#i thought romancing a pixel would be pretty easy

[kamuro-junrenka]

Man ive been playing baldurs gate like crazy lately because i wanted to romance astarion so bad you dont understand but i finished his whole questline and nothing happened..... im bitchless even in videogames this is embarrassing

[oodlyenough]

with the apollo justice ports around the corner I finally made a concerted effort to finish AAI. there was a period where i thought i'd play both investigations games AND tgaa before now. lol. lmao even

fandom wasn't kidding that last case can long

miscellaneous spoilers and overall thoughts on AAI1. also it's very long

let's get some good stuff up top to start:

it was pretty funny

the pixel sprites were soooo cute, and most of the character art was nice in general

i liked seeing more of edgeworth and franziska together. this was 80% of the reason i played the game to begin with. stupid little details like the fact that she does, actually, still call him "miles" occasionally were nice to have, and i liked a lot of their bratty sibling interactions

callisto yew was the best lmao i loved her

kay's cute. i gotta disagree with the common fanon that she's literally edgeworth's daughter, on account of it's been two days and someone else has raised her to near adulthood, but being a teenager who shows up sometimes to bother him is a very funny thing for her to be, anyway

the yatagarsu actually being a toxic polycule was funny as shit lmao i love it. and kay at the end saying she wants to find 3 fellow teenage beauties to do it with her fhkldhglkhlfg yes girl end up on reddit queer housing discourse i believe in u babe

i didn't like lang all that much to begin with but once we got to the shih-na reveal i was all in, lmfaoooo. i joked "i hope he eats a poison necklace for her" and five minutes later he was taking a bullet. amazing. in all seriousness their relationship felt like much of what i enjoyed about dahlia and phoenix minus the stuff i felt was stupid. let's hear it for toxic workplace romances. edgey comes out of 3-5 like "well that was a lot" and then meets some new spiky weirdo to have homoerotic rivalry with only to discover that guy is also insane about some evil woman

cammy and ms teneiro were also great. lot of funny women in some of these cases. i like that.

this game could have attempted to sell me on some het romance for edgeworth -- it wouldn't have worked, but i wouldn't have exactly been surprised if it had tried, yknow -- but anyway instead it had miscellaneous women flirt with him while he was consistently baffled and/or oblivious and/or revolted. don't worry mr edgeworth i saw your magenta suit

i think broadly that covers the stuff I liked. which leads me to ... stuff I did not:

this game was... rough, imo. after i finished the trilogy this summer i was excited to play this, in particular because one of my few but key complaints with aa3-5 was that franziska and edgeworth just kind of disappeared and i was hoping this would give more exploration and closure to their characters.

that... did not happen. i felt like i was waiting for it to hit a point and get good for pretty much the entire game; it'd be like "well at least franziska is here soon" "well i want to meet kay" "well there's the baby franziska case" "well it's the finale surely it'll be fun!" and mostly none of that really materialized. largely i found it disappointing and anticlimactic.

i don't think i learned anything new about the existing characters -- edgeworth just kind of seemed to be reiterating lessons we already learned in the trilogy, and i felt they negated a lot of franziska's trilogy development and/or flanderized her a lot. the new characters are ok -- i LOVED yew/shih-na lmfao, and I like Kay, and I eventually came to like Lang once I saw him be unhinged about shih-na. but overall i felt the character work was weaker than I was expecting, and without the investment I have from the trilogy I doubt I'd have finished the game. the bratworth + baby franziska case was my fave of the game, because it was fun to see them together in that period of their lives, but even then I don't think how edgeworth was written makes any real sense with aa1 -- i think trilogy bratworth would take the easy conviction against gumshoe and be done with it. that was like. pretty core to the first three games.

I didn't find anything particularly emotional. I WAS interested in Callisto and her dead sister as compared to Kay and her dead father but, never mind, that was a lie. They tried to convince me KG8 was personal to everyone, but it didn't really feel like it for anyone but Kay -- who I like but met two cases ago, and whose connection to even Edgeworth is tenuous. Like they make it pretty clear Franziska is haunted by that case but ... why? Because she regards it as a semi failure I guess...? Like sure, I guess, but ... that's kind of remote. Compare to the trilogy finale stakes of defendant Edgeworth, Maya kidnapped, Phoenix falling off a bridge + Maya missing... the big threat here was that some guy we just recently met might go on to murder other people we've never met in foreign countries. Objectively yes that's bad, but it's not exactly emotionally gripping, imo.

I feel like the nature of the games and its place in the broader AA universe meant the stakes were off. edgeworth and his allies get accused of murder every five minutes in this game, but none of it ever feels real, because by "accused" they mean the police ask a few questions. in AA terms, this is nothing. there's no detention center or arrest or the threat of a 3 day trial and inexplicable death penalty. i've been saying for ages that i would love to see defendant franziska, everyone else got a turn!!, etc -- and technically this last case gave it to me except, well, she was one of about a dozen people accused over the span of the world's longest case, there's no real threat there, and frankly where's the fun in franziska being accused of murder if not for her to grudgingly accept phoenix as her representation. AAI's determination that everything happen pre-trial means that mostly none of it felt very serious; no one even gets arrested. maybe in a vacuum the threat of arrest would feel like enough, but in a series where you have Maya as Murder Charges Georg it just felt like nothing was really on the line -- what's the worst that happens, they get arrested and they hire phoenix? lol. don't threaten me with a good time!

this post is a million words long so I'll stop there. in conclusion, the worst ace attorney game I have played so far. fortunately(?) for AAI and unfortunately for me, i have not yet played dual destinies or spirit of justice, so stay tuned to see if it gets dethroned, lmfao.

i will, probably, eventually give AAI2 a try, if only to better understand everyone's fanfiction, but my hopes are pretty low.

[jjkpls]

the wishlist (m) - 4

“What does it mean if a guy talks about your nipples?”

> genre : smut, fluff

> pairing : jeon jungkook x reader (f)

> total words : 4.7k

> content/warnings : back at it again w/ the bff2l; one sided love, lot of pining; sextoys talk; explicit language; ambiguous infidelity ; awkwardness

previous - next

The issue is that Jungkook -and you're not a bitch for thinking that- is a little bit of an idiot.

He can be very smart. He can be wise and present unsuspecting resources and knowledge. He can teach you things you don't know anything about, figure out others you struggle to -but not during stressful times like for say an escape game because during those, he turns absolutely, utterly useless. 

But he is an idiot too. An idiot that sometimes shapes situations and conclusions and ideas in a very peculiar way that is very singular to him.

That’s precisely what happens then. He plays his role right, to its full extent, with great dedication and commitment. Except he missed a memo, misread the script and ends up playing a role that's not the one you planned for him. He believes that he’s your new adult toy provider (as if there is such a thing).

When you think he’s coming over to share a meal or play some game or binge-watch a series you promised to wait for him to experience together, he has a box hidden in his pocket or carried under his arm. 

He has the decency to not comment on it the first time around. He just set it down on the coffee table, between the bowl of chips and the one filled with guacamole. You see the logo on top of it. You recognize the design, reffined, minimalist with the pretty pastel matte colour. 

He probably identifies the shame and the annoyance on your face, painting your cheeks and reshaping your eyebrows, and doesn’t say anything. Simply smiles to himself and starts talking about the series’ new episode that’s about to start. 

It takes a lot of efforts, coming from you, to ignore the conspicuous object sitting just in front and in between you. But eventually, probably because more than a decade of friendship with this guy have grown impressive mind muscles on you, you manage to make abstraction of it. 

It just stops existing for a while until he leaves and you’re curious to see what’s inside. And again you have the same old intentions as before. The same ones.

You won’t use it. 

It’s curiosity. And it's fine for you to be curious because he’s the one buying it and gifting it to you. Why should you be blamed?

Freshly hopped in bed, just done reading the notice hanging over your face, you’re yawning and sending your eyebrows high in interest. Again you won’t use it but it sounds very interesting. That’s when you get a text from him.

Guk

So about the toy!

As if you were waiting for his explanation. As if the conversation got cut short and you were expecting him to pick it back up whenever possible.

You won’t entertain him.

You

I said not to buy me this.

Guk

You never said that! You said something about me being crazy but never about buying one again

Because you're mostly made of petty bitch material, you scroll higher quickly, wishing to find something, any text that would corroborate what you’re saying.

You don’t find anything though. Because you never actually told him to not buy you other toys by text, and now that you come to think of it, you probably never did out loud either because you didn’t fucking know that he would even consider doing so.

It’s not even Christmas anymore. It’s not your birthday. There’s even less of a valid reason for him to get you this therefore, of course, you did not explicitly warn him not to, you didn’t think it would be necessary.

You

It’s not even my fucking bday why???

Guk

I told you the lady at the shop

But who the hell is that lady?

Guk

She talked about a lot of products and they all seemed cool and because you liked the other one I thought I’d get you this one too

You

Jungkook

This simple response says a lot, you hope he can read between the pixels of his screen the desperation, the irritation, the frustration, the silent insults. 

Guk

Listen it’s super cool it's supposed to mimic the touch of a finger

Jungkook then proceeds to explain to you how it works. The original idea being a system with a tiny ball rolling under a silicon skin, to place on your clitoris to have the illusion of a finger's touch. And it’s interesting and innovative surely and sounds intriguing as in, you wonder if it’s accurate, but you’re tired and it seems like you’re wading in some sort of swamp you can’t escape from. There’s a fire burning your skin from your cheeks to your chest. You’re both hating this conversation and unwilling to just draw a final period to it. This asshole.

You

I can read

Guk

So you opened it already??

There’s a bunch of excited emojis that follows his last message and fill up the empty space your lack of response leaves. 

Why and how can he be so eager?

Here comes the delusional part of your brain. It’s a very wide, very deep hallway covered in bookshelves filled to the brim with stupid interpretations and beliefs and sometimes even memories you’ve shared with him. Often next to the laters are pinned an article from a teenage magazine or the jacket of a romance movie, specifically there to validate that yes, indeed, it must have meant something. 

The door of that corridor just creaked opened. You can discern the sound, you can feel the particular atmosphere without even having to take a step through. 

Is it really that normal to be so excited about that? For him? As a friend?

It’s the most frustrating part: you are friends. Friends who supposedly can tell each other everything. Friends who can ask each other anything. 

You should be able to talk about it. Just ask him. If there’s anything behind this whole mess, if he means to tell you something, if it’s wholly mindless, if there’s no hidden agenda.

It should be fine. There’s only trust and affection in this friendship. 

You are still too scared, you are terrified that he’d start linking dots, ask himself some new questions, potentially answer them himself, and have you all found out.

You'd have your barely well-worn cover thrown completely away. 

You send the blank emoji. The one with even the eyes closed. It summarizes your actual state pretty well, speechless, relatively annoyed. 

Guk

She said you could try it on other parts of your body too

Guk

At first

Guk

Like on your lips or your nipples

You want to die.

Now.

No, better, you wish to have never been born. 

Why is he talking about your nipples? Why?

And through all that, you still feel like something is wrong with you, along with your feelings. 

Turns out you are so overwhelmed by his clueless inadequacy, you need a good half an hour and a random shot of tequila to get through it. When it’s gone and exhaustion of a long day and alcohol have knocked nervousness and panic out, you fall asleep, forgetting about answering his outrageous last texts. 

“What does it mean if a guy talks about your nipples?”

Min's finger stops midair, above the cash register she's been working on. She needs a good minute to get back to her senses and while you wait, anxiety invades you. Maybe you should never have brought it up. 

But this question, the torturous thing is slowly killing you.

Min finally turns her head to you, eyes squinted and eyebrows drawn low. She sucks in her pretty red lips before opening them to start formulating, with it seems a certain struggle, an answer. 

“I don’t think I quite understand.”

It’s a pretty straightforward, relatively easy question. That’s what you'd want to say but you’ve reached the state of bashful regret and decide not to press it. Some things are better just left alone. 

“Who talked about your nipples?” She ends up asking the one thing you wished she wouldn’t because there is no way you’re giving his name. 

“Doesn’t matter.” You mumble, turning around slightly, getting back to the task you were here, paid, to do -wipe the shelves clean and not talk about your “““love””” life. 

“I think it does. You wanna know if it means something? Like the guy's into you?”

“Something like that.” Your cheeks are aflame now. No doubt about it. You silently curse at your manager who refuses that you don’t wear the ugly hat that holds your hair back because having a curtain of hair to hold behind, as a help to keep some of your remained, sparse dignity would have been peachy. 

“What did he say exactly?”

Silence. You’re not elaborating. She sighs, defeated. 

