#we got some ancient UI

[royal-harpy]

Honestly i wouldn’t be mad if we had the anniversary event be majority QoL updates ngl

[pixel-stranger]

Shang Simla, day 3

Credits: thanks to @cowplantcartel for the new interface! I started with the Cloud Pink UI and then changed it to the Cloud Purple UI :)

Alice: Hello, dear friends! Today we’re finishing our journey in Shang Simla. It’s also our last day travelling to foreign towns of The Sims 3 world. So, let’s make the most of it!

Catherine: Our first goal for today is the Land of the Ancestors. You might be surprised that we decided to visit a cemetery in the morning. But just look at that place on top of the hill — it’s a real masterpiece of architecture! People at our base camp recommended it to us, so we headed there right after breakfast.

Alice: It’s not very common in our culture, but people here prefer to cremate the dead instead of burying them in the ground. We didn’t try to find out why — maybe because digging in the mountains is difficult.

Catherine: Anyway, the ashes of ancestors are kept here in special funeral urns. These are beautiful Chinese vases, and the locals have placed them in different parts of the hill. They’ve tried to decorate these places as much as possible. All the vases stand on pedestals, and some of them are even set near alcoves in the traditional style!

Alice: There’s also a mausoleum building at the very top. It’s a really beautiful structure, we enjoyed looking at it. But we decided not to go inside. Of course, there’s another museum of funeral culture, but unfortunately, we don’t have time for that. We have so many interesting things planned for the rest of the day!

Catherine: We came down from the hill to our next destination. But on the way we saw an interesting place and wanted to take a quick look.

Alice: It was a nice abandoned barn with a yard and a pond around it. First, we noticed a few seeds from uncommon plants there. We grabbed them and then decided to look inside the barn.

Catherine: We discovered that the barn had a basement, and there were a few chests with treasures! For example, we found a money bag and a precious stone.

Alice: We also grabbed a few handfuls of ancient coins. We don’t know why we still collect them, since we can’t buy anything with them at our current visa levels. Maybe we do it just for fun!

Catherine: After that, we tried to clear away piles of hay on the first floor. We hoped to find something else, but there was too much hay and we got tired quickly.

Alice: Actually, I didn’t get tired as quickly as Catherine. I tried to clear the floor with the last of my strength, but then I had to admit defeat.

Catherine: While Alice was doing that, I fished a bit in the pond. And I caught two big doitsu koi!

Alice: That was a real joy, because it was time for lunch. We fried the fish over a campfire and ate it. It was really tasty and gave us strength to keep going.

Catherine: We continued on our way and even found an uncut stone along the path. Then we reached our next destination: the rice fields.

Alice: These fields have a special structure. They’re built on a slope, in the form of steps. This is necessary for proper irrigation, since rice requires a constant level of water. The sloped, terraced shape of field makes watering easier and helps conserve more water.

Catherine: It was really interesting to see such a field in person. Besides being functional, it’s also very beautiful!

Alice: There’s our next location below the field. It’s an abandoned boat station located near a beautiful, calm lake. It seems people haven’t used the station for many years. These boats and berths are very old, and only their frames remain.

Catherine: We found out that these boats are called junks. I can also say that they aren’t just boats. They’re traditional Chinese sailing ships, and they’re pretty big. At least 10 people could fit inside. It would be interesting to see how they looked and worked in the past. We will definitely find and look at their pictures after the journey. But now, of course, we have to continue our path.

Alice: We headed to the local resort called Hot Springs. It’s a big complex in a lowland with ponds, a pool, a bar, and some lounge areas.

Catherine: Honestly, it’s not as interesting inside as we hoped. We decided to use only the pool. There’s no sea here in Shang Simla, so we were glad to have even this opportunity to swim.

Alice: After that, we relaxed a bit on sun loungers near the pool.

Catherine: At the same time, we had the chance to show you our new nice swimsuits!

Alice: Then we visited a park near Hot Springs. It’s called Dragon Springs. There are also some lakes and lounge areas here, as well as a lot of walking paths.

Catherine: We also didn’t find anything interesting there, so we just took a sunbath in one picturesque spot in the park.

Alice: After such a good rest, we headed to the next sight. It’s the main cult building of Shang Simla – the Temple of Heaven. It’s a huge and beautiful temple, symmetrical on all four sides. It’s surrounded by a spacious square with pine trees and stairs.

Catherine: For now, the building is under reconstruction. There are no shrines, statues, or other items inside. The only one thing that we could visit there is the observation deck on the highest floor. So, we went up there.

Alice: We climbed a few long stairs and finally got to the top. I can say, we have not come this way in vain. The view from above was amazing, even better than from our base camp!

Catherine: Then the evening came, and we had to prepare for the end of our journey. We decided to spend this evening in the Forbidden City. First, we came back to the Shang Simla Market.

Alice: As usual, we sold unnecessary finds at the relic store. We also exchanged money from the wallets we found for our currency.

Catherine: Then we visited the café. We wanted something sweet, so we noticed a machine making fortune cookies. Of course, we decided to try them. And my first cookie was lucky – I received a good fortune!

Alice: I liked my cookie and had a good fortune too. It was so funny and inspiring that we wanted to buy such a cookie maker for ourselves.

Catherine: We went to the general goods store and bought it. Besides, we bought a few other interesting things. After that, we decided to finish our shopping for today.

Alice: Well then, dear viewers! Our trip is over, and we are standing at the Emperor’s Plaza now. It’s so beautiful here, even in the late evening!

Catherine: And this darkness will help us finish our journey solemnly! After all, it's not by chance that we bought a few fireworks!

Alice: So, let’s light up the place! Well, first we need to set them on fire right here…

Catherine: And now – we’re running to the side and covering our ears! The sound promises to be loud! Goodbye, dear friends!

Alice: Goodbye! See you later, in the next town!

[sweatandwoe]

bioware da:v stuff

Ohhhhhhh, I forgot about it being multiplayer originally urrrggHHGGG nightmare nightmare

EA/BIOWARE execs I hate your flaccid brains.

They do claim to "have a mastery of the frostbite engine now" but an RPG should never have to be forced into that FIFA engine! It looks so "bloomy" & waxy, the camera jerks around to be "immersive" when the character runs. It feels like they were told to keep adding post processing effects so some suit could say he punched it up.

I still hope the gameplay will be fun/wellmade but I have to admit I personally don't care about how heavily the story is going in on elves as the one important™️ race to the world setting.

I'm playing BG3 & DOS2, trying to tell myself I can't compare Bioware to Larian as they are very different styles of RPG studio but oogh more time passes & the more I enjoy the way Larian does it. As an ancient Bioware game fan, it stings.

BIOWARE CRITICAL (I ranted more than I thought)

Frostbite Engine is probably why we also got an art direction change, that feels closer to Fifa. It wouldn't surprise me if that's also where the hair physics comes in, as Fifa does have that. It doesn't look bad to me, however, I saw someone describe it as Pixar-lite and I can never unsee it. Also, the Megamind Qunari was certainly... a choice.

Also Frostbite used mostly for multiplayer games and the scrapped live service/multiplayer DA game, also got used here. From just a lot of elements that I don't wanna go into here (this post is already very long)

I think the combat actually looks fun but I've seen people call it CRPG still and no, it's an action RPG. I wouldn't expect anyone to go and expect BG3 combat (Or story elements). I do wonder if it'll get old quickly though, and also that the monster designs aren't scary at all and look really goofy. The Ui/hud stuff during fights is also pretty messy and I hope they have options to remove things from it at launch.

Putting the rest under a readmore, I went in depth lmao

Elves are taking certain front, but also it feels like in a weird direction. We're in Tevinter, Dwarves have strong relations with Tevinter but there isn't even a faction related to them? Also, we have a high focus on the elves, which is to be expected with the plot of the last game.

But also we're in Tevinter and I haven't seen, ya know, any mention of the slavery, which elves are a major portion of. Like none of the ads talk about it (which could make sense). No articles I see mention it. It feels... weird. Especially given we're seeing Solas' backstory in this game, and how he freed slaves was important to his character but yeah little to no mention of it

That being said I also have heard nothing about the story spoilers, besides what some people posted on Twitter, and it was scraps. A lot of people who just played the first 7 hours, are releasing their reviews and say the story is good, but won't go into details because of spoilers? Make a spoiler video, I'll watch it, but I wonder if Bioware/EA didn't allow the mention of any story elements to preserve "their surprise choices" (and any story elements hardcore fans would get pissed at)

FOLLOWING IS A SMALL SPOILER (TWO LINES) FOR VEILGUARD, I think it's important to see before you buy it but BE WARNED

God this line pisses me off so much

Solas should have negative traits, actually, and make huge mistakes, like he was known to do in the last DLC released, a decade ago. No matter how many plans he has, he usually fucks it up by going too big.

He literally was chumming it up with Mythal, "she was the best of them", yet here he is pointing at (probably) her and Elgar'nan as they become Gods. I think making him fully against the system from the start and not someone who once enjoyed some benefits of the system, even if he didn't engage in the slavery aspect of it, to become friends/rivalry with the Evanuris but as they grew in power, and eventually murdered the only one of them he considered actually good, the light bulb went off in his head, is like, really a big character retcon to me.

Despite how bad they were, Solas didn't want to lock them away. He despised and loved them. He never killed them, he couldn't, either do to his limited power or due to his friendship with them. He loved his People, that he would cast everything he loves, all away for their freedom.

