#real npc feels today

[variksel]

hi im about to start uni and im insanely nervous, i havent made a friend in 7 or 8 years, asking as a probably neurodivergent somebody how do you guys script conversations? how do you make yourself sound interesting and not boring as a plank of wood? what would be some good conversation starters, in which contexts and how would you use them? id really appreciate some comments thank u guys sm :]

[arthursfuckinghat]

Rhodes - Lemoyne

[elfyourmother]

that rant I made a while back abt fandom treating haurche like a fridged woman is sitting on my spirit again

yeah I know ppl can write what they want, curate my space etc but if I blocked everyone who did this I would literally have no one to interact w in the ishgardian corner and this is exactly why it’s so frustrating

[venusmages]

i think my favorite little bitch move to do as a DM for recurring NPCs is completely flip the script on how they come across to the party

The timid noblewoman rescued from being kidnapped? She's actually a stone cold bitch that can knock you out in one punch and has wanted to rip someone's throat out w her teeth for half her life. She just seriously needed some TLC that the party provided, godspeed

The depressed, soft-spoken DILF grave cleric? Still depressed but is lowkey a chad jock that makes a habit of annoying his brother and complains like a fucking teenager when he has to do any parts of his job that aren't "fun". Was excited to hear the party caused a bar fight. Harasses his best friends ex-husband because the husband is afraid of ghosts.

it's just fun LOL

[pinkie-pop]

"We've Seen The Devil—He Was Hiding In The Mirror."

Part I Part II Part III

Featuring: Gender-Neutral Reader, Twisted Wonderland Various x Reader, Self Aware AU, Yandere TWST

Synopsis: The second oath revealed, a new character appeared.

Word count: 3k.

Includes: Obsessive and possessive behavior, PTSD, nightmares

"You are no savior—nor purpose nor God. You are damnation—a phony and fraud."

--------------

You flip to the first page and begin reading.

Entry 001: Names.

The Ramshackle Ghosts have informed me that they do not have names. Or, more accurately, that they have long since forgotten them. Grim says it is peculiar for someone to not have a name. I will have to trust his judgment on this. 

Entry 003: You.

Grim asked about you today. I, quite unfortunately, did not have much to tell him. Or rather, there was not much I was allowed to tell him. Whenever I try to speak your name out loud, my lips firmly close, like a flower blossom at night. 

When we are alone, you are all that he asks about. Not that I blame him for it, of course; I am just as curious as he. The ghosts are strange, though: they have never once asked about you. Perhaps they simply do not understand. 

Entry 005: 

Grim has revealed the truth of your existence to Heartslyabull. It was an accident, of course, but even so, I gave him a rather stern talking-to. They have directed all of their attention onto you. It’s true that I did not exactly like being on the receiving end of their “affections”, but at the very least I did not have to share you with anyone.

Entry 015: Fate.

I've been thinking more about names lately. Everyone seems to have one. I am no different. My name, Yuu, indicates that I am a stand-in for someone else. A blank slate for you to imprint upon. The others have similar names. Each one is an indication of our role. With just the names, you can figure us out. Are all names like this? Is each person's fate dictated by their name? 

What about yours? Your name is different. Your name is not a play on words, nor a foreshadowing of things yet to come. Your name says nothing. You are simply yourself. 

You are the only thing real in this world. You are the only thing who is not bound by the threads of fate. 

Entry 017: Love.

I had a very interesting conversation with the Heartslyabul students today. It was about you, obviously—for, what topic besides you could ever possibly be interesting? I had asked them about what they felt for you (rather accusatively, if we are being honest here. After all, how could they possibly feel anything, when they are nothing but code?) They responded that they felt love. Naturally, I had been expecting this answer, however, something about the way they said it made me pause. Perhaps it was the matter-of-factness of it all that caught me by surprise. They answered my query in the same tone of voice one would use to say that the sun will rise in the East and set in the West, or that the sky is always blue except for evenings and mornings. 

They said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. They said it as if they believed no other answer could possibly exist. I do not believe them to be worthy of your gaze, but even so, they have earned my respect. 

Entry 020: Real.

Some of those worthless NPCs doubt your existence. It is of little consequence, however, for your influence is all too real. Even those maggots cannot deny that much. You have changed this world without ever once stepping foot in it. 

Entry 027: Devil.

The characters you love are a complete mess because of you. They stretch themselves thin trying to win your affection. They pull all-nighters, throwing themselves into researching to bring you over to them. They destroy themselves when you’re away, and they ruin each other when you are here. 

They claim you are their savior—their purpose. Because of that, they put you on a pedestal. They worship you as if you are some god. But you are no god. You are its reverse.

You are a devil.

But don’t fret, my dear [Name], for I still love you all the same. When the others learn of your true nature they may abandon you, but I will always be there. 

You slam the book shut. 

“Hasn’t anyone told you that it’s rude to go through another person’s things?” Your surprise registers in your mind, but your body does not react. You do not flinch, though all of your senses are screaming at you to move. You recognize this person immediately, their silhouette is illuminated by the moon’s glow behind them. You had seen them before, but this is different. You are not just seeing the body, colorless and without soul—you are seeing the person. Now, you had seen their thoughts, their hopes, you had heard their voice. 

“Yuu…” Your voice trails off. You have nothing to say. What could you say? 

“[Name]...” They echo, voice eerily similar to yours. They smile at you—and what a smile it is! It is the kind of smile you only see in portraits. It is cheerful yet mysterious. Cunning yet serene. It is the kind of smile that betrays nothing of the smiler’s intentions. Pretty does not even begin to describe it. They are not just beautiful—they are beauty itself. 

Instinctively, you step back, unaccustomed to being on the receiving end of such an intense gaze. They close the distance easily. Before you can even blink, their nose is almost touching yours. You can feel their heartbeat on your chest as they reach behind you, hand slithering across your arm. Goosebumps rise on the skin where they touched you and linger even after they take the journal and step back. You think, for a second, that your response is out of attraction, only to realize faintly that you are afraid. It is the way they look at you, you think. Their gaze could be compared to that of a predator stalking its pray. 

The only difference being that no predator would dare make its intentions quite so clear.

They are still donning that smile of theirs. Only now it is wider, crueler. It vanishes as soon as it appears, leaving you to wonder if perhaps it was nothing more than your imagination all along. “Goodnight [Name],” they say, although it is far too late to properly be considered night, you suppose the distinction is not very important.

After all, they have already left.

———

Grim is standing over you. It is morning, you realize. The rendezvous from last night sits in the forefront of your head as Grim goes on about something or another. You are only able to catch the last part of what he is saying. ”Ya' got some wellness packages from the students—and letters. A lot of letters." 

Great. 

You step into your house slippers (when did you get those?) and head downstairs. Honestly, you were not expecting much. A few baskets with candy and first aid, get-well-soon cards and maybe, maybe a teddy bear—if they were really splurging. 

It’s like you were born yesterday. Of course it would turn out like this. Didn’t you see the offering room? And that was before they even had a reason to send you gifts. 

A mountain of gifts looms over you, casting a large and foreboding shadow across the dorm. Just looking at the giant amalgamation of well-wishes and apologies has you feeling overwhelmed. It takes you a few long seconds to gather the courage and determination needed to move it all indoors, luckily, you have Grim to help you with that (although, inexplicably, some of them had already made it inside even without the two of you). It is around the time you are dragging the fourth package indoors that you wish you had more people to help. 

Actually…

“Hey, Grim?”

“Yeah?”

“Where are the ghosts?” Grim pauses. Then, with a nonchalance completely unbefitting of the situation at hand, he replies:

“Dunno. They’ve been missing ever since Yuu shut down.”

“Excuse me?” Grim shrugs. “Three people go missing, right as a fourth turns black and white, and your response is to just…shrug it off?” Grim, at the very least, has the decency to look a little embarrassed at this. He tucks his ears flat against his head. Avoiding eye contact, his eyes dart around the room, likely looking for an excuse to change the subject. 

Grim picks up a letter from a pile. “Here! Why don’tcha read this one?” You take the letter from his hand, rather unimpressed with his attempt to fool you, but willing to look the other way for now. After all, suspicious as it is, the ghosts’ disappearance really has nothing to do with you.

“This one’s from Riddle,” you say, turning the envelope around in your hands. It’s white with a red rose seal. The address has been penned impeccably in red ink. The others in the pile are not nearly as fancy as this one, but they each follow the same formula. You suppose there must be a rule about letter-sending. 

You glance over at the other piles. Each has their own quirks that distinguish them from the rest.

Pristine white envelopes with red seals and red ink, courtesy of Heartslyabul.

Kraft paper envelopes tied together with string, “from Savanaclaw” penned plainly in black ink.

Grayish blue wrapped gifts with letters laid neatly on top, no doubt from Octavinelle.

Scarlet envelopes with what you suspect to be actual golden seals—an elephant and a scarab, surely from Scarabia.

Royal purple with silver encasings, long elegant calligraphy giving away its Pomefiore origins (although, one letter is drawn more sloppily than the others, you notice).

Most uniquely of all, a tablet that appears to function solely as a voice recorder, ready to be played at any moment, surely something one can only find in Ignihyde.

Gothic-style calligraphy and black envelopes with green seals, unquestioningly from Diasomnia.

You stare at the baskets of letters for a while, debating yourself on whether the energy of opening and reading each letter would be worth the effort. You decide that no, you’d rather not go through the ordeal, and instead, opt to stand up and stretch your legs, only to end up right back on the floor, reading through the letters you had just sworn to avoid. 

You really are hopeless, huh? 

———

“That’s the last one,” you say, tossing the letter aside and flopping down to lay flat on the floor. Getting through all of them had taken you hours, despite only having skimmed them.

“Jeez, they’re really persistent.” You nod, or you try to. It's actually rather difficult to make the nodding motion while lying down, but Grim seems to understand your sentiment, regardless. Your mind feels hazy; your vision is starting to blur. Perhaps you ended up straining yourself. Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to rest your eyes, just for a moment.

You must have drifted off, because when you came to, you were on a couch, and not the floor. Just as well, you suppose, lying on hardwood for too long would hardly be comfortable. 

"Morning!" You feel a weight on your chest as your eyes shoot open. Yuu is laying on top of you, head resting on their hands and elbows digging into your ribs. Their face is entirely too close. You open your mouth to speak, but the words never leave your body. 

"Aw, I know you've got a lot to say to me, but it looks like we'll have to cut this conversation short. You seem to be waking up," they say, gracefully getting up and walking out of sight.

"Wait hold on—!" 

———

"—Wait, Yuu!" Your eyes shoot open as a feeling of Dejá Vu washes over your body.

"Hey, hey! Myah! Calm down!" A familiar weight settles on your chest as Grim stands over you, watching your expression worriedly. 

"I guess I must have dozed off. Sorry, Grim." 

"You okay? You were screamin' bloody murder." 

"Just a bad dream. I'm fine." Grim doesn't look entirely convinced, but doesn't seem interested in pressing the issue.

"You were screamin' about Yuu. Speaking of…where are they, anyways?"

“What do you mean?” You ask, a feeling of unease creeping its way into your stomach.

“They’re not in the bedroom anymore. So, where’dja put ‘em?”

“I…thought you moved them?” You bolt up the second that Grim shakes his head, frantically running around in search of something you know does not exist.

You are searching for the library.

It is then, as you are running, that something peculiar catches your attention.

It is a door. Now, that on its own is not at all a concern. There are doors everywhere, but this door…this door is different. This door is not supposed to be there. This is a door you have opened before. It is distinct from all the others—this door leads to the library. It was exactly the thing you had been searching for, and yet, now, standing in front of it, you hesitate. 

Your shoulders tense as you stare at the door. You look at it as if you are waiting for it to jump out and frighten you. But it does no such thing. It is, after all, nothing more than a simple door. This knowledge does nothing to lay your anxiety to rest. If anything, it only amplifies the growing pit in your stomach. 

You gather up as much courage as you can muster and twist the doorknob, even if only to lay your unease to rest. It is unfortunate, then, that your unease only grew upon entering. The door disappears behind you, and a feeling of dread crawls from you, emanating out in waves. 

This room isn’t supposed to exist—but you are very much here. 

