#xB just trying to live his life

[hmshermitcraft]

(For the theme)

xB has lived his whole life in the tank, seeing no one but those damned 'customers' of the auctions, he's only been bought once, but he was sent back as he was "not what they were looking for." He has heard of other mers escaping, leaving this horrid place behind for larger bodies of water, he's heard of the ocean, of lakes, of rivers, but he's never actually seen them. This auction feels different though, to be honest he's a bit scared. Is he going to be bought? Is it going to be like those horror stories of mers being bought, only to be chopped up for food? He's stuck in his mind before all hell breaks loose, through the yelling he thinks he hears something about a protection agency? There's someone looking at him from the top of his tank, someone with big eyes and a large grin, he's confused, he's scared, everything has fallen into chaos, but those eyes are so captivating, he can't look away.

-C

It takes... Some time for xB to accept he's not simply been bought. He's moved to a bigger tank. It's bigger than any he's been in before, and has spaces made of large rocks that he can use to hide away in.

People examine him often. They tell him what they're doing, even though he never replies. He always gets something nice to eat afterwards. He's not sure why. That big eyed human is there often. xB sees him nearly everyday. Sometimes, he's the only reason xB will poke out the shelter of his rocks.

They talk a lot about rehabilitation, which is something xB's never heard his previous owner mention. Language skills, tail strength, socialisation... Honestly, if there's this much wrong with him, xB doesn't know why they haven't just sent him back!

One day, whilst he's dozing at the bottom of the tank, he finds that human staring at him again. xB tilts his head, quietly swimming out to meet him. The human speaks to him, calling himself Keralis. He seems sympathetic, and for the first time... Somebody explains everything to him. Keralis says he's safe, and that they're trying to make him ready to live in the ocean.

xB works harder after that. He does the exercises they ask him to, he tries to pay attention to the language they teach him. The first time they take him outside, to a large lake, xB might cry. It's still contained, but he has more room to swim around than he ever has before! And Keralis is there, running around the lake with him. xB, for the first time in... A long time, finds himself laughing. He's having fun.

Keralis helps him a lot. He's often there to chat, or mess around. xB feels like he can actually let go around Keralis. Even when they introduce him to other mers, Keralis is the one he feels closest with. He's the first person xB talks to as he struggles with making words, but he never judges him for it.

It's why, when it comes to the day they plan to release xB into the ocean he... Doesn't want to go. He's always wanted to see the ocean, it's been a dream of his. But without Keralis there... Is it really worth it?

So, quietly, he expresses that to Keralis. And Keralis tries to convince him that they'll be other mers out there to meet, people xB can befriend but... That wouldn't stop xB missing Keralis. They eventually reach a compromise. Keralis will transfer to one of the boat crews, and that way they can see each other.

The arrangement is perfect. xB is excited as the boat roars into the open water. There's so much of it. Water as far as he can see, more than he's ever seen. He catches Keralis looking at him, smiling. xB reaches his hand out the tank to hold his.

When xB finally dives into the sea, he doesn't think he's ever been happier.

Nowadays, xB follows around Keralis's research vessel. Keralis calls him a research assistant, and xB doesn't think he's joking. He can get a lot of information they're not able to! He's got a big tank on the ship so he can hang out and talk to Keralis. He helps monitor pollution and living conditions of the water, as well as talking to mers about their happiness or any threats.

xB's heard a bit about marriage from other mers. One day he wants to ask Keralis, but he's still a bit too nervous to do it yet.

[evilrat-sabre]

Welsknight Season 7, EP 3 and 4 a Rat's report

So I guess I am doing this, I am watching the entirety of Wels Hermitcraft Season 7 series and doing a actual written report on it.

First / Next

Deep Storage Warehouse | Hermitcraft 7 - Ep. 3

27:41 lenght, posted 29 may 2020, watched 30/01/2023 and 31/01/2023

He clicks record button and it starts raining. He complains that this is "Just his luck" and I agree, this sums his lucky very well. (Personal note: I had a brief flashback to Doc in season eight talking about the fact of how hard is to see rain in Hermitcraft, and I find it amusing that Wels is one of the culprits, as one of the local sleeping maniacs.)

He is tiding up his river "Basically you are trying to avoid the appearance that you just spammed bonemeal, even though you just spammed bonemeal everywhere" (Time stamp 3:50)

"So I don't think there is a rule against two timelapses in a single episode, lets do it!" Stares in House Flipper series at this 3 year old video.

Personal note: I was building a puzzle with friends while watching it and I zoned out a bit, when I zoned back he was so amused talking about his own building that it just put a big ol' smile in my face.

Fwhip mentioned! He built one of Fwhip's boat designs and gave credit, he started talking about Fwip and how he likes his videos and how he watches it! Idk it just made me soft seeing he talking about Fwhip, knowing that in like 2 years? The man would be steeping in Hermitcraft ground, its a shame Wels wasn't active and didn't got to interact with the Empire people.

"My knight time senses are tingling" *proceeds to spam clicks a bed

"My sleep sense are tingling again" *proceeds to spam clicks a bed (I guess this is his superpower now)

He needs to make a shop

-Wels: No one sell leather and I need a good source of food -Me: Nodding in redstoner "Okay so he will make a hoogling farm, sounds fun" -Wels: I need some cow -Me: Excuseme what? -Me: Stops and thinks for the exact amount of 3 seconds, oh yeah the nether was still bad.

He will vote for Joe as dog catcher! Good to know!

He bought the Hermit Heralds!!! The only thing I managed to read was "Unsanitary Scar"

Wels is talking about cow, stops mid phrase "Problem must sleep" Sir just admit you have a problem.

Wels is doing a cow pen (This is where I suffered from multiple organs failure) "Ha you are mine, forever forever, forced to live a life of breeding" SIR (pERSONAL notes: Yes I am one of the mods in correct Hermitcraft quotes, and yes I have posted worst things there (It was Keralis and xB), and NO, I will not post this in the blog, for the sake that my little rat hearth will NOT survive receiving this quote as a notification.)

FULL House Interior! | Hermitcraft 7 - Ep. 4

25:12 length, posted 5 june 2020, watched 01/02/24

This is a interior decor episode, this Brazilian redstoner Rat will do some comments about Wels decor, be prepared.

Decor talk: I love what he is doing with the ceiling, I could never though about that, I would have let it as it was and sulked.

"If I decided to put a basement in this house, this would be the ideal place to put it, and if not, this can be storage, closet, stairs, you know; Harry Potter could live in there or something" (Time stamp 7:30)

Decor talk: Ok that bedroom is gorgeous, the bed isn't functional, but at least he can sleep in the bench (that is actually a bed)

I will describe the next sequence of actions because it's funny

Goes to the shopping district to buy skulkers

Sees the free samples barrel

clicks on it

Zombies appears out of nowhere

It's a trap.

False for mayor trap!

She kills the mobs and walks away looking honestly cool

It actually worked! Wels retreat his concrete vote for Stress

He realizes that got distracted and goes and buys the shulkers

No free samples for Wels

The great entrance hall is attached to the wrong door, the main entrance door is connected to the kitchen "Planning 10/10" At least it's pretty?

Decor talk: He keeps making benches, he doesn't have a functional bed, but he has a lot of benches.

One of his goals for season 7 was to get better at doing interior!

Decor talk: He is doing great, all he builds is so good omg. For all that I joke about his house flipper, this man knows how to decorate and I really appreciate his buildings.

Beef tunes! He is buying a piano!

So I will cut a bit here, to say that Wels did a honestly moving speech about things that were happening at the time in the world, and I feel like are relevant to today 3 years latter.

