#you'd think more npcs would react

[impcler]

You know what would've been cool? More npcs reacting to the tarnished choosing the frenzied flame ending. Every dialogue is geared towards the tarnished presumably choosing virtually any other ending but not the one that would ensure the end of the world.

Idk, I think it would be neat if there were more consequences to that choice than Melina fucking off for the rest of the story assuming you don't sacrifice her first.

Things like Thiollier or Ansbach refusing to side with someone that will only burn the world to the ground anyways or hell, Leda not going on about the Erdtree guiding us and instead perhaps be horrified that someone like us is very near succeeding in ridding every obstacle up to that destruction.

[opbackgrounds]

since you brought it up, what is your ideal op video game?

Well, honestly, I don't think a perfect one piece game could exist. The charms of the series is the expansive world and its depth of story, and achieving both in a single game would be difficult, if not impossible. I also think there are way too many games rehashing the manga, and that's boring. So many possibilities exist beyond the Straw Hat's journey.

I do think it'd be cool if there existed a sort of build your own pirate crew game set in the op world. I'd actually set it in the past during Roger's last journey, with the goal of becoming the Pirate King. It gives a hard 3 year time limit to beat Roger to Laugh Tale. The Four Blues are the starting zones, and which ones you pick change certain bonuses you get at the start. Like, the East Blue has the reputation for being the weakest sea so combat would be easier but you'd have a higher chance of recruiting a crew member with a Dream at the cost of lower Reputation. Since it's pre Buster Call Ohara, the West would give higher chances of recruiting researchers, and the North would have higher science and military backgrounds, etc.

It'd be a mix of peocedurally generated locations and hand crafted islands, and as you go along recruiting people and fighting you gain Reputation, which in turn lets you fight and recruit stronger people. The bigger your crew the more you have to plunder to keep them happy, and if any of your crew have a Dream you have to help them achieve it or else they'll mutiny or leave the crew, but as Dreamers they're stronger with bonuses based on their skill or occupation.

Maybe how you resolve conflict also affects the type of people attracted to your cause, so if you gain a reputation for brutality more bloodthirsty pirates are more likely to follow you, and they get pissed if you go too long without letting them kill something. As you go along you gain maps, log poses, and other things to help survive the Grand Line, but if your Reputation gets too high a Big Player will come after you to knock you down a peg. Like, stay in the East Blue too long and Garp'll come knocking, and if you lose or fail to flee then he'll wipe out your crew and you have to start over.

Once you hit the Grand Line you gain a new Reputation meter specifically for the Grand Line. No one cares if you're the baddest dude in the East Blue once you hit Twin Capes, but if you find a merchant or NPC from your home sea then they'll know your Reputation and react accordingly. Same goes for the New World.

The end goal is to read the poneglyphs and reach Laugh Tale, whether by recruiting Oden, someone from the Three Eye Tribe, a member of the Oharan archeologists before they're blown up, or stealing the intel from another pirate crew. Should you achieve that goal, the game ends with an epic fight against Roger for the title of King.

There are enough canon characters from this era to make it recognizable (imagine fighting pre-Kaido Moriah!) while giving wiggle room for new characters, islands, and scenarios. I think it'd have to make the act of traveling on the high seas fun with hopefully some cool monster fights to spice things up.

Is this feasible? I don't know, probably not. But I think it'd be fun.

[propertyofwhitney67]

How would the all the named NPC's in DoL react to an alien!PC? (Totally not inspired by my new pfp/avatar)

Like green skin, Human body, Little antenna thingies on their head, Etc.

I was listening to Orphan Tears and it made me think of everyone in DoL, So..

ALL!? There's so many nnpcs (like 30) 😭.....I'll do as many as I can...

Low Love Whitney is calling you a freak and yanking on your antennas

High Love Whitney is not as harsh when he calls you a freak, it's more a term of endearment at this point. He still loves to pull on your antennas but he's only rough when you piss him off or it's during sex.

Kylar loves you no matter what!

Robin is used to it after all this time

P!Sydney has many questions. How is this possible? Where did you come from? etc.

