#i think for me its not about missed potential but rather its being sad about making a decision to put your happiness aside to get by

[puppyeared]

people who do STEM or administration as a career full time and continue to do art as a hobby, I am scared of you but like in a hot way. youre like if we were allowed to have cold drinks in winter. i look at you and think of miles morales with his two cakes. do you want to make out sometime

[h-worksrambles]

Sonic X Shadow Generations fascinates me. Because it feels like something I shouldn’t be excited for. And yet I absolutely am.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Sonic Generations. It’s my third favourite game in the series and my favourite 3D Sonic game (with Sonic Adventure 2 in a close second). I’m very happy to see it getting a re release to expose it to new audiences, and playing it in 4K60fps on my PS5 is a very enticing. Likewise, I really like Shadow as a character and I’m excited to play as him again.

And yet, his new bonus campaign promises to basically be a bunch of nostalgic pandering for Shadow the Hedgehog, a game which I consider to be, simply put, crap. It was boring, dull, colourless and embarrassing trend chasing. And pretty much everything I hated about it is on display in this trailer.

We’ve got gritty, grey cityscapes, we’ve got the rather blah alien villain, Black Doom returning, we’ve got the looming return of the series’…bafflingly executed lore. In a word, Shadow was a pretty much everything I didn’t want Sonic to be shoved into a blender. I’ve given my thoughts on revisiting past excesses and failures for the sake of nostalgia. I wrote a whole thing about Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and my fears that it would go overboard pandering to the 2000s spin offs (which I dislike a for lot of the same reasons as a lot of Sonic stuff from the mid 2000s). A faux attempt at maturity that sacrifices Sonic’s camp and colour, and lacks the writing competency to make its tone shift work is pretty much my worst case scenario for the series. And now we’re invoking that for nostalgia? Again, I should hate this.

So if I dislike Shadow the Hedgehog so much. If it really is so emblematic of Sonic’s worst excesses that I want it to leave behind in the 2000s…then why am I so damn hyped for this? Why am I not feeling the same dread as whenever VII Remake implicitly threatens to bring back Genesis?

I think it’s because of the specific relationship Sonic has had with its past for the last decade. So much of the stuff from that time period is material that Sega has seemed actively scared to touch again. Sometimes with good reason. But I think that’s why some material from that time has gained such a strong nostalgic cult following, and why they’re held up as such bastions of missed potential. There’s never been anything quite like Shadow or 06 since they came out with how safe Sega has subsequently played things. And in many respects, that’s a good thing. But I can see how it build a sense of mystique around them. It was kind of sad to see 2010s Sonic so…scared of itself. Terrified to invoke its own history but not really committed to a new direction either. And this is pretty much the exact opposite of that hesitancy.

Basically, the reason I react to seeing Westopolis or Black Doom with ‘holy shit let’s go!!!’ rather than ‘why, god, why?’ is because I genuinely never thought I would see them again after this long. It’s just exciting to see Sonic Team throw caution to the wind and embrace all the parts of their franchise. Even the parts I personally dislike. Plus, Sonic Generations is kind of the perfect game in which to reimagine that stuff and make it..actually good this time. This was the game that made Crisis City of all things into a banger level. The game that took Silver, one of the most notorious boss fights in the series, and gave him a kickass encounter.

If they can fix that, they can do anything.

Plus, the fact that the trailers already show all these trippy stage effects and anime af boss fights and set pieces tells me we’re not just gonna be running through the same drab washed out burning cities that made Shadow 2005 so boring. Again, there’s evidently an effort being made to rehabilitate and reimagine this stuff, not just repeat all the same mistakes. And that’s exciting.

So yeah, Sonic X Shadow Generations has somehow managed to get me genuinely excited for all the parts of the series I typically balk at. And that’s pretty impressive.

That said, if I see Mephiles again, I’m leaving.

[lizzie-is-here]

bucky barnes oneshot

the white cat

bucky barnes x fem!reader

a late night stop at the animal shelter, a truck, and a dinner date

a/n: not bucky’s cat being named after the place he died 💀 anyway sorry i’ve disappeared i got busy lmao. BUT. i have an idea for a new series based entirely off a winterguard show i was told ab this year by dupont manual so we’ll see if it goes anywhere 👀

the white cat pt. 2

Working at an animal shelter had its benefits.

For all the sad stories you often had, you also got to save pets, watch them get healthier, and most of the time, go to a loving home.

Plus, every so often, a very attractive customer would come in, and, seeing as you are the only employee constantly in the so-called “meeting room” for potential adoptees, you would help them.

Today was one of those days. Or, rather, nights.

Technically, you were closed. Everyone else had left earlier and you’d stayed to clean up. You were sweeping up fur and treats, listening to the radio as you worked.

The man outside the window showed up around 8:56.

Normally, you’d be creeped out. A woman, alone, while a man stared at her through a window? It’s the plot of, like, every Scream movie.

But you recognized this man. He’d been showing up the past few days, not to ogle you, but to ask questions about the cats you had, what he’d need to buy, what kind of care they needed.

You’ve only seen him, never actually talked to him, but he seems sweet. A bit shy, very nervous.

“Hi.” You wave and the man looks behind him before pointing at himself. Laughing, you nod. “Yes, you.”

Setting down a cup of pens, you unlock and open the door for him.

“Sorry about coming in so late. Are you guys even open?” He fiddles with his glove-covered hands, turned a bit awkwardly so his left side is further away.

You shrug, not wanting to scare him off. “We can be. What can I help you with?”

He scratches at the back of his neck before pointing towards the back. “Can I get a cat?” He pauses before barreling on. “I’ve done all the research, got all the stuff set up back at my apartment, and honestly…”

He trails off a bit. “I think it’d help with some… stuff.”

You understand. Plenty of people need company, and you could confidently say that animals provided plenty of that.

“No problem,” you smile. “Come with me.”

Leading him back, you don’t comment on the fact that he makes no noise when he walks, or how a soft, pleasant whirring like quiet machinery has reached your ears.

The meeting room has a few beanbag chairs, a table, and cat and dog toys scattered around. The mystery man sits cross-legged on the floor, looking up at you with eyes that make you think he might be the puppy.

He looks around, a little lost. “So, what do I…”

You pick up where he leaves off. “Are you looking for anything particular?”

He shakes his head, and some of that shyness seems to shake away too.

“No, I trust your judgment.” He smiles. You ignore the warmth in your cheeks and whisk away to the back, looking into the kennels until you find what you’re looking for.

A young cat, only a few months old. Just came in last week. Every time that man has come in, she’s been excited.

“Alpine, sweetie, c’mere.” You gently coax her into your waiting arms, cradling the white fluff as you head back to the room.

It’s impossible to miss how his eyes light up when he sees you, even more so when he spies the cat.

You sit across from him, so close your knees touch, and pass off Alpine.

“She’s so small,” he whispers, almost reverently. You chuckle, watching her climb unceremoniously into his lap.

“She likes you. Been trying to see you all week.” His eyes are still fixated on the little white blob that contrasts his jacket. “Her name’s Alpine, unless you wanna change it?”

He pauses, laughs a bit like there’s some inside joke there, and shakes his head. “No- no, Alpine’s perfect.”

A few minutes later, he’s filling out the paperwork and making small talk when you finally notice his name and age.

James Buchanan Barnes, age 106.

The ex-Winter Soldier. The Howling Commando. The Fallen Sergeant.

He notices you mentally smacking yourself and holds out his right hand.

“Hi, I’m Bucky. Sorry I didn’t say anything earlier,” he chuckles.

You wave a hand. “Don’t worry about it. Sorry if I made you feel weird.”

Bucky shakes his head and readjusts Alpine. Steeling his nerves, he gives you his best smile and finally does the second thing he was hoping to achieve tonight.

“No, no, you didn’t make me feel weird at all. In fact-“ He meets your curious gaze. “-I was wondering if you like to go out sometime?”

You can feel the blush you know he can see, but manage to respond anyway.

“Yeah, I’d really like that, actually.”

Apparently, he isn’t expecting you to say yes so quickly, and pauses for a bit.

“I- Uh, what’s a good time?”

You gesture around. “I get off work tomorrow at 7:30?”

“I’ll be here.”

The two of you enjoy the moment, Alpine purring softly in Bucky’s arms. It’s perfect.

Until a car horn honks from outside. Heading out, you see a truck with three other people in it.

Three other Avengers, to be exact.

“Thought you’d never be done!” Sam Wilson jokes from the driver’s seat. From the passenger’s, Natasha Romanoff waves while Steve Rogers opens the back door for the soldier next to you.

