#and the normal npc's that somehow got into mysterious stuff

[boingly]

I got a song stuck on my head , sometimes i mix stuff that i like , i guess this is that

Hope other people know it

Now here's gay people

I think i've drawn gaster petting almost all the Mikes now , just missing the real looking Mike .png

(i don't know if should think of a ship name for this, maybe mysterymike or just mikester)

This isn't Mike related but anyways

I listened to Power of Spamton while I was doing this and kept listening to Power of Spamton until I could hear it in my head like a radio

Peak

First time drawing spamton Neo , and spamvil

Hope it looks alright

[wri0thesley]

Ok, now I’m starting to think we’re following the same twitter circles because I saw that yesterday too! ✋😂 Definitely gave me pause to see Scara on there when he’s such a goddamn BRAT, which I admittedly do like but that doesn’t make for much of a daddy. Xiao didn’t belong on there either, you’re right, and at this point I’m genuinely convinced your average twitter user doesn’t understand the actual meaning of any word ever, because the gross misusage is legit out of control over there. I’ve long since given up the discourse lifestyle (or so I tell myself cmdkxmse) but some of the stuff I see truly tests my patience for fandom culture nonsense, as well as my self control to keep my mouth shut 😂

The bizarre obsession they have with “minor coded” characters is absolutely one of those things - for example, did you know that there were people trying to insist both Layla AND professor Faruzan are children? Truly, I wish you could’ve seen my face. 😭 Venti is easily the worst offense tho, I’m right there with you on that. It just doesn’t make sense from any perspective but honestly they probably deserve a medal for all the mental gymnastics they had to do to reach that asinine conclusion. He’s just as much of an old man as Zhongli is. His line at the end of the wine festival about feeling like some kind of grandpa should’ve been proof enough of that. lmao

((Zhongli IS my favorite Archon at least partially because he’s dad, daddy and grandpa all rolled into one 😂 but Venti fits the bill too, just in a different flavor. I’m low key convinced there’s some kind of correlation between that and the fact they’re the last remaining two of the original seven buuut I digress))

I like Nahida a lot too, she ended up being way more likable and charming than I originally thought she’d be but yeah, I’m SO ready to move on and delve deeper into the Deshret mystery instead. 👀 Somehow or another there are people who seem to have actually fallen for Al-Haitham’s bio insisting he’s the most normal, plain and unremarkable person to ever walk Teyvat and they’re starting to give up on the their theories but … if anything I think that just made him look all the more suspicious. lol Normal individuals don’t typically have to go out of their way to ensure they continue to appear normal. It’s very … Yoshikage Kira of him. 😂😂😂 Even if he’s not connected to Deshret (unlikely imo, given Cyno and the priest) I’d say he’s still got something going on behind the scenes and I can’t wait to find out what it is. Frankly tho I’m just so eager to go back to the desert again. It’s easily my favorite area in the game so far and also the Golden Slumber quest was just 10 out of fucking 10 imo. I need to know everything, see everything, experience everything. I also miss Dehya … a LOT. *sniffle* What do I have to do to have her top me? 😭

i follow almost nobody on twitter who posts like actual non-art things but the algorithm does like to show me discourse and lore posts (which . . . ok i won't complain about the second but the FIRST)....

GOD he was so . . . he was so grandpa in the whole of the wine event, i love him so much. he is so fun and lovely and also so melancholy at the same time. venti my beloved.

THE CONSTANT INSISTENCE THAT ALHAITHAM IS JUST A NORMAL NORMAL GUY DOING NORMAL NORMAL THINGS IS THE MOST SUSPECT THING ABOUT HIM. please. i don't like the desert very much (i hate the underground and i liked the first half of the desert quest but i am just avoiding doing the second because it's much less fun with less npcs to hang out with), but hopefully the apparently qol update we're getting that tells you the difference between underground and overground teleports will help there! mondstadt is my favourite region followed by inazuma (though the inazuma archon quest . . . oof). i am however extremely excited about SANDWORMS. i just think they will be cool!

[cilly-the-writer]

Happy STS! Your characters are trapped in a library. How they got there is not important, but how they get out is! Because, of course, this is no ordinary library. The books are fairly normal but it's just so hard to find what they are looking for (what were they looking for again?). The shelves move (?!) and rearrange the books, which is BAD because they need to find that one book to get out (it was not what they went in to find, but now they don't have any other choice, or so it seems). Mysteriously, the librarian vanished (?!) and her assistant has been to the bathroom for four hours now (doesn't seem like he'll return tbh). Searching is hard, especially since the computers at the help desks seem to be broken and only read out the news paper from ten years ago (loudly, in Scottish accent). Your characters want to get out, so how do they manage? Who would argue or who would grow closer together?

Haha, I need this to be part of an actual story I can read/see now! xDD Okay, so of course, this would be a fun challenge for the unlocked squad! (for me though, not really for them xD)

Levina would be positive there has to be physical way out and spend a lot of time looking for one, using brute strength, only to find she's nowhere closer to getting out.

Meanwhile Aria is panic skimming through books on the shelves. Nari and Rowena would argue a little bit about where to focus on searching.

Shelby and Lila would see other people in the library and go to talk to them, realize they all sound like NPCs from video games and just repeat similar things. But they go back to Nari and Rowena to repeat the mysterious things they said. Like, "There are steep fines for not returning what you have borrowed."

Which is confusing because they've never been to this library before. HOWEVER, Rowena realizes that Lila was reading a book about [REDACTED]. The only problem is she put it back on the shelf. She didn't take it. They all think about it. Silence.

Then Nari's like, "Did anyone take anything?" (Nari specifically looks at Shelby who takes stuff on missions sometimes). And Shelby says, "Why are you all looking at me?" very offended xD

Then BAM. A book falls off one of the shelves. Rowena goes to pick it up and it's totally ✨ blank ✨. But Lila realizes that the book wants her to write in it. IT WANTS HER KNOWLEDGE OF THE OTHER BOOK BACK.

And once she explains this to them, she's totally about to just do it. But Nari and Rowena snatch the book back. And Lila says, "I mean, if it's the only way out..."

But nope. The squad isn't allowing it. Levina hears them and joins back in and she also whole-heartedly agrees. Whatever the knowledge is, it must be important. They're going to leave with it.

Cue the return of the librarian's assistant saying, "There are steep fines for not returning what you have borrowed." Somehow a fight ensues and the real librarian returns and IT'S BIG DRAMA. They figure out the librarian is wearing her keys and Levina manages to steal them to open a portal and they escape!

[baranedizille]

If you want to share your lawlight hogwarts!au headcanons I’d love to hear them!!

Ohhhhh ok 👀

long poooooooost

Light

He and Sayu are muggle borns, their family moved to England when they were toddlers because... of Soichiro’s work? They just have to live in England to make lawlight visit the same school, k?

Sayu’s magic powers were distinctly visible since her earliest ages. Soichiro and Sachiko were shocked indeed, but they learned how to live with it after all. Light had been thinking for long time, until age of 9-10 when his powers really started to show up, that he was an ordinary child. He was envious of sister’s abilities and got complexes, so he tried to be the best in each area he was involved in. Also because of all of this he thought that magic world is something stupid, weird  and isn’t good enough for him.

But as I said, he learned later that he was a wizard too, his family was really happy for him, but he himself had.. mixed feelings. 

He thought, well, I’m a wizard too but I learned it so late, does it mean that I’m a weak at magic? He didn’t want to be weak.

He thought of his sister as a talented witch who didn’t want to put much effort into growing her skills (which was true, ok) and he was a hardworking one without talents. He needed to be the best, didn’t matter at muggle school or magic one.

The Sorting Hat put him in Gryffindor, because he wanted so and he really was sure of his choise. Gryffindor complied with his ideals, what were put in him by his righteous dad, the most. But we all know he’s a Slytherin.

But hey, Light really tries to be and even sees hinself as a Model Gryffindor.

He’s a head, of course he’s a head.

At years 2-5 of studying he played Quidditch, but he left the team because he got bored of it also he wanted to give more attention to his student life. The same story with tennis haha

He’s the same age as Matsuda an shares the room with him and three other npcs. Matsuda is kind of his friend, well, Touta thinks so. Light doesn’t consider him as his real friend, he thinks good of him as a person but Mattsuda isn’t smart and educated enough for his level, still, Light is soft and kind of patronal to him.

Light still keeps slight dislike of weird magical stuff, including these stupid wizard hats and robes (hello L, you’re the next)

L

He was raised in an old all pure blood wizard family. Of course they all were Slytherins pft. I didn’t want to make him an orphan in this AU because I like to think of a conflict rebellious and self-dependent L would have with his traditional family. (Also “Those Who Stand”-fic rottened my brain).

So yes, he likes to contradict his family’s policy and annoy them with his views and acts just because he can and thinks that he’s the smartest.

He hates his family and doesn’t want to have anything common with them. BUT. There’s his far relative Quillsh, who he really respects and who was his only friend for a long time. He mostly lives with him during Summer, but the winter holidays he spends in Hogwarts.

He loves Hogwarts. It’s like the real home to him with all it’s magic mysterious atmosphere and riddles. @lightsredapple headcanons that L would make a map for all of Hogwarts secret passages for science.

In spite of his terrible family being all Slytherins, he’s still proud to be in this House, because he feels that it fits him and makes him feel more special phhp

L is one of the best pupils of course. He’s really good and talented at magic tricks, he likes to be challenged and doesn’t pay much attention to classes that can’t give it to him, so he has mixed reputation among professors.

L as a pure blood child quite good at Quidditch but doesn’t play in team, because he’s definitelly not a team guy. He visit the field alone time to time and just flies around, he liked the feeling of freedom it gives.

B is his roommate, they’re kind of pals, but they can’t really be friends? Because for B L is unreachable ideal of intelligence and talent, and it excites him and it makes him mad and jealous.

L has a toad.

he calls him just “Toad” or “mr Toad”.

He loves clothes and bags  with big amount of pockets to keep magic junk, sweets and poisonous stuff for potions there.

Lawlight, finally

Light and L both love to be the best, and moreover, they’re able to be. So they’re rivals from the very start.

what worses the situation, they’re from different Houses, what traditionally antagonize each other. Also they’re really different as persons. Light sees L as a weird weirdo who doesn’t put much effort into being a good student (shame!) and thinks he’s the smartest, L sees Light as a boring formal fuck who thinks he is the smartest pft

Secretly, Light always thought that L’s interesting person and wanted to be as free as him. They met on the first weeks of school, Light was polite and friendly to him while in his thoughts he noted his weird look and behaviour, Light was really interested what a person L was, but L found his interest irritating. He offended Light somehow and totally screw up the first impression.

Light kept the insult for years. 

While for L it meant nothing haha

Their first years in Hogwarts they spent in cold neutrality. They were rivals but hey grew respect to each other with time.

Even so, in potion class they usually share the work place, because classes require working in teaam and they learned that they can’t normally work with anyone but each other, they know that the partner will do everything right.

Years pass and L realises that he actually likes Light in some way, he thinks sometimes, what if they were friends/

At year six of school there’s Triwizard Tournament, and L is 17 yo already, so you know...

When L was choisen by the Goblet of Fire ohhh how sixteen years old Light was envious

L thinks that asking Light as the second smartest person in Hogwarts to help him with the tournament is a great opportunity to grow friendship with him. Light is flattered by the offer, but of course he doesn’t show it, L won’t get it from him.

so yes, they start growing friendship, they genuinely enjoy each other’s company. Other pupils are discouraged how suddenly these two became best friends after years of enmity.

Room of Requirement, which L found first, is their favourie place to spend time together, so nobody could intervene with their stupidy. Keeping this secret makes them feel special. Actually, at least 20 other pupils found the room too.

They love visiting Hogsmeade at weekends. L always buys a lot of candies and unsuccesfully tries to make Light taste some of them, because he’s a good friend, right?

another hc from @lightsredapple which I love, - L likes to pretend to not know basic muggle things to annoy Light

Usually, Light spends Christmass at home, but this year Sayu leaves Hogwarts alone.

L fails the last tournament trial because he thinks about Light too much and he’s completely ashamed of it, he would never tell anyone about it.

Oh ok I’m actually tired by now, so let’s stop on the sixth year haha

Also ask @lightlessons, maybe she has something to share with too!

[zerobotic]

Well, you asked for it and you can’t say I didn’t warn you :3

First off, the usual disclaimer that I did enjoy DH2. I thought it had some very interesting level design ideas with the clockwork mansion and crack in the slab, the new powers were very cool and fun to use, and it polished some of the rough edges from the first game’s mechanics. It’s just the story and such that disappointed me after how much I loved the first game.

So to start off here’s some of the things I found disappointing or frustrating (and keep in mind these are all just my personal feelings on the games):

“Spoiled rich person learns a lesson from poverty tourism” is a plot that gets on my nerves in general and that’s more or less what happened here with Emily’s story

Like, not to disagree with an anti-rich-people story but the first one did a much more poignant job of highlighting greed and corruption and letting you be the one actually fighting it, rather than putting you in the position of perpetuating it. It felt like the first game showed it, while the second game just preached about it.

Boy this sure did feel out of character for both Corvo and Emily. Emily watched her mother be murdered at ten years old for the sake of political power, and then was held hostage for six months while being told her father was executed for her mother’s death. She got a firsthand view of how much the people of the empire were suffering during this time, and then when she finally got rescued she was immediately kidnapped and used as a pawn again by yet more schemers after her mother’s throne. You cannot tell me that’s a person who would grow up to be spoiled and carefree and complacent with their position, or someone who wouldn’t give a shit about their people. Yes, I know that she was a headstrong, rebellious kid with an adventurous streak, and I’m not trying to claim she wouldn’t probably still prefer, on some level or another, to escape to the rooftops with a sword rather than being stuck in court. I’m just saying that kids grow up and change and whoever wrote the second game seems to be stuck on taking ten-year-old Emily at face value for her adult self’s personality too, instead of considering how the first game’s events might have actually influenced her. She’s got more than enough firsthand experience to know to be wary of scheming nobles. (Also I definitely got the feeling, playing the first game, that at least a bit of how Emily behaved at the Hound Pits was her trying to cope with what was happening.) You also can’t tell me that Corvo, father and royal protector of the current empress, man with the most reason and justification to be paranoid out of everyone in the whole damn empire after everything he’s been through, would be so negligent in paying attention to a coup that the first mission claims pretty much everyone in Dunwall knew was happening. 

Building off of that, in general it felt like the first game wasn’t allowed to have much of an impact. It pays lipservice to Jessamine’s death, and acknowledges Corvo having been a badass back then, but that’s....about it? Like I said in the other post, the first game felt so saturated in grief, both for Jessamine and for everything else going on in Dunwall, that it really influenced the overall tone of the game. The second one kinda feels like the first one never happened, or at least didn’t have any lasting influence on the characters or world, and it’s kind of jarring going from one to the other.

So with all that said, here’s my idea for a different DH2. Still using Karnaca as the setting and Delilah as the primary antagonist, just...different. 

"Delilah wants to use a reality-altering painting to change the world into her vision of it” is still a plot point. Except, instead of the end of the game, it’s the beginning. It’s a logical extension of her actions and powers during the Daud DLC - the plan to use Emily’s painting to take over almost worked til it was stopped, so there’s clearly potential there. She’ll just think bigger, more direct this time.

The game starts on a ship. Emily and Corvo are en route to Karnaca for some sort of diplomatic mission. We get to know them a little bit during this opening trip: Emily isn’t an absent, complacent ruler, she's a young woman who inherited a difficult throne as a child, after a series of traumatic events, and now she's trying hard to live up to her mother's legacy and prove herself worthy to an empire that still seems to only see her as the child she was during the interregnum. She’s doing her best, but she’s insecure about all of that, and spends a lot of time frustrated with the back and forth scheming of the nobles, trying to please everyone instead of putting her foot down and getting things done. Corvo is trying to keep her safe where he failed Jessamine, but court still isn’t his preferred arena either. 

The night before they’re due to arrive in Karnaca, we start getting hints that something is...off. Strange dreams, maybe?

They land in Karnaca and things are different than expected. But they don’t get time to look around, because there's guards there to arrest them, claiming they’re wanted criminals. They’ve got music boxes or something that can strip Corvo of his powers, and only one of them gets away while the other is taken. The one that gets away is stuck alone, disoriented, and hunted in an unfamiliar city - even if you play as Corvo, things are different than he remembers. More different than can be explained by just time. 

They meet Meagan Foster. She takes them to meet a group of ex-whalers (the player character doesn’t know who they are). They’re a group that got back in touch with each other in Karnaca after Daud left and the whalers split, and they still do shady shit, but these days it’s generally more smuggling type stuff and they’ve put down the assassin blades. They’re the equivalent of the loyalist home base in this game. Meagan is still the Samuel stand-in, taking the player places and narrating things as necessary. 

Information is shared and the player finds out that somehow, the world is changed from what they remember. Delilah is the empress, here, come by it what seemed like legitimately at some point in the 15 years between Jessamine’s death and now, and Emily and Corvo are wanted criminals. No one seems aware of the change except for the player and the whalers (who only remember it because of their experience with magic, though the player character doesn’t learn that til much later). 

Clearly it’s Delilah who did something, because she has magic, and she’s the one on the throne now. 

The Outsider shows up in their dreams that first night in the new world, but something is clearly wrong in the void, too, and it seems like he’s barely capable of reaching out and communicating with them. He offers the mark, but disappears before really getting a chance to explain anything. 

The player goes through the game now with the goal of finding out what happened, how it happened, and how it can be fixed. DH2 and DOTO explained a lot more than I felt they should’ve, at times, and I preferred how the first game balanced worldbuilding with mystery. So, let things be explored and figured out along the way. 