“Come to read?” Yuu’s disembodied voice calls out to you. You silently scan the library for any signs of life. You find nothing. Perhaps there is nothing to find. “Looking for something?” You whip around, Yuu now standing behind you. They are smiling. It is that same cruel, bewitching smile from last night. Your throat feels dry. You are shaking. 

“You must have really missed me. We were only apart for a few minutes, you know?”

“What is this place?”

“I call it the Wraith. I don’t know exactly how it works, only that it has something to do with the subconscious. I came here when I shut down, and you come here whenever you lose touch with reality. It’s really fascinating stuff.” 

Lose touch with reality? As you ponder over Yuu’s words, images of your previous visits float through your mind.

And just like that, you are alone. It takes a moment for the realization to sink in on you: you are alone. And it is by your own doing, no less. What a terrifying lapse in judgment! What an egregious oversight!

Grim is standing over you. It is morning, you realize.

Your mind feels hazy; your vision is starting to blur. Perhaps you ended up straining yourself. Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to rest your eyes, just for a moment.

You are searching for the library.

“But you know,” Yuu’s voice pulls you away from your thoughts. “a room like this doesn't just pop into existence. Someone has to make it.”

“And in order to make it, something has to be sacrificed.” They take two steps closer, and you take four steps back. It isn’t long before you are running out of space to hide. It isn’t long before your back is pressed to the wall, with their hands to either side of your head. 

“Want to know something funny?” They cock their head to the side as you stare at them, their grin only widening when you remain silent. “When I first shut down, everyone thought that something was wrong with me. But, really? I felt better than ever. It was like I was awake for the first time in my life. I was aware the whole time, I could hear everything. I saw the whole hunt, you know?” You are so still that you are not even breathing. When Yuu steps back, you suck in a breath and sink to the floor. They pay it little mind and continue on with their story. 

“Of course, I hated to see you so mistreated—but even so, I was a little glad. You finally saw them for who they really were, and I finally got to see you for who you really were. It was beyond frustrating, you know? Watching you get kicked around by filthy, vile creatures that could never be deserving of you.”

“Although, I suppose it was you who made them that way, wasn’t it? You’ve ruined them, you know?” The aura they’re emitting is nigh unbearable. Your body is screaming at you to run, but the fear has rendered you deaf. They smile. That same damned smile. Your breath hitches. Images replay in your mind as your head swirls

The mouth widens as storm clouds gather and swirl around you. Dancing around in a cruel ballet. Thunder cracks in the distance as acidic rain hits and sears through your skin. The flowers turn to gravestones, and the songbirds begin to scream in human voices. Thorny vines reach up and take hold of your limbs, cutting through your flesh and bones as if they were made of nothing more than paper. 

You are already halfway to being buried alive when you realize you’re being pulled in. Desperately, you try to claw your way out of the soil that threatens to swallow you into its suffocating embrace, but it's of no use. It isn’t long before you can no longer fight back. It isn’t long before you—

“You…what are you? You’re not…human.” 

“Does it matter what I am?”

“It does.”

“Then just call me yours.” They hold out a hand to you, urging you to take it. “I know that your presence ruins people, but I don’t mind.”

“Because I love you.”

[ryin-silverfish]

I really like Azure Lion as a character. Yeah, you can stop following me now. /j

But no, seriously, I like how LMK has adapted this particular character, given him way more potential complexity than his novel counterpart——not that it's a high bar, the LCR trio of JTTW are just demon warlords living in a literal human slaughterhouse.

Which is why I deeply dislike the take that "Oh, Azure manipulated SWK into fighting the JE! He's just using him like a pawn!" Like, wow, way to completely butcher two characters' personality and agency in one go.

Such takes reduce SWK to some innocent kid, when he is at most an impulsive, daring teenager who haven't met a single real obstacle so far——he robbed the dragon kings blind, and they couldn't do a thing! He struck his name and all his monkeys' names off the Book of Life and Death! What couldn't he do?

And Azure's failing isn't him telling a toddler: "You know what? Driving your tricycle into oncoming traffic will be real fun, trust me kiddo." It's letting his friend go way over the speed limit and not telling him that he should maybe, y'know, slow down, bc he'd seen his epic driving skills, SWK's the bestest driver he ever met, surely nothing would happen!

(And also, no one in that car is sober, except Macaque.)

What I'm getting at here is, even without Azure, SWK is not gonna be content with sitting on his mountain, eating peaches forever. Hell, he sure doesn't in the novel, where his demon king brothers are little more than namedropped NPCs.

He is always gonna want more, chase after greater destinies, drown out that existential ennui and fear of death at the back of his mind with bigger and bigger power-ups and the laughters of his companions.

He told himself he would be content after getting this one thing he wanted. That he could stop at any time. But alas, like any ADHDer, he will not stop at this one exciting thing, and sooner or later, the boredom sets in, and he gets ideas and impulsively leaps into making them reality.

That is the Mind Monkey at his worst: being a whirlwind of chaos, while unknowingly enslaved to his own chaotic mind.

(In the book, this is Wu Cheng'en's reminder to the reader that, even though you shouldn't keep your heart constantly under lock and keys, Neo-Confucian style, the other extreme——letting it go completely wild, disregarding all external rules and consequences, can be equally disastrous.)

And when that car was driven through the Celestial Palace's front door, off a bridge, and straight into a ditch, it was him in the driver's seat, steering the wheels the whole time.

Everyone else in that car failed terribly as friends when they didn't voice any objections, or try to get him off the driver's seat, or realize that cheering and egging him on is an awful idea, however genuine their blind trust was.

Like, they are certainly not helping, and made the situation much, much worse. If you let your buddy drive while under influence and hand him more beers in the car, even if you are also drunk out of your mind and aren't actively trying to get him into a traffic accident, you are a shitty, irresponsible friend.

But the thing is? SWK is still responsible for the consequences of his decisions. He could have stopped, by his own volition, and no one was holding a gun to his head and forcing him to drive. He, too, wanted this.

That, to me, makes a much more interesting narrative than "Poor innocent baby SWK was puppeted into becoming the Great Sage in Heaven by shady blue cat, how awful!"

Oh, and since I'm feeling particularly salty today, I'll also ask some last questions: is SWK so weak-willed and devoid of self-agency to you that he couldn't even OWE his most famous title, the Great Sage in Heaven, 100%, without being manipulated into it?

Is SWK so immature and unintelligent to you that he is incapable of being a genuine idealist or rebel, that he cannot agree, out of the depth of his heart, that the Celestial Realm sucks balls and needs better management?

TL;DR: Havoc! Era Azure Lion isn't some cult leader brainwashing this kid into becoming his figurehead. He's the dumbass who's too busy staring at his teenage crush to care about the blaring police sirens.

Also, I had a bit of an epiphany after writing this: why am I so annoyed by people reading Azure's idealization of SWK as him intentionally manipulating and love-bombing him? Because it is a very western and modern reading.

For someone with traditional Confucian beliefs, it is perfectly normal——it is what you are supposed to feel, as a liege who has found your just and virtuous lord.

If Romance of the Three Kingdoms existed back then, he would probably describe himself as the Guan Yu to SWK's Liu Bei, however wonky the analogy was.

(Gosh, now I want a "Four Classics read each other" crossover.)

I'm not saying it is healthy or wise. But under this context, putting your lord on a pedestral was normalized, and even encouraged, as the virtue of a righteous gentleman. It was the sort of ideals romanticized culture-wide. NOT having such beliefs would probably make you look weird.

And since the Celestial Realm in the novel is a parody of Confucian hierarchy in a Daoist trenchcoat, it was really no surprise that an idealistic ex-celestial soldier would hold the same beliefs.

To torture the analogy further, the problem is that he was trying to be the Guan Yu to SWK's Liu Bei, when the Brotherhood had more in common with the Bandits of the Marsh, down to their giant downer ending.

[the-s1lly-corner]

Master of Me

Not totally sold on the name for the fic maybe I'll change it midway through typing this and forget to take this sentence out haha! Short little fic because TADC is on my mind, probably only going to be slightly longer than my other posts... we will see! Notes: Reader is GN, Gummigoo and the reader are not dating but they are close friends, AU where Gummi was allowed to stay at the circus, comfort fic, limited dialogue, reader doesn't remember anything about their life before joining the circus. like nothing at all. not proof read we die like kaufmo CWs: Gummigoo is still struggling to fully come to terms with the fact that he is just an NPC- really it's just some angst Word count: 1.3k

No one ever said it was going to be easy, and he didn't expect it to be easy. Nor did he expect it to come fast... but he had hoped that within the weeks after joining the circus it would become more bearable. It.. had.. but he wasn't making as much progress as he had hoped. Some days were better than others, where the thought that everything he knew was a lie didn't cross his mind. Other days it hit him hard enough to keep him holed up in bed.

You had been kind enough to share your room with him, Caine had yet to make a room for the new circus member- whether he didn't want to or he couldn't you weren't sure. You tried your best to give the gator some room so he can gather himself on his own time, opting to wander around the circus until it was time to go to bed. Sometimes he would even join you, allowing you to show him the grounds. It was all so different from what he knew in the desert, though... those were all false memories too, weren't they?

Today had been one of those days, that left him too shaken to get up and join the others during the day's adventure. You told the others to go along without you. Everyone but Zooble left, but it's not like they were going to step in to help you pull Gummigoo out of his mind- though they did surprise you by showing some level of support through the form of wishing you luck.

He didn't have the key to your room, so he couldn't lock himself in. Not that he would if he could- he was grateful that you had given him the space, but he would feel terrible for taking it a step too far.

The lights were dimmed, you could just barely see his form sat at the edge of your bed. You noted how the lights looked against the material of his body. If you squinted, you could see small specks of sugar within his lemon lime body. He had noticed you, but didn't say much aside from a short apology- did you need something? Was he in the way? He was about to get up before you stopped him and sat next to him.

"What's going on with you," You asked, though as soon as the words had left your mouth you felt stupid for asking. You knew exactly what was going on, sure you may not know what set him off in particular or what part he's focusing on... but you still knew enough. You watched his white eyes narrow at the floor, as if it was the most interesting thing to him. He sighed after a moment, and lifted his head to stare at you. He was missing his mother today, or at least his idea of her.

"Nothing really happened, did it?" He muttered, referencing everything he could gather from his memories. That seemed to only make things worse, though, seeing as they were all so... limited. Artificial. False. "Oh god, none of it happened, did it?" He added after a few more struggled words clawed their way through his teeth. You sucked on your teeth as you tried to find the right words to say. For a terrifying moment you wondered if NPCs would abstract- what if you said the wrong thing and triggered it?

The words fell out of your mouth before you could stop yourself.

"It was real to you, wasn't it?"

Silence, and he whipped his head to stare at you before pulling his eyes back down.

"It may not have been... real... but they're still your memories, it's still... who you were originally meant to be- you know?" You added, but that didn't seem to help. "I wasn't supposed to find out, I know that much," He said lowly. He sounded angry, but it didn't sound like it directed at you exactly.

Suddenly he looked at you, with enough speed and intensity to make you jump just a bit and scoot back to avoid his snout. "But you don't remember anything from before you came to this... place.."

You only nodded, when you had joined the circus you actually remembered less than the other members- you didn't even remember putting on the headset that brought you here. To you, it was like you simply spawned into existence. You remembered how terrifying that was, how you seemingly came to and had to build everything up with what you were given.

"Just like you... kind of..." You whispered, and with a look he urged you to continue. "You don't remember much of anything from before you... tried to steal the syrup. You hit a.. block.. when you try to remember anything before that. You had... nothing, not to sound like what's happening to you doesn't matter any less.." You trailed off, then attempted to regain yourself. "You..." but your words failed.

"How did you make it work, didn't you ever want to return back to what you had before.. Before.." He stopped. "I almost want to go back, wouldn't that be easier?" He stared down at his hands, a habit you noticed that he picked up. He bunched his fingers together before relaxing them, before tensing them again.

"It was hard at first, for me too.. but," You chewed your tongue. It felt like it was plastic. "I got to make new memories," You managed to spit out. Gummigoo went silent, looking you in the eyes for a long moment before seeming to understand.

"You can't change what's happening, what's.. happened.. or what you were before- regardless of if it actually happened. You're in control now, and you're free to make your own choices now!" You offered a half smiling, hoping you had said the right thing. "It's not exactly like what I went through, I'm not from the digital world, and you are.. but, we were both new to this at some point,"

Quiet.