Bucky rolls his eyes.

“I’m sorry, they’re being stupid,” he grumbles. “But, I’ve only got a motorcycle, so I needed some help.”

“It’s cute that they came along,” you say. “Still on for tomorrow?”

He laughs and gestures to the truck. “If those heathens haven’t scared you away, then yes. Absolutely.”

“I’ll see you then?”

“See you then, doll.”

[artemistalkstoomuch]

All of My Opinions on the Mean Girls Musical Movie

Firstly, loved all the original film references. Of course the obvious ones like having the same lines, the thing about fetch being slang from an old movie, but also!!

. Janis' suit being purple for spring fling!! and omg let's not even talk about how pretty Aul'il Cravalho was throughout the entire film. Her eye make-up was so impressive

. that part in Sexy where they're cycling through potential outfits and one of them is the white shirt with the purple bra holes cut out !!

Slightly upset about the fact they cut out Meet the Plastics and it ended up being more like, Meet Regina, but I get that. On the topic of songs, I understand a lot of them were cut out because they were "too theatrical" but I can still miss em!! Truthfully when I heard the new Stupid With Love I was devastated because it's one of my favourite songs and they fucking tiktokified it, but I actually think it works really well in the film- it gets the "cringy first proper love" aspect across, which is its purpose, so I'm happy.

THEY GOT RID OF "WHO HERE HAS EVER FELT PERSONALLY VICTIMISED BY REGINA GEORGE" which was absolutely criminal

AND THE PRINCIPAL AND MS NORBURY ARE TOGETHER which was actually adorable, and I didn't think about the fact that could be something that happened, but I'm very happy it did.

The bus at the end of Rather Be Me was such a jumpscare but also so funny. THEY MISSED OUT THE DIALOGUE TO DO IT THOUGH SADD. Plus she was so goofy that entire song?? Why was she running in and out of all of those random rooms.

The rumours spreading via phones looked half cool, but it's dated the film imo, which is what Tina Fey originally set out to avoid! Like "fetch" was made up slang so in years to come the film wouldn't seem cringy for having slang teens actually used to use at the time.

Big drum-roll: We did not see enough of Regina's meanness to actually justify her being a mean girl. A lot of it got filtered out through songs, and the majority of stuff was just her, like, responding badly to sexism?? Also tell me how I'm gonna villanise Renee Rapp she fucking SLAYED what a queen.

Also WHERE IS COACH CARR'S SEXUAL ASSAULT. THAT'S THE WHOLE REASON MS NORBURY GETS ARRESTED!!?? That, to me, is one of the biggest indicators in the original film of just how powerful the "Mean Girls" are, they know about this, and the other teachers don't. Not only that, but it highlights just how immature they are, because they don't do anything about it. They're girls who run the school, without having any sympathy or context to do something about bad stuff they know happens. It's just "a funny thing to write". Not having that made me sad tbh.

Changing the line to "you wrote this" in World Burn was clever but I wish we got to see more of the girls turning on each other, rather than direct fighting.

KEVIN G BEST SONG IN THE MUSICAL

Where was the 4 way phone call, DEVASTATING. We literally did not see the plastics actually interact with each other. There was no meanness, no impact, all we got were the "events" when OTHER THINGS HAPPEN. You could say it lost a lot of filler, but the filler was actually context! And part of what makes the film so good!

Devastated she doesn't say "damn you're mine" in Someone Gets Hurt. I do think it's hilarious they just didn't make the actor guy for Aaron sing at all lol

"That filter you use looks just like me" WHY. I appreciate the change from the line about weight but like, this DOES NOT MAKE SENSE. at least say "that filter you use has nothing on me" THE WHOLE POINT IS SHE'S ABOVE IT

I didn't like the extended version of Revenge Party, sorry, too used to the old version

And I did not like the girlbossification of Sexy. I get it's supposed to be powerful like "watch me as I run the world in shoes I cannot walk in" but I feel like the whole point of "I expect to run the world in shoes I cannot walk in" is supposed to point out the irony, like, being slightly critical of "modern feminism". I will say though that the wobble from avantika as she says that is superb.

Overall I thought the film was enjoyable and a nice blend of the original film and the musical, but I think both ended up losing individual meaning because of how much they intersect. You don't have time to appreciate the lyrics and power of the musical because you don't hear them all, and some of them get cut, and you can't follow the plot in a meaningful way because the songs are happening, and they skip a lot of context to fit them in.

Would totally watch it again though, if only to see Renee Rapp say "get in loser" cos she actually nailed that

[ganondoodle]

Hi Doodle! I just wanted to say that I love your art and that it's so nice to know there's more people who were as confused and infuriated by how TotK turned out. My brain has unanimously decided to adopt most of your TotK Rewrite into my headcanons for game and manifest them into reality lol. I was just reading your post about your ability wheels ideas (awesome btw) and how you were unsure about what power Link would get from the Yiga and it made me wonder if you knew about the Yiga Clan side quests. If you collect all pieces of the Yiga set, they let you into the hideout where you can take a Blademaster exam and get the Earthwake ability. I was just curious to whether you actually knew about it or if you just didn't like that particular power, hope I didn't spoil it for you

Thank you and Thank you!!!! im still so glad that my rants seem to be more validating for people who feel the same rather than plain annoying xD

as of now im pretty sure i want to use the clone ability to be the one you get from Koga as it would be something more unique to him, references my HC of him having been a monk as old as Miz Kyoshia, and replaces the distraction and support in combat that youd lack since i removed the sage ghost buddies constantly being around you :D

the yiga stuff was literally my biggest motivator to keep playing bc i love them so much, i spent the majority of my playtime running around in the yiga set xD which is also why i never realized until way into the game that i wasnt a genius at sneaking around them nor that they are just so dumb they wont spot you ever but bc i had been wearing the set the entire time in the underground; the underground was one of the few things i pretty much 100%ed, excluding some annoying bossfights

i do know of the earthscroll and tried to use it alot but its but its got a very limited usefullnes due to the way its controlled and you having to unequip your weapon, which made me sad bc it was so cool to be able to interact with the yiga like that, its one of the few shiny good parts of totk imo, tho i think it was a huge missed opportunity to keep them as seperated from the main story still, they have so much lore and story potential you could have used or expanded upon :(

in my rewrite i had considered making your yiga ability related to it but it didnt quite work, partly bc they otherwise didnt seem connected to that element at all and shadow seemed like a better fit, so i assigned the earth magic more to ganondorf actually, due to him causing those massive earthquakes and having, somewhat literally, spread his roots into every part of hyrules underground, it connects well to the way i rewrote the memory system and ganondorfs bossfight too :3

i hope that answers your question!

[indierpgnewsletter]

Playing Metamorphosis Alpha (1976)

(This was originally published in the Indie RPG Newsletter)

This week, we officially kick off a year's worth of intermittent posting about games from 1975 to 1985. We start off with Metamorphosis Alpha, a game by James Ward, published by TSR in 1976.

The pitch of Metamorphosis Alpha is wild. You play people aboard a giant starship that on its journey through space was irradiated and turned into a wacky wonderland. The ship is huge - 50 miles long and 17 levels. It's a megadungeon with whole biomes in it. The people aboard the ship have essentially had their society break down with mutated folk and non-mutated folk separating and fracturing into a thousand different communities. A lot of knowledge of the ship has been lost and now, life is mostly about survival.

Mutation is at the heart of this game. It's both a worldbuilding principle (anything is possible! just say it's a mutation!) and an invitation to make off-the-wall weirdest bunch of freaky little guys you could hope for. Character creation is easily the most fun part of the game. You can play a normal human (boo!), a mutant person, a mutant animal, or, wait for it, a mutant plant! Yes, my green friends, you can absolutely play a plant. In my game, which we dubbed the Preposterous Adventures of Peacock and Plant, the two players were, you guessed it, a peacock and a plant. Or rather, a peacock-person and a plant-person. Or to be even more precise, a peacock with six hands and a levitating ficus.

While stats are randomly rolled (3d6 down the line), you get to pick your mutations. For physical mutations, you could pick having wings or gills. For mental mutations (usually limited to one), you could pick precognition or telekinesis or telepathy or... death field generation? It's a gonzo buffet.

I don't particularly like the term "lonely fun". I think "lonely" stopped being a synonym for "alone" a while ago and now it's mostly used to mean "sadness about being alone". There's nothing sad about sitting by yourself and playing a game. For both the GM and players, Metamorphosis Alpha's big gift is solo fun. The GM is invited to make this big starship, piece by piece, stocking it with whatever nonsense they can imagine. The players are given this toy box with pretty clear rules so they can spend all the time they want making the choicest weirdo.

