paulandrea-1

[dlamp-dictator]

Okay, Let's Talk About 5 - 30

So, this horrid stage has probably stumped a lot of folks, especially folks that aren't used to the typical Project Moon Bullshit™ of having to fail about 10+ times before you actually figure out the answer to the puzzle the game is giving you... and RNG screwing you over. Mostly that last one, but occasionally Project Moon does throw out some damn tough puzzles to solve.

And with Chapter 5.5 now out I wanted to make a quick guide on how to get through this stage so people can actually beat Canto 5, rush through the Christmas event, and have access to 5.5 before it ends in a month. I'll... debate on explaining how to kill Siltcurrent/Neon Whale/That FUCKING ASSHOLE PARALYZING BIG NUMBERS ASS HAVIN-

But that's for another time.

And yes folks, people have been legitimately stuck on this stage to the point of some people having been barred from the Christmas event because of it. And the most I've seen of people actually helping with this boss in terms of guides and advice is the general fandom being some real assholes about reading passive and showing of their Base Ishmael solo clears without actually explaining anything. But I'm not here to whine about the fandom, I'm here to help with this stage.

Now usually, this is the part where I'd usually give a synopsis for the followers and mutuals that would like context to my long ramblings, but this is an endgame stage and the process of explaining Project Moon games in depth to people unfamiliar with them gives my stomach ulcers so I'll cut my usual fluff and get to the advise.

The Short Answer

For those of you wanting to just know the basics of how to survive this stage here's the brass tacks:

Stagger Ricardo twice to "win"

Don't kill Ricardo's two goons, just clash with them (ideally with a tank ID with aggro) to avoid buffing him further.

Ishmael is quasi-immortal and won't die so long as there's a surviving Sinner in play, so she can tank damage easily.

Use tremor IDs to make staggering easier during his "Test of Big Brother" phase

Use Ishmael's base EGO ASAP to make clashing for her easier.

Alright, with that said, here's some more details about the boss fight.

The Long Answer

I know I said this before, but it's worth repeating. This is endgame content. At this point of the game Project Moon expects you to have that Season Pass at least half finished, at least three teams of Sinners with good synergy (having teams for Charge, Tremor, Rupture, etc.), and have at least some meta IDs. This is not an unreasonable ask either. Most of us started between Seasons 1 & 2 and should have at least a solid team or six made already, a lot of the gacha resources are easy to obtain with patience, and you should have a decent understanding of the game's general mechanics by now. You can only be so ignorant before the failure is ultimately your fault, and while Ricardo definitely has some bullshit to him, most of his puzzle pieces are understandable after the fifth attempt.

I don't say this to insult you guys, but I know a lot of people stuck on this stage are also people that have been speedrunning the content and are now running into a wall as they've pushed further than what the game expected and probably don't have the game knowledge or resources to get through a very blatant knowledge & resource check. Yes, I've seen the Base ID & Base EGO clears too, but those are from people very used to Project Moon Bullshit™ and are outliers.

Now, with all that preamble out the way, here's the general idea.

This is a semi-survival stage where you have to not defeat Ricardo, but reach his second stagger threshold in about 5-7 turns. The biggest issue with this fight is that you've been doing a lot of mindless non-focus fights where you just needed the correct damage type (pierce in this case) to Win-Rate your way to victory. This stage is different in that you have to build a completely different team (tremor ideally), and be mindful of the Middle's general passives where they can get up to 5 Offense Level for getting their team slaughtered, making all of their clashes go up by one or two points. Along with this, the Little Brothers' attacks can debuff your team with Paralyze and Plus-Coin Power Drop, some of the most crippling debuffs in the game for your team outside of very specific IDs.

But you likely already know all of this and have reached the Ricardo part of the stage several times already. Here's the important bits you probably didn't realize.

Don't Kill the Goons

You might have noticed Ricardo gets super buffed when you kill his goons and makes COUPON BLAST™ all the more terrifying. Yeah, the man gets some rather bullshit power-ups if you kill or focus-fire the goons. I understand the though-process of killing the Debuffers and then wailing on Ricardo, but don't. Just beat their clashes and deal with them. The paralyze is crippling, but use a tank for those if you can since tanks (usually) don't do high damage anyway. Plus-Coin Power Drop is annoying, but for units that have big single-coin nukes or use EGO for nukes, this isn't as crippling as Paralyze and is the lesser of two debuffs. Just deal with the goons being there and try and focus most of the damage on Ricardo. The goons have a phase where they both block so you can just focus on Ricardo too, so hold out until then.

Oh, and speaking of tanking debuffs.

Ishmael is Immortal on this Stage

Ish is a mandatory character in this stage and has a sort of quasi-immortality along with a passive called Last-Ditch Struggle. So long as there's at least one surviving Sinner on the team aside from Ishmael herself her won't go below 1 HP. Along with this, she has a unique passive for this stage called Last Ditch Struggle, which gives her additional clash power when at low health. This isn't to say Ish is invincible or anything, but it does give you an edge in the fight. Combined with Snagharpoon's Compulsion passive (the EGO passive, not the debuff on Ish) you can get an additional clashing power about about three, which makes a huge difference against Ricardo's stupid-high numbers. You can use her with something like a fully threadspun Roseate Desire with either Awakening or Corrosion depending on the sanity level and it'll do insane work.

"But Allen, I don't have Rosea-"

Get it. 400 Ishmael shards isn't as big an ask as it was in Canto 2 or 3. You're in endgame now, you should know what you need and should have a few EGO nukes for bosses like this. Roseate Desire or Ryoshu's Blind Obsession. You should have at least one of these by now to survive Ricardo's more devastating attacks aside from COUPON BLAST™. If you really rushed the content this much then just chill out, wait until you've caught to the the season pass to at least give Blind Obsession Ryoshu, and then continue on.

Speaking of endgame content.

Have a Tremor Team

So, you might have noticed during Ricardo's big defense phases he'll have this interesting debuff called "Test of Big Brother", this usually gives him 5 bind next turn, guaranteeing you can safely clash him, along with doubling the damage he takes and increasing the effect of Tremor Burst. And like I said before, this is a fight where you have to reach his second stagger threshold to win. This is phase of the fight is essentially your final warning to get him to that point before COUPON BLAST™ happens and you're team is wiped in two turns.

Not that second part of Tremor Burst's effects behind doubled. It means you can probably get him to stagger by that point if you've got your nukes handy. And surprisingly, a Tremor team isn't a big investment either. Base Ish, Heath, and Meursault all have tremor application, and Ish's base EGO can inflict Tremor Burst at Threadspin 4. And there are several Tremor IDs that are cheap like N Corp Don, LCCB Ish and Rosespanner Meursault. There's are some other good Tremor IDs like Rosespanner Rodion and Molar Outis, but one's a 3-Star and one's a limited 3-Star, so I'd hold off on those unless you wanna' hunt down someone's friend's list.

Oh right, last bit of advice before I sign off on this.

Using the Damn Friend's List

A lot of us forget this is a thing, but there is a Friends/Support function in the game. You can send a request to people who have fully kitted Sinners you'd need for your team to fill in gaps you can't yet. I don't know the effect this had some stuff like EX clear yet, but if you're speed-running to get to the current event then just use the damn support system and build a decent tremor team to get through this. For the next while I'll have Regret Faust on mine to help some folks, but this is for a limited time only until I can go back to how I like to keep my Company listing. You can also just search around until you find someone with the sinner you need.

And... that's about everything I can tell you about 5-30. Even once you get passed this stage there's still about two or three more little road blocks in the way before you can fully completely the Canto, but this was the more frustrating on out of the four so I wanted to go over it a little. Sorry if I sounded harsh here or there, but I really wanna' stress this is an endgame stage and shouldn't be taken lightly. Limbus Company has it's fair share of bullshit but fair and unfair, but this stage is only slightly unfair until you realize the mechanics around it. Then you can do those Base Ishmael solo clears. I won't because that's hard as hell, but it's something.

Anyways, I'll be seeing you folks later.

[artfightdramaconfessions]

https://artfightdramaconfessions.tumblr.com/post/692938481785290752/why-doesnt-staff-just-let-users-pick-the-top-art

Not the same guy but since the rate feature is random it wouldn't necessarily mean popular artists 100% get this spot. It simply wouldn't work tho because the rate feature is wayyy too random so it basically would just be whoever is lucky enough to be shown to the most people (especially since I think most people don't skip).

[ronnytherandom]

I forgot to watch content all week so i wrote about games ive been playing

9/2/2021: The Truman Show

You should fear your fears but embrace them and use them to guide you into the unknown, to explore and experience what life has to offer. Fear stands between you and the fullest experience of life so you must pass through it to better yourself. Heed not the walls built about you and the chains made to hold you. Though the architects insist it will preserve your life, containment is anathema to life. Do not take in faith the benevolence of powers that be; instead trust those who would support and liberate you, guide you through fear and into life.

As best I can lay it out, I think this is the philosophy of the Truman show but there is so much more to read into it also. There is critique of systems of commodification and celebrity (i.e. capitalism) reducing human beings to a consumable good as well as encouragement to find and pursue your goals despite adversity and even sensibility which is also tied to the illusion of economic responsibility. You can’t put a camera inside a human head, you can never “know” them without being an active and intrinsic part of their life, but also there is need for reciprocation. If one half exists with ulterior motive then the entire relationship is rotten; sincere humanity is what creates real connections. Without such your world is fake. A world built around one person is a world where no one can truly live. All these actors have given up basically their entire lives for the sake of watching Truman have his life built around him by outside forces, have allowed themselves to be commodified and dehumanised for the good of one man, Christoph. The man at the top has delusions of grandeur and thinks only of his own bottom line, he cares not for his subjects but simply wants them to do as he tells them because it benefits him to commodify their lives and interactions. Even then he cannot stand to lose control and in seeking to demonstrate Truman’s “realness” he structures his life so thoroughly that eventually there’s no reality left, only a script and adverts. But the people watching still empathise with Truman because everyone in the working class understands what it is to be trapped because real life is our own Truman show and one day we must all pass through fear, step out of the dome and create a real life for ourselves outside of the system of commodification which consumes everyone’s life and removes all realness and sincerity and emotional catharsis from it.

I unreservedly love this film.

14/2/2021: Assorted Game Reviews

Horizon Zero Dawn (Unfinished due to technical issues, 45 hours inc. parts of Frozen Wilds): This game is really cool and really fun. I think it is defined by its incredible setting which somehow creates a fresh feeling post-apocalyptic environment. Said environment creates intriguing alt-future lore and some very interesting environments to explore. I love the machine designs (especially tallnecks!) and was very sad to hear one of their contributing artists passed away recently but I’m glad their work lives on in this visually stunning game. I’m a sucker for Ubisoft-style open world games simply because it tickles a certain kind of itch and somehow this non-Ubisoft game has outdone Ubisoft on their own formula, which is hilarious, but also good for me as running around this world exploring and clearing map markers is engaging fun. Not least because of the combat. I have a minor criticism here that the combat feels slightly awkward on mouse and keyboard, the arrows never seem to go where I’m aiming, but aside from that the experience of fighting is a grand one. Enemies never lose their threat and I love the weak spot system the game employs which makes every tool useful in niche circumstance and rewards curiosity. It specifically manages this in a way that I feel the Witcher series could learn from if it ever returns; by making head on assault less viable and encouraging tactical hunting. I do feel this system makes hunting robots so fun that by contrast hunting humans becomes a chore however, though I noted this improves in the dlc with the addition of humans with elemental weaknesses limited in number as they are. I cannot speak for the story in entirety but what I encountered was pretty good, though I feel as if it was only just really getting going at the point where I could not continue. I find Aloy to be a compelling and well portrayed protagonist and though I can guess about her origin and the ultimate end of the alt-future apocalypse I still want to see how it plays out on screen, so will return to this as soon as I’ve fixed it.

Rimworld (122 hours. Familiar with but do not own Royalty Expansion):

Rimworld is one of those super special games that I don’t think I have a single problem with. Fair warning it can be brutal and is heavily dependent on RNG but this allows it to create truly unique and interesting scenarios on a constant basis. In the wider perspective it could be described as formulaic, with regular cycles of managing the settlement between raids and random events, but the devils in the details. Colonist traits, health and skills dictate how you play and sometimes you’ll be forced to adapt as some colonists simply refuse to perform some tasks. The depth of health particularly amuses me, in that each little part of someone’s body is modelled in a way. If you’re in a firefight you may take a single bullet which grazes your finger and you’re fine. Alternately it could pierce your human leather cowboy hat, your skull and kill you instantly and the game will tell you exactly what happened. The risk/reward element is addictive enough, and that’s without accounting for just how cool it is to see your colony slowly expand. Establishing more and more options for crafting is fun and shows off the full range of different items in the game which is fucking extensive. Between clothing, weapons, armour, sculpture and drugs to name only a few you have the opportunity to create many varied production lines either for your colonists or to trade for money and there is a lot of fun to be had here as well as it is quite satisfying to see psychoid you have grown personally become the cocaine your colonists snort to help them stay awake on limited sleep. From an archaeologist’s perspective it is especially cool to look back over your base and see the hints of how and why structures were built and remember the history of your limitations and development through structure. I think the lore of the universe is really cool too, a very 40k-esque kind of place except with far less order, somehow. But the universe does an excellent job of feeling alive and moving constantly on both a planetary and interstellar level. You can fully believe that while you build wooden shacks to shield yourself from terrifyingly low temperatures there are simultaneously rich pieces of shit living it up on the glitterworld that’s one system over. The music does an excellent job of creating the wild west frontier atmosphere the game cultivates to great effect. Ultimately, for just being a grid with a series of different numbers attached, this game does a fantastic job of creating a compelling, brutal and very real colony management experience. I dont think I can properly put into words the grandness and scope of this one. I didnt even mention the modding scene, which is expansive and tailors to basically any need you could have. The Rim is a terrifying place but theres so much fun to be had.

