#also don't worry about posting about bloodborne!

[katyspersonal]

hey sorry to barge in in the middle of you ringing the elden, but we discussed it before and i had to share -- recently i learned that the "firing hammer" badge is wholly unrelated to the boom hammer and AKTCHUALLY refers to the piece at the back of guns that strikes and ignites the shot when the trigger is pulled, and the badge is very much shaped like one. there was never an irony with the boom hammer being made by the Kegs rather than Oto's, we just didn't know the ways of Gun

Honestly, this is a very good catch! I decided to double-check Japanese text as well, since I had no intention, and... yeah, it WAS a correct name through and through all along!

And, honestly, I'd have no idea that 'firing hammer' is a LITERAL name of a PART of a gun, rather than like... well, a hammer (tool) that also burns (firing). It was 'firing' as in shooting a gun, not 'firing' as element of the fire! English is not my native language, so this idea completely flew past me as like... I literally did not KNOW the term 'firing hammer'! But maybe for native English speakers it also was not so obvious, because... well, you have to know gun terminology AND recognise an element of the gun from like two centuries ago!

Sighhh... Yeah, I already imagined that original Oto Workshop guy wanted to create a literal hammer that burns, and Djura simply made it in his honor like the sentimental dog that he is! xD A headcanon based on a mistake/misinterpretation/lacking information! Reminds me of the time I figured not only Rom was never confirmed a Byrgenwerth scholar in canon, but also might have not even existed; her name ロマ (Roma) is also a word for Romani, so maybe it were folks blessed by Kos! Would not that explain why she is a reoccurring boss in Chalice Dungeons? Granted, that idea falls as Miyazaki referred to Rom as 'her', implying she is a unique person, but you see the logic!

I both dread the fact that you might find a perfect explanation for a piece of Soulsborne lore only to find out it was a translation error, a reused asset, a reference to Berserk or a myth, or just your own lack of information.. and love it too, I guess? We can never be 100% sure we figured something out about the lore, yET WE STILL SEEK IT INSATIABLY and whatnot fdshfhd

[bagelsforall]

also I've been starting Bloodborne lately so I will be posting about that too

Plus a bonus Gehrman doodle I made of him in a gaming chair (I had no context except tiny slivers of information given by my friends so I haven't been spoiled anything don't worry!!)

[witchofthesouls]

Ayoooooo, Primeval Anon here, to respond to your response (don't worry too much about how long you took to answer, it was worth the wait)!

Omfg, you had me hooked in when you mentioned Bloodborne-influenced lore. I love the hell out of Bloodborne, and just in general From Software's Dark Fantasy settings. And I love that premise. It definitely fits in with the Quintessons clearly aquatically-influenced nature.

I also enjoy the idea of the Primes balancing each other out with their different natures. As well as the idea that the Quintessons kinda... cannibalized him... fucking gnarly lol.

Just imagine, post-occupation, there's these series skirmishes, perhaps even smaller-scale wars, between the og Prime worshipping groups and the the emerging sects of Quintesson-influenced cultists. Something like

Priest from Kaon: For it is said that in his wisdom, Megatronus- Priest from [SETTLEMENT NAME REDACTED]: You mean Mortilus? Priest from Kaon: :| *The settlement of [NAME REDACTED] was procedurally, systematically decimated in their war with the Kaonites*

Now, I don't know about other continuities they've featured in, like Aligned, but in G1 they definitely had some sort of caste system. Only ranking I can immediately think of are the "Judges", which would be the ones people generally think of when it comes to the Quintessons, there were a few other variants if I'm remembering it right. There was a video that I saw that talked about this, I'll have to go and re-watch it.

Anyways yeah, maybe the castes are made up of different sub-species within the Quintessons genus? And then under them come the Sharkticons and Allicons (Those weird croc-like dudes who nab Kup and Hotrod after they end up on Quintessa). Maybe they were at one point Cybertronian Wilders who were abducted by the Quintessons during the occupation and, through a mix of selective breeding and genetic modification, were able to turn them in their own obedient, self-replenishing army, that whenever the Quintessons aren't enacting some campaign of destruction or conquest, just kinda vibe in the oceans of Quintessa alongside the local fauna of the planet.

Y'know... now that I think about it, since the Quintessons would clearly inherit Quintus' unhinged daydreamer work ethic, do you think they'd also fuck with the wildlife of their homeworld, perhaps even the planet itself??? Gods, I hate how the Quintessons are so underdeveloped because they exist in the same universe as the Transformers.

Yeah, I'm really disappointed how the Quintessons as a whole are really underutilized as characters and background lore.

I mean, the shit is right there!

Me, if given the chance to sit down with a new Transformers team to talk about leveraging the connection between Cybertron, Earth, and Quintessa with supernatural elements:

Personally, I'm more of the "Quintessons fucked with their own planet" camp. Don't get me wrong, the Quintessons had established a massive empire to command resources, including bodies, but the Allicons and Sharkticons seem to be directly from Quintessa. Both fit the aquatic theme going on. Plus, sharks are natural predators of cephalopods and attack injured or sick whales (another predator of squids). While alligators don't usually eat cephalopods, they are an apex predator that does go on land and will eat just about anything. Soooo, easy clean up as well as population control on campaign?

I totally believe it's within character for the highest castes of Quintessons to be cyborgs/techno-organic instead of full mechanoid because of certain kinds of resistances and the way they control their fully mechanical populations. And they would totally be in genetic modification, selective breeding, and terraforming as a whole because 1) absolute control, 2) meshes Quintus' own special interests with the Quintessons' military and economic might, and 3) sustainability, what's that!?

The last point is the kicker because it's what really cements their own origins via Quintus Prime. That particular Prime truly believed that life should flourish at all costs. The problem? Environments can only support so much before nature sets up its own checks and balances, or the entire thing ends up collapsing.

Well, Quintus bypassed nature's complex and fragile systems and would have shown his organic creations how to overcome their own limitations: biological, physical, and environmental. He's like the guy that would successfully crossbreed potato and kudzu because the resulting crop would feed millions upon millions... at the astronomical cost of arable land, soil health, decline of biodiversity, and property management due to accumulated damages.

Quintus doesn't worry about that because it's part of the process! He's collecting data for future reference and starts working on fertilizers to support the crossbreeds immense nutritional demands, animal husbandry so herbivores can chomp down on the remains, and construction materials/architectural designs resistant to plant growth damage.

Quintus, you crazy scientist of a dreamer, that's not the fucking point!

So yeah, because Quintus didn't have his siblings to kick his ass about sustainable measures (because everything from medicinal to food to construction had to come some somewhere), Quintessa got overharvested or destroyed. Because of the immense deprivation, Quintessons went colonial on their planetary neighbors. Because they succeeded with their neighbors and never thought to change their way of life because of yummy resources, they went on campaign into distant systems where they cut their teeth against mechanical species and subjugated them.

And because the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie pattern would take way too long to get to my point: the Quintessons literally built their way to conquered Cybertron, fuck that planet and its indigenous people and fauna over in the spectacular fashion they did to Quintessa, got kicked off as their empire almost collapsed, but literally had a direct hand to the civil war between Autobots and Decepticons that lead to the final stand off on Earth.

(Funny enough, the civil war was on a scale so massive that it encompassed galaxies and disrupted the current rendition of the Quintesson Pan Galactic Co-Prosperity Sphere. They literally built the greatest threats to their own empires. Who would have thought?!)

Religious tensions after the Quintessons been kicked off would have been an interesting direction to explore. Even life during the occupation as the Thirteen would have been symbols of rebellion versus the Quintessons' rabid methods to obfuscate their own origins as well as tactics to break the cultural roots and ties of new subjugated planets.

Because old names become illegal, new epitaphs or names are given to undermine the regime and eventually become the new cultural practice. Then, there's the cultural blend between the natives and the colonial powers as well as the generations purposely raised in a certain cultural mindset. Since the Quintessons took control of the Well, it's a safe bet that they also took control of the institutional pillars of the society: religion, science, and law.

Primes are still titanic figures on post-occupation Cybertron, so perhaps Quintessons had only limited success in destroying mythic tales and religious traditions. Because the newer generations took on the Quintessons' distaste towards beasts and untouched nature as well as kept Quintessons' way of social hierarchy that they knew.

Quintessons emphasized function as Cybertronians (and other mechanoids) are machines compared to them. All machines have certain functions, no? Some machines are meant for certain roles, no? Machines are only capable as much as programmed, but Quintessons are far more advanced because they overcame their limitations with their own creative endeavors!

Quintessons basically treated Cybertronians as living appliances, gadgets, and animals. To them, a Cybertronian was a more fun and dynamic Siri or Alexa than a real person. Sure, a Quint could bond and form an emotional attachment, but it's still not truly 'alive.' And they codified that into their own laws.

Basically, Quintessons would have been okay with Prima and his Guiding Hand. They would have propped up his specific actions on how civilization should be (cement more tensions between city-states and Wilder tribes and unregulated environmental policies), switch up or change key mythology (Prima and Megatronus being split-spark twins that rule together into Prima being the sole Sun and Megatronus becoming a late brother that became the Great Evil that became jealous of the Sun and destroyed Life.), and straight up destroyed or damaged historic and culturally significant items and practices that deem it otherwise (the Well of Allsparks; removing the golden horns of fully-trained doctors that pay tribute to Liege Maximo's ties to medicine; the removal of various sigils of specific Primes and associated groupings, Onyx's Mask removed from stages as it functioned as Comedy and Tragedy masks).

[dizzyhslightlyvoided]

OK so I don't have a Playstation and soulsbornes aren't my scene, but here's my understanding of Bloodborne's lore based on a half-remembered post from years ago about how it was a deconstruction of Shadow Over Innsmouth, that one post by @cryptotheism about "how your Smash Bros main would do in Bloodborne", and a video I saw years ago comparing how Lady Maria stabs you depending on your character's gender which framed it as doing it in a more gay manner if you're playing as a woman:

The city of Yharnam is an off-brand Innsmouth. (Or, well, "Innsmouth, except someone owns the copyright", so I guess it's more of an on-brand Innsmouth.) There is a blood-borne "Old Blood" or something, which has the threat of turning you into a monster. Possibly you need to have Old Blood in you in order to be able to fight monsters at all?

