#did I play other games? yes!

[aesfocus]

aes' main games of 2023

[moomoorare]

Need I remind everyone Purgatory is done and it was just a game, for FUN!!!!! Same will be for purgatory 2!!! I understand having bias and favorite teams but do not in any case bring down others because yours is too special or whatever, they were all the same, they were all trapped in there with tensions high and did things they normally wouldn't, the characters acted accordingly to their lore, it's okay to be upset at some decisions made but god don't make it a state affair. It was just Block game rp alroiughtt

[stealingyourbones]

Bones. Bones.

How have you NEVER HEARD of The X-Files before? Very popular 90s TV show. Very. Very. Very Popular. Next you'll tell me you haven't heard of Xena: Warrior Princess.

Yes Mulder/Sculley was a ship. it was Such a huge ship that the ship *coined the phrase shipping*.

that is all thank you for coming to my mini-talk, this has been a brief foray into Fandom History. o7

Simply said, I was born in the 2000s, I don’t think I’ve ever heard X files ever mentioned besides in passing.

When I replied saying I was offline as a kiddo I truly meant it, ya girl only had books, the outdoors, and art as things to do. I think X Files is some supernatural/alien type thing right? That’s why it’s “X Files” because it’s what would be in conspiracy theory type censored government documents???

With the “check back for bites” thing, like are the aliens like zombies?

And what it COINED THE PHRASE SHIPPING? That’s so rad I absolutely have to read the history of that, that’s so incredibly neat my dude holy hell

[sysig]

It started with a whisper ♥ (Patreon)

[grapecaseschoices]

TAGGED BY @indorilnerevarine to do some MCs on this lovely picrew! [I was going to do my newest babus, my disenchanted mcs too but then I remembered I already did them here; so focusing on my OTHER brainrot with the Infamous kidlets]

Tagging: @galpal95 @ava-du-mortain @aylaaescar  @mt07131  @quinnorion  @narrativefoiltrope @wayhavenots @griffin-wood  @roxaro  @amlovelies @sun-teas @mistyeyedbi  @thee-morrigan   @thelittlestspider  @yes-prisoner  @karolinarodrigueswrites  @straightuppotato-art  @sunshineandviolets @sustainably-du-mortain @sohmiya @ice-knife @icanmakewords @eatingyarn @brother-genitivi @serenpedac and anyone else who wants to do this! [as always NO pressure <3]

[left to right; then top to bottom: Ori, Lala, Alana, Josnel, Hiyam

Summaries below:]

Ori Zhou: lead singer of Gains; will one day juggle during a show and thus giving a heart attack to Orion and causing Iris to roll her eyes to Mars as Rowan dies laughing and Devyn is left fretting over their expired bandmates; Victoria's unintentional sidekick and untentionally learning from Gina what they put Orion through; just wants his BFF back ... definitely made the wrong choice in choosing bus buddies. Lala Sandoval: lead singer of DramaWhore; exasperated and fond of their "little" brothers' antics [Rowan and Seven; but five seconds away from dropkicking the latter] and fond as well as smug about pushing Orion's buttons; lowkey fascinated by the way the new drummer makes them shiver and is looking to get under August's skin. Alana Carita: lead singer of Promised Promises; songwriter and guitar player; has the queerness TSwift fans wish TSwift had and with similar aesthetics; "whether you come as a lover or an executioner --" levels of going through it with Seven Lawless, nothing like realizing you've been in love with your EX-BFF AFTER she it makes clear that she hates you and you realize that you [REDACTED] her life ... just sapphics in love stuff; but at least she can have quiet moments with Rowan and August's hand to hold. When romance sucks, friendship will be the saving grace. Bethany Josnel Coleman: lead singer of The Notations; piano player and singer who is wondering if he should go back singing for the church choir -- he was prepared for drama, but come on!; Aren't they really here for the music? Is tired of having his ex-bf glare holes in his head almost as he is already tired of [REDACTED], take your own advice and leave him alone Seven; at least he finds some moments of peace with a certain loyal fan and her hot cute dad ... moments that most definitely won't be happening again!! [Totally unprofessional and dangerous to blur such lines ... right?] Hiyam Vinke: lead singer of the Vespas; triple threat: but according to ex-Seven that's because they're Obnoxious, Aggressive, and a POS; TEAM BLAKE BURN THIS SHIT TO GROUND [but away from my meteoric rise to success]; in it to WIN and NOT the sentimental hogwash that includes realizing that her parents neglect really DOES hurt her because her annoying fan and her dad keep rubbing their joy in her face [and because there is no Seven to buffer that emptiness] --- that is UNLESS said hogwash comes in the form of Orion's smile, heart-to-blergh-hearts with Rowan, .... and maybe one Victoria Valentine.

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Have some Babysitter Fierce Dadity snippets because why not

The fierce deity was sprawled on the floor on his belly, head propped on a fist that dug into his cheek. His eyes were settled on the little wiggling bundle in front of him as Navi tried to crawl and instead flailed her arms while grunting. She pushed on the ground to elevate her torso a little after failing to actually move anywhere, and Fierce extended a hand towards her.

