#kind of want to create more background on characters that are not available in the show

[ceiling-karasu]

Poll: What is up with Commander Seungnyangi?

Characters in Squirrel and Hedgehog appear to be mostly named based on their species (squirrel, hedgehog, weasel), profession, or other distinguishing features (Aekku = one eyed, Oegwipali= one ear). The commander of the Wolf Unit, Seungnyangi, has a name (승���이) that translates into 'Jackal.'

Borrowing from a previous post I made, but he does look slightly different that the other wolves.

Somewhat of a thinner muzzle than the rest, rounder ears. Jackals in real life can have longer thinner muzzles and sometimes rounder ears than wolves.

Insults based on species do appear to exist in the Squirrel and Hedgehog universe. For instance, Bamsaegi provides a distraction by calling Geumsaegi a 'running dog of General Commander,' which means some dogs and other animals must have a reputation.

Jackal has connotations that suggest trickery, cunning, and treachery. Commander Seungnyangi does not much care about the safety of his own men, and is very intelligent and brutal in getting what he wants. Which means he could have been named after this factor. Golden Jackal may be most likely.

Or (and this one would be tricker for a few reasons) he could be a mixture of both or other canines, as the wolves have have looked down on him for being part of a supposedly weaker species, while jackals stayed away because they saw him as yet another wolf brute. Or he kept one parent’s name. I’m still kind of keeping the canon-typical speciesism as in the other AU. It is a war and espionage AU fanfic, after all.

Feel free to make any suggestions!

[dokidokitsuna]

O.R.C.A.’s Directory

(Finally coming back to this concept after several months ^^;)

O.R.C.A. in #re_rise doesn’t just run Alterna in the background and give you orders– it’s a system you interact with regularly as the player; a database that facilitates your adventure and keeps track of your accomplishments. It is accessed through terminals placed at key spots on each site, which you have to find, activate, and physically walk to if you want to use them.

Most of the contents of the Menu (except the Sunken Scrolls) are now consolidated into O.R.C.A., along with a few bonus features~

Alterna Archive: Basically the Alterna Logs– all the information about Alterna’s history, from creation to collapse (referencing my rewritten version of this backstory, of course). As you clear lab spaces with different weapons, earn Golden Eggs, activate terminals, collect Nostalgic Devices, etc., the files will be decrypted line by line. Basically, anything that contributes to your percent completion of the game will count towards this…so just enjoy Alterna the way you like, and you’ll eventually reveal the entire archive without too much extra effort. ^^ This story is O.R.C.A.’s gift to you; your reward for reawakening its home.

Lab Notebook: Notes written by the ‘mysterious researcher’ currently working in Alterna, earned in order from newest to oldest, so we can gradually learn what the Fuzzy Ooze is and why he made it, as well as his origin story and true identity (in his own words~). These replace ‘Log.exe’ from the actual game. Lab notes are found by reaching computers hidden within the lab spaces, kinda like the Power Egg packs. They are purposely placed in the more challenging spaces, and you must clear the space in order to take the note with you– if you wanna learn the main antagonist’s secrets, you gotta put in the work. ^^

Wellness File: Records of Neo Agent 3’s responses to the environment, once you obtain the biometric monitor in Cryogenic Hopetown (more on that later). This is essentially an account of how the player character is feeling at each point in the story– a new entry will be created after each encounter with a major character (Deep Cut, the King Salmonids, the Squid Sisters, etc.) or a particularly interesting Alterna landmark. ;)

Nostalgia Index: List of all the Nostalgic Devices you’ve collected, which Alterna citizens they belonged to, and what they used them for. The citizens’ names are redacted, but you do get to learn a bit about the different kinds of people who lived in Alterna, and connect with them through the items they left behind.

Skill Tree: Basically the same as the in-game version, minus the Hero Shot buffs– in #re_rise you don’t get the Hero Shot until you gain the Hero Gear in the last stretch of the game. Instead you borrow from weapons’ lockers placed around Alterna…meaning you can carry the weapon of your choice as you explore each site, offering you a wider variety of strategies to use on those balloon challenges, for instance. ^^ But I digress…

Camera Roll: One of the Nostalgic Devices you can find is a digital camera, and once you’ve obtained it, you can take pictures with it and upload them to the terminal (as well as your regular photo gallery, when you’re back on the surface). The Alterna Camera comes with its own special filters, and characters you aim it at will pose for you. ^^ This feature is basically just for funzies, but if you can snap a picture of that large figure lurking in the shadows, you’ll earn a special clothing item.

Messages: Occasionally you will receive mysterious messages, warning you with increasing severity to stay out of their laboratory (and bring back their golden eggs…sure sounds familiar). Are these warnings for their sake or for yours…?

Map: Even the site maps are only accessible through the terminals, they’re not available whenever. Maybe that would be a controversial choice…but I think it’d be okay in this instance, since (a) the Alterna islands are pretty small, and (b) I’ve invented a fun system that might help– the Sticker Beakons! ^^

Around Alterna, you can find Sticker Sheets with 3 Sticker Beakons each, to place and replace wherever you want on any island. They shine like actual beacons so you can use them to navigate while you wander around on foot, and once you reach a terminal you can jump to them like normal Squid Beakons. They come in different shapes and designs like the stickers from Hotlantis, and double as actual stickers you can place on your locker, once you’ve found them in Alterna. ^^

I feel like forcing the player to walk around is more forgivable when you give them something cute and customizable like this to play with. :D If you want to use all 18 Sticker Beakons on one island at a time because you’re super directionally-challenged, you can. If you want to use them to simply mark your favorite Alterna landmarks so you can jump to them easily, you can do that too. 

Maybe as a compromise, I might add a ‘Return to Nearest Terminal’ option in the Menu…but I think encouraging the player to get out there and actively explore can’t hurt. Part of my philosophy with this re-concept is to make Alterna an interesting place that the player would WANT to explore, and all these added collectibles are part of that.

[pink-onyx-au]

Your art gives me a reason to wake up in the morning. It's perfect, but I have many questions. You can answer whichever you want :]

* How long does it take you to make one page?

* What motivates you to create?

* Did you take lessons to learn how to draw so amazingly?

* I found an Onyx background in your profile. Can I use it as a computer background? I love them so much, and I was going to ask for more backgrounds, but I just saw your recent post about the upcoming background, and I'm so excited.

* Is Greg going to know Onyx one day?

And a final note by the Den: keep your beautiful work going on, I can't wait to see what happens next! In the meantime, I'll stay tuned.

Oh wow, thank you! Lots and lots!

I take frequent breaks and jump around a lot, but I would say 1 page is about 2 days of work.

Motivation, is the love of it I guess? It is made better than others can join in and love the story, too. I always loved writing and developing characters so it is like the love of a hobby! It is how I unwind at the end of most days.

Mostly self-taught. I’m in the medical field and work as a pharmacist as a day-job. I used to have art classes as a kid but those hardly counted when I just finger painted and got in trouble for drawing dragons haha, I’ve been drawing since I was very little though and my mother’s side is very artistic.

