#sometimes i have fantasies of seeing them in daily life and i have a lot of choice words towards them | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

skzhua · 2 months

Text

'down into the hollow' series (coming soon)

synopsis: pixie hollow has never been better. each fairy fulfills their responsibility as they should. all of them? some may be distracted with a certain visitor called love.

genre: fairies!stray kids, fantasy!au, tinkerbell universe, fluff mostly, slow burn, genre depends on each story.

warnings: swearing, suggestive for some of them, all are female reader.

note: they can be read individually, but they are all interrelated. (i used the same names as my 'your eyes' series because i have no inspiration when it comes to names)

note 2: click on the hearts to read!

status: coming soon...

STRAY KIDS MASTERLIST

♡ "Follow the melody in your heart."

pairing: music fairy!bang chan x dust keeper!reader.

genre: strangers-to-lovers, fluff, angst.

word count: tba.

warnings: swearing, lots of complaining, chan is clueless as hell.

summary: unlike your friend, jisung, you adore being a dust keeper. getting to participate in the magic of the fairies makes you ecstatic. or maybe, it has something to do with the musician who practices near the pixie hollow tree almost every day.

♡ "Can you keep up?"

pairing: fast-flying fairy!lee minho x fast-flying fairy!reader.

genre: enemies-to-lovers (everyone's fav trope), fluff, angst.

word count: tba.

warnings: swearing, insults, talks of depression.

summary: as much as minho loves the simplicity of his life, a new fairy arriving in pixie hollow comes in to ruin his perfectly quiet routine. not only that, but she dares to steal the show as one of their fastest fairies they've ever had.

♡ "I'd build a house for you."

pairing: tinker fairy!seo changbin x animal fairy!reader.

genre: slice of life, friends-to-lovers, lots of fluff.

word count: tba.

warnings: swearing.

summary: as one of the best tinker fairies, changbin is the fairy to go to when in need. when a squirrel accident occurs, the only person you think of is him. only, this wouldn't be the first time you'd visit the kind fairy.

♡ "I followed the current until I reached a waterfall that made me fall for you."

pairing: water fairy!hwang hyunjin x light fairy!reader.

genre: fluff, angst.

word count: tba.

warnings: swearing, hyunjin is a romanticist, talks of loneliness.

summary: you and your brother have a specific routine. in charge of the sunrise and the sunset, you are used to watching them. when you are tasked with rainbows making one day, the water fairy you are paired with takes your breath away.

♡ "Sometimes, you only need a little bit of dust."

pairing: dust keeper!han jisung x music fairy!reaader.

genre: fluff, fluff, fluff!

word count: tba.

warnings: swearing, jisung stares a lot.

summary: jisung never liked being a dust keeper. while the others get to play and fly around all day, he stares at the golden flakes for hours on end. on one of his many staring sessions at the other fairies, the music crew begins to play what can only be described as the most magical melody he has the chance to hear. their singer? you.

♡ "I never thought I'd see something shinier than the light."

pairing: light fairy!lee felix x garden fairy!reader.

genre: best friend's brother, fluff.

word count: tba.

warnings: swearing.

summary: befriending someone who is a twin means two things. one; you are blessed with all the family secrets. two; you might ask about the other twin's a little too much.

♡ "They say swans find their forever partner."

pairing: animal fairy!kim seungmin x music fairy!reader.

genre: forced proximity, fluff.

word count: tba.

warnings: swearing, suggestive.

summary: as you fly over to the daily rehearsal with the music fairies, birds coming your way changes your path and leads you to a dark cavern where the clumsy animal fairy misguided the flying beasts. it might take a while before the both of you get out, might as well make the most of it.

♡ "Growing flowers is kind of my thing."

pairing: garden fairy!yang jeongin x dust keeper!reader.

genre: strangers-to-lovers, fluff.

word count: tba.

warnings: swearing.

summary: he comes every day at the pixie hollow tree, and you observe him every time. you don't know him, he doesn't know you. somehow, the pink flowers he brings every now and then begin to grab your curiosity.

151 notes · View notes

albatris · 4 months

Text

Since it's come to my attention a lot of folks don't know ATDAO....... here's an intro post :3c

All the Doors are Open! A funky lil sci-fi-ish, fantasy-ish, horror-ish tale about some South Australian kids going about their daily lives... oh, and also reality is collapsing and cracks between universes called Ports are appearing, letting otherworldly energy leak through and wreak havoc.

Four plotlines intertwine into one big stupid plotline, n the key players are as follows:

Tris Greer, panic attack in human form, who just witnessed a freak car accident that somehow caused his older brother to blip out of existence. The relevant authorities prove supremely unhelpful, so he takes it upon himself to find the truth and bring his brother home, even if it means a daring trip into an unstable air bubble between dimensions - a task easier said than done when he’s anxious enough just leaving the house.

Yun Sung-won, edgy intimidating badass hiding nooo insecurities or trauma whatsoever, who can suddenly bend and break the reality around her the same way Ports do. The shiny new destructive powers might be kinda cool - if the crack in reality inside her wasn’t chaotically deteriorating... and if she didn’t work for the Department of Interdimensional Instabilities, whose whole shtick is eliminating dangerous interdimensional energies.

Shara Aleng, conspiracy enthusiast and amateur paranormal investigator, who's new in town and on a mission. She's been able to see cracks in reality no one else notices since she was a kid, and, armed with just a handheld radio, she's mapping interdimensional fault lines and hunting down the source of the apocalypse.

Kai Lancaster, peddler of haunted antiques and mender of cracks in reality, who went to investigate an abandoned house for an hour and emerged to find seven years had passed. They're now grappling with the emotional and social repercussions of their trip out of time, having been tossed into a life that's moved on without them. And how can they try and re-enter their family's lives when their family has spent seven years grieving them and fighting to get back to any sense of normality?

Anyway. It's a cheesy power of friendship story about the human capacity for kindness and connection! It’s also full of horrifying things that will make your skin crawl <3 We got existential horror, we got body horror, we got cosmic horror... we got love and courage and joy in the face of despair! Also, we got mentally ill heroes, including one with psychosis and one with a dissociative disorder, whose experiences are never demonised or used as cheap plot twists :3

Here is the them:

I'm not posting much about it at the moment but it's my longest-standing WIP and very close to my heart :D I've been working on some version of it since I was 16! Lemme know at any time if you wanna be added to the tag list~ I can't guarantee I'll work on it soon but I CAN guarantee I'll work on it sometime!

#atdao #writeblr #I'm doing a complete overhaul of the plot #i think maybe an equal delve into all four povs which is gonna be a lot of work but fhdjskdj doable maybe

167 notes · View notes

kaffykathy · 3 months

Text

Sometimes I look at Lancer's core book and just think about how lacking it is in significant details for all the factions, like who is the current leaders of Union, to founders and owners of the many corporate entities.

I know that doesn't sound like exciting lore to anyone, but for Union, there's no one like the Camerons from Battletech or the Karl Franz from Warhammer Fantasy. And I can see that it was probably purposely implemented like this for the reason that these entities are bigger than the identities that lead them, and that's why when a name like Johnathan Harrison pops up along sith a small blurb of who he is, we start to realize his significance and why Harrison Armory is the way it is. He was basically a fascistic General from Seccomm that fled and made his own Union how he saw fit, and his clones still live up to his legacy to the current setting of Lancer.

At the same time, Union doesn't have any of that. There's no lore about some, or any politician of government in the Core Book at least other than the seats and chairs that they fill. The reason for this is to give the players the ability to make their own interpretations with the world, but it's really saying something when your big government super power claiming to be in a utopian golden age doesn't have a face to its actual organization.

(Side note: if anyone ever tells you that their realm is a Utopia, you should be taking that the same way that someone says that a ship is 'Unsinkable'. Sorry to burst your bubble Pilot NET, but some of you really need to read between the lines about this. Especially with how much of a bureaucratic nightmare DoJ HR is.)

I know that it's very much the case that Massif press could have done this intentionally to show in the Lancer setting that the sum is bigger and more significant than all the parts added together. The world of the setting is too big to care too much about one individual or planet without weeding in a reason why in most cases because unless you're playing a mission book like Solstice Rain, you probably wouldn't be visiting any of the planets or people brought up in the first place. But the thing is, to me, is that this really makes Lancer less lively than I think it should. When I read about the Albatross, I wanna know about their heroes and significant feats and journeys. I could just play and Albatross, but having record of the daily life at the perspective of a nomadic Lancer would have been told so much more than I think the actual descriptions give.

It's why I love the blurb of text on the Sisyphus NHP. It builds a character, tells a narrative, and humanizes this being most probably would only be used to get a better roll. It also implies how cycling actually works for an NHP and the significance to it. And from all this, we can see that Sisyphus knows that his fate is to be cycled and die over and over again. Something barely given full page and it's just text on equipment.

And yet we don't have anything like that for the bigger picture. We don't know that the leaders of Union generally feel or think about the world surrounding us. We don't have a set uniform for Union or any other of the major players. And as a person who was fascinated with historical things like what soldiers wore during the battle of waterloo, or what camo patterns did a certain tank use, I feel like it's a significant diservice to not give us official uniforms and outfits for Union.

Imagine what cultural reflections that could have impacted the clothing an officer would wear.

I don't know, Lancer really likes to skim on the actually interesting descriptions, but I still love it. It's just that it really doesn't give me enough reason to care about things like Cradle or the Solar System in its current timeline. There is a lot of telling, and not showing in the lore for me, but they don't even tell things that historical nuts like me might be interested in.

#kaffy kathy #lancer ttrpg #lancer rpg #i should sleep #sisyphus nhp #Even when I am ranting about Lancer. I am secretly simping for sisyphus NHP

68 notes · View notes

vintagerpg · 5 months

Text

The first Yokai Hunters Society zine contains a handful of famous yokai from Japanese folklore. Their details consist of a (cool) illustration, a one paragraph description and a brief listing of abilities. That’s fine for well-known creatures like Kappa, but for a game as narrowly focused on monster hunting as this, players are going to need a lot more monsters, with a lot more detail. Thus, Field Guide to Yokai (2022).

I love a monster book, and this one is no exception. Yokai are fascinating because there is very little about them that is set in stone. There are broad categories, sure, and general behaviors, but you can never be sure what you’re going to get with a specific yokai. They’re inherently individual, and that is sort of unique and delightful for an RPG to embrace.

