#chapter 6 was just. such a slog

[aberooski]

If I can get myself together enough to work on your princeton is in another castle crossover for long enough to get us passed the first dungeon y'all are in for some gold I stg 😤

[blacktabbygames]

Slay the Princess Concept Art

We shared a bunch of concept art on Twitter today. Sharing it here, too, where you can find it all in one post. Post contains spoilers, so proceed with caution (or just play the game already if you haven't 😉)

Going to start with the first piece of concept art Abby drew for the game.

In the earliest stages of development, we toyed around with the concept of there being multiple "end game" forms of the Princess.

The initial outline, rather than being tied together by an overarching metanarrative, structured a full playthrough as a 5-6 chapter long, self-contained journey down a single route, determined by your decisions in chapter 1. Here's an alternative late-game form:

The idea of deviating end-game forms didn't lost for very long, though. As we explored the game's themes more deeply, it made the most sense for there to be a singular "true" form.

If your reality is shaped by subjectivity and perception, then the "truth" has to be what's left when that subjectivity is swept away. the Shifting Mound's final design feels like that initial truth for the Princess, though there's also another truth if you push back against her and press on into the final cabin.

We really liked this "void" design, and I played around with the idea of it being an intermediary to the final form. The "void" Princess would be what you saw upon encountering the final Princess without understanding your own truth, but once you had that understanding, you would see her as the Shifting Mound, as depicted in the game.

That gave way to the intermediary design of the SM being a sea of disembodied limbs, and we also took parts of both designs and incorporated them into the protagonist (particularly the wings.) You can see the eyes and feathers for this void form in the ending card of the original trailer below:

You can see extremely early concept art for the spectre (top), nightmare (top-right), stranger (left), beast (bottom) and ??? (right) as well!

The eyes became a motif in the Nightmare route (Paranoid's manifestation of the fear of being watched), but I also like to think of them as a part of The Long Quiet's truth. You are space and emptiness, but you're also that which observes those things, and it's your perceptions that give the Shifting Mound shape.

Anyways, on the note of the original original concepts for the game, the Princess was initially going to remain human for several loops before taking on more monstrous forms. Some concepts of that are below. Had to get Abby to tone down some of the more horrifically cartoonish designs because they creeped me out and I didn't want to romance them in a video game.

We had to hold our cards close to our chest in the non-metanarrative early drafts, which is part of why, even in the first demo, the cabin doesn't really change much in chapter 2. More room to subtly play with the concept of transformation over time.

There were a lot of reasons we moved in a different direction for the full release. The branching was unmanageably large to write, and the game felt like a slog to write.

Using an overarching narrative as a framing mechanism in the final version gave us a lot more freedom to explore wildly divergent ideas within routes while still driving the player towards the originally planned finale.

Anyways, now we've got some concept art for individual princesses. There's a lot more than this lying around somewhere, but it's all in sketchbooks, and we'll probably wait until we make an art book to show it off.

First is the tower, who really didn't change much at all. (She got a little thicker, I guess. All of the Princesses did)

Not a lot to say about her, other than the fact that we knew we wanted a set piece where she gets so big that the trees and cabin orbit around her.

The stranger went through many many redesigns over the course of development. Here, she was a "princess skin" filled with a hive of sentient bugs. The script wasn't working for me, though, so instead she became a peak behind the curtains without the necessary context to know her.

A lot of people ask how these earlier drafts of the Stranger route would have played out, and the answer is I can't tell you, because I couldn't figure out something worth writing.

The writing process for individual routes didn't really start with outlines or plot beats. Rather, the routes started from a theme and a relationship dynamic, and I organically found their outcomes by exploring actions within those themes, and then seeing if those passed Abby's editor brain.

Neither of us found actions we wanted to explore with those versions of the Stranger, at least actions that weren't a beat-by-beat retelling of chapter 1, which contained way too much variation to put on a single chapter 2 route.

If each princess examines a relationship formed by perception and first impressions, the Stranger examines one that's fundamentally unknowable. One where you've seen too much, too quickly.

An insect hive-mind pretending to be a person seemed like a good starting point, but it was too difficult to write any interactions that didn't immediately feel knowable, if still strange. So the final version of the Stranger was designed in such a way where her unknowability makes interacting with her on a human level fundamentally impossible, and you don't get to have a real conversation with her unless you satisfy extremely specific criteria.

Anyways next up is the razor's final form. We decided she needed more swords.

Hearts became an accidental motif very quickly in the development process, too. (The fact that it is only strikes to the heart that fell her in the demo was accidental, but it felt poetic so we extended it to the rest of the game.)

So on top of adding more swords, we made her heart visible. This is something we did with the fury as well, as a way of showing their emotional (and physical) vulnerability.

Here's an early version of the Adversary and what would eventually become the Eye of the Needle, back when she was still called the Fury. Originally her hair was going to be fire (as seen on the right), but it didn't feel right in its execution.

She's hit the gym since this concept art. Good for her :)

And we're going to end with the Beast, who at this point was called the Adversary. I think this was before the Witch was added? The Beast was originally designed to be a Questing Beast who lurked in the shadows, where you'd only see glimpses of her, and where each glimpse would make her appear to be a different animal. This was too difficult to execute, though we gave her a more chimera-like appearance in the final game.

This design was from when we still has the Voice of the Obsessed, and the route was going to be a more feral mirror of what eventually became the Adversary, but it felt too thematically similar while being less interesting, so we moved in the direction of making the Beast about consumption as a form of love.

Anyways, that's all we've got for you right now. Hope this was fun!

[hoardcloneheadcanons]

Stone & Robotnik's Gaggle of Robot Children P2

Stone puts Metal Sonic and himself together.

In that order.

Robotic Gaggle Part 2

Chapter 5 – Stone and Metal in Amsterdam

Every part of getting Metal Sonic back into operation had been a heart-wrenching slog.

Every part has been worth it.

Step 1: Stone dried it out. He exposed its chest cavity and inner parts to the air and observed what was salvageable (almost nothing).

Step 2: He cleaned out all the muck, mold and dirt that had gotten inside of it, and let it air out again.

Step 3:  He scavenged the crab and local hardware stores for any and all replacement parts and kept replacing everything one by one until Metal Sonic became the metaphorical ship of Theseus. He attempted verbal commands. Metal Sonic still did not move.

Step 4: He tried to dry out and fix the Doctors main computer where he kept his downloaded telanovellas and Metal Sonic's schematics. It could not be recovered.

Step 5: He wept, screamed, and tried to reach for alcohol again, before his flying egg followers came at him and shot it out of his hands.

Step 6:  He remembered that the badniks were frequently used as back up hard-drives and accessed their internal files. There were drafts of Metal’s schematic’s hidden inside them. He wept again but this time of relief at finally being able to succeed at something.

Step 7: His joy was tempered by the realization that the schematic he found was a back-up from months ago and did not match the current iteration of the robot on the table in front of him.

Step 8: He committed to the old schematic. He altered what he could inside Metal until the robot and the schematic matched one to one.

Step 9: He attempted verbal commands again (Activate, Eyes over Here) and Metal's eyes lit up and he turned to look at Stone.

Stone nearly cried again.

Metal awoke to Stone lifting him off the table in a hug and saying.

"Finally my fucking miracle, you are awake!"

Ch 6 – Stone and Reminiscence

Stone collapsed in a heap, fully dressed, on a couch not long after the Metal Sonic project awoke. There had been too much emotion, too long of feeling on pins and needles of hope.

Stone awoke up to find the buttons pattern of his shirt imprinted into the skin of his arm and his right hand asleep, the feel of needles shooting through it as he tried to move it.

He brushed his teeth in attempt to remove the feeling of dry-mouth. Washed his face in cold water to increase his alertness and make his eyes a little less bleary.

The man he saw in the mirror was fraying at the edges. There were bags under his eyes, his skin was dry, his eyes bloodshot and his usually carefully manicured beard had uneven lines.

Noted: His careful discipline had been slipping.

That wasn’t good. He was in hiding. He needed to be alert at all times, and it would not help his work for him to be exhausted. These were things he tried to instill in Robotnik thousands of times, trying to bring him food, trying to get him to clock out and sleep so he wouldn’t collapse on the lab room floor when he was in one of his creative fugues.

It had never worked. It had been easier to put a couch in the lab and drag him into it.

