#but not for the weird side NPCs who I think are SO neat

[loregoddess]

I was super hoping the artbook would contain like, some concept art or something for Alrond and Ori, bc while Ori's design is...probably easy to guess based on her sprite (I just think she's neat and deserves more art), I have no idea what the fresh hell Alrond's...entire...getup is supposed to look like (and also his hair length, I keep seeing fanart w/ it shorter than I imagined it, I legit thought he had like, Leon Bastralle length hair for his bangs at least)

but...alas...I am left to madly trying to interpret the collection of pixels that are the sprites

[yo9urt]

finally we are entering the Majima Zone (the post-dinner pre-bed hours that are exclusively designated as video game time)

[wyvernwriterarchive]

How to Design a Large Cast of Characters

Note: While this advice can be applied to all forms of fiction writing, I will be primarily focused on helping you design casts of *playable* characters for games similar to Fire Emblem or other SRPGs. Also, this is mostly going to be the weird ramblings explaining how I personally design large casts, so if these tips don't work for you, don't worry about it.

Something you should know about me is... I love a large cast of characters. Specifically in games like FE. I love looking into the lives of the units who I use in battle and watching them grow stronger, and watching their character arcs. If their villains or otherwise important characters, I love seeing how they influence the narrative outside of my influence and how they can aid or help the main party.

For anyone who's designing games with large playable casts of fun characters or making a large cast for any other project, I feel like this guide will help you a lot.

Step 1: Make Some Characters

This is the easiest step, at least for me. Take a world that you made, and think about characters you want to use for this world. Main characters, side characters, villains, etc.

They do not have to be the most fleshed out, at least at the beginning. They can be a concept you think would be neat for this world to explore. They could be simple concepts you'd want to write or neat ideas you think would be fun to design. Hell, it could even be a character from a story that either died or got cut.

Step 2: Cut and Assign Roles

For this step, you must have a set number of characters you want to have in your playable main cast. For Fire Emblem games, this number usually ranges around 30-40.l playable units.

About now, you should also begin to flesh them out, making them more than just concepts.

You must also consider the themes and world of your story. Who in your list of characters could best explore those themes in some way. Note that not every character has to be important to the plot or masterfully explore the themes of the game.

Once you've gotten a range of main/playable characters, pick the best ones, or thr ones you like the most, and bench the others, and congrats, you have yourself a cast of good guya. Do the same for some of the NPCs or villains, but on a smaller scale, and you have a pretty good list of characters.

Step 3: Make Them Interact

There is one major problem with making large casts...and that is that they are large. There are a lot of characters you must keep an eye on, and they should all do something in the story.

If you focus ONLY on the main character(s), you risk making the characters bland, boring plot devices, or meatshields that add nothing to the story. On the other hand, if you write all characters as if they are important, you risk bloating your story with names and dialog and making the story take too long.

Important characters should be in the spotlight most of the time, but it I'd a good idea to spread it around. Show how some of the more minor characters feel about this situation, maybe have them talk with each other outside of danger, give them relationships with each other. Give em enough for people to want to latch on to

[tiny-wren]

so @lightna312 were discussing Gabitha today and we came to the conclusion that Gabitha and the Crumple Sisters are connected. WHAT!

let me explain.

so it's day 1027329293981 without a flipdeck of any of these characters. gabitha fans are clawing at the walls and rattling the bars of our steel cage. forumers are like "who?"

so, we can assume that neither her nor the sisters have flipdecks because we were left on a bit of a cliffhanger with both of them in Cluckeria--Gabitha leaving NuCoop without a care and the Crumple Sisters having used a warp coin to escape.

bit fishy! bit weird! bit suspicious!

I don't think that Flipline will abandon these loose ends so easily, so we'll probably see them both again. I know a lot of people write Gabitha off as an unimportant side character (and for the time being, she is) but even those get flipdecks (looking at you Jacksmith and platformer NPCs). TLDR I'm assuming Flipline has evil villain plans for them.

NOW let's get to the point: @lightna312 came up with the lovely idea that Gabitha was a spy for Crumple Family Chicken.

She's not loyal to NuCoop nor has any sort of emotional attachment to it (as seen above), so it's not like Gabitha wouldn't betray NuMarcus. Also, damn, look at that thumbs up. Fuck him I guess.

"Despite initially outperforming Papa Louie in the market shares, Crumple Family Chicken closed after it was revealed that Bonnie and Yalanda stole Papa Louie's secret recipe, resulting in their imprisonment. Crumple Family Chicken was the third and final restaurant to be eliminated from the Chicken Sandwich Wars."

We know that Crumple Family Chicken's success can be largely attributed to their theft of Papa Louie's recipes. (which, side note, how did they get their hands on his supposed "secret" recipe anyway?) Since they outperformed Papa Louie (and everyone else) in the Chicken Sandwich Wars, suffice to say that the Crumple Sisters were watching and benefiting from the other establishment's mistakes.

It would make sense if Gabitha was trying to take down NuCoop from the inside to get NuMarcus out of the way. I mean, she's pretty darn proud of herself (as much as our beloved unexpressive Gabi can be I suppose).

Okay, now we're gonna delve into more headcanon territory after the break

...Also, all three of these women have squiggly mouths if that means anything.

I love when women are strange and off-putting.

AHEM so lightna suggested that maybe Gabitha is their granddaughter. WHICH WOULD BE REALLY COOL AND NEAT.

But also, now I'm wondering--are the Crumple Sisters human now, or are they still actual hell abominations like they were in Sarge Game??? Are they just using human disguises? Are they connected to the X-Zone or do they come from another dimension? They have warp coins, so there's that.

...which also leads me to say, hey, wouldn't that be a really cool parallel to Xolo, Xandra, and Edna...? Look. Hear me out.

Two extra-dimensional beings and their normal human caretaker/relative/whatever. Listen!!!! It would be REALLY NEAT! And a fun villain parallel!

Anyway, thank you for reading!!!! I had to get this out of my brain lest it haunt me forever!

[nerdyenby]

Aqua time :D I’m watching H’s vod

Pregame

The calm before the storm is worse, 100% agree. The event is amazing but the wait before and after the end are such low lows

H and Dave just vibing :))

“False is here too?! Surely something must’ve been scheduled” I love H so much

“It’s been 1,217 days since I’ve won MCC, but who’s counting?” “… You?” I think I’ve seen a grand total of one Dave Krtzyy video but between finding out they’re nonbinary, this joke, and the raw vibes??? I love him

Talking about how the npc cat is thick AND smarter than all of them combined is killing me

Dave saying they hope sands of time “will do from my enemy to my lover” 😭

False is so funny she doesn’t get enough credit

Parkour Tag

Cub cracked????

