#random npc bad guys be up to no good
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Is it possible to do head cannons for digital circus characters with a reader who's too nice for their own good
Like they get in danger when trying to talk to the bad guy npc thinking that they could persuade them to the good side
TADC cast x reader whos too nice!
Anon I'm so so sorry that it took me so long to get to this <\3! I gotta admit I've been in like, a bit of a burn out recently and I'm still recovering from my baking spree last week so I'm WOOOooOoooooO
That said I hope you enjoy!
Written ambiguously, if you want to see this as romantic or platonic, is totally up to you!
CAINE:
Literally puts a pause on the IHA when he sees you being dragged away by the big bad guy, all while still trying to insist that the NPC with no chance to gain sentience can be good.. caine finds it endearing in it's own way, its sweet, you see the best in people... and non-people... but reader, this is exactly how you get hurt..! Keeps a close eye on you during IHA
POMNI:
While I dont think pomni fits the "too nice for her own good" vibe, I feel that shes... what word am i looking for? Submissive? She kind of just goes with what others are doing; asides from her initial freak out we dont see much pushback from her in the pilot, though that could be thanks to shock... perhaps shes still feeling it during IHAs given how random and intense they can be..? Point is I think pomni would give a meek resistance before scurrying off after you, trying to save you from the clutches of the baddie
RAGATHA:
Shes loves you so much, dont get her wrong. She loves that you're so sweet to everyone, even to those who dont deserve it. Actually if anything, Ragatha is also a little too sweet for her own good.. but shes not as trusting and naive as you are. Frantically pulls you away to the side when you try to make your way to the days villain, gently scolding you and asking what you were thinking. She doesnt mean to make you feel bad, but she doesn't want to see you hurt!
JAX:
One of the only two characters that might get a little mean with you. Not like "mean as in berating you for being so naive" more so "I'm upset that you seemingly have no regard for your safety, I care about you and I cant see you continue to throw yourself into danger" way that can come off as mean, since jax isnt really.. the best as saying this softly.. immediately cuts through any "what ifs" you might bring up to him, you're the only person in this circus that he actually enjoys and hes not going to let you get flung around.. can his tone be softer? Sure, but can you blame him if this is a regular occurrence?
KINGER:
This poor man nearly has a heart attack when he sees you about to be absolutely demolished (but not really thanks to the digital world), probably ends in him getting hurt too.. but that would be mean.. but also can you imagine the angst? The guilt? He probably pushes through the pain to get to you and hes just. Feverishly pulling you to him and patting you down to make sure you're okay... he won't tell you to stop being so nice; in fact I dont think the thought crosses his mind ever.. but he does ask to never do that again, the getting into danger thing
ZOOBLE:
The other character that might get a little mean when confronting you about it, but given zoobles general attitude as well as their tone of voice, it seems like they're more angry with you than they actually are. They think you're too nice for your own good, truly. While the others may find it sweet and endearing, they're constantly thinking about how one day you'll be in over your head and wont have a way out. This might actually result in an argument, thanks to zoobles tone and way of going about things.. but you guys eventually communicate and make up, at least I would like to think so
GANGLE:
Very similar to pomni in the regard that she doesnt have the spine (haha) to tell you not to do whatever you're planning on doing. "I don't think... oh.. oh wait, reader-" as she scurries after you so you dont get lost. Gets legitimately sad and beats herself up if you get hurt. Similar to zoobles, you guys are going to need to communicate and work together on this because gangle cannot handle the fact that you're constantly getting hurt thanks to your kindness grating on her mind all day every day
#tadc x reader#the amazing digital circus x reader#digital circus x reader#caine x reader#pomni x reader#ragatha x reader#jax x reader#kinger x reader#zooble x reader#gangle x reader
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Ok. Ok. Time to put my thoughts in order about S2 and we're starting at literally the first scene because whoo boy is there a lot going on that I like.
So. Stede's Fantasy Pirate Rescue aka this show having no illusions about Stede's fuck ups and where the story-driving conflict is coming from (*cough* Stede and Edward themselves *cough*)
It opens with what frankly a concerning amount of fandom seemed to view as the solution to all the problems of S1 - namely a Stede vs Izzy swordfight. Stede is really going all in on his dashing pirate hero fantasy. He has the beard. The sword skills. He gets his sword knocked out of his hand (again) but this time it ends on a witty one liner and stabbing Izzy with a concealed knife before artfully claiming his cutlass. He even dramatically kills him! And, villain defeated, there's Ed running through the surf to embrace him! Everything is perfect and wonderful and conflict free - and it all collapses back into reality with Wee John literally farting all over it.
Pete even openly mocks his moaning "Ed, Ed" in his sleep!
Because it's a fantasy! A ridiculous one at that! And the truly fantastical bit isn't even the reunion, or Stede's heroics. No... The part that's absurd, that even Stede can't make himself believe in his own subconscious mind, is that there's a convenient external villain to all of this and he and Ed can just pick back up where they left off.
Fantasy!Izzy and Fantasy!Ed are basically barbie dolls in this dream, but you can watch Stede's awareness that this is truly just a comforting fantasy slipping through.
Fantasy!Izzy gets cast as the villain because why wouldn't he? Stede has disliked him going back to that conversation at Spanish Jackie's where he basically offloaded a bunch of his own issues on this random pirate guy for having bad vibes, Izzy did betray him specifically to the Navy, and the last thing his crew would have been able to tell him about was Izzy ordering his stuff tossed and rowing them to an island (on Blackbeard's orders, but that's easy enough for Stede to ignore). He's even got him putting on a villain voice!
But the line. The only fantasy character line in this entire dream that connects with the situation in reality instead of sounding like stock NPC responses. Stede defeats his villain and The Villain / Fantasy!Izzy / Stede's subconscious looks up from his knees and reminds him:
"I never made you leave him. You did that yourself."
And Stede kills him for saying it! Goes back to the comforting script where he demands to know where Ed is and Izzy calls him a twat! Shut up, subconscious, Stede needs to rescue his damsel!
And his damsel barbie doll is so happy to see him! Fantasy!Edward's lines are the most disconnected, NPC babble. It's hilarious 🤣
Fantasy!Ed: "I knew you'd find me, babe"
Stede: "You're not mad?"
Fantasy!Ed: "I knew you'd find me, love"
Stede: "So we're good? About everything?"
Fantasy!Ed: "Fucking love the beard, mate".
Can I mention how much I love the repetition there? Zero engagement in the conversation, totally amps up the NPC vibe.
Stede is begging his own dream to reassure him that he didn't hurt Ed that bad, to tell him Ed will be so happy to see him it will fix everything, and he doesn't get what he's looking for. Because it's not true. The show in fact laughs in the face of that interpretation. Stede's making up a idealized "fix" (being a dashing hero) for the BlackBonnet relationship, and even Stede knows it's bullshit.
Edward and Stede's relationship issues and personal struggles have a bodycount this season (R.I.P. Ivan 😭) and it's immensely satisfying that so far no one is inclined to pull their punches on this fact or foist the blame elsewhere.
Not even Stede's subconscious!
#our flag means death#ofmd s2#ofmd s2 spoilers#ofmd 2x01#stede bonnet ofmd#stede bonnet#blackbonnet#ofmd meta#ladyluscinia
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What are like good AIs for making up inspirations for writing and such? I was trying to make ChatGPT fulfill this function, and like it's good at coming up with names or riddles but actual stories or setting ideas are bad. Not even bad as in nonsensical or lack human touch, bad as in they look like the most generic thing possible
Well, before AIs there was this website, with all sorts of generators for names, NPCs, even random maps and solar systems and more for different settings. It even has a free Markov Name Generator where you can just put a list of names or words and it generates random names from them! I still use it for generating names when I feel lazy (I'm not a good conlanger)
But my favorite right now is one you can find here, @statsbot by @reachartwork. You can add the bot on Discord and ask them for a lot of commands, like creating you a statblock for NPCs or characters (I asked them for example for stats for the Daft Punk guys in a Cyberpunk campaign), a skeleton of an adventure or dungeon with random encounters, random monsters for all kinds of systems, descriptions of settings and places, or my VERY favorite, /elaborate, where you send them a little worldbuilding prompt (for example, "a kobold merchant republic", "a pantheon of fire deities") and it gives you a whole worldbuilding blurb that you can use as you want.
