#a. mercer: thread

[shorthaltsjester]

god i cannot express how impressed in general i am with the storytelling that cr is doing with candela obscura but what really strikes me is how evident it is that the storytelling they do is defined by the hearts of those who are putting it together rather than adhering to a specific idea or image of a given story that they want to uphold. there is such a stark difference between the tones of chapter one and chapter two (to the fault of neither, i’ve enjoyed them both immensely because they both happen to hit parts of the supernatural-horror genre that I am so deeply fond of and so happy to see in a real play medium).

there’s the obvious difference in gming styles, matt has fantasy running through his veins and that’s evident in the way that chapter one ends up having a tone akin to something like the scarier episodes of buffy the vampire slayer. spenser outright references mike flanagan in his pre-interview thing and good grief is that so so evident in his narration and the way he emphasizes the themes emerging in the story in the environment of the world they journey through and choices like the letter from sean’s mother that subvert the audiences ability to rely on a character’s perception.

but the energy the groups of players bring to the storytelling is obviously also so important, too. like, even just looking at the groups prior to watching each I probably could’ve guessed which might’ve had a more lighthearted tone. the combination of ashley, anjali, and robbie already would be one i’d guess a more warm/goofy vibe for (not to say they can’t be serious and dramatic, but the tone of the seriousness is still warm and the world that prompts them towards drama likewise feels warm) and laura, despite her propensity for goofs, does tend to be a chameleon with group make ups. likewise i think we all had a certain (affectionate) fear™ when it was revealed that marisha, brennan, luis, and travis would be reuniting in another short form story and that has certainly held up and been incredibly bolstered by zehra’s absolute commitment and immersion into the story (constantly fucking blown away that this is her first real play she’s incredible).

this is all just to say as someone deeply interested in digital storytelling, i am so so enamoured by cr’s commitment to following their own desires as humans telling stories to one another while adhering to the requirements they have as a company. and also if you haven’t you should watch candela obscura, especially now that spooky season is here.

[goblin-king-jay]

I really like this challenge because normal battle would have to be pretty epic for level 20 characters so Matt circumvented it by having them deal with an airship crashing instead

[mishapen-moth]

hmm. colindeli

[iiitsnotbase]

chat HYPERTHETICALLY if i wrote a Candela Obscura stage show and it was HYPERTHETICALLY done would that be something we're HYPERTHETICALLY interested in? (Sarcasm. It's done. It follows all four major circles. (T&B, V&V, CM, N&T)).

[limayde]

41. Dimension 20: The Ravening War

This was a great take on Calorum, Matt does one hell of a job keeping everything in order and managing to surprise the guy who made the damn thing. And then Brennan being in the player role was a lot of fun, I can't believe that stupid fuckin' radish is one of my favorite characters from this year- This, to me, had the same kind of energy as like Torna, with the story being much darker and knowing the fate of some of these characters, while also throwing in a bunch of surprises.

[herenvibing]

cr3 is gonna end and the pc’s still feel like the same people to me :|

(crcritical content in the tags feel free to skip)

[romythorne]

WHO: @coltmercer WHERE: colt's place.

The door slammed open with the full drama of a low-budget horror film and Romy staggered in like someone who’d just been personally insulted by the weather. Which, to be fair, she had. Her hair was plastered to her forehead in wind-whipped streaks, her hoodie had achieved new levels of damp despair, and one of her shoes squelched with every step like it was trying to cry for help.

“I swear to God, if one more goat looks at me like I owe it child support, I’m walking into the storm and letting Jesus take the wheel,” she declared, dripping onto the kitchen tile like a drowned rat with strong opinions. She held her arms out to the sides like a soggy scarecrow. “I am wet in places I did not know could get wet, Colt. Your cows are passive-aggressive, and a horse just tried to knock me over because I apparently walked too close to her bucket. Which, same, but still.”

She glanced toward him, then narrowed her eyes, the kind of look that said someone was about to be held emotionally accountable. “Also, you said it’d just be a bit of help, not that I’d be reenacting Noah’s Ark without the dignity of a boat or divine purpose. I am soaked, undercaffeinated, and I just found Lennon —your demon chicken— in the haystack like some kind of satanic Easter egg. Put him back in the coop and he pecked me. Twice. Once on purpose, once out of spite. We don’t have time to unpack that.”