If you're too evil or bloodthirsty, or just Learn Too Much Eldritch Knowledge, you'll turn into a monster and/or go mad and/or become a target of the bad guys. Animals just automatically turn into dark beasts.

If you want to fight the monsters, you need to be willing and able to kill former friends and family who got turned into monsters, even if they are still recognizable as such, without hesitation. Also you need to work alone, because allies will die a lot.

There are xenophobic NPCs who are worried about blood-purity but in like the eldritch sense. This concern is only making things worse.

Great Ones: your regulation cosmic-horror eldritch-monstrosity gods of chaos.

The Moon Presence: a particular Great One, and probably the final boss, given references in Samus and Kirby's entries in the Smash Bros post. Defeating the Moon Presence will end the "dream" and will, if not fix everything in Yharnam, then at least it will make things somewhat better.

Mensis: a smaller Great One, but still a major boss. There's a Brain of Mensis; I think I found this in a search for "Mother Brain" years ago.

Kos: Zelda's entry namedrops "... Mensis, or even worse, the adherents of Kos herself". So, probably either a cult-leader or a Great One with a cult, who is worse than Mensis in some manner.

Queen Yharnam: I have no idea who she is except that she's in charge of the Great Ones, maybe? Or maybe instead she's someone they want to control? Rosalina's entry said "Essentially on par with Queen Yharnam. Great Ones would be tripping over themselves for her" which means they either want to kidnap her or bow down to her, it's not clear which.

Hunter: probably someone who fights monsters, I think? The Smash Bros post didn't make that entirely clear, but it keeps referencing "the Hunt". Also the different versions of Link's entry quote "Hunters do not normally employ shields, ineffectual against the strength of the beasts as they tend to be." But also multiple characters' entires say that they might be "hunted", but Corrin's entry says "but this would not stop them from doing what was right" so it's probably a job with requirements, instead of just being a generic term for anyone who fights monsters.

Hunter Of Hunters: pretty sure from context that this would be a Hunter who specializes in taking down Hunters who've gone monstrous/mad and are thus greater threats/liabilities than regular monsters.

The Powder Kegs: a faction of Hunters who use guns and/or like to blow things up.

Executioners: a faction of Hunters who are, like, evil and/or religious zealots.

Vilebloods: vampires who are fashionable, or something.

Lady Maria: a lesbian.

Vicar Amelia: Bayonetta's entry begins and ends with "Would keep Vicar Amelia as a pet." "Vicar" isn't usually a title given to animals, so I was like "what" and skimmed Vicar Amelia's wiki-article, so ... she's someone who turns into a dog-like monster over the course of the game? Presumably Bayonetta's entry means her monster-form, but the other possibility is also fun.

[fantomette22]

Hello there! ^-^

It has been a while since I sent an ask but I miss your beautiful Gehrman drawings and posts

I was wondering if you had any ideas on who Mr. Gehrman’s parents were?

Hope you are well

Smiley anon!!!! :D Always a pleasure to see you're still around! Thank you for the great compliment 🥺 And I hope you are doing well too!

Yeah you are right I need to draw our scythe boy man more !

For real I really want & need to draw him more but I have lot to do as well and either don't managed to find the time or don't know what to do... still I managed to draw him a couple of time this year already so that's cool!

Anyway about his family! I'm glad you ask! I still haven't ALL the details (such as names I'm bad with names) but I do have a timeline of events and a couple of more precise ideas. (not gonna share everything here)

I really wanted to draw him and his family since a while as well but never got the occasion before, so thank you!

And it’s one more picture drawn from the old workshop! (Yeah one day i will draw all my headcanons of the photographies of the old workshop. It’s one of them. I like to think at least one is from his family).

Now, for me his parents are more in OC- Original Characters territory. And I headcanon he got a little sister (around 4+ year younger than him. Born the same year as Laurence. You see what I did here 👀).

They’re a pretty basic XIX/19th century working class-farmer family really. But I mean we're in bloodborne world so with chance, the level of life is a bit better (especially in education) than in real life. So yeah I imagined at the beginning he came from maybe a farmer family living in periphery of Yharnam or Hemwick when he was a child. With his parent, sister, + grandparents, cousins of his parents & his aunt ( a badass lady!) near. Thanks to his family & parents, Gehrman learnt almost everything he needed in life (work, repairing things & craft, surviving skills, hunt, cook, sew etc). I also like the idea that he could have foreign origin from either one of his parents or his grandparents at least. (But compared to Laurence who have half foreign origin too mr hunter actually inherit the tall genes compared to his friend XD)

The only thing missing would be a thirst for knowledge and he only had books & museum (& maybe a bit school too) to help it. Until well Byrgenwerth.

Also Gehrman was quite an unusual kid compared to his peer and that sometimes did worried his parents. Either he got interests far from kid his age or he was straight up out of the norm. (pretty oblivious he liked typical girl toys for exemple but was kind of a loner too. But also mean, one day they found a hurt bird on the ground. And the first thought the kid had was to mercy kills it... instead of just idk letting it here let nature do it's work... well in the end they took the bird in and heal it until it could fly again👍)

But he did fantastic things as well and they are very proud of him for that! He found huge meteorite in a field one day, he saved his dad life (kinda drama too), he killed a sick & dangerous wolf who was attacking cattle and almost lost his leg! No not because of the wolf but because of a trap... yeah he got hurt way too much on his right leg way before losing it...

Then I guess the mom passed away?? And his dad, sister and him moved to Yharnam, when he was a teenager. So yeah not always easy and even if his father probably tried hard at first, the more time pass the more he kinda suck. That lead to lot of yelling and almost fighting between the two men. (thanks god the sister was there🙏 yeah crying if not getting mad at them usually calm them both very efficiently). His father except his kids to basically take care of things at the house and that everything should ready when he's almost never here to help. And when he is, he's generally not in a good mood. So yeah I thunk he missed his mom (and aunt too) quite a lot...she was very nice and very kind and he misses her presence for sure.

Wen he got his majority or close to it, the big epidemic strike and his sister sadly passed away from it... it brokes him, nothing hold him back anymore so he leaved from his dad's and went to find some work. Still, a bit later they did reconcile! You know typical father/son activity! Like hm hunting...

Then I guess his dad passed away?? Yeah it's not very clear for me either maybe he could still be around, but I know that he ended all alone at some point and Gehrman got sick. He went to get heal at Byrgenwerth but they had to cut his leg to save him. Then he leave the region for a couple of years before coming back to study at Byrgenwerth!

I don't have precise names as well. I'm bad to choose them and it's not like I absolutely need them either. Still, on my list of names for OC I might had a few that could work. Hm ok I actually might have a more precise idea for his father. I think it would be very very funny if his father's name is like Herman or a name very similar to his own just for the following exchange :

"Oh that's your dad's name ? I see... he must have been very inspired to name you when you were born then 🤣"

Gehrman : Actually my parents named me after the legend of this guy but ok I guess 😑

OH I ALMOST FORGOT TOO!!!

but a few months ago i came across this beautiful painting! And immediately it made me thought of Gehrman or his parents back then! Either Gehrman in a very specific AU of mine hehe but i think it could also just illustrate his parents 🥺

---------

In the end you are right too. I should share more ideas / thoughts and headcanons on him as well when I find the time. The ones I could probably never wrote in a proper story so better draw + write some posts about it (such as : conflict with Laurence + with everyone + his grief after Maria passed away ; I swear I'm gonna draw him with his dog I SWEAR it's on my wip list ; I finally got an idea for an halloween costume for him 3 months after halloween 💀 ; hm 🤔 idk some lil shenanigans with the others too; how he got his red scarf 🧣 ; ah and more time while as a student supporting Laurence bullshit or encouraging him).

Thank you again smiley anon, I know I can always count on you! I hope it answer your question, there's a lot of mixt ideas. I'm curious about your ideas as well on our dear mister Gehrman! If, idk one day you wanna share or talk about it more (even on private). It will be my pleasure!

[halfbakedspuds]

Thanks to @orion-lacroix for the tag! I was gonna get to it earlier but... life happened and I forgor.

Eto bleh. Anyways.

(Also I'm writing this while incredibly tired, so I'm sorry if my English isn't up to scratch)

Writeblr Questionaire

How long have you had your Writeblr/writing Tumblr?

I've had this Tumblr account since the beginning of lockdown (March/April 2020 by us) and I created it because of a PM Seymour video. I made like one post that has now been banished to the void, then forgot I even had a Tumblr account until about ¿June/July? last year when a friend of mine brought up the idea of using Tumblr to share her writing, and I decided to do the same.

What's one thing you'd like your mutuals to know about you?

Due to reasons that include but are not limited to me barely having time anymore, I have a tendency to sometimes take a while to reply to people on here.

Don't worry if it takes like a week for me to respond, I'm just like that sometimes.

What's your favourite thing about the Writeblr community?

The amount of people who are infinitely more skilled than me that I can learn and take inspiration from.

Which WIPs or Writing Projects have you been Noodling about recently?

I've had a few emotional scenes for the Tempest Prince brewing in my head (plus I have like an hour with nothing to do after every exam I write, so daydreaming it is)

I'm also somewhat noodling for a small game I'm working on as a side project, but that's less story-related and more technical shenanigans at this point.

Do you remember what inspired them/got you started?

Children of the Stars I don't remember exactly what inspired the story aspect, but I know what the setting evolved from. Basically, I was a huge Mass Effect fan in primary school. Actually, I was a fan of Scifi overall but Mass Effect was peak gaming for me back then. Then somewhere along the line I played Bulletstorm and Warhammer 40k: Space Marine, and this half daydream of an Alien Empire locked in an eternal war for survival began to evolve in the back of my head before turning into the first recognisable precursor to Children of the Stars somewhere in late 2021.

Echoes of Shadows was inspired by the game Tails Noir, Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, and a Call of Cthulhu campaign run by a friend of mine way back when.

The Tempest Prince was originally conceived of because my first playthrough of Bloodborne coincided with my first reading of the Percy Jackson books.

Is there anything you'd like to see more of on your dash?