Things are real bad in this universe. From Emily's perspective as she goes through the game, we get commentary questioning whether or not she was doing a good job, and comparing it to how things are in Delilah's world. There’s lots of corruption and poverty and people suffering, and the question "is this just Delilah's world? How much of this going on in mine too? In trying to navigate court instead of putting my foot down, was I failing my people in the end after all? Would it have been better if my mother was still the empress?" The difference between this and what DH2 did is that she was trying, there was just a lot hindering her, including her own doubts. In this one, those questions aren’t preaching, they’re a sign that she does care and is pained by the idea of her people suffering like this again, by the mere possibility that it might not be just Delilah’s world. 

Corvo and Emily have distinct perspectives, not just the same lines very slightly altered. 

The bloodfly infestations are either 1) a natural thing that wasnt supposed to turn ugly like this and has been affected by Delilah’s magic, or 2) wholly the product of unnatural magic. None of this "we need them and they’re always like this, just not this bad" stuff. if you're gonna repeat the plague motif, make it actually horrifying, like the rat plague was. In fact, there’s obvious magic influence here and there in general - maybe not quite as thorough as at Brigmore Manor, but it’s present enough to give you the creeping feeling that things aren’t right, here, visual confirmation of Delilah’s influence, that things have been changed and twisted from their normal state of things. Hell, maybe this is where the hollows from DOTO come in, the original world and Delilah’s altered version of it trying to bleed through each other in some spaces. Maybe that’s a different explanation for the crack in the slab mission, even. 

Actually, if you’re gonna repeat the plague motif, lean into the similarities between the rat plague era and now. Have them be reminded here and there by things they see, recount what happened and how terrible it was, compare it to now. Give NPCs lines about the comparison and how some of them left Dunwall only to be stuck living through something like this a second time. Let the first game have happened and had an impact, folks, cmon.

On a similar note, if you’re gonna keep Delilah's backstory the same when we finally learn it, let Emily and Corvo get mad about it. They lived through the first game - what right does Delilah have to talk like she's got a monopoly on suffering and that's why she should have the throne?

Delilah's mistake was assuming Emily was a sheltered child who wouldn’t come for her, rather than someone who's already been through a lot and come out on top. That was almost a satisfying thing about the second game but they messed up the execution of the whole concept and I want it to actually pay off. 

I’m not sure if the targets in this one should be the same or how much should change there. Honestly, except for Breanna, the targets in DH2 felt a lot less relevant to what was going on than the DH1 targets did, like...why are half these people even at this ritual? But for simplicity’s sake let’s keep it as close as we can, while also adjusting for the fact that this reality has been tailor-made for Delilah and her buddies. Perhaps the Duke is only the Duke here because things were rewritten to put one of Delilah’s allies in charge, and it was supposed to still be his father. Hypatia isn’t the crown killer (what even was that plot point honestly), she’s the doctor they found to help Delilah recover after her time in the void, and now they’ve rewritten things to imprison her in the institute to keep her quiet and out of the way, and you get wind of it and go to see what she knows. Etc. Is Sokolov involved in this version of things? I dunno! But speaking of Sokolov I want some sort of explanation for where the other surviving loyalists are, damnit. 

Delilah did something in and to the void, just like in canon, but it actually has a visible impact here (beyond just a total aesthetic redesign of the void between games that never gets commented on). The void is struggling under her influence when you find shrines, and you never know what you're gonna find at one of them, or what the Outsider is gonna be like, if he even shows up. Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of the way DH2 gave him a human backstory, because I liked the mystery there behind what he was and what the void was, but this is open to go either way, either with Delilah finding his death site like in canon, or some other way she found to influence it. I’m not sure how the progression would go of how the void changes over the course of the game, but it would be cool to get to help/save the Outsider in some kinda way. 

Finding Corvo's childhood home should have more impact. Let it be like when you find the saferoom in Dunwall tower, in the first game. A temporary refuge in a dangerous place, full of obvious memory and grief - not so much for the time spent here since that's so long in the past, but for all that's been lost, everything they've been through and are in the middle of going through. Especially if you're playing Emily - this is the home of the father she just lost.

Let the heart be vague and ominous again, and let our interactions with it be sad, especially as Emily! I’m still messed up about the first time I heard "the doom of Pandyssia has come to the city" in DH1, and the lines about the floodwaters and the plague victims, give me stuff like that! Especially in a world that isn’t meant to exist the way it currently is, where things have been twisted almost beyond recognition. And give me lines that remind Emily of the mother she lost and how this is the first time she's heard her voice since she was a child!

Give us more on citizens and how they're suffering in this world, the way the first game showed us plague victims who died in each other's arms, journals from the desperate and dying, living people sent to the flooded district. Let it be a reminder to Emily why it's worth it, why she has to change the world back and what she wants to be fighting for when she gets her throne back. Another reason to question - has she been doing all she can? (Alternatively, a source of righteous fury for high chaos Emily.)

This is a journey of self discovery for Emily, either low or high chaos. It's about realizing she hasn’t been doing all she could, despite her intentions, because she's been trying to please everyone and in the end it still wasn’t good enough. She needs to stop living under her mother's shadow and come into her own (and the heart plays a role in this epiphany, probably. This might actually come to a head when she has to let her mother's spirit go, if we're gonna keep that plot point.)

High chaos Emily is similar but in a more "alright no more nice empress" kinda way whereas low chaos is more about conviction to put her foot down to do what's right.

You meet people during the game who in a good ending become part of her new council. Common people, who are more in touch with what needs to be done. It pisses nobles off but she's determined to do better, after everything. It helps both her and Corvo come to terms with the whole safety thing, because you can't ever make sure you're totally safe but you can try to make sure the empire can keep going should something happen to its ruler.

In fact, part of Corvo's perspective on this game probably would involve him still wanting to keep Emily out of things for safety's sake, and wondering if sheltering her from knowledge of magic and such contributed to this situation.

When it's revealed who the whalers are, it's late in the game after we've already come to like them a lot. They don't betray you like the loyalists did, but it should still feel like a punch to the gut for Emily and Corvo.

They don’t know where Daud is, haven’t seen him since the whalers disbanded .

Billie talks about that whole thing, and it's complicated. She decides maybe she should try to find him, after all. Cue DLC, which is about finding Daud, and helping/saving him, and the two reconciling and Billie finding some kind of...if not redemption, then absolution. A parallel to the first game’s DLC, Billie getting an arc like that in Emily’s game the way Daud got that arc in Corvo’s game. Y’know, instead of DOTO going and undoing all of Daud’s character growth. 

I know I’m kind of handwaving the actual mechanics of who the targets are and how you actually go about uncovering what happened and how you can fix it and take down Delilah in the end, but this is all just. Concepts. If I were to try to write this as a fic or something I’d have to actually sit down and work out all those details, but for now this is something that’s just been living in my head since like an hour after I finished DH2 for the first time a couple years ago.

(I did warn you it was gonna be long lmao)

[blooddrop-palace]

Project Updates - What to Look Forward To

<3 Hello all! I've realized (humbly) that I have a small following of very nice people that seem quite interested in what I've written so far, and after seeing some mutuals post update-status posts, I thought I should share what's going on with my projects, also. (Thanks for the encouragement, @queenmuzz!)

Updated Dec-10-20

Sons of Fortune

Probably somehow my main focus now, though I am steadily working on other works. Currently working on the “In Between” special short before I start on Chapter 12.

I would also like to talk a little bit about my plans for this story: if anyone has paid attention to this story's tags, yes, I am touching up on the plots of most of the games. In fact, all of them, and the anime. (I already dealt with DMC4. No, I will not tear apart Fortuna lol.) Not all relevant tags are in, yet, because small spoilers. It looks like it's going to be a long while before I even get to the Temen-ni-gru, though. (There is a reason why that event is getting pushed back.) I want to have fun with the family fluff that is the twins each learning how to parent, first. 

Hell Froze Over, and We Shall Reignite It

The drama of it all! Dante and Vergil are finally back from Hell, and Nero doesn’t even know his mother is now standing right in front of him. Meanwhile, even I’m anticipating seen how Snow and Dante is going to handle the obvious things currently unsaid... and I have a feeling a small measure of stupidity is still going to be involved.

Current chapter progress: Outline complete.

It's going to feel so interesting, shifting from "Fortune" back to Reignite. I get to write Sera and Vergil falling in love all over again, with a different set of circumstances. Whoa.

And, and... Nero meeting Sera... odd that I'm saying this as the writer, but I have a "I hope he likes his mom" feeling going on. 

Also, no doubt Dante's brain is going to 404 when he sees Snow. 

Nico prepares popcorn.

This is Not an Office Rom-Com

I have... about 8 new skits planned out. Nothing more written just yet.

That’s all I’m saying about this for now. =P

Hierarchy of Kings

Purely indulgent M/M romance of Vergil and an OC, existing all thanks to

@wordborne

Working on chapter 2. 

I know I said 3 chapters only. I might have lied depending on how much I want to write. It's supposed to be just... awkward fluff of a listless part-devil who somewhat-recently lost his mate, got in a bit of a tiff with his brother, and now his children are trying to set him up with the prospective-king-of-hell, Vergil. 

I think about this one a lot but I haven't written anything new for it yet, only because "Fortune" is taking over my life right now, haha.

Through the Lens of the Beholder

Okay, so...This story has no real plot. As a result, my drive for it is purely down to "if I think of a badass or cool photograph to describe." There is a TINY bit of plot. Only a little. And I don't know when I'll update. But this is why I'm trying not to START new projects. Four  is a lot already! But because this one is supposed to be simpler than the other two, I will most likely finish this one before the others, so I can open a new project. 

---------------

Speaking of new projects... Here are things ideas bouncing through my head:

- I still have a prompt from @maybeishouldwait sitting in my inbox. I WILL have it done one day, when I find the perfect way to write it. 

A whole, entirely royally late set of Dadgil week fics.  Yep. I want to write them. They just won’t be on time. 

Written in Ink

A plot-less post-DMC5 story. 

I say plot-less. There is a plot. The plot is:

Dante: Damn it, Verge, are you trying to turn my office into a zoo??

In which Vergil compulsively starts contracting strong demons he's defeated, left and right, because he's discovered "the joy of pets." The demons all take on a dark animistic form and things get wild. 

A Persona and DMC fusion/AU

I have no title for this yet, and I absolutely cannot start this one until I have finished one of my other big projects. This one will take a lot of big planning, because I am making a new plot, using the mechanics of Persona, with DMC characters and setup.

What I want to write, is a teenage Nero as the protagonist, trying to solve a mystery... probably starting with the sudden disappearance of his mother. (Most likely Sera.) And he meets a lot of "new" people, and even finds new family... and yes, he will find his dad. (I'm thinking he'll know about Vergil, though. At least in name and a photo? Isn't that an interesting difference?)

For those of you not familiar with Persona, the major theme I really want to play with is that of the protagonist growing as a person (and in power) by befriending different people that helps them grow as a person. Each party member and important NPC is represented by a Tarot Card, signifying the type of journey the protagonist (The Fool) "embarks" with that character. There is growth in both the protagonist and that characters. 

Again, this is ambitious to try and pull off... but it's in the back of my head. I'll focus on it once I've cleared some other stuff. 

Sugar Sweet

A somewhat short-chapter series reader fic... of a surgeon/doctor!reader (barely 30 and good at what you do) who often saves the lives of shady people (e.g. mafia) because you care about saving lives, not the politics. But you do make good money out of it. (Hey, you gotta be at least a bit morally ambiguous if you're going to deal with devils.)

You meet one mess of a young mercenary named Dante, who is totally not human and deals with things like having bullets healed into his back, and he can't reach them to cut them out. 

Dante doesn't care about bills for his office, or a lot of the debts in his life. You don't know where his money is going, or if he even makes much money at all (for the kind of specialty work he does? Money's going somewhere, but that's none of your business.)

You won't pay Dante's bills, or his debts, but he will accept pizza and ice cream. And new parts for his jukebox. And maybe a motorcycle. Or a new coat. Or a new car...

And you might complain to him about your dumb patients. Or just listen to him talk about his job. Or you two watch a movie together.

And this just continues. For years. 

Tokusatsu DMC fusion/AU

So. First thing's first: I'm a big fan of Sentai/Tokusatsu. What is that, you might ask? It's a Japanese genre, and if you're familiar with Power Rangers, that's derived from Sentai. 

Basically: Masked heroes with transformation gadgets, sometimes with motorcycles, fighting against evil. ("Magical girls" but strictly the opposite, a lot more physical combat involved, may involve upgrade gadgets, and not strictly limited to male heroes though mostly a male cast. Also not strictly for male-only audience. Girls like the eye-candy, too. :eyes-emoji:)

Why am I thinking about this?

Because I have found out that: Vergil's VA, Dan Southworth, was the Quantum Ranger (WHICH WAS RED). Nero's VA, Johnny Yong Bosch, was a Black Ranger and a Green Ranger. 

...And Dante's VA, Reuben Langdon, had a role in a Japanese Toku show as "B-Fighter Yanma" forever ago???? (HE WAS BLUE!!)

What am I going to do with this info? I'll let you know later. But my Sentai/Toku-loving little heart is about to burst with hyperfixation overlap. 

If I ever write this out, expect it to be just as cheesy as an actual Kamen Rider show. Or, at the very least, expect some art. I love Kamen Rider stuff!

Family Fantasy MMO

Snow introduces Dante, Vergil, Nero, and Kyrie to Final Fantasy 14 (because that’s the MMO I play) for family bonding. Yep. Mainly for silly indulgence.

Stardew Valley Visit

Post DMC5, Vergil and Dante accidentally end up going on a vacation when they try to leave Hell. No pairing with the farmer, but instead just a relaxing and somewhat introspective moment of the boys being stuck with most of their power temporarily sealed, learning how to take care of a farm, and maybe do a bit of healing by interacting with the townsfolk while they try to find out where their swords went and how to get home. 

Re-Colourize

Otherwise what I would call the “re-colour of Nero and Snow” AU. 

What if Vergil was found by Kassy’s family and raised among them? What if Dante ended up briefly in Fortuna and then convinced Sera to run away from the island?

What if we have a Nero who, though brash, is outwardly more soft and open-hearted, and has red-orange and gold colours instead? What if we have a Snow who is named Chiyuki, who wields her katana more like Vergil does, and has a more ice-queen aura about her, and has a teal and blue colouring about her?

This is my excuse to switch up the pairings, but also write Vergil being taught to fight more like an assassin. 

Raised by the Blade

Imagine: Yamato, cracked, broken, and separated from her Master... desperately searching for a way to get back to him, and ended up washed up on the shores of Fortuna. Humanoid, but clearly not if anyone saw the cracked, broken, and no-normal look of “shattered” in her torso, that she would have to keep covered. 

Made from the power of Sparda, she is pale with white hair... and she finds herself drawn to the orphanage...

Where she finds the toddler that is Nero.

Devil Hunters’ Podcast

Nico “accidentally” finds entertainment in recording the Sparda Family arguments as they talk about hunting; after all, they all share one braincell. 

Ascended Monochrome

A white angel remains by the side of Nelo Angelo. Mundus was not pleased by the behavior of his second creation, from the human woman that he had picked up with the treacherous Son of Sparda. But he later discovered that by using her, he could keep Nelo Angelo complacent. Eventually, underestimating love will be his downfall.

Fall to Royalty

A story of where Vergil wins against Mundus the first time, and takes the throne of Hell. But what is he to do next? Eventually, ruling Hell seemed meaningless when there was no one by his side, so he goes to seek out the Lady Knight that he had vowed to never think of or go back to unless he had obtained the power he sought.

Doppelganger Woes

So, I heard Capcom retconned Gilver to be some sort of imitation created by Mundus. I’m all for this! And I’m going to DO something with this.

Side-Project: DMC Tarot List

I started on this maybe months ago; and I have a tentative list oh what characters go with what card and a few detailed descriptions. I think I should confer with

@harlot-of-oblivion

at some point about this, and anyone else interested in, well, Tarot stuff. 

[exeggcute]

I only just hit chapter six of death stranding so I very well may end up eating my words on this (also, very mild spoilers abound), but so far I feel like it's waaaay less woman-creepy than the trailers and promo stuff made it seem like it would be? overall it's actually had very few issues in that department imo, almost none, at least by kojima standards (though obviously if we're talking kojima and weird offhanded misogyny then the bar is underground ay this point), but also just a lot of shit that felt like red flags before the game came out have mostly panned out into nothing.

like yeah on the face of it, mama and fragile are weird names for your lady characters, but pretty much everyone in the game has very odd or simple names and there are other woman NPCs with less abrasive names (e.g., the chiral artist, the cosplayer, the roboticist) and we do even find out mama's real name (as well as a lot more to her arc). fragile has been a really compelling character so far, she's still a bit of a mystery but I really think she stands strong and clearly has her convictions. also kind of funny that she's a reverse quiet, in a way, but even That Scene wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. I still can't get a read on bridget and amelie's arcs, but they've both got a pretty solid foundation and I'm interested to see where that ends up. lockne is really neat, without spoiling that whole deal.

I don't know if this is one of those things where like, the marketing was just out of touch with the game itself, or if it was specifically pandering to the weirdo crowd, or if we all just had a collective bad taste in our mouths knowing what kojima has done in the past, or what. there's still time to massively fuck it all up, but I'm (hesitantly) relieved to see that kojima either (1) finally learned that woman are people, (2) hired at least one woman on his team and got some competent writers to help him be normal, or (3) somehow no longer is forced to insert a mandatory sexism quota by the overlords at konami. my bet's on two but who knows

[heartschoicegames]

Heart’s Choice Author Interview: RoAnna Sylver, “Dawnfall”

Find true love and family with a pirate crew at the ends of the universe, where aliens, ghosts, and portals open the space between worlds...and your heart. You are a Navigator, one who creates and guards portals from one dimension to another, wary of the liminal sea between them.

Your universe is made of two worlds: one contains the magic-infused world of Zephyria, and the other, the dystopian space station Eclipse. The worlds are balanced, until one day, an explosive disaster, a deadly energy storm, and an infamous pirate—the Ghost Queen—upend your life and plunge you into a race to save both worlds.

