#I need to get myself updated on the story of the first game bc I don’t remember any of it lol

[sarafangirlart]

Hera is in the Hades II early access!

MOTHER!!!!!!!!

Also I think Hera’s gigantic hair is supposed to look like peacock feathers at the back. Could it mean she fights like Lord Shen? Using her feathers to cut ppl and shield herself? I really want her to be a boss fight it would be so epic.

Its interesting that she doesn’t have armor or look battle ready like her family (Hestia doesn’t wear armor but that could be bc she’s usually holding fort on Olympus rather than be in the battlefield) could it be bc she’s not as worried as the rest of them? And that she’s on Chronos’s side? That’s how it was in mythology.

[smalltimidbean]

Hi! I'm Ruben, and this is my art blog! I mostly post silly OCs and original stuff, or whatever I happen to be hyperfixated on at the time! Read on to find out more!

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About

I am Ruben, but most people call me Bean, and I also go by Ben - so feel free to use any of those names, I'll respond to them all!

I'm 28, Non-Binary, and I use They/Them pronouns. I've been doing art pretty much all my life, and I do it somewhat professionally. I enjoy all types of art, but my mains are drawing and animation - but don't be surprised if there are some crafts or other medias here and there too!

I am autistic, and have severe social anxiety (among other disabilities), so please be patient with me if I take a while to respond, have an under/overreaction to something, or do not understand something right away! I also tend to forget things a lot, so you can always give me a reminder, if it has been a while - just please do not spam me!

I love getting asks about my characters, and AUs, even if I cannot answer them all - I have many askblogs for more specific characters/settings, which are linked below if you wanna check them out!

Please keep in mind that some of my characters are villainous, aggressive or just plain mean, and any actions or responses may be rude, violent or upsetting! When I respond in character, I am just playing a character, and their actions do not reflect me, and should not be taken personally!

DMs I am more hesitant about bc of the mentioned anxiety, so if you wish to DM me, please have a reason to be doing so - I don't tend to respond to just 'hi', and asking for free art will probably end up in a block. I also do not RP at all, so please do not ask.

I tend to vent a lot! I use art as a form of catharsis and to avoid hurting myself irl, so there might randomly be some upsetting content posted, but I do tag these with 'vent tag', and the appropriate CW tags - please see below for them

My art (and characters) is not for free use! So please do not repost, edit, trace my art, and please do not use it in videos/games, or for AI bots/databases. If you see my art somewhere, that I did not approve of, and regardless if it is credited or not, please let me know!

That being said, if you really want to use my art somewhere, please ask first! Usually the use as an icon, or in a silly meme, is fine - just ask first!

I don't do requests for things I am not interested in, and I probably will not draw your OC for free. I do take suggestions for things I am interested in, and might do the occasional art trade with mutuals/friends. I do also take commissions (but my sheet needs a big update, so prices may change soon).

I switch sonas around a lot! Bean is my main one (in a semi-realistic style and a more cartoonish one), but do not be surprised if I am sometimes depicted as a furry or a monster now and then.

These sonas are also both a representation of me, and characters in my stories. I try to define when I am 'in-character' and 'out-of-character', so please keep this in mind when commenting/asking.

Fanart of my characters and AUs is okay, and always appreciated! Please try to represent the characters(s) the best you can, and ask before doing making significant design changes (such as a 'Genderbend' or 'Species Swap' etc). Again, I am forgetful, so if I do not acknowledge it within a week or so, please give me a nudge!

I don't mind minors following, as most of my stuff is SFW, but please keep in mind that I am an adult, and may upload an occasional suggestive post or joke. These are also tagged as needed.

Good golly this is so long, but I think that's it for this part

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Interests

I am currently mainly into Pizza Tower, and the OCs I have created for it, so that is mostly what you will see at the moment! - I have currently two AUs I am focused on, mainly the one where it's just my interpretation of the game (no name for this one yet), and then my secondary called 'Cheeseshop AU', with Brick the Rat as the protag, and species are swapped! (So Brick is human, Peppino and Gustavo are rats etc)

I also have a lot of original stories, characters and concepts, and will post those too! I tend to jump from idea to idea and back again, so do not mind if I am talking about one genre in one post, and then it completely changes the next post. (Although most are just slice-o-life with fantasy elements)

Other interests are: FNAF (previous hyperfixation, kinda comes and goes and may have occasional posts here), Bugsnax (also a previous hyperfixation, mainly when the game came out but not so much any more), Pokemon (not a hyperfixation, I just think they're neat), and... That's pretty much it, that I can think of! I don't tend to get into fandoms much, and I just focus on one thing for years haha

I am also not really looking for other things to be interested in, so please do not take it personally if I do not look at or get into anything suggested to me.

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Content Warnings

As mentioned before, I vent a lot, but I also enjoy drawing some body horror or gore for fun, if the mood strikes! These are tagged simply as '[thing]' for blocking purposes, but please let me know if there are tags I have missed!

Common, will not be tagged: Mild Body Horror (things like extra eyes or limbs, or slightly melty people etc), Scars, Foul Language, Depictions of Panic Attacks/Meltdowns, Use of Caps and Glitched/Zalgo text

Uncommon, will be tagged: Eye Strain, Alcohol Use, Smoking (mostly regular cigarettes, but maybe weed too), Partial Nudity (bare chests mostly), Mildly Suggestive Jokes or Imagery, Emetophobia/Vomit, Blood, Violence, Moderate to Severe Body Horror (like excessive amounts of extra eyes or teeth, beings fused together etc), Guns, Self-Harm, Suicidal Thoughts, Gore, Implied Cannibalism, Implied Death

Rare, will be tagged, and under a read-more cut: Very Suggestive Jokes or Imagery, On Screen Cannibalism, On Screen Death

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Tags and Other Blogs/Links

My text post/ask tag is 'bean talks too much' and OC tags are 'OC: [OC's name]'. Other tags are for organisation, or just me talking to myself - and I do that a lot.

I am SmallTimidBean pretty much everywhere, although I mainly only post here, my characters to my Toyhou.se or ARPG stuff on my DeviantArt - and I have a Kofi, if you want to send a tip my way! (Not necessary, but very much appreciated if you do!)

I do have a Discord, but I am not comfortable giving it out unless we have interacted at least a few times! If you do find it by chance, please do not just send a friend request, I am unlikely to accept it for my own comfort.