I urge everyone to go watch it, because it's truly powerful and it was a good reminder of why he is one of my favorite youtubers.

Its starts roughly at 16:53 and ends at 20:06

I will now transcript part of it here, but I can't stress enough, go watch the whole thing, it got me really by surprise.

"However I will say this, I don't give a damn, and I use that word deliberately, because this is important enough to warrant it.

I don't give a damn about the color of your skin, who you love, your religious beliefs, what political party you belong to, or other description that people may use to categorize you, good people are always welcome in my community, and all it takes to be a good person in my book is to follow the golden rule of treat other as you wish to be treated."

The speech is way longer, and I got really really touched, I am still looking at it and reflecting.

Anyway back to normal now.

Some time and world observation:

In the Hermit Heralds it was written "Get gorgeous" I am curious how much it cost Stress to put this there

Shopping district remains a ugly mess

I did this at 2 am, good night.

[fogwitchoftheevermore]

TERRIBLE NEWS. TUMBLR HAS REMOVED MY ABILITY TO ADD POLLS TO REBLOGS???

anyways. i'm trying to decide where to put skizz and joel in the hermitcraft blaseball au.

skizz's team is already decided (he's on the lovers, duh). yes that's his team in the life series au too, it's not my fault he has a brand. i made these aus before secret life even started.

but joel is harder to decide so i'm giving the choice to you all, who i trust with joel opinions more than i trust myself.

i'll add my reasoning for the teams provided below the cut, alongside a list of all the other options, including which hermits are on which team if putting him on the same team as certain people matters to you.

tokyo lift: other hermits already on the team include stress and false, who i think he'd have a fun dynamic with. i'm pretty sure the lift had a cyberpunk theme, as does joel this season. if he's on the lift i can justify drawing him with a pink streak instead of a green one. i'm also feeding into his ego here and putting him on the strong team.

yellowstone magic: he would be teammates with zed here, and i just think they would be very funny together. i can also justify dying his hair pink here, though it's much more magenta. also i think shrek would've lived in yellowstone. idk it feels right.

kansas city breath mints: i think joel would fit in with them vibes-wise (which is to say i think he would fail the bar exam). but i mostly included the breath mints in the poll because he would be teammates with cleo and gem.

breckenridge jazz hands: it would be pretty funny to shove joel in a room full of band kids, theater kids, resident mean girl iskall eightyfive, and xisuma. just imagine it with me. however. know that if you vote for joel to be on the jands, he will be making a brief cameo in my pearl/netty/jimmy precog trio fic that i'm working on as jimmy's replacement on the jands when he dies. for flavor!

anyways, other options!

hades tigers: only hermit teammate would be exil x, which is inherently a little hilarious. anyways these guys live in hell- not really. but they ARE fireproof!

mexico city wild wings: would make him teammates with hypno. all i really knew about the wings was spicy milk (exactly what it sounds like) and the time they tried to sue the entire league so. keep those facts in mind.

chicago firefighters: would make him teammates with tango. and also he would be a firefighter now. like, the profession. blaze joel afterlife smp likers i feel like this would appeal to you somewhat.

atlantis georgias: would make him teammates with xb. if he ends up on the georgias i'm turning him into a sea creature of some kind, so vote for what creature that is if you vote for this option.

philly pies: no hermit teammates here. all i remember about the pies off the top of my head is that they won the first two seasons of blaseball and then proceeded to never win a championship again.

new york millennials: would make him teammates with mumbo. and also housemates, because all the millennials live in an infinite apartment together, which feels appropriate for magic mountain. i could also make him pink here. however putting him on the mills would require me to type millennials more often, which is a word i cannot ever spell. would you do that to me? (/j)

seattle garages: would make him teammates with joe. one large band. if joel joins the garages i will be making him play the drums, of course. also i'll need to decide which garages song(s) i think he wrote.

dallas steaks: would make him teammates with beef. i don't know if i trust joel at a grill enough for this but i also don't know if i don't trust him.

san fransisco lovers: would make him teammates with ren (team captain), skizz, and wels. wow you've found one of the hermit hot spots. anyways this would put him in a medieval-themed, team-wide polycule.

core mechanics: would make him teammates with doc and keralis. i do think this would be an extremely funny trio. these guys live in the core of the world and build cool robots and things.

hellmouth sunbeams: would make him teammates with impulse. the moab desert fell into a hellmouth in season 1, so all the beams are Weird now. joel joining the beams would also make him Weird.

houston spies: would make him teammates with pearl. netty and jimmy were also spies before they died but idk if that'll be relevant to joel idk when i'm inserting him into these teams. anyways top secret escapades on the spies. also they have a secret base on the moon.

miami dale: would make him teammates with scar. the dale are the party time capital of the world and were the last team to ever make the playoffs, qualifying for the first time in SEASON FIFTEEN OF TWENTY FOUR. they never won an internet series but that's less of an accomplishment.

la unlimited tacos: would make him teammates with grian. the tacos tried to do a strike against god one time (it didn't work out but i respect the commitment)

boston flowers: no hermit teammates here. this was my team when blaseball was running and it would make me happy to put a hermit on it but it doesn't feel right for joel unfortunately. i can be convinced, however.

ohio worms: would make him teammates with wormman (aka zedaph in a disguise) and be coached by tfc. the worms are worms. they're in the dirt. self explanatory.

hawai'i fridays: would make him teammates with bdubs. this is also esmp 1 joel's team in the empires au which isn't relevant but is a fun fact (esmp 2 joel is on the lovers). the fridays have a cool goddess and good vibes. except for that time they all died. don't worry they got better.

canada moist talkers: would make him teammates with etho. i don't know if joel could survive in the cold but maybe i'm wrong maybe he'd be fine. maybe he's withstand it just to stake his claim as #1 ethogirl.

charleston shoe thieves: would make him teammates with cub and jevin. would also (maybe) make him get cursed by god but don't worry about that part, worry about the thieves guild he's joining.

baltimore crabs: would make him teammates with helsknight only. also inherently hilarious. this is the divorcee zone also there's a long dead crab goddess in the chesapeake and if you join the crabs parts of your body will slowly turn into crab. we have fun in baltimore.

[potionofinstantdamage]

Hi! First off, love your art style, it's so pretty, and the way you draw characters is so unique that even the ones you draw for fandoms could be seen as your own oc's but also somehow perfectly convey the characters you are drawing at the same time! (I hope that makes sense-)

I've recently discovered your Noir AU and I must admit it's definitely one of the more unique aus I've seen in a long while. I love how you draw the characters, they're designs are delicious (/pos)!

