todays bird
Sade Olutola
Acquired Stardust
cherry valley forever
wallacepolsom

Product Placement

titsay

izzy's playlists!
Three Goblin Art
Misplaced Lens Cap

#extradirty
Cosmic Funnies

Janaina Medeiros
No title available
Stranger Things
I'd rather be in outer space đž

â
Alisa U Zemlji Chuda
One Nice Bug Per Day
Not today Justin
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Canada
seen from United States
seen from Oman
seen from United States
seen from Colombia
seen from Cambodia

seen from Germany
seen from Finland
seen from United States
seen from United States
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seen from United States
@xnomnomx
Imagine being the kind of gamer chud who thinks Kait's design in Gears 5 was too much. Like, the designers sat down and were like okay it's not 2006 anymore, maybe we shouldn't make all the female characters actual barbie dolls with flawless skin, perfect hair & makeup, pencil thin proportions and vacuum sealed pants and just maybe make a woman who is only very traditionally attractive as opposed to a straight up Victoria's Secret model in a sexy Gears of War halloween costume. She still looks like absolutely comical standing next to any male character, like a stickbug next to a shaved gorilla but divorced from the rest of the game's art style she at least looks like she could throw a half decent punch. And this bare minimum compromise was going too far for Gears of War's audience apparently.
The people saying that about Kait aren't even big fans of the game. They play it once and never touch it again until a new game gets announced and they decide to do a tribute run through the series. They don't read the books, they don't know the lore of the game, they don't play versus even private ones with friends. They don't think about the message or wonder how things would need to transpire for a different outcome. They don't even think about the implications of humanity's discovery and use of imulsion being the cause of their finding and using imulsion to the point of self extinction. They don't ponder over the way Marcus is the embodiment of repressed male sadness, a symbol of strength that doesn't show emotions because it's not allowed. They don't see Baird as the over compensation for feeling fear doubt and self loathing presented as flippant sarcasm and self assured intelligence. They don't see Dom and recognize heart break and determination to keep going, as loyalty and love. They don't see Cole as gentleness hope and optimism through loss and tragedy. They don't care to think beyond aim and shoot. They don't want to use their brains. They just want to shoot shoot kill shoot boom boom boom. So when they see Kait as a main character with a whole story that plays out on screen, they are forced to use their brains to wonder why she's there and how she belongs in the game and that makes them mad.
preach!!!
but in all seriousness I love your approach to the symbolism of the individual characters values...it gets lost how much their stories and approaches to the war represents their hidden strengths because they're 'big and strong and shoot stuff'. Complex characters make these games so beautiful and enjoyable (for both trilogies.)
It will be interesting when E-day releases and we see a younger, less experienced version of Marcus and Dom and if there will be uproar about them not being the absolute beasts they are when we first meet them in the first game--because they are relatively inexperienced and young when Emergence occurs.
Excellent analysis on all fronts!
little wip of Gamma from my fav webtoon ITBMW
one day this fandom shall grow
Was flipping through the art book for gears 5 and...
There are full on statues of Anya Stroud (and of course paintings like the one we see in the cutscenes in Jinn's office) in the main government building which makes sense because she was the founder of the new gov't.
But that's gotta be weird for Marcus and JD...and probably played a role in Marcus not wanting to ever be in the cities as he'd literally have to look at reminders of his wife all the time. And JD looking at his dead mom.
And now they have to be in that building all the time because its now the main military base. and a reminder of how far the new rulers fell from what Anya was trying to do.
(Not to mention the rest of old Delta seeing their dead friend)
Chapters: 1/1 Characters: Delmont "Del" Walker, James "JD" Fenix, Fahz Chutani, Kait Diaz, Garron Paduk, Damon Baird, Marcus Fenix Series: Part 2/4 of From the Ashes Summary:
Set during the gap between returning from Vasgar and before the siege on New Ephyra
â.Ëââ.Ëâ.Ëââ.Ë
The prospect of building a rocket had been incredibly exciting for Del. Emphasis on had. But the arrival of the giant monster at the rocket platform and nearly being cooked alive by the thrusters had sapped him of his enthusiasm.