And after all his efforts, here Stone was, mimicking the bad habit in the absence of the Doctor. It was just so easy when you kept telling yourself that the work was so close to done that it would be complete soon if you kept pushing a little longer. It was so easy when you hopped from problem to problem to solve.

It hadn’t been like this the first time Robotnik disappeared, he’d had hope. He’d had an instruction set. Now he was making purpose and structure from scratch and stumbling at it.

He couldn’t do this. There was no version of himself, to pick himself up from the lab and watch his six. He needed to sleep, eat and work out on schedule again. He needed to take care of appearance and be ready to change it on a dime if he was discovered.

Stone turned around from the bathroom mirror to find Metal Sonic behind him.

Ch 7 - Stone and Metal Amsterdam Part 2

Stone yelped.

“What are you doing? Did I not shut you down last night? Were you on the entire time I was asleep?”

Metal Sonic, predictably, gave no response. It didn’t have a voice box. But it was no matter, Stone’s habit of talking to the badniks easily transferred over to blue android.

Stone’s memory from last night was fuzzy after the victory of getting Metal awake, there was every possibility that he’d forgotten to initiate the shutdown sequence.

Careless, and he was snuck-up on. Stone redoubled his determination to sleep at regular intervals again.

“Alright, well I’m awake anyway, let’s get more of your diagnostic tests done.”

Stone spent the rest of the day testing out basic motor functions for sonic. He confirmed that this version of Metal Sonic was capable of walking at normal human speeds, and moving it's arms, legs and neck, and listening to verbal commands.

Without orders, it would either sit where Stone left it, or follow after him, making gentle clunking noises on the floor.

The second behavior confused Stone until he looked closer into Metal Sonic’s programming. It was trying to update based on Stone.

Stone hadn’t looked too closely at the contents of Metal Sonic’s program in his original download of them. Upon further inspection, he found it classified as an augmented badnik and had similar programming. All badniks had an auto-update feature. Robotnik didn’t like to waste time updating every single bot, so he set them up to scan every new iteration he made and copy any new programs that would be useful to their directives. Anything they couldn’t copy due to lack of space or backwards compatibility they would mimic.

Stone technically counted as the only other bipedal badnik unable to fly. Metal must’ve found him easier to mimic.

Metal Sonic would stop following him if he ordered him to do otherwise. But following and mimicking Stone was its default. Fascinating.

Ch 8 -The Badniks and Metal – Amsterdam.

The Badniks circled around Metal scanning him, not copying anything, just observing. They’d already seen this version, he was not special, but they tracked him anyway, looking for aberrant behavior. They’d seen Doctor Robotnik send several iterations of this current model careening into a wall. The version that Stone built had lasted longer than any of the prior builds, mostly because he had not been given orders, and the Badniks were taking the time to see what this build would do, what its purpose was.

Metal watched them back.

[ageless-aislynn]

Title: “15 Minutes” (11/15) Author:  @ageless-aislynn​ Characters/fandom: Master Chief John-117/Reader, Halo the series Summary: John has learned something new that he'd like to show you… Series: How to date a Spartan (without even trying) Rating:  T (PG13) Length: 2,630 (this chapter, 27,487 total so far) Spoilers: Set in the Silver Timeline of Halo the series, not the games or novels. Though we began with the events of Halo 1x06, there will be no more show spoilers. We are still firmly seated in the AU Warthog, merrily driving out to places where there’s only a passing nod to canon. 😉 Disclaimer: Definitely not mine but I do enjoy borrowing them just for a bit! 😉 A/N:  Text is both here in this post or available at AO3, however you like to read. It's, yet again, been awhile since the last update, sad to say. I've been slogging through writer's block, health issues and some kinda awful real life stress but I'm not giving up on this fic (or its sibling, "Recreation"). I'd like to say that the final chapters will be here very soon but, well… I've learned to not call my shots, lol. I will, however, do my best to get them here as soon as I can. If you read, I hope you enjoy! ⭐💖⭐

Taglist: @pinheadbanger​ @mysardencut​ @laurenstacy610​ @sporadicbelievernightmare​ @ultrablackwidower​ @bxmxtx​ @jellotherelol @mirandastuckinthe80s

If you would like to be tagged in my John/Reader fics, just let me know! I also write John/Kai, John/Cortana and Kai/male Reader, so I’m glad to tag you for whatever you’d like. If you would like to be removed from the taglist, also feel free to let me know, no harm, no foul. 😉 💖

Halo fic masterlist ⭐

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10

PT arrived bright and early and, while you continued to bring out every expletive in every language you knew, ultimately it seemed your left side was improving: more range of motion in your shoulder and more strength in your leg, though the healing fractures still ached. All together, though, it was a win, no matter that it left you sweating and shaking like you'd wrestled an Elite and lost spectacularly.

You'd just come out of the shower and put on a fresh set of clothes when the door chimed. To your surprise, you found Riz and Vannak in their civvies standing there. You knew Silver Team had been on stand-by for the past few days – John hadn't been able to join you for every meal, understandably, but he had been there every night. Sleeping curled up in his arms was a luxury you weren't sure how you were going to give up when the time came. Kai and her friend had visited but this was the first time the other two Spartans had.

"Please, come in," you said and they did.

"You need new curse words," Riz said seriously.

"We got here while you were doing your therapy," Vannak explained. "Didn't want to interrupt."

"You could hear me cussing out in the hall?" you asked.

"Superior Spartan hearing," she said, matter-of-fact. "I doubt anyone else could."

"Teach her the one," he urged in as animated a tone as you'd ever heard from him before. "You know, the good one."

Which is how you ended up getting a tongue-twisting word in Sangheili added to your arsenal.

"You say that to any Covenant species and it's guaranteed to send them into a rage," Riz said with a confident nod.

"Except the Unggoy," Vannak added with a sneer. "Little bastards couldn't give a shit. They'll try to kill you on principle."

"I'll make sure I'm on a bullhorn from far away, then," you said, biting the inside of your lip to keep from grinning. "Don't want to be in striking distance if I'm going to send them into a rage."

They thought that over.

"Chief won't appreciate us telling her to pick a fight with a Sangheili," she pointed out.

"Just use it on somebody you're pretty sure you can take in a fight," he told you.

"I'll keep that in mind," you said.

They made slightly stilted small talk for about 15 more minutes, then took their leave.

A rest seemed in order, so you propped up on the bed and checked the news. They were in the middle of reporting that they had yet to apprehend the man who had tried to smuggle the bomb back to FLEETCOM in the Warthog. It showed some stock images of the Pit before being damaged by the explosion and that got you to thinking…

There should be some sort of footage of the explosion, right?

But, after poking around on your padd for a little while, you hadn't found much beyond what apparently had been approved for public viewing.

"Would you like some help with that?"

Cortana's voice startled you.

"Oh, hey there," you said, thinking, Poor thing, she's got the most boring job in the world keeping an eye on me. I hope I get the chance to buy her a coffee or something after all is said and done. Then your brain tardily caught up with her words. "You mean you have footage from the explosion?"

"Yes, I do."

"And it's something I have clearance to see?"

"I have footage from the explosion," she repeated, her tone supremely innocent.

Before you could decide whether to ask to see it or not, the holo on the wall lit up. The security cams had caught the explosion from multiple angles. You winced as you saw a body – your body – fly out of the crane operator seat to disappear into a sea of smoke and debris.

A moment later, the view changed, the quality severely degrading. You squinted through the pixilation and haze and realized you were seeing from the point of view of the holo-emiter Cortana had contacted you from.

"Oh, shit," you muttered. The massive beam that had pinned you down should've killed you outright but you'd gotten supremely lucky in the way the rest of the building had fallen, providing just enough support to give you a tiny open space. But even without the sudden, helpful overlay that detailed out the edges of the debris through the smoke, you could see how quickly that respite was vanishing as the beam's weight bore it inexorably lower and lower.

You found yourself gasping for breath, cast back into that moment. The image changed abruptly. Trying to figure out where you were now viewing from helped to break you free of the encroaching panic attack.

Then it all made sense: you were looking at several officers, so covered in dirt and dust that you couldn't recognize their rank, much less determine their names. They also looked extremely short.

Before you even skimmed over the information feeding out in rapid-fire bursts, you knew that this was John's HUD after Silver Team had arrived back on site.