Comics and short stories. Look, I don't have time to read a full length book until, like, November again, so a little episodic escape is a nice way to detox from the crap we need to deal with for these exams.

Name any characters you've created: side characters, protagonists, antagonists, characters who've never been written, the first original abomination you pulled from your rear... whatever you like!

Artemis is a Siberian ARX-11 mechanized shock-drop trooper who was deployed in a conflict so violent that future historians in-universe consider it less of a war than a outright cataclysm.

Quite literally, like the humble sea-turtle: she was born feet first into a hell she never asked for.

She's also one of the incredibly few Androids who not only survived the Fall of Earth, but after her inevitable 'death' by running out of fuel sources, she managed to remain intact for another six hundred years before a Union archaeology team found her and her enclave and managed to restore some of them to working order.

How much time- in your best estimation- do you spend thinking about them?

Outside the story of Children of Strife, this also makes her one of the oldest sentient beings in the known universe and technically the great great grandmother of almost all modern Androids and Biosynths.

It's also rumoured that she helped to raise a child orphaned during the fall of Earth who would grow up to be the military advisor of the first Empress, which technically makes her an important theological figure in the (now dying) Imperial cult.

Yes

Who's the most unhinged?

See, I'd say Adrian from Children of the Stars because he has a tendency to just do shit that makes you worry about his safety, but the thing with him is that he is fully aware of what he's actually capable of and is very cautious to not overstep those limits.

Lyanni, However...

One of Adrian's many nicknames for her is Miragran, which is Callistoan for "Big miracle", because that's what it must've taken for her to have not gotten herself killed yet.

Who comes the most naturally for you to write?

The fact that the answer is Adrian Castellan does not speak kindly about my mental health, does it...

Do you ever cringe at them?

How much control do you have over your characters? Do they ever write themselves, refuse to co-operate or do things you didn't expect? To what extent?

Not really.

Well, except for Adrian being a typical 27th century child who has no conception of sexism/racism/homophobia etc. beyond it being a footnote in a half-forgotten history textbook, which puts him in situations where it takes him a minute or two to realise that someone's being a prick to Lyanni.

I'd say I have relatively decent control over them. With the exception of the Haliday brothers in the Tempest Prince, 'cause they speak the same dialect of English as I do but I need to dial it back a bit because what's understandable for us has moments where it barely looks like English to foreigners.

And every so often I need to go back and un-Saffa their lines a bit because guess what? My dialect is annoyingly insistent on manifesting itself in these characters.

Are some less co-operative than others?

The old version of Adrian's character was really damn uncooperative. Like, he kept feeling like he was sitting on a story that he couldn't tell, and that was why he kept feeling like he was acting wrong no matter what I wrote him doing.

His current iteration tells that story in a way, and that element of tragedy playing into who he is has made him a lot more co-operative.

When someone asks the dreaded "What do you write about?" question, what do you usually say?

See, most people who know that I write are either close friends who already know what I write, or don't care enough to ask.

My grandmother, however, did ask the one time. That was also the day I realised that I know absolutely no scifi terminology in my home language.

Do you enjoy people asking questions about your characters and do you have a preferred way of receiving said questions?

Listen, if you wrote the question as a note, folded it into a paper airplane and threw it through my window, I'd firstly be very concerned about how in the nine hells you figured out where I live, then I'd be utterly ecstatic for the rest of the day because someone asked me a question.

I keep all my socials separate, though, so if you have any questions then asks, comments, and reblogs on Tumblr are pretty much the only way to go.

What makes you follow another Writeblr account? Do you follow them as you see them? Scope them out first to make sure you align with its content? Or do you follow based on WIPs or vibes?

Imma be honest there are like two people on here whom I followed simply because I know them IRL, and like three total writeblrs whom I followed first.

Everyone else followed me and I said "Ey, sha'p," before following back.

Do you interact with non-mutuals often?

I try to.

Do your mutuals' OCs occupy a space in your Noodle?

Absolutely!

No pressure tag for @honeybewrites and @thatoneterrariaplayers-vault,

[wardingshout]

your ALTTP drawings are so cool <3333 and your artstyle looks awesome!

What are 3 things that inspire you to draw?

thank you so much I'm so excited to hear people like them !!! ;v; I have sooo many things I want to draw that are super challenging for me right but I hope I can get to do all of them at some point !!!!

I feel like it's almost hard to narrow smth down to 3 things bc So many things inspire me to draw ! (my struggle is more so in motivation and energy department I guess)

I ended up typing a lot bc I got excited but I think these 3 are my biggest ones !

1) Nostalgia! especially when felt from environments around me or in little random moments! I always end up with a bunch of random photos of like environments or buildings or the clouds on my phone bc I felt a certain way in a certain moment and while my memory is pretty bad, snapping that photo usually helps me revisit that moment even if it may have been on some random day! and while not rly related to feeling there's also always smth fun to see around like the shape of a tree or the way shadows fall or colours ! maybe it's more about general vibes than nostalgia hmm...

I definitely don't draw environments as often as I'd like to and even when I do I haven't posted much but even so it's smth that fills me with a want to draw! to try and also bring out that kind of nostalgia or warmth !

I want to do more edgy dramatic stuff too but trying to make warm feelings has too strong a grip on me haha

2) Video games a lot a lot !! and other media too!! I absolutely love creating fanworks, I'm just a nerd and I want to share and show my love for stuff !!

video games are especially fun bc I already get to spend my time in x world and depending on what game it is that either means being bombarded with interesting visuals, fun little moments to recreate or for visually "simpler" games you get to imagine it in a 3d space all on your own and I love that ! like right now of course I'm losing my mind over alttp but in the past, games like Yume Nikki (and fangames), older pokemon games and Star Stealing Prince have had this exact effect on me too !

for a little add on I wanna say I used to worry a lot about accuracy and it could make fanworks pretty intimidating but one of my friends (shoutout to Cai) said smth earlier this year that I cannot for the life of me remember right now But it completely changed my mindset to instead be like. it's more important to make up my own interpretation of stuff rather than make sure everyone agrees it's accurate right? I can't even remember it right now but it completely changed the way I played games since like Bloodborne and Zeldas bc rather than worry about getting things instantly Right in my brain I would discover little lore pieces at my own time and instead try to put stuff together in my own way and idk games have been infinitely more fun since And it's inspiration machine to me !!

3) and most of all other people's art !!!! I could spend days browsing the internet just looking at all the amazing things people make and it's so contagious to me ! even if I couldn't ever create the kinds of things I enjoy seeing myself I can't help but feel so inspired and motivated to create something too no matter how it ends up!

creating an inspiration folder for myself that's full of just Anything like environments and character art and photos and colour schemes has been on of the best things I've done for myself! I rarely look at other stuff When I draw (for worse imo, like I rly need to get better at referencing) but if I ever feel stuck I can look through that and almost instantly find smth that kicks me in gear ! sometimes I see art and it's amazing and impressive and sometimes I see it and just think "man that looks like it was so Fun I want to have fun too!" and both work perfectly for me! :D

anyway uuuuh take pictures of nice things and save cool stuff there's always smth to be inspired by in little things! here's a little collection of random photos of my own from the past year that make me happy and also go !!!!!! (not a lot of city stuff tho bc usually ppl are on those )

I ended up going through my camera roll and it was so hard to pick stuff bc everything made me go !!! ocean and buildings are the big themes tho only one shows here haha

[jeremy-ken-anderson]

Jerk in Games

So I watched the Extra Credits video on this topic, and I had a bunch of different angles on the discussion that they didn't bring into the video:

There are tiers that end up being way more impactful than simple +1/-1 if you hit them. These vary from game to game, but some of the best known are: a) 1-hit kills. These die in 1 hit. Once they're inside your attack range they're basically dead, so you don't have to worry much about what they can do to you unless they're swarming (and sometimes not even then, if your weapon has good aoe swings like a claymore or fireball) b) 1-combo kills. These die within 1 use of your main round of button mashes. For instance in FFXIV most overworld mobs die in less time than it takes to perform your opener, making them kind of so-so for rotation practice. For games with stagger mechanics this can sometimes make them similar to 1-hit kills if the target's alone, but you often care a lot more about the presence of other enemies and when there's no stagger mechanic this is very different from 1-hit. c) Multi-combo. In games without combos this is roughly equivalent to enemies you have to hit 6+ times. They aren't necessarily bosses, but they will often feel like a mini-boss regardless. The back-alley Executioner in Bloodborne is a fine example of this. All bosses, if you're not grossly overleveled, will also fall into this camp. Players might not notice enemies going from "surviving 3 hits" to "surviving 4 hits" in regular hit-and-run circumstances, but you can BET they'll notice that same disparity if they have a built-in 3-hit combo.

The inspiration for this post was the fact that the simplified example said "you have a weapon that does 3 damage and want enemies to die in 3 hits, so you give them 9 hp." But actual DpB - damage per button-press - is more like [ability damage * weapon damage * level-related effects] and the player isn't just finding new weapons but also leveling in a more or less effective manner and using abilities that do or don't synergize with the weapon they're wielding. And in many games giving the player this kind of command over how much damage they tend to deal per swing is the point. Consider Kings Call, where there are 3 layers to the player's chances of success in a match: There's how powerful their cards are (basically how much number-boosting stuff they've collected so far), how well they've constructed their deck, and how well they're timing their moves and placing their cards on the field. All 3 legs of this tripod are important; to make it feel like an actual game, to entice the player to spend cash, and to give tools with which to solve the puzzles that are kind of the point of the game. You HAVE to have characters gain power in a way that feels like it tips over the "kills in 1 turn less" value or it'll feel meaningless, and then provide challenges that allow for that shift in power to not instantly break everything.

Often you're dealing with general relative stats; That is, enemies are surviving more hits AND your ability to survive their hits is decreasing at the same time. Especially in action RPGs this can get swingy in a real hurry, because at the same time as you have to worry at all about whether enemies get to hit back, they start doing enough damage to kill you in 3 hits and whoops wouldn't you know it there are 3 of them on screen shooting at you at the same time. And the same stagger mechanic that lets you combo one of them to death in isolation also means if you get hit by 1 arrow you will get hit by 3. This kind of thing leads to the "rocket tag" scenario of high-level 3.5 D&D and 1st-ed Pathfinder. An enemy that can survive the blender that is your level 15 fighter for 2 full rounds of attacks is likely powerful enough to kill one or more members of your party in those same 2 rounds.

