#who allowed me to make this much lore in such a short amount of time?

[emi-writings]

I started writing a tntduo oneshot, because I felt like giving my readers a quick fic to enjoy after the whole... thing (and because Burning Iron chapters take forever because I do research and I plot out how everything goes, etc).

It was a werewolf AU...

And 2000 words in, the fic started off strong but is now coming across like shit...

Because it's very obviously rushed...

But my ideas are way, way too many to fit into a oneshot...

So you know... that's great...

[kaibutsushidousha]

Opinions on The Hundred Line story and characters?

Ok, now the prologue is finally finished and I can write the 0 endings version of this post. Hopefully the 100 endings versions will follow along in less than 5 years.

I'll first leave the tl;dr version of the post outside the cut, then get into more detail about each student below. Check also my livetweet thread more pinpoint thoughts on specific scenes, language version comparisons, and way too much thought put through put into Omokage's silly dialogue.

Not much to say yet about the general arrangement. The prologue goes by with a decent amount of lore reveals, the revelation that our perspective on the war is still very wrong, and no clear indication of which plot points matter and which are misdirection. The only character we had a chance to talk to someone in the school invader side is the commander-in-chief, who openly follows a different cause from her fellow commanders. Now that Takumi learned Invaderese the Kirby way, I would expect a route where he hangs out with the commanders, but I feel like if something like that existed, I would have already heard about it. Let's get to the students at Last Defense Academy, then.

Takumi Sumino is definitely one of the Kodaka protagonists that exist. He has a decently defined identity as the dude who got himself engaged to a heavily dependent girl at around age six and then nothing ever happened in his life. He's generally harmless, at least without me having the opportunity to make evil choices for him, and can easily be cool when he needs to. But one major thing I still don't get is the Watsonian reason for him to have Special Review. Class Weapons and Specialist Skills are embodiments of their personalities, so I'd expect the power of redo to belong to someone more introspective and regretful.

Takemaru Yakushiji was, at all times, 100% exactly what he looked like. The 80s shounen delinquent archetype played to letter, even more so than Oowada. It's maybe exaggerated a little with him having multiple volunteer jobs caring for the elders and whatnot. It gets to the point that he genuinely feels like he's not punk enough to fit his aesthetics. He's a central positive figure to his wider community both in the TRC and the LDA (see how he's the most valuable source of support in every persuasion arc), and understands strict laws as something meaningful and necessary (see how more often than not he finds himself agreeing with Shizuhara's points despite repudiating her methods to get at it). Even the violence he warns about first thing talk to him is something he proves to be perfectly contained about. The only punk thing about him is being an underage biker, really.

Hiruko Shizuhara is not there for long. But perhaps her short presence is exactly what allows her to be such a transcendently good source of friction while she's around. Regardless, she's gone precisely when she's about to open up, so I can't say I have an opinion. I unfortunately don't have her backstory novel, but I feel like this would have been the ideal time to read it if I did. I have to say it's pretty funny how DR's and THL's underage biker characters feel so similar to each other while the discipline monitor characters feel so incredibly different. The only thing Ishimaru and Hiruko have in common is being paired primarily with the biker thug.

Darumi Amemiya is what if Rain Code's Shinigami was actually funny. The answer, unfortunately, was that good jokes don't solve the problem. While Darumi does drop occasional hints to a serious backstory with a lot of potential, her default contribution to the story is undercutting good moments with out-of-place gags, and failing to at least generate friction from her incompatibility with the group because no one ever gives her attention. If anything, it's sometimes extra frustrating that her jokes are good and her only problem is that she's telling them at the wrong time. Unfortunately, this intrusiveness is something I don't believe will ever go away, so she has to go into the disappointment tier. I have no idea how good her serious content will need to be to offset this. One major positive I have to bring up is that I love how she never gets over simulation complex. Instead of learning to believe what's happening is real, her progression is about initially guessing the wrong genre for the game she's in, and over time developing a very precise understanding of what The Hundred Line's game design looks like from the player's perspective. 10/10 bit in a vacuum, I wish didn't have consequences for the tone of the scenes she's in.

Eito Aotsuki starts off as the cynical and analytical classmate, 180s into the cheesiest boy to ever cheese within the first week, and then spends the rest of the run just there making innocuous comments and moving things along to the (in)convenience of the plot and most of all to the convenience of the gameplay. No one makes AP like my guy here. But despite being the strongest guy in the team, I have to admit that I didn't catch on to Aotsuki's deal as early as I should mainly because I almost never remembered he was part of the cast when trying to theorize about the bigger picture. It took until he tried to organize a second party with Gaku me to start seeing the sabotage. Anyway, the climax of the prologue involves him revealing his true colors, which look half Oberon Vortigern and half Sesshouin Kiara. And it works surprisingly well. I almost can't believe how much I felt like Aotsuki's characterization worked well for him, considering Kiara is a character that took forever to grow on me and Oberon is one I still actively dislike. I guess he just double-confirms that Oberon could have been a really cool character if he existed outside the very specific contexts of Avalon le Fae.

Tsubasa Kawana is, exactly as I feared, too normal. Her persuasion event is cute enough but definitely the weakest of the four. She does have her hobby as a mechanic that makes her useful and on rare occasions funny, but I don't count usefulness as a thing that makes characters better or worse. The best thing I can say about her is that the way her passion for mechanics extends into her being the sci-fi fan that contributes with meaningful insights to the conversations about parallel worlds feels really natural and clever.

Gaku Maruko is unforeseen goat of The Hundred Line. He descends from a joke character archetype Kodaka already worked with multiple times, so I came in with pretty specific expectations about the kind of humor he was there to deliver, and I can say I got exactly what I thought I would in that regard, but I was completely blindsided by the emotional depth he'd get at the first possible opportunity. Maruko's persuasion is bar none the most hard-hitting moment of the first 100 days. Maruko is extremely self-aware that he's the guy who can't ever catch a break, to the point he even perceives his 20 little brothers as parasites holding him back from his wants. He's viscerally furious at society, his family included, for the way his life is. To survive his difficult world, Maruko is making conscious efforts to be self-serving and self-sufficient. He wants to live for himself because it's genuinely unfair that luck gives him nothing. But he can't. He never could. Takumi persuades him by saying nothing because Maruko's problems are entirely self-solving. Being Gaku Maruko sucks, therefore being Gaku Maruko is the last thing he'd ever wish on anyone else. He works 17 jobs to feed 20 "leeches" at his group home because the alternative would be allowing them to be as deprived as he is. He risks his life fighting Invaders because the alternative is risking their lives. He solo organizes all parties in this group home and the Last Defense Academy so no one else will be too busy to enjoy themselves. He will willing grab the short end of the stick so no one else will have to suffer his rotten luck. As much he tries to be selfish, Maruko's empathy ultimately shines brighter when it counts. He's doomed to be a caretaker most of all by his own personality. I love especially how it's not even like his greed is a mask crafted to survive as a misfortunate empath. He genuinely hates his life and genuinely wants to own good things and fulfill base desires. This is the open contradiction that makes him an excellent character. I feel like this is where Kodaka finally found the solution to make his dubious coward joke characters work. Gaku won my heart as soon as he could, and did it in a way where I can't see myself ever getting annoyed at his humor, because the worst of him works in benefit of the best of him.

Ima Tsukumo is, against all odds, funny. His creep factor takes the backseat most of the time. Instead, Ima's default state is just your regular zoomer troll you can find in any rancid YouTube comments section. Even his siscon shtick is pretty tolerable thanks to how pragmatic it feels. I can't tell if that's the intention, but it works well as an insincere tactic to keep people away. Ima is defined mainly by his lack of vulnerabilities. He's distant, cautious, disrespectful, crafty, vicious, and most of all, unshakable. He presents himself as Kako's invincible protector and never relaxes that aspect even after his change of heart. With 100 routes in the game, there must be a route where Ima breaks, but within the prologue, his defenses are so flawless I can't even imagine what that would look like. With all this praise, you might be wondering what is Ima doing at the bottom of the disappointment tier. Well, the answer is as simple as "recruiting him is too easy". The prologue spends like 50 days building Ima up as the greatest challenge to the team's unity, but when it's finally time to get him, he practically goes down without a fight. Maybe there is a route out there where Ima gets to live up to his potential as a contrarian with issues the player needs to work to solve, but Persuasions would be repeat content, so I'd expect the future routes to skip or streamline that side. Maybe. I still haven't checked how this works, but as of now I don't expect Ima to ever deliver what he was selling.

Kako Tsukumo is decent, I guess. Second best persuasion sequence despite its consequences to Ima's character. Ending one of them with a "No, shut up" is just a neat idea. Her precognition and her struggles as an amateur detective who doesn't know what she's doing are good bits. She shares one of the biggest things I give praise for Yumeno in V3, which is how her change isn't easy. She's often seen relapsing to the previous terms of her relationship with Ima at moments of setback, especially in the two (three?) periods where he's dead. Unfortunately, her biggests emotional moments, namely her going apeshit because of the other twin, don't hit for much because they build up on Ima's wet noodle of a resolution. Too much reward for an anti-climax.

Shouma Ginzaki is about as easy to ignore as he claims to be, even if he never gets outright forgotten like pre-reveal Aotsuki often was. His persuasion was cute with the "it's okay to fail" message, the Kurara duel plotline was not bad, and the commitment to his allergy to conflict makes his gameplay interesting, but overall he showed nothing I'd call impressive. I feel like the peak of his potential was when the class took a POW and he started becoming the Human Pet Guy, but that's a plotline to pay off in a different route.

Nozomi Kirifuji is surprisingly functional for the designated mystery character whose mystery doesn't even get properly answered. She has a compelling sense of purpose, fleshed out reasons to be like that, an effective performance in her role as her team's guiding heart, and genuine chemistry both with Takumi and with her Second-to-Last Defense Academy friends. The worst thing that could happen to her is her conflation with Karua being her primary focus, but she gets to be her own person in multiple significant ways.

Kurara Oosuzuki is perhaps the most well-balanced character of the cast, if I had to pick one. She's incredibly funny, acts as an effective leader when needed, plays off well with pretty much the entire cast, gets a solid amount of depth in the initial scenario, and pulls off some decent drama through her relationship with Nozomi. Some of her gags definitely cross the line, but she doesn't feel less sympathetic for it since it's established that the tomato demon is a domineering persona the human Kurara intentionally engineered to be able to survive her upbringing. She's made to be offensive because that's what human Kurara believes a noblewoman had to be like. That said, human Kurara is annoying and would be at the bottom of the tier list if the site had the two separately. I'm treating her as a side character that exists solely to flesh out tomato demon Kurara, the one I actually like.

