#my elixir of life btw

[cherrystarx]

I was born to frolick around in green meadows while singing and dancing and painting

what the heck is a rheostat

[ancientnapdragon]

hello scum villain fandom. i finished these silly books like two months ago and have been rotating them in my mind since then.

ANYWAY, i've come to propose a fun AU from my brain: Shen Yaun 'Food Peak' Lord. >:) (please excuse any typos i'm on my phone)

This is a Scumcum AU cause I decided that SJ is like my fave and I wanna see him get wifed up. Does he deserve it? No. Will this stop me? Also no.

So, slap cut to SY and he's suddenly like waking up the day after being chosen as a Sect disciple. He's like 13 and really confused and something feels... kinda wrong! It's like he has all these swiss cheese spots in his memory and he feels like he should be alarmed he's not in his own bed! But, he also IS in his own bed? What's his problem? SY is still 100% a transmigrator but since he's in a kid's body his memories are like half on lockdown. He remembers a few things but not much. The System shows up and seems just as surprised as this turn of events as he is, sort of analyzes a while, then ends up making him think (by accident) it's some like Guardian Family Spirit who is there to guide him.

In truth, the System is trying to find the best route to get the story on track within it's programming. This is NOT what it's assignment was supposed to be! Ugh!

SY has now been shuffled into what is basically an OC so it more or less just looks like him from his old life, not that he is aware, except as a kid. Everyone calls him Kong Yuan (name pending) (also I'll keep calling him SY for this to make it easier) and he was just taken into the lower Peak in charge of Food, Wine, and Elixirs. Of course this is like, with it's own special PIDW twist so everything is cool and magic. Without any real ideas on what to do otherwise, and feeling like this is Right, he throws himself into learning stuff about the Peak. He was a lazy Millennial rich boy in his last life so he's, like, kind of a SHIT COOK. That's on top of being kind of just bad at the type of physical cultivation needed for this Peak!

While highly specialized, the people on (Food) Peak are certified badasses in their own right, even if it's not in like a proper fight. You got people dipping arms and torsos in boiling oil, doing all sorts of fancy knife tricks with qi, tearing whole large beasts apart for processing; the Peak Lord and SY's new Shizun had some giant metal ladle that's twice as long as herself and looks like it weights more than a building. She's built and buff and uses this thing effortlessly to stir this giant cauldron in the center of the Peak that is as big as a house. It's a smaller Peak but always a flurry of activity! The System, deciding it will at least try and work with this, starts giving SY Taste Points as he improves. Occasionally, it will even give him little quests for bonus points! Usually it's for meeting new people, at the start, or learning certain techniques on his Peak. He notices that he usually get these 'Meet x Person' quests when on other Peaks, though... like that really sad looking but polite boy on Qiong Ding, the sort of nervous and mousy kid from An Ding, the sharp tongued girl from Xian Shu- even the real scary guy from Bai Zhan! Then after he gets those quests done, they always turn into a 'Befriend X Person' quest after... which is way harder but rewards more T Points!

(DID YOU THINK THIS WAS JUST A PEAK LORD AU BTW? NO NO NO! IT'S ALSO A QING DISCIPLE AU! HA! >:D) But why does he even WANT the T Points? Well, Guardian Spirit/System says it will provide him special memory rewards! SY rationalizes this as thinking he's receiving visions from a past? future? reincarnation of himself, which the System does not correct. It's usually smaller things about his old life, with the real important stuff all locked away behind higher and higher Points. The System will also provide him with small boosts to his palate (his was quite shit) and sometimes even... cookbooks! Part of being a Food Cultivator is enhancing your QI and Spiritual Veins by eating food that is both delicious as well as Spiritually Enhanced. This isn't just cooking in the kitchen with mama time, this is an ART. Only the best of the best have the refined palate, knowledge base, and skills to make their own recipes. It's fairly common on the Peak for the Masters to work for YEARS to try and make SOMETHING of their own they can be proud of! When SY is like 15, enough time to get to know his fellow (future) Peak Lords, he gets a special quest: [ BECOME HEAD DISCIPE ]. For the first time, THIS quest has a time limit (two years!), and the System warns him of graaaaaave consequences if he is not able to do so....

This lights a fire under his ass a bit and makes him panic! See, SY has all these cookbooks from the System, and he can even make some of the recipes! But most of them ask for all these ingredients he FEELS like he should know but he's never really heard of.... And some of the techniques are so strange, too! The System offers him a special upgrade (for what is, at the time, probably almost all this T-Points): A taste-alike Beastiary!

So, Ancient China did not have a lot of modern fruits and veggies from around the world. PIDW? Aside from a few things ones cause Airplane was a hack writer, mostly the same! But you know what PIDW does have? Lots of weird demons and animals and spirit beasts and flowers. The next time SY looks at a cookbook he will see little (???) next to the stuff he doesn't recognize. But also! There was this one recipes he wanted to make, and he had everything except for ONE thing to make it, and it has a (Inferno-Harpy-Vulture Egg) next to it. So! It shows him stuff he can SUBSTITUTE! Provided... he knows the name of the plant or animal already....

SY had always had a passion for the weird beasts and creatures he sometimes saw, but no reason to act on learning more since he was so busy.... but with this he can totally indulge! AND it will help him with his goal! Double win!

At some point in all his fumbling, he makes better connections with the Future Peak Lords, gets a reputation as being very reliable and kind (if a bit danger prone and sharp tongued at times), and is earning the attention of his buff Shizen. After getting a lot of T-Points, he manages to uncover some of the more expensive Memories....

Which warn him of a cruel villain named Shen Quinqui. An abusive man who was just the worst! Basically, all the stuff SY thought he knew about him in SV. AND the guy was gunna cause the world to end or something? UGH! Why didn't anyone DO anything about that guy in the future? :( The System says he's not allowed to tell anyone, but if he keeps working, maybe he can change Fate! Now, you're probably like 16 paragraphs into this and like 'okay, this is all super cool and you're really smart. but where is SJ at???' Well, he is HERE!

