#anyway. really good game. i love the lore and the events are always fun. also simulated universe >>>> abyss

[nateriverswife]

i am so normal about hsr (stayed up till 2am just to tell my best friend Blade's entire lore after she just asked who he was)

#it's impressive that i am not talking about this game on here #anyway. really good game. i love the lore and the events are always fun. also simulated universe >>>> abyss #i thought i would hate a turn-based combat game but nah. it's good #but sometimes. sometimes. not so much. #killing satan's mosquito took me a week because natasha would always be imprisoned and couldn't heal my other characters #and gepard had to carry my whole team with his shield #at least my Dan Heng IL would recover when hit (for some reason. idk if it's his build or his ability) #i even built Yanqing thinking it would help #but then used Argenti #goddness. died so many times i couldn't even recover health cuz the thing would ran out. then i learnt to just quit the battle #when i saw that i was losing #so weird. cuz i don't think my builds are trash and had no problems before so what the fuck was that. #anyway this is just me rambling into the void. #d.exe

[ezdotjpg]

do you have any directors commentary on the recent two updates? 👉👈 the color palette is absolutely lovely! and and and WOLF!! :DD

OH BOY DO I

In the original draft of this chapter, Wolf stays a, uh, wolf until like the 4th update. Instead of actually managing to get his teeth on the master sword, Loft threw him off immediately. The Deku Tree still said the line about all three of them being heroes and Slate is like. “Including the fucking dog????!” I thought it was very funny but a) it made some scenes later down the line a huge pain and b) I was tired of drawing wolves ALDKDKD

You may have noticed Wolf’s scowling in the bg of almost every panel. That’s kind of just his face, but also right now my guy is nursing the world’s biggest migraine from popping the shadow crystal out of his skull. He can stay wolfmode for a while, but it’s still technically a curse. It’s not consequence free, and there’s an upper limit for how long he can spend in that form. Anyway, cut him some slack if he’s a little prickly for a bit.

There were a lot of comments about Loft being strong enough to toss a wolf over his head lol. My hc is that he’s one of, if not the strongest Link sans any magic items like power bracelets or gauntlets. He’s actually not even as strong now as he was during his quest. Wolf maybe has him beat now, but he can still get tossed lolol

It might seem like Slate’s really taken everything that happened at the end of ch1 in stride, but don’t worry. He’s simmering. Loft is grateful for the opportunity to get distracted by something else. Maybe that’s why he was so willing to approach the wild animal he’s never seen before lol

This maybe goes without saying based on the events of the last two updates, but Slate never had wolf link with him during the events of botw. He doesn’t recognize Wolf.

I’m really glad ppl seem to be liking the colors bc I struggled with them so hard on both updates 🫠literally days of me turning to my roommate and going “I think I’ve never made anything worse” and them going “it looks good stop being dramatic” WKDJDK I have this thing where if I had an idea in my head for what an update should look like, and what I produce doesn’t meet it somehow, I start seeing in fucking. shrimp colors. Posting always gives me a confidence boost back lol.

these pages were cursed in general bc like. this doesn’t usually happen but I think I redrew every panel in this update at least 5 times each. that’s part of why it ended up being late SKDJF

I REALLY like the idea of being in the presence of the Triforce and having access to its power being this eldritch, divinely horrifying experience. The sort of thing that is impossible to explain to anyone and also haunts you forever. Loft spends a lot of time actively trying not to think about the Triforce. Just, like, remember that about him.

Like how tears in reality are shown through holes in the literal comic panels, I tried to show the concept of reality bending in the form of a panel stretching and twisting like a ribbon ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ I hope that came across. Triforce lore varies a bit from game to game, but I’ve come up with my own internal logic for bonus links that combines all the ideas I like lolol. We’ll learn more about it in due time!

I also really like this parallel :D I intentionally set up the panels so past and present loft would line up like this. i love getting to draw flashback links it’s so fun to think of ways to convey what they used to be like, and how their quests might have gone for them. Past Loft’s not having a great time by the time he reaches this point lol

I think that’s all I’ve got for now. Thanks for asking :D

#long post #askdotjpg #bonuslinksdotjpg #bonus links #bonuslinks #bonus loft #bonus wolf #bonus slate

[autumnslance]

Hello Autumn! I love your stories! You’ve inspired me to make my OC WoL to write about. The thing is I don’t know where to start? Any tips or advice you could give that could help me get started? Thank you so much!

whoop, meant to post this one earlier and got distracted! But hey; maintenance day.

I found prompt lists are a good place to start; there's all sorts of character ones out there, some for WoL and some generic ones. Even if your answers changes as you write the character, they're handy for noodling out some ideas to get started thinking about who they are and why.

Otherwise, take a look at MSQ itself. Maybe play through it, first time or in New Game+ and take some notes; how does the character feel about this, and why? Not you the player; what about your rough idea of the character's background and personality would make them react to X event or Y person? How? Why? Some will be influenced by your own knowledge of the meta and plot, but there's a lot we can glean by seeing the story as the character experiences those events.

And then we can write about it later.

We all put a bit of ourselves into our characters, we can't really help that; they are reflections of our thoughts and experiences, even when quite different from us. A "successful" OC, In My Opinion, is one that you start to realize would do or say things you never initially intended, but it's the right course of action for them.

I've spoken on this before, that trusting our own character creation, how we determine some things about the character at the outset, even subconsciously, can and will have an impact. And sometimes we just have to trust ourselves and see where that unexpected thread leads.

*stares down thousands of words, hundreds of screenshots, and a handful of art commissions, over 5 years for a ship she never meant to write to begin with*

And it's not set in stone! You might change something, find some things work better later after all, retcon a few things, follow a random thread only to find it doesn't work out...and that's OK. Don't be afraid to experiment. This is all for fun!

Also don't try to determine every detail at the beginning; it's a way to box yourself in, or an excuse to not get started in the first place. I knew on chargen that Aeryn's bio dad was a Coerthan farmer who died in a lead-up attack to Ferndale; I didn't know anything else, not even his name, for years, until a random idea from a random prompts got me. I sat on it for a while, and then eventually followed the thread into the Avengret storyline. We also didn't have Thavnair until EW, so I left a lot of things about Aeryn's family vague and purposefully off to the side of the "mainland Thavnair culture" to give myself some breathing room, and it's worked out decently.

The game's always updating, changing, and evolving; give yourself the same space the game writers do themselves, and determine if new info makes you want to retcon something or work your own lore in alongside updates; flexibility is key, and characters can be wrong, misinformed, lying, or altered by events and people they meet.

Anyway; these are a few things I work with. I think some of the earliest things in my blog you'll find for any of my characters are some short prompt responses before I started writing and posting stories involving them (and some of those answers have changed over time as I grew more certain of who they were--or they changed!). I have notes from ShB and EW MSQ--some just sentence fragments, some short scene or dialogue ideas--to get how Aeryn reacted to MSQ events and interacting with people. Most of them never end up in stories, but they're important as they let me noodle out how to write about those events.

Hope this helps! And here's to seeing your WoL join the fray. 😘

#final fantasy xiv #lyn prompts #lyn meta #writing #character development #blogging #about me

[1moremilgram-enjoyer]

Continuing on "Haru's quest to annoy FF about every character in Milgram because they had the bad luck of getting interested in it basically at the same time he did" (/lh) Next on the list of prisoners is Fuuta. I remember you once said that he's one of your favorites along with Amane, Mikoto, and Muu, so I'm interested to hear you cover him !

Ah, so that’s why you’re doing this, your character motivation. The lore thickens. /lh

Yeah, I like Fuuta quite a bit. I’m always a sucker for protag foils, and since we can consider Es and even ourselves as the protag(s), then obviously I was going to love Fuuta. His views on justice are really interesting when considering we kinda do the same thing he ended up in Milgram for, deciding on people’s fates with horribly incomplete information and trying to justify to ourselves why we’re in the right for causing these people psychological pain. Not like it’s gonna stop me from voting people guilty when I think it’s deserved though lol.

CW: Cyberbullying, mention of suicide and murder.

(T2) Q9: How do you feel about the first trials results?

F: You’re the same as me.

Oh yeah that’s the good shit right there.

That is certainly a huge factor, Fuuta is great as a reflection to some of Milgram’s main themes and I love him for that. Even if his personality is maybe reminiscent of some other characters I’ve seen (when did Xander Matthews and Ace Markey have a secret love-child and why does he have a Bakugo complex), he’s still unique enough that I don’t see it as much of a problem.

And let’s not kid ourselves. Part of me enjoying a character sometimes comes from loving their song, and not only is Bring it On a banger like no other, Backdraft is probably my favorite Milgram song.

There’s also just a certain amount of hilarity that comes with the fact that people in Trial 1 managed to inno someone they believed to be a damn organ harvester then turn around and guilty my guy for having a Twitter account. Truly the most unforgivable of crimes.

It’s especially interesting now with Backdraft the theories around his “murder”, because I actually think it may be one of the more unclear ones in terms of what happened. You might have seen there’s a theory he wasn’t the one to start the witch hunt on the girl that ended up dying, which I find is quite believable even if we still have to explain what was going on with that photo he took of someone’s home in his Undercover silhouette thing. But what’s even crazier to me is the goddamn Undercover kill shot where his victim has both shoes on, unlike Mahiru’s and Kazui’s. Does this imply it wasn’t a suicide? Is it because whoever has the orange spray paint that shoots really straight at the one graffiti’s forehead actually murdered the girl themselves? But Fuuta still got blamed for it?

Hey remember when I said the more headache inducing a character the more I’m going to love them?

Anyways, I also think it’s cool how much Backdraft references the events during Milgram themselves. I love Es appearing in a prisoner’s song, too, especially with the whole “the one shadow from Purge March kinda looks like Es thing”-

Oh yeah Amane! I love her dynamic with Fuuta so, so much. They’re so cool and awesome and great and I hope Fuuta doesn’t get too indoctrinated but also I think it’d be kinda funny. I don’t think it would happen though, I trust big bro Fuuta will help Amane reject her cult’s teachings please I need them to have a wholesome ending where they just eat cake and play video games together you know Amane would beat his ass in any game even though she’s probably never touched a videogame in her life-

I am immensely normal about them, as you can clearly tell.

Anyways, some other things which I find really interesting.

(T1) Q1: What is a friend?

F: Folks you can get hyped over the same thing with

(T2) Q16: Do you have a lot of online friends?

F: I don't know if we were friends or not. There were times when we had fun together. But I don't know if I can call it that.

Am I reading this wrong or did my guy change his definition of what a friend is specifically to exclude his old friends? Because that’s some crazy character development right there.

(T1) Q9: Do you have apologetic feelings for who you killed?

F: I never killed anyone. Didn't you hear me? I thought you were a guard!

(T2) Q6: Do you remember the name of the person you killed?

F: I'm pretty sure I do. I saw it often after all.

So he’s admitting he did kill someone in a way. More character development.

(T1) Q10: Which prisoner do you get along with the most?

F: I'm not anyone's happy friend. Well Haruka's younger, so I take care of him.

(T2) Q2: How do you feel about Haruka?

F: This isn't the time to worry about other people. Plus it's not like he's a kid either.

More changes, my guy really is very different from trial 1 himself and I think that makes him extremely compelling.

Okay I need to stop or I’m gonna be here forever, this guy is just all kinds of silly. Anyways, love him. Please don’t get indoctrinated into Amane’s cult.

(T2) Q14: What are you thinking about now?

F: Maybe because I'm anxious, but I want something to rely on.

Please. Fuuta you’re like the only one there who might be able to reach her Fuuta please.

Anyways, I gotta go before those two rot my brain further. Hope you enjoyed! Take care!

#fuuta kajiyama

[darydark]

So I have this TES x RGG crossover... Some sketches for it. Little bit of ~lore~ under the cut

The idea is that RGG characters are living in the world of The Elder Scrolls and most of them are dark elves because I wanted so

Basically, Kazama is a founder of a small town near Mournhold and Kazama has a dark past he doesn't tell and doesn't allow his friends to tell to his adopted children. Yes, these children are Kiryu, Nishiki, Yumi and Yuko. Kiryu, or Kazuma how he is referred in this AU, is the eldest and is supposed to be a town's next chief. Secretly, he doesn't want it. But Kazama still pays a lot of attention to his eldest because of that and he also looks out for his girls too, leaving Nishiki (Akira) without attention

The town is called Kamuro and familiar faces live there hehe. The events take place in The Second Era, long after events of The Elder Scrolls Online but before Tiber Septim's conquests. Maybe next time I'll tell more

The four siblings are really close to each other and go out of town to venture. Kazama isn't fond of that but lets them anyways. Yuko loves these ventures but because her poor health, the group makes a lot of pauses, which they don't mind at all.

Kazuma loves the hand-to-hand combat but also can use weapons (but isn't a master in any of them). During his adventures he wears light armour or just plain clothes (if he was in a TES game, he would have a lot of points in unarmored skill). He is not good with magic but doesn't feel shame in that

Akira is a dd mage of a group, so to speak. He is good in hand-to-hand just because he and Kazuma do trainings but is still not as good at this as his brother. He is good at destruction magic but also naturally good at other schools of magic.

Yumi is proficient in bows but she prefers daggers. She is diplomatic and has always wanted to do something big in life (She would be good in speechcraft skill). She loves books and may appear unapproachable but is actually a really fun person!

Yuko is a sunny person. She has poor health but she doesn't mope abut that. In fact, she is good at restoration and alteration magic. She is kind, but you don't want to get on her bad side

#I already have plot in my head I just can't really write it AAAAAAAAAAAAAA #yeah I did a crossover for my fav fandoms so what #yakuza #rgg #the elder scrolls #RDD DRAWS

[chibigaia-art]

Idk how to find it again but the other day I saw a tweet saying that if you don't read the genshin lore, you miss a good part of the fun, and it kicked off a domino effect in my brain so. Long rant under the cut???

On one hand, yeah, it's true: the exploration part of genshin is something you can enjoy without necessarily having knowledge of the lore around each place, but it would definitely be more interesting if you knew what happened in specific spots etc etc. Reading notes, talking to npcs, I love that stuff! Knowing more about the world you're playing in, especially if it's a fantasy one, is super fun, and it's something I personally love doing (I'm one of the idiots that reads most of the items' descriptions in soulsborne games and I'm also the idiot that spent hours talking to every possible npc in FNV)

But.

The exposition in genshin is boring as hell and I honest to God can't get invested in it at all, despite trying multiple times. Genshin's story has some REALLY cool bits, but almost none of it gets shown and is instead told to the player via convoluted and lengthy conversations with npcs, which ykno would be fine if. The dialogue was bearable. You don't always have to "show, don't tell" but it feels like genshin goes for the "don't show, tell in excruciatingly long dialogues with paimon repeating lines other characters said/making the xth comment about food" (I am still convinced that the game would be way more bearable without paimon around, or if they had made her less... Like that,, the traveler feels very passive because paimon does most of the talking)

And the problem is, with the way genshin is, with the type of game genshin is, I can't really expect anything different - it has to feel like a full single player game while also being a gacha and requiring all the gacha-like features which inevitably influences the way the story is written (constant updates > a lot of events to write, pad them with a lot of additional lines so it's added 'gameplay', add some useless npc quest lines + constant new banners > a lot of characters that get thrown in the story and get a spotlight once every ten months if you're lucky, and sometimes don't even contribute to the main plot)

Anyway, thinking about all of this made me wonder if genshin would have been better as a full, single player game, since removing the gacha/new story updates every X months would have helped idk, reduce the cast, flesh out the main characters (traveler included) and you know, maybe!! Maybe it would have! Maybe the dialogues would have been shorter, and the writing easier to digest, but the combat system is also very subpar, which yeah, it's not surprising because it's a gacha game first, an action rpg second, so that would have to be improved as well

If you reached this point, ty for listening to my 2am brain soup!!! I just needed to write my thoughts down somewhere and I didn't want to annoy my friends

So yeah maybe you lose some fun not knowing what the genshin lore is going on about, but the writers definitely don't make the job easy

Tldr genshin needs a skip dialogue button

#chibiblabbing

[grizzlyofthesea]

Some ROTTMNT Headcanons

These are just some ideas I've come up with for fun. I may update this post as I form headcanons for more characters. Or, since it's already so long, I'll make new ones for each set of characters.

If you have any you'd like to share, feel free to comment!

Raph

DOB: December 1st, 2003

Bisexual as all heck, with a slight preference for men

Cis guy; pronouns are he/him

Undiagnosed autism; flew under everyone's radar since he's high-empathy and masks pretty well

Lashes out when overstimulated; worst case scenario, can destroy a lot of stuff in a little time

Favorite sibling order: April, Mikey, Leo, Donnie

Very good at sewing

Has amassed a collection of over 50 teddy bears, some of which are vintage and/or rare

OBSESSED with professional wrestling

Surprisingly knowledgeable about classic horror movie monsters

Loves 80s fashion

Wears that x-shaped bandage on his plastron all the time to cover up a huge childhood scar

Has a habit of chewing on stuff when stressed

Doesn't have a social media account, but supports all of his siblings' endeavors

Leo

DOB: October 21st, 2004

Gay as all heck; Don Suave was his awakening

Cis guy; pronouns are he/him

Will fight anyone who tries to exclude his family from pride events

Undiagnosed ADHD; didn't really draw attention since it's inattentive-type

Tends to zone out during conversations, even ones that interest him

Favorite sibling order: Mikey, April, Raph, Donnie

Loves 90s fashion and pop culture

Jupiter Jim may be his favorite comic book hero, but he loves comics in general.

Also a huge anime geek, with his personal favorites being Sailor Moon, Sonic X, and JoJo's Bizzare Adventure

Quite famous on TikTok as sketch comedian/"cosplayer" N30n_L30n

Totally abuses his teleportation powers to go on free outings/vacations

The undisputed king of April Fool's Day

Really wants a pet bearded dragon

Donnie

DOB: December 25th, 2004

Splinter and Leo always do the whole "This is your birthday gift and your Christmas gift" thing to him. He hates it.

Aroace and/or fictoromantic asexual as all heck (goes back and forth between the labels)

Nonbinary as all heck; pronouns are he/him and they/them

Diagnosed with autism at around 3 years old

Super sensitive to texture and temperature

Favorite sibling order: April, Mikey, Raph, Leo

Has built a backup tech-bô in case another Krang situation happens

Did their own laser eye surgery when they were 11 so Leo would stop teasing them about looking nerdy

Thinks cryptocurrency and NFTs are stupid

April has dragged him into the insanity of the FNAF fandom, and now he won't stop talking about the crazy lore.

