#Hedwyn is good and pure

[brasideios]

10 Characters/10 Fandoms/10 Tags

Thank you for thinking of me my dears @krankittoeleven & @ainulindaelynn

Lemme see. This is long, sorry about that. I’m in a rambling mood. These are just the characters that came wandering into my noodle in no order - at least, that was intended.

1. Dorothea from Middlemarch (by George Eliot). She’s probably my fave character ever. I think in a mostly abstract way, she’s come nearest to mapping out how I perceive the feminine part of myself. She starts out so so idealistic - wanting to do something to change the world, to matter, but society has its own rules that eventually beats her down, but she’s so stoic, enduring, and self-denying, that her happy ending is earned… but then the epilogue is so melancholy so was it happy? and… I don’t know. There’s something in it all that I’ve never found a better version of.

2. My brain is on D names now lol so Daphnae from AC Odyssey. The more I think about her story, as little as we’re given of it, the more I find something tragic and fated in it, and then there’s the possibility of changing that fate, or embracing it. Something, something doomed by the narrative, unless…?

3. Demosthenes from my pdfs lol listen - ancient history RPF is a fandom (apparently) so this is valid. I have been down some serious rabbit holes with this man of late - I won’t even start on why or this will be an essay. I could also have put Thucydides in this position - but I’m on D names.

4. Daria. No seriously. I loved this show when I was a teen, and she’s honestly my spirit animal. It was my nickname because I was unfortunately very much like that. I adore her deadpan, acerbic remarks and many of them will live on in my brain forevermore. I wasn’t as witty btw - but the vibes were the same.

5. Hedwyn from the vg Pyre (woot! My brain releases me from the letter D!). I’ve played it several times now, and he’s my fave. Just a sweet guy - so sweet, you always want to free him first, but then you also very much wanna keep him with you - and sometimes I’ve been selfish enough to send everyone else instead. I also like Volfred a lot but that has everything up do with the VA 🙈

6. Alfie from Peaky Blinders. I have no excuses - the character is an unhinged maniac but Tom Hardy just brought something (a twinkling eye) to the role that makes him a very likeable, back-stabbing psychopath.

7. Caesar from HBO Rome. Ciaran Hinds has been a fave of mine since Persuasion - and I liked how he acted this part / how he was written. That’s all I’ll ever say about Caesar - character or historical figure. There are at least another half a dozen characters in this series I might’ve mentioned too. I must rewatch it one of these days.

8. Gannicus from Starz Spartacus. Dustin Clare is an old time favourite from waaaay back when I was persuaded to watch McLeod’s Daughters - really bingeable but quite trashy Aussie TV - sorry to any fans - but it really is. I so enjoyed his vibes and he brings all of that to Gannicus and it just works so well for the character. Pure cheekiness, and when he does this face 🥺 chefs kiss. Side note - I will pretty regularly say some variation of ‘my cock rages on’ about the most random stuff so - thanks to this character for that gem lol.

9. Johnny Spit from the movie Gettin Square. Yeah this is left field and I seriously doubt there’s a fandom for it - but what a character - quintessentially Australian deadbeat, (played by David Wenham). There’s a courtroom scene that kills me every time. I hope he got square, for good this time.

10. Kenny from Mad Men. I don’t even know how to explain it, I just want to protect him and he doesn’t even deserve it, and he wouldn’t have thanked me for it - maybe it was just the way everyone else was just an asshole about his writing. I want to know more about the short story about the egg. I could’ve picked almost any other character from this show though. They’re all so good/bad for their own reasons.

I made it! Haha! I have no idea who to tag - I think the only people who usually join in have already been tagged - so I’ll just add a few and call it ten. Sorry for any double ups.

No pressure at all - @nemo-of-house-frye @theinkandthesea @liminalspacecowboah @cyrus-the-younger @myriath

[imagymnasia]

I always chose to listen to Hedwyn’s prayers on the way up Mount Alodiel and let me tell you they are heartbreaking.