“Well, I suppose... he’s considered the fact that you have boobs. If it’s a straight guy, that’s a good sign, I guess?” She shrugs.

You don’t like the answer. It’s exactly what the wrong, defective part of your brain, the one directly wired to your heart, wanted to hear. 

She doesn’t even have the context, anyway. It doesn’t mean much, doesn’t hold much power in your court of sensibility. 

She stares at the side of your face, clearly attempting to drill holes in your head to try and find some answers. You’re awfully silent, have said too much yet not enough and she’s dying to know the whole story. You won’t give in and she can tell. There’s no way you’re sharing the whole thing. The most, probably, probative point of the whole story: the sex toys. It’d turn her into a devastating tsunami of nonsense and misinterpretation and drown you in its wake and you can’t, when you’re already struggling to stay afloat, allow that.

Tag list: @fangirls94 @realswimshaddy @safi4x @pnkd @somewhereinthestarss @kpopfandomftw @kai-kai-bookshelf @pasteljoonie @ggukkieland

A/N: Don’t forget to click on the next button on top, two parts are being posted simultaneously :)

[vegalocity]

Secret kisses and Touching 2, 14, 22, 23, and 44. Secret Silktea relationship, except both spider fam and Monkey fam actually know! Half of them don’t care enough to say anything (Pigsy,Tang,Spider Queen,Wukong,Syntax) while the other half wants them to reveal it when they’re ready (Min Yi,MK,Mei,Goliath,Sis) - Pixel Anon

Affection meme

49. secret kisses

2. running fingers through hair

14.putting an arm around the other’s waist

22.falling asleep on the other’s shoulder

23. carrying the other one in their arms

44.sitting on the other’s lap

this took me forever to put together because for some ungodly reason i couldn't figure out the scenario

so i decided on a little vignette compilation of sorts

--

They knew what they were doing.

Of course they knew what they were doing. It was in either of their best interests to keep this a secret. Just because the clan had stopped their crusade to take over the city and their queen had dialed down the ‘revenge’ ideas, didn’t mean there wasn’t still bad blood between his clan and Sandy’s family.

And it wasn’t too difficult, it just meant that when they were all working together for some greater threat or whatever that they’d have to be sneaky. It was easy stealth was one of Huntsman’s greatest Attributes and suspecting Blue of anything was like suspecting a small dog of knocking over a bulldozer.

It wasn’t too hard to simply keep their hands to themselves. Or at least, it wasn’t hard for Sandy, Huntsman was quickly finding his self control lacking in regard to being in such a situation with his… well, with him. But could anyone blame him? Blue was more or less the hottest guy he’d ever ran into before and he was kinda-sorta DATING him! How could he not want to climb that like a tree at all times?

Especially when he was always being so stupidly fucking charming. Sure the ‘needlessly nice’ stuff wasn’t something he particularly appreciated, but it was starting to grow on him, if only on the amount of restraint he must have to keep it up all the time.

Soooo yeah maybe he was purposefully pushing their luck a little, but in his defense he wanted to see how much desire based frustration it would take before ol’ Blue would just pin him against a wall and make him regret wondering.

--

Syntax had shooed him away from being a nuisance at his worktable, so naturally, Huntsman had to go be a nuisance at someone else’s worktable. Thankfully Sandy was far more agreeable to the company, and thankfully the bid of ‘Bugging Syntax first’ kept his alibi solid. He wasn’t just going over to see Blue he just wanted to be a louse and his normal target had already locked him out of his room. And so nobody really suspected anything when he started to peer over Sandy’s side to watch him tighten this or that thing on this or that device.

And it was pretty damn fun to see just how much of a ‘nuisance’ he could be. This particular bout resulting ih Huntsman being pressed against the car engine Blue had been working on, feeling the orange hair slide between his claws and messing up the stylized mohawk and shuddering when he felt those huge hands almost entirely encompass either of his thighs while keeping him aloft. He hissed through his teeth as he felt Blue give one of his legs a testing squeeze and rolled his hips forward a bit-

“Fish Demon? I need to get another set of eyes on these schematics or I'll actually go insane.” By the time Syntax looked up from his clipboard Sandy was working on the engine again and Huntsman was leaning against his work area and had barely had the opening to whip out one of his knives and his portable sharpener.

Though Sandy’s hair was unable to be fixed and fell to a side as he smiled at Syntax and took the offered blueprints from him.

--

He wasn’t a big fan of those domestic snatches of time, he wasn’t.

It was mostly an instinctual response, Spiders were pack bonders, so of course when his internal senses started categorizing Sandy as ‘pack’ then he’d relax without intending to while being pulled in with a hand on his waist.

Which was definitely the reason why he was curled up to Sandy’s side, the cool slick feeling of his scales strange against his more leather-like skin. That stupid instinct was the only real reason why he felt so comfortable and like he could practically fall asleep like this.

He felt Blue’s hand gently start running up and down his side and dammit that wasn’t playing fair, it wasn’t his fault that he had been having sleeping problems lately and was rapidly getting drowsy.

He could feel Blue’s hum as the world started to drift away-

“Hey Sandy what do you think- Uhhhh”

“Oh, hello Xiaotian.”

“You know you’ve got a spider on you, right?”

“Oh yeah, Looked like he was having some paranoia problems, took a bit of wheedling to get out but Huntsman here was up for like four days straight ‘till now!”

“Did… Did you slip him your sleepy tea?”

“Of course not! That would be super unethical! Also I'm pretty sure he’s still semi conscious and passively listening without any critical thought right now since he only just dozed off and would probably wake up angry if he overheard anything like that!”

“....right… so anyway-”

--

The brat knew.

Dammit he knew the brat knew. She definitely fucking knew.

He should have known better than to try anything with that Professional Snoop underfoot. But He’d had plans with Blue before having to get stuck with the brat tonight because the Queen needed Syntax’s expertise and the Sister was on shift at work and Goliath already had plans doing who knows what, and he was stuck with Minyi since he ‘didn’t have any plans’

He’d dragged his feet on the idea of cancelling with Blue, but he’d fucking done it so nobody could say he didn’t contribute to the upkeep of their clan’s youngest. It was just his luck that Sandy had been fine with coming over instead, and the brat had overheard some of the conversation and got excited about ‘Mr Sandy’ coming over to visit. The brat had insisted on stringing some of her fake flowers into his hair before he arrived, after dubbing him ‘suitably pretty’ (her words) she’d done up her own hair as similarly as she could because he certainly wasn’t helping her with her weird pre-’company is coming’ rituals.

And… Blue was a hit with the brat. He had an infinite amount of patience for the inane childish babbling, stooped low so she could string the remaining fake flowers in her possession (why did she have so many fake flowers?) into his beard, and offered to fix dinner for the lot of them (which was for the best since the brat was such a picky eater she could barely stomach some of his specialties)

And… he was not jealous of a six year old for how she was able to crawl into Blue’s lap while the lot of them watched some inane mystery show for the character drama alone since the brat called and explained the mystery within the first three minutes.

Blue was a bit awkward on the sofa, it made sense, Goliath would normally sit on the floor for how the height and width of the couch was not designed with bigger demons in mind, and Blue was considerably bigger than Goliath. So while the brat was cozy as could be in the place of honor, Huntsman was stuck perched on the arm of the couch as to not be crushed into it trying to squeeze in beside Blue.

Not that that would be a wholly unpleasant experience, but the presence of the brat made it go from tempting to awkward. Nonetheless, part of Sandy trying to get comfortable had included one of his arms resting on the back of the couch, and while it seemed the brat wasn’t paying attention, it slid down to wrap around his shoulders.

When the time came Minyi didn’t need to be told it was bed time for her, she loudly announced it herself, changed into her pajamas, and after saying goodnight to the both of them went on with a

“I am going to sleep now! And I will not be out of my room until morning so if anything were to be happening I certainly won’t know it, because I will be asleep.”

She smiled widely at Huntsman and closed her door.

Nosey little brat.

--

Tang huffed a quiet laugh as Sandy gingerly began to lift Huntsman into the air, his broken leg not quite able to be splinted just yet, let alone looked at properly. It seemed the lot of them had suffered some pretty nasty injuries from this last threat (and no doubt it would have been worse if their team and the Spider Clan hadn’t joined forces) including Tang himself despite being on the sidelines for most of it, he was pretty sure his shoulder was dislocated, and the cut on his forehead was still sluggishly bleeding all over the right side of his face, but compared to some of the others he was basically fine.

So once He was able to pop his arm back into place (Ouch) he took to handling cleanup with the only other ‘perfectly normal person’ here, a woman maybe a few years his junior, he’d seen her every so often with the Spider Clan (or rather, with Syntax) but he didn’t know her name.

“Do you think they actually think they’re being subtle?” Her words caught his attention and he turned to glance at the woman. She was in the middle of splinting Xiaojiao’s broken wrist and at Tang’s questioning glance, she nodded at Sandy and Huntsman. Oh!

“I’m sure Sandy thinks he’s the pinnacle of subtlety” Tang responded. He was pretty sure the ‘thing’ that had developed between their friend and the most brutal of the Spider Clan was the worst kept secret on the team since Red Son had started hanging out with Xiaotian and Xiaojiao on the weekends.

“They are so cute when you just walk in on them.” Xiaojiao said around a snicker. “Like how they jump apart like when you flip a magnet over to the matching side.”

“Does your team have a betting pool? My brother organized one for the clan, and if they do anything damning within the next month i win the pot.”

“No! Ohh man we should get one started up! Hey Pigsy! You wanna make a betting Pool for Sandy and Huntsman’s secret romance?”

“Why the hell would i want to do that?”

“Finally have dirt on Sandy after decades of him never being embarrassed about anything ever?” Tang offered with a shrug.

Pigsy thought for a moment and shrugged back before going back to fussing over Xiaotian. “Sure. Who’s bettin’ what?”

--

send me stuff!

[winepresswrath]

my brain’s like “you know how to use rpg maker mv! that would probably totally work as a pixel flash type game” but I also remember how much I hated making maps. and never figured out how to create combat. but I still would like to know everything about this idea because I think it’s very cool! (I was the two previous anons you answered about this)

That's so cool! If you are ever moved to make an MDZS game of any kind please let me know! My idea is honestly not that fleshed out. The basics are

Kind of like canon, we start in a fantasy adventure game with the original WWX's body. This mission is make it to Jin Ling's hundred day celebration! It is almost impossible to beat. Once Zixuan dies it's entirely impossible to beat and he really, really wants to die. Just like, the worst escort mission possible and your own defensive moves keep auto targeting him, so you have to save him from friendly fire without attacking. If you succeed your prize is to skip the rest of the game and look at a beautiful cut scene of everyone happy together at Lotus Pier.

After the find Yanli tutorial and dying at Nightless City, you wake up in Mo Xuanyu's body! Your goals are vengeance, mystery solving, and romancing Hanguang-Jun! This part of the game involves lots of puzzles and you need to explore to find secret items that reveal important clues to both the modern day possessed arm mystery and your character's past. At first you have lots of health and it's difficult to die! But as the game progresses it gets harder and harder, so most people will not make it to the end with this body. Faster mystery solving makes it less liked that you'll die, so repeat players will have an easier time making it through on earlier lives.

But when you do die, (and you'll probably die) you wake up as Qin Su! Who has figured out what her husband did to her son and has summoned you for (more)! vengeance. This makes it much easier to solve the mystery of the arm- you've got access to so many convenient items and secret corridors! No need for stealth mode in Carp Tower! But you also need to track down Hanguang Jun and win his trust all over again! Much easier if you've solved the Wangxian.mp3 mystery.

And so it goes! My thoughts were Jiang Cheng next up (making it extra difficult to win Hanguang-Jun's trust, but relatively easy to unlock the mystery of your past, and you can go to so many places with impunity!) In Jiang Cheng's body your bonus mission is to avenge Jin Ling, which is slightly modified to rescue Jin Ling once you realize he's alive. Jiang Cheng is also pretty difficult to kill and has great combat stats, so you've got lots of time to run around with him. You get back your golden core and, with a little exploration, chenqing!

Some more people in here, maybe? Honestly Xichen should really be after Qin Su but it's difficult for me to find something interesting and in character to do with him. It's possible that Jiang Cheng should be further down the line, because playing him is sad but overall very easy because he's powerful and not dodging a very upset husband who has mind control talismans. But maybe you don't actually need more people! This is a game design question I'm not really qualified for. Much like all other game design questions.

