#like as many Thoughts i have about games like forces and 06 truly i only have stronggg opinions on sonic cd bc i’ve. actually played it.

[welcome-to-green-hills]

I think the way Shadow thinks is fascinating, sure he’s evil and all but- not everyone is evil.

Take Knuckles for example, he isn’t evil, he just believes he’s doing the right think by retrieving the Master Emerald from those who might use it for evil, and he was quite aware of that himself.

But Shadow- he is the definition of no one being truly evil, like him many “Evil” people have good and bad thoughts, and do things they believe are a benefit to not only themselves but for others, you’ll see this trend with many villain and Bad guys.

That’s the reason Shadow is so popular and unique, he hates Sonic but wouldn’t kill him for no reason, he wouldn’t do anything bad unless it was for a reason he believes is ok. Man I adore Shadow as a character and as my Idol himself 🦔

Hi Hon❤️✨

I think that I can understand where you’re coming from with this perspective, but please understand that Shadow isn’t evil. He’s an anti-hero.

He’s not exactly a bad guy, but he’s not exactly a good guy either. He does the tough deeds that others might have a hard time doing. And sometimes those deed can be seen as malicious if carried out. However, those deeds lead to a good outcomes and intentions. He’s okay with doing something bad in order to get something good in the end.

Look at how he handled Infinite’s jackal squad in Sonic Forces. The game’s DLC downright said that he obliterated the entire team with Infinite by himself. Was this insane? Yes. Was it for something good long run? Yes, because they were working for Dr. Eggman and were hurting civilians. They were too far gone to be saved, just like Infinite. As ruthless as that action is, Shadow had to do that.

Now let’s talk about Sonic Battles for a second. Shadow makes it a point in saying that living weapons need to be destroyed—this includes EMERL and himself to some degree. That action is scary to think about, but the purpose was intentional. Shadow’s reason to destroy was to prevent history in repeating itself. We know what that means. Shadow didn’t enjoy the idea either, he even hesitates in confronting Sonic at one point because it was too much. “Too much” meaning that he saw how beloved and cared for EMERL was. It was hitting too close to home for him. He had to have a reminder from Gerald’s journals that he has both a would and his soul was modeled after the one good thing in his life.

Shadow doesn’t hate Sonic either. He has a respect for him. If anything, Shadow find him annoying in some circumstances. There’s been times where Shadow’s been in awe of Sonic’s abilities and strengths. Look at how Shadow responds to Sonic’s ability to go super in Adventure 2. He care enough about him to tell Sonic to get rings to contain his super form, as well as refer to him as an ultimate life form himself. Shadow even reacted to Sonic’s death in ‘06. Yes, Sonic’s soul bounced around his group of friends, but it moved Shadow enough to where he had to turn around before he quickly ran off to help Princess Elise.

Shadow’s okay with doing something drastic because he knows who he is. He knows his worth and perception of himself and doesn’t care if he’s judged by others. I think that I can understand what when you mean when Shadow’s compared to as a villain—some of his actions are questionable. But understand that the actions with a good purpose. He’s got some softness around the edges. Shadow is okay with doing the drastic and uncomfortable things in order to get the happy ending. He is not a villain, he’s an anti-hero.

[kinopioa]

Something I find funny about the monster of the week complaints for Eggman after SA1 is "how stupid he is in constantly doing it"

But....

SA2: He was expecting a nonsentient military weapon. When he found Shadow he was legitimately considering to ditch him, until he heard of the Ark's Cannon from him. Not to mention there was no monster Eggman wanted to abuse to his knowledge, even if Gerald's doomsday plan betrayed him

Heroes: None of Eggman's robots to his knowledge* betrayed him before. Even Omega, despite harboring hatred of abandonment didn't ditch Eggman until after Rouge convinced him. Metal's betrayal was a surprise to him, but noticeably afterwards Eggman stopped having sentient robots with power**. Regardless, Eggman had ways of contacting outside help in his kidnapped situation

*Gamma doesn't count, Eggman had 0 idea it went rogue after gaining humanity

*ZG the SCR-HD simply got corrupted by external forces (Ark of Cosmos). They are otherwise subservient

*I guess Free Riders does count as a true robo betrayal, but a racing robot version of Metal Sonic hardly counts as "monster of the week" with how lame it is

Shadow: He's not responsible for Devil Doom...

Battle: Similar to before, this was an ancient abandoned robot. He considered and did throw it after mimicing parts of its tech when it was unresponsive, only to find Sonic bonded and raised it. Regardless, he had a trump card override in case Emerl got powerful, and it completely worked...Unfortunately too literally as Emerl treated the space cannon as his master instead of Eggman

In other words, Eggman banked on an override that worked way too well

(Speaking of, can we talk about how Eggman has a cannon that can nuke stars?)

Rush/Rush Adv: Neither game has a monster of the week. Although it's true Eggman trusted Nega, Nega's true colors noticeably only came up when on the losing end, or when fully swamped in ego for Rush Adv. In a way, he's a more extreme sore loser/winner than Eggman*, but for most of either game, can be trusted

*Rivals Nega in honesty is a separate entity, nor does Eggman trust him there

06: This one's interesting. He seemed to have done research prior to events on Time travel for the game. It also seems like he only wanted to siphon power of Solaris, as opposed to truly awakening it. He mentions using a machine to get the power from Elise, but we never see it given events. When Shadow accidentally releases Mephiles, Eggman immediately bails, suggesting he was aware of how dangerous Solaris' halves were if tangible. Although it's his fault in stealing the sceptor and kidnapping Elise, it was not his intention to fully awaken the beast

Rivals 2: Eggman's not responsible for the Ifrit...

ZG: See the note on Heroes, though as an added note, the Mother computer had its own piece of Babylon tech being why the Ark of Cosmos made the robots react terribly

Unleashed: After many years, this is the one Eggman legitimately returns to attempting to use the monster of the week...and failing to realize just how uncontrollable it was. Still, his efforts in awakening it, tricking Super Sonic, gathering energy to a focal point, and finally creating Eggman Land should be noted

Generations: He was kinda stuck in space. It was either "float and die", or "mess with this primordial being". And it worked!

Thoughts?

@beevean @colony-drop-program @egg-emperor

[ruminate88]

06/28/24 SO SAD 😥

I had a horrific dream last night of Andrew physically beating me and woke up in the night with my heart just racing so hard out of my chest!! I woke up this morning SO SAD. This isn’t depression, I’ve been depressed before. This is very extreme sadness for Andrew. Sad that my love wasn’t enough for him. I wrote down my dream right away so I could break it down and try to find meaning for it. What is my mind and heart trying to tell me?? Anything?

My husband then says, “Hey, let’s go to Dave and busters.” Wow… We went to Starbucks first which was amazing and then spent the day playing games. Was a GREAT day accept internally, I’m in this sad monologue with myself throughout the day. I’m battling within myself. I’m so sad and drained. I had almost no energy. I kept seeing my dream in my head and feeling just so frustrated. When I woke up from the dream, I thought my heart was taking off like a rocket ship into space. I just took deep breathes and told myself it was a dream to calm down and I was able to fall right back to sleep but I know I woke up again later with my heart still racing…. Why??!

Even sadder, at Dave and busters, my husband is talking to me about wanting to take weekend trips sometimes and I don’t feel it 😭🥺 I’m trying so hard to. I’m telling myself what I have with my husband is real love. I want to be romantic towards him but I just don’t feel. ❤️‍🩹 😰 After that awful dream, I was battling inside my head “it’s not that bad…. You’re being dramatic. You loved Andrew and why did you break up with him??” Ugh 😣 I stood in front of my husband talking away about stuff he wants to go do and he’s asking me do I wanna go with him but I’m just…. Tired. Numb. Sad. I felt blank looking at him, only seeing the dream in my head.

Andrew, you will never know or care how you’ve hurt me. 😓💔 All I ever wanted was to love you and get to know you. I didn’t ever imagine the pain you would cause and the sorrow and stress that follows me… The trail of smoke you’ve left behind causing me so much confusion and fog. I don’t hate you, I’m just disappointed at you. You didn’t have to force a relationship with me but don’t date me if you don’t love me. I could say so many negative things about you now but I don’t want to EVER hurt you the way you did me. I’ll never understand why you wanted to hurt me. Why it was so easy to lie to me and cheat. Why you could continuously say to me you didn’t feel good enough for me, when you KNEW I loved you. I wrote you a love song and recorded it for you. I made you a man crush Monday post every week AND I was faithful to you, most importantly. I never had feelings for anyone but you…. 💔💔💔 When do I stop hurting and being so sad? Alllll these years later. The dream was simply awful and frustrating. It’s more than “closure”. Andrew, it’s something I can’t see or understand yet but I’m not giving up hope. I’ve wished you well so many times and tried to let you live your life. I have NOT texted you or called. I’ve just let you be. So why do you haunt me so much?? Why can’t you let me be too??? I want nothing from you. I just don’t wanna be sad over you anymore….

I never was aware how disconnected I’ve truly been all this time. I was in too much fog before. My eyes have been opening up a little each day. There’s a part of my body that says I need to be doing stuff in this “healing journey” as if I’m being lazy or not wanting to move on but then I tell myself I am not lazy just tired and need to take it easy and stop beating myself up. ❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹 I only say my true thoughts and feelings here. I don’t feel comfortable to say all this out loud to anyone that knows me. 😢

[donnieluvsthings]

guyyyssss i didnt know amy shows up in palmtree panic this is gonna mess up my whole fic!!!

[transneonneko]

Things from Archie Sonic that I would love to see return in the Mainline Games and/or IDW Sonic!!

Recently, I decided to read some of the Archie Sonic Comic, from like issue 186ish up until the first MegaMan crossover and the reboot, mainly because there were some gaps in my knowledge of those stories. Mainly Issues 198 till 235, which I never got to read as a kid and, I have to say, there were a lot of really interesting concepts during Ian's run of comics before the reboot that I really loved. There was a lot of really interesting concepts I love after the reboot too. I wanna celebrate that. A lot of these concepts and story idea I feel really deserve another chance.

So I wanna make this list of stuff I wanna see return in either for stories in the Mainline Games or the IDW Sonic comics. Before we start, I do wanna add somethings. This post isn't meant to be shitting on IDW and being like "IDW would be better if they did this". I really love the IDW comics and universe. I also know that some of these concepts likely can't be done due SEGA Mandates and I'm not gonna include stuff like "Bring back the Freedom Fighters" because I feel asking to bring back characters isn't gonna be very productive, as much as I would like to see their return. Anyways, let's begin.

The Fate of the ARK

One thing that really inspired this list was this scene right her. We'll talk more about Silver's Future later but for now, let's focus on the ARK. I'm gonna assume anyone reading this knows the story of the ARK from SA2 and Shadow. Sadly, the ARK hasn't really been revisited in the main canon since Shadow, despite how iconic of a set piece it is. In the Archie Comics, we get a look at Silver's future and one of things that may have been the cause of how bad things are is the ARK crashed. Sadly, Archie got rebooted before the writers could go more into it but, from SA2, we know that the ARK was set to crash into the planet if all 7 Chaos Emeralds are placed into it, wiping out all life on the planet. This could be an excellent premise of another Silver adventure, whether it be in the comics or games, where Sonic, Silver and some friends have to stop someone from making the ARK crash into the planet.

Expanding the Eggman Empire/Egg Bosses

Something I've always found a bit lacking in the game canon is how the Eggman Empire itself has been presented. In the games, the Eggman Empire is usually just made up of Eggman, Metal Sonic, Orbot, Cubot, a bunch of robots and (recently) Infinite. It's not really an Empire if it's just one guy and a bunch of robots. The main goal is the conquer the world but we hardly see Eggman actually see what happens when Eggman conquers a place, like what happens to the people who used to live there, besides like Colours and Forces, where the Wisps and Mobians are usually just seen being imprisoned. The Egg Bosses are the perfect solution to this and adds so much to Sonic's World.

The Egg Bosses are Mobians who, either willingly or unwillingly, aligned themselves up with Eggman for whatever reason, becoming commanders of the Eggman Empire. This usually comes about when Eggman has taken over a part of the region and the people living in that region have no choice but to join the Eggman Empire, for their own safety. Not only does this make the Eggman Empire feel more than just one person but it also makes Eggman more a villain himself. It able to portray Eggman as someone to be feared and, I mean, this is a dictator and genocider who is pretty much declaring war against the world.

It also brings up some interesting thoughts about the world. Characters like Maw, Thunderbolt and even Nephthys to a degree joined up with Eggman because they felt it was the right thing to do for the sake of the world, or in Nephthys case, to stop things getting worst later on, meanwhile characters like Grand Battle Kukku are plotting to usurp Eggman, with Clove and Beauregard only working for Eggman to protect family or close ones.

As I said before, having these Egg Bosses also makes Eggman look more threaten, both because he's able to look like a "bigger bad" next to these villains he has command of and, because almost all the Egg Bosses hate Eggman's guts, they are cyberized, a terrifying process in which those who work for Eggman are focus to have parts of their body replaced with cybernetics, with either bombs which will blow if they decide to leave or a locking mechanism that will paralyze their entire body, ready to be locked up.

If either in the game or the IDW comic, I would like to see the Egg Boss concept return. It doesn't even need to be the same characters or use the name "Egg Boss." It would help expand the army of the Eggman Empire, as well as provide some fun bosses for the games I think.

Mobians and Humans living together

This was always a weird hangup I felt the series had. In the case of games between Sonic Adventure & Unleashed, Sonic and friends were the only Mobians, humans made up the NPCs while Mobians were reserved for main characters. Then in Forces and IDW, Mobians made up the background characters, so then Eggman is the only human. I really prefer it when they have the two living together, it makes it seems more normal and, honestly, a better solution than the whole "Two Worlds" explanation.

Eggman Seemingly Defeated

Can I just that I love Issues 198-200? In these 3 issues, Sonic and friends Eggman's main base, the Egg Dome. This including fighting on the outside of the base, involving fighting hoards of the Dark Egg Legion soldiers and Eggman in the Egg Phoenix. After dealing with the outside, Sonic and friends raid the Egg Dome itself, taking different directions, with the Dark Egg Legion seemingly retreating, until they reach the center of the base, where they are blocked off by a barricade, which only Sonic can pass through, giving a "Point of No Return" vibe, Dark Egg Legion soldiers lining up and saluting Sonic. Then Sonic reaches the center and finds Eggman in the Egg Tarantula, starting their final battle which Sonic wins. This defeat is enough for Eggman to lose his sanity, seemingly ending the war Sonic and the Freedom Fighters have been fighting their entire life.