Dawnfall is a 232,000 word interactive romance novel by RoAnna Sylver,  one of the first set of games releasing with the launch of Heart’s Choice. I sat down with the author, RoAnna Sylver, to talk about writing interactive romance. Heart’s Choice games release December 2nd.

Dawnfall has frankly an insanely wonderful setting for a romance game. Tell me about the aliens, the pirates, the ghosts, and the alien-pirate-ghosts.

Hi there! I’m so glad you think this sounds fun! Yeah, Dawnfall is weird as heck, and that’s one of the things I love about this story. It’s weird in a way I don’t think we’ve seen much of before. I really just tried to put in everything I find fun or interesting, and that I’ve always wanted to write. Dawnfall started out as a total brain-candy project, and runs on pure Rule of Cool. Pirates? Yes. Magic? Yes. A slice of cyberpunk? Hell yes. Eerie ghosts and faerie-tale influences and memory-sharing potions? Giant bird people? The power of rock n’roll? Yes, yes, yes.

And also everybody’s dateable, and in a couple cases, dating each other. We weave a tangled web, but I think it’s a pretty badass and spectacular web.

You seem to really neatly straddle the genre fence here with a romance and sci-fi/fantasy. What was challenging about cramming all of that into one game?

Thank you so much for saying that. I’ve always adored SFF, and there’s so much in this genre-collection, so many extremes and concepts and contrasting colors, that I couldn’t limit myself to picking just one to play with. This weird game-book is kind of a love letter to fantasy and science fiction and haunted house stories and cyberpunk adventures—I thought a lot about the Disney movie Treasure Planet for its genre-blending beauty, and the Bioware game Mass Effect for its array of fascinating, multidimensional alien cuties to interact with and date… and then turned it up to eleven.

I guess you’d expect the challenge to be in making it all fit together/be “believable,” but I kind of threw that out the window. I don’t expect anyone to find it ‘realistic’ (setting-wise anyway; I tried to make every character ring true of course), and I don’t really care if someone thinks it’s silly, or doesn’t take it seriously. It is silly in a lot of ways. DAWNFALL is a giant ridiculous queer space magic pirate adventure, and the only goal is fun. If you have fun, I’ve done my job, and there should be something fun in here for everyone.

Did you have a favorite NPC you enjoyed writing most?

Honestly I love them all so much in different ways, and I know them so well by now it’s really second nature. Their voices come so easily and they’re all so much fun. The Queen’s swagger is awesome though, and her mental voice/mannerisms probably come through especially clearly. I love Zenith’s vulnerable moments when xie lets xir guard down and lets go of the need to entertain or please. I love Averis’s journey and growth from cute wibbly nerd to a confident swashbuckler (who is also still a cute wibbly nerd). I love how deeply Oz feels, how strongly he loves and remembers and honors memory, and how unafraid he is to show softness and warmth. And I love a certain spoilery ghost-babe and how they’re so full of joy at the beauty of life.

I do want to give special mention to Aeon, though. This is a story about connection, and I wanted to show that sibling bonds are every bit as important and strong as romantic or any other. I also wanted to show a complex, multidimensional antagonist figure who holds heartbreaking secrets along with authority, and is genuinely trying to do what she thinks is the best thing, and wants what’s best for you, the PC, even if you might not always agree. Her balance between being so emotionally guarded and determined and unyielding, while hopefully being extremely easy to read and tell what she wants and fears and loves—spoiler: you; she loves you!—was a challenge I hope I pull off.

…Also I enjoy any time Vyranix gets his pompous feathered ass handed to him. I think we all know a Vyranix, or at least of one, and it’s always fun to take them down, even in fantasy.

Who would you be romancing as a player?

I’m gonna say “everyone,” and here it won’t actually be cheating, because you can romance everyone! At once! In varying degrees/relationship dynamics and attractions. You don’t see a lot of polyamory-friendly games or books or anything really, and this is an incredibly important thing for me. The second I got the idea for Dawnfall I knew it had to let players romance anyone they wanted and show polyamory in a realistic, healthy light. I’m also a-spec (asexual and aromantic), and having not just good representation but being actively included and welcomed and celebrated in fiction is so huge too.

Dawnfall is a romance of course, being part of Heart’s Choice, but one of the single most vital elements for me is making it inclusive for aromantic and asexual players and player-characters. Essentially, I wanted to write a romance that didn’t penalize players for not experiencing the attractions the way we’re otherwise expected or required—and I’m so grateful that my amazing editors and community not only accepted but supported everything I was trying to do here. (It’s so refreshing not to have to fight for inclusion and freedom. It shouldn’t be, but it is.)

And that’s where the concept of “Heart-Stars” and “Same-Feathers” came from. I’ve never seen anything honor queerplatonic relationships like I’m trying to do here, and I want everyone, of every sexuality and attraction, to feel like they have a place here and can experience this adventure without limits. And I wanted to show that it’s a very normal thing, hence this being the same for the human characters as well as alien. (One of the nonbinary characters being human is also no mistake. I love me some wild alien genders, but there are tons of awesome nonbinary humans too!)

…That being said, I think I gave Averis most of my anxiety-issues, and would really just like to curl up with Oz and watch The Great British Bake-Off. That sounds like a perfect night in my books.

What were some of the things you found surprising about the game-writing process?

Coding was definitely the biggest learning curve. I’d never coded anything before in my life, and it’s such a new skillset to learn, entirely different from any kind of writing I’ve ever done. Sometimes it felt rewriting my brain, which did not at all do this intuitively—and also sometimes like I bit off much more than I could chew (first game ever being not only a huge piece of interactive fiction, but a polyamorous romance with aro and ace possibilities, and so many more variables than expected!), but it’s been worth it. Entirely. If my writing makes anyone feel seen and accepted and invited to have fun as they are, it’s worth every bit of struggle.

Also, oddly, interactive fiction is in some ways easier for me than writing a plain old book! Probably because I love AUs so much, and every choice in a game is like writing a tiny AU of the story, so I get to do the same scenes several different ways. My ADHD-brain finds something about this extremely satisfying, most likely because it somehow feels more like multitasking! Several stories in one, and if I like two ideas, I don’t have to pick just one to write!

Honestly though, I think the most surprising part is just being done, and…that I could do this at all. It was so huge, and took so long, and I learned so much, and every day I’m just kind of going “who the hell am I?” about doing all of this. I’m proud of it. I did a cool thing. And trying to get better at saying that.

And, what are you working on now?

I always have about 8 active projects going at once (which shouldn’t come as a surprise after last question!), but my next interactive fiction game is with Tales/Fable Labs! It’s shaping up to be a Dawnfall-sized project, but a little faster-moving and action-y.

It’s called Every Beat Belongs To You, and it’s a romantic thriller that feels like Twin Peaks meets Mr. Robot, with a smattering of Repo: The Genetic Opera. A creepy Pacific Northwest town with a secret (and a rash of ritualized murders), a super-slick medical research company whose flagship product is a 100% perfect synthetic heart, a mysterious new-age group, and a sister who went missing just before discovering how it’s all connected. Also five simultaneously-dateable (including ace and aro ships!) cuties of varying genders! Who will you trust with your heart?

I’m very excited about Everybeat, which should be just as queer, polyam, exciting, and weird as all my stuff! Aside from that, I’m working on Stake Sauce Book 2, its companion f/f vampire series Death Masquerade, and Chameleon Moon Book 3. I’m not always working…sometimes there are videogames, and sleep. But I really hope to have a lot more fun things to share soon!

Oh, and depending on how this weird, fun thing goes, I do have some ideas for prequel Dawnfall stories; maybe games, maybe books, but the ideas are there. The world—worlds, really—is so huge, and I’m not done playing in it yet! I also have some character art drawn, and I want to do a lot more of them. It’s another way to show love.

So thank you so much! I really hope Dawnfall is as fun to everyone to read/play as it was for me to write. I can’t wait to share it with you!

[joyful-mollymauk]

Code’s Molly Theories

Molly Theories Index 

1) indicators that Matt & Tal have stuff planned 2) possible ties between Molly's and Clay's backstories/arcs 3) Lucien's ritual: both his intent and the spellslinger's 4) possible NPC activity going on regarding a rez 5) what a returned Molly-Lucien-other might be like 6) the fire bird

Molly Theory part 1 Matt & Tal Indicators Matt’s first objective is to run a fun game for his friends, and his second is to tell an amazing and coherent story. Back in Campaign 1, resurrecting characters was standard practice, starting with Pike’s low-level death pre-stream. So we know Matt is not opposed to making every rez possible. 

Tal has been crafting Molly’s character since way back in Campaign 1 and was itching to play him even back then. And when Molly died, Tal admitted that he cried all night long and didn’t get any sleep. 

The M9 were gearing up to attempt a rez in episode 27 and then inexplicably acted like rez magic didn’t exist in ep 29. No in-game reason was given for this sudden about-face, so we can only conclude it was an out-of-game decision. 

Only Matt and Tal have authority to call a halt on rezzing Molly. Given the rez frequency last campaign, all the loose story threads, and the sheer amount of love Tal poured into Molly, it wouldn’t make sense for him to just move on. So why else call a halt to rez attempts? 

The only explanations I see are to wait and try at higher levels, when the chance of success is higher, let Tal play a different character temporarily, or leave Molly’s fate purely in the hands of the DM. 

Matt has woven something grand into Molly’s backstory, including a whole cult following, a botched (?) ritual, and a mysterious spellslinger of unknown intent. He’s already had Molly rise from the grave once, giving him plenty of leeway (and a narrative drive) to do so again.

Further evidence of this intent is how gleefully smug Tal got whenever Matt made reference to Molly being dead. As if Tal was excited about that but trying not to say anything. Tal also built Clay with an easy way to leave the narrative whenever it suits him. This is very useful when you know a character is temporary. 

Tal has mentioned that he keeps Molly leveled up along with the rest of the M9. He also slips right back into reacting as Molly whenever stuff about him is mentioned. This proves how ready and eager Tal would be to bring Molly back into the game! He’s waiting patiently but is definitely excited, and oh how ecstatic he’ll be at Molly’s return.

Molly Theory part 2 Lucien & Clay Backstories Clay’s family lived in the woods outside SCR. Something has been twisting the things that live there, and the firbolgs who went to investigate never returned. Lucien ran a cult (?) in that same forest. Whatever they were involved in was magical, secretive, and likely not something the public would approve of. What are the chances of these facts being separate when Matt loves to tie things together? 

Lucien apparently died and came back to life, and Clay is a death cleric who opposes undeath vehemently. If Lucien is tied up in something necromantic, Clay is perfectly designed to combat that. 

Given all this, my personal theory is that investigating the forest’s ailment for Clay will lead the party straight into Molly’s backstory. And, quite possibly, something occupying Molly’s body!

Molly Theory part 3 Lucien’s Ritual  Cree’s impression of Lucien’s ritual was that he was trying to reach “The City.” Whatever the ritual entailed was similar enough to death that Lucien instructed them to not do anything right away if he appeared actually dead. 

 Entering a near-death state to travel sounds like astral projection. The lengths they went through and the apparent danger involved suggest The City couldn’t be reached by normal means. Or perhaps he just needed to get there without his body. 

 But! The ritual was being performed by someone outside of the Tomb Takers and did not have the effect Lucien expected. Either the spellslinger genuinely tried and failed or did something else under the guise of the ritual. 

 The ritual, as it was cast, left Lucien’s body as a nearly empty shell, with only fragments of his original self remaining. If this was the spellslinger’s intent, then perhaps she was trying to clear him out completely so something else could move in. This would mean her first attempt failed. But now that his body is truly empty, she might have the opportunity to try again! 

 So. Why Lucien? If we’re going with this theory, there must be something special enough about him to warrant that level of attention. Perhaps she was simply there to get the book and has no further interest. But those red “eye” marks are not mundane, and Matt very likely jumped on that detail and made them significant.

Molly Theory part 4 Possible NPC Involvement There are three NPCs in play who might involve themselves in “Molly rez” shenanigans. First, there’s Cree. She reveres Lucien far more than the Gentleman, knows that he has died “again,” and has people she can contact for help in bringing him back. 

 The most critical person for Cree to contact is that spellslinger from the capital. She both has the book and cast the original ritual that Lucien returned from. But, as mentioned before, this spellslinger may have her own interests with Lucien’s body. 

 And, on the other side of things, is Gustav. He has little in the way of resources, but he has been set loose by Clay to go take responsibility for whatever grievous wrong he’s been punishing himself over. Interestingly enough, Gustav is also from SCR! He somehow found Molly near his gravesite, cared for him patiently, and helped him grow to be a good person. He also somehow knew about those three demigod-like entities, turning their story into a circus performance way back in episode one! (He portrays the phoenix, or “fire fairy,” as a heroic warrior, fighting for the light.) 

 So. What is he guilty for? Is his story connected to Lucien’s as well? If Gustav gets involved in all this, he’s the only NPC who will be trying to recover Molly. 

Tin hat: Once the M9 encounter Not-Molly, Gustav will reappear as an ally to help them get him back.

Molly Theory part 5 Not-Molly My favorite Not-Molly theory is an avatar of that bird creature, but we’ve got other options too. The spellslinger could be working with some other entity, like a powerful Kryn. Perhaps she wants him as her own puppet, winter soldier style. Or she could actually bring Lucien back, with or without Molly in there as well. 

 We’ve got a lot of unknowns, but one thing is certain: it would be silly of Matt and Tal not to do something with this! 

 Personal hope: we get to see Tal play an evil Not-Molly and giddily torment everybody.

Molly Theory part 6 The Fire Bird Matt has presented the M9 with a mural depicting Ukatoa, a fire bird, and a giant worm. And way back in episode one, Gustav told tale of a mystical serpent that gifts abilities, a “fire fairy�� that fights for the light, and terrible beasts whose “bellowing roars will quake the lands of Xhorhas and beyond.” 

“But from that night, a burning light doth keep back shadows’ bane. The strength to fight will set alight the morning sun again. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Ornna the fire fairy.” -Gustav, C2E1 

 So what’s the connection to Molly? Lucien’s name ALSO means “light,” and he was a (rare!) purple tiefling with a scattering of red marks and (going by the official art) dark gray horns. Interestingly enough, those are the same colors Matt gave the fire bird! 

 It’s unclear what Lucien’s motivations were, but he led the Tomb Takers to split away from their previous order because he had “a new path” for them. Cree later stated that he was their new path. (He had also adopted the title “The Nonagon,” which sounds connected to his nine red marks that could not be covered with tattoos.) 

 So. A purple-gray tiefling, named after the light, is granted nine magical red marks that bring him in perfect alignment with the fire bird’s aesthetics. He then becomes the new path for a cult. That sounds like a deliberate link to me. 

 Tin hat: Lucien’s body was sanctified to become that bird’s avatar. And when the M9 catch up to these events, they’ll meet The Nonagon instead.

And that’s what she’s got so far! If anyone has questions you’re welcome to send them in to joyful-mollymauk and I’ll send them on to Code! I’ll also update the Code’s Molly Theories tag when any new canon lore comes along to update these theories or spawn some new ones! 

Thank you Code!!!

[itsprobablyhubris]

1, 2, 3, 19, 25, 31, 37, 41!

Thank you, I appreciate everyone sending me questions. This’ll be long so here’s hoping the ‘read more’ thing works on this one

1. What do you think your d&d race would be?

Aesthetically, I really like drow, aasimar, and tieflings (not in an edgy way they just have good vibes). As for what I’d be, probably a genasi because we are doomed to become the things we hate, and I just have never looked at a genasi and felt happiness.

2. What class?

I’ve heard bard or wizard thrown around before, and the more I study the more I am inclined to think cleric or bard. My advantage in most of my work, professional and hobby, is that I can sustain intense passion in a thing and love sharing it with others. My powers of memory and analysis are based on that love- so a devotional cleric or acolyte bard would be the best articulation of my approach to things and greatest strengths.

19. How did you discover D&D?

I was invited to a friend’s D&D game in high school and it sounded fun. It really became a central hobby once I started DMing- and that started because my high school friends, hearing about my D&D game, wanted to play their own and I was promptly assigned mandatory DM from experience. 

25. What is your favorite snack for d&d?

Cookies - they are portable, non messy, quiet snacks. Perfect for DMing.

31. Tell me about your current party!

Despite having like no time, somehow I have multiple parties. My main party is my monster of the week game I’m DMing, whom I adore. It has been going on for almost two years now and we have had to modify the system ridiculously to keep it going. 

The character are: Cecily Blair, the Professional Hex, a Floridian raised as a keeper for haunted clown dolls containing malevolent spirits who came to Phoenix to study engineering. Over the course of the game, she gained quite the suite of clown powers, brought terrible beings into the world, learned to draw magic from aspects of her soul to replace her dangerous and unstable clown powers, got infected with a terrible spirit parasite, and is now weaning herself off of magic entirely by learning how to fight traditionally. Chaotic, funny, and trying very hard to be better.

Katherine Hernandez, the Monstrous Summoned. Daughter of a Flagstaff professor and fledgling cryptozoologist, Kat started as more of a researcher than a fighter. Paranoid, anxious, and deeply lacking in self confidence, Kat voluntarily infected herself with Lycanthropy to make herself more ‘useful’ to the team. She has consistently exposed herself to more and more occult forces and has become a vessel for the Amarok- the primeval force that all werewolves began from- entering the world. Her downward spiral into dark avatar has been great.

Esperanza Rae, The Chosen Construct, was originally a Coutl- a feathered serpent in service to Quetzalcoatl, the Mexica rainbow serpent God of knowledge and goodness. They slipped down to Earth in human form to experience the world and cherish it, only to find themselves hunted by other divine forces. Increasingly cornered, Rae attracted other coutl that saw them as the chosen Champion of Quetzalcoatl and has since become a habitual martyr- sacrificing more and more of themselves for others until they traded their body away. They now inhabit an obsidian construct body and while the odds remain awful, they remain a force for good. Rae is just a very loving, kind, fun character.