She paused, realizing her hoodie was slowly turning darker by the second from the water, and gave a theatrical sigh. “I think I qualify for storm-related emotional damages.”

Then Romy looked at him properly, water dripping off the end of her nose like a dramatic ellipsis. “If you don’t feed me and point me toward a towel, I’m filing a formal complaint with the Department of What the hell, Colt,” she said, but her voice had softened at the edges, the corners of her mouth tugging up into a small, tired smile. “Kidding. Mostly.”

She stepped a little closer, boots squelching with every move, and asked, more gently this time, “Is there any other little ones we need to check on? For real.”

[fartemis-crock]

@playedbetter from x

She just stares at him. For about 30 solid seconds, Artemis completely froze to stare at him. A look of pure annoyance crossing her features, as blood continues to drip down her features.

"First guess, good job bud--" The sarcasm in her tone is palpable. "--How'd'ya know?"

[byicarus]

— ₊ ° . ☆ 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒊𝒏 was practically gabriel's second home. he'd never expected to love his job so much, but he guessed it made sense when his oh so cute boyfriend spent as much time in there as he did. it always brightened his day to see rory with his nose buried in a book in the corner of the quaint little bakery. he'd been there all day, silently giving gabriel the motivation to get through the day. rude customers and huge orders were 𝒏𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉 for the joy that his tiny little boyfriend brought him. — ₊ ° . ☆ 𝒈𝒂𝒃𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒍 𝒔𝒂𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 to rory's table as the night came to an end. the two boys were the only people still left in the store. gabriel had stacked up all the chairs on their tables, wiped down all the counters, and made sure that the freezer was locked shut. his only task left was to pry rory from his computer screen. he'd spent all day studying — and, of course, he always wanted the 𝒃𝒆𝒔𝒕 for rory... but he always wanted to make sure rory was taking proper care of himself, too. gabriel had to remind him to take breaks to eat a little snack and drink water. the raven-haired boy's hand came to shut rory's laptop with a gentle smile on his face. "hi, honey bee," gabriel chirped. "no more studying — i'm putting an 𝒆𝒏𝒅 to it. 's time to spend time with me," he singsonged playfully. before rory could protest, he was swooping up all of rory's things and tucking them away in his bag. gabriel slung his bag over his shoulder, and soon enough he was lifting his tiny boyfriend up in his arms bridal style. "y'can't work yourself too hard, y'know?" he said with a little pout. he pecked rory's cheek quickly. "besides, 'm sure shakespeare and emily dickinson don't have 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 on what i've got planned for ya when i getcha home!" / @kitbogart

[mctionsick]

closed starter for @persephonyed

made with BETA

With the rest of the bridal party spread across the vacation house, that left Callie and Macy in their shared suite, and Macy feeling a certain boldness she hadn't felt since her college years. Pulling the sheet up around her naked frame, her mind was going a mile a minute. Namely the fact she had never felt a fraction of the passion she felt for her fiance that she did when she was around Callie. Back then she ignored the excitement the other woman stirred in her, too afraid to throw away a the relationship she fostered with her high school sweetheart. Nearly a decade had gone by and Macy wondered when she was going to stop ignoring the pull she always had towards the other.

"I guess this is the part where I'm supposed to say, 'this can never happen again,'" Macy says trying to ease the tension and not knowing what else to say.

[mournfulminds]

𝐖𝐇𝐎: Maeve / 「 @cigvrettedvet 」

𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍: Summer / 2024

𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄: Highland Hospital

Mercer first contemplated the beams of fluorescents when she came to, squinting under the harsh light as the scent of antiseptic chemicals wafted past her signalling that she was in fact in the emergency room, strewn out across a bed with a thin curtain concealing her privacy ─ lovely. The last thing she could recall was a fly fishing expedition in the Chesapeake Bay (more of a business trip), and then her mother picking her up from the train station, despite her protests, so they could "talk about something".

Adjusting her cardigan and then combing her fingers through her hair, her mother's voice came into earshot, over the PA system, informing the doctor of her concerns that her daughter has whiplash and then excusing herself to find a "decent" cup of coffee in the cafeteria. Her plan of exit was to check herself out and send a text later, but to do that, she'd have to get a doctor or nurse to sign off on that. An unsteady trail led her to the doorway only to be met with someone coming to check on her ─ perfect timing, Mercer stumbling out of the way, perhaps a bit more hazy than she led on. Just her luck too, as it's none other than a being from her past; her married life, still like a fresh wound as she ushers a smile to the front. "Aren't you a sight for sore eyes, Maeve Chapman," Using the other woman to steady her stance, Mercer regards her, unfazed, as if they're old friends and perhaps they are, "I was just wondering how I was gonna bribe the nurse to let me out of here."

