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1meengreenie · 2 years

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Greenie’s Year-End Media Reviews

Thought I’d do something new this year and talk about all of the media I enjoyed in 2021. If you want my take on stuff or would like recommendations if you have similar tastes as me then click below the break! I’m a nerd so it’s just like... anime and games haha.

Nothing is in any particular order, it’s just as I remember things.

Anime I Watched in 2021

(keep in mind I watch anime with subtitles so if the dubs of any of these are bad I wouldn’t know, haha)

The “Watch ODDTAXI Award”- ODDTAXI Please watch ODDTAXI it’s so good, haha.

This is a mystery anime! The main character is Odokawa, a taxi driver who interacts with a large and colorful cast of characters through driving them around the city. The hanging question throughout the show is “what happened to the missing girl,” though each episode presents new questions while answering others. It’s one of those shows where I can’t say much more about it because it would ruin the fun.

I watched this show as it was airing and every single week I kept saying “oh crap” and “oh god no why did it have to end like that” because I was so invested in the story. You might be able to figure out what “the deal” is before it’s revealed, but there were a lot of story bits that caught me off guard.

If you do give this show a try, I’d recommend reading the radio play translations over on the Wiki, since they ran together and the radio play reveals a bit more than what was in the show itself.

Tenchi Souzou Design-bu/Heaven’s Design Team

This is a great comedic anime that both animal lovers and artists can relate to (all those commission revisions), and it’s actually fairly educational, providing reasoning as to why different mythical creatures can’t exist and why stranger animals look the way they do. Want to know why owls have weird skeletons? This anime answers that and more.

The designers themselves are also really great and I love them all! My favorite character is probably Venus.

Inu to Neko/With a Dog AND a Cat, Every Day is Fun!

A series of shorts featuring the author of the manga living with her sweet dog and grumpy cat. If you need a little something cute to cheer yourself up, this show is perfect for that (assuming you like animals, of course). The contrast between the excitable, friendly Inu and irritable, sneaky Neko is great. Check out the manga too; the anime barely made a dent in adapting it.

I have a plush of Inu-chan and he’s adorable haha

Eden

An anime that takes place in the far future where the world is solely inhabited by robots rather than people. Easiest way to summarize the jist of this anime is “Wall-E but instead of a plant they find a human girl out of cryosleep.”

The plot can be kind of predictable (I guessed the twist reveal, for one) but it still emotionally destroyed me and I will admit that I cried multiple times. :’) Crazy-Uncle Robot is the best.

Digimon Ghost Game (in-progress)

This one is still in the early-stages of airing, but so far I’m really enjoying this season. For those familiar with older seasons of Digimon, I’d compare this one to a lite version of Tamers mixed with a bit of Appmon, as it has that “real world drama” combined with (so far at least) a “monster-of-the-week” type of story that focuses on how different Digimon cause problems for the people of the city.

I like all of the main cast so far (barring Jellymon; I just don’t care for her personality and Kiyoshiro is my favorite and she is just so mean to him haha). Gammamon is very adorable for a lead Digimon and his interactions with Hiro are so cute and it is going to destroy me when this series ends, knowing this franchise’s track record.

These aren’t from 2021 but I watched them in 2021-

Gyaru to Kyouryuu/Gal and Dino

Dino is one of the greatest characters of this generation and he is just so precious and funny and must be appreciated.

In all seriousness, this anime is completely weird, which isn’t a bad thing. There are segments of the show that are in a traditional anime style, web-video-themed bits that feature Dino attempting to do something simple, live action segments that are totally bizarre at times, and even little minigames like “spot Dino.”

This is a slice-of-life anime about a fashionable girl and a mute dinosaur living together, and the overall vibe of the show is just relaxing. If you need to chill out after a day at work or school, hang out with Kaede and Dino and friends. The ending theme is even vaporwave-y, how chill can you get?

Doukyonin wa Hiza, Tokidoki, Atama no Ue/My Roommate is a Cat

A man adopts a cat while visiting his parents’ grave. Ripping your heart out and driving over it with a big rig ensues.

The best way I can describe this anime is very cathartic? If you need a good cry this is a great anime for that. By the time I was done I was a wreck :’)

DISCLAIMER: THE CAT IS OKAY, REPEAT, SHE IS OKAY

Houkago Saikoro Club/After-School Dice Club

I loved this anime! It’s a bit formulaic and very much “cute girls doing cute things,” but as someone who’s always been interested in board/card games it was very interesting learning about all of the different games they played in each episode. You’ll want to check all of the games out yourself!

I relate to Miki way too much, haha.

Houkago Teibou Nisshi/Diary of Our Days at the Breakwater

Another school club anime, but instead of playing games, they’re going fishing! Again, made me want to try out fishing by the time I was done with it, haha.

Only problem I had with this one was their mentor/teacher, she’s... not the best role model for these poor girls.

Eh-

Digimon Adventure: (2020)

It’s... ok. And by ok I mean the only thing I really liked about this series was all of the monster-fanservice where they featured Digimon who have never made an anime appearance before (such as the new Pendulum guys). It’s very much “baby’s first Digimon anime” because everyone’s personalities are so flat and the stakes are incredibly low compared to previous seasons. I am really hoping that Ghost Game turns out much better, and so far it looks like it might be.

Games I Played in 2021-

The “Remastered My Childhood” Award- New Pokemon Snap!

For a sequel to a game that came out ages ago, NPS is amazing. It improves on the original in every possible way. There’s so much to do (so much to see, so what’s-), the ways the different Pokemon interact with each other is so cute/cool to see, getting the 4-star photos for everything is VERY difficult at times (looking at you, Minior and Jolteon/Joltik) and as icing on the cake, there was free DLC too?? I can see myself coming back to play this when I need a slightly more meaty experience than the original (which I still love, but it’s 100% beatable in one sitting for me after I’ve played it so many times haha).

Did you know that there’s a cameo referencing this game in Pokemon Secrets of the Jungle? When I first saw it I was like “YO IT’S THEM” haha

Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl

HGSS is still holding up as my all-time favorite Pokemon game. ...Ah, we’re talking about BDSP. As much flack at this game gets, I don’t really know what else could be done with it (aside from having Platinum’s post-game content; please give me the Battle Frontier back, I’m begging you GF, please, I’m dying over here). The Grand Underground is a vast improvement over the original, contests are a bit more fun (though part of me misses the stupid dress-up section), and I for one do not miss the original speed of the HP bars. :S

That being said, it’s lacking a bit of charm. And polish. As funny as all of the memes involving bugs and glitches are, a part of me kind of cringes seeing all of these huge problems present on the initial release copies of the game that required patching to fix.

Pokemon Wilds

This is actually a fangame, but I got really addicted to playing it for about two weeks. Best way I can describe it is “Minecraft (or Pixelmon would be more appropriate) combined with Pokemon Crystal.”

You get to wander around a vast map encountering wild Pokemon both in the overworld and in the tall grass as per usual, you can build structures, corral your Pokemon into pens, steal Pokemon eggs, explore dungeons like the Pokemon Mansion, etc. There’s a day/night system and the nighttime is actually pretty scary if you’re not expecting it to be.

It’s such a fun game and I absolutely loved playing it. I highly recommend trying it out if you can find it online.

Deltarune Chapter 2

I have had to re-type this review at least five times because every single time I’ve written it, I’ve written an entire novel about how much I love Spamton and the actual game review was like... 10% of the actual review. So tl;dr funny kromer man is my #1 husbando, I want to pay for his therapy, don’t @ me I already know V_V (He’s a good boy deep down, don’t give me that look ;~; )

In all seriousness, Toby and friends did an amazing job with this chapter. I enjoyed every single aspect of it and honestly I liked it better than Chapter 1. All of the characters were memorable (and creative), the music SLAPS, the pacing is great, the entire thing really just came together near-perfectly. I absolutely love things with this kind of aesthetic so I got invested in it more than the previous chapter, haha.

He got me to feel sorry for junk mail and advertising, what the hell Toby

Potassium

It Takes Two

Technically I haven’t beaten this game yet (my friend and I are playing it very slowly due to our schedules being different), but we’re about 85% done with it.

This game is a blast to play and I’d definitely recommend it for anyone who wants to sit and play something with a friend for a good chunk of time (our playthrough is on 14 hours so far but we get distracted by objects in the environment very easily haha; the game has a TON of little fun things to play around with).

The story is a tad bit serious (I’ve been referring to it as Divorce: The Game), but there is still quite a bit of humor. We both want to punt Dr. Hakim into orbit haha.

The other games I played this year either weren’t noteworthy enough to talk about (ie. very short itch.io games that I don’t have any real commentary for) or they’re games that I’ve already played before and am revisiting/still playing (ex. Pokemon Cafe Remix, ACNH, Stardew, etc.)

I’d say I was satisfied with this year. I know a lot of people weren’t, but it allowed me to get through a backlog of stuff I’ve been meaning to get through. A large portion of the year was spent watching Twitch vods so I got to experience a lot of new games through those.

Thanks for reading! I hope next year is just as good if not better.

#greenie text post

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the-satellite · 3 years

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Hello friends and welcome to ☆Hateful Nostalgia☆. I was exposed to the mob talker mod WAY too young bc I was an unsupervised child on the internet watching mod showcases and SkyDoesMinecraft. Looking back these sucked, the stories were often bland and the designs were milk toast at best and tits out at worst. So for the sake of procrastinating on working on anything substantial I grabbed the main 6 I remembered and gussied em up. Redesigns, rewrites, better names, all that bullshit. If your interested in better photos, design notes, story details and rambling hit the basement, otherwise here's a line up you should click for better quality.

Also I wrote all this once before already but I deleted it like a dumb bitch. On the night Unus Annus was murdered in front of my eyes no less. Was a rough fuckin night.

The Creeper- Kupa. An explosive pyromaniac with a habit of making empty threats and yelling. She protects what she believes to be her territory with a suicidal passion, but if you manage to get her to cool down and soften up she's pretty sick to hand out with. Hard of hearing, has at least one bout of head trauma at all times, and deathly allergic to cats.

Because the creeper is kinda the og I wanted to reference AT2's design more than the others, but I'm p sure the only thing I actually kept was the red hair and brown gloves. Otherwise I was doing whatever. I really wanted to lean into the explody bit of creepers, so I gave her some bite and dressed her in clothes referenced from Irish railroad workers. This may also be why I keep imaging her with a very heavy Irish or Scottish accent, whichever would be most incomprehensible when angry. Every color but her skin was color picked from one of the references, with some minor alterations for makes my eyes happy reasons.

With Kupa I imagine a story line with her would largely be about her as a character and her development than like an actual adventure narrative like everyone else. She starts off ready to blow up both you and herself in a misguided attempt to defend what she sees as her's and opens up and learns not everyone is out to get her. Lots of time taken to understand her childhood and how she ended up how she is. Very simple, probably the default or tutorial run people would go through.

The Zombie- Bee. The ill husk of a missing explorer suffering from a less than conventional appetite. She wallows in her self imposed loneliness, believing herself to be an irredeemable monster doomed to hurt those around her. What she really needs is a buddy and some clue to who she used to be. Rough voiced, chronically fatigued, and prone to spontaneous combustion in sunlight.

I definitely consider this one the weakest for design sadly. I imagined Zombies as humans who went into strange caves and caverns and didn't come out for years, only to pop up as completely different people. I just tossed AT2's design. The first thing I did was make her a bit of a genderbent Steve and tinted her green bc Zombies in game are just Steve but green. Tore up her clothes, colored picked the darkest colors I could from the clothes on the in game and boom, Bee. I do vaguely regret not making her eyes pure black but I also still wanted her to be human enough to fit with the other overworld mods.

Ok so Bee actually has a basic story. When you meet her she's aggressive, but as a warning. She fears the possibility she may hurt somebody so heads for threats immediately. Going back and forth between her cave and village for a while you learn more about the situation with the missing folks who come back and Bee as a person. After a bit you pick her up off her depressed ass and start a nocturnal adventure of refinding your past, adapting to who your becoming, overcoming self destuction, and slow burn babey!!!

The Skeleton- Ulna. One of the few surviving warriors of a now destroyed kingdom and dead culture. She spends most of her time now traveling alone, hiding in trees and shooting anything see sees as a threat- which is everything- in the face with homemade arrows. Very much suffering from loss of her home and a bad case of lost purpose. A woman of few words, very antisocial, and naturally nocturnal.

I came in with the Skeleton wanting to make her seem mysterious, so my first thought was immediately a cloak and a mask, but I wanted her face to like be visible so I went with the face paint. I didn't actually know that I wanted to do under there so I went with wraps that are reminiscent of the original outfit but still not tits out bc it's so fucking easy! Gave her a quiver, color picked the cloak and face paint from the in game model and the wraps from AT2'S art. I did like. Subconsciously draw her eyes the way I do Asian characters but I didn't have anything specific in mind so like go nuts with what you think she is.

Ulna's deal is very much her lack of purpose or home and the entire thing is about finding that again. She's found sitting up in a tree during a storm pointing a bow and arrow into your face. She eventually let's you stick around until the storm is over and theres some bonding into deep night until the rain stops. You ask if she wants to come with on your little travelling sword for hire business, she says sure, sleep schedule shenanigans, backstory angst, and road trip bonding happens and she eventually decides that helping people is her new purpose and you're her new home

The Spider- Park. A young adult experiencing the world for the first time through her tribe's rite of passage. She's really just trying to figure out how to live life outside of the cave she's been stuck in her entire life and aggressively trying to be an independent adult despite not knowing anything about being an independent adult. Its projection. Blind in the daylight, naive and excitable, and taken to refusing help at her own risk.

Ok so. I don't know who looked at the spider and said "purple haired loli with puffy pants" so I once again yeeted the whole thing, only really keeping the kinda cutesy and childish bits. Spiders are a tribe of humans what live in caves unless they've broken off to live on the surface. Kids are kept inside until they hit a certain milestone, where they come up to explore at night. They're usually small and pale, but are pretty kickass when necessary. Again picked the colors off the in game model, played with the lightest gray for the skin, and bc I couldn't figure out anyway to use the stripes so they're on the patches lol.

Park's meeting is probably the funniest and most meet cute one here, in that she accidentally drops on top of you from a little cliff drop off. Cue loads of apologies and an explanation about the spider deal and being blind in light. She asks for some help getting around and bam babey friendship and emotional attachment! What follows is kinda a buddy of coming of age story with the obligatory goes home and is miserable scene. Generally it's just about being a scared young adult and having someone to fall back on and why that's important. Also crushes and young people being bad at that.

The Blaze- Amber. A demonic entity who would let the world burn and the sun die if it meant she'd get her soul back. She's known for being ruthless, taking souls through force instead of making deals like other Blazes. Keeps this forceful nature even once she's become friendly, makes you do dump shit. Territorial, eyes glow and dim with her life, and runs remarkably warm.

Amber here is the first one I actually did! I was just. Really tired that she was in a bikini. I decided early on I wanted overworld mobs to be human and everyone else was decidedly not, so Blazes are demons who gave up their souls under false pretenses to other Blazes. Because of how little clothes AT2's design wore I had essentially free reign and my thought was immediately to lean on golden knight bc of how Blazes are found protecting fortresses. The gold isn't picked from anything bc I was looser with the colors, but everything else is, and the hair is supposed to represent the smoke. Also the sticks in her hair are blaze rods bc I don't like them just floating around her.

Amber is found in the Nether obviously, protecting a fortress and immediately trying beat your ass and either incinerate you or make you give up your soul. During you prove yourself a p damn good fighter and she makes a deal to show you how Blazes exist and pursade you to give your soul up willingly. Bonding happens and she explains where the souls go and what happened to her. Insert line about how she dug in the sand for her soul until her fingers bleed bc I'm an Arcana freak lol. In general I'd just like her to learn to adapt to who she is now and learning to live life well instead of letting her anger burn her up from the inside out.

The Enderman- Violet. A confused but sweet young bit of void created by and connected to the Ender Dragon. Her relationship with reality is tenuous at best and abusive at worst, making stable existence rather difficult. She doesn't know a name, age, gender, anything about herself aside from that she likes sweaters. Communicates primarily through psychic connections, docile and sweet, and melts like a witch in water.

Violet was incredibly easy, so this may be way short. Endermen are decidedly human shaped void from the End with varying sentience. They're direct extensions of the Ender Dragon, and nobody knows how they're made or where they come from, not even they do. Adventurers who escaped The End say they seem scared of it though. Violet in particular is pretty damn new and extraordinary nonconforming, and I tried to show that with her sweater and ponytail. Once again, literally all colors picked. Definitely the simplest but one of my favs.

Violet is the sweetest meet up I think. As your traveling between villages you notice a strange enderman watching you and plant a little flower in front of her. She picks it and you hear a happy little trill come from you and a pretty voice say thank you in your head. Now you have a tall dark teleporting travel buddy! After a little bit of back and forth she tells you in some broken English that the Ender Dragon made her but she doesnt know how, and that it's bad and needs to be killed for the sake of Endermen and that's the new goal. Spoiler they're the corrupted souls of those that died fighting it, with it gone Endermen are free to exist as their own being and do whatever, hurray!

#cosmic entity's art #minecraft #mob talker mod #mc creeper #mc zombie #mc skeleton #mc spider #mc blaze #mc enderman #character design

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svankmajerbaby · 3 years

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i was tagged by @punkenglishnerd - thank you very much, and i’m sorry for being so late!!!

🎃 Pumpkin: Favourite season? spring, because it’s my birthday... and usually the first days of spring are rainy, but then it’s sunny and not very hot yet, so i can dress in layers but i can still bask in the sunshine. i really like autumn too, because while at first it’s too hot to do anything, when it starts to cool down it’s a delight

👻 Ghost: Do you get scared easily? it really depends... for some reason gore doesn’t faze me much, and i’ve become kind of desensitized to a lot of typical horror stuff. but i’m terrified of r*pe scenes, they leave me very nervous and in general a lot of realistic horror, like abuse, torture and the like, gets me very anxious and stressed... i don’t know if i’d call that fear exactly, but if it does, then yeah, i’m a scaredy cat :^/

🎃 Candy Corn: What’s your favourite kind of candy? dark chocolate!! i love really bitter chocolate, or chocolate covered peanuts -that’s what i used to ask for when i went out with my family to the cinema

👻 Vampire: What is your favourite supernatural creature? any sort of manmade creature!!! i really like automata, frankenstein monsters, golems, creepy dolls... but i also love the concept and the symbolism of ghosts and haunted houses......