Erin Pito, the Initiate, is a new member played by the same player as Rae, She was previously an NPC who was marginalized by the party- always on the outside looking in while the world fell apart around them. She now has magic and a school of new age wizards to fight for! Perhaps the most normal person here! 50% gamer, 50% wine mom, 100% wizard.

Emily Lowe, the Professional Searcher, began as Cecily’s roommate- a former criminal with cartel connections and a mysterious past. After being attacked by monsters coming after the team, Emily joined the party and was confronted by her past: the mysterious organization she once worked for trafficked supernatural goods for sinister buyers, and wanted her back on their payroll. Balancing her criminal agency with the party, she began unlocking psychic potential connected to a mysterious figure puppetmastering her life: Sariah, an ancient lich who constructed Emily as an occult vessel to ascend with. Emily is just the right mixture of harsh and kind; closed off and open. Her arc’s been great and she brings a really fun dynamic to the party.

 Anyways, I love this party a lot. We’ll probably be ending soon, but this is perhaps my favorite party I’ve ever run.

On the side, I’m also solo-session with another friend- Savros, a human battlemaster in DnD. He’s the ‘straight man’ in the face of a wild and wacky world of torment and I love him.

37. What is the most recent PC or NPC you’ve created?

  Most recent PC? Probably Virtue, a tiefling shadow sorcerer raised by a crime family as muscle. 70% self-hatred, 10% despair, and 20% good intent, Virtue was mysteriously teleported to a wacky world of nightmares that she quickly decided is definitely hell and is not going to stop thinking that. 

41. Give an out of context quote from one of your games!

I usually don’t write down quotes on stuff, especially since I’m usually the DM. The only one  I’ve got is “I don’t want to cause a scene in front of the shadow man... that’d be embarrassing”

[tumblunni]

Also in the time of complete random kh headcanon thoughts, i was trying to think up a new 'beginning town' type area for my khux oc, or maybe just a set of actual npcs for the default daybreak town. Like how traverse town got mostly ff7 people + squall and twilight town got the other ff8 people but theyre all kids for some reason and also the ff10-2 protagonists are pocket sized fairies?? I just lije the idea that all the finak fantasy cameos happen in the hometown places and its a fun chance to reinterpret what if different games's heroes all grew up together as friends.

So anyway i was thinking maybe ff9? Cos i still think its criminal that we've had multiple from other games but only ONE ff9 character, and one in a mostky nonspeaking role that showed none of his personality cos he was possessed immediately after being introduced. Also like seriously they wasted all the potential plot resonance of Vivi?? I mean he's just a normal kid npc?? Despite looking like a heartless and literally actually being a monster boy. And specifically an artificial human who struggles with identity issues, which is so relevant to every damn protagonist! But i mean seriously they literally based the heartless on the black mages and theres a literal black mage class of heartless thats named after the black waltz supersoliders specifically from ff9. How in the FUCK did we not get a plot where this alternate universe vivi is a heartless? I mean maybe it could be a plot about the twilight town crew being haunted by this heartless form of their dead friend that they couldnt protect? Or like vivi could still be a totally innocent nice monster who just wants to live a hapoy human life. He could be like one step below Xehanort's heartless in terms of self awareness and stuff? Like he's sentient but he isnt able to remember his old life or hold together a humanlike appearance. And i dunno maybe its a tragic story of him always trying to befriend this older mentor figure person who's always super cold and like 'i cant trust heartless, this thing is just trying to trick me!' But then it turns out this is because vivi was actually their lil brother and theyre like.. 'gotta come to terms with the fact tmhe isnt coming back' but then he did come back and he doesnt recognise them :( i think vivi would work really well for this cos he already had a bunch of strong siblingy relationships in canon and itd be real cool to see other people in that role instead. Im leaning towards maybe squall? Cos his canonical plot involves losing a sibling being the cause of his gruff personality. (Tho an older sis instead of a lil bro) And all we know about kh Squall's past is that SOMETHING MYSTERIOUS happened to make him change his name to Leon and act all even more self hatey than usual...

ALSO! CONSIDER! Steiner and beatrix as guards at holliw bastion. I mean geez steiner is the most disney lookin character in the whole series!

Oh and maybe Quina could just be a general nice npc that runs a restaurant in the starting area? They'd be cool cos they have a really big and unusual personality for just a small shopkeeper role. And i can imagine them totally being like a parental figure to daybreak town and always bakin cakes for the new keyblade recruits, but at the same time being a goofy mess who always gets into stupid situations. Like guildmaster wigglytuff in pmd!

And im not exactky sure how but somehow find a way to include underloved characters who didnt get enough development in their original game. Like maybe Freya is the cool batman esque protector of the town? And i really have no idea what to do with amarant but please give amarant a bit of screentime for once please.

Oh and cool npcs!! Like what if Ragtime Mouse appeared again and did his quiz show minigame in KH too? Im still sad he didnt become a regular in every FF game.

And i dunno maybe COMPLETELY RANDOMEST IDEA, have the final fantasy tactics advance crew appear in the toy story world in kh3? Cos their plot was all about 'is this world real or not' it could be funny to spoof that and have them as literal toys, going thru movie 1 buzz's story arc

[hoenn-hakase]

TPP Bronze: Day 8. The End

Where we last saw Fifer, she had just become Champion for both Kohto and Kanto and had begun to explore the lengths of her domain as she'd hardly knew anything about Kanto. Prof. Koa gave her a Cave Pass that allowed her to go through Cerulean Cave where she found and fought her toughest opponent yet: TPP's own, AJ. Unable to beat him, she returned to Kanto's mainland where she seems to be seeking the greatest treasure of all: Her Purpose.

We start the day bright and early in Vermilion City. Having never been in a port city, but having been in a train station, Fifer sure wanted to check out the docks. What would be found down there? A big fancy boat? A rare pokemon in hiding? A gateway to HELL? Well.... APPARENTLY! D8!

Going down the stairs to where the loading area normally would be, Fifer instead stepped out of the port and into the Glitch Worl!!! Which bizarrely enough, also seems to be the source of the Plague o' Rocks that's been slowly trying to encase Kohto for some time now. A stray NPC tries to ask her if she came from Johto and admires her rare Pokemon he wonders can be found there. Glitch Worl seems to be a pretty enclosed space, having the doors blocked and buildings too fragmented to hold anything. No treasure to be found... So Fifer heads back to the Lost Boy and decides to ask the.... clone? Yes, she didn't notice at first, but there's a girl in blue who turned toward Fifer when she tried to get the girl's attention, and... SHE LOOKS JUST LIKE HER???

The girl suddenly takes her through another doorway, (down the rabbit hole indeed...) where she found herself suddenly TRAPPED in a mess of world fragments and somewhere in the distance, a horn blows, signalling that they're being taken away somewhere. Even as she can feel the "ship" moving, she eventually manages to kick the door open and stepped out to find... she was still in the same place. In front of the fragmented gym of the town she departed from anyway. How strange. Talking to another girl this time, or what she THOUGHT was another girl, turned out to be some copy of her as well and the pair of Fifers decided to shove her back into the pocket dimension to seal her away.

Wriggling out the side door this time, Fifer seemed to be quite put out with this place, and these... "twins" and decided to see if she could just fly back to Cerulean City. Somehow... that worked? She eventually went back to do a bit of a test, and certainly the port still lead into the Glitch Worl. But she could leave it just as easily with Fly. Having learned this, she heads back to the League, presumably to talk with the council about barring off the docks until they figure out how to prevent people from falling into The Void.

After dealing with those bugs, Fifer decides to go beat up some real bugs and does a long grind session in the Viridian Forest where she stumbles across a fisherman who is mad about someone telling him there was a good fishing spot there, but only bugs!

Feeling her training is complete, it's time to rechallenge AJ! And fail. ... Multiple times. So instead it's BACK to training! Off to the League to again get the help and advice of her fellow League members. There's something troubling about all this, I'm sure. AJ is known destroyer. Has he only been going easy on her?

Things only turn weirder (and Glitchier? Come on, Bronze you were holding up so well....;o; ) as she has a total WHITE out

Perhaps the answer isn't just in sheer brute strength, but something... more. Remembering Sabrina's words in how the power of the bond Fifer has with her Pokemon, the love they share, is more powerful than anything, Fifer appears to be working on strengthening her bond with Lucy

Working her way through the LITERAL Maze of Trees, Fifer finds a hidden house that seems to be some kind of Game Corner... Only there's no games inside the building. Instead a shady man tells her CONGRATS on her excellent sleuthing skills in being able to find the Secret Room. His friend then proceeds to give her AS MANY MASTER BALLS AS SHE WANTS 8O 8O 8O The chat proceeds to get so many, the game goes into a sort of "hyper mode" where the music, text, and character movements all suddenly move at an accelerated pace to speed things up XD

Having been deemed a Master of Glitchcraft, Fifer decides to test her strength elsewhere. She eventually heads to the Kanto Power Plant, where she walked through the door into the Old Couple's house in the heart of Deep Cave. Stepping out of the house proved she was, in fact, still in the cave, so it wasn't that they were removed to the Power Plant, but that she figured out how to create a portal of her own. Digging her way out, she returned to the Power Plant entrance just fine. Magic~ 8D <3

Fifer seems very excited to discover such powers and immediately decides she MUST try this elsewhere to give herself confidence in this new ability. She returns to the Glitch Worl and proves she doesn't even need to Fly to leave this weird place, as she can just step back through the doorway she created to enter it. Entering and leaving Vermilion City Gym also appears to form a gateway, giving her a shortcut back to Memoria Town.

A new plan forges as she seems to piece things together, eventually setting up a gateway at the entrance to Dark Tunnel that would lead her directly into Cerulean Cave so she could bypass the guards and go more quickly after AJ. In the end it was a long, and hard fought battle but with a bit of luck and strategizing, we FINALLY CLAIM VICTORY! >O

AJ actually doesn't have much to say (not to US anyway XD) and just as mysteriously as he appeared to Fifer.... he vanished. Leaving one to wonder if he was ever truly there... The credits roll and the Chat cries and Fifer... Well Fifer managed to warp into the game's true finale. A mysterious lookout spot where she could see all of Kohto through a lense and found --?!! waiting for her with a happy Congrats on her completing all there is to do in their tiny home. She also meets with Freako, a strange man who thanks for playing "the game". One of Koa's aides is even there, saying the professor sends his regards. Everyone's so proud of her ;o;

As she talks to all the people, and takes in the sights, her ItemFinder starts going off. A... a treasure? It doesn't appear to be in the building, but stepping outside reveals the "lookout" is in a house by the sea. It... It's Cerulean Cape! I mean, Enders Isle. Fifer continues to look around the clearing it sits in, thoroughly cut off from the rest of civilization. The ItemFinder starts to react to something outside now... she follows... She follows until she finds herself back in the gateway to Cerulean Cave and a soft mist fills the area. The Voices leave, some sending hearts and well wishes as they do so. The game ends.

This was long but still kind of fun. I think if I do this for the next run, I'll start doing it from Day 1 so hopefully I won't be SO far behind as I started this when it was almost over. I know my points of interest are kind of wonky, but I hope I could at least make these info-dumps amusing at least. Thanks! <3

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay, well since no one asked about it, here's a few bonus notes and lore ideas to come up while I was going through all this.

The PokeGear was back in full swing this run, and we had several numbers calling us at all hours of the day, but the ones that stood out to me the most were: Youngster Zach, Camper Nate, Lass Dana, and PokeFan Beverly. I suppose given the chat's reactions whenever one of them called had something to do with it. (Dana is Bae though apparently)

I'm not sure if it was a bug or what triggered it, but while we were in Viridian Forest, Mom called after EVERY. SINGLE. TRAINER. to tell us she went and bought something and it's in the PC. Whether she was pushing for PC use or simply seems to be gaining a bit of a shopping addiction due to just how much dough Fifer's been raking in through her battle and treasure hunting skills, it was really funny. I really do wonder if the same phone call just kept getting triggered even though she only meant to call us once, or if there actually was a new item in the PC for every time she called, but we'll never know.

For anyone curious, I believe I saw we had 171 Master Balls over the course of Bronze. According to Kelcyus: "and most Masterball'd mons: Master Alakazam, Master Golbat, Master Graveler, Master Goldeen and Master Tangela which was caught with the original masterball."

Speaking of, Kelcyus made a comic about the incident, but I didn't actually notice it since I was more or less skimming over events in my vid watching so while skimming I didn't see anything out of place with a trainer battle and the continuing on down Route 9 toward the Power Plant though knowing that the area was off limits now explains SO MUCH about the stuff that happened in that area. Like the gateways to different areas because nothing was programmed in place of the Power Plant and Rock Tunnel and so forth. If I calculated correctly, the Edna OH SHIT incident happened back on Day 7. While it's hilarious that after turning into a Magicarp, Edna accuses us of hacking, the truth is, the gate house to the underground between Cerulean City and Vermilion City was meant to block the path to Route 9. Instead it was about two spaces over, creating a one space gap for Fiver to simply walk through and then use Cut on the tree as normal.

While I keep making jokes about the Plague o Rocks that seems to be tormenting Kohto (that one village I never got the name for, Acre Forest, Cerulean Cape, ect all having the large square boulders blocking off places for seemingly no reason) and then finding them EVERYWHERE in the Glitch Worl, and the stray NPC still talking about Johto, (as well as a few others like in Saffon and in the Route 9 forbidden zone) I can't help but wonder if the random rocks are Glitchwork or actually (from a lore prospective) actually from the remnants from Brown when Johto was basically buried due to (I thiiiiink?) an earthquake. Seeing how Kohto and Kanto are directly connected, and both areas have these rocks to some extent, and Johto was basically destroyed, I wonder how far flung the effects of that disaster struck. o.O;

And that's all I can think of at the moment. ^ w ^

[bjkwhite]

Dangerous Dangerous Dinosaurs DeDeDeDe Destruction

RePlay Productions

presents

Dangerous Dangerous Dinosaurs DeDeDeDe Destruction

This is a 'replay' of a gaming session. It does not reflect what happened at the table with 100% accuracy, and has been edited and condensed to provide a more readable, interesting, entertaining and educational experience. Hours of nonsense and off-topic conversations have been excluded for the sake of brevity and my own sanity. No dice rolls were altered, no consequences were changed. Names have been changed to protect both guilty and innocent alike.

The system being used is Escape From Dino Island, by Sam Tung and Sam Roberts, available at https://samnite.itch.io/escapefromdinoisland.

This replay is also available here, in PDF or epub format: https://bjkwhite.itch.io/replay

Please enjoy the circular escapades of these three good girls.

session one: is that really the name

Truth: Welcome ... to Dino Island.

Chaos: Well I'm not playing unless we immediately come up with a more interesting name than that.

Hope: Dangerous Dinosaur Island.

Order: It was called that even before the dinosaurs showed up. It's an amazing coincidence.

Truth: Before we get too sidetracked, has anyone looked at the rules?

Chaos: I mean I looked at them in the sense that I can see them there on the table.

Hope: I looked at the characters, I want to be The Engineer!

Order: I read through them, except for the DM parts because I thought you'd probably want to keep them a surprise. This is a Powered by the Apocalypse game? I couldn't find the stats we use, though, they're not on the character sheets?

Note: We weren't using the proper character sheets because I am a big dummy who didn't realise you have to download the demo files even though that's specifically mentioned on the game page as an Important Note. Thank you, carry on.

Truth: Oh, they're at the start of the character creation thing. Um, just a second ... Fit, Clever, and Steady. You pick +2, +1 and -1 for them, or for Hard Mode it's +2, 0, and -1. Just write them anywhere on your sheets once you've picked which character you want.

Chaos: Do we want to play on Hard Mode? How hard is Hard Mode? Or do we pick individually? I'm going to play on Hard Mode, and I will be, hmm ... The Soldier seems a bit too macho man for me, same with The Hunter ... oh, maybe The Survivor? Like a wild girl or something? Cave girl!

Hope: If you do that then I am expressly forbidding you from making references to that movie I haven't seen.

Chaos: You're really gonna have to narrow that down for me.

Hope: You know, the one you two always go on about, 'chickpea, chickpea', that one.

Chaos: Tay inna win, chickabee! Tay inna win! But now that you've put it in my head I am DESPERATE to play a Nell character.

Truth: Just to pour a little oil on these potentially troubled waters, might I also suggest the possibility of a Newt character?

Chaos: Gasp! They mostly come out at night ... mostly...

Hope: I'm okay with that one, even though it's another reference I don't get.

Chaos: Hope, she doesn't have bad dreams because she's a doll.

Hope: I might already be regretting this.

Order: There's not really a tanky character, is there? Maybe The Soldier. I feel like you people might need some protection.

Truth: Okay, so everyone's picked? Done your stats? Picked names and such?

Hope: I'm The Engineer, Clara "Widget" Wadjet, tiny and cute with huge glasses and messy hair.

Order: In a ponytail?

Hope: Twintails! But just little ones, because her hair is actually quite short. She wears overalls with colourful badges on them, and normally a flat cap but she lost it. Oh, and my stats are Fit -1, Clever +2, Steady +1.

Chaos: Well, I'm The Survivor, Tui Moon, an awkward baby, could be anything from a big ten to a small fifteen I guess, big dark eyes, huge mass of unbrushed unwashed hair. My stats are Fit +2, Clever +0, Steady -1. I spook easy.

Order: I'm The Soldier, Mackenzie Blue, but I prefer Max. I'm solidly built, with a calm and serious personality. I think I'm probably ex-military, working as a private bodyguard or something now, or maybe I just have that background. We'll see. My stats are Fit +1, Clever -1, Steady +2.

Truth: Okay, so let's get this thing set up. We've got a "Here's The Situation" sheet right here, and we can either roll or just choose from each thing.

Chaos: Hmm ... how about rolling first and then we'll see how we react to what we get?

Truth: Okay, a three ... you're here to explore or research.

Chaos: Just checking, but there's dinosaurs running around all crazy and stuff, right? Is it literally Jurassic Park or can it be, like, I don't know, completely different?

