#and in quests involving them they give you options to help the slaves out and allow you to free them (two Telvanni quests come to mind)

[churchydragon]

I already knew I had no interest in Palworld when they showed the guns and slavery of the Pals in the first trailer but hearing that not only has the company dabbled in NFTs and AI but there's also HUMAN slavery AND the farms are called plantations has just totally turned me off. why did the devs think that was even slightly appropriate in this fucking day and age?

like I DO think we need an open world survival Pokemon-esq game, we really do. but not Palworld. hopefully Kindred Fates will fill that void properly, in a responsible, not overly and poorly thought out edgy way.

[lookbluesoup]

Look! A Potato!!!

I've been thinking a lot about Lyrha's story post-Endwalker, and how she and X'rhun might proceed in the time after all the canon job quests. And especially about the kid I want them to have some years down the line!

Predictably, Lyrha's got a pretty complicated relationship with the idea of motherhood and being pregnant is a big deal. And of course there is some angsty tension folded into the ordeal

So here's a bunch of rambles about that under the cut.

When she realizes she's pregnant, she's going to be uneasy. Her only significant reference point for this stuff is how the sort of men she was with before X'rhun who definitely did not want to be "saddled" with a kid. She probably saw other girls try and how attempting to involve the dad at all did NOT make them want to stay, did NOT inspire fatherly instincts, it got those girls dumped cold, called whores, etc. Kids did not help you survive in her world

And even though X'rhun is nothing like those men, he and Lyrha prooobably had talked about kids before, and agreed having one on the road wouldn't be a good idea, so she still doesn't anticipate a pleasant reaction to an oops baby and doesn't see any good reason to risk involving him

It is difficult if not impossible for her to imagine herself as a mother. Her history literally kidnapping and selling children into slavery sort of sours the whole idea of her being on the other end of that, having a kid and trying to raise it

Rhun will know she's pregnant because he'll be able to smell the change (kitty cat nose is good for such things!) But she won't… say anything to him. Because she's afraid to risk telling him. When HE brings it up, because, my love why haven't you stated the obvious yet?? do YOU realize you're pregnant??? She will sort of brush over it in a mild panic, tell him 'he doesn't need to worry, she'll deal with it'

Leading him to be like ' :D …. D: Deal with it? So… you don't plan on keeping the baby?'

So Lyrha's gonna be ….. ????? And then they'll actually get to talk about this like adults

And it turns out he wants the baby! He doesn't plan to ditch her over this! Lyrha gets to be floored all over again by how Good Rhun is to her but now suddenly there's a lot of options in front of her and stuff she's not sure she's prepared for

Throughout the pregnancy I don't think she'll be able to see it as her kid. They're very separate from her. It's just Rhun's baby, and she's… proud? to carry something like this for him that he clearly wants, to be able to give him something. That's easier than trying to examine and deal with all of her very complicated feelings about motherhood, her own childhood growing up on slave ships, etc.

And I think she regresses a bit into seeing her body as kind of a tool to maintain affection. Not that she doesn't think she has a choice, or really believes Rhun would hold it against her if she didn't want kids, but this is New and Scary and she'll fall back a bit on the old pattern because that's more familiar. It feels safer, even if she knows she doesn't need to be afraid of losing him

Rhun, on the other hand, will be delighted. Being a dad wasn't something he planned on but this is their child, it's an adventure he's excited to undertake with Lyrha. It's not that he doesn't have his own anxieties about it. But he loves her. And they've been together for years at this point, by now the Ziggurat has been reclaimed as a training ground for red mages, they're very established as a team, and have a rhythm together so the change itself comes at a stable time.

But then... the baby comes much too early. There's complications. Lyrha's probably never going to be good at showing pain because it's just so ingrained in her that revealing you're injured is more dangerous than the injury itself. But this is bad news, her labor has lasted too long without progress, she's bleeding, and Rhun knows her tells. Something's very wrong.

Cue the frantic Linkshell calls to the Scions, and Nahte getting his mother and sisters, including White Mage Tsimh, on the scene. They try to usher Rhun out the room but ofc you could not get him out of there with an army, he's staying by Lyrha's side.

Nahte's clan are very experienced midwives. They end up saving Lyrha and the baby - but only just,

In the immediate aftermath, it's still not clear if either will pull through. They warn Rhun the kid is much too small and frail - as premature as it is, he should be prepared for this to end badly. They have to keep the kid in a little barrier bubble, use aero magic to help keep it breathing.

Rhun is adamant that his son is a fighter, like his mother, he'll pull through. While he waits for Lyrha to wake up, he's holding the kid almost constantly. Talking to him, singing for him.

For Lyrha, it's not until Rhun places that little white-furred potato in her arms for the first time that she understands. Every motherly instinct maxes out at once and suddenly she gets it. This is HER child. She will do anything to protect him. Even hisses when one of her healers comes in to check on things, no you can't touch him

This will be a lot for her. It'll be another moment where Lyrha really feels, on a different level, the weight of her past cruelties because now she can understand what losing something like this might mean, too.

I sort of wonder if this might ultimately also lead to her being brave enough to make a visit to her home tribe, the one she was taken from as a little kid. Maybe actually see her own mother again for the first time since Lyrha was... like seven.

But I think Lyrha will ultimately be a pretty good mom. Not perfect, but she'll have a support system of a lot of genuine friends, a partner she trusts, and she's been through a whole heckofalot in life so she's got a lot of perspective and (hopefully) wisdom to help raise a kid that can navigate a wide and changing world

Some other notes rolling around in my mind about it:

It will be their only child. Lyrha is informed that injuries she's sustained over the years are what caused such complications the first time (and the many miscarriages she's had in the past), and it would be dangerous for her to try again.

Being... a breeding male with his own territory (the Ziggurat) this probably also makes X'rhun Tia into X'rhun Nunh...

Nahte's mother has an uncanny knack for knowing the gender of an unborn child. She tells Lyrha and X'rhun during the pregnancy that it'll be a girl. A male is born and everyone kind of shrugs, well, she can't be right all the time! Twelve years later the kid comes out as transfem.

Lyrha and Rhun are very supportive of their daughter.

The kid is all white-haired like her dad, with silky long fur like Lyrha. She's deaf in one ear, and physically quite frail. Training in Red Magic helps her build strength, but using her body as a catalyst and the swordsmanship aspect of the art have to be undertaken carefully. As a result, most of her studies are more academic than physical in nature.

[capricious-and-melodramatic]

meme

Inquisitor’s Name: Khaaran’as Adaar

Alternate Name?: Adaar/Arn

Race, Class, & Specialization: Rouge/ Archer/ Assassin

Varric’s Nickname for them: Sneaky (before companion quest) / Softie (after)

Default Tarot Card: The Hermit

How they are recruited: In the Hinterlands, two Qun have been spotted with a Dalish group going through to what is believed to be Redcliffe. Message: Inquisitor, we have reports of a Dalish clan nearby traveling with, what we believe are two Qunari. Its most peculiar. If you are in the area, please take a look (If recruited: Bull can't explain it either.)

Where they are in Skyhold: On the roof of the stables. If Inquisitor comments, he will then move Undercroft after Dagna is recruited. Can also be found in the Second floor of the Quartermasters area (after companion mission)

Things they Generally Approve of: Kindness, helping, giving Nobles what they deserve. (Helping the Slaves in the Hissing Wastes will gain approval),  

Things they Generally Disapprove of: Cruelty, Greed, Orlesian Nobles

Mages, Templars, Other?: Mother was a saarebas, and escaped from the Qun. Is very pro-mage although he admits he shouldn’t have any say on what the fate of the mages would be. Will gain approval if Inquisitor sides with the Mages, chooses to use the Inquisition for Order/To do right. Will greatly disapprove of siding with the Qun and Letting the Chargers die in Bull’s mission whether in party or not.  

Friends in the Inquisition: Dorian, Sera, Varric, Bull (after Adamant/Winter Palace) and Blackwall. When Blackwall shows his true self, he believes people sometimes have to hide the bad to be good, and that people will be better if given the chance to make amends.  

Romanceable?: Yes, Any race and any gender. Will romance Dorian if he is unromanced. If Dorian is romanced with either Bull/Inquisitor: will also suggest at a possible romance with Scout Harding. Will opening admit to having ‘crushes’ on some of the advisors/inner circle. Dorian Romance trigger: Both need high approval (Extra points if Arn was at mission to Redcliffe and was in the Dark Future.) 3 Conversations will trigger romance dialogue in field, inquisitor can then ask either about the relationship. Dorian will comment that there is ‘defiantly something’ between the two. Commenting that Arn has been trying to court him for a little while now, however Dorian will insist he is not a nice man. When Arn is asked, he stammers and tries to deflect from the conversation, however he will admit he is trying to court Dorian and wants advice. The Inquisitor can suggest to do something a little less ‘formal’. (Inquisitor can shoot down the romance early and it isn't brought up again, if either of them are unromanced it still happens behind the scenes with party banter and teasing). When Dorian mentions he’s going back to Tevinter, the Inquisitor can ask if he’s told Arn about this. Dorian says he hasn’t. Although the Inquisitor cannot outright tell Arn about it. Dorian does tell him at some point. Revealing at the Celebration (end of main story) he has talked to Arn about it. They aren’t sure what will happen, but they want to try saying the relationship is both new for them and they both want to make it work. In Trespasser you can ask Dorian about Arn and he will say that the man crushed him and kissed him so much it was ‘like slobbered on by a Mabari’ When Varric reveals that Dorian is going back as a Magister, Dorian will say that he wants to keep Arn safe but doesn’t go into any details. Arn will comment saying he was much in the dark as the inquisitor, not wanting to talk about it much and worrying about the upcoming problems. Post Trespasser credits reveal that Arn has joined the Red Jenny’s and sneaks his way into Minrathous to see his ‘amatus’, it’s also stated Dorian does visit the south to meet Arn in better territory.   Scout Harding Romance trigger: If taken with you to meet Harding in new map locations. He has more and more to say with each time. If you stay still long enough near Harding. There will be a banter trigger at Crestwood and the Western Approach. After Western Approach banter. You will trigger new dialogue at next meeting with Harding (Arn shouldn’t be in party for this to trigger, this can happen before or after Arn’s confession). She tells you he’s been sending her letters with dried flowers and pictures. Arn’s dialogue will trigger with Varric in party. (Cassandra will have extra dialogue because she’s a romantic) Scout Harding Romance is hinted at the end credits if Inky never trigger any of it, but not confirmed. (Post Trespasser if still in Party)

Small side mission:  

Help the refugees of the Breach. Rescue scattered refugees in the Exalted Plains, the Hinterlands, Emerald Graves.  

Companion quest: (With high enough approval) Leliana has given Arn a letter (that the Inquisitor needs to deliver to Arn) and he needs to speak to you about, (If Bull is recruited, He will comment as you get the letter and before you see Arn that Arn has been very high-strung and with Bull’s best efforts he’s still very stress. If in a relationship with Dorian, Dorian will ask the inquisitor to check on Arn. Saying he’s not been his usual self. Dorian will say he doesn’t know what is bothered him if asked, but does know.) The letter tells him that Leliana has a lead on who betrayed his first squad. The lead in in the Western Approach, you meet up with one of his company, who’s being spying on the lead.   The lead is recognized and Arn comments that he is known as Rowan. Arn was sure Rowan had died when his old group had. You have the option to attack on site or leaving Arn behind, find out more about him. Arn has found a place to take out Rowan if he tries anything. If asked to early about his involvement, Rowan will flee, Arn will shoot him in the leg. However if you pick enough questions, he confesses and the Inquisitor can punch him in the face, Arn greatly approves. Arn demands answers from him when he’s awake. Rowan confesses it was for coin and clout. Working with the Carta earning more than with Arn’s small band. Rowan will comment he got something good out of it. Arn gets angry at the comment. To trigger the romance, the inquisitor has to talk Arn out of killing him. If Rowan is killed by the Inquisitor he will disapprove, saying he would have delt with it. If pushed to kill, Arn will regret it and see how the Inquisitor truly feels. If the Inquisitor suggests to take him back to Skyhold he can be judged (All three will lock out of romance) If the doesn’t interject and lets Arn talk, he will knock him out and leave him with no supplies save some water. Arn will suggest to send a letter to the Carta since Rowan spilled too much on Carta business. Romance is unlocked.   Arn will mention he was 16/17 when it happened and he was then promoted afterwards to rebuild the team. At 21 he has a new team (that he later introduces to you too in similar fashion to Bull and the Chargers. Only it is smaller) and joined the inquisition, meeting you. This gives you an option to flirt with him leading to a kiss that opens the romance. Later, A letter is received disowning Rowan involvement (if Inquisitor is Dwarf/Tal-Vashoth). If Elf, the Inquisitor will receive a letter from one of Arn’s mothers thanking them for their work. Human inquisitor will receive an anonymous letter with a tidy sum that says ‘Do not ask no questions, get told no lies.’ Leliana states that Rowan had more enemies and word of his backstabbing of the Carta has made him a valued target and its likely he was killed.  

After companion quest; More will options will appear to ask about his family and his mothers.

Option 1: Will open up for Romance.  

Option 2: Will be dissuaded from the Inquisition, will have no new conversations with Inquisitor. Clicked on enough, will leave at some point. Leliana was told he went back to his Mercenary Ways to help people. She has him watched but loses track at him at some point before Trespasser.  

Tarot card change

Option 1: Eight of Cups/The Lovers

Option 2: Gives The Moon Tarot Card.

[warsofasoiaf]

Its been awhile since you've done any character analysis on Fallout New Vegas, but would you be willing to go into one for some of the minor characters? I'm actually curios of your opinion on Silus the captured centurion and his motivations.

I’m more than happy to, although this won’t be about Silus so much as it will be about the quest Silus Treatment. It’s one of my favorite quests in the game, since it does a great deal just with dialogue and some creative use with the engine to create an engaging quest that showcases some of the failures of the NCR and the Legion. Given that the central theme is about picking a faction, warts and all, having a quest that puts the two main faction of New Vegas on full display is an absolutely good idea. The game is too old for spoilers, but it’s a long analysis so I’ll put a cut in.

Silus Treatment starts off simple enough, going to Camp McCarran, in the old McCarran International Airport, now the regional command post of Colonel Hsu. McCarran is not in a great spot when you first get there; there are periodic Fiend attacks, tensions in Freeside are causing havoc for NCR civilians, the overstretched NCR supply lines are making it difficult even for their central point of operations, and there’s a strong possibility that they’ve been infiltrated. It’s all Colonel Hsu can do to keep order and function in the base. Perfect protagonist fodder, in other words, for a nice quest hub.

It’s a tough needle to thread in any RPG to build a quest hub where there’s stuff for a character to do. If everyone is incapable of solving even the most basic of problems, it gives a great deal of quests for the player to do but it makes the quest-givers look incompetent, especially if the quest-givers are supposed to be capable figures in their own right. Conversely, if the NPC’s are competent, then the quests would be solved and that would close out on content for the player. There’s plenty of ways to settle this, and the devs do an adequate job here. The war effort means prioritization, and Hsu is dealing with being torn from both angles. He can’t just hunt down the Fiends, because he needs to organize patrols and deal with NCR settlers in the area. He can’t just pacify Freeside because it will engender hostility with House and so he’s delaying the order from his butcher superiors like Moore to go in with fire and sword. He doesn’t have a solution to the Kings but he’s trying to find one, which as far as writing goes is a good solution. Hsu is a decent man but overworked. He’s hoping that he can develop a solution in time before Cassandra Moore decides to pull rank and go on the warpath against all who oppose the NCR, which leaves a convenient spot for the player.

