#the characters are fun and cool but often for me feel like a tool to explore and stuff

[skitskatdacat63]

See, I generally don't really mind the gacha aspect of Genshin bcs it doesn't really entice me that much, and I'm happy with what I have. But I DO hate how it practically ruins the replayabilty. I constantly dream about replaying sections such as the Sumeru desert(best world quest line ever btw, I long for it) and exploring places over again for the first time. But the idea of starting completely fresh, after playing on an account I've been building for 4+ years is incredibly unappealing.

[earthtooz]

lighter x gn!mechanic!reader, 1k wc lighter is down bad for reader. like. DOWN BAD, lots of cute banter, pining from both.

Whenever you visit Blazewood, the Sons of Calydon mark it as a significant day in their metaphorical calender.

You’re their precious mechanic, the one who ensures all of their bikes and engines are running smooth for any operations (read: trouble) they get themselves into. Having been long-term friends with Caesar, you make the effort of travelling from Sixth Street to the outskirts of New Eridu every few weeks. Granted, for how many times you’ve travelled between the two places, you’ve grown rather close to the tight-knit biker gang, so it's an exciting time for all.

However, the reason it’s marked down is because they know it’s a special occasion where they can all tease a certain, aloof boxer a bit more than usual.

“Y/n!” Burnice’s voice cuts through the bustling atmosphere of Cheesetopia, capturing everyone’s attention as you walk through the door of the diner.

They all wave you over the booth they sat in, Burnice and Luci shuffling over so you can sit down with them. You don’t see the way Caesar nudges Lighter as you settle down opposite him. 

“How was your trip?” Caesar asks. 

“Good, a little tired though,” your yawn is perfectly timed. “My limbs still feel stiff.” 

“Oh no! Do you need a little rest?”

“No need, I wanna get started working as soon as possible, I'm itching to tinker some engines."

The dark-haired across from you chuckles, adjusting his sunglasses to sit higher on his nose bridge. “There’s the Y/n we all know. If you need a little help, let me know, I’m happy to lend a hand.” 

The group giggles between themselves.

“Thanks, Lighter!” 

The giggles intensify when Lighter’s ears flush red at the tips. 

This is why your visits are a marked occurrence: because the rare blush and nervous appearance that overtakes his normally cool and collected character is incredibly entertaining, and watching him bumbling about around you is a hard opportunity to come by. All Lighter can do is admit defeat and be susceptible to all the teasing that’s sent his way, because he might as well accept it.

He’ll turn a blind eye to the blonde heads popping around the garage every so often as he helps you out in the garage as long as it means they leave the both of you alone. He’ll ignore the giggles of the girls as they listen in on the quiet conversation exchanged between you both in the dim lighting of the dreary space.

“Any biker gang fights happen recently?” You ask whilst observing the rear wheel.

“Nah,” Lighter grunts, “just a few challenges here and there.”

You extend your hand out to him. “Spanner, please.” He places the tool comfortably in your hands and you resume working. “A few challenges? Did you win?”

“‘course. Wouldn’t be a good champion if I lost.”

“Sounds easy in theory,” you murmur, peeking around the bike. “I bet you don’t even know the names of the gangs you won against.”

His silence is the only answer you need and you sneak a smug glance at him. You look away before you could notice the red blush creeping up his neck. “So what if I don’t? I won against them, ain’t that all that matters?”

“Sure. Guess your memory gets knocked out of you after a couple fights.” You giggle at your own joke.

“C'mon, quit teasin’ me.”

“Sorry, just can’t help it when it took you almost five months to remember my name.” It’s light-hearted, he can hear the smile in your voice. 

“Gosh, you just don’t know how to let things go,” he counters, a smile of his own developing.

“Nah, it’s just fun to tease you.” Then, you stand up with a grunt, looking at your handiwork closely one last time before making your way to your workbench. “Besides, it’s not everyday I get to interact with a cool guy like you.”

Lighter’s heart skips a beat in his chest before jumping against his ribcage. “You think I’m cool?”

“Doesn’t everyone?” You ask. “You’re the cool guy who cares about everyone, and that’s a good thing. I like that about you.”

Oh, you’re gonna kill him. He’s not gonna make it out of the garage if you continue this onslaught of compliments. He doesn’t really want you to stop either, wants you to say something that really shows how you feel about him, like how you think he’s handsome, or that he’s admirable, or better yet, that you like him as well.

‘I like that about you’, ‘I like … you’, yeah. That’s also good enough for now. 

Instead, you fall silent as you rearrange all your tools, locking the box that cuts through the tense atmosphere with a ‘click’. 

“Well, I’m beat,” you huff, stretching your arms over your head, “my back hurts and I’m hungry.” 

“You’ve been working real hard, let me treat you to dinner.”

“Really?” 

“Really.” 

A few minutes later, you end up at the Fuel Truck, enjoying some food together and continuing your conversation in the cool, breezy night of Blazewood. It’s easy being with you, effortless, doesn’t really burn through his energy like some other social interactions do, and Lighter can’t help but feel like this is how it’s meant to be. Sharing stories, talking about the important and mundane alike, he doesn’t know when you became more than the cute mechanic Caesar was good friends with, but he’s glad he finally got your name down on the sixth time of trying. 

He tucks a strand of stray hair away from your face before you can get it in your mouth, and the grin you give him almost paralyses him. 

Plates are emptied, drinks finished, and dessert is done, but you’re still talking into the late of the night, until the employees need to wipe down the bar and call it a day. All good things come to an end, and Lighter wishes you could stay with the Sons of Calydon for longer than just a few days, but you have your own business in Sixth Street, so he monopolises your time whenever he can.

Which is how he ends up walking you to your motel, letting the long day draw to a close.

“Thank you for dinner, Lighter, today was fun.”

He chuckles, the sound deep and full. “No problem, it’s my pleasure.”

“Come back tomorrow, yeah? Swing by the garage anytime you want.”

“Anytime?” The biker rubs his chin. “Careful with your generosity, I might end up annoying you.”

“I doubt it.”

“And if I overstay my welcome?” 

“Then apologise by keeping me company.”

You shoot him a wink before going up the stairs of the motel, quickly disappearing from his sight as he laughs to no one in particular. He lightly punches his chest, as if trying to tell his hammering heart to calm down. 

Yeah. You really are trying to kill him. 

© EARTHTOOZ 2025, do not steal, translate, repost my fics and do not recommend my fics onto any other site.

[dailymothanon]

Was way too busy today to draw anything but this is how it feels to get my millionth Soundwave plot that is either cassette harm or something maybe a little interesting just for it to never actually be explored and end up tossed aside 😔(of course, I’m just over exaggerating for fun;) warning for a rant btw—

I think most if not all Soundwaves have been handled pretty solidly? Kinda? I guess 90% of the stuff he does as a character is just be an asset to keep the overall plot moving which is fair, but also mostly him just aura farming all the time lmao like girl we get it 😭 but also go off… but also I do heavily wish his character was explored more, different dynamics, change the formula! As mostly Megatron and maybe Starscream and to an extent Shockwave are often changed story and personality wise much more prominently or noticeably. Part of me also feels like 🤔 maybe the lack of change in Soundwaves (design wise? He certainly Does Change a lot) is partially because it’s hard to explore a character that tends to not be really expressive or talk much, so I don’t blame anyone… just wish that he has more juice yaknow 😌 something more filling than just stoic mech who practically carries the whole faction on his back, known to be loyal, and also has cassettes that he seems to care for a ton.. sure, you can say these are essentials to his character, but I guess like, isn’t that the point of different continuities? Endless possibilities that are all technically canon in their own regards (for example the folks who don’t like TfOne Shockwave cuz he’s very expressive and emotional, who think “he doesn’t have emotions why is he like this” well, yea, he doesn’t have emotions in THAT continuity, but in THIS continuity, he does! It’s a fun new way of seeing him!). Maybe TFA Soundwave is a good example to me of like, this is an interesting new idea of a story for him! But then it’s not really explored ever 😭 but don’t get me wrong, this does Not mean I don’t like other Soundwaves from the lack of story, I love them all very dearly!! Tfp was also an interesting and cool concept of him! Most Soundwaves have had great aspects about them to me which is why I cannot pick a definitive favorite! But one thing I think they all collectively lack a little in is exploration of character that’s past him just being a tool to keep things moving, which to me, even that within itself is something that may be explored, him being seen more as a tool than an individual, but I still completely understand why he isn’t touched on cuz obviously he won’t be the main character or anything 😛 important character Sure, but he’s almost treated like a side character at times which again, is also fine and valid, I don’t have expectations that the story would consider him cuz there’s usually not really reason to; though in comparison to the rest of the high command getting many new analyzations and different directions to go, it is a little disappointing to me when I think about it too much 📼 but I still love him a lot regardless!