By Western fantasy standards, they’re also damn strange. A personal favorite, the tsukumogami, illustrates this nicely — if an object of daily use makes it to 100 years of age, it can sometimes awaken as a yokai. Years of dungeon crawls have done nothing to prepare players for sentient paper umbrellas that enjoy licking people. But you can immediately see the scenario potential of a house full of well-loved tools suddenly coming to life and accidentally troubling a neighborhood (I am getting extreme Real Ghostbusters cartoon vibes, just talking about it). There’s also more menacing creatures, like the skull made of skulls or the human-eating ghosts, the latter is definitely tuned for more traditional monster-hunting scenarios. Then there’s stuff like the Futakuchi Onna, which looks like a typical woman, but has an extra mouth in the back of its head. Mostly it just eats a lot, but that doesn’t stop those strong Junji Ito vibes from creeping me out.

Regardless, an essential Yokai Hunters Society supplement and one of general utility for those not playing that game. If nothing else, Chema Gonzalez’ art is pure delight.

#roleplaying game #tabletop rpg #dungeons & dragons #rpg #ttrpg #d&d #Yokai Hunters Society #Field Guide to Yokai

78 notes · View notes

vmprgrl-2005 · 7 months

Text

me you and the bottle (resident evil-leon x reader)

word count- 675

warnings-drinking, reader is kinda shy, re4-6/vendetta leon

an-this isn’t great and i might end up changing it, i didn’t really know where to take it while i was writing lol

His name is Leon. He started coming into the bar a few months ago, showing up almost daily since then. Every day it’s the same thing, he asks for a whole bottle of top shelf liquor to himself before retiring to one of the tables in the back, never engaging with any of the other rowdy patrons. Rarely, he’ll sit at one of the bar stools, talking about his life if you approach him. He tells stories of guns and zombies and how one day his life completely changed, most of which sound like some wild fantasy. You listen intently anyways, liking the change from his usual silent demeanor, being infatuated with his presence. The first time he sat at the bar was when you finally got a good look at him. Thick brown hair, tired blue eyes, slight stubble, and a leather motorcycle jacket that he always wore. For being a bit older, he was an attractive guy, you thought.

One night, the bar was nearly empty, save for a few people who were too drunk to be loud. You were cleaning a few glasses, having nothing to do as everyone else had already left. The familiar rumble of a motorcycle engine outside was comforting, knowing who was going to walk in shortly.

Same as always, he walks in, comes to the counter, and pays for his liquor immediately. But instead of walking away, he sits on a stool. After a short silence, he clears his throat, “You here alone tonight?” You just stare at him for a moment, stunned that he’s attempting to make conversation. “Yeah, everyone went home already” you reply somewhat shyly. He nods in response. “If you’ve got nothing else to do, why don’t you come sit?” He says, raising his glass to his lips. Wordlessly, you walk out from behind the bar, taking off the small apron you were wearing and throwing it over the counter as you approach the stools. When you sit down, he speaks up, “My name’s Leon, by the way.” You introduce yourself as well and Leon smiles slightly at the way your name sounds coming from your mouth.

You both talk for a bit, with most of your responses being short or quiet, Leon’s sudden friendly behavior still surprising you. “You seem awful nervous sweetheart, is everything alright?” he says, bringing you back from your thoughts. He must know what he’s doing, and he has to see the obvious blush covering your face. “I’m fine, it’s just been a long day” you stumble over your words a bit. “I can go, if you want.” he mutters, sounding slightly defeated. “No it’s fine, stay.” the words fall out of your mouth, and you don’t notice yourself grabbing for Leon’s arm as he stands. “It’s just,” you continue, hesitating slightly, “I think you’re pretty cute and I’m a little nervous, that’s all.” A soft chuckle leaves him, as if he hadn’t heard that before. “Well” he says, sitting down again “Maybe if we spent some time together, you wouldn’t feel so nervous.”

It had been hours since Leon sat down, everyone else had left, but you kept talking and warming up to each other as the night went on. You could listen to his stories forever, and you adore the way he looks at you when you talk.

He began sitting at the bar more frequently after that night, it was almost like he enjoyed talking with you. You grew closer every day. He would leave you notes with sloppily drawn hearts on them every night with his tip. Sometimes he would take you home on his motorcycle, letting you wear his leather jacket if it was cold outside. As you got closer, he became a lot more protective over you. He always made sure you were safe, confronting any men at the bar who made you uncomfortable and making sure that he called you “sweetheart” or ��angel” as loudly as possible. Though you weren’t exactly sure what you two were, you liked the attention Leon gave you.

#resident evil x reader #leon kennedy x reader #leon kennedy #leon x reader

98 notes · View notes

frayed-symphony · 8 months

Text

Once upon a time I had a Tales of Symphonia OC called Reimi.

It was the early noughties. I was a teenager obsessed with 2 things - Tales of Symphonia and Full Metal Alchemist. I had seen on my favourite website at the time; DeviantART, that people would sometimes self-insert themselves into their favourite shows/games and even though I'd thought about it before, I loved these two things so much I finally decided to do the same and 'Reimi' was born.

She was my ideal version of how I looked and because I was being bullied almost every day at school, the world of Symphonia in particular was a great comfort to me. Anytime I had a particularly bad day I started to draw Reimi.

I did have one real life friend, my best friend from primary school and we'd chat on the phone every night. I convinced her to play ToS with me and the two of us fell down this rabbit hole and I made her an OC too. We called her Beatrix and she was Reimi's older sister. It was your typical 'human girls fall into fantasy world and crush on their favourite character' story. I liked Lloyd and my friend liked Kratos. We would roleplay them together and write stories for each others birthdays and Christmases. It got me through the horrible things happening at school.

In time we started to make other characters. I decided I wanted Reimi to have a summon spirit - a polar bear called Meikai who could change between human and bear form. My friend had a similar 'devil' summon, Kainashi and I started to draw them as well. (Totally stole this from Sheena but it was very fun)

The final character we designed was Harvey - he was the only one we tried to give a canonical link to Symphonia. He was the Prince of the Tethe'allan royal family and Hilda's brother. The reason you never saw him in the game, we reasoned, was because he didn't want to be a Prince and left to travel the world in secret. He runs into our heroines and becomes a part of the group. I also wanted to write some love triangle stories at that point so he has a crush on Reimi.

For a long time these characters were my whole life. They filled my brain and I would always be thinking of stories for them. The ToS characters always factored into these stories but I was too embarrassed to draw them or have anything romantic happening and that might have been because of the backlash I saw a lot of self-insert authors get. I kept my stories mostly off the internet.

But I kept drawing them as the years went on, even designing bosses and creatures for them to fight, this was one such creature - 'Malcolm' the robot. One of Rodyle's machines.

In time life got in the way. My friend and I didn't get to speak as much so the drawing motivation started to fizzle out.

I still thought and cared about these characters but there was no fresh ideas forming for them. As I got older I started to have less time for them.

This is the last drawing I ever made of them and though you might still see me draw Reimi from time to time, its been years since I drew any of the others.

I did use them for animation practise on my University course though

youtube

So that's where we are today. I had a lot of AUs for Reimi. You may have seen this potion shop picture before, it's one of my favourite ideas where Reimi is living in the slums in Meltokio, working to keep her family's store open by selling potions. It even got a Daily Deviation on deviantART! I'm sure most people didn't know it was a self-insert drawing.

Another idea I liked was Reimi being the daughter of Kvar. She's grown up in the human ranches (though largely away from their brutality) and Lloyd's group visit is a wake-up call to her that what her father and Cruxis are doing may be wrong.

I came up with way too many stories to list here.. but uh... maybe I did draw some Reimi/Lloyd art occassionally...

and thats all you're gonna see!!

Anyway I just wanted to revisit these characters since I've been doing that with my books this month. Maybe you already knew about this, maybe you didn't!! It's just a fun look into my teenage self. I am trying to draw a new outfit for Reimi now, to see how much I've improved drawing her. I hope I can post it soon.

Thanks for reading!

#well part of me wants to immediately delete this post HAHA #but i said i would do a lore dump for my ToS OCs and here we are #reimi #beatrix #meikai #kainashi #prince harvey #myart #original characters #Youtube

53 notes · View notes

saturngoldenchild · 2 years

Text

Astrology observations:

Hello earthlings I’m back with my silly notes. Thank u guys for liking them and talking to me it’s fun🫧

- first house placements always have people trying to figure them out. They get projected onto a lot because they’re very themselves and they don’t give explanations for what it is they do they’re just living life and someone is like alright this my cue to analyze them. Like huh??????

- Earth/air moons pour all their feeling and heavy emotions into their work cause they tend to not be able to express it in their daily lives 😵‍💫

- While we’re on the topic of air moons 😭😭 they’re brats omg do they love to get a reaction out of people

- Please tell me ur experience with Aquarius men cause bitch…. In my experience they are the most sweetest brightest people ever. I had seen a couple celebrities with this so I was only waiting to see for myself and they’re just lovely and very very optimistic people, it’s contagious.

- In my experience, water moons care way too much what people think. And they will usually project that onto those around them. If they feel insecure about something and someone else also has that, they’ll make that person feel ashamed, so they feel the same way 💀. Like bruh. Especially Scorpio moons ooooooof. When Scorpio moons’ negative qualities are not recognized and the individual doesn’t check themselves, whoever is around them needs to be very detached to not let them wild ass projections affect them cause……

- Talking about projecting… I know people with a lot of Neptune aspects are fucking exhausted of getting projected onto 💀

- Neptune- asc aspects are the people who look perfect 24/7, at least I have seen. They truly look like a fantasy so people around them make it as though they don’t have any hardships in their life, tbh they just look very graceful while in absolute chaos :/

- Sagittarius placements can be annoying to talk to when you are upset cause they’ll try to dodge every emotional moment with a joke 😭😭 but most of the time y’all are cool to keep the spirits up

- I noticed with aqua moons, they tend to get wronged when they’re young a lot. People around them treat them a certain way and no one sees how wrong it is until they have already moved on and had to deal with the emotional baggage themselves. And then suddenly one day everyone around is like 😧 how they have done that to you and they’re just like…now y’all care 😃

- On a happier note…Aries, Aquarius, and Leo moons will have fun. They’re gonna live life. These people are entertaining because they’re just themselves truly 😭😭 like they’re not looking for attention it’s just them trying to make the best out of every moment. They’re gonna live in the moment, they can’t bothered.

