#if i find any bits in here that are short enough for extremely small screenshot snippets i'll share later.

[crimeronan]

months ago i drafted 3.5k of the first version of the next chapter of wwaitsoatl and then put it down bc i ran out of steam & i was like "oh god, i'm gonna need to rebuild this from scratch." opening it now i can confirm i will need to rebuild most of it from scratch BUT. there are a couple interactions between characters in here that made my heart actually skip a beat.

thank u past me.

[sabrinatvband]

A Comprehensive List of Essential Comic Making Resources

It's very easy to get surface-level information about the art of making comics. But if you want the real shit, some curation will help. Some of these are neat informative images. Others are books that you'll have to find yourself. There will be some links to videos. Let's get into it.

[Link to a WordPress version of this post so you can share with your friends who don't use Tumblr]

ESSENTIAL BOOKS

There are enough books by professional, highly regarded comic artists and writers out there that you never need to buy a "How To" book by someone without industry experience; something to keep in mind.

Making Comics by Scott McCloud Scott McCloud is maybe a little too afraid of making definitive statements, but otherwise this is an incredible macro-level overview on the subject of making comics. Understanding Comics is also essential; Reinventing Comics is more of a time capsule. Perspective for Comic Book Artists by David Chelsea A comic artist who doesn't know perspective is like a guitarist who can't do alternate picking. This book, which is itself a comic, is a very effective resource on the subject of perspective. I made a short video about a cool trick from this book that they don't teach in art class:

This book has a sequel, Extreme Perspective for Artists, which is good at being what it is, but the advice is a lot less widely applicable. Framed Perspective Vol. 1 and 2 by Marcos Mateu-Mestre Going to be honest, these books are mostly redundant if you've already read the [imo] superior David Chelsea book, but they aren't bad books in isolation and if you get the perspective sickness like I did you'll probably want to read them anyways.

Figure Drawing for All It's Worth by Andrew Loomis Andrew Loomis wrote a bunch of highly regarded illustration books, but this one is my favorite. It has a lot of great practical advice related to drawing figures in perspective together, which begin with the iconic "John and Mary Problems". Here's another essential Loomis diagram:

Drawing Scenery: Landscapes and Seascapes by Jack Hamm I really need to re-read this one, and take it seriously this time, because my rocks look like shit. The other Jack Hamm books [Cartooning the Head & Figure, Drawing the Head & Figure] are also good. Writing for Comics by Alan Moore This is a very brief book, and it's maybe not super revelatory, but none of the advice within is bad. Writing for Comics & Graphic Novels by Peter David Nothing groundbreaking here either, but also not a book that will teach you wrong lessons. PROTIP Remember that any books about writing craft will be applicable to writing comics in many ways; books about writing comics specifically might have a few specialized tidbits, but 90% of writing advice transfers across mediums. Chuck Palahniuk wrote a series of essays on writing that I really enjoy that are floating around in a PDF somewhere; I'm not sure if that PDF turned into Consider This. Eclipse Tips from Top Cartoonists by Various This book is long out-of-print and rare, but you can see a flip-through of the book here. There's a lot of great stuff in it, but the most essential part is probably Scott McCloud's bit. [PROTIP: Using an upscaler on a screenshot of a book can make small text a lot more legible; the image below was upscaled.]

Will Eisner Books by Will Eisner I'm going to be honest, I once read Comics and Sequential Art and found a lot of the information within to be very pointless musings about things [e.g. "What if I drew some panels over a skeuomorphic drawing of a comicbook?"]. But Eisner's books are held in high regard by a lot of people, and obviously he was a talented cartoonist. Maybe I read his worst book on the subject. How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way by John Buscema Read this historically significant book, absorb the four or five nuggets contained within, and take everything else with a grain of salt.

Morpho Art Books by Michel Lauricella I find these art reference books a lot more useful than equivalent resources. A lot of comic artists could definitely benefit from reading Fat and Skin Folds; it's not always about muscles! How to Draw: The Best of Basic Training by Various Wizard Magazine used to have a feature called Basic Training where various comic artists would give tips on how to draw. A lot of these tutorials were perhaps too short to be good, and some of the gross ones reek of an assumption that women won't be reading them [see: Sultry Women by Adam Hughes], but there were some real gems in there. Artists such as Joe Kubert, George Perez, Kevin Maguire, Scott McCloud, Steve Lieber, Mike Mignola, and Brian Bolland contributed. The image below is from a piece on drawing realistic women by Terry Moore.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creating a Graphic Novel by Nat Gertlet and Steve Lieber I've never personally read this book, but Eisner-winning Steve Lieber is a highly respected cartoonist and Gertler had been Eisner-nominated before writing this book. I imagine it's a solid resource. How Comics Work by Dave Gibbons and Tim Pilcher Another book I haven't personally read, but obviously Dave Gibbons is a master of the medium. Frank Santoro wrote a mixed review about this book for The Comics Journal. Words for Pictures by Brian Michael Bendis I remember flipping through this for a while in a Barnes & Noble and thinking it was entertaining. The Art of Comic Book Writing by Mark Kneece Kneece doesn't have a very substantial bibliography as a comics writer, but this book is highly regarded by many people. The DC Comics Guide to . . . by Various DC made a whole series of books related to various facets of comics craft. I haven't read most of these myself, but they're all well-regarded and were written by top talents such as Dennis O'Neil and Klaus Janson. The only one I have read is The DC Comics Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics; solid book, implies good things about the other books in the series, but this specific volume is only really worthwhile if you use Photoshop. The Art of Comic Book Inking Third Edition by Gary Martin et al I've never read the third edition, but I have seen the first edition and that was a good book in itself, with the subsequent editions being more highly regarded. The third edition features contributions from a murderers' row of comics professionals: Terry Dodson, Adam Warren, Brian Bolland, Kevin Nowlan, Mike Royer, and many others.

ESSENTIAL BLOG POSTS AND SUCH

Jesse Hamm's Writings on Alex Toth I can't tell you how many times I read Jesse Hamm's LiveJournal posts about Alex Toth [and a handful of other artists] during class in highschool. Unfortunately a lot of the images are now broken, and so you'll need to pull out the Wayback Machine to make sense of some of these. Don Simpson on King Kong Don Simpson, across his various blogs, has made a lot of neat process posts, but these two posts about his King Kong comic are probably his most essential. Rough Riders: Kong Art from Concept to Finish First Kingdom: Kong Thumbnails from 1990 Shit I Wish Scott McCloud Told Me This old Tumblr has been ravaged by time; the formatting has been ruined after years without updates and inactivity, and much of the advice was written by people without credibility [cough]. But there were some real nuggets here. Jim Shooter on Comics Craft There's a website that compiles Jim Shooter's opinions on various facets of comic craft. Shooter was mostly known for being an editor, but he did write and layout some highly regarded comics in his time. Probably worth watching these videos as a companion piece of sorts, especially if you're not familiar with Shooter's ethos. Kelly Turnbull Tutorials The most useful tutorial is Let's Draw Abs, but you might find some use in the other ones. Matt Fraction on Daredevil: Born Again The triangle stuff here sounds made up, but apparently it was intentional. The Schweizer Guide to Spotting Tangents You're going to want to avoid tangents, which can make pictures look visually confusing. Jim Rugg's Octobriana 1976 Process Zine This PDF costs $5, but it's worth it to see over 300 pages of sketches, breakdowns, insights, etc.

THE BEST CARTOONIST KAYFABE EPISODES

I do realize that Cartoonist Kayfabe was a divisive Youtube channel; if you'd like to hear more of my thoughts you can read an article I wrote about the channel on my blog here. In short, I think Cartoonist Kayfabe was one of the greatest educational resources on comics craft. Here are the videos from the channel I found the most educational:

Thumbnails, Layouts, and Roughs Dark Knight Returns Original Artwork Watching the Watchmen The Charlton Comicbook Guide for the Artist / Writer / Letterer Frank Miller's Conversation With Will Eisner Templates for Faster Comic Making The Killing Joke Brian Bolland Layouts How to Draw Comics the Bill Griffith Way How to Ink Comic Books Absolute Batman: Year One Famous Artists Course: Composition Full Make More Comics Playlist

OTHER NEAT YOUTUBE THINGS

Helioscope PDX Helioscope PDX is a large studio in Portland shared by many cartoonists, and they have some neat videos. Terry Moore's Youtube Channel The guy who wrote and illustrated Strangers in Paradise has a Youtube channel where he posts neat, often wholesome videos. Strange Brain Parts Not actually a channel about making comics, but as far as analysis goes Strange Brain Parts is the best comics channel on Youtube. Neat!

COMICS WITH PEAK CRAFT

This list is obviously far from being exhaustive, but I think all of these comics are at least a 9/10 on a craft level, if not also a dramatic level.

OMAC by Jack Kirby A lot of Jack Kirby's 70s books with Mike Royer and D. Bruce Berry on inks are really impressive visually, but what makes me recommend OMAC so often is that it's only eight issues long. There's an incredible panel in issue 2 where OMAC is standing outside of a door and listening to a conversation, and it has an amazing foreground-background element. One of my all-time favorite panels.

By the 70s, almost every panel Kirby illustrated was a masterpiece. So many incredible compositions designed to guide the eye in a circular motion; check out this late-period composition from Captain Victory, which not only guides the eye in a circle but also has a lot of depth.

The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller The 16-panel grid this book uses is masterful; really absorbs the reader into the world and creates a special, often intimate atmosphere. Weapon X by Barry Windsor Smith The compositions, atmosphere, pacing, etc in Weapon X are perfect.

Born Again by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli At least as good as Batman: Year One on a craft level, but also a more entertaining story.

Sim Hell and Fatal but Not Serious by Adam Warren These comics are very effective at creating a sense of space, and also the lettering in these books is incredible. I wrote an entire article extolling the formalism of these books.

Wonder Woman: Earth One by Grant Morrison and Yanick Paquette If you want to see what modern 3D-model assisted fastidious comics craft looks like, check out this book!

Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons Do I need to say anything?

ODDS AND ENDS

Wally Wood's 22 Panels That Always Work Wally Wood made a reference sheet detailing 22 visually interesting panels to help him work through dialogue scenes and meet deadlines, and it wasn't long before every working comic artist had a copy of it taped to a corner of their drafting table. Here's the original, as well as a visually cleaner remake by Michael Avon Oeming.

Jim Steranko's The Laws of Action Solid advice on how to liven up figure drawings.

Alan Moore on Word Counts Moore recounting a guideline from editor Mort Weisinger: What he said was: if you’ve got six panels on a page, then the maximum number of words you should have in each panel is 35. No more. That’s the maximum. 35 words per panel. Also, if a balloon has more than 20 or 25 words in it, it’s going to look too big. 25 words is the absolute maximum for ballon size. Right, once you’ve taken on those two simple rules, laying out comics pages — it gives you somewhere to start — you sort of know ‘OK, so six panels, 35 words to a panel, that means about 210 words per page maximum… [so] if you’ve got two panels you’d have 105 each. If you’ve got nine panels, it’s about 23 – 24 words — that’ll be about the right balance of words and pictures. On the subject of drawing stuff digitally; -Krita is a highly regarded piece of open source software. I personally use Medibang Paint Pro, but I wish I didn't, because Krita has a lot of useful features. I'm unfortunately too used to the way Medibang feels. Clip Studio Paint is a popular paid piece of software that's still quite affordable. -I own a Cintiq and Intuos [drawing tablet with screen, drawing tablet without screen]. Granted I've only used my Cintiq a handful of times because my computer doesn't have enough video outputs, but I actually find that I enjoy the Intuos a lot more; a computer monitor is generally going to be a more pleasurable screen to look at than a Cintiq screen, you don't need to worry about your hand covering or touching things accidentally, and for most people it will be more ergonomic. It also doesn't take up as much space and it's a lot more portable with a laptop. Oh, and it's way cheaper. Remember that art tablets use drivers; it's my understanding that a computer can't have, say, Huion and Wacom drivers installed at the same time. So, if you're planning on getting a screenless drawing tablet and upgrading to one with a built-in screen [not something I recommend for the reasons I've established], consider the driver situation, because you'll probably want to be able to use both at different times, and also probably won't want to regularly uninstall and reinstall drivers. Carapace There's a free piece of software called Carapace that can be used to create perspective grids from photographs. A download link can be found in the description of this video.

Using Blender A lot of modern comic artists use 3D software to position complex items for tracing purposes [e.g. spaceships, cars, etc]. Blender can also be used to build locations you'll revisit a lot , and the grease pencil tool can be used to place skeletons within a space to stage complicated scenes while maintaining perspective. As you can see below, checkerboard textures can be applied to objects to try and make it easier to make sense of perspective

A thing I was working on for a one-page dungeon Blue-Line Pencils You should buy some non-photo blue pencils if you don't already have them. They're designed to be visually unobtrusive, which makes them great for drawing perspective grids and skeletons, and the color is designed to be easily filtered out of scans. They can also be erased.

EPILOGUE

I've been reading about making comics for over a decade, and I think this post more-or-less contains everything worthwhile I've seen on the subject. Remember that the most important thing is actually sitting down and practicing your craft. I do have one big thought relating to comic craft philosophy; a lot of people really love heavily premeditated comics by guys like Dave Gibbons, Frank Miller, David Mazzucchelli, etc, but they also want to make as few iterations as possible and / or draw directly onto the board. I'm a firm believer that the only way someone can really create a book like The Dark Knight Returns or Watchmen is by creating a lot of concept art, illustrating detailed layouts, making a lot of notes, etc. You have to adopt the same seemingly impossible working methods that these artists used in order to get a similar end result, or at least I think so. If you can't get anything finished while using such working methods, that's a workflow issue, and there's nothing wrong with that. Jack Kirby did everything improv and he was one of the greatest comic artists ever. But I do think studying and emulating the ways people made great comics, while taking into account advancements in tech, is very important.

[lightrises]

"Only in allowing her to pass..." — Hornet, The Radiance, and the means by which Hallownest turned its victims against each other

A quick note: I read Hollow Knight as an anti-colonialist text. As such I'll be touching on topics related to colonialism as it's depicted in the world of the game, and said analysis will reflect both a sympathetic take on The Radiance and a critique of The Pale King that won't pull its punches. If this sounds up your alley, hello and thank you for the read! Let us be sad about these bugs together.

———

So!! A while back I realized something about pre-canon that felt rather... "curious" is one way to put it, I think. To wit: for all the effort and scheming and determination The Pale King poured into trying to get rid of The Radiance, neither of his plans involved directly killing her.

Was that his long game? Well, sure, that seems clear enough. His tack changed from luring the moths away from their god and creator to a more literal form of incarceration once the infection became a factor, but at its core the end goal never really changed—The Pale King very sincerely wished to destroy Radiance via obsolescence. The Seer lends us foreshadowing to confirm as much:

[Image descriptions: Two screenshots from Hollow Knight, showing the Seer and Ghost in the Seer's alcove at the Resting Grounds. Across both screenshots, the Seer tells Ghost the following: "None of us can live forever, and so we ask those who survive to remember us. Hold something in your mind and it lives on with you, but forget it and you seal it away forever. That is the only death that matters." End description.]

(Which, by the way and given the context, talk about an extremely unsubtle allusion to cultural genocide huh!!! Whew.)

In any case, we're left with a whole bunch of machinations which build up to... well, two very roundabout attempts at committing deicide. That's kind of weird, all things considered! Why not just do the deed in one fell swoop and get it over with?

This could be for any number of reasons. Maybe the king was devoid of the means to instantly kill another higher being. Maybe his personal sense of scruples stopped him short of signing off on MURDER murder (although, y'know, the aforementioned genocide + eternal imprisonment = still cool and copasectic apparently!). Maybe the long drawn-out cruelty was the point. Maybe the idea of playing fuckign 4D chess with the circumstances was too delicious for him to pass up—that man did love to tinker and stick his claws where they sure as hell didn't belong—or maybe it was a little bit of All The Things. Who knows!!

But interrogating The Pale King's methodology on this count isn't what I'm here for, at least not really. The main reason I raise this question at all is that in her own way, Hornet did too.

"I'd urge you to take that harder path... "

See, going by The Pale King's actions and what The White Lady explicitly says, they both foresaw two outcomes wrt the infection: it can be allowed to spread, or it can be contained. At Teacher's Archives, Quirrel acknowledges the fact that Ghost is expected to do... something about this, but he doesn't elaborate on what HE thinks that's supposed to be apart from the obvious "Gotta bust into Black Egg Temple first". Hornet is the one person who presents to us—to Ghost—what's framed as a third option: confront and destroy the infection at its source.

And she doesn't bring it up like it's just another tactic for Ghost to consider, prim and indifferent to what they would do. She nudges them towards it, actively, up to the point where she throws herself into the fray against Hollow at a juncture that's uniquely dangerous to her and her alone just to make that option feasible.

Even when she's couching it in disclaimers that this is still Ghost's decision to make (and let's be fair, she's extremely not wrong about that lol), no one can pretend Hornet is unbiased. It's obvious in that buttoned-down Hornet kind of way that she is way the hell done with the increasingly tenuous stalemate that's kept Hallownest's desiccated corpse from collapsing in on itself. Personally it's hard for me not to read some Toriel Undertale-esque "My father was too entrenched in his own foolishness to pursue any course of action that would have DEFINITIVELY ended this" shade into her stance here, regardless of whether that's strictly true in canon.

And that bit—Hornet's hopes for an end to Hallownest's stasis, moreover her grim calculation of what needs to be done to get there—that's the bit I find super interesting but likewise tragic and depressing as shit, on multiple levels. In no small part because a) canon itself gestures towards Hornet feeling conflicted about the very plan she's pushing, and moreover b) she has at least two (2) damn good reasons to feel that way.

So, what do I mean by that? Let's look here first:

[Image description: A screenshot from Hollow Knight, of Hornet and Ghost inside the Temple of the Black Egg, standing in front of the unsealed egg itself. Hornet has been struck by the Dream Nail and her dialogue is displayed as follows: "... Could it achieve that impossible thing? Should it?" End description.]

As the curtain is about to drop on things one way or another, Hornet thinks,

... Could it achieve that impossible thing? Should it?

Now, looking at that last bit it's easy to go "Oh no, Hornet's worried that Ghost won't survive killing The Radiance!" And I do think that's part of it: Hornet is, categorically, not her father. By endgame it's clear she's not content to view her Void-borne siblings as tools to be used then disposed of. She's also well aware that as a healthy autonomous Vessel amongst the countless dead, Ghost is the only person left alive who has a fighting chance against The Radiance. Knowing someone is the only qualified candidate for the job doesn't make encouraging them to embrace a probable death sentence any less of a bitter pill to swallow, though. And odds are on that this sentiment extends to Hollow too, who IS going to die no matter what happens here. To put it bluntly, it's more than reasonable to conclude that Hornet hates the absolute fuck out of this.

But I don't think that's all there is to it either. Remember what I said earlier about The Pale King's bids for genocide? Well, it's not like the man deigned to limit his efforts to just the moth tribe.

"We do not choose our mothers... "

On top of everything else—an infected Hallownest being all she's ever known, the fact that she only exists because of the infection, the list goes on—Hornet has spent her life wedged into a position that's been uncomfortable and terminally unglamorous at best: she is both a daughter of her father's kingdom and of Deepnest.

Deepnest, which like the moths and many others was here long before the wyrm and his lady wife swanned onto the scene and the God Become Bug laid claim to everything the Light touched plus a considerable amount of change. THAT Deepnest, which has fought claw and thread to retain its sovereignty against same-said settler king, and for which Herrah not only surrendered her life but also agreed to bed her worst enemy, all in hopes of securing a viable future for her people (put a pin in that last part by the way, I'll come back to it soon).

Two Worlds, One Family (Ft. An Indigenous Woman Trying Her Damndest To Work With What She's Got Versus An Imperialist Who Only Signed Up For This Because He Needed The Political Favor THAT Badly, So It's The Height Of Dysfunctional Actually). Fun times!!!!

The baggage this entails for Hornet is gnarly enough without implications made by The White Lady and the pre-canon timeline of events and even Team Cherry's dev notes that the king may well have looked at baby Hornet, gone "YOINK", then ensured she spent the lion's share of her childhood reared within the pearly auspices of his Pale Court*. That would be rather advantageous for Him Specifically after all, the potential to mold a born foe into a future ally and even have her trained in combat under the same tutelage as her doomed sibling. And far be it from him to stop a grown Hornet—his own flesh and blood too!—from making Deepnest her forever home if she so pleased. He totally wouldn't be reneging on his "fair bargain made" by doing this one simple thing until Hornet came of age, not t e c h nic c a l l y.

If that is indeed the case, there's a non-zero chance Hornet's formative years were a hot mess of cultural alienation and being a good deal more privy than most to just how much of a bastard her father could be. There's an equally non-zero chance that at some point she stood or sat within earshot as The Pale King finally, finally dropped all pretense and euphemism to name the Light for precisely what (for who) it was.

See, in conjunction with the question that started this whole dang train of thought I've been asking this one too: Does Hornet know? When she speaks of confronting "the heart of [the] infection" does she know she's talking about not just a literal person but someone very specific? The Radiance, who god though she may be shares skin in the game alongside Hornet as a native woman screwed over by the same settler king, likewise deprived of her kin and saddled with a life gone horrendously pear-shaped?

I'll assume for the sake of exploring the possibility and because I think it's a likely one anyway that yes, Hornet does know. She knows, and despite everything can't help empathizing. She might even look at Radiance and see bits and pieces both reflected and slightly inversed in her own mother: Radiance was forced to the sidelines while her people—her children, the brood she was meant to lead and care for—died out under The Pale King's rule, and it's no stretch to assume she's at least as upset about that as she has been about everything else; Herrah too took drastic measures for her people's sake, trying to head off annihilation by relegating herself to the sidelines in an act that was as much calculated risk as an attempt to find wiggle room and leverage in the face of a nasty proposition.