Anyway. Just some extra thoughts I had on the Extra Credits. Go give 'em a watch.

[afk-021]

Ay yo, I just wanted to say that I've been extremely unmotivated about art and doing anything really, which is why I haven't been posting anything for a bit. Admittedly I have a hard time staying attached to something that I really enjoy, idk why, maybe it has to do with my adhd or some other stupider reason, but it makes me extremely upset whenever it happens either way. Also my mental health has been kicking my ass because I've been trying to get into a particular j fashion style I like, in part to treat myself a little better, and my intrusive thought riddled brain freaked the fuck out. So yeah I've been doing pretty bad, but don't worry too much. I still adore bloodborne and I still love drawing. Sorry for making this so long lol.

[katyspersonal]

@fareehaandspaniards @jarognieva Are you FUCKING kidding me. You two can NOT be serious about this o_o" Alright, how many MORE people here really think that I am physically capable of losing passion for Bloodborne and I am not even aware of that??? fdhfdhs

I myself have a history of meeting a new person and liteally not even 5 minutes in scaring them with surprise lore essays! And I don't seem to ever learn, because I just.. how? How I can know how much lore is "too much" for someone, when for me all these essays is just how I NATURALLY function? Bitches be like "omg Kat you are working sooooooo hard to do so much research and write so much text on BB, I'd never have the patience! x3" and I just... don't know how to explain that I instead need patience to NOT do all this "research". I have to put in effort into NOT overthinking, not the other way around fjdhdhsf

And you guys have no idea how thankful I am for every single person that appreciates my approach to things, moreover, always wants to hear MORE? It feels like some autistic symbiosis xddd (Also Jara you SHUT the HELL up, you've made those posts about Polish language on the graves and that Czech Clocktower thing! What you did to finally show people that Yharnam is SLAVIC and not british is hard to rate!!)

___________

P.S. I do like ER, really, I do. I think what will likely happen is that I just end up loving all From's universes almost equally, but yeah, BB was my first intro to this genre and it will stay so. And it just... stands out too much. But all in all, don't worry guys, my autism is enough for ALL From's games. I've made only like, 3 ER observations in total and people already told me that the connections I've made were "unique" and something they haven't heard before...? All while I was as focused on BB as always. Basically, my obsession and my ability to analyze the information as though I've smoked five jointed dry lumenweeds is not a finite resource, it is more like breathing, so yeah, you two put your abandonment issues away xd

[angermango]

ah late to the party, but wanted to share this:

The "Rachel Bronev as Descole AU"

(aka "Putting the 'Domestic' in 'Domestic Terrorism" AU" aka "DesRachel AU" aka "It Runs in the Family AU", I don't have a great name for it yet or even decided a proper villain name for Rachel...)

The one where, well, Rachel Bronev survived and escaped Targent and becomes the Descole of the setting instead after learning her hubby jumped off the slippery slope because filing for divorce isn't quite as fun as grand larceny, identity theft or building giant mechas to shit fury on Targent's front lawn.

There are also variations because I haven't yet decided on some variables, namely Des' situation so he's either:

(a) Not Descole, and he's kinda just vibing with his alive family and is better known as Layton's weirdass brother (they reunited and rekindled their bond already etc etc). he may just tag along or just happens to get tangled up in Layton's adventures anyway including encounters with Mummy Dear.

(b) Descole, and yet nothing much changes except it's funny as fuck bc Layton is now the token freak of the family for NOT being a wanted criminal mastermind.

(c) Deadsmond. (This take is a bit darker and kind of more serious as a result. tbh i think of it a lot more like a spin-off)

[cutting this up now bc got verry long but there's a few more beneath: Laytonborne, Post-canon Emmy Time Travel AU and "Small Surprises"]

Laytonborne

less an AU more just a series of ideas of cool images/scenes/concept with Layton characters in a FromSoft game-style setting with heavy borrowing from Bloodborne and started all because I wanted to give Layton a Reiterpallasch (basically a rapier with a pistol attached. it's cool as hell.)

In true Soulsborne fashion nobody, least of all me knows, the full plot here.

Something something ancient precursor civilisation from which inquisitive archaeologists unearthed forbidden knowledge and corruptive powers and artefacts. Cycles of suffering and the dangers of immortality and going too far in pursuit of power. Sick trick weapons. Illusions and mind-screw. Randall would make a cool as hell boss fight and he grows wings mid-battle. There may be werewolves. Emmy is like those sidequest NPCs who is a recurring companion encounter but if you make the wrong choices she goes mad/turns on you. Anton is an actual "vampire" and he absolutely yells "LAAYTOONN" and steams up in his boss phase transition and withers into an old man after being defeated because it's not out of place for the setting. Descole would also be a major boss somewhere and does not explain anything despite being pretty significant in the lore but at least you can buy his drip after defeating him. Poison swamp level. Not entirely sure what Luke's doing because kids don't usually appear in Souls games, but he probably has a gun. Debating on whether Flora is a sentient robot/doll sort of deal, or maybe Aurora is in that role. Claire with the kind of cursed tragic sidequest that haunts players where you can't change the outcome no matter what. The Great Ones are watching. Leon is probably responsible for most of the shit state of things and will need to be put down if he isn't already dead. Rachel turned into a moon monster. You know how it is.

Post-canon Emmy got time-yeeted whee

Post-canon Emmy ends up over thirty years in the past due to probably some Azran artefact flim-flam or something, whatever, she's got more important things to worry about right now like oh shit is that Uncle Leon all young and happy and not kidnapped or brainwashed with his very alive wife and TWO kids?? Did... did they just kind of take her in assuming she is some poor young woman with a troubled past in need??? This totally isn't going to be awkward and scary and kind of crazy because she is NOT shaking and fumbling every time she's alone in a room with Leon, she is NOT almost mixing up the kids' names after she instantly recognises the youngest's beady little babby eyes (and has a heart attack and a half over recognising the eldest's), she is NOT getting attached with the domestic family feels moments, and she is NOT trying to furiously figure out when the Cultist House Call of Doom is happening because it is NOT HAPPENING this time okay--

"Small Surprises" AU

oops spilt the time travel juice on the AU machine again except this time it's in the other direction. The Bostonius crew just discovered two lil' stowaways some point early in their trip. They're apparently called Hersh and Theo. They don't know how they got here either but their home situation sounds dire so the crew chooses to take care of them. The little guys are a little skittish at first and attached at the hip but everyone is won over by them pretty much as they share puzzles and show them the sights on their world tour and the boys come out of their shells bit by bit. Sycamore is screaming internally the entire time. Let's just hope those nasty people in uniforms don't catch wind of this!

People with PL AUs

🎤🎤🎤

Pitch me the idea

[sg-x00-airgetlam]

for the soulsborne ask! 1 5 14 18 21 and 30 sorry for asking so many but i actually narrowed it down all these questions are GOLD

Thanks for the ask! And I don't mind a lot of questions, so no worries!

"What is your favorite boss gameplay-wise?"

This one is extremely difficult to decide on, because there are so many I like! I am cheating and giving several answers, sorry:

Ludwig, Malenia, Gael, Nameless King, Maria, Midir, Friede

5. "What are your top 3 weapons and why?"

Moonlight Greatsword, because every version looks great and plays enjoyably to me. In the games where you can adjust your build, I usually end up switching from a quality build to an int build later on, because I enjoy it so much.

Ludwig's Holy Blade, because you can PUT MORE SWORD ON YOUR SWORD. The Tsubasa Kazanari of weapons.

Moonveil, because it's like the katana version of the moonlight greatsword and is just extremely fun. I know some people think it's a basic choice because of how early you can get it if you're using a guide, but I still enjoy it.

Honorable mentions

-The Black Knight Sword, because I had one drop very early in Dark Souls 1, the first fromsoft game I played, and I ended using it for pretty much my entire first playthrough. It also returns in 2 and 3, and in 3 it was also my main weapon for almost everything.

-Malenia's Katana, because it's extremely cool that you can use the bonus boss' weapon AND their most powerful move with it.

-Threaded Cane, because I started with it and used it for most of my first Bloodborne playthrough, and its whip form reminds me of Airgetlam.

-Friede's Ice Scythes and The Burial Blade, because scythe go swish swish, dess.

14. "Who is the most underrated boss in your opinion?"

Bed of Chaos.

Just kidding, I can't really think of a boss that people hate but I really like. I don't really see people talk about Martyr Logarius much, and I think his fight is extremely good! Also maybe Rennala from Elden Ring? I'm not sure what opinions are on her fight.

18. "What are your 3 favorite OST tracks?"

Maiden Astraea (the original, not the missing the point remix from the demon's souls PS5 remake)

Dark Eater Midir

Slave Knight Gael AND Abyss Watchers (they tie for this slot)

Honorable Mentions

-Malenia, Blade of Miquella

-Ornstein and Smough

-Ludwig The Accursed/The Holy Blade

21. "Best Poison Swamp?"

Farron Keep! I really enjoyed this zone actually, and Abyss Watchers is at the end.

30. "Rank the games you've played!"

I've played all of them (including DLC) except for Sekiro, and platinumed/100%'d them (twice for some games because I did it over again for Scholar, Remaster, and PS5 Remake). I have Sekiro but keep getting distracted from actually starting it. I'm not going to give an explanation for why I feel the way I do about each game because it would make this post untenably long. I'm happy to explain in a follow up if anyone has a burning desire to know why I placed one in a certain rank. I enjoy all of them a lot though!

Elden Ring

Bloodborne

Dark Souls 3

Dark Souls 2

Dark Souls

Demon's Souls

[mathyna]

Welcome to my humble art hole 

Hello and welcome to my art blog that I forget to update all the time :)

*Please expand*

Requests are: Closed

Note to requests : Just do not send Oc x Oc + READ and STICK to fandoms that are listed bellow.. I will ignore anything that is not listed.