Truth: It can be completely different to Jurassic Park. I think the only constant is, like you said, there are going to be dinosaurs running around all crazy and stuff.

Chaos: One more thing, when does it actually start, like is it with these two arriving on the island, are they with a group, when do they meet the little wild girl Tui, is that the first scene, why am I asking so many questions all in a row without giving you a chance to answer any, when will I stop, am I even able to stop, why hasn't anyone interrupted me yet, why are you just letting me keep going?

Hope: I think we were seeing how far you could take it. Um, I think this is sort of a thing where we get dropped into the middle of the first crisis? Like in Frontier Kingdoms, you don't do the planning or see the slow start of a thing, you just roll and then deal with the first obstacle.

Truth: It's pretty similar to that—is everyone okay with you two being explorers?

Hope: Well, I was sort of thinking that maybe I got called in as an expert in repairs? And Max got assigned as a bodyguard or something? Oh, maybe she was already on the island? Actually this is quite hard if we don't know the situation.

Truth: The story pattern here is, you arrive on the island, you see your first dinosaur, something goes wrong, then it puts you somewhere with dinosaurs going crazy, and you have to get off the island and also maybe solve a mystery.

Chaos: Ooh, I like the mystery part. Maybe Widget and Max are a team already, like whatever reason they're here they got called in together? Because of my character's whole deal I think whatever went wrong had to have gone wrong like at least a few weeks earlier. So either they don't know about that, like they got contracted and never got told that things have gone crazy on the island, or maybe they're being called in to deal with one specific thing?

Order: It could be that we have nothing to do with the operations on the island. Someone is paying us to retrieve something here. Maybe we specialise in this sort of thing. Only nobody told us there were dinosaurs here.

Hope: I'm okay with that. It makes sense, right? We got paid to do this but they didn't tell us all the specifics. They left a lot of very important information out!

Truth: Okay, so it's Widget and Max being sent in to retrieve, let's see ... actually you don't know, you were just given some coordinates and like a tracking app on your tablet there, Widget. It was all very vague and mysterious, but the amount of money being offered made it hard to refuse.

Order: That's good. That works for me. Max has some debts she needs to pay. People she needs to look after.

Hope: Widget just has a lot of personal projects she needs funding for. She's building a teleporter! So far she's at the "explodes instantly" stage, but she's optimistic that with time and money she can get past that.

Chaos: I'm just the kid of someone on the island, I guess, not sure yet, let's see how things go. Tui might change significantly depending on events.

Truth: Okay, so each of you get a rumour at this point. Something you heard about the island. Widget, where did you hear that someone's engineering new species of plants and animals on the island?

Hope: There was like a Reddit thread about it, it was pretty much the only result when I searched the island's name—

Order: Dangerous Dinosaur Island.

Hope: That's the one! Anyway, someone did an AMA, like about how they got hired to work here but then got let go pretty quickly. Mostly the thread got treated as a joke, it didn't get many upvotes, not many people asked serious questions, but it did mention some genetic engineering stuff, it's not really Widget's area so she was just like "Boring!" and didn't pay much attention to it.

Truth: Okay, nice. Max, this maybe relates to how you got the job, but somehow you learned that getting work here normally requires a two-year contract and even the cleaners were getting paid seven figure salaries.

Order: It was from one of my military friends, passing on information about potential jobs. They didn't take it too seriously. Just sort of like, you might want to look into this if you need work.

Truth: You're still not sure if it's true, because whoever hired you two for this doesn't seem to be part of whatever's going down on Dangerous Dinosaur Island.

Chaos: Is that seriously the name.

Truth: If you have a better suggestion I'm sure we'd all be open to hear it. Anyway, Tui, I think this one's a solid fact for you. Compasses don't work right on the island.

Chaos: Yep, that one's true. Just spin around crazily. Makes navigating a hassle, I tell you.

Truth: So, for Widget and Max, how do you get to the island? Helicopter, boat?

Order: Can there be NPCs too? The pilot or whatever?

Truth: Of course, you can even have more people on your team if you want to.

Hope: Maybe we're part of a bigger group, but then something happens to split us up.

Truth: Let's keep that loose for now, see how things play out. So for the transport, probably a helicopter is easiest? Okay, so you get flown in, the weather is hot and humid, the island craggy and covered in lush greenery. Widget, as you're flying over the island towards the landing pad there's a clear area below you, and you see a herd of animals running across the plains towards the trees.

Hope: Oh, animals! Do I recognise them? I remember that Reddit thread so I actually get pretty interested, like are these something weird and new?

Truth: At first you think they're ostriches or something, some kind of large flightless bird, but then you realise, wait, those aren't birds. Those are dinosaurs! They're chasing something, but you only notice it as it vanishes into the trees, so you don't get a good look at it. The dinosaurs, though, what's Widget's dino-knowledge like?

Hope: Should I roll something?

Truth: Why not, roll your Clever and see what comes up.

Hope: 2d6 plus two then, this is kind of nostalgic almost, it's been ages since we did PbtA—oh, double fives, plus two is twelve! Widget is a complete nerd for dinosaurs!

Truth: Okay, here's a question for the group. What's cooler, classic scaly dinosaurs or feathered birdlike dinosaurs?

Chaos: Birdosaurs for sure.

Order: I agree, I like colourful feathered dinosaurs.

Hope: I like both!

Truth: Okay, so Widget identifies this pack of five brightly coloured, red and orange-feathered dinosaurs as Utahraptors, smart predators that hunt in coordinated packs. As you watch they disappear into the trees in pursuit of their prey, leaving no trace behind.

Hope: "Ah! Max! Dinosaurs! I saw dinosaurs!"

Order: "Of course you did, Widget."

Hope: "No really! It's not like that other time! These were Utahraptors I think! They had feathers! They were pretty."

Order: "Dinosaurs don't have feathers, Widget."

Hope: "No they do! They really do! Why would there be dinosaurs here? Do you think this is a Jurassic Park island?"

Order: "That was just a movie, Widget."

Hope: "It was a book too! Is that why we're getting paid so much? Nobody said about dinosaurs though, did they?"

Order: "Nobody really said much about anything. We get to the coordinates, we find the thing, we put it in this case." I hold up a sturdy case. "Then we go home and get paid. Let's not complicate it with dinosaurs, even imaginary ones."

Hope: "But I really did see them ... I think?"

Truth: Okay, fantastic. I'm already enjoying the Max-Widget dynamic. So, soon after Widget spots those dinos—or did she?—something goes wrong. I think you land safely at least, is Max flying the helicopter?

Order: Yes, why not. Just us two feels right.

Truth: So since I want to quickly involve Tui in this, I think things go wrong after you enter the facility. There's no one around, is the thing. One of the few things you were told is that this is an active research base, with dozens of permanent workers. You were given fake IDs and documents to get you inside, you're both outfitted like maintenance workers, but there's no need for any subterfuge because as I mentioned, nobody's around. So Max, what's your first hint that something's off?

Order: Aside from the place being deserted? The power's down. All the doors are stuck open, because they're the magnetic type. There doesn't look like there's damage to the facilities, but it's a mess.

Truth: I think at that point you run into Tui. What's your introduction scene like, Tui?

Chaos: They probably notice someone—or something—is watching them, following them, then there's a voice from behind them, like, "You guys are new." And you see this mass of hair and big dark eyes.

Truth: Okay, so, before Widget and Max can really react to that, there's an echoing screech from somewhere within the facility. Tui recognises it as trouble.

Chaos: Yep, she's like, "Great. Here we go again. Come on, new guys."

Truth: So Widget, in this situation who do you turn to? Do you trust this wild girl or do you wait for Max to make a decision?

Hope: Hmm. Hmmmm. I've gotten into trouble before on missions, when I decided things for myself, and Max is usually a better judge of people than me, so I turn to Max.

Truth: Max, what's your personal worst case scenario here?

Order: Aliens, probably.

Truth: So Max is thinking that aliens have taken over the island?

Order: Not specifically, she's just thinking, this better not be aliens. I think Tui goes ahead a bit and maybe stops and looks back? Max is still standing there, with Widget looking at her for her reaction, so she sort of sighs and nods and they follow after this strange wild girl, but at a distance.

Truth: Okay, Tui again, what makes you realise you're in serious trouble?

Chaos: Serious trouble, okay, probably different to what I usually have to deal with ... maybe I stop suddenly, hold up my hand, then there's that screeching again, actually quieter this time? But that's not great, because that first screech was a hunting screech, and this second screech is a let's-get-out-of-here screech, and I'm pretty sure the screechers aren't scared of us, so that means something way worse is around.

Truth: Yep, I think Tui could be right. The facility is, let's see, I was thinking mostly prefab buildings, efficient and boring designs, but what do you guys think?

Hope: It's all sort of boxy and metal, but quite wide, and there are lots of planters and things around. Flowers and ferns and flax plants, all kinds of greenery even inside.

Chaos: There are some more permanent buildings further along, but they're not safe. The dinos mostly avoid the prefab areas for some reason, maybe they don't like all the metal or plastic or the echoey corridors.

Order: There aren't any glass windows. There are grids of metal or hard plastic instead.

Truth: Right, in the long corridors especially, at the sides there are long gridded windows. This is a fairly flat, clear part of the island, but surrounded by jungle. The facility has been built up against a very steep hill, pretty much a cliff, but the window here looks out across a clear field, mostly bare earth, with a few vehicles and things, some fences, and then the jungle, and from the jungle hundreds of birds are just bursting into the air.

Hope: Oh dear. Is my dino-knowledge helpful here? Can I guess what's coming?

Truth: You can guess and then Tui can confirm or disagree.

Hope: I don't think she gets specific. Just maybe, "Oh, is something big heading this way?"

Chaos: "T-REX! RUN!"

Truth: Okay, so at this point I think we should go over the last three "Here's The Situation" points. First, you know one way off the island. Do you want to choose or roll?

Order: Well, the helicopter we came in on seems obvious, unless that t-rex destroys it.

Hope: Let's do it like before, we roll and then decide if we want to ignore it.

Truth: Okay ... one, call for rescue at a radio station.

Order: Maybe that's a potential option, but I think the helicopter is our clearest exit.

Truth: Okay, so now, why can't you just leave? I'll roll, three, you've got to wait out a storm.

Order: Well, maybe there's a storm rolling in, but more realistically I think there are two things stopping us. One, there's a t-rex right near the helicopter. We have to lure it away or deal with it. Second, the helicopter needs refuelling or it's not going to make it back to the mainland.

Truth: Those are some good obstacles. Okay, I'm going to say that the refuelling station is right there, but yep, with the t-rex around actually getting the fuel into the helicopter is a major issue. The other thing is, you've still got your job to do. Without whatever it is you're supposed to retrieve, neither of you get paid. Oh, and finally, there's a mystery that needs solving. This is kind of appropriate, I rolled a five which is, 'Why are your compasses malfunctioning, and which way is north?'

Chaos: See? It wasn't just rumour. I knew it wasn't just my compass that's screwy.

Truth: There are also a few other things to keep in mind. One, there are dinosaurs here, and that's super weird. Two, what's the purpose of this facility? And three, clearly something bad happened here. Tui might have some of the answers, but she definitely doesn't know everything. Anyway, right here and now you've got a t-rex bursting out of the trees, letting out an ear-splitting roar, then pausing and sniffing the air. You've got a really great view of it through that gridded window, inside this prefab metal and plastic corridor that suddenly feels a whole lot flimsier than it did a minute ago. What do you do?

Chaos: Do I know this area pretty well? I'm trying to think where I've been hiding for most of the time. You said there was a cliff nearby, like the thing's built up against it? I'm thinking that dinosaurs aren't great at climbing. I think I've got a little cave nest up there, with a rope ladder to climb up and down. I saw the helicopter and came to check out the new guys, then all this happened.

Truth: That's all good, and as for your question about knowing the area, I think you've got a move for that.

Chaos: Oh yeah ... huh ... okay, I sort of have a move, Been Around The Block, I can roll if a place gets mentioned, but it's mostly to see if I know how to get there. What is this place anyway, where we are now, what rooms are off these corridors?

Truth: Mostly storage and workshops near the helicopter pads. It also leads into the more permanent part of the base, although Tui, you mentioned earlier that it's much more dangerous in there.

Chaos: I did, yeah, me and my big fat mouth.

Hope: By the way, even if compasses don't work properly, do we still know where our mission target is?

Truth: It's in the more permanent part of the base. Is Max or Widget the navigator?

Hope: Oh, good question. Um. We could both roll plus Clever, and whoever gets the highest normally does the navigating?

Order: I got a four.

Hope: Twelve, Widget has a map on her tablet, I think. Not just the tracking device thing, or whatever it is that detects the retrieval item, but maybe there's a map of this island and the facility?

Truth: Hmm. Hmmmm. Is there though. Did they have that information, and if so did they provide you with it. Oh, I know the situation. You have a topographical map of the island, with the location of the facility. You also have the coordinates of the item you need to retrieve, and that tracking app to actually locate it once you get close. You have been told that if you can access the base's computer system you might be able to download a map. However, the power's off.

Chaos: But maybe not in the permanent parts? Maybe just in this area?

Truth: There's no power in any part of the research base, because the backup generators were not switched on.

Order: I knew there were going to be backup generators. There are always backup generators.

Truth: By the way, this is all fine because we're still setting things up and getting context, but you guys have to do something about the whole t-rex situation you're in. Maybe this is a good time to review the basic moves? They're very descriptive. You can Run!, you can Look Over There!, which is the distraction move, you can Hide!, you can Take My Hand! which is to help someone who's in trouble, you can Just Do It! which is when you're doing something under pressure, you can Fight!, and you can Hold On To Your Butt! which is the general action movie move. By the way, if it's a group action, like if it's all of you choosing to Run!, then the person with the lowest stat rolls.

Hope: I'm guessing that might be me, with -1 Fit.

Truth: Yep, it would be. However, even if you fail, the other two get away safely, unless they choose not to.

Hope: Oh, that's sort of interesting.

Chaos: Don't gotta outrun the t-rex, just gotta outrun the little nerd.

Order: It makes sense, I like that rule. Should we run, then? I think that's what Tui yelled at us to do, and seeing a t-rex and hearing it roar, it seems like a sensible option.

Hope: I guess I'm rolling then? Okay, here goes ... ten! Terror gives me wings!

Truth: Is that with your minus one?

Hope: Oh. No, it's not. Terror gave me ... water wings?

Truth: Partial success, so either you're still being chased, or you run into something else bad.

Hope: Something else bad is more interesting.

Truth: Okay, so the three of you just run for it from this enormous terrifying t-rex, through corridors and past storage rooms and workshops and what look like some kind of testing stations, kind of medical? You're not sure. Max has kept up her exercise regime and Tui's had a couple of weeks of hard cardio training but Widget isn't used to this type of nonsense, she does her best but it's just a bit much for her. I think Max notices her doing that breathless miming I gotta stop thing and pulls all three of you into the nearest room—you're a pretty good distance away from the t-rex at this point, and maybe it didn't even see you, maybe it wasn't even chasing you, none of you were really looking back. Anyway, you're in some kind of medical room, first aid station sort of thing, there are a couple of stretcher beds, plus cupboards with supplies, stainless steel countertops, and through a couple of open doorways you can see what look like a storage space with shelves, and maybe a test lab or something with lots of counters and equipment. It's pretty dark in here. The only light comes from one of those gridded windows.

Chaos: What time is it?

Truth: Late afternoon, the sun is just starting to set.

Chaos: Yep, great, fantastic.

Truth: The place is a complete mess, by the way. The floor is covered in medical supplies and scattered pills and sticky goopy patches where bottles have smashed. It's quiet, though. You've got a chance to catch your breath.

Hope: I get out my inhaler and take a long puff, I'm still panting but to Max I'm like, "I ... TOLD ... you! Dinosaurs!"

Order: "You did. I should have listened. Dinosaurs. Wonderful." While I talk I'm opening that case, the one I'm supposed to put the item in once we retrieve it. Inside is this gear I have on my sheet, except instead of an assault rifle it's a compact SMG. I get it out and load it and attach the flashlight, and also check my handgun, make sure it's loaded and ready.

Hope: Oh yes, we have gear! Oh, I have a headlamp! And a toolkit, and my tablet. My toolkit is in a backpack, it's a really fancy one with compartments and like little trays that pop out, I made it myself and it's the most precious thing in the world to me, aside from Max.

Chaos: Aww. I've got a spear, apparently, and a 'terrible stench'. Sorry guys, showers have not been a priority lately. I think instead of the spear maybe I have something smaller? Could it be a machete?

Truth: Where did you get that from?

Chaos: Hmm, maybe I just had one? Maybe I'm just a machete kid? No, okay, it was my dad's. My parents were working here, my mother was a scientist type, and my dad ... actually yeah, he was a scientist too, but he was like an insect guy, hacking through jungles to get to them, and my mum was more like, technical stuff, quantum physics or something, I don't know, I never understood what the heck she was talking about.

Truth: Okay, you've got your dad's machete. Could you all roll plus Clever for me, real quick.

Order: Four.

Chaos: Four.

Hope: Nine?

Truth: Okay. What's Tui's reaction to Max pulling out a bunch of weapons?

Chaos: Intense interest. Just starts babbling away like, "Is that a gun, what type of gun is that? I've got a machete, see, it was my, um, well, it's mine now, it's pretty cool, right? Who are you guys? Why are you even here?"

Order: Max ignoring her, mostly keeping an eye on Widget.

Truth: Widget, you sat on one of the stretchers or something, to catch your breath?

Hope: I didn't even get that far, just a counter. Oh, no, I tried to hop up but I was too short, but there's a little stool there, so I sat on that.

Truth: While Tui jabbers away at Max, and Max checks her weapons, you notice something weird about this room.

Hope: Oh no. What is it?

Truth: You're not sure. There's just something weird about it. Something out of place, or something missing, you can't quite put your finger on it. So, what do you do?

