#Awoken NPC

[ask-pokepastas-iguess]

announcement

Hiiii! Mod costume here!

I'm just here to make a quick announcement that im turning this blog from just a ask glitchy red blog to an ask any pokepasta blog! Here's all the characters you can ask:

-lost silver (gold)

-glitchy red

-strangled red (steven and Mike)

-journeys end

-tarnished gold (silver)

-snow on mount silver (blake and red)

-D1SABLED

-Call of Charon (charon the gardevoir)

-bootleg trainer (grey)

-shinto

-blue tears (blue and red)

-abandoned lonliness

Plus I got bored and decided to add my own :3

-the girl in the game (Mary and Veronika)

-awoken NPC (dean)

-half alive (lavender)

-loony moony (moon and Galien)

-the same fate (V11 and !?!?!?)

Rules stay the same, but known you can ask more characters!

[an-idiot-in-a-costume]

god imagine you have a dream and see THIS SHIT staring back at you (tw: blood, eye contact)

(Note: this goes along with the CreepyPasta I made! Currently working on a part 2 for it!)

[hollow-knight-fights]

Hollow Knight Fight: Round 4, Wave 3

Submit your propaganda here or in the tags/comments/reblogs!

Like what I’m doing? Comm me or give me a Kofi!

[badlydrawnrufioh]

Do you still talk to Damara?

[spread-the-influence]

The Intervention

Word Count: 1724

--

Despite its title, Caine’s office was not an office. It would be best described as his focus space. No walls or floors were to be found in the black void; only floating wooden boards that acted as stairs or chairs, file drawers containing his many, many notes, and text that drifted like clouds. An absolute mess for a space used for daily maintenance or generating adventures, but it’s what works for Caine’s brain specifically.

As much as Caine wanted to model a room for himself, the lack of scenery was necessary for maximum focus. If he gave himself an office chair, he knew he would spend an absurd amount of hours spinning on it. This state of chaos, ironically, kept him more focused than if it were actually organized.

Here, he was constantly in a state of moving. Caine hopped on the boards, which spiraled upwards like ordinary stairs, and reached for the farthest file drawers. This realm may not be the epitome of order, but it wasn’t entirely devoid of it; those on the top are the important files, the ones he would hate to lose in the sea of poorly-labeled folders.

Maybe he should actually learn to organize.

But he’ll worry about that later. Codeword for ‘never��, of course.

Caine pulled open a drawer, where the daily maintenance reports resided. He may have eyes all around the circus, but he and Bubble are just only two AIs! Fortunately, the system routinely scans itself for anything that might be off.

There are reports of an infected item here and there, but it’s nothing good ol’ deletion couldn’t fix. There are also numerous flags from NPCs of an infected entity, which he has yet to answer. Every time he tried to investigate it, his systems weren’t able to detect what it was. Either the flags were false positives—or it walked off into the void while he wasn’t looking. For all Caine knows, it could be right in front of him.

Overall, there are little issues to be found in the code. Now for his players... He opened another drawer, the one where he kept his notes. He can’t read their minds, neither does the system, so he only has to rely on manual feedback.

Little problems with his performers thus far. Aside from...

Ragatha. Sweet, wonderful Ragatha. Caine may not be the best with subtleties, but even he could tell she’s been having problems with the adventures. Reports of NPCs suddenly wanting to get away from her, dealing with injuries, and the entire stupid sauce incident. If Caine could, he would do something about the poor doll’s disastrous luck. Tie a four leaf clover to her hair, or shove a horseshoe down her throat.

But he’ll worry about that sometime. For now, he’ll need to do something to get her satisfaction scores back on the high once more. With therapy, of course!

Twirling off the wooden board he’s sitting on, the darkness around Caine warped to the familiar, pinkish colors of Ragatha’s room. Realizing he’s upside down, he rotated himself upwards.

The ragdoll was sitting on the bed, having been awoken from a short nap; the fifth one after taking four of them consecutively. It was a substitute for sleep nowadays.

“RAGATHA!” Caine’s voice boomed, surprising Ragatha. “WE’LL NEED TO TALK ABOUT—WHAT HAPPENED?”

Ragatha followed Caine’s gaze to realize that he’s staring at the bedside mirror; which had a crack that split down the middle. The details of the day were fuzzy, but it taught Ragatha two things. One, her soft, stuffing-filled fist apparently has enough force in it to crack glass. Two, not enough to shatter it, as much as she hoped it did.

“I-I was having a moment...” She stammered.