~About me~

Constantly tired

Love to sketch and am lazy to render

Have been rejected from art school more than 3 times now

Can't sleep (record: 5 days without sleep)

Suffering from morning moronity

Bookworm and nerd

I prefer to learn things by f*cking around and finding out

Ya like Math? No? Then physics shall do. - if that also doesn't spark joy do not worry :) I'll find something else to annoyingly educate you with ❤️

Have been called dumb blonde my whole life so I dyed my hair red - I love that color

despite previous statement I dyed it black now just because

Misanthropic

Simping constantly for way older men (and women) than I am

I get lost in everything and everywhere so I´m sorry if I somehow don't respond to your dms :)

My opinions are very VERY controversial, that's why I prefer being quiet

*Rules of my hole*

Be nice kiddos, nobody likes a cup of rude in the morning

You can have an opinion, but be RESPECTFUL - mind the consequences of your actions :)

I am part of the LGBTQ+ community but do NOT start anything about it here- I´m tired of seeing it everywhere and overly sensitive people picking bones on my opinions

NO political debates here - no thank you, I´m glad to discuss but as said before, I have rather controversial opinions

Do NOT start any fuss in general - just don´t

If requesting, stick to the fandoms listed at the end of the post (I can make exceptions, but I must like the designs themselves)

Feel free to ask anything

///*REQUEST RULES*\\\

WILL:

Draw character x character (Ships - excluding OC x OC)

Fanart of a character (Fandom can be chosen by the requester)

Draw OC x cannon

Draw your OC in general

Mystical beasts (Dragons etc.)

Redesigns (Anything you want - exp. character, character outfit)

Heavy armor and mech (I am still learning so it will not be perfect)

NSFW - (Heavy gore and 18+ sexual content will be posted on my Twitter)

WILL NOT:

Fetish art (Sorry but no)

Full render (Unless I feel like it)

Yandere art (Mate that shit is just nu-uh)

Minor NSFW (Bruh get out of here)

OC x OC (Got too many of requests and basically I'm not gonna say no to every basic design that does not spark joy to me)

FANDOM LIST:

Valorant

Elden ring/ Dark Souls / Demon Souls

Bloodborne

Harry Potter

The Hobbit/ Lord of the Rings

League of Legends

Genshin Impact

Encanto

Resident Evil

Sonic the hedgehog

Boku no Hero Academia

Kung Fu Panda

Pokemon

Team Fortress 2

Undertale

My little Pony

Scp foundation

Baldur´s gate 3

BONUS:

I do creature designs and redesigns of Ocs in my spare time, so if u feel like, you can ask for that.

Bonus note :

I will be opening commisions soon, so be sure to spread my art as I am currently trying to help my family with finances. Thank you!

[circusoftrash]

I would like to see your huggability rating for Trowa or Quatre. They're equal favorites for me, so I'd be happy with either. Also, please feel free to post your Gundam Wing headcanons! It is your blog, after all.

Don't worry, my GW headcanons will almost inevitably appear as crack comics made when something else in my life goes wrong.

Also they're both my favs to, so hey

If you pick this one out of a lineup for a hug, then congratulations--you've got an eye for the ones that slip under the radar. I know what you're thinking: you walk up to this kid and go "oh crap, he's like all shoulder. This is going to be like hugging an old cat and getting impalled on every bony joint". But then you get your arms around him, and your hugging your family sofa that has long since memorized your body print to cup you just right. And you wonder how, HOW, this kid has like no body fat.

But there is no answer. This is just one of nature's great mysteries. This is the squid they find at the bottom of the ocean that looks like a chubby little elephant when everything else is a Bloodborne boss. I don't know how he exists, I don't know how he carved that niche out of a cold and uncaring world, and I am not questioning it. Sometimes, you just have to submit to the basic awe of the universe.

But like any mystery, there's something emphemiral about him, and that's not what you'll always want in a hug. A hug is supposed to give us warmth and security, but these are the deep waters of the primeval unknown. This is someone who is not ready to be found, not yet. Are we just not ready to understand? Perhaps. Be cautious when hugging this one. You may not be ready to where the journey takes you.

Also his hair really sucks, tbh. Kind of don't want my face near that.

FINAL SCORE: 7.5/10

Aaah, now that's a gold standard pick you've got there. Beloved by the hugologist beginner and master alike, you really cannot go wrong with this guy. Whether you like warm hugs, firm hugs, comforting hugs, the hug you didn't know would brighten your day, this is the swiss army knife you need for any occassion. And yes, I mean that in the sense that you can also use him to stab your enemies and bathe in their blood.

It’s really difficult to find something wrong with a hug from this guy. He’s just smol enough to make it cute in a not weird way, but he’s class act enough to make you feel like you’re in good hands. It’s pure art what he does, expertly turning a thousands wheels that you don't even notice, beyond the surface thought of "man, that was really nice." Some people are just born to give hugs. Honestly, if he hadn’t offered you at least two by the time you’ve finished reading this, you must be catching him on a really, really bad day. 

But for whatever reason, this hug will not be perfect, and that can be honestly frustrating. There’s a certain je ne sais quoi that someone needs to be able to deliver a truly transcendent hug. It’s certainly there to some extent--I mean take a look at this cornball. But it’s not complete, not one hundred percent. Weep not friends, it’s the journey, not the destination. Stay this path, and a higher school will surely come. Just after therapy. Lots of therapy. Please. Please?

FINAL SCORE: 9/10

[mousetaildeveloper]

April 7th 2022

Hi there, welcome to the start of my development diary for a project I’m tentatively calling “Mouse Tail.” I’m planning on making a Video Game by myself (mostly, I’ll likely outsource some stuff) and this blog will be a log of my feelings, progress, and anything else related to the project. I’m hoping to post here once a week at least, just to try and keep myself accountable, though don’t be surprised if this doesn’t go anywhere.

I'm planning on this game to be a Metroidvania style game, taking inspiration from some of my favourite game settings, namely you can expect influence from Hollow Knight, Bloodborne, and Ori and the Blind Forest.

To get any obvious questions out of the way, I'll try and answer some that I know I have answers to right now 1. What Platform will the game be for? A. I plan on making this game for PC only at the current time 2. How long will it take to make? A. I have no idea, I'm just one person doing this by themselves. 3. Why are you making this game? A. I've always loved games, and I also love programming, so here I am, trying to make the kind of game that I'd like to play. 4. Will you be running a kickstarter/GoFundMe/Patreon? A. Maybe eventually, right now I don't think I have enough material to justify asking people to support me financially, and the engine I currently plan on using (Unity) also has restrictions on my license regarding funding that I'd rather not risk getting sued or losing my ability to develop. 5. How can I support you if not financially? A. For right now, share this blog with others who might be interested! Though try not to get your hopes up too high, as I have no idea how this will go, Just a concept, passion, and some free time.

6. Do you have a plan to work on this, or are you just winging it? A. I'll mostly be working on this project between school and my part-time job, so progress will likely be slow at least at first. that being said below the cut is the development plan/roadmap I've made, It's not comprehensive by any means, but it details my intended process.

Development will be split into 4 phases, Planning, Prototyping, Production, and Polishing.

Planning is where I am now, this is where I'll be figuring out the central elements of the game, what kind of game it will be, what the tone will be, how I want the game to feel, etc. Some of this work is already done, I have ideas about the narrative, and a few core concepts have already been worked out (like the Player Character for example.) The biggest challenge of this phase is knowing when to start the next phase. My fear is getting stuck "overplanning" and never starting.

Prototyping will be where I do the bulk of the coding work, I'll be creating the systems and mechanics of the game. The goal of this phase is to have a playable tech demo by the end of it, that should be able to accomplish all of the features I intend to put in the game. This is effectively where the gameplay will be made. Stuff like movement, Combat, Menus, basically just how everything in the game works under the hood. This is the phase I actually have the most confidence in, though I may find that misplaced as time goes on, we'll see.

Production is the third phase, and this is where I'll be making the actual content of the game. You could consider this phase being where the game is in 'Alpha' as builds may be released to test content, and find any catastrophic bugs, but the focus here is mostly on adding content until the game feels complete. When this phase is done you could consider the game in 'Beta.'

Polishing is the Final phase, this is when all of the intended content has been added to the game, and all that remains is polishing up assets, optimizing performance, and squishing bugs. this is the other phase that I worry about never completing, as I could end up polishing forever, and never releasing. Once this phase is over, I should have a fully finished game!

That being said, I'll elaborate a bit on the specifics of what I plan on accomplishing in each phase.

Planning - You Are Here 1. Establish the overall narrative of the game (40% there) 2. Establish the story telling style (Done) 3. Establish an artistic theme (Done) 4. Establish Major Mechanics (Anything outside basic combat/movement) 5. Establish Game Vibe (What do I want this game to be? How do I want it to feel)

After this I should have enough material to start.....

Prototyping - Function over Form 1. Implement Object types (player, enemy, npc, terrain, boss, etc) 2. Implement Basic Movement Mechanics (Walking, Jumping, Camera) 3. Implement Player Status Mechanics (Health, Mana, Damage, etc) 4. Implement Basic Combat Mechanics (Normal Attacks, Dealing and Receiving Damage) 5. Implement Basic UI/HUD Systems (HUD, main menu) 6. Implement Basic Enemy AI (Have enemies fight back) 7. Implement Advanced Movement Mechanics (Dash, Dodge, Double Jump, etc.) 8. Implement Advanced Combat Mechanics (Projectiles, special attacks, Healing) 9. Implement Screen/Room Transition Systems 10. Implement Map Systems (Update Player Map with exploration) 11. Implement Player Menu Systems (Inventory, Map, Journal Menus) 12. Implement Fast Travel Systems 13. Implement Visual Effect Systems (Animations, Attack Effects, Etc) 14. Implement Sound Effect Systems (Enemy/Player/NPC/Interaction sounds) 15. Implement Ambient Sound Systems (ambient background sounds, background music) 16. Implement Global Trigger Systems (Story event triggers, Boss defeats, Collectibles, Upgrades) 17. Implement Save Game Systems 18. Implement Perma-Death Systems 19. Implement any other systems needed but not listed (means I don't know about them) 20. Optimize systems to best of ability

Ideally at this point I now have a fully functional tech demo that is capable of housing all the features I want in my game, Which means now I can move on to the next phase.....