Kyoshika Magadori is the funniest character ever. She has all of Chabashira's positive energy and silliness packed into samurai pastiche, a seemingly genuine belief that shounen manga are documentaries, a little bit of an ego that makes her refuse to admit she doesn't know something, and a katana wife with a personality we have to piece together from scattered statements. All excellent bits that often come together really well. The only reason why she isn't placed second is because she didn't any good serious scene yet. All of her serious content so far has been her being extremely not immune to propaganda about the vile and barbaric enemy and shutting down attempts at nuance on the cast's interpretations of the invaders.

Yugami Omokage is exactly the fascinating specimen I hoped he'd be. A capital f Freak, but a good and reliable friend who is helpful to the team's cause, a smart thinker who pays attention to the plot and contributes with solid ideas, and his interplay of love and murder feels incredibly unique. The concept of mutual consent reinterpreted as "I only wish to kill someone who wants to be killed by me just as much" could genuinely be uncharted territory. I called Kurara the most balanced character, but Yugami doesn't stand too far. Having seen nothing about it, I already feel confident his romance route will be the best.

Moko Mojirou is not around for long, and during her little time on screen, the impostor is sus. She is presented as the heart of the Second-to-Last Defense Academy but that never clicked with me. It doesn't help that most of my time with her was spent going "Is this is a wrestling reference?" then googling it and half of the time finding out that yes, this is a wrestling reference, and the other half finding out that no, it's instead a martial arts manga reference. Her stories being lifted from manga has interesting implications, though. It's a narrative trick Kodaka pulled multiple times before to signify that either the speaker was lying about their accomplishments, or in V3's case that the world they've been living was a lie. If the real Moko also steal credits from manga plots, this could go to interesting places.

[thechy-fychannel]

I try not to get hung up on timelines but I swear Wilson's timeline makes no damn sense to me 😭 I don't believe we are ever given a precise birth date for him, so assuming he's about the same age as his actor (who already looked incredibly young for his age) he would've had to be a child prodigy as well for the timeline to make sense.

RSL was born in 1969, so we'll use that year for Wilson too bc I just cannot imagine him being any older than that. He was 35 when the show aired and could've easily passed for his 20s. Aging him up more than 35 feels incredibly unrealistic with how young he looked.

Being born in 1969 means he likely graduated high school in 1987ish. Four years of undergraduate school already puts him at 1991 before he even starts med school. Another 4 years in med school puts him at 1995, 3 years after he meets House. And that doesn't even include his residency years after he graduated.

But wasn't Wilson already a doctor when they met? He said him and Sam split because he was working two jobs while doing his residency in order to put her through med school. So we can extrapolate that when he met House, he had graduated but was still going through his residency in 1992.

For shits and giggles, let's say he graduated as a prodigy at 16 in 1985, 4 yrs of undergrad- 1989, and let's say he did the accelerated program that allowed him to graduate med school in 3 years, 1992. That would make sense if Wilson had only just started his residency when he met House. But according to his lore, he must've been doing his residency for a while in order for it to affect his marriage so much that they divorced. They'd already been split up for a while before he was served divorce papers.

Even if that timeline makes a little more sense, what doesn't make sense is that he would've finished his residency between 1995 and 1998 (even later if he didn't graduate early) and then sometime between then and before the show aired, he became the HEAD of the oncology department. I'm pretty sure he had been department head for a while before the show aired, but even if he'd only been promoted to department head just before the show started, that means he was made department head 5-9 years after finishing his residency. I don't know how ranking in a hospital works, but less than a decade out of his residency feels like a very short amount of time to become head of a huge department in a big teaching hospital— one of the best in the country.

I guess the solution that makes the most sense is to consider him to be closer to 40 at the beginning of the show, but you cannot look at that young sweet face in s1 and tell me that man is anywhere close to 40. He doesn't even start looking close to 40 until s6 imo.

Anyways, feel free to ignore this. This is just what runs through my head while I'm pretending to be busy at work.

[jay-gatsby-official]

Hello, old sport!

My name is Jay Gatsby, and I am a resident of West Egg. On weekends, I host large gatherings, so I do hope that you enjoy yourself if you decide to attend any! No invitation is needed, anyone can attend so long as they’re not here to cause trouble! I���ve decided to open my mailbox, so free to send letters as well, old sport!

Cheers, J. Gatsby

(OOC info under the cut)

Alright, well, I hope that introduction wasn’t too bad! Usually I don’t introduce myself in-character any time I roleplay, as I often struggle with not knowing what exactly to say.

Now, let me give you some information about this blog!

I’ve been wanting to make this because The Great Gatsby is a recent hyperfixation of mine, and it’s surprisingly made it through some others I’ve had.

Feel free to send serious or silly asks! I also love starting plotlines, so feel free to send an ask and start one! I won’t allow DMs unless we already know each other or you ask permission first, sorry.

Gatsby’s text, as seen above, will be in purple. I often forget to tag when things are in-character or out-of-character, so please be aware of this. Most posts will be written somewhat like a letter, because I struggle with writing as if it’s a book.

Feel free to start up crossovers! I love crossovers! Even if I’m not informed about much of your media or you’re not informed about much of The Great Gatsby, I’d still love to participate in one! I actually know someone who is running an askblog for a piece of media I don’t know much about, so you may see us interact.

This blog takes place before the start of The Great Gatsby, I’ll say a short time before Nick Carraway moves into West Egg. Some plot points and details will be different from the book, but these details will only be revealed if they become relevant over time. The plot here will be developed through asks.

Modern-day references and asks about future events are welcome! With the modern-day references, this is because the idea of someone from the Roaring ’20s somehow getting ahold of modern technology or modern foods/beverages is very funny to me, so go nuts!

At certain points, I’ll be adding some doodles with asks! The quality will vary, as I plan to experiment with my style so I can improve and because I don’t always have a good place or the time to sit and draw. The completedness of any art shared here will depend on how much time and resources I have available in 24 hours, which is the amount of time I’m trying to complete small doodles in. As my main blog is meant to be an art blog, I’m also going to repost any completed art that’s related to The Great Gatsby from there to here.

Lastly, I’m going to try to answer every ask in order. Sometimes Tumblr doesn’t show asks, so if you think yours didn’t go through feel free to check. There will be a counter of the total amount I’ve received on the ask button.

Now, that’s all I think I need to say! I apologize if this was a long read, but I thought I’d get some basic information in here! Thanks for reading!

P.S. If it’s needed, I might eventually make a lore recap post. If that’s the case, I’ll reblog this with the recap and pin that. I doubt it’ll be needed, but just in case, you know?

[angelaevangelion]

"Your Neighbors a vampire."

Choso X Reader

You get stuck in an elevator with Choso.

Warnings : A curse word. Implied suggestive themes. Mentions of blood. Enclosed in an unstable dark space.

Choso Banner by me

Red banners by ( @cafekitsune )

This is my submission for the @love-and-lore autumn self ship sweater event 🍂 which is being hosted by @meggsngrits and @kailali 💕

Featuring Vampire Choso 🤍 I hope all you Choso lovers enjoy this one ✨️ please check out all the other submissions too!

“Oh no no no no no.” You mumbled to yourself as you ran down the hallway passing numerous apartment doors. The clacking of your heels against the high gloss marble floor filling and bouncing off the archways of the corridors as you passed them. You weren’t going to make it as you watched the aged ornate gold elevator doors begin to beep while it slowly closed.

“Please! Wait!” You begged to whoever was already inside.

At the final moment a black boot stepped out, allowing you entry.

You exhaled in relief as you quickly stepped inside clutching your purse tightly and scanning the person waiting inside. Your eyes, for the first time setting on the brightest set of purple colored eyes you’ve ever seen. An immediate tell that this man was no ordinary human man. His black unruly hair falling slightly over those eyes and a unique mark crossing over the bridge of his nose. He smirked at you, his cocky side grin making you clench your jaw. But you already know who he is. It was non other than your handsome neighbor Choso.

You offer a weak smile to the tall elusive male, who looked not much older than you and quickly face forward staring at the large panel of buttons. You eyed the glowing buttons quickly before finding the one that takes you to the lobby. Pressing it impatiently hoping you’d get there faster. You realized your button was the only one that’d been pressed.

You coughed softly and turned to him. “Which floor?”

“Lobby’s fine, thank you doll.” Choso answered slowly, a undertone hiding in his voice that makes your skin crawl. It’s just like what you’ve heard about those who are beautiful creatures, even their voices are made to lure you.

You curtly nod. As the sound of his voice rings in your ears repeating the word over and over again. Doll...Doll...DOLL.

You shouldn’t be surprised with how naturally charming he already is from just a short interaction. You assume it’s how he managed to hold a rotation of the seemingly same women you could hear moaning his name in the dead of night while you tried your best to fall asleep. You could practically blame the guy for the amount of times you nearly woke up late from the lack of rest you’d been getting.

An awkward silence seemed to settle over the both of you as the elevator whirred it’s way down. You tapped your foot growing more and more impatient with each passing moment.

“Come on stupid old elevator.” You muttered as you pressed the lobby button several times over and over and over again. “Go faster.” You said as you saw the antique dial above the doors slowly move indicating you were barely passing the thirteenth floor.

Choso snickered behind you. Interrupting your thoughts.

“What?” You ask raising a brow.

“My apologies for being in here.”

You seem taken aback by that. But you realize what your impatience must look like. Being mistaken for fear or disgust of his kind. But it’s October, this is his month to be out without any fears. He has the right to be out just as any other person.

“I’m not scared of you, I’m just running late to work.” Thanks again to you. You can't help but to think. You go back to pressing the button. “Come. On.”

“I don’t think you can make it go faster.” Amusement from his tone making you roll your eyes.

“I know that!” You turned back to the button panel quickly ignoring him. “Hurry. Up!” You said as you jammed your finger into the lobby button, holding it down hard as it beeped endlessly.

Suddenly all the lights on the panel lit up brightly then began to flicker violently. You quickly let go but it didn’t stop the endless beep just as the antique chandelier above you slowly dimmed out and the elevator came to a loud screeching halt making the ground shift beneath your feet. You felt your stomach drop. As the silence settled.

“What the hell did you just do?” Choso asked.

“N-nothing! I didn’t do anything!” You stared back at him like a deer in headlights and taking a quick step away from the panel of buttons.

“I told you it wouldn’t go faster.” He said crossing his arms.

“I- I know! But I didn’t think it’d kill itself! I was just smashing a button!”

Choso narrowed his eyes at you. “Say that again but slower.”

You scoffed. "Whatever-"

The elevator interrupted your quarrel ringing out a loud sound of what you could only describe as engine failure.

You exhaled sharply, “Oh shit.” Sounding utterly terrified. Shifting your eyes around you to try to take in your surroundings with what little detail you could make out in the almost darkness.

“So...uhhh do you have any special powers?” You ask him as you look around for an escape feeling the sides of the elevator walls.

“Ahh so you wanna get to know me?” He asked grinning at you. From what you could tell.

