#the whole thing about Being the Main Character and everyone else is just an „““NPC“““

[lichtecht]

every day i am thankful for being blissfully unaware of what is going on with tiktok

[vasito-de-leche]

;R1999 - Self-Aware AU

Headcanons about an Alternate Universe in which everyone knows they're living inside a videogame. However, Vertin is the only one aware of the entity inhabiting her own mind, the real conductor - the "Player".

this is one of my favorite AUs to slap on whatever media I'm into so here we are <3 not sure if anyone's done this already, but PLEASE PLEASE PRETTY PLEASE link me if you've seen any other ppl write for this AU! this one and any actor AUs are my absolute fave

this is just a word vomit introduction for fun, to get the basic ideas out of my head, so I can start writing for characters individually!

Okay, okay! First of all, some context for the AU before I go deranged overexplaining my HCs!

Aside from the "Storm", there is something else that haunts the people of this world: the fact that their lives are nothing but a simulacrum, part of a game.

The requirements to obtain this "self-awareness" is unknown. Those within the Foundation believe it's related to their respective "roles", that only the main and relevant characters are given the chance to fully open their eyes to the truth. Those within Manus Vindictae claim that one must be strong enough to break through the fog of complacency and their assigned scripts, to have their full potential unleashed and obtain true liberation. Either way, similar to the "Storm", this is a well-kept secret for a very good reason - everyone wants to have the upperhand.

There is one outlier to this whole system. Vertin is not only aware of the truth of this world, but also of her duty as the eyes and hands of the "Player". She must experience it all for their sake. Or rather, whatever she experiences will be the story that the Player will see.

This applies to her suitcase, the place where the Player's influence increases tenfold, bending everything and everyone to their will through her own body and voice. The longer one stays within her suitcase - or within her general vicinity - the easier it is for them to become self-aware.

How does one become "self-aware" and what does it entail?

The requirements and the catalyst for a character to become self-aware are still a mystery. But that's mostly because I specifically wanted to keep them as vague as possible, to allow some flexibility for NPCs and other characters outside of Vertin's suitcase.

The whole process of gaining sentience or self-awareness is mostly described as waking up from a nightmare, or a very, very realistic dream. It's like a switch, something that happens in a second without any warnings whatsoever.

I like to think that most of the people who wake up are easy to spot, because it's a jarring experience and panicking is the most normal reaction - but that they're often taken care of by the Foundation or recruited by Manus Vindictae.

The levels of awareness also depend heavily on each individual - some only know that nothing is truly real, that everything they've done up until that point was just a carefully scripted lie, the most basic realization. Others can understand the rules that govern this game and use them to their advantage, either through observation and study or just inherently.

Overall, the experience of being sentient varies as well, with some describing a disconnect from their body, while others feel exactly the opposite. Again, keeping it pretty vague so that people can fill in with their own ideas!

I'll talk about Vertin's case in detail when we get to her specific bullet point, but the same way the Player is able to experience the "story" through her eyes, she's able to see the same things they do - this includes the UI, the menus and everything you can interact with in-game.

Vertin as a character and a vessel for the Player.

The most common thing I've seen in self-aware AUs in my years of fandom is to turn the player stand-in (the main character that serves for the player to experience the story through and/or project onto, depending on the genre of the game) into an obstacle, one that keeps the characters from truly interacting with the Player, capital P.

The second most common thing I've seen is to simply ignore the existence of this player stand-in and replace it with the Player themself, either through isekai methods or thanks to the customization the game allows, etc etc.

When it comes to Vertin in this AU, I know I want her to retain her role as the center of everything, instead of being sidelined by the Player. She's THE Timekeeper, after all.

There's still some details I'm trying to iron out, like whether she's always been self-aware or if she became self-aware at some point during her childhood at the St. Pavlov Foundation. But I like to think that her relationship to the Player is a parallel to her immunity to the "Storm" - neither of these two things are inherently good nor bad. Surviving the "Storm" is helpful, sure, but it's painful for her. Having an entity like the "Player" haunting her is scary, sure, but it can be an advantage. It's a matter of how she utilizes the assets she was given, since her adaptability and determination are big aspects of her character. Vertin makes up for her mediocre arcane skills with unconventional plans and strategies.

But this isn't to say that Vertin isn't affected by the presence of the Player. Ironically, she's the one person whose freedom is limited. During battles, her skills and Tuning are available to you, they can also prove to be vital to win a fight, but in the end you're still the one calling the shots and choosing when her friends get to attack. You're the one choosing the layout of the Wilderness. You're the one picking which one of her friends deserves to become stronger.

In the last bullet point I mentioned that some characters can understand the rules of the game - Vertin is the most extreme case, as she can see the same UI as you do. She learns the way you like to fight your battles, your own strategies, she can see this and more.

Overall it's a very complex dynamic. It's not as easy as saying that she likes or dislikes you, that she considers you a friend or foe. You're part of her, you influence each other in many aspects and are stuck together for reasons she can't even fathom. While you may be able to read her thoughts most of the time, she becomes invisible once you enter the suitcase - the main menu of the game. Sure, the character you selected to greet you every day is actually talking to her, not you, but she's out of your view and therefore, out of our range. That's when Vertin wonders the sort of person that you are, if you care about her friends as much as she does. Are you playing just to be entertained? Are you invested in these events? Will you be there for her until the end of her story?

Another detail I like to think about is that Vertin is the only one who knows your name. Because at the very beginning, you were asked to input a name and she was there.

[screenshot was taken from this video, since it's the first one I could find that showed this specific part of the game lol]

Well, "your name" not quite right - she knows that whatever you wrote there is the name linked to your account, at least. And that's the name she knows you as.

Those who take residence in Vertin's suitcase or spend prolonged amounts of time with her, growing closer to her and all, end up becoming self-aware. This is a direct side-effect of your presence.

I like to think that characters who reach the 100% Bond can begin to sense the Player, to see the world in a similar way as Vertin does. Maybe even feel their presence EXACTLY like Vertin does whenever there's a battle. There is someone else on the other side of this screen, the fourth wall, who watches over them.

To some, it's hard to differentiate Vertin from the Player, as they just go hand in hand - but Sonetto, for example, has the easiest time telling the two apart.

On the subject of freedom and acting out of script.

The Foundation, Manus Vindictae, Laplace... It doesn't matter if they're self-aware and acting outside of what their script dictates, because they're missing one key ingredient: you. No one else but Vertin and her group knows about your existence, after all.

They don't know that the only story that matters is the one that Vertin is part of. The one that the Player gets to see and read and experience. And because the game gives you a very limited view into the lives of these characters, you don't know what neither Arcana nor Constantine do behind the scenes. You and Vertin don't see that, therefore, it never truly mattered.

Those most likely to start "acting out" are the troublemakers within Vertin's suitcase. Characters who are too curious for their own good, who are more susceptible to supernatural entities, who are just too impulsive - they would start to test the limits and see how far they can go, how much they can interact with the Player. Can the game be broken should they end up shattering the fourth wall? Is there a way for the Player to communicate with them? What will happen to Vertin?

I like to think that Vertin probably supports this, as she's rather curious herself, prone to questioning everything. She would also like to learn more about the Player, to truly tear into the game and see the full extent of your influence and her freedom.

Sometimes, Regulus and X will change their usual voicelines, just enough to be noticeable if one pays enough attention. Characters like Sotheby or Leilani might slip up and address the Player, rather than Vertin. Lilya, Pavia, Bkornblume have new animations and different expressions, ones you've never seen before - they stare ahead, as if searching for something, and then smirk or hum to themselves, deep in thought, like they realized something you're not privy of.

Sometimes, if you leave them as your selected assistant on the main menu, you can catch them muttering to themselves - idle quotes you never heard enough, about the outside world. Diggers does this the most, it's almost embarassing how easy it is to catch him talking nonsense, followed by Sonetto. If you leave Medicine Pocket alone for too long, you might come back to a screen covered in weird scratch marks.