A calculated risk that, if things continue as they are, might well amount to nothing as the rest of Deepnest gets eaten alive by the infection. It survived The Pale King's advances for so so long, only to fall here. Herrah's sacrifice would be for naught; the other tribes—themselves the king's victims—would keep succumbing to the infection too.

And this is where things fall apart.

"... or the circumstance into which we are born."

Let's be clear: I think Hornet is wise enough to know what's what here, that all the carnage and suffering falls on her father's head for starting this slow-motion trainwreck in the first place. Hallownest wasn't always Hallownest. This domain was Radiance's home first, along with many others. It was the worm-turned-king who rolled up on the scene unsolicited and decided this was a ""'problem""" that had to be """solved""".

But the fact of the matter is that he's gone and The Radiance is here, raging, seemingly inconsolable. Above and beyond being Deepnest's rightful heir, Hornet isn't in a position to countenance more splash damage even if the grief and fury fueling it makes perfect sense. She can understand without ever bringing herself to love Radiance, and she can bend her knee to practicality even if she hates the everloving shit out of it because the fact that it "has" to end this way isn't fair.

This lends itself to one last awful conclusion: that Hornet has probably considered and (rightly or wrongly) discarded the possibility that Radiance can be saved, at least not without dragging more collateral along for the ride. If even her mother and every other enemy to the king seemed to dismiss talking Radiance down as an option way back when... well. Why should Hornet hope for any better after things have escalated so far?

Again, it's practical. A practical net good is what Hornet strives for. And again, it fucking sucks.

For extra tragedy points, this makes Hornet's extended crypticness around Ghost followed by her last minute casting about for a reason to tell them "Wait, don't; not just yet" that she never voices even more of a gut punch. She can't bring herself to burden Ghost with the context that haunts her so, least of all when it might weaken their resolve to go through with what (she thinks) needs doing.

It's the "same song, different verse" which led to the mantis tribe and Deepnest being pitted against each other: Hallownest rigged the game so that two women who could have been powerful allies—who have a mutual vested interest in driving out settler rule—wound up poised as enemies instead. And how awful is that? The king for all his being extremely fucking dead still gets the last laugh, because outside of a miracle the game never manifests Hornet can salvage what her mother started and look forward to a future where Deepnest pulls itself back from the brink if and only if The Radiance dies.

Resolution comes at the price of a completed genocide. Add two more dead siblings to the unconscionable pile thereof, while we're at it. That's what it boils down to whether or not Hornet can bear to articulate it as such, and there's no grace or even a properly bittersweet ending to wring from this clusterfuck. And that is rough.

———

* This has been better explained elsewhere, but a quick rundown: The White Lady tells Ghost that Hornet and Herrah "were permitted little time together." On its surface this can be taken to mean that Hornet was still very young when Herrah was shipped off to Eternal Dreamland—except this doesn't jive with the fact that we meet Hornet as an adult. If the stasis kicked in once the Dreamers went to their rest, which in turn halted the aging process for every living bug in Hallownest, AND before all this Hornet experienced little by the way of quality time with her birth mother... I think you can see where I'm going with this.

To top it off we've got Team Cherry weighing in ominously from their dev notes on Herrah: "As part of the agreement for her alliance and her role as a dreamer, King gave her a child (Hornet). Was she allowed to keep this child or was she taken away?" This isn't confirmation by itself of course, but given additional canon details (see above): Can I get a "yikes" in the chat fellas.

[thefloatingstone]

An small sampling of fucked up shit in PatB

Incomplete because these are just the moments I remembered off the top of my head without actively LOOKING for things in each episode.

I have also not seen many episodes in the last season despite being a big fan. It be like that sometimes.

Also including moments that are not actually fucked up but I wanted to mention them for other reasons.

0: The entire plot of the show is Brain wanting to take over the world. He’s portrayed as a megalomaniac who wants power but the show reinforces time and time again that his motivations are Brain is super angry at humanity fucking up the Earth but politically as well as environmentally and thinks he can do a better job if he just ran the damn thing himself. (And yet often his plans include extreme environmental damage like melting the ice caps and stuff. Go figure.)

1: Brain recounts his childhood days as a lab mouse, his water bottles filled with copyright dodging Snapple (a cooldrink), Chanel No. 5 (a perfume), DDT (a pesticide which has been outlawed since the broadcast of this episode due to its intensely harmful effects on the environment) and ALAR (a plant growth regulator used on apple trees which was outlawd in the 80s due to it being an incredibly high cancer risk in people who eat the apples afterward)

jfc

2: That time Brain lured some of the fieldmice around the lab into the lab specifically so he could test a nightvision serum on them before taking it himself.

(I actually like this episode because it turns out the mice are Brain’s parents (because cartoons) and it turns into a story about having parents who expect you to live up to impossible expectations and if your parents fail to live up to your expectations for how parents to be you need to accept that about them and stop trying to force a relationship with them in a way it cannot exist. It’s weirdly touching seeing Brain listening to Pinky give advice but if I list every moment I like in the show which is like this we’ll be here all day)

3: That time PETA broke into the lab and “freed” Pinky and Brain by dropping them in a jungle where they had no hope of survival and the episode turned into a parody of Heart of Darkness.

Also Pinky kills and eats a whole ass wild boar.

4: The episode where Pinky and Brain find and for a short period raise a baby Clark Kent (Because WB owns the rights to Superman so they could just do shit like this) It ends with the mice agreeing to make a scrapbook

5: That time Pinky and Brain had a son together. Just... this whole episode. From Pinky calling La Leche League International [ La Leche League International is a non-governmental, nonprofit organization that organizes advocacy, educational, and training related to breastfeeding. ] to the rather liberal use of “Oh my Lord” and “For God’s sake” which is pretty far up there in “PG things you’re not allowed to say in kids’ cartoons) to Romy referring to Brain and Pinky as “My two dads” to Pinky ending the episode after the ‘tomorrow we try to take over the world’ line with “Not tonight Brain, I have a headache”

fsdfkjdshfk how did this episode get approved???

6: The neighbour who lives in the dilapidated house next door to Acme labs (because of cartoon reasons) thinks Pinky is”the Missus” of the lab and has a crush on him (and tries to have an affair with Pinky because he thinks Pinky and Brain are married WHICH I MEAN....). Something Pinky finds immensely uncomfortable. For some reason this is a continuity detail they kept throughout the show, with the neighbour coming across as a bit of a stalker and it’s weirdly not played for laughs. It’s just strangely threatening and uncomfortable.

7: the anti smoking episode where the lab got Brain addicted to Nicotine. This episode was made directly to criticise the ‘Joe Camel’ character used by Camel brand cigarettes which was targeted at children trying to get them addicted to cigarettes at an early age. This was a real thing that happened and we don’t talk about it enough.

8: I mentioned the extremely messed up episode where they travel into the future to meet their future selves a whole TWO YEARS INTO THE FUTURE) but I didn’t mention this in the previous post because I wanted the screenshot. But please enjoy Pinky’s surgical scar. You’re welcome I guess.

Oh for fuck’s sake while getting the screenshot I got a line from Pinky making fun of Brain’s floppy left ear and how he “Can’t get it up any more” AAHJSAGJHGFJFGDSJHFPLEASE

9: That time Brain yelled at Pinky that he was completely worthless so Pinky sold his soul to Satan so Brain could take over the world and Brain had to go to hell to get him back. (in case you were curious, Hell is located underneath the DMV)

10: This screenshot which I once posted to facebook and a friend of my replied with “We all see who the big spoon really is” and that’s a phrase burned right into my fucking cortex.

Anyway so that’s just the ones I can remember.

This show is a fucking trip. Try rewatching it sometime. Season 1 is probably what you think the show is like but get past that and HOO BOY.

This was just the “things you probably forgot” post. I could make a whole different post about “they really did that” episodes but honestly... idk I’m not sure anyone really cares about a cartoon from 1995 and it makes me weirdly self conscious. Like I’m one of those internet people whose tastes and interests stagnated in the mid 90s and I really don’t want to come across like that or fall into that trap. As I feel it’s very unhealthy to not explore and look into newer media and content and stagnating in cartoons ONLY from your own early childhood dooms you to irrelevance.

So idk if I’ll really talk about this more. But I wanted to make this post at least.

[ranmanjuu]

not a request but can you imagine oda forces trying to play smash against the anti-oda or they all play minecraft together

i’ll expose myself here. i have never ever played smash (although minecraft steve being announced is super pog) so i can’t tell ya that part bud. but i can with the blok game. (disclaimer that this request was made after i closed it yet my heart said No, you actually Want to do this so here i am. most probably will be short).

‎

welcome folks, to SengokuSMP.

oda forces:

—nobunaga:

would be the one that steals your iron and shit. commits thefts willy nilly, and no one is exempt from this. if he needs it, he’ll get it with or without your consent.

would kill an iron golem for the few iron it gives

before he got his own base (cause i think he’d just spend most of his time mining and getting materials to protect himself) he’s probably just barge in the nearest bed and sleep in it, regardless of the owner.

his base would probably be built by hideyoshi or sumthn.

he prefers playing pvp more than just survival. since mc placed a kind of restriction for the end (and therefore blocking them from completing the game), he goes onto servers and practice his battles even in a block game.

1.9 axe-shield pvp. he’s tactical in knowing when to strike and block and to back down, and is immaculate with his crits.

—hideyoshi:

probably spends the first few days around nobunaga to protect him. he always fights off the mobs near him even if nobunaga can handle himself.

always reminds people to sleep every night, so that the phantoms don’t come. even though a lot of the players prefer to just stay up.

built a base for nobunaga near his mine cause he needs A Place and not just mooch furnaces and beds from other people.

spawned iron golems for “protection” but nobunaga keeps killing them cause it just gets in the way

would be the one to make mines 4 blocks high so you don’t Bump your head thing, probably like 3 block width and even staircases. would also be the one to make a safety railing across any bridges he finds.

if an ally, he’d greet new players and give them some extra stuff so that they have Something to start off with

i feel like he’d be a pve player idk why

—mitsuhide:

no one knows where he is most of the time. nor his base.

unless you see his nametag (which, most of the time, he’ll see yours first) it’s kinda hard to find him when he’s off and alone.

mf is the black market of the server. whatever potions, potion ingredients, or shit like that, he has. he probably owns like several wither skulls enough to summon a wither.

he would sneak around when mc is mining and just like. scare the shit out of them. the cave noises don’t help.

(the newest screenshot hasn’t been released yet but,) y’all know the warden? the new mob? cause it’s reliant on sounds, if anyone is ever in its proximity he’d throw like snowballs at them so that it goes after them. little shit.

bow skills?? perfect. even in a game his accuracy is spot on. you know those obstacles people make with like slime blocks and maybe mlg 360s? mf can do that

he probably knows enough redstone to make traps, too.

somehow knows what everyone has/doesn’t have.

—masamune:

prank ass bitch.

he probably has like a Source of tnts in his base or something. if anyone is moving out of their old base, he’ll either blow it up or burn it, whether they wanted to or not.

fuck it. he’ll do it even if you’re not moving.

probably doesn’t often sleep and would rather fight off the phantoms than anything.

he probably wants to defeat the dragon quick, cause it’s supposed to be the game’s ultimate goal. but because of the previous restrictions you put, he just goes off and fights other players (cough kenshin, nobunaga)

and when he does kill you, expect like half of your items to not be returned.

also one of the casual thieves in the server. he just doesn’t care that it Belongs to someone and just yoinks

also a pvp player, although i find him leaning more to 1.8 style. he will jitter click you out of existence.

has dogs because idk he gives off that vibe also they Attack.

—ieyasu:

does not log on much lol. he got on once and then Never Again. it’s only when you ask him that he begrudgingly does get in in his own contrarian way.

definitely goes wayy far out for more isolation cause he doesn’t want to get caught up with whatever shit masamune has.

the only major thing he did besides mining and everything was that he got a cat. and almost no one knows about it, other than you because:

“ieyasu has made the advancement [Best Friends Forever]!”

“mc: :OOOOO!!!!”

yeah, you never told anyone.

the longest time that he logged in at first was probably when he found out that cats sleep in beds and just. sat there as the night goes by in his bunker just watching and hearing it purr. he’s a bit irritated when the others tell him to sleep, but then see that the cat went and slept on him that secretly made his heart soft.

and then you insisted on going to his base which took a considerable amount of time, and even with his denying, you decide to decorate and expand his base! you also got to name the cat, but you never knew since you just said like “i’d name it [...]!” and later ieyasu found a name tag and actually did name it that.

—mitsunari:

he doesn’t run a lot i don’t feel. primarily because he was wonky with the controls from the start.

i feel like he’d have the brain to be a redstone engineer. he spends more time like, making those cool machines than anything (probably those that’d help out everyone like an automated farm, etc.)

thing is he forgot that he could die, so most of the time he’s just starve to death without even noticing it.

much like in real life, he always forgets to sleep. and that’s why phantoms are his number 2 in his cause of deaths.

doesn’t have an actual base. hideyoshi built a small one for him, but mitsunari kind of never uses it and just logs off on the spot. at this point it just became a part of the main buildings for everyone or something.

he doesn’t do an awful a lot of collecting and often asks others for some. and when he is given it, he goes “thank you ^^ <3″ and does like the happy-shift thing. it’s honestly too cute for it to be just pixels.

probably knows a lot about minecraft stuff too, it’s just that he never uses any of it.

—ranmaru:

he was so excited the first time you told him that he was invited to the smp of sengoku warlords! would probably frequent the most.

i think he’d just vibe really. not exactly going extremely into pve or pvp or redstone or building, he plays it at a very slow place and more like an animal crossing player would.

like, he builds a small farm and stuff. it isn’t as efficient as mitsunari’s, but it is what it is. also has an animal pen with loads of one animal category and he tends to let people use it with the exclusion of some (coughs masamune) as long as they breed them again or something.

and while he doesn’t go for the big projects, he is kind of a builder? he has the Aesthetic sense while building his house and stuff yk. would maybe lean into the cute, cottagecore stuff.

favorite food in game is probably cake! it takes more effort than most other foods and it just looks cute so he likes making them.

totally has shaders on.

is scared shitless of cave noises at times. you could play 11 near him and he’d just straight up panic and log off.

‎

uesugi-takeda forces:

—shingen:

i find him to be maybe one of those builders that stick to large projects and stuff idk why

he does other things too, mainly pvp (he likes to just head over to nobunaga’s base and kill him sometimes. not that the man doesn’t accept the challenge). would probably also be more into 1.9 pvp because he’s a very calculative person in fighting. yes even in block game.

but the first thing he built once he’s set from collecting materials, was a “restaurant”. for what, you ask? why of course he takes you on a minecraft date. that was the top of his list the moment you even told him about the smp

once the others found out (which was not that long) he just started bragging. kenshin burnt down the building later on.

but he always escorts mc or some shit while spewing out his Lines in chat, sometimes doing the bow in game thing. in response, there are several barfs in chat, and a list of people coming to kill him.

mf likes to combat log on kenshin when he’s on a Killing Spree for the shits and giggles.

—kenshin:

first time you told him about it, he was very happy to learn something about mc’s modern times, even if it’s a children’s game. unfortunately, he didn’t know what an ‘smp’ meant.

so when he logged on and saw that there were Other people, his smile turned into a deadly frown as he just began punching them to death. he only stopped when they ran off and you intervened.

he tried having you stick around longer when you were giving him a tutorial of how to play the game.

at first he only collected material to get stronger. and by that only sword because he sees no need in getting armor (he doesn’t die in battle irl, he can’t die in a simple game). but WRONG cause he got killed by shingen who, even though he had a stone axe, had iron armor while kenshin got nothing but an iron sword.

he doesn’t make a base (why do so many here don’t make bases istg). in fact, he doesn’t log on much.

at first, he only goes on if mc is on. it’s only when he sees that mc appreciates some of the work the others have put into things (like shingen’s builds, mitsunari’s redstone, etc.) is when kenshin tries to Do Things Too and kinda fail.

this man kinda has no aesthetic sense in the block game. but you give him a for effort.

1.8 pvper. he can definitely do 1.9, but more the former mostly cause his deadly anger makes him jitter click like crazy. often challenges others (consented or not) which mostly includes masamune and nobunaga, and he often surprise attacks shingen and sasuke.

—yukimura:

honestly a normal player in survival.

he makes a decent house, has some pretty strong gear, and just helps around his allies a lot (mostly {try to} drag kenshin away from trouble, scold shingen for being too close to mc {though it’s a him problem ngl} and just being a messy caretaker).

i feel like he’d enjoy tekkit tbh. sasuke would probably introduce it to him and he’d just generally enjoy it.

but this is about the smp

he got lucky the first drowned he killed dropped a trident and it’s been his favorite weapon.

probably tried at one point to build kenshin a small base but he wouldn’t listen so like. shrugs.

he’s a bit iffy with playing alongside the enemies in the same server, but they are kind of divided into two. and mc did say it was just for fun and games and they didn’t want to see actual wars be dragged into this, so he just lets it go and has fun.

he looks forward to beating the enderdragon a lot, when the end is available.

—sasuke:

oh Boy he’s having a field day. his adored sengoku warlords? playing minecraft, his childhood game??? absolute pog.

even though it was you who proposed the idea, the one who set up the server in the first place was sasuke, since he has more knowledge on that stuff.

since he got his bearings quicker than the rest from experience, and he was earlier to log on due to testing and stuff, he mostly helps you with building like the main hub, like the center place for everyone and generally things that involve helping the overall smp.

can mlg water bucket, through a lot of trial and error. he uses it mostly to make dramatic entrances where he drops from a hill and just not take damage.

^ speaking of Dramatic Entrances, he probably has a chest full of ender pearls for those specifically.

although he helps a lot with guiding everyone, at times, he pulls out the ol’ “sleep in the nether :)” suggestion just to troll

ngl he’d stick to his ninja thing and successfully make a redstone-wired door and has his banger secret base in it

—yoshimoto:

the s in smp doesn’t exist to him.

he’s just a collector, really. one of his first priority isn’t even materials like stone, the moment he finds any kind of flowers he’ll pick it up. it’s only when yukimura and sasuke actually Give him shit does he start living a not broke life.

probably dies a lot to mobs and stuff

but like legit, this man spent a long time collecting all 13 discs and almost every flower (yes, even the biome only ones) because he wants to take it all in. nevermind the fact that he can just listen to the discs online and all.

he’s immaculate in his aesthetics. even with just wood he makes his base look really cool ngl. 

some parts of it are plastered with every painting there is in minecraft, or just item frames, or flowers in their pots. every decoration you can think of, lamps, campfires, even armor stands, he has them.

you gotta give him credit, it’s a lot of effort.

he often afks just to listen to the music even though, again, he could just listen to it online.

got into a bit of a spiel with ranmaru, since he unknowingly dyed a lot of his sheep (he did categorize it with color though). and so they made an agreement to just have every color sheep, and put them in different pens. so they just shared it now

he saw the cave updates and went silently bonkers because how pretty some look (like the lush caves? hello??)

he has like. 14+ texture packs and 4 different shaders ready at his settings.

[procrastinatorproject]

First Line Tag Game

Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favorite opening line, then tag 10 of your favorite authors! 

Thanks so much to @aini-nufire​ for tagging me! I do not have your self-restraint at all (and am also a very slow writer with a very small back-catalogue), so I’m going to put in some teasers of things I’m working on at the moment.

Okay, let’s see.

1. Passengers: “Absolutely not!” 

2. Game Night: The cool semi-darkness of ship’s night seemed to amplify the ambient hum of the warp drive as it reverberated around the empty corridors

3. Preparations: Cris finished typing in the sequence and hit ‘Execute’.

4. A Night at the Opera: “I’m fine, really, there’s no need for this!” 

5. Corset of Thorns: She had gotten her MD at the almost-record-breaking age of 18 years and 3 months (curse you, Balamurali Ambati!). 

6. IKEA Intergalactic: Sasha yawned heartily and put down her hammer.

7. And a Barrel of Gagh: “ The first thing Cris noticed when he woke up was the hum of a badly calibrated impulse engine reverberating painfully through his head.”

8. CMO’s Log: This one is tricky since it’s essentially a collection of entirely dialogue-based short stories, though they all open with a version of: [Automated audio transcript, file EMH-23990916-3.]

And thus we reach the end of my tragically puny catalogue of published fic. Let me see if I can find some other interesting things floating around my various projects.

9. Star Trek: La Sirena, ep. 2 (follow-up to Passengers): A persistent chime called him out of his stupor.

10. Mornings in Mess Hall (Interlude between Passengers and ep. 2): Sophie read through her abstract for the third time, her frown deepening with every sentence.

11. Another interlude, a short scene between Emmet, Emil, and Ayame, one of the passengers, set after episode 2: The metallic clang of clashing bat’leths echoed through the small room, accompanied by the sound of scuffling feet and the occasional strained grunt.

12. As of yet unnamed Raffi whump that is growing to epic proportions: “Wow, you look like shit!”

13. Cosmic Detours (a collection of short Enoch-centric stories): Dear Xyr, I hope this message finds you well and you’re enjoying your well-earned holiday.

14. The very first Sirena-centric story I ever wrote, first serious story I wrote in almost 10 years, and first bit of my own writing I shared with someone in at least 15: Alex half supported half dragged the delirious captain towards the docking ring. (This is actually the incident that Emmet cryptically alludes to in the latest chapter of the the CMO’s Log)

15. Latest post on Mapping La Sirena: I realized today that although I’ve had the screenshots for a couple of months now, I never actually sat down to stitch together and upload the set plans and design images from the Picard Season 1 Blu-Ray featurette Set Me Up.

I think I’m gonna stop here XD Do I notice any patterns? Hmmm.... I like to start on dialogue, though apparently I don’t open as many stories with it as I thought (a good number of scenes and chapters open on dialogue, though). And my opening sentences are a lot shorter than I would have feared. The Mapping post gives you an idea of how long a sentence of mine would commonly be :D

Do I have a favourite one? I like a lot of them, though I find it extremely hard to separate my feelings about the sentences themselves from the feelings about the fics. If I have to choose, I’m probably gonna go with 5, Corset of Thornes. I really like that funny little aside there and am still very happy I did enough research to be able to make that joke.