As for backgrounds, feel free! I have a few that are available from my 3k and 4K followers, with a 5k one yet to be released. There’s a phone background one available to celebrate as we are in this in-between! I’m glad you enjoy!

And maybe! Greg is a big part of Steven’s life. I would imagine he would have to find out eventually, right?

Thank you for your kindness! I’m glad to have you along! Stay well!

[thesiltverses]

I was listening to S2Q&A and I went over the character limit on Spotify so I'm just gonna drop my comment here instead:

I think all y'all do incredible work, but I'm especially a fan of the sound design! It's one of my favorite things about audio dramas that makes them distinct from audio books. The environmental storytelling that comes through is so satisfying and easy to understand without sounding manufactured.

I might be a minority, but I actually love the muddiness and chaos of your action/battle scenes. You're clearly mastering a fine line between listenability and honoring the disarray of the scene. I enjoy the brief pockets where I don't understand what's happening beat-for-beat because it feels like I'm caught in the fray of it, and not being able to 'keep the score' until it's over ramps up the tension deliciously.

Everyone does fabulous work on this, but I just wanted to gas up your sound design. It's like costuming or lighting- you're doing your job well when those things support the story, and it means people don't notice that effort at times because it's so seamless. One 'tech' to another: very well done!!!

Thank you so much, that's really kind and means a lot! Other than in the Q&As, I haven't really talked that much about picking up sound design duties over the course of the series, but it really has been a meaningful and exciting learning experience for me, not least as a writer getting to hone his writing via audio editing.

Since you mentioned it and I can't pass up the opportunity for a rant - listenability and what that actually should mean in practice is a topic I think about a lot.

I think it's important for audiodrama designers not to get haughty or defensive when listeners struggle to comprehend a particular sequence (I have designed scenes poorly where the dialogue clearly didn't rise over the background noise sufficiently, I've designed scenes poorly where the action was clearly too chaotic or lacked sufficient cues to help the audience through it).

But equally - between wildly different auditory processing capabilities and the wildly different listening environments and listening habits at play, I don't believe there's any perfect state of comprehensibility available in this medium, and sometimes I think our hunt for it can lead us astray.

Over the years, I've heard from listeners who honestly can't tell the voices of actors with globe-spanning accents apart, I've heard from listeners who can't pick up on environmental SFX cues indicating a change of location and need something more explicit in the dialogue whenever there's a scene shift, I've heard from listeners who can only listen through one earbud in the workplace and therefore don't want binaural sound, listeners who struggle to hear any action sequence whatsoever as more than incoherent noise, and listeners who can only enjoy audiodramas solely as a second-screen activity and who can't keep up with a fast-moving or complicated plot without regular recaps.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with any of that, and those listeners aren't wrong to respond in this way - everyone has their own processing threshold, and everyone has their own needs and preferences as an audience member.

But I also don't believe I'd personally want to create a full-cast show under the limitations that would arise from my attempting to strictly solve all of those problems at once (as opposed to being flexible and considerate about them during the design process).

There has to be room for calculated ambition and big swings in the medium, and there has to be room to trust the audience to keep up with you during the ambitious moments, albeit with one eye firmly on accessibility - otherwise audiodrama is likely to remain dominated by 'one actor with a nice soothing voice telling stories' or 'one small group of characters having lots of conversations about their ongoing efforts to resolve a single plot thread'. Which is often fantastic, but there's plenty of it already!

When it comes to action scenes in particular, I've been trying to operate under the consistent philosophy of 'before, DURING, after', with equal weight and design attention given to each third.

In other words, if we do enough careful and quiet work to establish the environment and props and rising tension ahead of a big noisy chaotic sequence, and if we do the careful and quiet work afterwards to clearly show where the characters have ended up and what condition they're in, my belief is that it's 100% acceptable if the audience can't immediately track the movement of Character A's fist hitting Character B and Character B falling against a table in three seconds flat.

Like good action editing in cinema, an engaged audience member will follow the motion and comprehend the outcome cleanly, even if they don't take in all the details. That, to me, is a vastly better result for the work than having to include a 'oh, no, he stabbed you with that knife!!' line of dialogue.

Anyway, you just wanted to gas me up which was very kind and instead I wrote out this big long blather. So apologies, and thank you so much again!

[theresattrpgforthat]

do you know any games that would fit a film noir detective style game? especially one with a gilded age or art deco aesthetic

THEME: Film Noir

Hello friend! So I knew of one or two games - but my buddy Sean, well he knows way more. Most of the games on this list are games that he’s introduced me to or knows about. So shout out to Sean!

Noirlandia, by Turtlebun.

Noirlandia is a murder mystery roleplaying game played with an actual cork board. When you first sit down, no one knows the answers.

You'll figure out the way your city ticks—maybe it’s blanketed in white ash, maybe it’s built atop the back of an enormous dying beetle, maybe only a few non-synthetics remain.

Your story follows a group of interconnected characters, a mind-bending case, and the cold stiff that started it all. Roll well, and you'll be allowed to pin new leads to your cork board or string connections between them.

Find the truth, or lose yourself trying. It’s just another day in Noirlandia.

A GM-less game, Noirlandia sets up each of your characters as someone who is connected to the victim - someone who demands justice in a world that has none. The city is created by the players, which tells me that you can decide some details about what the city looks like. The city itself feels like a character in this game - it has defined sections that you build using a deck of cards, each with a distinct personality and a host of slang words.

Because this game is GM-less, everyone gets to participate in the construction of the mystery, from who the victim is, to why their characters are involved. If you like world-building as much as you like following a story, you’ll want to check out Noirlandia.

Urban Jungle, by Sanguine Productions.

The early 20th century of the United States was rife with fantastic change: from the rise of industry giants, to the great experiment of Prohibition, to the tragedy of the Great Depression, onto the dawn of the Atomic Age. The sky was tamed, the world was mapped, and the possibilities of science seemed limitless, all blue skies and buttered toast…

… for some folks, anyway.

A complete game in one volume, URBAN JUNGLE makes you a player in an anthropomorphic world of pulp-adventure, hard-boiled crime, and film noir. You’ll tangle with hardened gangsters, with jaded debutantes, with world-weary veterans, and with all kinds of shady characters.

Urban Jungle uses different sizes of dice to determine your level of skill. Character creation consists of distributing dice amongst your traits, and then choosing from a list of species, types, careers, and personalities. The type and career options open up a wide variety of backgrounds for your characters - you don’t necessarily have to be hard-boiled detectives. You could be a criminal, an artist, a member of the social elite, or a down-to-earth labourer of some kind, just to name a few. As a result, the differences between the characters in Urban Jungle could lead to a rather mis-matched party, so you’ll likely want to talk with your group about what kind of story you’re telling.

Judging by the skills available in this game, you’re likely going to begetting in and out of scrapes, chasing, running, fighting and investigating. You might tussle with the mafia, or hunt down missing artifacts. You might try to get inside a swanky party, or try to win at a game of cards. If what you want is a toolbox to create your own plots with, you might be interested in Urban Jungle.

Junk Noir, by JadeRavens.