His finger got within a hair’s breadth of her face and then he gently booped her on the nose.

Navi squealed in absolute delight, rolling onto her back and giggling, and Fierce’s smile glowed nearly as brightly as his eyes.

XXX

Navi usually fell asleep with humming. The fierce deity could oblige with some tune or another, dredged from vague memories mixed with those of his little hero. Sometimes Link and Malon recognized the tune, other times it was completely foreign.

Today, though, no tune would satiate the little infant. Nor would food. Fierce rocked her gently and decided to speak to her gently instead, at first with words of assurance and care. When the little baby's attention was latched onto the soothing, smooth voice rumbling over her, the cursed deity switched tactics and started telling her a story instead.

"There, there, little one," Fierce soothed, pacing in the nursery, his head bowed over the infant. "I would offer to tell you a story of your father and his many adventures, but I imagine he will be the better author of that narrative than I. Instead, I will tell you of the hero I know of, the original Hero of Time."

Navi watched Fierce with fascination as the deity gazed off into the distance, eyes looking beyond the walls of the house. "Long ago, the world was fresh and new. Life was just blossoming, and the people were in close connection with the gods. A goddess who could manipulate time, called Hylia, was tasked with protecting a piece of the divine, the Triforce.

"For many years there was prosperity until a demon king, a god of chaos and malice named Demise, tore from the earth with his armies. A bloody war was fought for control of the world. But Hylia held out hope. She sealed the darkness away until her chosen hero could defeat it."

Here, the deity paused, sighing. "I never met this Hero, but Hylia had the utmost faith in him. She always looked so... relieved and happy when she spoke of him. But there was a weight to her words, a knowledge and guilt that permeated her. She always hoped she wouldn't have to rely on his aid. But... given what I've learned of the situation since then, it seems that it did indeed fall to him. Legend says he traveled across time itself and became known as the Hero of Time before your father took that mantle and claimed it for himself."

"I'd never heard of the original legend."

The fierce deity turned to see Link standing in the doorway, his eyes fascinated and wary at the same time.

"When I first took the Master Sword, it was said that I truly looked like the legendary Hero of Time," Link commented as he walked into the room, his gaze falling on his daughter. His face softened as Fierce handed her over to him, but then he looked back at the cursed deity. "I spent years wondering who that original legendary hero was, and whether I had lived up to his legacy. Wondering whether I would be viewed the same, if..."

Link swallowed and looked away. "What was he like?"

"I don't know," Fierce answered honestly. "But Hylia trusted him. I'd like to meet him someday."

Link's gaze snapped back at the fierce deity, confused and surprised. "You can do that?"

Fierce's smile, gentle and reassuring, turned melancholy. "Someday. But you are the Hero of Time, Link. And your legacy will live on forever."

XXX

Malon yawned and stretched as she slowly tried to wake up. Padding downstairs, she sniffled a little as the lukewarm spring air was filled with pollen. She saw a silhouette shaped like Link sitting on the couch in front of her, his back to her, and she heard Navi cooing.

My, aren't we up early, she mused as she rubbed the sleepiness out of her eyes. She was surprised, she could have sworn Link was still in bed when she got up.

Tiptoeing to stand behind the couch where her husband sat, she leaned over him, running her hands through his hair and sliding them down his neck to wrap around him. Bending over, she kissed him on the cheek. "Good morning--"

She froze. A flustered painted face watched her in return, his cheeks redder than she'd ever seen them.

"Not Link." Malon choked out.

"Not Link." Fierce confirmed, eyes wide.

The two stared at each other awkwardly, both steadily blushing more and more until Malon shot up to stand straight again while Fierce stared ahead pointedly.

And then Malon laughed. "I won't tell Link if you don't."

Fierce practically shriveled into the sofa, making Malon laugh even harder.

[fellhellion]

kind of obsessed w the way goro got served with a "you don't actually hate akira do you, i saw you smile when you realised he was alive" by the catsona of hope and just had a mental breakdown about it

[soldier-poet-king]

why did i decide my next crafting project was gonna be a kit for klimt's the kiss. why did i do this to myself. bitch u are PINING.

[konfizry]

ahhh i just remembered alphen and shionne are gonna be at the next tales of festival again and damn that's three times in a row for them!!! that's amazing (for me specifically)!! like genuinely i assumed last year would be the last time they were gonna have both of 'em on, bcause, well it can't be the arise Celebrity Couple all the time, everybody's probably sick of them already and the hype's gone down and all that, and heck they even hinted at that in one of the kagenare, but!! against all odds i get yet another year or shimoji and satotaku performing together

[anarchopuppy]

After all these years, the Zelda series has reached its full potential

[magical-xirl-4]

does it personally hurt my feelings when people (rightfully) critique SS's controls and how nosey Fi is?

yes

because this game is etched into my soul and mind I don't know how to explain it

[always-anxious-skychild]

But @hidden-forest-roommates...

I love them all.

Day 4 of Theme Ask: Honkai Star Rail!

Caelus (My sweet boi!)

March 3rd

And Dan Heng (Mostly based on his alternative look...)

