#yeah there was a long time between those events so you could say “character development” but still

[robinmage]

sorry to jinshi but literally nothing will be funnier to me than how he was SO dtf in ln3 in that dirty ass cave with the element of frog surprise, but in ln15 when maomao actually comes to him he's too involved in his own head to listen to maomao say she's dtf. and completely misses it.

[s1llydr3amscape]

Day 5 : Canon Divergence @vanweek2024

Finally talking abt one of my fnaf AU's !!! I try to keep it brief but I cannot simplify for the life off me so yeah have some yapping!! Lots of major stuff and in-between events are not in here but that's what asks are for :] This one is pretty long so buckle up cuz here we go!!!

This au is basically just me taking the fnaf characters and putting them in my oc world!! It started ever since the first FNAF game came out but this story plot started out with Glitchtrap and a few other characters working at an office and shenanigans ensue. When in reality it's a setup because they actually end up killing people and selling off their flesh and pretending that it's organic meat in the market (Like mlp cupcakes + rainbow factory because those were pivotal to my development)

Vanny and all the other workers in a way where technically revived by Glitchtrap as rabbits (Or was already rabbits) making them indebted to Glitchtrap. They can't leave, they have to obey him. Reasons for Glitchtrap needing and starting this business venture is because he needs blood to keep this body I mean his new body alive (Me explaining why they'd have stitching) Because originally Glitchtrap was an entity who took the body of a deceased yellow rabbit and fixed it up enough (like in fnaf sl but this time he just found a fresh corpse) It's rotting the body is failing at this rate, he's going to decay way too fast and he wants to live. (Turning into the black goop like in princess quest)

He paraded as this joyful figure but that's far from the truth obviously. Originally before fnaf sb the body he stole was the father of my own blonde rabbit oc who was dead set on stopping Glitchtrap to let his father's body lay to rest. Even though his father was cruel and left him and his brothers alone, that's the least he can do. He chose to free his body from being mangled worse than it already is because he's a good person I mean better than his father ever was. He doesn’t know if he’s doing it more for himself sometimes.

However, since fnaf sb came out and the movie. I feel like Vanny fits this role better. So yeah to recap Vanny's dad died and Glitchtrap stole his body and made it his own. Vanny knows this later on but she too died in the same vain. Hence, why she ends up having her soul indebted to Glitch as well being the first few workers under him.

At first, she thought she was in hell she's supposed to be dead but she's not and her dad is still here? And he's still the same as ever yet something's not right. He just seems to be acting strange yet it's all too familiar for her.

Vanny ended up posing as a security guard for this residential area. She was tasked to basically infiltrate and blend in so that Glitchtrap had a new source of produce you could say Yet, even after all this Vanny still ended up befriending the Glamrocks. They cared and comforted her even after she wouldn't tell them her sorrows. They were real friends in a way. 

They're nice. In a way.

It felt nice to have friends after moving from area to area to avoid suspicion and ended up making friends. Yet Glitchtrap took this as a sign that she did this for him. Everything she did for herself is for him after all right. Lowering their suspicion on her by being friendly and outgoing, she’s thinking ahead for him. What a good daughter. Making them easier targets if someone were to ever happen to one of these lovely residents. They wouldn't question Vanny now would they! She's just their friendly neighborhood bunny

Her first target was Glamrock Bonnie. It was swift and quick but he put up a fight. Managing to damage one of Vanny’s eyes. The others don't know what happened as the camera feed was seemingly coincidentally cut. Vanny almost didn't make it out and had to leave the body there dead, managing to hide the evidence that she even laid a hand on him. Making it seem like he had fallen down the stairs after a robber tried to mug him. During his funeral, Vanny couldn't even be bothered to look down as he was getting buried. She stood there staring.

She did this.

She was being used as a trojan horse by Glitchtrap to get his supply. She still befriended the others. She shared moments of joy and laughter with them and yet she couldn't help but stare as he was lowered. Glamrock Freddy came to her and cried. This bustling hunk of sunshine weeped at her mercy. She tried comforting him but it left her bittersweet knowing she did this to someone who was nice to her. You’d think she’d be numb at this point but she’s not. 

She never was.

She ended up trying to push them away as the months began to pass. No longer making rounds when she knew they were at home. Deliberately avoiding going to social events and basically just trying to get this job done with. Even when she was doing her rounds and caught sight of the others she answered them rudely or just told them that she was too busy for dilly-dallying.

Roxy tried offering to give her a ride on her bike when she did her rounds but Vanny declined. Chica tried inviting her for lunch but Vanny declined. Freddy tried inviting her over for karaoke but Vanny. Even Monty tried inviting her over to play golf but Vanny declined. 

She's trying to make them hate her. She can't let her dad take them away from her too. She can't. Never again. So she's trying desperately to get them off of his scope so that they wouldn't end up as one of her victims packaged for eating. 

As long as they hate her as long as they don't want anything to do with her they'd be safe. They have to. They don’t need her.

It ended up working for a bit. But Glitchtrap is never satisfied. He never is. Suddenly neighbor after neighbor ended up mysteriously disappearing from this apartment complex. It was more common to see people move in than out and it was happening rapidly.

The residents have asked their landlord for higher security or that they'd move out as even families started going missing. Yet nothing changed. Not a peep gets out here. 

Until one day, Vanny was tasked to kill Freddy. A test by Glitchtrap and she couldn't do it. She tried begging for it to be someone else, anyone but her friend but he didn't like that his worker was testing his patience and took over.

There in the dead of night Vanny broke into Freddy's home. It was a sloppy job. Yet she strutted along. Holding onto the knife with such vigor. Just when she opened the door to his bedroom and tried to take the plunge. She slashed at a child's cheek.

What?

And in that brief moment Vanny regained control and had to face her bearings getting a migraine by the possession by Glitchtrap. She didn't know what was happening until it was too late and the kid fled outside. 

Great.

Basically fnaf sb happened but Freddy was at the pharmacy buying meds leaving Gregory (rabbit) home alone for a few minutes. Vanny, being puppeteered at the time by Glitchtrap, broke in intent on killing Freddy but ended up getting Gregory. Vanny and Glitchtrap didn't and doesn't know Gregory was there or who he was. This was because when Vanny tried to cut off the glamrocks Freddy ended up adopting this kid he found. Hence, why neither party seemed to know about the other because it was quite literally very recent. 

But yeah gist off the AU for now!!! Some parts are being rewritten and whatnot with the ruin DLC and book stuff but yeah!!! Short intro of the AU!!!

Headcanons / Lore :

-Vanny was blonde but ever since her resurrection her furs been turning white unknown if it's because she's technically undead or from stress (I like to think like from blonde bunny with green eyes into those white rabbits with red eyes)

-The workers are some canon fnaf characters and ocs

-Glitchtrap can't mind control Vanny all the time cuz he has other workers he needs to monitor and control, basically spanning a wide network. So he uses fear mongering tactics to get her to obey while he's away.

-Glitchtrap needs the flesh because his body is rotting and he needs pieces constantly to replace it. He only went after rabbits at first but due to his rapid decaying (turning into Burntrap as the story progresses) he went after anything that breathed and lived. I can’t decide if at the end of the story he should turn into Mimic where he’s just a walking skeleton or if he should just permanently die like in the Burntrap ending

-Vanny when she came back had many bald patches on her body after being stitched apart. She's trying to grow out her fur to hide what happened. Just to regain her sense of self. Yet things never change and so she ends up shaving it all off becoming bald like in security breach :[

-She knows that's not her dad but she's still scared of him even though he's much more different than how he was before. Maybe it's the unconditional love of a daughter for her father. Or she doesn’t know what a good parental figure is.

-Glitchtrap originally looked like the black goop version from princess quest, always ever changing, never the same as a being born of malice and hatred. He wanted to be a person like everyone else instead of a blob to be free of it all to start anew but he can't. Unless he acquired a body.

-His workers are only alive after he modified them, giving them life again by giving a part of himself inside off them kinda like a soul contract. Permanent scars literally. (How the enemies in Princess Quest look like rabbit people)

-Workers get sent around areas with dense populations and well acquires inventory from there. Glitchtrap gets money selling the flesh claiming it to be from regular animals. With the money he uses it to keep his body intact and alive. This is to explain how he turns into Burntrap becoming green and nasty.

-Each worker is associated with a smell. Vanny is onion. Glitchtrap is lemongrass. If you look at the sketch Scraptrap’s is garlic. If you’re asking why I did this it is because I just think it’s funny.

-There's more but I feel like I've talked enough!! Currently doing more writing to add ruin into this and trying to do a 2024 redesign for this AU!!! Including Vanny I need to make her more nasty and rotten <33333 

-Also be warned I love bittersweet endings if you fancy this AU

Her stitching and pupils keep switching sides because I couldn't decide 😭 Too embarrassed to show everyone elses design because the start off the story is goofy and the tonal whiplash is killing me. Scraptrap and Glitchtrap cameo tho!!. never realised how squished I made the heads.

I removed the blood due to the fact because being grabbed at the back off your head by an abusive family member still just as scary I should know

[fanficsandfluff]

Guardians of the Galaxy: Nice

Fandom: Guardians of the Galaxy

Character(s): Rocket, Peter Quill/Star Lord, Mantis, Drax, Nebula, Groot

A/N: I'M BACK. BACK IN THE NEW YORK GROOVE~~

No but seriously how the fuck is everyone!?!?

I am revisiting my Guardians phase and I couldn't be more happy to be here.

I will say very MINOR spoilers for Vol. 3, and this is supposed to take place after all those events transpired.

This was what I came up with from this anon's ask and I greatly appreciate you sending this in. Not so much tickling in this one, and it's definitely fluffy and sweet, so I still hope you enjoy!

It's been tumultuous. It's been frustrating. It's been hell at times, too.

But then Drax would sit next to him on the grated metal floor of the ship as he tinkered with something new, something helpful. It wouldn't take much. Just having Drax sitting with his too-big legs trying to criss-cross themselves, crunching on a zargnut or some other snack... hell, it should've annoyed the piss outta him. The stupid chewing noises, hearing his breath when he leaned in to get as close as possible with his face so his Kylosian eyes could see the intricacies of whatever was in Rocket's little pawed hands. It didn't annoy him, actually. No. The dummy was actually helping him immensely with his presence. And they wouldn't even need to talk. As long as Drax was near, sometimes scooting close enough that his knee rested in the crook of Rocket's side. That was nice...

Then the hell feelings would surface again, grumbles under his breath as the thoughts bubbled up.

And it would be Groot coming closer after keeping watch on Rocket for a short while, knowing just the time when he needed to step in. And usually when he waited long enough, Groot was itching to be playful. He was a whole lot bigger now. Bigger than he was before the Ronan incident. So his attempts at going for the chase were met with a gruff chuckle and grin from the raccoon almost instantly. Groot's big dumb tree trunks stomping around... it was humorous. And of course Rocket would try and hold out, or else what fun was there in the game? He'd slooowly walk in a circle with his friend, then scamper around when Groot happily hopped up and down from the excitement of the playing. Groot would extend his fingers, morphing them into thin, pliable branches and scratch and poke at Rocket when he could catch him. Eventually, though he'd never admit it if asked, Rocket would "let" himself get caught and Groot would scoop him up into his arms and it just felt nice.

Rocket would be stopped in his tracks, too, when he felt his heart tittering. Like it was fluttering a bit too extra at times, making his breathing difficult. This was a new development after being medpack'd back to life. Not life threatening, they debunked that theory early on. It was just a nuisance. But the limited ability to intake oxygen would sometimes send Rocket whirling again, back in time, back to the terrors...

And a boisterous laugh from down the hall and to the right, to Quill's personal area (though it's become less personal over the time his new family spent there and infiltrated the space. Rocket preferred it like it was now...). There Rocket would catch a glimpse of Peter and Mantis, sitting together, Mantis laughing at something. It was hard to tell with her. Most things that amused her amused Drax, so one could guess it'd be a stupid ass cause. Rocket's ears and nose would twitch, even his lips where a small smile was playing. Even though he thought he was out of sight, eavesdropping on the sibling to sibling moment, Peter would catch him standing there and beckon him over. And Rocket would go and sit between the two, heart murmur forgotten. Just smiles. And yeah yeah, shut your face, Rocket did sit between them on purpose, so he'd have comfort on either side. Moments like these were nice, too, man...

"Rocket."

With a few extra blinks, the raccoon was back in the present. Reminiscing became a very real hobby as of late, after the rescue, after the reunification. He'd go to these places easily, slipping away without any thought for what was happening around him here and now. But that was Pete saying his name, he knew that much.

"Wha?"

"You wanted a shot, too?"

Rocket looked down his snout at the array of rainbow liquids before him. He glanced over at Nebula, arms crossed. She looked sober. He gestured his head towards the spread, "You have any?"

"I was waiting for you."