- People with Venus- Neptune aspects are very delusional about love. They want a really beautiful love story and they pour themselves completely into crafting it. I’m people btw

- Earth/air dominant charts can give heartbreaker energy. This cause these people only commit to what they consider worth while. They usually don’t have an interest in relationships/friendships in which everyone is not committed to each other, they won’t give an once of effort if it’s like that.

- The sassy ness that comes with being an earth sign is something I will never trade. The way they walk is sassy, the way they look at people is sassy, their words are sassy. They’re just very to themselves so sometimes they don’t even noticed they runway walked the hospital hallway.

#Aquarius #Scorpio #Leo #earth sings #water moons #air moons #neptune #sagittarius #Aries #aquarius moon #leo moon #Aries moon #first house

407 notes · View notes

autistic-sidestep · 9 months

Text

lying down thinking very hard abt imagining sidestep trying ortega's cooking for the first time, canonically them liking anything ortega makes, that ortega learnt from tia elena that feeding people is the best way to befriend people and that SO many of their fond memories are food-related. (bumped into overdrive with a sugar vice step!) the necessity of needing to eat a lot to maintain their telepathy helps, ofc!

#Sugar—my brain needs the energy. One drawback of your telepathic powers is that you need a lot of carbohydrates, and sugar is the easiest way to get them. […] the syrupy drinks you were used to back when [you were at the Farm]…

even chen's memory of a happy sidestep involves food

[non(knowssteelsuspects) tacticianstep] [i]So excited about a milkshake. Laughing with Anathema. The almost childish glee with which ${che} delighted in normalcy. In junk food and music. In movies.[/i]

which is why he stocks the fridge for an ally/friendly step

*label steelfridge (steelshelf true) "Raiding the fridge again?" Steel's voice is too soft for being inside the HQ. […] "Yeah, I'm a regular criminal," you joke, not looking back. Your eyes catch that damn shelf again, with your name clearly on it. There are some beers at the back, as well as assorted snacks. All things you've stolen in the past.

this can even be triggered by marcia from the business base

*label businessstart Sometimes, you pretend that this is what ordinary life must be like. Having a job. A daily routine. Surrounded by normal people, thinking unimportant thoughts. It's a nice enough fantasy, easy to indulge in when you sit sharing a meal with Marcia. She's brought a chili today, not as spicy as you're used to, but for a moment, you're having a flashback to another table, to another shared meal. Familiar laughter. A sense of belonging. You shut your eyes hard, and when you open them, it's Marcia's face you see and not Tía Ortega's. "Was it too hot?" Marcia looks concerned, and you realize your eyes have been tearing up. "I'm fine," you lie, hiding your face as you bite down on a piece of bread. "Thanks for sharing." "A meal is meant to be shared," she says, triggering more memories you don't want.

leading onto comforting spaces and memories with elena and ortega, it's definitely true ortega's strongly associated with food - all their meetups tend to revolve around meals

As do snacks. Is that part of what ${he} learned from ${his} mother? Feed people to make them comfortable, and you suppose the alcohol is mostly for ${him}self. (vice = "sugar") $!{he} always lets you steal ${his} snacks.

"Ooh, they have pancakes." "Pancakes." You shake your head. (*if vice = "sugar") Old memories. You used to eat those together.

What else did you have that wouldn't bring back traumatic memories? Clubs without Anathema, karaoke without Sunstream coming to life on the stage? Dinners with Tía Elena?

(retri epilogue, ortega pov)

Food. When in doubt, always go for food. $!{he} learned that trick at a young age, and it has never steered ${him} wrong.

memorial park meetup

[non alcoholic vice step] "You don't have to talk," ${he} assures you. "But what do you say we get a cup of coffee and a bite to eat?" "Coffee…" You almost laugh, because that's how people work, isn't it? When something uncomfortable happens, make sure to eat or drink something. It will make things better.

hoots

Of course ${he}'d pick a spot like this, [if see_shrink] where ${he} knows you would feel safe, especially after what you just went through. [else] the site of many of your escapades. Familiar. Safe.

"You know what Mamá would have said…." $!{he} wags ${his} finger in the air with a serious look on ${his} face. "If it tastes bad, it's good for you." Your voice is a fair approximation of Tía Elena's; you've heard that sentence often enough. For some reason, she had always been very concerned for your health. Intent on not letting you go hungry.

and ofc, the apartment scene

"I'd like that," you admit. It sounds good; a little privacy is what you need right now. "Been a while since I ate something homemade." "I think I still remember your favorites," ${he} says with a chuckle. "Wow. It's been ages since we did this." "Yeah," you look away to hide your smile. "I miss it." "So do I." For a moment, you think ${he}'s going to say something else, but ${he} doesn't. "I like your food," you finally admit, a little lower than needed, because you're not sure how ${he} will react.

*if ((wound = "a severely bitten lower lip") or (wound = "a severely bitten lower lip, and a sore shoulder")) "Are you sure you're going to be okay eating with that lip?" $!{he} touches ${his} own in sympathy. "I'm not going to starve," you say with a careful smile. "Just don't make it too spicy." "But I like spice…," ${he} complains. "Sucks to be you then." [*if ortega_friendship >= 75] Your smile softens somewhat. "You can always add it last, just to your portion."

"Any requests?" $!{his} voice is light and airy, clearly attempting to strike a lighter mood. "I like everything you make," you say, with a nonchalant shrug. [...]

It feels surprisingly normal sitting in Ortega's kitchen, one leg pulled up on your chair, watching ${him} cook. You helped cut the vegetables, but once the preparations were done, the stove was all [hers/his]. A familiar routine. It used to be what you did back in the day, maybe not every week, but when you had the time. The smell brings back fond memories [...]

"It's been a long time since we did this." Ortega again, breaking the silence that had been building, putting food on your plates. "Yeah," you admit, wishing it didn't smell so good, wishing the smell didn't take you back. […] "Do you like it?" "You're a good cook but such a sucker for compliments," you say, shoving in another mouthful. "I like it." […] You don't know what to feel as you watch ${him} eat, sharing ${his} table, sharing ${his} food. Sharing ${his} home. $!{his} friendship. $!{his} heart.

epilogue (recovering in chen's apartment + dating ortega)

"Your kitchen really sucks." Not exactly the smartest thing to say, but ${he}'s never been that good with words when ${he}'s stressed. "You know that, right?" "I know," Wei sighs, with the long-suffering look he has perfected over the years. "And you know it too. You say it every time you cook here." "$!{he} cooks here?" [...] "Occasionally." Wei sits down at last, giving Spoon a scratch before the dog pads back to ${name}'s side. "When ${he} feels I've been eating too badly." "I know your stomach doesn't always agree with food, but occasionally you just need some homemade caldillo." ${ortega_name} turns back to the stove, glad for the opportunity to busy ${his} hands. The closest thing ${he} can get to meditation, that, and the bike. [...] And everything starts with a delicious dinner. Even if ${he} has to be careful with the chili. $!{he}'s made worse sacrifices.

of course ortega learned it all from tia.

"Not Ortega?" Steel sounds surprised, which is annoying. Are you that predictable? "You know Tía Ortega. Dishes get done in that household." You can't help but smile at the memory. Another life. Another world. Did you use to be happy once?

[...]

Once upon a time, [if ortega_former ally] you were a frequent guest at [Elena's] house // [else] you were close. Back when she lived in the city. Invited into her home, at her dinner table. Hugs. Friendly laughter.

[...]

But it would also mean meeting her again. Stepping back into the past, being soft, loved, cared for, and you…you're not the same. Ortega hasn't told her about you for a reason.

i just.... augHHH. food as love.

#fh codediving #fh meta #i think that works #ramblings #also decided that copying the code as is rather than screenshots #was more accessible

49 notes · View notes

slocumjoe · 11 months

Note

If you were to rate the Fo4 companions from most to least favourite how would you rate them?

I can't list them in order, because I have too many feelings on them....and also, I love them all! It's just...there's such a Rollercoaster of quality of writing, of character concept, of VA performance, of actual attention and care given to the meat-and-potatoes aspects...

Like, I can say I have a favorite (Danse) and a least favorite (Piper) and a dude in the middle who I give not a crap about (Deacon), but I still like these characters??? They're fun! Its just, I like my idea of them more than what's actually there.

So, uhhhh

RORY TALKS ABOUT THE COMPANIONS 2 ELECTRIC BOOGALOO

this is basically a long-post of a bunch of mini-essays, so grab a snack or nice bev and get cozy

Cait, to me, is a prime example of "this character sounds better on paper". I've already complained about her three greatest flaws; being bloated, being mishandled, and being a very confused character. If I were to describe Cait, it would be that she's a troubled young woman who was traumatized all her life, but understands that it's effected her heavily and wants to work past it and better herself.

In game, she's...an Irish Girl. She talks about drinking and fucking and fighting. If not that, she's detailing her absolutely horrific life. It gives me tonal whiplash. I feel like they were too busy adding things on rather than fleshing her out. I mean, really...what is the significance of the Tough Irish Girl type in the wasteland, where everyone acts that way? Is Cait an example of your average wastelander, someone whos supposed to show the daily life in this world? Well...no, that can't be it, she's put away from others, an outsider who doesn't fit in whatever circumstances she finds herself in. She doesn't belong with raiders, she doesn't fit into the average civilian life. So, is she about ostracization and how even after being nuked, there still is a society to ostracize people? That is brought up in text, but that's not at all Cait's thing, that concept is with Hancock.

I travel with Cait to quickly get her affinity up to speedrun her "recovery" (see the Cait breakdown to learn my thoughts on That Fucking Chair) because I want her to get better...but I don't like traveling with her that much. It's not just that she often disagrees with my usual choices, she's just rather flat. I don't get the impression that the writers really considered her psychology, what she stood for, what someone should or could take away from her.

But I like her conceptually. There's a lot of fun and emotional catharsis to be had with a traumatized character like her, someone who has to navigate life after escaping her bad situations, and not knowing what to do with the survival instincts she had to cultivate, but no longer needs.

Codsworth is inoffensive to me, and I like sassy but polite characters. I find them refreshing in settings like Fallout. I had more fun imagining his lines as thinly-veiled bitching than sincerity, though. I think he's fine, just simple. Simple is best, sometimes. I wouldn't trust Beth to give the indentured servitude robot an even remotely palatable story, given how they handled the synths and their whole thing...

But Codsworth, I like having him around. He's the lemon water to the black coffee, sugary soda, whiskey, and occasional cups of tar. He's needed at a palette cleanser.