This is one of my favorite outputs:
The outputs are very interesting and creative, I don't even play RPGs that much, I just feed it prompts and see what it comes up with. I think the author is working on a solo version which can remember previous prompts which could be very useful if you are building a setting and want to develop some stuff but don't know how. Do give them a tip if you use it!
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warning: a rant no one asked for!!!
episode 7 wasn't bad but i'm kinda disappointed abt how the writing is less and less subtle and they're forgetting the show don't tell rule
e.g. rick saying summer reminds him of diane, even tho he already said that before to the ai he made in c-137 (it had a huge impact in that scene). now he said it in a moment where it wasn't earned at all. it was still sweet ig.. it's just that some scenes feel like the writers have a fucking check list for the things they gotta make the characters say and make up stories around those dialogues. it comes out of nowhere.
then revealing summer's gay (what a big reveal, we already know that if you've read the comics or if you've seen the episode where jerry developed an app with glootie) in a random way like: oh look she doesn't want the guy because she want girl!! what a girlboss, another W for lgbt community /s
they could've used the time they wasted on showing off the boring ass party (that was really uncreative) to show summer and the girl develop at least some basic feelings lmao, but they just put the least effort into it so they could take "summer gay" off that checklist. like come on, i'd be interested in their relationship, they could have made her an actual person, but they gave more personality to the guy trafficking summer.
a similar thing happened in the cursed jerricky episode, where one of em said "we're all a little gay" like BE MORE SUBTLE I'M BEGGING!!! i always loved the show for not saying certain things out loud and not having to spell shit out for the audience, but in some episodes they wrote it like it's intended for children.
i'm kinda disappointed at the writing of a few episodes this season, they don't seem like they were thought out very well.
some episodes feel really bland because they make the characters say the most NPC phrases imaginable.
what's interesting is that most scenes with rick aren't affected by this at all, it's like all the effort is put into his writing, which is like a good thing for rick fans, but if they don't fix the world around him soon, i swear i'm gonna start theorizing that he's in a simulation again.
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tadc headcanons perhaps? Any character, lee or ler
☆—TADC Main Cast Tkl Headcanons—☆
~How about all of them? This took forever; I live in shame. But hey, they're done now, so…yay! LONG so prepare to read for a sec. Thank you for your patience, and I hope you Enjoy!~
💙Pomni🃏
General:
This wet dog of a clown definitely loves tickles.
She just thinks it’s nice that there’s a way to just laugh without needing to think about anything else: a way to just disconnect and enjoy oneself.
A lee-leaning switch. Loves being tickled, but occasionally wants to make someone else giggle and squirm.
Lee:
She gets lee moods pretty frequently, though she rarely tries to fix them. Girl is way too anxious to actually ask for what she wants
Sometimes, one of her fellow players will notice and step in and help, usually Kinger or Ragatha.
She’s a squirmer for sure. Make sure you’ve got a good grip, or she’ll wriggle away (not for long, but still)
If you get her really good, she’ll squeak like a stress toy. It flusters the hell out of her if you tease about it.
Worst spots are her sides, which get loud squeaks if you squeeze them. Navel is sorta bad as well, but she can handle it a lot longer.
Melt spot is her neck, specifically under her chin. She can and will fall asleep if you stay there too long.
Ler:
She’s a softer ler to everyone but Jax. He deserves it honesty-
Gentle tickles, small teases, compliments. Her goal is to make you happy.
“Wow, you’ve got a really pitchy laugh. No, don’t stop, it’s nice.”
“Thanks for not squirming away. Oh, c’mon, I can tell.”
“You’re so soft… I’ve gotta do this more often.”
Really easy to fluster if you can think through the giggles; a quick compliment or praise has her burning.
Her ler moods are usually spurred by something else, like walking in on a tickle fight or hearing the t-word a certain way.
To fix a mood, she’ll usually just go up to Ragatha or Kinger and wiggle her fingers. They usually get the message pretty quickly.
Pretty decent with aftercare. She’s a cuddle bug, but if you’re not big on touch, she’ll find a blanket for you. Other than that, you’ll have to ask.
🦷Caine🎪
General:
The chaos man is a pure switch.
Once he finds out that tickling can affect him and works oh-so-well on his friends, he makes sure to abuse that knowledge whenever possible.
I mean, laughter is better than abstraction, right?
Lee:
The first time he’s tickled is the most confusing moment of his existence.
Like, what? Someone wiggles their fingers somewhere, and it feels like little fuzzy zaps under his digital skin? Crazy.
Once he gets past that, though, the toothy man loves every bit of the odd sensation he can get.
He’ll provoke the players, casually throw the t-word into speeches, or make NPCs to do the job for him (nobody knows about these guys though)
He tries to hold still, but don’t be surprised if he randomly teleports mid-tickle. It always flusters him when he has to go back and ask for it to continue.
Worst spots are his sides and underarms. He’ll screech.
He’s not really all that ticklish anywhere else though, each spot only getting little giggles and titters.
Doesn’t really have a melt spot, though he loves belly tickles. It’s not a bad spot at all for him, but he likes feeling “normal” and connected to the players in that sense.
Sometimes, if you really get him laughing, the sound will glitch. It’s utterly adorable to hear.
Ler:
Run as fast as you can, my friends.
Ler moods come to him for completely random reasons. If he sees someone sad or stressed, if they laugh just a bit too sweetly, if they’re being too sassy: they’re done for.
He uses his digital powers to subdue lees. If you’re hiding? He’ll teleport to you. Fighting him off? Bubbles come and snag your wrists. If you genuinely don’t want him to, he’ll let you go. Other than that, good luck.
“Oh my! You’re quite ticklish, aren’t you?”
“You can’t, hmm? Can’t what? Can’t handle it? Can’t tell me to stop? I’d love to know what’s going through your mind, dear!”
“It tickles, does it? How about I add a few feathers; I hear they’re all the rage among humans!”
He’s really hard to fluster when he’s tickling. Teasy lees, you might have met your match.
Sort of okay with aftercare? He doesn’t understand it at first, but he tries. Head pats and water are his go-to, but he’ll do more if you ask.
💜Jax🐇
General:
Sassy rabbit feels like a ler-leaning switch.
He’s always willing to wreck a bitch, but doesn’t mind the occasional laugh or two for himself.
When he’s feeling lonely or touch starved, tickles are his go-to in either direction.
Lee:
While on the rare side, his lee moods are intense.
Blushes, small giggles, antsy demeanor, flinching from small touches: not exactly discreet.
If another player notices (which almost always happens), he’ll deny and fight it ‘til the cows come home. You’ve gotta fight to give him what he wants.
He’s a flailer for sure. Donkey kicks and stray elbows are his specialty.
Worst spots are his ears, specifically the bases. They get him cackling almost instantly.
Melt spots are the tops of his knees. Nobody really ever targets them, but he goes nearly limp if a few spidering fingers land there.
If you get him just right, he’ll thump his feet against the floor. He dies if you tease him about it.
Ler:
Evil son of a gun, so watch your back.
He lives for a good chase. Will probably try and tease you into running, just so he can trap and catch you.
Very verbal and teasing. He has zero shame in turning you red as a rose.