I have completely lost track of who has already done this, so if I’m tagging you even though you already posted one of these, I read yours, I enjoyed it quite a bit, and then I forgot again because my brain is a horrible sieve at the moment. So absolutely no pressure, but if this is something you might enjoy, go for it! @regionalpancake​, @thelaithlyworm​, @jazzfic​, @spinifex-ao3​, @highfunctioningflailgirl​, @notajoinerofthings​ and whoever else might feel inspired! (I probably forgot a bunch of important people, but again: sieve.)

[youeverfeelcursed]

On the Narrative of Last of Us Part 2 (3/3)

So this should be the last part on the narrative but I’ll probably post more thoughts on characters, representation, maybe on some details of the gameplay that just made me wish I could design something like this and most likely a text on where do I think this franchise is going to. 

I will also check and fix the previous posts as I know there’s typos and some mismatched data and maybe some timelines confusing. Logically, it comes with posting at my 3am and working from memory and not notes. 

That said, lets just move onto what I hope is interesting enough for people to read these old woman’s ramblings. For anyone still reading, thank you very much for your attention, it’s been a while since I truly enjoyed analizing an art piece.

(Note: I’m marking this post for rechecking as I feel its a bit convoluted. I blame it being 4am.) 

We ended the previous Act 3 (Abby’s Act) with a overhead shot (or aerial if you prefer) of Ellie and Dina on different sides of the shot, close but separated with Ellie being bathed by a red light and both represented in a descending oblique line from Dina to Ellie. 

I find it a wonderful shot that represents Ellie’s story in few and simple details. 

(For those interested, the name in the screenshot is from MkIceAndFire a No commentary channel I follow, go check him out!) 

From here, we jump to what I called the respise intermission, a short part but full of important details for the understanding of the next and final act. 

Like a moth to the flame, or how living sometimes is harder than dying.

The next part of Ellie’s story is as bittersweet as the best coffee you’ll ever have. We find her reminiscencing over Joel’s watch on hers and Dina’s bedroom. Putting it away we get to finally hold in our arms the cutest potatoe I’ve ever seen: JJ! Jesus that child is cute. And it’s obvious that Ellie loves him with all her heart. 

During this time we get to explore the beautiful they both probably restored to live in, in which it specially caught my attention how Ellie surprinsingly gets a full room for herself, whereas Dina seems to have a small space in the living room , where the photo of her sister sits.

I loved this part so much but I could feel that something was wrong, and it is. If we read Ellie’s diary we find out that she’s having trouble sleeping and dealing with people, needing to hide and what’s most likely profound PTSD thats later shown with her breaking down after herding all the sheep. 

A detail that I found important is the fact that she breaks down while having JJ in her arms, which has to be removed by Dina in case she hurts him during her seizure. Because remember that for Ellie protecting those she cares for is very important, so, does she feel she can protect them now?

Stop for a minute and think of how hard is for nowadays soldier to treat PTSD even with psychological support and meds, and how many of those war survivors end commiting suicide anyway. Now imagine that same in a world where violence is constant - yes they live peacefully in the farm but do you really think they don’t have to deal with any straggler? - and there’s basically zero to none mental health support.

Thats where it is important to pay attention to the moment when Ellie is coming back from hunting, how she cleans her face and takes a deep breath and puts her mask on - an obvious referal to her words in her diary - just before going back to Dina and JJ. 

I mean this is not the face of a person fully happy, its the face of a person thats putting her best front but catastrophically failing her inner battle. 

Tommy’s visit manages to break any remainer of the mask she tried to maintain so hard. It is obvious how while he tells her how he found information about Abby that with every word she breaks a little bit more. The trembling, tight shut lips and her open wide eyes that look as hopeful as they look lost. 

If this were another world, one in which I believe Ellie could get help, I would have hated that she left. But she says it herself, she doesn’t sleep, she doesn’t eat, she has a full room for herself so she can have space and even so she leaves for long times alone. She’s not really living, she’s riding the waves as they come but never truly enjoying it because by now her trauma is so deep I would have been surprised that she stayed. 

Because when Tommy talks about Abby, she feels a light, a hope of being able to just pour all of this shit out of her. Abby is not even important anymore, shes just a barrier for Ellie for her own liberation from her demons. Or thats what she thinks. 

She truly does JJ and Dina, but she’s completely broken inside. She’s missing pieces and for her, this is a chance of regaining them. It’s not even about vengeance anymore, it’s about rest. An end. Closure. 

What comes around, goes around. Or how Santa Barbara was the so needed eye opening. 

I was truly happy to see Abby and Lev being kind of silly and well, happy. They are the example of how you can heal when you learn to forgive both yourself and others. A extreme image compared to what we’ll see from Abby next time.

Fast-forward to Ellie after leaving the Rattlers village. Look at Ellie, she’s slightly delirious - Abby, Abby, Abby, Abby... - completely battered, skinny, with a fucked up side, half limping and pulling through out of sheer desesperation. She needs to do this, because if she doesn’t everything she left behind - Dina, JJ, Jackson - will be for nothing. She says it herself in her diary, she cannot think of that. 

And it’s funny. It’s funny there she goes. She helps Abby down and follows both of them to two small boats where she makes a scranny and completely eaten up Abby battle with her in exchange of not hurting Lev. 

The battle is sad. Abby contrary to Ellie had started healing so she didn’t want to battle. But it’s sad, these two beautiful human beings battling against each other as shadows of what they used to be, eaten away by life, hate and stupid decisions. You just feel like being over it because by this point it just feels completely stupid to keep warring. 

And there, Ellie doesn’t kill Abby. We get a flashback of Joel playing the guitar that stops her from killing her. 

And it’s funny, it’s funny because without Ellie both Lev and Abby would be rotting in those pillars. She left her home to kill a woman and ends saving both their lives! Why would she do that? 

We end this Act 4 with Ellie alone, watching the last remains of her flame disappear into the nothing. Rock bottom. You cannot go down further. That’s what it means. She left her family, Tommy is crippled and kind of hates her, Jesse is death, Joel is death, Ryley is death.

 And yet she left Abby leave. But why? 

The answer to all this crazyness is in the last flashback of her and Joel and a few words that are thrown into the night. 

“I was supposed to die in that hospital. My life would’ve fucking mattered. But you took it from me!”

Purpose. 

Yes, purpose. A meaning to her life. A meaning that has been ripped from her hands multiples times in situations out of her control. Is this what she really wants? Her life to revolve around vengeance? Is this what she’s choosing? 

So for once, she decides for herself and she decides that no. She doesn’t want that path. It’s not enough anymore. 

Ellie was supposed to die with Riley, but she survived and found out that’s she’s immune. 

Ellie traveled from one side to another of USA to be the solution to humanity’s problem. To help create a vaccine, whatever the cost. She was ready for it, she was ok with it. But it was ripped from her and lied about it multiple times. 

Imagine thinking you’re immune but that it means absolutely nothing. After getting yourself mentally ready for whatever it would happen, you are told that you’re useless. That you cannot help. That you’re worthless. 

Worthless. 

She ends in Jackson, And learns she’s been betrayed by the person she trusted most, that she could have meant something instead of just living taking care of cows and patrolling. 

It was impossible for Ellie to remain the same even before Joel’s death. Because Ellie is a very complicated character made of survivor guilt, a need to have a purpose in life, too many personal loses and self hating. Not only that, but all of this happens during her adolescence, a time which is hard to deal already without all these traumas piling up. 

Joel’s killing is what makes the bomb explode. Suddenly she can do something, she can leave Jackson and she can revenge him. Again, purpose. She can feel alive because she’s got finally a direction. It’s just not the correct one, because we all know that hate is a terrible guide but for her, is the only guide amids the fog. 

Ellie is a character that has been lost from the moment she learned she could have helped humanity. Chasing Abby was literally the easy path to take to give some meaning to her life. 

When she was with her family at the ranch, I truly believe she wanted her purpose to be to protect her family, but it was something impossible for her to do in her condition. She tried hard, but she couldn’t do it. Her diary again sheds some light on these, on how she feels she has nothing else to give to them. 

We know that, if Joel hadn’t been killed, she could have healed given enough time. She could have forgotten him. She could have find a motivation in Jackson. But there’s so much you can push something until it completely breaks. 

I think that, at the end of the game, when she walks from the ranch she realizes she cannot keep going like this. That if she wants her life to mean something, she has to do it herself instead of just waiting for it to happen. And I feel I know which way she will take next and why. 

Although the ending might seem sad, I found it strangely positive. The circle comes to a end, the guitar that Joel cleaned in the first seconds of the game, is put down by an Ellie lacking two of her left hand fingers impossible, to play it again that way. It is an act of moving on, but not of forgetting. 

Of finally attaining peace of mind, and the chance of recovering herself. 

[harlot-of-oblivion]

A Dance with the Devil

You are a dancer looking for the perfect partner when you catch the eye of a white haired gentleman known as Vergil. Instantly attracted to this handsome cool devil you engage in an intense dance of passion and seduction.

Well this happened. I blame Vergil's sexy legs.

I'd like to give a shout out to @drusoona for showering me in endless screenshots of those wonderfully yummy legs. It kept me going. Much thanks and love! 💕

I'd also like to thank the anon on tumblr that suggested the title. I loved the idea so much that I even incorporated it in my fic. So, thank you for the inspiration. 😘

The song that is used during their intimate tango is Do It For Me by Rosenfeld.

Enjoy!

You always enjoy the feeling of a crowded dance hall. The soft murmurs that echo as people chat among themselves, the ever present music in the air, the distinct tapping of feet stepping on the floor as the slight swoosh of bodies accompanies their rhythm…you thrive on this energy.

Quite a turn out tonight, you thought as your eyes scan the various students, guests, and instructors that the fill the vast room. You’ve been dancing at the Red Grave City Dance Studio for about a year now. Usually people come and learn the basics, but they don’t stick around to truly master the dances. But you take pride in your tutelage of the intricacies of the standard smooth dances, which is your primary focus. You find any excuse to put on your heels and slap on a red split dress just to feel that exciting rush as you glide across the floor.

Which is why you’re here at the open house…or in this case, an open dance hall. Students of the studio invite anyone they see fit to this event. The dance instructors will go around, invite them to dance, and show them various steps and dances. You didn’t bring a guest though. It’s just events like this are perfect to show off your skills…and perhaps find a suitable dance partner. Unfortunately it takes two people to really do the smooth dances justice, and so far you haven’t found anyone that can be a decent lead. So here you are, standing in the corner as your eyes search the throng of people for a partner.

The swinging door of the entrance way caught your attention. You see one fellow student, you believe her name is Kyrie, walking in holding the arm of a young man with short white hair. Kyrie enrolled about a month ago, to brush up on her waltz for her wedding, and it seems she was finally able to convince her fiancé to join her. You recall his name to be Nero if memory serves you right. As they move towards the registry table you notice that the happy couple didn’t come alone. A woman close behind them is grinning mischievously as she follows the couple. You raise your eyebrow quizzically as you see her cowboy boots, jean shorts, several tattoos and…is that a tool belt? You blink your eyes in disbelief as another figure suddenly appears beside the odd group.

Where the hell did he come from? You ponder as you take in the fierce presence of a man that appears to be their guest as well. He was tall, pale, and every bit as stoic as you can get without being called stone. His attire was out of the ordinary for today’s standards. A dark blue coat with light blue embroidery and three coattails, a blue formal vest, black pants, and boots with several straps. It was striking, but you had to admit he pulls it off. You couldn’t help to admire his long legs, noticing their strength and elegance as he strides purposefully towards the table.

I wouldn’t mind feeling those legs guide me on the dance floor, you thought suggestively to yourself as he comes to a halt at the group. Now that he’s a bit closer you can get a good look at his facial features. His white hair is swept up out of his face, showcasing one the most handsome faces you’ve ever seen. It reminded you of the marble statues of ancient times, every angle and contour carefully carved into a masterpiece. You’ve touched one of those statues once. It was cold to the touch, and soft as satin. By the way he carries himself, he seems to be calm, cool, and you absently wonder if he’s also soft as satin.

While the rest of the eccentric group talks with the instructor at the table the white haired gentleman, who you guess must be related to Kyrie’s fiancé since their hair color is similar, steps to the side and observes the room. His head slowly turns as his eyes inspect the room, his face expressing no emotion as he surveys his surroundings. You know you should look away before his eyes makes their way to where you stand, but how could you tear your gaze from a work of art? Besides, its not like he’ll notice one lone woman staring among the crowd…

His eyes sweep over to where you stand. Suddenly, he pauses and his intense gaze directs all their attention at one corner…right where you’re standing. He’s staring straight at you. A small shiver rushes through your body as you gasp out a shuddering breath. His captivating silver eyes pin you down and you don’t dare move, afraid that if you do the moment will be lost. Outside distractions seem to fade, your mind no longer registering the classical music and the company of dancing bodies. All of your focus is on the white haired gentleman, whose face has now molded itself into scowl. Great…he’s probably wondering why a weird woman is gaping at him with no sense of decency. You were caught red handed and you should just break eye contact, walk away while picking up what was left of your dignity.

But you don’t. For some reason, your gut tells you to stand your ground. You feel that this staring contest is a test…as to what its testing you for, you have no idea. So, you remain trapped by his gaze, lifting your chin little in defiance and hope its convincing enough to relay the message that he doesn’t intimidate you. The scowl lifts off his face as he regards you in curiosity. I guess I passed? A pleased grin graces your lips and you tilt your head to the side in a teasing manner, inviting whatever trouble this man has in store for you.

The white haired gentleman moves his elegant legs, his eyes never straying from your form as he approaches you. Your heart begins to beat faster in anticipation. While you wait for the walking work of art to arrive you let your eyes drift all over his body. You get the impression that he likes to be in charge, which suits you fine as long as he proves to be a good lead. You can practically feel his eyes roam over your body as he reaches you and halts just out of your personal space. He silently stands there for a moment, the blue hue in his silver eyes shining as he studies you up close. You raise your eyebrow questioningly as you slightly pop your hip out in mild amusement. If he thinks he can keep me waiting...well, he’s in for a rude awakening.

“Is this where you impress me, or should I find someone else to dance with?”

Your shrewish voice seems to knock him out of his thoughts as his eyes focus on your face. He stares down at you with a bewildered expression on his face and that makes you grin triumphantly as you wait for his response. A few seconds of silence pass before he does something that takes you off guard…he laughs. The sardonic timber echoes in the air as he steps within your personal space and bows down. His height towers over you as he presents his hand. Then, in a confident and very sensuous voice, he asks the question you’ve been longing to hear since arriving here.

“May I have this dance, my lady?”

You place your hand into his open palm, giving him a sultry glare. “And who do I have the pleasure of following into a dance?”

“Vergil. And who do I have the pleasure of leading into a dance?” he requests in turn as he leads you to the dance floor. You give him your name as he pulls you close, preparing you for a waltz. You’re so close that you can feel his chest vibrate as he hums, repeating your name softly. “So that is the name of my temptress…well, let’s see if you can truly dance with the devil, my lady.”

Either this man is extremely confident in himself or very arrogant, you mused as your body reacts to his words, a warm tingle runs down your spine as the dance begins. He proves to be an excellent dancer, masterfully leading you into a refined Viennese waltz. He knows exactly when to be direct and when to be subtle with his body. You find yourself easily following him, enjoying the rush of adrenaline dancing with a dashing stranger.

For the rest of the evening you spend all your time with Vergil. Your conversations with him are vague, both of you wordlessly acknowledging that you want to live in the mystery of each other for as long as possible. And the dancing…he leads you into a couple more waltzes, but its when you goad him in a tango that your attraction for this man ramps up. You thought he was reluctant to tango because he didn’t know the steps, but you were quickly proven wrong when he kept up with you on the dance floor. That’s when you decide to up the stakes in this little game between the two of you. Alluring glances out of the corner of your eye as he guides you across the floor. Sensual caresses across his chest, waist, and arms as you follow his lead.

And by the way his actions become more demanding you knew he took notice…and he mercilessly reciprocates. The next tango is full of his suggestive touches and intense gazes. His warm fingers teasingly stroke your waist, neck, and legs. His strong arms hold you close as he effortlessly lifts you in the air. And his long elegant legs brush you constantly. When he slips his knee high between your thighs and slides it across your skin, the heat of his body making your slick heat quiver…you come to the decision to tempt this man straight to your bed.

When one of the instructors announces that the last dance of the night is about to commence you lean up and whisper into Vergil’s ear. “As much as I want to dazzle everyone with one last dance…I’d rather have you all to myself.” You step away from him and raise a suggestive eyebrow at him. “Show me what you’re really capable of, Vergil. Follow me…and don’t hold back.” You give him the best come hither look you can muster, hoping that you’ve enticed him enough before turning your back and walking away from him, grabbing your clutch purse as you go through a side door.

Being one of the top students here gives you some privileges…such as a key to a private dance room. The butterflies in your stomach get stronger with each step down the hall. You can’t shake the slight worry that he won’t follow, thinking you too forward and rejecting your offer. But the way he looks at you, talks to you, touches you…you feel certain that he’ll follow, if not to dance then…well, you’re open minded and quick to adapt. That’s what makes you great dancer after all.

Light footsteps reverberate through the hall behind you. You turn your head and see Vergil close behind you, fierce eyes piecing right through you. His smooth gait reminds you of a predator stalking their prey and you relish the idea letting him catch you, but only after he gives you a good chase. Exhilaration overtakes the butterflies in your stomach as you reach the door to the private room. As you place the key in the doorknob you feel the dominate presence of Vergil enclose around you, stealing your breath away as his lips brush against your neck.

“You play with fire…still think you can handle the heat?” he murmurs as he drags his lips to your ear, making you shiver at his chilling touch.

You turn the knob and open the door. “It’s the heat that makes me thrive,” you reply calmly as you gesture for him to come in. When he steps though you close the door and lock it before looking back at him with fiery conviction gleaming in your eyes.

“Light me up, Vergil.”

You seductively strut past him to the corner of the room where a phone speaker sits on a table . A deep rumbling purr emanates in the air as Vergil follows behind, no doubt enjoying the view of your shapely behind. You make sure to really rock your hips, adding to the already splendid bounce of your ass. You’ve managed to somehow make it this far, and you’re going to make damn sure you have your way with this cocky man…hook, line, and sinker.

Vergil growls and you feel his strong hands grab your arms, pulling your back to his chest. His lips brush against the shell of your ear, making you shiver in delight. “Brazen temptress,” he remarks, pressing his hips to your body. You feel the distinct bulge of his arousal against your butt. You almost break down and turn around to end this game, but you stick to your task, determined to go through what you have planned. You shrug him off and continue on, taking your phone out and hooking it into the speakers. You make sure it has the song you want queued up, putting it on repeat just in case. Once everything was in place you turn to face a tantalizing sight.

Vergil has removed his signature coat, revealing his bare arms. Seeing a bit more of his skin gives you tingles in all the right places. His gloves are also gone. Those calloused hands are slightly twitching as his side, preparing to enact whatever you bring. You bite your lip and lower your eyes as you lean forward a bit, hands clasped behind your back as you shamelessly show off your ample cleavage.

“Would you do me the honor in joining me in a tango, sir?” you request playfully.

Vergil hums appreciatively. “How could I say no to such a riveting display?”

You don’t even try to hide the delighted smirk that appears on your lips. Turning slightly you swipe at your phone as Vergil makes his way to the center of the room. He stands patiently facing the mirrored wall, a fine example of grace and prowess. You hurriedly join him, getting in close behind him and put both hands on his back as the beginning of the song plays. You wait a moment before sliding one of your hands around until it rests on his chest, fingers spread wide as you slightly dig your nails into his vest. His own hand comes up to rest on it, warm and rough as his fingers curl in between yours as the words of the song plays through the air.

Show me how

Show me how you like it done

You're all mine

I'll make you feel like you're the one

Your hand slowly withdraws and Vergil leans to the side, as if to follow your smooth touch. Your body shifts around to his side, your lustful eyes meeting his as he leads you in a soft twirl and brings your back to his chest. One of his hands presses on your abdomen while the other glides up your side, stopping just short of your cupping your breast. Your mouth opens as you let out a sigh of pleasure, extending both arms out to the side as you ready for his next move.

Take off your clothes

Give me your trust

Look me in the eyes and confess your lust

His body leads you to the side and you let him spin you in that direction, snapping you still after one step. His arm encircles your back as you grasp that arm, your other free hand brings itself to back of his neck. Vergil rests his forehead upon yours, his fervent gaze meeting yours as you nuzzle your nose against his and both your lips are but a breath apart. In the corner of your eye you catch a glimpse of this delectable image in the mirror. It takes all your willpower to not let out a wanton moan as desire flows through you.

Get on your knees

Beg me to stop

I promise I'll love you if you do it

So do it for me

Your rub your fingers into his hair at the base of his neck as he steps into a contra check, changing your direction as you leisurely twirl with him until he pauses your body beside him. He rests his hand against your rib cage, his thumb grazes the underside of your breast. Your breath shutters as you feel yourself give in to this arduous haze. His arm behind your back gently pushes you forward, commanding you to take a couple steps as he comes in close. Once again his face is unbearably close. You can feel his steady breath against your mouth. His hand on your rib cage slides up, barely cupping your breast. As he continues past your breast his thumb firmly brushes against your nipple, causing you to whimper softly.