It’s this person that gives us our introduction to the Silus Treatment questline. Hsu has a valuable prize: Silus, a captured Legion centurion! Typically centurions always commit suicide rather than be captured to deny any useful intelligence to the enemy, so to capture a centurion alive should be quite a find. But it’s not going so well. Lt Carrie Boyd, in charge of base security, can’t get Silus to talk. Again, perfect quest writing to get the PC involved in the plot. Normally such a sensitive operation would never be given to an unknown civilian contractor, even for a bureaucratic mess like the NCR. Frontier desperation, hitting a wall via official channels, and the fact that the character is the protagonist in a sprawling open world help it pass ludonarrative muster.

Boyd is a real piece of work, she’s openly sadistic hiding beneath of veneer of civility. She considers the humane treatment of POW’s as an impediment, and so looks for ways around it. Notably, while she wants information from Silus to deliver to her superiors, she’ll settle for just having Silus beaten so bloody that he can’t speak anymore, calling it “entertainment.” This is a person who simply should not be in charge of interrogating a prisoner, she is neither humane nor effective at her job, but here she is by virtue simply of being the chief MP on base.

Not that Silus, the prisoner and the other side of this duo, is better. He openly revels in the barbaric practices of the Legion’s slavery system, even trying to ensure that the slaves can never achieve some level of comfort by tightening the collars and making it difficult for them to feel at ease while eating or drinking. Even if Silus is mostly saying those things simply to get a rise out of Lieutenant Boyd, he knows what the Legion is up to and enjoys it. Silus is arrogant to an extreme degree, he is filled with confidence that he can outlast any interrogation by the feeble NCR without giving up any intelligence, that he could easily escape NCR confinement and that he is so valuable to the Legion that following Caesar’s order would be a waste. Good fodder then, for the protagonist to bring him down to size.

Silus Treatment as a quest is relatively simple. Boyd signs off on the Courier beating the ever-living tar out of Silus and then steps out for a smoke, letting the player do whatever he or she wants to the prisoner. Silus, sneering, dismisses the Courier as just another piece of NCR trash, and it’s up to the player with how to succeed. Violence is always an option, you can beat Silus, and eventually gets something useful, that the base itself will be the target of Legion destruction. Silus admits that his fantasy of escape was always a fantasy, he was dead to Caesar just as surely as he as if he had committed suicide before capture. 

Yet if the Courier has points in Speech or Intelligence, he can completely upend Boyd’s methods and actually deliver a worthwhile interrogation. The first technique, with speech, uses an interrogation technique known as Pride-and-ego-down, where the interrogator routinely belittles and demeans the prisoner, usually their technical competence or soldierly qualities, in an attempt to get the prisoner to “redeem” themselves by explaining a piece of useful intelligence that would explain the deficiency as opposed to it just being a terrible personal quality. The Courier mocks Silus as a coward (bravery being a key soldierly virtue) and he defends himself by stating his bravery and that suicide is a poor death for a soldier of his intelligence and caliber, then saying how good a soldier he is for a “self-appointed megalomaniacal dictator.” Silus then spills that Caesar held his unit for three days because of “headaches,” in actuality, it’s Caesar’s brain tumor. The technique works to an exceptionally high degree, not only does Silus divulge that McCarran has been infiltrated as in the violence ending, but also that the Legion is suffering a crisis of command due to Caesar’s illness. The Courier gets a lot of useful intelligence out of Silus and doesn’t compromise the humane treatment of prisoners in the process. If it actually caused some self-reflection in Boyd, that’d be a complete win, but I suppose we can’t have everything.

My favorite option is the intelligence option, because the Courier goes full-on PSYOPS, posing as a Legion assassin sent to kill Silus for his failure to commit suicide on Caesar’s order. Silus denies it at first, but as the Courier continues to sell the performance, Silus begins to express real terror at the thought that the Courier is actually a frumentarius sent to kill Silus before he divulges anything to the NCR. The Courier fully sells the deal using Latin phrases as the language of Caesar’s elites. The Courier can quote Cicero, “legum servi sumus” - we are all slaves to the law, in what is perhaps a perfect example of Caesar’s philosophy of totalitarian obedience. The full quote "Legum servi sumus ut liberi esse possimus” - we are slaves to the law so that we might be free, means little in Caesar’s totalitarian state where all are subject to his whims and contingency plans for Caesar’s incapacity aren’t even considered. Of course, the Roman Republic was hardly a free state, but Caesar really takes the cake with his dictatorship. If Caesar’s dictum holds true: “Corruptio optimi pessima” - the corruption of the greatest is the worst outcome. how much worse is it when Caesar himself is corrupted? But totalitarians rarely raise the possibility that they themselves are corrupt, because the good of the dictator is the good of the state. After all, L'etat c'est moi is the dictum of any dictator, not just a Sun King.

Of course, fitting New Vegas, you can side with Silus, and facilitate his escape. There, you feign beating him to unconsciousness and slip him a silenced pistol, then Silus makes good his escape, killing the guard sent to bring him back to his cell and sneaking out. Of all the endings, this one isn’t as satisfying. Some of it, of course, is that you never interact or see Silus again, so there’s never any reward to the quest except for the knowledge that the base is infiltrated, which in the pro-Legion side of the quest I Put a Spell on You allows you to complete Curtis’s sabotage operation (and a far better Legion quest, in my opinion, with the NCR quest side being even better given the multiple outcomes), but also it’s not referenced again with Caesar. What would Caesar’s reaction be to the Courier springing Silus? He is quite fond of reciting a litany of the Courier’s accomplishments in Act 2 at Fortification Hill.

If I could improve Silus Treatment, I think I would have made it so the violent path wouldn’t have produced enough valuable intel, and the player needs to do some more detective work to actually get to I Put a Spell on You, or even being mislead by Curtis and becoming the unwitting patsy of the Legion. But overall, I think it was an incredible quest and a testament to the writing in the game.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[felassan]

Hi!

Thank you so much for posting all the interesting stuff from the book on here! I was just wondering if you think we will be playing as a Lord of Fortune in the next DA game?

I think we will from the mention in the book about DA4 and the description of them being good with disguises and stuff from Tevinter Nights but what do you think??

Hi Nonnie, you’re welcome. This answer is under a cut due to length. Tevinter Nights spoilers under cut.

I’ve definitely wondered about the possibility before (Tevinter Nights spoilers at link)! My speculation is that we’re in for either a Lord of Fortune companion or possibly a Lord of Fortune PC / PC background (or background option) in the next game. As you say, post-TN the Lords have been ‘flagged up’ again now with the caption in the book (“Where there’s treasure, there’s adventurers braving death to get it. The Lords of Fortune are always on the hunt for treasures - wherever it might be”). The companion feels like the more likely of the two but I do think it could work well for a player character. Paraphrasing a bit from the linked post, with a few additions:

Lords can be humans, elves and dwarves at least. I don’t see why a Tal-Vashoth or Vashoth horned person couldn’t join either, and with the general Qunari presence in Rivain there’s proximity. So there’s the race selection

They can be male, female or other genders, so there’s gender

They’re warriors (Mateo) and rogues with different specialties. I don’t see why a mage couldn’t join either, especially since TN gives us an example of a mage who, while not a Lord, is also a thief and uses their magic in that, and the Lords seem to be about skill and merit. Plus Rivain have some different views on magic and mages. So there’s class and specializations

It seems like people from other countries in Thedas can also join too as Hollix essentially offers to the Tevinter girl. All this kind of stuff is a solid lead-in for CC and space for RP, both in-game expressions of it and headcanon

Hero of Ferelden, Champion of Kirkwall, Herald of Andraste, Lord of Fortune. Not a bad PC title either, and the “Lord” part in LoF is gender-neutral

RP flexibility: someone could have joined up for any one of a number of different reasons - adventure/thrills/fun, fame, fortune, glory, history buffs, to earn money, to be doing a job that isn’t a life of drudgery or mundane, to see the world and the sights all over Thedas, and for common thieves and similar folks it could be a way of advancing, putting their skills to use, doing something more ‘glamorous’ or getting off the streets (their situation-depending). Bharv had a farm and a family while being an active Lord and planned to retire after being in the game for like 40 years. Herold had previously done naval service before joining. Hollix was in the circus before joining. Again lots of room for RP and variance, there’s more to them than ‘just another merc faction’

the live service elements could involve jobs, heists, monster hunts and stuff? some kind of mechanic based around that and a Lord’s reputation?

Solas definitely could know of them but so far there’s no indication that he does (“find people he doesn’t know”), whereas it’s specifically mentioned that he has knowledge of a whole bunch of the other factions

As a new faction to us it would be something new, fresh and interesting for the PC to be part of

They usually act solo or in pairs/small groups, so there’s the “here’s why you aren’t going about in a group of Lords or getting help from your whole faction” stuff (I’m thinking of the story reasons that were set up which explain why the Hero and Alistair are the only Wardens in DAO)

The accessories and trinkets and stuff = customization

Being a Lord also gives the PC a reason to be knowledgeable about history, Deep Roads, ancient ruins, artifacts and for dungeoneering, travel and monster fighting. Those are things handy for Generic RP Protagonist in general but also, some of them are going to be useful things to have in the conflicts to come (history, Deep Roads, ruins, artifacts)

It sounds like the next PC is going to be a nobody initially or largely anyway, rather than someone in a role like the one the Inquisitor occupied, so this point might be moot, but - it would also be more sensical for why the PC is going around doing the quest they’re doing. A lot of DAI is like “Why is one of the most important people in the world currently doing all this busywork? They have an army of goons they could be sending out and tasking with doing this stuff”. I mean, we do do that delegation with the War Table and everything, and it was important to build the Inquisition’s power and for the Herald to be seen around, but y’know? A Lord of Fortune is a bit more like a Geralt-type, going around doing side quest-style contracts for people. So side-questing could feel more natural

Semi-related, there’s also the fact that DA4 sounds like it’s going to be a story of someone who’s the opposite of the Inquisitor - someone unknown, from the bottom, with no power, or at least initially. The Lords are considered among the best treasure hunters in Thedas so they’re not nobodies, but you could be a ‘junior’ Lord who hadn’t been one for long and hadn’t made a name for themselves yet. I’d actually be quite interested in amassing the LoF display of worn-treasure, accessories and trinkets as the story progresses and the PC does more stuff

They’re based in Rivain and we’re going north

The LoFs as a faction might have their own knowledge and concerns about Solas (Mateo was on the shadow Inquisition’s Genetivi Expedition)

The shadow Inquisition know of them now via Mateo and Hollix

Their propensity for the covert/subterfuge type stuff - breaking and entering, thievery, roguey-stuff, disguises, stealth, deception and so on - would suit both the previous "spies and heists" version of the game and the whole Shadow Inquisition’s “we must operate secretly and below the radar to limit the possibility of Solas finding out about our plans" stuff

And it’s a decent way of getting a new unknown PC mixed up in the narrative - Lords travel all over Thedas, dungeoneering and everything, obtaining ancient artifacts, fighting monsters, protecting people on jobs. They take contracts. The shadow Inquisition have been hiring at least some people for work to do with their current efforts. Solas and his followers have been recruiting people. The shadow Inquisition have been looking for things that could stop him and Solas and his followers have also been looking for artifacts. I can totally see, like just for example, a Lord initially being like on a job or something trying to find some artifact that it also turns out that Solas’ people or the shadow Inquisition also want to get their hands on and so becoming caught up in everything that way, or knowingly or unknowingly being hired by either faction and it going from there

tl;dr I think a LoF companion is more likely but can def see how a LoF PC would work! A Vint Siccari also seems like a likely candidate for the PC, though I would rather the PC is not a slave or former slave.

Sorry for the scrappy nature of this post!

[The Future of BioWare - Tevinter Bound (2)]

[Mark Darrah’s Mysterious Red Book]

[Highlights and insights from the DA chapters]

[rjalker]

You know I knew before that Fallout 4 is a really bad Fallout game but God damn I didn't realize just how bad of a Fallout game it is.

Really the only thing it has going for it that's I mean in quotation marks better than Fallout New Vegas and Fallout 3 is that you can build stuff. That's why I like that game. You can build houses and give houses to people. But I've been complaining for a while now about the voice acting in the fact that like dialogue is completely circular and nothing you say has any impact on the conversation or the reactions unless it is specifically a companion.

Being mean to people has no impact on their future interactions with you. Choosing the asshole dialogue option has no impact on your relationships with other people unless it's for a specific Quest.

None of your dialogue ever changes based on your special stats or any of your perks. Like one of the major things to the Fallout game is that your special stats affect everything. If you don't have good Charisma, you're going to be super awkward and not very good at persuading people at all and that is reflected in your dialogue. If you don't know shit about robots, you're not going to be able to toss out technical jargon like a pro.

Fallout 4 decided to have voice acting for the player characters which is was a horrible horrible horrible fucking decision, because not only does that make it super obnoxious to play as different characters because they all sound exactly the same, it means that they reduced the available dialogue for the player to be cheap.

It doesn't matter what your stats are, your dialogue options are going to be exactly the same.

Also, the monster designs in this game are so goddamn creative it just really really makes you notice how completely boring and done creative and generic the animals in Fallout 4 are.

Like, it seems like all they did was go okay let's get rid of the fur and make it a bit bigger...yeah that's great we're done here.

And just from talking to Benny alone, the sheer number of dialogue options and possibilities spinning out from those dialogue options it is mind-boggling

I fucking love this game, and I love Fallout 4, but I am going to be honest the only reason is it's because I can build stuff and give houses to people for free that's pretty much the only thing it has going for it. If they gave me that option Fallout New Vegas I probably never play Fallout 4 again. I love this game.

Fallout 4 character creator is terrible, if you're wondering, because it forces you to go in and manually move every single bone and feature and whatever you are self. You have to expend so much energy just to make the characters look different from each other and it is so. And there's also no button to randomize it, which is especially obnoxious because of how much effort you have to put in to make the characters distinct in the first place.

I like having a randomizer button so that my character can look, obviously, completely random. It's fun that way. But that's not an option in Fallout 4, and it's just obnoxious. It also means that without the tick boxes, unless you were using a preset where you change nothing, it is extremely hard to recreate a character you've made before, because again, it's not a slider you have to go in and physically move everything around.

I love that I can build houses for people. I love that I can give people houses. I love that I can plant crops and give food to people. But Fallout 4 is a really bad Fallout game. Especially because of the way they I think I want to use the word shoehorn the endings in? There are no options that do not involve setting off atomic bombs. There is no option besides joining the slave owners that means we do not set off a massive atomic bomb in the middle of the city where people live.

The railroad is filled with Hypocrites and horrible fucking people, but you are never given the option to call them out or help the sense, and only in the far Harbor DLC does it get brought up, but again, there is nothing you can do about it, and you're just supposed am not alone like oh I never thought of that before like yes I fucking did I've been saying that from the beginning why isn't it an option to side help synths get away from the railroad??? Why we never given the option to call out the railroad for manipulating synth into wiping their fucking brains by exposing them to the most traumatic shit they possibly can as their first Venture into the Commonwealth!?!? Why the fuck is there not an option to help Glory take over the railroad!?!??! It's just infuriating

[mllemaenad]

Cruelty vs Compassion: Cullen and Niall in Broken Circle

Cullen: Uldred tortured these mages, hoping to break their wills and turn them into abominations. We don’t know how many of them have turned.

Irving: What? Don’t be ridiculous!

Cullen: Of course he’ll say that! He might be a blood mage! Don’t you know what they did? 

Greagoir: I am the knight-commander here, not you.

I know much is made of the torture Cullen suffered in the Fereldan Circle. In Dragon Age 2 it is used to set him up as an extremist, and an ally of Meredith. In Dragon Age Inquisition it is used to excuse and moderate his actions in the previous game, and to justify his ongoing persecution of mage characters.