Junk Noir is a cooperative, zero-prep, GM-less mystery game for 2 or more players. Players share control of Tracer as the titular robo-sleuth investigates mysteries, visits Locations, meets Characters, finds Clues, and triggers Events. In Junk Noir, you'll dramatize scenes, form connections, make moves, and play to see what happens! 

Junk Noir mysteries don't come with pre-written solutions — that's the detective's job! Solving a mystery is about more than just finding clues, since clues are only as good as the theory that connects them. Players connect the dots and discuss theories over the course of an investigation. 

This is a game for folks who like generative mysteries, such as Brindlewood Bay or Paranormal Inc. Junk Noir helps you generate clues that you as a group will have to put together, while each player embodies a part of Tracer’s programming. This is also a GM-less mystery game, which means you can all sit down and play with no prep required - the game will guide you as you play it.

Deadlands Noir, by Pinnacle Entertainment.

New Orleans, 1935. Whoever called this “the Big Easy” sure got that one wrong. Things are tough all over. Honest work is hard to find, and even dishonest jobs are getting scarce. The one thing that’s not in short supply is trouble. From shady thugs to crooked cops to Mafia soldiers, there’s plenty of characters out there looking to give an honest Joe a hard time. And that’s not the worst of it.

There are stories going round about things that go bump in the night. Things you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley on a darker night. And those stories aren’t just coming from rummies or saps who read that Epitaph rag.

Still, there are a few heroes left in the concrete jungle. Steely-eyed private dicks, fast-talking grifters, wild-eyed inventors, and shadowy houngans still struggle against the encroaching darkness. With enough moxie—and more than a little luck—they might just be enough to turn the tide.

Deadlands Noir is a pen-and-paper roleplaying game set in the world of Pinnacle Entertainment’s award-winning Deadlands universe. It includes new Edges, Hindrances, and powers, as well as new rules for handling detective work, the state of the Union and the CSA in the Depression-era, a complete Plot Point campaign, and of course, more monsters and ghouls than you can shake a smoking .45 automatic at.

Savage Worlds is a great system for pulp-action and protagonists that are good at what they do. Deadlands Noir is a setting for Savage Worlds, meaning you’ll need the core rulebook in order to use it. The Deadlands setting as a number of books that relate to each-other, including a Weird West and a Hell on Earth setting. This means that this version of Noir includes a supernatural element, and the people behind any big upset could have magical powers. The setting itself is based on the New Orleans that often shows up in popular media, with hauntings and monsters turned up to 11. If you want something paranormal mixed up in your noir, this is the game for you!

Sword Noir 2e, by Sword’s Edge Publishing.

Imagine a barbarian prince embroiled in the criminal underworld of a cosmopolitan city as they seek for an artifact in the shape of a falcon statue. Consider two accomplished thieves—one an urbane duelist and the other a brawny skald—hired by a wealthy retired general to deal with a blackmailer, only uncover multiple murders tied to the general’s children. Envision hardboiled crime fiction in the worlds of sword & sorcery.

That’s Sword Noir.

The concept of Sword Noir is a combination of hardboiled fiction, the film noir it inspired, and sword & sorcery. The setting is noir while the characters are drawn from sword & sorcery tales. The PCs live in a world filled with injustice and apathy. Treachery and greed dominate and hope is frail. Violence is deadly and fast. The characters are good at what they do. They are specialists. Trust is the most valued of commodities—life is the cheapest. Grim leaders weave labyrinthine plots which entangle innocents. Magic is real and can be powerful, but it takes extreme dedication to learn, extorts a horrible price, and is slow to conjure.Now is the time for your characters to walk down mean streets, drenched in rain, hidden in fog, and unravel mysteries, murders, and villainy.

Sword Noir is probably the biggest step from the original noir trope, placing your characters in a fantasy world, far removed from technology like telephones or sleek cars. However, the corrupted city still lives and breathes here, full of ne’er-do-wells and shady characters. If you want to revel in noir tropes but play with the setting a little, maybe try out Sword Noir 2e.

Noir World, by John Adamus.

WALK THESE STREETS. TELL YOUR STORY. MAKE YOUR MOVIE.

It’s raining. The alleys are as dark as the streets. You’ve entered a world where light and dark mix with gray and the unknown, where your past collides with your present and future, and it’s safe to assume everyone’s out for themselves.

It’s the stuff dreams are made of, it’s the stuff of old movies, classic movies. Great stories.

This is Noir World. And this is your world and your Movie now. Your story is worth telling, even though it’s not going to be pretty. You might not make it out alive, but it’ll be one hell of a ride.

It’s true what they say: the City is full of stories, and not all of them have happy endings.

As a PbtA game, Noir World calls back to Apocalypse World, Monsterhearts, and The Sprawl as sources of inspiration. This means that you’ll be building your setting together, using noir tropes as guides to construct the story you want to tell. If this game is anything like its’ predecessors, the primary thing you’ll be focusing on is relationships; what do your characters mean to each-other, and how do those relationships affect their ability to get what they want?

Fedora Noir, by Less Than Three Games.

In Fedora Noir, you create the story of a flawed private investigator in the style of a film noir. Players take on the roles of the Detective, their Partner, their Flame – and their Hat, the Detective’s sharp mind and inner voice. Together, players explore the Detective’s messy life against the backdrop of a difficult case.

In Fedora Noir, two players share control of the story’s main character: the Detective and the Hat.

The Detective role-plays a private eye on a case, narrating their actions and speech. But here’s the catch – the person role-playing the Detective doesn’t get to say what they think. That’s the Hat’s job. The other two main characters – the Partner and the Flame – provide the Detective with personal relationships. People to care about… or disappoint.

Fedora Noir is a game for exactly four players. It takes the form of a deck of cards, which provide prompts and references to help you navigate the story - great for folks who don’t want to keep track of character sheets. There’s a whole bunch of settings included - and if you want the art deco style, then the New Hudson setting is made for you. Each city comes with a piece of art to set the mood, a list of locations you can choose to visit, and a cast of characters that may be getting involved in the case. You also choose a Case card to represent the Detective’s mission, Actor cards to help you depict what your detective looks like, and a series of chapter cards that will bring you through the narrative beats of a detective novel.

Other Games to Check Out...

Hardboiled, by Fat Goblin Games.

Noire: Elle Est, Elles Sont, by Ursidice.

Nitrate City, by Evil Hat.

[tweektweakcore]

Yahoo- side blog for @panicatthecourtx . I'm using this one since my other one gets messy because I am insane.

I have created a NEW roleplay discord server because alas, as occurs due to inactiveness, it has kind of died down- but... I still want to write so here I am.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Taken Characters

Tweek Tweak, Gary Harrison, Craig Tucker, Stan Marsh, Wendy Testaburger, Heidi Turner, New Kid(Olivia), Eric Cartman, Damien Thorn, Jason White, Kyle Broflovski, Butters Stotch, Tolkien Black, Bebe Stevens, Michael (Tall Goth), and Kenny McCormick.

