#i could just get a PC but those releases are like

[tharkflark1]

KH4 confirmed PS5 exclusive cuz they just announced they’re not making PS4’s anymore

God fucking dammit

#kingdom hearts #kh4 #tharky thambles #i could just get a PC but those releases are like #a year later #and I don’t wanna wait that long #;0;

[lynaferns]

An overanalization of a 3 second clip of the Ruin DCA for drawing references.

The ruin trailer - slowed and brightened clip - my design idea before the trailer came out (<- I'm still sad about this) - Updated analysis

I loved doing the hand page :)

Now do whatever you want with this information I'm throwing at your faces.

If I find something new I'll update the post.

When the DLC comes out I'll probably do a character ref of the whole endo.

UPDATE MAY 28:

I've been reading people theorys and ideas.

I think the eyes simply has a LED ligth that alternates between yellow/white and red.

I don't think they could ever blink, if you take a look to the original pre-ruin design there is no space for eyelids.

I've seen people talk about their mouth moving. I personaly think that if their endo was supossed to have a moving mouth then, those teeth are actually holders for more polished teeth, and the mouth wouldn't open but the teeth would move to make it apear they are moving their mouth.

Those shadows behind the teeth, I toke a better look and I do think they are holes! There are some positions they don't make sense as shadows so it must be some kind of rack or grating, posibly for the voice box.

A few people have comented about the shock absorbers in the legs, I didn't thought about that, it makes so much sense.

UPDATE JULY 26 (after dlc release):

So, I got right that the teeth moved, just wrong with the direction lol, why do they move to the outside and in that wave animation?

Also, there are no holes behind the teeth, they were actual shadows (I still think that it would have been cool if they were holes that faintly illuminated when they talk)

The spring of the broken leg is hanging without the support of the foot, that's why it was so hard for me to figure out the shape in the trailer (I'll put screenshots when I get to the pc)

Moon's hat is missing the bell :(

And the eyes aren't completely broken like I thought, just very dirty.

#fnaf ruin #fnaf ruin spoilers #fnaf security breach #fnaf daycare attendant #fnaf moon #fnaf sun #fnaf sundrop #fnaf moondrop #fnaf eclipse #ruin spoilers

[jeff-from-marketing]

Hey it's been a hot minute, I'm gonna go off about Helldivers 2 for a bit, because the whole thing fascinates me.

Funnily enough it's not even the actual game itself that truly fascinates me, as great as it is. I do genuinely think that, while not perfect, it's a very solid game that knows what kind of experience it wants to deliver, and does a fantastic job delivering on it. The Starship Troopers-esque satire is hilarious, and I love how much the gameplay reinforces that satire through things like reinforcements canonically being a whole new Helldiver sent into the meat grinder, and that the mission still counts as a celebrated victory even if you never make it back alive. I could even talk about how the objectively clunky system for calling in orbital support is actually a positive for the game, but only this game and the type of experience it's selling.

But none of that is what fascinates me about this game so much. Because y'see, I played the first Helldivers game, and it was also a great bit of fun! It's actually why I was interested in the second one to begin with. But I also know that the first Helldivers was not a very wide reaching game, none of Arrowhead's games have been. They've not done poorly by any means, they're still in business and have been for over a decade now. But they've always been fairly niche affairs. Until now. To really sell the picture, I wanna rattle off player counts for their previous games:

Magicka in 2011, Arrowhead's first big game and published by Paradox, had an all-time max player count of 11,727 players according to SteamDB. I don't believe it was on any other storefronts, but I could be mistaken. A quick wikipedia visit tells me that the game sold roughly a million units over a year which, again, not bad! Especially for a game that is admittedly fairly unusual, but is a lot of fun!

The Showdown Effect in 2013, which I only just found out about right now after double checking my numbers, had a all time high of just 3,284 according to SteamDB, and is now delisted from Steam. Though apparently there's a remake from another company happening? There's a lot less info on this one in general.

Gauntlet in 2014, this one I do know a bit more about since I also played this one. A remake of the original 1985 game, and was a good bit of fun as well! This one is trickier to get an accurate player count reading, because it did have a PS4 release and those are harder to find numbers for. Regardless, it was also on Steam, so therefore I can use those numbers at least, which gives me a max consecutive player count of 12,730. I don't know how much PS4 factored into this.

And now we get to the real interesting one: Helldivers 1. Again, this is tricky because not only was it on console, but it was actually on console before it was ever on PC, which heavily skews numbers. SteamDB has the peak at just 6,744, but this doesn't sit right with me. I've seen estimates of 50k people around the place, some say 35k, but never a solid source. It's also very difficult to search atm because of how much Helldivers 2 is blowing up. Speaking of...

So Helldivers 1 is their most popular game, and I'll be generous and say that the 50k count is the accurate one. So surely Helldivers 2 can't be that much more- oh I'm not even going to pretend, you already know what's going on here. The game has reached ~450k concurrent players just on Steam alone! And the game also exists on PS5, and if I recall correctly: there's official statements saying that the player counts are roughly equal with each other. That means a peak of ~900,000 individual players. To illustrate how bonkers batshit insane that is, motherfucking Fortnite has a current consecutive player count of roughly one million.

Let me reiterate: a game that came out of basically nowhere with little marketing, from a small studio with only about 100 employees, is rivaling the juggernaut that is fucking Fortnite. That is insane.

As someone who has played all of Arrowhead's previous games besides The Showdown Effect, this is bonkers. There's a reason the sentiment was "there's no way to have predicted this" when the servers were at their worst, because look at the previous data! How is anyone supposed to predict a sequel to a niche game (from a company very few people have heard about) to get a ~1800% increase in max player count? Their initial server capacity was 250k, which would've been very optimistic if you were just going by Helldivers 1 numbers. But then that wasn't enough. And then 360k wasn't enough. And then 450k wasn't enough. We're now at 700k server capacity and just finally getting things under control. This game just exploded in a way no one could have reasonably predicted. And I have no idea why this is the case either.

I'm not saying it's not deserved; it absolutely is! Like I said, game is great, and there's not even any shitty business practices I can bitch at this time! It's just so sudden and out of nowhere that it baffles me. Such a small percentage of these players would've even heard of the first game, let alone played it. It didn't have a massive marketing campaign, this is pretty much all spread through word of mouth, which is insane in its own right. It's not even like the game is entering an untapped market, it shares its existence with games like Deep Rock Galactic, Vermintide, Darktide, the actual Starship Troopers game, probably some others I'm forgetting. And yet, despite all of this, it breached containment something fierce. I don't have a big conclusion to make from all this, I'd love to be able to say "oh people are just getting tired of Triple A- oh I'm sorry, Quadruple A gaming and this is a breath of fresh air" and it is that, as was Baldur's Gate 3, but I'm not naive enough to think that's the main reason. Not when so many other great games continue to go undiscovered, and so many people still end up buying whatever the next big Triple A thing is. It's a great game to play with friends, and there's a lot going for it and a lot of charm, but such is also the case for the other games I already listed in this paragraph and they don't see the same popularity.

Whether it's just dumb fucking luck, or a really oddly specific set of circumstances at play that I can't see, I'm just dumbfounded and flabbergasted. But I'm not exactly gonna complain. It's fun getting sent into the meat grinder to spread Managed Democracy, and I'm glad the game is doing as well as it is, though I do hope that the devs get to have a bit of rest once the dust finally settles a little bit.