See, while SY had been to Qing Jing Peak multiple times, he's never actually got a Quest to meet anyone from there which is super weird! But he's called over there to act as a chef for a few weeks because one of the guys who usually does it is on some mission. He decides to scout out the Peak while he's there and see if he can find anyone named 'Shen' who might be the evil guy in the future.... [Mission: Meet Xiao Jiu] suddenly pops up from the System! And SY tries VERY HARD to do so! Every day he goes to work at QJ, he never meets anyone he doesn't already know. Sometimes, he hears rumors about a new kid who the Peak Lord took in and the rumors sound NASTY about him. He's only 15 (just a bit younger than SY by like a season or two!) and the guy is said to have murdered people, slept with prostitutes, perved on the girl's in their dorm there, (probably) was actually a real demon.... and was just a huge asshole. But, eventually, SY does end up meeting this mystery Xiao Jiu! He's done in the kitchen for the night and finished cleaning with the other cooks when he remembers he left something there. Going back, he finds this real skinny and lanky guy in the kitchen picking through whatever was leftover in there (not much). He's real cagey and looks ready to beat the hell out of SY for coming in there; but also like he's been caught doing something he shouldn't do. They sort of stare at each other a bit before SY hesitantly introduces himself and the guy basically runs off through the back. Rude! [Mission Complete: Meet Xiao Jiu] [Mission: Befriend Xiao Jiu]

The guy didn't even SAY anything, though! And he seemed like he wanted to beat him up! System, that doesn't seem FAIR! But... SY really wants those T Points for more future memories to try and stop whatever bad stuff is going to happen in the future, so...

Just trying to find Xiao Jiu ends up being a huge problem in of itself! This is a whole Peak and SY is mostly just here to act as a chef for a few hours in the evening. The guy never comes in and gets food, either! Does he only eat the stuff that's left in the kitchen after? But they always clean up really thoroughly so there isn't much left... and he had looked really skinny....

SY starts staying over past everyone else and leaving some extra buns and stuff he saves from dinner on the counter. Except, he gets in trouble after a day or two because the Morning Chefs had come in to find the food left there all night. Was the guy not taking it?

Eventually, he gets the idea to leave the food but... hide it. For some reason it reminds him of hiding a treat from a cat to make it want the treat more. It... sort of works? Usually only one of the buns is missing instead of the multiple he hides. But! Hey! At least the guy got some food!

Things go on like this for a while, until one night when he's heading back to his Peak, he gets sideline kicked into a dense copse of bamboo along the path. And the guy is standing over him with a sword (not a Spiritual one, but still really sharp!) at his throat. And demanding to know what SY is trying to do by leaving him food.... AAAAND I think this is long enough. For NOW. I'll write more on it when I have some time!!! My big wants is basically Feral Angry Cat SJ being slowly socialized to like the one (1) guy who keeps feeding him. They're gunna be BESTIES! (And SY just TOTALLY doesn't feel weird about thinking his best bro is pretty! That's, like super normal!)

I'm sort of half vomiting all my ideas out of my brain but also half writing a bit of a rough outline for a future fic i want to write. If this inspires you in some way, though, feel free to write stuff! Just tag me! I WANNA SEE!!!! >:)

If you have any questions or anything feel free to reach out! I wanna expand more on the Cookbook and the Food Quest and like, how SY would befriend the other Future Peak Lords. Plus, I have a really evil idea for the System to try and force the plot back on the rails later on hehe.

Ty for reading my rambling ilu <3

[studentinpursuitofclouds]

I've fallen to the hole of sve, now I found you and still active im sooo grateful🙏🙏

I got an idea of being in argument with the bachelors in sve and the post argument (farmer and the bachelors are married btw)

Welcome to the Stardew Valley Expanded hole (we have cookies here! :D 🍪) Thank you for the ask, dear anon, and don't forget to check out the other blogs here, there are still active people writing/drawing about SVE and other mods/vanilla SDV! 💖

_________________________________________

Magnus Rasmodius:

After Magnus finished talking to Caroline, Pierre, and Abigail about the "mistakes of the past," he sighed tiredly, knowing that another, also very important and long conversation with his spouse would be waiting for him at home on the farm. Postponing it is not the right thing, lest there should be any reticence. Farmer, naturally, asks for answers to very uncomfortable questions, and Magnus is torn by two feelings: the desire to tell them the whole truth, and the fear that after their conversation they will leave him (he will not be surprised). Farmer knew about his ex-wife and the brief affair with Caroline in the past, and that's it. After two hours of questions, sighs, a raised voice, and confusion, Farmer only mumbled "I need time alone," to process all the information. This is it, Magnus thought, the doubts about choosing a partner, and the wait that lasts forever. When the next day Rasmodius was ready for the phrases "I can't do this," "We'd better get a divorce," the old wizard didn't expect Farmer to give him a second chance, with a promise not to hide problems from each other. Magnus was even taken aback by that. He didn't deserve them...

Lance:

"What were you thinking. Going into the Highlands without anything!" Never had Farmer seen her usually calm husband so furious. But Lance's anger and frustration was understandable; Farmer nearly gave out their last breath in his arms as the pink-haired adventurer quickly searched his bag for a life elixir for them. "I knew the risks I was taking when I joined the Guild. And you know it too." Guild members always have dangerous jobs, it's true, Lance knows that as well as anyone. But instead of the needed potions, a scepter/totems for retreat, armor, and other things, Farmer's equipment is only a sword and.... cheese? "Tell me, my soul, since when is outright suicide part of our job?" Generally, Lance didn't want to fight with Farmer right after pulling them out of the clutches of death, but Farmer kept making excuses that even Lance's immense patience was already bursting. He (after making sure Farmer had everything they needed nearby), left them alone to air out and cool off after the arguments. Just as he was about to rise from the chair in their kitchen, he felt someone hug him from behind. "Farmer? You should lie in the after and rest." To which their arms squeezed a little tighter. A silent apology, for all the worry they gave to their husband. To which the adventurer sighed quietly and placed his palm on his spouse's hand, silently saying "I forgive you."