False did such a good job hunting we need to talk about it

I got so startled by Beky getting H I slammed my elbow into my desk lol

Rocket Spleef

Dave Krtzy having banger opinions left and right, good for them

He really is just saying stuff and all of its iconic, from “the rare true democracy” to “channel your inner elytra”

People taking the time to type during rocket spleef will never not be funny to me

Everyone hitting Jimmy is so Jimmy of him

False top 5 :))

Dave top 10 after getting 35th??? We love that improvement

Phil is never not an icon

Unfortunate minecraft physics, rip

H and Dave being 19th and 20th is so funny because I was like “buddies :D” and H said “I’m beating you, suck it”

H affectionately bullying Dave is my new favorite thing, actually

Sands of Time

“I uh don’t have the best track record at uh…. being good at sands of time” Dave 😭

“Hi HBomb!!” from H and his teammates is so sweet

I love the calm vibes, no frantic strategizing, just clarifying and communicating

“Dave I’m gonna be pestering and annoying the hell out of you” “As you should” I love them

H: “Has anyone seen the blue pathway” also H: *is currently in the blue pathway* my streamer’s oblivious /lh

False 9th and everyone hyping her up :D

Sky Battle

I love skybattle I swear but I was zoned out like the entire time

H killing Sniff :( my boys :((

Dave was so sad when they fell, it’s okay dude <333

Good plays in round 3!!!

Ace Race

Merely vibing

H popped off and didn’t even think anything of it, the raw power

Battle Box

Aw don’t love that slump where everyone stops listening to each other. It happens with most teams, it’s not their fault, people just get too in their own heads

False literally said it was their side like three times :(

That round was clean

The final round coming down to Purpled on 2 health vs Dave on 1 was such a good final fight, holy crap

Grid Runners

Best game time :D

They’re improving every round, I love that for them

I don’t think I properly appreciated how fast cyan’s crafting grove was before just now

They slayed waterfall lamps tho

H’s mind, man

I love when people who are historically more withdrawn take charge without hesitation, MCC has done so much for H’s confidence <3

Omg they got first????

“God, our minds are so huge compared to these dorks” “MASSIVE!!”

Own that confidence kings!! Love that for them <33

H is such a cool guy, he’s genuinely enthusiastic about how they’re 2nd without a top 10 individual. He just thinks it’s neat. He’s a top player who doesn’t care about stats but experience, and that’s what makes him the epitome of MCC :)

H saying “if another team goes nutty and gets a massive amount of fruitberries points or whatever then they deserve it, they can take our spot” WHAT DID I JUST SAY?? We stan one (1) cishet white guy here and it’s HBomb94

TGTTOSAWAF

Dave’s speech <333 I love them

I felt H’s stress there, that was so intense but he popped off

Dave doing an AMAZING speed bridge and then complimenting H’s strat, they’re so supportive I love them sm

“Sorry Dave, I’m gonna lower your points for things like that, cause you could’ve gotten first in that” “No, I do not care about that, I care about that sweet, succulent coin… that was a weird way to describe it”

The new finalist announcement is so suspenseful only to ruin it with a bubble sound effect lol

They’re so excited to get Dave their first win since MCC1 :))

They find it so cool that they got here without any top 10 individuals “purely balanced”

Dodgebolt

“Last time I was in dodgebolt I was a wee lad […] I was freshly 21, now I’m like 48 or something”

INSTANT he/they on he/they violence by Dave Krtzy lol

Aqua’s accuracy is wild, goodness!!!!

Their coms are so clean

H snatching that arrow!! I don’t even remember that from watching cyan

False calming asserting that she knows what she needs, not them, will never not be iconic

False saying that she’s down next arrow only for all her team to talk over eachother about how she’s got this and they believe in her <3

FALSE SUPREMACY!!!!! THAT 1V3!!!!!!!

Dave winning the first events of seasons 1 and 3 my beloved

FALSE DONT NEED PRACTICE

“False, that was insane, you 1v3’d that” “WHAT THE HECK WAS I DOING??” “You we WINNING, that’s what you were doing, you fool”

“1,217 days, bro” “It’s zero, it’s zero now!!” I love them

This team <33333

The most well-rounded team of all time, I love them.

Or as False puts it: “we weren’t cracked, we were just solid”

[herrscherofmagic]

so this is gonna sound kinda insane, but for some reason... the more I see HSR promoted, the less I actually want to get back into the main story and catch up on it.

Like 99% of the time promo material is meant to promote something and get people excited about it, and obviously that's true for most people. But the last time I saw promo for HSR was the early peaks at Penacony, like the little reveal of Acheron for the first time. Since then I haven't actually watched any trailers or livestreams (tho i never really watch version livestreams in the first place), and everything I know about Penacony is just from seeing people talk about it on social media.

Just now there's this new short featuring Acheron & Black Swan, and it seems cool... but I don't really feel like watching it at all, nor does it make me want to dive into the game to see what's going on. That should be the total opposite of what the trailer should be doing to me, and I know it's not the trailer because other people are definitely hyped up because of it.

It's not like I've heard people talk shit about it, because i've seen almost nothing but praise for it. I know that when I actually get to doing the Penacony story I'll probably like it, but it's kinda weird that I feel almost no compulsion to actually try it out.

I feel like it might be because Penacony didn't really interest me much in the first place. The Luofu arc was really underwhelming to me, and I've found a lot of the companion missions in the game to be... lacking? Like when I look at the companion missions my nearest equivalent I can think of its the Story Quests in Genshin, which each feature a particular playable character. But most of the story quests in Genshin were really engaging to me, even the "boring" ones like Ayato's story quest. The Genshin quests always got me caring for all the characters involved, even NPCs, while HSR's companion missions often felt like glorified side quests at times. So when it comes to Penacony, there's just this feeling of "okay, so what?"

Maybe it's not that I don't like HSR, but that I like the idea of HSR more than actually playing it? Like I love Belobog a lot, a good deal more than the Luofu, and it always felt like the most "alive" place to me. HSS was neat but pretty small, Luofu felt off in some ways because of the story pacing, but Belobog felt like a solid story from the get-go. I have some ideas for fanart featuring the idea of swapping the roles of Bronya & Seele in Belobog with a "Wildfire Bronya" and "Silvermane Seele", because I find the setting and characters and factions of Belobog quite compelling.

I enjoy the characters of HSR too, so it's not that. I'm still insane about Kafka and Stelle and I spend a ton of time thinking about those two and even working on art for it, though I have very little to share because I'm about as productive as a soggy napkin >.>

But on the subject of Kafka, that reminds me of something similar that happened before. When the game started I was really intrigued by Kafka and her role in the story, but when we meet Kafka almost immediately after reaching the Luofu, it actually made me less interested in her. The mystery of who Kafka was felt more compelling than actually going around and engaging with her in the story in Luofu. Ditto with her companion mission, which I finally did yesterday- it was alright, and I enjoyed seeing Kafka & Stelle together, but the mission itself didn't feel like anything that special.

So with all the promo material like the trailers for Kafka, and her role in the Luofu story, I actually got kinda turned off from Kafka and her character. But as time went on I've gotten interested in her again, and now she's once again one of my favorite characters of HSR.

I don't understand why I have such an odd inverse relationship with HSR. You'd think engaging with the story and promo material would make me like the game more... but it doesn't? I feel almost better just consuming HSR's story second-hand from other people, and then working on my own headcanons of the characters and parts of the setting that I enjoy.