Runs a gaming/science experiment YouTube channel as Bootyyyshaker9000; doesn't have many viewers or subscribers, but loves to make videos anyway

Monster High is their guilty pleasure

Treats S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. and the P.S.D.D. (Personal Slumber Defensive Device) as his beloved sons

Mikey

DOB: March 16th, 2005

Polyromantic demisexual as all heck

Cis dude; pronouns are he/him

Diagnosed with combined-type ADHD at around 5 years old

Releases a lot of his energy through his art

Favorite sibling order: Leo, Donnie, April, Raph

Loves glow sticks, fairy lights, and other luminescent decorations

Runs a surprisingly popular art/baking Pinterest account as Flavorville; also considering extending to Tumblr

Obsessed with horoscopes, and kind of into some new-age spiritual stuff

Unironically loves the Twilight saga

Chose to decorate his plastron with stickers because they're easy to switch out if he ever wants a change of aesthetic

Dr. Delicate Touch is his response to being ignored/talked over as the "baby" of the family.

Did most of the graffiti in the lair

Owns Heelys, but can't figure them out for the life of him

April

DOB: May 11th, 2002

Basically Splinter's adopted daughter/the turtles' adopted sister despite both of her biological parents still being present in her life

Lesbian as all heck

Trans girl; pronouns are she/her

Still has a spiritual connection to Karai and some leftover powers from the Season 2 finale

Favorite sibling order: Donnie, Raph, Mikey, Leo

Admires Warren Stone for his confidence on camera and sharp fashion sense

Avid indie horror fan; especially applies to FNAF, DDLC, and Fran Bow

Loves extreme sports, especially whitewater kayaking

Regularly visits the Hidden City with Sunita

Won't touch most formalwear with a thirty nine-and-a-half-foot pole

Gets special treatment (i.e. actual high-quality meals) from Baron Draxum at school

Helps Todd with the puppies every weekend

Often uses the special hover bike battle shell that Donnie built for her to stand on his back and T-pose on the others

Splinter

DOB: April 24th, 1955

Pansexual as all heck

Neurotypical, but neurodiversity runs in his family

Got Donnie and Mikey to a doctor for official diagnoses through his superb disguise skills (see: average teenage boy Randall)

Still not entirely trusting of Baron Draxum, but begrudgingly accepts him as a second parental figure for the turtles

Favorite child order: April, Raph, Mikey, Donnie, Leo

Runs a moderately famous TikTok account as Randall; likes to troll Leo in his comments, but it's ultimately loving/playful banter.

ADORES Studio Ghibli films

Chose the turtles' bandana colors by spinning a wheel

Became shorter over the years as a side effect of the ooze/mutagen causing his DNA to more closely resemble that of a rat

Originally wanted to be an opera singer before he discovered his passion for acting

Taught Leo how to dab

Basically a father figure/cool uncle to Cassandra

Still keeps in touch with Piebald

#rottmnt #rise of the tmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #Rottmnt headcanons #headcanon #save rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #save rottmnt #unpause rise of the tmnt #unpause rottmnt #Just for fun

[fettiowi]

Hi I stumbled across your blog in a 3am haze as I've fallen into a strange sonic obsession out of NOWHERe in this year of 2023 despite having minimal interest in it prior all because I played the April Fools visual novel and after watching some videos on YouTube and scrolling through fan content I have developed A Problem (and maybe I have a love for shadow despite not knowing a ton really... and silver seems pretty neat too...) anyway onto the question: where should someone first getting into the franchise even START? Comics? Games? TV shows??? You seem nice so I thought I'd throw an ask out there and see lol sorry for the long ask

Oh honey... what are you getting yourself into... you should run

Anyway, in general sonic can be a really hard series to get into and it really depends on what exactly it is you're looking for (like if it's for gameplay or lore)

I'm assuming it's the lore here. I think a somewhat good place would be the Sonic Adventure games, and specially sonic adventure 2 since you took an interest in shadow in particular

Here is a playlist with playthroughs of nearly every sonic game, though a lot of this isn't necessary at first. I reccomend at least looking through the classic games (Sonic 1, sonic cd, sonic 3 and knuckles) as those are the most important from before adventure

Here's a second playlist with some of the game's cutscenes in japanese with subtitles. Some stuff can get lost in translation so looking through the japanese originals is always fun

At least looking through the games from the early 2000s like adventure 1, adventure 2, heroes, Shadow the hedgehog, 2006 and Rush cause they are the ones more focused on story (though you can probably pass on 2006 for a bit). Also at some point take a look at Sonic Frontiers which is the newest game

If you're looking for something easier than looking through gameplays or playing them yourself, Sonic X is also good. BUT IF YOU WATCH IT PLEASE WATCH IT IN JAPANESE AND SUBBED IM BEGGING YOU! Tip they made adaptations of the stories of sonic adventure 1 and adventure 2 at the start of season 2

And the IDW comics are the newer comics, they started in 2018, but they do mention previous game's events quite a bit. I believe it should still be enjoyable even if you don't know much, just some stuff that it's more assumed that you already know. (The start of the story takes place a bit after Sonic Forces)

So basically... go listen to sonic osts and sees what drives you insane first jfhgjg seriously the music is always good go listen to it

If you have any questions lmk! This ended up being pretty long and confusing, and I'd love to help

#GOD THIS IS AN EXTREMELY HARD QUESTION TO ANSWER #see i also ended up making a long ass post fhfhgj #i focused here on lore but its a different story if you wanna actually go and play the games #many of them have different gameplay styles so it depends on which appeals the most to you #sonic generations would be a good one for that i believe. it barely has a story but it has levels from different sonic games and you play a #as two different sonics with different gameplay styles #its a celebration of sonic's history basically #but dont expect to get much lore from there #in doubt you can spend an afternoon looking through wikis fhjf #ask

[amazing-spiderling]

for the fandom ask game: 5 6 11 16 23 24

something you see in fics a lot and love

I really love seeing Foggy sort of leap-frogging over his panic and anger and confusion in moments of crisis to get right to the part where he works on being helpful. That, "We are going to fight about this later, but right now I need to stop that bleeding" sort of thing. Foggy is absolutely allowed to have emotions and fall apart in a crisis, but he has a good head on his shoulders and certainly after a certain point he's had to learn to compartmentalize just to survive being in Matt's life. I think it's comforting to imagine having a friend or partner like that- I guess it speaks to the idea of there always being an undercurrent of love. No matter what else is going on in the moment, no matter how furious or scared or worried the events taking place right now make them, they do not supplant the love that is at the basis of the relationship. I just think that's neat.

something you see in art a lot and love

When artists really have fun with the clothing, paying attention to details and making things really specific. When someone really pays attention to drawing a certain kind of shoe- I'm just... yeah, that's the good stuff. :)

if you’re a writer or artist, what fic or piece of art are you proud of making?

Well, I'm a little bit of both- but I guess a fic sprang to mind first so I'll answer for that. (tw for fictional CSA mention btw) So, as I've not-so-casually mentioned, one of my first big/long term fandoms was Metal Gear Solid. And I know that some of the memes from that series have escaped containment, and to the outsiders it might look like "Call of Duty but with the occasional zany moment" but it does have a lot of story (too much, some might say XD) and intricate character relationships and lore and, ugh it's just SUCH fertile ground for art and fic and all the things that make fandom great. But, it *does* also very much appeal to gamer dudes of the usual type. And normally this is fine, the transformative fans and the archival fans largely keep to their own fandom spaces- but sometimes there is crossover that rubs one group or the other the wrong way.

One such case is that there is a character who has an "affair" with his step-mother, but I put that in quotes because when the dust settles, it turns out this happened when the character in question was 16. There is TERRIBLE fallout from the event (family trauma, suicide, estrangement) and the game plays it all straight- this is something that broke the already fragile family to pieces. BUT for a long time, the joke was "haha character banged his stepmom". Which. Ew.

Anyways, I always really wanted to write a story that sort of expanded on those events, not the actual relationship/abuse/fallout, but more the events that precluded it, mostly what made the character an easy target. (Isolation, otherness, a lack of confidence in who they were as an individual). Basically, I wanted to really tell a story that treated the matter with the needed level of seriousness, if only to say, "hey, this isn't a punchline, this is a traumatic experience".

I ended up watching, "The Graduate" a few times as sort of... research? Partially for tone, partially because the themes and characterization in that movie matched the vibe I was trying to go for in my own story. (I can't help but think that Kojima, known for referencing movies in his games- might have had it in mind due to some shared imagery.) This was maybe the first time I did something like that, watching a movie to pick it apart for nuance in tone, as opposed to looking at it for canon events, timelines etc.

So that story ended up being, "Surface Tension", which first appeared in the "Metal Gear Solid: Lost Years" zine, and then eventually got posted to AO3. It's not my best reviewed fic by a long shot (understandably, it's a difficult subject material and not shippy or anything), but it's one that I can say I am proud of.

a tiny detail in canon that you want more people to appreciate

Wow, this one is tricky for me- I feel like a lot of fans are way more detail oriented than I am when it comes to canon. I'm always the one in awe when people are like, "Oh in episode seven, this one song is playing in a car as it drives by, and that's significant because it came out in 2013 and that was the year that..." and i'm just like "you guys know the names of songs?"

I guess to that end- I always liked the line in, I think it's season 1 where Matt says it's a "90's Top 40" kind of guy. I think it's really funny because people characterize him as having... well, let's just say "better" musical taste, but like, no. That dude would bop his head if you played the Spin Doctors.

the fandom you’re curious about because of a mutual

I have no idea what's going on in the Trolls fandom, and at this point I'm afraid to ask. But they all look like they're having a great time.

how has fandom positively impacted your life?

I've made so many friends, and as someone who doesn't get out as much as I'd like (especially as an immunocompromised person in the middle of a pandemic), my fandom friends are so, so important to me. I love the feeling of having a group of people who love the thing I love and being able to waltz into a space and say, "Hey, who wants to do this crazy thing with me?" and have even a few people say "Yeah, let's fucking GOOOO". ^^

I also think I wouldn't write nearly as much if it wasn't for fandom, and writing has certainly gone a long way towards helping me become better at unraveling the balls of yarn in my brain and making them into sweaters and scarves, as it were. I think a lot of the time when you write, you're practicing empathy- because you're forcing yourself to see the world from someone else's perspective. Maybe the character you're writing about had something in common with you, maybe that's what drew you to them in the first place, but identifying that also helps you understand more about yourself *and* how you relate to others. So I like to think that writing has helped me relate better to other people, even the ones I disagree with, and made me more able to slow down and ask, "well, why does this person feel/think that way?" Storytelling is so important for a lot of reasons, but that's a big one for me.

#thank you for the ask #i got wordy oops

[wolf-2099]

OH HEY SINCE YOUVE BEEN SHADOWRUN POSTING ive read one of the rulebooks for shadowrun and i'm really interested in the setting, but i'm not sure what to read next to get more familiar with it. do you have any suggestions?

Strop is sitting next to me watching me pump my little autistic fists. To quote them "Now you're fucking done it. The clown."

ANYWAYS. Shadowrun rulebooks have a lot of really good short stories and small bits in there written from the povs of Shadowrunners or people living in the world and I think those are a fun place to start. If you want something to play, the Shadowrun Trilogy games do a great job (In my opinion) of introducing someone to the world without holding your hand and overexplaining EVERYTHING. There are TONS of books out there with story stuff but it can be overwhelming so I'm gonna try to throw a few things at you.

Shadowrun Timeline on the wiki. Can give you a jumping off point to look into events and characters.

Youtube playlist of a few videos talking about the Shadowrun lore and world. I haven't watched these myself but I've watched op's VTM videos and liked them.

Shadowrun Sixth World Almanac pdf. This one is an actual official sourcebook if you like that.

There are a lot of books that if you can find pdfs for, I love for lore. "Portfolio of a Dragon: Dunkelzahn's Secrets" is a great one cuz Dunkelzahn is a name you're gonna hear a LOT. Granted this book talks about someone who is DEAD but this is a big name in Shadowrun. "Dragon's of the Sixth World" is another book I love since dragons are a big deal in this world. But also iirc "Street Grimoire"? Or at least some of the magic sourcebooks talk about Insect Spirits which are a HUGE thing to know and the reason Chicago got nuked to the ground.

It's a great world and I realized I got really lucky and spoiled to have a GM who could help me get into the world and tell me the lore so really. A heem heem. My dms are always open if you have any questions of want to know anything or want any pdfs I have like, a ton of them I read through for fun KLFDHSJKG

[mousterian-writes]

🚨My Official Expansion Rankings🚨

Stone Cold Locks of the Century...of the Week:

And by that I really just like these because they are relevant to my writing interests.

I'd be interested on seeing everyone else's expansion rankings (after your done throwing bricks)

Vanilla/Classic - Questing is fulfilling and the world is never richer than it is in this expansion. The classes feel flexible even if they have severe restrictions. It has flaws (the pvp ranking grind), but I think the positives outweigh the negatives. Also, has Naxxramas which is the best raid of all time

MOP - In my opinion the best ‘story’ driven expansion. Pandaria is awesome and well realized and has one of my favorite raids, the Throne of Thunder. 

Cata- Probably the most controversial placement. But Cata is interesting to me because it signifies a change in the status quo for the world. Has some really interesting questing zones with Stonetalon and Hillsbrad. I think all of the ‘Lordaeron’ zones were fairly strong, including the worgen starting zone. I also love Uldum, I think all the Harrison Jones stuff is very fun. Does have issues, I think it marks the beginning of the ‘casualification’ of the game for good or for ill. I only seriously raided during the Dragon Soul, and never really did Firelands but I know it is a popular raid.  

Wrath - Save your bricks for later. Wrath is nice. I dislike the nexus war plot and I hate that we kill Malygos. Has Ulduar and overall a great expansion soundtrack. I would consider this the first 'story' driven expansion, however the way it is implemented is weak. I feel like you really only get the impression that you are at total war with the Scourge for the introductory quests in Borean Tundra and when you are questing in Zul'Drak. I'm excluding Icecrown because it sucks except for the two quest lines that don't suck (more on those later). No one quests in Icecrown since its end game content and most of that is spent doing dailies and getting stuff for raid night. Trust me, I'm a loremaster. Anyway. If we are fighting the lich king everything should work towards that goal and it doesn't always feel that way. Ulduar is *kind of* a non sequitur. The Tournament is goofy and bad even if for some reason I like doing all of those dailies. The Nexus war is a blink and you miss it thing even though its KIND OF a huge deal.

-----------

Honorable Mention

Warlords - Really? Well, this one is more of a conceptual Like. I did not play much WoD at all & I saw it as a cynical cash grab that they coincided with the movie’s release. Also, the premise is contrived and stupid. But, I really liked the lore about the ordering of Draenor and the struggle between the titan creatures and the botanie. I also think it is interesting that they have a whole other ‘element’ (spirit) on Draenor that they do not have on Azeroth. So there are some ideas that I like to incorporate into the background of my AU. 

----------------------

Stuff I don’t care about for whatever reason

BFA - Home Tree Burning? Interesting. Loyalist/Rebel? Also interesting. Class Warfare- gettin' spicy. Drustvar having 16th century witch trials but also accepting aid from my worgen death knight?  ......no. Blizzard also has no idea what to do with Jaina post MoP. Would have been more interesting if they focused more on the Azeroth part of Battle for Azeroth and treated it like a new Cata. But no. They didn't do that.

TBC - I’ve quested through here a million times. I played it back in the day and it was okay. But after no lifeing Classic and going to TBC it just has a brutal grind. Feels like it has very little lore that ties into later events. I do like the Kirin Var quests and Sabellian's quests, they are actually some of my favorites in the game. But, overall a boring expac. Hate all the raids except Kara (and I don’t even like that one that much) which should have been a raid in vanilla. I will say it has some very satisfying questing loops, so if you like efficiency it is not that bad. 

Legion - You may now throw bricks at me. I think I just hate fun. Which whatever. I don’t like the artifacts. I hate that the whole thing was able to start because of Draenor. I think its really funny that the high mountain Tauren and the Shal'dori join the Horde and then the Horde turn around and burn down home tree.

Dragonflight / Slands - The amount of bending over backwards, lore wise, is crazy. Sorry to all my mutual who exclusively write SL fics. And then on Dragonflight- the time of the dragon ended.

#me being a crank

[here4theheartbreak]

Ohhhh, I'm so jealous you could go to a cup sleeve event! The closest one to me is almost 4 hours away. 😂 It's amazing that there was so many people! Ahhh, our Ateez are famous~! ✨

The lack of Korean fans blows my mind every single time I think about it. They have been so beloved globally from day one (and even before day one) but they still don't have that in their own country. It's insane! I'm glad they've embraced the 'global idol' title though. Everytime i hear it in an interview intro I'm like 'at least Korea knows they're truly loved elsewhere'. But the way they do sooooo much for K-tiny and still can't get the traction. It's crazy. No one is doing more.

Guerilla is such a good MV! What a great introduction! And it sounds so cool~ I really love that their songs span genres. I feel like there must be four or five different styles in Halazia alone. (Also, I agree. I'm typically not into summery, softer songs or slower ballads. But I actively listen to all of Ateez's songs. In fact, some of my consistent faves fit right into this category!)

Their story/lore is incredible. Sometimes I feel like I understand everything less than most of the members (😂) but I'm alllll about it! It's so cool that they have this one arc. That it's been the same story this whole time. Truly amazing. Concept kings. I'm gonna need a film one day. It's all so cinematic and intriguing.

Ateez, Stray Kids, and Taemin is an AMAZING (and very tempting) line up. But you should definitely hold out. Because then you get to see Ateez for 3 hours and that's 🥰🥺. And you know they actually know what a 'world tours' is. So, it's just a waiting game!

I saw them in London. It's always London for me!

Yessss, I did see the stats! They're grown so much, even in six months. And the first day sales looked amazing! I've been streaming on Spotify and having a great old time. Really, Atiny have done so well. Especially with buying passes for Korean platforms. It was so cute when Wave was number one because everyone was practicing. 🥺

I hope voting goes well and they win most of the music show awards they'll be up for. I want them to see that their efforts pay off at home!

Haha I don't know what questions you'd even ask me really. Best livestream where they were all decending into madness? The best Seonghwa third wheeling Woosan vlive? The closest Hongjoong came to just being DONE with looking after the 99s? 😂😂 Yessss, I'm always ready to chat Ateez tbh. They're the only group I've kept up with the whole time. 🧡

Have you watched their Treasure Film series/show on YouTube yet? I was rewatching it the other day and I forgot how much I love it! So gooood! And funny! 😂

Ah this took ages to answer lol - sorry; I was rearranging my room this weekend 🙃 and my app never notifies me of asks.