If it's not to much to ask, would you be willing to share more info regarding the AU? Things like (non-revealing of course) backstories for how some of the characters or gangs came to be, any current rivalries ongoing between groups, or if there is any, any ships? This is all (/nf) of course, so only do so if you want to, I hope you have a good day! 8D 🍓

thank you :^D!!

for noir info.... hrmmm. cleo used to work for doc -- he was the one who patched her up after she lost an eye -- but she was always too ambitious (some would say power-hungry) to be content as someone's right-hand-man and she eventually split off from the hive to start her own gang. joe was a civilian who had worked up some unfortunate debts due to equally unfortunate circumstances, and cleo saw his potential and convinced him to join her in her efforts to build a name for herself. noir au is very wobbly in my mind in terms of format but if i ever wrote like, a longfic about it, cleo and joe would probably be the main pov characters.

other than that, i honestly wish that i could say i had more notable character backstories? mumbo and grian are childhood friends, doc and keralis have A History, ren's been building up his own ramshackle logging company for the past several years. keralis was born into money and uses it very irresponsibly and has been married many times bc people keep trying to murder him for his wealth and then leave either because he hypnotizes them out of it or because they find out how batshit insane he is and decide its not worth the effort. stress and doc are cousins, stress used to work for doc as his medic but quit because they butted heads over many things and later joined up with cleo as a kind of petty revenge against him. XB is just a mysterious somewhat-wealthy guy who just kind of... showed up one day. hypno's lived in the city all his life and mostly struggled to break even selling weapons until he and XB started working together and quickly found out that they could run MAD schemes together with their combined methods. cub and scar's backstory is currently a mystery even to me, but they've known each other for many years and will know each other for many more.

as for rivalries between groups, i mean, they're all direct competitors, so none of them like each other, but at the hypothetical start of the story the standings would be like... the main three current biggest gang powers in westport are the hive, the boneyard, and boatem. the hive has been around for years and years and has been deathly effective all that time. the resident empire, etc etc. everyone knows not to fuck with them. the boneyard is far more recent, but has proven to be a shockingly effective power in its own right, which is a threat to the hive's standings, so there's kind of a bitter past-fueled competition going on there. boatem, for its part, was not taken seriously at all until recently, when the previous leader died and left his protege in charge -- mumbo -- and while mumbo isn't a very good leader in his own right, he's really just the puppet front for grian, who, with pearl and impulse backing him up, is raising boatem through the ranks at a frightening pace. so the main conflict of the nonexistent plot might be boatem's rekindled emergence and the consequences of that.

and as for ships, ehhhh, if i ever write some kind of longfic there probably won't be any like, Canon Ships, it'll just be up to reader interpretation. this is mainly because 1. indecisive, 2. not very interested in writing romance most of the time, 3. want to appeal to a wider audience, and 4. what i often jokingly refer to as "queerbaiting my audience" in which i imagine im writing an ambiguously homoerotic published novel and construct entirely subtextual relationships between my characters because it entertains me dearly. for that matter even outside of longfic there aren't really canon ships in noir au persay. idk man. joe and cleo are up to whatever joe and cleo are always up to. ren is a whore for the mafia (doc) there's no getting around that one but the extent of his whoreishness is based on my mood. doc and keralis are 300 pages deep into a novel published in 1950 with the most insane enemies to lovers homoerotic subtext youve read in your life but again the extent of this is based on my mood. xb and hypno's relationship is up to viewer interpretation [looking directly into the camera mouthing "they're gay"]. i think at one point i invented a crackship between pixlriffs and xisuma, who co-run the newspaper that martyn is a reporter for, but i genuinely do not remember why the hell i was doing that. and also pix and xisuma have literally no story relevance anyway. also cub and scar are gay in the way where it's inherently gay to run a speakeasy together.

[isagrimorie]

Season 1 of Picard had so many missed moments for Seven and the xBs.

And this is the peril of a 10 episode season and handing showrunner reins to someone who has never ran a show before.

Michael Chabon had really good ideas his first 5 episodes were cooking but then things just started loosing steam at the last half of the season.

Seven stepping into the Queen Cell should have been a bigger moment, Jeri Ryan brought the acting and history of her assimilating other unconscious drones - Survival Instinct when Seven had done the same thing with her fellow drones.

They should have let the moment breathe but the episode was trying to move plot around.

And then the last 2 episodes for the Borg was just wasted, and only there to look cool. They basically appear on Coppelius to do nothing.

Also, I had to extrapolate that Seven left the xBs on Coppelius because its the best place for them to be.

Hugh dying was also so unnecessary.

I do like how Jonathan del Arco and Jeri Ryan (best friends in real life) had a headcanon that Hugh and Seven knew each other well, probably one of the other people Seven met after she left Earth and Voyager.

Picard and Seven had a lot in common but Seven and Hugh are the only ones like each other.

And I like that they had a fundamental disagreement about how to treat the Artifact. Seven thought allying with the Romulans was the wrong move and Hugh thought it was the only move he can do to help people like them.

Hugh can still live in the Artifact because it WAS his Cube before the Collective cut them off. Seven can never stay on another Cube comfortably again.

There are 3 versions of Borg in the galaxy now. Version 1: Seven and the xBs, version 2: Jurati Peace Borgs, version 3: the organic nanoprobe Borgs.

There are not less Borgs but different Borgs.

I am so curious what a post-Federation Day world is, and this is one of the things I’m so curious about and why I NEED the new proposed show to be greenlit!

A universe of Sevens, indeed!

[phoslux]

Spoilers for Xenoblade 1 and 2

With Xenoblade Chronicles 3 being out soon, I was trying to remember all the things regarding Klaus, the Conduit and how the worlds are connected, so I rewatched a lot of scenes. Thought I might as well share in case anyone else needs a refresher:

-In 20XX the Conduit, a mysterious thing that in theory allows interdimensional travel, is being found in Kenya, Africa.

You will say "wait, that's not from Xenoblade" and you are right. It's actually from Xenosaga, but I heard some booklet that came with one of the XB2 figures confirmed these events for XB too.

-The organization Aoidos is formed to research the Conduit.

-The unified world government builds three "bean stalks", space elevators that connect to an orbital ring around the planet. They are named Rhadamanthus, Aecus and Minōs. The Conduit was transfered to space bcs it was deemed too dangerous to stay on the planet.

-Aoidos create an AI, called The Trinity Processor. It's made up of three cores, named Ontos, Logos and Pneuma. These three parts have been raised in VR to obtain a personality which was necessary so they could properly maintain the Conduit. The Trinity Processor is located on Rhadamanthus where the Conduit is as well.

-In order to protect the Conduit and the orbital ring, the Trinity Processor uses energy from the Conduit to create Artifices, huge mechs.

-As the orbital ring is being attacked by rebels, a researcher named Klaus defects and locks himself in the control room for the Conduit, planning to activate it bcs he believes it will help humanity become Something More. Another researcher, Galea, tries to stop him but fails.

-The Conduit gets activated, portals appear all over the planet and most of humankind vanishes to who knows where. Most places on Earth also seem to disappear. Galea and Klaus' half body also disappear to another universe (half his body remains (no he's not dead)). There they take the forms of the gods Zanza (as the soul of the titan Bionis) and Meyneth (as the soul of the titan Mechonis) which leads to the whole story of the first game.

I won't talk about the cycle of life in XB1 as I think that won't be important (if any of this will be important at all lmao).

-The half of Klaus that remained becomes the Architect from the second game.

-He regrets what he did and wants to atone for his sins. So he wants to recreate life. First he creates a "special particulate substance with the ability to restore deterioated matter", called the Cloud Sea. It dissambles matter and rebuilds it in its original image. That is supposed to restore the world (buildings, etc) to their former state.

Then he creates miniature vessels containing memories of all the planet's former lifeforms, Core Crystals. He scatters them in the Cloud Sea.

The crystals bond with it and become the titans, who were originally not at all titans but tiny creatures. As they evolved they grew larger and lager and became like the huge titans seen in the game. However, the tiny creatures didn't JUST lead to the big titans, but actually to all living beings, including humans.

Worrying that one day someone might be as stupid as him and cause another apocalypse, he creates the Blades to take care of humans and prevent the worst. The first ones were Ontos, Logos and Pneuma. However, Ontos triggered a space-time distortion and disappeared to the world of XB1 (he's Alvis/the Monado). Logos (known as Malos) and Pneuma (Pyra and Mythra) were supposed to manage all other Blades. The Blades relay all kinds of information to those two, who then process this data and return it back to the Blades' Core Crystals, allowing them to come back in a more evolved state. As Blades "die" and go back to the state of a crystal and get awakened again and again (everytime this happens they lose their memories) they eventually become titans, which in return again create new life and also serve as the living space of other beings.