#helldivers #helldivers 2 #seriously if they ever need to update the example sentence for the word “unprecedented” this would be a solid candidate #this has genuinely kept me up at night before just thinking about how wild it is compared to all of Arrowhead's other games #let alone compared to just Helldivers 1

[ashersanity]

Turning the big, bad bully into a cockwhore

This is my first time writing, so I don’t know what I’m doing. Just a thought I had about Whitney getting humiliated by PC.

Summary : (M!Whitney gets his ass destroyed by defiant, vengeful and sadistic M!PC. Happens in the storage closet and PC is just tired of his shit, deciding to take matters into his own hands.)

Content warning! : (non-con, implied whitney secretly liked it in the end though, pc being a smug ass)

“Apologize.” You huffed between breaths, staring down at your bully that didn’t look so dominant anymore, not in this position where he was face down on the grimy floor with his ass getting a pounding. Sounds of skin slapping against skin resounded in the silent closet, surprisingly no one noticed and bashed the door in to investigate.

“I said, apologize.” You repeated, and Whitney could only swear and groan, his quiet cursing interrupted with squeaks and whines that sounded so unlike him that you wondered if this was some sort of fever dream. But, no, it wasn’t. The clear sign of this being reality was the sensation of your cock getting squeezed each and every time you moved in and out of him. Felt so fucking tight, he might as well be snapping your dick in half.

God, if this wasn’t the most humiliating thing in the world that he had experienced. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. He was supposed to be fucking you, not the other way around. Now you had him pinned down, ass face up in the air while you silently watched as the big, bad bully squealed around your cock. He’d never be able to show his face in public ever again nor face his friends either since they’d all be snickering and passing around the famous video of the blonde getting roughly fucked by his own victim.

“I-I’m gonna f-fuuucking kill you, bitch-“ Whitney promised, his voice lacking it’s usual effect in this vulnerable position. You could only snort at his response, knowing he couldn’t do jack shit since it was already obvious who won. Deciding to be just as petty as he is, your hands found their way to the delinquent’s hips, grasping at the tanned flesh and using it as leverage to fuck him harder.

The pace you had set was brutal and it wasn’t slowing down either, bending down to place your lips against Whitney’s ear. “You’re going to fucking apologize properly to me unless you wanna walk home with my cum between your thighs.”

The bully would’ve flipped you off if it weren’t for the growing heat in his stomach that was starting to form the longer this went on. It was a matter of pride and he had no choice, but to comply, forever hating himself for this.

Through gritted teeth, you could hear a faint moan, but he uttered those words that you had waited for, loud and clear in the dark closet. “F—fuck, f-fucking sorry.” There. He had done it.

“I knew you had it in you, slut.” You said mockingly, the nickname easily rolling down your tongue from having heard it from his own mouth so many times.

That’s really all it took, your words sending Whitney over the edge in an instant as he came on the spot with a loud moan and a curse. Thick ropes of cum came spurting out of his cock, probably the biggest, goddamn load you’ve ever seen him released and it splattered down on the ground. You soon followed after, his convulsions pushing you to your limit and just as you promised; You managed to pull out just in time, hand gripping at your cock in front of his face, shooting semen right on target.

Whitney could only stare up at you in complete and utter shock, too stunned to even say anything along with the scent of cum dripping down his face. Fuck, did he look so pretty when he was a mess and covered in your own seed. You had to push the thought away of going any further since you knew you’d be pushing it.

Didn’t even take one last glance back at him as you walked out of the storage closet like nothing happened, cock still half-hard tucked snugly back into your school shorts with a calm look on your face. Whitney just sat still with the lingering feeling of you in him, pink tongue darting out to lick at the mess on his lips.

#dol #degrees of lewdity #whitney the bully #degrees of lewdity whitney #writing #dol whitney #asher writes

[waltwhitmansbeard]

so i just read a post explaining why the op (and, according to the op, a lot of other people, even tho the post in question only had 32 notes, some of which were from people who disagreed with them) didn't like the cut to the crown keepers in last week's episode. while i'm totally on board with people not jibing with stuff that just doesn't work for them, i wanted offer some reasons why this seemingly hard pivot to people who are not the main characters of the story being told was a good decision to make (note good decision, not inherently the best decision, which i believe no one, including the dm, at a ttrpg table should ever be expected to make).

matt had an extremely powerful, extremely unexpected character decision dropped in his lap in the final moments of the previous episode. we don't know exactly how much time matt has between recordings, maybe a full week, maybe not, but either way, there's a very real chance that matt just did not have enough time to fully prepare a session to deal with fcg's death and what comes next.

sam now has to create a new character that a) is of a level with the rest of the party and b) makes narrative sense for him to be there. that takes time for both him and matt, and they might just need some space to work on that. when laudna died, marisha was willing to sit away from the table for several weeks because she knew that she wanted laudna to be resurrected, but sam may not want the same thing, and that's okay!

matt may want to fold the crown keepers into his main story, some or all of them—particularly dorian, whom both liam and the fans have been asking to return for a while now. dorian is clearly important to orym and the story that liam is trying to tell, and bringing the crown keepers in may be matt's way to do that.

matt—and dms generally—has always had to straddle a very fine line of making sure that his players are the main characters of their story who feel like their actions have real consequences and effects on the world, while also understanding that in reality, it doesn't make sense for half a dozen chucklefucks to have such an outsized effect on major cosmological goings-on like *checks notes* the potential release of a god-eater. this becomes especially true when you're on your third campaign set in the same world, and your players' previous ultra-powerful pcs are still around and definitely more adept and connected than their current pcs are. i, personally, think matt does a great job at walking that line, and one of the things he does that i appreciate is that he doesn't shy away from the fact that a) his players are powerful but not the most powerful and b) his players aren't the only one who care about what's going on in the world and who are taking actions to effect change. the current plotline re: ruidus is absolutely world-shaking and is causing all the divine girlies to cower in their demiplanes, so of course even the evil ones are going to be calling on their champions to help out. it makes more sense for opal to be involved (which, btw, matt has been hinting at for a while now) than not.

matt might need a fucking break! he's been doing this consistently for nine years now, and shit is complicated! handing over the reins to aabria for a week or two or three may be what he needs to not get burnt out.

dnd is an emotional game, and the entire cast might have been rocked hard by fcg's death. some space away for a week or two could help them process and regroup to get back into a story that is otherwise very stressful and action-packed.

or it's none of these! what do i know! i'm a random idiot on the internet! matt doesn't consult me on these matters! (though my dms are open if he wants to chat, i do have ideas)

i think it's tempting to think of the decisions made in and around critical role (or any ttrpg show) like those made for a television series, because the episodes are serialized and we love them so much. but this show is, first and foremost, a group of friends playing a game together, and not a carefully constructed narrative with the primary goal of entertaining an audience. the audience always has been and, frankly, always should be second to the wishes and fun of the people around that table. matt would not have asked aabria to step in and dm a crown keepers side arc if he didn't think it was a good decision for him and his players, and that priority is the correct one. we are being invited in to watch these friends have fun together, and that's a privilege that we're super lucky to have. as long as the cr story isn't doing things that are outright abusive or harmful to the cast or the audience, i don't think we should begrudge them the choices they make in the name of their own game.

again, it's okay if you're not vibing with the crown keepers! i didn't love the aeor arc of c2! not everything is for everyone! but i think accusing matt and the cast of narrative malfeasance is a bit much when, tbqh, they don't answer to us. they answer to each other.

#me #critical role #cr meta

[abibeur]

So. I played Side Order (or rather I finished Side Order, aside from a few completion marks that doesn't offer any spoiler stuff!).