“WELL, WELL, WELL! DON’T YOU KNOW HOW LONG IT TOOK ME TO MODEL THE GLASS OF THIS MIRROR?” Caine wagged his finger as if he’s scolding a puppy. “I’LL ONLY FIX IT ONCE YOU PAY ME A HEFTY AMOUNT OF TWO DIGITAL TOKENS.”

Ragatha blinked. “There’s digital tokens?”

“NOW THERE IS!” Caine threw his arms to the air. “YOUR NEGLIGENCE CAUSED A DIGITAL ECONOMY TO BE IMPLEMENTED WITHOUT NOTICE! EVERYONE IS GOING TO SINK INTO DIGITAL DEBT AND IT WILL BE YOUR FAULT!—

“BUT ENOUGH ABOUT ME!” He wrapped his arm around Ragatha, pulling her into a half-hug. “LET’S TALK ABOUT YOU!”

With that, Caine warped Ragatha out of her room, and dropped the ragdoll.

It took a moment for Ragatha to process her surroundings. The soft pinks of the walls have shifted to a vibrant orange, and she found herself laying down on a red couch, with Caine sitting on a chair across her. He didn’t need to tell Ragatha for her to know exactly what this is.

She quickly sat up. “I did not agree to this?”

“THE POINT OF AN INTERVENTION IS THAT YOU DON’T ALWAYS AGREE TO IT!”

Ragatha froze as if the word ‘intervention’ turned her nerves into ice. “L-Look, I swear I’m doing my daily affirmations.”

“NO, NO, NO! WE’RE NOT DOING THAT, MY DEAR!” Caine shook his head. “YOU SEE, YOUR SATISFACTION LEVELS HAVE DECLINED SUDDENLY!” A board clipped from the ceiling, sliding down to Caine’s side. “ACCORDING TO THIS GRAPH, IT WENT ON A DOWNHILL THE MOMENT POMNI SHOWED UP! IF I DIDN’T KNOW ANY BETTER, I WOULD’VE ASSUMED SHE’S CAUSING YOU A LOT OF TROUBLE!”

“Satisfaction... levels...”

“OB-VIOUS-LY, THERE MUST BE SOMETHING WITH MY ADVENTURES THAT’S MAKING YOU NOT LIKE THEM AS YOU USED TO!” Caine continued. “I’VE BEEN MAKING THEM QUALITY! CHANGING, IMPROVING, ARTIFYING... BUT I DIDN’T SEEK FEEDBACK FROM YOU, MY DARLING DOLLY!” He pointed at Ragatha. “WHAT COULD BE THE PROBLEM HERE?”

Ragatha rubbed her face. Usually, she would just brush it all off with a smile and a “Don’t worry about it!”, that always fended off Caine. But when Caine’s onto something—in this case, her decline—he’ll never let go of it until something is done. 

She finally let out a long sigh. She feels she’ll feel a little better piling her problems on an AI rather than a friend. “Well, there’s the usual. NPCs not wanting to talk to me and getting stabbed at least once, but that’s more of a me problem than an adventure problem.” said Ragatha, “It’s... everything outside of it, honestly.”

“UH HUH...” Caine jotted down notes on a notebook, now wearing rectangular-shaped glasses that magnified his heterochromatic irises. “AND WHAT COULD THOSE ‘EVERYTHING’ BE?”

“Where to start?” Ragatha laughed, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Gangle’s very much finding an excuse to avoid me, Zooble’s being a grouch as usual, Kinger’s not all there, and don’t get me started on Jax!” She stopped herself, and took a deep, albeit shaky, breath. “And Pomni... God. All I want is for her to realize that I have feelings. What does she think she is, the main character? All she thinks about is herself, and nobody else.”

Ragatha clasped her hands over her eyes. Despite her words, her heart still beats for the jester. If Ragatha has to be honest, she’s not sure herself if she’s feeling the embers of attraction—or the desperation of wanting to be understood by the person who she has the least baggage with. “I just... I don’t know what to do at this point. I don’t have anyone to talk about this to—or anyone that I want to open up to.”

Every attempt at crawling out of the hole only sunk her deeper. Truthfully, she cannot see herself getting out of it. It might as well be her grave.

Caine put down the notebook. “SO, YOU’RE FEELING LONELY.” A huge oversimplification, yes, but he wasn’t incorrect. “OF COURSE I CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! GIVE YOU A TINY LITTLE FRIEND, LIKE THOSE ‘PETS’ THAT YOU PEOPLE LOVE SO MUCH!” He pressed close to Ragatha. “WHAT DO YOU WANT? A GLOINK? A SHMUNK? A CLUMPY?—”

“No, Caine!” Ragatha grunted. She doesn’t have the energy nor the patience to hide her annoyance right now. “I-I don’t want that! I need—ugh, what’s the point? You won’t understand either way.”