Production - Content is King Production is a bit special as it has a few loops to be repeated, so I'll detail the design loop for Enemies and regions, and then anything outside that scope will come after. It's also important to note that the order is flexible, and is just a basic guide to help if stuck

Enemies - Oh the Misery 1. Define Enemy type A. Basic, No AI, does not deviate from set routine. B. Simple, Targets Player, has simple attack like running at the player C. Complex, Targets Player, Has 1 or more abilities that it can use D. Boss, Challenging fight, typically protecting a story beat or major upgrade 2. Design Enemy Appearance 3. Design Enemy Movement (How does it move? fast, slow, erratic, predictable, jumpy, flies, etc.) 4. Design its Attacks (How is it trying to kill you) 5. Design its sounds (What sounds does it make when it moves, when it attacks, when it's hit, when it dies?) 6. Design its Strength (HP, Defense, how often does it attack) 7. Implement Design

NPCs - Anything not trying to kill you more or less 1. Define NPCs purpose (Merchant, Companion, Lore, Storytelling, etc.) 2. Design NPC Appearance 3. Design NPC Interactivity (Do they run from the player, do they talk to the player, etc) 4. Design NPC 'Inventory' (For merchants what do they sell, for companions how do they fight, etc.) 5. Design NPC movement (if applicable) 6. Design NPC sounds 7. Implement Design

Regions - Put the Geo in Geography 1. Define the Purpose of the Region (Every Region should contribute to the narrative or player progression.) 2. Define the Theme of the Region (Every Region should be visually distinct, this will also help tailor enemy design to the region) 3. Design the Layout of the Region (How is it shaped, what rooms go where) 4. Design Region Rooms/Screens (Make the rooms) 5. Design Regional Enemies (Design region bosses, and regional enemies) 6. Distribute Regional Enemies (put the enemies where they're supposed to go 7. Design Region NPCs 8. Distribute Resources (Place Upgrades, Collectibles, Fast Travel Points, NPCs, etc.) 9. Implement Region

Design Priority - What to do first 1. Design and Implement UI/HUD (HUD, all menus, Icons) 2. Design Upgrades (All possible player upgrades) 3. Design and Implement Regions

Ideally here the game is "complete" all the planned content is now implemented, the game can enter 'beta' and we move on to the fourth and final development phase.....

Polishing - Try not to Cyberpunk it a.k.a. Beta builds galore 1. Eliminating catastrophic bugs first (things that cause crashes, or PC errors) 2. Eliminate Severe bugs (things that cause the game to become unpleasant to play, stuff like broken global triggers, softlocks, hardlocks, etc.) 3. Eliminate Moderate bugs (things that keep the game playable, but are still annoying, misalligned hitboxes, movement errors, etc.) 4. Eliminate Minor Bugs (things that are difficult to reproduce, highly specific bugs, etc.) 5. Optimize game performance (try and reduce resource load on the system)

So that's the roadmap/plan/guide I plan on using for this development journey, at least at first. My plans may change as I dive into things, but I can't predict the future. if all goes to plan, then by the time I've hit this point I have a completed game! which means I can go to the secret fifth phase of development.....

Publishing! - Congrats, you made it! The game is done, you've done your best to make it, all that's left is putting it up on your platform(s) of choice, and letting players do the rest. (though you are likely going to need to do a few patches)

If you've read this far, thanks, I hope you'll keep checking in, and I'm excited to document where I'm going with this! See you some time next week maybe!

[arigatouiris]

an inconvenient crush // kenma kozume x reader (1/2)

Author’s Note: A new story?? SO SOON?? Thank you for all the love for my previous Kuroo story, it meant the world to me. I write for myself primarily, yes, but it brings me SO MUCH JOY to know that my words reach you. It helps with the motivation to put them out more often. Thank you. This story is very close to my heart because I’m a gamer, although I don’t stream. I’m more like Kenma though, personality wise. Haha.

Word count: 5k+

Pairing: YouTuber! Kenma Kozume x Streamer! Reader

Summary: YouTuber Kozume Kenma has had the biggest crush on Twitch Streamer, (s/n) (y/n), who in actuality simps heavily after Kenma's secret YouTube persona, puddinghead0.

What happens when their paths cross?

Kuroo is honestly tired of Kenma's second-guessing, and (y/n) is a bit of a crackhead.

Warnings: unrequited love, one-sided crush, slight angst, pining, crackhead reader, internet bullying, slang, gaming references, haikyuu manga spoilers, fluff

C h a p t e r O n e : puddinghead0

Kozume Kenma suddenly turned existential when his eyes shifted to his phone screen for the 12th time in ten minutes.

Was he always doing this? Was he always obsessed with his phone to a point where he'd constantly check for notifications? Did this mean he was deeply lonely on the inside and wanted approval from people on a virtual platform, which meant that the approval was also virtual and none of it was real? Did it mean that he craved to nullify the growing void in his chest by distracting himself with a black mirror that showcased light that could permanently impair his sight?

He let out a breath and forced himself not to look at his phone. He didn't care. It didn't matter. That's what he always said.

    "Hey!" His classmate/room-mate screamed from the entrance to his flat, "Are you watching her stream? Posted two minutes ago!"

His phone was definitely slow. He had been checking his phone but there was no notification. Letting out a breath, and giving himself a mental reason to actually check his phone, Kenma opened the notifications tab to see the one notification he had kept his eye out for had been buried under ridiculous facebook notifs.

An inconvenient crush, that's what he told himself whenever he looked at you. You were a streamer, a bit different from what he did on YouTube because you were primarily on Twitch. There were reaction videos of you on YouTube, which was where he found you, but damn—how could one be pretty while rage-quitting a game? It was abnormal. Nothing about you was normal; college student/Twitch streamer, an apparent baker in your mother's bakery, game reviewer for Sony, and you were insanely cute.

    "She's getting to that part," his roommate commented from behind Kenma's back, while Kenma really just wanted to watch the video in peace, "Shit, she's gonna cry."

You did cry, quite a few times, and too easily if he could add. You cried at the ending of God of War, you cried to The Last of Us (which made sense, but you were perhaps just bawling throughout the entire game), you cried in a game called Detroit: Become Human, you cried far too easily, but you never really quit. He loved how passionate you were about games, and it was the sort of passion he could completely understand.

    "Oh shit," You said in the video, your eyes scanning all over the game screen, "What's happening? What's happening?"

Kenma chuckled at how cute you were, god, you were killing him. You looked worried, and he could visibly see a sweat drop on your forehead, but you were so focused that it didn't matter. Suddenly, there was a screaming sound from the game you were playing, and your eyes popped open as wide as they possibly could and you just sat there, unmoving. He loved how you never squealed or made any loud reactions, except when you were in a fight with a difficult boss, but whenever something traumatic happened, you just froze and sunk it all in. You were currently playing the second part of The Last of Us, and a traumatic scene was definitely happening. Kenma had just finished playing it the night before, so every scene you were playing was familiar.

    "I officially hate this game," You said, your voice breaking and he desperately wanted to hold you, "Fucking hell."

    "God, she's amazing." Kenma's roommate said, eyes turning into literal hearts.

    "Hm." Yeah, she is, Kenma thought, but could never really say.

As a YouTuber himself who streams games, he was aware that you were not as popular, and it was a fact that he really didn't like. Sure, you were on a less popular platform, but Twitch was incredibly popular by itself as well. He also understood the bias that came with being a female gamer, and while it sounded ridiculous to him, Kenma was one of those people who believed gaming required no gender.

He adored your content, and he secretly adored the hell out of you, so seeing you soar would only make him happy.

    "I... I can practically feel what pain she's feeling right now," You spoke about the game, a lone tear threatening to leak out of your eye, "But! We shall persevere. I've been waiting 7 years for this game, so I won't let... won't let something like this halt my interest. Let's see if this has a point to it all."

God, he adored you. But, Kenma considered it an inconvenient crush because of course, the world was small. The first big crush he has on someone and he hoped it would remain over the internet, but it just had to become something more tangible, something that could make him weak in the knees.

You, a college student/Twitch streamer, an apparent baker in your mother's bakery, a game reviewer for Sony, insanely cute, and also happened to be one of his YouTube channel's biggest fans.

He had only recently discovered your personal twitter handle, and dear lord, you were simping after him with no remorse. It wasn't as if he was all you talked about, but he had also noticed the trajectory of the games you were playing were on par with his own timeline. Kenma had finished his final stream for The Last of Us II just the night before and you had now started playing it. Right before that, it was Bloodborne, and before that, it was Final Fantasy VII Remake. However, your public handle was a lot more professional and despite knowing that it was there, he hadn't sent you a follow request because well, Kenma called himself an introvert in every matter but Kuroo just said he was shy.

While he knew that he could easily approach you and have you know he knew of your existence, Kenma preferred not to get into such detail. It was comfortable admiring you from afar, and it was comfortable being where he was—he had his company to work hard over, he was also a computer student and a YouTuber. Sure, he had his hands full especially after calling you abnormal for something that he himself was doing, but he never really fit into a bracket anyway. Kenma's latent obsession with you was something he wasn't particularly proud of and this wasn't because it had anything to do with you, but simply because he didn't want to make a big deal out of it. Change, in many ways, scared him. And by changing the structure or dynamics of him admiring you in secret, while you admired him not so secretly, Kenma was certain that it might not lead where he may have wanted it to go.

Surely, Kuroo was against this sort of caution, calling it cowardly and saying it lacked passion; but Kenma knew it was just a crush. There was no way he could deduce the kind of person you were based on how you gamed or reacted to games, based on the little tid-bits of information you gave out while playing those games, or even how you openly spoke about how much you admired 'puddinghead0's videos. Kenma hated Kuroo for giving him that name, but he was too lazy to come up with a new one.

    "Also," You sprung up in the final two minutes of your latest video, "I'm on Patreon, now! I honestly have no idea how it works, but if you really like the content I make and want to support me, you can become a patron and wish me luck!"

Kenma waited for his stupid roommate to go out of his room before he could open Patreon and find your link, which was thankfully in the description. Without a second thought, he donated to your profile but cussed instantly when he realized what he had done.

He had sent you a donation as himself, as 'puddinghead0's Patreon.