Curie should have been a main plot companion, argue with the wall. She's a Ms. Nanny who becomes a synth, which are functionally human beings. She has a lot of narrative potential, being an example and counterargument for many different things.

Unfortunately, she's kept mostly a secret, being the most hidden companion, and she's left as a simple French maid fantasy. I'm not even sure why they bothered to make her a doctor. It has nothing to do with how she's actually handled and presented. Curie's more often blushing than meaningfully interacting with the world. She talks to Amari, she becomes a synth, and the rest of her story is just her going KYAA~ at the SS. I wish they gave her some edge, some weirdness. I like my version where she's this slightly pretentious, condescending, incredibly old-seeming entity that clearly doesnt come from around here.

Danse...my boy. My boy. I adore him. You don't need me to explain why. And you don't need me to explain why his incomplete writing infuriates me.

I've said before he's very similar to Hancock, and since I have something else I want to discuss about with Johnny down in this, I'll use Danse's slot to discuss it, very quickly.

Danse and Hancock are remarkably similar people and characters, even there is parts that drift or parallel in their differences.

Substance dependency (Hancock does chems, Danse is a canonical alcoholic)

They both struggled to find their footing and place in the world, and hate the people they were in their act 1's (Hancock's takes place during his founding of Goodneighbor, Danse's after BB)

They're fiercely loyal and protective of 'their people', even if it can take a LOT for them to consider someone 'their people'

Both are suicidal and identity plays a huge part (Hancock pretends to be someone he isn't, Danse is desperate to be the person he thought he was this whole time/hates that he isn't who he thought he was)

Both of these characters are two sides of the same coin. It's just that Danse's upbringing led him to believe in authority and control being the best way to help and take care of the wasteland, Hancock's upbringing (filled with corrupt authority and control) led him to believe in an egalitarian, we-all-lift mindset where the people have the power, he's just the guy who people talk to about any issues. It's somewhat implied that Cutler was similar to Hancock, judging by Danse's few lines about Cutler.

So uuuhhh Todd where the fuck is the last 2 arcs for danse and last arc for hancock? todd? todd where the fu

As said above, Deacon is nothing to me. I like him. I don't care about him much. I think he's fun to play with, but the moment you start getting into his backstory/angst, I slide right the fuck off.

Okay, the Barb thing. Dead wife. Fucking boring story, done to death. At the point I met Deacon, I had already met Mac, Nick, knew of Longfellow and his deal. So it was like "JESUS they really dont know any other reason for a dude to be sad, do they." But the thing that keeps me from caring about Deacon is that no one can agree if Barb is real. If that actually happened.

...his backstory is supposed to inform his character. Why is Deacon doing this? Because of his backstory. If his backstory isn't real, we know nothing about Deacon, and he is, functionally, not a character. Why does Deacon lie if Barb didnt happen? Dunno. He just...does. Why is Deacon helping synths? Uhh...we needed an RR companion? Deacon's character rides or dies on Barb. If she's real, then the rest of him makes sense. She's the windex and towel to the cloudy glass house that is the rest of him. If she isn't, Deacon...doesn't matter, in any meaningful way. He's a guy in the RR who lies about everything, which means you can't care about him. Because there is nothing to care about, because it's all bullshit.

So, that's my thoughts on Deacon, in-canon. I don't know what his deal is or if his proposed deal is genuine, so I can't click with him. But in my own canon, Barb is real, so my Deacon ken-doll does appeal to me. But in Fallout 4, in text, I regard him the same as I do Tom Bombadil. To give you an idea of how flimsy Deacon is in text, a prevailing fan theory from around 2017-18 was that Deacon was Mrs. Rosa's son. Mrs. Rosa was a pre-war neighbor. Her son was a kid. The fact that Deacon is so weird and fluid and almost omniscient isn't a plus for me, it isn't a point of fascination. It's a puzzle that I know doesn't have a finished product, so I leave and go hang out with Danse, who can't speak if he isn't being absurdly blunt.

Gage is a character that deserved a better DLC. The more I think about Nuka World the more I kinda wish it was just Gage and the handmade rifle, instead the map...but that's about Nuka World. Gage himself could have easily been a swing and a miss and fall face-first into the dirt, but he's a surprisingly well-written character? There are layers of psychology with him. You can look at an action or opinion he has, and map it to something that happened to him. You can literally unravel why he does what he does, is who he is. His writers had a concept for him, and they worked backwards to understand why he would become that way.

What really sells him is his VA. Rolston put his whole pussy into that performance. Gage has so many lines that would be utter cringe if not full-assed. The "That vault suit makes your ass look great" line comes to mind...i've seen modded followers with similar lines, and jesus christ i want to pepper spray some of them. It helps that Gage has multiple faucets to his personality. It also helps that he is intentionally distinct from the other raiders, and occasionally doesn't associate with them, himself. It gives him standards and principles, which help give him shape and dimension. Good character. He isn't my favorite, that's Danse, but he's up there.

Hancock is such a waste of a character and it boggles me no one else seems to think so.

He starts on a bad note because his core reason for existing, is Beth wanted a historical figure reference. There's a reason he gives you a history lesson about John Hancock, it's so everyone knows exaclty what Johnny Ghoulie is a reference to. It's not even so much a reference, because it is a direct mimicking. I cannot stand the moments in 4 where something exists because the team learned a fun historical trivia fact, and wanted to pepper in that they did research. I've already bitched about their love of this with the Railroad at some point on this blog.

I genuinely wouldn't mind Hancock if he wasn't pulling so limp-dickedly. It's specifically the contrivance of explaining why this dude is called John Hancock, in John Hancock's clothing. It's okay if they pull from history and allude to it, But Hancock is just...some history stuff tacked on, with no real thought or care. The clothing, the name, the catchphrase. I feel like this is Disney's Hamilton on Ice.

But moving away from that...what is the point of Hancock?

Is his character about drug use and addiction? NOPE, only Cait's addiction is noteworthy. Okay...idenity issues, since he's larping? Not really. It could be, but that's not at all of interest to the story/writing itself. The Hancock thing is an aesthetic, not a trait. So, don't have that either. Is his character about leadership, in any capacity? Kinda, I guess. He briefly mentions insecurities and guilt about it a few times. But if I said "Hancock's story is about leadership", most people would raise an eyebrow and ask why. Not because it's...wrong, it's just not prominent enough to say that's his story, definitively.

So...what is the point of him? What should I take away from Hancock? Duty to the people? Preston does that, and does it better/more explicitly. Regret about past actions? Mac does that. Protecting the people from political corruption? Piper's thing (AND WE'LL GET TO FUCKING PIPER.) What is there to Hancock that isn't done by another companion? It isn't his depression because ALL these bitches be suicidal. What is unique to Hancock? Pretending to be someone else? Deacon. Drugs? Cait. Trying to figure out who you are, removed from the expections that come with having been someone else? Nick. Leadership, and the failures of it? Danse. Struggling to navigate the world in a new, different body, as a new person, functionally? Curie.

The only thing I can think of is mentioned only twice, and is immediately brushed off; the questionable nature of your leader being buddy-buddy with you, and acting like 'one of the bros' even as they hold power over you and have resources you don't. Parasocial government, if you will. It's brought up by Finn and Bobby No-Nose and is shut down/forgotten.

So...the only thing unique to Hancock, and it's regulated to, like, 3 individual throw-away lines. 2 of which you can miss.

Great.

Again, I like him. I just like him when I'm writing him, and can actually have him work through his shit and concepts. But as he stands, he's just...hey, y'know John Hancock? New Vegas also pulled from history, but New Vegas had shit to say about it. There was debating. There was actual philosophy and politics. There wasn't some dude named Caesar who was just...hanging out. What does Fallout 4 say about John Hancock?

Here's something you can say about Hancock; Hancock owned slaves. He inherited them from his uncle, Thomas Hancock. He later freed them due to terms in Thomas' will. But the guy Fallout 4 meagerly puts up as a figure of freedom and independence, and duty to fellow man, was a slave owner, and had slave owning family.

So, what does that mean for our Hancock? Who looked up to this guy, mantled him, and this guy is, in some way, a perversion of his own ideals.

And our Hancock's favorite quote is from Lincoln. Who started the Civil War. Did Lincoln own slaves? Contested, i couldn't find any clear answers. But Hancock mantles a slave owner, using a quote from the president that would try to outlaw slavery, while pushing for freedom and independence and anarchist rhetoric.

Is that the best you can do with Hancock? No. But it's an example.

MacCready, I've compared to a can of Campbell's soup. He's simple, he's decently-done. He's not Codsworth's lemon water but he isn't Cait's tar. I often struggle to write MacCready because he's so simple. There's not much there, he isn't a complex character. He's not even a complex person. And I like that! I like that the grumpy mercenary is a normal guy, who's just going through the motions and has simple desires. His type is often tar and I'm happy to see that subverted.

Its just that his lack of complexity means there's not much to say about him that you don't already know. He's accessible, which is a good thing. Most people don't want to drink tar, but if you're reaching for a fun beverage, you're not often reaching for water, either.

I think the best thing about MacCready is how excellent he is as a romance option. I think he's the strongest romantic choice in the game, period, largely due to him being a simple guy. I would go for MacCready IRL, because he's a good dad, he has good work ethic, and he's emotionally available and isn't afraid to talk feelings, without being a clusterfuck of issues. I love Danse, but you have to talk him out of suicide before you do anything, and he himself will admit that there's going to be a lot of issues simply because he doesn't know what he's doing or what he wants out of his new life.

You don't get that with MacCready. He knows what he wants and who he is and what he cares about. He's such a solid romantic interest, and there's incredible fic potential with the Sole Survivor and MacCready both as soon-to-be grieving parents.

On the flipside, I can't understand people who romance Nick and think its all sunshine and roses. Mini-rant, but /rad-roche (i think thats their user?) has the right idea, with Nick being a hot mess of unresolved issues who is never not projecting or in denial. Nick is not fit for a romantic relationship, not in the state you see him in game. Especially not before Far Harbor. Especially if you don't get the good ending of Far Harbor. I know, bisexual women, I'm sorry. He's got more shit than Danse and Hancock combined. I write romantic Nick prompts as if this isn't the case, but make no mistake. Me giving yall what you want is not me under the impression that this is a good idea.

Anyway. Nick himself.