You grimaced at him and snickered. “Tch No! I’m asking if it’ll help us get out of here.”

“Relax, I know that.” He leaned against the wall and held out his hand, palm up as you watched blood appear from seemingly nothing and causing a red glow to illuminate the elevator. At that you shrieked and slapped the odd floating blood away, splatting across the wall.

“What the hell!” Choso complained “You asked!” He growled baring his fangs at you.

“Conjuring yourself some blood isn’t gonna get us both out of here!” You argued, not backing down from his sudden outburst.

He exhales in annoyance. “Yah whatever. So not very helpful in this situation.” He looked at the ground. “What about you?” He asked.

You looked up at him before shifting your eyes away. “Ummmm I’m just a human, nothing supernatural.”

“So, your essentially a warmed up blood bag?” He asks.

“A what?” Is all you can respond with at this point as you puff out your cheeks as he laughs at you.

“I’m completely joking with you.” He says through his laughter.

"Well, im not warm now." You complain as you rub your arms a bit, realizing you forgot your sweater in your apartment. You wait a few beats before you speak again. “You are a vampire, yes?”

You think you see his jaw tense before he answers you. “Fledgling vampire. But yes, I am a vampire.”

He sees your expression surprisingly brighten at hearing that, which confuses him. It’s typically not the normal reaction he gets from humans.

You’ve never actually met a vampire or a fledgling, but they say fledgling vampires have much more restraint, and they can walk in the daytime. “Who turned you? Wait, how old are you?” You can't help but to ask. When you were younger, you had dreamed of one day being one. But here you are, still a human.

“You ask a lot of questions. And that’s incredibly personal.” He simply answers while pulling out his phone from inside his sweater pocket, eyeing it as the screen lights up his features. He holds it above his head before giving up. “Fuck. No service.” He sighs.

You suck in your breath sharply before digging yours out of your purse.

“Ha! Mines got service!”

“Great call the fire squ...-“ The vampire deadpans at you. Seeing you’re not calling anyone.

“What are you doing?” He asks, thoroughly confused.

“I’m not gonna get fired if I don’t die.” You quip as your fingers tap quickly on your screen. Choso watches in disbelief as you text what he assumes is your boss.

You roll your eyes at Gojo’s text.

“Okay, let me just...” You begin to say as you dial the emergency number holding it up to your ear.

All you get is silence. “What the heck.” You breathe as you check your phone. Realizing it died. You gasp in horror and look up at Choso apologetically.

He shakes his head at you in utter disbelief. The buns in his hair shaking.

“Y- You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. You know you have your priorities backwards, you must know that, right?” He says throwing his hands up in defeat as he laughs at the ridiculousness.

You let your back press up against the cold elevator wall. Banging your head lightly a couple times. “What do we do now?” You ask.

Choso pushes himself off his side of the elevator and walks the small distance to you. Leaning next to you. A bit too close for your comfort. “Wait. I guess...Shouldn’t be long before someone notices.” He shrugs his shoulders. His voice suddenly coming off too casual for the situation you are both in.

You groan and let your eyes close a moment. Your other senses taking over. His coldness was radiating off him and freezing your left side without him even touching you. You suspect it’s due to him being a vampire.

Choso is the first to break the silence between you. “I’m Choso, I live in 103.”

“Yah I know.” You respond a little too quickly.

“You do?” He says, letting his crooked smirk spread on his face.

“Yeah...I live in 102”

“You’re kidding...You’re 102?” Not hiding the shock in his voice he runs his hand through his unruly black hair. As he looks you up and down.

Your feelings betray you, slightly offended that he doesn’t already know who you are. Your curiosity piques as to why he seems so shocked.

“Y-yah? What of it?” You ask, feeling betrayed by your own wavering voice.

“Ohhhh nothing.” Choso teases, putting his hands in the pockets of his pants.

You narrow your eyes at him.

“What do you mean nothing?” You cross your arms and drop the side of your hip.

He chuckles softly at your panicked tone. “Don’t worry about it doll.” Smiling, more to himself than you as he can finally put a face to the sound of your voice. Always reading out loud in the early hours of your weekend in your room adjacent to his. Or the way you get excited and yell while you’re playing one of your video games or when you’re singing while you shower. He cursed his hearing sensitivity. But he couldn’t deny that he found himself enjoying those mornings more and more when your voice would lull him awake through the thin wall. He should’ve been annoyed by it. In any other case he would be, but your voice was far too sweet and he had a sense that you had some depth to you. Unlike his usual blood bag he’d sink his teeth into.

He was happy to discover your face matched the sound of your voice.

You feel a warmness spreading across your cheeks and are happy for once that it’s too dim for him to tell.

Unbeknownst to you he can tell. He can sense the heat as it slowly spreads from the apples of your cheeks down to your chest. Just as easy as it is for him to sense the shivers going down your spine and up your arms.

Cute. He thinks.

“Whatever, it can’t be worse than what I know about you.” You say, a tinge of annoyance in your words.

“And what DO you know about me?” He asks, leaning closer to your face. You slide yourself away from him in an exaggerated manner. Implying heavily that you want him to keep his distance though he doesn’t get the hint. Or maybe he does but is enjoying messing with you. He scoots closer, this time, his shoulder pressed against yours, letting his coldness radiate into your side. The intense chill surprises you just as he is surprised with an unexpected thumping in his chest, quickening with excitement.

“Can’t hear you little one...” He drawls, his voice sounding an octave lower.

You almost want to lean closer to him but you don’t want to let him get the best of you. You slide away again being stopped by the corner of the elevator. Choso shoots a mischievous grin as he traps you in the corner. Placing his hands on either side of your face, caging you in. You pick up on the sweet smell of his addicting cologne filling your senses. He gently places his knee in between your thighs, against your will you release a soft, pathetic whimper.

Choso’s eyes widen at your sound as he leans closer to you. The sound instantly making him see you as the delicious prey that he believes you to be. “What was that hmm?” His cold minty breath fanning your face.

You want to bury yourself further into the metal wall of the elevator and hide. Unable to look away from his dilated dark eyes. Fully aware of his thigh pressing more firmly into you.

You forcefully slide down and scoot out of his arms before he could act on his vampiric desires. Finally free and stepping away from him you distract yourself by smoothing out the linen fabric of your black blouse and skirt. You clear your throat trying to gain some confidence in your voice.

“Oh you know, just that you rotate the same 3 girls. You have your Monday, your Thursday and your Friday girl. The Monday one is surprisingly quiet though.” You say flicking your hair as if uninterested.

Choso furrows his brows at you. “Well I do leave them all satisfied, they enjoy themselves as much as I do, in case you had any doubts...they all express it as best they can while I’m f-“

“OKAY!! JEEEZUUUHH!! I get it!” You say covering his mouth with your hands to get him to stop talking. “I don’t really want to hear the details.”

He speaks into the palms of your hands still covering his mouth. Voice muffled, the vibrations tickling your skin and sending shivers up your arms. You instantly pull your hands away. “Huh? What’d you say?” You ask.

“I said that if you’re so curious, I can show you.” He says so confidently.

At that, your face flushes a deep crimson red. So dark, Choso could see it clear as day.

“Don’t flatter yourself Choso. That’s not something I’d jump right into with you.” You say feeling proud of your confident voice. And he believes that full heartedly.

“If you insist, but the beating of your heart tells me something entirely different.” He says slowly.

“We won’t. Theirs nothing TO see. When we get out of here we’ll just go back to the way it was before.” You exclaim, crossing your arms for added effect.

Suddenly as if the universe is against you, the elevators weight shifts drastically. You can feel it shake violently beneath you. The sound of wires and bolts snapping and screeching.

You let out a high-pitched shriek unlike anything Choso has ever heard before, and against your better judgment, you jump right into his broad arms. Hugging him with all the force you could muster, burying your face into his cold chest. Your lips graze the pale skin of his hard chest. His arm instinctively wraps around you, caressing you while trying to relax your trembling form. His other hand running through your scalp tenderly. Your heart was now hammering out of pure fear, and yet here you were seeking comfort in his arms.

“You were saying?” His voice, sounding smooth like honey in your ear.

You go to pull yourself away but are yanked suddenly back into him. “Ahh!” You yelp.

A chunk of your hair managed to somehow get stuck in the buttons of his sweater, causing you to lose your balance and dragging him down with you till you were flat on your back. As you try to look up from your new position on the ground, you're surprised to hear Choso chuckling softly. His legs straddling you. Your hair covering your face as it’s still entwined to Choso. You tried fidgeting around underneath him, unable to wiggle yourself away.

“Stop moving.” Choso ordered you with slight command in his voice. His voice sounding a bit more gruff than he intended, but he smirked when you listened. He could hear your quick panting breath. As he sat over you, his hips hovering above your waist. He worked your hair gently out of his buttons. Pulling the last piece away. He smooth’s your hair away from your face, enjoying the embarrassed look on you.

But now that you’re separated, neither one of you has the strength to want to move, staring deeply into each other. Taking in the small details of the others face. Choso couldn’t help but feel warmly for you. Neither of you pulling away even though nothing held you two together. You felt the pull to him deep within, not sure if it was all you or if it was him luring you like prey. You didn’t seem to care though. Not in that moment. Slowly, your faces unconsciously inched closer to each other until you felt the brush of his soft hair on your forehead. Noses finally gently touched. Following your instincts to just give in for once in your life you tilted your head, giving him access to your neck. Your eyes fluttered closed, waiting.

And for once he hesitated, his gaze eyeing the pulse of your neck. Salivating at the mouth as he could almost taste you from just your delicious scent. You’re eyes gently closed and your breath even and calm. It was all you. He hadn’t done anything yet to make you submissive to his needs. You certainly were a surprise to him.

Beams from flashlights shined through the cracks of the elevator doors. Slightly illuminating the small elevator. Causing Choso to look up, away from you.

“Y/N! You in there?!”

At the sound of your name being called you push yourself out of Choso’s hold and quickly crawl. You press your face up to the tiny gap in the center of the double doors banging on it with your open palms.

“I’m in here!!! Me and Choso!! Get us out PLEASE!!” You cry out.

You hear the familiar voice on the other side answer back.

“Step back for me, I don’t want that pretty face of yours getting dirty.”

“I swear on your life Gojo.” You mutter, standing up. Missing the way Choso raised a curious brow at the interaction.

You step backward to the furthest wall.

“Hey Choso! Can you cover Y/N?”

“On it.” Choso grabs your wrist and pulling you into the corner of the elevator, placing his sweater around your shoulders and quickly covering you completely with his own body at an inhuman speed.

You hear the deafening sound of metal being torn and dismantled as the doors get torn off. Choso releases you and the sudden light nearly blinds you both. And you swear you heard Choso hiss. You blink slowly adjusting to the new brightness as a dark blurry figure grabs you and pulls you out quickly.