And when he returns, he doesn't even see the Dalish as elves. He think he's failed them and wouldn't care if they all died, if he could bring back the power to restore his People, even if it means bringing back the Evanuris. And if they go "well he was going to break the veil without trying to actually awake/unlock them", that is dumb writing. He understands that they are the consequences that he will unleash onto the world at the end of DAI and that he thinks life with magic is better to bring back the People, even at the cost of the world itself or the People's freedom at that. The People who he doesn't even consider are modern elves. He doesn't give two shits about modern elves, only the ancient ones he's lost. He seems them as his failures and instead of, ya know, actually trying to help them regain their lost cultures and lands he jumps to "actually you all are horrifying, you can die while I regain my own world"

The Elf!Inquisitor is the only elf he truly sees as a person, the potential to be a member of the People in his eyes. Everyone else is a fool or a tool to him.

BG3 and DSO2 are such healing things for the RPG fantatic soul. They have their problems, but the quality is so much higher than I ever expected to see. The way choices actually matter and have direct consequences in the one game vs having to wait until the sequel to see if collecting ten bear asses for that one dwarf lady gets you a special dialogue option.

Larian has got my support always, they made DSO2 so good, that I pre-ordered BG3 all the way back in Oct 2020. I have no desire to ever pre-order another Bioware game, except maybe some remasters.

[thethinkingaurora]

Hey you, the one with the 'cool thing you think about but don't get to talk about as much as you'd like to.' What is one thing you want to talk about, in as much detail as you'd like (I will read all of it).

Ok one thing that I really think is cool, hmmmmm

This happens every time I’m asked “what do you like” my brain just instantly vacates everything I do, it’s just like “Error 404: Life Experiences not found”

Hmmmmmm, I’d probably say ciphers/encryption

Ok so encryption and ciphers, simple in concept but holy hell does this shit get complex and fun fast

I first found out about them from the Secret Breakers book series (I love it, would definitely recommend), and then I went to a CTYI (Centre for Talented Youth Ireland) course and learned more about them and how they work, in between these two events I also did a load of research and got really hyper fixated on them, I then proceeded to learn more and begin creating my own and making my own little puzzles and stuff

Ok so encipherment and encryption both do a similar job, obfuscate a message to hide it, they were used in the World Wars to send messages to people in enemy lines on both sides (most notably the Enigma Machine), encryption often uses mathematics and numbers linked in certain ways to hide things, ciphers are a little different in the way they operate, ciphers are obfuscations but it’s easier to hide that they are obfuscations as they can often look like normal text

For example, the Baconian cipher uses something similar to binary and highlighted text to hide a message, so 00000 is A, 00001 is B, 00010 is C, so on, so where there is a one you highlight the letter

So to hide the word “hi” you need at least 10 letters, but less that 15, so “hello there” is our ten letters and hi translates to 00111 01000, so we highlight the letters specified, which gives us “hello there” (the baconian cipher was made by Sir Francis Bacon and he has many written letters with hidden messages in them, that’s all I can remember off the top of my head)

But using encryption (for example Base64) “hi” would become “aGk=“ which is much more obvious that it is a hidden message

I’ll explain how encryption is used in real life somewhat in a reblog later, I just want to get back to where I was as uI just accidentally deleted a huge chunk of what I had typed (as in I opened Google to check my spelling and tumblr decided it would be the perfect time to restart, I’m typing this on my phone)

Ok so onto the ciphers, the one that I really really like

So ciphers have been in use for millennia, I’ll start with a common enough one, The Polybius Square

The Polybius Square was created by an Ancient Greek scholar called Polybius(yeah he tried really hard when naming his cipher), the cipher is a simple enough substitution cipher (a substitution cipher is where certain letters or symbols are replaced by others things), where letters are replaced using 2 digits which mark there position on the square

Which looks like this, it goes like this 11=A, 12=B, 13=C, 14=D, 15=E, 21=F, and so on, you’ll notice that in 24, instead of a single letter is both “i” and “j” simply for the reason that you can’t make a square out of 26 boxes

Early ciphers were often only used by themselves but later they were used together to make more complex ciphers whether this be where it was encoded once and then encoded again or that the two were used at the same time to do some funny shenanigans

A great example of this is the ADGFX cipher which uses a modified Polybius Square along with Columnar Transpostion

Ok I’ll explain the ADGFX cipher in just a second ima explain columnar transposition first, so with columnar transposition you need a key, we’ll use “cargo” (the general standard) so first take your message and split it into groups with the amount of characters in the group corresponding to the length of the key (So “we need to attack soon”, would be grouped into groups of 5 when using a key like cargo, the groups would look like this “wenee dtoat tacks oon”)

Next you align the groups under the key

Here is one using the example message of “we need to attack soon”

Ok next you need to take the letters in your key and arrange them alphabetically, so cargo become acgor, now take the columns you made and shift them along with the key letters

Like this

So now that we have our letters it’s easy, we take them from left to right, top to bottom and write them out, leaving us with, “eweentdatoatkscoon” with the key of cargo, now if most people were given that they wouldn’t have the slightest clue what to do

So now imagine if we added more layers, like in the ADGFX cipher

Long story short, you take a custom alphabet and replace the letters in a Polybius square with them, then replace the numbers in the square with ADGFX

There is one that I stole from Google

So you encode your message using the square and then with the result you use the columnar transposition that we discussed earlier and then you have your final encoded message, unless you want to add more bullshit to it, like idk a A1Z26 cipher, changing the letters to numbers, or maybe a binary converter, or maybe a morse encoder, actually why not all of them

And that’s where shit starts getting fun (for me anyway, where you stack the jenga tower of encoding hoping that one of the ciphers in it doesn’t need numbers or spaces which other ciphers can’t use

Oh another fun thing, a number and text where you have to convert the number to binary and use that to highlight letters which are the encoded message, or are they

And that’s why I absolutely love encoding and ciphers so much because you can create such interesting little things that can become games, or just brand new ciphers where you have to spot little patterns or grab little ideas and run with them hoping that that was the way it works

Actually one last thing before I go, my own encipherment method which I couldn’t find anywhere online, and thus gave it a name

The Eclipsed Polybius Square (EPS)

Ok so the name comes from a name I used to go by (Which was Eclispe) and then the Polybius Square

Ok so I’ve written documentation of it countless times, but I can never explain it off the top of my head, I know how it works, it’s just stored in the depths of the blob of synapses that is in my skull

Ok so first step, take your message and use a Polybius square to turn it into the numbers,

I am struggling to figure out how to write this

Here is an example which I used in an sort of puzzle hunt that I made for some friends (If you notice the name Lily there, it’s a character within the story of the puzzle hunt, game, thing)

Ok so see how some of the words are highlighted, they indicate numbers for the Polybius square

So “the” is in bold and it’s 3 letters long so we get the number 3, then “to” is in bold so we get 2, these two give us 32 which is our first letter “M”, then we have “get” which is 3, then “time” which is 4, now we have our next letter 34 which is “O”, and this continues to give us a whole word

You’re welcome to solve the rest if you want(send it to me if you do, whether that be in DMs or reblog)

Also just a note, when making the text which will hold the code, I’d recommend making the code first and then writing the text working around the code to get it in using as little words as possible, or you might end up like I did with all of the text there only giving 1 word

Actually actually, I have one last thing, thank you @rookieroc for asking, I have been dying to talk about this and so much more but I just haven’t found anyone to say it about

P.S. I will most likely add to this over time with reblogs with more information on different ciphers

[luke-naberrie]

okay, got in from work and finally had the chance to watch the gameplay, so here are some (mildly disorganised) thoughts:

VARRIC MY BELOVED ❤️😭😭 I'M SO GLAD TO SEE YOU AGAIN 😭😭

minrathous looks really cool. like we've heard for years about how it's a city run by magisters so it's nice to see it looking actually magical. it'll be interesting to see how the magisters rule first hand, as opposed to fenris and dorian's accounts. i hope we get to explore the city properly. something about it gives me ancient rome vibes, but i'm not sure what

it's giving me almost an assassin's creed vibe, which i adore

the demons look amazing and like actual fade denizens. we've come a long way from the sloth demon in origins 🥺

i like how clean the ui looks. like it doesn't seem overly cluttered

it's interesting that the ventatori are still around, assuming this is set some years after inquisition (since varric says he's not seen this many demons in 'years'), despite corypheus no longer being in the picture

VARRIC ❤️

it looks like we might get to set more abilities to quick access than inquisition with the ability wheel? which is nice. also the combat looks great

neve is cool (lmao) as heck and she can step on my rook if she wants

WE GET THE PURPLE OPTION BACK??? I COULD BE PURPLE ROOK??? P L S LET ME HAVE THAT

the game looks absolutely gorgeous

VARRICCCCC 🥺

big subtle knife vibes from whatever solas is holding

anyway i can't wait to play it!!

[seven-skies-above]

okay can i just like yell for a second about iterator color inconsistency cause on one hand it’s really funny to me but on the other hand it drives me NUTS

because like!! okay. pre-downpour we just had Moon (yellow) and Pebbles (cyan) which was. like ???? because why does the BLUE iterator with red spots have the YELLOW overseers and pearls, while the pink iterator with YELLOW spots have tHE BLUE(adjacent) OVERSEERS AND PEARLS?? hello?? which architect designed these two i just want to talk

i wonder if the ancients ever got confused between the two overseer colors. like the idea of some ancient child waving to one of the wiggys like “hi moon!! hope you’re doing well!!!” and pebbles is just sitting there with the most incensed look on his face. do you realize how funny this is especially in terms of like the sibling rivalry energy. like being mistaken for your sibling is certainly. the experience.

anyways then we got downpour with its more fandom inspired takes and let me just say i’m very happy with the fact that NSH has the greens and Suns has the reds, which!! makes!! sense!! it matches and satisfies my desire for character designs to match the character and i just. hgfjjgrgr good. Suns is yellow and RED and has RED overseers and pearls. NSH is GREEN and purple and has GREEN overseers and pearls. It Just Makes Sense thank you downpour for making Sense

(to be fair NSH is implied to be green even in base game according to the color of hunter's pearl, the green neuron, green overseer, etc.)

but now im caught with the dilemma of designing Chasing Wind and Unparalleled Innocence because i KNOW that CW has the purple overseer (evidenced by purple text during spearmaster broadcasts) and i think it's highly likely that UI has the white one because they're close by and i'm like. do i make them match the iterator designs or no because its funny.

i think i will just because a lot of people make CW have the white overseer and UI have the purple overseer which i'm like 90% sure isn't the case but either way those designs slap and im not gonna be like. lore police LMAO. but yeah i think whenever i get to itty designs i'm gonna go with the downpour strategy of actual color matching

conclusion: chasing wind is a grape and unparalleled innocence is a snowball thank you for coming to my ted talk

[tomyo]

What phone I think each Soul Eater character I would assign them but one 2008ish Japanese phone, one 2008ish American phone, and one modern phone for each. I’m kinda mashing this out based on the vague memory I wanted to make this a zine a few years back.