Victor:

When Victor and Farmer discussed the details of their future living together before the wedding, the two made a mutual decision to share their savings with each other. Money had never been an issue, and Victor trusted Farmer, knowing that they would use the earnings for the farm and for the good of their family/community. But that gold clock... His spouse spent 10 million gold clock, emptying his and Victor's savings! And now Farmer says they don't have money to pay for seeds/animal feed/taxes/etc??? Victor didn't stay silent. The spaghetti lover rightly questioned what Farmer was guided by when making such a decision, and naturally the excuse for "achieving perfection" is such a bad excuse. Perfection?! Farmer had put their and Victor's future in doubt! There was arguing and yelling, and Victor, all mad, went into town to clear his head. He knows he needs to go back and resolve this conflict just.... It's nearing evening, the two have a serious talk. Victor loves them, and it's mutual, but such a major purchase without his knowledge has given him some doubts. Maybe they'll work things out with a couples therapist...

[kigozula]

Evangeline loved Jacks unconditionally, Jacks did nothing for their happily ever after…

Lala almost killed her and got away with it too?

I honestly can’t get over the fact that everything Jacks does gets excused. Baby Jacks had his reasons. Everyone else is at fault no matter what happens.

It‘s Apollos‘s fault. He is evil.

But Jacks? Nope, he is justified. Btw, he is my favorite character after Evangeline and I love Evajacks, but ignoring his actions is not an option.

The moment he laid eyes on Evangeline, he started using her to go back to Tella everybody. I wonder if he would have saved her from being stone if things in Finale would have worked out for him. He lied to her, deceived her not only in OUABH but in TBONA too. He framed her for murder and risked her life. He put her on so much pain and tears. Until the end of TBONA he was still planning on LEAVING HER BEHIND and go back to Tella. Knowing Evangeline would experience all the pain of losing her parents, being heartbroken by Luc, treated like crap by her stepmother.

And let's not forget the mean dialogue between Jacks and Lala in Slaughterwood Castle. Both of them were so cold and acted infront of Evangeline. They treated her like she is stupid.

Because of Lala Evangeline suffered in pain. She could have died! And a simple apology did it at the end? And of course she is also justified because she made a mistake because of love? But Apollo‘s mistake because of his love and interest is not even understood.

I also wished Eva would have asked Jacks about the dialogue. About how cruel he talked about her. But this is sadly one of many unanswered and unsolved things…

Then, in ACFTL (after he used to stones to save her life) he was still leaving her behind. He wanted to destroy his heart not to feel anything. Even after finding out it was Apollo who took her memories away, he was about to leave her again with all the miseries and all alone. It was Evangeline who truly loved him unconditionally, despite all the hurt he caused her. She risked her life for him. Jacks hasn’t done anything for their happy ending. It’s not that I can’t feel with him at all, but this isn’t talked about enough. In the hollow he gave her hope, he made her fall in love with him just to leave her in the end of Chaos wouldn’t have killed her.

Apollo? I am not saying he is particularly a good man, but after he took Evangeline’s memories he was portrayed as the evilest of all. But from his pov he used his chance. He was cursed by his friend, went through a lot of trouble and HIS WIFE was choosing the guy who is responsible for all of this. And let’s not forget it wasn’t Apollo who had the idea of taking Evangeline’s memories:

It was Aurora Valor

She planted the idea in his head. She gave him the elixir in the first place. With the memory taking and showed him the tree of souls. And let’s be honest, if taking Eva‘s memories would have gotten Jacks were he wanted, he would have done it too.

And what were the consequences for Aurora? Nothing? She cursed Jacks, due to her careless behavior the end of the Merrywood family, Evangeline’s lost memories and everything happened infront of the tree of souls. And she didn’t get a fragment of the hate that Apollo got.

As much as I like the books and Evajacks, there are unanswered questions still and ACFTL feels a little incomplete and rushed. Jacks was suddenly in love with her since the moment he saw Evangeline, Apollo suddenly became the worst guy.

Chaos who literally went on a killing spree got away with everything too (because yeah he can, he is hot right?), Lala tricked Evangeline too. She was her friend but risked her life for her own needs. Also, I felt like Evangeline was too extreme with Apollo? She is right but she didn’t show a fragment of that hate to others who deserved it just as much. She left him after opening the arch and after his curse lifted and he has been through so much. But hours before that she made out with him.

As every other reader, I also have many questions and blank spaces. I loved this trilogy, but I believe it deserved a better ending.

And I would like to add something nice at the end:

Jacks could have gone back farer away in time. To save Lyric and Castor and the so called „foxes“ (I truly hate this part of the story). He also could have still gone back to Tella and still save Evangeline when the time came. But since he never fell in love and loved anyone so deep and the way he loves Evangeline, he used the once time change with the stones to „save her“. Also the fact that he keeps watching her sleep since TBONA 🩷 he never understood why people did that until her. Until his Little Fox 🩷🍎

[murfpersonalblog]

Murf's AMA: Anne Rice's Immortals

@adamnablelittledevil you sent me such an incredibly lovely & thorough ask that I wanted to address every single point you made. So I’m breaking your PM up into separate AMA-style posts. Thank you SO much!

"And btw, have you read all of Anne's books? What (fictional) creatures she plays with? Vampires, spirits, ghosts, Taltos, aliens, clones, werewolves, anything else? I'm curious about that. 🤔😅"

I've read ALL of AR's books, yes--except for her Christ of Cana series about Jesus, and her Sleeping Beauty erotica. I'm just not interested.