Dead wife. Booo. I've already complained about his dumbass quest, which i really dislike for all its contrivances. Also, I find him mismatched with the world around him, and I wish there was more attention paid to that. He's a stock character playing out in real life (in Fallout 4's real life, that is). He's a 40's noir flick detective. This character does not belong in a post-apocalypse. This is an urban setting character. Fallout is not urban.

But that doesn't mean he can't exist! I just wish they went more ham with it. I mean, how does a detective function in a lawless wasteland, full of secrets simply because there's so few people see shit happening, know what goes down? It's an information blackout, out there, and a detective is all about information. Nick deserved to be let loose and go full camp on it all. Instead, we got 2 piddly little piss stains of "mystery" side quests. With someone as clashing as Nick, you really need to either sand down the edges to make him fit, or make the fact he's so weird part of the Thing. Nick is played incredibly straight, and given that that man is clearly lgbtq+, i find that almost a waste. Let this man be deranged. This is why Far Harbor is best Nick. He's holding together in the base game, but i don't want him holding together. I want him to suffer. I want him to monolog like Hamlet before driving a cane into someone's forehead.

Now, as for Piper...

Oh, Piper.

You were doomed.

You were so fucking doomed.

I've written about Piper and her shitty paper multiple times, so if you want a refresher, go to my blog > pinned post > meta section, and find the Piper posts. My peer review of The Synthetic Truth will be your best look into what I think of Piper.

The thing is, if you removed her awfully done journalism aspect, I'd like her base form! When she isn't going on and on about shit that's either wrong, baseless, or presumptuous, she's sassy, she's community-orianted, she's mischievous, she's kinda sardonic. She has a sugar problem. She's a burnt out 20 year old with a parentification issue. There's a lot to like here! The problem is they set up the journalism, fuck it up, and then veer hard-right and crash into the "I'm raising a kid when I'm not even an adult either" thing, where it had no build up or time to unfold naturally.

In my own little world, Piper's journalism fuckups are addressed and have consequences. I don't want her smoothed out and perfect, I want her glaring flaws to be intentional and acknowledged. And that just doesn't happen in text.

Ive also got a ramble on my thoughts on Preston. I've said before I don't like his voice acting most of the time, and I actually got a lot of pushback?? But the people who disagreed didnt...disagree...they just pointed out that John Gentry had a gnarly recording circumstance. I think it was that his first takes weren't supposed to be the final product, because he wasn't really intended to be the VA? Something like that, I forget. Point is, I said John Gentry obviously had a rough time in the booth, and wasn't given a fair shot, and people went "No, his voice acting is good! John Gentry just had a rough time with his line recording and wasn't given a fair shot!"

M-ma'am. Thats...what I said.

If it makes anyone feel better, I don't like the majority of the voice acting in this game...a lot of it is very 'modded skyrim character.' Remember the Skyrim Romance Mod? Thats what most of it sounds like to me. Remember Mrs. Peabody? Holy shit. Do not let anyone involved in that cook ever again. I also have personal beef with Nate. The male VA for the SS...someone, somewhere, made a bunch of choices. It was the wrong one, frequently. (The only good male SS line i can think of is the one romancing Danse. Has some texture to it. It's shy and cute, very good)

As for Preston himself, love him, love my paragon good-guy characters. He's such a sweetheart but he's down for bloodshed. I adore those kinds of characters, those "do no harm, take no shit" types. He's treated as a fluffball by fanon (when not suffering racist ass takes or absolute disregard), but Preston has got some lovely edges to him. If you go through his dialogue page and his approvals, you'll find he can be hard at times. There are moments he approves of 'asshole' choices, which is very fun. I love this dude.

Anyway hot take. IF HE WAS WHITE, ALL OF THESE BITCHES WOULD LIKE HIM. YEAH. I SAID IT. He'd be a depressed white man who's buff and kind and snarky, and you Danse girlies, you Nick girlies, you Deacon girlies, all of them would love him too. He is tailor made for standom but nooo, he isn't #FFFFFF so I guess he's doomed to stupid ass settlement jokes.

Yall lack taste. Hawk puhtoo.

SPEAKING OF AWFUL FUCKING TASTE, LEAVE MY BABY X6-88 ALONE.

X6-88 is so unappreciated. Grotesquely so, by both Bethesda and fans.

X6-88, I've said many times, is a spoiled rich man's cat who sits all poised and hisses if you so much as look at it if you're below a certain tax bracket. He's fussy and egotistical and snippy and dislikes bugs, children, water, heights, and generally anything above ground. He gushes over Danse and thinks he's the coolest. He'll let you kill the Institute if you're Railroad or Minutemen and have high affinity with him. He'll brag about getting to travel with you with his courser buddies. He's a fucking dork.

X6-88 is a nerd/prep who could be goth if left in a Hot Topic to run wild, but until then, he's in a suit for his private school and he's going to sit on HIS bench at recess and snipe at the rival school children with his friends and then he goes home and complains that his english eacher failed him on his Roman history test for writing it in perfect Latin. That is X6-88.

If you don't like X6-88 we cannot be friends. Fuckiung look at him. He's such a little shit. He's perfect.

35 notes · View notes

hacked-by-jake · 2 years

Text

Reddit Interview with Everbyte

-> On the occasion of Duskwood’s third birthday, Everbyte and the moderators of the r/Duskwood Reddit community came up with the idea of making an interview as a special.

I thought it would be nice to share the interview here for those who don’t have and use Reddit. However, if you have a profile there, make sure you go to the post and like and maybe leave a comment as a thank you for the effort.

Again: I have no rights to the interview and I just share it, all credits go to the Reddit moderators and Everbyte!

-> Here is the link again!

And now, let's go!

Who is Everbyte? How did you meet? Where did everything start? Introduce yourself!

Hello reddit! We’re Vanessa, Jan & Kevin better known as Everbyte. We first met at university where we studied media informatics. In 2016, we started to release games on Google Play and the iOS App Store. Most of them were kind of experimental and none of them has been successful. However, we’ve learned a lot with every project and kept improving. Then, Duskwood happened. Since the release of Episode 1, we didn’t do anything but workon Duskwood, for two and a half years straight.

What would you say were your main influences (be it video games, books, movies…) for making Duskwood?

We’re living in a small town surrounded by dense forest… sounds familiar, right? It is a two minute walk from our office to the edge of the Blackforest - which basically looks like a fantasy movie. This obviously inspired and influenced Duskwood a lot. Another influence worth mentioning is various works by Stephen King. Vanessa, our author, is a big fan.

Where does the idea of the legend come from? Did it maybe sprout from a real legend in your (home)town?

When Vanessa was a child, she was often told stories by her grandmother. These stories were passed down from generation to generation and were often scary or even cruel. Not the best bedtime material for kids, but Vanessa and her granny loved them. The legend in Duskwood is made up and is not based on facts … or is it?

Were characters based on anyone you know?

No, not directly. However, we would enjoy hanging out with them and hoped that others would enjoy their company as well.

Did you ever think you would end up casting your family, at the start of development?

We had absolutely no budget at all. So hiring professional actors was no option, but we were convinced we needed real people for Duskwood. We ended up making a list of friends and family members that we could see in each role and started calling them one by one. Luckily everyone agreed. We think they did very well!

What character do you resemble the most?

We sit in front of our PCs as much as Jake does. We enjoy good food as much as Cleo. We (try to) crack jokes like Richy. We sometimes cross a line in order to achieve our goals just like Lilly does … it depends on the situation.

Did you have any experience in film-making, directing and editing before Duskwood?

We studied media informatics, so this kind of stuff wasn’t completely new to us. However, having heard of things in theory and doing them is quite a big difference. The production quality has gone up a lot since episode 1, as we learned on our way up to episode 10.

How complex was it recording media in two languages?

Not complex at all - at least not for us. Our actors however are not used to speak English in daily life so they struggled quite a bit. We’re happy our players are a bit forgiving in this area.

Can you tell us roughly how many people were involved in helping with the development throughout the process, in addition to you three?

We usually cover the whole development process on our own. This goes from writing, programming, video- and audio editing, graphic design to support emails. We still do everything ourselves. An exception was the ending scene of episode 10 where we worked with a film crew of 8 additional people as the sets were quite complex.

What was the most challenging thing you faced during development?

This is hard to answer as there is quite frequently something that sets a new standard. Game development is quite demanding as everyone in our small team has to fulfill many roles. Needless to say, you can’t be an expert in every field, so usually one big challenge is followed by another.

What really takes it out on us are problems that occur during the release of a new episode. On release day of a new episode, it is almost guaranteed that problems arise, whether it is a bug in the game or something server-related. The fact that there is hundred thousands of people looking forward to this particular moment and are now unable to play (or worse) hits us different. These problems need to be solved asap under heavy pressure. These days always leave marks.

What is something about the game you are most proud of?

If we need to nail it down to one thing, it is the community. We’re blown away by how many people gather online and share their theories, thoughts, drawings, songs, memes, fan fiction, love letters, … you name it. We’re especially proud of how cohesive and supportive the community is.

What made you realize that Duskwood was taking off?

At first we started to see unusual increases in downloads, followed by many more emails than usual. Players started to send in suggestions and wishes, or simply messages to let us know how much they enjoyed the game. Our social media channels (like instagram) blew up and we started to receive written letters and gifts from all around the world. It is very touching for us to see how many people enjoy Duskwood, which is a huge motivation for us. Thank you!

Were you expecting such a response and the creation of big communities around the game?

No. Never. Some of you might have read the post Vanessa did a while ago on her instagram (@hen_with_pen). We were very close to giving up on our dream of making games. No one cared for what we did, let alone supported our developments by purchasing something. We couldn’t pay our bills and it was very obvious that we couldn’t afford making games any longer. Duskwood was basically our last attempt. However, Duskwood players were different. They showed their support in many ways and encouraged us to continue. None of us expected this and we’re very thankful for that - as we already said, the community is what we’re most proud of. It’s beyond our wildest dreams and we’re still not 100% convinced this isn’t just a dream.

What was it like for you and for the actors to notice that you had so many fans all around the world?

We’ve not been able to travel a lot in our lives unfortunately. And even for people who do travel a lot, there are too many places to be able to visit them all. However, most places have at least one Duskwood player, which kind of connects all of us. The world has gotten a lot smaller - in a positive way.

Did you feel under pressure when you noticed that the game was getting more popular? Were you afraid of disappointing the fans, somehow? If so, did the pressure have a positive impact in the end?

Yes, the pressure was quite extreme and hard to handle, not only psychologically but also physically. We’ve worked for two and a half year straight without major vacation. This can be quite difficult, especially when creativity plays a big role.