Factorio (86 hours, mostly 1.1): Having completed a game of Factorio I can tell you reliably that this is one of the best games ever made, thoroughly addictive and fun. If you like numbers, logistics, TRAINS, its gonna be your thing. Not to mention its probably the only documented case of a game with no bugs (so far as official forums are concerned). Strictly speaking this games combat is not the most engrossing thing but good lord do you feel it when you acquire a flamethrower. The way each aspect of the game (production, research, logistics, combat, upgrades for everything therein) feeds into the next is a really well constructed balancing act such that you must experience the full game in order to complete it and I always appreciate this kind of design. I think its one of the best tenets of factory game design especially as its something present in Satisfactory too. Beyond all of this generalised good the game is also excellent in its intricacies, the architecture necessary to build a maximum efficiency base, the level of planning and organisation that can be employed is mind-blowing. Not to mention the mod community, factorion is already an extensive experience and some mad bastards have seen fit to complicate it further, hats off to them. This really is a great moment in gaming.

 Destiny 2 (198 hours, all expansions, played some post Forsaken release, mostly Season of Arrivals onwards, spent roughly £20 on microtransactions):

This is a very interesting and enjoyable experience, but I must say it can be a bit controversial at times. What its does particularly well is moment to moment gameplay and design in all aspects. The game is stunning; between environments, cosmetics, shaders ships and ghosts there’s a vast range of incredible things to see, all rooted in the “pseudo-magi-science” aesthetic it’s got going on. The class design is excellent and you really do feel like you embody this rampaging madman / agile gunman / space wizard archetype, whichever you choose to play. The abilities, especially supers, are very satisfying. Everything has heft and power behind it which can be felt in all aspects of design; sound and animation is top notch. Movement is cool, you can feel how fast you move both on foot and in vehicles and the navigation has a little fun subtlety depending on your class jump, even if you can bounce unpredictably occasionally. But for the love of god why is the wall kick in there? It has only ever served to push me from a ledge into a bottomless pit. You're looking to remove antiquated content? Start there. Some guns are not so good to shoot but there’s such a great range of guns that are fun its like complaining about one drop in an ocean; and enemies are fun to shoot at, each faction distinct in meaningful ways and presenting an effective challenge. Speaking of oceans, that’s one way to describe the lore. I haven’t dived too deep but it keeps going down forever and everything I’ve read is intriguing. As a former Elder Scrolls lore nut this is something I could definitely sink my teeth into, though its much more of a pulpy sci-fi vibe than a pure nonsense vibe. I do think the game has a bit of a loot problem, primarily in regards to the conflict between high stats and looking good. This should never be a conflict, and yes you can apply ornaments to any purple gear but that’s not enough when I spend the entire time grinding power levels and thus must change armour and weapons on a constant basis to progress. This game needs a true transmog system and if not that, rethink how gear power level works. Perhaps rather than earning new instances of gear you always possess a version of it and the loot you acquire in missions just upgrades your instance to your current overall power level? This would serve to do away with the current upgrade system which I think is a needless additional grind. Perhaps it could be retained in using enhancement cores to empower gear as present but necessitating a whole upgrade module to keep your favourite weapon on hand is kind of painful honestly. There is also at present the issue of sunsetting gear, mildly controversial to say the least. If it’s necessary to streamline the game and make it function moving forward so be it but surely loot pools should be adjusted so you can actually get useful loot from older locations? And why sunset personal instances of gear which can be acquired at the regular power level anyway? I had to throw away my favourite bow and hunt down a new version of the exact same weapon for… what reason? I do think destination navigation leaves a little to be desired also. I get that having a physical hub world is meaningful but Destiny does not have a very extroverted community; I can count the times someone noticed me in the tower on one hand. And its not even like there’s fun activities to be found in the same sense as say Deep Rock Galactic, which really does take advantage of its hub. Perhaps for players who simply want to go about their business all of the vendors could be set into a menu system where just clicking an icon takes you to their menu from anywhere in the system rather than, per se, having to go through an entire loading screen (Which takes you to orbit and back) to reach a location which serves simply as the front for four menus. These are established player problems. As a dedicated PvE player I can say that this game is immensely fun in combat and growing in power does feel really good. It’s something I recommend getting into, there’s just some very large creases that need ironing which the Bungie should really take the time to address rather than pushing out new in game content every three months.

[softcoregamer]

DRAGON QUEST XI S: ECHOES OF AN ELUSIVE AGE - DEFINITIVE EDITION

I've never played a Dragon Quest game before, so all I had to go on with this game was the pretty looking graphics and charming character art by the Dragonball guy, which- combined with having a hankering for a JRPG, a genre I haven't played since probably the Digital Devil Saga games (minus an abandoned most-of-the-way-done playthrough of SMT3 and a partial of one of the Megadimension Neptunias) was enough to sell me on it. I'm having a tough time determining if it was worth it.

(spoilers)

The story starts off very weak. Your glowing hand marks you as the chosen one, you have to collect glowing orbs to defeat the dark lord. It's like the story of a generic videogame you'd see in the background of a movie. They do throw in a little novelty to keep you on your toes- you present yourself to the king and he throws you in the dungeon, you go back to your hometown and travel back in time for some reason- but I really never warmed to the setting. It's just a collection of cliches and cute gimmicks, like the town of people who speak in haikus, the town of people who speak in rhyming couplets (you're stuck with these people for the bulk of the exposition at the start of act 2, which is a nightmare) and the town of- ugh- Italians. There's no sense of these places being places. It's just a nice pleasant fairytale kingdom of the kind that's normally mentioned in Snow White or whatever as the place the handsome prince comes from, except here you spend dozens of hours trudging through it looking for glowing tree roots and orbs. The big problem in Gallopolis is that the sultan's son isn't brave enough for god's sake. Acts 2 and 3 pick things up, and there's some neat reveals- I like that the lil red star you've been seeing in the sky right from the start was the stain of the original hero's failure to slay the villain, literally hanging over the entire setting all this time. Also the annoying act 1 scene where you get handed the name of the villain and an orb quest in an exposition dump is retroactively improved by the fact that the exposition isn't quite correct. Act 3 reintroducing time travel and actually being thoughtful about it was welcome as well, but sadly that has the effect of making you redo story points you already did since, logically, you're back in time to where you haven't done them yet. Sometimes this comes across as getting a do-over to get a more positive outcome for something that previously ended more tragically, in keeping with the way time travel is explained in-universe as essentially reloading an earlier save (and, as revealed in the end, continuing in a separate save slot). The 8th party member's act 3 quest is a standout here. In reading discussion of the game I've seen people insist on referring to this character as 8, presumably to preserve the plot twist of his existence, so I guess I'll do it too. But more often than not, act 3 quests consist of just doing the same stuff as act 2 again, in a somewhat more curt manner. This sticks in the craw after so much of act 2 already consisted of just doing the same stuff as act 1 again. The party members aren't much better, for the most part. The first three people you meet all say "ah, you're the Luminary, I was sent to help you" and there isn't much to them beyond that for a long time. Sylvando has a lot of personality, which is probably partly why he's become the game's big meme character, but it gets grating and he is insanely trite. The Dark Lord takes over the world and purges the unclean, and Sylvando's overriding concern is that he wants people to laugh and smile more. It's like he takes advantage of the fact that I need him for his boat to get my goat by acting like a fucking teletubby. Things pick way up when you meet Rab, and the 8th party member is genuinely really good. Even the early-game party members end up having their moments (Erik's backstory was pretty fun) but the game really doesn't put its best foot forward with these characters. Not that it needs to; for the first few I was just glad to be getting some help in combat. The combat is excellent in this game, when it gets going. I played with the "draconian quest" tougher enemies mode on, and I turned it off right at the act 2 end boss. The difficulty curve flowed really well this way, with act 3 enemies not feeling noticeably less tough than "draconian" act 2 enemies. The abilities and spells you get are carefully balanced so that it's very difficult to put together a perfect 4-person party, you're always missing something. This means the fact that you can change your line-up midfight isn't just a nice quality of life feature, it's a potentially vital mechanic. They tread a fine line where sometimes needing to swap people out during the battle doesn't mean the characters themselves feel useless; everyone is capable of some extremely tough stuff. And on the other end of the scale, enemy damage is heavy enough that buffing your attack and using big-damage abilities vs healing or defending can be a properly difficult choice; a heavy hit or a big heal at the right time can turn the tide of an entire battle, as can your big hitter suddenly getting put to sleep or your healer getting knocked out. Again, this is all with the caveat that I had "draconian quest" on for the first 2/3 of the game, from what I've heard combat without it is insanely easy. My big gripe with the combat is that there's very little in the way of tooltips. What's this enemy's magic resistance? Does my Sap have a better chance of landing if I up my Magical Might, or does that just increase spell damage? Does Oomphle affect Quadraslash? If I increase my agility will it go up by enough that I can take my turn ahead of these enemies? Does agility even do that? Does using abilities and spells mean I go later in the turn order vs generic attacks and defending? You just have to guess at all this; the wiki has some info on enemy stats but I don't know where they're getting it from other than datamining. There's an entire bestiary with almost no useful information which is functionally just a model viewer for all 700+ enemies. The only way to know anything is to experiment, which I guess at least adds some purpose to combat when you've filled out the bestiary for an area but still have to grid encounters- which will be required at some point, because fighting is the only way you get xp and money. There is also too much RNG. Critical hits being rare and certain attacks having a chance to cause Confusion or whatever is fine (although I'd prefer for attacks which are labelled as having a chance to inflict status effects to actually inflict the status effect way more often than they do) but why the fuck does the resurrection spell have a 50% success rate? Under what possible circumstances would I be using that spell other than needing my dead teammate back right now? Same for all the abilities on the skill tree that say "doesn't connect very often, but when it does it can cause a critical hit" OK that "CAN" is telling me that this ability which doesn't often connect won't even necessarily crit if it does. Why would I choose this ability? To handicap myself? How is this going to help me defeat the Timewyrm? All that said, when the combat is good it's really good, and whenever I lose a fight I'm thinking "I can win that next time if I do XYZ". The 2D battles are much less fun because the pace is much slower and there are no cute animations to liven it up, but it's always satisfying when the "flash" of an enemy taking damage becomes the "flash" of them disappearing, and you know you have slayed yet another blob. Non-combat gameplay is a mixed bag. The early-game fun of running around looking for new enemies to fight and fill out the bestiary wears off hard once act 2 begins and everything is either a reskin or a glowing-eyes "vicious" version of something you've already fought, and many maps are fairly sparse with just the odd treasure chest and locked door to liven up your path to the next area. That said, there are also several areas and dungeons which make a minigame out of traversing them; the Eerie Eyrie and the Battleground were standouts for me. Especially the remixed version of Eerie Eyrie you go to later on, where you get a flying mount to ride around. Crafting is surprisingly involved, with a whole minigame around it and hundreds of recipes to find all over the place. In most cases you can just use money in lieu of ingredients, which means minimal farming is required to get a lot out of the system, and the recipes with ingredients that can't be bought feel special instead of bullshit. In terms of items and recipes there really is a deluge of content- there are recipe books all over the place, with new ones available even in the last couple of maps that open up in the entire game, and there's an undeniable cookie-clicker rush you get from getting better at crafting and taking something you could barely get to +1 all the way to +3. I play games like this as a magpie, accumulating items with nice pictures and effects that make me do a 😲 face, and DQ11 certainly delivers. This even extends to character advancement, with Hidden Goodies incentivizing picking skills you might not want otherwise, and entire new skill trees opening up as quest rewards.

Overall, DQ11 is a good combat system with loot and progression systems that are well-executed enough to feel rewarding after 100 hours, all wrapped up in a style and tone that is not up my alley at all. A good litmus test for how much you'd like the game is probably: watch this scene and if you think it's the most epic thing you've ever seen then Dragon Quest 11 is for you.

[1358456]

Review Response, June 16-22, 2019

Got a lot of stuff! ... Thanks to one person, mostly!

... Really missing those single line breaks...

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

Wings #004

1) Heyo, I saw your responses to my reviews. I forgot my password when I read Wings and I didn't want to go through the whole resetting password thing, so I went in as a guest. I didn't really intend to come back to FanFiction, hence the random keyboard smashing username, yet here I am again to read your stories! Haha. I suppose I'll just keep my original username here.