Rocket smirked, "Fire me up one, barkeep," he slammed his little hand on the control table, their meetup/planning place that was now used to house the libations for their little party.

"Don't know if that's correct lingo, but let's go with it," Peter teased but poured shots for Nebula and Rocket.

And together, the group drank and the night began.

This was gonna be fun drunk. Not sad drunk. Lord knows Rocket couldn't stand sad drunk anymore, especially after watching Peter deteriorate after Gamora 1.

Come to find out, fun drunk brought out a very different side of Rocket.

The first sign most noticeable to everyone was the giggles. They were all highly familiar with Rocket's many fake laughs, loud laughs, derisive laughs... the whole gambit. If they were chatting and joking, Rocket would lose himself in a stream of giggles, higher and more innocent than anything the family was used to. But it was contagious, considering the rest of them were also quite tipsy.

While the whole troupe picked up on that, Nebula was the first one to notice all the touching. Not being one for affection, the only touching she'd bestow or want to have would consist of pushing or punching. But Rocket was sidling up to everyone at any chance he had.

When he was sitting on a bench next to Peter as they were listening to Drax try to tell some outlandish, very-serious-not-funny-at-all story, Rocket would be nearly passing out from wheezing at trying to hold back all the laughs he had bubbling up from Drax's horrible speech, and he'd be nuzzling and pressing his head all into Peter's arm and side. The Terran would be in the same state, rosy-cheeked and littered with repressed snorts and giggles. The two of them together were not a good mix for trying to keep straight faces. Finally, Drax picked up on the boys' restraint and Peter lost it, sliding down in his seat, nearly falling completely off the bench. And Rocket was practically laying in Peter's lap, now also in hysterics.

Nebula was pouring herself another drink and Rocket stumbled up to her, pressing his hand against her knee, "Hey."

"What?"

"Hey--pfft," Rocket was snickering again.

Nebula rolled her eyes but paused her drink selection to look down at Rocket, who was now feeling the fabric of her pant leg with both paws. See? Again, the touching.

"Rocket, if this is something idiotic--"

"I'snot! No no no, it's not. Promise," even through slurred words, Nebula had to admit she was intrigued.

"Then what? Did you want a drink?"

"Nnno-- well wait yeah, actually, if you wouldn't mind-- But no! So! They were askin'--" he lifted one of his hands off her leg to gesture in the vague direction of the rest of the group, huddled up together with all their eyes on Nebula and Rocket, waiting for the ball to drop. Idiots.

"Are you--? Do ya think you're ticklish?" Rocket asked finally, another one of those light giggles slipping out.

Nebula glanced over at the group with one of her death stares, and they all tried to feign innocence.

"Do I look like I'm ticklish?"

Rocket now lifted both hands off her and used them to shrug, "I dunno, I was just askin'..."

"You can tell them no. And not to try or I'll strap them with Nova Core-strength batteries and feed them to Mantis's Abilisks."

Rocket scoffed, starting to walk away slowly, "Geeheez, alright... No need to be so 'Nebula' 'bout it. I don't mind it, so I guess I just don't get why you're bein' so defensivitious..."

And there he was making new words up again. But Nebula didn't let go of the one very important tidbit slurred in the middle of the nonsense ramble. He didn't mind it.

More of the night passed and they were nearing the sloppy, lovey dovey drunk phase of the night.

"I love you guys," Mantis was the one with the turn to spew her love speech. They found out Mantis had a hard time getting drunk, so throughout the night Drax and Peter would let her touch them so she could feel a little of what they were feeling, "Like... I'm just a worm..." uh oh, "A little teeny--bitsy worm and you all made me bloom."

"You're nohohot a worm, Mant," Rocket chuckled, laying down with his head in Drax's lap and his feet propped up on Nebula's.

"I thought you were a larvae," Drax pointed out.

"Was," Mantis corrected, her antennae drooping with the brief recollection of Ego, "But now I'm a butterfly!" she even waved her arms in the air to prove her point.

"Wouldn't you just be... a mantis? A praying mantis?" Peter now inquired, scrunching his face like this took a whole lot of energy.

"A what?" Mantis asked.

"Forget it.." Peter didn't want Mantis to have an existential crisis over whether or not she was a butterfly. So for tonight, yes, she was a beautiful butterfly.

"I love you losers, too," Rocket took his turn, his eyes closed and his words honestly barely audible since it looked like he was getting drunker and sleepier by the second, "I love you for all you do for me. For this."

By 'this,' everyone assumed the party.

Rocket rolled over on his side and his tail flicked, "For... you know... whenever you... like you pet me. Or just take care of me..."

The room was quiet, save for Peter's music playing on low volume through the ship's speakers. All eyes were on Rocket.

"I thought you hated being pet," Pete pointed out, a moment of sobriety coming through.

Rocket blinked his eyes back open as if he was again being brought back to the present. What did he say? He liked being pet?

"Well yeah..." the raccoon sat up now, removing his body parts from Drax and Nebula, like he was now becoming aware that he was laying on them at all.

"But that's not what you said just now," Mantis said.

"No. No, I-I--"

"I've pet you before. When you were sad," Drax said next, "It was natural to do, since you are built for petting."

"Okay--"

"I am Groot."

"What!?" everyone in the room exclaimed in unison.

If Rocket was human, he'd be beet red by now. He tried running away from the situation, literally. But Nebula grabbed his arm, not in a rude or demeaning way. Her touch was gentle. Shit, just what he needed right now, more gentle touch...

"You like when we're... affectionate," it was even hard for her to get the word out.

"Everyone likes hugs and nuzzles--" Mantis threw in, ready to list a whole bunch of things when Nebula cut her off.

"... and tickles," she was sporting another oddity: a kind smile.

"Groot..." Rocket growled, eyeing his friend for outing him like that. He wanted to crawl into the evac chamber and be shot into space.

"He didn't have to say it," Nebula pointed out to save Groot some heartache, "You told me earlier."

"I think I'm gonna go to bed now," Rocket tried to get his arm free, "And for the record, I'm drunk. I never heard any of this."

"Rocket," Peter began, "You know that if we knew you liked all that stuff, we'd do it more."

"Please stop talking.."

"Don't be embarrassed," Mantis pouted.

"I think there could be far worse things to be embarrassed about," Drax added, "Even though I don't quite know what that means."

"We love you for who you are," Peter even stood up from his seat and walked closer to where Rocket was still being held by Nebula's hand, "So stop thinking you're inconveniencing us or-or that you don't care..."

"It's a privilege to make you happy, Rocket," Nebula said, her voice soft.

Rocket stood still, with Pete now kneeling to be more at eye-level with him and Nebula holding his wrist. His brown eyes glanced around at his friends-- scratch that, his family. What a stupid way to have this conversation. A bunch of drunk idiots confessing their love.

"I 'ppreciate it, fellas..." Rocket spoke. He nodded his head, making sure to have eye contact with everyone there to know he loved them back, even though this turned very awkward.

When Rocket felt Nebula let go of him and he figured he was finally allowed to leave, Peter surprised him by grabbing him in a hug and holding him close. Rocket sighed and patted Pete's shoulder, not so much reciprocating the hug because he just felt weird about it all now. But it was nice-- oh fuck, here we go...

Drax carefully pet the top of his head between his ears, and they twitched and sank to give away their enjoyment of the act. Nebula extended her metal arm and scratched under Rocket's chin, grinning. Rocket huffed and moved his head, but damn that also felt good... and Pete still didn't let go of him... So Mantis came over and practically threw herself on top of him and Peter so she could join in the hug. Rocket heard Pete chuckle and felt the rumble in his chest since he was that close to his friend.

Lastly Groot joined in, wrapping his growing branches and limbs around the whole group sitting there in a huddle.

"Bunch of idiots..." Rocket said with heavy sentiment. He succumbed to the hugs and pets and scritches because dammit he really frickin' liked it all.

Rocket felt some prodding into his sides and he snickered into Pete's shoulder, "Groohoot..." he warned, knowing the familiar feeling too well.

"What'd he do?" Peter asked.

Again, Rocket felt the prods and new light scratches. His small body shook with unlaughed laughs. He recognized the tone in Pete's voice and knew it wasn't Groot poking at him. So he had to defend himself. Rocket's claws dug into the expanse of flesh that was Peter's ribs and the whole hug pile disintegrated as Peter screamed and cackled and writhed his way out of there.

"I am Groot!"

"Damn right I can dish it out, too!" Rocket grinned.

What soon tumbled into a massive tickle fight ended with Rocket in near tears of mirth, all his family and friends gently messing with little parts of him.

This was a new one to go into that memory bank of his.

A real, genuine nice moment.

[noname-nonartist]

I was sent here by @hxhhasmysoul after seeing them reblog one of your artworks. It was nice looking. You did good. 👍

I’m curious on what exactly is “Project Sekai” I was told it was an online game of some of that sort.

O///O

H-Hi!

Sorry taking so long to answer this! It’s just- I didn’t expect an actual ask about this! (And also to like. Collect my thoughts since I have so much to say about Project Sekai)

Umm!!! Thank you for liking that art of my favorite Project Sekai characters with my favorite Jujutsu Kaisen characters btw! >///<

Okay. Where to start?! I guess we can start what’s Project Sekai is and then later talking about the plot! :Dc

Let’s go!!! Project Sekai Lore 101! Or like. My attempt to explain it! •v•;

(More under the cut if you’re interested! ^w^/)

What is Project Sekai?

Well, it’s a mobile rhythm game where you tap/slide/flick on the notes to the beat of the song! However it’s also technically a sort of visual novel game too!

The gameplay revolves around the rhythm game, but the story is very much a visual novel! And you generally unlock the story through getting points via playing the rhythm game portion of Project Sekai (for the main story and during the event stories when live).

Oh. And it’s technically a Gacha game too, where ya pull cards of the characters (the art usually relates to the story/have a general theme for each set).

Of course, I could explain more about the general gameplay, but that’s not what this post is gonna be about, so let’s move on!!! >v<

What’s the Story of Project Sekai?

Okay, before I even talk about the story, I would need to give you some context on a bit of the world building within Project Sekai! Soooo…

Project Sekai Lore/World! (Or like as best I can explain anyway lol)

There is this plane called “In Between Worlds” which is essentially sort of like empty space where the OG Vocaloids resides (Miku, Kaito, Luka, Mekio, Rin, and Len). This place is where SEKAIs can form.

What are SEKAIs? Well they are essentially little tiny world that’s form!

Within those SEKAIs, there are essentially alter versions of Vocaliods depending on the group of people’s views on the Vocaloids, but mostly based on who themselves wanna be like (e.g. WxS Kaito being a good older brother role model, something Tsukasa strives to be) or based on people the group knows (e.g. VBS Meiko being based on An’s views of Nagi Kotaki, her aunt).

How does do these SEKAI form? Well they form when a group of people have a similar feeling/ambition/dream that they all wanna achieve!

However! There’s been cases where a Whole SEKAI are formed due to only one person’s intense feelings! But those are extremely rare since only a person’s feelings/emotions can create a Fragment SEKAI, if their feelings are strong enough at that moment. However unlike a fully developed SEKAI, a Fragment Sekai are pretty fragile and doesn’t last that long. While a complete SEKAI can last forever in theory iirc. :oc

But yeah! SEKAI are essentially mini worlds that are based on a group of people common feelings where the group can come in anytime they want via their phone/devices! The group usually first enters in via clicking on a mystery song that popped up within their playlist called “Untitled”. And Bada-Bing! Bada-Boom! They get to meet that world’s version of Hatsune Miku, and get a free therapist! XD

Of Course, this isn’t a well known thing in the general public, so the groups generally keeps the knowledge about their SEKAIs hush-hush. Which makes sense since like… how the hell would ya explain this to someone without them looking at ya strange? XD

What’s the Story of Project Sekai? (For Reals this time lol)

So, from what ya can gather from the worldbuilding/lore. Ya can probably guess that the general plot and goal of the story is for the Vocaloids to help guide the main casts towards their goals, and have them understand and express their feelings freely. Since once the group comes to an understanding of each other feelings, the Untiled song will then changed into an actual song that expresses the groups’ feelings!

So! Let’s dive into the Main Story within Project Sekai!

There are a total of 5 groups that we focus on! Each group contains 4 members! So that’s a total of 20 main characters! @v@

The Groups being…

Leo/need! (the typical band)

MORE MORE Jump! (the idol group)

Vivid BAD SQUAD (the street music group)

Wonderlands x Showtime (the theater/troupe group)

Nightcord at 25:00 (the online music video group)

And of course, the members within these groups has names~

L/N: Ichika Hoshino (vocalist/main guitarist), Saki Tenma (pianist), Honami Mochizuki (drummer), Shiho Hinomori (bass guitarist).

