#i think i gotta make a list of the routes that i still have left to finish out/think if it's really necessary to keep them

[waterbearable]

as much as i love writing it does mean that i must regularly wrangle the pleasure center in my brain into submission. no you cannot go back to coding because you still have some routes to finish even though i knowwwww you are dying to see how variations work outside of your word processor. yes i know that you keep coming up with exciting ideas that you want to flesh out but you have to finish writing the scenes that will get you there. blease.

[scoonsalicious]

Unwanted: Chapter 28, Unwanted - Pt. 1

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Avenger!Fem!Reader

Summary: When your FWB relationship with your best friend Bucky Barnes turns into something more, you couldn’t be happier. That is, however, until a new Avenger sets her sights on your super soldier and he inadvertently breaks your heart. You take on a mission you might not be prepared for to put some distance between the two of you and open yourself up to past traumas. Too bad the only one who can help you heal is the one person you can no longer trust.

Warnings: (For this part only; see Story Masterlist for general Warnings) Language, violence, death

Word Count: 861

Previously On...: You're boyfriend's back and Jade's gonna be in trouble. Hey na, hey na...

A/N: THREE MORE CHAPTERS LEFT OMG HOW DID WE GET HERE?!

NOTE! The tag list is a fickle bitch, so I'm not really going to be dealing with it anymore. If you want to be notified when new story parts drop, please follow @scoonsaliciousupdates

Banner By: The absolutely amazing @mrsbuckybarnes1917!

Thank you to all those who have been reading; if you like what you've read, likes, comments, and reblogs give me life, and I truly appreciate them, and you!

Taglist: (Sadly, tag list is closed; Tumblr will not let me add anyone new. If you want to be notified when I update, please Follow me for Notifications!) @jmeelee @cazellen @mrsbuckybarnes1917 @blackhawkfanatic @buckybarnessimpp @hayjat @capswife @itsteambarnes @marygoddessofmischief @sebastians-love @learisa @lethallyprotected @rabbitrabbit12321 @buckybarnesandmarvel @fanfictiongirl77 @calwitch @fantasyfootballchampion @selella @jackiehollanderr @wintercrows @sashaisready @missvelvetsstuff @angelbabyyy99 @keylimebeag @maybefoxysouls @vicmc624 @j23r23 @wintercrows @crist1216 @cjand10 @pattiemac1@les-sel @dottirose @winterslove1917 @harperkenobi @ivet4 @casey1-2007 @mrsevans90 @steeph-aniie @bean-bean2000 @beanbagbitch @peachiestevie @wintrsoldrluvr @shadowzena43

Tumblr will not let me directly tag the following: @marcswife21 @erelierraceala @jupiter-107 @doublejeon @hiqhkey @unaxv @brookeleclerc

Jade was dragging you through the hallways of the base by your hair as she frantically searched for an exit that would keep her out of Bucky’s reach. At first, you tried to keep track of the path you took, making note of turns and counting doorways as you were pulled down long corridors in case the opportunity to escape presented itself and you had to retrace your steps, but the route was so convoluted, and your head so battered, that you quickly lost track of where you were going, and any sense of direction you’d been able to hold onto. 

“I need eyes,” Jade said, more to herself than to you, and soon she was shifting directions. Within moments, she was throwing open a metal door that appeared to lead to a security center. Tossing you unceremoniously inside, she bolted the door behind her and heaved a heavy breath.

“What’s the matter?” you asked, your tone dangerously mocking. “If he loves you as much as you think he does, you shouldn’t have any reason to run from him.”

“Shut up, shut up, shut up,” Jade chanted. She moved over to the row of security monitors and began quickly cycling through the screens. “Gotta find an exit,” she murmured to herself. “There has to be a way out where he won’t see.”

You took the opportunity her distraction provided to study the rest of the monitors, hoping to find some subtle way to contact Bucky, to let him know where you were or, at the very least, to try and find an escape route of your own. 

“How did he know where to find you?” Jade muttered as she continued to flip through the feeds.

You opted not to answer; you’d be a fucking idiot to reveal your distress bangle now. If you could keep it a secret from Jade, you’d ensure that Bucky would have the ability to find you, no matter where she ended up taking you. It would also let him know you were still alive.

You scanned the rest of the monitors, instead, and were shocked by what you saw: Room after room was littered in corpses; bloody, mangled, bodies where there had once been Hydra agents. Your eyes landed on a monitor in the far left corner of the room, and you saw him. Bucky was covered head to toe in the blood of his enemies, dual guns raised in the air as he opened fire on anyone who stood in his way. Though you couldn’t hear the words coming from his mouth, you could read his lips well enough to know he was screaming your name, searching for you as he tore through the facility, slaughtering every Hydra operative that crossed his path.

You had never seen him so enraged before. Yes, you knew that, as the Winter Soldier, he’d been capable of immense violence– you’d seen video footage of him in action, after all, but this? This was so much worse than that. Because Soldat complied. And Bucky Barnes? He was out for blood.*

You should have been frightened by the blatant display of absolute brutality, should have been repulsed by it. But instead, it excited you. It thrilled you, because you knew that he was doing this for you. To get you back, to keep you safe. He was willing to damn his soul to hell to protect you when you needed him. You should have been disgusted, but you’d never been more turned on by him in your life.

“Gotcha!” Jade exclaimed, drawing your attention back to her. She’d stopped her cycling through the security feeds on a non-descript door that, so far, seemed to have been spared from the ongoing carnage. Moving to a locker beside the desk, Jade reached inside and pulled out a handgun and several clips of ammo, tucking them snuggly into her belt.

“Come on,” she said, reaching out and grabbing your hair once more. “You’re my human shield for getting out of here.” She dragged you back out of the security station and into the hallway, looking both ways before turning left and sprinting down the corridor. It was all you could do to keep up; you had no doubt that if you faltered, she’d drag you across the floor behind her without a second thought. 

In minutes, you were at the door you’d seen in the feed. Jade let go of your hair and trained her gun on your head. “Open it,” she commanded. 

You winced in pain as you yanked on the door with your right hand, the left dangling limply and uselessly at your side. “Hurry up!” Jade shouted at you.

“I’m trying,” you grunted as you pulled. “The door’s fucking heavy, and in case you forgot, I’m down an arm because of you.”

“Jesus Christ,” Jade grumbled, reaching around you to yank the door open, herself. “Do I have to do fucking everything around here?” She jabbed the barrel of her gun into your back. “Go,” she urged.

You stepped into the darkness of the open tunnel and, doing your best not to stumble or jostle your ruined arm, began to walk.

<- Previous Chapter / Next Part ->

[unreadpoppy]

down by the river - Chapter 9

Raphael x Warlock!Tav

Read on AO3

Chapter 8

A/N: Okay we jumping cause we gotta move this story along. Also shout out to @sky-kiss for screen shotting the Mol scene for me, it was of great help! Also, many parts of the dialogues are taken from the game but modified to fit the story better.

After Halsin told the group that they needed to go to Moonrise Towers, Tav gathered everyone to decide on which way they should go: through the Underdark or the Mountain Pass. 

Lae’zel argued in favor of the latter, saying that there was a githyankyi crechè in the area and they would have to offer her cleansing. Shadowheart, however, favored the Underdark, considering that it would be a more discreet route. 

“I believe we could go through both.” Tav finally spoke. All eyes turned towards her. “We have means of exploring both regions, and then we determine which way is better.” 

‘And it would stop the two of them from bickering.’ Tav thought to herself. She turned towards the gith warrior. “We’ll go to the Mountain Pass first, see that the crechè gives us a solution.”

Lae’zel nodded and walked away, probably to polish her sword some more. The others left as well, while Tav kept looking at the map. 

“The shadow cursed lands.” Tav whispered to herself. As she passed her finger on where the name was written on the map, she felt the scar on her collarbone sting, causing her to hiss. 

“Have you ever been there?” Shadowheart asked, appearing next to Tav. 

“Why you ask?”

She pointed with her chin towards the paper.  “Just the way you look at the map. Seems like you’ve got some history there.” 

Tav shook her head. “I’ve never been there, no, but Raphael has a few contracts there.” She turned towards the cleric. “I can’t help but wonder what has happened to them - the debtors.” 

She made a motion to move away, saying “Now, if you’ve got nothing more to ask, I’ll get ready for bed.” 

“Actually, there is something else I’d like to know.” Shadowheart said. “We know Mizora sent Wyll to hunt after devils and demons alike, but what type of jobs did Raphael ever sent you on?”

Tav shrugged. “All sorts of things. Sometimes it was to kill someone who wronged him, or gather information. Other times, accompany him to an event, entertain a guest.” 

Playing music when he was bored, helping him with his compositions were also part of the list, although Tav wouldn’t say that out loud. “If there was something that needed to be done, I’d do it, although, since he acquired another warlock, things got a bit easier on my side.” She looked away, for a moment. “One thing is true, however. Raphael would never ask me to do something he knew I couldn’t do.”