Anyways, back onto the review! I really found this chapter to be amusing and engaging!

I should have realized Black was there! Rereading the last chapter, I missed the "loud" voice. Oops! And as much as I would love to see familiar faces meeting our lovely protagonist Y here, I like how you're going at a steady pace so the introductions won't be rushed. It makes the eventual meetings better, and I'd look forward to them more that way. (Highkey looking forward to Diamond to appear!)

Crystal as the soccer coach is so, so fitting. And the more I read about Y's struggles to do well, the funnier it gets when she fails due to her own recklessness or other people's mistakes. And when she had enough, she reminded me of a Rhyhorn stampeding through the field, bashing away any poor soccer players that were in her way. She's definitely going to join the soccer team now. ...the team is filled with hotheads.

Oh, hi Gold! Fancy seeing you here! I wonder if he's a teacher as well? Maybe another coach? ...is he and Crystal a thing yet? Asking for a friend.

Hey, you’re back to the old familiar ID! Hehehe.

Ah yes. Black’s inclusion was a subtle hint in the last chapter. The only hint being the italicized “loud”, indicating that he was in the soccer team somewhere. And yes. Y is going to be meeting the other familiar faces slowly over time. I mean, my favorite Dex Holder Platinum hasn’t even been mentioned yet, and it’s been 4 chapters. I’m taking things quite slowly in that regard, because it makes sense. A 1st year student is not going to be meeting all sorts of 2nd and 3rd year students right off the bat, you know? And oh yes. Diamond is definitely going to be in Wings. I think he’ll be the first Sinnoh Dex Holder that Y will meet.

Yep! Crystal as soccer coach! Definitely! And oh, Y. She’s like a rampaging Dragon when frustrated and pissed off, plowing through everything in her way, whether it’s her teammates or the opponent. Hehe. A soccer team filled with hotheads. Oh dear. Hahaha.

Nah. Gold is no teacher. What could he possibly be teaching in Wings? No, no. He’s there for a different reason that’ll be covered later. And yes, Gold and Crystal are in a relationship. They are “a thing”. Obviously it’s not going to be getting a whole ton of focus, but it’ll be there.

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

Destiny #007

1) Its confirmed, eh? This entire thing was orchestrated by Peter. Not that I'm surprised, it's just nice to have clarity on that part. Anyways, I can definitely see Blue doing something she'll regret later. I mean if it says that Blue will probably help, then she just might. But I don't think she would help knowing it'd hurt the other dexholders. If she helps Peter it'd be because he somehow tricks her into doing it. But hmm, there's only one way to find out. And that's to read more chapters. Also, that small little tidbit about Black's feelings on the whole light stone matter I thought was really nice. I'm not exactly sure how, but it tied that entire part together. And it definitely made everything seem more real. I feel like I'm just being dramatic, but that's how I feel on the matter. And just wanted tp congratulate you on that part 'cause it was wonderful written. Well, the entire chapter was wonderfully written, but I can only hope you know what I mean. Speaking of Unova dexholders. That particular scene with Ruby, Sapphire, and White; I thought although great to read, was not how I imagined it going down. I think I explained this in one of my previous reviews, or at least predicted it. But now that I think about it, it's completely plausible. And one last thing before I end this review. I just realized that it's been quite some time since we've seen Green. Haven't read anything in his point of view since he found out that Blue left and set out to look for her. Which makes me wonder. Will you write his perspective while he's searching hopelessly for her? Or right before he spots her somehow? Cannot wait to see things from his perspective again! Makes my urge to smack him lessen. Fucking asshole, I know he didn't mean to do that especially in that way. But god was that a jerky move. Low-key wanna punch him senseless, but oh well. I'll just have to read his P.O.V. in order to be satisfied. Again, thank you!

The continuation!

Yes. Blue, despite wandering off on her own and thus being led astray, is still a good girl at heart. She wouldn’t willingly help in hurting her former friends. She would more likely simply walk away and not interfere than actively hurting them. But... there really is only one way to find out, eh?

I guess Black escaping the Light Stone in that fashion is kind of amusing in hindsight, now that he’s actually free. Hehe. ... And is partly plot relevant later on :) And yes. A part of my “headcanon” with Black & White is that Black is forever fated to be indebted to her. Nothing serious, but enough that he’d be more compelled to care for her. Something stupidly sweet like that. Hehe.

The meeting of Ruby and Sapphire with White? This is basically the easiest way for me to drag Black and White, who are completely unrelated to the whole Mega Hunter shenanigans, into the plot! It’s a natural conversation that leads to White tagging along for the sake of meeting the others. Hehe.

Heh. Green ain’t going to find Blue. He doesn’t even know that she’s not in Kanto anymore. He said it himself too. If Blue doesn’t want to be found, she’s going to just disappear. And it’s his fault. Unintentional, perhaps, but his fault anyways. Because compared to Red, he’s a dick. Hehe.

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

Destiny #008

1) WHAT. THE. FUCK. HE JUST TOOK OUT A FUCKING ULTRA BALL AND THEN BRAINWASHED THIS POOR, UNSUSPECTING CHILD? HOW TF DID HE DO THAT? WHY CAN'T THIS MOTHERFUCKER JUST KEEL OVER AND DIE? I am legitimately raging right now. He's too goddamn powerful. How are the dexholders going to defeat this dude? I mean it was 27 vs 6. That's insane. How the hell did this dude even get his hands on such powerful pokémon anyway? You don't actually need to answer these questions, they're just rhetorical. And I know I'll get my answer later on. Also, speaking of that battle. When Green and red joined in, I swear to god I started clapping. The relief was immense. And reading that scene the only things going through my mind was that this was where Y and Ruby are going to die. Thank god that they didn't. But with those wounds? They can't battle him at his full power, not when they only have three days to recover. And they're not going to spend their days completely recovering. They'll have to pull themselves together and practice. That is, unless Yellow could use her healing power on humans. But I don't think that's the case. And how tf are they going to get that strong in three days? I know somehow they'll pull it of—as that is the way of stories—but as to how exactly they might go about doing that? I'm clueless. Speaking of which... it would be nice to have a story that doesn't go the same path as so many others. Where, somehow, the hero always prevails! Why? Because they're the hero. And, I mean, I guess it makes sense. They're the hero for a reason, but isn't it unrealistic for the hero to always win? To err is human after all. That is, if the hero was human. Don't get me wrong, I love stories with happy endings. It's just sometimes I ponder whether that was the realistic outcome. But anyways, I'm getting off-topic. I'm sure that in your story if the dexholders win, it would be for a very good reason. And it excites me to think of the ways of how you'll surprise me! This has been a long-ass review. I spent forever writing it, and I'm terribly sorry. But I thank you for writing this. Anyways, on to the next chapter!

Assimilation successful. ... It’s a phrase that you would’ve seen immediately in Destiny. I think the first chapter pretty much begins with that.

Hehe. How is he so strong? GAME MECHANICS!! The power of RNG abuse to get shiny IV 31 all things with the desired natures, and then EV raising them for max efficiency! And to make things worse, TEAM SYNERGY! ... And level 100! Because the Mega Hunter and his Pokemon are all based on a real life friend and his HUGE pile of RNGed Pokemon. ... I also have a similar sized pile of level 100 RNGed Pokemon, but I didn’t want to put myself in. That’d be weird! ... Heh. So. How are the Dex Holders going to win? ... I don’t know.

... “As that is the way of stories”... OTHER people’s stories, perhaps. Heh. The “power of bullsh*t” doesn’t work in my stories, you know. None of that “I have the willpower, I will succeed!” nonsense, or “the power of friendship!!”. Heh. “I am the main character, so I can do everything!” ... Nope. Not in here, bud. Hahaha.

2) Oh fuck I got so into writing that review that I forgot to put my name. Yeah the last long-ass review is Mel's.

Don’t worry, I figured! :)

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

Destiny #009

1) Oh god oh fuck. So soon! The scouts are coming... which brings me to another topic. How tf did this dude get so many scouts? How is he seeing what they're seeing? And who exactly are these scouts? 'Cause if they're just little children as the scout who got caught, then the dexholders will have no problem. But this dude isn't that stupid, or he is and he's planning on winning because of numbers. Which, I guess, isn't a bad idea. Numbers certainly help, but I mean come on. What a horrible thing to do to brainwash children. This dude is such an asshole and my ahem for him grows with every chapter. What even is the point in causing so much chaos? How will this benefit him? (And coming from a lazy person) Why tf would he go to such lengths? It sounds like too much work tbh. Fuck that, I'd rather stay at home relaxing. But I guess each to their own. Also, the writing in this chapter was sooo well done. It is envy chapter, but this one I loved the uncertainty it exuded, because of the uncertainty in the dexholders. What I guess I'm trying to say is, is that your writing reflects the emotions and thoughts of the dexholders in a way. This might just be me, I felt it was like that. It wasn't too overtly noticeable, but it left me with that feeling. Oh, and also some things I forgot to mention in the last review. I think I might've mentioned this before, but it just made me really happy to see that you kept the characters in... well... character. Incorporating things such as Pearl shouting the moves that the pokémon were going to execute really excite me. That's because so many times writers forget these things. And in the end product, you read something that resembles a character, but isn't quite actually like them. Actually, now I'm sure. I did say this another review. I'm sorry for the repetition them, it just amazes me. Another thing that amazes me, the strategies! You did really well in planning out the strategies in the battles. They were intricate, but easily understandable. And they sounded really effective. Really nice job on coming up with those. Oh, and before I end this. I just wanted to say that the interaction between Gold and Crystal at the beginning of this chapter was great. Still staying on the matter at hand, but also delving a bit into their history. Their relationship... they've broken up... made me sad ngl. But oh well, It's to be expected of that certain relationship. It can either be a really good one... or one that ends in heartbreak. It's definitely complicated for them. But one thing that made me chuckle was when Crystal retorted with "You were the one begging for me to come back to you." or something like that. Like it's so true. That's exactly what would happen, and of course Gold would try to play it so that he was the cool one. But we all know that he was the one begging lmaoooo. Also, the way you wrote in Green's concern for Blue in the chapter made me cry because of how beautiful it was. You didn't touch on the topic, but you made it so clear by his actions and things he said. It reminds me of this one thing C. S. Lewis once said, where it was something like, "Show, don't tell.". And that was a good example of that I thought. Makes me think there's hope for their relationship. Also, I know I talk a lot abut how you're work makes me cry. But goddamn are you also good at writing fluff. And it's incorporated a lot in your stories, even your more tragic ones. It's nice, because it's always good to have a balance. I mean, having a completely tragic story without any elements of happiness isn't a good read. So while some parts are sad, there are so many others where I smile or clap or laugh and the list goes on. I never realized how expressive I am when I'm reading lmao. Anyways, thank youuuuuu again.

How did the Mega Hunter get so many scouts mind controlled? ... Well, there are a lot of fodder class trainers that’ll get stomped in like 0.5 seconds and then get taken. Given established time gap, it’s certainly plausible to have mind controlled a crapton of nameless fodder! ... Well, that’s the excuse, anyways. You always need some fodder, you know?

Heh. Imagine if the villains were lazy. “Aw man. I don’t want to plant bombs in all those places... it’s rush hour...” Why is he stirring up chaos? Hehe. You’ll see later~ ... ... Well of course, you’ll see later. It’s the PLOT. ... Real subtle there, 135. Well done...

Aha, Pearl’s Detector trait in use! It’s often hard to do given just how many Dex Holders there are, but I try to think like “in this situation, what would this group do, and how would the members react?” So in the case of a battle, Pearl would be the first to detect which attacks are incoming since that’s his whole shtick.

The... battle strategies... well, they’re mostly just recreations of what I went through in XY/ORAS battles with the guy who the Mega Hunter is based on. That freaking Eruption, man. ... More of the “asshole combos” later.

Hehe. Yep. Gold got dumped, begged, and is trying to maintain the “cool guy” outlook by pretending that she was the one begging. ... Poor dude. But hey, now’s the chance for him to show just how reliable he is! After all, there’s something about destruction and devastation that brings people together!!

Green’s concerns for Blue that has to be put under because of ensuing chaos. Hehe. This is a loose reference to something that happens in SA, and what Blue says to him: “Can’t you put me on the top of your priorities just once?” Almost a year after that story ended (Dec 2013), Destiny began (Sept 2014), and... sure enough, Green is forced to put something else on the top of his priorities, over Blue. It’s because of his personality. Task first. Personal problems come after the public ones. ... But it doesn’t mean he likes that.

Yes. BALANCE. I write a ton of cutesy, fluffy stuff, along with horrific doom hammer strikes. But the fluffy stuff don’t stand out in memory because they don’t have shock value, but doom stuff do. So the common misconception is that I always write doom. No, I do not. BALANCE! Especially much further on where a chapter is half fluff, half doom. BALANCE. ... That said, I think you will cry a lot though. Hehehe... But hey, you’ll be laughing and clapping, and even shuddering at the pure cute fluff later on as well!