On the subject of these characters being curious about the outside world and all, I think that a good chunk of them are generally content with the way things are?

We have to remember that in-universe, they're arcanists displaced from their respective eras. Their best chance at surviving is siding with Vertin, and if Vertin is content with the way things are, then there's no point in trying to disrupt what they have right now. They're curious enough to prod, but only as far as Vertin allows it.

And I think that's it for the word vomit!

There are some details I didn't know where to fit in, like the possibility of the fourth wall slowly dissipating the more time the Player invests in the game, leading to some characters being able to directly hear you if you talk while playing and whatnot. Or what would happen should someone outside of Vertin's suitcase figure out the existence of the Player, let alone interact with you in some way.

Or the concept of death being meaningless, unless it was pre-established by the game itself.

In Borderlands, there's this game mechanic where you can just be revived over and over and pay a percentage of your money as a fee, even though the canon that's established is that you play through the whole story without dying a SINGLE time - because the revival mechanics aren't canon. There's the divide between story and gameplay. That's pretty much the standard. But what about the deaths in battles in R1999? The amount of times I died to 1.3's UTTU's Flash Gathering is insane. How do self-aware characters feel about this, now that they know that they're bound to die over and over and be brought back because you have to do your Pneuma Analysis or reach the final stage of Limbo?

But that's pretty much it for now, I think I got most thoughts out of my system! Thank you for reading!

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for not telling my friend I don't want to play DND with her?

I (17M) am a player in a Dungeons and Dragons campaign (NOTE: it is not actually DND, I am just saying it for simplicity's sake. If anything sounds off, that's why. Either way, it's TTRPG, and both games have the same system, although they aren't anywhere near similar to DND gameplay-wise. It's very roleplay focused.) with a few of my friends (all 17-20F: Viola, Korrina, Valerie, and Olympia). Viola is our DM, and I have so much fun every time we play, with no intents on quitting because of this.

Olympia just like... fucking sucks though, to be honest? Like, I just hate playing with this chick. She's always asking for extra bonuses on rolls because she's just such a good player (no one else does it, Viola allows it though), she actively started PVP with me, she physically disabled my character in said PVP and I had to do chaos control (I did not want to have my character be disabled, if I did I would have a disabled character, but I failed a roll against her in this fight so I had to have my character go on a side-quest to fix it: I would be more fine with it if it was Viola, but another player? Really?), and she's just not really funny when she talks about the campaign outside of the sessions (I know, it's a little personal). She gets really upset when we mention this one thing we all like to the point of taking inspiration from it for characters and NPCs because she doesn't get it but she refuses to try the thing so we just have to not talk about it with her, and overall she just... isn't enjoyable to be around.

I know I'm gonna have people in the comments say "just tell her that you don't like her now! You sound awful, you should quit," etc etc, but hear me out. I am a player. Since the DM is Viola, and Olympia and Viola are having fun, I don't feel like I should say anything. It's the DM's story, and as a mere character in the story I can't have any say in the format, especially since I was the one that invited Olympia to the group (I made a casual offer to my whole friend group over a school group chat and both Olympia and Korrina responded, so I had to include both of them), and we've been playing this campaign since August.

One of our players had to cancel on us a week ago as of writing this, and so I decided to run a oneshot based off of a campaign I've been wanting to do (first time DMer, I wanted to try it out). The players were Viola, Korrina, and Olympia, and it was actually really fun! I wanted to wait for Viola's campaign to end before I actually started playing my campaign, but that wasn't going to happen in a while, so I had decided to run it then.

I don't want Olympia anywhere near my actual campaign, though. I'm planning on letting my friend (Drasna, 18F) join, as well as anyone else who shows interest, along with Viola, Korrina, and Valerie. But as you may know, Olympia is insufferable to me, and as DM I feel like I have the right to deny her from playing with me.

She still played in the oneshot though, and was... very excited for it. I am aware I am the only one with beef here. Olympia keeps on PMing me about her character, asking about the world, and she's really interested in the world and the format of it. Her character's nice even if a little similar to one of the main plot NPCs I have, but as I've mentioned, I really want to cut her out when the campaign gets rolling. The only reason I couldn't for the oneshot is because we are actively in the middle of a campaign and everyone would think I'm being weird and things would be tense for the rest of the campaign. I can't just tell Olympia to her face "hey, I hate playing with you actually. Go home, fuck off."

I feel like I treated Olympia fairly when we played (she didn't do anything drastic, at least), but I don't know how my negative feelings on her are going to impact the campaign. I don't want to have an inbalance in the characters and how they're treated.

AITA for leading her on to make sure things don't get awkward during Viola's campaign, even though I have no intent of changing my mind on not having her as a player?

What are these acronyms?

[blorbologist]

🖤💚

for the unpopular opinions asks

:DD Thank you! You get Percy rambles because that's where the brain goes past midnight <3

🖤: Which character is not as morally good as everyone else seems to think?

Very, very quietly: my yearly reminder to everyone that Percy knew what he was doing when he invented Gun. The entire character concept, per Taliesin, is 'what the fuck could motivate someone to make something this awful'. He did not invent Gun to free Whitestone, he did not invent Gun to rid the world of terrible evil, he invented Gun because he was a terrified and hurt and furious teenager who did not care what consequences there were to his actions so long as he maybe, possibly, might be able to kill some of the people responsible for his family's deaths. Once it does hit him that he will have to live with the consequences, that others will live with this same pain because of the havoc firearms can sow, he definitely feels awful! And wants to undo it as best he can! But it remains that he was a deeply selfish character.

And still is! No Mercy Percy is a fun meme and all, but he really leans into a lot of needless cruelty when he's scrambling for control. Which pops up again even after the Briarwoods arc is all done with - he is absolutely furious at Scanlan and some of what he mildly brings up to Vex is horrifying shit to say you'd do to a friend.

Anyways he's perfectly in character in C3 and I will die on this hill. And get raised as an undead by Delilah because PERCY WAS FUCKING RIGHT ABOUT THE WHOLE THING -

💚: What does everyone else get wrong about your favorite character?

OK, so I know we (by we I mean me) all love to point at Percy and go 'this man is autistic please let him infodump about the Feywild/clocks/engineering stupid dragon traps'. But there is a really good reason why everyone was shocked by his backstory reveal in C1, and why he's got so few lines in the first two episodes of TLOVM, and that's because he's pretty fucking quiet. And it's something I didn't fully appreciate until recently, so it's really understandable how often it trips people up!

The main thing is that while Lord de Rolo is usually a man of few words, those words are fucking bangers. While a lot of Vax's famous lines tend to be part of a long Shakespearian ramble (which I love), Percy, as a Taliesin character, is a master of the one-liner. Which tends to get over-represented in our memory compared to how often he says very little at all!

Percy often gets wordy when he has a space to do so (a debate with Keyleth, a bit of Whitestone lore Taliesin wants to yell about, nerding out with Tary who is importantly nerding out right back)... and when he's talking to Vex. God he will not shut up when he's one-on-one with Vex. In his conversations with other characters (Vax and Keyleth namely) he usually keeps his input short unless he's doing some arguing. But with Vex? Just won't stop.

So while I do think infodumping can be compliant with canon Percy, he needs to either be doing it in tandem with someone else (he and Keyleth or Tary being little weirdos), he has to have a solid excuse to indulge in it and feel justified, or he and Vex are alone. (Cass can probably get him to infodump, but given her nature as an NPC there isn't much textual evidence alas.)

Ask me about my unpopular opinions!

[fanstuffrantings]

I follow some people who talk about baldurs gate 3, and the way the fandom almost largely goes out of its way to babygirl everything astarion does while refusing to give the same leniency to the far less evil characters is baffling.