🎃 Witch: If you could have any superpower, what would it be? i really don’t know... there’s so much i’d like to do... i’d love to be able to speak any language, but i think it’s not really a superpower? since this is halloween themed, i’d have to say telekinesis (matilda was one of my favorite childhood books) and being able to shrink. i’d love to be small as a mouse and wander around the house

👻 Trick or treat: What was your favourite Halloween costume? i dressed as a witch several times!! we don’t celebrate halloween here in argentina, but still there were some birthdays or club parties which were kind of a replacement halloween celebration?? once i went as candy-skull-frida kahlo, and i still think that was my most complex costume... but i really loved dressing up as a witch when i was little, with my green and black striped socks and my witch hat and my long sleeved black top >:^)

🎃 Black cat: Are you superstitious? nah

👻 Ouija Board: If you could change your name, what would you change it to? i used to hate my name casandra, because everyone was called camila or martina or daniela or more “normal” names, and i thought mine was weird... but i still wanted to stand out, so i pretended my second name was miranda, for some reason?? and for some time i was convinced i should change my name to miranda. but after a few years ive grown to like my name, even if i think it does sound kinda pretentious (my parents gave it to me, so its not my fault!!). i’ve also grown to like the other name they would have given me, bruna, which at first i hated but now i kinda love?? maybe i’d change it to that. but i like my name, currently

🎃 Graveyard: Do you know any good scary stories? hmmm the only one that’s like, a scary story, is one i was obsessed with, that was in a book at my school library -i think it’s pretty well known -about the girl with the green ribbon tied around her neck, who has a boyfriend that asks her why she wears it, and she doesn’t say, until she’s in her deathbed and she tells him he can take her ribbon off and he does and the girl’s head falls off. that story lived in my head 24/7, along with actual short stories like the black cat, the telltale heart, the oval portrait, the masque of the red death... i considered metamorphosis by franz kafka a horror story, too, so i guess i’ll add it here. oh, i know!!!!!! one that i think a lot of people don’t know about. the feather pillow, by horacio quiroga. a young couple move to the countryside, and while the husband is away at work, the woman stay at home all the time. the woman falls ill, and the doctor tells her to stay in bed and rest. she gets worse and worse, and withers away. her husband worries but doesn’t know what is going on. the woman finally dies, and when the maid is about to clean the sheets, she notices that the pillow is extremely heavy. and then -she and the husband and the doctor realize -there was a tick, a blood-sucking bug inside the pillow, a typical goose tick that, when given time, can drain a whole person of all their blood it’s better the way the author wrote it, i think i’m selling it short

👻 Skeleton: Have you ever broken a bone? no, i never did anything that could lead to that {:^) when i was younger i climbed trees and played in parks and stuff, but i never played any sports that could make me break a bone... i did break my knee or something?? i can’t remember, but my knee was sort of displaced during a school camping trip in which i got out of the shower and slipped badly

🎃 Werewolf: What is your favourite urban legend? oooooo there’s a bunch from the local high-class cemetery, the Recoleta Cemetery (though i can’t remember any of them very well), where there’s a lot of great urban legends, most of them from the nineteenth or early twentieth century, like one of two star crossed lovers -a young woman who fell for a french soldier visiting argentina -and when he died in the battlefield, she died as well and haunts her grave ever since... or, well, the famous ones like whatever happened to evita’s corpse, which is kind of squicky but still sort of morbidly fascinating??

👻 Horror flick: Do you like scary movies? Boy Do I. i love frankenstein (1931), crimson peak (2015), corpse bride (2005), blood tea and red string (2006), cat people (1942), abominable dr phibes (1970), gaslight (1944), institute benjamenta (1995), little otik (2000), little shop of horrors (1986), picnic at hanging rock (1975), carrie (2013), a girl walks home alone at night (2014), the magic toyshop (1987), faust (1926), mildred pierce (1945), the devil’s backbone (2001), sleepy hollow (1999), the raven (1963), the fly (1958), cronos (1993), the man who laughs (1928), the babadook (2014), whatever happened to baby jane (1962), the cabinet of dr caligari (1920), aaaaand.... the night of the hunter (1955)

🎃 Haunted house: Would you prefer to live in the city or the country? city all the way. i need cinemas, and libraries, and theaters!!!!

👻 Zombie: Do you think that you could survive a zombie apocalypse? oh, no... i’d probably try to kill myself so i can keep myself from being bitten and hurting other people

🎃 Cauldron: What kind of potion would you make if you had the opportunity? some sort of health potion? i wish people didn’t die of perfectly preventable or curable diseases...

👻 Full moon: Do you prefer nighttime or daytime? daytime, particularly the afternoon

🎃 Corn maze: What is your favourite autumn activity? eating, basically; last autumn i spent it baking, i think. i can’t remember, by this point... we don’t have any particular “autumn traditions”, i think...

👻 Broomstick: What exciting places have you travelled to? i really enjoyed istanbul, with all the cats and the beautiful architecture, i’d like to go back ;_; but i also loved prague a lot, we went in winter and it was all snowy and lit at night and it was such a beautiful place... portugal was a surprise, i liked it a lot more than i expected!!! i miss edinburgh a lot, too, even if it’s a bit too stuffy for me, i still liked it.... and berlin, i think i was in berlin for too short a time. i loved the cinema museum so much, and everyone was so nice, and the city has so much fascinating history... and i also miss athens -again, i was surprised, and i spent very little time there, but everything, the ruins, the modern city, the people, everything was gorgeous and wonderful... and dublin!!!!! dublin was amazing!! i’ve travelled a lot. i want to keep travelling. this year my family and i were supposed to go to russia, and i’m still kinda eager to go.

thank you so much for tagging me!!!!!! and sorry again for taking so long... i’m tagging (only if you want to do it!) @saumenschliesel, @flowerb-0y, @jacobaco, @majorabbey, @thatqueerweirdo, @sbongebob, @buffoello, and whoever else would like to do it!! i really enjoyed answering these asks :^)

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thekytchensynk · 3 years

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Save the Earth (Fictober Prompt 17)

Prompt number: 17

Fanfiction Fandom: Ducktales

Rating: G

Warnings: No Warnings

Read this story on AO3

Fenton thought Huey was many things. The kid was smart, smart enough that the sciency side of Fenton’s brain could already see a bright future out there for him. He didn’t always have the world smarts to match the book smarts, but hey, who was Fenton to judge that? Wasn’t he the same? The kid was thoughtful too, seeing quick answers to immediate problems. He could get overwhelmed, he could get tunnel vision, but he was a kid. He had a lot of time to grow out of those things.

But moments like now, Fenton wished he’d grow out of some of them just a little bit faster.

“But if you just redirect the old cooling vents through the pie filling receptacle, you’d get the same thing as your pies, except an area of effect!” Huey said, moving around Gizmoduck with impressive speed as he examined the locations of the vents.

Fenton wretched him run around, torn between a cringe at the thought of what Dr. Gearloose would do to him if he started digging into the suit’s guts -- much less letting a kid do it -- and a genuine amusement at just how excited the kid got about mechanical mundanities.

And he supposed he could see where a multi-target pie filling attack could come in handy. Though the speed at which the suit put pies together made it basically a moot point in most instances. However…

“I thought we were here to work on your Crime Prevention badge,” Fenton said, trying to steer the conversation back toward their actual purpose.

“Yeah, sorry. I just can’t help myself.” Huey didn’t sound very sorry, and again, Fenton found it hard to be bothered by that. When Huey had asked to join him on a patrol so he could document potential safety improvements to this area of the city as part of his badge progress, Fenton had been happy to agree. Truth was, he didn’t just owe a lot to Huey’s uncle, he owed a lot to Huey himself. If he hadn’t been quick to act…

Well, things could have gone a lot worse.

The pair of them began walking through the area. This side of Duckburg was in the middle of a renaissance of sorts, which was partly why Huey had chosen this area for his project. It had been an industrial and warehouse section, but as the companies had moved production to cities without eccentric billionaires whose meddling in the arcane routinely caused massive property damage, it left large swaths of cavernous, abandoned property. Recently, the city had made moves to reach out to the owners with grants, and to condemn properties whose owners could not be found, so they could tear down buildings which were becoming dangerously dilapidated. Several development companies had moved in, and the skeletons of new construction were all over the place -- a business park, a lot of retail, a transit hub. There were plans for a small park and a slightly larger amusement park.

As he’d explained when asking Fenton to accompany him, this area attracted Huey’s attention because it had fallen into a sort of valley, where there were so few people here that the police didn’t spend much time here, but the buildings were often half finished, making them easy targets for criminals looking for a place to hide or plot.

And Fenton thought the kid had probably asked for his help in part because as a hero, he’d be security-minded as well, and partly because that whole family was always on the go, always bosy. Wasn’t that why Mr. McDuck had given the OK to Gizmoduck in the first place?

But honestly, Fenton was glad he had, and here was a reason he was here in his suit and not just as plain old Fenton Crackshell Cabrera. Because Huey was right. Criminals had been using this area for a variety of activities. He’d had to step in on a few of them. And some of them were petty shoplifters checking out their haul of clothes or electronics, but some … some were a bit more serious.

It should be fine during the day, but just in case … well, just in case.

They made their way up a broad central street with the skeletons of buildings under construction on either side. Up ahead, the road came to a T-shape intersection at the park. Some of the trees remained from before, fully-grown arboreal specimens, but many of the trees were just saplings, hend straight by stakes and loose wiring. The grass had mostly grown in, but he could still see the straw peeking through where the more recent seed had been sown.

“This is going to be a very nice area when it’s done,” Fenton observed. He could see the business campus up on the other side of the park, its taller, tan buildings looking over the mostly adolescent trees.

“I agree. Which is why I don’t understand why they don’t have a comprehensive plan for maintaining the security of these sites,” Huey said. He had the tip of his pencil in his mouth as he observed the locks on the chain-link fences around the construction sites. “I understand the logistics have to be tough, coordinating so many companies, but really! It’s in all their best interests.” He shook his head and made some notes in his notebook.

The park looked to be in good condition. They walked down smooth cobblestone walkways, noting all the benches and garbage cans. (“Garbage cans aren’t just there to keep the litter down,” Huey told him, tone confident, like he was giving a school presentation on material he already knew by heart. “A cleaner park encourages people to visit, and the traffic can help keep people from using the place for more nefarious purposes.”)

The next stop was the business park -- a nearly completed campus of buildings that all shared the same general features, but in different dimensions. The closest one was a seven-story buildings with an all-glass front facing the street. Another stood only three stories but had a much larger footprint, in an L shape, with a grassy area nestled in the crook. A few benches and a little stone garden made the area inviting, and a couple picnic tables might tempt future employees out there for a lunch in the sunshine.

The exteriors looked good, but Fenton knew the insides were basically half done -- drywall and flooring was still going in, some of the windows still filled with boards and sheeting instead of glass, things like that. The low L-shaped building seemed to be a particular favorite of ne’er-do-wells who used this area as a hideout.

“They did a really nice job around here,” Huey said, with sincere appreciation. “But I think they definitely need a couple more cameras. Look, what good is that going to do?”

He pointed at a camera, mounted under the roof overhang of the L-shaped building. Instead of watching either of the two doors it could see from there or the courtyard and the road beyond, it aimed high and far to the right. What could it see there but the wall?

“Give me a second to check that out, Fenton said, speeding over to underneath the camera, then extending the suit up until he was face to … er, well, face? With it. It looked even stranger from up here. There was a bend in the metal holding it to the building. Eyes narrowing, Fenton reached toward the rubberized coverage protecting all the wiring. It looked like someone had sliced it, and when he pulled it back…

Yup. Cut wires. I guess this helps explain how they keep getting in there.

As he returned to the ground, Huey arrived and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Looks like vandalism. We should inform the police and the security company.”

“I-”

“Eat gum, polluting scum!”

Fenton started to turn, saw an indistinct blob of … something coming at him and acted on instinct. He put himself between the projectile and Huey in the split second before it hit. Hoping this wasn’t some sort of explosive or-

The stuff hit not with a slam, but with a weird sort of gooshy sound. At the same instant, his movement slammed to a halt, rattling Fenton a bit in the suit. A moment later and the readouts were screaming at him: air intake blocked -- missile hatches sealed -- sensors malfunctioning -- Movement systems locked. Even the visor had been blacked out by the attack. He tried to raise the arms, to try to scrape it clear, but his arms only moved a little bit before seemingly being yanked back to the position he’d been in when he was initially hit.

Fenton wasn’t panicking, not yet, but he was worrying. Can’t move, can’t see, can’t use most of the suit’s functions. What do I do? I need to see. And the suit is useless. Maybe once I see the problem…

“Blathering Blatherskite.”

Usually, the keyword would release the whole suit. This time, the suit tried to do as usual, but whatever held it wasn’t letting go even for this. The pieces just kind of came off and remained around him in a jumble. Fenton shoved his way free of the pieces, doing his best to avoid the sticky, rubbery substance that had immobilized the suit. It didn’t quite work though -- he was lucky enough to only come away with some missing feathers on his arm and the side of his neck where the stuff touched him and he’d had to rip himself free. Huey helped him once he got partway out, and together they moved away from the suit -- which now looked like nothing more than a jumble of metal pieces wrapped in pink. He looked toward the third-story window where the shot had come from. Who could have-

“Hey boss! It’s just a regular guy,” A voice with a heavy drawl drifted downfrom above. From one of the windows. “It’s not a robot, just a suit.”

“Huey, we need to get out of here,” Fenton said, trying to keep an eye on every window at once.

But before they could run, someone leaned out of one of the windows again. This time, Fenton got a good look at the weapon. It sort of had the look of a rocket launcher, but it definitely hadn’t shot a rocket. It actually looked like chewing gum. The area had almost no cover. And that weapon likely had some range.

“Change of plans,” Fenton said, and apparently Huey was already on the same wavelength because he’d already started running toward one of the windows that had plywood in place of glass. The guy upstairs leaned out, trying to keep them in sight, but theplywood was on the inside. And the two ducks hopped into the recess just as he fired the gun again. A mound of the pink goo plopped down where they’d just been.

Up above, they could hear the voices echoing. “I think I missed em.”

“Them? I thought you said it was that one robot guy.”

“Well, the other one was a kid. What, I’m going to be worried about a kid?”

“That kid probably has a phone on him! They both do, numbskull! Just arm the bomb and let’s get out of here.”

Fenton and Huey exchanged a look. Bomb? What had they stumbled into?

Because of the unfinished walls, they could hear scuffling around upstairs, then the sound of footsteps pounding across the floor, receding away from them down the longer wing of the building. As they faded, Fenton’s mind was going a mile a minute.

“We need to get out of here,” he said, more to himself than Huey. “But there could be other people here. Even if they didn’t trap anyone else with that strange weapon, what if there are people working on the buildings? Even if not here, depending on how big the bomb is, it could take out others. If I … wait! Where are you going?”

Huey had pried up the corner of the board covering the window and slipped inside just as Fenton noticed.

“We have to find that thing and defuse it, right?” Huey called back through the board.

He knew the futility of shouting at the kid to come back, to run, to get out of here. He was already inside, and his family had a reckless streak a mile wide. Even Huey, for all his plans and lists, could succumb to it when there was a clear right and wrong in front of him. So cursing the string of choices that brought them here, Fenton kicked at the board until it moved enough for him to slip inside after the boy.

Finding the bomb turned out to be a pretty simple mystery to solve. They just followed a trail of food waste up a set of cement stairs to the third floor, down a hall and into a sizable space that, once finished, might eventually be a conference room. A few bugs milled around the banana peels and bread crusts that lay scattered around the large wooden box -- and the mass of wires and electronics inside.

Fenton peered inside. Not an explosive, not really. It looked like … chemicals. At least two vials. The sides of the glass containers were frosted, preventing him from even guessing what was inside. The timer -- there was always a timer -- said they had a bit under 10 minutes to deal with this thing.

Fenton squeezed his eyes shut, trying to remember back to working on circuits. Mechanical stuff wasn’t really his forte. The vials were touching. Would the “bomb” mix them by opening a passage to one from the other, or just crack them both, releasing the chemicals into the environment where they could mix freely and…

“I think I can defuse this.”

Honestly, for a couple seconds upon seeing the messily made bomb, Fenton had forgotten Huey in the urgency of stopping it from going off. Explosions were bad. But chemicals … anything could happen. They could go a lot further than a blast radius. Linger for years. They could make this whole area uninhabitable. Go into cloud form and move over other parts of the city. And do who knew what. Quirky villains could come up with things that did more than just poison a person.

But Huey was here, and he was staring intently into the guts of the thing, as Fenton had a moment before.

“You think you can defuse … a bomb?”

“Well, it’s not something I’ve had a lot of practice at, but I may have gone a little … overboard … studying for the Junior Woodchucks’ robotics and circuitry badges. Plus, I may have studied up on it specifically, just in case.”

Fenton wasn’t even sure how to take that. Was this that hyper preparedness talking? Or was this a situation where he considered finding a bomb such a legitimate possibility that understanding how to handle one was just a natural course of study for some afternoon?

But then again, he realized, this kid had rewired the Gizmoduck armor, sight unseen, on the fly. He looked nervous. But he was also concentrating, using the pencil from before to carefully push back the wires here and there. He … honestly did look like he knew what he was doing, and Fenton would only be guessing. If he knew what the chemicals were in there, he might be able to come up with something to neutralize it at the moment of detonation. But he was flying blind.

“Ok,” he said. “You take care of that. But if you want me to help, or take over, just say the word. OK?”

“Sure. Give me a minute,” he said. Then, after a couple seconds, his fingers stilled as he added, “or an hour. I wouldn’t say no to that.”

“I don’t know if we can do anything about the time,” Fenton said, willing his voice to say calm. “So if you are anything less than sure about this, say so. Otherwise, I’m going to call the police. Let them know. They may have some advice.”

When Huey didn’t ask for help immediately, Fenton stepped away to let the kid concentrate and called the cops. They got the details from him, and said they’d call back the moment they got ahold of one of their bomb experts.

That done, he went back into the room and sat nearby. A show of support and trust. And to be there, just in case the kid needed him.

Twenty minutes later, police were sweeping all the buildings on the site, looking for any more bombs or other weaponry. A talkative young detective was supposed to be taking Fenton’s statement, but things weren’t exactly going like that.

“I mean, want to get angry at businesses that are polluting the river or something, sure, I get that.” the detective looked like he hadn’t slept properly in some time. He had his notepad and pen out, but was gesturing with them instead of using them for their intended purpose. “But they were mad because tearing down rotting old death traps was killing bugs. Bugs! They’re really escalating though. A bomb? Usually they just chain themselves to the front door of the company headquarters or something.”

“That sounds … inconvenient,” Fenton said, a bit at a loss as to why the guy was telling him about the suspects like this.

“It wasn’t that bad,” the guy said. “They kept only chaining themselves to one door and there were like … four. So it was a strange choice. Though I guess I’d prefer they keep doing stuff like that to repurposing used chewing gum as a weapon or trying to seed a building with poisonous mold spores.”