With each episode, we tried something new in order to keep Duskwood interesting and pushing the boundaries of the genre. If you experiment in such a way, there is always a chance to fail and disappoint. But it is a necessary risk to take if you want to surprise even the most hardened detectives ;)

Do you remember reading theories that came extremely close to your story? What was your reaction?

We love it when this happens! It is definitely more of a ‘proud moment’ than a ‘bummer moment’. It has always been important to us, for the story to be comprehensible. However, we would like to note that this can also apply to theories that are far from the truth. As a detective, you have to make hypotheses, and being wrong is part of it. Some of the wrong theories are so detailed and well thoughtout that they impress us just as much.

How do you feel now that the game is finished? Most of the community (on reddit, at least) has been in a weird grief-like state. Is it the same for you?

When Duskwood was finished, it really shook us up. It was a bit like losing a good friend. We felt empty. It really helped that we started working on our next game right away. The desire to fill this void helped us to nail the important things, like feelings, atmosphere etc., especially in the early conceptual stages. We are very happy with the current progress, and the fact that it shares the same universe makes it already feel like home. We know everyone is on the edge of their seats and ready to play, but good games need time - there is no shortcut. We want to develop a successor that everyone agrees can follow in Duskwood's footsteps.

#everbyte interview #duskwood birthday #duskwood #everbyte studio #duskwood game #duskwood everbyte #everbyte duskwood #everbyte game

116 notes · View notes

motsimages · 9 months

Text

Things I notice in US mainstream media that shock me because they are weird culturally speaking

People don't touch each other. They may be suffering a lot and very rarely does someone offer a hug or even touch their shoulder. Even when there is physical contact, it's not as frequent as in my real Mediterranean life. Btw, this has changed somewhere in the 90s-2000s, while still never being as frequent as in Spain, there was more physical contact before that time.

The whole high school experience, I could really just make a post on this to get into detail. There is absolutely nothing similar to how high schools are in Spain, and probably in Europe in general or in anywhere not the US. And learning that the social hierarchies of high school are actually like that in real life doesn't make it better. I'd just rather think they are a plot device.

Teenagers with cars.

To be fair, I'm intrigued by the portrayal of teenagers in movies because even when it is well done, they're still alien. The fact that they're played by 30 year-olds doesn't help. And there are SO MANY MOVIES AND SERIES about teenagers. Why? What is it so important about that age? When I was a teenager it felt like a formality until you become an adult.

In work related things, people don't stop for lunch. It's always nothing or something on the go. Very rarely you see people cooking or stopping for lunch. I think I only saw someone bringing a tupperware to work in My Big Fat Greek Wedding (I think that's the name), but people, generally speaking, don't eat much in US media.

In hospital shows, often doctors are doing the nurses' jobs. It's probably because they are the protagonists but still weird. Also, interesting that any hospital show looks normal to anyone not in the US and then you learn about how healthcare works in the US and why do those shows even exist? Most of the people there couldn't afford it.

How easy it is to sue someone. The "I will sue you" threat and the "I will contact my lawyers" line are frequent and for all kinds of things.

They live in massive houses with a garden, the mother rarely works... Again, fantasy land. For years I really thought this was a "movie thing", like all the other things I mention that are so weird.

The university life and the dorm thing. As alien as the high school experience.

"Do the right thing". The sentence itself and the message that comes with it. Completely alien. Again, I take it as a plot device, I'm not sure I fully grasp the cultural implications of this in real life. What is "the right thing", though? And they rarely translate it well into Spanish so it is even more difficult to picture. "Haz lo correcto" doesn't mean anything if you think about it. "Haz lo que tengas que hacer", "Haz lo que debas" like the movie title, "Elige el camino bueno". I really don't know, but definitely not "Lo correcto".

Fathers never making it to spend time with the family. We even had an ad for Spanish cinema mocking this because it is so pervasive as a trope. Those fathers are usually married to the mothers I mentioned earlier.

The fortune cookies. Maybe some Chinese restaurants are starting to serve them now but I will always remember a Hong-Kong girl invited me to dinner to a local Chinese restaurant where she was friends with the Chinese lady owner. And she was all like "shall we get the fortune cookies, like in the movies?" and I said "sure!" and then the old lady said "I don't have that, it only happens in the movies".

How Christian everyone and everything is, while not being Catholic. It is a weird Christianity, that sometimes is warm and welcoming but it is still very weird because it permeates so many things all the time. And since I started watching movies in English, how often people uses euphemisms for so many things. In Spanish we shit on God on a daily basis, and in the US you get the shy "oh my gosh" all the time.

Related to the one before: How prudish everything is. Edulcorated too.

There is a type of comedy in the US that I can't understand and I can't describe. It's like slapstick if it were made by people who are afraid of doing comedy but still want to be the center of attention. I don't like it. I'd say Jim Carrey would be an example of this. The SNL show too.

DATING. Again, I could make a post just about this. So alien. So nothing like what I know. And, just like the high school experience, when people actually explain to you the cultural things that you are missing in the movies it is actually worse somehow. To give you an idea of the shock I have: in Spain we don't go on dates. We don't have "first dates" as such, generally speaking. Some people do, I don't know, if you met on tinder or something like that, but with people you know?? I go on dates *with my boyfriend of several years*, not with a random guy.

9 notes · View notes

lostin-thewild · 1 year

Text

the bitch is back. hi! ! i’m gonna start by saying this is a terrible fking idea bc i’m the worst and i ghost a lot but… i love to write so here i am posting this again. i need people who are willing to jump IMMEDIATELY into writing. too often i spend a ton of time plotting or talking about characters… we can do that WHILE we write lol

i’d love to find a few chill rp partners! i’ll start with the other important things 1) i rp on discord only. 2) i can be a little flakey. i’m sorry. i cannot and will not reply every day. so if you’re looking for someone who will consistently reply to threads 10 times a day, that’s not me. HOWEVER i love, love to talk headcanons and about our ships on the daily in between replies! (you want someone who will make you a tumblr tag and a pinterest board? that’s me lol) i’ve also been loving discord for fast / fun text threads so if we do that in addition to threads, you’re likely to get a response from me every day. 3) if you’re looking for someone who will write 4 paragraphs per reply, that’s not me. i sometimes write long starters or sometimes i get in my feelings and write a lot, but a typical reply from me is 1 paragraph! 4) if we’ve tried writing / plotting together before and it didn’t work out PLEASE feel free to reach out! i’m just very shy and i think people hate me for ghosting so i feel awkward reaching out to them. I’M USING A DIF DISCORD NOW THO SO PLS MESSAGE ME ON TUMBLR.

i’m 30 and prefer partners close to my age. but at the min, 21+ muns only! i’m looking for some chill stuff, where we can try a plot/thread or two together and see if we vibe. if we do, i will want 30 ships with you. if we don’t, no hard feelings. we just might not be the writing partner for each other and we can part ways! you can always tell me if you’re not feeling something, and i ask that you be receptive if i do the same.

below the cut i’ll put some more info about me / what i’m looking for. plots, faces, ships i’m into, etc. it’s VERY long and has more info than anyone needs bc i add to it all the time. you DO NOT have to read it all! (kudos if you do lol) it’s just in case you want to learn more about me! like this if you’re interested and i’ll reach out via IM!!! or if you see anything below that catches your eye, feel free to just IM me as well! (you will get a response faster from me if you IM me instead of liking the post just fyi)

i love being friends with my rp partners, so please know that i WILL message you periodically to check in with you (not on your level of interest in the plot, you as a person lol), send you gifs, posts, playlists, whatever, talk about our plots, etc. i’ll make pinterest boards, instagam templates. all that. please know it is NOT me attempting to rush you into replying! i’m so patient and don’t care how long you take. i genuinely just want to be your friend lol. so if you will be annoyed by me messaging you, i’m probably not for you. and if you give me no enthusiasm in response, i’m less likely to want to write with you. it is what it is.

i’ve been more into creating a new muse with every plot lately. but i’m happy to play against any of your muses if you like to write with pre-established muses! i also LOVE mumus/having multiple plots in the same universe. i love real life plots, i love creating fantasy universes, i love scifi, horror, angst, fluff… literally anything. i’m open to nsfw and dark themes (no rape, incest, abuse, or grooming) as well as long as we talk about everything beforehand. i’m down for smut as long as it’s part of a plot, but if it’s not your thing, i’m fine not including it!

i’ll write m/m and m/f. i’m open to f/f, but i go for m/m and m/f more. always here for platonic things also!!! i do have a preference for playing men bc like getting in touch with my masc side. i don’t care if you only want to play women just let me know up front. i’ll play muses 18 to 118. (ok mb not that old but i have had muses in their 60s before.)

here are some faces i love as well as ships and plots i’d love to do! i’m 100% not limited to these things!!! but if you’re curious as to what i like or if you want a jumping off point to start plotting, it might be helpful for you!!

M O S T W A N T E D aka i will do anything in return if you give me any of these!! - i’d literally give my first born for this. i’ve tried it so many times but i suck and it keeps falling through! - i wanna use my oliver jackson-cohen muse in something like dark and angsty and smutty and like mafia-ish. idk if this sounds remotely interesting i can give you the pinterest and tag and stuff i have for him/the plot!! - also this, this, this, and this okay thanks bye. - rudy pankow x madelyn cline in a bffs to lovers just wait i can explain this!! - i also wanna use manny montana. maybe an age gap? maybe dark, maybe angsty, maybe smutty idk like the usual YOU KNOW - i need a m/m hockey rivals plot i have ideas too!! - will give my second born for anyone who lets me play as or against milly alcock, emily carey, and/or olivia cooke in something fantasy/historical bc... obsessed with them in HOTD O T H E R P L O T S - books i’d love to do plots based on: red, white & royal blue!!!!, the selection plssssss, anything based on the grishaverse (especially SoC or wesper or helnik omg), the house in the cerulean sea, falling kingdoms, shadowhunter universe (OCs mostly, but i would also play matthew fairchild or an older kit rook!), captive prince, all for the game, the raven cycle, the winner’s trilogy, the lunar chronicles, IT (18+ eddie x richie bc i’m trash?), the crown’s game, the night circus, an ember in the ashes, the kiss of deception, the song of achilles, throne of glass, the cruel prince... proably more lol. tbh you don’t even have to have read any of them i can just scream the plot at you lol - i would KILLLLLL for a plot based on young royals on netflix! - absolutely a n y t h i n g enemies to lovers. especially if it’s like slowburn enemies to friends to lovers. pls. - bodyguard plots!! bodyguard x royal, bodyguard x politician’s kid, bodyguard x actor. anything. - any kind of age gap plot with an older woman x younger man pls - SPORTSSSS. i’m absolute trash for hockey and baseball. (but will do any sports honestly.) olympic stuff!! gimme figure skater/hockey player. give me teammates secretly crushing on each other/hooking up after the game but no homo/etc. give me rivals. two people competing for a captain spot. etc. - rom com plots!!! (sweet home alabama, the proposal, just go with it, set it up, while you were sleeping, the girl next door, trainwreck, clueless, bridget jones’s diary, chasing liberty, LITERALLY ANY) - fake dating!!!! (or fake married or anything like that!!) any kind. in any plot. in any scenario. can’t promise not to cry if we also include the only one bed trope bc i don’t care how often i see it, i consider it literary genius every damn time i encounter it. - i live for friends to lovers. especially if they’re both really dumb and if it’s gay. - college! sororities! frats! sports! - i love any sort of crime plot. mob. mafia. anything like that. - royalty anything. real life or fantasy. - historical plots!! literally from any era. i just love history ok. - stuff with older muses! a couple of divorcees. single parents, second chance romance.. idk anything lol - anything in my PLOTS tag

i generally prefer to pick a plot THEN a face, but just to get an idea of the kinds of faces i usually go for, they’re down below! honestly i’ll probs suggest a lot of faces not on this list