[goldensunset]

there are several pokémon games now whose stories have absolutely microwaved my brain (positive). but black and white is really unique in that out of all of them, it feels the most like it had to have been a pokémon game. not even in the sense that it’s my absolute favorite but it’s probably the most creative when it comes to making a compelling plotline out of pokémon-specific game and story assets.

most games feature being a trainer, bonding with pokémon, learning about them and catching them, often times getting up to some insane stuff with the region’s legendaries, etc. pokémon are obviously always present- as characters, tools, or narrative devices- but the core conflict about the game is about something else. those staples of the series were only one possible means by which that sort of story could have been told. you could keep the core characters the same and change details like the method by which they fight each other and it’s the same thing.

in some games, these classic narrative/gameplay tools even sort of clash with and distract from the main conflict. battles that in any other story would be to the death are much like a fun little competition. that’s sort of just an innate thing to the game series’ turn based combat that is obviously based on pokémon, and most games are guilty of it. but there are ways to make it work in-universe, such as really emphasizing how any given pokémon is stronger than any given human and therefore whoever has even a single one of their soldiers left after the battle is holding a weapon against a defenseless target. in any case really it's generally up to the player to suspend their disbelief and allow themselves to get immersed in the aura of danger. but i would really love more games to make battles feel like a threat to the trainer as well… usually it's about trying to scare you off or maybe rob you, at most.

and my true pet peeve… in certain games, you awkwardly take turns between stopping the big bad and collecting gym badges and often even if there’s a story excuse for why you need to go get the badge or whatever, it’s kind of weak. you want to go after the evil team leader but first and foremost you want to become the champion and play with your cute little pets and these different desires rarely come up at the same time. the main antagonist might not even be the final boss; you’re expected to all but forget about them by the time you get to the pokémon league. the story is cool, yet not the point. ok yes this is me vagueing about dppt again listen platinum means the whole entire world to me but it hurt me to wrap up the cyrus plot at seven gym badges and get just a few lines of gratitude from cynthia for it later

but that aside. even in games where there’s no story-gameplay dissonance, where the story might be absolutely one hundred percent golden and the gameplay might be incredibly fun and work perfectly. you at the same time might be like 'wow, this is about pokémon? it didn’t even need to be.' (not to say that’s bad, obviously! people who are here to collect and play with cute creature friends deserve some insane banger plotlines too. the children yearn for existential angst and childhood trauma. i love unique storytelling devices and i hope these games have super cool utterly wild storylines that go way crazier than the child friendly marketing would indicate for the rest of the series.)

but like. black and white is so fascinating in that the core conflict is about being a trainer. it’s about the relationship between humans and pokémon. most games have a couple lines thrown in here and there about how anything is possible if you bond with your pokémon as equals, but this concept is central to black and white. team plasma are such good villains because they’re not another round of unhinged terrorists, they’re a sociopolitical advocacy group that legitimately challenges ways of life that most of the people of unova have never thought critically about. they ask the question of whether these norms and traditions are right and good. it’s like an attack on the whole entire series!

now obviously team plasma is like. wrong.., of course,,, both in terms of what they’re promoting and how they carry it out… but the fact that they make you think. the fact that they start a conversation. the fact that they hold assemblies in public and stand proud and don’t hide and even convince some people… that’s terrifying. their original plan was to rise to power not by force but by changing hearts. and through that they arguably got closer to winning than any other evil team.

and there is absolutely dissonance between the way they talk and the actual gameplay which requires you to pokémon battle them. but this dissonance is intentional. it's proving them to be a bunch of hypocrites who think that they alone know how to treat pokémon right and are therefore justified in training them. and it's meant to be obvious that behind the scenes (not even truly in secret, just like anywhere on any path outside of the big towns and cities) they are abusive bullies. but though the player can figure out what kind of people they really are right off the bat, most of unova might not. either news of the sorts of theft and threatening they do travels slowly, or certain people are being manipulated and swayed into believing it really was for the greater good. truly team plasma has a level of power that no other evil team has ever had.

then there's n.... n knows it feels wrong and hypocritical but he doesn't know any other way. or perhaps he also justifies it to himself by saying it's fine as long as he lets them go afterwards (which is, ironically, arguably even more like using them as tools for an intended purpose than properly being their trainer.) but after chargestone cave he commits to what he believes in and swears he won't battle again other than in the few cases it's absolutely necessary for his goal.

and of course. the way he's also trying to become the champion, the way interrupts your journey through the pokémon league, is so iconic. but he did tell you that quite early on. 'I need power... Power enough to make anyone agree with me.' and then 'I'll defeat the Champion and become unbeatable, unlike any other! I'll make all Trainers free their Pokémon! Just try and stop me! If you want to be together with Pokémon, your only hope is to collect the Badges from each area and head for the Pokémon League! Try and stop me there, if you dare! If your conviction is not strong enough, you will never be able to defeat me.' you see how neat that is? see how narratively awesome and efficient it is to give the player yet another, more serious reason to do the gym circuit? it's one of your personal dreams, like those of your friendly rivals. but now you have a not so friendly rival. not in the sense that he's some neighborhood jerk but in the sense that he's a madman running for public office.

but seriously, it's very important to me that they broke the tradition of the region's official champion being the final boss. they show you the league in all its glory as usual, and then make a big deal out of having team plasma show up and summon a whole entire castle that absolutely disrupts everything. they made it loud and clear that they knew what they were doing as far as breaking tradition. they said 'i know entering the hall of fame is very cool and important to you, and maybe you can do that later, but we have bigger problems right now.' alder is no idiot. he just got defeated! sure he could heal up with some revives and hyper potions but let's get real, he's in no mood to fight you, and it would be irresponsible for both of you to battle at a time like this.

like. now n has all the accolades he needs to set himself up as some sort of god king that no one would dare argue with, and basically the evil new york branch of peta just won the election by a landslide and took over all three branches of the government, and that's sort of a problem maybe. sure they aren't killing anyone or destroying the world (yet) but. they are a much more realistic type of threat. it wouldn't matter if alder was the coolest champion in the series (and i do like the guy as a character); i would not have been able to care even a tiny bit if we had battled him at that moment. and i would have been actively frustrated and let down if we had gotten to battle him after the epic climax of the plot and n's heartbreaking farewell. it was a very unique creative risk to save the championship for postgame, but it worked out so well.

but see like! when n does battle you it's not even because he actually wants to win. every single time, he wants to battle you because he wants to get to know you and to understand the strength (and accuracy) of your convictions. from the very first fight in accumula town to the grand showdown between the two of you. n never wanted victory. he wanted truth. he wanted righteousness. and slowly he learns that he wasn't the one who had either of those. his external journey was a facade for his inner one, which he can only bear to admit to you after everything has unfolded and he's finally safe and free from ghetsis and team plasma.

that's all to say, when it comes to him, pokémon battling is the only appropriate gameplay mechanic by which you ought to interact with him. unlike other antagonists he's not fighting to tell you to get lost, or to rob you, or to kill you, etc. he specifically needs to hear the voices of your pokémon in battle to realize you are a good and kind trainer and that he was lied to about battling. this specific conflict wouldn't work in another piece of media. of course, a more general theme of having been lied to about truth or justice could be done, but black and white specifically wants to talk about the ethics of pokémon training itself (to which there really isn't a real-world equivalent, since making animals fight is usually either rare and specific, or outright illegal. as far as i know. it’s definitely not a public sport that children are encouraged to participate in. and we don't have pokéballs so we can't verify irl how comfortable and fun it is to be digitized and put in a machine. it's probably fun for them but idk.) and that's so fascinating.