🧛 Her vampires are ofc the most famous, bravo, brava. They're NOT my favorite version of Vampires as a species though--that honor goes to Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Castlevania. AR's vamps are a little TOO human IMO (which is wild, cuz AMC's vamps are even more human--I DO NOT like that AMC vamps can eat & drink human food, even if it tastes like paste/chalk). I prefer vamps who're more demonic--that can shapeshift into different animals, and use their powers more often (What We Do in the Shadows pokes fun at this so much). And AMC's vamps esp. get on my nerves, cuz we rarely see their fangs. The acrylic nails are so dang stupid IMO. Why're their fangs retractile but their claws aren't?????? 😩 Whatever--I like them.

👻 IMO AR's spirits/ghosts have THE best stories. The Mayfairs are ofc my favorite; and I really like Blackwood Farm (Goblin's haunting was really unique & interesting!). But another REALLY cool one of hers (that has nothing to do with TVC) is Servant of the Bones. It's about an ancient Mesopotamian ghost who's pretty much a genie/djinn? People really like it! 🧞 And ofc her ghosts are always tied to a witch's curse/spell of some kind. 🧙‍♀️🧙 The closest she gets to a "demonic" evil spirit is ofc Lasher, the evil fiddler Stefan in Violin, and technically Amel.

🧬 You know I love AR's Taltos; I think she created a really interesting blend of Hungarian táltos, Pictish history & and Celtic folklore. Lasher, Ashlar, Morrigan, etc are basically the Celtic giants/fae/elves of Stonehenge. 🧚 It's so cool how she spins centuries of religious hysteria & pseudoscience about birth defects, to create this species of immortals who can only breed with humans who carry an extra chromosome (witches/psychics); to either give birth to Wild Taltos (like Lasher), or the dwarves/Little People (like Samuel). Weird, but I like it when she gets weird, LOL! 😅 It's unique, which I appreciate.

👼 AR's notion of angels is VERY inconsistent (which ofc tracks with her religious struggles). In Memnoch and in her Angel Time series we get the typical Biblical angels. But then in PLatRoA she's found Science(TM), and retcons her entire angelology to say they're aliens from outer space--which, TBF, angels are technically extraterrestrials, yes. 👽But IMO it ruins the whole thrust of Memnoch, to have him be just another dead ghost. But TBF, that's pretty much what she did in Servant of the Bones, too, with the djinn/genie Azriel. So IDK? I still like these stories--it just makes me think more about HER religiosity and how it bleeds into her books.

🐺 I LOVE AR's werewolves/morphenkinder. They're basically superheroes, who go around killing evildoers and rescuing children from burning buildings & stuff--the Wolf Gift is a very fun series that no one ever talks about, it's a crime. There are also entities in that series who AFAIK might be forest elves/faeries/spirits, I have no idea. 😅 AR was very vague about what was going on with them. 🧚

🧿 I'm not a fan of AR's mummies. The mythos itself was really good; with the whole Elixir of Life premise. But aside from the fact that she whitewashed Ramses the Great to be some blue-eyed Caucasoid, her mummies are just DUMB. He makes stupid decisions and then cries about it, like omfg you CANNOT be serious. It was giving Discount Lestat if he'd stayed in Cairo in TVL. How TF is THIS the greatest pharaoh to rule Egypt???? I had to put that series down.

🧬🧬 NGL, I hope AMC includes Dr. Fareed's clones, and all his Mad Scientist experiments using vampire DNA! (I wanna see Sam play Lestat AND Viktor, LOL! 🤣 Just kidding, Sam's too old, alas.) Does it make a lick of scientific sense? Ofc not. Is it effed up & gross & problematic AF that Fareed basically stole Les' kid and never told him he had a grown AF son he never got the chance to see walk & talk & be his own person? God yes. Do I wanna see it anyway? Absolutely. 😅 It would make sense anyway, if they wanna do TotBT, since Lestat keeps donating his body to science (Raglan James, Dr. Flannery, Amel, etc)! (I'd like it even more if they just made Viktor a dhampir--since we never got to see his childhood, AMC could do whatever they want with it, and just have a half-vamp kid running around; why not? Put Viktor in the Talamasca and have a whole spinoff with Lestat's son solving paranormal mysteries with Rose, League of Extraordinary Gentleman style. We got Guillermo de la Cruz, but why has no one made Viktor de Lioncourt the new Allan Quartermaine or Van Helsing or Alucard Tepes?! 😩)

[team-heavenly]

Chapter 22 - Part 2

Lest you've lost your way, click here to progress (regress?) back to Part 1.

...Okay, now I'm officially worried.

Meanwhile, back in the Real World™️ (shout-out to my buddy @kantochampred!):

Alright, I'm about to go off on a small side tangent here but I promise it's worth it-

(Sorry to post your sins on main, Red 😔)

(Why Do I Climb the Mountain? is a reference btw)

LMAO OKAY thank you for bearing with me, now back to the main show:

Good job, neither of those two things is correct!

...Okay, Cherrim has replaced Drifblim, yes, but. Imagine this tiny seed holding Teresa and Andrea by their little stubby hands while riding the wind down the mountain.

I had to look up a walkthrough to identify that little Riolu to the right. Normally, that's an Exeggcute! (And the backup for Team Frontier, apparently).

The Third Station Pass was dubbed Great Turn, while the clearing was called:

Admittedly, I had no idea what an "oubliette" was, so I did a quick search and...

Wait a minute, are you freaking kidding me-

WE ARE STARRING IN A WAR DRAMA AAAAAAAAAAAA-

(Apologies for the small text at the start, let me know if I need to add an image description!)

...No >:l

The only reason I left this in is because this happened:

Oh my God yes PLEASE-

So fun fact, I actually did a dry run of the first few dungeons before doing it for real and taking photos. And the first time around, this gift was an Escape Orb? Which isn't bad, but I would 100% take the Reviver Seed over that any day.

The 4th Station Pass was named Sad Peninsula. (Florida? Dat you?) And the 4th Station Clearing? See below.

But then!

(Handsome Desolation? Is this where the handsome men in uniform... perish?! 😓)

I feel like a large, prehistoric rock dino should be enough to scare most things, but I guess taking the even larger rock snake as backup can't hurt.