How does it play? Good question, disembodied voice! Well, it doesn't really. The actual rules of the game felt like little islands that you could visit but if you didn't, you were wandering adrift. There are six stats. Radiation Resistance, only used when exposed to radiation. Mental Resistance, used for psychic attacks and defending from them. Leadership Potential, which is used to see if someone will follow you and join your party. And then Strength, Dexterity and Constitution which are for combat.

So outside of being irradiated, trying to recruit a follower, or fighting, the game doesn't really have any rules to invoke. There is no core mechanic as you're probably used to. People who have played OD&D will recognize this but for others, I have to explain how weird that feels. You don't just roll the dice when making a jump or when trying to persuade a person or examining a door or literally anything outside the situations mentioned above. There is no ability check or saving throw. It was honestly like playing a PbtA game with four very specific moves and nothing else.

I didn't want to just ignore this in play so I didn't houserule it away. We stuck to the text and anytime the characters wanted to do something dangerous or tricky, we just talked through it. This wasn't great. Not just because we missed rolling dice. For me, this was tough because there was the stark tonal shift from character creation to play. When we made characters, it seemed like a saturday morning cartoon. But when we played, the primary method for progress was getting the GM to agree that your action should succeed. You can't just roll for success, you have to convince the GM. But on what basis is the GM supposed to decide? If I was being an impartial referee, thinking about physics and realism and so on, my job is to say "no" to wacky ideas that would be home in a saturday morning cartoon. In the end, I didn't want to spend my time saying no and chose to embrace my players' wacky ideas. We had a fun game and since the players wanted to avoid all the combat, we basically never touched the dice.

I'm not sure what to make of this. Is this one of those "objective successfully failed" situations? I'm really interested in hearing from folks who played this game or its successor, Gamma World. Which way did you fall? Survival dungeoncrawl or saturday morning cart

PS: This is how stats like Radiation Resistance are used. When the situation arises, you look down at a look-up table! Radiation level on the x-axis and your stat on the y-axis. The result is the amount of dice you take as damage, I think. If you get a D, that's instant death. But every turn when you're exposed, your stat temporarily goes down by one. So you have to keep rechecking the table every turn.

[tenebrius-excellium]

It leaves me very confused and a little sad that there isn’t a richer, larger, more united and more enthusiastic fanbase for the Avatar movies. I’ve been waiting for commentaries on the second movie, both indulging and critical, and there’s a mere trickle of content appearing in the tags. So far, they all fall in weirdly isolated columns of character x reader, Kiri stans, ‘I loved the movie!’ one liners, ‘boycott Avatar’, Na’vi learners and people being horny over clone!Quaritch on main. 

There isn’t much meta despite the universe being huge, fairly consistent, and ever-expanding. The like-to-reblog ratio on posts is catastrophic. There’s not much art. I miss people being excited. I miss discourse, headcanons and AUs! I miss people giving detailed reasons for the way they respond to the movie, no matter whether they liked it or not. Nothing seems to stick despite so many refined details, e.g. the Metkayina using sign language underwater and having inner eyelids like amphibians! Or the fact that the explanations for the use of English, Kiri’s and Spider’s existence etc. were quite thought-out and satisfying. 

Sure, there’s the epic Pandoran world on one hand, and then there’s of course the “Cameronism”: The two-pronged personal fantasy of the director who is playfully exploring colonialism as negative while reaffirming it in the same breath, combined with a bland, overly conservative story. If the plot really reflects Cameron’s thinking, it is dangerously outdated by 15-20 years and cannot stay relevant. But the point to me is: It was to be expected. 

Avatar and Avatar The Way Of Water are US-American Hollywood stories based on military culture. Once you know that, it is my firm belief that it’s possible to detach yourself from that lense. But perhaps I really am arguing from a merely European perspective that is so used to mediocre language dubs, the strange obsession with heroism, patriotism, weapons and violence, and other US-specific phenomenons that just feel generally outlandish to non-US viewers. We don’t have the same problems, so being constantly faced with yours through entertainment media causes us to... kinda tune those out and enjoy what’s left, tbh. Because some of them are really painfully cringe up to completely unthinkable to the rest of the world. Even the first Avatar was never intended as a global story; - although the RDA is supposedly composed of international players, the representation on Pandora is purely US-American, even more, it’s not even covering all of your own ethnic variety. So if we can’t even expect European, Asian, African and South-American scientists in the space mission, what are we supposed to expect about indigenous voices of smaller civilizations? 

What I’m trying to say is, US media currently have a certain range of messages they convey even here in Europe, because, well, you still have the monopoly on filmmaking and we watch all of your stuff. However, we are very aware that your POV is narrow and limited since it rarely actually applies to us. And sooo, what do we do with the reality of our own exclusion that we are inevitably constantly reflecting? We ignore it, we roll our eyes and don’t think too deeply on it, we leave you guys to solve your own problems and enjoy what’s given. Perhaps we are able to separate a fantastic narrative from the cultural/ political clashes that come with it a little better, because most of the time, we don’t identify with the latter. I’m not saying the differences are in any way good or that they should stay that way. I’m saying that from where I’m at, Batman, Spiderman and Avatar don’t look too different to me when it comes to elaborate escapist fantasies about good vs. evil, and media might not quite be as relevant to conflicts as they seem in the US. Education is much more important, and to act in real life rather than in fiction. As for me, I’ll appreciate Avatar like any other fandom space, because the concept is extraordinary, its future potential still enormous, and I would love for more positive interaction. I harbor the sliiiight hope that Cameron might grow out of his current spree and redeem himself in one of the later sequels. Since there are going to be 3 more of them, you know. There you go :)

[incarnadinedreams]

Jiang Cheng was silent, as though he had finally become calmer. Wei WuXian put his hand on his shoulder again, "In the future, you'll be the sect leader, and I'll be your subordinate, like your father and my father. So what if the GusuLan Sect has its Two Jades? The Yunmeng Jiang Sect will have its Two Prides! So, shut up. Who said that you don't deserve to be the sect leader? Nobody can say this, even you can't either. If you do you're looking for a beating."

Jiang Cheng snorted, "You see how you are right now? Who can you beat up?"

-- Ch. 56, ExR translation

I've seen the take around that Wei Wuxian never broke any promises to Jiang Cheng, because in the 'Twin Heroes of Yunmeng' promise he said they would be like their fathers. Since Wei Changze left Yunmeng, then Wei Wuxian was never intending to actually be Jiang Cheng's right-hand man, and therefore no broken promises. Easy peasy.

And I personally just can't get behind that interpretation. I do think that in a more meta sense the parallel is interesting; that's part of the whole tragic irony of the situation. And that only works if Wei Wuxian didn't mean it that way, but it ended up becoming true anyway, in the most horrible and unpleasant ways. And I do think there can be some interesting exploration of the way promises can mean different things to different people without either of them really being wrong.

But I feel like it's doing a huge disservice to Wei Wuxian's character to run with the take that he actually meant to have some sort of loophole in there. It's very much a miss the forest for the trees kind of thing. Sure, you've successfully gotten him out of one broken promise... but what would that mean, if it were true?

I just don't think the line about their fathers was some sort of tricksy, cunning thing he inserted as a gotcha. He wasn't trying to legalese his way out of it, he wasn't trying to pull one over on Jiang Cheng. Viewing it that way kind of destroys what was, for me, one of the most emotionally poignant moments of the novel. If it were the case, he'd be rather shallow and manipulative for it, and that just doesn't resonate with me. Not to mention it doesn't make much sense to carefully insert a loophole into a promise he never needed to make in the first place.

As a Yunmeng Shuangjie Enjoyer, for me this scene is like the valiant last stand of innocence. Up to this point, our plucky protagonist and friends have escaped every trial largely unscathed. The comically evil villain has been resoundingly humiliated (for now), the big angry turtle of slaughter has been slaughtered, everyone made it home in one piece after a romantic(?) cave interlude, more or less. It was difficult, sure, but our heroes prevailed in the end. A few injuries, some scars, but nothing really bad - yet.

There's drama, there's strife, but at this point it's of a more personal, domestic nature: Jiang Cheng's sadness at what he feels is his father's dislike, his sense of inadequacy and being overlooked, his mother's scolding, the stress and discord within the household regarding rumors and Wei Wuxian's ambiguous role, and the pain of being pulled in between his parents. Painful, to be sure, just very limited in scope compared to what we know is coming.