I also feel like it might be because of the amount of mindless HSR-praising-paired-with-Genshin-shitting I see online. So many people are like "GeNsHiN cOuLd NeVeR" and then straight-up lie about the games? they act like HSR is some next-gen VR immersion with incredible everything, but then I load up companion missions, these main missions that feature playable characters, and there's multiple scenes with completely stiff mannequins and voice-over with no lip-syncing at all. Then people go "omg Genshin is so stiff, HSR is so much more alive" and I'm wondering what parallel dimension these people are from and how can I go there??? Because that's just wrong. There's a handful of moments where HSR shines really well, usually brief cinematics and animated shorts, and the protagonist is more engaging and immersive, and there's a few more facial expressions. But dialogue and scene shots are still really stiff in HSR, meanwhile Genshin's just been getting better and better.

maybe that's why I'm actually not-as-interested in HSR? because I keep seeing people mindlessly praising it over Genshin, making bullshit arguments with no basis in reality to justify it as something "superior" when it's not really much better or worse, just different?

and on a somewhat related note, there's also the over-the-top hornyposting of the HSR subreddit which I used to frequent, even though I haven't been there in weeks now. That was also pretty annoying and it wouldn't surprise me if that was also turning me away from the game a bit.

idk. i want to enjoy HSR, but there's something in my mind that's keeping me from giving a damn about it. Or rather than something, it's somethings, namely the combo of all these different factors. Promo material that doesn't really engage me, a vocal but obnoxious minority of elitist fans that frustrate me and make me less willing to engage with the game itself, and various issues I have with some of HSR's lore and story.

[kotalloxaloy]

Ok, so I finally finished Burning Shores and I have several thoughts

Below the cut because I'm sure many people haven't played and I don't want to spoil anything!

I liked the DLC! I had a lot of fun. I thought the setting was really interesting, I liked the new characters and the storyline definitely drew me in and I fucking LOVE the new mount (PSA you can take it to the main map and go underwater in the expanse of ocean that you can't swim through. There is nothing interesting down there and it pops up the warning that the current is too strong, but you can swim through it no problem.)

Yes I'm sad there was no Kotallo. It's fine, I wasn't expecting him, and we only saw Sylens and Alva so the other GAIA gang wasn't there either. I am extra disappointed that we can't go talk to him more!!! But I think that it's cool that Kotallo traveling to the sundom for the new embassy is canon now. I think lots of fics put forth the idea that Kotallo would act as a diplomat for the Tenakth to the Carja in Fashav's place. Cool that it's canon now.

I chose to kiss Seyka. Normally I pick the brain options but if I'm given an opportunity to kiss a girl in games I do it! Now, I haven't had the time to process everything well enough to pick apart the romantic story line (was it rushed? was there enough lead up to it? did it make sense?) but I do think Seyka is a good match for Aloy- the whole "I broke my tribe's rules and used technology I wasn't supposed to to help me accomplish an important personal goal" is very reminiscent of Aloy using a focus despite Rost insisting that it was dangerous.

Yes I still ship Aloy with some people who are not women. The devs have not said and nothing in the game has confirmed that Aloy (or Elisabet or Beta) is a lesbian. I myself am a bisexual woman and I am a big stickler about bi erasure. I also headcanon Kotallo as Bi. and plenty of other characters for that matter. The main thing that FW and Burning Shores confirmed for me is that Aloy (and Elisabet, and presumably Beta since they have the same DNA) is queer and I absolutely love it. More queer women leads in video games!!!

The fucking villian. Oh my god. I know I just talked about being bi but goddamnit they cast SAM WITWER as the villian??? I literally have never been so disgusted by a character I was attracted to. I've had a thing for Sam Witwer for like 13 years back when he was on Being Human. I got his autograph at a con and have it displayed in a DnD book that he contributed to. I didn't even realize it was Sam Witwer until I walked into that room with his face plastered all over the walls. Before that we only heard his recorded voice and saw holograms of him-and that never looks or sounds exactly like the character. But I walked by that first photo on the left when you walk in and I literally yelled out "SAM WITWER?" listen I could go into it more as to why i'm horrified by his character but I am a Sam Witwer fan so I can and will appreciate his performance.

Walter Londra is disgusting and I literally yelled "GROSS" out loud with the way he looked at Seyka's sister. I'm so glad Seyka was like "ABSOLUTELY NOT" and put a stop to it because if I had to watch one more second I might have puked.

I liked the theme park. Dinos are fun.

I play on story mode so maybe this is because I'm on the easiest setting, but I was able to walk on and in the lava and only go caught on fire once I was like waist deep in it. that was weird.

I would like significantly more underwater content with the Waterwing. I absolutely love it an I was just going up and down into the sky and into the water. extremely cool and I just want more underwater stuff to do with it.

There was an NPC with vitiligo which I thought was neat.

I almost cried at the end of Gildun's little side quest. And when Aloy gave him a focus I just thought it was so sweet!

I kind of felt bad for Evelyn Day? I know everyone had it bad, lots of people ended their lives before the Faro Plague hit them, and I know she cheated on her husband with his best friend which is kind of a dick move. but that last recording was very sad.

SYLENS 😭😭😭 I know I probably feel more attached to him knowing that Lance Riddick has passed away. But the end there, Aloy was SO MEAN to him! I was like "NO ALOY! He isn't doing this to prove he is the smartest!!! He decided to stay when he saw the friendships you formed! You showed him that there is value in human connection and that maybe there is a little hope when people work together!" I think she saw the good in him in the end but she was so snarky about it!

I probably have more thoughts but that's enough for now. I'm not very interested in an discourse about the devs offering a love interest or if the story of the dlc was good or whatever. I had fun, I can't wait for Horizon 3, and I still love Kotallo and ship him with Aloy but I'll be just as happy if we end up with Seyka or another WLW ship in the end for Aloy. The end. Please enjoy the queue that I just filled for you!

[ultyso]

So my friend let us come over to try the XVI demo on their PS5.

Overall I’d give it a 6/10. Not something I’d immediately rush to buy a PS5 for. But if I did own a PS5 already, I wouldn’t object to buying the game.

Here’s my thoughts included below. Forewarning this point forwards is spoiler territory:

So played the demo and there are some things I liked and some things that’d prob be better the more I’d get to play. But from just the Demo, it just didn’t really hype me up as much as it did for others. I’m not really into medieval type games, which prob is a major factor. But, I didn’t want this to deter me so tried to give this a fighting chance by going in with an open mind.

For those who may not know, I’ve played many FF. Not every single one out there but to give some info on what I have if it means anything for you: VI, VII series, VIII, IX, X series, XII partly, XIII series, XIV slightly, XV

The first Eikon fight, reminded me of Panzer Dragoon so thought that was kind of neat. Starting the game off with fighting Ifrit just had me thinking of how XV had started with an Ifrit as well. I figured after this fight it would move back to the past afterword, but it didn’t do it as quickly. I did like the whole fight, found it interesting. ^^

The UI is nice and simple. I like how it’s all formatted, easy to pick up and learn. Nothing cluttered.

For gameplay, this is probably the strongest point it has. It feels like an enhanced gameplay of XV, making it much better. I like all the different skills you can acquire (based on what I saw for the Eikon challenge mode I played after.) I honestly like the most how the dodging is in the game. It’s such a simple thing, but idk it just moved so smoothly, I liked it.

Not having to hit any buttons to pick up items was probably the best thing to! Biggest grievance with XV with the pick up/interact and jump being same button was so annoying.

I know everyone said it was super lax but the scene with Bernadictka and Titan dude still made me uncomfortable as hell 😂

I do find the ‘oh we must go and do this important task but first do this random side quest’ so you can learn further fight mechanics, felt a bit wonky and could have flown more seamlessly a different way. Just kinda took me out. I liked Wade he amused me. The marlboro fight was interesting, fairly simple, I liked how they did the QTE events but I felt it dragged on longer than needed to be, like health a little too high. So sometimes the fighting got boring.