“You got ten seconds to run, doll. Better make ‘em count~”
“Aww, what’s the matter? Can’t bring your arms down? That’s alright; I’ll make sure you have some fun~”
“You sure do scream a lot, sweet cheeks. I’d cover my ears if they didn’t sound so cute.”
Very smug man, not an easily flustered ler. It really takes some confident prodding or skill to get him.
He uses his tall man advantage every time. Holding a lee up by their arms, using his legs to keep them sitting, putting something on a tall shelf and attacking whenever they try to get it: the list goes on.
He’s actually pretty good with aftercare, even if he doesn’t like to admit it.
He’ll make sure you’re okay and get you water, though he’ll act like it’s such a chore. After that, it’s either cuddles because you “look like death warmed over,” or a special snack to “keep you from annoying him.”
❤️Ragatha🪡
General:
She’s a switch, not really leaning in one direction or the other.
Loves tickling because it can make the other players laugh, which they all desperately need. She knows she does.
Lee:
She’s incredibly shy when she gets in a lee mood. Good luck getting her to do anything productive or coherent until she’s helped.
While she tries holding still, she can’t help but curl up. You’ll need to hold her arms above her head or get used to moving with her.
I like to think she’s got a louder, more obnoxious-sounding laugh (no projection, you have 0 proof-)
Lots of snorts, cackles, and little hiccup-squeaks.
Speaking of which, the easiest way to fluster her is to compliment her laugh. She’s self-conscious about it, so literally any praise will have her coming apart at the seams (hehehe pun)
Worst spots are her neck and back, specifically her shoulder blades. She cannot handle massages around there.
Melt spots are her belly and thighs. Some gentle traces or pokes in either of those areas has her in giggle heaven.
Ler:
She's incredibly sweet, though she's got a different way of doing things for certain people.
With most of the circus members, she's soft and playful. Light touches, quick scribbles and small teases.
“You're such a wiggle worm, giggles. Try to hold still for me, will you?”
“Aww, look at that adorable blush. I'm glad to know you're having fun!”
For select individuals (Jax and anyone misbehaving), she's playfully mean and a touch ruthless. Fast squeezes and very teasy attacks.
“Aww, that spot’s pretty sensitive, huh? I should tell the others; I'm sure they'd love a chance to see you like this!”
She's surprisingly strong, able to pin pretty much all of the players. If you wanna try escaping, get ready for a good fight.
She's amazing with aftercare. She'll make sure you're alright, get you a drink, and swaddle you in a soft blanket for cuddles.
If you aren't big on touch, she'll get you the finest digital cuisine (basically asking Caine for your favorite food) and whatever else you can think of.
🎭Gangle🎀
General:
This ribbon girl is very much a lee.
If she does tickle anyone, it’s an extremely rare one-off occasion.
She’s just more comfortable with being tickled, for a number of reasons.
Doesn’t want to risk pushing someone’s boundaries, uncomfortable touching them, or just a general not-wanting-too feeling.
Lee:
Lee moods are about as rare as pebbles for her. They’re pretty obvious, too.
Tightly coiled posture, a giddy look on her face (biggest giveaway), and very nonchalant staring at people’s hands.
Needless to say, everyone is clued in almost immediately.
She has no shame in wiggling around and unraveling, though she does actually want to get away. It’s fun, and it usually gets her ler to tease her.
Worst spots are the inner parts of her midsection ribbons. She will absolutely try to unravel and slip out of your arms if you try it.
Melt spot is her mask, specifically the back of it. As long as she’s wearing it, she’ll feel the tickles. Girly melts into a giddy puddle in your arms.
Her laughter is really pitchy, with plenty of squeaks and squeals to go around. Kind of like a mouse on helium (great way to tease her, as long as it’s done kindly)
Gets flustered VERY easily. You won’t have to try hard unless you really want to.
♚Kinger🪲
General:
The softest lee-leaning switch you'll ever meet.
He loves tickles, though you won't catch him openly admitting it. It's too embarrassing for him
He gets lee moods frequently, though he's willing to help a friend with theirs if they need it.
Lee:
He's decently shy, never coming out and asking for tickles. He usually just suffers in silence until Ragatha notices.
On a rare day where he's stable and confident, he'll tease Pomni or the ragdoll to try and provoke it.
It rarely works how he'd like, but they almost always realize that he's in a lee mood. Failed successfully.
He'll squirm around like a literal worm, though he can't help it. Lucky for his ler, he's pretty much a walking tickle spot.
If one spot is blocked, another opens up.
His worst spot is his stomach. He goes silent when anyone gets him there, save for the occasional squeak or gasp.
Melt spot is the top of his head on the little cross thing. He'll lean right into it, maybe even fall asleep.
He's got a really squeaky, pitchy laugh. If you get him really laughing, he'll start to snort and flap his hands.
Ler:
If one of his fellow players is close to abstraction or just needs some cheering up, he'll be there.
He's got a very soft, lightly teasing style. Doesn't really push anyone to their limits unless they really want him to.
“Of all the bugs in my collection, I must say I have a favorite…the Tickle Bug!”
“Those are some cute giggles, friend. So glad you could share them with me!”
“Of course I can help with your…predicament. Now, arms up for me, dear.”
Kind of the dad of the circus. He's always there to help if need be.
Super great with aftercare. 80% of the time, he'll tickle you in his fort. That means pillowy cuddles afterwards and a nice nap.
If that's not your thing, he's more than willing to accommodate. As long as you're happy, he's happy.
🎡Zooble🪀
General:
This preschool toy mashup gives me strong ler vibes.
They don’t seem like someone who’d like to be tickled unless the ler was EXTREMELY close to them and knew their boundaries by heart.
Ler:
They’re an absolutely despicable little shit.
Worst spot targeting, slightly mean teases, and the CHASES!
They could throw their arm at the fleeing lee, and it’d all be over. The thing could latch onto their worst spot and wiggle away, leaving the lee unable to do anything but wait for Zooble to catch up.
It doesn’t take a lot to provoke them, but if you want a proper wrecking, you’ll have to work for it. They don’t get annoyed enough to destroy someone easily.
VERY teasy, almost unfairly so.
“Tickles, does it? Maybe if you hadn’t been such a pain in the *boink*, this wouldn't be happening.”
“You brought this on yourself, ya know. Every unbearably ticklish second of it.”
“What? Not my fault this is your worst spot. Get less ticklish.”
Have you seen that lobster claw thing? You can’t tell me that thing wouldn’t tickle like crazy.
For aftercare, they try their respective best. They’ll pat your back, maybe give you a head rub.
After that, they’ll typically bring their undoubtably exhausted lee to Kinger’s pillow fort for a much-needed nap.
#tadc tickle#ticklish!ragatha#ticklish!pomni#ticklish!kinger#ticklish!caine#ticklish!gangle#ticklish!jax#ler!zooble#sfw tickling community#tickle#tickle headcanons#lee!pomni#ler!pomni#lee!caine#ler!caine#lee!kinger#ler!kinger#lee!gangle#lee!ragatha#ler!ragatha#the amazing digital circus tickle#switch!pomni#switch!caine#switch!ragatha#switch!jax#switch!kinger
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I still think about qsmp purgatory
To me, that arc was absolutely perfect.
The stakes were so high, we genuinely thought some or all of the eggs might die depending on who the winners ended up being, and no one knew exactly how that would play out, so you had to just try damn hard to win for your kid. But there was even that chance that if your team did win that would be the wrong outcome and your kids would die.
But anyway the atmosphere was insane
That eye and the ominous fucking voice, that opening animatic of the mystery guy walking into a surveillance setup, monitoring everyone on the island, that’s so cool. So much mystery, so much implied power.
