#Also the fact that the 2 origin characters not in your party don't get a moment is weird

[dizzyrobinsims]

Me, responding to someone: "Yeah the ending is actually great when you compare it to how bad people on reddit are saying it is. Like I was shocked I was prepped for some abysmal shit."

Someone who hasn't been off the internet in over a decade butting in: "UGH I hate people like you who use BIG TERMS and IGNORE WHAT A MESS THIS IS. Go and COPE someone else!"

Me: "...as the kids say, touch some grass my friend."

[icykalisartblog]

BG3 Extremely Rare Wyll Dialogue

I've been obsessed with Baldur's Gate 3 recently, and somehow I'm already on my third run. My favorite Origin/companion is Wyll, so when I saw that in the parsed dialogue for the game there was some sweet dialogue from him that I'd somehow never seen, I wanted to figure out how to trigger it. There are even different versions of the scene depending on who you're playing as! Extremely complicated explanation of the weird way this dialogue is triggered below the cut:

At first I thought this scene was bugged and impossible to get. Based on the code, it's meant to play early in-game, on the same night Lae'zel reminisces about the Tears and Astarion can be seen stargazing, scenes that seem to play when the player rests and they have a lead on a possible cure but hasn't spoken to healer Nettie in the Grove yet, or when they've spoken to Nettie and also have a different lead at the same time. But in my experience, Wyll either 1) never had new dialogue on that night or 2) had a different (also nice) scene in which he asks the player if they've ever heard a banshee's scream. However, u/moving_inplace on the BG3 subreddit said it was possible to get it if you rest immediately after speaking to Nettie, and with that information I was able to trigger it and (I think) figure out the extremely specific and esoteric steps required to get it. Barely anybody is going to do this when playing:

1) Long rest once while you have no party members. You'll get a scene with your player character alone where they mull over the fact that they haven't changed yet. This step is the key.

2) Recruit Wyll while having no lead to a cure, then long rest. You'll get a scene where he comments on how your worms made fast friends.

3) Now, do one of two things: get the lead about Nettie, go to see her, and then after she tries to poison you, rest. You'll get this scene where Wyll asks to remain allies. OR, don't see Nettie just yet, and instead get a new possible lead for a cure. I did this by talking to Sazza. Then long rest. You'll get this scene.

I don't know how any player is likely to get this on their own, because even if the party got injured between any of these steps, surely a player would just short rest instead of long resting???

This scene and a scene where Wyll asks you, "Have you ever heard a banshee's scream?" are mutually exclusive for whatever reason, which seems to be a bug. Based on the code, I think the banshee scene is intended to play one night before this one, but instead, only one of the two can play in a single run. You'll get the banshee scene if you didn't rest once while having no party members but then take all the other steps. Also, in the parsed dialogue for the game, Origin Karlach is supposed to have special dialogue here as well, but I sadly wasn't able to trigger it because Mizora's visit to camp in which she punishes Wyll for sparing Karlach's life seems to prevent it from triggering. It's too bad because it's very sweet:

[stevesbipanic]

Billy was not racist. He was trying to protect Max and Lucas both from his father, who would have harmed both of them plus Billy if he knew they were even hanging out let alone romantically involved. Billy was a victim of abuse at the hands of his father, and his mother abandoned him to his father despite knowing what cruelties he would suffer just to save her own ass. Was Billy an asshole? Yes. Was the shitty way he treated people especially Max okay? No, never. Nothing excuses it. But you try living with the sorts of abuses his father heaped on him, and on his mother before she left, and the abuses he would have been heaping on Max's mom too. I have zero doubt that Billy's father r-worded both Billy's mom and later Max's mom because "wifely duties" or some other misogynistic garbage. Billy would have overheard the sounds from it pretty much any time it happened while he was home. You try living with all that and see how YOU turn out. Billy did deserve a redemption arc. He got one of a sort when he sacrificed himself despite "the mindflayer's" control over him, all to save El, Max, Max's mom, and even people he hated. Because he knew what "the mindflayer" had planned. Did you not see Billy's tears when "the mindflayer" was speaking through him? Did you not notice Billy told Karen to stay away from him rather than give in to "the mindflayer" and kill her? Did you not notice Billy flat out lied to his father when his father demanded to know where Max had run off to? There's no way Billy didn't have some kind of clue where to find her. But he lied to his father, to shield her and to shield Lucas, from whatever harm would absolutely have come to them at the hands of Neil Hargrove. Billy is not the embodiment of evil you clearly think he is.

Did Billy somewhat sometimes care about his stepsister? Yes. Did he get abused by his dad? Also yes. These facts don't excuse him from his actions in both seasons 2 and 3.

In our early meetings of Billy he highly threatens to run over the party while they're on their bikes. A normal same human being wouldn't do that. He also beat Steve to the point the kids thought he might be dead. He continued beating Steve even once Steve had been thoroughly knocked out, and likely would've killed Steve if Max hadn't knocked him out.

Also YES HE WAS RACIST WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT???? Did you know that Billy's line "certain type of people" in regards to Lucas, was originally a black slur? He was a racist character picking up the trait from yes his abusive dad. Just because his dad was abusive doesn't mean Billy didn't become racist because of his upbringing with him.

You can definitely say that line is to protect Max from abuse from her stepdad if he found out she was talking to a black boy. But it certainly wasn't protecting Lucas, billy couldn't care less about Lucas' safety (SEE TRYING TO RUN HIM OFF THE ROAD).

His character was written to be a bad person, accept this. Characters aren't always written to have redemption arcs or all be good people. He was a racist bully from the 80s with an abusive dad. Just because you think he's hot doesn't change these facts.

Also, abuse doesn't inherently make your character grow up to be a bully. Lonnie Byers is heavily written as an abusive father, even going so far as it was suggested he killed Will in season 1. But neither of the Byers grow up to be bullies. Eleven is brought up in an abusive environment and moves past these traits. Steve's parents are seen as hard on him and in some ways absent and neglectful and besides Jonathan we never see him fight anyone that wasn't for protection.

Billy is the only older character that shows complete disregard for the kids safety. And him dying in st3 doesn't forgive these actions nor rewrite his racist abusive character.

You're allowed to hate characters that are written to be the bad guys. No one attacks anyone for hating Dr Brenner because he's the villain. Many people including myself didn't like Steve in season 1 because he was written to be the popular asshole. Characters are written certain ways for reasons. So go enjoy your self insert fanfiction where you really just want Billy to be a hot ooc. But for the rest of us it's totally fair to hate on one of the villains of the series.

[amuseoffyre]

Couldn't get to sleep last night and ended up thinking about the original plan for episode 6 of S2 and the muttering about the executive interference on the show, changing things up.

From what I've read, the original plan was that the party in episode 6 was going to be the celebration Pete and Lucius's wedding plus the crew helping Stede make a romantic move, but instead, we got Calypso's birthday and Pete/Lucius's wedding was tacked onto the finale in a 2-minute scene.

I don't know about anyone else, but when I heard this it reminded me of Rebecca Sugar fighting tooth-and-nail for the Ruby and Sapphire wedding. It reminded me of Korrasami's very, very brief moment of being allowed to hold hands. You can have your queer show, but maybe don't be too much of it.

And while I adore Calypso's birthday, there are a bunch of ways I can see why the wedding was the original plan:

Ed's gilt/guilt room - yes, using the money to finance the Calypso's birthday was good, but the idea that he would use all these ill-gotten gains in order to give Lucius especially a special day would have been interesting. Lucius still adamant this doesn't make them good, but he can see Ed's trying.

The crew actually interacting with the main pair as a pairing - this is a big thing that I thought was missing after episode 4. Aside from the bell scene in the opening of ep. 5, the crew don't interact with them together in any way until Frenchie and Jim request Calypso's birthday plans. Having them being wingmen for Stede, getting him dolled up, would have been sweet. It would have also played out interestingly if Ed felt so swept off his feet by it all and the "that was a mistake" would have a different context.