[jaainart]

hello yes i would give my life for this boy and his smile without hesitation

[bbs-backlog-challenge]

BB’s Games Of 2019

2019 as a year felt like it lasted two years, and a lot happened in my personal life. Got a new job, learned to drive, got my first car, moved out of the in-laws’ basement into our first real apartment, started my first long-term game of DnD (which in itself has involved a new relationship and an emotional breakdown)- and between it all I somehow managed to play 77 games. Backlog’s down to 35 titles, lads- at this rate, I’ll be down to zero by July 2020. (Not gonna happen.) In 2020, I’d like to explore the SNES catalogue a little more, but before that happens we have to review everything 2019 brought me, in a somewhat chronological order.

- Near A Tomato Carry-over from last year’s post since I was in the middle of playing it at the time. I definitely never quite got a handle on the combat and I think some of the themes went over my head, but I still had fun here, and the 9S hacking minigame never got old. It was a gift from an old friend who I miss. Was nice to reconnect. - SSBU With my new main Zelda, I cleared all of WoL and got every spirit on the Spirit Board. I never really used her before but she’s cute now! Really liked the attention to detail in the spirit encounters. Unfortunately, Cloud is still in the game. - Mega Mans 1 2 and 3 I actually spoke about my experiences with the Mega Men in my BBLC post for Mega Man Eggs, so you should read that right now. - Metroid Samus Returns It’s Good. Like, a solid Good. Never Great, never Bad, just Good. It’s nice to see one of the least accessible games in the series get a remaster, but it feels very disposable, if that makes sense. Like they just needed a Metroid to keep people busy while they reboot Prime 4 development. AM2R is vastly superior, go play that. One point of amusement- the game tells its story without narration, and also seems to pre-suppose you know Metroid lore. I was entertained by the thought of a newcomer to the series being completely mystified by the sudden space-dragon that comes out of nowhere to wreck you at the end of the game. - Khimera: Destroy All Monster Girls You can click here to download it, ‘cos it’s free, which is almost criminal. This is one of the higher tier games I’ve played this year. A little bit Mega Man, a bit Metroid, with hints of Touhou and Undertale, it’s pretty tough at times but never to ‘precision platformer’ levels. It’s a lot of fun and the dev deserves your support. - Steve And Ollie RPG Oh, I made this one. Making something else next year? Question mark? - Prof Layton 3 Feels like these are getting weaker as they go along. The story has always been absolute boohockey, but the puzzles feel like they’re degrading in quality too. With over 200 in each game, that’s not super surprising, and I’m glad they didn’t bulk it out with a load of the awful block-slider puzzles. Still, it’s Layton, if you liked any of the other games you’ll like this cos it’s the exact same thing. - Fault Milestone Two Yo, there ain’t a damned thing I can say about Fault, so go play the first one and then play this and you’ll understand. - Full Throttle I never bothered to finish it. The obtuse old Sierra puzzlers were hard enough to deal with back in the day, and just feel kind of inexcusable now. I don’t have the patience for it. - eXceed 3rd Slick and fun bullet hell with a nigh-incomprehensible story and great music. Touhou fans will like it. Music by SSH who is relatively well known in doujin circles. - ASAMU Finished it before writing my BBLC post! - Eternal Senia Everything I said in my post rings true- do your best to look past the wonky translation, because there’s a heartfelt story underneath it. Very accessible gameplay, by design. - Inivisble Inc You have never before been, nor will you ever again be, so aware of having left a door open. I fully expected to hate Invisible, but I got hooked pretty hard. Quite tempted to do another run of it once the backlog is clear. - Pyre GOTY. Supergiant’s best game so far, and that’s not an easy thing to say for this Bastion veteran. I sobbed by the end. I’m not being dramatic- literally sobbed. Please play it. Music and writing and, just, heart, are all top tier. All the Nightwings are the best, but Hedwyn is the best best. - Ellipsis Finished it before writing my BBLC post! - Just Cause 2 I found myself getting bored very quickly. The main missions are all identical (really, they are) and the side missions are very uninspired. Blitzing around in a jet or grappling around a mission target is a lot of fun but it feels very shallow. There’s