The corners of Vergil’s mouth turn up in a smug grin. Shooting him a frustrated glare, you decide you about had it with him being a big tease. Time to show him why I dared to dance with the devil, you thought mischievously as you wait for your opening. The sneaky hand that made you whimper reaches the underside of your arm. He extends his touch, caressing every inch of skin, before ending at your hand. He bends his knees slightly, you following his lead as he slinks to the side and fully grasps your hand in his. As you both straighten up, you bring your face in just a tad bit closer, seizing your chance at payback. You open your mouth and let your tongue peek out, the tip swiping across Vergil’s pouty lips. He bares his teeth and snarls. He jerks your body even closer, your chest meeting his as he positions you both for his next move. His silver eyes glare down at you, warning you to behave…or else. You know the music is about to pick up the pace, so you ready yourself for a spirited ride.

The air around you ignites as he leads you into a fast paced tango, his legs showing no mercy as your high heels keep up with their stride. You gave just as much as you got though, completely in sync with each other as he guides you passionately across the floor. You close your eyes, giving him total control as you just bask in the moment. The firm grasp of his hands as they direct you wherever he wants. The gentle caress of his hips as they slightly rock with his movements. The titillating stroke of his thigh between your legs on occasion. Vergil was cool and reserved when you first met him, but now…he was extremely zealous in this dancing, setting your body aflame with lust.

Give me your hand

I'll show you things you've never done

Hold my head

I'll make you feel like never before

Even in your delirious stupor you admire his technique; so precise and controlled as your bodies move as one. If this is how he is with his clothes on…you couldn’t wait to see what he had in store for you at the end of this thrilling game. Your eyes flutter open as both your bodies spin, and he continues to lead you in a few more as he stands stationary. His hand on your back signals you to stop and he dips you down to his knee, his glorious legs spread wide to accommodate your body. In turn you grandly extend your arm out, showing off your sexy red dress as your daring leg lunges out. A sultry grin pulls at your lips, enjoying the rush of elation that wafts through you. As your about to be lifted back to your feet your eyes catch the reflection in the mirror.

Vergil isn’t looking down at you as you sensually stretch your body. He’s looking up…at the mirror. Jaw clenched, mouth partially open as he harshly breaths, and his eyes are practically glowing as they roam your body. Pleasure surges through your body as you witness for the first time a slip in his controlled façade. It’s very sexy and you want nothing more than to pull his face down and kiss him senseless. But your in it to win it. So, you decide to test his resolve once more. You show off your slender neck as you raise your hand up to it and stroke your skin all the way down your chest while letting your mouth drop open in ecstasy.

Take off your clothes

Give me your trust

Look me in the eyes and confess your lust

Suddenly, he forcefully lifts to your feet and pulls your backwards, a hard chest colliding with your back. Vergil takes your hand and encircles it around you as his lips come to your ear, pressing lightly as they descend down to your neck. You feel his lips smirk against your quickening pulse as his tongue comes out to taste your skin. This time you don’t even try to stop the soft groan that leaves your lips. His arousal is very evident as you instinctively rub your bottom against his hips. Vergil hisses and nibbles at your neck as he spreads your arms out, rocking his hips forward to indicate where he wants you to step. God damn tease! you thought exasperatedly, but you also had to applaud his tenacity. You can feel yourself slipping, but you press on, not wanting to give in just yet.

Get on your knees

Beg me to stop

I promise I'll love you if you do it

So do it for me

Just as you take a step away from him you feel him follow, lingering for just a moment before leading you in a twirl back to his side. You raise your hands gracefully above your head, doing a couple more turns before coming to a halt in Vergil’s arms with a sudden snap. His body is as close as it can get, the bulge in his pants now against your hip. You feel his fingers fondle your waist as he lowers his head atop yours. His eyes are half closed, darkening with desire as he unabashedly looks at your lips. As your hands lower onto his sculpted arms, you tilt your head up as far as you can. You stare up at him desperately as you offer your lips, seeking some relief from the hot tension that’s been steadily rising since the start of this dance.

Vergil lowers his head until his lips are but a scant breath away from your mouth. His eyes peer into yours, gleaming as his lips firmly brush against yours own. You hum your appreciation at this long awaited moment, eagerly kissing back as his hands come up to your arms. Instead of deepening the kiss he infuriatingly bends his knees, intending to continue on with the dance. You weakly whine in protest, but a low rumbling growl alerts you that he will not be swayed. His lips sadly leave you as he guides you once more, his steps even more demanding than the last time.

You follow him…except this time you don’t let him have all the reins. To show your displeasure at his torturous teasing you decide to put more emphasis on your legs. Specifically, taking advantage of the split seam of your dress. You spread your legs wider than necessary, showing off your skimpy panties in a risqué manner every so often. Normally this action would be a waste, but with the mirrored wall…there’s a chance that Vergil can’t resist checking out the reflection. By the way his movements start to be more domineering and the distinct cadence of harsh breathing he was indeed noticing your very sheer panties.

Say my name

All I wanna do is hear you scream in pain

Say my name

I promise I'll love you if you do it

So do it for me

After a couple more flashes of your clothed sex, Vergil abruptly pauses and you can see fire in his eyes. Not so fun when its turned on you now, is it? You just keep the routine going, trusting that he’ll support you as you give him a naughty smile, bending your back in a full arch towards the mirror. You can see yourself there, hair dangling wildly and your breasts boldly displayed for only his eyes to feast on. This rewards you a guttural grunt and you can’t help to feel accomplished at finally hearing him let loose.

In the mirror you can now see his face openly showing his ravenous desire. His hand slides down behind you and grabs a handful of your ass, squeezing it as he grinds his hips into you. A sharp dart of pleasure shoots through you as a gasp escapes your lips. You gradually lift your body back up to him and purposely sift your fingers through his hair, hoping that it will be enough for him to finally give in and have his way with you. No such luck. All he does his scoff indignantly and twist you around, determined to endure until the end.

You huff in agitation, but also refuse to back down as well. The song is nearing its end, blasting its erotic beat as Vergil holds nothing back in this explosive finale. He swirls you around relentlessly around the floor, using his body to support you sporadically as your feet flicker and kick in the air. At one point he displays his strength when he wraps his arms around your waist, picks you up, and flips your body up onto his shoulders. You let the momentum carry you as your legs swing around behind his neck, trusting him to carry you through this stunt. His arms expertly catch you and immediately he twirls you a few times before ending in a triumphant dip.

Holy shit. You are so aroused that you couldn’t stand it anymore. Your body goes limp as Vergil picks you back up carefully, having no more energy to go on in this state. He gently cradles your head and lifts it to examine your face with scrutiny. You breath is rapid, your breasts straining against your dress as they rose and fell in time with your breath. At this point you probably look totally flushed and sweaty from the sexual intensity of the dance. But at this point you didn’t care. You needed this man to kiss you, to touch you…to fuck you so badly. This whole scenario was your idea, confronting him about this obvious attraction you both have for each other and doing something about it. He’s responded above and beyond expectations spectacularly at this point, but you feel that you’re at the point of no return. All you can do is hope that the risk was worth it…and await his next move.

Vergil traps you in a vice grip close to his body. His hand angles your head up and you notice that his face is immobile, but his hooded eyes shine with satisfaction. He leans in and captures your lips ferociously, making you cry out in delight as your arms wrap around his neck. His tongue instantly demands your mouth to open and you comply, enjoying the taste of black tea and mint as he explores every corner of your mouth, leaving no place untouched by him.

Distracted by his heavy kisses you didn’t notice his hand leave the back of your head until you felt a soft smack on your butt. You release a muffle moan against his mouth, encouraging him with a small bite on his bottom lip. He merely grumbles and proceeds to mercilessly make out with you. His sly hand creeps down over the curve of your ass, its path unyielding as it slides over the backside of your thigh. He prompts you to lift your leg with a slight squeeze of his fingers. You groan meekly as you do as your told, his hand holding it in place before slipping down over your knee and extending the rest of your leg out. He abruptly pulls his mouth away from yours, ignoring your cry of protest as he holds your foot high in the air. He then moves his body in a way that tells you he wants to turn you away, and to keep your leg up as you sweep it around.

He’s still trying to finish the dance…what a handsome, insufferable man. You sigh and shake your head in disbelief, but you didn’t want to disappoint him. So, you spin your back to him, making sure to really show off your lovely leg. When your back is completely flat with his chest Vergil bends your leg backwards around his waist as he lowers his body as if he was dipping you. This stretches your body in a pleasing pose, open and reliant on his arms to keep you steady. You happen to notice that you're facing the mirror, and its only then that you realize what he’s done. His expression is pure sin as his hands quickly shoot across your body. One hand gropes a breast while the other glides over your delicate center. You gasp out, unable to move away as he strokes your damp panties at an agonizing pace. All you could do is moan and watch all this unfold in the mirror, completely at this wicked man’s mercy.

A husky chuckle sounds close to your ear. “My, my…all this for me?” Vergil softly scoffs as his hand speeds up slightly, emphasizing the slickness in which they move. You whimper as you try to move your hips to ease the pressure, but its no use; he’s got you right where he wants you. You feel a hum vibrate against your ear. In the mirror you see Vergil nibble on your ear, making you twitch against him as his hand completely cups your sex. His eyes catch yours in the mirror and he grins smugly.

“Look at you…wet, wanton…and all mine,” he grumbles and bites down on your neck, sucking it hard as he marks you. You gasp out in pain, but the fingers on your wet panties tease you, rubbing close to your hot clothed entrance which eases the pain into rough pleasure.

“Ah…Vergil…please…I need…ah!” You plea softly, hoping that he either gives you release with that wonderful hand of his or tears your clothes off and fucks you senseless.

Vergil releases your neck and whispers in your ear. “Your begging pleases me…so, what does my temptress want, hmm? Tell me…hold nothing back. And perhaps I’ll reward you with what you desire.”

You take a shaky breath and find his eyes in the mirror, making sure you have his attention as you voice all the things you’ve wanted to do to him since you’ve first met. “I want to see you naked. I want to run my hands up and down your legs as I suck your cock. I want to taste you…fuck you…please, Vergil! I need-”

Suddenly Vergil straightens his form, taking you with him as he forcefully turns you around to face him and slams his lips against yours. His arms squeeze you against his chest as he lifts your feet off the floor and props his thigh in between your legs. The sudden hard friction against your aching center makes you moan in sweet relief, your hips rocking subconsciously as you sought out any kind of release. You didn’t care if your looked like an animal rutting in heat…it felt too good for you to care at the moment.

Vergil’s keen eyes took notice of your subtle humping of his leg and one hand reaches behind you, expecting him to halt your movements…but instead he guides your hips as he presses his thigh closer to you. You can feel every indention of his pants and the smooth shift of his muscled leg. Your mouth leaves him as a stunning moan escapes your lips. It felt absolutely delicious, but you could feel your cheeks redden in embarrassment. This also didn’t escape his notice as a wicked laugh leaves his devilish lips.

“A truly salacious sight! Playing coy while finding pleasure on my thigh…does it feel good? Pleasuring yourself on my leg?” he asks as he grinds against you to add extra friction. You whine and nod your head, desperately trying to hold back from reaching your peak. But he continues to rock your hips against his thigh, and at this rate you’ll explode before any of your clothes come off. Vergil bends his head down against yours, his eyes fixate on your face as he spoke in a low, rumbling tone. “Don’t wait. Show me what my temptress looks like when she’s in the throes of passion.” Your eyes widen in shock at his words, your vulgar hips slowing a bit. Vergil huffs in displeasure and presses you closer to his leg. Taking the hint that he really meant it…you vigorously rub yourself on his thigh, letting go of all reservations and just give in to his naughty demand. All the tension that’s built up since meeting this man is coming to a head. You can hear Vergil’s labored breath as he watches, enraptured by watching you pleasure yourself on his leg.

“That’s right,” he mutters, spurring you on with his deep sensuous voice. “Come on.”

Vergil’s soft command is all it takes to finally bring you over the threshold. Your body tenses as you cry out in fervor, no longer caring that you got off on a man’s thick thigh. You vaguely register your dress being unzipped and a warm hand cupping your breast, a calloused thumb circling your nipple as it prolongs your high. Your hands clutch onto Vergil’s vest urgently, making sure that you were secure as a shiver runs through body. It makes your toes curl in your heels and your legs twitch as you slow your hips, letting the pleasurable wave carry you before it recedes and you float back down to reality.

When you come to your senses your open eyes and see Vergil staring down at you with awe. “Now that…was a ravishing show,” he marvels as he fully takes your dress off up over your head. “Worthy of applause…” He removes his thigh, the obvious slickness of your orgasm shining on his pants. You feel your cheeks blush as Vergil takes a finger and swipes some of it. “And an encore.” He brings that finger to his mouth and sucks, moaning softly at the taste of you.

You bite your lip and tilt your head to the side as you trail your hand down your body, pulling on the skimpy strap of your panties and snapping them back against your hip. This entices Vergil into action as he steps up close to you and grabs your hands, placing them on his still clothed chest. “Remove all my clothing and get on your knees,” he orders fiercely, making you shiver in anticipation as your fingers swiftly undid the buttons of his vest. You peel it away to reveal his well toned chest, and it takes everything in you to not reach out and feel every muscle. You kneel down and unbuckle his boots, removing them as he lifts each foot for you.

That only left him in his pants. As you undo the clasp at his waist you gaze up at Vergil, silently thanking him for letting you indulge in your fantasy. He smirks and his fingers caress your cheek, thumb coming up to your bottom lip and brushing it tenderly. You open your mouth and gently suck his thumb in, giving him a preview of what is to come. His lips curl up in a quiet snarl as your hands begin to pull his pants down with his underwear, your fingers caressing every inch of his legs you can get to on the way. His cock pops free and you can’t help to pause and admire its impressive size. You hear Vergil laugh, its cocky cadence echoing throughout the room.

“Eager to suck my cock and taste greatness?” he inquires boldly as he raises an eyebrow at you. You finish removing his pants and look back up at him, flashing him an impish grin as you blow a bit of air on the white hair trailing down to your prize. He hisses and grabs a handful of your hair, holding you still as he lightly palms his erection.

“Mmm…if you want me to taste greatness then you better hurry and shove that glorious cock of yours in my mouth,” you remark playfully. Vergil scoffs and releases your hair, his eyes gesturing for you to proceed with your dirty deed. You scoot a bit closer and make good on your claim, sliding your hands all over his calves and thighs. One of your hands gently grabs the base of his cock, holding it steady as you take your first lick on the tip. A pearl of precum spreads across your tongue and you moan at the taste. Cool and salty…just like the man standing before you.

You lavish every inch of his cock in earnest with your tongue, getting him ready for the warm cavern of your mouth. A long rumbling growl lets you know that he’s feeling good. His fingers are back in your hair, stroking your scalp encouragingly as you worship him. You suck the tip of his cock into your mouth, swirling your tongue all round his head. Vergil grunts openly, not longer trying to retrain himself. You open your mouth and take in as much of him as you can, and begin to lazily suck his cock. His fingers massage your head enthusiastically and his breathing becomes staccato. Your eyes flicker over to the mirror and see his face the picture of total rapture. This makes your body heat up, seeing this man so relaxed…and it was all thanks to you.

Feeling motivated to really impress him you prepare to blow his mind. Your hands trail down his thigh, nails slightly scratching his skin as you open your throat and take all of him down to the base before quickly withdrawing to the tip. Vergil gasps above you, the muscles of his legs going taunt as his fingers grip your hair roughly. You do this a few more times, working your throat for his size before grasping his ass with both hands. Your eyes drift back to the mirror as you bury his entire length into your mouth, stopping at the base and suck hard. Vergil’s head falls back as a groan bursts from his lips and he growls when you start to gently thrust your mouth against his cock. His eyes again meet the mirror and you both watch as you do your damn best to drive him crazy. Your nipples harden and your slick heat aches as you feel the skin of his cock growing taunt, a sign that he’s close to release. You moan and once again your hips subconsciously rock to ease the tension. Vergil rubs your hair as he pointedly looks you in the eye in the mirror.

“Bring yourself pleasure once more. Let me hear how much you love the taste of my cock,” he commands.

You don’t have to be told twice. You bring one hand down to your core and slip it beneath your soaked panties. Remembering that Vergil is watching you in the mirror you balance yourself on your heels and provocatively spread your legs wide, making sure he sees you energetically rub yourself. You don’t last too long as you feel your body quickly respond to such an erotic sight. Your let your muffled scream ring out as you come again, almost missing the distinct quiver of his cock about to release. His guttural snarl signals you to prepare for his seed as it gushes into your mouth. You swallow every single drop, humming as you savor this man’s unique taste.

When his cock has no more seed to give you slowly remove your mouth, careful not to scratch him with your teeth now that he’s growing soft again. You settle down on your knees and rest your head on his hip as your arms hug his legs for balance. Vergil’s hand is still in your hair, gently petting your head as his labored breaths start to even out. In the mirror you see him staring calmly down at you. His hand cradles your head and lifts it up so he can see your face. Smoldering silver eyes with flickering blue hues take in your messy hair, swollen lips, and shaking body. You stare back up at your dancing devil and grin mischievously.

“So, did I truly dance with the devil?” you ask as your hands knead his thighs.

“Mmm…you are a bewitching vision on the dance floor, my lady,” he says with a charming grin. You beam up at him as he helps you to your feet. You sigh in relief to be off your knees as Vergil pulls you close, his bare chest against your sensitive nipples as he kisses you softly. You instantly respond and let him deepen it, the heated rush of before gone and replaced with lazy strokes of the tongue. When he breaks away you take the opportunity to voice the inevitable.

You tilt your head questioningly. “Well, that was the best dance I’ve ever had, but…now what?”

Vergil’s brow furrows in deep thought and for the first time since meeting him…he looks hesitant. “I am uncertain. I normally don’t indulge in spontaneous trysts.”

You squint your eyes in amusement. “Spontaneous trysts? That’s the fanciest way to say one night stand I have ever heard,” you giggle softly as your hands rub his smooth chest.

Vergil leers down at you mockingly as his hand spanks your bottom. “If you know what the proper etiquette is for this social situation then by all means…enlighten me.”

You bite your lip to hide your gleeful smile. “I don’t know if I would call it etiquette...but you just need figure out if you and your partner want to continue to see each other. If we decide to end it here and go about our separate ways, then we take the lovely memories of each other with us and recall them fondly when we’re lonely…but…” Your voice trails off as you slide your hands around his neck, looking up at him with hooded eyes. “The night is still young and as much as I love idea of letting you have your way with me standing in front of that mirror…my heels are killing my feet.”

You take a step back and look Vergil directly in the eye. “Come home with me. I have music, wine, and enough space for more dancing if it suits you.” Your eyes pointedly glance over at the mirror. “I also happen to have a mirror…right above my bed.”

Vergil has you back in his arms in an instant. He growls as he grinds his hips against you, his slightly hardening cock rubbing against your sheer panties. “You would invite the devil into your bed? Well, well…you truly are a brave temptress.”

You moan softly and give him a peck on his cheek. “I just know what I want…and I want you, Vergil,” you whisper as you wait for his answer. His fingers dig into your hips for a moment before he captures your lips in a heated kiss, igniting your desire once more. When he pulls away you see can practically see the dark promise of pleasure gleaming in his eyes.

“Allow me to lead the way out, my lady.”

Both of you help each other get dressed, once again letting your touches linger in your renewed game of seduction. Once you had all your belongings gathered you notice that Vergil is now holding what looks to be a katana. You raise your eyebrow quizzically, not really knowing how you haven’t noticed it until now, but you just shrug it off because its not strangest thing to see around here. As you head towards the door Vergil stops you and directs you to stand behind him. You are about to ask him why when he unsheathes his sword and swiftly cuts a cross in the air. As he sheaths his sword with a disciplined flourish, a blue light suddenly lights up the room as reality seems to rip open a portal before you. All you could do is stare dumbfounded at this display of power as Vergil turns to you and offers his arm to you. His nonchalance about the whole thing snaps you out of your astonished daze and you look at him incredulously as you take his arm.

Vergil lets out a cocky laugh. “I hope you’re prepared, my temptress.” He leans down and his low tenor voice whispers in your ear. “Because I won’t be leaving your bed until you’re bargaining for your sweet release and screaming my name.”

Once again he sets your body aflame as you finally realize that he must one of the prolific demon hunters of Red Grave City. Well shit…I really did dance with the devil! Vergil flashes you a devilish grin before leading you through the miraculous portal, towards whatever sinful games he has planned for you. You wrap yourself around his arm, pressing your breasts against him and looking up at him with hunger in your eyes.

How can you not resist another dance with this handsome devil?

Read on my Ao3

My Master List of you want more. ❤

[carrollstreetstation]

wolfenstein 3D: a level-by-level breakdown

(note: due to the extreme simplicity of wolfenstein’s design ethos, i will be forgoing screenshots, with a few exceptions. you’ve seen one wolf3d screenshot, you’ve seen them all. if you would like to see the game in action, i recommend this LP.)

EPISODE ONE: ESCAPE FROM WOLFENSTEIN

the iconic shareware episode, and the only one available for free -- thus often the only one many people played. like many others, i'd only ever played the shareware episode, but it's still just as captivating as it once was all those years ago. in terms of design aesthetic, wolfenstein 3D may be somewhat primitive and abstract by today's standards, though it's worth mentioning that there are occasional attempts at realistic touches such as the dog kennel in E1L1. the basic premise is identical to that of the original classic: you've been taken captive in the dungeons of the nazi-occupied castle wolfenstein, and it's up to you to get out.

E1L1 the classic first level. we begin in medias res, with you already having been captured and now attempting your escape. there's a dead guard in front of you, and you're armed with a knife, and the guard's luger, 8 rounds in the magazine, and a pumping soundtrack to get you primed for nazi murder. a somewhat linear affair save for a quick side trip into the kennels. savvy players who know their secrets can find the elevator to the secret level behind not one, but two secrets at the very end of the map.

E1 SECRET if you're brave enough to try this secret level, the difficulty takes a major leap upwards as MP40-toting SS guards join the regular grunts in defending this huge maze, which seems like an underground cave system, perhaps beneath the bottom levels of the castle proper. creepy music serenades you as you navigate the tunnels, and it seems like every corridor has at least one secret to be found. cool fakeout ambush if you choose the wrong exit door at the end.