Calypso turning up as the officiant for the wedding instead of the speedrun of vows and "now you can slash each other's faces" in the finale.

That said, I feel like having Lucius and Pete's special day ruined by a sadistic torture bitch would have been a bit much after everything else they have been through between the seasons. Having them be the two people not getting tortured was nice.

Plus Ned Low is such a fun and awful character. Wouldn't have missed that guy for the world. In fact, would've enjoyed a lot more of him being a menace.

Once again, the limited time-scale is really showing. The amount they managed to condense and fit into 30 minute episodes is actually remarkable, especially with execs breathing down their necks and demanding changes.

[dokidokiliteraturegirls]

Hey everyone! Feel Less will be going on a short hiatus... but we're not going anywhere!

Allow me to explain~

So, I gave a similar explanation last time, but because I'll be introducing some new characters, I need some time to finish all the art. I thought I could do it last week, but the extra week I took only allowed me enough time to finish Anna's sprites and cutscene graphics from the latest update, which I hope you enjoyed~ but I have to be honest with myself, and admit that in order to finish everything I want I need to take way longer than just 1 extra week.

You see, things in Feel Less are about to get fuuuuuuuuuucked up real interesting! [REDACTED] isn't the only character that's getting introduced you know~ The Some Things Are Better Left Unknown story route includes at least 3 other characters that could potentially join the party! And they're not gonna draw themselves lmao. Besides the new characters, there's also some very important story beats that are coming, which will also require original art. I could of course do everything with the sprites and backgrounds, but that'd be sacrificing some of the quality of the comic, and I don't want the story to suffer just to get it out on a self-imposed deadline, you know? This is not to mention the backgrounds needed for the new locations so... yikes! This is definitely gonna take longer than a week! Especially because I have a job besides posting comics online (sadly, I wish I could just do this full time aslkdmakldmml 😭)

Another important thing to note is that we'll be disabling player interaction for a bit, at least until all the important story points have been covered, which I think should be the next 3 updates.

Now, what do I mean by "we're not going anywhere"? Well, because this blog won't be going radio silent until everything's done, like I used to do in the past! I'll be streaming most of my art process on my twitch channel! I usually play games on there, but I'm going on an Art Stream Marathon until all the art for Feel Less has been completed! (I really, really want to prioritize this. Neon White can wait.) For those of you who don't know, I stream every Thursday and Saturday from 2:30 pm EST, to around 5:30pm. I'll be posting links to the streams on this blog every day I do them, so come say hi! 💖 There will be slight spoilers for character designs, but not plot points, so dw~

I want to close by saying that, to be completely honest, I never enjoy putting my works on hiatus. Keeping momentum going on a webcomic is difficult, but I have to make sure Feel Less is 100% something I can be proud of and not a rushed product. There's some cool stuff coming, and I want it to have the impact it deserves.

As always, thank you all so much for your support! The fact that you guys take the time to read my webcomic makes me so happy~~ 🥰 Also, important to mention that while the story's on hiatus the inbox will be wide open! So feel free to send questions and stuff, I'll still be here~ See you all soon!!!

-Yui Wrong 💖

[acradaunt]

Acra's EO Guild Card Megapost

Guild Cards are a neat thing in the most of the Etrian Odyssey games. Sometimes, they're pretty pointless, but in some, they actually do some neat stuff. I… have a tendency to do multiple playthroughs, to try different team compositions (as seeing how different a game can feel based on your builds is one of my favourite things ever, and I also like abandon them before the big fights, on the hypothetical urge I want to re-fight a boss at an appropriate level an infinite number of times), so I've amassed a fair few of my own.

Why am I uploading these now? Apparently the Nexus database got borked a couple days ago, so this is the perfect time for me to get a few feet in the door. I also swear this is the last time I'll ever post about these, seriously.

EO Nexus -A total of 100 Guild Cards are needed to unlock the Vampire pseudo-class. Obviously, 100 is a lot, so they obviously expected the community, paltry it may be, to come together to make a database. And they did. And then they locked it the second they got 108. And then it died. So now I finally get a second chance to contribute.

Galeforce

-My first (main) playthrough. I actually uploaded a card weekly to help out, but I think only the first one made it on in time. It's not Heroic because it's like a NG+++++ file. This is the final card, but for the weekly set of them, um, here:

Week 0 || Week 1 || Week 2 || Week 3 || Week 4 || Week 5 || Week 6 || Week 7

Stardust

-Filled with all my C-listers that couldn't fit into Galeforce. I ran them as two separate teams; the Boss Killers (shown here), who fought the FOEs/Bosses, and Team Midriff, who did all the exploration.

Sunstorm

-A Guild consisting of classes I mostly avoid using, and portraits I hadn't (as of its conception) used before. As always, there's like another three members that get used that aren't here, including a Survivalist, Nightseeker, and an Arcanist.

Maelstrom

-An attempt at a Nuzlocke-esque run, and also an 'evil' party. Characters stopped being used if they died, but only until the end of the stratum, to not make it overbearing. Being an evil party lacking in support and healing, this was an absolute slog that I considered a total failure by the Jungle.

Brilliant

-An idea for a mage-guild that kinda went askew. Starting as a Sovereign, three Zodiacs, and a Farmer, I ultimately turned this into three single-element teams; Each consisting of a unique Sovereign, a unique Zodiac, two other characters that get earlygame elemental skills (Survivalist's Flame Arrow, Landsknecht, etc.), but the same Farmer (Hazel) across all three. Didn't take it all that far, but worked kinda well!

EOV -Definitely where Guild Cards are seen the most. About 2-4 times every floor, there'll be an event that'll use you GC database to have another guild interact with you in the labyrinth. If you have none, you'll be introduced to memelord Conrad of the Freeblade Guild about 110 times in your course of a playthrough. In stark contrast, Nexus only has GC events maybe a dozen times across the whole game.

Starlight

-Main guild. Not a lot to say. It's a Chain-oriented party, because I love Fencers/Landsknechts.

Bundt

-Cake pun. See, bundt is a type of cake, and the guild is filled with Brouni. As in Brownies, the fairy/pixie/sprite, but I'm punning off the--- ANYWAY. Horrific offense, but don't die easily. Kinda miserable against a few specific enemies like the coffin jerks on 15F, but otherwise worked astonishingly better than you'd expect. Which is; not GOOD, but totally serviceable.

Necrocosm

-My original 'evil' guild, featuring two Necromancers, and edge as far as the eye can see. Two Necros work pretty well together; typically Velvet summoned them and Rue made them explode. The fact Necros heal and have evil vibes let them succeed where Maelstrom would totally fail. I also didn't bench anyone for dying, so that probably helped too.

Firebird

-This playthrough is only saved at Amalgolem and took like a single weekend to get there, so I didn't remember squat about it. Amalgolem is like my single fave boss in the whole series, so I just had to leave a file there. It's heavily skewed towards non-humans, and the bottom deck of the guild is just full of nigh-on unusable cross-classed horrors, like a Celestrian Pugilist and Therian Warlock.

EO2U -Probably where Guild Cards are the most functionally useful. Lets you get the Grimoire Stones the attached character has on hand as many times as you can afford. Pretty nifty, as Grimoires are semi-random in spawning.

Skyquake

-So I didn't actually buy EO2U when it came out for a variety of factors, not least being unaware how different it was from the original EOII, my first EO game. So I've only started this and Untold I fairly recently.

Ironroot

-Holy Gift gives you extra experience, but each level costs twice as much to trade as the previous. That is, you need two level 3 Grimoires to get a level 4. Or 128 level 3s for a single level 10. So having a Guild Card with lowish level Holy Gift is actually pretty dang useful to have.

Untold

-Story Guild. Haven't… uh, haven't exactly been Motivated to do Story mode in Untold 2. On paper, I really dislike the team composition. In practice, hasn't been so bad, but still not enough to make me play them more than necessary.