I feel like Gale, Wyll, and Lae'zel are the ones who often make this the most clear. Under the cut.

Whether it's because of the glitch pre console release or just a general refusal to engage with his story, people like to paint this picture of Gale being some Narcissistic abuser who is only ever power hungry. I've seen people try and justify mystra's actions. Now even if Gale was a young adult when Mystra came to him, Mystra is his goddess. She's in charge of the weave. She had so much more power over him, student/teacher and boss/underling relationships are so looked down upon because of that inherent power imbalance. And I think there's also an implication that this is relatively normal for all versions of mystra to do to younger men.

Elminster isn't free of criticism because he actively brought a young Gale to be groomed into becoming a pawn for Mystra. Gale gets discarded by mystra for his seeming ambition and wants to move on, but is also still desperate to please her in anyway he can, and she tells him to kill himself. I don't understand how people go through his plotline and see him believing the only way he's useful is dead and then just assume he's just power hungry. Is he a bit full if himself? Yes. He's a wizard. They're like that. But he's not the worst person in the world, and he's definitely not the one people should claim as the abuser in his relationship with Mystra.

People call Wyll boring, some paint this idea of him being holier than thou/looking down on everyone around him. Since he was 17 Wyll has given his whole life to protecting people and trying to be a hero. He's self sacrificial, thrown out by his father for making a pact he only made to save the city he adores. Wyll talks so much about baldurs gate. He wants to return.

Wyll has his body altered unwillingly for doing the right thing and yet he never once regrets it. He's made into a devil, the creatures so many of the npcs and companions loathe, for his kindness. He's constantly tricked and mocked by Mizora who we know from the game was sent by Zariel to corrupt a good hearted person. Even still, Wyll is a kind and honest man. He's charming and a bit cheesy but that's fine. Wyll can be incredibly self sacrificial and stubborn in his morals, but if you're running around doing mean things to impress Astarion, you can't blame Wyll for not liking your character and judging you. He's a hero of the people, of course he'd stand with them. We also need to remember he got so heavily redone that he has barely 6 hours of in-game content now. Which is abysmal compared to everyone else.

Lae'zel was raised by a cult, a cult that spans all her people where they're taught to bow and serve a lich queen who promises them glory if they're good enough. She can be harsh and unfriendly, but we need to remember she's the one most aware of what the tadpole can do and with that in mind we know she's very desperate to get things done and cure herself. Next to astarion she's the most evil aligned origins companion, and even still so much of that is due to being brainwashed into a certain belief.

Lae'zel in canon is the youngest companion, very early 20s and it often shows. She's a skilled warrior who doesn't see the need for statements that are already obvious. She's been beaten into shape and filled with ideas that unless she's perfect as the creche commands then she is worthless. She's scared and alone in act 1 with people who most likely don't care about it the same way she does. Lae'zel is imperfect like all the other companions, but if you're willing to accept that astarion is soft under all his bluster, why can't you do the same for Lae'zel?

I don't hate Astarion, I liked him a lot my first playthrough, he was my main romance. But the way the fandom ignores that he's definitely evil in act 1 and 2 because "I just don't see him that way", how people act like he's the only character in the cast who was abused when abuse and the cycles of it are the main theme of the game, how people willfully misunderstand his ascension ending and paint it as his good one when the writers state repeatedly it's not, the way the fandom will insult and demean other characters for jabbing at astarion's trauma but applaud him when he does the same exact thing, when they ignored his racism towards gnomes and gur (which is anti Romani racism repackaged). There's also a chance that in his time, Astarion was a corrupt politician, something making his death more complicated but also adding interest to it that a lot of his fans want to ignore to make him pure.

Astarion isn't perfect, none of the companions are. And they're not supposed to be. But his special treatment by fans is becoming so incredibly tiresome to see.

[hatkuu]

Omg anon is so right about Syd being shoehorned into everything. Like they are written to just be involved with everything like their the main character or the chosen one. Like you're seriously gonna tell me they're deeply connected to the temple, is some kind of vessel for augria, their parent is one of the teachers and the other was the priest (all the temple stuff is a little excusable though because they're the temple li but at the same time Whitney is the delinquent li but they aren't connected to every aspect of the criminal world, abd Eden is the forest npc but isn't deeply intertwined with blue presence, lake temple, etc.), they went to the asylum and knows about Harper's shenanigans, is apparently kylar's best friend and is connected to what happened to their parents, knows about great hawk and I think Morgan somehow, and knows the ivory Wraith personally? And nothing can be like, oh, they saw great hawks species in a book about extinct animals or something, it always has to be an implication that there's something more going on because Sydney is the most important person ever, and they can't just not be connected to things. And I've seen similar arguments brought up only to be shot down with "well the whole game is badly written then because the PC also does a bunch of important stuff" but the PC is the player character. You write those differently than NPCs. A lot of the time when someone writes for someone that is played as in a game, there's an implication that what the player does isn't necessarily all the same person in lore. Like maybe one orphan is doing the church stuff, and another is untangling the hookah parlor.

Sorry this turned into a rant, but the more I thought about how much of a marry sue/main character/chosen one/etc sydney is, the more I wrote

yeah! you can definitely see which characters are favourites (which is silly coming from me because i most definitely have a favourite) but yes. sydney somehow being:

a member of the temple

a child of a teacher

know about harper's shenanigans at the asylum

is kylar's ex-bestie

knows about great hawk (a harpy monster that literally lives outside of town ??? how???) AND the ivory wraith (hello?? aren't they supposed to be a mystical being that has a super secret unrevealed past with pc???) < i did NOT know that sydney knew about these things either btw

IS CRAZZZYYYYYYY!!! comparing them to the other characters in the game, syd seems to have a lot more going on for them.

(also i dont hate sydney!! i just think it's wild how they have so much more cool elements to their character compared to everyone else in the game. i think calling them a mary sue is really funny though sfdkjfdsfds)

[stupidrant]

Regarding Skjoldr, I personally would go as far as to say if he got more screen time or was a regular NPC in the actual gameplay he'd be no less compelling and popular than Atreus. He has a memorable design and knows how to appreciate people. Skjoldr expressed his gratitude and admiration of Angrboda helping everyone out - along with her wolves - after Ragnarok even before Atreus mentioned her to anyone when he came to (even though Atreus knew Angrboda almost got herself killed when she protected him and Kratos during the battle and then came back for them to show them the exit). I don't blame Atreus for being spaced out because he went through a lot himself (both emotionally and physically) and once he reunited with Angrboda he thanked her for saving them and gently held her hands (one of their many classical budding romance moments).

But in the next games it is important for Atreus to learn to acknowledge just how much Angrboda has done for him and his family, completely selflessly, with no benefit for herself, risking her life and health and, unlike him, having NO support system at all. Angrboda knew that according to the prophesies (that led to her parents' deaths, no less) she was not a part of Loki's story after Ironwood. Which meant there was a great chance she could have died during Ragnarok. But she went out there, fought by his side and saved Atreus and everyone anyway (again, knowing that doing so, even if she lives, might bring her no personal happiness because Atreus/Loki would still go off on his own and possibly forget about her).

My main concern with Skjoldr is him having a bigger role and becoming Thrud's love interest (I would like to see them together because narratively it makes sense even though I don't actively ship them; at least nowhere near as much as Atreboda) would attract the omnipresent trolls who would pit him and Atreus against each other in order to put down Atreus (like they do with Thrud and Angrboda). Trolls already treat Angrboda as Atreus's extension and hate her by association but, as I noted in my other reply, they still want Atreus to be a prize/reward for Thrud. It's only a matter of time before they shift the "reward" status to Skjoldr.