“You okay?” Gojo asks as he checks you over, lifting your arms inspecting them carefully and then spinning you around before feeling satisfied at no visible harm being done to you. Then quickly pulling you into an embrace.

“Y-yah I’m okay Gojo.” Your warm breath heats his chest.

A voice interrupts beside you.

“You know you didn’t HAVE to destroy the elevator?” One of Gojo’s students says holding up his bag of equipment.

Gojo shrugs his shoulders carelessly. His arms still wrapped around you. “It was more fun this way.” He turns his attention back down to you. Finally letting you go. “As MY personal assistant, I didn’t think you’d be so foolish.” He says, flicking your forehead.

“Ouch! What the heck is that for?” You ask rubbing your head.

“You didn’t bother calling anyone for help. I checked. And then your phone kept sending me to voicemail. Did it die or something?” He asks accusingly while crossing his arms as he stairs down at you through his blindfold.

“Uhh maybe... I didn’t want you to fire me if I survived! I mean, you know I don’t think straight while under pressure...Plus you came, so I think it worked itself out. Right?” You direct your question to Choso, who spares you a half laugh.

“I guess you could say it worked out just fine doll.” He answers back, using the pet name on purpose.

Gojo looks Choso up and down once before speaking. “How come you didn’t blow the doors out yourself, Choso? You know you could have done it. Saved the day, get the girl.” He asks while inspecting a lock of your hair between his thumb and index finger.

Choso smiles, his fangs glistening in the light unable to hide the thrill in his voice. “It was much more fun this way Satoru. You know I like it when they’re scared. Can’t help myself. Besides, I don't need to pretend to be a hero to get a girl."

Your jaw drops.

“As much as I’d love to play some more, I do have somewhere I need to be. I am getting rather hungry...” Choso says, excusing himself as he waves Gojo off lazily, making the sorcerer scowl at the audacity of being dismissed so offhandedly.

Choso calls out to you over his shoulder before disappearing down the stairs.

“See you around Y/N.” And he seriously hopes he does.

You don’t respond. Having just spent all of your energy and adrenaline making you feel like you’ve been hit by a bus.

Being the nice boss that he can be, Gojo let you take the rest of the day off.

But only because he says he has no meetings for you to take notes for him so he doesn’t have to pay attention.

And since it was Friday you found yourself with a surprise three day weekend. Not even bothering with going out tonight. Falling fast asleep when Gojo tossed you onto your fluffy bed before leaving.

Your dreams replayed the events of the whole morning. His beautiful face, the feel and coolness of his skin, his alluring scent. His dark voice. The excitement. You dreamt of what your future with your mysterious vampire neighbor might hold. All the while, still wrapped in his intoxicating smelling sweater.

Dead asleep you missed the fact that Choso didn’t answer the door to his Friday night visitor. Pretending he wasn’t home until she stopped knocking. You had left an impression on him, stealing his attention. With new feelings he didn’t know he could still have.

He laid in his bed on the other side of the thin wall, adjacent to yours staring up the ceiling. For a long while just listening to the sound of your breathing.

Until finally he reached up to the wall behind him and knocking twice gently. Holding a breath that didn’t need to be held as he waited. Hoping that you’d reach out to him as well.

Knock knock knock.

Unless i personally give you my permission, please do not repost, claim, copy or modify any of my works on any of my platforms. Anyone that does not abide by these rules will be cursed to 1,000 years of bad luck and misfortune.

[montydollcrew2]

SD Owner’s Tokyo Bay Cruise 2024

Time for me to write another ‘experience’ post, about a month later, because it’s something I like to do. So back when I posted about my Omukae Ceremony last year, I said (on Instagram) that I’d always wanted to go on one of the Volks cruises. I had no way of knowing that they would announce another one that December for the following year!

This post is pretty in-depth so it’s very long and rambly and more for my own memories than anything else, but I hope it’s a little informative to anyone who is vaguely interested in the cruises.

Some background info, the Volks Cruises (or Super Dollfie Owners Appreciation Fair in Tokyo (or Kobe) Bay Cruise have happened at irregular intervals from (I think?)2005, to 2017, so it’s been a good while since the last one. They are mini events taking place on a short bay cruise, and going on them allows you to order certain dolls related to Oath of Silver Coin, Volks original line about pirates and the navy that gets lore added to it with every release.

Oath is one of their most popular lines and has been going for a while (the 2024 cruise was actually announced as part of its 20th anniversary celebrations). It’s cool to look back on the history of the line and see the change in the house style! I won’t say much about the lore other than the fact that Captain Cecile is the main character of the pirate side (and also my favourite Volks sculpt family) and Williams is the main character of the navy side and their relationship seems to be these first and last Kate Beaton strips. There’s fanficfion. I own a printed copy of some.

Anyway the 2024 cruise just happened to be around the time I was planning to be in Japan anyway for Magical Mirai Osaka, so entering the lottery for it was a no-brainer. Since the boat has limited capacity, entry is lottery-based. I genuinely didn’t expect to win - it’s the first cruise in a long time, the two limited dolls are particularly stunning (a 2024 version of Reisner, Captain Cecile’s obsessive first-mate, and new character Abelia, the navigator), there was only one scheduled cruise for sunset whereas previous years had 2 (day and sunset), so I figured competition was going to be very steep, but then I got a nice surprise in my inbox in late August.

Fast forward to the day of the cruise (3rd of November)

I attended a pre-cruise lunch with a small handful of other participants organised by usagicamera/usakame, a mutual of mine (and also the person who wrote and made printed copies of the gay pirate fan fiction), and since we were all kinda nervous it was a nice icebreaker. After that we went to the waiting area at Hinode pier. Here’s Cygnus waiting with usakame’s Captain Cecile in a maid dress and Teddy’s(another lunch attender I met that day) Elizabeth (Williams’s younger sister.), unintentionally looking like two rich siblings and their maid.

After some amount of time checkin began. They gave the GL (global) members a separate checkin line to make things smoother. I think besides me there might have been around 15-20 GL members present, but it was hard to tell because people were arriving all the time, and I was near the front of the queue so couldn’t see who joined after I’d checked in. We received a clear pouch on lanyard that contained a map of the boat, a numbered ticket, a voting slip for the best dressed contest and another ticket that told us which floor (of 3) we were assigned.

Because of the limited space on board, we were advised not to bring too much luggage onto the boat, so there was a cloak room for that reason. It also meant most people checked in their bulky doll bags and carried their dolls in their arms while they waited, and it was fun sitting and waiting while looking around at all the dolls suddenly appearing. (most of which were Oath related, although that wasn’t compulsory).

This was particularly funny because the waiting room was actually divided in half down the middle, with the other chairs for a different cruise that was around the same time - a wedding cruise, to be precise. So half of the room is people in evening dress and tuxedos, looking over in bewildered confusion at all the people - half of which were dressed as pirates, lolita or lolita pirates - carrying giant dolls.

While waiting to board a lot of people were using the photo-op space for the ship, including me. (Although our was a Symphony too the ship directly behind this was the wedding cruise, not ours)

When it was time to board, our assigned groups went in one at a time, starting with the first floor which had included me. Walking towards the ship, I spotted Volks mascot Komame (pirate edition) and Reisner hanging over the deck to welcome us aboard. I completely non-ironically love the Oath kigu cosplay that appears at these events, and the Reisner was really hamming it up, waving and gesturing for people to hurry up and board. (He also did finger guns at one point, but I wasn’t able to get a pic)

We walked past a string quartet performance as we entered the ship, which felt very fancy. I don’t have a photo of them but you can see them in the official event report. I’m not sure if it was something Volks organised specifically or just something that comes with all the Symphony cruises.

We were guided into the area with the main stage, which is also where the buffet was. I later learned that the 2nd and 3rd floor buffets had a giant screen that showed what was happening on the 1st floor stage, so I’m kinda glad I got to see the actual stage. Once everyone was on the ship, there was a welcome and a toast as we set sail - and then we were all allowed to move freely around the boat.

Me and my friends went straight to the Oneoff display (photos not allowed but they’re also on the official report), and it’s probably a good thing we did, because it meant we were among the first in and this didn’t have to spend a huge chunk of the cruise waiting in line like a lot of others did. They would only let a few in at a time and handed us a clipboard and pen with the entry form. After looking at the models in filling in the form, we put it in the treasure chest shaped entry box. On one hand, it was a good method to stop the area becoming too crowded, but the drawback was that it took longer and I later saw that the line was so long it snaked down the stairs and into another room.

The box was out on deck, so after coming out of the oneoff room I got to enjoy the deck with my friends right as sunset was beginning. There were some convenient places (drink rests?) to sit dolls on the railings which I was thankful for because I had so many visions of dolls falling overboard lol.

I was on deck for a while because it was fun, and because it was such a clear day you could even see Mt Fuji in the distance.

I then went downstairs a floor to see what the photo spaces were like, figuring I probably wouldn’t use them as there might be too many people, and I could see a huuuge line…but it turned out to be for the one-offs, and there weren’t too many people at the photo area at all. It was cool because they had combined the photo area with the Oath dolls display, so you could actually pose your own dolls amongst them.

Here is Cygnus standing awkwardly between Captain Cecile and Abelia. As for Reisner, he was on the other side of the display by himself. It was my first time seeing him in person. Actually now that I think of it, it was probably okay to sit a doll next to him on the seat, so I wish I’d done that. But there will be plenty of time for photos of Cygnus with a Reisner later.

I realised i hadn’t touched the buffet at all, so went to get my moneys worth at the closest one, which is when I saw the big screen - it was currently showing the tail end of the Best Dresser contest happening on the 1st floor which I had completely forgotten about until then. It seemed like the people who had registered for it were on stage explaining their outfits, but I’d missed most of it and was also too preoccupied with eating, so didn’t end up using my voting slip. 

After wandering a little more and meeting some friends here and there, I went back to the first floor for the big treasure raffle, which is what the ticket we were given when we checked in was for. There were a lot of prizes up for grabs and the winners were decided by the numbers randomly drawn out of the treasure chest. There were small accessories, doll outfits and a bunch of special Tenshi (the tiniest Volks dolls only ever available as raffle/bingo prizes.) As usual, I didn’t win anything (I have never won anything at Dolpa Bingos either), but it was still fun seeing how excited the winners got. 

The boat was coming back to the dock now, so it was time for the closing speech - which included a surprise announcement for the next Volks release. Everyone did the countdown together and then the Volks staff lifted up the giant placards to reveal the new Macha and Yumepi, a collab with Baby, the Stars Shine Bright! The dolls look spectacular and it’s been many years since a Baby collab, so there was a lot of hype and cheering. It was exciting to be among the first people anywhere to see these new dolls! And one lucky person won a Dolpa priority pass.