Fellbloom

-Now legally required Evil Guild. Probably won't ever get past Chimaera.

EOU -Unlike the sequel, Guild Cards don't let you choose what to get from the friend's Guild Card. You just get given a random Grimoire Stone once per playthrough per Guild Card. Kinda lame.

Untold -Unlike later games, only one save file here, and the game nigh-on requires you to play through the Story Mode before doing Classic in NG+, so, that's where we sit.

EOIV -First game to use QR codes. III had Guild Cards, but I don't know how you'd trade them. They do serve a purpose here; each Card gets given a random treasure, and having a Card lets you find that treasure in the overworld. Most are crap, but some are circumstantially useful, and some are permanent stat-boosts, IIRC. I don't think mine was very good…?

Zephyr

-Uh, EOIV had a glitch where your Ventured Days would go up dramatically every time you paused. I think it comes into affect if you ever do NG+. So I haven't actually played for 48 in-game years. Truth be told, now knowing of a way to back up save files, I am admittedly tempted to make a new EOIV playthrough, since it's been like a decade, but for my own sanity, I really probably shouldn't.

[viralarcadian]

more golden sun tips

1. the game wants you to keep track of how many djinn a character has on standby when you're gearing up for a summon. you can lose spells mid battle bc you used enough djinn that your character went down a rank and that shit sucks.

ostensibly this is supposed to be a risk v reward thing to prevent you from spamming summons at every boss battle, but in practice this is really only a problem to worry about when you're doing optional stuff like crossbone isle and the endgame superbosses in TLA, and if your designated healer loses their good healing psynergy (eg jenna's basic class loses access to the party-wide aura healing psynergy if more than 4 djinn go to standby/recovery, so if she's your healer you NEED to keep track)

2. i do in fact recommend the optional stuff, especially in TLA because the best summons are locked behind those superbosses.

3. in TLA you're gonna find a bunch of shit like tear stones and sylph feathers that have "forgeable" in their item descriptions and the game does not tell you what this means. i will.

you give these to a character named sunshine in the town of yallam on oseania, after you get the boat. you give these to him one at a time, and he will turn them into weapons and armor for you. what you get is completely random, as several things can be forged from the same material, and it auto saves when you give him the item to prevent save scumming, at least in the original game. the switch has suspend points that you can use to save scum.

sunshine's wife says it'll take a while for him to finish, but leaving town and re-entering or spending a night at the inn will get it done instantly.

there are also several rusty weapons that will always give you the same result when you give them to him.

4. some djinn in both games can be found in the actual overworld map and encountered as monster spawns. the game does not tell you this explicitly. lucky for you, they have very specific areas of the map that they will spawn in. i highly recommend looking up guides with pictures.

5. make getting djinn your top priority, especially in the first game. not only do they give you stat boosts and increase the rank of your class, and not only do you get sick summons and effects from using them in battle, but to get the absolute best summon in TLA you NEED to transfer a save over from the first game with all 28 of those djinn, bc you need those 28 plus the 44 in TLA to even access the dungeon it's in.

6. the superboss guarding the best summon is the cheapest motherfucker on planet earth. he will use your djinn against you and tear you up like tissue paper

But! he is in theory beatable. he follows a set sequence of moves, only differing in very specific circumstances (skipping 'break' if you don't have stat buffs, 'haunt' if everyone is haunted, and using psynergy at all if he's been blocked). he will start the battle from somewhere in that sequence, and then go thru each action in turn

the wiki has an exceptionally good page on him including strategies to beat him and the complete sequence of moves he uses. use it.

7. use that wiki in general. it's the good one that isn't on fandom

8. if you open up the battle mode lobby in TLA and talk the NPC in the southwest corner while holding down either the L or R buttons (she's the one that says "i like my men macho"), instead of her usual dialog she'll say "you have a song request?" and a tiny menu will open up. congratulations! this is the game's sound test menu. if a track has played at least once on the file you used to enter the lobby, you can play it here! even more if it's one that has transfer info from the first game!

this has no use at all but this effectively turns your switch into an mp3 player that only plays golden sun music, and was the only way to listen to the soundtrack before yt and if you couldn't find a site that had ripped it and put it up for download

[kdinjenzen]

kdin I know you're like chetney's #1 fan and also like laudna, but what are your thoughts on the rest of the bells hells + dorian?

Chetney is 100% my fav, and as much as I wanna say "BECAUSE HE'S A WEREWOLF", it was actually waaaaay before that when I was like "yeah, no, he's the fav for me."

I haven't seen the one-shot where he was originally introduced, so Campaign 3 was the first time I was introduced to him.

Travis just gets SO into it with Chet that it's way too fun to watch. Especially as a fellow voice actor, seeing Travis just maintain Chet's energy throughout the entire session - dropping it the least frequently of the cast - really is just something really fun to experience.

Plus Chet is just... he's a little WEIRDO but he's also super honest.

"YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW ME! I COULD BE ARMED TO THE TEETH!" "...are you armed to the teeth?" "Yes!"

First of all, hilarious and also like he's RIGHT they just kinda blindly trusted him for no reason and he's like "bruh, you guys gotta be more careful"

And also FORESHADOWING! He IS armed to the teeth... LITERALLY!

And then when his werewolf form gets revealed to the rest of the party he just:

I won't lie. There are some things that I haven't told you yet, but I'm trusting you more, and I have selfish desires. There are people that need to die, and things that need to be righted, but that's down the road.

MAN, THAT FUCKS ME UP IN A LOTTA WAYS AND I LOVE IT.

And don't even get me STARTED on when Dorian asked if Chet had friends and he replied "I do now..."

These, the constant screaming of "BALLS!", and much more are why Chet has maintained being my fav since I first was introduced to him.

THAT SAID!

Laudna and FCG were my original two favs, and we are currently up to episode 36 (paused right at the ROLL FOR INITIATIVE part before bed last night) and I am ALL KINDS of not okay about SO MUCH.

As time has gone on, I got pretty attached to them all and my "order of favorites" has shifted around.

Chet is still #1 with Laudna being #2.

Orym (accompanied by the many heartfelt moments of his portrayal by Liam) have brought him up to tie with Laudna in the #2 slot.

FCG used to be my #3, but I feel like Fearne has swapped with him. So FCG is #4 and Fearne is #3.

Imogen is #5 on my list and is a great constant for the group. The thing I really appreciate about her, especially as someone who has followed Laura's career since I was a kid and took my very first VO class EVER with her when I was 14, is the fact that she's playing really close to her natural voice for this character which - honestly - I don't hear much in a lot of the stuff Laura is cast for. It's really nice!

I feel bad saying Ashton is my #6 on the list, he's a fun character, he's got a lot of stuff going on and he's super interesting and I love his agency but he's just not a character type I tend to enjoy much. That said, I appreciate him a lot.

Additional Temporary Party Members (That I've Met) Time!:

I MISS DORIAN SO MUCH HE WAS SO GREAT!!! I love that Orym and him are keeping in touch using the stones because those little messages give me LIFE!

And I really really REALLY loved Erika Ishii as Yu/Dusk. Like Erika RULES and they are legit one of my favorite people ever and I'm blessed to have been able to chat with them as many times as I have and their energy IN GENERAL is so fucking RAD and gets me hype - so Yu/Dusk will remain a favorite forever for these reasons and many many more.

[blogthebooklover]

Movie Recs In Honor of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

I decided to write out a list of movies to watch in honor of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes coming out very soon. This list will feature movies with apes besides the POTA movies, or movies with weird and bizarre friendships/found families.

The Original Planet of the Apes Franchise (1968-1973, Amazon Prime)

Honestly, I've only watched the 1968 movie a handful of times. I decided to watch all of the original franchise leading up to the release of Kingdom. They're all a lot of fun, with social/political commentaries at the time of each film. If you're a movie collector, or like behind-the-scenes/director's commentaries, I highly recommend buying the Blu Ray compilation pack.

2. Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes (2001, Disney+ or Amazon Prime)

I know, hear me out. Yes, it's over-hated, and yes, there was A LOT of potential for this movie. There were definitely too many "cooks in the kitchen" when drafting this movie. Imho, I think it's a guilty pleasure, popcorn movie. If you're a fan of makeup effects, Rick Baker (THE modern makeup effects master) does an absolutely phenomenal job with the designs of the apes in this movie (and check out his Instagram too). I do like the production and the ape costume designs for this film as well.

Tim Roth and Paul Giamatti are such a blast in this movie, too!

And the posters for this movie look so cool.

3. Planet of the Apes Reboot Trilogy (2011-2017, Amazon Prime)

I think this is what the 2001 movie should have been, and was trying to go for. While the three movies did make their money back at the box office, I have two theories why they almost went under everyone's radar (again, this is my opinion):

A. Because of the mixed reception from the 2001 movie.

B. Because of the abundance of comic book & remake movies coming out during the 2011-2017 years.

I put this trilogy right up with the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. The storytelling is great, the special effects hold up well, and this reboot's version of Caesar has became one of my favorite main characters in modern film.

4. Mighty Joe Young (1998 remake, Disney+)

I don't know why this movie doesn't get talked about that much. Rick Baker, once again, does incredible work on the special effects for Joe. There's also a great musical score by James Horner. And Bill Paxton and Charlize Theron give amazing acting performances. And I think it's actually one of the better remakes that came out from the late 1990s.

In fact, the team that worked on the 1933 King Kong also made the 1949 film. Even Robert Armstrong (Carl Denham) came back for the '49 film. Ray Harryhausen worked under the supervision of Willis O'Brien for the special effects for the original movie. He also has a cameo appearance alongside Terry Moore (Jill Young) in a party scene.

Aaaaand I just found out the writers, Mark Rosenthal and Lawrence Konner, also did an uncredited rewrite for the 2001 POTA movie.

5. Tarzan (1999, Disney+)

Of course, who doesn't love Tarzan??? And Phil Collins's A.M.A.Z.I.N.G soundtrack???!!!

6. King Kong (1933, 2005, Amazon Prime/MAX)

Okay, technically it's a giant monster movie and the OG prior to Godzilla. And it also set the standard of film making overall. However, it is also a bit of a Beauty and the Beast story, hence the lines: "It was Beauty killed the Beast" and the "And the prophet said: And lo, the Beast looked upon the face of Beauty. And it stayed its hand from killing. And from that day forward, he was as one dead." I also recommend watching the extended cut of the 2005 remake.

7. Lilo & Stitch (2002, Disney+)

Again, who doesn't love Lilo and Stitch???

8. How to Train Your Dragon Trilogy (2010-2019, Amazon Prime/Peacock App)

Once again, who doesn’t love HTTYD (and why are they remaking it as a live action movie????)???

9. Gorillas in the Mist (1988, Amazon Prime)

This movie is about Dian Fossey (played by Sigourney Weaver), a primatologist who studied mountain gorillas and she was part of a trio of women who studied great apes; the amazing Jane Goodall and her study of chimpanzees, and Birute Galdikas who studies orangutans. The movie is also based on her book of the same name.

I use past tense for Dian, because she met a tragic and horrific death while she was conducting her research on gorillas. I have in-lined a link to Dian Fossey's Wikipedia article for further reading.

Rick Baker, once again, does some amazing practical creature effects work for the gorillas.

10. George of the Jungle (1997, Disney+)

One of my favorite Brendan Fraser movies, and such a fun, and a bit of a campy movie based on the cartoon series (which is also a spoof of Tarzan). I quote this movie every so often. Unfortunately, Rick Baker did not do the ape designs for this movie. The creature effects this time around was done by none other than the Jim Henson Creature Workshop!

[whenthechickencry]

Last Note of the Golden Witch Part 2

Piece gives away more of her heart, she starts talking about how of course she didn't know who Ange is, how she had so many lovely conversations with Sayo and Battler. Battler starts crying and bawling from not having it figured it out earlier, I was going to give him shit if he didn't realize it after all her hints, I am not going to lie, so I am glad he did... it seems Asumu was at the end of her patience as well as that monologue seems to be flipping between Asumu and Battler (I assume since Battler wouldn't say do you not know who I am, so I assume statement 3 and 5 are made by Asumu)

Ange wants to be able to understand everyone in the Ushiromiya family as part of her role as the witch of the future, haha...

I figured Ange was brought here in order to be mean to her, I mean, she's a complete stranger to Asumu otherwise... It's interesting how we are both seeing the good and the bad simultaneously, from a character we were usually only allowed to see the perspective of people who think she's all good or all bad.

The act this arc allowed Ange to understand and love someone who wasn't a part of her life at all, and if she was she probably would have hated her, anyways, is really cute.

I have noted the translation seemed kind of... not great at times but this line made 100% it was a cleaned-up machine translation, so I looked up who was the translator and, lmfao?

Of course, Kinzo wouldn't approve of cheating, he is an upstanding man of good values.

Of course, this is a bit of a self-important fantasy, reality wouldn't have been that simple even if she had stayed alive. But she wanted to write a tale where her being part of the family left to a far better future than when Kyrie did, affirming that she was a better person than the person who (she blamed) for making her life shitty (it was actually Rudolf really, but).

The fact Ange was brought in the first place in order to hurt her and then she's frantically trying to make it NOT hurt her is very interesting. Makes me kind of imagine Asumu as someone who heavily tries to suppress her bad sides, which would line up with Battler and Rudolf thinking she's an innocent, naive, innocent flower.

Battler doesn't want to accept that her mother wanted to hurt Ange but also like, Battler how happy do you think Asumu would be about being replaced in her family by someone who literally had plans to murder her? Of course, Ange doesn't have anything to do with it, but Asumu knows that too! She hates herself for feeling like that, too! Even though it's perfectly understandable.

"Spit on and forget about me"... I don't know Piece, I think Ange can acknowledge your existence and your pain while not having to do that.

Asumu solves this whole thing by literally erasing herself, by erasing memories of her, by eating herself alive in order to ensure the happiness of Battler and Ange, and... I can't help but find this ending extremely tragic. Piece erased herself, thinking she was an evil monster for the thoughts she had, even as she was fighting those thoughts the entire time and before they were even revealed she was trying to make sure they wouldn't hurt Ange...

Battler is grumpy about the fact he didn't get the fun the Higurashi cast had, haha. Unfortunately, I don't think those kinds of tea parties would fit the atmosphere of Umineko, really. I wonder if what Battler is saying is implying that r07 originally planned for something like that.

Erika is fucking DEAD.

I remember Virgilius but they mentioned they are 3 and I don't remember the other 2, actually..

No. 1

Oh that's the original form of the goat servants, haha. Making them headless is kind of interesting...

Bernkastel and Beatrice make fun of Battler for being too horny, but it's kind of funny to imagine making characters just having a fuck golf club-sized crotch, haha.

I can see Natsuhi fitting the image of a mistress, but it's a little hard to think of her as a witch roaming the halls, haha.

Lambda agrees! Haha.

I think you are your own witch with your own magic already, Natsuhi.

That line huh.... I guess it is a line that is extremely significant to Beatrice as a character, so it makes sense to make someone trying to play the role of Beatrice to try it out.

Virgilius is the other one, though Beato mentions she actually hadn't designed anything more than a couple sketches.

Virgilia does the opposite of this, funnily enough... you can tell why R07 rewrote having a character meant to mislead you to be introduced in ep3 when a lot of people gave up on ep2, it's kind of unfortunate, but Virgilia is cool as well.

That's what Erika does in EP5, mostly, but in further episodes her role and character drifted in other directions, I feel.