C!Sydney also has many questions but isn't as pushy (?) about it

Alex is fucking confused, asks some questions, and moves on with his day

Avery is somewhat disgusted? Why green? He gives you money for body paint and makeup to cover the visible green when you dress up

Eden is fucking confused, you look like you just walked out of a comic he read as a kid. I mean whatever I guess, he still loves you

Bailey thinks it's fucking weird but as long as you're making money he doesn't care

Harper wants to test on you, time for the asylum :)

Remy doesn't think you'd make that great of a cow if you're an alien

Gwylan thinks it's really cool!

Wren is confused but doesn't really question it

Landry just stares then moves on, he doesn't need to know

Briar thinks you'll make an amazing star in your own show as an alien

Jordan also has questions, he wants to know more. How is this possible? Does this go against the lore/rules of the temple?

[heybiji]

hi!!! i just wanted to say i really love all of your MASKS stuff. i'm something of a newbie when it comes to the TTRPG community, but MASKS seems to be not very well-known and i think that's a real shame. i'm a huge fan of old-school superhero-adjacent stuff, especially the silver- and bronze-age ones!

by the way, i was wondering if you'd be willing to share some tips for a first-time GM? you don't have to if you'd rather not! i just figured i'd try asking since i was planning on GMing a MASKS campaign for some of my friends later, but despite my decade's worth of roleplaying experience i've never been in a TTRPG campaign nor a GM (or similar) role before

Thank you so much!! I was just lamenting about how I felt bad for the MASKS tag because it is now flooded with all my npc nonsense hahah so this is really nice to hear.

It's awesome you're planning on running a MASKS game for your friends!! There is an indispensable post on twitter I saw that has a LOT of great tips for running MASKS that I recommend checking out. But for my own personal tips that are just me things, here's what I got. Sorry it's gonna be extremely long-winded, it may take a few months to read through it.

(Note: I am also hugely into RP and probably put more into it than what is necessary, especially with MASKS which is meant to be able to be played out of the box. It was definitely not played out of the box in our case because I require a lot out of myself and everyone else to feel good about running something. if anyone else wants to continue seeing me as a normal human being please don't click the Keep Reading)

Since you're running it, make the world interesting to you. If the world runs around themes you're personally interested in then you'll have a much easier time coming up with answers on the fly. For me, themes I'm interested in that lend themselves well to a superhero world: money, power, family, celebrity, media, the 24 hour news cycle and the desensitization of violence. Because I'm interested in this stuff anyway, wrapping a world around them makes it much simpler for me to figure out how the world ticks and thus how the characters fit into it and how the world reacts to them, and I am DESPERATE to find out how the characters react to all the questions and expectations the world is imposing upon them.

Make sure your players have a good grasp of the tone of story so they can make characters that gel well within it. For me the tone is a lil more adult because I'm not personally into younger morality tale stories in tone, it's pretty grounded, and I think comedy and tragedy work hand in hand so I lean into them.

Talk. A lot. Talk about the characters, talk about the world. MASKS is fun because it's a LOT of talking and figuring out the narrative together. It's not a lot of crunchy mechanics, it's all around seeing how the characters react to the world narratively, all hurt and comfort and emotions which (for me) requires people to have a good grasp on their characters and the world. I like to give my players "homework" where I ask them a question involving their characters in some way like "what hero did your character look up to as a child?" so they get to come up with past heroes, or "How does your character feel about _____?" etc etc. The only fans are gonna be your table and fans love to talk so be the biggest fans of the PCs!!

Figure out your framing. I know in MASKS they suggest framing it like a comic book, and basically talking about the frames on screen. For me, because I'm more into movies and tv than comics, I frame it like that. So I have an active "camera" in play during sessions and will ask things like "would anyone like to grab the camera?" to encourage the players to put the character into a scene or "what does the audience see as the camera focuses in on your character in this emotional moment?" There is a LOT of playing up to the camera and framing the sessions as episodes of a show, so it's like, okay, you have several options but what is going to be interesting for the audience to see? I find this encourages the players to have their characters take bigger swings and feel comfortable letting us into how their character is feeling because it all looks GREAT on camera. The camera loves it. The PCs are the story after all.