Then he laughed. He actually laughed, albeit weakly and airily. He shook his head lightly, tugging his hat down before taking a deep breath through his nose. "You're not wrong about that, (Reader)," He let his body relax. He was far from okay, but he was seeming to even out now.

He looked at you again, once more in the eyes. You forced yourself to maintain the contact, before he pulled his face away. His eyes scanned over the room, taking in everything they could see. "I'm in control now, am I?" He said to himself, his hand relaxing as he spoke. He lowered his head a little, before his mouth stretched into a smile. "If I'm going to carve my own path, I'm glad that you've given me the tools," He flicked a glance to you, "I'd be happy if you stuck around,"

You only smiled, before nodding. "Bit hard, since you've stolen my bed! We're stuck together already!"

You pulled another laugh out of him, this time it was a little stronger. "I can't argue with that, I do get rather sticky do I?" He smirked. "You don't have a choice of helping me, if you even think of stepping away I'm going to glue you to me," He joked. He was returning to his usual self, slowly.

"You say that like it's a bad thing," You shot back earning a third laugh.

You could hear the sounds of the rest of the circus returning from their adventure. Had you both been talking for that long? Had that much time passed. You looked to Gummigoo, it didn't feel right leaving him here alone after the conversation you had just had together... so you had decided to stay.

At least for now, for as long as he needed you to stick around.

[anneapocalypse]

Why I Love the Hinterlands

The Hinterlands in Dragon Age: Inquisition get kind of a bad rap, and for kind of understandable reasons. For anybody who doesn't know the story, some context. The Hinterlands are the first open world area that unlocks for the player, a vast and highly explorable map full of quests, worldbuilding, and NPCs. So what was the problem? The problem was that the Dragon Age series had set two games' worth of precedent that the player could get locked out of an area and lose access to sidequests and other content—and the devs seemed not to fully realize they were fighting this precedent, or how strong it was, until the game came out and completionist players were getting exhausted and annoyed running around this huge map trying frantically to knock out all the side content before moving on. We still make jokes about devs on twitter trying to tell players that they could leave the Hinterlands. Lines were later patched in for the starting companions urging the player to go to Val Royeaux and advance the plot; you'll hear those lines if you play the game today, but they weren't there in the beginning.

The game's executive producer Mark Darrah has even spoken about this problem in his Dragon Age: Inquisition Memories and Lessons video on YouTube. From a game design perspective I do not dispute this issue. It definitely represents an oversight in the way the area is presented to players and the context they are given for what they should do next.

All that said… I love the Hinterlands, and with every replay (I have beaten the game four times at this point) my appreciation for this area and what it brings to the story has deepened. And as recent polls have raised discussion about the merits of various maps, I've felt moved to rise to their defense, so... here's why I think the Hinterlands are Good Actually.

Every map in Inquisition has its own overarching story, introduced by Scout Harding when the map unlocks and revealing itself through exploration and completing the quests within. Crestwood has the story of the flood during the Blight. The Exalted Plains have the story of the Orlesian Civil War. The Hissing Wastes have the story of Fairel and the surface thaig. And so forth. For this reason, I've come to feel that once you've progressed far enough in the main quest to have collected most or all of your companions, the most rewarding way to experience each area is at one go, as much as possible. Popping in and out of maps to complete one quest at time is, in my opinion, really detrimental to exploration and makes it harder to see the big picture. This is also one place where I really appreciate the invisible approval meter, because it discourages me from always stacking my party to game approval, the way I pretty much always play DA2.

At first glance, the story of the Hinterlands is the story of the ongoing war between the rebel mages and the renegade templars. This is one reason the Inquisitor may go there: to make contact with the rebel mages. They have been offered refuge in Redcliffe and are presently entrenched in the castle and adjoining village; the templars continue to attack the mages' position, and thus there is concentrated fighting in this region. Splinter factions of both mages and templars are also entrenched elsewhere in the area.

But this is just the setup. What the Hinterlands is about, its real story, is the common people.

The Inquisitor is first sent to the Hinterlands to make contact with Mother Giselle, in hopes of gaining some Chantry support. Seeking her out requires the Inquisitor to fight their way through the conflict to reach the Crossroads, where many refugees have gathered.

In these big, sweeping stories about heroes and villains, I think it's easy for the perspectives of common people to get kind of lost. One thing I do appreciate about the Dragon Age series is that every game does make a real effort to give voice to the commoner perspective. Origins has its city elf and casteless dwarf origin stories, and the player encounters many commoners throughout the game and gets to hear a bit of their perspective. Dragon Age 2 wouldn't be Dragon Age 2 without Darktown and Lowtown and the elven alienage and our interactions with the people who inhabit those parts of the city. Oddly enough, though, every human character we've ever had the chance to play in Dragon Age has come from a noble family; sure, Hawke starts out living as a commoner, but doesn't stay that way for long.

In Inquisition especially, we don't have the option of a commoner prologue to really drive home that perspective and carry it through the story. And while a Dalish elf, a Carta dwarf, a qunari mercenary, and a Circle mage certainly live very different lives than a human noble, they also live very different lives than Giles the farmer—not necessarily more privileged, but still different, with differing priorities and different stakes in this conflict. Bron the farmhand has no reason to be at the Conclave; he's here mucking out stalls, knowing the horses still need to be fed even if there is a rift spewing demons over there in the middle of the neighbor's pasture. Elaina the farmer is putting away cabbages for winter and hoping the barn doesn't get burned down by a stray fireball. And Elaina is one of the fortunate ones: her family's home and livelihood are still intact, for now. The Crossroads now hold many ordinary people who through no fault of their own have lost their homes, their crops, even family members.

Theirs is the perspective we get in the Hinterlands.

You don't have to stick around for all that. You can take Mother Giselle’s advice immediately, go to Val Royeaux, go deal with bigger and more important things and people. You will need 4 Power to go to Val Royeaux, but Power is easy to come by. Close a few rifts, and you’re good to go. You don’t have to care about these refugees and their problems.

But you know, something I notice is that the founders of the Inquisition spend a whole lot of breath talking about "the people." How they have to restore order for the people. How the people are looking to us—to you, Your Worship. The people need you. The people need to believe in you. That’s why we’re raising an army and building a cult around you! For the people.

Well, here are the people.

And if you talk to the people at the Crossroads, it turns out that what they actually need is less faith in Andraste’s chosen, and more blankets for the cold nights, medicine for the sick and injured, and food so they don’t starve. They need the war ended and the Breach closed so that they can return to what’s left of their homes and salvage what crops and livestock they can.

It is easy to feel a bit smothered by the Inquisition’s overwhelming Andrastian-ness, especially when playing a character who has their own religious beliefs, or none at all. We have a lot of characters trying to tell us about the importance of faith—their faith, specifically. We’re told that the people need to believe, and that’s why we have to play the role of this figurehead. And you can run with that idea and play it straight, if you want to. But there is, in fact, a different story to be found here, if you want to look for it—a story told in the world itself and the people who who inhabit it: people cannot eat faith.

And Mother Giselle, the person we are sent to the Hinterlands to find, knows this. She is certainly a devout Andrastian and deeply influenced by a life in the Chantry—but she also chooses to be on the ground helping people in need rather than arguing with her fellow clerics in Val Royeaux. After the attack on Haven, Mother Giselle and the Inquisitor have a conversation about faith, in which the Inquisitor points out, in one way or another, that faith may not be enough. Giselle may seem to disagree. Yet it is she who then leads the survivors in a song that does not mention the Maker or Andraste even once. The much-maligned “The Dawn Will Come” is so frequently assumed to be a Chantry hymn because it is Mother Giselle who starts it; even the fan wiki lists it as such. But I hear something much more akin to a folk song, a marching tune—not a high holy chorus for a cathedral choir, but a song with a simple tune and repetitive lyrics, about hope in dark times.

Perhaps she was rather more persuaded than she appeared.

When you ask your ambassador Josephine, “What do the people make of us?” she tells you how many noble allies you’ve gathered. And that’s not unimportant; this boots on the ground shit costs money, and most of that is coming out of noble coffers. But when you ask Mother Giselle, “How are the people?” she speaks of the terror and suffering of the people in the Hinterlands, and warns of mass starvation if the farmers cannot return to their fields.

This is the story of the Hinterlands.

And the density of side quests on this map reflects that. In addition to aiding the refugees with food, blankets, and medicine, there are so many more opportunities to help people in small but meaningful ways. An elven widower who cannot reach his wife’s grave through the fighting asks the Inquisitor to bring flowers there as is his custom. A grieving widow asks for the retrieval of her husband’s wedding ring from the templars who murdered him. A beloved ram has gone missing. A mage mourns her templar lover and the war that has come between them. A note speaks of two brothers, templar and apostate, torn apart by the war. A son has gone off to join the cult in the hills (no, not our cult in the hills, another one), and his mother needs the special remedy for her breathing problems that only he knows how to make. And so many more. Even the Winterwatch cult itself asks us to consider what it is the people truly need: the Inquisitor can enlist them as Inquisition agents, or ask them to aid the refugees.

Are all these sidequests vital to the plot? No. You can skip them if you want to. Are they relevant to the plot? Absolutely. Are they meaningful? To me, yes. Maybe they didn't change the whole world, but they changed something for these people.

It is so important to me that we get to actually meet the common people whose lives are depending on us. Whatever you think of the Inquisition itself, people actually are dying because of both the rifts and the war, and many more will die if these problems aren’t resolved. Meeting them, giving them names and faces and side quests dealing with their more mundane needs is so much more meaningful to me than standing around back at base being told “People are starving in the Hinterlands.”

It's understandable that the Hinterlands had to fight the precedent set by Lothering getting locked off, because in many ways the Hinterlands serves the same narrative purpose as Lothering: showing the effects of the present crisis on the common people and what's at stake for them.

I should note that the Hinterlands are not the only part of the game that addresses the impact on common people—far from it, in fact. The Exalted Plains give us a taste of how many have died for the Gaspard's attempted coup; Emprise du Lion shows us commoners kidnapped and tortured by Red Templars; the Winter Palace puts the bloody reality of the "Grand Game" in stark contrast to its gilded veneer with the indiscriminate murder of servants for expediency.

But it’s important that we are introduced to the suffering of the common people early in the game, when the Herald—not yet the Inquisitor—may still feel pretty shaky on their motivations for even sticking around.

While I've mostly been talking about non-mage commoners here, I do want to say a few words about the rebel mages as well, since they too are a part of the story of the Hinterlands. I hope that no one reading thinks I am blaming the rebel mages as a whole for what's happening in the Hinterlands, for what the common people here have suffered. The templars, notably, are not entrenched in the Hinterlands. Their present stronghold is Therinfal Redoubt, an old Seeker fortress, which is a significant distance from Redcliffe. The fact that the bulk of the fighting is taking place near Redcliffe, while we've no evidence of a mage offensive against Therinfal, makes it pretty clear that it is the templars who are pursuing the mages at this point, not the other way around. Certainly some in the region may not bother to make that distinction while their crops are on fire, but let's be clear about the story the map is telling us: it is the mages who are under attack here, not the templars. It is sometimes said that Inquisition deliberately draws a false equivalence between the mages and templars in this war. I would like to point to this piece of environmental storytelling as evidence that that is not entirely true.

Sometimes, it seems like pointing out that collateral damage happens is read as condemning an oppressed people for defending themselves. I want to make it clear that this is not what I am saying. I simply feel that those characters who have lost homes and livelihoods in this conflict are also worth seeing, and talking about. But I also don’t think it’s an accident that this is the map whose story is all about the suffering of ordinary people, and it is also the rebel mages who have their base on this map; the templars do not.

So, that’s why I think the Hinterlands are Good Actually! They contain an absolute wealth of worldbuilding, and their story frames the game’s central conflicts around the people suffering for them, early in the game when that perspective is most needed.

[hbyrde36]

Life is a Game (and True Love is a Trophy)

ao3 link

Chapter 1

*Eddie  - 1986*

“That was amazing, Eddie!” Will exclaimed, with a wide smile.