"John, get here now. The support beam is failing!"

Cortana's voice came through his helmet's comm. "There's no time," he said, interrupting the man as he was saying that they would have to wait for an excavation crew to arrive to safely dig you out.

He was running before the man could object. The feed cut back and forth from his HUD to the holo-emiter. This gave you an unexpected perspective on how efficiently Silver Team worked. They needed almost no words as they homed in on your location, grabbing, lifting, moving and supporting each part of the perilous structure as needed.

It was Vannak who caught the beam before it crushed you but it was John who lifted it off of you.

The holo-emiter's feed abruptly ended and you were back in John's HUD. Vannak and Kai caught another part of the crumbling wreckage, creating an opening for Riz to dig you out by hand.

You noted almost absently how steady John's vitals were. He was holding a building off of you as if it were nothing at all.

"Out," Riz announced and John carefully lowered the weight he'd been supporting.

When he turned, you saw Riz clearing the way for Kai, who was now the one carrying you. Vannak and John followed.

They emerged out of the wreckage and Kai went into the Spartan run, taking you directly into a Pelican where she turned you over to a team of medics. The Spartans were waved back and the ship launched.

"We'll catch the next one," Riz said.

"She'll be all right, Chief," Kai told him. "She's strong."

He nodded curtly, tracking the Pelican that was carrying you away.

And once it went out of sight, that was when his vitals spiked and his heart began to pound.

You were still thinking about what all you'd seen when the door chimed again. A glance at the chrono proved it was lunchtime. You opened the door and, indeed, the first thing you saw was a massive, covered tray that no doubt contained your meal. But it was John who was carrying it.

"Silver's on stand-by," he warned, "but I thought we might get a chance to eat together."

Since you weren't yet cleared to make the long walk down to the Mess, a table and pair of chairs had been set up across from the couch a few days ago. As soon as he'd placed the tray down, you practically tackled him.

"Permission to hug the Master Chief?" you asked well after the fact, your voice muffled into his chest.

He gently returned the embrace. "Always granted."

You found yourself holding onto him a little bit longer than usual.

"You okay?" he asked.

"I saw the footage from the Pit," you said, resting your cheek against him. "I already knew I was lucky to get out of there but really seeing it? I… It makes me appreciate being here."

He paused for long enough that you looked up at him, finding him gazing over your head as if hearing something over a comm. Then he turned his attention back down to you, brow furrowing. "She shouldn't have shown you that footage and upset you."

"Cortana? No, I'm glad she did. It happened to me, after all." You put your face against him again and squeezed him once more around his waist. "You held a building off of me, John."

He made a move as if about to pick you up, then thought better of it and knelt instead to bring you more on a level together. "I'd hold a million buildings off of you, don't you know that?" he said, cupping your face. "Just… try not to be under any more falling buildings, hm?"

"I'll certainly do my best," you swore and kissed his palm.

The look in his eyes altered, grew both darker and softer at the same time. When you leaned towards him, he met you halfway.

He started carefully, like he did everything with you, but soon the kiss intensified, deepened, and his hands skimmed from the crown of your head down your back as if he wanted to map every line, curve and angle you possessed.

And then your stomach growled, loudly and unmistakably, and you muttered your newly-learned curse word.

He leaned back to look at you, amusement tugging insistently at his mouth. "That one's Vannak's favorite. He and Riz talked about coming to see you today. I'm assuming they did?"

"They did," you said, then winced as your stomach grumbled something awfully close to a repeat of the Sangheili curse word.

"Why don't we eat," he said, completely surrendering to the smile, "and you can tell me all about it."

Happily, he didn't get called away and you were able to finish your meal together in peace.

"Could I show you something I recently learned?" he asked as you stood from the table.

"As long as it doesn't involve throwing me around the room," you teased.

"Oh, I'll save that until you're all healed up," he murmured, then winked.

You'd like to think you laughed but no, that was a full-fledged giggle. "So, what did you learn?"

"Therapeutic massage," he said, flexing his fingers. "It's supposed to promote healing and relaxation. Want to give it a try?"

"Absolutely," you said. "Where do you want me at?"

"On the footstool, if that's okay?"

"Sure."

The wide, plush, rainbow-colored bit of furniture was another recent addition to the room, added because John wanted you to have the option to put your feet up. Kai had told you that, as soon as you were healthy again, she was going to high-five you for the color choice.

While his back was turned as he adjusted the stool the way he wanted it in front of the couch, you took your shirt off and tossed it haphazardly towards the bed.

He sat, a leg on either side of the stool, and looked up at you, clearly about to say something. But then his expression went thunderstruck and the words never emerged.

You had the same UNSC sports bra that he had to have seen other marines wearing in the gym a thousand times. You'd spotted Kai and Riz in them before, so it shouldn't have been that shocking.

"This all right?" you asked.

"Uh-huh. Yeah. Yes." Every affirmative had its own completely separate inflection, from stunned to wonderment to Wait, don't put the shirt back on.

You turned away, hiding your grin as you sat down where directed. Considering that you were hardly in top fighting form at the moment, his reaction was a very nice little ego boost.

His hands settled gently against your back, fingers curling over your shoulders. "If I use too much pressure or there's pain, tell me right away. Is there anything I should definitely avoid?"

"Can't raise the arm like I should" –you gave a roll of your left shoulder– "but it's already much better than it was."

"Copy that, no raising the arm. Anything else?"

No matter how battered and bruised you felt, there was no way you were going to miss this. "I'll let you know," you promised.

"Okay," he said and his hands glided up to your neck, then out, following the lines of the trapezius on both sides. The heels of his palms followed your spine down in a feathery touch, then spread out along your lats like he was smoothing wrinkles out of them before skimming down your obliques to your hips.

He returned to your shoulders again and very, very carefully kneaded into the tightness there. You did your best not to flinch when he hit a particularly sore spot but he jerked back as if you'd screamed.

"It's fine," you said quickly, afraid he was about to end up perched on the back of the couch like a very large, traumatized cat. "This is the only way to get rid of it. Just got to work it out."

His hands settled cautiously on your shoulders once more.

"You're doing great," you assured him, patting his knees on either side of you encouragingly, and his thumbs drew circles over the painful places as if he were trying not to fracture a thin sheet of glass.

The knots relaxed and you exhaled in the closest thing to sheer bliss you'd experienced in a long while. The warmth and gentle pressure had you melting back into him, your head lolling a bit, your eyelids fluttering shut and—

The next thing you knew, you were waking up. "Oh come on, I didn't want to sleep through all the good parts," you mumbled.

John's chuckle rumbled beneath your ear. He had pulled you back onto his lap on your right side, cradled comfortably against his chest. One hand was gently rubbing your back while the other covered the hand you had fisted into his shirt.

"I'm going to take this as a compliment to my therapeutic massage skills," he said.

"And you absolutely should." You raised your head to look at him. "Maybe next time I can even stay conscious long enough to really appreciate said skills. If there is, you know, a next time."

"There will most definitely be a next time," he swore and pressed a kiss to your forehead.

"I still owe you a proper back scratching."

"And I am absolutely going to collect on that," he returned, his tone unexpectedly husky.

You smiled, straightening up to kiss him. He pulled you closer, then paused and sighed against your mouth.

"I've got to go," he said resolutely right before his wristband chirped.

You looked for a way to roll off of him that wouldn't aggravate your shoulder – or potentially crush any of his, ahem, important Spartan equipment – but he scooped you up bridal style and stood as if you weighed nothing at all.

"I'll meet you for dinner if we're back soon enough," he promised and gave you one more tender kiss then placed you onto the couch. Before he went through the door, he paused, looking back like he was memorizing this moment, then he took a breath and was gone.

It was nearly dinner time when the door chime rang and you went to answer it with as much of a hopeful spring in your step as you could manage. However, this time, it wasn't John holding a tray with your evening meal on it.

"Dr. Keyes," you said in surprise, snapping a salute.

She said your rank and last name. "May I come in? We need to talk."

[jasper-book-stash]

The good news (for me, at least, because I enjoy complaining) is, witchcraft books I read didn't stay good for long. Let's bitch about Werewolf Pack Magick: A Shapeshifter's Book Of Shadows by Denny Sargent.