Of course Eggman returns but, god, it's just such a memorable couple of issues. There's a real sense of finality to it. I would a sequence like this in the games, something that feels like truly ending the Eggman Empire and defeating them once and for all. Of course, it wouldn't be the end, Sonic games are always needing to be made which would lead to...

The New Rulers of the Eggman Empire

In the comics after the defeat of Eggman, the Eggman Empire is taken over by some of it's Commanders, the Iron Queen and Iron King, who rules the Empire as their own until they are defeated and Eggman's return.

I love the idea that even if the Eggman, there will always be someone there to take his place. The games could do this by having Neo Metal or Infinite take his place. Hell, IDW did have Neo Metal take over but I think what made that less interesting was that Neo Metal wasn't doing it for himself, he was doing it for Eggman. I think this would work well if a concept like the Egg Boss was introduced in the games, maybe have one of the characters part of that group take over OR have a lot of the more ambitious Egg Bosses war against each other to take command, until eventually Eggman returns and puts them in line.

Silver's Future

Silver is one of the most recurring characters, who always joins the gang when his future is in trouble. The problem is that we never see his future besides 06. We have no idea what Silver's future is currently until it's in danger and, even then, we never see it.

We see Silver's Future in both continuities of the Archie Comic, with two different takes. Pre-SGW has a destroyed city vibe, like 06 but less lava. Post-SGW brought a whole new take where people are ruled by a corrupt council where people are put into class groups, and security robots will arrest if you are not at your job at the right time. They even re-contextualize Silver's bracelets as cuffs that the robots can activate. With Silver being my favourite character as a kid, I remember being obsessed with this new world and story, wanting to know more.

I'm not saying they would need to copy this world exactly but it would be nice if they gave us a concrete and consistence look for Silver's Future.

The Heroic Metal Sonic

Right before the SGW, we were introduce to Shard the Metal Sonic. His story is that he was the original Metal Sonic, the one that raced Sonic in Stardust Speedway. He appeared later in the comic, where Sonic made him realized there was more to life than just being Eggman's killing machine. He seemingly died, but was rebuilt to serve as a member the Secret Freedom Fighters.

This one would be tricky to be included. It worked in the Archie comic as they had been many Metal Sonics throughout the series, each one getting destroyed. Meanwhile, there's only officially been one Metal Sonic in the games made by Eggman (two if we count Classic and Modern). Admittedly, Gemerl fits Shard's personality and does need to be used more in the games but having it be Metal Sonic is just a cooler concept.

I think a solution to this is that we have Metal Sonic 1.0 made by Eggman and, in Rivals 2, we have Metal Sonic 3.0 by Eggman Nega from the future. But what about Metal Sonic 2.0? I think we could have a game where after Metal Sonic fails, Eggman builds a replacement, being 2.0, which would give reason to Metal Sonic wanting to revolt, which could lead to a redemption? While I am loving the IDW comics, I do really miss a lot of what both Archie continuities offered. I haven't mention the some other concepts and stories I liked that really focused on certain characters such as Naugus, Geoffrey St. John, Dimitri etc. Maybe I'll talk about that another day...

[zedecksiew]

Kriegsmesser

When I received Kriegsmesser in the mail I finally googled "kriegsmesser", and found out it meant "war knife". Which makes sense; Gregor Vuga's ZineQuest 2021 project is a tribute to "roleplaying games named after medieval weapons".

I love Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay's piss-renaissance Old World setting. I tend to pick up WFRP-a-likes sight unseen:

Warlock (quality);

Small But Vicious Dog (yesss);

Zweihander (which I have come to hate); etc.

Anyway: I backed Kriegsmesser without really knowing anything about it. So Kriegsmesser surprised me.

+

Kriegsmesser grew out of a Troika! cutting. Its 36 backgrounds are compatible with that system: each come with a couple of lines of description; a list of skills and possessions; an a visual cameo cropped from actual 16th-Century woodcut art.

Cohesive and competently flavourful. My favourite is the Labourer, who always starts with "an empty pine box":

"You've spent your life breaking your back, working hard for other people's profit. You have nothing to show for it but a spectre of the future."

(The obligatory ratcatcher-analogue , called the Vermin Snatcher, is here -- check that box!)

+

Kriegsmesser also comes with its own ruleset. Hits all the notes it needs to, with lots of orientation and advice for how to run a game -- but ultimately super-simple, mechanically:

Roll d6s equal to the value in a relevant skill, look at the highest result. 6 means you get what you want; 5 or 4 means you get what you want, at a cost.

It's not quite a dice pool, since only the highest result matters. No opposed tests.

+

Kriegsmesser intends to have this base mechanic handle fights, too. The combat rules - with armour, toughness and weapon values -- are nested in an optional section.

For a WFRP-a-like, this feels like a purposeful departure.

Many of WFRP's most celebrated adventures are celebrated for bits that their underlying ruleset does little to support: the investigative structure of "Shadows Over Bogenhafen"; the complicated timetable of "Rough Night At Three Feathers".

Ludwig von Wittgenstein never needed a statblock to be memorable.

Not to say that lethal, hyper-detailed fights isn't super Warhammer-y. (Kriegsmesser includes an injury table, broken down by body-part -- check that box!)

But here it feels like Gregor is saying: "I'm not Games Workshop and Roleplay isn't an ancillary of Warhammer Fantasy Battle; we can evoke grim-and-perilous-ness even if we fork away from heavy combat rules."

+

It has become ritual for me to read my partner Sharon to sleep.

Sometimes I read her RPG things. The other night, after I read her Kriegsmesser's introduction --

" The Empire wages an eternal war against Chaos. Its priests preach of Chaos as an intrusion, something unnatural ... These men see Chaos in anything that does not buttress their rule. They call it disorder, anarchy, corruption. They say that to rebel against their order is to rebel against god and nature. That the current arrangement is natural, rather than artificial.

" Meanwhile, the common people look to the Empire to deliver the justice that they were promised and they find none. They look to the Empire and do not see themselves reflected in it. They look around at what they were taught was right and good and see only misery.

" Their world begins to unravel. Chaos comes to reside in every heart and mind sound enough to look at the world and conclude it is broken. "

-- Sharon remarked: "Nice one."

The RPG things I read her generally leave Sharon lukewarm. She has enjoyed a couple -- but, yeah: for many of these books, text isn't their strong point.

Kriegsmesser is the only time I can recall Sharon praising the writing of an RPG book without my prompting.

Nice one.

+

That introduction surprised me. It underlines Kriegsmesser's biggest departure from its WFRP-a-like pedigree: how it characterises Chaos.

Corruption, a mainstay of most grim-dark-y games, is made an optional rule, like combat. Explaining this, Gregor writes:

" Kriegsmesser partially subverts or deconstructs the traditional conceit of Warhammer where the characters are threatened by the forces of Chaos. In this game it is the player characters who are the agents of 'Chaos': they are likely to become the 'rats' under the streets, and the wild 'beast-men' in the woods bringing civilisation down. It's the Empire and its nobles and priests that are corrupt ... "

Describing the Empire, Gregor writes:

" The Empire encompasses the world yet is terrified of the without. It enforces itself with steel and fire yet considers itself benevolent. It consumes the labour of others with bottomless hunger yet calls its subalterns lazy, or wasteful, or greedy. "

Holy shit this is the first time I've seen the word "subaltern" in an RPG thing, I think?

I love this.

+

Rant incoming:

With every passing decade Warhammer abridges its Moorcockian roots more and more; nowadays it is "Order = Good" and "Chaos = Evulz", pretty much.

Gone are the days when chaos berserkers are implied to grant safe passage to the helpless (because Khorne is as much a god of martial honour as he is a god of bloodletting); Or that the succor of Papa Nurgle is a genuine comfort to the downtrodden; Or that Tzeentch could unironically embody the principle of hope, of change for the better.

As Chaos is distilled into unequivocal villainy, Order goons get painted as Good Guys by default --

Giving rise to Warhammer's contemporary problem, wherein fans are no longer able to recognise satire.

+

When I was introduced to 40K, it seemed pretty clear that the Imperium was a Brazil-esque absurdist-fascist bureaucratic state: planets are exterminatus-ed due to clerical error; the way it stamps out rebellions is the reason why rebellions begin in the first place.

Tragi-comic grimdarkness. That was the point.

Nowadays that tone has shifted -- and you're more likely than not going to encounter a 40K fan who argues that the Imperium's evils are a justified necessity, to prevent worse wrongs.

We went from:

"Space Nazis because insane dumbass fuckery, also chainswords vroom vroom rule of badass!"

To:

"Space Nazis because it makes sense actually, and also chainswords make sense because [insert convoluted rationalisation here]."

+

Even Fantasy Flight's Black Crusade line, which ostensibly offers a look at 40K from the perspective of Chaos, never truly commits to its conceit.

With prep you could play a heroic band of mutant freedom fighters, resisting the tyranny of the Evil Imperium --

But I don't remember Black Crusade giving that kind of campaign any actual support. Its supplements service the relatively more conventional "You can play villains!" angle; the Screaming Vortex is a squarely Daemons-vs-Daemons setting.

+

This tonal drift culminates, in my mind, with Age of Sigmar, Games Workshop's heroic-fantasy replacement of the old WFRP / WHFB setting.

Here's the framing narrative for AoS's recently-launched Third Edition. Let's see whether I've got things right:

A highly professionalised, technologically-superior tip-of-the-spear fighting force (the Stormcast Eternals);

Backed by an imperialist military-industrial complex (Azyrheim);

"Liberating" rich new territories (Ghur) for exploitation by a civilised settler culture (Settlers of Sig-- I mean, Free Cities);

Justified because the locals are irredeemable heathens (Chaos and Kruleboyz).

I mean, that's a sweet-ass Warhammer setting. It's contemporary, laser-guided lampoon. Except it is played totally straight.

In AoS, a literal crusade is justified as the moral good.

+

I think Kriegsmesser surprised me because its framing of Chaos -- as a promise, as the light of hope shining through cracks of a broken world --

It feels so fucking right.

Yes: its a subaltern deconstruction of the conventional moral universe of Warhammer -- but it is a take that is also already implied / all but supported in the various depictions of the setting: from WFRP to the modified title-crawl of Black Crusade.

I'm annoyed I didn't think of it, myself. Damn you, Gregor!

And I'm annoyed that more Warhammer fans aren't thinking it, also.

+

lmagine if Kriegsmesser's perspective stood on equal standing as the GW orthodoxy. Imagine if, instead of simplifying stuff into "Order = Good" and "Chaos = Evulz", GW did a Gregor Vuga.

You'd have a Rashomon-ed Warhammer, where villainy depends on perspective:

You are fearful villagers, huddled around your priest, muttering prayers against the wild braying coming from the trees beyond your gates.

You are Aqshyian tribeswomen, defying the thunder warrior towering over you, the foreigner demanding you bow to his foreign god.

You are a Tzeentchian revolutionary cell, desperately trying to disrupt a Inquisitor's transmissions so your home planet isn't destroyed by fascist orbital fire.

+

Get Kriegsmesser HERE.

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( Image sources: https://theenemywithinremixed.wordpress.com/2021/05/21/thoughts-on-the-4e-death-on-the-reik/ https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/59-brazil https://www.deviantart.com/faroldjo/art/Warhammer-40k-Black-Crusade-273596035 https://www.warhammer-community.com/2021/06/09/fancy-a-new-life-bringing-order-to-the-mortal-realms-join-a-dawnbringer-crusade-today/ https://www.nme.com/blogs/the-movies-blog/team-america-15-anniversary-south-park-2558750 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Palestinian_children_and_Israeli_wall.jpg )

[utilitycaster]

Actual Play: How it works

This is a collection of how I think of actual play as a medium, because TTRPG actual play is a unique one - a combination of improvisation, a rule set, and randomizing elements. This isn’t fully comprehensive, and I may add to it in the future as I come up with more ideas. I’m also thinking of providing some examples/more in-depth stuff for the items in separate posts, so please let me know if that’s something you would want.

Most of the observations here heavily skew towards D&D and Pathfinder actual play, as they are what I know best. Other systems I’ve listened to (PbtA, Cortex, Savage Worlds) fit in here as well, but this may not apply to all actual play, particularly GM-less games or games that are primarily played as one-shots.

Finally, and I say this only because it is a recurring problem on the social media that I happen to find incredibly irritating: you are also welcome and encouraged to have other opinions, disagree with me, dislike all of this, etc. If you have things to say, my inbox is the best place; this is too long for multiple reblogs and this is a sideblog so replies are tricky. However, if you are the kind of person who is inclined to say things like “Actually, there was an exception to this rule! It’s in the backmasked audio at 06:59:32 in the outtakes of episode 192c of Dungeons and Discotheques! :)” I would like to provide you with this actual play line quote from Adaine Abernant in Fantasy High: I think that you feel like you have a lot to offer, and please take this the right way... you don't.

Onto the thoughts, below the jump!

On narrative devices and rules and the random element:

Foreshadowing is possible, but limited to specific circumstances. A GM can (and should) foreshadow! The point of foreshadowing is to set expectations, and GMs should have hints that indicate things about the world that the party may encounter later, provide potential plot hooks, or otherwise provide the party with information. Similarly, players can do things that nod towards as of yet unrevealed elements of their backstories. However, it is impossible to deliberately foreshadow plot resolutions, because it is unknown what they will be. That doesn’t mean that in retrospect things may happen that echo back to earlier events, but the intent to foreshadow was not there - it’s a happy accident.

I don’t want to say normal narrative rules don’t apply because what are the normal narrative rules, really? However, I think an important thing to emphasize is that narrative satisfaction is not guaranteed. This is especially true if the cast has agreed character death is an option, but even beyond that, an unlucky or lucky roll can seemingly cut an arc short or take things in a weird and unforeseen direction. Because there is an element of randomness, randomness will occur. This, along with the character agency I discuss later, is one of my favorite things about actual play. It strips out the need for a moral or message or specific beats - not that those can’t arise, but they can’t be forced - and as such it can make for unusual, creative, and very true-to-life stories even in a fantasy setting.

