#I like not having too much to update with every patch is the problem

[csphire]

So... Frazer the voice actor to Dammon doesn't want Tav or the Dark Urge to romance his character? Well, shit.

It's late, I'm tired and should be in bed, just saw the letter from Dammon from patch 5, and yeah I'm a little weepy now. So excuse any typos.

Fair warning: Just some venting below but no major spoilers.

Update: I've got a better understanding of where Frazer is coming from and a better solution suggestion is 👉here.

But feel free to read this slightly saltier 🧂post. lol

So wait... Frazer doesn't want more work? Why? I mean true, I don't really see Dammon getting along well with a Dark Urge or a Tav Murder Hobo type, but a majority of Dammon's fandom we genuinely adore him and Karlach. And, I'd like to think, most of us just love options. We want to romance him with Karlach and a player character of our own design too.

Would I romance him on every playthrough? Maybe or maybe not. But I do know it will be at least once as Karlach. (I'm on two immunosuppressants. I don't-can't get out much. I can sooo relate to her being touched-starved stuff. I cuss just as much as her too-if not more.) I've got no problem playing as her but again most of us want more options. So what's the problem?

For her, the devs could even put in a few special lines that are unique to their romance. Hells, I would romance them both all the way through the game with Tav if I could so nobody was feeling left out.

Respectfully, I don't understand what Frazer's hang-up is at all. But it feels like a slap in the face when Dammon has become a comfort character to so many of us. We're cheering him on and we're trying to drum up interest to get Frazer a bigger part.

We do this because some of us have a lot of shitty real-life stuff going on, and BG3 has become our escape. And, unlike every romance option we have so far, Dammon doesn't bring us big drama or a lot of demands to the table. Even as just a merchant, he somehow feels... just there for us... supportive. He's not just a pretty face to us, we seriously want to get to know Dammon just a little more! We want him to evolve and grow. We want to know what's his baggage. At this point many of us would settle for him to be just NPC we can romance-not a fling mind you. A full romance like what we see in Dragon Age Inquisition with Cullen or Josephine.

But wouldn't it be cool if we could get him as a full companion? One that could perhaps be an Artificer in a DLC that would introduce that class to the player too?

Even now, when my Tav visits him each day to sell their things, I forget for a little while all the crushing pressure on my play character's shoulders for a few minutes.

In early access, overhearing him grumble about wanting better tools had me roleplaying to collect every tool I could find. A little silly minnie quest. Giving him hammers, and other blacksmith-related stuff, for free taught me how to raise my relationship with a merchant and get a better discount.

Perhaps his simplicity or just his kindness is his appeal. Perhaps don't give him too much baggage if you flesh him out more please.

But how do we get around this Larian, if Frazer won't budge?

Hate to suggest this but consider, Dammon has a twin brother, a nearly identical one. Maybe he has more scars, a different hairstyle, have fun with his design. Oh, maybe he never takes his enchanted armor off, and we have to go into the relationship a bit blind with no idea what he looks like under it all at first. He finally takes his helmet off and seeing Dammon's face we're a little confused. Trust me, we will suspend our disbelief given magic and dragons, for starters, exist in this world. Dammon having a long-lost twin won't be a huge stretch.

So have the twin, instead of Dammon, drop as one of the stars in a DLC. Have him join our party as a fully fleshed-out, perhaps mysterious, companion featuring the Artificer class and fully romanceable. Finally, the fandom gets what we want, a male tiefling we can romance. Dammon can hammer away at his forge and pine for Karlach all he wants. Frazer can stand by whatever principles that are making him hesitant to take on a larger role, more acclaim, another paycheck, possibly more work, and maybe even a gaming voice acting award.

By all means Larian, please throw all that money and acclaim you would have thrown at him at another voice actor. Let the new guy have it all. Sure we'll still pine a bit over Dammon now and then. But if Frazer doesn't want a larger role, guess we'll have to try and respect that.

If you've got this far, thank you for reading, and feel free to share your thoughts.

#frazer blaxland #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #dammon #I'm sleepy #grumpy too and my filter is gone #I might delete this later #I'm worried it's coming off too mean #I'm just sad #really sad about this #🧂

[seldaryne]

"Wyll's quest regarding the Wyrmway is now a subquest instead of part of his main quest."

"Wyll's quest regarding Ravengard will now more reliably and frequently receive updates in Act III."

so mechanically speaking then, was the demotion of quest status in the first point required for them to implement the functionality of the second or??? because i genuinely don't understand why it became a subquest, especially when the game's structure already allows you to just ignore quests & move on to the next area if you want. most of the patch notes that directly mention wyll are bug-related or scripting flow, which i don't have a problem with (bug fixes are great, we love those). i'd love to hear any thoughts about this, though, because i really can't think of a reason why it had to become a subquest?

i also initially read that second point as planning for future updates to wyll's content but at a second glance i think it may just be referring to journal updates? i don't know, i'd like to believe my initial reaction was the correct one but... yknow. anyway i maintain that this is yet Another example of some really goddamn weird choices on the developmental end of things. if the companion quests exist on a sliding scale of 'most related to current main storyline to least,' wyll is very much at the top end of things. optimistic thought is that a lot of his scrapped content existed in the parts of act 3 that were cut, but i would think that as a studio you'd see that & make an effort to level things out with how much screentime the other companions have. at the bare minimum, your player base shouldn't be able to clock so many weird holes in his story arc where it's clear that something else was supposed to be offered.

i'm also not saying that the other companion arcs weren't clunky in some areas & didn't need a bit of help, but the disparity here makes deprioritizing those edits seem like a more logical course of action. like there's a difference between some slightly unpolished scenes vs. something that feels fundamentally lacking in a lot of structural ways, especially when you get into the finer points of the comparisons. act 3 imo is the one that feels the most bare-bones to me. like yes, there's Stuff there visually and quests too but it doesn't feel as lived-in as acts 1 & 2. i would say that the underdark to ketheric section feels the most dense, content-wise, and i don't think it's a coincidence that it's the bracket of the game i enjoy the most. i maintain that giving wyll's storyline the attention it needs would not only help with the character arc itself, but also pad out the quieter stretches of act 3. at this point i don't really see how they'd be able to add in the upper city without either completely changing the trajectory of the third act (so like, almost definitely something we Will Not See Happen & understandably so from a production standpoint. weird post-release editing aside, it is still a finished game.) & i'm also not sure what a DLC would look like here because the main story feels pretty complete too. off the top of my head, maybe one where you follow wyll & karlach into avernus would work, but that's worldstate dependent & probably wouldn't get made for that reason.

all that to say, from where i'm standing it really seems like giving wyll the same respect other companions are offered would by extension fix some of the act 3 issues, without having to release an entirely new area of the game (i'd love it i just don't think it's realistic lmao). like i know why/what the factors are that led to wyll getting the short end of the stick, it's bullshit but it's not the first time we've seen black characters handled unfairly by devs (& fans), but beyond that it's literally just. so confusing to me on the basis of writing alone. why wouldn't you use the character with that many ties to the titular city of the game more? why isn't he more integral to the story when it really seems like he has every reason to take the spotlight in certain areas?? like that's a fantastic resource of a character to use to move the narrative along and Yet.

idk. this started off as just a reaction to patch notes but it's so unbelievably frustrating to watch it keep happening every patch.

#like when you KNOW why but my brain still refuses to comprehend?? bc its so Dumb on production's side?? #there feels like there's so little flavour text for him even like... idk. #anyway thats my thoughts on patch 6 #new kisses are nice menu qol fixes sound good now please do something about this #like put it on the list or something. #bg3 #no really like does anyone know why this is now a subquest. what does this mean have any of you seen this in other games.

[pessimisticdreamer7]

4:33am

It absolute fucking wrecks me that in the back of my mind I have this terrible sense that you don’t notice my absence in your life. You are the kind of friend I will tell my children about. When my stories begin with “my old best friend” it will be about you. I always get the urge to text you novels about how much I miss you, but I know your response will take business days to get back to me and will be underwhelming and disappointing. I can no longer expect to receive anything from an empty cup. I hope one day I can talk about you without sadness in my voice or tears in my eyes. I hope that one day I can follow you on social media and not feel like I’ve been gut punched when you post a picture with your new best friends.

You used to feel like home to me. Now it feels like that home has burned down and there’s nothing but left ash and memories that make me sob. I know I still have so many friendships to experience but this is one I will never fully get over. A part of my heart will miss you until I die. I have never mourned someone the way I mourn you. another friend like you. Our friendship was one of a kind. I still believe you are my soulmate. I miss you being able to make me smile on the worst days of my life. I miss bragging about you to people. I know it’s selfish, but I hate that it feels like you don’t miss me or our friendship at all. I mean how could you have possibly thought our friendship was fine when we went from seeing each other at least once a week to four times in six months. 