They’d been playing for over 10 hours and Eddie was exhausted. He was only a few years older than the other boys, so he knew it was a poor excuse, but he was getting too old for these marathon sessions. Where he felt dead on his feet, the other boys looked like they could go for another 10 hours, no sweat.

It was well past curfew for the younger boys but since it was Saturday, and spring break, it hadn’t taken much convincing to get all the kids' parents to agree to the late session, as long as Eddie got them all home safe. 

The small group said goodnight to Mike and Mrs. Wheeler before walking Lucas next door to his house. Then, Eddie, Dustin, and Will piled into the van. Technically Dustin’s house was closer but Eddie drove Will home first. He liked to drop his cousin off last, so he could stop in and say hello to his aunt if she was home. 

Eddie was a little distracted during the drive. He’d been trying to keep busy for the last few days, anything to help him forget about the fact that it’s the anniversary of Steve Harrington’s disappearance, but today that had been impossible. How could he not think about the guy who inspired one of the main characters in a game they had just spent all day playing?

When it's finally just him and Dustin in the car, he allows some of his thoughts to spill over. 

“It’s one thing that we use ourselves in this crazy story but do you ever think it’s fucked up that we kept Steve as an NPC after his disappearance?”

Dustin shrugged. “I don’t know, I mean, I didn’t know the guy. Mike always said he was an asshole, so, who cares?”

Eddie almost slammed on the breaks, it’s only for the sake of his beloved van that he didn’t. He can’t believe the kid would say something so insensitive.

“Dude he’s like your best friend, how can you say that!?”

“In the game, Eddie. He’s my character’s best friend, in the game . You always take it too seriously.”

An uncomfortable silence fell over them when Eddie didn’t respond, too upset and lost in his thoughts to make conversation. He pulled his van into the driveway behind his Aunt Claudia’s car and shut the ignition off. 

“Mike was wrong, y’know. Steve wasn’t an asshole, not really.” Eddie said, as he followed his cousin up the path to the front porch.

Dustin stopped abruptly, turning on his heel to look at Eddie. “Wait. Did you know him? Were you friends?”

Eddie sighed. His feelings about Steve Harrington had always been…complicated.

“I knew him my whole life. We were in the same grade till I got held back, and it’s a small town. We were never friends, exactly, but I saw him almost every day in school. We talked sometimes in the halls, on the bus. Maybe he was a bit of a dick to people occasionally, but who isn’t? That’s what kids do. He was always nice to me.”

Dustin stared at Eddie like he’d never seen him before.

“I'm sorry, man.” He stuttered. “I didn't know. Why didn’t you ever say anything?”

It was Eddie’s turn to shrug. “I don’t really know. I guess I was trying to keep the real Steve and the game Steve separate in my head. I always thought he’d turn back up eventually. That maybe he’d just run away from home, and someday he would come back when he ran out of money or something.

“It could still be that. It's not like they ever found a body.” Dustin offered, not really sounding like he believed it, but wanting to be supportive.

“It’s been 2 years, almost to the day. The Harrington’s have more than enough money to hire fancy private detectives and shit. If he was alive, they’d have found him by now.”

*Steve - 1983*

Steve Harrington had just started dating Nancy Wheeler when Will Byers went missing. Later, he would be embarrassed to admit it, but at the time he was a little pissed off that she wanted to ditch their date to join in the search for the boy. The kid was probably just out playing and lost track of time or something. Everyone knew Joyce wasn’t exactly the most stable person in the world. He knew Hopper only humored her with this search to get her off his back. 

When he told Nancy as much, she called him an asshole and stormed out. After sulking about it for an hour after she left, he realized she was right. He didn’t want to be that guy. He didn’t want to turn out like his dad. So, he threw some sneakers on and set out to join the search party. 

He walked through the woods looking for Hopper, or anyone else who could assign him an area to search. It started raining before he could find anyone, and he was just getting ready to head back to his car, when he heard rustling in the bushes off to his left. He turned in the direction of the sound, squinting in the dark to try and see if someone was there. He thought he saw movement and then a twig snapped. It sounded loud in the quiet of the trees.

It was so dark out here, he wished he had a flashlight or something. 

“Will?” Steve asked, taking a tentative step forward.

The only response was a quiet gasp from the dark. There was definitely someone there.

In a stroke of pure luck, the moon chose that moment to come out from behind the clouds. Her soft light illuminated things just enough for Steve to make out the shape of a small child with a shaved head, wearing a gigantic yellow t-shirt. This was definitely not Will Byers, but the kid sure did look like she was in trouble. 

“Hey there, I'm Steve. Do you need some help?”

The girl stared up at him with wide eyes. She didn’t answer, but she hadn’t run away from him yet either.

He tried again.

“Do you want to get out of the rain? My car isn’t far from here.” He didn’t step any closer but held his hand out to her to take, or not, whatever she chose.

The girl studied him for a long time. She looked into his eyes like she was trying to read his soul. He didn’t know what she saw there, but it must have been enough to convince her that he was safe. She nodded, pushing her tiny hand into his, and the two of them walked together back to the warmth and safety of Steve’s car. 

-

It wasn’t ideal, bringing the girl back to his house, but at least his parents were out of town. Once he’d gotten her into the car he had tried to take her to the hospital, or at least the police station. She’d shaken her head slowly, ominously, and uttered the first words he’d heard her speak. 

“Bad men.”

Steve didn’t know what to do, he was in way over his head. He needed help. He needed people much smarter than him to tell him what to do. The idea occurred to him to take her to Nancy’s. She was smart, and a girl. Surely she'd be better suited for this, she’d know the best course of action to take. But, the girl refused that too. She seemed to only trust Steve.

Tired, and out of options, he went home. 

He gathered some dry clothes for her, old sweatpants and a Hawkins High swim team t-shirt from his freshman year, and sent her into one of the guestrooms to change. The clothes would be huge on her but it’s the best he could do for now. 

It was late and he kind of expected her to just go to bed once she changed. They could always figure things out in the morning. But, a few minutes later, there she was, standing in his doorway, looking around the room curiously.

“It’s okay, you can come in.” He said, as he shut the closet door. “In fact, why don’t you come sit down. I think we should talk about some things.”

She looked hesitant, but joined him, cross-legged on the floor. She still hadn’t said more than those two words to him but clearly she could speak, and she understood him fine, so he had to try. They’d start small.

“What’s your name?” He asked, voice gentle as he could make it.

She shook her head. 

Somehow he knew it wasn’t a refusal, but more like a confusion on her part. 

He pointed to himself. “Steve. People call me Steve. What do people call you?”

She pressed her lips into a thin line and held her shaking wrist out to him.

He was confused at first, until he noticed the small writing there.

011

“Eleven?” He asked.

She nodded vigorously, a hint of a smile playing on her lips.

That was, well, it was so not good. Shaved head and a number tattooed on her arm. Steve wasn’t a genius but even he knew that something was seriously messed up here. Who would do this to a little girl? Where were her parents?

“Is that what your parents call you?”

“Parents?” She sounded the word out slowly like she was saying it for the first time.

“Yea, like your mom or dad? Mama or Papa?”

“Papa" She agreed, nodding. "Bad man.”

O..k. Well that certainly answered some things.

“Is that why you were in the woods tonight? Were you running from Papa and the bad men?”

She nodded. 

That was enough for tonight, he decided. They were both tired and he really needed some time to think, to make a plan.

“I think we should get some sleep. We can talk some more in the morning. Okay?”

She blinked at him and nodded again. She definitely preferred non-verbal communication. It didn’t bother Steve, he could roll with it. 

“You can sleep in that other room, the bed in there is really comfy.” He said, rising up off the floor as she did the same.

“Where do you sleep?” She asked.

It was a little jarring, hearing her string together a full sentence like that. It was stilted, the way she spoke. Obviously talking wasn’t something she did very much.

“Here.” He answered, motioning to his bed. “This is my room. So i’ll be right across the hall if you need anything.”

She looked over her shoulder at the doorway and then back at Steve. She made no motion to leave.

“Would you rather stay here?” He guessed and there was that little smile again.

“Safer in here, with you.”

Steve’s heart broke. He kind of hadn’t thought about it until that moment, the night had been so full of weird things and it had all happened so fast, he hadn’t realized how utterly terrified Eleven was. He wanted to fold her up into his arms and squeeze her tight. Promise her that he’d keep her safe from the bad men of the world.

But he couldn't do that. He couldn't promise anything when he had no idea what was going on. He wasn’t sure if she would welcome his embrace either, so he held himself back. Instead he got into bed, scooching all the way over to the wall, and then patted the big space he’d left for her. 

She crawled onto the bed and almost immediately curled into a ball. He watched her as she settled on the pillow. She looked so small. He vowed to himself that he would do whatever he could to protect her. He’d hide her in this house forever if that’s what it took. He didn’t yet know what she’d been through, but he knew it was bad, and something no little kid should have to go through.

The rain had turned into a storm while they talked, and it raged now on the other side of his window. A loud crack of thunder startled them both. Eleven was shaking again. Steve laid his hand out, palm up, on the bed between them. An offering of comfort he thought she might accept, since she had taken his hand in the woods.

She hesitated for only a moment before placing her hand on top of his.

Chapter 2

[thefirstknife]

Some important stuff in regards to the harassment of developers came from Bungie today. They won a lawsuit against a guy who repeatedly harassed a community manager and his family (not fully confirmed in the official document, but people are fairly certain this is about A_dmg and his family). This is a twitter thread from the lawyer who went into some details about the situation. The court document is also available to read (featuring some of the horrific harassment tactics that were motivated by racism and also used racism as part of the harassment so be advised if you want to read).

This isn't just a win for the individual community manager and Bungie, but also has potential to set a bigger precedent in the future. It's basically the first time this has been done to this extent and some ruling in this case made it clear that companies can pursue this sort of legal action in the future if their employees are harassed and threatened. This is HUGE because the protection of employees in the gaming industry has been abysmal otherwise. This case will allow for the company to file a lawsuit on behalf of their employees in cases of harassment.

Before I add some of the more heinous stuff about this situation below, I want to say that the majority of reactions to this are positive. People are happy that this happened as it did and a lot of people are excited about potential big influence this will have in the future to combatting harassment of this type in the gaming industry.

Extra details and thoughts below (racism tw):

This started because the community manager highlighted a black content creator, Uhmayyze, who is himself a victim of harassment more often than not (usually of racist nature). He is most often harassed because he is unapologetically positive for which people have continuously sent him awful shit and comments. Because he enjoys the game and isn't jumping on the hate train. Just recently he commended Bungie for a ban wave and had hundreds of people hound him on twitter for his comment, including Gladd who started it by specifically replying to Uhmayyze and putting him on blast (warning for a lot of gross comments, including photoshopped screenshots of fake discord texts to make Uhmayyze look bigoted, nsfw images, r slur, suicide baiting and so on). This is important because the incident of real life harassment was fuelled over a community manager highlighting a content creator that is himself being harassed and despised online for the crime of... being positive. And you know, for being black. This situation isn't an isolated incident. The community, including other content creators, are absolutely horrible towards this one person that they feel, I guess, does not follow the content creator NPC questline of hating Bungie and Destiny.

So of course, at some point, someone from that crowd will feel confident and justified taking things further. How dare Bungie promote this person they hate. How dare they focus on a positive creator. They're clearly biased and don't want to listen to criticism, only to "toxic positivity" streamer. How dare a community manager highlight this creator. It's a personal slight to them, and "proof" that Bungie is bad and evil and "ignoring criticism." There's someone out there (and probably not the only one) that hates this creator and the game so much they were willing to harass and threaten a community manager and his family in real life.

The community manager was first harassed by phone with text messages and voice mails featuring racist bile, including apparently a voice mail telling him to "convince Bungie to create options in its game in which only persons of color would be killed." This is the worst part for me and super concerning in general, as well as showing the dedication of this person to racism, motivated by his hatred of a black creator (which also, by proxy, technically makes the streamer being harassed as well). Absolutely ghoulish behaviour.

