playing through Scarlet for the first time a year ago and being incredibly intrigued about what was hiding in the massive crater at the region’s center (I tried flying/leaping in with Koraidon and lurking outside the Zero Gate yelling “LET ME INNNN” more times than I can count lmao)—and I was not at all disappointed when I got there because this is straight up one of the prettiest areas in the whole game. However. HOWEVER. NOTHING could have possibly prepared me for the breathtakingly beautiful music that accompanies this place—I remember stopping in my tracks as soon as I heard that low brass kick in, and then the chanting. Oh my lord the CHANTING. Honestly I was sold right then and there but WE’RE STILL NOT DONE MAKING THE MUSIC OF THE GODS BECAUSE SWEET MOTHER MARY THAT SYNTH????? TOOK ME THE FUCK OUT—I lose my everliving shit at anything even resembling an erhu in music because its voice-like timbre is so…raw and emotional in a way I really don’t know how to describe; all I know is it rocks me to my core to the point that I have to watch my breathing when I listen to a piece that has one lest I start hyperventilating (because it’s powerful enough to literally induce a physiological response out of me). Needless to say I was frozen in place for at LEAST ten minutes just to take it all in; that initial experience was utterly magical and I wish more than anything I could go back in time to live that feeling again.

But that very long preface aside, there are a couple other things about this piece worth noting—the first being that E♭ minor is an IMMACULATE key choice in my opinion. In my synesthesia it primarily represents what I call “the crushing black weight of despair,” but it also functions very nicely in any intense, high-stakes situation, which fits beautifully with the circumstances surrounding Area Zero in-game. It’s a walled garden filled with invasive wildlife from the distant past/future that poses an imminent threat to Paldea’s ecosystem should they find a means of escaping to the outside; in fact, we learn from the professor that some species have already managed to do so. I also quite like how the instrumentation is vastly different from every other piece of music you’ll hear in Paldea’s overworld, which has primarily been orchestral arrangements up to this point—but here, it’s a blend of primal and futuristic sounds that perfectly captures the collision of the present and the past/future. So yeah if you couldn’t tell I am so so so so unhinged about everything this theme represents and I fully expect to be just as mentally unwell about it YEARS down the line (because believe me, I’ve certainly got the track record for it).

Scarlet and Violet’s music is just so so good—and again, obligatory “this is just the tip of the iceberg that is everything I love about this soundtrack” but I hope you enjoyed my insights into what makes this music so special!