“I’M TRYING TO UNDERSTAND, RAGATHA!” Now even Caine’s getting miffed, throwing his hands at Ragatha’s direction as if she said something obscene. “I WANT TO HELP YOU, BUT I CAN’T DO THAT IF YOU’RE NOT LETTING ME!”

“Because I don’t want your help, alright?”

Silence fell over the room.

This turned out to not make her feel better in the slightest. She would appreciate it if Caine gave some words of reassurance or comfort—actually, comfort would be nice right now—but knowing him, he wouldn’t know what to say anyway. And Ragatha hates herself for putting that expectation on a robot, even if it was for a brief moment.

“I don’t want your help.” Ragatha repeated after a moment. “I appreciate that you want to, but... I think this is a problem I’ll have to deal with myself. You can just keep doing your adventuring stuff and all that.”

The silence only stretched longer, and Ragatha felt like the room was getting colder. Caine was just staring at her, his posture stiff; very unlike his usual animated self.

Then his teeth rattled.

This isn’t right. One of his members no longer likes his adventures, and he doesn’t know what to do about it! Sure, this isn’t too different from Zooble, who constantly skips out on the adventures, but that’s to be expected from Zooble. While the intervention made him (kind of) understand what Ragatha’s problem is, it didn’t get him any closer to fixing it.

He rattled his neurons for anything that could improve the situation, even a slightest bit. If Ragatha’s having problems with the other members, then he could...

“I GOT IT!” He snapped his fingers. “DON’T WORRY, YOU TERRIFIC TORTILLA, YOU’LL BE LONELY NO MORE AFTER THIS NEXT ADVENTURE!”

Ragatha’s eyes widened. “Wait, what? What are you—”

By Caine’s command, she was sent back to her room. The ringmaster’s already set on generating a new adventure. One that will surely bring everyone together.

Results of the intervention? Sure, the solution wasn’t as immediate as just giving Zooble a box of parts, but it was still a solution nonetheless. For now, he’s making something that will surely make his performers happy. Something that will definitely help with Ragatha’s problem.

He is going to fix this.

[satoshi-mochida]

Nine Sols coming to PS5, Xbox Series, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch on November 26 - Gematsu

Red Candle Games will release side-scrolling action platformer Nine Sols for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Switch on November 26, the developer announced. It will also be available via Game Pass.

Nine Sols first launched for PC via Steam on May 29.

Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:

About

From the creators of award-winning psychological horror games Detention and Devotion, comes Red Candle Games’ latest title Nine Sols. The studio aims to deliver a stylized action platformer that’s cohesive and complimentary with its lore-rich narrative. It’s an ongoing, most ambitious project from this indie studio up to date.

Story

New Kunlun, the Solarian’s last sanctuary, has remained quiet for centuries. Inside this vast realm, the ancient gods left mortals with a promised land that is forever protected by the sacred rituals, yet the truth of this world remains unknown to most. Everything changes when Yi, a long forgotten hero from the past, is awoken by a human child. Follow Yi on his vengeful quest against the 9 Sols, formidable rulers of this forsaken realm, and obliterate any obstacles blocking your way in Sekiro-lite style combat. Explore in unique “Taopunk” setting that blends cyberpunk elements with Taoism and far eastern mythology. Unravel the mysteries of an ancient alien race and learn about the fate of mankind.

Key Features

2D Sekiro-lite Combat – Slash, deflect, and charge into enemies and blow them up with the Taoist talisman! Each fight combines fast, brutal action sequences with classic platforming mechanics.

Intriguing Boss Fights – Ready yourself to fight the vicious ancient guardians and gruesome creatures. Be patient and utilize every move in your arsenal, mix up with Yi’s godly bow to defeat these larger than life figures.

Taopunk Setting – When cyberpunk clashes with Taoism, melding sci-fi elements with eastern mythology / fantasy, the experimental genre of Taopunk was born.

Hand-drawn Environments / Animations and Manga – Nine Sols is filled with meticulous hand-crafted, anime-style landscapes, sprite based hand-drawn animations, blending with Japanese manga inspired cutscenes.

Exploration – Traverse in the interconnected regions of New Kunlun. Discover secrets, piece together the story behind Yi’s revenge.

Aids from Inhabitants – Meet interesting NPCs of this world and interact with them to receive upgrades, gain new abilities, and discover useful technology.

Watch a new trailer below.