But in the midst of that turmoil, this scene is Wei Wuxian giving Jiang Cheng hope for a future where he can forge his own path. That they can create something different but wonderful, with Wei Wuxian by his side, where it doesn't matter what rumors are going around or what mistakes their parents have made. It's an 'us against the world' moment; it's an outright declaration of a bond that had been, as far as we know, largely unspoken and assumed up to this point.

Whatever type of bond you read into them having, it solidifies something between them. It's putting into words his confidence in Jiang Cheng's potential when he believes his father doubts him. This is one of the few ways he is allowed to express unwavering support for Jiang Cheng in a sea of ambiguous ties and fraught relationships.

It's supposed to be tragic. It's supposed to be the shining light that gets snuffed out by the darkness and horrors that follow. The tragedy is that promises earnestly made sometimes must be broken, no matter how good the intentions were when they were made. The tragedy is that it's the enormity of their sacrifices for each other that, unknowingly, drive them apart. It's the secrets they keep to spare one another, it's the slow building of a death-spiral of conflicting priorities and duties, it's the very roles the promise was meant to bridge the gap between that makes this promise untenable, impossible to keep.

And I believe that's why we see, so much later, that this promise is the crux of Jiang Cheng's breakdown at Guanyin Temple, even after everything else that had happened.

Jiang Cheng cried soundlessly, but tears had already streaked across his face. To cry in such an unsightly way in front of others was almost impossible for him in the past. But every single moment that passed from now on, as long as the golden core remained in his body, as long as it could still revolve, he'd forever remember this feeling.

He choked, "... You said I'd be the sect leader and you'd be my subordinate, you said you'd help me your whole life, you said you'd never betray the YunmengJiang Sect... You said so yourself."

"..." After a moment of silence, Wei WuXian replied, "I'm sorry. I broke my promise."

-- Ch. 102

I believe what Jiang Cheng is really grieving is that bright-eyed, optimistic vision of the future they'd shared in that moment, us against the world, together, and there are so few ways they're allowed to express the weight of everything they mean to each other that he can only cling to a promise that represents the distillation of their ties to one another.

And if Wei Wuxian never really meant any of it, if he'd been planning an out from the beginning, if he'd never shared the dream too, that would just be kinda shitty and boring instead of compellingly tragic.

[twistedapple]

On bergamot and aged brandy

EDIT 3/11/2023: Part three of the Perfume Rant is up, it's about my OC Nuria this time!

Hiiii~

With the successful reception of my Perfume Rant about Raphael's amazing fragrance, I've decided to tackle Astarion's!

For all of the technicalities, please refer to the first post.

Now, about our favourite vampire's scent.

In the previous post, I presented the great families of scents, as well as some concepts such as daytime/nightime perfumes, and how seasons are linked to them as well since temperatures affect the way scent molecules develop themselves. Based on the ingredients for Raphael's perfume and their potential order of notes, I had guessed an oriental perfume for him with intense projection, I may even suggest it to be more of a nighttime type of perfume as well, very enticing and enveloping.

Based on what we know of the ingredients listed for Astarion's perfume, he may very well be the exact opposite of Raphael's.

The notes Astarion gives for his perfume are bergamot, rosemary and a touch of aged brandy. Based on these scents and their olfactive families, I wager that we can yet again take these notes in the order they're given by Astarion, because it makes sense.

Top note: Bergamot is a fairly common top note. It is extracted from a bitter and inedible citrus of the same name, and creates a refreshing citrus scent with a spicy undertone. It is commonly associated with Chypre and Floral scents to give an energetic twist, although it can also be found in more classic perfumes.

Heart note: Rosemary is an aromatic herb, commonly used as a spice for cooking or for haircare to promote growth, strength and shine. It has a fresh, herbal scent fitting the Chypre family (woody scents), and provide for a clean and almost bittersweet scent.

Base note: Aged brandy isn't a scent in itself, however a clever mix of scents can give the impression of aged brandy. To obtain that type of scent, a blend of aromatics and musk may be possible - and we already have one aromatic in the heart note for that very purpose. I'd wager that adding scents such as oakmoss, musk and a hint of tobacco may very well do the trick. It adds an attractive depth to the fresh and clean impressions, without dirtying them. On the contrary, I think this complexity helps elevate the top and heart notes by being fairly complementary, since it retains some of the fresh tones as well through more aromatics, but it makes them feel warmer.

I think Astarion's perfume is about as enticing and pleasant as Raphael's, to be honest. However, it gives a very different impression. We start with a fresh citrus, then go for a clean woody tone, before finishing with a warm note. Overall, it is an elegant perfume that reflects both Astarion's youthful spirit now that he has gained his freedom, and his more distinguished side - visible in the way he dresses and behaves. I imagine it to have less projection than Raphael's perfume, however it'd be more inviting for intimacy - which is both sad and pleasant because we can associate it with Astarion's 200 years long prostitution job for Cazador, but also his way of getting us players in his good graces... Until he realises that he is having The Feelings as well. Interestingly, I see his perfume more fit as a daytime type, however it can be cleverly used as a nighttime perfume, as I just explained, thanks to its solid base note.

To conclude, I think his perfume would make for a wonderful unisex blend, it certainly feels very charming! In my opinion, this is the type of tasteful scent that makes you want to bury your face in the neck or the shirt of its wearer... Which definitely suits Astarion and how we feel about him.

Anway... I made that post while purposefully going blind on the already existing Astarion themed perfumes and candles, so please don't come after me if I miss the mark. I'd rather chat about it all because I really love perfume.

What's the next step? My own BG3 OC, Nuria. However, I'll release one more sample before tackling that one. I have a very precise image in mind for her, but I'd like to keep introducing her a bit more before that. Feel free to poke me if you're curious about her, though!

[rmbunnie]

Watched GOTG3 on friday! Here are some of my personal thoughts (spoilers obvs):

- I really liked it, first of all. To be honest, Rocket is my fave of the group alongside Nebula. I just think they’re neat, and I like characters that cause drama. If there’s no personality traits that are a little abrasive and offputting, then i’m not saying that’s a flaw, but perhaps i am saying its a bit of a missed opportunity. This is probably one of the reasons I am still interested in GOTG when most of the mcu is a bit worn out to me, there’s this neat focus on why they’re acting the way they are and letting their reasoning steer the story to a good extent rather than using it like an add-on (especially if the way they’re acting is flat out dickish,) and I think that’s a fun approach. All this to say, Rocket is one of my faves, and so a movie largely focused around his character is pretty interesting to me by default.

- The hallway fight was great. Loved it no notes a plus.

- I really liked the tardigrade suits on the tech planet-meteor-lab thing! They looked weird and offputting, don’t get me wrong, but space suits that are visually inspired by the creature that can naturally survive the void of space, boiling temperatures, and so much else are REALLY well-suited (haha) to the organic planet founded by the man who uses existing creatures as the bases of his "creations.” I can absolutely picture the High Evolutionary learning about a tardigrade and being like “hell yeah i just came up with a GREAT and original idea”

- I also liked the organic planet. Very cool the meat was so gross and the eye motif was fun.

- I have mixed thoughts on Adam Warlock, but mainly positive. I think that with the amount of things that were happening in the movie some of the scenes that were necessary for his development made the runtime drag a little and lose some momentum, but I’d rather have them than not have them. He was funny, and the creation of Adam posing at the end was both fun, cool to look at, and kinda something to think about, seeing as he was the one taking the place of god, but he is also the one named Adam. Maybe the idea there was that the first good act he does is the birth of his own humanity, as in existence as a person or as anything more than a passive invention? Or maybe they just thought it would be fun haha. Regardless, the idea of the divine being the one who can gain something through contact with the human is a sentiment that fits in the movie about the dude who plays god via animal cruelty but lacks what his "lesser” creations have and can never get it due to his failure to recognize their personhood idk.

-The ending is how it should have been imo. I know it’s so so sad to see a found family leave each other and it bums us out, and I am bummed out best believe but particularly in the case of Peter, Drax, and Mantis, it seems like what the movie was going for (if you’re taking the latter two’s writing as anything past comic relief which, like, of course I am) is that being in the Guardians was keeping them from evolving into the people that they were meant to grow into, and stunting their potential. Again, very relevant with the High Evolutionary, evolving people against their will isn’t right but remaining frozen in time isn’t natural. It was nice to see them get unstuck.