However, I think it’s worth looking at that scene in the original context, in Broken Circle. Here, it isn’t really about Cullen’s pain at all. Rather, it is about establishing him, as well as his fellow templars, as the bad guys of the quest.

Bioware and its grey morality is ... a thing. When it works, it offers layers and complexity to the world and its story. When it doesn’t, it can leave the player frustrated and angry with a story that’s asking them to sympathise with vicious slavers, nobles and religious extremists.

Origins’s take on grey morality is to ... more or less literally let the player get away with murder, if they want. One way or another, you’re going to end the Blight, and then your Warden will either be a dead hero, or the living Hero of Ferelden, who can damn near do no wrong. While in Inquisition, and even DA2, it can be difficult to remain friends with a companion if you take a hard line stance on something they hate, in Origins they rarely have strong reactions to quest-based decisions. And hell, I have the Feast Day pack, so Seanna could disagree with her companions all day and then feed them cake until they loved her again, if she wanted. Origins is big on options; low on consequences.

It does, however, tend to give you a broad sense of which would be the ‘good’ or ‘evil’ options in a given quest. Murdering slaves to increase your stats is evil. Saving children from demons is good. Some quests have multiple options, and I don’t necessarily agree with the framing (the morality of The Urn of Sacred Ashes is pretty fucked up, if you ask me), but you can generally get a sense of whether your Warden’s behaviour counts as moral.

Cullen’s torture in Broken Circle, and his reaction to it, exists in counterpoint to someone else’s torture, and his reaction to it. Cullen is a foil to a much more important character: the man with the plan, and possibly the true saviour of the Fereldan Circle – the mage Niall.

Niall: Who are you? Where did you come from? Are you a demon?

Cullen: This trick again? I know what you are. It won’t work. I will stay strong.

Niall: This place drains you of everything ... hope, feeling, life ...

Cullen: Enough visions. If anything in you is human ... kill me now and stop this game.

Unless you actively choose to go back downstairs after completing the Fade sequence (who hasn’t forgotten they still need to fight Shah Wyrd and made a last minute dash to the ground floor at least once?) you’ll likely have these encounters one after the other. Collecting the Litany of Adralla is the last step before you’re ready to take on Uldred.

It’s impossible to miss the parallels in these encounters: both men have been captured and tormented by demons; both are exhausted, despairing and at the end of their endurance; both have been confused enough by demons and Fade dreams to initially mistake the Warden for another spirit.

Niall: I gathered some of my fellows and we obtained the Litany from the stockroom. I thought if we disabled the others, we could throw everything we had at Uldred.

Niall: But I saw my friends fall, one by one, and now it’s my turn.

Cullen: You broke the others, but I will stay strong, for my sake ... for theirs ...

Both have lost the friends they came with, and have found themselves the last man standing against an enemy they have no hope of defeating. Both have, in short, had a really shit couple of days. They’re not equally bad, of course: Niall is being quite literally eaten alive by a sloth demon, and will not survive the day; while no doubt exhausted and distressed, Cullen is more-or-less fine. But let’s not quibble: they’re both in a bad way.

Niall: It is time for us both to be on our way. Remember the Litany of Adralla. The Circle is all that matters now.

Cullen: To ensure this horror is ended ... to guarantee that no abominations or blood mages live, you must kill everyone up there.

And, significantly, both characters advise you on how to complete the quest: Niall wants you to save anybody who’s still breathing; Cullen wants you to murder everyone. Niall’s plea, while impassioned, is also reasoned and well thought out – he came in with a plan, a good plan, and he only needs your help to complete it. He is profoundly dignified, even at the point of death, after days of wandering through the same hellscape you just golem-and-fiery-skeleton-ed your way though. He judges himself for failing to win a battle he should never have had to fight. Meanwhile, Cullen is aggressive and demanding. He rejects any offer of compassion – especially from Circle mage Wynne, despite the fact that she has come to save him – and he doesn’t really have a good argument as to why you need to kill everyone. It boils down to ‘kill them just in case’.

You don’t need to put a halo and a pair of horns on these two to guess who is sitting on which shoulder.

It’s worth noting, at this point, that the choice between Niall’s way and Cullen’s sits against the background of information you’ve gathered as you ascend the tower. Mage wardens will obviously have a little more context for the places and characters you meet, but you don’t need that. The story establishes it on its own: templars are full of shit; mages are pretty awesome.

Greagoir: We saw only demons, hunting templars and mages alike. I realised we could not defeat them and told my men to flee.

Greagoir: They took us by surprise. We were prepared for one or two abominations – not the horde that fell upon us.

Greagoir: No one could have survived those monstrous creatures. It is too painful to hope for survivors and find ... nothing.

When you first enter the Circle you encounter Knight-Commander Greagoir, who makes it abundantly clear that, though the templars are technically trained in dealing specifically with demons and blood magic, they were in no way prepared for any situation involving demons, plural. They cut and run immediately, leaving behind both the entire mage population and their own templar brethren. Greagoir is firmly of the opinion that the situation in the Fereldan Circle is not survivable. Everyone in there who is not a demon is dead.

Wynne: It’s you! No ... come no further. Grey Warden or no, I will strike you down where you stand!

As soon as you step through the doors, you find that he is thoroughly and disastrously wrong. You encounter an entire section that has been successfully cleared and secured. You watch a mage defeat a demon – entirely without your aid. You see that, not only are there survivors, some of the survivors are children.

Greagoir: This situation is dire. There is no alternative – everything in the tower must be destroyed so it can be made safe again.

Wynne: Yes. Even if we cannot eliminate all the demons and abominations, together, we could lead the survivors out.

Greagoir’s plan is simply to murder everyone: to charge in and stick a sword in anything that moves (children included) without any thought of strategy or reason. Wynne would like to be methodical: she would like to go from room to room, killing any hostiles she encounters, and send survivors down to safety.

We already have evidence that Greagoir's assessment of the situation is wildly inaccurate – the mages in front of us. Likewise, we have evidence that Wynne and her people can follow through on the plan: they’ve already cleared this area, and protected the children.

Wynne pairs with Greagoir and Niall pairs with Cullen. The debate you hear at the bottom of the tower is repeated at the top. In both instances, the mages present solid plans to save as many people as possible; in both instances, the templars advocate wanton destruction for no clear reason.

The templars’ argument is further undermined by evidence you find as you climb the tower:

Pile of Rubble in first area after ascending to this level: I have the utmost sympathy for what happened to your charge, but it is beyond the Cicle's ability to anticipate every obscure demise that an apprentice might face, especially involving methods outside the already extensive realm of magical study. We simply don't have the room for additional training facilities, and there are concerns about becoming too inclusive that I will not elaborate on. Your request is denied.

--First Enchanter Sinclair

Pile of Books in next room after escaping from the Fade: If space is your excuse, I will surrender my quarters. If it is about money, I will hire the appropriate people. I will not graduate another student ignorant of weapons that any ditch-digger can shove into his ribs. We teach them to append ridiculous glamours on parade arms, but they don't know simple steel. That is criminal.

--Enchanter Bergin

Pile of Books in room with Blood Mage and Charmed Templars: Notice herewith that the exercise area on the fourth floor shall serve as permanent berthing for the templar garrison stationed at the tower. Since facilities that accommodate their particular training requirements are already on hand, they will be assuming an even closer watch over Circle affairs. Enchanter Bergin's optional weapons training is canceled until further notice. Enchanter Bergin has additionally stepped down from teaching duties.

--First Enchanter Sinclair

– Extracurricular Studies

It’s established that the mages have been actively prevented from learning how to defend themselves. There used to be combat classes, taught by someone named Enchanter Bergin, but he was forced to stop and templars moved in to his space to “assum(e) an even closer watch over Circle affairs”.

Owain: Please refrain from going into the stockroom. It is a mess and I have not been able to get it into a state fit to be seen.

Tranquil: Thank you. That was an uncomfortable experience.

Nevertheless, there are several encounters with mages and tranquil in this quest who are fighting, hiding, resisting torture – still trying to find a way through this nightmare. There are survivors. Despite what the templars tell you, there are people you can save.

Desire demon: We are partners. I give him what no one else can, and through him, I experience what it is to be mortal.

Meanwhile, Cullen outright admits that the rest of his comrades broke (we have only his word that he didn’t, which strangely enough he expects us to accept, while not regarding Irving’s word as good enough), and there are no free templars in the entire quest. They are all possessed or charmed by demons.

Broken Circle is asking you a simple question. Which do you want? Warriors trained in dealing with the arcane and the monstrous who will absolutely scream and run away if the fight gets a little bit difficult? Or civilians with no combat training who have proved to be surprisingly resilient in a crisis?

Strategically, that might be a bit tough: what you actually want is competent professionals, and those are in short supply right now. Morally, it’s an easy call: the mages are heroes, survivors and innocents; the templars are murderous cowards.

Alistair: His hatred of mages is so intense ... the memory of his friends’ deaths is still fresh in his mind.

Wynne: He’s suffered pain and anguish like few have had to endure. That and his lust for revenge have confused the issue –

Cullen: Do not presume to judge me, mage! I am thinking clearly – for perhaps the first time in my life.

Cullen: As you can see, I am in no position to directly influence your actions, though I would love to deal with the mages myself.

To return to Cullen’s motivation – while no one is disputing that he’s had a really bad day (We’re not! We’re all being very understanding about his demands for mass murder!), the story doesn’t actually emphasise his distress very much. That is raised and dismissed. What is raised and accepted is that Cullen is angry. Cullen is vengeful. The mages (some of them, anyway) have risen up, and templar blood has been spilled. Now mage blood must be spilled in return. It doesn’t matter very much if the mages were involved in the uprising or not. He just wants to kill them in an act of revenge.

While we can understand Cullen’s grief over his friends at a personal level, it’s worth considering whether it’s reasonable. We have just established that the mages are imprisoned in the Circle tower, that they have been prevented from learning how to protect themselves, and that the templars have not only abandoned their charges to die, they are actively in favour of murdering them.

Do ... we care that much about their deaths? This looks like the only part of the uprising that went right.

This is like Nathaniel Howe’s distress over his father’s death. Of course you can sympathise: this was his dad. But at the same time, you expect him to look at the evidence, and come to understand that his father was not an innocent. Nathaniel does, because he is a fundamentally decent person. Cullen doesn’t.

Put another way: if you’ve played Fallout 4, you’ll note that the NPC raiders sometimes cry out in grief and distress when their comrades fall in battle. That’s a nice touch on the AI: the raiders are human beings, with human emotions, and the people you’re killing are their friends, their family. But when the battle is done and you walk into their camps ... and you observe the bloody remains of their victims scattered about for decoration ... maybe you don’t feel too bad about making them sad?

Same deal.

The original epilogue for this quest has this:

Templars

Once the tower was rebuilt, Knight-Commander Greagoir stepped down from his post and retired to a life of private contemplation as a brother in the Chantry. His health failed over time, and after refusing treatment, he perished in his sleep. Knight-Commander Cullen was said to be more strict and less trusting of the mages even than Greagoir was. He ruled the Circle with fear.

Mages

The young templar Cullen never quite recovered from his ordeal. After months of attempting to convince his superiors that the tower was still a danger, he finally snapped and killed three apprentices before being stopped by his fellow templars. Eventually, Cullen escaped from prison, a madman and a threat to any mage he encountered.

– Epilogue

Now, I realise the details of this have been pretty thoroughly retconned. There is absolutely no point in bringing this stuff up in relation to later games. However, it is worth looking at the epilogue in relation to the original quest. Regardless of the ending you choose, these epilogues tell you that the real threat was never the mages, or even the demons. The threat was the templars – the individual murderer, or the institution with a cruel man in charge.

The mages are not possessed (at least not in a harmful sense – Hi, Wynne!). They are not evil. But the templars always have power over them, and they can hurt them simply because they hate them. Cullen hates them, and was thwarted in his vengeance. So he hurts them.

Also, if you mash those two endings together and change the location you’ve pretty much got the plot of Dragon Age 2. So the details have changed, but the theme remains the same.

To end: Broken Circle fundamentally lets you choose. You can show compassion to the tortured mages, who asked for none of this, and who were never prepared for this violence. You can accept the aid of their heroes, enact a plan, and save the survivors. Or, you can murder them to satisfy the vengeance of their gaolers who resent having to take any risks on behalf of their charges.

Niall represents that compassion. Cullen represents that cruelty. It isn’t really about Cullen’s tragedy at all. If anything, it’s about Niall’s. And yet, two games on, he is effectively forgotten.

Niall: Dark times, greater acts of heroism, eh? You may be right.

A salute to Niall – who fought for compassion and saved the Circle (at least from my save game) when the templars would have destroyed it.

[scrollingkingfisher]

Gabriel Through the Seasons- Control and Self-Deception

An excessively long essay, by me.

Evening peeps! So the topic of Gabriel’s relationship with control came up in the discord last night and it resulted in an entire TED talk which I didn’t even know was in me. So here we go, all tidied up and ready for meta consumption!

So Gabriel’s complex relationship with control is written into his character from the very first time we see him on screen. In Crawford Hall, he orchestrates the whole thing- he punishes people, but it’s always from a safe distance, never getting his hands dirty. He's actively manipulating the Winchesters for the entire time they're there in a similar way. Illusions are one of the first ways that he uses to control situations and keep them at arm’s length- let’s call them his first line of defence. Through them he can distract and confuse, and it means he doesn’t have to get too close to the action, either emotionally or physically. He uses his illusions to give the Winchesters the impression they got the better of him, but really I think that was him sizing them both up, and using his persona as the trickster to keep some emotional distance from the situation- his second line of defence.

Next up- Mystery Spot. Gabriel's control complex comes out big time. The apocalypse is getting closer, Dean's played his cards, Gabriel's family-related trauma is rearing its ugly head from where he'd managed to stash it under all those layers of repression, and the situation is suddenly more immediate than he’d like. So what can he do, both to maintain distance from the situation, get some kind of control over it and to try and avert having to deal with his brothers? Oh look, a convenient vessel of the apocalypse! But he can't just tell him what's gonna go down, because that would require trust, and then the ball would be in Sam's court. Telling Sam what was going to happen would have meant relinquishing control of the situation, and he doesn’t want to get too involved either. Better to stay in his comfort zone of using his alter ego to teach Sam a lesson from a distance. It works out excellently, obviously. Sam is particularly good at cutting to the chase, over the seasons- probably because he has a similar (but not identical) relationship with control and autonomy. And that's the first time we really see Gabriel break character. Then we get to see what imo is probably closer to what he's really feeling. When somebody takes that control of the situation away from him, it makes him either scrabble to get his mask back on, or get incredibly angry and absolutely fucking lose it, or he gets overwhelmed and runs away from the situation. Which is exactly what he does on this particular occasion. Sam calls him out, Gabriel realises that he’s no longer in control here, he gives up on teaching Sam a lesson and he’s off.

Changing Channels is a whole ‘nother ball game. The complete control Gabriel takes over the situation- literally puppeteering them around his own sets- he’s eve controlling their environment. Throwing the Winchesters around and teaching them a lesson like he can't do with their angelic counterparts. Bullying them into playing their roles, because if he can't stop the apocalypse, he needs to feel like he has control over what's happening somehow, yeah? The angry outburst when Dean calls him out. And that anger when provoked is another recurring theme. If I had to guess, I’d say that the anger is another shield, his third and final defence- this time though, it’s a shield against himself, and his own emotions about his situation. Gabriel is not about facing his emotions head on. Repression is the name of the game, and like nearly everybody on SPN, he’s very good at it. And then, finally, the Winchesters know who he is and the layers of deception peel away. Gabriel can't hide any more; they know what he is. He can't run away. And he manages to keep it together, just, but I think it's a close thing, because the bitter resignation as he finally explains to the brothers what's going on? That's as honest as he gets.