It's kind of funny because like. I think EP1 is a harder Episode than Ep2 to solve? Eva's involvement is a lot less obvious than Rosa's, and Kanon is more obviously suspicious in ep2 than Shannon's death was in Ep1

Wow, that's rude Lambda, I think Erika's post-5 character is actually more and more interesting every ep.

I am not really sure what exactly they were referring to here, from all the post-Umineko WTC projects, I haven't read any so ...

Anyway, I really liked Last Note. The mystery was a little simple, but I did enjoy having to revisit another character Battler had written off as more simple than they were. The ending felt a little rushed, I would have liked it if the episode had been a little longer. All the characters had really strong moments so I would definitely recommend to read this one! Asumu was an interesting character to explore in more detail, especially since all the information we get from her in the main story are from very biased sources. This also served as a showcase for how Battler, Ange, and Beatrice would act after their EP8 development which is very neat to see. Overall I really enjoyed it. I wish the translation was better, hope to finish learning Japanese at some point to read it like that.

[clowngames]

What makes the new Pokémon good

So in game development there are generally two types of design. There's system design and content design. For a sports analogy you can think of system design as coming up with the rules of a game and content design as deciding what the field and ball will look like, as well as how smart the other team is.

In Pokemon, the system design is the combat mechanics, the core loop, how pokeballs work, what types of tasks need to be accomplished to beat the game. Content design is the pokemon themselves, the mechanics of individual moves, the maps the player will traverse and what can be found in those maps and what challenges the player will have to overcome within the framework of tasks supplied by the system design.

The two bleed together sometimes but on a large scale any given "design" component of pokemon can be categorized into one of these two areas.

The systems of Pokemon are very rarely changed in significant ways, though new systems are sometimes added. Gen 2 added physical defense, abilities and gender, gen 3 added weather effects and double battles, gen 4 made the physical/special split, at one point Mega Evolution happened and Z moves, and now each generation is iterating on the idea of making a pokemon more powerfully temporarily once per battle in unique ways.

What gets changed and added to every Pokemon game is the content. Every generation is a whole new map, new characters, a new story, and of course new pokemon designs. The formula for this is pretty strict - there's a minimum campaign length and a minimum amount of unique pokemon that need to get designed, at the very least.

Now, imagine you're a systems designer for SwSh, and you're working on the next Pokemon game and as we speak there are over a thousand pokemon - and every single one is someone's favorite. Let's ignore for a moment the fact that SwSh originally didn't allow every pokemon in the game - this represents a unique design problem for you, the person who makes the rules. Because the player is only allowed to have 6 pokemon on their team. That's a rule established early on, and one of the only rules that was never changed.

You don't want to change this rule, because battles should be short. The player is going to have a lot of them so they can't drag. Plus, the average battle shouldn't even require more than like 3 pokemon if the player is doing well.

Early on someone added an "Exp Share" to the game to make leveling up weak pokemon easier, and that was well received even though it doesn't go great with your EV system. So at one point your team made some decisions they were really happy with - they turned Exp Share into an item that affects every party member and added extra ways to grow EV.

Except that some players hated the new Exp Share and wanted to play with it turned off. They did this because they don't understand your vision, but the reason your vision is hard to understand is because doing this doesn't fix the problem you're trying to fix - that being the growing population of pokemon a player might want to use.

Anyway, SwSh happens and someone gets an idea - Exp Share is no longer an item; it is now always on, with no player option. Now if you, the person reading this and not the character I'm having you play in the narrative I'm weaving, find this counter-intuitive, it's because that's only half of the idea.

So I'm a veteran Pokemon player, and I'm playing SwSh and I just caught a shit ton of pokemon in the Wild Area since that's early in the game and a lot of the pokemon there are cool, but because I'm such a badass I did this and also way overleveled my pokemon in the process. But hold on. I can access my PC from the map, just, like, whenever. Those cool new pokemon I caught, I can put them in my party, and because Exp Share is always on, they can become viable fairly quickly, while my overleveled pokemon get a break until the rest of the game catches up.

And you, the genius that you are in this scenario I've created for you, have made one final change to this system that's the cherry on top. Pokemon don't heal when they go into the PC, until the player gets to a pokemon center.

This solves 4 problems in one.

A player can use more than 6 pokemon for their adventure without using more than 6 pokemon for a single battle.

Leveling up pokemon is faster than ever so pokemon can become viable for your team quickly

The player can now go longer without reaching a pokemon center by switching out their tired pokemon for fresh ones - but they still need to get to one eventually. This means the player is no longer backtracking to known safety during long routes like they used to.

The games now have a hidden difficulty slider. Stick with 6 overpowered pokemon? Easy mode. Have 10 fairly well-leveled pokemon that give you pretty good type advantage? Normal mode, made more fun by having more options. Want a team of 15 that are all just barely skirting by? That's a seriously fun challenge.

And the change was subtle - Exp Share is already familiar to most players, after all, and it's standard to most RPGs anyway - but just one little tweak of making the PC available on the map without healing the pokemon inside it massively changes how many options the player has in a way that drastically improves the experience for all player types.

Scarlet/Violet made another giant change that I am fascinated by - pretty much all battles are optional - but I've gushed too much about SwSh already and haven't played enough of ScarVi to get into specifics.

When most people criticize modern Pokemon games, they're typically criticizing the content. Short routes, unfinished or lackluster story, poorly modeled trees, lame pokemon animations. And they're right to do so. The content of these games is seriously lacking in ways that are hard to ignore. But the systems design is better than ever.

[cockneydio]

Impossible question: who do you think has the saddest backstory in Vento Aureo?

Ok I've thought about it and I'm gonna rank the backstories by degree of tragedy, with methodology, hold on to your butts:

9. Diavolo - His backstory is fucked up, like it sucks his mom was in jail or whatever, but I have zero pity for Mr. Arson McSmashNDash

8. Trish - She breaks Narancia's arm and demands Chanel and Evian when we meet her. Trish's present may suck but she came up ok.

7. Leone Abbacchio - We've all hit that moment of disillusionment when you grow up and realise the institutions that are designed to support our society are in fact irreparably corrupt, yet managed not to collude with pimps and murderers. Abbacchio's personal pity party is sad but he brought it on himself.

6. Guido Mista - Up until like a year before the part starts he was living an easy breezy life, chasing skirts and picking fights he couldn't win. The failure of the justice system is unfair and unfortunate, but Bucciarati bails him out too soon for me to feel too bad for him.

5. Giorno Giovanna - Not that I want a bunch of Giorno kinnies coming after me (again), but while his early life sucked, Giorno gets a full fledged deus ex machina when he's only 4 or 5 that improves his life practically overnight. That's something that goes completely overlooked when people talk about his story, particularly in comparison to the next ones on this list. It got better for him, in part because of his own gut sense of justice, and he's able to come clear-eyed into the gang, unlike everyone else.

4. Pannacotta Fugo - I've moved Fugo around on this list a little. I don't feel any particular sadness when I think about Fugo's backstory; it sucks but it's complicated. I am not a manga purist by any stretch of the imagination, but I tend to defer to the original IP for authorial intent. And in this case, Fugo wasn't designed to have as tragic of a backstory as the other guys (presumably to make it easier to accept his eventual departure)...so I kind of disagree with the anime adaptation making it sadder? I think Fugo could have been a unique character among the group, one whose own personality flaws (i.e. murderous temper) rather than systemic injustice were the reason for his social ostracism. But the anime made him a victim, which idk seems too easy. That said, there's no question his anime backstory is fucked up.

3. Narancia Ghirga - His mom dies of a slow and painful disease, his father neglects him, he runs off and lives on the streets, gets screwed by the people he's come to trust and also the justice system, and nearly dies from a similar condition to what he'd seen his mom suffer thru. People who are supposed to care for Narancia let him down at every step of his life, taking advantage of his good and trusting nature. That breaks my heart.