I've been seeing stuff on Tumblr, on Discord servers, on YouTube comments by people who were… Not entirely happy with it. Or rather disappointed. "They could have done more…", "This character was underused…", "I preferred the Octo Expansion…", "Let's re-write it for something better…". And let me tell you, I was (and still am) infuriated when reading these. Not because those comments and posts and messages were unfair, unjust and idiotic or anything (well maybe the re-writing thing was uncalled for), but because I actually loved that DLC. I think that's pretty normal to be angry with seeing a thing you love being shit on, even if I get what all of you meant. But I still wanted to share my own thoughts (because why not, I like saying what I think).

First and foremost, let me just say that I have a pretty different relation with Splatoon than most people. I was in since the release of the first game. I didn't play it due to a lack of Wii U, but I watched a lot of videos. And I liked it! I even had Splatoon OCs, I could be considered a fandom veteran at this point! But after some years, I put it at the back of my head as something I loved. When the Switch came out, I didn't have the money for it and no one would buy me one, so I continued to be a PC gamer. And when I saw the news of a Splatoon 2, I dismissed it like it was something silly, "what can you say more about Splatoon!?" I knew there was some new idols, some stuff about a DLC, Callie being kidnapped, but that's all. I dismissed all of this, and as a result I don't have much of an attachment for it. But in 2021, when I saw the news about a third game, I was ecstatic again. And in 2022, when I finally could afford it, I bought a Switch. Not just any Switch, the Splatoon themed one, and I pre-ordered the game. And when it came out, I spent less than a day to finish the story mode, and it was one of the best day of my life, I played Splatoon for 16 entire hours. Splatoon 3 is now my most played game on the Switch, more than 300 hours (that can seem not that much for some of you, but I'm a casual gamer, I don't play every day, so that's still a lot!). I even bought Splatoon 2 and the Octo Expansion after that. Splatoon 2 story mode was incredible, because that's the game I never got to play but more mastered. Octo Expansion was incredible, because it was… incredible. But I still liked Splatoon 3 story mode better. Is it because I've played it before? Because I hadn't the one year of unskippable Off the Hook news to make me like them before the DLC (to be fair I didn't know much of Deep Cut too!)? Because it clicked more on me? Honestly I don't care. It's not important, because it's still my preferences. But let met tell you, when the news of Splatoon 3 DLC dropped, I was roaring. Every crumbs of news and trailers widened my life expectancy. I was finally sharing the hype that you felt for Octo Expansion. And…

Two days ago, I played it. And I loved it. Why? Why did I love it where so many people seem disappointed? This will not be an analysis, I'm not good at those, just… Here's how I see things. Also there will be huge spoilers so if you haven't censored the tags for whatever reason, I will hide it beneath a read more because I'm nice.

First, the gameplay. When I heard it was going to be a roguelite, I was intrigued, because it seemed interesting. I was wondering how it was going to play out, more like The Binding of Isaac, or like Hades… Okay I only played those two. And it was like Hades. But I think the best thing to come out of this gameplay is… Well, the fact is every mission from all other story modes (including octo expansion) are pretty much the same in that they have an intended way to be beaten. Sure, for OE and S3 you have a choice of weapons, and there's probably unorthodox ways to finish them (including speedruns), but it's still organised around a specific way to deal with the levels. You go at one point and there you're done. And that's why I will never re-play the story modes I already finished. I know the ropes, so… Why? But here… The gameplay itself doesn't change much. It's an amalgamation of most Splatoon gameplay since now, Salmon Run, Ranked Match, Octo Expansion levels… But the way you APPROACH this gameplay is different and that's why every thing changes. Because you are now free to choose. You don't want a stage? Choose another one, the cost of a good chip and membux not being that punishing, you want a specific type of chip? Go for it! There is so much fun combos to do, I have fun at every run! They told us it was going to be replayable. And they haven't failed to give. Because when I want to replay a game, then I know it's good. Aside of multiplayer games and games made to be replayable (TBOI, Dishonored…), some of favourite games are Half-Life 2 (my favourite game in general), Hollow Knight and Mario & Luigi Bowser's Inside Story. Once you've finished exploring it all, well there is nothing else. But I still want to experience it again. And again. I have tens and even hundreds of hours on each of them. So yeah. If a game makes me want to replay it, I like it! And also… The final fight. The "phase 2" of the final fight. It was probably the most satisfying gameplay in all of Splatoon. Every path you took? Every path you didn't take? It was there. And you could experience it all together and finally finish your first run, empowered by it, in-game and outside. This was so good. I really wish we will get updates like more stages, bosses or even chips, because wow.

Secondly, the atmosphere. This point will be much shorter, but holy shit this game was incredible to be immersed into. The cold and sanitised atmosphere of the Spire? Amazing. Obvious Portal and liminal spaces vibes, but hey. And the music… Really the music makes a lot of it. The final fight music is absolutely incredible, one more time, and the credits theme is probably my favourite credits theme of every Splatoon game and DLC (that VIOLIN, that heckin' VIOLIN). I wouldn't be able to say which one of Octo Expansion and Side Order's atmospheres was my favourite. I guess I'm less sensitive to childhood memories and such but hey. Both DLC's atmospheres were incredible good.

Finally… The sore point of everything I guess, the story. I guess we expected more. Even myself, I expected something darker, deeper, more mysterious and esoteric… Have I been disappointed. No. I understand that some people were, but I am not. And frankly, I feel like I don't have to be. Like what do we really wished for? More octoling lore? Marina's past uncovered? Mature themes and dark atmosphere? I am just describing Octo Expansion. We didn't need Octo Expansion 2.0. Every theme that I've seen wished for? Octo Expansion tackled them, greatly even. So did we really need to do the same thing again? I feel like Splatoon 3 was the great conclusion of the other games' story modes, where all marine life finally united against the common enemy: mammals, the past of Earth's life coming back for its great revival. And it was a spectacular conclusion. And Side Order was Octo Expansion's conclusion. But it wasn't that bombastic, it was more of a calm conclusion, an epilogue of some sort. Marina wasn't in great danger or anything (well she was but less than we expected), we didn't need to expand the damsel in distress role for confirming Marina and Pearl's relation (which was pretty much hinted on greatly without it lmao), we already knew that. We didn't need some dramatic story about Marina's departure's effect on the one she was close to, like some people predicted for Acht. I think some fan comics explored this way better and Nintendo telling their own version would have been disappointing either for it or for the fan comics' versions! We didn't need more insights on Eight, because once again Octo Expansion ALREADY did this. Eight seems happy with their new name and identity, so why should we uncover more? They already won a lot with Octo Expansion and their sacrifices would have been dull if there were reveals on "who they really are".

Nah. Side Order, how I see it, is a story about fixing the damage made in the Octo Expansion. It's a story about recovery. About finally confirming your place in the world and accepting that everything will not be like you think it will. Acht is not there to expose Marina's errors, Acht is there to show how this recovery can work. She symbolises every octoling Marina left when she quit the army and ESPECIALLY every octoling she swore to help. And she's also there because it would have been less interesting to see an octoling we've never seen before, especially since she is an octoling we knew got Kamabo Co.'d! Every palette is someone we already know, an anchor to the world of Splatoon, and for Eight, an anchor to their memories, as the locker was their palette. As they know more and more people, they know more and more where their place in the world is. And the end of your first run? The start of the final boss phase 2? Yeah the music is Pearl, Marina and Acht's. But it is Eight's pulse that got everything back together. Their heart beating made the world beating again. They found freedom, now they found their place in the world. They're finally complete. Like you complete your palette with every chips at once. Octo Expansion final fight was their last fight for freedom. But I think this was their last fight for identity.