All of them were also childhood friends before they slowly drifted apart during Middle School due to Saki getting really sick due to her chronic illness, Shiho distancing herself from the group due to increased rumors about her, and Honami grew distant due to being ostracized for being too much of a people pleaser and thus people called her two faced. Ichika was the only one who didn’t know what happened, thus blamed herself for the rift. (Don’t worry, they get together of course ;3c)

Their goal is to become a professional and legit band~

MMJ: Minori Hanasato (the newcomer but with extreme hope and determination), Hakura Kiritani (retired idol before joining due to guilt of failing to look after a member within her old group), Airi Momoi (also left the industry before joining due to the industry never seeing her as a real idol thus letting her always play the role as a fool), Shizuku Hinomori (was still an idol during the main story before quitting her old group to joins MMJ)

Their goal is to bring hope and inspiration to their fans and to overcome the struggles within the idol industry~

VBS: Kohane Azusawa (a shy newcomer but with immense talent in singing), An Shiraishi (her whole life is street music and is considered a prodigy due to her being the daughter of a well known musician within the setting), Akito Shinonome (got into street music when he’s in middle school, sort of the underdog within the setting), Toya Aoyagi (the son of a really strict and famous classical musician, he met Akito while running away after getting sick of being focused to practice constantly and thus got introduced to street music)

Their goal is to surpass this super famous street music Event called RAD WEEKEND, that the RADer (the group that contains An’s dad, Ken Shiraishi, Taiga Kotaki, and Nagi Kotaki) and other well known street music groups did a few years ago that deeply inspired An and Akito~

WxS: Tsukasa Tenma (Actor who wants to be a star but originally forgot why at first until he remembers it was so Saki, her younger sister, would smile and be happy), Emu Otori (the daughter of the popular theme park, Phoenix Wonderland, she also strives to put a genuine smile on people’s faces to make them happy), Nene Kusanagi (the singer who love musical and always dreams of doing one to bring joy, but she has stage fright that she struggles to overcome at first), Rui Kamishiro (the director who loves to build extraordinary gadgets and equipments to make the show out of this world to bring excitement and joy for those who would watch)

Their goal is to save the old stage play within Phoenix Wonderland and to bring smiles and joy to everyone~

N25: Kanade Yoisaki (Composer who’s determined to constantly make music to save people after she felt immense guilt when her father, who’s also a music composer, fell into a coma due to stress), Mafuyu Asahina (the lyrics writer and vocal mixer who originally contacted Kanade after one of her songs made her feel something, thus make music to try and see if she can still feel since she can’t due to her intense depression for constantly wearing the “perfect daughter” mask), Ena Shinonome (the artist who’s strive to be a pro artist out of spite after her own father, who’s a famous artist, told her that she doesn’t have the talent to be one and shouldn’t try and be one, but she struggles with getting validation for her art which is the only thing she has), Mizuki Akiyama (the editor/animator who cares deeply for the group and even considered them all their friends, but they are scared to tell any of them about their secret due to fear of being ostracized due to them being outcasted in school)

Their goal? Well, technically is to keep making music to save people, but in actuality it’s mostly them actually improving their mental health and help them with their issues/problems lol~

And the Main Story is all about the formation of all of these groups! With the expectation being N25, since they were already a group in the beginning of the main story, but their story is about maintaining the group after Mafuyu disappeared mysteriously for days.

However, that isn’t where the story ends! Oh noooo! Far from it! Within the game there are these Event Stories that continues the story of all the group after the Main Story!

These Event stories usually focused on one particular character at a time, but overall expands and continues the story/arc of all the characters! :3c

Thus there’s a lottttt of story content within Project Sekai! In fact, not even I have read all of them yet! @v@;

But from what I read, I’m really really loving it! Like! Sure the pacing be a slow burn, but the moments that the story be building up to is sooooo worth it!!! And like all the characters be having depth~

Oh! Also alsooo!

What I really love about the story is that the some of the characters have relationships/friendships outside of their unit group! Like An and Haruka were middle school friends who like to have contest in random things on who’s the best, and that knew each other since elementary school! Another example would be how Mizuki and Rui were also middle school friends that bonded over being both outcast.

There’s also siblings within the main cast with different dynamics! Like the Hinomori’s (Shizuku and Shiho), the Shinonome’s (Ena and Akito), and the Tenma’s (Tsukasa and Saki)!

And like the characters later get introduced and meet other characters later on in the stories! Like how Shizuku and Airi meets Mizuki for the first time through Ena (Ena and Airi are friends since middle school), and how An and Shiho became friends after bonding over their love and passion for music and how they value their friends/group so much!

Conclusion

Basically… Project Sekai is my current hyperfixations and I’m loving it! *w*

Of course I would still need to read all of the story since I’m no where nearrrr caught up! @v@;

But like, I’m having a blast so far! :Dc

Thank you for asking and being slightly interested in this game anon! ^w^/

[insertdisc5]

Devlog #8: QA and Q&A

(all the screenshots i have left are spoilers. while i take more, have a meme)

Hello everyone! Welcome to this month’s devlog!

If you just stumbled upon this, I am Adrienne, also known as insertdisc5! I’m the developer, writer, artist, main programmer, etc of the game. The game being In Stars and Time, which is the next and final game in the START AGAIN series, following START AGAIN: a prologue (available here!).  You can find out more about In Stars and Time here!!! 

LET’S GET TO IT

With the game’s alpha finished, I didn’t do anything much worth talking about this month. QA is underway! I’m fixing bugs! I’m writing changelogs that say stuff like “At the hallway before that one room, getting to the edge 2+ times wont softlock anymore if you do it between the wall and a column”!!!! I’m also resting because September was a LOT!!! 

So, since I have very little to say, I asked people on Twitter to ask me questions, so I could answer them. Q&A time!

@ItsMeLilyV asks:

1. I really have been in love with monochrome & limited palette styles recently :3 How did you figure out the art style for ISAT? Are there any distinct challenges or walls you've run into? 

2. did you get to take any good naps. how would you rank the naps on a 10-pt scale

1. The TLDR is: it’s more fun to draw in black and white. And it’s faster. And it looks cool as hell!!!

I did run into some challenges especially when it came to UI- how do you draw the eye of the player to a selection, or something they need to interact with, when you can’t use an eye-catching color to draw them in?!? I ended up relying a lot on level design to do that… And animations, too, especially in the House where everything is frozen! Keeping a very limited palette also helps, I think I mostly used black, white, and maybe 5 shades of grey in between… It’s all about contrast! And not having a big muddy grey mess!!!

2. I got some good naps in, yeah. I’m a big fan of naps after lunch, so I eat, wait for the sleep to kick in, and sleep for 2-3 hours. Solid 8/10 naps. That’s heaven babes!!!

@gertritude asks:

I am curious about what your writing process is for the game!! Like, what is your planning process (if you have one) and how do you approach actually writing for it?

My writing process… It’s a little all over the place to be honest! 

I had the big strokes of ISAT figured out from beginning to end before I even finished the prologue, but then I had to really sit down a bunch of times and really figure out how to get from point A to point B. So it involved a lot of writing, and also rewriting, to Foreshadow some Cool Stuff. Also, early on I was really struggling with some plot points, so I sat down for a whole day and wrote down the entire plot from beginning to end, and tried to get really granular and write down those middle point A to point B things! If I didn’t know what would happen I just invented something on the spot! As long as the whole story was written!!! It took a while, but I’m really glad I did this, because this saved me a lot of time later on hehe

Apart from the big plot events, the smaller events that are conversations between the characters usually just come out of nowhere, like “ok I have a table here and I put cookies on it. How would everyone react?”. I try to strike a balance between “this is how people talk” and “does it say anything new about those characters”, whether it’s a character’s favorite food, or a nice foreshadowing moment that you’ll reread later and go “OH DAMN… ALL ALONG THIS WAS HERE…”

My big go-to technique to actually write is that every day 1. I decide I’m going to work for 15mn and I start a timer 2. I put my headphones on 3. I start my concentrate playlist, which is full of instrumental electro/dubstep/wub wub adjacent music 4. ????? 5. Writing accomplished. The 15mn goal is just because it’s easy to write for 15mn. I always write for longer, but I just need to get started with an easy goal!

@_blade0fgrass_ asks:

Is it hard coming up with such immaculate puns

I would like to thank punpedia from the bottom of my heart. And also google. Thanks punpedia thanks google!

@kayleighdotjpeg asks:

keeping spoilers in mind, who are your favorite characters to write? which character dynamics are your favorite? did any of them surprise you?

This is THE question. Thank you so much. 

I loved to write Siffrin (especially when they’re all depressed teehee), but Odile ended up being my Actual Favorite to write. Most characters are either 1. Full of secrets or 2. Pushovers and/or oblivious, so it’s very nice to have Odile be the one to say “Alright, enough of this. We will talk about the elephant in the room Right Now”. She’s very blunt and doesn’t care about anything and she is so useful as a plot device and I love her.

Siffrin and Odile is my favorite dynamic, followed closely by Siffrin and Loop! As for surprising character dynamics, I reaaaaally enjoyed writing Odile and Isabeau… I didn’t get to write them often, but they are so fun to write together. Please ask me this question again once the game comes out so I can say more.

@novvclutchmate asks:

How do you go about finding a balance between levity and seriousness? Would you say your story tips more in one direction than the other; if so, was it on purpose and why?

What a good question! Hmm, for me and my writing style personally, it’s less about finding a balance, and more that One Cannot Exist Without The Other. It’s like adding sweetness to a savory dish- adding them together elevates the whole thing!!! 

If I have a serious scene, I like to add some levity to kind of bring the characters back to earth. I don’t know about you, but when I have a serious conversation for too long, I automatically laugh or tell a joke to break the tension! I get uncomfortable when it’s too serious! It’s normal! I’m normal!!!! It’s also a way for the audience to breathe out- don’t worry player, we’re good! We’re back to the usual stuff! Plus, I find that funny scenes right after a serious emotional scene hit harder.

As for seriousness to levity, I think it’s fun when you have a funny slice of life scene and then the story reminds you that this scene is Serious Actually. Like having everyone talking happily and the narrator saying  “it makes you sad when your friends keep repeating the very same lines every time.” :)

ISAT tips more towards levity I’d say, because of the reasons listed above! If you’re used to funny cute scenes and then I give you a Serious Emotional scene it makes you go Σ(っ °Д °;)っ

@gala_ksyz

is there any words youd like to tell aspiring/young indie devs?

Just make the dang thing!!! Stop putting it off!!! Just do it!!! Buy a simple game maker thing like rpgmaker or renpy or whatever and make the thing!!! Yes it’ll take time!!! Yes it won’t be as good as you imagined in some ways!!! Yes making games is hard!!! But you gotta just do it!!! It’ll be so much better than you imagined in other ways!!! It’ll be real!!! You’re the only one who can make it!!! It’s yours!!! It comes from your heart!!! It IS your heart!!! No one else can make it but you!!! So just make the dang thing!!! I believe in you!!! JUST MAKE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That’s all I have to say for today! Let me know if you have any questions, or if there’s any aspect of the game development struggle you’d like me to talk about! See you next time!!!

AND DON’T FORGET TO WISHLIST THE GAME ON STEAM ALSO IT REALLY HELPS BECAUSE STEAM’S ALGORITHM IS MORE LIKELY TO SHOW OFF GAMES WITH A HIGH AMOUNT OF WISHLISTS THAT’S THE REASON WHY GAME DEVS ALWAYS ASK TO WISHLIST!!! OKAY BYE!!!!

[period-of-nocturne]

I keep thinking about the Virtual Singer from each Sekai and what do they mean

Like what do they represent, what and who makes them appear and what does it mean to the related character

For a long while I thought each VS was linked to a specific kid, based on the focus where they appeared and who it was related to, mostly because of Niigo because... Damn each of them got their assigned VS for a year and half pratically you all know what I mean

But it didn't quite fit all the units and it also fit Niigo less than before, so it couldn't be that

So I kept thinking and

I think each Virtual Singer represent a... "concept", some very specific feelings from each kids

The one I'm the most sure about are VBS and L/N but I just can't explain L/N because they're so obvious to me I don't have the words to express it, so I'll use VBS VS as an example

Starting with Miku

Well, it's pretty simple... Miku is the only one I don't have a clue about (But she's often related to Toya now that I think about it)

So !

Meiko is so obviously that mentor figure, like the role-model... And by that I obviously mean RADers. The way she gives huge Nagi-san and Ken-san vibe and the similarity you can notice between her and those two definitely comes from An and Akito's perception of them, I don't need to elaborate on why I think

Rin and Len are the definition of "partner". I mean, An literally said it in Len 1* side story, she don't see them as sibling or lovers, but as singing partner

And each time one of the kids has some trouble with their specific partner, it reflects on Rin and Len, without much surprise.

They probably both has a distinct meaning, I think about Len's fear of being left behind and being kinda jealous in bout for beside you that obviously fit An but also Akito (those two again, Akito and An are as easy to read as open books it seems. Funny cause they're not the one fond of reading- ahem.), But I can't fully grasp it tbh...

