#and I had an actual conversation with an npc without them getting annoyed at me

[arthursfuckinghat]

Rhodes - Lemoyne

[renaultmograine]

Im sorry if this is strange to ask. I was considering getting bg3 but I have trauma triggers surrounding sexual harassment and ignoring boundaries. How severe the rapeyness, and is it avoidable?

I mean, that's just my perspective of it; there's a lot of people who see it as "sex positivity," but I disagree.

Your companions will hit on you. Aggressively. At seemingly any approval. The game does not let you be friends with your companions and there's seemingly no way to get 'closer' to a companion unless you try and romance them. You will be subjected to all your dialogue choices being [I want to fuck you], [Playing coy], and [You repulse me]. There's nothing else. By merely having them in your party, they will hit on you, and some will not take no as an answer.

Somehow, by being nice to Karlach, I've romanced her, and now have the option to say 'Sorry, I'm really into Gale more :/' when I have never done anything to imply that I'm actually attracted to her besides support her emotionally. Astarion will hit on you the first night you're there (the insight check pass tells you he "doesn't mean it" but IDC that's weird) and he will do this twice more. I have never had a conversation with Astarion past his pop-up ones in camp, and he's still sitting at level one in camp, which testifies I've never had him in my party.

I did end up romancing Gale (which, his scenes made me wildly uncomfortable, but that's a personal thing) but I've seen people on the forums get annoyed because they were forced into 'romancing' Gale because they were just trying to emotionally support him, and how, apparently, Gale doesn't take no for an answer and will repeatedly sexually harass the player. From my time romancing him, I wholeheartedly believe that.

I have initiated battle with an NPC I never had a direct conversation with, and she remarked that she was disappointed that we were fighting, and that she expected me to be, "another notch on her bedpost." NPCs you will have known for a morning will INSIST on fucking you. Your ONLY choices with another is either to fuck him or to not speak with him, the game doesn't offer you anything else. Another NPC, the one that sparked my last post, I had saved from a mind flayer, and she immediately tried to fuck me once she realized that I had a parasite, and it took four separate no's to get her off my back.

I felt less sexually pressured in Cyberpunk 2077, a game with a main theme being the oversexualization and perversion of the culture and the many side missions involving prostitution. I had to actively seek out any sort of sexual encounter in that game, and it gives you plenty of opportunities to say 'No, I just want to be your friend.'

There is a way to avoid the companion's interactions, and that's simply to... not have any. You can start up a "LAN" party with four instances of the game, make the characters you wish, and then quit the instances of the non-host to get control of the characters. You can also, a bit later into the game, hire 'hirelings' that are essentially the same thing, but I know it takes a couple rests to get to that, and I don't know if you can solo up until that part unless you have a damn good idea about the encounters. You cannot kick people out of your camp once they're there, they either have to leave of their own free will, or you have to kill them. In EA, the other companions would aggro onto you if they did that. No idea if it changed.

Like I said before, Lae'zel takes no for an answer. She's weird about her coming onto you, but I told her no and she took it. Shadowheart made a pass at me, but I had ignored it because in the EA she got offended if you tried to have sex with her, and didn't expect that to change. She does seem like her romance is harder to get to than the others, so there's that. I have managed without another incident with her, but I also haven't had her in my party since I picked up Karlach, so that might be why. Karlach hasn't hit on me from my recollection but I still somehow have romanced her. I have never taken Wyll, so I have no idea about him. Astarion and Gale are the real bad ones. I just don't talk to the non-origin companions, and that works out for me (though Minthara, if you go the evil route, WILL be really sexually imposing in your first 'companion' convo with her, haven't played that far into evil yet though).

I adore the fights in this game, and the story is.... starting to droop in Act 3, admittedly, but it has enough interesting diverging paths that I will likely replay it a couple times, but I am so sick of all the companions. Once I'm done with a good run and a bad run, I don't think I could ever bring myself to picking up story companions again.

[grendil]

Take it from someone who fell for so much evil because I am innocent and I didn’t know about them. My best advice for the innocent is that, although I can’t go into why, all of your instincts are one hundred percent correct and most people really do hate you and really are dumb, cruel, evil monsters who hang out together and are cruel to you behind your back and that the reason why is that you have a soul and they don’t. I won’t go into details and this isn’t the NPC meme it’s very real and much worse and the more you know about it the more danger you’re in.

If you’re wondering why you can’t get into conversations at lunch or people ignore you unless you do something crazy or silly so they can nervously laugh or criticize you that’s why. And make no mistake, they have systems, symbols, codes and understandings that keep them together and on top of you and they will NEVER tell. Do not fight them, live around them, and when they come to you wanting something treat them like wild animals because they NEED to feel more powerful than you in this world and they will work together to do it without a second thought and for free. They do this as naturally as the sun rises, and they cannot change or control what they were made into. Every social issue you have faced up to and including suicidal chemical degeneracy/unbreakable self-destructive patterns (constant self punishment for reasons the victim can not explain) are caused by the unspoken existence and overwhelming presence of these creatures in everyone’s life.

They exploit a glitch in our design in which we subconsciously accept their ruthlessness towards us as justified and ourselves as bad or defective because we cannot recognize them as a genuine enemy who exist to KILL us without arousing us to fear them and flee from them. Chances are you’ve dated them or had them in your family. You have been side by side with them and suffered their effortless reality-warping lies and subtle but extremely, unbelievably damaging social/psychic attacks since childhood. They know. They know what they said and what they did to you. You’re not crazy. It wasn’t actually your fault. You’re not ugly or annoying or disgusting or can’t hang. They are monsters. Real, soulless, insane monsters who laugh at your suffering behind your back and LOVE it. They live for it. It is the biological, physical purpose of their existence and the most satisfying things they do in their life. But you’re not alone. It happened to me too.

[creacherkeeper]

multiples of 7 for the character asks for bo!! <3

7. what quality do they like the least about themselves?

OOF. WHAT A WAY TO START. i think theres a Lot about himself bo doesn't like and he's still coming to terms with what a lot of that means like. In Context. of like. Everything. but i think Right Now the thing he doesn't like the most is that he makes people sad. because he can Tell but he also cant Help It and he's trying to find the balance between. opening up. and making people Worry about him. because he!!! does not want to affect the people he cares about in a negative way!!! its fine if they do that to him but not the other way around. he's not supposed to take up space <3

14. do you have a favourite conversation that they’ve had with another character? briefly describe it!

i definitely have favorite conversations with the pcs, but i think my favorite conversation with an npc was when they were in the book and bo got. a little mad. at bubba. for not just working things out with ezzy. and yelled at him a wittle bit. just bc i think that was like a Turning Point for bo of like. maybe the first time he ever acted selfishly towards someone? and knew he was acting selfish and said it anyway? and just being like. actually me and rosie deserve a full family so why cant you get your shit together. which like. in hindsight with everything we know about them now, Harrowing for bubba, but it was also bo like. showing he felt safe enough with bubba to get upset at him? bc that's pretty rare for bo

21. without revealing any secrets, how much of your character’s backstory does the rest of your party know about? 20%? 75%? 0%?

i mean. broad strokes, 100%. there's always going to be little details to flesh out, but bo backstory was pretty simple and didn't get changed at all from original version to now. all the nuance that's come with it has come from hollis. i didnt know jack shit about bubba or him and eabha's relationship or the rangers or anything. i found out In Game with everyone else (madly affectionate)

28. what is something that helps to comfort them?

talking to kai <3 kai is really good at both grounding him but also making him like. actually deal with stuff so he gets it out of his system. he's used to being like. oh i'm upset. gonna bury this forever. but kai is like. okay bud we're gonna talk through it and then chill out and bo is like wait huh this actually helps?? wild

35. pick a character that they know. what is something that they do that your character finds annoying/frustrating?

flip side of that,,, less annoying and more frustrating / concerning but. kai not eating well <3 bo is such a big food guy and like. is so used to people showing care through food. and so kai will stress bo needs to take care of himself because he deserves to feel good and then will have like. an iced coffee for breakfast and not eat again for 8 hours and it drives bo insane. he doesn't understand how they can be so in tune with things emotionally and also expect so much from their body and fighting abilities and then not take care of it right

42. how similar is your character to you?

MEAN QUESTION. i think more similar than i would like to admit but not as similar as i would fear. i think we have some good traits in common and some bad traits in common and some hangups in common but overall we have fairly different like. cores. and life experiences, obv. it is sometimes hard for me to play bo cause im like noooooo i dont want to say this but its what bo would say!!! it what bo would think!!!! im very much a Character Actor as a player and me and bo differ. A Lot in how we go about the world

[scarystickers]

OC STUFF!!

Nobody's gonna read this but I figured I might as well post a scene I had ingrained in my brain. It's short but whatever.

-

'Damn it!' Cyrene wanted to scream. She was mad. How could she, after years of training and preparing face the leader of the Rosarian Revolution not realize it?

She needed to train, she needed to be better.

"Aide, turn on simulation." The hunters voice boomed through the room. The room that was specifically designed for virtual reality, once inside the room it was hard to tell what was real and was fake.

"Calibrating.. Loading universe 12." A robotic voice spoke.

Suddenly the room became pitch black before lighting up with an explosion of colour. Facing her was the leader of the Rosarians, Juno.

Juno smirked.

Cyrene quickly summoned her sword and began to swing, Juno, without a weapon dodged and began to run. Cyrene followed.

'You are not getting away this time.'

Like a hungry predator Cyrene ran after her prey. She was fast but her prey was faster. Running on rooftops in a city proved to be a difficult task for most but not for Cyrene and clearly not for Juno.

The wind carried her, she learned how to quickly move and slide inbetween the small crevices of the alley ways. But Juno was faster, she was always a step ahead. She looked down at her, just like everyone else and smiled.

She was not going to give up. Determined and stubborn Cyrene followed her prey to the edge of a building following that edge was a long jump that she knew neither of them could make.

She was so close.

Just one more step.

She reached out and slashed with her sword.

For a moment nothing happened, her sword right through Juno with the leader still facing her with that annoyingly cheerful smile.

That moment continued until the room surrounding them went black. Then Juno faded.

Right, it was a simulation.

"Aide, restart simulation, increase difficulty." Cyrene called out.

"Aide, restart simulation." Cyrene demanded.

"Damn it, those lousy bots." Cyrene murmured to herself, walking forward into the void.

The not must've malfunctioned so she'd need to find the proper object to use as a key.

The black slowly faded back into the city where she chased virtual Juno. She moved around through bustling crowds of people making their way to what seemed to be a festival. The hunter leaned against a wall, taking a look at the people passing by. Typically the key would be something that stands out, sometimes it might be a NPC you talk too. But whatever it is, it will come to you if you wait long enough. So wait she did.