a lot to do but not really any reason to do any of it. I dunno, it’s a kind of hollow experience, that I nonetheless had fun with. - LiEat It went over my head a little, but that’s more on me I think. These horror-esque, eccentric japanese RPG Maker games usually do. But, it’s neat, and short. If this sort of thing usually sticks on you, I think this is a good title. - Shantae Pirates Curse These games always felt non-essential to me; I’m not sure why they never stuck. They never really go below or above Good. Entirely enjoyable but I don’t feel like I’d have really missed anything if I hadn’t played them. It is, however, absolutely worth investing in for the utterly superb sprite work. That doesn’t sell a game by itself, I know, but Shantae is a pixel art masterclass. - FF5 I’d more or less finished it by the time I wrote my BBLC post, so I don’t have much to add. It’s a refreshingly goofy entry in a series known for taking itself too seriously, even compared to its predecessor. Look forward to my entry for this game in my Games Of 2020 post, having played the Four Job Fiesta! - Touhou 17 It’s mid-tier in the touhou hierarchy, IMO. Didn’t set my soul alight but I did enjoy it. Playing as Wolf Marisa makes the final boss too chaotic to really enjoy, but playing through again with Reimu made it more fun. I beat Extra on my third run through, which gave me false confidence that after 10 years I might actually be good at these games- to then be quickly humbled by attempting Th11’s Extra. Final Boss’ theme song has one of the greatest lead-ins of all time, especially given you start the fight by running away from her! Also really loved the Stage 4 theme as you barrel head-first into Hell (the real one this time), and the haunting, calm-before-the-storm serenity of Stage 5, overlooking the City Of Beasts. - HackNet + Labyrinths GOTY. (Yes, I know I already said Pyre was GOTY; it’s my post, I can have two GOTYs. Make your own damned post!) It’s hard to say what I loved about these games without spoiling too much- just know that they play very much like investigation games, and figuring out the puzzles feels great. Labyrinths technically takes place during the events of Hacknet, with a somewhat more Black Hat approach to things- despite this, play all of Hacknet first, and then play Labyrinths. The expansion introduces a lot of new stuff and much trickier challenges, such that going back to the base game afterwards to finish that would leave it a little hollow- a disservice to how great the ending is. - Mega Man X I said everything I wanted to say in my BBLC post, and anything I didn’t cover was better said by Egoraptor. - Octodad Finished it before my BBLC post! - Chroma Squad The final mission is disappointingly poor, but everything up to that point was pretty good. Huge variance and creativity in the bosses. However, the most fun I got from it was when I realised the game allowed me to customise my team name, transformation name, and other such terminology. Dave, Dayve, Davy, Davina, and Dehve shouting “It’s time to Chromatise, Chroma Squad!” very quickly became “It’s time to shit, you bunch of fucks!” and it was funny every single time. (Personal favourite bit of dialogue- “I tried to shit! It worked!”) - Pyrite Heart Finished it before my BBLC post! - Starfox 2 Finished it before my BBLC post! - Burly Men At Sea Finished it before my BBLC post! - Disc Room Finished it before my BBLC post! - Kokurase Finished it before my BBLC post! Should have broken these ones up a bit! - Metroid Rogue Dawn Very, very impressive romhack let down by a distinctly un-fun final section. They managed to fix so many of OG Metroid’s problems, I’m surprised the gauntlet of terribleness that is Tourian escaped with only a cosmetic change. Nonetheless, it’s free, and the other 95% of the game is superb, even from a purely technical standpoint. - Wuppo I dunno what happened here! I was full of praise for Wuppo when I played it, but somehow I just couldn’t stick with it and just never felt like playing it. It’s a very aimless game, and I wonder if that might be why? It’s a shame, I feel disappointed in myself for not seeing it through, but ultimately I play games to have fun and I just wasn’t quite there with Wuppo. - Super Mario Odyssey I loved it, obviously. I wrote my BBLC post towards the end of my time with Odyssey so most of that stands- I do want to add that the controls always felt a little loose, like I wasn’t quite as in-control as I was in Galaxy. Also Mario prioritises walljumping over ledge-grabbing and it’s super-hard to unlearn that instinct after 20 years. Finally- Long Journey’s End is just bullshit. - Secret