At some point you ruin Jin Guangyao's reputation, solve the mystery and make it to the boss battle at Guanyin temple. If you die during the boss battle, regardless of the body you are in, Jin Guangyao kills himself and summons you in vengeance! And he's too upset for specificity so he just demands vengeance on everyone who's ever betrayed him, which the curse interprets as including Jiang Cheng and Qin Su if they haven't already died to summon the player. Lan Xichen and Nie Huaisang are also included, though the player may or may not know that Nie Huaisang belongs on that list.

Nie Huaisang still says I don't know a lot but he's nevertheless a helpful character who "inadvertently" gives valuable hints and helps boost your health by feeding you cakes!

This mission is terrible for multiple reasons and has a countdown clock

If you make it to the end of this quest you have to fight Hanguang-Jun. If you beat him, you get to rule the world in Yaoyao's body. If you die having started the mission you die for real.

If you refuse to play and just wait out your countdown clock exploring and hanging out with any other still-alive characters you wake up as Hanguang-Jun. No one attacks you and you are extremely OP. You can run around the map collecting any items and solving any bonus mysteries you missed at your leisure.

If you start the mission but only kill Jiang Cheng you still wake up as Hanguang-Jun.

[jcmorrigan]

Hideaway

The F/O? XR from Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. The S/I? Rachel Sparks - fifth ranger of Team Lightyear with a big heart for justice (and no glasses in this ‘verse because I suppose Nebula would surgically augment my eyes to make sure Zurg couldn’t rip the glasses off and stomp on them, which is a Zurg tactic). This one was meant to nestle into the episode “Wirewolf,” based on that throwaway line where XR hears from another ‘bot that the air vents are the best hiding place. See, that was the episode in which I most wanted to hug my poor scaredyboi when he was being done a frighten. I was originally going to do a lot more with that ep as material, but this is all I ever got down.

Oh, also, I moved this around so it was after “42″ which is why Sparks is angsty

***

The air vents were actually quite spacious. Almost suspiciously so, in fact. Circular in shape from the interior, their diameter was enough to comfortably fit a self-described fun-sized robot at standing height.

           Which, at the moment, was the purpose they were serving. XR didn’t want to think of himself as cowering, though “hiding” he would admit to, just to himself. Sure, the vents were unlit and forged a winding labyrinth, but it was a whole lot safer in here than out there. Yes, there was a small chance that the energy vampire could find his way in here, but it was such a small chance that it wasn’t even worth entertaining. Definitely not worth entertaining at all.

           When the sound of someone – something? – crawling down the metal pipe reached XR’s auditory processing, he instinctively popped all eleven guns, aiming them at the source of the noise. “One step closer – wait, step? Wing-flap? Do you even – GET ANY CLOSER AND I’LL GIVE YOU ENERGY, ALL RIGHT. ELEVEN ROUNDS OF IT.”

           The reply of “Friendly fire me and my ghost will follow you around, singing Never Gonna Give You Up backwards, for the rest of your eternal life” gave XR a start. His eye-lights flickered into high brightness, illuminating the space before him, where Rachel was crawling into position.

           “Eheh…sorry about that…” The guns were folded back into storage. “Thought you were…somebody else.”

           “Yeah, I kinda picked up on that.” Rachel repositioned herself, leaning up against the curve of the wall and settling into a semi-comfortable sitting position. “Who built these vents, anyway? They’re HUGE.”

           “You know, I am not gonna look the gift horse-droid in the mouth here.” XR put one hand on his side, leaning cockily as he fired Rachel a coy grin. “So. What’s a nice gal like you doing in an air vent like this?”

           “Well,” Rachel began, “when you went missing, I figured you were hiding from NOS somewhere because you were scared out of your wits – “

           “Scared? Me?” XR was snapped out of his smug act, speaking quickly. “No. I am not scared. You’re thinking of some OTHER robot who always panics whenever energy vampires are involved.”

           “Riiiiiight,” Rachel replied with a smirk before continuing, “Anyway, I asked around and got the tip on the vents, and so then I started overthinking about NOS getting in here and cornering you in the middle of a dark, cramped air vent, and now YOU’RE probably overthinking about NOS getting in here and cornering you in the middle of a dark, cramped air vent, so, long story short, I thought you could use the company.”

           “I was NOT overthinking it,” XR insisted. Then, rather meekly as he tapped his metal fingertips together, “I…wouldn’t mind if you stuck around a bit, though…”

           This was good. It had been far too long since they’d talked like this. It felt right, natural, as easy as slipping on old shoes. While Rachel was well aware the break had been necessary for her to nurse her emotions, she now realized how much she’d missed this. How much she’d missed her friend. This was so much better, now that she was through with the thought of chasing his heart (metaphorically speaking, though she’d heard rumors of the LGMs having added a beanbag heart to his inner workings just to be cheeky).

           “So,” XR suggested, “as long as we’re here, and will be here for the forseeable future until everyone else manages to short-circuit NOSy…”

           Rachel knew that was absolutely not the pleasure they’d be allowed, but she let him carry on without interrupting.

           She hadn’t seen when, exactly, he’d retrieved the pack of cards; he flicked his hand and the entire deck was fanned out in it. “The usual?” he asked.

           “Deal me in,” she replied. “Let’s…not put a wager on this one, though.”

           “Deal.”

           Her first card: a three. The second was a two. “Hit,” she decided, seeing XR’s seven.

           As he handed her a card, she pointed out rather nervously, “So, we’ve…kinda been on a hiatus.”

           “Yeah, and what’s with that?” XR asked, suspicion rising in his voice.

           “I had some shit to work out,” Rachel said calmly. And if there was anything she’d learned after all this time, it was how to not clue him in by overreacting. Though, really, now that the drama was over, what was the harm in him knowing? “Might tell you later. I really just wanna know what’s been up with you.” A consideration on her cards. “Hit.”

           “Me?” XR replied. “Oh, you know…just…” An overly dramatic sigh. “Contending with the scars of heartbreak. Trying to erase the memory of 42 from my hard drive. Being unable to purge it. …Mostly because if I forgot about her, I’d probably try to go after her again, and boy, would that be awkward.” The look of suspicion returned. “But this is what you didn’t wanna talk about.”

           “I worked out my shit,” Rachel stated calmly. “It’s all good. You may proceed.”

           “It’s just…for all my life, all the decades I’ve wasted – “

           “You’ve barely been online for a year.”

           “ALL THE DECADES I’VE WASTED, I’ve been chasing one woman after another. Why? Who knows, really? The thrill? The allure of wanting everything I couldn’t have?”

           “This sounds suspiciously like lines you stole from a trashy romance novel,” Rachel pointed out.

           Without acknowledging that statement, XR went on; “And my nonexistent heart truly beat for no one, until I found her, and that was when I realized it didn’t just beat, but it bled – “

           “THAT IS FROM MY FUCKING FANFICTION.”

           The reply she received was a metallic wink. She stuck out her tongue in retaliation.

           “But seriously,” XR condensed, “42 is the first woman I ever wanted to actually commit to. And you’d think I’d like being free of what a lesser man might call the ‘ball and chain,’ but the usual routine just doesn’t do it for me anymore. We were going to be partners. And I really, REALLY wanted that. I can’t just go back to throwing out bad pickup lines at every pretty face now that I know what being happy with someone REALLY feels like!” He paused. “Hit or no?”

           It took Rachel a minute to realize he was referring to the game. She surveyed her cards. “Hit.”

           “You have something really low under there.”

           “You would know. You probably dealt me what you did on purpose.”

           “Actually,” XR said, matter-of-fact, “I turned my algorithms off completely for this one. I’m playing on luck and risk evaluation.”

           “So you’re saying you don’t have a perfect 21.”

           “I am saying I MIGHT have a perfect 21. You have no idea. But if I have a perfect 21, it didn’t get that way on purpose.”

           Rachel took the final card, nodded, and lay it down. “Done.”

           “There’s a pretty good chance you won this.”

           Rachel flipped up her cards, showing a total of 19. “Pretty sure I did win this.”

           “Well, what do you know?” XR remarked. “I turn off my algorithms, I give you a fighting chance – “

           He turned up a 20.

           “ – and you still lost.”

           “Dammit!”

           As the cards were reshuffled, Rachel asked, “What was she like? I mean, what did you like about her? I never really got to know her that well.” Maybe now she should, now that she’d sorted everything out. Put the final nail in the coffin and befriend 42, who it sounded like Rachel could get along with anyway. Once Rachel could act mature around 42 and not feel hurt, she would know it was all over, and all three of them would be free. Though, now that she thought of it, it probably wasn’t a good idea to bring up XR’s ex and ask him to describe her. “But if you don’t wanna talk about her, I get – “

           “She was more radiant than a thousand suns,” XR was already waxing poetical. “Bitter, at first, but that was part of the allure. There’s just something about kicking off a relationship with a good old-fashioned trading of insults that makes you feel alive. She was a CLASSIC romantic, too. A walks-on-the-beach kind of person. Yes, yes, I know she couldn’t WALK at the time, but that didn’t stop her, which just goes to show how much of a dreamer she was. But most of all, when I looked into her pixelated eye graphics, I felt like she KNEW me inside out, and I thought for the briefest moment that I knew her. Though, boy, did I have her wrong. She needed to fly free while I wanted to latch onto her like a remora. She wanted to touch the sky. I wanted to invest in a tandem bicycle. She wanted adventure. I wanted what I am realizing is a series of incredibly mixed metaphors.” The cards, he remembered. Two for him, two for Rachel.

           She peered at her hidden card, hardly registering it as she asked, “If you could have the woman of your dreams, now that you’ve been with 42…what would she be like?”

           “Well, she’d have to have a sense of humor,” XR mused. “This isn’t a REQUIREMENT, but if our relationship evolved out of a playful rivalry, that’d be bonus points. Somebody who’d go for a romantic night on the town, maybe dancing at the less shady clubs in Trade World, which are still pretty shady, but look better by comparison of what they’re next to. Someone who’d actually want to be on my team so we could be together all the time. And, of course, it wouldn’t hurt if she worshipped the ground I rolled on.”

           Rachel stared at him, dumbfounded.

           “I’D DO THE SAME FOR HER,” XR said defensively, thinking Rachel was floored by the selfishness of the last qualification. “If she was the right one, she’d be nothing short of ethereally beautiful, and I would let her know that every hour, on the hour. You could time me.”

           Rachel doubted that was literal, but she understood the sentiment. She condensed what XR had told her, just to be sure she had it right: “So you want someone who started out bantering with you, would become your friend and think everything you did was hot shit, laughed at your jokes, TOLD bad jokes, went along with you on pretty much every adventure, and would love to be taken out dancing on Trade World.”

           “Yes. Is there something wrong with that?”

           He couldn’t really be that oblivious.

           Except he was XR. He actually was that oblivious.

           “No,” Rachel said. “I hope you find the woman of your dreams.”

           If he’d managed to describe her perfectly, and he’d still never thought of her as an option, then the coffin really was closed.

           “Your turn,” XR said rather smugly.

           “Huh? Oh. Hit – “

           “Nooooo,” XR corrected, singsong, “I want to know what YOUR perfect guy is like.”

           “My perfect guy?” Rachel repeated, fiddling with the face-up card in her hand. “Well, I mean…I used to have this laundry list of requirements. You’re gonna love this, but back when I was growing up on Capital Planet, I actually thought I’d only ever be into humans.”

           A dramatic gasp from XR that Rachel wasn’t sure about: real or exaggerated?

           “Yeah, yeah, I know,” she brushed off. “Miss Inclusivity thinking she’d only ever go for a human. But I had a thing for guys with black hair. Raven fucking black. I was pretty much into your standard skinny white boy package. You can fill in the blanks. After I grew up a little, I realized that attraction could come in more than one exact body type, so my list got less physical and more about personality. Moral paragon, musical connoisseur, had to bolster my self-esteem…maybe be willing to play my therapist a little and remind me that I’m pretty when I don’t believe it…or, you know, all the time…”

           “And you think I’M selfish for wanting a woman to be enchanted by me,” XR said in a tone of mock disappointment.

           “You are,” Rachel argued, “but I never said I wasn’t, now, did I? The thing is…where I am now, less and less things matter.”

           “Fewer?”            “What?”

           “Whenever I use the word ‘less’ like that in my reports,” XR reminded her, “you change it to ‘fewer.’”

           “You KNOW I don’t give a shit when I’m TALKING OUT LOUD.”

           “‘Biek’ wasn’t out loud.”