It was time to leave now, so everyone had to return to their assigned floors and wait until their group could leave, in reverse order to how we got on, so I was in the last group to leave. Volks staff on the docks were handing out goody bags for us as we left - they contained the newest issue of Volks News - 2 days before it would come out officially for everyone else, a letter of thanks from the Shigetas (the Volks owners, who unfortunately couldn’t come on the cruise this time) and some cute little trinkets in a $ bag. 

I guess I’ll let my Reisner play with them later (Even though I’d paid for him at the time I won my cruise ticket, the dolls themselves weren’t sent until nearly a month after the cruise, and mine was stuck in postal limbo for a bit and only got to me the other day). Some people were disappointed they couldn’t collect and take home the dolls from the cruise but I’m personally glad I didn’t have to manage to get another giant doll back with me, seeing as Cygnus was taking up a lot of luggage space as it was.)

So that was my first Volks cruise! I had no idea what to expect, but I had a ton of fun. The Volks staff were fantastic / they brought a lot of fun energy and were often mingling with the crowd - I even got to briefly talk to Ciera (one of the faceup artists). I got to hang out with some of my friends from Instagram and take photos with their dolls, and also meet some (although unfortunately not all) of my Twitter mutuals. The food was pretty good too, even if I didn’t get to eat that much of it.

But, there were some drawbacks that I hope will be addressed on future events. Mainly, it was very short - only about 2 hours - and that seemed to pass extremely quickly. With the amount of things to do, I really wish it had been at the very least an extra hour long. And I was one of the lucky people who didn’t spend most of it on the oneoff queue! Now, I didn’t win a oneoff, although it doesn’t bother me much as I didn’t expect to - I just knew I’d regret it if I never entered and I will take any chance at a Captain Cecile for RRP that I can. But I also was only in the line very briefly. I imagine it must be extremely frustrating to have been the people stuck in line for ages and ages, sacrificing so much of the time they could have spent enjoying the cruise, only to win nothing anyway - with only 10 one-offs total it was way more likely than not that you wouldn’t win.

The length also affected the Best Dresser contest - I was kinda interested in it, but like I said, was too preoccupied with trying to do other stuff that I missed pretty much all of it and so didn’t get to vote, and I imagine that lots of other people didn’t either (like the ones stuck in the oneoff line or out on deck). Some of the people who watched the whole contest may also have missed out on the oneoff line.

Otherwise, I noticed that Volks did multilingual announcements - Japanese, Chinese and Korean, but not English. I’m not sure how many English-only GL members were even present so I can’t say whether it was truly necessary, but it may have been confronting for someone if they didn’t know what was going on during some of the announcements. (However during the raffle when numbers were being called out they did call them out on English too, which they also do during Bingo at Dolpa)

But something I was a little more personally disappointed in was that I genuinely was looking forward to seeing the silly kigurumi cosplayers on board at some point, but Reisner was only visible when we boarded (and only from a distance). Looking at the event reports of past cruises, the cosplayers mingled with the participants and had photos taken with them. But this also could have been a time constraint thing.

The last cruise also had a giant cake with Williams and his midshipman Cain on it that looked like a wedding cake, so I was really hoping for something like that, but I didn’t see any large cake like that (there were lots of smaller cakes though, and they were very tasty - as well as a mystery plate of macarons somewhere that I only know about from other people’s photos - but I really wanted a pirate wedding cake 😔)

The time constraints would have made more sense had there been two cruises in the day like in the past, but this time only had the one, so there didn’t seem to be much reason to keep it so short (unless of course the time restriction was imposed by Symphony Cruises, which is likely)

But in all, it made for a great and unique memory. If I’m ever lucky enough for them to do another one during a time that works for me I’d gladly do it again.

[fitpacs]

Sorry in advance if I ramble on for too long,

I think that if the server allowed for more chill game play it could have held on a bit longer. I know I'm a bit of an outsider because I got into qsmp much later, but having the players just hang out together on the server is much more entertaining to me than lore heavy streams.

I must say that Fit's lore streams feel different to me, because he created and merged his own story with the server, but ultimately it was his story to tell.

I think the server wanted to do too many big things in a short amount of time, which made people frustrated and exhausted. I also think that there might have been too many cooks in the kitchen, without a proper headchef. No proper guide or story book.

Personally, even though I absolutely love the little eggs running around causing mayhem and emotional damage, having them actually hatch into "dragons" could have solved many issues regarding their time management. Once they hatched, they could have just popped up whenever they wanted, instead of needing to be online every time a parent was on the server.

It would also have cut back on trying to make up lore for the eggs.

Long story short, having the players just hang out on the island and make up stories for themselves if they wanted to, build beautiful things, share each other's culture and holidays and if it had cut back a lot on lore it would probably have made qsmp last longer.

🐝 Anon ❤️

do not apologise, my sweet bee anon!

i completely agree with you when you say the server wanted to do too many things in a short amount of time. we never really got the chance to appreciate any of the events (the ones that were only for a day, such as festa junina etc) because the higher ups were already pushing the next upcoming event onto us - and i completely agree that it would have frustrated and exhausted people!

if i remember correctly, even before everything went to shit, multiple ccs that hadn’t logged on for a while felt almost afraid to because there was so much lore going on with the more active players and it kind of turned them off of wanting to join more often, which is the complete opposite of what the server set out to do. the idea was to join multiple languages and cultures altogether in one space, and in the timeframe of a few months it ended up only being the same select group of creators who logged on daily or every other day who had intertwining lore (with a few notable exceptions).

i firmly believe the eggs were originally introduced to fix that issue, and to give the less active creators more of a reason to log on, but when the egg lore started developing, that idea was kind of dampened greatly.

and none of this is the fault of the admins, obviously! some of them by their own admission had great fun with their egg lore, but we of course all know the darker side where due to the lore of other creators/the server’s lore with the federation, they were pushed if not forced to adopt multiple personas by the higher ups - which obviously would take a toll on anyone, and weren’t allowed breaks or time away, which we all know is fucked up and is a prime example of how the hunger for lore ended up being a huge detriment

i think we’re all in agreement that one of the biggest mistakes was whoever was in charge, and the fact it wasn’t someone that had the best interests of the server, audience, and staff at heart - this is also on q’s own admission.

for me personally, the format of the shelter smp (made by former staff from our server) is a really good balance of lore and chill gameplay - any of the members can join at any time and not feel like they’re behind at all - the fact that the server is also made by staff of the server proves more of that point as that’s obviously how they wanted to run our server, if they were allowed freedom over their (multiple) characters

and it’s not even as if the ccs didn’t have chemistry so wouldn’t be able to play without lore - this was proven in the occasional chill non-lore days, as well as the times we got other games with them such as the among us lobby that time and the fact they still continue to play games together! i just wonder if the ccs were, to an extent, told something by the higher ups also - obviously something much nicer than whatever the admins were told!

the eggs, as much as i adore them, did end up being as much of a detriment to the server as much as a blessing. because of how frequently the eggs logged on (again, due to the pressure from the higher ups) the audience and the ccs alike of course got accustomed very quickly to each egg admin’s style of acting and writing on the signs - and the server got so dependent on the eggs it was at the cost of the admins’ free time in that they didn’t have any.

i’m always in two minds as to if the server would’ve lasted longer if there was less dependency on lore - because would the exposing of the higher ups have happened as soon as it did if the admins weren’t so overworked? i honestly don’t know, my mind flip-flops on it.

sorry for rambling back at you, my sweet, i just miss our server more than anything :(

[micalpixel]

May Game - January 2025 Progress Report

Hello everyone! Another month has gone! Here's my May-game gamedev progress report for January 2025!

"Ideal Room"

I posted about the design philosophy for this game, and what an "ideal room" should be like, and finally made one.

First visit: Analyze the room, figure out its puzzles/enemies, and "solve" it to proceed.

Later visits: Room is familiar, easier.

Include optional harder content, ie flowers.

In short, there will be *some* backtracking, as well as a focus on making the game pretty accessible to everyone, but with optional harder content for those who want more of a challenge.

Object Code Consolidation

In preparation for working on enemies' code, I consolidated all ingame objects to be sub-classes of one of three types: Area2D, StaticBody2D and CharacterBody2D (all Godot node types). Each one had built-in support for my scripting engine. This would make working on enemies much easier.

I also overhauled and documented the collision layers which the game needed as part of this work.

Enemy Design

A lot of work went into enemy designs this month. Basic visuals, their ingame behavior, making tables of how they differ (pros and cons, situational differences), and so on. I coded up what was the then-current lies of enemies, and made a video to show them off. The player's goal, at this point, was simple: Just stay out of their way. And uh... That increasingly felt like it wasn't good enough...

Uncertainties

On and off through this month, I felt unsatisfied with the direction of the game.

NPCs felt too detached from the world. They existed for their quests and that was it. They never commented on the unusual way enemies work in the game. They felt kinda forgettable. The quests didn't feel connected to any meaningful lore, either. They didn't make me want to explore or know more about this little world.

Enemies felt boring. Different, but boring. It was neat that they could interact with some puzzle elements. But they still felt rigid, like there weren't enough ways to present the same enemy without it getting repetitive. I prototyped some dungeon ideas, and the end result was just cramming more and more enemies into room to make them feel new and/or harder. I didn't like it.

May also felt boring. To play as. She could walk around enemies, maybe find a switch that would change some things nearby, and that's it. I'd originally wanted to give her some abilities, but had scaled those back in order to make a simpler, smaller game that I could finish more quickly.

These things combined, and the game didn't just feel like a scaled-back first-game. It felt incomplete. It felt wrong. Like this was going to be a bad game.

Here's an example of brainstorming room designs. It looks crowded and repetitive, doesn't it? I was probably a bit frustrated when this was made, due to not having answers to any of the problems above.

Two games I played for the first time this month helped give some perspective. One was the first few levels of The Adventures of Lolo 3. A top-down puzzle game which features a small number of enemies and puzzle objects, but a (brutally hard and) shocking amount of depth. This game required defeating enemies. But you had options. You could go around enemies, block them using other enemies, freeze them, push them, and blow them away. This game gave you options. It had player agency. Mine didn't.

I also played the first Spyro game. Spyro has two abilities for dispatching enemies: Breathe Fire and Charge. That's it. Every enemy can be beaten with one of them. Even the collectibles were such that you often had to use one of those abilities to get them. There was a sense of flow to knowing which one to use and when - a rhythm - which my game lacked.

And I went back to the drawing board.

Overhauls

I made a new spreadsheet of enemies. This time, mapping out different ways they could be overcome. All could be overcome by going around them - if the room allowed it. But now, I added numerous other ways. And some enemies were immune to some of those ways. Learning their strengths and weaknesses, and learning when to take advantage of them, would be an aspect of gameplay which wasn't there before. New enemies were added. Some repurposed. Some marked for possible scrappage.