But outside of that, I think Order/Smollusk is more than that. More and more we advance through completing the palettes, we learn that Smollusk is the result of Marina's wish for order in her life (and her fellow octolings') and especially the other octolings developers dreams. And I think that's really important, because after that, we learn that why Smollusk still fights us is because it's… alone. And Acht seemingly understands that. You know why this is? Why it doesn't understand Marina's intentions by "betraying" it? Because Marina, as opposed to the other developers and Acht, found someone. She found her partner for life, the love of her life you could say, she found someone else that could offer her something great. And I think the other developers didn't find that companionship, so they had other goals with the Memverse, and Acht, left behind by Marina, felt this loneliness too, taking refuge in music, so that's why she understood what Smollusk felt. I think Splatoon story is a lot about isolation, solitude and loneliness. The (Inkadian) octolings were chased from the surface, living in the underground, isolated and forced into military life. When they risked survival, they stole the great zapfish and we sent then back into the dark. So they retaliated by stealing it again and also kidnapping Callie, separating Marie from the person she holds dearest (while Callie thought she could offer them company and finally uniting back the two people). Octo Expansion was also about isolation from the surface, for everyone involved and Tartar… Well the mammal (and adjacent) survivors don't really have it well, huh? Judd was made immortal, a great lonely situation for one of the last mammals, even if the professor give him Lil Judd for that (isolating the latter from self expression, oops!), Tartar wanted finally someone who could understand the knowledge he was bearing, and in his final instants was longing to return to the professor and for Grizz… We saw what happened in the logs! But this is not where it ends. The first final Splatfest was literally choosing between the Squid Sister, separating one from the other. And when the Splatocalypse happened, we thought it would be the same, that both option were going to be negative. A endless world of anomy where nothing makes sense against a cold and dystopic dictatorship. But we saw Chaos rather meant a world of differences where anyone can be what they want to be and still be reunited with people. So now we see what Order meant: reuniting people by putting them on equal terms. And at the end, that's what you and Smollusk agreed on! He'd be a difficult final boss and you'd be a formidable opponent for him! Splatfests weren't meant to be divisive or anything, it's just a fun way to see what do people choose in their life. So to face loneliness and meet new and fun people, what will you choose? Chaos or Order?

I guess I understand if it wasn't the story you wanted to see. But I liked it either way, as I also struggle with loneliness and finding my place in the world. And as I also like roguelites!

#splatoon #splatoon 3 #splatoon 3 side order #splatoon 3 side order spoilers #side order #side order spoilers #somewhat of a long post with my thoughts

[comatosebunny09]

Bunny, I've come to further the "sensitive ears" Astarion agenda. With all the mods of him with ear piercings, I can just imagine Tav being fascinated with them and teasing him about how good he looks with earrings. This has been living in my mind rent free since I started playing Baldur's Gate on PC. 😫 He looks really good with a helix piercing, too. Please tell me I'm not the only person who thinks this.

Darling anon, why would you do this to me?

As Astarion would say, “You’re not alone in this.” Seriously, I’ve been so jealous of all the mods ‘cause I’ve been playing on the PS5. 😭😭😭 He looks delicious with piercings. I have a weakness for men with pierced ears like you wouldn’t believe!

Tav would definitely give him shit for it.

They’d be sat together by the fire when Tav would absently point them out.

“When did you get those?” they’d query, studying Astarion’s newest accessories, the silver metal glinting in the firelight.

“You like them?” he’d say, turning this way and that to show off his piercings. Flamboyant as ever.

“Surprisingly, I do. They look…” Tav would reach up to stroke along the line of his lobe, softly fingering the cool metal. “Good on you.”

Astarion would release a soft, unguarded sound. One that shoots straight to Tav’s stomach.

The pair of them would still, shocked by the intimacy of the moment. Tav would wear a shit-eating grin once it’s settled in that Astarion enjoyed that, having his sensitive little ear fondled.

And so, Tav would start caressing upward to fiddle with his double helix piercings, drawing another whimper from Astarion’s mouth. Luckily, everyone else would’ve already retreated to their tents, leaving the duo to their own devices. Tav would take full advantage of this, wearing a face like—

—whilst inching closer so that they could fiddle with Astarion’s other ear.

And, oh, the cute little noises he’d make. He would be reduced to putty in Tav’s hands, angling his head closer like a needy cat.

#uuuuuuugh #thanks for this imagery #now it won’t leave me alone #astarion x tav #astarion x reader #astarion has sensitive ears indeed

[csphire]

"Larian Studios, what do you mean there is no Dammon romance?"

"Well fine then, I'll do it myself!" :p

If anyone else wants to romance him reblog or start posting your own thirst to boost this to Larian's attention. We need to speak up now while the idea of a DLC is still fresh on the table.

If a DLC drops two wishes Larian:

(Pretty please!!!)

Dammon has more hp than eight. Yes, he's got a grand total of 8 hp and it causes us fans of his a lot of anxiety.

Introduce some non-follower romance options. The thirst for Alfira is real but there is also some for Zevlor, Rolan, Larkrissa and Dammon too. Many of us won't mind a few extra people about camp or at the inn room. Nor do we expect Dammon or Alfira to be warriors. Dammon just being our wee forge husband that still charges us is fine and fair for all of his hard work. Tight budget? Why not reuse animations from other romances and just use different angles? (Hey, I'll take it-anything really-no seriously)

Gives more poly options. We don't want to exclude or break up cannon romances. Like, let us third wheel or more with say Dammon x Karlach x Astarion x Wyll x PC or Alfria x Larkrissa x PC.

Why are his eyes not glowing? In Early Access the human and elf eyes would still glow if one was a tiefling. Sadly in full release of the game, this is not the case. So this was the closest I could get to Dammon's eye color so far without mods. Sorry, but those dreamy eyes of his are unique to the real Dammon for now unless you use a mod. ;_;

#justice for Dammon #lol #Dammon #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #tiefling #forge husband #our favorite blacksmith #who is he going to romance? #it's a tie between #karlach #and #Astarion #blacksmith #thank you larian #loving his glow up #but now I want more #had a wee crush on him since early access #it's gotten worse now #larian studios #larian pls

[thewrittingpan]

Random Head cannons:

Lilia

I firmly believe that he would have a Mountian Dew addiction- sure I think other sodas are possible too like Dr. Pepper but there’s this “dad clock” that has haunted every divorced father I’ve met and it’s a Mountain Dew clock and it always hangs on the wall where the kitchen meets the dinning table. Don’t ask me why it’s a trend in my life that’s between me and my therapist but I feel that Lilia would probably own one in his gamer room.

Speaking of which he’s got a damn gammer room. I’ve admittedly been out of the loop event and plot wise since the release of ignihide’s chapter (I can not spell forgive my dyslexic ass), but it doesn’t matter if it’s just his bedroom, a whole separate room, a streaming room or not. It has a fancy custom built pc, one that lights up and the whole room is themed to match. It’s very well put together and could probably pay my college tuition with the merchandise he may collect.

I personally think that since Lilia is so old, he tends to hoard things. It obviously snuck into my fic Ring of Mushrooms with just the whole house being a cluttered mess of history. Some of it is me trying not to be a hoarder myself but living nicknack because I am just a bird in a human shape, but he just has a lot of things he forgets about.