           “WILL YOU LET THAT GO?” She did love this routine. “Anyway, FEWER and FEWER things mattered until it kind of just boiled down to one thing. If he’s someone I can get along with, someone who makes me feel like we get each other and can have each other’s backs, and we have a lot of fun together, then, if a spark happens, which it very well might, I’ll give him a shot.” A pause. “Oh, and also, he can’t want to have sex with me. That part’s important.”

           XR took a minute to process this before saying, “That’s it?”

           “That’s it.”

           “You have REALLY got to raise your standards.”

           “Trust me, I told myself the same thing SO many times.”

           “Why would you – “ It clicked. “OHHHHHHHH. You had a thing for someone. You had a thing for someone RECENTLY. I knew it. I KNEW it!” XR pointed at Rachel proudly.

           “It’s not Booster,” Rachel sighed out of habit.

           “I figured that out,” XR said proudly. “You didn’t have the chemistry I thought you had with him at all. Which is probably good, since I still have no idea how old he is.”

           “The thing is,” Rachel admitted, “I kinda realized I had to…get over this guy. And now that it’s all over, I think…maybe I can actually tell you. Let you add this to your list of blackmail material you have on me.”

           “Would I ever blackmail you?”            “Evan already knows. He read it in my head. You telling him who I like will have literally no effect.”

           XR pretended this didn’t bother him for a full ten seconds before muttering, “Dagnabbit.”

           “You’re gonna get a good laugh out of this, though,” Rachel said with a smile. “I used to have a huge…crush…on…”

           Why was it suddenly so hard to say? Was it just out of hesitation, knowing that he’d lord this over her for fun? But he knew, now, where the limit was. She trusted that. Her throat seemed to dry up all the same, and her heartbeat was now strong, the feeling of it pulsing in her neck. After keeping this secret for so long, it was finally coming to light, and perhaps that was why this was as difficult as it was.

           “I appreciate the atmosphere of suspense you’re cultivating here,” XR told her, “but I kinda need to know the answer already.”

           “I – sorry,” Rachel squeaked, clearing her throat. “Okay. The punchline of my life is that this whole time, I’ve secretly been into – “

           “BUZZ LIGHTYEAR!” XR cried all of a sudden.

           “…What?” Rachel replied incredulously.

           “That…explains…EVERYTHING!” XR realized. “He talked you into accepting life on Team Lightyear really easily. You didn’t want him to go out with Bonnie Lepton because you wanted him for yourself! But you couldn’t tell him because after the Plasma Boy incident, you thought you’d be pressuring him into a relationship he didn’t want! What a plot twist! You arguing so hard to get me to help you bring him back if he ever went loco, your obsession with his sexier evil clone showing up everywhere, your feeling like the only rookie who didn’t earn his respect – it all fits! How did I not see this before? Oh, the tragedy! Oh, the star-crossed fate!”

           “You couldn’t be more wrong,” Rachel said, deadpan.

           XR took a moment to study her face. “You’re putting on an awfully cool cover if I’m right.”

           “That’s because it’s not a cover, and also, if I was going to tell you it was him in the first place, I wouldn’t be putting on a cover now.”

           “True, true…” XR relented. “Okay, proceed.”

           Rachel heaved a deep breath. “The guy I had a thing for is – “

           “WARP DARKMATTER!”

           Rachel leaned the back of her head against the metal wall, thudding it several times consecutively.

           “You said it yourself,” XR reminded her. “You have a thing for guys with black hair. And probably black souls to match. You wanted yourself some of that bad boy action, but he would NEVER have eyes for you!” If Rachel wasn’t mistaken, XR’s eye-lights were misting slightly.

           “IT’S NOT WARP DARKMATTER,” she groaned. “Are you gonna let me tell you or not?”

           “…Okay, it’s obviously not Warp Darkmatter,” XR realized. “Then who could it be…?”

           “Try someone a little less…tall,” Rachel urged him. “And…conventional.”

           She waited to see if he’d guess, but he simply made a “hmm” noise of deep thought.

           “Someone who always has to have the last word?” Rachel prompted. “Someone…not human.”

           “That doesn’t really narrow it down…”

           “Someone who thinks he’s hot shit.”

           “That eliminates a few more of the obvious candidates…”

           After waiting a little longer for XR’s next guess and not hearing it, Rachel sighed one more time. “The person I had a thing for – “

           XR’s jaw dropped. “NO.”

           She knew he had it. “Yes.”

           “All this time – “

           “Yup.”

           “For a YEAR – “

           “Yyyyyyup.”

           “I KNEW it was suspicious how you were always defending him!” XR proclaimed. “No one in their right mind would try to paint him as a misguided good guy unless she was head-over-heels for him!”

           Or maybe he didn’t have it. “…I don’t think we’re talking about the same person here.”

           “And you always were fascinated by that molting thing, and, let’s face it, he OBVIOUSLY wouldn’t do the do the way humans do – “

           “ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT EON?” Rachel screamed in newly ignited horror.

           “YOU’RE THE ONE WHO’S ALWAYS TALKING ABOUT HOW MUCH POTENTIAL HE HAS FOR GOOD!” XR reminded her.

           “IT’S NOT! FUCKING! EON!”

           “And thank whatever deity exists for that,” XR said with a sigh of relief.

           “All right,” Rachel groaned, “you’re done guessing.” Though, as usual, XR’s sheer airheadedness combined with his lack of vocal filter had done its magic. She was no longer nervous, her heartbeat quelled. Playful frustration lent her confidence. “I’m gonna tell you. And you’re gonna listen.”

           “Okay. No more interruptions. We cut to the chase this time.”

           “The person I liked,” Rachel said slowly, deliberately, “was…hey, how about you give me a drumroll?”

           XR rose to the cue, rapidly tapping his fingers on the metal wall so the sound reverberated.

           Rachel put out an arm dramatically. “And the lucky man is - !”

           “Hey, guys!” Mira said from behind Rachel as her upper half phased into the vent.

           She’d meant to ask what Rachel and XR were doing hanging out in an air vent, but the question died on her lips immediately, for the moment she’d appeared, she’d startled them both so badly that they were now screaming bloody murder, instinctively shooting to each other to cling onto each other’s bodies chastely but tightly.

           It really was a shame they hadn’t worked out, Mira thought; they were a cute couple. A cute couple of dorks, to be specific.

           “So, uhhhh, we’re going on patrol,” Mira said once the screaming had died down, “and it’s kind of a whole-team thing.”

           “Actually,” XR said from his position locked within Rachel’s grip, “we had a better plan. You, Buzz, and Booster are really more skilled at the whole ‘vampire-hunting’ thing, and this Parsec guy seems like a real…vampire slayer. You know ‘em when you see ‘em, and he’s one of ‘em. Now, Rach and I, we are REALLY good at guarding these air vents and making sure nothing gets in the base through them, so we’re just going to stay right here and – “

           “Uh-uh.” Mira shook her head. “Not a chance.”

           “I just want it on record that staying in here was completely his idea,” Rachel said flatly, XR’s arms still locked around her.

           “I know it’s dangerous out there,” Mira pointed out, “but danger is what we signed up for when we became space rangers. It’s our job – “

           “To do dangerous things so no one helpless has to deal with them,” Rachel sighed. “I know. Come on.” She disentangled XR from her arms, waiting for him to do the same – which she now needed him to do for more reasons than one.

           For when they’d grabbed onto each other, her heart had leapt with excitement. She had thought she’d done a thorough job of murdering her feelings for him. But it wasn’t over at all. It was a good thing Mira had come along when she’d done so, because if she’d clued XR in while she still had feelings for him –

           “You can let go now,” she told him gruffly, even though she didn’t want him to, not ever again.

           She didn’t miss the light tremble in him as he got as much distance from her as he could in the cramped vent, his arms now to himself. “All right,” he said with a bravado-laden tone, “I’m nothing if not a team player.”

           “That’s a laugh,” Mira teased.

           “But if I get torn to shreds out there,” XR told Mira, arms folded, “you’re the one paying for my reconstruction.”

           “Done and done,” Mira said with a nod.

           “Wait a – “ XR did a double take. “You said that like you are VERY SURE I’m going to get shredded.”

           “Uh, yeah, we’re leaving in five minutes,” Mira said before vanishing through the bottom of the vent.

           “Let’s do this,” Rachel said resignedly, making to head out of the vent. Then: “Um…you should probably lead. You’re the one with lights.”

           “You got all the way in here without lights.”

           “I ran into a LOT of walls. I have bruises.”

           There was enough room for them to switch positions, but due to the curvature of the walls, it did involve XR temporarily skidding on the side of the wall and Rachel losing her balance completely and falling with a thud. Eventually, they were arranged in a procession of some dignity, XR now out front to light the path while Rachel crawled on hands and knees behind him.

           Yet XR didn’t move, standing stone-still. Or attempting to, anyway. His nervous shaking was now visibly apparent, even in the dim light.

           “XR?” Rachel said softly.

           “What?” he replied quickly. “Oh, no, no, yeah, I’m fine – “

           “I know what you’re thinking about,” Rachel informed him. “All that stuff you told me. I know you’re afraid of what he can do to you.”

           “Look, I don’t wanna go over it again and get it in my head right before any of it could ACTUALLY HAPPEN,” XR spat.

           “Just…do me a favor and look at me first.”

           He trusted her, and so he spun, treads still pointed forward but the rest of his body rotating to face Rachel.

           She dared to place a hand on either side of his helmet, telling him, “Look me in the eye,” as she did the same to him –

           Then she recoiled with a loud “AGH, FUCK!”

           Staring a robot in his brightly illuminated eyes was a bad idea, it turned out.

           “Can you turn down the brights?” Rachel grunted, eyes shut tight.

           “Heh…yeah…sorry about that…aaaaand you’re clear.”

           Rachel eased one eye open to test the environment. She could now just make out the lines of XR’s face, his eyes dimmed to the softest glow. Opening her eyes completely, she became aware that the spots of dark green and magenta swimming in her vision from the accidental bright-light exposure were stunning even in the dark. They were, however, temporary. “Now look me in the eye for real,” Rachel commanded, gently.

           Her hands hadn’t left him. He looked to her with a now-obvious vulnerability that she knew he hated showing.

           “I can’t promise anything for sure,” she said as she fixed her gaze directly on his. “NOS is a badass, and I am a fucking wimp. I’m probably going to lose whatever fight I get in. So I can’t say I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you, because knowing my luck, I’ll try, I’ll get fucked up, and you’ll need a backup plan. But you KNOW how I feel about letting you get hurt, no matter how many times you can get rebuilt. When we get out there, stay close to me. Because I’m going to do my ABSOLUTE DAMNEDEST to try not to let anything bad happen to you. I promise.”

           Dead serious, he said, “You sound like you’re going to try and fight an energy vampire mono-a-mono to stop me from getting a few paint scratches.”

           “Yes. Because that’s what I fully intend to do. I will fight him. I know I cannot win, but I will fight him.”

           A pause. “What do you want outta this? Your next order at Cosmo’s is my treat?”

           Rachel flinched, disgusted with the insinuation; “I’m not going to protect you because I want you to OWE me – “

           “I’m not saying you are. I’m OFFERING.”

           “Oh.” So that was it. “This is free, okay? You’re already helping me cover up my anxiety stuff and – and you make me smile all the time, so there’s that. But you need to let me do this for you. Because I – “

           Could she do it, now? Tell him the absolute truth?

           “ – I have a lot of friends,” she concluded, “but none of them are quite like you. You’re my best friend.”

           That was, absolutely, the truth.

           “And I can’t – “ Here, she faltered. She was about to say those damning words, “lose you,” but then that would give him the idea that that was a real possibility, and even though it was, she didn’t want either of them to entertain it. She was silent for far too long, looking for the politically correct rephrase.

           “Hey, you don’t have to finish that.” He actually sounded jovial; his teasing tone was more honest now, and Rachel could feel that somewhere along the line, he’d stopped shaking. She froze like a deer in headlights when she felt his hand wrap around her own on the side of the glass. “I know I rag on you all the time, and you rag on me, but I really lucked out with you, didn’t I? You’re the only one who does this. Gets all protective, I mean. And I get it. I get why. An adult robot outfitted with the latest and greatest Star Command technology SHOULDN’T need to have his back watched. And probably doesn’t, all considered. I mean, I’ve run into him THIS many times and I’m still here, soooooooo…”

           “If you think you’ll be okay out there,” Rachel said, “then that’s good. You’re capable. You’re a rock star. I’m STILL going to look out for you out there, though. Whether you want me to or not.”

           She twisted her hand as much as she could to be able to grasp his in return, firmly squeezing the metal, and this was probably going far too overboard, now that she realized how she still did feel, but as much as she liked the attention and the touch, she wasn’t doing this for that, she was doing this because knowing how afraid he was put cracks in her heart –

           “Just stay with me,” she reiterated, hardly able to get the words out, voice almost inaudible.