Available Characters

CLYDE DONOVAN

Literally everyone else-. We'd love more girls and the goths/vamp kids too<3.

~~~~~~~~~~~

General Rules:

- This server is 18+, preferably 20+ but 18 is the absolute minimum.

- Max of 2 characters per person, preferably no one will take 2 main characters. A main and a side/background character is preferred! (Subject to change if literally no one wants to join but for now.)

- NO FOCUSING solely on shipping. Ships are allowed, but if you ignore platonic or 1on1 plots outside of your specific ships, I will re-open your character. This is a group RP, not just for 1on1 shipping plots, please. It makes people feel left out if you only reply for your ship plots and no others.

- NO instigating constant in roleplay drama without discussion. Some drama is fine, but this isn't just a group to constantly have themes and motifs that people may not want to see/participate in all the time. (Again drama is fine- just discuss it with me/others first).

- As usual, no transphobia, homophobia, or other generalized bigotry is allowed and WILL result in an instant ban.

- Plot information is in the server!

- To avoid a gradual death like a dying star, I will be more strict and if you're inactive without notice for 2 weeks, I will reopen your character(s). You'll be allowed to stay in the server to talk, but to keep the server alive- this has to be done. (If notified, I am a very lenient person pls just talk to me).

- Otherwise, just have fun, be inclusive and ensure no one is left out, and have fun. ✨️💖.

- More detailed rules are in the server <3

[writingquestionsanswered]

I’m currently trying to write/outline a romance novel. It is starkly different from 3 act structures, what plot outlines/structures would you recommend for romance? Do they usually have 2-3 conflicts? For characters, especially for a normal romance, what are the goals usually, isn’t it just to find love or is that too 2d/flat? I can’t find any external/internal conflicts online, some external ones are available, but yeah, mostly unavailable. What are a few examples and what do external/internal conflicts mean in silly romance novels that are not so deep and intense as general fiction? Stuff on this topic are very scarce, sadly. I’d love ur perspective on this! Thank you in advance, love!!

Outlining a Romance Novel

Romance novel structure depends on the type of romance you want to write. Straight up romance revolves around two people meeting and falling in love. There is usually an external conflict against which this romance plays out, which provides the necessary tension, conflict of interest, fodder for misunderstanding, and other obstacles and challenges that create a bumpy road on the way to true love. However, this external conflict is in full service of the developing romance.

A great example of this type of romance would be the romance movies you see on Hallmark and Lifetime. Here's a trailer for a random one, but fair warning that this trailer gives everything away, so "spoiler alert" if that matters to you...)

In Bottled with Love, Abbey and Nick meet when they're forced to work together on a project at the company he works for (where he's the CEO's wayward son.) The project (and their subsequent butting of heads) is the external conflict against which their romance plays out, but the focus is on the development of their relationship, not on the actual project. This story also has the added internal conflict for both characters, which is the "pen pal" relationships they both have going on secretly in the background, which adds additional conflict later on. Lately, romances that play out against genre conflicts are also popular. Like traditional romance, the romantic couple is still central to the story, but unlike traditional romance, the external conflict is given a lot more weight. And, there are usually internal conflicts for the main characters as well. A great example of this kind of romance is Outlander. I'm sticking in the season one trailer, but fair warning... there are glimpses of scenes with violence, nudity, sex, and SA:

In the case of Outlander, Claire and Jamie meet when she is transported back in time from her home era of 1945 to the past era of 1743. In addition to the external conflict of Claire wanting to get back home to her own time, there's also an English officer (who turns out to be an ancestor of the husband she left in 1945) who is determined to make her life difficult. And, the first few books also play out first against the conflict between Scottish highlanders and the British occupiers. And, you can also have a combination of the two, where it's still a straight up romance, but it plays out against a genre background. In this case, the genre-related external conflict is still minor compared to the development of the romantic couple:

In the case of the first and third example, there are very specific romance beats you'll want to hit. A really popular structure template is Gwen Hayes' Romancing the Beat. The Dabble web site and the DIY MFA web site also both have romance structure templates, and there are certainly others you can find via a general search for romance story structure. In the case of the second example, you will want to hit a lot of those beats, but you'll be weaving that into a story structure for stories with a plot-driven element (like Save the Cat! Writes a Novel or the Three-Act Structure.) Just remember, in all of these cases, you don't have to follow a template to a tee. They're just there as guidelines to help you navigate and plot your story. With romance, though, you do want to make sure you hit the important romantic beats.

As for some of your other questions:

Do they usually have 2-3 conflicts? Most romances have both internal and external conflict. Then, there may be multiple external conflicts if you do a story like Outlander which plays out against a genre-based backdrop and has an external conflict related to that genre.

For characters, especially for a normal romance, what are the goals usually, isn’t it just to find love or is that too 2d/flat? Romance beat sheets will clarify this for you, but yes, if you do a traditional romance, a "happily ever after" is the goal.

What are a few examples and what do external/internal conflicts mean in silly romance novels that are not so deep and intense as general fiction? Examples #1 and #3 provide an idea of what the external and internal conflicts can look like in traditional, straight up romance. External conflict in romance usually happens one of two ways: the protagonist leaves their "normal life" and ends up in a place where they meet the love interest. Or, the love interest gets dropped into their "normal life." Some examples:

-- protagonist leaves their big city job to visit their small hometown for Christmas

-- protagonist leaves their small hometown to attend a friend's destination wedding in Rome

-- protagonist leaves their stressful office job and takes a job a bakery that desperately needs a manager

-- love interest is the new partner on the protagonist's work project

-- love interest is the popular new photographer showing up at the weddings the protagonist plans/coordinates

-- love interest is the new supplier for the bakery the protagonist manages

As for internal conflict, it works the same as in other stories. The internal conflict is usually something that is keeping them from moving forward in their lives. Sometimes, whatever it is that brings the love interest into their lives is a result of them trying to break out of that rut. Or, it could be that however their life changes as a result of meeting the love interest is the thing that helps them get out of that rut.

I hope that gives you some direction for how to come up with conflict ideas and how to structure your story!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[indie-ttrpg-of-the-week]

Hardwired Island

90s nostalgia isn't cool anymore, its all about that early aughts nostalgia, so I propose we have transparent plastic prosthetic limbs, like those bootleg PS2/Wii controllers Touchstones: Bubblegum Crisis, 90s Cyberpunk Anime in general

Genre: Cyberpunk What is this game?: Hardwired Island is a cyberpunk game about being broke citizens in the first space station city on earth 