This book is meant to be a follow-up book to Werewolf Magick (which I've talked about here) and includes some review of the material of that book, some updated versions of various exercises and rituals/rites, and builds on the content of the first book by expanding it to packs instead of solitary wers. Once you get past chapter 3, it is primarily just a collection of different longform rituals meant to be done by a whole group.

The problem is that it sucks.

There are many, MANY more typos than there were in the previous book, it's far more gendered in its roles than the previous book (even in the language, there was a lot more use of "he or she" rather than "they" like I had read in the previous book), it feels more controlling and strict than the first book did despite the author saying over and over that your pack should change things as needed, and there's the debunked leyline stuff showing up in it.

The author's Greek pagan background is somehow even more blatant in this one than it was in the first, too, which may be a turn-off for those who are not inclined towards Greek paganism for stand-in names.

It feels like the publisher (cough, Llewellyn) had a far stronger hand in the content of this book and made it conform back to the Wicca Lite that Llewellyn Publishing is known for.

You may be wondering, "But Jasper, how bad were the typos?"

There are so many instances where the beginning of a sentence that starts with "werewolf magick" ends up lowercase that I've come to the conclusion that he used a find-and-replace mass-fixer instead of checking to see if things were case sensitive. I found no less than two instances where the author repeated a word right next to itself in the same sentence. There are sentences that just end before the author finishes them, and not in a Tumblr way where the rest of the sentence is the next sentence, no, the word is just GONE. There's missing punctuation, and I don't just mean commas (even though the author goes back and forth on whether or not he uses Oxford Commas in the same fucking paragraph), I mean there are periods or semicolons missing entirely!

That's the thing, Llewellyn should have caught these things, they're the biggest publisher of witchcraft books! The author didn't claim to self-edit (at least, as far as I could find). I have no idea why a publishing gap of 2 years ended with a much worse book than the first one!

There is a difference in the expectations of quality between a blog post written and viewed for free, a blog post written for a paying audience or a self-published book, and a professionally published book through one of the biggest witchcraft publishing houses. This falls in that third category and it is shameful.

6 out of 10. There is some useful stuff in here if you don't mind slogging through the mess. Far from the worst occult book I've read, but I've told multiple people to just skip this one even if they liked the first book.

[logmore]

hello logmore! silly question but i was curious about your thoughts on like a dragon: infinite wealth so far. you mentioned being bored by the first few chapters (fair) so i’m curious what your impression is now that you’ve played more of it. i wish sega was a bit more transparent about the development of the yakuza games because im kind of fascinated by some of the decisions they made in this one

I finished the game last night so I can reply now. I will talk about Infinite Wealth spoilers here:

Things I like:

Combat: Just Yakuza 7 combat but fleshed out, which is perfect. Being able to position your character is great, the team chain attacks and weapon attacks and stuff are fun to set up. The one flaw with it is that it does not interact with Kiryu very well, and by the end I was actually doing less damage with Kiryu if I got a tag team or weapon attack instead of a basic Brawler attack.

Classes: There were a lot of classes I ignored in 7 because they just weren't doing anything; it was just better to leave Joongi, Zhao, and Eri as their defaults and go to town. I think 8 has an improved skill inheritance system that made it more worthwhile to try out different classes, so by the end I switched every character away from their base class. Desperado and Aquanaut stood out as being very flexible and fun.

Kiryu: Technically this is an Ichiban game, but its more of a send-off to Kiryu than anything. I like how there was a ton of content dedicated to Kiryu revisiting characters from the past games, delivered in a way that I still liked it even though I only played 0 and 1. I thought the way they introduced leveling up his stances + gaining the ability to go beat-em-up mode was pretty clever. I also liked equipping him with gear that gave him buffs every turn so he could tear enemies apart like King's Hawaiian rolls.

Yamai: They knew what they were cooking here. You have to fight this guy like 4 times and I enjoyed it every time. He's cool, he looks cool, even the main characters say he is cool, and if he isn't playable in Yakuza 9 I'm gonna be astounded.

Things I don't:

Slow start: The first chapter got me pretty invested, but after Ichiban goes to Hawaii the story is a fucking slog for like 15 hours. I got so bored I stopped playing, and when I came back it finally picked up again.

Side content that I wasn't ever going to do: This is the reason the start of the story is so slow. I'm sure Dondoko Island and Crazy UberEats and all that is fun, but it isn't the type of thing I'm playing these games for, and when so much time in the story is spent ramping up all these side games to play, I just feel like I'm wasting my time. Next game might as well have a Virtua Fighter 6 tournament in the middle of it, why not?

Villains: Bryce and Ebina are just lame characters. This is a game with essentially 2 final bosses, but neither of them have the emotional core or the weight of the bosses from 7. Bryce is literally just 'a weird guy shows up', and while I understand what they were going for with Ebina, his goals seem so disconnected from what the protagonists are experiencing that him taking his shirt off and fighting Kiryu doesn't feel like a real climax. Getting Danny Trejo on board was a pretty inspired choice, but you fight Dwight so early that it framed him as a weakling that didn't matter. And he keeps coming back, in spite of that! There were a few showdowns in 7 where it felt high stakes/intense, but in 8 they had to bust out Sawashiro again to capture that.

Managing 2 parties at the same time: On one hand its cool because it means I get to use every party member, but I wish they bumped up the XP of whatever party you weren't playing, so that when you switched between them they were both at the same level. There were a couple of points where I had to grind because the difficulty of the content was scaling based on what my previous party had left off at, so I needed to get my current party to that level first. I also had to spend a lot of time doing the dungeons to get the materials for weapon upgrades on 9 characters. Just kind of time consuming, but it isn't the worst thing in the world.

Tatara Channel: Its dumb, but this is the only thing in the game that actually made me mad. The social media aspect of the story already feels dated in a way, and I don't care about Vtubers to begin with, but the thing that actually got me upset about this shit is that all the Tatara Channel scenes are just story recaps with unskippable dialog where something relevant MIGHT happen at the end. At one point I got tired of it and just skipped the cutscene, and then all of the sudden Kiryu is in front of Tojo HQ ready to fight. I hope they never deliver a plot in this way ever again

Even though I wrote more negative things than positive things, I still liked this game a lot. 7 is a way better story, but I think Ichiban and Kiryu are just too strong of protagonists to truly hate on the story, even if a lot of things surrounding it are dumb. I'm looking forward to playing pirates with Majima, and I will wish on a genie's lamp for Yamai to come back as a playable berserker-type character

[see-arcane]

It's come to my attention that the last time I pinned up all these new chapters, it apparently got lost in the slog of other updates when I first opened my Substack. So many folks are shocked that Penclosa has new chapters, hiatus'd though it is at present. So!

All Chapters of Penclosa (So Far)

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6

“The Parasite” by Arthur Conan Doyle for background.

And for new readers who don't know what this is all about:

It’s been almost a year since Jonathan Harker made that fateful first trip to Transylvania. The monster that imprisoned him, that threatened his love, that died in a box of earth by two blades, has been gone for months. Yet Jonathan’s nightmares have never left. In fact, as the bleak anniversary nears, they have worsened. Van Helsing’s mesmerism has made no progress in freeing him from the nightly horror. But he has come from Amsterdam for a potentially fruitful visit to another professor. 

Prof. Wilson is playing host to a mesmerist of singular and uncanny power, Miss Helen Penclosa. On meeting the troubled young man and his wife, she is only too happy to help…

So opens Penclosa, a story sadly locked in stasis for the indefinite time being. The work is a crossover between Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula and Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story, “The Parasite.” The one features the infamous vampire and the heroes who clash with him, the other stars a professor who gets himself entangled in the amorous-to-villainous intentions of a hypnotist who’s implied to have more than the usual power behind her mesmeric ability. While I was reading both of these stories around the same time, an idea occurred:

Wow. This hypno-lady would be such a huge problem for Jonathan Harker specifically.

Which led to the next thought:

I should make her a huge problem for Jonathan Harker specifically.

And then I did!

(Sorry there’s no grander scheme behind it than that, I just like playing dolls with scary classic lit characters. And terrorizing my favorite gothic horror solicitor in particular. Sorry, Mr. Harker.)

That said, I make no promises as to an if or when of continuing Penclosa beyond the point it was paused at. I have an inkling of other ways to play with the story in a further-down-the-line plot where she meets the Harkers under different circumstances, but I’m also really attached to the bones I’ve already laid down here. So it’s a bit up in the air for now. Let me know what you guys think, I’d love to know what the interest level is.