Because I frame it a show, I also like to play individual ending songs over the "credits" at the end of each episode. So I asked my players to make playlists for their characters so if I feel an episode had a lot of emotional focus on one character in particular, I can play one of their songs at the end of the episode! I also made a general MASKS playlist with a bunch of songs from the era we set it in (2004) to pull from. It's a fun little addition that I really enjoy and that I hope makes it all feel more special.

The Dino Donut Effect: create landmarks in your world. (OK THIS IS GONNA BE LONG BUT WORK WITH ME HERE) They don't have to be locations, more solid landmarks of the story that the characters can refer back to and lean on to make the world feel more "real." I call it the Dino Donut Effect because in our world the thing that made everything click into place was talking out the backstory of one of the PC's figuring out they had the power negation ability. We were talking one night trying to figure it out; we wanted the character to fall out of a building and be caught by a flying superhero and accidentally turn off their powers, so they toss the kid to another flying supe whose powers also get turned off. But we were like... holy shit what is the height of a building needed that can handle this much action in the air without them hitting the ground in 3 seconds. So after a long night of talking about terminal velocity and looking at Splat Calculators we figured out the height of the building, and we needed them to crash into something that wouldn't fuckin kill them. The first suggestion was a truck full of bananas. Nah. We landed on a giant balloon that could take the impact. And the balloon became a giant T-Rex holding a donut that was the mascot of the city's beloved decades old donut shop Dino Donut. And so we decided that one of the two flying supes grabbed onto the kid and the other and flew into the giant balloon to try and keep them all alive, which destroyed the balloon, which was a city institution, and there was a crowd of children there that day that saw their friend Dino Donut die. Killed by a superhero. The balloon deflated loudly so it sounded like Dino Donut was screaming in agony. All the kids were traumatized (screaming crying throwing up), the city was furious because everyone loved Dino Donut, it was constantly in the news cycle, and it ruined the career of the supe that "killed Dino Donut." AND THEN THEY REPLACED THE DINO DONUT BALLOON WITH A LAME "UPDATED DESIGN" DINO DONUT STATUE which everyone hates and people consider to be a memorial to the old Dino Donut. ANYWAY, the Dino Donut effect is that now all the PCs have one single incident to refer back to that they all have feelings about. A couple of them were there that day and heard Dino Donut scream, one is now the protege of the disgraced superhero that killed Dino Donut so she feels uncomfortable talking about it, there's the kid that was saved that day but was sworn to secrecy by the supe so no one would find out about his power negation ability, and then there's the kid that wasn't there because she's an alien that just arrived to earth and now the kids have to explain the incident to her with all their varying opinions. Now the PCs' meeting spot is at a Dino Donut. Having this one solid incident that is both funny and kind of goes into the themes of the world has been an absolute treat. Creating "landmarks" like that in the world has done so much and now I'm like okay I'm gonna try to do this moving forward with any other thing I run.

anyway these are my extremely specific to me tips. my RP standards are kind of high which makes me a bit of a terror but also when the flowers bloom from it it feels GREAT. i'm not sure if this will help but hopefully there is something there that can be useful!

MASKS is fun and simple once you get the hang of it, though, so I'm sure whatever you do you and your players will have a lot of fun! especially if you're someone who is into RP which is the background I'm coming from too; MASKS is extremely narrative! i'll be looking in the tag for your game hehe

(The Day Dino Donut Died art by JD)

[seraphim-soulmate]

So, what's so great about pigeons then?

oh buddy you are in for a TREAT!! I'm answering this earnestly as fuck. we, as humans, have a rich history with them. they were our little pals for years, helping us with mail delivery and tasks!! so we domesticated them- brought them into our lives, our cities, our homes. and once they were no longer useful to us, we abandoned them :( but they still stuck around because WE BROUGHT THEM HERE !!! they were our friends and i will continue to honor the pact that we made many moons ago. I'd definitely recommend you watch or read some pigeon history to better explain this!! it's part of what got me further hyped about pigeons.