           “Fine,” XR teased, “but only ‘cause somebody needs to watch YOUR back out there.” She was starting to avert her gaze, her face falling from the gravity of the situation, and his free hand tapped her under the chin and lifted her head back up to see that he was now smiling with confidence that wasn’t falsely plastered on to hide the depths of fear, but rather shining through the ever-present fear. “Ya sap.”

           That got her to laugh.

           Mira’s echoing call of “FIVE MINUTES ARE UP!” from the entry to the vent labyrinth spurred them both to move. Following behind XR, Rachel knew she had a lot to think about. But the foremost thing on her mind was how she was going to make sure he was safe with NOS-4-A2 on the loose – something more easily done in fantasy than reality.

           But as soon as his lights, now on full brightness, alerted her to the vertical shaft she’d nearly fallen down on her blind trip into the maze and missed out of pure luck, the foremost thing on her mind became that and processing the worst-case scenarios that hadn’t happened.

[crystalninjaphoenix]

Love Lasts/Last Love

Septics Inverted

A JSE Fanfic

Who like finals messing with your time and energy?! Nobody? That’s what I thought! So because of said time- and energy-draining finals, this part is considerably shorter than the Inverted stories usually are. Also I’m working on storing up writing for the May event. Also I wanted to focus on another AU that has a big story coming out later this week. But enough about that! It’s time to get some updates on Stacy’s situation and leave everyone on a cliffhanger-type thing! *fingerguns away*

Read the intro story: Part One | Part Two

Various other AU-related stuff found here

Taglist: @evyptids @awkward-bullshit @watermelonsinmyattic @asunachinadoll @a-humble-narcissus @metautske @odysseus-is-best-boi @acuriousquail @beerecordings @elizabethnordwell

He’d given her a phone number after their last meeting, telling her to call or text him if she ever got in trouble. Stacy wondered exactly how the number worked, if it led to an actual phone or if it connected to somewhere in digital space that only Anti could access. Either way, she hadn’t expected to use it so soon. It was May 20th, three days after he last showed up. She was sitting in the front room, having just dropped off the kids at school. In one hand, she clutched the letter. In the other, she typed out a one-handed text on her phone, and sent it.

And just a few minutes later, the lights overhead flickered, and Anti appeared, leaning against the television. Where he made contact with the screen, it flickered with colors. “So what’s the problem?” he asked.

Stacy didn’t say anything, just held out the letter. Anti stared at it. Then all of a sudden she wasn’t holding it anymore, he was, and he was reading it intently. His eye got narrower the longer he read. “When did this happen?”

“That same night after you told me they could be tracking me,” she said quietly. “I—I think they were.”

Anti looked up. “Do you want to keep this?” he asked, holding up the letter.

Stacy bit her lip. “I...don’t know.” She really didn’t. Obviously, it would be better to get rid of it, to move on. But it was hard. Mostly because it had actually been a really sweet letter. For a moment, she could almost forget everything that happened between the two of them, and pretend they were back in university, having the time of their lives swept up in the early years of young love. Before the stress of working two jobs to provide for the kids, before the financial problems, before the alcohol and the fights and everything else. She knew it was impossible to go back, but she liked the reminder of happier days.

“How about...I keep it for you, and you can text me if you ever want to read it again?” Anti proposed. When Stacy nodded, the letter disappeared, falling apart into fading pixels.

She took a deep breath. “I...I’m sorry for calling you over something so little. But...I just needed to talk to someone about that. Figure out what to do.” She laughed. “And also, I-I guess it would be good for you to-to get an update on the stalking situation.”

He shook his head. “Come on. It’s fine. It’s just how humans work, talking about a situation makes it less big and scary. Though I do wonder if you don’t have other people to talk to.”

“I have some friends,” she said defensively. “A lot of them I know from work now, or they’re parents to the kids’ friends. But...I don’t th-think they could help, um, with this.” She folded her arms, shrinking into the couch cushions. “Not only would it be weird to tell them I think my ex is magically stalking me, but they don’t...they don’t even know everything that happened. Just that I’m divorced and it’s a sore subject. I think Shelly assumed there was an affair somewhere. Dunno if that’s better or worse.”

Anti shrugged. “If you’re asking me for romance advice, you’re absolutely talking to the wrong person. I don’t much care for it.”

“Do you care for any sort of connection?” Stacy asked impulsively. Then she regretted it when she saw how much his expression darkened. He looked over his shoulder at the television screen. Colors flashed wildly on it. “S-sorry,” she mumbled.

“Accepted,” he said, voice blank. “You can keep talking if you want.”

Stacy looked down, face getting red. She couldn’t bring herself to say anything for a while, and the room was silent except for a low electric whine. “It...it was a nice letter,” she finally said, voice so quiet she wasn’t sure he could hear her. “That’s why I didn’t know if I wanted to get rid of it. I th-thi-think the only thing that was...you know...was that there was a moment he said he couldn’t live without me. That might be...you know, a reference. Or it could just be trying to be romantic. Worked for both, the way it was written.” She sighed. “I don’t know when it happened for him. I know when it happened for me, but I don’t know when...when he stopped loving me. If he ever did in the first place.”

He was quiet, for long enough that she started wondering if she’d somehow upset him. Until he spoke again. “I think he still loves you,” he said. “Sure, it’s a dysfunctional kind of love, and his way of showing it is pretty fucked, but in his mind, he still loves you. I don’t know if that makes any of this better or worse, but I think it’s true.”

“...maybe,” she sighed. “Maybe. I don’t know.” She blinked rapidly. “Thanks, by the way. For just...listening. I know it must be interrupting something important, so I...I really appreciate it.”

“I can always catch up on security footage,” Anti shrugged. “And I can check the city’s cameras at the same time I listen to you.”

“You can?”

“Of course. I can be in multiple places at once.” He said this casually, as if he wasn’t currently breaking the laws of physics. “And so far, nothing’s happened. I don’t have anywhere to be until I need to try another dream contact tonight.”

Stacy hesitated before asking, “Dream...contact?”

The TV screen flickered with colors again. The overhead light switched off and on again. “Yes,” Anti said shortly. “It’s just...an attempt to jog some memories.”

She dropped the subject. Clearly, whatever this was, it was a bit too close to home for Anti. “Alright.” She turned around, looking out the window. “What...what are we gonna do about this? They’ve found me, and...I don’t want to...” She couldn’t find the words.

Anti was quiet, thinking. “I already gave you the phone number. That was what I planned to do about this. I could go out and confront him, but it could go badly for you if word got back to the others that I’m helping you out. If you want, I could put some cameras around your house. Or even inside.”

“Maybe outside,” she said. She briefly wondered where, exactly, he got the cameras, but if he could hack bank accounts just by thinking, she figured he didn’t have any problem with breaking in to more...material places. “Just around. So you can keep a closer eye on things. Doesn’t the neighborhood have cameras by itself?”

“A few, but this is one of the safer areas so there’s some blind spots that someone could easily use to sneak around undetected.”

Well, that was worrying. “Yeah, I think just around the house cameras would be helpful,” she said, standing up. “While you do that I-I’m going to go to the shop, get some food. Is that okay?”

“Hey, it’s your house. Your groceries. I don’t care.”

“Okay.” She took a deep breath. “I’ll...I’ll see you later, then.”

The grocery run to the shop should’ve been easy. But as soon as she left the house, Stacy once again felt like she was being watched. She assumed that this feeling was the result of being tracked, and since she couldn’t do much about that, she forced herself to ignore it. It faded as soon as she got to the grocery store. But she didn’t quite relax.

And it turned out she was right not to.

She was in the cereal aisle, picking up her son’s favorite sugary excuse for breakfast food. She glanced to the side for a mere moment, and saw a head duck away at the end of the aisle. It looked like someone had been peering down the stacks towards her. And she knew who it was. She’d recognize that hat anywhere.

For a moment, she stared, her feet frozen to the ground. She forced herself to take deep, even breaths. She knew it was happening. But that didn’t stop the squirmy feeling in the pit of her stomach. Her first instinct was to turn and run, but...maybe it was getting rid of the letter, maybe it was her brief conversation with Anti, it didn’t matter which. All that matters was that she realized she had a chance, right here, right now, to put a stop to this. She took a deep breath, then pushed her cart down the aisle toward the spot where she’d seen him. He wasn’t at the end, but when she turned into the next aisle, she spotted him. “Hello, Chase.”

He looked as shocked to see her as she’d been to see him. Maybe he hadn’t been expecting her to confront him. She hadn’t even been expecting that. “H-hi, Stacy,” he said.

“What are you doing here?” she asked tiredly.

“Oh, uh, y’know, just getting groceries. It’s a weekly chore in—in the house.”

“You don’t have a cart,” she pointed out.

“I left it back at the beginning of the aisle. It gets heavy.”

“Chase. No more excuses.”

His mouth opened, perhaps to deliver a pre-prepared denial, but then it snapped close again. “I...wanted to see you.”

“You’ve been wanting to see me for a while, then, haven’t you?” Stacy said, staring. “Chase, I’m not blind. I know you’ve been following me.”

“I...yeah.” He shoved his hands deep in his pockets. “I know it’s creepy, but I just —I needed to make sure you were...okay. I needed to see you.”

“Have you been following the kids too?” she asked.

Chase shook his head. “No, I didn’t—they’re always around someone who would freak out. And, well, a grown man hanging around the elementary school would seem a little suspicious.” He paused. “Are they...doing okay? Physically and, like, mentally? Do they...miss me?”

They did. They’d been quieter ever since the separation. “They’re fine,” Stacy said simply. “Healthy, in both ways. And emotionally too, as far as I’m aware.”

“That’s good.” He took a deep breath. “Stacy—”

“No.” She was surprised at how firm her voice was. “Chase, I don’t want to listen to you. Last time I did, you managed to convince me to stay, and another year passed with no change at all. And if you’re—if you’re fucking stalking me instead of showing up at my house like a normal person would, I think that’s a sign that everything’s still the same.” Her voice softened a little. “It’s better this way, Chase. I can’t—can’t help you the way you think I can. I can’t make everything alright just by being there and telling you it’s going to be okay. And the kids are in a better environment now, one where we don’t have to worry about them overhearing raised voices or finding empty bottles. So just...just leave, okay? Find a better way.”

Chase’s eyes widened. His hands, now out of his pockets, were shaking. “No, no you can’t—Stacy, you can’t just—everything was better when we were together. We were all happy. A family.”

“At first, yeah. But things change. You changed. And I stopped being happy the way you were.” Stacy sighed. “Let’s just leave it here, please?”

He was speechless, wide-eyed. “You can’t...just leave again. At least listen to me.”

“I can’t, Chase,” she said softly. “Every time I listen to you, you convince me to stick with these...these bad habits.” She took a few steps back. “I’m...going to check out now. Don’t follow me.”

“Stacy?” He reached out, but then froze, hand dropping back to his side. “I...I love you.”

Stacy stared at him, her eyes pools of sadness. “I loved the person you were.” And with that, she turned and left. Something...something had changed. She breathed more easily now. There was still a tight knot inside her, one she’d have to work to unravel, but...it had loosened, just enough. She didn’t look behind her as she walked away.

Chase remained rooted to the ground. She...she hadn’t even heard him out. He hadn’t even been ready to talk to her yet, despite all this time trying to find the words to say. He could feel the hot tears coming, so he squeezed his eyes shut until they went away. Why...why did everyone leave? Well, it might have something to do with him. Him and the hot pile of garbage that was his personality. But she...she stayed before. What changed? Why couldn’t everything go back to the way it was before? He needed this. He needed it to be like that.

An inkling of an idea dripped down into his mind. For a moment, he recoiled. But then, thinking about it further...he’d already done it, hadn’t he?

Chase pulled out his phone, opening up his messages. He typed out a simple text: Hey do you remember that idea you had a while ago?

The reply was almost instantaneous. Of course I do! Did you something happen to change your mind?

I guess you could say that. Not exactly tho. Im still sure i can do it, i just need her to sit down and listen to me. But shes not gonna do it shes gonna keep walking away. She just needs to stop doing that.

I see your problem. I’m sure I can get her to come down for a visit. You can have your chance to convince her, and if that fails, well. My original offer still stands.

No. This is different. I can do it on my own.

If you insist, Chase. I’ll swing by tonight, if that works for you.

Yeah, thats fine.