In the meantime, don’t make direct eye contact with any mesmerists and/or undead horrors.

[doonarose]

Chapter 6/13

CW/TW: Explicit sex, sensory deprivation, sensory play

Summary: As the Second Coming approaches, Aziraphale and Crowley are finally ready to confess their feelings and try to be together. It should be easy, but heaven’s meddling leaves them struggling to sense everything they need to.

Wordcount: 28,800/~58,000

A/N: Thank you to my amazing betas u/Lemon-tart-221 and u/GaiasEyes for many, many very useful comments and discussions!! They continue to help make this entire thing coherent and readable! Plus they ensure I spend several hours a day over-thinking touch-sense.

Thank you also so, so, so much to everyone who has commented on previous chapters!! This fic is a little bit of a slog just in that it got way, way longer than I planned and has been in the works for almost 18 months now so posting it bit by bit makes me panic a little and hearing that people are enjoying it brightens up my entire week!!

@goodomensafterdark

Excerpt

The ding of the lift doors echoes suddenly, Crowley’s whole body tensing as they start to slide open. There’s almost an expectation that all of this will go wrong, that it’s trouble on the other side, and it wraps tight around the heavy hope that it will be Aziraphale, wanton and needy and touch-starved, ready to devour him or be devoured and –

The supreme archangel’s back is to him, ramrod straight and completely unmoving, like he’s stopped himself from breathing. With a new rush of much more real terror, Crowley realises that once Aziraphale crosses the threshold into the lift anything he sees or hears will be recorded and available for review by heaven. Even seeing Crowley there would set alarm bells ringing. It’s another unforgivably greedy risk but one Crowley is sure Aziraphale needs just as badly as him. Possibly even moreso.

But they should have discussed the intricacies better. How to stay safe. Exactly how this should play out. They didn’t, though. For all their talk it was a fantasy couched in complete disbelief of any actual eventuality. And this, now, is real, and it needs to happen fast.

Read chapter 6 here on AO3 

Or start at the beginning here

[wannaeatramyeon]

Gun Park x Reader: this is our place (we make the rules)

Chapter 5 - Probably should read ch1 first

Gun has a new neighbour. Index: Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Epilogue

You are this close. This close to having a breakdown.

Who the hell flirts and says ‘are you hungry for food or something else,’ and invites you in for actual food. 

And, you think as you consider jamming the chopsticks into your eyes, why the hell did you follow him into his home. Do you have no sense of propriety especially after what an asshole Gun has been?

Are you so overcome with horniness that you abandon all standards?

Yeah Gun Park might be hot. Maybe even the hottest thing you have ever seen. 

Too bad he is rotten. A- a… 

Douche, your brain offers and you slump at the impact of the word, like a bang that just fizzles out, missing the mark. You were hoping for the most aggressive curses known to man. But yeah. He is a douche. A douchebag. 

Who the hell has black eyes. Who wears sunglasses indoors. Who does he think he is.

You know what? Fuck it. 

You will not be intimidated by his home. All clean lines and pretentious.

Clearly lacking a personality, just like him.

If he has invited you for food. You will eat. You will eat him out of house and home and gorge yourself until your stomach bursts.

With gusto, you tuck into the food laid out before you. Just about enough for two people if they had small appetites.

Douche. You swallow down a mouthful of bibimbap.

Douchebag. And inhale the pickled radish.

Asshole. You take a swig of the sharing bottle of Coca Cola. 

.

.

By the time that Gun comes out, he’s staring at a few stray clumps of rice.

“Hungry?”

“Starving,” you give him the biggest grin you can. Ha, that’ll teach him.

With a shrug, he takes out his phone, taps a few more times then tucks it away into his pocket.

“More food is on the way.”

Oh. Your grin turns into a grimace, “...Thanks.”

.

.

Waiting for the next food delivery is painful.

The minutes slog by. Seems to slow down even more when Gun takes a seat at the dining table opposite you. Observing you with those sharp black eyes.

Gun doesn’t speak.

He hardly finds that he needs to in most situations, preferring to let the silence settle and permeate. Grow uncomfortable until fools find the need to fill it. Spilling more than they intended.

“So,” you lean back into your seat and cross your arms, “Gun Park?”

“...”

“That’s your name, right?”

“Yes.”

“Gun Park,” you repeat again, testing the way the words sound on your tongue. Huh. It’s not as repulsive as you thought it would be.

“Y/N,” he says, and you jolt at the fact he knows who you are.

“How do you know?”

“I looked up who you are,” He says casually, like everyone just looks up random people, “I was curious.”

Oh yeah. Sure, that explains it. 

“What did you find?”

Gun rattles off statements about you. Reduces your life down to a few lines and facts and dates. Punctuates it with, “That was all the PI could find.”

“Private investigator?” You hear your voice getting higher with each syllable. The ‘-tor’ is shrill.

“...”

“You said you looked me up! I thought you meant on social or something! AISH!” You flop back into your seat and click your tongue at Gun, who seems tickled at your reaction.

Seriously. Who is this guy anyway. This sounds like some rich Chaebol shit, which… tracks. 

You glance around at his clothes, his stinking rich aura, the apartment that would be described as minimalist and never sparse or empty.

“Y/N.” Gun says again, this time he’s the one that’s testing out your name. He thinks of your furious eyes, the foot jammed between the door, all the times you flipped him off and finds he can’t help accompanying it with a small smile.

Oh.

All your anger and exasperation evaporates with that smile. Not a smirk, not mocking. 

His face lights up and transforms. Eyes crinkling slightly at the corners, a ghost of a dimple on his cheeks. It takes years off him, looking more boyish.

Damn, he is handsome.

.

.

Gun finds out very little else about you. 

At least, nothing that answers what he wanted to know.

As he eats, you ramble something about college and your family and friends. Moan about your sink. Talk a little about how odd it is to have money. To buy what you want but you still can’t bring yourself too.

He finds he doesn’t mind your words. Voice pleasing and warm, seeping into his skin.

And as you grow comfortable, gesticulating and body growing easy - Gun can’t recall ever having shared a meal with someone in his home. 

Can’t recall sitting with someone else in their company like this.

.

.

Silence settles, this time amenable, almost pleasant. Any annoyance long expired.

You notice the kitchen stove is spotless to the point of unused.

“Have you even used that?”

“Never.”

“So you just order takeout all the time?”

“When I’m home, yes.”

“You can’t cook?”

“I prefer spending my time doing other things.”

“Like what?”

Gun gives you another smile, this time teasing.

Your breath catches in your throat and your stupid traitorous heart pounds.

.

.

Over the weeks, as you cook you find the portion sizes growing infinitesimally.

It gets to the point that there’s enough for another portion left over and then some.

Huh. Will you fancy that.

.

.

The most difficult thing is getting Gun to thaw.

Because once he thaws and warms to you, he himself melts into a puddle surprisingly quickly.

Getting past those walls? Worming your way under his skin and finding a heart there? Nigh on impossible.

Actually statistically impossible, never been done before.

Saying that. He's never had such a constant, harmless presence in his life before too.

Someone that doesn't want anything from him or expect anything either. Doesn't know who he is, and accepts what they see.

There is no exchange of power. Barely even any exchange of words.

Gun finds with you, there's no ulterior motive.

If there's never any danger in the first place, then the walls don't need to be built as high.

.

.

Each time you see him, he's a little less frosty. The curt nod developing into a ‘Morning’ or ‘Evening’. Or when he’s in a particular good mood - ‘Hello’.

You continue flipping him off on the odd occasion and he stills the gesture, not used to the disrespect. (Who would even dare to do that to Gun Park especially if they want to keep their finger.)

Then he huffs, a tiny and subtle exhale and the briefest quirk of the lips. But it's there.

And so. You build up your confidence.

.

.

“Here,” you hold out a tupperware to Gun that he receives with thanks and little rebuttal.

By the next morning, or a few days after that, you always get your container back. Left on your doorstep with a sticky note and a messy scrawl.

‘thanks’

‘this was good’

‘more salt’

‘i dont like cilantro’

‘you should make this again’

‘too much garlic’

Even the criticism perks on your day. 

It becomes something you look forward to each morning. You keep the notes, hiding them away in a drawer.