Anyways, yeah the cupsleeve was so nice. I'm lucky to live on one side of a pair of decently sized cities with a diverse population here, so we get a handful of nice events (one of the local gay bars hosts a kpop night monthly, for example).

I've been to a cupsleeve for Taemin, Stray Kids, and then I helped my friend host one for OnlyOneOf - they were all really fun but did not even begin to prepare me for the intensity of the Ateez one. I was baffled; the Skz one was held at the same location and it was a graveyard by comparison. I didn't take many pictures bc I was caught up chatting and there was no way to take them without a ton of people in the photo lol - but these are the few from the event;

I agree with you, regarding the global idol title; I think it's really well deserved and is serving them well. They really deserve more notice in KR though; it sucks that they get overlooked just bc of not being a Big 4; if anything people should pay more attention since those are the hidden gems, you know?

Bouncy has a kpop sort of vibe to it though, moreso than some of the other title tracks of theirs I've heard, so hopefully folks pay a little more attention this time around. I heard they got their first win for Bouncy this morning though! So that's something positive.

Halazia was unbelievable; I was impressed when I heard it and even moreso when I saw the m/v. I finally sat down and listened to their entire discography this weekend while doing cleaning and realized I genuinely can't find a skip song with them for the most part. 😭

Also yes!! 100% on a movie - this would make an amazing full length film or hell, even a miniseries; it's such a complex and well written storyline. I'm mad I didn't pick up the diary version of Outlaw bc I need to know what happens next. (I have all 3 versions coming but they won't be here for a while bc they're being sent with my albums from SHINee's comeback at the end of June; I could only afford one of their albums from the store here bc they were so much more expensive than they are in the KR shop I use. >.<)

Seeing the way atiny treat the group and each other and work together is so heartwarming. It's interesting, to have it be largely on the international fans' shoulders to push them to the spotlight in both the wider world and KR; but the teamwork is super fun to see. I haven't been this actively involved in a kpop fandom since I quit doing it for my og group (just stuck mostly to the sidelines, reblogging pretty pictures, etc for my other groups) - but I'm enjoying it so much more so far; I don't feel the same kind of guilty pressure that I've felt elsewhere.

They have so much content too holy - I've been trying to catch up and I feel like I haven't even scraped the surface yet lol - Every time I think I've managed to finish one section I realize there's x or y other things I missed lol. I did not even know the Treasure Film series existed until you mentioned it 😂 - but it looks like M2 did it; I love the games/variety type shows that company has done, so I'm eager to watch it! Thank you for mentioning it!

Rn I'm working my way through Wanteez between the new stuff for these promotions; these guys have done so many variety series jfc lol.

Also Woosan. Bless those two. They are so dumb. I love them so much. I would like to point out, that I did not want them. I specifically pointed out San to my friend when we watched Guerrilla and said "anyone but that one". (He startled me by resembling someone in an unsettling way when I first glanced at him and I didn't like it lol - he doesn't resemble said person now that I recognize them all tho thankfully).

But I apparently had no say in him, since he was the one that kept sticking out in everything and his personality is exactly what I gravitate to in a bias (the big oaf with a loud mouth and a heart of gold, always a little confused but he's got the spirit, scary duality) -- normally I do find a second bias within a few months that vibes with my first, but I didn't even get a say in that since not only did San tell me 'no, I'm right here and you're going to pay attention to me', he did it while dragging that scrappy little devil along by the hand V_V I couldn't just adopt him without Woo. (I was quite disgruntled about that one too - I don't bias visuals or dancers dammit - I have avoided them in most of my groups so far.

Plus! Where's my rapper bias??? I thought I'd add HJ as my second but nope, instead I get the 'friends as far as the altar' Tom and Jerry pair and 6 bias wreckers since none of them can stay in their damn lane for more than a few minutes at a time. 😂 (My friend said that'd happen tho so I can't say I wasn't warned).

(Do you have a bias btw? A favorite mv or performance I (likely) may have missed?)

#answered #ask #daegu-flowjob #long post

[cant-icle]

Yes PLEASE talk about pokemon! if anyone says "no dont" i use my Follower Powers to smite their vote instantly and replace it with 2 votes for "yes do it!!!"

Also i feel like persona and pokemon kind of Hold Hands anyway. they are adjacent! they vibe! :)

(: okay

so like obviously i have no spoons ever at all anymore because my life is in shambles but things have been looking up enough lately that i've cycled back to my semi-annual obsession with pokemon. its always there in the background don't get me wrong but at times like now i have the spoons to poke at things.

also my good friend tv writes the most wonderful pokemon fic (read eldritch and zonnia especially zonnia the more people love on zonnia the closer i get to finding out what the fuck is in the ocean over there) and their worldbuilding is just so fucking inspiring. i just said a lot about zonnia but tv is literally creating a whole pokemon biosphere and it fills me with joy and also thoughts

have you ever wondered why humans can't go in a pokeball? i know somewhere in the lore there's been legends that like humans and pokemon diverged from a single ancestor but i genuinely don't think that's right. i think i have a fair case to make that humans are not originally from the dimension that pokemon live in.

why do i think this? well let me lay out my conspiracy string web for you

pardon my thoughts for jumping around i have had a long day and i am very tired. this is basically nothing but wordvomit but its word vomit that i love turning in my head

so i've been putting together a timeline of pokemon history for reasons and things. i really wanted to know about all of the most mega massive historical events, especially regarding the clashes of the titans. there's a gap between "arceus creates the universe" and "humans are first mentioned" that is very interesting to me.

there is evidence of cyclical rise and fall of civilizations. ancient ruins, ancient technology, ancient writing. ancient submarine. archeologists in the pokemon world must have so much fun. what this means to me is that every so often either humans destroy themselves or the legendaries rise up and destroy just enough of everything that civilizations are reduced to survival instead of thriving again.

 i recently read a book called nightfall by good ol sci fi man isaac asimov; basic pretense is that the world is constantly lit by a combination of six suns but every few thousand years the suns align perfectly to deprive half the world of light for 24 hours (like a normal day night cycle here). everyone who looks at the stars goes fucking nuts. ever been out in the country and looked up at the sky and had so much existential dread and felt like you were falling up into the sky? no? just me? okay anyway what i was saying is that everyone went fucking insane and destroyed everything, except for a few people that managed to avoid the sky and the insanity by like locking themselves in a room or whatever.

this isn’t a perfect 1-1 obviously but we have sooooooooooooo many documented instances of legendaries and mythical pokemon just breaking so much shit all the time

now: 

the games are very adamant that you are a child. the lore is very adamant that pokemon who do not wish to be caught, will not be caught with your standard pokeballs (which is all you are ever provided, aside from the master ball, which is a fuckery i can’t get into at the moment). you as a child are able to catch titans and legendaries and the being who fucking created the universe. arceus sends you as a child 300 years into the past to fix an issue someone else made.

this is where the strings get tenuous but that’s okay this is my sandbox and i get to play in it

there has to be a reason for it, right? that legendaries come under the care of children. that legendaries allow themselves to be caught and partnered with adolescents. 

aside for a moment:

so what i mainly want to focus on eventually is that 3000 years ago two specific momentous things occured. 

1) the Kalos war (which i need to read up on more)

2) the darkest day (which i also need to read up on more to make sure my facts for both are correct)

now there may have been a few years in between these events but in the timeline of things thats inconsequential. 

there are also instances of humans eventually turning into pokemon (see: ghost pokemon etc) and a lot of ghost pokemon lore is tied into humanity too. i think that maybe a few million few hundred thousand few tens of thousands of years ago ghost pokemon might not have been a thing, or might have been suuuuuuper rare. notably for this is claydol, which, also notably, was created around the same time that eternatus lands.

eternatus is very incredibly extremely palpably not from this world. so not from this world that its existence in galar has lead to some extreme fuckery. the ability to dynamax, for one. gigantamaxing, too; i think its eevee pikachu and meowth that can gigantamax? and if they have the ability they are no longer able to evolve. eternatus can control the ability to dynamax, either forcing it onto pokemon or keeping them from dynamaxing. this is because the ability to dynamax comes from basically tiny shed particles of its body saturating the land. you come into contact with one of those pieces almost immediately in game and can then dynamax your pokemon.

you can’t dynamax a human. 

even the horrid poison dragon from out of space can dynamax. everything down to the littlest caterpie can dynamax.

but humans cant. 

humans have been on the earth for millions of years at that point. they’ve evolved and adapted the same way other pokemon have done so. but they’re still completely unaffected by this one thing that affects every single pokemon in the region.

isn’t that funny? isn’t that curious.

tl;dr i posit that arceus brought humans into this universe for legendaries to use as proxies so they didn’t keep fucking destroying the world every so often. yeah sometimes they still do but its a much lower instance than it could be

#pokemon #im so tired and my new night meds are working so well #too well im sleepy #zzz goodnight

[rharyx]

Follow up to this post, where I started cataloging my Final Fantasy journey.

Crisis Core I watched a playthrough back in high school cuz I thought Zack was cool as shit and I loved the theme music, but I never actually played it. But since I finally played 7, I knew I had to follow it up with this, and I went with the Reunion remake since I heard the combat is a lot better. Which I guess it is? I can't compare it to the original since I never played it, but the combat here was real fun and snappy -- I spent hours just doing side missions. And of course the story was as good as I remember it. Only downside is Zack's new actor is nowhere near as good as his original, and that really brings it down a tad. But it still doesn't kick Zack out of my "Top 5 FF characters" list. Also, I always liked Genesis, which I guess a lot of people don't? But I think he's just so funny. Like he actually stops his mission to kill Hojo or whatever to info-dump Loveless lore on everyone in the room. Dude's so weird, I hope he's in the remake trilogy. I think a 8/10 is fair.

Final Fantasy IV Took me a bit to finish this one since stuff got in the way. Not really much to say about this one, though, I guess. The story was good, and some areas and events were cool (like the giant robot thing), with lots of characters who show up and do their thing then leave. Cecil is pretty cool, Kain sure is a guy, and I like Rydia a decent amount. Love how that dude Edge is just straight up called Edge though lmao -- I imagined him having a sort of Johnny Bravo/Might Guy voice, which really elevated his character in my head. But otherwise, the whole game was a pretty standard affair. I kinda thought the vehicle stuff was pretty interesting -- like how you had to use the hoverboat, to get to the ship, to get to the better ship, etc. That was neat in its own way. Fuck the final boss, though, that shit felt unfair. 6/10, I guess? Definitely the mainline FF I've been least into so far, but it's still nowhere a "bad" game.

Final Fantasy XII I heard this was one divisive, but I don't see how? Like, this was really good. I did hear the original release was pretty bad compared to the Zodiac version I was playing, which made me think...... Between 12's initial release, 14's initial release, and 15's initial release...is 16 the first mainline game in over a decade that came out completely fine without needing an overhauled re-release or oodles of DLC to smooth things over in some way?? (I haven't played 13 yet, so that may have been fine upon release.) Anyway, to speak of the game itself, the License Board and Gambit System was really interesting and I kinda hope they bring it back in some way in the future, cuz I love tedious grindy stuff like that where you slowly fill up an ability grid (reminded me of the Sphere Grid, kinda). And the story -- while sometimes feeling really overwhelming with the amount of terms and names I had to memorize -- was well structured and I like how everyone's stories wrapped up by the end. Vaan is truly not a protagonist though, is he? lol. If anything, Ashe was the main character of this story, which I did kinda fuck with, even if she's not one of my favorite characters from the game. Also, I loved how many areas and differing locales we went to on the journey. I wasn't expecting such an array of distinct and visually engaging locations. One thing, though...why did half the voice over audio sound like it was being recorded through a soup can? It was so weirdly mixed. Like, you get used to it, but what happened?? Anyway, as a FF14 fan I though it was neat to see where all the Ivalice inspiration came from, and overall the game was really enjoyable to play. I've definitely not scratched the surface when it comes to the optional content, like Espers or whatever, but idk if I'll ever have the time to complete all that anyway. But for the main game itself, definitely a solid 8/10. Maybe even an 8.5.

Not sure what to do next, maybe try V once it goes on sale. Or probably just jump into Remake and Rebirth.

#final fantasy #crisis core #ff7 #zack fair #ff12 #vaan #ff4 #cecil harvey #square enix

[darkangelwrath]

So I wrote down every game I played in 2023

Ya it started as a stupid idea to make a joke tier list of every game but instead I just decided to write down what I did alongside some feelings on the game. Ya formatting for this is screwed but what can you do with something started on a whim that turned into a 15,325 word long document.

Anyway may everyone play some good games next year.

Played A Previous Year.

★Warframe [Off stream]

Still a Good game Archon hunts are nice keep feeling like I’ve missed some shards tho.

⋆Citrine's Last Wish

                Finally, a good defense mission. Also, nice to see the mercy timer mechanic is back and hope they keep it for the never lucky crowd.

⋆Duviri Paradox

                Ya the quest is interesting as a starting point to the game. As for its gameplay loop like it has neat rewards and leveling the intrinsics aren’t that bad. Worst that I can say is that it’s an ‘open world’ so that means a grind. Admittedly that might be me at 3829.9 hours on steam talking and not being in a mood to just grind. Also, the Incarnon weapons tend to be fun and strong. Even if farming them is a bit of a pain.

⋆ Abyss of Dagath

A neat little mission and a neat little dojo room. Alongside with companions being reworked and becoming a useful thing in most situations. Also got rid of some of the voodoo math. Always a good clarity change. Really the Big W content pass.

⋆ Update 35 Whispers in the Walls

                Once again, the Tenno save the day with the power of murder, theft, intimidation, blackmail, and love and friendship. Also, that secret its neat to have another John Prodman style content. As for the event nice and simple worst that I can say is the boss feels kind of bulky. But its an end game boss and is not as bad as Archons were at launch. New tile-set is neat, and the new syndicate carries a gut punching story. Bird 3 is best boy.

★Genshin Impact [Off stream]

So, the year they added the TCG roughly and we arrived too Fontain. I enjoy it still, but it is a gacha game so wouldn’t recommend the game despite it being pretty solid game..

⋆3.4 Released

New zone, and it was nice seeing Jet again. Also, poor jet. Neat that the prediction of the Sky nail being addressed was wrong. Also, funny to see a random NPC able to be challenged to a TCG duel in a quest even if it was optional. Otherwise, area was different then rest of the desert and the future expansion area has been noticed to the north. The question was if it was one area or two.

⋆The Exquisite Night Chimes event completed.

                Well, that story for this year’s lantern rite. was nice will look forward to the lore videos for it. As for the gameplay.

+Radiant Sparks:

 an interesting parkour version. Not sure if I like it or not.

+Paper Theater:

what a nice little side scroller.

+Vigilance at Sea:

All right I get its nice little mini game. Basically, Mario cart battle mode with the boats. At least there is a non-co-op version.

+Behind the Scenes:

 Just a combat challenge nice and easy. Addedly I had Nahida out while it was raining so :V

⋆Second Blooming completed.

                Nice to see Lisa again. Don’t really feel anything about the event meat itself but like I don’t care for spiral abyss and having to do it 3 waves feels whatever to me. I want to like the shared characters between teams but like I hate it messes up my team order.

⋆Warrior's Spirit

                Okay nice little event. Glad it is just complete the encounter and not do it in a certain time limit. Shame they made you unlock the hardest difficulty. As for the story nice little fluff to show off the new skin.

⋆Almighty Arataki Extraordinary and Exhilarating Extreme Beetle Brawl

                Another Himbo Oni event. Always a treat in how stupid things will get. After all, seeing the Himbo argue with some chunni kid is great. Has the annoying feature of having to beat the easier stage before the hardest stage. Also waited like normal till the whole event was unlocked. Then did the stages in opposite order. Over all felt like the controls/gameplay was just fine not sure what was the tell for the perfect timing.

⋆3.5 Released

                New character, new story quest, new hangout. Just fine. Archon quest was interesting as normal just has the good problem of wanting to know what comes next. admittedly I didn’t pull Dehya cause of her gameplay and she is on the standard banner. Shame since I liked her character.

⋆Windblume's Breath

                Story was sweet and good. Certainly, was a one that didn’t have me checking out. Thank God all the mini games started in one place. Still did the wait till it’s all unlocked before starting it all.

+Floral Pursuits:

                Okay this was a fun mini game. Sure, just call it just packman and such but like it was fun and simple. It really didn’t need more like the worst stage was the rotate the stair case one cause every other one was just better.

+Ballads of Breeze:

                At least this time the let you pick your poison of instrument. not like there is much of a difference. Like it’s a rhythm game it has been done before in game. OH GOD WHY IS IT SO FAST ON PRO. Also thank God you don’t need to unlock the higher levels.

+Breezy Snapshots:

This one is always nice and simple. Can’t hate it even if it feels like I’ve been here before. Probably going to be that way till we can pose NPCs for the photos.

⋆Vibro-Crystal Verification           

                Ya combat event. Like I can never find enthusiasm for these events I just throw them onto the middle difficulty and do them. Also, I did not pay attention to the dialog beyond seeing that its follow up to the previous events.

⋆ Fungus Mechanicus

                I like this event was feeling meh towards a normal Mechanicus event but this was a good mix up. I am not sure I did the final quest but oh well only would have missed out on some mora and adventure exp.

⋆ 3.6 Released

                Well new area, Nahida gets traumatized again, a new hangout and a shorter Aranara world quest with the Pari. It was good content. New weekly boss seems fine to me, at least for only doing it once so far outside the quest. Will probably hate it latter with the 3 phases but oh well. For the new area gimmicks flying with Sorush is annoying only cause of that load screen when going back to your character. New Hilichurls are fine if a bit bulky but as an alt to Mitachurls it is nice, Consecrated crocodile is fun it has the death roll like any good crocodile enemy has, and Consecrated cat can go screw itself with its aggro range and grass beams. Will look forward to the lore videos for the stuff I unga bunga past like the fact Jeht has a merc company of her own and hunting down Masseira. Ya fun update and thanks for genshin-impact-map letting me clear everything in three days after the update.

⋆ Brewing Developments

                Ya this was a nice and easy combat event. Nice to see that NPC again. The Combat gimmick this time was just there. Of course, I just use the middle difficulty cause with how strong my teams are I can get double the score needed. With out stressing and getting frustrated by inflated NPC health.

⋆Fulminating Sandstorm

                Well nice little story event. Felt kind of short to be honest but not exactly bad. Story was fine. Otherwise, was kind of just a is their event.