but in another aspect, have you considered that they're animals? like they're literally little créatures that you see almost every day!! and they're beautiful!! not even talking about fancy pigeons but have you taken the time to really sit and admire the plumage of a pigeon? they have crazy iridescence and their colors are just plain satisfying. but back to what i was saying, imagine if you saw any other animal randomly in the city, how enamoured with them you'd be. how crazy that would be!! like think about how people react to seeing deer for example-- awestruck ! try to see the pigeon through the lens of the fact that you're interacting with a Real Life Animal and not just like, street NPCs. they have their own little lives and their mating rituals are ridiculous and their nests are laughable, but they continue to survive along with us. i am so pleased every time i see one of these creatures that live along side with us all. I'm tearing up a little bit about pigeons rn im ngl. I just really love nature and I get to see a little bit of it in my city; even if I'm not seeing an entire forest, I get to see wildlife!!

my friend made a really interesting point recently about city animals and how people tend to detest them. i mean rats, pigeons, and even roaming cats/dogs are often seen like the scum of the earth. but those animals manage to live on scraps, to persevere through difficult conditions, living along side us. is it maybe not a reflection of our hatred towards ourselves that we detest that which manages to live alongside us? that which struggles and fights for their space and right to exist. how are we different from them really? pigeons, cats, dogs. brought into the cities to labor, only to be left in horrible conditions to fend for ourselves.

it's okay if you disagree with this last point, it's moreso philosophical. but i hope i could invite you into a world where pigeons are whimsical, beautiful creatures to admire and maybe respect a bit more! I invite you to look around you with curiosity and interest for what you may consider mundane! you will discover many treasures that make life significantly more bearable.

[a-tale-of-legends]

R! It’s me again! I hope you have been having a fabulous day! ^^

My birthday is just around the corner, and by that I mean tomorrow lol. I just got finished playing Pokemon Shield in German. I’m enjoying the champion cup rematches and I love seeing the gym challengers. I’ve always been a lover of hugely niche characters.

How would the challengers react to the fact the region’s champion is a huge fangirl for them? XD Pia would probably think I’m insane. Yue too. Though I’m sure Deneb would be happy to see she has a fan, Vega would probably be ecstatic too seeing as she has someone other than the company.

If I had to choose faves, I have eight. (Pia, Deneb, Yue, Kent, Vega, Dunne, Cher, and Icla.)

Yo happy birthday!

The gym challenge most likely has caused the npcs to gain some amount of fans, something that depending on the person they weren't used to or totally basking in. Of the eight though, I think the only one who really plays up the fact that he has a fan is Dunne. It's an ego trip for him, lmao. ( he's very happy that he has a fan lol). Vega and Kent right behind him I think, though it's less of them being a showboat and more of them liking the fact that they have fans. They're a bit more humble than he is lol.

I'd imagine Pia being "oh wow they're enthusiastic" internally, but engaging in her usual polite manner. Yue n Deneb are pretty much how you'd describe lol. Cher would find the fangirling amusing ( she's cool like that), and Icla...I dunno why, but I can kinda see her being a bit blunt. Not in a mean way, just saying what she thinks at the moment. So basically she would say what Pia thinks out loud. She thinks it's cool though! Be enthusiastic!!!

[cityofruinrp]

Summer Music Fest - Finale

Sometime during the last night of the festival, the power up to the stage begins to flicker. The powerlines begin to spark and snap, causing the entire event area to be thrown into total darkness - only illuminated by the moon and the distant city lights.

Those paying close attention will notice a woman on the outskirts chanting a spell which seems to coincide with the power outage. This person is flanked by two people, holding her arms tightly - as if they are forcing her to do this.

In the chaos of this, Fellowship hunters use the opportunity to continue their plans to try and grab / kidnap more witches for their cause. Some Brotherhood hunters, caught unaware of what is happening, run towards the woman chanting. Others grab those they know to be vampires or werewolves, using the distraction of the Fellowship to their advantage.

OOC:

Those who reacted in the Discord have been contacted for their direct involvement with the ongoing Fellowship plot! For those of you who did not react can still very much be involved.

Hunter characters who did not react, if you would like to have them be involved: They would be only going after vampires, werewolves, or rescuing witches from Fellowship hunters.

Witch characters who did not react, if you would like to have them be involved: They would only be grabbed by NPC Fellowship hunters.