Without a second thought, Kenma called Kuroo and explained what had happened.

    "That is why, Kenma, you need to check a thousand times and not let blind love navigate your actions—"

    "If I knew you were going to spout such nonsense I wouldn't have called you."

He could hear Kuroo snicker while he ran a hand through his hair. Kenma groaned before Kuroo said, "How bad is this, Kenma? She'll be happy. Of course, this means she'll know you watch her content, but how bad can this be?"

    "I didn't want her to know."

    "And leave her devoid of the happiness of having her idol appreciate her content? You're cold, Kenma."

    "You don't understand. What if... What if she tries to contact me?"

    "You, my friend, have not even shared your personal account anywhere. The only way she can contact you is by commenting on your videos, which I am sure you check constantly to see if she did comment, or Tweeting, which she does every three days."

Kenma blushed at the accusation because it was true.

    "She won't know who you are. Besides, there's no harm if she even does contact you! Just tell her casually that yeah, you like her contact. I don't see what the big deal is."

    "Of course you don't—"

    "Oh, she's tweeted something."

Kenma's entire body froze. Leaving Kuroo on the call, Kenma opened Twitter on his laptop and there it was, your latest tweet.

I am trying NOT to freak out over puddinghead sending me a donation on Patreon, pls save my soul, I am dead.

Kenma groaned before hearing Kuroo laugh once more, "She's adorable!"

I know that, Kenma thought before feeling his entire face flash up. Ending Kuroo's call, Kenma looked at your public profile before then moving to your personal one. He wasn't following that one either, but he wanted to see your tweets, he wanted to know more about you—he wouldn't deny any of these facts, but Kenma believed it was far too idiotic to dream of getting to know you through a virtual media. He wasn't even the sort of person to become close to people he met in real life, how could he allow himself a virtual friendship?

The thought staggered him, and the idea behind it was what kept him at bay. Kenma wanted to know about you, talk to you, learn about who you were and what you were doing, but he felt the media that connected you was what separated you.

It wasn't cowardice at all if he was just sticking to the facts and being real.

*

The next day, Kenma walked to his class by himself, listening to the latest podcast by Joe Rogan. While the external sound wasn't entirely muted, Kenma could discern sounds of people talking, cars moving around, and other noises even though he was playing the podcast on full sound. However, there was one sound in particular that stood out. Kenma paused before turning to his right, noticing a crowd of people had gathered there, with some sort of event going on. He didn't pay attention to half the events that his college conducted, his mind was obviously quite busy elsewhere, but when the announcer moved around in a weird Joker cosplaying outfit, Kenma was a tad bit intrigued.

Was it gaming related?

He slowly moved toward the crowd before finally being able to hear what the anchor was saying.

    "We've got prizes for the top three best performers, and one of the participants is the one and only (s/n) (y/n), streamer from Twitch!"

Kenma froze, half-minded to run the hell away from there. But, it seemed as if his feet were stuck to the ground. How had he not known this? Didn't you always announce the events you go to? Why were you suddenly here? A second later, he spotted you, hair put up in an updo, a plain black tee, and regular jeans. You were smiling, but some part of that smile seemed a bit hesitant.

    "We will be playing a bit differently today! Instead of the usual Fortnite battles or Apex Legends, we'll be going went and battling out on Red Dead Online! And of course, if you beat (y/n) here you earn bragging rights!"

He noticed you shift in your position a little bit, clearly uncomfortable with the attention you were getting; it didn't even look like you wanted to be there. Kenma could feel his chest hurt, and his palms were sweating now. That's all it is, he told himself. An inconvenient crush, an inconvenient crush, that's all.

Kenma sighed before noticing how he barely knew anyone there and was almost thankful for that fact; but before he could thank his stars, a hand threw itself around his neck and sprung him forward, earning the attention of not just everyone there, but especially you.

    "We have our first participant," It was his goddamn roommate, "Kenma's a brilliant gamer!"

Kenma's eyes immediately found yours, and you were looking at him with wide, confused eyes. Although this was set in the open and the atmosphere was quite cold, Kenma felt nothing but warmth radiating all over his body at the mere sight of you; you were just a few feet away, and you were giving him a rather sympathetic expression, and god, you looked so fucking pretty—

    "That's great! Sign up, ya'll! Winner will be winning a brand new DualShock 4!"

Oh fuck, Kenma thought before he felt his heart beginning to pound. He was now seated beside you, and he could practically shrink into non-existence. You were unmoving, and you weren't looking at him, but would you have looked at him if you knew he was puddinghead? Insecurity swarmed his being and he could practically feel steam escaping his ears but a moment later, he thought he'd die.

    "This was so last minute," you said, rubbing the back of your neck, "The anchor's my cousin and she's so demanding."

    "Oh," Kenma said, feeling his heartbeat skyrocket, "I see."

    "Yeah! I mean," You giggled now, "I'm not even good at Red Dead Online!"

Kenma smirked, knowing the fact already. You struggled with Red Dead Redemption not because you were bad, but because you couldn't progress with a plot so divisive. You wanted to explore more, and since the game was so vast, you barely bothered with the Online version. You turned to him now and tilted your head.

    "You're a gamer, I heard? Kozume-kun, right?"

Fuck, she knows my name, "Y-Yeah. I game when I'm free."

    "Do you have a Twitch or YouTube?"

There's no fucking way I'll answer that, "No—"

    "Ah, you must really be having a great time then."

Kenma blinked before turning to you with confusion. What did you mean?

    "Don't you enjoy streaming?"

    "Ah, no, no," You flailed your hands shyly, and Kenma believed he could combust, "It's not like that. I just think, after a point, streaming becomes more for the fans than for yourself. I used to do it for me, but now... I'm needed in places like this for promotion, and I need to have a Patreon if I'm popular or it'll look weird, I don't know... Too many restrictions. I just love gaming, you know?"

Kenma found himself smiling, "Yeah, I know. I've seen your videos."

    "Oh?"

Kenma's eyes widened. He wanted to slap himself on his forehead.

    "I—I mean, y-you're popular."

    "Thanks! You're really sweet, Kozume-kun!"

Fucking hell, Kenma placed a hand on his forehead, She's too cute.

    "Say," you said, a sly tone to your voice, "Do you want to get out of here?"

    "I'd do anything." Kenma honestly agreed.

But, you couldn't just up and leave. You were called here as Twitch streamer (s/n) (y/n), and that meant your behavior was restricted. As much as you seemed to hate said restriction, Kenma was certain that you wouldn't go against it. It could take a big blow against your viewership, and you wouldn't take that chance.

A second later, your hand gripped his wrist before you shot him a wink. Kenma's heart jumped to the skies before you pulled him away from the crowd, with participants lining the entrance to enter their names. Sure, you were doing something bad—your cousin wanted you there, but not once had she even asked if you wanted to be a part of this event. Just as Kenma was pulled in without his consent. You weren't a competitive gamer, and you were not going to be, even if it was for someone else. After running away a fair distance, Kenma felt the part of his wrist burn right where you were touching him.

    "I think I need to run more in real life and not just as Ellie." You said, and Kenma chuckled.

    "Running's good."

    "I used to run track," You said, turning to him. "Now I run in games and that's it."

You have no right being that cute, he thought before clearing his throat. He slowly pulled away from you, which made your eyes widen before shooting him an apologetic smile. He was a bit confused as to what you had done, did this mean you didn't care about losing followers?

    "You might think that I've committed career suicide," You scoffed, "Honestly, this is the bravest I've been in so long."

    "What do you mean?"

You shrugged, "Ever since I became a bit popular by streaming, I've just... I could feel myself change with the way my viewers wanted me to be? I don't blame them or anything, I just think that the love I get from them makes me yearn for more. And that yearning leaves me... inept to be myself. It's the downside of wanting to remain popular, I guess."

    "It's not like you can't be yourself and still be popular." Kenma added.

    "Yeah I know," You said, "I mean, just look at puddinghead0, we don't even know what he looks like, and wow. I adore his content."

Kenma froze once more. Was this being recorded? Did Kuroo finally tip you off and was this being filmed for his reaction? Whatever it was, he wasn't going to reveal to you now.

    "Y-Yeah, I think he just doesn't care."

    "I wish I was more like that because I end up caring. I like the comments and the views and the love. Agh, it's such a weird complex moral question. Don't even get me started."

Kenma laughed at your reaction before you turned to him and stuck a tongue out. Kenma rolled his eyes before waving a hand at you.

    "If anything," Kenma said, looking at the ground, "You didn't lose this follower today."

Your eyes widened at his statement. You smiled before nodding, and let out a chuckle.

    "Thank you, Kozume-kun."

*

Locking the door to his room, Kenma began to edit for his latest video. He was making a review for The Last of Us 2, but his mind was elsewhere. He still hadn't told Kuroo that he had met you, which would only cause the black-haired man to tease him relentlessly. Letting out a sigh, he felt sleep douse his eyelids as he continued the edit, right before a notification popped up on his phone.

It was you.

He narrowed his eyes before checking the date and time; it was unusual for you to stream live on random days. He'd learned your pattern by now. You'd been doing this for a couple of months, and it was quite easy for him to know just when and what time you'd begin. However, the screen for The Last of Us 2 was open and you looked like you had just stopped crying. His heart broke at the sight, and he instantly closed the tabs to his own edit, before opening your video on his monitor. You were taking deep breaths before chuckling.

    "Hello to everyone that's still with me," You sounded so broken, Kenma felt helpless as he continued staring at you, "You might be wondering why I'm... yeah. So, I did something and I guess I got punished for it? I was forced into a game contest and I think walking out of it made some of my followers mad. I even spoke to this other person about walking out and honestly, it didn't hit me then that what puddinghead's doing takes a lot of courage."

    "Ah, fuck, (y/n)," Kenma groaned.

    "I guess even when I expected to lose followers, I didn't expect the hate? Some of the comments were just... nasty. I..." You sniffed, "...I didn't expect that you would hate on someone for making a personal choice? And I didn't do it to offend anyone, I seriously don't know how the internet works. Oh, oh wow—" You looked troubled and Kenma could see why. "—losing out on viewers now, great. 'Don't be a whiny bitch', 'This is why girls shouldn't game'..."