Order: Is this a quiet spot? Can we use safety moves here?

Truth: Ah, I didn't talk about those—and no, remember you didn't roll a full success on your Run! move, so even though it might seem like you're safe, when you open the menu it's like "You can't rest with enemies nearby."

Chaos: That was a weird place to take it but I understand what you're saying perfectly.

Truth: Anyway, once you do get out of trouble properly, there are some moves you can do. Scavenge, to get stuff, Lay Of The Land, to figure out where you are and what's around, and Instruct, which is when you're guiding someone through a tricky task. Anyway, for now the focus is on Widget, who's getting a weird feeling, like something's wrong.

Hope: "Um, guys? Can you both just be really quiet for a second?"

Order: Max stops noisy gun-checking instantly, then shoves her hand over Tui's mouth.

Chaos: Tui goes to protest but then sees the serious look on Max's face and decides to be quiet.

Truth: Without Max's clattering and Tui's chatter, you can all hear it. From nearby—one of the other rooms, either the storage area or the lab, you can't tell for sure—there's a sort of, chirrup, chirrup.

Order: Like a bird?

Truth: Not any bird you've ever heard. It's otherworldly, deeper and with an alien resonance. It's disturbing on a primal level.

Order: Alien birds. I knew it. That's just in Max's head. She's still not 100% convinced this is a dinosaur situation. Maybe the aliens have time travel technology. That's why aliens are so dangerous. You never know what they could be up to.

Chaos: Do I recognise it at all?

Truth: Do you recognise it. Roll fortune, 1d6.

Chaos: Three?

Truth: It's probably a dinosaur.

Chaos: Amazingly useful, thanks so much. Tui definitely says that though. Hisses it in a loud whisper. "Guys! That's a dinosaur! Probably!"

Order: I holster my pistol, check that my knife is loose in its ankle sheath, then get the SMG's strap over my shoulder and hold it at the ready. From here, can I see into the other rooms?

Truth: It's dark, but basically you can. The storage room has tall shelves, and it's even more of a mess than this room. It seems to go back quite a way. The other room has a lot of counters with equipment on them. It looks bigger than this room.

Order: "Stay here. Watch that door." Indicating the door we came in by. The other rooms, I'm picturing the entrances as being quite close to each other? The storage room at the far end of this room, then the lab room to the left or right.

Truth: Yes, that's how it's laid out. The lab room to the right.

Order: I approach cautiously, my SMG at the ready. Flashlight off, for now.

Truth: That chirruping is infrequent, a gap of between around six and twelve seconds between each. It gets louder as you approach the two rooms. Roll, let's see, I think Clever is probably the most fitting.

Order: To figure out where the sound is coming from? That makes sense to me. Four, I can't do it.

Truth: No, you can. It's definitely coming from the storage room.

Chaos: Haha, oh no.

Order: I glance back at the others, just checking them, then switch on my flashlight as I step into the storage room, sweeping around to cover the corners.

Truth: There's a crashing noise, but you don't see anything. Tui, Widget, what are you doing?

Chaos: Freaking out! I get that this big tough woman with the guns is like, soldiering or whatever but you don't go looking for dinosaurs! You get away from them!

Truth: So are you running?

Chaos: I really want to but I'm staying put for now, but I am on edge, man. On. Edge.

Hope: I want to help but I know this is Max's area, and I know she wouldn't bug me when I'm doing my thing, so I'm doing my best to just keep quiet and let her do her job.

Truth: Okay, so both of you jump a bit at that crashing but neither of you do anything. Max makes her way deeper into the storage room, disappearing around the corner of a shelf, carefully sweeping her light around, making sure not to miss anything. So when the dinosaur comes crashing out of the other room, she's not in a position to do much about it.

Order: Rats, but fair, but rats.

Truth: Question, out of Tui and Widget who's the shortest?

Hope: Let's roll for it! Five!

Chaos: Four, I'm just a tiny bit teeny-weenier.

Truth: This dinosaur is almost exactly the same height as Tui. It has a rounded bony head with spiky horns and a short beak and even in this dull light its blue and green feathers are magnificent. Widget, you recognise it as a Stygimoloch, a herbivore, but extremely territorial and very keen on establishing dominance.

Hope: "Headbuttasaurus! HEADBUTTASAURUS!"

Truth: Widget freaks out and yells, Tui?

Chaos: "HEADBUTTASAURUS!"

Truth: Tui follows Widget's lead. The dinosaur chirrups and looks around but, oddly, doesn't seem to even notice you. Instead it charges at the wall opposite the lab entrance, crashing hard into it and making a noticeable dent. Now that you're looking, you notice a bunch of other similar dents in the wall.

Hope: I knew something was weird! Um, um, Max is still in the storage room, the dinosaur is between us and her?

Truth: Yep, and now that it's finished with that wall it's looking towards the, let me just roll ... the storage room entrance.

Hope: Oh no! Max! I, um—oh, this one, Look Over Here! I want to do that!

Truth: PbtA remember, you trigger a move by doing something, so what are you doing?

Hope: Jumping up and waving my arms and yelling, like, "Over here! OVER HERE! MAX THERE'S A HEADBUTTASAURUS HERE! WAAAAAH!"

Truth: That'll do it. Roll plus Clever, as ironic as that might seem.

Hope: Eight, plus two is ten!

Truth: Okay, so let's see. Hmm. Okay, full success, what happens is that Widget jumps up and gets the dinosaur's attention, and it charges at her instead of into the storage room, but fortunately Widget has the quickness of wit and presence of mind to leap aside, and the dinosaur goes rushing out the entrance of this little medical room and crashes into the far wall of the corridor outside.

Order: I rush out of the storage room, I see the dinosaur?

Truth: Yep, out there in the corridor, the light's a little better out there. You come out of the storage room just as the dinosaur crashes into the wall.

Order: I'll run forward, shove Widget further away, check Tui's position, then shoulder the SMG and shoot the dinosaur. This is my Soldier special move, Kill Or Be Killed. Rolling plus Steady, seven plus two is nine. I kill it but use up the whole magazine doing it. Better safe than sorry.

Truth: Yep, you empty an entire magazine's worth of bullets into the dinosaur, and it slumps to the ground, beautiful feathers matted with blood, croaking out a final chirrup before dying.

Order: I have an extra clip here, I'll reload.

Truth: Tui, Widget, your reactions?

Chaos: Just kind of in awe, like I have never killed a dinosaur, I've hacked at a couple while they were trying to get me but never actually managed to down one. That was insane, her shooting a dinosaur to death. I'm speechless.

Hope: I think I'm maybe used to Max doing this sort of thing? Or maybe not, maybe I've never seen her in actual combat before. Just probably beating people up or disarming people, never actually shooting anything. So I'm a bit shaken.

Order: After reloading my gun I turn to Tui. "Does noise attract them?"

Chaos: "Uh. Maybe?"

Order: Narrowed eyes, writing off Tui as useless for intel from this point forward. I check on Widget. "Are you okay?"

Hope: "I think so ... that was a dinosaur, Max. You just killed a dinosaur."

Order: No real response to that. There was nothing in the storage room? I go and check the lab area, where the dinosaur came from, sweeping quickly.

Truth: No other dinosaurs in there, it's clear. What are you two doing while Max does that?

Chaos: Going out to the dinosaur. I've never seen one like this. Not up close, not when it wasn't trying to eat me or whatever. I reach out to hesitantly touch it, my hand shaking. "Oh. They're soft. The feathers are soft."

Hope: I'm hovering in the entrance, my attention split between Tui out by that dinosaur and Max checking the other room. Half of me is expecting something to jump on Max in that room, and half of me is expecting the dinosaur to come back to life and jump on Tui.

Truth: Neither of those things happen. It's eerily quiet.

Order: Can we Scavenge? I call to Widget, "See if you can find anything useful. Medical supplies, drugs, anything."

Truth: Okay, so this is you and Widget? Do you involve Tui?

Order: I tell Tui to stay out there, and to yell if she sees anything moving.

Chaos: "O-Okay, boss!"

Truth: So, for a safety action it's the person with the highest stat who rolls, so it's Widget again. Roll plus Clever to see what you find.

Hope: Eight plus two is ten, I find something good I guess!

Truth: Oh, and it's time for our first Tell A Story segment! Who wants to tell a story?

Order: I have something in mind. It's 'Why You Enlisted' except it's actually about why I partnered up with Widget. This is while she's sorting through boxes and jars and bottles, and I'm helping by shining my light and holding things. Also processing recent events. So I start with, "I was recommended against partnering with you."

Hope: Not really listening properly, focused on finding useful stuff. "Huh? Recommendations, what? Wait, what? By who?"

Order: "Your old boss. She loved you, don't misunderstand. She just said you were ... well, she didn't think you were suited to field work."

Hope: "I mean I get where she was coming from, this stuff is terrifying."

Order: "I thought she was right, at first. That's why I chose you. More than any of those others, I thought you were someone who needed protecting."

Hope: "Well, again, I'm not disagreeing."

Order: "But just now, when that dinosaur came charging out, and I was in the storage room. You didn't run, or freeze up."

Hope: "I guess not ... oh, this might be useful, put it in the maybe pile ... but, I mean, I was freaking out. I wasn't really thinking. I just sort of ... reacted."

Order: "You're always thinking. Even when you're freaking out. You did exactly the right thing to get the threat away from us. From both you and me. I'm glad you're my partner, Clara."

Hope: I stop sorting, and smile up at Max. "I'm glad you're my partner too, Mackenzie! Okay, I think this is stuff we can use." DM, what stuff can we use?

Truth: For a full success, you find some sedatives, which can either be administered orally or via injection, some pretty powerful stimulants in pill form, and enough supplies to make a basic first aid kit.

Chaos: Oh, can I carry that? I have an 'old backpack'.

Hope: Sure! Widget was just sort of frowning about how to jam it in with all her stuff, so she's happy to hand all the medical stuff over to Tui. "By the way, this is weird but ... what's your name? Why are you here?"

Chaos: "Oh. I'm Tui. Tui Moon. I came here with my parents. They're like. Scientists. Uh. How about you?"

Hope: "Call me Widget, and that's my partner Max, we're with—"

Order: Max very smoothly cutting Widget off. "We should move. Widget, is your thing picking anything up yet?"

Hope: "Oh right, I should probably check that." Is it picking anything up?

Truth: I'll roll fortune, since it's pretty much chance as to whether you're close or not. Oh wow, a six! Yes, you're getting a strong ping. It's coming from deeper in the facility, the permanent parts. You have a definite direction.

Hope: "The ping says that-a-way!" I start marching off straight towards the ping zone.

Order: I'll let Widget lead the way, but I'm concerned about my lack of ammo. As we walk I'm mentally reviewing the last dinosaur encounter, going through each step of it, what I did wrong, what I did right. This while also keeping good situational awareness.

Chaos: I'm keeping quiet and just following along behind. I'm sort of thinking, like, I don't get what's up with these two, but they definitely seem to have more of a clue than I do, so maybe I'll just follow along for now. Plus they came on that helicopter so they'll probably leave on that helicopter and probably they could squeeze me in, right? I'm little!

Truth: You're not concerned about heading into the danger zone?

Chaos: Not so much! I mean you saw what Max did to that dinosaur, she's a dino-killer! I feel pretty safe with her around, I don't mind telling you. Plus I've been curious about some of the stuff in there. I only got to see parts of it, and mostly while it was getting built.

Truth: So, let's see, just thinking about one particular aspect of this ... okay, well anyway, the prefab part of the base ends, in another door-that-should-be-shut, but right now it opens on to like a flashy corporate foyer. There's something of a nature theme, lots of plants around, subdued lighting—whoops, no, there WOULD be subdued lighting if the power was on. Without it the atmosphere is a bit gloomy. It's not exactly open, it's crowded with hanging plants and such. Go ahead and roll me Clever real quick.

Hope: Seven plus two is nine!

Chaos: Three, Monique thinks I'm dumb.

Order: Eleven, with double sixes.

Truth: Okay, wow, if only this game had crits. It's not a big thing anyway, but both Max and Widget notice that there's absolutely nothing dinosaur-themed here. In fact most of the decorations, pictures on the walls, and even the name above the big curving reception desk—STRANGE CHARM DYNAMICS—all seem to be more of the quantum physics variety.

Chaos: Oh snap, they've opened a time rift! AU portal! ...I definitely don't say, since I noticed none of this and wouldn't understand it even if I did.

Hope: "What ... is this place?"

Order: "It doesn't matter. We get the item, we get back to the helicopter, we leave."

Chaos: "What's the item? Guys? What's the item?"

Hope: "Just a thing that's important to someone." I think Widget catches herself then, Max is probably busy frowning at something, so Widget shuts herself up and changes the subject. "Oh, anyway, Tui, you said your parents are scientists, what fields?"

Chaos: "Just like bugs. And weird stuff. I don't know." Tui gets a bit, like, don't-want-to-talk-about-it when her parents are mentioned. I am deliberately leaving their fate in a state of quantum flux, to go with the themes we've got here.

Order: Schrödinger’s Absent Parents.

Chaos: You got it! Oh, anyway, maybe there's a map here, like a guide to get to the other areas?

Truth: Yep, it's not detailed but very clear. Cross-referencing Widget's direction-finder and the map, it definitely looks like the thing you're after is in the main laboratory, which is right this way!

Chaos: I feel a huge 'but' approaching.

Truth: It's completely collapsed. That part of the facility is underground, or at least lower than this part. There are stairs leading down but the entire roof has fallen in. You might be able to squeeze through, with time and effort, but it looks pretty unsafe.

Order: Is it just this part that collapsed?

Truth: Looks like it. Everywhere else is weirdly fine.

Order: Does it look like the work of dinosaurs?

Truth: No, it pretty obviously isn't. It's too precise for that. This whole foyer area, there are a few knocked-over pot plants and things like that, but it's not all messed up. Not like that medical room. The blocked-off stairway looks deliberate, like planted explosives deliberate.

Order: "Somebody really didn't want anyone getting down there."

Chaos: "Or, like. Anything getting out."

Hope: "Tui, how long have the dinosaurs been here? Were they here when you arrived?"

Truth: They're a pretty recent arrival. Maybe three or four weeks. It's been hard to keep track of time for Tui.

Chaos: What the DM just said, except in Tui's voice.

Truth: Feel free to embellish, I'll correct you if you're really wrong. Or maybe I won't. Teehee.

Chaos: Your mask is slipping, DM, we can see the evil beneath. "Well, um, it all happened pretty suddenly. Like, there were some general warnings? But those happened all the time so everyone was just like, pffft. But then, yeah. Dinos everywhere." Tui kind of trails off there. Remembering some stuff she's been trying not to think about.

Hope: "Well, um, oh, maybe we could try to find those backup generators? Get some lights on at least?" I just had another thought, don't we need power to operate the fuel pump? For the helicopter?

Truth: That is such a good question. I think you do need power. I think that's your big obstacle, getting the power back online.

Hope: The path to that area isn't blocked, right?

Truth: Probably not. The generators aren't marked on the foyer map. They're more of a background thing, why would visitors or general staff need a map to them?

Hope: I guess that's a pretty good point. Where would generators be—what IS marked on the map?

Truth: Let's see ... landing pad and maintenance, that's where you came in. The prefab part. Aside from that you've got the offices, the lab, IT, living area, and the control room.

Order: Is it literally labelled 'The Control Room'?

Truth: No, this is mostly Max's interpretations of the corpspeak labels.

Hope: Can I roll to guess which would be the most likely to have the generators nearby?

Truth: You don't have to roll, your guess is that they're near the IT section. However, it's possible that they could be activated remotely, maybe from the control room.

Chaos: Oh, I can use my move here! Since places got mentioned! I want to roll for the control room. Oh man, double 1s! Nobody was stupid enough to let me anywhere NEAR the control room! I got no clue!

Truth: Is there anything special on a miss for that?

Chaos: The DM will tell you the reason you swore you'd never go back.

Truth: Hmm. The control room is dinosaur central. It's by far the most dangerous part of the entire complex, at least that you've seen. You are terrified of it. There is nothing that could make you go there.

Chaos: I say nothing but fervently hope nobody mentions going to the control room.

Hope: "Maybe we could try the control room?"

Chaos: "Nope! Nope nope nope, you do not want to go there, trust me, BELIEVE me, that is the exact opposite of a place you want to go. Seriously. For real reals."

Order: Max is instantly suspicious. "What are you hiding."

Chaos: "I'm not hiding anything! It's all out in the open! I'm telling you, the control room? Is dinosaur GROUND ZERO. They're having a dino party up there, it's crazy. I'm not lying, it's true! Why would I lie!"

Order: "I don't know. Why?"

Chaos: "Huh? No! Don't twist it around, I'm telling the truth! Widget, you believe me, don't you?"

Hope: "Well, I'm not really sure ... Max is usually pretty good at reading people ... so if you ARE hiding something this might be a good time to tell us about it?"

Chaos: It also might be a good time to consider, AM I hiding something? Do I have some sort of secret agenda going on?

Truth: That's up to you, Tui Moon. I do have an NPC goal chart here, want to have a little peek for some inspiration?

Chaos: That could be helpful, although I did just think of something. Maybe there are other survivors around, and maybe Tui has a good reason to want to avoid them. I think that's the thing she's not talking about here. The thing she isn't mentioning. It's not JUST dinosaurs you have to be careful of, on Dangerous Dinosaur Island. Then again she hasn't seen anyone else for a few days. It could be that they all got eaten, or escaped.

Hope: Does she tell us that?

Truth: She doesn't get a chance, because this slightly tense moment is interrupted by a nearby screeching.

Chaos: "Oh crap. Screechers. They're the worst. They always show up in groups and they, like, talk to each other. It's so flipping creepy."

Order: I have my SMG at the ready, looking around for possible exits. Where are we? Back at the reception desk?

Truth: I think so, clustered around the map.

Order: Snap decision, we head for the IT department. Widget probably mentioned that the backup generators are near there.