Shadowheart nodded.  “When you put it like that, he doesn’t seem that bad.”

“Well, he’s definitely better than other masters that I have served.” Tav chuckled to herself. “It is getting late. We should go sleep, tomorrow will be a long day.” She said and moved towards her bedroll. 

That night, the dream visitor met her again, giving her warnings for the future, while telling her to embrace her potential. Tav had no inclinations of becoming ilithid, but she still needed his protection, and so, she told him she’d think about it. 

As their journey continued, Tav would keep listening to the dream visitor’s interference, but she tried to ignore it. She already had one devil telling her what to do - she didn’t need another otherworldly being bothering her as well. 

…

“Your move, Mol.” She heard him before she saw him. Of course Raphael would be at Last Light Inn, but playing lanceboard with a child was not the sight Tav expected to see. 

“You trapped me.” Mol said. “I didn’t even want to take this one.” 

“Calishmen rules, dear. The first piece touched is the first piece moved.” He explained. For a moment, Tav was transported to a memory that played much like this one. When he taught  her how to play the game, and how frustrated she had been. 

‘This doesn’t make any sense.’ She groaned. ‘I’m gonna end up losing this knight.’

‘Then make a useful sacrifice.’ He guided her. ‘Guard your Mystra or come for my Cyriq.’

Tav was snapped out of the memory when Mol asked her “Say, do you play Lanceboard by any chance? It’s my first time playing.” 

She raised her brow at the girl, easily detecting the lie. “Put pressure on him. Attack the pieces in front of his king.”  

Mol did as you say, moving the pieces around. 

“My, the Theskan Double Counter - Gambit. Vicious. Exactly what I would have done.” 

The girl soon beat Raphael. “How’s that for Calimshen rules?”

“Brava! Lovely work.” Raphael praised the girl. “I see I was right to make you the offer I did. You will consider it, won’t you?” He asked Mol, who didn’t say anything as she walked away. 

Raphael turned towards the group.“The Thasken move was inspired. I see I have taught you well.” He then looked at Mol speaking with the other tiefling children. “What a lovely specimen she is. A blushing apple, ready to be plucked.”

“I know he’s your boss, but please, let me smack this creep.” Karlach whispered. 

Tav ignored her, crossing her arms and raising a brow. “You’re offering deals to kids now? I thought you loathed chattering children.”

“I can make exceptions, from time to time. But don’t you worry about Mol - it goes without saying she still has the unconditional freedom to choose the only option she has left.” He chuckled. “Besides, I do enjoy being in this neighborhood again. It has such a history of abject tragedy.” He focused his gaze on Tav. “And as you well know, tragedy is my bread and bloody butter.”

Raphael waved his hand, dismissing the subject. “But enough about my lesser pursuits. Why bother with trifles when I’m in the illustrious presence of my very favorite client.” He bowed as he said that, making Tav suck in a breath. “It is good to see you again, O apple of my eye. I’d ask you if you’ve made any progress with your little problem, but the tell-tale twitching of your eye is answer enough.” 

“Raphael.” She greeted him. “Should I consider it a coincidence to find you here?”

He smiled. “My dear, nothing is a coincidence. Mortals trifle themselves with free will, as if their betters have not moulded every potential path ahead.” Tav cleared her throat at that. Raphael chuckled. “No offense meant, of course. I’m sure everyone in Last Light thinks they could have changed things.” 

“They’re not the only ones ripe for temptation. As you well know, Tav, my last contract here fed me for decades.”

“You were here before?” Wyll asked. “Why?”

“Family troubles. Not my family, of course.” He shot Tav a knowing look, and she gave a small nod, imperceptible to the others. “I never surrender knowledge for free, but one good turn deserves another, does it not? To repay you, for all the souls you sent my way, I offer you a glimpse of the truth.” 

The devil then spoke of Ketheric Thorm, how his army had been massacred, and even proposing more knowledge in a future contract. Tav squinted her eyes at that - although Raphael shared most of his plans with her, she knew there was something that he was hiding. 

When he was done talking, she made a move to leave but he continued. “Before you leave, I sense there’s something your friend wants to ask me.” He looked at Astarion. 

“I do. I have a proposal for you.” The elf spoke up. “My old- well, a long time ago, someone carved some runes into my back. I’d rather like to know what they say.” 

As Raphael considered his words, Tav turned towards the rogue. “Scars? What are you talking about?”

“You haven’t told them? And you’ve kept your clothes on this whole time? How unlike you.” Raphael smirked. “Why not let them see? Don’t be shy.” 

“Raphael, don’t-” Tav tried to intervene but it was too late. Her patron waved his hand and soon, Astarion found himself only in his underwear. She looked angrily at Raphael.

“Don’t worry. I’m motivated to help you. Scars often tell such wonderful stories. I think yours might be truly exquisite. I’ll see you soon.” He eyed the two of them and vanished. 

At the same time, Tav removed her clock and threw it around the elf, as he said “Well. Now you know.” 

She sucked in a breath. “Go back to camp and get dressed.” Astarion nodded, doing so as told, alongside the others. 

Meanwhile, Tav turned her attention towards Mol. Although she knew Raphael, she did not enjoy the idea of such a young child making deals with him. 

“Nice strategy back there. If we put our heads together, I bet you and me could make a tidy stack of coin in Baldur’s Gate.” The girl as Tav approached her. “But Raphael’s offered me a partnership already, and it seems like a sweeter deal than throwing my lot in with you.” 

Tav gave her a serious expression, crossing her arms. . “Be careful, Mol. You are too young to be making deals with devils. They can be quite the poison.” 

The girl squinted her eye at the woman. “Poison. Sure.” She scoffed. “You seem to love the taste of it. He seems to know you pretty well.” 

Tav clenched her jaw, and tilted her head. “Touché.” She loosened her arms. “You’ve got quite the keen eye, I see.” She sighed. “But I’m being serious, Mol.” 

“Look, you saved us. Not knockin’ that.” Mol began. “But after you left, Zevlor lost his nerve - gave up the fight. I won’t. Now there’s no grove, no coin, no one taking us to the city. I’m not letting my crew get eaten by shadows.” She shrugged. “Maybe I’ll make a deal, maybe I won’t. But it’ll be my choice - not the devil’s and not yours.” Mol huffed and walked away, leaving Tav to shake her head. 

… 

After that meeting, Astarion wondered when he would meet the devil again, saying that they would need to keep their ears ready for the sound of cheap poetry and the smell of sulphur. 

“I wonder, how do you handle it, that smell all the time.” The elf complained, as the group made their way towards what could be the entrance to the mausoleum they sought. “It’s absolutely dreadful.” 

“Well, it does help that Raphael is always perfuming himself.”

“Oh, really? And what scent does he use?” 

“Cherries and musk.” Tav replied. “It’s the one he always makes me buy.” She raised a brow at Astarion’s curiosity. “Wanting to buy one for yourself?” 

“No, I-” Before he could finish, Tav raised a hand, hearing a voice. In an instant, she recognized who it belonged to. 

It was, of course, Raphael and his little theatrics. 

“How long have you been practicing those?” Tav asked, once he was done rhyming. 

“Until it was perfect.” He smiled. “As your dear patron, Tav, I thought it only fair to warn you of the dangers ahead.” 

She raised a brow. “I can handle myself, Raphael.”

He scoffed. “Intrepid as ever. It would be pointless of me to try and bar you from entering but I can still…set the scene, as it were. Prepare you for your role.”

Tav frowned. “How are you so sure that there are dangers ahead?” 

“My dear, you should know better by now. You’ll find that I play my part in many a plot.” 

The leader of the group sighed, getting agitated. “Cut the chase, Raphael.” 

“‘Patience was always a virtue that you lacked.” He commented. “But very well. There is a creature that lurks in silence and shadow - a creature, who like me, is very much of the infernal persuasion.” 

“Should it make its way out through these very doors you are about to so brazenly open, you’ll have unleashed a pestilence unto this realm.” He took a step forward. “In truth, it is carnage incarnate. Should you find it, consider no other course of action - kill it.”

Tav eyed him, feeling that something was off. “I believe there’s more that you’re not telling me.” 

‘Let me guess.’ Tav thought. ‘It’s probably one of those fiends that hates Raphael’s guts.’ 

Raphael sighed. “This creature and I go back a long way. I admit it would be in my best interest that as well should it remain in the dark - or misplace its head, perhaps. I should not relish its reacquaintance. Let’s leave it at that.” 

“Very well.” Tav said. 

He turned towards the elf. “And don’t think I’ve forgotten about you, Astarion. When the beast is dead, I’ll consider that enough payment to translate those scars of yours.”

“A fairer deal than I expected.”