On character role, viewpoint and agency:

Actual play stories have an ensemble of viewpoint characters (the PCs). This is perhaps the clearest restriction that exists, at least in all of the game systems I’ve mentioned. There is no good way to depict NPCs acting on their own unless the PCs have a way to observe them, unseen (magical or mundane). It is extremely difficult to have one player play multiple PCs, and if a player leaves there is not a good way to recast their PC. This doesn’t mean NPCs can’t do things with each other offscreen that have implications for the story, nor that PCs can’t come and go or become NPCs, but it does mean a good GM is very careful about NPC interactions because it gets very boring and non-collaborative very quickly to watch someone talk with themselves.

The PCs hold a level of agency that characters in other media do not. Statements about how the characters have a mind of their own in original fiction aside (sidebar: I am team ‘they don’t, you just didn’t realize that the way you wrote their personality and the way you wrote your plot conflicted until you actually started writing it out, which is very understandable’) PCs do in fact have a mind of their own separate from the GM and from each other.

Something I like about this is that unless you are coming up with conspiracy theories regarding the interpersonal dynamics of the players themselves (in which case I think you’re both a creep and a weirdo (derogatory)) or if the GM is not respecting player agency (which I feel is usually very easy to see; see below for more on that) you do not get cases of “these characters are together simply because the author felt like pairing them off” as can happen in scripted media. Any romantic relationship is, inherently, a mutually agreed choice between the originators of these characters, and more generally any plot or relationship necessarily needs to have something that appeals to all characters involved. It may be as simple as “these are my friends and I want to keep hanging out”, but, despite this being improv, it’s a medium where saying “no” is always an option.

With that said there is still room for players to be uncooperative or selfish. It’s rare, but it does exist, and I’m personally of the opinion that it’s in part the GM’s responsibility to have a conversation with that player and to not play into their attention grabbing. That said, with one notable exception, all the accusations I’ve seen about this have seemed to me to be more “I don’t like this player/character/ship/arc and I am going to claim they are stealing focus, despite it being justified,” and not genuinely about a player being obnoxious.

Agency separate from the person who creates the world is perhaps the most unique element of actual play and at this point I’m going to talk a little about how a good GM fosters that.

I’ve said before that when a GM has things happen that are not at least mostly a direct response to character actions, they are typically either world-building or a hook, and can be both. I think of this sort of as a variant on Chekhov’s gun, actually; the gun doesn’t have to go off, ultimately, in actual play, but it is saying the following:

This is a world where there are guns hung on the wall sometimes.

Someone else might do something with this gun.

You can attempt to do something with this gun before they do.

And then the players decide how they want to interpret it and what they want to do, and the dice indicate the level of success in doing so.

A good GM should encourage the players to explore and be creative, and more than anything, reward agency. This doesn’t mean rewarding it with success; rather, it means if someone explicitly indicates they want to interact with an element of the world, you should give them the tools such that eventually, they can try to do so. You can also give them reasons in-game why they should change their mind, or make it so that it’s almost certain to fail if that is reasonable, but if you are trying to flat-out shut it down without providing an in-world reason why, the cracks will almost certainly show.

One important thing to remember about GM-ing: GMs will probably come into the game with some ideas of what’s going on in the world, and some level of understanding of what the world looks like. That will be influenced by the players, both in terms of the consequences of their actions and choices, and also by what the players are interested in. Which is to say: even if there is a session zero, and the GM states a specific premise, that can change! Characters develop, player interests change, dice rolls do weird things, and so a good GM absolutely must if not kill their darlings at least remove, recycle, and adapt them based on the direction of the game and motivations of the characters. Even in a plot-driven campaign, the players and GM and what makes them happy needs to drive the story, because fundamentally, this is a game that should be fun. Which brings us to...

On the Watsonian and the Doylist in actual play:

Stepping back for a second: the context in which people are creating fiction influences them. End of sentence. It’s ridiculous to think it doesn’t. This means everything from political events and worldwide trends, to the media the creator is consuming or has consumed, to personal life events. There are always going to be in- and out-of-universe explanations for choices in fiction.

In actual play, the players and GM know the underlying rules of the world, and it’s difficult to truly split the party and have everyone not involved leave in a way that feels fun, so everyone always has information that they can’t really use in-game. Also it’s a fully improvised medium that is primarily theater of the mind, so unconscious choices, misunderstandings, and accidents are frequently not edited out, and people are human. Which is to say I think it’s important to take this into consideration in one’s analysis; it’s not that you can’t incorporate a Watsonian reason for something that happened, but Doylist reasons are given a weight that they may not have in an edited work.

Three of the Doylist reasons beyond the misunderstandings and accidents I wanted to cover are metagaming, awareness that this is for an audience, and character knowledge.

Metagaming exists in many TTRPGs, and it’s not actually inherently bad. When a DM in D&D says “that just hits” you get an idea of the AC of the creature, and you know your own attack rolls, and you can make decisions based on that, when, in a ‘real’ fantasy battle scenario, you probably wouldn’t gain all that insight from a single hit. The rules of the TTRPG are considered part of normal acceptable metagaming. There’s also the more general one; if you start the first session in a tavern, there is an unspoken expectation that the PCs will interact and form an impromptu group and not just quietly drink their ale and leave - basically, the rules of improv still apply. This is a good thing. And finally, there’s the acknowledgement that you are people with feelings and this is a game and so if someone is upset you stop, or you have discussions about consent between sessions that inform actions in-game. Metagaming just gets obnoxious when someone rolls a nat 1 and then argues that this is obvious information and they should know, or looks up every monster in the manual when you encounter it instead of playing true to the character’s knowledge.

In actual play, the ‘hey fellow tavern-goers, would you like to be a group’ form of metagaming, the “oh right this is a story and we should move the story forward,” is even more important than in home D&D games. This is where I recommend listening or reading some Q&As or watching some after shows, because you’ll hear players talk about this. A 5-hour shopping episode or extensive foraging can get boring to watch or listen to (and unlike accidentally boring or frustrating things, are pretty easy to predict and avoid). On the flip side, a risky choice might seem more appealing when you know there’s an audience who would love the payoff.

I am personally, perhaps unsurprisingly given what I said about player dynamic conspiracy theories and randomness (or, outside of this post, my strong dislike of certain popular fan theories), not a big fan of creators catering to audiences’ every whim...but it’s unavoidable that they will take the audience experience in mind.

Finally, character knowledge, which is the opposite of metagaming - when a character knows something the player doesn’t. This is sometimes covered with, for example, GM statements like “you would know, as a person with history proficiency, that this country is actually in a regency period.” If the character had, in improv, before the GM had a chance to say that, mentioned the king, that’s just because the player did not know that and had made an assumption.

Personally I find going deep down the rabbit hole with things like this - “why doesn’t this character, who CLAIMS to be from this country, not know this?”, or clearly OOC statements - tends not to actually spark any interesting theories, but that is, ultimately, an opinion.

A few final thoughts on different formats of actual play

True livestream/live-to-tape (Critical Role, Into the Motherlands, and the second season of Fantasy High): the main thing to keep in mind is Doylist explanations are even more important because there is quite literally no editing. Also, there will possibly be some of those more boring stretches or even a little OOC metagaming discussions within the structure of the game, because there’s no way around it.

Editing, but primarily just to remove long explanations/math and doing soundscaping (NADDPod, Rusty Quill Gaming): Pretty similar; a lot of them even make the choice to leave in OOC metagaming discussions, so it’s mostly that there are fewer cases of people slowly adding numbers.

More extensive editing and possibly some predefined other elements (TAZ, most Dimension 20 shows): this may fall into a more traditional story structure. It’s not to say that there won’t be surprises, because the players do still have agency, but the ‘rails’ might be a little more apparent; there might be some DM monologuing done after the fact (beyond just cleaning up the audio) or choices that were not scripted per se, but not exactly improvised either (think how D20 tends to have pre-set battle maps and earlier seasons had a pretty strict RP/Battle structure.

Somewhat relatedly there are broad story structures, which is more of a spectrum, ranging from sandbox (Critical Role) to very clearly GM-driven missions (TAZ Balance and, to an extent, Amnesty); nearly all of the other shows here fall into a structure of “here is your overall goal, how precisely you get there is up to you although, like any GM, I will provide in-story information on where it may make sense to go that will often funnel you towards specific places.”

I do have a theory that since TAZ Balance in particular was an entry point for so many people, it takes them time to adjust to the more sprawling, unpredictable, and difficult-to-organize stories other actual play can have, but ultimately it is a matter of personal preference and all of these still fall into the category of actual play.

[zippityzap]

My Top Ten Favourite Moments in Sonic Games

The past 30 years the Sonic series has had a lot of memorable moments, too many to list fully, so in celebration of my recent follower milestone, today I’ll be presenting and explaining my personal top ten favourite moments. I would like to emphasise that this list is very subject and is highly influenced by my personal experiences with the Sonic series. It’s not intended to be objective by any means, and I would love to hear what moments you guys would put on your own lists! Additionally, this list is only for things from the games, in the future I’ll make another list for other Sonic media

Without further ado, let’s get started!

10) City Escape’s GUN truck

Interesting set pieces and small scripted moments in levels have been a staple in the Sonic series since the beginning. Sure, they’re not always challenging from a game-play standpoint, but they’re always an entertaining spectacle. One of the most ionic of these moments (and one of my personal favourites) is being chased by the GUN truck. City Escape is already a highly memorable level from the get-go, but the truck sequence is the cherry on top. An additional shout-out to both of the Generations versions of the level for not only bringing it back but changing it up just enough to surprise you and keep you on your toes!

9) Escaping Null Space

Forces is one of those games that I would describe as a truly mixed bag. Yeah, there are a lot of things about the game that kinda sucked or were disappointing, but when it hit a high, BOY did it hit. While I agree with many people that having the Null Space portion of this level actually have gameplay in it would’ve made this moment impact a little harder, I’m just in love with that transition from the silence of null space to the bombastic chorus of Fist Bump. I thought it was a really exciting moment that hypes you up for the rest of the level.

8) Sonic Heroes’ opening cinematic

Heroes was my first 3D Sonic game, and consequently it was my introduction to a lot of things that are staples for the Sonic series. Vocal themes, an extended cast and their interpersonal relationships, story routes that connect to each other. These are some of my favourite things about the Sonic series, so even if some aspects of the game aren’t that great, I could never ever hate or even dislike Heroes. I feel like the opening cinematic to Heroes (the one with the theme song as the music) is the aspect of Heroes that really encapsulates those feelings best. I must’ve spent hours as a kid letting it play over and over again singing along to it.

7) Shadow the Hedgehog (2004) title screen cinematic

Before you laugh, here is where I must remind you that this list is extremely subjective and highly influenced by my personal experiences and memories. Ok now imagine this: you are a 7-8 year old kid, and your experience with media that isn’t mainstream radio or educational children’s tv shows is fairly limited. You’re getting deep into the Sonic series for the first time thanks to playing Heroes and seeing some of the cartoons and you’re interested to know more about the series. You visit Sonic Central, the official site at the time, and they have a music player with a variety of songs from the games. One of the songs it plays is I Am (All of Me). I won’t lie, I was a little blown away because I’d never really heard anything like it before, so I go to find out more about the game it’s from and I come across that opening cinematic.

I think it’s very, very, easy as an adult to laugh at the Shadow the Hedgehog game and it’s… direction, but adult me was not the target audience of that game, kid me was. Say what you want but the effect that game was going for I think is something that just hits best with sheltered little kids, and I’d be curious if anyone else had a similar experience.

6) The ending of Sonic and the Black Knight

I won’t go into too much detail on this one, since this is very much a fan favourite moment and many others have gone into detail about why it’s so great. Black Knight is certainly one of the games that captures Sonic’s character the best, and his words at the end of the game certainly encapsulate this. Followed by the amazing credits theme of Live Life, the ending of Black Knight is certainly one of the most emotional moments in the series.

5) Sonic Generation’s credits

Anniversary games can be a bit of a controversial subject for the Sonic fandom; 06 was one of the games released for the 15th anniversary while Forces is often considered to be a 25th anniversary game. I think Generations really achieved the feeling and the specialness of a celebratory event though. It’s one of my favourite Sonic games and the whole game is full of brilliant moments but I feel the credits really evoke the celebration vibe: a Sonic 1-esque music melody as the credits song, showing footage from the original games each stage is from, and the cherry on top: a ‘Happy Birthday’ message to Sonic recorded from fans who attended the 2011 Sonic Boom and Summer of Sonic conventions. It genuinely warms my heart every time I finish the game.

4) Metropolis Capital City level

Forces gets another representation on this list! Honestly, I believe the parts of Forces that were exciting, such as this, really demonstrate my opinion that Forces had a lot of potential to be a really good game. But I digress, this was my favourite level from Forces because it shows how fun of a villain Infinite could be. The way that Infinite follows you for most of the stage and uses illusions to fuck around with the stage itself? That’s really fun, and it’s not just stage gimmicks for the sake of having a gimmick, it ties into the powers of the villain and makes the player feel involved in a way because Infinite is messing around with you specifically and is having to make to think on your toes. Granted, part of makes this stage stand out so much in a good way is because it’s so different from the rest of the game and it takes you by surprise, so maybe the impact wouldn’t be as hard hitting if this sort of design was used more in the game, but c’mon when you have a villain who’s powers are illusion-based, the sky’s the limit!

3) Sonic Unleashed’s opening cutscene

Can you believe this game came out over a decade ago and the opening cutscene still looks this stunning?! Depending on who you ask, some might even argue that this cutscene has yet to be topped, and honestly, I’m in that camp. Not only is the rendering beautiful and the choreography of the action exciting, but this scene does a wonderful job of setting up for the viewer regardless of how much prior experience they have with the series who Sonic and Dr. Eggman are, as well as setting up the events of the game. I recall being very happy when I heard the animation team for this cutscene would also be handling the animation for the movie.

2) Beating Sonic Unleashed for the first time

So, this is another pretty personal one. I played Unleashed for the first time a few years ago and it is in my opinion, one of the most difficult Sonic games. Sometimes intentionally, sometimes for completely bullshit reasons. My first ever run of Eggmanland was around 40 minutes long and apparently that’s considered a pretty decent time for your first go, but christ it was a nightmare to finish (looking at you, that one section where you have to platform on pipes without a drop-shadow). The following boss sections weren’t much easier- I don’t rage much with video games, I tend to whisper swears under my breath at most but that part where you’re running on the Gaia Colossus had me screaming in anger every time I lost a life.