I wish the environments were less dull looking. Everything is so grey. I hope this is not so much the further in you go. The only times it looked visually very pretty were the Eikon fights.

As for the characters, I’m not really feeling anyone. honestly a lot just def give generic NPC vibes. None really made me care about them a whole lot. Except Torgal. I loved the furry baby. Clive not really anything omg about him. He’s typical duty bound character. He’s just ok. The dad tho lookin nice 👀👀 well till they killed him off right in front of poor Joshua, poor kid gonna have major trauma. I was sad they killed him off already. This whole scene just like XV. betrayal and killing the dad part. Uhm the wife is an asshole, scumbag I forget her name. Joshua is alright. He’s just trying his best. His voices sounds weird to me sometimes when it gets all cracky, but I can tolerate it. This other dude I forget the name of just looks like Clive with a slight different hair cut. Also wtf my sis wasn’t kidding with her issues with there being no diversity to the designs. Everyone looking like generic white dudes lmao.

The map looks so much like how Stranger of Paradise is. Which made me a little eh. Hope we’ll be able to manually travel more than what was given.

Poor Joshua for getting all beat up by Ifrit like that was so not okay 😤 Poor kid. If anything with Joshua, I just feel bad for the mess this kid has had to go through already.

When I got to the thanks for playing, I was all ‘that’s it?’ So it was engaging enough I wanted to continue playing despite some of the issues I had. Hoping that a lot of what I was meh of will be improved upon later as you’ll get to know characters more and move to new places.

Uhm those were main things I remember. So some good and bad but a lot of things left me lackluster. It is pretty much what I expected I’d feel based on my thoughts from the trailers, they didn’t change much. My main thought was that like Stranger of Paradise, the gameplay would be more engaging than story, which it is too for XVI for me. I personally wouldn’t call this game the pinnacle of Final Fantasy. It doesn’t scream the best of the best, at least just from demo standpoint. Thoughts could change the more that is played beyond.

I’m not super hooked. If I had a PS5 I’d buy the game. It’s not a game that I’d be all “I need to buy a PS5 stat” I can wait it out. It’s overall just an OK game. Of course, these are just my opinions. Everyone else is clearly ok to like it lmao.

[toririvas]

first time listening to superpowereds year 1! welcome to the live blog, to be updated as i get through it.

I'm listening to the graphic audio version, if that matters.

Let's begin, I'm starting the liveblog on chapter 4 because I figured it was a good idea to document it. Also, it's a slow work day. Sue me.

First chapter is good at getting me intrigued. I have to say Vince is a solid protagonist, and his VA is fun. I just imagine him as a silver haired Miles Morales, 12fps and all. I'm intrigued with Nick because I goddamn love these types of characters. (If you've ever seen me tag stuff for Ike, you'd know.) I heard Nick and I'm immediately like, Nick Furcillo from supermassive games' The Quarry? Pretty hair, pretty face, and praying that's all you notice kind of boy. Tboy swag detected as well, I may just be projecting a little for him tho. Herschel... oh, I pick him up in my ARMS. I have a thing for the sweethearts, I really do, and I have a character that's kind of similar to him (always left to clean up the messes). The dynamic of him and Roy is. Well, it's sure a hell of a thing. Speaking of Roy, holy shit dude, chill. I get it, though, he's the literal representative of ego, blah blah- stop bullying your headmate>:/. MARY. Mary I am going to stare at you. Oh my god. I love weirdgirls. They have such swag. Hyper powerful weirdgirls? be still my beating heart. And, Aelwyn Aberna- I mean, Alice Adair... She's cool. I like the mean girl archetype. It's a vibe. I hope she goes feral like Regina George becoming a jock.

Okay, onto the actual plot.

Okay, it's a program to turn Powereds into Supers. I got that from my dad's summary and the back of the book. Cool.

Nick gave me vibes from the start. Why are you like this. I can tell you're sad, weirdo. Vince having clothes and a bed and being weirded out by it is heart wrenching. I didn't get what Herschel's deal was when I first listened so I just sort of accepted the Shifter thing. Alice is neat, Mary is weird. Cool. I've got the dynamic.

Combat training! That's typical, the placements make sense but the rule of five and the not being able to challenge the top five is... Weird? I guess the rule makes sense but not the waiting until the end of the year thing.

New side character, Sasha Foster. Speedster. Roommates with a Julia? Fun. Punky vibe. That's fun. She's into Vince, that's neat.

I'm skipping around a little because again, starting this late

Wow, Roy is a cunt and a half. That mf is friends with Mitch (NPCs) in another universe, I can feel it. Lmao, get stronger without your powers is his arc. Got it. Solid.

Did he... Charm someone into getting him into the bar? Does he have a fake ID JUST FOR HIMSELF? Insane.

Goddamn, going back to Casino night for a second, obsessed with the weird mind games of Nick and Mary. Like. He's so fucking weird. What's with his journaling? Why'd he delete it? The fucking sunglasses??? Is this some kind of fucking Mr. Spender moment (shout out to the 1 other Drew Hayes/Paranatural fan, who I am pretty sure does not follow this blog).

Poor Hersch and the damn mornings after. I hope he gets to be liked by someone genuinely.

Okay, back to chapter 4, will report back with thoughts.

Vince is awkward. We love this. Graphic audio funneled kiss noises directly into my ears. Disgusting.

Roy plans to fuck him up but hail mary, it's Mary. And she thinks Hersch is nice, so she's threatening Roy. Good for her. Holy shit, by the way, she's so scary. I'm in love for real. I just see her in my brain as kinda Allison Reynolds, kinda Lydia Deetz, kinda Eleven in terms of aesthetics, but she's Rose Lalonde in scaring the fuck out of people. God bless.

Wouldn't Herschel being officially classed as Super mean he has control over Roy appearing? Why isn't he forcing Roy into going/taking control when he doesn't do what's best for the host body? Anyway. Roy has a challenge now, let's see how this goes.

Chad stomped him, as I heard in the audio sample. Fuckin nice.

Midterm, huh? Okay. Twenty page paper and an ethics project. Interesting. Pairs? Nick and Alice, lmao. I think they're bitey at each other. That's hilarious.

Vince and Will. Cool! Everest is their project.

Hersch and... Alex the Jedi! Okay cool. The more I listen to Alex talk the more I'm like *Donald?*

Nick and Alice are fun. Love that there's jazzy music whenever Nick's brain is in focus.

Will has a twin, Jill. Wow. Okay fun. Will is a support member! Neat.

Jill vs Sasha. Sasha wins! Speedster makes sense. Fast healing, probably? Decent recovery.

Chess again. Hersch is getting better. Nice. Herschel is her rook, Vince is her bishop, Alice is her knight, and Nick is her king. Obviously, she's queen. Alice is so interesting. I hope they become girl best friends.

Girls day!

Movie night boys!

Vince: I'm gonna leave!

Mary: no you're fucking not.

AHA HE DOES HAVE A FAKE!! GOD. Alice is going to make plans. She has decided it. She has DECIDED it. Shut up, Nick, you *know* you wanna go to Halloween with her. Nerd ass.

Nick, flippantly, in the beginning of the book: Mary I have /trust issues/

Nick, upon realizing she was taking that as a personal project: well fuck me running.