This escalated to also harassing the CM's wife and resulted in doxing them; the harasser somehow found their address. Most of the reports on this will say that the asshole "sent them pizza" which doesn't truly capture how horrific the incident was. First, it's a random guy who has your address which is concerning enough given that he harasses you by phone already. Apparently the pizza was made to be "inedible" and the delivery was instructed to bang loudly on the door upon arrival to maximise discomfort. The order was also deliberately made to be paid on delivery to create as much pain for the victims as possible. The harasser also kept track of the delivery and then called the family again when it was done to tell them to "enjoy the pizza." The family immediately contacted Bungie who contacted the police and provided the family with protection. There's no telling how this would've escalated had they not been in the position to call Bungie and had Bungie not reacted to them asking for help. It's absolutely crucial here that Bungie is the type of a company willing to immediately assist in this situation.

Immediately following that, Bungie organised a long and expensive manhunt to identify the harasser and bring them court. That's where most of the expenses went; finding the culprit and protecting the employee and his family. This is the money Bungie earned back by this court decision because they could prove that the expenses were caused by a person harassing and threatening their employee.

This is a big win overall for the whole industry. It's Bungie setting a precedent on how a company should protect its employees. No matter what people think about Bungie or big corporations or whatever, this is how you can use a lot of money and power to make sure that your workers have rights to decency and safety. That's huge for the rights of workers and worker protections. I hope it becomes a standard and that any future harassment is prevented altogether or at least punished accordingly.

Naturally, the commentary on the news from a big part of the community is super positive. Unfortunately, there's also a part of the community that has a lot of really awful shit to say about this. The comments on twitter are littered with people who are using THIS specific moment to yell about Bungie being a greedy corporation, how the money they won should be used to "fix the servers" and "make more pvp maps" or how Bungie will greedily put this money "into Eververse" or "into Marathon." There's comments about how time was uselessly spent protecting an employee who should expect harassment anyway, instead of working on "fixing the game."

This is what I mean when I talk about how impossible it is in the current situation to have a meaningful discussion about any sort of criticism or feedback. There's thousands of comments from people who think that this specific instance shows how Bungie is greedy. This is what I mean when I say that none of these people actually understand what they're talking about. You can't make proper criticism when you can't separate game development with a company's legal effort to stop an escalating harassment campaign of an employee. The majority of gamers are simply not fit to offer any criticism or feedback. The idea that we all have something useful to say and that employees at Bungie are obliged to give us their time of the day is simply incorrect.

I genuinely 100% stand by the claim that the recent barrage of content creators promoting the idea that Bungie is "the greediest company in the world that's scamming players and increasing costs out of greed" as well as the idea that Bungie is "abandoning Destiny for Marathon, isn't working on the game anymore and is deliberately ruining it" is the reason for these comments existing. If a big streamer said that Bungie is getting too much money but also not doing anything "good" with it, then any money that Bungie receives (including compensation for expenses they took to protect an employee from active harm) is a result of greed. The nuance of any situation is lost; when you only learn the mantra of "company has money therefore company bad" you WILL end up causing harm for people and you will most definitely not be an advocate of workers rights. That's where we're at right now.

The dehumanisation of people who work at Bungie (and the harassment itself) is a consequence of this crap and other similar crap that's been thrown into the ether for the past year, disguised as "we're just offering feedback." People heard that Bungie is a "microtransaction hell" and that Bungie is only investing in Eververse and Marathon and they feel like this story reflects that; they feel like an employee being harassed is not deserving of proper condemnation and that this isn't important enough and that Bungie is a greedy corpo anyway so who cares about that. They do not understand how companies work, how games are made, the state of the industry as a whole (or the world as a whole), the treatment of employees or workers' rights, and you cannot meaningfully critique a company's business practices without understanding that. And they don't because they think that legal expenses used to protect victims, finding a culprit and bringing their ass to court is money that is being used for game development and that Bungie receiving this money should result in... new pvp maps or "fixed servers."

And there's even seemingly good commentary where people recognise how this is good, but they initiate the comment with "As much as I hate Bungie and Destiny and I think they're awful and greedy and destroying gaming as a whole..." : that's not the time and place. You don't have to excuse your support of a big win for potential new employee protection policies just because those policies are done by a company. Of course it is. Companies are the only ones capable of pursuing this sort of legal action. It's one good way a big company can put their power and money into a good place to actually help people and bring forth positive change. And like, you don't have to tell us how much you despise Bungie before you're "allowed" to admit that this is good news. Sometimes companies do good stuff. It's literally not that complicated.

I hope that this situation will help other employees demand the same protection, that other companies will follow suit and that this will also make potential other harassers rethink whether or not they will engage in this or similar type of behaviour. In the meantime, know that the community is largely positive about this, but that there are still absolutely detestable human beings who should feel ashamed of their reaction to this. They shouldn't feel welcome here. And there's still people doing this to the devs and I hope Bungie takes their asses to court too.

[imaginarycyberpunk2023]

OTP: Lite Sneeze // Macha Richter & Vinnie Gallo

Guys. This is emotional for me.

This is possible thanks to @gloryride - she made Macha an NPV, which means I can spawn her in Vinnies game as an NPC and pose her with him.

In real life, today marks the 10th wedding anniversary of me and my husband. And I get to show off my OTP in a joined pic for the first time. So I can't feel help but feel like there's some divine timing involved here.

More crying under the cut.

When I spawned her in and had Vinnie next to her, I started crying. When I started this journey in January of this year, I had NO IDEA about anything, RP, VP, OCs. I didn't know you could SHIP characters. I didn't know you could just make up their stories and lore. But I gladly fell into the rabbit hole that is the Cyberpunk 2077 VP fandom, and I don't regret a single minute.

I made these two out of Vs that I actually played with on console. They are now no longer Vs bc I can't have them die, ok.

They were not an OTP at first, but when someone asked if they could make an OC to ship with Vinnie, I was like - :but, but he has Macha!" And Lite Sneeze was born, albeit like Romeo and Juliet bc they could never be together (in a picture) - or so I thought.

And then I actually saw a picture of Dagger (by @wraithsoutlaws) and Ivarr (by @dreamskug ) TOGETHER. It was thos post - which is still so freaking badass. So I knew it was *theoretically* possible. Of course, I quickly learned that I wouldn't be able to do it myself, so imagine the joy when I heard that I could commission someone to make an NPV.

I tried recreating one of our wedding pictures, but - alas - I couldn't (yet). Posing a couple is so different, and I have so much learning to do. Lighting them is a challenge bc their skintones are so different. Vinnie needs an extra light, but with them being so close (🧡) it also reflects on her, and she is over exposed. Finding poses that fit. Their height difference! It is the same height difference my husband and I have - I made Vinnie as tall as he is, and Macha is my height (6'6/1,99 and 5'8/1,73). I mean, that feels amazing, but it's a challenge for VP for sure.

But I am sooooo happy with how the first pic turned out. I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS. I get so giddy looking at that. I think I managed to show their love in that pic.

Okay, so here's to a lot more shippy pics with Mr Gallo and Miss Macha bc I don't see myself stopping anytime soon.

[tinyinvadr]

Everyone, I have returned from the Void with a new chapter! I really hope I’m able to keep consistently working on this, I feel like I almost never finish a fic anymore!

Hide & Shrink

Chapter 5

We returned to the main stage where the rest of the circus members were waiting for us. They all seemed happy and relieved to see me. I still couldn’t really tell with Zooble, though. They’re hard to read.

“Welcome back, Pomni!” Gangle greeted, a smile plastered on her newly restored comedy mask.

I waved to her, still feeling kind of awkward around everyone. It had only been two days, they were all still strangers. Giant strangers.

“Okay, so Pomni’s back, but we still don’t know where the %$!# Jax went. I don’t like when that creep goes missing.”

“Language, Zooble, language! And… Jax said he won’t be participating today. Neither will Pomni. As for the rest of you, today’s adventure will be…”

With his free hand, Caine snapped his fingers, making bubble letters appear above us as he spoke.

“Wrangle the Wroinks!”

Zooble glared at him. “Didn’t we JUST do that?”

Caine started laughing hysterically. He was so loud I felt the need to cover my ears, even though I’m pretty sure my character model doesn’t have them.

“No, those were the Gloinks that you were gathering last time! The Wroinks are completely different!”

The Wroinks in question suddenly appeared and started bouncing all over the place. They looked exactly like the Gloinks only this time they were wearing hats.

“Right. Of course they are.”

It wasn’t long before a Wroink bounced off of Gangle, knocking her comedy mask off and breaking it.

“Not again…”

Ragatha picked up the pieces for her, looking over at me apologetically.

“We’ll catch up with you later, Pomni. Caine, you remember what we talked about, right?”

Caine gave her a thumbs up. “Sure do! Don’t worry, I’ll make sure our new little friend is safe and at ease!”

After everyone left, he just floated in place, not moving. I sat in his open palm, staring off into space as I waited for whatever was delaying him to pass. This seemed to be a common occurrence. He would just… stop.

“Well then, Pomni, have you decided what you’d like to do today? The possibilities are limitless! *Notethatthepossibilitiesarelimitedtowhatisallowedbyourtermsofservicepleaseaskforadditionaldetails.”

I didn’t have a real plan in mind. If I had the option, I’d just do nothing for the rest of the day, but I had a feeling Caine wouldn’t understand that. Even if he was considering my feelings, it was clear he required some sort of constant entertainment.

“Well… what do you normally do during the adventures?”

He paused, as if he wasn’t sure whether or not to tell me.

“There’s a restaurant Bubble and I go to, but that’s an NPC-only zone! Then again… this is kind of a unique case… Ah, no, no, I’m not picking favorites! Oh… but you’re so gosh-darn adorable! Alright, you make a convincing argument. Let’s go!”

Before I could even attempt to process anything he said, he snapped his fingers and we teleported to a new location.

It was a small, casual restaurant, with wooden mannequins seated at every table. It was strange how it didn’t match the aesthetic of the rest of the circus at all. I guess that’s why it was considered an off-limits area, since it would ruin the immersion. Not that I cared. If anything, I liked that it looked more grounded in reality.

Caine floated over to a table where Bubble was already waiting for us, and sat in the available seat. He then carefully set me down on the table, and leaned on his elbows, resting his lower jaw in his hands.

“Well, this is the place, Pomni! Want anything? Food? A drink? Just an appetizer?”

“Oh, that’s okay, I don’t need any-”

“Nonsense, it’s my treat! Excuse me, waiter? Could you bring out today’s special for the little lady?”

A mannequin in a tuxedo suddenly appeared beside the table with a tray of food and placed it in front of me. Across the table, Bubble eyed the food in anticipation. Caine let out a sigh.

“And a second order for my gluttonous friend?”

The waiter mannequin disappeared and reappeared with more food, putting it down in front of Bubble. He ate the whole thing, plate included, in one bite. Caine stared at him for what felt like a solid minute before clearing his nonexistent throat and addressing me again.

“Now then, I get the sense there’s something on your mind. But rest assured, I am ready and willing to hear you out! So tell me, what seems to be the trouble?”

It should have been obvious what the problem was, but I tried not to let myself get too frustrated with him. There was no point.

“Okay, so… I was talking to Jax earlier, and he thinks I might have a glitch of some sort, which is why you can’t change me back. Do you… know anything about this? Has this happened before?”

“No… but it doesn’t appear to be a major concern! You can still live your digital life to the fullest just like everyone else! I’m sure with a few accommodations here and there we can-”

“CAINE!!!”

We both froze after I suddenly shouted at him. I didn’t know what I was thinking in doing that. He didn’t appear angry, at least. Just confused.

“I-I’m sorry, but… I don’t want this life. I want my old one back. The lack of an exit is already bad enough, but now I’m scared. Being stuck like this, people grabbing me and dropping me and being held against my will… I don’t think I can take much more of it, Caine. I-If this keeps up, I think I might…”

I couldn’t bring myself to say it. Even though I didn’t fully understand what happened to Kaufmo, I knew it was horrible. The idea of losing everything, becoming an out-of-control monster, never being myself again…

Caine sighed, looking down at me sympathetically.

“I hate to see you so down, Pomni. I wish there was more I could do to help, but I just don’t know. Nothing like this has ever happened before. Is there anything you can think of that might make you feel better?”

There were so many things that could have helped me, but they were all outside of what Caine was capable of. He couldn’t make an exit, he couldn’t change my size back, and there was no way he’d be able to protect me from Jax or my own impending abstraction forever. There really wasn’t anything he could do for me.