She didn't have to wait too long though as a little girl sat down next to her. The girl seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

"Do you think you can help me find my family?" The girl spoke. Her voice soft and high, she couldn't have been older than 7 or 8.

"Oh thank fuck, the key." Cyrene moaned. She just wanted to leave as soon as she could.

The girl frowned. "Will you help me or not?"

"Yeah, Yeah." Cyrene allowed herself to be dragged by the girl into the crowd of people.

"Sooo.." Cyrene awkwardly tried to make conversation with this randomly generated character. "What do your parents look like?"

The girl hummed in response. Great.

"How old are you?" Cyrene asked. She was bored out of her mind and wasting precious time that could help the humans.

"8 and a quarter."

"Alright well uhm. Do you know where your parents are?"

Again a small hum in response. God this kid was annoying. What was it that Howard gave her as a tip for dealing with kids at crime scenes? Right, befriend them and maybe they'll answer.

"So erm.. What do you want to be when you grow up?"

"I'm going to be a Astronaut!" The girl said proudly. Like she already knew for certain what the future had in store for her.

"Uh huh.. Well that's going to take a lot of effort. You know it's actually really hard to become an astronaut, currently there's only 41 active astronauts." Cyrene had never been good with children. She'd never been good with people in general since she only really interacted with people outside the corporation when interrogating suspects.

"Hmph. You're mean you know that, lady?" The girl spoke in a way that reminded her of something, something she couldn't quite put her finger on.

"Well that's rude. I'm just being realistic." Cyrene shrugged.

"What do you do for work?" The girl asked.

"I'm a government employee." Not technically a lie.

"Boring, maybe that's why you're so rude! You never have any fun!" The girl ran off into the crowd.

"Hey! Wait!" Cyrene chased after her.

She pushed NPCs out of her path. She was not losing her ticket out of this broken simulation. She was so focused on the girl she didn't realize that the everything began to fade to a familiar white and grey.

"We're here!" The girl stated proudly.

Cyrene finally took a good look at the girl. Long black hair, a warm skintone and deep brown eyes.

Oh.

It was her.

It was her before everything.

It was a little girl.

Her eyes glanced upwards, almost scared at what she'd see. Of course, the organization, her family.

"N-no." Cyrene stuttered.

This girl with a determined plan to her future, This girl with a sense of humor and individuality, This girl who was so forward, This girl who talked freely.

A hand fell on the girls shoulder. Alexa.

"Welcome home." Alexa greeted the girl coldly.

"No!" Cyrene cried out, reaching out to the girl before it all disappeared.

She found the key.

She was back in the white room.

It was just a simulation.

[keefwho]

February 22 - 2024 Thursday

11:19pm

5.5/10

This morning I shaved my legs and face. I made spicy ramen, spam, and green beans for breakfast. I watched some Bluey while eating, and Twitch content.