-Core Crystals were originally not meant to become Blades and titans. They were actually an invention by the last remaining humans, living in what is later called the ruins of Morytha. They were meant as replacement for human brain cells. People wanted to use them to become immortal. However, that failed and they mutated into monsters. Klaus then used their technology as the starting point for the creation of Blades and titans.

-Klaus senses that he will soon cease to exist. He knows Shulk and the others are about to defeat his other half, Zanza, in the world of XB1. As Shulk's words can be heard in XB2, Klaus grants the people of this new world a final gift: he orders all of the huge titans to move towards the world tree (which is the space elevator leading to Rhadamanthus), below the Cloud Sea, to form new landmasses above the ocean.

-He also knew the Conduit (which, yes, was still There) would soon disappear into another dimension. Ontos, Logos and Pneuma were all originally powered by it. As was the space station. Logos/Malos died. We don't really know what happened with Ontos/Alvis in XB1. Pneuma (Pyra/Mythra) sacrificed herself to blow up Rhadamanthus so it doesn't crash onto the Earth. She returns as two separate people in a post-credits scene.

My assumption here is that Pneuma and maybe ALL Blades lost their powers after the Conduit disappeared. This would mean there could be no more new titans, so turning the existing ones into landmasses might have been the only way to save everyone's future. This could also explain why there are no Blades in XB3 (not in the same sense as in XB2 at least. Some characters very much LOOK like Blades).

-With Zanza dead and Shulk as new god, at the end of XB1 Alvis asks him what he wants to do with the world, now that the Mechonis has been destroyed and the Bionis is collapsing as well. Shulk wishes for a new world without a need for gods.

It very much seems like the remains of the titans, including all living beings from XB1 have been brought to the Earth. In the DLC "Future Connected" you can see they now live on a flatter surface, close to the ocean.

[curator-on-ao3]

Do you still do the request thing? :) If so, here is my idea:

"Because you are alive, everything is possible." + Narissa (Surprise surprise ;p)

If not, no problem! Have a great day ♥

I am deeply honored, @wafflingchemist, that you asked me to write something for this character that means so much to you. 💕 I hope you like the result. 🤞

For those who prefer AO3:

For those who prefer to read here:

———

Note: Hat tip to Orum, the Romulan former Borg in the Voyager episode “Unity.”

Reawakened

A heartbeat is innate, unquestioned.

But as her mind climbs from slumber toward wakefulness — slowly, slowly — the rhythm that fuels Narissa’s lifeblood has changed, found calm.

Her eyes open.

The xB Hugh looks down at her, ringed by other xBs — abominations, things, not people, their thick boots on the hard floor she pushes herself up from, her newfound heartbeat quickening, her fingers grasping for a weapon at her waist that isn’t there.

“I disarmed you.” The xB Hugh’s mismatched eyes seem to assess her. “I’ll admit to some doubts over whether to save your life. But I knew the healing power of nanoprobes, plus some neuroelectric isopulses, could fix your cellular degradation and injuries. So the group of us discussed it and decided to go ahead — after making sure you didn’t have the means to try to kill anyone else.”

That’s right. She killed the xB Hugh — clearly not permanently. And … and the xB Seven pushed her into the chasm within the cube, Narissa’s arms and legs drifting upward as she fell, air rushing past her cheeks, her last thoughts of Ramdha and the fear that Narek wouldn’t care for her properly.

And now Narissa stands at the bottom of the chasm, strong, unafraid. She’ll find Ramdha — a broken woman on a broken cube — and they’ll escape. But xBs are in the way, so Narissa’s fists curl, ready to fight, but … what’s wrong with Narissa’s right fist?

She looks at her hand.

Silver tubules are spiderwebbed down each of her fingers, gleaming technology that crisscrosses her knuckles and curls around her wrist before dipping delicately into her forearm.

“As I said,” the xB Hugh stands in front of her, firm, unwavering, “the same nanoprobes that saved my life saved yours. You’re not Borg — no connection to the hive mind. But Borg technology is the reason you’re alive right now, and it can — not always, but sometimes — leave after-effects.”

Narissa is part synthetic.

She could try to tear the silvery exoskeleton from her hand.

But the concept is as repugnant as removing an actual hand.

No, this can’t be what Narissa has become. She’s worked for too many years to protect the galaxy, to heed the warning of the Admonition … the warning … the warning wasn’t meant for organic minds, her nanoprobe-enhanced brain can decode the messages more clearly now, the fear of organics, not synthetics, and the solution is to live together.

This isn’t a trick.

This isn’t a lie.

For the first time … ever … the truth is clear.

Narissa’s index fingers — Borg on one side, Romulan on the other — press to her temples because it’s too much information too quickly, a lifetime of learned beliefs to untangle from misinformation, paranoia, and fear.

The xB Hugh extends his hand, a human gesture of greeting and trust.

Narissa does not want to shake his hand.

She should shake his hand. He saved her life, which has given her insights that she lacked.

But she does not want to shake his hand.

“It’s …” Narissa’s voice is different — lower, more gentle, “it’s not possible to stop hating in an instant.”

The xB Hugh … no, just Hugh … doesn’t pull back his hand. “Because you are alive, everything is possible. Even if it takes time.”

And Narissa, whose heartbeat for so long was fueled by disgust and dread for any form of synthetic life, may not be ready to shake Hugh’s hand today.

But she can see how one day, perhaps soon, she will.

———

Send me an ask with character(s) and a prompt and I’ll do my best to write a lively ficlet for you. ❤️

✨ All prompted Picard ficlets are also available on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43315549/chapters/108880510 ✨

[grimaussiewitch]

More small fic ideas:

Toy Jimmy but he’s not a rag doll toy but instead is made of porcelain. His body is okay with respawns but after rapid and draining respawns can cause paint to fade and cracks forming. He can remove body parts but they can’t move if they’re a meter around from him. Set before Fwhip is fired from his deputy job, Joel taunts Jimmy in front of the jail. Just before he flys off, Joel shoots an arrow straight into Jimmy’s face. Fwhip arrives with hurt and comfort. Jimmy is missing part of his left eye and now angst.

Empires season 1 Joel headcanon: he’s made out of magical terracotta. He has to form himself out of clay, making hundreds of clay copies of himself. Joel is very breakable and every time he respawns he respawns into one of the clones. After the destruction of all of the empires and Lizzie, the love of his life, disappearing, Joel over the years couldn’t bring himself to make clay sculptures of himself. Perhaps he made art of over emperors? Trying to remember the faces of old friends, enemies, and love. Maybe that’s how King Joel of Mezlia died of a broken heart?

Toy!Jimmy turning everyone into toys but unlike him, they can’t move or speak. Bonus angst, he leaves Tango for last.

Phil gets turn into a teenager without any memories after that age, no wings and no immortality. It’s up to bench trio to stop him from accidentally killing himself. Hilarity ensures.

After double life, scar and grian’s sound based injuries carry over back to hermitcraft. Do they get their hearing back from the glitch or learn to live life without sound.