Hope: I don't know for sure though, don't be disappointed if I'm wrong!

Truth: Everyone roll Clever for me, just for fun.

Chaos: Oooh it is NOT for fun you LIAR. I got a nine though, that's not too bad.

Order: Five.

Hope: Six plus two is eight!

Truth: Max is distracted organising everyone and focusing on conventional threats. You're all heading through towards the IT section, the foyer is a big open dome sort of thing, but paths are formed and areas are closed off by big thin hanging walls, do you get what I mean? Plus pot plants and stuff, and sculptures, it's all very nicely designed but nothing's just a straight path, it's always curving or with a water feature in the middle or something. It's really fancy but very stressful to navigate through, especially with all that screeching around. Anyway, Max does a good job of getting you moving in the right direction and covering both ahead and behind, but the thing she misses, that Tui gets first and Widget gets a second later, is that the screechers doing the screeching aren't the ones hunting you. They're the distraction, and the coordinators, for the completely silent screechers who are already in place.

Hope: Noooo that's so creepy and scary, I don't like that, nooooo~

Truth: There's one more thing about them, these screechers. They're really good at keeping still, and they can angle their feathers to create a kind of camouflage effect, which means sometimes you won't even see them until ... they ... STRIKE!

Hope: Ahhhh stop this bus I want to get off! What do we do! Are they attacking?

Truth: I'm going to freeze the scene like three seconds before the first one attacks. Give you what's going to happen if you do nothing. First, there's going to be a really loud screeching from all around you. The attack signal. Second, the screecher that's nestled among those plants just a few metres from Max is going to leap at her, and the screecher that's on the hanging wall around half a dozen metres from Tui is going to leap at her. Third, the rest of them are going to come running in from all angles. That's the bad news. The good news, although it's not that great, is that these things aren't that big. Just about the size of large cats.

Chaos: I mean you describe them like that but honestly it doesn't make me feel good? If you say the horrible dinosaurs leaping at our faces are cat-sized? That's not actually better?

Truth: So, that's what will happen if no one does anything. Tui, you've spotted the one about to leap at Max. Widget, you saw the one that's going to leap at Tui. Max, you haven't seen anything. What do you all do?

Hope: I, I grab whatever's closest and I just throw it at the thing! I don't know, it looks kind of small, like only about the size of a large cat, it might work!

Truth: Whatever's closest, okay, I'll go ahead and roll fortune to see how appropriate it is ... six, wow, okay, you lucked out there. What did you grab?

Hope: I was thinking maybe a pot plant but that doesn't seem like a six, really. Oh, maybe we're passing a sculpture, and it's sort of spiky, you know sometimes there are sculptures made from a bunch of plastic pipes? Do you know what I mean? Anyway, the thing I grab is a solid heavy piece of plastic pipe and it's just exactly the right shape and size for desperately throwing at an awful dinosaur cat thing.

Truth: Okay, we'll do your roll in a second, Tui?

Chaos: I leap at the thing with my machete! I think maybe I've run into these things before, I know they hunt in packs and talk to each other but the other thing I know is that even though I'm small, I'm bigger than they are, and if I leap at them first they usually run away instead of leaping at me.

Truth: Okay, hmm. I think for Widget it's a Look Over There! roll, for Tui it's a Fight! roll, does that sound about right? Widget, you roll yours first, it might affect Tui's roll. Oh, but I think roll with Fit rather than Clever.

Hope: That's fair. Eight, minus one is seven, just barely a partial success.

Truth: Okay, I forgot to say take plus one for your excellently throwable piece of modern art, but it wouldn't have made a difference anyway. Let's see, partial success on a distraction ... the dinosaur notices you. Okay, we'll deal with that in a second. Tui, your fight roll? Plus one for your weapon.

Chaos: Seven, plus two for Fit, plus one for the weapon, just barely a ten.

Truth: Okay, nice, full success gets you ... oh, this is interesting. You've bought a precious moment for someone to help you. It's kind of nice that there's no real 'take down a dinosaur' move.

Order: Except my one, the special move for The Soldier.

Truth: True, it really does make it a special thing for you. Um, anyway, let's think about this for a second ... so this all happens at once, there's that hideous screeching from all around but before either of the screechers can leap Widget grabs that pipe and hurls it at one, knocking it off the bit of wall it was clinging to, and Tui just charges full tilt at the one in the plants, swinging her machete and just barely clipping it as it leaps, drawing blood but ... no, actually, that one runs away, leaving a trail of blood behind, but Tui sees two creeping up through the plants, and Widget, that one you hit has its beady little eyes set firmly on you now, scrambling to its feet in less than a second. Max. Even though that happened in just a couple of seconds you're now fully aware of the situation. You've got Tui near you, with more of those things creeping up, and Widget a little way back, with a screecher about to leap at her. What do you do?

Order: Focus on the one about to leap at Widget. Snap shot from my SMG, just one bullet, then yell "TUI, RUN!" while I get to where Widget is, full focus on that one threatening her.

Truth: Okay. Okay. This isn't your kill move, I'm getting. I think it's Take My Hand!, because you're putting yourself in danger to help someone else. I'll give you yelling to Tui as a free action, so just roll with, um, I think Steady, to keep it together, keep calm, and maybe even hit that thing when you fire.

Order: Six, plus two is eight, partial success.

Truth: You miss with that one bullet, in any case, and now you have to choose. Either you two get separated from Tui, or you get Widget out of trouble but you'll be in even worse trouble.

Order: We're separated, that makes a lot of sense to me.

Truth: Okay, I'm going to cut at that point then. Max is the focus character, she sees Tui, she sees Widget, she yells to Tui to run while shouldering her SMG and she fires that one shot and we cut to black. For a few seconds, silence. Then heavy breathing, hard footsteps, we see Tui doing what Max told her, running hard out, all that hair trailing behind her, machete in hand, through this dimly lit foyer, she passes a sign and the camera stops to focus on it: IT DEPARTMENT. Tui has run out of the shot, and we see a couple of cat-sized shapes run past the IT sign after her. Back to Widget and Max, Max has some bleeding scrapes on her arm, Widget looks unhurt but stressed and scared. You two aren't running, you're backing away from something—or a pack of somethings—that Max is taking carefully measured single shots at. We see another sign. CONTROL CENTRE.

Chaos: So it IS just called that.

Truth: Yes, it is just called that now, I don't know, what do you call a control centre except a control centre? It's the control centre!

Order: And the most dangerous place to be, according to Tui. Can I do a flashback, for the sake of narrative convenience?

Truth: Mark one Weight, and maybe. What's the flashback?

Order: I want some way of talking to Tui, either a walkie talkie or an earpiece.

Truth: Hmm. We won't do that just yet, let's see how things go and what makes for a more interesting story first. So, the situation is that Tui is running into the IT department, where the backup generators probably are, and Max and Widget are headed up some stairs to the control centre. Both of you are being pursued by screechers. What do you do?

Hope: Oh, could I maybe use my special move? Jury-Rig, whip up a makeshift solution to a problem?

Truth: What's the problem, and what's your solution?

Hope: The problem is all these dinosaurs, so my solution is—oh, I have something! The doors that are stuck open, could I get one to close somehow?

Truth: That sounds reasonable. You scurry ahead while Max covers you, working on something to get this door shut and sealed. Roll it.

Hope: Okay, here goes ... eight, plus two is ten, I did it!

Truth: Yep, and you didn't even trap Max on the other side, which would've been the consequence for a partial success. Max, want to tell us how it went from your perspective?

Order: I didn't really understand what Widget was babbling about, but I got that she had a plan, so I focused on keeping those screechers back. Like Tui said, they're smart and they work together, but that's not always an advantage. If they were stupid they might just mob us, which probably would've taken at least one of us down. But they were cautious, hanging back, retreating when injured, and probably a little fascinated by the loud noises of my gun. I used all of that to keep them at bay while Widget worked, then when she called for me to join her I trusted her completely and did just that, the door sliding shut and sealing behind me. "Widget. How did you do that?"

Hope: "Complex technobabble! Excited and completely incomprehensible explanation! I didn't know if it would work but then it did and the door's shut!" Can I get it open again?

Truth: Maybe!

Hope: I'll take it! So where are we, actually? Are there a whole bunch of dinosaurs on the other side of this door with us?

Truth: No, it's oddly quiet. Dark too, the sun has set by this point, so the only light is from Widget's headlamp and Max's flashlight. You run your lights over dozens of screens, abandoned coffee mugs, the whole place silent and still. For now, you've bought yourself time to take a breath. Think about what you want to do as a safety move while we head over to Tui!

Chaos: Hi. I'm in the dark, aren't I.

Truth: Ooh, you very well might be. Nothing on your sheet that could be used for light?

Chaos: Nope, just my machete, my ragged clothing, some edible plants, my backpack, plus the medical supplies we scavenged. And of course, my terrible stench.

Truth: Okay, well, I guess first let's see how screechers feel about the dark. That'll be a fortune roll ... three, they can take it or leave it.

Order: In the dark, their screeching could lead other predators to them.

Truth: True, so when it gets dark they become ... completely ... silent.

Chaos: Well that's just GREAT news, isn't it. Oh, I want to roll my thing—wait, am I running from them still? Should I do a roll for that first?

Truth: No, we come in on Tui inside the IT department. It's a big open plan office, with the computer mainframe stacks in a separate room. Tui's crouched inside a cubicle, trying to control her breathing and listen for movement.

Chaos: Did I give the screechers the slip?

Truth: Anything's possible!

Chaos: Uh huh, yep, it sure is. Okay. Okay. I remember the others talking about turning on the power, and that it's probably in this area where I am. Can I use my thing to see if I know where the generators are?

Truth: Sure, maybe some things are clicking for you, maybe Widget described what generators look like and it's ringing some bells in your memory brain.

Chaos: That's a weird way to put it but okay, here I go rolling ... six, crap, my memory brain is utter bunk.

Truth: Nope, you remember it pretty clearly. You were actually in this IT department when everything went crazy and the dinosaurs showed up. You hid in the generator room with some other people. But you were the only one to get out alive. Everyone else got eaten. In the generator room. While you hid. And had to listen. And that's why you don't want to go anywhere near the generators.

Chaos: I really hate missing on that move, I truly do. Okay. Um. Hmm. I'm kind of stuck, then. Maybe that's Tui's scene here? She has a flashback and then just sort of cowers in the dark? Back to the others?

Truth: If you're okay with that, if there's nothing else you want to do?

Chaos: I'm good for now, maybe Max and Widget will figure out something that might help me in my position.

Truth: Okay, we'll go back to Max and Widget. Are you doing a safety move?

Order: Maybe scavenge again, mostly looking for a way to remotely activate the generators.

Hope: That sounds good to me, it might solve our problem instantly! Well, one of our problems. Sort of.

Truth: Sounds like a plan, tell a story and roll plus Clever.

Hope: I guess it's my turn to do one, let's see ... oh, something inefficient that infuriates me, the layout of this place! "Don't you think it's weird, Max? Nothing about this place makes any sense to me. Even putting aside the dinosaurs, and the collapsed roof blocking those stairs, it's just so inefficient. What even IS this place? What were they doing here?"

Order: "I don't know." I'm thinking about those rumours I heard, about the two year contracts and the ridiculously high salaries. I'm thinking, you don't have to pay anyone if everybody's dead. I'm thinking, maybe it wasn't dinosaurs who killed all the workers. I'm thinking, this feels big, and wrong. "Probably nothing good."

Hope: "That's for sure! I don't know about you, but I'm starting to feel like this is the worst job we ever took. We should've listened to the boss. She tried to warn us."

Order: "Did she? I don't remember that."

Hope: "When we signed off, when we took the contract! Usually she's like 'break a leg, you two!' but this time she was just like, 'good luck out there'. I should've listened to her."

Order: "Huh." Should Widget roll now, to see if we turn up anything?

Truth: Oh right, the roll! Yes, do that.

Hope: I'm a clever girl I'm a clever girl I'm a clever girl—yes! I am a clever girl! Eight plus two is ten!

Truth: So when Max says 'huh', it's because she found a soft red glow, and when Widget examines it, yep, that looks a lot like the button that will start the emergency generator reboot process.

Hope: "Bingpot!" I press it instantly with zero hesitation!

Truth: There's a pretty satisfying heavy clunking noise. The light turns green. Nothing else happens.

Hope: "Uh..."

Order: "Did it work? Do we need to do something else?"

Truth: Tui, you hear a sort of whirring noise.

Chaos: I think I was just sitting there with my head down. When I hear that noise my head whips up and my machete is in my hand, gripped tight and at the ready.

Truth: Back to Max and Widget, you two don't hear anything, until the fluorescent lights flicker on, and the screens around you come to life one by one.

Hope: "It worked! We did it, Max! We did it!"

Order: "We pressed a button, don't get too self-congratulatory."

Truth: Back to Tui again, the lights are coming on, and the mainframe area too, all those computers booting up, and there's a sudden chilly gust of air—this area is usually kept cold, for computer efficiency purposes. You also hear a scuttling, lots of small things moving quickly and suddenly.

Chaos: Gulp.

Truth: So, I actually think this counts as you overcoming the first obstacle, restoring power, so you all get to pick an advanced move.

Hope: Oh, exciting. Let's see, I can either gain the ability to build something big, with the help of you two, or I can make a bomb. I'm not really so into bombs? I'll take the construction thing. Oh, maybe I can figure out how to get past that blockage!

Order: I think I'll take Close Quarters Expert. I've observed these dinosaurs. They're just animals, like anything else. I'm confident I could take one in a fight.

Truth: What does that move do? Give you a bonus when you fight?

Order: When I Fight! I improve my result by one level, so a miss becomes a partial and a partial becomes a full.

Truth: Wow. That's pretty powerful. How about you, Tui?

Chaos: Are we likely to enter any kind of 'wilderness' in this thing?

Truth: Doesn't really seem like it's going that way.

Chaos: That's what I thought. In that case Fade Away seems a bit useless, so I'll go with Hoarder. I can pull stuff out of my backpack and maybe it's useful!

Truth: Now the other thing that happens is what's referred to as an 'Extinction Event'.

Chaos: Well now, doesn't that sound lovely.

Truth: Let's see, I'm just ... no, okay, I got it. For Max and Widget, up in that control room, some of those screens that flicked on show images from camera feeds, around the island. You see jungle, hills, big rocks, little rocks, weird rocks, mundane rocks, and of course a few dinosaurs doing their dinosaur biz. There's one feed in particular that catches your attention. It shows a wide view outside the prefab part of the base, with the helicopter landing pad, and there's your helicopter, still sitting there, still safe. That t-rex is asleep in the background, but that's not what you notice. The thing that you notice is the sky. The clouds are moving very strangely. Almost like they're vibrating, and some of them are jumping backward, like the footage from the camera is caught in a three second loop, except just for that one part of the image, that one cloud.

Order: "That ... is not normal."

Hope: "On the bright side, the helicopter looks fine? Yay?"

Truth: Tui, down in the IT department you don't see any of that. You're underground, probably, as far as you can tell, or in any case there are no windows. The lights are on now, and the computers are booting up, and every few seconds you feel a distinct ... pulse. It's like everything shakes, except not physically. You feel a warm wetness on your lip. Your nose is bleeding.

Chaos: Ah yes, the universal sign of weird nonsense, sudden nose bleeds.

Truth: And I think that's where we'll end this session!

Hope: Oh no! It makes sense to stop here, but oh no! I'm really looking forward to the next one. I hope we don't all die!

Order: That was fun, I'm looking forward to continuing as well. We overcame the obstacle, but the mystery remains.

Chaos: It's definitely a blast, but at the same time I'm pretty glad it's a one shot. I've already sort of had enough of dinosaurs. Plus I'm kind of remembering, like, there was a reason we moved on from PbtA? I'm not saying it's a bad system. Just like, yeah. You can have enough of a thing.

Hope: I think it works really well for this, though. What I mean is, there wasn't any time when I felt like it being PbtA took away from the experience? But then again I don't really think about mechanics too much. Um, I like the character classes, I think we all got to pick something we like.

Order: I don't usually play a soldier, but it fit me better than I expected. I'm glad I didn't pick The Doctor, which was my second choice.

Chaos: Honestly I'm not completely on board with Tui, but I think that's mostly just one shot syndrome. You know me, I'll always take a novel over a short story, a TV series over a movie. I need time to get to know someone! Anyway, yeah, this is good times. I'm looking forward to the second part, where we all get put in a zoo after being sucked through a dimensional portal into Dinosaur Universe.

Hope: I have a question. How much of this game is in the rules, and how much did you make up?

Truth: There's a lot of stuff to draw on here, they did a really good job providing a lot of little hooks. I'll probably talk more about that once we've finished properly, but for example, every area has some prompts for potential problems and so on. I had to modify a lot, especially with the power being off, but the example problems and incidents in the rules were really useful. Like with the medical room where you had a rest, the prompt was something like, there's a dinosaur in here high on pills and looking for more.

Chaos: Oh wow, headbuttasaurus was high as a kite.

Truth: That's why I was randomly rolling for its reactions.

Hope: What about things like the lab being blocked off, was that in the rules?

Truth: Yep, one of the prompts for the foyer, your path is blocked. Oh, and here's something to consider between sessions: maybe, just like the labs being blocked off deliberately ... dot dot dot...

Chaos: Oh. The power was also turned off on purpose. Oh man. What the flip did we do.

Truth: We'll find out next time, maybe? I guess we'll see!