So we go through the 5th Station Pass, Sandy Way... (Only one letter different from Sandy Bay.)

I. Don't remember why I took a picture of this. The downfalls of not immediately composing posts after the playthrough...

But yeah, those giant two-room dungeons with guaranteed MH's and a huge mass of enemies in the other room aside is definitely a theme and I hate it.

Andrea consumed enough Gummis to obtain this IQ skill, which is awesome since Max Elixirs are so hard to come by.

Look at this!! I'm pretty sure Blizzard only had 7 PP before! Yee haw!

I wonder which Pokémon are the ones bothering Sneasel Pichu?

OH NOOO!! I'm imagining this grisly scene where all these Combusken are just pecking Pichu to death.

Team Frontier happens to beat us to the punch:

I love that Onix is so big that she blocks Nidoran F.

Like all territorial encroachments in Mystery Dungeon, everyone just jumps right into the fray without listening to anyone 🙄

Honestly, all of Team Frontier was pretty based. Jolteon had an ability that allowed him to attack twice in a row (I think because the weather was different?) and he consistently used X-Scissor. Nidoran F had Sesimic Toss (55 damage) and Ice Beam. Deoxys had Attack Order, Seed Flare, Rock Wrecker(!), and Swift, the last hitting for 120 damage on a critical. Combined with Teresa's Chatter (when we finally got there, because you start off a ways from everyone), they didn't stay up for much longer.

Also Jolteon shielded me when Teresa got low on HP 🥺️

"SIT DOWN FOR TWO SECONDS AND LISTEN TO ME FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE, I SWEAR TO ARCEUS!"

"We owe you..." -> Yet another line from this game that never made any sense to me. (Unless it was sarcasm ig?)

💀You what

Hey, speaking of... I know Onix is huge and all, but have y'all seen Pichu since the fight started...?

(Beep boop, click here to advance to Part 3)

[windor-truffle]

brief graces update! i spent most of this session dualizing so not as much plot progress 😅

so apparently there was ONE person who kinda sorta knew about the warp from the amarcian ruins into wallbridge, but he didn't report about it because it scared him 😂 it seems like the developers threw this in to acknowledge how unlikely it would be for a high-security fortress to have an unknown secret entrance, though I'm not gonna nitpick that detail because they made it clear that Amarcian technology isn't well-known by the average person, much less understood

i made a new discovery! if you talk to these guards here they'll give you items. I believe it was 3 apple gels, 3 panacea bottles, 2 life bottles, AN ELIXIR AND AN HOURGLASS AND AN ALL-DIVIDE WHAT

as I was exploring the Barona Catacombs, specifically the chamber where you fight Lambda, my Eleth mixer produced a Possessed Crystal even though it only has a 3.3% production chance 😅 that just feels scripted

btw what even is the function of this place anyway. Barona has a sanctuary but no established religion that we know of. Since these are catacombs I assume SOMEONE is entombed here but who tf wanted their grave to look like this. i guess the infinity spiral in the center can suggest i hope for life after death but everything else about this just looks SO ominous

i like how this skit ends up foreshadowing Sophie's worries and Asbel's answer in L&L (was this skit added to graces f for that reason? it's too bad it's very hard to grasp what changes were made to the original Graces since only the remaster was localized here). also only tangentially related but i was entertaining a fic premise set on the one year anniversary of King Ferdinand's death where a mourning Richard discusses with Asbel where each of them would prefer to be buried--- Richard quietly asking NOT in these fucking catacombs, he has way too many bad memories of this place for his soul to find any rest here

and uninjured, again. not sus at all.

i don't know why but this skit made me laugh, i guess because most of it was about Cheria and Pascal doing acupuncture? in the middle of a civil war en route to kill a king?? and angry evil Richard wants to stop to talk about vases??? and immediately after Asbel says 'i got nothing' the skit just ends????? hello?????????

[ambre-gris]

things got quite triggery in RRRR after marriage (the wizard started saying things a cringey ex used to say to me, ick) so i moved it out of my mods folder for now... before that, i had started running away to lance... although at first i was like "wtf dude, stop stalking me" 😅 a couple of days later, i had a dream of exploring crimson badlands with him, which was super cool. 12 irl hours after that, things had escalated to the point that uhh... we were engaged xD and something (i have like a 100 mods) was preventing me from divorcing the wizard so uhh, horrible things might have happened. ofc, you don't simply divorce the wizard! i still kept my other save where i married him prematurely, so i can explore the story in a better headspace.

but! turned out lance was the stardew husband i didn't know i needed. he's stuffed my inventory with life elixirs, triple shot espresso, rain totems and he's done a fair bit of cooking, too. i've been cracking up when i go on ginger island, meaning to go greet him at fable reef but he's just chilling on the beach in his swimwear xD i always wander around a lot so it's nice to run into your spouse on your travels! squee. plus his 12 heart event T.T <3 worth the grind. i was left a little ambiguous on how i feel about it, because it implied i had broken a promise :( but i rationalized it by saying it's for science and for the good of the species (or several).

and then the dream came true and we faced an apophis! (thank you npc adventures xD) wish i could tame one, they're so cute.. the crimson badlands are crazy... CRAZY COOL that is. idk getting there just made me so tickled i've been happy in real life too. ✨

btw, this whole lance ordeal has involved things such as: having a child before marriage (i spent a night at the highlands outpost before getting married to the wizard because "the groom shouldn't see the bride before the wedding" XDDDDD idek what went into me, i was a total nutcase), the town thinking it's the wizard's child when it's obviously lance's, but lance himself being clueless... 😂 but it's all good now. i don't know if i can marry anyone else in a new run. he's just so adorable and silly. he says "your visits spark a lot of joy in me", i say i'm a freaking firecracker 🎇🧨

when i'm way up here, it's crystal clear that now i'm in a whole new world with you...