Chase took a deep breath. He was really going to go through with this, wasn’t he? God, this was like something you heard on the news, not something you ever thought about doing. 

But...he’d already done worse, hadn’t he? What was one more sin, as long as it was in the name of love? And if that didn’t excuse it...well, he’d long ago accepted that he was the villain.

[joiedecombat]

now I ain’t saying it’s right or it’s wrong but maybe it’s the only way...

I spent the last week blitzing through the Bounty Hunter class storyline with Meiyi (because... starting all the way from zero somehow easier than diving back into any of the class stories I have currently half-completed?). Some things went pretty much as expected - she and Torian fit together beautifully and I found the romance utterly precious - other things came as much more of a surprise.

In general when I start a character in a game like this, I have a general sense of who they’ll be as a person, and the rest gets built up based on what goes on over the course of the story. I knew a few of the major plot points of the BH class story, but a lot of it was new ground for me, and I honestly didn’t expect Meiyi to end up evolving in the way she did.

The whole Mandalorian thing, for example. I knew becoming a Mandalorian would be an option in the storyline, but I didn’t see it as something Meiyi - who isn’t much for rules or philosophy and generally doesn’t look very far ahead or bother with long-term planning - being much inclined to go for it. Her goal in entering the Great Hunt, and throughout pretty much all of Chapter 1, was a) to make enough of a name for herself that she’d be able to pick and choose her jobs and b) make enough money to live comfortably and maybe even eventually retire. 

But then, well, the stuff with Hedarr Soongh happened, and his parting words about finding something worthwhile to fight for stuck with her more than I would’ve expected. And damn if it didn’t feel pretty good to come out of that cave on Dromund Kaas and have all the young Mando hotheads cheering for her. So when Mandalore made it as easy as saying “sure, why not”... well, sure, why not?

Actually internalizing the Resol’nare and learning Mando’a was (and is) an uphill struggle - she’s not at all the academic type. Fortunately Torian is extremely patient.

The other thing that struck me as I went through the class story is how much Meiyi ended up hating almost everything about Chapter 3. In general I played her Light Side (because I can’t stand hurting the feelings of fictional pixel people) but on the whole her decisions tended to be based as much on whim and how nicely people asked her things as anything else. She didn’t actually care much for killing (at least initially; I think by at least midway through Chapter 2 she’d gotten pretty desensitized), and had no particular qualms about letting a mark go if they appealed sufficiently to her sympathies and/or her sense of style, but at the end of the day she was still a hired gun and her moral compass was wobbly at best. 

So when she got set up as the Republic’s Most Wanted, it could have put her on a vendetta against Jun Seros and the Republic as a whole - and it kind of did, but on the other hand the very first thing Darth Tormen did when she met him was Force Choke Torian to make a point, which earned her instant hatred and meant that the only reason she was willing to work for him at all was because the bounty out on her and the hit her reputation had taken meant she had few other options, and none that offered any chance of a shot at the man who set her up. 

The jobs on Belsavis and Voss were just kind of distasteful (and Belsavis left her stuck with Skadge, which just added insult to injury and she’s pretty much waiting for a good chance to kick him out an airlock), but Corellia got nasty. The whole bit with the Selonians was very nearly the last straw; by that point she was seriously considering having her crew turn her in for the 10 million and just calling it a day before she turned into the monster Seros made her out to be. I suspect Torian might’ve had to talk her out of it.

Along the way she also accumulated a whole backstory involving the fiery death of her mother and growing up on the streets in some lawless slum or other and damn it, Meiyi, you were supposed to be the funny pyromaniac who didn’t take anything all that seriously!

(This is entirely authentic to my experience playing the character’s namesake through Jade Empire, so in hindsight I don’t know what I was expecting.)

All in all I ended up enjoying the story a lot more than I think I expected. It helps that aside from Skadge, the BH crew is completely precious and I love them very much.

Some other random thoughts:

Meiyi is a bit of a pyromaniac, because really what’s anyone doing playing a Powertech who’s not at least a bit into making stuff burn? There’s actually some complicated associations involved but also fire is cool (uh, metaphorically).

money = security and comfort, which is a pretty big motivator. Becoming Mandalorian didn’t really change this all that much. She bought a cushy sky palace on Nar Shaddaa as soon as she could afford it because dammit she will have someplace she can take off the armor and relax in comfort.

she’s really not a great Mandalorian. She’s trying, though.

Gault and Blizz are her crew, and Torian is her husband, but Mako is her partner. Meiyi is well aware she wouldn’t have gotten into, let alone through, the Great Hunt without Mako backing her up, and what Mako says will always carry a lot of weight with her.

she and Gault have an understanding founded in a mutual appreciation for fine things and a commitment to giving each other a hard time.

had already made up her mind that she was taking Blizz with her within five minutes of meeting him on Hoth, never regretted it.

I like to think Torian sometimes calls her “Mei’ika,” but only when he’s purposefully trying to wind her up - for instance, while sparring, or during playful wrestling matches leading into sex. Because he likes it when she tops him.

[pricryo]

All the love asks

“Blush : What do you do when you have a crush on someone?”- i draw art of them and make playlists for them in secret and imagine how cool it would be to hold them… i also try to do whatever i can to make them happy, even if it makes me sad.

“Kiss : What’s the sweetest thing someone has done for you?”- i was once given a series of letters that spanned over the course of december with roughly one letter every day until christmas! it was all good, positivity, lovey-dovey stuff!! i really cherish that. i also really cherish every single time john has drawn something for me!! especially the things that were to cheer me up!!!! 💛💖

“Cuddle : Which one of your mutuals do you really want to hug right now?”- @blondewolfhd come get your hugs, love!! 💛💖

“Heartbeat : What fictional character do you love?”- oh, plenty!! there’s a full list on my carrd under comfort characters, but the main romo comforts are: john laurens (hamilton musical), brightheart (warriors), hollyleaf (warriors), jay merrick (marble hornets), steve rogers (marvel), arthur pendragon (bbc merlin), sir leon (bbc merlin), sir lancelot du lac (bbc merlin), sir gwaine (bbc merlin), and john marston (red dead redemption)! 💛💖

“Romance : Perfect date?”- going to a zoo or an aquarium!!! that would be super fun!!!!! or like… going to a cafe… or really anything!!! like… the perfect part is just being there with my partner honestly…

“Joy : What truly makes you happy?”- being with my partners and just… having fun, goofing off!! or doing things together!!! just being with them and just… loving them… they make me happy.

“Happiness : Who are your kin?”- assuming this means family, i have an older brother and sister, a mother and father, and three nieces and a nephew. not counting my many, many cousins. or my uncles/aunt. however, i don’t really… consider them family, for the most part, other than my older brother and one of my nieces (i call her kidd and she’s got some issues, but she’s pretty chill). in addition, i also co-own one pug (meatball), one blue heeler mix (fluke), one white cat (archimedes), one orange tabby cat (napoleon), one calico cat (mr. meowgi), one albino rabbit (casper), one rabbit with a “wild coat” (acorn), and one rabbit that’s brown with black splotches (berry). i also have… three adoptive dads and four boyfriends!! 💛💖

“Love : Are you, or have you been, in love before?”- yes!! i am deeply in love with my boyfriends!! john and leon are the only two that aren’t in my system, but i love them all the same!! unfortunately, i do have a bad habit of only referring to john, mostly because i typically feel afraid to tell people i’m dating two of my headmates and one of his, and i really wish i could break that. leon, gwaine, lance, john… i love you all equally. 💛💖

“Beloved : What do you love the most about yourself?”- i’m trying harder to learn how to love myself, but i think… my eyes? or better yet, my creative talent. i’m trying really hard to hone my writing ability considering how it’s my special interest and i’m an aspiring author!!

“Sweet: Favorite love song?”- currently, it’s if i killed someone for you by alec benjamin, but other good ones i like include the anchor by bastille, white blood by oh wonder, and i found by amber run!!

“Cute : What’s your aesthetic?”- unfortunately… it changes way too often. over all it’s had a foresty theme for a while, but sometimes it’s also been retro games and pixel art, and sometimes it’s been sunflowers and pastel colors and being gentle, and once it was books and reading and coffee, and once it was pirates back when they were one of my special interests! right now, i don’t really know what it is, and i really wish i did.

“Thoughtful : If you could change your name, what would you call yourself?”- this is also a very hard question! right now, the current name i’m going with is timothy alexander lucas(?) laurens (or technically wright, but then when i marry john, it’ll be laurens)!! but i also like a few of my kin names (merlin, icarus, javier, and bucky namely)! and i’ve probably entertained the thought of a few other names at one point or another, but right now i’m most comfortable with being called tim by most people!

“Charming : Who helps motivate you?”- my partners are my main source of motivation!! 💛💖

“Beautiful : Who is your ideal significant other?”- i’m already with them!!! 💛💖

“Affection : Who do you ship?”- plenty of ships! my biggest ship rn (mostly because of the kin shift) is jovier (john marston/javier escuella)! another one of my major ships is merthur (merlin emrys/arthur pendragon)!! you can ask for a more extended list in a separate ask but rn this is all that comes to mind!!

“Kind : What Pokemon would you be?”- where i kin a lot of pokemon… i have many options, like umbreon, jirachi, pikachu, zorua/zoroark, midnight lycanroc, pyroar, shiny yamask, shiny quilava, the rowlet line, and deoxys! that isn’t even counting my synpaths, either! but right now, i’m feeling mostly like i’d be midnight lycanroc! :0

“Heart Beat : You’re getting coffee with a celebrity, who is it?”- i don’t really know!!;;

“Giggle : Do you believe in love at first sight?”- not exactly!! i believe you can feel attracted to a person, but you can’t fall super deeply into love with them until you know every little detail about what makes them wonderful!! 💛💖

“Laughter : Who can always make you laugh?”- my partners!! 💛💖

“Smile : What do you find attractive?”- i don’t really know!! ;w; i don’t think i have any specific preference, but john says i do, so i’m uncertain!!

“Warmth : What is your happy place?”- a warm bed in colorado curled up with my husbands! 💛💖

“Huggable : What are your favorite flowers?”- mostly sun flowers and tea roses!! there’s plenty of them i like that i can’t remember rn, though!!

“Soul Mate : Who is your best friend?”- without a doubt, my best friends are my partners! 💛💖

“Unique : What qualities do you look for in other people?”- generally, i want the people i’m dating to have similar values to mine (anti-racism, anti-terf, anti-trump, anti-islamophobia, anti-xenophobia, etc!) and be a good person!! nothing else really matters to me!! 💛💖

“Trust : Do you trust people easily?”- i used to trust super easily, but after being put through emotional abuse my one of my best friends at the time and being manipulated after putting all of my trust in her, i find i can’t do that so easily!! however, i’m still slightly easy to trust, from what i’ve noticed recently!!

“Dearest : What item is most dear to you?”- literally anything my partners have ever given me!! like the candles john made!! or the art!! or the letters!!! or the minecraft sheep plushie that i love a whole lot!!! or the blankets!! or the things they’ve taken from the bad house and brought to me!! i love them a lot!!! 💛💖

[oceangenasi]

Fathom and Rosie

yessss ilysm

Full Name: Fathom Tidechaser

Gender and Sexuality: Genderqueer, pansexual

Pronouns: he/him

Ethnicity/Species: Water Genasi

Birthplace and Birthdate: Oshun, date unknown (about 28 yo)

Guilty Pleasures: Fathom isn’t ashamed of what he enjoys: partying, adventuring, booze, drugs, sex..... he’s up for literally anything

Phobias: doesn’t have any, tho he probably should

What They Would Be Famous For: he’s one of the most powerful clerics on the Material Plane at this point!

What They Would Get Arrested For: he’s actually been arrested for murder, but that was a wrong place wrong time kinda thing.... just a misunderstanding, officer....