“Should you be telling me this?”

“Ah, probably not,” the detective said, but he didn’t look terribly bothered about it.

As he wandered off, Huey ran over. “The reporter wanted to ask me about how I defused the bomb,” He said. “Dewey is never going to believe this. Or else he’s never going to forgive me.” He seemed really gleeful about either option.

“Well, I’m just grateful,” Fenton said, putting a hand on Huey’s shoulder. “You really came through. If they have a hero badge, I’ll nominate you.”

“There isn’t,” Huey said matter of factly. Then, after a pause, he hesitantly asked, “but once you get the suit out of the gum -- and speaking of that, I’d recommend peanut butter for that -- can we finish the safety survey?”

And how could he say no?

#fictober20 #17 #ducktales #huey #gizmoduck #fanfic

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introvertguide · 4 years

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Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001); AFI #50

The current movie for review from the AFI top 100 is the most recent of the films, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). This was the introduction of director Peter Jackson to much of the mainstream American audience despite him having a 20 year history of film making in New Zealand. The film is beautiful in so many aspects, from the special effects to the cinematography to the sets creating the world of Middle Earth. The film received 12 nominations at the Academy Awards and received 4 of them, a feat unheard of for an epic fantasy film. This is also the only “incomplete” film on the AFI list because there are no other “too be continued” stories. There are some films that are first and second parts (specifically The Godfather 1 and 2), but this is the only one that intentionally stopped with intent for the story to pick in the next film. With that being said, the sheer number of characters and the intended incomplete nature of the film makes it almost impossible to summarize without just going scene by scene. There are 100 movies on this list and I am not going to set any precedence that I will be doing that, so here is a very brief synopsis of what happens in this film without diving into too much of the lore concerning the rest of the trilogy or The Hobbit:

SPOILER WARNING!! I DON’T KNOW WHY IT IS NECESSARY ON THIS ONE, BUT I DO IT EVERY TIME AND I WANT TO BE CONSISTANT!! IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THIS BY NOW OR ARE UNFAMILIAR WITH THE STORY, THEN YOU ARE LIKELY VERY YOUNG, LIVE UNDER A ROCK, OR PURPOSEFULLY AVOIDING IT!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED SO I DON’T WANT TO GET ANY NOTES ON THIS ONE!!!

So here is the general outline, there was an evil guy named Sauron that gave out rings of power to the Elves, Dwarves, and Humans in a realm called Middle Earth. This land is a fantasy realm that has a mix of Dark Age castles mixed with monsters and human like races. It looks strangely like New Zealand through a lot of the country side. Coincidence I am sure. Anyway, Sauron tricked the different races because he kept for himself one ring to rule them all and bind the ones wearing the rings to him. This did not go over well so the humans, elves, and dwarves rose up and fought Sauron and his armies and were able to get the master ring during battle. There was a chance for them to destroy the ring but human corruption prevented this and the ring was eventually lost. It eventually ended up in the hands of a man that kept it close and allowed it to suck away his life until it was stolen by a small human-like creature named Bilbo Baggins. The ring was taken on many adventures (see The Hobbit films for this story) and it gave this little hobbit prolonged life, but it also became an addictive burden. Bilbo decided to go off and leave the ring for his nephew and this is where the story begins. I know, it’s a lot.

A wizard named Gandalf (Ian McKellen) comes to the hobbit village as Bilbo is leaving and makes sure the ring is left in the hands of the nephew Frodo (Elijah Wood). The wizard confirms the ring is the one that rules them all and reveals that Sauron is regaining power and wants the ring. For the safety of the shire, Frodo must take the ring to Rivendell, home of the Elves, to figure out what must be done. Gandalf has to take care of some business so some other hobbits - Sam (Sean Astin), Merry (Dominic Monaghan), and Pippin (Billy Boyd) - get wrangled into the journey and the group of four go off to a local human town to meet Gandalf and continue forward. This short trip proves treacherous as the 9 humans that were given rings of power had been corrupted and turned into Nazgul that are attempting to track down the little group of hobbits. Gandalf does not show up, but the group run into a ranger named Strider at the human tavern and he helps fight off the ring wraiths. With the help of his elf girlfriend, Arwen, the group are able to make it to Rivendell where they are presumably safe for the time being.

A meeting is held at Rivendell and representatives of the different races all show up to decide what must be done. The ring must be destroyed so a fellowship to transfer the ring to Mount Doom is formed. It is made up of the four hobbits, Gandalf the wizard, an elf named Legolas (Orlando Bloom), Strider the Ranger who is actually a human king named Aragorn (Viggo Mortenson), a dwarf named Gimli (John Rhys-Davies), and another human named Boromir (Sean Bean). I have seen enough movies with Sean Bean as a side character to know that he is for sure going to die. It is only a matter of when.

So the group heads off toward Mount Doom and initially start by taking a path through snowy mountains but have to turn back and instead decide to go under the mountains. The dwarf is excited because he can visit his cousin who is king under the mountain. Alas, all they find is skeletons and an evil race created by Sauron called orcs. This race also seems to have other evil creatures enslaved including a cave troll. The Fellowship is chased through the bowels of the mountain until the orcs suddenly back off and the group finds something even worse, an ancient evil called a Balrog. Gandalf takes on the creature at a stone bridge and screams the now memed words “You shall not pass!” The Balrog falls into a pit but drags Gandalf down as well, reducing the number in the group by one wizard.

The group mourns the loss very briefly (and dramatically) before traveling to an elven forest where Frodo is told by a queen that he will have to take on the quest alone and that one of the fellowship will betray him. They continue on and it turns out that a wizard named Saruman that was corrupted by Sauron (confusingly close in name, I know), has created super buff orcs called Uruk-hai (pronounced “Orick Eye” all blended together) to hunt down the party. Boromir tries to take the ring from Frodo but immediately makes up for it by sacrificing himself to protect the hobbits from the super orcs. Sean Bean was kind of a bad guy and was killed. What a surprise. That actor really needs to find different roles or he is going to spend his entire career being type cast.

Anyway, Frodo and Sam break away from the group to go off on their own, the other two hobbits are captured and taken by the orcs, and then Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli decide to track everybody down. To be continued.

This probably seems like quite a short synopsis for a 3 hour movie...but legitimately the movie is a visual spectacle in which not a lot happens. Most of the movie is traveling, fighting, introducing the lore of the world, and introducing characters. Not a whole lot of plot progression in this particular movie, but it sets the stage for the second film to be nothing but battle and progression (an hour long battle of Helm’s Deep which is amazing), while the last one is nothing but battles and resolution of every story line. It is an incredible trilogy and this is only the beginning and it had audiences drooling for more.

In fact, Peter Jackson films set the standard for special effects for the early 21st century. His team took home the Oscar for best visual effects in 2001 for Fellowship of the Ring, in 2002 for The Two Towers, in 2003 for The Return of the King, and in 2005 for King Kong. No film series with consecutive releases has done this except Lord of the Rings (not even with Star Wars, Marvel, and DC universe films coming out constantly). The series really is something special. Attempts had been made to tell the trilogy as an animated movie, but no drawings could do the world justice. It took advanced computer graphics, motion capture technology, an expansive New Zealand countryside, a quirky director that had envisioned this world his whole life, and a dedicated cast and crew that was fully committed to the project. It is an amazing piece of filming.

If I have any complaints, it is that there is some really corny drama. The amount of times that Elijah Wood overacts in pain or despair is more digits than I have. Especially when the group is mourning the loss of Gandalf...it is kind of embarrassing. It is that “inconsolable parent who lost a child” acting with scream crying and shouts of “Noooooo!” It is all the hobbits, too, which doesn’t help that they are the size of children and are having a despair tantrum. Luckily they keep going and that is a one minute scene, but still it is embarrassing. Also, Frodo is stabbed and presumed dead twice. I can see why there were no nominations for best actor because it was not the best acting.

It is all made up for by the incredible battles. For me, it is the chase under the mountain with the orcs and the cave troll and the balrog. That is about 30 minutes of constant fight or flight that left me short of breath. I realized I kept forgetting to breath I was so mesmerized by the constant intensity. There is also a good amount of comedy since the hobbits are generally peaceful farmers and they don’t know how to (or want to) have adventures and keep messing things up. Pippin and Merry keep touching things that they shouldn’t and it brings all kinds of trouble. I think it is one of them that knocks some armor into a well that catches the attention of the orcs under the mountain.

Two specific scenes that I found memorable in that they are burned into my brain forever were the Nazgul fight and the appearance of the cave troll. The Nazgul are absolutely terrifying in that they have no face and have only one intent: kill whatever they are hunting. A good comparison would be to Dementors in the Harry Potter universe. The Nazgul are like Dementors with swords and armor. What is worse, Frodo can use the one ring to make him invisible, but it puts a target on him for the Nazgul and they come straight for him. They idea that you can’t hide from this evil and attempting to will make you stand out more is kind of horrific. I found the Nazgul truly disturbing. The cave troll is just awesome and huge. At no point was I worried for the team on this occasion because the wizard, elf, dwarf, and humans seemed undefeatable. It was more of curiosity about how they were going to handle this challenge. The detail of filming all the actors and sets so they were affected by the troll made the huge beast and the threat it posed in an enclosed space seamless.

There was some question why this movie was on the AFI list and the other movies in the trilogy were not, especially with the third film winning 10 Oscars including best picture. It is because this was the watershed film that made the others possible. I got to see the film in the theatre and it was an experience like no other. I cannot think of a movie that had created such a complete fantasy world like LOTR and it made for a truly cinematic experience. I generally do not like movie theatres because people around me whom I have no control over can affect my experience and I am not normally willing to pay for that. However, the theatre I was in had tiered level seating that was graded enough so that nobody blocked my view and ample leg room that also prevented kicking from behind. It was a thing of beauty and I went and saw the other two films in the theatre as well. It was amazing.

So does this film deserve to be on the AFI 100? My goodness, I would think less of the AFI if it wasn’t. It changed audience expectations of what a movie could be and set the tone for the new millennium as far a big budget cinema. Would I recommend it? Please, I own it. If you come by my place and you haven’t seen it, then I will be happy to put aside 3 hours and watch it again with you. It is the easiest epic film to get through, in my opinion, and I don’t think you will be sorry to give up the time. Just a fantastic movie.

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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The Best Games of 2020

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Despite how almost every other aspect of the year went, 2020 was a landmark year for video games. Not only did it see the release of highly-anticipated titles like The Last of Us Part II, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Ghost of Tsushima, and Cyberpunk 2077, but 2020 also marked the beginning of a new generation of console and PC gaming with the release of the Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and new GPUs from NVIDIA and AMD. We even got a new Half-Life game this year!

What would’ve made the gaming year ever better? Big-name video game companies could have done more to eliminate development crunch and be more transparent about their business practices with customers and the press. And we definitely could have all been nicer to each other.

But video games also helped keep us connected when we couldn’t see our friends and loved ones in person. They helped us travel to new and interesting places when we couldn’t leave our homes. Most importantly, all 20 games on our best-of-the-year list made us feel excited about this medium at a time when it was so difficult to enjoy anything else.

To that affect, Den of Geek is celebrating 20 video games our contributors and critics, as well as our community of readers, voted as the very best of 2020.

20. Star Wars: Squadrons

For the last decade or so, most Star Wars games have focused on the power fantasy of being a lightsaber-swinging, Force-wielding Jedi. That’s all well and good, but for a long time it seemed like everyone forgot that some of the most beloved Star Wars games of all time were actually space shooters like X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter and Rogue Squadron. In many ways, Star Wars: Squadrons is a throwback to those games, both in terms of gameplay and design. Controls are a pitch perfect mix of arcade simplicity and strategy, requiring quick thinking about whether to focus your ship’s power on attacking or defending.

Squadrons is also much more tightly focused than other recent games from large publishers, with a breezy yet enjoyable single-player campaign, and a multiplayer mode that, while light on modes, eschews the more annoying modern conventions of the online PvP like invasive microtransactions. But Squadrons is not stuck in its old school ways.

If you have the hardware for it on PC or PS4, you can jump into the cockpit of any of the playable ships for one one of the most immersive VR modes around. Similar to how The Mandalorian has rejuvenated the live-action side of the Star Wars media empire, Squadrons is a perfect mix of all of the best things we’ve always loved about Star Wars video games, and everything we want them to be going forward. – CF

19. Journey to the Savage Planet

Science fiction writers have long held on to this idea that, if and when humankind eventually colonizes the universe, it will do so as some sort of united, utopian entity, like Starfleet. But that future seems less and less likely every day. If and when humanity spreads across the stars, it will likely be messy, absurd, and profit-motivated. Journey to the Savage Planet wallows in that type of future. As an unnamed human (or dog, if you choose), you’re dropped onto the planet AR-Y26 by Kindred, the fourth biggest intergalactic exploration company with the simple goal of collecting as many resources as possible and leaving.

The Metroidvania gameplay loop of crafting equipment to access new areas is compelling, a rarity for 3D games in the genre. And it offers plenty of surprises too. You’ll start off with the typical blaster and scanner before eventually unlocking a grappling hook that lets you swing around levels like Spider-Man. But it’s style that ultimately lifts Journey to the Savage Planet above so many other games released in 2020. For one thing, the world and the fauna you’ll encounter are incredibly unique, and well, alien. And the regular live-action updates from Kindred beamed directly to your ship are among some of the funniest and most bizarre cinematics out this year in any game, providing plenty of motivation to see this journey through to its end. – CF

18. Half-Life: Alyx

As VR gaming continues to evolve, it’s becoming clear that the technology is more than just one truly great game away from widespread adoption. If that were all it took, then Half-Life: Alyx would have put a VR set under a lot of Christmas trees.

It’s truly wild to think that we got a new Half-Life game this year and that it sometimes feels like the game’s release was barely a blip on the cultural radar. While its somewhat muted debut can be attributed to its VR exclusivity (and the fact it launched at the onset of a global health crisis), Half-Life: Alyx surpassed all possible hype by offering a truly incredibly narrative-driven adventure bolstered by some of the cleverest uses of VR technology that we’ve ever seen.

Half-Life: Alyx isn’t the first great VR game, but Valve’s glorious return to form does shows how VR can advance fundamental elements of gameplay and storytelling rather than just show familiar games from a new perspective. – MB

17. Carrion

The indie game space is where you typically see the most experimentation, and this year proved no different when the gruesome and morbid Carrion released back in July. Highly inspired by the likes of John Carpenter’s The Thing, Alien, and other cult classic horror films known for their excellent use of practical SFX, this platformer cleverly flips the script, putting you in the role of the monster to dispatch helpless scientists in the claustrophobic depths of an underground lab as an ever-growing amorphous blob creature. What follows is a brief but effective 2D platformer that is fast paced and delectably gory.

The controls could have made controlling the creature a real pain, but Phobia Game Studio recognized that the key here was letting you move swiftly through the levels. As such, gliding through vents to take down scientists from above or underneath quickly becomes second nature. Encounters still pose a good degree of challenge, however, thanks to the heavily armed soldiers that show up later in the game, but this never stops Carrion from fulfilling every horror aficionado’s devilish fantasy of being the bloodthirsty monster. – AP

16. Kentucky Route Zero

Calling Kentucky Route Zero an homage to classic point-and-click adventure games is technically correct, but it doesn’t come close to doing the experience justice. Kentucky Route Zero is more like a poem or fable in video game form. It’s a feeling, a distillation of what it’s like to come of age in the Great Recession and its fallout over the last decade. Kentucky Route Zero is an epithet for rural America told through a fever dream, an examination of a version of rural Appalachia where talking skeletons and robotic musicians live alongside gas station attendants and truck drivers.

Nothing about Kentucky Route Zero fits the typical confines of what we expect from a video game, and that includes its release. Developed by a team of only three, the first episode of the five-episode experience was released in 2013, but the final product was only realized in early 2020. That lengthy development cycle meant that the game’s scope and story could grow to only better encapsulate this moment in time, and the final product stands out as one of best games of the year. To say more is to spoil its excellent story. – CF

15. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2

Though it’s been a hot minute since skateboarding games dominated the console space, Vicarious Visions’ excellent remake collection of the first two Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater titles was a reminder of how the entire series captured a whole generation of players in the late ’90s and early ’00s. Whether it’s grinding down rails, performing kickflips, or landing the gravity-defying 1080 on a vert ramp, everything in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 feels and looks exactly as you remember it but touched up with modern flare. That’s the mark of any great remake, and why this game in particular was the best example of the practice this year.

Classic skating locations like Warehouse, School and Downtown have all been faithfully remade from the ground up for a 21st century audience, effortlessly delivering the same thrills and balanced challenge as they did before. The fact that select mechanical features like reverts, which wouldn’t arrive until later entries, have been retroactively added is also a nice touch, instantly making Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 the definitive way to experience these skateboarding classics. – AP

14. Ori and the Will of the Wisps

The fact that Ori and the Will of the Wisps managed to usurp the critically acclaimed 2015 original in most design aspects speaks to just how well Moon Studios has mastered the art of the Metroidvania. Whisking players off on another tight 10-hour journey set within a mystical forest full of secrets to discover, this 2D adventure gives off a fantastical vibe in a way few others do. It’s an expert blend between smart combat mechanics, highly polished platforming, and emotional storytelling. That it runs at a silky 60 fps both on Nintendo Switch and Xbox is the cherry on top.

The major improvements Will of the Wisps makes over Blind Forest relate to saving and combat. Whereas previously it was the responsibility of players to lay down specific checkpoints, progress is now more in line with other 2D platformers and less punishing. Combat, meanwhile, has been completely revamped with the inclusion of special charms and upgradeable skills, most of which result in more flexible enemy encounters. These tweaks are implemented without ever compromising on Ori’s core hook of magical exploration and challenging platforming, instantly making it one of the best Metroidvanias out there. – AP

13. Call of Duty: Warzone

Call of Duty: Warzone was a natural and perhaps even necessary evolution for the long-running shooter franchise, carving out a space for it in the ever-crowding battle royale genre. While it’s largely derivative of battle royale titles that came before, the staggering 150-player count, always excellent CoD controls, top-notch presentation, and flexible cash system have made it eminently popular and fun for casual players and series vets alike. The CoD fan base feels vibrant again after years of stagnation in the shadow of breakout titles like PUBG and Fortnite, and that’s without going into how Warzone has revitalized the franchise’s presence in the streaming space.

One of the best facets of the game’s design is that the large player count all but ensures that, even if a player is new to the genre or series, the chances of them being the absolute worst player in the field is very low. Better still, the “Gulag” respawn mechanic opens up the possibility for ultimate revenge should you earn your way back into the match, which is a nice way to up engagement for those who suffer disappointing deaths.