⋆A Parade of Providence

Hat Guy was MVP, Dori is the continued winner of Sumeru character who deserves to be suplex, but ya the story was nice and contained Kaveh is a good boy. Nothing seemed to be huge lore implications but who knows that nihilistic nonsense will come to roost in Natlan when we know more than “The rules of war are woven in the womb: the victors shall burn bright, while the losers must turn to ash. When the God of War shares this secret with the Traveler, it is because she has her reasons.” And it has hot springs. Also, I hope we get a new nickname for hat guy every event now like that is much better than if they made you pick his name from a list instead of a text box.

+Gathering of Stars:

Nice little puzzle. Is simple and doesn’t overstay its welcome. Took me till halfway done to wrap my head around it. Kind of hate the light up but it’s a mini-game if this was the main content for a game wouldn’t want it there but here its fine.

+Project Connectivity:

Nice little mini-game with a neat use of teapot mechanics. Not exactly deep, but it is fun. Also is a test of your jumping which isn’t that frequent of a thing in this game.

+Antiquity Hunt:

I don’t hate this one it’s just very barebones and I have done it before in earlier events. Nice context for it tho.

+In Truth Steps:

Ya this is neat and everything I just don’t really care for these types of puzzles. Like its fine and all but like I aint getting out of bed for it. As for the puzzles first was made sense to me, second took me a few tries, third was between the two.

+Concordat Reactions:

                I am still at the point of all combat events I sleep. Except when they have a cryo slime then I must pay a bit more attention because I can’t Ganyu everything. Shame I must put it on Hard difficulty then just chill in medium. Also so glad there is only three rounds.

+Mimetic Replications:

                I don’t know what I expected but this is so inoffensive that I don’t really care that it is a disguise rhythm game. Also, neat how all three are different, but like what the hell was the fish one. I missed 1 out of 25 after doing the “get up walk around then continue and all of a sudden get better” trick, but still what the hell was the fish one.

⋆The Recollector's Path

            Well nice to see Sorush again. As for gameplay nice to see what they can do with Sorush for the ‘combat’ portions, the races are to be expected, and the match the location is what it is. As for the story it feels like an extension of the world quest. That is fine. Good on worm boy escaping after 10,000 years a statue.

⋆ 3.7 Released

The Genius Invokation TCG update. Also, Yoimiya story quest 2, Kaveh hangout, and new Dendro character Kiara. It really is kind of funny how some people I saw got so salty about it. Like to me the TCG is so in offensive I don’t mind doing the 4 weekly challengers. Like the worst that I can say is just look up a deck and use that. A negative I could say about it is “wow they really just doubled the cards available didn’t they.”. As for the second Yoimiya story quest ya that’s a bit sad like I am a sap but the whole time I was “writers please don’t kill the child.” I will cry.

⋆Duel! The Summoners' Summit!

                The Genius Invokation TCG Event. Not sure why everyone was salty about it if we got an event with Sorush we would get an event for the TCG. Like you don’t even need to play it for the story. Which in itself might be a bit of an anti-climax but that might be just a developer overcorrection to the much earlier Unreconciled Stars being very important lore wise, so they want to avoid another situation like that. Instead, we get tragic backstory lore for the TCG. However, can we just go with the idea that if the patch launch dates are the cannon timeline for the in-game events. So, that Version 3.2(November 2, 2022) is when Nahida was let out of baby jail and cured Eleazar and Version 3.3(December 7, 2022) was when TCG was added to the game (And became popular worldwide), and 3.7(May 24, 2023) is when this event happened. So did Gulab really die from Eleazar right before it was cured. Like God damn no wonder Garvipidam is such a mood. Like damn. Also, on point for giving out the “Friendship Eternal” card at the end of the story. Not sure how that will work in the future but till then the wiki text “event-exclusive Event Card” is a fun trivia. Also is it wired how many events that are in Mondstadt have a free weapon?

+A Tour Of Wonders:

                Okay parkour section. Then a combat section. This was very short all things considered. Like it wasn’t bad it just felt like it should have stuck with parkour or combat.

+Zero Hour Invokation:

                Huh people were complaining about the TCG event when this is the only time it appears and be mandatory? Also, nice how it made you a deck for those who don’t play it or are new and don’t have a large card collection

+Evermotion Mechanical Painting: Invoker:

                Always a fun little mini game. Glad its back and with a twist. Didn’t really have difficulty because I got its rules down with its last appearance. The duck duck goose it did however was fun.

+Heart of the Dice:

                Once again going for the middle difficulty is nice and cozy with a max out team. Neat theming for one of these combat with a twist events. Otherwise, it just seems like nice and straight forward rules.

⋆Divine Ingenuity: Collector's Chapter

Okay definitely an amazing event. To think I only scratched the surface for it too. Like I did use the custom domains to finish off the elemental mastery achievements I haven’t done yet but otherwise I appreciate the depth of it, and it is a shame that it isn’t here to stay. Hope they make its’ return an anniversary thing.

⋆ Feast of the Departed Warriors

                Okay this is a simple combat event. One of the add challenge modifiers to reach the score. Worst I can say about it is the last one is 8,000 score not 6,000 like each one before. Which is why I didn’t go for that score on the final one.

⋆ Fayz Trials: Hypothesis

                Ya, I like this event a bit more than the previous one even if it felt kind of long but needs 7 so each element can have one assigned to it for rewards. Always neat to see a returning event NPC and it to come back with a nice little gimmick. It’s not hard but seeing all the team comps without concern of needing to build it without any pain in the ass gimmick is just nice to go through.

⋆ 3.8 Released

THE MEME IS DEAD EULA BANNER IS HERE. Also, the foreshadowing for Fontaine patch with that world quest. Not sure if it really was anything important that wasn’t said elsewhere. Like the fact the research institute blew up. Admittedly I watch Ashikai so I got the recap that I smooth brain forgot. Anyway, looking forward to brat archon.

⋆ Veluriyam Mirage

                Okay the NPCs weren’t all dead. I was thinking that with how good the devs are with keeping up with elemental vision mechanic. Like the whole time I was “okay why are they all hydro resonating” Like I thought Eula’s cousin was dead till I got a chance to check with elemental vision then I thought he dodged a bullet. Otherwise, nice little cozy story that probably has some deep lore foreshadowing that I missed connecting the dots for. As for gameplay always love new areas to explore. Glad the made a treasure compass for this area and glad it’s not just golden apple archipelago again. Like it might be because of the terrain of the archipelago or the fact I’ve been there twice but I like this area a bit more.

+Spino Buster:

You know it’s weird to think how long it’s been since there has been a shoot the target mini-game, or at least feel like it. Oh well as the joke I saw about it “finally they balanced Ganyu for these target minigames.” Otherwise, ya I like it. Funny enough it’s still easy but I guess that’s the perks of being a PC player.

+Sojourns of the Barking Fox:

What a nice little minigame. I am honestly surprised they used the Sorush gameplay again so soon, but it was last seen in an event in 3.6 so :V.

+Dance of the Flashing Thought:

Nice little combat event. Can’t really say much about it with how easy it was. I mean it didn’t even have difficulty levels. Like that’s fine just the open world and domain combat is harder even excluding outliers.

+Bing-Bang Finchball:

Nice little minigame. Always a nice relaxing thing to deal with a game based off the famous Olympic sport curling.

⋆ Adventurer's Trials: Advanced

Nice little even no story no fuss. All that I can complain about is it really shows how the game evolved over time like Amber’s skill vs Yaoyao’s Skill and how the control are. Like at least Alhaitham vs Keqing has functional differences in how they are used. Like its some rough edges stuff but not enough to bother me for its stay.

⋆ Perilous Expedition

… I feel like I already wrote this section, but I am writing this now on the 8/30 when this ended on 8/7. Like it was just a combat event and not that big of a deal admittedly I just skipped the hardest difficulty because it was something silly like clear 15 level 90s in under a minute. However, the event wanting you to use different characters is a fun concept. Kind of wish they used that idea in some other event where you set all the sections first and then pick which team goes first as a relay race kind of deal, or maybe an endurance battle.

⋆ 4.0 Released

Fontaine is here.

Day one impressions

So, dragons are a social construct. Got all but 5 of the telepoters. Diving seems fine other than the boss fights I've ran into. New world bosses seem fine. Also wow 2 world quest lines. the hydro rings are the good version of the old elcetro gates in wata. new reaction seems ignoble from initial impression will come down to the units that can use them. Also, mechs unsurprisingly can’t swim.

The following days

So, I did everything I could find using the Interactive map before doing the archon quest. LOL. Also thank God for the map update to have layers.

+ Area

Beautiful as always. New underwater mechanics are good. I wouldn’t say they were great since I kind of wish the attacks were tied to the type of weapon a character had. Since getting it from a random fish feels kind of hit or miss sometimes. Nice that every foe drops the same items that was a miss for something that could have been extremely annoying. Admittedly didn’t feel like it really got to show off the new puzzles but that might be down to it being the first of the Fontaine areas since we get updates in that style since 2.0. Above the sea the aquabus is a lovely little thing and I will use it to get to a new area if I can for future updates. The skyships are fine but kind of make me wonder why they didn’t use them instead of the aquabus for travel around the region other then it’s the water region, so aqueducts are needed. Not sure I care about the new Arkhe system. Like as it exists now it is kind of just there. However, I don’t care about spiral abyss where it will probably matter so I probably won’t about it either. Otherwise, the new enemies are fine they are neat but nothing outside the expectation, or I killed them to fast to notice something. Kind of doubt that since I was using a hydro traveler, Nilou, Nahida and Kokomi for half of it with the other half being toss Ganyu at it.

+ Archon quest

Act 1 – wow we really did see someone melt. Like that seems like a save it for the 3rd act or something as a “remember this? Ya its real.” Sort of surprise. Childe is as he normally is, and Fatui continued to be actual decent people to puppy kicking bad guys in their range. The court drama was fine more interesting than the normal investigating gameplay. Was certainly a Mix up compared to normal Archon quest Acts with how much of it was taken up by the trial. As for the twist end neat call back to something that happened like an hour ago. Also, funny how Judge was like “Ya he sus but he aint it” at the end. Brat Archon is great, and I hope she gets bullied in the future. Also, ya went straight into we turn people into drugs with the traveler going not my problem mixed with you aint special.

Act 2 – Navia is best girl. She went straight to suggesting do a crime. Little does she know I’ve already pilfered everything in the region not nailed down. Well, that went from 0 to 10 real fast. Also, good way to cover why we keep fighting meks. Was really liking the Navia story quest then got hit right in the face with another trial section. There is going to be one for every act isn’t it like I get it that’s what Fontaine is but like I hope for mercy and the dev’s are restrained with it in the future. Also, wow does Childe continue with the L’s can’t just be the tough guy of questionable morels who might take our side at the end of everything without taking L’s all the time. Ya dude got what he deserved. Was expecting his lover to call him trash and that be the end of it but victims got their comeuppance. Also, ya, that judgment thing works off mob rules. Like I fully expect some needs of the many demands one dude to die for everyone else kind of situation to happen. Also, hilarious to think about how Furina about the same age as Nahida. Neuvillette is totally dragon dad to her too. We really lay into Paimon this patch I am kind of getting worried she is going to die soon in the story because of it.

+ World quest Line: Narzissenkreuz Adventure

Well, that is a quest. Sure, it can be summed up as it was just a dream but by God was there some feelings of something sketch as hell happened and you just walked into the aftermath. Also, ya I pulled out Endora since I am that old of a player. Really kind of checks out with the Veluriyam Mirage story too.

+ World quest Line: Ancient Colors

I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE. TRIED TO TRICK ME. INSTEASD OF JUST ONE LONG WORLD QUEST YOU MADE TWO THAT BECOME ONE. Anyway, all the Melusine are good girls in need of head pats. All together this really is a lot subtler about you just walking into the aftermath of a messed-up situation. Like up until the end its “okay some idiot is trying to pilfer the dragon’s corpse for some reason” only to swerve right into the Narzissenkreuz storyline with the dead dragon being a good father by staying dead.

+Other World Quests

A sad/meta with the young girl kind of hate it with the chest thing. They really are going hard on what is art them this region along with puzzle designed?

Henri Poor guy just wanted to do honest work, but he was the salt of the earth and was only taken advantage of by the fatui. Fortunately, the men in black took him in this will in no way come up latter.

Wow we really just met a mob families don there with the White Glove and just let him murder a guy Like he was a jerk but damn. Also probably going to tie into the above two questlines purely because we find the secret meeting room in a book in the zone it unlocks so put me down for White Glove covering it up or being in a secret society looking for it.

… ya I’m going to call it now every Fontaine character is descended form Oceanid’s aren’t they as the explanation for all the weird shit going on.

⋆ Mega Meka Melee

Well, that was a short and sweet story. Also, funny that Childe story quest call back at the end. Really see the Childe ‘redemption’ arc theories being true. Let it happen I want to say “If Evil? Why Himbo?”.

+Dance Dance Resolution:

Okay a nice little combo game that really feels like a phone game. Not hard since I only missed one on the first one for the entire set but eh its’ was nice and simple.

+Torrent Turbulent Charge:

I was thinking this type of underwater gameplay was going to show up for an event and here it is. The fact that this is like triple the underwater courses that are in open world challenges is funny. Like they aren’t hard, and I am glad for it since perspective feels like a shadow over this type of gameplay.

+Efficiency Testing Simulation Arena:

The designated go to area and kill [x] number of enemies. At least it kept to being mostly the new enemies. Still not sold on the Arkhe. Mostly cause its only on three units and I didn’t go for Lyney and use traveler outside Archon quests that often. That and the hit reg for Lynette’s Arkhe reaction feels bad.

⋆ Verdict Blades

                Combat event is ago. Never care for the unlockable hardest difficulty but this event was kind of easy for the normal stages but ya hardest mode is hardest. Still not sure about Arkhe system still even if I got Freminet but I have noticed that the foes with have multiple levels that need to be hit to enter the stun state. I thought up to this point it was just inconsistent but no its just as bad cause I will kill the foe by the time the ability comes off cooldown.

⋆ Study of light and Shadow: A Fontaine of Enchantment.

                A nice little photography event.

⋆ 4.1 Released

⋆ New Archon Quest

New area, new archon quest, new character quests. Ya, I pulled for him. Checked out his ability description in the character archive tested in the trial and then pulled for Neuvillette. Single dad raising his theater daughter is better than the Knave not even a contest don’t “why evil if hot tho?” me. Hope she dies like Signoria I remember Lyudochka even if I need to look up her name which is better than 90% of unvoiced NPCs in this game. Since her stealing a ninja identity and the ninja having to put up with it is too funny. Like I’m willing to give a pass on the triplets and Childe for the ‘if you don’t follow orders you would wind up with you dead at best, you and your family at worst’ situation but the Knave is a 100% cause of that situation. Also, glad they fixed the quest conflict with a giant UI thank God.

As for the area didn’t pillage it before the archon quest this time, just grabbed every statue of the seven and waypoint I could find, but it seems like a nice area so far. I would what looks like 1 giant world quest in it but then while wondering about I triggered the spot light and got put into prison before getting sent there in the Archon quest which is how I found out about them fixing the quest conflicts. Which I am pretty sure is going to be another massive world quest if the prison food shop is any indication. As for the prison it’s a neat area that is not fire safe with all those elevator only access areas, but it seems like an area mostly for the Archon quest and that is.

Small notes about combat specifically the Arkhe system they have really like giving us the Pneuma version since every character that has been introduced so far has been it. Like the wiki has all the teased characters having Ousia but they decided to front load Pneuma. Otherwise Neuvillette feels like it works with hit registration on it and area it covers vs the abilities cooldown instead of previous characters. As for a (new?) mechanic Life bond. It exists. Like I’ve not noticed it so far and it all together feels like off brand Corrosion. Like it will kill low investment characters like my Neuvillette but it won’t matter till abyss floor 12.

Now then the archon quest. Neuvillette. You sly dog giving a cake to frame us for a crime. Like I thought it was just poisoned by the Knave or something, but no. The end of the quest revealed the knave was much worse than that. Getting the triplets here as side actors were nice with how Freminet got more than one line and something to do. Worcester sauce was a dick for reasonable reasons but that whole confrontation segment between him and Lyney had me want to bring up Lyney sad backstory. This became even more relative with his character quest. Since I immediately got the feeling, he was actively fucking with him and it getting turned around on him would of ended that real quick. Just to hurry up if Worcester and Sigewinne were going to be the masterminds behind the evil conspiracy or just being followers of Egeria still left over from her death as to why they were so independent since we still got that “Assassins from our homeland” hanging thread and we got like one or two more acts left in this arc, or that might just be relegated to the Narzissenkreuz story line. Honestly the weirdest thing about it is how cavalier most of the prisoners are compared to normal NPCs. Like the worst was Worcester, admittedly we got thrown into jail for eating a cake and everyone was “ya that checks out” and for Paimon flying when we got to Fontain so most of the prisoners being in for tax fraud, jay walking, and tomfoolery would not surprise me. As for the investigation mechanic glad the mixed it up again for this quest not sure the currency mattered, or it was just an illusion, but it was a nice little thing for context. Sigewinne I am digging being a lowkey sociopath big sister nurse. I am a bit annoyed that it’s going to probably another hydro healer because that alongside over worked office lady is the Devs two types. To be serious nice to bring all that world quest context about the Melusine into the main story. Was admittedly worried for a bit that she had a lolicon stalker but that didn’t happen still wish she was more like the regular Melusines in design. As for the ending poor Furina we probably gave her a PTSD attack with our actions when we met her with this context like I was wondering if it was just a player only flashback but nope the knave straight up admitted to it after bulling a child right in front of us because she was salty about her inability to find the Gnoses. Oh, and Neuvillette is the dragon Sovereign like everyone in the lore community expect no go play the character quest. Also, God damn it Childe you just had to F----- the wale didn’t you.

⋆ Radiant Harvest

Poor guy just tried to make a bit of cash on the side but got stuck with people being idiots releasing wild animals that don’t belong in the environment. Otherwise, it was a nice chill event to get all the objectives.

⋆ Dodoco's Bomb-Tastic Adventure

Wow two events about environmental disasters in one patch. Also, kind of funny that we got the important task of distract play with Klee, so she doesn’t blow something up. Lisa also once again dodges work.

⋆ Waterborne Poetry

Well, that was a nice event. Any new player would be confused from the references to the last lantern rite but what else is new. Was a nice gathering of older characters that haven’t been seen in a while so who cares. Other than its obvious foreshadowing to the future archon quests with oceanids tying in probably. Picture part was neat if only because it wasn’t a one and done thing. The shooting minigame was neat and continues the tradition of the devs realizing Ganyu was a mistake for this type of games. The combat section was kind of neat, but I don’t think I 100% under stood it beyond kill everything else to bomb the tough guy.