BUT when I finally beat the difficult sections? Felt like finally cracking your back after feeling stiff all day. Like taking the first sip of water after a walk on a hot day. The relief and satisfaction I felt was indescribable and slowly winding down while Dear My Friend plays as the credits theme was blissful. I don’t play difficult games that often so Unleashed is one of very few games that I have this sort of memory with.

1) Watching my dad get the good ending of Sonic 1

Here’s a small amount of backstory for this pick. My dad got his first job at 19 and he used his first pay-check to purchase the then newly released Sega Mega Drive. He had a lot of games for the console including Sonic the Hedgehog. He kept the console and games in good condition, and they were still perfectly playable by the time his first child was born (aka me!). Sonic 1 was the first video game I can remember playing at roughly 2-3 years old. I wasn’t good enough to get past Green Hill Act 3 but I loved watching my dad play through the game.

I’ll admit; his playstyle’s a little odd, he avoids speed when he can and instead, he likes to search for as many rings and extra lives as possible, but it was so enjoyable to watch nonetheless. The best bit was whenever he would manage to get all the chaos emeralds in a playthrough and be able to get the good ending. Sure, the only difference between the good and bad endings is just some flowers, but it was nice to see him be happy that he was able to achieve that ending.

And that’s the end of my list! Upon looking over it I realise most of it is either openings or endings to games…oops. I suppose they tend to be parts of games that get special attention during development since they bookend the journey. When I get around to making the second list, I’m sure it’ll have more variety, and as I said before, I’d be very interested in hearing what everyone else’s favourite moments are!

[hencethebravery]

>> first and last lines writing game <<

I’ve been writing all wknd so I’m going to take advantage of that and play these games that @eirabach has been doing. I love you, boo.

Tagging: @jump-on-winds-back @mymostimaginaryfriend @justanotherwannabeclassic @distant-rose @jadeddiva @soft-october-night

>> 01. last line(s) you’ve written

01. wip, “dearly departed,” spn, deancas: Despite all this, and perhaps in keeping with his own preference for following through on his habits, he has never once stayed for Open Mic Night. It’s not as if he has anything against it in theory, he just never felt especially compelled to do so. And he was never a big fan of crowds generally.

“You should think about staying tonight,” Meg advises, sliding his third cup back over the counter. “I’ve heard this guy before, he’s good.”

02. wip, “the apportioners,” og: Case in point: Never betray a demi-god. Particularly one so unbelievably busted. Who would go so far as to force her to watch the other demi-god she is almost certainly (and regrettably) falling in love with, commit one more atrocity. To force her to watch her son die. Again. To force her to watch him choose between her and his family. Far, far more trouble than they’re worth. And sure—sure. She is angry. She may well always be angry. And yet. There’s the kitchen. The small, warm kitchen with the cream-colored tiled floors, inlaid with red grout. Where Edie makes too much bread and Estelle stores her spelled sourdough starters. Where Greg made her a cup of chamomile tea and described the unique softness of Clemente’s thread—how it curled and straightened and existed. And so she refuses. She refuses to do what some other irreparably broken version of her friend has expected her to do.

So. She lets him go. Again.

>> 02. first lines of my last 20 10 (20 is just... so fucking many; if you wanna do 20 be my guest but i have shit to do today) fics

01. wip, “dearly departed,” spn, deancas: Creative writing is so not his forte and really, what’s there to say about The Lodge that hasn’t already been said? A revolving door of adjectives that infect the collegiate discourse every few years—when some starry-eyed freshman sees the tall, thin door frame in all its carved, unknowable glory and gets it in their sweet, sweet head that surely no one has ever thought to opine on the virtues of a local, now-legendary establishment that seems to have haunted Main Street since long before time began. So, what is there to say that hasn’t already been said?

02. complete, “untitled,” spn, deancas: The two of ‘em establish the somewhat rude habit of bailing during get-togethers without telling anyone. They stop answering their phones at any point before noon shortly after that. He’d call it a side effect of New Couple Syndrome (NCS), but it’s something they continue doing long after any reasonable person would call something “new” (and honestly, he’s not even sure you could say it was “new” when it was new, technically).

03. complete, “untitled,” spn, deancas: There’s a fucking manticore in Memphis. Seriously. Human face, body of a lion, the whole freakin’ nine.

“Certainly one of the more… imaginative of God’s creatures,” Castiel muses, “albeit, unsustainable.” 

04. complete, “herbalist’s guide to skyrim,” star wars, reylo: Rey Kenobi really needed to get in the habit of bringing dates to restaurants she had no emotional attachment to. She had already lost an unacceptable number of extremely dear favorites that had been there for her when she’d had less than nothing and now? Blighted by the memory of mediocre men who she knew she had given far too much power. She knew she had an association problem, okay? She and her mildly overpriced therapist were working on it. Had been working on it. For a while. She really missed the dumplings from Hunger Pang.

05. complete, “a grief observed,” star wars, reylo: The presumptive triumph inherent to the return of the self? Painfully short-lived. It is brief and blinding and there is a feeling akin to invincibility singing in his veins. A humming that echoes in the gruff tenor of what could only be his father’s voice. How it must have felt when the heroes made yet another daring escape—against all the odds. The euphoria that occurs when you have begun to think that maybe, just maybe, you’ve finally won. It makes the loss so much worse than he could have ever imagined. Not when you’ve gotten so close to having everything you never even knew you wanted. And that’s half the battle, isn’t it? Knowing what you want. Like it’s easy.

06. complete, “a super solid history of the “good old fashioned lover boy(s),” c. the beginning (or there about) to now-ish,” good omens, aziraphale x crowley: Perhaps one of the cruelest tricks that God has ever played (and the list was indeed long) was in allowing angels to believe they were incapable of love. There is some amount of debate as to whether or not this was entirely by accident. She was a busy woman after all━perhaps that was why it, the question of whether or not angels were truly capable of love, had slipped through one of her metaphysical cracks (of which, admittedly, there were many). Those who managed to refrain from falling had quite an easier time believing this particular theory to be very much the case. A largely unspoken, slightly offended, “She would never,” followed by an affirmation of the belief in the long held assumption that they were above such things anyway, so really, what did it even matter, and can we please return to the task at hand?

07. complete, “first family,” ouat, captain charming: If the chronically thin, awkward, and punk-ass 15 year old version of Killian Jones could have, somehow, opened a portal in time and space; a feat which might have allowed him to peer into the future in an attempt to witness what it might hold, he would have likely imbibed several ill-advised shots of cheap bloody rum, and then quite dramatically flung himself atop the rumpled sheets of his perpetually unmade bed. If the younger Jones had even an inkling of the type of life he’d be living as a 35 year old man─with a full time job, a mortgage, a husband, one wildly photogenic dog─he would have done everything in his power to steer himself off such a disturbingly clean-cut, well-behaved course.

08. complete, “untitled,” ouat, captain swan: Rather predictably (and not without a somewhat inevitable feeling of frustration), Emma Swan was one of those people who had never put much stock in the notion of “vibes.” She had a “freaking superpower,” according to Ruby, which allowed her to suss out the truth about people, but as soon as Ruby suggested that the same might be true of certain places, Emma had chuckled, as if it was some unheard of thing.

09. complete, “untitled,” ouat, captain charming: In the end, he’d chosen the place because to be quite bloody honest it was precisely where you might expect the writer of an obscure indie mag to live. It was an older building (a suitably generous designation), tucked in between the modernist monstrosities of the last 20 or 30 years. Replete with gorgeous, if not ill-kept, accoutrements framing the windows; crumbling steps and a brick exterior in varying shades of red and orange. The aesthetic was rounded out by the kind of neglectful landlord you might expect, a horrid man who frequently enjoyed reminding his tenants that he lived, “out of state,” and they’d have to, “be patient.”

10. complete,” untitled,” ouat, captain charming: There’s an old adage about assumptions that Killian Jones finds physically repulsive. It is so unerringly awful, in fact, that he won’t even deign to repeat the thing in his own head. You know what it is, it’s not as if he needs to speak the actual words. And regardless of the fact that there’s this old, tired saying about assumptions, people still do it, and he’s done it, and ya know what? It kind of worked out in his favor, so, take that.

[breadknight-likes-things]

Bread’s Game Journal 06/27/20: Through The Dark Portal, An Outland Retrospective, Part 6: Netherstorm

Netherstorm barely exists.  All that’s left of this unknown region of Dreanor (Though often implied to be the island of Faraland, a zone cut from Warlords of Dreanor during development), is a swirling mass of floating rocks, energy beams, and, surprisingly, verdant jungle terrariums, maintaining the most peaceful ecosystem left on Outland.  I’ll be honest, I’m probably going to spend most of this post talking about the Eco-Domes, because they’re one of the coolest concepts in World of Warcraft as a whole, and I wish Blizzard had done more with them than they did!

The vast majority of Netherstorm is magically scarred, broken sections of landmass floating through the Twisting Nether, only barely held on to the rest of Outland itself via a rickety, Goblin built,  bridge from Blades Edge.  In this purple wasteland you have all sorts of dangers, rogue Goblins from the bizarre “Area 52″ Settlement, Broken Dreani clinging to their ruins, Blood Elves siphoning all the magic they can from the land, even the Burning Legion with a strong foothold around the edges of this place.

Much of the zone outside the Eco-Domes is so far gone, it’s a wonder anyone even decided to try to save the isolated portions they did!

The more interesting section of this zone though, is the almost inexplicable dense jungle in the dead center.  The Eco-Domes are a project set up by the Ethereals, a race of mysterious energy beings, presumably so they can have a nice place to live on this fried hunk of rock drifting through space.  Boy howdy did they succeed!  The outside of the domes are just a hot pink mess of weird looking force fields, giving you no real indication of the beauty that’s inside!  Once you cross the field and see for yourself what’s actually in the domes though, you’ll be floored by the dense jungles and peaceful meadows inside.

The visual design for the jungles and forests contained inside the domes is some true 10/10 work, best in the whole expansion!

It’s an incredible dichotomy, as even among the messed up locales of Outland, Netherstorm is in terrible shape.  I’d forgive anyone for not picking Netherstorm as the place to finish off your 60-70 leveling, because it seems like it’s just gonna be pink rocks floating around in space!  It’s far from it though, it’s thick jungle canopy, it’s lakes and swamps, it’s heards of animals living in a literal bubble, unaware of the chaos that exists outside the controller environment they live in.

The Eco Domes do so much to enhance the setting, that I've long since wished for something similar to this in a newer expansion pack, but have yet to really get it!  You could argue that Sholazar Basin in Wrath of the Lich King filled a similar “How is this even here?” space, but it just isn’t the same!  There’s really nothing quite like taking a peaceful stroll through the forest, looking up and seeing the pink sky, and knowing that beyond that protection is an insanely dangerous world, one literally falling apart at the seams.

Best Refuge In A Broken Land Award: The Stormspire:

As the Ethereal capital, the Stormspire exists as a huge tower, far above the jungle floor in the main Eco-Dome.  There’s not a whole ton to do here, but for my money it’s probably the best settlement in the whole of Outland.  I even like it more than Shattrath!  There’s something that feels extremely safe about being that many degrees removed from the danger.  Safe under the eco-dome, among so many guards, and hundreds of feet above the dense jungle below.

Random Screenshot Of The Day:

Oh yeah, I guess it’s also worth mentioning Keal’Thas is just sucking up magic straight out of space this whole time.  We’ll get to more about him when I hit the bonus areas of this retrospective (of which there are at least two!) but suffice to say he’s up to some sinister stuff.

Stray Notes:

- I finished The Last of Us Part 2 today, it was a truly 10/10, masterpiece of a video game.  I will never play it again.

-  That said I’ll probably do a spoiler filled final thoughts post on it tomorrow, so get excited for that!

[sammyspreadyourwings]

U said to talk to u about ur AUs so here I come! Let’s do some more world building yeah? *cracks knuckles* I hope you don’t mind the up-coming long but very incoherent and messy rant about the WITCH!AU because I have MANY thoughts so let’s chat?! :DDD My Halloween loving ass is fucking living right now oh yeah.

World building ??? 👀👀👀

Why did they get rid of my Read Mores on Asks???? Anyway, buckle in y’all long post ahead.

🌠🌠🌠 (01) What if Brian’s presence somehow enhances one’s powers? That’s why he’s always being chased by spirits or other beings and bad witches want him for this and when they can’t have him they want to kill him? (you’d appreciated the extra layer of angst? XD Like do you want me because you truly love me or do you want me because of my Gift that would greatly benefit your own power)

That could potentially be a result because witches that work with spirits because they’re opening up liminal spaces. Not that Brian is aware of it, and is doing it mostly incidentally which is how some nastier spirits get attatched to him and cause some of Brian’s problems.

He does have that moment once or twice, once he figures out how all of this workes.

(02) What hex or spell do you think the witch (or the evil coven? For dramatic movie rivalry effect between sides LOL) cast to kill him? Something related to the hepatitis and ulcer? Disease or other stuffs? (I can’t help but think about the CW TV Series Supernatural witches have so many creative ways of killing someone through hexes, spells and curses)

So I don’t have any names yet, because I am Bad at them. The curse that I currently have in mind is that it’s kind of a paralyzation hex? Like when Brian gets hit with it, it moves more central, so he looses the ability to move and then eventually the ability to speak and eventually breathe.

(03) Imagine how distressed Brian would be because he loves Astronomy and stargazing but during night is always the most dangerous to him? However after meeting the other three they’re always with him (or at least one of them) especially at night? Dragging him out for drinks and all the other fun stuffs that Brian seems to be missing out on. (Freddie will ruffle his hair playfully saying something like you’re safe with us darling we’ll look after you and wink at him but he figures they just want to see him blush so yeah all the usual good old oblivious Brian trope LOL)

Bless oblivious Brian. The insomnia as a kid is what half inspired him to love the stars, because that’s all he’d have to stare at during those long nights. It’s also when those Things He Doesn’t See (his mother’s words) circle around him.

The other three naturally realize what Night means, and how it can affect an untrained Witch especially one that has a Gift like Brian’s. Roger is the one that tends to keep near Brian during the night because he’s simply the best at unnoticable protection charms. And he usually makes a big show of getting into disagreements when he senses that something is Wrong. Because Brian suddenly has a mood drop or John actually feels some kind of spirit (which tend to stay away from him because the dead can’t cross running water).