Work was okay. I started on the last commission for this month and put out a YCH. After work I spent 1 hour in VRchat with Turkey and some strangers talking about our personal beliefs regarding selfishness and religion. It was refreshing because we weren't arguing or opposing one another, we had a genuine conversation where someone speaks and everyone else listens without interrupting. That feels rare. For lunch I made a custom supreme pizza in the pan and watched more Bluey. I did the last weekly request today and finished a good Celestia pic before starting another AI redraw with Fluttershy. I'm really hoping I can make some AI bozo mad by copying their "work" by hand and making it better. We do a little trolling. It just occurred to me how little I actually speak my mind in my own journal. I sort of act like I'm submitting an official report instead of getting myself out there. That sort of happened because I made it a point not to talk about my feelings too deeply but I feel it appropriate to at least talk about what I notice and appreciate and think. I had hung out in Ena's server speaking with her for a bit and we actually talked instead of the usual sort of filler we do, or at least I do. I had tried to TALK with David before this but he was in a Helldivers squad which was loud and annoying, not my energy today, especially while working. After drawing I worked on Plaz's world a little bit more. I do not know how long it will take in the slightest, but it will be a long time if the maximum time I put in per day is 1 hour. I originally estimated around 60 hours so thats 2 months if I have perfect attendance. But it'll get done when it gets done. I left when work was done expecting Daisy to be free soon. I watched a bit of a Zelda video where the guy went in-depth into NPC routines and design details. When I got bored, I tried joining David for some Helldivers and played 1 round before leaving to join Daisy in Just Dance which wasn't actually working for her. So I sat around a bit and booted up Skyrim when I thought she had gone to bed for the night. I created a new character and I'm going to try to keep it personal/offline so I don't have the obligation to stream it, I just want to chill. It's a very tall cat lady mommy knight. 7 feet tall or so. I named her Kei-Thi Crossmeadows, a Khajiit-esque combination of me and my bestie's names. I had a better name before but I lost that save file and I don't remember it but it was the same idea. Daisy did message when she actually got in bed so I started up 102 Dalmatians and completed a couple levels. We talked about our days as usual and shared some sweet words. After she fell asleep, I learned I can sniff out bones I am missing in levels, some of which I have to dig up so I can finally start 100%ing levels.

~~~

I feel like I woke up halfway through writing and actually started speaking my mind again. I think reading this other girl's Tumblr journal has sorta helped. Getting other people's in depth and vulnerable perspectives helps wake me back up to how human we all are, including me. It reminds me that I matter in a way. The only problem is how long it takes to write, I'm already up pretty late so it's hard to justify that I keep writing. Anyways today I felt rested and ready to be creative so all went well. I felt strangely social, wanting to ask other people questions almost like I'm interviewing them.

3 Happy Things Today:

Doing a good job on the Celestia drawing

Chatting with Turkey about our beliefs

Playing PS1 for Daisy, and her company in general

[cursedwateringcan]

Alright, I feel like I've played enough PoOT now to give you guys a run down on what I think. The TL;DR version of what I think is that, while there is still fun to be had, its a fairly mediocre experience and thats unfortunate.  let’s start off with the bad. The Bad - Frame rate issues are still a thing despite the update. Now, I have literally the oldest switch, like its literally from launch in 2017 so I don't know if that has anything to do with it, so please keep that in mind. I’d be interested to know if people with newer switches are still experiencing any frame rate issues after the patch. The only thing I can think as to WHY this is, is that perhaps there is some asset optimisation issues and potential occlusion culling issues, which CAN be solved with further updates, but as of now, frame rate is still a thing. It’s not like its chugging all the time, just when I have a lot on screen, like when my sprinklers go off. Loading times between areas seem fine though? - I read the reviews about the dialogue, and it IS pretty bad. The events and heart events are so far pretty fun and give you a good idea about characters but this doesn't carry over to the daily conversations. And its a shame because there is such a big cast! Characters don’t seem to have special heart lines, or at least, I’m not good enough friends with characters to be able to tell? They talk a lot about town improvements, farming tips and festivals but all seem fairly cardboard cut out. I know they are potentially addressing this in a patch, so hopefully it improves.  - While it was pointed out to me that there has been a bunch of Harvest Moon games without character portraits, I have to say I think that this game certainly seems to either need portraits, or sort out their cameras when talking to NPCs, because you can’t often see their faces when you talk to them. (although, having the camera too shallow would cause more frame rate issues lawl) - I don’t like that you can basically only have one meal (except you can have as much dessert as you like) for most of the day. Makes going to the mines really annoying, because I can’t top up my energy.  - I can tell the makers are going to peeve me off eventually. I wish you could load them as much as you like, not just one thing as at a time. I swear this was done in Trio of Towns?  - I don’t like that I can order a pizza at the cafe, but still be eating a fish in the cutscene.  - Speaking of cutscenes, this is just a minor pet peeve but some of the introduction cutscenes just don’t seem to appear very naturally like they have in the past, like, store scenes triggered before I even met the store owner? Also the ‘harvest goddess’ cut scenes I don’t understand at all. I have no idea what I’m doing to trigger them or what her point is.  The Mediocre.  - It seems like its going to be a pretty easy game. I’m only in summer now but I’ve already made three improvements to the town. Town improvements requests don’t make sense to me because the mayor might ask for 5 lumber, 10 glass, and a brick, but give him the brick and you don’t need to give the rest?  - Overall there isn’t much to explore, and that will change with the DLC, but a lot of people don’t want to buy/can’t afford it! At least a couple of other areas would have been nice. - Its quite obvious they’re taking influence from SDV and Animal Crossing. (Which I’m sure is funny for the creator of SDV since that game is basically a love letter to Harvest Moon!) but I don’t think any of it is pulled off particularly well. Its not terrible, but it’s not great. I like the tent at the beginning (although it felt obvious that it was animal crossing inspired?) because it makes sense in context. But the museum I’m not super into, the items you get are annoying because they don’t stack so they take up so much room and you can’t appraise multiple things at once. I am absolutely not a fan of the new fishing. I still don’t understand it.  - I don’t understand why some things are makers, and some things are recipes? Like, why do I need a maker to make bricks, but I just have a recipe for mortar?  The Good

- I do actually like the farm land, its keeping me very busy and I like being able to customise all of it.  - Despite the characters seeming like cardboard to interact with, the character models are actually quite awesome.  - I like the details in the town. Being able to run around and take pictures with the camera is fun and seeing all the baby pics on the wall! - Mines are back!! Mines Mines Mines! Hooray!  - Character customisation is good, its interesting the way that gender is presented in PoOT. I think thats it’s really good not being locked into ‘girl’ and ‘boy’ style of dress/body shape. (although you still have to pick between female/male pronouns and they can’t be changed).  - Events and heart events are good.  - All the animals are super cute, and I have a dog called B E A N B O Y.  Ok the good list seems really short because I can’t think of anything else. I’ll keep playing because i’m still having fun, I still have plenty to do. But it certainly did grip me as much as trio of towns. I think it’ll be better when they patch it. 

[ravnicaforgoblins]

Ravnica for Goblins

Alignment

Figuring out where on the spectrum of beliefs, morals, and neutrality your character falls can be a challenge. One individual’s Chaotic Good is another’s Lawful Evil. To help clarify things, most campaigns include alignment for significant NPCs, and one can often draw a line between that NPC and that alignment. This doesn’t apply to every NPC, but the more important someone is, the more they come to represent a specific section of the moral grid in a campaign.

Ravnica does this as well, with most of the alignment chart represented by a Guildmaster. This isn’t completely uniform, however, so there’s wiggle room for an NPC to lean one way or the other as fits the story. There are some pretty safe bets, however, who can be counted on to check certain boxes at all times.

Isperia of the Azorius Senate: Lawful Neutral

Isperia represents the goal of the Azorius; objective devotion to upholding the laws as they are written. She was elected to her position because of her ability to look passed right & wrong, instead focusing solely on interpreting Ravnica’s 10d6 of Psychic damage legal system for all disputes.

Lazav of House Dimir: Neutral Evil

Lazav is the Dimir at their most annoying but least murderous. Blatant disregard for everyone’s privacy, but preference for stealing, secrets, and information over assassination. Lazav infiltrates every Guild, including his own, always determined to stay several steps ahead of any potential threat. This is not to say he won’t kill people if necessary, but his is a cold, “bloodstained calculus” methodology. It’s never personal.

Rakdos of the Cult of Rakdos: Chaotic Evil

On this plane, Rakdos is the living embodiment of Chaotic Evil, a title he takes very seriously. It’s just about the only thing he takes seriously, as he prefers to live without rules and have everyone else do the same. Unrestrained hedonism and mayhem are his bread & butter. You do what you want, whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want, regardless of what anyone or anything else says. No restrictions, no inhibitions, no hesitation. Encouraging this kind of destructive chaos in the streets is the only thing keeping Rakdos from embracing more orthodox Chaotic Evil behavior of slaughtering millions, enslaving thousands, and bowing to no one.

The Obzedat of the Orzhov Syndicate: Lawful Evil

Hard to believe there can be something worse than an actual Demon given permission to encourage every sin imaginable, but that is what the Ghost Council are. The Obzedat exist to stretch, bend, and twist every law designed to maintain order, neutrality, or justice so as to benefit themselves. What’s worse is how the Orzhov play innocent when they do it. Unlike the Dimir or the Rakdos who accept and even embrace society’s interpretation of their actions, the Orzhov refuse to be seen as anything but humble, spiritual, gracious public servants. The very antithesis of what they actually are; arrogant, miserly, manipulative bastards. They will point out exactly which laws they are not breaking, which laws there is insufficient evidence to prove they are breaking, and which laws prevent you from punching them in the face right now.

Trostani of the Selesnya Conclave: Neutral Good

If there’s one thing to be said for Selesnya, it’s that they are rarely the problem. The Conclave is perfectly content to keep to their fields & forests most of the time and focus solely on building up their own Guild. In a city where every Guild has a problem with every other Guild, Selesnya is the only one who at least tries to get along with everyone else. They don’t tend to get involved in matters that don’t concern them, but theirs is always a safe haven for those who seek it. Trostani is made up of three dryads representing Harmony, Life, and Order. You don’t get much more Neutral Good than that. The only problem is that Trostani basically never leave their Guildhall, so their influence only spreads so far. The reason they can live so peacefully is because so little of the chaotic city life overlaps into theirs.

Besides them, everyone has wiggle room and gray area to move around in. Both Niv-Mizzet and Borborygmos are canonically Chaotic Neutral, but with their most prominent personality traits being vanity & anger, respectively, the “Neutral” part of that can go out the window quick. Still, almost every Guild has at least a semblance of a position somewhere on the chart to start from. You can basically count on a member of each Guild to be at least:

Azorius Senate: Lawful

This is the Guild that writes the laws of Ravnica, after all. They literally draw their power from this ancient legal code, so it makes sense that, whether an Azorius leans more towards Good, Evil, or Neutrality, they do so lawfully.

Boros Legion: Good

If the Azorius follow the intellectual letter of the law, the Boros follow the passionate spirit for which said law was originally written. Justice, not legal-ese. Sometimes the law is good enough, but sometimes it fails its citizens. A Boros should be an inspiring force for Good, whether Lawful or Chaotic depends on the individual.

House Dimir: Neutral

The best a Dimir operative can hope to achieve, morally speaking, is neutrality. If you are working for this Guild, you are lying & stealing. Odds are you are infiltrating another Guild to find/steal information to report back to your superior(s). Not every Dimir agent does this willingly, however. Maybe a character only became a Dimir operative after finding out their mentor was. Maybe a character had nowhere else to turn and no one else to depend on. Maybe they just needed House Dimir’s connections to get them close enough to someone in another Guild who wronged them. Whatever the motivation, cling to that gray area of neutrality like your life depends on it. It’s all you’ve got.

Gruul Clans: Chaotic