I don’t think a day goes by where I don’t think about you at least once. Something reminds me of you/our friendship almost everywhere I go. I envy the friends that get your attention now. It’s even worse I run into them, and they give me updates on you. They don’t know how bad it is. “You guys are just going through a rough patch.” “You two will be fine, you always are.” “She’s just busy”. No one knows how bad it really is except me. Even you don’t notice. You were really the only person I never thought I’d drift away from. I thought you’d be in life longer than most of my own family. Even now I still think about using your name for my future daughter’s middle name. I’ve tried so many times to patch the holes in our friendship. But there are so many now and they’re only getting bigger. I feel like I’m completely under water at this point. I’m exhausted from mourning the best friendship I’ve ever had. I hate that I compare every new friend I have to you. It’s not fair to them. It’s not fair to me. You were my absolute rock through the worst times of my life. I will always view you as a blessing in my life, even now when I look back with so much pain in my heart. I will never want anything but the absolute best for you. You are the epitome of a heart of gold. You will always be considered my favorite and best non-blood sister. I can only hope you’ll think the same about me. I’ve made every excuse in the book for you. You admitted you hadn’t been a good friend to me and then proceeded to do nothing to change it. I didn’t know growing up meant out growing me. I will never understand why God decided to split our paths. I honestly don’t think I ever will. I fucking hate that we have no idea what’s going on in each other’s lives now. I wonder how your parents and dog are. If your parents have moved into their new house yet. You’ve been my other half for almost a decade and now I feel so lost and alone. And I’m sure everyone is tired of my crying and honestly, I am too. I feel stupid for sobbing over you while you didn’t even notice a problem with our friendship. We had the type of friendship people yearn for. I feel like a bad person for not wanting you to have a friendship like ours again. I don’t want someone to experience you the way I did for 7 years. You will always be considered one of the best things I ever had. 

#best friend #ex best friend #ex bestie #former best friend #best friend breakup #emotional #it's exhausting #platonic soulmates #soulmates #soul connection #journaling #heartbroken #heartbreak #grieving #soul ties #better half #sobbing #crying throwing up #writing #journal entry #therapeutic #i miss u #i miss my friends #bff #i miss you #i love you #missing you #miss you #do you miss me #do you love me

[leighsartworks216]

Kiss It Better

Engineer Mark x gn!reader

Writing this very impulsively from my phone after seeing Engineer Mark say "owie"

Warnings: minor injury, but mostly just fluff

Word Count: 858

Masterlist

The Invincible II was a beautiful ship. The best of the best... sorta. Things went wrong more often than was perhaps normal, and definitely more than everyone preferred it to. But she was your ship.

Technically.

She really was Mark's baby, truth be told. Your Head Engineer knew every wire, every screw, every protocol the Invincible held within her walls. She only became yours when you were assigned to the ship.

In any case, her issues needed to be corrected, usually on a daily basis. And today her cooling systems had shut down.

Celci was keeping an eye on the colonists, updating you with any changes that could harm them. Fortunately, for the colonists, at least, the only systems down were the air conditioning systems, not the coolant used for cryopods.

All the crew members were grumbling. Even the most cheery were glaring at you behind their 'Hello's and 'Morning, Captain's. If that didn't get you off your ass and down into engineering, the sweat dripping down your neck certainly did.

"Cap, can you hand me that wrench just- right there, that one."

The metal burned your hand as you passed it over. Your gloves had been one of the first things to go once the temperature began to rise. At some point, you'd tied the upper half of your jumpsuit around your waist. Mark had tried a little too hard not to look when you did.

"How much longer do you think?" You wiped your damp forehead on your arm, watching as Mark expertly navigated the ship's cooling system.

He sighed. "I wish I knew. The hotter it's getting, the more fried these wires are getting. It's a mess all around."

He ducked out of the vent-like tunnel system, panting and pulling on his shirt to mimic a breeze. He looked like a pouting child, especially when he was sitting back on his knees like that.

"Okay, I have an idea." He dropped his shirt so he could gesture with both hands. "I may be able to strip the wires down past where they're fried and reconnect them. If that doesn't work, well, we'd have to get new wires... What'd'ya think?"

"Just tell me what I can do to help."

With a determined grin, a fist bump, and some wire strippers, Mark dove back in, eager to try fixing the problem once again.

-

Air conditioning back online.

"OW!"

A metal thunk sounded followed by a cuss as Mark crawled his way out of the vent. He came out holding his hand, face scrunched up in a wince.

"What happened?" You take his hand into both of yours, turning it over and assessing it for damage. One of his fingers had burn marks, undoubtedly from reconnecting wires.

"Damn wires shocked me!"

"Of course they did!" You held up his hand. "You're not wearing your gloves!"

He opened his mouth, looked at the ground where both pairs of leather gloves lay discarded, and then looked back to you. "Oh."

You had to bite back a grin. He was so invested in patching up the cooling system that he completely forgot any necessary safety measures. As his captain, you should be reprimanding him more. But, as his friend, you were worried about his safety more than anything.

Lifting his hand to your face, you inspected the damage left behind. The skin was red and irritated, and you couldn't help noticing the callouses that had formed on his hands after years of hard work. Still, after a bit of cool water and care, it would be healed right up.

"Uh, Captain? Why did you just do that?"

You pulled his hand away from your face. Had you done something? Maybe you could play it off. "Uhm, do what?" Smooth.

He raised an eyebrow. "You just kissed my finger."

Oh.

Oh.

You couldn't even play off the warmth flooding to your face as the heating anymore, as cool air had flooded the room quickly after it was fixed. Part of you wished there was some way to reverse time and avoid this awkward moment, but no. You were stuck here.

You cleared your throat. "W-Well, how does it feel now?"

His eyes flickered from his finger to your face. You still hadn't let his hand go. This was the most physical contact you two had made since you boarded. And without gloves, no less.

"Better," he murmured. He glanced over at the vent, and pointed to his head with his other hand. "I hit my head, too. It still kinda hurts."

God, what a couple of dorks, sitting on the floor, blushing.

With one hand holding his, you reached out the other to cup the back of his head. The lightest pressure had Mark tilting his head forward, eyes still trying to watch your every move. Your lips touched the spot he pointed to, light as a feather, perhaps lighter. And they lingered. Then, you both pulled back. Your hand was holding his, and your other was cupping his head.

You both just sat there and stared for a minute.

Mark cleared his throat lightly, swallowing thickly afterward. "It feels better now."

#fanfic #fanfiction #markiplier #markiplier egos #gn reader #x gn reader #gender neutral reader #fluff #markiplier egos x reader #iswm #iswm 2 #iswm captain #iswm head engineer #captaineer #two dorks in love

[aromanticannibal]

BOTW Link headcanons

[no TOTK spoilers! but when I finish the game it's over for you bitches (update I finished the game but still not spoiling here lmao)]

I think Link isn't mute but definitely dislikes speaking, so he only speaks when he really has to.

He's very good at hiding when he's struggling with something or not feeling well, so people always think he's okay (people also tend to think he's emotionless because of his poker face but he's completely oblivious to it)

He used to know hylian sign language, but after his 100 years of sleepy time he forgot, so he picked up signs and code from different regions of Hyrule. He eventually relearns hylian sign but still uses the other stuff he learnt by reflex.

Boy looooves horses. He likes to sneak up on wild horses just to give them apples and carrots.

So much autism in this man.

you see how he always just has the master sword in the memories? yeah. he's an extremely skilled moron and prefers just having his sword rather than having a shield and bow alongside it, even if it's more practical and safer.

will eat anything. that's basically canon tho.

even after recovering his memories, he isn't sure how he used to think about the champions and Zelda. he knows he has strong feelings for all of them (he deeply wants to protect Zelda for instance) but like he has no idea if he loved Mipha back or if Revali annoyed him like he annoyed Revali. He's clueless.

He has a lot of scars and doesn't know where half of them come from.

After the calamity, he still sometimes has memory problems. He mainly has very bad short term memory and tends to forget what day it is, what week etc (no I'm not projecting)

He gets small flashbacks sometimes, some even look like very intense déjà vu because he'll like get a flashback of flying with his paraglider while actually flying with his paraglider.

He really likes his blue tunic. Its comfy and protects him, and it felt like a gift when he got it (when Impa gave it back to him)

He gets nightmares a lot, night terrors and sleep paralysis too, so he doesn't sleep much. He often just hangs out during the night and waits until he physically can't stay up anymore to sleep. (Zelda is so stressed out by this man he's giving her white hair. She tries to help but doesn't really know how).

he has intense panic attacks surrounding guardian stalkers, (unless they don't have legs). sometimes he's able to push back the panic until he's defeated or escaped the thing but other times he just falls to his knees in front of it, completely unable to function. he wasted a couple of fairies on these instances.

he collects flowers. silent princesses of course, for zelda, but he likes every type of flowers and loves to keep them and offer them to people or leave them on gravestones or near goddess statues.

he really likes his long hair, likes styling it and playing with it. he would hate to cut it

his eyes are really sensible to light from you know. being asleep for 100 years with his eyes closed

I said he loves horses but he honestly loves all animals. always pets doggies and likes to watch crabs dance around. he feeds animals when he can.

when he defeats monsters that were using horses, he brings the horse back to the closest stable or the closest patch of grass that looks safe and soothes them. also feeds them obv.

feel free to add on :)

#breath of the wild #botw #link loz #link headcanons #botw headcanons #totk #totk link #headcanons

[ktarsims]

Updates and Such...

It seems I haven’t posted one of these since the end of May. It’s mostly life stuff, so under the cut for those who’d prefer to skip.

Recovery from my volunteer job took longer than I thought it would. Like, three weeks. After dealing with that I threw myself into catching up on yard work and better interior organization in the house. That lasted a couple of weeks. Then we decided on a mini-vacation  of five days at a cabin owned by some people we know.