The devil smirked. “Ask Tav. I always deal fairly.” With a snap of his fingers, he was gone. 

…

Finding the orthon had been less than ideal, considering that in an instant, the devil recognized their leader. 

“You. I recognized you. You’re Raphael’s little dog, following him around, obeying all the orders he barks at you.” Pointing his hand bow at her, he shouted. “Tell me where that perfumed bastard is, before I end you.”

The others tensed up behind her, but Tav remained calm, if not mildly annoyed. Placing a hand on her hip, she looked at her nails as she addressed him. “I’d be more careful with that tongue of yours, Yurgir.” She looked at the orthon. “Considering I hold the key to setting you free.”

“What are you doing?” Tav heard Astarion whisper shout behind her. “Just kill the damned thing.” She ignored him. 

“What do you mean?” Yurgir asked. 

“Oh, Yurgir, you think I don’t know about your little contract with Raphael? About the song?” She put a finger on her chin. “How was it again? Oh - I remember: Spill all blood sworn to the night / Silence all prayers; Smother all rites -”

Before she could continue, the orthon shouted. “Stop it! Stop singing. I’ve had enough of this bloody song.” He lowered his weapon. “Tell me. I did as instructed, but the song still rattles around in my head - the contract still stands, somehow. If I break it, I’ll become Raphael’s slave forever.” 

“It’s quite simple, actually.” She explained. “Pay attention to the last rhyme. Leave none to hear it, then be set free / This song is your oath, swear it, swear it to me.” Tav looked at Yurgir with a condescending glare. “Don’t you see, Yurgir. You always hear the song.” Then, Tav smirked devilishly. “Kill yourself, be reborn in the Hells. Be free of your contract.” 

The orthon huffed. “If you’re wrong about this, I’ll claw my way out of Avernus and eat you alive - contract be damned.” He grabbed his sword, pointing it towards his chest. “Nicely played, Raphael. Bastard.” Were his final words, as he impaled himself, body turning to ash. 

Tav smiled, proud of herself. 

“Does that count as killing him? It better count.” Astarion said and Tav nodded. 

“That was…impressive.” Shadowheart said. 

“Well, when you live with a devil for a long time, you learn a thing or two.” 

“So the song was the contract? And how did you know about the loophole?” Wyll asked. 

Tav turned towards him. “To answer your first question, indeed it was. Parchment can burn, oral agreements aren’t worth the tongues they’re waggled upon. A song lingers.” She remembered that those were Raphael’s words, when she asked him as to why a song. “And about the loophole, well, it’s simple. I was the one who helped my master come up with the rhymes.” She shrugged. “I guess that’s the luck of having an ex-bard as a warlock.” 

Wyll said nothing, only nodding along as Tav moved and began looting the place. He felt as if everyday, there was a new side to Tav that he’d never seen before. 

…

Raphael was quick to show up back at camp, praising Tav for how cleverly she avoided a direct confrontation with the orthon and telling Astarion of Cazador’s plans. As the vampire left the two of them alone, the devil took the moment to speak with his warlock privately, bringing her close to a river nearby the camp. 

“Tell me, how have you been?”

She eyed him up and down, suspiciously. Raphael was not the type to ask this sort of thing - at least, not out of the goodness of his heart. “Never been better.” She lied. 

“Truly?” He raised a brow. “Because I have this picture on my head - of you tossing and turning in the middle of the night, thinking strange things, dreaming strange dreams.” Raphael gestured. “And there’s this little voice inside your head asking: Is this my will or is it the worm’s? But you have no answer and no way of knowing.” 

“Get to the point, Raphael.” 

He took a step forwards, nose almost brushing with hers. “The point, dear Tav, is that you’ll do good to remember that there’s only one voice you should listen to: Mine.” 

Raphael moved back. “I’ll be seeing you very soon.” He snapped his fingers and he was gone. 

[fuckentoastybitch]

My VN List!

I'm listing them according to ones I've played and ones I plan to play (as well as brief notes about either my opinion on the game or why I'm interested in them, formatted like this.)

This is for my own personal collection tbh, I just need to put them all in one place.

A. Have played:

The Arcana. Played since I was 16, all time favourite and Julian is my husband. This game shaped my interest for fantasy settings and magic. BUT! As a long time fan I must warn new players that trying to get the full experience for this game is difficult because of its coin system. The only reason I manage to keep playing for years is because I literally take a year's worth of breaks in between routes and logged in every. Single. Day. to collect coins and keys. It's literally been 6 years and I still haven't 100% the game yet cause I simply didn't have that kind of energy and time to do that anymore, but I still love the characters very deeply till now.

Blooming Panic. Second all time fave. Fell for Quest first, fell for Toasty hardest, for some reason is obsessed with xyx. I've revolved my entire personality around BP since 2023.

ERROR 143. Fun! Micah is technically not my type but I really like the general aesthetic and humor of the game. Iirc there are still more content to come to the game so I am very excitedly and patiently waiting.

3 Seasons. This was short and sweet. I think what I liked the most about this was the unique character designs, especially Rye and Briar's. I heard the dev's are working on more content on the current LI's + Briar's route, I'm really excited for those.

Our Life: Beginning & Always. Our life was INCREDIBLE, to put it simply. The entire game and story was very well thought out that it even made me reflect on my own life at each phase along the game. It gave me a really strong sense of nostalgia and reminded me of my own feelings during every change I had experienced. I actually wanted to make a whole post about OLBA but I got busy and already forgot everything I wanted to say, ehe. I still have to play the DLC and get the remaining locked CGs though.

Assignment Due: Project Blue. THIS GAME IS ADORABLE. I already made a blog post about what I like about it and I will again emphasis on how this game felt like it was made specifically for me. I love Asher so much aaaaa. I heard rei, the dev is working on another game for Eden, I'm looking forward for that, too.

Coffee Talk. Coffee talk was so so good! I need to play more non-romance VNs too cause this was so enjoyable in terms of its storytelling, setting, gameplay and design. Every character had such a nice story that tied up nicely, even the MC who's supposed to be just an observer throughout the entire thing. Also the cozy vibes and music is a 10/10 would recommend.

A Date with Death. This one's so cute too! I played only one route last year and just picked it up again recently. I have only one route left to finish and the new DLC!. Anyways yes the Grim Reaper is very babygirl I can attest to it.

seekL. THIS IS SO GOOD. SO SO GOOD. If you didn't see the one week phase where I basically went insanely obsessed with seekL, you missed out. Hacker man save me.. save me.. hackerman..

B. Want to play:

Lost in Limbo. Really pretty art and interesting concept. The theme seems very fantasy/magic centric which really pulls me in. But this game is still a WIP iirc

When The Night Comes. Technically I'm currently playing this one, but only the intro and hadn't touched the game in months cause I've been busy. Again, the fantasy setting caught my interest aaand I just met Ezra but I already love him. Will continue this as soon as I can!

Infinite Blue. I've played the demo! Very mysmes reminiscent lol. The game looked very cute so far and Brooklyn reminded me that I'll never run away from my old man liker allegations. It's already out so I def gotta play it soon.

Coffee Talk Episode 2. Don't really need an explanation for this one except that the new characters I've seen so far looks really cool.

Tavern Talk. D&D inspired Coffee Talk! If it's not obvious already, I LOVE fantasy settings so even though I've never played D&D, it is right up my alley and I wish I could play it someday. I've been eyeing the production of this game for a while so I'm really excited that it's finally out!

Obscura. This one looks really REALLY cool but I haven't actually read into what it's actually about. The art alone looks good enough to get my attention. Really curious about it, I hope I'll play it soon.

Intertwine. Just from looking at the 2023 Otome Jam entries overall I thought this one looked most visually appealing to me. I love the color scheme, and the aesthetic reminds of the string of fate myth (that probably is the theme)

DATA BR<3ACH. I'm usually not a fan of cyberpunk setting but this one seemed pretty intriguing to me visually!

Innerlog. By Jenny V Pham! I enjoyed Error 143 so I have no doubt I'll enjoy this one too.

Andromeda Six. My impression of this one is "space D&D" lol. I can't believe I haven't played this one yet.

TOUCHSTARVED. I can NOT believe only the demo is out cause the quality looks like it should've been a long existing popular franchise. One thing I'm a little hesitant about playing this game is because it's goth themed and in case you haven't noticed, a lot of the media I like have a softer, more pastel aesthetic. lol. But that's a personal preference and yet I definitely need to play it sometime soon.

Cupid's Chatroom. There's really not much to say. Pink aesthetic? Mysterious chatsim that appeared out of nowhere? My cup of tea 100%

Na Daoine Maithe. I've played the demo of this one and it is sooo interesting. I like myths but I've never really read into Gaelic ones. The art is so pretty and the story so far is very intriguing. I can't wait for the full game.