And then we get there and girlies have NOTHING. And it was fucking bugged or something for the first part so no one could fucking mine cobblestone. Then the random disadvantages pile on top of that, now you’ve got to worry about thirst, all the food is going bad and won’t stack.
And I watched Bolas pov so that’s what I am talking about:
This group was at every conceivable disadvantage. Right off the bat they only have like half the active members of the other groups, no one there is good at pvp, and most of those guys don’t really grind and play that much. They keep dying, Phil starts to make some progress and admins spawn mobs all around him to prevent even that. They give up, and resort to killing each other.
And somehow, from rock bottom, from passing through all the stages of grief and landing on insanity, this small group goes from being but a speck in the progress bar percentages to fucking winning the whole thing.
Watching their madness turn into actual power is sooooo wonderful to watch. They stay fully crazy. But somehow, that works. Going absolutely feral, saying fuck the rules and do whatever, yell mumbled nonsense at your enemies, steal all their shit, that’s the winning play.
There is something so gratifying in watching them go from day one of not having a base, dying over and over again, to week 2 where they are kinda doing the damn thing. And still don’t have a real base and die over and over. I mean that’s literally Jaiden’s main strategy.
And then Baghera with the fucking chainsaw. And Cellbit leaning into his character’s preestablished bloodlust thingy, and everyone collectively building off of each other’s energy.
And something about watching my favorite blorbos lose their goddamn minds for 5 hours every day. I loved every second of it. And it wouldn’t be able to be much longer, Slimecicle for one was absolutely exhausted, that guy doesn’t stream for more than a few hours and now he was grinding for 5 a day. Only adds to the chaos.
But the pace, it being every day and yet a scramble because of the time limit of play time.
The stakes of the eggs lives potentially being on the line
The complete foreign nature of an entirely new island?? With a new scary npc??? Unprecedented.
I absolutely love this arc.
It’s been a while and I still think about it.
I’m mostly making this post because we’ll mainly it’s 2am and that’s the sort of thing you do at 2am but also because I remember like during and right after the prison event people saying that was their favorite qsmp arc
And like good for you bestie but I do not get it
My heart belongs to purgatory
And I want to submit “ok but do you remember-“ to the council because it was fucking perfect.
And omg the fucking bolas shrine and Baghera and cellbit cameo in purgatory 2 like, ah my heart.
Bolas forever o7
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Finally got around to finishing the post game and gotta say, if DD1 was 50% of what they wanted to do, DD2 felt like 70% but the other 30% was the story and Battahl. I loved the game, but it really suffers from the lack of a narrative.
the game's story really does feel like a rough draft that was somehow polished up into a full game. sometimes not even that: more of like a pitch that got tossed around like "ohh yeah i guess we could do that"
the most egregious part for me is now that i'm in ng+ i can really think about just how fucking weird it is that after act 1, where lord phaesus gets the big "i'm the bad guy looking disdainfully out my carriage window, onto you, the arisen, whom the camera states i see as lesser" cutscene the rest of the game just pivots to us working with him and his assistant, i guess.
a lot of stuff in dd2 also feels like it exists out of necessity because "well, we had it in dragon's dogma 1, so it has to be in this game!" largely the beloved system. we don't have a character like duke dragonsbane who really just exists to justify the idea of having a character you're willing to give up for ultimate power and seeing what that effect might have on someone, because in dd2 you just see the dragon (who isn't named! what!) clutching your beloved, 99% some random fuck npc if you didn't manage to get the ring off the sphinx, and you just have to laugh because like there's a good chance the player has no emotional attachment to this character bc they're just pretty faces with stock personalities and the game doesn't treat the arisen as a person so what reason does the player have to do the same?
i also like briefly talked about this on twitter but when i was looking through the design documents for dragon's dogma 1 and you see how much concepting went into cassardis, the starting area... it makes it really hard for me to buy the conceit of the arisen in dragon's dogma 2. games that just drop you into the action without any backstory work really good if roleplaying was a major aspect of the gameplay, but for dragon's dogma 2 it's not. the point of being chosen to be arisen is that you have the ability to show courage in the face of futility — in dragon's dogma 1, the arisen throws away their life in order to save the village that they love.
in dragon's dogma 2... what, you push some pretty girl out of the way? you're maybe like a village guard? ulrika has like so much more motivation to be chosen as arisen it's kind of mind-boggling. dd2's arisen is a cipher but they need to be an actual character for the conceit of the arisen's will changes the world to make any sense.
this screenshot actually made me laugh out loud but in the way that one might laugh in the face of oncoming traffic. what do you even mean man. the only characters with any story relevance for the entirety of the game's plot are brant, sven, and phaesus lmfao you could get rid of everyone else and it wouldn't matter whatsoever
i mean i love this game. it's easily an 8/10 for me but it's so much harder for me to ignore a good game's bad story than it is for me to ignore a good story's bad gameplay. and if dd2's story is markedly worse than dd1's in every single possible facet...
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Also I think I do owe some LORE about Owen, he isn't really perfect. I feel like what SOME of what he does is somewhat justified / can be justified but in my eyes it makes him annoying?
-Snitched on Jer when he caught him cheating in an exam.
-Told Sally she is too loud during one of their "dates".
- Also told Sally she wears TOO much pink. (He feels it's too distracting and is "too much")
- isn't up to try new things in bed with Sally because he's "scared". (But really he just doesn't like doing things out of his comfort zone)
- tries to change Sally due to him being very nitpicky. (He /loves/ her or at least the idea of her. She's very pretty, smart and funny- he does want her, but he wants her based on his idea of her- he really can't handle her chaotic mean nature.)
He's not evil, and of course doesn't deserve the bad treatment or the bullying, but he's also not perfect. None of them are. I still stand by him not being villainous but they are obvious flaws. Like you can't deny it's a bit scummy. And in return Jeremiah bullies him because he's the perfect subject for it, and Sally finds it hilarious. So really none of them are perfect.
Sally and Jeremiah are the obvious bad guys in this situation. And Owen is just ignorant. Like he doesn't go out of his way to cause harm but, he never bullies people and is genuinely nice to others, but I don't really think of him as this poor innocent guy. 🙊
I dislike him for the sole reason of people being so entitled over him. I've got a person on Instagram who made several spam accounts and commented on half of my posts (Owen x Sally) and I blocked them for good. Or have people tell me that (They HATE my bully ocs and of course, other insults even tho that's the POINT) so like, basically all it did is for me to see anyone who mention him is basically trying to be condescending, about how morally good they are because they don't like having fictional Villains. So yeah, I do tend to get pretty annoyed. 😂
I don't want to hate my own oc but all this fictional little npc did was show me how stupid some people are. "We hate fictional bullies because it's bad so we are going to bully you, an actual person, over it) like, get the fuck out my face.
And one last note: I might be interested in fleshing Owen more, I am definitely not going to make him the bad guy, but I do truly think his inclusion is interesting, especially that I LOVE drama and gossip. And I know if I get over the hate, I might actually like this random oc of mine. Thank you for coming to my ted talk.
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I'm back, and:
I'll get to all the asks in my inbox soon!
I'll get back to writing soon (tm)
I have finished Persona 5, and I have (spoiler warning) 10 thoughts after the break.
So for context, I played and finished Persona 5 Royal on PC. I ended up putting 95 hours into it, beating the main storyline and doing a good amount of the Mementos quests/confidant storylines, but I didn't do the third semester (more on that later). Thoughts:
What a game. I'm a pretty big JRPG guy, and this ranks up there in my top 5 of all time. Easily. Great characters, great storyline (albeit with what I thought was some filler towards the end of the game), really fun (if basic) battle system. And it's easily the most stylish JRPG I've ever played, and a lot of that has to do with the comic-style UI and god-tier soundtrack. Loved the game, loved the characters. After I finished it, I felt like I was saying goodbye to legit friends I'd come to know pretty well over the past couple of weeks.