2) Also I meant to each their own kek.

To each their own indeed. In a lot of ways.

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

Heart #001

1) So I'm just going to say this before actually reading so I, don't forget.

So Platinum has to pick between the boys...?

OK, but *grabs a mic* WHY NOT BOTH?

*drops mic*

Seriously though, consider the ot3 as a viable outcome, please. Don't just... tease me with the ship 'tag' I guess dunno how to call it in FF

Yes, Platinum has to pick one or the other. Why not both? ... This is a PAIRING. A pair has two members. And forcing all three Sinnoh Dex Holders into a single “pair”ing does not work out for anyone.

The “tag”...

I assume you mean that? I only did that because I couldn’t add Platinum twice. My original intent was to put Platinum with Diamond and Platinum again with Pearl. But I couldn’t put up Platinum twice or have her be in two different pairings at once. And it’s not like I could isolate one of the boys either, because... well, that’s a little... on-the-nose, isn’t it? But to avoid “teasing”, I could just give one of the boys the boot and spoil the ending, which... well, I’m sure everyone who reads my stuff will know anyways.

All three of them together is not a viable outcome. As friends? Certainly. I’m not breaking the Morning Sound trio. In a love relationship? Nope. Not happening. One is going to be accepted and experience pure bliss. The other is going to be rejected and experience bitter heartbreak. It’s inevitable and meant to be. ... Just delayed for as long as Platinum doesn’t realize the situation.

[ghostmartyr]

Pokémon FireRed Nuzlocke [Part 1]

-claps hands together- Okay, this one’s going to be a little different. My primary goal when I first started the Nuzlocke thing was to replay games with some more variety in the choices. The Nuzlocke element was more about limiting the chaos of the Randomizer than really doing a proper Nuzlocke.

This, though, is going back to the basics. It should be very fun.

Rules:

After possessing poke balls, only the first pokemon of any route is eligible for catch.

Barring duplicates. Waiting until an unregistered pokemon appears is valid.

Any pokemon that faints will be considered dead, and go into a specified box.

Each pokemon must be nicknamed.

Starter pokemon is determined by Trainer ID number.

Team wipe means the run’s over.

Plus one extra special one:

Only battling Trainers is allowed.

No grinding. The only smudge line is that if I can’t run away from a pokemon, I am allowed to defeat it. I’m not going to be locked into a situation where a wild pokemon ends everything because it’s too fast and I’m not allowed to attack it.

My expectation is that I’m going to fail at least a few times. So the part tag on these posts isn’t going to necessarily match where I’m at in the game. I’m just going to keep on until the Elite Four is beaten.

Hopefully this is as exciting as I’m wanting it to be!

Heyo prof.

Geez, the moments before you have the option to adjust the text speed are the worst.

In the spirit of having fun, I’m not going to go with my standard. For this game, I shall be... Coin. Only in caps, because I think gen three is still a gen where all of the names of stuff come in caps. Gotta make sure I fit in.

I love video games.

Rival names are always so difficult. You can be Turq. Also in screamy caps.

First thing’s first, after changing the text speed. Into my computer for a Potion. Which I never knew about until I started watching people play these games on the internet.

Second thing is...

ID number.

Bulbapedia says 4-6 is Fire. Yoooo.

Who knows if we’ll even have a chance to watch that play out. We have to make it through the rival fight first, and that’s pretty much RNG.

Charmander, your name shall be Heero.

First fight of the game.

Scratch, Tackle, Scratch, Tackle, Scratch, Tackle...

Yay, we get to continue forward!

Heero is level 6 now.

One day, this stat chart might be of interest to me.

Heero is a Calm female Charmander. She knows Scratch and Growl.

Up to Viridian, grabbing Oak’s Parcel, down to Pallet, delivering Oak’s Parcel... Pokedex get, and we have five poke balls! Plus vague instructions to visit our rival’s sister for a Town Map.

Route 1 reentered, and our first available catch appears.

What I’m dying to know is if I get exp for catching in this gen. I can’t remember.

Yay!

Nope on the exp, though.

Rattata’s name is going to be Cat.

Cat is going in the box. The experiment of this first run is going to be how far Heero can push. I have a limited amount of exp to harvest, and I want to have it go to something I’m planning on using for a while. Who knows how this will turn out.

Route 22 is going to be briefly examined for our next partner. We’ll be back later to fight Turq, but right now he would eat us alive.

First thing is Rattata. Nope.

FUCK YES.

Maybe. This is still complicated.

Caught!

Going with a theme here... Allenby.

Old dude int town teaches us how to catch stuff, he gives us the Teachy TV which I don’t think I’ve ever touched except by accident, yay, we move forward.

Into Route 2. I walk through the grass without getting anything, and you know what, for now that’s fine. Into Viridian Forest we go, and that means it’s finally time for trainers.

Allenby is going to be in front for as much as I can keep her. As much as I like the possibility of just training Heero into the invincible Charmander that laughs in the face of Brock... lol.

Bug Catcher Rick is our first fight outside Turq! He has a level 6 Weedle. ...This is already uncomfortable. Yep, Poison Sting poisons Allenby. But Allenby wins and grows to level 5.

Rick also has a Caterpie.

...I have Potions. I should have bought Antidotes, but I forget how low the HP is early on, and also that walking probably does damage. But Allenby should be able to take on a Caterpie. Maybe.

With the help of a Potion.

And when we’re running around trying to find an Antidote, a Caterpie appears.

Her name can be Rain.

Now I have the delightful project of looking at the menu every few seconds to check if it’s time to give Allenby a Potion. I... think it’s fewer steps to one of the Antidotes hidden in the forest than the Pokemon Center or Mart.

The exciting challenges of early gens.

...Fuck it, I don’t know where the Antidote is. I’m going to try out rushing to the Center.

One more Potion.

Made it.

Rain, into the box.

I’m buying ten Antidotes. Three more Poke Balls, and five Potions.

Back in Route 2, a Pidgey wants to join the box squad.

...

And I wasn’t going to use it anytime soon anyway, but I turned my brain off and didn’t nickname it. Sigh. Uh, for future reference, the Pidgey’s name is Ren. I don’t think I can change it until Lavender Town, but that’s its name.

Fight number two.

Opening with a level 7 Weedle.

Allenby makes it to 6 beating it. Allenby learns Low Kick!

Another level 7 Weedle follows.

Allenby is finally poisoned. After a lot of good luck. Needs a Potion before I can use an Antidote, because the Weedle’s probably going to use Poison Sting again, and if I use an Antidote, Allenby’s health is low enough that a Poison Sting + poison would be an issue.

Nope, it uses String Shot.

Allenby makes it to level 7.

And Doug’s last thing is Kakuna. Well, this will take forever, but that’s fine. Doug down.

I realized I didn’t do this for her. So here. Have a timely picture. And I finally found the Antidote. It was just in the middle of the path.

Missed the name. Don’t ask why. But Allenby faces a level 7 Caterpie. Allenby wins and is now level 8 (also the dude’s name is Anthony). Level 8 Caterpie comes out to pick up the slack.

Bug Catcher Charlie is next, and yay, Metapod. Allenby is level 9. A Caterpie and Metapod later, Charlie’s out.

Next up, Bug Catcher Sammy. He’s got a level 9 Weedle. Ick. But it’s gone now, even though Allenby is poisoned. Congrats on level 10, btw. Antidote time.

That’s all we have available before Brock, and that means we’re going back to Route 22 to fight Turq. If memory serves, he has two. His starter, and... I want to say Pidgey? With the Pidgey out front?

So Allenby gets to play second fiddle to Heero for a little bit. Hopefully Heero will survive long enough to get some exp before post-Brock, since she won’t have any participation points for that fight.

Happy fun times with rival.

Hey, I got it right!

He has his. level 9 Pidgey. Oh geez.

Yeah, Heero can’t handle this. Allenby? Save her?

Allenby succeeds. Heero grows to level 7. And learns Ember!

Squirtle comes out, and it’s level 9 too.

Allenby wins. Nice.

Brock time, I guess.

Iconic.

Camper Liam sends out a level 10 Geodude for Allenby to hopefully eat. Allenby does, and reaches level 11. Even better, Allenby learns Karate Chop! Liam sends out a level 11 Sandshrew. Allenby beats it and all that’s left to the gym is Brock.

Don’t worry, kid, we still love you.

Back to the Center to heal, then. Brock.

Hi. I’m Coin. I’m on a path of destruction.

Level 12 Geodude is my first opponent.

Aaaaand it’s gone. Allenby gets to live to level 12.

Level 14 Onix.

Allenby wins!

First badge get. Heero gets to go back into the first slot for switch training. Then Running Shoes for me! Yay!

Right we go, and Bug Catcher Colton is our first post-Brock opponent. He has a level 10 Caterpie. Heero handles it, and reaches level 8. Level 10 Weedle up next. Heero wins again, and level 9 she hits. Another level 10 Caterpie. That’s enough to get Heero up to 10! It costs and Antidote, but whatever.

Lass Janice is up next. She has a level 9 Pidgey. Then surprise, she has another. Heero hits 11.

This isn’t especially important I just wanted to break up the wall of text.

She has a level 10 Rattata.

She also has a level 10 female Nidoran. It poisons Allenby, who has to go in after Heero is nearly felled by two Tail Whips worth of Quick Attack. Allenby is level 13, and I’m about to be down another Antidote.

Trip to the Pokemon Center, and then it’s Bug Catcher Greg. He’s got a level 9 Weedle. Thankfully Heero can nail those in one shot, and is now level 12. Level 9 Kakuna. Level 9 Caterpie. Wait, let me guess, level 9 Metapod? Yep.

Yay Heero. Heero now knows Metal Claw. Double yay.

Next up is Bug Catcher James. He’s got a level 11 Caterpie. He’s also got a level 11 Metapod. Heero thanks them for the exp.

Lass Robin follows with her Jigglypuff. It is level 14, so I think I will let Allenby help out after Heero gets a nom in. I also think it’s time for Allenby to be up front again, if only for a little while. I’m still getting a feel for how to distribute the exp. In this case, I let Heero handle all the Bug Catchers, and intended for Allenby to get all the other trainers. Lass Robin moves, so I wasn’t sure if she was a trainer NPC or standard NPC.

Youngster Calvin! What’s on your agenda?

A level 14 Spearow.

I’m going to let Allenby stay in for a hit. Tune in to see how much I am filled with regret.

Peck is unpleasant, but Karate Chop can finish it in two, so that’s how we’re gonna do.

Same, my man.

Youngster Ben. With the level 11 Rattata. And the level 11 Ekans. With Intimidate. Ugh. And Wrap. More ugh. But Allenby makes it to level 14 through Ben’s contributions.

So there’s grass on this here route. Time to see if we’re getting another one for the box, or maybe adding someone to the team.

Box buddy. Hm. You can be... Herine.

The dude selling the Magikarp in front of Mt. Moon is technically in Route 4, so that Magikarp could conceivably count, but Magikarp needs loads of experience to level up to something usable. Efficiency demands we not add it.

The art they’ve added into these is really pretty. I like it a lot.

Mt. Moon gives us a level 7 female Zubat. Another for the box. Her name’s Dini.

Now for the long, long, long trek through a cave where I can’t attack any of the constantly spawning creatures. Yaay.

Bug Catcher Kent wants to spice it up with a battle. He has a level 11 Weedle. Allenby takes that, Heero nabs the level 11 Kakuna.

Lass Iris is also here. She has a Clefairy, and since Fairy Type doesn’t exist yet, tear it up Allenby.

I have no memory of what Type theme you have in this gen. I want to say Magnemite...? Yeah, level 11 Magnemite. Followed by a level 11 Voltorb.

Allenby grows to level 15!

There looks to be a Bug Catcher for Heero around the corner. Bug Catcher Robby. He’s got a level 10 Caterpie.

On a related note, Heero is level 15 now!

Hm. I think I want to check something really fast. Because I don’t have a ban on guides in this Nuzlocke. Eh, okay, that’s not going to work. I wondered if maybe exp needed to reach the next level changed when a pokemon evolved. It looks like no after a brief thing. Species line determines it, not present form. Moves are affected, but that’s a different...

I should look that up.

Okay, for my current team, I think I don’t want to delay evolution for anything. Risk is high, benefit is nil.

Anyway, Robby has a level 10 Metapod. Followed by a level 10 Caterpie.

I pick up a Rare Candy.

I haven’t decided how I feel about Rare Candy on this run.

She has a level 11 Oddish, making me happy I got lazy with switching Heero out of first position. Allenby can tackle her level 11 Bellsprout. No I’m not assigning EV preference that would be a level of insanity beyond anything I could manage shut up.

...I took a break to talk to a friend and I think I’m lost.

Youngster Josh wants to battle! Youngster Josh bringing it with the level 11 Rattata! Youngster Josh bringing it with the level 10 Rattata! Youngster Josh bringing it with the level 10 Zubat!

Heero can eat that one.

Heero hits level 16, and I think I know what that means!

She’s a good girl.