The vacation didn’t go so well. It was too hot to even consider venturing outside, and after the first couple of days I just wasn’t feeling well. We came back a day early (Sunday before last). We’d been back for perhaps 48 hours and I was starting to feel better when we discovered that the rat mites were back.

I cannot express how much I loathe these things. If you’ve never encountered them, I pray to the universe you never will.

Pros: -They cannot breed off of humans. -Lifecycles are fairly short. (2-8 weeks.) -They do not carry diseases. -They usually only bite humans when their rat host has died, and if you find and dispose of the body, that usually ends the problem very quickly.

Cons: -They mostly bite you when you’re sleeping at night. -They prefer to bite the more tender skin, probably they’re too small to bite rough patches, since they’re not quite microscopic in size. -The bites itch like the dickens. Worse than mosquitoes or anything else I’ve ever been bitten by. -If you cannot find the source (ie: the dead rat) you are stuck waiting out their life-cycles, and minimizing exposure by removing all cloth anywhere near your bed, washing bedding frequently, using bug spray and/or diatomaceous earth.

Well. We’ve failed to find the source. No dead rats to be found anywhere we looked. My car is literally full of all the clothing, blankets, and plushies I had to shove into black plastic trash bags to quarantine.

On the plus side, since it’s summer, a single day in those bag in the car when it’s 90F outside will kill any mites trapped inside those bags. On the downside, I at one point had at least ten bites in places like ‘around my belly button’ and ‘on the back of my hand’ or ‘the underside of my wrist’ and the itch was so intense it was hard to focus on anything else.

We’ve washed and re-washed the bedding, sprayed the bed frames, layed down fresh diatomaceous earth. But until it’s been at least two weeks since we last had a bite, we can’t be sure there aren’t more coming from the source, so the contents of my bedroom remain in bags in my car. No use unpacking it just to have to re-pack it.

It’s ‘under control’ for now, and we’ve only had one or two bites in the last few days instead of the 3-4 new ones every time we sleep. I was starting to relax at least slightly, though still feeling stressed.

Then yesterday... one of my teeth had a pain explosion. >_<;; I’d known this tooth would need a root canal, but I was trying to wait a few months on it, because I don’t have dental insurance at the moment. SIGH. After a little over 24 hours of continuous pain, with nothing really helping much, I realized it’s infected, and called my dentist this morning. I’m now on TWO antibiotics to forestall the infection, which is probably going to play havoc with my gut, and I’ll have to get the root canal next week, insurance or no insurance.

So it may be just flowers for a while yet folks. Life is just going that way right now. I’m laying odds that the ants will start invading again before my birthday next month. I already found a couple of ant scouts in the bathroom.

#non sims #nonsims #updates #life updates #summer apparently hates me #when I can think half straight I read #my current authors of choice are Andre Norton and Patricia Wentworth #or watch midsomer murders on Acorn #there's just no bandwidth or energy for sims right now #though I'm trying to keep on top of things in the discord

[yanderes-galore]

a heem heem i see you do madcom 👀

uh maybe. maybe some general yan phobos hcs?

YES- Also I am not entirely done with Madness Project Nexus (2) yet, but with help from the wiki I think I got his character down. Let me know if I did or I need to update something here!

Yandere! Director Phobos Concept

Pairing: Romantic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, God complex, Implied kidnapping, Murder mention, PDA, Possessive behavior, Manipulation, Forced relationship, Implied Phobos is an exhibitionist, Threats, Suggestive themes (just to be safe), Forced kissing, Biting, Implied punishment/torture.

- Well, Phobos is a very powerful man.

- Not only that but he also has a God complex....

- You'd most likely be either a scientist or citizen in Nexus City.

- Phobos would have more of a chance growing obsessed with you the closer you are to him.

- He's powerful in Nexus City and has eyes everywhere.

- Phobos would be Manipulative, Forceful, Obsessive, Possessive, and very Self-entered as a Yandere.

- Observing fits too despite him not really being a stalker Yandere.

- Phobos would be very manipulative towards you.

- Especially if you work in the Science Tower or near him as a servant.

- Every God-Emperor needs to have servants, yeah?

- He'd do everything he can to get you to worship him as his Darling.

- Including threats if it has to come to it.

- It's an honor to be in the position you're in.

- People would kill to be this close him!

- He's not a worship Yandere but he will make sure you live comfortably by his side.

- Phobos is also almost G03LM sized so expect him to force you onto his lap a lot.

- You'll be such a good pet/servant for him... he just knows it.

- He'll also be quite forceful if you do not comply to him.

- If he wants affection he has no problems with just taking it.

- He doesn't care if anyone's watching, either.

- In fact, Phobos may be a bit of an exhibitionist due to his God complex.

- You're constantly forced into his lap, sharp teeth biting into you to get a rise out of you.

- Large hands keep you still while Phobos mutters to you that only HE can do such intimate things to you.

- He's more possessive than obsessive but he's definitely both.

- In his eyes you are one of his best followers.

- His most favorite mortal pet to play with and care for....

- His attention shifts away from power and Godhood temporarily at times to give you affection.

- To have you worship him and feel your warmth.

- While he may get a delightful feeling when others see him with you, he is possessive.

- They better not get any ideas....

- Only Phobos is allowed to care for you like this.

- Any other scientists or grunts can piss off.

- Oh you better hope you aren't caught talking to anyone alone.

- Phobos will immediately ask questions before ordering their demise.

- How dare anyone speak with you.

- You're his!

- You'll only ever be his!

- He isn't afraid to slaughter many if it meant keeping you by him.

- Phobos is a Yandere who wants to be worshipped by you.

- He'll go on and on about himself to you for what feels like hours.

- Expecting you to cling to him the whole time, nodding along to whatever he says.

- Who knows, maybe you'll earn some affection after that.

- The reason he's observing is because Phobos would have cameras to his disposal.

- He'd also have spies and agents around Nexus City at all times.

- If you were planning on leaving Nexus City, good luck.

- Phobos will immediately notice you're away from him and order you to be tracked down.

- He'd be harsh with punishments, too.

- He has access to all sorts of instruments of torture.

- It just depends on which one you've earned now....

- But he'll be merciful since he likes you so much.

- You'll be patched up by the best Nexus Core doctors and sent back to him.

- Where he'll drag you back to your shared room and lock you there.

- Phobos takes anything involving you seriously.

- If he lost you then he'd throw a fit.

- So expect everyone in Nexus City to be against you when you try and escape.

- They want him as calm as possible.

- If Phobos is after you then it's best to try and appease him.

- It saves your life and the lives of others.

- "Worship me, say I'm only yours! I refuse to let you leave my city.... As your God, I order you to adore me!"

#yandere madness combat #yandere madness combat phobos #yandere phobos #yandere director phobos

[elendiliel]

Beautiful Chaos

Reached the canon events at last... (Though the chronology may have been adjusted a bit. Time is weird.) Inspiration credits to the usual source.

---

“Doctor, what is the current status of your synthetic Energon experiments?” Ratchet didn’t turn round when Ultra Magnus addressed him, but his second, Glitch, who had been perched on the edge of his desk, legs swinging and digits tapping against each other like an Earth crab’s claws (her usual way of keeping her shell occupied while her processor worked), stilled herself in preparation for a potential battle of wills, mildly annoyed by being left out. What am I, chopped rivets?

“Doing the best we can, Commander, given the lack of functional equipment at our disposal.” A common complaint from both medibots. They were relying on Earth technology – about a century behind that to which Glitch was used – and the gear she had brought with her from her own reality, which was designed for field medicine, not chemistry.

“You do realise that an alternative energy source may be essential to our survival?” Talk about stating the sparking obvious.

“Believe me, Ultra Magnus, no one is more acutely aware of the stakes than I am.” Also very true. Ratchet had control of the team’s Energon rations – though Glitch regulated her own oil and gasoline intake – and replaced lost fuel after injuries. And his colleague was pretty sure he was short-changing himself to keep everybot else running. Ridiculous. He needs it as much as anybot else.

“And we’d work faster if we weren’t being pestered for updates every five minutes,” Glitch chimed in, glaring up at the much taller mech. The Wrecker commander and the field-tech were usually “ride or die” for one another, and both knew it, but medic solidarity came first. And it unsettled her to see Ratchet, any Ratchet, even slightly subdued. Hers generally gave at least as good as he got in clashes with authority, especially where their Ultra Magnus was concerned. (He had considerable reason for that, she knew.)

“Of course,” that universe’s Magnus conceded before heading off to berate half the team for not being out in the field – only to be told that they were complying with his own orders. At least he can’t charge me with dereliction of duty, Glitch thought. She had woken up that morning feeling tense and irritable, with a growing processor-ache (a normal one, not the kind that had plagued her since the cortical psychic patch) and much too aware of everything – all the warning signs for a Bad Day and potential meltdown – and tipped Ratchet off so that he could requisition her to help with his Synth-En project. All according to the now-standard procedure that prevented her from becoming a liability in combat. She wondered whether Ultra Magnus were having a bad day – or Bad Day – of his own, trying to keep the chaotic team – so far outside his comfort zone, more like a family – running while Prime was away, and resolved to cut him more slack in future.