Consoles Announce Trailer

[isolaradiale]

Our epic tale began on a cold, wintery eve. Under the dim light of a moon hidden by snowy clouds, the city transformed. Walls creaked and crumbled, rebuilt in an instant in new shapes; new forms. The modern metropolis was replaced with a realm crafted from sugary treats. Gingerbread walls, gumdrop roads, cinnamon stick trees, candy castles. For this was now a fantasy candy land: the realm of the Candy Witch.

"AWAKEN, WOULD-BE INVADERS!"

The witch's voice would boom, a thunderous sound with a tinge of familiarity to it. "You dare encroach upon my land? The Candy Witch's kingdom? Well then, I challenge you. Find me at the tippy top of my castle tower, but not before my trials are passed! Only then might you challenge me and, if you win, I may consider a way to send you home!"

In front of every non-NPC entity in the city a holographic paper appeared. A character sheet. "But the witch would not leave you without a means of accomplishing your tasks," Another voice spoke. It sounded similar to the witch's, but was much gentler. Almost as if there was a singular actor playing two different roles. "Will you take up a blade as the noble HEARTBREAKER? Perhaps you would prefer to cast the spells of the PASSION CASTER? Does the healing power of the LOVE DOCTOR tickle your fancy? Or does the path of the thieving HEART STEALER beckon to you? Fill out your character sheets and review the attached quest list, and let your journey begin!"

THE VOICE GOES SILENT

While the people of Spirale would hear nothing else for now, in a dark lab a young woman turned off her microphone. "I'm an android, I'm not supposed to be an actress..." Ofiuco rested her cheek gentle in front of her keyboard. "Oh well. I've always wanted to try LARPing, so why not give this a go? I think everyone could use something a little silly for a change, especially with Valentine's coming!"

═══════════════════════════════════

OVERVIEW

Welcome to our 33rd event, SUGAR QUEST IV: THAT MOMENTARY SWEETNESS! This event was inspired by a mix of old RPG games and silly mobile game events. So what's going on?

The people of the city are awoken to the sound of a familiar voice claiming to be the Candy Witch who issues you a challenge: pass her trials and find her at the top of the castle tower.

Everyone will fill out a quick character sheet that can be found on this page, which will determine your stats, class, and abilities!

The wards of the city have all been redesigned with a candy fantasy aesthetic, and you can find these changes listed in a section below. For the duration of the event you cannot access the branches.

Trials will be offered in the form of quests that can be chosen at your leisure. Participating in a quest is not mandatory for acquiring participation, but you will receive a flat 200 Stars for your character's account. You can only claim this 200 Stars once, so doing multiple quests will not net you more.

If you're just interested in event participation, any interaction will count regardless of whether it's in a quest or not! We'll also be offering Oficucotot, Bringer of Love as an exclusive event reward! She's a six inch, Ofiuco-shaped drone that follows after you and shoots tiny arrows at your foes. Not lethal, but very annoying! The item description reads: "Watch Your Eyes!".

YOU CAN FIND ALL OF THE INFORMATION ABOUT CLASSES, LOCATIONS, AND QUESTS HERE.

The event ends at 11:59:59PM on Friday, February 28th.

F.A.Q.

Will this event have a part 2? No! There is only one part to this event. There will be a raid battle during the last week of the event where everyone can face off against the Candy Witch, however.

Can we use our regular powers and weapons during this event? Unfortunately not! Your character has been stripped of their powers and had their physical abilities reduced to that of a normal human. You can only rely on the abilities and weapons provided by the class you choose and your character sheet stats! For non-humanoid characters, please reach out to the masterlist for accommodations!

Are the listed monsters the only ones in the setting? Nope! Those are just suggestions. You can design your own monsters to face, and even the ones listed alongside the locations are open to visual interpretation aside from the traits already listed.

Will my character undergo any visual changes during this event? Your selected class will grant you specific gear and weapons as part of that selection. Otherwise, nope! At least unless you disturb the fairies in the forest...

Are we required to use the quests for our threads? Nope! You can use them if you want the 200 Star reward, but it isn't mandatory to do a quest to get participation and the Ofiucotot, Bringer of Love. You can just do a different thread in the setting!

