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dbgdbw · 2 years

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222화

초행입니다만 (1)

Just, It’s My First Visit, You See (1)

[ Main Quest ]

[ Sub Quest ]

…and what was ‘sub quest’ supposed to be. For now, I opened up the one that said ‘main quest.’ As I did so, a quest entry cascaded into view.

[ A Main Quest For Honey *?*

In order to earn information regarding the Dungeon raid, please install a Disk in each area!

Once all the quests have been cleared, the Dungeon raid intelligence will be updated, and communications with the assistant ‘Newcomer’ will become possible.

Disk 1

Disk 2 ← This is the closest!

Disk 3

Disk 4

Disk 5 ]

I pressed ‘Disk 2’, which had a helpful arrow blinking next to it.

[ Disk 2

The installation location of disk 2 is

‘Goldberg Park Fountain, located on the 7th Main Street of Sorgonne.’

※ During disk installation, there is a high likelihood of monsters spawning in response to external interference! Please remain cautious of this!! ]

By ‘response to external interference,’ was he talking about a Dungeon glitch. So far, it had been a monster surpassing A-rank that had appeared. Except that time with Chirpie.

It seemed installing the disks might be a task better left for after I’d met up with at least one other person, after all. Though, I could put my life on the line and install them still. Since if I just waited for an hour after dying, the monsters would’ve migrated to another area by then.

‘In any case, ‘Goldberg Park’. Where is this place?’

I might not’ve played many games, but wasn’t there usually a location pin for these kinds of area-objective main quests. Was it that I was supposed to grab any passerby and ask I’m terribly sorry, but could I ask for some directions, how would I go about getting to Goldberg Park? and suss out my own way there. Was there a subway, maybe. Seeing as how there were monsters roaming around, it didn’t seem like there would be any buses.

Preceding that, I didn’t even have any fare money. Decked out in nice gear and mid-ranked in level, but basically a newbie. At least let me run through a tutorial or something.

In case it might be of any help, I opened the Sub Quest menu.

[ Sub Quest

First Quest Clear

First Purchase in Store

Newbie’s Monster Hunt(Complete)

There’s A Person Here ]

It really felt like I was playing a game. The last one… had been when my boss asked for my help with an event in a game he played, so I'd grinded up to level 50 with a new character. Close to about ten years ago or so. Five years, for the me now? The Hunter system was set up similarly to a game format, too, but this was being even more overt about it.

I pressed the ‘Newbie’s Monster Hunt’ quest that had already been completed.

[ Newbie’s Monster Hunt(Complete)

Newbie-nim, who aspires to become a guard who protects the city. We pray that your first hunt will be safely completed!

Hunt one monster 1/1

Reward: 500P, 500L

Would you like to receive the quest reward? YES/NO ]

‘500P’ seemed to indicate points, but what was ‘L’ supposed to be. When I accepted the reward, 툭, a card appeared in thin air and dropped down. It looked similar to a credit card. Embedded on one side was a chip, and written on the other side was Exmunt Bank, Cash Card.

Was the 500L, the currency they used hereabouts, then. So, how much was it? It wouldn’t happen to be 500 won, right. If it was at least 5.000 won, then I could probably ride on the subway. Assuming a subway system did exist.

Once I received the monster hunting quest reward, the ‘First Quest Clear’ quest’s condition was also fulfilled. The reward I received this time around was an identification card.

[ Han Yoojin

Affiliation: Medsang City — Regular Citizen

Citizen Identification Number 1559079-1130-02 ]

There was a photo included, along with a chip. Regular citizen, huh, and the picture had turned out nicely too. Did they touch up the ID photos here too.(1)

[ First Steps As a Guard

Please enter a nearby city defense outpost and become certified as an Awakened.

Reward: 1,000P, dagger ]

It appeared that ‘Guards’ were this place’s equivalent of a Hunter. So the sub-quest was tantamount to a tutorial stage. But I felt somewhat recalcitrant, when it came to the matter of receiving Awakened certification. It was because if it so happened that they were capable of verifying all of my Skills, that could cause the situation to become bothersome.

Right, he’d mentioned that my Skills might’ve changed as well. I swiftly opened up my status window. Other than the ‘500P’ indicator that had appeared at the very bottom of the status window, there wasn’t much of a difference. Except.

[ Perfect Nurturer(L) - Keyword cannot be applied to individuals who are denizens of the current world. ]

I couldn’t apply the keyword anew to someone while in this world. Though that should have been a given anyway, considering that they weren’t even real living people. And then, the Sapling Skill.

[ All-Seeing Eye(S) - Improved eyesight, capable of verifying health, mana stats for individuals S-rank and under

Permanently Enabled ]

Had changed to this. It did seem to be more useful under the current circumstances. The ability to check rank was the same, with the ‘Optimized Skills’ being swapped with ‘health’ and ‘mana.’ And a visual acuity boost as a bonus, too.

Since the Sapling Skill only showed the optimized Skills, it was impossible to know all the Skills an opponent might have, or to guess the effects of the ability just based on the Skill name. And then on top of that, since this was a different ‘place’ altogether, the Skills I knew wouldn’t exist here, which would render the Sapling Skill even more obsolete. As it would be unlikely that I’d need to look for a high-potential un-Awakened, at least while I was here, this Skill that allowed me to instantaneously size up an opponent was much preferable. Though it was a pity that it was only effective on those that were below S-rank.

Outside of those, the ‘Deadly Hatchling Class’s Teacher’ would be unusable on people who were from this world as well. Moreover, the Dragon Slayer title had.

‘The rank’s dropped down…….’

It had gone down two ranks from its usual L-rank, to SS-rank. The Skills connected to the title hadn’t made it out unscathed, either.

[ Poison Resistance(S)

Curse Resistance(S)

Fear Resistance(S)

Lauchitas's Natural Enemy(SS) ]

Excluding the Lauchitas’s Natural Enemy, the lot of them were S-ranks. S-rank would probably still be serviceable, but to think that all those L-rank resistance traits had fallen to S-rank in one fell swoop. It was really too much. It should reset immediately once I managed to leave this world, right?

Aside from that, Mental Fortitude and Agility Up, Find The Hidden Picture, and One More As A Bonus had been left as-is. The same went for the ‘Veteran F-Rank’ and ‘Miracle Rookie’ titles as well. And, perhaps as an option from a new piece of equipment, there was a Skill I hadn’t seen before, too.

Closing the status window, this time, I checked the details on my weapon. A pistol that was pure white in color, with an antique pattern etched into it. It was shaped similarly to a simple, blunt glock in appearance, but because it lacked a slide that was separated from the body, the overall form was much sleeker in design. It looked like a fake, ornamental gun.

[ White Leopard Cat’s(3) Mana Gun - S-rank

A mana-charged gun that quietly bores into and destroys the opponent.

Mana Cost Per Bullet: 50~500

※ Loaned to Han Yoojin ]

As for additional options… it didn’t seem to have any. When I injected some mana as an experiment, it seemed that the minimum threshold of 50 was about the same level of power as I’d used earlier. Did that mean it was capable of achieving up to ten times the destructive power. That seemed quite alright?

Seeing as how it’d culled a C-rank monster in one shot at the lowest level, it appeared that the user’s own capabilities had no bearing on the weapon’s functionality. As a low-rank individual, it was greatly welcomed.

The only problem was the mana cost. A C-rank monster’s mana had been 155. My basic mana level would be about the same, and even with the mana stat boost the earrings and similar equipment provided, it would still only hover around 500 or so on the higher end. In other words, at max power, even one shot would be touch-and-go. And at minimum, it would still be capped at ten rounds.

‘Thankfully, there’s plenty of mana potions, but just in case, I should still ration my use.’

There hadn’t been any significant change in the items within my inventory. The jar of dried fruits was still there as well. Lastly, I checked the jacket.

[ Black Leopard Cat’s(3) Jacket ? S-rank

A light leather jacket. Infused with the power of a swift, silent animal.

※ Loaned to Han Yoojin ]

Was it a Leopard Cat Item set. If I gathered the whole set, would I gain a set effect buff? Perhaps because it was classified as a ‘defense-type,’ its agility option was the highest. Then again, dodging was an effective method too. It appeared that the new Skill that had popped up in the status window had been this jacket’s option Skill.

[ Cat’s Gait(A) - Able to move quickly and quietly, camouflage Skill effects buffed

Permanently Enabled ]

As an A-rank support Skill, it looked to be useful in a lot of ways. Most importantly, I had an A-rank camouflage Skill. If it amplified the effects even turther, then even up against an S-rank, it seemed like I should still be able to get by well enough. It might even be enough to let me install the disks, even by my lonesome.

Of course, I might still get struck by a stray blow, so it would probably be best to find a party member first if possible. Finished scanning my Items, I closed the window, when.

짜라랑~!

[ ◐▼◐ || Welcome to! Point Store! || ◑△◑ ]

Accompanied by fanfare, a message window suddenly popped up. I nearly jumped out of my skin. A point store, huh—was this the place I was supposed to spend the quest points.

When I went into the store menu, there were various Items such as weapons, protective equipment, and consumables, all sorted once again by subcategory, such as ‘bow,’ ‘polearm,’ ‘sword,’ et cetera. It certainly had a plethora of assorted items in stock.

‘Wow, there really are SS-rank weapons, too.’

Just like the Newcomer had confidently asserted, there were several SS-rank equipment within view. Only, the points required for those were astronomical. And there were some Skills that stood out, too. The Skills went up to S-rank at most. And there were things like gate stones… and ranged to others like elixirs. As expected, there weren’t any wish stones. The only thing I could buy with 500 points were low-rank HP potions. Pricey.

It was, essentially, a pie in the sky.

Even so, if I diligently saved up enough points, then it should come in handy in a pressing situation. Before departing the area, as a last check, I approached the monster corpse. Above the sprawling body, I could see a number hovering in the air.

[ 750P ]

Ah, was this perhaps. As my hand came in touch with the number, it vanished. In response, I checked on my status window. The 500P had changed into 1,250P. So I could gain more points by hunting monsters. Being able to earn the Items and Skills of my choice if I busily gathered enough points, wasn’t this great.

To think that such a golden opportunity had been snatched away due to those Reprobate guys’ interference. Newcomer-ah, couldn’t you make another Dungeon like this one, just once more. Even if I spent a year grinding here, I still wouldn’t be able to obtain a single S-rank Item, but the kids could bulldoze through something like monsters no problem. What a waste.

‘So long as nothing comes up, maybe I should stock up on some points here.’

I’d need to meet up with someone first anyway, for dialogue to even become feasible. Carefully, slowly, I moved onwards. As I slipped out of the alleyway while checking my surroundings, a wide road appeared. À la typical asphalt fashion. Sparse smatterings of streetlamps lined the entirely vacant street.

‘No signs of life.’

All of the towering buildings were blacked out. The stores were all closed, too. Building entrances and windows had been blocked off with thick barricades. Only the streetlights were flickering, and everything else laid silent.

‘There needs to be someone around, first, to be able to ask for directions.’

Wasn’t there even a police station. Would I have to wait until the sun came up.

- 키익!

A sharp screech sounded from above my head. Scampering on the streetlamps, a monster that resembled a gibbon(4) was speedily rushing close.

[ E-rank Mori Monkey ]

Both the HP and mana were marked. E-rank, well, it’d be a piece of cake. Right now, I was at C-rank. Instead of the gun, I brought out a military-issue dagger. Only in appearance, of course, as it was a Dungeon Item in actuality.

- 캭!

The monkey leapt down towards me. Dodging easily to the side, I deftly sunk the blade of the dagger into the back of the monster’s neck. The monster perished instantaneously, and ‘79P’ popped up. The difference between E-rank and C-rank was pretty big, huh.

- 캬악!

- 킥!

“Ah, so you had a bunch of friends.”

There were probably about ten or so of them. Taking out the Hunter-use wire rope from my inventory, I wrapped it around one hand. I’d purchased it after seeing Section Chief Song-nim use it, thinking it looked to be quite useful, but as my original body had been unable to properly utilize it, it had just been wasting away thus far.

Now, I could handle it pretty freely. After shaking out the wire, I pitched it like a projectile towards the shrieking horde of monsters that were swarming closer using the lightposts. 콰득, the end of the wire pierced through one’s skull, and embedded itself in the side of a building. With the line’s sudden appearance, the monkeys that had been rushing forward were unable to halt their momentum and, catching on the wire, 후두둑 topped one over another as they fell.

Drawing my gun, I fired at the entangled ones as they fell. 퍼억, with a light sound, several monsters were blown to smithereens in one shot. It really was immensely convenient.

Running without pause, I reeled back the wire and then sent it flying again towards the remaining monsters. I managed to catch one this time as well, but there weren’t any that fell alongside it. It would’ve been nice if I’d had some sort of long-range attack Skill, too.

Putting away the gun, I brought out a machete. In the next moment, I swung it in the direction of the lampposts the monkeys were holding onto.

카가각, the sound of metal scratching was brief. The lamppost split in half. As the lamppost began to lean over, I gave it a strong kick, causing it to knock back towards a building that stopped its impact. 쿵, the monkeys all scrambled towards the tip of the lamppost as it fell over. They seemed to be planning their escape by crossing over into the building.