Wheeljack did not share her sentiments when he came inside coated in coolant after tinkering with Magnus’ ship, the Iron Will, to her pilot’s displeasure. Luckily for everyone concerned, though, the argument had barely got started when Prime’s jetpack came into auditory range. Glitch sympathised with Magnus when everyone else greeted their leader with affection they never showed him, but decided to leave that problem in Prime’s capable servos and deal with a simpler issue.

“Better clean yourself up before you get coolant everywhere,” she advised Wheeljack, throwing him a towel she kept beneath her repair table. “And soak that immediately once you’re done, or it’ll stain.”

“I know that,” Wheeljack said, applying the towel to the worst of the coolant patches. “But how’d you find out?”

“The hard way.” As ever. “If you’re going to fly a ship, you have to know how to fix her.”

“I didn’t know you were a pilot.” Somehow it had never come up in conversation, she realised, and the team usually bridged everywhere. When the Iron Will was needed, Magnus and Wheeljack had a duopoly on the controls. “What’s your ship?”

“IG-2000 cruiser, heavily modified. Technically she’s state property, confiscated from a bounty hunter my Ratchet and I arrested, but we’ve put so much work into her that everyone considers her ours. Handles like the proverbial dream, especially since we stripped out most of the weapons, has top-of-the-line stealth tech, and we boosted the shields for when that’s not enough, as well as fixing the hull breach her last pilot made trying to kill us, renovating the med-bay and changing her name from Death’s Head to Moth.” Glitch suddenly realised just how much she missed that ship. Almost as much as she missed her team, their base in Detroit and her old home, family and friends on Cybertron. I’ll see them again. When we’ve beaten this lot of ‘Cons.

“Good name. Suits you. You’ll have to show her to me when we get you back home.”

“Which might not happen if we don’t solve this,” Ratchet put in, recalling Glitch to the matter in servo. She refocused her attention on the problem of synthesising Energon, until the detection of the natural version posed a new and more familiar problem and the Autobots rolled out.

One solar-cycle, Prime’s Windu-on-Anaxes impression might actually work. (Offering the enemy a chance to surrender, that was, not defusing a bomb with the Force.) It was not that solar-cycle. The battle was as short and sharp as expected, the Vehicons going down almost too easily, leaving carts of Energon for the taking. Prime assigned Stealth Team to transport them to base while the Wreckers – plus Smokescreen – inspected the mine for hidden fuel or enemies.

“Watch your backplates in there,” Glitch warned, levitating a cart with her magnets. “Something about this doesn’t add up.” When she said that, it usually meant something, rapid data analysis being one of her built-in abilities.

“Ah, c’mon!” Smokescreen didn’t know that. “What’s that Earth saying – don’t look a gift house in the mouth?”

“Horse,” Glitch corrected, which clearly made more sense to the sports car. “Daft expression. I can’t quite compute it, but there’s something off here. We pick up a motherlode of Energon, already mined and packaged, badly guarded, right when we need it most – doesn’t that seem a bit too convenient?”

“Coincidences happen. I mean, what were the chances of you turning up when and where you did?” Smokescreen had a point – probably. “Anyway, I’d better go. I’ll tell you whether you were right when we get back.” The Wreckers vanished into the mine, and Glitch returned to the task she had been given, still more than a little uneasy about the whole situation.

That unease was still present when, a while later, the last carts of Energon were about to go through the groundbridge and none of the Wreckers had come back. Instead of continuing with the Synth-En project, she scanned for the team’s energy signatures, focusing on the area around the mine. Prime, Bulkhead and Smokescreen were together and stationary, but the others – she knew that pattern of movement, and it chilled her to the struts. Doubly so when she tapped into Wheeljack’s and Ultra Magnus’ comms and heard the unmistakable sound of Autobot alloy striking rock, over and over, the ring of metal on metal, and, in particular, the Forge of Solus Prime hitting both Autobot armour and a similar but distinct alloy, not Autobot of either reality, but not Decepticon either. The difference was subtle, but with her senses heightened by a Bad Day she could hear it. There was no time to lose. She switched channels to call the Autobots nearest the battle. “Wheeljack and Magnus need backup. Five flipping cycles ago.”

“Wreckers don’t call for backup,” Bulkhead protested automatically.

“If those two don’t get some sharpish, we’ll be cleaning up what’s left of their shells, if we’re lucky.” Glitch regretted her harsh tone, but was too tense to apologise.

“Can you guide me?” Prime broke in. Of course he was the logical choice, the fastest and most heavily armed of the three Autobots there. And yes, she could.

“I’ll prepare the medical bay,” Ratchet said as Glitch began to relay directions to Prime, one audial listening to the battle in the mine, one optic on the life-sign scanner. The Wreckers were fighting well, co-operating as never before, but it might not be enough. “Arcee, bridge the others back, and be ready to do the same for Optimus, Ultra Magnus and Wheeljack.”

The next few minutes were among the longest of Glitch’s life. Time slowed to a crawl as the Wreckers and their unknown (but suspected) assailant hammered away at each other, and almost entirely stopped when she heard Wheeljack say, “And here I was just beginning to tolerate you.”

“It’s been an honour, soldier,” was Ultra Magnus’ reply, just before something metallic – not the Forge, please, not the Forge – broke. They would have been perfect last words for each one had Prime not arrived just in the nick of time. Glitch’s spark was still humming as he carried his soldiers away, no longer needing her guidance, though she kept the comm lines open. Which was just as well; nanokliks before the groundbridge opened, the sound she heard justified her fears and told her and Ratchet with what kinds of injury they might be dealing.

Ultra Magnus was out like a light when Prime flew into the hangar that served the Earthbound Autobots as a base, but Wheeljack was still conscious as Smokescreen took him from their leader and half-carried him over to Glitch’s repair table (significantly lower than Ratchet’s, as Glitch was less than half her superior’s height, and would have struggled to keep even Wheeljack upright). His processor-to-synth filter had taken a beating, though. “Oh, great, I get stuck with the rookie.”

She knew he didn’t really mean it even before her scanner revealed minor processor damage, as well as a number of other injuries. “You just have straightforward impact trauma. Magnus lost his flaming servo; he needs Ratchet, not me.” She remembered what had done the damage even as Wheeljack flinched. “Sorry. Bad choice of words. Flaming and Predacon go together too well.”

“How’d you know about the Predacon?”

“I was listening in on your comms. I’ve sparred with Dinobots and Jetfire back home; I know what a fire-breathing ‘bot sounds like.” She remembered something else she had heard, which hadn’t made sense at the time. “Can it transform?”

“He, I think, and yes. And he’s one Pit of a fighter in both forms – though Magnus fought like a Wrecker.”

“We know,” Bumblebee beeped. “Glitch was watching your life-signs. She made sure you got backup in time.”

“Seriously? You could tell we were in trouble just from that?”

“I know what a combat movement pattern looks like, too. My processor’s weird like that. Can’t deal with social conventions, can barely read faces, but can spot teammates in trouble and go full-on – angry medic at whoever might be able to help them.” She almost said “Kix on Umbara”, but she knew Wheeljack hadn’t seen The Clone Wars.

“Well, thanks, from both of us.” Wheeljack glanced over at Ultra Magnus, who was slowly coming round to find Ratchet cauterising the twisted metal where his servo had been. The younger Wrecker lapsed into silence for a little while, allowing the field-tech to fix him up. “Optimus didn’t get there a moment too soon. The Predacon threw a fragging stalactite at me, used the Forge to take Magnus’ hand clean off, broke the Forge and was about to kill Magnus when -,”

“Broke the Forge?” Glitch had known that was on the cards, but had hoped her suspicions weren’t correct. “And you didn’t bring the pieces back?”

“We were a little busy not dyin’,” Wheeljack pointed out, quite reasonably, though Glitch was almost beyond reason. Now that she had finished repairing her friend, the anger she had pushed away so that she could do her job – anger at herself for not doing more, at the Decepticons for setting up the trap, at everyone who had fallen for it – surged up through her circuits and took control of her processor. All she could say was, “We needed that.”

Before anyone could stop her – Smokescreen tried, but Prime held him back – she had stormed over to the groundbridge, switching the coordinates to the last log entry but one, and activated it with a magnetic pulse. Nobot tried to follow her back to the mine. They knew, as she did deep down, that she had to work that fury out of her system, preferably by doing something constructive.

The mine was deserted when she arrived, outside and, as far as she could tell, in, but she still put her stealth training to good use. She was built for stealth, after all, despite her often-conspicuous bronze plating. Had she been protoformed during the Great War, she would probably have been a scout, not a field-tech – never mind that her digits seemed to have been made for medical work, or that she felt most alive when she was treating a patient (or with Bee). Form had defined function back then. Things had got better, though; becoming a field-tech, rather than an academic like her caregivers, hadn’t been easy, but it had been possible, and she had chosen to learn stealth – among other skills – from her cyber-ninja teammate Jazz, when he had the time.