Of Mana Dropped it pretty soon after Finning it. There’s some logic to the way the game works, some kind of hidden turn-order system, that I could not at all figure out. My AI companions (useless, btw) would hit an enemy which meant I couldn’t, except sometimes the hit would still register but only actually go through 3 seconds later, without any way to tell which way it was going to go. It takes like 7 months for your character to get back up after taking a hit. It’s just, wonky, and I couldn’t solve the puzzle of how to make the game do what I wanted to do. - Pokemon Shield Still working my way through it. It’s- yeah, it’s pokemon. Get a similar vibe to Sun/Moon with it that it’s kind of unfinished- lots of small (and some not so small) parts of the game just feel like there were bigger plans that couldn’t be realised in time. I’m still enjoying it! They did a great job of making the gym battles, and the whole process of 8-badges-then-champion, feel like a spectacle. I think only the anime has managed it to this degree before. - Earthbound Man, I really, really want to like this game, but the battle system is terrible. I need to play through the game again buffing my party up with cheats or something, because it’s so unbalanced and cheap. Everything else about the game is wonderful, but I got so frustrated with the fights! - Mario Kart 8 Didn’t play any of the single player this time, it was midgi’s christmas present so I just joined a couple of multiplayer games. Absolutely baffled that the game features F-Zero style anti-gravity courses, has Mute City and Big Blue, and even has the Blue Falcon as a selectable vehicle, but they haven’t put Captain Falcon in it. Like he’s ever going to get another game of his own? Let him have this! - Carmageddon 2 It’s pretty clunky by now, being 20 years old, but still plays well enough. The physics are super loose so you slide around like your tires have been buttered. It was more fun when they were zombies instead of just normal people. Missions are brutally hard and should be skipped with cheats. - Neopets After 15 years of playing, I finally got a Ghostkersword. The site as a whole has gone through a lot, and certainly its heyday is long gone, but there’s no other game quite like it. I’m playing the Food Club every day, still. - SIF New phone can’t run the actual gameplay section well enough, so I just log in occasionally to grab free scouts. Here’s another one whose golden years are behind it, sadly, but I certainly still have a lot of affection for SIF. - FF1 Mobile version, which fixes a lot of the bugs with the NES original. This year I completed a solo run with 1 Red Mage, a 4-black belts run, a low-level run, and a 4 White Mages run (which ended up being a lower-level run than the low-level run). I’m fairly comfortable in calling myself an expert in FF1, now. There’s still not really any other games like it- build a party as balanced or imbalanced as you like, and see how they fare. I’d like to build my own game in a similar style, one day. - Re: Live Gacha games and RPG just don’t mix! Both gacha and events do not gel with core RPG mechanics of your character(s) developing in strength as the game goes. It seems impossible to balance the game well- do you cater to the whales who spend and spend until they have the strongest teams possible, meaning the free players or the terminally unlucky can’t stand a chance, or do you cater to those players and give them no reason to spend for the more powerful characters? It’s a shame, because the anime was baffling but in that enjoyable way where you just kind of go with whatever it throws at you, and exploring that in a non-freemium game with a solid beginning middle and end would be really interesting. - Tiny Thief Mobile game that’s not available any more, I think my BBLC post covered it well enough. - F-Zero One of the criticisms most commonly levied against F-Zero is that it wont hold your attention for long. While that’s true, it’s not like you have to make a purchasing decision about it any more- it comes bundled in with the other games you’re buying, so the only investment is time. Ignoring that, it’s still fun to burn around the tracks, and the sense of speed hasn’t ever diminished. The music, too, is underappreciated, with Port Town being my personal fave. - F-Zero GX I can’t believe Nintendo hasn’t done anything with this ridiculous universe for 15 years now. The cutscenes are so hilariously overwrought, and the cast of characters is huge! It could so seamlessly intersect with the Starfox universe, too. There were rumours of a Starfox Racing title some time ago, and I really hope that’s