My main blog, and the one that I follow from, is @smalltimidbean-reblogs - mainly just reblogs of art I like, animals or funny posts.

My currently active askblog is @ask-the-totally-real-peppino - an ask blog for Pep (my version of Fake Peppino from Pizza Tower)

I have several other askblogs, and just blogs in general, but I will put them under cut, as most are inactive or plain dead (I just keep them for archival sake, or the rare chance I may return to them)

@ask-the-music-man - Inactive FNAF askblog for Music Man, DJ Music Man and other FNAF characters, might return to it at some point but not right now

@we-bear-wicked-smiles - Inactive FNAF askblog for Nightmare and the other Nightmare animatronics, might also return to it but also not right now

@ask-lionel-ottaviani - Inactive askblog for a monster security guard named Lionel, will probably never return to it bc the group it was a part of disbanded, and I have bad memories with it - however Lionel and his friends show up here and an AU version where he is human feature on the Music Man blog

@bensnax - Inactive Bugsnax blog, was mostly reblogs, but I did intend to post my Grumpus characters there too (I think there's like one post of some of them) - probably will not return any time soon, as Bugsnax is not a major interest right now

@ask-a-genectric - Inactive Pokemon askblog for a Gengar/Manectric hybrid called Lexus, would like to return to it but unlikely

@the-bashful-skuntank - Inactive Pokemon askblog for a Skuntank named Fleur, would also like to return to it but unlikely

@thedailyzangoose - Previously a daily blog for the Pokemon Zangoose, but was revamped into an askblog for a troop of Zangoose characters, inactive and unlikely to return to it

@little-beast-bakery - A suggestion based blog to create little characters for people to adopt, never got off the ground and probably never will

I have a few other blogs that were OC specific askblogs, but I never posted to them, so no reason to link them. I did also have two NSFW blogs that are still technically up, but were nuked after the NSFW ban of 2018 - I am not going to link them for obvious reasons, but if you do somehow find them, keep it to yourself please!

Okay, this is very long, but I think that is it! Thank you for reading if you are down here!

[tippenfunkaport]

Inspired by a recent poll, could you tell us a bit more about the software you use for writing and the advantages with it?

Thanks so much!

Can I keep this short is the question...

So, for anyone who didn’t see the post this is referring to, I mentioned on another post that the writing software I use is...

4TheWords for drafting (brainstorming, first draft, etc)

Scrivener for all subsequent stages (editing, formatting, etc)

ProWritingAid for a final look before I submit / post

Longer version (and, like, I could talk about this all day so feel free to ask follow ups but I will try to contain myself)

4TheWords is a fantasy RPG-ish writing game where the words you write defeat monsters, earn loot, complete quests, etc. I have been playing it for five years ish and the game-ification just works really well for my brain. Earning silly little prizes and moving the game plot along keeps me motivated to keep writing when otherwise I would be a useless slug so I do most of my early stage writing on there like drafting, brainstorming, journaling, etc. It is silly but I love it and it basically saved my writing life when I was in a huge slump so they have my undying devotion. The company is also the kind you feel very good about supporting and they are HUGELY queer friendly with a big yearly Pride event with many of the main in-game characters being queer and/or trans. (The closest the game has to main characters are a lesbian couple that just got married as part of the Valentine's Day event last month!)

It costs money but a) there is a 30 day free trial of you want to check it out and b) there is a community pool if you cannot afford the fee as well as frequent sales/deals. (If anyone wants to try it out, feel free to use my referral code when you sign up because then you’ll get some extra crystals and I can send you a welcome present of some loot! If the image link above is annoying, dm me and I will give you it via text for copy and paste.)

Scrivener is very robust writing software that I use for fiction, non-fiction and scriptwriting. I only rarely use it for first drafts (bc I use 4TW for that) but I do almost all my editing / rewriting / formatting / publishing in it. I have been using it for probably about a decade and am still finding new tools and features I didn’t realize it had. I absolutely swear by it. The learning curve can be steep but luckily it’s one of the most popular writing programs in the world so there are a TON of great tutorials out there. (My advice? Just watch a video of something like the top 5-10 features and then play around and look up stuff as you have questions instead of trying to do the whole long tutorial it comes with.)

Disclaimer that I only own the desktop version. There are mobile versions that are a separate purchase from the desktop version but I don't use them.

Biggest selling points of Scrivener to me are:

while many writing services have a monthly fee, Scrivener is purchased exactly once and you can use it for life on your laptop and desktop AND you can get 50% off that one time price with a NaNoWriMo winner code (this alone is enough to buy my loyalty for life)

it’s incredibly versatile for both plotting and publishing and works really for my writing process (which is, admittedly, chaotic and weird) and has near infinite customization. It's esp great for making story bibles, organizing research, and plotting out larger works with lots of cross references and chapters you need to rearrange

as a script writer, Scrivener only cost me a one time fee of $35 and includes all updates and bug fixes until the next major version (which happens like once a decade). FinalDraft is $250 and that only includes the current version (which changes about once a year) to do the same thing. That’s a no brainer to me.

ProWritingAid is editing software. Like Grammarly but MUCH more robust with a lot more reports you can run. It’s not replacement for a human editor (AI editing can only do so much) but I like it as a second pair of eyes before I post or submit something because it does catch a lot of the basics and makes me feel a little better about sending something out. There is a limited free version and the full version can be pricey if you pay the monthly fee but I bided my time until the lifetime subscription went on sale for 50% off and paid once and now I have it to use for life.

There. That was almost short, right?