Then we get to Hammer of the Gods, and this one's a little different, because as the audience we're seeing Gabriel's shields and attempts to control the situation from a slightly different angle. Gabriel is cool as a cucumber while he's with the other gods, because he NEEDS to be otherwise they'll slaughter him and he knows it (story of his life- he can never trust anyone), but as soon as he's alone with the Winchesters, he drops the act, if not the attempts to control the situation. Then he spends the rest of the episode desperately running around, trying to maintain a series of ever-more-convoluted deceptions, until he finally has to face Lucifer. And as much as I love Gabriel's return, it was absolutely in character here for him to pull one last layer of deception and nope out of the entire thing. He's stressed beyond belief. His brother just nearly stabbed him. He needs some RnR and several liquor stores.

Maybe that's why he lets his guard down with Loki and relinquishes control of the situation. And immediately it's proven why Gabriel can never let his guard down, even with his ‘allies’, because they fucking sell him. Cue eight years of torture. 

 Asmodeus was probably the literal worst thing that could have happened to Gabriel. Because if it had just been pure torture, I think he would have held up quite well. But Asmodeus stripped away Gabriel's control and autonomy. All of it. He’s a slave, but it’s worse than that, they condition him and break him until he doesn’t even run away. And that speech in Unfinished Business? Wow. He felt absolutely violated by what was done to him, and it's never explicitly talked about, but it's made fairly obvious what happened. When he comes back, he has no walls at all, no deceptions, no control over his situation or himself, and he spends the majority of the episode quivering in the back of his own mind. Sam eventually manages to coax him out, but not before showing weakness of his own by basically begging for help, and therefore handing Gabriel a little bit of control back. And then Gabriel finally at the end of the episode manages to gain back a bit of control over his life when he realises there's an opening to kill Asmodeus, and WHAM, the masks are back up, witty quip time, look at me I've got my powers back and I'm gonna burn you in a very Extra way because this rage inside has nothing at all to do with how you ripped my self-control away from me. And then Sam asks for help, and he sees a potential for someone trying to control him again, and obviously, he's gone.

Next up: Unfinished Business. Whoo boy there's a whole lot to unpack here. First off he's hunting the people who sold him. Not because they're posing a threat- they probably still thought he was still with Asmodeus until he started hunting him down- but because they caused him massive trauma and REVENGE SIDEQUEST has a better ring to it than fall-apart-alone-because-I-don't-dare-to-trust-anyone. And Gabriel has to have control over his own reactions even more than he likes to control the people around him. Gabriel never lets himself be vulnerable, even to himself. And he is hurt, and angry, so revenge quest it is! He starts before he's ready, because letting himself wallow is a no-go, so obviously he gets stabbed and ends up with the Winchesters again, because they're his least-worst option. He knows they're hunting for him, but he went to them, so he's in control, right? RIGHT! So he spins the Winchesters a story (dubiously realistic emotional mask of hot babes and decadence ahoy). But obviously Dean's that git who can't keep his fingers out of the emotional cracks, and he pushes a little too far and Gabriel loses control, and we see what Gabriel's feeling again. Or rather, what Gabriel's letting himself feel, and that’s all anger. But under it, reading between the lines, there's the emotions that he can't control, that feeling of incredible vulnerability and violation, of having your control taken from you.  And that carries through to when Loki, who obviously knows him, who Gabriel has obviously confided in previously ("boohoo, Gabriel with his mean older brothers"?), uses his knowledge of that vulnerability to absolutely rip into him, to really grind in the point while he's helpless, and even after he's defeated (by Sam throwing him the sword, not by Gabriel being able to do it himself), there's no celebration, there's no witty quips, because Loki tore down Gabriel's self delusions of control. It's an empty victory. And we see that in the scene outside where he's talking to Sam. The shields are back up, he has control of the situation and himself, and he knows that Sam knows he's faking being "swell" but at least going with the Winchesters provides something to do, a little more control for a little longer. But inside? He's even more vulnerable now, because Loki took away any sort of internal defences he might have had with his little parting speech. This is where his descent begins. His expression when Sam turns away? Absolutely hopeless and dead inside. His self-defence of anger is gone, and that's not a good thing.

I haven't watched the rest of the episodes quite as obsessively, but I'll still do the broad strokes. Getting it on with Rowena? Exercising power and autonomy over his own actions, with a healthy side-helping of "Could a depressed person do this??" He doesn't have as many problems with confronting Lucifer as one might expect, but then again, he's in control. He's got Lucifer drugged up to the nines before he even drops his disguise, and then he takes gleeful advantage of the situation to play with him for a little bit because finally, he's got control over that brother who caused him all that anguish! Revenge is almost second nature at this point. But he never breaks character through the entire confrontation. He maintains that emotional distance. Fast-forward into the apocalypse world, and I think Gabriel is genuinely deeply upset by his inability to heal Sam. One more time where he was absolutely helpless to do shit all, he has no control over the outcome, and he's not raging this time, but he's quiet and withdrawn, and that's a bad sign because he's nearly fresh out of coping mechanisms. Then Lucifer comes back. Gabriel spends the next however long scouting way way out ahead or skulking on the edges of camp, because he knows that this time, the ball will not be in his court, and at the end of the day Gabriel likes to avoid confrontation when at all possible, because why risk it? And we see him slowly sinking deeper into that depression, those thoughts that he'd managed to put off earlier through anger and revenge. He has no power. He has no control over what happens to himself or anyone else. But he manages to hoist the shields up reasonably well when Lucifer corners him, enough to get in a few good quips. But they're pretty damn transparent by this point. He's not cocky any more as he chews Lucifer out. He's just tired. And then Michael attacks, and, well. What do you do when you have no more power over your own trauma, no more leverage or self-belief, and the only control you have is which metaphorical train you throw yourself in front of? 

Gabriel sees one last opportunity to take control of his destiny. 

And he takes it. 

[victorluvsalice]

AU Thursday: Alice Vs The Questionnaire I Just Made

Because it would be remiss for me to send it out into the world and not answer it myself, right? ;p

1. How many of the sidequests did your characters do? Did they manage to complete all of them?

Alice completed most of the sidequests, mostly because I find them interesting, they're good to advance the plot of my story, and -- in-game -- they're good sources of XP. The only ones I skipped/failed were (Edit: naturally I forgot a few on my first posting; what can I say, there’s a lot of side quests!):

Drug Trip -- The Unofficial Patch Plus only quest where you can get some XP and +1 Finance by stealing some drugs for Trip from the clinic. In-game, I completely forgot this was an option and never did it. In-story, Alice is trying to get drugs by more legitimate means for Mercurio rather than steal morphine, so I don’t think she’d be keen to get the recreational stuff for Trip.

Daydream Believer -- Only marked as an official “quest” by Unofficial Patch Plus, this is where you can sell Copper “unicorn blood,” fang-blunting gum, and a stake to kill the head vampire if you’re feeling maliciously playful. Alice was not -- in fact, she likes the Thin-Bloods and wants to help them. And that includes sympathizing with Copper about his desire to become human again, while also warning him off doing anything stupid.

Replanting A Lily -- The quest where you send Vandal someone to replace Lily in his blood-draining chair once you’ve freed her as part of Thinned Blood. In-game, I simply Demented him into some hysterical laughter to forget the whole thing (in case I needed him for emergency rations). In-story, Alice slammed him up against the wall and informed him the only reason she wasn’t about to kill him was because she needed to stay in the Voerman sisters’ good books. Vandal being Vandal, he immediately found this the sexiest thing that had ever happened to him and tried to give her free blood (like might happen with the Intimidation option), which she told him to stick where the sun don’t shine. Yeaaaaah, Alice doesn’t like Vandal.

Occultish Personality -- The quest where you get occult items for Pisha, and she gives you powerful items in return. Rather than work with Pisha, I had Alice kill her after taking care of the Simon business. This was purely a character choice, as I didn't see Alice ever working with her (she disapproves too strongly of what Pisha does to sate her Hunger -- she understands that the woman is under a pretty nasty curse, but the entire camera crew?!).

Venucide -- Okay, this is an interesting one -- this is the alternate side quest you get if you take Boris up on his offer to kill Venus during And Her Name Was Venus. I didn’t do this in-game -- I’m not doing low Humanity with Alice, and besides you earn a lot more with Venus alive and giving you club profits -- but I mention it because Alice pretends to take the offer, goes back to Venus, and works with her to fake her death before going back to Boris to get the reward, then kill him. Venus is quite tickled by the whole thing. XD

Dirty Dishes -- The quest where you help one of the three Giovanni relatives at the party to gain an advantage over the other two. I attempted this one, with the intent of having maybe Victor or Victoria do something with the info in the story (as they're the ones actually doing the social stuff -- Alice snuck in Obfuscated with them), but as it turned out, I didn't have the Persuasion necessary to get the dark secrets out of all three. I only managed to get Adam Dunsirn to admit he’s broke -- ratted him out to Mira for an experience point. Ah well. . . In-story, Victor will probably learn Adam’s secret while socializing, but not actually tell anybody.

Model Citizen/Cover Girl -- Imalia's quests -- either planting webcams to spy on her rival Tawni, or (if you piss her off/want extra XP after the previous quest), getting her a copy of a magazine with her on the cover back before Nosferatuing. Imalia is one of those characters who reacts very poorly to meeting a Malkavian, and is generally pretty conceited, so I didn't have Alice stick around to actually get the quests. By this point in the story, she's not doing favors for people who treat her like ass unless she has to.

Poster Session -- The quest where you trade various objects you can collect around the world to Gary for posters of the ladies in the game. Okay, in all actuality, I am doing this one in my game, if only because I'm collecting the objects he's asking for anyway while doing other quests and I might as well, but Alice in-story wouldn't be interested, and I'm not sure Gary would make the offer anyway, given their relationship.

2. How long do you think their stay in L.A. lasted, from Embrace to ending?

I'm working on figuring this out right now in my current playthrough! Part of the reason I fired up Bloodlines again was to actually work out a timeline for "Londerland Bloodlines," as the one given on the wiki feels absurdly short (and cuts out all the side quests). The way I've currently got it, it looks like Alice's Adventures In Los Angeles will stretch from October 21st, 2004, to the middle of November that same year (maybe about the 15th or so?), though I think I'm going to be adding in extra time in the story to help develop relationships and build in some extra breathing room for the characters. So, at a rough estimate, about two months.

3. Which ending did they go for? And if they're the rare Kindred who sided with Ming or LaCroix, did they somehow manage to escape their canonical fates (blown up/sunk to the bottom of the ocean)?

Alice is Independent all the way -- by the end of the game, she neither likes nor trusts practically anyone in the Kindred/ghoul community of L.A. (with four key exceptions, and one of those -- Beckett -- has already skedaddled by the end game) and just wants out. Hell, she would have left earlier if she'd gotten the chance -- she would have happily left L.A. the moment LaCroix sent her up against the Sabbat alone if said Sabbat hadn't kidnapped Lizzie and Victoria, and she would have just left straight after rescuing them and killing Andrei if she hadn't had a guilt attack about helping to get a Blood Hunt called on Nines and deciding she had to tell him about what Ming-Xiao told her. And the Cabbie is the one who talks her into taking down LaCroix and Ming-Xiao when she escapes the Blood Hunt, telling her that the only way to truly feel free is to make sure neither of them can come after her again. She is only too happy to leave the city when everything and everyone is done and dusted.

(Also, semi-related I had what I feel is a pretty awesome idea regarding why she gives LaCroix the key -- a post in the vtmb tag mentioned that anyone who had Auspex might be able to scan the sarcophagus and see there's no uber-vampire inside. The way Alice uses Auspex in her story, it functions partially as a real-life "Shrink Sense,” to fit with her madness. Maybe, at the end of the game, Alice finally uses Auspex on the sarcophagus to see what she can glean, and sees that a) there's no vampire and b) the Insane Children have drawn jack-in-the-boxes all over it, along with arrows to leave. Figuring LaCroix can suffer the disappointment of it being empty, she drops the key and heads off, not QUITE realizing WHY the kids told her to leave -- that is, until her Wonderland friends start BOOKING IT out the door when she gets down to the lobby, and she realizes those jack-in-the-boxes look like her own Jackbombs. . .)

4. How do they feel about the major power players in L.A. (LaCroix, Strauss, Smiling Jack, Nines, Isaac, Ming-Xiao, Gary)? Did their opinions of them change at any point thanks to a quest or just more time spent with them?

LaCroix: Hates him from the moment he Dominates her into leaving the Nocturne Theater instead of bothering to answer any of her questions. She's willing to keep her head down when she's around him (for fear of more Domination) up until Grout's mansion -- then she starts demanding she be paid like a proper employee, at least, and getting a lot snarkier in his presence. When the Blood Hunt on Nines was called (which involved him Dominating her AGAIN so she wouldn't warn Nines beforehand), she was about ready to gut him, and sincerely hoped there was something in that damn Sarcophagus so it would eat him. She doesn't particularly mind he got blown up in the end -- she was much more concerned for anyone else who was in the upper levels of the tower.

Strauss: She found him a little condescending, but helpful, when she first arrived in Downtown and sought him out. (Didn't think much of his poetry skills, though.) He gave her some good information on vampires around the city and the Camarilla in general, and she can't deny he paid well for helping take care of the plaguebearer situation. Her opinion of him plummets the moment she learns about his role in creating the Gargoyle, though. The idea that he kept that living, thinking being as his slave. . .not to mention, his low opinion of ghouls doesn't do much to endear him to her either.

Smiling Jack: Like Strauss, she spends most of the game thinking he's not exactly the best company, but he was helpful and gave her a hand in a very tough spot in her life. And he seems to be the most chill of the older vampires she's come across.

And then the sarcophagus explodes, Alice manages to put together the clues on who's behind it, realize he slaughtered all those people on the Elizabeth Dane and is indirectly responsible for a lot of the shit she's gone through. . .and basically exiles herself from Los Angeles forever by staking him and leaving him for the sunrise on her way out. (She is as shocked as anyone that she managed to pull it off -- she thought it would be a much worse fight!)

Nines: Alice is grateful to him for helping to save her life at her initial trial, and she likes his philosophy just fine. Unfortunately, their relationship was wrecked fairly early on by two factors:

1) Alice making a joke about the Last Round, which Nines took poorly -- Alice attempted to apologize, but Nines refused to hear it

2) Alice not liking Skelter and Damsel, both of whom immediately gave her shit for being LaCroix's "lapdog" and a Malkavian

So yeah, there was definitely some tension there. And the whole Blood Hunt mess happened, and frankly Alice is shocked Nines was willing to talk to her when she went looking for him on her way out of L.A. post-Sabbat. She sometimes wishes they'd had a chance to make up, but given that she doesn't think much of the Anarchs in general anymore. . .she's not losing sleep over their cool relationship.

Isaac: He's one of the main reasons she doesn't think much of the Anarchs in general. She thought it was pretty smart of him to have someone to direct vampires new to Hollywood to him to say hello -- up until he mentioned "tribute." That and his generally imperious attitude toward her at first means she considers him just another Prince under a different title. Learning what happened between him and Ash didn't help either -- she can understand not wanting to let someone you care about just die, more than she would admit, but he doesn't seem to have handled things well post-Embrace, given he didn't do jack shit about the hunters menacing him. (Hoping the threat would drive Ash back into his arms, perhaps?) Add in that he didn't even pay her for taking care of the Gargoyle (never mind Alice didn't actually kill it -- she still convinced it to leave), and -- yeah. She considers him everything wrong with the Anarch movement.