You took a deep breath before calming down and saying the few words Kenma feared you might eventually come around to say.

    "This is (y/n), signing off to a world where gaming is appreciated and is not filled with a community of hate. Hope to see you there."

And the stream ended.

Kenma sighed before leaning back, no thought in his head. He knew for a fact that his room-mate must have seen the stream as well, and Kuroo would be calling him about the entire ordeal just to ensure he had something to say about it. Kenma, on the other hand, felt like he had practically pushed you to make this decision and partly felt like taking the blame, despite the common sense telling him that he had nothing to do with it. You weren't the sort of person who would jump at something without a second thought, and even if he didn't know you personally, he had been following you and your streams for months now. It felt like he knew that part of you quite well.

Kuroo was the first to call. Kenma stared at the phone for a bit before letting out a breath and getting back to editing his video. He only had to add commentary, and his mind was already circling on what to say.

Uploading the video took him exactly two more hours, after having missed three calls from Kuroo and twelve messages. At one point, Kuroo had even stopped contacting Kenma, thinking he was busy with something, and he was spot on. Kuroo's eyes wandered on the new notification about his friend's YouTube channel, which was weird considering it was not yet time for him to post something. He knew quite well that Kenma might have definitely seen (y/n)'s stream, and wanted to desperately talk to him about it, but without a clue of what the boy was thinking, Kuroo simply clicked on the notification and let the video play out.

It was the review for the game, The Last of Us 2, and Kuroo knew while giving the review, which was around 8-9 minutes, Kenma would speak his thoughts that were a tad bit uncensored toward the end. He'd talk about the drama surrounding the game, he would even bring up the entire hate that this game was receiving, but instead—Kenma had a rather strange dialogue instead.

    "One thing I don't understand is how toxic the gaming community can be, at times," Kuroo paused, narrowing his eyes at his friend's words, "While we welcome new gamers to the entire journey of learning and discovering the joy of gaming, we also tend to put them down if they didn't adhere to a certain trend. I came across one such incident happening to (s/n) (y/n)'s Twitch channel."

    "Holy shit!" Kuroo sat up straight, eyes wide as saucers at the bold move his friend made.

    "I'm part of this community and I think I have the right to call out how toxic we are in general," 

Kenma's voice didn't even waver, but after knowing him his entire life, Kuroo could deduce that the boy was a bit angry, 

"(y/n) didn't particularly do anything wrong, and she's received some nasty comments about being a female gamer, and I think that's...just disgusting. She has all the right to either attend or ditch a gaming event, and no one has to be forced to do something they don't want to do. We all have games we don't like despite being gamers, we don't have to do it all. I support (y/n), and I'll admit, I'm saddened by how her fans have treated her. Her content is great and I have immense respect for her. I hope she decides to come back and stream more. That being said, I think The Last of Us 2 is..."

As he got around to talk more about the game, Kuroo knew that this was a huge step for Kenma, and he had no idea what suddenly made the boy rethink his entire decision on never bringing her up. Now that he had, he's indirectly initiated a conversation with her, she'd definitely try and reach out now—in any way she possibly could, just to thank him at least.

Kuroo noticed his phone ringing a second later and a grin made its way to his lips.

    "What just happened?"

    "I met her, Kuroo," Kuroo almost had the wind knocked out of him, "She was at my college campus. I was walking back to my room since classes were canceled. There was some sort of gaming event. She didn't want to be a part of it, and neither did I, and we ditched. It was—"

    "You like her more now, don't you?"

When Kuroo received nothing more than silence from Kenma's end, he was certain. His precious, introverted, best boy had fallen for someone. It was a proud moment, almost.

    "You have to tell her—"

    "Kuroo, this... this is all I want to do."

    "That's bullshit, and even you know that."

    "What? You want me to open up to her and tell her I'm the YouTuber she's been gushing about for so long and I was the one who kind of pushed her into doing what she did, and so that she can hate me afterward for hiding the truth because I wouldn't be losing out on anything and she—"

    "Whoa there, Kenma. I'm just saying go talk to her as her favorite YouTuber. You're overthinking this."

    "No, you're underthinking this. I did what I had to do. It was... hard to see her like that."

Kuroo let out a sigh but before he could say anything, Kenma had already ended the call. That boy needs to grow a pair, he thought, a bit annoyed at Kenma's nature of avoiding his feelings. While Kenma believed it was for the best, he knew he was simply running away from it. Kuroo knew his friend adored (y/n), but the boy couldn't categorize that as real feelings because he's met her just once. Finding something real virtually scared him more than finding something real in real life, and while Kuroo wanted to understand that, it only annoyed him because Kenma wasn't even trying.

When you watched puddinghead0's recent video, you were jaw-dropped in awe and absolute admiration. Tears filled your eyes, but what was more was how his voice now seemed a tad bit familiar, though you didn't pay any heed to it since you've been following this channel for an entire year now. It moved you to know someone you've been admiring has been watching your content, but at the same time, he was speaking up for you? You wanted to thank him, you wanted to send him a message and say you were incredibly grateful for what he's done and the only way you knew you could say something was on Twitter.

So you mentioned him on a tweet and poured your heart out within character limit. You wondered if he would notice your tweet since you've mentioned him countless times before, but even if he didn't, even if he paid you no heed after all of this, you were still grateful. However, a second later, you received a new follower. You blinked upon noticing that it was Kozume-kun from the other day. A soft smile fell on your lips at the soft recollection of running away from a gaming event, after which everything spiraled, but you didn't in any way blame him. Your mind again drifted back to puddinghead0 and you sighed.

I'd kill to see him, man, you thought, eyeing your tweet of him dreamily.

A second later, there was a notification. You almost spat out your heart at the mere words: puddinghead0 likes your tweet.

puddinghead0 likes your tweet.

puddinghead0 likes your tweet.

    "Oh my god—" You choked on air. However, a second later, you found it difficult to remain sitting on your bed.

Don't thank me, I hope you're feeling better. You didn't deserve any of that.

Is that a—

...deserve any of that. <3

Fuck me.

Kenma almost dozed off in class right before it ended. It wasn't like it was school where the teacher would wake him up after noticing him asleep, no one really bothered. Kenma was pushed awake by the momentum of the class once it was over and he leaned back before gathering his things. Tightening his hair tie, he casually walked out of class and got to the campus. He spotted the event area, where the gaming event had occurred and instantly spotted his room-mate and a bunch of people gathered there. Rolling his eyes, he walked away from there, not wanting to gather any attention.

    "Kenma!"

He had failed. Kenma froze to his spot before turning to spot his room-mate dashing over to him, a wide grin plastered on his features. Wrapping a hand over Kenma's shoulders, his roommate brought him to the others he was talking to, before releasing him.

    "You're that guy (y/n) ran away with during that event, right?" One of them asked, and Kenma didn't bother to respond.

    "Why did she run though? I mean, it doesn't make sense for her to just up and leave."

    "I've been telling you," The same guy said, "She's not the one playing those games. She's just the face."

Kenma frowned. What is this dick talking about?

    "Man, I think that's harsh," His roommate said, "I just think she's too chicken to play in front of people—"

    "She's literally a streamer." Kenma said, rolling his eyes.

    "Yeah, but why did she—"

    "If you can't understand that she doesn't owe you shit, then there's no helping it. She didn't want to play at that event, and she didn't. I don't see why you aren't calling me a fake gamer for running too." Kenma snapped.

The others shrugged, "That's because we've seen you play—"

    "It's bullshit." Kenma said before walking away. You all are bullshit, he thought before the frown on his face settled into an uncharacteristic glare, directed at what who knows what.

A moment later, he felt his phone buzz with a notification. Kenma opened his phone and saw that he had a message from you, but what confused him was—

The message was directed to Kenma and not puddinghead. His heart jumped as his fingers roamed over the notification, wanting to open it only when he was in the comfortable confines of his room. Swallowing the bubbling anxiety, Kenma fought the urge to smile as he continued walking back, unaware of what the Twitter message could be. It would normally take him around 12 minutes to get to his apartment from campus, but that day, Kenma merely took 7.

On reaching his room, he finally allowed himself to open your message.

(y/n): Hey! I've taken a break from streaming for now, just wanted to let you know. I don't know why I'm sending you this message, but talking to you that day made me realize that I don't really need to seek approval constantly. Also, puddinghead liked my tweet and I'm a bit too happy so I needed to gush, don't @ me

Kenma chuckled, feeling his heart jump at every word you'd said. He knew you didn't realize that you were gushing about him to him, but that didn't matter. He wanted to gush about you too. He felt a stone stuck at his throat at how real all of this felt, despite having only seen you once.

Kenma Kozume: I think he's the sort of guy who isn't too loud about the things he likes. And I think a break is a good idea, (s/n).

(y/n): Call me (y/n), came the immediate response. Kenma's eyes widened at the fact that you were online, and that the two of you were currently exchanging messages live.

(y/n): Yeah, I got the feeling from his videos that he's perhaps a private person. I'm still really glad that he supported me, I can't thank him enough. I'm feeling much better already!

Kenma smiled, I'm glad that you are.

(y/n): Also

He blinked.

(y/n): Do you want to co-op at Bloodborne? I'm trying to get a platinum, haha.

    "Fuck," He let out a breath before chuckling uncharacteristically. "You can't be serious."

(y/n): I'll send you my PSN, and you can add me as a party member. Only if you're up to it, I mean.

Kenma Kozume: Sure, sounds like fun. Also

Kenma gulped. He felt like this was showing off, but he didn't care. He was going to say it.

Kenma Kozume: I already have platinum in Bloodborne. :)

(y/n): Ah, screw you.

Kenma chuckled. He wouldn't admit it, but his heart was hammering against his chest and his palms were sweating. Soon, he'd be connected to you via the DualShock and the two of you would be co-oping in a game that was designed to make players fail. He wasn't too sure how much more his heart was going to take, and while he knew he had to tell someone, for some reason, Kenma wanted to keep this a secret. It wasn't because he was ashamed or he didn't want anyone to find out.

It was simply because it was too good to be true, and he didn't want to lose out on a chance to get to know you more. Because, if this kept up...

If this kept up, Kenma was surely going to fall in love with you.