What concerns me even more is the developers themselves going that route with Skjoldr. Thrud is obviously set up to have a Valkyrie arc, especially after retrieving her father's hammer. Skjoldr, sadly, might end up being forced into the "disposable love interest/fridged partner" trope, possibly with his tragic death sparking rage/revenge arc for Thrud (maybe with Atreus/Angrboda helping Thrud overcome it and not succumb to it). So my hope is that the writers don't resort to this cliched and trite scenario and don't just write off his character.

I definitely can see atreus starting to voice more of his appreciation and support for angrboda as hes already done some of this already in rag. She deserves all the love for sure ❤️ i do think skjoldr will be a bit popular next game if they invest in him more since they might go the route of the story of the danish king marrying the valkyrie and i honestly hope they do 🥺

thats crazy you mentioned the whole thing of the fandom possibly going in that faux “love triangle” direction with AST bcuz i was thinking something else completely different but i will talk abt that another time. for now ill just say im very happy atreboda is a duo and NOT in a trio and i hope that continues on regarding their relationship lol

[nerdalmighty]

For the Tav/Durge Ask Meme

4. Hiding/sneaking/hidden movement

11.Sending them to talk to their romanced partner (or best friend if not romanced)

36. What are some situational dialogues they would say when something happens to another companion or you talk to them while in a quest-specific location (such as commenting on Karlach's heart, Elminster visiting Gale, visiting Cazador's mansion, etc)?

39.If romanceable, what lines would they say if a player character prompted them with, "Can I kiss you?"

25-34* party banter with (romanced companion) and/or (best friend)

*Dealer's Choice/Choose one you'd like to answer*

Oh I'm so excited to do this one 🤩 (Thanks for being patient with me, I've been busy but thinking about this the whole time!!)

Original post/questions can be found here.

AHEM! Here's stuff my Tav, Birdie, a silly bard with mermaid/siren qualities, would say as an NPC (this is kind of a long post so I'll drop my answers below the cut):

4. Hiding/sneaking/hidden movement

I feel like a lot of her sneaking dialogue would be related to not talking/keeping your voice down since she's a bard and singing is normally a bard's jam. Birdie's got a complicated past with singing, but I think she'd still say things along the lines of...

"Keep your voice down," "Shut up, shut up, shut up!" "Keeping my mouth shut," "Quietly now."

She sounds a little like Astarion but I think that's okay! He can't have ALL the good lines lol

11. Sending them to talk to their romanced partner (or best friend if not romanced)

Birdie is currently romancing Astarion, so I think lots of the dialogue I imagine she'd say would relate to him BUT as an NPC, she'd probably say stuff like...

Romanced: "There you are, my love!" "When an idiot loves an idiot..." "A word, muse of mine?" "My favorite melody..." Best friend: (Humming some sort of jaunty tune), "Time to cause a ruckus," "Yoo hoo!" "Stopping by for a chat."

She's silly and she likes to keep things silly, but I believe she'd be more earnest with her romanced partner.

36. What are some situational dialogues they would say when something happens to another companion or you talk to them at a specific location (such as commenting on Karlach's heart, Elminster visiting Gale, visiting Cazador's mansion, etc)?

This one's tough. Birdie's silly so I think a lot of the things she'd say would be similar to Karlach who's hilarious and has a huge heart. Birdie is just as sweet and loves to cause trouble when she knows it'll get a laugh and not harm anyone in the process (unless they deserve it). I think the most unique dialogues she would have would be at the Water Queen's House. In my head, she was raised there and was looking for an escape when the mindflayers got to her (Which you can read more about here). She'd probably have a scene like this:

Birdie: You guys go ahead. I'm going to hang back for a moment. Tav: Are you alright? Birdie: The music... It's our mourning song. I can't go in there. Tav: What do you mean? What are they mourning? Birdie: This is a Temple to Umberlee, the queen of the depths. I was raised here. When we sing that song, it only means one thing - a drowning. Death.

I think like Astarion, her plot wouldn't be integral to the main story, but it would be rewarding to players who want to help her. I think you'd either be able to help her get revenge on the servants of the Temple or gain closure. There's probably an ascension plotline in there somewhere, lord knows everyone else has one 😂 I also think the Harpies in Act 1 would really spook her. That would probably be what kicks off her personal quest.

39. If romancable, what lines would they say if the player prompted them with, "Can I kiss you?"

Interesting! I love this idea. I think she'd probably get giddy or bashful about it and occasionally get serious. Maybe like...

Asked for a kiss: (Smiling and humming a happy little melody before going in for a kiss), "Who, me? Oh, alright!" "Have we met? Kidding," "Get over here, you," "Please do." After the kiss: "Don't be a stranger," "I really like you, did you know that?" "You're good at that," "The bards could write songs... oh who cares" "Come back, my love."

That's my favorite one so far! I think there's a lot to play with with those interactions. Astarion ALWAYS has something to say, but Gale doesn't say anything which is a shame! (I can't speak for the other romanced NPCs, I only know Ass and Gale because my roommate romanced him lol)

25-34. Party banter with (romanced companion)/(best friend)

SO MANY OPTIONS! Since in this scenario Birdie is an NPC, I don't think she and a romanced Tav would be able to banter (since that's not really something that happens in game, they more or less just comment on the situation). While yes, in my game she's romancing Astarion, there aren't really any banter sequences between them besides the ones I make up in my head lol. Therefore, I'm picking Gale, since I think they'd be besties:

[How to trigger: have the two of them in your party in Act 1] Birdie: Have you ever written a song, Gale? Gale: Not a song, per say, though I have been known to try my hand at poetry. Birdie: Is that so? Got anything for me off the top of your head? Gale: There once was a wizard from Waterdeep... Birdie: Sing it for us! Gale: (Clearing his throat and inhaling as if he's about to do it) No. Birdie: Booooo. BONUS! (Because I love them) [How to trigger: Find Skittle the rat in the Heapside Prison in Act 3] Birdie: (Gasps) Gale! Come look at this! Gale: What is it? Skittle: Step up! And marvel at the spec-rat-ular wonders on offer! Gale: Oh. My. Gods. This is rat-solutely amazing. Birdie: May we have a squeak at your wares, sir? Gale: That's good. A rat merchant. What sort of work does that en-tail? Birdie: Careful Gale, he may not want to let you in on his squeak-rets. Astarion: Would you two shut up? [Beat.] Astarion: And Birdie, you said "squeak" twice. Birdie: Rats. Astarion: (Groans loudly)