Maka

SoftBank Pantone

LG Dlite

Samsung Smartphone that’s a few years old, if I made this list earlier it’d be a Samsung Note. Spirit might splurge and get her a Samsung Fold so she can take notes whenever.

Soul

Toss up between a swivel flip and a smartphone

Toss up between an LG chocolate and an early iPhone (iPhone 4 if we let my looseness with time period go)

Whatever new iPhone is released, he is juggling those out yearly

Blackstar

A badly damaged black flip phone that he only uses to call other people

One of those rough tough phones

He has a different mid to low range phone monthly because even the otterbox can’t save it

Tsubaki

That bean shaped smartphone

LG Dlite

Google Pixel

Death the Kidd

Black flip phone

It’s too tempting to say he has a blackberry but the design makes him cry, maybe early iphone

The most premium iPhone in the most boring standard color

Liz

Fashion collaboration flip phone but like it has a gemstone look (gotta find it)

Either a razr but god if she didn’t want the baby phat phone

Samsung Zflip with tons of different cases

Patty

Kids Japanese flip phone

Firefly

Mid range Samsung

Crona

It doesn’t matter where or what year, it’s a terrible ancient phone and they never see it because Ragnarok hogs it and gets them in trouble on the plan expenses

Kim

I willingly ignore how much she intentionally tried to be less cute in NOT, she got the cocolulu collab phone

Sidekick, she has so much going on.

Samsung Fold Ultra but maybe an iPhone depending on if the colors nice. Going back and forth between if Apple UI could frustrate her or be the only thing she knows

Jackie

AU Gratina

Some htc phone like the desire or a palm pick

All that matters is she wants to do that trend where you switch out SIM card trays with your partner but she keeps not asking

Killik

Known to have gotten sponsorships so I wanna say like a really nice swivel flip phone like the Aquos

Classic Droid Phone

Let’s be so real, him and Soul bond over their iPhones.

The twins

See Patty

See Patty

Killik’s old phone

[ladyswillmart]

2024 Writing In Review

I went ahead and answered some of the questions in this post! Mostly just the ones I can actually answer. Here we go:

One.) How many fics have you worked on since January?

Uhh. Two. Maybe three if ya count the massive AU timeline? I wrote a few small fictiony posts too but I wouldn't call them fics.

Two.) What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year?

I wrote a multi-chapter fic and made a website for it. I liked designing the site and adding pictures, and most of all I like having my own space to put my stuff!

Three.) What piece of media inspired you the most? (This can be the fandom you wrote the most for, the one that spawned the most ideas, the one you thought about the most, etc.)

Actually I think I wrote/thought about LotRO the most this year. Moria was such a surprise for me, I ended up really enjoying that part of the game's story. Unfortunately I haven't been playing it lately since the last major update completely borked my UI and as of today it still hasn't been fixed…

Four.) How many fandom(s) did you write for this year?

I wrote for Ultima VII Pt. 2 and a tiny bit for LotRO and I think that was it! Surprisingly no FF14 despite having a new expac. It was fine, I just don't have much to say about it, fic-wise.

Five.) What ship(s) captured your heart?

I don't really do ships, sorry. 😛

Six.) What character(s) captured your heart?

Princess Zelda from Echoes of Wisdom. She is so adorable! What a cute game! I don't know why I've never tried writing Zelda fanfic honestly.

Seven.) Did you write for any new fandoms or ships this year?

Nah.

Eight.) What fic meant the most to you to write?

Probably Ancient History because it also got me to work on a couple other non-fic things (website, timeline, etc) that I'd wanted to do for a long time.

Nine.) What fic made you feel the happiest to work on?

The ethically dubious wizard-turned-chicken POV one I just finished drafting (Ultima VII Pt. 2 again). It was the first thing I'd written in several months, plus I just like writing from weird PoVs I guess.

Ten.) What fic was the most satisfying to finish writing?

The chicken one. Felt like scratching a very annoying itch!

Fifteen.) What was the hardest fic to title?

LOL I still haven't come up with a title for the chicken story.

Nineteen.) Share your favorite piece of dialogue

"A crowd, eh? Eh, look, Morty! Looks like the gang's all here!" the thief observed, warmly. "Hooray!" "Looks like the gang would have our guts for garters, Stefano," Mortegro replied through his teeth.

Twenty.) Share your funniest line

I feel like this isn't up for me to decide. 🤔

Twenty-One.) What's something that surprised you while you were working on a fic? Did it change the story?

While writing Ancient History, I ended up feeling kinda more sorry for the story's antagonist than anything (though make no mistake, he is still a complete blister). I think maybe it did change the timbre of his parts of the story a little bit? My notes on him looked like this:

Torrissio: He has a burning ambition to learn as much as he can about the Ophidian people… Partially to recover their lost magics, many of which are very potent and dangerous (and now banned by the UCoTL, ala Elissa's Time Prism spell). But also, he really is just THAT interested in Ophidian lore. This in itself is not a bad thing, but his single-minded desire to learn as much as he can leads him to behave ruthlessly in this regard. He does not care who he hurts so long as he gets what he wants in the end. That said, although he wants to collect all these terrible, evil spells, it's not so much that he has designs on using them to Take Over The World or what have you. He does not care what others think or expect of him, and he has no other ambitions beyond the pursuit of knowledge. He is thus rather apathetic towards civic matters. The only person whom he ever really cared about is Columna, who is now dead. His actions are tinged with grief; he is drinking a lot.

So yeah, he ended up being more pathetic than anything. I might like to write him a little more some day.

Twenty-Two.) What writing programs did you use? Did you write by hand?

I use Scrivener to organize files afterwards but I actually write fics out in Notepad++, in their intended HTML files with markup. Saves a lot of time in the end.

Twenty-Four.) Did you do anything special to celebrate finishing a fic?

Finishing the story is its own reward!! LOL

Twenty-Five.) How did you recharge between fics?

After finishing Ancient History, I barely wrote anything at all for months. It kinda burned me out I guess. I don't know if this counts as recharging. Mostly I just got really antsy about it!

Twenty-Six.) Did you create fanworks other than fic?

Yes! I made a very cool timeline for my Serpent Isle AU. I also fleshed out a new backstory for Sethys, and I wrote some LotRO posts and more Hivallion stuff.

Twenty-Eight.) If this were an awards show, who would you thank

Advil and coffee… The breakfast of champions!

Twenty-Nine.) What's left on your to-do list for 2024?

Not writing but I'm trying to finish some plastic canvas bird ornaments. I'm 2/3rds of the way there! I also MIGHT try to put my newer Ultima stuff up on AO3. Maaaaaaybe…

Thirty.) What would you like to write next year?

Maybe more Ultima fics? I set up my timeline specifically to accommodate one-shots (like the Chicken story) so I'd like to do more of those, I guess. On a related note, I'd also like to try to be kinder to myself.

[darkx-the-dragon-kn1ght]

Chapter 1- Part 1

By the way- since Tumblr has a limit on how many images someone can put on a single post, I’ll need to be splitting these updates into multiple parts. No worries, though- I’ll make sure to keep all posts corresponding to specific chapters linked up with each other.

So now, let’s boot up the game! If you wanna download it yourself and give it a try, you can find the download on the official website.

I gotta say, just looking at this title screen with my own eyes is getting me excited already. Starting a new game always does that for me- a fresh new experience, new adventure!

Also can I just say this title screen music goes so hecking hard, like this is a jam, holy crud- 

Okay enough waiting around, let’s actually get this started...

And by that I mean mess around with the control scheme for a moment-

Would it have been easier to just leave the controls at their default? Maybe, but I just prefer using WASD to move around, yell at me in the notes for my setup if it satisfies you.

Ah, and here we are at our character selection! I like the ticket styling here, and from the first look the sprites look good. Though- is that the Gen 3 style of spritework? All tiny like that? I probably shoulda expected that when they said it was “Emerald-styled”, actually-

It also doesn’t look like any of them have a set gender at default, I think? It seems like it’s just split between “black hair, blondie, or white anime hair (affectionate)”- either way, everyone here looks GNC has heck and I love that for all of them. 

Still, none of these really match what I really look like, so…I’ll go with the white-haired one at the end, just to see what happens when I pick them-

Ah, you can pick your gender regardless of which avatar you choose! Neat! I’m gonna look edgy and no one can stop me-

Also, as you can see, my character’s name for this playthrough will be “X”- that’s the name I typically choose for myself when naming characters in games like this, and Reborn will be no different.

Also, you guys can’t hear this because it’s just images, but like- I think this ticketmaster is doing all of this on a typewriter?? Because when all that other stuff (ARR, Seat Number, etc.) was being inputted, the audio was typewriter sounds?? I thought the ticket UI was just for the aesthetic, but- is this station actually that old???

Hello??? Sir??? We have technology, you know that, right????

The old fence post that is your workspace apparently-

You know, I’m a little curious about that myself- why are we going to Reborn City? Is the player character gonna have a backstory of some sort? The regular Pokémon protagonists have backstories, even if it’s usually as simple as “you’ve lived in this town your whole life, you turn a certain age, now take this starter and go forth and fight Trainers to become the very best”, but it’s there still. 