the case. It’d work so well (by which I mean, a particularly enjoyable kind of awful). Anyway, the game still plays great, Story Mode is WAY too hard, Dr Stewart’s theme is a Tune. - Stratosphere This game is from 1998! Build a flying fortress, deck it out with fortifications and weapons and power supplies, then use it to destroy other fortresses. I only ever played the demo as a kid, never got the full game. Took some cajoling to get it to work on modern hardware, but eventually I got in and it wasn’t worth it at all. Wow, that performance, apparently it was designed to run at a terrible frame rate and it wasn’t just a result of my 1998 PC not being up to the task! A shame, but I guess it put one of my ghosts to rest. - DKC 2 The best of the three SNES games, despite the inclusion (and protagonism) of Diddy Kong. Lots to love here, but the OST is top notch. - DKC 3 Not as good as 2, but IMO better than 1. There was a much heavier emphasis on gimmick levels in 3, not all of which hit their target, but does provide a great deal of variety. Consensus is that 2 is better, but if someone claimed 3 was the best DKC, I’d let them get away with it. - King Arthur’s World (SNES) Speaking of putting ghosts to rest… We somehow always managed to get this game whenever we got a SNES, and kid!Beebs most certainly didn’t have the patience for it. Adult!Beebs barely does, either. It’s a very ambitious attempt at some sort of RTS/Puzzle hybrid, somewhat comparable to Lemmings? King Arthur must make his way from his starting position to the throne elsewhere in the map to claim it as his own, using the myriad abilities of his soldiers to get him there in one piece. I decided this year that I was finally going to play through the whole damn thing, start to finish, for the first time ever. With copious use of save states and rewinds, I was finally able to slay this demon. For as fiddly and frustrating as it is, I would still say people should check it out if they have the tools to do so- there’s not really anything else like it, on SNES or otherwise; you’re guaranteed a unique experience, if nothing else. - Oscar (SNES) Terrible. - Spanky’s Quest (SNES) With a name like that, how could I refuse? It’s a weird little puzzler, aping (wahey!) Bubble Bobble and Parasol Stars a little. You’re a monkey who can blow bubbles that stun enemies, but if you bounce the bubble on your head it gets progressively larger and can be burst to send a barrage of similarly-sized sports balls at your opponents to knock them out. You know, just like real life. - Addam’s Family (SNES) This easily-dismissible movie tie-in is actually a very competent platformer with some very, very light metroidvania exploration involved. Gomez has to go through Addams Mansion and rescue the members of his family who have been kidnapped by… something. There’s hidden secrets everywhere and the family can be rescued in any order you like. Genuine recommendation. - Panel DePon/Tetris Attack The only vs puzzler I enjoy (yep. Not even puyo puyo. I know.) I played the HECK out of this in my teenage years, and got crazy good at it. Tendonitis says I’m not allowed to do that any more, but once I shook the rust off I was still pretty strong! It was released as Panel DePon in Japan and was fairy themed, but for the western release they replaced all the fairies with Yoshi characters and renamed it Tetris Attack despite having nothing to do with Tetris at all. Up to you which you prefer- language isn't too much of a barrier here. Soundtrack is killer. - Subsurface Circular Finished it before my BBLC post. Still not decided if I liked the way it ended. - Master Of Orion 2 C’mon. After playing three other pretenders to MoO2’s throne, I had to give the real deal a couple of spins too. It’s Civ 5 in space. Customisable race builds. A whole galaxy to bring peace to, by whichever means you prefer. Would love for someone else to get into it. - Touhou 8 Last minute entry I just played yesterday ‘cos I wanted some Touhou and I haven’t played this entry in a long while. A Solo Marisa Normal Final B run, if you’re interested. Kaguya beast-mode tearing apart the Spell Of Imperishable Night at the end of the game is still an awesome moment, but it’s a shame you can miss the last couple of spells if you take some unlucky hits. - And here’s the list of Bins, which are all covered in their BBLC post: No Time To Explain MoO Skyborn Jumpjet Rex StH 4 Ballistick Munch’s Oddysee Outland Project CARS RiME Magicka Waking Mars Urban Chaos Divinity: Dragon Commander Strike Suit Zero Hell Yeah! Lambda Wars Beta Stranger’s Wrath MoO 3 XCOM Lots more Fins than Bins this year! Good to see!