Ming-Xiao: Alice considered her fairly stuck-up when they first met, but really no worse than any of the regular Kindred she'd met -- and it was interesting to quiz her on how Kue-jin are different. Of course, learning that the Mandarin was on her payroll and she's actively trying to kill her lowered her opinion of her a bit. She actively avoids Ming-Xiao after the Fu Syndicate stuff, and nearly just puts her new enchanted katana straight through her when she shows up post-Sabbat. She certainly doesn't shed a tear when she has to destroy her at the end of game.

Gary: Alice thinks he's a bit of an overdramatic jerk, but she kind of enjoys matching wits with him. And at least he's more honest about being a jerk than most vampires, and keeps up his end of the bargain when she frees Barnabus, no problem. Whatever relationship they have is built upon snarking at each other, basically. :p

5. How did they handle the situation with Heather (or, if you're like me, whoever you replaced Heather with in their personal story)?

Obviously, in my world, Victor got hit by the car and got the ghouling treatment. Alice saw him lying all alone in that room and -- couldn't let him just die like that. She's utterly horrified to learn that she created an addict by doing so, and actively has Betram and Knox seek Victor out (using the Cathayan's laptop as payment) and send him her way so she can keep an eye on him and hide any Masquerade violations he may commit. Her original intent was to hold onto him until he stopped being a ghoul, then quietly set him loose, away from prying Kindred eyes. . .

. . .And then she fell in love.

Cue quite a lot of angsting over the fact that she doesn't want to lose him, but she feels so guilty about the Blood Bond and she doesn't know if Victor's feelings are actually real -- which only gets worse when Victoria and Emily join the group, as then she's like "I should let Victor be with one of them -- oh crap I like them too, what the hell Alice, years of not falling in love and now it's two mortals and a zombie." It took Mercurio explaining that his Blood Bond does not actually force him to like LaCroix, just be loyal to him, to convince her that keeping Victor -- and turning Victoria into her ghoul -- might not be as bad as she feared.

And then Victor had his prophetic dream about the Sabbat. He and Emily successfully fled the city (the "letting Heather go" branch of her mini-storyline), but Lizzie and Victoria got captured by the Sabbat and used as bait for a trap for Alice (the "Heather gets captured and killed" branch). Unlike in canon, though, Alice is able to successfully save them (with the help of Bonejangles, VV, and Bertram), and ghouls Victoria to help her heal before sending them away. They all reunite once she's done with the endgame. :)

6. More generally, how closely does their storyline stick to how you have to do things canonically? For example, in quests, did they find third options that weren't offered by the game? Are their stories affected by mods you use while playing the game?

I play with the Unofficial Plus Patch, so there's going to be some stuff from that included in my story, just because that's what I'm used to -- for example, Alice is doing the restored library quest featuring the Lasombra in her storyline. As for the main storyline itself, I'd say that, even with the character replacements and suchlike, it stays pretty much true to the game until about the time Alice hits Hollywood -- namely because I've replaced one-shot character Sam with Victoria, who has a much larger role in "Londerland Bloodlines." After that, it starts to veer off a bit more, in particular during "Italian Dinner," where Emily, Lizzie, and Bonejangles join the party --

But the most major break with canon is in the endgame. Namely, Alice decides to skip fighting her way up Venture Tower and instead climbs up the outside with the help of some climbing equipment she sources from Mercurio. :p Lacroix is more than a little surprised. XD (Though she still has to fight the bat-form of the Sheriff -- can't escape the whole boss fight, Alice!)

7. Do they have an alternate storyline/history of what might have happened had they been Embraced but not ended up the protagonist Fledgling?

I covered that a couple of weeks ago! You can read the "Mistakenly Thinned Blood" AU of the AU in detail here, but the short version is "Alice is Embraced more secretly by her sire Fish, manages to kill him post-Embrace, goes to Santa Monica, and ends up hanging out with the Thin-Bloods because everyone thinks she's one of them. Still saves Victor, meets Victoria, and rescues Lizzie, Emily, and Sam from the Giovannis, though -- and then gets out of town before the freaking-out populace who just learned what she actually is can catch up with her."

8. Is the Cabbie a) Caine, b) another Kindred who believes himself to be Caine for whatever reason, c) another Kindred playing the long con by pretending to be Caine, d) something else entirely?

He's Caine -- I like the headcanon, and the idea of him posing as a random taxi driver in L.A., looking upon all this chaos and wondering "why. why." amuses me. XD

9. How do you handle/explain away obvious "this only works in a video game" mechanics in their storyline (e.g., the inventory system that allows them to carry like seven guns and five melee weapons at once)?

With me, Alice is going to be carrying a lot fewer weapons at once -- she'll generally pick a few favorites to take with her on missions (she always has a knife on her, at least), and uses Obfuscate to truck them around invisibly when she's in crowded areas. She probably also gets a bag or backpack to carry useful things. She also goes through a lot more clothes until she gets some decent leather jackets and such -- her starting outfit is basically wrecked by the tutorial mission, leading to LaCroix's agents having to buy her a new dress before she can pick up her things and go to her new haven in Santa Monica. (I have decided to make it Symbolic by having her wear the modern equivalent of her London outfit from A:MR when she gets Embraced, and the outfit being destroyed representing her change from human to vampire.)

10. How do you explain why the Fledgling is so ridiculously overpowered when compared to most other vampires their age (beyond the fact that they're likely 8th generation, going by their blood pool)?

My personal explanation, which might come up in the final conversation Alice has with Caine in the cab, is that some people in this universe are born with great supernatural potential, for whatever reason, and Alice is one of them. There's just something about her that lends itself well to being a supernatural creature -- and a powerful one at that. If she'd been from a werewolf line, she would have been an amazing werewolf; if she had awakened as a mage, she would have been a super-talented mage. As she was Embraced, she gets to be a terrifyingly strong vampire. Alice personally considers this a pretty shitty "chosen one" status, but she can't deny she liked getting really good at Obfuscate really fast!

[bedlamgames]

Q&A #103

Today we have the Twine conversion, lesbian training mantras, social lube, a bunch of random stuff from the discord, and a whole lot more. 

[Anonymous said]: I'm really curious what the tally means for your twine conversion posts. Can't seem to figure out what its suppose to represent progress wise...

- Answered this last Q&A. Because of you asking I’ve now also added the explanation to what it’s about to every stream post so I hope that helped with understanding what’s going on with that.

[Anonymous said]: Suggestion: For races that start with a random corruption (ie: Succubi), have an option in full custom to spend points to either narrow what that corruption is (to be one of the four types, for example) or to outright pick one (for a much higher cost).

- That’s a good idea. Being able to pick specifically I think would be too much. There are ALOT of corruptions so that would mean many many menus to be able to select everything. Being able to pick one of the four types seems fair to me as something to spend points on in Full Custom. Added it to my notes. 

[Anonymous said]: Have a succubus slaver who used to be a lamia. On level up, she had the option to get the Fleet trait, which I thought was off-limits for Lamia due to their body shape. I think it's a bug?

- Good spot and should be fixed as of the last update. 

[Anonymous said]: Noticed a bug with No Haven 0.903: If you select a human (or once-human) for your character, and then quick restart, your next character will keep the human's Racial aspect Social Lube. On the topic of that Racial, it says " includes one human, and three other different races/subtypes gain an additional Success" Does that mean one human and three non-humans, or one human and three slavers each of a different race from each other?

-Took me awhile to work this out as going from human to human seemed fine. However you’re right that those with a heritage like demi-angels or succubi will incorrectly keep the previous racial. 

The second so as long as you have at least one human you can get the buff by say having a northerner, noble, wastelander, and convent. 

[Anonymous said]: hi bud, xfto/x421 here, its been a long time i guess. wanted to ask about the status of the no haven/twine conversation. i joined your picardo lately but couldnt post some reports since you dont allow guest-posts. well anyway, the report is about something ridiculous i have found after some restarts, the chosen main charakter (lamia) starts as male with the hard carry aspect(immense shaft) and different description than the ones the perks would give. 1/2

another question, feels like i asked something similiar in the past, how about the integration of different artpacks/access to older pics, or deletion of those that never get used? i guess that would requiere some more access to the game than you allow atm. maybe with twine? do you have a roadmap on tfgames or somewhere for the future of no haven? i know there are some more races you want to implement and improve some systems, but thats it, hope you are doing well in these times. 2/2

I do an update on the patreon every two weeks which is linked on the twitter. You do not need to be a patron to read these and is the best way to stay informed about what I’ve been up to. That includes the status of the conversion. To quickly sum it up;

It's at a stage where all the RAGS to Twine code conversion is basically done. What I need to do now is translate all that work into something playable and there's currently big logic issues with a bunch of the conditions and passages. So what I'm currently doing is trying to tidy up the visual look of the code with a bunch of idents with the theory that will make finding the errors easier.

Alas it’s not me disallowing guest posts... Picarto had some massive stonking issues and so they locked things down hard due to that preventing guests from chatting. I suggest a throwaway email site to get around that.

I don’t think there’s any art in the game file that’s not used as I try to keep on top of deleting the old ones. Not really down for doing art packs of the old ones as due to that not being my art so I see them as placeholder only until they can be replaced by commissions. 

I probably do need to do some kind of roadmap sometime. I’m less keen as it’s kind of a dirty word these days as due to the miss-use of them by others it’s got some bad connontations, but I’m also aware the alternative which is me randomly mentioning stuff on discord/picarto streams leaves the vast majority of my audience in the dark which is also really not ideal.

[Anonymous said]: [no haven 0.903] [Crit no longer grants Bimboborn] okay, but how do I get bimboborn now?

- It’s a corruption. Specifically Blessings of Perversion. 

[Anonymous said]: With the change to training where hypnotic slavers can fully embed the relevant mantras for blowjob, bimbo, and sissy training, could we also get that for lesbian training?

- Yes that’s the plan when I do the third part of lesbian training. Got a set of commissions planned just got to sort the funding and work out who I’m getting to do it. 

[Anonymous said]: hey bud, x421 here, again, might be already fixed because thats from no haven .903, but i recently had the witch queen super rare quest, you might want to proof read the quest and results, there are a few typos. i really did enjoy the writing nonetheless, just a quick question about that quest, as far as i understood this one, you only change your odds of the final result depending on how good you do on your way to the final, but the reward in the end only depends on the final result? 1/2

2/2 it just dawned on me that its been a while since you made an Q&A post so i guess i ll go and lurk on the tfgames forum in the next days, just one last question: i asked early in development about camp upgrades and you were not that convinced about that stuff, i understand you want the slaver camp as some bandit camp and not some castle/bastion or whatever, but since you added camp upgrades, maybe add proximity to a certain region? or something to spend supplies and gold in a 13month+ run?

- Hah! Okay will give it another read through.That’s correct yes. There’s also rewards on the way if you Critical those parts. 

There is a new gold sink coming soon in an upcoming update. I’ve also got plans for more camp upgrades coming later. 

[From the Patreon]: I'm that guy you replied to about the patch notes in Q&A 101. Solid updates. Bugs in the outfit system has driven me nuts since like, 2015, has it been that long already? I think it has. I like collecting them and something always blows up. This time, I ended up with a slaver wearing both the ooze outfit and ponygirl outfit. So there's that. Also I was disappointed the new Quicker then You'd Like wasn't interactive. Solid in any case though, thanks!

- I'll get them all one day I swear! Don't suppose you remember the chain of events that led to that? New QAYL was a patron requested one with the idea of having a big pay off for playing submissive which often involves playing sub-optimally.

[From the Patreon]: 1-ive been noticing when you choose to repick choices for an slave training assignment the slave gets added to the list of choices 2-also just how rare is the post-slave princess city assignment, cause i can never seem to get it even after selling multiple slave princesses 3-another thing is that the nightly puppet-leader stat is almost impossible to get again(either that or i have bedwarmers incapable of usurping me even thought i my current stats mean i couldnt win against even the subbiest slave)

- Will check 3 as you've not been the only person to mention that. 2 I know exists for sure as other people have definitely got it. Should be no rarer than any other rare City assignment, and thanks for the spot on 1.

[From the Discord]: Top 3 Animes of the 2010 to 2020

Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica the series was staggeringly good. Just redefined what anime could be to me. Film is a... well it was a thing. A beautiful thing with an ending which I still quite know how to feel about. 

Shirobako. It’s about creativity, craft, and about how people can come together to make something. It might not be something good, but dangit it’s been made and that’s worthwhile. It’s also from personal experience by miles the most accurate depiction of working in an office I’ve ever seen.

Oh man this is very very hard deciding on the third so pick one of the following and I could probably make a strong case for it. 

Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon, Darling in the FranXX (yes really, yes even the ending), Lupin III: Part 5, Kill la Kill, Monster Musume, Flip Flappers, Demi-chan wa Kataritai, Zombieland Saga, or Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai.

Also while I was taking the question to mean series both Your Name and Promare are absolutely phenonemal films. 

[From the Discord]: Best recent Eurovision Act

Lena. Always Lena. 

[From the Discord]: What's the agricultural technological level of No Haven like 

It’s not hit industrialization yet. What makes the difference is and allows cities like Aversol and even bigger to exist is that the organization of the human empire is far better than it has any right to be for the other levels of development being able to keep an incredibly complex supply chain constantly flowing even if on the ground level it barely seems to be moving at all. There are also some much, much larger farms both on the Great Plains and further to the north compared to the much more isolated single/couple of households ones that your slavers raid. 

[From the Discord]: What have been some of your all-time favourite assignments, both in terms of working on them and how they turned out?

Love When Week’s End Comes for a recent one. Writing all the results in colour commentary (and all the variations for weather, events and outcomes) was a real challenge and I do like how it came out. 

Witch-Queen and Arisin’ for being the first times I tried to go for a different, more potentially disturbing/freaky mood, and I’m pleased with the results. 

Sable Masquerade as I really like the ‘bad end’ I came up with. Actually I like the whole thing as while the pitch from the patron obviously helped, a lot of it was inspired by a random superhero bondage party picture I saw on HF, which I decided to run with, and had a bunch of fun exploring. 

[From the Discord]: Weirdest bug and most difficult bug

The one that resulted in a male wisp riding a griffon was a fun one. 

Most difficult has to be the clothing management which as a previous question suggests I’ve still not entirely solved. 

[From the Discord]: If No Haven was an MMO, what race/class would you play?

Kreen rogue mainly as I really like the edit I did for the portrait which MidnightonMars later translated into a commission. 

If not definitely a lamia. 

[From the Discord]: Knowing what you do now about the design of the game, are there any game mechanics you wish you'd have implemented differently?

Clothing management. So very much clothing management. I’ve redone it entirely twice now, and it’s still not where I want it to be. 

[From the Discord]: What was your inspiration for creating the setting of No Haven?  Has the direction the game has gone varied from your initial idea? If so what has been the biggest change?

- It started off with adapting the chan game Deeper Dungeons which was basically a certain popular mmo with nothing different about it outside of it being porn along with some possibly unwise options of personal abuse. I first changed it by ditching gnomes for neko which to my mind was a clear upgrade. There even used to be an examine refference in the RAGS version to suggest they’d been in the region of the dungeons before being driven out.

Then it was a gradual process of adding with the occasional subtractions to get it closer to a more Warhammer feeling setting which has always been a major love of mine when I was still doing Whorelock’s in RAGS.

With No Haven it was a case of building on what I’ve done there and expanding upon that with the race lore and assignment descriptions. Biggest was probably when I did the favoured/unfavoured stuff and added a ton of extra backstory to various races to justify the choices made there. 