[goblin-king-jay]

IT'S THE CROWN KEEPERS I'M SCREAMING AND KICKING MY FEET WITH DELIGHT IT'S THE CROWN KEEPERS OH MY FUCKING GOD IT'S HAPPENING ASKSJDMNGHFJDKFJKL

[phoenixcatch7]

Totk end game/post credit spoilers

Me during the final blow and final cutscenes:

^ Link finally getting to beat up the guy that (caused the last century of problems, nearly killed hyrule, wiped out his friends and family, poisoned his friends homes,) took zelda.

^ me. The final dungeon (?) and battle was so so so good and I got to plunge my sword into ganons human body which I will admit I have missed. He tried to flurry rush me!! Failed but still. Rude. I styled on his soon-to-be corpse to show how it was done.

^ girls when the credits roll

^ girls when the credits finish and they see their favourite sage dying after showing her successors her favourite view and passing on the torch to the next generation ten thousand years late but assured a bright future free of suffering, oblivious to the curse of demise trapping hyrule in an eternal loop and link having to stand there and know better and then it cuts to the collapsed construct outside the temple.

^ girls internally when the door knocks and they've got to act normal about it for two minutes.

Notes about the fights:

The gloom shroud/Phantom ganon waiting outside was a pussy as always. Dropped his bow which I appreciated. The white moblin on the other side got shoved off onto his remains. Good build up to the main event.

The demon army was straight out of skyward sword, less satisfying given the lack of physical progress and implied time limit but it was still a fun treat. Didn't get to use any of my fun things though, and the sages made up for their lack of tactical usefulness and REFUSING TO LET ME USE THEIR ABILITIES and BLOCKING MY VIEW and INTERRUPTING MY ATTACKS by their sheer damage output, they deal with several monsters while I was busy. Then they immediately got pulled away by the temple bosses, which kind of dampened the mood. Bye, I guess.

Ganon was literally sitting in a malice hot tub. Straight up marinating in that hot tub like he was a washed up celebrity taking a fake candid photo at a blow out party he hosted at his oversized Beverly hills mansion months before he had to sell it.

Getting to fight rehydrated ganon was so cool! I will admit the way he built up the fight did something for me, the animators did a phenomenal job giving him a weight and power. I wanted to smash his smug face in so bad.

He was strong! Every hit from him knocked link over! But with his shield up it didn't do any damage, so I drew first blood! I always find that very important when fighting bosses XD. I actually had the biggest trouble with his sword, that thing was almost hilariously small on him and blended into the... Everything around link. When he switched to his club it went from worryingly hard to hilariously easy, I flurried literally every attack and didn't get a scratch! I was wary when he got his spear out but I'd gotten into a rhythm and took him out!

The demon king transformation was incredible! When that health bar just kept going I was so excited XD!! It's a fantastic trope/gimmick, love it every time! And the sages came back! And were somehow EVEN MORE HINDERING. He duplicated and everyone split up to fight one, which meant they were running all over the place. Unlike their vows these guys are fully opaque, and when three out of five are many times bigger than link it blocked out a significant portion of the battlefield, when I needed maximum vision to see and dodge the many shadowy ganons flitting in and out of view. I had a plan, I should have been able to pull it off beautifully - yunobo was closest so ram him into the nearest ganon to create distance to reach sidon and water blast through the forming line of ganons, climb mineru for a bullet time and fill everything with explosives.

What did not happen was all of that. I ended up taking the most damage by far in that portion of the fight. Instead of being a cool fight, a useful set of abilities or even an annoying but ignorable gimmick, the sages were active hindrances that blocked me at every turn, side rammed me with attacks aimed at the enemy, hid attacks aimed at me, and escaped my every attempt to reach them like their au was trained for that instead. The only success was reaching mineru to bullet time back flip from her, and by that point I was frustrated enough to use a significant portion of my ancient arrows. If I'd been using the vows I would have deactivated them barely a minute in and taken my chances with the phantoms! It was ridiculous! It was a relief when they got blasted away and it shouldn't have been!