What’s this character’s motivation? Is that something I’ll have to come up with for myself? Audience surrogate taken to the max? Because I can do that, I can work with that-

Ambition- is that our true motivation? Or is that merely the perception of the ancient ticketmaster? Questions to be answered later, I'm sure.

AW YEAH, TRAIN SOUNDS (and the background is doing a moving effect too, but again you can’t see it through the screenshot, alas)

Oh honey we viewed them quite closely not too long ago, I think we’re good-

Nice animation with the train we got going here, interesting to see that multi-colored emblem from the title screen on it…again, implications to be answered later.

Oh? Those are the other avatar characters we could have picked. Are they going to be NPCs or something? You know, like in Gen III with Brendan/May or Gen IV with Lucas/Dawn or Legends Arceus with Rei/Akari?

Also, this BGM for being on the train here slaps, the music is pretty good so far.

Man, lots of white-haired folk around here, who’s this now?

Ah, a recruiter- so the others are more Trainers, like us. Again- are they going to be NPCs since they aren’t the player character? They must have canon names or something, but there’s definitely a lot of them- eh, we’ll just have to see.

Next

[quohotos]

Okay so this is gonna be a big rant. I didn't check my sources, I'm going to say things that are wrong. You're going to have to live with it.

Around the time of windows 8 Microsoft tried to reinvent itself. It was tired of being the stuffy, skeuomorphic machine you were assigned at work. They wanted to be cool. Part of this vision was a complete redesign of the interface

And I don't know, call me crazy, I think this visual design fucks. I mean look at this. It's simplistic but gorgeous. The rest of the industry was running away from skeuomorphism towards simplicity via rounded bulbous corners. This was distinct, it was colorful, it had contrast, it was sharp. It literally looked like a bunch of windows in a pane.

At the time, Microsoft was also launching a windows phone (much to late to make a difference. They missed the boat but they didn't know it yet) and were designing a new Xbox that would have architecture near identical to that of a PC. The idea was that they were expanding beyond just stuffy PCs, there were a lot of new product categories and they wanted a universal version of windows that could handle all of them. You could build a "Universal Windows Platform" app that would run on any version of windows on any device. This was achieved using the C# virtual machine that us CS people tentatively affectionately call "Microsoft Java".

The future that Microsoft envisioned would be that there would be a new walled garden of software that you would run on all your pretty new windows devices. They would all share and sync and be perfect and pretty, and the same app on your phone could be played on your xbox, pc, and holy shit AR GOGGLES?

Yeah these fucking things. Microsoft bet big on the idea we'd like to start doing shit with holograms. They made this cool-ass device that used projectors to shine shit into your eye so you could see holograms and poke them and move them about. These were Windows devices that ran actual full-on windows, but that meant that Windows' identity had to grow to accommodate them. All the UIs had to work in a world where you'd see them on a touch screen OR as a hologram. All of the first party software had to have that in mind.

MS paint? Nah that shit's ancient. We got PAINT 3D and it's the most dogshit thing you've ever used

All the sloppy jank of MS paint but now you can put horrible fucking 3d models in it. I'm holding back my full Paint 3d thoughts for a later post that's still being worked on in the drafts, but here's a sneak preview.

Paint 3d allows you to dip into a catalogue of 3d models and plop them into your regular MS paint canvas. There's still no layers, no vector support, but hey at least you can add transparent backgrounds. Paint 3d let you export your horrible janky creations both as a regular png/jpg but also as a 3d model.

that's your short answer. They added that 3d models folder because of paint 3d. If you want to leave now you can... but this post keeps going as you can see.

The idea would be that as more of our tech moved to AR and VR you would be acquiring 3d models at a similar rate that you do other file times, so it made sense to have a built in folder. Maybe you work at one of those offices in an microsoft ad where I guess people just email each other .fbx flower pots for some fucking reason? Maybe you're downloading them from the metaverse (we weren't calling it that back then).

Your friend using a hololense would make a 3d model and then send it to you, you'd add some shit to it in paint 3d using its kafkaesque interface, then send it back. Wow. The future is so much fun.

You could even stick your 3d models in your very own VR start menu. Yeah. To go along with the AR goggles they released some dogshit (well they were good for the time and also cheap compared to the competition) VR goggles. These things ran on the SAME uwp platform as everything else, so theoretically I could make some abomination in paint 3d and then send it to my dad who works at the flower pot factory or some shit and he could put it on his virtual desk in his virtual cliff house start menu where he would virtually alt tab between a hovering window of Microsoft word and some freaky VR porn that his boss couldn't catch him watching because it was all in the headset.

That didn't fucking happen. We don't do that. And it's not just because it was a terrible idea but also because Microsoft wasn't committed to the bit.

See this house of cards came crashing down for a lot of reasons. The first one being that it wasn't backwards compatible. This cool 3d virtual, cross-device future wasn't with the win32 api, but the new UWP api. Devs had to remake their software in a less performant programming language and format just so it would run on all windows devices... but windows for PC still ran the win32 style apps that already worked. So you were expecting devs to port their windows app to... to windows... so it could run on windows... even though it was already running on windows. Oh yeah, let's just rewrite our whole accounting software stack so that bill can use it on his windows phone because phones are definitely for doing accounting and not playing fucking candy crush.

xkcd 927

UWP added the functionality of "It works on xboxes, vr googles, windows phones, AND computers but just a little bit worse than the other ones and you have to remake it from scratch". It was just one more competing standard, and the use case of cross platform didn't really help that much.

The windows phone died out early on because it was too late and it couldn't cross the app gap (even though it's UI totally fucked and you play a halo twin stick shooter on it). The hololense died because it cost them ONE THOUSAND dollars just to build the screen assembly for one eye, you needed two of those + an onboard computer to run AR + a fuckload of cameras + proffit. No one was ever going to spend that kinda of cash just so they could pinch and zoom semi transparent holograms in a tiny 40 degree feild of vision in for two and a half hours because yeah the battery life was shit too. Developers never made software for it because there would never be any install base because something that superfluous can't ever be that expensive while we're all getting poorer.

Now, the VR headsets on the other hand, they kinda sucked... but they were cheap and they were competent. With a bit of elbow grease you could make them be just as good as the pretty boys, and they were the first to market with inside out tracking which was legitimately freeing back in 2018. Microsoft could have integrated it with the Xbox to compete with PSV but they just didn't for no fucking reason even though they both ran UWP apps and were on the same appstore and used all the same ports and the Xbox was just about powerful enough to play some games in VR. Yeah they just didn't commit to the bit and abandoned their VR headset line because it didn't instantly become a monopoly despite them putting very little effort into it.

So windows phone died, windows VR died, hololense died, and now regular windows 10 is full of the corpses of this cross platform vision. We have the 3d objects folder even though nothing really uses it anymore. Windows 10 never fully upgraded to the metro theme. It's like... half metro but some settings require you go to the old XP control panel. Some windows are in metro style but then when you right click on them there's just a standard win32 dialogue box that's ugly and white. It's been that way since 2015 and rather than finishing windows 10 and making it pretty they stuffed it full of bullshit and ads and then said "FUCK IT, WINDOWS 11"

And windows 11's whole thing is being ugly and simplistic and rounded corners and wasted space and designed for a touch screen because even though the windows phone died at least the 2 in one windows tablet market was doing okay.

Windows is a collection of good ideas, followed by a bag fumble, followed by an admission of defeat and a retreat to the familiar.

And somewhere along the way we got a new folder for 3d objects, and if you really want you can use paint 3d to make this shit I guess:

[linuxgamenews]

Experience the Excitement of Cosmic Storms in Stellaris

Cosmic Storms expansion launches its power in Stellaris sci-fi grand strategy game on Linux, Steam Deck, Mac, and Windows PC. Thanks to the creative talents of developer Paradox Development Studio and Behaviour Rotterdam. Available on Steam, GOG, and Humble Store. Paradox Interactive has launched Cosmic Storms, the latest expansion for Stellaris, a sci-fi strategy game we all know and like. This new mechanical expansion, developed with Behaviour Interactive, brings a ton of fresh features. It's out now alongside the free 3.13 “Vela” update. This also includes bug fixes, gameplay upgrades, and UI tweaks. Due to make your Linux and Steam Deck gameplay that much better. Here’s the fun part of this expansion – the Cosmic Storms. These aren’t just any storms; there are 8 new types: Electric, Particle, Gravity, Magnetic, Radiant, Stardust, Shroud, and Nexus. They also replace the old Space Storms, showing up randomly on the map and moving through the galaxy. These storms grow, shrink, and change speed over time, so you’ve got to stay on your toes. The expansion lets you play as the Storm Chasers, a new origin empire that’s all about challenging the universe’s greatest force — yep, you guessed it, Cosmic Storms. These people also believe true enlightenment comes from pushing their limits by diving into the storms head-on.

Stellaris: Cosmic Storms Expansion | Launch Trailer

There are also 3 new civics to check out:

Astrometeorology, which digs into the science of storms

Storm Devotion, focused on worshiping these massive forces

Environmental Architects, giving you a shot at reshaping the environment itself.

But that’s not all. Two new precursor stories dive into the history of ancient civilizations who mastered the storms. Unravel these stories to unlock some unique new relics, adding even more depth to the game. The Cosmic Storms expansion also brings techs related to storms, new Anomalies, Arc Sites, and a Galactic Weather Control perk. This perk even lets you create Storms using your science ships. Oh, and don’t forget the new Weather Forecast Map Mode – now you can keep track of those storms in style. On top of all that, the free Vela update brings a bunch of fixes and updates, including new districts and jobs for Thrall and Prison worlds, and some nice UI improvements. Cosmic Storms expansion is available on PC for $12.99 or as part of Stellaris Season 08, which includes a bunch of other content coming this year. You can also grab it through the expansion subscription plan. OR on Steam, GOG, and Humble Store. Priced at $12.99 USD / £10.99 / 12,99€ on Linux, Steam Deck, Mac, and Windows PC.