2. Bruno Bucciarati - My thoughts on Bucciarati's past are well known at this point lol. This man's whole life is a tragedy.

1. Jean-Pierre Polnareff I ran out of colors idk - surprise right lol. We know the tragedy Pol suffered before Part 3 that led him onto that devastating journey, which ended with even more pain and regret. I imagine Polnareff and Jotaro just sorta..floating thru their 20s, conscripted by the Speedwagon Foundation to keep revisiting the circumstances around that traumatic stardust crusade without any real aim or hope of closure. Then Diavolo nearly kills him, which effectively forces him into hiding. He just lives for so long plagued by the problem of the stand arrows, it dictates his whole life, and that really fucks me up man.

[asexualastarion]

1, 6, 8, 12, and 17 my hater in arms 💕

The character everyone gets wrong

OKAY this is niche and OUTTA LEFT FIELD but my favorite book of ALL TIME is we have always lived in the castle by shirley jackson and the HATE i see for its protagonist is ALL WRONG. It's in the same vein as like Chara undertale hate (another of my fave characters of all time) where peoples see a CHILD that clearly has a lot going on and are like. this person is irredeemably evil. no they're traumatized

6. Which ship fans are the most annoying?

bloodweave sorry bloodweave like. for why. why is it so popular why is it everywhere. like yeah every origin ship is valid and can be canon but like they both have much more interesting dynamics with other charactes. where is the gale/lae'zel art. hwere is the aslach (ass lack) or the aswylllach (ass will lack) art. why is bloodweave the most popular origin ship

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

okay this doesn't exactly fit bc i dont think it's super popular per se but it's on my mind today. i hate seeing fanart of kakashi and gojo together. people always twinkify them and alwasy draw them like they're about to fuck. 1) kakashi is not hot (dont get me wrong i want to fuck him but not cause he's like. physically attractive.) 2) they are not the same person 3) gojo will never be kakashi gojo wishes he was kakashi 4) kakashi would kill that man

OH OH ALSO THAT REMINDS ME I'LL THROW THIS IN HERE TOO. i don't like kakashi/iruka i think it's unfounded. they hardly ever talk. yeah they both love naruto but like can just be his mentor figures separately they don't have to be married. kakashi is married to guy like they are MARRIED. i feel like kakashi/guy would be way more popular if guy was a prettyboy twink (like iruka)

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

i wanna say wyll but like that shit actually makes me fucking angry and not in a silly haha way so i am going to instead say sera dragonage. now. i know there are a lot of sera dragonage haters out there and there are some things about her that i do not like. however i overall love her and i think she is a tragic case of bad writing and wasted potential. why did they have a straight white guy write a lesbian whose character arc revolves around internalized racism. why does the game literally talk shit about her during her romance arc. literally one of her romance quests is "you love sera and wanna get her something to show her how much you care. go ask your friends for gift advice" and EVERY SINGLE COMPANION OR ADVISOR IS JUST LIKE. I HATE SERA SHES SO ANNOYING WHY ARE YOU DATING HER. UGH. ALSO. the game makes you be so mean to her!! so many times the only dialogue options with her are like "stop talking weird i dont understand you'". also the fact that YOU CAN LITERALLY KICK HER OUT AT ANY TIME??? LIKE NO MATTER WHAT THERE IS ALWAYS A DIALOGUE BUTTON TO KICK HER OUT?? here are reasons why you should like sera:

she is fun trickster! solas fucking wishes he was her.

her subclass is just super fun!! throw jars of bees and fire and shit at your enemies!

she is so genuine and cares so much about what she believes in. i wish that was explored more but as i have said the game literally hates her so.

she loves you so much!!!! she marries you!!!!!!!!!

i actualy really like her voice and the way she talks. shes just fun!

she's autistic <3

17. there should be more types of this fic/art

more people should be drawing gale and halsin and karlach fat, for one. also everyone else in the party but like especially those three. larian the fact that you have zero fat people in your game sucks supremely and you should feel bad about it.

actually draw more characters as fat anyway.

[terriedirewolf]

Wasteland 3 was on sale a little while back and I've been wanting to play that since I saw it existed. Most people don't know this game series existed. Those who do, know it from fallout, and probably never touched the games before. Those who know it from fallout know it from old fallout. Back when they was 2d and played like a point and click that threw the simple item puzzles into the sun and decided to dungeon master a dnd game but with guns and robots. Plus, the original game is archaic and has graphics that more resemble a board game than a video game, and the second game came out like 20 years later. I mean I'm all over ancient and archaic games, and I only have managed to ever scrape my way through half of that thing. I even used a guide. I beat zelda nes without pulling a guide out until that teleport maze in the final dungeon.

So anyway, wasteland 3 is now my favorite rpg, and I've been reevaluating a few of my projects because of it. I have a number of games that can be loosely crammed into the definitions of RPG. And I missed something crutial with my party based one: specialization. Now I missed wasteland 2, but my previous favorite rpg was fallout 1. And that game only let you directly control and stat manage one character. You could get companions, but they didn't factor into things the same way. Wasteland, having always been a game where you control a team of post nuclear idealists with government issued integrity, does not let you make a god teir character like in fallout. The third game makes you make a team. This team can and will be more effective than any single player rpg protagonist for a number of reasons, and it is very hard to fuck it up. I love the shit out of how well they get this across. Like, I could go into depth about how wasteland 3's opening bit is one of the best tutorials ever crafted. Rides a real nice balence of understanding what players might expect going into that, making them rethink their approach, and showing off just how fun and rewarding that all can be. Sort of un-hack-and-slashing the rpg system, while also making sure to be as brutal and rediculous as possible.

Funny thing is, I already kind of understood the importance of this kind of specialization when designing concepts for a real-time tactical third person shooter. Trying to lean into the mmo tank, healer, hitter trio that seems so inexcapable. Healers and tanks are tricky, if possible to do in wasteland 3 though, and that's what I think is really facinating. As far as I can tell, you can't do that without fundementally changing how these kinds of games function, but this does it pretty well, at least early on, and I'm trying to work out exactly how? Healers are somewhat negated by the fact that it's hard to play that kind of support role. Meaning every character that would be put in risky situations frequently, has to be capable of healing themselves. Tanks are less viable cause the combat relies a lot on cover and damage mitigation by default, meaning everyone again, kind of has to do all of that themselves. I think what's going on is what happens outside of combat.

Wasteland stats are funny, cause they were a fucking mess in the 80s game. You had to roll the damn characters, then tag a number of skills. And it was not clear what all of them did. And half of them might not actually do anything. Fallout used a similar system, with atributes and skills, but in a much more coherent way. The details of the SPECIAL system has been praised before, just know it used to be significantly more in depth than the nonsense in fallout 3 and onwards. Wasteland 3, and from what I can tell, 2 as well, uses a similar system, this time spelling CLASSIC cause tradition at this point. Comes complete with perks and backgrounds to further customize your rangers with little tweeks like doing more damage in exchange for getting hit for more damage, or getting more action points when you kill an enemy. The long winded point I was getting to is that the vast majority of skills are not combat skills, but exploration skills. Arguably, the only reason combat skills are seperated out so much is to keep everyone using different ammo pools. If you want a good balenced squad, you want one, maybe two combat skills per char, and the rest going into stuff like the speech and trading skills, repair and computers. Maybe some weapons experts or power armor mechanics. Cause these let you avoid fights. Or at least help getting better gear and the jump on things you have to fight.

Game isn't perfect, but it's by far one of the best designed crpg's I've ever touched, and very fun in a lot of ways. Almost makes me actually enjoy math. That's hard to do. I only math when I need to, and it takes all the energy my two brain cells can squeeze out.

And like, drawings here later maybe. I keep not drawing as much as I want to. There's a ton of cool stuff I'd like to show off, but I didn't get around to sketching the mf's out yet. Hopefully I get around to doing that and whoever's here can look at more than my badly structured ramblings.