Call it time blindness, forgetfulness, or sentimentality but he just keeps pictures, books, gifts, random things his sons have drug into the house or stuffed into their pockets. He has jars of buttons that Malleus collected as a toddler, the shiny rocks Silver picked up by the stream, he’s the type of guy to have a full box of the same pencil because it’s his favorite and there was a rumor it was being discontinued.

I also think that he has a soft spot for pinks and pastels especially when the boys were young. Mint/sage greens were a common choice for blankets, hats, and mittens. He also probably color coded the boys. It doesn’t matter if they were the same age or not just for ease and avoiding fights he totally did.

Lilia probably has a bunch of abandoned hobbies. Things he did long enough to have a humans level of decent but not great. if he were to “relearn” it he would appear to be a savant to a real beginner. Some of these hobbies include: Calligraphy, Crochet, Knitting, Fish lure making, Astronomy, Woodworking

Hobbies he would be bad at:

Drawing/Painting, he has a bad understanding of color but a great eye for depth and detail. The forms are always very off putting though.

He tried birdwatching he isn’t bad at it per se, but he often gets interrupted or caught up in something that is not the birds.

He wanted to do quilting and scapbooking, it’s not that he can’t do them either but he always forgets the projects. The scrapbooks mostly the quilts he has a lot more practice with as baby shower gifts for neighbors and for his own kids. Yet his stiches can be sloppy same with the binding.

He has a fondness for spinel gems he likes the wide array of colors like most gems but he likes a lot of the vibrant pinks they come in

Malleus

I think malleus would have a habit of forgetting to eat if not reminded or brought food. I cannot explain why I think this I just have a hunch.

I think Malleus is great at word puzzles and puzzles in general, it’s not inherently that he’s super smart but he just knows patterns more often than not. However he is quite horrible at pop culture references and trivia. For example he is good at Wordle, Sudoku, crosswords, and connections, but since crosswords and connections often have pop culture references those are the ones he struggles with most.

When he was young he collected things. I mean a lot of things, buttons, pins, rocks, pinecones, leaves, he pressed and dried flowers, half of his room was just wall-to-wall collections. This continued on until now but it’s just gotten more mild, though it flares up during stressful times.

He’s very good at quilting if I had to assign a good trade themed hobby. I’m open to other needle crafts like embroidery or cross-stitch but I think quilting is something that gets done during school breaks and he often sews in former button collections to them.

I think he has an aversion to some kind of food, whether it be things like a texture like he doesn’t like the feeling of bananas or the taste of pees makes him nauseous. I don’t think it’s an allergy or anything just something that physically makes him feel like death is the only solution to the minor inconvenience.

He’s a peridot guy sure emeralds work too but if he’s being honest the peridots are cuter

Silver

One time he had a talking to about throwing sand. He was only three at the time but it had to be revisited after an incident with an ant hill when he was four.

He sleeps in a funeral-showing sort of way. His hands clasped on his chest while he lays on his back. He rarely moves in his sleep, but cheese can cause him to sleep walk.

Speaking of which he has a mild lactose intolerance. He doesn’t care to actively avoid dairy but he often forgets he has it. On many occasions he has eaten too much dairy and was genuinely confused by the way he was having tummy troubles.

He cries at weddings.

He doesn’t cry at funerals.

Silver has this hobby of wanting to bird hunt but falls asleep too often. He does however have some half okay drawing skills. Enough to have an upper hand in Pictionary maybe but a good hand on proportions and the details are messy but it works.

He has a fondness for pearls it’s the type of jewelry he thinks is the most beautiful.

#fanfiction #twst #twisted wonderland malleus #twisted wonderland #headcannons #twst lilia #lilia vanrouge #malleus draconia #twst silver #twisted wonderland silver #headcanon

[sercj]

Alright, I'm finally typing it out. Gather around, all, for the tale of the time my friends and I kidnapped a blueberry and drug them into the Vault of Glass.

Once upon a time, I used to have friends I would play Destiny 2 with regularly. None of them that feature in this story still do, to my knowledge, but at the time we were pretty cracked on the PvE side of things. At the time, we were raiding semi-regularly (when schedules lined up), and as Vault of Glass had just been added to D2 recently, it was our raid of choice that one, fateful evening.

We, like any sane PC player, were using Discord for comms, and so I had hopped into the channel to wait, and headed to the Cosmodrome for my favorite time-killing passtime - blueberry watching. For those of you unfamiliar, blueberries is an affectionate term for new destiny players, named after the color of the low rarity gear they end up decked out in, blue. The Cosmodrome, being the first public area a New Light ends up in, is often a place where you can see adorable new players getting the hang of things.

At this time, the voice channel began to fill up, and one of my compatriots joined my fireteam. We initiated some hug emotes with a blueberry and were just all-in-all chilling when we got word that one member of our team would be unable to join us. Then someone (I forget who) suggested 'hey, what if we took this blueberry along with us?'. It was a patently absurd option - we had no communication with them. Their mishmash of blue armor and crappy weapons would clearly be outclassed by the raid, leaving them unable to damage enemies and likely to die instantly if any of the vex even looked in their direction. But we started to plan a bit - really, we could do every encounter with just 5 people. We'd have to protect the blueberry, but that could be done, theoretically.

I think, in the end, we came to the conclusion that we'd try it, but they weren't likely to stick through it. After all, we weren't (and never did) using the in-game VC, or text chat. The two of us hanging out with them in the Cosmodrome sent a fireteam invite. And the blueberry accepted. So we joined the rest of the team in orbit, and launched Vault of Glass.

I could go into our specific strategies for each encounter, but for the most part it was pretty same-y. We'd use emotes and shooting to get the blueberry into a defensible position, then 5-man the encounter. And somehow, this worked. I have taught many, many people many raids in my time (including many people from this friend group!), and I have never seen someone pick up so quickly on what we needed them to do. With no actual words passing! An absolute, biggest-brained legend of a guardian.

We did get this guy all the way to Aetheon. And with some tricks (and good RNG), we were able to even defeat Aetheon. With some random blueberry nobody knew, or talked to! Unfortunately, they didn't get Mythoclast (can you imagine, though!), but they did celebrate with us with their default dance emote, and we all went our seperate ways. Nobody friended them, we just re-released them into the Cosmodrome like they hadn't just helped us save all of time or whatever the point of Vault of Glass is.

Now, perhaps this was a returning player, or someone on a new alt, who already kinda or entirely knew what was going on. But there's no real way of knowing, and it's just as (if not more) likely that this was a brand new player. Can you imagine what kind of a 'first experience' that new player had with the game? How puzzlingly odd to begin with, developing into concern as the activity we brought them to was clearly beyond them, to the 'fuck it we ball' attitude to stick with it all the way through. A true champion.

And imagine the lore perspective too. Fresh guardian, still got gravesoil in their armor, hasn't been to the tower yet, and they get scooped up into the Vault of Glass? Battle Aetheon? AND WIN!? The reaction from Shaw, or hell, the Vanguard as a whole would be amazing. Our guardians getting reprimanded for taking some fresh new light and dragging them through such a crazy difficult experience they weren't prepared for. Fun stuff to think about.

I wonder how that player is doing now. If they still play, how this particular experience flavored their perception of the game and its community. I know the community at large can be extremely toxic (and worse), but I still strive to embody the community impression we made on that day. Patience and Understanding, being goofy and silly about it, inclusive and kind. Dunno, maybe that's just me being sappy about a fun memory with friends gone by.