Swiped!: Double Shots of Love. FINALLY AN INDIE VN WITH OLDER MALE LOVE INTERESTS DFKJFDSJKD I played the demo, it was really really cute! The professor LI was made to call me out lol

Wake Me Up If You Need Me. A game made by rice! Someone who I've seen around in the fandom and who's really talented at making songs and audios. I had no idea they made a game but I just found it recently and I have to play it.

Keyframes. It looks really good but I'm interested mostly cause I found out Charlatean (Toasty's VA) is in this kjsdhfgkjd

Rekindle. I follow the lovely artist that's creating it and the DEMO IS OUT!. I saw one (1) art of Jules and he is EXACTLY my type so I'm already looking forward to this game.

Our Life: Now & Forever. Baxter's OL game! I already loved Cove's so I'm really really interested in this version of the game. Plus, I actually really like the autumn aesthetic compared to Cove's beachy style.

Hummingbird's Crown. Has a very interesting premise: a time loop mystery. I'm definitely interested in this one for its story potential rather than the romance, I love me a good mystery.

Aaand that's it. Thankfully "( – ⌓ �� )

There's actually a few more that I added in my twitter bookmarks but those are relatively new and I haven't decided if I really want to play them yet. I'm following the devs though so that interest might grow over time. These lists are long enough as they are already, haha.

[theslyvoid9]

YOU DIDNT REBLOG IT BUT FUCK YOU !!!!!!!!!

3, 4, 18, 29, 31

FOR KEIHO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AUGH WHAT THE HELL THATS ILLEGAL!!! BUT FINE I WILL TALK ABOUT KEIHO FUCK YOU!!!! heres the question list for anyone curious

for those wondering Keiho is my FFXIV Au Ra character who i love dearly :3

(hes usually more happy i just like this doodle jskdnf)

putting the actual response under read more because man it got long ^_^

also in the game i just finished stormblood so this guys story is still ongoing for me dkjfng (theres 3 more expansion packs, as of right now, for me to do)

okay hi to anyone reading this o/

3. weapon of choice? any particular reason they chose their weapon?Keihos current weapon of choice is a lance! Being a lancer/dragoon class so big pointy stick sdjkdnsf.

The lore reason for Keiho going that route when becoming an adventurer i feel is mainly.. he was most used to holding lance like weapons and tools and felt it was the most comfortable way for him to get his journey started.

While the main stuff for his backstory before the beginning of the game is still kinda cooking for me, i do think he came from a smaller village kinda away from everything so they didn't have a lot of fancy resources to go around for a ton of swords or anything so the main weapons for hunting were lances. But he most likely did some spear fishing and stuff with it as well and is used to farm tools like pitchforks and hoes and stuff so again more used to lance like tools than anything else! But maybe he'll change that in the future and try different weapons now that he's got the adventure ball going!

(the none lore reason is i just liked the lance class the most and i havent bothered to try out any other class right now)

4. how crafty/resourceful are they?

i'd say they get by well enough! He's not some mastermind who's going to outsmart and trap supervillains left and right....and he definitely has his dumb moments. But he has his cleaver moments as well, def can sneak by, deceive and ambush pretty well against other regular, non super genius, folk. And can contribute in plannings if needed for battles and such.

But i do feel his resourcefulness comes out best in survival situations, he knows how to navigate the wilderness pretty well, knows how to hunt and make the most of food to make it last as long as possible and overall just knows how to get out and not die when dropped in the middle of the woods. Or build a sort of camp/housing if for whatever reason he wants to stay out there longer.

So not really some trap guy and not going to pull some crazy stunts during fights but can survive solo out in the wilderness pretty okay.

With this he is pretty lost in big cities on the other hand sjhbdnfds (me making a lore reason to explain why im always lost in limsa lominsa B) )

18. their opinion on lying, stealing, and killing?

HMMMM now this is a rather nuanced answer considering... he is the warrior of light...Hero of Eorzea etc etc... so he has his actual beliefs, the thing he preaches as a warrior people look up to and the things he believes as a warrior whos seen some of the worst the world has to offer.

Overall he fights for a world where people dont have a need to lie, steal or kill and if pressured for a black and white answer he'd say those things are bad. BUT he gets why certain people dont have any other option besides lying or stealing or even killing and doing any of those things for a valid reason isn't going to lower Keihos opinion of someone even by a bit. No "there must've been another way" or "you should've toughed it out" nope he gets that sometimes... you just gotta do what you gotta do. If anything it just makes Keiho more motivated to be a good hero seeing what someone was pushed to do just to get by. So overall he looks at each case rather individually... after all he as a hero has done all of those things for the greater good so it be rather hypocritical of him sdjkfndjsk

He also gets that while some people have a valid reason...it isn't always a good reason to do sth like killing so again... just focuses on getting as much info and then makes a choice.

If anyone tries to ask what his opinion on white lies are he just completely avoids the topic saying sth like "arent there more pressing matters" he just really doesn't have the time to form opinions on whether white lies make someone inherently evil or good skjndf

29. are they associated with any particular element (air, earth, fire, water)?

Hmm personally i haven't really put a lot of thought into what element Keiho could be sdjknf BUT in game he does have the title of "Warrior of light" so i guess i tend to associate him with light, and Keiho being a Raen Au Ra (that just meaning he has light scales instead of dark scales like the Xaela Au Ra) who believe they are descendants of Dawn Father just makes the light connection more strong huh xD

And i guess i do tend to link him with crystals due to his scales reminding me of that and him having several interactions and a blessing from the Mothercrystal goddess

so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ personally haven't thought about it but theres some building blocks there from the game

31. do they like receiving gifts? giving gifts? what is their ideal gift?

Oh you chose this one specifically after that loredump i did on you huh

Okay lets take these one by one, receiving gift

Maybe back before their adventure days he would've like the occasional gift, never really liked anything to extravagant because ough you didn't need to, but small stuff like food or something handmade or some random material he needed, perfect. But after he became a hero and with every title he just.... stopped enjoying it, at some points just despises gifts all together, but not in the " i receive them so much" or the "i'm too good for these gifts" but more in the "hey i dont need nor deserve this :(( keep it to yourself you need it more :( " way. Along the way tho he also develops a weird "if i say no to a gift i'm being incredibly rude" mentality so that's when he gets super weird with gifts and wants to say "no, they dont need to go through all the effort for a gift for lil ol' me" but also the voice in the back being like if you refuse you're being rude!! so he just... puts on his hero persona and accepts it with grace.. so no one even really knows what kind of turmoil a simple loaf of bread just caused him dhsgfjukd and its quite literally nearly impossible to pry an answer out of him if you ever asked what he'd like for a gift, because the idea of requesting anything?!?!?! is just too much and he avoids the topic like the plague. quite literally need to corner him for a WHILE to get any sort of vague answer

my boy is stable :)

Giving gifts

He most likely won't have any sort of weird relationship with giving gifts but i honestly dont think he gifts a lot, he's more of a i'll walk to the ends of the earth for you kinda guy to his loved ones. But the most something like a gift i feel is he'll make food occasionally without being asked or he might pick up something from stores or similar places if someone mentioned it. If he was still just a civilian he'd make some crafts here and there as well (woodwork, jewellery etc etc). But with being a hero he most likely doesn't have a lot of time or energy for those sorts of things, and most likely mentally he isn't really in a stable place rn to be doing anything like that either way, but in the future when his mentality regarding being a hero improves he'll def be making some handcrafted stuff for his friends!

Ideal gift

This is a tough one considering all the above about him not even really wanting gifts sjkdlnmfk but

Before the adventure days, it probably would've been something really simple, like some tasty food or some rare material for personal projects or even just something handcrafted! something to show the other cared enough to really think what he'd like kinda thing

And that mentality does stay a bit for post adventurer keiho! He'd avoid the topic but honestly... getting anything non adventure related, just for keiho to have after all the adventure gear has been put away for the day like again some good food or a nice shirt or just...anything again to show that they care about keiho the guy and not keiho the adventurer who probably needs new chainmail under his armour. He gets something from the heart and he is going to cry guranteed

Anddd with that i have finally finished responding to this jksbdnfjhks

if anyone made it this far congrats! you get a bonus keiho

[jeffersonhairpie]

Spoilers up to chap 336 of Jujutsu Kaisen

-

Sorry gotta get this out of my system

A slightly unhinged list of reasons that I'm Not A Fan of this Gojo death that I sincereley hope will make me look like an overreactive weirdo in a few weeks time:

He died offscreen. I know we see the body but we don't actually see the finishing blow. Bizzare for a character of his prowess and significance at this point in the story

Gojo in the 'afterlife' immediately talking about how much stronger Sukuna was than him hits really strange for a character defined by his casual arrogance. Gojo is fast as fuck so it's pretty clear that Sukuna could only get him with the Mahoraga-aided slashes if he caught Gojo off guard. Nothing we have seen in the Gojo vs Sukuna fight indicates that Sukuna is all that much stronger than Gojo and they're mostly pretty evenly matched. Nothing about this ending for Gojo looks to me like 'dying without regrets'.