(04) I imagine the three sometimes turn themselves into animals like cats (witches are so often associated with cats and ravens etc. you know all that) to keep Brian company and to warn off evil beings around him like he’s ours back the fuck off?

Close! They actually use their familiars! Roger’s and Freddie’s are both cats (Roger’s is a maine coon, and Freddie’s is a very sleek looking calico), and Brian usually has to pick them up and put them in the house because “no, kitty, you can’t go to class with me!”

Meanwhile they’re like “dude.”

John’s is usually the one that keeps the best eye on Brian given that it’s a kestrel. She also isn’t fond of Brian because he keeps closing her window! How dare he!

John hasn’t quite managed to convinence her that it’s on accident because Brian doesn’t feel that she’s just not another Bird.

(05) Maybe one night Brian’s having “sleep paralysis” only this time the pressure gets heavier and heavier and help now he can’t breath and he’s panicking but can’t do a thing can’t move a muscle when suddenly he heard a low but cold voice speaking some language (Latin? But not quite there’s an extra edge to it) beside his bed but he can’t understand a word and the pressure just vanished like that. He whines low in his throat and struggles to move and tries to open his eyes but he’s suddenly very groggy and tired and then he felt gentle hands caressing his face and carding through his hair effectively soothing him and the voice is now crooning sweetly, calming him by saying things like you’re safe love sleep now and when he’s about to fall asleep the hands left that’s when he heard at least three different voices conversing with each other outside maybe? One sound worried, one sound furious and the last one seems to be thinking about something but they’re all speaking in some kind of language that he doesn’t understand.

Okay, I dig, I see what you’re doing here nonnie. 

So this is probably when Roger, John, and Freddie kind of figure out there’s something out there trying to get Brian because Drudes (nightmare demons from Germanic folklore) don’t just take a walk about on the prime material plane. Much less someone who isn’t having a nightmare.

Roger is furious, because after chasing the damned Drude away he checked his seals and found that his demonic protection one has been inverted and draws demons to them. He’s screaming his head off, because he doesn’t know why or how some one would know.

Freddie is just worried because Brian hadn’t reacted to it the way anyone else should have. Almost like he accepted that this was a thing that happened and not a literal demon eating his life force.

John is trying to figure out how the Drude got in on the first place, after Roger found out the seal, and why it would come for Brian directly. Freddie’s got the most “magic” out of the four of them, Brian’s being so tightly wrapped away. Maybe Brian is just awakening his powers and because of his Gift the Drude noticed. But Roger is right, Drudes don’t just come on this plane without cause.

Meanwhile, Brian is out cold/out of it for the next 16 hours because the Drude did get a good grip on Bri’s life force before the other three noticed. Which naturally makes the others clingy for like the next month. Roger keeps forcing his weird wood crafting hobbies into Brian’s bag, and John is always hanging around the physics building and Freddie is painting a really weird thing on the wall. Which kind of makes them look like satanists.

(06) Following no. (05) do you think witches have their own languages akin to Latin but maybe they’re some kind of variation? Also will there be different dialects based on uses, regions and powers?

They all have different casting languages, yes! Most are based on latin, while eastern witches tend to stick with very old forms of their countries languages (e.g chinese with china, Hindi). Some are actually symbol based, which Freddie is very adept at because it gives the most versatility.

(07) And you know like in horror movies how people are with Ouija boards and summoning rituals? Brian of course never participates he avoids most supernatural related stuffs like plague but maybe growing up his encounters people who do those type of stuff for fun and he’s kind hearted not wanting them to be in danger so he’d try to dissuade or stop them but once the spirits or evil beings were conjured the beings always go for Brian? The most severe incident is the Bloody Mary one she appears in mirrors and Brian almost got pulled in trying to save his classmate but eventually he was saved by another witch?

Brian grows up not believing in ghosts, but he can’t deny that’s weird that things happen every time they do mess with Oujia boards. The Bloody Mary thing left him with a permanent inability to walk through hallways in the dark. But he does have the scar on his arm from when whatever it was tried to pull him through the mirror. It was weird. He thinks his friend’s mom stopped it because she game them a really long lecture while bandaging Brian’s arm.

(08) Following no. (07) that’s where my this idea came from: do you think maybe one of Freddie, Roger or John’s family member saved Brian before (when he was a kid? A teenager?) although Brian doesn’t know it? (perhaps he’s passed out during that? Roger and John’s family are more likely to do so simply because of geographic wise?) And that elder witch recognized that Brian belongs in the coven with Freddie, Roger and John so he/she/they got home, told them about this very special boy (girl? person?) that they have to protect one day and proceed to spend years arranging for them to “casually” meet and hopefully become friends or even more?

Never considered this... but this is strangely in line with what kind of Gift I have planned for John.

It would be John’s mom that steps in. Brian accidentally invokes a vengeful spirit while playing in the park. It knocks him into a tree before she can get to him. She quickly banishes it before going over to Brian. Her hands push back his hair, checking his head (only a tiny little bump thankfully) when she feels her son? of all people on his skin. She knows John is a very strong Sympathic but for him to be on someone’s he’s never met.

And for this boy to attract such powerful spirits but existing? He didn’t even know what it was?

Well, she’s never been one to question the whims of the earth. Instead she tosses her hair back and starts yelling for someone to help. Ruth comes over quickly, and Mrs. Deacon explains that Brian fell from the tree. There’s no magic coming from Ruth, not like Brian.

Oh boy, she thinks. This is trouble.

When she goes home John is teasing Julie with a rattle. She picks him up and she bounces him on her hip, “I’ve met a special boy, one you’re going to have to protect and teach.”

(09) I imagine that the other three were waiting for the right time to reveal the truth to Brian while shielding him from not just the spirits or demons’ harm but from evil witch covens as well and maybe one day they just had a very unfortunate run in with some elders who harbor malicious agenda - news travels fast? Very soon EVERYONE and every beings that has connection to the Supernatural world KNOWS (except Brian ofc lol) hence the even more aggressive and violent attacks and the other three were constantly on high alert around Brian (while having to act casually it’s hard work really).

They were trying to find the right time, and there’s never a good time to go “so the dead like you because you’re a good transfer spot between worlds oh and the rest of the supernatural kind of hates you or wants to use you because of that.”

Brian finds out about this entire thing when the witch hits him with paralyzation curse. Well just before it because she basically does the villian info dump.

But just before that, when the attacks were ramping up, the others took turns being on Brian watch, cutting their nights short, sleeping in shifts, etc. Roger is literally running out of grimories to look for seals and protection spells. John has to pratically spell a moat into existence around their flat and even Freddie can’t find something to shield Brian’s presence without hampering his magical awakening. 

They’re all getting exhausted, Brian thinks it’s just stress of recording their first album and school work. Except he’s getting a little stir crazy, he’s literally not had a moment alone since the Drude attack (not that he knows it). So when all three of them invietably crash (between the shortened hours and magic drain it says a lot that they went as long as the did). Brian sneaks out.

I don’t think I have to explain what happens?

(10) Haha I like the idea of Freddie being the wild card in every sense especially when it comes to witchcraft obviously considering his cultural heritage is different from the ones in England so he/she/they dresses differently and casts his/her/their magic differently and it infuriates their opponent so fucking much. XD

Freddie uses a hand gesture, the other witch ????? what in the literal fuck? It bothers Roger too because he’s like, this isn’t going to work *spell works* HOW? WHY? 

John actually starts mimicking Freddie’s way of performing spells and his spells get that much more powerful and chaotic.

(11) Sammy I love you. <3333 *blows you kisses*

❤❤❤❤ Thank you for letting me ramble about things!!!

[rilldineth]

So a friend of mine told me that given that we are now in 2020, it will be fun if I did a top 20 ships of the past decade for me and boy, did I thought was a good idea and I have decided, why not right? I will be listing them here and...if followers decide to read it...well...

You will quickly notice that probably that most, if not all the ships fall on the following categories: a) rare-ships that are obv not canon; b) ships that are obviously crack; c) ships that had wasted potential, the ones hinted but never happened or briefly happened in canon and writers decided to fuck up. There’s also only one...one RL ship and I am ashamed yet not, but had to list it because I spent a long time hung up on it so don’t judge me.

So yes list...

Before the list, no list is complete without some honorable mentions, these are mostly ships I either got into the hype to recently (not being dedicated for years as the one I will list) or had my fancy then lost it.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Charlastor from Hazbin Hotel (recently got into it)

Clack from Final Fantasy VII

Cloud x Squall from Final Fantasy/KH series.

Hayffie from The Hunger Games.

TodoMomo from Boku Hero no Academia.

Gency from Overwatch series ( on and off )

RinMako from Free!

Terraqua from Kingdom Hearts series.

TOP 20 SHIPS OF THE PAST DECADE

20. Spuhura - Spock x Nyota Uhura (Star Trek original and reboot): Again this was another ship that I liked, since the original series, while everyone was Spirk this and that, I was like,’’yas, yas give me the sweet, sweet Spock and Uhura interactions’ and I was happy the reboot hooked them up, even if that ended dubiously but for a glorious moment, I had it.

19. Swarkles - Barney Stinson x Robin  Scherbatsky (HIMYM): This is one of those ships I am bitter, bitter and salty about, there are more in this list in fact next spot is another one. But I loved it and I did think they complimented each other better than the wet noodle they stuck Robin with, they took the time to know the other, grown separately and then together, the episode where Barney proposed to Robin gave me all the feels and it was so sweet, and then fuck the writers deciding to do what they did. It’s no wonder the finale of this show is so hated.

18. Lotura - Lotor x Allura (Voltron Legendary Defender): When they announced a new reboot to Voltron I didn’t think much of it. I had fancied Lotor x Allura in the original series, as dubious as that was, but then I started to watch this Netflix thing and there was something between them, something more tangible and I was happy. It was this strong woman with an equally strong man encouraging her strength and not putting her in the box of the exotic pretty princess, like a certain dude, and wanted to know her mind and interests, they discovered things together and for a brief moment knew peace and I was here so happy that we were getting something good and then fuck the writers again that decided ‘Nah bro, you’re not getting it’ and you know to fuck off again. I will always have fan fiction I guess.

17. VinTi - Vincent Valentine x Tifa Lockhart (Final Fantasy VII series): This is a ship that I think started to like during my second playthrough of the game, I always figured the both could work, both having loved people that for one reason or another couldn’t fully love them back (Lucrecia due to damn guilt and Cloud because of Aerith) and both were mature enough to fit together, I just like them okay.

16. Helsa - Hans x Elsa (Frozen): Truly, I have never made it a secret that I really dislike this movie, I truly do. The only good things were Hans (which I am still huh at the ‘turns out he is evil’ I still call trolls) and Elsa (because of her damn powers) and then the next step was shipping them and honestly, he should have gone for the older sister lmao, they make more sense and there have very nice fiction out there.

15. Yuzuvier - Javier Fernandez x Yuzuru Hanyu (Figure Skating): Ahh, we have reached my dreaded and dark secret only RPF fancy. Be it broship or more, I always liked the friendship and camaraderie these two skaters had with each other, they were rink mates and rivals but above all friends. I was kokoro break when Yuzuru was telling Javi that he couldn’t do it without him and stop it you two. I just like them, they are wholesome.

14. Victuuri - Viktor Nikiforov x Yuuri Katsuki (Yuri!!! On Ice): And here we have another precious figure skating duo when I started to watch this series it was only because it was a figure skating anime and I love figure skating, I never expected to see a wholesome and wonderful healthy relationship to explode in front of me. The relationship between Viktor and Yuuri is just so lovely, so mature, they both worked through issues, grew from them and accepted them even and I can’t I love it. (Special mention here to Yurio x Mila, as is another ship I love from this series and so underrepresented).

13. Jonerys - Jon Snow x Daenerys Targaryen (ASOIAF/GoT): Regardless of the stupidity committed in the series, I have shipped them since the books, because I can read in between the lines and there are too many parallels between them and their journeys, ones that at will some point collide and bring them together in a way that will be worth it, so better make it count George. 

12. Rhaegar Targaryen x Lyanna Stark (ASOIAF/GoT): Yes, mea culpa, I love tis ship and no one can shame me for liking it and boy has people tried to do so. Were these two smart of escaping like that and not saying a thing? Nope, they were so not. Was Brandon smart going to Kings Landing, knowing there was a crazy king with a penchant of burning people and demanding his heir's head? Nope, that was probably the stupidest move of all. Do I want to believe they loved each other? Why not? Martin has a penchant for tragic love stories, I know this ship is problematical for some, but I still love it and if you see spot 10 here, well I have varied tastes.

11. Soriku - Riku x Sora (Kingdom Hearts series): Come on, this is a given. Prior to Kairi appearing, it was clear Sora was Riku’s world and Riku’s was Sora, they were attached to the hip, the rivalry for Kairi more felt like Riku being jealous of Kairi and wanting Sora’s attention back. Then we have KH2 where Sora spent the whole damn game being all ‘Riku, Riku!’ and Riku doing his damn best to help him from the shadows, ashamed to be seen. DDD was more Riku protecting him and Sora leaning on him, even KH3 had Sora wanting to find and reach Riku, and then Riku going once again to find him by the end, so I am sorry but if there was a love story written here it was between these two. 

10. Hannigram - Hannibal Lecter x Will Graham (Hannibal): Quite honestly, from all the things I ship, they are probably what one will consider the most toxic one I guess, which fair considering one part of the ship is a charismatic yet cannibalistic serial killer. But there was something in the way this relationship was developed by Fuller and brilliantly brought out by Mads and Hughs that just hooked me, their soft moments, their violent ones, it just somehow worked for me. I guess this is also one of the few canon ships that I have, funny enough.

09. Rivetra - Levi Ackerman x Petra Ral (Shingeki no Kyojin): Who will have thought that a series about human eating titans was going to give me one of my most everlasting and also shortlived OTP’s. Years can pass by and I will still love this ship, my heart will still believe there was something more between them, something that was realized or something that wasn’t, I don’t know, but I will forever love it and even though years have passed since she died, I always enjoy the hints here and there that he still remembers her or hints where we are supposed to do so.

08. Squinoa - Squall Leonhart x Rinoa Heartilly (Final Fantasy VIII): People can say whatever the fuck they want ‘the love story was rushed’ ‘we hate Rinoa’ (fuck you btw) but it doesn’t change the fact that Squall fell in love with her and that Rinoa helped him to open up, to not take things for granted and Squall taught her to be even stronger and conquer her fears, they helped each other grow and it’s what matters in the end.