The handwriting that initially is almost illegible you can now read with ease.

[zackprincebooks]

The Mistress of Rosehorn Hall, Chapter 6: The Storm

Sarah's not having a good time:

His helmet has been knocked off to reveal his golden hair, brushing just above his armored shoulders. Blood dribbles from a cut on his forehead and it cascades down his nose, giving him a red line that divides his face in twain. Sarah watches with a thudding heart as his head lolls across the muddy field listlessly before he stops moving. “No!” Sarah looks around frantically. There’s a sword nearby; bright steel glinting in the early morning sun and splattered with blood. It’s cold and heavy in her hand as she picks it up and begins dragging it over to the fallen body of Lord Rufus. The horn sounds again, signaling the charge of horses that shakes the ground like an earthquake. Lord Rufus isn’t moving, and Sarah isn’t anywhere near him, despite her desperate slogging through the dead bodies around them. “Get away from him!” Sarah screams, swinging her sword wildly at the charging forces, “GET AWAY FROM HIM!”

Want to support me? Buy me a pizza!

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[kcrabb88]

Blood Makes Noise

Chapter 6: Love Is All We Have For Now

Summary: As the AIDS crisis sweeps across New York City in the late 1980s, professor, activist, and writer Obi-Wan Jinn-Kenobi finds himself with a devastating diagnosis. As he tries to make sense of things in the aftermath, he gravitates toward the friend who has been at the center of his life since childhood: Quinlan Vos. Through the tumble of letting themselves be in love, Quin's music career, and meeting a young boy who will change their lives forever, they try to keep Obi-Wan alive. Obi-Wan fights for the rights of his community and finds himself in the sights of a powerful man who is determined to ruin him. In the end, Obi-Wan must try to survive the race between the virus in his veins and the slow slog of medical discovery. With his family and a little luck on his side, he might just be one of the precious few to make it. Chapter Summary: Quin makes a major life decision. Obi-Wan's illnesses become more frequent. Dooku continues to atone for the past while Qui-Gon and Tholme make Obi-Wan and Quin an offer. In his quest to earn custody of Anakin, Palpatine ramps up his attacks.

“Has it ever occurred to you and your big IQ,” Quin says as his voice goes low, “that I want to be here? Do you not want me here?” He glances up at the ceiling and bites back a sob. “God damn it, Obi-Wan, I gave you my heart way too long ago to take it back now, okay? Just tell me the truth.”

This jolts Obi-Wan's bones.

This is not adult Quin that he’s talking to. It’s a much, much younger Quin alone and afraid in the world. Before Tholme. Before them. It is Quin in the aftermath of that night.

He snatches Quin’s hand into his own. Quin, for his part, twines their fingers together and holds too-tight like he’s scared Obi-Wan will disappear.

“Don’t say that. Don’t ever say that, Quinlan.” Obi-Wan rests his forehead against Quin’s as his heart beats staccato in his chest. “I want you here as much as I can get you. I need you more than I wish I did because of all this. I love you more than—” Obi-Wan swallows. “You know how much I love you. Don’t say that again.”

[munchboxart]

My in-depth-ish thoughts about Paper Mario TTYD

There will be mega spoilers so don't read if you haven't finished or are interested in getting into it. Also mega yapping, I am the yapper

I thought it was overall pretty fun! I enjoyed it. I'll talk about the battle mechanics first then the story.

My first experience with the Mario RPG games was with Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga, so I was a little surprised that the command inputs are a little less involved? I was also surprised by the lack of moves, especially for the partners. I think M&L's moveset is a little more fun honestly, but the ones here are also pretty interesting! It's surprising to see that Vivian's is a little more complicated compared to the others too (using more buttons than tilt the joystick or the a & b buttons). I also really like the Superguard and Guarding system, kind of brutal but it's a nicer idea than just being able to jump over attacks like in M&L.

It was also surprising that you don't really raise your attack through experience, but by getting BP's and using badges that increase Attacks (WHICH COST 6BP EACH!!!!). It's a nice idea! It makes it more strategy and and a little more skill based I think, though I couldn't help shake off the feeling that I wasn't doing enough to increase my attack power. But overall the battle system is nice.

Story wise, it's pretty fun and cute. I will say that it's biggest drawback is the amount of backtracking, good GOD there's so much. It's so bad that I can't even pick a favorite chapter. I can for sure pick segments but I can't pick a favorite chapter honestly. I think they're all pretty equal.

Uhmmm Chapter 1 is cute, Chapter 2 is cute as well but good fucking god I HATTEEDDD going around the tree, it was awful. Chapter 3.... I was surprised to hear it was really well liked, and I can understand why, but I felt like the climb went on a little too long. I was also surprised to see how small the island is... I thought it'd be bigger or at least bustling with a lot of NPCs.

Chapter 4 is one I really looked forward to because I love Boo's and I've heard about Doopliss so I was excited to see him, and good god I think the town part of the Chapter brings it down a lot in terms of memorability. LIKE.... WHEN IT CAME DOWN TO THE FIGHT WITH SHADOW PEACH AND WHEN IT WAS SHOWING THE CRYSTAL STARS GOING THROUGH EVERY CHAPTER LOCATION..... AND THEY ONLY SHOWED THE MOM AND MAYOR TALKING BECAUSE NO ONE ELSE WAS IN THAT CHAPTER.... LMFAOFJDSIFGHUIREHGUJN

LIKE AT LEAST THE OTHER CHAPTERS HAD MEMORABLE CHARACTERS.... THIS ONE THEY DGAF. Big Boo fight is super cute though, love love love it, I don't know if the other chapters had secret bosses like it? Also the Boo's in this game are totes cute, I love how Boo's were drawn in the early-mid 2000s god

ANYWAYS, Chapter 5 is... fun. I'm not a big fan of pirate themes but I WILL SAY, I LOVE CORTEZ he's so fun and love his design. I really like that his earrings tie down his jaw and head together since it's papercraft. I also really like Bobbery, the thing with his wife was really sweet.

Chapter 6 is... a chapter 8E83RHWFIUEFGERGER. OK WELL NO I usually like train mystery stuff. I enjoyed Sonic Murder Mystery a lot, but the early part of the train stuff was kind of a slog to get through... Unfortunately I think I've seen the Poshley Heights part before from a long time ago, but it was mainly getting to the Crystal Star rather than Doopliss and the 2 sh*dows. I WILL NEVER FORGIVE THEM FOR BEING MEAN TO DOOPLISS AND VIVIAN!!!!! MARK YOUR WORDS BELDAMMMMM

I enjoyed Chapter 7 a lot actually, maybe I can call it my favorite chapter. I think the music for the X-Nauts Fortress slams nuts a lot and definitely heightened my experience for it. I also like TEC a whole lot, I don't think I've mentioned that yet but I'll talk about the Bowser and Peach segments later.

Chapter 8 visually is definitely a highlight. I absolutely love how it looks. I can't say much about the actual areas itself though. The tower was pretty nice I guess, the puzzles are easy, though. I will punch Beldam for being mean to Doopliss. And the fight with Shadow Peach was hard! At least for me. I came in without upgrading my whole party and trying to get through it with Yoshi and Bobbery and boy did I get sweeped. I went back and upgraded Goombella and we traded Power Lifts and beat her up and saved the world the end. I did like that it was the toughest boss you've met yet and not only that, I think the only one with over 100 HP? (I don't know about Gloomtail and Hooktail since I didn't have Peekaboo enabled on)

For the Bowser and Peach segments, the Peach ones are really sweet and TEC is super sweet. I am upset that Mario didn't tell Peach his last wish on screen IT MADE ME SO MADDDDD.

Bowser's is really funny, I love love love him and Kammy they're such a funny duo. Also I can't lie, the 2D segments with Bowser really felt like Flash ripoffs from the web to a T LMFAOOOO. I will say I was a little surprised how uninvolved he actually is with the story. A little disappointing but honestly, I wouldn't change the story at all.

Oh also everything visually was so fucking beautiful, and the soundtrack slams cheeks

Sorry for the long yap but TTYD was really fun, definitely worth the time I poured into it (Nearly put 30 hours into it and still adding more since I haven't done the pit yet at all). I'll play the original Paper Mario next since I am interested in Lady Bow and the baking scene that I watched oomf do and fucked up 5 million times to poison the toad.