[meowizard]

if spectra died in a car crash then surely i can take some liberties with the 'child of' thing and here are my headcanons for how the monster high ghoulies.. came to be...

ghoulia was a victim of a serial killer in the 80s and left to rot in a forest after a dare from her 'friends'. her death was a tragedy and well documented by the true crime scene, due to the amount of notes she left behind researching into her murderer and her voice notes from the hours before her murder

twyla grew up in a children's asylum (:orphanage) sometime in the 18th century, eventually tutoring some of the younger children to avoid being turned out. crawled under a bed to avoid being scolded and whoopsies hey girl did you know im the boogeyman and im ur dad? sorry about ur life. here, you can travel to monster high through shadows, its cool you'll love it. (to this day twyla is unsure which parts of her life are dreams or not, but doesn't dwell on it)

cleo has started oxidising since she escaped and will probably last as long as frankie, which is to say a little less than a human lifespan?

(frankie has a LOT of daily upkeep to do btw. im talking hormone supplements and medication drips alongside ur typical stitching and bolts tightening. they deal with a lot of the associated struggles through pinterest medicore boards, obvi)

i'm in two minds here: jackson and holt are a result of heteropaternal superfecundation (twins with different fathers) but were joined in the womb - they've always been separate consciousnesses thanks to complications due to the elixir - but the literature nerd in me does not believe dr jekyll nor mr hyde would ever conceive with a woman. maybe they were grown in a lab. maybe tween jackson drank his dad's potion. i have an attachment to the first one though

they are actually both 50% of a whole and neither are good at making decisions. holt picks up practical skills faster but jackson is smarter, from right/left brain or lizard/higher animal brain ideas. (ego and id, and so on)

watch this space

[beikonsims]

Hiiiii <3 what life span do you play with?

I love ur families sm btw

Hello! o/

I don't actually have one set lifespan in my game, because nothing really works for me in a rotational gameplay. I play weekly rounds in each household and I like to keep it at slow pace with age, so that kids don't grow up too fast.

I generally stick to the default lifespan, but double it for adults to imitate the "young adult" lifestage as it is in the later games. I don't do exact calculations, but it takes me about 4-5 in-game weeks to go from the beginning of adulthood to the end of it. Teens take around 2 weeks, children 1 week and babies/toddlers a few days.

Elders I generally just leave to their fate. I don't feel the need to extend their lifespan, since I don't have a lot to do with them most of the time. They usually take around 2-3 weeks to pass away, unless the elixir of life is in use for plot reasons.

[cepheusgalaxy]

Okie so totsuka corruption arc thoughts! Very rambly

(Here i have a design for her during it btw. its fun)

Initial concept:

What exactly is it?

I wanted to put Totsuka through really really harsh times, and the way I figured that could happen was to put her in a battle royale island!

The idea came to me, actually, when I was watching Hell's Paradise with my brother

If you don't know, Hell's Paradise is a 2024 anime taking place somewhere in feudal japan. The story is about a paradise island in which it is said to exist a Life Elixir. The emperor is very interested in that, so he sends people to get it. The problem is that the Paradise Island is a dangerous and feral hellscape and none of the people he sent cane back alive. To turn around that, he gathers a bunch of criminals in the death corridor, and says he will release and forgive them if they go to that island get the elixir for him. The story follows an assassin who was betrayed by his own clan and is trying to get back home so he can meet the love of his life again + the executer who was assigned to him, a lady samurai who is very skilled but a bit regretful about taking lives and struggles being the only woman swordsperson in her clan. It's a pretty cool show and the characters are very endearing. Anyways:

All the criminals ended up deciding they were each other's enemies in the isle, since just one of them could get back with the elixir and recieve forgiveness, or so the emperor said. They figure that the earlier they eliminate their rivals, the safest it will be for them. When that became a consensus across the characters, it lit the idea inside me

Also, just to reiterate, a battle royale is a sort of competition with a lot of people, and it is a 1 x all for everyone. The last person standing wins. Like The Hunger Games, for example.

So now I know I want to put Totsuka in a battle royale island! But how?

An idea that really endears me is to threaten her friends and say they will be in danger if she doesn't comply to being sent to the battle royale place. (Which im lovingly calling Fuck You island for now)

From here, we're gonna draw from even more anime to expand on that! Have you guys ever watched Yashahime? To give a brief overview, it is a next generations style of continuation of the InuYasha anime, that old show about a youkai boy and a modern girl who gets time travelled to his time. Anyways, in Yashahime one of the characters gets sent to a battle royale training camp once, following the principles of kodoku:

Kodoku is sort of a mythologic experiment? Like, it involves other things but in a part of it, you would put many poisonous insects into a jar and make them fight. As they were killing each other, in order to survive, they'd become ever so stronger and in the end, the last insect standing would be the strongest one, and also have had levelled up its poison by that point. (That's not exactly it but it's the bit i want you to grasp) In the show, the girl was put in her by her professor who said she'd become stronger if she could make it out of there alive, and I also find that concept pretty neat although i didn't like the anime very much

So: kodoku-ish battle + battle royale island + blackmail. A formula for disaster, stress and trauma, isn't it!

Whos behind it (brainstorm)

The next thing we gotta figure out tho, is WHO put her and the other participants in there. We assume they want to do it to extract the strongest participants from there. (Perhaps its not just one, like the Hunger Games, but a few, like the Chunin Exam from Naruto where to level up you gotta reach somewhere + inevitably kill some/many rival contestants)

But what do they gain from that? Living weapons? Servants? I don't think anybody would want to colaborate with them after being coerced into Fuck You island

Unless maybe its a deal? Some contestants were threatened, some were lulled in by a good deal: maybe they are being offered a prize?

But I still don't see how these surviving participants would agree to be on this person's side. Unless...?

Unless that in the process of winning/escaping Fuck You island, the survivors are put under some sort of spell/curse that bids them to the Fuck You Master? (Person whos putting all of them together in this weird kodoku)

Thatd be a fun way of getting them to do your stuff. So they want them as pets? Servants? People they want to get favours off? What is their goal?