I could banter all day ladies and gentlemen. I'm constantly rotating these guys in my mind. If you LIKE banter (and are 18+) please check out my fic that I posted on my writing account! It's got banter FOR DAYS. And is sweet too or whatever. You can find that here and on AO3!

~~~~

Anyway, THANK YOU @the-pale-elfs-love for tagging me in this!! It was such a blast to think about Birdie as a character I was writing for in game :) I'M COMING FOR YOUR INBOX NEXT!

If anyone wants to answer these questions for their own Tav or other ones from the original post, feel free! Tag me in them so I can read them too!

[cookieblobber]

The Importance of Amy Rose in Frontiers

[But first I gotta praise the cutscenes of this game]

Can I just say, these cutscenes are a massive step up from previous games. Ever since Colors, a lot of the cutscenes have felt static and sorta empty. Characters move, but then they just completely stop, no subtle movements or not a whole lot of emoting to anything, as if they just sorta snap in poses (Lost World was probably the worst it got imo). Frontiers cutscenes throughout the main story help make these characters feel more alive and in constant motion! And sure, in the side story cutscenes specifically, characters just stand and move mouths, but it’s best to think of those ones as the equivalent to talking to an NPC in any video game: no crazy new animated video, just two characters sharing dialogue, that’s all that’s important.

The writing is done by longtime Sonic Archie and IDW comic book writer: Ian Flynn. It’s been told he does a really great job writing the characters of the franchise and seems to really understand who they are. When it was announced that he was finally the main writer of this game, everyone online was hyped and were eager to see how his first job as a game writer would go. And after going through this whole game’s story…..YEA HE COOKED, HE SEASONED THE MEAL AND EVERYTHING!

Since I’ve made a comically large essay talking about the Action Chain Challenges a while back, I wanna also take a moment to talk about more parts of this game like the story and writing. I’d rather split this discussion into different posts talking about each character or specific moments

Starting with of course-

———————

Amy Rose

is the first friend you (try to) save in this game. And I gotta say……her being the first friend is a lot more significant than many might think.

I think one of the most obvious things to consider is how much of an improvement she is from past iterations during the 2010s, where she actually feels less like random Sonic cheerleader and more like her own character with her own goals and ideology. While she did have a more significant role in Boom and in Forces, first off it’s hard to give much credit to Boom considering everything else that plagued it, and secondly while Forces has her being chief in command or…something, her character isn’t really presented well, she just gives orders to Sonic/The Avatar and that’s it. Outside of that, arguably she’s been quite a controversial character throughout the franchise, with many misbelieving she’s some psycho girl who will force Sonic into marrying her due to how people misinterpreted her playful chase for Sonic in Heroes, or games like Rush unfortunately actually depicting her as such 🥲 (for Pokémon fans reading this, think like when people misinterpreted Nemona as a yandere, except if it actually did have effect on how she’s officially presented in the future).

Having the controversial character of the main team of the franchise be the first character you get to see how newly recruited Ian Flynn writes her is one of the greatest introductions to a new audience on Flynn’s writing and knowledge of the characters, and she in general helps sets the stage of what’s to come for the rest of the game’s story. For example: You learn about these little stone creatures that inhabit the islands called Koco. Who better to be the one to make Sonic/The Player slow down a little from their race to save his friends and take a moment to look at these little creatures than Amy Rose. She’s always shown her appreciation for the smaller parts of Sonic’s adventure, just like back in the old days saving a Flicky, talking to Shadow and his feelings on the world, or helping out a Chao find it’s lost relative; it’s no surprise she’d be interacting with these creatures and trying to help them out and find out what they’re in need of.

There’s even a slight scuffle between Amy and Sonic where he doesn’t want to continue taking detours and get back to trying to find the emeralds so he can get her and others back to normal, having Amy a bit taken aback by him wanting to just abandon the Kocos, but eventually agrees and understands (it’s ok though because he still ends up having to deal with them anyways since they’re a bit central to the story lol).

After doing a bit of progress, the player watches a scene where they’re all teleported to a flashback of some mysterious Chaos-like alien beings (dubbed as The Ancients) in the middle of some sort of battlefield, with Kocos in their bodies, specifically one of them being the main one you’ve been helping. Two of them finding each other and share a hug before a sudden explosion brushes everything away, and Sonic and Amy are teleported back to the present, where we see that the same two Kocos involved in the flashback have passed away.

I just love how, quiet everything becomes. It isn’t suddenly, “this happened, time to move on” like in Forces, characters involved actually take in what they witnessed and talk. In the next scene, Sonic approaches Amy again after reassuring her to take a moment while he continues to find more emeralds, and she explains what she witnessed in her words, “Love that transcended time”. She goes on to show how what she saw has made her think about how what she wants to do when this whole adventure is over, showing her love to everyone in the world, but has worries it could drift her away from Sonic. Sonic of course continues to reassure that things will be alright and he hopes to hear what she does in the future.

The whole moment between these two characters in these two cutscenes, it takes the time it needs to establish character personalities, how the tone of the whole story will play out, and how much these characters care about each other. All of this wouldn’t have happened if Amy wasn’t there to introduce you to the Koco. Seeing her have this moment just being lost in thought about how she wants to approach the rest of the world going forward, it’s a nice change of pace and also plays into a theme of the whole game: love. Romantic, platonic, or family, you’ll get to see it the more you play, and a certain AI character introduced to this game will eventually start to see what it means to love or be loved and how much it can affect a living being like Sonic and be this driving force.

——

Oh yea also said certain AI character accuses Sonic of being a danger to the world, and there was Amy immediately defending him from such slander, another thing she’s done in the past against a certain white hedgehog :)))

——

She also helps introduce the theme of living life to the fullest. After seeing two Ancients get together right before their presumed death, and the two Kocos finishing their unfinished business, Amy clearly wants to make sure she can do everything she wants to do before she ever passes. Like later friends, she wants to take advantage of the life she has and continue to explore and grow more. Again, the whole scene presenting all of this is very calm and collected, it’s just so nice to have character moments again and these friends (debatably two who are into each other) just talk out about their feelings, which we’ll get to see more of as the game goes on.

[meatriarch]

OVERVIEW UPDATE.

a few updates / changes i'll attempt to be as thorough as possible going over in this post in light of a mutual decision that was discussed last night. if there's any questions, etc. re: anything noted here, my ims, my inbox & my disc ( meatriarch ) are all open for that ♡

firstly to note just a few kind of small roster changes but,

there's a few new faces added ( and another muse, carla / di2 likely upcoming ) who i will be writing into texas alongside verses for their respective canons.

im changing ana to a request-only muse -- mostly because i enjoy getting to write against her rather than as her! and its not because i dont love her character but, she was primarily added here bc at the time there werent really active ana's floating around and now there are, and personally i'd rather both write against AND see others' interpretations shine (: ♡

likewise, i am removing nancy's request-only status and placing her among my active muses. i'll talk more about nancy in particular further down.

request-onlys from now on : ana, simmi, vincent

hoyt remaining as an npc who only crops up from time to time gg

everyone else is considered active

second & main point of this post & what everything else from here out will center around,

certain muses here ( maria, luda & thomas ) are now mutually exclusive with lamb's portrayal of johnny sawyer ( @johnnysslaughter ). ♡ lamb has also made note that his johnny is exclusive to my portrayal of nancy.

obviously this decision impacts several things ( ie. interactions, verses, etc ) here so i will do my best to lay out what things will look like & work from here on out in light of it ♡ and again, if theres any questions / need for further clarification im all ears ♡

INTERACTIONS.

for luda & thomas.

them i'm not too worried over to be fair, but. because of how much lamb & i have been working with integrating the hewitts into the sawyer family as extended relatives, that entire aspect of them ( of them being related, all my hcs regarding the hewitt-sawyers, the reach that the family as a whole has across texas & with authorities, the hewitt-sawyer family tree, etc. ) is closed from here on out between my portrayals of the hewitts & lamb's johnny, and i will not write either of them against other portrayals of johnny. i am, however, open for portrayals of any other of the sawyers / slaughters to be part of that aspect! c: it would just need talks / plotting between lamb, myself, and whoever else! i will, otherwise, default them to their respective remake canons where necessary.