Launching up from the ground, I sprinted up the slanted lamppost. Because of the sleek material it was made out of and the steepness of the slope, it was a trick I couldn’t even attempt under normal circumstances. But right now, with heightened stats and the help of the Skill, I was able to run along the lamppost as though I were racing on flat ground.

“Stats really are the best, after all. Don’t you think.”

- 키이익!

I swung the machete at the monster that had been unable to make it into the building, sending it flying. 휙, the airborne monster flew in an arc and tumbled along the ground on impact, before coming to a sprawling stop. I caught up to the rest that had escaped to the roof of the building in an instant. With how one-sided the fight was, it made me recall my earlier days despite myself.

Before regressing, even in peak condition, I’d had to worry about my life when coming across an E-rank monster pack like this on my lonesome. Ah, of course, I’d have been able to win one-on-one without a problem. It was a combination of raw level, experience, and equipment quality.

탁.

Having collected the points that ranged between 70 to 80, I jumped back down towards the road. It was a relief that only mid to low-ranked monsters had shown up so far, but since a high-rank monster could pop out too.

‘For the time being, should I be using the camouflage Skill while going around.’

It was a shame to lose the mana, but this place probably sold mana potions too, right. The point store was… expensive. Pricing a low-grade mana potion as 10,000 points, wasn’t that unreasonable.

부와앙—

As I was following along the road to better map out my surroundings for now, I heard the familiar sound of an engine. If it wasn’t a monster made out of mechanical parts, then it should be a person. Soon, from the far side of the road, lights appeared and with a great clamoring of noise, a fleet of five motorbikes could be seen speeding towards me.

So it was people, good.

“Hello there!”

Gratified, I offered a greeting first and foremost. Excuse me, but I’d like to ask you for some directions, as this is my first time here, you see. From the frontmost bike, a hardworn face stared starkly down at me.

-----

(1) 증명사진 보정

(2) 숨은그림찾기

(3) 살쾡이

(4) 긴팔원숭이

+ 초행입니다만 → ‘-다만’

※ yj current specs (listed in ch):

[완벽한 양육자(L)]

떡잎 → 꿰뚫어보는 눈(S)

[드래곤 슬레이어(SS)]

독 저항(S)

저주 저항(S)

공포 저항(S)

[살벌한 병아리반 선생님(n/a)]

[라우치타스의 천적(SS)]

정신력 + 민첩 업(=)

숨은그림찾기(=)

덤으로 하나 더(=)

[베테랑 F급(=)]

[미라클 루키(=)]

>하얀 살쾡이의 마탄총(S)<

>검은 살쾡이의 재킷 ?(S)<

고양이 발걸음(A)

#222화 #the s classes that i raised #tsctir #sctir

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firespirited · 5 months

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Aside from looking and feeling drained, I've had a nice week.

Still enjoying chilling with Stargate Atlantis even listened to a couple of episode commentaries (the writers have early aughts typical broey vibes though so that's off-putting).

Found a pair of shoes to wear this late autumn as my "vintage" vans mannaz fell apart. After I'd talked about the difficulty of finding shoes that fit me and how many I'd tried that didn't work out, Mum dug up a pair of hiking boots she'd forgotten to send back to dad and said he'd always had the same problem: wide feet with height just behind the toe area as the arch starts. Apparently getting work shoes for his teacher job that didn't hurt was quite a quest. They fit great except for the length so I went online, found the same brand "Queshua" and looked at their hiking shoes of the updated but same series/range. Ordered a male and female model in my size. Only the "guy" shoes fit and they don't have any spring in them like sports shoes do but sports shoes often end up too narrow. I can't risk buying them without going to a physical shop or doing a dozen returns. Queshua from decathlon have a free return from your post box and refund policy. Fantastic.

So basically, I'm elated to have been able to toss out the vans and stick the pastel gradient laces into my new all terrain, waterproof trainers. I'm going to look at their winter models for colder weather. It's reassuring to know there is a brand that tends to fit. I'm hoping to try the thrift store on the outskirts of town one day when the carer isn't too busy but that could be a while (why thrift? Because I generally don't fully know a shoe's problems before I've 'road tested' them) .

I also tried crochet again (every few years I try to knit or crochet from tutorials and it hasn't gone great, you all know I can't think in 3D, so like for the keyboard, it has to be muscle memory and mnemonics) This time I had two different youtube tutorials on half speed and could sort of 'get it' but for the life of me could not properly hold the yarn in the left hand. Mum was around so I sheepishly asked what I was doing wrong. Her first answer was "well have you practiced?" 🙄 (she forgets I'm not the 7 year old who gives up as soon as the dopamine runs out or gets distracted by shiny - i mean i am but I've learned to go back to practicing even if I have to make myself angry or use bribes and limits.) I dutifully produced my series of messed up lines and sat down to show her and she went "oh OK! you're doing it wrong, Here's how auntie Grace taught me" and wrapped the yarn around my little finger, using the middle finger as the main yarn holder and index+thumb to pinch the crochet. Then I had to leave because she kept telling me to "relax my shoulders relax your hands RELAX", I love her but I do not control the muscles when trying to practice a new hard (for me) skill for an audience.

That hands on tip was what made it actually 'take' this time even though I might end up using the ring finger instead. I haven't had much time to practice and made quite a mess of my first attempts at rows with a 3 ply yarn.

Today I was able to proudly show off a 5*30 stitch parallelogram (still haven't got the tension down) of thin cord, it took three tries... but not bad. I'm really hoping I'll be able to grok some more stitches and have something to keep the hands busy that's less taxing on my shoulder. I also need to ask her about auntie Grace, she's probably part of the deaf adult community mum grew up in.

Slowly working towards listing more dolls. You get stuck on junk decisions about whether to bundle, whether to dress them or one of the photos is too blurry and the whole thing stops because there's a missing step or piece. Plan derailed.

I've got incoming which helps with motivation: Elle eedee!!! I didn't click with her the first time then really missed her but now I know how I want to do her eyes. Twilight teens grey for Nicole Steel head (aliexpress 11.11 sales $5) and white.

A Catrine and pink haired Howleen. Catrine is a design I just love and was always put off by the yellowing. Now that I know more about straight peroxide bleaching, I really want another try. I also want to see what happens to that lilac turned grey hair and if it fries or just turns lighter grey, she'll be bald. Their cleaning will be top priority in general but not top on the project list as I have Barbie Marnie who needs just a few more lines of hair to be perfect, a 1/6th BJD to string (need to practice rotary tool sanding and buffing on a damaged barbie before I touch her resin) and probably switching out Jewel Richie's eyes, they're beautiful with the green shimmer details but the visible bevel on the 'baddie' eyes makes them hard to photograph and distracts from looking like a cohesive face. Oooh I might try a line of black acrylic paint first to see if that fixes the issue.

Voilà, big blurb. Not many photos they're all on the desktop. The dogs are happy and well, Lily is a bouncy frolicking 15yo, Talia is learning to be less afraid of the big world and other dogs specifically Gargouille and Elliot.

Talia also threw up in almost every room in the house today, with for her grand finale some raw hide bone she swallowed whole to concentrate on hoarding the other two from Lily. Chihuahuas either have Tardis stomachs or they are mostly stomach because the dimensions of all that came up don't make sense.

Highlights were sharing popcorn with sis and mum on Sunday just chitchatting. Long hot bath to warm legs cold from the inside out. Stunning sights as the sun comes out from behind the mountains:

#saf #Ramblings #Dolls #tw: vomit #Crafting

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mainsest · 2 years

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Pcgen reddit

PCGEN REDDIT HOW TO

Special: This trait can be taken more than once. (+2 dex, +2 int, -4 strength)įlight (4 RP): Prerequisites: None Benefit: Members of this race have a fly speed of 30 feet with clumsy maneuverability. Weakness (–1 RP): Members of this race gain a +2 bonus to one physical ability score, a +2 bonus to one mental ability score, and a –4 penalty to any other ability score. (downgraded to 15, because the walkspeed should be really slow) If the race is Medium, its members' speed is never modified by armor or encumbrance. Slow Speed (–1 RP): The race has a base speed of 20 feet. Tiny creatures typically cannot flank an enemy. Other creatures can move through those squares without provoking attacks of opportunity. Since they have no natural reach, they do not threaten the squares around them. This provokes an attack of opportunity from the opponent. They must enter an opponent's square to attack it in melee. Tiny races typically have a natural reach of 0 feet, meaning they can't reach into adjacent squares. Tiny characters take up a space of 2-1/2 feet by 2-1/2 feet, so up to four of these characters can fit into a single square. Tiny races gain a +2 size bonus to their AC, a +2 size bonus on attack rolls, a –2 penalty on combat maneuver checks and to their CMD, and a +8 size bonus on Stealth checks. Tiny (4 RP): Prerequisites: Aberration, construct, dragon, fey, outsider (native), or plant type Benefit: Tiny creatures gain a +2 size bonus to Dexterity and a –2 size penalty to Strength. Fey have the low-light vision racial trait. "Moldborn STARTFEATS:1 SIZE:T MOVE:Walk,15,Fly,30ğACE:2.5 REACH:0 BONUS:STAT|DEX|2ěONUS:STAT|STR|-4ěONUS:STAT|INT|2 BONUS:VAR|HasLowlightVision|1ěONUS:VAR|Manueverability|2ěONUS:VAR|AC_Natural_Armor|1|TYPE=Base LEGS:2 HANDS:2 RACETYPE:Fey RACESUBTYPE:Moldborn TYPE:Fey CR:0 SOURCEPAGE:p.230"ĭesign choices, in case I made an oopsie:Ī fey is a creature with supernatural abilities and connections to nature or to some other force or place. Step 1, located race closest to what I wanted ( Galthain) step 2, copied their entry, and placed it in MCP_races.lst step 3, adjusted the values to reflect the design choices of the race. Race: Moldborn ( if a dragonborn takes drugs, and sleeps in an egg constructed from shiny things, someone who makes psychotropic drugs out of russet mold, gets the attention of the fairies, gets cursed by the fairies and wakes up tiny and with dragonfly wings has the same rights to a -born title as the big uns. The more you help, the more central a role that retiree will play. The char will then make a cameo appearance the next time my group needs the quest giver to be a wisened old adventurer that got off nicely and such. If you can do that, I can offer as payment the retirement of ONE character of yours, that you want to see taken care of, in a way and manner to be determined by you.

PCGEN REDDIT HOW TO

Hint me at the correct place, where it covers how to give my race the racial ability. I do not know how, since the tutorials seem to not cover it. with a single special ability, for my players. PCGen is super, PCGEN is awesome, PCGEN is excellent.

#Pcgen reddit

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maddiviner · 4 years

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Could studyblogging jumpstart your personal grimoire?

A witch should be a lifelong learner. To practice effective magic, you must grow in new directions at a constant pace. A witch should approach magic with a sense of devotion to their own growth.

I’ve practiced magic and divination for two decades now. The most solid advice I can give? Start journaling. Start keeping a notebook. Start studying.

Witches who keep a notebook record their research and ideas about the Craft. This helps them build a wide repository of knowledge, right there when they need it.

The format and content of my notebooks changed a lot over the years. But they all helped me become the witch I am today. I devoted the bulk of these notebooks to my journey in magic, techniques to try, and lessons learned.

There are few people who haven’t studied. In school, we pore over geometry and classic literature in hot pursuit of elusive high marks. We spent time learning about our interests. Whether that’s witchcraft, philosophy, or astronomy, notes are helpful.

Everyone learns in a different fashion. Still, studying and learning about the world remains with us from our first breath, to the last. My Craft took leaps forward when this dawned on me. I’d always enjoyed school. I realized that I could apply the same study techniques to witchcraft and the occult.

What’s studyblogging?!

As a regular user of both Tumblr and Instagram, I soon came across the studyblogging trend.

Caitlyn Tiffany of The Verge describes the studyblogging phenomenon as “a beautiful, stressful wonderland.” An apt description! But what is a studyblog?

Studyblogging hashtags like #studyblr and #studygram are popular (on Tumblr and Instagram, respectively).

For someone just coming across the phenomenon, though? It can be difficult to penetrate this strange world. Expect calligraphic chaos, a plethora of highlighters, and fine-tuned aesthetics.

Studyblogging focuses on the quest for knowledge. In practice, studyblogs share tips and handwritten notes on various subjects. Studybloggers encourage each other to be the best learners they can be.

The photos of notes, assignments, and other tasks make up the bulk of the phenomenon. Studyblogs often feature photos of elaborate calligraphy and heavy illustration in note form.

Expect to see self-made diagrams of mitochondria. Essay outlines on postcolonial theory with nigh-perfect bubble lettering. Vast, illustrated mind-maps of Shakespearean themes. It's a big community, and there's room for a lot. Room for witches? I think so!

Studyblogging for Witches

In witchcraft, our grimoires function much like a non-magical student's study notes. The content, and some of the form, may differ, but the principles are the same.

The quest for an aesthetically-pleasing grimoire stymies many a beginner (and not-so-beginner) witch. The wise remind us that our grimoires needn’t be complex. Functionality is more important than aesthetics in most cases.