Chapters: 1/1 Characters: James "JD" Fenix, Fahz Chutani, Marcus Fenix, Kait Diaz, Delmont "Del" Walker Series: Part 1/4 of From the Ashes Summary:Â Â
Set before the mission of Vasgar
â.Ëââ.ËÂ â.Ëââ.Ë
âWhat d'yaâ reckon Jinnâll say about the spiffy new tech the Swarm âave got?â
Stories, Secrets,& Sorrows
Masterlist
chapter 1
chapter 2
chapter 3
chapter 4
chapter 5
chapter 6
chapter 7
chapter 8
chapter 9
chapter 10
chapter 11
chapter 12
chapter 13
chapter 14
chapter 15
chapter 16
chapter 17
chapter 18
chapter 19
chapter 20
chapter 21
this behemoth was a joy and pain to write, but i am so happy it's completed and now i can retire my zombie status!
and i'm so excited with the third dlc releasing soon and even happier I got this written, if you have a like or kudos to spare please do,
they feed me
Series: Part 2 of A New Frontier
PT.2
knocking the cobwebs off the digital art things again...
a little backstory sketch of my MC's scar ( bc I love a backstory) and how she meet prof. fig. adding color to this was a chore so please imagine the pink hair I gave her ;)
PT. 1
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
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Fandom: Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
Rating: Teen And Up Audience
Relationships: So'lek te Elusa Kiro'itan/The Sarentu | PlayerÂ
Characters: Alma Cortez, John Mercer (Avatar - Cameron), Angela Harding, Teylan (Avatar - Cameron), So'lek te Elusa Kiro'itan, Priya Chen, Alexander Tremayne, Ri'nela (Avatar - Cameron), Nor (Avatar - Cameron), Original Female Character(s)
Series: Part 1 of A New Frontier
Notes:
i really love this game and how much it draws you in, characters and world alike. my aim with writing in this world is simply just to explore it and have fun. I'm mostly compelled by the characters and dynamics.this intro will jump through the few years before the Sarentu make it out into Pandora. I also choose to see the Sarentu as in their early twenties when the game takes place.
As for the relationship tag I will probably take a while to get to implying it. In my mind I ship them (˶ᔠᔠá”˶)
My Sarentu's name is Sev'iri! and I imagine her actually having a Na'vi accent like the rest of them!!
Without further adieu!
Â ê§ àŒș đ đ đ Â àŒ» ê§
The air burned.
Before her, Sevâiriâs hands were blurry where they groped across the wall for a release hatchâfor anything.
She felt the bottom of the door with her searching hands and tried to slip her fingers under it, but it was no use. The massive door was meant for AMP suits, and her weakened state would prove useless for getting it to budge.
Finally she sagged to the cold floor below, wheezing, and closing her eyes. She could endure this. It never lasted much longer than this.
There was a crackle over the radio then Mercerâs voice, amused, cut through. âThatâs enough Harding.â
A loud beep sequence followed and the lights switched to green. Soft hissing filled the room, drawing out her pounding heart as stable air filled the space, replacing the human air Harding had subjected her to.
âDamn, Mercer.â Hardingâs voice loomed over her, and Sevâiriâs eyes opened to shiny boots a few feet from her face. âRuining my fun. Get up!â
With a harsh cough she pushed her hands and knees, then to a squat. Aware if she didnât move any faster, regardless of her dizzy state, Harding would likely get physical.
She hacked and stood up shakily, feeling herself sway and shiver, finally focusing on the woman before her.
âCome onâback to the bunks.â Sevâiri turned, watching as the door she crawled to hissed and rose upwards. She rubbed her throat as she walked, wincing at each breath she drew in of proper air. Her lungs felt raw as though rocks had been rubbed throughout them. It would hard to rest tonight, and even harder to eat in the morning. If she even was permitted breakfast.