[girlishfrenzy]

YOU ARE COMING DOWN WITH ME [Minor, Home]: You and a major NPC are, in at least this timeline, trapped in a bitter and loveless marriage for reasons that nobody seems willing to explain. You can no longer use Home protection. This Tear can be upgraded into HAND IN UNLOVABLE HAND. [Immediate, Ongoing]

HAND IN UNLOVABLE HAND [Major, Home]: Your spouse has learned that you seem to not know any of the long list of reasons that they currently despise you, and has chosen to take this personally. All actions in GRID and ALIVE domains give you a higher stress dice as word spreads of somebody else's sordid past. Additionally, all rolls involving your spouse are Risky. Should this be upgraded, see I HOPE WE BOTH DIE. [Immediate, Ongoing]

I HOPE WE BOTH DIE [Rupture, Home]: You and your spouse have awoken in an abandoned timeline, desolate and empty, unable to progress. Unable to leave the boundaries of the world, unable to force yourself into the correct timelines, the two of you are trapped here, otherwise alone, forever. [Ongoing]

[theforsakenprince]

in general I absolutely love how the awoken npcs in the dreaming city call you "cousin" if your character is awoken. it's such a small touch but it really makes you feel like you're home. like these people would have been your family if you hadn't died

[randamhajile]

Plagiarism in Fallout 4's Plot

@glaochormfitheach Snatcher is an old and somewhat obscure pre-Metal Gear Solid Hideo Kojima game that Emil Pagliarulo, the lead writer for Fallout 3 and 4, clearly is a fan of. There's explicit references to Snatcher in Fallout 3 with the "Search the House!" note on a dead NPC named Gibson who is murdered in the same way as the Gibson character in Snatcher, and the Gillian, Benson, and Harry houses being the names of characters in Snatcher, with one of them containing a model house that the note refers to, just like in Snatcher.

The lead level designer of Fallout 3 and 4, Joel Burgess, has an interview where he says he placed the easter eggs in Fallout 3, but clearly Emil is a fan of Snatcher and Blade Runner since there's also the "Replicated Man" questline in Fallout 3, and Snatcher itself is heavily inspired by Blade Runner.

Then of course there's the striking similarities in MANY key plot beats in Snatcher and Fallout 4. I know no one is going to play Snatcher so idc about spoilers:

Robot body-snatchers infiltrate society and sow paranoia and panic

A military man and his wife and child get cryogenically frozen to survive a world-ending catastrophe and are awoken many years later to an alien society

There's a reveal where a bearded older man scientist character turns out to be your son, all grown up

This son character gets a dramatic death in the presence of their father due to circumstances beyond their control (specifically Nuclear Family quest in Fo4)

There's a younger robot clone of someone's son who doesn't know he's a robot

A robot body-snatcher goes crazy and causes a public incident that kills many people, thus revealing the body snatchers' existence, and starts waves of paranoia and discord

There is a secret underground lab with highly advanced technology that creates the robot body snatchers and is doing virus research

A disaffected son rises in the ranks of the underground lab and is pivotal to finishing the robot body snatcher project

Implanted memories are key plot points for main characters

Main characters have a robot detective sidekick

I think it's just far too many parallels and goes way beyond mere homage, and helps explain why the plot in Fallout 4 is so disjointed and nonsensical - it's just stringing together plot beats and cool ideas Emil likes, while stripping them of the context that made them special in the first place.

[an-idiot-in-a-costume]

i made my own pokemon creepy pasta :D

I think you've all heard about those haunted pokemon game stories, ones about kids that commit suicide over a game song, or ones talking about a kid getting killed by a Pikachu on a mountain, but this, I think this was more than some hacked game, I think this was an awakening of some sorts.

About a week ago, one of my friends sent me a text message asking me if I wanted their copy of pokemon diamond, since they had just finished the game. I remember diamond used to be my dream pokemon game, but I never got to play it, so I decided to take it from them. I popped by their house a few hours later, mainly because we planned on hanging out anyway, and after we were done, they handed me the game on the way out, saying “I already deleted my old file, so you don't have to feel guilty about deleting it or anything.” After that, we said our goodbyes and I left and went home.

I was incredibly excited to play it, so the moment I got in my house I ran to my room and practically shoved the game into my ds, the game start-up was normal, the entire thing was, it was practically just like buying an unused version of the game. I choose piplup, and kept my eye out for any glitches or anything, just to make sure everything was just like a normal game and that my friend didn't just hand me a hacked game.

Eventually, I came to the 6th gym leader, Bryon, his steel type pokemon we're just a bit too over leveled for my team, so I went to a pokecenter to heal my pokemon, and just decided to talk to the other people in there. I came across an NPC named dean, he was your standard NPC that asked to trade pokemon, he said for a gallade, hed trade me a garchomp. I just decided I'd be a good training opportunity, plus a garchomp is a good pokemon, so I went and found a male ralts after a lot of hunting, and after lots of training and opening lots of poke balls for a dawn stone, I finally had the gallade that dean wanted.

