zephyr-rat

[zephyr-rat]

Green Giant Saga Part 13 - The Masks of Change

Synopsis: After learning of Maria’s whereabouts from Twitch, Zac strives to find the Firelights for answers. In his pursuit, he gets caught in a mission to stop the introduction of a Glorious Evolution.

Story Link

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If you want to read more of Zac and Twitch’s adventures in Zaun. Check out the entire saga!

Ao3 Series

Main Tumblr Page

[zephyr-rat]

too many stories about turning yourself into a monster as a metaphor for pretending to be something you aren't and losing yourself in the process. not enough stories about turning yourself into a monster as a metaphor for choosing to openly embrace yourself even if it's strange to other people

[zephyr-rat]

Green Giant Saga Part 13 - The Masks of Change

Synopsis: After learning of Maria’s whereabouts from Twitch, Zac strives to find the Firelights for answers. In his pursuit, he gets caught in a mission to stop the introduction of a Glorious Evolution.

Story Link

————————————–

If you want to read more of Zac and Twitch’s adventures in Zaun. Check out the entire saga!

Ao3 Series

Main Tumblr Page

[zephyr-rat]

Green Giant Saga Part 13 - The Masks of Change

Synopsis: After learning of Maria’s whereabouts from Twitch, Zac strives to find the Firelights for answers. In his pursuit, he gets caught in a mission to stop the introduction of a Glorious Evolution.

Story Link

————————————–

If you want to read more of Zac and Twitch’s adventures in Zaun. Check out the entire saga!

Ao3 Series

Main Tumblr Page

[zephyr-rat]

Green Giant Part 13 Teaser - The Golem Revolution

The clocktower bell rings 5 times through the gray smog. As if summoned, the machines of the factory whir to life: cogs click in a rhythm, hot steam extrudes from the pipes, and a scent of chemtech oil rips through the air. I gaze at one such machine: a large golem embedded in a processing plant wall with a bronze furnace as its torso. At the flip of a switch, its spherical head swivels around its neck and the lights in his eyes blink to life. Soon, the fiery heart glows with ferocity. Its eyes settle on the still conveyor belt in front of him. It raises its irregular metal arms: one big hand for grabbing as much scrap as possible and one smaller arm for extraction.

The conveyor pries through the rust coating the hinges of its gears with suboptimal efficiency. It coughs and sputters before the belt even starts to move, but the robot maintains its focus, blind to the distractions. Piles of sump scrap start moving from left to right. Once in its eyesight, it works quickly. It grabs the pile with its large hands. The eyes go from yellow to blue to scan its contents. As it does so, the extraction hand moves like lightning, throwing any metals in a bucket to the golem’s right with perfect accuracy. Once done, it throws the leftovers into the fire in its chest. As the waste burns away, the golem moves on to the next immediately.

“A beauty isn’t it?” a voice calls out from behind me.

He walks up: a short balding blonde man with black spectacles and a bronze gas mask, wearing the finest green silk suit the Promenede could offer. 

“The Blitz-Scrapper 1200,” he continues. “A 98% accuracy rate when extracting reusable metals in 10 times the speed of outdated human extractors with far less risks. Saved me quite a bit of money in terms of efficiency. Less sump infections to deal with, or just people in general. Heh.”

I don’t laugh.

“Thank Janna for the Golem Revolution. I know they don’t publicize this much, but I know. You must be proud of contributing to Dr. Stanwick’s legacy, Dr. Viktor.”

Proud. It’s been so long since I felt pride in anything. Maybe I did feel it once, but such feelings only blind us. The third bronze hand augmented on my back reaches over to adjust my steel mask. “No, I don’t think I have any need for such emotions, Mr. Takeda. You received my letter, did you not?”

“I’m always interested in the workings of one of Zaun’s greatest inventors,” he says, taking a short bow. “We have much to discuss, but I must ask, who is the young man behind you, Dr. Viktor? Part of your fan club?” He points to another masked individual, wearing a navy blue cloak like I with long brown hair hanging from the back of his head, tied in a tight ponytail. He stands straight, with his firm hands settled behind him, like a soldier waiting for orders. He adapted well to the augments, but I wonder if he’ll face shimmer withdrawal symptoms given his previous addiction.

“One of my own,” I said. “He’s important to the demonstration.”

“I see,” he said, inspecting him like an animal. “Very well then, to my office.”

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Green Giant Saga Part 13: The Masks of Change will come out tomorrow, June 27th

If you want to read more of Zac and Twitch’s adventures in Zaun. Check out the entire saga!

Ao3 Series

Main Tumblr Page

[zephyr-rat]

Green Giant Saga Part 13 - Masks of Change: Synopsis

Synopsis: After learning of Maria's whereabouts from Twitch, Zac strives to find the Firelights for answers. In his pursuit, he gets caught in a mission to stop the introduction of a Glorious Evolution.