[thradrantir]

Review: Immersive Wenches and Yuriana

Time to do a review of a mod, or rather a few mods that I’ve had installed.  This will include the following;

Immersive Wenches

Immersive Wenches Enslaved Wenches Patch

Romance of NPCs for Flower Girls

Flower Girls SE Immersive Wenches Patch (found at the FG page under files)

Buxom Wench Yuriana -Tank Healer Support Follower- and Captured Wenches

While the focus is on Yuriana, I’ll do a quick breakdown of each other mod.  Keep in mind, Flower Girls isn’t necessary for Immersive Wenches, but Romance of NPCs is.  And as Immersive Wenches isn’t necessary for Flower Girls, again Romance of NPCs requires Immersive Wenches.

After the quick discussion of some of the mods, we’ll get into the focus which happens to be the follower Yuriana.

As these mods deal with adult content, we’ll begin after the cut.  Please be aware, some screenshots will include nudity.

Immersive Wenches goes ahead and adds NPCs to the world of Skyrim (or province as it actually is).  Barmaids, travelling merchants, bodyguards and vampire wenches.  As the title suggests, these NPCs are all women.  The mod also drops a quest option upon character creation into your inventory, encouraging the player to investigate a slave trader in Embershard Mine, who will have information on him about five women who were captured to be forced into the sex slave trade.  Your job is to find them, and lead them back to the nearest tavern.  When you do, inform one of the barmaids there (which the mod adds new barmaids to the taverns throughout Skyrim) will give you a reward of 800 gold and the captured barmaid will stop following you to relax at the tavern you took her too.

It’s very quick and easy, and you can approach any of these women at any tavern in Skyrim later to rescue other captured women.

This brings us to Yuriana, buxom healer tank.

If you have this mod installed when making a new character, you’ll get the opportunity to start a quest to rescue her at Embershard Mine.  She’ll be in chains and muffled and blindfolded in the cell in Embershard Mine next to a dead woman.  Clear out the mine, rescue Yuriana and you’ll be able to fast travel to the nearest tavern, which happens to be the Sleeping Giant Inn in Riverwood.

At this point, you’ll be able to recruit Yuriana as a follower.  She’ll also give you four more quests.

Rescue five more women

Collect cards with pictures of Yuriana

Find and tear down 45 Slaves for Sale posters throughout Skyrim

Talk to an inmate in Riften

The rescue of the five women is like the original Immersive Wenches mod, save for the fact that each woman has been given Yuriana’s body type and can fast travel to the nearest tavern.  Whichever location a captured woman is located will fast travel to the nearest hold capital.  There’s one near Windhelm, one near Whiterun, one near Markarth, one near Riften (actually in the Ratway in Riften) and one near Dawnstar.  At some of the locations with a captured woman happens to be a card with a picture of Yuriana on it.

There’s 12 of these throughout Skyrim to find and some might be more helpful to start some quests in order to get.  Such as the Forsworn Conspiracy as one of the cards is in the vault of the Treasury House.  This is the first of two collection quests.

The second collection quest involves finding 45 posters which announce slave auctions and focuses on one of five women including Yuriana.  These posters are scattered throughout Skyrim, with five posters in each of the nine holds.

When you find these posters, you are given one of three options; take it, tear it down and destroy it or leave it.

This quest will take some time, as the posters are all across Skyrim and finding them can sometimes be like a needle in a hay stack.  The key is to always check the taverns first.

Once you’ve completed this quests, you can start the longest and the weirdest quest of the entire mod.  This is where you have to return to Riften to speak with a captured slave trader in the Riften jails.  Speak to him, then to Yuriana to begin a sting operation that ends up taking you to discover two new followers, one of whom is a necromancer and Yuriana’s sister and the second happens to be a reanimated corpse.

I said it gets weird.

While the mod is fun, and you can role play it as being someone who goes to uncover a human trafficking ring, there’s only one obvious reason for the creation of this mod and that’s evident in the picture that I posted above the cut.  The sexualization of women and the fetishizing of women of a certain body type.  Because all the women, from Yuriana to all five of the captured wenches (and even the five from the original Immersive Wenches mod) and the two additional followers all have the same exagerated body type with big boobs and butt.

Fortunately, using bodyslide, there’s a way to make all the women in the mod more realistic.  This option doesn’t is as follows;

Search this folder: Data/meshes/actors/character/character assets/ and copy this: femalebody_0 femalebody_1 femalefeet_0 femalefeet_1 femalehands_0 femalehands_1 To this folder: (if you didnt unpack the BSA then create the folder) Data\meshes\actors\character\YurianaWench Similar with the textures. Search this folder: Data\textures\actors\character\female and copy this: femalebody_1 femalebody_1_msn femalebody_1_s femalebody_1_sk femalehands_1 femalehands_1_msn femalehands_1_s femalehands_1_sk femalehead femalehead_msn femalehead_s femalehead_sk femaleheaddetail_frekles femaleheaddetail_rough femaleheadvampire femaleheadvampire_msn To this folder: (if you didnt unpack the BSA then create the folder) Data\textures\actors\character\YurianaWench

Sadly, this will only work on the body type not on the armours which still will be based off of the over exagerated appearance.  Which is fine, that’s what other armours are for.

Over all, this series of mods isn’t bad, especially if you subvert the exagerated appearance.  With the addition of Flower Girls and the FG Immersive Wenches Patch, you can romance Yuriana.  Not sure if that’s all together wize as Yuriana is an obvious victim of human trafficking and sexual abuse.  The overall story is interesting, and as I said, you can role play it as busting open a massive sex trade ring.  Something I really wasn’t impressed with was at each location with a captured woman were what was called Subjigated Wench Bandit.  These were incredibly difficult enemies dressed in scantily clad armour and with the over exagerated body types.  If this was some sort of Stockholm Syndrome, it sorta missed the mark.

The series of mods has some problematic issues, in particular the dialogue given by the player, though it does also give the option to not be a horrible douchenozzle.

As far as Yuriana and the other captured women as well as the necromancer and reanimated corpse goes, they are pretty powerful healers.  They have custom made spells that give massive buffs.  Outside of Yuriana, though, the followers are a little squishy and unless you have a follower mod such as EFF, AFT or UFO, they could die easily.  If you do have one of the other mods, you can set them to essential and they will only go into a downed stated before regenerating health.

Final word; a decent series of mods of the more adult taste, they contain suggestive material and much of it is done as a joke.  It has a lot of potential and the player seems to be the one to drive direction, especially when it comes to not being a huge douche to women who have obviously suffered some form of sexual abuse.

[askfreddiemercury]

Once ED-E and I made it to REPCONN and cleared out most of the feral ghouls, we realized that there was some sort of strange cult made of a bunch of non-feral ghouls. Their leader, Jason Bright, a glowing one, sent me on a quest to help him and his people get to the ‘far beyond.’ It involved clearing the basement of Nightkin to help get the rockets the test site still had up and ready for the ghouls to go on their journey. I had the option to screw the whole plan up but I didn’t do so because I’m not that kind of person. I managed to launch the rockets off with ease. What am I doing with my life? I’m supposed to be looking for that checkered suit asshat. Anyways.

~~~~~

I go back to Manny as the sun is starting to set.

Freddie: The ghouls are no longer at REPCONN.

Manny: Really? Unbelievable, man! I knew that wasn’t gonna be easy. But I had a good feeling about you. You look like you been through a lot.

Look huh?

Freddie: Now about the man I’m looking for…

Manny: Okay, I’ll tell you everything I know, like I promised. The guy you’re looking for, Benny, he was traveling with some members from my old gang. They were going to Boulder City.

At last, I get a name for the man who shot me.

Freddie: Where’s Boulder City?

Manny: It’s straight up Route 93 from here. Just keep following the road north.

Freddie: Any idea why they went that way?

Manny: No clue. I know Benny hadn’t paid up yet. Maybe that was where they were supposed to get square.

Freddie: Hm, well thanks, Manny. That’s all I needed to know.

Manny: Hope that helps. I owed you.

I make my way out of the dinosaur and into my motel room where I can finally rest up before I make my way to Boulder City. I tell ED-E to power down for today, he gently floats down onto the floor after doing so.

~~~~~

Not long after I fall dead asleep I wake to the sound of a gun going off. Is that Manny? Strange. I best go check that out. I leap from my bed and run over to the T-Rex, once inside I run up the stairs and open the door but instead of Manny I see a man in a dirty white shirt. He didn’t notice me even if when that door is kind of loud due to age. I tapped his shoulder and he quickly turns around with his sniper pulled out.

Freddie: Woah! Friendly fire!

He quickly puts it away.

Boone: Goddamn it! Don’t sneak up on me like that. What do you want?

He says very angrily with me. This guy looks like he hasn’t slept in ages but honestly who sleeps these days anyway.

Freddie: Were you expecting visitors?

Boone: Yeah. I guess maybe I am. But not like you. Huh. Maybe it should’ve been you I was expecting all along.

Why does it sound like everyone is flirting with me? Guess my head isn’t right yet.

Boone: Why are you here?

Freddie: Oh I just like meeting new people.

Boone: I think you’d better leave.

Freddie: Come on man, I’m just making friendly conversation.

Boone: I don’t have friends here.

Not getting rid of me that easily. I have to get this guy to open up just a little.

Freddie: Well, I’m not from here, buddy.

Boone: No. No you’re not, are you? Maybe you shouldn’t go. Not just yet. I need someone I can trust. You’re a stranger. That’s a start.

See what I mean?

Freddie: You only trust strangers?

Boone: I said it was a start. This town… Nobody looks me straight in the eye anymore.

Freddie: What do you need me to do?

Boone: I want you to find something else for me. I don’t know if there’s anything to find, but I need someone to try. My wife was taken from our home by Legion slavers one night while I was on watch. They knew when to come and what route to take, and they only took Carla. Someone set it up. I don’t know who.

Woah, this got dark fast.

Freddie: You’re trying to track down your wife?

He gives me an angry expression.

Boone: My wife’s dead. I want the son of a bitch who sold her.

Okay!

Freddie: How do you know she’s dead?

Boone: I know, all right? And that’s all you need to know.

He snaps at me and I raise my hands up to calm him down.

Freddie: What do I do if I find this person?

Boone: Bring him out in front of the nest here while I’m on duty. I work nights. I’ll give you my NCR beret to put on. It’ll be our signal, so I know you’re standing with him. And I’ll take care of the rest. I need to do this myself.

Freddie: Alright, Boone, I'll see what I can do.

Boone: Good. I’ll make it worth your while. And one more thing. We shouldn’t speak again. Not until it’s over. No one in town knows that I know what happened to my wife. Best they never know. Or the Legion will be after me next.

He hands me his beret and I make my way out of the dinosaur. Boone’s putting a lot of faith into me and hopes I can find whoever sold his wife to the Legion. I have to ask around and look around to find solid evidence on who did it. I’ve got your back, Boone.

~~~~~

First, I check in with Cliff Briscoe, owner of the little shop in the dinosaur. He says that he and Carla didn’t speak much. Said she was in his store once but didn’t stay long. He also said that Boone did most of the buying for them. He goes on to say that she had a look on her face like she’d smell something sour, but that the shop always smelled as fine as it always does. Secondly, I go find Ranger Andy. Said Carla was a knockout and that whenever Boone walked around her, he always had this funny grin on his face like he couldn’t believe his luck.

Ranger Andy: I knew we couldn’t. That wasn’t the only reason she stuck out. That girl never minced words. If she’s had better food or hospitality, she’d let you hear it. Trouble was, she usually had. I don’t think she meant it. She really was a sweet girl. I think she just wanted to remind herself that there are still nicer places in the world than Novac. Who could blame her for that?

Seems like Andy thought kindly of Carla, so not that person I’m looking for.

Next, I find Manny in his room. He tells me that Boone and he used to be snipers for the NCR but now their not a friendly terms.

Freddie: Why are you in bad terms with Boone?

Manny: Me and his wife, we didn’t see eye-to-eye on some things. We had some pretty big arguments. One day she turns up missing, and he hasn’t said a word to me since.

Boone must think Manny had something to do with his wife going missing. He tells me that he had a problem with Boone’s wife trying to take him away from Manny, he obviously had a big problem with some city lady taking his best friend away.

Manny: Believe me. When I heard the news my first thought was, I owe somebody, big. I figured Boone would come around after a while. But he hasn’t. And I’m starting to think that if he doesn’t find her, things will never go back to the way they were.

Freddie: Just how many people hated Carla?

Manny: Man, everybody. That girl didn’t have one friend in this whole town. She didn’t want any. She wanted to sit in her room all day and make herself miserable. And she went out of her way to be rude. She upset a lot of people. You wouldn’t have liked her, either.

I feel like Manny is taking a few liberties with this story, she couldn’t have been that awful. I thank him anyway and finally decide to check up Jeannie, the owner of Novac.

Freddie: What can you tell me about Boone’s wife?

Jeannie: How should I put it? I guess you could say she was kinda like a cactus flower. Real pretty to look at, but there was just no getting close to her. She never did take living here. She liked the big lights and fast living of New Vegas. I got the feeling she was trying to get Boone to leave with her, but I guess she got tired of waiting. I know he thinks she was kidnapped, but I’m not so sure she didn’t just run off on her own. You could tell she was thinking about it ever since they arrived.

Well, that whole story sounds like a bunch of brahmin shit! Something isn’t adding up with Jeannie’s story, so far I’ve heard that she loved Boone quite a lot and he loved her. Why the hell would she just get up and walk off? Especially with how dangerous the Mojave is. I think Jeannie is hiding something and I intend to find out. I wait around the main office until Jeannie walks out to go to her room. I’ve seen a safe just behind the desk there, maybe there’s something inside that could help me.

I get up to unlock the safe and once I’m in I see a piece of paper, after reading I found out that it’s a bill of sale… For Carla… I read that the Legion came by and offered to buy her off of Jeannie, she gave them rights of ownership and sale for one thousand bottle caps. Things get worse as I go on and read “...and those of her unborn child for the sum of five hundred bottle caps…”

Boone was right all along, Jeannie was annoyed with Carla because she was a bit of a snob and sold her as a slave along with her unborn child. This is the most horrifying thing I’ve heard so far. All because she didn’t like her?! Well, it’s time for Boone to get his revenge.

~~~~~

I go to Jeannie’s room and knock on the door, she opens the door.

Freddie: Hey, Jeannie, Come with me. There’s something you should see, in front of the dinosaur.

Jeannie: Okay. If that’s what you think.

Yeah, I do think that.

I lead her out of Novac and right in front of the nest like Boone said. She looks around at nothing while I put it on Boone’s beret and he takes the shot right then and there. I’m caught off guard.

Freddie: Fuck!

I jump out of the way as Jeannie falls to the ground, her head was completely blown off. Talk about some shot. I rush back to the dinosaur and up the stairs where Boone is waiting for me.

Boone: That’s it. How did you know?

I hand him the bill of sale.

Freddie: I found this in her safe, Jeannie did it.

Boone: I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. It’d be like them to keep paperwork.

Boone takes his beret back but gives me another 1st Recon beret he had with him.

Boone: Here. This is all I can give. I think our dealings are done here.

Freddie: What will you do after this?

Boone: I don’t know. I won’t be staying. I know that. Don’t see much point in anything right now, except hunting legionaries. Maybe I’llwonder, like you.

Freddie: Hey, why don’t you come with me? Let’s go after the Legion.

Boone: You don’t want to do that.

Freddie: We’ll kill more with two of us.

Boone: Yeah. That might be true. And that’s reason enough for me to take you up on it. I suppose. But this isn’t gonna end well.

<Boone has given you the Spotter perk, this will help you see enemies from far away or even the dark much better>

Boone: Fine. Let’s get out of here.

Freddie: Great. We heading to New Vegas. I have a score to settle. Wait, the name Benny doesn’t mean anything to you does it?

Boone: No.