[bombshelllblonde]

hiiihihii!! im backkkk to tell u abt my rdr playthough bc im bored asf haha

¡love this game omg!! the graphics, the story, the details UGH!!!!

hunting is actually so fun for no reason- i bought so many fancy ass guns too 😭

also my play type whenever i play ANY story game thats open world is to do every possible thing every except the actual story so i get a bunch of stuff and then its so muvh easier

in short i have 6000+ dollars 😋

bonus of exploring everything is i got thw white arabian and i love her sm ‼️‼️ i named her pearl and she is my baby

dress up is my seconf favorite hobby

my fav outfit rn is the red vest w the floral pattern on the front (i forget what its called) n the black french dress shirt underneath + the bison necklace talisman

(also arthur w medium-long length hair n short facial hair>>>)

this game is so detail oriented, its kind of insane- im doing a high honor run atm, and i came across the blind beggar for the third (?) time and the blind guy said and i quote

"that is which killing you will finally help you, friend- to hear and see."

is this foreshadowing this feels like foreshadowing

also ik arthurs dies (bc of tiktok edits and fics, they artists in this fandom is amazing!!!) and im not prepared at all 😭 im going to procrastinate so bad 

ALSO CHARLES DESERVES SO SO MUCH I LOVE HIM

yk the hole lil speech he has at the campfire yk "most human beings seem to know why they were born but, for me- its seems i was just mean ton hurt and suffer myself" that one

im bawling istg if he doesnt get a good ending im going to be writing a formal complaint to rockstar games

anyways

tw opinions (ik bro its crazy to have opinions in 2024 whattt no wayy)

ive gotten to the point in playing where im in ch 3, and the only way i can progress the actual story is to help micah rob a stagecoach or whatever

micah is a bastard and i dont like him

him as a character is rlly well written and awesome but,,,,,hes,,,slimy,,and i hate him,,,,so he can wait for a little longer ☺️

my favorite characters rn in no particular order is

arthur (obviously) , charles , sean , javier , tilly , marybeth , and kieran

my pookies ‼️‼️

moving on im so sorry this is so so long 😭 idk anyone who likes rdr irl lmao

anyway hope u have a nice day and no wolves attack you and spoke ur horse who bucks you off a cliff

(in rdr btw)

((true story also))

yo, having 6k in chapter 3 is amazing. good for you!

my first playthrough i got the white arabian and i named her Lemoyne Tree as a tribute to the state of Lemoyne and my favorite post malone song Lemon Tree. But she always got super dirty so i then went to the lake next to Strawberry and tamed the red chestnut arabian. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that one, she's gorgeous and arthur always gets that one when i play it. my beautiful baby girl Diablo <3

also yes. heckin FUCK MICAH BELL. even from the beginning he's been a slime ball. hate that man <3

i won't go too far, but just keep yourself high honor towards the end of the game. you need that to be your first ending. :')

Charles deserves the absolute world. just listening to him speak and hanging out with him at camp, and the missions you continue on to do with him throughout the game are so much fun. charles is someone i wish i could have in my real life because he seems like he would be the best person to speak to and hang out with. he is so lovely and down to earth. even arthur says it a couple times throughout the game. charles gets a good ending i promise.

my top blorbos are Arthur, Dutch, Charles, Hosea, and Josiah Trelawny my absolute beloved <33333 just wait until you go on the mission with Charles to find trelawny. one of my favorite missions ever ever ever ever!!

a lot of people dislike dutch, but i love him so much. he is my actual father. i love him.

i also hate john. let me know how you feel about that little greasy weasel of a man. :)))

i'm so so so glad you're having fun and i am very invested, so please continue to keep me updated on what ur doing because i need to live vicariously through you. if i could erase my entire mind and replay the game over and over again for the first time, i totally would

[heleneplays]

shaking sobbing crying over SOOOO many good demos ive just had the pleasure of reading and like. AUTHORS PLS KNOW IM GOING STUPID FERAL OVER YOUR WORKS AAAAAAAA

the wars we wage by mah_sanogo (cog forum) - when I was browsing the dashingdon page I got intrigued by the summary (lmao i am currently looking for more isekai IFs >< if yall have a rec aside kingdoms & empires my inbox is OPEN <3) and while technical wise there's still a lot to correct (esp typos), the idea is VERY solid + as a fellow fan of Youjo Senki, i am SO thrilled to play, getting into a very oblivious MC and hopefully reach my goals. ALSO GOD????? CAN I FIGHT & ROMANCE GOD???? i wish 2 know bc i KNOW we can fight (technically) and im 👉🏻👈🏻

Before we are Ghosts by @anjiefiction - HELP HELP HELPPPPPPPPPPP FROM CRACK I IMMEDIATE GO TO SHAKING SOBBING THROWING UP— author i am. *clenches my fist* SO in love with this heartbreaking concept and i'm literally honest to God sobbing into my teddy bear wishing I could hug MC rn. and everyone else honestly, they need all the hugs SO bad 😭😭😭 Anyways to anyone who wants to plays this game, fucking get your tissues ready bc you'll sob with the pain and angst and. the tenderness that's still abt to come 🥺🥺🥺

Vendetta by @vendetta-if - IT'S BEEN SOOOOO LONG since i actually played through the demo, and replaying it now......... GETTING BACK INTO MY VILLAIN ERA HEE HEE HEE <3

Sinners by @sinners-if - if villain bad why hot??? <- literally the only thought in my mind EVER!!! anyway, reading the update to ch 2 on itch.io was SO unexpected, i remember only reading it on dashingdon and then. yeah. twine has never looked so good. ANYWAYS WE'RE COMING ALONG SOOOO NICELY <3 and i cannot WAIT to see what happens next!!!!!!! (also sidenote i am reading allnthe drabbles available and im. 🤡🚩over here.)

The Price of Emeralds by @thournewrites - currently scream laughing @ my MC in this one bc WOW bestie your shit out of luck!!!!!! and KDHDJDKDK HELP HELPPPPP not me getting clowned on by the og ro :((( welp! wishing them a very yess get u in that funky crew and get that money bby girl <3

Replica: between universes by @replicabetweenblogs - i see multiverse and i immediately think abt helene-verse and DEAR GOD this wip!!!!! im biting myself soooo bad rn im being absolutely INSANE abt the whole thing!!!!!!!!!! im 7 ways enamored with everyone but most especially to the bestest little sister i am going to love and cherish now and forever 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

The Eye of Eikshal by atlas7 (CoG forum) - :3c :3c :3c intrigue??? WITH A BUNCH OF FOUND FAMILY BESTIES??????? oh boy, not to mention a benefactor turned adoptive father who's wish is for the kids to actually be happy???? man. investing rn on it <3

Through Broken Lenses by Interestedparty (CoG forum) - ok on a more serious note, this story was actually one of the first ever wips i've read in dashingdon and rereading it today had me. well. feeling a lot of 😔😔😔 anyways Vi, you're so fucking mecore and much as MC is traumatized in this one, all I can say is that I she can't help but watch you :)

I actually have several more tabs left to go through but it's literally 2 am and I have been writing this on my phone since 5 pm yesterday so. yeet!!!