E1L2 whether or not you did the secret level, SS goons are here as well. not the biggest maze in the world, but a huge chunk of it is entirely optional. aside from a big kitchen area, kennels and a prison there's a pair of big torture chambers too, full of the skeletons adrian carmack drew to get a rise out of the suits at formgen who were nervous about the violence.

E1L3 another maze of torture rooms, prison cells and officer's quarters. an optional series of boxy rooms is largely featureless but if you know where to look you can find a secret treasure vault.

E1L4 while mostly still a fairly featureless series of rooms, this does feature a few points of interest, for example the wood-carved swastika that dominates a room on the southern end of the map, as well as one of the rare secrets that actually gives itself away by the puddle of water before it, suggesting a leak of some kind.

E1L5 the heat turns up quite a bit for this one, with enemies around every corner, especially on higher difficulties. you'll have more than one chance to just unload with the chaingun until everyone's dead. it also features an enormous secret area -- probably the biggest in the episode -- that's full of treasure, ammo -- and guards.

E1L6 not the longest or most complex level, but there's plenty of nazis to murder in this nearly entirely red-brick complex of mostly straight hallways and round rooms. you'll have to go one way for the key, then another for the exit. a cute little barracks with plenty of treasure is the standout landmark here. watch out for the SS ambush right by the exit.

E1L7 one of the few levels in this episode we can conclusively attribute to one of the designers, tom hall in this case, thanks to a comment he'd made that was published in the hint manual. in it he describes the central landmark of the map, a long hallway lined with gaps in the walls, the gaps filled with impassable columns. behind them are large rooms filled with guards, and traversing the hallway is basically a gauntlet as a small army of troops fire upon you from behind the columns. reaching them is a matter of following the hallways around to the rooms they're in, but once they're alert they'll start spreading out, making tracking them down difficult. it's a cool idea and an early example of the kind of creative level design that we would later see in doom.

E1L8 another all-brick affair, save for a little bit of wood paneling and a grey stone barracks area in the northwest corner. a very short level all told, surprisingly light on resistance for so late in the episode. features the first appearance of what i've in recent years taken to calling the "trash eagle."

E1L9 the end of the episode is just as iconic as its beginning, a massive entrance hall devoid of enemies... save one. hans grosse, an enormous teutonic bastard in full body armor, greets you with a cursory "GUTEN TAG" before unloading on you with two chainguns. dealing with him requires ducking for cover when he's firing and dumping your ammo on him when he's not. after what seems like almost all of your ammo he'll go down like a sack of hammers, giving you the key to the exit, and the iconic escape cutscene. if you need ammo or health, there's a secret along the western wall full of both.

final thoughts:

an iconic episode, right up there with "knee deep in the dead" or "dimension of the doomed" in terms of its recognizability. sure, the texture usage is rather limited and the level design, cute attempts at imitating real-world spaces aside, is as abstract as any in those days, but for a lot of people, the first level alone could probably be done in their sleep. while there's only three kinds of enemies through the entire episode, they're often cleverly placed to keep you on your toes. this is just a taste of what's to come.

EPISODE TWO: OPERATION EISENFAUST

after the limited offering of the shareware episode, the full game promises a bigger experience, with more textures, more enemies, more music, more of everything that made wolf3D so great. the level design gets more complex as now you'll often have to find two keys instead of just one. now that you're free from wolfenstein, it's time to resume your mission, infiltrating castle hollehammer where the evil dr. schabbs' laboratory is supposed to be, and find out what he's been doing in there. episode two thus starts off by introducing you to the mutant, a reanimated soldier carrying cleavers in both hands and a gun in his chest. absolutely silent, he's an inhumanly fast shot and if you're not careful he'll get the drop on you, ending your mission prematurely.

E2L1 the origins of the horror theme that has been a part of the franchise all these years starts here with another level by tom hall, as you infiltrate the castle via some kind of sewer entrance. the first few rooms are empty, and you think maybe you've gotten in unnoticed... but open the wrong door and say hello to your first mutant. how well you do in this level depends on whether you find the MP40 and ammo cache across from the entrance -- or the hidden chaingun. nice touch with the starry background on the wall behind you at the start -- it gives a sense that this isn't just another bunch of random abstract hallways, but a real place with a real outside world. it's not fooling anyone, obviously, but it's a good touch of realism in a time when "realism" consisted of a square room with a table sprite in the middle.

E2 SECRET a very tiny level with a few mutants... or is it? push in the right place and the level opens up significantly, with a boatload of treasure to be found. the mutants didn't bother waiting for you and have killed some of their nazi handlers, as the corpses on the floor indicate.

E2L2 after a brief portion in the sewers, you find the exit -- marked by warning signs, presumably to keep people out of the sewers where the mutants'll get 'em. it's sealed off too, requiring you to push a wall to get out. the rest of the level is a fairly bog-standard level with three quarters of a swastika being the only distinguishing feature. i think tom hall did this one as he comments on being able to see out a window early on.

E2L3 it's not the sewers, but you wouldn't know it for all the slimy wall textures. the opening section is simple enough, but the level likes to play around with secrets. an entire secret area is visible beyond rows of columns, but to get there you have to take the long way around. there's more secret areas within the first one, each one getting better and better, until finally culminating in a mess of SS. and if that's not bad enough, the silver key is guarded by mutants, lying in wait. tom, you're an asshole.

E2L4 not a complex level from tom here, split mostly into two sections with a third, circular room in the middle. a lot of doors open immediately into dead ends; others have mutants behind them. a holding area for mutants quickly turns into a shitshow when killing the lone guard alerts the monsters hiding in their cells and they come out for blood.

E2L5 well, it's a nazi castle, i suppose it makes sense to have a level shaped like a swastika. each "arm" of the swastika is done up in a different theme, from the slimy rock walls we've seen a lot of this episode, to a red brick stronghold of sorts, to blue stone dungeon, to wood-paneling. you can basically skip most of this episode by going to three rooms max, but you miss out on a lot of nazi murder and items to find.

E2L6 opening up in a cave-like area very similar to the secret level from the first episode, only this one is full of mutants. the big maze in the southeast can be navigated by following the bloodstains -- a neat touch that seems like something tom hall would do. the elevator doors at the end present an interesting dillemma -- which one is the exit, and which one is the mutant ambush?

E2L7 an odd level. it's just a few rooms and the exit elevator... unless you find the secret that opens up the entire rest of the map. it's still not the biggest map you'll ever play, but it's a respectable 5 minutes or so of nazi slaughter... until you get to the mutant cave in the southwest corner, where the nazis have already been slaughtered.

E2L8 another odd level, this one is infamous for being half made up of a large maze of 2x2 rooms and pushwalls. push your way through and you can find 1-ups, hans grosse clones (or maybe they're his brothers), treasure, or a sign saying CALL APOGEE, SAY AARDWOLF. this sign was part of a contest, if you did what it instructed you would win a prize. however, thanks to cheat and mapping programs the sign was found almost immediately, and the contest was canceled. in some later versions, the sign is replaced by a 1-up and some garbage. the rest of the map isn't as memorable, though it does have a nice little barracks in the southeast.

E2L9 another boss arena, the laboratory of the evil dr. schabbs. metal walls and warning signs tell you this is a high-tech place (well, for the 1940s anyway) and every room is quite large. other than schabbs, mutants are the only other occupants, coming at you in a wave before the mad doctor himself attacks, throwing hypodermic needles full of his monster serum at you. if you die to schabb's flying needles, instead of the usual beat-up face, BJ's skin turns white, just like one of the mutants. killing schabbs triggers an instant replay of his death animation, which is funny.

final thoughts: the second episode turns up the heat significantly. the mutants prove themselves to be a serious threat, their silence and frightening firing speed making them incredibly dangerous. the horror theme is pretty strong at multiple points in the episode, which is impressive given how primitive the game is compared to even doom. clever use of enemy corpse sprites and blood-spattered textures offer some interesting environmental storytelling. schabbs himself embodies the worst aspects of the nazi regime, that of mad science and human experimentation -- so of course taking him down is satisfying, despite how easy he is. (letting his mutants do the work for him -- so typical!)

EPISODE THREE: DIE, FUHRER, DIE!

the third episode, and technically the final one of the early version of the game until the nocturnal missions were added. as the name suggests, your mission is to kill hitler. who doesn't wanna kill hitler? well, nazis probably. but fuck 'em. anyway rather than crumbling old castles, dank dungeons and evil labs, episode three is set in a massive bunker beneath the reichstag, akin to the plot of "beyond castle wolfenstein." don't expect adolf to calmly let you bomb his conference room this time, though...

E3L1 the entrance to hitler's bunker is a small set of rooms that offers light resistance -- a few guards and SS, plus the very first officer in the game, who moves fast and fires faster. he's not as much of a threat as the mutant, but he's still quick on the draw. poke around a bit and you'll find the secret dungeon complete with machine gun for the taking. the music is a bit of fun, a very simple tune that has a morse code message playing in the background:

TO BIG BAD WOLF DE LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD ELIMINATE HITLER IMPERATIVE COMPLETE MISSION WITHIN 24 HOURS OUT

E3L2 this is the first level that we can be pretty sure is john romero's if his commentary in the hint guide is anything to go by. it's a relatively tiny level, split off into two parts, with the exit very close to the start position but locked off. the key is in the southern area of the map, but the northern portion doesn't offer much and is completely optional -- a deliberate fakeout on romero's part.

E3L3 another short map by romero, this one opens with three doors to choose from. two eventually lead to the same place, while the third takes you to one of the keys you'll need. the other key is guarded in the northern part of the map. similar to romero's tendency to stick an enemy in the exit room in doom, an officer greets you on your way to the elevator.

E3L4 romero's short-form maps continue here (i wonder if these maps were made early in the game's development?) it also continues the trend of most of the episode 3 maps being largely white stone walls with the occasional brick, dungeon or wood to break up the monotony. finding the key isn't enough -- the door opens to a wall that turns out to be pushable.

E3L5 another short-and-sweet level, this one centering the action mostly around a red brick complex inside a large grey stone room. though this one does feature a long, twisty passage that ends in little more than a medkit and an SS goon.

E3L6 tom hall brings his personal brand of weirdness to episode three with this level that opens with a locked door immediately to your left. going forward is a repeat of his old favorite trick of putting enemies and items behind barriers where they can shoot you but you can't reach them, not without a little secret-searching anyway. there's also the enormous maze of reinforced steel to the north which offers little in the way of resistance but is incredibly confusing without a map. there's also another key that can be gotten on the sly by going around and entering the closet it's in via a pushwall in back.

E3L7 jesus christ, tom. "abstract" is the theme for this level, a mess of curving hallways, rooms in the shape of tom hall and john romero's initials, a secret that's easy to break before you even find it, a ludicrously large, featureless secret maze, and *another* secret at the end of said maze. the final secret is worth it though, as it takes you to the secret level...

E3 SECRET it's pacman. in first person. with some nazis thrown in. that is literally the entirety of the level. avoid the ghosts, get the treasure, find the exit. it's honestly an adorable tribute to such a classic game from a game that has since become nearly as much of a classic itself.

E3L8 the final level before hitler, and the nazis throw everything they've got to stop you. tom hall starts this level by putting you in an empty room; only pushing the right wall will take you into a large, swastika-shaped corridor. SS and officers are everywhere; side rooms will have enemies coming at you from all sides, and they've put up barricades that you'll have to work your way around. and just when you think you've cracked it, and you're at the end, you open the elevator door and there's an officer right there waiting for you -- which doesn't happen often.

E3L9 this is it: the final battle with hitler! aesthetically it's not terribly different from the rest of the episode, but it does introduce us to one of the best fakeouts in a video game. all that buildup and when we finally do meet hitler, he's dressed in robes and shooting fireballs at you -- could it be that the old monster is a magician? well, he's playing a trick on you alright: it's a mannequin with a flamethrower, and when shot down you can hear hitler's evil laugh in the distance. hitler himself is a fairly straightforward boss fight, first in a war mech, and then when that's destroyed he comes after you himself with a pair of chainguns. his death animation is even better than the one at the end of bionic commando.

final thoughts: for the third episode of the original trilogy, design-wise it's a bit disappointing. the texture use is quite monotonous, the levels are pretty short and simple. alone or in small groups, the officer isn't nearly as menacing an enemy as the mutant, which is absent from this episode. the pac-man secret level is an amusing diversion at least. the real value in this episode is the battle against hitler -- that death animation is a treat.

EPISODE FOUR: A DARK SECRET

after the initial success of wolfenstein 3D, apogee software founder scott miller convinced id software to make another trilogy of episodes after finding out that a new level could be cranked out at a rate of one per day. smirkingly titled "the nocturnal missions," this prequel trilogy involves a plot to wage chemical warfare on the allies, and so episode four opens with BJ infiltrating a chemical weapons research facility. we can expect the usual castley goodness as envisioned mostly by tom hall, which promises a slightly more visually interesting experience than hitler's bunker.

E4L1 tom's crafted a cute little castle entrance with a big foyer and dining hall, and a little cavern of sorts in the southwest corner leading to the exit. not the most heartpounding of levels, but at this early stage you'll be ill-equipped to deal with the amount of SS and officers thrown at you, especially on higher difficulties. thus it's an early hint as to the focus on increased difficulty for the nocturnal missions.

E4L2 another tom hall joint, this one has a strong castle design, being ringed on all sides by a single long hallway with a number of rooms in the center. popping off a firearm here will alert enemies on the other side of the map, making exploration dangerous as you're likely to be snuck up on.

E4L3 the level starts off with a huge offering of health and ammo. normally when seeing a smorgasboard like this, it raises one's hackles as it signifies the arrival of a boss enemy. however, none is to be found -- but there *are* a big gaggle of enemies further down the corridor, up to 23 at once. it's quite the impressive ambush.

E4 SECRET sure, you *could* try to fight your way through the whopping seventy-five officers (on all difficulties!) who staff this level. the secret ammo stash at the start is the only thing that would make it even possible. but it's clear stealth was in mind when this puzzle map was designed, the idea being going behind the officers' backs. the official hint guide says that if you follow the path it designated you won't be seen, but this is unfortunately untrue as three will spot you either way, forcing you to hurry.

E4L4 tom gives us a relatively small level that, aside from a cave maze on the eastern side, also features an "art gallery" full of admiring officers. it's like the secret level in miniature, much more manageable with up to 14 officers waiting to run in front of your chaingun. there's also the choice between a secret room full of health, or a secret room full of ammo, and which one you get is dependant on which way you push a wall.

E4L5 tom hall has crafted a large cavern system that seems to be filled with officers. there's also a moment where a horde of guard dogs come at you en masse, and if you're not careful they can catch you in a pincer movement. there's multiple elevators as well, but all but one are inaccessible.

E4L6 tom hall's predilection for mimicking real-world spaces in doom (as in episode two of that game as well as parts of doom 2) can be seen in wolfenstein 3D as well. this level's example of that is the multiple elevators from the previous stage can be seen here too. but perhaps the standout feature of this level is the strange series of thin hallways behind a long row of doors, most of them containing officers and items. it's a good example of the abstract weirdness that has long been a staple of early FPS level design.

E4L7 fairly standard level. a long central hallway divides the east and west sides; it's filled with enemies, and tom hall has exploited the enemy behavior of being able to open locked doors to create an opportunity for players to get through without needing the key -- though if it closes behind them, there's no turning back.

E4L8 another tom hall joint, this one has a lot of tricky encounters that make the standard guards actually dangerous for once. it's the same trick as the dogs in E4L6 -- a big winding maze that makes it easy for the enemy to get behind you. there's a similar area full of officers where it's possible to sneak past some of them -- or bypass them entirely, if you find the right secret.

E4L9 the boss level is a cruel twist on the usual method. all the health and ammo are behind locked doors in the boss room; the keys are guarded by a single grunt who will alert a small army of SS and officers in the next room. however, the final boss, otto giftmacher, is not a threat at all, firing a slow-moving missile that's easily dodged. if you came in already loaded for bear you don't even need to deal with his goons.

final thoughts: episode four is a good display of tom hall's somewhat mean-spirited level design, and i say that in a good way. it's clear he took the opportunity to up the difficulty for the expansion, and that includes throwing in officers by the boatload. in general, though, the level design has started to become increasingly abstract. otherwise, a good start for the nocturnal missions.

EPISODE FIVE: TRAIL OF THE MADMAN

the fifth episode introduces us to castle erlagen (though the hint guide seems to think that was the site of episode four -- maybe both are true) as we hunt for the plans to the nazis' chemical warfare campaign. most of these levels are from romero, who has a somewhat tighter, more abstract design ethos to tom hall's more freewheeling, quasi-realistic style -- something that would be evident later in doom as well.

E5L1 the dungeons of castle erlagen start you off light, mostly guards and a few SS. john romero has crafted a relatively short level, the majority of the action being in a series of rooms off a long hallway that separates the bottom half of the map from a few large rooms connected by narrow tunnels. the final room is a very romero-esque ambush.

E5L2 romero has a penchant for a very sectional level design and we can see an example of it here, where you're dropped in the middle of the map and it's split across four areas in four directions, forcing you to explore until you find the key and the exit. he's also put in a devious deathtrap to the west -- a gauntlet of SS guards for a handful of treasure that honestly is not worth it, which may be the point.

E5L3 another short and sweet romero level -- but heavily guarded. the exit is right behind the entrance, and a number of goons stand watch. if you're low on ammo, you may be running into problems -- but romero has thoughtfully made the secrets extremely obvious, and both will give you everything you could ever want.

E5L4 similar to E5L2, only incredibly symmetrical, this is a wheel-and-spoke design that plops you in the center and it's up to you to clear out a series of nine rooms connected by hallways. as is becoming a pattern, the path is filled with enemies, so it's up to you to be quick on the draw to mow them down the moment the door opens.

E5L5 romero's hub-style design again, only a bit more freewheeling. notable encounters include the "art gallery" in the southeast corner full of dogs, and a similar mini-maze in the northwest occupied by SS and officers. romero has a talent for making maps that seem larger than they really are. the secret exit, however, is well-hidden.

E5 SECRET more hub-style design, though with an evil twist. other than a few central rooms the entirety of the map is made up of long narrow corridors with nazis on patrol. this leads to a tense few minutes as you navigate these tunnels always knowing that if an enemy comes around the corner, you won't have any cover.

E5L6 a rare attempt from romero to make something that feels like a real-world space, the core of this map is a complex of rooms surrounded by a large cavern that encircles three-quarters of the map. the complex itself isn't particularly unusual or, well, complex, though interestingly one of the three doors leading to the room that itself leads to the exit is of a different lock from the others. you still need the silver key, though.

E5L7 back to the hub design. the enemy count is climbing ever higher, romero throws goons at you every step of the way. a major encounter is in the northwestern room where a row of doors all lead to the same room, with a swarm of officers and SS goons hiding just behind to come at you in a wave. the final room is an ornate hallway lined with SS guards, giving a sense that we're getting ever closer to our goal.

E5L8 the penultimate level of episode five is a quick-and-dirty map that splits off into three zones. the biggest heat of the level is probably in the southwest, a maze of corridors full of bad guys that can and will wind up wandering behind you unless you're careful. and when you get through that mess, there's an ambush in the key room. interestingly, you can see the exit door at the very beginning -- but it's behind a barricade, requiring you to find the key to get to the other side.

E5L9 the boss arena is pretty straightforward -- a huge room divided in three by rows of walls. gretel grosse, sister of hans, is your target for this mission, and she behaves exactly the same as hans. taking her out is a snap, but you'd better stock up before opening the door she guards, as the command room that's your final goal is filled with nazi goons. cute re-use of the "yeah!" animation.

final thoughts: episode five is romero at his best. it's a fast-paced little jaunt that offers plenty of nazis to mow down by the boatload, giving a hint of what doom would be like. though he overuses the hub-style level design, it at least gives a little bit of structure to an otherwise freewheeling, abstract mapping style.

EPISODE SIX: CONFRONTATION

the final episode of the game is a bit of a hodgepodge, featuring work from john romero, tom hall, and, surprisingly, robert prince, the man behind the music for most of apogee and id's output between 1991 and 1996, including, but not limited to: wolfenstein 3D (duh), rise of the triad, duke nukem II and 3D, and of course doom. the story goes, now that the allies know where the general behind the upcoming chemical warfare campaign is located, they send BJ into castle heidenheim. with three mappers contributing to this level we can expect a mixture of styles, and given that this is the very last episode of the game, resistance is likely to be fierce.

E6L1 jesus christ, tom. 95% of this map is extremely long hallways, lined with niches in which officers hide. it takes forever to advance and you're constantly getting caught on architecture. you start the episode with the exit right in front of you, and you have to make an insanely long detour just to get to it. awful map.

E6L2 robert prince makes his level design debut with this weird outing. it starts off similar to the previous level's endless hallways, but at least in this case gunfire will make most of the hiding enemies come after you. after that is a series of hallways that spiral in on themselves, at the center of which is the exit. it's like this episode was designed to annoy me.

E6L3 jesus christ, robert. it's a maze of swastikas. every room is a fucking swastika, and they interlink with each other. it's just... fucking madness. it blows my mind. this is what i'm talking about when it comes to how old FPS games seemed to just get by on pure abstraction. in that regard, duke nukem 3D should be considered a fucking revelation. this map is a pain to navigate too, though not as bad as the first two.

E6 SECRET romero and hall both did this level. it's a very romero-style level at its core -- a central hub with four separate areas, each with a different theme. tackling more than one is optional, because at the end of each one is another grosse brother holding a key to the exit in the central room. to the east is a nightmare zone of a vine-choked maze -- visibility is borderline zero and it's full of mutants(!) and officers. a better bet would be the more straightforward boss arena to the west, though the mazes to the north and south aren't too bad. though, work your way too deep into the pushwall maze and you'll run into a familiar ghost, because this map wasn't gimmicky enough.