[tuinendraws]

Have I ever mentioned that I’m a huge fan of Supergiant Games? I played Pyre recently and was not disappointed.

For a pretty long while I was absolutely convinced that Hedwyn would have some sort of dark secret. My experience in fiction had led me to believe that anyone who seems as good and pure as Hedwyn must be secretly a serial killer.

[beatcroc]

brief opinions and ratings of ally pyre characters i have met so far:

jodariel:12/10. the classic wife. very big, very strong, very gruff. she has a short temper and makes a lot of physical threats, but doesn’t follow through on most of them even though she clearly could and sometimes does want to. hedwyn’s actual [adoptive] mom?? she’s quite defensive of the group and i think she cares about [nearly] everyone way more than she’d ever let on. i will absolutely never not use her in the rites. seems to be the most meticulous of them and keeps after her appearance with surprising dedication.

hedwyn: 10/10. innocent boy. maybe very slightly naive but his untainted mind lends him to being a great mediator and voice of reason, especially against the more brash jodariel. his kindness is borders on unnerving at times, but i’d trust this man with my life. seems to do most of the menial tasks like cooking, cleaning, and repairs with no apparent quarrels to it. thoroughly good dude.

rukey greentail: 9/10. sprightly pup. he starts arguments sometimes, but i think everyone knows they appreciate his spirit and dynamic in the group. just goes off and does dog things all the time if no one’s chatting or needs help.  got really really mad at me for ringing a bell too much. sorry rukey.

[sh]ae: 12/10. precious. wonderful. pure. you’ve never done anything wrong in your life, ever and i love you so much you beautiful strange moon child. you are my absolute fave to use in the rites and i hope you continue to find and bring to others happiness in everything you go through. counterpoint: supergiant how the FUCK are we meant to tag fanart of this lass.

ti’zo: 8.5/10. i might not ever use you for the rites but you are a valued and loved member of this team all the same. thank you for your watchful and valiant manner, and cheerful screeches and trills. such a smart boy! he even teaches the other drive-imps!

sandra the unseeing- 15/10 holy shit. so haughty and self-assured. a sassy, sassy woman with negative regret for her actions. what did she do? what did she DO?! she’s almost too powerful and i feel like i need to kinkshame her.

sir gilman -8/10. while i have an inherent dislike for single-eyed designs, i can’t help but love the sparky little guy, and i was really hoping he would indeed join us after being treated so badly by his commander. i don’t particularly care to waste enlightenment on him, but the wyrm’s aura trail detonation is super cool

pamitha- 10/10 beautiful bird lady with a beautiful voice and willing to set aside old prejudices for her own goals. she calls everyone ‘darling’ and i’m gay for her.

[epidaleacalamita]

last week i posted in the pyre tag grouching about how i couldn’t for the life of me prevail in the last rite of the campaign with all twelve titan stars active on heightened difficulty.

guess who just dumpstered that horned bozo and his cadre of cretins while their pyre remained completely untouched??? that’s right mother fuckers!!! ME!!! i was kinda late to grabbing the 60 -22 screencap bc my macbook sucks so much ass but whatever.

