#but they both were more pixelated than i'd like

[thistaleisabloodyone]

I love the GENE/RMPG/FANTA cover of Higher Ground from the Battle of High&Low and I desperately want other people to love it, too, but the clip I got of it from the Blu-ray is about 200MB+ over the Tumblr upload limit, so I'm desperately trying to compress it enough to be less than 500MB while also not looking like shit

[mostlysignssomeportents]

AI art has no anti-cooption immune system

TONIGHT (July 20), I'm appearing in CHICAGO at Exile in Bookville.

One thing Myspace had going for it: it was exuberantly ugly. The decision to let users with no design training loose on a highly customizable user-interface led to a proliferation of Myspace pages that vibrated with personality.

The ugliness of Myspace wasn't just exciting in a kind of outsider/folk-art way (though it was that). Myspace's ugliness was an anti-cooption force-field, because corporate designers and art-directors would, by and large, rather break their fingers and gouge out their eyes than produce pages that looked like that.

In this regard, Myspace was the heir to successive generations of "design democratization" that gave amateur communities, especially countercultural ones, a space to operate in where authentic community members could be easily distinguished between parasitic commercializers.

The immediate predecessors to Myspace's ugliness-as-a-feature were the web, and desktop publishing. Between the img tag, imagemaps, the blink tag, animated GIFs, and the million ways that you could weird a page with tables and padding, the early web was positively bursting with individual personality. The early web balanced in an equilibrium between the plunder-friendliness of "view source" and the topsy-turvy design imperatives of web-based layout, which confounded both print designers (no fixed fonts! RGB colorspaces! dithering!) and even multimedia designers who'd cut their teeth on Hypercard and CD ROMs (no fixed layout!).

Before the web came desktop publishing, the million tractor-feed ransom notes combining Broderbund Print Shop fonts, joystick-edited pixel-art, and a cohort of enthusiasts ranging from punk zinesters to community newsletter publishers. As this work proliferated on coffee-shop counters and telephone poles, it was visibly, obviously distinct from the work produced by "real" designers – that is, designers who'd been a) trained and b) paid by a corporation to employ that training.

All of this matters, and not just for aesthetic reasons. Communities – especially countercultural ones – are where our society's creative ferment starts. Getting your start in the trenches of the counterculture wars is no proof against being co-opted later (indeed, many of the designers who cut their teeth desktop publishing weird zines went on to pull their hair and roll their eyes at the incredible fuggliness of the web). But without that zone of noncommercial, antiestablishment, communitarian low weirdness, design and culture would stagnate.

I started thinking about this 25 years ago, the first time I met William Gibson. I'd been assigned by the Globe and Mail to interview him for the launch of All Tomorrow's Parties:

https://craphound.com/nonfic/transcript.html

One of the questions I asked was about his famous aphorism, "The street finds its own use for things." Given how quickly each post-punk tendency had been absorbed by commercial culture, couldn't we say that "Madison Avenue finds its own use for the street"? His answer started me down a quarter-century of thinking and writing about this subject:

I worry about what we'll do in the future, [about the instantaneous co-opting of pop culture]. Where is our new stuff going to come from? What we're doing pop culturally is like burning the rain forest. The biodiversity of pop culture is really, really in danger. I didn't see it coming until a few years ago, but looking back it's very apparent.

I watch a sort of primitive form of the recommodification machine around my friends and myself in sixties, and it took about two years for this clumsy mechanism to get and try to sell us The Monkees.

In 1977, it took about eight months for a slightly faster more refined mechanism to put punk in the window of Holt Renfrew. It's gotten faster ever since. The scene in Seattle that Nirvana came from: as soon as it had a label, it was on the runways of Paris.

Ugliness, transgressiveness and shock all represent an incoherent, grasping attempt to keep the world out of your demimonde – not just normies and squares, but also and especially enthusiastic marketers who want to figure out how to sell stuff to you, and use you to sell stuff to normies and squares.

I think this is what drove a lot of people to 4chan (remember, before 4chan was famous for incubating neofascism, it was the birthplace of Anonymous): its shock culture, combined with a strong cultural norm of anonymity, made for a difficult-to-digest, thoroughly spiky morsel that resisted recommodification (for a while).

All of this brings me to AI art (or AI "art"). In his essay on the "eerieness" of AI art, Henry Farrell quotes Mark Fisher's "The Weird and the Eerie":

https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/large-language-models-are-uncanny

"Eeriness" here is defined as "when there is something present where there should be nothing, or is there is nothing present when there should be something." AI is eerie because it produces the seeming of intent, without any intender:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/13/spooky-action-at-a-close-up/#invisible-hand

When we contemplate "authentic" countercultural work – ransom-note DTP, the weird old web, seizure-inducing Myspace GIFs – it is arresting because the personality of the human entity responsible for it shines through. We might be able to recognize where that person ganked their source-viewed HTML or pixel-optimized GIF, but we can also make inferences about the emotional meaning of those choices. To see that work is to connect to a mind. That mind might not necessarily belong to someone you want to be friends with or ever meet in person, but it is unmistakably another person, and you can't help but learn something about yourself from the way that their work makes you feel.

This is why corporate work is so often called "soulless." The point of corporate art is to dress the artificial person of the corporation in the stolen skins of the humans it uses as its substrate. Corporations are potentially immortal, artificial colony organisms. They maintain the pretense of personality, but they have no mind, only action that is the crescendo of an orchestra of improvised instruments played by hundreds or thousands of employees and a handful of executives who are often working directly against one another:

https://locusmag.com/2022/03/cory-doctorow-vertically-challenged/

The corporation is – as Charlie Stross has it – the "slow AI" that is slowly converting our planet to the long-prophesied grey goo (or, more prosaically, wildfire ashes and boiled oceans). The real thing that is signified by CEOs' professed fears of runaway AI is runaway corporations. As Ted Chiang says, the experience of being nominally in charge of a corporation that refuses to do what you tell it to is the kind of thing that will give you nightmares about autonomous AI turning on its masters:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/09/autocomplete-worshippers/#the-real-ai-was-the-corporations-that-we-fought-along-the-way

The job of corporate designers is to find the signifiers of authenticity and dress up the corporate entity's robotic imperatives in this stolen flesh. Everything about AI is done in service to this goal: the chatbots that replace customer service reps are meant to both perfectly mimic a real, competent corporate representative while also hewing perfectly to corporate policy, without ever betraying the real human frailties that none of us can escape.

In the same way, the shillbots that pretend to be corporate superfans online are supposed to perfectly amplify the corporate message, the slow AI's conception of its own virtues, without injecting their own off-script, potentially cringey enthusiasms.

The Hollywood writers' strike was, at root, about the studio execs' dream that they could convert the "insights" of focus groups and audience research into a perfect script, without having to go through a phalanx of lippy screenwriters who insisted on explaining why they think your idea is stupid. "Hey, nerd, make me another ET, except make the hero a dog, and set it on Mars" is exactly how you prompt an AI:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/20/everything-made-by-an-ai-is-in-the-public-domain/

Corporate design's job is to produce the seeming of intention without any intender. The "personality" we're meant to sense when we encounter corporate design isn't the designer's, nor the art director's, nor even the CEO's. The "personality" is meant to be the slow AI's, but a corporation doesn't have a personality.

In his 2018 short story "Noon in the antilibrary," Karl Schroeder describes an "antilibrary" as an endlessly deep anaerobic lagoon of generative botshit:

https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/08/18/104097/noon-in-the-antilibrary/

The antilibrary is a generative AI system that can produce entire librarys’-worth of fake books with fake authors, fake citations by other fake experts with their own fake books and biographies and fake social media accounts, on-demand and instantly. It was speculation in 2018; it’s possible now. Creating an antilibrary is just a matter of investing in a sufficient number of graphics cards and electricity.

https://kschroeder.substack.com/p/after-the-internet

Reading Karl's reflections on the antilibrary crystallized something for me that I've been thinking about for a quarter-century, since I interviewed Gibson at the Penguin offices in north Toronto. It snapped something into place that I've trying to fit since encountering Henry's thoughts on the "eeriness" of AI work and the intent without an intender.

It made me realize why I dislike AI art so much, on a deep, aesthetic level. The point of an image generator is to buffer the intention of the prompter (which might be genuinely creative and bursting with personality) in layers of automated decision-making that flense the final product of any hint of the mind that caused its creation.

The most febrile, deeply weird and authentic prompts of the most excluded outsiders produce images that feel the same as the corporate AI illustrations that project the illusion of personality from the immortal, transhuman colony organism that is the limited liability corporation.

AI art is born coopted. Even the 4chan equivalent of AI – the deeply transgressive and immoral nonconsensual pornography – feels no different from the "official" AI porn churned out by "real" pornographers. "Shrimp Jesus" and other SEO-optimized Facebook slop is so uncanny because it is simultaneously "weird" ("that which does not belong") and yet it belongs in the same aesthetic bucket of the most anodyne Corporate Memphis ephemera:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_Memphis

We call it "generative" but AI art can't generate the kind of turnover that aerates the aesthetic soil. An artform that can't be transgressive is sterile, stillborn, a dead end.

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/20/ransom-note-force-field/#antilibraries

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

--

Jake (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1970s_fanzines_(21224199545).jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

[thedevilrisen]

Hospital - 4

Nova Crosby -

12:10pm

Sid's eyes watered as he read the message, and not just from the contents but also the blinding tone of the screen. Fluorescent pixels highlighted every word of the message and while he sat on the carpeted floor of the hospital lobby, Luke slouched down beside him cradled into his chest he thought back to a moment in Nova's favourite tv show. Gilmore girls, or more specifically the moment where Richard Gilmore was in hospital and he stated, 'I'd rather be in Philadelphia than here.' 'What's in Philadelphia?' Rory had asked, 'Nothing, but it would be better than being here.'

Right now, as much as the city despised him, Sidney wished he and Nova were in Philadelphia. Not in the hospital, and certainly that she wasn't in the ICU. Taking a breath and rubbing his hand up and down Luke's arm again, the fabric of his hoodie bunching with the motion.

"I'm about to tell you something that is going to hurt, like fuck." Sid mumbled, he winced at Luke's reaction, the harsh breath in which he sucked in, the grip on Sid's suit jacket scrunching just that little tighter. "Luke, Nova has had two of her three surgeries, they weren't able to get to the third one because some... complications arose."

Luke squished his eyes shut tightly to refrain from shedding anymore tears, as he waited silently for Sid to go on, waiting for the damn wall he so tenderly hand crafted to come flooding down at a mere handful of words.