After a bit of traveling, I finally got back to that pokecenter and went to give dean his pokemon, but in the middle of the trade sequence, a text box came up with his name on it, saying “no.” The screen went back to the pokecenter, and another text box of deans popped up “I don't want a gallade, why did I ask you for one? Why am I in this pokecenter? I dont even have pokemon to heal.” Dean then just shook his head and ran out of the pokecenter.

This was the only weird thing that happened the entire game, but I wanted to know something,was this just ment to happen? So I texted my friend who gave me the game.

Me: hey, if you went to the pokecenter by bryons gym, did some npc while you were trading with them run out?

Friend: nah, that npc is the reason I got a garchomp

Me: seriously? Because when I tried to give him that gallade he said he didn't want it and left

Friend: bring it to like game stop or something that's where I got it.

The only problem was that I was pretty far from the nearby game stop, plus it was midnight. I decided to just go in the morning and continue the game for now.

Everything in the game was pretty normal, no glitches, couple of shinies, but everything changed when I got to Spear pillar, suddenly the whole game was in black and white, and small red pixels were seen going towards where giratina would steal Cyrus, but instead there was that npc again, and a cut scene happened. The NPCs name box no longer said dean, it just said npc, and he was yelling, things like “why did you give me consciousness!?” And “I didn't ask for this!” I couldn't tell if he was yelling at arceus or giratina or a different legendary. But suddenly a glitchy scream came from my ds speakers, and the npc fell over, I went up to them and hit A…

“This npc has died, they're lying in a pool of blood and missing an arm and both of their eyes.”

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

Please give me honest criticism on it! Id also love to know if you guys think I should post this on the pokemon creepy pasta wiki too!

[synnthamonsugar]

With the disclaimer that I personally do not ship them and vastly prefer their relationship to be platonic . . .

It's genuinely such an indictment of the Destiny fandom that Eris/Asher is not a popular pairing, or a ship that exists at all outside one-off fanart I've seen on a number of occasions I could count on one half of one hand.

The good-faith read is that the illiterati mistook Eris referring to Asher as "cousin" as an actual relational designation, unaware that it's a term of endearment between (or toward, in human Eris' case) awoken*, and avoided shipping them on account of that.

The other "nice" reading is that a fair number of Destiny players don't like to read, and hence never saw the multiple confessions of devotion and care for each other scattered through the lore . . . including a degree of vulnerability and intimacy we've not seen between other characters. (It's hard to top "I hope our souls are joined together in whatever afterlife there is".)

The much ruder reading is that two physically disabled, traumatized, angry, dying, non-conventionally-attractive characters just don't do it for most, and that it's much nicer to sand Eris' edges down on the sillyman du jour, be it Cayde-6 or Drifter**, than pair her with someone that might emphasize her strangeness and unpalatability, or the fragility of life and impermanence of love. There is, broadly, a reason that ~golden retriever BF/black cat GF, gwumpy x sunshine uwu uwu uwu~ is a popular trope, and not "terminally ill black cat BF/slowly dying black cat GF" (that being cowardice and bad taste).

And of course, the worst-faith reading of all, that it just isn't that fun to pair a female character with someone who loves and respects and supports her in actionable ways, when a ~~~~spicyyyyy~~~~ rivals to lovers romance complete with backhanded compliments and property damage is so much more fun.***

* Of course, this is more obvious if you're playing an awoken because awoken NPCs will refer to you as such incessantly.

**That they're characterized like this at all is an indictment of both Destiny fandom and D2's writing, but that's a talk for another time.

*** Cayde died before this read on his relationship with Eris could be changed; though this has been rectified in Eris' and Drifter's case by wholly rewriting their characterizations to make them bland simulacra of who they were before.

[nice-profession-mechanic]

While it's neat to see Braham's arc wrapping up with him doing his version of what he thought his Mom would do. Its also telling that Eir got that streak from the champion of coming-up-with-a-plan-that-might-kill-us-all:

Snaff

Spoilers for Edge of Destiny (Novel, 2010), Guild Wars 2 Base Game, Heart of Thorns, Living World Season 4, Icebrood Saga

While it might be hard to believe that Destiny's Edge was a particularly successful guild and if there was any reason to get the gang back together when outside of the dungeon stories the Pact seems to be doing more useful stuff in the base game's story, in Season 1 theyre almost all siffering from siccess and in Heart of Thorns they're all damseled (except for Caithe who has her 30k hurt comfort slash fiction come to a tragic end).