HIGH LEVEL PYRE STRATS BENEATH THE CUT

how did i do this, you ask? the problem with my previous attempts, i believe, was that i was going all-in on defensive masteries without anyone who could reliably score. volfred was out of the question, hedwyn himself wasn’t very quick, and bertrude was not very good as a douser without serpent swiftness. so i switched over to another save slot and achieved this flawless victory with my most glorious creation. step aside, reddit theorycrafters: no build will ever come close to the relentless, unstoppable, pure pyrebusting fury of INSTANT FLING STOWAWAE. 

it was on one of my first few playthroughs that i noticed the star splinter talisman had a similar effect (+fling charge speed) to stowawae’s quick fling mastery (+fling charge speed and range). i decided on a whim to stack the two of them for a laugh or two and then it turned out to be sickeningly powerful. i almost felt bad for the fate when i first tried it out. i mean, i always almost feel bad for the fate because they deserve better, but back to the point.

with those two bonuses combined, her fling gets a huge range, but most importantly: it charges BASICALLY INSTANTLY. i shit you not. once you’re in position, just give that fling button a light tap and BAM. 22 damage is now sailing towards your adversaries’ pyre. no banishment for the dousing means you can keep doing this. again. and again. and again. without mercy. sorry oralech.

on a closing note: the other masteries i grabbed for her were snap cast (necessary for quick fling), heightened reflexes, and traitor’s flight, which was a huge deal because it helped so much in covering a lot of ground while also evading oralech and the imp’s auras. if you don’t know where to get the star splinter, it’s acquirable by going to glass peak in black basin with pamitha on your first cycle. i don’t know if there’s any later opportunities to get it, but probably not? now go forth, armed with the knowledge of this ridiculous cheese build that will win you every rite provided you have at least some measure of competence

[strayraccoon]

First of all, pyre discord denizens made me write this. Second, maximum pain ahead if you like Hedwyn. 

So, apologizes in advance

Occasionally, it would be solemn night on the watch. Used to be lonely watch while the other three takes their deserved rest. You would read the Book of Rites on those nights, in endeavor to find holes in the system. Then again, what else could you read in Downside, aside from this mysterious Sandalwood's collection which you finished in no time.

On one night, your first friend in Downside caught you reading on the watch. Unlike Jodi, he wouldn’t berate you, but simply sit down beside you and wait. On another night, he’d say ‘Oh, don’t mind me. Sometimes I wonder what it’s like to be able to read’.

You offered to teach him then, to which he replied gleefully, with familiar smile and cheerful tone ‘It might be not too late with you around’.

Stolen minutes during mentoring and night watch was more than sufficient to teach Hedwyn. He was a willing and quick student. He could memorize the olden characters in no time. Scribbles on the sands soon switched to parchments and inks. You swore you saw glimpse of a proud smile from Jodariel as she witnessed her fostered son/ best friend practicing his letters. She’d never admit it openly, alas.

Nights in Moonlight Alcove were quiet and peaceful compared to the rest of the Downside. Idle days you would spend reading and foraging. Nevertheless, time spend in between liberation rituals granted Hedwyn more time to practice his letters, and after some time, words in the Book of Rites eluded him no more. 

Then it was nigh the time when you decided to anoint Hedwyn for Liberation Rite. Your adversaries fought hard, yet with your best friend’s freedom at stake, there would be no room for mistakes. You could sense his despair for breaking his promise. A promise to leave Downside together. It hurts to let him go, obviously, but you wished him the best and hoped he would reunite with the love of his life. 

<”Thank you”>

Familiar voice resounded in your mind. You snapped out from your thought and saw Hedwyn bathed in Shimmer-Pool light as the current whisked him away from Downsides. Upwards to the Commonwealth, where he’d return in glory. You wondered if the words inside your head were mere imagination. Yet, Volfred’s proud wooden visage confirmed your suspicion.