How's the gameplay?: Hardwired Island uses a 2d6+Bonus system, inspired by PBTA, but the game itself isn't exactly that. Hardwired's character creation is one of its big draws, being fairly simple but allowing many different character concepts, maybe you're an android street fighter, wanting to enter the big leagues, or an ex-military drone operator, wanting to atone for your crimes, character creation works by picking a background, Occupation, and 2 traits, which lets you get really flexible with your character! Backgrounds have misc abilities and determine your character's skills (which you get to create yourself, so if you want your character to be really good at niche internet drama, you can!), Occupations give you powerful abilities that make you really good at things that other people can do worse, and traits are just random abilities and events in your character's history. The Big Thing about Hardwired is its financial shock system, whenever your character makes a big purchase, such as for example a prosthetic, they might get more financial stress, which can end up leading them into a crisis, where they might need to reach out to a friend to get a place to stay, or move back with their parents, or make shady deals with the mafia, and so on. Hardwired's mechanics are Narrative-first, meaning they exist to create interesting drama for characters, and that makes it a very fun system for just making cool stories

What's the setting (If any) like?: Hardwired takes place in the far future of 2020, on a giant space station city, where the rich prosper and the poor toil. Hardwired is really keen on the "boring dystopia" aspect, there's definitely interesting stuff! but players are assumed to be common laymen trying their best to get by, of course this doesn't mean their ADVENTURES have to be boring! a package delivery gig could end with dealing with the strange Dreamers, bizarre AI with weird powers, or an investigation on an anonymous street artist could end in inciting a riot against a local bank, and so on!

What's the tone?: Hardwired will try to crush your players, it is not a pleasant world, there's kindness everywhere, and good people to be found, but the world is overwhelmingly against you

Session length: 1-2 hours is realistic enough

Number of Players: 4-6 is the recommended amount by me!

Malleability: Hardwired's mechanics are kinda rooted in its setting, but a crafty GM could likely do something interesting with them, I've been working on a hack for my own cyberpunk setting, for example!

Resources: a Google Sheet is available, and that's honestly kinda all you need, its not a very complex system. There's two or so expansions, one of them includes a playable cat occupation!

So I hesitated a lil on posting this game because i know people have Opinions on this game, but this game's great and im tired of pretending its not. It's a definite must play for any cyberpunk fan, in my opinion

[cloneficgiftexchange]

thanks to everyone who has expressed interest in the event so far! here's some more info about the rules, and the faq is under the cut!

Rules:

Word Minimum: 800 words NO word minimum

Fics must be clone x reader to count for the event and be reblogged/added to masterlist 

There is no limit to the amount of people that can fill a prompt

Fics for this event cannot: 

Include unmarked/unwarned explicit content

Be posted without a “read more” cut - information on how to add this to your posts can be found HERE if you need it

Include clone/clone or master/padawan background ships

Be created by AI

Frequently Asked Questions:

What is this event? 

The clone x reader prompt-a-thon is a more relaxed event that will give writers the chance to write prompts from a list submitted by people across the fandom. The theme is Seasons, and will feature fic concepts that include aspects of spring, summer, fall, or winter. 

here is the basic schedule for the event:

Prompt Call Opens: January 8th

Prompt Call Closes: January 29th

Prompt Spreadsheet Posted: January 31st

Writing Period: February 1st - April 15th

Final Due Date: April June 2nd

Event Masterlist Posted: June 4th

What kind of prompts are you looking for?

Dialogue prompts, situational prompts, tropes, and other short requests that revolve around anything seasonal, along with a few of the clones you’d like to see the prompt written with! No matter what kind of weather you’re experiencing right now (or what type of weather you wish you were experiencing), we hope to have prompts for it. 

I want to write something for this event. Can I still submit prompts? 

Of course! The prompt submission form will be anonymous, you’ll be able to submit multiple prompts at a time, and it will be set to allow multiple submissions (in case you want add more at a later time!), so you can submit as many times as you’d like, then check out the sheet and pick some to write yourself. 

Do you have to sign up anywhere to participate? 

Nope!! If you want to join, all you need to do is pick a prompt and write a fic! I’ll be adding links to posted fics next to the prompts they fill, this way people who want to send some love to lonely prompts can see which ones they are. You can write as many fics as you want and there’s no limit to the amount of people that can fill a prompt!

Can I combine prompts in my fic?

Yes, but there are just a couple rules! You can’t combine more than 2 prompts together (otherwise my job would just get more and more confusing!) and the character you choose to write for needs to appear among the options for both prompts. In addition, if you are choosing to write an NSFW fic, both prompts need to have indicated that they are okay with this. 

Can I write prompts for existing universes of mine?

As long as the fic can be read as a stand-alone piece, yes! Basically, you can’t write a fic for this event that’s just the next chapter of your longfic, but you can of course use some of your existing work as inspiration. 

I don’t write smut (or I only write smut), can I still join?

Absolutely! There will likely be prompts submitted by people who want to see them as SFW only, but there also may be some prompts showing that the submitter is open to smut as well. Similar to the exchanges, even if a person indicates they’re okay with smut, it’s still up to you as the writer to decide if you want to write it or not. 

What's the posting situation like?

There’s no specific posting day for these, so you’re welcome to post fics whenever you’d like. The event blog will be reblogging all the entries we’re tagged in up until June 2, 2025 - and all the reblogged fics will be placed on the event masterlist. After the conclusion of the prompt-a-thon, the spreadsheet will remain available for people to still be able to access and write whatever they want, but those fics will not be reblogged/added to the masterlist. 

if you have any other questions, feel free to reach out via ask or dm!

[suzuran777]

Lamento stageplay news + visuals

Just one more day left until the live performances of the Lamento stageplay start! The stageplay was of course already announced last year, but as they finally started tweeting the countdown pictures, I wanted to write a blog post about the visuals and information they've released so far, comparing some of the stageplay visuals to the official game illustrations!

Similar to the DRAMAtical Murder (DMMd) and sweet pool stageplays, the Lamento stageplay will also have different routes for each main character, Asato, Bardo and Rai. I'm going to assume that the first half of the stageplay will be some kind of common route, while the second half focuses on the route of each different character. Something that is new is that this time the stageplay will have "musical elements" as well, so I'm not sure if I should call it a stageplay or a musical (I'm just using "stageplay" this time as the official account also seems to call it that). Even though in the game Konoe's song is just a melody, the actors did tweet about singing, so I am curious what they will do!

Ohyama Yoh, who composed 19 of the 37 songs of the Lamento original soundtrack also tweeted that there will be 11 new songs (+ addictional background music). I think it's super cool that they're working together with the original composer again to create new songs for the stageplay! I remember the DMMd stageplay also had a new song by GOATBED, which they even performed live a few times at the end of the show. The previous stageplays were about two hours long, but this time they mentioned it will be at least 3 hours, which makes sense because Lamento is a lot longer than sweet pool and DMMd.

I'm really impressed by the costumes and wigs so far, the ears and tails also look so fluffy... I really wonder what they will look like in motion and what the battle scenes will look like. Most of the visuals of the individual characters they've released so far seem to be based on the in-game sprites, but what I found interesting is that Rai's, Asato's and Bardo's pictures seem to have the same pose as the Kotobukiya figurines! You can see the comparison below, the pictures of the figurines are from the Kotobukiya official website.