#destiny 2 #d2 #vault of glass #aetheon #story #long #i hope this tale brightens one persons day #the original occurence was a very fun night #i miss having people i loved to play destiny 2 with #now i just have to lfg everything #which is okay about 60% of the time #genuinely enjoyable maybe 10% #and the remainder is just bad #and that's AFTER screening lfg posts for ones that seem more chill #pro tip: if it says 'KWTD' skip that shit #buggest thing the new system lacks is a definite warning label like that #anyhow i'm just rambling now #shoutout to all the blueberries #i love you guys

[max1461]

Here are some numbers to put the history of video games in perspective. Video games are approximately 50 years old as of the making of this post. Early computer games were being written here and there for mainframes throughout the 60s, but the first commercial games (and with them, access to video games by the general public) begin to release around 1970. Pong released in 1972. The first home consoles with interchangeable games start to release around the mid-70s.

Approximately one decade after that, Super Mario Brothers is released (1985).

Approximately one decade after that, Super Mario 64 is released (1996).

Approximately one decade after that, the Xbox 360, Wii, and PS3 release (2005~2006).

Approximately one decade after that was the PS4 and Xbox One and so on (2013~2014).

Approximately one decade after that is today.

What stands out here is that the early history of video games was remarkably fast. In the same time it took to get from the Xbox 360 to today (during which, in my estimation, video games have not changed all that much in their general character) we went from the Atari 2600 to Super Mario 64. That is a stunning amount of change in the nature of the medium. Of course that change was driven by the rapid advancement of computer technology over the same period, which allowed for an ever-growing conception of what a video game could be; we haven't seen nearly the same level of fundamental change in computation technology in the time since.

In fact, it was hard for me to even pick a really satisfying decade milestone within the last 20 years; the beginning of the seventh console generation (Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii) is the last time the underlying technology of games seemed to me to change in a big way, that had comparably big creative implications. Since then it's seemed that various aspects of the technology have improved on the margin, but ultimately the creative limitations of the medium are about the same. Maybe you could even pinpoint that shift around the beginning of the sixth generation of consoles instead (I am of course just using console generations as waypoints; parallel developments were of course taking place on PC).

Well, anyway, I just think it's interesting. I think those 20 or 30 formative years of video games have kind of cemented themselves in the culture as "the way video games are", like we can expect huge technological leaps that reshape the capabilities of the medium every few years. But I don't think that's actually the case, I think those formative years probably truly were exceptional and are not to be repeated. Of course, I could be wrong. In particular, I think AI language models like ChatGPT might open the way for reliable dynamically generated dialogue in games, akin to the dynamically generated worlds in e.g. Minecraft. That could open new directions for the medium. But still, it's hard for me to imagine the shifts will be as monumental and as regular as that formative period saw. Well, I don't really know. But it's interesting to think about.

#navel gazing

[foone]

ok please tell us about the tandy-memorex vis :D

OKAY the Tandy Memorex Video Information System is a hilarious console that Tandy/Radio Shack came up with in 1992.

It's called the Tandy-Memorex VIS partially to distance itself from Tandy, but Memorex was owned by Tandy at the time, and this is entirely their fault. Back in 1992, the CD-ROM was the NEW HOT THING and everyone wanted to get in on that. Arguably every console that tried failed to some degree or another, until the Sony Playstation in 1994. But the VIS failed spectacularly hard, selling something like 11,000 units, and Radio Shack was nearly giving them away towards the short lifespan of the console (1992-1994).

It got about 20 games, and another 24 releases that could charitably be called "multimedia products". Things like encyclopedias, photo albums on assorted issues, and spoken-illustrated-book things with minimal animation. Of those 20 games, many of them were edutainment games, things like word puzzles, math games, drawing tools along the lines of kid-pix (on a console with no way to save pictures or print them out, so... yeah).

On top of this, it cost 699$. IN NINETEEN NINETY FUCKING TWO. Plug that into an inflation calculator and it comes out at about one and a half thousand dollars, for a console with barely any games and the ones that it did come with are designed for the little kiddies. This thing never had a market.

But here's the thing that makes it so memorable to me: While the games available for it were not interesting, and it's just another example of a failed CD-ROM console alongside the endless failed or barely-survived ones that littered the early-90s... (Every played a CD-i, 3DO, NeoGeo CD, PC-FX, FX Towns Marty, LaserActive, Commodore CD-TV or Amiga CD32? How about one of the add-ons, the Sega CD, TurboGrafx-CD, or Atari Jaguar CD? Hell, this is what the Nintendo Playstation was supposed to be, before that deal went sideways and it became two separate consoles)

The thing is that technologically the VIS is super unique because it's an idea that wouldn't really be repeated until 2001, nearly a decade later: The VIS is a console that's a computer.

Yeah, I know, all consoles are computers (except maybe arguably some early pong units), but I mean like a desktop PC. The Tandy-Memorex VIS is an IBM PC clone running Windows!

(EDIT: Accidentally submitted too early)

It's a modular windows, a sort of embedded-windows that only runs off a ROM chip, but it's still an Intel 286 with a relatively normal VGA card, a megabyte of RAM, and a 1X CD-ROM drive. This thing could basically play a ton of DOS games, it would just be a matter of some basic porting.

And it just never happened. Instead all the games are custom-designed edutainment/multimedia things, and no one ported Duke Nukem or Commander Keen or Kings Quest to it (Actually Sierra did make a test port of Kings Quest 5, but it never came out. Reportedly it was slow as hell)

It could have been a very interesting console that let us play tons of DOS games in the living room in 1992, but Tandy mismanaged it with the ridiculous price and bad policy regarding games releases which meant it never really amounted to anything.

Anyway I've got one in my room right now, and I'm planning on building a CD-ROM emulator for it so I can easily play around with making homebrew with it. I want to port a bunch of DOS games to it and make it reach its potential, like Tandy should have done in 1992.

They already had a successful line of PC compatibles in the Tandy 1000, and the VIS is partially made of advancements they developed for that weird line of computers. If they had leaned into that angle, sold it at a better price, they could have really built something special. So many advanced DOS games (and even more advanced ones made possible by the CD-ROM format) that would blow away anything else in the console market in 1992 could have been VIS releases. Instead we got some (barely-)FMV games and a bunch of sub-par Math Blaster and Reader Rabbit clones on a console that no one wanted to buy because it was too damn expensive.

#tandy memorex vis #console history

[imperial-agent]

Hello! I just completed the 5some scene witb Halsin and Astarion and I dont really have anyone to comment this with I hope you dont mind me dropping here real quick to say [SPOILERS]

So... he just dissociates no matter what? I completed Astarion's quest and I could swear that meant he wouldnt dissociate in the scene. But I think what bothers me the most isnt even the dissociating itself but the lack of response from the Player Character. I just LET him?? I dont comfort him, I dont stop the whole thing in its tracks??

And its the only way to get Halsin's backstory?? Am I doing something wrong? I feel so conflicted about the whole thing. Opinions? Thanks for reading this far if you have, sorry for any inconvenience!

I don't claim to be the best source on Astarion lore or on his storyline consistencies/inconsistencies since we're like a bitter divorced couple, I can't talk about him without getting slightly annoyed. But,

I got that exact same scene (5some) after Astarion's story conclusion. To me it makes sense that he's still distant - we fixed his Cazador situation but we didnt fix his sexual abuse issue because he never brought up the trauma. I'm assuming you didnt romance Astarion ang got this scene? For me, a non-Astarionmancer it made sense, since he never told me about his intimacy issues in the first place. But if that happened to you, and you romanced him, then I can still understand him being distant in that moment. He's not that into sex with other people and you just asked him to perform in front of 4 others. I can see how he would default to an auto-pilot. But that's assuming you did romance him. If you didn't then there's not much to be surprised about. He's tired of performing seduction.