⋆ The Peaks and Troughs of Life

Nice and simple combat event for the end of the patch. Anyway, it dragged on a bit in my opinion with the three waves per round but that’s partly on me for waiting till they are all unlocked to be done. As for this gimmick nice little charge gadget to get the buffs. I admittedly didn’t use them the first 3 rounds but that was on me thinking the point limit for the buffs was going to be tied to the score. Not that I was going for the final tier of rewards because I don’t hate myself to min max to that level.

⋆ 4.2 Released

⋆ New Archon Quest

                Wait was that actually 45 days real time? So Evil mommy daddy is slightly less evil like she ain’t going to back stab us latter. Navia almost died and was saved by the dead bros. Lamo mona lore out of God damn nowhere like straight up did I walk into mona character quest chapter 2. Like I was familiar enough with the deep lore/been around long enough to know where it was going but still out of nowhere, would have thought it would be foreshadowed by steambird comments but nope heard and saw nothing of the sort. Also feel bad about trapping Furina like that to only fulfill the prophecy in a way that it was too late. With Childe being a god damn lunatic buying everyone some time. Then we got inner Furina poor girl needs a therapy vacation. Ya so that line was the secret fountain line. So Focalor is a bit of a dick for everything but lamo Chad Focalor Fucks over the heavenly principles by herself while the Virgin Tasarista faffs about for 500 years having to steal all other archons shit to try the same. Also, that boss fight straight up felt like it glitched defeated the shadow man and insta ended it. Completely funny at how Neuvillette was like “Alright I need to kill something, and the whale has voluntold” Skirt is hilarious with how she showed up chucked Childe like a bag and then explained stuff without explaining anything. That ending cutscene really understates the death toll but like divine or dragon intervention, I guess? Like it checks out with gameplay of can’t drown in Fontaines water being extended to story for non-vision people temporarily. Also, Charlotte was a nice way to checking up on everything, and God damn I thought the gnoses was destroyed Neuvillette better have tricked them with it being useless now, and he did because its cursed, all of them are cursed. Well shit good thing we seen the brother already or else the gnoses being the missing twin theories would of ran rampant at least for the most part. Well at least we got Natlan lore finally that is more than “lol hot springs”.

⋆ New Area, new character quest, and world quests

+ Mechanics and Region :

Alright Erinnyes Forest is a nice little area if feeling like a bit small expansion since we had an entire side already for it since 4.0, while the Morte Region is a nice big ocean area with a tone of ruins. As for the new mechanics. Bacterial mats are an odd thing that get cheesed by Furina water walking. The Xenochromatic Ball Octopus is more interesting that it is on land but otherwise is just an interaction tool that doesn’t use the gadget slot which is more good than bad I think. The Harmonious Reed Pipe and Dew Bubbles can go to hell if only because the Dew Bubbles are push and not pull. Floating Crystal Flowers and Floating Crystal Platforms are a new coat of paint on an old mechanic. Potential Energy Orbs are fun golf/bowling time. Dangerous Autocannons are neat as always but mechanically weird to use like didn’t the Veluriyam Mirage have a better controlling cannon or am I just misremembering that? Operable Mechanisms are a bit odd in needing the Xenochromatic Ball Octopus but fine otherwise, and the Energy Flow is a twist on flow puzzles which is just fine with me. Oh, the paintings popped up again and are still kind of suspect. Especially with the gold fish being the key to unlocking a world quest.

+ The Wild Fair of Erinnyes:

Okay I was expecting this to tie into the Narzissenkreuz story line but instead we got a Melusine who is probably a Bathysmal Vishap. Like the fact like 4 Bathysmal Vishap are just chilling in the Erinnyes Forest right under the statue of seven for the forest region. That is especially funny with the game scaling like you could see the from the walk way to Opera Epiclese. None the less Pahsiv is still a good girl. Also, finally a use for Tidalga that I’ve been picking up like a kleptomaniac. Still expect this to come up again latter maybe with Neuvillette or Kokomi in the future.

+ Narzissenkreuz part Search in the Algae Sea:

You know its funny I met the guy on the island before sinking it. Otherwise, ya the final chapter for this story quest most likely. Having done most of the little dungeons beforehand is always going to be a bit funny to do with the discussion of “oh ya the sealed evil in a can have it right hear got it yester under a random rock” happening in cutscenes. All in all, the deep lore enjoyers were definitely on the money with the who’s who in their theories so nice to see that tied up together while we cause destruction to an old landmark site. Again. They gave out a neat sword too that caused an Arkhe explosion too even can be refined too rank 5 using see shells from places. Unlike the Kagotsurube Isshin. It’s just why is this effect only on a god damn sword and not a one-piece artifact set like come on. That is my main complaint with the Arkhe system.

+ Questioning Melusine and Answering Machine:

Well, that was a hoot. Certainly, foreshadowing with that harbinger reference at the end. Also, just some guy casually makes a sentient robot and it’s just another thing on the pile of random shit the Traveler has experienced. Also Neuvillette must never know or else we will be in danger for making a Melusine sad.

+ An Expected Plan:

Well, that was a nice little follow up to the Institute quest. Can’t wait till the next part cause let’s face it that ending was setting up a part 3. Also, traveler continues to meet and work with constantly escalating sketchy people. Got to warm us up for Snezhnaya right?

+ Impromptu Poem of the Crimson Dawn:

 Ya that guy was just shady. Like call it protagonist centered morality and such but like feels dumping the Treasure hoarders into the local cops is a viable solution to the whole event. Then just rando robin hood wannabe is just here. Like Fontaine didn’t even go the way of corrupt cop/police yet why is this a thing. Its only a because we are in Fontaine issue too.

 + Free Verse:

Well, that was a thing. Kind of weird with the traveler talking but okay. Did not get suckered punched by growing up story but was wonder what I ate when everything started talking.

 + Wish-Fulfilling Treasure Hunt:

Well, that was a nice little quest. Hope there is some follow up on it latter. Otherwise wonder how many players saw him on the island before we sunk it and realized it was our fault.

+ Happy Birthday:

Well, if that isn’t a gut punch and a tone of “Hey recall this ya we are going to explain everything in context you should know even if you don’t good luck recalling everything” Like straight up wish I had a detection book mechanic to tell the who’s who. At least the lore videos are going to be fun about it.

 + Furina Character Quest:

Well, aint that a nice little quest. Wish the traveler wasn’t kind of a dick dragging Furina into the plot like come on let the girl relax after dealing with everything for 500 years. Also, that last minute take the stage was so contrived/trope. Couldn’t have let Furina be content as a director/consultant? nope straight back to the acting spot light. Like splitting the difference and making it so Dulphy illness took her voice, so Furina had to sing the part for her while Dulphy acted the role would have been better in my eyes. Would have been neat too with the vision showing up paralleling the fake one.

⋆ Misty Dungeon: Realm of Water

Combat Event lets go. Okay this is at least kind of neat with it using a limited character pool. Otherwise, simple event at least when doing the three weakening rounds so I don’t know or care how tough they are without. That and I am pretty sure that you can’t complete the secondary objective without the side fights.

⋆ Thelxie's Fantastic Adventures

                What the hell is wrong with this region and sad stories like the previous regions did similar things, but God damn does this one keeps on with these gut punch stories. Like I did feel like the kids dead at the start, but yep straight up kid was actually dead. Not sure I like how the House of hearth doctors got mentioned considering pass lore like was kind of worried for a moment that Freminet was going to gaslight the women considering the what the House of hearth gets up to. As for the ending. Ya elemental energies are memoires aint got to explain shit.

+ Motherboard Trouble shooting.

                I wonder about the name “Motherboard” being in universes, but like I just got to recall robots were a launch enemy. Alongside all the ones roaming the country side of Fontaine. As for the gameplay the nice take on the good old pipe minigame. I like it didn’t have any big problems with it only trouble was the last couple if only cause having to think in spaces and not time when it came to having two penguins on one track with the switches.

+ Record of the search for glory

                NOOOOOOOOOOOOO, THEY MADE ME KILL THE ROUND FRIEND FOR THE CROWN! Otherwise, ya simple underwater find the thing. That is glowing and sees though walls. Like at least swimming combat aint bad. Might just be me understanding all the mechanics they used in it from open world traversal.

+ Purgation Counterstrike

                Okay that was a neat little combat gimmick basically a second burst that is shared between all characters if I understood it right. The trial characters are always neat other than the one time I grabbed the trial instead of my own. Admittedly I mostly used it as a “use this comp” indicator for the encounter.

⋆ Lil' Fungi's Fun-Tastic Fiesta

FUNGI FRIENDS ARE BACK. Also, always neat when a returning NPCs comes back in a different costume. As for gameplay it was simple and not sure if they could do more with it. My main problem is that it’s such a shake up from normal gameplay that it tosses my muscle memory for the game out the window and it’s not like it sticks around long enough to be built up. Otherwise, a good event.

⋆ 4.3 Released

⋆Navia Story quest

                Alexa play “angel with a shotgun”. Navia continues to be unable to catch a break. Like easily probably the worst year she has had in her life. Other wise a straight forward story quest with no deep lore reveals just some terrorism. However, Navia’s gameplay is much more interesting if this is where they are going with the Geo element.

⋆Roses and Muskets

                That was nice for old players to see Xavier back. Also, really did the 3 layers of meta in this quest the movie based on the book based off real life. Like really? Adamantly, I feel like the older Inazuma character were just there with how little they got to do. Like I get it was showing of Furina enjoying her retirement and preview for Chevreuse and Chiori but oh well limited time limited scope is the way it goes. As for the story fairly enjoyable with the highlight being THAT GOD DAMN BULLET BLOCK CHEVREUSE MLG NO SCOPE PRO.

+Thousand-Pace Interdiction Arcminute Sharpshooting Zone

                Well, that’s a way to do a shooting minigame. Feels a bit off in mouse sensitivity for what is normally done but what can you do.

+Trick Shots, Tricky Lights

                Well, that is an easy combat section. Kind of forget the special gimmick but it does have the same pseudo burst as the previous event and it’s still a good system.

+Xtreme Drive

                A co-op event been a long time since that happened. Also, nice that they knew to disable the alternative movement actions after they learned that lesion in the hide and seek event. Wish the points were paid out per game played and not a score system because I had to play another round despite only needing 25 points for the final reward.

+Into the Frame

                Okay neat little minigame. Not hard and you will puzzle out the solution from just messing it up. Definitely dependent on reading the prompt and figuring out which picture is the correct one.

★Fate/Grand Order [Off stream]

I am at the point this is a solved game so am sticking around for the story. Which going to be honest I hop over to atlas academy to read the story there just cause of the format feels better then how it is in game. It is a gacha game so wouldn’t recommend.

⋆Lostbelt 5-5: Heian-kyo completed.

                Solid story chapter read it on atlasacademy.io. cause format. Otherwise definitely a way to wrap up limbos story arc if he wasn’t going to be tied into the main story. Kintoki is still a good boy. Not sure why the mech was needed to show up but Babbage is probably there to foreshadow it. Also surprised Nursery Rhyme didn’t get a costume since we got 2 from it anyway. Main Story is still good.

⋆Revival: Saber Wars 2 Event completed.

Skipped the story because I played it the first time. Was neat that the quest selection would show what counted for the event missions that is a very nice quality of life.

⋆Farewell to Kamakura - Little Big Tengu Event completed.

                Ya, this was a nice relaxing story was nice. Hate the extra spawns Craft Essence wish they could make more than 3 enemies on the field oh wait that’s added next Lost Belt. OH well.

⋆Holy Grail Front Caesar: Et tu Brute?

                I like these grail front events. The main problem I feel that they have is balance. Like they really need to change the limit for deployment. It really feels like the only CE that is worth using is Herc’s Bond CE. Like hell even if they only permitted Bond CEs at 0 cost that would be kind of interesting.

⋆Valentine's 2023

                Well, that was an event. Neat how back up units came in mid attack change. Caren was the living sus that she is. Also, kind of nice how exhausted the pro-tag is with everything. Admittedly that is coming from a day one player.

⋆Chaldea Boys Collection 2023 Event - Holy Grail Phantom Thief Amakusa Shirou and the Slapstick Museum

                Ya, I skipped all the text and read it on atlasacademy.io after the event ended... No shame just no interest in reading the visual novel format to much text to little displayed. Otherwise, same old same event set up. Story was fun when I got around to reading it defiantly an odd ensemble but one that worked out. Not sure the better sweet ending with the museum curator was needed but eh its fine especially with Moriarty being salty. To be honest the real W was the costume we got along the way.

⋆Akihabara Explosion

                Ya a nice little tower event. Also skipped all the text and read it on atlasacademy.io. Did my normal strategy of use my lowest rarity first and only use 3 servants per node it really is the only time I use most of the roster that can’t be used to 3 turn with caster atoria or skati. That or the big single target damage. Also, good luck getting rid of your AP with it lol. Only difficulty was me remembering to swap to the damage CEs. Story was fun but like every oversimplification of the story idiot genius makes a problem for everyone quote for that “Or do you also doubt it's possible for humans to give birth when someone tells you about their mother?”. Also, summonable Aphrodite when?

⋆Bedazzled! Grail Concert! Crane Returns an Idol's Favor

                Once again, I skipped the quest text to read it latter on atlasacademy.io. As for the farm kind of neat to have the point ladder make the event CE scale off of, still not sure that it needed three-point ladders. 90+ quests continue to be interesting in how I solve them by just NP with three different servants. Otherwise, costume tickets are neat was in a position to use all but two of them, and the fact that most of the Idols got a skill upgrade alongside the event. Would have been nice to realize that during the event to help with farming but oh well. LAMO NEVER WENT BACK AND READ THE STORY.

⋆Holy Grail Front: My Super Camelot 2023

                More Grail Front. Its fine like I don’t hate it like others seem to I just feel like the balance is off, and it really would be fine if it only had 3 or so missions instead of the 7 we got. Just feels a bit annoying. That and they should just make it all units get two actions per turn and be done with this variable move point nonsense. Still the only time I’ve failed a front I think and all I can say is wonder why it took so long with how the dev’s have to stack the deck so hard. That and the end was just piling on that agitation.

⋆Revival: FGO Summer 2022 Summer Camp

Event rerun okay. Was fun reading it the first time but otherwise, ya. It’s just your run of the mill mission-based event with three currencies. Story was fine I hate the villains is the worst I can recall of it. Probably the least interesting of the summer events in terms of story if it wasn’t for pasine.

⋆Lostbelt 6: Avalon le Fae

⋆Part 1

                Oh, ya some main story always good. Yes, I did read it on atlasacademy.io it was faster and more comfortable for me. Still had it running on auto text using Samsung Flow to get better scenes, music, and animations. So as the story goes, ya Fae are dicks, and this is the only lostbelt that I don’t feel bad about offing. Like its unfortunate but this is just a functional trash heap of a location-timeline. As for spoilers I am mostly blind other than one off no context comments that I half recall. Glad Mash got some independent character development and Chad Nasu was willing to skirt NTR with how hard wifu ‘culture’ get. F for the gob bros dying like absolute lads. Nasu really wanted to make fun of all those Doujin stories when he wrote this arc didn’t, he. Also, kind of rude to separate us from Mash right at the end there. As for Fujimaru half or Castoria half to be more accurate. Oberon is in the Mephistopheles camp of sus even if helping with no ulterior motives. All around that half showed the shit heap that is the lost belt by being true and faithful to traditional Fae myth. Also did they really doge the implications of it being rape camps with that artificial insemination line in the Dracae section like I thought that it was going to be just implied and not addressed with Humans being like cattle, but they decided to not leave that hanging. Also, Beryl is a hate sink that deserve all the bad things that will happen to him. Nice to have a simple villain for once. All together things are progressing in ways we still don’t know exactly what the deal beyond the first answer, but it is part 1 so leave that for the complete section.

 As for gameplay didn’t notice anything but like I got the quick and arts loops on speed dial I am leveling up all my servants’ skills to 6 for the hell of it since I got them to max level outside grails. As for my pulls got Morgana without using up my bangk alongside a np2 Baobhan Sith. Morgana is fine (read that she is best in immortal comps) while Baobhan Sith came in clutch in the only time I was going to fail a quest during the story and her kit is simply “their will be a use for you at some point.” Shame I ran out of nails to max her skills. Final boss for part 1 was just fine, it was a stall fest for me using the support rider DaVinci and mash with a castorio for back up. The most annoying thing was having to use a support mash when my own is bulked up to hell and back with being the only servant I have given the golden Fous, paw prints, and card appends. Like if she had appended skills, I would have made them 10/10/10 as soon as the animations finished cause I am eggplant club for life give her head pats and max her stats.

⋆Part 2

So that was an eventful end. Count Pepe continues to be best bad guy, Beryl is trash person, babbitt sit is oddly a good girl despite being evil, and Morgan really should have let this lostbelt/lostworld burn cause Fey are trash. Barghest is a good girl who will have bad things happen to her, and Mélusine is getting conned by everyone she knows. As for the story the pilgrimage seemed to be oddly fast and slow for how many bells we have rung in this part and how quickly it happened with their still being a third part but that’s where everything will come to roost. Cnoc na Riabh and Cu was interesting if a bit heavy on the reference to other same faces. Oberon continues to be suspect, while Muramasa continues to be helpful if annoying in how he is an alter-ego in gameplay and not a saber where every time it would be more useful especially since I am sitting on a maxed-out copy of him. The history of the lostbelt tab is interesting but that feels like more thoughts than I will dedicate to it, but it is nice for those who like it. The twist with Morgan being Altria predecessor feels like it could have been foreshadowed a bit more but the as the answer to the puzzle that was been shown does make sense it’s just feels like you figure it out the sentence before they tell you. Morgan also does put out the power at the end and only lost cause fairies are terrible. Gareth being a mirror clan lined up with the visions of the future power she showed with no explanation before that. All in all, despite everything I am waiting for this lostbelt burn in part 3. Sorry Fujimaru you are too much of a good person, so trauma conga-line(a traumga-line) is your fate. Still, it’s really nice how they give the protagonist some more dialogue instead of letting it fall to the wayside. Also, nice they didn’t try and separate mash and Fujimaru again. It’s also kind of funny how by now the default idea should be “beat the shit out of [x]” first resort to a lot of problem in this game because that’s what everything turns into. I really wonder if most of my passive enjoyment of this is because everything was known due to the prophecy it was only a question of how it will pan out.