Alice... Oh my god nobody's ever stood UP for her. She likes Mary!

Back to studying. Nick and Alice. Yeah. They have this "I know you"/"I refuse to be known" dynamic that flows both ways. They're getting together I'm calling it. Calling it!

Globe, huh? Big traitor? Alice's father is his old teammate? Fuckin SWAG

Alice is opening up? Nick is doing it in return? Fucking knew he didn't have parents tho. Motherless behavior, Nicky.

Defective? Oh, Alice...

Movie night. Uh. Will and Jill, Sasha and Vince. Uh. Zombie movies. Video store? When is this fucking set ???

HaLLOWEE- "Roy was either an ancient gladiator,or a male escort catering to a very specific fetish" i CACKLED

Nick's got some fuckin eyes. I know he does. I don't know what's wrong with them but this Strider mother fucker ain't flying under my radar.

Oh shit, okay, Michael is gonna attack Vince outside. That's not a blatant use of his power or anything. Feels...weird man.

Nick is being a hilarious wingman. Pft. "You realize there's no girls in earshot, right?" "yea them hoes be shutting us down." Wild.

Thomas? Okay, new guy shut this shit down. He's cool. He's a stickler. That's important for later.

Alice would be friends with Adaine Abernant. God. I love her. Autism wins again.

CHAD IS GLOBES KID? yep.

Coach wants to talk to Vince. I looove this. Scared of his own strength. Poor bishop. He has the Eyes! The Paladin Eyes! I say a lot about DH character archetypes but that man makes paladins I want to *love*. I've never met a paladin by him I DIDN'T love.

Vince's dad went to this school? Cool.

Updates to the Dean from Numbers.

Edit to add I think my last addition got deleted. Whatever. Started Nick's backstory flash. It's official, I love the cynic. Happens every time.

[thebleedingeffect]

its storming where i am so im gonna answer those questions bc aaabhhh. unskippable cutscene #2:

-omg so my fierce deity lore is. Hffghhff. A big thing with them is that, where Hylia is a goddess of time who was created, FD is timeless and just kinda always Is and Was. FD also has a lot of the powers Hylia's missing and vice versa-- he's a lot more omniscient than her [which is how he knows what faces would be familiar to each of the Zeldas, and how hes able to parse which zelda is most capable of the triforce] and can travel to any point in Termina's history at will. (worth noting is that he can't directly influence/change future events like hylia can [so no chosen hero of the far off future for them, sorry!], cant reincarnate, and he can't create things, just borrow and imbue his powers into. this is partially why termina in-game uses npcs from oot-- he cant MAKE new people, so he has to borrow visages of them where he can.)

at a later date, he finds out that Termina will be threatened and destroyed by Majora, and he responds by putting himself within the mask to give termina the hopes and dreams of safety it will one day need. but since he's not held by laws of time, he can still travel after the point where hes been put into the mask. its weird and complicated but its Fine 👍

hylia and fd stay out of each others business but they do interact with the understanding that hylia cannot influence FD's realm aside from timekeeping for the residents and he cant do anything to hers besides take wanderers in temporarlity if he thinks they need to be there for some time. but they do talk because sometimes you gotta ask the creation god for a big curved sword and sometimes you gotta ask the guy who knows everything if youre ever gonna win that war youre dealing with. theyre friendly.

(side tangent 💥 FD brought link into the world without necessarily knowing she was hylias chosen. all FD knew was that they were someone kind and in pain and in need of a reminder of how their kindness impacts this world which was reason enough to take her to Termina's Fall.)

-FD senses hylia in SKSW zelda, and SKSW zelda remembers him, but when FD asks he doesnt say "oh so youre hylia" he says "who are you now?" because he can at least parse that theres a difference. Lyre says shes not hylia even if shes supposed to be, but that its still nice to finally see him again, to which he responds that "it was nice to see you again, too, zelda." which is the last interaction any of the zeldas have with him before ALL of them leave, so he keeps his mouth shut until theyre away from prying eyes to say anything abt it (or, at least, away from prying eyes who wont say anything one way or another. side eyes sheik.)

-ALSO HEHDHEH YEAH he deliberately doesnt say if lyre can or not. he can look into zeldas life but not hylias, so hes admittedly unsure if her BEING hylia is enough to skirt that whole "no gods can use the triforce" thing.

-Coda Knows. coda knows who sheik is, at least to an extent. Coda still likes to present as Sheik in his own time, but its more for security reasons, to keep out of the public eye as much, and because. genderqueer oot zelda be upon ye 💥 she hides that she knows it well enough bc she can tell theres weird baggage going on but eventually does reveal it and they do talk about what they both know (because coda's link when through something she will never understand, something sheik was there for, and sheik is so overwhelmed by the grief of ruining link's childhood that it certainly helps when coda relays that shes finally happy.) its neat i like thinkin abt them 👍

ok final thing YES u can use my concepts and chars from this thang. its just smthn for funsies and i dnt have the energy to make it into a real project anytime soon 🕺💃 ok cutscene OVAR !!

Oooohhhhhhh the idea that fierce deity is timeless and always was and always will is so damn cool, I'm pretty sure you can tell I'm Very normal about him so this whole idea is so . yeah. Yeah....

Also I like how you've differentiated the fierce deity and hylia and what they can and can not do! The idea that fierce deity can't have a champion but since he's not held down by the laws of time he can simply Go Wherever and influence things that way,,, super cool,,, also the idea that he can't really create but can imbue his powers into already existing faces? Giving another reason to why Termina is Like That? Super cool, pog as hell, very swag even.

I just find hylia's and fierce deities dynamic here to be very interesting cause to me at least, they feel like god's with almost no one else to match them whatsover. I mean, fierce deity is even older than hylia.... like damn, okay.... but the idea that they're just friendly, no dramatic god stuff, is making me giggle jsjsjsj staying in each other's lanes.... flourishing.... minding their business...

I also just like how fierce deity is a god but he's also just a guy :) a very observant, very old guy, but nonetheless he picks up what's going down with Lyre and seems to be very accommodating. The little detail as well as fierce deity not even daring to say anything around Sheik is so funny to me sjsjsjsj lil gossip.... collecting Info..... Sheik may be capable of wielding the triforce but that does NOT stop him from being sneaky!!

Also Coda and Sheik seem so damn tragic but the lil detail of Coda saying that she's happy and Sheik is just so relieved over that is very sweet :'] I like that alot!!

AND YAYYYYYYYY thank you alot for letting me use your ideas for their names!! I actually already have my own personal lore for the fierce deity and Termina so it was actually really cool to read another beloved mutuals interpretation of all this! Lyre and Coreulea are already so dear to me how could I ever leave them behind.......

[notmuchofatail]

Wednesday, November 30 -- SWYNRP Character Wishlist: A list of 10+ characters you’d like to see in the RP (for you to play or someone else!)

1. Cash; I literally have his entire app written out (#Foxandthehound2foramerica - it’s been 2 years). I was going to pick this man up before he even had a skeleton. Cash has been a hovering entity for idk how long. It became an even deeper thought when someone mentioned b-coops as a perfect FC (and that’s my dude. I used to have a running joke of always having a Bcoops FC in my old RPs) However, I decided against Cash a) because I thought it would have been better to bring him in with a Reba and to link up their stories, and also because at the time, his story seemed a little too similar to Dodger’s. The second one...doesn’t exactly apply anymore. But.......I shouldn’t get another character. I LOVE HIM THOUGH. 