07. Feanor x Nerdanel (Tolkien): This is probably, from all the romantic relationships that Tolkien has gifted us, which I have loved the most and held my attention the longest. They have the happy times, the ones that were full of joy when they met and fell in love and had their children, then we have the tumultuous times when he became too obsessed with this craft, the separation when he left with their kids leaving her behind in her pain and then their possible reencounter when he leaves the Halls of Mandos and how they might deal with it.

06. ItaHina - Itachi Uchiha x Hinata Hyuuga (Naruto): Both the heads of two of the most important clans of their villages, both with heavy expectations upon their shoulders that nearly broke them, only one was talented from the start and the other had to learn, yet they are also similar. Both love their siblings to a fault, sacrificing so much for them and their happiness, both seem to hate conflict yet know is necessary and both are devoted and loyal to a fault, they would have suited each other wonderfully, in an AU probably they would have gotten engaged, who knows, but it would have been wonderful.

05. SessKik - Sesshoumaru x Kikyou (Inuyasha): A ship that could have been but that we didn’t have. This is a ship that has been with me for years and I don’t plan to let it go, they were the best players (in a sense) in that game against Naraku, also probably the strongest, both level headed and smart, not easily intimidated and calculating, together they would have been quite a formidable force and it’s a shame we didn’t get to see that.

04. Bethyl - Daryl Dixon x Beth Greene (The Walking Dead): Another wasted potential and gone so soon, not to mention forever salty at the waste. The way they were being developed promised so much, in the few time he was with her, well, she taught him to have faith and it’s something that apparently still shows from times to times (I am not sure as I stopped with this show) and imagine how it will have gone if they had more time. Just a waste.

03. Romanogers - Steve Rogers x Natasha Romanov (Marvel/MCU): I have been shipping them for years, like honestly, and when the MCU was showing me the seeds of potentiality I was happy, not even that stupidity with Bruce killed my hope, as they still had this steady relationship, he trusted her and she trusted him, something that she couldn’t say of many, they had each others back and took care of the other...but again another wasted potential right there.

02. Huddy - Gregory House x Lisa Cuddy (House MD): I spent years, kind of, season after season watching the delicious and lovely UST between these two characters, watching them snark and then help each other, watching the ‘won’t they will they’ dance, waiting for the moment when these two will finally collide and my lord was it glorious when they finally did, and I was eager to see where it went, as they both seemed to be in relatively good places, but no once again forbid the writers to stop House from being self-destructive and another ship I had waited years was ruined.

01. Terrence "Terry" Graham Grandchester x  Candice "Candy" White Adley (Candy Candy): And this is still my most important ship of the decade, I was forever bitter they never ended together and that their authors decided to make them suffer so much, but then Final Story came and all clues were pointing that aha they did found the other again and ended together as they were supposed to be, and before anyone says shizz, I did manage to read the novel and I do believe all hints were there to let us all know the identity of her husband was Terry and I am so happy.

And there it is, all the ships of the decade for me lol. Next stop, I should maybe make a list of mythos ships I like lmao.

[ergomaria]

Miles to Go Before I Sleep - Ch. 06

It didn't take long for one of Nyriss's servants to come sniffing around, a sniveling creature who seemed so beaten down by his master that his shoulders were permanently bent in a submissive hunch. While he had the red skin and odd cheek tendrils of the other Sith, his was shorter and slimmer than most of his kind.

"Are you the Human they call Vann Chis?"

"Maybe." Vann was holed-up in a cantina, waiting for this exact moment. While he had a drink in hand, he'd purposely been nursing its contents. "Who's asking?"

"My name is Sechel, and I am a servant of my master Darth Nyriss."

"Huh. What do you want?" It was a risk for Vann to act this brazen to one of the purebloods, as even the lowliest of them technically outranked all of the Humans on this planet. Still, it was a calculated power play.

Luckily, Sechel seemed appropriately cowed by the Human's apparent lack of fear. "My master wishes to meet with you. She may be interested in acquiring your services."

"Alright, you have my attention. I've heard your master is a powerful leader around here. So, I assume the pay is good."

Chuckling dryly, Sechel nodded. "Oh, you will be adequately compensated for your time. But the true reward of this job is the prestige. If you please my master, many more opportunities on this planet will be open to you."

Vann honestly doubted the claim since the Sith largely viewed Humans as beneath them, only useful for tasks that were too odious for purebloods to touch. Still, he hoped that he only needed this one job to accomplish his goal.

"You Sith are too concerned about prestige and standing. But so long as you're paying good credits, I'm willing to hear your master out."

"You'd be wise to adopt some humility, Human. My master has been a member of the Dark Council for over twenty years, a feat that should not be taken lightly."

"I'll be humble once we're actually in the presence of your master." Sliding out of the booth, Vann purposely shoved the Sith aside with a jab of his shoulder. "You, I'm not too worried about. I know how this planet works. Your master and the other rulers view my kind as slightly below kath hounds, so she probably sent her lowliest servant to come and fetch me."

Sechel was silent at this assessment but for a moment something glittered in his eyes, a shrewdness that implied his submissive nature was merely a facade. It vanished in an instant.

So, maybe Nyriss had actually sent someone genuinely capable. "Go on, lead the way."

The walk through Kaas City was a strange though uneventful one, only notable for the handful of bystanders who paused to stare openly at the duo. It was undoubtedly unusual to see a pureblood shuffling silently along while a Human trailed confidently in his wake, but Vann wasn't afraid to attract a little attention; in fact, he was depending on it. Remaining alert to his surroundings, he noticed that a few of the other purebloods paused specifically to peer at Sechel, fear flitting across their faces. That confirmed the theory that this Sith was definitely more than he seemed.

It turned out that Nyriss's citadel was located at the western edge of the city. Everything about the location and the building's arrangement smacked of paranoia, which could be a good or a bad sign. Either way, Vann was here and turning back wasn't an option. The journey ended in a large courtyard that was bordered to the north and south by high stone walls and to the west by the citadel itself, which looked more like a military fortress than any typical estate of the rich and murderous. While the east side was open to the street, even that was blocked by a gated fence that only opened with Sechel's fingerprints.

"Wait here," the Sith ordered in a tone that sounded more like begging. "My master will be with you shortly."

Vann knew this game and he settled himself on a hard bench to await Nyriss's arrival. Time passed and he continued to wait, slipping into light meditation to prevent himself from growing bored. If he'd been on the Hawk or Rakata he'd probably have taken his lightsabers out to tinker with them, but right now it was more important to uphold the facade of a normal Human mercenary for at least a little while longer. Eventually, footsteps sounded along the pathway leading to the citadel, one set hurried and uneven while the other sounded smoother and surer. Vann looked up just in time to spot Sechel, who was scurrying in front of a taller figure who moved with natural poise and grace.

Ah, so this was Nyriss.

Unsurprisingly, she had the typical features of a pure-blooded Sith, though hers were less refined than others Vann had encountered. The power of the dark side had obviously taken its toll, and she looked aged and rotted with dark black veins marring the pale red hue of her skin. Her body was also withered, though there was still obvious strength to her limbs. She was dressed in the black hooded robes that her species seemed to favor, though hers were more ornate and featured delicate silver embroidery along the hems.

Sechel bowed low as he announced, "My master, Darth Nyriss. Lord of the Sith, conqueror of Drezzi, the destroyer of Melldia, and a member of the Dark Council."

Without prompting, Vann stood from his seat before dropping to one knee, bowing his head and silently thanking his past self for leaving a set of notes on proper Sith etiquette. "My lady."

There was a pause before a strong voice chuckled in amusement. "Finally, a Human who knows how to show proper respect. Tell me, little mercenary, who taught you manners?"

"One does not come to a strange world without knowing their proper place."

"And what makes you believe that you're even worthy of serving me?"

"I'm better than the rest of the scum lurking around, hoping for scraps of favor from a Dark Lord without any real skills to back them up."

"Hmm. You're a confident one. Or at least you hide your fears well." Stepping closer, Nyriss used her remarkable command of the Force to jerk Vann's head up so that their eyes met. Her irises were bright yellow lined with red, the fierce gaze of someone who had given herself completely to the dark side. For a moment, something akin to recognition flickered across her countenance.

Appearing bare-faced on Dromund Kaas had been a calculated risk on Vann's part. He knew that he'd left his signature mask behind when he came here as Revan, but he was also aware that he still had the almost innocent appearance of a fresh-faced Jedi. He'd been mostly clean-shaven at the time, his hair just past his shoulders and held neatly back in the type of low ponytail that he still favored. While he was brash, he wasn't completely foolish and had taken some steps to alter his appearance. Over his weeks of planning, he'd grown out his beard and kept it just long enough to disguise his more distinguishing features. He'd also cut his hair, shaving down the back and sides while keeping the top long enough to tie up in a top knot that hopefully changed the balance of his face.

Whatever emotion Nyriss was experiencing, it quickly faded as she peered closer. "No, I don't sense fear in you. Arrogance perhaps, but not fear. Tell me, what lies deeper in that simple Human mind of yours?"

Now came the dangerous part. Since arriving on Dromund Kaas, Vann had been keeping his Force presence tightly concealed, not daring to allow his awareness to seep out for even an instant except when he slept locked safely on the Hawk. Surrounded by other Force users, his camouflaged signature was easily overlooked as nothing more than stray tendrils of power coming from someone else. But this technique wouldn't withstand Nyriss peering directly into his mind. The trick would be to give her just enough of a glimpse for her to realize that he was different, all without revealing just how special he truly was.

An icy stream of dark energy sunk into Vann's skull and he bit back a hiss of discomfort as Nyriss began to claw her way through his mind without a shred of finesse. Though he kept most of his mental walls in place, the former mercenary purposely let certain things slip out so that it seemed like errant thoughts were accidentally coming loose. It was fortunate that most of his memories were of mercenary work along the Outer Rim, as that made it easy to display job after job to support his supposed identity. But he also allowed a few more personal moments to slip free, like sitting around the fire with the Mandalorians and even the disastrous kiss he'd shared with Tagren. Finally, at the very end, he released just a fraction of the durasteel grip he had on his Force presence, allowing some of his awareness to seep into the Sith's mind.

Nyriss immediately recoiled, throwing the Human across her courtyard with a wave of her hand. It took most of Vann's effort not to use the Force to cushion his landing and he struck the flagstone hard enough to bruise his hip and shoulder. Shouting in pain he rolled to his knees, keeping his head down in supplication.

The crackle of a red lightsaber filled the air as Nyriss ignited her weapon. "Who sent you?" she demanded, purple electricity gathering in her other hand.

"Nobody," Vann coughed, which was technically the truth. "I'm just a mercenary looking for work. Ask your servant if you don't believe me."

Completely unbothered by his master's show of power, Sechel merely arched a brow as his sniveling demeanor instantly vanished. "It's true, my lady. The other mercenaries only know him as one of their own. None of them breathed so much as a whisper about him being particularly special, aside from some notable combat skills."

"Because he wields the Force!" Sending out a strong bolt of lightning, Nyriss watched impassively as Vann screamed in agony, his limbs shaking uncontrollably and his teeth clenching almost hard enough to crack.

The pain didn't subside even when the surge of electricity stopped, leaving the former mercenary prone across the ground. He wheezed. "I do. I'm Force-sensitive, but it's nothing compared to what you're capable of. It makes me stronger, faster, even tougher, but I'm still no match for a Sith pureblood."

For a brief time, Vann had considered completely denying any knowledge of his powers and providing the Sith the pleasure of 'discovering' them for herself. But that seemed too farfetched. Instead, he was hoping to use his talent for manipulation and flattery to his advantage.

Nyriss scowled, pressing her lightsaber less than a centimeter from the side of the Human's head. "Who sent you?!"

"Nobody! I'm just mercenary scum from the Outer Rim!"

There was a long, tense pause as Nyriss considered this information, the heat of her weapon burning the skin of Vann's cheek. Her awareness reached out again, probing for signs of a lie. The irony was that there weren't any to find because, in the Human's mind, everything he said was true. Revan was long gone, a larger-than-life hero who fell in battle, while Vann Chis was nothing more than a violent and volatile mercenary. A nobody. Scum.

Suddenly, Nyriss laughed. "And nobody else sensed you. They don't know what you are or what you can do." Extinguishing her lightsaber, she returned it to her hip. "Thus, you'll be a surprise to them when they attack."

Sighing in relief, mostly because he didn't have to blow his cover, Vann dragged himself into a kneeling position. "Thank you, my lady. Thank you for sparing me."

"Yes, you'll do little mercenary. I think you'll do quite well."

Read the whole chapter on FanFIction or AO3!

[impossible-rat-babies]

DA 20 questions!

I was tagged by @acepavus! Thank you darling!

I’m gonna tag: @apostatetabris, @dirthara-mama, @wicked-eyes-and-wicked-hearts, @star--nymph, @red-wardens, @vvakarians, @trans-aloth, and anyone else who wants to do this! Sorry if I’ve double tagged you all!

--

01) Favourite game of the series?

I gotta go with Inquisition. I love all the maps and the characters I’ve gotten to make through the games. It’s a beautiful game.

02) How did you discover Dragon Age?

I saw art of Dorian around and figured out he was from dragon age and that he was gay and I was instantly hooked on wanting to play the game. I hadn’t ever seen a video game before with a gay man in it and I was desperate for LGBT content and validation. Dorian has been immensely important to me in helping me realize my identity.

03) How many times you’ve played the games?

I’ve played origins all the way through four times I think. I’ve played da2 three times, twice with my main Hawke and then another Hawke. I’ve played inquisition at least six times with Darva and I’m playing Dimitri for the fourth time. I’ve played that one the most by far.

04) Favourite race to play as?

Elves! I love the elves of dragon age so much

05) Favourite class?

Dual wielding rogue by far along with archers. Rogues are one my favorite classes ever. I do have a soft spot for mages and warriors thought

06) Do you play through the games differently or do you make the same decisions each time?

I try to make little sorts of different choices. I’ve both allied/conscripted the templars and mages before on different little games and I’ve both banished and kept the grey wardens. I’ve never put Gaspard on the throne himself, but I’ve done all the other ways Halamshiral can end up. I’ve only ever not drank from the well once and the was because I was playing a human. I try to mix it up a little each play through for variety sake. Plus I love Calperia’s story so much more than Sampson, so I do side with the templars on occasion. But I am a mage loving gay.

07) Go-to adventuring group?