That said, there is something worthwhile about keeping a grimoire that suits you. A grimoire can speak to your soul, both by way of aesthetic appeal and your own abilities. For some of us, this might mean a lavishly-illustrated tome. Others might find minimalist styles more resonating. It varies.

The truth is that yes, your grimoire needn’t look a certain way or be perfect. Still, a level of aesthetic appeal can help with information retention. It can also boost your magical productivity. Humans respond in an intuitive fashion to that which they consider beautiful.

Aesthetics can help to put you into a liminal state. Liminality can be a powerful tool in self-improvement. This, in turn, is useful not only for normal studying, but also for the Craft itself.

If you see art as part of your life path, you might find that approaching your grimoire as a work of art helpful. Part of this means realizing that it won’t be perfect, but also always striving to learn and grow.

Studyblogging, as a community, showcases a lot of excellent notebook and journal-keeping techniques. Studybloggers often provide tutorials and guides to effective learning methods.

This is, of course, all while celebrating the joy of learning itself. Traditional studying methods can apply to magical topics. I have found that the techniques of the studyblogger can help with keeping a useful grimoire.

Ask your intuition if studyblogging is right for you!

Will studyblogging help you? For some students, lurking or keeping a studyblog inspires and motivates them. It also increases accountability. By posting their goals and progress, studybloggers have an impetus to progress.

In a way, it’s a bit like livestreaming a video game - it makes the experience more challenging, and also more exciting. The difference, of course, is that, in this case, your game is learning!

And the notes? Many find the calligraphy, fancy scripts, and illustration soothing. It can be a way of making otherwise impenetrable subjects more captivating.

Without a doubt, aesthetic presentation improves information retention for some people. Humans have a positive response to beautiful imagery.

Some folks find the gorgeous landscape of studygram and studyblr overwhelming and anxiety-inducing. Gorgeous calligraphy notes, after all, aren't easy for most people.

For some, posting about your studies on a blog might only increase worry. We're all different, and studyblog techniques are hardly universal in form.

You should use your intuition to decide whether to dip into this community. Ask yourself whether an audience will help your quest for deeper knowledge.

Will you feel empowered, or nervous about it? If you struggle with comparing yourself to others, you might find studyblogging discouraging.

I myself am somewhat of a perfectionist. For me, though, the artistic aspects of note taking and information illustration soothe me. Studyblogging suits me, but will it help you?

You should tailor your learning experience to your own strengths. If that means studyblogging won’t help you, be honest with yourself and don’t chase the anxiety of it all. Find another method of learning.

Browse some existing studyblogs - I recommend EmmaStudies and StudyQuill. Ask yourself how it makes you feel. Do the images and writing seems inspirational?

Would you enjoy sharing your work with the world? Studyblogging might become an ally on your magical path!

Taking the Plunge

So, how do you start a studyblog? How do you get involved in the community?

The most popular studyblogging platforms are Instagram and Tumblr. Instagram lends itself to posting tons of pictures and very short-form posts. Tumblr favors longer prose.

When I started studyblogging, I created both a studyblr and a studygram. I recommend starting a new account on the site of your preference for studyblogging.

Follow some existing studybloggers as a way of introducing yourself to the community! Also, follow the hashtags #studyblr and #studygram, to start.

What to study?

Studyblogging features students focused on all kinds of topics. I’ve been studyblogging for over a year. In case you’re wondering, it's rare for someone to complain about my witchy take on studyblogging.

You’ll find the studyblogging community very welcoming in most cases. But what will you study? I always recommend witches focus on only one or two things they’d most like to learn at a time.

Studyblogging lends itself well to in-depth topical research. This can mean learning the signs and language of astrology or the basics of gemstone magic.

Topics like shadow work or personal Tarot readings might be a bit too personal to blog about. Those might be better suited to normal, private journaling rather than a blog. My own studyblogging tends to focus on my writing preparation, astrology, and Tarot.

Though I’ve been reading for over twenty years, there is always something new to learn about Tarot. Astrology, like Tarot, is a lifelong discipline. Though I’ve only recently made my first steps into it, there is much to learn. My writing, especially the book I’m working on, has its own notebook.

Possible topics include, but are in no way limited to:

Crystals and gemstones

Astrology

Spellcraft

Mythology and legends

Magical history

Energy work techniques

Seasonal and Lunar cycles

Herbology

Tarot, Lenormand, or oracle deck divination!

It is important to choose topics that interest you in a personal way. At the same time, try not to get distracted. Witchcraft includes many paths of study. Try not to jump from topic to topic - finish what you start!

Supplies

If you’re in school, you may already have a lot of the tools necessary for studying. If not, you can get them for an affordable price in most cases.

Paper matters! You'll want a notebook or loose leaf binder paper. For hardbound notebooks, you can’t go wrong with a Leuchtturm 1917. That popular notebook boasts dot grid paper, includes page numbers and a place for an index.

Seeking something more aesthetic? Check out the Paperblanks series from Peter Pauper Press. You might also like the notebooks you can order from Citrus Bookbindery. For me, a binder (I use A5 size) works best, because I can add and remove pages as necessary.

You can find some great guides out there about organizing grimoires. Much of that advice applies here. Your notebooks will soon fill the role of a grimoire. They will contain your notes, research, and more.

It is usually best to have one notebook (or binder) for each subject you’re studying. As you move forward, you’ll have a collection of grimoire notebooks on different topics.

You’ll also need pens or pencils. Really, you only need one. If you feel like getting fancy, you can get multicolored fineliners. I prefer Sakura Micron pens. They use waterproof micropigments that don't bleed when you highlight over your writing.

Highlighters are fun! These add color to your notes and help emphasize the important things. If you want nice highlighters, I recommend Mildliners. Any highlighters will do, though - choose colors that appeal to you. I recommend several different colors, because that allows you to color-code your notes.

Plan!

Plan out, at least in a rough fashion, how you’d like to organize your notes. This can be rather freeform, or complex, depending on your preference.

When I began my astrology journey, I knew what sections I would include in my stars grimoire. I also created a rough map of the path I’d take in my research.

I began with the simple Zodiac signs. I then moved forward through the planets, houses, aspects and transits. My organization, loose though it was, benefited from my use of a binder which allowed me to add and remove pages.

No matter the notebook, it is important to have, somewhere, a rough idea of where you’re going.

You will also find it important to set attainable, realistic, and measurable goals. For me, this was things like memorizing the astrological house system. I set the goal of reading my astrology textbooks completely and summarizing them. This kind of goal leads to personal accountability.

I also created a set of astrological flashcards for my Tarot-related work. It can be motivational to post your goals on your studyblog in some form. Then, you can provide your followers with regular updates on your progress.

Start posting!

Once you feel ready, go ahead and introduce yourself to the studyblogging community! An introductory post, explaining who you are, your goals, and methods, will help others get to know you.

I recommend tagging your posts with studyblogging hashtags (mentioned above). Also include some witchcraft-related tags! This will help you connect with other witches who might be helpful on your journey.

Don’t be shy when it comes to posting photographs (taken with a phone or other camera) of your notes! You might not feel that your notes are as neat or pretty as other bloggers. Regardless, they’re unique and might resonate with others!

If you’re taking notes about a very personal topic, like shadow work, you might want to forgo the pictures. Some bloggers obfuscate or blur potentially sensitive parts of their notes. You’ll likely find nothing but encouragement for sharing your research topics, though!

Some studybloggers will also photograph their study space. Some of us even use photos of fun things like their breakfast or pets to illustrate their updates. If pictures don’t suit you, post regular bits about your life and your progress towards your goals.

Get to know other bloggers! This is important, whether they’re witches or from the studyblogging community. Both can be helpful!

Watch or read some of the tutorials you’ll find in the studyblogging community. These focus on things like calligraphy, organization, and memory techniques.

While your notes needn’t have fancy headings, calligraphy can be fun to learn. I don’t currently use calligraphy in my notes, but am learning it on the side, so to speak.

I find it relaxing, and you might enjoy it too. If not, don't feel bad - not everyone uses fancy handwriting, and that's okay!

Moving Forward

If, after a few weeks, you find yourself really vibing with studyblogging, stick with it! Most witches would agree that there’s no real wrong way to be a witch. To me, though, there are wrong (and right) ways for you yourself to learn and grow in your craft.

You need to find what works for you, what adheres to your soul and keeps you connected. If studyblogging ends up helping you, and I hope it will, keep going!

After a while you might find yourself ready to move onto another topic. We all end up “graduating” forward onto other subjects. You’ll quickly find that your grimoires will be an invaluable record.

They will contain not just your gathered information, but also your intuition, insight, and more. Cherish your notebooks - they will come to reflect your essence!

#magic #witchcraft #witchblr #witch #studyblr #occult #pagan #journal #book of shadows #grimoire #eliza.txt #eliza reads

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all-pacas · 2 years

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okay hot take:

erend should not have been in forbidden west.

LOTS OF FW SPOILERS

he was a big fan favorite in the first game, and that seems to be why he was in this one, but why? besides fan favorite, what purpose did he serve in the story?

zo and kotallo both act as liaison characters for their tribes, and are both big parts of the story as a result. zo helps aloy and has a quest line about saving the utaru. kotallo does even more: he’s a huge part of the main story, and keeps returning to the tenekth plot even after he’s joined the base. zo’s role in the plot is a little less blatant, but she and aloy have several non-optional scenes together, gets a great quest with the landgods, and also weaves about eighty rugs for the base while you’re away: her presence in the game is huge, even if she’s doing “less” than kotallo.

alva comes much later, but she also clearly fills a role as quen liaison. in the base, she also falls into a niche of “tech nerd,” playing a crucial if off-screen role in the final battle when she hacks the zeniths.

beta is her own can of worms, but she forms a lot of the heart of the plot: her growth, her and aloy’s relationship, her connection to the zeniths.

then we have varl, who like erend is a returning character. i always adored him, but he was never the fan favorite that erend was i think it’s safe to say. but he’s the most important secondary character in the entire game. he shows up for the tutorial. he follows aloy across america. he becomes not just a helper npc, but someone she confides in and opens up to about her grief and fears and frustrations. in the base, aloy checks up on everyone, but to varl she says things like “take care of everyone for me;” he is her lieutenant. he is the one who reaches out to everyone else in the base, who brings erend and tries to bring talanah on board, who reaches out to beta and kotallo — he is the heart of the team.

so what does erend do? what purpose does he serve? how does he help the base, either figuratively (making so many rugs) or literally (studying, reaching out to people)? what does he do for the plot? when he, aloy, and varl go on a mission, aloy ditches him outside and goes with varl at the first chance. he has the sons of prometheus plot, but… frankly that wasn’t well handled, even more optional than the other character plots (zo will ask aloy for help; you don’t even find out about the sons unless you clear a couple of bases first), not to mention being just a rehash of dervhal.

there’s also the slightly awkward issue that after the last game made such a big deal about erend needing to step up and be captain and killed ersa to force him to, he… ditches his actual job and duties to hang out with team base for the entire game. they could have at least phrased it like “actually avad asked me to do this,” but no, erend makes it pretty clear he hates the responsibility of being captain and is glad to leave. (and like. this is the historical politics nerd in me talking. but the vanguard is not a small thing. in asoiaf terms, he’s head of the kings guard. he’s head of the secret service. he’s got authority over the soldiers of meridian. he’s tasked with incredibly important diplomatic missions on avad’s behalf — to the sacred lands in the first game, to probably escort fashav back in this one — and he just. fucks off. like hell, make erend act as a liaison in this game! he works for the carja and everyone in the west has big complicated carja feelings, have him try to do his envoy duties and work on that! the utaru are starving to death but have rejected carja trade and food, maybe he could have worked on that situation, even just off screen!)

would the game be any different if erend wasn’t in the base? sure, the side quests would change a little. someone else would need to carry the cannon in the last fight. erend and zo have some very nice bonding moments in the end of the game, and strike is an amazing minigame, but erend really only seems to be in the game because the writers knew the fans liked him, and didn’t do a good job justifying his presence past that.

if erend had been in the daunt doing his thing, if he and aloy had had a scene where he got to explain his hurt feelings and they had a nice moment, if he then went back to meridian and did his job… i don’t know. i think he would have come off a lot better. he would have been actually doing something of use, for one, instead of throwing off his job and responsibilities to hang out in a base and feel insecure.