I also decided to give May two abilities which compliment the idea of enemy-avoidance. This adds depth to the gameplay, and player agency, but more challenges for me, too. Giving May/the player more options means enemies need to be re-balanced around those options, so the game doesn't become too easy.

So May now has two abilities, but how to train the player to use them? The four-screen starting area is too small to do that effectively. Combine this with the detached-NPC problem above, and it felt clear that the map needed to be overhauled, and in all likelihood made larger. But not too much.

So, the current plan is to work more on the game's lore and improving the quests, expand and make mockups of all maps, including enemy placement, and see how it goes. ^^

Here's an updated, post-overhaul dungeon brainstorming. Looks a bit more thoughtful, imo.

Games I've Played this Month

OneShot - Solstice Ending - Me, leave Niko hanging? Pffft. Naw. This was a nice little bow of an ending for a wonderful little game. Programmers especially can relate to it. :D Although, honestly. I don't think I'll ever play OneShot again. To be clear, it's an excellent game. However, the final moments of the ending wrapped things up so nicely, that to play it again...just wouldn't be the same. Niko is home now. My Niko is home now. To summon another, different Niko just wouldn't feel right. How could I play it again?

Mega Man X - A GOAT game for my favorite games console (the SNES), which is so good at teaching its mechanics through gameplay that it is used in game development courses. So why did it take a SNES lover and gamedev like me so long to play it? Weeellll.... because Mega Man 2 kicked my butt years ago. Very painfully. But in X, the difficulty is the point. It's part of the story. You're supposed to feel weak and incompetent. Suddenly, the main character is very relatable, which made the game more enjoyable. It really is a great game.

A Highland Song - A side-scroller hill-running mountain-climbing game filled with Scotland locations, characters, history, and folklore. Highly recommended!

Spyro the Dragon - It's cool to finally experience the PSone era of 3D platformers. It's a bit on the easy side, but sometimes that's all you really want. Makes 100%ing it much more enjoyable too.

Thank you for reading - see you next month!

[muthaz-rapapa]

Hirogaru Sky Impressions (4/5)

Keeping this short since I’m still tired from my trip and have stuff to do before going back to work tomorrow.

Thankfully, the past 10 eps only consisted of Majesty’s debut and some (really great) fillers.

Starting with Majesty then. I’m honestly surprised I was correct about them keeping her a toddler despite aging her up when transforming. And as I guessed as much, this means she doesn’t really have a full-fledged character arc of her own.

Not that it’s a bad thing since Ellee-chan still gets a good amount of development cuz she’s a growing child, after all. Which is mainly shown through things like her speech improving significantly each day, learning how to better express herself and her wants. And of course, the heartwarming interactions with her friends who also have their moments in finding the best ways they can to support her (like how Ageha readily believed Ellee-chan who was frustrated when she had trouble transforming into Majesty).

These are all within range of what is expected for a child her age so a whole arc isn’t really needed and therefore, more time and focus can be dedicated to the older Cures, too. So I’m quite pleased with that.

But I also can’t lie that it’s a shame we won’t see what a preteen Ellee-chan is like outside her alter ego.

That and considering her VA is Aoi Koga (of Kaguya-sama fame), we won’t get to hear a further extent of her acting in this role either.

Don’t get me wrong, Aoi Koga absolutely nailed the part of a baby, able to bring out Ellee-chan’s cuteness without making her sound annoying but…the potential is already a loss at this point.

Additionally, for a midseason Cure, Majesty has the least going for her in other departments compared to those before her.

Up till now, they’ve barely scraped at the lore associated with her identity. So when she’s not fighting, she’s limited to being slightly better than the average mascot.

The only attack in her arsenal is simultaneously a group attack so she has to share it with the others. Not to mention half the stock footage doesn’t have her at the center but Sky instead. Despite the attack bearing her name.

With only 8 eps left in the season, it seems the writers brought Majesty out as part of Precure’s yearly formula schedule more than anything. Her purpose is mainly to renew viewers’ excitment in the show (and generate desire to buy the newest toy) since her debut brings a little something new to the table…but she is not allowed to outshine this season’s real star, the lead Cure.

Personally, I think the pros outweigh the cons so it doesn’t bother me too much but it’s also too noticeably flawed and biased for me to really accept it as okay.

Moving on, the fillers.

They were all amazing, definitely better than the previous 10 eps.

Mashiro continuing to pursue the path towards becoming a picture book author and coming to terms with the fact that not everyone will receive her work with good reviews yet still choosing to draw because she’s doing it for herself and those who do enjoy her books was something that resonated with me deeply.

Then more time was devoted to her childhood friendship with Ageha which was super wonderful. We really needed that ep of how they became friends and the writers delivered so excellent job 👍

Ageha finally encountering struggles in her job and learning that it was okay to show sadness in front of her students was something I’ve been waiting a long time to see as well. It was especially good because it corresponded splendidly with the first ep of Otona Precure within the same week (which is also great so far) as the intro of that dealt with Nozomi trying to help her own student.

Portraying adults as realistic adults instead of perfect caricatures who can do anything. Showing hardships by not sweeping them under the rug but acknowleding them with the screentime they deserve so the characters can actually process their own feelings and work out a solution. Displaying a healthy level of idealism, not based on generic platitudes but actual belief. I really appreciate that.

Yoyo cleverly getting Tsubasa a promotion to a sage in Skyland’s royal court was also 10,000 meters of screaming joy for me cuz yea, that boy is way too smart and talented to just settle for flying around. He clearly treasures his homeland and wants to make it a better place for all its inhabitants, including the Dragon Tribe that had been cut off from the rest of the country for decades. He obviously has what it takes to become a diplomat.

He acquired a new dream to devote himself and his skills to and that’s what anyone who’s as wholesome as Tsubasa should get. So it was fulfilling to see that come true for him.

Lastly, Sora. She only had one ep to herself this time but it was a good ep with a good topic (probably one of the best of the Sora eps). Honestly, I think I liked it more because it was only one ep, lol

So yea, with this, I think I’m all set for the rest of the show as far as Tsubasa and Ageha’s arcs are concerned. There will still be more fillers until ep 45 at least, plenty of time to close out the Mashiro and Sora’s as well as the lore surrounding Ellee-chan so it’s just a matter of concluding the story in a satisfying manner.

Other than that, I’m also wondering if we’ll get any super forms for HiroSky since it’s already this late in the season…

…but you never know as it can happen in the finale. Not sure if HiroSky will get its standalone movie in Mar either but if so, we might see something there, too.

Ok, that is all. The season will pass by in a flash so enjoy the rest of HiroSky with a full heart and let’s begin to look forward to next Precure in the new year. Bye for now!

[dumbhero]

endlessly curious about padan. tell me more

is this because of all the posts i tag him in well let me tell you he's wormed his way into my brain and will not leave. every song i listen to becomes about him and if it doesnt fit canon him it fits one of his many au's this is because i'm sick in the head

so a friend of mine decided to start a dragon age ttrpg campaign and invited me to play and i was hype and they really like dark and gritty campaigns and dragon age is already dark and gritty and me being me i was like what if i was silly lol ! what if i made a qunari mailman who got lost and ended up on another continent! and he's a little ditzy haha! completely not realizing at the time that like, what i described is a qunari horror story

because like their entire personhood is their job. if they fail at their job they're expected to kill themselves about it. this is seen as the honorable and reasonable thing to do. because if you fail you're functionally worthless and being worthless is worse than being dead. their whole deal is that they see their society as being one organism and individuals serve to perpetuate that organism and obviously because of this there's defectors and stuff but there's also lots of converts because life under the Qun (their religion/governmental body) is way better than life in a lot of other places where you'd have more freedom because like, they don't have money or poverty or hunger and they have superior medicine and sanitation to most of the world, right, and a convert is treated no differently than someone who was born into it and probably garners quite a bit of respect because it's difficult

but also like. they're very focused on efficiency--working as one is efficient, having individuals is inefficient--so people are assigned jobs based on what they're good at and their entire lives are controlled and monitored by other people. you arent allowed to have relationships or hobbies that arent approved right and like Padan is a huge believer in all this right because the system does like. Work. it's just that when it has failures the failures are compounding and untenable, like how mages are treated which we are Not getting into. but they're very like, not unemotional but every emotion is strictly controlled because if you don't you'll fuck up and fuck ups stall efficiency

but basically like Padan is a kind sweet boy with a profound amount of emotional intelligence just like, naturally, which caused him to act in ways that got him in a lot of trouble because kindness is seen as weakness so even though he's naturally very curious and smart he repressed his emotions so hard and punished himself out of being curious so hard it gave him brain damage and now he has basically zero short term memory. on top of this he's also kind of nearsighted so this makes it kind of hard for him to navigate traditionally but luckily he's also inordinately lucky (and much better with his other senses lol) so he always manages to be at the right place at the right time and also due to his empathetic proclivities he landed a Military Mailman Job

'karapadan' (which is his actual name and job) doesnt actually like exist in canonical Qunari lore but i based it off a real life military position my grandfather had (Chief Payment Officer), did have to modify it a little because they don't. have currency. so basically his job is to carry letters and things between soldiers and military leaders on the battlefield, hence why he's governed by the Arishok (head of military) and not the Ariqun (head of like, information) and we were joaking having fun because like, when this is set it would put him in a perfect position to deliver some sensitive information to a canonical character from the games, and him totally borking it by accident was funny and sorta tragic

his goal is/was to deliver a letter to Iron Bull to tell him to start espionage in Orlais (which is like fantasy france) but when he was getting on the boat the harbormaster accidentally directed him to the one taking him *to* Orlais instead of to Seheron (island next to the one he was on) where Iron Bull is. but the kicker is--he's never been off his home island. he's heard descriptions of these other places but never seen them, he has no idea how long a journey to Seheron or Orlais takes. on top of that he's struggling so hard to remember what he's supposed to be doing and what the person he's looking for looks like that not only does he forget Iron Bull's name, but he doesn't realize for several days he's not in Seheron.

he meets an elf and a human who kindly allow him to accompany them--he thinks they're converts, and because the elf has tattoos he can't make out well, he assumes they're of a higher rank than him (he's about as low as you can go, lol) so when he figures out he has not only failed and cannot hope to rectify his failure, but that all his hard work to become useful didnt pay off, he nearly commits suicide but his elf companion manages to unknowingly talk him off the edge. however, this presents a new problem--not doing so is considered a crime. the longer he lives the more his abject failure compounds and the more he has to face his life's worth of repressed emotions and the less he's able to cope with that

he also cares deeply about his classmates (qunari children are raised communally by one teacher who basically controls the rest of their lives, usually separated from any relatives) and when he was home he kept in touch with all of them despite most of them having vastly different jobs and never wanted much of anything except to see them and to Be Useful and now he's hundreds of miles away from them and can literally never return home or contact them and if he ever saw them in the wild they'd very likely kill him for defecting so he's really not handling that well. because like, he was very much holding this group together and without his involvement it's unlikely they'll talk much if at all .

basically i care him so much and i'm hitting him with hammers but i do want him to be happy but he's got to suffer a lot right now and if i keep going this post will be too long <3

[aewrie]

rambling about grimm hcs/au lore. and i mean rambling

my hc is that grimm adores kids & cares about them a lot, and i will die on that hill. like, if he were a regular guy with regular guy aspirations he'd love to be a kindergarten teacher. or run an art/craft club or such. something where he'd get to he'd get to spent time with kids, and encourage them to be creative and weird.

he doesn't hand grimmchild over to the summoner because he doesn't care, but because it's a necessary part of the ritual; the rare occasion where things do go wrong aside, he knows it's for the better, for the child to travel with the summoner. it allows him to rest before he burns (something he desperately needs, because once the child is in the picture, he is actively dying). it allows the child to experience things and grow beyond the scope of the troupe.

he is so protective of his child. yes, it is his reincarnation, but even if it wasn't, he would be. he was ready to die for the child when he did not realize what it was, when he did not want to be responsible for any child at all and was freaking out about the whole thing until he got too depressed about it to be freaking out. he was miserable, had nothing to gain from the situation as far as he knew, and the #1 priority was still the child.