But Caine is persistent, and I knew he wouldn’t stop until he could find some way to help me.

“Maybe… a new room? Something private, and scaled down so only I can go in there. You know, a place where I can take a break from everything and not have to worry about being abducted in my sleep?”

“An excellent idea! I’ll get right on that as soon as the adventure’s over. Speaking of which, I should check and see how the others are doing.”

He sat in silence for a few seconds, his eyes wide and locked in place. I could only assume that he did this every time he needed to see out of any of the additional eyes he had planted everywhere. Creepy.

“Hmm, it looks like they’re almost finished up with the Wroinks, so we should probably go meet back up with them. Ready to go?”

He offered his hand again, and I climbed on. As strange as it was, I was starting to get used to the feeling of being carried. At the very least, I was comfortable with Caine and Ragatha doing it. It wasn’t something that I necessarily liked, but it was important for me to adjust to it.

“You seem to be a lot calmer. Good for you! I’m sure we’ll get this all sorted out in no time!”

I had to admit his optimism was endearing. I really didn’t feel much better, but maybe if I just played along I could convince myself that everything was fine.

But at the same time, I couldn’t stop thinking about the glitch. If there was a chance that it could somehow get us all out, maybe it was worth looking into. I’d have to figure it out on my own, though. I wasn’t sure how the others would react, and I couldn’t fully trust any of them yet. And there was no way I would let Jax “help”.

The future was so uncertain and it terrified me, but I didn’t need the others to know that. So, I lied through my teeth.

“Yeah. Everything will be fine.”

[anisette-blackwirth]

SAGAU: Meeting Scaramouche [Part 1]

summary: Scaramouche finally visits to see what you're all about and subtly tries to process his feelings about having another creator in the background. He does not succeed. He'll need to try again later.

spoiler warning: references to scaramouche's backstory and inazuma archon quest spoilers. Today's leaks are NOT discussed.

content warning: language. Not exactly a cult AU but close enough. She/her pronouns for reader.

notes: I swear one of these days I'm going back to the start of this AU. I really will, I promise! I just felt like writing this chapter out of order, because I had a sudden urge to start a love letter to Scaramouche's current and potential future characterization. I'm sure you all know why.

Set prior to the Irodori Festival, but post-Inazuma.

[Under the cut!]

Of the three offices you had been gifted in three nations, you had to privately admit to yourself that you often adored the view from Liyue's the most. The building is located on the peak south of Jueyun Karst and east of Nantianmen, offering you a look at the radiant crystal of Azhdaha's tree, the glowing amber of Mount Hulao, and even the distant speck of the Jade Chamber floating near Liyue Harbor. It isn't technically within the adepti's domain, so visitors are still welcome, but the idea is that it's still enough of a hassle to get to so that only those who truly need to visit, would.

Unfortunately, the list of NPCs regular citizens who want to meet their newly announced link to the "real world" is long and many had banded together to do so, hiring bodyguards in groups to make the journey safely. After a relatively long day of seeing visitors and trying to get paperwork done in-between each, you're glad to hear that your guards have locked the front doors of the building for the night. Anyone who arrives after visiting hours will be given lodging and allowed to see you the next morning, if you weren't busy with other things.

You have the balcony doors open both so you can feel the breeze and to stare out them when you needed inspiration, but at the moment you're busy going over your third draft of answers to Mona's interview questions for her article. The woman certainly deserved the income an exclusive interview with you offered, and you felt guilty enough for ignoring her to accept her offer. It wasn't really her fault she'd pity-broken you on your first ever banner.... So you are engrossed in revisions when you hear footsteps land on your balcony.

"Hey, what's up, Xia-" you stop as you look up and notice that it is not the adepti approaching you, but a man in black, purple, and red traditional Japanese Inazuman garb, wearing a stylized kasa with a veil. The bells hanging from his hat chime lightly with each step towards your desk.

Uh oh. Oh no, no no. Ah, shit. Alright, yes, you're a Scaramouche simp, though you've managed to hide that from Aether so far.... but you also think you know his character well enough to know you might be about to die. Especially since he can't understand you yet. Better head this off as soon as possible. Haha. Shit!

You hold up your hands before you in (what you hope is) the universal sign of surrender, then clear your throat. "Xiao? Don't hurt anyone, but can you come here for a moment?"

Xiao appears next to you instantly, spear in hand. You shift one of your outstretched hands to him, begging him not to attack. 

"No no! Don't attack. It's fine. I just need you to translate for me. Please tell this man you're not here to attack."

Xiao doesn't put away his weapon or take off his mask, but he does turn to the Harbinger who has now stopped dead in the middle of the room. 

"I will translate for Her Grace. She can understand you, but you can't understand her until certain conditions are met," Xiao says. 

"And you won't attack," you prompt Xiao. 

He pauses, then says grudgingly, "I will not attack unprovoked."

Alright. Close enough. 

"What are these conditions?" asks Scaramouche, arms now crossed. You pick up the basket of vials you and Albedo had collaborated on from your desk and hold it out to the Harbinger, looking at Xiao. 

"You must drink one vial," Xiao says. You sigh. 

"Please tell him that the vials contain elements from my blood - no wait don't say that. Bad idea. Say they contain an, uh, alchemical compound which makes communication possible."

"The vials contain an alchemical compound which makes communication possible," Xiao says faithfully, and you smile at him. 

"Surely you won't mind if I confirm that for myself, will you, oh gracious deity?" Scaramouche says as he steps forward and grabs two colored vials from the basket, pocketing both immediately. Xiao bristles, but you shake your head and continue holding the basket out. 

"I don't mind!" you say cheerily, hoping to convey by tone alone that it's fine. They're easy to make. "Oh, but we put some flavoring in them for kids, so the red ones are apple flavored, the yellow is berry, and the pink is sunsettia. That might mess with your analysis. Do you want an unflavored one?"

Xiao stares at you as you stare nervously at Scaramouche, who stares at you. …You glance at Xiao.

"....the red are apple flavored. Yellow is berry and pink is sunsettia. Take a clear one."

Scaramouche is now thoroughly and visibly confused by this entire exchange, and you don’t blame him. But he powers through and grabs a clear vial from the basket, pocketing that one too before turning to leave. 

"Then I'll be back to test your hospitality later!" he calls with a wave, exiting the situation as gracefully as possible after that mess. Xiao waits until he's gone to speak. 

"Were you aware he's a Harbinger, Your Grace?"

"Yeah, I know," you say. "Don't worry. I'll probably be fine. Nothing's been able to kill me yet, remember?" 

"Nothing has seriously tried," Xiao points out, and you nod. But you doubt Scaramouche will ever speak to you properly with others present, so you persist in trying to convince Xiao it's fine to leave you alone the next time the Harbinger shows up until it's well past time to sleep. 

-------------------

Scaramouche does return, three nights later. He enters your office via the balcony again, just after Noelle leaves your dinner on the desk and excuses herself for the night. That tells you that he's waiting for you to be alone, which is ominous but expected. 

"Hello, Harbinger," you greet as you put aside your pasta. "Can you understand me?" 

"I can. Delighted to meet you without your guard dog, oh illustrious creator," Scaramouche says with scathing sarcasm, and you wince. 

"Before we talk, I feel like I should mention that if you kill me, I'll just come back to life at a nearby Statue of the Seven," you say. It's a lie. But you're gambling on the fact that no one knows how your powers work, and Scaramouche is probably still on the run with the Gnosis so you don't think he gave the vials to Dottore or any of the other Fatui scientists. Probably. 

Scaramouche raises his eyebrows. "Do you expect me to try and kill you? I thought everyone loved you," he says, and you wince again. 

"I- no, there's nothing forcing people to like me. I don't necessarily expect you to try and kill me, I just…. Thought I'd mention it in case. …You did try to kill Aether once, and corrupt him once. So." You gesture vaguely with your fork, then actually realize you're still holding said fork and put it back in the pasta bowl. 

The Balladeer tilts his head to the side, mocking. "So if you know what I can do, and you aren't naive enough to assume everyone loves you, why haven't you called your guard dog this time?" 

"I, uh-" You turn over a couple responses in your head, but only one feels right. "I like you and I want to talk to you?"

"Really? I knew you were stupid enough to favor Tartaglia, but now you're saying you're also naïve enough to like me?" Scaramouche glares at you. "I didn't expect you to be so childish. Do you think you can fix us? Make us your good little puppets? I'll tell you right now that you're not going to get Tartaglia to betray the Tsaritsa for you. He's the perfect brainwashed little soldier."

"I don't want him to betray the Tsa- no. Okay. Hang on. Wait." You clap your hands in front of your face like the prayer emotions and take a deep breath. "Do you think I'm a good person, Scaramouche?" 

Scaramouche continues to glare. "Obviously. Your little vessels are running all over three nations, doing good deeds for anyone and everyone. You work them to the bone taking commission after commission, finding people's lost cats and playing fetch. It's sickening."

You shake your head. "But do you think I'm a good person? Because I don't. I know you all are sentient, and I'm still...." You trail off and look around you, then gesture at the ornate office you've been gifted. "Here. Taking advantage of this. Playing around. I don't possess anyone without their permission anymore, but…"

Scaramouche steps forward and puts his hands on your desk, leaning over to get right in your face. "If you ever. Possess me. I will destroy every single Statue in Teyvat and then kill you as many times as I need to for it to take. Do you understand?" 

You nod, because you do understand why the abandoned puppet would be sensitive about that topic. That one's pretty obvious. "I understand. And I won't. I promise." At least, not without his permission, because you do still hope to main him one day, but!!

"I'm not a good person, Scaramouche," you reiterate, looking at the desk in front of you. "But I don't want to hurt anyone. I'm just selfishly taking advantage of the chance to be with charact- with people I like. I'm a hundred percent taking advantage of the power imbalance, but I don't care enough to stop.

"I like you because… you made your heart yourself." You hear him inhale and see his hands curl into fists in your desk, but you don't look up yet. "You didn't get the one you deserved, and there was no one there to help you. So you figured it out on your own. Sure, you're hateful and cruel and selfish, but… your personality is yours, you know?" You meet his wide, disbelieving eyes, hoping the gentle emotions in your heart make it through. Because he looks like he's about to either murder you or faint, and you'd prefer he do neither. 

"I admire you. I don't agree with everything you do, but I admire you because you did it all yourself. You just… you made yourself a person out of pure spite. That's really cool."

He's still silent, so you might as well keep going. If this is the last time he ever comes to see you until you meet him again through the plot, why not? "Besides, you're ridiculously intelligent. You dismantled FOUR entire noble families through lies and deceit. You orchestrated all that before joining the Fatui, too, I think? That's stupidly impressive."

"How many people know that? Scaramouche asks. He tips his head down so his hat covers his eyes and repeats himself. "How many?"

"None, I think…?" you say. "The, uh… the world itself told me. I don't think most people in here actually have access to the artifact descriptions. The community - er, I mostly know because I can put together little hints from all over the place." You think for another moment as he continues to stand silent. "Oh. There are some old scrap papers in Tatarasuna which sort of reference your, uh. Old life there. …if you already know who they're talking about. I don't think anyone would figure out they're talking about you without knowing more."

Scaramouche turns and walks to the couch, then turns again and walks to the wall where he stands for a good minute, rubbing the back of his neck. 

"Sorry?" You call out. And you really are: bringing up his old life in Tatarasuna probably reminded him of his dead friend and also Ei and Yae Miko and- ughhhhhhhhh. Dumb. Dumb idiot simp who just wanted to show off her knowledge, dumb-

Scaramouche interrupts your thoughts. "If anyone ever does find out about this - including eavesdropping guard dogs who may be nearby - then I will kill that person and everyone they hold dear slowly and painfully. Are we clear?" The Harbinger turns to face you with a glare you recognize from the Unreconciled Stars event, and wow, you shouldn't find being threatened hot in person. But you do. Help. 

"Crystal clear," you say weakly. Scaramouche nods and leaves through the balcony window without another word, clearly well past his limits. 

You numbly take a few more bites of pasta before the shock and terror hit you full force. You drop the fork back in the bowl to bury your head in your arms. 

You almost died. You were probably seconds away from dying and you can't even pinpoint when. God, that was the stupidest thing you've done in a while. Talking to a Harbinger - talking to Scaramouche alone? Scaramouche, who has more reason to hate gods and deities and being part of someone else's game than most? Who could definitely just have incinerated Aether at the start of said game?? 