Sbi family au but Tommy and Tubbo swap places. So possible twinduo or techno is just a family friend/uncle friend, Wilbur is Phil and Kristen’s kid, Tubbo was found by Wilbur and raised by him via brother/brother friendship while Tommy was this random kid they found on the side of the road. Tubbo was also childhood friends with Eryn. Basically how would the story go if the two swapped places? How did they develop and what’s their friendships towards other people? Would Tommy had idolised Schlatt or stood up against him more in the manburg arc? What’s Tubbo’s relationship with dream wand what object or objects does Dream have control over him? How does bench trio work and the aftermath of L’Manburg blowing up a second time?

An au where Eret never became king again. He helps to repair damaged relationships and helps to build a new bakery with Niki for Niki. Maybe friendship drama because hey niki, trying to kill Tommy won’t solve anything, lets just bake our feelings into bread and then eat said bread. I dunno maybe a pirate adventure with puffy as well for good measures.

With the empires x hermitcraft crossover, what if while most of the hermits are stuck over in empires, there’s a sudden arrival of a bunch of new people on hermitcraft; Dream smp members. There are too many nations being built up… Just imagine the hermits coming back and Xb and Beef talk about the wars and nations that happened with these new guests.

I want a villain arc for Jimmy so an au where he becomes a new super secret bandit but nobody knows it’s him would be brilliant. Maybe he tries to frame Joey for crimes, especially after a big one. But it turns out he had an alibi so Joey isn’t thieving around for once or he’s stealing smaller things. And Joey wouldn’t blow up parts of peoples empires or kill them a bunch. One day Joel demands that the bandit be found as all of the gold from his empire went missing overnight. During a meeting between the empires it’s revealed to be Jimmy all along who then proceeds to flee via a tnt distraction. Tumbler town is now in lockdown with Jimmy still ruling.

Double life but it’s body swap instead. So tango <-> Jimmy, Grian <-> Scar and so on.

Werewolf!Ren finds out that both sun god bdubs and princess of dawn gem are also werewolves. The whole sleeping through the night is so they don’t have to face transforming because blah blah blah bad experiences or scared. Just, more werewolf au’s.

Vampire Sbi but Phil is the only human and the boys use him to get stuff. Like yes Wilbur and techno were turned in their early-mid twenties but sometimes you gotta use a human to get stuff. Along with Tommy being turned at 16 can’t buy certain things so PHILLLLLLL.

Everyone but one person on every server are hybrids, gods or eldritch horrors. Some picks: Human Tubbo or Tommy or both, Human Keralis and finally human Pix or Jimmy.

Owen doesn’t get turned back into a Llama but Scott does.

Sculk possessed!Cubfan infects Katherine so there’s nature wives angst.

Vex!Scar trying to slap sculk!Cub back to his senses because you can only be possessed by one thing and it has to be as a duo!

Crack fic where Joel gets turned into a toy for a day because karma or something.

More god and deities chill out on the empires server. Aka, Kristen the Goddess of death.

Deity!Elaina propaganda because fuck you I heard she likes space so she is a god now. Also it would be funny for c!Eret to have more god connections like foolish and herobrine.

[walksinlatewithcoffee]

Hermitcraft hybrid headcanons

Starting with the ones I’ve posted about before and moving to more random/new stuff

You know the drill, Preying Mantis Keralis, it’s my jam. It’s so perfect. But also Siren, his voice is perfect for it.

Vampire robot mumbo, best of both worlds. Some fuckhead decided to make a robot that runs on blood and now poor Mumbo just has to live like this.

Cub is newly immortal, no one is entirely sure why or how. Previously he was a magically enhanced human who had earned the favor of a fae court

Ren is a Belgian Mallinois hybrid/werewolf thing. I also probably spelled that wrong but anyway they’re kind of like German Shepard’s but worse in nearly every way. And by Worse I mean harder to train, more likely to bite your hand off, more energetic, etc. Ren just didn’t suit the dignified aura of a German Shepard , he’s too unhinged

BDubs has Lynx energy. I don’t have any other way to describe it.

Satyr Gen will always have a place in my heart but a dryad is a cool option as well

I think Iskall being a grizzly bear hybrid or a dnd style werebear would be neat.

Speaking of satyrs, I like the idea of Doc being a sort of creeper/goat thing with satyr-like legs.

I like the idea of XB being some sort of aquatic fae hybrid, maybe a selkie or siren?

Zedaph isn’t a watcher but was touched by the eldritch in some similar way, which physically changed his eye color to lavender.

Joe is related back to herobrine in some way, and is considered a sort of partial eldritch hybrid similar to Zedaph. Mostly this manifests as Joe having knowledge he shouldn’t due to being deeper in touch with layers of reality lost people can’t access, which often confuses other players who have no idea what he’s talking about.

Speaking of the eldritch, there are three main types: the Originals, the Surveyors, and the Void.

The Originals are creators, beings tied to the fabric of the universe and can bend it to their will. All players lead back to this in some way, because all living things do. Some however have a higher affinity than others, and those people often become server admins. Some people have even higher affinities, and they become Joe Hills.

The Surveyors are risen entities, those which come into power often through sheer force of will, and otherwise by being plucked from a normal life and Changed. Possibly the result of old experiments by the Originals, these now exist in their own right as Watchers and Listeners.

Then there’s the Void creatures. In archaic literature they may be called Glitchborn. Essentially… they’re anything else that doesn’t play by the rules of they game code.

There we have the Void twins. That’s right, X and EX are not supposed to exist. No one knows why they exist. And inside those suits you may be surprised at what you get: unstable forms, inconsistent anatomy, sometimes just a weird amalgamation of shapes if they’re having a rough day trying to look human.

[dmwrites]

“You know what I’ve always found super duper interesting?”

“Holy cheese and crackers!” Beef jumped so badly he fell directly into the ocean. He swam back up to air and choked out, “xB?”

xB was laughing, not in malice, one arm resting on the stone above the water to keep himself afloat. “Oh my- I’m so sorry Beef, I really am! I didn’t expect you to react like that!”

Beef took a few gulps of air and laughed too. “No dude, it’s chill. Lost in my own little world out here, only thinking about cards and maps- sometimes a dip in the sea is what a guy needs. Nice tail, by the way.” xB smiled shyly and ducked his head, swirling his huge fish tail in the water. “So, okay, what were you saying before? I can’t even remember a lick of it.”

xB chuckled. “Let’s go for a swim, Beef!” He grabbed Beef’s hand and tried to drag him underwater.

“Hey, hey, siren from mythology! Hold your horses, well, sea horses really, see what I did there? Eh? Eh? Anyway xB, I can’t breathe underwater, you know.”

“Potion of water breathing.” xB tossed him a bottle. Beef raised an eyebrow at him. xB sighed. “No nefarious intentions, I just haven’t talked to you that much, and I don’t get much water time in my caves. Please?”

“Alright, but just because you’re such a good guy like fifty percent of the time.” Beef replied, and downed the potion. xB grinned happily, grabbed Beef’s arm again, and pulled him under the waves. The two men swam, Beef doing a powerful breaststroke, and xB doing spirals around him. It was a simple joy, really, to be able to just exist in this silent blue world.

After a while, a small coral reef came into sight, and xB curled himself around some pink coral, and patted a spot next to him for Beef. Beef swam over and settled himself. xB looked off into the distance for a moment, which gave Beef time to take a real look at xB’s tail and scales. xB was such a quiet and solitary person most of the time, even more so with his underwater form, that this was a very rare sighting. xB’s tail was a beautiful blue-green color, like kelp deep under the water, inlaid with gold and muted rainbow veins throughout. It looked powerful- well, it had to be, Beef considered, considering xB had literally been swimming circles around him before.