- Speaking of evolution and the characters, Gamora seemed like she had a little divergent character evolution thing going on, with 2014 as her sorta common ancestor. The ravagers seemed a little out of nowhere but not the the extent that it was unbelievable. “I bet we were fun” was really sweet. It’s nice to see her gain some of the things that she had before the time travel death bullshit personality-wise, the idea that she would always end up kinder and happier when she was free of Thanos (who i hate btw, not even as a character although that too, there was just NOTHING interesting done with him the whole goddamn franchise) than when she was with him is not something it takes a genius to figure out, but it’s still good to see. It’s also worth considering that original Gamora had to choose to be free of Thanos everyday and work with the consequences of his actions while 2014 Gamora was brought into a world where Thanos was gone regardless of her feelings or actions. This is kinda explored in the movie, and neither Gamora is bad, but I feel like its very important characterization-wise to understand that she didn’t fight to leave and struggle in doing so the same way original Gamora did, and so their worldviews are different, too, not only their experiences. To original Gamora the Guardians were fundamental to her indepence, without Peter she wouldn’t have gotten the orb so easily and without Rocket and Groot she might not have survived the Kyln. To 2014 Gamora, Thanos is out of the way and now these other people are kinda just here.

- Gamora dying in Infinity War or Endgame or whichever it fucking was was bullshit and i won’t debate on that but it is funny to see the directors of the mcu doing the exact same thing comic writers have been doing forever coordination-wise. Trying to work with the absolute trash that’s going on in the concurrently-running title is a comic struggle that transcends medium. GOTG did pretty well with it.

- I loved the High Evolutionary! Of course, not as a person, he’s the worst, but he was consistently really interesting to watch and his actor did a really really good job with him! The religious-type traits were really interesting, and specifically his bit with the opera song and music and how he valued literature and art was really interesting and not to be too jojo in marvel but it kinda gave me Dio or Pucci vibes. That’s the type of weirdass tangent one of them would say (specifically their convos with each other or the Pucci Hallelujah moment.) Everyone has already said more than i could say about his weird evolution-genetics shit but it remains weird. 

- “There is no god, thats why i stepped in!!1!” and the bit wheres he’s scrambling to the cage where Rocket is to find out how he knew the filtration system thing were two particular highlights of his character for me. He is messy and emotional and all over the place, and he thinks he is perfection incarnate. His emotional outbursts add humor and are a big part of what makes him interesting and fun to watch, but he would ridicule them in any other being. This is proof that the High Evolutionary is a hypocrite with poor taste.

- Ayesha dead. She was a bitch but she slayed. she will be missed, for the comedy of those fucking gold lenses was a highlight of GOTG2 for me.

- Rocket is a creep. Rocket is a weirdo. What the hell is he doing here. The Radiohead singalong in the beginning was so fun. I loved it so much, genuinely. 

- Lylla, Teefs and Floor were. so much. Everyone says they’re sad, and of course they are, but the whole thing was offputting too. Not as in like “oh they’re so gross” the vibe was just horrifying and sorta nightmarish because it’s not like you think they’re gonna make it out, you see Rocket in GOTG the first and you know there’s absolutely nobody with him but Groot. The scream was, a lot, and very well voiced, I guess? It seems weird to say, it’s not like, oh wow cinema i loved the part where his friends died and he screamed as he watched them get shot in his face but i felt my stomach drop in that theater even though i fully knew it was coming so i guess what i’m saying is mission accomplished you did the thing the way the thing was meant to be and it gave me bone nausea.

- Also it has been pointed out before it is not original thought of mine but the cage death scream vs the dance party scream. I’m thinking about that. Similarly in the sense that i’ve seen it mentioned but I keep thinking about it, the Dog Days are Over was quite a choice, seeing the zune scroll to the most recent decade it has was, bittersweet, or cathartic i guess? They can finally just move through time, they get to be growing people again now. I love the Dog Days are Over. I love Florence.

- On the Lylla topic, everyone’s been saying this sad quote made them sad or that sad quote bummed them out but the thing that got me most was “We were right. The sky is beautiful, and it is forever.” in the final dream sequence. Idk why that one particularly got me like that, heaven and the sky as a pair is a pretty common concept, eternity is just hefty I guess. Compared to the cage though, I’m glad they get such a nice place to be.

- We got “vocabulistics” and now we have “emotionallistic problems.” In GOTG 1 I could give him the plausible deniability of smushing together “linguistics” and “vocabulary” but no, Rocket just likes putting “ballistics” inside words. As is his prerogative. 

- I like how weird and retro some of the sci-fi elements are. The movie isn’t just a rehashing of older sci-fi concepts of course, it implements the retro elements interestingly and makes them fresh, but mad scientist experiments and unnatural experiment beings in a slightly more horror/negative approach is like RETRO retro sci-fi, like heavy book Frankenstein original first-ever sci-fi, so it was interesting to see past sci-fi incorporated into story elements in addition to world aesthetics and soundtracks like we’ve already seen. It’s nothing new to say GOTG has a bit of a 70s vibe just as a franchise, which I absolutely adore, but particularly counter-earth has a kinda “wouldn’t it be fucked up if that happened” vibe to it that I think is really fun. We got meat planet. We got animal planet. Lets go. This is peak fiction.

- Speaking of GOTG being retro-esque this trilogy LOOOVES that fucking yellow slime. Every movie there is a prominent yellow slime feature, it’s the most consistent character in the mcu. Did they accidentally order too much on movie 1 and save the rest for later? It kills me. 

-Speaking of, it’s very funny to me that they end up living on Knowhere. Like in the grand scheme of things. They did well with it, they have lovely homes with nice tables and blankets and lamps and such but like. Imagine you break out of jail and you go to kill time at some shady weirdo planet because the guy who wants to buy your orb is there, and the guy who wants to buy your orb is also Spongebob. You call up the guy who killed your family while you’re there and he stabs you and throws you into the yellow goo to die. The weird guy you’re stuck with breaks down and gets in a fight with you and threatens to shoot you in the face after doing this weird venty monologue that you don’t get at all. This is all one night. Nine years pass and you’re besties and you live there. The goo vat you got thrown in is probably like two blocks away because the planet is kinda small. Idk it just doesn’t seem like that would give homey vibes to me but they made it work and i commend that!

- Overall it was a good movie. I definitely have some thoughts that I’m missing but the thing about situations like that is that I can’t remember them. I will be bummed that the trilogy has ended but things end and this is life. Oh well. It ended well.

- Oh one more thing but the High Evolutionary ultimately lacking creativity was really interesting. All he can ever do is use bits and pieces of things that already exist so he can’t ever achieve what he would consider true perfection, because he can’t appreciate anything that exists due to its inherent and unavoidable flawed nature, and since his “inventions” are based only on preexisting stuff the flaws aren’t going anywhere. When he does come up with something worthwhile he effectively discards it because he doesn’t understand what makes it special, he just knows that it has something that he doesn’t and he’ll destroy it and eventually ruin what was good about it in the first place in the pursuit of replication, so if he ever did achieve perfection he wouldn’t even be able to do anything with it. The one thing he makes that he values, the only thing he can think to do is copy it and ruin it. His mindset won’t allow ingenuity because his pursuit of something without flaws can only ever be informed of traits he’s already seen in flawed beings. He owes everything he ever did accomplish to the flawed. If he wants something perfect so bad he should have at least tried to start from scratch (it would have been a move of immense hubris but obviously he’s not above that) but he can’t, because not only is he uncreative but like Rocket points out, he doesn’t even want perfection, he just hates everything the way it is. 

[looniecartooni]

Owl House/D Gray Man Theory: Was one of the inspirations for the Owl House DGM?

Warning: Clunky theory with possible grammatical errors and spoilers ahead for the anime/manga series D Gray Man and the Disney show The Owl House including its finale. If any DGM and/or TOH may have noticed something I might have missed, feel free to (nicely) add on or argue against what I suggest. Also the pictures I use are not all that good and I kept a lot of DGM stuff private to keep any potentially new fans from being spoiled. Also also- it’s a lot longer than I thought it would be- so be warned!

So Owl House and D Gray Man have been near and dear to my heart and the most active fandoms I’ve been a part of for many years.While I’m sad to see the Owl house end and understand it takes time for D Gray Man to update (though it does feel like it may end soon), I’d like to somewhat bring attention what I thought might be DGM referances or inspirations in TOH.

First off- I am going to start off with the idea of brothers kinda Caine and Able-ing eachother for the greater good (yep jumping right into the dark stuff). So in DGM, it is revealed that Mana and Nea were “twins” involved inside a rather secret part of the 100-year exorcist war against The Millenium Earl. Long, confusing, spoiler-free story short, Mana started becoming the next Millenium Earl and Nea believes it is his destiny to destroy him and take his place in order to save him.