Hiker Marcos wants to fight now. He has a level 10 Geodude. And another one. And a level 10 Onix.

Allenby is level 16 now. Yay.

Um. Okay. I’m going to try to unlost myself. I think the ladder furthest from the entrance is the one that goes forward, but even more than usual, I want to be sure I explore everywhere.

This is how the most popular game franchise in the world starts.

No, Sandshrew should never be made to do evil. A curse upon you, grunt. It’s level 11. A baby.

The Rattata’s on-brand, though.

Congrats on level 17, Allenby. Heero can take the level 11 Zubat. She even does.

Another ladder, another Grunt. Another level 11 Zubat. A new addition of a level 11 Ekans. It is not match for our fierce team.

A different grunt has a level 13 Rattata. Allenby is not impressed. Also a level 13 Sandshrew. I am not impressed. This other Grunt also has a level 13 Rattata. Allenby is level 18. Heero gets the level 13 Zubat.

You don’t need to tell me that.

Super Nerd Miguel has a Grimer. It knows Poison Gas.

I forgot how much I hate poison. Level 12 Koffing is next. I need to spend two turns on Antidote and Potion. Heero gets the level 12 Voltorb since Allenby has kind of taken a beating from the poison. Because poison is awful.

Welcome to level 17, Heero.

I take the Dome Fossil, since the plot makes you take stuff from the poor guy.

I use an Escape Rope to get back to the Pokemon Center. I think this is the last stretch of Mt. Moon and there are some trainers outside. I’d rather everyone be healed to the brim before we go through them.

We made it! To the outside world!

Stopping point!

[diregate]

Dragonwarden’s Angst Script - Shifting Sands/Pyramid Plunder

“At least it gives good camo fragments/thieving EXP and it’s Kharidian weekend so why not right?”

“I’M OUT OF RUN ENERGY AT 85 AGILITY WHAT”

“Oh my god stop misclicking (touchpad) and autopathing in reverse”

“WHO PUT THESE CRYSTALS IN MY WAY”

“I CAN ALMOST MAKE IT TO THE ROPE” warps away 3 seconds before reaching rope

“Open (the chest). Open! ... Open? OPEN.”

“OPEN THE CHEST GODDAMNIT WE HAVE 20 SECONDS LEFT”

“WHY DOES THE RANDOM GENERATOR DECIDE TO GENERATE A FULL FUCKING INTERSECTION OF CRYSTALS”

“I hate when corruption objectives need me to mine crystals LIKE, URNS ARE THE EASIEST THINGS WHY MUST YOU DO THIS TO ME JAGEX”

Snake bites, “Okay let’s try again” snake bites “one more time?” snake bites “okay check the urn instead” snake bites “FUCK YOU TOO SNAKE”

“There’s a pattern if the door to the next room is always the last one I open”

“Click on the spear trap and dismantle it” mouse clicks to move onto spear trap instead “GODS DAMNIT ICTHLARIN”

“I swear if I could burn down the Jaldoracht pyramid I fucking will”

“I’M PRETTY SURE ACTUAL TREASURE PILLAGERS ROB FASTER THAN THIS??”

“Ibis?” stone scarab “Ibis?” snake “Ibis????” mummy

“Black ibis set is the love rocket mount of Runescape isn’t it gods fucking damnit.”

“CAN’T I JUST, YOU KNOW,” random hand gestures “CRAFT MY OWN BLACK IBIS SET? I HAVE 92 CRAFTING IT CAN’T BE THAT HARD”

“Back to shifting tombs because I cannot stand RNG on RNG on RNG yet I also hate myself”

“I guess rep gains are pretty good too??? Maybe if the offering boxes DIDN’T GIVE ME CRAP TOO THOUGH”

“I forgive the sarcophagi for giving me offering boxes instead of my scepter but that isn’t grounds for me to not judge them when they give me POTS OF CREAM”

“I’m gonna time out again aren’t I--yep”

“These minigames would be a lot less stressful without such a small time frame limit now just saying”

“Maybe I can push myself to 91 thieving so I can try for the scepter in PP instead”

“Don’t you love it when people say they can clear 3-4 rooms of urns in that 5 minutes and I’m just, dying to try and clear 2″

“PHARAOH’S SCEPTER IS SUPPOSED TO BENEFIT MY GAINS RIGHT? RIGHT??? I didn’t just spend over a million gold for nothing now, RIGHT????”

“Okay technically I spent that for quick teleports to PP but still that was just a side benefit of mine”

“I wonder how much less painful it would be to get the lumberjack outfit”

“Apparently via wiki: Done right, lumberjack outfit can be completed in 2 hours. Also via wiki: it might take millions of thieving exp before you get a single piece of the ibis set”

“It feels as though like for most elite skilling outfits, you get the XP outfits first before you get the elite one. WHEREAS FOR THIEVING’S CASE, YOU GET THE ELITE OUTFIT JUST TO GET A BETTER CHANCE FOR THE XP OUTFIT”

“Seriously whoever who got 99 Thieving off of spamming PP before all the other skilling methods came out are gods and they should be friggin proud of it because THIS D&D IS THE WORST”

“Want to open the door? RNG. Want to go through the next room? RNG, unless someone is with you. Want to open urns? RNG. Want to check urns? RNG. Want to open the golden chest? Sure but scarabs spawning is RNG. Want to open the sarcophagus? Sure but mummy spawning is RNG. Want to get the ibis set piece? RNG. Want to get pharaoh’s scepter? RNG. Want to get scepter of the gods? RNG but first get 91 thieving”

“You’d think it’s too much RNG but then you realize thieving is just RNG The Skill the same way how dungeoneering is D&D The Skill But With Very Bad Optimization”

“I JUST WANT ONE PIECE OF THE SET TODAY SCARABAS I WILL PERSONALLY MURDER YOUR ENTIRE TRIBE AGAIN IF YOU KEEP SPAWNING THESE SCARABS IN”

[askshalvanic]

Yume Nikki rant/thoughts

Ahh, Yume Nikki, one of the most renowned RPG games in history. While certainly not as nearly as popular as Undertale, it does have its spot within the RPG community, and some people like the game, hell, there’s some who find it inspirational or even life changing. Now, the problem is… I don’t really share this opinion or thoughts on it. In fact I don’t like the game very much. I didn’t really enjoy it, and to be honest, I immediately uninstalled it and wanted to forget about it the moment I was done playing it. The reason for this was that it was mostly a negative experience. I did have a few moments that I enjoyed here and there, so it wasn’t all that negative, but about 80% or so of it did make me think “can’t wait for this piece of shit to be over”. Now, I know this might be an unpopular opinion, but I really, REALLY don’t like Yume Nikki.

I may draw some comparisons to Bioshock Infinite in the sense that this masterpiece of a game that almost everyone and their grandmother consider worthy of a TEN OUT OF FUCKING TEN doesn’t really bode well with me either (I say this mostly because I feel that I’m in the minority when it comes to the people that have played this game and not loved it), and I honestly consider these two the games that I am not willing to play ever again in my life. But this ain’t about Biocunt Integrate, it’s about the dreadful world of Yume Nikki.

Also, I guess as a fair warning, SPOILERS AHEAD IN CASE YOU HAVEN’T FINISHED IT. This was more than anything meant to be a self reflection on what I thought was wrong with the game, and thus ended up mentioning a lot of spoilers, so if you want to play it blindly, go ahead before reading this, you might take a while though.

I’ll start with the things that personally I liked or made me have some form of respect for the game because it’s easier to list those reasons given there are very few positives, and because I want to get that out of the way first. I guess the positives would be that I liked the atmosphere the game had. It was unnerving, and scarier than most games that claim themselves to be horror games and only rely on cheap and predictable jumpscares and nothing else. And Yume Nikki literally just has some fucking sprites and dark rooms, and yet it’s one of the most disturbing and honestly creepy things I’ve seen. The soundtrack’s just a bunch of looped sounds that doesn’t last too long, but it still adds something to the feel of each world that makes it different from the others. The world designs too are amazing (except for Hell) and each of them looks interesting in their own way. The fact that each effect had its own little details whenever you used them was also pretty cool. The lack of a conventional way to tell a story and just leaving things for you to interpret was an interesting choice from the dev, and the fact that Gast- I mean, Uboa, which is one of the most interesting things about the game isn’t central to the story or you don’t even have to see it to beat the game is actually really cool. Overall I guess it is safe to say it is a pretty unique and well thought out game in general, and I respect it from an artistic point of view.

Now, for the obviously much bigger list of negatives. See, my first problem with the game is how overly complex some things in it are. Several of the events are RNG based, so you basically have to get lucky for some of the most intriguing or interesting moments in the game. Then there’s also the fact that not only events, which are completely optional so there’s not too much of a problem, but also one of the fucking effects that you need to get is tied to an RNG, meaning that you better get lucky and get it at the first try because otherwise it’s gonna be waking up, going to hell, go through the previous world before that one and then get to the actual world again, hoping you get the right one this time. I get it for events that you don’t even need to see to finish the game, BUT FOR ONE OF THE STEPS TO GET TO AN EFFECT TO BE RNG? I sincerely find that pretty bullshit and unnecessary. But that’s a minor issue I had.

The bigger issues are more or less tied to the existence of Hell itself. I mean, it does justice to its name, its a fucking torture to go through it, not only because if you take the wrong turn at any point or don’t have any reference of where you are going or are constantly looking at a fucking map you WILL get lost, but also because it’s so stupidly bright red that after a while of being there your eyes will scream for mercy, and you will more than likely spend a long time in that place, if not because you got lost, then because you essentially need to go through it more than once if you want to actually beat the game. Some people may think it adds to feeling of adventure and danger and excitement, but I simply find it annoying and a nuisance. Essentially, this game isn’t for overly impatient people. You complain about loading screens? Boy, get ready to meet HELL. Admittedly, you do get to do a lot more during the travel from point A to hell to point B, and there is danger there, but I would rather sit through a few moments of a loading screen than have to deal with the bright as the sun red tone in the background designed to either drive you insane or to completely fuck up your eyes, and once you get the stop light effect, the toriningen becomes kind of irrelevant at the price of walking at a normal pace. It can be fixed by just looking at a map but even then it’s still an eye sore and even with the map you can get lost, which happened to me a lot, and the fact that you NEED to go through hell in order to get to other worlds for their respective effects makes it all the more annoying and sigh inducing whenever you see the multi-shaped little shit portal that takes you there.

Another major issue is perhaps the fact that if it wasn’t because a wiki exists or because I had help through most of the game, I would have never figured out where to even get the effects, which ones I was missing, how did they look like or how to get to neat little events that were honestly quite interesting and well made. I know that’s what some people might find charming or the whole point of the game really, to find it out by yourself, but to be honest I would have given up eventually after being unable to find any more stuff because it is all so hidden. I can appreciate when a game goes out of its way to be mysterious, when there’s stuff to find, when it is challenging, but honestly, most of the stuff in this game is far too convoluted for me to give it a pass on that. Aside from the instructions, you are pretty much on your own and therefore entirely fucked. Hell, I would have thought the minigame with the console was somehow important or it would give me something interesting at the end, but reading “nah it’s just a jumpscare” made me realize a lot of this game would be confusing or I’d believe something would be important when really its not. And having somewhat of a trolly person as your guide doesn’t help much either.

Speaking of which, my guide and friend also took part in what makes me not want to play or hear anything about this game ever again. Because of the way he hyped up the ending, even when I started to hate the game a part of me thought “the ending will probably be worth it” to keep going on. The ending, do it for the ending. I’ll talk about the ending later, but needless to say that part of me was wrong, and the ending was somewhat overhyped  him. This was a minor inconvenience however when compared to the one thing that even made me stop mid stream and say “I’m done” and then close the game out of the blue. The god damn insistence on me having to play the game one way, as opposed to how I want to play it. Yes, I might have missed some events that were interesting, but given the fact that he tends to trick me into thinking something when really something else is going on already had me mistrust his guidance to a certain degree, and had me looking up shit on my own to confirm if he was saying the truth. I honestly felt after a while that I was being forced to do things one way instead of doing them by myself and the way I wanted to do it, that is why it was more of a chore than a game, I felt like I was doing some sort of homework that I had to finish at some point, I felt obligated to do it and that made me hate more than anything, the fact that I felt like I HAD to finish it as opposed to wanting to finish it. Feeling forced to do something makes you not want to do it, especially when someone keeps banging over your head “DO IT THIS WAY, DO THIS BECAUSE YES EVEN THOUGH ITS NOT IMPORTANT, DO IT MY WAY NOT YOURS” was a tad overwhelming and made me feel like I was being manipulated and like I needed to do it one single way. Feeling like that sincerely made me want to rush to game, to be done with it, to not have anything to do with it again, and so I did. I started regarding it less like a cool but fucked up game and more like one fucked up homework that I had to do because I had no choice in the matter (sorry if you see this, but you did influence my views in this game a lot).