As for gameplay the actual intended to be beaten final fight. ya, that was hard actually used some Layline stones for it. Woodwose was also that hard too. At least because I couldn’t just double castor Altria it, which is what I did to every other combat encounter. Like that unwinnable fight at the end was winnable with that team comp and I would have if I could. The only interesting thing I could say was the one where you only needed to kill 3 enemies and they piled on the curse and poison on their killer and I just one turned the entire wave. Overall, I am not sure how much I like these support servant frequency on one hand its certainly the consequences of putting all the cannon story servants into the support menu and only being able to take one but I really wish they went the extra mile to put them in your own summons so you can pick them if you want to take them or use your own. Like right now it feels like an annoying half way point between a forced comp and using your own servants. That mostly is just coming from having to fill in the team for so many encounters that just gets solved by making the same 3-turn loop setup with Altria + tammo + AOE arts NP servant, but like Day one NA problems, I guess.

⋆Part 3

What an end. Like didn’t even have much time to think about before everything went to hell. Like that wasn’t a surprise with ominous glowing eyes Cernunnos at the end of part 2 but like take the L so hard we must pull a time Houdini to not lose and have Koyanskaya bail us out too. Like damn. The only time we’ve lost as hard must be for both the incarnation of mankind in arc 1 and bleached earth in arc 2. Otherwise, Fey are terrible and deserved everything that happened to them. Like Barghest being the best of them despite being an unwilling cannibal really shows how low the bar is. Mélusine would count but lol dragon and mercy kill her abusive mom, Mike can be argued to be MVP for the duty of not fucking up, and random fairy girl(Hope?) came in clutch by being the selfish bitch she died as. Habetrot is a good girl and friend of brides and does not count. Despite not getting any ascension art not even to take off her hat. This was the end of Castoria story and what an end. From seeing from her point of view of past story events, Muramasa sacrifice, Percival’s end and Cernunnos defeat. All great. The fact Oberon betrayal is so simple is kind of underwhelming but at the same time fitting. Like even if this is like the fifth time a villain’s entire plot can be summarized as “Bothered by this massive complex issue? Use this one quick trick to fix it! Genocide.” Like if it wasn’t for this entire Lostbelt story being about vapid idiots messing everything up that being tacked onto the end it probably wouldn’t fit. Plus, it kind of feels like Oberon is also kind of aware of how dumb it is with all the talk of stories and actors. Adamantly this might be purely the always lies make all his dialog retroactively and proactively be pure subtext with no just plain text reading consequently. Like the only honest thing he said was calling Fujimaru a lunatic for trying to deck him. Also, Sion at the end just listing future events is funny. Oh ya, they brought Beryl back for a scene so we could see his back story. At least Pepe was a bro from the grave. Still Oberon’s defeat flashback/dream sequence was better if only cause of how salty he was about the whole thing. Also it is kind of funny how Oberon just disappears at a point and no one comments on it.

As for gameplay the boss fights went from reasonable (Mélusine), hard but reasonable ( Cernunnos), and what the fresh hell ( Barghest). Like everyone was saying Cernunnos is the hardest fight but like I only need 1 Laystone for it unlike the 3 for Barghest fight. Like they both do it in different ways but they both do the screw with the player in an unfair way. Like God damn were the devs liberal with buff removals for these bosses. This is very much an “oh shit we power crept to hard” response but like this feels so much an issue of not being able to buff and nerf servants cause gacha game. Oh well at least I got Koyanskaya L and Oberon so buster loops are now my future. Not that I used them much in part 3 because I’ve become poor in mats again. At least I can deal with the dickish 1-3-1 waves that exists to stop NP arts looping just like every new quick servant gets NP hit taxed for the same reason. In my opinion this state is purely because they decided every skill goes off a turn set up for buff durations with the rare skill going off uses and not a single skill going of waves as its duration. Like if they did that it would really mix it up the servant roster where some are good for 1 wave 99 reserves and others the current set up. That however is probably another consequence of the gacha system.

⋆Revival: The Return of Nero Fest - Summer 2023

I farmed so many boxes. As always fuck challenge quests. Only did the ones that paid out a lore. Like I’ve said it before but while one challenge quest in an event is fine this is just nonsense of who in the office can come up with some ridiculous restrictions on the gameplay.

⋆Chaldea Summer Adventure! A Boy Pursuing Dreams and a Girl Who Dreams

Columbus is a little shit that is all. All in all, what a nice little event. Didn’t really matter in the end but definitely some meta foreshadow in how the narrative will go in the future. At least more so for new players since that’s how these events go in only needing to beat the prologue to take part in them. I am a sap, so I teared up at the end. Also, this treasure chest mechanic for events is a neat shake up but not sure if it’s better than lotto events.

⋆Csejte Halloween Trilogy: Ultra Deluxe Highlights!

Ya no. I was there Gandalf I ant reading this again don’t care if they reframed it skipped every god damn quest gladly.

⋆Halloween 2023 - Halloween Rising! The Queen of Dust and the Disciple of Darkness

So once again Liz returned. So anyway, the gameplay changes of having 6 enemies out at one time continues to be amazing. Otherwise, nice they took the chance to give out the servant coins for the old welfare servants in this event. I still haven’t gotten around to reading through all the text but Liz getting shade is apricated.

⋆Revival: GUDAGUDA 2022 - Super Ancient Shinsengumi History GUDAGUDA Yamataikoku 2022 - Lite

So those raids died fast. Anyway, was here for the first one. So, it was a simple event for me. Kind of love and hate the daily reward mission they had if. Probably because my tolerance for that kind of stuff has been getting lower as I get older.

⋆GUDAGUDA 2023 - Showa Kishin Project: Ryouma's Narrow Escape! The Mystery of the Disappearing Nobbu Head

I am just guda guda out. I just don’t care about the guda guda story lines. It’s just apathy for me. As for gameplay it’s your run of the mill mission even except they have ~special missions~ its fine. Really glad they added that do this node to complete this mission feature wasn’t added a while back but still good to not need to look up a walkthrough.

⋆Anti-Primate Biosphere, Tunguska Sanctuary

                NA #1! NA #1! NA #1! NA #1! Ya lamo that bug is the perfect capstone for a raid event and their arbitrary nonsense. Straight up hate raids in a low simmer kind of deal with how they are time gated by the dev’s and get blender-ed by players. Like the raids come out 12 at night for my time zone they are dead before I wake up even if I had a good sleep schedule. Then the final raid popped up and I deal too much damage and too little cause it’s that god damn backup dancers set up for drops. Like raids are the most interesting concept for content but turn out so bad to me. Also, that last story battle can go to hell even if it is appropriate level of in universe power. It just fights against the gameplay mechanics to be good.

As for story I would say fun as a concept even if it leans too much into nature good human’s bad misanthrope angle. As for the “please fuck” being the answer to the event it feels fine. As for wasted presence I get where people are coming from and sort of agree with Ibuki just being scenery dressing and Nikitich just feeling like there need to be more foreshadowing  for that ending bit, but the whole storyline seems to have the theme of anti-climaxes as its core tenet. I would say it was worse, but Koyanskaya has always been in the affable evil category in terms of antagonist. Like she is basically Pepe who decided to stay an antagonist the entire time instead of just vibing.

★Girls Frontline [Off stream]

I still skip all the text in the game. Might look up a story archive eventually but whatever. Still sticking with it cause it’s interesting to see what the Developers come up with. Still a gacha game so wouldn’t recommend even if tis a solid game.

⋆Fixed Point Event

                SKIPED THE STORY. But from audience apathy I am seeing is not a bad thing. HATE how they added another difficulty level would have liked it if I didn’t already farm every doll by the time I finished, but oh well. Maps continue to be a level of nonsense that I appreciate but still hate if only because it is on a phone game and even if the game is optimized well enough it still needs more. The minigame is neat certainly feels like they were experimenting with Neuralcloud and Girls Frontline 2 in development not sure how well that lines up with the development timeline thou. As for ranking god do I love the nonsense they come up for ranking maps. Still wish they functioned more like the Theater system so time is the only investment you need other than raising your dolls. Also, not sure the ranking system need the sum total of 3 maps with branching choices for what map is available.

⋆Love Bakery

Well, this is a nice and quick event. Neat to see coalition leaders in the shenanigans. Even if I still skip all the text. Also, weird that there wasn’t an achievement to give Persicaria her special coffee. Otherwise, nice and simple to get too the farm map no complaints here. Other than when do I get to capture chocolate doggos.

⋆The Glistening Bloom

Ya, I just want to foreword that I am still skipping the story even if this is a collab. I also haven’t gotten around to watching Zombie Land Saga it’s on the to watch list alongside the other 339 because I am a “Ya I watch anima. That’s putting it on your plan to watch list and never get around to it right?”. So, in terms of gameplay, I hate the event while I am glad it’s not the damn revolver selection this point thing and too many minigames for me to like it. The ending conditionals seem kind of verbose as a consequence of it. As for the dolls neat gimmick but probably a meme team. As for that little bit of the story I saw mentioned sad it’s just a dream and not Koutarou Tatsumi just clowning on William for his motivation being a massive siscon who wants to resurrect his dead sister. Like what I got from the story by osmosis is the community feels a bit of darkness induced apathy by not being able to get a win against William since we know he survives to be in Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery and this event could have been a way to have given us a W by having William out “But I Don't Want To Cure Cancer. I Want To Turn People Into Dinosaurs.” By Koutarou Tatsumi.

⋆Eclipses & Saros

                Well, this was an event. Nice and short and I skipped the story. It was neat in the Hard mode gave you custom echelons while the normal mode gave you a set one. Like it kind of feels inverse of what was the harder difficulty. Yes I am still skipping the story.

⋆ The Waves Wrangler

                Rerun time. Whatever it’s a nice event and we get closer to Girls Frontline 2 coming out with NA getting caught up with the main server. I am basically in raise for the sake of raising like I have all but 2 dolls and have like half the roster at level 100 and the other at level 90 and most Neural Upgrade at 2 or higher so like I am set. Which is why I did not even mention the theater that happened before this like I missed day 2 and still wound up at top 12% for that.

⋆ Longitudinal Strain

                This event has a better UI then the that damn rotary menu. As for story I still skipped it. Like sure this was a side story but by God was there a lot of story nodes. As for enemies seemed kind of neat as for strategy a certain point has come where “random bullshit go” can sum up what I need to do. Mostly because I really feel like the game is straining with its limitations for being on a phone. Like if this was built for the PC with the ability to save scum try and roll back events instead of having to restart the entire stage it would improve the game. That and just probably a better UI I would hope.

⋆ Lycan Sanctuary

                Okay neat little summer event. Like the gimmick stage of playing pachinko even if the others were forgettable. I skipped the story but them doing some social deduction game voting is neat. Didn’t pay attention to the translator controversy I saw about how they were weighting a win that they already translated.

⋆Gray Zone

                At first, I thought I wasn’t making a tone of progress with how many points it wanted. Then I saw how long it last for. Otherwise, it’s simply a neat mode. Even if it feels like it’s kind of long and tedious. Also, finally a good nonevent node for farming armored foes.

⋆Slow Shock

                Okay this level of puzzle maps can go to hell. As before I skip the story but just the number of puzzles is just annoying. Like please let me use my own dolls I have every doll that existed before this chapter event I want to use them. Otherwise seemed a reasonable balance in terms of challenge. Also, neat how the NA server is caught up with the Main CA server. As for the new gimmicks the BPM meter feels like it’s just there, the trees are reasonable in there annoyance, and most importantly we have crab enemies.

★Monster Hunter: Rise Sunbreak [On stream]

⋆Title Update 3

Chaotic Gore, Risen Kushala Dora, and Risen Teostra. What a neat little combination of monsters. Still not sure what is up with Teostra.

⋆Title Update 4

velkhana and Risen valstrax are nice. Like the worst part I could say is Anomaly farming is kind of annoying to me just from the shear bulk of it.

★League of Legends [Off stream]

The mistake after I decided to reinstall it after watching a bunch of Exil videos. Warmed up with a few vs AI matches before trying ARAM. Got called racist despite not saying a damn thing in a match I lost. Then called my revisit there.

 … still I miss Twisted Treeline ☹

★Destiny 2 [Off stream]

Ya played the free stuff for Light fall and the seasons. Gameplay is still good just I don’t care to get into it or toss money towards it.

Okay I picked back up during the crafting despite not being able to take advantage of it and did a Garden of Salvation and Crota’s End raid. Still haven’t done Vault of Glass or Kings Fall but like its 100% you need friends to do it since while LFG is there, I just hate it. Especially since at the moment my internet is on the fritz where its fine and wont hitch for videos but games it will, and I will get kicked form the activity sometimes I will reconnect but will be dead. Along side it wasn’t in the game at the time, and still haven’t gone back and tried it yet.

Overall, like to hate to be that guy, Destiny 2 is a good game but not enough worth my money or time investment with how much of both it wants you to spend on it.

And then they killed all the interest I had in it with that round of layoffs. Still grabbed the collection when Epic game store gave it out for free.

★Factorio [Off stream]

                So, ya got that itch to play it again. Still have never beaten a vanilla game and I still don’t have the drive too. This year tried the mods Space Exploration, Nullius, and SeaBlock. Also, been watching DoshDoshington and appreciating the madness of those videos. Even his non Factorio videos.

                Also, it’s hilarious how the expansion everyone was worried what horror the devs were going to let upon the land and it turns out they grabbed the Space Exploration dev to help them make their version of it. From the teases they have shown so far the only thing I’m not sure about is the ‘quality system’. Otherwise, Space Exploration for the common man and not its 300 hour madness induce enlightenment sounds pretty good.

★Girls Frontline Project Neuralcloud [Off stream]

Not sure if I like this more than the first Girls Frontline but it’s still interesting. Still, it is a gacha game so wouldn’t recommend even if it’s a solid game. Also, yes, I am skipping all the dialogue after chapter 1 part.2 when I found out it was optional for progress.

⋆Thundering Livestream Event

                Actually, I read this story was short and sweet. Nothing outstanding but the first event is what it is. Also pulled Kuro.

⋆Divine Heresy story Event

Boy was this the first annoying road block but that’s story events. At least it had an easy mode to do. Managed to reach the point during it to do the hard mode to completion. Not that it really did anything haven’t upgraded a doll to 70 yet.

⋆Magrasea’s Lang Syne Event

Ya skipped the story. Otherwise only the challenges for the final mission were the stumbling block. Otherwise, same as Thundering Livestream Event except without reading the story.

⋆Exception Protocol

I think I hate it. Like I kind of hate how its either min max the rarity for the only benefit or get every doll to 50 and skill level 5. Like I want to out level the content especially since its bi-weekly.

Got fixed up and it lets you use your own dolls now, and made the points a daily thing.

⋆Quenching Operation

TLDR LAMO. So, ya skipped all the text kind of hat the cant auto my way through the story, oh well the hard farming quest is interesting. It’s just the skill data one but still neat.

⋆Heartfelt House of Coca

Oh, I love this. This is an interesting event. Feel a bit egg on my face for getting all that minigame point faring done on the first day with how often the daily was get points in the minigame. Not sure how much I care about the use dolls only from one company. Like at least the event missions are free. Still kind of hate challenge modes.

⋆Inverted Mordent Resonance

Well, this is a neat event. Not sure if I care for it but it is neat, but the event has its own personal upgrade tree is a neat idea. Having come from Girls Frontline I was wondering how much they could do with their mission set up but things like this are neat. Admittedly I still expect at some point they move back into a grid style map even if it’s for a single event. Once again skipped the story.

⋆Fool’s Duality

                Okay neat event wish what was in the shop was actually the big head mode as a free skin but whatever. Also, hard difficulty can go to hell whenever it was a tank character otherwise what an oscillating difficulty.

⋆Chromatic Spiral

                Ya if I wasn’t skipping the story, I would care more about these types of events but oh well. It’s a simple low intensity farm time event.

⋆ Eager Fist, Dawning Fray

They Really like this type of event don’t they. Like it is Just works and is fine and it’s great to give every new character an event. It’s just Like I kind of wish there was some more variance. Might just be an appearance thing compared to F/GO having a new map every event even if they default to the same 3 currencies for most events compared to this one story page + farm mission for a single currency.

⋆ Aberrance’s Chain

Well, this was a nice chunky update. Always love a temp ‘tech tree’ for an event alongside its currency being farmed outside node specific missions. As for the missions was able to do all the challenge nodes too since I am finally at that point for how strong my teams are.

⋆ Divergent Shadows

Love it. Not only have I finally reached the strength pinnacle to not worry about difficulty too much, but that Matrix Challenge was fun. The point ladder is simple and straight forward. Yes, I am still skipping the story.

⋆ Snowy Encounters Opening Promotion, Free To Play!

Love it. Nice Simple Minigame compilation from all the previous events not too hard to do.

⋆ Gastronomic Journey

Another classic character story event where I skipped the story. Ain much to say. Especially since the story is hidden in the character’s profile/Bio.

⋆ Wishing Starbridge Workshop

Nice to see the coca event set up back. It is simple but it is a nice diversion from the normal event rigmarole.

⋆ Midnight Machinations

Another classic character story event. Except this time, I pulled the character and got to say I feel like I will actually use her. Will also take this point to note a bunch of inscriptions have come in and getting fragments really feels like the true progression bottleneck in this game.

⋆ Critical Cascade

Oh, an event all about these sorts of stages awesome. Is how I started off with it but it kind of dragged on with a completely new set of functions and the daily missions requiring additional completions and I did all the stages day 1. Otherwise, it was a good event with a nice new unit.

⋆Ruintop Song

Oh, another one of these character events. Tempted to start skip mentioning them cause it’s all the same cause I skip the story.

⋆ Inverted Mordent Resonance RERUN

Second verse same as the first. Also, they really decided to do a rerun. Weird.

⋆ Joyful Reunion

Story event has the neat little Matrix nodes and has a point ladder for its rewards.

⋆ Twilight Requiem

Story event has the neat little Matrix nodes and has a point ladder for its rewards. I like this formula more than the grind currency events, but like I am still skipping the text so like I am just vibing with the gameplay.

⋆ Strange Blue

A big Matrix node event. I kind of hate it even if it’s very simple stages being done one after the other. Maybe because I like this game for the auto in auto-battler and Matrix stages are the opposite of auto making me dislike it. Alongside all the large impact changes of function sets being entirely a different set when I don’t even understand the min max choice for the normal sets. Mostly because I haven’t bother to read them in the tier-list/min-max guides I’ve read.

⋆Divining The Heart

                Once again, it’s the new format for a character event. As for the doll introduced looking at the guides, I feel no need to pull her it’s probably simpler to use then I am thinking but by god that just looks overcomplicated.