Phillip/Belos was also someone who believed he was liberating his brother Caleb from the witches that he thought took his brother from him and actually successfully unalived him according to flashback pictures (which I do not have on me a this second).

Nea’s memory also possesses the main character Allen Walker who is a poor boy that has been through so much trauma and devastation he did not deserve. Oh and since Mana adopted him, that technically makes Nea his uncle. (Allen might also be the reincarnation or something of another Allen- but as of now that has not been confirmed). Allen also has a scar on his eye.

In the Owl House, Hunter- the boy who is a clone/grimwalker of Caleb who has a scar on his cheek and way too much trauma from his Uncle Belos also gets possessed at one point. 

Both of Allen and Hunter also tragically lose their little companions that had originally belonged to someone else in the past (Flapjack belonged to Caleb and Timcanpy belonged to Nea and technically Allen’s alcoholic mentor). 

As for less tragic stuff/ TOH finale spoilers, here’s what DGM things I thought I noticed ...

When Luz was ripping Belos from the Heart, a bunch of tiny hands come out from behind to attack her.

Tiny hands also appear quite often in D Gray Man both by the power of the exorcists and that of the Millenium Earl’s clan.

Ironically- all the exorcists’ weapons (known as Innocence) originates from something called The Heart of Innocence which the Millenium Earl wants in order to destroy humanity (and possibly save it? It’s still a mystery.

And finally- we have these weird blob things that Belos also tried to use to attack King, Raine, and Eda.

They reminded me a lot of Jasdevi’s hatred.

There’s also a lot of immortal children, darker undertones than realized, ect. but it’s past midnight and this post is long enough so I’m going to say that this is all I could find.

If Dana Terrance was at all inspired by D Gray Man at all- I think that would be awesome. I enjoyed watching the show and I enjoy D Gray Man even though I don’t post about it as often as I used to. Thank you Owl House crew for such a wonderful show for all of us to enjoy and also thank you Hoshino Katsura for the amazing series D Gray Man. 

[nightmarist]

now that i actually have a minute let me go on a (positive) tangent about how much I Loved the epilogue party.

I love that its so sweet and silly for Grandpa Withers to throw us a reunion party. I did a version letting Karlach die, and a version where we went to Avernus. In the death version, he asks us several questions about us and how we're doing, about her absence, and how much we miss her, and even makes a Joke in order to help us feel better. It was genuinely the sweetest thing for the bag of bones.

I howled and wanted to throw something in pure joy when Halsin gave us a whittled duck. I WANT that duck. I want to paint it. It's so sweet he gets to have fun with the kids under his ward and his version of balance isn't pure nature, it's the challenge of nature and civilization working together.

My Shadowheart got her parents back and I just love that she decided to live on a little abandoned cottage with them, making apple cider. Getting a letter for her from Nocturne was lovely, I hope they could be friends again someday.

I LOVED that Wyll decided to be a ranger. I think that suits him so well. I want to do a new run with him as a ranger - I don't think I've ever played one, even in DnD so I don't know how they work, all I know is they get animal companions and "favored enemies" which I think suits his folk hero and adventuring background well. I also just think its the cutest thing he was SO excuted to share his stories and adventures with us, he gives you the Biggest, Wettest Puppy Eyes known to Faerun and asks "Please?" if he could tell you a story. I thought I was going to die.

In my Astarion Romance Ending, and sadly Karlach dies, I initially chose I wanted to help him find a way to walk in the sun again (and tbh I guess it depends on your DM but Wish or True Resurrection could possibly do the trick to cure vampirism, but "cure vampirism" and "stand in the sun without dying" are two different asks, Wish might be able to fix the former if some enchantment or enchanted item doesn't). Anyway, it was interesting to see him a little excited if not desperate to want to look for a potential aid. In the Avernus ending I loved that he accepted the shadows and darkness as part of himself, it was a nice juxtaposition without necessarily making it "bad" for the player and him to want to help him walk in the sun again. It was rather bittersweet to see him in an ended romance but still call you pet names.

My Gale became Dekarios the Divine, the Galerian God of Ambition. I tried to find a way to prevent it but it seems te only way (I think, anyway) is to prevent him from acquiring the Book about Karsus. Every permutation led him to becoming a God, and it was so cold. I LOVED this ending, as much as I hated what Gale became. It really turned the dial up on his hubris and ego. He hadn't bothered to even visit his mother, and Tara (rightfully) scolded us, and asked us to visit his mother to "hold on to" the old Gale. It was really sad. As a Warlock, and my Tav being Ambitious (and would have encouraged Astarion to Ascend if it were not for a bug preventing the ritual) he asked Gale if he could potentially be patron / find a better patron. Gale said it would take a few millennia for Ao to allow such direct contact. And it was Alarming to hear (and fascinating) that he has worshipers primarily located in Thay.

I have NOT seen Gale's alternate endings yet, I'll be doing more playthroughs as soon as I figure out who tf I want to play next.

My Lae'zel became the new diplomat betweeh the two Gith clans, to unite the sky. I was obsessed with I saw the opprtunity to give her that. When it came up as an option after orpheus (whom I convinced not to die after he became an Illithid), i wanted to give that woman Everything. So I encouraged her to take up the sword and Orpheus' offer and I felt SO PROUD when she called his dragon(s) and stood on one's back like she'd been admiring since Day Fucking One. SO. PROUD.

I saw two separate letters from Dammon depending n Karlach's alive-or-dead status. He sends his condolences to us if she died and blames himself for not trying harder, dedicating his life to working with Infernal Iron. If he's alive, he asks s to ask Karlach to write to him, its very simple but I think it's so sweet. She's just so fun and happy, and relays to us that there may be a way to fix her engine with blueprints she's found the location of, which sounds so hopeful without actually giving us a "canon" (similar to astarion's "maybe there's a way to walk in the sun" - i prefer the ambiguity than total fix-its). The hope feels better than the confirmation, tbh.

It was also interesting, i think, that with the a non-karlach romance there's the addition of after I help Karlach with her engine in the aforementioned fixing plot she's found, I could potentially return to Astarion's side so it's a lot less dreary feeling like we're both permanently trapped in the Hells and instead the hopeful promise of a future where Karlach can return to the surface alive and forever well, and we can return to our loved ones.

This directly connected to one of the new Raphael epilogues - I LOVED how threatening Raphael was with it. On one hand, Asmodeus would tear him to shreds if he tried to overtake the Hells even with the crown, that I feel is inevitable. But either Gale as his Ambitious Patron of sorts, or perhaps as a distraction (remember: even gods can die) tearing apart the pantheons, he could very well take advantage of that to overtake Asmodeus, I think. It seems even more on par with his style of planning, he seems very min-maxed when it comes to working towards a goal - the less he has to do himself, the better.

YOU CAN HUG THEM. I talked to Halsin first and I screamed when "you look like you need a hug" came up. My god. I went to shadowheart after and saw you could hug her, too, and I wasn't expecting it, I genuinely just thought it'd be a Halsin thing only bc he just seems like the obvious "gives good (bear) hugs" choice. Oh my god you can hug your party members. I lost my fucking mind.

Also, Milil..... very nice little lore, I loved how excited he got when we passed our check if we knew who he was. The floating instruments around him was a lovely little touch.

Getting letters and newspaper clippings from all our saved comrades was incredible. I Liked everyone's letters yes but i was MOST excited and happy to hear from our tieflings after they've been through Literal Hell and back. Rolan got an interview, Lakrissa bought Alfira a house and dedicated a plaque to us for their music school, Bex and Danis opened a bakery together. The tieflings collectively built a whole new district for themselves in Baldur's Gate. It'd be excellent for comradery - that they can share with one another as a tiefling community, weave a rich tapestry of tiefling culture, to have people to be safe around, and people who know what its like whether theyre from Elturel or not.

ZEVLOR MY BELOVED. I was so happy to hear from him. He said his hands shook the whole time he stayed at the temple "with the other veterans" - other tiefling hellriders - and it was rather bittweserrt, both inspirign an sad to read his hands only stopped shaking when the city shook, and all the Rider paladins restored their oaths by being devoted to preventing Baldur's Gate from becoming the next Elturel. He said "Come see us, when you can" OF COURSE Im going to visit, oh my god. It was just nice to hear he's doing fine and is volunteering at the temple that helped him.

I loved the epilogue so fucking much. It felt really nice.

I like to think that our heroes do it often, maybe annually or just casually see each other on adventures. maybe an occasional "Hey, I'm on a bit of a quest and need the expertise of my favorire [class]" it felt so cozy.

Did Withers put up all those decorations himself. I Love the old bag of bones so much. He just wanted to give us a little party. Let me hug Withers please he deserves it.