now of course, ghetsis is a more typical antagonist who actually wants you gone. dead, even. but for him, i think a pokémon battle as a final conflict still works. for one, they don't overuse it. in lots of cases, you battle evil team leaders or their admins multiple times- the majority of those times being an attempt simply to get you to stand down. when they finally 'get serious', sure the battle may be harder later on, but you're still doing the exact thing you were before. and like. you probably expected this, right?

ghetsis, however, doesn't even seem like a pokémon trainer at all until the very last second. it doesn't take you too long to figure out he's rancid and a manipulator, and that team plasma is trying to capture pokémon in order to have a monopoly over unova, but for all you know, he really might not use any pokémon himself. maybe only the king and the grunts do the whole battling thing but it's the sages' job to just walk around and say cryptic poetic things. and then. boom. he whips out a full killer team of six. he goes from 0 to 60 real fast. you've had zero experience with battling him thus far and therefore have absolutely no idea what he's packing and it's scary.

and of course, how could i not talk about his actual team? his infamous ace is a few levels too low to be a legitimate hydreigon, implying something fishy or forced. and in the sequel it's got frustration in its moveset, executed at maximum power- first of all, what kind of sicko even runs that move in the first place? unless you're like. working with buneary or otherwise doing something really specific. and what kind of sicko is so abusive to their pokémon that they lower its base friendship from 35 to 0? of course, that's a rather low base friendship value to begin with. but see, with this entire evolutionary line being vicious in its lore, you'd think it would be perfect for a guy like ghetsis, right? they're both brutal and also irrational- being geniuses, and yet knowing nothing but destruction. hydreigon is a killing machine and ghetsis flies into a genuine insane rage upon losing. point being you'd think they'd have fun together. we've seen villains legitimately bond with their pokémon before. but instead they're two toxic haters that don't mesh. ghetsis is so evil even his own partner hates him. and he delights in that and actively chooses to benefit from it via the use of a particular move. ugh i love when pokémon battles subtly say something about trainer npcs through gameplay mechanics...

also did i mention he's trying to Kill You. other villains are probably fine with doing that if necessary but scaring you off or taking away all your pokémon would also work. ghetsis implies that he specifically needs you dead because you know the ugly truth, and that knowledge makes that battle a lot more chilling than usual. that is a case of a true pokémon battle to the death. it doesn't feel cheap or like a relatively casual competition there, it's not a fight where either side is trying to prove anything, etc. and you can tell his bloodlust was genuine because he does not give up or admit defeat. he tries to murder the next protagonist too and goes to even more extreme measures that time.

ghetsis is using his pokémon as weapons against you because they're the most efficient way to murder you. that's all he wants. and you can tell he needs them because purely visually you can see he's gotta be kind of an old man with at least two physical disabilities, and he's not really dressed for physical activity- he's dressed like a big shot noble (or thinks he is. that fit is so ugly) who could never get his own hands dirty. and thematically it's perfect for the big bad leader of all hypocrites to use pokémon as tools, as opposed to any other type of weapon. like he could go get a gun or something if this was rated higher, but i think the sicko probably delights specifically in lording power over his tormented pokémon, if choosing to run frustration on hydreigon when there are probably better move options available means anything. i think he'd choose this means of battle in any universe he could.

in conclusion! the generation 5 games, more than any other games, absolutely needed to be pokémon games in order for the story to work. they closely examine fascinating aspects of the pokémon universe that are otherwise taken for granted. they seamlessly merge the goal of travelling and working to become the champion, and the goal of stopping the villains, instead of having these be awkwardly separate storylines. the gameplay is relevant to all three tiers of antagonist- grunts, main antagonist, and true mastermind villain- in different ways. i would love for another set of pokémon games to have such a focused, unified plotline that also feels relevant to the overall series. very swagful. something something mic drop

[infinity-or-oblivion]

heyyyy realm nation I have an au for y'all: arranged marriage foolhalo. now hear me out I'm thinking longgggg history of conflict between warring kingdoms (think montagues and capulets) I'm thinking fundamental moral differences that make peace nearly impossible I'm thinking innocent people caught in the crossfire and most of all I'm thinking doomed yaoi. foolish and bad hate each others guts so intensely and somehow have so much in common and I just think forced 'romance' is so fun. anyways foolish is the eldest prince of his family which includes ros and owen and clown and tango and perhaps sneeg and phil and then bad wants to strengthen their kingdoms alliance so he marries foolish except they HATE each others guts and bad’s kingdom/family of pili and pangi and hannah and baghera all keep attacking foolish and his family

okay so that was my initial idea and then I started thinking about the kingdom of fools found family dynamic (because I watch almost exclusively ros pov btw) so here's my pitch: eldest prince foolish and his siblings are Owen, clown, and ros. that’s all i really want tbh BECAUSE LIKE THE DYNAMICS ARE SO GOOD I WANT SOME FAMILY CONFLICT THAT IS ULTIMATELY ROOTED IN LOVE IS THAT SO MUCH TO ASK FOR

so like: middle child that often feels slighted owen, sometimes feels threatened by more talented clown, foolish who cares about all of them so much but he’s stretched thin and can’t do everything himself, and of course. clown and ros my beloveds, baby of the family ros, and all of her brothers love her and feel very protective of her. but sometimes she feels like she doesn’t add as much to the kingdom since she’s more of an artist than a fighter, and also others see her as a weak point, and sometimes she doesn’t get the support and validation she needs from her brothers (except clown??) and of course then there’s clown. he’s got weird eldritch shit going on, something about messing with the magical and ethereal that he becomes intertwined with it, also some ctechno-esque feelings about only being seen as a weapon/tool for others, ANYWAYS I love tr!clown wish he would FUCKING STREAM MORE. rotating them all in my mind like a rotisserie chicken

but like ive been thinking about that time foolish and ros went on a fishing trip after foolish came back from the dead and how good that was and I'm also thinking about the low-key jealous (??) vibe Owen has going on all the time and of course I'm the number one clown and ros fan so yeah. I can't stop thinking about them teehee

and tango is probably a trusted advisor to foolish or something along those lines, as well as sneeg (sneeg and clown divorce canon???? must've been the wind...)

and then on the red/green side there's bad as the king/whatever patriarch, with pangi as his nephew or something like that idk, and then pili is an assassin pangi somehow befriended that hangs around all the time and won’t leave. and also has/had some sort of insane situationship with ros?? also hannah and pac as trusted advisors and the rest of red team as other mercenaries/hired hands (architect sausage, pirate baghera, etc). and let's not forget that pangi and pili have some sort of insane doomed yaoi thing going on too, they truly are the most dysfunctional found family

and with blue, there’s tubbo, cpk, kind of phil and beky and coy and scott (??) and of course aimsey. oh my god tr!aimros is fucking insane, ros is having a Rough Time and foolish is really good at supporting her even though he doesn’t always have time or really get what the hell is going on with ros and aimsey. anyways tubbo is an old friend of foolish, gets along great with ros, and his ex-husband is ‘friends’ with pili. so that’s great. (huge fan of tr!Tommy just kind of being there and annoying tubbo from time to time very in character for him). and tubbo, aimsey and cpk are canonically brothers I don't make the rules, beky is silently recording everything and judging everyone, coy is just trying to build a cool farm and keeps getting pulled into drama

anyways. there's my concept and I keep trying to write something but I can't figure out how the fuck to go about it, so I figured someone else might like the idea. godspeed soldiers

[cozage]

The Daughter's Return Part 3

Chapter 26: Thereafter

Start From Beginning | Table of Contents | Read on AO3

Characters: female reader x Portgas D. Ace Word Count: 1k AN: This is more of an epilogue of sorts. There's not a lot of dialogue, but it does kind of wrap everything up. I really have enjoyed writing this, and I hope you have enjoyed it as well :) thanks for a fun time and a great ride. I could say 5,000 more things about this fic and how much I love you for supporting it, but let's finish this up :)

It had taken Ace a few days to make the house liveable, but plenty of people had opened their homes for you to stay in while you all finished the essential repairs. They never made you feel like a burden, and even though you tried to keep to yourselves, they were eager to get to know you.