My Origins go to gang for Eth is Shale, Wyne and Alistair and Slivayn is usually Wyne, Shale, and Zevran. DA2 is a whole grab bag of people, but I usually have one mage, one warrior and a rogue + my mage Hawke.  My crew for inquisition depends on who I’m playing. Darva mainly roles with Cassandra, Vivienne and Dorian while Dimitri runs with Iron Bull, Sera and Solas.

08) Which of your characters did you put the most thought into?

Dimitri and Darva are at a big ole tie with Eth coming in second place. Dimitri is my ever evolving kiddo mainly bc I play a TTRPG with him as my PC, but Darva is like that comfort character where I truly see myself in. Eth is my precious little complicated warden child who I revisit on occasion because I forget how much I do enjoy origins.

09) Favourite romance?

Oooo it’s a hard tie between Bull and Dorian. Dorian was really like that gateway--along with dragon age in general--into me making gay characters explicitly and having them represent me. He made me feel okay with who I am and seeing that blatant love between men was something I had never seen. It was kinda the same with Bull, but he was also like that shattering of men having to preform to a certain degree of manliness to be seen as valid. Bull is manly af, but he loves the color pink. Masculinity doesn’t have to be as society defines it.

10) Have you read any of the comics/books?

I have read the Magekiller comic, but that was about it. I wanna read the books, but having the energy to do it. Does reading the TTRPG book count? Or the World of Thedas books? lolol

11) If you read them, which was your favourite book?

I haven’t read any of the main book tbh

12) Favourite DLCs?

I loved the Return to Ostagar DLC. That one was full of a great atmosphere and just generally quite sad. I liked Mark of the Assassin best out of the DA2 DLCs because it was humorous as well as having good drama going on. A very fun time even though it was a bit of a pain. Trespasser is probably my favorite DLC for Inquisition mainly because of the run through the elvhen ruins at the end of the DLC to get to Solas. It’s throwing everything you have because this is the end at the enemy and I love that.

13) Things that annoy you.

Ehhh most of my annoyance come from the lack of mlm romance options in the game and the treatment of characters like Sera and Sandal who are coded as neutroatypical. But, most of my qualms come from fandom and the rampant homophobia, transphobia, racism and white-washing everyone does. Ya shitty fandom.

14) Orlais or Ferelden?

Ferelden, personally.

15) Templars or mages?

Mages as always.

16) If you have multiple characters, are they in different/parallel universes or in the same one?

I have multiple characters across two world states, my canon one being Eth Tabris, my dual wielding rogue warden who romanced Alistair, Bryn Hawke, my force/blood mage, who romanced Fenris and Darva Lavellan, my dual wielding rogue who romanced Dorian. I also have other Lavellan's that go along with Darva like Fisk and Livonah. Then I have an alternative world state with Slivayn Mahariel, an archer rogue who romanced Zevran, then Farlan Hawke, my two handed warrior who romanced Anders, and then Dimitri Enallasani, my mage elf who romanced Bull. Dimitri only has Daniel as his other sort of important character.

17) What did you name your pets? (mabari, summoned animals, mounts, etc)

Eth named her Mabari, Witt, after her brother who was sent to the Circle when she was 16. I cannot remember for the life of my what Bryn named his Mabari, rip. Darva ends up with a Mabari in Kirkwall just named Da’len. Slivayn named his Mabari Tamlen after his clanmate and lover. I can’t remember what Farlan named his Mabari, RIP. Dimitri has an Anderfels Hart he raises later on named Ghilan after his Keeper’s old Hart and he has a great horned owl named Falon who he rescued.

18) Have you installed any mods?

Nope! I play all my games on console, so no mods for me. I do want to get a good gaming computer after I graduate from college so I can indulge in some mods for Dimitri and Darva and learn fly cam. I would really like to have Dimitri’s vallaslin in the game and more dalish outfits for my kiddos. Alas, I am stuck with what I have for now.

19) Did your Warden want to become a Grey Warden?

Wanting to become a Grey Warden wasn’t something Eth thought about wanting or not wanting. She was ready to die for having saved Shianni and that would have been enough. She kept her safe and that was her duty. Duncan thought she was worth the risk and she accepted that if this was going to be her new duty, it was going to be her new duty.

Slivayn didn’t want to be a Warden at all. Duncan had to conscript him and even then he hated Duncan for a long, long time. He didn’t get to see if he could save Tamlen at all so he was intensely grieving and he was torn from the only home he had ever known. Ostagar was his first experience with humans who weren’t out to kill him and his family.

20) Hawke’s personality?

Bryn is firmly in the Purple Hawke camp, but strays into Blue on occasion. Farlan is a firm divide between Red and Purple.

21) Did you make matching armor for your companions in Inquisition?

Yes, omg yes. My quizzies have their own color palettes I work off of. Darva alternates between Bear Fur + Plush Fustian Velvet + Infused Vyrantium Samite + Blue Vitriol and Great Bear Fur + Darkened Samite + Silk Brocade + Blue Vitriol. Dimitri’s changes from Snoufleur Skin + Drakestone + Darkened Samite + Higher Weave to Great Bear Fur + Darkened Samite + Dragon Scale. aka, Darva wears a lot of deep browns, blues and greens and Dimitri is a lot of reds, blacks and oranges.

22) If your character(s) could go back in time to change one thing, what would they change?

Eth wishes she would have done more to keep Shianni safe along with the rest of the Alienage. Her biggest regret is that she allowed what happened to happen.

Bryn wishes he could’ve saved his family. He covers up a lot of his grief with humor and deflection, but he hurts a lot for what he did. Part of him wishes he had done better with his mother, but he wouldn't admit it.

Darva wishes he could’ve saved his father; he knows he was only fourteen and that he would have gotten himself killed, but at times he thought that a better fate than having to deal with his mother and her all encompassing, smothering grief. 

Dimitri wishes he could’ve saved his clan. He goes over what happened as much as he can, trying to piece together what he could've done to save his family. It’s his life’s biggest regret.

23) Do you have any headcanons about your character(s) that go against canon?

Oooo could Darva being trans be one? Idk, that's a headcanon that doesn’t much go again canon. Biggest one for him would be him leaving the clan at 18 and traveling around Thedas. 

Dimitri’s whole origins and magical usage is a big middle finger at the canon for the dalish inquisitor considering he is sort of his own sect of elves who are drastically different than their southern counterparts.

24) Who did you leave in the Fade?

Ooo Darva leaves Alistair in the Fade because I can’t bear to leave Bryn behind, rip. But Dimitri ends up leaving Loghain in the Fade. I can’t give up my Hawkes.....

25) Favourite mount?

Me personally? I love the Pride of Arlathan mount. Darva mainly uses that mount and it’s his favorite. Dimitri loves his horse, the Amaranthine Charger. But, later on he gets his Anderfels Hart--which is a sandy colored breed of Hart that is larger and tougher than others of it’s breed. They bond with only one rider in their lifetime and will stand their ground, full of as much conviction as the elves who originally bred them.

[aion-rsa]

25 Best Nintendo 64 Games Ever Made

https://ift.tt/2UHBAkX

There’s a lot to be said about the Nintendo 64’s accomplishments, shortcomings, and legacy, but when most people think back on their time with the console, it’s hardly a surprise that they tend to focus on its best games.

While you could certainly make the argument that the PlayStation had the stronger overall library of games (or at least a greater diversity of experiences in its top 100 games), the N64 is rightfully remembered as the home of an elite group of titles that changed gaming forever as they stole the hearts of a generation who love them for their innovations, charm, and, ability to bring friends together for multiplayer memories that would last a lifetime.

Those are the games we’re paying tribute to today. These are the 25 best N64 games ever made:

25. Mario Party 2

Choosing which N64 Mario Party game to highlight is really a toss-up, but in case you’re wondering, the quality of Mario Party 2’s minigames ultimately put it over the top.

In any case, Mario Party 2 remains one of gaming’s greatest digital board game experiences. Equally capable of making or breaking friendships, Mario Party 2 is one of the riskiest dice rolls when it comes to game night selections. Thta’s honestly a big part of the reason it’s so easy to love.

24. Wave Race 64

You don’t hear many people talk about Wave Race 64 these days, which is quite surprising. Not only was it one of the best of the arcade-style console racing games of its era, but it’s one of the games that helped showcase the power and potential of the N64.

Wave Race 64’s visuals won’t blow any minds these days, but this game’s amazing track designs and incredible controls make it shockingly easy to pick up, play, and enjoy even if you are a graphics snob. It’s a testament to the quality of the N64’s other racing games that this isn’t higher.

23.  Jet Force Gemini

I completely understand if Jet Force Gemini’s strange structure and mechanical issues make it hard for you to enjoy the game today. Even at the time of its release, this one rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.

Yet, there’s something about Jet Force Gemini’s bizarre blend of gameplay styles that’s impossible to not at least be a little fascinated by. This was Rare at their most experimental, which makes it that much more of a shame that they (or really anyone else for that matter) never made another game quite like this one. 

22. Turok 2: Seeds of Evil

Granted, this probably isn’t the FPS you think of when you think of the most famous N64 FPS titles, but it’s always been a shame that this game has struggled to escape the shadow of some considerable competition.

Turok 2’s incredible graphics and phenomenal sound design rightfully stole the show at the time of its release, but years later, it’s the game’s labyrinth levels and unique weapons that feel like a breath of fresh air. Turok 2‘s multiplayer has even aged surprisingly well. 

21. Super Smash Bros.

The Super Smash Bros. series didn’t reveal its full potential until Melee, but it’s impossible to talk about the best N64 games without giving the original at least a little love.

What should have been a gimmick turned out to be one of the N64’s most surprising hits. Anyone could hop in and enjoy playing this fighting game with friends, and most of us had the privilege of doing just that and forging some great gaming memories in the process.

20. 1080º Snowboarding

Fun fact: this spot was going to go to the N64 version of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, but then I remembered that port’s butchered soundtrack. It’s hard to look past that…thing.

So instead, 1080º Snowboarding gets the nod that it’s too often denied. Before every extreme sports game tried to be THPS, 1080 offered a unique and fundamentally enjoyable snowboarding experience that emphasized technique without sacrificing pick-up-and-play fun.

19. Diddy Kong Racing

I still can’t believe that Rare had the guts to challenge Mario Kart in an arena that franchise pretty much built, but it has to be said that Diddy Kong Racing came closer to dethroning the king than anyone thought was possible.

Diddy Kong Racing’s incredible courses and the way they forced you to utilize different vehicles is undoubtedly one of the game’s highlights, but as an N64 gamer that didn’t constantly have someone else to play with, I’ve also always appreciated how this title featured a single-player campaign that was so much more than racing against bots.

18. Pokémon Snap

Throughout this list, you’re going to hear the word “creativity” (or some version of it) quite a bit. Nintendo has never been afraid to get weird with it, but something about this console’s hardware and the experimental nature of game design at the time made the N64 the home of games we’ve rarely seen before or since.

Even though it eventually got its long-overdue follow-up, Pokémon Snap has to be one of the best examples of the N64 at its weirdest. A game about taking pictures of Pokémon while on a kind of glorified safari? Sure, why not. Just make sure to make it magical while you’re at it. 

17. Excitebike 64

You know, I might owe Excitebike 64 an apology for leaving it off a recent list of the hardest N64 games. This was a truly difficult racing game that even veterans at the time struggled to master.

It’s also one of the deepest and most bountiful racing games of the arguable golden era of the genre. Somewhere between an extreme sports arcade game and a sim, Excitebike 64’s gameplay was just approachable enough to keep you glued to the action but deep enough to ensure you were constantly challenging yourself to do better.

16. Sin and Punishment

Even if Sin and Punishment wasn’t a pretty weird game that featured one of the strangest control schemes in N64 history (which, given the controller we’re talking about, is really saying something), its late in the game November 2000 Japan-only release date would have been enough to ensure most people didn’t play this one. 

That’s a shame, because this fast-paced and beautiful on-rails shooter may just be developer Treasure’s masterpiece. Sure, this is a bit of a hipster pick, but it’s hard to walk away from Sin and Punishment and not feel your hands vibrating as your mind tries to process the intensity of what you just experienced.

15. Banjo-Kazooie

Rare’s incredible run of N64 games is arguably best remembered for that one shooter you just know we’re going to talk about soon and the studio’s 3D platforming titles. So far as the latter category goes, this might just be their masterpiece.

Before Rare arguably lost its way a bit by becoming a little too obsessed with the “collect-a-thon” format, Banjo-Kazooie offered one of the most visually creative and genuinely fun 3D platforming experiences of this era. It’s no surprise many collectible-obsessed gamers can trace their addictions back to this true classic.

14. Conker’s Bad Fur Day

You don’t have to try too hard to find the design flaws in Conker’s Bad Fur Day, and you certainly don’t have to try too hard to point out the many ways this game’s edgy humor loses some of its potency once you’ve passed the age of 15 or so. 

Even still, there’s something wonderful about Conker’s Bad Fur Day that’s just as hard to overlook. This was essentially Rare throwing everything they had at the wall (and then some) in order to say goodbye to the N64, and you just have to love how much they ultimately packed into this game and how much fun so much of it still is.

13. Blast Corps

It shouldn’t surprise you that Rare and Nintendo dominate this list, but it might surprise you to see just how high Blast Corps ranks among the greatest N64 games ever made.

What Blast Corps lacks in mechanical fluidity, it more than makes up for in design ambition and adrenaline. There’s never been another puzzle game built around clearing a path for a runaway nuclear weapon, and even if that was somehow the most popular subgenre today, Blast Corps would likely still be the king of it.

Read more

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12. Star Wars: Rogue Squadron

There were actually a few great Star Wars games on the N64, which makes it that much more impressive that Rogue Squadron finds itself cleanly atop that particular pack.

I’d call Rogue Squadron’s sci-fi spaceship battles “simple,” but the fact that so few games have been able to replicate their brilliance means that there’s more to this one than meets the eye. While this game’s loving embrace of the Star Wars universe may just be its X-factor, I feel it’s ultimately Rogue Squadron‘s surprisingly deep missions and incredible controls that make this game so hard to top.

11. Resident Evil 2

There are a few logistical reasons you won’t find a lot of multiplatform games on this list, but even if more notable third-party games were ported to the N64, it’s doubtful they would have been able to steal the spotlight from this one. 