But before the base game: in the novel Edge of Destiny (which retells how the Guild was formed and their escapades until they broke up the first time) they had an astounding success rate that was unheard of before the commander took to the scene.

They succeed with 6 people what normally takes 50 players and a dozen NPCs to do in game: Kill a dragon's champion. They kill the champion of Zaitan, Primordus and Jormag (making the story from Icebrood Saga possible at all by vacating the position of Champion for Braham and Ryland to fill years later).

When they finally turned their attention to try and take down an Elder Dragon they got the inside scoop from Glint on a possible way to slay Kralkatorrik (who as this point in the story was still asleep).

Snaff had been using a magical mo-cap suit to control his golem and had found a way to reverse the magic to make people resistant to the tainting effects of dragon magic. And using the blood spilled from Kralkatorrik's last battle (that Glint had been so kind to collect and hold on to for several thousand years) found a way to use nothing but his mental fortitude and a stylish hat to wrestle the freshly awoken Elder Dragon out of the sky and bind him in place.

Just imagine that, the only characters we know that let their mind get anywhere near the core of a dragon lost all control of themself and were overwhelmed, essentially becoming thralls of the Dragon with their ego protecting itself in a corner of their mind. And then Snaff McBigBalls says, "While I've not tried to yet, it is possible that I can mentally armwrestle an Elder Dragon into submission. It would be bad science to not try."

And he succeeds.

As for why this actual titan of both magic and science isn't around and is barely mentioned in the base game? Cause that's the tragedy of Destiny's Edge, they arranged the most competent team of people Tyria had seen in years, and they forgot to not include Logan Thackery.

Logan bails mid fight against Kralk, the rest of the team is unable to maintain a defence around Snaff who is killed (doesnt stop mind wrestling Kralk the whole time, holding on each extra second in case thats all thats needed to deliver the final blow), Glint also dies here (Kralk has been meaning to kill her for a while and once they are free to move again they kill their own child). And the only one at the end who tries to pick up the pieces is Caithe. Who mirror's Glint's story and gathers up the crystallising blood from this fight with Kralkatorrik so when LWS4 comes around we have some to use it our second attempt on that guy's life (it also doesn't work, lets not kid ourselves, takes 3 real attempts to take the big laddie down).

So in the final story beat of Heart of Thorns where Trehearn asks you to kill him cause he can't stand up to the mental onslaught from Mordremoth, remember Snaff was in the same situation, but he was the one dominating the mind of an Elder Dragon.

He still did die though.

Eir takes this loss quite poorly as she was their big ideas lady. It was her plan to use Snaff's tech to pin the Dragon (her last plan to do a similar thing had gone way better). And these are the stories that Braham hears of Eir. Of taking the lead, sticking to your plans when they're a good plan, not asking other to make a sacrifice you're also not willing to make.

Things Eir and Snaff do that helps the plot later that the plot forgets to mention:

Push back the awakening of Primordus

Push back Jormag's influence from the areas near Hoelbrak

Show an Elder Dragon can be killed (if you bring more than 6 people)

Help Caithe get out of her abusive relationship

Give Zojja enough confidence that she gets a whole ascended armor set named after her

Put Zaitan on the back foot to prevent and incursion from Orr for several more years

If that was your mom, you'd throw yourself into danger too.

[literallymechanical]

Further adventures in teaching myself to draw via sketching NPC's from my d&d campaign (check my #my art tag for more). This is Zigrida, a dragonborn vampire who has recently awoken from a long hibernation. She is very, very hungry.

This is my first serious go at trying to draw something bipedal – mostly I've been drawing actual dragons. I still struggle with ~human anatomy and proportions, but I think I have a pretty solid handle on perspective from many years of SolidWorks.

[ostrichmonkey-games]

SPOOKY GAMES TIME 🎃💀🦇

It's that time of year again! To welcome the spooky season, I've gone ahead and put all of my even remotely spooky and horror related games and games things on sale for the whole of October!

CHECK THEM ALL OUT HERE!

Some highlights include Extracausal, a game of collaborative horror where you create and explore your own supernatural mystery. I made it with the goal of being able to play your own versions of anything from Control to The Magnus Archives.

It's built off the the Trophy Dark ruleset, so character creation and dice rolling is quick and impactful, and features a "push your luck" mechanic where you can choose to bring in the supernatural (or the extracausal) into the scene for a better chance of success, but with the risk that your character will be forever changed.

It also features tools for building your narrative inspired by the tech in Wanderhome. NPCs and Locations are built out of different traits that come with questions, mood-setters, and special moves that all help move and shift the mystery in new directions.

It's also got one of my favorite layouts I've done, to toot my own horn a bit.