Release Date: Friday June 27th

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If you want to read more of Zac and Twitch’s adventures in Zaun. Check out the entire saga!

Ao3 Series

Main Tumblr Page

[zephyr-rat]

Finished Blue Prince with my friend @bobosmith01. After 44 in-game days of searching through the manor, we were able to find the hidden room!

It’s definitely the most unique indie game of 2025. I never thought a puzzle roguelike could work, but this game definitely does! Though I will say that the mechanics do feel more RNG centered than I would like.

It’s very easy to just get screwed over because the house layout said no.

[zephyr-rat]

I did NOT know how much I need a Gerson and Susie mentorship storyline until we actually got it. Definitely one of my favorite parts of chapter four!

[zephyr-rat]

Are you enjoying this?

[zephyr-rat]

Attended a "No Kings" Protest today.

It was quite inspiring to see the folks in my community ban together against the growing tides of authoritarianism and fascism in the US.

Also, someone had a poster calling Trump "Fanta Faaquad" so that was neat.

[zephyr-rat]

sorry kid i own you. this is your life now

[zephyr-rat]

sorry kid i own you. this is your life now

[zephyr-rat]

I have finished Deltarune chapter 3 and 4 and have now been suffering deltarune brainrot for the past 3-4 days.

This game is really good.

Also, I love Gerson. Maybe I’ll draw more doodles.

[zephyr-rat]

Green Giant Saga Update: June 2nd

Heya folks!

Just an update on my end since it's been a month since the last update. Progress has been slow since I am working on this series and the game gig I've been hired to do in addition to my normal job.

As for the current story, the first draft is finished and I am halfway through the second rewrite and revisions. I have also given the story it's final name!

The Masks of Change

After learning of Maria's whereabouts from Twitch, Zac strives to find the Firelights for answers. In his pursuit, he gets caught in a mission to stop the introduction of a Glorious Evolution.

Yup this will be the first story presenting Viktor! As mentioned before, this will take more inspiration from his old lore incarnation than his arcane version. This will also be the introduction of more Firelight characters, some being existing Runeterra characters.

This story aims to build on the themes of internalization, systemic conflict, and heroism in a dark world, but also aims to introduce themes of community and collective action.

This story has proven to be a complicated one thematically, but I do hope that it will be satisfying nonetheless.

Also get ready for more Twitch and Zac synergy. The story should come out before the end of this month.

Once that story comes out, I will also take a 2 week break before touching the next story. Doing this and the game gig side by side has left me feeling burned out some days (oops). But I will have 2-3 retrospectives on this one. I have a lot of thoughts on how this turned out.

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

If you want to read more of Zac and Twitch’s adventures in Zaun. Check out the entire saga!

Ao3 Series

Main Tumblr Page

[zephyr-rat]

Green Giant Saga Update: June 2nd

Heya folks!

Just an update on my end since it's been a month since the last update. Progress has been slow since I am working on this series and the game gig I've been hired to do in addition to my normal job.

As for the current story, the first draft is finished and I am halfway through the second rewrite and revisions. I have also given the story it's final name!

The Masks of Change

After learning of Maria's whereabouts from Twitch, Zac strives to find the Firelights for answers. In his pursuit, he gets caught in a mission to stop the introduction of a Glorious Evolution.

Yup this will be the first story presenting Viktor! As mentioned before, this will take more inspiration from his old lore incarnation than his arcane version. This will also be the introduction of more Firelight characters, some being existing Runeterra characters.

This story aims to build on the themes of internalization, systemic conflict, and heroism in a dark world, but also aims to introduce themes of community and collective action.

This story has proven to be a complicated one thematically, but I do hope that it will be satisfying nonetheless.

Also get ready for more Twitch and Zac synergy. The story should come out before the end of this month.

Once that story comes out, I will also take a 2 week break before touching the next story. Doing this and the game gig side by side has left me feeling burned out some days (oops). But I will have 2-3 retrospectives on this one. I have a lot of thoughts on how this turned out.

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

If you want to read more of Zac and Twitch’s adventures in Zaun. Check out the entire saga!

Ao3 Series

Main Tumblr Page

[zephyr-rat]

Proofreading and rewriting Twitch is either "Hmmmm I think he's not Twitch-y enough" or "I think I made him too unlikable with his.... everything"

[zephyr-rat]

All of the reactions to The Last of Us 2 HBO show feels in line with the reactions to the Last of Us 2 video game.

Misery porn? Yes.

Ellie's obsessive revenge scheme becomes alienating and becomes dumb at points. Yes.

Hatred against Abby. Yup that's there too.

Like, Last of Us 2 is an extremely gutsy game with very brave, risky writing decisions, but I don't think those decisions worked with me and made the game feel miserable while also having fun violence segments (HOORAY LUDONARRATIVE DISSONANCE). Seems like the HBO show is falling a similar boat except no gameplay segments, so it's just misery all the way down. I guess it's faithful?