The game doesn’t feel quite as dynamic or high-stakes as some of its competitors on the market, but it’s definitely one of the easiest to pick up and play. It’s no wonder Warzone has expanded CoD’s already enormous audience over the course of 2020. – BB

12. Astro’s Playroom

With launch lineups mostly filled with graphically enhanced releases of last-gen games, the release of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X has been more than a little underwhelming. The one bright spot is Astro’s Playroom, a little first-party Sony game that received virtually no pre-release hype and comes pre-installed on every PS5.

While at first glance a typical 3D platformer, Astro’s Playroom soon reveals itself to be a fantastic showcase of what’s possible with the new DualSense controller. In one level, you’re feeling the resistance from the controller’s adaptive triggers as you spring jump through obstacles dressed as a frog. In another, you’re expertly moving the controller back and forth to climb walls in a robotic monkey suit. Even just standing in the rain causes the controller to pulse ever so slightly with each drop. And all of this takes place across worlds celebrating the entire history of PlayStation, where you collect classic consoles and accessories, culminating in an unexpected boss battle throwback to an original PSX tech demo.

Astro’s Playroom may be short, but it’s an oh so sweet and exciting taste of what’s possible with the power of next-gen consoles. – CF

11. Doom Eternal

It would have been easy for Doom Eternal to be more of the same. After all, 2016’s Doom became the surprising gold-standard for single-player FPS games by virtue of its clever writing and gameplay that blended the best of classic and modern design concepts. Yet, Doom Eternal proved to be something much more than “the same but bigger.”

With its arena-like levels and resource management mechanics, Doom Eternal sometimes feels like a puzzle game set in the Doom universe. While the transition to this new style can be jarring, you soon find that Doom Eternal is speaking the same language in a different dialect. The brutal brilliance of a classic Doom game remains but it’s presented in the form of a kind of FPS dance that puts you in a state of pure zen once you figure out how to make that perfect run through a room full of demonic baddies.

Four years after Doom showed this old franchise could pull off new tricks, Doom Eternal proves that this series is at the forefront of FPS innovation once more. – MB

10. Demon’s Souls

Although initially released in 2009 for the PlayStation 3, Demon’s Souls would help define the next generation of gaming by establishing the Soulslike genre, which has influenced everything from recent Star Wars games to The Legend of Zelda. The “problem” is that the legacy of Demon’s Souls has been sort of eclipsed by the accomplishments of its successors.

That’s the beauty of the remake for the PS5. Aided by the power of the console’s next-gen hardware, developer Bluepoint Games pays homage to one of the most historically significant games of the last 15 years while wisely updating it in ways that show that the foundation of FromSoftware’s breakthrough hit remains arguably the best entry in a genre that isn’t exactly lacking in modern classics.

In a year where finding a next-gen console proved to be more difficult than any Soulslike game, Demon’s Souls remains the best reason to battle the bots at online stores in the hopes of joining gaming’s next generation as soon as possible. – MB

9. Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout

There were multiple times this year where couped-up players relied heavily on “bean” games to help maintain a human connection. Before Among Us dominated the Twitch streams, it was Mediatonic’s intentionally clumsy and hilarious Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout that had us competitively raging with our friends. It did so by merging the wildly popular battle royale genre with the inflatable-fueled antics of early ’90s game shows, where dodging swinging hammers and battling giant fruit against 59 others became the norm for a few weeks – all in the pursuit of winning a highly coveted crown.

Needless to say, making Fall Guys free to PS Plus subscribers for a month turned out to be a genius marketing move, urging everyone to hop into the game’s inventive gamut of levels and make a fool of themselves. Much of what sets it apart from other battle royale attempts is its low-skill barrier to entry, and thanks to frequent seasonal updates, new unlockable outfits and fresh mini-games always being added, bumbling to the top of the pack as a colorful bean remains consistent fun. – AP

8. Animal Crossing: New Horizons

It’s not an exaggeration to say that Animal Crossing: New Horizons should be included in history books about the Covid-19 pandemic. Releasing just as lockdowns were being instituted across the globe, New Horizons provided the escapism we so desperately needed while quarantining, attracting not just the usual Nintendo fanbase, but even those who had never played games in the past but were now looking for something to occupy their time at home. Whether we played it with friends or alone, New Horizons provided the routine and distraction that so many of us needed in a world suddenly thrown into chaos.

Of course, it helped that New Horizons is the best Animal Crossing game to date, with tons of new ways to customize your island (and yourself). And as Covid-19 restrictions have stretched much longer than many of us anticipated, New Horizons has kept pace, with Nintendo releasing a steady stream of new fish to catch, fruits to harvest, and events to participate in throughout the year. It may not be the game that everyone wanted, but New Horizons is the game that 2020 needed. – CF

7. Cyberpunk 2077

When Cyberpunk 2077’s legacy is written, there’s no doubt that the opening chapter is going to focus on the bugs, technical shortcomings, and empty promises that have turned what looked to be one of 2020’s guaranteed hits into one of modern gaming’s most debated debuts.

Yet, the reason that this game’s initial issues will likely not ultimately define it is that Cyberpunk 2077 reveals itself to be a special experience whenever you’re able to play it without crashes or bugs ruining your experience. From its stunning side quests that revive one of The Witcher 3’s best elements to its shockingly human narrative, Cyberpunk 2077 regularly showcases the undeniable talent of the individuals who battled internal and external factors to deliver their vision.

Cyberpunk 2077’s technical problems wouldn’t hurt as much as they do if there wasn’t a truly great game at the heart of them that people are begging to be able to play as intended. – MB

6. Final Fantasy VII Remake

The pressure was on for Square Enix from the moment it announced Final Fantasy VII Remake back in 2015. For those who obsessed over the original back in 1997, the prospect of a remake was the stuff dreams were made of, and this year we finally got to relive Cloud, Aerith, Barret, and Tifa’s grand adventure (the first act of it, at least) with fully updated, well, everything. Astonishingly, the remake actually lived up to expectations and delivered not just a faithful update to the original game but a modern RPG that stands as one of its generation’s best regardless of nostalgia.

The key to Square Enix’s success was its approach, which aimed not to duplicate the experience of the original game, but to capture the essence and spirit of it while using modern game design to deliver the story in a way that doesn’t feel retro or rehashed at all. The game looks dazzling by 2020 standards (Midgar never looked better) but doesn’t compromise the integrity of the original designs, and the real-time combat—arguably the biggest departure from the original—is a blast to play.

Time will tell how exactly Square Enix will follow through with the rest of the remake as we enter a new console generation, but in the meantime, they studio has left us with a terrific reimagining of the most celebrated title in the studio’s expansive oeuvre. – BB

5. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla

Ubisoft deserves credit for keeping a franchise like Assassin’s Creed, which is 13 years old at this point, thriving in an industry that is flooded with more open world games now than it ever has been. The series is always competitive in the genre, and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla proves why: it’s as refined as any of its predecessors and delivers a balanced experience with a rich world to explore, tons of strange stories to uncover, and a mash-up milieu that combines the eerie atmosphere of 5th-century England with the otherworldly spectacle of Norse mythology.

No open world game is perfect, and Valhalla certainly has a handful of shortcomings. But it’s a bloody good time to play, and there’s so much to do that there’s no question that you get your money’s worth. Eivor’s quest for glory and domination is also arguably the most cinematic story in the entire AC catalog, with some truly breathtaking cutscenes that rival those found in more linear games that can’t sniff Valhalla’s scope. Some of the more otherworldly moments in the back half of the game are pure, unadulterated, nonsensical fun, and overall, this is one of the best entries in the series. – BB

4. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales

Insomniac is one of those studios that you can always rely on to deliver fun, polished games that shine in every category, and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales only adds to the team’s sterling reputation. Building on the already brilliant formula the studio created with the original Marvel’s Spider-Man, Miles’s story is one of loss, friendship, identity, and the strength of the Black and Hispanic communities of Harlem.

The side-quel is also one of the best launch titles arguably ever. While it is a cross-gen game, the PS5 version is currently the best showcase of what next-gen gaming is capable of from a visual and performance standpoint. You won’t find a better-looking New York City in any other video game, period, and Insomniac’s outstanding animation work looks insanely good when bolstered by the PS5’s considerable horsepower. Miles plays differently than Peter Parker did in the original game as well, with his Venom Powers giving enemy encounters a new feel and rhythm.

Insomniac outdid itself with an excellent follow-up that would’ve been a forgettable DLC expansion in the hands of a less ambitious studio. But Miles Morales is one of the best modern-day superhero characters ever created, and it’s only right that he get a game that lives up to his greatness. – BB

3. Hades

The popularity of roguelikes has been calmly bubbling up for years now, yet only in 2020 did it truly become mainstream thanks to an ideal balance between gameplay and story as demonstrated by Hades. Players who previously took umbrage with the genre’s nature to wipe out all progress at each run’s end suddenly had a reason to jump back in, now inspired by Zagreus’ various tries to escape hell and overthrow his eponymous father. This alone sees Hades tower over most of its peers in terms of balance, further backed up by rewarding gameplay and a gorgeous comic book art style that makes the well-worn mythological Greek milieu feel fresh.

Developer Supergiant Games proved its penchant for creating flexible mechanical loops in prior titles, and in many ways, Hades feels like a culmination of all those ideas distilled in one neat package. It’s a great example of semi-randomized systems layering perfectly on top of other systems, until players eventually find themselves completing runs using distinct weapons, upgrading persistent abilities and slowly discovering which of the god’s many boons gel best with one another. Hades is always a hellishly good time. – AP

2. Ghost of Tsushima

The concept of honor has never been explored in a game as lyrically and philosophically as it is in Ghost of Tsushima, Sucker Punch’s story-driven samurai epic. Jin Sakai’s grand adventure is both brutal and beautiful, stretching across the grasslands and snowy peaks of the titular island, as he pushes the oppressive Mongol army out of his homeland, all the while wrestling internally with the kind of man, warrior, and leader he ultimately wants to be.

This game is outstanding on so many fronts that it’s difficult to list them all here. Visually, it looks so stunning that anyone who walks past your TV as you play is all but guaranteed to stop and stare for a while. The combat is fast and challenging, the stealth mechanic is on-point, the score is sweeping and sentimental, the character models are incredibly realistic, the online multiplayer mode “Legends” is actually a blast to play…and the list goes on. This poetic, pitch-perfect modern masterpiece is emblematic of the soulful, cinematic storytelling PlayStation Studios is known for, and it’s a wonderful way to send the PS4 off into the sunset. – BB

1. The Last of Us Part II (Also Reader’s Choice)

You can’t even say the name of our 2020 game of the year without sparking numerous debates that often make it nearly impossible to have a productive conversation about the game itself. That makes it that much more tempting to somehow find a kind of middle-ground that will “justify” the game’s lofty position to everyone regardless of where they stand.

The thing about The Last of Us Part 2,though, is that its divisiveness is very much part of the experience. Naughty Dog’s follow-up to arguably its greatest game is a bold attempt to live up to the franchise’s legacy by furthering what came before while trying to find its own way. Much like Ellie herself, The Last of Us Part 2 doesn’t always make the right decisions. Yet, at a time when bigger budgets are seen as an excuse to play it safe, The Last of Us Part 2 impresses through its willingness to present a big, bold, and personal adventure that is often anything but what was expected.

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Anyone can generate a little controversy by saying something stupid, offensive, or hurtful. The beauty of The Last of Us Part 2’s controversy is that it stems from a heartfelt attempt to advance the conversation through indie-like passion and big budget production. – MB

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jackdawyt · 5 years

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Most of you will have heard about this recent article by Jason Schreier as he comments on the current state of BioWare, Anthemand the next Dragon Age game's development. I'm glossing over the whole 'Anthem is a mess' narrative, and jumping straight to the important juicy Dragon Age news.

So, without further ado, it's imperative that we just jump straight into this story from the very start! So let's crack on with it!

The production on Dragon Age 4 {title still not announced} reportedly started in 2017, under the leadership of Mark Darrah and veteran Dragon Age creative director Mike Laidlaw.

With the departure of studio general manager Aaron Flynn and Anthem in a desperate state, Darrah was parachuted into theAnthem team as executive producer.

This iteration of Dragon Age 4 was code-named Joplin, and those who were working on it have stated that they were excited by creative director Mike Laidlaw’s vision for the project.

The project was named after Janis Joplin as the game aims to be revolutionary for the Role-Playing Game genre, proving to be a landmark on the franchise.

The next Dragon Age will also be the fourth installment in the series following in the same vein as Janis Joplin and her massive success with her fourth album launch, BioWare felt inspired to name the project after Janis' achievements.

However, Anthem received flack, by October, it was on fire. BioWare had decided to make some massive changes.

That summer, studio general manager Aaryn Flynn departed, to be replaced by a returning Casey Hudson.

As part of this process, the studio canceled Joplin. Laidlaw quit shortly afterward, and BioWare restarted Dragon Age 4 with a tiny team under the code name 'Morrison'.

The code name Morrison is a call back to Jim Morrison, a legendary American songwriter renowned for being an influential front-man in rock history. He went on to create the rock band - The Doors.

This is what was meant when we heard the news that the next Dragon Age project had been 'rebooted', the fact that Laidlaw left, with his creative vision.

Morrison is seemingly what remains of the skeleton team working on Dragon Age 4, the likes of Patrick Weekes, John Epler, Mark Darrah, Nick Thornborrow, etc. Each of these developers are Dragon Age franchise veterans.

Meanwhile, the studio moved the bulk of Dragon Age 4’s developers to Anthem, which needed all of the company’s resources if it was going to hit the ship date that EA was demanding.

One big change that’s already been enacted at BioWare is a new technology strategy.

Developers still at the studio say that under Casey Hudson, rather than start from scratch yet again, the next Dragon Age will be built on Anthem’s codebase.

BioWare have stated that they will share more on what this means for the game in the near future.

Parts of 'sharing Anthem's codebase' mean that BioWare will avoid throwing out huge amounts of work developers put into adapting Frostbite.

Jason Schereir has confirmed on Reddit that we'll be getting an updated news story hopefully this week regarding Dragon Age 4 in the near future.

Of course, you're already in the right place when the second that information drops, which should be this week!

Okay so opinion time!

The fact that Dragon Age was pushed aside for the likes of Anthem is upsetting to all BioWare fans, however, I feel this isn't the most pressing news to be alarmed about.

Regarding the whole, Dragon Age 4 will share the same codebase as Anthem, all this means is that the next Dragon Age will build on the existing tech used for Anthem. This is exactly what I mentioned in my previous video, the idea that sharing resources on the Frostbite Engine would be handy for BioWare given the trouble with the Frostbite engine.

Sharing the same codebase is in no way, shape or form declaring that the next Dragon Age game will be multiplayer, we already know that their working on a separate multiplayer feature for the game, as they've hired a new, side team to embark on that task alongside the development of the main game.

How I envision Dragon Age 4 basing it's codebase on Anthem's is simply by using it's most upgraded presets within the Frostbite engine as BioWare have constantly innovated it with three previous games, each systematically adding and changing mechanics within the software.

Dragon Age: Inquisition layered the foundations for their first role-playing game in the Frostbite engine, Mass Effect Andromedastretched out the engine with larger maps and fast vehicle usage, and Anthem innovated with it's flying mechanics with a streamed-in world.

I've seen a lot of people worried about using Anthem's codebase and what could this mean, and by a lot of people I mean Reddit. One particular comment I noted said, why don't BioWare just use the same codebase as Dragon Age: Inquisition since that was the previous RPG title that the team is most comfortable with.

Well, if you think about it, the codebase for Inquisition is at least 5 years old now, and not to mention a large part of that games was brought down due to previous game-generation limitations, as Inquisition released on both PS3 and Xbox 360. It's probably a super outdated preset on the Frostbite engine, whereas Anthem's codebase is higher tech, more developed and not to mention super recent.

It makes sense for Dragon Age 4 to share the same codebase and resources as Anthem, this is in no way saying that the next Dragon Age is going to be stickily multiplayer, it's just an improvement regarding the tech of the Frostbite engine.

I feel a lot of these confessed mistakes for Anthem's developments show an optimistic light for the next Dragon Age game, BioWare are embracing their mistakes once more, this time with Anthem and BioWare's A team.

They've learned throughout the course of creating three games on the Frostbite engine, each from scratch is a very hard thing to do. So instead, they've decided only now for the next Dragon Age, they're going to share the presets from their most recent, previous title.

This is exactly the same situation as how Fallout 4 is built upon Skyrim's engine, they ported the presets of their tech for Skyrim into a next generation level of the Creation Engine and then began creating Fallout 4. If anything, I see this as a positive, it shows that BioWare have learned how chaotic the Frostbite engine is, and now they've decided to make their lives easier, they can actually speed up development on new projects because they'll have a template and needn't start from scratch.

And judging my Anthem's latest tech within the engine, the gameplay is super fun, the world is streamed in and allows for tight flight controls whilst looking beautiful all at the same time. I've made a video literally explaining the Frostbite engine's developments with Anthem, and how they pave the way for Dragon Age 4.

Using previous games as build templates just sounds like a typical games design motto, I feel perhaps this gets bad press because Anthem wasn't a BioWare epic and it's an always online multiplayer experience, however, the motivation is still the same.

Moving on, It's disheartening to see that BioWare have responded with an underwhelming, lacking reply which attempts to throw shade at the likes of Jason Schreier who're just showcasing the mistakes of Anthem, so BioWare can learn.

It's almost hypercritical, it's like we, as a studio can call our games a mistake, but how dare you point out the flaws and call it journalism.

To nip this in the bud, I feel like there are two teams within BioWare, the sympathetic developers who deeply love their games, and will actually come out and say when something went wrong, as noted by Jason's sources.

And then there's the EA side in BioWare, who're conflicted against them, controlling every word from the studio and not accepting room for growth or improvement.

We can see from Jason's article that plenty of the BioWare developers have spoke out, regarding the studio and Anthem's developments, there not all EA puppets. So, there's seemingly a few decent bunch in the studio who care for sharing the studio's current state to the public.

Trying to end this positively, the fact that the next Dragon Age has been 'rebooted' shows that the studio hasn't given up on this franchise, that there trying to work it out in the best way possible, that they will give the game it's due time and care. And lets not forget the masterminds working on the project as mentioned before!

If the title had merely been a failure without Mike Laidlaw's vision, they'd have given up on the game, but no, there's still hope for the future of this franchise. They've found a way to reboot the project, following a different vision and seemingly unique enough to be given a new project title.

It doesn't seem like it'll be that long before we hear what this could potential mean, and how the next Dragon Age as been rebooted, examining what the differences are between project Joplin and Morrison.

Sheer speculation on my part, but other than Jason delving into when we'll hear from Dragon Age next, I feel he could have a bigger story on the horizon.