To me, it's not that big of a deal that the PlayerCharacter doesn't respond to catching Astarion drift away. Without romancing him and learning about his baggage PC at best can only assume that Astarion is not into sex due to his past of sleeping with his victims and that possibly bringing up bad memories. Since the narraror line about him being distant during the encounter was only a brief mention (narrator mentions PC and Astarion catching eyes for a moment, any further descriptions of his performative behaviour are a general description of the scene since nothing is visible, not necessarly describing what the PC is seeing).

What! I! Fully! Agree! With! You! Is how Halsin's mega traumatic backstory is only ever accessible through a hidden option (i wouldn't even call it a mission, just a random NPC conversation) in Act 3. That conversation could have been naturally implemented into the (currently bare-bone) Halsin romance route. This is why I'm still screaming about letting the players have access to Halsin as a companion in Act 1 already, so that he can go with the PC to the Underdark. That could lead to him having some flashbacks to his time there, and perhaps slipping in some titbits during idk the exploration of the wizard tower in the underdark and him seeing the chain mounted to a wall and that bringing up some nasty memories?? Like the story writes itself, it's all there but I'm guessing the devs had better things to do then flesh out their fanservice and fan demands. Like adding Halsin as a romance options SHOULD HAVE BEEN a post release thing !!!

My opinions are more or less summed up here. It's ass that an abuse victim such as Astarion gets all the special treatment and a catharsis while Halsin, who also went through a traumatic experience doesn't. He actually laughs it off. But that's okay, people cope differently. So why not have us explore his backstory more? Well, it's crunch of course. The devs had no time to put love and care into Halsin even tho him being a romance option/companion (so those conversations about his past wouldn't come up) wasn't even on their initial goal list, just something a few discord people suggested.

I feel like the writers had too much on their plates and too little time to make sure inconsistencies in character motivations/ reactions, backstories don't occur. But we should all be happy Astarion got all the attention he deserved. Oh, you're saying there are other companions in this game too? Since when?

#im still thinking about that graph of the amount of content asta got #compared to plot relevant characters like wyll or even laezel and shart #i do wish for halsin to be more than just a bear druid stereotype but in his current state he's just that #i completely disagree with people seeing more in him than what's shown in the game. it's one thing to HC and think of possibilities #it's somethjing else to face reality and admith yeah there's not a lot to that guy compared to other NPCs #i'd argue a silly goose such as minsc (if you've no clue who he is bc you havent played previous baldur's gates) is more fleshed out #than halsin ever was #damn i can say more about zevlor than i can about halsin #there's just not much there to begin with ;//////// #baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate #bg3 #halsin #astarion #yes i will remain highly critical of this game bc i really care about it!!! #personal #reply #//didnt proofread it fuck it we ball im stuck in traffic and its so bright i can barely see the screen anyways

[splashink-games]

A Note On... Making The Coziest Street

Minami Lane is a cozy management game by Doot and Blibloop! Build new shops, pet cats and make your villagers happy!

One of the few times I get a game on release without backing it! Unfortunately very short, but a worthwhile experience.

I really like everything about this game. From the music that kinda goes too hard for a cozy game, to the very soft art style, to the insanity of playing on 4x (four times) speed.

The gameplay is rather simple, but it's more of a strength than a weakness for a game of this variety. Especially if you want to relax, you don't want to be worried about money or optimizations. It's more about catering to the people on your street and making it the way you want.

Each shop has recipe options. You can make a bowl full of noodles at the ramen shop, or have no tapioca at the bubble tea shop. The customers do have a preferred combination of items and prices, so of course there's a little bit of intent behind the decisions.

Something I found really fun were naming the shops however I wanted. The karaoke bars were of course Survive and Revolve Bar, especially if they're playing Maka Bitai.

Because there's a lot of sit and watch involved with sim games, there are also a variety of small mechanics to keep you involved. The really cute one is petting the cats that show up (when you have enough beauty on your street. They give you money while also being adorable.

The more gameplay-oriented mechanic is the customer feedback, telling you how to adjust your shop's recipes for their perfect experience.

As a management sim, there are of course ways to optimize things—picking up the trash and gathering customer feedback automatically. I only ended up using the feedback upgrade because at some point, you won't be able to manually pay attention to 5+ shops at the same time.

One criticism I heard while playing the game was that it looks like a mobile game, which I can see. It's not so much a negative, rather just a style you don't normally see working well on PC games. It works alright here, though.

Personally, I think the game is too small. I wouldn't know what the devs could do to make the game longer without hurting/disrupting what they have in place (that, by the way, already works really well). The missions were enjoyable and I think more of those might be worth it.

If you love cozy games, Minami Lane is one to play with its great art style and chill gameplay!

As always,

Enjoy gaming!

#game review #cozy games #video games #gaming #Minami Lane #ink reviews #a note on...

[this-ag-doll-is-a-butch]

Clara Montoya: Autistic???

I've been getting back into AG for almost a year now. Josefina has always, always been my fave, since we were both nine years old.

I've been thinking about how I want her to have a counterpart in her time and location to actually interact with in period-appropriate ways. She never received a Best Friend doll, though :(

But really, her whole story is centered around her family anyway, and I've seen people talk about how 2005 GOTY Marisol Luna has been used to create Clara dolls. And yep, the resemblance is real.

So I have plans to get a Marisol and make her Clara. Although they may take a some months to come to fruition, considering all my other doll and fandom and plushie collection goals and IRL expenses 😔

But it's free to think about Clara's character and plan for what I want her collection to encompas.

The thing that strikes me most, looking at her now with the adult knowledge of being autistic myself- she REALLY seems like a character that one can headcanon as autistic with ease.

She's logical and practical and literal to a fault. She hates change and getting dirty and wants to keep everything organized. Sewing and embroidery are her special interests! She bonds with Tía Dolores through those interests! She clashes hard with Francisca, who just does not want to make the effort to understand her.

She has strong attachment to objects, to the extent that it becomes a huge part of the plot in "Josefina's Surprise." (The altar cloth, Niña.)

Niña is her comfort object, for fuck's sake!!!!! She manages to relinquish primary custody of Niña to Josefina, but ONLY after Tía Dolores managed to give her a new comfort object (Mamá's silver thimble.)

I mean, I think I need to closely reread all Josefina's series and acquire all short stories and the mysteries. What else is going on with dear Clara and her autism? Does she have sensory issues???

It goes without saying that Clara was never deliberately written as autistic, and of course in 1824 New Mexico, a word didn't exist for autism. But we autistics have always existed.

In terms of a potential collection- obviously Josefina's nightgown straight-up seems to be Clara's camisa and IDK how to feel about that. How can Josefina not have her nightgown??? 😭

One potential solution I've been thinking about is a similar nightgown for her but with a different neck ribbon. I can't sew, but it seems Etsy seller Magnoliawillows makes a similar nightgown with a blue ribbon which could be Josefina's new nightgown.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1325115163/josefina-montoya-style-night-shift

Also, I know her BeForever nightgown exists too. But I'm not as emotionally bonded to it, since it came after "my time" lmao. Maybe it would be nice if Clara and Josefina had summer and winter nightgowns 🤔

And I could get Josefina's BeForever bed for Clara! That's another reason why I want a Clara- to have a way to use more of Josefina's collection as I acquire it, especially the BeForever items.