[seldaryne]

haven't opened this game in a bit, been busy with school and final fantasy ghsjkasfh but i have to say, i'm looking forward to patch 7 being the end of the story changes. like, for better or worse, that's It, no more speculation, no more dreading what bad fan ideas larian execs will subject us to next, that's it. feels a bit like an exhalation over here lmfao. (maybe that's a bit dramatic fghjk but like i didn't Buy a beta or a live client product, it's a single player rpg. i might gripe about mmo changes but ultimately it makes more sense to me just by nature of the game itself. idk anyways.)

i'll most likely not go at it again til after the patch, not just bc i want to experience the final version but i also burned myself out on 5 back to back playthroughs LOL. been missing my girls though, they've been circling around now that i'm done with school and have less on my plate. nothing groundbreaking yet ofc, just little scenes & contextless snippets. but that's always the precursor to, yknow, actual Writing from me, can't wait to see what happens when something in me finally snaps and goes 'Oh Fuck you gotta write this fic NOW.' probably will also try to have the protagonist trio all at least cameo because i think that velrith, haelryne & ashlanna have the makings of a dramatic sitcom dynamic and i need it. im also craving platonic interactions between ashlanna and astarion. between the basic class of personalities and the whole dhampir vs. spawn thing, i just think it would be Messy but also real fucking good.

also heard we're getting some updated wyll interactions. probably won't be a Lot but i'm hoping i'll get something to build off of. haelryne runs into the issue some of my other initial ocs for games in the past have; yeah, she's the First character and technically the most canon because of it (if you want to call it that) but then she also ends up being one of the more quiet ones somehow. i would like to rectify that, she deserves it. velrith's plot points just kinda write themselves lmao but i'm not surprised, the inherent melancholy of the durge storyline & her as a person lend themselves really well to what i typically gravitate towards, & she does kind of fall into the focal role thanks to that but i'm at peace with it yk.

anyways! its late, this probably doesnt read super coherently, but it felt like it was something that needed to be said

[too-many-rooks]

Writing procrastination game!

Thanks @lastlymatt for tagging me, I got rambly so I’ll put this under a ‘read more’

Tagging @pigandpepper @known-concepts @countessrivers

1.) what’s the name of one of your wips?

My doc names are usually very boring 95% of the time I finish a fic and think it’s ready to post and realise I need a title. How about ‘Yassen Bedroom Visit’?

2.) Describe a Wip in the format of __+__=__

SCORPIA heir Alex + totally normal kidnapping and drugging in the middle of the night get to safety orienteering exercises = childhood trauma

3.) What tags/warnings will one of your Wips need if you share it?

Forced child seperation?

4.) alternative title to a wip?

I don’t really have alternate titles! Titles tend to come pretty late in the process!

5.) which wip are you most likely to update/finish next?

Probably one of my s3 aus I’ve got brewing, there’s a longer thing I posted the first chapter of today but I also have some one shots, one where Yassen gets wounded fighting off Alex’s enemies and Alex basically has to hold him down to say he cares about him, and another where Yassen comes to chat to him in the middle of the night (while Alex is sleeping) and they catch up.

6.) what is one of your wip’s document title, not what it’s name is but what you have it saved as?

Again, extremely boring. Some examples - ‘Tom/House introduction’, ‘stables’, ‘the ball’, ‘heir apparent 1-9’, ‘hunting’ ‘hostage’ ‘orienteering.’

On reflection, these are very badly organised. But, hey Ho.

7.) post any sentence from your WIP?

Okay this took me forever to decide bc I want to share like, all of my sentences, but here’s a sentence from my SCORPIA heir Alex thing where Yassen just tries to take a day off, but is interrupted by Alex sneaking out of school/the country and mountain his school is on

‘Rubbing his eyes with his forefinger and thumb, he blocked out the little blonde headache sat before him, and sighed, already imagining the state of his email inbox when he got back to his laptop, which he’d sworn would stay folded in its case for the rest of the day.

“And how long ago was this? When should I start expecting panicked calls from your father?”‘

8.) a scrapped idea from your WIP?

Not necessarily a scrapped idea but evidently one I forgot about and rediscovered as I was flicking through google docs - originally a pre-season 3 idea (but could work post s3) where Yassen retires, and decides it’s time for Alex to retire too, even if he doesn’t want to. Very “congratulations you are being adopted! Do not resist.” Meme with Yassen that I’ve seen on here, the bit I’d written was him contemplating the least traumatising way to kidnap him, to make sure they’re a happy family unit post-kidnapping

9.) what’s a story you would love to write but have yet to start?

Alex sees dead people AU - Ian knows, when he dies his ghost becomes bound to Alex, and helps take care of him/watch over him in the field, Alex bumps into Yassen at Point Blanc and immediately recognises the ghost bound to him as his father, especially as he begs the assassin to stop pretending like he can’t hear him for once and let him see his son, to protect him.

10.) how many WIPs are you actively working on?

Four - regency fic, darker Alex s3 au, two other s3 aus I mentioned earlier. Suprised myself by how much of this longer ‘SCORPIA heir’ Alex thing that I’d put off for a while I’ve actually written. That’s one that I really want to finish before I start posting bc I’m bad at doing work without an immediate emotional reward/it’s a longer than anything I’ve written before and I don’t want to give up on it when it’s half published. I had been delaying it till after s3 but maybe time to get to work (will try and finish regency fic first)

11.) is there a scene your struggling to write now?

Oh I mean so many but the most immediate stumbling block is with the regency fic, chapter after this one they go to a ball and that’s almost basically written and so is a lot of the next two chapters but there’s things I need to thread into this chapter that just don’t want to be threaded - I need Alex to start being a bit more suspicious of Yassen, and remember that whole thing about his uncle being murdered now he’s a bit passed the initial princess diaries revelation moment.

I was thinking like Alex waiting up for him on Christmas Eve or something and falls asleep then is woken by Yassen sneaking back in and Alex noticed he’s got blood on his clothes or something and Yassen just shrugs him off and reacts more strictly/authoritatively than he has before. But the scene is a bit sludgy I my mind atm.

12.) Not a question but a second kudos!

[mcalhenwrites]

hmm...