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korora12 · 5 years

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Ladybug Week Day 7 - Bookstore

Day 6 Day 8

Word count: 2201

Ghosts in the Closet and Other Scary Stories. Grimm Eclipse. The Lone Hatchling: A Qedem’s Story of Overcoming Hardship. Cyber-Ninja Vs. Zombie Cats. That one sounded silly, Ruby thought as she perused the book titles before her. She wondered if Blake would like it.

Ruby reached for the book, only to bump into someone else as she did. An apology had already slipped out of her mouth before she saw who she’d hit. It was a girl in a short, shoulderless dress and leggings, with red hair and long, donkey-like ears.

Ruby recognized her in an instant, even though she hadn’t seen the girl – no, woman – in years. “Penny? Is that you?”

The woman in question startled, then peered closely back. “Friend Ruby? How fortuitous and unlikely to see you here! You’ve gotten so much taller!” She spoke with the same enthusiastic and precise tone that she had when Ruby had first met her.

Ruby chuckled. “Yeah, humans tend to do that.” She found herself suddenly lifted in the air as strong arms wrapped her in an unbreakable grip.

“I haven’t seen you in years! How have you been?”

Ruby’s bones groaned in protest. “I missed you too Penny, but you’re crushing me. Please let go.” When her feet had returned to the ground, she took a moment to stretch out her aching rib cage. “I’ve been good. What are you doing out here? This system’s the last place I’d expect to run into you. Did you leave Atlas again?”

Penny shook her head, her hands still on Ruby shoulders. “No, I’m actually here for work. What about you, Friend Ruby? What brings you out this far?”

“Freelance work,” Ruby answered. “I finally got my own ship. Her name is Crescent Rose.”

“Oh,” Penny started to shake Ruby in excitement, “I’m so happy for you. That’s just what you always wanted!”

“Tha-a-anks Penny,” Ruby managed to get out before Penny stopped shaking her. “I actually came to this shop with my girlfriend. You should come meet her.”

“That sounds wonderful!” Penny said, even as Ruby was already dragging her along by her wrist.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

It wasn’t a particularly large bookstore that they’d found themselves in. It was located in downtown Evernight, the capital of Eltanin and finest (read: only) city in ten parsecs. Squeezed in-between a local furniture shop and a Mistrali restaurant, Blake had found that, despite its abysmal organizational system, Tukson’s Book Trade was one of the best places to find rare and unusual books.

The store’s small size meant she would’ve needed to be completely ignoring her surroundings to not see her girlfriend heading straight towards her with an unfamiliar woman in hand.

No, wait, Blake recognized her. She looked like Penny, the synthetic she’d met in the other universe they’d traveled to. The two of them had spoken briefly, that Penny interested in an entire species of beings like her, but aside from both being amongst the only three people still sober after the queen’s reception party, they hadn’t had much in common.

“Blake!” Ruby shouted, a completely unnecessary act in such a quiet place. Fortunately, the owner seemed to be the only other person in the store. “I want you to meet someone.” Coming to a halt, Ruby gestured dramatically at her companion. “This is Penny. She’s, like, my oldest friend.”

Blake took a moment to look her over. She was a bit smaller than Ruby, with short hair wrapped up in a bow and small bag slung over her shoulder. Everything about her, save for her second set of ears and her giant smile, seemed small, giving her an overall appearance of youth. Of course, she was clearly a FAUNIS, so apparent age had nothing to do with actual age. By comparison, Ruby was no giant, and she occasionally gave off a false air of naïveté, but she never looked as childish as Penny did. Still, the two of them standing together, side-by-side and grinning like idiots, churned something in her stomach. They looked like peas in a pod, to borrow a Valean saying, like they belonged together. She fought the urge to look away.

“Pleasure to meet you,” Blake said. “Ruby never mentioned you.”

“What?” Ruby glanced back and forth between the two of them. “I must’ve mentioned her at some point.”

“Not that I remember,” Blake countered.

“That’s alright,” Penny said. “It was a long time ago, and we didn’t really know each other for all that long.”

“Mhmm,” Ruby hummed, settling her gaze on Blake. “I met her back on Patch, when I was a little girl. It was shortly after my mom died, and Penny was just the friend I needed to help me through everything.”

“Oh, you’re too kind,” Penny rejoined. “You helped me quite a bit too, you know. I’d only recently been freed from my previous duties, and found myself quite uncertain what to do next. I may well have remained floundering if not for your wise words.”

Freed? Was she referring to the FAUNIS liberation? That would make her older than Blake, though probably not by much, given her behavior.

“Oh stop,” Ruby said, blushing and wriggling in place. “I was, like, six. It couldn’t have been that wise.”

Blake put her arm around Ruby’s shoulder and pulled her in tight, ending her squirming.

“I’ve been living with Ruby for almost a year now,” Blake announced.

“Yes,” Penny said, “Ruby mentioned you two were dating. I’m thrilled to meet the woman who’s captured her heart.” She grabbed Blake’s free hand with both of hers and began vigorously shaking it up and down. “And another FAUNIS at that. It’s such a pleasure to meet you.”

Despite Blake’s metallic skeleton, it still felt like this woman was about to rip her arm off in her enthusiasm. When at last she stopped, Blake had to shake her hand to regain its feeling.

A staredown commenced, Blake’s stern silence versus Penny’s cheerful smile, until Ruby finally broke the tension.

“So, Penny, what brings you to Tukson’s?”

“I’m here to purchase a book,” she replied, removing just such an item from her bag. Enemy of Steel was the title, the first of a very popular series of crime novels. “It’s a gift for General Ironwood.”

“General?” Blake asked. “Are you in the military, then?”

“That’s correct. Junior Lieutenant Penny Polendina, Atlas 32nd Division, at your service.” She sketched a brief salute.

Atlas had a tendency to rely on military might to maintain control of its colonies and Eltanin, new, volatile, and politically complicated as it was, was of particular interest to every kingdom. It wasn’t too surprising to hear that Atlas forces were in the city, though the presence of a general was a bit unexpected. Even less expected was that Penny was a member of said military. The Atlas government had made heavy use of FAUNIS to bolster its armed forces back when they were considered property, but since their liberation, most FAUNIS had fled the military for a calmer, less deadly lifestyle. Very few had willingly returned to active service. Even less obtained a rank as high as Penny claimed to have.

“How long have you been serving?” Blake asked.

“All my life,” Penny answered. “Except for a few years after the Liberation, during which I met Ruby.”

Blake shook her head. She couldn’t imagine willingly returning to the people that had enslaved her. “Why would you go back?” she asked. “I’ve talked to other FAUNIS who were forced into Atlas’s military, and they all have horror stories about what they went through.”

Penny’s smile disappeared, leaving her looking serious for the first time since Blake had met her. “My decision to return was complicated and personal; it took years to make. But whatever you might have heard about Atlas military, there are good people there too, and they’re trying to do good work.” She waved her book around. “General Ironwood is a good man of fine character. He’s looked out and cared for me for most of my life and he’s earned my respect a thousand times over.”

“Okay!” Ruby declared, looking about ready to jump between the two. “We’re hitting on some pretty serious topics for a first meeting. Blake, have you found a book you like?”

Blake allowed the topic change, nodding and pulling a book she’d been eyeing off the shelf.

“Great! I’ve got what I want and Penny’s got what she wants. Let’s all go pay for our new books.”

Blake continued to hold on to Ruby’s shoulder, letting herself be dragged along by the smaller girl.

As their purchases were rung up by a very bemused-looking man who had probably heard every word they’d said, Ruby and Penny exchanged contact information, promising to catch up at a later date. The three left the shop together, at which point Penny went in one direction and Ruby and Blake another.

“Blake,” Ruby began, looking up at her from under Blake’s arm as they walked, “are you… jealous?”

Blake inhaled sharply. Is that what this was? The roiling in her stomach every time she thought of Penny being anywhere near Ruby, of the past the two had shared, was that jealousy? She’d never been jealous of someone before, always thought herself above that. She wasn’t sure what to do with it now that it had reared its head.

Amusement flickered across Ruby’s face. “You are, aren’t you?” Ruby laughed and Blake felt herself warm. Whether in anger, embarrassment, or shame she wasn’t sure, but she didn’t like this particular laugh.

Ruby must’ve noticed, because she quickly stopped. “I’m sorry,” she apologized. “I shouldn’t laugh at you. It’s just, you have nothing to be jealous of. I’ll admit I had a bit of a crush on her when I was little—” despite her attempts at reassurance, Ruby’s words were a lance through Blake’s core; she was finding that she very much detested the feeling of jealousy “—but she’s way too old for me to be serious about that now.”

That held up Blake’s thought process as she tried to line up the idea of the child-like woman she’d met with this new information. “How old are we talking?” she asked.

“I never asked exactly,” Ruby answered, “but she says she was one of the first FAUNIS ever made. So she’s at least 200.”

Blake froze in her tracks, turning her head back in a futile attempt to pick Penny out of the crowd of people on the street. She suddenly felt sick, and not because of jealousy this time. She’d just been incredibly rude to an elder. And not just any elder, but one of the oldest members of her species. After everything she’d survived, everything she must’ve gone through, now she had to put up with some upstart kid’s misplaced emotions. She was appalled; growing up, she would’ve been lucky to get away with a swat of the ears for such disrespect.

She finally let go of Ruby.

“I… really screwed up, didn’t I?” she said, more a statement than a question. “She was your friend, and I was so rude to her.”

“If it’s any consolation,” Ruby offered, “I’m not even sure she noticed. Her understanding of social nuance has never been great. Too much time spent around materia, I think.”

Blake shook her head. “That doesn’t make it okay. I need to apologize to her.”

“Well,” Ruby offered, “you can come with me when I meet up with her next. As long as you promise to play nice.”

Blake felt herself warm in well-deserved shame and bowed her head. “I’m sorry you had to put up with me like that.”

Ruby smiled, sidling up close and planting a kiss on her cheek. “You’re forgiven.” She bounced backwards, holding up the brown paper bag with her purchases inside. “Hey, I got you something.” She opened the bag and pulled out a book, holding it out for Blake to take. She’d been too busy glaring at Penny to notice what Ruby had gotten earlier, so she had no idea what to expect.

The cover had a cartoonish depiction of a woman dressed all in black in an alleyway, about to be attacked by a litter of decomposing streetcats. “Cyber-Ninja Vs. Zombie Cats? They had this there?” Blake was surprised to find herself tearing up a bit as she was hit by a burst of nostalgia. “This was one of the first books I ever read. I could probably quote it front-to-back I read it so many times.” She flipped through the pages, looking at the illustrations at the beginning of each chapter. She could vividly remember hiding under her covers in the dead of night, reading and rereading the book by the light of the moon.

“It’s a good book, then? I grabbed it on a whim, so I wasn’t sure.”

“Oh, it’s terrible,” Blake answered. “Incredibly cheesy and cliché, but in the best possible way.” She flipped the book closed and wrapped Ruby in a hug. “Thank you. I don’t know what I ever did to deserve you.”

Ruby returned the hug. “That’s easy. You were yourself, and that’s amazing enough to be worth everything.”

#rwby #ruby rose #blake belladonna #penny polendina #ladybug #ladybug rwby #ladybug (rwby)#ladybugweek #fanfiction #my writing #The Last Frontier #space au #Ladybugweek2K19

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battlersexual · 4 years

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Board Game Showcase #3: Sentinels of the Multiverse

Introduction:

I mentioned in my introduction post for this series that my love of board games only really blossomed when I joined my college’s board game club. This game in particular was actually one of the major reasons why.

Sentinels of the Multiverse is a game about superheroes, but it’s not like any of the multitude of superhero-based board games on the market. Most of those just license actual Marvel or DC superheroes and put them on some other game, like Monopoly or a generic deckbuilder skeleton. Sentinels is something very different: It’s a totally original superhero game, (admittedly very much based on the Marvel-DC characters in a lot of ways) and it’s incredibly fun. Let’s talk about it!

Story:

I’m going to give you the broad strokes here, because trying to tell you the full story of Sentinels would be kind of like trying to summarize the plot of Magic: The Gathering in a single text post. Even with that, this will probably be the longest story segment I write.

In an alternate universe, instead of the Marvel and DC we’re familiar with, the comics publisher that came out on top was Sentinel Comics. Within the world of Sentinel Comics, the stories followed a similar trajectory to ours: the Golden Age where superheroes fought ordinary criminals and nazis, the Silver age with its wacky space shenanigans and superscience nonsense, the more restrained Bronze age where comics started to tackle more serious issues, a brief Dark age where everything was gritty and EXTREEEEEME, and the Modern age, where writers tried to take the best of everything that came before and just tell good stories (perhaps with mixed results, but I’m not a comic critic, so I’ll leave it at that.) The actual card game can best be described as a licensed game set in the Modern age of Sentinel Comics, which just so happens to have fallen through a time portal to our universe.

Overall, the story follows the Freedom Five, an Avengers-esque superhero team working together against all manner of villains, from the moustache-twirling to the downright terrifying. The villains in the game are all structured like crisis crossovers, with a team of supers going up against them. Each expansion to the game introduced part of the ongoing struggle as the comics progressed, culminating in the OblivAeon crisis and the end of the multiverse as we know it.

Obviously there’s more to it, but I want to move on and talk about individual characters later.

Mechanics and more under the cut.

Mechanics:

Sentinels is, technically speaking, a card game instead of a board game. That said, it still falls into the nebulous category of “Tabletop game” and most board game fans consider them board games anyway.

The game is technically 3-5 players, but can easily support 1 and 2 player games by having each player control multiple characters. Each player will pick a hero from the box, along with their deck. For example...

(Legacy is in some ways the most basic hero, so I’ll be using him as an example often.)

Each hero has a character card that gives them an HP value and a base power (In this case, Galvanize). This means the hero always has something they can do no matter which cards they get. Each hero has a unique deck of cards that focuses on their particular niche, Legacy’s being buffing the team and tanking damage.

Heroes generally work on their own, but often excel by teaming up with other heroes and complementing their own powers. Each turn, a player does three things: Play, Power, Draw, in that order. Play a card from their hand, use a power (either their innate power or one listed on an ongoing card) and draw a card. You can skip both play and power to draw two cards instead. If a hero is reduced to 0 HP, they’re not out of the fight yet: the flip side of their card has “Incapacitated abilities” that help the other team members.

(I couldn’t find a good image of Legacy’s incap side, this is from one of the other characters, Fanatic).

Sentinels is a cooperative game: the heroes work together to defeat a villain.

Each villain has their own deck, which acts as a rudimentary AI. Before the heroes get their turn, they flip over the top card of the villain deck and do whatever the card says. Villain cards are often extremely powerful, and can seriously screw over the heroes’ efforts.

In addition to heroes and villains, each game of Sentinels has an Environment. This is a third type of deck that works similarly to the villain deck, but tends to be neutral: I.E. it helps or hurts both the heroes and the villain. The environments range from the city of Megalopolis to the far-off planet Dok’Thorath to the town of Silver Gulch in the year 1883 to a far-future post-apocalyptic earth, each with unique mechanics. The turn order goes villain, heroes, environment before repeating until either the villain or all the heroes are defeated.

Flavor:

An AMAZING amount. You might have noticed that Legacy’s cards have quotes on the bottom referencing a comic he was in. Every card in the game has this, and it’s a joy to piece it all together and figure out what happened in the extensive storyline of Sentinel Comics. The game itself also presents an exciting puzzle where you try to figure out how to get past the villain’s defenses before they kill you. Each hero feels unique and interesting, and once you find your favorite, you’re all set. (Mine is Chrono-Ranger, the time-traveling cowboy).

I do have another particular favorite in terms of flavor, but I... don’t want to mention him. (Too late.) He might show up, and that’s not going to be good for anyone (Hey!) so let’s just move on.

Expansions:

The base game includes ten heroes, four villains, and four environments. This is a pretty good number, but honestly a lot of the most fun heroes arrived in the expansions. I find every new deck to be fun and interesting, so I can blanket-recommend all the expansions, but there’s a lot of them, both big boxes and mini-expansions consisting of a single deck (Like me!), so I’m not going to talk about them individually like before (WHAT?), so let’s just move on to-

No no no no NO! What kind of cop-out is that? You’re just going to tell people that expansions exist and then not explain anything? You make me SICK.

Oh no.

Oh YEAH! That’s right, I’m here to take over this showcase, so why don’t you just sit down in that corner and watch a REAL pro do his job?

Get off my post, Guise.

Not gonna happen! Take this! And this! And some a THESE!

...There we go. Hello, reader! Yep, I’m talking to you, the one reading this now. My name’s Guise, and I’m the best hero in the whole game!

Ha, I love that picture. ANYWAY, since that idiot couldn’t be bothered to cover the expansions properly, I’ll be doing that for him, just for all of you! Aren’t I the greatest? Well, let’s hop to it!

Ahhh, good old Rook City. Nice place, if you like giant mutant rats and government corruption. Which I do, because that stuff is totally X-TREEEEEEEEME!!!

Rook City was originally its own expansion, but the developers released a box that combined it with the next expansion, Infernal Relics! What nice people. Rook City includes two heroes who are almost as X-TREEEEEEEEME!!! as me, as well as two environments and four, count ‘em, FOUR dastardly villains!

Infernal Relics has plenty of spooooooky magic at play, and features another four villains, two environments, and two heroes, one of which is my good friend the Argent Adept! Here, look at this picture of us!

Ha ha, good times.

They did it again! Shattered Timelines and Wrath of the Cosmos, all in one box. How can you turn that down? If you like time travel and space adventures, these are gonna be your jam, with a total of four heroes, eight villains, and four environments, two of which are IN SPACE! Everything’s better in SPACE! Here’s a picture of me, IIIIIIINNNNNNNN SPAAAAAAAAAAAACE!

Oh, and the Shattered Timelines expansion is where that cowboy that the dumb nerd who started this post likes comes from. You know, if you cared. Which you don’t, because you’re cool! Like me! I can tell.

Vengeance added five new heroes, and introduced the TOTALLY AWESOME team villain variant, where instead of fighting one strong villain, you fight a team of weaker villains! This one can get pretty crazy. The set includes the VENGEFUL FIVE, who you can see on the box, and their decks come with all sorts of bit villains and lackeys to torment the heroes! I took a picture with my nemesis, Argentium!

Whooo, that was one tough customer! Luckily, I got him to chill out. Get it? Chill out? Because I froze him, ha ha! I’m hilarious. And awesome!

And then they did more team villains! Villains of the Multiverse has ten new villains for the team mode, four environments, and NO HEROES AT ALL! Well, lucky thing you can still use the ones from the other expansions, hey? I took a picture with a villain to commemorate this one too, but I can’t seem to find it...