Harding ditched her in the hallway that led to the sleeping quarters for all the Naâvi children. She entered her room, alone and completely in the dark.
There were no more shared bunks after Ahaâri died.She was accustomed to not going to bed at the proper curfew due to Harding's short temper and Mercerâs sick punishments and did not even need to feel her way to her bed. Simply took five steps forward and fell to her side.
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Sevâiri watched Almaâs long blue tail swish. Back and forth. Twitch as she processed a question from Teylan, then continued in a rhythmic pattern. Alma paced up and down between the desks, hands moving in the air as she gestured again to the bright screen at the front of their classroom.Â
âSevâiri?... Sevâiri?â She blinked, focusing on Almaâs concerned face. âIs everything alright?â
âYes. I am just..tired today.â Sevâiri answered softly, waiting for Alma to return back to their lesson. She could see in the pained, pinched look on Almaâs faceâand the way the others shifted uncomfortably in their seatsâ that Alma knew why she was tired. But she couldnât say anything about it.
She was in deep trouble with Mercer. The day before, in their weapons handling class, Harding had broken Norâs hand during her demonstration of how to hold a gun. Sevâiri hadnât meant to get angry, normally she could swallow back her emotions and wait like Riânela or Teylan. Shoulders slumped and eyes averted. But sheâd felt so fiercely about Norâs crying that sheâd pointed her own gun at Harding, hissing and growling.
Harding hadnât seemed bothered, Sevâiri thought about the look on her face. Harding looked as if sheâd just confirmed something that pleased her. Class had been dismissed, and sheâd spent most of the night deep cleaning all the guns Harding could find.
Mercer had shown up during their evening lecture though, and Alma had practically begged him to stop.
âMercâJohn, please!â Alma had pleaded. âJust let me work one on one with herâit was a mistake! â
âThat's enough, Alma!â Mercerâs voice was sharp and Sevâiri flinched, eyes closing to block out the harsh lights of the classroom. His cruel eyes had bore into hers. âYou know what happens when you break contact.â
She shook her head, dispelling the memory, and focused again on Alma's swishing tail, now more angry and jerky in its movements. She even stopped talking for more than a minute and ignored Teylanâs questions about economicsâŠhuh?
Nor sat next to her, his injured hand hidden beneath the table, occasionally heâd give her an unbothered smile, which helped her relax a little. His hand would heal, it had too.
âAnyways,â Alma straightened, then pointed her hand at the display screen which now filled the entire front wall of the room. âWhy donât we switch to more fun topics.â
In front of their desk Teylan whined while Riânela perked up, staring at the loading icon of the RDA insignia. Sevâiri sat up a bit more, too. Alma wasnât really allowed to show them much outside of Mercerâs curriculumâwhich was mostly combat or anything that furthered his own interests on Pandora. But sometimes Alma would show them pictures of the planet, or its animals, or clips of songs.
In a quick burst of light the screen loaded a brilliant picture of greens and blues and purples and pinks. Sevâiri stared at the image with open mouthed wonder. The tall trees, the hanging plants and darting insects.The sky was several hues of blue and orangeâa sunset is what Alma called itâ and so vast. The image slid to the next, showing thick forest, with lush trees and plants and a darting group ofâ
âViperwolves!â Teylan shouted. Clearly over his pouting as he muttered the names for everything he could remember.
The viperwolves were moving in the photo and she realized it was because they were watching a camera recording of the forest, perhaps even at this minute.
âI cannot wait to go out there.â Sevâiri murmured and Riânela turned to smile at her in agreement.
âIt will be such an amazing experience to see our home.â The other girl murmured. âTo meet others like us.â
Alma looked nervous at the statement, her eyes darted to the doors like she half expected Mercer to break through. âJ-just remember, you're here on behalf of the RDA to help us connect with other clans.â
They all just sighed contentedly, and with a soft smile Alma relaxed. The screen shifted again and Sevâiriâs mouth dropped open in shock. The picture had been taken from quite a distance away but the entire center of the image was cut through by a brilliant series of arches, bone looking rock that curved up out of the earth like a dome. Small specks dotted near the top, large enough that from the distance she knew they were the banshees the soldiers complained about all the time. She stared at the image as long as she could, committing it to memory and to heart.