(though, once he knew, and especially once he had trauma related reasons to be extra vigilant? yeah he might have overreacted to some truly, really, genuinely not-a-big-deal situations a few times.)

also, if an actual child did show up for his ritual somehow, he'd rather burn himself alive than go through with it. he can improvise with the ritual when circumstances are less-than-ideal and he cannot find a replacement summoner on short order, though it's not fun for anyone involved. least of all him. the course of action he would take is to find a home/caretaker for the child, gather what flames he can with the troupe's assistance, and torch himself. very much preferably in that order, so the kid wouldn't need to deal with him dying and whatnot; it is not a pretty thing to witness, even indirectly, and he will need more of an adjustment period after. not the best time to be dealing with a stray child.

just, him going up against a child (combat prodigy or not) for his own gain does not fit into the picture at all.

(i started this typing this whole thing bc i realized this specifically is a part of why child ghost bothers me so much lmao. and then i started going off on tangents)

(maybe he did do a double-take when someone tiny waltzed in, but i also think a great amount of variety in size depending on species just makes sense for bug people. and canon does have that kind of variety, too! regular mortal adults range from sly to old stag wait i forgot about bardoon he's the hugest actually, kids from millybug to marmu (these two are spirits but the sizes appear to reflect what their physical bodies were, given we have markoth and galien with actual corpses to compare to). it'd be really awkward and rude to assume shit based on size alone, i feel, if you can't clearly tell based on other features.)

grimm would also be very interested in an explanation as to how and why a child came his way in the first place.

basic rundown: there's these bugs who live apart from the troupe, keeping watch for dying kingdoms and potential summoners. the bug we dreamnail in the cave? was supposed to choose a summoner from amongst survivors, travelers, what have you. it would have been their job to set up and to light the lantern; and also to explain the task at hand and to guide the summoner to the troupe. from there, grimm handles things. alas, the bug died before they could fulfill their duty. good thing ghost had the dreamnail.

speaking of: if the dreamnail is a moth artefact associated with radiance only, it makes no sense for grimm to rely on it for his ritual. he either would have to have alternative means to achieve the same effect that all summoners can utilize, or do something else by default. in my version, no dreamnailing required. when things go as planned, at least.

when the ritual nears its end, conventionally, the nightmare king will find the summoner in their sleep, not the other way around. individuals with unusual skills or tools to reach dreams exist, thought they are rare. so while it was a surprise, it wasn't too odd for ghost to just pop in unexpectedly rather than being 'invited' (read: the nightmare king has found you! now it's time for the asskicking).

the summoner will be allowed into grimm's chambers, because the proximity makes things easier, but that's optional. not everyone can easily fall asleep when he's right there. some manage, and then wake up when they get trounced, and cannot relax again until they get some distance to grimm.

[kdc705]

My PSO2 characters on Ship 2

Why not. I guess I'll share my OCs here. At least the ones I have on Ship 2, since Ship 2 - ur on Global is my main ship. >.>

Emil

This is my main character, Emil. I've spent the most time with Emil more than any of the other characters I have total, regardless of what ship what character is in. She's pretty much a jack of all trades, master of none kind of character, but I decided to stick to Gunblades for her. I can, in fact, change classes at anytime though, in case I wanna do something different with her. Her lore, at least in my head in NGS, states that she's got amnesia, initially. She remembers a good amount of her memory, and... well... She's suffering from Accelerated aging. O.o It's a slight acceleration, and doesn't have any signs of slowing down nor speeding up.

I guess before she went "thicc", on the last week of a freebie Salon period's end just because. >.> She was a "sticc", whatever that means. In all honesty, she was just a bit slim. Also younger. Thanks to the lively face some updates back pre-Version 2, she looked even younger than when I stuck with the Snipt face. I'm back on the Snipt face now for the current look of Emil cause it makes her look more mature looking. Also she started with short hair, and glasses, etc. atm, her main class is Slayer, and her sub is Bouncer. The Gunblade I use isn't multiweaponed at all, it's just... well... A gunblade. That's it. No strings attatched.

Oh.... Also. For Emil's lore, this is actually the real Emil, not a Clone. Emil went to cryosleep for 1k years. I wanted to retcon that part with this character. Sorry SEGA.

Akiko

Akiko, before I made her in NGS, is one of my oldest OCs. O.o I've kept her rent free in my head, along with another one. Huh...

Anyway, Akiko, like Emil, is also from 1k years ago... Though her appearence is mostly temporary, along with another. >.> She, and another OC, went through a time rift, if those exist, and cannot return to the past unless.... something. I've not completely written this out completely. She use a single dagger, though since the only weapon camo that can do that is Nanaya's Knife, a collab item, so I had to make up some bs to make her use the Twin Daggers as her main weapon... That and Jet Boots as the multiweapon, mainly for kicks. :3 So she learned how to make elemental weapons from out of the blue.... I guess?

Personality wise, she's a bit laid back, but is very serious when she needs to be. There are also some moments where she has a silly side. :3 She has a sister, but her sister is adopted. She really cares for that sister. In fact, she gets worried when they get separated by an unknown force, in this case a time rift.

Akiko is also a childhood friend of Emil.

She also has a "Special Power", I'm gonna call it. >.> She can see critical spots in everything, and she can strike those critical spots to deal ten times more pain on who, or what, has that spot. But there's a catch. Should she use that special power for too long, she'll begin to lose her sight. The signal of that happening is straining in her eyes, to the point of them hurting. Luckily, she trained her eyes for keep this power in use for lengthy periods of time.

I guess that's all I'm gonna say about this OC for now.

Fun fact: I used Akiko, and the next OC, the most with other games. I also used this OC to use for Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity, because the PSU era of games allows me to use a single dagger. WHERE THE SINGLE DAGGER WEAPON SEGA!?!? xD

Kita

Welp... This is Kita, Akiko's (adopted) younger sister. :3

She's a kid, and power hungry people are constantly wanting her for her powers only. She's supposed to be 12 years old, but... I can't make her any smaller than Global's minimum height. I can blame my country's culture, but not worth it.

Kita is a kind and caring little girl, and would much rather not fight and live a normal life. Sadly, that normal life she wants is forever out of reach because of those wanting her specifically to control her, mostly to use her powers for their own gain, she is forced to fight. Her strength also, questionably, grows without training, which could be much greater should she begin training.

She's a Hunter/Force, using a Sword, multiweaponed with Rod. Cause why not. I used this combination before, so it shouldn't be a problem. Right?

That's all I'll show in terms of OCs I put in PSO2NGS for now. I do another post like this sometime in the future to show off more OCs I put in PSO2:NGS. :3

[loominggaia]

Now I want to know what sovereign's offspring look like...

Okay, the meme is hyperbolizing a bit, so let me explain what's really going on...

Sovereign is kind of like the Genghis Khan of the sea, or at least he's trying to be. The dude has so many kids by so many different mothers, they're actually quite diverse both in appearance and personality.

The thing is, a lot of his "wives" didn't breed with him willingly. They were noblewomen he kidnapped after destroying/assimilating their tribes. Mr. Roach's wife, Lobster Red, was one of them for example.

A female cecaelia's body does not respond well to stress. If they get upset enough, their reproduction cycle can get screwy or just shut down completely until they feel better. This is one of the reasons they're often kept in quiet, safe nurseries their whole lives, where they remain ignorant to the troubles outside.

Well, as you can imagine, being kidnapped by a warlord is pretty damn stressful. Some of Sovereign's wives flocked to him willingly, infatuated with his power, but many of them wanted nothing to do with his crazy ass. The rebel wives laid a lot of defective eggs due to stress, and some of them even sabotaged their eggs in protest.

Either way, this resulted in a boom of deformed, mentally impaired, or otherwise "imperfect" offspring. Sovereign made a promise to his parents long ago that he would never kill another Tekeetian, so he instead banishes these offspring to the wilderness. He's ashamed of their conditions because he thinks it makes him look "defective" in some way. (He vocally blames their conditions on "Zareenite pollution". Which isn't likely, considering his royal nurseries are nowhere near Zareenite waters, but whatever dude...)

Long story short, there are entire colonies of quirky cecaelia lurking in the wild seas who all share Sovereign as an ancestor. They tend to stick together and take care of eachother, for they are shunned everywhere else. Sovereign will not allow them back in his territory, and considering he basically dominates the whole ocean at this point, there aren't many places for his rejected kin to go. Some of them have ventured up to Terria to live on land, others have gone deeper to the abyssal depths of the sea, and a few just survive in uncolonized waters where Sovereign's influence hasn't reached yet.

As for Sovereign's "perfect" offspring--the physically and mentally fit--he likes to appoint them to high positions in his government. They become military generals, politicians, advisors, ambassadors, and so on. It's nepotism to an extreme. This is how he's managed to gain so much power in such a relatively short amount of time: essentially breeding his own civilization and using it to steamroll the smaller civs around him.