You had expected to pay for all the tools you needed, but the townsfolk on this island were kind and generous. Several families had lent Ace tools, and some had even come by to offer their help. Even though you were on a hill outside of town, people dropped in throughout the day, bringing baked goods or hand-sewn linens as welcoming gifts. 

So much for privacy. You had more of it in your shared bunkhouse on the Moby Dick. 

But you didn’t find yourself irritated by the townspeople’s check-ins. While most of them asked basic questions about your past and eyed Ace’s scarred back, they never pried. And even better, they always seemed to know when it was time to leave. 

After a few weeks, you had fallen into a strange pattern of familiarity. Even as your belly grew bigger, you tried your best to help Ace as much as you could every day. In the morning, you would get up and make him coffee. He would always scold you, claiming that you were the one who was supposed to be pampered right now, but he continued to allow you to do it for now. 

You all would eat a quick breakfast, and then begin to work on house improvements. The morning was the best time to work, since it was still cool out. The two of you patched up holes in the walls and began to decorate the inside of your little two-bedroom cabin. The projects never seemed to end.

And every morning while you worked, Mr. Cheddle would deliver a newspaper, and you would invite him in for breakfast. If he declined, you would send him some kind of snack to thank him for bringing the paper up the hill. You knew he didn’t mind, but you still felt obligated to send him away with something. 

You’d leave Ace to go make lunch, and usually find some variety of baked goods on the counter from someone welcoming you to the town. You often found yourself wondering if people would ever stop sending you things, or if you would become someone who baked for your neighbors just for the hell of it. 

At lunch, you would read the paper and update Ace on anything interesting. Afterwards, the two of you would typically walk to town together to find something to do. Some days you would shop, others you would go your separate ways. Whether it was tea with Arabelle, or a walk in the park with Crilly and her three dogs, or even sitting at Sellie-Tien’s shop and catching up on gossip, you always found something to do. 

And as the sun set, you and Ace would walk back up the hill, talking of your time spent apart, and even stopping to chat with others along the road. 

What a strange life you were living. How mundane it all was. And yet…perfect. 

On one particular day it had been too hot for you to work, even in the morning. And with nothing to do, you decided to read the News Coo early. You kept your eyes peeled for any words of Luffy, but there had been no news of him since his stunt at Marineford. 

However, today there was far more interesting news on the front page. One you had been waiting for. 

One about Portgas D. Ace.

“You’re dead!” You cheered, holding up the News Coo to show Ace. 

Ace dropped his tools and ran over to you, reading it over quickly. 

“They made a grave for me and everything,” he said. “Impressive.” 

“It helps that they took your hat,” you mentioned. He pouted at the thought. 

“I’m gonna miss that hat.” He handed the paper back to you. “What about you?”

“Still nothing.” You read through the article once again just to make sure you hadn’t skipped anything. “I doubt they’ll officially say I’m dead.”

“Really?” Ace asked. “Why’s that?”

“Because they reported it wrong once,” you admitted, setting the paper down. “They can’t do that again. Can you imagine the embarrassment?”

“But they won’t bother us here.” Ace looked out over the ocean. “They don’t have jurisdiction.”

“That’s why Marco chose it for us,” you said. “It’s quiet. Out of the way. Nobody will bother us. It’s perfect.”

“Seems like a more than fair trade off,” Ace said, and you nodded in agreement. 

“We finally get to have our happily ever after.”

Ace smiled at you, kissing your cheek. “And I can’t wait to spend it with you. Our perfect little family.”

---

Sengoku stared long and hard at a small piece of paper with little hearts doodled all over. Against everything that he knew and had been told, the card sat between his fingers in perfect condition. 

Garp walked into the room, full of drive and purpose. “Listen Sengoku, I need to tell you something. I-“

“I know,” he said. “You’re going to retire. But before you turn in that resignation letter, I want to give you something.”

Sengoku handed off the piece of paper covered with hearts. “Do with this what you will. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve never seen it.”

Garp examined it, and his breath caught in his throat when he saw the name written across it in perfect cursive. Ace. 

“Where did you get this?”

“We took it off Portgas D. Ace when he arrived at Impel Down.  We thought it belonged to him, but that must not be the case, since he’s dead now.”

Garp held the card in his hand carefully. The paper slowly inched away from him. “So who’s it belong to then?”

“Probably nobody,” Sengoku shrugged. “I’m about to retire myself, and that little scrap of paper seems like a lot of paperwork and a lot of personal investigation. I just don’t have it in me. Especially for some pirate who we all saw die. Take it off my hands for me. Do something with it, just don’t tell me what. As a favor.”

“Yes sir,” Garp said, tears in his eyes. “Thank you.”

“No Garp,” Sengoku said. “Thank you.”

--

Tag list! @taeyoge @teiza @tojislawyer @trafalgardnami @bloopbopsblog @dancingnewcat @dxestyi @flooofity @nyxthedragon01 @deadsnothere @h-rhodes1598  @morgyyyyyyy @trafalgardvivi  @fiestynatureweeb @frogpogjoghurt @beepboopcowboy @ms-portgas @luvyallbabes @appalost @zuchkaa @saybeyonce @stray-npc @kitsunechan707 @theyluvmesblog @heartysworld @aira-needs-sleep  @mothmomjay @ophelias-flowerss @aqualein @sehyojae @fanficwriter5 @forgotten-blues @amberash05 @firefistnoct @depressed-but-make-it-cute @stuckinthewrongworld@lizpoir

[moodyseal]

I love your designs for Gracie, Jerry, and Yan! Could you talk more about your headcanons for them? Like the powers and personalities you mentioned?

*twirls hair* Why thank you hehe

My headcanons for them shift a bit from time to time as I change my mind very often so I apologize if they will make little sense (it's not like I ever had to use them for a fic anyway) but the general idea is that Jerry's main domain is knowledge, Gracie's is light and Yan's is truth? Maybe?

There's not much info a single line can give but Jerry gave me the impression of a very uh. Pragmatic kid, so to speak? In a group I think he's the person who gets everyone back on track. Maybe a bit of a know-it-all, likes to sound like he's learned every page of a dictionary front to back for fun. That naturally connects him to Apollo's domain of knowledge and I know it sounds lame because that would make him very similar to a child of Athena but also there can be some interesting ways to play with that concept

Power over knowledge would of course entail exceptional photographic memory and a knack for understanding complex concepts: he reads something once, instantly understands and memorizes it (if you're wondering if Mike Ross inspired this in any way then yes, he did). However, depending on how powerful he grows to be, I was thinking that it could make him have some power over someone's mind as well, maybe by letting him manipulate certain types of information in their minds or even just access it. I mean, one of the articles on ReadRiordan mentioned that as the Muse of history's son Hyacinthus had powers over people's memories/perception of things, so it doesn't seem to be too far-fetched to think that knowledge would entail something similar

A popular headcanon in the fandom is also that Jerry has power over prophecy to some degree, and that would ALSO be very intriguing, especially given the implications of Jerry being (at least among the canon characters) the first child of Apollo since Halcyon to have prophecy powers 👀 maybe in this scenario it could be some sort of secondary power that's a direct consequence of the first one? Maybe they could be connected? Not sure

On the contrary, Gracie to me is basically the complete opposite of him. She's way more open and carefree and gets side-tracked very very easily, and even though most of that naturally derives from her 7-year-oldness (because I cannot see her as anything but a 7 y/o tbh) I think it would stick with her even as she grows older. Light powers seem difficult to master and actually use in combat by virtue of how easily light scatters, so maybe they would be a good way for her to center herself and be more focused

I actually considered the possibility of her having powers that connected to Apollo's purification domain as well because it's never mentioned and it is, at least in theory, cool as hell as a power, but I fear it would only make sense in a pair—light as a tool for purification, for example. Warding off evil, neutralizing curses, that sort of thing. It could make her very susceptible to corruption that way, but it is what it is! Many powers have some sort of downside