And this takes me to my final point as to why I dislike this game so much, and this is where I start comparing it to Biodrug Ultimate and its the ending. See, both games have this feeling to me that for some reason if you miss anything or if you don’t do something in specific you will get a bad ending out of however many there could be, because being games that look so creative and unique they probably have more than one ending, right? Well, that is a lie for both of them, but unlike Bioterrorist Influence I didn’t have my expectations high for Yume Nikki. I was already expecting the worst, without much hope for anything because I had Hyoko to tell me at least that there was one and only one ending. And even then the ending still fucked me up, because I didn’t know what, out of all the horrible things that could happen, to expect. And while it was leagues better than the shit show Biodunked Ontimate had to offer for one of the most disappointing endings I’ve ever seen, it doesn’t make it any less depressing or empty. By the time I had finished the game I felt like absolutely nothing that I had done was worth it, like the journey to get here had been void and meaningless. This wasn’t disappointing because I was already expecting nothing from the start, but it did upset me because I had learned nothing and I left with nothing but a bitter taste. Yes some events were pretty cool, same with most of the worlds, it was an interesting concept of visiting a girl’s consciousness through her dreams, and since most dreams tend to be fucked up it would make sense for hers to be pretty bizarre as well. But what was about the effects and about her dreams that drove her to suicide? What did she feel like after exploring all over her own mind and dreams that would make her do that? Why? WHY?! To top it off, I actually felt like it was me the one that drove her to it. Digging so far deep into her consciousness that she felt the only way to deal with her problems was to end with her own life, and that I was the one that pushed her off. I don’t care that she doesn’t actually exist, I don’t care that this all a videogame that I ended up hating, it’s still all so fucked up and it feels awful that with the press of one key I was the one that made her jump into the abyss, never to return again or dream again. I felt empty, sad, upset, thinking about why did things have to turn this way. I hesitated for a while to even make her go up those stairs, but I feel like in the end my own desire to be done with it all, to close the loop, to never come back to this game again made me do it, because I know this is a game, I know many others before me and many more after will press that key to send Madotsuki crashing against the pavement down below, but that doesn’t make it any less horrifying or fucked up that I sent a little girl to her own death. I never did the Genocide Route in Undertale because I felt that after having establishing a bond with such lovable and interesting characters I’d be guilty of not only betraying their trust for my own amusement but that I would also take away that feeling of uniqueness and of having such well thought out and caring characters that sincerely made me cry at the end of the Pacifist Route and turning it all into dust, into void, only to get to that one boss battle that everyone keeps praising and that turned Sans into the actual joke that he’s become now within the Undertale Fandom. But that is a rant for another day. The point is, I didn’t do it because to me Undertale is much more than just an RPG, more than just a game, it meant a lot to me and I cared deeply about the characters, to the point of not wanting to murder them, even though I know its a game and it won’t matter either way in the real world, I feel like not caring would make me even more of a twat, and even though I didn’t enjoy Yume Nikki, that still doesn’t mean I wanted Madotsuki to die. Even when I sent her forward I had hoped for there to be something that saved her or for her to actually not jump out of the balcony even if I told her to. Fuck me for having nice thoughts I guess. Oh I also did make the choice to be a nice Madotsuki that didn’t murder anything even though my friend was insisting that I should be the exact opposite of that but whatever.

In the end, I guess the bad things do overweight the good things for me as far as this game goes, and I still feel this sense of emptiness when I think about it. If there is a message, I am unclear about what it is. The world of dreams is incomprehensible? If you dig too far into your unconscious you won’t like what you’ll find out? No matter what you do the outcome of things is inevitable? That death is the true ending for everything? Life and dreams are meaningless? The more I think about it the more it feels like I’m straying away from whatever meaning there is because it all felt so pointless and just not worth it that I can’t find a meaning to all of it. Like, what was the point of driving Madotsuki to suicide? What was the whole point of gathering the effects if she was going to end up dead anyway? Would anything have changed if I hadn’t looked for the things? Nothing changes no matter what you do in the game, so then what does it matter? Did it happen because she was on a quest to find herself and who she is within these dreams and was unable to find it so she then killed herself? I just don’t really know what the point of it all is, and this is exactly my problem with Bioshock 3: The Electric Boogaloo too, after all I did, and all I went through it seems as if thought it was pointless, like I shouldn’t even have bothered if I wasn’t going to be able to change anything for better or for worse.

[key2destne]

Yo just RNG five or six questions for each character yourself, I'm answering right now. Ray, Dashy, Dustin, and Kenshi~

Ray (1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 14, 16, 18, 19, 22, 23, 25), Dash (2, 3, 4, 15, 18, 22, 24, 25), Dustin (4, 6, 10, 13, 14, 15, 18, 21, 24, 25), Kenshi (1, 2, 7, 8, 13, 15, 18, 20, 22, 25)

Alright, let’s get this started!

Ray:

1: their voice

Being a bit of a harsh bastard, Ray tends to make his voice sound rude and uncaring- but that’s an actual choice on his behalf. Whenever he’s actually open about how he feels or he’s not trying to be hard on everyone and everything, he’s actually much quieter and his voice goes a bit lighter. He’s still got a fairly deep voice though- I’d call him a baritone bordering on bass.

4: their insecurities

Pretty much everything in Ray’s life is an insecurity. The reason that he keeps people away by acting like an uncaring bastard is so that he can’t get close to people- it’s a terrible way of thinking, but in his mind, it works. If he actually is close to someone, he’s still going to constantly be worrying about how to keep them happy and not have them leave. And then there’s his constant fight with his darkness, which of course he’s worried about failing... yeah, those are just the insecurities he has on an hourly basis.

5: their shortcomings

Well let’s see... He’s direct to a fault, swears worse than a sailor (though most of that is an act to keep people away), has darkness issues which stem from his short temper, has difficulties dealing with bullshit... His less obvious shortcomings, though, tend to be more about how he deals with things. He prefers to try and handle things on his own, even if it’s clear he needs other people to help him- it’s a result of having to do a lot on his own for a while. And he kind of sucks with puzzles.

7: how they like to dress

Ray kiiiind of dresses like an anime protagonist when he’s ready to fight. He likes how it looks and it has NOTHING to do with looking badass. Nothing at all. Aside from that, he likes jackets and jeans, and he’s willing to suffer through heat to keep that look dammit!

8: what they like to eat

Ray... actually tends to not eat a lot. Sure, he’ll eat, but more often than not he’s too busy training or doing something else. When he does eat, though, he likes to gorge on donuts and seafood- it reminds him of his home, in a weird way.

14: how they react to burning their tongue on food

“OW! WHAT THE FUCK!? Owww!” Then he’ll just stare at the food in horror as if it betrayed him, whoops. XD

16: their dreams

More than anything, Ray wants his home back. He misses his family, and knowing that it’s his fault he can’t ever see them again... well, it hurts him, a lot. So he does try to find out how he can bring them back... but in his heart he knows it’s a lost cause, no matter what he does.

18: how they sleep

Ray tends to sleep curled up into a ball, or while leaning against a wall. He doesn’t feel comfortable sprawled out- it makes him feel like he’s open to attack.

19: their reaction to betrayal

Well... pretty bad, let’s say that. owo’ If he even thinks someone turned on him after he let them in, he gets pissed, and his darkness tends to encourage him to... well... try to kill them. He tries to fight it unless it’s obvious the person actually did betray them, but oh man, he does NOT like betrayal if he’s close to the person, especially since it ties into his insecurities about people leaving him. If they’re not close, he’s more apathetic- especially since he has no reason to actually care about them.

22: what they're like on two hours of sleep

Lol, Ray’s constantly on two hours of sleep. He tends to keep himself awake until he runs himself into the ground- although after training, he does like to take a quick nap just to keep himself from getting too tired.

23: how they act when they’re sick

Ray pretty much ignores it. It doesn’t matter if he’s got pneumonia or what, he’ll keep trying to train. If he can’t push through it, he tends to get depressed and think he fucked up somehow.

25: why you enjoy them

Well for one, he’s an edgy fuck. Those’re fun to write. XP But more importantly, he’s an interesting paradox. He doesn’t want people to get close to him in case he hurts them or they hurt him, and yet at the exact same time, he’s dying for someone he can open up to and not be such an asshole to. When he gets it, he’s grateful, but he’s terrified he’ll fuck it up somehow, so he’ll still try to keep his walls up somewhat.

He’s a walking conundrum of feelings and problems, and that’s what makes him human to me- especially since I’ve tempted to be that way before too, even though it’s a terrible idea. He’s the living embodiment of a question mark. XD

Dash

2: their smile

Dash’s smile is the kind that practically screams confidence. She knows what she’s doing, and if anyone gets in her way of doing the right thing, they’re gonna have hell to pay!

3: their greatest achievement

That would probably have to go to her first forged weapon she ever made. It was shitty, and would probably break almost immediately if anyone ever tried to actually use it in a battle... but it was still the first thing she ever made herself, and if nothing else, she’s proud of that.

4: their insecurities

Surprisingly, Dash has a few. Sure, she’s a good fighter, but she’s worried about how good of a hero she’ll be- not to mention when she finds herself in a position of leadership. She’s constantly questioning how good of a leader she is, how she’ll lead, what to do to help others... And if she ever fails them, she tends to blame herself and take responsibilities. That’s not even getting into why she’ll never ever talk about her dad, or want to see him- she’s worried about how he’ll react to her running away from home.

15: how they react to a brain freeze

Well, Dash never really got to have a brain freeze, so the first time that happens she kind of dropped to the floor clutching her head in pain. XD Afterwards she tended to tough it out, but that first time... ho boy, that was painful for her. XD

18: how they sleep

Dash just kind of... sprawls out onto the bed. One leg’s off of the mattress, she’s drooling onto her pillow... It’s an adorable mess to watch.

22: what they're like on two hours of sleep

When she’s on two hours of sleep? She’s pretty much dead on her feet. As soon as she sits down on a desk, she’s moving to nap on her arms, she’s that exhausted.

24: what motivates them

As I’ve mentioned in her backstory before, it was her uncle’s stories about heroes that made her want to be a hero herself. But... well, it’s also the right thing to do. She wants to help people, and be as good an influence as she can be! She just... kind of has to learn what that means a little bit first...

25: why you enjoy them

She’s a fun character to write for~ A blacksmith heroine who wants to save the day and uses a hammer? What else could you ask for? owo Aside from that, she’s got the sort of energy that makes her dialogue and thoughts flow naturally, where it feels more like she writes herself, and less like I write for her.

Dustin

4: their insecurities

Dustin’s pretty much wholly focused on collecting Lux for his Union, or helping anyone he can. As a result, he sometimes worries about if others actually like him, or if they just use him to help them with their problems. There’s also the fact that without Chirithy, he used to be pretty unsure about what to do, but after RoC, he’s gotten better about it!

6: how they deal with grief

If Dustin’s grieving, he’ll put it aside to help anyone else who’s grieving, and as soon as everyone else is feeling better, he’ll go off by himself and cry and curl into a ball. He doesn’t want other people to know he’s hurting, cuz then it makes his reassuring them seem weaker.

10: their fashion sense

Dustin is a dork and his fashion sense kind of reflects that. XD Goggles, fingerless gloves, a vest... God, this kid is a dork and I love him.

13: their embarrassing memory from years ago

Back when he was 10 or so, when he first met Foreteller Ira, his first reaction was “Pretty horsie~!” Nobody who knew him when that happened will let him live it down now.

14: how they react to burning their tongue on food

Usually he cries in pain. Glares at the food in question (usually pizza). Then he gets back to eating it, rinse and repeat. He’s silly that way. XD

15: how they react to a brain freeze

Well, he reacts as you would expect from a guy getting a brain freeze- the thing that makes it funny is how he gets them. 90% of the time, he challenges Chirithy to a milkshake race and goes too fast, giving him a brain freeze in like, 2 seconds. XD

18: how they sleep

He cuddles his pillow. Like a dork. He’s a cuddler, and after he gets with Luna, he tends to cuddle her instead~

21: how they react to pain

Surprisingly, Dustin doesn’t react to pain, at all. Sure, he might groan in pain, but he’s used to getting hurt. It’s when he can get something out of it, like a hug or a kiss to the part where it hurt, where he goes over the top. XD

24: what motivates them

Dustin is always motivated by his friends. Trying to help them get through life, make them happy, and do everything he can to make them smile, even if he suffers for it.

25: why you enjoy them

Well, at first he was largely just a self-insert OC, since Unchained X’s basically all about making yourself a Keyblade Wielder. But over time, he grew into his own character, and I love watching him be a dork. owo Then there’s the fact that he’s a fun character to write, and he’s got a heroic sense of right and wrong. In a weird way, he’s someone I’d like to try and be myself.