Is it an experiment? Is it a process? Perhaps they want to unlock some magic or whatever, and by winning, some people are inevitably gonna achieve that for them?

I might want to pull this from another shounen tho (t&o is already pretty inspired in shounen anime anyhow lmao)

In THG why is it: To maintain social hierarchies + entertainment. (battle royale is proposital, put together by someone)

In HP why is it: to get an item (battle royale is accidental, put together by someone)

In Naruto (Chunin Ex.) why is it: to prove one's abilities in order to get status. (battle royale is proposital, seeked by individual persons)

In Yashahime why is it: a training camp to get stronger. (battle royale is proposital, seeked by individual persons)

So im not very into many battle royale examples in media as of now so by these examples I have I can organize them into these two subtypes. Sometimes the b.r. situation happens accidentally, sometimes it is a feature, not a bug. Sometimes the outcomes are supposed to benefit the ones organizing it/a third party, sometimes the only ones benefiting on it are the (surviving) participants.

I think I want mine to be a proposital battle royale + it benefits a third person (Fuck You Master)

Now. How does it benefit...? (Power/resources/entertainment)

Entertainment: too silly. A fun one, but not what im going for

Resources: Perhaps not even an item or something you can get at Fuck You island, but a network of magic-bidded slaves at your beck and call to add to your network?

Power: Maybe they want to absorb the magic if whoever wins? Idk. Im leaning towards Resources but this is kind of a fun one. Something in Fuck You island allows you a new kind of power (like the winx club + sirenix book lol), and if you unlock it you can partially give it away to the Fuck You master. Would allow for less repercussions later on the story + add in a (dangerous) new character + benefit them + give totsuka a bit of a boost, still

Yeah so Power it is. But how?

Is it related to the animas? Gosh itd be so cool if it was. Is there a theory that animas get this new feature when put to the limit in the harsher conditions? Maybe, maybe. Maybe something related to absorbing your fallen enemies + like using blood to level up? Video game logic style.

Does Ola (her soulbonded) feel the effects of this i wonder. Does his anima level up? Actually now that i think ab it are ola's and tot's animas connected too or like is the bond part stored away in another bit of the soul. Like. If the soul is kind of like the brain (different parts + different purposes and effects. like. one cortex is responsible for memory and meanwhile in the soul one bit is responsible for the magic) then maybe the animas arent the bit of where the soulbonding happens. Something to think ab. I should note that down

Back to the Power. This is prob something I want to linger on when developing the magic system (which i am not under a deadline ti get my b-day things done anymore + am on school break! all the time of the world to me!)

Lil details i might want to include:

Clothes! This occured to be as I was designing Totsuka's Fuck You island fit. It would be really fun if like. For every person you defeat, you are supposed to pick a piece of their clothing. I dunno why. More protection? Game rules?

If your clothing is stolen, you still got a few pieces of it. An undershirt, undies, a pair of pants. When your last piece is stolen though, game over for you.

Although hmmmmmmm. If i want them to kill eachother that doesn't work very much? Maybe sometimes ppl will have mercy/agree to a match if you give them some outfit instead of just killing you. But its not standard. Hmmm perhaps perhaps

But WHY does the clothing matter though. Do you need it to get out? Like the scrolls on naruto? Are they valuable otherwise? Is it just a feature the master put in bc they thought its be neat?

Okay i might actually need to think this one through bc its such a FUN concept + way of changing totsuka's design in the corruption arc and i want to explore it so badly.

Maybe kills (just go and. get 'em) = all clothes. Duels (mutually agreed fights) = just a bit? Or maybe kills = no clothes while in duels you might get some. Thatd explain why some people would settle for duels not exactly out of sheer mutual respect. Kills are valuable, but so are clothes, so you gotta balance them out if you want Out. Totsuka loses a few duels in the beggining but is not killed (ppl probably try many times and almost achieve it, though. maybe failed kills often end up turning into duels.) so she loses a bit of clothing and then she starts winning many of them and gets more Clothes. Also kills. Stabby stabby

i just gotta see how the clothes are valuable now

Another thing i want to play with is Allyship. At first everybody is trying to get you and then you get a few allies and like. You are a team and patch each other up in order to try and get out. Probably works better than in settings where just One Person gets Out because here a bunch of people are supposed to, so you r not gonna have to betray ur teammates at some point + expect to be betrayed by them anytime.

Also an excuse to put in fun and new characterssss

[studentinpursuitofclouds]

Since 1.6 released combat trinkets. What do you think the are the favorite combat trinkets of each of the castle villager’s adventurers/mages?

Alesia: The combination of a golden spur and a magic quiver will make Alesia incredibly fast and deadly. Like lightning, the spur will give her a speed boost when killing monsters, and the magic quiver will help her cover her back while she fires her trusty bow. If the sniper combines this with rings, she can safely be called the strongest adventurer in the entire Republic. Even the chaotic Farmer will have a bit of a hard time pulling against her.

Camilla: frog egg. Just because I think our witch would love a little pet. Which, btw, will come as a great shock to her detractors and amusement to the witch herself. Imagine someone (definitely an idiot, since they wanted to fight her) deciding to pit a powerful mythical beast (dragon, phoenix, whatever your heart desires) against the main witch of Castle Village. And Camilla only smiled slyly and let her cute little frog out of her hands. And no sooner had her opponents taunted her than the frog swallowed the mythical creature in Kirby-style, leaving her foes completely embarrassed. Camilla is sure to die laughing. The parrot egg is also a great option: cute feather pet that brings her shiny coins (in my headcanon, also gems). The rest of the trinkets will be of much use to her, I think - she can conjure anything without it.

Lance: an ice rod that will freeze your opponent in place, allowing you to strike or retreat? Oh, Lance could definitely use that. Our adventurer is also a mage, after all, so wands, staffs and rods are not uncommon in his arsenal. The fairy box will also help him reduce his use of life elixirs (ingredients for them are a bit hard to come by), or help him out if no elixirs at all. There's also a magical hair gel. I know, it's not exactly a combat trinket, but how else to explain our gallant adventurer's spiky hair that stays the same even in the rain?