*

Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

[daz4i]

hi!! Sorry if this is a weird question, I was just wondering what it is about hsr that you love so much? I had tried it awhile ago and it just didn’t click for me so id really love to know more in depth what makes you love it!!

oooo there's. a lot hehe so buckle up uwu (also that's a sweet question absolutely not weird thank you for asking 🥺 i love gushing abt my interests ajdjgkhl)

the gameplay:

hsr is like. a combination of 2 of my fav game series, persona (in its battle system) and borderlands (in its structure), so for me it was an immediate click in that regard

the battles are unique, no boss is the same, even the common enemies have really interesting mechanics that actually require strategizing. there's a lot you can do with your teams, like personally i don't go for the ideal comps only bc i like using the characters i love :P but i can still get through battles mostly fine and relatively quickly

but it's the exploration that gets me the most ngl 👀 the maps are beautiful and have so many nooks and crannies for you to go through, as well as. an unholy amount of objects to interact with and hidden side quests. as a completionist it's extremely satisfying for me to unlock every part of the map and find all the chests in it etc. there are a lot of hidden jokes and lore bits to find everywhere as well as a bunch of npcs to interact with that can offer their own entire stand-alone stories that are super interesting and help flesh out the world even more!!

speaking of. the world + lore:

it's extremely overwhelming at first, but finding one (1) bit to focus on at a time makes it way more accessible - the game's world is. huge. from planets to history to gods to wars and disasters, there is so much to explore and read about. and it's told to you in so many ways, too - through the story and things like side quests is obvious, but there are a lot of readables you can find throughout all maps, and even objects you don't think much about contain stories in their description that offer a lot of information about one-off mentions from the main story (or things that weren't mentioned at all even, really)

the setting really allows for anything to happen in it. like, having a lot of planets and factions, each with their own histories and aesthetics and agendas, lets you have all sorts of characters and stories, like literally anything you could think of. so we have ghosts and cowboys and angels and robots and knights and werewolves etc etc etc and it doesn't feel forced, in part bc a lot of things are set up months in advance sometimes, through the aforementioned readables or item descriptions(/names) for example. it uses a really cool mix of sci-fi and (sort of) fantasy

this makes theory crafting so much richer (like connecting a bunch of seemingly unrelated details into something that makes a lot of sense), as well as let players do things like make their own ocs or expand upon things in their fanworks which is always fun >:3

the characters:

absolutely the biggest part for me. this is kind of a must in a gacha game, but the characters are all either extremely interesting, extremely fun, or both at once. i don't think i dislike any of them - sure there are some i may care about less, but i can still appreciate them and enjoy their stories

each one has their own bundle of short stories to offer some background about who they are and where they're from, which at times really adds depth you had no idea was there from simply playing the game. some have incredible side missions centered around them with really strong emotional highs, or their own super interesting stand-alone story, or lore expansions etc. you get to see sides of them you don't have time for in the main story, or even interact with entirely new characters that haven't shown up before but have connections to ones you know

they're very diverse (personality or lore wise i mean lol) so you're guaranteed to find at least a few that you can really enjoy :3

and! imo. despite it being a gacha game, aka characters should be likable and approachable for most average players to enjoy, some are morally grey or very clearly flawed, which in other games like this may be a risky decision. the game does a good job humanizing even characters you wouldn't normally enjoy or support in other works (also makes you have complete 180s about characters by showing you more of them). this adds a lot of depth and almost all characters have something deep to explore in them or theorize about, especially in the main cast

the story:

due to the game's format, it's divided into different types of missions, but generally there are like 2 main stories going on at once

one is more straightforward and is the one you go through in order to progress with the game. it's divided into standalone arcs for each planet and they each have a different vibe and structure

the other one is more... underneath the surface, if that makes sense, and it is ongoing throughout "side" missions you technically don't have to complete (but you should :P). a lot of really big characters are introduced in it, and it offers a lot of context about things that happen in the main story, or sometimes just gives you more to explore in the worlds you already know. this one is separated into seemingly unrelated stories, but they all offer at least a little bit of information to contribute to this plot

both of these stories are really interesting! there is a lot of hype and mystery through them, and one can't exist without the other. i can't really go into details without giving away spoilers lol but like. trust me. things pick up fast, they're just a bit confusing at first hehe.

the references:

this is gonna sound silly. but. the thing that made me decide to finally play the game was seeing how unserious it is. like my god there are so many memes here (i considered making a section of this post dedicated to the humor but this paragraph may be enough hehe. it's kind of like borderlands imo in a sense that you either enjoy this type of humor or find it cringe, BUT hsr is more varied in its type of humor imo. sometimes is also gets really meta with if which is my favorite thing)

but!!! i'm talking about things like mythology too! there are a lot of small references to real-life mythology or folk stories in the story and especially the world at large, which is 1 extremely cool 2 also helps a lot with theory crafting! like for example, knowing what a certain aeon is inspired by, can give you another way to look at them which sometimes implies things about the story too!

even things like. gem meanings. animal motifs. classic pop culture. etc etc etc. really help with understanding characters beyond what you're told about them on the surface which is really fun!

every planet is inspired by a certain culture (usually a bit of a mix but still fairly consistent) and its felt in really solid ways, they all have their own identity in both the aesthetic, characters you meet, music, and even the story itself sometimes.

oh wait speaking of. the music:

it slaps 👍

and loaded with leitmotifs, clever genre and instrument choices, great production, like genuinely just good music. i watched a video analyzing one (1) song and ended up crying like there is so much there

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY! everyone is a slut 👍 (/j. but i do enjoy the boob windows)

this is extremely long i hope it's not too overwhelming ajdkfllgg but. this is why i fixated on it so strongly and so quickly too. it's a good game :]

if you wanna give it another chance but anything isn't clear to you or you need some recommendations or directions, feel free to ask!!! 🫡 even if i can't answer everything the best way i can help you find answers and tips elsewhere!

[womejah]

Lore dump on my Magic System:

Alright yeah time to lore dump about my magic system. So basically, it's a bit of a mix of biology, psychology. Magic lets you do anything that YOU believe you can do. As long as you can imagine it, and believe it to be real, it will be real. Massive explosions or subtle shifts in energy can happen as fast as thought. However, there are a few limitations, and that's mostly where the science part comes in. Energy is drained from your body's cells whenever you do magic, and the amount drained is directly related to the task you preformed. At First it draws energy from the fat stored in your body, but if you were casting a really powerful fucking spell, then it just keeps pulling the chemical energy from your cells until all that's left of you is a pile of dust.

Changing the energy's form into things like heat or light are easy, turning energy into matter is much harder, and altering the energy withing living things is the most difficult. People who are smarter than me would probably pick up on the fact that the system wouldn't allow you to do too much in a short time, despite the fact that you can alter reality as quick as you can think. Your body only has so much energy in it, and at best you'd be able to do three D&D style cantrips before burning yourself out. So luckily, there are a couple in-universe work arounds that make the impossible possible.

The main one is your standard focus, you know, magically pouring your energy into an inorganic object for later use. It can be a long process, but it's the cleanest way to build power for more complex casts. Over in the west they rely on catalyst to cast spells, sacrificing something of cultural importance such as blood or a specific flower, then drawing the energy out of the scraps in order to cut down on the cost of certain effects. There are also a few spells that require certain actions or special items in order to work. An easy example would be an effigy of a person that you must make yourself in order to use tracking magic on someone. Limitations like these have been put in place after centuries of collective belief and can differ from group to group.

There's also a strange side effect, a phenomenon that has stumped the world's best scholars. Seemingly randomly, an invisible force will carve a rune into your body after you've used magic. As these marks begin to form, most people describe feeling a cold pressure, as if frozen hands were pressing into their flesh. But once the carving finishes, the resulting carving always radiates a feeling of warmth, no matter how cold the surrounding air may be. Terrible mages have ended up with intricate patterns, while one of the best mages in history only ever got strange holes that shot through her body. Most cultures treat the carvings as a status symbol, the more marks, the stronger the mage.

[sorcerous-caress]

Sol, short yet fitting, always thought their name was a great tie in with their storyline, even more so with their "bad end."

The sun itself is a ticking time bomb, and one day, in an untold amount of years, when it chooses to, it will expand and devour the world. The world that It helped survive and nourish. Definitely, it paints a clear picture of what can happen to Sol.

Sol is also sweet on the tongue, can remind someone of gentle summer sunsets; the sun must go, but you'll always remember its warmth.

The name shimmers and glistens, like a sweat soaked smile.

I'm on break, so I'm rambling again before I feel the cold again.

Favorite child? Ahh, kinda? Drow lore is easier to come by, so I have more to work with.

Tbh Khal'ian name was a cruel play on words that just stuck. My friend named him before I joined them at last light during an online game. Jaheira probably wouldn't appreciate it, though.

Your rambling is welcome here anytime my dude, anything to distract from the cold too, I hope you feel warmth soon.

That's a really great analysis, i never thought of it when I named them. It's really nice that it worked in their favour.

Also on the short names thing, it reminded me of this phrase.

"Give your daughters difficult names. give your daughters names that command the full use of tongue. my name makes you want to tell me the truth. my name doesn’t allow me to trust anyone that cannot pronounce it right." –Warsan Shire

And this might be very true in regards to Issal's full name. That only a few would bother to pronounce it fully, speak every syllable with great care.

Like that paragraph about Patroclus describing how most people rushed through saying his name, since it was too long and required many vowel. Everyone who said it, pronounced it as if they were trying to get rid of it, said and done.

Everyone except Achilles. He fully said it each time carefully without rushing through it. He said it as if he was breathing life into it, as if he didn't treat it like a weight on the tongue, a burden like how others did.

Would Issal feel the same thing about her long name? Would Khal'ian say it fully? I have a feeling Minthara would, out of respect because it's in her core believes.

It is also ironic in Sol's case.

Their name is short, easy, a slip of the tongue even. One vowel. It's clear their parents named that so they wouldn't be a burden, so they may never be a burden on strangers.

Sol lived most of their life having to water themselves down, control their nature, forcefully shave down their edges. Their own name cut in half since birth much like their personality and social development was cut in half.

Names are like a self fulfilling prophecy in a way which is very bittersweet.

Short names may never get nicknames either. Most of the companions can have their name twisted into a sweet or funny nickname, but Sol will remain Sol no matter how hard you try because you always end up making it longer, adding your own letters into it and forcefully stitching made up parts into them to humanise the. Their name will always be too much but never enough.

So they make up for it by having a "too much" personality. A known presence. Shoving any and all subtilty out the window much like the sun is blazing in obvious view in the middle of the sky.

You may ignore their name but you cannot ignore their existence. That's what they aim to be, difficult to swallow so much that you might choke on them if not careful. Like how the sun burns the closer you get.

And yeah Drow lore is easier to get by.

But that just means you get to make up your own Gith lore! Let's fucking go dude!

I'm being fr. Make it up, who will stop you? Dnd books purposely have been ignoring and neglecting the gith. It's a gold mine that people stupidly refuse to mine, so pick up a cart and a shovel and let's go golddigging.

For Khal'ian, what was the funny joke? Is it based on Khalid?

If so, Khalid is an arabic name, it means immortal. Which is funny because he dies Ha HA....ha. :"(

Also the first two letters are pronounced as "خ" it's a letter that English doesn't have. Is Khal'ian pronounced as similar way or is the "kh" part pronounced as it is written?