[wifebread]

Obsessed | Pt.7

Pairing: Stalker!Min Yoongi x Original female character

Tags: Forced relationships, Hurt/Comfort, Manipulations, Mentions of cruelty, Mentions of deaths, Mentions of drugs, Murders, Original female character,  Out of character, Stalking, Unhealthy relationships, Violence.

Summary: She wasn't afraid of this man, didn't take threats seriously, blaming everything on the fact that it was just to attract attention. However, she did’t know what he was capable of.

word count: 2,4k

I do not condone the actions described in the story, this is all fiction and does not relate to the real members of the BTS in any way. If you are uncomfortable with tags, please do not read!! Or read at your own risk.

a/n: Thanks to the wonderful author who allowed me to translate this work! Please keep in mind that English is not my native language, so if you notice any mistakes, point them out to me! I can also edit the chapter after I publish it, so don't be surprised if you see some strange moments (it means I haven't corrected them yet). Thank you.

source: https://ficbook.net/readfic/12255891

Chapter 1 , Chapter 2 ,Chapter 3 , Chapter 4 , Chapter 5 , Chapter 6 , Chapter 7 , Chapter 8

"Don't distress yourself"

“Is it uncomfortable to lie on wood?” he asked watching Percy constantly squirming and trying to take a different position. The girl nodded and wanted to roll over on her back. “Let's move to the grass.”

Lifting the Song in his arms, the stranger went to the tree to lie down next to it.

Lowering the girl, he sat down on the ground himself, resting her head on his legs. Percy was finally able to roll over and face the stranger. Contrary to her expectations, it wasn't Suga. How did she determine that? His hair is blond, and the stranger had peach-colored hair. Percy stared at him for a long time, not caring at all that it was indecent.

“You’re about to drill a hole in me with your eyes,” looking into Percy’s eyes, whose head was still on his lap, the guy said.

“What a coward he is,” chuckled Song, rolling over on her side. Inside, everything was burning, tearing apart. “Sent another errand boy, no offense.”  she added, waving her hand.

“What makes you think that someone sent me? I dragged myself here.”

“Because there was almost no one in the park. In addition, nowadays, no one will run himself to help, without someone's requests and orders. To shoot on the phone – yes, to help – hardly. Most people, passing by those who need help, think: "someone will help him," therefore they simply ignore.

“Okay, I give up,” the stranger said hesitantly. “But seriously, why did you jump into the water?”

“What difference does it make now? It didn't work out anyway.” the girl pressed her hands to her chest, looking at the pier from which she jumped some time ago, hoping to drown.

They were in this position in silence for a couple of minutes, until the guy decided to answer the girl's words anyway. And although he might get in trouble for it, he just couldn't leave it like that.

“Think about it,” he began, exhaling and looking up at the sky. “if he had come here or to the party himself, would he have been able to control himself?” Percy rolled over on her back, then looked questioningly at the guy.  “He's ready to bury half the city just for saying an unkind word to you. At the same time,” poking the girl's forehead with his index finger, he continued. “he himself can, in a fit, mess things up and harm.”

“Nonsense,” Song began with a snort. “You are now retelling a chapter from some mafia fan fiction on wattpad. V said he's angry now.”  After a short pause, Percy continued. “He would definitely... kill me.”

"He's not mad at you,” the guy began, rubbing his eyes and sighing heavily. “but at  himself. God, who am I explaining it to? Whatever I tell you, it's all fantasy and chapters from fan fiction.”

The girl thought about the guy's words. Percy wondered why Suga was mad... at himself. Maybe because he chose her?

“Why is he angry?” Song asked softly, fingering the grass.

“What do you think?” the guy looked at her as if she was a fool, and she just shrugged her shoulders. “What funny kids you are," he said with a grin. “Because ...” the guy did not have time to finish, when suddenly the phones of both vibrated.

Percy left her smartphone at the pier so that, in case of failure with drowning, it wouldn’t be damaged. And yet, she assumed the option that she would stay alive.

Abruptly rising from the guy's lap, Son sat down on the grass and turned on the phone entering the messages.

From: Suga

23:44 "The princess can't live without a formidable dragon?"

The girl snorted, reading the message over and over again. She thought it was funny, because thoughts about the film "Shrek" immediately crept into her head.

However, the guy whose name we still don't know was tense and in no hurry to open messages. Although he was a person close to Suga, you can expect anything from him.

From: Suga

23:46 "Jin was supposed to give you a note"

23:46 "Did he do it?"

The girl looked at the guy who started searching his pockets. Taking out the cherished piece of paper, Jin put it on the grass.

“He'll definitely hang me," the guy said, laughing. The problem is that the piece of paper was in his pocket all the time. And at the moment when he was pulling Percy out of the water too, that’s why it was all wet and it became extremely problematic to make out the text.

"And you don't remember what was there?"  Song asked, raising her eyebrows.

"I'll tell you more," Jin began, trying to dry the paper and waving his hand. “I was not enlightened at all about what was written there.”

The girl was shaking again, but not from the cold. Percy realized that she had to get out of it somehow, otherwise Jin would suffer.

Song looked at him, then at the smartphone, thinking what to do.

If you answer "no", you will sign the guy's sentence, but whether he is mortal or not is unknown. If you text "yes", you can screw up if he asks you to tell him what was in that note.

“Hit-or-miss,” Percy whispered, exhaling, and then answered Suga "yes."

The girl immediately told Jin that she had answered Suga, so together they began to wait for an answer from him.

He didn't keep them waiting long.

From: Suga

23:50 "Good"

23:51 "Then don't forget to leave the window open for me ;)"

Goosebumps ran down the girl's body, and her legs became wadded up, and it seemed that if she got up now, she would fall back to the ground like a sack.

“Well, what's there?” noticing how the girl changed her face, Jin asked, pursing his lips.

“He told me to leave the window open for him.”  Percy cleared her throat. “So... he'll come by himself?” Jin looked away, lost in thought. “Or just deliver something?”

There was silence for a couple of minutes.

“You know,” the guy suddenly began. “I don't want to scare you or upset you, but most likely he will come himself.”  Jin said with a sigh.

“And what will he do?”  the girl asked the guy, thinking that he knows everything, even though it's not so. “He doesn't want to tell his name, and he wasn't going to show his face either.”

"Nobody knows what's on Suga's mind," Jin began, spreading his hands. "Only him himself. Don't distress yourself," the guy continued, patting the girl on the shoulder. "He hasn't done anything to you, and he won't.”  Jin highlighted the last words. “He'll try to scare you, yes.” taking the phones and sticking the microphones and speakers into the ground, the guy said. “I don't know if he will threaten...”  Jin continued hesitantly, which made the girl laugh hysterically.

"He's already threatened," Percy said, sighing. “It seems to me that I can take it all. I messed up, made him angry, and you said that no one knows what's on his mind. No one can guarantee that he won’t touch me, even if he loves me greatly.

Jin tensed, looking sympathetically at the girl.

“I can only give advice,” looking at one point, the guy began, to which Percy nodded questioningly. “Indulge his whims; try not to make him angry anymore. If he's going to visit, then prepare yourself somehow.”

Percy looked away and went deep into her thoughts:

"How to prepare?"

"Go to the shower, clean up the room and buy something delicious?"

"Or prepare in another way?"

"Not in this lifetime! If this psychopath thinks that I'm going to sleep with him, hell no"

"And if he gets this from me with threats?"

"Or maybe he just wants to talk?"

And in order not to waste nerves and not scare herself with the worst options, the girl stopped at going to the shower, she will clean up the room and get something for tea.

***

On the way home, Percy went into a convenience store and bought brownies, as well as a cake.

She has already laid out sweets on her desktop and cleaned up. All she had to do is take a shower.

 “He shouldn't get mad,” Percy thought as she lathered her hair. "I do everything for His Majesty," the girl continued her thoughts with a chuckle.