Sticking Gojo in a box for 3 years real time (19 days in universe time) and freeing him just so the rest of the story can screech to a halt while all the other characters watch him die is fucking stupid. It's bad storytelling.

There are a few different things you could view as Gojo's character arc - whether it be the question he's asked of whether he's the strongest because he's himself or himself because he's the strongest, whether it's laying Geto to rest, whether it's learning that being the strongest is not all there is to being a complete person, whether its shedding his loneliness by learning that Geto is not the only person who he could be emotionally close to. Whatever you see it as, his arc has not reached its conclusion. Gojo is incomplete and him dying now makes his whole character feel like a waste. He didn't even really learn to value the people left alive bc how is he in the afterlife all smiling and happy knowing that Sukuna is about to rampage through the lot of them?

Gojo dying has always been so damn obvious. This is entirely personal preference, but I would have sooooo much rather seen him have his powers neutered so he was forced to understand tha value of an individual life than just wiped off the board. Also I think the universe could benefit from the notion that getting stronger and dying are not the only two things that can happen to a sorcerer.

I know they're not even on the same scale of plot significance, but I can't help comparing how Nanami's death was painful but felt well foreshadowed and entirely justified in the story to this death which very much doesn't (my thoughts on Nobara's death are more complicated). Nanami's death hurt because it felt true to the character, but Gojo's death has just annoyed me.

I never expected the final fight to be Gojo vs Kenjaku and I knew that something was going to have to happen to him in order to justify him not being part of the final showdown. Yuji as the MC and as Kenjaku's kid in this story about how the sins of the past shape the present is 100% the right choice for the story. Much as I thought it was taking the easy route, I hadn't discounted the possibility that Gojo would die, I had just expected him to, ya know, learn something and complete his character arc before he did.

This death just feels really cheap to me, in a way that I don't think even makes for a good fakeout. Maybe the fact that characters have already come back from the dead means that there was no way to have a fakeout feel entirely shocking, but I don't think I should be left thinking 'was that REALLY it?' after the fakout death.

BUT maybe hope doesn't have to be lost

Things I am holding on to hoping that this will be some kind of fakeout (copium is real and I am huffing it):

Gojo wasn't hit in the head, and in his fight with Toji he is able to come back from basically being dead because his head was undamaged

There is still one of the ten shadows that we haven't seen and given that it can't possibly be a stronger combatant than Mahoraga I'm betting on it having a healing ability, which would presumably be incredibly strong given that it's the last to be unveiled. The same healing could save Gojo and Nobara

When Yuji was presumed dead by his classmates and training with Gojo, Gojo comments that Yuji's body will eventually be scarred by Sukuna's cursed technique and he'll be able to use it as his own. Sukuna has the ability to bring people back from the dead so if Yuji can access those powers he can save Gojo (and probably Nobara).

Maki and Mai have something of an 'afterlife' conversation that is real but it doesn't stop Maki from returning to the land of the living.

Depending on exactly how you want to count 'coming back from the dead' several characters have done it at this point lol

In the afterlife Nanami has that random ass line about how curses and sorcerers can bring people back from the dead that doesn't seem to fit in with everything else being said. This could be foreshadowing.

Speaking of foreshadowing, maybe Gojo's line about not wanting to have two death anniversaries was an indication that he intended this to happen and has some sort of pre-established plan for how to win.

Shoko reveresed technique bass boosted by Utahime can heal anything #IBelieve

[bloodboonfic]

Analyst(hopeful) asked:

Hey a while back somewhere around chapter 20 you said you were a bit over halfway done. Where are you now by comparison? I also believe you said that you have more plot points to hit rather than a chapter count, so unfortunately you likely don’t have a chapter count for how much is left. Oh well for anticipation purposes. Don’t worry I’m pretty sure I am guilty of the same thing regarding chapter count.

Also I have a writing question. I ask this to most other writers because it makes me want to pull my hair out and I am always trying to improve especially if I want to actually publish something one day fan-fiction or otherwise. How do you prefer to plot? 

I do have a question about your ideas about piglin fire tolerance in regards to Bloodboon. I’ve seen most writers chose the route of they still burn and some elaborate a bit more and chose the they still burn it just takes a bit longer than a human and their skin is a bit thicker. I prefer the second option because it makes sense.

I am currently less overwhelmed by questions right now. I am more overwhelmed by the amount of whump you are throwing Technoblade’s way. It hurts. Like all of his subconscious knowledge and conscious knowledge that he can’t make Philza happy and can’t keep the only friend he’s ever had because it is totally not a fair relationship coming to the front of his mind all the time and making him absolutely miserable. That water comparison of yours in the last chapter to tie strings so we could see his line and course of thinking was amazing. I hope it ends happily. 