And if AG could just get off their asses and GIVE JOSEFINA LITERALLY ANY COLLECTION AT ALL AGAIN, it would be great to buy whatever is (re-)released new and use it mostly for Clara, because that way I could have the beloved Pleasant Company versions of my memory yet also support Josefina's collection today.

Meet Accessories/Outfit ideas- Josefina's PC red-ribbon nightgown as camisa, different rebozo, moccasins, extra pair of Josefina bloomers, indigo skirt (although it would be interesting to try and see if someone sells/would make a skirt closer to book illustrations... however, 1820s New Mexican sisters, even in a well-to-do family like Josefina's, definitely shared clothes. So it would make sense from that perspective).

She'd need a doll-size pair of scissors, which Tía Dolores gave her, of course. And I'd want her to have some kind of necklace, because all AG historicals did/do. I'd need to know more about necklaces from then, though... perhaps some kind of mílagro, or Saint Clara symbol/medal? I'd want her to have a little sewing & embroidery kit to hang on her belt, too.

One thing that would take a lot more work, yet would make an amazing story, would be to somehow find another little doll's-doll like Niña. I have a whole story idea where some kind of secret room somehow gets found (maybe at Abuelito and Abuelita's house in Santa Fe) and a long-forgotten doll from Mamá and Tía Dolores' childhood gets given to Clara 🥺

Another idea would be to assemble stuff to create a little shrine for Clara and Josefina to pray at (yes I got the idea from the Mini World image). Especially because it would have Mamá's colcha-embroidered altar cloth! And just in general, part of why I connected with Josefina so much growing up was that her family is Catholic, just like mine.

These days, obviously, I'm a grown up monbinary gay ex-TradCath (similar to ExVangelical) with religious trauma, but maybe making a doll Catholic shrine would be a way to deal with that in a more healthy manner...

Anyway I would love to talk about Clara and Josefina!!!! Josefina-lovers please interact!!!!

#josefina montoya #clara montoya #american girl #agblr #autistic headcanon #best friend dolls #doll ideas #montoya family #religion cw #religious trauma mention

[floatingcatacombs]

Compile Hagiography Through Reading the Hyperdimension Neptunia Wiki

12 Days of Aniblogging 2023, Day 4

When I’m really bored on the computer, one of the things I'll occasionally do is explore the Hyperdimension Neptunia wiki. Neptunia is a role-playing series whose main distinction is being centered around moe anthropomorphizations of video game companies and consoles, which fascinates me. These are textbook trashy 6/10 anime RPGs, and release at a pace that suggests both a low budget and a pretty dedicated fanbase. I don’t mean to patronize, though. I’m not above this kind of stuff, I just can’t let a bunch of mid 30-hour JRPGs into my life at this moment in time. Rather, my angle of interest here is the origins of the Neptunia developer, Compile Heart.

listening and learning

You see, back in the late 80s and early 90s, a company called Compile was one of the greats in Japanese home PC gaming. Most of their early output was shmups for the MSX, although they dabbled in a bit of everything, including running a disc magazine to distribute games. Compile’s first hit was Madou Monogatari in 1990, a numberless first-person dungeon crawler with a focus on voice samples. It features a lovable cast, starring young magician Arle Nadja as she attempts to graduate kindergarten, viscerally decapitate an evil sorcerer, and fend off Satan and the girl who’s down bad for Satan. Plenty of remakes and sequels followed, and eventually Compile struck gold with Puyo Puyo, the platonic ideal of competitive falling-block games. To set it apart from the more faceless puzzle games of the era, they reused the Madou Monogatari cast, resulting in a cutesy aesthetic with occasional lingering bits of fucked-up lore.

After porting Puyo Puyo and its sequel to everything imaginable, Compile spent their mid-90s rapidly scaling the company, ultimately biting off more than they could chew. This was an era of serious change as developers moved towards 3D, and consumer preferences moved too fast for Compile to adapt. Some high-profile failures like Madou Monogatari Saturn and Puyo Puyo Dungeon sent the company into a fiscal downward spiral, leading frequent business partner Sega to bail them out by buying the rights to Puyo Puyo. Compile got to finish their in-progress work, including the gorgeous yet frustrating Puyo Puyo 4, but the writing was on the wall. Compile declared bankruptcy in 2003 after throwing all of their hopes and dreams into one last little game, Pochi and Nyaa. It’s a puzzle game with simple yet strategic mechanics that feels like something of a return to infancy for the developers. Also, it was released on the Neo-Geo in 2003! If you know anything about arcade hardware, that’s nuts.

The late 90's pre-rendered backgrounds combined with Sunaho Tobe's character artwork give Puyo Puyo 4 such a special look. Shame it's unplayable unless you're very good at chaining.

So Compile scatters to the winds and a lot of the non-shmup devs regroup at the newly formed Compile Heart, where they eventually hit the jackpot with Hyperdimension Neptunia and crank one of those out per year ad infinitum.

That was a pretty tumultuous history! And Neptunia seems like a way to process this? After all, the protagonist is named after and personifies the Sega Neptune, a cancelled 90’s console. Compile and Sega have intertwined histories and faced a similar trajectory. Rapid success in the early 90s was followed up by bad business decisions later in the decade, leading to a tragic exit from the industry that nobody wanted to see. Hyperdimension Neptunia wants to convey these scars to an audience who weren't necessarily around for it.

The first Neptunia game opens with the anime girl manifestations of Nintendo, Sony, and Xbox deciding that in order to break the sixth-generation console war stalemate, they need to team up against the one who poses the biggest threat. So, they get together and betray Neptunia, casting her out of the heavens. Obviously, this isn’t how it happened in the real world. The Dreamcast may have been awesome, but Sega was operating at a loss trying to support it, and the release of the all-consuming PS2 spelled doom. But this intro is closer to how it felt to Sega fans. It’s a mythical retelling of the fall, one that slots right in with the endless glowing retrospectives of Sega’s glorious but doomed last breath (My favorite is calling the console a “small, square, white plastic JFK”).

I’m no industry expert or historian, but I was around to see the Japanese game industry flounder during the PS3 era, when high definition brought with it new expectations and inflated development cycles. Obviously juggernauts like Capcom and Square Enix got out fine, but a lot of smaller studios went under at some point in the past 15 years. Hudson, T&E Soft, ASCII, Clover Studio, Imageepoch. In another world, beloved FromSoft could have fallen to the wayside just as easily.

That’s why Neptunia is really important, I think. It serves as a way to self-mythologize, to keep fragments of these studios alive no matter what happens to them later. It’s a snapshot of all the B-tier Japanese game companies at any given point, written by one such company. When some of them inevitably fold, the Neptunia series will act as one more eulogy. As a huge fan of Compile-era Puyo Puyo, it’s a strange but relieving afterlife to witness. I may never play these games, but I’m grateful for what they do, and it’s a very entertaining series to rummage through the wiki of, especially as someone with a known appreciation of OS-tans.

The second Hyperdimension Neptunia game appears to introduce the Gamindustri Graveyard, a burial ground for defunct game companies. Resting there alongside all the other fallen studios is 1st-Gen Compa, the spirit of Compile. She’s wearing an outfit adorned with Puyos, with ears resembling those of beloved mascot Carbuncle. What is just a random horny anime girl for one person is a loving tribute for another. It’s a meaningful way to send off the old.

…and so is raising the dead! In October, Compile Heart announced a new Madou Monogatari game, with Sega giving them the rights to use classic Puyo Puyo characters on the project. According to the press release, the development team includes many staff members who were part of the original incarnation of Compile. Hope springs eternal, somehow.

#12 days of anime #hyperdimension neptunia #compile