F A C E S aaron paul, alex fitzalan, anthony mackie, aron piper, axel auriant, bill skarsgard, charlie gillespie, cody christian, dacre montgomery, dev patel, diego luna, dylan sprayberry, felix mallard, freddy carter, hero fiennes-tiffin, ian bohen, isaiah mustafa, joel kinnaman, jonathan daviss, logan shroyer, lorenzo zurzolo, lucien laviscount, manny montana, matthew daddario, maxence danet-fauvel, octavio pisano, oliver jackson-cohen, oliver stark, oscar isaac, nick robinson, rafael silva, rege-jean page, ronen rubinstein, rudy pankow, ryan guzman, suraj sharma, taron egerton, taylor zakhar perez, thomas doherty, timothee chalamet, tom holland, zethphan smith gneist.

adeline rudolph, aisha dee, amber stevens west, anya taylor-joy, aslihan malbora, benedetta porcaroli, brianne howey, bruna marquezine, chloe bailey, cindy kimberly, constance wu, dove cameron, dua lipa, eiza gonzalez, ester expósito, geraldine viswanathan, january jones, josefine frida pettersen, khadijha red thunder, katheryn winnick, kristine froseth, lovie simone, madelyn cline, maia mitchell, marilyn lima, meg donnelly, milly alcock, natacha karam, natalia dyer, paulina singer, precious mustapha, rachel hilson, romi van renterghem, ryan destiny, samantha logan, sofia bryant, sydney sweeney, tessa thompson, veerle dejaeger, yael shelbia, yara shahidi, zion moreon.

you can also look through my FACES tag for more ideas! but honestly, i’m open to a lot!!

S H I P S aron piper x omar ayuso aron piper x manu rios axel auriant x maxence danet-fauvel brandon flynn x richard madden bridgette lundy-paine x fivel stewart cody christian x dylan sprayberry evan mock x thomas doherty (x emily alyn lind) jonathan daviss x rudy pankow madelyn cline x rudy pankow oliver stark x ryan guzman rafael silva x ronen rubenstein savannah lee smith x zion moreno

#discord 1x1 #1x1 rp #1x1 roleplay #1x1 discord

20 notes · View notes

mcalhenwrites · 1 year

Text

While many of my pieces on AO3 are still locked up in a collection, I do have many that are public. :D Final Fantasy XV songs that died centuries ago ignoct reincarnation AU Summary: Noctis and Ignis recognized each other when they met as children. No matter how many lifetimes they pass through, they always find one another. Length: oneshot, 1345 words Noctis isn’t sure why, but he remembers pieces of lifetimes like the quick flip through a photograph album. The emotions—fear, grief, love, hatred—overwhelm him. He’s too young to know where these thoughts come from, why they’re there. Spell of the Stars ignoct Summary: When the thirteen stars of the Chosen King Constellation shine down upon Eos at their brightest, it gives two ghosts the power to be almost human again. Length: oneshot, 868 words They still spend their days and nights together in the Citadel, banging messages through the walls and curling up on the dusty covers of old beds. But they only had a short time in this season to touch one another. The annual ball had become a romantic game between the two. Would they find one another and dance for the rest of the evening, or be doomed to spend their night being passed from stranger to stranger? Wandering Souls ignoct dad AU Summary: Noctis is a single dad and widower who found his family's business too stressful and demanding, and now he lives on the road with his son. Similarly, Ignis is a motorcyclist who became tired of the daily grind of life in Insomnia and quit his job to travel. Being on the road means seeing a lot of different faces, but when they catch eyes at a diner in Hammerhead, both Ignis and Noctis realize that sometimes it’s nice to wake up to the same face every day. Length: 14 chapters (complete), 46,720 words

“Daddy, did you make a new friend?”

“Yeah, his name is Ignis.”

“Cool. You need friends.”

Leave it to a five-year-old to point out all his flaws and shortcomings.

Original Works Stargazers' Hill Summary: Thaddeus Whittaker began his new life in a coffin. After running away from an orphanage, Thaddeus stowed away in a coffin destined for the Glasser Mortuary. He is taken in by the family and becomes fast friends with their youngest son, Ambrose. What Thaddeus doesn't know is someone is looking for him, and the disappearance of his stepfather was no accident at sea. Length: 17/63 chapters (still posting, though the work is complete) For the first time in their lives, the people at the Glasser Mortuary did the opposite of their jobs: they pulled a body out of a casket. This one happened to be breathing, which was fortunate for all of them. Humphrey Glasser did not need his hard-earned reputation to be shaken by a police investigation. Rascal Note: this stands alone from Stargazers' Hill and can be read separately Summary: With a stressful job as the breadwinner of the household, Hazel unwinds at home by surrendering control to his trustworthy partner, Ferdinand. The youngest "Raston Rascal" is under pressure to follow in his father's footsteps. It includes everything from his job to his hobbies to his lifestyle choices. But when there's a new airship being built, one that the Rastons have invested in, Hazel finds a growing interest in the vessel for all the wrong reasons. Length: 60/60 chapters, 159930 words Hazel is in the perfect position of his erotic fantasies: a handsome man has him across his lap, one leg burrowed into the angle of Hazel’s bent form, toes lifted off the ground. Ferdinand’s sleeves are indeed rolled nearly to his elbows, and the slipper is going to leave a lasting impression that has Hazel relishing in the pain all night and into tomorrow. Ungrateful Little Princeling Note: best read after reading at least the first 4 chapters of Rascal Summary: The first time Hazel is ever called an Ungrateful Little Princeling. The insult follows him into adulthood, as do the unpleasant memories. Length: oneshot, 2455 words

Beside Hazel’s arm sits the remaining pieces of the model, retrieved from the yard. The car has been snapped off the platform, and the exterior is scraped and smashed. The window glass is shattered.

Reselling will be impossible. The model is now trash.

Ravish Him Note: can be read before Rascal Summary: Hazel Raston might have been a little drunk when he first spotted Ferdinand Aletto standing by the nearest exit of the dormitory common room. So drunk, in fact, that he snagged Sinclair’s sleeve and hissed much too loudly in his ear, “Who is he? I want to ravish him.” Specifically, Hazel wanted to rip the stranger’s buttons off his shirt with his teeth and lick his chest down to his navel until he had his cock in his mouth. Length: oneshot, 7974 words Ferdinand dressed in his finest, snappiest outfit. He also dressed two hours too soon, because his thoughts were on little else but the young man with the butterscotch hair and chrysanthemum orange eyes. Woeful Spring Colds Note: can be read before Rascal, but best if you know the dynamic between Hazel and Ferdinand Summary: Ferdinand can always count on Hazel to take care of him when he has a cold. In turn, Hazel can count on Ferdinand to paint his ass red whenever they're no longer sick. Length: oneshot, 2838 words As soon as he straightens up, he takes a few deep breaths with his eyes shut tight. There is no mistaking it: he has caught something. It is inevitable in a customer service job, and arranging flowers for people who buy them for loved ones at hospitals means all sorts of colds and flus are passed around the flower shop. Even someone as robust as Ferdinand ends up catching something once a year. Eda, Darling Note: best read after chapter 40 of Rascal Summary: After her lawyers contact Willie, Edith Anne goes home to face her future ex-husband. Length: oneshot, 2623 words

Many people—especially my son—think I’m brave by nature. It’s never that easy. If I have the option to delay unpleasant matters for a short time, I’ll stay somewhere safe and harden my exoskeleton like a freshly-molted animal. Confrontations are best when planned to do the least damage.

Oh yes, I can react in a snap if necessary. The wife of someone as impulsive and reckless as William Raston must be. Kingdom Hearts Pretty Cute Smile Demyx/Ienzo Summary: It was simple. All he had to say? “No.” But the moment Ienzo smiled, one corner of his upturned lips hidden behind his bangs, Demyx caved. The word “no” was lost temporarily. Length: oneshot, 908 words

He enjoyed Ienzo’s company, and he was going to have it one way or another. In fact, maybe he liked Ienzo a little better than Zexion, because Ienzo smiled.

And that smile was pretty cute.

Language of Flowers Strelitzia, Lauriam Summary: They didn’t mind getting their hands covered in soil and compost, leaving dustings of it across the stairs of Daybreak Town. Length: oneshot, 485 words Lauriam taught his sister about the different local bees and other pollinators when she was but a wee thing standing in his shadow. The trellises in their family garden bloomed and fruited every spring, the vines clenched around the soft wood as if little arms clinging upward to beat the other plants to the sun.

23 notes · View notes

perfectlyvalid49 · 4 months

Text

Ok, look.

This is a tiny blog. I joined tumblr in 2022 because there were like four people who had tumblrs that I was checking daily to see if they had posted anything, and it was pointed out to me that if I just joined tumblr and followed them my life would be a lot easier.

Over the course of my first year on tumblr I decided I liked it here. I followed some more people, which lead to following some more people. I mostly reblogged lots of different things – sometimes fandom stuff, sometimes interesting facts, sometimes stuff about Judaism and frequently politics (and there’s a big overlap between the last two.) As of October 1st, 2023, I had about 15 followers, two of whom are friends in real life.