OC You Ship Them With: he’s been flirty with about half the party, but he’s got a cute BFF thing going with the halfling ranger <3

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: he’s pretty well-liked, honestly, which comes with the territory of being the party healer

Favorite Movie/Book Genre: he’s dumb as a brick and not fantastic at reading, so he’d be a movie person if they existed -- probably trashy thrillers

Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: he doesn’t love the “lying/concealing truth to protect you” idea, in fiction or irl

Talents and/or Powers: he’s a Tempest Domain Cleric, so he can heal & raise the dead & regrow limbs but he can also call down radiant light and thunder/lightning and powerful destructive energy

Why Someone Might Love Them: he’s friendly, calm, and the Mom FriendTM of his party of idiots

Why Someone Might Hate Them: he’s completely amoral, easily influenced, and doesn’t take most things seriously

How They Change: he’s recently come face-to-face with his goddess, so for the first time in his life he’s starting to contemplate a higher calling/purpose rather than his previous strategy of “fuck around and find out while accumulating ridiculous amounts of divine power”

Why You Love Them: dude’s aesthetic is sick as hell! he’s got 10+ silver piercings on his ears, eyebrows and lip, as well as a whole arm made of living water. I’m just obsessed with the ocean and Fathom very literally embodies that love.

~~~~~~~~~

Full Name: Rosavyre Ashvalor Sunbrook d’Ghallanda, aka “Rosie”

Gender and Sexuality: Cis woman, lesbian

Pronouns: she/hers

Ethnicity/Species: Halfling, Mark of Hospitality

Birthplace and Birthdate: Sharn, Breland, 20th of Zarantyr 969 YK

Guilty Pleasures: everything’s a guilty pleasure if you have anxiety! When she has a spare moment, she likes to whittle/woodcarve little figurines and cook/bake new recipes

Phobias: hurting other people with her magic, being discovered as a sorcerer, being thrown out of town/socially ostracized, being hated by her loved ones...

What They Would Be Famous For: ideally, she wants her inn, The Smoldering Hearth, to be well-known as a beautiful and welcoming place to stay; less ideally, she has fled several towns for destructive and dangerous Wild Magic Surges

What They Would Get Arrested For: the Surges, obviously; in Phantom Gulch, she’s unlikely to be taken in by law enforcement bc as long as she’s inside her inn, House Ghallanda offers political asylum & she can do whatever she wants

OC You Ship Them With: there was a VERY interesting romance developing with a changeling NPC when the campaign went on hiatus, as well as a possible OT3 sitch with @tangled-pixel-harpsichord‘s PC Carlin <3

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: oh that’s very easy -- the party’s changeling rogue Mollie. There was a while where we thought it might actually happen :P

Favorite Movie/Book Genre: warm and fluffy romance

Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: exile/isolation/giving up on a member of the community

Talents and/or Powers: Rosie has layers, like pie. On the surface, she appears to be friendly and sweet. A good cook, conversationalist, and bartender. Spend enough time with her, and you get a glimpse of the calculating and manipulative mind beneath that -- she thinks very carefully about what she says and how she presents herself. And the adventuring party knows the full truth: she’s a powerful sorcerer with explosive fire magic that she tries to keep a tight leash on. And fails, sometimes, leading to uncontrollable magical effects around her.

Why Someone Might Love Them: She’s genuinely a warm-hearted, compassionate person full of so much love and empathy. Her greatest wish in life is to welcome the hurt and lonely to her inn, comforting them and providing safety and companionship. She’s sweet, brave, and fiercely protective of everyone in her small town.

Why Someone Might Hate Them: She’s disingenuous. As I mentioned above, she maintains a carefully constructed facade of the “friendly innkeeper.” She’s persuasive and a fantastic liar, and while she means well, she is absolutely not above lying, scheming and manipulating to get what she wants. Of course, what she wants is mostly happiness and health for everyone in town, but some people take issue with her methods, reasonably enough.

How They Change: Rosie is full of SO much self-hatred, and spends most of her life trying to stifle any of her negative emotions and her own innate talent for magic. In Phantom Gulch, she’s learning to weather her anger and fear without skipping town... and maybe, just maybe accept her sorcery as a powerful tool to help her loved ones?

Why You Love Them: She’s absolutely exhausting to roleplay, but such a sweetie pie. She deserves the world, and I’ve stuffed her backstory with so much angst....

[supercoolgamesstuff-blog]

The SaGa Series Dares To Be Different, And That’s Why It’s Special

New Post has been published on https://www.coolgamingzone.com/the-saga-series-dares-to-be-different-and-thats-why-its-special/

The SaGa Series Dares To Be Different, And That’s Why It’s Special

Square Enix’s SaGa series has always marched to the beat of its own drum. The developers aren’t afraid to take risks and be unconventional. With a reputation for non-linear gameplay, player choice, and freedom in exploration, SaGa was ahead of its time, but despite over ten entries and two decades of history, it never really had a heyday in North America. However, Square Enix isn’t giving up and surprised many this past E3 by announcing two previously unreleased games in the series, Romancing SaGa 3 and SaGa Scarlet Grace: Ambitions, would finally reach our shores. Today marks Romancing SaGa 3’s first time available in North America – 24 years after its initial release in Japan. To celebrate and see what’s ahead, I chatted with general director Akitoshi Kawazu and producer Masanori Ichikawa about the series and what we can expect from these games. Both were candid about the state of RPGs and why it took some time to get the franchise back off the ground. 

On Bringing The Series Back…

Ever since the PS2 era, the SaGa series has been pretty quiet, with some Japan-only browser and mobile games to its name. Scarlet Grace marks the first mainline entry we’ve had in a decade, and the Romancing SaGa remasters have certainly helped the franchise reach more people. As for the delay between main entries, it’s a bit complicated but comes down to challenges with publishers trying to adapt to a changing market. “As we came into the 2000s, the Japanese gaming market stagnated considerably,” Kawazu said, citing the boom in mobile gaming and Japanese companies trying to target a Western audience. “For a long time, in the Western market, the only things that really did very well were games with high specs. But we’ve entered an era in which, pixel games and 2D-games have become popular again, traditional games have become popular again. With that happening, we decided that it would be a good time to bring the SaGa series back into the Western market.” 

While Square Enix’s focus has been on its flagship series (Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and Dragon Quest), it has been slowly re-releasing older titles and putting smaller properties in the spotlight. It even established a new studio, Tokyo RPG Factory, to produce new RPGs in a classic style inspired by the ‘90s. Around this time, Kawazu noticed more and more fans coming out of the woodwork, saying they had been waiting for more from SaGa. This demand has allowed the series to come back and grow its fan base. “Within the past few years, the SaGa series has started to be seen again as the great series it is and [regain popularity],” Kawazu notes. 

On Romancing SaGa 3’s Legacy And The Remaster…

Romancing SaGa 3 first came out back in 1995, but this is the first time it’s headed out West. The game carries on the tradition of its predecessors by having multiple protagonists and allowing your actions in battle to determine how characters grow. For instance, if you cast a lot of spells with a particular combatant, their magical stats will increase. This even extends to the weapons: if your character uses a specific weapon type then that character learns special attacks for it. For the HD remaster, fresh content and enhancements were made to improve the experience, such as optimized graphics and new storylines. “[It] involves going through the game and bringing out its initial potential to a fuller level, and sometimes adding additional elements to make it easier to play,” Ichikawa says. “Just a very simple example, we’ve added an autosave feature so the number of saves that you can make increases drastically. We’ve also added a feature that allows you to tell how far through the game you are, you have sort of a travel journal that you can look back on. Of course, there are also additional dungeons and events. And we’ve also added a New Game+.” To experience this lost chapter in the West, the remaster is now available digitally on PS4, Xbox One, Switch, Vita(!), PC, and iOS.

On Making A Modern SaGa Game…

Scarlet Grace is a new chapter, hitting a new generation of players. Do you keep the classic elements? Reinvent the wheel for a modern audience? How do you please longtime fans versus drawing in newer ones? For a series known for its experimentation, it’s easy to wonder how designers approach a new entry. For Kawazu, it’s about going back to the basics. “Gamers are gamers from start to finish in any era, and I really don’t think that the sorts of things that appeal to people who are playing games are, at a fundamental level, very different from era to era,” he says. “However, when it came time to make SaGa Scarlet Grace, we definitely took a step back and thought, ‘Okay, what are the fundamental elements of an RPG? And how do we achieve those in the modern era?’”

Kawazu said his main goal was for players to go through the story with the characters and have the same feelings and experiences. Since this was so important, he decided not to have dungeons in the game, which allowed the team to add more events and story-driven content. “I definitely went in thinking we needed to cut away all the chaff,” he says. “I didn’t want level design. There are no dungeons because there are a million action games out there where you can crawl through dungeons. If you want to do that you can go play one of those games, you don’t need to play this game to get that.” 

Kawazu expanded on this, saying he didn’t want the player aimlessly wander around somewhere to look for treasure or enemies to fight. “I really didn’t think that was necessary because all that is, is you’re just kind of lost for a while. You’re making the player play just to make them play a little bit longer, and it’s kind of pointless,” he explains. In Scarlet Grace, you still fight bosses and search for things, but they all have story elements attached to them. “I wanted players to have to think about what they were doing and have to actually engage with this story,” Kawazu says. 

This also extends to the main plot. This isn’t a save-the-world RPG: there is no hero or a great evil to take on. “[The] different characters are going out into the world for their own reasons, to better themselves and to further their own personal stories,” Kawazu explains. All characters have their own feelings and strong backstories, but you also may view them differently based on the choices you make. “In this game, while there are basic concepts of the characters, the player’s involvement in those characters choices largely makes up who the characters become.” As for how those choices turn out, this isn’t about having a more ideal version than the other. “We do our best to make sure that there are no objectively right answers,” Kawazu says. “There isn’t a right or wrong [one], it’s ‘this person thinks this way, so they chose A,’ and ‘this person has these values, so they chose B,’ and the natural results from those choices will then follow.”

As you can see, the SaGa series continues to march to the beat of its own drum, and that’s part of what makes it so important in the RPG sphere. Innovation and change don’t happen by standing still. The series takes risks, and some don’t always pan out (cough, cough Unlimited SaGa), but you can’t deny the influence SaGa has had on RPGs, especially when it comes to choice and branching paths. “The SaGa series is a series that’s constantly challenging what it is to be an RPG,” Ichikawa says. “Yeah, Romancing SaGa 3 is an old game, but I really hope players get a chance to take a look at it and look at how back in the day we tried to challenge these preconceptions, and also play Scarlet Grace and see how we continue to challenge these preconceptions. I think we’re breaking the mold in different ways than Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, or Kingdom Hearts, so I think it’d be very interesting for players to have a look at that.” 

Romancing SaGa 3 is now available, and Scarlet Grace hits on December 3. For more on the SaGa series, you can read our other interview from E3.

Source link

[thedragonsteaparty]

Recently I was reminiscing with my other half about our favourite games, he has been very keen on launching his favourites at me (Portal, Final Fantasy, Stardew Valley, etc), all of which I’ve enjoyed (with the exception of FFVIII), while he hasn’t really tried ones that I like yet. He did download Dragon Age Inquisition but stopped playing literally when the intro was over. It hurts my soul that he did this but he didn’t like the gameplay, even though he didn’t see much of it or play for long enough to appreciate any character development or story… but I’m not bitter. I got to talking about Neverwinter Nights with him, a game which I may have mentioned occasionally in previous posts. He has never played it and I got a little carried away reminiscing about it. It’s about time that these games, both the first and second, have a post dedicated to them because it is easy to say that they (specifically the second one) are my favourite games of all time.

Let’s start at the beginning and I’ll set the scene. The year was 2002, potentially the summer, I was a mere child of 8 and I was watching my dad play his latest game: Neverwinter Nights. My previous favourite games to watch him play were Baldur’s Gate and Doom (those are the ones that stick most in my memory at least, Doom probably not for good reasons). Then BOOM along came NWN with its incredible story, wonderful characters, and – at the time – great graphics. I was hooked. I can’t remember specifically when I started playing NWN myself because I used to sort of have a go, often starting from the beginning over and over as I did with most ‘big’ games in my youth, one day though I did finish it properly, it was probably the first ever ‘adult’ game I ever finished and I was VERY proud. I then went on to play the expansion packs Hordes of the Underdark and Shadows of the Undrentide, which were also very good.

Check out those sweet 2002 graphics at work. Side note: I miss the use of artwork for character portraits.

Thinking about it, the reason NWN appealed to me at such a young age was probably the wonderful storytelling in the game and the engagement with the NPCs. NWN is based on Dungeons and Dragons, using the same fighting mechanism and the same Forgotten Realms world as a base, this is also most likely why it has such a great story. When I started playing D&D a couple of years ago I realised just how similar the two were. The text scrolling along the side of the screen in NWN for example helped me understand (sort of) how to play D&D quite quickly, or at least to improvise what I didn’t understand to create a playable game.

Unfortunately I don’t remember a huge amount of the first NWN, just that I enjoyed it immensely, I always thought the paladin Lady Aribeth de Tylmarande (pictured below in her awesome armour) was one of the coolest female video game characters ever (she looked so badass) and henchman Daelan Red Tiger was always my bro. When I come into possession of a gaming PC/Laptop I will be playing it again to relive some of my youth but until then I’ll have to make the rest of this post about NWN2.