Gruul are many things. “Lawful” is not one of them. If you’re a member of a Gruul Clan, you’ve definitely got a bit of a temper on you and a strong disregard for authority. Now, a Gruul can absolutely be a force for good, or, conversely, evil. Maybe you joined the Gruul after your ancestral home was bulldozed over for a smelly Izzet facility. Maybe you had a mental breakdown after decades of trying to uphold law in a city where the laws mean jack shit unless there’s a guy in blue sitting at his desk. Maybe you got tired of planting trees and getting stepped on. Maybe you don’t like the pretentiousness of so-called “artists”. Maybe you just like hitting things. Whatever your reason, the Gruul will welcome another anarchist.

Golgari Swarm: Chaotic/Evil/Neutral

The Golgari Swarm are the first Guild where you’re really going to find a lot of diversity in alignment. Some definitely fall into the chasm of Chaotic Evil Necromancers, others stand firmly in the fields of True Neutral Rot Farmer, and some idly wander between the two. Necromancy is pretty normal in Golgari society, and “Evil” can be considered a harsh word to describe it. It’s definitely more normalized in the Undercity than it is on the surface. A lot of typically Evil behavior is like that for the Golgari, lest we forget that this society of giant bugs, necromancers, zombies, medusa, etc also run the sewage system and food stamps program for the city. That said, there are definitely Golgari with sufficient ambition/motivation to become ready-made Big Bads. What is a Lich, after all, but a wizard who says, “No, I’m too important to die!”

Izzet League: Chaotic

If there’s one predictable aspect of the Izzet, it’s that they are unpredictable. For a Guild whose founding principle is “I wonder what would happen if....”, it’s best to accept that you’ll never be Lawful. Your job, as it is, is to look at laws (nature, physics, etc) and poke at them with electrodes to see what happens. Your focus will always be on things that haven’t been written down yet, as opposed to what already has. It’s almost literally impossible to be Lawful and Izzet for that reason alone. As far as Good, Evil, and Neutral go; that’s up to the individual. This experiment could replicate food so we never have to eat Golgari rations again! Or it could replicate essential personnel to prevent understaffing! Or, it could even replicate.... ME (cue maniacal laughter).

Orzhov Syndicate: Lawful

The Orzhov, like the Azorius, draw their power and influence from the laws of Ravnica. Evil is expected, though not mandatory, but Lawful is a requirement. An Orzhov who doesn’t know their way around Ravnica’s laws is a loose end, and the Orzhov don’t allow loose ends to jeopardize their schemes & ambitions. One can absolutely be a Lawful Neutral Orzhov, also known as an Accountant, but such individuals rarely find their way into a life of adventure. A Lawful Good Orzhov can exist, but your greatest adversary will be the large majority of your Guild who sees you as a potential threat to their illicit activities. In which case, you’ll want to know those laws even better than they do.

Cult of Rakdos: Chaotic

Chaos is mandatory, evil is encouraged. By “Evil”, we mean “things people tell you are Evil”. Anything you would do while drunk you should be able to do at all times! There’s really only three rules in the Cult of Rakdos:

Rule #1, Rakdos is #1

Rule #2, JUST DO IT

Rule #3, Don’t be boring

Being Neutral breaks Rule 3, being Good breaks Rule 2 and/or 3, and being Lawful breaks all 3 rules. Which reminds me of the fourth rule:

Rule #4, NEVER break Rule #1

Truthfully, being Chaotic Good or Chaotic Neutral is perfectly fine as long as you don’t impede on someone else’s hedonism without a reason, or lack thereof. As long as you’re being free & crazy, that’s what really matters.

Selesnya Conclave: Good

As stated with Trostani, Selesnya is a pretty consistent force of Good, if nothing else. They don’t really do hate, you know? Life in the Conclave is pretty uniformly Good, so why make trouble? Why can’t everyone just be Good? In short; ‘cause they don’t wanna, none of your business, go hug a tree, and/or because fire is FUN. Lawful fits some individuals but can just get in the way for others. Neutral is pretty solid but some things must call you to act. Chaotic is if you really want to embrace being a Nature Warrior in a planet-sized cityscape. Selesnya is the Guild for goodie two-shoes, as if that’s a bad thing.

Simic Combine: Any

The Simic Combine is the one Guild that can honestly fall anywhere on the alignment chart. The Guild started out as Doctors, Naturalists, and preservers of life. Now it also operates large-scale bioengineering. You can have a Lawful Good Simic Paladin committed to preserving life and health, a True Neutral Simic Forcemage (Druid) dedicated to living a simple life bolstering plant growth, or a Chaotic Evil Simic Wizard who has decided on everyone’s behalf that flippers and gills are now mandatory. Just like science can be used for great Good, great Evil, or mundane routine, the Simic Combine can turn its experiments to any purpose, depending on the individual. And whereas the Izzet are firmly Chaotic, the Simic have the foresight to think ahead before they try an experiment. You can be anything you want in the Simic Combine, just plan it out.

[pixiedurango]

actual HELPFUL Skyrim mods

I’ve been wanting to post about modding my Skyrim experience for a while now. Only the sheer amount of installed and running mods made it an overwhelming endeavor which I couldn’t handle as we speak of 200+ mods as of today. Now I decided to break it down a bit to make it a reasonable post (or a bunch of) that might provide something helpful for the ones that - like me - love the casual game and attempt to find things that help me focusing on the story experience. (If any of you considers those to come cheating, probably it is but I do I and you do you and I wish you all the best. Bye.) I’m going to link to the nexus so everyone can find everything easily. (Also: Power and happiness to all the modders out there. You guys are awesome! 1. LockpickPro just as simple and functional as it sounds. Never want a game without it. I simply lack any patience of the vanilla lockpick system. Also saves a lot of perks you simply won’t have to invest into the lockpicking skills-tree.

2. Simply knock Have you ever known the struggle coming to a house at night, where the guy who sent you on a quest is sleeping and you have to wait for them to wake up? Or being a righteous character who has to get something from somewhere and the door is locked all the fucking time and you have to lockpick the door to get in do fulfill your quest? Worry no more. Simply knock and any friendly npc is most likely to get up and open the door for you whenever.

3. Barenziah Quest Markers Really Bethesda? 24 stones without a single clue? It’s like the equivalent to the dreaded shard search in Inquisition and it sucks just as much. I refuse to go without that markers anymore.

4. Convenient Horses I rarely do horse riding in Skyrim but when I do, I just don’t want my horsey to follow me everywhere through fast travel. Hence I use this handy mod to switch off that annoying feature.

5. Valuable merchants Simply rises the amount of gold to trade for up to 10.000 gold for every merchant in Skyrim.

6. soulgem crafting No link here because I obviously use a mod that is not to find anymore on the nexus and I can’t recommend any of the many current mods because I don’t know about how they work because they do different things than mine which basically just lets you upgrade soul gems at a forge y the ratio 2:1 -  BUT I can highly recommend the Acquisitive Soul Gems Multithreaded mod that will prevent lesser/tinier souls to jump into your valuable grand/black soul gems. Each soul will only go into a fitting soul gem and I find this is very neat of them.

7. Run for your lives is a handy mod that makes civilians flee into their houses or seek shelter anywhere in case of a dragon attack instead of running into the way, getting themselves killed and involuntarily raising your dragonborn’s bounty.

8. Enchanters Merchant Sets up a merchant stand in Whiterun where you can buy every vanilla enchantment via random items. This is probably really close to cheating but getting started with enchanting early in the game is always essential for me so I know I can buy the “carry weight” and “fortify sneak” enchantment (and anything else that comes in handy) early on. Of course you’ll need some (a lot) gold so its not THAT easy peasy anyway.

9. Ars Metallica Smithing mod. I actually use one called smithing 2.0 which I can’t find on the nexus anymore (it seems to be available on the steam workshop though) but it does basically the same things so I think I might link this one here.

10. Armored mage robes I fairly often play mages and it always bugged me that their robes are not armored at all. So this mod fixed that. In the same light I love to use JS Armored Circlets because no matter what I play, warrior or mage, I HATE helmets... I mean I spend 5 hours in the CC what do you expect? Hiding my pretty baby under an ugly helmet? Nope, don’t think so.

11. Glowing Ore Veins 300 - Is a life (and time) saver for me. I think the ore’s glowing is super helpful without being too bright. But I remember before running this mod even in mines I had difficulties to find the ores to mine. 

12. Arrow Conversion Spell - Is this cheating already? Maybe, but its actually super convenient to simply use a spell to upgrade all your arrows into the highest arrow class you have in your inventory. At some point you’ll end up with way too many arrows to ever use and you can go and sell them to make easy gold. I think most of them mods are pretty common and well known but maybe there are peeps out there who are still new to modding and can make some use of this. Also, if people have more recommendations in that light of usefulness, be my guest, reblog and ad.

Also check out my post about my favorite armor mods

[themonotonysyndrome]

Emerald Onlooker

Part 2 of the Successors to the Future is here! I, uh, didn’t expect a lot of people liking it, but since I’m still pretty excited about this AU, I want to write as much as I can. 

Thank you again @tri3tri for inspiring us with your Second Wive AU and many, many wonderful Yandere!Malleus content. A little summary about this AU: Yandere!Malleus married and took MC against her will. He turns her into a Queen and they had 2 daughters. However, Yandere!Malleus is pushed to take on a second wife (a Fae woman, Gekkon) to give him a son, a male heir. During the wedding ceremony, MC took the opportunity and escape to NRC with her daughters in tow and Crowley finally did them a solid and send the three of them to MC’s world.

Successors to the Future, summary: Without a court of condescending Faes and Malleus’ oppressive affection, MC and her daughters live happily in the other world. When she left Twisted Wonderland, MC didn’t realise that she was pregnant and thus, she gave birth to a son who grew up as carefree as a bird and just as kind. However, now that her eldest daughter had just turned sixteen and discover her Unique Magic, she was returned to Twisted Wonderland as a first-year student in Diasomnia. Since it’s only a matter of time before Malleus and his court discover her presence at NRC, MC and her children did their best to prepare her for that inevitable day. 

This oneshot is a continuation of that. 

FD/N = First daughter’s name/Renata Draconia (half-human, half dark Fae Princess. Malleus & MC’s eldest child)

SD/N = Second daughter’s name/Sherrie or Cherry Draconia (half-human, half-dark Fae Princess. Malleus & MC’s middle child)

S/S = Son’s name/Lucien Draconia (half-human, half-dark Fae Prince and the heir to the throne. Malleus & MC’s youngest child). 

MC/S = MC’s surname

-

Sherrie enjoy going about her daily lives on her lowest brain capacity most of the time. There’s nothing like just... switching off your brain and ignore all the boring things around you.  

The only thing that gets the gears and cogs in her brain spinning is when she plays video games like Portal or coming up with schemes to get her eldest sister out of trouble. 

When she jokes about only having 2 braincells and that both are constantly on holidays at the same time unless Renata did something stupid, Renata howl with laughter while Lucien just rolled his eyes at his cackling sisters. 

But now that Renata is playing student in Night Raven College, Sherrie is surprised to find herself looking forward to not only help her oldest sister dodged their father’s steps, but also pulling the proverbial rug underneath the Thorn Kingdom. 

Especially Lilia Vanrouge. 

It’s addicting. The unholy glee running within you when your cute puppets finally realised who’s been tugging on their strings all along. 

Humans are easy and oblivious enough for her to practise on. Despite how monotonous school can be, the environment was a good place for Sherrie to learn and play. Everyone has a chip on their shoulder; everyone wants to stand out among the rest. 

So it’s really not that hard to learn who’s the right person to blackmail, who’s desperate enough to do anything to make their crush look at them and how to make the key figures dance on the palm of her hands. 

This year’s prom night was certainly a memory she won’t ever forget. 

And now? Now Sherrie can’t wait to play with the so-called ‘superior’ species - their father’s ancient court and loyal retainers - once she and her sister could establish contact. 

They’ve been working hard on this little project. Everyone in her little family is. Renata is off being a good little student and let the gossips travel on its own, their little brother is doing his best to assured their mother that all would be well and Sherrie?

Sherrie is busy setting up the stage for the climax once Renata usher all the important players to where she wanted them. 

(Mama likes to call her a ‘smart cookie’, always rubbed her head affectionately and said, “You’re a brilliant girl, Cherry. You’re just lazy. I know you can achive anything you want with the proper motivation, just like Floyd-senpai.”.) 

(Their Mama can never know just how far her daughter had use the same skill that she praise to manipulate others.) 

In the middle of the evening - just shy after midnight -  Sherrie heard a water drip somewhere in her bedroom. 

Drip... drip... drip... 

She pushes her chair away from her gaming laptop, game paused and just listen. Her eyes scan the dimly lit bedroom. 

Drip... drip... 

“This better not be the start of a horror movie.” 