Oh, there it is!

And the last major expansion is... OblivAeon! (Dun dun DUUUUUUUUN!) This one adds five heroes (formerly villains! Oooh, exciting!), five environments, and OBLIVAEON himself, with a new game mode centered around fighting him! Not to mention, you get to see ME take center stage as the big hero that saves the multiverse!

(Uh, not really, it was mostly Luminary who-)

Hey, quiet! Don’t go badmouthing me in front of my adoring fans!

Anyway, I’d love to show you my cool new form in this expansion, but that might be a liiiiitle spoiler-y, so I’ll just say I look like THIS, but WAY sexier!

Well, those are all the big expansions, but we’re not done yet! There’s a bunch of mini-expansions, little individual decks you can buy to add one hero, villain, or environment to the game. I’d cover them all, but there’s really only one you need...

That’s right, ME! Hell, you don’t even need the other big expansions when I’m so much better! Not only do you get my awesome character card, you get all the cards I’ve shown you from my deck, as well as the best card ever! No, really, that’s what it’s called!

I mean, come on! You don’t even need the base game! Just buy me, and you’ll have the best part of Sentinels of the Multiverse, all for the low low price of- hey, get off me! Ow! Stop that! HEY!

All right, that’s ENOUGH. Get OUT of my house.

...Whew, he’s finally gone. All right, let’s get on with things.

Replayability:

Sentinels is pretty darn replayable. You’re almost never going to get the same experience, even if you pick the exact same heroes, environment, and villain. If you have all the expansions, you not only get over 60 heroes and 45 villains, but you can get Variants, which replace all the hero cards (and some villains!) with new versions of the characters that have different powers. I’ve never played a game of Sentinels and felt like I’d seen it before. In addition, you can play it alone, so if you can’t have friends over regularly it’s still a good purchase.

Criticisms:

It runs into a similar problem to Cosmic Encounter where the game is SO spread out over so many expansions that the full experience ends up being an expensive and space-consuming prospect. It’s also a very fiddly game, with tons of counters and cards, so it can be a chore to play some of the more complicated characters. Both of these problems have solutions, however.

Availability:

Sentinels is still being sold, as far as I’m aware. It’s also totally available as a mod on Tabletop Sim, although this doesn’t fix the problem with fiddly counters and running out of space for cards, and in fact makes it worse. But there’s another option.

Sentinels of the Multiverse: The Video Game is an official online version of the card game. It includes every expansion as dlc, heavily marked down from its price as a physical item, and takes care of all the tedious bookkeeping for you. It also lets you earn the variant cards by doing challenges in-game, which is super fun, although you don’t HAVE to to unlock them that way. There are weekly challenge games that pit a certain team against a specific villain and environment, which often act as a cool little puzzle, (and you get to hear my amazing voice!) Shut up, Guise. I very occasionally stream games of SotM on my twitch channel, so if there’s enough interest I can show off more of the game. In general, I recommend the video game even if you already own the board game: it’s really well-done and fun to play.

Creators:

This is kind of a special segment. I normally don’t talk about the creators of these games, because they’re usually irrelevant to the final product. However, artist Adam Rebottaro and writer Christopher Badell are incredibly active in the community around their own game, and they have a podcast where they talk about the lore of the game and answer viewer questions about the characters and universe.

It’s a ton of fun, they’re really engaging and you can feel their creativity and love for comics radiating from their voices whenever they talk. They’re super funny, too.

(And if you want more of ME- ah, what am I saying, of course you do! - you can tune in to this episode right here, where I make a special guest appearance to talk about myself!)

Get OUT, Guise!

Ugh, what a pain. Anyway...

Conclusion:

I know superhero stuff is kind of over-saturated right now, but even if you’re sick of superheroes - give Sentinels a try. It’s a celebration of comics more than superheroes in particular, and despite taking a lot of cues from existing superheroes, everything about Sentinels is fresh and fun. It’s one of my favorite co-op games ever, and its story is so well-told that I genuinely feel like I need to go read the comics, which I remind you don’t exist. Sentinels of the Multiverse is brilliant and just plain FUN.

Seriously, go play it, and make sure to use all my cards!

Didn’t I tell you to get out of my house?

#Board Game Showcase #board games #Sentinels of the Multiverse #SotM #oh hey #I can write things down here too!#I think I'll stick around here a while #this blue website looks like fun #guise out!

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the-colony-roleplay · 5 years

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OCS, SKELETONS & AN ALL NEW NWRF EXTRAVAGANZA

Okay guys! We come to you with another really exciting announcement!

As you probably know, Lottie and I are always working hard behind the scenes coming up with ideas for future plots, and potential changes/expansions that will help ensure the longevity of the Colony’s life. And we have lots in store for you guys, things that we hope to release or expand over the next year, but our current project and focus, especially since we’re not able to get into the next Games Live Play until Game season is back upon us in the verse, is to do with helping to foster an actively played, NWRF presence at the Colony.

After some discussion about the current environment of the game, and the kinds of things that might help to make it continue to prosper as well as it has been these past couple years, we’d like to help strengthen the active conflict dynamic within the RP. As of now, the verse has plenty to work with, which has helped us immensely in the last three years, since the drop of the NWRF plot. However, we’ve been thinking that since we’re all one big happy family just trying to play a cool game, what kinds of tools can we introduce to help make the game even better and more accessible for everyone? So....

Introducing ‘Plot Device’ Skeleton bios!

Starting now, we’re going to start working on and rolling out skeleton bios specifically designed for characters that will help move the plot forward, and open doors for new and exciting tension and content! For the time being, since this is essentially an NWRF themed promotional festival (lol, the irony is obscene), all of these skeletons will be NWRF, with potential for other roles and bio types in the future.

These skeletons, however, will come with their own parameters for activity and play, which will hopefully help make filling these roles more feasible, and make the gameplay more exciting and fun for the whole group! The parameters will be as follows:

Skeletons (or ‘skeles’ as I’ve taken to calling them) will be designed in such a way that they can be temporary, if need be. That is to say, if we’re in need of someone on a temporary basis to help make a certain plot more interesting or dynamic, these characters can be played on a temporary basis. Of course, hanging onto them is always encouraged too! If you fall in love, who are we to take them away from you! :)

Picking up a skeleton will not count towards your character count.

Muns will not be specifically required to write paras on skeletons, UNLESS it’s for a big/action heavy plot, etc. Essentially, we will always encourage paras, especially since half of y’alls chats are basically long enough to be paras—but with these skeles, you will not be expected to para in the same way you are with regular bios. The exception to this will be applied when you’re participating in a plot where the content sort of demands para format anyway.

Skeleton bios will have an extended activity limit of TEN days. We know that NWRF type characters can be a heavier load sometimes, in terms of muse, and the weightiness of threads. But these skeletons are designed more to be sort of part-time characters, whose appearances on the dash will really help shake things up, but don’t necessarily have to be as present. That being said, goodness gracious, if you can be as active on them as your other characters please do so. We are not suggesting you can’t dedicate as much time to these guys. Just that they are designed to be more flexible, so more people feel they have the time to pick them up, which will help add cool versatility to the active player plotting opportunities.

Similarly, Skeles will not be expected to have as many on going interactions at one given time. So, yes, we still want people to RP with a variety of characters and members, and try to experience plotting and threading with everyone eventually. But you will not be under the same expectations to have that many threads going at one given time, or to reply to as many starters, etc. We still hope for diversity, but as ‘plot-device’ characters, our goal for them is to add range to the dash that will be beneficial to the plot and for people’s muse, while not bogging down our muns or be quite as large of a commitment. (We may set a minimum number of 3, but these rules will be solidified in the future).

Skeles will only have suggested FCs (some requirements accordingly, like POC, etc) age ranges, +/- traits, and general summaries. Like most skeletons, these will be character guides that we would like the muns to get creative with and flesh out in their own way. We will provide character labels, (rather than full names), job titles, a small summary of the character, and some general aesthetic/moods. From there, you will be free to do the rest. This also means that the application will be different for these bios, and that will be released at a later date.

Skeletons that are dropped will be handled on a case by case basis much like any other bio. They’ll either be closed and written out of the story, reopened to be played again in the future, or potentially reopened as a full bio, if the mun decides to release it as such.

Skeleton bios will only be available to current members. This is strictly because if you are going to be a member of this RP, you should start with a fully committed character, with regular activity requirements and participation. We want new members to get the most out of their time here and to really be a part of this community, and these particular skeletons are fashioned in such a way that the requirements wouldn’t be beneficial to you as a new member. However, if you are a new member and you’re interested in NWRF roles, keep in mind there will always be the full NWRF bios, as found on on our open masterlist, as well as the possibility of writing OCs! And finally, if you’ve absolutely fallen in love with a skeleton, and want to apply for it as a full character with normal activity requirements, that’s certainly something that could be discussed, and we encourage you to come to us about that if you’d like!

NWRF OOC Blog

One of the challenging things about playing NWRF characters is their connection to the main plot, which is largely executed and controlled by the admins, so communication is essential, and across so many players in so many different timezones, it can sometimes be confusing. So, starting this week, we’re going to be introducing a secondary OOC, that will be specifically reserved for plotting and sharing information between NWRF reps, guards, lab techs, etc etc etc, with regards to the goings on in the Colony. It will be where you can easily plot and drop notes and ideas, so you all have one place to communicate together where timezones won’t be an issue, and things won’t get too cluttered like they might in a group chat.

The separation of this is only to be able to retain a bit of fun and mystery when it comes to Lottie and I not wanting to spoil event ideas and plot drops for everyone, but needing to loop in some of the NWRF for their own character dev or what have you, etc. This OOC, however, will never be for socializing, because we have no intention of splitting up the family in anyway. It’ll exclusively be for plotting and the sharing of NWRF related info, etc. We’re hoping this method will help facilitate an easier and more cohesive system to playing an NWRF character.

Opening NWRF OCs

We’ve been on OC ban for some time now, and we had planned to do another stint of opening them up for a limited time. We have decided, however, to simply fully open NWRF OCs. (Not to worry, there will be more opportunities to apply for non-NWRF OCs in the future, but if anyone is interested in that, come chat with us about it off anon!) For now, however, since our current goal is to focus on getting more NWRF up and running in the game play, and we didn’t necessarily want to go on an NWRF exclusive ban, we figured this was a great alternative!

The NWRF Incentive! (Better than it sounds!!)

So, in the interest of boosting our NWRF presence here at Col22, we’re sort of rolling out a Bay-Day-Sale type promotion (haha). So, for a limited time only, anyone who applies for a FULL NWRF OPEN BIO (as in not a skeleton) will get to enjoy an extended activity limit of 9 DAYS for the first 3 MONTHS after their application. This is purely promotional, and will not be offered forever, but for the time being, it’s a little extra incentive for you guys to get your bums in gear! We also figured since the Skeleton bios will have a more lax activity limit, we may as well boost our full NWRF bios as well! The more the merrier, right!?

In Closing...

Obviously, the roll out of the skeletons themselves will take some time, and will be gradual. Lottie is about to go on a hiatus for about a week, and obviously I’m working stupid film hours, but hopefully we’ll get some posted for you next weekend! We just really wanted to give everyone the news now, so people can start thinking about it.

If you have any ideas of things you’d like to see as skeletons, definitely let us know, and feel free to pitch us your ideas! And as always, if you have any questions at all or things you want clarified about this, don’t be afraid to hit us up here on the main blog! Please refer to the Ask Box so we can reply publicly and benefit everyone!

Okay, that’s all for now folks! So much love to you all from the both of us, and so very proud!!!

xoxo

Col!Mods

#col22admin #literate rp #sci fi rp #para rp #mature rp #skeletons #plot device skeletons #nwrf

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popatochisssp · 5 years

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Are any of the skeletons into D&D? What classes do you think they'd play? Do any prefer DM-ing to being a player?

Believe it or not, I am prepared for this ask! >:D

…but please forgive any inaccuracies of actual D&D gameplay because I personally have only done two or three sessions because our group was too rowdy and meandering for a DM who couldn’t corral us properly and after awhile we started playing Hearts instead to keep from stressing him out.

So! I definitely don’t feel like D&D would’ve been a thing Underground for anybody, so I’m going to answer this from a lens of somebody looping them into it on the surface and them giving it a try for the first time!

Sans (Undertale): Wizard; any DM’s worst nightmare, all his dice rolls are suspiciously perfect and he always seems to know all the campaign’s carefully hidden secrets but nobody can effectively call him on his cheating. He just keeps saying “a wizard did it,” and everybody in the party has absolutely wanted to kill him at least once. Probably does something to get himself banned, sooner or later, and then he’ll just lurk around eating snacks and being the peanut gallery. He is also preemptively banned from DM-ing, everybody just knows, instinctively, what a shit-show it would be.

Papyrus (Undertale): Paladin; a model player, he follows the rules and sticks to the objective, happy to collaborate with his party members in whatever way they need him to. He goes absolutely hog wild for any battles he gets into, though, and loves describing his heroic action scenes in vibrant detail–to the point that his party members learn the best time for a bathroom break is when he’s waxing poetic about the sing of sword against sword and they can be gone for a few minutes without missing anything important. He’d be a good DM and would probably enjoy running challenging campaigns for his friends, but he personally prefers playing over DM-ing. It’s more exciting being in the thick of it!

Sky (Underswap Sans): Fighter; also a pretty good guy to play with, he’s as skilled as Sans Classic at picking up little hints and tells about secrets and important things, but he also has enough respect for the game and the DM not to spoil everything or purposefully go against the grain. He’s a DM’s dream because he’ll subtly keep the party on track and if there’s any hints the DM is giving off about what they hope the party will do next, Sky may try to play into it so the story runs the way it’s supposed to. He likes the game in small doses, but he’d never DM himself or pick it up as a main hobby, he’s not great at sitting still for long periods and prefers to do more active stuff.

Paps (Underswap Papyrus): Bard; he’s every terrible stereotype about his class that you’ve ever heard. If it’s sentient, he will try to roll to seduce it, plus a million other silly things that get him and his party into trouble. He thrives on the looks of exasperation, amusement, and sometimes horror that it gets him. The only hope a DM has of reining in his cavorting nonsense a little is by having a compelling storyline– if they can get him invested in where the story’s going, he’ll more or less play by the rules if only so he can find out what’s going to happen next. One thing… he is very stubborn in some cases and is absolutely the type to argue with the DM over things that don’t make sense to him. “what do you mean, he still died? i gave him a bandage, no, he should’ve lived, you’re just killing off some poor npc arbitrarily, that’s dumb.” He might be a pretty decent DM himself, but he’s also probably not passionate enough to run a campaign for more than two or three sessions before getting some combination of bored or frustrated and not wanting to do it anymore.

Jasper (Underfell Sans): Rogue; absolutely a dark horse, he is a surprisingly good player and takes it more seriously than you might guess. He won’t go full-on roleplay, but he’ll play the campaign straight aside from picking a pocket or two, stealing random shit here and there and generally be a good asset to his party. Mentally, he treats it the same as a video game: do whatever side-quests are necessary and minimize fucking around in order to complete the objective. As serious as his character may be, though, he himself will be cracking a lot of jokes during sessions, usually making fun of somebody for being a dumbass or failing a roll, and he doesn’t have a lot of respect for the DM. He’ll treat their word as law and all, but there will be a lot of grumbling if he doesn’t agree, plus plenty of eye-light-rolling and passive-aggressive sighing. Would never DM for himself, that’s way too much work for something this nerdy.

Pyre (Underfell Papyrus): Ranger; takes it pretty seriously, too, but depending on how all-in the rest of the party is…maybe too seriously? He’ll definitely do the full-on roleplay thing and have a whole intricate backstory made up for his character that will probably never come up, but he needed it! For his motivation! He’s easily frustrated by bad rolls and things not going the way he wanted, but he’s more bark than bite so once he yells a little about the injustice of it all and gets it out of his system, he’ll settle down and just get back to the game. He’ll get pretty peeved at players who don’t take it even a little bit seriously, though, or ones who do things that don’t fit with what their character would actually do– what’s the point of even playing this game if you’re not going to play it?! He would never actually want to DM because uncooperative players trying to derail his elaborate campaign would really piss him off and he knows it, plus he wouldn’t be able to roleplay and that’s his favorite part.

Mal (Swapfell Sans): Warlock; he’s not a great pick for this, honestly, even though he’ll definitely give it his all. He’s very tactical and a great asset to his party in that sense as he’ll always know who needs to have what and the best strategies to use to achieve the objective, personalized from player to player. The only downside is that he’s very impatient and very much of a control freak: he wants to be in charge of the party so they can accomplish this quickly, and any world-building, flower-sniffing, or meandering is going to really tick him off. He sees the campaign as a task that he needs to get done and if he perceives his party to be dragging their heels, they become obstacles in his mind and he’ll start asking the DM if he can just split off on his own. If the Great All Powerful Evil kills him, that’d be fine, the other players can just lower his character’s casket in the ground so they can let him down one last time! You can see how he’d be not too fun to play with if you’re just in it for a good time. He’d make a decent DM with a cooperative group of players, but if there are any trolls in the bunch that won’t play the game right, he’ll definitely get pissy and if it goes on long or far enough, he’s not above a good old-fashioned rage quit. Creative stuff is just…not his thing.

Rus (Swapfell Papyrus): Sorcerer; the first couple of sessions are going to be very awkward. He’s a little nervous in groups and very concerned about doing a Wrong Thing that will make somebody mad at him, so he stays pretty quiet and a common phrase out of him is, “i dunno, what should i do?” But as long as he’s with a good group of players who are willing to help him out and don’t get shouty over little stuff, he’ll get a bit more comfortable and start doing stuff on his own–though he’ll still double-check a lot with whoever seems to be the leader of the party and will be pretty conscious of places he could conceivably be stepping on someone’s toes so he can avoid them altogether. He could very easily come to like the game and if it’s an inspiring enough campaign with characters he likes, he may be a sweetheart and draw some peoples’ characters for them or stuff for the DM to use. Would not DM himself, though, that’s way too much pressure.

Slate (Horrortale Sans): Druid; he’ll try but this kinda game is just really not for him. He forgets a ton of stuff between sessions–especially if they’re far apart, and they usually are because schedules suck–and he has to spend more time asking questions about what the hell happened last time or those other times than he spends actually playing. If the DM’s accommodating or he has a buddy in the party who can give him a recap of all the relevant stuff as it comes back around, he might do…okay? But he’s not really going to be having fun, it’s mostly just him alternating between being confused and then frustrated at himself for being confused. He’d definitely pass on DM-ing for the same reason, little details are important in a campaign and if he can’t remember them, it won’t be as good for everyone else. Probably best if he sits this particular hobby out.