I think I should precise I'm only aware of the stories out on EN before I keep going

Because VBS Kaito and Luka have only one focus feat on EN rn (Vivid Old Tale is the current event) so I could be wrong or maybe I've missed something

But oh by God Miku they make me ill I have to elaborate on them

Kaito first, he appeared during SBD, an Akito focus

And the sweet tooth aside, no one would ever think he looks like Akito. You could even say he's the complete opposite, with his airhead behavior and his innate talent. I even saw some people comparing him to Toya

Meanwhile Luka appeared, or she most likely came back, during SDSC, Toya's focus

And... Well she's also an airhead, kinda. People doubt her link to Toya way less than Kaito's one with Akito, but when you look at it she's everything Toya would think he isn't. She's the carefree and emotionnal one who just go with the flow without thinking about the technical side of things much (something Kaito is way better at even he doesn't seem so). Like, she's just... Living at her fullest, you know

They are everything but alike the kid they came around for... So what does it mean ?

Well I would say Kaito and Luka are what Akito and Toya wish they were, kind of. Akito's frustation being depicted during SBD, how he was chasing after Toya all this time and still kind of do

Toya who was compared to Kaito by ppl (not in game as far as I know), and who's also some kind of talented airhead...

Toya's wish to experience new things in SDSC, that part when he mention how he "has done so little with my [his] life..." But how he would catch up now that he can

And the way how if you ask Toya, the one who made him discover than a such freedom was possible, and kind of open the door for him to this carefree world is Akito. And how he would not be here without him

Did I just typed a whole Virtual Singer analysis only to trick you and makes you read about gay parallels- Noooo, what do you mean... I wouldn't dare

More seriously yeah I have an Akitoya illiness so they're the more developped thoughts I have on the topic, but I wish and hope people would dig into this more because I can't grasp every concept by myself

Don't forget how much Akitoya are gays tho-

Bonus part do you know what happen if you swap the A and the K in Akito's name

VBS Kaito and Akito are kind of the two side of ADHD when you think about it. And that makes sense because Kaito comes from Akito so if you combined them you got the combined style of ADHD do you get me-

Anyway

[now-that-i-saw-you]

Short reviews of everything I read this year:

Trials of Apollo ☆☆☆☆

Fantastic!!! Revived my PJO obsession. I enjoyed Apollo's narration. The 3rd-4th book were a little tedious though.

The Picture of Dorian Gray ☆��☆☆☆

Flawless. So, so gay, weird and dramatic. I wish I could read it for the first time again.

Seasparrow ☆☆☆

I was disappointed. I didn't like the first POV, it made the book feel juvenile. It was too long and nothing happened. An unnecessary addition to the Graceling Realm universe because all the themes in this book were already presented in Bitterblue and Winterkeep. I might have liked this a lot more if it was not part of the Graceling Realm series.

All For The Game ☆☆☆☆☆

I'M OBSESSED. Nothing else to say.

One Last Stop ☆☆☆☆

It was cute and fun. I like it when you can feel that a book/show was planned. Every detail is carefully crafted to fit the narrative. I like how the author uses historical events to enrich the plot. Middle part of the book was a little flat.

The Cruel Prince ☆☆☆

It's...cute. I liked Jude a lot, didn't care for Cardan. Good enough to make me read the entire thing, bad enough that I might never read another book by that author.

Conversations With Friends ☆☆☆☆☆

Do you ever come across a book that's exactly what you needed? This was it for me. One of the only books I got from BookTok and actually loved. It was like being hugged and punched in the gut at the same time.

This Is How You Lose The Time War ☆☆☆☆☆

This book is poetry. It's a fairytale. It's the saddest, most romantic story I've ever read. It's so weird and confusing, I understood everything. It's a tragedy. It's so full of hope. It's perfect.

The Hellheim Propechy ☆☆☆ 1/2☆

It's a lovely series and I can't wait for the 3rd book. It has one of the healthiest relationship I've ever seen in books (and it's wlw!!!!). The villians are a little flat imo.

She Who Became The Sun ☆☆☆☆☆

I don't understand how people find the courage to write anymore books after Shelley Parker-Chan dropped this marvel. I want to eat this book.

The Catcher In The Rye (reread) ☆☆☆☆☆

I love this book idc. I love the metaphors, I love Holden, I love the way the plot develops.

Jane, Unlimited ☆☆☆☆☆

SO GOOD!! Such a unique and engaging book it had me pulling out a notebook and a pen and try to decipher all the clues like a goddamn detective.

Doctor Who: Time Lord Victorious ☆☆☆

It's was nice! Idk what else to say.

Pride & Prejudice ☆☆☆

Reading this felt like sitting at a 19th century tea party and gossiping.

More Than This ☆☆☆☆☆

I've wanted to reas this for a while and it exceeded my expectation. This book is so captivating, unique, heartbreaking and hopeful.

The Trial ☆☆☆

This book was a fever dream.

The Rest of Us Just Live Here ☆☆☆☆

I think Patrick Ness is my favorite author. He did a great job with the premise of the book cause it's a lovely coming of age story and the fantastic elements are woven so well into the story.

Evvie Drake Starts Over ☆☆☆

It's cute and I love the fact that the main conflict is between the FMC and her Male Best Friend and the way this book talks about DV but it also felt a little dull sometimes.

The Lottery ☆☆☆☆

This was a mindfuck.

The Rocking Horse Winner ☆☆☆

....what?

The Scorpio Races ☆☆☆☆

HOW DOES MAGGIE STIEFVATER KEEP COMING UP WITH THOSE WEIRD FUCKING PLOTS??

A Man Called Ove ☆☆☆☆

Really sweet. This book healed something in me.

The Broken Earth (1+2) ☆☆

Yeah....I was not in the right headspace when I read this. I just didn't understand anything. I wanna give this another chance next year if I can.

Lord of The Flies ☆☆☆☆

I want to reread it cause I definitely didn't fully appreciate it but I think it's a great allegory and it's so dark. I get the hype.

The Sun and The Star ☆☆☆☆

I don't think you understand how long I've waited for this book, how long I've waited for Solangelo content. This was so cute. So lovely. I love Nico, I love Will. I wish there was a 3rd character in this (like, idk, Reyna?)

[a-treatise-on-velociraptors]

OK. Fuck it. More complaining about Tears of the Kingdom. Massive spoilers this time.

TL;DR: Zelda's dragon plan was bad, placing all their eggs in one basket when preparing for Link to fight Ganondorf shouldn't have worked from a Watsonian standpoint and is annoying as hell from a Doylist one, and while not necessarily undoing her development from BotW, Zelda's sacrifice here sets her up for this circumstantial sisyphean cycle of constantly giving up her own agency and personhood for Link.

The dragon plan itself--turning into an immortal being to guard the master sword until her own time--isn't the part of the plan that wouldn't have worked. It's everything else, not just from a story standpoint but from an in-universe, logistical standpoint. Thousands and thousands of years are a long fucking time, even in a fantasy world where the political and cultural landscape seems to be in a bit more stasis. Despite the fact that Hyrule literally has manifest destiny (which is a lot of, uh, thematic implication that's never really been addressed and that I'm not really gonna go into here), to anticipate that the specific set of events leading to the Sages' assistance of Link would transpire exactly the way they needed to is fucking preposterous. Yeah, you could say that it's a bit of a paradox--all of the pieces were already in place for Link and the Sages to fight ol' Ganny, and Zelda was simply retroactively setting them in motion for the future--but that's also stupid, because it would require the Light Dragon and sky islands to have always been there! And they appeared after the initial encounter with Ganondorf, which not only doesn't make sense as a time travel narrative at all, but also implies that before the Upheaval the sequence of events was still wibbly wobbly enough that shit could have gone down very, very differently! It's like the conundrum of how to indicate to future civilizations that certain areas contain radioactive waste--the this place is not a place of honor shpiel, et cetera. How do you leave the ancient all-powerful artifacts that your sages need in order to enact a plan thousands of years in the making, in places that no one will mess with over the millennia between you and them?

Conveniently drop those structures into place--ancient texts describing them and all--right before the second part of the plan goes off, I guess.

And from a narrative standpoint, I think "Thousands of years of meticulous preparation have gone into this One Fucking Super Special Uberguy of Prophecy Foretold getting to defeat the Big Bad. It is foretold that this Super Special Swordsman will be the Only One who can defeat the Big Bad, so we're all going to put our eggs in the Main Character basket in the hopes he actually will" is just. Dumb. it's just dumb. I was going to add the caveat that 'oh well previous zelda games had the reincarnation cycle' but that was a new edition with Skyward Sword. The reincarnation plotline wasn't a thing until the year of our lord 2011, the game that directly preceded Botw/Totk and was by the same director hmmmmm. Before that we had games like Wind Waker, where Link is just Some Kid who gets wrapped up in Hyrule's ancient dusty business while trying to save his sister. Or Twilight Princess, where Link is just Some Guy who gets wrapped up in Hyrule's current dusty business while trying to save the people from his town. Hell, even Ocarina of Time, where Link is the most predestined to be part of Hyrule's dusty business out of all the 3d Zeldas pre-SkSw, is immediately followed by Majora's Mask, where Link only gets wrapped up in Termina's dusty business because he's trying to find his friend. In all of those, Link feels like a generally normal guy who's blessed with strength because of his courage. Even in BotW, Link is just a guy who was Zelda's chosen knight. He nearly died for her, and when he awoke again 100 years later with no memory of who he was, he still rose to the occasion to stop the calamity he had failed to defeat.

In TotK? Link's the Kirito of Hyrule. He's the Special Guy everyone needs to swear fealty to. He's the Special Destined Chosen One. Their last line of defense will be Link.

As for Zelda's narrative sisyphean torture, it just puts a bitter taste in my mouth that after spending so much time giving herself in her entirety to protecting Hyrule, she has to turn around and do it again in a way that she believes is eternal and irreversible.

In BotW, Zelda activates her sealing magic as a personal last-ditch effort to save Link's life. She loves him (I will go to bat for Botw/TotK Zelink still) and she doesn't want to see him die for her and that's enough to finally activate her power. It's a good narrative beat, I liked it--despite my desire for Zelda to have some agency in the narrative that isn't just in direct support of Link, I'm a sucker for some good ol' "powers emerging in defense of a loved one" trope. It's good shit.

But in TotK, Zelda's only purpose is twofold: 1. To be Link's hype man. To set up the aforementioned Dumbshit Kirito Main Character Plan. To set the idiot ball rolling and hope it makes it to the right spot at the end of this cosmic plinko game. 2. To give herself--her mind, her body, her spirit, herself in her entirety--in order to repair the Master Sword and get it back to Link. "Link! Protect them all!" and "Link! You must find me!" are some of what she thinks are her final words. As far as she's come to know and expect by this point, the only purpose she serves now and forever is to pave the way for Link to do his part.

In the moment, meeting TotK where it is as far as her character goes, this development isn't necessarily bad. It's tragic, yes, but from a purely Watsonian perspective it's not the worst solution to her problem, and is the only one presented to her. But from a Doylist perspective it sucks ass. It's the wet fart of storytelling. So many of us have been begging Nintendo for years and years to give us more of Zelda as a character, give us more of her as someone with her own agency and drive within the plot (no, Sheik doesn't count, Sheik is awesome but still narratively only exists in service to Link), but TotK slid so far backward in that regard. Puts a bitter taste in my mouth. (Spirit Tracks had a better Zelda, and she spends most of that game trying to get her own corporeal form back from the BBEGs.)

[itsclydebitches]

I want someone to explain to me how the heck Blake ended up dropped nearby Weiss when she fell with Ruby?? Shouldn't, logically, she be closer to her? Or do we just say "it's fake wonderland, logic no longer exists". Also how did they all find each other but not find Jaune. Not complaining, exactly, that he's not made an appearance just... confused by it. (Would be hilarious if the writers somehow forgot they even dropped him to begin with.)

I think the explanation for that is in the Volume 9 sneak peek we saw a... year ago? A while, anyway. The one where we get the events of the finale from Ruby's PoV. When she falls Blake sorta disappears after Ruby looks away for a moment, then she winds up in the in-between place with the floating orange orbs (which are a strange detail ngl), Neo shows up, they fight, Ruby throws her off, and then Neo just kinda hovers there menacingly until she too fades away. Ruby then wakes up on the beach alone.

So yeah, it's an "explanation" in the sense that the story seems to have gone, "Magical voids mean we can just have everyone wake up wherever we please, rather than tackling the more challenging structure of keeping those who fell together." Honestly, I'd much rather Ruby wake up and forge an actual relationship with Blake + deal with Neo without the rest of her team than, uh, meeting a mouse.

As for Jaune, who knows. More convenient plotting where the team stumble across each other quickly--as in, the first episode or two given the theory that our trailer isn't showing much beyond that--but for inexplicable reasons he remains lost? Does it have to do with the fact that maybe they aren't looking for him if Weiss assumes/hopes he made it to the portal? Or the reigning theory: Jaune is an antagonist of the Volume, changed by Wonderland, and thus is actively avoiding the girls?