Vampire and werewolf characters, if you would like them involved: Can be attempted to be hunted by Brotherhood members, rescuing witches, or helping humans escape from the chaos.

Human characters, if you would like them involved: Will simply be caught in the chaos of people running around and being frightened by the sudden lack of light, thinking that there is a sudden, freak storm that's arrived. They will not be aware of supernatural happenings going on, but they can observe something odd if you'd like.

For in character interactions, you can continue your old Summerfest threads to completion, as well as start new ones with this finale. But with this commotion, our event comes to a close!

[cyrsed]

half-baked thoughts about what i'd wanna see in a ds2 remake, putting under a cut so nobody has to read a text wall they don't wanna lol :)

i was thinking about what they could do with ellie to make her a lil more interesting in a ds2 remake…. i don't dislike anything about her in ds2 except maybe the outfit not being all that protective, altho To Be Fair isaac is the only character (besides valor dudes and random security npcs, but i'm talking about like, mercer, kendra, stross, etc.) we see on screen wearing a full protective suit in ds1 or ds2 that i can think of (not counting ds2 dlc), so it's not like it's any more unrealistic than mercer or nicole or kyne running around the ship in their puffy pajamas.

but she's not that deep of a character either, and i'd love to see more of the like, mystery in ds1 pulled into ds2 a little more maybe, and i think just having more interesting characters/character relationships would help more than anything else bc that's where ds2 doesn't really do much for me even tho i like the characters lol :B

but like, i feel like the best possible solution is just to integrate the nicole stuff in with the rest of the game/characters, bc it's boring that stross and ellie never see isaac see nicole, and he never tells them about it either. it seems weird that the only person to mention nicole is the doctor at the beginning (but it would complicate things significantly to do it so i do get why they didn't).

if ellie knows isaac is seeing marker!nicole then marker!nicole could also have some kinda response to ellie/stross/whoever else, and you could just get any actual reactions from ellie to any of what is actually happening with isaac ahglksjdf like she could find out about nicole but not know that nicole is related to the ishimura until after they find it, and instead of just being like 'you ok? you sound nervous' 'yeah it kinda sucked last time' when he's going in, there could be like a 'oh yea this is also where my gf died :((' jflsdjf a la isaac oversharing to cross about how he met nicole. like i want to see any characters reacting to what the other characters are experiencing with more than annoyance/alarm

if they wanted to,,, they could subvert that plot point where isaac is like 'i couldn't save nicole but i can save ellie to make up for it' (which i personally find unsatisfying as any kinda resolution. lisa did it better!) by having ellie figure out that he might be planning to do that before he does it bc she she knows about nicole now and could have a little more understanding of like, who isaac actually is? bc it doesn't really feel like any of the main 3 chars get to know each other much during the story and i wanna see like, isaac and stross's relationship explored more? like how well do they know each other? does stross know about nicole? maybe He says something to ellie about her instead of isaac sharing it at first? maybe isaac could actually act like he cares about helping stross bc if he can help stross then mayyybe he's not doomed either?

idk how you'd get her away from the marker tho for the end but maybe she could get like, detained by tiedmann's dudes and taken on a shuttle that then gets [attacked by an infector? pilot loses control? idk] and she gets control of it to go back for isaac?

mostly i just want the relationships to get expanded more... let stross do more than just talk about symbols and crawling around in machines and let isaac stop being so cranky so him and isaac can get to know each other plsssss. oh and i want that bit where you go through ellie's work and hear the audio logs of her/her coworkers to be played up more maybe? or something? bc both of them are revisiting something traumatic that happened to them but idk maybe it's just me but i never found that bit to be super memorable...

oh and the marker should definitely affect ellie more and if she knew what was going on with isaac that would make it way easier to explain what's going on. or maybe if she's starting to get affected by it, he could explain his marker brain problems.

like thematically it's cute, the sprawl is a big, unfinished circle. like it's under construction, and idk maybe i'm wrong but i imagine that eventually it could circle all the way around, ellie goes in a circle back to where she was working when the outbreak started, isaac goes in a circle back through the ishimura, stross is in his cycle of grief/denial, but the character relationships are pretty weak imo and i wish they weren't cause they have the potential to be interesting!