Papy (Horrortale Papyrus): Monk; he loves it just about as much as Papyrus Classic does! The only difference is that he tries to avoid battles where he can: his view of conflict isn’t quite as romanticized as it used to be and he thinks of it more as a necessary evil. That said, when there is a fight, he won’t hold back (dice rolls permitting), especially if his inaction might mean something bad for his fellow players! He’s very empathic as a player himself, so if there’s a befriendable enemy or something a party member needs that he can help with, he’s all over it–and if ever a dramatic sacrifice is necessary, he’ll be the one to heroically fall on the sword. Overall a great guy to play with, not the least because he usually takes it upon himself to bring snacks for everybody like a mom. Would like to DM someday, but needs awhile to build up the confidence, and that’s fine! It just means that when he’s ready for it, he’ll have had plenty of time to draft up a killer campaign that his players will love.

#anonymous #headcanons #undertale #sans #papyrus #underswap #us!sans #us!papyrus #underfell #uf!sans #uf!papyrus #swapfell/fellswap #sf!sans #sf!papyrus #horrortale #ht!sans #ht!papyrus

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asterythm · 5 years

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No Winning on Halloween

Title: No Winning on Halloween

Pairing: Nothing in particular. Mostly just platonic fun times with the buddies; maybe a tiny bit of Prinxiety if you squint hard enough?

Prompt: Costume Party

Word Count: approx. 3.4k

General Summary: The Sides’ annual costume party is going perfectly… right up until an unexpected guest shows up.

Warnings: Sympathetic Deceit. Also, there’s a hint of Roman angst? I meant for this to be a fluffy story, I swear!!

Read this fic on AO3

Virgil’s breath caught in his throat as he stared at the abomination lying before him. It had been so beautiful, but now its very soul had been sucked out; the poor, helpless thing had been mistreated horribly and discarded without a second thought. It was awful — terrible — absolutely revolting. Swearing vengeance, Virgil opened his mouth to release a mighty war cry.

“Alright, which one of you absolute cretins had the brilliant idea to take a single bite into this Halloween Kit Kat, without breaking it in half first, and then just leave it on the table?” Virgil demanded.

Patton, who was the only one who heard him over the deafening sound of Spooky Scary Skeletons being blasted at full volume, gasped so hard his Fix-It Felix hat almost fell off and rushed over to where Virgil stood. “What? What kind of monster would do that?”

It wasn’t long before Logan took notice of the two Sides standing around the snack table, and made his way over, inquiring, “Are you two quite alright?” He adjusted his Sherlock Holmes scarf as he spoke.

“No!” Patton wailed, furiously waving his hand at the candy bar at the root of all this trouble. “Someone ate their Kit Kat the wrong way!”

Logan frowned. “I don’t understand. I thought it was merely a wafer chocolate; what about this particular confectionary makes it so special as to have a right and wrong way to consume it?”

“You can’t just bite into both halves of a Kit Kat without breaking it first! That’s… that’s like a crime!”

“But why does it matter? Either way, the Kit Kat gets eaten. I don’t understand what I did wrong—”

“It was you? Oh, Logan, how could you betray me like this?”

Virgil didn’t really care too much about the half-eaten candy, and, listening to their banter, he had to smile. Figures that Logan would know the entirety of Hound of the Baskervilles word for word, but wouldn’t know the proper way to eat a Kit Kat, he thought to himself, shaking his head as he quietly excused himself from the conversation. The anxious side made his way over to Roman, who didn’t seem to realize that he was now alone on the dance floor. Actually, he probably just doesn’t care. Virgil cleared his throat. “Hey, Princey.”

The prince in question turned around. “Virgil.”

“Gotta admit, this party’s actually pretty good. Still mad that you stole my idea to dress up as a Nightmare Before Christmas character, though,” Virgil teased. He didn’t really care how Roman dressed up — he just wanted to get a conversation going.

Roman rolled his eyes. “Well, how was I supposed to know you were going to dress up as Jack Skellington? And besides, I make a fantastic Sally, thank you very much.”

”Yeah, yeah, whatever. You just wanted an excuse to break out your red wig again. You were a pretty good Merida last year, could’ve just stuck with that,” shot back Virgil.

“Excuse me?” Roman put a hand to his chest in mock indignation. “You expect me, the most creative Side of all, to wear the same Halloween costume twice? Never! Never, I say!”

“Okay. That’s what I was hoping you’d say, ‘cause I cut up your Merida dress to make the coattails for my costume. Glad you don’t mind.”

“You what?” Snickering, Virgil winked before running away as fast as his legs could take him. He didn’t need to look back to know that Roman was chasing after him. “Virgil, get back here!”

Dashing through the mind palace, Virgil found himself laughing, really laughing, for the first time in as long as he could remember. He loved fall, of course — how could he not? It was Halloween season! — but Thomas’ “autumn anxiety” had been acting up that year and he’d found himself working harder than usual. He had to admit that it felt great to be able to just relax at the annual costume party that Roman always held, even more so than usual this time.

Or maybe it just felt great to mess with Roman. That, too.

Either way, Virgil was… happy to have a worry-free day where he could just eat candy and drink bad punch and hang out with the other Sides. He had complained when Roman told him that the number one rule for the costume party would be “no overthinking anything” — But that’s what I do best! he’d whined — but he had to admit that he was glad Roman had made him promise. It was nice to know that Roman really did care.

Dashing through the halls of the mind palace, Roman hot on his heels, both of them shouting friendly taunts to each other, Virgil felt almost… carefree. Like nothing could stop him.

Moments later, something stopped him.

Virgil stopped in his tracks and stared. Roman came flying around the corner and crashed into him only moments later. “Hey, what’s the big… idea…”

Roman trailed off as he caught sight of the reason Virgil had stopped so suddenly. His eyes narrowed.

“Deceit,” Virgil hissed.

Indeed, before them stood Deceit. Virgil’s lip curled up in an automatic snarl, but a second glance told him that Deceit was not quite his regular self today. Instead, he seemed to shrink in on himself. Virgil recognized a lot of Deceit’s body language as mirroring what usually was his own — hunched shoulders, hands gripping the container tighter than necessary, head slightly bowed, eyes darting. He seemed… nervous.

Not to mention his unusual outfit. He was dressed in an odd-looking robe; a colourful mishmash of many different fabrics that was at once regal and eccentric. In his hands, he held — was that a Tupperware container?

“What are you doing here?” Roman stepped forward and pointed an accusing finger. “What’s in the box?”

Roman was expecting a witty remark, a smug smile. He got neither. Rather, Deceit opened the container with a hopeful look on his face. “Er… I brought cookies.”

Virgil and Roman stared.

“Is it the costume? It’s too obscure, isn’t it? I’m dressed up as Prospero. You know, the guy from The Tempest?”

Virgil and Roman stared.

An awkward moment of silence.

Virgil and Roman stared.

Deceit held up the cookies to their faces, seeming to think that the two other Sides had somehow missed them.

Virgil and Roman stared.

“Did I mix up the dates? I thought today was the costume party.”

xxx

“Absolutely not.”

“Sure thing!”

Logan and Patton spoke at the same time. The other Sides turned to Patton, incredulous.

“How can you possibly think this is a good idea?” Logan asked him.

“Well, you said he didn’t seem like he wanted to cause trouble, right?” Patton addressed Virgil, who nodded. “And it is true that Roman sent out an invitation to all the Sides. That includes Deceit.”

“Well, yeah, but I meant all the light Sides! Not that two-faced treacherous toad!” Roman

protested.

Logan sighed. “His motif is that of a snake, Roman, not a toad.”

“I’m sorry, I had to make it alliterative.”

Virgil was losing patience. “Guys, can we please focus?” He turned to Patton. “I get that you wanna make Deceit feel included or some dumb nice thing like that, but we can’t trust him,” Virgil insisted. “What if it’s another trick? I don’t understand how you’re so okay with him joining us.”

“Agreed,” Logan chimed in. “Deceit has lied to us before; in fact, it’s at the very core of his being. It’s what he does best.”

“I guess, but… but that doesn’t mean that he always lies! Roman, you mentioned that he was wearing a costume,” Patton argued, “and he brought cookies! Cookies! You can’t possibly say no to cookies, can you?” Roman started to speak, but Patton talked over him. “I get it. You don’t exactly trust him. Honestly, I don’t either. I mean, he stole my identity — not cool. But Deceit just wants to have fun. Can you blame him? Everyone deserves to be able to take a break from time to time. We all know the Dark Sides aren’t the liveliest bunch. Can’t we just let him have this one day?”

Patton’s last words echoed in the room. The other Sides were silent.

Finally, Logan spoke up. “I… suppose… it couldn’t hurt to let Deceit join in on the festivities for a day.”

“What? Logan, you can’t be serious!” Roman objected.

Logan held up a hand, silencing Roman effectively. He continued, “You must admit that Patton has a point. All of us work hard to keep Thomas safe and healthy, and although Deceit’s way of doing so may be… counterproductive… he still ought to be allowed a day of amusement. I’m not saying we need to treat him like a friend, but perhaps we can consider setting aside our differences today and forming a truce.”

The most anxious of the Sides was still apprehensive, of course, but Virgil started to see what Logan and Patton were saying. Slowly, he nodded. “I guess it would be okay, just for today.”

Roman, on the other hand, could hardly believe his ears.

He’d worked so hard for this costume party! He’d put so much effort into making sure it was absolutely perfect. Everything had been carefully thought out, from the party playlist song order to the location and arrangement of all the fake cobwebs to the exact shade of orange icing on the chocolate cupcakes. He knew how excited Patton had been for October to arrive. He’d noticed how Logan had been staying up late to work on Thomas’s videos. He’d seen how Virgil had been even more stressed than normal, trying to keep up with all the unwanted negativity that had arrived with the cold weather.

He’d planned and planned so that they could have the best costume party yet, and then Deceit showed up and just had to ruin it for all of them. They’d been having fun! They’d been relaxing! They’d been happy! And now they just wanted to throw away all of his hard work… for what? To appease a filthy liar?

When Roman spoke, his words were sharp and dripping with venom. “Well. I suppose I understand what you’re saying.”

“Oh! Um, that’s great, but are you sure?” Patton asked, cocking his head to the side. He hadn’t expected Roman to give in so easily.

In fact, Roman wasn’t quite finished. “Oh, I’m sure, all right. I may have spent countless all-nighters pouring my heart and soul into organizing this party for you all, but if making a Dark Side feel good is your priority, well, don’t let me stop you! I completely understand. Who cares about all the hard work I did, right?” Roman laughed bitterly. “Well, go ahead! Go bring the good news to your new best friend! I won’t stop you.” And with that, Roman sunk out.

xxx

“Well, um, I’ve got good news and bad news,” Patton said to Deceit, who had been waiting in the halls where Virgil and Roman had left him. “The good news is, most of us are okay with you spending time with us today.”

“Most of you?” said Deceit quizzically.

“Yeah, uh, Roman… won’t be there, though,” Patton fumbled in response. “But you can still come and have fun with the rest of us!”

Deceit sighed. There was a nasty feeling gnawing away at his gut — guilt. He’d driven Roman away from his own party.

“You know what, Patton? I really appreciate it, but I’ve changed my mind. I don’t think I’ll be attending the party after all.” He gave the Tupperware container to Patton. “You can keep the cookies, though.”

Deceit pretended not to hear Patton’s confused protests as he disappeared from sight.

xxx

A series of gentle knocks on Roman’s bedroom door alerted him to another Side’s presence. Probably Patton.

“Leave me alone,” grumbled Roman. No, please come in. His ego would never let him admit it, but he’d been hoping that someone would come to check in on him. Patton had come faster than he’d expected, though. Usually, the other Sides gave him some time to mope before coming to cheer him up with compliments.

The door opened with a soft click, and Roman was surprised to see that the one standing on the other side wasn’t Fix-It Felix, here to give Roman a tap with his golden hammer and make everything better. It was Jack Skellington, coat-tails and all.

“Virgil?”

The anxious Side invited himself inside and sat next to Roman on his fancy four-poster bed, fidgeting a little bit. “Hey there, Sally.”

The two of them sat in silence for a couple minutes, until Roman heard a very quiet snort of laughter. He whipped his head around immediately. “What are you laughing at, Hot Topic?”

“I just… I can’t take you seriously with that bright red wig of yours.”

Roman flushed with embarrassment. He’d forgotten he was wearing that. He removed the incriminating hairpiece. Clearing his throat, he asked, “Okay, so did you come up here for a reason, or did you just want to laugh at my hair?”

Suddenly serious, Virgil’s smirk disappeared. “Yeah, actually. I just felt like I owe you an apology.”

xxx

Deceit sat, alone, in the darkscape. Stupid! the darkscape wailed in his own voice. So stupid! What on Earth were you expecting? For them to welcome you with open arms, just because you were all dressed up and baked some cookies? Ridiculous. You’re a Dark Side. They don’t like you.

He closed his eyes tight and tried to drown out the never-ending cacophony. He was used to the whispers that were always echoing through the hallways, but today they were so much louder than usual.

It was no use. Showing weakness had been a bad idea — the voices grabbed hold of him and pulled him down, down, down…

xxx

“...we didn’t really consider your feelings when we made our decision, and that wasn’t fair. All of us really do appreciate how much work went into your party. So… uh, we’re sorry,” Virgil finished. He finally made eye contact with Roman (he’d been staring at his hands for the entirety of his apology) and was surprised to see the Side who had previously seemed so downtrodden was grinning like a fool.

“How many times did you rehearse that apology?” Roman asked.

“Wh— huh?” That was not the answer Virgil had been expecting. He hadn’t even been expecting to be able to get through his entire apology (which, by the way, he had only rehearsed six times, thank you very much!); he’d been sure that Roman would cut him off somewhere in the middle with some kind of snarky comment. When Roman was silent, Virgil had gotten more than a little nervous. Roman was never silent unless he was either angry or touched. And yet, the huge smile on Roman’s face showed that he was anything but angry. So that meant…

Mistaking Virgil’s confusion for concern, Roman hastened to comfort him. “I’m joking. That was very sweet of you, Virgil, and I really do appreciate it. I have to admit that I overreacted a tad bit. It’s just been an exhausting couple of days, you know?”

Virgil listened and nodded. “It’s great that you wanted to take stress off our shoulders with this party, Roman — really, it is — but it seems like you ended up just taking that stress onto yourself. You mentioned that you pulled a lot of all-nighters, huh? I get that you were excited, but come on, Princey. You can’t do that to yourself.”

Roman hated to admit fault, but… “I suppose you’re right, Jack Smellington.”

“Hey! Come on! Again with the name-calling? I thought we were having a heart-to-heart here!”

Roman nudged Virgil playfully. “Sorry, I couldn’t resist.” He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “I suppose that I have some apologizing to do, as well. Come on.” He got up and crossed over to the door, Virgil following close behind.

The two of them walked side-by-side, Side by Side, down the mindscape halls. When they reached the living room, Virgil hurried in first and sat down on the couch between Logan and Patton, who had long since stopped the music and were now sitting in silence, expecting Roman to step in.

Virgil spent a full minute wondering what was taking Roman so long before he got up and went back to check. “Ro?”

The hallways were empty. Roman was nowhere in sight.

xxx

Time was a fluttery, doubtful sort of thing in the darkscape. It was a single silver ribbon that twisted and folded and, every once in a while, even stopped entirely. Sometimes, Deceit might just blink and weeks would flash by. Other times, he would lie down and sleep for what felt like an eternity, and wake to find that it had only been a few minutes he’d been unconscious.

Deceit didn’t know how long he’d been listening to the savage screams tearing away at his very core like vultures descending on a slab of dead meat. He didn’t want to know. At first, he’d wanted to escape to the safety of his room where the darkscape’s words were almost imperceptible, but to do that would be to admit defeat, and Deceit had had enough of that for today. So he sat and let the darkscape do its work, filling him up with bitterness and self-doubt.

Until, suddenly, there was someone’s hand on his shoulder — a grip that was firm and assertive, but not too tight. The whispers that filled Deceit’s mind disappeared with a puff of smoke as he turned to look at the unexpected visitor.

“...Roman? What are you doing here?”

The flamboyant Side spoke as if reciting words he’d already heard once before. “I just felt like I owe you an apology.”

xxx

“What’s wrong, Virge?” Patton asked, voice full of concern.

The panicked Side exclaimed, “Roman was right behind me, and now the idiot’s just run off to who-knows-where!”

Logan got to his feet, alarmed. “He didn’t give you any hints about where he was going?”

“No,” Virgil said. “I just went up to his room to apologize and then he said that he needed to say sorry to you guys too, so we came downstairs and now he’s just gone.”

“You’re quite sure that he desired to talk to us, specifically? Not anyone else who he perhaps may have hurt?”

“Well, yeah. I mean, who else would he need to…” Virgil trailed off as he realized what Logan was implying. “Oh.”

“Yes, oh does seem appropriate for this situation,” Logan agreed.

Patton blinked, not quite catching on. “What? What are you guys talking about?”

“Roman didn’t mean us. He meant Deceit. He’s gone to the darkscape,” explained Virgil. “Oh, man. Why’s he gotta be such a clueless moron all the time? What made him think it would be a good idea to go down there?”

“He’s gone down to the darkscape?” cried an incredulous Patton. “But that’s dangerous! We gotta go bring him back before he gets himself hurt, Virgil!”

“I know, I know, I just… really don’t want to go down there again.” Virgil shuddered, and Patton’s voice grew quiet.

“Oh, I’m— I’m sorry. Er, if you don’t want to, it can just be me and Logan...”

After a moment of quiet focus, Virgil said, “No, I’m coming too. I wanna give him a piece of my mind, anyway. And no one knows how to deal with Deceit better than I do.” Patton couldn’t deny the truth in that statement.

“Alright,” Logan said impatiently. “Well, then, let’s go. We’ve already wasted enough time.”

Taking a deep breath, Patton and Logan stood, Virgil getting up a second later. The three of them had determined expressions on their faces, and stepped out into the halls, ready to run into Roman and bring him back to safety.

They weren’t expecting for that to happen in quite so literal a fashion. As Logan turned the corner, he collided face-first with Roman, who stumbled backwards — right into Deceit.

Patton gasped. “Roman! Behind you!”

Rubbing his forehead, Roman cracked the slightest of smiles.

“Yes, I’m aware. I was just bringing him to the living room so that we could join you guys, but it looks like you decided to meet us halfway, anyhow.”

He lowered his voice. “We’re still not friends. But just for today, we don’t really have to be enemies either, you know?”

xxx

(The cookies were delicious, by the way.)

xxx

A/N: This ended up being a lot longer and a lot more confusing than I intended. I wanted to write a cute little 500-word fluffy fic and post it the same day I wrote it, but then my hand slipped and before I knew it I was writing a 3k in ten-minute writing sprints in between all my homework. Since I wrote this for the SS Spooky Month, I threw this on here without doing.. uh.. any editing. So yeah -- definitely not by best work, but hey, this is my blog and I’ll post what I want, haha!