Finally, as for Yan, they seem like someone who only talks when they feel like it or when they deem it necessary and is, as a result, very observant and a good listener. Part of being able to know when someone's lying is paying attention to the way they behave, what they say and how they say it, so powers over truth seemed like a good choice in this context. Yan would be able to unconsciously realize that someone's lying through their tone, and as they practice even single out the specific lie later on

That would probably require a very receptive inner ear so that would mean they'd have a second, lesser power then? A natural affinity for music for sure, though I'm not sure about the specific instrument they'd pick

Anyway this is pretty much all I have! Ofc it's all a bit up in the air and I was making this up as I went because an idea apparently doesn't always make sense in words on its own but hopefully it makes sense now <3

I can't exactly say I'm excited about the upcoming books as I used to be due to how some things were handled (in TSATS specifically) but if these three are there and we get even a crumb of additional information about them it will be enough for me even if it disproves all of this 😭🙏 I just want something solid to work with yk

[zoobiefish]

I am WAY behind on Auctober again! Ugh, university, am I right?? 😩 Hopefully for the final 2 days I’ll get some art done for it, but in my years of accepting my Autism I’ve come to understand that I can’t always meet NT expectations—and that’s okay 😁 Anyway, let’s get caught up:

22: Disabled

Yes, Autism is a disability. Yes, I am disabled. And that’s okay! I often see able-bodied and able-minded people treat the term “disabled” as if it is a dirty word. They’ll try to fluff it up by replacing it with “differently abled” or similar terms. But the truth is that by fluffing up the terminology, you do more harm than good—all it does is make disability more stigmatized than it already is. So yes, the term is “disabled.” It’s not a slur, it’s not a dirty word—it’s just a word! And it accurately describes me as well. There are some things that I will never be able to do that NTs can do with ease and take for granted…and that’s perfectly—you guessed it—okay! I have challenges in my daily life that will never go away. All that means though is that I need the proper supports in place so I can function. Now, I do need to acknowledge that my Autism is considered “high-functioning” (clinical words, not mine!) so I understand that I don’t face nearly the same struggles as “low-functioning” or “middle-functioning” (again NOT my choice of words) Autistic people do. I do struggle with the things the majority of Autistic people across the spectrum struggle with though; I have extreme difficult reading non-verbal cues, understanding tone of voice or text, facial expressions…and this can often lead to unintended hurt feelings—whether they be mine or someone else’s. I also struggle very much with sensory issues. Crowds, loud noises, squishy, rubbery textures, and certain smells can set off a panic attack and/or meltdown in me. I often have to wear headphones if I know something like construction is going to occur where I live—power tools are my KRYPTONITE!! I also get stressed and overwhelmed extremely easily. I find I have to come up with a lot of strategies and life hacks to keep up with the demands of university life that most don’t have a problem with. These are just to name a few of my struggles—I could be here all day explaining all the ways Autism affects my life, but I got more prompts to catch up on!

23: Synesthesia

Oooo, a fun one! I wish I could say have the really cool synesthesia people talk about in the media a lot—but I don’t 😅 I have associative synesthesia I believe it’s called. Basically, I don’t literally see sounds as colours in my peripheral vision, or literally taste colours when I see them or anything like that. But I do *associate* different stimuli with senses they shouldn’t be related to. There are different subcategories of associative synesthesia, but I don’t have the spoons to explain them here so please Google it haha! Anyway, what I do find is that I associate certain colours with tastes. Blue for instance tastes like icing/frosting/whatever you wanna call it on a cake. Red tastes like sour cherry candies. Yellow tastes like Lucky Charms marshmallows. Another weird synesthesia thing I have is that certain numbers are always certain colours in my mind. 1 is black, 2 is light green, 3 is red, 4 is navy blue etc. Also I read somewhere that this particular thing is synesthesia, though I could be wrong: but as a kid I always associated numbers with certain character archetypes. I even cut out paper dolls of them and played with them! 1 was the “everyman” kind of character. 2 was kinda ditsy and the sidekick to 1, like Patrick from Spongebob. I don’t remember any other numbers in between but I know that 5 was a conniving used carsalesman type of character, and 7 was the logical, rational one that was always trying to get 5 out of trouble—much to his chagrin. Man, this last factoid would’ve fit with the vivid imagination prompt! 🤣🤣🤣

24: Genetic

I don’t know honestly what all to say about this one, sorry! But I do know that while we don’t have *all* the answers yet, Autism does seem to be caused by several genetic factors. It can also run in families. I’m Autistic, 2 of my nephews are Autistic, and there’s a couple other older family members I suspect could be Autistic too—though I’m no clinician.

25: Pets

I grew up with cats all my life!! They have always been my comfort animal and I think it might be because cats remind me a lot of Autistic people: they’re misunderstood as being cold and unfeeling, but if they get to know you they can be your best friend. They can be very loving and show affection in ways you may not understand but should be appreciated regardless. They like quiet, they tend to gravitate towards their “person,” they are typically introverted, and they can get laser focused on an object of interest. My current cat is named Curry, though I call him “Sir Curry” because he’s my knight in fuzzy armour! He always knows how to comfort me when I’m sad, having a meltdown, or panicking. And he makes me laugh and gives the best cuddles! 🥰 🐈‍⬛

26: Fidgeting

I fidget a lot when I am nervous. I’ll typically play with stuff like buttons or zippers on my sweaters, or play with my lanyard that has my student card on it.

27: Stimming

Stimming is something I do A LOT!! For the uninformed, stimming refers to repetitive behaviours in Autistic (and other neurodivergent) people that helps us to regulate our senses and/or emotions. Stimming can be done for a lot of reasons—we might be super happy, we might be overstimulated, we might be *under*stimulated, we might be anxious…it could be any number of reasons, but it’s usually a way to burn off extra energy at least in my case. When I’m really, REALLY happy, I’ll kinda bounce on the ball of my feet or tap my fingers together repeatedly. When I’m excited or nervous, I shake my foot. Sometimes I rock back and forth when I’m sitting as well if I’m happy or nervous. A lot of times though, I’ll have a fidget toy with me! My favourites are any that nake clicky noises or have buttons and switches and such on then, like my fidget cube!!

28: Safe Foods

“Safe foods” refer to foods that Autistic people can eat all the time no problem because we know exactly what to expect from them. Autistic people are often stereotyped as being “picky eaters” but more often than that there’s more to it than just being “picky.” A lot of foods can taste different or have a different texture depending on how fresh it is, how ripe it is, how it’s prepared etc. which is why many Autistic people have trouble with fruits and vegetables. Myself, I don’t have much problem with most fruits and vegetables. I would even go as far to say I’m a bit of a foodie if it weren’t for the fact that I tend to eat small amounts throughout the day instead of 3 square meals a day 😅 However, I do refuse to eat pasta, any kind of noodles, jell-o, pudding or anything similarly squishy and rubbery. I just can’t do it! It makes me gag! 🤢 I also can’t deal with blueberries. The smell alone makes me nauseous!!

29: Empathy

Ahh, another commonly misunderstood aspect of Autism. Despite popular belief, most Autistic people (at least that I know) are *very* empathetic people—myself included! In fact, I would say I feel *too* much empathy, and many Autistic people feel the same. I don’t claim to be a professional so take what I say with a grain of salt and fact check with your own research, but my understanding is that today’s literature on Autism claims that Autistic people usually struggle with specific *types* of empathy rather than empathy altogether. For myself, I struggle to put myself in another person’s “shoes” so to speak. But that doesn’t mean I can’t understand what emotion a person is likely feeling in a given moment. I have an example that isn’t my own experience but rather the experience of another Autistic person I know, but I very much relate to it: When this person was a kid, they saw their mom get hurt and saw that she was in pain. They didn’t know what to do because they couldn’t exactly understand their mom’s perspective, but they understood in general that the mom was in pain and they empathized with that. So they grabbed their favourite comfort toy and offered it to their mom. Now I don’t know about you, but I would certainly call that “empathy” of some kind! I will say though that there *are* some Autistic people who don’t experience empathy at all. However, it’s important to know that lack of empathy does not make a person “evil” or anything. There is more to being a decent human being than empathy after all.