[nightingaletrash]

Now that I've watched the Bakura vs Bonz duel, I think I've figured out why the insistence on turning the Rare Hunters' death threats into shadow games feels so flimsy. (yes this is just an excuse for me to talk about the shadow games vs the death games shhhhhh)

First off is that it doesn't work with the lore: none of the Hunters have the power to turn a duel into a shadow game because its the Millenium Items that make shadow games possible. Without their power, it's just not possible, and adding a purple cloud doesn't change that. I really doubt that Marik goes around and 'blesses' buzz saws and bits of glass to give them access to the Shadow Realm in very specific ways.

Second, the death games are all about the illusion of power, whereas the shadow games are based on real power; if you put Marik and Arkana next to each other and ask an outside observer to pick who they think is more dangerous, they'd probably go with the guy who locked a kid in shackles and threatened to cut off his legs if he lost a card game, because that's a very extreme measure and it gives Arkana a lot of power over that kid. But Arkana's power starts and ends with his power over Yugi. It's contained to his stage, just as all the other Rare Hunters only possess power over the stages they construct. Yet their power is only as real as their abilities, which are very limited, and so they build in safeguards to protect themselves. Parachutes and hidden keys, means of escaping their own death traps in the event they lose because they know that their power is so limited. That's why they rely on theatrics and death threats. It's a projection of power, to make themselves look and feel more powerful, all while plotting a way out should their intimidation tactics fail to overwhelm their opponent.

And this is where the Bakura vs Bonz duel comes in. Whereas the Rare Hunters make their death threats very overt, Bakura's threats are very subtle despite his being so blunt. He doesn't state his intention to send them to the Shadow Realm... because he brings them there immediately. Its evident that when the duel begins that the environment has changed in a way that it doesn't in the death games. The colour palette has changed and the characters comment on the fog, and those visual cues are enough to clue in the audience to what has happened. Bakura has made this duel into a shadow game, and the world has changed to reflect that. But Bonz doesn't realise he's in a shadow game because he has no idea what that is; he thinks the only stakes are a place in the Finals. Only as the duel nears its end does Bakura reveal what the stakes really are and what they stand to lose. And those stakes go both ways. There is no built in loophole for him, no pre-planned way out if things go south. You win or lose in a shadow game, and while Bakura certainly has power here, there is an element of control that he's surrendered for the sake of terrorising and condemning some guys. Yet he doesn't fear it, doesn't fret about it, because he's got full control of the situation thanks to the power imbalance between him and his opponent.

And that's what 4kids really screwed up when they turned every threat of death and violence into 'being sent to the Shadow Realm' because its not meant to be some random threat that anyone could pull out of their hat and could happen to anyone. It's not something anyone can do just because they know about the Shadow Realm. It's about how even the most extreme of mundane threats still pale in comparison to the threat of something that can be barely understood.

tldr; while 4kids really watered down just how much of a threat the Shadow Realm is, the people who actually play shadow games are operating on a whole other level from the guys making death threats.

[racke7]

Me vs FF14 part... 2?

It's taken me pretty much three full days of running from cutscene to cutscene. But I've finally reached Heavensward.

And like... on some level? I'm kind of offended?

Like, a part of me genuinely wants to replay the entire game from the start "as something else" (different main-class, different race, different starting-area, whichever), because the dungeon-queuing system is actually really fun when you start to Understand it.

As in, FF14 has somehow made an MMO that has almost eliminated the feeling that it is a level-grind? Partially? It's turned the whole thing into a surprisingly comfortable level of (limited, but genuine) social interaction.

To the point where even someone who isn't obsessively grind-focused like me, can genuinely enjoy themselves. Just queuing up for dungeons, Hunting some bounties, and-...

And then FF14 has so many fucking quests that it literally chokes the life out of the gameplay.

As an example, one of their biggest dungeon-draws (bcs high rewards) is a quest that almost everyone hates playing. Because doing that dungeon means watching literally eighteen minutes of unskippable cutscenes.

And that's with them having reduced the amount of cutscenes in that dungeon, because the players complained so much about them.

Like... I'd be perfectly happy replaying the game from the start with a different character, even knowing that leveling isn't some kind of pain-free thing. But the thought of having to restart the fucking Main-Quest? Of having to spend literal days just running back-and-forth to cutscenes?

I'm currently feeling a bit burned-out as a result of the binge I went on to get here, but I'm pretty damn sure that I wouldn't replay this fucking thing even if you paid me for it.

(And, of course, Heavensward also has a Main-Quest continuation that you have to follow. And now I'm not even allowed to fly everywhere to cut down on the "running back-and-forth"-part of my complaints. Not until they arbitrarily allow me to discover flight for the new areas, by going through even more of the Main-Quest.)

(Not to mention that now I have to go back and do even more Class-quests, with their own cutscenes, in order to unlock a bunch of skills.)

(I'm very fond of the "the church is evil because it doesn't let you fuck dragons"-meme, and I'm very much seeing it. But like... come the fuck on. Why is this MMO a feature-length movie-series? Why can't I just play the game and have fun?)

[avernusreject]

Aeliana Swiftbrook - Beast master ranger