Personally, I'm not persuaded by that though, for a couple of reasons. 1. It would require a Wonderland where both space (falling in different places) and time are seriously wonky, given that Jaune fell last, but is presumably warped by Wonderland long before the girls even wake up. I mean, it's possible, especially given our inspiration, but it's way more confusing/messy. 2. If Jaune were the antagonist I would honestly expect them to hint at that in the trailer. Given his popularity across much of the fandom and the writers' own interest in his character, that seems the perfect way to hook a lot of fans after the long hiatus. And 3. The theory revolves around Jaune being the knight which yeah, tracks in an aesthetic sense (sword and shield) but the narration of our presumed antagonist is a woman and the shot from the back that the trailer gave us 100% looks like a woman (as RT would design one)/not like Jaune/I'm pretty sure that's her long hair up in a bun. The theory was more plausible back when the knight/armorer/whoever she is was only wearing a helmet.

Really, I'm not sure what to make of Jaune's lack of screentime in the trailer. Again, it could simply be that they only picked scenes from the first 1-2 episodes, but it feels like we're already struggling with the problem I pointed out all the way back in Volume 8: by having Jaune kill Penny and then fall into the void, RT created a situation where he has to be at the center of the next Volume's emotional journey--you can't just ignore what he did + his presence in Wonderland--but simultaneously, Jaune shouldn't be the focus when this is otherwise a Volume about our title team working through their own doubts. Now, we're seeing that precise push-and-pull in the fandom. Some fans are horrified that he didn't show up. How can you possibly ignore Jaune right now?? Meanwhile, some are relieved that he didn't show up. Good, this wasn't supposed to be your Volume anyway. RT really backed themselves into a corner with this one, imo, because if Jaune's journey gets a lot of focus we'll be right back to, Why is he Mr. Character Development when all four girls are RIGHT THERE, but if they don't do enough we've got more, Love that you introduced these HUGE plot points and then did so little with them. If Volume 9 centers the emotional journey around finding Jaune and comforting him over Penny's death, we've got a problem. If they mostly ignore his actions and focus on the girls, we've got a problem. It's not that RWDE folk are refusing to be happy about what's put up on screen (as I often see the more protective fans claiming), but rather we recognize the mistakes made in the past that are now leading to more issues.

[ac-liveblogs]

Kazuha's story for this event would have been much more fun if it wasn't just dead history that no one, even Kazuha himself, cares about. Why would you show angst and conflict and then be like "yeah none of that matters now." Wish we could have seen him struggle with it. He might have even been an interesting character!

Also in this event he was like "Ambitions are what makes people human and gives them strength." but in his story he was like "ambitions are stupid and shouldn't challenge the gods" so are we to assume that Kazuha developed into supporting the vision hunt? Even though the only arc he'd been thru at that point was fighting the vision hunt? I think his apathy just feels contradictory. He wants to fly free and not be tied down by anything, but also he super cares about the trappings of justice and the wellbeing of people which implies being super tied down by things.

I think the purest form of this is ppls theory that the electro seelie from pt 3 was his friends spirit. If so, we are being guided through Kazuha's sad backstory by his deceased friend who Kazuha thinks walked into his own unobjectionable death by completely cool n okay tyrant goddess (which he later resisted so clearly he actually did care? Otherwise why did he fight?! What's going on!?)

Kazuha is.............. kind of antithetical to Genshin's obsession with lore, isn't he? If it were me, I'd make Kazuha's lack of interest bite him in a "the past comes back to haunt you" type of plot, or use it to put him in conflict with people that disagree with his decisions (like Ayato/Ayaka, who can't understand why he'd let the clan die out). Stacking up all the things Kazuha doesn't care about or has rejected responsibility for could paint him in a pretty bad light (up to and including ditching Inazuma) and give him room to grow/develop, or try to affirm his ideology/reach a balance.

Well, the Kaedehara family lore is really kind of irrelevant outside of the context of the upcoming drama between Kazuha and Scaramouche, so... I probably would have saved snippets of it for drama in the Inazuma World Quest and put Kazuha at odds with Ayaka and Scaramouche in very different ways lmao

As it is, it just comes across as lore for lore's sake. I'm getting really sick of Genshin putting everyone's character development in the past.

Kazuha didn't really say that ambitions are stupid and you shouldn't challenge the Gods; it's that Kabotsurube Isshin's current ambition was impossible to attain, and that it had warped beyond his creator's original ambition anyway.

Prized Isshin Blade: When I look back at the past, I can remember the day of my forging like it was just yesterday.  Prized Isshin Blade: I once told him that I would pay any price to fulfill his wishes, such was the debt I owed to him for giving me the gift of consciousness.  Prized Isshin Blade: But darkness and slaughter numb the mind. Over time, I lost sight of the difference between gratitude and grudge. Prized Isshin Blade: Not only did I fail to fulfill his ambition... I also defiled it...  Kaedehara Kazuha: You are finally seeing reality clearly.

and

Kaedehara Kazuha: He felt intense regret at being tricked by the Fatui, but he could never again return to his homeland. His sole wish was to one day return his single proudest creation back to the land of his birth.  Kaedehara Kazuha: So he instructed this sentient blade to find a way back to Inazuma, no matter how long or how hard the journey. But he never wished to rival the gods...  Kaedehara Kazuha: All he wanted to show was that they once shone brilliantly as blade and smith, that they were still worthy of being trusted.

Kazuha even says he found Kagotsurube Isshin's desire to fight the Raiden Shogun inspiring, because he's drawn to those with grand aspirations. He has no issue with ambitions, he just saw this one as misguided and wanted to help Kagotsurube Isshin realise that its course was self-destructive. Kazuha has never agreed with the Vision Hunt decree, he just didn't want to fight it.

I... kind of get Kazuha saying it was his friend's own stupid fault for picking a fight with the Shogun, because it kind of was, like, what did he expect to happen - personally the issue I have with it is that I'd expect Kazuha to say that line out of bitterness towards his friend's bad decision before he came to understand that/why his friend died satisfied? Genshin actually uses it as one of many lines indicating why what Ei did was Fine, Actually, No-One Blames Her, It's All Good. It's less about Kazuha and more about Ei, so... as useful as it would be for characterisation, it's easier to just disregard it.

Kazuha’s “selfless heroism” is kind of an informed attribute, though. Where. When. You mean the 0 words he spoke in the Inazuma World Quest, where he just showed up and Fought Guys? Write the actual concept in the story, not just his lore, you hacks!

[chemicalbrew]

Simon Blackquill >:)

oh god this got so long so fast. under the cut it goes

First impression

Why are they letting a prisoner serve in the court. Bro, wait, he's kinda hot. Those bags under his eyes, holy shit...

And then he goes like

……………Hmph. ……Enough jabbering. Get on with it, already. ……Must we continue to fritter away time like this? An opening statement… would be pointless.

Look at those sweet, sweet ellipses. Truly, he is the edgelord of Ace Attorney 🖤 I think what I remember the most was just being really excited to hear his speech bubbles. And then WOAH, he has a completely unique one of his own in addition to the objection!! Damn...

Not to mention, he calls the judge His Baldness and it's still funny to me. King shit 👑

Bravo, Your Baldness. Your years of experience shine bright like your head.

Impression now

Is he the best prosecutor in the series? No. It's factually impossible to top Edgeworth, who literally has two spinoffs to himself that I consider to be better than most mainline games (aside from aa3, because that game is a banger). And of course, Miles has some of the most remarkable character development in the main games, too. You can't not at least appreciate the guy, and Simon just can't top that.

The change in writing teams (and the stupid no-spoiler policy that supposedly exists when it really should not) was pretty damn harmful to aa5-6 as a whole, and is obviously part of the reason for my answer as well (even if it in part led to Simon's existence, since he is almost completely disconnected from og trilogy events)... not only did it make the whole air of the games feel off, it also led to huge disconnects between 5 and 6 on their own.

As a very recent (to me) example, a common criticism against my latest favorite case (6-4, that I just finished a few days ago and then my friend did a celebratory art spam for me, heheeh) is that it ends up ignoring the obvious development Athena went through (both on her own and in relation to Simon) in aa5. And, like. Even though I did just say I love the case (enough to consider it ~top 2-3 cases in the series), and Simon+Athena (more on them later, I guess) are my favorite parts of it... I have nothing to really say against this criticism.

I understand that Athena's newfound power and confidence from the end of aa5 needed to be sacrificed in some way to show the delicious mentor \ student+found family dynamics (after all, what is there to teach someone who's already found her footing?), but I also can't deny that the erasure of the character's past accomplishments and developments was quite extreme. The funny thing is, I think reverting Athena's knowledge\confidence levels could serve as a great way to show the kind of threat the new prosecutor (Nahyuta. The ourple one.) presents, but... by now he's been around for three whole cases (counting 6-4) already, and even then, Yuty's writing, imo, is much weaker than Simon's ever was in the 5th game (because they didn't overtly rely on catchphrases while writing Simon, smhhh).

As for the point of this whole ramble... Simon physically can't be the best prosecutor, because, unfortunately, neither games he stars in had writers that could get their shit 100% together. There we go.

But... is he my favorite prosecutor in the series? yes, unless whoever stars in Great Ace Attorney manages to impress me even more. I know a lot of it is recency bias (I'm pretty sure I beat the original trilogy sometime in 2019-20, then I beat aa4 last year, but I only just met Simon in aa5-6 this year), but I'm going to be honest. You can't not appreciate Edgeworth, as I said, but for me, I think, most of the time appreciation is as far as it went with him. Now that I think about it, it might be part of how I prefer latching onto characters with clear gaps and flaws (flashes neon arrow signs at Simon and Nahyuta) more than well-written obvious fan favorites?? But yeah, either way, Edgeworth is cool and all, but not even while playing his games did I feel anything blorbo-esque towards him.

Meanwhile Simon, the motherfucker that he is, wormed his way into my blorbo storage room entirely too fast. There's something about his design, based entirely around black and white while still having just enough intricate details, that just stuck with me (it even serves Taka well, cause his brown feathers stand out even more in such an arrangement!). And then there's his theme (that bass, dude...) and voice (still mad we apparently don't know who did the work. Whoever it was, they did so well...) Not to mention, the way he words things... simultaneously somewhat flowery and most of the time efficient and straightforward... yeah, maybe there's a reason he had me that quickly, ngl.

Favorite moment

Ohhh, time to break into my phone's screenshot folder!!

^ just general one-off noteworthy stuff I managed to dig up. I dunno, his particular flavor of Jerkish Prosecution is so enjoyable to me, like I said🖤 Especially combined with the voice impression his speech bubbles give off... 'I relish the chance to cut down a great man' like, SIR???

^ actual three favorite moments. The first is important foreshadowing (knowing it's himself he talks about is so 🥺... Of course, he's not going to make it easy, because he convinced himself the suffering was deserved...).

The second is simultaneously ridiculously funny and a memorable power move (he really said 'Just walk out! You can leave! Even if you're convicted!'), while also being very much justified, since what he's responding to is almost useless testimony from an arrogant kid who thinks he's a genius because he gets straight As. You really can't fault Simon for having had it with all that shit 🖤

And the third... well, it's honestly nothing much, but it's memorable to me anyway, because a) HE HAS A POINT and b) it reminds me of Robin... one of blorbos ever... also every chance I can take to see a forward-facing sprite of him is A+

And these are just my favorite shots of him from the games themselves. It was always funny to me seeing the bright confetti from the not guilty verdicts over his plain ass grumpy face, and that last shot from 6-4 had no right to make him look so good, smh.

Idea for a story

I think basically everything pertaining to him could make for a nice story in the right hands.

Were all these stories he was telling about his fellow inmates real? How much more ridiculous could you make them, given this is AA we are talking about? Did he get to meet characters that were given guilty verdicts and imprisoned in previous games?

Literally everything with him and Athena. I don't know, just plop them into a room together and study them like bugs! Mentor+student? Parental figure+a young girl finding her place in the world? Exploring a feedback loop from her mom trying to help her with psychology and science and Simon being inspired to pick it all up for similar reasons? Stubborn emotionally scarred man who operates by tough love+equally determined ball of sunshine? Boomer+zoomer? Flowery persuasiveness+honest and straight-to-the-point assistance? Yeah, they got all that going for them and more. It's fucking wonderful. Let me into the alternative universe that lets them have their own game PLEASE...

What\who exactly convinced him to adopt the ridiculous samurai\swordplay aesthetic? I mean, it works, but... what if he is secretly also a Steel Samurai fan or something? :p

In general, how did being told by Miles fucking Edgeworth that you're allowed and basically have to get back to work again to have a chance at basically anything in life feel? Must have been quite a day, huh?