She had also learned well from her Ratchet, her mentor. Just before the space-bridge malfunction that had sent her to that universe, he had taught her one of the finer points of using her magnets. They could be employed as a kind of scanner, distinguishing objects by their magnetic susceptibility. Describing the difference between one metal and another was like – to use a cliché – explaining colours to a blind person, but she could sense it. (Bee called that “using the Force,” naturally.) The Forge, a relic of the Primes, was easy to pick out once she had almost reached the site of the battle; the pieces all but jumped into her servos. The handle was cleanly broken, and could be repaired, shorter than before but functional, while the head was intact. Autobot alloy was also quite distinctive. She was able to retrieve some of Ultra Magnus’ shattered servo – all the digits and part of the palm – and stowed the fragments in her repair kit. The mechanisms were probably beyond saving, but the alloy could be recast, at least.

“Fascinating…” She nearly dropped the pieces of hammer as the voice echoed through the mine. Cybertronian, but not familiar. Perhaps the elusive Shockwave? She crept closer, her steps still soundless despite her humming spark. It was Shockwave all right, if the others’ description were accurate, a purple tank mech standing with his backplate to her in the wreckage left by an explosion (Wheeljack’s servo-work, most likely). Shattered glass and fragments of metal were strewn around, and here and there she could see something that might once have been part of a Predacon. (What had Wheeljack done?) But Shockwave’s attention wasn’t on any of that. He was studying another set of metal structures at the far end of the space, which showed no signs of damage. Nor did they seem to have been forged by human hand or Cybertronian servo. The random shapes had an almost organic quality to them, as though they had grown. Cybermatter?

She had no more time for sightseeing; Shockwave had called Megatron, who would surely be arriving soon. Best to be gone before that happened. She slipped away as quietly as she had come, towards the groundbridge back to base and her newest family, sparing only one more glance for the beautiful chaos she was leaving behind – before heading for another sort.

#transformers prime #transformers animated #fanfic #tfp ultra magnus #tfp wheeljack #autobot oc #tfp ratchet #misplaced medic au

[aik-membrane]

OOC: Heart-Aik: Aik Membrane's Prequel

Chapter One

<September 26th, 1995>

"Aik Membrane." A scientist clad in a white coat and thick black gloves stood outside of a small glass canister. The canister had just been opened and emptied of its contents.The scientist held the wet and sleepy looking bundle in a blanket, studying the child. "Pulse looking steady, breathing looks normal… welcome to life, little one."

A small human child squirmed a bit in the blanket. He seemed not old enough to be a toddler but somehow not young enough to be an infant at the same time. A very strange mix of both being a bit older and terribly young, something that wouldn't occur naturally. That's because this child was not natural, not by a long shot.

"Amazing, the first clone is complete!" The scientist held the child high in the air, seemingly proud of the confused bundle. "Aik, my boy, you're going to do great things." He seemed unaware of the fact that the child was far too disoriented and maybe too young to understand a word coming from his mouth.

The scientist started on a ramble, whether to himself or to the infant was unclear. It was just them and a slew of equipment in the room though, so it was one or the other.

Aik Membrane, the first clone of Project Eternal, had just woken up. A successful experiment created by the scientist, Professor Cypher Membrane.

The Professor spent a few hours checking the tiny Aik over for any signs of failing health. But Aik's DNA was pure, pulled straight from the Professor himself. There were no health problems, he even had a tiny matching tuft hair that shaped into a crooked scythe, just like the Professor.

"Let's check your tonsils now," Professor Cypher said, taking off a thick glove to take on a thin blue one. He held Aik up and stuck a finger in his mouth.

Aik made a muffled grumbling sound, not being happy with all this studying in his first few minutes of consciousness. He bit Cypher's finger hard, despite having only the very tips of his teeth poking through his gums.

Professor Cypher yelped and withdrew his hand. He stared at the slightly torn glove, a tainted red mark with a bruise visible through the tear. "Ah. Okay noted, subject is unstable and prone to violence. Possibly." He turned back to the grumpy infant, who was staring at Cypher with intensity.

"Eek…" Cypher muttered. "Okay, maybe there are some flaws… It's fine, we can work past it. You're alive and you have the most advanced brain of any human child, there's no way that this could backfire."

Cypher placed the infant onto a monitoring table and left him there for a moment while cleaning and patching up his finger. Aik wiggled his arms out of the blanket and stared at his hands.

"Alright, now to wait for you to grow up. Best to not let the press see you until I can ensure you're a safe child." Cypher returned to the boy and took off the blanket entirely to dress Aik in a plain yellow shirt. "Your color, it suits you."

Aik grabbed at the shirt, studying the color.

Cypher smiled. "Very nice."

Aik looked up at Cypher, eyes wide.

"Huh. I wonder, can you talk yet?" Cypher leaned down to be nearly eye level with Aik. "Do you know who I am?"

Aik just watched Cypher.

"Hm. I'm your father, your dad. You can call me Dad," Cypher precised. He shook his head with a chuckle when the child didn't respond. "Of course you can't talk, you're minutes old. But you will learn, your brain is more advanced, you will learn very quickly. Come!" He picked up Aik and held him on his hip. "We have much to do!"

Aik seemed excited and gripped Cypher's coat as the professor began to busy himself with other tasks in the lab, talking Aik through every action. Aik watched with fascination for hours, as Cypher updated equipment, identifying parts and pieces, and even did a brief summary of how he created Aik, a clone.

Cypher had no idea how much of that information Aik would retain. In truth, it was nice to have someone to ramble too. And Aik seemed to not mind. Then again, he was a child.

After a few hours, Cypher paused. "Oh. Oh my! I haven't even taken a photo of you!" He grabbed a camera from his coat, attached it to a robotic piece, and a bright light flashes as their picture was taken.

Aik blinked with a small yelp and rubbed his eyes.

"Ah, sorry Aik." Cypher chuckled nervously, ruffling Aik's hair and putting the camera away. "Didn't realize the flash was on."

***

The first few years of Aik's life passed peacefully, Cypher spent his time monitoring Aik and talking to him about different projects and the future he had planned. Aik was meant to grow up and take over Membrane Labs as the new face of science for the world, and create new clones to take over once he retired. Aik of course was too young to respond, though he seemed to absorb everything all the same.

However, at seven months old, Aik was talking. One word responses, usually unintelligible, though he did clearly call Cypher Dad.

Cypher couldn't be happier though he kept a very close eye on Aik's mental stability, preparing for the worst but hoping for the best.

Cypher also performed a few IQ tests and other programs to see how smart Aik supposedly was. He also noted that the boy would bite or scratch whenever he was studied for more than three hours. Cypher found this to be concerning, he didn't consider it to be a reasonable reaction at all. He didn't tell much to the public about Aik at all, preferring to keep his methods and what he considered to be the boy's unstable nature a secret. He couldn't risk having his image ruined by the fact he created and got attached to a violent infant.

Which means his entire life so far, Aik only saw one human. Cypher. And once Aik was able to sleep through the night on his own, at around a year old, Cypher would often leave him alone for a few hours in the lab. Aik studied the equipment, able to walk fairly well. He broke a glass container once, and Cypher reprimanded him. And Aik never broke a piece of lab equipment again.

As Aik neared two years old and kept the habits of biting and scratching when studied, despite being able to talk better and communicate well for his age, Cypher started to wonder if it was better to let Aik be himself and not entrust him with Membrane Labs when he grew up. He didn't want to risk handing such a powerful corporation to a potential psychopath. Just in case, he began preparations to make the second clone. He knew he would need more than one anyway, he just didn't plan on starting the second one so soon. He kept the preparation a secret from Aik for as long as possible. In order to keep Aik from discovering the new clone and messing with the equipment, or possibly harming it, in August of 1997, Cypher built an extra room in the lab to keep Aik in.

No, he didn't see a problem with this.

#iz ocs #iz dib membrane #professor membrane #invader zim oc #iz dib #iz fanart #iz fanfiction #iz fandom #aik membrane #project eternal #heart aik

[floofe-trans-doggie]

My review of every Smissmas 2022 map for Team Fortress 2

Rumford: Decent little Payload map, dragged down by the fact that Valve fucked up and didn’t include a bunch of materials originally, still missing a couple textures post-patch, otherwise fun but nothing to write home about. 7/10

Coal Pit: An excellent reskin of Gravel Pit with a refreshing new theme, a more interesting area around the final point with broken ice, and snowman bombs that make the old map more lively. I also find BLU trying to stop RED from using a freeze ray to enact global cooling fairly amusing. 10/10, honestly kinda carries the update.

Frostcliff: A Payload map that is mediocre at best, Frostcliff provides perfectly fine gameplay for the most of the map, but the last point is far too chokey and easy to defend, making it almost impossible for the attacking team to succeed. The texturing in some parts of the map is lazy and jarring with snowy textures on top of inclines connecting to wall textures with no snow in sight, carving straight lines in the terrain that scream ‘unpolished.’ It also suffers from the Bread Space problem of RED’s first spawn facing towards the end of the map and being at a right angle to the beginning, leading to most teams trying to run to C at the beginning of the round instead of A, at least on their first round on it, though this is somewhat mitigated by a door closing off part of the map when it’s not in use yet. There’s some potential, but it’s overall poorly designed and executed. The layout also gives me flashbacks to Erebus and Terror, two of the worst Halloween maps. 4/10

Frosty: It’s capture the flag. The map seems fairly well-put together, but you’re never going to actually play this map. Any server running this map turns into the same playground as 2fort, so I can’t speak much to how it plays, though being a capture the flag map means my expectations are low anyway. For these reasons, I’m not giving it a score, but nice as it looks, I’m not queuing for it.