"Because of this, Novs was moved to the ICU." Sid held his breath as he waited for the fiery explosion of the dropped bomb to submerge him. Sid himself wanted to do the least adult like thing and stand and scream, it's not fair, she doesn't deserve it. Yet, holding it together for Luke, he sat silently, waiting.

"What, do we do now?" Luke choked out horsley, Sid watched as every fibre of the young boys being strained to keep him some resemblance of a man, normal. But wasn't an inconsolable, heartbroken, barely hanging on boyfriend the norm in this situation?

"Well, they told me in the message that there is an intensive care waiting room up on floor three, outside ward three A. If we go and wait there, then a nurse will come and take us in to see her." Sid watched the understanding slowly dawn on Luke's face, viewed the moment it clicked in the young boys head. He could see her, but there were conditions, those conditions required a certain amount of cooperation from his brain and limbs.

"So we go to floor three, then." Luke stated with finality, his grasp on Sid's now wrinkled blazer loosened as he fought his way into a standing position, using the wall and somewhere in there, Sidney's head for leverage. Choosing not to comment, Sid also rose from the ground. Smoothing his suit out of habit.

Both men stood and looked at each other momentarily before Luke meandered to the horridly patterned excuse of a chair he was sitting on. He picked up the brown paper bag which housed the once warm banana bread and creased it to peek inside, poking at the now cold, doughy probably exceptionally buttery loaf Luke couldn't bring himself to eat anymore.

"Any good?" Sid asked, taking the bag which sat loosely in Luke's hand and peeking inside.

"No better than yours." Luke managed, a forelong smile gracing his lips. Thinking once again back to the times when Nova and the two of them spent time in the kitchen throwing flour at each other and eating Sid's banana bread when it was still a little too hot fresh out of the oven.

Watching as the shadows of good memories flash through Luke's features he took the opportunity to make the most of this temporary mood lift. Together with some uhm-ing and ah-ing Sidney led himself and Luke down some corridors they didn't need to and others that finally led them to the Intensive Care waiting room. It was small with a mini fridge and a snack bar, three couches and a window which led to shrouded darkness outside.

Sitting down on individual couches, watching the black industry standard phone and waiting for it to ring felt like torture, knowing that Nova was on this floor, alone and probably scared was killing them both. More so Sidney as this was everything he vowed never to happen, he was supposed to be the one to silence all fears and cradle her throughout the storm. The parental guilt, reflection and utter terrible sinking feeling in his gut all continued to pile.

1:02am

Both men, even while concerned were struggling to keep their eyes open, both the emotional toll and physicality of Sid's game was catching up. Yet still the phone sat silent, the fact that nothing had been passed on only meant one thing. Bad.

When the phone broke them out of their mopey, stupor by piercing the wretched silence with its call Sid reached for it, holding the receiver to his ear.

"Sidney Crosby speaking."

"Mr. Crosby, I apologise for the wait, we had some further complications moving your daughter into the intensive care unit, however we have her out of an unplanned surgery now, she is being moved as we speak. I will prioritise having a nurse come and collect you shortly."

All Sidney heard, and Luke heard from leaning over was unplanned surgery.

A corresponding thought ricocheted throughout their minds.

What the fuck went wrong.

[naffeclipse]

If I were to describe the moments I get inspiration for Apex Polarity it's like either being bit by a fish that is convinced I am it's soul mate from another life and won't let go, or a miniature avalanche like a snowcone with rainbows being dumped on your head. But instead of brain freeze you get lovely ideas!

So I did just that! I made another piece of pixel art. I had a few ideas, including things like some sort of penguin Y/N or a snowman of big fish man himself. I wanted to make something for Harpy!Y/N in particular since I hadn't don't anything for them or their AU and it's my favorite iteration of Apex Polarity.

Family Under the Ice

This one depicts Eclipse and his family of four swimming together below the frozen surface. With young Sun and Moon in tow, Harpy!Y/N close beside them and the shapes of fish (yes those weird lumpy dark things are fish!) against the light from above.

I tried my best to scale Harpy!Y/N right, but as there is no official reference, I used the various fanart and deduction to decide they're probably around the size of Eclipse's torso and upper half, give or take. Perfect for Eclipse to use his big fishy effect to its fullest and to not be inconvenient for hugs!

The hardest part by far though, wasn't the ice, even though it took multiple layers upon layers before it finally looked more than just a bunch of dark blobs, the colors or the lighting, it was drawing SILHOUETTES in pixel art.

This took HOURS, it was so difficult to get the shape and size right, especially at the scale I was using (64x64, the same as the last) which left me with not much room for detail.

One example of the many iterations I had to make -

The original sprites for the siren babies where literally fishtails on chicken drumsticks with heads because I didn't think I'd be able to squeeze as much percieveable (or at least as much as I could get) detail into them with how small they were compared to Eclipse and Y/N. They also had to be small enough for Y/N to hold both without it looking ridiculous, but not so small that they barely looked cohesive with the rest of the silhouettes.

I hope you enjoy this small bit of Harpy!Y/N art

AHHHH THIS WAS BURIED IN MY INBOX BUT I'M SO GLAD I UNEARTHED IT AGAIN AHHHHHHH

I LOVE YOUR PIXEL ART SO MUCH AND THE BEAUTIFUL SILHOUETTES WITH THE BABIES AND HARPY!Y/N AND ECLIPSE ARE GORGOUES!!!

Ahhh, thank you so much for sharing! ♥

[celestie0]

🪷 CTFUUUUUU your gojo and reader sex tape post was so hilarious omg. Ngl to me they don't give the vibes of a couple that make one (I don't mean this as an insult omfg now that I wrote it it sounds rude as hell) but the type who are professional phone fuckers.

Doja cat's Cyber sex is their national anthem I just know it I had a little locker room talk with reader she told me 😙. And yeah what you said abt gojo's schedule being all over the place as a player I'd thought that too, which is why phone sex is 🔛🔝 for these two. Just two freaky frogs omg I know that dude sluts her out bad and she doesn't want it any other way

He's a player (the *other* type of player) too so ofc he'd have expertise in the area of tasteful nudes but reader's learning curve will be so exponential gojo would be left in the dust in a short amount of time😁 RIP BOZO‼️

Imagine a little roleplay scenario where reader dresses up as a cheerleader for gojo after he returns from winning some final match as a victory treat. That dong goes up at an angle of elevation so steep you could make a mean trigonometric question off of it. I need him BAD I need him esp when he's sweaty after a gym or practice session I'd climb that man like jack was climbing that beanstalk.

Anyway I hope you've been doing well sweets! Thanks for being so nice to me in your last ask and I cannot wait to see what you have in store for us I wanna see that horndog be his authentic slutty self around reader finally 🗣️🗣️

Imagine a little roleplay scenario where reader dresses up as a cheerleader for gojo after he returns from winning some final match as a victory treat.

oh dear sweet baby jesus the scream i SCRUMPT AT THIS…HOW HAVE I NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT oh mygooodd that’d be so fuckin hot 😩😩😩 i ran to add that to my notes LOL my head is in my hands i need to write that so fucking bad. HIM RAILING HER WHILE SHE’s WEARING A SKIMPY LIL CHEERLEADER COSTUME AFTER HE JUST PLAYED AN INTENSE GAME babe u cooked w this ty

HAHAHA i feel like they would make a sex tape but they obv wouldnt post it or anything lol it’d just be something they’d do when they’re both drunk asf while on vacation in their hotel room n then they freak out once they get home n realize they lost the flashdrive n someone out there in barcelona is now jerking off to their amateur avante garde porno

And yeah what you said abt gojo's schedule being all over the place as a player I'd thought that too, which is why phone sex is 🔛🔝 for these two. Just two freaky frogs omg I know that dude sluts her out bad and she doesn't want it any other way

okay you’re so right ab cyber sex being (at least post grad) kickoff couple’s anthem 🤧 that “i wish u were here rn” yup. but also LMFAO THATS SO TRUE AB THE SLUTTIN HER OUT he’d have her so downbad she’s flashing her titties at the webcam just cuz she wants to see him cum all over his stomach while he’s jerking himself off to her pixels ✋🏼😩 i was not anticipating to start this day off so horny LOL

idk i like to think all the nudes kickoff gojo has received in his life have been raunchy asf so when he’s so desperate to get a glimpse of kickoff reader while he’s away for work n is like “babe send me a pic please” for the first time n she sends something that’s genuinely really tasteful n artistic n subtle but sexy n leaves a bit to the imagination i feel like that wld drive him more insane than any explicit nude ever would HAHAHAHA

THE DONG GOIN UP YOU COULD PERFORM TRIG ON IT IM CRYING babe i wish to be half as funny as you are some day 🤣🤣

thanks my lovee omg im so happy you’re looking forward to it :””) 💕 you’re my honeybunch sugarplum pumpyumpyumpkin i love yaaa

- ellie 🐸

[ryuichirou]

Replies

Talking about brocons, people being annoying and other stuff.

Anonymous asked:

I’m sorry when did someone call Idia a brocon in canon?!? 👀

Asking for reasons….

It happened in Book 5, Episode 5-13, near the end of the episode! As Cater and Lilia were explaining the Shrouds’ situation to Yuu and guys, Grim commented that Idia is a total brocon, or something among the lines lol

Anonymous asked:

Cater saying he wants to date Vil + Cater's union birthday saying he wants Vil as a brother = canon brocon Cater methinks

Oh my god… Cater really said “but what if Vil is my brother AND we’re dating”. This boy is either very confused or very kinky, probably both 😔

Anonymous asked:

the Asim siblings are so interesting, like, are they close to eachother? how can they keep track when there are so many of them? what do they think of Kalim, do some of them resent him? are some obsessed with him? the latter in particular gets funnier if you have other siblings that instead decided to follow in their big bro's footsteps and joined the Jamil fanclub. the two groups would argue endlessly about who's better. than add in a third group that just likes them both and might even ship kalijami...

now that I think about it, I've seen some fanworks where Kalim tries to convince Jamil to call him onichan. would that make him a brocon? I guess for Kalim it's less about the idea of having Jamil as a sibling, and more about him being someone that Jamil can rely on without needing too many formalities between them, and the first thing that comes to mind is an older brother... Keep dreaming Kalim, the dude literally sees you as a toddler to babysit!