Another new visual which was released quite recently seems to resemble another official illustration, which I've seen in the artbooks before and which was also the cover of magazine B's Log, specifically the December 2006 issue. Some of the details are a bit different, for example Konoe is not holding Leaks' mask in his hand anymore, and this time they added Shui to the illustration as well, but some other things such as Bardo's pose make it quite obvious this picture was their inspiration. The way Shui and Leaks stand next to each other kind of reminds me of the Rhapsody to the Past drama CD as well? One thing I noticed is that they're not really trying to hide Leaks' face this time, which was actually quite a big reveal in the game.

Next are some of the other illustrations they recently showed us during a short livestream which was available on Twitter for a limited time. Luckily they also posted the pictures on the official account! These won't be sold as merchandise, but they're given away as a bonus for those who attend all three versions of the show. I guess one thing I never noticed before is how little promotional/extra art Bardo got back then, so in this case they had to use one of his in-game CGs. For the other characters they mostly seem to use some of the extra/promotional art. Anyway, you can see a comparison below! I think it's fun to see how they re-created the pictures with the actors.

The last picture they recently showed during the Twitter livestream uses the cover illustration of the official world guidebook! Unfortunately no Bardo in this one either. This is one of the items they are selling as merchandise, it seems to be some kind of booklet (they call it a "pamphlet" but it's 32 pages long). I really wish they would sell the merchandise online, but for now it's only accessible for those who have a ticket and who buy it inside the venue. Maybe if they have any extra stock they might sell it online?

Update: The stageplay will also be livestreamed on DMM TV! The ticket to watch all three routes is 10000 yen (about 66 USD, which is cheaper than the in-person tickets at least!) which also gives you some special bonus videos to watch. First is Bardo's route on February 24th, followed by Asato's and Rai's routes on February 25th. Be aware that it is region locked and not all VPNs work, so unfortunately I can't help much with that! For any further updates you can check the official Twitter account!

Cast list: Konoe: Maejima Yoh Rai: Kato Sho Asato: Hiraga Yusei Bardo: Seto Yusuke Razel: Kimisawa Yuki Kaltz: Okamoto Yuki Verg: Iwata Tomoki Froud: Muramatsu Koki Kagari: Asaba Maya Tokino: Fukuzawa Taiga Firi: Kita Tsutomu Kil: Yoshun Sakamoto Ul: Arai Yuya Shui: Osaki Natsuki Leaks: Matsui Yuho

[satoshi-mochida]

Ratatan launches in Early Access for PC on July 25 - Gematsu

Rhythmic roguelike action game Ratatan will launch in Early Access for PC via Steam on July 25, publisher Game Source Entertainment and developers TVT and Ratata Arts announced. The full releas ewill follow for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC.

A new demo is available now for PC via Steam, which includes the following content:

Playable Content – World 1 “Pirates of the Parabbean” through World 2 “Yeehawler Mountain.”

Playable Characters – Four distinct Ratatans available.

Multiplayer Support – Online cooperative play for up to four players included.

Here is an overview of the game, via Game Source Entertainment:

About

Tippytap, badaboom and “Ratatan” across the battlefield in this latest roguelike adventure from the creators of the beloved rhythm classic, Patapon! March across the world of Redo, build your Cobun army, and combine forces with your closest chums to defeat any evildoers silly enough to stand in your way! Players can move to the groove alone or team up with friends in online multiplayer mayhem suitable for up to four players! Engage in huge melee brawls with more than 100 characters duking it out for supremacy. Defeat your enemies by riding the rhythm of Ratatan‘s catchy soundtrack in this delightful, heartfelt adventure! In the vast and peaceful sea lies Rataport, a vibrant island bustling with life. Here, the Ratatans, mysterious yet charming creatures, live in harmony with their friends. Though they differ in appearance and personality, they share a single dream: to journey to The Everafter and meet the legendary Goddess said to reside there. Fueled by hope, the Ratatans set out on their adventure, undeterred by failure, determined to one day stand before her. The Ratatans are groove-loving adventurers that use the power of song and magical instruments called Melodium to command their armies of Cobun. Lead your troops by issuing rhythmic commands, guiding them through massive dynamic battles where strategic positioning, timely orders, and well-planned retreats will be the key to your success!

Rhythm Commands and Cobun Orders

Feel the beat and use rhythm commands in time with the music to order your Cobun in the direction you want them to go. The Ratatan can be moved freely, so use your better judgment to decide where best to give orders, where to stand when on the offensive, and when to retreat. A sense of rhythm and strategy is crucial in order to survive long adventures while losing as few Cobun as possible!

Fever System

Keep to the beat and your party will enter FEVER MODE, a feature no good rhythm game can do without! Feel the vibes shift as the background music dynamically changes and your Cobun erupt in a flurry of frenzied dance moves that’ll really get the heart pumping! And if everyone’s party goes into FEVER MODE at the same time, you’ll really bring the house down!

Adorable 2d Animations

Ratatan makes use of charming 2D animation with movements filled with vivid personality. The Cobun, your faithful and lovable servants, will wibble-wobble as they follow your orders, while your enemies will try to intimidate with their often hilarious movements, breathing even more life into the world of Ratatan.

Toe-Tapping Soundtrack

Now, what kind of troupe would you be leading without the perfect tune to march your minions to?! Worry not! We’ve got you covered with the perfect musical accompaniment by veteran composer Kemmei Adachi for crushing your enemies in a wave of adorable terror! Created by Hiroyuki Kotani (Patapon) and developed by Ratata Arts in collaboration with TVT Co., Ltd., the game features 100+ controllable characters, rhythm-driven combat, and a vibrant world of music, monsters, and multiplayer madness. The soundtrack features music by veteran composer Kemmei Adachi, with a special guest track by David Wise.

Watch a new trailer below.

Early Access Release Date Trailer

[rainspicestudios]

Happy 2025! [RainSpice Studios plans & updates for the new year]

Hey everyone! Happy 2025 from RainSpice Studios. I hope this year will be kind to everyone and that many good things will be coming your way.

And speaking of good things, I'm cooking some projects that are just itching to be released and available for download. But before we get into that, let us talk a little about the games that were released in 2024.

This won't be a lengthy recap of 2024, as the games speak for themselves, but I am still proud of myself for releasing a full game, a chapter one, and a demo, during a very stressful year both in terms of world events and my personal life (I graduated college, I'm moving, all of that good stuff).

Stardust★Arcadis was my first ever release, and a game I struggled to finish. I lost all of my progress because of PC issues, I rewrote the story a few times, and I released it after working on it since 2019 (2022 if the moment when my PC broke doesn't count). However I love the characters, I love the setting, and despite the many hardships of game development, I had a fun time working on it.

I'm planning to release more games in this universe in the future, including a remastered version of St★Ar.

The Code of Crystals started as a novel collaboration with my best friend. Said collaboration never got finished, and I had a lot of inspiration for stories I could tell with these characters, most of these darker than the original project. Thus I used the characters I made for this former collaboration and started crafting this narrative, and the release of Stardust★Arcadis AND the 2024 edition of Phantasia Jam was a perfect opportunity to get started!

Chapter one will be re-release this January and Chapter two will be released in either late 2025 or early 2026. Stay tuned for more info!

Enter the Eternity, oddly enough, also started as a collaboration, but the idea of a dating simulator with magical girls was too good to let it collect dust and never get finished, especially since its inspiration board kept drawing me in.