E6L4 though the hint guide doesn't say one way or another save for tom hall making a completely random e. e. cummings reference, this has hall's style all over it. It's mostly a series of random rooms connected via one hallway or tunnel or another. Compared to the rest of the episode so far, this level's banality is honestly a blessing.

E6L5 i'm pretty sure tom hall did this one as well. the big setpiece is a long, wide hallway with enemies hidden in the niches in the wall -- something i was tired of before the end of the first level. there's also a couple of nearly-identical shootouts in big rooms for possession of the keys. pretty basic level all told.

E6L6 yeah, i can tell this is a romero map, even without the hint guide telling me. it's got two of his most defining features in his nocturnal missions level design: absolute fucking chaos, and a tight level design with a core conceit. on its surface it resembles the spiral maze from robert prince's first level, but this is much bigger, and *much* more packed with enemies, all of whom come after you from the first shot fired. actually quite fun.

E6L7 tom and his fucking mazes strike again. after a rough initiation (more of the hallway/hidden enemies business) and a big central chamber with officers shooting at you from side rooms, you're treated to a nightmare world of endless mazes. if you're brave enough, you can even venture into a secret vine maze, which, while not as dangerous as the one in the secret level, is still plenty annoying and not really worth the hassle.

E6L8 it's hard to say whose level this is, but i'm going to guess it's romero's. it's two underground complexes split by a single long cave tunnel that curls around and between them in a backwards S fashion, which would suggest tom hall, but the abundance of enemies and the relatively compact room arrangement says john romero. whoever did it, this is a pretty linear affair -- first you clear out the northern complex, room by room, then grab the key. then you take out the southern complex and reach the exit. simple.

E6L9 the final boss of the nocturnal missions, and the nazis throw everything they've got at you. i'm reasonably certain this is a romero level, because the evil general is guarded by a baying horde of fascists who come at you from all directions. it's as if they looked at how sparsely populated the previous boss levels were and decided this deserved a bit more of a finale. it makes for some cool carnage, but you'll likely run into trouble unless you're secret-savvy.

final thoughts: "mixed bag" is an understatement. this episode feels like where the dregs of the design team's ideas went. guest designer robert prince should have stuck to music. there are a few cool bits, but in general the sixth episode is a low note, and a bit of a disappointment after the ludicrously fun fifth episode.

[haila-wetyios]

Moonfire Tower: A not so comprehensive guide.

This would be extremely belated since the event has been around for a few days already, not to mention the suffering from last year. But after 2 successful climbs back to back, I figured I should put up a few tricks I learned on the way to make it easier for anyone that still wants to get to the top (and maybe take dem nice screenshots).

I took a few pictures and did my best on paint to throw in a few tips and tricks as well as gifs. So this will rely more on visuals under the cut.

First thing to keep in mind:

- This whole guide picks up after the normal track you gotta do for the Eorzean Ninja Warrior quest. So nothing to explain on the small wall you gotta climb for those vouchers, some basics from that however, do go into the rest of the trek upwards.

- You gotta be patient, you may start off well in your journey to the top, and once enough time passes, I’ve noticed that not only do you start fucking up what you were getting past easily, but you’re starting to get hasty by trying to match the pace of other people jumping around. Ignore their pace, focus on yours and your evaluation of how long or short your jump has to be to get to the peg.

- While this guide is meant to make your challenge a tiny bit easier or understandable, a lot of it involves practice. Keep jumping over and over until you can do certain parts without worrying too much.

- You know how people describe beginner healers to be all nice and trying their best, and then skipping to their veteran days, they simply chug down some beer as they watch the world go in flames? That’s gonna be you once you reach the chopsticks tier. Once that anxiety and fear are gone the higher you go, but you’re also prepared to accept your fate if you jump off by accident, it becomes easier to go back at it with less stress.

There are 3 types of jumps that you will notice you will have to do from the moment you start the climb. A few pegs though, will be slightly different, and the only way to get past them, is for you to practice the basic jumps and measure how much you can adapt them to cover the distance you need rather than jumping off the tower by accident.

I like to call the 3 jumps: Large jump, Baby steps, and Bunny hops. 

Them being long jumps, tiny jumps, and medium jumps. I’ll go off and mention which one I recommend for specific spots as we go around this.

Right off the bat, once you’re done with your repeatable quest, there’s this one peg that I see a lot fail during rush hours. There are two ways to get to it without a lot of stress. The first being the yellow circle on the left, they position themselves to reach the tip of the peg and do a long jump. Aka, they wait till the last second that they’re on the platform before jumping. This one though, does have it’s risks of you accidentally touching the invisible wall of collision for the corner of the tower, doable, but I’ve come to appreciate my choice. Which is the right circle. Same move, except that there’s no risk of wall, just positioning and aiming before jumping away.

Remember how I mentioned that there would be 3 basic jumps as well as small variations of them? Well, it starts right off as soon as you finish the long jump. All of these pegs are medium jumps, except that the first one’s a tiny bit farther than the rest! Only way to get past is to do a medium jump that’s just a little more longer than the normal one. This you can probably do by getting to the edge of your current peg as much as possible. The rest are pretty much the bunny hops, you just do a medium normal jump in succession until reaching the next corner to go around.

Now we see more of those farther medium jumps. You just gotta be aware of it, and adapt your play style around it. People usually develop their own method of jumping around, either sideways with the current view of these pictures, or just measure the distance while looking over your character’s shoulder. Adjust accordingly to the distance you gotta cover, and practice how far in you gotta tap that space button to jump. (Or the one you use in your controller!)

By this point, you should have reached the famous back and forth pegs, where it’s just a constant right-left set of jumps before having to do a longer one. I tend to use these pegs for practice for bunny hops so that I can get through any quick medium jumps easier. 

GIF example can be found here.

Now meet long jump-chan. You won’t see a lot of those as you see mediums and baby steps, but you gotta always keep in mind the right moment to do the thing. Same as the first jump you did at the beginning, wait till the last moment to jump off, and you’re good.

Now we get to the first heart attack peg. Jump too far away and it’s back to square zero. Which will happen a good number of times if you’re not careful. Enter the first baby step jump. From this angle it looks like a medium jump, but calculate wrong, and you’re done for.

Look at it from a different position though, and it’s actually quite close. Simple trick, do the tiniest jump you can do while standing on the farthest end of the peg, almost walking on air basically. Better to fail and end up in front of this pillar, rather than jumping off too far to face plant against the sand.

After that pillar, and a few medium jumps followed by a long one, we found ourselves, in yet another time for baby steps to the right. I’ve been doing the tiniest jumps I can for it. But while taking screenshots, I discovered that you can actually just walk off towards it, and you’ll fall right in place. That tells you just how close you are to it, and how you could fail if you get too button mashing happy.

Next is the most cancerous jump I know (and one you will still see near the end of the tower...) You’d think you just gotta wait till the end and jump right? WELP, easier said than done, while I’ve managed to pull it off a couple of times, it’s utter hell.... Unless you know a way around it.

LO’ AND BEHOLD, YOUR FIRST WALK ON AIR. Just walk until you’re on air, and aim for the same spot on the next peg. Demo about it goes here.

Got past the cancer jump? Well, welcome to the pre-chopsticks tier. As you can see, these jumps are similar to the beginning, just relax. Take a breath, because usually once you make it here, you start getting nervous and impatient. Slightly longer medium jumps, and normal medium jumps, nothing worse than what we already dealt with, it’s just higher above ground.

You’ll see this long boi after a few bunny hops. Nothing too bad, angle yourself just right, and jump without fear. Remember to do this somehow horizontally, like going along the shape of it rather than treating it as a chopstick peg.

Each corner starts getting trickier, you’ll notice that each time you will have to start walking on air a little more and more each time to avoid colliding with the pillars.

Some more bunny hops later, we’re finally at the chopsticks tier, looking closer at the tower. You can see that the lowest peg is asking you to go right and then around. But there is a small shortcut that you can take. Granted, the right pegs could also probably be a safety net in case you screw up a few jumps higher, but who knows really.

Look what happens if you take left instead. You get on this pillar, and there it is, you get to skip one go around the tower at least.

Now this is where it gets pretty rough unless you know what to do. Once you’re in chopsticks, I’ve found it easier to just turn on walk asap. It might take you a few tries to get used to those jumps, but they are safer than going far away and down to the bottom. That, and pretty much almost everything will involve you walking on air, not hugging the wall like you’d think.

For going around, my advice is the same as other pegs, most jumps might actually be long ones because of you walking. But for corners, it’s all measuring how far you can be on air.  

Look at this GIF for reference.  As you can see, it’s completely balancing yourself on air, learn to not panic much at it. And calmly you’ll see it’s actually not too hard, you will have to repeat this a good number of times until you’re close to the top.

You’ll find there’s one last cancer jump, except there’s less room for error. I tried repeating the same trick as before, but couldn’t get it to work. Thus, you will actually have to calculate and jump at the last sec. 

My best reference would be like this.

On your last tretch, there’s one last gamble to do. I tried to do the longest jump I could while walking, but it didn’t work. So, you’re free to keep trying that way, or take the gamble. Starting on this peg, you’ll have to turn off walk, and do medium jumps.

For a last warning, don’t do a long jump for the sake of all that is good unless you’re sure you’re angled well. Don’t press any keys after jumping either, because you may land well and accidentally walk off out of utter panic. These last two are the biggest gamble to me, so take them slowly, and measure whether you need to do a longer medium jump, or take the risk of doing a full long one.

I hope this helped a bit. And goodluck!

[lunawings]

The Day Before the School Festival, in the Home Economics Room... (a King of Prism short story)

A legend from ancient times. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think this may be the first King of Prism story ever published? 

So, a little history: This short script was first printed in 2D Star Vol 2 back in October 2015, when King of Prism was just barely a thing. It was then directly referenced in the first King of Prism movie (screenshot at the end). Following this it was re-worked into an audio drama released on the movie soundtrack. (Then finally it was re-printed in the Music Ready Sparking fanbook, which is the version my translation was based on...)

(More notes and story under cut)

Translator’s notes: So the text below is based on the original script, not the audio drama. So if you listen to the audio drama you may find small differences such as lines missing/added or spoken by different characters. (I caught a few while editing, but there may be more I didn’t notice.) The biggest difference between the written and audio versions is the introduction to the audio drama was significantly abridged and I don’t blame them. The original Japanese text is really confusing for the first couple paragraphs and I had to re-write it over and over again. (They phrase it like Lu Seriana is a dance school but it’s... not?) Here it is, so if want to have a look. Let me know if you find any discrepancies.

This story takes place a year after Over the Rainbow was formed, in May. So about a year after the Rainbow Live anime but before King of Prism. In other words, the boys haven’t met Shin yet. Since you were kind enough to read my notes, you can find a link to the audio drama in the period of this sentence. The timing of this story’s release would mean the game Hiro is playing is more likely the now defunct Pretty Rhythm Shake, if anything haha. (Prism Rush was a twinkle in some game designer’s eye when this was written.)

And now without further ado.... 

The Day Before the School Festival, in the Home Economics Room...

It was the beginning of May when the cherry blossom petals had already fallen and new buds were beginning to sprout. This is when Kakyoin Academy holds their annual school festival, the “Kakyou Fest”. Kakyoin Academy is an all-boys junior and senior high school managed by Edel Rose, a organization founded by the late Kou Norizuki, which is known all over for being the best of the best. 

The elite beginner prism training school “Edel Rose”, and the combined junior and senior high all-girls school “Lu Seriana Girls Academy” are just two examples of the many institutions all over the country under the large umbrella of dance schools which educate strongly through prism show activities. The male students of Edel Rose attend Kakyoin Academy for their basic education.

Due to the extreme popularity which comes with Kakyoin Academy having a student body of promising future stars, as soon as the annual school festival arrives fans from all over the country come running. The main target of said female fans is the prism show unit Over the Rainbow, formed about one year prior. Top solo idol Hiro Hayami had joined together with genius songwriter Kouji Mihama and charismatic street star Kazuki Nishina to form this same age, three member group. 

The previous year a concert had been planned at the festival, but due to the large crowd it was cancelled at the last minute. This year it was announced in advance that Over the Rainbow would not be performing, which left many fans in disappointment. 

It was those three popular stars who had secretly gathered the night before the Kakyo Fest in an empty home economics classroom...

Kazuki: Hey, is it really okay for us take the stage tomorrow?

Kouji: Yup! I got proper permission from the school and everything.

Hiro: Gah! Huah! ... But if we announce that we’re going to take the stage it will just be cancelled again like last year. Hiyah! This year have to take care to make sure it’s a surprise. Woah!

Kazuki: Well that’s all well and good but... Hiro, what are you doing there anyway?

Hiro: It’s a rhythm game. It’s a prism show game about us. You know, one of those smartphone apps. It’s pretty difficult. Auah! But my song “pride” is in it... Hah!

Kazuki: I see.... Well, what are we actually going to do on stage tomorrow, anyway? Well, I’m assuming a prism show, but... 

Kouji: Well, about that. Actually...

Kazuki: Oh yeah, you wrote it about in the email didn’t you? ...Hey, wait. Hold on a sec. I guess I left my phone in the classroom. I’ll be right back! 

Kouji: Okay. 

*click, click*

Kazuki: Huh? I can’t open the door! 

Kouji: What!?

Hiro: Is it locked?

Kazuki: Yeah. 

Hiro: I’ll go check the other door. I wonder if someone could have locked it without noticing we were in here?*

(*In the audio drama the second line is spoken by Kouji.)

Kazuki: But the lights are on, so I’d think they would notice... 

Kouji: Kakyouin Academy has an auto-lock system. So it’s possible the doors just lock automatically after a certain time. 

Hiro: It’s no good. This door is locked too.

Kazuki: So does that mean we’re just stuck here now?

Kouji: I’ll try and contact the janitor... huh? Where’s my phone? Ah! I left all my stuff back in the classroom too. 

Kauzki: Hiro, could you call someone? You’re the only one of us who has a phone. 

Hiro: Okay! No prob!

*beep*

Hiro: Huh?

Kazuki: What’s wrong? Did something happen?

Hiro: The battery is dead... 

Kazuki: WHAT! Hiro, it’s because spend day to night playing too many games! Now what do we do?

*click click* *click click* *bang bang bang*

Kazuki: What is with this door! It won’t budge an inch! 

Hiro: That’s Kakyoin Academy for you. You sure can feel safe and secure here!

Kazuki: What are you so excited about!? 

Kouji: If we go about making a big racket we’re just going to end up causing trouble for the school. So simmer down a bit, okay?

Kazuki: ...Kouji, you’re so calm... Well, I guess you’re right. Panicking isn’t going to get us anywhere. 

Kouji: Oh yeah! I’m starting to get hungry, shall I make us something?

Hiro: Good idea! I’m starving! 

Kazuki: And how are you expecting to make something here!?

Kouji: Easy! This is a home economics classroom so there’s bound to be some food in here somewhere. 

Kazuki: Well... I’m sure you’re right, but there probably isn’t going to be much to work with. 

Kouji: Look, look! There’s meat, fish, vegetables, and even seasoning! 

Hiro: They are probably using this space to store ingredients for the festival food stalls. 

Kazuki: But is it really okay for us to use this stuff?

Kouji: This is an emergency situation! We’ve got no choice. Hang on everyone. 

Hiro: Suddenly this got exciting!

Kazuki: Good grief. What did we even come in here for anyway? ...Oh yeah! We’re doing a prism show tomorrow, right?

Hiro: Actually, no. We’ve been told we can’t perform a prism show because it will cause a big commotion again. 

Kazuki: Oh. Well then what are we gonna--

Kouji: Sorry to keep you waiting! 

Kazuki: That was fast! Finished already? 

Kouji: Yeah! I wanted to make sure to get it to you while it’s still hot.

Hiro: Woah! What’s all this? 

Kouji: Well, first up is amuse-bouche.

Kazuki: W-What did you say? A music bush!?

Kouji: It’s a French appetizer. Something to cleanse your palette with. 

Hiro: Oooh! Today you’ve made us a French full course?

Kazuki: K-Kouji! Don’t tell me you’re making a full course meal in a home economics classroom!?

Kouji: Why not? After all, it’s even more important to build up your strength when you find yourself in a pinch, right? 

Kazuki: Well... I guess so but...

Hiro: I agree with Kouji! Well. And what do we have here?

Kouji: “In a fateful encounter between the octopus conveniently laying around in the home economics room for takoyaki and the dice cut tomatoes for tacos, cold marinade Napoleon Bonaparte's Campaign in Egypt assortment”!

Kazuki: What a name! What kind of a dish is it!? Napoleon did what now?

Hiro: I’m sure we’ll find out when we try it. *gulp* *chew* Amazing! The refreshing sensation of Napoleon’s arrival in Egypt is spreading through my mouth!

Kazuki: Woaah! This is great! I don’t really know what it has to do with Egypt, but you’ve really outdone yourself, Kouji! To think even in a tight spot like this you still bring your A game to the table...

Kouji: Eheh, thank you! Next is the hors d'oeuvre. “With a fresh egg taken this morning from ‘Hana-chan’ in the school hen house and the spring cabbage raised in the back garden by the principal, all conveniently found in the home economics classroom, in the style of Vasco da Gama’s Arrival the Cape of Good Hope!”

Kazuki: First Napoleon and now Vasco da Gama!? What is all of this supposed to represent?

Kouji: Just try it and you’ll see!

Kazuki: You’ve sure got a lot of confidence in us...

Hiro: E-Exquisite! Aaah... I’m filled with the joy of seeing the Cape of Good Hope after such a long journey. All the deliciousness spreads far across the horizon!

Kazuki: Y.. Yeah... I guess it tastes something like that. But anyway, this really is good. Unbelievable... 

Kouji: Next is “With potage of barbecued corn on the cob conveniently found in the home economics room, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address assortment”!

Kazuki: Now we’re going American...? I don’t know what the theme is anymore... 

Hiro: Oooh! Amazing! This is truly a potage of the people, by the people, for the people! 

Kazuki: Y... Yeah.. it’s good... I’m not quite sure what part of it has to do with Abraham Lincoln, but the flavor accent thanks to the barbecued corn is superb. ..Wait, is that a reference to southern America? Because you can grow corn there?

Kouji: Eheh. And now the main poisson, “Meunière with red sea bream caught in Akashi and conveniently left in the home economics classroom, in the style of Sakanoue no Tamuramaro shogun’s inauguration celebration with the white radish sprouts raised with love and care on a windowsill by Tamachi-sensei.” Bon appetite! 

Kazuki: I don’t even know where to begin with this one... This looks like a meal from a five-star restaurant...  What about Tamuramaro shogun.....

Hiro: Delicious! I feel like I could conquer the entire world at this rate!

Kazuki: It’s good... it’s so good I think I’m gonna cry....

Hiro: Eheh I’ll wipe your tears for you. 

Kazuki: Thank you, Hiro... To think I’d eat something so good it would bring me to tears... Thank you, Kouji. Thank you, Hiro...

Hiro: Eheh. 

Kouji: And last but not least, dessert! “Fondant au chocolat using the chocolate dipped bananas conveniently left in the home economics classroom with cotton candy and caramelized strawberry crepes. All with love... from the home economics classroom”! 

(In the audio drama Hiro has an extra line about how sweet it smells.)

Kazuki: This one doesn’t have a historical figure attached to it... But we can’t escape the “conveniently left in the home economics classroom” ....

Kouji: Oh, I forgot! “To be eaten while Marcus Aurelius Antoninus of the Five Good Emperors of the Roman Empire reminisces of the other four!”

Kazuki: Of course!

Kouji: I’ve only just began to dive into the art of French cuisine, so I’m still working on the naming part...

Kazuki: Amazing... It sure doesn’t seem like you’ve only just began... It doesn’t matter what you call it if it tastes like this....

Hiro: Aaah, I’m so full! Thanks for the feast! It was truly delicious! 

Kazuki: Thanks for the meal! I can’t believe how good that was. It was my first time eating such delicious French food like that. Thank you, Kouji. 

Kouji: You’re welcome! It makes me happy to see the two of you smile! 

Kazuki: Huh..? You know what, all of a sudden I’m not so stressed out anymore. 

Hiro: You’re right! Every inch of me is ready and rearing to go! 

Kouji: Eheh I’m glad! Stress can be built up easily by throwing off your body rhythm by skipping meals and missing sleep. So Hiro, make sure you’re always getting three good meals every day, okay?

Hiro: I know, I know! 

Kazuki: Huh? All this time I thought being stuck in this home economics classroom was the source of my stress, but... All of a sudden I feel much better. 

Kouji: Well then, shall we discuss what to do on stage tomorrow?

Hiro: Sure!

Kazuki: Oh yeah! That’s right! I almost forgot! You said we’re not allowed to perform a prism show? So what the heck are we going to do then?

Kouji: Well, about that....

*fwip*

Kazuki: ?

Kouji: Ta-daa! Look what I made!

Kazuki: Huh?

Hiro: Oooh! That’s our Kouji! You really outdid yourself!

Kouji: Thanks!

Kazuki: Huuh?

Hiro: Which one are you going to take, Kouji?

Kouji: I think I’ll go with purple. 

Kazuki: Wait...

Hiro: Ah, so you made them according to our theme colors, huh? In that case the light blue one is mine!

Kazuki: Hold on a minute!

Hiro: And green is for you, Kazuki.

Kazuki: No, stop!

Kouji/Hiro: ..? What’s eating you?

Kazuki: This is women’s clothing! 

Kouji/Hiro: ...Exactly. 

Kazuki: ...”Exactly”?! Why are you acting so weird?

Kouji: We aren’t “acting”...

Hiro: This is what we are going to wear on stage. 

Kazuki: WHHAAAaaaAAAT!?

Kouji: We’re going to be in the Kakyo Fest Beauty Contest! It’s a surprise!

Hiro: Since Kakyoin Academy is an all-boys school, the crown is always held by a girl from another school. But this year we’re going to bring it back home no matter that!