#horizon forbidden west meta #horizon forbidden west spoilers #hzd erend #honestly same goes for talanah #although at least she was treated as a temporary character and did remember she had responsibilities back home #nil however they wrote perfectly #quit murder to play mario kart love that for him

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nightcoremoon · 2 years

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oh my god skyrim is so bad

so you’re in windhelm just doing your business before heading off to go kill bandits in the east to do a quest (because you wanted to go on an adventure east before going to whiterun because fuck whiterun it’s worse than metro tunnels and repconn hq combined, and accidentally found ulfric which is convenient because fuck the empire, although then again these guys are racist cunts, so at the very least there’s actually a conflict in choosing who to side with rather than “some taxes” vs “all women are slaves” vs “literal fascism” in new vegas which I love but wow the NCR are the good guys full stop if you disagree you’re an idiot).

you go to the inn, last stop, and you find a guy who wants to brawl, which you easily win, and then try to stealth kill him with a bow from the shadows because he’s an evil racist asshole who literally wants to round people up in the streets. but oh wait YOU CANT KILL HIM because “that would break a quest” and god forbid that happens because these people don’t know how to program choice and consequence in a game. okay fine nothing matters cool. oh hey this guy wants to challenge me to a drinking contest. I get it, these are all just tutorials. ok I’ll bite and steal this random guy’s money.

then suddenly you’re on the complete opposite side of the country because skyrim says “fuck you, play how we want you to.”

oh I spilled trash all over the temple you say. yeah. two items and a piece of paper. what a mess. did the quest designers even try? okay fine whatever. can I bribe? can I persuade? can I intimidate? can I be lucky enough on a speech roll to succeed? it doesn’t matter. literally every single choice leads to exactly the same line of dialogue. trust me, i checked it. did the writers even try? okay fine whatever. after using a quicksave and checking just how trash the dialogue trees are and deciding okay fine I’ll do this stupid quest. I pick up the three items accept the quest and think I’m about to step out in the snow of windhelm and SUDDENLY MARKARTH.

fuck you todd. I was exploring at my own pace and you hijacked it with random bullshit. even fallout didn’t do that and fallout 3/4 are horrible RPGs (good shooters though). whatever. I’ll just fast travel back. oh wait there was a murder and now suddenly there’s another 4 NPCs talking to me and I have a fuckton more quests. I wanna go back to windhelm. fine I’ll just explore this city and then I’ll go back. oh wait this city has a lot more shit in it. too much shit. these dungeons are atrociously designed, they’re fucking death mountain, they’re fucking silph corp, they’re a goddamn maze. okay fine let’s exterior collisions matrix this bitch. oh. oh no. it’s not working. did the dungeon designers even try? whatever.

I have tried. I have given skyrim one, two, three, four chances now. it is not a good game. it looks nice, it sounds nice, the animations are okay when they fucking work but usually they don’t, the operant conditioning functions as it should which means that going shopping is almost completely pointless, there’s a lot of shit to do which I guess makes everyone with adhd go ballistic with adoration and praise for this game. but the camera is godawful, the stealth is broken, the random critical hits interfere with your choices, magic is stupidly op, enemy damage values are so fucking random (basic feral ghouls or deathclaws, there is no in between), if you don’t quicksave every five seconds then an anvil falls on your head and you repeat 20 minutes of walking, the writing is weak, combat is repetitive, if you get lucky drops it becomes a cakewalk but if you get unlucky you’re bashing you head into a brick wall for hours on end and there is no in between, the crafting recipes are severely lacking, food is unnecessary and irrelevant anyway because every single character can heal 10hp per second with a basic spell that everyone can use regardless of how you skill up, skilling up necessitates grinding or dumping cash which requires grinding or you can just break it and savescum your way through pickpocketing the gold right back (grind savescum or use the console commands to disable achievements until you quit out and go back in so there’s no consequences at all, pick your fuckin poison).

enderal is going to be fucking phenomenal when I play it.

but skyrim? a footnote in failure only loved by the lowest common denominator, and the reason behind dark souls’ unearned status as “the hardest game ever”. it’s so bad.

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secondhand-trash · 4 years

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A/N: a softer actually kinda wholesome part of the wholesome ghost content uwu

Warning: brief description of death/violence, cheating(between side characters, ghost daddy would never uvu), break-in robbery, brief nsfw below cut (voyeurism, female masturbation)

Word count: 4300

Where does a ghost go on vacation?

Shinsou Hitoshi had never been one for leaving his house. Life was already stressful enough, he would much rather stay within the comfortable confines of this nice house he worked hard to pay rent for when he could take a break. Even with dismay from his parents and relentless invitation from his friends, he still turned them down with an obviously fabricated excuse every time. He had everything he needed here. If he could, he would not take one step out that door at all which was ironic because now that he really had no reason and no choice to leave the house, he would give anything just to even poke his head out of these four walls.

Contrary to popular belief, you could never really quite feel your death. Of course, there was this short period of struggling in his case, together with the pain that slowly spread through his body and the numbness that followed suit. But all in all, it really felt like he was just slipping into a heavy curtain, free-falling onto a large bed with a mattress that let your entire body sank in until your consciousness was just floating onto of the pillows.

He had yet to register that he was already dead when his eyes snapped open again until he realised that he had forgotten to breathe and it really didn’t matter to him anymore. There really was no existential crisis that could compare to what he felt when he looked down to see his own body lying on the ground.

Such a ghastly sight, he would much rather not think about now that it was long gone.

He had wondered what life after death would be like anyone else but in all honesty, it was very underwhelming. There was no guidebook, no reaper showing up to collect his soul, nothing but him in an empty house. He could not leave the damn house no matter how hard he tried. Every time he stepped out the door or leap out the window frame, he would always end up right back at the spot where he took his final breath like some cruel joke, and eventually, he gave up. Not that he had any other choice.

No one wanted to move into a house where someone had recently died there and during the time of the house’s vacancy, Shinsou had set his mind to test the limits to his newfound existence as a spiritual being. In his little quest to self-actualisation, he had discovered several things. He could pass through things, which was fun and he spent a good amount of time poking his head into random objects for a while. Making himself tangible took longer for him to grasp, but eventually, he came to the realisation that the key to it was to not think too much about it and just do it like he would if he was alive. He still had his senses to some degree, but things that would bother him when he was alive, like the feeling of fire right below his palm per se (yes he tried that too, it was not like he could die twice anyways), did not have much of an effect on him now that he wasn’t. People appeared to be unable to see him, much to his delight after realising that none of the passersby saw him standing in front of the window for several hours like some cheap cgi from a b-movie.

He was still pretty pissed that he could not float. But hey, who knows, maybe he would unlock that skill later on after he jumped off the table for enough times.

What he had concluded after a while was that being dead was boring. He had all the time in the world but there was no cable or internet so binging whatever show he never got around to pick up while he was alive was not an option. Besides, it would probably stir up quite the panic if the neighbours heard the sound of people talking coming from the supposedly empty house. He did, however, picked up several new hobbies. He learned how to play the grand piano that was left here in the living room by the last owner. He always played it as quietly as he could, he would be in so much trouble if people picked up the faint music at night. It was hard figuring out the notes and scales on his own but with the amount of time he had, eventually he got to the point where what he played sounded somewhat decent. He also discovered a stack of vinyls and a record player covered with cobwebs stuffed at the back of the attic, one of which was an audio tutorial on how to waltz that was from god knows how long ago. Shinsou had never seen himself as the waltzing type of person, but when you were a ghost who was bored out of his mind, anything you could get your hands on was worth a try.

He stopped counting how long it had been since he died at some point, burying himself within the keys of the piano and stumbling to figure out how to practice each step without a partner. For a while, he felt like he didn’t quite mind spending his eternity like that.

Then one day, the door swung to show a woman with a large smile on her face and a couple that looked like they would die if they did so little as took their arm out of the others’ walked in.

Turned out, people would eventually forget about the young man who died tragically in the house as time passed and land got more expensive. The new owner of the house was a newly wedded couple, according to what the wife said giddily to the real estate agent. Shinsou watched from a corner of the living room as the agent handed them the key, sighing as he realised that his silence in the house would never be restored.

For a while, he felt like he could get used to this. Both the wife and the husband would leave for work in the day, giving him the personal space that he desperately needed. They would come back at dawn together, carrying bags of groceries and laughing as they walked in. Shinsou had no part in it, but he decided that if he never got to have a family of his own then being happy for the residents of this place he was stuck in was the closest he would get. He liked listening to the couple talk over dinner, smiling and nodding his head as if they could see him at all. Was it lonely that he was in a world of his own despite watching people around him carry on with their life like he had never been in this place at all? Kinda, but Shinsou figured that he didn’t mind it all too much. At least these people were happy, and there could be nothing more tragic than being stuck with a miserable family in the house he could never leave.

Until one day, he picked up that the couple stopped kissing each other goodbye before leaving the door in the morning. Until that evening when he realised that they stopped coming home together. He saw it all too clearly, the outsider that could go through walls that the living could not see through, and he was worried that this peace would not last much longer.

Until that one night, when he thought that the husband and wife went back to their old ways as he heard the laughing from outside the door only to feel his heart drop when he noticed how that woman giggling sounded nothing like the wife.

They didn’t even bother going into the bedroom, immediately all over each other the moment the front door was clicked. Shinsou curled up at the corner of the attic that night, pretending that if he heard nothing, then whatever was going on in the living room right now never happened at all.

The wife still wasn’t back the next morning and against his better judgment, he took a lipstick out of the woman’s bag and put it somewhere he knew for sure the wife would see.

He wasn’t sure if he had done the right thing when he saw tears streaming down the wife’s face after finding the unfamiliar lipstick that was clearly not hers. He stood and watched as she slammed the door, her cries and screams still echoing through the house even after she left.

Shinsou decided that he would never meddle with the living again when he saw the man broke down sobbing, while he could only stand there and wonder if it would have been better if he was never there at all.

The couple that wasn’t quite a pair anymore moved out soon after that, and Shinsou was left to his own device in an empty house again. It was funny how things could be cleared out so fast and as the man locked the door for the last time, it was like they were never there at all. All the pictures and tiny knick-knacks that made the house alive were gone, with only empty spots on the walls.

Sometimes when Shinsou sat in silence at night,, staring at the vacant spots around a house that was too big for one lonely ghost, he felt like he was never there too.

The next occupant of the house he died in was a family of three. He watched through the windows on the second floor as the truck pulled up and an excited child ran towards the door. He could hear the laughing from the parents even through the thick walls. Shinsou was never one for children, they were too noisy and too unexpected. He sighed, watching as the dad picked the child up to twist the doorknob, the sound of innocent blabbering immediately filling the house up right as the lock clicked.

He didn’t really think that these people would make much change in his routine, it was not like they would notice him anyways. He nearly felt the blood that wasn’t there retreating from his face when his eyes met with the young son of the family, the way his round eyes slowly widens told him the one thing that he was most afraid of.

The kid could see him.

He was expecting the child to scream, to run to his parents, or cry even. But he didn’t, much to his surprise. Perhaps the child mistook him as one of his imaginary friends that happened to be a lot more real and a lot less imaginary? He would never know. You know children, you could never really quite understand how their world works after you grew up.

The house was alive again, and Shinsou felt like he could get used to this, for real this time. The kid didn’t annoy him as much as he thought he would, and there were times when he didn’t even notice the smile on his face as he watched the boy ran to his parents to show them things he was proud of. They were good parents, Shinsou thought from his childless young adult perspective.

He liked the kid, as wild as it sounded. He admitted that the young resident of the house was a cute kid, round eyes and wide smile, hair always tangled up in a mess quite like his own. There were times when he would creep down the stairs behind the adults’ back and when he placed a finger on his lips to signal the boy to not say anything, the child always had a hard time biting back a chuckle, shaking his head as his eyes sneakily followed the ghost’s figure.

The boy found a sense of pride in knowing something that his parents didn't, the purple-haired roommate was his friend and his friend only, a tiny secret that he shared with the young ghost who always gave him a thumbs up when he held up his drawings to thin air much to his guardian’s confusion.

Shinsou assumed that one day, as the kid grew up, he would stop being able to see him like the other adults. The idea made him feel lonely sometimes, but he was alright with it. If he never got to have a kid of his own, he supposed watching someone else’s grow up would be the closest thing he would ever get from having a family of his own.

For a while, he really thought that things would be set this time around and he would not have to be alone for a long time coming. Until that night when everyone was asleep upstairs and he being the ghost he was, decided to indulge in his ghostly lack of need for sleep to lounge around the living room, heard a rattling at the door lock.

He froze in horror when the door crept open and a masked man walked in, very careful with each movement and making no noises even though the wooden floor had a tendency to creak with the lightest of steps.

This felt all too similar. Someone breaking in at the depths of the night while everyone was asleep, unaware of the danger lurking just steps below. He could feel his blood curl at the familiar unfolding of events, and seeing the man snooped around made him recall the feeling of seeing his own dead body much to his dismay.

He thought of the parents, the good people who were just trying to live their lives. He remembered the child, so young and with so much potential, and the wide grin on his face. He had hoped to see him grow up, to see how he would look like years later when he got taller. His fingers trembled when he thought of what could happen to the family, of how they might end up just like him.

Shinsou clenched his jaw, hands clutching both in anger and in fear. The same thing was happening but something was different, this time he was here. Nothing would happen to the family as long as he was around, and he was bound to be around for a very long time.

The house was big, but one ghost haunting it was more than enough.

The mom screamed when she saw a man lying on the floor unconscious the next morning, with hardcover books and kitchenware all over the floor. The man was still alive, she realised after checking his pulse gingerly and woke her husband. The mask and the many tools in his belt hinted that whoever this strange man was, he was definitely not there for friendly inquiries. The couple was shocked and confused as to what happened for the burglar to be there, especially after looking around to see that no valuables were missing. As for the child, he was barely awake as he made way down the stairs, rubbing his eyes when he saw the many people in his living room. He did not know what was going on but daddy and mommy looked very serious so he did the smart thing and left the scene, going to see if the purple boy wanted to see his new lego set instead.