Percy didn’t even suspect that he was standing under the windows to her room and waiting for her to come out of the bathroom.

Suga liked the idea of Percy going to the convenience store at night, alone, despite her fear of the dark, and buying something for him. He was especially glad that the girl was now splashing in the shower for him. Wants to smell nice and maybe to please him. But how much is enough?

“I love this feeling," Percy said, exhaling and plopping down on the bed.

The girl did not dry her hair, because it's night outside and parents will be angry because of the noise. Removing the towel from her head, Percy got out of bed and hung it on the door that leads to the bathroom.

After looking around the room and not noticing the changes, Song sighed with relief and, taking the phone, lay down on the bed. The girl was looking for a comfortable position for a long time, and finally, when she lay down on her right side, she was able to relax.

She wanted to dismiss thoughts about Suga and the fear of him somewhere far away, but it was difficult to do so. Even her favorite program could not help distract her, because the image of the guy immediately popped up before her eyes.

Song had never seen him, so she could only build an image herself. In Percy's eyes, Suga's body was completely covered with tattoos; because of Shin's words, Percy thought he was a bodybuilder or a former trainer at a fitness club; age over 20, although thoughts crept in that he was 30 at all; light eyes, possibly blue.

The last thing she wanted to think about was that he was over 30. Percy finds it disgusting.

While Song was immersed in her thoughts, almost not listening to the presenters of the program, she didn’t notice how the mattress bent under the weight of someone else's body. For a moment, Percy thought she was imagining it. However, she realized that she was wrong when she was hugged around the waist and pressed to someone. The phone immediately fell out of the hand.

"The dragon has come to his princess," the guy's slightly hoarse voice was heard right next to her ear, which made Percy twitch. There was no doubt that it was Suga. After all, who in their right mind would climb into someone's room through a window?

"Don't shake, my darling," Suga purred, burying his nose in the girl's neck. “Do you know how long I've been waiting for this?”  after a short silence, he continued, hugging Percy even more tightly. “They are cold even after a shower,” taking Son by the hand and twining her fingers with his, he continued.

“Are you..." it sounded like a squeak, so Song cleared her throat. “mad at me?”  She felt Suga tensed. The guy squeezed Percy's fingers harder, causing a slight pain. However, when he heard the girl hiss, he let go.

“Why would I be mad at you?” he purred, running his nose along Percy's neck, which caused goosebumps. "It's not your fault.”

Closing her eyes for a moment, the girl exhaled faintly.

“But let's make a deal," Suga began, releasing Song's hand and sliding up her body to her neck. “that you will no longer go to such parties, meet someone and turn off the phone.” the guy covered Percy's neck with his palm, then lightly squeezed. "Baby, you'll really upset me if you let someone else touch you.” he continued, squeezing her throat harder, which really scared Percy.

“Okay,” feeling a tickle in her throat, the girl answered hoarsely, covering the guy's hand with her own in an attempt to remove it.

“Not 'okay' ” Suga suddenly barked, throwing the girl away from him, causing her to almost fall off the bed. “Today you turned off your phone and tried to drown yourself, and what are you going to do tomorrow?”  The guy grabbed Percy's shoulders. “Will you become a drug addict and go to a whorehouse?”

Song looked into Suga's eyes and was surprised at how quickly his mood changed. She noticed that the guy was quite attractive and that he had a wiry build.

“How can you not understand that you will only be happy with me?” Suga looked like a child. "Do I have to lock you up with hundreds of locks so that you don't disobey anymore?"  After these words, Percy's mouth opened slightly in mute shock.

"I'm sorry, I didn't... I didn't mean to scare you." lifting Song and pressing it to his chest, he said.

"Don't lock me up," the girl whispered, afraid to move.

And although Percy could save herself with words: "I swear I won't disappoint you anymore! We can see each other, go for a walk and even start a relationship, because I like you!" she sat motionless. Song decided to act a little differently.

"If you want to lock me up, it's obviously not at my house, right?"  Suga nodded. “Don't you think it's we should... start seeing each other more and get to know each other better in order to move to such a level?" she was trying to delay what Suga was talking about. Percy has no doubt that he can lock her up.

"I like your idea," Suga chuckled, pulling Song closer to him and kissing the top of her head. "Maybe my darling will see that I'm not a monster or a beast, and then I won't have to lock her up.”  the girl, pulling a smile, recoiled from the guy, looking into his eyes. Running her hand over his cheek, she was surprised at how pale Suga's skin was.

“Is this for me?” nodding at the boxes of sweets on the table, the guy asked.

“Of course,” Song replied without removing her fake smile.

Percy had read articles about unhealthy people more than once, so she decided that it was better to play along with him and do as he wanted. Over time, he may get tired of Song and Suga will forget her.

to be continued...

[laurasbailey]

original anon here, i'm real grateful to you and everyone else for taking the time to respond and share your input!

i'm usually better at distancing myself from online spaces, i've just kinda "relapsed" lately and went on a self-destructive deep dive ☠️ like..."i've been checking reddit", kind of self-destructive. what a long break does to a mf, i guess

i do agree with what you've all said & I'm aware that it's basic common sense in fandom spaces and beyond - if i've been enjoying c3, there's no reason to let someone else's opinion bother me. i think one of the issues is…if there's stuff that i've been enjoying less on my own, and then i see negativity around that same stuff, my brain tends to take it as confirmation that it's true lmao and i find myself suspecting that i would enjoy a sandbox-y vibe a lot, but that's not happening with the characters and story that i've been invested in since the beginning. am i making up problems in my head? definetly, and i'm actually a bit ashamed to admit that, but hey

all that being said, i absolutely love those same things you've mentioned (the focus on the ladies, this romance, the high stakes and having ashley full-time) and more, even as i have less context for it being unusual since it's my first campaign! and i obviously agree that it's not anyone's game but theirs. i wouldn't wish for them to cater to anyone's desires but their own and i'm 100% sure that what i loved from the beginning is common in every campaign - the joy and fun we get watching them enjoy themselves

truly, the negative thoughts are more related to getting too bogged down thinking of the story itself, in a way, and wishing i could see these specific characters chill a bit and explore…so basically the ticking clock problem haha i generally worry they're never gonna get to talking or resolving interpersonal issues before the campaign's over and they're not the main party anymore

sorry for the lenght of this and for bringing it to you out of the blue haha i've been overthinking on loop and since literally no one i know watches the show and i don't want to be annoying to them, i'm annoying on the internet. again, thank you so so much!!

i think i get where you’re coming from and i think you’ll enjoy c1 and 2 if that’s the case! there’s definitely a lot more meandering, and c2 doesn’t even start tackling what i would consider “the main plot” until like 50+ eps in lmao. meanwhile c1 has the high stakes of c3 but the main plot starts early and stretches for a long time.

i think since i’ve experienced both of those campaigns already, c3’s shortcomings don’t worry or bother me enough to care too much. whether the plot “sucks” or it’s “too fast” is really not that deep to me bc i just love the show in whatever form they’re willing to give it to me. it’s still funny, emotional, well-acted, etc regardless, and that’s the reason i watch to begin with, which could be different for you! also i’ve made my peace with the fact that we probably won’t get a ton of character focus this campaign, and while that is disappointing, i think being realistic helped me be chill about it all.

for other people, it’s the opposite and they expect every campaign to be like the one they like and they throw a tantrum when it’s not. if people are content to do that, that’s on them! c3 might not be for you, or you could have more of an appreciation for it after watching the other campaigns. it seems like you’re going to keep talking yourself into not liking it, whether it’s true or not.

you could always try watching another campaign and take a break from c3 stuff? it might be helpful to engage in something else if you’re stuck in a spiral of searching for the negativity. and if you do end up hating c3, it’s not a big deal either. it’s the people who don’t shut the fuck up about hating it that are annoying as hell lmao