It’s coming from... somewhere near her vanity table. Sherrie ignores the clutter of make-ups, perfumes and figurines on the table and waited eagerly. Her leg couldn’t stop bouncing when the surface ripple like water’s surface once. 

The ripple clears and instead of staring at her reflection, her oldest sister stares right back at her. 

“It works!” Renata said incredulously. “I can’t believe the headmaster’s half-assed runes actually works!” 

“The fuck? What happened?” Sherrie reply, a bit taken back. Behind her sister, Sherrie could see a bed, study table and walls and other furnishing that eerily looks similar to the ones back at the castle. 

Renata waved her hand in a dismissive manner. “I had to literally bullied a grown ass man to help me contact you. It took me a week of camping in the library to figured out how, but we managed to come up with runes that allow us to create a link to every mirror in the house.” She explains in an exasperated tone. “I’ll teach you the drawing tomorrow. All you guys need to do is just draw them on any mirror and it’ll send me a signal to find a mirror of my own.” 

“That kinda sounds like a phone call. Like, an interdimensional phone call!” 

“I know right! I already put a compact mirror in my purse so I can call you anytime!” Renata said with a smug grin. She’s clearly proud of her clever little trick. Even with the help of the headmaster. 

Sherrie never doubted that her sister couldn’t find a way to contact them. She’s a prodigy when it comes to magic. 

She might be young, but she could still remember how their tutors gave out praises as if they were candies when it comes to her older sister and her affinity for magic. 

It’s just too bad that their compliments are worthless when they always ended with, “If only the Princess is a full born Fae...” 

“Ok, so, contact established. Now are you still in Phase 1?” Sherrie said, bringing their conversation back to important matters. She made sure to properly and slowly explain their game plan a week before the Ebony Carriage took Renata to Night Raven College. The words are clearly written, highlighted colourfully and important steps are accompanied by cartoon stickers. 

Despite being a prodigy at magic, her sister woefully has short attention span when it comes to playing the long game. Her attention spans burn hot and fast, just like her anger. It also burns out just as quick as it came. 

Renata rolled her eyes, unimpressed. “Yes, yes. I’m still in Phase 1. It’s hard to make friends when everyone is wary of you. Do you know they hung up portraits of past Dorm Leaders and their Vice Dorm Leaders in each dorm? It’s so annoying when everyone stares at me and at father’s portrait whenever I walk into Disomnia!” 

Sherrie hums and made a quick dash to grab her tablet. The one where she wrote down her plans. She swipes the screen to the list of names that their mother had given them. 

“They’re just NPCs, don’t worry about them. What you need to focus on are the students with the surnames that Mama gave us.” Here, Sherrie is tapping on the screen of her tablet to the mirror. “Have you met any of them or did you fucked up the plan already?” 

“Calm your tits, I’ve been following your instructions.” Renata assured her, not the least riled up. “We’re only in the first semester; I only managed to match the names and faces of my dorm mates so far. It’s gonna take me at least a month of snooping around before I could find them.” Renata paused and her eyes suddenly lit up as if she just remembered something. “Oh, but I’ve been farming intel of the Thorn Kingdom using the Lucky Leanan spell every day after curfew. It took some trial and error but I successfully managed to find the castle again!”

Sherrie recalls that one of Renata spells - Lucky Leanan - creates a small fairy made out of pure magic that would do sneak attacks by shooting lightning bolts while Renata fights. It’s small enough to flit behind an opponent’s line of sight and take them off guard. 

Small enough to sneak into the castle without anyone none the wiser. 

So Sherrie nodded. “That’s a good move. You’re safely far away from the castle and you can remotely dispel Leanan if it gets dicey.” 

“Yup! Look at my one braincell go!” Renata cheered. “If I keep this up and give it plenty of water and sunlight, maybe it’ll grow!” 

Sherrie burst out laughing alongside her sister. Her joke took her off guard. Hopefully their laughter didn’t wake up their mother and Lucien. 

Sherrie hiccups and wipe the tears from the corner of her eye. It feels nice to talk to her sister again.  

She misses her disaster of sister already. 

“Anyway, I need to hit the bed soon.” Renata said, breaking her train of thought. “I’ll do my best to gather as much info as I can about the ongoings inside the castle for you. Are there any heads up you want me to look for?” 

Sherrie smiles brightly and reply, “Of course! If you could, be a dear and get everything about father’s... other wife. Everything - right down to the most boring shits.”

“On it.” 

-

That first-year Diasomnia student has been the talk around campus for weeks now. 

Not only is she the only girl in Night Raven College, word on the streets quickly spreads that she’s look too similar to one of the previous Dorm Leader of Diasomnia to not be related. 

Staring at her while she’s busy taking a selfie of the Great Seven statues, he agrees that the similarities are too uncanny. 

Now, why would he sends his own Princess to a villain school without any retainer? 

That, and why under a different surname? 

Something’s not right. 

Renata MC/S brought with her an interesting mystery to Night Raven College. A mystery that caught his interest at the first whiff of her scent. And oh Great Seven, her delectable scent. The first time his nose caught that mouthwatering smell, it had his tail swishing in eager and his head spinning. 

It’s the scent of his favourite flower - blood lily - with a hint of something... otherworldly. He still can’t quite put words into it. 

He wants to unravel her. Understand what makes her tick. 

Uncover what she’s hiding. 

Four days later in History class, Professor Trein gave him - and Renata - their golden ticket. 

“Kingscholar, MC/S - you two will be partners for this assignment. I expect you two have no objection.” 

“It’s fine...” 

“I don’t have a problem with the arrangement, professor.” 

The professor nodded and class is dimiss. Students began making their way out of the room. Except for him... and her. 

Renata steps in front of his desk when they finally have the class all to themselves. He takes a good, long look at her. 

She’s certainly beautiful; a real heartbreaker. But there’s something interesting within her bright green eyes. Something volatile. He wonders what could it really be. 

“Hi there. So you’re Bakari Kingscholar, hmm? Hope we can ace this assignment without any problem.” Renata said with a small smile. Is she trying to be friendly? Because it just looks condescending as hell. 

But that just makes this a lot more fun. 

“Same here. Girl or not, I won’t let it slide if you prove to be a dead weight.” 

His warning clearly took her off guard with the how her smile froze. It was only for a moment though, before she let out a laugh. As if he just told a funny joke. 

“Kitty-cat is flexing his claws, huh?” Renata had the audacity to grin. The other Savanaclaw students would’ve lowered their heads at his tone. “Don’t worry. Do your part and I promise I won’t light your tail on fire.” 

Oh, his old man needs to know about this girl. 

-

You have no idea how much fun it is to write about Malleus and MC’s children! Especially the Princessess. Unfortunately, they’re more like Malleus than they or MC even realise it. Anyway, my main reference for SD/N is none other than... TADA! Fyodor Dostoevsky from BSD!

It’s just that Sherrie is a lot more lazy and rather keep to herself and stay at home. She only goes out of her to way to mess with people because of Renata and her tendecies to get into trouble.  

I’m still thinking on the draft for part 3 so we’ll see how that goes. Also, I was struggling wether to name Leona’s son or not. I think that honoured should go to @tri3tri​! 

[baldinggoat]

I wrote a really long post about playersexuality about a year ago mostly targeting other crpgs, but I updated it a bit and decided to throw it on this blog too. It’s a bit repetitive, and it isn’t perfect, but it’s important to me that I’ve been trying to parse my direct feelings towards the phenomenon for a long time and I wanted to write it out. 

It mostly came from this article/post, and then kind of grew from there. It isn’t a direct criticism of Baldur’s Gate 3 or how Larian studios is writing queer sexuality, but if the shoe fits...well...

First of this all comes from someone with a trans and bi perspective. So it’s all subjective obviously. None of this is about discrediting bisexual characters, but critically analyzing how games depict queer sexuality. I just want more people to understand how playersexuality does hurt gay people who want gay characters, and hurt bi people who want more tangible representation and not a “schrodinger's” bisexuality.

Bisexuality/pansexuality isn’t necessarily being attracted to someone regardless or despite gender. It’s being attracted to more then one gender. Gender does, in fact, matter In relationships. Its frustrating really. My relationship to gender means a lot to me. It’s shaped my whole life. When I want someone to love me, I want them to love me for me AND acknowledge my gender. It’s a part of who I am. I don’t want it to be ignored. I’ve never had the privilege to ignore my gender, and I’ve never had the privilege of other people ignoring it either, since I’m trans. It’s not my only quality, but it’s a big part of my personal story and growth. Whenever I want to date anyone, I always have to have a conversation with them about our sexualities and my gender.

When you make a game with a story about fictional characters, you usually want the audience to care about said characters. You want to make it possible for the audience to empathize with them in some way. But in the end, all they ever will be is the game developer’s IDEA of what a person is, never an actual person. How sexuality and gender are presented in the story is all but an idea of how the game developers want sexuality and gender to be presented to the audience.

The bottom line is this: game companies have incentive for making money first. Game devs rarely care about giving lgbtq people a character that has an experience that the audience can empathize with. The audience that includes cishet people, because when everyone empathizing with fictional lgbtq characters, that’s what gives us “representation”. Because that’s what that actually means. Representation is about speading stories about our experiences being lgbtq to help other lgbtq people know that they aren’t alone, and also that it’s not a bad thing to be lgbtq. Playersexual characters don’t acknowledge that experience in their narrative, they aren’t representation.

And I real human being doesn’t need to tell you their sexuality. An actual gay or bisexual person doesn’t need to disclose anything about their past to “prove” their gay or bisexual. That’s because it’s an invasion of privacy, and when someone does tell you these things its because they trust you. It’s why “coming out of the closet” is something that exists. We are NOT entitled to know these things, yet everyone is assumed straight because that’s what is expected, so telling someone these things is an act of trust. But when it comes to fictional characters, there’s never that invasion of privacy. There’s no need to respect their boundaries, because as an omniscient audience we’re able to see different, imaginary perspectives. A game developer can always give us a clear indication of a character’s sexuality, and they can even do it without the characters stating it (although they should because that helps normalize people talking about their sexuality). It never has to be obfuscated or ignored. If it is obfuscated in some way, it’s because it’s the game developers’ intention. They don’t want to make a character’s sexuality clear and therefore, don’t actually care about lgbtq people.

So you play a videogame. There’s a character who admits they have feelings for the player. This character never talks about the gender of your character when it comes to the relationship. The character also, interestingly enough, never talks about a history of relationships with the same gender or mentions their attraction to the same gender. Even if they do, it’s a one off comment, innuendo, and/or never a full admission, something small that can be missed and ignored without deeper thought. (Also using correct pronouns isn’t acknowledging you’re in a relationship with someone who’s the same gender btw, it’s just common fucking courtesy).

The only way you ever even know that the character even is willing to date the same gender is if your character is there, and willing to date them. If your player character didn’t exist, you would never know this character dates the same gender. It’s schrodinger's bisexuality! The npc’s sexuality is not there unless you, the player, make it a part of your story. It doesn’t belong to the character. I hope that makes sense, because in the end the player is doing all the work for the writers. I also find it extremely unrealistic that in these situations, the characters are in serious romantic/sexual relationships and never talk about their history with dating the same gender, even casually.

What truly makes me sad though is how fandom, especially other bi people, will claim playersexuality as legitimate bisexual representation. It’s truly depressing that videogame writers have been able to find this loophole, use it, and abuse it. It gives game companies, that absolutely do not care about actually representing lgbtq people in their stories, credit where no credit is due. Of course I’m not trying to go after bi fans, and they aren’t wrong to claim these characters are bisexual, because that’s the whole point of calling it schrodinger's bisexuality. I personally don’t think infighting with other fans about whether a character is actually bisexual or not will get anyone anything except a migraine. What I do think, is people should be more critical about how videogame companies are presenting sexuality in their stories, and focus on criticizing that.