[penguin--person]

👁️ EYE - what colour are their eyes? do people notice their eyes? is there anything special about them (shows emotion easily, literally magical...)? & 💐 BOUQUET - create a bouqet for them! what do those flowers mean? are any of the flowers their particular favourite? for bg

📦 PACKAGE - what are some "most likely to..." that can apply to them? for tva

🌪️ TORNADO - what is the biggest change you've ever made to them? how have they changed from their original version? & any heart (platonic) for ui

🌟 GLOWING STAR - what do they think about when they look at the night sky? is there someone they want to star gaze with? & ❇️ SPARKLE - what is their most prized possession? what do they value? for chance :]

thankee for the ask!!

👁️- their eyes are a dark, greyish purple! the most emotion they can show through them (and, trough their whole puppet (not counting body language)) is that they shine when chance gets happy about smth n such:3 not much else is special about them id say ... just your regular ol iterator eyes! tho - they Are colorblind, which ties into their eyes! the ancients thought that just, giving them the ability to see colour was pointless, since the anwser to the age old question How To Die most likely won't be found on a colour wheel.

💐- mm... id say she likes all flowers, tho, if we mean our flowers and not rain world ones, she'd like sunflowers a lot:) in rw, .. we dont know any other flower than the karma flower, do we? and i think. bg would dislike that one bc it reminds her of the cycle and her failed purpose and all. but sunflowers, she'd like.. n i dont think i can create a bouquet for her:( maybe sunflowers lillies n. idk👍

📦- most likely to die in a looney toones scenario. most likely to get divorced. most likely to be silly. most likely to be goofy. most likely to get back together after the divorce. most likely to listen to will wood tbh

🌪️- tva! tva was originally supposed to be a very compassionate iterator - hes the first ittyrator i made out of this group! his first name was 'ava' bc it was just 'a vast attempt' bc i didnt have . three yet. he was just rlly compassionat.e.. like, a slugcat would come to his chamebr, he'd analyse it a bit, and then let it go like "you might think your existence has had no purpose. you're wrong. you being here, talking to me, means you have fulfilled it. you've done all you ever could. and i appreciate it so much. i love you sluggy. id die for you sluggy. you might deem yourself insignificant but your presense has changed the trajectory of my life. i love you. id die for you." n shit... n now hes THIS asshole!!! bg and ui were created with like, their purposes in mine, tva was made from fucking around and finding out

💗 GROWING HEART - if they have a crush, is it noticable? what changes when they're in love? - i'd say so! when he got a 'crush' on feathers, he became very distanced and detached, didn't wanna hurt him and be a bad friend, yea? if he didnt care, he'd just tell feathers to fuck off and leave him alone. but he cared!! and still does.

🌟- m... i think chance would feel less alone. like, with all the stars in the sky, its proof that theyre not alone! even if everyone else is far away, they're not alone. and umm they'd wanna stargaze with anyone boss👍as long as there was someone to gaze with them

❇️- ourple pearl:) they value being there and not being abandoned👍

[ndconceptarchive]

TMB Interview with Cathy & Jeanne Roiter

This was an interview published on True PC Gaming.com on May 29, 2012:

TPG was proud to interview the Twin Sisters of Development, Jeanne and Cathy Roiter from Her Interactive.  They speak to us about their latest point-and-click adventure title, Nancy Drew: Tomb of the Lost Queen.  You will read about their thoughts on setting difficulty levels, social networking, the use of a female protagonist, fears of texting, and much more.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your role in the development of Nancy Drew: Tomb of the Lost Queen.

Jeanne Roiter: At first glance, a college degree in Art History seems an odd fit, but it taught me there is no one way to view anything. Attack something from a different angle and you’re guaranteed to get a different result. As Lead Tester, my goal is to ensure that everyone playing our games has the best user experience possible. Which means test analyzes every aspect of the game and how they do, and sometimes do not, work together.

Cathy Roiter: I grew up all over the country, graduated from a liberal arts school with an art degree, am an avid birder, love to travel (especially when it involves birding), and adore puzzles, be they jigsaw, slider, or logic. As the designer, I was involved in nearly every stage of TMB. That included story development, character design, puzzle creation, environmental logic, music direction, running focus groups, playing/testing the game, and a thousand and one other things during the project cycle. There’s never a dull moment for me.

How did you get started in developing PC games?

Jeanne Roiter: I actually began at Her Interactive in Technical Support, working directly with our users. During that time, I learned a lot about what our users expect from the games, common issues in-game play and installation, and became very familiar with our brand. One fateful day, I was dropped into the test team to help out and quickly discovered my true calling lay in the logical, creative, and critical thinking required for testing our games. It wasn’t long before I moved into test full-time and later down the road into the lead position.

Cathy Roiter: My first gaming job was as the production intern here at Her Interactive. Shortly after starting, I got the chance to design the mixing drinks puzzle in The Haunting of Castle Malloy. It all grew from there.

Where did the idea for Nancy Drew: Tomb of the Lost Queen come from?

Cathy Roiter: Egypt had been tossed around for years as a possibility, but it was the increase in resolution that came with our new UI that really cinched it. The new resolution meant art would really be able to do the setting justice. At that point, there was no question that Egypt would be the first game to take advantage of the changes.

What are some of the successes and failures you learned from in developing Nancy Drew: Tomb of the Lost Queen?

Jeanne Roiter: Change can be good. We introduced an entirely new User Interface with this game and it absolutely improved the game experience with its intuitive design. Change can also be bad. Major overhauls, like the UI, usually require more resources and time.

Cathy Roiter: I’m most proud of the fact that the majority of reviewers commented on how TMB wasn’t a clichéd Egyptian game. We wanted to make it feel different and we did, through careful planning and design choices. As for the failure, that was definitely tied to trying to be too realistic. I backed myself into a corner by being determined to use nothing but 100% accurate hieroglyphs. Thanks to my walkthrough team, the realization that I was in no way fluent in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, and a decision to go with a little artistic license, I redesigned the hieroglyph system to one that actually worked with the game instead of against it.

In its current form, how close is Nancy Drew: Tomb of the Lost Queen to your initial vision?

Cathy Roiter: Farther away than I expected, but I’m happy with the end result.

Speaking about the Nancy Drew series in general, how do you feel about using a strong female protagonist without the need to be over-sexualized or using other stereotypical elements?

Jeanne Roiter: The Nancy Drew PC games were established long before I joined Her Interactive, but a strong female character remains, for me, one of the most compelling things about the product we create. I think it’s incredibly important to keep these types of role models current and relevant for both female and male players.

Cathy Roiter: I’m all for a strong female. There are so few titles that have any type of independent, intelligent, and confident females, let alone having one as the main protagonist. I’m extremely grateful that I get to design for a series that does.

Were there any challenges you faced in ensuring Nancy Drew: Tomb of the Lost Queen would run on the various PC system configurations?  Also, speak about any problems developing for Mac.

Jeanne Roiter: For this game, we increased our resolution by about 30%. These enhanced graphics are immediately apparent when you see the game, but 64MB video cards started to exhibit performance issues while running the game. We ended up increasing our minimum system requirements to 128MB video cards, which is still incredibly low for modern PC games.

Please talk about developing the art style, level design, and music for Nancy Drew: Tomb of the Lost Queen.

Cathy Roiter: TMB was a lot of fun to design. Not only did I grow up on Egyptian mythology, but I had also recently returned from an amazing vacation touring the ancient Egyptian sites. Art seemed to appreciate the slew of photos I dropped in a reference folder. Personal experience is the best design tool. There is nothing like getting out in the world and seeing what it has to offer.

Outside of creating the game itself, what is the toughest aspect of being a PC developer?

Jeanne Roiter: While this falls out of my scope, it’s probably getting the product out and visible to the public. With so many titles on the market these days, it’s a challenge to get traction with new players.

Cathy Roiter: Living up to the fans’ expectations. Our fans are a loyal group and I always want them to love every game. We try to create a different experience in each game, which means that some games they’ll like more than others, but that doesn’t make it any easier to see less than positive reviews sometimes...

Some devs admitted their games were too hard upon release because they became experts as they developed the game.  Talk about setting the difficulty levels for Nancy Drew: Tomb of the Lost Queen and if you faced a similar challenge.

Jeanne Roiter:  In addition to focus groups and beta testers, the internal test team does their best to keep a critical approach to game difficulty. The first weeks of testing are quite informative as testers attempt puzzles for the first time. Towards the end of the project, we may reach out to other departments, like marketing or sales, for fresh eyes. The goal is for our players to come out of a puzzle with the satisfaction that results from discovering a solution on their own terms.

Cathy Roiter: Our difficulty levels are something we keep a very close eye on. We offer two levels to play in the game itself and run focus groups to test difficulty levels on puzzles or activities that we’re concerned about. I’m constantly updating and tweaking puzzle settings to offer just the right amount of challenge as I get feedback from testers, focus group panels, and beta. A few games back, I moved hints from Nancy’s friends to a new Hint Hotline on the phone itself. While some of our fans miss calling for hints, the hotline has allowed us to provide leveled hints that better help the player than a single phone call ever could.

How important is it to get instant feedback about Nancy Drew: Tomb of the Lost Queen from users through online message boards and other social networking sites?

Jeanne Roiter: Online resources are a good place to find out about issues with a new release. Instant feedback allows us to get issues resolved quickly if need be.

Cathy Roiter: I’m constantly on the boards after a release to see how the game has been received. All feedback, be it positive or negative, helps confirm what we’ve been doing right or wrong. I also like seeing if fans are picking up the hints we drop in about future games. Looks like some of them are noticing a few of them from TMB!