Frostwatch: This is the worst attack/defend map I’ve ever played. The second point of the first stage is by far the most difficult of the entire map for BLU to push with the only routes aside from the main choke being two parallel routes to the sides, one of which is a tunnel not even wide enough to fit 2 people side-by-side, and the whole thing is an uphill battle giving the defending team the high ground. And that’s if you even make it there because BLU’s first spawn is absurdly easy to spawncamp, being wide open for Snipers to have a field day and having a dropdown from one of the spawn exits which can be camped under very easily. BLU’s last spawn has a similar issue, though not to the same extent, except on the last spawn all of the spawn exits have similar, albeit smaller drops to camp under. The second stage, for no discernible reason, has two points that can be attacked simultaneously, both of which need to be captured to progress to the final stage. Neither of these points are particularly well-designed, with one of them in particular standing out for basically just being a pit outside RED’s spawn where they can rain hell on anyone attacking, but because of the second point of stage one, if you make it to stage two, your team is almost certainly stacked enough to steamroll both it and stage three. Stage three is mediocre and really boxy. I’d also like to point out that this map has had several out-of-bounds spots you can get to, an issue normally only present on Halloween maps where you have to use spells to do so. How they fucked that up, I don’t know. 0/10, I never want to play this map again. I leave the server if the other players are dumb enough to vote for it after the round ends.

Edit: It has occurred to me that a reason for the prevalence of spawncamping on the first stage, aside from how easy it is, is that the area immediately outside of BLU spawn connects directly to the first point, meaning RED more or less has to hold right outside of spawn in order to keep A. This, combined with the second point being chokepoint hell, makes stage one of this forsaken map strikingly similar to Dustbowl last.

And thus concludes an unnecessarily long rant about Frostwatch my Smissmas 2022 map review! Have a fucking Smissmas or whatever.

#team fortress 2 #smissmas #smissmas 2022

[quixote-quesada]

wtf went wrong

i downloaded hero cantare a while ago and my account was quite decent after a month (?) playing this game. but since i had to focus on other things ( studying, again ), i quitted it although i still kept an eye on patch notes, just because.

i mean,

the whole reason why i decided to give it a try is because of my favorite character in tower of god ( yeh you guys know who that dumbass is ). so i checked on patch notes almost every week, in case his banner comes back.

i don't know how or why but i have wasted 6/7 days of the first week of his banner. maybe because i was focusing on other things. then on saturday i got a notification from youtube ( yeh heck why ) about the latest hero, who turns out to be karaka. my gut told me that i should check on the updates, which i did.

damn.

i tried my best with all the resources i've got left in my account, but after 100 times summoning, i got karaka ( twice wtf ) and 2 other ss heroes that aren't even rated up. that's when i knew i had to give up on this account no matter how decent it is, because, well, there aren't many more ways to farm essence quickly.

i created another account and spent a day doing everything i could to get as many essences as possible. my husbando ended up home after more than 140 summons - yes i got more than 140 summons in one day. even i was shocked at that.

but then another problem came up. jinsung is definitely not f2p friendly ( heck this whole game is not ), and not beginner-friendly either. i didn't have decent supporters like in my old account ( yeon's flame khun and black march bam, plus endorsi ). not to say he's not worth to invest in ( according to other players ).

i mean, i like him a lot, not only the character but also the fact that his damage increases as his hp decreases ( gosh i love that mechanic ). it's just that it's hard to keep up with the game as there's too much struggling, from equipments to relics to materials to shards - fucking god the shards who made him an ss ? i need to talk to that person right now.

i guess i'll just have to accept and suffer.

#ha jinsung #tower of god #hero cantare

[glassmarcus]

Pokémon Violet has Transcended Embarrassment

*Played in November 2022, Written in December 2022

Pokémon Violet does a surprising amount well. I still think it has a ways to go both as a Pokémon game and as an open world game, but it's still head and shoulders above what I expected and honestly MOST Pokémon games. I didn't presume much because this was rushed, but that's really not a new issue. This franchise is categorically rushed at this point. The last new batch that was actually finished cooking was Generation 5, and those are what I would classify as outliers.

You can look at games like Pokémon Platinum and Emerald and view them as easy cash grabs because dumb kids will buy the same game twice without reservation. I didn't buy Platinum when I was 11 because I thought I was getting grifted. "Why would I buy ANOTHER version of Pokémon Pearl?", "That game was awesome! There's not much to improve on", "I'm not gonna save up my allowance just so I can get a third option for a fire type" were the thoughts I had on the matter. It was after returning to Pokémon in my senior year of high school, when I replayed every Pokémon Generation, where the illusion shattered before my eyes. Pokemon Pearl...is really slow. Every action you take in that game is as slow as a Shuckle. It has the lowest speed stat of any Pokémon game by far. I didn't realize it before, because my perception of time was suspect when I was a preteen, but that game was not optimized at all. It wasn't recycling the same product, it was charging for the completed version. It's a patch, you put up money to get. That doesn't make it excusable really, but at the end of the day I'd rather a finished version of a game exist than not.

It probably wouldn't have been good to market it as Pokemon Diamond and Pearl: Actually finished edition, but it would have made it clearer to me as a consumer what was on the table. That's pretty much what they tried to do with Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon a decade later, but the complete versions of those games just happened to be worse than the betas. Plus, it's not like there is no precedent in the series for transparent updates that should have been there at release. It's just that most people don't know about them. The versions Pokémon that were released world wide had drastically better sprites and a few bug fixes to boot when compared the original Pokémon Red and Green. And even then, every version of Generation 1 is still full of holes. Pokemon, at its bare foundation, is a franchise that is OK churning out products that could use another year of development. Games like Yellow Version and Crystal looking back were honestly the only ones I'd consider pure cash grabs. Pokémon Yellow didn’t fix much from Red V2 and Blue. Gold and Silver were more or less complete. Ruby and Sapphire though, while they weren’t egregious in any way, the lack of post game content left them feeling like they were hurried in development, especially compared to the previous games' massive post game. This makes Emerald feel necessary in retrospect. People whine and cry about the lack of battle frontier for a reason. It wasn't just an additional thing, it completed the experience.

Platinum was the first case where a fix was implemented mainly for technical reasons rather than content ones. And because of those technical kinks being ironed out, the rest of Gen 4 and Gen 5 were as polished as the series has ever been. Then Pokémon X and Y happened. And while the performance wasn't an issue, it certainly had the same problem of feeling like a ton was left on the cutting room floor. Gen 6 is probably the most reviled generation of Pokémon and I can't help but think that's because A) they really are the worst games, and B) they had no “patch release” to fix any of its problems. I have fond memories of Gen 6, but that's because I had too much free time on my hands and they made EV training and online battling painless. The games themselves I've beaten twice and don't remember any of. It's the essentials with no flourishes, and as much as people would have welcomed another version with some meat on it's bones, a Pokémon Z would never happen. Sun and Moon had a dearth of content and a surplus of technical issues. An update for that game felt more necessary than in Gen 6. And like I said before in Ultra Sun and Moon’s case, they barely fixed anything and made that story worse and added content that was bad.

This marked the end of the "Third Version" era. If the things added just detract from the game, then why bother making them at all? Downloadable Content always seemed like the obvious route for Pokémon to go, but was never feasible due to the hardware. Any extra content they can't add on release, can just be developed later and sold for the price of not an entirely new game. Things like performance and bugs can be fixed in updates as well. So there's no real need to buy an entirely new version. Sword and Shield came out, lacked content, but announced DLC to make up for that lack of content. The DLC was decent, but that didn't really sway public opinion about the game itself. Its legacy is that of a paint by numbers poké. This is all based off the osmosis of opinions I absorbed from the circles I hang around in. Still haven't touched them myself. It's getting to the point where I'm about to play Sword and Shield for the sake of having my own opinion on it when I spend far too long developing context for these essays. It's agonizing having this gaping fissure in my Pokémon knowledge, but those games do look painfully mediocre, so I have no drive to try them.

People can look back at Gen 4 and think fondly of it because while it was initially a slog, it was improved later. Not just because it was optimized, but because the adventure itself was tweaked to be improved. DLC fixes the amount of content that can be contained in the game, but it does nothing to fix the distribution of said content. The main journey is still underwhelming and no additional content will change that. The third version wasn't just a patch, it was a second shot. There are design decisions and story beats which can be tweaked. Changes that would be awkward if done via an update. No matter how polished an addendum is, it can't make up for a rough draft being so rough. And that's what I was worried about for the new games. Because I knew they would be drafts just like almost all Pokémon games initially are.

Pokémon Violet has issues. It has spelling mistakes. It has busted grammar. It has misused vocabulary words. But it's still coherently formed and carefully crafted. It just turned in its work without using spell check. The base game is strong and nothing about it is broken. It's just kind of embarrassing, but the game confidently shrugs it off. Violet is populated with glitches, but the only one that really matters is the memory leak one after a long play session. Violet has extremely rough looking animations, but you will get over it and not really care after a few hours. The indoor exploration feels like a cheap visual novel, but that ends up being a small percentage of play time. Violet has low fidelity graphics, but the art direction more than makes up for it.