Isaac: I'm sure Isaac wouldn't mind a basilisk paw, because he's a melee adventurer, so he's bound to run into annoying debuffs like slowdown from slimes or blindness from shadow sniper. And with this trinket, the grumpy monster hunter can breathe a sigh of relief - one less problem. Parrot egg will also be useful to him, because, as I believe, the life of an adventurer is not too sweet, every coin on the account, and a little helper that will look for money when you kill monsters - quite useful thing. The rest of the trinkets related to magic, he is not interested (Isaac will definitely not carry a fairy box with him out of principle).

Jadu: maybe some will scoff at Jadu because he's always carrying the fairy box around, but the young wizard will definitely have the last laugh when the fairy heals his wounds in a difficult situation. And also, as a self-respecting magician, Jadu couldn't pass by an ice rod that will freeze his enemies in a flash.

[stormbreaker101]

I love that you are taking the scientific approach to Wiz. Reminds me when I did my experiment to plant 40 or so full plot gardens in my real estate empire's worth of houses, and try to double garden them all on one elixir.

You can't btw. The game appears to have a tiny, but exponentially growing code lag for each plant you double harvest. No emptying bank/backpack doesn't help nor does selling items. The only thing that resets it is the elixir wearing off, it appears. And if you try to double garden too much, you'll find yourself suddenly only able to harvest one plant every five to ten seconds.

I think out of my 40 or so full gardens I was only able to double garden about 15-20 of them before the lag ran out the timer.

That is absolutely fascinating. If you ever try this again, i wonder if logging off between each plot will reset the lag.

I have my life wizard set up to only be a farm bot basically on Double Garden elixirs (I need to get back to doing that lol), and Ive definitely harvested more than 40 plots total but only 2 at a time before logging off of her for the day.

[meowjinniesims]

Changes, changes...

Amelia got a surprise, which made her move out on her own earlier than she had planned..

Long time no see and there is many things to catch on, including Andi's career path as writing freelancer (and she love it), also Albert was getting sadder recently (but at least became a A+ student in high school) and Amelia was more keen on taking care of her nephew and niece in house, while excecuting studies better than our heir...

Also Amelia finally took her love life things in her hands and she got with her brother's acquitance

Also our Founder's birthday came faster than we thought and since she had aged up, she felt, that something is off (and Lars has missing shirt because i had changed computer and not all cc files had moved, like i have more than 40 GB of them)

Later Amelia went on date with her boyfriend to Sulani and after woohoo in water something surprising came (even i was surprised to be honest)

Well...

Later twins aged up to toddlers and it meant that Adrien could catch up more with his studies and new job as Scientist (please don't look at Barbie's hair because it was before makeover)

Twins after makeover

After birthday of twins, Amelia went to obstretician, who told her, that her child is healthy and then she got married with Minho (engagement was fast because in his culture it's a scandal to have baby before marriage)

Also Andi lost weight because of elixir btw and another bonus - Amelia had a fight with burglar... (and my game crashed while saving Amelia's house, but i had played it until the moment of her moving on her own in late hours of day)

[elxixir]

HELLO !!!

this acc belongs to an 19 yr old tomboy girlboy

u can call me jamie or elxixir (pronounced "elixir") btw ^_^

tbh i mostly look at fandom stuff here so like yk dont expect a lot of art >.> but ill try !!! #into the cauldron is my art tag

rn, im interested in hermitcraft [and hermitshipping oh nose] n the life series so yeah,, expect that ! more miscellaneous may pop up (warrior cats, genshin, star rail, furry, blah blah blah)

also 16 and under ppl dont talk to me nothing against u i just dont want to be reminded im old (jk but im srs abt not talking to me)

ok thats all of it .

[majimaisms]

the Reason that this is deranged btw is because you cant actually prove anything to yourself this way. what's the point in worshipping an idol you created? what does it prove to you about the World, about whether or not there is Hope for good things, if you yourself are the one ensuring your idol remains worthy of worship against all odds?

it's because that was never the point. the point was always having something to work for. having a goal to work towards. keep himself occupied so as not to become adrift. saejima says "you'll just be wandering around aimlessly." that's because majima HAS been doing that. he's seen majima do it. and it's killing him. he always talks about how bored he is but it's not even boredom. it's this stagnant, hopeless state of being where he has nothing to do with himself. it's bleak.

but this method Works for majima. because majima is his own storyteller and audience. he loves a good narrative, and he buys into it too. this is what makes him such a good actor. the power to believe in his own fictions. he's very good at kidding himself. but he is not oblivious to the truth either. he respects it a lot. he just has a very playful relationship with it

the game even plays with this by making it a LITERAL STORY that majima is telling. and insists its real but it can never be proven. but it doesnt matter if it was real. because the point is that it gave him something to do that was worth doing. going on a crazy treasure hunt to find an "elixir of life" that he knows is stupid, but it's a chance worth taking if it means he might not fail kiryu after all

it reminds me of something rahim redcar said in an interview

"I am a poet. I like to make sense of life with magic. I like to 'abracadabra', use a prayer as a way to transform. I like to believe in that, because if I don't believe in that, my life is meaningless."

and of course. as always. black sails

i think the most deranged example of majima's "do everything yourself" control freakisms is that he needed an idol, because he was so cynical and had no faith in anyone or anything after y0, he needed someone he could put his faith in and who would continuously inspire him, and he saw kiryu as a potential candidate and he Turned kiryu into that. he was like. ok. you. you're going to be my personal jesus. im turning you into him. and then he trained and mentored kiryu into becoming the strongest guy around so kiryu wouldn't lose what makes him special. because majima needs him to stay that way. because he needs hope and inspiration. because everything in his life is so bleak. but he did that. he did that by himself. he just decided that he was gonna do that and did it with no input from kiryu