[heavensickness]

it will take at least 15 hours so i will share some information abt my sims just because

An ancient evil vampire living in a medieval castle with her hopeless romantic son & she kills all girls he brings home so he has to find a way to keep his one true love away from his mom. She is very sexy as you can guess. She has beef with the other sexy ancient vampire

A very large family of spellcasters and vampires, Ambrogios. You can find their descendants living a modern life in the city, in a small caravan in Willow Creek and big cottages in Newcrest. The other sexy vampire is the matriarch of this family, currently living in her ancient mansion with her cats and her youngest daughter

A workaholic scientist living in a post-apocalyptic, rundown house and his ambitious daughter who secretly sells crack as a side hustle so she can afford to go to college

A very happy family of ancient blood spellcasters living their dream life in the most beautiful cottage imaginable, growing vegetables, fishing and just vibing overall

A mermaid family living by the sea, I was going to build an underwater house for them if my damn game didn't crash

The son of Ambrogio matriarch who is self-made, a very cunning genius who's dangerously charming. He has a dysfunctional relationship with a bartender who used to be a normal human but turned into a vampire against his will. I was going to improve their relationship. Inspired by Hannibal and Will

A sim of mine who got ALL the traits and ALL ASPIRATION COMPLETED due to a bug (?) I couldn't figure out, basically accomplished everything in her life and built a grand family. Sadly her family died out but I'm thinking of reviving it somehow

Three very different brothers coming from a very traditional family: One of them is a youtuber and he's almost always hooked up on acid and shrooms, other one is a legendary athlete and overall a Bro, last one is a very ambitious chef who opened his 5 star restaurant after getting fired and got married to a politician. He's the only one to build a family & his children are an art critic who is bound to anger fits and a soft-mannered actor with bipolar disorder

The art critic's daughter who was a gifted kid, top-notch teenager who was a scout and constantly studying etc. so at some point she said fuck it and moved to the seaside town (pets expansion) and got married to a conservationist

One of my dearest sims, Richard... He and his future wife met at college and they were both scientists. He was originally an NPC but I took him and got him graduate with honors from almost dropping out of university. He solved the Strangerville mystery and saved the town. He interacted with aliens, went to their world and brought back an alien girl to adopt. His wife cheated on him and had twins from a one night stand (i didn't plan her to get pregnant i swear). In the end he didn't divorce her until her children were teenagers and let them stay in his house, acting like their father. He was very moody and only busy with his work after that, spending his days inventing stuff in his office where nobody else could enter. It was a bitter story overall. After his death, his alien daughter started a family. I miss u Richard, you lived a wild life

which one of you hexed my game. cranky bc my sims are sexier and sluttier than yours weren't you

[1wngdngl]

Pokemon Shield playthrough - Part 4

Sorry it’s been a while, but I’m back with another post. This one covers getting the first Gym badge.

First, let’s hang out the the Wild Area on this beautiful evening.

Hanging out in the camp. My Pokemon can get quite competitive seeing who can get the ball first.

It’s weird seeing this fiery coal monster playing happily.

Okay, enough of that. It’s time to enter the mines.

It’s really pretty in here, with gemstones practically falling out of the walls. I don’t think real mines are /quite/ this abundant.

Also, this is the first cave area in the game, and it’s where you realize that there are no true “random” battles in the game  - you can always see the Pokemon coming and have a chance to get away. It makes the cave more exciting, seeing Pokemon chasing after you.

A secret exit leads to this TM.

Oh, also apparently the “headphones” item I got earlier just lets you adjust sound levels in the options. Not sure why they would make that an in-game unlockable instead of just being there from the start...

Some more screenshots of the lovely mines. I bet Sableye love this place.

I acquire what seems to be a new type of hold item. When I first saw “heavy boots”, I thought of the Water Temple in Ocarina of Time ;)

Oh, and I finally get to fight this guy. The developers seem to have deliberately made him as aggravating as possible.

He seem to be on a mission to collect Wishing Stars, which are (iirc) what powers the Dynamax bands. Is he trying to keep other trainers from having access to Dynamax, thus reducing their chances of winning the Gym Challenge? Or maybe he’s collecting them to power something else, perhaps on behalf of the Chairman?

He uses this really weird new Pokemon, that seems like it might be a Psychic-type, or maybe Fairy. What’s up with the hat it wears?

Finally, I reach the end of the mines. It was actually a pretty short trip - I hope future dungeons have more to do.

Out in the sun again on Route 4. It’s a route of gentle hills and golden grain, with Turffield nestled in a bowl in the middle.

I’m happy to see that you can encounter Eevee in the wild again, making it much easier to get all of its evolutions.

Pumpkaboo reappear, and they still come in different sizes.

And here’s a surprise - a Galarian Meowth! My Mystery Gift Meowth didn’t look like this, so I was never expecting to see /another/ regional variant for this Pokemon. It looks like something from “Where the Wild Things Are”.

This variant is a Steel-type, weirdly enough. It has a massive beard too. I wonder what on earth Galarian Persian looks like?

And here’s the mascot himself, ladies and gentlemen. It weirds me out how Pikachu and Eevee have the voice-acted cries; while all the other Pokemon get their naturalistic, animal-sounding cries. I wonder how all of Eevee’s evolutions will sound?

Our first true meeting with Milo.

I finally manage to catch my own Milcery. Since it’s called the “Cream” Pokemon, it definitely has to evolve into Alcreamie somehow...

I really want to have a Fairy on the team, so Jake the Wooloo gets booted off.

Hmm, maybe I can use these sweets to evolve Milcery? Are there different flavors of sweets?

I make it to Turffield, where good ol’ Hop is waiting for me.

Before doing the story stuff, I first check the bounds of how far I’m allowed to go. Here’s a literal broken bridge stopping me.

New types of jobs are available now. There's some strategy in choosing which Pokemon to send, since a lot of Pokemon have two types. It might be best to start with the job that requires rare types like Ghost, so that you can use each Pokemon most efficiently.

It looks like progressing in the game will give you new backgrounds for your League Card. This one featuring tiny Wooloo seems to be unlocked by reaching Turffield.

I now have the ability to try the daily lotto. I’m so happy all these features are right in the Pokemon Center so you don’t have to go hunting for them.

Of course, I’ve only had like one trade so far, so I don't have loads of trainer ID’s to help me win...

I go back to the camp I passed on the way and hang out for a bit. I’m so glad there are NPC camps for people who don’t have the online service. This one even has two trainers in it.

We make probably the best curry ever.

Before going to the Gym, I explore a bit around the village. It’s very pastoral, but has some interesting rock structures too. The paths can get a bit confusing with lots of dead-ends.

At the hillside overlook, I run into Sonia again, who contemplates what the glyph could represent. It must be some kind of legendary Pokemon, and I’ll probably have to fight it at some point in order to save the region.

Maybe the Chairman has a plan to release lots of Dynamax energy into the environment, thus causing /all/ wild Pokemon to turn huge and powerful? But he already basically controls the region - what would he need an army of big Pokemon for?

I really like that you can get actual water from this water fountain. And only /this/ water fountain, apparently.

This small girl presents us with a confusing riddle.

Ugh, I can't quite get my face to line up. The Pokemon on the right is obviously that squirrel, but what’s this big rock one that seems to be made out of glyph stones?

Okay, time to go to the Gym. First, here’s a re-cap of my current team.

I wonder how the Gym leaders get assigned their League numbers. Is August 31 his birthday or something?

Oh look, it’s the Pokeball cosplayer again. From a distance, his face looks like a weird bird.

I trade away my cool Galarian Meowth for a boring normal Meowth. I wonder if /both/ types of Meowth can Gigantamax?

This is the most ridiculous mission ever. The things I do for fame. Me - a sheep herder!

There are also annoying trainers that keep getting in the way. Can I instruct the herd of Wooloo to just stampede over these guys?

Counting /these/ sheep won’t put anyone to sleep.

I wonder how long it takes to reset the mission each time someone clears it. Oh well, not my problem.

Finally, we are on to the first Gym leader - this child-faced, buff farmer-dude.

I am so ready :)

There’s something kind of creepy about Milo’s face. His freckles make it look like he doesn’t have a nose.

You know, I just realized this Gym is probably horrible for spectators with allergies.

Another easy victory for me and my lump of coal.

I get my first badge! Looks like all the badges fit together into one big mosaic. I wonder how the merchandisers will handle creating real-world replica badges.

Can’t say no to free clothes. Maybe I”ll wear it at the next Gym.

I love that NPC’s are starting to recognize me. When I finally have my championship match, you think my mom will bother to come watch in person?

I also solved the riddle and found this item. You want it too? Then figure it out yourself ;)

I am now allowed to cross the bridge to Route 5, but I decide to hold off for the moment (this post is long enough anyways ;) )

First, I give another go at the lottery, but I only get milk as a prize. What if I was lactose-intolerant, huh?

My Pokemon are making quite a name for themselves on the job market.

Then I spend quite a while exploring more parts of the Wild Area. It really makes for some great screenshots.

This bug Pokemon is apparently super-rare, so I was lucky to find one in a Max Raid Battle.

Of course, I already have both a Bug and a Fire type, so you know where this one’s going :)

More lovely screenshots.

I can’t wait to get to that distant dragon city beyond the bridge.

I tried really hard to see if my trainer would jump off this cliff. Come on, the water will break your fall! ^.^

It’s scary seeing a Corviknight just flying around - they’re huge!

I’m kinda disappointed there are no actual giants here.

Another raid battle done. I love that you get a bone for beating a dog.

Finally, something fun to end this post with: November 21st was my birthday :)

[postgamecontent]

The Summer of Adventure: Threads of Fate

Original Release Date: October 14, 1999 (JPN)

Original Hardware: Sony PlayStation

I'll open this article with a little honesty. I had trouble with Threads of Fate, both playing it and writing about it. As with Legend of Mana, this was my first experience with the game. Unlike Legend of Mana, Threads of Fate wasn't better than I was expecting, or even as good as I had imagined. Fortunately, it's also not a bad game by any means, but it lacks a certain something. In reading up on the game's development, it became clear why I had trouble investing myself in this game. It's not meant to be a deep game or even a very serious one. The intended vibe was something like a cartoon for kids, and with that knowledge in tow, its lack of narrative substance or mechanical complexity makes complete sense. Still, this is the Summer of Adventure. I made my way through the game and am now trying to get this write-up together instead of just ignoring it and playing Chrono Cross.

I'm not sure where I got the idea that Threads of Fate was done by the same team as the 1998 action RPG Brave Fencer Musashi, but I was completely mistaken. Given how close their release dates were, I suppose that's understandable. Instead, the development team was largely filled with veterans of Chrono Trigger and Xenogears, along with a surprising amount of new faces. Even among those with experience, many team members were taking on new roles. Chief among them was Koji Sugimoto, the game's director. Sugimoto had only done programming work for the company before this game, with his debut being in the role of a visual programmer on Chrono Trigger. He was just 20 years old when that game was released, but somehow only a few years later was given the reins of a fairly major production. Threads of Fate would be the only game released where he served as a director. After that, he returned to his programming duties on titles such as Final Fantasy 10 and Crisis Core.

There are a number of notable staff members who contributed to the game. Makoto Shimamoto is credited with the original story idea and the event planning. He would be among the developers who left Square to continue the Xeno series at Monolith. Shimamoto was one of the main designers of the battle systems found in Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, Xenosaga, and Xenoblade. Like many members of Monolith, he also made contributions to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, though the exact nature of his work on that title will likely remain a mystery. Threads of Fate's scenario was written by Daisuke Watanabe. At the time, he was a fresh face, but he would go on to earn writing credits on the entire Kingdom Hearts series, along with Final Fantasy 10, 12, 13, 13-2, and Lightning Returns. The soundtrack was composed by Junya Nakano in a rare solo effort. Nakano can frequently be found collaborating with Masashi Hamauzu on games such as Front Mission: Gun Hazard and Final Fantasy 10.

With all of that talent and more on board, you might expect something big from Threads of Fate. It's important to remember, however, that many of these future stars were still near the start of their respective careers. There's a sense of tentativeness about Threads of Fate that may well spring from that. It's not so much that the game lacks confidence, so to speak, but that it almost seems afraid of attracting too much attention. Indeed, as Square games of this era go, Threads of Fate might be the most forgotten. It's not the most thrilling or epic, nor is it memorably terrible, or even particularly unique. The interesting or unusual things it does do have failed to make much of a mark in the general gaming consciousness. As an example, one of the heroes of the game, Rue, wields one of those ridiculous-looking pizza-slicer weapons, but whenever that particular Square quirk is brought up, it's always in reference to Luso from Final Fantasy Tactics A2. 

According to an interview that director Sugimoto did with Gather Your Party a couple of years ago, Threads of Fate was built to satisfy three major goals. Like others on the team, he was just coming off of Xenogears, and he couldn't help but wonder if kids would be able to understand or enjoy games like that. He felt that kids were future customers that weren't exactly well-served by many of Square's games. Sugimoto wisely believed that for the sake of the company's future, they ought to start addressing that audience. As a programmer, Sugimoto really enjoyed doing 3D coding. Very little of Square's output at that time was in full 3D, so he wanted his game to cover that, as well. Finally, since this was his first shot at the director's chair, he wanted to come out of the gates with something exciting and lively.

Did he accomplish those goals? Well, to an extent, I guess he did. There's no denying that Threads of Fate is more kid-friendly than things like Final Fantasy 8 and Xenogears. The story certainly has some characteristically Square-like twists to it, but the tone is closer to a children's anime than the usual angsty teen adventure Square was largely turning out at the time. There are plenty of silly jokes, goofy expressions, and bits of physical comedy that help maintain that cartoony mood, and the game's true ending is really just an open-ended bridge to the next adventure. The gameplay is similarly light. Overall, there aren't many systems to grapple with, and each of the two heroes will only have to deal with a portion of them during their playthrough. Map designs are largely straightforward, and the combat system doesn't go much farther than stick-and-move. The difficulty is somewhat low in all respects. A single playthrough runs 15-20 hours or so, but you'll have to reach the end with both characters if you want to see an extra scene. That's a little on the longer side for an action-RPG, but I could imagine someone enjoying bashing things around for that length of time, even if I didn't.

For a fully polygonal game, Threads of Fate looks and runs quite well. Square was generally fond of using a mix of 2D and 3D assets in this period. Using 2D backgrounds freed up resources to make the 3D main characters look better than you would expect from the PlayStation, so it was a pretty good choice for the kinds of games Square was making. Threads of Fate went all-in on the polygons, and it's fairly impressive in that context. Comparing Threads of Fate to Brave Fencer Musashi makes it seem like the former is almost an entire generation ahead. While it's not quite as attractive as Mega Man Legends, it has a similar sort of appeal to its visuals. Come to think of it, the sense of humor isn't far off from that game's, either. The game makes good use of its 3D visuals with dynamic camera angles and combat mechanics that take the added visual depth into account.

While I won't go so far as to accuse the game of being dull, I think it's in the director's third goal that it stumbles the most. If the aim was to make something exciting and lively, I'd say that the team only halfway accomplished that. Amusingly enough, its main failure can be found in one of its notable selling points. The game has two protagonists, Rue and Mint. While they are both working towards the same goal, their narrative paths are quite different. The stories frequently cross over with each other, but the tone of each is quite distinct. Rue is seeking a relic that he hopes can bring his friend back to life. He ends up on a typical Square quest for identity once his origins are revealed. Unfortunately, his personality is exceptionally boring. The game is aware of that and hangs a hat on it often, but hanging a hat on something doesn't remove it from the room. Mint seeks the same relic, but for totally childish and selfish purposes. She wants to show up her younger sister and take over the world. She's a total brat, and she only evens out a little bit over the course of the game, thank goodness.

From a story standpoint, Rue's quest seems to be trying more, but it ends up being far too cliche. It also drags you through some really awful existential speeches. By contrast, Mint's story is a breath of fresh air. It's silly, shallow, and not afraid to be completely stupid if it thinks that will earn a chuckle. She's a princess who likes to jump-kick first and ask questions later, and she has an acute phobia of pumpkins that the game milks for all it's worth. I'll go as far as to say that the optimal playthrough of Threads of Fate is to play Mint's quest first, and then just leave it at that. Your only reward for doing Rue's side of things is an avalanche of Pinocchio winks and a brief cut-scene that sets up a never-to-come sequel.

It extends to more than just the story, though. Rue and Mint also have different gameplay styles. Mint can cast a variety of useful magic spells. Her repertoire constantly expands over the course of the game, and the only catch is that you need to keep an eye on your MP. Those points will slowly restore as you whack away at the enemies with physical attacks, giving the gameplay a nice balance between safe ranged strikes and risky but necessary close combat. Rue is a little different. He can change his shape into the forms of the enemies he fights. Unfortunately, he can only change into the last five enemies he has encountered, which makes that ability very unreliable. Rue has to depend more on his trusty weapon. Given the general lack of zip in the melee combat, it makes for a long slog. I suppose it's cool on paper, and I can't deny that it's an innovative way to introduce some puzzles outside of the normal action-RPG stuff.

Threads of Fate is at its best when it's being goofy. Its serious moments have been done many times before, and far better. But when it starts parading out its cast of bizarre NPCs, it's hard not to smile a little. Characters like the star-obsessed Duke, the self-absorbed Rod, or the garish Fancy Mel are not only weird and wonderful in their own right, they bounce off of the heroes really well. Especially Mint, who is frankly having none of this foolishness even as she is cranking up the absurdity all on her own. The game's localization doesn't try very hard taking any of this seriously, and although it comes off as rough and amateurish in places, neither of those qualities are particularly out of place in both this game and its era. The overall courseness that the English script is prone to is practically a perfect match for the bratty Mint, who isn't nearly as elegant or amazing as she thinks she is.

Had I encountered the game in the right time or place, I might have liked Threads of Fate better. It has charm to burn and it's certainly competent in most regards. I guess the problem is that it doesn't seem all that interested in being anything more than that. And while it's not a terribly long game in the grander scheme, any enjoyment to be gleaned from the gameplay is exhausted well before the credits roll on even the first playthrough. That's a long ride on silly jokes alone. That said, it's not hard to find people who absolutely adore the game, and it certainly got its fair share of positive reviews in its time. It's also probably unfair to expect so much from a game that was explicitly designed to appeal to children. Again, it's not a bad game at all. I'm not displeased that I played it. But I also didn't take much away from the game, so it's hard to say if people with no existing connection to it should bother diving back in time to give it a go.��

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