And then, of course, how did he end up adjusting to having freedom again, having all but convinced himself that cold prison cells were his lot in life? At least his job didn't actually change, so... maybe he would plunge himself into work?

What kind of shenanigans did he let Taka get up to, and what misadventures did they have together when they first bonded? What about him having an interest in birds in general? Would he be... jealous of ornithologists?

Food - be it soba or something else. Is he a fancy connoisseur at heart or would he just take whatever he's given? How would he react to having to try something new - like, say, a burger from Nahyuta? lol

This is the obligatory 'ugh I love blackmadhi' bullet point, except I don't actually have anything coherent to say, I just think they work well when you rotate them in your mind together. Two souls from opposing cultures being equally fucked by law and yet working hard in their own ways for the sake for returning to the ideals of pursuing the truth, in the exact same position, but with wildly different and not fully compatible methods... YEAH...

What could be said about his relationship with Aura? And what exactly did he think of his sister's connection to Metis, with her being a mentor and just a presence in his life in general? At first glance, they're just siblings with their bond taken to the extreme and tested by unfortunate circumstances, but exploring that tragedy and what they had before then is what makes this dynamic interesting to me. I just like sad shit, I guess... And then there's this off-handed quip from Phoenix about them that's just way too funny:

(Robot abuse, hawk attacks... Blackquill family life must sure be interesting.)

Unpopular opinion

Unfortunately, since this is not Nahyuta we are talking about, I can't just 'haha, the unpopular opinion is that I actually like him' out of this one... I probably could, given that Simon's still getting called an edgelord (derogatory) straight out of deviantart in 2022, but that's cheap anyway...

Um... I guess I'll just restate what I was saying about 6-4 earlier: him having to be there to support Athena by itself is not a bad thing, it was just handled poorly in part because of the weaker writing and in part because of the baffling decision to try and focus this game on like five characters at the same time... they spread themselves too thin :(

The whole point of having characters go through games-long journeys in the series is that they never truly stop learning, not even when they're actually considered accomplished. This case was a great opportunity to show this again, but it wasn't used to its fullest potential.

Favorite relationship

As per the 'idea for a story' bullet: him and Athena as found family and naturally opposing personalities still being tightly united across time and space :D You just can't go wrong with what's basically chomp lite with a huge deal of devotion and perseverance (that cannot help but show itself through the rough words and treatment) on the side

^ literally the essence of what I love so much about their writing together. Just seeing 'yup!' and 'ye gods' next to each other is taking me out 🖤🧡

And him and Nahyuta just like. In general. Do you think two prosecutors can on purpose kiss... maybe...

Favorite headcanon

He was going to cut his hair again after being released, and the only reason he didn't was because Athena has too much fun playing with it\burying herself in his hair. She would also counter his propositions with 'but Siiimon it's so fluffy... 😭' every single time, and it was too powerful for him to handle. So, long hair it is.

[tearlessrain]

HELLO, I'm going to try and be the chance I want to see in the world, hahaha. So TELL ME PLEASE, who is your favourite swtor OC? And how do you relate them to the story of the game; is it canon for them, do you write/imagine/rp stories for them adjacent to the game or totally divorced from it...?

eeeey thank you for the ask! sorry it's taken me so long to get to it, my brain has not been cooperative on any front this week

I have several I'm very attached to but I'd have to say my favorite is my Imp Agent, Khatte Antilles (pronounced "cat." he's a cathar. I originally made him as a joke character before he developed a personality/backstory and now I just have to live with my choices.)

the fact that I had to go back four years in my art folders to find an image of him suitable for all audiences really tells you all you need to know already tbh

Overall he lines up pretty strongly with the canon basegame Agent story, it was kinda one of those "if it ain't broke don't fix it" situations because I do love the Agent storyline a lot. The headcanons kick in more in the DLC/Alliance zone and in his backstory, and I definitely fiddled with the timeline of things because he was very young for his first mission on Hutta (definitely no older than 20, probably closer to 17/18, he lied about his age and joined ImpInt at 13 claiming he was 16 so that makes everything more complicated. he only got away with it because the people doing his paperwork were all human and Imperial and had no idea what a 16 year old cathar would actually look like), but he's in his mid 20s for most of the basegame questline and in his early 30s by the Zakuul era. Basically it all works out that there are some unaccounted for years between Hutta and the rest of act one, and some very accounted for years during the Carbonite Timeskip because he's not the canon Commander and being incorrectly frozen in carbonite is one of the few medical horrors that hasn't happened to him. He spent that time having a mental breakdown because he believed that the only person he still trusted in the galaxy had been killed by the Empire, and channeled his feelings about that into wiping out every trace of the Castellan Restraints and their development, including the people who worked on the project. It was all very dramatic and probably would have also have included himself if Lana Beniko hadn't tracked him down before the Empire did and dragged him back to the Alliance to help organize and lead their Intelligence division, which wasn't fun for anybody but did ultimately lead to him getting therapy and starting to heal from the clusterfuck that was his career.

I also expanded on his relationship with a few NPCs quite a bit, he's got a History with Darth Jadus and met him not long after joining ImpInt, because Jadus saw someone that young and vulnerable as a perfect opportunity to mold himself a loyal (or at least scared into submission) man on the inside and eventual personal Hand. it did not work out for him; Khatte was both more willful and more loyal to Keeper than he bargained for, and by the events of the game he absolutely loathed Jadus and also knew him well enough to handily unravel the rest of his plan. he clashed even harder with Zhorrid once she "inherited" him because unlike Jadus he held no fear or respect toward her and no amount of getting barbecued by Force lightning at every meeting would change his mind. This has all lead to him having a distinctly unfavorable view toward Sith, which he voices probably more often than is advisable for one's continued health and safety in the Empire.

he also had an extremely toxic and mutually abusive situationship with Hunter throughout the latter two acts that he's still unpacking the baggage from to this day, and still has a much healthier slow burn romance with Vector (let him kiss the bug man EA I am begging you it's 2024).

But yeah, Alliance era he's honestly thriving as much as could be expected for someone with his history, I've got him in a whole multiverse situation with some friends' ocs where he's free to be a horny disaster in a much safer and healthier way than he used to be.

[one-strugling-bean]

Random Thoughts on Homestuck pages 3466-3468 & 3472-3475 (aka, Vriska and John talk about feelings post Tavros’s death)

This conversation right here was the first time Homestuck was genuinely able to impact me on an emotional level. Therefore, I wanna talk about it.

(A quick reminder though: this commentary is purely subjective and no one is forced to agree with it.)

(Actually, as long as you are polite and respectful, I encourage you to discuss this matter with me, and point out anything that you might think I have understood wrong.)

(Also, I have only read up to page 3490, so cut me some slack if I say anything wrong story-wise. And no spoilers please.)

But yeah. Let’s do this.

Sooooooo, Vriska. From my light browsing through the Homestuck fandom, there seems to exist a lot of discourse between the fans that like her and defend her actions, and those who hate and blame her for all the crap she does. Right now, I think I fall somewhere in a grey area between the two, although closer to the latter specter of the argument.

She’s an incredibly interesting character, that’s for sure. For me, it’s her extremely grey morals that make her so.

Vriska is someone who consciously plays the role of the “villain” because that’s who she thinks she has to be amongst her friends, and what troll society seems to ask of her – from her perspective, at least. Also, her ancestor was apparently a super badass pirate lady who did many amazing things, so Vriska feels encouraged – pressured? – to also become strong and live up to her ancestor’s image.

She had a demanding lusus, the kind of lusus that apparently only choose to raise “strong trolls”, and fed off of other young trolls, which charged a young Vriska with the responsibility of killing her kin(?) in order to maintain the high-maintenance spider.

She was definitely shaped and molded very harshly by the conditions of her development and growth. So, the Vriska we are presented to in the comic is someone who would’ve probably been a very successful troll in Alternia society, strong and willing to do whatever it took to reach her goals, but also with the emotional maturity of a 5-year-old. At least by human standards.

This is my interpretation of Vriska. Am I too far off? I really hope not.

Right now, I’m at a point with her where while I appreciate her character – what she brings to the table in terms of narrative – I’m far from being a big fan of her as a person. Because like, she’s a bully. :/

And it’s with that notion in mind that we take a step back from Vriska for a little, and focus on someone else: Tavros, aka, the apparent main victim of Vriska’s meddling.

Tavros is weird by troll standards. Karkat mentioned so himself, at some he said something like he doesn’t think Tavros could ever hate anyone.

He is much gentler and overall nicer than the rest of his fellow trolls, and is seen as “weak” by their society's standards. And that's wgy Vriska, from what I understood, decided that she’d “help” him by basically antagonizing him to hell and back in hopes that he'd grow a tougher shell.

I’m mentioning all of this because earlier, I read the opinion of someone that was trying to defend Vriska’s actions towards Tavros, specifically the events leading up to her acquiring God tier, and later on, his death by her.

Basically, their point was the same Vriska herself was trying to explain to John, that she only bullied Tavros because she liked him, and knew that he wouldn’t survive in their world if he kept being “weak”, so she messed with him to try and toughen him up.

Tavros was simply too much of a coward, and so eventually, when the time came and Vriska needed him to be strong (to kill her so she’d get God Tier) he was unable to do it and ran away, leaving her to die alone from blood loss.

And this is the thing that truly leaves me kind of confused and upset because in case it’s not obvious by now, I actually like Tavros and relate to him, and the whole spiel of “weak vs strong” upsets me quite a bit, and I really don’t understand the point of the person that defended her.

I might have interpreted this wrong and let my bias get in the middle of my critical thinking, but…. isn’t it obvious that Vriska’s intentions when she was bullying Tavros were far from wanting to help?

I'm being genuine here, btw. Because I've read a fair ammount of people arguing this.

This was my train of thought: I don’t doubt she did to some degree appreciate Tavros, but you can’t tell me she wasn’t enjoying having power over him. She would relish in messing with Tavros, call him names, insult him for being crippled (despite, or perphaps, especially because she knew she’d been the one to put him that way). She loved being more powerful than him, and using her advantages to give him hell.

At the same time, I also don’t doubt that Vriska believes she was helping him all this time. That she was the one in the right. That the suffering he get from her was Tavros’s own fault for being so weak. That, while yes, she does feel some remorse now, she was still in the right for killing Tavros. And yeah, by Alternia standards, I guess she is. Can’t argue there. As she told John, he was a much lower-class troll actively disrespecting her, and she had already been super merciful not to kill him before, instead "befriending" and playing with him. But enough was enough and all that.

She still feels guilty about it, but that shouldn't be relevant because whatever her own feelings and other people's beliefs may be, according to their society, she's justified. She had something to back her up.

The crux of the problem is, there’s no Alternia anymore, no Troll society, and most of the trolls that she’s left with don’t really care about the way things are supposed to be.

And this leaves her – and me – with the current conundrum: now what is considered “right”, and where does that new "right" leave her standing?

She doesn’t know. But by her friends' reactions, she probably has some clues.

Vriska is still a teen with feelings, so remorse and guilt are a given for her since she did care about the people she hurt. I’ve also read some people trying to defend her with that – the fact that she’s obviously feeling regret – but I honestly don’t see what that changes. What should that matter, if she keeps repeating the same mistakes?

Regret and guilt aren’t really valid unless they’re able to stop you from re-committing said mistakes, and try to make amends instead. Which, yeah, she tried a few times, but none of those tries were exactly sincere or convincing.

(I was trying to say unbiased here, but I think I blew that by now. Oops.)

When she kills Tavros, I can’t see anything there but an emotionally stunted kid having a tantrum and destroying the core of her misgivings instead of trying to sort through them.

She was upset to realize that Tavros had finally gotten more confident, but only to act against her of all people, and let that emotion fester, blind and control her. This led to Tavros dying by Vriska’s hand in an act of thoughtless violence, although later on, when she finally calms down from the tantrum, she feels remorse and realizes she fucked up. Again.

What happened with Aradia could be interpreted as pretty much the same, right? Vriska got upset, didn’t know how to deal with it, so she destroyed the source of her anger. And when guilt knocked on her door, she could lean on the rules of their society to condone herself.

But again, the reason why now with Tavros things are slightly different is that that society doesn’t really exist anymore and no one really gives a fuck about its rules.

I guess the question right now is how many times Vriska will continue to fuck up this way until she realizes how “weak” she actually is.

The reason why I appreciate her character so much is that I think it just gave me so much insight into the insides of the mind of a bully.

Meanwhile, the reason why I don’t really like her all that much is that she’s just generally a bad person, and has yet to show honest signs of wanting to change for good. As much as I loved her conversation with John, I really don't think that qualifies as such.

I honestly hope this is the last time this crap happens and she finally learns for good now. Maybe John can help her get there. I believe he could.

It just makes me sad that lives were already taken, meanwhile.

RIP Tavros. I liked him a lot, really. Maybe it was just me, ‘cause I’m a bit of a softie myself, but his gentle ways were a breath of fresh air when I was reading Act 5 Act 1. Everyone was so intense all the time, it was kinda nice to have someone calmer I could relate to in all the brashness going around.