You groan. And also, you probably pissed him off by bringing up his past and now he'll never want to talk to you again. Or let you pull for him when (if) he comes out!! Oh jeez, he's not gonna let you pull for him when (if) he comes out. You're doomed. 

Xiao appears next to you again. "Are you alright, Your Grace? Do you want me to go after him?"

"Noooooo, leave him alone," you groan. "It's fine, I'm fine, he just probably hates me now." 

"I fail to see how that's a bad thing," Xiao says. You just go back to eating to try and placate the hovering adapti.

—--

The next time you're in Tatarasuna, you notice you can't find the old letters anymore. 

[grizzlyplays]

Big G!!

The jumps are on my dash from your account today was a wonderful surprise :D happy to see you back on tumblr :3

Random, curious little question: of every single character you’ve ever played (including NPCs), who was your favorite to play? Are there any patterns you noticed about the kinds of characters you play?

dakota is my favorite to play. hes been the only character ive gotten to spend this much time with. he feels real to me, and i care about the story hes in and the one he tells so much.

NPCs are tough, theyre all my lil babies. i feel my favorite changes to whichever is getting the spotlight. lizzie is really up there. edyn too. i can see myself in them, and can easily understand their choices. i try to do that for all my characters, but some are more personal than others.

im not sure i notice a pattern. i like to play characters that are visually pleasing to me because it gives me confidence i dont really have irl. its fun too. when i played kasper i was really out of my comfy zone trying to portray someone confident. it got me kinda hooked though.

[torchship-rpg]

Dev Diary 11 - Special Checks

Welcome back, Cosmonauts!

Today, we’re going to be talking more about some of the systems in Torchship. As mentioned previously, Torchship uses systems of telescoping complexity to regulate how many mechanics you’re bringing in at a time. At one end is the core system of rolling dice for Checks and investigating things, which can be used in a pinch for just about anything. On the other are the specific costs, penalties, and conditions of hazards, tool making, repairs, and combat, all the detail we could possibly pack in and everything we could think of that might be relevant, if you wanted it. 

In between we have a set of intermediate mechanics called Special Checks. Special Checks are variations on the regular Check with a bit more detail specific to what you’re doing with them. The Medical Checks from last week are an example of Special Checks; they are ways for your specialist in that area to feel like they are engaging in their job specifically when it matters.

Many Special Checks have further associated mechanics in their own chapters (the same way Hazards will lead directly into the kinds of Harm players experience), but we define them up front with broader terms because we know we can’t possibly cover everything, and you don’t always want to bring play to a halt to look up how much a repair might cost if it's not the central beat of your episode’s story. 

So, let’s talk Special Checks, and all the weird ways you might roll dice.

Leadership & Institutions

While Star Patrol doesn’t have formal ranks, it still has leaders. The Admin Department is tasked with organisation and management, keeping everyone on task and coordinating between groups, and when emergencies strike it’s helpful to know who to listen to if you don’t know what you should be doing. 

When you’re leading a work team of characters, PCs or NPCs, you build your dice pool the way you usually do, but with a few modifiers depending on the availability of tools, the relevant expertise, and if you actually have enough people to do the job. Otherwise, it’s a pretty straightforward roll, treated like any other.

The other thing an Admin character might find themselves doing is coordinating with, leading, or relying on an institution bigger than a work team, like trying to coordinate the healthcare system of a planet fighting a deadly plague. In this case, you roll your Check like you normally would, but you’re using the institution as a tool, building it with the same tool level system as everything else. The 5d6 computer-coordinated government agency of an industrial world is going to make running a census much easier and more accurate than doing it with the 3d6 bureaucracy that has to do everything with styluses and clay.

Of course, while ‘specialised’ makes sense for institutions-as-tools, ‘emplaced’ doesn’t. That’s why, instead, that extra +1d6 is gated behind if the institution you’re using is legitimate, which is to say, if the people the institution is working with see it as The Proper Doers Of The Thing. If you’re tracking down a person fleeing from justice, you’re a lot more likely to get results if people view the local law enforcement as having real claim to being the law of the land, rather than simply being occupiers.

Negotiation

Gee Administration, why does mum let you have two Special Checks?

One of the things Star Patrol ends up doing a lot is negotiations, both as a participant and as an arbitrator. In both cases we use the same system, but in one it’s you rolling against the person you’re negotiating with, and in the other its you trying to get two squabbling sides to compromise.

In either case, negotiation takes place as a series of Opposed Checks over a central issue; if you’re a participant, this is the thing you’re arguing over, while if you’re a mediator, Star Patrol’s demands are “Talk about this like adults” and the participants’ demands are “Don’t wanna!!” Winning the Opposed Check also strengthens your position as your rhetoric and posturing gives you an increasing advantage; eventually one side will have to either concede the central issue or quit in a huff and be seen as the one who made negotiations break down.

Negotiation is accompanied by the offering of Concessions, promises by one side or the other that, if a deal is eventually agreed on, will be honoured. Having a concession accepted means you take a die from their pool and add it to your own; if you’re making good-faith offers, it strengthens your position. When you’re arbitrating, you’re the one proposing concessions between the two parties, dragging them kicking and screaming towards making some kind of deal.

Hacking

Signals is the Cert for using computers and communication equipment, but because we don’t just want you to be the one who informs the captain there’s a new message coming in, you have some modern tricks up your sleeve in the form of hacking. 

Hacking Checks are made against a different difficulty than usual, a sort of Opposed Check where the system has already rolled the dice. This difficulty is the Security Rating, determined by what kind of system you’re infiltrating and how advanced it is. Oh, right, ‘hacking’ doesn’t just apply to electronic computer systems; you can one hundred percent hack any kind of decision-making system. If you forge the King’s wax seal and slip orders in his handwriting into the mailbag heading to his vassal? That’s hacking, baby!

Your excess Successes above the Security Rating earn you Actions, stuff you can do once you’re in the system before you get noticed and booted out. You can use this to subvert the systems on an enemy rocket, shut down incoming missiles, steal or insert information, spy through cameras, open doors… you know, hacking stuff. You can also add backdoors to make it easier to come back next time.

Because the Security Rating on many important systems will be somewhat insurmountable, there’s a special kind of Investigation Checklist for computers where you can gather edges. This is where you can engage in the fun social engineering and physical theft that, in real life, makes up a large amount of real hacking, acquiring passwords or inserting devices into computers to make them easier to subvert.

We also have some guidelines for how you might hack systems in unusual situations; you can hack any computer that takes in any information from the outside world (as data sanitation is not always practised with nearly the thoroughness it should), and if you’re dealing with a device that runs on machine learning and takes natural language input, you can use prompt injection. Thanks, real life, for making ‘Kirk talks the computer to death’ into hard science fiction!

You also get to roll to oppose hacking if somebody else does it to you, even if the Signals character isn’t actually aware the hacking is happening; after all, as the admin, you’d be responsible for setting up the defences.

Invention & Repairs

We’ll go into this more in the specific chapters where it’s most relevant, but Engineering characters are often going to be making tools, fixing things, and making tools for the purposes of fixing things. These special Checks handle those situations; they use most of the normal Check mechanics, but with an added framework for costs and time.

So when you’re faced with something broken, the GM lays out what it’ll cost to fix it, in Supply or otherwise. You then choose the ‘level’ of repair you’re attempting. A ‘patch fix’ is fast and cheap, but you can’t ever get a full success doing it, meaning that it’s never perfect; you’re just getting the system online, even if the results are unsafe or use resources you could have used elsewhere. Jury rigging a solution will fix the problem, but never permanently, so it’ll do for now. A proper repair takes the longest amount of time, but you can reroll it over and over for a small amount of additional Supply until you get it right; it’s what you do if there’s no time or cost pressure.

Invention is a bit more complicated, but in summary, you take the tools you have to build a new tool with them, where a full success gets you the new device at the cost of time and resources, of equal tech level to the tool you used to make it. The more complex the device, the more Disadvantage you face, and insufficient successes mean you need to make compromises that might reduce its tech level or place limitations on the results.

When we talk about tools in more detail, we’ll go into the specifics; tool-building is one of the game’s major complex systems, with the ability to make almost anything!

Attacks & Defence

If you’re Security or Tactical, Astrogation during space combat, or stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time, you might end up making attacks and defence rolls. While there are combat subsystems in the game to handle the details, you don’t always need to interact with the full set to roll attack and defence; sometimes it’s just a shooting gallery, sometimes you’re using your weapons as demolition devices, sometimes you’re just resolving an attack quickly because the story is happening elsewhere.

Attacks & Defence are always rolled as Opposed Checks, but with very specific dice pools. Your Attack is determined by your weapon and the Certs relevant to it, which is pretty straightforward, while Defence is more complicated and situationally dependent. In space or other vehicles, you’ll often be rolling the vehicle’s Evade stat, a dice pool which is derived from how nimble it is. If you’re facing incoming missiles, though, you might try to shoot them down with point defence instead. Sometimes you don’t even get a roll; there’s nothing you can do about a laser beam except pray the screens hold.

On foot, you often have to make a decision between dodging the attack, trying to block it with an object, or taking cover behind something. Dodging faces the problem that your body is only a 2d6 tool, so once people start using things more dangerous than fists, that’s not going to work very well. Blocking isn’t always viable, and you’ll take penalties (or simply not be able to use it at all) if the object isn’t designed for it. When you take cover, you treat the cover itself as a tool. 

While the dice pool for cover isn’t determined by tech level, we are very proud of the fact that hiding in a foxhole is, in a sense, taking cover behind the collective energy of an entire planet, so it’s 6d6.

Psychic Checks

Psychic Powers are a big topic, and we’ll need to save it for another day.

In short, though, psychic powers are largely freeform, with some specific limitations and guidelines, and you can always attempt to use psychic powers; you don’t need to tick a special checkbox to make you a psychic. There are four special Psychic Certs (right now they’re ESP, Psychokinesis, Telepathy, and Precognition, though this is subject to change as we work the details out), but like any Cert, you can still roll them untrained. So while you can always try to use your latent mind powers, it’s unlikely you’ll get very far to start.

Which is why you can train your psychic abilities! Nobody gets to start their Star Patrol career as a qualified psychic, but you can become one as you explore the galaxy. It’s a difficult road, and one that’ll cut into your professional development, but you can do it. Further details will be confined to a dedicated dev diary; it’s a big complex topic!

That’s it for this Dev Diary. Next time, we talk the weird branch of the human family as we take a look at the Proxies and Archivists of humanity’s first extrasolar colony.

[levy120]

Too Much to Ask For

Rating: T Words: 2800 (Complete) Genre: Angst, Introspection, Missing Scene Lore: Captain Laserhawk (Set Between and During Episodes 2 and 3) Warnings: Explicit Language, Xenophobia, PTSD

Characters: Rayman, Kaiju Rabbids, Red, NPC OCs Summary: Seeing the Kaiju Rabbids that wrecked his home has not been kind to Rayman. He's already not in a good headspace when going into the dreadful Interview that's about to change the rest of his life.

Read also on: [ao3]

More like this: [Rayman Oneshots Masterpost]

For someone who's on TV almost 24/7 Rayman sure doesn't get a lot of time to do anything that's not directly related to his work.

But today, he’s gonna treat himself!

He plans for a nice swim in the pool and the sampling of the new bourbon he'd acquired afterward.

With all of the chaos that's been going on recently, Rayman is going to need this to destress. 

252 Dead. Even more injured. From chaos in the streets. 

The hardest thing is trying to keep a straight face when reading. To not let it follow him home after work. To not let it bother him.

It's been four days and the number still haunts him.

His heart goes out to the poor civilians who had gotten roped into that tragic incident. Just because… Just because…

No. There's no point in trying to apply reason to that kind of madness. 

It's useless. That's all it is.

…

Oh well. Enough of that.

Rayman clambers atop the springboard. The cold water will be good to finally clear his head.

…

Then the earth trembles.

It's not just the bounce of the board either. There are ripples in the water where none should be!

With one eyebrow raised curiously, he lets his gaze drift to the large windowpane revealing the cityscape.