Ahari remembered more of Pandora, after all, Sevâiri was so small when Mercer took them in. But her sister could gush for hours about what all she could remember from her years before the RDA. Her favorite thing had been the sky.
âIt is the colors that never end!â Ahariâs voice creeps up from memory. Only three years before had she said that, and now she could only exist in their minds. She stared at a new image of the sunset ahead and tried to remember the words in their native language again. But since Ahariâs death they'd been too afraid to speak it with fear that Mercer was constantly listening in.
But hopefully, one day, theyâd be permitted to learn Naâvi again and to finally see the never ending colors Ahari had promised.
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Sevâiri  watched as the soldiers stepped into the room. Slow, almost at ease movements, but behind their masks their eyes focused on all the Naâvi standing before them. Nor hissed, stepping before Riânela and Teylan, with a pivot the guns trained on her where she stood apart from them.
Then the doors opened again, and Alma tore into the room, her long legs covering the ground between her and the soldiers before they could turn fully and then Sevâiri saw the gun in her hands, then Alma aimed at the soldiers.
And shot them.
Sevâiri watched the blood seep from the fallen humans, too confused and nervous to understand what Alma was doingâor that in that moment sheâd saved their lives.
âCome on! We have to go!â Alma screamed. Nor pushed the others ahead of him, and then tugged at Sevâiriâclearly he was the only one who could function at this moment.
She didnât even know Alma knew how to use a gun. Sheâd always just been their kind, almost-Naâvi, instructor.
âSevâiri!â This time Nor grabbed her and pulled. âWe must run .â
The base seemed so foreign. The hallways were dark, save for disturbing red light that flared and spun, illuminating the hallway in disorienting flashes. They ran, following Alma through parts of the base she didn't know existed.
Until finally, then doors slid behind them, cutting off the sounds of the alarms and the lights flickered on to reveal⊠a room full of tanks?
Alma raised her hands, shushing Teylanâs panicked questions.
âBut Mercerââ Teylan began, voice weak..
âMercer tried to have us killed!â Nor shouted.
âBut!â
â Teylan!â Ri'nela and Sevâiri said in unison.
Alma waved her hands in the air. âHey! I need you guys to listenâplease! Itâs the only way you make it through this.â
Nor challenged Alma back but Sevâiri couldnât hear much; she focused on the clear chambers, whose doors were now sliding backâbig enough inside to hold them.
Alma took her arm a few moments later and encouraged her to sit, and with one glance at the others she folded herself down into the tank. But her panic rose as the lid sealed and her breath fogged against the glass, meeting Almaâs teary eyes one last time.
She wished she could be with the others, because inside this machine she could only feel how far theyâd been torn from their own planetâfrom each other.
Her vision began to cloud, easing the fear a bit, and finally she watched Alma mouth an apology before her five fingers trailed off of the clear pod door and Sevâiri fell into sleep.
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Waking from the eternal sleep had felt like rising through a warm ocean. A gradual rise and bump from her heartbeat. She'd dreamed of something while she's been sealed away, but now it eluded her, sinking back down into the depths as light began to pulse into her world again.
Now felt nothing like that.
Sevâiriâs heart was in her throat for a long while after she narrowly escaped Harding and Mercerâs wrath. Fingers in her hair, breathing heavy, muscles both tensed and fatigued at her frantic running. She had been so strong before Alma had sealed them away, but her body had changed in her sleep. She crouched for a moment on the pipes, sucking in a shaky breath.
Soâlek had not answered when sheâd radioed him, when heâd saved her from Harding and Mercer just moments before. Without Alma or the others she felt restless and afraid, and Soâlek had been the only connection to them. To her survival.