Simply because I remember it more and spent A LOT of time on it, NWN2 will always be my favourite game. The magic of that game is just something I’ve never experienced with anything else. I connected so much to the characters (that sounds kind of sad but I really did, especially my bestie Khelgar), the story was brilliant, there are so many wonderful things added to it that give the whole world and the story so much depth, for example when you have to find each of the spirits that knew the Shadow King – the big bad guy – before he was corrupted by power and they tell you stories about what he was like before. It gives you such an unexpected connection to this creepy looking dude that you fight at the end and you feel sorry for him. Then there’s all those books that you can pick up and read but you don’t need – who writes those?! It’s actually someone’s job to write them! – If you want to you can learn about all the places, and about some of the characters, through books, NPCs and codices found in the game creating a whole history behind this world, solidifying it in your mind and making it seem almost like an exotic, medieval style country you’ve never been to but learned about in school or something.

The Shadow King, bit of a tribute to Frank from Donnie Darko I always thought

SPOILER PARAGRAPH Another big thing was killing off Shandra halfway through the game. While she could be a little stuck up at first she grows on you and is set as a permanent companion, like your apprentice. I remember the first time I played through it and the death scene happened and all the companions expressing how they all felt about it (the gnome broke my heart, he was so upset) it was so unexpected as I’d never played anything that had killed off a main character before (this was 2006 so I was like 12 or 13 and hadn’t experienced as many games as I have now… but thinking about it I can’t think of a huge amount that do kill off main characters like that even now), I had tears in my eyes and had to take a moment to calm down.

MORE SPOILERS Then there was another new thing I had never come across in a game before – alternative endings. Before the final battle the Shadow King will try to persuade some of your companions over to his side, and it’s pretty much inevitable a couple will go, making you try to have them feel your glare through the screen as they swagger over to his side on a cloud of betrayal. I could never get enough influence over power-hungry Qara to have her not fight against me and the only way I ever got Bishop not to fight was by romancing him (more on that later). On top of that the Shadow King will also ask you if you want to join him, and you can! Despite trying to do an ‘evil’ play through I just can never be an evil character and never did that, I feel unnecessarily guilty about committing fictional evil acts. I’ve seen the bad ending though through the power of YouTube and it’s quite nasty in places. I’m glad I never did it or I would have been riddled with guilt.

On to what I mentioned before about romancing. This was the first game (lots of firsts here) I played where romancing was something that could add to the plot, or sub-plot. I almost always play as a female character and in NWN2 you have two love interests per gender. Both are heterosexual choices (the incredible display of Bioware’s sexually diverse characters didn’t arrive until 2009 when Dragon Age was released). As a female I had the choice between “he’s a bad boy but I can fix him!” Bishop the ranger, and “your holy aura of goodness and purity is blinding me” Casavir the paladin. I found this a bit unfair because Bishop was a total dick but was as fit as a bunch of 2006 pixels could get *swoon*. On the other hand you had Casavir, who was very nice but I thought he was boring and looked a little bit like he’d been beaten with a pixelated ugly stick (or maybe this is just my taste in men). I couldn’t shake the feeling they hadn’t meant to make him look quite like that. Pretty sure male characters got the best deal here with their choice being between pure, innocent Elanee the elf and the quirky, chaotic-but-not-evil Neeshka the tiefling. Seemed easier than the female’s choice of “you can either romance Satan or Jesus”. Despite my reserves about them I enjoyed the extra stories and side quests these romance options opened up, and the romance option was optional anyway so I didn’t have to stress about who to choose if I didn’t want to.

Bishop

Casavir

Perhaps I have been spoiled by the ‘golden age’ of RPGs because I am really struggling at the moment to find more RPGs of the same calibre of NWN, Baldur’s Gate, and Dragon Age. It seems like RPGs at the moment are either online, JRPGs, or they’re sort of from a first person perspective (The Witcher, Dark Souls, Skyrim…). While I enjoy those I don’t get as immersed in them as I do with my classic favourites, I never really feel like I am the character, I feel like I’ve been assigned a character to play. Sometimes I like that but I largely prefer having a character I can start from scratch with and mould their personality as I play through the game. On top of that I can’t really think of any characters from games recently where I’ve been emotionally invested in what happens to them and actually really like them. I suppose Borderlands comes pretty close, they have some good characters in there but as they don’t travel with you or fight with you – unless it’s part of a quest – it doesn’t really count. You could argue that you get that NPC relationship with JRPGs, playing through FFX at the moment I’d be pretty upset if something happened to one of my team but to be honest it wouldn’t hit me anywhere near as hard as if they killed off Varric in Dragon Age, for example (they don’t BTW in case you had a brief moment of panic, it was a hypothetical example).

Do you have any RPG recommendations for me? What are your favourite RPGs? Who else played Neverwinter Nights? Also, how cool would that NWN eye be as a tattoo? (Not thinking of getting one, just an observation…)

Nostalgia Moment: Neverwinter Nights (1 and 2) Recently I was reminiscing with my other half about our favourite games, he has been very keen on launching his favourites at me (Portal, Final Fantasy, Stardew Valley, etc), all of which I’ve enjoyed (with the exception of FFVIII), while he hasn’t really tried ones that I like yet.

[drink-n-watch]

  Genre : Action, romance, violence, Bottle Royal

Episodes: 11

Studio: Nexus

  Mobile games are turning into a real bane. You think it’s all lighthearted casual fun, free to play easy to install and them before you know it they hit you with the small print. You’re just minding your own business and somehow you now owe 60$ in microtransactions for some game that isn’t even that fun or you know, or maybe you only had two hours sleep because you spent hours mindlessly tapping on a screen and letting your brain melt slowly, or somebody is trying to murder you. Any one of these things can just put a damper on your day. For Kaname it’s mostly the latter that has him down, especially since a couple of his good friends are dead now and he accidentally got roped into this whole thing without even knowing the rules. So how do you quit a real life free for all PvP? Not easily…

That’s kind of a weird title for my post… In case some of you don’t know King’s Game is an anime with an extremely similar premise which I watched a while ago and reviewed here: King’s Game – A Modern Transcendentalist Rallying Cry. I stand by that title! Grated the plot of both Darwin’s Game and King’s Game is sort of basic horror fodder right now so it’s not weird to find two similar animes but the second I started watching Darwin’s Game I was struck by just how many elements were pretty much identical. Even the title is almost the same. And since I didn’t enjoy King’s Game much, I was just about to drop Darwin’s Game when something made me stick around…

what could that thing be?

Now visually speaking Darwin’s Game is what I would qualify as competent. It’s not bad. The ladies are very pretty and have very pretty eyes. The boys are much less interesting in design and for me, less attractive, but they get the point across. The backgrounds are similarly forgettable but functional and a lot of attention is given to floor plans and layouts to really coordinate the virtual space with the action which I thought was a very nice touch.

I don’t have much to say about sound design and apart from a few classic tropes the non verbal storytelling was rather minimal. It’s an o.k. looking show which most people are not likely to remember for its production unless you happen to particularly like a specific character design or something.

Oddly though, this may have played in Darwin’s Game’s favour. This is a convoluted sentence but I really wanted to keep it…

You know what else I kept? Dozens of eye close ups!

Like I said, I almost dropped this show at the first episode, which is a double episode by the way so that 11 episode count is really 12 like most other shows. First the production is not bad in any way but for me didn’t have any particular element that would keep me watching. And the set up is so full of worn out horror tropes that I felt like I had seen this show before.

The basic premise is that there’s a mysterious mobile game that sort of appears on your phone and if you happen to open the app you automatically become a player in Darwin’s Game. It’s a sort of Battle Royal in which players kill each other for fabulous prizes and indecent sums of money. There is a lot of techno-magic going on that ensures non players are never in the way and players can have supernatural abilities called sigils. When every man nice guy (standard protagonist) Kaname finds the app on his own phone he suddenly gets sucked into a never ending fight for survival and manages to collect both allies and foes along the way.

Now King’s Game does differ in the fact that the mobile app gives you random and increasingly gruesome tasks to accomplish in order to survive (or else you are supernaturally killed) instead of sucking you into battles to the death, but the tone and effects are very similar. The character archetypes are pretty much the same as well and the early story was progressing along the same narrative beats and plot points.You have to understand, I really didn’t like King’s Game much and found it a chore to finish so these commonalities were giving me very serious pause.

I have a bad feeling about this

However, after seeing that Darwin’s Game had a much better rating than King’s Game I decided to stick around only out of curiosity. I find that sometimes two very similar shows can have very different ratings and it’s always fascinating to me. However, after episode 2, it became very apparent that these were wildly different shows and one was clearly better.

I know merely comparing two shows is not much of a review but I really did enjoy the exercise of figuring out why one worked for me while the other didn’t and I think sharing that with you will help you get an idea of what type of show Darwin’s Game is.

First thing that I think really helped Darwin’s Game is the shift from Horror to Action. Now Darwin’s Game is a very violent anime and occasionally quite gruesome about it. A lot of the deaths are bloody, onscreen and the victims are often very young or more or less innocent. It has just as much gore and suspense as any horror series I have seen but that’s not what the plot chooses to emphasize. Instead of slow moody scenes meant to built up tension we have quick moving action that rarely broods on the tragedy and dread of the situation.

no hard feelings

This in turn changes the character archetypes and the way the story treats them. People in Darwin’s Game get over things pretty easily and quickly. They have to, they don’t have time to be all gloomy. Which means the overall tone is a lot more happy go lucky in spite of everything that is going on. The story also becomes much more plot driven with the appeal being trying to figure out who is behind the game and why it exists rather than character driven with the audience breathlessly hoping our heroes will survive.

This means a bit less development for the cast in favour of more daredevil plans and twists along the way. And I think that this is what works best in this type of story. It also means the characters don,t have to be as helpless or sympathetic since their deaths aren’t the focus of the narrative. They can survive, and kick some behind along the way. They can also be kind of ruthless in their own right with a lot of the essentially innocent character deaths being of their doing. Hey, it’s a kill or be killed world out there. For me this meant that despite having less time devoted to character backstory, motivation or development, they seemed more complex and well rounded (if rather unhinged).

Finally, the fact that the story relies on a lot of well established tropes and fairly basic production also served in efficiently getting me quickly hooked into the action. We all know the basic concept of a Battle Royal, all these people suddenly rapped into this kill to survive situation. It’s a familiar premise that doesn’t really need much explanation or justification at this point. And motivation becomes inherent as well. All these characters are acting this way because they don’t want to die. Great, I get it, I relate, I also would probably not want to die!

getting pixelated seems bad

Smartly Darwin’s Game doesn’t waste any time reexplaining concepts that are by now well known by most of the audience and instead just concentrates and the few tidbits of information that are unique to the show giving the series a more individual feel than it would have otherwise and makes the characters fun and fun to watch instead of bothering with explaining their thought process. The visuals and sound design are the type of stuff anime fans have seen so often that they don’t interfere in any way. There is no overload and no distractions. You get thrown right into the story and then it just never stops for the entire run. And that more or less nonstop action is done very well.

Every time an episode ended I really wanted to know what happens next. Darwin’s Game didn’t affect me in any deep way or stir up my emotions or anything, personally I liked all the characters but didn’t really care anyone specifically. My favourite is chosen mostly on character design. But I was really entertained for the entire run. I should say I finished the series in 3 days and even without being able to directly compare I’m rather confident that Darwin’s Game is the type of show that is really at it’s best when taken in in consecutive more or less uninterrupted viewings. The momentum is really what it has going for it and I have a feeling that if you break it, the series becomes considerably less interesting.

So what I’m saying in short if that Darwin’s Game wasn’t the same as King’s Game…

Favourite character: Rein – obviously

What this anime taught me: nothing – I already knew butterflies are evil

If you don’t drink, how will your friends know you love them at 2 a.m.?

Suggested drink: Game Set Match

Every time we see a butterfly – shiver

Every time anyone says “sigil” – take a sip

Every time the game sends a push notification – go to the settings

Every time Kaname dodes – take a sip

Every time Shuka is merciless – think about your priorities

Every time Kaname is considered outstanding – be confused

Every time Kaname hears his inner voice – take a sip

Every time Sui and Sota switch – take a sip

Every time someone makes a noble sacrifice – get a snack

Every time Rein figures it out – cheer

Every time we see Wang – take a sip

Like I said the lady character designs are very cute, let me show you what I mean:

Darwin’s Game is not the same as King’s Game Genre : Action, romance, violence, Bottle Royal Episodes: 11 Studio: Nexus Mobile games are turning into a real bane.