anyway i love ds2 lol this is making me wanna start a new playthrough. i was also thinking of trying to put together a little list of abandoned plot/lore threads in the game just to see

[sister-claire-critical]

kindof mad the "red ones" weren't personalized bits of clementine's agony like readers were suspecting. why else did they have horns- if not the remainder of that impulse clementine had to both take on & hold pain to keep it from hurting others but also to keep it at arm's length from her, stored away? them being from myr but also being red & having horns makes little sense. it at least makes more sense in eden.

i'm also kinda mad they were represented as something Almost Entirely Different from shards & merely vaguely shard-adjacent, more violent, not in pain, not like shards which were some sort of conscious creature both made of pain but also in pain & reacting to that pain, but rather the red ones instead being pure pain itself working off of unconscious violent instinct like a prion disease or virus.

the fact that they were seemingly not conscious in any way makes me wonder how they could have been healed & turned into seemingly conscious blessing-animals, & why, if they were so much worse than shards somehow, they could be just as easily healed. normal shards are shown to be blindly & incoherently stumbling towards people searching for a cure or comfort or revenge or some way to finally die, red ones seem to seek people out only to hurt & turn them, i can't imagine those willingly walking towards a cure. you'd think they'd put up some resistance.

i understand the overarching idea of the story is that everyone can be forgiven & healed but that's not really how it works in real life & the red ones as braindead unthinking violent npcs would probably be the story's only chance for a guilt-free throwdown. & based off previous chapters yamino seems to have a liking to draw out long action scenes & a type of shard that could literally only be taken out by extermination would be a perfect opportunity for a bunch of kickass scenes with all the main characters if it hadn't already been shown the red ones are mostly no different than other shards & eden will probably be just as easy to purify- if it's even touched instead of just being left like that- who knows with how fast the story is suddenly going- not like it had over a decade to tell us some of this stuff & let it sink in.

I'll be honest, I didn't have the mental fortitude to read the mimo where they explained the crimson shards.

To me it just seems like another example of an unnecessary complication that 1. wasn't executed well, and 2. didn't need to be included at all.

If they had done any of the things you said, then cool! Sure! But they sort of just introduced crimson shards and then did away with them immediately. Unless I guess they're going to come back later.

—Mod Marie

[okthatsgreat]

HII umm 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7 for the tav ask game? for elese maybe 😁

LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! 💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪 ohhhh lets fucking goo....

bg3 tav ask game!!

what would your tav's greetings be (at different levels of approval)?

OK SO............. this is so awesome i was literally just talking to my friend about this . if elese was an actual companion in the game she'd be a little different in terms of gaining approval i reckon!! because normally the player wants to agree with the companion in order to gain their approval, however in eleses case she sorta NEEDS to be humbled a little bit LMFAO. so for example if you choose a dialogue option in the realm of "everybody in the camp should be listening to you, elese!!" while elese would REACT as if she approved of this by smiling and agreeing with you, youre actually earning DISAPPROVAL because she is viewing you less as an equal and more of an underling. if that makes sense..... and this would greatly impact her ending i think :)

LOW APPROVAL (<0)

"Speak plainly, we've not much time."

"Well?"

"Out with it."

MEDIUM APPROVAL (0-19)

"What is it?"

"Pardon?"

"Well, now's a good time to speak as any."

HIGH APPROVAL (20+)

"Oh, is something wrong?"

"Certainly unexpected, but I'm always down for a chat."

"Yes?"

FLIRTING

"There is a light in every living thing. / It's crawling t'wards the surface to survive. Sorry, simply ruminating."

"Seeing you makes me feel a little less weary about it all, I must say."

"I needed a good chat."

PARTNERED

"Thank the Gods. Do not tell the others, but I had been hoping we'd stop to chat."

"You're beautiful as always."

"...Sorry, dear, you've always managed to make me a bit speechless. Can I help? Before I make a fool out of myself staring."

"Come out of love for me, / not love for blood and steel." (low approval)

"Mhm?" (low approval)

describe their tent setup! what's on the outside? the inside?