Edit: On a personal note, I also hate fandom using playersexuality to try to say the character’s sexuality is up for “interpretation” so they “headcanon” said character as straight or gay. That’s just biphobic. But, when trans/bi/gay people are talking about playersexuality, it’s usually from a more constructive outlook, where we just want the game studios to be held more accountable for erasure. This is also why I prefer the term “schrodinger's bisexuality”. Bisexual when you want them to be, not bisexual when you don’t want them to be.

I know people want the comfort, the ease, and the simplicity that playersexuality brings. I know it’s been used in games for years, and at one time it was the only queer content and representation games had. But times are changing, and game companies need to change. We need actual Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans characters, not a schrodinger's bisexuality. If you allow anyone and everyone to be able to romance any character regardless of gender, then you don’t have to worry about straight players being mad a character they want to romance is gay, or lgbt players being upset a character is straight.

Continuing to use playersexuality isn’t an “everyone’s happy” solution to people asking for more gay/bi characters in videogames. It’s obvious this has everything to do with money, since it’s making games viable for a wider audience and not actually giving queer people representation. It’s also painfully obvious when you have so much undeniable m/f that is central to the story.

I know game studios aren't a monolith. I know developing a game is usually convoluted and rarely linear. I also know it’s a company, and there are “layers” of writing, and things tend to go through a grind before they get green-lite. I know there’s never a singular person making decisions how character’s sexuality are depicted, and theres always more going on behind doors we may never know. Maybe game studios using playersexuality are trying to depict more lgbtq representation and some “big man” up top wont let them. But I highly doubt it, and think it has to do with marketability, because this is a product that is on the market.

TL; DR: I’m an annoying transgenderer who’s entitled and believes videogames should cater to me. Making companions/npcs playersexual, especially all of them, is a horrible, lazy, homophobic, and biphobic writing decision. Game companies don’t care about lgbtq people. Support lgbtq people, help donate to lgbtq content creators when you can, and help lgbtq people in fandom feel safe.

Aka Donate to my ko-fi lol

[autumnslance]

I'm seeing some criticism for Thancred not hugging Ryne at the end of 5.3, and I'm finding it a little frustrating. I feel, as guarded as Thancred is, that it's entirely realistic for him not to go in for a hug - and if that's not the angle they were going for, we can't be sure that it wasn't due to time limitations that it couldn't be animated to a good degree. Forgive me for being cynical, but it sometimes feels like people will attack him/call him a "bad dad" for any reason they can think of.

I haven’t seen those accusation thanks to curating my feeds and staying out of the general tags for my own enjoyment, but it doesn’t surprise me.

I’ll put this under a cut for the spoilers for 5.3. Trailer shots don’t count.

I mean, animation limits aside, they were also in the middle of the Exedra. I feel like there were things probably said, and perhaps hugs given, when they went to Nabaath Areng together to leave flowers for Minfilia. It’s interesting that the WoL catches up to them in Twine with Magnus and the boys, and do not get to see Ryne and Thancred actually at the site of Minfilia’s final sacrifice; their private goodbye is so private we don’t get to see it. There’s also the entirety of his conversation with Magnus (where Team Trolley then decides they’re now Ryne’s weird uncles who will do anything and everything for her when she asks, because her dad has to leave).

I was playing through the MSQ with @erickgage and his initial reaction to the goodbye in the Exedra was “Ryne is being really formal.” Again, that feels like someone not only trying very hard to hold herself together for the sake of her breaking emotions, but also due to how public they were at that moment. Thancred said some things there he should have said long ago, though, being about as effusive as we’ve ever seen him, in public or private. And the headpat has far more special meaning to the both of them than anything else.

Also, later in the Ocular, he gives her his gunblade. They continue interacting and making promises to one another up until the last.

So yeah, it’s likely people already pre-disposed to disliking Thancred, and how closed off he was in the earlier parts of 5.0, finding another reason to criticize, and I would simply ignore it.

I mean, people still think Thancred’s more responsible for Ryne’s lack of sense of self than Ran’jit, who actually did treat her like an extension of every other Minfilia and not her own person for 10 formative childhood years, wanting to keep her locked in a subterranean cell forever. I agree that Thancred’s far from blameless in his mishandling of the girl’s issues while not handling his own at all, but a huge part of his and Ryne’s joint story through Shadowbringers is working past that and becoming a family who actually connects emotionally and communicates with one another, which they have, and do, all the way until he’s sent home.

About the only thing that disappointed me in returning the Scions to the Source, really, is Ryne’s still on the First (and apparently in annoying invisible NPC limbo status; Erick’s theory is Gaia’s taking her shopping because that’s the only way she knows how to deal with sadness). Though with Y’shtola’s declarations and some other things thrown in, I hold out hope that at some point we learn how to let others travel between the shards because not gonna lie, it feels weird to be on the First now without the Scions there, knowing they’re prevented from seeing the friends we’ve made along the way.

EDITS/ADDENDUM: For those claiming it to be “cultural”, Taliesin of “Taliesin & Evitel”, when going through 5.3 himself, noted he’s known Japanese families and “Japanese men absolutely hug their children” with some rather strong language attached, as it’s stereotyping/generalizing, making assumptions, of a whole society based on outsider understanding. I think this is much more having to do with the awkward personalities of the characters involved while in a public situation.

Also we HAVE had hugs in game, before and after this moment, but they were all with characters of similar heights, and usually include some creative camera angles still. Thancred and Ryne are quite disparate in size so likely even trickier to manage in the time given, even taking who the characters are and how they interact in such a situation into account.

And I have written and made my own screenshots of their private chats in Nabaath Areng since, and yeah a hug is included then. Cuz it makes much more sense for it to be private for these two for many reasons.

[roodllle]

Year in Review - Animal Crossing New Horizons

I started writing this review/criticism in May of 2020 but decided to update it as the year went along and post it on the anniversary of NH’s release. I would like to preface that this is mostly going to be full of questions of criticisms, I love this game. I have not been able to put it down since I got it on March 20th. My first AC game was NL and then I played HHD. I was ecstatic when they announced NH at E3 2019 and kept trying to find other games to fit in my AC shaped hole in my heart but I wasn’t able to fill it till this game came out. I feel like the pace of the game is great with how you build up to unlocking terraforming and 5 stars, and I feel like the updates are well timed especially with how crazy 2020 was for everybody. That being said there were some things that irked me. 

Some of the points I will bring up came from other people/commenters I have seen on here, Discord, Reddit, and Twitter that I also agree with. Some other points are from Youtubers such as ShayMay and ChuyPlays. And others are from me. 

With that out of the way, let’s get on with the review. Warning, I guess, don’t expect this to be an essay, this is just a patchwork quilt made up of thoughts.

Terraforming

I wish cliffs/tiers had a smaller level? Like how we’re able to make stepping stones for our rivers if we don’t want to put a bridge down/use our vaulting pole. I just wish there was a cliff alternative. 

Another cliff alternative would be if we could put bridges between cliffs. I think we’ve all been there where we see this picture 

          thought ‘we can do that!!” then realized it was photoshopped

When we go into terraforming, I wish a grid showed up on our island. It would make it much easier to avoid hitting the wrong square when I’m trying to change a river. 

Having us be able to “close” a waterfall from a lower level but not create a new on at the same spot. 

Also the fact we can add a 4th tier but can’t put anything on it is just strange to me. I know we have to have a limit to how high we can go, but at least let me put nature stuff, such as trees/flowers/bushes, on top of it instead of just a flat piece of land. 

Houses

Why no ceiling items? Find it odd they added a bunch of stuff in HHD and didn’t add that to the new mainline game

There’s no reason I can think of to why we can’t access our storage when we’re crafting inside our house. 

Buildings

Dodo Airlines

The Dodo Islands right now are very boring and barely use them. I have enough money and materials to not go farming and save up all my NMTs for when I go villager hunting, which has also become a rarity. I think it would be a good idea to make some islands seasoned themed. Have them be all rare, but have an island where it’s fall and has maple leaves falling, a cherry blossom one, one with snowflakes. I wouldn’t recommend they make Holiday themed ones, but having seasonal ones would be nice.

When I mess up a dodo code or accidentally hit ‘make a bridge’ instead of incline, etc. why do I have to restart the ENTIRE conversation instead of the characters just being “oh? did you mean “x” or “would you like to retype it?” like is it that hard??  

Resident Services

As much as I love Isabelle this game has made me very indifferent towards her. I think they gave her a role that didn’t need to exist. They could have either let us roam around without any warnings to who was roaming around our island, in the campsite, or any weather updates. Just have us rely on our villagers, the TV, and our eyeballs. OR they could have given us a social media like app and/or a weather app. Instead, they gave us Isabelle that only announces something once a month.

Nook’s Cranny

This might just be me but can they add a little DIY area in the store? Maybe just make to where you can only customize things?? This is more out of convenience than an actual problem  

Speaking of customization, since you can make medicine but also buy can we do the same for the custom kits and bait. Like make it where we can buy bait and also make our own custom kits? I just think it’s weird that they give us either/or for medicine but not for the other 2 that I honestly use way more than medicine.

Why do the Able Sisters get to have all of the colors of an item in their shop but Nook’s Cranny can’t? And why can’t we just be able to customize all items that have multiple looks/colors? Example, why can’t I just be able to change the wood type for the antique set instead of having to buy each one? I get that the furniture catalog is already small, but that’s not my fault. They’ve decided to not add past furniture sets into NH. 

Able Sisters

Let us multi select clothes instead of it just being how much we can wear. idc if it’ll just put those clothes in our personal storage and then we’ll have to run home and put it in that storage, I just hate having to walk back in and out every time I want a dress in multi colors. ALSO tell us if we already bought it, like a little storage icon or something

Why can’t we hang any article of clothing on the back wall, why do we have to either make it or have the OG qr designer come to our island? 

Why can’t we have the transparent option when designing clothes? I think it would make many designer’s lives easier instead of having to make 8 versions of the same outfit.

NPCs

I have played this game almost every day since it came out, minus 2 days. I have also been able to make friends on discord that help with trading/cataloging/etc. I have all of Saharah’s, Kicks’, Label’s, and Redd’s items. I have all of the fish/bug models I want and have no desire to “catch them all”. I haven’t talked to Wisp in months because I have most of the items and his idea of “expensive” is 10k bells. The only NPC I actively look forward to is Celeste because even though I now have all of her DIYs, she still gives out star fragments, regular large or horoscope, when I talk to her. 

What I’m wondering is if they’re planning on doing anything else with these characters. Before I speak further I’m going to weed out characters that I am actually fine with. CJ and Flick will always be there if I want a bug/fish model, I understand that Saharah/Kicks/Redd have a ton of stuff to get and w/o the help of my discord friends, I probably wouldn’t have gotten everything till late 2021. 

So that leaves Label and Wisp. I understand Wisp is there for beginners, but now that I’m at a point where I am a bell millionaire and have most of the Nook’s items cataloged, there is no reason for me to talk to him. I wish Nintendo had put in a system where depending on the person who Wisp is talking to, it determines how much money you have in your bank account/looks at your catalog, Wisp’s item’s worth goes up.

As for Label...I never saw her as viable. I also thought the tickets were dumb and you don’t even have to talk to her to have her items show up in the shop the next day. I think it would be great if when you bought all of her items, she decided to join the Able’s sisters in their shop like in NL and then have Gracie show up in her place for the weekly NPC. 

Where is Blanca? Or Brewster? Or Shrunk, Katrina, Gracie, or Kapp’n and his family? I understand we will probably never see characters like Harriet or Pete because they have been replaced by a new system, but what is the excuse for these other characters? I’m hoping they show up in year 2 of NH but...we’ll see.

Villagers