With the Nightwings’ numbers greatly reduced, the lonely night watch returns. Doing nothing but watching receding bonfire whilst reading Book of Rites under dimming stars. Yet the Titans’ stars burns brightly amidst the darkness. As you observed the dimming Lenoriel, you felt a cold wind rushed against your back and you shivered. You heard an almost inaudible mocking chuckle at the back of your head. 

You hoped it was a mere imagination, you hoped it was The Voice taunting you in your dreams. 

Alas, such fickle hope were dashed onto the ground, similar to whence you entered Downside. Within a cage thrust down unforgiving river, dashing against rocks and carried by unrelenting current. Yet such physical pain were nothing compared to this humiliation.

<”Hello, my friend”>

Such was the first words that resounded over the Ridge of Gol. The Voice that taunts you no longer belonged to Archjustice. It belonged to a more familiar voice and presence, yet it was a mockery to the good friend you knew. His voice was filled with pure hatred and disgust, throwing insults and explicit towards his friends. 

You remembered Volfred’s words then, of Brighton - previous Nightwings’ reader - fate after he was liberated. You wondered then, if it was your fault. The thought burdened you throughout the rite, and with constant verbal abuse from your best friend, the Ridge of Gol turned dark. Once again, a mocking chuckle echoed in the corner of your mind. Only it was a familiar one. 

When you woke up, you were laying on your bunk bed, wet cloth on your forehead. You looked out and found the black wagon was nowhere near Ridge of Gol. As of the moment it was traversing the empty fields in the Flagging Hands. Was it a dream? Perhaps. The Downside has ways to demoralize its denizen. Perhaps its the swamp itself that caused you malady. You breathed in relief.

You dressed and entered the main chamber of the wagon. You saw Volfred sitting on one of the empty chairs, pondering over a parchment. A messenger imp had arrived bringing news on Hedwyn. You joined Volfred then, ecstatic to know what fate had in store for your best friend.

Certainly it was a mere nightmare wrought by malady, you thought. Yet you saw Volfred frowned as he read the parchment, and the remaining Nightwings avoided from making eye contact with you. A chill ran down your spine then.

-  or was it?

[queenbirdnerd]

Did you have a favorite Pyre character or favorite (doesn't have to be romantic) relationship? What background did you pick for your Reader? Also, remember you don't have to talk in Discord if you don't want -- if you set your status to invisible, then nobody can even see that you are online or not! (u dont have to join its fine, just trying to make sure you have all the information to decide!)

AaaAA thank you anon! I feel like I would like to join the discord server, but it just feels really weird asking someone I don’t really know for a link to join. It seems like it would be a fun server to be in based on who I’ve seen is in it and it would be pretty neat to be able to talk about SG games to people who like them as much as me.

As for the Pyre question:As I was trying to pick one or two favorites, I accidentally just listed all of the characters in my head, but I’d say Sir Gilman, Jodi, and Sandra are probably my favorites with Hedwyn coming in just behind them. I didn’t really like Sir Gilman at first but when I finally got into his development I just screamed and decided he was my son. A very good pure boy. I will destroy Sir Deluge if he so much as looks the wrong way at him. (Also, concept: Wyrms are amphibians, and thus are ectotherms. Gilman will need a nice wyrm sweater to keep him warm in the colder regions and I think that’s adorable. Either that or he can curl around the trinket the Reader picks up from the Blackbasin.)

My favorite relationship would either be the friendship between Gilman and Rukey or Ti’zo and the Moontouched Girl (Fae in my run). They’re adorable. I want to adopt both of them. And of course, who wouldn’t love the relationship between Sandra and the Reader?

For my Reader, I picked a reclusive amnesiac background. She got some memory damage after having a heatstroke in the Sandfolds before the Nightwings picked her up. Although I will say, it’s probably a good thing she forgot about some stuff she did. I diverged a little from the “canon” reader, but I won’t go into that. I really wanted a demon reader, alright?