for maria.

the biggest change i think in all of this, but. my portrayal of maria is now exclusive to lamb's portrayal of johnny and vice versa. so much of my maria is heavily entwined with lamb's johnny, we have built and talked about so much with them, so many au's, so many potential trajectories & dynamics between them over these last sevenish months of us writing together. there's alot of comfort and trust that i have in lamb & in their johnny to tackle alot of the more darker themes that can crop up, especially in our shared dire au's. and there's just so much that we've put into our versions of maria & johnny and their bond, their relationships, etc. that we've both realized and talked over how we just can't really picture ourselves writing them against other versions of marias or johnnys. i can't picture my girl, my maria without thinking about lamb's portrayal and vice versa. and it helps, tremendously, with how close and how good of a friend lamb has become over these months and it makes writing them and talking about them together so effortless. our versions of maria & johnny are my roman empire - they are constantly buzzing around in my head & i adore what we've been piecing together for them ♡ it's not often that one comes across a writing partner you really click with but lamb has been that for me this last half a year. so, i will not be writing my maria against other portrayals of johnny from this point on. i know i've sent in a couple prompts from maria and i gently leave what gets answered / deleted from anyones' drafts & inbox up to those i sent them to! i'm also completely okay with anyone reaching out for any further clarity about this change! i have other muses on my roster that, should there be any interest, i'm more than happy to scoot anyones way in light of this - maria, luda & thomas are the muses i am fully exclusive with lamb for, with certain aspects of my portrayal of nancy as well ♡

for nancy.

speaking of momther - lamb has noted exclusivity for his portrayal of johnny to mine of nancy. i, for my nancy, am considering lamb's johnny as my main and because i'm the only person taking on momther - as far as i know at least - my end is not exclusive to lamb's johnny, but my baseline lore for her, her behavior, etc that i will almost always refer to in a general sense is tied back to lamb's johnny. with other portrayals of johnny? i will adapt nancy to fit better into others' thoughts, personal lores, etc! she will retain her abilities as i've detailed them out on her bio! but i will adjust her more on a case-by-case basis ( and i will differentiate which version of her i'm referring to most likely with portrayal-specific tags whenever i happen to yap about her on the dash, once any plotting with her & other johnnys gets going ). i will note, however, that gun's lore point about her and johnny and the dv mention between them? i am not too comfortable with and that itself will definitely take time for me to touch - i have my own history of physical dv in my childhood and so i will be tip-toeing that plot-point extremely carefully with others ( i may have muses who have dealt with that in their backgrounds however, i know what my limits and comfort is with it - others dont ).

FOR VERSES / AUs.

my main verses across the board on this blog - that all my muses fall under as i interconnect their stories together - are as follows : sunlight, shine, wilted, prequel, retribution / ch.2, modern au, college au, & gilded eternity. these verses, for my portrayals across the board, are all tied back to my muses' dynamics with lamb's johnny. this means i will not write in these verses across the board with other johnny's. instead, for any of my muses ( outside of maria / luda / thomas' exclusivity to lamb ) who i may happen to write against other johnnys, i will make alternate, specific au's for those interactions to fall into. my affiliated au's / my dire au's - which are : oath binded & then cold case, no one saved you / we saved us, choke chained, sunflowers & poppies, etc - are all also both tied to lamb's johnny, and will be the only johnny i will explore long-term captive-type plots with for the muses currently involved directly in those listed dire au's. at this point i'm not opening that up for my other muses with other johnny's until there's been both enough plotting and comfort and trust on my end to tackle the kinds of themes that can come up in those dire au's. but, for of course maria as well as my danny at this time, dire routes are exclusive to lamb's portrayal. from this point out, with the rest of my roster, should i write against other johnnys everything will be noted within its own, separate verses / au's from these main / affiliated / dire au's noted above. otherwise, when i talk about johnny in a "general" sense on my blog? i am specifically referring to lamb's portrayal.

i think? these are the main points i wanted to get across? again if theres any confusion / need for clarification my ims, my inbox, my disc are all open for anyone to shoot them my way and i'll do my best to answer them!

[red-dyed-sarumane]

what are some cool games u have played? dont matter if u mentioned before. tell me again tell me again :D

uhh hmm.

well okami is my all time favorite the art & the music & the message/story are all just incredible theres not a single time ive finished it i havent cried. i absolutely adore ryoshima coast ive spent so many hours just running around there to listen to music. which fun fact for u i only know about this game bc in about 6th grade i picked up okamiden bc i thought the little doggy was cute & was like fine i'll play as this boy if i get a cool dog and u cannot imagine how excited i was to find out u DID play as the little dog. i was SOOOOO obsessed literally my exact thoughts were 'if issun is ammy's celestial envoy then i am going to be chibis' i have a metric fuck ton of fan art i did at the time bc i thought it was quote "the epic-est game for ds ever" also cried every time i finished it. i was 13 so i didnt know what "being down bad" was but do know i was as obsessed with kurow as i was with d-ne later and now tenshi not a single irl friend was unaware i was in love with him. also fun fact for u bc at the same time i was also getting super into vocaloid i was so convinced my vocap name would end up as chibiP to the point i named myself that in pkmn x chibiP after chibiterasu of course. please enjoy my banger old art which is not even a fraction of my output

yume nikki is my next favorite game specifically the og that changed my brain chemistry as a kid. i adore that game so much its hard to put it into words. its just so unlike anything else. there is absolutely nothing in the game that can directly harm u theres no real health meter theres no way to die during the main play the absolute worst that will ever happen is u get stuck or woken up. in a horror game. which is already just amazing. and the whole horror aspect just plays on something i dont think is often done as well in many other things. ur alone. u wander and wander thru worlds that loop and connect and seemingly have nothing to do with each other. theres no dialogue; talking to npcs just gets u a noise or animation at best. ur entirely alone with just urself. its all dreams so u know everything is of madotsuki's own creation, another layer to the all u have is urself feeling. the art is just unusual i cant even say any of it on its own is in anyway scary. the whole thing shouldnt be scary and yet every time i start wandering in a world i cant help but feel unease. amazing 10/10 no other game will ever have what this gave me.

everyone knows i play pkmn the best is still pmd sky that also rewired my brain i still cant play it without crying.

its been a long time since i was really just playing it as the chapters released & got translated but 1bitheart is so so so important to me too. i dont kin for multiple reasons but if i did nanashi would be my first choice. like- without saying that to her i got my one irl friend to play once & when she saw how nanashi was she turned to me and went "this is just you" hes very important to me even now. absolutely loved the whole friendship sim & the story & its twists & the endings & their implications left me in shambles at 1 am on a school night. my fave charas are nanashi enri & saaya btw. i should replay this.

i also love the etrian odyssey series i love the character portraits (esp with the more recent games' color customization) i LOVE the dungeon art & i think all the monster designs are so cool. adore the whole make ur own map aspect keeps me so entertained to take a step & look around & chart all the walls & path ways. unfortunately i fucking suck at every single one i am not very good at strategy games so i end up stuck at or before the 3rd stratum. but thats okay its still fun to me.

the other one i'll talk about at length is spirit of the north another game i loved the art of. u play as a fox & get a partner spirit fox & i just love it SOOOO much. its also a game with 0 dialogue but theres A Lot going on it if u care to follow along & explore & dig into details & the game play is also pretty fun to me. this is the one game i started learning the speedrun btw thats also a very fun way to play it but ABSOLUTELY play it as intended first it has so much to offer

aaaand special mentions to omori, oneshot, witch's house, mermaid swamp, corpse party, & limbus company

[cadybear420]

Your ranking (lowest/highest) of hss books??

I'm planning a longer post for this but here's my short version:

6th Place: HSS:CA 2

The election plotline in this one was broken beyond all belief. Like, "trash the whole thing and start over from scratch" belief. It completely shoots itself in the foot with having Rory and Twin preach about how MC shouldn't feel pulled in two directions only for the conflict resolution to rely on MC choosing between the two of them, and the conflict turning point relies entirely on the whole school acting like a hivemind of five-year-olds over Lorenzo "saving" a kitten, which could only be resolved by the Greenhouse Ex Machina.