How much value do you place on the opinions of those who review Nancy Drew: Tomb of the Lost Queen professionally?

Jeanne Roiter: Since our games have a smaller target demographic, the professional reviews often come from gamers who might not pick up a Nancy Drew title on their own. Hearing what resonates with them helps us incorporate design features that reach out to all types of players. This is an invaluable source of information as we work to make our games more accessible to a wider audience.

Cathy Roiter: I value the professional reviews a lot. They allow me to better judge how a new player to our games would feel after playing. It’s helpful to get that new set of eyes on any game.

There are rumors flying around the studio about your feelings towards texting.  Why are both of you so adverse to the wonders of mobile technology?  You do know that everyone is doing it, right?

Jeanne Roiter: I’ll admit it has to do mostly with the fact that I don’t want to lose one of the last vestiges of verbal interaction in our increasingly wired lifestyle. I’m also rather fond of my archaic flip phone.

Cathy Roiter: I wouldn’t follow the lemmings off the cliff either.

We would like to thank Jeanne and Cathy for their wonderful answers and everyone at Her Interactive.  You can pick up Nancy Drew: Tomb of the Lost Queen on the official site and Steam.

[sweetescapeartist]

DBS COLORING BOOK CHAPTER 74 REVIEW

*spoilers* I liked this chapter in isolation.

*spoilery spoilers* I dislike this chapter when comparing it to other chapters.

Here's the battle Vegeta fans have been waiting for...! (Glad I lowered my greatly expectations)

First, let's talk about use of panels real quick. When there is action, Toyo has done better and uses about 6 panels max to convey the fight. But when there is dialogue, he uses too many panels. Like 7 to 9 panels on one page. That is too much for dialogue. And he has pointless reaction shots often.

It begins with the axolotl inspired Sugarians leaving their fishbowl homes through cleaning-tube roadways. I like their aquarium-like city and their buildings.

And here we are on page 2 with the Toyotaro dialogue. 😒 How can I tell? Compare it to Dragon Ball and you can easily tell the difference between Toriyama's dialogue & Toyotaro's dialogue. (Toriyama has been more focused with working on the DBS movies. I highly doubt he contributes as much to the manga as some fans believe.)

Vegeta sounds like Mr. Satan when calling fusion and cloning "tricks" lol. And no, I doubt Vegeta's Forced Spirit Fission would work on Granolah. Granolah split himself in 2 with a technique. It is still all Granolah & he hasn't absorbed anyone. Forced Spirit Fission is useless here.

Granolah sure is chatty again after he kept saying how he really really wants to kill these Saiyans. Vegeta tells him he parted ways with Freeza and he is an enemy now, as to which Granolah laughs. Granolah thinks Vegeta is betraying Freeza to spare his own life. This just let's us know what kind of person Granolah is...

Granolah is a nonsensical idiot who doesn't know how to reason well & doesn't listen to truth because he assumes he is already right. I don't like ppl like him who refuse to grow mentally. I went from liking Granolah, to not caring about his bland personality, to disliking him. 😑

Oatmeel's input is pointless because he doesn't sway Granolah into believing the Saiyans may not be lying. He quickly gives up and becomes quiet. Vegeta informs Granolah that he was a child when Planet Cereal's ppl were killed and wasn't part of the attack. But he doesn't care and Paragus wants revenge against the royal family... I mean, Baby wants revenge on all Saiya... Granolah wants to kill all Saiyans.

Then we get Vegeta saying he will kill Granolah after barely talking to the guy who was willing to talk. I guess Vegeta just wants to fight and test his power instead of trying to redeem himself like earlier chapters implied and fans theorized. Throw that out the window.

He turns SSB Evolution & Hakai's large rocks around Granolah. But Granolah appears behind him and shows Vegeta true hakai. He elevates a big chunk of the ground & blows it up then the force pushes Vegeta to him and Granolah strikes him. Cool way to use the environment in battle.

Also, Granolah knows Hakai. He shows it off by using his own more powerful Hakai & suggests Vegeta's training with Beerus is lacking.

There is some cool looking art. Their fight moves from forest to river to lake. Interesting environment s for DB. Reminds me of the Cooler movie and the fights on Namek a bit.

This entire time, Vegeta is on the defensive and has to run. But, I find pages 16-21 silly.

Why is Vegeta swimming when he can fly through the water?! Swimming is slower & Granolah is firing fast ki blasts at him!

YOU: "But, Vegeta is swimming so Granolah can't detect his ki."

Granolah can see him! His right eye is supposed to see blood flow and stuff. He nearly hits him multiple times. And lets not forget he was sniping them long distance and his Goku in the neck and almost took him out. Why does Granolah need aim assist now? I'll tell ya why. To make Vegeta look more impressive than Goku by making Goku look like a poor fighter. And this was a Goku who was using Ultra Instinct and still got messed up by Granolah while Vegeta is just using SSB Evolution. Character sabotage... 😒

Back to my complaints about Vegeta swimming. The swimmin' would work in OG Dragon Ball but not here. It would work on Namek with Freeza who can't sense ki, but not here with Granolah who can sense ki (& maybe even god ki) & his eye can percieve all kinds of movements of the body.

And why does Vegeta momentarily pop up out the water then go hide back into it? Don't say its 'cause he needs to catch his breath. He aparently did training holding his breath while on the Heeter's ship, so he should be fine holding his breath. It was for a short period of time anyways. It just doesn't fit and is unnecessary in multiple ways.

Vegeta Hakai's Granolah's big blast to escape it and it blows him out of the water. Interesting kinda... Until you realize that Vegeta's training that we were shown was lame. He just Hakai'd logs & rocks! It should've shown him trying to Hakai ki blasts from Beerus. Make his training look cool darn it!

Chapter 70 Established that Hakai has changed. It no longer is just erasing things from existence in different ways. It has to have a *boom* explosion to it. So when Beerus Hakai'd Zamasu in chapter 19, there should've been an explosion instead of turning him into sand? So, now whenever the Hakai is used, there will always be an explosion...? I don't like how Toyo is quick to change what he set up just for his convenience...

Granolah brags about himself then Vegeta brags about himself-...! That's why I dislike Granolah! He's just like Vegeta! Maybe if I stop thinking of Granolah as a "good guy" then he will be cooler? I did like evil Vegeta as an evil character. We were supposed to hate him. So, if I imagine Granolah as an evil Vegeta... It worked! Granolah's unappealing attitude works perfectly if you view him as an evil enemy! (Still kinda preachy tho)

VEGETA: "But I'm still going to win."

Vegeta fans rejoice! Your prayers have been answered by the great Zalama! Vegeta announced victory...! Wait... I've seen this before... Yo... Vegeta fans, prepare for Vegeta to be defeated just in case. He has a record of announcing victory then ultimately losing. Don't get your hopes up too high.

Lol Granolah disses Vegeta's ego 👌. But Granolah is unknowingly talking about himself too XD. Dummies. Vegeta mocks him by calling him "Mr. Strongest" & Granolah has nothing to day. Granolah can dish it out but can't take it.

Goku wakes up and sees Vegeta fighting Granolah. Who cares? How are you gonna be caught off gaurd in a form that reacts on its own? Go back to sleep. I'm not mad at you, Goku. I'm just disappointed.

Vegeta fires a barrage of ki at Granolah and Granolah Hakai's them. Then Vegeta fools Ganolah into destroying an ancient city of the Cerelians.

VEGETA: "I can tell, you know... That you only recently acquired this absurd strength."

GRANOLAH: "How? How can you tell?"

VEGETA: "Thank you for confirming."

There's the Granolah we know. Quick to give out valuable info. Also, this is to make Vegeta appear "smarter" & a "better fighter" than Goku. Realistically, a master martial artist like Goku would be first to notice that Granolah recently acquired this kind of power. But, Goku is being dumbed down for Vegeta's sake.

VEGETA: "Need I repeat myself...? You may be stronger but... there's no gaurantee that I'll lose to you!" *attempts to break Granolah's leg*

So says the guy who always loses unless the opponent is weaker than him. But, he even lost to weaker opponents on Earth before, so....

Vegeta fans calm down, calm down. This is basic Vegeta dribble. Let's be real. When has Vegeta ever defeated an opponent that was stronger than himself? Never. When has Vegeta become stronger than his opponent and defeat them because they're weaker than him now? Always. Does Vegeta ever win when he is too cocky? Nope. This is to hype y'all up. Don't be mad if he loses. Y'all know this routine. The arc ain't even over so the chances of him winning are low.

Now let's examine Vegeta's fight in comparison to Goku's fight.

Goku goes through all his forms & uses Ultra Instinct in base, SSJ, SSG, SSB, & then goes silver haired UI when fighting Granolah. Then, he loses in every form. Vegeta goes straight to Blue Evolution and only seriously gets hurt once.

Goku keeps getting hit despite having a technique that is all about evasion. Vegeta gets hit far less & doesn't have Ultra Instinct.

Goku was struggling to fight a clone that was half the power of Granolah. Vegeta fights Granolah at his full power and struggles less.

Goku complains about his training and how he is struggling using his technique. Vegeta who had less time with Hakai training isn't complaining about struggling with Hakai.

Goku far surpassed Vegeta in the Moro arc, yet they are crippling Goku to let Vegeta catch up & make him look better. Vegeta has literally gotten a handout that he didnt have to work hard for in order to catch up with Goku... This chapter is fine when isolated and you aren't thinking about any other previous chapter. But, it is a convoluted mess when you look back at the previous chapters, the piss poor storytelling, & Vegeta's poor Hakai training that leads up to this chapter.

Where'd that "heroic" Vegeta and that "redemption" stuff go? Its as if Toyotaro decided he should stop tying to make Vegeta the hero & main character instead of Goku being the main. (Thank God.)