With my best friend's blessing, I could re-use the idea, so I created a new cast of characters and got to work, and had to do even more work after I found out that the backgrounds I bought from someone on itch.io were made with an AI image generator, which disgusted me so much it powered me to redraw every single background by hand and I will keep doing so for the entire game. While it is more work to do on my part, RainSpice Studios will never endorse AI generation in any shape or form.

At first I worked on it while I worked on Stardust★Arcadis, which explains why the demo was done on such a short notice, but it has now became my primary project for 2025 and I am aiming to release it around November/December at best.

What's the plan for 2025 then?

My primary goal is to release Enter the Eternity and my secondary goal is to release The Code of Crystals chapter 2.

I aim to finish all first dates for Enter the Eternity AND re-release chapter 1 of The Code of Crystals in January. The dates are already written and coded in the script files, so my focus is to add in all the sprite expressions, draw CGs and backgrounds, and add all the necessary music. As for TCOC, I wanted to remake its menus and add a scene with Eranis that I did not have time to add before the end of the game jam. While the UI code I bought doesn't work, its images are pretty, and I am happy with the result.

2025 will be another busy year for me as I try to find a full-time job to sustain myself, launch some new projects more-or-less related to video games, move out again, among some other irl things. But here at RainSpice Studios, I love making games, and will keep making them for the foreseeable future.

If you read down to here, thank you so much!

There's a lot to do so I'm going back to work 💪 I'll update you guys when I reach a milestone or I find something interesting to share.

So stay tuned! And as said, I wish you guys a kind, good, exciting, fun, and game-filled 2025. Thank you for your continued support and here's to more projects this year 🥂

============================

[RainSpice Studios itch.io] [Stardust★Arcadis] [The Code of Crystals] [Enter The Eternity]

[chemzee]

How HPMA characters would do a 20 minutes PowerPoint presentation

aka silly idea 6734 please bear with me and remember it's just my own silly headcanons haha

Daniel: Probably most dull looking out of all of them, just a casual Times New Roman black on white with occasional pictures, no slide transitions. Has just enough info for a single slide, not too short, not too long, just a perfect amount, about maybe 10-12 slides, each idea properly separated. Probably memorized most of it but not all, does occasionally read from screen. So while not too visually interesting, it gets the point across well and to him it's probably more important than wasting time on making it pretty.

Ivy: she strikes me as someone who balances out the information and visual presentation, so I'd say Daniel's presentation but prettier and probably a little shorter, like 8 slides and probably has less info, but enough to explain the topic in question. Probably uses Arial or Calibri (wanted to use Dreaming Outloud but knows its not the best for such presentation) font and has the same transition on all slides. Probably picked a pretty design with pastel colors. Despite the fact she doesn't have a lot of text, she definitely does not remember it at all so she mostly reads it. I think she probably was planning on adding more pictures or transitions but forgot and only realized it the moment she has to make a presentation.

Lottie: definitely the most visually interesting one, she probably would spend A LOT of time on trying to make it look pretty. Uses different transitions but they all go well with the theme of the topic in question and they don't look obnoxious. The ideas are separated well, it has around 10 slides and each looks breathtaking, as she had customized almost everything herself,eather than leaving the design as it is. Uses different fonts for different categories of text, but main text is probably in Century Schoolbook. In terms of information, however, she'd either add too much or too little and she would often read the text on screen, but the prettiness of her presentation makes up for it.

Kevin: he strikes me as a kind of guy who would add TOO much info. He'd probably have to shrink it to font size 6-8 just so he could fit everything and has over 20 slides. Probably the kind of guy to have text on one slide and pictures on the other because he can't fit both on one. Unknown to God, memorized the entire text somehow but gets extremely nervous when presentating it, especially after seeing everyone's reactions to the unreadable wall of text.

Cassandra: she strikes me as a white on black person, probably uses fancy font styles as titles and Times New Roman or Baskerville as normal text. I'd say she's similar to Ivy in a way she balances out the information and the prettiness (I'd say hers is the second prettiest after Lottie's) but has more info than Ivy (around 10-12 slides) and she actually remembers her text almost by memory, so better and fancier Ivy.

Robyn: either did it in 5 minutes and has 7 slides max with minimum amount of info or she just staight up copy pasted a Wikipedia article, with links still attached. At least bothered with the way it looks and by that I mean she chose the random alternative style and random font that looked good enough and called it a day.

Frey Twins: Fisher most likely insisted on making it together with Colby, despite the latter wanting to do his own presentation. Surprisingly, they put in a lot of effort into it, they had put their heart and soul into every single slide. And by that I mean is that they created the worst monstrosity known to mankind, literally the worst looking presentation one would ever imagine. It's too bright, it has small comic sans orange text on red background, the images are squashed, oh and don't get me started on the effects. The transitions and animations take up about 90% of whole presentation, they used literally every known transition available and it's just one after the other. And worst part is? It's completely unoronic, they actually think it looks great.

[oathkeeper-of-tarth]

I want to talk a bit about a thing I played around with... this last February, apparently (in the midst of quitting my job and upending my life? wow). Consider this a sort of vague and casual interest check, as well, simply because I'm curious.

Note that this specific little self-indulgent project isn't publicly available and most likely won't ever be - I just had a couple people I know run through it for fun, as it's super rough and ultimately kind of pointless as-is. But I am actually interested to hear what people around these parts think of this kind of interactive fiction as a fanfic format. If I suddenly decided to go all in on writing, I don't know, a post-game Selûnite mini murder mystery in something like this, would this even be a kind of fanwork anyone would want? Or want to participate in, even?

In any case, what "this" even is is me messing around, first in Twine and then in Ink (which was brought to my attention thanks to Heaven's Vault being one of my favourite things ever). Then trying out what hosting things on itch.io looks like, after which I tried out both Unity and Godot variants of plugging the Ink into an existing engine - this was pretty much a test vehicle for me to play around with for a couple of evenings in a private little game jam. Outside of poking around Ren'Py five million years ago, this is the first time I've actually tried making anything interactive in this sense. And honestly, I loved it!

It's really not much, writing-wise, at about 5k words total. Just a bunch of scenes harnessing that sweet, sweet BG3 hyperfixation, shaped purely around me trying out different things in a technical sense and using the characters as a sort of shorthand while doing so. So you have fairly classic branching dialogue trees (Wyll), scenes that change when you leave and then come back (Jaheira), scenes that briefly diverge but end up at the same place and set some flags in the process (Aylin, Lae'zel), some stuff hidden behind checks you need to make (Halsin, Shadowheart, Isobel), and completely random events that may or may not happen during certain scene transitions (Orin). What I identified as the essentials, really.

I did a bit of exploring ways to incorporate small changes to encounters depending on which order you do them in. As a very simple example:

The above basically means your dialogue changes very slightly depending on if you found Shadowheart before talking to Aylin. Additionally, if you ask Aylin to tell you where Shadowheart supposedly went (which is completely optional even if you do talk to Aylin first), you'll have a bit of extra dialogue in the scene with Shadowheart when that flag up there gets checked. So some very, very basic reactivity - just for flavour, here.

My skill checks were plain d20 rolls without modifiers and with fixed DCs - a simple "create your character" intro bit would be perfectly doable, though, to get some stats and bonuses going. But roll badly enough and you can always make a complete ass of yourself in front of the Blade himself!

Visuals are super rudimentary, obviously. Taking a zoomed-out screenshot of the BG3 camp and blurring it to get this nice, chill background where that damn fire actively interferes with readin-- I mean, look at this, dynamically changing the look of the text to convey a shift in mood!

And, of course, a little structure of options and checks to get some of the good old "choices and failures having meaningful consequences":

(...for Shadowheart, at least. Sorry.)

In conclusion, this was all very fun to try out, and I can see a bigger project spiraling completely out of control because it's so tempting to try to cover everything in the universe and make everything branch out infinitely! But I also definitely want to do more of it, beyond this little proof of concept/experiment. I'd also love to encourage people to try their hands at this themselves - both of the tools/languages I mentioned and linked up there are very beginner-friendly and very well-documented. Give them a try! There's also a sea of works already out there to jump into, to see how these things can be used and the interactivity part leveraged to great effect - I've still barely scratched the surface, myself.

[impcarcass]

Ok ok ok WHAT KIND OF STICKERS DOES SUN FROM YOUR AU HAVE CAN I HAVE ONE DJDNND also is the demon possession going to be like a consensual thing? And the host will be a character in it of themselves in it? Or do they basically disappear from when the fic starts djdhd

BOY AM I GLAD YOU ASKED!!!

[Image ID in alt text]

1) sun has a plethora of stickers hidden away somewhere. Moon has, in fact, ripped apart his office trying to find them, but to no avail. He got tired of finding them on his belongings and paperwork when Sun gets into a sticker frenzy. Eclipse doesn’t mind nearly as much. You’ll never hear him admit it, but he secretly enjoys them as well.

2) yes!!! It’s very important to y/n in this story that their vessel is willing and they go through great lengths to find a perfect and willing vessel.

3) this was something I debated for a while. Initially I was unsure if y/n should just create a mirage to appear human, but that came with a lot of challenges in terms of writing. But then I had a bright idea… author insert. It’s me- *cough cough* my character that I project onto- as the vessel. Initially, he’ll be relatively in the background, but I wanted their relationship to mirror Sun and Moon’s relationship when they share the same body. Needless to say, he will be a present character throughout the fic, just not as much initially. It’ll definitely seem like he’s just dormant 90% of the time, per se, but I guarantee he has his role. I’ll post the vessel when I get the motivation to actually draw it lmao

Tysm for the ask I got very excited seeing it!! Please ask me more about this AU i love infodumping about it uwaaa 💛💛💛

[blackstar5078]

EC!Wither Character Post!

Because I've been wanting to do this now that the angstier aspect of her character has come to light, or some of it :D

First of all, a drawn reference to help artists out there:

This was made back in 2023, and was also the reference I used when I made her skin/CPM model, so... She is a character that I have thought out for a while now gkbgj.

Here are some design notes that I left for the peeps at the Discord too:

You also get the behind of her skin without the cape:

She has holes on the back for the wings.

And you can get a look to her bloody skin for day 10's lore, but under the cut since the blood will be more noticeable ofc.

Next, I want to leave here fun facts about her character, design and lore!

First of, here's the bloody skin:

And here are the fun facts :D.

☆ She was created after everything I liked/found more interesting elements of Minecraft, tbh xD.

Always loved the Wither as a concept and wished it was used for more than additional boss battle or a Nether Star source. And I love the concept of Soulfire/blue fire in general too, in addition to thinking that the Nether is a very cool place.

☆ Color-wise, she's moreso based on a Wither Storm from Minecraft Storymode than a vanilla Wither. Because purple.

☆ Said that, in theory, Wither could have some kind of bersek mode similar to the Wither Storm, but that would be a pain to model lol.

☆ I always thought that the cubitos that looked like demonic creatures with claws and glowing eyes were the coolest ones, so that's the approach I took while designing her. She's not a demon, she just has the vibes of creature.

☆ The Enderman is my favorite Minecraft mob, actually hkbgjh. I think they are the most interesting mobs with their mechanics, behaviour, powers and design.

The reason why I implemented them into my character as this genuine fear is a bit funny: While playing Minecraft, I always try to stay away from the endermen and make sure to not anger them, because I really don't want to kill them myself, plus, in-game, they are terrifying to deal with for me when in hostile with all the teleporting and the sounds it makes, so I end up not being as quick or willing to react when an enderman is around.

So I decided to use that OOC behaviour of mine as PTSD reaction for my character in a way that makes sense 👍.

☆ I created her background lore in a way that it would not conflict with smp lore, regardless of what would happen there.

☆ Originally, her main weapon would be a scythe, but when they're not available, she uses OP bows since that is also my favorite and preferred way of attacking in Minecraft OOC.

☆ Her wings quite literally spawn and despawn, it's magic.

☆ Personally believed the Hulk type of characters are fun to deal with as a writer, which is why Wither is one in a way (I would not call it another persona of hers when she loses it, she just turns feral and kills on sight).

☆ She growls and roars like creature while on this status instead of talking, ye.

☆ Only Nether elements and Soulfire are not enough to trigger this, otherwise it would happen all the time (girl wears Netherite armor and it has Soulfire into it). This status also depends on her emotions.

When Bluebell died in the Nether, a lot of negative and strong emotions consumed Wither. By the time she was heading to the Nether portal with wishes to destroy it, she wasn't thinking clearly anymore, and once she was in range of it, is when these powers and status activated fully (and the village nearby payed for it).

☆ Yes, she fistfought an Iron Golem and won. (The Iron Golem caused her only two injuries on the bloody skin, though) (The abdomen and head ones).

☆ Soul and Fire are like, the most on the nose clue about her past with their names. Just put them together in the order I mentioned them gkvgjh.

☆ Soul is the little head on her right. Fire is the little head on her left. (Using the drawn reference I attached here to avoid confusion too: On your left is Soul and on your right is Fire).

☆ Both of them have their own personalities, but overall are way more untrustful of the world and people around them than Wither is. It takes a bit to gain that trust and willing to talk to you.

☆ They can't speak by themselves, but Wither has mind link to them and hears them on her head. She communicates what they want to say for them.

☆ You only have seen them communicate since day 12 because they now started to trust Bluebell enough for it.

☆ I always had in mind that Wither's story and character arc on any smp would be way better if she happened to take care of a little baby creature. Yes, I am so glad that Bluebell exists gkbfkg.

☆ She canonically only traveled and walked to where they live now, she was not a planned individual to be there. This is worth to mention considering recent and future lore.

☆ She's aroace 👏.

☆ Mat, the person who she talked about at the beginning and even wrote a letter to, is my boyfriend's cubito. They don't have the same in-character relationship as us OOC, but he does care a lot for her.

And your prize for coming this far into the post, it's a playlist that I will be updating along with the plot. The playlist was made with her background lore in mind <3.

I am exposing my musical tastes right now /silly.

Hope you enjoy it! ♡