Kazuki: ... *twitch* Sorry guys, I’m not feeling so good. I think I’ll go on home...

*click click*

Kazuki: Oh that’s right! We’re locked in here!

Hiro: Well then, let’s start working on our makeup. 

Kazuki: EEK!

Kouji: I got Ito to teach me about how to put on makeup just for today!

*click click click* *clickclickclickclickclick*

Kazuki: SOMEONE HELP ME! SOMEONE GET ME OUT OF HERE! 

*thump thump thump thump*

Hiro: What are you doing over there, Kazuki? Come join us! We’re stuck in here until morning anyway. Let’s all just relax and take our time getting ready for tomorrow! 

Kazuki: AHH! EEK! NO! W... WAIT...! 

Kouji: Come on over! What are you waiting for! 

Hiro:  We’ll start with your foundation... ♡

Kouji: Just close your eyes!  It will only take a sec... ♡

Kazuki: N-NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[thelongestdamnreviews]

Mega Man Network Transmission

Mega Man Network Transmission is one of those games I've had forever due to buying it at GameStop back when they actually regularly stocked GameCube games.  It took about six and a half hours to finish.  Through the magic of emulation, I used an Xbox 360 controller and had to play around a little with the controller settings in Dolphin since the GC and X360 layouts are a little different. 

Nothing serious, considering you never need to use either stick.  Jump on Xbox B, fire on A, use chips on Y. 

TLDR The Good 

Callbacks to the Classic series - From the disappearing block puzzle in Ice Man's stage to having reversed gravity sections in Gravity Man's stage, people who are familiar with the Mega Man Classic games will see some nice references to the Robot Masters here in the stage gimmicks.  Some viruses come straight from the Classic games and aren't found in the other Battle Networks! 

Great music - Even the "basic Internet" theme is high-energy and gets you in the mood to beat the crap out of some viruses.  Every other stage has its own theme and I found myself not really liking only a handful of tracks...amusingly enough, the remix of the home theme from MMBN was one of them. 

Flexibility/Customization - Much like the BN games, you can stick whatever chips in your Folder, but there are no Chip Codes and copies of a single chip stack to a set limit instead of each taking up a Folder slot.  Chips also helpfully tell you in what situations they can or can't be used (on the ground, in the air, on a ladder, while using a wire hanger) as well as how many MP each use burns.  PowerUPs return for the Mega Buster to boost its damage, its rapid-fire capabilities, and enables/quickens charging too. 

Shh, I X series now.  The wire hangers show up in a few stages but there aren’t any vertical ones at least. 

TLDR The Bad 

Early-game hell - Your Mega Buster starts out horribly weak, you have a small variety of chips that are also weak, and said chips are your best means of actually killing viruses to get more chips.  The first boss in the game can kill you in about four hits with the right Armor and mercy invincibility is extremely short.  It's not that bad afterwards but it's far from the easiest sidescroller Mega Man game, potentially worse if you're not used to how chips operate in the context of the gameplay.  Like having an MP meter but also so many uses per chip. 

Some grinding required - You'll need to kill viruses quick and with little to no damage taken to get them to drop chips, and you'll need to pick up Zenny coins in the field to fund increasingly-expensive upgrades and other chip purchases.  This ties back into the hard start but at least you can immediately use chips you pick up if you’re already using them, or once you shuffle your Folder if not. 

RNG screwage potential - Just like the core series, you can still end up with a bad draw of cards in the Custom menu.  You'll have to wait longer than in the BN games for the Custom gauge to fill due to the more actiony aspect of the gameplay, but you can get up to ten chips to show up on future draws and you can eventually find/buy FastGauge and FullGauge consumable items. 

Trying something new here with the review format.  Why not put some TLDRs on top? 

It's been a month since Lan and MegaMan.EXE defeated the WWW's Life Virus and peace has returned to the land.  But now there are rumors of an even worse virus making the rounds and a tainted vaccine that's making Navis go crazy.  Time to jack in and uncover the mystery of the Zero Virus!  Huh, where have I heard that term before? 

TrustMe.exe has encountered a problem and needs to restart. 

Mega Man Network Transmission is a mashup of Classic Mega Man platforming with elements of the Battle Network series.  MegaMan.EXE runs, jumps, shoots, and slides through a variety of stages while navigating around traps and destroying viruses in his way.  You place chips in a Folder and these are randomly selected when you call the Custom screen and you can then use said chips a limited number of times, limited both by what you find and buy but also the arbitrary limit the game sets.  I didn't play one stage long enough to see if completely-expended chips were made reusable when you burned through the rest of your Folder, however.  There's also an MP bar that limits your chip spam but at least it constantly regenerates.  The elemental strength/weakness system is still in place and since this takes place before Battle Network 2, you still have elemental Armors to mitigate damage instead of Styles. 

Hitboxes are pretty tight so I’m unfortunately eating the shock in this picture.  I need a better system to take screenshots. 

I mentioned earlier that the Mega Buster is lackluster at the start and it's telling when it takes you ten shots to kill a basic Canodumb, or three with maxed Damage.  It gets better with more levels in Charge, to the point it almost becomes a gamebreaker because of how quick it is at max Charge, limited by a full-power charge having annoyingly short range and you losing your charge level when you take damage.  When aura-equipped enemies start appearing near the end, your Buster won't be able to make them vulnerable so try not to neglect your Folder like I did. 

Chips mostly behave the same as they do in their core series with several adapted to 2D gameplay, and there are still Program Advances too.  Even a basic Cannon + Hi-Cannon + M-Cannon combo gives you ridiculous firepower that also makes you invulnerable for several seconds--and it only uses one copy of each chip in the combo!  You can only have one active chip/PA at a time of your ‘hand’ of five and you use L/R to swap through them, or you can trigger Standby Mode and freely swap while the game is halted (though the Standby Mode notification blanks out most of the action). 

Unlike the regular Battle Network games, you don't play as Lan at all.  He shows up in the story and he tools around in his room when you're not jacked in, but that's it, no skating through the overworld this time around.  Several characters show up in portrait form but otherwise aren't even given models.  And speaking of models, every Navi you beat creates a toy figure in Lan's room of that Navi which I thought was a nice little touch.  And because I don't really have anywhere else to fit in this complaint, the Japanese-only audio kind of got on my nerves and very little of it is actually subtitled.

The jack in sequence is kinda impressive the first couple of times, but you can’t seem to skip it--and you have to watch it in reverse when you jack out! 

 Stages are pretty basic Mega Man fare.  Flat sections, sections you can slide through, ladders, enemies, spikes (that actually only deal 200 damage this time around so you can survive them after several HPMemory upgrades), instant death pits, the works!  Work your way to the end of the stage and face the boss in a battle to the death.  You're given a confirmation before entering the arena and almost all of them have a big health recovery behind the portal so you can heal up before duking it out.  I oddly got Mega Man ZX vibes with the way you enter new stages from the central Internet stage (ZX) and where you pick from stages without knowing who the boss is beforehand (Advent).  I mentioned the Classic Robot Master stage references but not every stage has them (SwordMan's doesn't seem much like the one in MM8) or the boss doesn't match the stage (ShadowMan's stage has the platforms from Guts Man's in MM1). 

I generally get frustrated when taking on disappearing block puzzles, but none of them in this game were all that bad.

Progression starts you against FireMan.EXE as the first boss, then you have to track down GutsMan.EXE, and you're given small batches of stages to choose from before getting railroaded again.  Navi difficulty is kind of all over the place--BrightMan was my bane yet SwordMan that came after him was no problem.  Interestingly, you can slide between the legs of some Navis and come out unharmed.  There's an area on the map where you can refight defeated Navis for their chips based on your performance.  Some bosses have gimmicks like BrightMan’s shield and a counterattack, or GravityMan having a tiny vulnerable area while you manually switch gravity by jumping.

  I found the game to be pretty hard, a bit more than the average Mega Man sidescroller.  I've played every Classic game apart from Mega Man 11 and I still had a bit of trouble, like QuickMan's stage having instant-death lasers that never turn off once activated.  There are other parts where you need pretty good timing on your jumps and your slides to avoid unnecessary damage.  I wouldn't say the game is unfairly hard other than at the start so if you can soldier through that, you might be able to enjoy yourself.  Lan will always notify you when you hit zero BackUps, so you should probably jack out to not only refill your extra lives, but also to keep everything you picked up during this outing.  Having to work back to the boss room is a chore, but being able to exit a stage before defeating the boss is very rare in any Mega Man game. 

You can’t seem to jack out during a boss battle and you can only save in Lan’s Room, so try to be careful! 

And I did enjoy the game.  Great music and fun familiar gameplay were a great combo, and it didn't outstay its welcome.  Farm 10 DoubleJump chips off of the flying penguin enemies in WaterComp's starting area and you'll be able to explore a little more in the cyberworlds since there are no Mega Man X-styled permanent upgrades or anything.  I found the controls to be pretty tight and there are a lot of chips to collect, a secret boss to unlock, and a variation on the ending too.  If you're a fan of 2D platformer Mega Man games, you'd probably like this one.  And even if you're more into Battle Network, the game isn't so hard as to be unfair. 

And if you’re emulating, you can abuse savestates to get through the bank lasers.  Cough. 

More like, “I can feel wanton cyber-murder coming on!” in my experience. 

[s2he-gamewalkthrough]

Part 12: In the Clouds

The part of the game where Tensho has to complete some finicky and very specific game requirements to progress the story.

If you don’t know what this is about, please refer to this previous post.

[Any new comments by me will be designated by brackets.]

[Oof, this chapter’s one of the messier ones... I’ve cleaned it up a lot from the original LiveJournal post, but it still jumps around a lot in places. Apologies for that.]

Before I get on with the plot of the game, I found some upgrades!

Tensho:

Lv 2 --> 3:

Tenka:

Second listed item, Lv 1 --> 2

Youzen's:

First listed item, Lv 1 --> 2

First listed item, Lv 2 --> 3

Second item listed, Lv 1 --> 2

Second item listed, Lv 2 --> 3

[I uh. Really hope these combinations are still correct as I am unable to test them out in the old saved game I have. I highly recommend upgrading paopei/weapons whenever you can because it helps to make all future battles significantly easier.]

Oh, I forgot to mention before, but you should have gotten a few equipable items by now. Those are marked with stars (in the item description) in the inventory menu:

You can equip them to characters by selecting the third “word” in the menu screen:

Some equipment items affect certain stats, while some I guess negate status ailments. If you don't know Japanese, then finding out the effects pretty much comes down to trial and error. (I won't be listing the specific effects of all the equipable items--Sorry!)

Cavechan was nice enough to translate the character stat screen for us in part 1, so that should be a big help when you're messing around with equipment. (Thank you again to Cavechan!)

In the end, I had to equip Tenka with an item to boost his attack because it was pathetically weak.

Also, I've recently found out that you can't use HP-restoring potions on doushi/senin. I have no idea why this happens. This means that if you want to heal these characters while in a dungeon, you have to use a character that has a healing move. Man, that's going to be annoying in a pinch.

Anyway, time for more level grinding in the Houshindai!

I will only be unlocking two senins in the Houshindai today because the monsters on the lower floor are getting harder and harder to beat.

Another of the Juunisen, and In Hon's master. His name's Seki Seishi. (Also, he apparently talks A LOT.)

I also unlocked In Cho's master! (Kou Seishi)

Their bonus is:

They both sell things for something other than cash. One seems to sell potions while the other just sells combo upgrades. I suppose it’s decently useful?

While training in the Houshindai, I messed around with some of Youzen’s new moves.

After having beaten Chou Koumei (yet again), Youzen can now transform into him (4th move, second option.)

Sadly, you only have one attack Chou Koumei (a whip-like attack) and it frankly sucks because it does such a small amount of damage. I think this form is balanced out with all the supporting moves you have at your disposal, though I admittedly never utilized Chou Koumei’s form much.

And oooh, the 60 EP move (unlocked from the cutscene between Youzen and Gyokutei) allows Youzen to go into yokai form!

His ultimate attack (costing 40 EP) does A TON of damage.

(For reference, I was only doing about 1000 points of damage with Tensho and Tenka at this stage in the game.)

Anyway, time to head to the new location, finally. It looks to be someplace up in the clouds?

Hmm, that kid looks familiar...

Hey, it's kid-Tensho!

...Wait, what?

Yeah, this is actually all just an illusion. Those treasure chests scattered about are actually real, but you’ll have to find a way to get to them yourself because... Well, you’ll see why soon enough. 

After the short convo, kid-Tensho beckons you to follow him, and he’ll move a few steps along some kind of invisible path. You have to follow kid-Tensho’s steps EXACTLY. Otherwise you'll fall off the clouds (Hitou saves you from falling to your death) and have to re-do the path all over again. This “invisible path” is ridiculously long, which is why they included a guide in the form of kid-Tensho. You have to follow him about six times. You can save at any time in this area; so if you're the type that has trouble following an exact path, then you might want to save in the middle so you don’t have to keep restarting all the way at the beginning if you make a mistake.

Also, don't follow too closely behind kid-Tensho, otherwise you might accidentally walk ahead too far when he turns. This happened to me many, many times. [I’m not going to give a guide on how to grab any of the treasure chests in this area, because honestly; I haven’t been able to figure out how to grab most of the chests myself.]

After all of that trouble, Tensho finds himself in a quant little village in the clouds. (It's actually a small village on top of a very high mountain, if you've read the manga.)

I'm going to just say this now for lack of a better place to bring it up: when you exit, you'll immediately leave the place. (You won't have to go through the invisble path in reverse or anything.) But you'll have to do the walkway “puzzle” again every time you try to visit the village. Really quite annoying. The next time you arrive, you'll be given three options on how to do the puzzle--slow, medium, or fast. This refers to how quickly kid-Tensho walks along the path. If you have amazing memory and want to save time, then you can choose the medium or fast option. I always go with slow, because it's the turns that get me...

The cameos in this village include:

The Village Chief guy with a strong aura.

And surprisingly, an un-possessed Chuu Ou. I have no idea how he got here or even what he’s doing here, but I get the feeling Shinkyohyo had a hand in this somehow.

And of course, there’s Taijou Roukun (a.k.a. Roushi) sleeping amongst the sheep.

[Alright, this part... You’re supposed to talk to Taijou Roukun but he’s not an easy guy to get in contact with, as he’s almost always asleep. Even now I still don’t know the EXACT requirements on how you activate the next part of the game’s plot, but I have figured out a rough guideline... sorta.

Talk to EVERYONE in this location ONCE.

Yes, even the sheep. But ONLY once. If you talk to the same sheep twice by accident, the next cutscene won’t activate. This is an extremely specific set of requirements, I know.]

After having talked to everyone and every sheep ONCE, go up to Taikou Roukun and try talking to him. After the usual sleeping noises Roushi makes, Tensho will say something.

I "think" after doing EVERYTHING you possibly can do, Tensho figures it out and does the same thing Taikoubou did to talk to Roushi... Sleep.

No BGM plays in this mini-cutscene. That means important stuff. Too bad I can't read Japanese. You're given two different dialogue choices in a row. I don't think it really has much effect on the storyline, but I don’t have any real way of confirming that (due to my lack of Japanese language knowledge). 

[I have no idea what this says but it’s probably important.]

In case you're wondering, I just went with the first choices for both “choose your dialogue” moment in the convo with Roushi. In this game, the first choice tends to be the better one, it seems.

After that mini-cutscene...

Hey, you're--!

Nentou Doujin! (By the way, his BGM is AWESOME.) Talk to him, and you’ll get treated to a loooong conversation. After that, leave Taijou Roukun’s place. The dot over Mount Kongrong’s location should be flashing, and all your party members will be gone. Don’t worry--this is only a temporary thing.

To continue the plot of the game, you'll have to bring Soushou along to the village in the clouds. (His room is the back right one, on the first floor.) Then head back to talk to Nentou. I can’t remember if it was ever officially confirmed (or if I’ve already mentioned it in this guide), but Nentou is Soushou’s master.

After another long convo, Soushou stays behind, I guess to train under Nentou. You get the rest of your party members back here.

Like master, like disciple.

BONUS MATERIAL TIME (a.k.a. some extra stuff that I didn’t know where to put so it’s going in this post whoop whoop)

At this point in the game, some locations on the overworld have changed a bit. If you go back to the water cave area (the one with all the arrows), you'll find Sengyoku and Dokouson there now.

I have NO idea why they're even standing here. Maybe to guard the place? Maybe because Sengyoku thinks that it's a romantic spot?

Anyway, if you want to initiate a rather humorous scene; first have youzen transform into this:

Second, talk to Dokouson.

In case you're wondering who Youzen just transformed into, it's Hekiun, one of Ryuukitsu's disciples.

Dokouson starts drooling over her and his wifey gets mad.

There’s some pounding noises and the screen shakes.

You can also now find Mokutaku and Kintaku at the old battlefield area.

It took me a long time to figure this out, but Tenka’s “action button” allows him to bust through certain walls:

Apparently the one-off “Tenka as a construction worker” joke from the manga was so funny to the game creators that they included a special face portrait of Tenka in a hardhat.

Anyway, if you head back to Tensho’s hometown after finishing the Taijou Roukun cutscene, you’ll be given a lot of dialogue choices if you talk to the villagers. This doesn’t seem to do anything too important. 

But if you choose the second dialogue option on one of the old men, he begins frantically running around the whole town. It's... somewhat amusing in a morbid kind of way.

The old dude freaking runs at the speed of light. I had to block him like this to get a screenshot of him.

Going back to Genshitenson's place briefly...

A grave has been built for him. I think Hakutsuru built it?

Inside Geishitenson's hut, if you look at the right pot at the back of the room, Hitou will say something. THIS IS IMPORTANT. He doesn't do it when you look at the other pot (on the left) so you know something's up. We will return here later.

[That’s all for this post. I hope you guys enjoyed it, despite it being a bit of a mess.]

To be continued.

[xurkitips]

On Conveying Personality Through Chatroom-style Dialogue

A friend of mine shared screenshots of a roleplay he was having via a Discord server, wherein the style was chatroom/texting based. Each character would have a different style of typing completely unique to their person. Though unfamiliar with all of them, I could see what their personalities were like

Like real human beings, a character very much so has a “voice”. I mean that both in the literal sense, through their manner of speaking and what they say, but also through their self expression, interests, and actions. This carries over into the digital realm in ways we may not even notice. Text messages may not be verbal, no, but there are ways to show inflection.

There are many, many ways to show meaning through text. Here are some that I’ve picked up and utilized with my own characters:

Sentence structure

all lowercase sentences VS Grammatically correct

Lowercase gives off the feeling of someone familiar with others or willing to become familiar. It lacks the tension of formal writing, complete with its capitalization and proper periods ending sentences, and feels very casual and approachable. It may also be a sign of someone who doesn’t care much about perfection, a lazy person, or an easy going individual. Seems like a lot of internet regulars prefer this kind of typing style.

“im dying

‘deafening horrorcore rap’ ok i listen to literal noise and idk what this even is”

Using a properly capitalized and punctuated style is very formal, like one would see in a book, an official email, etc. It’s more serious and stern than lowercase is and may imply an older, more mature person typing...or maybe just someone trapped on their phone at the mercy of autocorrect. 

"I am always happy to see you, even if you are not feeling your best.“

“It's nice here.

Quiet.”

There’s a certain respectful steadiness to it as well. It can be calming to read at times.

Punctuation VS Lack of punctuation

End-stopped lines come with both a pause and a bit of a pointed and direct feeling. It strengthens both lowercase and grammatically correct styles, but in different ways. In conjunction with “proper” writing, it’s less noticeable, merely giving the reader a moment’s pause. In conjunction with lowercase, especially if the one typing isn’t keen on using periods, it can come off as stern, serious, passive-aggressive, or angry.

“whatever.

it's less excruciating than it would be without it.”

Removal of punctuation is a different story. Typically just shown with lowercase, it leaves it with that casual feeling intact, or like one’s sentences are more like quick thoughts or questions. Removing them from grammatically correct sentences does ease off some of the tension, implying someone with a more neutral-positive tone while still being more mature. 

“I’m not terribly good with conversation”

And then there’s the run-on sentences from those who type small novels per response. Usually complete with multiple and’s. It’s a sign of nervousness, enthusiasm, or oftentimes a younger character...

“actually i don't know much about it i just happened to see something online and it's apparently only manufactured overseas exclusively for this one particular shop and they made the original design and initial product i guess”

Oof.

Proper spelling (or lack thereof)

The better the spelling, the more the likelihood of the person being older, calmer, or neutral. There’s also a sense of being well educated or careful about one’s typing. Perhaps a confident air may exude from what they say, too.

“Can you come help me for a moment?”

Those who make a lot of mistakes will simply confuse words for other words, forget apostrophes, or type too fast to notice things missing or in the wrong location. Some just don’t really care enough or are too tired to deal with it. Too much focus and people know what they mean anyway. Probably.

“i laug hso hard hes come runin

he thougt i aws dyin”

It can also happen in very emotional situations, in bouts of laughter, crying, rage, or when one is drowsy, medicated, or sick. It tends to stand out when one’s style is suddenly very, very different and tips others off to something being wrong.

Younger characters, especially kids, also make spelling mistakes all the time depending on their age, whether due to sounding out words or just in a hurry to reply.

Short sentence fragments, single words, and lengthy paragraphs

Sometimes people with rapid-fire thoughts, who are excited, busy, stressed, or angry, will take to quick and short responses (sometimes of many fragments in a row). These show a similar feeling as do lines of poetry. Stacking small fragments on top of one another adds emphasis. The reader has to read them one by one rather than as a straight sentence. On its own, the word or fragment stands out and becomes more important.

"well

yeah thats

what i was tryina do

but i mean”

I’ve seen it used used for storytelling from one person to another in larger chunks of things, quick responses, for poetic value, and in irritation or passive-aggressiveness.