It might be because I played them back to back, but Pokemon Violet reminds me a lot of Sonic Frontiers. It's not Broken and Embarrassing like Sonic 06; It's not Broken, but polished on surface level like Sonic Lost World; It's just Embarrassing sometimes. And that’s funny. Most of the wild bugs you find in the game are things you laugh at and move on from and Violet is the same way. I'm not condoning games lacking polish, but I really can't get too upset at it. The only true killer is performance slowing down the pace of battles to near Gen 4 rates, and that is something I would call a major issue. Especially after how quick it was in Pokémon Legends Arceus which released in the same year.

I'm of two minds about this. Yes, they should give the game more time so that it's polished and presentable. I don't want to support smooth brained upper management and I wouldn't say I PREFER things to look awful, but when you change your perspective you can appreciate how hysterical this game turned out. We're at a point where Pokémon is unstoppable and the vote with your wallet approach is futile. So all I can do is be happy with the product being good enough. And yea, this is good enough. Probably the best Nu Pokemon game, an age bracket I’m gonna say extends from Gen 6 and onward. Not sure I can say it’s better than any of the old ones though. Why? Because they are far different experiences with different goals. Old Pokémon games were about building your team and overcoming obstacles. These new ones are about exploring and finding your favorites. There's probably more challenge here than in any from the past decade, but I still had to really try to not be over leveled. I was training like 20 Pokémon at the same time here, and caught 300 by the time I got to the credits. It's a middle ground between a traditional Pokémon and a Legends game. Which makes it not great at either. There's no satisfaction in overcoming anything, but exploration isn't as smooth as in Arceus. There's just...more of it. I remember areas in Arceus because they were smaller and had land marks and locations where only certain things happened. Violet is just larger and more connected, but it has the same motifs spaced out further. This game lacks interesting locales and events, and while the things you do are fun, I'd rather just do them in Legends where it's faster. It does nothing old better. Battling and catching is not what you go to Pokémon Violet for if you want the pinnacle of those activities.

The new it brings to the table is the best part though. Multiplayer works. Just being able to point out where things are to people and experiencing new Pokémon in stereo is the most magical part of this game. The synchronous wonder you feel during unions do a lot to enhance the feeling of adventure. It wears off once you're near the end of the game and things are inherently less exciting, but it's still relatively seamless and only additive. It starts to feel like a MMO. But instead of massive it's micro. People have been asking for a Pokémon MMO since the dawn of high speed internet access, and while it's not there yet, it's at least something.

The story is also the best the franchise has had due to its approach. Instead of 1 story arc that takes itself far too seriously and takes too long to tell, you are given 3 story arcs with a final one at the end. Each story arc is easy to follow and character driven, endearing you to the setting and cast. All 3 are genuinely touching tales. And when things started to pop off and get serious at the end, I was more engaged in learning the outcome more than other Pokémon games aside from maybe Sun and Moon. I can attribute a lot of the strengths of this story to those games as well, but they’re held back by linear structure and can feel like you are getting pelted by story at all times. In Violet, no storyline feels like they are interrupting your adventure because you can do them at your own pace. I liked this game about as much as Moon, but I will never replay that game. The story is far too obtrusive. So I have to prefer Violet just based on how much replay value it has, not just because the story is structured better, but because I'm certain my next play through will be FAR different.

The non-linearity is yet another thing this game brings to the table. A lot of people were bothered that this game doesn't have level scaling for gyms and other equivalent goals. I expected them to do this so you can do things in any order you want. But they didn't and it was a great decision, because now it feels like I’m breaking the rules by doing things out of order. It feels more free when there are structures you can surmount. I liked doing gyms out of order in the first two Gens and this is the logical extension of that. Having the challenges curve with badge amount makes it feel like you've been placed in a bounding box and would make it impossible to attempt to punch above your weight class. Personally, I think it's good for players to have the freedom to get bodied by lv 30 Pokémon near the beginning of the journey. It builds character.

Having a variety of goals also helps break Pokémon out of its linear structure. You can swap between storylines whenever and in any order you like. And each one gives different rewards. If you prioritize movement, you take on titan sized Pokémon to get traversal upgrades. If you want higher level Pokémon to obey you, take on gyms. If you want a wider variety of attacks for your Pokémon, you take on Team Star. The path the player walks along is not driven entirely by curiosity, but by implementing a system that supports prioritizing some modular aspects over others. Players who beat the game will end up at the same place, with the same abilities, but with a different story. Pokémon has sort have always been that way. Everyone becomes champion with a different team that you bonded with along the way, with their own tale of how they succeeded in each challenge. But now that those challenges have no order, there's an even greater variance the narrative you can craft.

I wish this game was finished. I want there to be free updates that enhance performance and fix memory leaks. I want there to be DLC with more to explore. But I do not want a third version. Because the bones of this game are strong and Game Freak is really onto something.

#pokemon violet

[lucyl626]

Rambling about The Sims

You might have noticed, that I rebloged two The Sims 2 posts, and I haven't posted about The Sims 4 in a while. So let me just pour out my thoughts on the current state of The Sims 4 here, since this my Sims Journal.

I admit, I made a mistake when I updated my game back in December. I always make this mistake. I should have waited, but it happened, and after that I didn't dare to open my main save. Even tho I have multiple back-ups, I back-up like crazy, I use 'save as' instead of 'save' at the end of every sim week (there was a time when I used it all the time, and ended up with 1000+ save files, so I reduced it to once/sim week for back-up).

Before I updated, I started to furnish a mansion for the Hargreaves family, but then I saw people getting lot corruption, I was scared to continue. I don't wanna lose hours of furnishing because the lot decides not to load anymore for some random reason, and it's a big lot 40x30, and the house is the whole lot basicly. I HOPE that the corrupted lots are not completely lost if the developers find the root of the problem and we get a fix, but this situation just discourages me to continue. Gallery lots are also affected. No one really knows what's causing this. To much objects, or particular objects? Who knows?

January patch came, and it was a disappointment. We got no fixes for the really game breaking bugs. And I get it, theese bugs are tough! Save and lot corruptions are not just a normal 'oopsie' in a script. I'm sure they are working on it full time, that's why we got so little fixes this month. But I was hoping my hiatus from my main save will be only a month. It looks like it will be longer.

I started a new save just to test out some mods I might wanna use in my main save later. I played a little rags to riches, I tried Padasama's Child Birth Mod. I wouldn't minded corruption at first, but then I got too attached. After the patch this month, I wanted to update my mods, but modders are so quiet. I tried to find info on what's broken, and what's compatible, but I couldn't. I didn't wanna bother modders because they might be busy and/or tired.

So, I decided to switch games until we get the monthly update in February then we will see from there. I made a poll on Twitter, and The Sims 2 won, so my next month will be about The Sims 2.

I still love The Sims 4 and I wanna play it. But I know myself. I don't have the patience like years ago when I spent days migrating my sims into a new save every time I broke it with a mod. That's why I went to no mods for almost a year and started to slowly and safely put mods into my game again. The fear that I have to start over again is real. And this time it's not a mod that I put in without reading a description. The game itself is a ticking time-bomb.

I know, someone might ask, but what about The Sims 2? Isn't that an unstable mess that can be corrupted so easily? Well, no. Just watch April Black's video about the topic. She completely erased my fear about The Sims 2 corruption, because now I know what to do if it happens, why it happens and how to prevent it.

I don't have that ambitious plans with The Sims 2. My The Sims 4 main save plans were to play the whole 4 seasons of the original story I wrote with my husband. It will take me years. For The Sims 2, I made a monthly plan: I will play the Stories games first, then I will continue their stories in The Sims 2, and I play as long as I wanna or can.

I also have plans for playing The Sims Medieval and that plan is much more ambitious: completing all the ambitions before entering the endless game mode with a kingdom that formed through the ambitions. But we will get to it if February's patch couldn't fix the major issues of The Sims 4.

I wanted to make videos about The Sims 2, but I just can't filter out the noise. My laptop is like a hybrid between a coffee grinder and an airplane, I live next to a busy street, trafic is crazy, everything is so noisy I'm gonna go insane! And it's even worse on recording.

[jaythelay]

I hate having a good point in the tags of a post, but I want ya'll to understand my perception of the gaming industry has remained the same since I was 14, waaaaay back in the 360 era's early years.

My goal posts never moved, they have always remained strong and only ever are reinforced every discussion I see or have on it.

Updates are only acceptable when patching genuinely game destroying bugs, otherwise this "live-service" shit is for the birds. Ever wanted to pay for an experience that you can never save? Despite it being digital? Ever wanted a theseus ship for a product you paid for?

DLC is bad for the industry because expansion packs are larger, are worth the creative effort, and the cost for the consumer is evenly matched to it.

Microtransactions prove DLC is bad for the consumer because it's just content cut out of the game, that before would just have been included from the start, or added for fun in an update, split into an even bigger pile of problems.

Addiction Experts being hired prove the entirety of both systems are bad for the consumer because the industry is only interested in having either to exploit people by giving them mental and financial problems that benefit the CEO's bottom line, to hell with your life and finances, the CEO wants All, the Money, not some, not most, not a majority, All, the Money.

Season Passes and Pre-Ordering are bad for the industry because You're Paying for a Promise No One Made. It incentivises spending as little time as possible on a product because you're Guaranteed Sales before it's even finished. It also excludes content from the game which again only benefits the CEO at the cost of actually everyone, like, actually, Everyone.