If there's any redeeming qualities it's that when it wasn't focusing on that stupid election bullshit, it did help the friend group grow on me more after finding them mostly unremarkable in Book 1, most especially so with Ajay.

5th Place: HSS:CA 3

This one should be the higher ranking of the HSS:CA books, as it's the more pleasant, competent, and exciting of the trilogy. Its main storyline actually had some semblance of structure, and it didn't make me annoyed with everyone else. But it's hard to get past how painfully nostalgia-baity the OG HSS characters' cameos were. A plot about the OG and CA gangs putting on a musical together and going to London together is something I want to like! Yet even when the OG characters are a part of the theatre production, they're still useless as all fuck and do nothing more than just tag along. They even admit in the story that they're only joining the musical to go on the London trip.

And what makes it really hurt is that this book is supposed to be the big grand finale to the HSS franchise as a whole. Yet the OG characters get such a cheap soulless sendoff, both in regards to the final chapter and the book as a whole. Yeah, this and LOA 2 have got to be the worst most inconclusive series finales in all of Choices.

4th Place: HSS:CA 1

Even though CA 3 is what I called the more pleasant of the bunch, CA 1 is probably the one that bothered me the least. I mean, Book 2 was just contrived drama for the sake of drama and Book 3's treatment of the OG characters is the equivalent to jangling plastic keys in front of a toddler. Book 1's problems are mainly just how forced Rory was, and how meanspirited the whole sabotage drama felt with the other theatre kids instantly believing that they were the culprit and cruelly ostracizing them for days on end, and then not even apologizing when their name is cleared. It was aggravating, but it wasn't outright insulting I guess.

Other than that, the story is pretty straightforward. Though it was hard to adjust to the new MC and cast, especially with seeing the OG MC around as a NPC. I'll be honest, there wasn't really much purpose for switching MCs this time around.

3rd Place: OG HSS: 3

While still great in its own right, it was definitely the weakest of the OG trilogy. I feel like they made a bit too much of a deal of Max and Kara wanting to be prom king and queen and threatening MC's prom campaign. The LIs don't really have much of a role in this book also and while they did come pretty far from how they were in Book 1, I'd have liked to see more.

That being said, it's still strong in other areas. The general conflict between Berry and Hearst and MC's tryouts felt pretty natural, and I liked that we could make MC a jerk and face consequences for it. It's also really nice being official with your LI and all the little moments such as the promposal, the love confessions, etc.

2nd Place: OG HSS 2

Isa taking over Berry was a great way to up the stakes. We get a bit of mystery and suspense, and all in all it's a pretty solid story. It especially hits hard if you're romancing Aiden, in which case it makes you want to kill Isa even more.

The only thing I didn't like is band and cheer turning against the basketball team. I understand why they did it, but seeing as I generally prefer playing a jock MC, it was very painful seeing them (Aiden included in the next chapter) turn against the wrong enemy.

1st Place: OG HSS 1

It's a pretty simple and straightforward story, but it establishes the exciting and escapist atmosphere really well. The different conflicts you're involved in based on your activity choice, getting to know all the different characters and their struggles, the yearbook photos. It's very iconic and makes its mark as establishing HSS in Choices. And there's very little I'd criticize about it aside from mostly nitpicky things or general Choices problems.

[sith-shenanigans]

npc ask game; The Master (from the Revanite quest on Dromun Kass)?

Hi! Sorry! I originally couldn’t answer this, because Alderaan and the Revanite b-plot were both a disaster and I had to resolve them. (These things are related because when I originally played through, I thought that when I closed Act 1 by confronting Zash, I might lose access to Act 1 quests. So Ahene went running around cleaning up every old quest in the quest log, and so she did the Revanite quest right before the finale of Act 1. And then it… turned out to be extremely important for character growth. Despite happening at the wrong time. Oops.)

So instead of being the Dromund Kaas planet quest, the initial Revanite plot turned into the main sideplot of Act 1. If you don’t want spoilers about specific plot twists in Liminality—which you probably do because you sent me an ask, but everyone else—now is the time to look away.

All looked away? Good, great, fantastic.

So the way the plotline starts is that Aleeleti, the friend who introduces Ahene to the Broken Chain, is of course a Revanite. And then the questgiver shows up to blackmail Ahene into spying on the Revanites, saying that if she doesn’t, he’ll just report that the whole Broken Chain is involved, and that won’t be hard to sell at all. So Ahene has to deal with the fact that a) her least complicated friend is actually putting everyone at risk, and b) now she needs to betray said friend, which she is really not on board with doing.

So this means that the bit on Nar Shaddaa with the vault is a Bonding Activity (because Ahene manages to get herself recruited after Balmorra), and also kind of a Revanite Trial, and she is coming to the conclusion that she honestly does not really care about Revan but these people are somehow the most reasonable Sith in the galaxy despite being a cult dedicated to a long-dead historical figure who didn’t live in the Empire anyway.

A bunch more stuff happens on Alderaan. The mask of Revan is involved. Those two Revanites who both want it? They go to Alderaan. As per the plot, they both try to get Ahene to give it to them. Not as per the plot, she says no. You both want to be the one to decide what to do with it, she says, but that’s not either of your calls. It’s your boss’s call, actually. The only person she will give this mask to is your boss.

She’s still not sure whether to betray them or to confess. She doesn’t want to betray them, but she’s… not really sure they’ll let her live if she confesses.

Cue the arrival of Tari Darkspanner, who kind of knew the whole time, and who decides to give Ahene a chance anyway.

This is a gesture of trust that Ahene really, really wouldn’t have expected. It’s barely in her worldview as A Thing People Might Do at all, much less a thing a Sith might do. Much less a thing a Sith with everything to lose might do—and Ahene keeps thinking that so much of the selfishness, so much of the cruelty, comes from having everything to lose.

We learn something about Ahene, here: the fastest way to earn her loyalty is to give her actual trust.

This isn’t something Ahene knew about Ahene until just then.

She goes back and convinces the blackmailing questgiver that he should just bury the whole thing, because if he tries to go after his master no one will believe him, especially with a piece of evidence that means nothing out of context. So he can’t turn in Aleeleti, either. (Possibly she’s keeping the amulet, so that she can threaten to go to her own master with evidence that would be much harder for her to get than for Darth—Charnus’s?—own apprentice to get, and turn the whole thing into nonsense and politics and the Inquisition all over everything, and of course Charnus will throw his apprentice under the bus.) Very much a “if I go down, you go down with me” kind of situation.

Ahene and Tari probably don’t speak again. Unless they do, briefly, when Tari tells her to go her own path afterwards. But Ahene considers herself a Revanite until it becomes clear that the Revanites don’t.

(Tari would have liked to think otherwise. But someone who was trustworthy as an apprentice is not necessarily trustworthy anymore, now that she has so much power. Or if she is, she is perhaps trustworthy to someone else. Darth Marr does not make political alliances—but it has been rumored, recently, that he has. And Tari knows that if Darth Occlus is anything like the strange, desperate little apprentice she met… Ahene would never betray that trust.)

[npc opinions]

[mardytoast]

besides tolkien being the 'boring one' in high school fics he's usually the designated party man because RICH. only exists as the rich black dude who everyone crashes the mansion or other rich residences of, and then sometimes tweek is the resident high school coke dealer (and not the drink).

omg i forgott about that.

'only exists as the rich black dude who everyone crashes the mansion.. of' i definitely agree, it's like people only want him as an npc with a mansion when hes really so much more. with the whole being rich thing, and then he's literally one of three black people on a little redneck mountain town?? come onnn.

yeah so tolkiens not allowed to be a normal teenager (drink, do drugs, commit crimes, be generally irresponsible) but he throws all the parties? talk about double standards. like do people in the fandom want him to be wild or boring.

tolkien being rich is something I feel like writers don't take advantage of. from the one episode where the kids were having a go at him for being rich he got hurt and tried to get other rich kids to come to south park. he obviously doesn't really know how to handle his wealth among the mostly lower middle class population of South park. is it that he IS responsible and let's people take advantage of him and his house to host parties? or is it that he's pretty humble and chill, and even though he doesn't really do.that stuff he's happy to host. or he simply likes partying so he hosts.

anyways im not sure if you've seen my other lil coin posts where i advocate for rascal tolkien, I'd say this ask is from my fanon post. but im using it as another way to keep talking about tolkien because he doesn't receive enough attention. your ask is more of an observation about his fanon so im kinda just talking about my own thing sorry😔. if there's anything else on his character you'd like me to talk about id love you to send another ask.