The family moved out of the house as expected, you could not call somewhere home if you didn’t even feel safe in it. The child cried when his parents told him that they were moving, knowing that this meant leaving his new friend behind. Shinsou did not have the heart to say anything when the child strike up a conversation with him the first time, asking if purple boy could move with them too. Shinsou wanted to lie and say that he would be there with him, but he knew that it was better to not hurt the child even more when he would eventually realise that the ghost was nowhere to be found in his new home.

The kid was the only one who looked back before the family walked out of the door. Shinsou put on his widest smile and waved, despite really really wanting to cry.

The house was left unoccupied for a long while which made sense, murder and robbery didn’t exactly sound the most appealing. Shinsou had decided that he liked it better this way, no one around meant no one to get attached to. This time, even if someone did move in eventually, he was determined to not stick his head into a world he didn’t belong in. The living come and go, but he could not leave no matter how much he wanted to and he did not necessarily want to go through that again.

He was pretty content with being alone, now being able to carry on with his newfound hobby of waltzing (badly) and playing the piano in minimum volume. Shinsou had a strong feeling that he was better of spending the rest of his eternity like that with no one around to disturb him.

And then you showed up.

You were unlike any other who moved into the house, the only one who was alone, much like him back when he stepped into those doors with a pulse. You were curious when you first walked inside, looking around in interest as if you had no idea what the house looked like prior. You intrigued him, someone closed to his age and bright-eyed, twinkling in interest when you saw something that you liked and scrunched your brows together when you didn’t. Poking your head through each doorway and quickly leaving to see the other rooms, mumbling under your breath about how one person could use so many rooms which he absolutely agreed.

Shinsou felt a weird emotion bubbling up in him when he saw that of all the rooms you could pick from, you settled moving your stuff into the one that he used to sleep in.

Perhaps it was because you were young and single and very much so on your own, he felt way more of a need to respect your space than he did with all the previous residents of the house. There were many times when he stopped himself in the tracks as he was about to pass through the bathroom to get to another place, knowing that you were in there from the sound of water running. You were completely unaware of his struggles as you lounged around with shorts and thin thin crop tops, all sprawled out on the couch while the ghost was scolding himself to just take his eyes off you and look somewhere else. He was dead, but he was still young and filled with hot blood(?) no less and the fact that you looked so lovely with your hair wet and waist showing under the loose shirt did not help his plan to not pay attention to you at all.

But all inner struggles aside, you just seemed like a nice person to be around in general. He was always peaking behind you to see what you were reading when you were leisurely sipping your coffee on sunday mornings, slightly shocked and very approving when he saw that you had discovered some of his old books in the attic. You were the only person to notice that well-hidden trap door down the hallway, and he couldn’t help but smile when he saw you beamed in delight as you found the stack of records. He convinced himself that it was just his own loneliness talking and that he was only feeling that way because it had been too long since he came across someone his age, but something about the way you laughed when you were on the phone with your friends or the little dance you did when you were waiting for the water to boil made his heart flustered in a way he didn’t know ghosts could.

He wished he could talk to you.

His world was flipped upside down when you saw him for the first time. There were many times before when you would look past him, staring right past his ghostly existence, but he felt shivered running down his spine when you actually looked at him.

Wonderful, he thought to himself as he froze in place, not knowing how to react as your eyes meet, there is no way they’re gonna stay knowing that I’m here.

It seemed like the living had once again outdone his expectations. You stayed in the house, much to his shock and delight, and you had started talking to him. He was very tempted to reply every time you greet him in the morning but refrained from doing so, remembering what happened the last time he interacted with the living. You had taken the liberty to test out different ways to provoke a reaction out of him, leaving sticky notes and pens around the house, going far enough to prepare food for him even though he never really sat down at the table.

He thought you would give up eventually but you didn’t, and his will to steer distance from you was slowly faltering.

The first time he did something for you was out of instinct, you forgot to take your clothes out of the washing machine and it was making him anxious because he had made the same mistake before, nothing could compare to the annoyance of having to do your laundries again. Your mouth hang open when you sprinted down to the kitchen after sleeping past your alarm to see your clothes spinning in the dryer, turning your head to see Shinsou sitting on the kitchen counter, looking anywhere but you as if he did nothing.

He could not forget how happy you looked as you thanked him, and he knew he was gone for.

You seemed to accept that you had a roommate and he was a ghost. Casually asking for his opinion on things despite never getting a spoken response. Your casual acknowledgment of his existence only made things more difficult for him. There were many times when he would think about you in a way that was everything but innocent while you were deep in slumber in the other room, his room. He could touch you if he just walked through the door and reached out, but he always managed to pull back before doing something he knew he would regret. He liked you far too much to risk driving you away and he would just have to handle this frustration himself.

He imagined the way you would sound as he caressed you when he reached down to palm himself through the fabric.

He was doing so well, pushing away any impure thoughts and acting as gentlemanly as he could in giving you space you rightfully deserved. But when he heard a moan from your room that one night, something inside him snapped. He stood in front of your door, the last bit of self-control pulling him back as the sound of your rapid breaths and wet noises which he did not need to make a guess to know its source filled his ears.

You sounded even more heavenly than he had imagined, and he could feel his own arousal building up.

You knew he was here and still decided to went through with it, knowing that there was a chance he would notice. Then it must have meant that you wanted it to happen, right? Right?

He waited for you to object, to scream, to push him away when he climbed over your naked form, soaking in your body that was displaying wanton lust as clear liquid leaked from your cunt all over the sheets, but you didn’t. Your pupils were diluted as he stared at you, face flushed and filled with desire.

He took your silence as permission to keep going, and he did not miss the way you mewled when he gripped your wrist.

“Let me take care of that.”

He finally did what he wanted and talked to you, along with many other things that he had only dreamt of doing.

“Ouch! You’re stepping on my foot!”

A yelp broke him out of his haze and he snapped back when you hit his shoulder. You had moved the record player down to the living room under his request and right now, soft music was playing as he held you in his arms, one hand on your waist and the other holding yours.

“You were the one who suggested we do this so you better focus.” You sent him a glare and he smiled apologetically.

“For someone who said they have been learning how to waltz for quite some time now,” you hissed when he hit your toe once again, “you are really bad at this.”

“Don’t blame it on me,” he said pulling you close to him until his cheek was right against yours, “never had a partner to practice with.”

You snorted, mumbling something about him playing the dead card every time. He grinned, feet moving clumsily in unison with yours in each step as he gently swayed you.

You stumbled when he suddenly twirled you around, clicking your tongue in mock judgment before he eased your scrawl with a light peck on the lips.

You sighed. “Good thing we have plenty of time to get better at this.”

Shinsou smiled, thinking that he had finally found a way and someone to spend all this time he had never asked for.

“Yeah,” he said in between kisses, enjoying your warmth as you hook your arms around his neck, “plenty of time.”

(Back to the masterlist)

Maliboo

#shinsou x reader #shinsou imagine #shinsou smut #shinsou hitoshi #shinsou hitoshi imagine #shinsou hitoshi x reader #shinsou hitoshi smut #bnha imagine #bnha imagines #bnha x reader #bnha smut

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catflowerqueen · 3 years

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Okay, I finished Hiveswap 2 in... basically all one go. I will definitely have to do multiple replays to get all the Steam achievements, but that can wait until I do all my actual work and projects. Thoughts and major spoilers below.

Well Hiveswap 2 was certainly interesting! I can see why it took so long to make, and why Friendisms had to come first. That game certainly gives some more background lore to certain situations, though it also kind of… gave me certain character expectations that I feel were left unfulfilled. Like… given it is Alternia, and Doc Scratch admitted to messing around with everyone involved via his whatever-it-was making people more open to befriending the reader, I guess I’m not entirely surprised how certain situations ended up? Just… severely disappointed.

As far as gameplay goes, I think that the item management system was a little better than in part one, and it was cool that you actually got to switch between playing as Joey and playing as Xefros, and that they each had different commentary when you clicked on things. There is also a replayability factor, which is nice. The music was also really cool, especially how you could tell that the same melody was being used in every train car, just changed up a little to better fit the “theme” of the castes present in the cars. And that even held true when it got a lot darker/more depressing during the final quest! I’m also extremely glad that there was a functional hint system, because there were times when I really, really needed it.

But the bee minigame came pretty much out of nowhere, and the formatting for the directions was horrendous because it gave them to you after the game already started. Not in a tutorial fashion, either! Which meant that I couldn’t really read or understand what was actually going on until I’d failed the game two or three times, making the whole thing really tedious. Also… I’m kind of annoyed at how little actually got carried over when you use the “import Act 1 data” function? Like… inventory was the same, and maybe there were some things I missed, but it didn’t keep the name I gave Dammek’s lusus! It didn’t even use the default name for that option, either, or even throw in a line about Xefros telling you what it’s actual name was at some point while you were fleeing, which would at least explain the discrepancy.

Then there was the jade and teal car… and oh boy do I have a lot of complaints against that car. It’s honestly the one I had the most problems with, from both a gameplay and story perspective. For one thing, it dragged on way, way too long—especially for a middle section of the game. It would have worked a lot better as an endgame thing, I think, just in terms of the way games and stories are supposed to ramp up the action as you play, so things get progressively harder as you go. While there was some nice foreshadowing of how depraved the purple caste really is during that section… like the early game foreshadowing for it, it only really works effectively if you know the source material.

I mean. I guess Xefros’ discomfort in general works and gives it more of a wham/gut-punch for those who don’t know the source ahead of time, but… still.

Anyways, the length isn’t my only complaint with that section. The story was very interesting, I’ll admit, but the execution was not very good, especially when it came to the evidence. Now, I know this is apparently a common complaint with Phoenix Wright games, which that section is based on—that there is a specific order and place you need to use specific pieces of evidence, even when logic dictates that there is a far simpler solution to the problem. Like… at one point you need to come up with a motive for Tegiri to be hanging out by the Jade lockers. Considering that the entire trial has to do with the theft of a “forbidden book on rainbow drinkers,” this is something you find out during the evidence collection phase before the trial even begins, and another piece of evidence collected clearly states (or at least implies extremely heavily) that Tegiri is into rainbow drinker stuff, one would think that piece of evidence would be enough for a motive, right? Wrong. Instead, you have to use a broken action figure… and then you STILL use the other piece of evidence to show that he’s into weird romance stuff and would have been interested in reading the book! And that’s not the only time stuff like that happens!

Not to mention the section in the middle where the trial takes recess. The dialogue implies that what’s happening is you’re getting the chance to collect more evidence and statements… but, no, what’s actually happening is that you’re supposed to be taking this time to accuse other people of actually being the culprit by combining two pieces of evidence. The problem is, it doesn’t tell you this is what’s happening, give you any warning that you won’t be able to talk to the people you’re accusing again if you combine the wrong evidence, or let you use any selection screen aside from the evidence ones when it would be extremely helpful to be able to check on the timeline or suspect section again in order to get a refresher on where everyone was. And one of the pieces of evidence is a diary—but once you have it in your possession, you can’t check the relevant entry again! It only says who the diary belongs to and that some of it is censored. And since there is reason to believe that someone else messed with the diary to implicate the owner, it would be very helpful to actually get to explore that further in depth!

I really do hope that this is a case where there are multiple different endings, since the way it left off on my playthrough left an extremely bitter taste in my mouth, especially in regards to Tyzias’s character, who I actually really, really liked in Friendisms! But here… I got the “Scapegoat” achievement (which is why I’m hoping that there are other ways to complete this section), with the end result being that even though we got our client declared innocent, we also got an innocent (or at least, one heavily implied to be innocent afterwards) person declared guilty—in part because our co-counsel did not inform us of the fact that she witnessed evidence being tampered with and, in fact, knew who the true culprit was all along. And while her “Experiment” was deemed a success—and, I suppose, was technically successful within the set rules and did actually follow the whole “innocent until proven guilty” thing—it just highlighted that legislacerators still don’t actually care about justice. She could have, at any point, chimed in about what she saw, but was more interested in “keeping the peace” afterwards than actually getting the true culprit. And, yeah, baby steps and all, but…

I suppose thematically it does work well considering what happens at the end of the game when reaching the purple car, but…

I just thought better of Tyzias, is all. Friendisms implied that she was a real revolutionary for change, and, yes, I know that this wouldn’t be obvious to someone who didn’t play that game and some allowances must be made for that, but… even so, it just seems really out of character, and I don’t think it can all be blamed on forgetting lessons they learned while hanging out with the Reader/those things not actually happening in this continuity, for whatever reason (though, given how Fozzer was acting, and the fact that Chixie brings up the whole “Mask” persona, I’m pretty sure that we can assume they all remember some things that happened… just in a way that’s vague enough that those who played Friendisms can catch the references while those who didn’t won’t be lost on what’s going on)

…And, in hindsight, the whole thing was probably unnecessary to begin with since the book actually got found before the idea off a trial even came up??? I mean, part of that is because Marvus suddenly wandered in and seemed very interesting in holding one, and they didn’t want to upset him, but… yeah, it’s definitely a case of “this all could have been avoided,” especially since the book is apparently only forbidden for the jades to read. But I’m willing to give that one a pass, since trolls are weird and there were various circumstances escalating the situation.