I’m begging you. Take him from me. TAKE HIM. Look I even made a little banner to show how much u should take him. Adopt him. JUST TAKE HIM. 

LOOK AT HIS FACE. LOOK AT BRADLEY COOPER (A Star is Born, Bradley Cooper specifically). LOOK. GET HIM AWAY FROM ME. 

2. Fawn; Another one I have the basis of an app written for. But we know my track record with women (aka for some reason I have none) so therefor SOMEONE ELSE SHOULD BRING THEM YEAH? C’mon. She’d be fun. She’d be great. We need Chaotic-Good energies in the house. 

3. ....Look - I’m still 100% saying someone should pick up Roger Rabbit - I just think it would be incredibly funny and I don’t think (?) we have a skeleton for him yet so like. World is your oyster. But imagine him being some kind of weird magic that allows him to fuck with the world kind of like a cartoon so he can have those over-exaggerated, cartoony, over the top moments, you know? 

4. Piglet: This is just me selfishly wanting more of the Hundred Acre crew on board. There’s only 3 of us. I think that the series is full of wonderful characters and Piglet is a perfect diverse character who I think would be a wonderful addition and like... be friends with greg pls. 

5. On that same token - I stopped doing this either out of choice or simply because I forgot but when I first started writing Greg, I’d force him to answer starters/be places because I gave him an NPC friend who was outgoing and friendly and did everything and dragged Gregory with. That friend was ‘Chris’. This was always a super lowkey NPC variant of Christopher Robin and so I think it would be delightful if someone brought the real Christopher Robin too. Obviously it also doesn’t have to do anything with the previous mentioned tidbit - but I just think he’d be a neat character. 

6. Iago. I loved Iago. I love everything about Iago; his skeleton drew me to him the second it was posted and I ended up getting him twice but... He’s too big of a potential baddie for me. I lovingly accept the supporting artist category - and therefore big villains don’t work well with me. Now, technically Iago is a support/side character but - we know damn well he wants the world. He’s the true brains of the operation. He knows what he wants and he’s a powerhouse with SUPER COOL MAGIC. Someone please get him. 

7. Similarly - It’d be cool if someone got Camilo. I have nothing to do with the Madrigals but like Iago, I just think mimicry is some of the coolest magic. Camilo is actually like....... my compromise in theory because he’s everything I want in Iago (aka the cool powers) but without the big character energy that always knocks me with Iago. I also love a sarcastic fuck mama’s boy. I won’t do it though - no. 

8. Give me the baby; 

9. Do we seriously not have any Lilo & Stitch characters?? What are we DOING. Doesn’t someone feel so inclined to get Stitch!? (okay I know some of you are traumatized but we can REBRAND. We can MOVE ON). Wouldn’t stitch be a fantastic little demon monster (not literally) to run around Swynlake? I mean please... imagine them vs most Swynlake disasters. 

10. Pascal - please. While I don’t have the trio of characters that all had tattoos and the two of them that were tattoo junkies that would have severely benefitted from this - Gregory still has tattoos (and may or may not be working towards an entire sleeve slowly but surely but you didn’t hear it from me) and c’mon. I have ONCE AGAIN BEEN ASKING FOR YEARS. 

[lichdragon-fortissax]

Perhaps not you're character forte, but any thoughts on Varre. I'm curious both of the whole "kidnapped by Mohg" thing, and him seemingly staking out near the roundtable hold to poach tarnished for Mohg's cause

Varre is literally the only human npc that actually fits in a blorbo category instead of going 'huh, they're neat' and then forgetting they exist, so I have a lot of thoughts on him, actually! He's just the right level of weird, fucked up, and interesting to fit the bill for me

First off, I think that there's just inherently something weird about him that makes him fit in perfectly with the Mohgwyn dynasty, and that the root of that weirdness is some form of being desperate for love and validation. Because the core theme of the Mohgwyn dynasty is that all of those within it appear to be rejected or diminished folk that are desperate for some form of unconditional loyalty, which the Formless Mother offers in exchange for loyalty, so there has to be something to him or his past that makes him desperate for any sort of affection. Just like Mohg, it doesn't matter if its twisted, unhealthy, one-sided, or abusive; all that matters is the validation he receives from it.

As for his kidnapping, I believe that Mohg was just looking for anyone who could tame down his blood enough to inject people with it, and happened on Varre by sheer luck. He went the kidnapping route because this is Mohg, he was raised in a sewer and was never told how to make friends/allies otherwise, but it ended up working out for both him and Varre because they're both got the same levels of fucked-uppery and affection-starvation for them to understand one another. Varre's distaste for the Two Fingers probably came from tending to the many injured in the battles of the Shattering, and Mohg's promise of a new world where the Golden Order was spurned and everyone was loved regardless of what they were appealed to him greatly, inducting him into the cult and making him a perfect candidate for studying under the Formless Mother. Some people claim that falls under Stockholm syndrome, but for Varre, I doubt that's the case. Mohg is implied to spend 90% of his time liquidated into blood and sleeping in Miquella's cocoon, so he could have easily escaped if he wanted to, but he genuinely seems to think that the Mohgwyn Dynasty is capable of bringing about the change that the world needs.

I also think that he specifically hangs out around where new Tarnished originate from so that he can offer them some form of guidance to offset the future disappointment that the Fingers would bring, because slaying demigods is a daunting task, and many would lose their grace before gathering two great runes. By being a friendly face that gives good advice when you're disoriented and fumbling, Varre can be there for you when you come into your next crisis of faith, and offer you a way out. That he might have killed your finger maiden is not to be thought too hard on, of course- Varre is here to help~!

I also think that despite his tricky words, his belief in Mohg and his affection for the Tarnished later down the line is genuine, because he thinks that he found a kindred soul once you've proven your worth as a Bloody Finger. So even if he'll turn on you and snarl once you betray him, he's genuinely hurt, and furious because of it. He thought he saw promise in you, he thought he could guide you into something greater, and you respond to such help by slitting his throat- which he really should have expected after giving you a taste for blood, but that's on him

[voicefromthecorner]

Continuing on from the last post, I’ll have a nosy at some of the NPCs on my stroll through the social network.

Starting with Reaper the Reaper. Of all the redcoat Reapers we’ve met, I’m a little gutted that this is the one on the social network, as I believe I’ve said, but he’s still interesting. But why couldn’t it have been the Reaper Review guy...?

Anyway, as I said, he is interesting. For one thing, he rescued a Noise and nursed it to health. The Noise have only ever been portrayed as monsters or mindless beasts, like zombies except they desire soul instead of brains. The only exception was a person who was literally turned into a Noise. Here, the Noise have a small amount of history in a wounded beast that this guy saved. Furthermore, he’s been inspired by Kubo, who is allegedly some kind of Noise master as well. Another interesting detail about that guy that could be nothing or everything. I see it as another reason to keep an eye on him at least.

As with the last post, this is pretty long so I’ll drop a read-more above the others here:

Ah Fuya. Nerd tropes: the person. I do miss this guy, short-lived as his time was and I look upon Shiba with total loathing for offing him and his team so callously, job or not.