Considered by some analysts to be one of the most technologically impressive N64 games ever made, the N64 version of Resident Evil 2 did things that shouldn’t have been possible. You could make the argument that it was the best way to experience Resident Evil 2, which means it’s one of the best ways to experience one of the best games ever made. 

10. Star Fox 64

If I’m being honest, I’ve always felt that the original Star Fox was more of an impressive technological demonstration than a truly great game. It was a lot of fun, but it was also pretty clear that there was a better game at its core just waiting to burst free.

Star Fox 64 was that game. You could push aside the fact that Star Fox 64 changed gaming forever with its rumble pack support, and you’d still be left with this classic’s visually stunning action, blissful combat, incredible multiplayer modes, and brilliant controls. This is just a complete N64 experience and one of Nintendo’s best games of the era. 

9. F-Zero X

One of the main reasons why Nintendo hasn’t released any F-Zero games in years is that they reportedly feel like they’ve really done everything with this series they aspired to accomplish.  While the GameCube’s brilliant F-Zero GX probably has a lot to do with that belief, it has to be said that F-Zero X for the N64 arguably perfected the entire F-Zero concept.

This fast, furious, and shockingly difficult racing game left nearly every other racing game in the dust at the time when it came to pure speed. Honestly, it’s faster and more intense than most of the racing games that have been released since. With the possible exception of its successor, I don’t know if there’s ever been another arcade-style racing game that just feels as good as this one.

8. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask

Again, Nintendo has never been afraid of doing things differently, but Majora’s Mask still stands as one of the company’s wildest, and potentially dangerous, ideas.

Long before time loops became a popular storytelling genre, Nintendo fans everywhere wondered why the studio was making a sequel to one of the most beloved games of all time that seemingly borrowed its core premise from the movie Groundhog Day. Not everyone loves the results, but how can you possibly deny this game the credit it deserves for ambition alone? Even if this was a more traditional Zelda game, it would be one of the best. 

7. GoldenEye 007

Some say that your love of the N64 is directly related to how many people you were able to regularly play N64 games with. In the case of GoldenEye’s legendary multiplayer, there’s obviously some truth in that statement. 

You know what, though? Even if GoldenEye was just its campaign, unlockables, technological achievements, and James Bond trappings, I think it might still have made this list. At a time when licensed games were mostly a joke and console FPS games were certainly a laughing matter, GoldenEye 007 felt like a bolt of lightning long before you ever discovered the joy of fragging friends until you watched the sun rise.

6. Paper Mario

To tell you the truth, I was also a little surprised to watch Paper Mario climb this high up this list. I mean, just look at some of the games it’s ahead of and standing shoulder to shoulder with. I know it’s the best RPG on N64, but was it really that good?

Well, you obviously know my answer to that question. Like Super Mario RPG before it, Paper Mario proves that the RPGs you’ll willfully commit hours of your life to don’t have to be the most complicated or “hardcore.” What Paper Mario adds to that game’s formula is its beautiful art style and quite a bit of that incredible humor we’d eventually see more of in the Mario & Luigi series. It’s more than worthy of being considered one of the best. 

5. WWF No Mercy

Am I outing myself as a lifelong wrestling fan with this selection? Possibly, but No Mercy is still the best wrestling game in a console library that happens to include many of the best wrestling games ever made.

More importantly, this is still the game that modern games are trying to live up to. You could argue that some wrestling games released since No Mercy have come close, but the fact that this is still the measuring stick for an entire genre two decades after its release is an accomplishment that only a couple of other N64 games could possibly claim to match.

4. Mario Kart 64

The Mario Kart series has this way of charming people who don’t even like video games much less racing games. It’s one of the best-selling Nintendo franchises ever, and, to be honest with you, so much of what makes this series an almost otherworldly success can be traced back to Mario Kart 64.

The original Mario Kart was obviously great, but Mario Kart 64 spun it out at the starting line with its wonderful 3D courses (which are still among the best in franchise history), incredible controls, and a multiplayer mode that might just be the best on a console that’s kind of known for them. You could still play this game today and not feel the miles it has accrued. 

3. Perfect Dark

It’s hard to deny the ways that GoldenEye 007 has aged over the years, and a lot of those retrospective shortcomings can certainly be applied to Perfect Dark. Whereas some of GoldenEye’s brilliance hasn’t necessarily stood the test of time, though, there are elements of Perfect Dark that I’d argue few FPS games released since have rivaled.

Said elements include Perfect Dark’s amazing AI, truly innovative weapon design, wonderful levels, complicated campaign, and a multiplayer mode bursting with customization options. Call it Rare’s victory lap if you want, but I see Perfect Dark as a case of Rare trying to hand the baton off to the next generation but finding that few were ready to really take it and run.

2. Super Mario 64

I feel like you could justify Super Mario 64’s high place atop any list of great games by saying that it did for 3D games what Super Mario Bros. did for 2D games. That is to say that it’s the most innovative and important 3D game ever made.

However, it’s almost cruel to boil this game down to its technological accomplishments. The thing that glued people to Super Mario 64 in 1996 is the same thing that makes the game so great now: its heart. This is a love letter to the very idea of gaming that so happens to be on the shortlist of titles that you’d put in a video game time capsule.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Much like Super Mario 64, it’s hardly controversial to name Ocarina of Time one of the best (or, in this case, the best) N64 games of all time. Both were entries into beloved franchises that changed game design forever and still arguably stand tall as the best in their respective series. 

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So what separates Ocarina of Time? It comes down to dreams fulfilled and expectations exceeded. There’s a degree to which Ocarina of Time was the sweeping epic we dreamt of whenever someone made big promises about the future of 3D gaming. However, only the wildest dreams dared imagine an adventure this grand, this confident, and, strangely enough, this accessible. Nobody was immune to how they felt the first time they saw Ocarina of TIme. Over twenty years later, the game still possesses that ability to stun, excite, and make you fall in love with gaming all over again.

The post 25 Best Nintendo 64 Games Ever Made appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[cherryblossomcheesecake]

God & His Priests & His Kings V2: Chapter 8 - A FFXV OC Fanfic

I’m rewriting this fic almost 3 years after I finished it since new ideas and plot bunnies have hit so here’s hoping I can stick with the series and see it through this time around. Sequel to How Rare & Beautiful.

Master list Word Count: 1,928 Uploaded: 06/24/21

Previous Chapter

Unbroken - Gustavo Santaolalla

The journey from Goryeo to Tenebrae passed by in a haze that I had no trouble falling into. Even upon our arrival, I was lost among the rush of activity.

I vaguely registered Ravus leading me out of the magitek engine, a guiding hand resting against my lower back. We passed a sea of faces, most of which were likely the Manor staff.

My full attention only returned when my eyes landed on a familiar face that I had missed dearly all these years.

Luna was radiant, all in white with her beautiful hair all pinned up and framing her face. It took everything in me not to sprint into her arms and break down into sobs. The Third Princess had never met the Oracle. So, I was forced to pretend that we were simply strangers, who just happened to be sisters by marriage.

"Sister, may I introduce you to my wife, Princess Eun-Byeol. And this is my younger sister, the Oracle, Lunafreya." Ravus introduced us, gesturing vaguely between us both.

"Well met, my lady." I greeted her, dipping into a shallow curtsy.

"A pleasure to meet you, my brother has written to me about you, it's as if I already know you. So please do not stand on ceremony; we are family now after all." Luna assured me, taking my hands into hers.

Ravus cleared his throat loudly, drawing our attention once again.

"I must return to my duties, but I leave you in the capable hands of my sister. Until later." He stated, barely nodding his head before taking off.

Luna merely sighed in a delayed response, turning her gaze back onto me.

"Come. I will show you around your new home." The blonde said, linking arms with me as she guided me into the manor.

Much of it remained unchanged from my memories, but Luna still gave a detailed tour to keep up pretences.

"Ravus wrote to me that we were to prepare private apartments for yourself separate from his own, so that you may have your own space for now. I hope it is to your liking." The blonde said as we entered a rather spacious suite in the family wing of the manor. They were similar to those of Luna's from what my childhood memories recalled.

"Thank you, Lady Lunafreya. I appreciate the thought."

My old friend graced me with a kind, yet pained, smile.

"Just Luna, please. The Manor staff will bring your belongings to your rooms."

I pulled my gaze from her own as I moved further into the suite.

"Thank you again. I would like to rest before dinner if you don't mind." I announced, turning to face the elder woman.

"Of course. You must be tired from the journey. Dinner will be a small affair, held in the family apartments. Someone will be by to collect you beforehand." Luna responded, departing gracefully with a kind smile, leaving me to my silence and exhaustion.

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Dinner was a somber event; no words were exchanged apart from pleasantries between myself and Luna. Ravus remained silent for the most part, barely responding to the slight prodding of his sister.

Luna was the one to escort me back to my rooms following Ravus' early departure, allowing us our privacy for the first time since our arrival.

My rooms were bathed in the moonlight that filtered through the grand windows, removing the need for the lights to be on.

Once the door was closed and Luna had crossed the room to where I stood near a sofa, the last of my resolve crumbled.

I all but collapsed into my friend's arms, both of us clinging to each other as if the other might just disappear if we were to let go for even a moment.

"Oh Soo, I was so frightened when I received word of the attack. I prayed that you had survived and seeing you in my dreams was not enough to abate my fears." The former princess whispered, as if her fears were still at risk of coming true.

"It was so horrible, Luna. Everyone, so many innocents, my family; all gone in just moments." I cried, my face pressing against her shoulder.

"I know, and I am so sorry for your loss. But I know you, and I know your people, you will all rise from the ashes stronger and with greater determination than before."

For a long while the only noise that filled the sitting room was that of my sobs and sniffling as I poured out my grief onto the oracle's shoulder.

"How did you do it? How did you keep going on after your mother died?" I asked, my voice breaking slightly.

There was silence for a time before Luna found her words again.

In a hushed voice, she told me, "It was hard, but she would have wanted me to carry out my duties to the gods and the people of the world. I mourned my mother, but I chose not to let my grief and anger consume me as it has Ravus."

The blonde women slid her hands up my shoulders to cup my cheeks so she could look me in the eyes.

"You will shed your tears this night, and tomorrow you will emerge from these rooms with the dignity and elegance of your title. You will play their game until the time comes for the empire to face justice for their crimes."

I could only nod stiffly, my tears slowly turning silent.

"And what will I do here? What will be my purpose?" I whispered, my gaze dropping down away from hers.

"Whatever you wish it to be. We could be companions; you could travel with me as I heal the people of Tenebrae. You could take on the duties of the head of the house, as is your right as Ravus' wife. Or your can linger in your rooms and allow your grief to rule your life." Luna answered honestly, her hands resting on my shoulders once again.

My gaze slipped back up to her own, as if I could find my answer there.

"Thank you, Luna. You're the first person since the wedding to give me the choice to decide what to do with my life, however limited it may be." I told her in complete honesty, offering a weak smile.

"You don't have to come to a decision right away. No one would disparage you for hiding away for a few days, you only just arrived in Tenebrae." She promised, taking my hands into her own.

I searched her gaze, the blue of her eyes bottomless in their kindness and love. I clutched her hands tightly, choosing to take back some smidgen of control over my life.

"Will you stay with me, just for tonight?" I asked timidly, not wanting to be alone in the large rooms for the night.

"Of course, anything for you, Soo." Luna promised, taking my hands in hers again and leading me towards the bedroom.

There were soft white night dresses in the armoire across from the bed, providing some comfort before we climbed under the covers for the night.

We drifted into dreams facing each other, with my last conscious thought being that Luna truly looked beautiful in the moonlight.

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Luna was gone when I woke the next morning, the sheets next to me having long turned cold.

I sat in bed for a while, contemplating my choices.

I could remain in my rooms for a few days or even the rest of my life if I so wished, according to Luna. Or I could go out and make something of my life within the empire's boundaries.

My choice was simple in the end, I wouldn't let the empire win.

I pushed the covers away from my legs as I made my way over to the armoire, opening it to pull out one of the few hanbok I had chosen to bring with me. The blush pink and pale green silks were one of the last pieces of my life before the world fell apart. And now they were to be my armour outside these rooms.

Dressing and pining up my hair took longer than normal with the lack of handmaids to assist in wrangling my rather large amount of hair, but I managed in the end. My only decoration was the hair pin that I had received from Orion before my wedding.

That night seemed to be almost a lifetime ago.

With my appearance sorted, I straightened my posture and walked out of my rooms for the first time with my head held high.

My wanderings led me into the gardens just outside the family apartments, taking in the beauty of the nature that surrounded me in every direction. Luna had a love of gardening, so this was no doubt her handy work.

I managed to find a small pavilion that gave a large view of the gardens and the sprawling forests of Tenebrae beyond the Manor's grounds.

I sat there for who knows how long before I heard the tell-tale signs that I was no longer alone in my little piece of sanctuary.

A slight shift of my head brought Ravus into my line of sight. I offered him a small nod of acknowledgement before moving my gaze back to the grounds.

He took it as an invitation to join me in my solitude, settling an acceptable distance away from me on the bench.

We remained in silence for a time until Ravus had gathered the courage to speak of what was on his mind.

"Despite the circumstances of our marriage, and the fate of your country, I would like you to know that I intend to abide as much as possible to the agreements of our marriage that were laid out by your council." He began, appearing almost nervous as he spoke.

I could only raise a brow in response as the blonde man continued.

"The empire is likely to leave us be for a short while, but they will begin to press us for an heir. I just wanted to inform you of my stance on the matter. I will not touch you in that manner unless you desire it or ask it of me." The commander concluded, turning his head so that our eyes might meet.

I continued to stare, trying to determine if his words were just that. Only words, empty of the intention to keep their promise. But all I could find was resignation and honesty.

I did not speak for some time, thinking on my words before speaking.

Finally, my gaze reunited with his own mismatched eyes. I took a deep breath through my nose, shifting into my role of princess.

"And when the time does come and the empire is pressing for heirs, we will adjust our current arrangements as needed. But until then you will keep your own bed and I shall keep mine." I replied, remaining firm in my stance on following the stipulations of our marriage well beyond their expiration date.

"Of course. I would never think to touch you against your will, nor any other woman." Ravus assured, giving a solmen nod as he continued to hold my gaze.

"Thank you. You have no idea how much your words have put my mind at ease." I said, the tension I had been holding in my body slowly slipping away as I relaxed.

Ravus only nodded, turning back towards the landscape before us, the silence that fell was one of ease for once.

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