PS - Anyone who guesses the reference in the title gets a cookie :P

#sanders sides #thomas sanders #sanders sides fic #sanders sides fanfic #thatsthat24 #spectral scribbles #sympathetic deceit #tw sympathetic deceit #tw deceit #spec made something

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askblueberrymuffin · 5 years

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REALLY LONG CHARACTER SURVEY.

RULES. repost , don’t reblog ! good luck !

TAGGED. @vertebralheights sorta? TAGGING. I dunno, do what u want

BASICS.

FULL NAME: Sans Gaster

NICKNAME: Blueberry, Muffin, Blue

AGE: 23

BIRTHDAY: July 1st, 20XX

ETHNIC GROUP: Skeleton/Shadow Monster

NATIONALITY: Underground??

LANGUAGE(S): English, Wingdings(?)

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Asexual

ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: Panromantic

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Forever alone Single

CLASS: Middle class? Maybe upper middle when their mom was around?

HOMETOWN / AREA: Snowdin

CURRENT HOME: Still Snowdin, same house and everything

PROFESSION: Sentry, but he’ll likely pursue higher education soon

PHYSICAL.

HAIR: Skeleton?

EYES: Usually cerulean blue.

NOSE: Nope

FACE: Boney (har har)

LIPS: Still skeleton

COMPLEXION: Guess what? Skeleton

WEIGHT: Like, 9 lbs.

BUILD: Bony boi

FEATURES: Solid shadow? In skull and ribcage? Also tiny nubby tail

ALLERGIES: Straight up a magic skeleton

USUAL HAIRSTYLE: No?

USUAL FACE LOOK: A bright smile

USUAL CLOTHING: So many sweaters. Too many sweaters. And baggy pants. And cerulean boots. Of course all topped off with his scarf, tied as a bandana.

PSYCHOLOGY.

FEAR(S): His brothers dying, Cake killing himself(again), Cake self harming(more), being abandoned, hurting others, using others, being alone, fire, being burned, the kitchen, ice picks, chisels, sledge hammers, lighters, people getting hurt because of him, people dying because of him-- *SLAPS ROOF OF SANS* THIS BAD BOI CAN FIT SO MANY FEARS and he hides them all so they never get any better, someone help him oh my god--

ASPIRATION(S) : He wants to help others however he can. He also would really like to be come a scientist, but he puts that aside for the former

POSITIVE TRAITS: Excitable, loving, affectionate, intelligent, optimistic, resourceful, adaptable, perseverance, determination, overwhelming kindness and forgiveness

NEGATIVE TRAITS: Depressed, fakes many emotions, fakes many situations, fakes his persona, shoves his own feelings aside constantly, takes all the blame, always takes the fall, forgives instantly, never blames anyone, too trusting, can be absent minded, easily distracted, never honest about his own feelings to other or to himself, won’t tell people when they’re hurting him, will do almost anything you tell him, he’s entirely too codependent, his entire life revolves around his brothers, if you take that away he doesn’t know who he is anymore, he’s content now but if he were to ever not be, that is a very, very steep slope with no coming back. Get this baby a therapist, someone.

ZODIAC: A hecking crab Cancer

TEMPERAMENT: He only gets upset when bad stuff happens to others or they talk bad about themselves. Otherwise you could literally stab him and-- WAIT people literally did torture him and he was not at all upset! Ahhh--

SOUL TYPE(S): Monster Soul?

ANIMALS: Probably some kind of dog. He’d be the goodest good boy.

VICE HABIT(S): He stress bakes and stress cleans. Don’t take that for innocence as he’s tried other things. A lot of other things. But he has 1 HP, hates the choking feel of smoke and can’t get drunk if his life depended on it. ...Perhaps it isn’t so innocent though, looking at all he does.

FAITH: Who needs gods when you’re a massive science nerd

GHOSTS?: Yes?

AFTERLIFE?: He believes there is none. A part of him hopes he is wrong.

REINCARNATION?: He’s a science nerd, he hasn’t put much thought into this stuff.

ALIENS?: He believes with the vastness of the universe, likely? He wants to meet one.

POLITICAL ALIGNMENT: Heavy shrugging? He only wishes the Queen were more open.

ECONOMIC PREFERENCE: None in particular

SOCIOPOLITICAL POSITION: He’s content where things are.

EDUCATION LEVEL: High school. He hopes to change this now that they actually have money--

FAMILY.

FATHER: Wingdings Gaster

MOTHER: D̵̀́͟͜r̶̶̶̛̕.̴̀ ̷̡̨̢P̶̧e̢̡̕n̷̷̨̧u̴̶m̡̛͘͠͠b̧͞͠r̴̷̨͞ą̧̛͘ ̸̨G̴̡͜͜͠a̵͜s̢̀͜t̢e͠҉̕͟r̷͏̢̢̀

SIBLINGS: Papyrus ‘Cake’ Gaster (younger), Papyrus ‘Rex’ (older)

EXTENDED FAMILY: Sakura Shalie (niece), Martin Magnus (nephew)

NAME MEANING(S): I dunno, ask their mom OH WAIT-- (imsorry)

HISTORICAL CONNECTION?: His mom was the royal scientist, while his dad killed the human who possessed the soul of integrity. Perhaps in certain timelines caused by a certain human, he may have been more historically important (winkwinknudgenudge)

FAVORITES.

BOOK: Pffff-- Textbooks, old scientific studies, non-fiction, history texts, books on space, really just picture anything nerdy. He loves it. Oh yeah, and sci-fi.

MOVIE: The first Star Wars film, he will fight

5 SONGS: Dollhouse, Sleeping Powder, More Than Words, Squid Melody [Blue Version], Cut My Hair

DEITY: Can I just put Phil Swift here? I’m doing it.

HOLIDAY: Christmas

MONTH: July. Birthday time!

SEASON: Indifferent. They all seem the same to him.

PLACE: Quiet places no one else can reach

WEATHER: Storms. Rain storms on the surface.

SOUND: Laughter

SCENT(S): Laundry, baking, cooking

TASTE(S): He loves tomatoes? In juice, sandwiches, food in general? Yeah.

FEEL(S): Warm, soft, physical contact with other living beings.

ANIMAL(S): He loves dogs? All dogs. So many dogs. He wants to pet them all. All dogs.

NUMBER: 9 now. XD

COLORS: He likes orange and blue. He says his favourite colours are his dad’s eyes. Which sounds adorable tbh--

EXTRA.

TALENTS: He’s a little smarty pants with a good memory. Helpful for science, helpful for reloads. He’s decent at cooking and is much, much to physically strong for his 1 HP?? He also has quite the great handle on his magic. Fighting him isn’t fun, at all. He’s only been fairly beaten once. He’s empathetic, great at reading people and a masterful deceiver. He could be a super villain with his manipulation abilities tbh, but he just hates the idea of using people.

BAD AT: He acts before he thinks. He switches from topic to topic and overpowers conversation. He’s quick to defend others and gets himself hurt like this more often than not, and mentally he’s an absolute wreck. He can be overbearing and clingy though, especially to those close to him. The more paranoid he becomes, the more annoying he seems in these ways.

HOBBIES: Reading, cooking, cleaning. He’s starting to get back into actual hobbies like reading with Rex around. He used to just not have them.

TROPES: He is about the best supporting ally and mom friend one can be. His best quality is being able to lift people up high. He however, cannot do this to himself.

AESTHETIC TAGS: #space , #baking

GPOY QUOTES: ((I don’t know what this is--))

FC INFO.

MAIN FC(S): No

ALT FC(S): Nope

OLDER FC(S): Nuh-uh

YOUNGER FC(S): Nadda

VOICE CLAIM(S): ((I have no idea?? The closest would be Cryaotic but I honestly have no idea the specifics))

GENDERBENT FC(S): Nah

MUN QUESTIONS.

Q1: if you could write your character your way in their own movie, what would it be called, what style would it be filmed in, and what would it be about?: If I were to write it??? It would turn into something psychological or horror related. Blue would fit wonderfully in a deconstruction of the human(or i guess skeleton??) mind. Hopefully it’d be about him seeming alright but being an absolute mess and managing to realize there is indeed a problem and work through his issues with friends, family and some professional help. That’d be lovely.

Q2: what would their soundtrack / score sound like?: He listens to anything catchy, though likes chiptune and electronica. He’d probably make his own soundtrack out of other video game soundtracks though, he’s a doofus.

Q3: why did you start writing this character?: I... Don’t know?? Huh. Guess I did a little bit about... Three years back? I didn’t do a whole lot with him, but that’s around when he met his niece and nephew. Hm.

Q4: what first attracted you to this character?: Papyrus is my favourite undertale character. Sans is my second favourite. Mash them together and what do you get? A cool science boy! A sad cool science boy that covers his pain with laughter and smiles. Someone help him.

Q5: describe the biggest thing you dislike about your muse: He won’t let anyone in, in any way that matters. He’s affectionate to everyone and it would be so easy to use and abuse him. He so strong in some areas and so weak in others. His whole life is his brothers and I’m often lost as to what I should make him do as he doesn’t keep hobbies really due to being busy. He never sleeps, works himself to exhaustion and picks everyone up despite being hurt himself. He thinks he knows what he is but he’s wrong. He thinks he’s fine but he’s not. He denies these problems in himself so hard that even he’s deceived by his act. It’s frustrating in a way even if it is interesting? As a writer I want to break him apart and crush him but as a person I want someone, anyone to finally see through this and HELP him. But no matter the hints I give or things I mention, no one has tried. I suppose he just hides it too well. Ahh...

Q6: what do you have in common with your muse?: Super depressed! Uh-- Ha, put up a mask. Hide pain with jokes. Try to see the silver lining in situations. Loooove space. And science. Psychology’s a huge yes.

Q8: what characters does your muse have interesting interactions with?: Citrus is always neat. Rex and him also have an extremely interesting dynamic. Fluff and him are adorable and fun, and I want so much more of them. Sakura’s is hilarious because she’s literally a god in her multiverse and she’s just accepted him as being able to break all laws of space and time

Q9: what gives you inspiration to write your muse?: The interactions and dynamics he creates with other characters as well as the unique story and plot aspects that can be created!

Q10: how long did this take you to complete?: At least two hours. Maybe longer. Oh jeez--

#meme #blueberry #ooc #maybe #too long #so long #ahhhh #tag #kill me

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voltaicfox · 6 years

Text

We Have An Eternity- Part Four

(WARNING: This is a Dream/Ink ship based story. If you do not like that, or ships in general, I advise you to look away, and find something else to read!)

Chapter One

Chapter Two Chapter Three

(If you haven’t been made aware; you can now also read this story on A03!)

Setting: Decades after the fallout between Ink and Dream Rating: Pg-13 Warnings This Chapter: N/A Pairings: Dream/Ink, Night/Cross (Sans) POV: 2nd Person Dream Characters Used This Chapter: Dream (by @jokublog), Ink (by @comyet), and Underswap Sans (belongs to the community)

Part Four: For Him

By the time you've finished explaining your poor state, Blue already has you wrapped in blankets and has served you tacos. His fussing had been a bit overwhelming, but you appreciate your friend very much for the care he has shown. Once he has deemed you well cared for, he sits next to you, being sure to give you space, but stay close all the same. You wonder what you would do without him, and aren't able to even imagine the answer.

Blue ponders what you've told him a moment, letting out a thoughtful hum. He eventually turns back to you with an eyebrow raised and frowns. "That seems very unlike you, Dream," he comments, crossing his arms. "If you knew you needed further investigation, why did you just stay there and allow yourself to get drained? That was irresponsible and dangerous!"

As he says that, you duck your head in embarrassment. He was right, that was very counterproductive. Noticing your body language, he eases up a bit sympathetically. His voice softens, and he relaxes his posture a bit. "Maybe I'm not understanding," he continues. "Please tell me what else happened, my friend. Why did you behave so abnormally?"

You tense up, unsure of whether to tell Blue how you had been feeling. He didn't know about the fight you had yesterday, and furthermore the hardest thing to admit is that it had a lasting affect on you. Blue would care, you're sure of that, but would he really want to know? When the team initially split, Blue had tried to keep things together, but in the end sided with Dream. How would he feel knowing you almost regret the decision you had made? It didn't seem like a pleasant conversation. Then again, this is your closest friend, and there is no way he would be angry at you for feeling any particular way.

While you have your mental debate, Blue leans back and continues to stare at you, letting out a nervous sigh. "Dream, if you don't tell someone what's going on, you're going to break," Blue utters with a soft tone, "In fact, it seems you almost already have."

Your eyes go wide, and you look up at him in surprise. "I-" you start, stuttering heavily. "I haven't broken! I-I'm not- Blue- it's n-nothing-"

He cuts you off with an unamused look. His mouth stretches into a frown, and he cocks his head slightly. "You aren't fooling me," he huffs, almost annoyed. "Normally, I would say it's up to you. I do value privacy. However, you're clearly not able to bottle it up any longer. Do you even notice how tired you look right now? You look like a wreck! I'm afraid I won't be allowing you to leave until you let me help you."

For a moment, you open your mouth to protest, but you shut it before anything comes out. If you are honest with yourself, you would benefit from confiding in your friend. You only wish that you didn't have to burden him with it. Despite that, you can tell he's firm in what he says, so you open up, figuring it's truly the only way. As you prepare to speak, your face heats up in utter shame.

"Well," you start, your voice uneven and shaking, "I encountered Ink yesterday." Seeing Blue's shocked expression, you stop for a few moments before continuing. "We had accidentally met up in an AU, and when things had gotten out of control, we had to work together. After that, he tried to talk to me, and he had just- forgotten why we had even fought in the first place!" You struggle to continue as you tear up in anger, clenching your fists. "He had just FORGOTTEN the kid he let die!"

Blue nods understandingly, and sighs, "Dream, you know Ink has memory issues. That's not entirely his fault."

"It seems awfully selective! He remembers us, right? Why not the kid!?" Blue stays silent, unsure of how to respond, so you decide to continue. "I blew up a bit, and I will admit fault for that, but when I was done, he tried to justify himself! I told him to leave. It was the right thing to do... but then I... felt regret? I felt... I felt as if I wish it had gone differently. That thought just... WON'T go away! I keep thinking about the conversation... I keep... FEELING something I don't understand... and I just can't focus!"

The small blue skeleton nods thoughtfully, glancing up at you. "You don't want to fight anymore. I get it."

Shocked, you rapidly shake your head. "I don't want to make amends! That would be awful! He's a murderer, Blue!"

"Are you sure?" he sighs, closing his eyes. "Listen, I'll take your word for it, but I really wouldn't rule it out. No one likes conflict, and especially not with someone they used to consider their closest friend. You wouldn't be at fault for wishing to mend the divide at least a little-"

He's cut off as you shout a retort. "I don't want to! That would be awful of me, awful and irresponsible! I can't be selfish- I'm- I'm not selfish Blue! I'm not going to be selfish!" Your cheeks burn with shame as you realize your outburst, and you sheepishly avoid Blue's gaze. Both of you sit there in an uncomfortable silence as you fiddle with the ends of your cape, regretting everything you said. Blue is the first to break the silence.

"Even if you were doing this to make yourself feel better, at the end of the day, isn't that still helping everyone?" He puts a hand on your shoulder comfortingly, and continues with a soft voice. "You need to feel well to help others. Having closure will allow you to perform your duties better. Besides, don't you always say that everyone deserves forgiveness? Why not Ink as well? Maybe if we show him kindness, we can avoid another tragedy."

As Blue's words sink in, you begin to feel a sense of calm. He does have a point. You had always tried to use forgiveness and kindness as a means to turn things around for the better. Why had that changed? Ink wasn't any different, albiet a bit difficult. Although what he had done had been a bit more personal, it didn't mean he should be treated differently. Besides, he HAD been your friend, and had helped you in hard times. Maybe Blue was right. Maybe you could try to work this out.

"Alright," you sigh after a moment, "I still may need a little while to cool down, but I will talk to him. You... you do have a point, Blue." The familiar sight of Blue's eyes lighting up greets you, and you can't help but smile a little. It really was a cheering sight to see Blue happy. Very suddenly, he hugs you, knocking you slightly off balance.

"Thank you!" he chirps happily, making you laugh nervously.

"What for? You seem oddly excited," you reply quietly.

"Well... if I'm being honest," he looks away, "I never really stopped feeling sad about the whole fallout. Sure, Ink had done awful things but... he was our friend... it hurt seeing things happen the way they did..." You stop and stare at Blue a moment. He had never gotten over it? Even after all this time? Well... then it was definitely time to fix it. Choking up, you pat Blue. "Blue, for the sake of both of us," you sigh, "I swear I will talk to Ink the next time I see him." He nods, continuing to hug you. "I know you will. I believe in you both." Without warning, you feel a slight dampness, only to look down and realize Blue is crying. It's clear this means so much to him. Since it is the case, you could not afford to let him down. Tightening your hug, you smile and allow yourself to tear up as well.

Both of you stay clung to each other like that for many minutes, until your arms grow tired. Finally, you pull away. "Alright Blue, I am very sorry to have bothered you, but I feel much better." You give him a smile and he gives one back. "Everything is going to be okay... and it's thanks to you."

A mischievous smirk stretches across his face. "Well of course it is! I am the Magnificent Sans, after all!"

Giving him a pat on the head, you nod happily. "Yeah, that's how I know to come to you," you look away, "Though I'll have to be going. I need to try and figure out how to fix this catastrophe going on across the multiverse."

Your friend nods understandingly, finally coming out of the hug himself. He puts his hands on his hips and gives you a confident look. "Alright, you had better do well," he winks, "because I know for a fact that you can." With a thumbs up, he sits back down on the couch. "I'm rooting for you!"

"Thank you," you say gratefully, "I'll be sure to visit." With that, you create a portal back to Haventale and hop through.

Alright, you have a mission. You are to figure out what Nightmare is up to, and stop it before it gets out of hand. With the issue involving Ink figured out, it should be a cinch. You would be able to focus. Walking back to your normal sleeping spot, your thoughts wander to possibilities and solutions. Your steps are brisk as you calculate in your mind the best course of action. The deep thought distracts you so much that you run into something, since you were unaware of your surroundings.

"Ouch!" cries out a voice as you both fall over. Recovering, you look up to have your eyes once again meet with Ink's.

#we have an eternity #WHAE #Undertale #Fanfiction #Ink #Dream #Blue #Inktale #Dreamtale #Underswap #Drink #Dream x Ink #Chapter Four #Nooow we're getting somewhere #Maybe #Pfft I'll let you guys guess

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