Carefully she raised up a bit, still needing to fold into herself in the maintenance tunnel, and moved into the room outside. It was quiet here, in the ruins of what TAP had once been and gunfire sounded no more than faint little ticks in the distance. Sevâiri rose, finding her legs a bit more shaky than before.
Eventually a hole in the concrete revealed a fallen ceiling and a path into a tunnel, full of shafts of metal and flickering lights and to her shock, plants.
She quickened her pace. She could get out.
Sometimes, water puddles shifted and glowed. And strange colors and glimmers dotted the wreckage of TAP. She stopped her sprint at the sight of a gash in the ceiling, revealing a warm light that beamed down and illuminated the space.
The sun. She was seeing the sun.
When she was certain she was near her exit from the place she made a leap onto twisted tree roots, submerged in dark water. It squished between her toes, the moss on the bark soft and gentle, unlike the metal grating of the building sheâd spent her life in. Barefoot, and forced to endure the cold sting and the sharp dig of vents. She trembled, not from exertion, but from some emotion she could not name, and could not swallow back down.
The tunnel beyond yawned on for a many dozen yards, and she could no longer hear the sounds of fighting from behind her. Ahead, a large hole had been ripped open in the hull of the TAP building, the jagged metal covered by foliage and the opening glowing with the light of the outdoors.
Sevâiri slowed, her ears collecting sounds sheâd never been allowed to get accustomed to. Sheâd once memorized the sounds of different AMP's moving, different types of breathing, the whir that machines made. Things that drove the Na'vi children mad, but did not affect the humans. Unlike any of that, these sounds were gentle and kind to her.
Warmth radiated from outside, and her eyes did not yet adjust to the brightness. In that moment, she forgot she was escaping. She forgot about Soâlek and Alma and the others. She craved to reach out and touch the plants near her, but the fear Mercer drove into them about how savage Pandora was restrained her. She halted at the opening, scarcely breathing. Waiting for him to snatch her back into the cold dark that was their home for so long. But Mercer did not.
Without looking back, Sevâiri jumped from the ruined place landed in cool water and on smooth rocks. Her tail twitched. Lungs filling with real air. She slid her feet forward step after step, refusing to let them leave the water and followed the stream on for some time. Shimmying her way through the water like a wonderstruck child.
She lifted her eyes, warmed by tears, to the world. She was home.
Â ê§ àŒș đ đ đ àŒ» ê§
âšgears 5 ramblesâš
Thereâs some things Iâve seen online about Gears 5 that somewhat confuse me. Itâs mostly in regards to the writing for the characters. And as you can imagine, the complaining is mostly about Kait from a demographic of what I'm assuming is gamer-chadâs still obsessed with the way the franchise was in 2006.
It felt like people didn't pay real attention to the meaning or the nuances of the game. Not everything is going to be said outright. I rarely see anyone say different and since I've recently replayed the fifth game some stuff has been on my mind.
A few of the things I reference comes from the Gears novels. I'll try and point it out as I go. I'll break it up into âchaptersâ of each weird opinion I've seen and my thoughts on it.
Disclaimer: Strap in, I wrote this âšcaffeinatedâš (it's long)
I must confess. I want to put on a scuba suit and take a deep dive into Gears of War lore, especially the newer ones, but I donât want to go alone. I need someone to gush about Gears 5 with, Fahz needs more lore and itâs driving me crazy! I have no one irl to speculate with đ
à©â©â§âË masterlist à©â©â§âË
gears of war
*à©â©â§âË kait & jd *à©â©â§âË
that won't be necessary
band's back together
the sun still rises
without a hitch
*à©â©â§âË hivebusters *à©â©â§âË
the path to awakening
hogwarts legacy
*à©â©â§âË
to be published
avatar frontiers of pandora
*à©â©â§âË
arrival
omg i underestimated how much i would love drawing the little monkey scribbles!!
colored!
recently did a play through and this scene made me laughâpoor kait