Probably the last time I'll talk about TTYD though since I don't have any other thoughts, unless the pit changes my life somehow.

[alexanderwales]

enjoying thesh a lot. would give patreon immediately if i had access to a CC

about how much longer do you think it will go on for?

i love perry so much

I have gone back and forth on this. On the one hand, I've been struggling to write, and I have another story all lined up, book 1 complete with some editing to get it into a polished state and start off a new series. On the other hand, I've been mulling over the writing and trying to figure out where I'm getting snagged on things, and I do think I have answers there, which in theory means that cranking out a fifth book would not be a slog.

There was a certain point, about a month ago, when I said to myself "alright, I'm definitely not doing another book" and it felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Making that decision actually did reduce some of the anxiety I was feeling, which is wild.

And then once that pressure was gone, I started thinking "okay, but if I did do another book, and wrapped up some things I wanted to wrap up, and how would I do it?" and that felt energizing and liberating.

One of the things that Thresholder was always set up for was that the portal could be a soft reset, allowing me to tack in a different direction and not care so much about continuity or magic systems or whatever else. One of the things I really like in writing (and programming) is the open field, when there's an incredible amount of possibility and no technical debt.

So I do not have an answer for you about how much longer it's going to go. I think if it were doing better numbers, I would feel more inclined to continue it, but I've been saying that for a while, and some of that feeling is just because we've had to worry about medical bills and one-time expenses this year.

The first book got some rewrites, including ~6 new chapters and a handful of new scenes and changes to existing scenes, which will go up on RoyalRoad (and Patreon) eventually, before the book goes on Kindle Unlimited and gets stubbed. I am definitely going to have to decide one way or another where the stop point is for me.

[bonebabbles]

Riverstar's Home Finished

It's a good book in the last 5 chapters. It's a bad book in the first 23.

THE GOOD:

It pumped the breaks BIG TIME on Clear Sky's ridiculous "redemption arc," giving him the space to be the fantastic, greedy villain he functions best as.

The dialogue is written very well. It's been pointed out to me that generally Kate Cary writes good dialogue, and it really shows. There are some excellent lines and quotes in this book.

This scene between Tall Shadow and River Ripple is superb.

Riverstar's arc is handled competently. It's a story about learning to balance peace and self-defense, and not lose what makes him special in the face of Clan pressure.

Night, Riverstar's deputy, is a woman who remains his platonic friend. This is a very low bar but it was cleared.

Arc is a positive portrayal of an adoptive parent, though it is only mentioned briefly. Riverstar thinks highly and lovingly of him.

Gray Wing being angry tutorial tips every time Riverstar died was funny.

Clan cats being able to create rafts and use willowbark as binding is now canon

The ending action is commendable. The struggle over the bridge was compelling, and excellently showcased both Riverstar as a unique perspective who handles conflict in his own way, and Skystar as a xenophobic dictator who uses his religion to justify his greed.

THE BAD:

So many characters come out of nowhere, they are introduced endlessly.

Which especially sucks because those intros aren't terrible, but you don't get the chance to see their traits in action.

A lot of Riverstar's most interesting traits have been removed, or are not complimented by the story.

For example; in Chapter 19 he starts having an identity crisis about who he is and what makes him special; but because he's frustrated and lost about this for several chapters, you just get Grumpy Riverstar until he has his epiphany while fighting Slash.

MOST of this book is recap that destroys a MASSIVE draw of the character by making him less mysterious.

For example; Turns out he couldn't swim until the second book of DOTC, he hasn't been in this territory longer than the other cats, and he spent 6 months locked in a house doing nothing.

It's a real slog and PACKED with filler. God it's boring. The first 18 chapters have nothing to do with the last few and 5 more are dedicated to traveling.

They managed to brutally kill another female character (Flutter) in an arc already notorious for its misogyny, give her no speaking lines before that death, and forced blubbering romantic pining onto a character who was popular in large part because he didn't have that.

His new mate, Finch (later Finch Song), appears suddenly in chapter 24, three quarters of the way through the book, and they fall in love at breakneck pace. She's pregnant 4 chapters later.

Finch also ends up giving up everything she loved, her whole life, including her friends and family, to follow Riverstar home and give him biokittens so he can finally get over Flutter. (they dont even name a kid after her)

Final rating: 4/10 Should have been a novella

It's not as fucking awful as Onestar's Concussion or Leopardstar's Hernia. It is a readable enough book and does have a solid ending, but you could skip more than half of the book and miss nothing.

Fans of Riverstar will probably be disappointed by the pointless retcons, but will enjoy the last 10 or so chapters when he's true-to-form. The original content that's worth reading would have fit just fine into a novella.

If you want to read it but aren't interested in a DOTC recap, I would recommend just reading the Tall Shadow/River Ripple scene I linked above and then starting from Chapter 19 onward. I wouldn't buy this one unless you're a dedicated Riverstar fan, or don't plan to read DOTC and want to use this book as your only experience of the main arc.

[warrior-cats-rewritten]

I think my most controversial Warrior Cats opinion is that I actually really like the Cinderpelt-heart reincarnation plot. Or at least I would really love a version of it without all teh ableist implications. StarClan realizing that teh “no kits for medicine cats” rule is hurtful, and also that disabled cats are often pushed into roles they don’t want and aren’t suited for, and they reincarnate Cinderpelt for those reasons, not because a disabled life isn’t a full one. Cinderheart feeling pressure from teh clan, maybe even her family or even Lionblaze, to be a medicine cat when she finds out. It has potential idk.

I liked it at first, because... Admittedly, I read Po3 before I read TNP and before I finished TPB.

So Cinderpelt was this mysterious, not quite known character to me. I went and read TNP and thought "hmm. I wish it had been more 'this is happening because your life is going to be cut short now due to the move to the lake and that isn't fair because you were supposed to live a long time so go become your niece, really sorry about the badgers, xoxo PS sorry about your mom slowly starving to death in the forest'"

Instead it hinges on her having had "not a full life", which.... When I went EVEN FURTHER back and finished TPB.... She did. She loved Medicine. It was HER choice. The Erin's forgot, made a weird retcon that has become her entire character: "I loved my teacher and didn't tell him", and had Lionblaze be the... Reward for that?

I liked it, it was just done for a stupid reason. Another one of those "we wrote this plot point to make sure a character does xyz" instead of just... Writing it. Snowkit's death is the most egregious example of these writers pretending they have no control over these fictional cats.

I have some controversial opinions of my own.

The Lake territory is cool but also sucks. We need to either leave the Lake or start redoing things about it. It has no landmarks to hang out at or have what I call 'set pieces' whatsoever, and more importantly no threats (thunderpaths, snake rocks, gorge, the tree with a huge Owl, Carrionplace) and I'm pretty sure the writers feel this way too since we leave the Lake once an arc. I wouldn't mind moving territories again, to a more dangerous but still natural place.

Breezepelt should be a permanent Queen. I know it would mean seeing less of him (which I dislike) but him being a gentle parent and helping others raise their kits would be a PERFECT wrap up to his arc. As much as I desperately want Breezestar I think he would fit more as a perma-queen.

A trip to the distant future or past would be both good and bad. A whole new cast would be kinda cool but let's be honest, these writers suck. What is needed is a whole new writing team of people who actually LIKE the books.

I never really liked canon!Riverstar that much, we really didn't know anything about him because DOTC is less Dawn of The Clans and more "pwease like our power trip fantasy oc who knocks up a girl his son's age 🥺". I genuinely cannot remember anything River Ripple even does. He just... Isn't there. Maybe more prevalent in the last 2 books but I never got past the first 3 chapters of book 5 and never opened book 6 aside from looking at its last scene and rolling my eyes. Petal's death was where I drew the line, the narrative bending over backwards to make Clear Sky a poor sad baby crossed it.