I think having your first villagers living in basic homes is a good idea but one that quickly gets annoying. I found Sherb while villager hunting for the 1st time and have had him ever since, but his house is stuck at basic lazy setup. Instead of me going back and forth on whether or not i should trust somebody enough to hold Sherb, get somebody else out, then get him to move back to my island, You can have it to where you let them leave, then just wait till he comes to the campsite to visit and reinvite him. You get his actual house and he still remembers you. This could also go for you accidentally letting somebody go or letting somebody go then regretting it. Also it’d be fun to see some old villagers again.

I was curious and looked back on past games to see how many new villagers were released each game and NH has been the least amount. NL released 112 new villagers in total while NH has released 8. I’m hoping they might release more down the line but, hella disappointing imo. Along with the Sanrio update and adding those characters to the game, I am more hopeful that they’ll be adding new characters!

Having an “event” of sorts where you visit a villager’s house and they’re looking inside their closet. They look at you in surprise when you walk in and sheepishly explain that they were going through their clothes/items. They then decide to ask you for help since they can’t decide what to get rid of/what to keep and think you have a good eye for that sort of thing. Basically, a way to get rid of any clothes/items your villager somehow received bc I guess Isabelle scolding them isn’t enough.

A big problem I feel like everybody has is the villager dialogue. Yes they added sub personality types for each personality but they are not perfectly cut in half, ex. are the Sisterly types where there are 4 B types and 20 A types, like?? How I have “fixed” this problem is by having one of each personality type on my island so I always have different conversations with my villagers, but I understand not a lot of people do that. Some people just want normal/peppy types on their island bc they’re cute as hell, I get it. I know it would be...difficult to come up with unique dialogue for all 399 villagers, including Sanrio, but....you could at least for the “gimmicky” villagers. Some examples of these villagers are Ribbot and Sprocket, Lucky and Ankha, the super hero squad, and Kabuki. 

Quality Life stuff

Why cant we sit AND wish on stars? And I don’t mean the sit emote; why can’t I sit on a bench and wish on stars?

It sucks when I’m about to hit my rocks or just do a lot of dig work and then my shovel breaks in the middle of it. To show the tool is about to break, cracks should start to form on the handle and get deeper/longer as you keep using it, starting when you have 5 uses left. You can also add an auditory element by making the tool sound like its struggling when you are using it. Net/Shovel/Axe/Fishing Pole can have cracks show up on the handle, Slingshot can have crack show up at the bottom of the 2 spokes while having 1 at the top of the handle. And the watering can have cracks at the base of the can.

If our inventory is full when I dig up a flower, why can’t I replace it with another flower to bury? And if I can dig up an item at an diagonal item, I should be able to bury it again at the same angle.

Other

Having more...liveliness?? on the island, idk how else to say it. Example is whenever you travel by plane there's a chemtrail in the sky afterwards, maybe just seeing other planes go by throughout the day. Maybe you can get a hint Redd or Gulliver will be visiting you tomorrow if you see their boats beyond the horizon, Redd’s just crusin’ and the Gulls’ boats looking messed up. On a week where you don't have a new camper, maybe have an old villager visit. That leads me too

I wish villager’s doors could count as “exterior decorating” and we can just put any ornamental on there instead having to hope that your villager will put the wreath on their own door. 

Conclusion

If you read this whole thing holy shit, thanks!! Go treat yourself on my part lol If you disagreed with me or whatever feel free to chat with me about it! 

[legendarymasterwolf]

My Top 10 Favorite Video Games

Now that The Last of Us Part 2 and Ghost of Tsushima are out and I’ve finished both, I’ve decided to finally compile a list of my top ten favorite games I’ve played and have revisited over time. This is my own personal list, make no judgments based on what is here.

And awaaaaaaaaaay we go!

10: Ghost of Tsushima

I’ve never played a game that scratched that samurai itch before, and this one totally did it for me. Whether it was the standoffs straight out of a Kurosawa film, or the ability to scare the shit out of Mongols, or riding through a beautifully rendered world viewed through one of the most natural HUDs I’ve ever seen, I loved this game. Sure, it may be leaving this list once Cyberpunk 2077 comes out, but for now, it takes the tenth spot.

9: Star Wars: The Old Republic

Still one of my favorite Star Wars games. This was the first MMORPG I played where my character actually had a voice. I know, it’s a little thing, but I still like it. Whenever I have a spare moment on the road, a decent connection, and some time to chill, I fire up this game. Plus, it’s still operating even with Disney owning the franchise now, so there’s that.

8: Wolfenstein: The New Colossus

Still scarily relevant at the time of writing (hopefully not for much longer) and one of the best modern reinventions of a protagonist from a classic series. Also, shooting, hacking, and exploding Nazis and Klan members will never get old, no matter how many conservative man-children say otherwise. Plus, there’s one of best female characters in gaming, Grace Walker, who’s got some of the best lines in the game and some great commentary on masculinity.

7: “Assassin’s Creed” Series

I’m cheating here, but I can’t just choose one game from this series. One of the first games I played when I got a PC was Revelations. I played through the rest of them in the year that followed and I became hooked. So hooked, that I got both the Ezio Collection and AC3 Remastered for PS4 when the opportunity came (though the latter was just because it was on the Odyssey Season Pass). Odyssey was the first AC game I platinumed and, barring a few missteps here and there, I loved it. I can’t freaking wait for Valhalla.

6: “Persona” Series

I was just going to have Persona 5 Royal in this spot, despite still not finishing it (damn Okumura boss fight), but I’ve also got Persona 4 Golden and am loving it, so now I need to get Persona 3 whenever Sega decides to port the game to PC. Each game is set in a high school with an other world where your inner self is revealed. The social links system is great and you're basically playing an anime, complete with filler and everything. Some of them have surprisingly relevant themes, too(P5 fans know what I'm talking about). Now to finish them at some point.

5: Marvel’s Spider-Man

A game better than Spider-Man 2: The Game? No one thought it was possible until this came out. The web swinging has weight to it, the acting is great (props to Yuri Lowenthal), and the story, which Dan Slott contributed to, is a fantastic original Spider-Man story. Also, this happened to be the game that convinced me to buy a PS4. Can't wait for Miles Morales.

4: Disco Elysium

When I heard about this game, I knew I had to play it. It's not like any other isometric RPG I've played. In it, you play as an alcoholic detective waking up after a three day bender to find himself with amnesia and 24 distinct personalities that are always clashing, especially when you’re in conversation with an NPC. The story progresses as you try to piece together not only the case you were assigned to, but why you drank for three days straight to forget the case altogether. It’s batshit nuts and I love it. It also runs fairly well on my laptop, with a console port on the way. Also, still need to finish it. I know, my backlog is huge.

3: Red Dead Redemption 2

I never really got into the original RDR, mainly because I didn’t get a console until Christmas 2018. Thankfully, RDR2 is a prequel to the original game, set in the last years of the Old West, so it was easy to get into. While it did take a while for the game to get going and its storage size is massive (105 GB, WTF), when I finally powered on through and played the rest of the story, I was treated to some of the best characters I’ve seen in a game along with a story so heartbreaking, I was tearing up by the credits. Sure, the realism did become annoying to an extent, I could have done without the Guarma chapter, and the epilogue was four hours too long, but regardless, this is still one of my favorite depictions of the Wild West I’ve ever played.

2: “The Last of Us” Series

If the story for RDR2 was heartbreaking, then this series shattered my heart, pieced it back together, shattered it again, and then gave me hope to mend it in the future. I can’t choose between either Part 1 or Part 2, because I think both games are not only brilliant, but oversimplified when it comes to their themes. If we’re being simple about it, Part 1 is about Love and Part 2 is about Hate. In actuality, Part 1 is about the lengths we are willing to go for the ones we love and Part 2 is about the cycle of hate and how love can break it. Beyond the story (going to finally do that Part 2 breakdown in the future), the gameplay in both games is entertaining, the graphics look breathtaking (Part 2 has ruined all other games for me when it comes to graphics), the music is on point, and the performances are some of the best ones I’ve seen for a video game. This series set a new standard for how we see games and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for it. I don’t even mind waiting another seven years or so for the next one!

1: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

While the other games on this list are fantastic, they don’t hold a candle to the game that first inspired me to start thinking about making this list. This was the first game where, when I got to the credits, I felt not joy at completing another game, but sadness at the story finally being over. Geralt of Rivia’s final tale is still my favorite for its choices with no clear terms of morality, monster hunting missions that kept me enthralled even if some of the creatures scared the shit out of me (fucking Aracnomorphs), and the chance to have some fun with several members of the opposite sex (I regret nothing). Oh, and Gwent. Can’t forget Gwent. CD Projekt RED still remains one of my favorite developers to this day and I can’t wait for Cyberpunk 2077 to finally release in December (when it’s ready!!!).

And there you have it, my Top 10 Favorite Video Games I've played so far. This list is definitely going to change in the next couple months once I finish Watch Dogs: Legion and Cyberpunk 2077, but for now, this is how it is (AC already has an entry here, and Valhalla won't change that).

I may be putting my energy into that TLOU Part 2 Breakdown of my thoughts along with that Ellie/Dina fic I've been working on, so expect those at some point.

If you haven't already, go out and vote! Stay safe!

Lemme know what you think!

Until then!

[good-doctor-imagine]

Scar » four

three // five

Pairing: Richie Tozier x Fem!Reader

Summary: Richie is upset you’re not spending the day with him while you find out that Beverly has a scar that’s eerily similar to yours.

Word Count: 2292

A/N: I didn’t really proofread, I just skimmed over this one... so I’m sorry if there are any mistakes

It had been a few weeks since you met the infamous group of kids. Although they had obvious chemistry, a force that held all of them together like glue, you felt like you fit in well. It was natural for you and Eddie to get closer since he spent so much time around Richie. He often helped you throw playful insults at Richie when he would lose. You were like partners in crime. You weren’t as invested as him when it came to health-related topics, but you began to get used to zoning out as he rants about diseases and viruses that were lingering in the air.

Beverly was also another obvious person that you would get along with. Girls weren’t the easiest to get along with most of the time, but you trusted Beverly. She told you about the other people in school, including Greta who she warned you to avoid at all costs. She also mentioned a group of boys that wreaked havoc around the town, but she said that you didn’t need to worry about them anymore, whatever that means.

Other than preparing you for when the school year starts, Beverly was a very welcoming person when it came to you. While the boys had their own conversation, Beverly was getting to know you. Eventually, she invited you to hang out without the guys, talking about a much-needed break away from the masculine front that they put on. You speedily took up her offer, telling Richie that you were taking a day off from your Street Fighter championships much to his dismay.

Richie couldn’t deny that he was upset that you ditched him to spend time with Beverly. He selfishly wanted you to spend all your time with him. Something about Eddie’s insults without yours made his stomach turn, almost like he could feel you were missing. Richie told himself that it was stupid being so affected by your absence. Heck, you had only been in Derry a few weeks, there was no way that you could affect him this much, right?

Eddie had seen it too. Richie was so upbeat in your presence, the playful insults that you threw at him were taken as compliments and only boosted his ego. Without you, Richie’s mood declined and receiving Eddie’s insults made him annoyed.

“You really want to spend the rest of your summer playing this stupid game?”

“Shut up Eddie,” Richie grumbled, not even making an attempt to comb the hair out of his face. He was putting all of his energy into the game in front of him, wanting the day to pass as fast as it could.

Eddie scoffed at Richie’s response, crossing his arms in front of his small frame. “What’s up with you? You were all happy-go-lucky yesterday but today you’re Mr. Debbie Downer.” Richie rolled his eyes and smashed his fingers into the buttons, the tips of them turning white from the pressure he was forcing on them. Eddie felt himself getting angry at Richie’s lack of response so he decided to just get to the point. “Is it because (Y/n) isn’t here?”

Richie’s finger slipped from the button out of shock. He didn’t expect Eddie to realize what was actually making him so upset. The slip up made Richie’s Street Fighter character unable to move away, taking a lethal blow from the NPC. “What the fuck Eddie?” Richie boomed, glaring at his hypochondriac friend.