Hmm, I think they aren’t super close, but those who are closer in age are more likely to be friendly with each other + those who have the same mom (let’s be honest, there is no way all of the Asim kids were born by one lady). And the younger ones probably love Kalim much more than the older ones, both because he is better at connecting with kids + because the older ones technically still have a chance to take Kalim’s place if they’re lucky. But they’re never openly antagonistic; the “default” state for all of them is that Kalim is their beloved older brother that is always playful, fun and kind.

There absolutely are some of the Asim siblings that are obsessed with Kalim and THERE ABSOLUTELY ARE some of the Asim siblings that are obsessed with Jamil!! Imagine looking at Jamil your whole life and not getting obsessed?? lol Jamil would probably think that his own little Asim fanclub is the worst thing to ever exist (having Kalim only is troublesome enough…), but wait until he learns about the KaliJami fanclub… Kalim’s little sisters watching these two always being together and being closer to each other than Kalim is to his actual real brothers? They absolutely ship them lol

Kalim really is such a toddler though… And while I don’t think his wish to see Jamil and himself “as brothers” is in any way related to anything brocon-like, I do think that he really wants to express that his bond with Jamil is special.

Alright, now we’re entering the people-are-annoying territory.

Anonymous asked:

Normally I'd ignore the "don't sexualize the underage pixels" crowd but I love overanalyzing things and could write a mini essay on them (It's weird but I might do that, could be fun).  The thing that stands out most is the obvious hypocrisy.                                                          Kids kids kids, if you play TWST you don't get to say this stuff.  Even if you don't know it's for adults or who Yana Toboso is, look at the cards!  The game itself sometimes sexualizes its own characters!  Even the first and second years!  You harass the fans but give the creators' a free pass?  You're not saying "it's wrong to sexualize fictional minors!" you're saying "it's wrong to not make money off of your thirst!" and "it's only wrong if I don't like the final product!"  You're not mad that adults are creeps, you're mad that they're not pimps!  If the developers ever publicly distance themselves from certain fans, you guys will be the ones called out, not the people who simp over Ortho and freely admit it

Yeah, Anon, this is one of the most annoying things. When they cancel a piece of media + an author + everyone who enjoys the same piece of media, at least it’s somewhat consistent. Still quite stupid, but it’s not trying to sit on two chairs at once. But when they harass artists and writers that are doing fan-content for a piece of media, but then completely ignore when the said piece of media does it… I always remember that twitter argument about how Ortho isn’t shota-bait and therefore the antis have all the rights to enjoy twst since they aren’t weirdos, plus all the endless talks about how Ciel isn’t at all sexualized in the manga and how there is nothing at all sensual in the way the official manga art for Kuroshitsuji is drawn… at times things that they say sound honestly quite concerning (i.e. things that they consider platonic or fatherly), and if I didn’t know for a fact that these people are just bluffing, I would’ve become worried about their own life experiences. But yeah, thankfully, this is just them trying to punish people for thirsting for twst characters and then somehow do it themselves without being called out for it. They enjoy that piece of media critically, which means they’re off the hook! Not like the “weirdos”!

I had a point to make, but I just got salty lol

Also yep, you’re completely right: the developers/the authors tend to distance themselves from the type of fans that ultimately negatively impact the enjoyment people get from their product, and it’s never the type of people who ship characters and draw smut with them. Really makes you think.

[fountainpenguin]

"When they see us coming, the birdies all try and hide... but they still go for peanuts when coated with cyanide~" (x)

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New Dog's Life chapter today! ~ 3rd Life series fan-season

Chapter 27 - “Boil Over (Bdubs, Scar)”

❤️ Read on AO3

💛 Start from Chapter 1

💚 More Pixels Imperfect fics

---

Bdubs and Grian dance around each other while planning their jungle temple base design. Meanwhile, Scott comes out to Scar about his allay hybrid side. Scar, fearing his glitchy vex code will corrupt his friend, debates cutting ties. Honest conversations are had.

(First 1,000 words under the cut)

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BdoubleO100 - Phantom

Status: Yearning

Captain of New Star Station's phantom hybrid flock

💙  🧡  💚

By the time Grian swings open the door, wings perky and smile bright, it's too late to deny they're both gunning for something more than "casual roleplay dynamic chat" this evening. Bdubs went and stuck the scarlet feather on a gold clasp, which now hangs from a string at his neck. What are we? is a syrupy-sweet red herring overlaying the actual question of the evening, which is, of course… What are we? Or 'What are we gonna be?' if you wanna get technical.

Grian's face is flushed like he's been swooping laps around New Star all night. His eyes flick low enough to glance off the feather necklace, then bounce up again like he didn't see it. He totally did. There's too much mischief in his eyes. "Whoa," he says. He's fighting back a laugh or grin. He's losing both attempts. "You're really glittery."

"So are you," Bdubs points out.

"Mine's a squeaky clean skin," Grian tosses back. "My plumage would always look like this if I wasn't gathering messy resources and building all the time. What's your excuse?"

"Look at you! Coming on strong, poultry boy." Bdubs pushes through then, knocking Grian with his shoulder. Grian's apartment opens with the sitting area on the left - couch unoccupied - and the kitchen to the right. The floor's so shiny, it must've been freshly mopped. Or licked? Is there a mob that licks the floor? Maybe sniffers do that, though he's pretty sure there aren't any in New Star Station.

Grian's wearing socks striped red and white like candy canes. He shuts the door with a huff, then quips over his lifted wing muscle, "It's Poultry Man. But actually, it's not Poultry Man- Who's he?"

"Yeah, yeah…"

"You got a new lip scar."

"Wait- For real? It crossed over?" Bdubs' fingertips jump to his mouth. Sure enough, the vertical gash Impulse made with his sword curls from his upper lip across his bottom. Yikes. It glows white against his hand. "Well… This'll all blow over soon."

"It looks like a soul wound. Did you get-"

"It's fine!"

There are places to sit at both the bar counter and in the living area. Grian didn't specify a preference. Bdubs realizes in that moment he's never been invited to Grian's place as a proper guest before. He's glimpsed it. But usually when someone's way down at the end of phantom hour and squirreled away in a building, he sends Martyn to handle it. Bdubs hunts the streets on raw wing power, but Martyn's a specialist. When it comes to twisting through little gaps, he's the best they've ever had.

He makes a split-second decision and walks towards the living area. There's a white rug, a nice coffee table, and plenty of room to sprawl. "Hey, did'ya ever find out why we're playing early next session?"

"What?" Grian mutters, tapping after him on socked feet. Then, "Oh, no… I've no idea. It's my birthday, though. Maybe that's why?"

"Hm," says Bdubs. Back in 3rd Life, he sat out a session once for birthday-related reasons. Grian seems like he's thinking the same thing, because he pauses between the couch and an armchair, hands resting on them both.

"… You think I'll miss next week?"

"I mean, if it were my birthday, I'd prob'ly write a list of things I wanted my basing buddy to do. I'm just saying."

"Well, just because it's my birthday, it doesn't mean it's his birthday. And he's not really one to miss a recording."

Yeah, that's true. One time in Limited Life, Grian tried his best to cover when his boss wasn't feeling well enough to focus. It must've really wrecked their sync-cord too, 'cuz Grian kept coughing and lilting sideways like emotions and viruses were dogpiling from above.

Honestly, Grian jumped online long enough to establish a bare-bones presence, then crawled into free-cam and flew off to take a nap. Took ages to find him when the session wrapped up, but there was this whole other side to the map where no one was really basing, and eventually they found his purple parrot soul tucked in a tree with his head under one wing. Figures. Hopefully he'll just stay offline next time, or else call someone in to wear his skin for a day like Cleo and Pearl did when they knew they couldn't make it.

Anyway, Bdubs cocks his head. "Weird day to run the session early though, right? You might wanna write a list of materials or something I can grab in case you're gone. Maybe we need to move base."

Grian frowns, wandering his eyes across the sitting area. His cheeks look full and flushed in the lantern light. "I'd still like a break from building bases that'll just be exploded or burned. I think I'd know if he wasn't going to play, though… Although, Season 9 is ending. What if he's quitting Hermitcraft?"

"Oh, I'm sure that's not-"

The glow of Grian's eyes dims in panic, his energy needed elsewhere as his soul starts to squirm. "What if he's quitting the Life series? I mean, maybe he had a fight with someone. Maybe he yelled at his friend?" He takes to pacing. Bdubs follows with ticking eyes, not breathing a word. Grian always paces when he can't settle down. His fingers fold in front of his mouth. "Maybe he doesn't want me anymore. Bdubs, this might be it. If he's walking out on Minecraft for good, this could be the last night I ever come off AFK."

"I'm sure that's not true, G." He keeps his tone as kind as he can, hands resting in his pockets. At least he doesn't have to concentrate on keeping his wings down. It's just the tail, and that's easy to curl away so it doesn't flicker or misdirect. "It's the middle of a Life series. He's not gonna ditch you. I mean, think of the viewers!"

"I mean, he could. He could just walk out. Maybe he's dying. Or maybe he wants Two to jump in and cover for me." Grian looks down at his body then and rubs his palms across his chest. A pulse of purple sparks darts across his wings, then fizzles out. Bdubs tilts his head, but doesn't jump in. Grian's not gonna want someone baby-talking him while he's flickering. "You know, I… I think he's probably moving bases out there. And he's been playing a lot of Phasmophobia. Maybe New Star's not going to recognize me as a Minecraft player much longer. I mean, that's what happened to Netty, right? Except for her, it was Sims."

"He's prob'ly just wrapping up obligations so he can say good-bye to Season 9 and plan for Season 10. We have meetings and paperwork down here. I bet they have do that kind of stuff out there too. He's got friends and a wife. You wanna talk? I mean, I'm not gonna have solutions, but maybe you can walk me through your feelings."

"He has a wife." Grian sounds… dazed. Shell-shocked. Like he's been clinging to a rope for a little too long and someone just came through and sliced it clean with a Sharpness II netherite sword. Uh. This isn't news to him, right? "He's married. Do you think he has a kid? Maybe I'm a dad. Well, maybe he's a dad… I guess I won't be one unless I want to be. Maybe that's why it's been a struggle to focus on Season 9. Bdubs, you have kids, right?"

Bdubs blinks. "Huh? Yeah. I mean… yeah, my beloved does." You guys all know that, right? His beloved's kids don't have their own accounts yet. Probably someday will, and then Bdubs will do what Impulse and Jewel did and request the newbie to move to New Star, like they did with the other two. They're expecting a third pretty soon, I think. He shrugs. Golly, it's weightless without his wings. "I get emotion bleed from 'em sometimes; they play on my account. I can tell 'em apart. They're sweet."