But... Vegeta says that he loves fights that are unpredictable?? That I disagree completely with. Vegeta wants fights to go in his favor through all of DBZ and will throw a fit when it doesn't.

In RoF: it was going in his favor so he loved it.

Destroyer Tournament arc: he didn't like that things didn't go his way in the end.

Future Trunks arc: he was upset when losing to Black, but loved it when he thought he was going to win.

ToP: angry when everyone else surpassed him, happy when he gained an upperhand, upset when he lost the upperhand.

Moro arc: Vegeta is upset that Moro is stronger but even more upset that Goku is stronger than him. When he is stronger than Moro he is loving it. Then when he loses the advantage, he is upset.

Vegeta doesn't love unpredictable fights, Goku does! Vegeta loves predictable fights in his favor.

Granolah asks how many lives were sacrificed for Vegeta's carnage. Vegeta doesn't answer. Why? Because its best to ignore the fact that he has killed billions of ppl so that Vegeta fans can ignore his bad actions (Yet many say that Vegeta has developed so much without acknowledging his terrible past). Can't have Vegeta looking like a bad guy in this chapter, right?

Oh boy! Page 37 is more "Vegeta hype!" He doesn't care about strongest or second strongest ('cause he has never been 1st place) & he basically explains Dragon Ball to us.

Roshi already taught Goku & Krillin that there will always be somebody stronger, so they need to keep reaching higher and higher.

If Vegeta is stronger than he was a few minutes ago, would that mean the same for Goku when he was fighting? Why did he perform so poorly? I wonder... 🤔

Granolah jabs Vegeta in the stomach, but Vegeta manages to slow it down (how come Goku using Ultra Instinct couldn't do that?). And cool. Blood. Anime has better writing and cool character development/moments. The manga has blood... Well, I guess blood is cooler to some ppl.

Vegeta is looking like Goku in the ToP before he attained UI. He has his head down & all. Vegeta just isn't talking about hownl much he sucks. Why does Goku keep insulting himself? N-nevermind. This is about Vegeta who keeps complimenting himself.

Why did Granolah become scared of Vegeta suddenly? Wouldn't he just see him as a mad dog and use his amazing power to put Vegeta down before he can do anything? He hates them so much, but keeps letting them live.

Uh oh... Vegeta doesn't like protecting and saving? BuT I tHoUgHt hE wAs a hErO! Where is his development going?? Ya mean the real development he had in the anime or the pseudo development in the manga?

But even after saying all that... I prefer manga Vegeta to be like this instead of a wannabe hero. Wannabe hero doesn't fit. This feels like Vegeta is in character again. I like this. I was just criticizing how Vegeta was written in past chapters in comparison to this one. A more chill Vegeta who loves battles? This is what I've wanted from DBS manga Vegeta for a long time!

Oh snap! Vegeta's transforming? I wonder what it will look like (thanks for the warning from the leaks 👍). Oil... Why are you even in this chapter? We don't care about you right now & you're boring without Maki. Goku says it ain't "any old god ki."

I wonder how Goku never knew about this new form if he and Vegeta trained on Beerus Planet together. Ya think he would've sensed and saw it & even wanted to fight against it.

So is this new form a spur of the moment thing? So Vegeta has a new form that he never trained... And he asks if Granolah has been training his new power on page 34... Sounds hypocritical of Vegeta, or he is being thrown a bone to make him look capable. Is Vegeta gonna pull a Golden Freeza by not training this new form? Or maybe a UI Goku at the ToP and lose the form?

Page 43, Granolah shoots tiny ki blasts at Vegeta's tower of flaming ki and he is surprised it did nothing. Why not try again but this time use that one big blast instead. No? Gonna let the guy of the race you hate finish transforming? Just gonna be scared and shocked to make Vegeta look impressive? Ok.

Pages 41, 44, & 45

Oh! Here it is! The new form...! Aaaand I still don't like it. Also, he healed up like Goku did last chapter too. Odd. Why does transforming heal them now? Didn't before.

No build up to make the form more cool, it's just

"Here, Vegeta. Goku has one more form than you do & he has mastered UI, so we can't let you fall too far behind. So I just pulled this crap transformation fresh outa my butt and gave it to you."

Another undeserved handout. Can you please make Vegeta earn a new form in the manga? PLEASE?!

Vegeta looks like he is in his own UI Omen form (like how Vegeta fans begged for Vegeta to get for the longest time). Dark hair with sone lighter coloured higlights, light coloured pupils, new aura. But this is what I see...

SSJ3ROSÉ of DESTRUCTION INSTINCT OMEN (or just "SSJ-ChexMix" for short)

Looks like in the end, Vegeta needed to resort to his own Ultra Instinct equivalent!

Oh no... I criticized Vegeta's bad writing too much! I bet some Vegeta fans are gonna automatically assume that I hate him because I want him to be written better without plotholes! 😱

IN CONCLUSION:

This chapter is good when isolated on its own. But, this chapter is filled with inconsistencies when you look back at previous chapters. Overall, it's... a mixed bag that I barely like. It's just so retarded that Goku had to be dragged through the mud just for Vegeta to look better. That is insulting to Vegeta and it either shows how much he sucks or or how weak the writing for Vegeta is. But we got what we got...

Wanna know how to make Vegeta look good without making Goku look pathetic? Goku never uses MUI! Goku defeats Granolah's clone with SSB. Then, Granolah merges back with his clone & catches SSB Goku by surprise and knocks him out.

Then, the reason why Vegeta seems to be doing better is because Vegeta is using SSBE, unlike SSB Goku who was caught off guard. Why make the MUI form & Goku both look like trash just to give Vegeta his own Ultra (Destructive) Intinct? Is Vegeta really that trash?! 😓😴

I don't wanna see the Heeters anymore. My hype for them died, but maybe a later chapter can make me like them more. Idk.

Where is my homie, Moniato?! 🐌 (BEST CHARACTER OF THE ARC SO FAR!)

Oh yeah...I was supposed to complain about not seeing Freeza again like I do every chapter... Who cares at this point? If Granolah is stronger than Goku & Vegeta, what can Freeza do? Hide for 3 yrs and let Granolah die?

What are my predictions for next chapter? More Vegeta wanking of course. More gloating & looking down on Granolah too. A battle of overinflated egos. Bad dialogue and decent to good art. I'll probably find it mostly boring but I may be surprised (that could be a good or bad thing). Vegeta will appear to be winning before...

Vegeta gets defeated & certain Vegeta fans will rage & be annoying. Those ones will complain about how Vegeta always gets the short end of the deal (that's what he gets for being shorter than Bulma & 12 cm taller than Krillin). This one should happen imo based off of Goku's performance.

Vegeta's fight will get interrupted before the battle ends so that Vegeta fans don't get angry. Make Vegeta fans feel that Vegeta could've won and keep them grasping on to hope. (How manipulative.) This one is most likely to happen to "satisfy" all fans.

Vegeta will win and Vegeta fans will rejoice & some will be very annoying. Despite the fact that he had terrible training, was handed a new form just to stay relevant, and Goku had to underperform & UI had to be nerfed just to make Vegeta look good. This one may happen just to appease Vegeta fans. (That is the worst outcome imo.) If Vegeta gets "a win/a W" against a main villain, make sure his training looks impressive and he has some sort of connection to the main bad guy. That way the victory feels well deserved.

If the final enemy is Freeza, then Vegeta defeating Granolah isn't "a win" against a major villain. Granolah will just be a bump in the road. He's already set up to not be a "bad guy." In the end, the main bad guy will be either Freeza, Gas, 7-3, or someone. Vegeta fans shouldn't care if Vegeta wins or loses against Granolah. He isn't the "final boss."

[what-goesaround-comesaround]

Let's talk about some Irish newsies-

Hey! So I thought it'd be cool to look into the research I've found indicationg that some of the newsies might have Irish ties! (I'm Irish so that might explain my interest) I'm not an expert at all or anything, this is just the research I've collminated while scouring through newsies facts.

Oh course this isn't set in stone, this is just information I've found so if I've got anything wrong, please tell me! I was inspired by this post to do my own research. (A lot of my research has to do with the original movie but stick around for some fun facts about surnames?)

And now, onto Jack Kelly :

^This is David's description of Jack in Newsies : a novel by Jonathan Fast which can be found here on pg 9. Both surnames "Kelly" and "Sullivan" have their roots in Irish history.

^on pg 27 of the same book David describes Jack again as "an Irish boy". I just thought this would be worth noting, seeing how David wants to make it obvious to us, the reader that Jack appears to be Irish or of Irish descent.

"Kelly", originally anglicized from the Gaelic "Ó Ceallaigh" meaning 'descendant of Ceallach', an ancient Irish personal name, originally a byname meaning 'bright-headed' or 'troublesome' (fitting huh?) Source found here.

Fun fact for you livesies fans, the reigning chieftain of Ui Maine (mid Galway, South Roscommon, sometimes referred to as "O'Kelly's Country") O'Ceallaigh (c1351), was a renowned patron of the arts. Source found here.

Another fun fact : Jack means Seán in Irish.

Bet you weren't expecting that. Or maybe you were. Anyway, source is found here. I also remember it being a topic of conversation in 3rd class Irish class. Wonder how Spot and Jack would feel about that.

^On pg 23 of the original 1992 movie script found here Jack describes himself as a "mick" which was a commonly used derogatory term used against those of Irish decent/Irish immigrants at the time. However this line was not included in the movie. Source found here.

Now for "Sullivan". The original Irish for the surname Sullivan is O'Suileabhain, however the actual derivation of the name is debated. There is no doubt that the root word is 'suil' meaning eye, but whether it is to be taken as 'one-eyed' or 'hawk-eyed' is usually left an open question. Sources found here and here.