So I'm kind of in love with Coral Island, and I wish I could play it more... (But I need to edit Geckos and finish my library books first.) It has some quality of life stuff that I so wish games like Animal Crossing took into consideration. Like, crafting isn't perfect, but even though my seaweed is in my storage box at the farm, I can craft it while I'm diving or in the cavern. Buuut if I want to get a remodel or update equipment, I have to have those items on hand/in my bag. (And I don't really love that they keep the tools for 1+ days. So far I've never waited more than 2 days, but... well, we'll see. I'm hard pressed to part with my net for a couple of days when I use it religiously lmao) Another one I really like is that it tells me if I've donated or offered items when I glance at them in my inventory, and it'll even show that something can be donated/offered. This is super fucking helpful for me. I love bulking up my museum, but it's nice to just drop it in the donation box after checking that I haven't donated it already. No ten fucking dialogue boxes from Blathers. (I love Blathers, but goddamn, AC is really bad about characters not shutting the fuck up over little things. GULLIVER.) This game is massive and gorgeous and the music for diving especially gets me so wrapped up. I gotta thank a game that lets me dive without being terrifying for me. I freaked out about some of the aquatic stuff about the cloud sea in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, especially the tunnels through the cloud sea that had the fish swimming above my head. For the record, I have a rather bad phobia of fish that sucks bc fish are pretty! It's irrational af, it's a phobia duh, but it bums me out that I can't appreciate fish IRL or in most games. But in Coral Island, I find it really calming and diving is one of my favorite things to do. Catching sea critters and exploring and cleaning up the trash is all very soothing. (Did I mention the music?) I don't seem to be keeping up with the farming much bc I'm so busy trying to dive and catch things and forage and break rocks and I love the little sea dragon Naga and omfg the spirits are so cute, I could squish 'em. Oh, and the merfolk designs? A+ Love the diversity of the farming aspects, love the wild seeds tbh (they're so fun and nice little suprises come out of them!), and I just... I'm in love with everyone, including people who are not marriagable. Oof. It's unusual for me. In Rune Factory and Story of Seasons and other farming games, I usually don't really go, "I want to date you!" I just pick a favorite character. (Okay, lies. In RF4, I wanted to fucking marry Ventuswill, and it wouldn't fucking let me. And yes I wanted her dragon form, we're not gonna talk about the loli form.) (I might date Raj, I'm super into them and got a scene where they were talking about barely staying afloat, so now I keep trying to buy something daily whenever I remember, even though I'm sure it doesn't make a difference. I want them to be happy, also they are so hot. ;A; ) I could ramble forever about the cute little sea critters... I suck at fishing in this game, I updated my fishing rod finally (didn't realize where I needed to go, I'm really bad about socializing and checking out the shops on the regular) so hopefully that makes it less painful... XD; Okay, time to go work on my library books so I can return them asap (esp since I may have treated myself to some indie spanking erotica books with my Trans Lives Fest money...) :')

[sometimesrufus]

Rebirth Spoilers

So I'm over 100 hrs in now fam. The completionist in me just can't leave the side quests no matter how much I want to get through the plot. And I need to just say.

HOW DARE Hojo go after my boys Roche and Chadley. HOW. DARE.

Also fricking love all of Rufus's non-verbal communication. Especially with Tseng. And good gravy would I love to see everyone else's faces after finding out Rufus is Sarruf. Doubt we'll get that but man. That seen. Just can see Tseng checking with Rufus each time, asking how much he should tell the others. And Tseng reads him. I love love love all the Rufus/Turks & Turks/Turks interactions we're getting.

I have FEELINGS about the Gongaga protorelic stuff though.

I love the extra bit of Turks lore. I'll get to that in a sec.

What bothers me is Elena just joined. And Rufus just became president. WTF DID THEY UPDATE THIS SIM???? Surely they had more pressing concerns than making sure there was a new training sim with Elena and Rufus being referred to as President.

I can buy that they made the one calling Ru pres years ago since and were just waiting to update given the man made time to mint his own coins, but the Elena thing doesn't make any sense and I suspect had to do with wanting fresh lines for the battle and not having access to more Reno voice content ( :( )

It makes way more sense for the sim to be Reno and Rude, or even random BC style Turks. Unless Tseng was literally like, Elena, your first job is to program the training sim with your details.

I understand it was probably a real life problem; I just have problems with what it does to the canon, even though I love getting more of that badass cutthroat content officially confirmed (even though we all knew company policy would be to leave in a body bag). It's just so interesting given BC content that part of the training is turning on your coworkers.

Also!! Apparently depending on how you do in the fight, Rufus has different responses! He praised me but I love the moody one where he's like guess I gotta do everything myself. I haven't heard the neutral one yet. Lonely rich boy indeed.

I also think it's very interesting that Cissnei hasn't cut ties to the company. Tseng or someone had to be the one to inform her unless she was lying about the company sending her to check things out and she had it rigged herself. But I rather like the idea of the former.

It's so cool that so much of it was what I imagined canon to be... I've been head canoning that Rufus is reluctant to have bodyguards because he can take care of himself for years and that delighted me, but the sim in general with the Elena/President updates also feels disconnected from the rest of the story, which bothers me.

ANYWAY. Shutting up now; I'm just really enjoying this game and all the delicious Rufus/Turks content.

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

not about the series you're discussing, but i was wondering if you have any new year's goals regarding writing? thank you!

You can definitely send me asks about other things! I’m only talking about Grishaverse exclusively rn bc that’s what I’m getting asks about

And hm well most of it isn’t fanfic related but some concrete goals are:

- Finish the draft of a project I currently only have the first act written of

- Finish second draft rewrites of another full length project

- Properly start a serial urban fantasy idea I’ve been kicking around

- Get back into short stories and more importantly the literary magazine game. I desperately need to stop being lazy and submit some stories

For fanfic I’m less particular but I’m hoping to:

- Get into the third act of my currently 100k chapter fic. (Ideally I’d aim to finish it, but I’ve met myself.)

- Update my Hellsing chapter fic at least once lol. And to generally break into the backlog of ideas I’ve had that I haven’t gotten around to posting before

- Do more exchanges!

- Write more the Locked Tomb fic!

The ultimate pipe dream would be to finish any chapter fics. But lol. lmao

Thank you for the ask!