I still think that Tagora had something to do with it, given what we know about his infatuation with Rainbow Drinkers from Friendisms… but that never actually came up in the game? I see where there may have been an opportunity for it, but it wasn’t a very clear-cut one and, at least the direction my playthrough went—would have required the player to actually have done his route in Friendisms.

(EDIT: Apparently there are some different ways to do this trial, according to some things already up on Steam, but they are dependent on some very early choices in the game--which would presumably affect some other choices in later games, and which means that i’m going to have to do many different playthroughs if i want to see everything available--and it still isn’t likely to remove the taint on my feelings towards Tyzias. After all, I’ll know that such capabilities for ruthlessness remain in her character, whether or not they’re actively showing.)

Also, hero-mode Xefros looks a lot older than I thought he was. And apparently joey is old enough to at least be a Freshman in high school??? I thought she was still in middle school!

As for other characters… some I felt were still in-character, some weren’t. Like… for what little we actually saw of Karako’s personality, considering he doesn’t really talk, I thought he was fine… despite being extremely surprised he was actually on the train at all considering his youth and, well, what little personality we saw indicating that he doesn’t really do “civilization” much. But the twins… while they were spot-on amongst themselves (resulting in an extremely chilling and heartbreakingly well-done scene near the ending), they seemed a lot more vicious in regards to their interactions with others. Wanshi apparently developed a real cruel streak in this game, and, ironically, Tirona was actually a whole lot nicer and not actually a suspect of that trial, despite being put on the stand as a witness.

I was also a bit disappointed that there weren’t more of those clever fight scenes we had from Act 1, where there was puzzle solving going on mid-fight—there were only two of them, one being so forgettable that I pretty much only remembered it existed just this second, and only the last one was really clever. There was at least one, maybe two other points where it would have been really cool/creative if Joey could have solved things with dance in a battling format… but her use of her dancing shoes was only plot important at two points in the game—and that first point wasn’t even her doing actual dancing, but, rather, as a buildup for the bee minigame. And then she never even got to use her “bee dance” skills again. At least Xefros finally got to use his bat—but, again, it was only once where it was actually a useful tool. He did get to use psionics more, though.

And there was a plot point with Skylla that was pretty much completely dropped? I mean… they did bring it up as something that was still unsolved right at the end, but… well, hopefully this just means that they’ll actually solve it for real in Act 3, because otherwise there was a perfectly good opportunity for a solution that Joey had in hand, but which didn’t get utilized. The issue is that Skylla’s lusus is apparently sick. One would think that this means that, assuming you carried over from part 1 (and I would assume even if you didn’t because it looks like a lot of the problems would be game-breakingly unsolvable if you didn’t have certain items you would have picked up through a playthrough of part 1. I guess that’s something to test for next time), this would require you to use the bestiary and vet kit, right? Wrong: I tried that and nothing happened. Apparently, the solution is that you promise Skylla you’ll look for medicine further down, and use that as a reason that Marsti should move away from the door so that you can pass by. But there’s never actually an option for you to look for the medication.

…Now that I think about it, though, this would be the prime opportunity for some inadvertent (or intentional, as the case may be) foreshadowing from Act 1. Two opportunities, even, with one being far more obvious than the other. One could be that Joey makes some commentary about knowing exactly what to do, having seen a similar problem in her own “lusus”—her pet dog back home. The other could be that Ladyy isn’t actually sick, but is instead pregnant and having little lusus puppies—which would be a callback to that Puppy Surprise doll from Act 1 where Joey hid her keys.

Still. I don’t like the fact that it never got solved in this part. Also that Vikare didn’t really get to do much (despite how annoying and confusing I myself find him) and that we didn’t get to see Fozzer again on the train even though we got to see several others on the train who we first saw at the station.

I’m also wondering what’s going to happen in part 4? Obviously part 3 is going to be either the party or further attempts to reach the party (and the suddenness of what happened with the ending does lend some more seriousness to the whole “you only have eleven days before everything gets destroyed thing), but… I’d assumed going in that two parts would be dedicated to Joey’s story, and two to Dammek’s, but apparently that’s not the case? If Joey really does get four parts to herself… then what the heck is Dammek’s story going to entail? I mean… those monsters, obviously, and whoever Jude’s “friends” are, but… I don’t know. I feel like it’s going to be hard to top this.

As far as lore goes… apparently the maturation trials are not the same thing as the exile, since Zebruh mentions already having gone through his, yet he is still on Alternia for what is implied to be… at least two sweeps, I think it was? I think he said he went through them at seven, and Chahut is approaching 9 or ten and mentions being only a perigee away from leaving. So that’s interesting. I guess the maturation trials are the equivalent of a career aptitude test or something?

It does make me wonder what happens with the Jades, though. Unless there are more mothergrubs on other planets, what do they even do when they’re off world, since apparently they are specifically tested when they are a lot younger to see who actually is assigned to the caverns vs. just living outside with everyone else. I guess maybe they just get jobs that are slightly more prestigious than olives, but still under teals? That would at least make sense for the ones who weren’t assigned to work in the caverns. Though it does make me wonder about Kanaya a little bit—had there been no game involved, would she still be considered “special” like the jades from Hiveswap given what her lusus was, except that because of said lusus she had to live outside of the caverns? It was, after all, implied that virgin mother grubs and their matriorbs were extremely rare.

Also, considering how full this train was, and the caste segregation going on, I’m wondering why the train from Sollux’s route in Pesterquest was so empty, and how he could apparently just get on any car he wanted. I mean—sure, he ended up in a car that only had an olive on it, but considering they were literally the only other passenger besides reader, that may have just been a coincidence. It can’t have been that there were separate waiting platforms for the different castes, either, since everyone was mingling together in Hiveswap before separating by car. Is it just that everyone was going to the party, but the train otherwise doesn’t get much use, or something like that? Or did it have more to do with whatever the ramifications were for Trizza’s defeat? …Or possibly the fact that the attack on the train at the end just made people still extremely wary about travelling by rail even sweeps after the fact?

There’s probably some more lore I can touch on, but… honestly, the trial section left me so upset that I can’t really put much of that together right now. I think I was going to say something about how the Jades would also be a good source of keeping culture alive between heiresses, since apparently they’re actually charged with doing so… but it’s hard to tell how much of that culture is just jade culture specifically vs. the rest of Alternia. Or even how much of it was actually serious, rather than a thinly veiled reason to let everyone indulge in things like tabloids, celebrity magazines, and rainbow drinker books.

Oh, yeah, and I’m pretty sure that Diemen at one point implied that his hot dog was actually made out of someone specific, though I’m not sure at this point whether that someone was his lusus, or if it was a troll. Either way, if that’s true, then it definitely explains why he is so protective of that specific hot dog.

EDIT: I remembered what the other bit of lore I wanted to discuss was. Well. I mean, it might not be considered “lore” as such, but... it’s interesting that of the two major rebellions we know of, both were headed by bronzebloods--that being the Summoner and Dammek. At least, I assume Dammek is the one heading the current rebellion. I wonder it it’s just a coincidence, or if there is something in bronzeblood nature that makes them more likely to lean towards these sorts of reactions? We know Dammek’s breed of lusus apparently favors strong leaders, and given the blood color would only be seeking out other bronzes (except perhaps when they hit the “my charge just died/got culled” stage and go looking for someone else to adopt, given what is happening with Joey), but presumably the Summoner had the same lusus type as Tavros. I dunno, it’s just interesting to think about.

Anyways... Overall I did really like the game! I loved the tone, despite how depressing it got at times, and Xefros’ and Joey’s developing relationship is amazing. I look forward to part 3. Hopefully it won’t take as long to come out.

#homestuck #hiveswap #spoilers #massive spoilers

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motheatenscarf · 3 years

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Wanted to take a couple days to parse my thoughts, but I am now ready to give my Opinions on DOS2.

The long and short of it is, I do recommend it!

The combat was FUN, the story was engaging and compelling, the side-quests were all either heart wrenching or hilarious, and the music was beautiful and so were all of the locations and the music always SUITED the location which isn’t always easy to achieve. And the characters were all interesting, too, by which I mostly mean NPCs, and I only got to run around thoroughly with 3 companions but some of them were genuinely amazing for their development and growth. I got way more attached than I was expecting to for some of these characters.

If you’re familiar with turn-based RPGs, it’s one of the best ones I’ve ever played! If you’re not, it should be okay, but I’d recommend watching a couple tutorials or reading some tips/and tricks before going in because this game is DENSE.

I do have a few minor complaints, and if you’ve been following me shrieking about this game for the last month, none of this is new, but I will put it under a read more;

The second act all along the Reaper’s Coast really dragged imo, and that’s for two reasons; one, the rate of acquisition of new quests vs. the rate of completion on old quests is like 5 to 1 and it quickly gets overwhelming and things quickly start to blur together, and two, companions are too quiet during Act 2 and need to be chattier to break up the monotony.

I will grant you having too many things to do in an RPG is never a problem, and it’s nice to have a lot of different quests lead to the same location, especially if that’s an important area that has a lot of Plot Shit in it, that’s just called good level design. But I always like hearing companions comment on things not only because it makes them feel more developed and the experience more immersive and impactful, but also because, fuck dude, their comments help me keep track of why we’re even here in the first place. Was this for a main quest or a side quest? I don’t fucking remember! I have The Dumb! Your fleshed out, well developed questgivers who are important stand out, or sufficiently tragic shit like “Look, the Magisters are burning down this village!” stand out, but Dwarf #12 with Dwarf Problems asking me to look into his Missing Dwarf while Magister #4 also asks me to look for Dwarf but I’ve already decided to declare open season on Magisters and now there’s no one interesting left to remind me about what I’m supposed to be doing without checking my journal is just... woof, bro, I am NOT gonna remember this shit.

At the very least, this slog could stop blending together so much if the flag markers that automatically pop up for quests were fucking LABELED. Yeah, there are like 6 flags in this place, but what quests are they for? Fuck if I know, and there are like 40 in my journal and I don’t have time to read through them all, I guess we’ll find out when we get there.

And again, companions should just talk more in general. Not just at the end of quests, but during them. I grant you they won’t have an opinion on EVERY little thing, but given that they supposedly have special character flag dialogue for when I tell them to go talk to Magister #8 on patrol so they’re distracted and I can sneak this guy past their patrol, they clearly have unique responses to things! Let’s see that! And they should have banter and talk to each other! They can’t all just be attached to me! It’s about the FOUND FAMILY! That means they have to form bonds amongst each other! That’s why DA2 will always be the best Dragon Age game!

Anyway, other than the Act 2 slog, my biggest complaint is with the abruptness of the ending. I know the point of the game is to get TO where the Source is being kept, but the whole “And then the war with the Godking happened off-screen,” thing felt kinda... underwhelming. It’s important to stick the landing, and it wasn’t a BAD ending, but it was a little disappointing. I mean, we already killed the other gods, would it really have been such a big step to have, at the end, the Godking push through and nearly win, and THEN we got to choose what to do with the Source?

Like, if you want to be evil and side with the Godking or that demon doctor guy, you can beat him in combat first and then say “Now that you’re beaten, I’m calling the shots!” and enter into a tenuous partnership with them were betrayal is imminent. And if you want to release the Source or seal it all away by repairing the veil, maybe have us not kill the Godking outright but just defeat him so that he retreats. Then it can be to either seal him away while he’s weak, because it’s a one time opportunity even if it will mean turning into a silent monk, or to take the chance and release Source to the world and let people choose from there to fight what remains of the Voidwoken.

Idk, maybe they’ve got more they want to do with the Godking in later games or something, but for fuck’s sake, if you’re gonna kill all the gods by the end of like, fucking Act 1, you’ve got to let me at least take my shot at the fucker who calls himself the Godking. I am a scrappy little chihuahua with a scythe, high on rage, and I’ve already killed at minimum 4 gods, just lemme aim for this fucker too.

Still a good game, and a decent enough ending, I TECHNICALLY got to do what I wanted with releasing Source to the world. I’ve said before that there are exactly two things I want to do in any RPG and that is make friends and kill god, in that order. And I got to make friends. And I technically got to kill the sickly leftovers of what was left of the gods after the Godking got to ‘em. But I really. REALLY wish I’d gotten to at least fuck up the Godking a little bit if not outright kill him.

But I did get to make friends with my companions who survived Act 1 and shut specifically Rhalic up forever, so I guess that’s enough.

Oh, also, literally all of the armor is ugly except for late late LATE game wizard armor which looks like something out of Vampire Hunter D., throw a scythe onto that shit and you’ve got an AESTHETIC, but short of that, it’s crap, especially if you’re playing a woman, but ESPECIALLY if you’re playing an elf. This game does elves dirty with its armor.

But other than all that, all in all. 8/10. Recommend it.