Kenshi

1: their voice

Kenshi tends to be very quiet and soft-spoken due to how he’s grown up, but when he needs to, he can be firm. He’s more high-pitched than others, making him sound a bit more like a kid, which makes him get a little sad. He’s not a kid, dangit! ;w;

2: their smile

Kenshi’s smiles tend to be small, but honest. If he smiles, there’s a reason he’s smiling, and it means he trusts you enough with it. Too bad the kid trusts too many people, Kenshi wai do you trust so much. ;w;

7: how they like to dress

The Mizu clan tends to dress formally, with traditional Japanese-style clothing, but if he wasn’t worried about following their rules or impressing them, he’d probably wear a hoodie and shorts. He’d keep the sandals, though... he likes his sandals for some reason. owo

8: what they like to eat

Kenshi’s got a huge sweet tooth, but he’s also fairly health-conscious, so if he gets to eat berries, he’ll have as many as possible~ His favorites are blueberries and Oran berries. They’re so sweet and tasty... Once he had a blueberry muffin, and it was so tasty~ He wants another one. ;w;

13: their embarrassing memory from years ago

The first time Kenshi was given a bo staff to practice with... well... he smacked himself over the head with it. The kid is not a natural with weapons. XD His second most embarrassing memory was the time he tripped while going up stairs, largely cuz his sister never lets him live it down. ;w;

15: how they react to a brainfreeze

I have absolutely no clue how but Kenshi doesn’t get brain freezes. At all. He can just keep going and going and going, and at worst he’ll get tired of his mouth being freezing, Kenshi how the fuck?

18: how they sleep

Kenshi tends to sleep with a teddy bear his sister made him once- it’s his only sign that his family loves him, so he’ll always, ALWAYS hold onto it. Well... except for when other family members are around. Then he curls up into a ball, he needs his teddy bear. ;w;

20: their reaction to a mystery love letter

Well, first he’d be like “U-um, um, um... ;w;” as he tries to figure out what the heck why did someone send him a letter like this??? Then he’d ask his sister if this is a prank from her, and when he realizes it’s for real, he starts trying to figure out who it is so he can thank them and give them a gift in return... somehow. ;w;

22: what they're like on two hours of sleep

After getting practically no sleep, Kenshi tends to nearly fall asleep on his feet. The only thing keeping him from going back to bed is his worries of upsetting his father or his mother, which is enough of a motivation to keep him awake. Kenshi wai. ;w;

25: why you enjoy them

Kenshi’s a cute character- one that I love to write, and more importantly, one who can be serious when needed to be but is still a good cinnamon roll character. Plus he’s a pacifist- something I always love to write for some reason. He’s easily flustered, kind, wanting to please his family... and I love it.

[blackthornroot]

Haven’t Done One of These in About a Year Let’s See How it Goes...

So while I’ve been away in college I’ve been on a secret mission in an underground laboratory with the Metalborgs, known across the world as over-zealous, justice-obsessed maniacs who would always use their full force, even when, and I quote, “hunting small fry” and clearly valued power above all else.

But now I’ve found a way to reform the Metalborgs into the Kind Borgs.  Robots that are considerate of people and the environment.

With these new Friends at my side, I set out for a large gathering of fellow nerds with one objective in mind, “convert everyone to the side of justice.”  The side objective was to brutally murder anyone who was not in line with these ideals, but let’s not talk about that...

So anyway, the mission was simple enough:  Win 5/7 Games of Cardfight Vanguard in order to make enough friends to be allowed to make it to Day #2, where I could make more friends and get to the Top 8/16/whatever.  Sounds easy, right?  Well let’s see how the Kind Borgs held up against the very mean-spirited forces that live in New Jersey:

But first, a word on Metalborgs (since not only is the deck old as fuck and nowhere near tier 1/1.5, but I’m not exactly running a standard strategy either):

Metalborgs rely on an outdated gimmick, “Guard Restrict.”  Their bosses make it so the enemy can’t guard with G1 or higher cards from their hand when said bosses attack (so basically, no PGs, but guarding with triggers, intercepts, and special cases like guarding from soul/deck are still allowed).  This sounds cool and possibly menacing when combined with Commander Laurel and a crit trigger or two, but keep in mind that these days the better G-Guards let players no-pass 30K columns for 1CB.  G-Guards are also unaffected by the Guard Restrict (since they technically come out of the Extra Deck).

So what I’ve done is make a rush deck that can sit on G2 against the meta (every meta deck sans Blasters was GB reliant to a fault at the time of writing this), but also can reach the late game against less threatening opponents (Even though the opponent can G-Guard, they can only do it 4 times max in a game.  So theoretically if I can punch through all 4 I can win pretty easily after that).

Anyway, I’ll post the decklist first with brief explanations of cards in case you care:

Starter: Metalborg, Locobattler (into soul -> +6K to VG if in legion, +3K otherwise).

Triggers: 5X Crit (4 of which have the same effect as the starter). 7X Draw 4X Heal

G1: 16: 4X Commander Laurel (if VG hits rest 4 RGs to restand VG) 4X Metalborg, X-Blaise (10K attacker) 4X Dimensional Robo, Daishield (Old PG (the kind that can guard RGs).  Some of my RGs need protection and I don’t use CB that much.) 2X Metalborg, Death Blade (SB1 -> +5K to VG). 2X Cosmic Hero, Grand Police (Vanilla 8K).

G2: 13: 4X Metalborg, Ur Buster (Legion Mate to main boss, RG Skill: on-legion -> +4K to VG + “When VG attack hits a VG, kill 1 RG.”  The effect stacks if I have multiple Ur Busters on the field.) 3X Metalborg, Diggerion (Vanilla 10K) 3X Metalborg, Lionetter (12K attacker) 3X Metalborg, Blacking Barrow (Is an 11K body permanently if my VG is in legion.  CB1 + Move into Soul -> When Legion VG attacks, give +11K to VG). The G1+G2 lineup is the way it is for early aggression.  Triggers are to maintain survive-ability and help draw into Laurel/PGs/the G3s.

G3: 4: 4X Metalborg, Sin Buster (Legion: If it’s power is >= 20K (after boost) and attack hits a VG, draw 1.  It it’s in Legion and it’s power is >= 30K (after boost), opponent can’t guard with G1s or higher from hand.  He’s the win condition/finishing blow, obviously.  The G2 rush is to force the opponent to drop all their triggers to guard.)

Strides: 2X Hyper Metalborg, Guilt Digger (No I’m not making that name up.  Effect = “Persona Flip -> search your deck for up to one card that legions with your heart and perform legion in your heart.  Then draw 1.“  Saves me the trouble of wasting a turn legion-ing if I don’t want to).

4X Hyper Metalborg, Heavy Duke (CB2 -> On-Attack, pay the cost.  Opponent can’t guard with G1s or higher from hand.  If the attack hits, draw 1 (draw 2 if heart is in legion).).

2X Super Cosmic Hero, X-tiger (+4K for each face-up card in G-Zone.  Gains a crit if power >= 45K).

G Guards: I run more than 4 G-Guards because Metalborgs have no good strides and the entire point of the deck is invalidating the opponent’s PGs so the regular D-Police strides aren’t worth running. 4X Enigman Patriot (+5K if opponent’s attack is >= 20K) 2X Super Cosmic Hero, X-carivou (+10K if opponent’s attack is >= 30K) 2X Dizmel

ROUND 1: Kind Borgs Vs. Fanservice Mermaids (Bermuda Triangle: Harmony):

Opponent was a kind/polite yet slightly disinterested girl (I chalked it up to either being dragged along by her SO or being tired from a potentially long car ride (some people drive like 5+ hours to come to these things on the day of the competition)).  She had no idea about the overwhelming power of friendship and love that the Metalborgs had in store for her, so she guarded early.

Needless to say when I explained how Sin Buster worked she knew she was toast.  GG.

WIN!  Record: 1-0

ROUND 2: Kind Borgs Vs. Dino DNA (Tachikaze: Dogma):

Opponent was a jovial fat man.  Very loudly proclaimed his moves for all to hear.  I might sound like I was annoyed by this, but I found it hilarious.  I rushed the shit out of him by giving him all of the justice he could handle, pushing him to 5 by turn 3.  He responded by denouncing my kindness by striding and triple driving 3 Heal Triggers.  Of course.  My death was long and agonizing after that point.  Dogma is strong when you’re actually able to live long enough to use it.

LOSE! Record: 1-1

ROUND 3: Kind Borgs Vs. Nova Grappler (Victor):

This opponent, along with the girl I played Round 1, were the only “normal” people I played all day.  The guy decided to have a G2 duel with me.  Little did he know I was slowly but surely sniping his G2s and taking the triggers out of his hand.  I was eating a lot of pain too though, since he knew enough to dive on my RGs constantly.  Eventually, I was backed into enough of a corner that I had to ride to G3 and Stride.  I explained what Hyper Metalborg, Heavy Duke (read effect above) did to him at least 4 times, and he clearly read the card, but he didn’t understand that, on my second attack, he was allowed to guard with whatever he wanted (since I couldn’t pay CB2 a second time).  So he ended up dead with 9 cards still in his hand.  Serves the guy right for casually disregarding my deck I guess.

WIN! Record: 2-1

ROUND 4: Kind Borgs Vs. DINO DNA 2: Electric Boogaloo (Tachikaze: Dogma):

Opponent was 100% neckbeard.  Probably left his fedora at home.  The Kind Borgs began to become frustrated that they had yet to face a meta deck so far today (i.e. Blasters, Luard, Gears, Messiahs, etc.).  So frustrated in fact, that they decided to be decidedly unkind, giving me a trigger-heavy hand and damage check two of my G3s in a row on turn 2.

My opponent was able to capitalize on my being grade stuck by throwing his whole hand down on turn 3 and murdering me.  Ow...

LOSE! Record: 2-2

ROUND 5: Kind Borgs Vs. Murakumo (No clue what this deck was supposed to be, honestly):

Well shit, there were still 3 round to go and I couldn’t afford to lose a single one...  Hopefully love and justice won’t die just yet...

Opponent was another jovial fat man who wouldn’t stop talking about Sailor Moon with the girls that were playing in the game next to ours.  Slightly unsettling behavior but whatever, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he was just getting his weeb on.  I have no idea what his Murakumo deck was supposed to do, but the basic strategy revolved around effects that went off if I guarded his attacks.

How do I beat a deck that does things if I guard?  Humm...  Well, I no-guarded his attacks, got to 4 damage, and used Heavy Duke to murder his face (like my round 1 opponent, he early guarded, clearly not being acquainted with the power of justice).  Justice Prevails.

Win! Record: 3-2

ROUND 6: Kind Borgs Vs. Luard:

2 rounds to go...  Come on cards I blew money on a two-night hotel stay don’t let me down yet...

Opponent was a overly extroverted girl who piloted the deck as if it was borrowed.  She was friendly though, if not uncomfortably so...

This is honestly the only game where I made an actual mistake/misplay all day (guess it was late).  After getting pushed to 5 by nothing but enemy crit triggers (she called no RGs for the entire early game), I noticed that:

A:  She was at 4, since my rush had been going pretty well. B:  Out of the 6 cards in her hand, I knew 5 (Crit, Crit, Abyssal Owl, PG, Macha, Mystery Card). C:  She’d damage checked a heal and a crit already, so there were only 3 heals and 9 crits not yet revealed. D:  If I went all-in and G-Assisted out a Sin Buster, I had the resources to pump it to 37K, so the absolute best she’d be able to guard for would be 31K as long as the last mystery card wasn’t a heal trigger (if it was another crit it’d be a 41K guard, a 1-to-pass).

So, thinking the odds were decently in my favor (and since I couldn’t ride another G2 over my current Vanguard to prevent myself from being Sea-Breezed), I went all-in, betting basically the entire tournament on my opponent not having a heal/crit in hand.

Let me just say that this was a mistake not because of the gambling aspect.  It’s because historically I personally have absolutely terrible luck in RNG scenarios like this. 85% chance to hit in Fire Emblem?  Miss; 6 triggers in an 8 card deck?  Twin Drive -> G3, G3; Etc.

So I went all-in but her mystery card was a conveniently placed G-Guard.  At that moment I realized I was dead.  Spectral Diablo was happy to introduce my face to the pavement.

LOSE!  Record 3-3!

MISSION FAILURE!  UNACCEPTABLE LOSS COUNT!

And so ends another episode in the saga of me playing card games.  Reviewing my notes from previous years attendance was decently down this year:

Reference (I missed singles regionals in Fall 2016 because I was too busy with school):

2015 Singles: At least 498 Players (I was badge #498 and we got to the event pretty close to the end of registration) 2016 Teams: At least 210 Teams (I was on team #210.  Again my team was basically the last one to sign up.  We get to these things a bit last-minute...).  210 Teams X 3 Players/Team = 630 Players.  A bit unreliable since people always drag along their SOs to fill slots of teams.

2017 Singles: We got there with 5 minutes before registration closed.  I was player #451.

So a slight downturn in attendance from 2 years ago but nothing suggesting the game is dying.  Luck and Logic, a dead game, had a whopping 16 players competing, for comparison.

@dragonstoneplus had a much better go of things than I, she made it to Round 7 before losing her 3rd game.