Budgets are broken at the heel. Anytime someone mentions the rising budgets, they forget these companies, you know, control that? And no one is forcing them to, you know, make just one half a billion dollar game a year? They do it because it's more profitable, not because it's the only way they can survive in the industry (honest to god the perspective people seem to have, Yes, let's ignore Indie titles) For one, Half the budget is always going to be marketing, however, graphics, are not artistry, they are Marketing, and that's not considered as such in the budget, so the budget for making games becomes depressingly low, while game mechanics and gameplay fight for resources from the graphics. Go play any game before 2010 and notice gaming hasn't really improved much since then, just the graphics. These budgets are purposefully inflated so investors see big numbers. Pretty much no other reason. As far as graphics snobs, the industry controls that too! Make a good looking game, not a realistic, grey simulator.

These are opinions I've only improved and refined upon for at least...oh god nearly 14 years???? Oh my god. Oh my god I'm too fucking late. Shit, sorry ya'll. But hey, just know this opinion is older than most supporters of modern gaming.

#gaming industry #pay piggy useful idiots #ruin the market #gaming #pre-orders #pre-orders should only be for indie titles and even then should be frowned upon unless there's a good cause #Like kickstarter but ensuring the game gets released sorta situation #a company? #tf they need pre-orders for? #they set the fucking budget #modern gaming #modern gaming industry

[west-tokyo-incidents]

A combination of 6 and 8 for Renji/Puck

-CC 🖤

CLAPS MY HANDS LIKE A DUMB SEAL

Renji and Puck have mutual realizations, across the city from one another.

---

Renji is quiet as he goes about his day. Puck's advances into the city are just about all he can think about. Or... Well, mostly it was just Puck.

The man was his age, possibly even a bit older, but reminded him of himself and Uta and Itori from their much younger days. Reminded him of Uta and Itori presently, to be quite honest.

He silently let his mind wander as he thanked the woman behind the counter and took the bag with his purchase from her.

The wild ghouls' movements were... Rather sloppy. They had managed to track and destroy two prison vehicles on their way to Cochlea, even with changed routes, but they were bound to be busted before too long. He mildly hoped Puck would be alright.

His mind was interrupted as he arrived to Anteiku, and immediately Touka began talking about something different. He listened and smiled softly as she complained about something Kaneki had done.

And then she asked him if there were any updates on the situation. Right. His mind jumped back to the wild ghouls. Thankfully, with the attacks, many doves had been redirected off of the scent of Mado's killer. So for now, it's quiet here.

"The last thing I heard is probably the same as you."

"Ah, damn. Itori said she saw you talking to Puck so you might know more."

Renji sighed, "He's stupid, but he's smarter than to go spilling details about an active war."

"...so you DID see him!" She leaned over the counter as if she was making a huge accusation.

He blinked at her, "What's this about?"

"...eh?" She blinked, "Oh, come on."

"Of course I see him, he tracks me down every time he's slightly bored."

Touka huffed, "Whatever." She moved to attend to someone who had just walked into the shop.

Renji shook his head and continued his business, putting away the things he'd bought for the shop. What was she accusing him of, anyways? Just seeing the guy? Well, Itori was the one who told her, she'd probably made some comment implying the two were romantically inclined. She'd been saying that about him and Uta, too, and that had... Fallen by the wayside, to say the least.

She'd be more right about Puck than Uta.

The thought came unbidden to his mind. Puck was different. Puck might be a nihilist as well, but there was more... More what? He made a small face to himself. More crude, probably. Louder. More...

Open.

Renji bent down to open the cabinet next to the sink to put away some cleaning supplies.

Open. That's what it was. Puck was more open. Honest. Yes, Uta was his friend, and yes, those sparks had once existed(still did, somewhere down there) but Puck is more outwardly emotional and--

He caught himself. The image of the scar-torn man laughing had popped into his head, an open, joyful laugh at his own joke. His grin making his cheek lift and wrinkle the fabric of his eye patch.

And his mind went blank for a second.

Nope.

Absolutely not.

He shook his head back to reality and closed the cabinet doors a bit too quickly before standing up and nearly running into Touka.

"Hey, careful! I told you I was walking by."

"Ah. Sorry."

"What's got you distracted?"

"Don't worry about it." He knew it came out faster than he meant it to as he made his way out of the bar area, "I'll get out of your way. Have a good day."

Only two words sat in his head for the next few minutes as he made his way back out.

---

Not.

Again.

Puck, however, was alone. Staring at the sky from on top of the dilapidated building that was their current den.

He was also bored. He wanted to go find one of the Anteiku people to pester. But it's so far away. He heaves a heavy sigh. Maybe he could pester the Oni Clan, but his mind didn't stay there for long.

If he did make the trip he'd probably end up finding Renji. That would be nice.

The problem with not having a job and not being able to go out to any parties or public places... Is that boredom is a massive beast. He can't even hunt to fill time, there's no need for it. They all ate recently and there's no reason to take more than they need just for a thrill.

Damn, he'd like to, though. Doesn't Anteiku give meat to their customers? He could hunt some and take the bodies to them, just like he did for Akumame back in the day. Hey, maybe that would even make Renji a bit happy to see him, if he's providing. Or, at least, something other than blank annoyance.

He sat up, now excited to get up and have an excuse to... he paused.

Normally, his thoughts would have been 'an excuse to hunt'. An excuse to make bloodshed and to kill.

But no. His thought was 'an excuse to see Renji.'

Huh.

He made a face and sat there for a moment. He really just wants a reason to see the Raven, huh? He mulled that over in his mind.

Now, contrary to popular belief, he's not stupid.

He wants to see Renji, just to try and get a smile out of him again with a new joke. He wants to sit and talk to him, even if he can't talk about important things. He wants to bring him meat to maybe help take some weight off his shoulders.

...

Since when did he do that? Sure, he likes his group, he provides for them. But Renji isn't one of them. He's not even someone he used to know from Anteiku.

He's just some guy... With a really, really nice goddamn voice who can also absolutely throw him on his ass.

Puck stared off at nothing.

"Well, shit." He said to absolutely no one.

He was gonna have to put off hunting. He had to think about this one for a bit.

#puck/renji #ress writes #AAAAAAA #OKAY. #putting it on paper makes it so much more real #this ship is SAILING

[100dayproductivity]

11/100.

Ok, I'm making some progress. I finally patched up the holes in the wall behind the fridge. The actual patching took me less than five minutes. And now I'm actually thinking of rehanging the overhead cabinet I removed (had to remove it to fit the new taller fridge I got, but I could rehang the cabinet higher). If I rehang the cabinet, it will cover the holes I patched up. So I didn't need to patch them after all. Isn't that dumb? 🤦🏻‍♀️

On the other hand, the only reason I'm thinking of rehanging the cabinet is because I successfully rehung another cabinet and now I know how to do it. 9 months ago when I removed the cabinet above the fridge I didn't know how to rehang it. It was also a 🤬 to remove and weighs a freaking ton, thought I was going to seriously injure myself. No way was I going to try and rehang it!

I'm not sure how I'm going to go about doing it myself though, since I only have two hands (the other cabinet I was able to do by myself, not going to get into explaining why but basically because there's a countertop underneath that cabinet and there isn't a countertop underneath this one).

Well, we'll leave that dilemma for another time. The point is, I've patched up the wall now and the next step is to paint it.

Here's the putty/plaster stuff I bought to fill the holes. Cost me all of five bucks.

Of course, when I went to go find the putty knife, guess what I found?

Remember I said I was loathe to buy a whole new container of filler when I thought I already had one somewhere? And then I figured I had thrown it out? Guess I hadn't thrown it out after all 🤦🏻‍♀️

On the other hand, this one is wood filler, not really for drywall, although for tiny nail holes it's fine to use. But it is pretty hard and probably needs to be thrown out anyway.

Looks like ice cream. Strawberry and mocha. 🍨

Oh right! Before I patched up the wall, I vacuumed up the dust, crumbs and cat hair that had accumulated underneath and behind the fridge.

As you can see, it's not too bad as it has been less than a year since I last cleaned back there.

Most importantly I vacuumed the vent for the fan at the back of the fridge. If you own a fridge, you should clean this up every once in a while (once a year?) to keep the fridge running well. The fridge needs to be able to circulate air properly in order to run, so keep this vent clear of dust. Otherwise you're gonna have expensive fridge problems.

Here's a closeup of the vent before and after:

What you're seeing is dust and a lot of cat hair. Yuck!

And here's the wall before and after patching up. Not much difference lol.

Oh, oops! Run out of photo room. Will show my work in the next post. For now, here's my updated to-do list:

Patch up holes in wall behind fridge. ✓

Dishes. ✓

Order cat food.

Order groceries.

Homescan.

Fill out mortgage paperwork.

Do a load of laundry

Recurring:

Alternate heat and ice on foot. ✓

Do hamstring stretches. ✓ Reference: https://www.sports-injury-physio.com/post/top-5-stretches-plantar-fasciitis

Roll out knots in leg muscle.

Do Sun Salutation x5

Take inhaler

#100 days of productivity #100dop #to do list #chores #kitchen #procrastination #cleaning #get motivated #motivation #motivateyourself #home maintenance #home repair #fridge repair #housekeeping #homemaker