Anyway, that’s all for now! We’re almost done Auctober, I can’t believe it!! It went by so fast aaaaaaa!!!

[iraprince]

Any ttrpgs (including/especially yours!) that you recommend to get the oc wheels turnin’? Or especially fun as oc design tools/inspiration?

as an overall recommendation for this, from the perspective of design tools, solo journaling games are often excellent for this -- you can browse the entire solo tag for the physical games category on itch and find TONS!!

moving on to specific recs: not for characters specifically, but for general worldbuilding one of mine i can recommend is lamplighter's festival! it's about building up the history and culture of a location by developing a ritual or holiday that's celebrated there, and i think sometimes creating a location with a lot of intention and thought will of course naturally get you thinking abt the ppl who live there. (i think this is also a great gm tool if you want to bring your party somewhere special!)

divined journey is a game about outlining a character's story in detail using tarot cards -- i've had a lot of fun using this to flesh out existing characters and imagine plot arcs that are different than the ones i'd come up with on my own, but i think it could absolutely start u running on a brand new character too. often the order ppl go in is make the character, THEN put them in a story, but forming a character BY putting them through the story (i.e. keeping them more malleable and considering events the primary development vs "backstory") can be extremely cool

on the more... i don't wanna say "traditional" but like, "narrative tabletop games as we know them" (vs solo journaling stuff/things that lean towards being design tools):

time to drop is a game about pulling one last heist (again and again and again, in a timeloop). i often find that games with a really specific premise/setting kickstart tons of fresh thought; as much as i love just doing the exact tropes i already like ad nauseum (being completely genuine there), restrictions and a narrowed focus are GREAT for getting the brain churning. and trapping a bunch of criminals in a time loop is a great way to develop necessarily juicy oc dynamics :3c

sapphicworld is a game that has gotten me SUPER revved about ocs (up to the point where i once planned out a 12 course formal dinner menu for a campaign finale.....). it's still in development, but you can get a pwyw glimpse at the ashcan here (kind of like a tasting platter of the style and mechanics of the game, which the dev describes as a dream about sapphicworld), and get access to the entire wip game on the darling demon patreon for five bucks. it's worth a billion times that. i love sapphicworld lol

in general i think games that have playbooks and picklists always get me going, for that same "narrowed focus" reason... at first ur urge might be to push outside the picklists, bc u have a different idea or none of the stuff on the list exactly matches what u had in mind for the character, but forcing urself to adhere and then branching out from that is something that i think creates a lot of really fun combinations. for this reason i think that a lot of PBTA stuff fits the bill -- i realize that doesn't narrow things down at all lol but it DOES mean u can browse the pbta tag and then just snag anything that seems to have a setting/tone that you're in the mood for!

i feel like this is a woefully small selection but it's all i have time for today, and ttrpgs are just so broad....! i would love if ppl gave more suggestions in the reblogs + replies!!!

[bonefall]

How do you feel about "character joins bloodclan" aus? Im curious about ur thoughts since youre really in tune with the themes of the series but personally i just hate them bc its ALWAYS aimed at 'unfortunate' characters and always ALWAYS ignores the fact that bloodclan is a horrible place in-canon and that they're just reflavoring the abuse and trauma the characters qent through to be more emo or goth themed.

Ravenpaw is ALWAYS a prime target for this and its like. Great. You took the character being abused by their mentor figure and is being harmed from the violent culture the clan has generated... and giving them an EMO mentor figure who will inevitably abuse them and harm them as a result of the violent culture the emo clan has generated. Sasha is another one I've noticed- you've put the woman who lost her kit and is struggling to survive with the others while being controlled and abused by someone who sees her as an outsider (aka alone and easy to isolate), and are gonna put her in a faction who specifically separates kin from one another to easily control them and who have canonically tried murdering those who stick with their family. What was gained here.

Like i know bloodclan is revamped in ur au (thank god for it) but in canon bloodclan is HORRIBLE. People ignore that in favor of putting their favs into bloodclan bc bloodclan is cool and killed tigerstar that one time bc of revenge. Ravenpaw becomes Scourge AUS are SO SO SO much worse bc of this too- sure you manage to point out how scourge and raven has roughly similar stories in their youth but you could also do something interesting and make an au where raven and scourge are FOILS and do a firestar/scourge thing, while pointing this comparison out!! Instead you just went "Ravenpaw emo now and is sad about beating up Firestar his friend" and basically kept everything the same.

Sorry im basically venting here but i just dont like how people forget that scourge in canon does NOT look out for the 'little guy', he's a murderer and abuser who wants to keep his subjects afraid and separated so that he alone has power over them. Bloodclan is not the cool strong goth group, its the group where two cats slaughter eachother over a piece of twoleg scraps, only for the survivor to die bc the food was poisonous to cats and no one knew bc theres no cohesive group that can pass that knowledge around. its a fucking horrible place to live. Im not saying that you cant do interesting "character in bloodclan" aus (a Rusty who lives in bloodclan who STILL wants to do good but is shaped by the horrid reality of bloodclan would be fun imo) but its so often used with already traumatized characters as a 'solution' or 'fix-it with some emotional issues involved' that i just foam at the mouth and howl like a rabid animal on principle at this point.

Hmm... I think for me, it doesn't tend to read that way for me when the fandom makes AUs for it. I'm coming at BloodClan from a point of really deep critique and frustration.

BloodClan's not a REAL place, and what that means is, every speck of how horrible it was is a choice the writers made to justify its treatment. It was something they actively decided, because, BloodClan was a tool to suddenly invalidate the previous 5 books of TPB so that the series could comfortably conclude there was no need to upset the status quo.

If you haven't read it before, I recommend this post I made on how Darkest Hour Is A Personal Disappointment, but anyway;

We spend a whole series on how Fireheart challenges a broken society, because he is different. Their xenophobia, how isolationism and glory get people killed, the way that Tigerstar's greatest asset is how respected he is... these are bad things. They're things that Fireheart fights for several books.

But then, in the LAST book, in the 11th inning, they introduce BloodClan. They're just evil. They have no nuance. The narrative bends over backwards to stress that this group of evil foreigners LOVES murder, hates friendship, and doesn't believe in our good god.

Suddenly, the Clan cats have to be EXTRA xenophobic and glorious to kill these filthy, murderous foreign hordes. Clan cat belief in their good god makes them stronger than the bloodthirsty barbarians. Firestar kills Scourge and we can feel happy and triumphant about it, when Tigerstar was killed a few chapters ago and given a tragic sendoff.

So, I encourage you to step back from an emotional response to how Filthy and Murderous this group was portrayed, and look at it as a writing choice.

When Tigerstar, known cat-racist and murderer of mixed-race people, is killed by Scourge in self-defense, he is grieved by Firestar and commended for his "good qualities". (and then they retconned in that it was actually secretly revenge all along, not just self defense, so this killing is extra evil)

When Scourge is killed, Firestar just thinks about how it's cool he's not going to heaven, and how all of the previously ferocious BloodClan warriors look so inferior to the forest Clans.

And so, with all that said,

I'm 100% in favor of how the fandom widely looks at this, says, "fuck that" and just makes them the Cool Goth Group. I'd argue pretty strongly that the least nuanced idea of that is still infinitely better than canon.

There was nothing there. It was literally just Xenophobia-Is-JustifiedClan. They literally hated love and friendship and banned families so that Clan cats would look good in comparison. Banned families. You don't get this level of stupid evil from anything else but an 80s cartoon.

Maybe I just don't see the AUs you tend to see (I curate my Tumblr experience very well and generally hang out in more adult-oriented spaces, I can imagine a place like Amino being mostly kids who tend to be immature. Edgelord Angstpiddle is just a normal part of growing up), but every project I see that gives me a glimpse of BloodClan Ravenpaws and Sashas come with such tweaks already assumed.

Like, these are examples I've seen,

They'll have Raven be involved with the formation of BloodClan

Scourge will actually be a character with some pity and mercy, like how he was in Rise of Scourge when his abusive siblings begged him for food, and he fed them before sending them away.

no ban on love and friendship. Lol. Lmao, even.