“Hey now, you checkin’ me out, Beefers?” xB giggled, and Beef realized xB was watching him look at his tail.

“Oh, sorry man, I didn’t mean to stare. It’s just that your tail is super cool, dude! Like the scale colors are, just, wow!” Beef smiled at xB.

“You know, that’s kinda what i wanted to talk about with you.” xB swished his tail through the water, making the coral fans around him shimmy. “Scales.”

Beef cocked his head slightly in what he hoped was confusion. “Scales?” Something heavy settled into his stomach.

“Yeah man. I know last season was kinda odd, but i saw you once or twice, and I know you know exactly what I’m talking about.” xB’s tail was swishing even faster, like a small storm to the things living in the reef. “I don’t- I’m not trying to attack you, Beef, I just want to know what happened. I’ve never met someone who had something… similar, I guess.”

Beef put a hand to his face unconsciously, feeling the smoothness of his skin and for the beard that floated all around him. “xB, man, I- yeah, weird is an understatement.” He couldn’t stop feeling his face, tracing his eyes, nose, and mouth with shaking fingers.

“I’m sorry.” xB looked extremely guilty. “I’m upsetting you.”

“No, no, man, I’m sorry I’m like this.” Beef gave xB a small smile.

“Please don’t apologize for the things that have happened to you.” xB smiled back at him. “I didn’t realize. We don’t have to talk about it, Beefers. We can always just sit here and watch the fish traffic go by.”

“No, I want-” Beef sighed, even though he didn’t have to breathe air. xB passed him another water breathing potion regardless. “Being alone so much, making my maps and cards, it really forces you to think. There’s a lot of cool stuff that’s happened to me in my life, but also that whole thing was so… scary, honestly. Waking up every day to see more of my face becoming scales. Watching my own eyes become foreign to me. And then it was gone, just like that, all of a sudden. And it was so… it was like I woke up one morning and someone had shouted in my ear to go, and I went knowing only blurry bits and pieces of what happened.”

xB’s tail had slowed and was now curling and uncurling around the coral in a peaceful way. He was looking at Beef, deep in thought.

“So that’s why you up and left all of a sudden.” xB finally said, a hand tracing his own face, which was sprinkled with sparking scales. “Beef, I’m so sorry.”

Beef shook his head. “It’s gone, for now. Easy not forget when it’s not happening. But I don’t want to forget, but I don’t want to think about it right now, you know?”

xB nodded. “Well man, if or when you want to talk about it, I’ll be here, but until then, there will always be the fish to watch.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true. Thanks xB.” Beef replied quietly, and the two watched the fish swim by in calm, swirling patterns that almost seemed too beautiful for Beef to comprehend.

[hmshermitcraft]

Oh what is better to help a pirate then something that's lived its whole life in the sea.

Keralis found him a while ago, when he first started out sailing, something trailing him at first, a dark blue and orange tail visible here and there, and an area around him suspiciously devoid of any particularly dangerous sea-dwelling creatures.

xB has been trailing this admittedly, quite beautiful, sailor for a while, trying his best to keep away any navy boat that could harm this pretty man, he hopes he can gather the courage to actually greet him, or tell him that though.

Keralis mentioned it to his captain upon joining their crew - a creature of the undead called Cleo - just to make sure nobody tried to attack the creature. He's not sure whether they believed him or not, but he caught the glimmer of scales under the water and knew the creature was still following him.

Occasionally he tried to give offerings to the creature. Tried, because he didn't know what a creature like this would like. The gifts of fish vanished, but the gift of gold just got placed slightly higher than where Keralis left it. He tried other human foods with varying success.

xB thought it was cute. The paltry offers of fish came nothing close to how much he usually eats, but he accepted them regardless. He's got no use for material objects, and nowhere to stash them. Trying human food is fun, though! Even if most of it just tasted like the salt of the ocean. The stuff he gets after port visits is always the best.

He didn't mean for their first meeting to happen how it did. A ship got a lucky shot on him, the spear piercing through his stomach. He still managed to destroy the ship, striking vital pieces of wood with his tail. But his wound was leaking blood into the water, so he retreated to the only place he knew.

He doesn't remember much of what happened next, but Keralis remembers his panicked reaction, the crew coming together to haul the injured creature onto the deck. It took a lot of inventive medical knowledge to remove the spear head and patch xB up. As well as a lot of buckets of water. It did give xB and Keralis a chance to finally talk, though, however delirious xB was.

Keralis still doesn't let xB forget the first thing he said was calling Keralis pretty.

[evilrat-sabre]

in your Weapon shifters Hermitcraft AU is xb still a good shot, like does he sometimes work with scar as the only other long (ish) range weapon (and vice versa i guess) or do they just not shoot at all

Hey anon! Good question! Let me think... Sooo I will have to ramble a little, I hope you don't mind.

A thing I am going strong in my weapon AU is that the Weapons reflect the person turning into a weapon, not the person using it.

As you can see in the original master post, I divided the Hermits by teams or squads(I don't remember the terminology I used lol).

And like they can team up with other people, yes. Xb and Scar are cracked when them team up, but its very rare for it to happen, because they don't live in the same side of the city. Most of the squads are separated by my own taste, rime and reason. But in universe they end being in teams, because they live closely to each other or work together.

I will talk about Xb and Keralis now that I have a chance.

Just so we are in the same line.

Xb turns into a sniper gun and Keralis turns into a pair of gardener scissors.

Why they are a team?(In universe reasons) :

Keralis is a very rich architect , he does buildings and stuff and live a very luxurious life. Xb is his body guard, the man is trained in a lot of fire weapons and is very good at using them.

At first Xb was just a temporary contract, because some loser was trying to threaten Keralis and he contracted a body guard just to be sure (The guy was easily taken care of for), but anyway, Keralis took a liking to Xb and was like, yea no, here now you work to me permanently and you go were I go... It became gay very fast.

So some years pass, Xb still Keralis body guard, and the monsters start appearing shit happens, the two became weapons and the papers flip, because as a weapon Xb is more efficient combating monsters as a fucking sniper gun, than Keralis being a pair of scissors. The thing with these two is. They mostly don't go in directly combat, when they see a monsters they just go up to a roof or some tall place, and Keralis basically head-shot everyone, in the cases where a monster gets closer, they just trade weapon and shifter and Xb stab everyone. Its good, its simple. Xb still has guns with him (He is still Keralis' body guard) but they don't affect monsters, sometimes he still has assholes to shot so he has shooting enrichment at least.

So yes, Xb is very cracked when he gets to wield a long distance weapon, but he is mostly the weapon than the shifter in a normal scenario.

[cuuno-moved]

Alright, here are some notes about VCC to keep us allll on track:

- The AU starts at the ending of the fic

- keralis is WAYYY more desperate in this AU

- keralis asks xB to make a contract to keep them both safe

- although when keralis signs it xB realizes that technically the contract is already broken

- though when xB trys to extract keralis' soul (half taught by hypno) he blacks out before he could fully extract it

- when xB awakens he finds keralis dead- but breathing

- cut to the present, xB is living a normal life with a normal job. Sure his eyes randomly turned orange and sure he randomly gets notes that has keralis' exact handwriting.. but that can't be, keralis is dead.

wait if keralis is dead but breathing, doesn't that mean he's just in a coma?

[dandyfello]

This is my character!!! His name is Tolus and he is a Satyr warrior! For the longest time he lived out in the woods alone, only occasionally seeing his only friend Rus who is a wanderer so he sees him very rarely.