⋆Perilous Advancement

                Well, if that isn’t interesting intro to the next story chapter. I would probably care more if I was reading it, but auto battler go burr. Over all this has an issue I’ve been feeling that there really is a thin line between can trivialize the content or get hit by a wall. Like I do love them experimenting with different deploy layouts but what the hell are the red enemy variants smoking. Like just activating the challenge mode instantly makes my teams be blown up and without I am the one that instantly blows up the enemies. As a side the defend the core is neat in both the objective and the arena being larger. Matrix stages are nice simple one room floors even if they keep doing the rule of three, but sticking to the chess mechanics is neat.

⋆Symphonic Reprise

                Again, character event. The character is neat in being unable to attack. I did not succeed in pulling her tho. Also just realized that Turning summonses dinergates I want to pull her now.

⋆Starchasers’ Concerto

                Eh it’s a nice little event. Like Matrix mode is kind of draining on me with the inability to just let auto battle go burr, and the functions feel kind of boring in most cases. Like a few of the new functions seem kind of neat its just the function economy is probably the iffiest part of the game and Matrix mode just kind of pushes it to the limit. Also, kind of wired how this is the summon and doge event.

Played For The First Time This Year.

★Duylst II [Off stream]

                I feel a bit of shame with how little I played especially since I went and played legacy mode for most of it. Haven’t kept up with it after the first week of release.

★Yoku’s Island Adventure [On stream]

Pinball Metroidvania is nice but makes me think my hatred of Pinball is equal to my love of it. Neat hearing from the speed runner “JKxWinG“ during my playthrough. Is the kind of game I would only play once to completion and any other time as an any% run.

★SteamWorld Build Demo [Off stream]

                Okay don’t play a lot of these types of game but old west robots are a fun contrast. Don’t think it’s too hard but just the demo vs then end of the game. Plus, it’s not trying to be something like frost punk. Still orb is suspect.

★WanderSong [On stream]

                Ya game is good. Honestly, I hate rhythm games and feel like I would have gotten a little bit more out of it if I was musically inclined but otherwise was a good game. It’s mostly a story-based game so like what could I say beyond I liked it. Like the only annoying thing about it was the fact I had to farm some achievements for it but that’s a me problem of being an achievement whore whenever they don’t go past my tolerance for them.

★Satisfactory [Off stream]

                I like Factorio more. Satisfactory is still in development, but I just hate the map traversal. like as much as it would get compared to “Minecraft”, “Infinifactory”, or “FortressCraft Evolved!” I really wish it was in a block world. Purely for terrain deformation. Like as it is now Factorio has more ability to modify the terrain with cliff explosives and land fill, or water fill with mods. That and while this might be just where I spawned and settled why is everything so god damn tall like everything could be halved in height and it would still would have felt tall to me, also am I supposed to make big giant sprawling factory or like just an make one offs of everything. Like the belts have no through put compared to Factorio just thinking about it the difference is per second vs per minute in the tool tip. Like it feels so needlessly large. I might just be dumb to be honest.

★Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons [On stream]

                Ya this is a nice short game. I was adamantly spoiled by the ending but not on the details. That or I forgot the details. Ya that control scheme is certainly a stroke of genius in story telling but like, I so kind of hate it. Like it such a reasonable idea for a control two characters each to a control stick but it’s so mind binding task because of how odd it is. Compared to only keeping track of one character like most games. However, that ending definitely was so effective because of the controls. That doesn’t mean I would want a longer game with this type of controls. It just was short enough to ‘earn’ its ending but not long enough to over stay its welcome. Even if maybe one more chapter would have been better so it wouldn’t feel so short. As for longer games Mario & Luigi has the better controls for a two character with dedicated button per character controls. Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons also now getting a remake so that’s neat.

★Pikuniku [On stream]

                A nice little game. Haven’t touched the co-op but ya I just went with the flow but is nice and short game. Going after all the achievements however seems to be a bit more difficult. I adamantly kind of hate not having functional hands but that is probably why the game was short as it was to not over stay it welcome.

★Aven Colony [Off stream]

                Ya this is a colony management game. They are neat and everything but not sure if I can bring too much enthusiasm for them, but they are still enjoyable. Mostly cause I unga bunga in games no thoughts only forward. Yes, I am aware how much that will backfire on me. Ya no, on second play this game is dumb have 12 greenhouses producing food and then all of a sudden, I have no food, and everyone starts drooping dead. like screw me, I guess. I don’t get it.

★Rise of Industry [Off stream]

                Okay Transport Tycoon style game. At least that’s my touch stone for it. Its fine I just don’t really care about these types of games I suppose. Not sure about the research but that’s probably cause it forefather before it are a multiplayer game so having a way to mix things up is probably why it’s there. Which for the type of game it is feels a bit weird for me, but I suppose the single player versions of this type of game would require more random events to be fun for me.

★Terraforming Mars [Off stream]

                It’s one of those Deck building games. They are fun. With friends. I still skipped the tutorial and got 11 victory points my first game. That was dead last despite being 4 more than the next amount I don’t know what type of logic that has victory points not be the win goal but okay.

★ DAEMON X MACHINA [On stream]

                Ya, I don’t care for this game between the grind for loot to just the damage output mix with the controls. The comparison to all the mech floating there like Dragon Ball Z characters was on point and with my main point of reference for mechs being Code Geass makes me feel off playing this since its bones are so close to being what I would want out of a Code Geass game, and yes, I am saying that in the context of season 1. The fact Code Geass also started to do that in season 2 is going to be ignored. Like all in all this game feels like it has good bones I just hate the Muscles and Tendons on it. So, ya this is just the game equivalent of a pet-peeve.

★ Subnautica [Off stream]

                Ya this really is we are not a horror game you just got thalassophobia bro. Anyway, finally got around to playing for myself instead of just watching lets plays of it mostly cause I’ve was watching RageGamingVideos series for it. Like I had it on the Epic game store when the released it for free. Ya it’s a good game I knew the story beats but even just playing it is the real fun of the game. Definitely the gold mark for the survival games for me.

★ Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles DEMO[Off stream]

                Okay this is a neat twist on the deck builder sub-genre. Like ya Slay the Spire popularized this type of rouge likes deck builders but it being with dice is neat. Like I do not have the mind to optimize this type of game or card games in general, but it is fun dice go click clack. As for the corruption purify thing instead of health kind of sounded pointless but they did something with it so kind of neat. As for the two in the demo the basic owl character seems more practical, but the shark bsoy seems like a high roller. Only did one run with each so can’t say too much on it. Will pick it up eventually.

★Tevi DEMO[Off stream]

                Well, this is a nice little Metroidvania. Also, neat how the artist put the bunny suit into the main characters design without it being blatant fanservice. The only odd thing about it is why does the DEMO have achievements for it. Definitely planning to play it eventually.

#vtuber #gaming #new year

[helliontherapscallion]

Why Couldn’t it Have Been Me?

Part 2

Paring: Wilbur Soot x reader (past), Ghostbur x reader

Disclaimer: This contains major spoilers for Tommyinnit’s 4/29 lore stream

Warnings: swearing, violence, death, near death, cheating, 4/29 lore stream, grief, blood, injury, panic attack

Word count: 6,737

(A/N): So in this, you’re Schlatt’s twin and Puffy’s your older sister. Also, sorry for any mistakes, I typed a good 2/3 of this on my phone

This was your own personal hell: being trapped within cement walls with your ex fiance, your asshole of a brother, and a Dream wannabe that seemed to never lose any energy. Your life was like a trope in a novel alive you would’ve liked, however being cursed to live in it made you absolutely loathe any and all mention of it. 

Alive you would’ve killed to hang out with your brother again, not the one that turned to the bottle. Alive you would’ve craved the sweet melodies that streamed from Wilbur’s mouth. You would’ve swooned and maybe, just maybe, you would’ve forgiven him. Alive you would’ve perhaps liked this ‘Mexican Dream’ guy, you would’ve perhaps become the best of friends. 

However you despised the three locked up with you with your whole heart. 

Your ex fiance was someone you adored. Hell, you even idolized him when you were alive. The Wilbur you knew was sweet, loving, attentive, and just all around someone that you swooned over. You could still remember how your heart exploded when he first asked you out under the setting sun by the ocean. You remembered every song he's written for you, every word and rhythm by heart, even after all these years. 

You remembered how you felt your heart completely shatter when you found the songs he had in his drafts for someone that wasn't you. Someone by the name of 'Sally'. After a heated argument you had broken up with him, taking the engagement ring off from your finger and throwing it deep into the ocean. You stayed on L'Manberg's side even after all that, too loyal and proud towards the country you helped forge to drop it. You wouldn't let some stupid boy or rabid tyrants prevent you from raising your beautiful nation up from the ashes.

That had been your downfall. You should've listened to Puffy and left the country behind when you had the chance, now you paid the ultimate price for your deep rooted loyalty and devotion towards independence. And your sacrifice didn't even matter in the end! Your deranged ex blew it all to smithereens. If you didn't despise him before, you absolutely did after your dumbass twin told you about his little 'escapades' while you were gone.

Every little thing Wilbur did, no matter how small it was, made you hate him even more. Every time he would shuffle those damned cards, it made you want to rip them to shreds and throw them across the train tracks. Every time he would sing or even breathe, you wanted to strangle him. You were absolutely certain that Schlatt felt the same. 

Oh, your twin was a real card. Always boasting about how his horns were bigger than yours (who even cares anymore? Yours grew in first anyways), telling the others about your shortcomings through crude jokes, even going as far as fighting you through headbutting; you could still feel the pain of being beaten to death before respawning immediately. Schlatt hadn’t known that you respawn even in the afterlife, so you knew he was serious about killing you. You just wanted Puffy, she was far more tolerable than your twin. 

The rustling of his suit jacket and his small grunts and pants resonated within the walls as he did various forms of exercising. You now knew about all of the differing variations of a pushup and you hated yourself for listening to his explanations. He would beg you, Mexican Dream, and Wilbur to stand on his back while he did his endless routines. The only one to readily take him up on that offer was Mexican Dream.

That man was arguably the only one you slightly tolerated, and you said that very lightly. He was still annoying as all hell, but he was a new face. Well, one that you didn’t know well enough to have a grudge against while you were alive. It was slightly refreshing, in a sense. When he first got here, his songs, stories, and humor gave you a nice break away from Wilbur’s depressing songs and Schlatt’s crude jokes. However when you spend eleven years trapped in a cage with one person, everything they do becomes the bane of your existence. 

You were running out of things that kept you sane in this dump. You've read the same novel, counted the same ceiling and floor tiles (32 ceiling tiles and 57 floor tiles exactly), traced the same cracks in the walls, temporarily killing the same cellmates, you've done anything and everything that this cesspool had to offer. You've done everything billions of times over, a never ending cycle of monotony. 

Tommy joining your group of miserable has-beens was perhaps the highlight of your fifteen, almost sixteen, years spent in this shithole. Though he finally dropped the brave facade and showed just how broken down he was after everything he’s been through, having him around was the saving grace to your sanity. He told you how your sister was, how your nephews were, and most importantly what you missed. You knew about all of the events leading up to Mexican Dream's death, but you were left in the dark with everything past that. Ender, you missed so much since you died; It baffled you how much you missed. 

When the train actually stopped at your cell instead of just passing by and it's doors opened, you were just expecting another poor soul to be dropped off here. You could imagine everybody's surprise when none other than Dream stepped out of those doors. The nephew that had betrayed you without a second thought, that had murdered you, that had your severed head displayed on his mantle (you weren't sure the truth of that last statement, Tommy has a habit of over exaggerating. Though, Schlatt did say that your body was found with a missing head when you first forced him to tell you what you missed). Tommy talked to you about how he died only once, so you knew just what your nephew has been up to. It infuriated you knowing that your adult nephew was manipulating and abusing this young teenager.

While you were releasing your pent up frustrations on the masked man, he merely brushed past you and drug Tommy into the train by the arm. You could remember Wilbur banging on the doors begging for Dream to return his little brother and his angered screams echoing down the railways as the train sped off back towards the land of the living. 

Lucky Tommy, he got to live out the rest of his life and actually age. You and your crew of intolerable jesters were stuck together once again. 

Everybody was silent for a few months, reeling at the newly discovered fact that Dream could actually resurrect people. During those three months, they were quiet and tolerable. In a way, the talks that came out of it was like one of those family therapy sessions your older sister would hold in the living room (you remembered how she would grab you and Schlatt by the horns if either one of you refused to go). You would kill to attend one of those therapy sessions again, and this is the closest you were going to get to it. 

You all talked about the things you regretted most while you were alive. Mexican Dream's was that he didn't protect his girlfriend Mamacita well enough. Schlatt's was choosing alcohol and power over his family (tears were especially shed over Tubbo, he really did regret abandoning him to be raised by you). Yours was that you were too loyal to a cause that would be absolutely decimated a short while after you sacrificed everything for it. Surprisingly, Wilbur's was that he had hurt you.

He had begged and groveled for forgiveness, telling you that he just didn't feel that special connection with you anymore. That didn't take away from the fact that he was seeing another while you two were still dating and that he blew up your life's work. He had stolen everything from you, and you would never forgive him for that. 

After you made your thoughts on him completely clear, he had started treating you like you treated him in the last few months. Tension was building up between you two that had laid dormant for thirteen and a half years like a rope pulled taut about to snap.

Everybody had slowly returned to their annoying selves slowly but surely. Schlatt resumed his workout routine, Mexican Dream had started loudly singing and ranting about Mamacita's everlasting beauty again, and Wilbur eventually started up his solitaire and songwriting once again.

The three of them made you want to rip off your twisting horns and shove them in your ears in hopes of muffling them, but you knew that whomever put you here would restore your hearing and make your horns regrow. You knew that first hand after you spent a couple of years alone in this hellhole; breaking your horns off by repeatedly banging your head against the dull stone walls in a manic state was never fun. The regeneration of the keratin only slightly stung, it was like you were a kid and they were growing in for the first time again. 

You felt your eye twitch as Wilbur sang about that damned train for the umpteenth time since he arrived. It’s always ‘train this' and ‘train that' and quite frankly you were sick of it. You were sick of him. 

“Shut the fuck up about that damned train,” Schlatt seethed. You never once thought you would ever agree with your twin, but here you were nodding in agreement and shooting a glare at Wilbur’s direction. The brunet merely stopped his singing and reshuffled his cards, the sound making an ugly cacophony and grating at your ears. 

“Not my fault you two don’t want to talk to me. I’m just making due with what I’ve been given.” He dealt the cards out in piles and started yet another game of solitaire. Seriously, how many games of solitaire can one play before they lose it? You supposed that you’d find out soon, Wilbur has been playing that monotonous card game nonstop for thirteen and a half years.

“Yeah, let the hombre chill! I like his music.” The masked man reached up to stroke his goatee, the scratching sound further penetrating your focus on your book. 

Everything was quiet before Mexican Dream's voice pierced it, "hey, did I ever tell you guys how beautiful my Mamacita was?"

"You told us millions of times, fuckface. You narrate entire love letters daily, so how could we not know how 'beautiful' she was?" You complained, not once looking up from your book. Schlatt snorted to himself and returned to his workout. Mexican Dream crossed his arms in anger, cursing you out under his breath. Wilbur merely glanced at you and rolled his eyes. "You know, I'm tired of your bitchy attitude. Let him talk about Mamacita, it's not his fault every time you think you love someone it fails." 

Your grip on your book tightened impossibly. If it were physically possible, the book would be crumbling to dust in your voice grip. You practically see red as you slowly dog-eared the worn page you were on and put your book down. 

"Oh shit," you heard Schlatt mumble and move away from you, Mexican Dream following suit. When you both were alive, your anger was always something you knew Schlatt feared. However, you knew that he's never seen you this angry; nobody has. The majority of what you've been holding in for almost fourteen years is about to be unleashed. 

"You know what I'm sick of, Wilbur?"

"Oh, do enlighten us."

"I'm sick of each and every single one of you. You three have been absolutely intolerable ever since you arrived. I was doing just fine alone and the universe just had to fuck everything up for me, just like it always does."

"There you go again," Wilbur laughed sardonically, "making everything about yourself." He gathered his cards and shuffled them repeatedly. 

"I make everything about myself?! Do you even hear yourself? Mr. Oh-I'm-such-a-disappointment-to-Philza, you wallow in self pity twenty-four seven! You fucking write every single song about yourself!”

"I didn't want to come here, okay?! I didn't think it was gonna be like this! God, I might as well be in hell with you here." 

"Believe me, my hell started fourteen years ago when you guys started showing up," you growled out, your ears flattening to the sides of your skull.

"Have you ever stopped to think that you're our hell? All you've done since we came here was complain and be a massive douche to all of us." He fluttered through the deck more and more as the argument escalated, the noise making you want to scream until you tasted blood.

"I'm the one that's in the wrong here? You fucked up my entire life. He," you pointed at Schlatt, "keeps beating me to death. And he," you jutted your chin towards Mexican Dream, "never shuts the hell up… Would you stop with that damn deck?! You're literally so fucking annoying." 

He narrowed his eyes, "make me."

A mixture of an animalistic growl and a guttural scream left your lips as you charged at him, your head tilted downwards so he could feel the brunt of your horns. He moved out of the way just in time, the side of your horn brushing against his arm. You crashed head first into the stone wall before you stabilized yourself and looked at the brunet with seething hatred. 

He was staring at you in shock, "how're you-" You used his shock to your advantage, throwing a right hook at his face. His head whipped to the side and his body followed, sending him to the ground in a heap.

"How am I still conscious? I'm a ram hybrid, dumbass. What'd you expect?" You huffed angrily before you pried the cards out of his hand and stalked over to the tracks. 

He scrambled up to stop you, but before he could even reach you, you held the deck over the tracks and looked down at him. You could just imagine how your horizontal pupils were blazing with fury. 

You reveled in the betrayal and animosity gleaming in his eyes as you dangled the thing he held dearest in this hell over the railroads. If you were to drop them, he'd never be able to see them again.

"We promised not to touch belongings on our first day here!" He yelled at you, his hands wrung in front of him nervously hiding the slight tremor. "Our first day here?" You scoffed, "the last time I checked, I was here for two years before any of you showed up." You gestured around the room in one angry swipe, the cards slipping slightly with how sweaty your hands were. It was then that you saw the fear in Schlatt's eyes. Good, that bastard should be scared of you. "If anything, you all are in my domain."

Wilbur flinched at the sight of the cards slowly slipping out of your hand, his breath hitching and panic stricken across his features. Mexican Dream stood up from his place and put his hands up. He was slowly approaching you like you were a cornered wild animal, making sure that you saw his every move. 