More of the social structure will be based around acquiring food for people in a 'harsh' environment, leading to that battle, instead of just Evil Foreign Greed (which canon!scourge only had after being almost killed by tigerstar, because he said "actually, in light of new information that you are a murderer, i need to reconsider our deal.")

BloodClan will be overhauled completely. I've seen this a few ways. Connecting them to SkyClan, or the Oakstar raids on Chelford, or even as a positive entity; a surprise ally. (VERY common with BloodClan Ravenpaw AUs I've seen).

Anyways... (Shrug), I dunno dude, it doesn't bother me that much.

[neotula]

i don't think i've ever played any game that made it feel so satisfying to nail the prerequisites for a difficult line of dialogue.

(rogue trader and pathfinder: kingmaker spoilers)

locked in marazhai's romance and as someone who's playing iconoclast i cannot express how relieved i was to see this dialogue option.

It's all worth it to pull this off.

Owlcat manages to nail this every time: I know it's hip to hate on alignment in rpgs, but I'm a big fan of alignment as a roleplay tool and enjoy being locked in to an alignment that reflects my actions, and owlcat manages to make it feel so damn cool every time.

I'm reminded of the encounter with the lantern king in Kingmaker:

Your dialogue is locked to your alignment. I was true neutral the entire game, because I consistently played the game that way. In that moment, I had only one thing to say, and it was what I was. It represented how I had lived my life in the game. It would only make sense to say what I said.

Alignment fluctuates based on choices in Kingmaker, a living thing that moves with you. What you say and do has consequences, but in a moment like this, it's part tool, and part achievement: I have become this thing. I have lived how I have lived, and it may save me, or it may damn me.

So often, it feels like owlcat is able to draw the best out of these tabletop rpgs: there are many elements that are dated and rooted in or branched from deeply harmful stereotypes, coming from flawed people who imparted hurtful beliefs into the systems they created. Owlcat manages to respect the games and systems and stories that they craft their games from, but also lift them into something better, a thing that I think is genuinely incredible.

I'd always been hesitant to play a Warhammer game: when I saw that owlcat was making rogue trader, I felt reasonably comfortable that I'd enjoy the game, especially after playing pathfinder: wotr.

(an excellent game, and one of my all time favorites.)

Warhammer just hasn't been my thing prior to this: I don't enjoy the sort of "everything is fucked no matter what" setting, and even after, I can say that I'm still not sold on Warhammer as a whole.

I think I do honestly still dislike the same things I disliked before about warhammer, but I think owlcat has made an incredibly wonderful and complex game, especially considering the source material. Also, it's made me give warhammer a genuine shot, and while I'm still iffy on it, I've found a lot to love.

anyways: play owlcat games. they're the best of tabletop rpgs, delightfully horny, respectful to the characters in them in ways that consistently surprise and please me, but also, just so damn fun and over the top in the best ways. 10/10, would romance a drukhari again.

[1ore]

How did you go about developing the written language for moribund? When it appears in your art there's something about the shapes that's very visually satisfying !!! It feels a lot more unique to me than scripts in media I see that are often just substitution ciphers of the alphabet, and as I'm trying to go about making a written language for my own world I always get caught up on what it should look like

Thank you so much for reaching out! I love nothing more than to talk about Satik. I’ve been tinkering with the alphabet for a couple of years, so I’ve forgotten the rationale for some of the older design choices, but I’ll do my best.

satik momence for reference...

I think the biggest breaks I’ve had with Satik are either a.) stolen from a language during self-study or b.) happy accidents that came from developing the Diasporas, where some aspect of their lives gave me ideas about how the script should look.

Exhibit B: Satik came about because I thought it would be neat to make a script that didn’t use spaces to separate words or sentences, and also wasn’t character-based, like kanji or mandarin chinese. Mostly I was thinking about what use a written alphabet would have in Ser life. They’re traditionally a maritime people who only had space for what they could fit in their boats. Paper texts don’t mix well with seawater, and there’s not a lot of room to store clay tablets or sheafs of embossed leather. Anything they write would be engraved on tools, embroidered on clothes, painted on bodies, whatever. It would need to be space-efficient and easy to read, regardless of the medium it was written in.

My answer to this, at least back then, was to make up an alternating “bracket-case” where the first and last letter of each word is a bracket-shaped glyph that encloses the regular-case letters. This way I could separate different words without using empty spaces. I think I was also inspired by quotation marks as they appear in mandarin chinese and japanese.

if you were to represent this using the english alphabet and upper/lowercase, ITWoulDLooKLikEThiS.

Is this actually space-efficient? I find it increases the line height and buffer between letters, so No It Is Not. But I think it’s neat, so it stays.

Other than that, I made up letters based on what felt right and whatever design rules occurred to me later.

Because of the brackets and my own neuroses about geometry, I was drawn to hard angles, arcs, and circles for Satik’s letters. I like the contrast between them. I wanted to reduce stroke count and make sure that the individual characters were easy to recognize, even if you wrote them really shitty and fast, or with a fixed line weight, heavy ink, whatever. One of my pet peeves in constructed languages is scripts that are overdesigned without daily use in mind. Bracket-case might horseshoe back into being overdesigned and extraneous but we shan’t interrogate this.

There was a lot of iterating where I would make up words and write short sentences to stress-test the script. Some letters were confusing or tedious to write or didn’t look good in certain combinations, so I had to go back and tweak them. I’m still tweaking them. I am haunted by letters.

You might notice that some of Satik’s letters are similar to letters in the English alphabet. Sorry to say I took a page out of the Daedric alphabet and used these to make Satik easier to read and write for me. Being an English-speaker influenced a lot of the early decisions I made about the Satik alphabet in an unconscious way, too. Learning Japanese has helped challenge some of those assumptions. It’s fun to see what you can do with katakana and hiragana that you can’t do with latin letters. I guess I’m saying that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel and contrive cool new twists on the written word from scratch. if I can give you an excuse to use constructed languages as a way to learn real languages, especially endangered ones or ones you were never taught because of assimilation, I think that would be pretty cool.

Some other decisions were decisions of convenience in a different way. English has a lot of phonetic ambiguity and redundancy with letters like c, x, q, etc. they change pronunciation depending on the circumstances. Satik letters are phonetically unambiguous (mostly) and represent a discrete phoneme, never a combination of phonemes. Satik also has a relatively limited inventory of sounds. some sounds that are separate in other languages are considered identical in Satik, like zh/j/sh and v/f. Yeah it supports the kind of minmaxed austere, practical energy I wanted for the script. But it was also so I didn't have to make up more letters than I needed to LOL.

I think it becomes easier to design new stuff for the alphabet once you've got some guardrails down, whether that's a few letters under your belt or some design rules. Later on, I had Satik borrow the glottal stop from Arish. It’s represented as a continuous line that cuts through the middle of the word and joins the outer bracket-case letters together.

I thought it would be fun to make the written glottal stop feel like the spoken glottal stop, where everything ceases for a second. it was easy to play with the brackets to make that happen. funny how this stuff just kind of snowballs once you've got some basics down.

Satik ... !

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

In regards to the unit identity conversation going around in FE spaces right now i wanted to throw in my general thoughts...

When people say "unit identity" in regards to gameplay, i feel like most people mean how the character in the story matches how the unit plays.

Fates has the best reclassing system imo, because units have to build support with other units to get their class via the friendship and partner seals. Building support levels has another function in that sense, and it's another incentive to experiencing them.

This creates another way supports effect the ways you can play. As for an example, when Takumi teaches Corrin how to shoot a bow in their support chain, Corrin literally gains access bows via the Archer class.

Fates also has heart seals which change the units class based on stats, skills available, personality, or personal background (They also function as partner seals iirc, but that's more of a waste, i feel).

Three Houses, due to its lack of a weapon lock, essentially created a system where "just put everyone in x, y, or z class to make them good" has become some of the most common advice to new players. This problem existed before, but essentially making classes little more than "this one has good stats, this one has bad stats put them in the one with good numbers."