In full sentence conversations sent in short bursts, it’s also allowing the reader pause to read each comment without it feeling like a novella. Though it can also feel like someone is obnoxious, rambling on and on as the notifications keep coming, or has a lot to talk about and keeps thinking of more.

Then there are those who type rather large responses all at once instead of hitting the enter key with every sentence:

"Whoever did it was quite thorough; either the power in that area of the lab was cut while we were distracted or they tampered with the security cameras, because that footage is missing. But, we have some theories now. It had to have been someone with direct access to the laboratory. I hesitate to place blame on any of my coworkers...they're all my trusted companions and friends! And yet...”

It’s concise and a solid, complete story in one spot. Could be someone who loves to talk, could be someone who didn’t want a response before they were done talking. It’s also commonly seen by middle-aged texters who want to say everything they can all at once.

Exclamation points and Question marks

Simple one here. Question mark for a question or confusion, exclamation point for emphasis or an exclamation. But when a person adds multiple to a sentence it can convey more of the person’s feelings; 

“are you okay??”

Here is someone who is very concerned. Multiple question marks can imply things such as worry, stress, disbelief, and shock. There’s a sense of hurry and tension. Perhaps the person on the other end is frightened, easily afraid, or tends to have an overwhelming reaction to things.

“oh!!! it’s nice to see you!!!”

"! 

!!! 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Meanwhile, multiple exclamation points convey much more friendlier, happier tones. Often such things as surprise, excitement, happiness, friendliness. Users typing !! as a punctuation (like I tend to do) may do it as an assurance or to show how thrilled they are to talk. Occasionally !!!! is tacked onto an angry statement to be more of a shout, but I see it less and less.

Chatspeak and Internet habits

Shortenings of words have been a regular thing for ages. It’s easy, convenient, and gets the point across quickly. But the internet has taken it to a new extreme, where sentences can be almost entirely compromised of them.

“wtf r u talkin abt?? gdi man idk wuts even happening rn”

A character wanting to be quick to respond, always on the ball, always involved, may be more likely to utilize and understand chatspeak. They’re the social butterfly of the group. It’s also a sign of a long-time internet lurker who’s aware of what the lingo is, and how to use it. A complete lack thereof points toward either an older user or someone who’s unused to social media.

The more memes, the harder someone is trying to fit in. Or maybe they’re easily amused or just absorbed things from their friends without thinking about it. The comedian of the group is going to know the best ways to use them.

Smilies and Emojis

:D D: :DDD // :3 3: >:3 :3c // :o :O O:<

These kinds of smilies have always struck me as the most friendly. Whether used in devious ways or with genuinely heartwarming intentions, the playful, lightheartedness of the user really shines through these. 

"not a bad way to spend a lazy day :D”

“it's also my birthday :3″

It’s got just the right vibe to punctuate a sentence that’ll leave the reader feeling that the person likely means no harm or wants to be friendly, positive, or encouraging. I’ve met a lot of people that use these and turn out to be very kind or considerate people.

:), ;), ((((: and related

A long time positive, friendly smiley. 

"You said you've known them a long time? I think they would understand. :)”

And yet these days I tend to associate it with passive aggressive statements, plotting, slyness, devious behavior, or anger. Older users may be inclined to use :) as a means to show their emotional state, but newer users seem more inclined to do the opposite. The more parentheses there are, the more upset the person, it seems.

“man don’t u love it when the power’s out in the middle of the night it’s just (((: really great thanks (((((:”

Then the ;) smiley comes off more specifically flirty and a bit playful. Doesn’t seem to change much there.

“if i find a good chance 2 hook u up ill do my best ;)”

XD

The bane of my teenage existence. It’s a more old school sign of laughter, rarely seen in today’s world due to falling out of favor and becoming associated with, “LOL Rawr XD Tacos I’m So Randoom,” culture. But time to time you do see it. Mostly with sarcasm but sometimes with genuine intentions.

“xDddddDDD

It was a good joke. XD”

A character using it genuinely comes off more playful, and to me, personally, as an older person who’s genuinely unaware of the associations with the smiley itself trying to show how they laughed without using LOL. 

Letter/Character smilies

Y’know, things like .w. and ._. or owo, where the letters or symbols make a face. These are fairly popular, it seems. I don’t like using them myself, but know a few who do use them.

"I'm sorry that they can be mean qmq”

It’s a different feel from the others. There’s something soft to it, almost a gentleness. When these or Japanese characters are used, there’s more whimsy. It’s cute and almost a bit feminine. It may convey an open person or give the impression that said person is easier to talk to.

Though honestly I can’t see uwu and owo as anything but heavily sarcastic. I’ll be honest with you.

Emojis

The first rule of Xurkitips club is that we don’t talk about Emoji Movie. Just putting that out there riiight now.

Used sparingly by most for fun and for emphasis. Characters may use them to be lighthearted, aesthetically, joke, or to make a conversation more flavorful. The use of emojis may determine a character’s personality; I find that characters who use hand emojis like 👌 are rather laid back, those who use 🙃 do it passive aggressively, and we all know what kind of person uses 🍆.

Then there’s what in common terms known as, “The DudeBro”:

[MFKNSTARBOI]: the thing i never undstood about hair is why people buy shampoo like regular soap not good enough for you LMAO 😂😂😂

[gostones]: .

[BIGDICKTOYOTA69]: what the fuck man

[ahogekun]: do... you not use shampoo

[MFKNSTARBOI]: aaaah you guys got sucked into big shampoo as well 😔

[MFKNSTARBOI]: When it comes to horses 🐎  the stars in the sky ✨ or just man to man no bullshit advice 👬 IM youre guy 😤😂

I think this one speaks for itself.

[xseedgames]

Zwei: The Arges Adventure - Localization Blog #1

AAAAAAHHHHH IT’S FINALLY HAPPENING.

I’ve been working on this game for the better part of a year now, but have been unable to say anything about it for PR reasons – namely, that it wasn’t in a showable state, and we didn’t want to confuse prospective players by having two Zwei games announced but unreleased at the same time. Which is totally reasonable, but AAAAAAAHHHH I’VE BEEN WANTING TO TALK ABOUT THIS GAME SO BADLY YOU HAVE NO IDEA.

…Ahem. First off, I guess I should bring you all up to speed, in case you missed the announcement. Falcom’s 2001 PC classic Zwei!! is coming to the Western world via Steam, GOG, and The Humble Store in early 2018, under the name Zwei: The Arges Adventure. Why the name change? Well, because we already released its 2008 sequel, Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection (which was originally called Zwei II: Sky-High Great Adventure in Japan).

That’s right. Localization work wrapped on the sequel first, and now we’re finishing things up with the original.

What are we thinking?!, you must be asking yourselves. Why would we release the sequel first, then go back and release the original? Why wouldn’t we release the original game first? And since we’ve already released the more modern second entry in the series from seven years later, can this earlier effort really hold its own by comparison? 

Well, that’s why I’m so excited. Because Zwei: The Arges Adventure is good. REALLY good. In fact, I dare say it’s my favorite translation I’ve ever worked on to date – yes, even topping Return to PopoloCrois and Corpse Party. And if you’re at all familiar with me (this is Tom, BTW), that statement alone should tell you that Zwei: AA is something special, since PopoloCrois and Corpse Party are… shall we say, perennial favorites of mine. To put it very lightly.

So, yeah. Let’s address those hypothetical questions, shall we?

Why would we release the sequel before the original? Well, two reasons. One, because we can – these games each tell standalone stories, set on different floating continents with different casts of characters. Zwei: AA’s two protagonists, Pipiro and Pokkle, do make a few cameo appearances in Zwei: II, but this is done almost purely for the sake of fanservice (the literal kind, not the naughty kind). When all is said and done, these two games are completely standalone, taking place in the same world but telling very different stories with very different characters and a very different feel. Think of it kind of like the Ys series, but even more episodic (since, Ys Origin aside, Ys has the Adol-as-protagonist connection from one game to the next, whereas Zwei doesn’t even have that!).

The other reason is because of the nature of Zwei: AA’s code. The Japanese version of this game utilized DirectX 5, was formatted strictly for 4:3 resolution with no widescreen options whatsoever, offered a lovely FPS selection of 30 or 15 (seriously!), counted on players to play it with mouse and keyboard over gamepad (it supported gamepads, but… barely), and contained no fewer than six unlockable Windows desktop apps that were loosely tied to yet completely separate from the main game.

This is one of them. And that first screenshot at the beginning of this blog entry is another.

In other words… this is the kind of adaptive coding project that’s been known to give lesser programmers heart attacks. Getting a game like this to even run on a modern Windows machine at all – much less run WELL – was decidedly not a task for the meek. In fact, it’s because of the way this game is coded that we ultimately decided to translate the game in-house rather than working with any fan-translators as we did for Zwei: II, as no two programmers would handle this text the same way – and trying to convert a fan-translated script to a format that would work for us would’ve taken almost as long as translating the game from scratch.

So, yeah. Getting Zwei: II out first was pretty much just done because… erm… it was ready first. And it was always GOING to be ready first. Even with a lengthy QA process and a couple minor delays, it still inevitably got finished long before its predecessor was ready to make its debut.

Fortunately, we hired a veteran programmer to work with us on Zwei: AA… but you’ll never guess who! It wasn’t Sara, since she was busy getting Zwei: II ready at the time (and a fine job she did of it, with one of our smoothest PC launches ever!). But this wasn’t our first time working with the guy we worked with on this project, either. It was, however, our first time working with him to modernize someone else’s game – and he really did perform some miracles for us (and put up with my many, many demands for quality-of-life improvements and feature additions, to boot!).

The man in question? Matt Fielding, of Magnetic Realms. A.k.a. the guy who brought you the game Exile’s End. 

Pictured: Exile’s End. Which is also an awesome game you should play!

And thanks to his technical wizardry, you guys are going to have an astoundingly up-to-date version of Zwei!! on your hands at launch. We’re talking more than just widescreen support here – there’s full in-game integration of the Pet Monitor and other desktop apps, new control functionality for more natural gamepad support across the board, inclusion of the arranged soundtrack from the Japan-only PSP version of the game, additional art and text content not present in any previous version of the game, and much, much more (to be detailed in future blog entries!).

Moving on to the second question I asked, with Zwei: II already out, can Zwei: AA hold its own by comparison?

I think you know what my answer’s going to be, on that one. Zwei: The Arges Adventure is a freaking awesome game with a lot to offer, and differs from its own successor in enough key areas that it can very easily hold its own any day of the week. Hell, you might even like it better than Zwei: II – it’s certainly a very close call for me, but I’d say Zwei: AA gets the slight edge! 

Sure, they’re both dungeon-crawling action RPGs at their core, and they both use food to level-up, even sharing the same food exchange system to discourage grinding. And the two-character party (plus one pet), with one character taking the role of physical attacker while the other slings spells, takes center stage in both titles as well. Plus, both games are set on floating continents in the same world.

That’s a lot of similarities, but they’re all relatively superficial. You could say Zwei: AA is like the 2D answer to Zwei: II’s 3D world, but that would be discounting its snarkier and more tongue-in-cheek storyline (yes, even more than Zwei: II’s!), or the gorgeous and ludicrously colorful hand-drawn backgrounds, or the two games’ very different approaches to pets (you only get one pet in Zwei: AA as opposed to the veritable army of pets featured in Zwei: II, but that one dog or cat [or other?] has significantly more personality and gameplay involvement than its many Zwei: II counterparts), or the huge variety of minigames on offer (all of which have been adapted to play from within the game itself, despite formerly existing only as desktop apps)… and that’s just scratching the surface. In short, although the two games use the same basic template, they represent two very different approaches to game design within the confines of that template.

For me as Zwei: AA’s translator, though, I can’t help but laser-focus right on the game’s dialogue. Protagonist duo Pipiro and Pokkle are without a doubt the best pair to write that somebody like me could ever ask for. Pokkle constantly cracks bad puns (and I do mean constantly!), wears a tail for funsies, and is always hitting on women twice his age.

And Pipiro just has absolutely no filter whatsoever, and is full of so much snark that she’s fit to burst.

Practically every line out of these two is an absolute gem – and that’s to say nothing of the many quirky NPCs surrounding them over the course of their rather lengthy quest (such as the endlessly self-delusional “libertine fatass” that’s funding your adventure, and his extremely no-nonsense maid who gave him that nickname).

I… really can’t stress enough how much fun it was to write for these characters, and how inspired I was to come up with the perfect phrasing for every line. I’m extremely appreciative that we chose to translate the game in-house, as it gave me an opportunity to work much more deeply with this script than I ever could’ve if we’d only been tasked with editing it. As time went on, I found myself revising my work on a daily basis, making small tweaks here and there as new bits of wordplay or better puns popped into my head (much to Matt’s chagrin, I’m sure!). The end result is something that I can stand behind as a faithful interpretation of the game’s mood and intent – an attempt to convey the same degree of lighthearted fun and irreverence present in every line of the Japanese script, but formatted to sound more natural in English, accounting for context, tone, atmosphere, and individual character quirks rather than just hammering out a word-for-word translation.

I’ve never laughed so hard while playing a JRPG before, and I truly hope that when you guys play this one in English, you’ll find its English interpretation just as hilarious as I found its original Japanese to be. That would mean I succeeded at what I set out to do, and would bring me great joy and pride as a localizer!

And please do keep an eye on this Tumblr, as I fully intend to give lots more info about Zwei: The Arges Adventure (and more screenshots showing off lines I’m particularly proud of) in the weeks to come!

Until then, I hope you’re all continuing to enjoy Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection, and… well, I’mma go back to testin’ Zwei: The Arges Adventure now, ‘cause I want this game to be downright perfect when it’s released! And with translation and editing 100% complete, and coding probably somewhere in the 70-80% done range, that release date will be here before you know it…

[sweetnestor]

12 Days | Chapter 9.2

Two guys that lowkey hate each other are forced to walk in each other’s shoes in order to learn a lesson.

***in collaboration with @themarkiplierexperience

lmao soz its not actually x reader we’re just desperate for attention haaaa

previous

“Okay, hear me out,” Tom prompted, sitting up on the couch with Bella. “If you ran into your celebrity crush in public, and I gave you my blessing… would you go for it?”

Neither of them remembered how they got to this conversation. They had properly discussed the Mark situation, which Bella apologized profusely for. She claimed it was an impulsive thought and couldn’t stop herself from saying it. Tom, being the compassionate and wonderful boyfriend he is, reassured her that everything was okay. He didn’t tell her about the angry texts he had exchanged with the man, though. That was best kept under wraps.

Now that they had changed topics, Tom was immensely curious when he heard that he was in fact Bella’s current celebrity crush. Of course, he heard that from Ethan, and from stalking Bella’s channel a little bit more. He just had to hear it from Bella herself, for validation, if you will. A girl as attractive as her, crushing on Tom? He couldn’t help but feel a little smug.

“Well, I mean…” she trailed off in thought. “I don’t know. Call me cheesy, but I only want you.”

Fucking hell, Ethan was lucky.

“Aww, babe,” Tom said as he stroked Bella’s hair before resting his arm around her shoulders. “But seriously. Who’s the celebrity you’re always talking about? That one guy… or girl, you know. You like him… or her, a lot.”

She hummed to herself. “See now I have a list of people running through my head.”

That was intriguing to say the least. Tom scooted a little closer. He wasn’t sure why he was hoping for her to say his name. Maybe then he could stick it to Ethan.

“I mean you’ve been invested with the new Spider-Man,” he nonchalantly added, feeling a little full of himself.

“Yeah, but there’s like ten other people I’d pick before Tom Holland.”

Oh.

“Like who?” he asked, trying to act like his ego wasn’t bruised.

“Perrie Edwards,” Bella said confidently. “She’s definitely my free pass, even though she’s probably straight. I’m sure she’d be down for an experiment.”

“Oh, yeah?” The name was familiar, but he needed visuals. “What’s this Perrie person look like again?”

She simply picked up her phone and unlocked it, showing Tom an extremely beautiful blonde woman on her home screen. He couldn’t complain about that choice, and nor could Ethan if he knew how to recognize a hot girl. He has Bella, after all.

“Either her or Demi Lovato,” she continued as she put her phone down. “But if we’re talking about the Spider-Man cast, then I’d pick Zendaya over Tom. Or maybe both at the same time. Bisexual goals, am I right?”

He was smiling because he was slightly annoyed. Even if it was all completely hypothetical, Tom felt a small rage in his chest. No. No one gets a night with Zendaya except him. As hot as Bella was, she wasn’t allowed to be near Zendaya either. It even made Tom angry that Ethan was getting to talk to her. She even had her hands on Tom’s body, granted it was for a minute or so, but it was Ethan who got to experience it. Why did it make Tom so… jealous?

“You know I love you, though,” Bella said after some silence. She kissed Tom’s cheek and rested her head on her shoulder. “I wouldn’t pick anyone else over you.”

Two could play at this game. He had his lovely girlfriend here after all.

“I love you too,” Tom told her as he squeezed her shoulders. “And you really better not pick anyone else over me…”

“I’d never.”

Was it cheating if she didn’t know who she was really kissing? Tom nudged her so she could look at him. He put on his best “I’m totally in love with you” eyes, like Peter Parker looking at Liz Allan. Except it was with Ethan’s face, but it reeled Bella in just as well. He stroked the side of her face with his free hand, looking into her pretty brown eyes. She really was beautiful. Ethan was really fucking lucky.

Not wasting anymore time, Tom leaned in and kissed her. In the last few days, he hadn’t properly made out with her, and he was pleasantly surprised. He didn’t want to stop anytime soon, not with a girl like her.

Bella’s fingers ran through his hair, pulling him in closer. All this time without any intimacy must have been frustrating. Tom gently lied her down across the sofa, hovering over her, but suddenly her hands went to his shoulders and pushed him back.

She took a deep breath, looking windswept. “Um… is the hiatus over?”

“What?” he breathed out, put off that the fun was interrupted.

“Are you actually into this?” she asked. “Or are you trying to distract yourself from… whatever’s been going on with you?”

Tom sat back, averting eye contact. Bella sat up as well, watching him.

“You can talk to me, Ethan,” she reassured as she took his hand.

Ethan. The real boyfriend. The person she thought she was talking to. The person Tom made a deal with.

“Distractions,” he said at last, looking down at their hands. His stomach turned at the sight of the scars on Bella’s wrist, and let go of her hand. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, it’s okay,” she soothed.

Time to ham it up.

“I’m just… I feel like I’m losing control,” he told her, although it was slightly astonishing how much truth there actually was to that. “I can’t do anything right. I think I’ve lost myself somehow… Or, I just want to be somebody else. I don’t want it to always be like this.”

Okay, all of that was true. He was thinking of Ethan and the eventual switch back. Say they manage to pull that off, would Tom continue to be the person he was before? Being spread way too thin, with no time for family or Zendaya? He missed everything he had before, surely he wouldn’t take it for granted when things were back to normal.

“You feel… depressed?” Bella guessed, and Tom nodded. “I know what you’re going through. It’s like you told me, it’s not always going to be like this. And in order to change, you have to want that change, or else it’s always gonna be the same.”

Seems like they knew what to say to each other. This couple knew how to communicate and how to pick each other back up. How did they do that without wanting to rip each other’s heads off? Tom couldn’t listen to Zendaya without getting really, irrationally angry at her, and he didn’t know why. He felt a lot of things for her though, he just couldn’t word any of it, and it made him angry.

“I think…” he trailed off. “I think I have more feelings than I know what to do with.”

Bella nodded in agreement. “That makes two of us. It makes the shitty things pretty shitty, but the good things are even better. You just have to embrace the good.”

Why didn’t Tom have a friend like this in his other life? What would Harrison have told him? Probably would have given him a pint and called it a day.

When he didn’t have anything else to say, Bella continued on.

“You know what I got today?”

“Hm?”

She smiled and took the case off her phone, and pulled out a small, red coin from the inside. She put the coin in his hand, and he got a look at it.

“To thine own self be true,” it read around the edges. In the middle there was a number in a triangle. “1 month recovery.”

Well, that was something Tom never would have guessed about her. How could such a pretty face have a background like this? Then again, she had what could only be seen as self harm scars on her body…

“It’s actual proof that things can change,” she told him. “I was such a mess last month… and the month before. And especially at the beginning of this year. But I’ve turned things around, and you definitely can too. And I’m here for you. Okay?”

Tom was still looking at the coin in his hand, masking his shock. But he finally looked at her and nodded. “Thank you, love.”

~

He went home after Bella had fallen asleep. She sleeps a lot. After that short, but incredibly greedy make out, Tom couldn’t find it in himself to play the role of the boyfriend for any longer. That, and Ethan’s friend Andrew (a different one from the Wowie video - he knew like three of them) had texted him about a podcast they had to record. Seemed easy enough, and it was a good excuse to get away from Bella. He sat at the breakfast bar with a bowl of mac and cheese (that was all Ethan had to eat around here) and was typing on his phone.

“First of all, congratulations on your freaking amazing relationship. I had a little chat with bella about depression (her and all your friends think you’re depressed btw) and she really knew what to say. Idk how you guys do it. Secondly, i didn’t know she was an alcoholic. She showed me her very first sobriety chip and was really proud that she made it a month without drinking. Thought I should let you know, she seems pretty happy with herself.”

After sending that, Tom looked through the messages he exchanged with Mark yesterday. He cringed at all that went down, but he was relieved that no one had gotten fired. He wouldn’t know what he would have done if it happened. What would Sonji have done?

Thinking of the psychic lady prompted Tom to tell Ethan what had happened. Sonji probably would have slapped Tom with a lightning bolt from the sky if he kept it to himself any longer.

“Alsoisentanangrytexttomarkyesterdayandnowhesreallymadatmeoryouoridkanywaygn” There, that should do it. He also added screenshots for some context, but he didn’t mention that Bella was thinking about the breakup with Mark.

Fifteen minutes later, Ethan replied.

“You did what now”

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tag list: @beardedsteveslut @marie-is-in-the-dark @ohsnapitzmoony

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