But then again, that’s also what made him a target for Vriska, and what eventually got him killed. His “weakness”.

It’s like what Vriska said about Karkat, who’s just as much of a softie beneath all his grumpiness. They probably would’ve thrived a lot better on Earth. The alpha kids’ Earth, I mean. Not sure about ours, sadly.

I am getting sad writing this. Homestuck, why would you do this to me?

Eh anywayyyyyyyy, I doubt ayone will read this, but if you have gotten this far, thanks a lot ^^

Imma gonna continue reading now, have a nice day

[felassan]

Dragon Age development insights and highlights from Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

Some really tasty factoids here.

Cut for length.

Dragon Age: Origins

The continent of Thedas was at one point going to be named Pelledia, a name initially floated by James Ohlen

“Qunari” was a temporary name that ended up unintentionally sticking, much like “Thedas”

Mary Kirby wrote the Landsmeet. To this day, nobody understands how it works, except possibly her. If she’s “really really drunk” she can explain how it works. There’s as many words in it as Sten’s entire conversations put together

Concept art for Thedosian art - as in in-world art - draws heavily on Renaissance-era portraiture, the Art Nouveau movement, religious styles and media like stained glass, and favorite pieces from the golden age of illustrations in the early 20th century

Andrastianism in-world (art-wise) is depicted in wildly different methods depending on who in-world made the art in question. “One religion, 3 different lenses”. There’s the Chantry take, the Orlesian take and the Fereldan take; each with its own different interpretations, different mediums and different stories

The stained glass images were drawn by Nick Thornborrow for DAI, to decorate religious spaces in that game “and beyond”

irl Viking art influenced Ferelden

Greek and Italian art influenced Orlais

The book also had other insights into and anecdotes from the development of DAO, but I’ve transcribed them recently as they’re essentially the stories DG has recently been relating on the awesome Summerfall Studios DAO playthrough Twitch streams. (On those streams he provides dev commentary while Liam Esler plays through DA. The ones with DG are currently once every two weeks. Check them out! Here’s a calendar where you can check when the next one is) Instead of repeating myself I’ll just provide the link to the first transcript. From there you can navigate to the subsequent parts. Note these streams are ongoing. At this point I will also point you to a related post which is cliff notes of the Dragon Age chapter in Jason Schreier’s book Blood Sweat and Pixels.

Dragon Age II

DAO had the longest development period in BioWare history. In contrast DA2 had the shortest

Initially DA2 was going to be an expansion to DAO. A few months in EA said “Yeah, expansions like these don’t sell very well, so let’s make it a sequel.” So it suddenly became DA2 and they had to make it even bigger, although they still only had 1.5 years of time in which to do this

Production of DA2 officially lasted only 9 months, and at the time the team was still supporting live content for DAO! They finished development that January after the design team crunched all the way through the holiday period that year. Then it went to cert 9 times

The limited time they had is why the story takes place mostly in and around 1 city, and over 7 years (so it was temporal, rather than over physical distance, because a more expansive world would have taken more irl time to make)

They had no time to review even the main plot. Mike Laidlaw pitched the idea of 3 stories taking place at different points in the PC’s life, tied together by Varric’s recollections of events. DG rolled with this and made 1 presentation on the idea. This presentation was then approved and off they went

As they were writing DG realized that there was going to be no oversight and that everything was going to be a ‘first draft’. “Because nobody had time.” He sat down with the writers and said “Look, here’s the conditions we’re working under. A lot of what we’re putting out is gonna be raw. We’re not going to get the editing we need. We’re not going to get the kind of iteration we need. So I’m going to trust you all to do your best work.”

Looking back, DG has mixed feelings on DA2. “A lot of corners were cut. The public perception was that it was smaller than DAO. That’s a sin on its own.”

Despite this he thinks DA2 has some of the best writing in the series, especially character-wise. The DA2 chars are his favorite

The pace with which production progressed may in some ways have helped. “When we do a lot of revision, we often file away [as in buff off] some of the good writing as well. Somehow DA2′s whirlwind process resulted in some really good writing”

The pace meant chars landed on the writers in various stages of completion. For example Isabela was fairly defined due to appearing in DAO. In contrast Varric at the start was just that single piece of widely-shown concept art

Varric was conceived as a storyteller not a fighter. His skills are talking and bullshitting. Hence the question became, so what does this guy do in combat? The direction was to make him as different as possible to Oghren, so not a warrior. He couldn’t be a dual-wielding rogue in order to differentiate him from Bela. But you can’t really picture this guy with a bow. “For a dwarf, it would probably be a crossbow. We didn’t have crossbows, or we only had crossbows for the darkspawn. And they were part of the models. We didn’t have a separate crossbow that was equip-able by the chars. They had to like, crop one off a darkspawn and remodel it. And that became Bianca” (quote: Mary Kirby)

“Dwarven mages are exceedingly rare.” [???]

If DAO was a classic fantasy painting, DA2 was a screenshot from a Kurosawa film or a northern Renaissance painting. (Here Matt Rhodes was commenting on art style)

John Epler: “In any one of our games, there’s a 95% chance that if you turn the camera away from what it’s looking at, you’ll see all kinds of janky stuff. The moment we know the camera is no longer facing someone, we no longer care what happens to them. We will teleport people around. We will jump people around. We will literally have someone walk off screen and then we will shift them 1000 meters down, because we’re fixing some bug.” John also talked about this camera stuff in a recent charity Twitch stream for Gamers For Groceries. There’s a writeup of that stream here

Designing Kirkwall pushed concept artists to the limits of visual storytelling, because it has a long history that they wanted to be present. It was once the hub of Tevinter’s slave empire, so it needed to look brutal and harsh, but it also then needed to feel reclaimed, evolved, and with elements of contemporary Free Marches culture

The initial plan was for DA titles to be distinguished by subtitles not numbers, so that each experience could stand on its own rather than feel like a sequel or continuation. (My note: New PCs in each entry make sense then when you consider this and other factoids we know like how DA is the story of the world not of any one PC). Later, DA2′s name was made DA2 in a bid to more clearly connect the game to its predecessor. For DAI they returned to the original naming convention. (My note: so I’d reckon they’d be continuing the subtitle naming convention for DA4)

DA2 was initially code-named “Nug Storm”, strictly internally

The Cancelled DA2 Expansion - Exalted March

This was a precursor to DAI

It was meant to bridge the gap between DA2 and DAI

It focused on the fallout from Kirkwall’s explosion, with Cory serving as the villain

Meredith’s red lyrium statue was basically going to infest Kirkwall and it would end up [with what would end up] the red templars taking over Kirkwall and essentially being Cory’s army

To stop him Hawke would have recruited various factions, including Bela’s Felicisima Armada and the Qunari at Estwatch, forcing Hawke to split loyalties and risk relationships in the process

It was meant to bring DA2′s story to an end and end in Varric’s death. DG was very happy with this because all of DA2 is Varric’s tale. The expansion was supposed to start at the moment Cassandra’s interrogation of him ended in the present. “And we finished off the story with Varric having this heroic death.” It tied things up and would have broken many fan hearts, something BioWare writers notoriously enjoy. But between a transition to the new Frostbite engine and the scope of DAI, the decision was made to cancel EM, work any hard-to-lose concepts into DAI, and in the process save Varric’s life. DG has talked about the Varric dying thing before

Concept art for EM explored new areas previously not depicted in the DA universe, with costumes that reflected next steps for familiar chars. Varric was going to war, what would he have worn? With Anders, if he survived DA2, the plan was to present a redeemed Warden

A char that vaguely resembled Sera in DAI was first concepted for EM. This fact was mentioned near this concept art (see the female elf) and this concept art of Bethany with the blond bob

The writers sketched out plans to end it with Hawke having the option to marry their LI. This included alternate ceremonies for party members like Bethany and Sebastian if the player opted not to wed. There was even a wedding dress made for Hawke. This asset made it into DAI (Sera and Cullen’s weddings in Trespasser). The dress can also be seen in DAI during an ambient NPC wedding after completing a chain of war table missions

The destruction of a Chantry was explored in concept art as it might have happened in EM. This idea ended up carrying over to the beginning of DAI. (My note: Lol, the idea that DA2 could have had 2 Chantries being destroyed in it 😆)

World of Thedas

Sheryl Chee and Mary Kirby started with “a disgusting little dish called fluffy mackerel pudding”. In the middle of DAO’s busy dev period one of them (they can’t remember who) found a recipe online for this, scanned in from a 70s cookbook. “I don’t understand why it was fluffy. Why would you want fluffy mackerel pudding?” MK says. “We loved it so much we included it in a DAO codex.”

This led them to create more food for Thedas, full recipes included, like a Fereldan turnip and barley stew from MK and SC’s Starkhaven fish and egg pie. The fish pie became Sebastian’s favorite. “To me it made sense for it to be fish pie because a lot of the Free Marches are on the coast”, SC says, “It was something that was popular in medieval times, so I thought, let’s make a fish pie! I looked at medieval recipes and I concocted a fish pie which I fed to my partner, and he was like ‘This is not terrible’”

For WoT the whole studio was asked to contribute family recipes which might have a place in Thedas. SC adapted these to fit in one Thedosian culture or another, including a beloved banana bread that localization producer Melanie Fleming would regularly bake to keep the DA team motivated. “Melanie’s banana bread got us through Inquisition”

DAI

It says part of DAI takes place in or near the border with Nevarra [???]

This game was aimed to be bigger than DA2 and even DAO in every conceivable way

The first hour had to do a lot of heavy lifting, tying together the events of DAO and DA2 while introducing a new PC, new followers etc in the aftermath of the big attack. DG rewrote it 7 times then Lukas Kristjanson did 2 more passes

DG: “Our problem is always that our endings are so important, but we leave them to last, when we have no time. I kept pushing on DAI: ‘Can we work on the ending now? Can we work on the ending now? Can we do it early on?’ Because I knew exactly what it was going to be. But despite the fact that it kept getting scheduled, whenever the schedule started falling behind, it kept getting pushed back... so, of course, it got left til last again.”

“The reveal of the story’s real antagonist, Solas, a follower until the end, when he betrayed the player”. “Solas’ story remains a main thread in Inquisition’s long-awaited follow-up” [these aren’t DG quotes, just bits of general text]

Over the course of development they had 8 full-time writers and 4 editors working on it. Other writers joined later to help wrangle what ended up being close to 1 million words of dialogue and unspoken text. While many teams moved to a more open concept style of work for DAI, the writers remained tucked away in their own room, a choice DG says was necessary, given how much they talked. All the talking had a purpose ofc as if someone hit a bump or wall in their writing they would open the problem up to the room

As writing on a project like DAI progresses, the writers grow punchier and weirder things make it into the game. This is especially the case towards the end of a project (they get tired, burned out)

Banter and codexes require less ‘buy-in’ (DG has talked about this concept a few times on the Twitch streams) from other designers. DG liked to leave banter for last as a reward because it was fun. Banter begins as lists of topics for 2 followers to discuss. These may progress over time or be one off exchanges. One banter script can balloon to well over 10k words. “The banter was always huge because we were always like, laughing, and really at that point, our fields of fucks were rather barren, so we would just do whatever”

The bog unicorn happened pretty much by accident. It was designed by Matt Rhodes and was one of his fav things to design. They needed horse variations and he had already designed an undead variant which was a bog mummy [bog body]. irl these are preserved in a much different way to traditional mummies. When someone dies in a bog their skin turns black and raisin-like. The examples we know of tend to have bright red hair for whatever reason. It’s a very striking look and MR wanted to do a horse version of this as he thought it’d be neat. 5 mins before the review meeting for it he had a big ‘Aha!’ moment, quickly looked up a rusty old Viking sword, and photoshopped it through its skull like that was how it died. “And I was like, ‘I just made a unicorn. Alright, in it goes!’” It got approved. “So we built the thing. It fit. It told a little story”

With the irl Inquisition longsword, one of the objects they tested its cleaving ability on was a plush version of Leliana’s nug Schmooples

The concept art team explored a wide variety of visuals for the Inquisitor’s signature mark. It needed to look powerful and raw but couldn’t look like a horrific wound. In some cases, as cool as the idea looked on paper, they just weren’t technically feasible, especially as they had to be able to fit on any number of different bodies

Bug report: “Endlessly spawning mounts! At one point during development, Inquisitors could summon a new horse every time they whistled, allowing them to amass a near infinite number of eager steeds that faithfully followed them across Thedas. “You could go charging across levels and they’d all gallop behind you,” Jen Cheverie says, “It was beautiful.” Trotting into town became an epic horse siege as a tidal wave of mounts enveloped the streets. Jen called it her Army of Ponies”

The giants came from DA Week, an internal period when devs can pursue different individual creative projects that in some way benefit DA. They also had a board game from one of these that they were going to put in but they didn’t have time. It’s referenced though. It was dwarven chess

Josie’s outfit is made of gold silk and patterned velvet, with leather at her waist. She carries “an ornate ledger” and she has “an ornamented collar sitting around her neck, finished by a brilliant red ruby, like a drop of Antivan wine in a sunbeam”

Iron Bull’s armor is leather. His loose pantaloons and leather boots give him agility to charge

On DAI in particular, concept artists took special care to make sure costumes would be realistic, at least in a practical ‘this obeys the laws of physics and textiles’ sense. “While on Inquisition, we thought about cosplay from a concept art perspective. Given how incredible a lot of [cosplays] are, I now am not worried about them. In fact in some cases in the future I want to throw them curveballs like, ‘All right, you clever bastards. Let’s see if you can do this!’”