Makoto best girl, don't @ me. Sorry Kasumi/Sumire. Makoto was the real Phantom Thief, cuz she infiltrated my palace and stole my heart. I legit awwww-ed at a couple of points in her romance. Hifumi close third place behind Makoto and Kasumi/Sumire.
I didn't do the third semester because how the fuck was I supposed to know you had to max out Maruki's confidant level just to unlock it? I went into this playthrough blind, and Maruki was always kind of sus (I kind of assumed he and Akechi he'd end up being a big bad and I guess I was half-right), but I had no idea that a whole 20+ hours of the game was locked behind his confidant level. By the time I realized it, I was already long past the date he left the school, and there was no way I was going to re-play 80+ hours just to unlock the third semester. Bah. I think it's crazy that they would lock most of the new content behind a pretty random confidant that you can easily pay zero attention to. Shame, because Kasumi/Sumire and Akechi are locked to the third semester and Kasumi/Sumire might've had a better chance of becoming best girl if, y'know, she could actually join my party permanently.
Was Haru even a character? I'm pretty sure some of the lesser non-party confidants got more screentime and background than she did. I didn't use her much either, because Makoto, Ann, and even Futaba were more interesting characters. How adorable (and relatable) is Futaba lol. When she called Mishima an NPC I legit laughed out loud. She destroyed him.
And on the topic of Okumuras, fuck you Okumura boss battle. It was the one part of the game where I had to turn the difficulty down.
WHY COULDN'T I ROMANCE SAE edit: for god's sake I could romance my homeroom teacher but not her? c'mon.
I watched a video about how the characters are much more comfortable in the Metaverse instead of the real world, and damn, it really resonated with me. This game had a lot to say about masks and social/societal pressure and hierarchy and things like that, and I found myself saying damn, that's so true more times than I could count. A large part of why I grew so attached to the characters and their struggles was because in a lot of ways, I saw myself in them.
Loved how real and accurate Tokyo (and the in-game world) was. Loved the references to popular chains, specific streets, and small things like brand names. I giggled irl at the nerds walking around in Akihabara with their bags of merch until I realized I've been those nerds a few times and then I got semi-offended, lol.
Akechi was sus from the start. I mean, was anyone actually surprised when he did the heel turn? At least he had his anime last stand, even if the team went from "you betrayed us you asshole" to "omg akechi nooooo what a noble sacrifice sadface" pretty quickly.
This was my first Persona game and the entire calendar/time cycles were really interesting. The other games have a similar system, right? Should I bother playing Persona 4 or just wait for Persona 6? Is Persona 5 Strikers any good?
Anyway, that concludes my little hiatus from Tumblr. I have a few things on the go irl so I probably won't be as active on here as I was previously, but I'll always be around, even if I'm not posting every day like I used to.
I'm going to be hopefully finishing up a couple of fics I've started, and I've come up with a few ideas for some sequels/new fics (Gaeul sequel because I'm an IVE fan now), so stay tuned.
Love you all, and hope you're all being excellent to yourselves and to each other. <3
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I was thinking again about how Dismas's Face Your Failure sucks, but tbh they kinda fucked up with the concept? To have Dismas kill a random guard doesnt really represent what went on and how it affected him, on the other hand, for him to face his failure by shooting that poor woman again would have been horrible and stupid.
There are very different types of backstory they tried to pigeonhole into the "failure" theme and to represent it by a single NPC gets even more awkward. You have Para killing the result of her horrid experiment, good, ok, makes sense. But Audrey kills her husband which she has no reason to regret killing in the first place, only that she didn't get away with it, Bonnie is faced with the adult that tortured her as a kid (is her failure running away from a fucking cult???)... then Barristan has to kill the ghosts of people led to their deaths and genuinely regrets doing so. Damian has to beat himself like he doesn't do that shit every day.
I'm sure if this was an anime it would all make sense, with dialogue and the evil shades taunting the heroes by distorting what went on, but as is stands, it's just forced. It's no Come Unto Your Maker in terms of impact, that's for sure
thank you for the ask!
sorry i'm slow with those lately ^^' too much irl shite falling on my lap... i am genuinely happy to receive asks, but i barely have much strength to do more than reblog some nice art lately. my bad.
i hope the length of it will make up for how late it is.
frankly, i refuse to engage with DD2 on principle and do my best to forget it exists, so where i feel comfortable discussing DD1 and my knowledge of it, in DD2 I can mostly speak based on youtube walkthroughs and my spite.
please, bear in mind that i'm biased. i'm still salty at DD2, and what i let slide in DD1, i meticulously dissect in DD2. so if this bothers you, i'm genuinely sorry. i can't help it. this was why i tried my best to distance from DD2 entirely.
that includes the little arsonist. i still can't help but resent her for taking space away from someone from the old cast. so i can't say anything about Bonnie, sorry.
Dismas is just a whole mess in his own league, as I mentioned before. and it's too depressing for me to dig into it fully, but the way the game is now (to my knowledge) it seems that his biggest 'failure' is getting out of a 'hellish' prison which had left such a lasting impact on his psyche that he has nightmares about it instead of some eldritch horrors. which imo speaks volumes about his time there.
frankly, for me Para is firmly in a 'this is not as traumatizing as they make it out to be' category. the guy was already dead, and based on narration, he was dead before she found him (where in DD1 comic this fact was up to debate). morally, at least in my eyes, it is no worse than autopsy. is autopsy immoral? no, not really. it doesn't hurt anyone. the corpses don't really care what happens to them. she basically created a Gaunt and we see no proof that Gaunts are sentient or can comprehend what is happening to them. for all intents and purposes, Para made a zombie, and then killed a zombie. the only change was that she used to know the basis of said zombie. was that traumatic for her? most likely, in a way every failed experiment of such magnitude is. was it immoral since the guy was dead and wasn't technically there anymore…? ehhhh… no? not in my head, at least. it definitely didn't warrant the place of her biggest failure - after all, she continued her trade, in DD1 at least, and there she was quite self-assured and willing to do what it takes to battle illnesses of Hamlet.
Audrey actually got away with killing her husband. the problem was that she got his debts too, as the new Lord of her household. so to not lose the lifestyle she had, she resorted to grave robbing. later, she either didn't get away with that, or got way too into it for the thrills. if anything, my bet would be on her regretting not killing him sooner, before the debts. i can't see any point where he would be her failure. marrying him? well, considering the age and her noble lineage, being a woman and narrator's phrase about her "Born into money, and married into more", marrying her husband was hardly her own decision, so not a failure in that regard, too. unless RH are implying very, very dubious things, i fail to see any scenario where he is her fault, worthy of 'Face your Failure' yelled at her face.
Barristan we get to see in both DD1 and DD2 seemed to be post-redemption arc, personally. well, save for few barks in DD1 afflictions (man, i miss how jaded and pointed they were unlike what i've seen in DD2...), but in DD1 everyone was much more at each other's throats and less sanded off to be mellow when they were afflicted, imo. but i digress. so, guardian grandpa felt like he had had his redemption arc already, before the game even started. he fucked up, he made amends, he learned his lesson. making him re-kill the ghosts is just a dick move from writers, imo.
i'm lowkey afraid to ask who Junia and Sarmenti get. because i dunno. i have my guesses, but if they are true, then i'm... i'm not even disappointed, i'm just tired.