In the last two months my follower count has almost tripled, and like 8 of you have shown up in the last 24 hours (what the hell did I post? This feels weird). Given that the focus of this blog has taken a decidedly Jewish turn in that time, I’m assuming that’s what you guys are here for? To anyone who was here before that, I’m sorry if you were here for the other stuff and I’m just flooding your dash with stuff about antisemitism. My hope is that a year from now this blog will be back to griping about antisemitism only occasionally as opposed to multiple times a day.

Anyway, for anyone who is new around here, here’s a little about me: I live in Minnesota, I have two young kids, and my profile pic is my dog. I’m Jewish, and a Zionist (depending on your definition). Politically I’m too far left to be liberal and not left enough to be a true leftist, and I’m fine with that. I like nerd stuff – fantasy and sci fi, Star Trek and Star Wars. I currently work in the medical tech industry, but before that I worked in publishing, and before that I worked in manufacturing and before that I worked in fast food. My educational background is in linguistics and the history of the English language, but it’s been a while, so don’t quote me. My ask box is open, and I’ll reply to just about anything that seems in good faith. I want a better world, I’m just not sure who is going to help me get there anymore.

#about me #about the blog #it is deeply unnerving to think that even 40 people think that what I have to say is worth listening to #I know enough to know I'm an idiot sometimes #but I have a big mouth and like to talk #so if you're listening I guess I'll keep talking

13 notes · View notes

todayimgonnaplay · 3 months

Text

Today I'm Gonna Play: Love and Deepspace

I came across this video a couple months ago of a really high poly guy and thought it was CGI made by someone talented. Turns out it was an upcoming otome game for mobile?! I replaced my phone recently so this was a good time to look forward to trying something with high-end graphics for this platform.

My experience with Otome games isn't much. I've played those dating sims that a few friends were very into back in school on DeviantArt, notably by Zeiva and Pacthesis. This was my entry to the Visual Novel (VN) genre, but I didn't understand the appeal of of liking 2D guys. Fast forward and I've also played a couple otome VNs on mobile and dabbled slightly on PC and even though I find a few interesting love interests based on appearance and personality, I STILL didn't get the appeal, until I finally played Mystic Messenger two years ago and got my heart shattered and was rejected by my love interest lol. This idea of having a social messaging format with calls for a mobile game is one of the most creative things I've seen for both the VN genre as a whole as well as the mobile platform. I don't know if any other VNs have done something like this before.

What Love and Deepspace does, is basically take that same format and iterate upon it with its worldbuilding. But it doesn't stop there. The real selling points of this game is that it uses very high quality 3D models akin to Final Fantasy CGs and also have real-time action combat. This seemed like a combo I never thought would exist, but I'm sure as hell glad to see it. Apart from chatting and calls using your own created avatar, it includes other features such as micro blogs which are Twitter-esque, so you can like and comment on the other characters' posts, and sometimes make your own. There are interaction features with the love interest, by being able to touch him, ask him things, and even things like listening to heartbeats or blowing on him using your mic?? It's another level of immersiveness! Minigames also exist which add to the story, such as claw machines (which are actually not to rigged compared to real life), playing cards, taking photos, and mini stories or audio that you can obtain from gacha.

The gacha aspect is not related to obtaining your love interest like in other gachas, but rather it's unlocking additional content about them, such as the mini stories. These stories tend to look like casual hangouts or even romantic dates. I'm not sure if there are any intimate scenes or not so far.

The story is not bad, I'm intruiged by the lore and the overall world as I like futuristic settings. There's a lot of info dump in documents and such that you typically see in gachas or RPGs, but this is one of the few times where I actually read through them. And surprisingly, the protagonist (you) is actually a lot more competent than expected!

The only issue I have is that the way the story is presented makes the characters look like they don't know each other yet and are distant, which is fine. But the romance parts you unlock through gacha or other features of the game seem more affectionate so it feels quite disjointed. It makes me feel confused on how I can piece these moments together.

Another nitpick although minor is that the daily stamina that you can obtain through login times don't seem to sync up in local time, so I'm assuming it's based on China's time zone instead. I've mostly been on this game during the evenings which make me miss both of them. It's a bit of a weird decision for international players.

I've also seen comments online about the lack of a male character or other gender options. I also agree that this would be nice to have. But I also acknowledge that this game is primarily aimed towards women (therefore an otome game), and since it's a Chinese game, I'm not sure if they would allow any type of BL in it. This could cause a bit of disinterest for international players. The only option I can see is to provide a larger variety of options for the current female avatar (which is also a complaint even amongst women playing the game), which could also have the avatar look a little more masculine presenting, etc. This could be a slight workaround towards any censorship laws while also allowing for more diversity. Plus technically speaking, the advantage of shorter hair or buzz cuts etc. would also mean less complex hair rigging (like with long hair) so it may be easier to animate and handle.

Overall, this game has huge potential that could transform romance/otome games for mobile like Mystic Messenger if all goes well. This will be another mobile game I'll keep playing!

#love and deepspace #gacha gaming #gacha games #mobile gaming #game review #game reviews #game analysis

4 notes · View notes

sxugaryx · 3 months

Text

Daily Routine (Fanfic)

New chapter from my main series 🩷

Pinocchio woke up in the morning and got ready for his day, he changed clothes and made his bed, he went to eat breakfast, Pinocchio only ate some fruit because his father was still fixing the kitchen, making small talk with his father before he left for work, telling him to be a good boy while he was gone.

Pinocchio was grounded but at least he wasn’t too upset about it anymore. He decided to start the day by writing a letter to Alice, he had received one from her yesterday, describing her daily life and her other adventures, Pinocchio wrote her back telling her about his daily life, how Gemini can walk around now and how he got a pony. He would have to wait for his father to deliver the letter later, as his father mailed all of it alongside the letters he wrote for Alexander.

Then he decided to draw a little, he thought it would be fun to use Gemini as his model again, putting on a small suit he bought at the store, Gemini was all fancy looking now as Pinocchio began to draw him. Gemini is really happy, he loves it when Pinocchio uses him as a model, it makes him feel pretty, and half of Pinocchio’s sketchbook is him in different poses. Although Pinocchio draws so many different things, drawings of nature, animals like cats or dogs, drawings of houses he sees while outside, sometimes even if it feels a little childish he likes drawing himself and his father together in a simpler style, or drawing himself with his mother or his other loved ones.

After that Pinocchio decides to practice playing the violin, he doesn’t just practice with his mother and he loves playing it even if he isn’t with her, although he can’t practice the piano here since he doesn’t have one at home. This time Gemini decides to join him as well, both playing music together, it’s simple but beautiful, and they should play together more often.

It’s already a little past noon, so he decides to eat something, it has to be something that doesn’t need to be cooked so he decides to make himself a salad, Pinocchio now realizes that the only true thing that he doesn’t know how to do when it comes to making food is how to use a stove or an oven.

Then Pinocchio decides to do his favorite thing, he has accumulated a good amount of books, and his bookshelf is almost full, currently, he doesn’t have any new books to read but he still likes re-reading the ones he already has, specially his fairy tales collection, after all the incredible things Pinocchio has seen, he wonders if all these stories are really just works of fantasy, oh well, real or not they are so fun to read, Gemini now reads them alongside him while he sits on his shoulder.

He puts the book he is reading down, it’s time for him to do his chores, he cleans his room and then goes around the house cleaning, dusting, sweeping, and mopping the floors.

It’s not long before his father comes back home so Pinocchio decides to play a board game with Gemini, now that Gemini can walk around they decide to play a card game, as the cards are something light enough that Gemini can hold in his hand.

“Gemini you can’t add +4 and +2 in the same turn!”

“Oh now you follow the rules of the games we play, what happened to the “those are just suggestions”?”

Pinocchio grabbed Gemini and put him inside his cage, then he started shaking it.

“You brat, This is cricket abuse!”

“Ugh let's play another game”

“You are such a sore loser,” Gemini said as he got out of his cage, feeling dizzy. “We could play chess, we have never played together”

Pinocchio liked that idea, he grabbed the board and settled the pieces, and he went first making his move. Then Gemini made his move, pushing his piece with his body.

“Looks like you are having a lot of fun moving around” Pinocchio was happy that Gemini was happy, as he said that Pinocchio made his next move.

“I am” Gemini had a smug grin on his face, “Check”

Pinocchio looked at the board, seeing that Gemini’s queen was directly against his King, he had no other way to defend it.

Pinocchio tried grabbing Gemini but this time the cricket was faster and started jumping and running to avoid him.

—-

“Son, what are you doing?” Geppetto asked as Pinocchio was kneeling looking behind the couch.

“Nothing” Pinocchio lied, pulling an innocent smile, “Me and Gemini are just playing hide and seek”

Geppetto smiled, “It’s getting late, maybe you should take a bath, you and Gemini can play later”

Pinocchio nodded, a bath was a good idea instead of just a shower. He filled the bathtub with water and soaked in it, he also made a few bubbles with the liquid soap.

“Hi buddy” Gemini jumped to the side of the tub, then jumped to a soap holder that was inside, Gemini using it as a small boat so as to not get inside the water, he is waterproof but he doesn’t want to get wet; he is liking floating in the water like this, maybe he should see about getting a mini boat, it could match with his new tiny tram.

“So you were hiding here”

“This is the last place you were going to look for me”

Pinocchio gave out a sigh he always loses when he plays board games with Gemini.

“Can’t you let me win at least once?”

“Nope, I like seeing you getting mad and turning into a brat”

“I’m NOT a brat!”

“Sure, whatever you say”

They both laughed, even if Pinocchio always loses they had a good time together.

—-

Pinocchio ate dinner and started to watch his father assemble the new stove and oven, he asked him why he doesn’t just read the instructions manual but that was the wrong thing to say because his father went on a rant about how he is a great engineer and assembling a little stove is nothing for him. Pinocchio just nodded at what his father was saying, but he and Gemini looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

It was getting late so Pinocchio got ready for bed, he wrote a few things in his diary about what he had done during the day and about what he had been feeling lately.

After that he went to bed and so did Gemini, both tugging themselves into their respective beds, saying goodnight to each other.

#lies of p #lop #liesofp #lies of p game #lies of p fanfic #ao3 link #this is in ao3 too #lies of p pinocchio #lies of p geppetto #lies of p gemini

4 notes · View notes