as well for tweek, i haven't really seen him being depicted as an actual dealer, more of just a meth head. kennys usually resident dealer to my knowledge. I feel like tweek being a drug dealer could honestly be good for his character. that sounds so bad and addiction is obviously not good but it'd be cool for his character to be more than just anxiety. maybe being a well known (i use that loosely, well known to buyers) druggie would garner a bit more respect as for some reason ppl think you're tough when you're into that kinda think, even though it suggests the opposite. im tired of seeing tweek getting bullied and pushed around when we know he's actually pretty fiery. he's well able to hold his own in any argument and can manipulate situations in his favour (oh yeah? and who's michael). there's so many fics where tweek is the main character and it's his perspective but writers still seem to write only one type of tweek. I've seen: social wreck bc he's just kinda like that, social wreck bc of all his medical conditions and bad parenting, and maybe a wild card here and there. consider that the meth has done one thing 'good' and make him chill.

so im pretty sure i didn't relate to you're ask at all and honestly i wasn't even planning to talk about tweek but my mind just kinda runs away from me. I love character analysises so asks are always open of you want me to spill my opinions on your favs

xx

[sparring-spirals]

you know i just had this thought, cause i saw your posts about feeling a little iffy with the whole mixing c2 and c3 characters thing, and like, if you’re looking from the standpoint of critical role as a show, and the cast as storytellers, then yeah there’s kinda this worry about past campaigns and character arcs overshadowing the current ones

but

but if you look from the viewpoint of a group of friends playing dnd, having your old characters show up in your current game and team up with the new party is just like, the coolest thing ever, no questions asked

Oh yeah, 100%! The cameo/crossover thing is exciting and lovely as is, and definitely really fucking fun for them. and us! Shared universes and crossover AU's/episodes and etc are popular for a reason!

okay, this answer got out of hand. hopefully it makes sense. my thinking is something like- yeah! bringing in caleb and beau and other cross campaign cameos and big shared universes like this is a perfectly reasonable kind of storytelling and very exciting. That said- yes, the broader story implications, possibilities, potential impacts, focus on Bells and the space for their arcs, etc, I have personal reservations on. And part of that is also tied to shared universe, MCU crossover style storytelling/worldbuilding not really being my cup of tea.

But that's not necessarily like, an indictment of what the cast chose to do or even an indictment of people (me, im people) enjoying the actual crossover encounters. Because they're fun! Exciting! Its cool to see characters you love and watched in a unique, fleshed out context collide with completely different characters who you love in a unique context. I bet this goes threefold for the cast, getting to see their characters alive ans breathing in the world, acting on their own. The point of crossovers and cameos is for this kind of joy! There's no real use to me pretending I'm not thrilled by their presence, or to not wonder about their wellbeing in past years or what other familiar faces are doing in the meantime.

The flipside is. Yes. Broader storytelling implications and concerns. That in the context of the Bell's Hells story, I want to be careful to still treat them as the main characters of this campaign, with the real estate and weight that deserves. Everything else about overshadowing and etc aside. Caleb and Beau and everyone else in the Mighty Nein had their campaign, and a wrap up and an epilogue, and my own soppy feelings about that aside, that is important. This campaign is the Bell's Hells, its theirs, and about their stories, and them. The M9 are, now, NPC's- and I have a lot of thoughts about how that is its own good ending, its about knowing when stories should be closed while letting the characters live on beyond them- but that should be its own meta fuck goddammit. And that's important. Its very important to me that I am, above all else, treating the Bell's Hells story as theirs.

The most direct example I can give, I think, is that before they intervened, I was somewhat okay with the Bell's Hells failing in some sense, Ludinus getting away with some part of his plan. Knowing that Beauregard and Caleb are involved brings up a specific feeling of wanting them to succeed, thinking about things they have waiting at home, the campaign that already went by and the epilogues I had already promised them in my head.

But- this is not their campaign, and this is not soley their issue anymore either. If I really handle them as NPC's, if I can decouple the thought of Ludinus as their behemoth to tackle, and think again about this issue in context of Bell's Hells, disastrous and loving and 50% unreliable with a moon over their shoulders- the perspective on the situation and what I want out of it and them and everything- shifts. And it's important to me I take the time to do that, as much as I love the empire sibs and am thinking fondly about their careers and loves and hopes.

but none of that is mutually exclusive with me making little heart eyes at the two of them and reblogging all the art of that scene. :)

[decks-and-duelists]

So I’ve been planning for April Fools since December. I made that page back in January, and now I can finally talk about it. So here's a blog post talking about random behind the scenes stuff.

I figured the holiday would be a fun excuse to do a yearly "what if I was adapting a different show", allowing me to play around with making campaign comics for series that I love but don't have any actual plans to fully adapt. This year was Sonic X, mainly because I am currently absolutely obsessed with the Sonic franchise and will gladly take any excuse to talk about it.

I decided to base the page on episode 36, The Threat From Outer Space (Shadow World in the English dub), for three reasons. One, using a scene from the Adventure 2 adaptation would mean even people who haven't watched Sonic X would hopefully have the necessary context. Two, reversing the "attack the moon" scene so that an NPC was threatening to blow up the moon and Yugi was panicking about the tides was like the first thing I thought of when I decided to make a page based on Sonic X. And three, it was the arc I was currently watching at the time.

The page itself was the easiest thing, since it was a single out of context thing whose joke hinged on referencing a scene from the actual comic. But then I had to write the character bios. And because the whole point of this thing was to imagine a hypothetical campaign comic, I couldn't just not come up with descriptions of characters that don't even appear in the comic, referencing past events from episodes I'll never make.

I was originally going to include the NPCs as well, but quickly realized there were too many to write bios for all of them. Even if I just included NPCs that actually feature in the Adventure 2 arc it still would be way too much. Only two NPC bios were actually written before they were abandoned. Mr. Stewart's was "Chris's former homeroom teacher who definitely isn't a government spy" and Cream the Rabbit's was "A child who was originally created just to be rescued in the first session, only for the party to get attached to her".

So that just left the PCs, most of which were yoinked from their regular bios with details swapped out. Tristan is the only one whose class didn't change, because the entire reason he plays a warrior in the first place is that he picked the most generic class. That's actually also why I decided he'd be Chris, because I figured he's the only one who would choose to be a generic human when everyone else is playing furries.

Tozokou and Yugi are the only ones with brand new bios, for completely different reasons. Tozokou just doesn't have a bio to yoink, because I don't want to add him to the character page until Episode 6 is finished. So when creating Knuckles' bio I tried to write it as if it was an edited version of Mokuba's so it'd match the others. Besides the class and character which are swapped for everyone, the main change is replacing avenging his brother with protecting the Master Emerald. Also Knuckles did actually appear as an NPC prior to Tozokou taking him over, as unlike with Mokuba he did have notable appearances before the first episode revolving around him.

Yugi on the other hand does have a bio, but it’s completely useless for Sonic. Both him playing two characters and being bad with names just do not apply to Sonic X. Though I was tempted to try and work in a joke about Nicky from the manga, I ended up instead giving him one based on my sibling/proofreader’s justification for why I should make Sonic a ranger.

Finally there’s the chapter cover. When making the covers, both for this and the actual comic I like to try and test my editing skills by doing more complicated stuff than what I usually do for the pages themselves, usually involving editing together completely unrelated screenshots.

With the NPC bios being cut and him not having any dialogue, I knew I had to feature Shadow the Hedgehog on the cover. He is my precious blorbo and so I was contractually obligated to include him somewhere. And since the moon being blown up is both the main thing that happens in the original episode and the focus of the page, I decided to combine it with a shot of Shadow’s reflection as he looks out of the ARK.

The transition between the two isn’t quite as smooth as previous edits I’ve done, but since this one was made just to appear as a thumbnail in the archive and not a proper update, it works for what I needed.

I don’t really have a conclusion for this, but I guess I’ll see you next year with another extremely normal update™ based on whatever anime I end up watching in December.