Eddie just shook his head, not taking any of his friend’s anger stricken statements to heart. “Don’t even try to lie to me, Richie. I’ve been friends with you too long for you to even try to fib.”

Richie just decided not to answer, his face starting to heat up despite his attempts to hold it back. Eddie smirked at his victory and decided to take the chance to step further.

“Does the trashmouth have a crush?”

“Hell no,” Richie cried out, “What the fuck made you think that?”

“Call it a premonition,” Eddie shrugged, “But really, it’s pretty obvious.”

Richie’s lip curled in mock disgust, he was really trying to hide his feelings from truly showing. Although he didn’t really mind Eddie knowing his true feelings, his pride convinced him to put on a strong front. Digging his right foot into the ground, his mind began to wonder about you. He felt selfish, only focused on himself rather than what you wanted. “She’s probably focused on finding her soulmate anyway.”

Eddie’s eyebrows furrowed, beginning to feel bad for his friend. “How do you know you’re not soulmates.”

Richie deadpanned at Eddie, not believing how ludicrous he was being. “Maybe I should remind you that she swam half-naked with us at the quarry. I think I would know if she was my soulmate.”

Eddie couldn’t help but feel heavy-hearted when looking at his friend. He knew that Richie was trying his best to cover his sensitivity by putting on a strong front. Richie cared about you, yes, but he also felt like he was betraying his soulmate. He may act like he doesn’t care but these feelings that came hurling at him made him wonder more about the mark on his foot. It made him wonder about who his soulmate really was. Did they act like you? Did they look like you? Every time he would think about his soulmate, his thoughts would go back to you. He knew it was wrong, but he couldn’t stop himself. Stupid teenage love.

You tapped your foot as you waited in a little alleyway next to where Beverly said she’d meet you. You didn’t have much with you at all, just your bike and a little bit of money in case you two got hungry. Other than that, there really wasn’t much planned for your outing. You both planned to stroll the street and do some window shopping, gazing at items with no intention of actually buying anything. You also just planned to take a much-needed break from the arcade. Although it was very entertaining to play with Richie, you were beginning to feel suffocated by the dark room. Being in the same place doing the same thing every day got monotonous. Not to mention, you were beginning to run out of insults towards Richie and that could never happen. You needed to refill your insult jar as fast as you could. What better way to do that than to spend time with Bev?

Beverly rolled up next to you with red cheeks and heavy breaths. “Sorry I’m late,” She spoke, moving her bike to park right next to yours. “I hope you haven’t been waiting long.”

“No, I got here like two minutes ago,” You responded, shoulders relaxing at the presence of your friend.

“Great. You ready to go?”

The two of you started your journey down the street, eyes wandering into the windows of the different stores. “So,” Beverly started, the corner of her lip tilting upwards, “What’s going on between you and Richie?”

You squinted your eyes at her, “What do you mean?”

“I’m not stupid, (Y/n),” She replied, putting her hand on her hip, “You know what I’m talking about.”

Biting your lip, you averted your eyes from hers, trying to ignore the piercing gaze of her eyes. “It’s really nothing. We’ve just been getting closer, it’s pretty normal.”

Beverly hummed, tilting her head upwards at your statement. “What do you classify as normal?”

“What about you and Bill?” You quickly tried to change the subject. Although you avoided her questioning, you knew that Beverly was not going to forget about it.

“What about me and Bill?”

“I’m not stupid, Beverly,” You mimicked her, earning a small grin from your friend.

“Well, you know it’s been pretty awkward since-” She gave you a pointed look, instantly making your mind go back to when she told you about the last time that they kissed. “But he’s been really sweet. He even got me this.” Beverly held out her left hand, showing off the small bracelet that hugged her wrist. You smiled at the cute gift, happy that your friend was so excited over a gift. When she turned her hand over, your face immediately fell. Even though her fingers were slightly curled, you could clearly make out the dark line that was etched into her skin.

Your hand shot out to grab hers, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk as you studied the palm of her hand. The scar was so similar that it made your heart race, but your heart dropped when you realized that it wasn’t identical. In fact, her hand not only had a prominent scar in the middle but another lighter line behind it. It was like she had two scars but one of them belonged to her soulmate. They were muddled together.

Beverly was shocked from your sudden outburst, eyes wide as she watched you gaze intently at her scar.

“Where did you get that from?” You spoke, mouth feeling dry.

“The scar?” You nodded your head. “All of the losers have one.”

Your head started to spin as you frantically started searching for an answer. If all the losers had one, then there was a high possibility that one of them was your soulmate. However, you also couldn’t deny the possibility that all of them wouldn’t have a scar that matched yours.

Beverly watched you closely as you began to feel lightheaded, taken over by the shock that coursed your body. “Are you okay?” Beverly asked quietly, eyes darting around you to make sure no one was staring.

“Y-Yeah,” You choked out, recoiling your hands from hers, “It’s just- It looked really similar to mine.”

“Wait,” Beverly sputtered out, mouth dropping open slightly at your statement. “You have one?” You nodded your head and stuck out your left hand, showing the jagged mark that was engraved in your palm. “Holy shit, when did you get this?” Beverly gasped, cradling your hand in hers as she inspected the scar closely.

“It showed up a few days before I moved here. So, maybe a month?”

“Oh my god,” Beverly breathed as she stood in front of you, hand frozen as she thought about when the losers made the blood oath.

“When did you get the scar?” You asked so quietly that she might not have heard you.

A part of you didn’t want to know. You wanted to find out your soulmate randomly, not go searching for them like those crazy people you see in films all the time. A part of you wanted to have that moment where your soulmate accidentally knocks you down and offers their hand when suddenly you realize they're your soulmate. A part of you was terrified that if you found your soulmate this early in life, it wouldn’t work in the end. There had been many cases where soulmates got bored of each other or they didn’t want to be tied to a certain person so early in their life. You didn’t want to experience that.

“Around a month ago,” Beverly responded, gently letting go of your hand.

You took a deep breath, eyes beginning to tear up as you became overwhelmed with emotions. You were happy and upset at the same time; happy that you found something that leads you to your soulmate, but upset that it happened so soon.

“Do you know how great this is?” Beverly lit up, obviously not catching your horror-stricken face. “This means your soulmate could be one of the guys! You don’t have to go looking anywhere else-”

“Beverly!” You yelled, but instantly lowered your voice when you noticed how loud you were. “I don’t want to know. Don’t you realize how terrible this is?”

“What do you mean?” Beverly breathed, eyebrows furrowed as she shot you an incredulous look. “Several people our age know their soulmate already, it’s totally normal. I don’t see what the problem is.”

You shook your head, your teeth starting to dig into your bottom lip. “Do you think any of them want to be tied down to someone right now? We’re only teenagers! Besides, who says the people at school are going to stay with their soulmates forever? Plenty of people who met their soulmate early in life split up. You’ve seen the research: the later you meet your soulmate, the easier it is to stay together.”

Beverly’s excitement started to boil down as you ranted. She thought what you were saying was absolutely ridiculous. She would give anything to know who her soulmate was. She was cursed with not knowing who out of the group was considered her soulmate. Her own scar covered her lover’s and without being able to make out details, figuring out her soulmate is a complete waste. You have the opportunity that she doesn’t. You have the opportunity to find your soulmate and live happy with your other half, yet you’re too afraid to act on it.

“Do you realize how lucky you are?” Beverly scoffed, “You’re taking your soulmate mark for granted.”

You both stood in silence, not sure what to say to each other. Obviously you both had completely different viewpoints. Although Beverly was seriously opposed to your opinion, she knew that going behind your back was something she despised even more.

“If you really don’t want to know, I’m not going to force you to. I’m not going to search for you either, I just don’t think you’re making the right choice.”

You took deep breaths, successfully pulling yourself back together before you responded. “Thanks, Bev, that means a lot.”

She nodded, putting a smile back on her face as she started to walk again. “Let’s do some window shopping.”

five

Masterlist

[marionfantasy]

if i had to choose between genshin impact and warriors allstar

id choose warrior allstar

and ill explain why !so buckle up and lets dive into this shit

so about two days ago i recently discovered that ps now had warriors allstar to play instantly on the store without having to actually buy to which fuck yeah cause i wanted to play it forever

the game is even better than i had seen from gameplays and cutscene

and the game doesn't screw you over with gacha

as you play the story and do certain story quests you unlock certain characters

which does not require any gems to summon

all you have to do is complete the quest and once you do some of the side missions the quest asks you to do you get the character!

even though warrior allstar isn't an open world game like genshin impact it does provide as it is called "the world map" which makes it easier to find quests and progress the story easily

and you glide across the map as a circle icon with the picture of your current unit

and even though you have a 4 team set

as you collect more characters and do quests those characters you didn't add to your team appear throughout the game to aid you on your quests

you can even increase your friendship with certain characters which helps with the boost option they give you during game play

you will have a circle chart with your teammates icons on it where you can choose a skill to help you on your quests

despite it not having a dash option the game is still great

there are even costumes on the ps store for only 1.99 on some characters

which is pretty neat if you ask me

and you can take requests from your characters and from characters who have joined your roster and even do the story quest and side quests and still complete the character request you have accepted and while your in battle if you perform well during gameplay sometimes one of your teammates will congratulate you and and compliment you as you play

the main base which is the sanctuary that is supposed to offer a shop to sell and buy things and a training area to level up your units and you can even talk to some units around the sanctuary or listen to a interesting conversation two units are having together

now there are 3 routes

tamaki route

shiki route

setsuna route

tamaki route can be started by choosing zhao yun or anyone that aids allies themselves with her

what is the plot

basically we start with tamaki and her mother

who is a priest and tamaki basically being the crowned princess despite having two older siblings who could take the throne

but due to them not having certain qualifications to ascend to the throne which leaves tamaki to take it despite her being too young to do it but due to her special powers and fitting the requirements

she is the only one who can rule

but of course shiki and setsuna are against this which we learn later why

you see apparently their world is fueled by a special water called the spring which helps keep their world alive but due to an evil entity known as yomi who has apparently been eating away at every ruler life through the spring the spring eventually begins to dry up which means their world is dying and is in danger

which causes tamaki to use her powers to summon heroes from different worlds to help revive the spring with their powers

but due to shiki and setsuna interference unknown to tamaki the summoning ritual goes awry which causes the heroes that were supposed to fight and help tamaki are scattered across the world which leaves tamaki to go find and recruit them to her cause as she soon finds out that her brothers have interfered with her plans and try to stop her from ascending to the throne and constantly try to stop her every way

we soon later find out why

its because as i said before yomi has been eating away at the ruler life force

when someone takes the throne due to their special powers which helps the spring spread its powers across the world to keep it flourished and healthy is drained due to yomi who had been sealed by the first king at the bottom of the spring

which explains why tamaki father had passed away so quickly

which shiki and setsuna learn which causes them despair knowing that if tamaki takes the throne it will signal the end of her life seeing as how she is too young to take on such a challenge as ruler

so in fear of her dying shiki and setsuna set out to gather some of the scattered heroes across the world to their cause and find a way to keep tamaki from ascending to the throne to pretty much keep her from going to her impending doom and pretty much will lead to her death

they each in their own way while pushing tamaki away which causes confusion and sadness and distrust as to why they wont tell why their acting so hateful and coldly to her and not explain their true intentions as they try to find a way to defeat yomi and save tamaki from her impending death

also you dont have to deal with an annoying npc like paimon constantly yapping in your ear as you try to play

and ive found myself enjoying more warriors allstar more than i had while playing genshin impact

but this is my own opinion and explanation as to why i like warriors allstar more