He thinks he was banished to live out in the woods because his whole village never really liked him. What actually happened was he was possessed and murdered everyone in his whole village. He doesn’t fully know but the loss of his family and village even if he just thinks he was banished has really impacted him, making him extremely protective but also very weary of people. All that time in the woods has made him extremely nervous and bad at social interactions but he tries! He is also just very sassy and sarcastic because he has next to no filter xb

His main thing while being out in the woods was scavenging remains of the old world (our modern world) that’s why he wears the clothes he does, he found a very old and mostly buried Hot Topic and loved the style. His main hobbies were painting, gardening, reading, and SOMETIMES strength training, he didn’t think it would be important at the time. He always longed for more though, as much as he enjoyed his simple life, he thought he was meant for more (or had to atone for the evil he unknowingly committed).

Now that he is a sentinel and training and has his group he’s getting close with and dealing with a cult stresses are high and he’s coming into himself more, figuring out what is important. His team mates are, 2 of the 3 of them are also sentinels in training plus…they are his team mates! Of course he cares about them, they’ve helped him in battles and travelled far and wide with them. Stopping the cult is, especially because they are violently racist humans and he is a Satyr, literally has already been hate crimed. And finally, even if he doesn’t become the sentinel he trains and fights with the intent to help and protect everyone (even though sometimes he struggles lmao) after his first few times going down in battle he is at peace with possibly having to die/sacrifice himself to help people but he never actively trying to get himself killed and he’s mostly frustrated he isn’t strong enough yet, just figuring out how to use his specialization. He wants to be as strong as the current sentinel Artemis but he knows he has a long way to go.

Appearance wise he is 6 foot, very built, thinking like Ghost from 2022 MW2 or Kratos from GoW xb. I’m so conflicted about his hair colour because he was he was supposed to have brown hair but one of his picrews is more blonde so I just started imagining him as blonde so he kinda has dirty blonde, pure blonde in the sunlight kinda hair. Idk XD

That’s all for now on him! The campaign is still ongoing obviously but I’ll share more stuff about it soon! :b

[perpetual-fool]

Musical Meaning

I was messing around, trying to figure out how to make some music that sounds sad. But it seems there's no simple melody I can play that really sounds like anything. And in part that's because a rhythm instrument just isn't very expressive. But it's not nothing. For instance, try looking up Bach Cello Suite No.1 played on bass guitar. (If you've only heard one cello piece that's probably the one you've heard.) But if I look up a blues guitarist of something, it's intellectually interesting, and they clearly seem to be feeling something while they're playing it, but I'm not getting anything. So like, Stevie Ray Vaughan, or Steve Vai, I'm just not feeling it. There's sort of bright and dark, tension and release, going up or down, but there's no meaning in it.

I think trying to figure out what makes a melody sad is probably like trying to figure out what makes a shape sad. Like, saying minor keys sound sad and major keys sound happy is like saying circles are sad and squares are happy.

I start to get something with chord progressions. Aside, I'm still not sure how to conceptualize chords. You've got three notes, even if just implied, A B and C. And you have relationships AB, AC, and BC. So, is it like AB and AC are what really matter, and BC is negligible? Yes. Minor vs major chords: minor triad is (AB/AC/BC) m3/5th/M3, but sounds dark but resolved, the minor third and fifth being most important. The major triad is M3/5th/m3, the same as minor but with AB and BC swapped, and it sounds bright and resolved. What about the root? Or 'tonic', more accurately. The note of whatever key you're in is implied, so then you have XA XB XC AB AC BC. So an example, there's probably words for this but I don't know them. Comparing 0/3/7 to 5/8/0, both minor chords in the same key, the second just starting on the fourth instead of the tonic. (Not sure how to notate octaves.) Sounds like it's only XA that matters, it means something to be starting on the fourth, but the second note feels like m3 and not m6. Though it doesn't feel like the tonic is interacting in the same way. It's like it changes the context? Like, root/tritone does not sound like M2/m6. I guess like how words used in different places mean or imply different things? That's as good as an explanation as I'm going to be able to come up with for now. XA > AB > AC, and others are negligible. Anyway, I think it's like each element is a simple shape, and if you layer enough on top of each other it starts to actually look like something. More specifically, XA sets the mood, AB alone or with AC describes a feeling, and then changes in that feeling tell a story. Sort of. That's an oversimplification, and probably specific to me to some extent.

But the story isn't in the music. Nor would it be in the words of prose, or the lines of a drawing.

If there's nothing to read into it then it doesn't coalesce into anything. Like, there was this thing with Maynard (The Art of Work pt.2), and he was saying that with his work, you have to infer the last piece yourself. "And depending on where you are, in your life, you may hear it or may not." And watching the live version of Sober, it's a neat performance, it sounds good, but I'm not really getting it. Contrast with someone in the comments who said something like "I'm a nurse who works with heroin addicts, and he either is very familiar or he was one". But even if they do lay it all out, that's not necessarily enough. Me and a Gun, for instance, is very explicit. And I know it's terrible, but I'm just missing something, I don't really get it. (And I feel like I'm probably a bad person for not getting it.) But, contrast with Resolution. I don't really follow what the lyrics are supposed be saying, but I hear the part where Chester's voice would be, and it's just not there. And it's heartbreaking. Though still I'm missing other parts, but that's music. If you're too specific then you don't leave space for others to fit themselves into. And it might ruin the magic? The only thing I can say I really really get is Take Control by Poets of the Fall Old Gods of Asgard. I saw a playthrough of the game first, so I don't know if knowing the context made the song seem less meaningful. I feel like it's probably the opposite.* But Poets doesn't really speak to me anyway, so I couldn't be sure regardless. But, point being, the story comes from the listener.

And there's a couple things that make it easier to pull that story out. Lyrics obviously, gives people more than a vague feeling to work on. And I think certain instruments seem more expressive because they're closer to the human voice in some way or another. So those would pull on your associations with regular speaking.

So, how do you make something sound sad? I presume, you put together a string of notes which outline the tension/brightness/whatever that you felt while you were sad. And then that will remind you of the sadness. With a voice or something voice-like you could make it sound more like crying or some such. And with lyrics, it's not just saying what happened, is it? I mean, you could, but more effective is to say things that evoke the feeling. Which is also not just saying what the feel is. So like, no so much "my heart is broken", more "I will wander 'til the end of time, half alive without you". Which is a story, I guess. So maybe something like "it was nice outside" turns into "the breeze coldly caressed my skin as the raindrops kissed my face". Although I suppose that's still missing the things I tend to be missing. That assumes you know to feel a certain kind of way about a caress and a kiss. But maybe you have a thing and kissing grosses you out for some reason. How would you know what I'm trying to express? I suppose I could also just say how I feel about it. Not sure how you'd work that in. Maybe something like "the wind's cold caress warmed my soul". And would it be more or less contrived to make it more figurative? "The sky's cold caress stoked the embers of my soul." I dunno, I don't think that's better or worse, just different. And I guess there's the story of what's literally happening. So like, on I Hold You, "breathe through me" means what exactly? I don't know. And that spoils that moment for me. So for maximum clarity you'd probably want to make sure that's, uh, clear. (Tired of working on this, going to bed now.)

- (*And this feels a lot like religion/mysticism/whatever to me. People seeming to insist that there must be an unknowable 'higher' power, knowing it being bad for some reason. Or, there was a thing I heard by Feynman somewhere that I'm not going to bother to look up. He had this story where he was talking to an artist or something, and they guy was telling him that science takes all the beauty out of the world. As if knowing how a flower works destroys what it is. And Feynman was adamant that understanding only adds. And I think I agree, but I don't have the experience to confirm. I experience what seems to be the inverse. Mystery keeps things from being meaningful in the first place, it leaves me with nothing to connect to.)