#Caitlin Plays DOS2 #DOS2 spoilers

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nickburn · 4 years

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Thoughts on the Oculus Quest and VR after One Week

Last week, I obtained an Oculus Quest, fulfilling a goal I had for this year of buying my first VR headset. I’ve been really interested in VR for years, and now feels like a great time to get into it, if you have the dough. Since I’m still fairly uncomfortable with traveling, I figured a headset would allow me to escape to faraway lands from the comfort of my studio apartment. The Quest in particular was enticing because, unlike most powered headsets, it doesn’t require a tether to an expensive PC or console. Now that I’ve had some time with it to explore the headset and some apps, I’d like to talk through my first impressions here.

The Oculus Quest

I got the 64 GB Oculus Quest through Amazon for $400, and I feel like it’s important to say that upfront. I recognize it’s a privilege just to be able to afford something like this right now, let alone have a decent job that allows for it. VR is not as cheap as it should be yet, but I think it will be within the next five years or so.

64 GB is plenty so far, and I can’t see the size limit becoming a problem for a while. Maybe once more premium apps like Half-Life Alyx hit the Quest I’ll regret it, but for now I’m totally happy with the smaller hard drive. The controllers are super comfortable and responsive, though figuring out left from right takes some getting used to, especially with something blocking your vision. But it’s easy enough once you realize that the second trigger is on the inside of the controller, so the wrong orientation will feel awkward. The device and controllers are very portable, if awkward to transport because of their shape and fragility. I expect I’ll have to purchase a carrying case for them sooner or later, but for now a backpack has sufficed.

The headset itself is truly a wonder. The four cameras on the front can create a live black and white feed of your surroundings so you don’t bump into things if you walk with it on, and they can even track just your hands for additional control options (currently in beta). The straps allow for easy size adjustments, and they’re tough enough that I don’t feel like they’ll wear down any time soon. There’s a slider for the lenses to adjust your viewing angle if things still look blurry, and the lenses themselves blend nicely into your vision, so you truly feel like you’re in another place with the headset on and running. The built-in speakers only heighten this effect, providing a surround sound experience in a small package. There are headphone jacks on the sides of the headset as well, but I haven’t had cause to use them yet.

The hub interface experience is fairly smooth, and you can choose your background environment for it from several thematic choices. Getting around the menus is easy enough, but it can be hard to know what to look for or even where to start. There are a few free demos, but after that you’re on your own to discover what’s best for you. Since VR is still so new to most people, I would like a little more guidance there, but I’m enjoying the process of discovering things for myself too. One nice thing is every game is listed with a comfort rating, so you know which are likely to give you motion sickness and which are basically 3D movies.

Beat Saber

It’s no secret Beat Saber is one of the most successful VR games so far, and it lives up to the hype. It’s a rhythm game where you have to slash at different colored blocks with the corresponding saber, in time with the music and in the right direction. You also dodge obstacles on occasion, either by leaning or ducking. This sounds simple, but it allows for a ton of different patterns and complexity. The best levels have really satisfying sequences to perform, and it does almost feel like conducting or drumming along with the music. The main campaign is surprisingly lengthy and difficult. At one point, it starts to require you to go against your instincts and mess up songs on purpose in order to not let your combo go above a certain number or to hit a required number of misses. I’m sure they were added to give the game some more mechanical depth, but I’m not sure they’re necessary. Fortunately, there’s also a solo mode and leaderboard where you can play any song you have access to on any difficulty you like. I haven’t bought more songs yet, but I suspect I will before long. Overall, this is an easy game to recommend and a must-play for anyone with access to VR.

The Climb

I’m a novice rock climber who hasn’t been able to go to a gym since March, so this game caught my eye. It gives you the experience of free soloing (climbing tall, long routes without a harness or other people) and bouldering (climbing very short but difficult routes, which is the style I prefer in real life). So far, I’ve only tried the tutorial, and I’m still working up the courage to go back. The game gives me a lot of vertigo and kind of freaks me out, as your character screams for their life whenever you fall (which, in the tutorial at least, will happen often as you learn the controls). Falling is a very real part of climbing, but if you’re doing it right, you should never get hurt. Free soloing is only really attempted by the most expert climbers, and even many of them die in their attempts. A better way to experience it though is through the Free Solo 360 VR documentary by National Geographic, which is free on the app store and thrilling to watch, just like the regular doc. I’m sure I’ll go back to this game soon, but I’m not sure how long it’ll take me to get used to falling in VR.

National Geographic VR

This game is very cute and allows you to play the part of a National Geographic photographer in Machu Picchu and Antarctica. So far I’ve only started the Machu Picchu route, but I really like it. Your producers tasks you with getting different shots, and you have several locations to choose from in each area. Not very deep, but the views are great.

Job Simulator

In Job Simulator, you play a boring, everyday employee for sentient, floating robot TV’s in a few different roles, and it’s awesome. There’s tons of physics objects to play with, which is definitely one of my favorite parts of VR. The writing is clever, the world is cartoon-like and inviting, and it’s much better than actual work. This is another game I’d strongly recommend for VR beginners like myself.

Netflix VR

As weird as it sounds, I like Netflix in VR. The TV in the environment seems much larger than the one I own in real life, so it feels bigger even though it’s virtual. I like the cabin setting and atmosphere, and it beats staring at my apartment walls. I was able to watch several episodes of Death Note in a row pretty easily, although the headset does start to feel heavy after a while. I wouldn’t say this is the ideal way to stream TV by any means, but it’s worth a try as a fun distraction.

Other Odds and Ends

I’ve dabbled with various other apps and games so far, as one does when one acquires a new electronic toy. I started the tutorial of Vader Immortal Episode 1, and it has you deflecting lasers and slashing robots just like a Jedi, so I’m excited to start that game properly. I was able to hook up my headset to my PC in order to try Google Earth, and it’s great. I don’t think my PC will be able to handle much else, however, so I’m thinking about upgrading it relatively soon. It is nice to know, though, that all you need to make the connection now is a USB 2.0/3.0 to USB-C cable. Until May, you had to buy a special $80 cable directly from Oculus, so I’m glad they removed that barrier. I still feel weird about Superhot in VR. I’ve tried it once before, and the demo still felt awkward to me this time. You have to be so precise in Superhot that dodging bullets while attacking and moving becomes really strenuous, and I don’t think the game really accommodates that well.

Next Steps

All that said, I’m looking forward to digging into all the games I’ve only touched the surface on as well as exploring new things. I’ll try to continue to document my thoughts here so you can all share in my journey with me. I’m coming to realize that VR time is separate from my regular gaming time, in that the experience is totally different. It’s not a replacement for the games I own already; it’s an expansion on a medium and still very new. But there’s something very freeing and magical about VR that comes with the masking of the senses and trickery that the headset provides. Very soon, within the next three to five years even, I think it’ll be much more commonplace.

Thank you for reading if you got this far! And let me know what comments or questions you have here or on Twitter. :)

#vr #oculus quest #video games #vacation ideas #beat saber #job simulator

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iain-games-firstperson · 3 years

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Environment research

Genshin Impact: I know very little about Genshin Impact, but from what I can see, the environments look like they were designed to look and feel like a fantasy European city, along with grassy plateaus and forested areas highly reminiscent of Breath of the Wild. This could lend itself to a feeling of freedom and openness which, depending on the style of game they were going for, could really aid with a sense of freedom and being on an adventure. Without having played the game myself, it’s hard to say for sure. I’ll definitely give it a try go, given that it’s free and reviewed pretty well.

Anthem: I personally really dislike the level design in Anthem, and actually Anthem in general. It feels like EA took Bioware, looked at what they were good at and then forced them to make the exact opposite. Everything takes place in one big, empty open world. The world itself is pretty beautifully designed, but you’re never really looking at it. The actual game is just following one glowing yellow icon through the big environment, eyes locked on the next checkpoint. The terrain feels underutilised and thoughtless. There are roads and empty buildings with no thought put into who would be going to them or why. The world doesn’t feel like a living world for the player to explore, it feels like the questing area in an overhyped and underwhelming online looter shooter, which is really disappointing given what the game could have been.

GTA V: The level design in Grand Theft Auto is a little difficult for me to talk about because I’ll quickly get derailed talking about the open world or how the company has an outdated design formula. However, if talking exclusively about the closed ended missions, the environments used in those (outside of commuting to missions in the open world) are curated specifically to railroad players through a specifically curated experience. The environments are tightly focussed and beautifully hand crafted, ending up feeling rich with detail and deliberately believable. I still physically wince whenever I think about the enormous amount of work that must have gone into so much of this game. The environments in the open world, however, can feel a little lacking at times, with large swathes of the map that are hardly used for anything at all, and although they do make the world feel big, it also just serves to put a commute between interesting areas on the map. However, some people would argue that that’s not the point, and the more space there is on the map, the more room you have to incite chaos and make the lives of the NPC’s hell. I would be loathed to argue with that because it sounds about right. I will always say that the minimap and yellow/purple line telling you exactly where to go at all times isn’t great though, as it takes the player out of the immersion, and makes a lot of the finer details in the world disappointingly easy to miss out on.

Subnautica: The environment in Subnautica is excellent for encouraging the player to explore. Most of the game is driven by player curiosity and wanting to conquer the hostile planet they find themselves on, almost out of spite towards it’s sheer hostility. The map isn’t randomly generated, so none of it is ever wasted. Everything has a purpose and something for the player to gain. Generally, the further out you explore from the starting zone, the rarer the resources you discover are. This incentivises progression on the player’s part, because they have to push further out in order to get the next cool bit of tech. This also ties nicely into the games progression, but I won’t talk about that here. The exploration element is also aided by the lack of an in game map, encouraging the player to learn the layout of the world in order to be able to get around. There are pings that get added to your HUD, which are used to push the player in the right direction, or lead them to the next clue in the mystery, but you never get pings about resources or blueprints, so you have to choose to explore and look around to find them.

Firewatch: Firewatch uses a semi-realistic approach to it’s exploration. You are given a destination by Delilah, and you have to use your map, compass and signs on the trails to find your way there. This is a lot less exploration based, but that works because Firewatch is a very story focussed game. The game does very well at using foliage and lighting to make it clear where the player is supposed to go without holding the player’s hand or coddling them, so when you find your way to somewhere correctly, you do feel like you have successfully read a map and traversed somewhere accurately, which is pretty satisfying, and shows a fair bit of restraint on the part of the developer.

It’s very easy for developers to worry that the player won’t be able to find their way around and add a bunch of markers and tutorials every step of the way, but both Subnautica and Firewatch are pretty good at just letting the player go and having confidence in them. As a result, these games were a small, but noteworthy influence on me in this project, as I really want to do things like this in my games. I want to strive towards giving the player a genuine feeling of achievement, of having overcome something simple, but tricky, such as reading a map and compass with nothing but landmarks, or choosing to step into a new, scary area and overcoming a fear. The feeling I was hoping to achieve with the first person project was a feeling of having solved a problem with deductive reasoning, but I don’t think I had enough time to fully carry through on that.

My personal favourite environment I’ve ever experienced in a video game was in Dark Souls. Dark Souls’ world design and cohesion are legendary, and for good reason too. There’s nothing quite like the feeling when you first emerge, blinking at the sunlight, from Blighttown, turn left and take the lift down to the New Londo ruins, and realise you’re at the bottom of another elevator which takes you back up to Firelink Shrine, and after hours of slogging through The Gutter and trying to just get passed those god damn poison dart spitting guys in Blighttown, you’re finally safe. It’s a wonderful feeling, and one of the first times you realise just how truly interwoven the world is. I remember being utterly dumbfounded when I finally beat Havel the Rock, opened the door that he was guarding and stepped out into Darkroot Basin. My favourite thing about Dark Souls’ environments, and this carries through the sequels and Bloodborne, is the way the worlds feel so incredibly correct. It never seems like a stretch to believe that this giant, gleaming palace would house two gatekeepers who would have smashed me into smithereens if I hadn’t stolen one of the weapons the guards were wielding. Yet, it somehow still maintains this painfully oppressive atmosphere of near torture at times. Dark Souls relishes in futility. It will beat you into a tiny, squishable pulp, and you feel it in the environment. It always seems to be when you’re having trouble with a boss that the grunt enemies you have to avoid as a formality on the way get super strong and just start pummelling you, and frustration hits you hard. It’s almost like the game knows. Almost. But then, just as you hit rock bottom, almost ready to give up and go play something else, you finally overcome that challenge. You land that final blow, you swing that perfect parry, or you perfectly time that dodge roll, and it’s all you needed to overcome that obstacle. Once again you’re on top of the world, and the environment has opened up behind the boss to mirror your feelings. You’re on top of the world, so here’s a whole new section of world for you to conquer, but just before you go down there, here’s a shortcut back to your previous bonfire. “Oh that’s where I am!“ You say excitedly, and hurriedly spend your souls so as not to lose them, Dark Souls’ environment amazed me, not only because of they way it twisted and interconnected together, but also in the way that it managed to subtly mirror my own feelings.

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lavenderlight · 4 years

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1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 39, 40 >:)

Ahdgkhh okay here we go!!!

1: Which TES games have you played?

All 5 main series games, ESO, and Blades!

2: Favorite TES game?

Oblivion........ like the other games have traits I like more, but also cons. Like... if I had to pick a game to just play with only the Unofficial Patch, it’d be that one.