[Full chapter on AO3 - Link at top]

[betweenlands]

a list of mods/modpacks i'd like to rattle legundo around in (elaboration under the cut):

From The Fog + Sleepless (no official download yet; here's a link to the series currently showcasing it)

The Hubris of Magic

Into The Betweenlands / Into The Betweenlands 2

Aylyth

Nevermore (Manic + Sanguine)

Dimensional Doors again

From The Fog + Sleepless (no official download yet yada yada here's the link again)

the extremely atmospheric Herobrine mod from Haunted Winter, but with a second Lunar Eclipse creation based on urban legends of the Winchester Mystery Manor.

every night, you must set your bed in a different room of your house, or Bad Things Will Happen. the rooms of the house must be connected to each other. beds can't be placed too near to where other beds were, or Bad Things Will Happen.

Sleepless turns Minecraft into a frantic crawl to get enough materials to build more and more rooms onto an ever-more-convoluted house, and it's great. pairing it with From The Fog is just kind of a given to me, but it also goes great with decor mods and other atmospheric horror mods.

this is the reason this post exists. i want this playthrough to happen so bad. Legundo's former title in Decem is the Architect for god's sake. he needs to be subjected to some house of leaves nonsense more than anything else, and it needs to be his fault.

pair with the Immersive Portals mod for extra HoL.

The Hubris of Magic

a 1.7 modpack focusing around the classic magic mod Thaumcraft, where the world is hostile and covered in sculk i mean Taint

1.7 is a hard sell, i know. here's the thing; Hubris is one of those classic "survive a horrid infection" mods, like Sculk Horde, but it's like that -- at peak infection -- by default. everything is purple, the ground wants to kill you, the corrupt magic is nearly inescapable, there are even magic nodes that want very badly to eat you

it has some of the most iconic magic mods in existence -- chief among them being Thaumcraft and Botania, of course! i also just think it has some great atmosphere and requires fun lateral thinking in terms of how to go about setting up an area that can't be infected.

everything being infected means that villagers are a super endangered species, by the way! good luck.

Into The Betweenlands / Into The Betweenlands 2 (or just play Betweenlands i guess)

a lovely 1.12 modpack that places the player directly into the swamp hell dimension known as the Betweenlands with a handful of other mods. have fun!!!!!! don't die!!!

wow, tumblr user solar betweenlands wants people to play the Betweenlands. fork found in kitchen. no, but in all seriousness, the Betweenlands is one of my favorite ever mods and it has some absolutely killer atmosphere.

i've chosen i2btl and i2btl2 because they're fully balanced modpacks that put you right in the dimension to begin with, but i mean, i would love to see a custom modpack tooled around the Betweenlands as well!

the Betweenlands really forces you to engage with a lot of its mechanics and is basically a survival horror mod that actually understood the "survival" part of that genre premise. resources are always scarce, picking fights isn't always a good idea, and the dimension itself is chewing away at you.

Aylyth

it's like the Betweenlands but in the woods instead of the swamp and also the dimension itself really wants to kill you this time

i don't have a lot to add. it's an acceptable Betweenlands runner-up for me.

Nevermore (Manic + Sanguine)

a datapack/mod combo adding Dark Magics and just straight-up blood magic. has its own extra narsty blood moons and some really fun (in)sanity mechanics.

i love Manic a lot. it's got a fascinatingly unique method of ingame documentation and some seriously cool spritework. Sanguine has some really neat pixel gore as well! they're both super cool.

seriously though Manic owns when it comes to eldritch horror mods. i am chewing on it. i'm recommending Nevermore because i feel like Manic and Sanguine are kind of a Do Not Separate Them deal.

Dimensional Doors again

dimdoors is good and i like it

[loz-furbies]

Oracle of Ages & Seasons Zelda

Nintendo can't make up their mind if the Oracles Link is the same one from ALttP or not and I suppose the same applies to Zelda. Personally I think that sure, let's give ALttP Link more adventures, but if I were to draw a compilation of all individual Zeldas I'd probably make ALttP and Oracles Zeldas separate characters since they have different enough designs. In the end I don't think it matters though and I seriously don't believe Nintendo cares either.

I played Ages first so this is based on her presence in Seasons linked game, not sure how different it is to the Ages counterpart.

Design

Speaking of character design, this is yet another time for me to bitch about the promo art and sprite not matching (fear not this will end soon as we move away from the pixel games). But seriously, why give her cute hair buns in the sprite if you're not going to use them! And more importantly that would be a unique Zelda design at least, because her actual look is one of my least favourites in the franchise. Like sure she's perfectly cute and there's nothing particularly stupid about the design either, but it's just so derivative. This is just the adult OoT Zelda design except in a younger art style and ALttP Zelda's cape. It's not an interesting or memorable look, and it also makes it harder for me to decide if this is a new character or not (and how to draw her). Like looks-wise it's clearly a different girl, but since there's grounds for the Oracle games to be ALttP sequels it's just so confusing.

Alright, moving on!

Character

This time Zelda does get a moment of being a bit more assertive than usual. She's told to stay safe during a crisis, but instead she shouts that she's going anyway and runs off to give a rousing speech to the villagers. But for the most part there's not much to Zelda outside her typical shtick of being the nice princess who gives exposition.

In the end credits we see every character once more, but Zelda's part is just that she looks at the stars alone at her castle while smiling happily, and while she looks cute, I don't get a lot out of that.

Role in the story

Story-wise Zelda doesn't get to do much. She's the one who sent help to foreign lands after she saw a vision of their downfall, so she takes a very active part in that, but it's all offscreen and ultimately her plan to evacuate the oracles doesn't even work. She then comes to visit herself, and her most notable contribution is to encourage the villagers. And sure I can take that, it's set up reasonably well that she becomes a symbol of hope to them (for GBC storytelling standards at least).

In the grand finale she gets kidnapped as usual, this time so that she can be sacrificed to revive Ganon, and there's nothing interesting to that.

Relationships

Aside from the character design, the biggest reason to consider that the Oracle games are not an ALttP sequel is that Zelda doesn't appear to recognise Link at all and introduces herself as if it was the first time they met. I'm willing to chalk this off as video game jank and it's more of an introduction to the player (for example Impa and the animal companions who you meet in both Ages and Seasons also don't appear to recognise Link in the second game you play in a linked game). I think it also makes more sense for Link to be the friend of the royal family since the game starts with him just sauntering to the Triforce unimpeded.

Not that it makes much difference because Zelda and Link don't have much of a relationship, even if Zelda spends most of the game not being kidnapped this time. However the game does end with Zelda giving a little kiss to him (and him getting all lovestruck about it), and I think it's cuter if they have some history together already.

Impa is also in the game, but she and Zelda don't have much to do together outside the standard princess-and-caretaker stuff. Zelda doesn't get any meaningful interaction with Din or Nayru either.

[jonnysinsectcatalogue]

Hudsonian Whiteface - Leucorrhinia hudsonica

I always enjoy visits to the lakes and cottage country of Muskoka, not just for the peace and views, but also for all the aquatic-based insects that fly around, day or night. Today's specimen is a day flier and she's somewhat small by my estimations. I mean, you can see for yourself as she perches on my thumb. Although this sky hunter is quick, I was able to form a loose grip around her with both hands in order to catch her for a closer look. For any aspiring bug hunters that will attempt to try this in their journeys, do keep in mind that Dragonflies can be very swift and agile, so catching them may be tricky. They must also be handled gently so as to not damage their wings or abdomen. Furthermore, try not to agitate or trap them in a small area as they can (and likely will) bite in defense...as I found out. Her bite was more than a sharp pinch, but not too painful. Such a bite has to be designed with strength and efficiency given how specialized Dragonflies are in snatching aerial prey midflight and then subsequently shredding them to food! So yes, serrated mandibles are a great asset for offense and defense, and this was a small Skimmer's bite. A larger Darner Dragonfly would likely have more powerful slicing and crunching mandibles! Formidable as their bite force could be, I'd rather be bitten by 100 Dragonflies in cottage country than contend with a single hungry mother Horsefly!

It's most fortunate that these hunters can be an effective biological control against Dipteran populations, including Mosquitoes which can really swarm lakes! All she (this individual) needs to do is swoop in and fly to her heart's content, seizing prey as she goes. As for some more concrete information on this specie: as a member of the genus Leucorrhinia, it has a white-colored face from the frons to the labrum. In addition to the lack of claspers, the pattern along her body is indicative that this is a female specimen; mature males feature bold red markings along the spine and wing-bases. However, immature males are incredibly similar in appearance to females (their red deepens with age) so look closely for the abdominal claspers. Finally, the females of this specie are very similar in pattern and appearance to Dot-Tailed Whiteface (L. intacta) females which also call Canada home. I settled on the Hudsonian Whiteface as an identification after closely examining the wings, and comparing against Dot-Tailed pictures. The Dot-Tailed individuals that I've seen have minimal side-patterning at the thorax-abdomen region and their yellow spinal pattern appears a thin streak rather than variable shapes arranged in sequence. Both species have overlaps in their habitat range, so it never hurts to be as thorough as possible.

Pictures were taken on May 26, 2024 in Muskoka with a Google Pixel 4. What a wonderful day! This specie also shares some physical appearance similarities to the Belted Whiteface (L. proxima - both the females and males), but that specie seems easier to distinguish. At least when considering North American species.

[lucy-the-demon]

Lucy goes on a ramble about character designs and how Harveys character design sucks in comparison to others

Hear me out.

The best character designs in my opinion are designs that tell you something about the character, very few times deviating from that actually work

Let's start by comparing Raymond to Harvey Both work in an office of some sort, they're similar looking, but Raymond has more personality and looks way better then Harvey (in my opinion)

Raymond is a smug villager from animal crossing, they're charismatic, snarky and full of themselves.

Harvey Is there.. but let's talk about what little personality i can see with him. He's anxious, he's quiet but he's apparently kind and extremely patient

Theirs a reason why people were in love with Raymond in 2020, overrated or not the character is well designed.

When i look at Harvey, I see a serial killer or a creep, intimidating perhaps, not an anxious guy who's sweet and extremely patient with everyone. His older designs looked more like that than the final design.

When I look at Raymond, I see a snarky charismatic, office worker. Which is exactly what he is

And Sdv has great character designs,

Like Shane he looks disheveled, he looks tired, his hoodie has holes in it and it's stretched out implying it needs to be replaced, it's been overused. his hair is oily, it implies that hes messy and doesn't care about himself which is exactly what he is. It's amazing character design, it's absolutely fantastic and it makes me absolutely go feral

Sam is another great example, his collar stands up, showing he's rebellious, his clothes look like something a rock star would wear, but his color palette is bright and welcoming which makes him look friendly and approachable, charismatic even, which is exactly who he is, he's very friendly to everyone he meets it seems.