Tangent: my idea of using music to get access to feelings I can't normally reach seems to be working. And, the minor key is insufficient, doesn't have the tension necessary to do 'dread'. It fucking hurts. I'm thinking of her again, of course. But really the issue predates her by a wide margin. Maybe before elementary school even. The stuck thinking, and the destruction of my psyche that caused it, that goes all the way back. And that was why I couldn't show my affection, why I couldn't hear what she was telling me, why I couldn't just talk about it when she broke up with me. Before she broke up with me. I was buried in here, helpless, unable to do anything but watch as the only hope I'd ever had in my life slowly drifted away from me. I've lamented not being able open up, to reach out. But, while it wasn't much, I did. No one wanted to get their hands dirty. They just played along, were 'polite', or left when they got tired of dealing with me. Feels like it at least, I know it's not that straightforward. I needed understanding. Polite is not understanding. Sympathy is not understanding. Empathy is not understanding. Tolerance is not understanding. Rebuke is not understanding. There were a couple people I'm sure actually tried to understand. But they failed. I searched to the ends of the earth (or, the internet) for someone who could, and I found no one. It's just not possible. I was pathetic because I was broken. You see the above? That's who I am. That's the kind of stuff I could have been figuring out in fifth grade, had I been whole. And that's the kind of stuff I got berated for. That's the kind of thing that got crushed. I don't expect you to understand, or to believe me, (or to see this,) but it's no one's fault. I don't deserve to keep suffering over this. I don't get to have friends, but I wish things could have been amicable between us. You're a good person. I hope you have a partner who will move heaven and earth for you. And, judging by the "you can't speak" line, Forsaken was about what happened with me, right? I think it would've been fun to try and turn that into a duet. But I'm sorry I troubled you. I'm no good for anyone. There are several people who'd be better off if I'd just never been born. And it's not like not being in control actually absolves me of anything. I'm tired of being sorry. I'm tired of not knowing what I'm supposed to be sorry for. I'm tired of not knowing why it was wrong. I'm tired of feeling everything I am is wrong. All that shit I regret, that I really regret, that wasn't me.

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My Game of the Year 2022

10. Old World

From the developers of Civilization 4, comes this one which compassess how addictive and fun that game was and multiply the number of hours spent playing this game. It meets Civilization with Crusader Kings with its heritage tree, having some political aspect to it.

9. Pokemon Scarlet/Violet

Another Pokemon game that I’m interested in, its a shame that the framerate chugs throughout the game, performance wise but man I still love Pokemon. I do find it weird that the mount that they give us looks like a bike with a Pokemon living in it and Pokemon centers are like sizable kiosks that contain a center, a shop where you can buy items and ™ shop where you acquire crafting items from defeated Pokemon and League Points . Anyways, the UI like Archeus is clean and simple and the open world aspect is atmospheric. I do love that you can do gyms at any order since it scales with your level. Titan hunting and raid bases from Team Star is fine, each to its own right. These two new features at the start feels frustrating due to its difficulty with Titans and Raid bosses having life bars and with titans you live to defeat them twice, granted later on it's pretty easy to defeat them.  The terastablize feature is like from Sword which can use to empower your Pokemon but you can only use it once and it recharges when you go to the Pokecenter. 

8. Tunic

Tunic manages to exceed my expectations, the exploration and music does a great job to immerse yourself into this game. Even if there’s not much of a story, it just compels the player on its other aspects of enjoying this game. It may be an insult or compliment to compare this to Zelda or any Souls game but the spirit of this game is really Zelda-like and Tunic was once called “Zelda like a Fox” before the game came out. To that end, this game is a wonderful and enjoyable experience to had by all

7. WoW Wrath of the Lich King Classic

This expansion of a well-loved MMO is considered my favourite, it basically continues where we left off in Warcraft 3 and its expansion, The Frozen Throne and focuses on the Lich King and your journey to Northrend. The leveling can take awhile to cap but the quests and the scenarios as you progress with leveling is interesting and while you still get that same old pop culture reference that Blizzard’s been keen on doing, it is still enjoyable to the very least.

6. Pokemon Legends Arceus

Arceus is still an enjoyable game withstanding its core frustrations, the game is like a open world Safari Zone from its base games but no movement restrictions required. It’s fun trying to catch more Pokemon to achieve more research tasks and getting more stars that your Pokemon will obey you at any level. Being a standalone game, it feels like a breath of fresh air to just catch Pokemons like its slogan.

5. Persona 5 Royal (PC/XBS/X)

This port of a game that came out a few years ago is now on recent consoles is very fun indeed. You play as a character nicknamed Joker, part of the Phantom Thieves which is a group of students who steal hearts or change their ways by staging grand heists and taking their most prized treasures. As a JRPG, much like its previous game is fun, tons of Social Links/Confidants to Max out that will help level your Personas with its interesting parde of characters that you’ll get to love and enjoy.  The palaces where you infiltrate are kinda difficult with a lot of backtracking through simple puzzles tends to be annoying but its satisfying in its own right.

4. God of War Ragnarok

I wasn’t sure to add this on my list since I didn’t complete this game but the hours spent playing this warrant it. It just amazes me how fun this action game really is. I mean, sure there aren't many subtle changes since the previous game but it is still enjoyable with Kratos just hurting a bunch of his enemies. Just beating the living shit out of mythical creatures and Gods is so satisfying when played right.

3. Sifu

Sifu is basically a love-letter to movies featuring martial arts, it’s not intended on its accuracy on what it portrays, it's a kung-fu game that a French studio, Slowmo had made. The story starts as a simple revenge tale, your “sifu” (master) gets killed before your eyes and you get revenge by finding those who killed him. The certain vibe of this game feels cool through the techno beats of the club to the first stage and the museum level where it becomes that scene from “OldBoy”. It is a fun yet challenging beat-them-up that makes you think twice before playing. The combat is difficult and what keeps the momentum coming is how you learn from each mistake, everytime you either age up to giving up and doing it all over again. It sure is a love letter to kung -fu movies but disappointing is the voice acting not being authentic. It was also criticized by its Chinese aesthetic as some complained about its accuracy but it doesn’t seem intended to be it. Each level is unique in its own way and it just gives a vibrant and rich experience. 

2. Weird West

Coming from the makers of Dishonored, raised my eyebrow, as a top-down Wild West fantasy shooter. It was tempting at first to dismiss the game, it felt terrible and the controls and the camera felt flimsy at best but as I continued on playing it, I had a blast. This game is very underrated, few had played this game and talked about it but there’s alot to talk about with this game.

1. Triangle Strategy

Triangle Strategy plays out like a traditional tactics game, it lays out like a grid-based RPG that familiarizes a mix of tactical strategy and role playing aspects into a pretty aesthetic. To call this similar to Final Fantasy Tactics is a disservice to how unique a tactics game this is. To that end, it is nice to play another one of these games and plus its replayability entices you into playing it even after you have beaten the game which is 50 hours long. Fans of the genre should seriously get this game, whether you like Final Fantasy Tactics, Fire Emblem or any tactics game similar to this, the game mixes a grid, tactical base strategy with great roleplaying aspects provided to its fullest extent. Artdink really outdid themselves with this game, it is just incredible. Withstanding the visual graphics, it is recommended to everyone who is looking for a tactics game or any game at all that contains role-playing elements to it. Plus the game is basically Game of Thrones in a tactical, JRPG.