3: When and how you got into TES? I was at a game store with my brother and we saw Oblivion with all these award “amazing game” stickers on it on clearance. So picked it up. I wasn’t impressed right away (remember picking dark elf tho) so put it down. My bro played it and said “omg you have to get out of the tutorial dungeon that sucks but the rest of the game is so good!” So I made a bosmer and did and there rest is history. TES has been a special interest of mine and a big comfort series for a decade now! 4: Favorite race Bosmer! Dunmer are a close second though. Thanks Morrowind. 5: Favorite province Valenwood........... love it............ Cyrodiil too because I’m basic. 6: Favorite character Ahdjgh hard to pick because there are so many! Off the top of my head, Dagoth Ur/Voryn Dagoth, Indoril Nerevar (what a shock, I know), Serana Volkihar, Glarthir, The Adoring Fan (don’t @ me), The Jemane Brothers, Marcurio, really all the characters from ESO’s main quest and the ending side quests who help you 😭😭. 7. Favorite faction

Thieves’ Guild, minus Skyrim’s. Skyrim’s Thieves’ Guild was awful eww.

8: Which province you would like to live in

If the lore and history and stuff weren’t a thing, Summerset because it’s aesthetic and has nice beaches. Realistically, probs Cyrodiil because I’m basic and I like how it’s a melting pot of various races and cultures!

As much as I love Valenwood, wouldn’t be able to handle the Green Pact

9: Which deity/deities would you worship?

Dibella - because I like how she’s the divine for the arts, and actual true love and beauty in the world (feel like she’s the divine most likely to say gay rights and trans rights). That vibes with me.

Makes me sad that both in the games and in the fandom, she’s reduced to “ha ha slutty sex goddess”.

10: Favorite Divine

Dibella because see above.

11: Favorite Daedric Prince

Oh boy... hajdg I love Daedra (except Molag Bal - eww)!!! So it’s hard to pick. Just rapid fire listing some favs: Sheogorath, Meridia, Azura, Barbas (does he count?), Hircine...

12: Favorite enemy

Dagoth Ur

13: Favorite dungeon

Hmmm, I feel like I’m forgetting some, but I enjoyed Nocturnal’s trial dungeon in Skyrim because I like sneaking and it was all based on that.

14. You have awakened and you are a Cliff Racer. What do you do?

Hunt and kill anyone who dares to step outside Seyda Neen lol

15: What would you do if you contracted vampirism?

C u r e

16: What would you do if you contracted lycanthropy?

C u r e

17: Are there any characters you have crushes on?

Not rly because I’m ace.

If so, who?

18: Favorite Great House

The Sixth House. The Tribe Unmourned. The-

Honestly all of them are whack and have... issues. When I played Morrowind, I didn’t join any of them lol. Telvanni is at least entertaining and very out there which makes them cool. So I guess them?

19: Favorite TES music

Ahaha... I sold my soul to Jeremy Soule... I have so so many... :’)

“The Road Most Travelled”, “Peaceful Waters”, “Stilt Sunrise”, “Auri-El’s Ascension”, “Sunrise of Flutes”, “Harvest Dawn”, “All’s Well” “The Streets of Whiterun”, “Secunda” (this is one of my all time favourite video game songs!), “Sovngarde”, “One They Fear”

Then from ESO which has other composers too: “Northpoint Nocturne”, “Moth, Butterfly, and Torchbug”, and “Grazelands Dawn” (mostly because it’s a remix of “The Road Most Travelled” 🥺)

Oh, and this song from the Morrowind dlc because the remaster of “Nerevar Rising” from 2:54 onward. (which how could I forget “Nerevar Rising”? Ugh it gives me feels! The Oblivion and Skyrim main themes are very near and dear to me too)

Also really enjoyed this song from Clockwork City - captures the melancholy vibe and I like the clock noises in it.

20: In your opinion, what is the scariest thing in TES?

I can’t stand spiders so anytime anything having to do with them shows up... I play with mods that remove them and in ESO, I have a list of dungeons and places to avoid. If I have to do one, I make someone go with me and kill them for me lol.

The Lighthouse Quest in Skyrim was also mega spooky. As for lore, soul trapping and the Soul Cairn really freaks me out! I can’t bring myself to use soul trapping because it bothers me :( I headcanon that when a soul gem runs out of charge, the soul is freed because it’s the only way I can sleep at nigh leave me alone lol 21: Favorite main quest Morrowind, hands down. I will infodump and discuss that game’s plot forever. 22: Favorite side quest

I really like the Daedric Shrine quests, they’re always fun. Also love the silly little short quests like in Morrowind when you have to help the guy get his pants back, or in ESO where you gotta find the lost dog in Valenwood and pet it.

Oblivion has loads of side quests I loved... the missing dunmer painter, Hackdirt, that quest with the ladies who are killing men, the Floating Bowl quest... the mystery at Chorrol Castle....

23: Most frustrating experience in a TES game

I get mad any time the sneaking mechanics in ESO don’t work like the main games. Because I always play an archer-thief lol.

That one fabricant machine puzzle in Tribunal.... oh man........ I had to look it up.

And also the final boss for Clockwork City was annoying. Don’t go to the Clockwork City!

24: Funniest experience in a TES game

Other than moments intended to be funny, I sometimes laugh whenever I miss a jump and end up dying from fall damage. It’s so ridiculous.

Dagoth Ur’s “What are you doing?!” when you first attack the Heart always gets a chuckle out of me too. He sounds so... upset and disappointed in you? Lol

25: Most badass moment in a TES game

The ending to ESO’s main quest was a rly big power fantasy moment for me.

Also more mundane, but I felt really cool and powerful when I got to the point in Morrowind where I could one shot kill cliff racers lol

26: Saddest experience in a TES game

The ESO side quest, “The Soul-Meld Mage” in Coldharbour. After that one, I had to step away for a bit.... man. It hurt my heart and I still feel so bad. That was a case in the game where I really felt impacted by how cruel and awful Molag Bal is. Like I *knew* but that quest played with my emotions and made it personal.

27: Favorite area/region

Valenwood from ESO. I spend all my time there, and sometimes go to Summerset or Vvardenfell lol.

28: Least favorite character

Vivec.

Also don’t like Maven-Black Briar. :I

29: In-game food item you want to eat the most

Sweetroll!

Also this one recipe for a beef dish I found in Valenwood sounded good. Maybe also the Sunrise Souffle mentioned in Skyrim?

30: If you could try skooma, would you?

No. Don’t do drugs, kids.

31: If you had the skills and resources to do a perfect cosplay of any TES character who would it be?

Probs Serana

32: Have you read any of the novels?

No, but I’ve been thinking about it!

33: Favorite class to play

Thief, or a thief-similar class like agent or rogue.

34: Which type of magic would you most like using?

Alteration seems the most useful for everyday life lol. But illusion would be fun.

35: Favorite weapon

I use bows all the time!

36: Favorite spell

Levitate from Morrowind - it’s so much fun to use!

37: Favorite artifact

Nerevar’s Moon-And-Star Ring. It’s cute lol and I like the lore behind it!

Also enjoy the Wabbajack because of how silly it is, and Dibella’s Brush of Truepaint.

38: You have awakened to find you’re in Tamriel. How do you react?

Because yeah I love TES but also the world of it is scary with gods and monsters constantly trying to kill you lol

39: Thoughts on ESO so far

I really enjoy the world and writing! But I’m still cranky over some moments where it’s an MMO and not a normal TES game :I

I also hate that we can’t have NPC companions. You really gonna give me a clockwork nix-hound named Snuffler and not let me travel with him? For shame.

40: Character you’d most like to hang out with

Nerevar, because I’m very awkward and shy and bad at peopleing and I would hope he could teach me how to improve lol.

But to actually hang out and chill, Marcurio would be pretty fun lol

#thank you!!!#asks #rucow

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leagueofidiots · 4 years

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Shigadabi, tad bit of angst but it's brief, death in game, set in current manga time for once lol

Based off of this post: https://leagueofidiots.tumblr.com/post/190065984843/leagueofidiots-lunarapocolypse

"I don't understand why you can't just play with Spinner," says Dabi. "I'm probably gonna suck at this."

"Never know until you try," says Shigaraki, starting the game up. "Besides, I trust your abilities. And even if you do suck, it'll be nice to spend time together for once."

Dabi nods. "Fair enough." Since joining the Paranormal Liberation Front, their moments alone had been few and far between because of Dabi's habit of isolating himself when stressed and all of Tomura's new responsibilities. "What's this one called again?"

"Minecraft. It's pretty simple. You just try not to die and make stuff." He grabs his remote, prosthetic fingers clacking on the plastic. "Basic controls: mine, place, motion, direction, crafting menu, pause, map, jump," he says, pointing at various controls.

Dabi nods, catching about half of the instructions. "Yeah, okay. Uh...die how?"

"Just zombies and stuff. You'll figure it out." He quickly makes a world in normal mode instead of hard, per Dabi's request, named "my bf sucks", and starts up the videogame.

Once making it through the tutorial segment for Dabi's sake, Dabi says, " Okay, so first we should probably make a better shelter, right? I don't want to stand in a hole in the side of a mountain again tonight."

Shigaraki shrugs. "You can handle that if you want, I'm gonna go do something else. Meet up at this ugly tree at sunset, I guess?"

"Yeah, sure, okay." Dabi almost argues that building a proper shelter in one day should be a two-person job, but reminds himself that out of the two of them, Tomura's the gamer and definitely more experienced.

It does turn out to be simpler than he expected, not much more than digging down a tree for a door and digging up row after row or dirt. Suddenly he hears a wave of pathetic "meows", and glances in alarm at Shigaraki's side of the screen. " What are you doing?!?"

Shigaraki's hot bar is full of stacks of spawn eggs, which are rapidly being thrown down into a deep pool he sits in, the resulting cats floating up to a stone roof and slowly drowning. "Being more fun than you."

"That's not 'fun', you NEET, that's useless murder! Where did you even get those?!?"

Tomura chuckles. "You think I've been playing this long and haven't learned the cheat codes? Besides, you're the one that goes into alleyways to set stray thugs on fire, not me. At least mine's just pixelated cats."

Dabi rolls his eyes. "You could at least help me with the shelter here."

"It's a fifteen-by-eight two-story dirt palace, I don't think you need any help. Besides, it's a game. It's supposed to be fun. You're making this like one of Kurogiri's old---" He cuts himself off at the mention of his father figure.

Dabi glances at his boyfriend, slightly concerned, though he'll never show it. "Fine, keep drowning cats, see if I care. But at least come back with beds if you can generate stuff."

He nods, shooting off another few eggs. "Dabi, do you think we're ever gonna win this thing?" he asks, leaning onto Dabi's shoulder.

The man stiffens a little, but lets Tomura stay. "Yeah, I'm sure we can at least get something done. We've already had an influence, haven't we? I mean, All Might retired, there's been a resurgence in thinking like ours, and I don't think it'll just die down even if we do all end up dead or in custody. You've done good work," he says, continuing to place blocks onto their house.

"I hope it's worth it. I mean, yeah, we've done good things, but...I mean, first it was All for One. Then Magne died. Now Kurogiri. I'd hate to have to make any more sacrifices is all."

He shoots another stack of spawn eggs down, then turns to his boyfriend. "How have you been since your fight with that Geten freak?"

Dabi groans. "He sucks. I'm fine. Burned the side of my face a little, but nothing so bad that Ujiko couldn't fix it."

Shigaraki nods. After a moment, he says,"How would you feel about a magma floor? It'd keep mobs out, might kill us if we're not careful though." He summons a stack with the press of a few buttons.

"Only if you let me place it. No offense, but I'm not sure you're exactly worried about survival based on the way you were murdering animals instead of helping me." Dabi says, finally done with their shelter.

"No, I wanna do it."

"Fine, I'll go get food. You could have at least drowned cows for food or something, geez." He was glad to have moved on from the heavier topics. Sure, it was kind of nice to have people to talk to about things like that, but he also didn't know how to. He doubted Tomura was any better at it, anyway.

"Alright, knock yourself out. Step carefully once you get back." The second Dabi passes over a hill on his quest, Shigaraki grins, and presses a few buttons in rapid-fire, the sky darkening instantly.

"Creep, I swear, put the sky back!" snaps Dabi, gently bumping Tomura off of his shoulder.

He snickers. "You were gonna have to deal with the mobs at some point. Don't worry, you're only about a minute from home."

Dabi huffs, and begins his return to the shelter. He cuts short when he sees a tall, black figure in his way. "What is this and how do I get rid of it?"

"Oh, that's an enderman. Don't worry, all you have to do is look at it right in the eye, it'll teleport away."

Dabi recognizes it as the thing Kurogiri was often compared to by both Tomura and Suichi, but decides not to bring it up. "That seems easy enough," he mumbles, adjusting his cursor to meet its purple gaze. There is a short yelp as the enderman nears to murder poor, trusting, innocent Dabi; and Shigaraki falls to the floor, cackling. Dabi was never playing this again.

#shigadabi #shigaraki #dabi #f to pay respects #manga spoilers #I have been both of them #writing

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