• I've come around thanks to Bonefall but I genuinely hated Star Flower as a kid. The way she was described was uncomfortable, annoying and made it feel like the writers were trying to force you to think she's this gorgeous, perfect cat, it made her boring, bland, and anything with her in it a slog to get through because of the way Thunder spoke about her, going on and on about her beautiful she was, getting worse when Moth Flight's Vision described her with purple eyes to go with her star-shaped pupils... Also, I was really attached to Petal, who died suddenly when Star Flower entered the picture, and I was on the assumption Clear Sky and Petal were going to get together, while I didn't like Clear Sky, I just wanted my favorite to stay alive unlike every other female character. Starf also suddenly becoming a helples damsel in distress added to the annoyance so badly that I actually never finished DOTC, and it made me take a break from the series altogether. I really wanted her to be playing the long game. A sincere thank you to Bonefall for helping me reread who this character is, and while the way our 'Camera' describes hee is still annoying, I can at least look past that and see the roots of this character.

I love Leafpool, and Hollyleaf. Met a lot of Leafpool fans who seem to think Hollyleaf is this monster when she very much reads as someone who cannot handle their religious and emotional abuse based trauma and lashed out at the wrong person. What she did to Leafpool was awful but she was basically an irrational teenager. Just like apprentice does not always equal child, warrior does not always equal "grown ass adult who should get over it". Her own existence went against every single thing she believed in and was told by her own mentor to never ever question.

As sweet as the scene with Dandelionkit and Juniperkit in Starclan was... There was really 0 point in giving Squilf 2 dead kids, other than "the writers hate her". The only thing I can see a point for it is for a long-shot setup to Squirrelstar for some lives seeing as you just know they absolutely forgot about Squish's friends.

• I think Ivypool has somewhat of a right to be upset with Dovewing. HEAR ME OUT. She is allowed to be upset, NOT take it out on Dovewing. She also needs to learn that she helped drive her sister out, but the writers are allergic to that kind of thing in favour of "make character a background conservative. If female = mom. If mom = soft until politcal debate scenario." She is allowed to be sad and upset that her only sister is gone, she just needs to acknowledge she messed up, as well as lots of Thunderclan cats messed up.

It's time to kill Brightheart, Brackenfur, Thornclaw and Cloudtail. Enough is enough, start retiring cats who were full warriors when TNP started. Tawnypelt should be in the Elders den and Oakfur should be rotting in hell for what he let happen to Berrynose. On that same note, I hope Russetfur went on trial for that and her attempt on Firestar's life. I like her but good GOD, that was egregious, and looks even more pathetic when Yellowfang's Secret reveals she herself wasn't Clanborn.

Tigerheart's Shadow is a good book (aside from that one 'territory' bit, you know the one) and this series could go FAR if they embraced the mysterious mystical elements they set up, people are far too harsh on the experimental things.

Moonkitti makes good points sometimes but I need younger fans to stop taking everything she says as gospel and start thinking for themselves; case in point the recent Mapleshade drama that REEKS of "if I was Orpheus I wouldn't have turned around". The writers call the Moonstone the Moonpool every time we revisit the forest, do you really think they remembered The Bridge? Did YOU remember the bridge or did Moonkitti point it out? Also, with how cosmically doomed from the start the story was, the water probably would have overtaken the bridge and STILL swept them away. For every one good take Moonkitti has they seem to have more than a few bad ones.

My silly one. FERNSONG SHOULD HAVE BEEN NAMED AFTER HONEYFERN AND BEEN A HONEYFERN CLONE APPEARANCE WISE. No problem with him being named for Ferncloud but could they PLEASE acknowledge that Cinderheart is Honeyfern's sister too? Poppyfrost named her baby boy after Molekit and Lilyheart named her daughter Honeykit despite never having met Honeyfern, and those don't feel like coincidences.

I dislike the Tribe as its concept, but I like some of the characters that came from it, know what I mean? I like OG Stoneteller (though I always pictured him very differently. I saw him as gray tabby with white paws!) I think he is an interesting character, and Outcast was a huge letdown with having him be wrong. It would be a nice change in story if the Clan cats had tried to push their way, only for it to NOT work, for there to be a different way to do things, or a trick the Tribe used in the past that they "could give another crack at", and for the Clan cats to learn that their way of life is not a golden standard. Could you imagine Hollypaw learning this? I also really like Brook. I dismantled her and I know she is a play on the stupid "Indian princess" trope. I love how sweet she is, though I hate how it was painted against the Tribe. I plan to keep that wisdom and kindness, while also making The Tribes just as good a place to live.

I don't think Tawnystar would've been a good idea, as good as a name like that sounds. She, like Bramble, is too old, and the writers can't stand killing off Arc 2 characters in favour of killing off Arc 3 and 4, we would have been stuck with her and the writing for leaders atm SUCKS. Tawnypelt also just... Isn't that great. While I like her, I don't think she would be a good leader. Same goes for Mothstar, though I feel like they could have it done better if they do have it happen by making her not want the 9 lives. After the absolute Christian slog ASC has been about "non believers" it would be cool to see her prove that wrong and put this shitty arc's hinge point in the ground once and for all.

I'm tired of Med Cat protags. We've had one since TNP barring Dawn of The Clans when arguably it would have been the most beneficial from Pebble Heart or Dappled Pelt. Leafpool was cool because she was the first, Jayfeather was kinda cool still because of blindness and being part of the Prophecy, and while his POV in OOTS was a necessary evil, we did not need Alderheart. There is no reason to have Alderheart be the POV when Sparkpelt has the objectively more interesting setup and Alderheart's "anxiety" works better when we can't see through his eyes, as the authors don't know what actual anxiety is. Shadowsight and Frostpaw are alright, through Frostpaw's pov suffers around Nightheart and she does suffer from Camera POV Syndrome at times... Not helped by her being a Female Warriors Character with all the lovely things that come with it. Shadowsight was cool until the writers completely fumbled the bag and made him rude, argumentative, and dropped his epilepsy for no reason. All this is NOT helped by the new retcon that you're just "born different" with some kind of inherit special connection to Starclan, like it wasn't some kind of learned thing, hence Cinderpelt struggling with it as a lot of the time she was on her own!

Let Daisy retire and let Sorrelstripe take over the nursery. These new characters are in desperate need of personality, let Sorrelstripe be a feisty, confident midwife who won't let Queens be bullied into things.

[celestemodder69]

For as interesting and rewarding as learning and mastering a speedrun can be initially it doesn't change the fact that you are engaging with a game in contexts where no design work was put in, sometimes actively avoiding the actually designed contexts and modes of engagement and running the game to its limit and its breaking point.

What happens to Celeste's story when you avoid any and all of it's manifestations? To the ludonarrative sense of overcoming when you already start winning? What happens to the stamina puzzles when you just use neutral jumps? To the level design when you can hyperdash the length of a screen?

What exactly are you engaging with?

Forsaken city is a tutorial for the basic mechanics I already know, an introduction to the characters I already know, it sets up a tone that I'm gonna ignore and mechanics I'm gonna bypass, its so input dense it make my hands hurt.

Old site, has an open section that I would have explored and wandered around in casually, a chase section that would have pressured me to constantly move (lol) and relaxed wind-down section at the end (TASawake here I come!!).

Celestial resort has you timing your inputs to avoid the dustbunnies (here's a setup to not have to worry), was there some story at some point? Remember the first time I passed though here it was so slow and frustrating, things are better now. Damn that last room is annoying, if I could skip it I would.

Thank god this game has no autoscrollers, no good speedgame game has autoscrollers, wind is a mechanic that pretends to impede the player.

So you know how the point of temple is that you have to wander and get lost, yeah fuck that. Anyway isn't it fucked up that seekers aren't meaningfully deterministic that's bad game design!!! Do you remember how the walk with Theo was slow and tedious, how carrying him was supposed to be a burden, remember how you had to improvise because the seekers would throw everything off, do you remember how to do a gultra?

So like the whole thing with reflection is that after a slow reflective section were you are given the option to go through the fast path and the slower path a few times (it's meandering, or was rather). You confront yourself in an explosive battle were all the hampering elements of the previous levels are not there and the screens get easier so you feel like you are constantly making headway (as opposed to the previous sections) and it feels awesome, this is likewise significant for story reasons. What actually happens now is you progress through a slog of unengaging screens that is way longer than it has to be and it's the most dogshit experience of the entire speedrun.

Chapter 7 exists, I guess, the previous one was so utter garbage that I never decided to route from 6 onward, I would practice 1-5 then kinda hope for good results on 6-7 whenever I decided to do actual runs, did not give a shit. Also shoutout to all the strawberries I didn't get.

At some point you can't say you are playing Celeste anymore, not to any practical degree, not from a game design or player experience perspective.