That's just his luck, he supposes as he tries to guess what happened. More terrorists? A distant bomb maybe? 

Patience. He's gonna be one of the first to know. It's just a matter of minutes until the news staff from the second floor will come scrambling for him.

Reluctantly, Rayman removes himself from the waiting pool to pick up his bathrobe. The phone nestled within is already blaring.

But it's another sound that makes Rayman freeze in his steps and his blood run cold.

The earth trembles again and this time Rayman's feet are on solid ground to feel it.

No. 

No, no, no, no, no.

Rayman flies towards the windowpane of the floor - and sure enough - he has to angle his head to see it, but there's the telltale glow of a rift in spacetime. 

The cityscape is bathed in a familiar pink glow and-

"Daaaaaaaaaaaawgh"

But he's awake right now; pinches himself just to make sure-

It's real. It’s very, very real. 

The pinch in his palm stings. 

The deep howl from one of them is actually ringing in his ear.

And out of his periphery, from beyond the corners of what the window allows him to see, there's a shadow looming. A familiar shape that haunts his sleepless nights lumbers towards the city.

They are far from his estate for now, but that's not going to mean much in the long run, when he can feel the earth shaking from the massive weight of their steps even here.

Shit, fuck, shit-

The last time he saw these things he-  

No! He can't change the past. Thinking about those he left behind is just going to hurt him in the long run. 

The sound of splintering glass catches his attention and makes him step away from the window, as the next quake causes the pane to crack.

On the folding chair behind him, his phone is still blaring.

One of them turns to look in his direction. 

Seeing that visage, those empty eyes… 

He feels faint in his helplessness.

They're here. He doesn't know how, but they're here. They're going to level another world he calls home and Rayman can do nothing but watch it fall…

…and report on it.

He thinks he's going to be sick. Can he call in sick? Does it even matter when they're all gonna die anyway?

"There you are!" a voice calls, distant. Rayman can't tear his eyes away from the sight outside his window. From the west, he sees the Niji 6 approaching and pound one of the Rabbid Kaijus into another building. 

Rayman hopes everyone managed to evacuate in time.

"Mr. Rayman!" the voice calls again, but Rayman doesn't hear it.

"Mr. Rayman, Sir!"

It's like the world comes to a stop when someone lays a hand on his back. He jolts to attention like waking up from a bad trip and turns to find one of the directors from the news team.

"We've been looking everywhere for you!"

Right. Yes. Rayman blinks.

"We gotta run this ASAP," the guy brabbles on, "Why didn't you answer your phone?"

Behind him, in the distance, Rayman hears another building crumple and turns away from the director to stare back out the window.

"Right," the man says and tries to usher Rayman away from the gruesome sight.

"I need you to pull yourself together. Be down in the studio in ten."

Rayman wants to laugh. Or cry. The audacity .

He can't bring up the energy for either; he’s not even sure he can make his way down there in ten minutes, lest of all 'pull himself together'.

His feet stumble, but the stage director isn't commenting on it or leaving his side. Rayman wants to take the elevator, he doesn't trust himself using the stairs - but he's not allowed to for the risk of them getting stuck from the quakes.

He doesn't even know when they arrive at the studio. He feels… positively dead inside.

"Hey," one of his makeup assistants tries to get his attention, "Are you okay? Here, have a drink."

She hands him a glass of water, but his hands are quivering. The water surface ripples like the pool. Another tremor is felt in the studio and for a moment the entire team pauses before shuffling on when it subsides.

…

If they can, then so should he, he thinks, and downs the glass.

From somewhere he's being handed his jacket.

"Better?"

Barely.

"Better."

~ ~ ~

There's chaos in the studio, but it's the familiar kind that comes with breaking news and that very familiarity grounds him. 

He's done this hundreds of times before. He can do this.

It's soothing in a way Rayman can barely fathom. His team has him like a safety net. Their chaos means comfort to him. The usual run-of-the-mill. 

With a sigh, he wraps the jacket around himself and buttons it with shaky fingers. He leaves the bowtie for his assistant to deal with later.

As he puts on his gloves the guy on the phone with someone out in the field whoops.

"The first one is down!" Someone yells above the turmoil and his team erupts into cheers.

Rayman feels his breath hitch.

Wait… 

They're… they're winning?

The faintest hope begins to bloom in his chest and he waves for the make-up artist to stop powdering his face as he leans forward in his seat.

"Can I see the brief before we start?"

"Sure!" One of the journalists walks up to his chair with a bunch of notes. Hasty scribbles of growing numbers.

Estimates of property damage, casualties, and injuries. Likely Suspects.

Rayman's eyes narrow at the familiar names. Bunch of assholes.

Three sightings of Kaijus have been accounted for before the gate closed (One of which has already been neutralized). 

The numbers in the notes are atrocious. Most of it is speculation or still changing by the minute. Rayman doubts they’ll be airing this as it stands. And still… it’s good to see that people are on the case. 

The police force working restlessly. The Niji 6 standing up against the Rabbids. People on the scene clamoring for the safety of the district. And this is what they’re here to reinforce and focus on.

Evacuation plans and shelter spots for the population while the siege is underway.

Rayman feels like he can breathe again.

…until he sees the Polaroids attached to the back of the notes.

The journalist leaves his side to pick up an update on the report while Rayman's gaze lingers on the photo of the gigantic mutant Rabbid. 

It’s… so much worse than he even remembers. 

"Those things look so creepy," the woman by his side comments and nudges the sponge back at him so she can continue where she left off powdering his face. She doesn't comment on the nervous sweat clinging to his face.

"Yeah…" Rayman comments off-handedly.

They didn't always use to be like that.

"I'm sorry," she says looking down while brushing his hair, "Did you say something?"

Rayman stiffens. Had he said that out loud?

He shakes his head no as she tends to his bowtie.

"No," he says for extra measure, "Nothing."

"Rayman!" The voice of the stage director who picked him up earlier approaches him from behind.

"We’re going live in two. Hope you're ready."

The Limbless tries to force a smile as he gets up from his chair.

"Ready as I'll ever be."

Rayman takes his place behind the desk. The Lights are glaring when they beam at him. But it helps him to focus and put on his mask. He's read plenty of dreadful news here, the Rabbid Kaijus are no different. 

What's important now is the safety of the people in the streets. 

He breathes a deep sigh and turns to look at the lead camera to signal them a nod. The gesture is returned and a hand goes up, silently counting down from 3 - 2 - 1 - 

“We’re sorry to interrupt at this hour with some Breaking News. Kaiju Rabbids have invaded the Casino District of MegaCity 2. Citizens within the area are asked to evacuate the streets to City Hall or the Eden Mall. The Niji 6 are on the case..."

~ ~ ~

Rayman hasn’t caught a wink of sleep. But neither has his team. The journalists are gathering data and updating their reports relentlessly. Rayman is on his nth Coffee as he drudges through the studio, just in case there's a live update to report on and his presence is needed. He's watching the cityscape from the window. One dead Mutant Rabbid still leans against the wreckage of a building. Alarms are blaring outside. The City’s Neon Lights keep the chaos in the streets aglow even in the middle of the night. 

He can feel his head throb at the reminder of the dreadful all-nighter. His heart feels like it's going a mile a minute, and not only due to all the caffeine he's been downing in the past couple of hours.

The anxiety on waiting for good news has been slowly killing everyone present. The dread of bad news weighs over his entire team like a thunderstorm. 

Part of his crew have started working in shifts to take a quick nap in between. His make-up artist has been urging him to do the same, because there's only so much eyebags her work can cover up. But Rayman wouldn't dream of sleeping without backup. Not while he knows that what destroyed his old home is still out there wrecking chaos.

The Board of Directors themselves have gotten active about an hour or so ago, requesting to be put up to date on the situation to figure out an approach. As of now, they have yet to respond again.

When they call back eventually it's with a plan, a script, an air-time, and a scheduled Interview. Rayman breathes a sigh of relief as he witnesses the tension lift off of the entire team. What ever would they be doing without the Board of Directors themselves having their back?

With the necessary preparation and info in the bag Rayman himself has agreed to taking the the liberty of getting a little nap before the broadcast; but when the intern wakes him, he doesn't feel any better. If anything Rayman’s more exhausted than before, but he's trying not to let that show.

6 AM rolls around and after going through the usual prep routine, Rayman takes his place for the Morning News to bring people up to date and prepare them for the work day ahead. 

He reads his intro with trained confidence, and glows inside at the good news that the Rabbids have been dealth with. The promised Interview turns out to be Lucy at the very scene of the incident. With her is one member of the Niji 6.

…who turns out to be an absolute handful.

It's too early for Rayman to be dealing with this. Lucy futilely tries to reign the 'hero' in, but to no avail. 

It's hard just having to listen to the guy. Rayman should have had another coffee before this. It appears that Red is more occupied with some personal beef than the matter at hand. Rayman is trying to figure out how to best navigate the conversation back on track, when-

"Woah, woah, woah. Wait!"

No. The guy didn't just say this. On Live Television. During his show. Rayman is tired. Surely he just misheard… Rude as this guy is surely he wouldn't be this dense!

"What did you just say?"

"What?"

"Interdimensional Alien Scum?!"

That has… got to be a joke, right?

Rayman's head is ringing. Something in the back of his mind flares. Warns him that he ought not take that path. 

But he is tired. So, so very tired. Tired from lack of sleep. Tired from this kind of bullshit.

"I was a refugee who came from Dimension X, Sir. Am I scum to you?"

The silence is deafening but Rayman's mind is blaring. No going back now. 

He knows that wasn't in the script he'd been given, but if Red can stray, then so can he. He wants answers!  

Behind the cameras, his staff implores him to the teleprompter. At the scene of the Interview Lucy is sweating up a storm next to Red and somehow trying to salvage the situation - again, to no avail.

Red's response is callous. Rayman tries to laugh it off, but it's too late. The words sting. His mask cracks. He can’t do this. 

The mere act of trying to brush it off as a joke is only fanning the flame - because that's not what this is. It's raw and real and rude and Rayman can't pretend that away. 

He's been through too much to have to listen to this kind of shit. Been through too much since coming to this realm. Been through too much just today. He's been up all night just to get this thrown at his face?! He doesn't have the nerve for this… this-

"Then why don't you say it to my face without cameras you FUCKING RED PRICK!"

The studio flies into chaos. The bad kind. The Main Feed is cut and lights go down as staff members try to approach him. The director attempts to get into negotiations with the scene. Back on the street Lucy is still frantically signing for the transmission to be cut but Red seems hardly impressed.

"Hey," he prompts at the camera, pointing for extra measure "Name a time and place, you limbless freak, and I'll be there!"

"I'll show you who's a freak, you speciest cunt!"

"You don't belong on TV! You should be in a fucking lab!"

Oooooh, that does it!

"Rayman!" One of the journalists shuffles in between him and the control monitor connecting the stage to the street. Someone at the soundboard has muted the button in his ear - but no longer having to listen to Red's bullshit doesn't make it unsaid.

Rayman's chest is heaving, his teeth are grit in a painfully locked jaw. He wouldn't be surprised if he’s foaming at the mouth. By Eden, he wants to SCREAM-

"Let us handle this," the Journalist trying to get his attention begs, "Please calm down. Take Five."

Rayman's fingers dig into the surface of the desk. He tries looking around the guy to see the fucking control monitor again, but his colleague is catching on and sidesteps in time to block his view.

"Let's be the reasonable ones here. He's gonna get what he deserves for saying something like this."

Rayman feels his fingers clench. Right. What he deserves.

"And his team did take out the Kaijus, let's try and be positive about this, right? You wouldn't wanna mess with a national hero, right? Rayman?"

Right.

With a grunt that swallows the rage lodged in his throat, Rayman stands from his desk and walks away. He can't do this now. Can't listen to this kind of injustice - to his own face - being played down - by his own colleagues. There's noise in his head. 

What he needs is round of sleep. And a shower. And a smoke. And booze. Some, no, lots of it. 

What he needs is for Red to get his ass kicked.

Or maybe what he needs is just some mother-fucking compassion!

But sure! That's too much to ask for. Of course. What else is new?

"Fine," Rayman relents with a growl he can’t suppress, "I'll be upstairs. Don’t bother coming for me unless this is resolved."

The Board of Directors will hear about this!