Damian is... well, he simply is. i can get a separate rant about him, but boy, i have a lot of punches for the way the narrative worked with him. granted, he appeared when the levels of my blood salt regarding DD2 were reaching organ-failure levels (guess like Damian himself), but boy, did the RH did him dirty! not only in handling him, but also with going the most stupid, the most cheap option of self-fight.
however, and that's one huge however.
however, there's one character who, to me, outshines all this crap.
the most baffling example for me personally has to be Baldwin. the game made a very pointed, on the nose, blatant effort of showing him like the only actually undeniably good guy from the whole roster. he is kind, humble, loving, and is a 2-meter tall disney princess in disguise considering how each of his official artwork features small birds loving him and sitting on his hands. i don't even know what he gets as a Failure. his advisers? he dealt with them in more ways than one. the beggars he selflessly helped got leprosy from? if yes, this is undoubtedly not-as-good of a character anymore. does he just get to slap the boss for 200 HP because he's a gigachad or something? i'm genuinely confused.
as i said before, given the game's narrative, Face Your Failure makes no goddamn sense, and i stand by those words.
not only it feels cheaper than Come Unto Thy Maker (you can't straight out DIE from it afaik) it's not a hindrance - it's outright your way to win. unless you play with a vestal who has 0 attack skills, this is not a thing which makes the fight harder (like Come Unto Thy Maker does, progressively reducing your damage output and safety options), it does the exact opposite! why? why would the big bad make this fight easier for you to win? ugh! are we going for the 'i know you are in there somewhere' fights? is the guy called Hateful God for fuck's sake playing along with you, pulls his punches and secretly wishes you well? WHY would he??
excuse me, i need to read some soft reymas else thinking about this will put me into salt-induced frenzy.
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Games I Played In 2023 And Whether Or Not I Thought They Were Good (Part 3/4)
Well, it's 2024 now, and I'm still at these mini-reviews. Definitely gonna be four parts, I think.
[1] - [2] - 3 - [4]
Pikmin 4
I've already posted my thoughts about this one, but... I think this one's my game of the year. Tunic or Disco Elysium would have it, except they didn't come out this year- which leaves Pikmin 4, which is just such a tour de force of good interaction design. There's so many QoL improvements and bits of time-saving polish in it- I can't remember the last time I played a game with so few interface frustrations. (And they nailed all the usual good things about Pikmin, too.)
Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE
Man, this fuckin' thing... so this is the new IP from Kazutaka Kodaka, the Danganronpa guy, who decided he didn't want to keep making Danganronpa games. So obviously the first thing he did was just make another Danganronpa game.
It's mechanically almost identical. A murder happens, you spend some time combing the crime scene for evidence, then you go into an extended deduction segment where you use evidence on contradictions and play tangentially-relevant minigames to break things up. It's very the same thing- you go to the Class Trial Mystery Labyrinth and use Truth Bullets Solution Keys to attack wrong statements in Non-Stop Debate Reasoning Deathmatch, spell the word "knife" in an obnoxious hangman minigame (except this time it's an anime girl striptease), mind-snowboard down multiple-choice quizzes, and even do the exact same fill-in-the-blanks-of-the-comic-pages-to-recap-the-case finale thingy.
This isn't a bad thing, necessarily! (Except the stupid spelling minigame, my beloathed.) Danganronpa's formula works, and (with one egregrious exception in the form of the awful case 3 with the resistance guys) the deduction is all pretty solid. Rain Code falls down where it deviates from that, mainly. The new things it's trying almost universally don't work.
Firstly... it's sort of inverse Danganronpa in that instead of a fairly stupid and contrived setup and ending that don't really matter and bookend some satisfying and dramatic cases in the meat of the game... it's a satisfying and dramatic setup and ending that bookend fairly stupid and contrived murder cases that don't really matter in the meat of the game. Rather than having a core cast that develops and interacts throughout the story, the core cast (really bad, incidentally; Halara is the only good character, and the obligatory comedy pervert boy is the worst he's ever been in any Kodaka work) is totally ancillary, and all the cases involve random sometimes-nameless NPCs introduced specifically for that case. You could cut the first four chapters of the game and leave just the prologue and finale, and you'd have a better game. The central plot mystery is actually really cool! Shame you have to faff about with Junko Enoshima Shinigami for four boring cases in between.
Special shout-out to the mini-mystery sidequests the game is crammed with for you to do between cases- they achieve the impressive distinction of not-having-a-single-one-of-them-be-interesting. If you play this game, skip them entirely- the only reward is EXP to spend on a thoroughly useless skill tree.
Ori and the Blind Forest
Already posted about this, so I'll just copy-paste what I said when I finished it- it's a very polished and enjoyable little metroidvania! I kind of love how saving the game is an anytime action you cast with mana like any other spell, that’s a fun little gimmick- and the “bash” power that lets you use enemy projectiles like boost pads is so fun. The story’s very simple and straightforward but accomplishes what it set out to do, with a very effective final moment, emotionally speaking. Not a game that’s going to really stick in my brain for longer than a couple hours after finishing it (e: yeah nope I'd have forgotten I played it if I hadn't been keeping a record), but very pretty and very pleasant.
(Except those godawful instakill gauntlet escape-the-dungeon sections, oof, those are overlong and so pointlessly mean. Why the hell would you give the encroaching wall of instant death rubberbanding so no matter how fast you go, you never win any breathing room and you’re never more than one slipup away from having to restart the damn thing?)
Raft
I posted about this one a couple years back:
It’s a survival-crafting game like so many others, except instead of a big empty asset flip wilderness, you’re on a raft drifting through the wreckage of an apocalyptic flood that destroyed civilization. The basic loop of “reel in trash” -> “expand raft” is pretty satisfying, and the islands you can visit to progress the story have some pretty fun things going on. I’m waiting to play it in a group with some friends before I finish it.
and I finally got a chance to do that this year. I get the feeling it would've been substantially more annoying solo, since the engine and fuel logistics that become necessary lategame are so complicated and time-consuming, and the later islands are gigantic and want you to pick up like a dozen tiny collectibles scattered across them.
Then again, maybe it would've been substantially less annoying if I didn't have to keep CONSTANTLY CRAFTING BLUE PAINT because SOMEONE thought it'd be FUNNY to keep REPAINTING ALL MY SHIT RED, PYRO
Grounded
Likewise, I got to finish Grounded with a group, too- again copy-pasting my take from when I finished it:
Grounded overall has good voicework and a simple but well-executed story and does a lot with the Honey I Shrunk The Kids concept- but I think it was substantially dragged down by all the gear crafting nonsense, grinding for parts to upgrade the best armor sets that have slightly bigger numbers so you can survive hits from bigger bugs. Subtract all the pointless crafting of globs and plating and whetstones for marginal stat bonuses and just balance the game around the base weapons and armor, and you’ve got a much tighter experience, I think.
Also- small thing with an outsized impact- the base-building element is fun, but building a new base requires a specific array of crafting materials that just aren’t available in most regions of the yard (egregiously, acorns, which seem to find their way into every crafting recipe but only exist at the oak tree.) Building materials for anything except grass/weed bases are way too scarce (and necessary for other things) to have much fun building bases in remote parts of the yard, where earlygame starting resources (nonetheless fundamental to building anything) are harder to find.
Also dandelions shouldn’t take up the one accessory slot and thereby make all other accessories mostly unusable because they implicitly come at the cost of You Die If You Fall Off Stuff, in a game with a ton of verticality. They’re so indispensable that they basically lock off all the most unique rewards in the game.
There’s a lot to praise (Wendell Tully is a very fun character, the setpieces are super cool, the way a little backyard becomes a world of adventure is the core concept and does a lot of heavy lifting) but it’s a game that’s weirdly choked by a handful of very small nuts-and-bolts game-design-level decisions that seem to have been made thoughtlessly and could’ve been easily fixed. Mixed feelings, overall positive.