I do think it’s a missed opportunity that deceased characters aren’t marked with an X, or a black background in their spot, or have an ‘RIP’ next to their name or something. I recognise it’s kind of a spoiler thing but it would be a sad/cool thing to reflect on as the story progresses. It also feels weird that Sho left the team and got a bio entry to reflect that, while Fuya and his team died but their profiles are untouched as though they’re still around.

Eiji’s in EleStra, huh? Not publically, but it does make me wonder what Nagi’s opinion of him is. She seems to have a particular interest in celebs:

Also some very true-to-life dating rumours about him and a friend of his, Joli becot shopkeep Renka. Wonder what their fan couple name would be? Reiji? Joli becoji? Joji? PARCO Prince?

The man.

Suzu’s story here is kind of amusing to me. It’s like the plotline of a filler episode with a character who exists for one exact setting. Her ex-husband and her both love ramen and apparently their entire relationship and subsequent divorce was centred around the making of ramen. I want to find that funny, but sadly realistically, it’s probably not far from someone’s story somewhere.

It’s wild to know that Ryoji has a girlfriend, let alone one as nice as Yumi. It’s cool that there’s actually an explanation in that Yumi has a love for the occult. A simple hobby that would be enough to find someone who correlates to it and for something to spark from there, though it doesn’t sound like it’s lasting. Still, a connection with details like that is so neat!

No less than three people have had an outgoing/flirtatious side of themselves awoken by simply meeting Fret, who I believe is decently younger than all of them. What are his powers?? How is he so inspiring??

I want to see an alternate universe of the first game where Neku’s Week 1 partner is Fret. To be clear, I wouldn’t change a thing about the last game’s plot, but honestly, that would be a genuinely interesting and entertaining story.

Also, Yudai Miki? I’m sure it’s not a completely unique name or anything, but I wonder still if he’s related to Makoto in some way.

The Dead Seatbelters. Flip, that’s such a good band name. They seem to just be a trio of self-conciousness issues. It’s pretty cool that they’re a band in spite of that and in spite of their own differences. They all seem really cool!

And finally there’s Tamao. No description yet, not a high enough level, but I just love that she’s way out in the middle of nowhere on this map, disconnected from everyone else that we’ve met so far, which must be about half the city and everyone that we physically can meet so far. I feel like that says a lot about her in itself.

[relentless-endurance]

Top five Elezen, Miqo'te and Au Ra in 14!

Elezen:

Haurchefant. His death for our sake impacted so much. Also just love him as a character; his unflinching willingness to help. Also do you ever think about that scene at the end of the nidhogg fight? I do, I do a lot.

Ysayle. God I love her. A beautifully written and tragic character. And HER sacrifice. I cry thinking about her unironically.

Aymeric. Boyfriend. Heavensward reminded me why I love this character so much. Doing the right thing even if its hard, and (as I mentioned earlier) the way he is polite even under weird circumstances just tickles me.

Alphinaud and Alisaie. yes I am cheating techinically but shhh. Watching these two come into their own over the course of the MSQ was one of my favorite things about the story. I love them so much. Also whoever wrote them must have had siblings bc the ACCURACY.

Estinien. another character who's development over the course of the story has been so wonderful to witness. I know you really like Estien so just trust me when I say YOU'RE IN FOR A TREAT

Miqo'te

this one is a spoiler for you but ppl who know me know who I am talking about but when you get to this character you're going to understand why I love him so much. he is great and when you meet him you are free to come ask me about him because holy shit i could talk about it for years. i will say this: he's bisexual.

Y'shtola. goth mean lesbian who's always been a true friend. I love her and I can't talk about my favorite bits yet either but also I just. God I just. I love her. Y'shtola good. thats it. thats the message.

M'naago. she's good i love her i don't have 100% articulate thoughts on her but she was one of my favorite more minor npcs in the msq.

Renda-Rae. I don't know what your role is for the job you're leveling through SHB but if you're doing a physical dps you'll meet her during the msq. can't talk about her without sobbing and also spoiling but she tackles themes i really love.

Lue-Reeq. From the same questline ^. He's a good lad. Or he learns to be! I care him your honor.

Au Ra

Sid!!!! I love 1 grumpy dragon man who is also a dad and who also may have a teeny tiny crush on the wol. He's just good. He's so good. Love him and I want him to flourish. I also love a character who DOES NOT HESITATE when it comes to doing what he believes is right (wrt to the heavensward 60 drk quest, which if you've done: I think he absolutely made the correct choice).

Mide. She's from the Alexander raid series and she's just. Neat. I love her. The things we do for love bro.

the Steppe Trio Sadu, Cirina, and Magnai. I love 1 batshit blue dragon lady who gives not a single fuck, and her impulse control pink gf, and Magnai, who is a loser (affectionate). if they add trusts to STB and don't let me do trusts with them I will RIOT.

Ahewann. He is an Endwalker spoiler character - but he's v good and one of my favorite side npcs.

Yuguri. I LOVE HER SO MUCH. Her dynamic with Hien is chefs kiss. She's been an ally from the very beginning and I just love her bro. also you are huge brained for shipping your wol with her.

also i don't consider these so much as a ranking bc i love all these characters dearly for different reasons. these are 5 of these all that i love. also i could have picked a different miqo for 1 but i legally cannot. when you meet him you will understand.

[hitodama3]

Yue QingYuan Third Transmigrator

This isn't canontical but would be really funny headcanon is if Yue QingYuan is a third transmigrator.

After She Yuan transmigrates into Shen QingQiu, and starts acting weird the sect looks into it, but like in most fics? canon?, I've read to much I don't know what's real anymore, they think the new Shen QingQiu is pretty neat so they don't look into it very hard, and accept the easiest most plausible reasoning of the qi deviation made Shen QingQiu lose his memory or altered his personality.

Yue QingYuan knows that's wrong. He is Shen Jiu's canontical soulmate. He knows that when he looks at Shen QingQiu that he is an imposter, but there's nothing he can do, because everyone else is content to let the imposter replace the original. He has failed Shen Jiu for the last time, because this time his failure seems to have resulted in Shen Jiu's death, as he can't convince the other peak lords to bring the original back. Comments like, "I like this version better." And this breaks Yue QingYuan.

This all occurs during the time when after the Qi Deviation, at the beginning of the book, when Yue QingYuan just leaves and disappears until the first mission that he gives Shen Yuan. Where Shen Yuan starts calling him the quest giving NPC, and kind older brother archtype.

Because that is not how Yue QingYuan would act if Shen Jiu had just had a qi deviation bad enough to lose memories or alter personality. He would be glued to his side. But my headcanon reason he isn't and acts so differently is because it's no longer Yu Qi in that body by that point it's another transmigrator.

Yu Qi after realizing he has failed in the ultimate way allowing Shen Jiu's death qi deviates and dies following his soulmate into the reincarnation cycle. But just like Shen QingQiu where the story must go on a transmigrator gets thrown into Yue QingYuan's body and told to hold down the fort.

But unlike the other two transmigrators the one in Yue QingYuan's body has no idea what's going on. They at most interacted with PIDW by internet osmosis or maybe seeing a fan art or two, but other than that have no knowledge of the story.

So the system gives them a handicap. They get explanations of who characters are, and how Yue QingYuan would have interacted with them.