I put on the beret that he gave me.

Freddie: Since you gave me this one, do you ever take yours off?

Boone: No.

What an open book this guy is.

Freddie: Alright. Let’s go then, I just need to go grab ED-E real fast. Been asleep this whole time. Poor little buddy.

[ghostmartyr]

Pokémon FireRed Nuzlocke [Part 12]

Can we beat the game using Nuzlocke rules and only battling against trainers?

The current answer is leaning towards no. Still, we shan’t give up or in.

Four badges in. Next stop?

Uh. Haven’t decided yet.

So things did not go what I would call according to plan with the Grimer. Ideally, it would have been a higher level than 30. It wouldn’t need me to hold its hand through a bunch of leveling. It would immediately be an asset. Life would be beautiful. Nothing would hurt.

Only it’s level 30.

I have a Ground, Water, Electric, and Normal Type in rotation. Grass has historically been a problem, but it is much less of a problem with a Snorlax. Oak isn’t always the most useful, but he’ll be receiving a huge power boost come Surf collection.

Bark and Trunk are going to be wanting all the Attack EVs I can feed them. Sap is going to want Attack as well. And HP.

Its move pool is a huge plus, and I would be happy to have it available, but to make it available, a lot of switch training would have to happen. When Sprinkle went through that, experience gain dropped to a slow crawl. Sprinkle was only level 25, and at an even later stage in the game, but the approach taken with this round was intended to be geared towards a minimum of pokemon.

Other things to consider would be that in the first run, I lost two pokemon, and a lot of work went into making up for that. The two runs can’t be compared fairly with what levels to expect further down the road. ...I. think.

By the first Elite Four fight, Po was level 46. My highest level pokemon was 49.

It did not go well.

I need this one to go better.

Does it go better with Sap, or does it go better with maxing the heck out of the other four.

I really, really want to use Sap.

Having a status-reliant choice instead of a pure powerhouse makes me more comfortable with everything else. Minimize is good. Screech is welcome. Sludge Bomb is welcome. Acid Armor is welcome. Muk is a kickass thing to have available.

But I’m not sure splitting the exp is going to do me any favors this late in the game. Silph offers a lot of lenience, I guess, but. Cycling Road is going to go to Trunk. So is a lot else, and what doesn’t should help out Bark.

Five pokemon starts to be a lot.

Fuck.

I’m trying it out.

Sap, welcome to the team. Don’t die.

In happier news...

Good job making it this far, buddy.

Route 16, what are we catching here today?

Doduo!

Sap, prove your worth by failing to kill it.

Damn it, Sap. +123 to you and Bark. -_-

Siiiiiigh. I need 30 pokemon for the Itemfinder.

Now Trunk is just going to claim. As much of Cycling Road as possible. Bark will help when possible. ...Or do I want to go deal with Silph? Hey, past me, wtf is the best way of doing this nonsense?

..hm.

I’m going to do Silph for the sheer heck of it, I think. I don’t want to get as far as my Rival yet, but. I don’t know. I’m just not feeling Cycling Road right now. Video games are supposed to be fun, right? Let’s chase some damn fun.

And I don’t think I ever got my Route 7 thing. Let’s do that, too. Hi Growlithe.

SAP WHAT THE HECK. WE WANTED THAT.

Did I misremember how much damage Sludge does???

...

Oh.

Yes.

Yes, I did.

I very much did.

...+130 to Sap and Acorn. -headdesk-

With that in mind, actually, Sap, you and Bark want to try your hands on the dojo next door to Sabrina? Trunk can’t touch any of those guys thanks to the Super Effective problem.

..And Bark can barely touch any of them thanks to her low Defense.

Yeeeeeah, after that short experiment, we’re just gonna go straight to Silph. Where the Rockets are not a thing to be too afraid of.

Beautiful building.

Hellscape place.

...

I don’t wanna do this, either. Uh. South of Lavender, maybe?

Out of order ALL the things.

Route 13, let’s catch a thing.

The thing is a Venonat! We now wait and watch to see if it will end up dead like other recent catches for totally unpreventable reasons.

Caught!

Its name is Oak.

Route 14, in the middle of all these trainers we’re beating down largely out of order.

...Gloom’s technically not viable because Oddish and species clause, but screw it, it’s not going to be used, I’m too lazy to look up what else is here, and I just want this part done and over with. I know that’s really bad form. but. I am not a rules lawyer. once, maybe. not anymore.

Caught. Its name is Oak.

So far with trainers, the way I’m keeping my sanity with exp division is that the Bikers go to Trunk, and Bark and Sap get the Bird Keepers.

It is slow and tiresome. I do not care for thinking when I am playing my video games.

We’re in Route 18 now, and doing the same nonsense to a Raticate. This is it. This is the point. This is where I stop caring about any of the rules except the no grinding thing. Everything else is irrelevant.

Bark ffs. Stop. Sigh.

+414 exp. Route 18 officially dead.

(Also, this looks like I should have known that she would kill it, but Bark still knows Mud Slap. It does as much nothing as anything on my team can. Still not enough nothing when critical hits are involved.)

Good Rod get so that Fuchsia might have a happier ending.

Back in the realm of completely legal catches, we have a Poliwag!

Throwing a Great Ball proves the best strategy. In that it works. Poliwag get! Its name is Oak.

In other, trainer-related news, Sap hits 34 and learns Acid Armor.

We have also cleared out the section of trainers that is not Saffron and not Cycling Road that comes pre-Koga. Naisu.

-time passes-

So, post-Cycling Road, Trunk is level 41, Bark is level 42, Sap is 35, Oak is 37, and Acorn is 40. I think what makes the most sense in terms of safety is to go clear out the Silph building, then deal with the dojo and assorted Gyms.

Unfortunately.

I hate Silph Co.

So, so deeply.

Deep breath time.

Oh, wait, I want Oak to have Surf first. Never mind, we can still delay this party!

Let’s do it.

Hey, and while we’re at it, we have a chance at a Parasect!

-gasp-

We caught it!

Its name is Oak.

I don’t remember if it was me or someone I knew, but as a child, I have distinct memories of the timer flat-lining just a handful of squares away from talking to this guy. It filled me with enough sadness that I think maybe I was the one having the issues.

The Safari Zone is a lot harder when you have no idea what you’re supposed to do or where you’re meant to go.

Oak learns Surf!

We also give the Warden his teeth back, so Strength get.

I’m gonna see about catching a Route 19 thing. Due to it being something I can do that doesn’t involve the Silph building.

Yes, a Krabby. As we learned from Heero’s run, they make for excellent HM slaves.

Caught!

Its name is Oak. Sadly, I think it will be replacing Oak in the party.

Sigh.

I think we’re. back to the sad part.

(Route 17 option: Doduo. Status: caught. Name: Oak.)

UGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH.

Granted, it’s much easier without having to record every single fight, but the memories of the most recent time I did this are harsh and painful and I don’t like them.

Several floors later, yeah okay, this isn’t so bad.

I still hate it.

However, I can safely say I know who the best character in the Pokemon multiverse is.

Best. Girl.

She’s on floor 9, future self. Sorry about your life.

Because there are so many vitamins hidden around the building, I’m starting to really panic about how my team is going to handle the final parts of the game. I of course love all my children equally, but losing the first team was rough, and I can’t imagine that I’ll continue to engage with my pokemon on any level if things consistently fall to pieces in the very last sequences.

In a funny way, I think the EV training I’m softly tripping through might be hampering things a little. The balance is more sideways than my usual in-game teams have, because I’m focusing a lot on who’s fighting what. There are no random bursts of Defense being distributed, for instance. Oak is the closest to balance, and that’s because Oak had to do most everything before we had a real team (no offense buddy, you rock).

I don’t know. I’m paranoid. Things did not go well with Heero and friends. I think I want to invest in some of the X [stat] items, you know, like the way of the speedrunner, but the way I usually play these games involves brute force.

Full stop.

I can’t repeat enough how little I enjoy thinking in my video games.

But what that means is that I’m not used to using X items. And spending a turn on something I haven’t spent years of background noise thinking about could have disastrous consequences.

The disaster is something I fear. Clearly.

Sigh. There’s not helping it right now, so. Silph.

LOOK MAN, CONSIDERING THE NUMBER OF TRAINERS I HAD TO BEAT TO GET UP HERE

I kind of love that your Rival doesn’t appear to do anything at all about Team Rocket. He just shows up because hey, Red will be doing the hero stuff over there! Time to throw down!

Then he loses and just goes back to worrying about his League quest.

He’s almost like a real ten-year-old.

Acorn thank you for existing.

Wait. Crap, what deals with the Venusaur? Did I decide to just throw Trunk at that? Because that’s what I’m doing?

Yeah, fine, that works.

I got a Lapras.

Its name is Oak.

Sprinkle, I miss you.

Oh whoops. Acorn’s still in front. I don’t think I want that.

Kangaskhan without a Fighting Type is weird. Not a problem weird, because yay, Trunk exists. But weird. I keep expecting to have something super effective against it.

One Master Ball for me. Yay.

Now off to the dojo.

Where I’m going to try not to get Sap killed by letting him have this fight for great exp. I trust Sap’s moves. I trust the concept of their usefulness. Then I see critical hits and tragedy everywhere.

Sap.

Do not die.

Does my hat look black to you.

Level 37 Hitmonlee.

You know. I have the post that says this involves a level 37 Hitmonlee open in another tab. And yet. This still comes as a horrible shock and my brain is already playing taps for Sap.

!

The pain of one Hi Jump Kick. Not bad. I think we might make it, little guy.

We won!

And no one died!

Yay!

I guess that means it’s time for Koga.

Boo. But we’ll let Trunk punch through. Maybe with Bark, too.

Or Oak can eat a Kadabra. That works.

Trunk makes it through all the pre-Koga peeps with little trouble, and we move on to the man himself.

-gasp-

Awesome. More awesome is how everyone’s still alive. Oh happy day before we go forth and fight Sabrina.

Toxic get.

Trunk is level 46, as seen above. Bark is 44. Acorn is 42. Oak is 41. Sap is 37.

Oak’s job is to eat Sabrina. With any luck, Oak will continue to be a help with Blaine, though Bark and Sap will want some of that sweet exp too.

...Basically, what this all means is that I’ve stopped worrying about most of what’s going on with my team. I’m now just watching the levels and letting my dread run the show.

Dread and Oak. The dream team. Oak’s hit 44. I have faith.

.....Ooookay things are going awry because a Calm Minded Alakazam packs a wallop with Psychic, so I’m switching in Acorn under the assumption that he can survive one Psychic and will outspeed the thing.

Pictures taken just before disaster, fyi.

Houston, we have a problem.

Trunk wraps things up.

But. Uh.

Gyarados damage control is gone.

Acorn is gone.

What even is life without Acorn.

That critical hit would have been the end of Oak. Your oldest friend. I know we both wanted things to go differently, but I’m sure you understand why this is the end result.

I will miss you.

So much.

The lack of your warm presence will be a loss for us all.

I also no longer have something on my team with Thunderbolt, so. The script is no longer clear. I guess I can be less worried about levels, but. This right here might be the end of this round.

With a heavy heart, we head to the oceans where Acorn should have reigned supreme.

And stop Sap from evolving so he can learn Sludge Bomb at 43. Hopefully doing that won’t lead to another unfortunate accident, but if it does happen, I’m sadly resigned to it.

I don’t know how many times Sap has hurt himself in confusion in this fight, but it’s too many.

Then the Tentacruel comes in when this is finally over, and Sap hurts himself in confusion.

Yeah.

Sap’s just eating every single confusion problem of the entire run. He’s taking it all for himself.

But. we. get. through. it. As a family.

Hit Route 20, and now I have a level 8 Tentacool. Its name is Oak.

Supersonic is hitting everything and it is absolutely miserable.

Seafoam Island gives us.... Golbat! Apparently we already had a Zubat, so whoops, but in any case, its name is Oak. And needs to be moved from the D E A D box because whoops.

Does Oak want to learn Fly and help greatly with things not being awful?

Boy howdy do I.

And I am at 30 pokemon in my Pokedex, so it’s time for me to go grab my Itemfinder and Leftovers.

...Oh. Golbat doesn’t learn Fly. Well fine then. Another Oak will help me.

After all.

He is

Oak’s Aide.

Got one Leftovers. Two Leftovers. Awesome.

-many minutes later-

Sap gets Sludge Bomb! Do you know what that means?

Sap! We’ve done it! We’ve kept you alive! You’ve made it through your trying times as a Grimer!

Now let’s go into that non-haunted mansion that makes up most of Blaine’s island’s real estate.

I’m just going to shove Bark in front and. idk. I don’t know what I’m doing anymore. I’m just waiting for Victory Road, the day of reckoning, and. Maybe better than last time.

Growlithe caught in the mansion. Its name is Oak.

Secret Key get.

Blaine, why must you be so sketchy.

Okay, so for this Gym, I think I’ll be using Sap more than expected. Bark and Oak will deal with a lot of Giovanni, because they don’t have to worry about Ground really causing an extra problem. That makes this a better place for Trunk and Sap to level up. Agreed?

Yeah sure, whatever.

I guess the other thing to consider is if Bark will really be a help in this endeavor.

She’s very, very fast, and will learn Earthquake naturally. But she can’t take a hit, and with the loss of Acorn, I’m thinking what I have to do is just have Trunk, Oak, and Sap tank everything; lots of X items, lots of Full Restores.

Most of the time, Bark can’t afford to take a second hit of anything.

If I really want to optimize, Cutting down to three out of my four might be the better call.

Ugh, that’s such a dangerous number, though.

Sap has an amazing move set. I really could just...

Lorelei, Bruno, Agatha, Lance, Rival.

Trunk could probably handle Lorelei. Sap could do the Fighting half of Bruno, and the other half isn’t really a problem. The plan with Agatha was always to teach Po Shadow Ball, but then Zaft needed Thunderbolt, so I couldn’t afford it. Lance is hell, but not one a Dugtrio is likely to improve by much.

I have no idea what to do for Oak.

But if I can set Sap up, a lot of problems become manageable. I can’t brute force this. I keep saying that, and I keep ignoring it because that’s not how I play these games. I need better strategies. Bark’s Attack stat isn’t up to being a glass cannon. She’s a glass rifle, maybe. Fantastic, but eating up resources without serving an extra purpose. She’ll be just as dead in two hits if I keep on giving her exp. Leveling could remove that weakness, but I don’t have anything to work with there.

I have to focus on three.

Damn it.

For now, let’s finish Blaine, shall we.

Got the badge.

Bill Gaiden?

So he says.

So ends the post, because I just can’t.

[oliveraaliyah1994]

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You Are My Home - Jaehyun - Chapter 4

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4

A/N: Finally posting, sorry it took so long!! I’ll work on these and get back into things, thank to those who are being so patient ❤

You walked behind Jaehyun not paying attention, the words of your brother echoed in your mind. He was right, you knew he was, and you couldn’t help but feel the slight disapointment that he hadn’t fulfilled his purpose. Killing you.

“Y/N?” You looked up only to see Jaehyun’s chest millimeters from your face. You felt it before you even thought to do it, tears were gushing out your eyes and you wrapped your arms around Jaehyun. You could feel how shocked he was, even you were shocked at what you did, but right now you couldn’t care. You could already feel yourself becoming more at ease, Jaehyun’s power did have its up sides.

Jaehyun held you close and tight, for once you actually felt safe, at home. You both stood there in each other’s arms for a little while longer until you came back to your senses. You pushed Jaehyun away, furiously rubbing at your eyes. He was about to speak but you cut him off, “lets go.” You muttered bluntly then walked off. You knew he wasn’t following you, in fact you didn’t have to see his face to know he was hurt. He thought he had finally gotten through to you, thought, unfortunately for him it took a lot more to get through to you. Usually you scare them off long before they could though. You hoped he was going to turn around and leave you, give up on this whole quest to free you of your curse and realise you weren’t such a good idea after all. Of course he didn’t though. You heard his gentle foot steps following behind you. 