Pokemon Too Many Types
It's a Pokemon Emerald mod that does three main things:
Randomizes the parties of non-gym NPC trainers
Allows you to see the summary page of enemy pokemon
Adds a shitton of extra types to the game, and retypes a bunch of pokemon (including extra mon from up through gen 8) and moves to use those new types- often giving pokemon three types at once.
It is... fucking wild. And one thing I didn't realize I was missing from Pokémon in general is... not already having the types and type chart memorized introduces this fun element of guesswork, trying to determine what types are probably weak to other types. Do we think "Furry" is weak to "Gender"? What happens if you hit "Crab" with "Guys"? Was that "Angy"-type attack super-effective against "Baby", or "Gun"? It's hilarious and injects a lot of life into an old game.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder
Just managed to finish 100%ing this one December 31st. It's... uh, it's a 2D Mario game. People are freaking out about it because the art style is slightly different, but it's really just a 2D Mario game. Nothing to write home about. It's got this gimmick where each level has a hidden "Wonder Flower" that makes the level into something crazy and wacky, but it's really nothing that couldn't have just been... its own normal level in a different 2D Mario game. Like, they hold back on the level designs so they can hype them up when you get the flower. Some of them are cool but mostly they're just standard fare.
The main thing of note is that this game has a badge system, where you can equip one of a selection of unlosable powerups for each level, which can sometimes break the game wide open. Maybe you get an extra wall jump, or you can use your hat to glide, or you start each level full-size, or... well, none of them are as good as the one that just straight-up gives you a double jump, so it hardly matters in the end.
(Also, all my hate for that fucking super-duper secret special double-final bonus level where it keeps switching up what badge you're using. Why would you make the final segment the one where you have the invisibility badge on so you have no feedback on how exactly you fucked up and died?! You can't get better at it with practice, because you never have any idea what you did wrong! You just have to get lucky!!!)
Cuisineer
Another one I have a more in-depth post on- it's a roguelike action game crossed with an arcadey restaurant sim game, which I have mixed feelings on. It's very visually polished, and if you use the right weapon and approach it the right way the combat is pretty fun, but its level design and upgrade economy kind of force you into playing it that one specific way. The restaurant management half of it is a lot better than the dungeon-crawling half, IMO.
Cavern of Dreams
This one's a retro-looking N64-style collectathon platformer, and it's just a really nice time. The dragon's various movement abilities feel satisfying, there's all kinds of fun shortcuts and secrets to discover... and it does this cool thing that you wouldn't expect from an N64 game, where items you can pick up in levels can be carried through loading zones and used in other levels. There's just a lot of very clever level design, charming creatures, and good vibes. Not too long, either- I put in about 7 hours. Very cute, very polished, worth a look.
-
Going to finish up these reviews in a bit with a fourth post, which is going to be all the games I played but didn't finish.
[1] - [2] - 3 - [4]
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So I’m playing the Temporal War missions on Star Trek Online. The main bad guy is this mysterious disfigured “future guy” type of character, manipulating past events to screw up the future. As you finish each mission, Daniels the Temporal Agent from Enterprise becomes more and more disfigured from battle injuries he will sustain in a future fight, while Future Guy’s injuries become less and less. By the time he’s all fixed, it’s revealed that Future Guy is the Krenim NPC Noye from the previous Iconian mission arc.
I had a good laugh because I’ve been watching DBZ Abridged in the meantime, and in the Lord Slug Abridged movie there’s a random scene where the titular character says “Oh god I love this! My skin is so f**king smooth!” after he wishes for eternal youth from Shenlong.
This was probably what Noye was thinking too as the changes in the timeline undid his injuries.
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Some thoughts about my fascist Harry playthrough so far
TL;DR Microdosed fascism, fascist Harry is more interesting than moralist Harry, this is my third playthrough so I built for int/mot and made him more confident, logical, and authoritative.
I am... having a lot of fun on my fascist playthrough, third playthrough overall. First one was moralist, second one was a hardcore communist one that I haven't finished yet.
Playing Harry as someone who believes that a strong leader could return Revachol to its former glory. How the leader would go about doing it, he's not sure, he's just a random guy trying to do some good in the world. He's also not sure who the ex-something is, but he knows she's a she, and that she burned him bad, so he's bitter about women but not stupid enough to voice his thoughts aloud. 'Sides, inceldom seems like the natural course of action for him.
Can't go through with being racist, so I microdosed fascism. Said anti-communist stuff when it seemed acceptable, preached about the glory of Revachol, but I went for the "very cool but I have some questions about the murder case" option whenever race/immigration came up and (so far) dodged all the conversations about sex/gender/women.
High int and mot. I made him calculating, able to pick up on inconsistencies in people's statements. I miss the more esoteric skills and I miss hearing Volition yap at me, but the int and mot skills make up for Volition's silence. He can think his way out of most situations that would otherwise require Volition to wrangle the phy skills.
Superstar for fun but knows when to be the boring, serious cop. The superstar thing is a mindset he adopted to avoid spiraling entirely into despair. If he jazzes himself up this hard, he doesn't feel as bad about himself.
Rene is the only bearable fascist (so far, haven't reached Lena's racism deep lore yet or met Gary and his buddy). Measurehead and the Racist Lorry Driver are just... man. They're pieces of work. Rene says things like "Revachol is a shithole... good ol' days... I fought in the war..." and I can see how someone would get like that. You can't circlejerk with a fellow moralist because you're both apolitical but with Rene you can both be like "you're so fr... make Revachol great again... you... you get it..."
On my first playthrough, I was a moralist. I was so centrist that I didn't do the political vision quest because I thought "hmm that sounds political, not touching that lol." Even if I don't agree with fascism, trying to see how parts of it are feasible and applying them to a legitimate viewpoint I/Harry can push has been much more fun than saying "hmm I don't have an opinion on this."
Not a sorry cop this time. I apologized a lot in my first playthrough because Empathy kept telling me how badly I fucked up and Harry was a brand new fuck up to me. This time, I'm leaning into the superstar and boring cop persona. When I have some leeway to joke around and someone tells me what a piece of shit I am? Haha, that was me. Own up to it. When someone brings up my suicidal, violent tendencies? Acknowledged, let's move along.
Third playthrough Harry feels much less like a spineless, albeit good-hearted loser. This Harry is jaded and takes no shit from anyone. No cooperating with Evrart, it would be unseemly for a cop to do his dirty work. An NPC starts dissing him? He pushes for the information he needs and leaves, not his business. He'll joke around on the job with Kim and the interviewees, but his goal is always to walk out with the information he needs, and he's not afraid to exert his (nearly non-existent as a skill, so he does this through the insane pile of evidence he's building and invoking the title of RCM officer) authority when he needs to.
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It really does sound like a good game, wish I could get into it, but even watching a let's play fells daunting. You got any favorite characters?
LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT MY FAVORITE FUCKING CHARACTER.
HER NAME IS ALFIRA. She's a random NPC you meet early on in the game, in grove where a bunch of Tieflings are taking refuge cause fucking goblins want to do a murder to them. And She plays you a beautiful song if you help her with the lyrics and there's a whole cut scene. And she misses her mentor and wants to do like a tribute album. And then she comes to your camp and is like 'I wanna travel with you guys! I wanna see the world and make it to Baldur's gate! (a major city)' And OF COURSE you say yes cause she's a cutie patootie dressed like a JESTER. Perfect Bard Girl.
She is THE BEST GIRL, looket them little bells. She jingle jingle.
However.
If you play as Dark Urge. She joins your Camp.
And uh.
The Thoughts(tm) win whether you like it or not.
This LITERALLY gave me such a fucking JUMP SCARE when this happened cause I DIDNT KNOW that this would happen and I FREAKED OUT. Started yelling at my friend who said 'oh play as Dark Urge, there's more content if you play as Dark Urge' cause HE DIDNT KNOW THAT HAPPENED TO ALFIA, so we're both screaming hysterically cause for the past hour I was hyping up this little clown girl to him.