I could go on forever about all the great Stardew valley character designs (Elliott, Sebastian, Maru, etc..) but we dont have all day.

I'm very passionate about character design if you can't tell.

But Harvey's character design says nothing that explains his personality, it says nothing, it shows the opposite of kind, patient and friendly, he looks intimidating to me, I don't think that's what concerned ape was going for when he made him as I said his older designs portrayed that anxious patient and sweet personality more than his final design does.

This really is a shit post and a half but I don't know what to say really, i just wanted to talk about character design and how Harvey's character design isn't very good. In my opinion at least

Disclaimer:

Even though I don't like Harvey, I won't shame you for liking him as a character, I like to poke fun at fans of Harvey but that's just it, just poking fun. It's a joke, I like to make jokes but whether they're funny or not is up to you, but this is a genuine thing I feel, that his character design doesn't reflect him as a character and it doesn't make him feel approachable or friendly to me, he freaks me out really and scares me away. His character design poorly reflects his personality to me at least.

The artists of this fandom do better work reflecting his character with than the game itself does despite the poor design he was given, but that's just the magic of art style and expression it's probably hard to reflect his personality despite the design he has. It can be done, I've seen people do it very well but sadly the game did him dirty I'd say at least in the design category. No offense to concerned ape though, most of this game is very well done and absolutely beautiful, honestly i could never do pixel art as well as he can and i won't even attempt it honestly, I'll stick to my mechanical pencils and paper to sketch and my tablet to digitalize it.

But that's all really I gotta say here, I'll see ya later..

[ofoceansandtombsanew]

Please choose wisely as this will dictate the experience of your character going forward. Below you may read the advantages and disadvantages of each knowledge level.

Basic information concerning your future adventures: Like the Traveler, you are an alien to this world and the laws of it do not apply to you. As such, you obtain any element you resonate with at a Statue of the Seven. Unlike the Traveler, however, you will be basing yourself in one nation and will be limited to the element of that nation. The only exception to this is Natlan*.

This is not a Self Aware Genshin AU. Story goes live in December.

Version 1: your knowledge will be completely limited to any at-the-time knowledge of the player base. Any information you have from outside of the game itself is from the manga and the Teyvat Trevail trailer.

The only regions you will have in-depth knowledge on is Mondstadt and Liyue. Any additional knowledge you have concerning the other five nations comes from the Mondstadt and Liyue Archon Quests, NPCs and anything mentioned in the Character Stories of the at-the-time playables.

Should you choose to live in Mondstadt or Liyue, this limited information should do you well enough to navigate both countries comfortably. Should you ever let it slip, however, that you know something about certain characters that you shouldn't, it will raise suspicions.

Should you choose to live in any of the other five nations, you have virtually no information concerning that region's problems and the Traveler hasn't been there to fix them either. So if you get scammed into going to Inazuma by the Kanjou Commission without being told you can't leave Ritou, you get scammed.

On the flip side, you will have a more authentic experience with the casts from those regions due to knowing nothing about them.

Version 2: You have experienced the Inazuma plotline. As such, while you're presently aware that Celestia isn't all they've cracked up to be, you still don't have the full picture. But that's better than knowing absolutely nothing, at least!

As such, you have enough information to live comfortably in Mondstadt, Liyue and Inazuma. You don't have to deal with the Saikoku Decree either so you got to avoid being scammed by a third of the Tri-Commission.

Still, this means that Sumeru, Fontaine, Natlan and Snezhnaya are all mysteries to you. The bit of knowledge you've gained won't help you there sadly unless you can recall some conversations you've had with NPCs. The Akasha Terminals are live and Fontainians are in a tizzy due to the prophecy and missing women's case.

This also removes a portion of the characters you can have truly authentic relationships with without pesky knowledge of the game influencing you.

Version 3: With information you've gathered throughout playing until now, you know a considerable amount. You also know that as a third party observer within Teyvat, like the Traveler, should anything ever be erased from Irminsul you will still remember it.

Mondstadt, Liyue and Inazuma are the same as ever, but should you choose Sumeru as your home base, you can rest assured knowing that the Akasha Terminals have been laid to rest. As such, that will no longer be an issue. The problems of Fontaine, on the other hand, are still very much alive.

You will also constantly struggle with whether or not any attachments or romantic feelings you develop for certain characters within all previously visited nations is due to them once being pixels or because they are real people. How can you truly have a relationship with them when you already know virtually everything about them?

Version 4: You are completely aware of the inner workings of Teyvat from the sketchiness of Celestia to the truth surrounding the Abyss and their fallen nation.

The amount of surprises you can experience is very limited but you can rest assured that should you choose between Mondstadt, Liyue, Inazuma, Sumeru and Fontaine, the Traveler has already resolved any issues in those countries.

No Stormterrors, no Osial, no Saikoku Decree, no Akasha Terminals and no Prophecy lingering over your head.

Should you choose Natlan as your country of operation, you will be forced to encounter the Traveler. This may be a pro for some and a con for others. On the one hand, you have a fellow interdimensional traveler to ally yourself with. On the other, if the Traveler is around shit is about to get wild. This is the only Adventure where the Traveler is a potential love interest.

You will also constantly struggle with whether or not any attachments or romantic feelings you develop for certain characters within all previously visited nations is due to them once being pixels or because they are real people. How can you truly have a relationship with them when you already know virtually everything about them?

In Summary: The less knowledge you have, the more authentic your experiences with specific characters will be due to knowing nothing about them. But if you are early on in the game's life, you will have to deal with the problems of whatever nations the Traveler hasn't visited.

The more knowledge you have, the less you know about these characters and it may lead to dissociation concerning any attachment you have to them only being because they were once pixels on a screen. Perhaps you can still find love with them regardless. You also will not have to deal with certain problems of a nation.

*Leak Mention: story-wise, in 5.0 we will not be obtaining the Pyro Traveler right off the bat for reasons still unknown. Because of this being a Natlan plot device, should you choose Natlan for your base of operations, you will not be receiving the Pyro element either. As such, you will be given the option to continue elementless or to have a story encounter that allows for you to either visit Sumeru or Fontaine and obtain an elemental power from a statue when you briefly visit either nation.*

[side-vermin93]

So, I was busy staring at the new teaser because my chimp brain demanded it when i found this.

Those are plates, knives and what we can assume to be either forks or spoons although I'm leaning more towards the former. And this points to 3 possible theories.

Option 1: The Worker Drones are mimicking what they believe a prom to be, they may be copying all kinds of Human cultural habits (although not quite grasping the subtleties)

Option 2: This is another flashback like in 'Heartbeat' although the presence of the 'Cockroach' thing says otherwise.

Option 3: Worker Drones are capable of eating and enjoy doing so (They do have tongues from what we can see, and while they are essential for speech they might also be sensory 'organs' maybe for taste-testing for the richer Humans or something?), although what they're eating is beyond me considering any Human food supplies are either nonexistent or so completely stale and rotten that it can't even be called food anymore.

There's a few more images I also found while using my FNAF degree of "Manually pouring over every single pixel of every single frame of every single episode" and i found this

In the scene where Doll crushes the 'Roach we can see some kind of text, at first I thought it was just random technobabble until i read closer.

'It must be [Illegible, maybe 'Eliminated' judging by the letter count although the blur is causing issues] Already'

There could be more text hidden within the scene but I wasn't able to find anything else that stood out as much as this did.

But then, what is Doll? And who is the 'It' in the text? Is she some kind of infiltrator loyal to the company? Deployed to watch over the Drone colonies to maybe find a weakness or destabilise them? Some kind of 'Anti-Disassembly Drone' Assassin built to kill both Workers and any rogue Disassembly Drones that the squad leaders (in this case, J) were unable to kill?

And who, or what is the 'It' some kind of critical structure to the colony? N? Maybe even Uzi?

So I dug further, scrolling further in the video to the ceiling shot in Uzi's room and...

Once again I'm sorry for the poor quality, I'm zooming in on each individual poster and a couple things we can note

Uzi is clearly incredibly shaken by her encounter with the Solver J and Disassembly Drones in general. We can see a frankly ominous drawing of a Disassembly Drone with the characteristic X mark and sharp teeth (posted below)

2. Note the 'Strange Drones Found' newspaper clipping I posted above along with another that I think spells out 'Drone Disappearance' which leads into another newspaper/report I found.

'Gravitational Waves Detected Site 45'

From these newspaper/clippings I have a feeling these were either made shortly before the Core Collapse that wiped out the Humans on Copper-9, or VERY shortly after, most likely in the interim between the Collapse and the appearance of the Disassembly Drones.

Now, dear reader at the moment I'd like to direct your attention to gravitational waves, I'm not an expert in physics can't remember much about it and I will probably make a physicist scream in pain from reading this, but I do remember that gravitational waves are something produced by black holes and other incredibly massive objects.

Atleast naturally. Now this is just me spitballing but I think these 'Strange Drones' Doll's effect on the door, Uzi's mirror breaking, and the newspaper about gravitational waves are all interlinked.

I have a theory that the Absolute Solvers in Worker Drones are either an offshoot of the Company versions, a naturally ocurring 'mutation' in their programming or were stolen by a cadre of rogue Workers and modified by them to fight the Company. It could be what drew their attention back to Copper, it could even link back into that 'Doll infiltrator theory' I was talking about. Alas we don't know shit about fuck and I'm left with more questions than answers.

As for the effect on physical objects, the 'Telekinesis' could be the cause for these gravitational waves, some kind of incredibly advanced gravity technology created by the Solver when needed? I don't *think* it's magic but at this moment all cards are on the table.

Thank you for reading this far and let me know if you also happen to find anything. Im noticing that Glitch and Liam are hiding a tonne of details inside the episodes that we're only just barely seeing. I encourage you to also dust off your "Fnaf PHD of "Manually searching every single pixel for clues"

I'm left with more questions than answers at the moment, and all we can do is theorize and keep digging.

[eriisaam]

I saw your tags on that Cassette Beasts post, and you seem pretty knowledgeable on monster collecting games! Do you have any recommendations for someone who hasn’t ventured far outside the Pokemon umbrella? I’m excited to try Cassette Beasts, and I loved Moonstone Island and Ooblets which had monster collecting elements, and I don’t know if Slime Rancher counts as a monster collector but I LOVE Slime Rancher. Past that and Pokemon, I don’t know much about the monster collecting/taming genre, but I’d like to explore it more!