Also update on my au that I keep running into plot issues which I fixed but… Apparently after some research …I think like someone with more minecraft background than I actually have and I’m actually a little disappointed. Nothing new under the sun I guess or I’ve already read too much minecraft fan fiction, specifically emduo.

~~~

The fic is at the end of the middle, I’d say. Techno and Philza still have one more Event until their friendship meter is maxed out. I suspect the whole fic will come to be just shy of 40 chapters.

Uhhh I don’t like, actively plot? It just sorta happens? When I have an idea, it usually kicks off as a premise, then Events come up, and then I think of connective tissue between the Events. And once it all has stewed in my brain for long enough, I put it down as a bullet point list, then move the bullets around so that Events with causality relations are in chronological order (eg. the scene at the flight range can’t happen before Philza’s feathers grow back), and then move the floater Events (eg. Philza interacting with a pigling child can happen whenever) so that the pacing becomes nice. I try to alter between chill and intense bits, to give the story the chance to breathe. Too much chill is dull and too much intense is exhausting, you gotta go back and forth. And also sometimes things Just Happen, Philza’s breakdown in Ch 11 was completely unplanned, it just Became. And then sometimes you need 500 more words to get acceptable posting length so whelp time for Techno to wax philosophical about bread or whatever.

Also I Can Not write non-chronologically. Scenes are written in the order in which they happen, unless there comes a realisation after the fact that Something needed to happen earlier. I’m pretty sure most people hop around instead of going strictly in order? But that does not agree with the shape of my brain.

I think piglins having higher fire tolerance than humans makes sense. If you live in a hellpit, you adapt or you die.

Yeah Techno’s not having a good time lately huh? Guess stealing a person does not have great long-term results! /j

Not sure what to say to your last point, but in any case, would be stoked to give your AU a read come time of posting!

-Anchestor

[lorei-writes]

🧃🪐🍦📚🏜️🎨🧩🌵 ehe :]

SAKI. First of all, thank you, but whew. WELL, LET'S GET GOING.

Ask game

🧃 ⇢ share some personal lore you never posted about before

Viva can throw a real nasty uppercut, and her left hook is not any worse.

Esther experiences chronic pain. She's so used to managing it, it took months for Chevalier to realise she's hurting. (He still sometimes can't tell if she's feeling unwell.)

Leon tells Viva apart from Esther based on the way she walks. Chevalier tells Esther apart from Viva based on their freckle pattern. He's memorised it.

🪐 ⇢ name three good things going on in your life right now

I have wonderful friends. I can lean on them and we're putting together some really great things.

There's tasty tea in my cupboards, just waiting to be brewed and drunk.

...My cat didn't shit on the carpet tonight?

🍦 ⇢ name three good things about a character you hate

I can't think of any character I hate. I don't particularly like Silvio, but it's just that his route hit a lot of my hard no-no's? He has an extremely keen business sense (good smarts overall), goes through some severe character development, and is fairly adorable when flustered.

📚 ⇢ what's the last thing you wrote down in your notes app? 

Answered here.

🏜️ ⇢ what's your favourite type of comment to receive on your work?

My heart sings whenever somebody comments on any particular element of the work -- its construction, atmosphere, world-building detail, possible implications of something I've included, etc. etc.

Clear feedback on what I'm doing right is always welcome ^^"

🎨 ⇢ link your favourite piece of fanart and explain why you like it

Oh lord. Nope. Gotta pass. We'd be here until tomorrow if I were to list every single piece that came to mind instantly.

But, one common underlying theme is that... It's evident that the artist behind it cared, however it may present itself.

🧩 ⇢ what will make you click away from a fanfiction immediately?

Frequent jarring inaccuracies, especially if the entire premise of a story depends on them.

"Wait for me, it's not going to take long." (Except the action the character is engaged in would take HOURS, if not days or weeks, to complete -- it absolutely WOULD take long and they should know it, don't wait for them.)

A character being extremely surprised by something that'd be... extremely common in their setting... meaning it shouldn't surprise them.

Repeated factual errors about items that somehow become relevant later on. (Simple is good. Simple is good. Words have their meanings and it's okay to use a simpler word to name something -- it may be plain more accurate. More specific term can carry a different meaning and then we arrive at accidental "sun shone brightly during this dark night" moments.)

🌵 ⇢ share the link to a playlist you love

I don't have any playlists, so... ^^"

[steel--fairy]

characters who aren't related in canon but are in my verse:

--green & leaf were raised by blaine after their parents death. very free range but still.

--brock and bruno are cousins

--agatha and bertha are sisters. their family moved around a lot when they were kids and agatha liked kanto more while bertha preferred sinnoh

--winona and anabel could be siblings? they have those similar ponytails which is flawless logic by pokemon standards

--wallace & lisia and wally. and kris. lisia, wally, and kris & daphne are all cousins : )

oh gosh theres also the thing i refer to here as [redacted] which is n is the middle brother between kris and daphne. he doesnt know this and daphne doesnt even know she has a brother bc of how young they were when he was lost so it never comes up even when they meet : (

also also bc i started this whole thing with the joke that all the characters with light green/turquoise hair are related, proton is wallaces cousin while katy is his....first cousin once removed? *looks at chart* yea thats the right one. she's lisias age.

--two very very distant relatives (like, to the point where theyre strangers who have no idea theyre related) stemming from my legends era ocs: morty & caitlin, and steven & cyrus.

also not my ocs but bc laventon/cyllene good, cyrus is also very very distantly related to leon and hop which is hilarious to think about

--fantina and tucker are siblings. they're from kalos and both moved to different regions at different points in time

--silver, mars, and roark are all siblings (listed youngest to oldest). they all have ariana as a mother. she was married to byron, had roark and mars, they divorced and she moved away and had silver with giovanni. and arezu is arianas ancestor.

--on that note, ilima is the descendent of palina and iscan. i think thats the most likely candidate for them

--valerie is the youngest kimono girl and gets to help summon ho oh/lugia with her eevee

--greta is viola and alexis' younger sister. greta moved to hoenn bc it has a better battling culture

--tina from pokemon masters is alders granddaughter. whether shes bengas sister or cousin idk. i think im leaning towards cousin.

--idk how yet, but i do vibe with piers & marnie being related to grimsley. their uncle perhaps? when his familys fortune fell, his much older sibling ditched him for galar (trying to make money from their commercialized gym challenge?) and then had some kids there. neither party knows the other well.

--there is some relation between shelly and nessa but idk what. shelly is her aunt perhaps?

--i love that art i reblogged a while ago of larry and juan being related. the difference in personality makes it SO funny. the art had them as cousins but i think brothers might be even funnier (and funny should always win). im thinking they have a sootopolitan parent and a paldean parent. had juan, roughly 10 yrs later had larry as a way to not get divorced, got divorced anyways, and then each one took a kid. they keep in touch tho

--wikstrom is giacomo's father. i considered larry but i think wikstrom works better.

--hassel is iris's uncle. his younger brother is her father and the girl sent to bring him back to the family is iris' older sister who never left the village

--also if miriam and iono dont end up related im rioting. miriam is iono's older sister.

--when i saw penny talking about her dad i immediately went oh! peony! and i do vibe with that but gotta admit... kinda hard to make them related lmao could just go the adoption route tho, nothing says they have to be blood relations

--......was about to post this and realized i forgot one of my oldest hc's which is archie is hau's dad (and therefore hala's son). it's so ingrained in me I forgot it wasn't actually canon lmao

anyways, i think thats it?

[thewriterowl]

Now for the hard question: in your top 10 movie franchises list add in ALL of the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings movies in order of favorites.

Oh you have to ask the hard questions! Ok, let me see...in order for Star Wars:

Empire Strikes Back -- it is just such a good movie with some iconic Luke looks and Daddy-Son moments. It's so good and him with grandpa-Yoda is so cute. I also love how we see this lead up into Luke's change of perspective with everything.

Return of the Jedi -- Also great Luke and Daddy-Son moments. I think it barely inches over New Hope simply because I got to see it again on the 40th re-release in theaters and I was feral over how Luke looked. Also, loved the fighting scenes and we get Lando. I also happen to love the Ewoks.

New Hope -- May actually be in second place once RoJ-theater release gives me peace (need another few months). But this Luke is just so pure and whiny and I want to put him in my pocket forever and ever and ever. (let me throw this Luke at Din omg)

Revenge of the Sith -- UGH just UGH so god. Anakin is so hot in this and so messed up and this lead up is just fantastic and wonderful and absolutely tragic.

Rogue One -- I mean, how could I not adore this? It is absolutely AMAZING. Just heartbreaking with amazing graphics, awesome characters, and is only getting better thanks to the Andor series.

The Force Awakens -- Honestly, I adored this movie so much. It wasn't perfect, it needed more Luke and the original trio, but it had so much potential. I just thought it was leading up to something amazing and the memes Mark gave us after left me excited and laughing for a long time.

The Phantom Menace -- Part of this is spite-love for young Anakin and Jar Jar Binks; both deserve better. But honestly, I have rewatched this a few times recently and was all "this is actually great? why the hate?"

Attack of the Clones -- Honestly, I need to rewatch this again. It's just here cause I haven't rewatched it in a while and i don't know why. We get Jango! We get the Clones! Baby Boba! The SAND-QUOTE! Obi-Wan's mullet! The lead up to the Clone War series! Badass Yoda! Yeah, gotta do a re-watch.

Solo -- Again, i actually really enjoyed the movie. It wasn't the best but it wasn't bad. Honestly, there were just some weird choices for some story movements and character interactions but other than that? It was good. I need to rewatch it honestly.

The Last Jedi -- I hate, hate, hate what they did to my Luke. If they were going to go this route with him I'd understand 100% because it would make sense for him to to have so much PTSD and just be burnt out and so hurt (still, i think we have enough of this and deserve older heroes that are still full of hope and silly and are kind). But the execution and how he is made to be a loser is just wrong. There were also some other scenes and interactions that were "uh...no?" but the fight scenes were great, Po was great, I loved Rose, I loved Finn's story and realization. It was just really wonky, disjointed from what we were getting before, and I will keep my head-cannon Luke in my claws.