Anyway.
There's a work around glitch you can exploit if you knock her out and then immediately go to save at your camp-you just murder a random hobo that comes to stay with you briefly. And Alfia will live. (and you get like a cool cape that lets you turn invisible which fucks hard as hell.)
It took me 2 REAL LIFE DAYS to get that to work cause I was so *BAD* at it. Every time I knocked her out the cops either caught me or I knocked her out TOO HARD and she died. A Lot of restarting from previous save for that nonsense.
I finally got it to work and when you defeat all the nasty rude goblins and the tieflings are finally safe to make passage to Baldur's Gate-she's at the party later that night. And you get to meet her later on in the game and I KNOW she's not a core important character like any of the romance options you travel with. But she's MY ROMANCE OPTION GODDAMIT. WHY COULDNT I ROMANCE ALFIA? I WORKED TO HARD TO SAVE HER LITTLE LIFE.
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We are finally back! The long break was entirely my fault, I'm afraid. This is the first time in 4 weeks I'm actually in my own apartment over a weekend, isn't that wild?
After loading up (and figuring out what we were doing last month), we had a good laugh at the map of Valak Mountain because it is just a straight shot through. Absolutely no exploration off the main path. She was as dedicated as Shulk was to getting Fiora back, apparently
We got 2 Ice Cabbages in an hour and a half! That's not bad at all!
We got to the Mechonis Wound landmark and she started yelling at Meyneth about it ("Hey Meyneth! Do you remember this? Huh?"), and I was like "she's doing her best", to which she told me that she wasn't particularly impressed with Meyneth as a figure of worship since she couldn't stop Egil from attacking the Homs
We got the the love potion love triangle quest in Colony 9 and my roommate was like "wow, this guy is terrible" and then we talked to Monica (his girlfriend) and I was like "...maybe she's also terrible"
adjlsfbhdskdanjkbf we were talking to random nopon in Frontier Village and one of them???? Calls Riki a sex beast?????
I am LITERALLY not even joking, the NPC starts by saying that it's not normal for Nopon to have so many children and then says that Riki has "vitality" that makes him able to have so many children
One of his children also asks Riki to show him the "stealing trick"??? We need to talk to more unnamed NPCs this is gold
We ended the night by giving gifts to get everyone to green affinity to watch some heart to hearts (which we've been slacking on overall). I'm having a blast reading all the non-perfect endings while directing my roommate towards maximum affinity gain
#xenoblade chronicles#roommate chronicles part 1#I need to reread the backlog and find my voice for these again#there'll be one tomorrow but then it'll go on break again since we're each going home for the holidays
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It was always gonna end one way
In a ditch and so close to death as Huey luck finally ran out.
Everybody lose sooner or later. No matter how good Huey is. At the end of the day he just some dude with a wooden sword and powers don't work as it was a knife wound to the shoulder and a shot to the back from a bloody CHILD that caught him off guard. The kick to the bottom of the ditch as hell don't help as luckily the kids not a professional or he wouldn't even have time to realize what happened.
Street gangs using bloody CHILDREN to get back at him. Huey sigh as the kid being green helped him survive this. He can...MAYBE get up and climb out this ditch. With effort and a lot of pain. He gonna have to push himself harder then before in this city. Them blood lost not a joke,
But why should he?
What the point in all this? The struggling and the fighting for life. Not like you have anyone you love. Your partner gone. You friends are gone. Your business idea is ruin and your alone. Why fight so hard?
You should just die. You know better then anyone you been nothing but a nuisance. The Radiale be better without you in it. Your a killer and a liar. They either celebrate your death or don't give a shit. You desire to make your name stick in this city a joke.
"I can call Eidan." He a nice guy. Sure he don't like me. But he come and at least drop me off to the nearest hospital...
You really think he want to help you? After your black mailing? Nobody want you around Huey. Why struggle in this city without meaning? Just embrace it. The cold. The emptiness...maybe you can see William again. You never dies here yet have you?
"I have people that rely on me."
NPC who lives will continue even without you in the story. Your run a bloody smuggling ring and dish out justice to the highest bidder for christ sake. Your not running a thing people will miss. So what is the point of Huey Ponzi? Why struggle when your life have no meaning to it? It be much easier to die.
What is the point of Huey?
Huey realize his strength sapped half way out of the ditch as he lay on his back just a little to catch his breath. Damn he should have got a full lunch. What is the point? Not like he got anything to live for. Why climbs up the hill when there nothing waiting for you in the end? You have no love, no friends, no family, no job.
Your a loser and nothing. Even Aury at least have Klaus. You die as intended. A nobody in some random ditch in the middle of nowhere nobody would miss.
Huey close his eyes. Maybe it is better to just let the system do it's thing. Maybe it's just.....Better to give up.
Yet the body refuse even when the mind fails. Even if his ego is almost nonexistent....the Id refuse to give up on him.
A memory of cuddling with the weapons from another world who accepted him and his ugly side.
A memory of drinking with a friend who raised as a terriost.
Even if they are not here anymore. It wasn't all bad. Even if he have nobody now. The time they had was real. He HAVE made real bonds.
The memory of two brother sharing a drink in a dingy bar after the younger brother first returned job success. A precious memory. Of party, loud music, good food and good people, Money was thrown everywhere as it was the first time in a long time Huey felt alive.
Chasing down evil, taking from evil, spending money with people he love...the never ending party. It's not about making the world a better place. It's about having fun with people while pissing off the standard. The riches? The riches come and go all the time.
Huey eyes shot wide open. Strength returning back tot he limbs as he climb painfully.
Even if there no meaning he want to carry on. It's human nature to persist. Huey might be giving up in his head but his soul refuses.
"Lifes not always about the gleaming success...remember how many of our jobs we scarp by the skin of our teeth? You don't always get to look cool. In this work of ours we're not here to be liked or understood. Remember that first brief case of cash for that old lady? We tried being thief because when we took from those who have their dreams stolen. We were happy weren't we? It was fun. This isn't like last time. I'm not Robin hood. I care more about who I'm hurting then the victims. Because we never seen what we do as heroics. I'm selfish, egotistical bastard. If it helps someone by accident that fine. I came back because one job stealing from mobster was more fun then 3 years of studying for a boring ass exam."
My justice the thing that killed you after all William. That hunger for justice killed you. My obsession with bringing good into this world with our work. I promised myself i never once again wave the flag of righteous. What a joke....thieves claiming to be chivalrous. Yet i still don't wanna robbed from those who don't have it. There no joy in robbing from those who dreams are stolen.
I am a lowly maggot. I only steal because i want to steal. It's not just because i care. It's because above all else i chase the thrill. I forgotten that.
"Yeah there nobody in the Radiale that miss me when i'm gone. But..."
Even if there is no meaning to it now. Even if it's painful and lonely i wanna continue to struggle as a boring lowly human being.
"For the greatest victory. That impossible jack pot. Let's win William. Let's finally win for once and big time in this city. It make all this worth it no? That one moment of absolute victory. Let our story be forever told here. Even if the start of the story is a confusing, self pitying frustrating mess. Let's just keep going till we win."
That one moment when you win it all. When nobody bet against you and you win it all. So what if your a loser nobody with no bonds and no meaning to you? Oh it sucks for sure now.
You persist. You keep going for that final win. When you can win it all. You put up whatever mask it is to hide the truth. Faking it till you make it. Turning one lies into reality.
Hope. Even if you don't believe in it. You keep lying to yourself and putting in more effort till one day with hope comes victory.
"Oh.....i finally made it to the top."
#isola challenge#isola drabble#blood tw#injuries tw#suicidal thoughts tw#Literal climbing yourself out of a hole.
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