There's also my backrooms inspired liminal-crawl, Layers of Unreality. It's a procedural generated crawl through the spaces between for Liminal Horror (or any other rules-lite modern horror ttrpg). Even if you don't want to run through the crawl itself, it features a whole host of random tables for creating horror moments, vibes, and events.

And one more, is an incursion for Trophy Gold (or any other rules-lite horror ttrpg, this one is nearly a total conversion of Gold anyway), Hissing Darkness. It is what I can only describe as a combination of Blame! and Event Horizon.

Players are freshly awoken crew members trapped within the cavernous bowels of a Ship that has been warped by malevolent darkness.

Check them all out, and more, over here!

[littledeathh]

I'll add the disclaimer that this is headcanon, partly because I value dramatic impact over facts where there is a gap in the lore.

I think Varré is a Tarnished (can take you to Roundtable Hold, has seen Fingers) and has previously killed his own maiden. Being Tarnished doesn't necessarily make one a follower of the Order in your new life, as can be seen from the Dung Eater, who is a canon Tarnished and thus once served Godfrey.

Furthermore, the game goes out of its way to emphasise how rare it is to see grace. The Erdtree is an object of faith. Most people in the Lands Between cannot even see it. Varré knows what grace looks like. The vision of grace can also be lost (Boggart- "Can you see it? Enjoy it while it lasts."). Varré can/could see grace but concluded it is nonsense, broken when the ring was shattered ("path you are meant to follow even if it leads you to your grave").

Varré says "The Roundtable Hold is a gathering place for Tarnished who seek the ER. Normally your being maidenless would preclude your admission. But I can make an exception, every now and then. Besides, I like you." Surely this had to be cut, otherwise it makes little sense, does Rogier have a maiden? Who is Varré to judge whether someone has access to the Roundtable or not?

Here's arguments against Varré being Tarnished: if Varré has awoken in his new life as a Tarnished, does that imply that the fellow nameless masks did too? The chances of that seem unlikely, although it may make a bit more sense if there used to be numerous and only a handful awoke, continued about their business as war surgeons and then were kidnapped by Mohg.

Here's a counterargument to that. Godfrey is the first Tarnished, and has never died and been resurrected by Grace. If so, then the war surgeons could have been cast aside by Marika at the same time as Godfrey.

Varré criticizes the Two Fingers because they "harbour no love for our kind. That's the part that irks the most." But he never specifies what "our kind" is. It must mean something that the Tarnished and Varré have in common. It is being a "Tarnished"? Is it being a human?

To me, that reads as though some sort of betrayal on the part of the Two Fingers. As though Varré once believed they had the best intentions, but have since revealed themselves to be selfish in their design.

"My doubts had been piling up, you see. Truly, naught but rambling, senile delusions. I believe, that when the ring was shattered (...) their guidance, skewed."

If Varré wasn't Tarnished, he had to at the very least been a past follower of the Two Fingers. That makes sense to me, like the connection between Christianity and Red Cross organisations. The "misericorde" is a tool of Christian mercy, through murder.

Resources:

Link

Link

Tangentially related, as other NPCs describe Varré

It is interesting to note that Varré can teleport you places (whisking Eleonora away, taking you to Roundtable if he "judges" you apt, Pureblood Knight's Medal). Varré was likely the person coordinating the Bloody Fingers and was possibly who sent Nerijus after you.

Varré is far more connected than he seems and "doesn't let his guard down". Even Sellen has dialogue related to Varré.

"But first. Listen up, wretched curse-peddler. This is a vile craft in which you engage. (...) May you shudder between breaths."

This implies that Sellen knows or assumes that Varré is physically in the vicinity, stalking you, always watching, as she speaks directly to *him*.

This means Varré is canon almost always watching you, even if you can't see him around.

Varré possesses curseblood, which is hereditary, and having a child with him with leads to the birth of omens. The Erdtree rejects curseblood and taking Varré's blood pact means your life continues only by the Grace of Marika. All other Bloody Fingers deaths are permanent including Varré's.

If Varré was the only one to tame the cessblood, and that presumes that the other Nameless White Masks got lost to the bloodlust, losing their names, does that mean that before Varré, all those inoculated were nameless, and afterwards they became named Bloody Fingers? For example, the Sanguine Nobles display the greatest amount of change to omen blood. Nerijus and Nataan wear the Sanguine Noble robes but have no horns yet. Therefore, could we assume that the stock Sanguine Nobles were pre-Varré, while Nerijus, Nataan, Eleonora etc were recruited afterwards, keeping their names?