The surname is associated with the southwestern part of Ireland and was originally found in County Tipperary before the Anglo-Norman invasion. Source found here

Also, in both movie and stage versions Jack tells us his father "taught me not to starve" indicating his father may have taught Jack about the horrors of the Famine/An Drochshaol/The Great Hunger that plagued Irish families for years after. Source is found here.

Okay! On to Spot Conlon :

^This is David's description of Spot Conlon from the same book, pg 51 (okay he may not outright say he's Irish but they really said "throw all the stereotypes at him like red hair". But seriously in the Hard Promises script and the Newsies script he's described the same way. I guess they really invisioned that red hair huh?)

Spot is interesting seeing as he is the leader of the Brooklyn newsies, Brooklyn being an infamously known place for Irish immigrants to live due to the Great Hunger/An Drochshaol (translated meaning "Hard Times") or as it's more commonly known as "the potato famine" between 1845-1852. Source found here. At least 1 million people died from this and another 1 million immigrated, a lot to America (although the exact numbers are disputed.) Around this time New York becoming the busiest port city in the world. There was labor work to be had in Brooklyn, in the manufacturing and loading and unloading of goods to be sent around the country and around the world. Irish immigrants who had been left poor and malnourished by the famine had no other option but to take on this manual labour to earn money. Many took jobs by the ports and settled by the Watershed i.e. near the ports. This could be a reason to why we're first introduced to Spot and his "cronies" at the port in the movie. Source is found here and here.

Supposing Spot was born between 1880-1886 (he's quoted to be 14 in real life in this article however it's stated in the Newsies Novel on pg 51 to "be around Jack's age" and it's stated in original script before Newsies was rewritten to be a musical and was still a drama, "Hard Promises" he's quoted to be 19 on pg 28. So take this with a grain of salt.) the U.S. census, which counted both place of birth and parents’ birth place as well, estimated that one-third of all New Yorkers were of Irish parentage. By 1890 as Brooklyn neighborhoods were expanding east and south, the amount of people with Irish stock is at 196,372. Source found here.

Also how people will usually use the name "Seán" or sometimes "Patrick" for Spot (one of the fandom wiki pages cites it as his real name here but admits to having no proof of it). Both of these are traditional Irish first names, Patrick being popularised by the patron saint of Ireland St. Patrick/Pádraig. Might have heard of it-

Now for his surname.

Conlon is an Irish family name, it being a variation of the anglicised version of Ó Connalláin. The name may be derived from two Irish Gaelic words "Con" (the genitive case of Cú, meaning "hound") and "Lón" meaning lion - thereby implying a person who has the characteristics of a lion born of a hound - strength and speed. Source found here.

Conlon had a Gaelic form of Ó Conallain or Ó Coinghiollan in Connacht however it's Ó Caoindealbhain in Munster and Leinster. Fun fact, Connal or Connall is claimed to be a pet name for a sprout or little sprout. Source found here.

The history regarding the Conlon surname is complicated to say the least- however it can be traced back to County Meath, where the Conlon descendants are from an important sept near Trim, which traces back to Laoghaire, King of Ireland circa 432. O'Coindealbhain was also anglicised 'Quinlivan' in Munster. Source is found here and here.

This post isn't letting me include the video of Jack, David and Boots going to Brooklyn to negotiate with Spot and the Irish traditional music in the background but I'll make a separate post about that.

Now, onto Racetrack Higgins.

I'm going to keep this kind of brief. We know Racetrack is described as "tall, skinny gambling Italian beanpole" in the Hard Promises script on pg 1 and he's described as "an Italian beanpole" on pg 5 of the Newsies Script. However the surname "Higgins" is Irish as far as my research has told me, not Italian.

The real Ed "Racetrack" Higgins lived in Brooklyn and is quoted to be the real leader of the Brooklyn union, and was elected vice-president of the general union after Kid Blink and David Simmons were accused of selling out. Source found here. I haven't been able to find much information about Racetrack Higgin's life after the strike or his family life which could connect him to Ireland however I thought it would be interesting. If anyone is curious about the real Racetrack Higgins this source has been really useful!

'Higgins" is an Irish family name with ancient royal connections. It is an anglicisation of O'hUigin, from the Irish word 'uiginn' meaning Viking. The original holder of the name was a grandson of Niall of the Nine Hostages, High King of Tara, and all of the O'Higgins claim a common descent from him. Ancient records show that several members of the O'Higgins claimed a hereditary right to be file or poet in the courts of the Irish Chiefs and Kings. Source is found here and here.

Because of their loyalty to Gaelic culture and religion, the Higgins suffered under the English Crown in Ireland and had lost all their lands in Sligo and Westmeath by 1654. Some of them remained in Ireland as tenants on their own lands, but many of them migrated to Spain where they achieved high office in the service of the King. Source is found here.

Fun fact, Racetrack has the same surname as the current (9th) President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins!

Lastly, on to Crutchy/ie Morris!

^This is from the 1991 original script of Newsies when it was called Hard Promises and was written to be a drama. Obviously this wasn't the movie that we have today but I thought this would be a cool add on. I couldn't find a lot of information about the real Crutch Morris, whom Crutchy/ie is based on. The surname Morris isn't strictly Irish, it's a popular surname throughout the British Isles however with this piece of information I thought it would make sense to research it anyway.

"Morris" (Ó Muiris in Irish) was introduced to Ireland by the Normans, along with the variant Firzmaurice (Mac Muiris). A branch of these Morrises moved to Galway in 1485 CE and later became one of the Tribes Of Galway. The name may also have been an abbreviation of Morrissey (Ó Muireasa), a branch of the Uí Fiachrach clan. Sources found here and here.

The ancient Irish name Ó Muirgheasa (variant Ó Muirghis), a personal name thought to derive from muir, meaning "sea" and geas, meaning "taboo" or "prohibition." Source found here.

The Morris family does have an Irish family crest/coat of arms which I'll post at a later date, further cementing themselves in Irish history.

This is most of the information I have regarding the origins of the characters and their surnames however I could go on about the music in Newsies, the family crests, the housing circumstances of poor Irish immigrants in New York at the turn of the 19th century ect.

If you want to learn more about what life was like for Irish immigrants in New York I recommend reading the non-fiction book The Gangs Of New York (or watching the movie. It isn't completely historically accurate but give a decent overview of what was life) or reading this article by the Irish Times.

I've barely scratched the surface of this topic and hope to go into it father in the future!

May I leave you with this gif of the boys doing some Irish (inspired) dancing and David with his twirl combo!

Ps. If the links aren't working for you I'd be happy to provide a list of the resources I’ve used throughout my research on a separate post if needs be.

pps. @maggs-is-a-muppet @annihilatedthenightstalker @newsies-bun @letter-from-the-refuge thanks for the motivation last night 😌

[some-pers0n]

As a person who doesn't really interact with the fandom nor really knows about interpretations of the character, here's just some notes I've made about FP thus far

Morally dubious character, meaning that I'll definitely have to work with someone who half the fandom thinks is an irredeemable monster and the other who woobifies them

FP takes his duties as an iterator seriously, but finds himself frustrated a ton. By the ancients. By his status as an iterator. By having to chase after an impossible task. By the other iterators. By not being able to die.

^ Obvious observation but one that is the reason for why he does literally everything in the game

Oddly enough he encourages Arti's behaviour and genocide against the scavenger populous. He's disgusted by her and views her as lesser, but because he's desperate

^ Possible parallels between Arti and FP? FP looks down on Arti for being an angry, irredeemable monster who only seems to hurt others and yet eventually becomes that himself

There is a key shift in character from when we last see him (Monk/Survivor/Hunter campaigns) and when Riv's campaign happens. When FP is at the start, he is irritable and lazer-focused on finding the triple affirmative. He doesn't blink at the slugcats tossed at him. When he's falling apart and he is holding on by a thread, he doesn't care. He sees Riv and thinks of it as some joke, but is ultimately thankful to it. He's gentler. The anger has subsided

He mentions in the Monk dialogue that he can feel them move around inside him. God imagine how much pain he'd be in with the rot

Moon tries to be warm to FP but he's always distant. He doesn't seem to think of her in high regards other than being his supervisor, at least not vocally at the beginning

Chances are the local group didn't want a new iterator either, considering that FP would take water from Moon's source. Because of this, there could already be tensions from SRS, NSH, UI, and SOS when FP came around. This is further backed up by FP mentioning controversy around his construction

^ I doubt these lasted very long at all, but I think it's worth mentioning considering how they would've known Moon for way longer than FP. They still obviously care about FP, sending messengers to him and all, but still

For personality stuff, FP around the time of Spearmaster and Arti (bleeding into Survivor/Monk) is impatient, rash, and utterly consumed by his goal. He flies into a fit of rage when SRS sends a message telling him to be careful and stop. To FP, he is so close to figuring it out. He can't stop. Not now. He cares about Moon, but he can't let that get in the way. He's so close. He's almost free. They're all almost free

^ Honestly that's what I always thought from FP. He's not selfish. He wants to share the information with the others. He got caught up and, in the end, caused his own downfall

TBH from what I've seen it seems a little silly for people to say that FP is depressed or something, at least for the majority of the game. He seems more angry and spiteful to his creators for tasking them with an impossible mission. It's a wild goose chase where the end result is suicide. The ancients already found their way out, leaving behind their creations to fend for themselves. FP is angry at this injustice and complains about it to SRS

FP formed a connection more with SRS than he ever did with Moon, potentially for SRS sharing a similar view. I like thinking SRS was more nihilistic and perhaps when the ancients left his pessimistic views fueled FP to try and find the triple affirmative even more

FP has a connection to a certain pearl with a hymn written into it. For as angry and upset he can get, he still cares. The hymn is essentially his only comfort when his entire can just starts deteriorating

There is a certain cadence to FP's dialogue I find fascinating. I'll have to savour it a bit more to get a proper feel, but otherwise it's quite fun

Y'all fw Rain World fanfic from me?