[bbyboybucket]

For the ask game - 1, 3, 14, 20, 21, 42

Thanks for asking love 😚

1. ONE SHOTS. I can’t do multi chapter. Even way back in my early fanfic days, I would try to do them and then I’d just never finish them, I’d never update again. For me, they start strong and with every chapter the quality greatly declines. And even if I do finish a multi chapter, it’ll be deleted in like a month bc I’ll hate it so much 😂 I just stay far away from them

3. I’m a lazy writer most of the time 😭. Usually either I’m day dreaming about a scenario or I just have vague idea/headcanon. And I mean sometimes it is VAGUE, like borderline nothing. Then I think to myself “hmmm. this could maybe be entertaining to other people.” Then I brainstorm how to turn it into a story and make a little note of the important stuff I wanna include, or if I’m feeling fancy I do an outline. Then I write all the fun stuff or whatever pops first up in my stream of consciousness, and then I go back in later and connect the all dots lol.

14. When I do emotional stuff, I definitely do draw from experience sometimes but I always try to put myself in whatever characters shoes and try to imagine that feeling. But I only base off myself to an extent because you know, you have to go off of your character’s personality and obviously how I feel things is different than what they would.

But I draw from sympathy a lot too? Like I kinda think about what would make me wanna comfort them the most 😂 Another thing when it comes to emotional writing is I try to mix in an objective stand point, if that makes sense? I feel like I need to do that to keep things grounded and from being over dramatized, but I def still get carried away sometimes 😂

I feel like none of this answer made sense so I hope you kinda get what I’m saying lol

20. I definitely have my things. I write friends to lovers so much it’s my staple. Wether it’s self insert or a ship, I always do it. I do banter a lot, even if it’s just a little bit off the top of my head and half-assed, banter always makes an appearance. I haven’t reread my own stuff in a while, so I can’t think of specifics but I know for sure that there’s words and phrases that I reuse a lot.

21. I’ve honestly never really thought about it before but I probably would be open to it bc two heads are better than one. Especially since I hold myself back bc my weakness is more plot intensive things, I usually can only come up with half the idea, so I definitely feel like I’d enjoy mixing my half with someone else’s. I also just think it’d be fun because it’d be catered to me but it’d feel fresh because parts of it would come from another person

42. Holding Onto You by SunsetMaiden. It’s so very cute and sweet, it’s very domestic and I think they write both Sam and Bucky very well, so I def do recommend. Sadly I couldn’t get the link to work though 😔

[fantomette22]

(Do not respond if it makes you uncomfy, reading is enough) I am late for the party but IMO it is really hypocritical when people say you can't ship ghrmria if traditionally mourning dolls were made for children and then turn around and ship mria with a woman who addresses her as her superior and is a victim of nasty experiments mria is covering up. Everyone only bothers with nuance instead of just letting people enjoy things when it is the ship they dislike.

Hello anon! Ah I know what post you read hehe (it resume really well the situation!) Thanks for the support as well ! Some people (one person in that case, can really be hypocrite yes).

I want to talk about this. I mean it's been a part of the harassment I got but you understand I don't wanna scream it out loud everything either. I don't wanna discuss some stuff publicly either so I will keep it to the essential. And well I hope I won't get bother bc of this again. (putting the rest undercut it's a big long sorry 😅)

Alright so I never actually show the ask in question I got. Only in dm to some mutuals & friends. Idk if I should share it publicly so if you want just ask me privately there's no problem I will show it. I got tons of other dumb things too but I won't share them publicly. I'm not playing that game. I'm not answering to hate with hate.

Basically, like you read before the person "ask me" more details on my view on their relationship if I think the Doll is a mourning doll (that parents made for their children) (see my essay/analysis I made a few months ago on the Doll. I will need to update it one day XD so this person might have read it). I mean yeah I think she's similar/have a similar purpose as a mourning doll but she's special. She's not your typically victorian child morning doll TM. Then, they wanted to know more about my different interprets, AUs etc

Love when people disagree bc they don’t like you but then agree with people they like who said the same thing as you… genuine evolution ? Hm…

For real I would love to talk about my many interpretations /stories about this 2 characters (with multiple interprets contradicting each others) but I want a genuine question from someone I know / someone I can put a name one. (even sending the ask on anon but telling in dm who is it is ok too! 👍)

Not someone hiding being anon and with vicious intend. Not someone who's stalking my blog (not a follower), previously (and after) fake approval of my ship content* and harassed me repetitiously for weeks if not months because I interact some times to times with someone they don't like.

*before that I got a "backhanded fake approval" over some drawings I did. Telling me "oh it's cute and all. You're doing it the right way" but then twisting it in a disgusting way with some awful sexist comments... trying to pass the fans of the pairing (and myself?) for bad people I guess? I did answer to it but call them out a bit too. It's on private now. I might have a link somewhere (because well I did spend some times writing cool ideas I want to keep for later)

At first I wasn't sure it was the same person (the fake approval, thoughts about the morning dolls and the harassing asks). But I had doubt so I never answer it. I'm glad I did because surprise ! IT WAS THE SAME PERSON all along ! (when I block ip address it was all deleted) Like wow harassing me, trolling me and trying to fake a genuine question before harassing me more? wow people are sure fascinating. (I really want do believe in you bud ! hope you become a better person !)

I took some precautions as well after all of this. That would be a shame to go private or disable anon ask for 1 bad behaved person. I hope it will be alright now and that I won't get bother anymore.

So about the other ship you mention... at first I was positive toward it but because of a few persons well I tend to be way neutral towards it now (and it's still the main thing in a minor AU of mine lol). Personally, I think, because of my view of Blood.borne world, the healing church, the research hall... that after the experiments began on her it doesn't really work/make sense for me anymore... But I won't go bother people who imagine/interpret a softer version just to be happy and have fun ! got for it guys!

But for real the wort ship experience I had so far was in Kingdom H/earts fandom XD (love this series too) imagined you follow smn cool (twi.tter) and they indirectly punch you? "oh I know the difference between who's a friend and not if you ship characters a&b or not" 💀 like wtf sure you prefer them being friends but don't insult people liking the paring ? specially when there's clues about it idk??

I feel it's more a problem of respecting other people (& their thoughts) than proving they're not canon/ accurate or not. it's not even analysis against facts it's just how I think your ideas (and you) sucks because it's my ideas are not the same.

It’s impossible to 100% agree with everyone about everything. But if it’s not hurting anyone/ dangerous ideas just minimum respect pls. That already hurt enough people throw history and still today (but well the internet..)

I would love to talk more about the characters I love really but all this is making me exhaust mentally. Even when people are nice and calm about it I'm still concerned smn is gonna understand things wrong and just decide to go bother instead of just ignoring it.