[crabdancecrab]

One thing I noticed about stray is how, as you climb the four key levels with robots living there, each new level has better and better overall conditions/quality of life, but less and less heart and soul, I guess?

Major spoilers below! (Like seriously don’t read if you haven’t played and finished the game)

(I’ll be using they/them pronouns for all robot characters unless I can specifically recall the game using otherwise, such as with Seamus and Clementine.)

You first meet the companion robots in the Slums, and it’s sad and dark and literally trash in many places. Everything is scraped together with the refuse from above that was tossed into their home; the place is literally the dumpster for Midtown, but the robots are full of life despite everything!

There’s a soul to them!

A lone guitar player makes music just to add ambience, one robot takes it upon themself to tend the plants that grow in a few sparse places, two other robots toss buckets of paint over the rooftop just for fun, a trader barters for things you can just find! A grandma knits ponchos for the cold robots. A son follows his father’s footsteps to find him after probably years thinking he was dead!

A Guardian protects their people and stands alone against a potential threat, one that initially they believe to be one that could destroy them!!! Like they fully thought that we (the cat) were a Zurk! And they still closed the elevator door and stood against us, ready to die to defend the people of the Slums.

And, may I remind you, these are robots! Robots who, based on the graffiti and dialogue and items, think fondly of humans and miss them and aspire to match their life. These robots want the humanity they already embody in the game, and  their human predecessors; they call humans the Soft ones, and remember us with love.

Here, in this darkest, saddest place, the furthest from the lights of the roof and surrounded by enemies, the Outsiders were born. They dreamed of what many called impossible; seeing the sun.

So you follow their steps, eventually reaching Antvillage, and here the robots have a sort of peace. They don’t have the constant fear the robots in the Slums did, these robots don’t fall over themselves in terror like them, but rather greet you with a bow and invite you in. Light shines down in a way reminiscent of the sun, and plants grow around the tower that you climb to meet the Outsider there.

I don’t know if the Antvillage has less soul than the Slums, but rather it’s the neutral transition point. The peace it has lets the robots enjoy a calm before the storm; they are taught by the outsider Clementine in a school-like environment, there seem to be children robots here! Seamus, a robot in the slums, gave the impression of a young adult, but the Antvillage feels like it has robots of all ages. They play mahjong, paint the walls of their tower home, grow plants and adore the different colors of them, and meditate to “ascend”.

Antvillage showed a peaceful coexistence of robots with personality and life, and furthermore showed that this peace would continue even with improved conditions. It wasn’t just the darkness of the Slums that led to the robots’ souls, but the bots themselves! This chapter was really a “people have always been people” moment for me.

This chapter is also very short. You meet the Outsider there, do a few side quests if you want, and then climb up and leave. You could argue that the Sewer is why the Antvillage chapter was so short, but I have other ideas. Still, I was confused at how quickly I made it through the Antvillage, even being a completionist, but I’ll come back to this.

Above, you arrive at Midtown.

Midtown is an urban nightlife styled area crawling with oppressive guards, and its residents are largely selfish or alone. Companionship is found in a few rare, quiet places, and it feels like a thing that the robots have to hide.

In this chapter, you are largely tricking the robots to get what you need, or hiding from cameras, or running from guards, and when you do finally find an ally, she swings a lamp at you at first! Because she thought you were one of the guards!

This environment fuels fear, pain, and loneliness, and you see it in so many of the robots there. It’s the kind of place that needs bars and night clubs, not to mimic humans with fondness, but as genuine escapes from the reality they live in. You have to wake up one drunk robot in a bar to force him to go do his job.

Robots bar you from places left and right, not with accidental garbage or closed doors you can circumvent with open windows, but with nightclub bouncers and harsh words and anger. They don’t want you in their places, because you are not greeted as a friend, but rather seen as another stranger that hopefully won’t be a problem to you.

An early robot you meet in Midtown is being searched by a guard, and when you speak with the stopped robot, they ask you to leave them alone. These robots don’t want your help, and they don’t really care that you’re there. All they want to do is mind their own business, and make sure you mind yours.

I would say Midtown is a reflection of the more unfortunate reality of late-world humans, rather than the fond imagination the Slums have of them. It’s steeped in capitalism’s effects, and the corruption and suffering that comes with it. The Sentinels that roam the place are described as “designed to keep peace, but grew to per

However, as with life today, there are rays of hope in places. A band of musicians refuses to bow to the guards that would stop them from enjoying their music; the dancers in the club enjoy life, despite the fear they live in. The bar in the area has a back room with a small plant in the center of the table, and the walls around it are covered in pictures of sunny beaches and outdoors from a better time. One cowboy robot enjoys a cat sitting on their lap while they both take a catnap. im sorry

Its fitting that the Outsider in this section is a fugitive; Clementine is relentlessly brave, determined, and resilient, and the Sentinels do not like that. She hides alone, until you come along and reignite her fight for the Outside. If you show Clementine’s picture to robots around Midtown, many of them feign they don’t know her, but “she probably lives in residence”. Even though they won’t openly pledge support to her and her cause, the game implies that they’re rooting for her and aren’t going to sell her out to the Sentinels.

Which makes Blazer’s betrayal a slap in the face. 

Blazer is the ultimate show of greed behind a pleasant face, of the person who caves into the worst of choices in an environment like this where there aren’t many good choices. His betrayal leaves you, Clementine, and B-12 locked up, powerless, and back in a dark environment reminiscent of the earlier parts of the game.

This part of the game hurt me more than the Slums and scared me more than the Zurk chases.

Robots in the jail are locked up, alone, in cells, with no people around; the guards are all the drone bots, not even the more cold-hearted and soulless Sentinels bots. The first one you see after breaking free from your cage is tied down in a chair, their head broken from its shell, and they’re sparking off as if being electrocuted.

The jail is a nightmare of loneliness, pain, and hopelessness. It spits in the face of the humanity the Companion Bots had built in the game up until now, saying the cruelty of the world will still exist, despite your kind acts and the love you’ve seen in the robots before now. It holds the darker parts of humanity; the consequences of selfishness, the callousness of those who harden themselves to survive a cruel world. It’s the part of the game that most asks you to give up.

But, you don’t, because this is a video game, and if you’re like me, you’ve joined the hopeful fight for the sun that the Outsiders pledge themselves too, and you’ll be damned if you don’t let these people see the sun.

Clementine has other ideas, though. When you reach the gate to the subway, she closes the door behind you. Clementine tells you that the Outside pledge doesn’t require everyone gets to the Outside;

“Its not that everyone has to get to the Outside. But one of us has to.”

She gives herself up to give you a chance to see the sun again, and promises to keep you in her memory. As tragic as this was, it was the reminder I needed to continue in the game, to keep fighting for all the robots that helped me get this far. The darkness of Midtown didn’t matter anymore in that moment; what mattered was one robot had enough soul and heart in them to keep fighting through it all.

The Control Room was where this entire post’s idea first came to me as I ran around the too-clean halls and spoke to every robot there.

These bots have no names, no clothes, and repeat overlapping phrases. They do not have the life of the robots you’ve seen up until now; even the Sentinels seemed more like people than these automatons. The orange Helper Bots ask what they can do for you, and paint the walls, and clean the windows, and wipe the floors, and keep the entire place spotless and perfect and empty.

The only real sign of humanity in this area are the newspapers on some of the tables and the occasional coffee mug. Otherwise, the Control Room feels like a freshly built home, decorated with placeholder furniture to tempt a buyer. It has the technical ingredients for a home, but it’s empty and lifeless in a way that’s frightening compared to what you saw up until now.

Helper Bots never grew a soul like those below. I don’t know why I assumed all robots would have; a sign in the Slums says “it’s been X days since robots gained souls,” so I guess I assumed all robots got their souls at once, together, in a collective enlightenment. These robots prove that to be incorrect; the soul the Companion robots have was not a random chance or miracle.

Exposed to human art and books and music, and human trash and man-made monstrous bacteria and darkness, the robots below grew their souls. It was something they cultivated and then reveled in. To live and love and suffer and exist was a gift to them.

The Helper Bots, alone and in an immaculately clean environment devoid of human works, never got there. They never grew. In the Slums, a mural describes the sun and how it helped humans grow, and it was warm and bright. The Slum robots have never seen it, so they can only assume this to be true from art, but many doubt its existence. They live for hundreds upon hundreds of years in darkness and garbage, and they love each other.

In the Control Room, Helper Bots live in sterile, plush conditions just meters below the surface and the sun, and they never learned to live or love.