Yeah! I got some! And I'd argue Slime Rancher absolutely counts! I will also add too that Cassette Beasts, Ooblets and Slime Rancher are already great picks in themselves in the genre. (Though as you are already familiar with them, I'll skip them below, but they're definitely great games.)

Granted, I will preface that while I watched a lot of these games either in terms of Gym Leader Ed's coverage, people poking it, or release trailers and screenshots, I've been limited on time to play them in depth enough to talk about the gameplay or story aspects (with a handful of exceptions), but I'll try my best to help as much as I can! Ed, however, does go into more depth of games, follows news on dev updates (especially games still in development or early access), and sometimes he's done LPs of them outright, and he may still be best to get a more informed opinion on some of these, especially ones I hadn't been able to play myself.

The best part about the genre, especially lately, is that it's gotten more broad in terms of how the games play, how you collect and/or handle the monsters, and what other game they are inspired by and/or play similarly to (and whether or not said game is Pokemon). There's as many games that are the "yay, two cakes!" of Pokemon, just as there's many games who have monster-collecting elements but the gameplay is vastly far removed from it, so my recommendations will be split based on those criteria.

(It's also a pretty beefy list, so I'll put it under a read more)

-------

In terms of "yay, two cakes!" games (or games that play as close as possible to Pokemon):

===

The Nexomon series

Visually and gameplay-wise, Nexomon has a lot in common with the DS era of the pokemon games in sprite style, and Pokemon in general in combat. The series are turn-based battling with nexomon you catch and evolve, gym-leader-adjacents you battle, and stories directly tied to their legendary nexomon along the same vibe as earlier Pokemon game plots. Both games tend to frequently go on sale (and moreso on the switch) and while the second game improved a lot in some quality of life changes from the first game, the plot is a direct continuation of the first game and thus will spoil and/or assume you've already beaten the first game. There's also a third one in the works slated to take on an open world direction and full 3d instead.

===

Disc Creatures

Like Nexomon, Disc Creatures draws inspiration from a specific generation of Pokemon, but this time the gameboy and gameboy color era. Arguably, it looks and plays like a midway point between the VERY early pokemon games, as well as the Telefang games (better infamously known as the base games which were poorly translated and transformed into what we most-likely know them as Pokemon Diamond (not DPPlt) and Jade). You battle not only with a team of three creatures, but like Telefang, all of them take part in battle simultaneously (rather than a 1V1 fight). (Though unlike Telefang, you don't have to call them or wait on their arrival likewise). Although battles otherwise play out similarly like both respective games (turn-based move-picking battle), the creatures work on individual skill trees based on species.

===

Coromon

Coromon draws a lot of inspiration from pokemon, but takes a more 'spiritual sucessor' approach, rather than base it on any specific gen, and has a unique 2d pixel art style likewise. The gameplay sticks to the familiar battling style of you doing turn-based battles with your coromon, tame and train and evolve said mons, and not only find 'shiny' equivalents, but there's actually two (the base form is called 'standard' while the two other forms are 'potent' and 'perfect'), in addition to certain species also having skins (and said skins also differing slightly to still retain the distinct appearance of the base coromon being standard/potent/perfect, rather than obscure it). A key difference, however, is that in addition to the health of your coromon, you also need to pay attention to their stamina, which is adjacent to PP in pokemon, but universal across all moves, rather than individually-move-tied.

===

Monster Crown

I'll give this cautious optimistic recommendation though I'll explain why so in a moment. In the same way Coromon is more 'spiritual successor' than 'on the nose' like Nexomon in the GBA-DS era of Pokemon, Monster Crown is the same equivalent to Disc Creatures of being more 'spiritual successor' than (sort of) 'on the nose' to the GB-GBC era games like Disc Creatures. Also like how Disc Creatures isn't as closely tied to Pokemon like Nexomon or Coromon, and deviating in its own style or mixing it with Telefang otherwise, Monster Crown has an art style a bit closer to the GBC zelda games (and distinct from it even then), and a much different presentation for otherwise keeping to the 1v1 turn-based battle style familiar from Pokemon. That being said, I say 'cautiously optimistic' as while the devs seem to not only still be in semi-active works updating the game (but especially the PC version), the game does reportedly suffer from a lot of bugs, and I'm made aware too there's reports that the switch version of the game isn't as kept up-to-date on updates nearly as frequently as the PC/Steam version.

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In terms of games similar to pokemon, but with not-so-pokemon-esque mon designs:

===

Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Complete Edition

What were previously the first and second individual games of the Cyber Sleuth series had been combined to package both games in one file (that you can select either/or on bootup) in this version. Compared to a lot of the other Digimon games (some of which I'll bring down further below, just for now, put a pin on that), Cyber Sleuth (both games) feature a turn-based battle format that is a bit more along the lines of Pokemon's, give or take that you battle with three digimon in a party, and some moves vary between targetting one, or targetting multiple targets at once (so if you're familiar with 3v3 pokemon battles ala the 3DS era, this is very reminiscent of that). If you can forgive Digimon having monster designs swerving all manner of ways between 'cute like pokemon' to 'what the fuck is that thing?' to 'Is that a literal pile of shit?!' all the way up to either someone's fursona or 'that's a whole ass person', Digimon Cyber Sleuth is just comfortable enough not to be too wildly far off from how a Pokemon game plays, but also having its own distinct identity in how it handles battles and raising up your Digimon. One key takeaway, however, is that a digimon has a far wider branching path of evolution forms compared to Pokemon, and not all digimon may appear as 'connected' as like a pokemon's evolution family. That being said, even in-game, the game does hold your hand in giving you a hint of which digimon you can evolve (or digivolve rather) your current digimon into (and tells you outright what that digimon is, if you've already obtained one before), and outright tells you the conditions of how to evolve what into what-else.

===

Yo-Kai Watch series

Specifically, I played the first game, and will primarily describe that, but rather unfortunately as the first game was originally on the 3DS, and other than its (also 3DS) sequels, the series had a sharp phase-out of localized releases since then and are only somewhat floating the idea in the Switch era of going back to attempting localized releases again (and I'm not sure if they ever followed through or not). Nevertheless, Yo-Kai Watch is a series far and well more adored in Japan than internationally (it's right up there with Pokemon, Sanrio, and one of its inspos in Doraemon), and it takes what you're familiar with in both the Pokemon style of turn-based battling and the above mentioned Digimon approach, and makes it way more interactable and turn it on its head. For starters, you battle with a team of six yokai, but ALL OF THEM are utilized in battle, with three active at once, and the three others in the backrow. It heavily makes use of the touch screen, so rather than just click commands and make things go brr, the yokai will automatically attack whoever they feel like (although you can pin a specific target, and they'll all redirect to attack that target exclusively instead), but on top of that, while your yokai run on auto-pilot, you instead play a series of mini-games during battle where you can do, among other things: Heal your yokai of a status effect, rotate your yokai set so you can rotate which of your six is currently actively battle, and which ones retreat to the backrow (for you to tend to uninterrupted), use items pretty much on the fly like your typical pokemon heal items, or supercharge your yokai so they'll get to their supers quicker, the effects of which vary between yokai species. On top of that, many yokai evolve into different species, but many others can be fused together to make different species instead, and you primarily collect and swap out yokai in the form of medals you earn when befriending them post-battle (either by chance or scripted-gift otherwise). Yokai also vary on synergy in teambuilding, so if you have certain yokai combos active on the same (active) team, they may gain additional buffs from it.

If you can look past many of the yokai being... uh...

...interestingly designed... the story, the atmosphere, and the yokai and the way they react to the world and each other is incredibly 'sucked into a saturday morning cartoon' vibed and super engaged out of a lot of the monster taming/collecting games.

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In terms of games with creatures similar to Pokemon, but are based on different genres of games:

===

Palworld

Hear me out.

I know a lot of people have misgivings with this game. Some are warranted (there's certain mons a bit too on-the-nose to pokemon), but there's many, many other points that are bad-faith reaches at best (of the "person who thinks Renamon is a rip-off of Vulpix" variety), or outright wrong and long since debunked. I could (and had many times in the past) gone at length about many of these bad-faith points, but for the sake of not derailing the point here, that is best set for a different post entirely.

Palworld, contrary to what many would say, is not actually as joined-at-the-hip close to Pokemon as it seems, outside of the clear inspiration behind some of the design or design-direction thereof of the monsters (and for that matter clearly was inspired by other monster taming games such as Monster Rancher, which I'll discuss lower down, or even cutesy-aesthetic creatures in general like Story of Season's livestock or 90s anime design styles like My Neighbor Totoro). The monster designs aside, they actually lean more in familiarity sense of 'fakemon fangame romhack of a pokemon game' in style direction than 'just pokemon but recolored', and the more you surround yourself in pals, the more you get used to them just in a general sense.

The gameplay is actually much closer to Ark or open world explore-and-build games along the lines (some being similar to a lot of 3d farming or town-building games even), give or take a Breath-of-the-Wild coat of paint. (Worth noting, while a massively beefy game, it's also half the size of Ark proper.) You're pretty much turned loose into a massive open world, one that's surprisingly seamlessly interconnected that you can see far off with a depth a lot like Minecraft in some ways, and you can do whatever the hell you want from there: The world's your oyster. Although it does provide things for you to do (namely the gym-leader equivalent of the Battle Tower Leaders to face off, or certain landmarks that are also achievement-tied), you can do whatever you want with the pals you run into, and gradually craft your way into better and sturdier buildings, unlock more broader items, weapons, and upgraded variants, and get strong enough to challenge more varieties of pals. Although pals don't evolve (similar to Monster Rancher), some species do have different alt variants (usually a different color and element and with a different suffix), and all of them have a chance to have a 'lucky' variant spawn, where they'll glitter, make an audible noise (like Legends Arceus but more prolonged rather than sudden and brief), and they'll always have the Lucky trait, which gives them additional buffs. The pals each individually have different moves they learn either naturally or when given items, up to four traits (good, bad, or neutral) which can be passed down via breeding, and all of them specialize in a variety of different ways, so a pal not fit for battle might have a more utility use. I should also point out that contrary to its sales pitch or popular belief, cruelty is NOT the only option, and is actually far more beneficial (and in your face) about keeping your pals healthy, well tended to and cared for, and them eagerly rushing over to help you any time you try to work on something and then cheering for you after. Resources you would've also gotten in the 'crueler ways' can also be gotten peacefully simply by catching them.