The Rise of Skywalker -- I...didn't like it. I saw it twice and actually checked the time till I could go home often (only have done that with like two other movies). It was so awkward, the dialogue was poor, the actors seemed done, there was so many random new stories thrown in at last second, characters were thrown away, "Palpatine somehow returned?" like...what??? It was just lame. Such a lame, lame ending. The OT-trio and the new trio deserved so much better. It needs a re-do.

Now for the Lord of the Rings!:

The Fellowship of the Ring -- Even though it wasn't the most action packed, what it sparked, how good it was...just AUGH perfection. I adore this movie so much.

The Two Towers -- Incredible, amazing, also perfect. Great action, all the characters are given their due-time (with Legolas making faces). I love it.

Return of the King -- AMAZING ENDING. The wraps up is just...the moments of suffering and the release. The HAPPINESS. How ever gets what they deserve (tho RIP Boromir) just adore it so much.

The Desolation of Smaug -- PERFECT. Except for maybe some off CGI, this movie was amazing. So much Bagginshield, the intense cliffhanger, the Arkenstone....it was so good. I adored this movie so much!

An Unexpected Journey -- I adore Bilbo. I love him so much. And how this opened up Bagginshield just how could I not adore it??

Battle of the Five Armies -- I didn't like it the first time I watched it. But a few more times I was "huh, actually, it's not bad!" It honestly should've been loads better. There were so many wonky decisions and everything that happened did not feel like it met up with the end of a trilogy. But the end....how everyone survived! Can you believe that there was absolutely NO HEARTBREAK WHAT'SO'EVER??

[tequatls-favorite-spoon]

man i gotta figure out what to do with juyun :/ he’s one of my absolute fave ocs but his gw2 version is kinda boring which makes me sad! also here is a couple pics of him bc i know that helps me to remember what character ppl are talking about lol

so like, og juyun is the god of beauty in his world, and him being a literal god while eless is Just Some Guy, is something i try to keep the vibe of in most aus i make. so eless is a charr, and i made her from the olmakhan bc her family, and her decision to leave her family, is also important to her character. meanwhile, juyun is a norn in the order of whispers. and like, that’s all i gave him?? and like, there is the fact that he’s from mainland tyria and eless has been relatively isolated her whole life, that sort of fits their dynamic, but i want juyun to be more special 🥺 he’s my special little beautiful boy 🥺

so like, i have three ideas rn. i ended up rambling a bit, so here’s a quick list: juyun becomes aurenes champion/branded by aurene, juyun is actually a saltspray dragon, or juyun is an avatar of lyssa (could also be an avatar of a spirit of the wild, but idk which one)

the rest of my thoughts and rambles are below the cut

first is that he gets branded by aurene. the vibes fit him SO well, like god!juyun literally has opalescent skin, so aurene crystals are sooooo perfect for him. the issue tho, is idk why he’d be branded. like, i could go the route of him being aurene’s champion, but then i’d have to figure out who the commander is. i wouldn’t want it to be onyx cuz they’re from different stories for me? so it’s like. they shouldn’t know each other. having eless be the commander would be So Good, bc that lets me have them interact a LOT and i Love Them. but then i have to deal with the fact that she’s from elona so idk how she’d get to mainland tyria at the right time to become the commander :/ like, it could work? but it would almost be easier to make her from the legions, and that doesn’t feel right to me…

my second idea is that juyun could be a saltspray dragon! i like this bc the color scheme and vibes fit him really well, and bc he’s literally meant to be (half?) korean, so him having a direct link to cantha is cool. like, norn can be asian and stuff, but it’s mostly just looks at that point? anyway, the issues i run into here is that idk if all saltspray dragons can shapeshift? like there’s kuunavang/navan obvi, but idk about the others? and i don’t know a ton about the saltspray dragons in general, tho i think that’s just bc there’s not a lot to know? i also then have to decide if he left cantha, bc if he didn’t, then he and eless meet WAY late in the story. and if he DID leave, then i gotta figure out how, when, and why he did.

my last idea is that maybe he’s like. an avatar or something? i thought about him being linked to one of the spirits of the wild, but idk what one it would be, yknow? but then he could be an avatar of one of the six? like, he is sooo similar to lyssa! he’s literally a mesmer and i already associate him with illusions, glamours, and masks. the only issue here is that idk why he’d be here. like. i looked into avatars on the wiki a lil bit, but i still feel like i don’t know enough >:/

honestly, i think both the saltspray dragon and avatar ideas are stopped only by the fact that i don’t feel like i know enough. i think a lot of that is cuz i didn’t play gw1? (technically i played the free trial cuz my cousin played it, but that doesn’t really count) then again, i could always just. make stuff up. i can fill in blanks with whatever hand-wavey stuff i want! except that i’m rly indecisive lol and i like having characters like this be as canon-compliant as possible :(

returning to juyun as aurenes champion though, i think it might work the best? like, eless could have left the olmakhan and elona during the personal story. maybe juyun does the like, 10-50 story, and then eless shows up as part of the priory? and eless becomes the commander, and juyun is just like, there to help out. and then with lws2, maybe they split up? so juyun goes after the egg, while eless does something else? then again they don’t need to split up i think, cuz aurene could still just choose juyun.

so like, i think champion!juyun would be the easiest to figure out, but then his ‘special-ness’ takes a while to happen. saltspray!juyun gives him ties to cantha, but idk if it makes sense for there to be another saltspray dragon that can transform, and that he’d want to look like a norn. avatar!juyun is the most similar to his og version, but idk a lot about the gods and their avatars, and it being so similar might be a lil boring.

mm i think i might be leaning towards champion tbh, with saltspray dragon coming in second for now

[lehdenlaulu]

Final episode, let's see how it goes:

Oh yay, another domestic violence warning.

Moonlight Sonata, huh? A little on the nose but alright.

"Those Who Must Be Kept"???

Well, at least you're not spilling all of the secrets, my dude.

Buenos Aires, really? The Nazi metaphor is a liiiittle heavy-handed here.

Aw, I guess it makes sense with the plan but it's interesting that we're finally really seeing Lestat and Louis acting all coupley.

Claudia's taken aback too, it seems.

Rashid hanging out in the sunlight again, huh? Though Louis conveniently left sunlight out in his list of how to kill a vampire at the beginning of the episode Though it was established before.

Though if he is Armand, I guess Daniel doesn't have to make any phonecalls on his behalf in this version. 😜 Guess he won't be attempting suicide by sunlight, either.

Louis is amused. Honestly, what's the fucking deal here?

Hmm. Very Théâtre des Vampires. Only even more public -- and in much more modern times with modern means to spread information. Marius shouldn't be happy.

I mean, I don't know if this, even beyond the excessive goriness that is certainly not book accurate, is something these three would ever do in the books, but hey, at least it's sort of fun?

Still not a fan of how Antoinette was used on the show.

No swamp for Lestat this time, eh?

Nice, Daniel, niiice. 👏

I guess I should say it again now that it's confirmed: Hello, Armand.

Love of your life, eh? Well, guess you've been together longer now than you ever were with Lestat.

But mate, you gotta start giving me more if you want me to buy you as Armand. Especially if we're setting up a love triangle of any kind. In the books Armand is the perfect foil to Lestat because he's just as fucking extra but in a different way.

Interesting thought, though: I was thinking how Rashmand's eyes were generally really flat and expressionless when they were what I assume is the actor's natural dark brown eyes, and there are three options: 1) it was by design because that's what contacts do to your eyes 2) it was by design to try to convey the inhuman stillness of older vampires 3) our man went to the Brad Pitt School of Sleepwalking Through Vampire Roles. The first option would be preferable, all in all, though still kinda weird. Because honestly, we should have been able to see more glimpses of his real personality through the servant act. It's not like most of us book readers didn't immediately suspect anyway.

I mean, I'm relieved he's at least still Armand and the Théâtre des Vampires storyline is still happening, but I still want to know why the 'human servant' charade was even necessary. It's not like the gloves and contacts disguise was very effective if they thought Daniel might remember him. 🤨 (I must say I'm also a little bummed the disguise was so mundane because Armand as a witchy little bitch adept in the Spell Gift should have been able to make Daniel see him as a huge pink flamingo if he wanted to. That's the route I would have taken as the showrunner. Oh well.)

I'm also assuming we've dropped the "Armand stalks Daniel for years and teases him with power and immortality" part. Unless Daniel has conveniently forgotten that as well. Though from the way they've both lowkey been playing with him, I have to wonder whose idea this whole interview was in the first place and what the real reason is.

All in all, much better than the previous one. Full verdict of the season to follow.

[gaylienn]

Once I run out of steam for BG3, and before I buy the new FF7 or LAD, I think I want to try and make a dent in my.. Extremely very big backlog.. So I'm going to just list my backlog here to keep track and cross out when i finish

To start with games that I did start but never finished:

Ghostrunner

Prey

Lost Judgment

Signalis

Observation

Transistor

Va11 ha11-a

Katamari Damacy Royal Revery

Mario Wonder

Control

The Great Ace Attorney Cronicles

Signalis

Kentucky Route Zero

Mothmen 1966

A Little to the Left

Mundaun

And all the games that I haven't even really started:

Life is Strange True Colours

Octopath Traveller

Dark Souls Remastered

Demons Souls Remake

Nier Automata

Final Fantasy VII

Sifu

Alan Wake

Trek to Yomi

Jedi Fallen Order

Little Nightmares

Mortal Shell

Vampyr

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Concrete Genie

Days Gone

Horizon Zero Dawn

Sleeping Dogs

Persona 5

Super Mario 3D World (for switch)

World of Horror

AI Somnium Files

Homebody

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk

A Hat in Time

Donut Country

Assassins Creed Valhalla

Assassins Creed Mirage

I have so many games.. Jeez. A lot of them have been free or almost free downloads but still... I really gotta get through these ones

[chamoycin]

10/19 - HEAVY WEEK.. FINALS WRAPPING UP

AOUGH.... so .... finals ar upon me, and so are,. the deadlines. OHHHHH THE DEADLINES. Buckle up folks, lets go over some heavy lifting from this beautiful stressful ~finals week(s)~

SO, im wrapping up my second month of the first semester, and all things considered, i think im doing good...! but man, im still stumbling left anf right here with some things .... augh T_T