[jadeglas]

Ok, now that I've had a bit of time to get used to how Tumblr works again, I'm going to do a take 2 on my introduction, if no one minds too much. (mostly for clarification)

About Me

Name: Jade

Pronouns: she/her

ID: Pan Cis F (wife, mama, and storyteller)

Age: 30-something

Loves: music, stories, caffeine, warm carbs, alone time, cuddles, puns, crochet, folk lore, Minecraft, languages, and anthropology, in general

Currently learning: Spanish, my Instant Pot, healthy goal setting, and which style of outline can I actually stick to

Polarizing opinion: fan fiction is a useful tool for helping new writers develop their confidence and writing voice while also connecting with others about a topic(s) they are passionate about

My Street Cred

I love running and playing table top rpg's, especially D&D, World of Darkness, and Savage Worlds. I have LARPed, mostly WoD Vampire, but I haven't run one myself. I haven't run any games in a good while, but I mostly ran Fantasy and Modern Supernatural. My specialty was horror in either genre.

I grew up reading fantasy and science fiction and The Dark Tower by Stephen King (bc that series jumps all over the place, genre wise). I love Neil Gaiman, I've read up to book 30 something of the Animorphs (yes, the side-books, too), and, currently, my favorite book I've read as a "grown up" is Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, by Patrick Süskind. (it's also my favorite book-ti-film adaptation). My favorite scary movie is Paranormal Activity (I love a story that's not afraid to take it's time building suspense), but my favorite romance movie is still The Princess Bride.

The last time I was on Tumblr I was heavily involved in fandoms, (The Hobbit, Harry Potter, Sherlock, Overwatch) and I posted fanfiction... I can't say regularly (I'm very undisciplined), but I did post stories multiple times.

Undisciplined is a good word for my previous writing style. I would write when inspiration struck me, and I lived to world build, but I never outlined or put any effort into prewritting. It was common for me to abandon a current WIP when I found inspiration for a new story.

Currently

My WIP spans a novella (30k words) and 5 novels. (I know, ambitious, but this time I actually have a plan in place) They'll all be romance novels with secondary action story arcs and the paranormal premise is that a recent global event has resulted in some of the population becoming werewolves! I have an evil mega-corporation who will, of course, be using doing shady and dastardly things, but I'm still not sure how the couples of each book will be connected. Right now, I'm outlining everything and the novella is giving me the most trouble (I've never tried to tell a whole story with so few words!)

If this series does well, I think I'd like to do another series in the same world, but with Vampires (romance/power exchange/politics?) or Fae (romance/horror). (No supernatural creatures will ever scare me more than the Fae)

I have an idea for a smaller series? It would still be paranormal romance, but polyamorous, and each book would be the MC falling in love with a new person, while also navigating how to keep her relationships with her other lovers healthy and strong. It's mostly strong vibes, right now, though.

Tumblr

Like I said in my first introduction, I'm here to get my writing passion back and be a part of a community (friend me and I'll send you all the platonic love and support you can handle!). I'll have an author website some day, and possibly start an email list before that, but this is where I can be me and where I can connect with like-minded folks. That being said, inconsistency is a bitch of a habit to break, so I'm thinking I'll have a posting schedule where I'll post on a different topic each day of the week, and then I'll re log and react to posts whenever I can.

Right now, this is what I have in mind:

Monday-- Inspiration (music, pics, ideas)

Tuesday-- Updates (me, my WIP)

Wednesday-- Self Care (bc we all need it)

Thursday-- Recommendations (tools, hacks, and sites)

Friday-- Story/book reviews (that I'm reading)

I have a lot of family and family-in-law that lives nearby, so weekends get crazy sometimes, but weekdays I can do.

All this being said, inconsistency is in my nature, so don't be surprised if things change from time to time.

And so on

Feel free to message me or ask me questions! I'd love to hear about your current WIP, whether it's OC or not, or talk about world building. If you have a published story you think I might like, Is love to hear about that, too!

Thanks for being patient with me!

I'll post again tomorrow, so you take care of yourself.

[kindaconfusingme]

Since it's the end of november, I thought I'd give an update on my reading for the Autumn Reading Challenge 2.0 :)

I am working on a few other prompts atm so I think I will be through kind of soon. I have decided to pick books I already own for all of these so I can use this challenge as motivation to reduce my tbr. I fear this post will be kind of long so be prepared :D

Number in the title: Million Girl Vol.1-3 by Kotori Momoyuki

I read the 1rst and 2nd volume of this years ago when I was a teenager and bought vol 3 secondhand for this challenge bc I always wanted to finish it. It’s about a girl at a very elite high school who finds out that her family owes a lot of money to the yakuza. To repay them, she enters the Money Game that is established at her school, which consists of multiple rounds of competing against different opponents in different challenges, cheating is allowed. While I enjoyed the atmosphere and the reading experience, I’m not the biggest fan of anything beyond the first volume. It gets a little absurd and one does not get the chance to solve the mysteries of the rounds alongside the protagonist, which I would’ve liked to try.

Book with riddles: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

I love the movie, so I hoped to like the book as well. Sadly, I was disappointed :(

I think one of the problems with it was the pacing, because a lot of the moments that are essential for the plot and should be interesting to read are just really hard to transfer to written text (while looking cool on screen). It’s not that interesting to hear Wade talk about how he has to beat a Pacman-high score. Moments like these were either boring to listen to (audiobook) or skipped over by the author, the latter option being weird as well because some of these moments were quite important. I also found Wade to be pretty annoying and full of himself. I think he compensated a lot of his low self esteem by feeling like the absolute best at knowing niche pop culture details. I kind of relate to that bc my self-esteem is held up by similar things, but I would like to think that I am not as insufferable. Or maybe I am but nobody notices bc nobody can read my thoughts. And I had to listen to Wade’s through the whole book, which made me want to scream sometimes. Artemis was pretty cool, but I felt like a lot of her character was the way it was to make sure she’s the ideal girl that lonely gamer guys wish to meet somewhen (spoken in cliches, I don’t want to shame lonely gamer guys in general here). I guess you can read this book either as a homage to 80s pop culture and be happy about a virtual reality adventure or it reads as a slightly problematic self-insert. … Idk, the book had its moments but ultimately it was a bit of a letdown. I will stick to the movie. And I still love the premise of this story a lot.