===

Monster Sanctuary

Monster Sanctuary is a Metroidvania style game in terms of mobility around the map and how certain monsters play with it via field moves, but when otherwise caught in the battles themselves, it has a similar turn-based strategy of monsters taking turns trading picked moves and see what happens. Each battle works on a graded system where, ideally, when you complete a battle as quickly as possible with a lot of combos, you get a better grade, and in turn, better item yields for said grade. Instead of capturing monsters, you instead have a chance for a monster you fought to drop their egg, and said egg can be instantly hatched into your own copy of that monster. Each and every monster has a skill tree that can unlock different things from new moves, upgrades to preexisting moves, stat buffs, or certain effects applied to their moves in addition to any inherent abilities they may have. On top of that, certain monsters might have field moves that are useful for navigating your way through the map, including monsters who can activate certain levers, monsters who can hover/fly over gaps, monsters who can help you reach certain heights, and so on and so forth. Monster teams are also key, as carefully-built teams with good synergy can make huge combos, and consistently give you the best drops.

===

Digimon World series

Like I said above, Digimon dabbled on quite a number of games in its clumsy growing pains of finding its own identity. Its initial roots, Digimon World, has a lot in common with its original background as a Tamagotchi spin-off series prior to the anime Digimon Adventures being thereafter (incorrectly) labeled as a "Pokemon rip-off", and thereafter spiraling the Digimon franchise in all manner of weird directions (either loosely related to World like World Champions, semi-similar with Digimon World Dawn and Dusk, all the way up to the above Cyber Sleuth being entirely its own thing). The entirety of the World series (of which include entries like Next Order on steam) has you raise your digimon by assigning them into different facilities and/or training areas, usually, and these facilities can vary between either increasing more traditionally-used-for-battle stats (like their health, or their attack and defense), to outright increasing or decreasing their affinities (elements, in a way, which factor into evolution a lot). Compared to the above Cyber Sleuth where you have more control of when a digimon digivolves, into what, and outright tells you the requirements, World (but especially earlier games, or versions that lean heavily into V-Tamers, another series similar to the World series and is more identical to its Tamagotchi ancestor), leans into you getting more of a surprise when digimon grow dynamically and evolve on their own, based on various factors like whether or not you won/lost a certain number of battles, care mistakes or lack thereof, certain stats being at or above/below a certain point, or their highest affinity at the time, much like how Tamagotchi did. While I can't speak for how Next Order plays (between closer to World, closer to Cyber Sleuth, or a more balanced and in-control combination), the earlier you go back in the series, the closer it is to Tamagotchi's variant style.

===

Digimon Survive

And then there's this game which throws Digimon into a whole other secret third gameplay option. Digimon Survive is part visual novel, and part tactical RPG, so rather than be like a battle style ala Pokemon like Cyber Sleuth, or be a monster care sim like World, it leans heavily on being more like Fire Emblem in gameplay style, and takes everything about the way the digimon partners bond with their human tamers in the anime series, and takes it for a very dark ride instead. This time, instead of be a monster you raise into a gradual and widely-branching tree like Cyber Sleuth, or carefully meter your stats and care styles like World, not only will some digimon be unlocked either when certain criteria are met, or when you beat certain levels, but some digimon evolutions are exclusive to the different branches of the main storyline itself.

===

Monster Hunter Stories

Although the mainline games play very differently, and are more monster slaying than monster taming (with one almost-example, we'll get to that below), Monster Hunter Stories and its sequel take on a different approach of you raising and taming effectively smaller pet variants of the bosses of the mainline games, to use not only as riding mounts, but battle partners in a turn-based battle style RPG. You usually have an active party of three who take turns attacking each, and takes a much more different mood and atmosphere approach compared to the mainline games as a whole. Its worth noting, however, that although Steam does include both games, the switch version also offers amiibo support otherwise.

===

Beastie Bay DX and Pocket Stables

I include these two games in the same note because both of them are made by Kairosoft and are two games of a loooong laundry list of themes Kairosoft explores. Both are pretty tiny, pretty chill and casual games (emphasis on casual), so while some might say it might be a bit too casual as to be boring, they're both very "play on your phone to pass time/run in the background" chill raising games that don't have a lot of the stress as a lot of the above games. Beastie Bay DX is a more focused monster-raising game, while Pocket Stables is a horse derby game with pet raising elements. Similar to a lot of Kairosoft's games, they usually have a tycoon approach to a lot of their different game themes, these two included, as you focus on building or placing facilities or buildings in an open space to various effects, sometimes comboing nearby buildings for added boosted effects, and gradually improving your creatures through where you send them out, what facilities you build, item use, and more.

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In terms of games with monster collection and/or training aspects, but not as a main focus:

===

Rune Factory series

By and large the Rune Factory series is a farming game first, along the lines of its siblings in Harvest Moon and/or Story of Seasons. But instead of buying and raising livestock, the livestock are monsters you fight, and depending on the game, so are some of the love interests. You have the ability to fight various monsters and different bosses, and the monsters may vary on various properties, be it to passively generate a certain craft resource (like a lot of the standard livestock in the mainline series), as mounts you can ride for faster transport, as powerful party members for battle, or as helpers who can automate the process of assisting you with chores throughout your farm. This is in addition to the townsfolk themselves, as some of the games (particularly the later ones) also can have you recruit different villagers in addition to the monsters.

===

Monster Hunter Rise

As mentioned above with Monster Hunter Stories, while the mainline games are more about hunting monsters like live prey or active threats, Rise is a slight exception in that it not only continues the trend of past and current games of allowing you to recruit the cat-looking palicoes (or felynes, they go by a few names throughout the series...) which can assist you with various different properties depending on their professions, but also the palimutes, large, rideable dogs who can help you travel faster and jump up certain landmarks. Both assist you in battle, but both have different pros and cons to them, and you might run into in-game generated ones who you can further collect to have more variety in different ones with different professions and coat colors/styles.

===

Meowjiro

Meowjiro is a fairly humble and down-to-earth pixel art game where your primary focus is being a convenience store cashier and employee. By day, you perform various different tasks and try to keep up with the store, including cleaning trash and water puddles, the evidence of a certain shiba inu's crimes, restock shelves when they get emptied, heat up food, prepare soft serves, and of course, ring up customers as they come in.

The mon-collecting aspect comes in the reason you work the grueling life of a one-man army konbini store owner: Your cat(s). At the end of the day, you come home to tiny pixelated cats, who always start off as kittens, and whom you can evolve into a variety of ways based on what you feed them. In addition, you can also spend your hard earned cash on different furniture to decorate your home, or certain perks to make the store job less grueling.

(That being said, as stressful and high-paced as the game is, failing a task only causes a minor pay deduction, not anything super punishing, so it's stressful, but not as stressful as a meaner game could've been.)

===

Sonic Adventure 2: Battle

Hear me out.

Yes, it's a platformer game (or shooter game, or treasure-hunt game, depends on the level), and on the surface, it looks nothing like a mon game, nor plays like one.

However, the reason why it's mentioned here is moreso for a side game included in the game: The chao gardens.

SA2:B is a game that weaves both the main game and side game of Chao Gardens together pretty snuggly. You're provided 2 free chao in your default neutral garden, plus 2 more free eggs whenever you unlock the other two gardens after certain criteria are met. Chao are pure pet-raising, rather than strictly mon-levelling-and-raising, but they have a VERY dynamic approach in not just how they evolve, but the gradual ways they change depending on quite the variety of factors. These can include, but not limited to: The color and style of the egg they came out of (or combo of parents if bred), what animals you gave them (which you can collect animals and chaos drives in the main game to then give to these chao), what fruit you feed them (especially certain bought ones, not just the home-grown ones), and even which character you played as when tending to them all matter. They not only can evolve based on an alignment system, but also later dramatically evolve based on stat combinations you raised them on and which of their stats were the most pronounced. You can further also utilize them in either chao races, or chao karate (though the latter is semi-random in comparison to a typical mon battle game).

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Honorable Mention

===

Monster Rancher series (and spinoff Kaiju Master)

An older series along the age of if not predating Pokemon and Digimon, Monster Rancher have mons who (most of the time) don't evolve, are pretty brutally punishing in how to unlock certain secrets or raise and train the best fighting-capable monster who can win all tournaments, and while its a very unique stand-out compared to Pokemon and Digimon, it's a pretty harsh game in terms of difficulty to get used to and jump in compared to the others. That being said, it's also time and again surprisingly detailed about the sheer depth in variety of alts for a given monster, how their genetics work in fusions (and fusions are a pretty detailed feature in this), and its signature quirk that makes it stand out is that the monster you get (when not buying whatever's in the store) are all randomized based on things you feed the game. The first few games can draw all manner of monsters based on what CDs you insert (the steam remake gets around this by merely letting you straight up look up what CD you want, be it game or audio CD otherwise, and gets around it through that), while later games carry on the spirit of the same gimmick ala the key words you type up, or drawings you put into it. The game is not exactly the friendliest in terms of difficulty, but if you aren't scared off by the challenge, nor how dopey a lot of the monster designs are, its worth a mention in its own right.

=======

As much as I was tempted to include other mentions, primarily games not released yet that's coming soon or in the works, I think I blew this post up with way too much words huh orz

[nian-7]

Hellooo! I hope you are having a good day :D I would like to request a romantic matchup for Hypmic, Paralive and Pjsk (if that's too much then hypmic and Pjsk please!)

My zodiac is Taurus and my MBTI is INFP, my love language is quality time! (Receiving) usually I'm not shy but it's more like I don't know how to talk to people? I feel like it's mostly awkward since I don't go out of my comfort zone quite often. I also overthink quite a lot, so if I were to talk to someone, I usually practice what I'm going to say in my head to make it sound natural and not too formal because I really don't want to sound weird and nervous talking to them.

I really really like drawing and painting! Both traditionally and digitally. For drawing i mostly draw people but weirdly when I paint, I mostly draw landscapes and scenes, I think that might be because I enjoy painting backgrounds more rather than drawing them. I also like fantasy stories/movies a lot more than other genres and my second favourite is thriller! Not too big on horror though I get scared easily...speaking of getting scared, I have a fear of darkness and frogs (no clue if that's important) I love playing indie games! Plus points if they have pixel art. I don't know what about them makes me like it so much, maybe it's the colours or atmosphere? But games that are like that and I liked are: omori (Favourite!), Yume Nikki, mad father, Ib, Angels of death (2nd favourite!) but I also like puzzle games or turn based games! I like games where you have to think it through or strategize your way through it, it makes it more fun.