like first off, my transportation from school to home has become a HEADACHE and a half, lemme tell ya. So , theres this free service my uni lets students use for transportation. You can book a seat on a van for free, and get picked up at a bus stop thats on a route near your home. From there you get to and from school, and SURE, sounds easy enough rihgt!1!??!?! well, booking for MORNING trips is easy enough, but oh my god, afternoon trips are IMPOSSIBLE to come by now. they fill up so quick!!! it literally stresses me out so much ToT And like,i have alarms set for when they SHOULD open up, but the moment they open up for me theyre just GONE :( idk what to do, but spending money on Uber so much stresses me out... they dont cost any more than like, 10 bucks when the traffic isnt congested as hell, but STILL, say thats 50 bucks per week, thats just too much man!!!

anyways, not to even MENTION the documents i havent even been able to turn in at the school offices. because of that, i havent been able to see my grades at all..... now, i know what i got in like 3 classes, but the rest im just taking calculaed GUESSES. not that they should be low, but, yknow..... that lil doubtful voice inside me says, WHAT IF YE GOT 70 IN THE REST OF THE CLASSES HRMMMM?!?!?

Well anyways, this month im not really feeling like im doing bad either. Ive gotten past the first month stress haze of uni, and i think im acclimating a bit better. probs should invest in energy drinks though, im getting pretty tired nowadays :"D

so.... other than THAT! on my list of to dos, i gotta:

-make my halloween comeback to instagram

-finish up 2 commissions

-work on my website again so i dont get rusty coding!!!

-add a theme for this blog! and maybe revamp my main too PFFT

if i had more energy like i did when i was 16, surely id do it all now .... :"D but hey! im slowly working back to it i suppose. this year sure has been... SOMETHING, but i gotta keep going, dudes!

anyways, thats all for this weeks update :D i gotta go check when i can build my schedule for the next semester, aybe ill stay up today too, who knows!!! blehhhh :P

[hospitalterrorizer]

diary19

9/23-24/2023

big day in terms of feeling like i'm fucking everything up.

it's not actually that serious i guess, not like i'm fucking my whole life up, just maybe fucking up my music. today i did a/b some of the older versions of songs and realized i liked some of those guitar tones, at least a little. there's something to their smudginess. so i spent some of today trying to get that back and get something new for some of the songs that i think need those sounds back. but i think i'm getting there at least. i went back to 5 songs today and touched them up, and did remaster one of the last songs from the old batch that had very little in common with these newer songs in terms of sounds i'm using (but i think the sound is clearly still in line, ofc) and now there's 3 left (in actuality there's 2 and 1 song needs to just be written still)

and reminding myself of that last song, there's something there i forgot, i think both of these songs have untouched versions of the guitar tone i want to go back to, so i can copy those and save them and touch them up. wow. a huge relief off my shoulders, i'm pretty sure at least. i hope. i should check so i can live with the disappointment now. if there is disappointment.

waiting for ableton to open up and listneing to neo-no-wave classic (not really a classic cuz no one talks about it but no one talks about neo-no-wave (not so neo anymore anyways)) mutators - secret life. ableton has opened. let'ssee.

and i was right about one, it does have a super prehistoric version of the preset/distortion chain (missing one of the distorions i started using a ton later on but that should be fine) and another song that turned into another song, i remembered, also should have it. and it does and i feel a huge relief, i can now put this back in things that i think need it. jump for joyyy. today is not super miserable.

it's not like it's actually that bad. i just have to tell myself that these are all problems i can fix, i can make everything sound as good as the songs that are effortlessly good sounding, i will get there, it just needs time. i think the amount of tracks i really have to be worried about is less than what i feel. i was listening and it's just the ones i expect. the very hardcore ones are where the most problems are, mostly a problem of guitars not hitting hard enough, which i think can be solved with one of today's newer presets also i think.

i think i really need to get a way to play guitar, though, honestly. or maybe what i need is a way to route out of my computer to effects. that's gotta be super cheap, right (ha ha ha (it'd cost so much money and i only have pennies to my name)). but it is a fantasy. i would really like to be able to route out to a rat or something maybe. or find a couple pedals and use those w/ synths. that would be so beautiful.

now i'm thinking if i could ask my friend to see if that would be possible, i could some un-effected stems and try at least, with his pedals and interface, if i could figure out a way to make it a return chain somehow. it looks like i could use the jack that way.

i've sent him the message, i guess it's potential that i get some cool sounds out of this, i shouldn't depend on it. i also shouldn't get discouraged if they do sound 'better' or whatever. they're bound to cuz non digital distortion is usually a little more musical, but it could come out way awful or something.

the way i'm thinking about it, this could be really good for layering, where either these newer tracks get used as the main and the super digitally distorted versions are beneath to add emphasis or texture. cuz i do like them, and they have things going on i can't get out of a rat or fuzz war or like, i think my friend has a tube screamer too. but they can probably add something. i hope. i should think about a list of what songs would need that the most and get those tracks exported w/ minimal eqing on them i think.

or whateverrrrrr.

i just really want to be able to listen to my songs again and only think about what i should be doing on them vocally.

anyways i am way tired now. i keep staying up too late.

byebye!!!!!!

[vaingloury]

Even more disparate thoughts on Fabula Ultima

Belated write-up: I finally got the chance to bring this game to the table last month...

...for all of one session. 

That’s one more session than most of the indie ttrpgs I own. Still, I bought a physical copy of the rules and I’m a bit disappointed to see it become yet another art book in my collection.

This post isn’t really a review or a judgement of the game’s quality, just some thoughts on why my group bounced off this game after one session and why it might not work for other tables like mine. This also isn’t in response to it winning the Ennie, I just couldn’t find the energy to write this sooner.

Praise first: The art’s great. I know not every project can afford consistent, original art but Fabula’s illustrations do a lot of the heavy lifting (not to say the written material isn’t also solid) in getting you interested in the game and imagining all kinds of characters you might want to portray. The game avoids stock dungeon fantasy classes with unique classes that don’t feel gimmicky for the sake of avoiding dungeon fantasy classes. Class abilities interact with each other, prompting teamwork. I really like the identity/theme/origin section of the character sheet because I’ve been in one too many games where the players want deep character drama but put the work of planting the seeds for that drama on the GM instead of themselves.

But now the criticisms.

This is not a game for the simulationists. Maybe that was obvious to others from the marketing blurbs, but I saw “J(T)RPG” and got excited thinking about how my character’s pockets were going to be overflowing with Mana Potion x99 in preparation for all the boss lairs we were going to be raiding only to be met with a Schrödinger’s inventory system (if you need an item, you just have it (within reason) except for HP/MP potions, which you can only hold a single digit number of) and a GM section on dungeon crawling that can be summed up as “Yeah, maybe don’t?”

My experience with video jrpgs is pretty synonymous with dungeons, random encounters*, and Mana Potion x99s, so not having those things makes me feel naked here. This is going to be a boon to groups who beg for bags of holding in D&D and find playing anything that’s not “the main story” in ttrpgs to be tedious. I get that Fabula wants a more cinematic experience, with the minutiae of adventuring relegated to happening “off-screen”, but without bean-counting to slow things down between set-pieces (Fabula cut the detailed overland travel rules in its conversion from Ryuutama, if you want travel scenes, just freeform rp it baby) I’m left underwhelmed with the remaining two game modes: combat and cutscene.

(*As a side note, Fabula does have random encounters. However, enemies matched to the party’s level can hit fairly hard, thus more than one encounter a travel day would be brutal in a mismatched tone kind of way. From this, I can assume that encounters are supposed to be few and scripted, keeping in line with the aforementioned cinematic experience. GMs experienced with multiple games will notice this but I’m curious about groups coming directly from video games or D&D. Tangentially, Fabula has an Appendix N, listing several games that are heavy on the dungeon/ multiple random encounter/ resource management trifecta. In hindsight, it finally dawned on me that Fabula doesn’t really simulate jrpgs, rather it simulates media inspired by jrpgs.)

This is also not a game for those of us who don’t run games in the small theatre company sort of way, that is to say your games don’t have a route scripted out in advance like three-night play or a television miniseries, where you gotta hit all the plot beats in sequence. When I said cutscene earlier, I meant it literally. The game wants the GM to interlude the narrative with visions of the campaign’s BBEG getting closer to their goal, enemies do that thing from video games where they can escape a fight you were winning because plot armour (which I find funny rather than frustrating, although that leads me to my actual frustration:). This all assumes that the GM has a grand, linear story to tell. Like the random vs scripted encounter thing, this isn’t addressed explicitly from what I can find in the rules. It’s just assumed you’re running this game because that’s your GM style (it is not my GM style). Lightning round of a few more things my group didn’t like:

Economy: I’m not sure how (much) to distribute money in this game. Because Fabula prefers that you didn’t dungeon crawl, you’re not finding money in chests. Turn in twenty bear asses maybe? Do you even need much money (if you’re not playing a Tinker)? Goods and services are dirt cheap, and most things don’t actually have to be bought. Rare weapons can just be dropped by enemies...

The Starter Scenario Boss: I’m willing to concede that I maybe just ran it wrong but the party didn’t stand a chance despite me nerfing the boss duo’s HP and damage. Also combat ranges aren’t a thing in this game, which I think contributed to the difficulty: the enemy can freely use close range attacks on targets they aren’t standing next to (again, “just freeform it”; they somehow run one football field in a few seconds...).

You Can’t Die: Again, I think this is going to be a boon for a certain type of group but mine felt like the risks weren’t real if you can’t die. I’ve already seen the defence of “just use a different consequence that isn’t death” but our characters found themselves in situations where things wouldn’t make sense if they didn’t die without the help of insane levels of deus ex machina.

I’m usually in the “play another game” camp but rather than trying to tailor Fabula to what I find fun, it’d be easier to just take the theme and bond mechanics from this game and graft them onto Pathfinder 2 or something.