“It’ll take a lot more than that to get rid of me.” He said as if he read your mind. You ignored him, not wanting to get into things, you hated that you chose the easy option instead of making a smart remark but you were drained. “There’s a lake up ahead I’m pretty sure, we should take a break.”

You listened out, he was right, there was a lake a little way up to the left of you both, but he was wrong about taking a break there. “Do you have water in your bag?” You asked, trying to sound as emotionless as possible. “Yes-”

“Then we don’t need to stop near the lake, if you’re thirsty then drink, you don’t need a lake for that.” You turned to face him now, a threatening look in your eye. You knew how bipolar you could be, but lakes were no joke to you, that’s how your whole ordeal started, a ‘harmless’ lake. For the first time he glared back at you, you had finally pushed him to his limitless.

“Listen princess, all I’ve done is put up with your crap and do what you want to do. So now, whether you go or not, I’m going to the damn lake. Good luck finding Nev by yourself.” He stormed past you, not looking at you once as if you weren’t actually there. 

Once he was out of ear shot and view you turned to a tree, landing a devilish blow. You kept going, punch after punch and not stopping until your knuckles bled. “Stupid. Stupid. Stupid! You’ve gone and done it now, you’ve turned probably the most calmest person against you, the one who actually tried with you. Why?!?” You landed one more punch then turned on your heel, you were numb to the pain and just watched as the blood trickled down from your hands onto the forest floor. You let your nose lead you to Jaehyun as you stared unblinkingly down at the little trail of blood you left in your steps.

When the lake was in view you saw what you dreaded, Jaehyun had his back to the lake his head in his hands, behind him on the rocks was a siren. It was preparing it’s voice, readying to sing Jaehyun to his death, but not on your watch. You ran down the hill, growling in between steps. 

“Jaehyun!” You yelled when you were a few feet away from him, he looked up somewhat relieved to see you, but his eyes turned to your bloodied knuckles making him frown in concern. “Y/N what happened?” You shook your head, your eyes never leaving the siren who was glaring at you now. “Jaehyun we need to go, quickly please. I can’t protect you, please just move into the forest, quick!” There was desperation in your voice when the siren slipped into the lake out of sight, you knew she’d resurface soon but this time on your side of the lake. If you made it into the forest fast enough she won’t have a chance of getting you, sirens can’t survive away from water for too long, well except from Taeil apparently.

He gave you a confused look but got to his feet anyway, hurrying after your retreating figure. “Y/N? What’s going on?” He asked as you ducked behind a tree, you lifted a finger to your lip implying he should be quiet then looked back to the lake. The siren jumped out, out of the corner of your eye you saw Jaehyun move back out of fear. You both waited for the siren to return to the water, neither of you moving a muscle.

Finally with a scowl the siren slithered back into the water, you both sighed in relief then turned towards each other. Jaehyun looked straight to your hands then took hold of your arm, “come on we need to find somewhere we can actually rest, it’s going to get dark soon so we should think about setting camp somewhere, oh and get your hands sorted out.”

You smiled at him, he really was sweet. “I told you we shouldn’t have gone to the lake, I tend to have a good sense when it comes to lakes.” You said in hopes to somewhat lighten the mood. He lightly laughed, a small smile painted on his face. “I should listen to your warnings about lakes more often.”

“There’s a good boy, want another gold star?” You said, lifting up your hand. “Maybe when your hands aren’t covered in blood.” He chuckled in response as you both started to walk, he never let go of your arm but you weren’t going to complain.

You sat on a fallen tree around the fire Jaehyun had somehow started, he did it whilst complaining about not having Mark or Yuta here to light it for him. He was now rubbing a cream on your cuts on your knuckles, apparently it pays off being a fairy. A fairy knows exactly what can heal someone’s wounds and can find them all in the forest, it was fascinating really how they could do that.

It was the silent, the only sound was the crackling of the fire so you thought to fill it. “Jaehyun?”

“Hmm…”

“You know Taeil? He’s the siren right?” He nodded, his full attention on your hands. “How come he doesn’t look like the other sirens? In fact why is he even a he?” He laughed at your last question, still not looking away from your cuts.

“Taeil is…special. He’s the first known male siren, no one knows how or why he’s a…guy, but he just is. He has two forms too, the form he stays in now and his siren form, which is like the siren we saw down the lake. He never goes in that form, the only time he ever would is if one of us was drowning in the middle of the ocean, which just doesn’t happen.” You took this in, trying to figure out why he wouldn’t go in his ‘siren form’. “Taeil’s siren form is covered in scars, sort of like a wolf? When he gets a scar in his siren form it only shows in his siren form, the same with his human form. He has a few scars on his back in his human form but nowhere near as many as his siren”

“Y-you’ve seen his other form?” He nodded again then sighed, from his expression it didn’t seem like a very fond memory. “What happened to him?” You blurted out by accident.

“He…he was different to everyone back where he’s from. Of course he would be, he was surrounded by a bunch of female sirens with only one form, his mother was killed for not wanting to kill her own son, Taeil didn’t really know what was going on at the time but that’s one of the memories he remembers most. The other sirens turned him into a slave, he was the bait, he was the punching bag, at one point he was going to be the meal. That’s when Taeyong stepped in and saved him, it only took Taeil and his stubborn self seventeen years to ask for help.” Jaehyun shook his head in sorrow for his friend. “Taeil hates his siren form because he hates the memories it brings with him, the only time we’ve seen it is when Jisung was in his wolf form and started to drown in the river near the house, he was trying to prove to himself he could swim but… he can’t. Only Taeil would have gotten to him fast enough.”

You laughed slightly at Jisung’s cuteness, although from what you remember Jisung was the first one to run out to help his Alpha, maybe there’s a lot more to him than being the adorable runt of the pack. “I’m guessing it was his two packmates that knew he was in trouble?”

“Yeah, we were in the middle of making dinner and the young ones were doing some homework, Johnny had just walked into the kitchen when Jeno shot up and the both of them yelled Jisung’s name before shooting out of the door. It was a scary moment for all of us, we ran out after them knowing this meant our maknae was in trouble, we saw him struggling to keep his head above the water. Taeil acted straight away, we were all so thankful to him, knowing he hates that form. Anyway enough about them, I’m curious about you.”

You were expecting him to turn the tables sometime soon, you just nodded slightly afraid of what he would ask. 

“Why are you so cold towards me?” You cringed, what were you meant to say to that? I know you're my mate and everything but I just want to push you away but keep you close at the same time? What sort of answer is that?

“I- I don’t know…” He waited, expecting there to be more to your answer. “I hate getting close to people, I’m scared of being rejected, this fear has lead me to have commitment issues and I- I just, I’m scared. I put on this mask, one that turns me to stone so no one would even dare approach me, if they did I’d make them regret it. I’m not a person anyone wants to get involved with.”

“I do.” You looked up and met his eyes, they were warm and welcoming, they were truthful. He really means everything he says. He began to lean closer to you and to your surprise you leaned in too. Your lips met, it was soft and gentle, it didn’t speed up at any point, it showed that Jaehyun had already fallen for you and you were willing to fall for him in return. You broke apart, you brought yourself down from the log and sat besides Jaehyun, leaning your head on his shoulder. He laid down, gently bringing you down with him.

“Come on, lets sleep. It’ll be a long day tomorrow.” You nodded into his chest as you snuggled into him, he wrapped his arms around you and soon you drifted off to a deep sleep.

[ruthanndiamond-blog]

His Dear One, His Only Child: The Complicated Relationship Between Prospero and Miranda

(This essay was originally written in December 2020 as part of an independent project analyzing William Shakespeare’s The Tempest and some of its modern adaptations/retellings. It is a companion piece to the short play Lull.)

The Tempest by William Shakespeare begins with and revolves around a journey. Prospero, a sorcerer who acquired his abilities through years of intense study of the “liberal arts”, has instructed a spirit named Ariel to cause a ship carrying several members of nobility within Italy on the island he rules. While on this island the prince of Naples, a young man named Ferdinand, falls in love with Prospero’s daughter, Miranda. Miranda has been raised since the age of three on this island, having accompanied her father there after he was removed from his post as the Duke of Milan and banished to the island. She has been exposed to almost no other people around her other than her father and the half-fish half-man creature named Caliban whom Prospero keeps as a slave. Miranda and Ferdinand are subsequently married by Prospero, restoring the link between the noble families. Prospero reconciles with the King of Naples, and they all plan to return to Italy. Before he returns, however, Prospero finally does what he had claimed he would do repeatedly throughout the play, and frees Ariel from his service, ending all of the magic that Ariel performed. In addition, his words and the actions suggested therein imply that he gives up his magic completely. He says, “this rough magic I hereby abjure… I’ll break my staff, bury it in certain fathoms in the earth, and deeper than did ever plummet sound I’ll drown my book.” At the end of the play, he says, “now I want Spirits to enforce, art to enchant.” In this case, ‘want’ means ‘lack,’ implying that Prospero has thrown down his staff and renounced his magical powers, despite how much power those abilities gave him. 

By explicitly connecting Prospero’s ability to leave the island with his relinquishment of his magical powers, Shakespeare is emphasizing the theme of control with regards to Prospero’s character. In order for Prospero to regain his freedom, he needs to give up some of what gives him power. To be free, he must leave the island he rules, and give up his magical abilities. However, there are two characters over whom he has power that are not acknowledged in his closing monologue — Caliban and Miranda. Caliban is explicitly regarded as Prospero’s slave, and while he appears to acknowledge that Caliban is his responsibility towards the end of the play, there’s no mention of what is going to happen to Caliban; it is unknown if Prospero will take him to Italy to continue being his slave, or if he is to be left on the island alone as he was before Prospero and Miranda arrived. As Caliban’s character and enslavement is often interpreted as a metaphor for colonized people and colonization, his ambiguous fate in the play has been thoroughly analyzed, most notably in Aime Cesaire’s A Tempest. But even more subtle is how Miranda factors into Prospero’s quest for freedom. While she is not explicitly under her father’s control in the same way Caliban and Ariel are, she has been kept on an island with only her father and a creature who threatens to rape her for company. Her marriage to Ferdinand is legitimized by her father; Prospero then claims to sympathize with the King who fears his son has been killed because “I have lost my daughter.” He ultimately approves of the marriage between Miranda and Ferdinand, but his words imply that he struggles with this change. Shakespeare suggests via Prospero’s character arc that to achieve freedom, one must give up a certain amount of power, whether it be literal magic powers or power over other people. 

The Tempest has been adapted countless times in many different forms of media. In two cases, the relationship between Miranda and Prospero is given even more attention. In Hag Seed, a novel by Margaret Atwood, The Tempest is given a modern setting in suburban Canada, where Prospero has been transformed into Felix Phillips, a disgraced theatre director who along with getting a job teaching theatre at the local prison begins to imagine his deceased daughter as an invisible spirit who accompanies him everywhere. While imagining Miranda as a little girl able to grow up and have the life she could not in reality provides him some comfort, eventually Felix lets her go. He accepts that she is gone but is grateful for the time he spent with her and the love he was able to give her, which he now expresses through his relationships with other people. Atwood writes, 

Already she’s fading, losing substance: he can barely sense her. She’s asking him a question. Is he compelling her to accompany him on the rest of his journey? … What has he been thinking — keeping her tethered to him all this time? Forcing her to do his bidding? How selfish he has been! Yes, he loves her: his dear one, his only child. But he knows what she truly wants, and what he owes her. … “To the elements be free,” he says to her.  And, finally, she is.

Felix’s journey is one of grief, and the conclusion of his arc involves an acceptance of his daughter’s death. Rather than continuing to keep her alive in his imagination, he releases her in the same way Shakespeare’s Prospero releases Ariel, a spirit that continually asks for his freedom. In Atwood’s retelling, Miranda is imaginary, so the only consequence of Felix’s separation from her is his ability to move on with his life having achieved closure. While this is an optimistic and satisfying ending for Felix’s character, it is notable that even Felix acknowledges how he has been keeping Miranda tethered to him. In cases where the point of separation is not so clear, such as when both characters are alive, it is not as easy for the ending to be as satisfying, because one has to consider how the separation will affect both characters as time goes on. 

The 1956 film Forbidden Planet directed by Fred M. Wilcox has an ending that is not nearly as optimistic as Atwood’s adaptation of The Tempest. Instead of a Caliban character, the grotesque figure of the story is a monster literally created by Morbius, this adaptation’s version of Prospero. A literal manifestation of Morbius’ id, the creature seeks to kill the crew of the starship C-57D. Notably, the creature comes to kill the ship’s crew after Morbius’ daughter Altaira says that she wants to leave the planet because she has fallen in love with one of the Officers. Morbius asks the machine he created, Robbie the Robot, to destroy it, but the robot shuts down because it recognizes that the creature is a manifestation of Mobius’ desires, and thus is part of him. Mobius is eventually killed by the creature, but not before he sets off a sequence that eventually destroys the entire planet while the crew and his daughter watch from the ship. In this case, Morbius is literally killed by his subconscious desire to prevent Altaira from leaving him. As the understandably upset Commander Adams says, “but now she’s [Altaira] defying you, Morbius. Even in you, the loving father, there still exists the mindless primitive, more enraged and more inflamed with each new frustration. So now you’re whistling up your monster again! To punish her for her disloyalty and disobedience!” Unable to fully accept that his child no longer sees him as her sole companion, he lashes out, killing himself and his world in the process. Forbidden Planet explores how a parent’s protectiveness of their child can be destructive.  Having witnessed the destruction of her planet, Altaira is able to leave with the ship’s crew and her lover, but the audience can clearly see that she will forever be traumatized by the loss of her father. 

At the conclusion of both Hag Seed and Forbidden Planet, the connection between the versions of Miranda and Prospero is broken, either by choice or as a consequence of Prospero’s actions. Prospero’s fate is dependent upon his ability to give up power over his daughter. Power in both cases can both help and hurt Miranda. Miranda is kept safe and given companionship by her father, but she is also isolated and treated like a child with no real exposure to other people. Both the original play and the adaptations suggest that for the characters to be free, Prospero must give up some of his control over Miranda. But what is not explored in either adaptation is the other condition of Prospero’s freedom: the willingness of the audience to applaud, and thus let the play end. 

Prospero says in his final monologue, “But release me from my bands/with the help of your good hands...As you from crimes would pardoned be/let your indulgence set me free.” Prospero breaks the fourth wall at this point, asking the audience to let the play end, so that he may move on in his own journey. In Hag Seed and Forbidden Planet, the audience is not given this option; the stories simply end like all books and films do. But in Shakespeare’s original work, the possibility of the story not ending is presented to the audience. The audience then has to consider, however briefly, the consequences of the plot’s continuation. One of those consequences is how the separation between Prospero and Miranda would become complicated.  By writing a scene centered on Miranda set years after a modern version of The Tempest would have taken place, I aimed to illuminate the difficulty with which Prospero gives up power over Miranda, and how their isolation affected both of them. By showing Miranda’s unwillingness to go against her father’s wishes, I sought to emphasize that it is not only difficult for a parent to give up power over a child as they grow up, like Prospero does, but that it is just as difficult for the child to give up the comfort of their parent’s care. Unlike Prospero’s decision to give up his magical powers, there is no one clear act that can fully sever the connection between parent and child. When both parties are left alive, as they are in The Tempest, it is unclear how much freedom from each other they really want, how that freedom manifests itself, and whether that separation can or should be permanent at all.