2 geese that nested on the office building and had chicks were named Ganders and Arishonk (it wasn’t known who was the mom or the dad). Other possible names were Carver Honke, Bethany Honke, Urdnot Pecks, Quackwall, Cassandra Pentagoose, the Iron Bill, Shepbird, Garroose, Admiral Quackett, Scout Honking, HChick-47 and Darth Malgoose

Bug report: “The surprising adventures of Ser Noodles!” DAI was the first time the series had a mount feature, meaning this had a lot of bugs. A lot of the teams’ favorite bugs were to do with the mounts. There was a period of time where the Inquisitor’s horse seemed to lose all bone and muscle in its legs. They had a week or so where all quadruped legs were broken. It was a bit noticeable in things like nugs and other small beasties but the horse was insanely obvious. “The first time we summoned the horse [for this] and started running around, the entire QA exploration room just exploded with laughter.” Its legs flapped around like cooked fettucine, leading testers to lovingly nickname it Ser Noodles. At galloping speeds the legs almost looked like helicopter blades, especially when footage was set to classic pieces such as Wagner’s Flight of the Valkyries

For DAI the artists were asked questions like “What would Morrigan wear to a formal ball? Can Cassandra pull off a jaunty hat?”

On DAI storyboarding became the norm. John Epler: “Cinematic design for the longest time was the Wild West. It was ‘here’s a bunch of content, now do it however you want’, which resulted in some successes and some failures.” Storyboarding gave designers a consistent visual blueprint based on ideas from designers, writers and concept artists

Quote from a storyboard by Nick Thornborrow (the Inquisitor going into the party at the end of basegame sequence): “Until Corypheus revealed himself they could not see the single hand behind the chaos. A magister and a darkspawn combined. The ultimate evil. So evil. Eviler than puppy-killers and egg farts combined.”

A general note on concept art:

In the early stages of any project, before the concept artists are aware of any writing, they like to just draw what they think cool story moments could be. It’s not unusual for the team to then be inspired by these and fold them into the game as the project progresses

– From Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

[transhoverfish]

I FOUND IT

Like I get where this person is comming from but when Ryley landed on 4546B Bart would be 29

I think that the game made it very clear that the Degasi crashed a decade before Aurora and Bart was 19 at that time.. which means (in combination of Subnautica lore and math) that IF Bart survived the 10 long years he would obviously age up

Maybe reading the PDAs is something that should be done even if you wouldn't get addicted to the game... just saying🤷🏻‍♀️

[I just remembered that I saw someone on Instagram ranting about how shipping Ryley and Bart is weird (or 'fucked up', I don't remember exactly what they said) because Ryley is like 25-30 or something like that and Bart is 19 and I was like "do your math pls" So yeah... I ended up laughing for like 5 minutes (Too bad I didn't take a screenshot)]

yeah ok i get the concern here but like yeah as you said!! this isnt like one of those "taking a 15yo and aging them up to 18 to make them legal", bart's already 19, and he's 19 a DECADE before the events of the game, including any possibility of meeting ryley.

assuming ryley is 25-30 - which his age is never mentioned either, so for all we know, ryley could be 19 himself!! - but we're gonna assume he's 22-30 based on his job, general appearance and maturity in a high stress situation. in the ten years that pass between bart and ryley EVER crossing paths, bart would be 26-31, give or take a few years for that mentioned decade to be possibly rounded.

bart could be OLDER than ryley for all we know. worse case, these guys can't have more than like, maybe a 6 year age gap. and that's entirely dependent on someone's personal reading of ryley. his age is NEVER mentioned or hinted at. the youngest he could be is 18. oldest maybe 40. but who's to say?? it's never brought up!

taking the decade jump into account though,, yeah ryley and bart are like the same age. they're probably within 5 years of each other, both in their late twenties by the events of sub1. its just the time skip between the degasi and aurora that creates this weird "Bart's 19, Ryley's 26" mentality.

like an example off the top of my head would be like, saying you cant ship nathan drake with chloe because they show nate as a kid a couple of times. kind of arbitrary.

but on the other hand, yeah, i guess this ship is founded on bart's 19 year old personality. which is weird at face value now that im thinking about it. but even then, ryley doesn't have a personality to begin with, outside survival knowledge. and bart clearly isn't some super naive child; he goes through some massive maturing character development just over the span of the months the degasi were all alive. bart can clearly take care of himself and speak up on problems, and we don't know if he had another birthday after the crash or not. we don't know exactly how long the degasi were there! or how long they had been in space prior! bart could have been 20 when he died, he was definitely an adult by that point. young, but cmon.

if anybody is shipping bart in degasi era, where he's like explicitly 19, ie shipping him with marg, then YEAH thats obviously a problem. but ryley/bart is, in my experience, almost always written in a bart lives story where he spends 10 more years maturing before being introduced to ryley.

they're,,,, they're the same age. almost always, if theres some odd story out there making it not always, expressly written where bart is nearly 30, making him typically older than ryley. the central idea with this person's take is that bart is not, and should not, be written as his Recent Post-Crash self. bart is Post Reaper Incident, and gets added several more years on top of that. i think it's a misconstruction on the lore/fandom ideas of ages, but otherwise not a horrible thing to point out ig??

(some of the bart ships DEFINITELY NEED TO BE LOOKED INTO. ryley is like, the most tame option, and thankfully why its likely the most popular!)

[cryptidmads]

alright, so i went through the ama with wan hazmer and daim dziauddian on twitch and picked out every little tidbit i could about the megastars bc i knew you guys would want to know. this is a long post and i’m on mobile atm so i can’t put it under a read more — sorry about that! bosses are in chronological order, starting with DJSS and ending with Eve!

DJ SUBATOMIC SUPERNOVA

- djss took the least amount of time to develop out of all the bosses (haz says his fight took about half a year.)

- daim purposely tried to make djss' name as long as he could. he was specifically looking at negasonic teenage warhead from deadpool for inspiration.

- haz and daim do have the briefing/kliffnotes for djss. they discussed sharing them at some point, but idk when that would happen.

- related to the above, daim says that dj is in his mid thirties. EDIT: his kliffnotes were shared on twitter and they say he’s 41. daim must have goofed haha

- when asked if djss actually has a face and how he eats, daim compares it to kenny from south park and how you never see his face. he thinks dj does have a face in there, but that we just never see it. as for the “how does he eat” part, daim says that sometimes they don’t have to show everything.

- daim is a djneon/neonnova shipper, and it’s one his favourite pairings alongside zuke/mayday.

- daim said that uncle ali basically instantly landed the role as djss. he was that good.

SAYU

- sayu was obviously inspired by hatsune miku and other vocaloids, but haz brings up one particular commercial involving miku and google chrome, which involves a bunch of people collborating on songs and concept art for miku, similar to how sayu started as a collab between remi and tila in-universe.

- someone asked about the models for sayu's crew's apartments. there wasn't much on that, but haz mentions that one of his favourite nsr fanfics (yes, he reads them) is "Road to Redemption," and there's a scene that takes place in a studio where the crew works on sayu, and he really likes that.

- the devs wanted sayu's name to sound both malay and japanese at the same time (as well as a nod to miku). haz says it means “warm water” in japanese.

- akusuka is a direct copy of akihabara in terms of locale.

- sayu’s shellfish commercial is a homage to a real snack in malaysia named mamee monster, which is hugely popular with kids. the format of the commercial itself was inspired by a pocky commercial that featured hatsune miku.

YINU

- her game design (for her boss fight) was partially done in ms paint by music director falk (who made the base version of her boss theme)

- yinu's mom doesn't have a name. she's just mother/mama.

- haz confirmed that yinu's father is, in fact, dead.

- daim thought yinu’s name was a nod to yuna (a popular malaysian artist). it’s not.

- natura is daim’s favourite district. he likes how calm it is compared to the others.

- daim said that they wanted a hint of hope in all three of yinu’s backstory photographs, to show that no matter how bad your life gets, there’s always that glimmer of hope and that good things can still happen.

1010

- the members of 1010 do not have any official names.

- the assets for the autographs were made by the artists at one of the partner companies working with metronomik on nsr. haz and daim didn't really have anything to do with making them, and while daim did approve them for the final game, he was sorta skimming through a bunch of assets along with the autographs, and he didn't realize what they really were at the time until later. haz is impressed with how the fans managed to decipher them.

- 1010's fight was purposefully put between yinu's and eve's as a break from the emotional stuff.

- michael jackson was used as a reference for 1010's animations/moves.

- the Bio Tactical Shield that you get for zuke after beating 1010 is a reference to BTS.

- tangibly related, but the collectable figurines are supposed to serve more as a backstory to vinyl city as a whole, rather than 1010 or neon j. daim describes the figures as what events were going on and what people were doing before the events of nsr.

- 1010’s appearance from older trailers (where they all looked the same) were actually placeholders. 1010’s actual designs weren’t finished yet when those trailers were released.

- parts of 1010’s designs (for their bodies/outfits) were inspired by tron uprising, a project that daim worked on.

- somebody asked why 1010 and neon j have sculpted butt plates. daim and haz have no idea, but daim suggested that ellie (who designed 1010) and jan (who did their character models) put them there to up the “sexy robot” factor.

- daim’s favourite member of 1010 is purl-hew/blue, and haz’s favourite is eloni/green.

- the members of 1010 were designed based on popular tropes in boy bands. rin/white is “the main guy,” zimelu/red is the “bad boy,” purl-hew/blue is the “cool guy,” haym/yellow is the “young/innocent one,” and eloni/green is the “weird/funny one.”

- eloni/green not getting fan mail was based on how the “funny guy” of kpop bands/idol groups don’t seem to get as much attention as the rest of the group.

NEON J

- haz and daim didn't expect neon j to become so popular. haz joked about blaming it on ddaddystar, who did that doodle of djss and neon j from the credits.

- when asked about neon j’s age, daim said he’s definitely older than djss, and that he could be in his forties.

- related to the age thing, someone in chat said he should be older if he went to war in the sixties. haz replied by saying they never mentioned what year the game takes place in, so it doesn’t necessarily take place in the present/2020.

- a lot of people asked about the border wars, and daim and haz said they like leaving the bulk of it up to fan interpretation.

- daim said that neon j’s organs were preserved in a robotic shell after the war, and that’s why he’s considered a cyborg.

- as stated above, daim is a djneon/neonnova shipper, and it’s one his favourite pairings alongside zuke/mayday.

- neon j’s monologue was slightly longer, but it was cut down because zul (neon j’s va) didn’t do very many takes for the monologue, and the takes he did do didn’t have the comedic punch that daim was looking for, so it got shortened.

- the singing parts of neon j’s lines were ad-libbed by zul in his audition, and daim liked it so much that it stayed for the final game.

- neon j’s monologue had to be altered in the japanese dub so that the jokes/comedy would make more sense.

EVE

- the color changing paintings from her boss fight were created by accident.

- eve was put as the last boss because of how emotional her relationship with zuke was and how complicated and intricate she is as a whole compared to the rest of the bosses.

- daim considers eve to be the "final boss" for zuke, while tatiana is the final boss for mayday.

- eve took the longest to develop out of all the bosses. she was orignally a lot more complicated, and daim said they had to "filter" a lot of things about her in order to tone her down and fit her into the game.

- eve was almost scrapped from the game. daim said her concept as an eccentric artist wasn't as well known as the other four bosses’ concepts, and combine that with how long it took to finalize her... yeah.

- none of the artists have set in stone heights because of how the gameplay works, but eve is the tallest one. the closest scene in the game that has them at their actual heights is the ending.

- her name was originally eva, but it was changed bc there’s already a popular artist with the same name.

- daim explains that a big part of eve’s concept and theme is her embracing herself. he uses the example of eve’s backstory where she starts out hating herself and trying to cover the pink half of her face, but then starts doing less of that overtime. he also mentions that all the body parts (hands, arms, legs, etc.) from her fight also come from her embracing her body and using it in her artwork.

- dream fever is haz’s favourite district.

- daim didn’t originally think of zuke and eve as being an actual couple until later down the line when the story heavily implied it.

- eve’s younger designs were done by lzbros, who did all the 2d animation for the game.