If you ask me, I think the Slum Bots were the lucky ones.

[cola-canine]

The System Shock remake is still a great time. Found a bunch of new upgrades and toys to fool around with including a magnum and an SMG. Got my first inventory upgrade about 16hrs in and man, I was about ready to accept working with only two or three weapons. I've pretty much abandoned all melee weapons now as I've got a pretty good income of ammo now. A little sad about that because the laser rapier is such a cool-looking weapon however, melee builds in games just typically aren't my thing. I'm still favoring the pistol and energy pistol still, despite having the shotgun and SMG now. I'm sure that'll change after a few upgrades and whenever I get ahold of the assault rifle.

The balancing in this is so fine tuned, it's insane and it leads into some real close encounters. Your energy pistol, for example, has a charge toggle for low, high, and overcharged. Useful for damage output but is also great tight spots. Overcharged shots will usually cause robotic enemies to explode, creating an improvised AOE type attack but can scatter and (at least, I feel like) potentially lose the loot gained from them - a great tradeoff if your health isn't the best. Low and high charges are best for small and medium sized enemies, respectfully, but usually take a few more shots to stop them in their tracks. Using the right charge on the right enemy makes looting easier.

Lots of new enemies lately, things are definitely getting tougher. Flying mutants, some sort of mutant tiger (that caught me very much by surprise), some very heavy-duty cyborgs and robots. There were a couple rooms I entered where a trap was planned for me and I barely made it out. It's not always as easy as completing a small platforming puzzle, the game really teaches you to be on your guard at all times.

I think the only big criticism is the VR-like flying/hacking minigames that are used to unlock some doors. They're a bit of a pain to play through and its combat isn't as fluid as the main game. I'd rather my "flying vr hacking program" be a hitscan type attack than a projectile one - they always feel slow and unresponsive. Like am I actually doing damage to this thing or did I miss it? They're not very frequent, maybe one per every other level to the station, but as soon as I encounter one I'm like "Great..."

Being able to free roam with some basic idea of an objective is refreshing too. I don't mind the "Here's what you need to do" cursor usually but the lack of one here gives me a sense to not rush my exploration.

Highly recommend this for all you BioShock/Deus Ex/Prey-heads out there. This is fantastic still.

[darchildre]

A Costume Piece, part 1

In which Raffles and Bunny plan to steal some purple diamonds and Bunny learns more about the art and craft of burglary.

Thing 1:

...never had I seen him so excited before. Had he been following Rosenthall's example? [ie, drinking] His coming to my rooms at midnight, merely to tell me about his dinner, was in itself enough to excuse a suspicion which was certainly at variance with my knowledge of A. J. Raffles.

Bunny. My sweet boy. There are two possibilities for why Raffles is in your rooms at midnight, both of them are criminal, and only one of them can E W Hornung write about explicitly.

(I should cut Bunny some slack here - this is only his second entry into crime qua burglary, after all.)

And Raffles leaned towards me with a sly, slow smile that made the hidden meaning of his visit only too plain to me at last.

Okay, no, I can see why Bunny is confused. He hasn't yet realized that stealing jewelry from people is one of Raffles' biggest kinks.

Thing 2: Bunny wrote an article about the jewel robbery that he himself helped commit, oh my god, amazing. I missed that detail on my last read through and now all I want is an au where Bunny becomes an established crime reporter, like Peter Parker taking pictures of Spider-man.

Thing 3:

"My dear fellow, I would rob St. Paul's Cathedral if I could, but I could no more scoop a till when the shopwalker wasn't looking than I could bag the apples out of an old woman's basket. Even that little business last month was a sordid affair, but it was necessary, and I think its strategy redeemed it to some extent. Now there's some credit, and more sport, in going where they boast they're on their guard against you. The Bank of England, for example, is the ideal crib; but that would need half a dozen of us with years to give to the job; and meanwhile Reuben Rosenthall is high enough game for you and me. We know he's armed. We know how Billy Purvis can fight.It'll be no soft thing, I grant you. But what of that, my good Bunny—what of that? A man's reach must exceed his grasp, dear boy, or what the dickens is a heaven for?" "I would rather we didn't exceed ours just yet," I answered laughing, for his spirit was irresistible, and the plan was growing upon me, despite my qualms.

A) This whole speech and the bit before it where Raffles talks about himself as an artist is adorable and I love it and I love him so much. He's so excited and so clearly deliberately being charming and showing off to appeal to Bunny and it's so cute.

B) And it works - Bunny also clearly thinks he is adorable and and charming and ridiculous. It's sad that he loses his enthusiasm as soon as Raffles leaves - Bunny would be having a lot more fun all 'round if he didn't think so much.

Thing 4:

With all his charming frankness, there was in Raffles a vein of capricious reserve which was perceptible enough to be very irritating. He had the instinctive secretiveness of the inveterate criminal.

This is going to be Bunny's chief complaint about Raffles for the rest of time. There are lots of potential reasons for it: Bunny is right and Raffles doesn't trust him fully (likely); Raffles is a control freak who needs to be in charge of all the details of their crimes (yuuup); Raffles likes impressing and surprising Bunny more than basically anything else in the world (absolute truth); etc. In the specific case wherein Raffles doesn't tell Bunny the details of how he disposed of the results of their first robbery, I wonder if there's a desire to keep Bunny away from the grubbier aspects of what they're doing, like fencing things and interacting with other criminals, so as not to scare him off (or make Raffles seem grubby through the interaction). Bunny's only along for the "fun" parts of the robbery - this may also be part of not wanting him to be part of casing Rosenthall's house, which is probably mostly quite boring. (But also the control freak thing.)

Of course, this always backfires, because Bunny doesn't know the reasons why he shouldn't involve himself. Oh my god, just have an actual conversation!

Thing 5: Disguises! Oh how I love the goofy disguises! I especially love the little detail of Raffles "he who would only smoke one brand of cigarette!" switching tobaccos for verisimilitude.

[foreverandmoretarot]

how does wonyoung feel about the hate she recieves?

before i start i want to say that the answer to my question was kinda unrelated? i honestly think she just wanted to speak about how she felt with izone and her personal life rather the questions i planned. not that i mind skdjdj just a heads up!

consent to this reading?

10 of cups

yes. she felt quite willing.

how does she feel about the shift from love to hate since debuting in ive?

2 of swords rev, page of pentacles rev, queen of cups

one of the main things i sensed was that she sacrificed a lot to be an idol. she showed vulnerable parts of herself to the public, some of it being unwillingly. but initially she felt it was worth it because she loved being in iz*one. she really adored the girls and definitely made that clear to me. they made her feel secure, at home, and at her best. she felt comfortable around them, and around fans too. i think her relationship with the industry was a lot more relaxed and she wasn't afraid to be vulnerable.

while reading the first card the air felt really heavy and sad :( their disbandment was definitely difficult for her

she really wanted to stay as a group but didn't have the power to change anything. she knew the end would come before she was ready to say goodbye, and i think this was where the sad energy came from. despite her strong feelings, which i think she was vocal to them about the people in power along with her company didn't care how she felt. im sensing money was prioritized.

despite her being in a new environment with more negative opinions on her, shes overcome the hate quite well. i don't see the hate having a significant impact on how she feels about herself and her career. shes confident about her strengths and has good control of managing her emotions. i'm sensing her close circle of people is a major factor of her feeling this way. theres a lot of good friends/people in her life. they take her mind off her job and make her feel like a regular human. yeah she definitely isn't alone, thats a clear message coming through.

to sum it up, she misses iz*one dearly and felt safer when she had them, but the increase in hate doesn't affect her majorly!

any further comments you want to say?

8 of swords, 10 of cups rev, the hermit

the number 3 came to mind right before i started the reading, and it came up again right after i asked this question. i decided to split my deck into 3 piles and chose the top card from each of them after shuffling

despite most of the reading being her overcoming her problems and having positive outcomes, these last few cards were really opposite? shes currently avoiding something, i think a conversation with either her family or group members. a fight took place and she really needed/still needs space from them, so she distanced herself for a while. i got mixed signals whether this was ive or iz*one, but im leaning towards ive.

this last part is a stretch, and i could very well be misinterpreting it- but im just here to share what i read and felt. while reading these last 3 cards i kept getting the feeling that ive were splitting up due to whatever this issue wonyoung was dealing with was. she didnt feel mad or sad, it was more like "its a bummer, but things just aren't working out". it came to me really abruptly, and a little panicked? take that information however you'd like. im not sure if this is just potentially happening or if its something that can be fixed. well thats all, thanks sm for reading!