Nostalgic read: Sieben Pfoten für Penny – Freiheit für einen Delfin by Thomas Brezina

This book is part of a large series of books about a teenage girl named Penny who gets involved in different stories with animals that usually need saving. Like Flipper 2, the dolphin this book is about – or rather: Should be about. The story of saving this dolphin would be enough to tell a compelling story, if it was detailed enough. Instead, a lot of different side plots get introduced and solved within a few scenes and everything just felt rushed, mismatched and weird. I wondered whether that was because I am reading this as an adult now or if it was because of the way it was written and I landed on the latter since I read plenty of children’s books as an adult that I enjoyed a lot.

Nonfiction: Interest and Investment in fictional Romances (van Monsjou & Mar, 2019)

I stumbled upon this study while researching for my thesis and downloaded it bc boy oh boy am I myself invested in fictional romances – so why not find out what science says about it. I will not go into detail here bc there are too many tiny findings for that, but I was expecting what the authors were expecting as well: That high involvement in fictional romances compensates one’s one loneliness/dissatisfaction with love life and correlates with attachment anxiety. Interestingly enough, the attachment anxiety part was more or less there (they listed some statistically insignificant findings as well though and I don’t remember whether this was one of them and I also don’t remember whether it was found in all studies that included the attachment anxiety measurement). The loneliness/dissatisfaction thing was not found, instead people who were more interested in fictional romances seemed to use those as an exploration for their own romantic wishes – which makes sense, I guess. It is to be said though that the sample was taken from people who were not very involved in fandom over all, only a slight number of participants read or wrote fanfiction for example. As well as the authors, I do think that in a sample that consists of people who are actually involved in shipping and stuff, the results could be more consistent with the expectations, because I do think there is a big difference in the reasons for enjoying the chemistry of a fictional couple casually and being extremely invested in a fictional couple to the point of obsession. Therefore, I’d like to read follow-up studies that have these samples; so far, I have not seen these anywhere.

[paimonial-rage]

i think the establishment of a relationship is super important! it basically defines the way the couple acts in a relationship, so i understand the want to establish the pre-relationship before talking about the relationship. that's one reason why i like plot and longfics as there is space for such growth. i face a similar situation where i find it hard to categorize my fics as fluff or angst, so i've just adopted this belief that if it ends well it's fluff. if it ends badly, it's angst. whatever happens along the way will all lead to the ending so it doesn't matter fluff/angst whatever. i hope in 2023 you will find peace in your writing! may there be progress in the romance and fluff department if that is your goal :)

i'm glad that my encouragement helps, but really, your existence helps me because it's good to know i'm not alone in the x reader community XD (i have so much to say about Writings and how x readers can be more than wish-fulfillment but anyways--another day.)

!!! I WOULD love to read said isekai. i will be patient though because i'm also drafting a rather large project and it has been Months but I have gotten 0 words out. good luck to both of us :) may they be the wips we complete in 2023 HAHA.

lastly, about harem isekai, i 100% agree with your sentiment about it. i personally only read harem isekai after knowing who the main love interest is (novel updates is my go-to for spoilers, fr) and there is an overarching plot that supersedes the romance, so the harem isn't actually the main driver of the plot but just a fun, whimsical arc where the love interests all fight for the protag's attention while everyone is trying to solve the main Plot. (i can't rec anything rn. it has been ages since i last touched isekai, but the genre is dear to my heart </3) -- @milkstore

Okay so first off, thank you for the wonderful anon analysis request thing you sent in. I already decided who to pair with you. LOL I'm almost done!

But yeah you totally get me when it comes to fics. At one point, when I read fanfiction, I preferred more oneshots. But the older I get, the more I prefer longfics. But that's the thing like??? With typical fanfiction, it's okay to do oneshots because the relationship between two characters is already established. When you're writing original fiction or character x reader stuff, nothing is established! That's why I really envy those that can write amazing character x reader fics in a limited amount of words!

The fluff vs angst thing made me laugh. I'm p much the same way. The ending dictates the genre of the story! And yes, I will do my best with honing the skill of romance and fluff. I dislike labels, but if I had to categorize myself, I'd fall more close to being aromantic. I love reading romance, but I don't understand romance and the desire for it on a base level. I understand devotion, loyalty, and a desire for exclusivity, but romance is???? In my mind, relationships go from acquaintance --> friendship --> deep friendship --> deep exclusive bond reminiscent of a couple 5-10 years to their relationship. My brain skips the romance phase. LOL Honestly I just need to do more research.

I'll try to get started on that isekai soon though! It's going to be one of those ones where each character gets a paragraph. Each will get a completely unique isekai plot (they won't be interconnected). But unforitmately…. Like you, I haven't even gotten started yet HAHA. And that's on top of so many other WIPS I have, some technically done. May 2023 give us the strength to complete things :')

As for harem isekai, honestly I'm just laughing at what you wrote bc like?? Only choosing to read a story when you know the end game pair? Spoiling everything with Novel Updates????? THAT'S ME LOOOOL I love things with an overarching story, but seeing everyone fall for the main character always gets me so mad. The other characters just look SO PATHETIC. LIKE THEY'RE USUALLY COOL CHARACTERS TOO. THEY DESERVE MORE. But then again, I'm a loser that hates bad endings. I just want everyone to be happy, so everyone gets a love or nobody does. LOL

[dindjarindiaries]

HELLO AGAIN, here is my info dump on Star Wars the Old Republic, im sO SORRY it’s LONG, but this game is amazing and i cannot recommended it enough

SWTOR: you can romance a Manadalorian as a female bounty hunter (the game came out in 2011 so same-sex wasn’t an option back then, updates have made changes to add new characters for same-sex romance). The companion’s name is Torian Cadera if you want to google him, you can change his appearance in game and dress him up different. Also, SWTOR is really cool bc in terms of it being a game it’s really simple, you don’t need to be a “gamer” to play. You mostly watch cutscenes and make dialogue choices that affect your story, with a light/dark side point system to choose your path— do you save people? do you let them die? do you demand more credits? Even though it’s an MMO you can play entirely alone and not ever have to interact with another player ever. BONUS POINTS: the Bounty Hunter main story is very found family focused 🥺

I played as a male bounty hunter first (I even have our Mandalorian’s outfit and weapons), so my next will be a female so I can actually unlock the romance cut scenes 😌 but even as a male Torian taught my character some Mando’a in game bc that’s what homies do

This sounds incredible! Thank you so much for sharing. I hope I can get myself to dedicate to it!