He nervously chuckled, "let's just put the cards down and have a nice talk. Doesn't that sound better than this, mi amigo?"

You shook the cards once again, taking in Wilbur's silent anguish with glee. "I'm not your friend, I'm anything but. Don't tell me what to fucking do or else that picture of Mamacita is the next to go."

"...Okay, you're in charge, man. Do what you want." He reluctantly sat back down next to Schlatt. The ram was watching in fear, yet it looked like he was entertained with what was happening. You couldn't blame him, the last interesting thing that happened was three full months ago when Tommy was taken. That and you probably looked feral at the moment.

"You understand that if you drop those, they're lost forever right?"

You threw your head back and laughed, "of course I know, why do you think I only have one sock? I already tried that shit out before you came." You hummed to yourself in thought, then grinned. Wilbur was going to love this.

While you shuffled the deck, you kept a close eye on the movement happening inside the cell. Another perk to being a ram hybrid was that you had a nearly 360 degree scope of everything around you. The only movement happening was the panicked breaths from Wilbur, good. You huffed in amusement, "alright Wilbur, let's do a card trick. I'd ask you to pick a card, any card, but I don't want to risk you fucking shit up again. So, I'm just going to draw for you." You drew a card from the middle of the deck and showed it to him. "The eight of clubs, how fitting." 

"(Y/n), I don't know what you're getting at, but if you don't give me those cards right now-"

"Shut it, I'm not done. I'm going to shuffle this back into the deck, watch the hands." You kept eye contact with him as you shuffled the cards rigorously, the card you pulled long since hidden with the slight of a hand. After a bit of shuffling and reshuffling, you had sneakily put the card between the two halves and bridged them until the cards were in one pile with the eight of clubs on top. 

You chuckled and pulled the top card, once again showing it to him. "Is this your card?"

He nodded slightly, never once taking his eyes off from the deck. "Yes, now give it back to me!" The angry and anxious undertones were like music to your ears.

You tapped your chin in thought, "hm, I don't think I will. You've taken so much from me, it's only fair that I get some revenge." Without another word, you threw the cards behind your head and smiled widely at the sound of the fluttering down to the tracks. 

Wilbur launched himself forward with a frantic yell, his hands flailing to catch all of the cards before they were lost forever. He only succeeded in catching a few. 

His breath shuddered as he stared at the three cards in his hand: the five of diamonds, the four of spades, and the seven of hearts. The fate of the universe was on your side for once, perhaps preternaturally so. 

"You- do you realize what you just did?!" He spun around to face you. If humans could froth at the mouth, a full waterfall would be streaming through his gritted teeth. His eyes held the rage of a man that had just lost everything in one singular instant, the resentment swirling in his dark brown orbs. Several veins were bulging in his face and neck, painting the skin in a red hue.

You walked over to your book and plopped yourself down. "Yeah," you said with a nonchalant shrug of your shoulders. You opened up your book and started reading it again, leaving the man to his grief. 

Everything was quiet once more much to your delight. Though you read this book from cover to cover thousands of times, enough to know most of the words by heart, you were never able to fully enjoy and immerse yourself in it with them around. You took this time to reclaim your designated corner and spend some quality time reading. 

You spent hours with your nose buried deep in your book, savoring the peace. That was until it was snatched out of your hands and ripped away from you. You looked up in slight shock at the sight of Wilbur snapping it shut and walking over to the tracks. 

No. No. Nononono he can’t. That was the only thing keeping you sane. He can't just get rid of it when he's done so much towards you when you were alive. 

A wail left your mouth as you tackled him to the ground, your arms wrapped around his midsection. He crashed to the ground with a grunt, his forehead smacking against the painted yellow stone. You straddled his back and ripped the book away from him, throwing it across the room and away from the tracks. 

You grabbed a fist full of his hair after yanking off his beanie and tossing it into oblivion with his precious cards. You pulled his head up and leaned close to his ear, "you try that shit again and your hat and cards won't be the only things lost to the void." Venom was seeping through your every word, "do you understand me?" 

He merely jerked his head to the side, colliding it with your nose and mouth. You shouted in surprise and let him go in favor of holding your aching nose. You could feel the warmth of the blood pouring from it. Through teary eyes, you looked up at Wilbur as he grabbed your book and flung it against the wall of the opposite side of the tracks. You scampered to the edge and watched in horror as it disappeared into the void. 

Without warning, you were forced to the ground, a hand holding you by a horn and a knee between your shoulder blades. You struggled before a dark chuckle was heard, "if you keep moving, you'll slip! Do you really want that?" You begrudgingly stopped, realizing that he had all the power in this situation. If he wanted to, he could just slide you off from the platform and toss you away like throwing a piece of paper into the trash.

"Good, you're not as stupid as you were earlier today." He slid you forward, holding your upper body over the tracks by the horn. You came face to face with the swirling abyss that was the void, small shapes appearing from your eyes adjusting to the sudden lack of visual stimulant. Your breathing picked up as he lowered you slightly, "you don't wanna do this." 

"No, I do. Thirteen and a half years of having to be around you was hell, but the shit you pulled today just put the icing on the cake. Do you have any last words before you go?"

You grunted as he shook your head slightly, a slight pain coming from the base of your horn. "Fuck you." 

"How appropriate, now let's see if you'll come back this time. It'll be our fun little science experiment!"

He dropped your horn without a care in the world, sending you plummeting to your demise. A terrified scream ripped it's way out of your throat and you screwed your eyes tightly shut in preparation for the void. Your body came to a jerking halt as you held your breath, preparing for… whatever awaited you. However, nothing came.

You cracked open an eye only to be met with the uncanny inkyness, the invisible mist freezing your face and its frostbitten arms opened wide for you. But you never fell into its embrace. 

Instead, you were pulled back onto the platform. You laid on your stomach with your horn supporting your head staring at the wall, tracing every single nook and cranny of the bricks. Your chest heaved as you greedily gasped for air. You never thought you'd be so relieved to see the cement walls you've been trapped in for over a decade and a half.

You were once again pulled up into a now sitting position and leaned against the wall, your back touching the cool cement. Across from you, you saw Mexican Dream pinning a struggling Wilbur down to the floor. Wilbur's crazed eyes met you, piercing through your very being. However, that didn't affect you in the slightest; you almost were just wiped from existence completely, you stared into the abyss and it stared back at you.

You felt… strange, to say the least. While icy fear and adrenaline coursed through your veins, you felt warmth blossoming in you at the same time. It was like the void was an actual person, politely giving you some form of relief from the hell you've been subjected to for over a decade and a half. It was so welcoming, not terrifying like you initially thought it was. When your fingertips grazed its surface it felt freezing to the touch, yet you felt the staticky power it was showing you. In that split moment of touching it, you had already accepted the power it held over you. 

A hand softly slapped your cheek, "c'mon, (y/n). Talk to me." Your eyes drifted lazily to your twin. He was extremely pale, his eyes frantically searching your face for any sign of responsiveness. When you looked at him, he visibly relaxed. "It was so… so beautiful, Schlatt."

"Yeah, what the actual fuck did you just say? You almost just- just died for good dumbass." He looked at you incredulously, you could just see the cogs in his brain working hard to process what the hell he was seeing. 

You looked back at Wilbur, he had stopped struggling slightly and was instead looking at you with a hint of confusion shining through the crazed daze. Mexican Dream tilted his head, the mask skewing slightly to the side of his face. "Thank you, Wilbur. You've shown me that there's… there's more to this hellhole than suffering. There's beauty in the darkness." His struggling had come to a complete halt, now staring at you with the most confusion you've ever seen from him. You also saw a very small hint of fear from deep within his irises.

A calloused hand gripped your chin and forced you to look back at your twin. "What are you on," he hissed lowly, "the stuff that's comin outta your mouth right now is actually batshit insane. He almost just permanently murked you and you're fucking thanking him." 

"I haven't felt this at ease in nearly two decades. I feel ethereal, Schlatt, and it's all thanks to him." You let your eyes drift over to Wilbur. Giving him a content smile, you nodded your thanks at him.

The next few days went by tensely for the others, eyeing your every move and keeping you away from the ledge. You had only peered over the ledge once since then, it was just so alluring to you. It was nothing, yet everything at the same time. Mexican Dream had pulled you back to the opposite end of the room by your horns. The part that disturbed the three men was that you said absolutely nothing about it. You didn't even struggle against it, you just laid limp and let it happen. 

With each passing second you spent away from the void, the feeling of utter peace was rapidly draining from your body; instead being replaced by icy fear, paranoia, and the realization that you were almost completely swallowed whole by the void. 

After coming back to your senses, you didn't allow anybody near you. Your instincts going haywire and screaming that they were going to hurt you if they came close. The last time Schlatt tried touching you, you damn near took his finger off. They didn't bother trying to approach you anymore, instead glancing at you from the corners of their eyes. Wilbur was perhaps the one you feared the most, you knew that if he didn't hesitate to toss you away the first time, he would surely do it a second time. He spent most of his time staring at you, you didn't know if he was zoned out or not.

Everybody was against you, you knew it. You just knew it. They were plotting to toss you back into the void. That thing- or was it an entity? Whatever it was held a power over you that you didn't know was possible. That trance that it put you in, the craving you felt, was something that was repeating like a broken record in your mind. You could still feel the void calling out to you, it was terrifying. 

You spent most of the time huddled in your corner staring at the fingers that had grazed the textured nothingness. You could still feel the buzzing and popping of the power on your fingertips, that inky residue staining your skin wouldn't come off. No matter how hard you scrubbed, scratched, or scraped, it would not leave your body. It was freezing.

The oncoming train screeching to a gradual stop was perhaps the only thing you fully acknowledged outside of your safety bubble in days. You watched in shock as it stopped at the platform. The doors opened with a fwoosh, fog pouring out onto the smooth stone floors. 

Out stepped Dream, the smile etched into his cracked mask sent chills to your core. Next to him was… was another Wilbur? How in the name of Ender was that even possible? 

This Wilbur was different though. This one was desaturated. This one didn't have an insane glint in his eyes, this one had grief shimmering in the tears that steamed on his cheeks. This one was broken compared to the well established man against the wall. This one was defenseless. 

Dream shoved him to the center of the room, the man falling to his hands and knees. Sobs escaped his mouth as steam left his skin and drifted along the sides of his face before dissolving into the air. 

"Got a new plaything for you guys, this one isn't as… fun as Wilbur is though." Dream's head turned towards you before it tilted. "What happened there? Did our dear little (y/n) get too close to the void?" 

"They are none of your concern, pandejo," Mexican Dream seethed at his counterpart from his position next to the train. "Why are you even here, man?"

"Oh, I'm just here to make a trade. I'm afraid that I'll have to give you guys Ghostbur here in exchange for Wilbur."

Wilbur stared at him with pure hope and glee springing up in his eye for the first time in over a decade. "Really?" 

Dream chuckled, "yes, really. What, do you really think I'd lie to you?" 

"I don't know, ya smiley freak. You've been known to fuck people over." Schlatt scoffed, his ear flicking in annoyance. 

"I'm telling the truth this time. Wilbur, come with me." 

Stars shone in his eyes as he reveled in the sight of the open train doors. He followed the masked man with a skip in his step, ecstatic giggles leaving his mouth as he boarded. 

Anger flooded you as you purse your lips together and you darted towards the train. The doors were closing already, if you could just- 

The door shut with a clank, blocking you from freedom. Your clenched fists banged against the window, glowering at the sight of Wilbur's happiness and Dream looking at you with a wave.

"You fucking bastard! Take me, he doesn't deserve it! He threw his goddamned life away, you're wasting your time with him!" Your angry shouts were ignored by the two however as the train once again started moving with a small hiss. 

A frustrated scream left your mouth as you pummeled the iron with your fists as it moved. If only you could find a train car to jump onto- 

Now. You leapt from the platform towards the junction between two of the train cars. However, your leap of faith was set to a halt midair by Schlatt holding your upper arms. You thrashed against him, desperate to get back to the land of the living, desperate to leave this godforsaken hell called the afterlife, but once again, you were torn away from what you were trying to achieve. 

You fell limp as you watched the last train car pass the platform and disappear down the tracks and into the void. The next possible time it would show it’s face would be in a few months if you were lucky. You let him take you back to your corner, your feet limply being drug against the floor. After you were plopped back down, you stared at the clone of your ex. You were pretty sure Dream said that his name was ‘Ghostbur’. What a strange name, yet you supposed that it was fitting for Wilbur’s apparition. 

“Are ya done with your little ‘moment’, (y/n)?” Schlatt was kneeling in front of you, his hands prepared to grab you if you made a run for it. Though his tone was annoyed, you could detect the very small worried undertone of his voice. 

You nodded and watched as he took a seat next to you, also staring at the newcomer. This is the closest he’s sat next to you in years. 

“...What do you think of the clone over there?” You hummed to yourself, “he looks pathetic, but I think that might be the only thing he and Wilbur share.” 

Mexican Dream took a seat next to you, slinging an arm over your shoulders. Normally, you would’ve shrugged him off, but you were too emotionally drained to do so. “Si, he does look kinda weak. But I think our new hombre here has promise.” 

“Promise for what?” Schlatt snorted. Mexican Dream hesitated, “...I don’t know. This is gonna be interesting, mis amigos.” 

“The party’s just begun, boys. Buckle up, this is gonna be a wild fucking ride.” You mused to them, unsure of what the future would hold with the newcomer. Though after a couple of years, you were sure you were going to hate him; that is if he’s nothing like his clone. Ender help you if he’s anything like Wilbur. 

As you stared at the broken man, you couldn’t help but wonder: why did he get to go back? As far as you were concerned, psychopaths like him do not deserve a second chance at life. If anything, it should be you boarding that train. It should be you getting a second chance. He was the one that so readily threw his life away while you had yours ripped away from you.

One continuous thought was circling in your mind: why couldn’t it have been me?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You wrung your hands together as you anxiously waited for Tommy, Ghostbur, and Friend outside of Pandora’s Vault. Ranboo and Tubbo sat next to you in the grass, giving you silent comfort with their presence. You were mainly worried for your boyfriend, his worst fear was Dream using the resurrection book on him. You had calmed him down from a panic attack prior to meeting up with the teenagers, begging him to let you go in his place. Of course, Ghostbur being the caring and brave soul he was, wove you off and ensured that he’d be okay. 

When you saw someone emerging from the portal, you leapt to your feet and steadied your head on your shoulders before you examined the people emerging. Except you only saw a human and a sheep, no ghost. 

Tommy looked pale and on the verge of tears as he led Friend towards you. Before he spoke, he used his sleeve to wipe at his tears. 

“Hey, Tommy! How did it- where’s Ghostbur?” The enderman hybrid stretched his usually slouched back to peer at the portal, keen eyes searching for any sign of movement. 

“I think he’s dead… He’s dead!” 

Tubbo tilted his head and looked up at the blond in confusion, “well, yeah. He’s a ghost. Of course he’s dead.” Ranboo nodded in agreement, “yeah, he can’t die again. That just isn’t possible.”

You said nothing (not like you could in the first place, your head wasn’t connected to your body), looking into Tommy’s eyes inquisitively. They were chock full of panic, grief, and fear, staring down at the lead in his clenched hands. 

“No, no you don’t understand, it’s not that he’s dead… it’s that Wilbur’s back.”

“Hold on, the Wilbur that blew up L’Manberg? That Wilbur?” Ranboo peered down at him incredulously. “Yes! C’mon, he- we gotta get to L’Manberg.” 

He spun around and led Friend towards L’Manberg, walking quickly with a purpose. You, Ranboo, and Tubbo followed. You hugged your head close to your chest, your eyes peeking over your arms. It was always something you’ve done whenever you were scared or worried about something. You heard stories about Wilbur from your nephew, if the stories of his insanity terrified you, you’d hate to see the man in person. 

“I was about to kill Dream, and- and Ghostbur died. Dream revived Wilbur… Fuck!” Tommy walked faster, L’Manberg far off in the distance. With one hand, you grabbed the blond’s attention and finger spelled, ‘are you serious? He’s actually gone?’

“Yes! How many times do I have to explain this?! Ghostbur isn’t with us anymore and Wilbur’s back. Wilbur’s back and we’re absolutely fucked.” He turned on his heel and resumed his beeline towards the crater in the wall. No, he couldn’t be gone. This was just a cruel prank they were pulling on you, right? 

Tubbo put a comforting hand on your shoulder, giving you a small sympathetic smile. You leaned into his touch slightly and carried on, stepping into the makeshift staircase behind Tommy. 

You moved your arms to cover your eyes as you stepped aside to make room for the other two teenagers. You heard a voice; it sounded exactly like Ghostbur’s voice, yet it sounded... off. You however remained hopeful and uncovered your eyes. 

The man that stood there certainly wasn’t your boyfriend. Everything about him was just so wrong. The emotion in his eyes, his clothing, his smile, his stance, his hair, everything. This was a completely different person. This was Wilbur Soot. 

“Hello again.” His eyes flicked around your group, his gaze lingering on you for longer than the rest. You noticed that he was staring at your neck, but that was okay. You were used to it; everybody did that. What you weren’t used to was the revulsion that flashed in his eyes. The eyes that once lovingly stared at you and reassured you that he’d love you even with your… condition were now filled with disgust. 

That was what broke you, the tears that you tried to hold in came streaming out like a waterfall. Stinging pain hit you as the water worked its way through the cloth of your uniform onto your arms, leaving steam floating upwards towards the cave ceiling. You phased through Ranboo’s body and made a mad dash towards your sister’s house. You needed her, you could feel a panic attack brewing inside you. Usually you would hate to be a bother to your older sister and Ghostbur would always calm you down, but now he’s…

You pushed that thought aside and focused completely on getting to Puffy’s house in the distance. You phased through the door without a thought to knock, frantically beginning your search for Puffy. 

You looked everywhere, but you couldn’t find her. Unable to cope any longer, you fell to your knees in the middle of the living room and hugged your head to your chest, your face being pushed against your uniform. Your shoulders shook with silent painful sobs, the only sound in the room being the sizzling of your skin. 

Why couldn’t it have been you? It should be Ghostbur standing there in that cavern, not Wilbur. This was completely your fault, you should’ve gone instead of him. You should’ve volunteered quicker than he did, you shouldn’t have let him talk you into it with his soothing words. Now because of your complete and utter cowardice, he was stuck in the afterlife once again. You were never going to see him any time soon. Your other half was ripped away from you because of your inaction. 

Between sobs, your lips repeatedly formed the same phrase: why couldn’t it have been me?

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