Sure, it allows those "all mage" runs that are fun to mess around with a lot easier, but it also reduces classes down to just their stats. Want to use bow? Bow Knight's a good class, but can always go for Wyvern. Want to use axes? Try Wyvern. Swords? Swords aren't good, at least use lances or axes in Wyvern.

Engage has the same problem. In fact, despite having weapons locked to classes again, it's now even more of a problem (imo). This time the problem is that so many units are incredibly same-y. The difference between Etie and Alcryst is a couple of points in Str and Spd, same for Lapis and Diamant, for Zelkov and Yunaka it's Spd/Res/Str trade.

The characters feel same-y. Unsurprisingly if you watch build guides on these characters from multiple different people, you'll see the same couple of classes recommended repeatedly. Warrior, Wyvern, Griffin. Few Sages and Personal Classes, but besides that, most characters sit in those three.

Although i like the concept of passive skills unique to certain classes, i feel like they're often times incredibly weak. Or don't synergize well with the class itself. High Movement Bow Knight has a skill that increases hit rate when not moving (the one bow using class that can make good use of Momentum and having high movement and being a Cavalry type should sit still??? It's even more offensive because bows don't have particularly horrible hit rates, and bow units typically have decent Dex/Skill).

We can all agree Berserker getting a pretty weak skill for a weak weapon type that the okay at best defense class typically doesn't want to use... might not be a good balancing tool against the other infantry Axe class with Bow access and better caps in Warrior? Or the flying mobility and Lance or Sword access in Wyvern? Or hell, even the Defense from Great Knight? (although this class is another meme pick)

Don't get me started on S rank weapons also being mid, if not outright bad

I think if there were better skills for classes with lower stats (including movement), less weapon access, then that'd be cool. Or they could do a "Infantry classes have lower growths, but higher stat caps. Therefore they've about caught up midgame, and are better for combat late game, but have less utility due to not being able to ride a horse/flier"

If Personal skills were stronger, and units had more differing stats, Weapons/Proficiencies, or had access to more personal class and/or personal weapons, i think i wouldn't care about how easy it is to get into classes, because the units themselves would actually be unique in how you can play them, even if everyone is in the same class.

I mean, look no further than the bow users in Fates, since that weapon type and its weilders have been getting a lot of attention lately. Takumi has a personal bow with crazy might that gives him the ability to move without being impeded by terrain. Niles doesn't have a unique bow, and his class is already represented in Shura, and DLC Anna on the Adventurer route, and potentially Selena and Laslow for the Bow Knight route, but he has access to capturing generic units to fight for you and has stats that definitely differ from all of them.

Setsuna has a basic archer stats, a weak personal skill, and no personal weapon, and is naturally the perfect example of a bad archer. While Reina has good stats and a useful PS that essentially make her Birthright Camilla except with lances and bows instead of axes and tomes (and Kinshi isn't really seen as a good class!). Shura's whatever in CQ, but in RV he has maxed weapon ranks, giving him access to useful Stages ASAP and decent bow chip, especially with his debuffing PS. (Not much to say about Anna except why is she not in the Merchant class by default?? Magic Anna is not more important than Capitalism Anna 😤)

But i'm rambling, so i'll just say that with the unit/class design we have now, i'd rather have limited classes so that we can at least say:

"They may not be the best unit... But they are the best Swordmaster/Bow User/Magic Unit/etc."

(sorry for the length btw!)

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[drinkyourvillainjuice]

Regarding your post on images in interactive fiction - I think portraits could be really cool if they also are mutable. One character can get sad / angry at pc? They can get hurt or not? Emancipated or not? Get a new tool or not? That shit, in my humblest opinion, is cool. Yes, show me how you look and feel virtually right now in this moment. (Not having one for every moment makes sense, like in a building vs walking to a car) although, I think this is all in the same vein as what you've stated. At the same time I love imagining it myself (and then seeing official art and seeing how "wrong" I got it like oh, that hair is/is not nearly as curly as I thought it was, etc)

I feel like mutably is the most important part of Interactive Fiction, and that's why AI Art often falls flats for it. Ai Art kinda never really hits the spot of an artist who is trained to follow a visual identity for a product or a character, so for example:

Smug Malstache, made by a person, is Smug and has a Mustache. If I were to write a scene where Smug Malstache is operating under duress without the smugness, I could put it in an image generator and go 'make Smug Malstache stressed' - but it wouldn't necessarily follow the visual identity that I seek (visual lines, added on graphic image, zoomed in face, etc).

That's why interactive fiction (not the written genre, but things like Dragon Age, or Baldur's Gate, or Grand Theft Auto, or Until Dawn, or the Quarry, etc) where you make choices that affect the story, the ability to see your character change is an immense gift to the audience.

For imagining it yourself, I think that's why a lot of Interactive Fiction (the written genre) often lacks images. It's way more fun to have creative description and see what people believe of the character, versus the fan-casted images like Jennifer Lawrence is Katniss, or that guy is Harry Potter, or etc.

[hrhmiat]

Tall drink of water....

I've often wondered when Michael started recognizing Mia as not just his annoying little sister's best friend but the girl who makes his "heart sing." He freaking writes a song about how much he likes her and feels unseen!!! THEN SANG IT TO HER AFTER THE DANCE WHEN LILLY WAS SLEEPING!!! This scene is certainly underrated. Tall drink of water Can't say how much you want her How long you've tried to stay cool But she doesn't even see you Wait for her in the lobby Your knees are getting wobbly She glides by in her pink dress Towers over all the rest

Hands starting to get sweaty You really think you're ready To take a little walk over there Tell her how much you care What will you say now Will she make your day now She looks this way now Get moving, don't delay now

You think you're ready for your close-up But she's not China doll made-up Or picture-perfect teacup She's more real than any girl you've ever seen You're not gonna make it But this is it, you just can't fake it She's the girl who makes your heart sing Means more to you than anything

She's a tall drink of water Can't say how much you want her How long you've tried to stay cool But she doesn't even see you Okay, so if you're still reading this, AMAZING! :) Thank you! I went down a rabbit hole this morning.... While I wish I had the musical talent to bring this song alive, sadly, I do not. So, this is probably the most self-indulgent thing I've ever done without being the creator or paying someone to create it for me. I usually only play around with AI for fun, silly nonsense. Like asking ChatGPT what I should make for dinner or what is the best brownie mix on the internet? That sorta thing. Today, however.... I dove into a place I NEVER thought I'd end up.... AI music. While I could go into the MANY reasons why AI is horrible for the art/music industry, it can be a tool. Today, I decided to play around with AI music just to listen to what the song would sorta sound like if it came to life. I 100000% support commissioning, but this was purely for entertainment purposes only. I, unfortunately, do not have the money to pay someone to make a whole song from the lyrics! I WISH .... when I win the lottery, I'll do it! Knowing that this won't go viral, nor will I ever post it anywhere else. I just wanted to share this with my group of PD friends. This is just my goofy self geeking out over a fictional character's song lyrics. After much trial and error, I think this sounds well-suited for Michael's first song. (Personally, I think it would probably be way better if some hot musical genius created it, but it's cute enough. :))

What do you think?

[wyrmguardsecrets]

i follow the rule of cool in all of my rp. even if it doesn't fit the lore 100% of the time , its like. how often do the wow writers contradict themselves anyway? its a huge gooby mess and while i enjoy having some like, basic tools to work with, ill almost never use the wow lore as an exact mold for my characters because 1. boring, 2. im very cute, 3. its so hard to figure out whats canon and whats not anymore anyway, 4. i have fantastic ideas and wont be limited by DUMB RULES that UNCOOL KIDS made, unlike ME. the COOLEST KID of them all. i do not mind if people do use the wow lore as a format that they refuse to break from, but there is just so much to learn. ive been playing this game since i was like, 3!! and i still havent learned all of it!! granted, i do not have a fantastic memory or desire to learn all of the things, but it feels a bit unfair and elitist to demand that NO ONE breaks from the lore EVER, because its hard to remember and sort through all of it!! that being said. i hope u all have fun, lore elitist or not, and that you continue to sparkle on:)

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