For example, This is Shen QingQiu you are childhood friends, you dote heavily on him, and will allow him to get away with anything like a particularly indulgent older brother. This is Lui Qingge you are friends. You respect him as a warrior and often practice duel together. You are Yue QingYuan a kind and fair man who is sectleader, and assign tasks to your sect members.

Though they hadn't interacted with PIDW the transmigrator did play enough video games to understand their role in a similar way that Shen Yuan looks at their role. A kind and benevolent npc that gives out quests and orders. Unlike Shen Yuan they don't have an OOC function that's why even though Yue QingYuan is a secondary protagonist, power wise, he always fades into the background, and never acts on character in the Shen Yuan version of PIDW.

For example Lui Qingge is always the one chasing after Shen Yuan, and trying to save him, or standing against Luo Binghe. Character wise shouldn't Yue QingYuan had been beside himself in grief after Shen QingQiu's death? A few Qi Deviations? Fighting with reckless abandon to get the body back? That's his soulmate's body, and his precious Xiao Jiu, so why is it always Liu Qingge?

Because it's not Yue QingYuan, it's a transmigrator playing a part with very limited information and pretty much only doing the tasks the system lays out for them to do, and otherwise running a simulator called "Keep the 12 Peaks Running and Prospering". That could even be why this transmigrator got chosen they died playing a simulator game like Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley and wanted to live something similar. The Yue QingYuan!transmigrator only shows up for the important story bits to read off their lines, enjoy the cutscenes, and go back to their simulator.

It would be very funny for a third transmigrator to be in the PIDW 2.0 right under Airplane's and Shen Yuan's noses but because they didn't know anything about PIDW they are the most successful at flying under the radar. It's be especially funny if they realize Airplane and Shen Yuan are transmigrators, but sees the utter mess they are making, and just decides to let them do their own thing.

If you wanted to out this character Airplane and Shen Yuan could be talking about something in English at a peak meeting, everyone thinks it's a regional dialect they share, trying to remember a fact or words to a song, and the Yue QingYuan transmigrator not paying attention gives them the answer in English, before having a shocked moment realizing they've just outed themselves.

[originalcontent]

Aww heck, I never posted about Marble Nest! Let’s talk about Marble Nest. We played it, we got all four endings, there were a couple things I maybe wanted to try but we didn’t but that’s okay, it would be pretty easy to replay. A couple thoughts.

As a player character, Daniil makes for a very very different playstyle than Artemy. It’s wild how all the actual mechanics of the game can be the same and yet such slight tweaks can change the feeling of the game so much. Like how everyone talking to you but how almost no one trading with you makes the whole town seem completely different.

Daniil sees the town as a chessboard and Artemy sees it as a body. This Daniil seems to know a lot fewer people than Artemy knew.

The pacing is also very interesting. The whole “time to make your nightly rounds” thing, is that something Daniil does? Is that part of his gameplay loop?

Coming out of having just finished Pathologic 2, wherein everyone’s constantly bitching at and/or trying to kill Artemy every four seconds, playing as Daniil felt like a fucking power trip. People are like “hey can you do this please” and I’m like “...wait can I do this? I can just do this??” 

I think overall I prefer playing as Artemy, although maybe I was just more accustomed to it.

Daniil is a BITCH.

No seriously, when playing Pathologic, I felt kind of bad about continually dragging Daniil because deep down there was always this little part of me that was like “you know he’s just trying his best, same as you, he doesn’t deserve all this shit you’re throwing at him” but now that I’ve gotten to walk a mile in his shoes I can definitively say that he absolutely deserved all of the shit I was throwing at him, and also I think Artemy deserved to punch him once. (After that they can go back to being friends/lovers/colleagues, however you interpret them, but he should get to punch him once.)

Okay enough about Artemy, he’s didn’t even appear in this game.

Wait one last thing, in the list of townsfolk it showed Artemy as having a name rather than being called “Haruspex”, but in the main game Daniil was listed as “Bachelor”? 

God, that list. Seeing so many dead kids. :( Daniil you did not protect my children. Oh, Mark Immortell was there and was in danger, in the Bachelor route am I allowed to let him die from the plague, is that a thing I can do, please? My besties Lara, Bad Grief, and Victor were also dead, but Stakh was alive! I tried to visit him but I couldn’t, the game doesn’t let you cross the river even if you go alllllll the way around it. I tried to find Aglaya too but couldn’t.

Seeing the town map was so heartbreaking. Quarantining the stone yard and letting everyone else die is a pretty pragmatic decision bUT ALSO!!!!!! My KIDS.

The loop was neat, how everyone kept saying you were dead and how you didn’t know why until the end, and I loved how the town kind of was your body. (Do the fires mean you’re feverish? Does the cold mean you’re dying?) This game has always been excellent about how it nests themes within themes and symbols within symbols, and Marble Nest was no exception.

Kind of hilarious tho how the ultimate theme is “if you don’t want your favorite character to die, just stop reading the book, or maybe start over and reread the parts where they’re still alive forever.” Turns out you really can beat death Daniil, good job. :)

(“But wait! I may be a fictional character, but the disease which kills me is also fictional! AU in which it’s not real fuck you” Honestly what did I expect coming from the same people who had a plot-critical messenger murdered offscreen by the understudy of the protagonist.)

This character’s themes seem to be very lofty. Again, I think I vibed more with the more grounded side of things, but I love metafuckery so you know.

That time I was in that house and I was like “I might need to check out some rooms” and the other guy was like “here, I have the master key” and hands me a lockpick, I actually laughed. Incredible.

The PANTOMIME. God that was such a vibe. Compared to everything else in Pathologic, it was so animated! I do love the “you’re heartless, come back to me when you have a heart” and then in the next loop I hand them a human heart and they’re like “.....dude, have you ever heard of a fucking metaphor, holy shit why are you giving me this.”

The CLOAK. The MASK. The S A N D A L S. Hhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Wearing the ensemble and literally being immune to the plague zone, I was like “wow this is fucking op how is this even allowed” although I guess Marble Nest was also written so that you can last the whole game on literally one piece of toast.

It was so weird to go around places where I know twyre grows and not hear any bugs. I did take a nice incredibly long walk through the steppe just to see how far the game would let me go though, because it was nice and pretty and who the fuck has time for that while in Pathologic? 

I didn’t really talk much before with Georgiy Kain, but fuuuuuuck what is wrong with that guy? If Daniil’s been hanging out with him, I can fucking understand why he became obsessed with the polyhedron at the end.

And Aspity, oh god I have so many questions, what are you, I don’t think we ever cleared that up.

And Shrew! What’s her deal?? There were actually a lot of very memorable NPC’s who didn’t even have their own custom designs.

I don’t know much about Pathologic 1 but I think Eva killed herself in the Bachelor route? Does that mean she’s going to die in this Bachelor route if it ever comes out? I mean presumably Marble Nest already deviates from that game quite a bit since I don’t think Artemy dies in it (and I don’t think Daniil does either.)

Gee Daniil! How come your mom lets you have two funerals?

A little sad Changeling never came by to say hi, I would have liked to see her. Although I guess she’s busy trying to save my ass irl. I know I remembered seeing the steam page for Marble Nest earlier and being like “huh that’s sort of a strange poster for the game, isn’t Artemy supposed to be dead?” And then I played it and I just took a moment and turned to my sister and was like “hey look at this” and she was like “...yup that’s literally the game.”

Overall it was a fun time. Very short comparatively, very clever.