But OH that TRANSFORMATION. I'd heard rumours of the dragon ganon, my own lack of blocking the totk spoiler tag being entirely my own fault, but it was still a shock to see him do what zelda had done, this time laughing manically, gladly willing to throw away even his mind and soul in pursuit of an ever foggy idea of power. (I can only assume he'd never actually seen a dragon before, and had only heard the myths surrounding then, because those guys are NOT designed for combat lol.) The fact that he went laughing as zelda went in pain and tears really cemented how far both were willing to go but how differently they saw it.

That evil dragon aesthetic was IMPECCABLE. 10/10 off the charts. The horns!! The eyes! The explosion! Forcing his way up through the castle with link trapped helplessly in a tooth! The giant claw emerging! The messed up dragon theme!!

And then ZELDA, my beautiful darling!!! I love her so much, even blind and empty, even gone and sleeping her dragon knew what to do against the thing she had been turned into to fight against. Oh she was BEAUTIFUL and so gentle with link, catching him on her fluffy head, she was so small in comparison! And link was absolutely tiny!!! Tiny boy!! She might not have known what to do herself, but she was pressed as close as she could get the whole time, darting about like a minnow in a pond compared to ganons barracuda thrashing. The sunset in the sky just made the whole thing look phenomenal.

The use of like like - esque stones instead of the calamitys eyes was inspired! The eyes would have been too much the same, and the introduction of likes trained us instinctively to hit the rock orb things as weak points. Unfortunately being that high up in the air and being so small comparatively meant judging distance was very hard, I wasted a lot of ancient and bomb arrows trying to hit them. It was only until the stone opened up (sir... Why did you put that BACK on your head?! Hide it in your body like the rest of the sane dragons!) that I realised you could land on him. In my defence he looked entirely comprised of gloom, which has spent the past month sucking my life out on contact so...

I was SO lucky to have my hero outfit on, ie the dyed travellers tunic and cap of the wild, it made every cutscene so cinematic! Sure felt like a zelda game! I took so many screenshots XD.

The final cutscenes though... I've been so worried about getting zelda back to human since I got the master sword glyph in eldin. I've been so, so determined to get her back. I would have done so side quests to do so - since she was a separate quest to defeating ganon I thought impa would give me the instructions! I was fully prepared to have to put in another ten hours or so and then fight ganon again to get the true ending!

And then Sonia and Rauru showed up again like 'that's our DAUGHTER' and gave link the power to rewind time over ten THOUSAND YEARS and turn her dragon soul back to a human ToT. And then they took links arm!! I was so mad! Give him his arm back?! Where did the flesh one even come from it got turned into a blackened lump on a pg screen! They can't even show blood! That arm was fully gone! You said yourself it was beyond - ohhhh they reversed time on his arm too. What is with Rauru and non consensual arm replacement?? I was a part zonai hybrid! The last piece of an extinct species! I could levitate and reverse time! Give me!! my arm back!!!

But Sonia finally got to meet link like she'd wanted and they got their closure after millenia and they said goodbye ToT.

And then link CAUGHT zelda. They landed in the pond he had all that time ago at the beginning, and he swam them to shore, and zelda woke UP and came HOME and SURVIVED after she'd lost all hope for herself and she got to come HOME 😭 (see pictures above for reference). And they SHOULD HAVE HUGGED NINTENDO, THEY SHOULD HAVE HUGGED.

I was crying so hard I literally couldn't see the screen ToT. I had to keep blinking and sniffling and I just SOBBED when the credits rolled. Wailing into the tissues. And then mineru and the sages! Dangit, not my favourite sage! Dangit, let me keep ONE zonai thing?? Thankfully I didn't burst into tears again but it got CLOSE.

All in all? 10/10 incredible showstopping unbelievable never been done before perfect amazing. Everything down to the camera angles were perfection made physical (or virtual). Just NEVER make me have to fight with the sages again.

[oculiaperticlausi]

closed — @stigmvtas

"Where did you get this?" Hazal hums, placing the fork between her lips. "Jesus Christ," she pulls the fork from her mouth, gliding her tongue across her lower lip. "That's so fucking good, Ducky. I think it's the first time I could ever say food was better than sex."

[teetheds]

—   tags.

[damon25]

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