Some random kid from our shop who plays Novas (Victor) cleared Day 1.  He’s probably wrapping up his performance as I write this.  I wonder if he actually managed to top... (He’s pretty good, but can’t really put up a fight against my teammates and I when we’re actually trying)

[sentinelkelly]

“Disappointed Fans” Stopped  Being Fans Months Ago or Never was to Begin With

Rise of Iron: Same Shit, Different Day (the most tired and incomprehensible argument still being used). Ever since Rise of Iron released, a lot of people who claims to be fans of Destiny were up at arms about how lackluster Rise of Iron is. Not because it’s boring or anything, but because “its same thing.” Oh Lord... Where do I even begin?

The Story is Short

Whaa the main quest line is only 5 missions long, Kelly! It’s short like The Dark Below and House of Wolves! OH NO! The set of missions that you were only going to play three times before you play nothing but Strikes, Raid, and Crucible is short! BUNGIE PLEASE FIX THIS! Honestly, who the fuck cares? If Wrath of the Machine was available before even taking back the Iron Temple, a good portion of the Community would have 20+ completions without ever setting foot on Felwinter’s Peak. But Kelly, MUH LORE! I remember being ridiculed because I didn’t know Queen Mara was alive until Bungie released a statement about her fate. You people laughed and said, “lol It was stated in the Grimiore Cards!” You suddenly forgot about those? Your precious lore is on an app.

Another thing: In Main Story, you hunted the Black Heart and destroyed it. In the Dark Below, you hunted down Omnigul and Crota then killed them. In House of Wolves, you hunted down Skolas, captured, then killed him. In the Taken King, you hunted down Oryx and defeated him twice. In Rise of Iron, you stopped Fallen occupation in an important location of the Cosmodrome and stopped their bioengineering experiment from giving them upgrades that could have made them unstoppable. SIVA IS NOT A PERSON! HOW COULD THIS POSSIBLY BE CONSIDERED “THE SAME THING?!” Whatever, let’s move on.

Wrath of the Machine

This is basically another point to the statement I made earlier. I haven’t heard anything too bad about the raid itself surprisingly. In fact, all I hear is “Rise of Iron is bad but I love the raid tho.” What are you, retarded? That's like saying, “I’m smart, but I’m a terrible test-taker” or “She has an ugly face, but have a nice ass so I’d still bang her.” That’s hypocritical! You just got finished belly aching over how short the story is, yet you enjoy the very thing you unlock after the story. And I bet you have more play time in the raid more than of the story.

One of the few criticisms I do hear about the raid is that bosses are bullet sponges again. ..What are you smoking? The whole raid was a combination of Bullet Sponge and Mechanic. Hell, I use “Bullet Sponge” loosely because some YouTubers/Streamers make Vosik and Aksis look like a joke. For people who aren’t that skilled or knowledgeable of the game, playing normally involves a lot of mechanics. Plus, Gjallarhorn, the God-Slayer of Year One, didn’t make the boss fights any easier, Dark-Drinker did!

Crucible is the Same Shit

Supremacy, Private Matches, and eSports compatibility aren’t new concepts in gaming, but it’s a first for Destiny. For Destiny fans, that’s all that matters. Hardcore Crucible players welcome new modes, whether they’ll play it a lot is up to them. Casual and Hardcore Crucible players alike always wanted a mode to have a friendly contest of skill with their friends without trying to lock a skirmish lobby. “Professional” Crucible players always wanted an eSports league to actually be considered a Pro. Pre-Rise of Iron Crucible was just a competitive mode.

Before I get hit with the terrible RNG post game drop rate, lemme just tell you something: SHUT UP! RNG giving shitty drops is normal, has always been apart of the game, and won’t be changing anytime soon. Yeah it’s annoying, but you’re not going to get an exotic every time you play, no matter how good you did. Deal with it.

Grinding is so “Easy” Now

I wouldn’t say that... I virtually have no life. Just throwing that out there. I take online classes, work around 20-24 hours per week part time, my girlfriend and close friends all live in other time zones, and usually have no interest in leaving my home. Reaching 400 Light was easy... for me! FOR ME! But that’s because I converted my free time into hours and hours into getting to 400 Light on all of my Xbox characters and at least 385 on my newly created PS4 characters. That and, unlike most people, I use LFG Forums and get raids and Nightfalls done weekly. Sometimes I play crucible. There’s people with more free time than I do and played since Day 1, but never peaked 375 Light on one character yet... To this day! I can’t fathom the thought of that! What can you possibly be doing to stay that low yet play everyday? The Heroic Strikes alone can get you up to 385 as of October 18th. People belly ached that reaching 310 Light and eventually 320 Light was difficult last year (which it was), unless you were lucky. King’s Fall was the only way to reach 320 if I remember correctly. The factions weren’t going to give 310 Light gear. Crucible was iffy. Court of Oryx did nothing really. People were pushed to do King’s Fall and Nightfalls every week to have a chance at high Light gear. Even then, it wasn’t guaranteed. The old infusion system wasn’t helping much either. Now, the max level cap is achievable without depending on a single activity, yet that’s still a problem because no lives like me play too much. The real problem is the changes were meant for the people who choose to play a social game like Destiny, but blames their social anxiety and lack of friends as the reason why they haven’t got to a certain light level yet. The problem is these people claim to love Destiny, but aren’t motivated to actually play it. Of course, lots of people have responsibilities stopping them from playing a lot of video games in general and I’m not referring to them.

One thing I love about Rise of Iron is how the drop rate of Strange Coins and reputation gains have increased. That’s beautiful in my opinion. The material and reputation grind is a bit easier now. That’s a good thing!

Microtrans--

I’m gonna stop you right there. It’s still not pay-to-win after a year and few months. If you don’t have money to spend or don’t want to spend your hard earned money, you don’t have to buy anything! But Kelly, I want that cool sparrow and Dab emote. So buy it! I have them and love them. Worth every penny. But why we gotta pay? Shit, Bungie said we were going to get free DLC and it never happened yet. It’s because of cheap whiny assholes like you. If you’re not going to contribute to the Free DLC Cause, shut the fuck up!

Where’s Vault of Glass and Crota’s End?

Wow! You do care about post game content! You was crying about the story, Bungie probably thought you’d just play the story missions over and over until the next game. Unfortunately, Bungie had the bright idea of keeping Wrath of the Machine (and King’s Fall to a certain extent) relevant. I for one want to them to come back too, but mind you, this DLC wasn’t supposed to be a thing at first. We should be playing Destiny 2 by now, but shit happens. I’m glad they’re held back on revamping Vault of Glass and Crota’s End. The Great Content Drought of 2016 was bad. I lived, other people got impatient and abandoned Destiny. Bungie still has the “Bring Back the Old Raids” card. Had they would’ve used it early, they may not have anything planned for post-SRL 2k16 Destiny. We’ll have to wait and see what they’ll do, but there’s still hope.

The Plaguelands is Just an Expanded Version of the Cosmodrome with Snow

So? That’s still technically not a copy and paste job. It’s still new and different with some respect.

Quality Wise, Rise of Iron is Living in the Taken King’s Shadow

I agree, but that’s a good thing! It’s a very beautiful thing. What if Rise of Iron was the best DLC to ever happen to the game? What if Rise of Iron was so great that everyone loves it, yet Destiny 2 flops... badly? People like me will try to see the good in Destiny 2, some might go back to Destiny 1, others might stop playing Destiny all together. The Taken King was a great DLC. At least if you love it so much, you can still play it. If being on the Dreadnaught gets you get excited, you can still go there. If fighting Oryx makes you cum in your underwear, you can still do that. However, there’s no guarantee if existing content is coming to Year 4. I rather Bungie save all the magic for the next game because I rather have the Taken King being considered the better DLC than Destiny 1 being considered the better game for reasons that aren’t nostalgia.

Conclusion

I’m not telling that you gotta love Rise of Iron like I do. You’re entitled to your own opinion, but make sure its rational. The bulk of the criticism are coming from people who clearly have stopped playing months ago or just started playing but allowed other people’s opinion affect their own. It’s clear that they’ve eternalized something from another DLC and are trying their best to not be opened to change (even though they claim that’s what they want). Saying Rise of Iron is the same is a down right lie. It shows that you haven’t put enough time into it. If it is the same, how the Taken King better? Shouldn’t they be equals if that was the case? There’s nothing wrong with admitting that Destiny doesn’t hold the same appeal to you as it have at whatever point. It’s okay to admit that you play occasionally just to see if you get invested again. It’s okay to admit that Rise of Iron is not your thing. You can’t say it’s the same thing when you weren’t there for the changes or choose not to acknowledge them.

[empressxmachina]

Inquiries on WIPs, lore, and what to do with both

Hi!

I hope y'all are well! I didn't expect to make a journal today, but here I am! I do hope I get some answers because I do have some thoughts and questions.

word wall under the cut

First off, I've done a lot of proofreading and re-outlining lately.

How I keep coming up with ideas, I don't know. Why I can never sit down and write prose except for when I'm meant to be doing something else is even more unknown. But at least I'm thinking, I guess. I like what I'm pondering.  I have done some intensive writing, though.

I made a manip that's been done and in the queue for months, and I liked it so much that I've made a whole novella (novel?) idea for it. If I do it right, then I hope to get about twelve (12) parts from it - they're all now planned - of which I've completed seven. I'm closer to eight (8) than not, so that's good, right?

Since the pic is done and so is its relative part in the story, should I just release it/them, or should I wait until it's all done?

I've even made a Wattpad/book cover for it; that's how much I like what I'm doing.

Regarding Welcome Home, Sasha, specifically, it's been plotted for months, too. But I'm having some issues with writing an expository soliloquy, aka the explanation of what the fuck happened to Earth.

The actual information is cut-and-dry, but I don't know how to best frame it. I find Ki to be an analytical person - sensible for a scientist, I suppose - but with a flourish. Putting his brotherly, almost fatherly love of Sasha on top complicates things further since he wouldn't want to break his heart... and the answer will definitely bruise at the very least.

Luckily though, how he'll react and everything after that is as straightforward as an apocalypse can be. Will I ever write it, though?

I technically have three (3) or four (4) continuations to long fics, but I don't know why I'm not releasing them. I want to, yet I don't? Is this my mediocre perfectionism in action? Is this normal?

Syntrophy has changed in my head, like, four times, regarding the relationship between the two MCs. Their separate stories have maintained but not how they connect to each other.

I wish I was kidding. There's so much I've deleted.

I've been adding excerpts to my manips and making visuals to go with stories. Read more about that in the next section.

Secondly, I've been conceptualizing visuals like mad!

Ideas just keep coming, and they don't stop coming.

The queue is probably at peak fullness, which is cool. I was hoping I wouldn't have to widen time between posting stuff because as much as popularity doesn't affect whether I make something, I wouldn't want y'all to just forget about me. You know?

I know some people don't even have a schedule or set up expectations, so I might just say "Fuck it," and leave submission dates to RNG. It hasn't been a problem, but I don't want pressure from time restraints to become a problem. We'll see.

Like the unnamed, new fic way above, some of my ready works are images from tales not-yet-released. I've done that before numerous times, but one in particular literally happens in what would be the literal next part to post, and I'm not done with writing it, yet, at least to where I'd like it to be.

Should I post the pic anyway, despite context being right behind a corner? I kind of want to, but I've already been putting it off so much...

I just really need to get motivated and focus using Pomodoro or something. Maybe I'd knock everything out if I did.

My most recent completion from literally this morning might just be my favorite in all my years of manip-making.

Meanwhile, the one finished right before it might be the worst thing I've ever made, and its excerpt just makes it worse. I enjoyed it thoroughly, though, which makes me question myself as I'm seeing patterns...

I want to draw/paint again. I've done stuff for IRL projects but not size content.

I need inspiration to just sit down and pen for hours or days.

Would y'all mind me doing sketches again? That'd be quicker.

Lastly, the real reason why I chose to make a journal:

I'm really considering putting expanded, not-yet-seen lore for my stories on my blog site (on WordPress), and I feel like I've pondered this before.

As repeatedly mentioned, I have too many ideas but not even drive to collect them all into something worthwhile. But I'd like to get them out there somehow so others can indulge in my babies as much as I do. Some creators have blogs just for certain stories and their characters, settings, etc. that I adore, and I want to feel that in a way, too. However, most people don't have ten (10) or more stories at once that they equally love. Fuck, I need to edit my blog with more pages for more things I've conjured but isn't there, yet.

I feel that by doing so on my site,

People who do want to know how a plot of a tale will go, because I write as quickly as molasses runs yet have an outline for everything, can know.

It'll be organized as I see fit but my own control (unless WordPress does something drastic).

In addition, the data wouldn't be directly attached to the works on other sites like here, either, in case ideas change or people are averse to spoilers and want to stay away.

Reading all this over, couldn't I put the same data/lore in DA journals, Tumblr posts, etc., too, adding tags or titles to mark what's what? Couldn't I also put the works themselves that are here or even the damn music list on my site, too? Should I?

Am I overthinking this? I think I'm overthinking this.

That's it, I think.

Does any of this make sense? Please let me know your thoughts on anything but mostly the blog stuff if you can.

(I've also put this on DA if you'd prefer to respond there.)

Stay safe, and Happy Equinox! I'm glad I'll see flowers blooming again soon.

~J