For music, I mostly listen to Vocaloid producers or utaite's like Eve (favourite!), soraru, Teniwoha, Surii, PinocchioP, etc. But other than Vocaloid, I mostly listen to hypmic or enstars or paralive songs...

I'm more of a follower rather than a leader although if something goes out of hand or no one takes care of it then I will take the initiative.

I don't do well with new surroundings either, for example moving schools. I will have a harder time making new groups of friends and I also have a hard time getting used to everything 😞. But when I do find a friend group, I will stick with them for a long time (unless they turned into bad people)

I would consider myself as a loyal person, I would not leave someone dear to me ever unless there's a good reason for it. I also value honesty a lot, in my opinion a comfortable friendship or relationship can start with people being comfortable and saying what they want to say. Of course that way of thinking doesn't apply to everyone but that's how I view it.

I know I said I value honesty, but sometimes I can be a little too honest. At some point I can get too blunt with my opinions and accidentally hurt someone. I also struggle with opening up to people. It's not like I don't want them to know, it's more like I'm scared of what they'll think of me after. I don't want their view of me change just because I voiced my struggles 😞.

Oh I also want to slip this in, I absolutely ADORE lolita fashion! Anything with ribbons and laces and big dresses I'd love it, I also like vintage aesthetics, royal and steampunk.

That's it from me, I hope that's enough? Or if that's too much then I'm very sorry for rambling so much 😭

hi!! i absolutely love your interests.. like.. angels of death?! i love that game sm... anyways!! hope you enjoy your matchup, anon!

I match you with...

Ichiro Yamada!

-Okay, Ichiro would push you out of your comfort zone no matter how awkward you are but he does know his limits of when you're uncomfortable. He wants you to step outside of your comfort zone occasionally but respects your limits.

-Although I don't think his love language is quality time and it's more of a mix of words of affirmation and acts of service, he'd still cherish any quality time. Just a very respectful boyfriend of your limits that you set.

-I think I ended up picking people who'd support you a lot through your hobbies... (unintentionally). Either way, he'd support you through thick and thin no matter what.

-Movie dates with Ichiro....

-Loyalty and honesty are going to be a big theme between these three guys. Ichiro values both deeply and wants a loyal and honest partner above all else. He tries his best to be honest with you because he's already so loyal that well... you don't have to worry about it at all.

I match you with...

Satsuki Ito!

-Probably beats Ichiro in terms of loyalty and honesty. Just by a bit... Satsuki can't even lie to you no matter what it is. He's just so obvious that you don't have to worry about him lying to you whatsoever.

-He's far too embarrassed to do a lot of physical affection or words of affirmation so quality time is a big one he enjoys a lot. Just being around you makes him so giddy that he can't help but love being in the moment.

-He's such a big softie and he loves you so much that he feels offended that you think he'd treat you differently because of your struggles. Everyone has them, even him!

-Poor guy.. he really hopes you get along with his brothers and wants you to be comfortable with them like you are with him! He knows you have a hard time with new people and communicating so he just hopes that it goes well.

I match you with...

Toya Aoyagi!

-I know the other two on this list are very extroverted or at least extroverted compared to Toya of all people but! I picked Toya because I feel like he's trying to be a little more extroverted but wouldn't push you out of your comfort zone in social situations.

-He's a very supportive boyfriend like the other two and always enjoys it when you show your art to him and cherishes any pieces you might gift to him if anything.

-His love language is also quality time so that's a big reason I matched you up with him as well. He loves quality time above all else and he's a very low maintenance boyfriend overall. No need for fancy dates. As long as he can spend time with you, he's happy.

-Unlike the other two, Toya is also more of a follower but can be a leader in a way if needed for you. He doesn't mind taking the lead as long as he's confident in it or if you reassure him.

-As a very loyal person himself, I think he'd love it if you got along with his friends as well and always puts you on a pedestal in his heart. He'd never dare to betray you and is a little hesitant when he has to lie about something like a surprise birthday gift.

-He's a very honest person too and would never dare to think differently of you just because you have your own struggles. Everyone does so why should he treat you differently because of them?

[autopotion]

*These are not official groupings, just mine.

EARLY (1987-1993)

Mainline games released: I, II, III, IV, V.

Other notable releases: the Legend series, Mystic Quest

Established the formula & series mainstays--job classes, summons, chocobos & moogles, etc.

These games were relatively simple at first, but soon became trailblazers for epic storytelling in RPGs--especially IV (or initially II in North America).

Pixel guys.

Mostly known by their many (many, many) remasters and remakes.

Modern audiences might find their stories rote and their gameplay unnecessarily difficult, but they still enjoy a tiny, vocal fanbase.

GOLDEN (1994-2001)

Mainline games released: VI**, VII, VIII, IX, X.

Other notable releases: Tactics, Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon, Anthology, Chronicles

With the formula established & with the more powerful hardware of fifth- (and later sixth-) generation consoles, FF pushed boundaries and graphical limitations to produce their most ambitious games (and marketing campaigns) yet. You might say they succeeded, for better or worse; Final Fantasy VII is generally considered to be the very first AAA video game.

The era that the majority of the FF fanbase on the Internet is most nostalgic for, a fact that might inspire either your own misty-eyed recollection of the good ol' days, or an overwhelming desire to snap the rose-tinted glasses. Or both.

Saw the first of many (many, many) ports across different systems--in part to give English-speaking audiences access to the early games they missed, but also as blatant cash-grabs.

Modern audiences who have no nostalgia for this era often voice that they find stylized 3D polygons much more difficult to acclimate to than the pixel guys.

**FFVI could arguably fall under the early era. If I'd made this poll fifteen years ago, when the division of fans between VI and VII was much more stark, that's where I would have put it. However, this poll is also about how modern audiences tend to think about their favorite FF games, and FFVI enjoys a nostalgic fanbase on par with those of the other games of the golden era. Search for it on any "best FF games of all time" list and you'll see what I mean.

COMPILATION (2002-2008)

Mainline games released: XI, XII.

Other notable releases: Crystal Chronicles, X-2, Compilation of FFVII (Before Crisis, Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus, etc.), FFXII: Revenant Wings, the Tactics Advance series & the War of the Lions remake of the original Tactics, the DS remakes of III & IV, the first Dissidia. (Also of note, though not directly beneath the FF umbrella, was the introduction of Kingdom Hearts.)

The era of sequels, remakes, remasters, crossovers, and extended universes, shepherded by the Square Enix merger. Only two mainline games were released in this period, and the one that was not an MMO was an entry in the newly-formed "Ivalice Alliance" (contrary to the desires of one of XII's principal developers, Yasumi Matsuno, who left the project before it was finished).

While of course we've seen plenty of sequels & remakes since, this era went all-in on expanding Final Fantasy to the behemoth it is now. FFVII, its golden child, was showered with prequels and sequels. Crossovers were all the rage. Even games that were not strictly "Final Fantasy" games were retroactively roped into one of the existing canon masses, i.e. Vagrant Story into the Ivalice Alliance.

This was also the boom of handhelds, like the PSP and the beloved DS. Mainline games were saved for the heavyweight home consoles, while other titles were dispersed across the smaller systems.

Very few "new" worlds with no preexisting ties to the other games (outside of the shared banner of Final Fantasy) were created in this time, XI and Crystal Chronicles being the few exceptions.

If you enjoyed seeing the games you loved from the 90s getting more content, this era was a delight. If you'd rather the original entries were left alone, it was a painful sign of things to come.

EXPERIMENTAL (2009-2015)

Mainline games released: XIII, XIV (twice)

Other notable releases: XIII-2 & Lightning Returns, Type-0 (also a member of XIII's Fabula Nova Crystallis series), Dissidia 012, the Theatrhythm series, the first expansion for XIV (Heavensward), Record Keeper, Brave Exvius

FF's darkest era. XIII was the first time FF tried something new since XI--brand new world, female protagonist, fresh spin on the old ATB formula--and it fell just short of catastrophic. XIII and its sequels were not well-received (though whether this negative backlash was "deserved" is another story). The game that would later become XV was originally intended to be Versus XIII, an entry in Fabula Nova Crystallis. Between XIII's poor reception and Versus XIII's fraught development, this didn't happen.

The initial release of XIV, on the other hand, was catastrophic. It was so bad that the entire thing had to be rebooted.

The good news is XIV's reboot, A Realm Reborn, did so well that XIV is widely considered one of the best MMOs of all time. The reboot is also one of the earliest examples of video game "rehabilitation," in that a dramatic change or update to the original game transforms a negative experience into a positive one, and thus scrapes back the good will of the player. (No Man's Sky is a non-FF example.)

The virulent criticism of XIII has softened over the years, and it enjoys a small, dedicated fanbase.

You started to see FF dip into mobile games at this point, too.

MODERN (2016-2023)

Mainline games released: XV, XVI

Other notable releases: World of Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, Dissidia NT, Dissidia Opera Omnia, Final Fantasy VII Remake, the pixel remasters of I-VI, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Reunion, Crisis Core: Reunion, a slew of expansions for XIV

The long-anticipated release of XV heralded a new age (as well as a movie and an anime). In contrast to XIII, XV was very popular, and put FF back on the map. People loved the boys' road trip.

XIV is still going strong. I don't play MMOs but I'm happy for them.

The remakes & remasters are back, and looking more realistic than ever (if you're into that sort of thing). Look at how many individual pores you can see on your old favorites' faces! The most successful of these is the Final Fantasy VII Remake, which is not a remake as much as it's a conversation with the original game, a move that both drew in a new audience and softened (some of) the diehard og-VII fans who disliked the rest of the Compilation.

Stranger of Paradise is an odd duck attempting to evoke the uncanny valley weirdness of the PS3 era. YMMV on if it worked.

The modern FF games step further out of the boundaries of what an FF game is, dropping ATB combat in favor of real-time action that's all the rage these days. In a first, XVI doesn't have any party members. For the folks who've grown tired of ATB and crave the fast-paced action of the modern day, XVI was a hit (though, I've heard, it failed to deliver on the story).

The endless conversation about whether FF ought to be evolving this far outside of its "formula" (whatever one believes that to be) might feel tired to the average FF fan. But, going forward, it's worth talking about the ways in which FF has neglected to evolve, or even gone backwards: such as the dev team of XV stating that the inclusion of women would cause their core bros to act unnaturally, thus why there are no female party members in the game, or the dev team of XVI deliberately not including a diverse cast because their fantasy game is inspired by medieval Europe.

Tell me which era you voted for in the tags, and what your personal favorite FF game is!