VERY LAVISHHHH and a LOT of purples and pinks. aesthetic trumps comfort or practicality so there are a LOT of cushions, mirrors, a small desk for poetry writing (inks and quills, probably some sort of makeup too), a stand for her violin, definitely a basket of scrolls with music sheets and books. a very royal aesthetic to it all!! the inside would mirror this definitely, lots of cushions and as COMFORTABLE a bedroll as she can POSSIBLY make it hgjdfks. and you KNOW she's making other party members carry the majority of her tent whenever the party makes camp somewhere else LMAO

what would their character quest be titled? why?

it HAS to be "The Pink Lady". come on.. she's Lady Elese. and she's so pink. it's just too funny FUCK COPYRIGHT!!!!! they'd let me name her quest that because its so funny

6. how would the player go about meeting them in act 1? what is their introduction?

OOOOOOO i think definitely you'd be saving her from something LMFAO. IMMEDIATELY it becomes clear to the player that she is somebody who pulls rank the moment she is in danger and not only WANTS you to help her but EXPECTS you to endanger yourself and assist her. in fact i think it would make a lot of sense if you found her in the ruins of the nautiloid during that first battle with the intellect devourers!!! walking up close enough will trigger a cutscene where she's trying to fight them (and clearly failing soooooo bad), and she will call to the player and demand they help her. like NOT nicely too ghfdjkgs. shes clearly very frightened and the first thing she cares to do is look over at the player (probably has race-dependant dialogue too lmfao) and yell "YOU THERE! HUMAN WOMAN! i demand you kill these things IMMEDIATELY!" you decide whether or not she's on her own (saying you'll help triggers battle, yelling that she's on her own will make the intellect devourers turn to you and trigger battle but with disapproval from elese, leaving with kill elese) once the battle triggers she isnt even an ally she just acts like one of those npcs that puts their hands over their head and cowers HGJKFDSG (mostly to ensure she doesnt die mid battle)

once you kill the intellect devourers she'll approach ("i dare to say we did it!" to which you can have your tav respond with "WE?") and act as if you already know who she is, your tav pulls a confused face or something and she gets a little offended and introduces herself using this long ass title. after that she kinda takes a deep breath, admits she was rather frightened and thanks you for helping her (gains approval), and then insists she saw you on the nautiloid and that you "follow her" so that the both of you might find a healer together (she likely insists that if you agree to take her home safely, she will guarantee you one of the courts finest healers)

7. describe their arc. how would a player help resolve it? what choices can be made? can your tav be turned down a dark path, or pulled to a lighter one?

COPYING A SCREENSHOT FROM MY FRIENDS DMS BC I LITERALLY WAS JUST TALKING WITH HER ABOUT THIS LMFAOOAO

essentially there are two paths you can take with elese, either convincing her of her own autonomy and allowing her to choose her own path, or continuously reminding her of her title and rank to the point she loses free will at the end and fully aligns with her family's nobility!

throughout the game she'd probably have multiple scenes about her being part of the noble family. i imagine there are a lot more references to the patriars scattered throughout act one and two that make elese stop and question these people wayyyy more yknow. one of the most important scenes for her would be gortash's coronation!! definitely expanded so that you are introduced to her family, and during the coronation you have to do a shadowheart-esque scene to convince her not to rejoin her family here and remind her of her self worth and all that. she doesnt really have a "big final fight" because elese and her family are all about talking and diplomacy and all that, BUTTTT i think that fight before you get to gortash where all of the patriars are dead would be WAYYYYYY bigger. like maybe elese is summoned to speak with her mother one final time (assuming this is the good ending) and doesn't return, and you gotta go find her in wyrms crossing where you catch her mid battle or something ????

nevertheless, how the player treats her would be pretty important!!!! you cant agree with every single thing she says here, like you gotta give her a bit of guidance. BUT its also important you dont just outright dismiss her fear because that will also send her into a I Must Act More Composed And Noble spiral LMAO

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

You're correct about the Order part, and in part 3 endgame, Ranulf is actually the very first character who reacts negatively to the extensive chaotic energy (including even before Leanne, who collapses before the other herons and Mist). You have characters like Tibarn and Nailah who don't react at all to the chaos and actually enjoy it and thrive in it, which can be seen individually but also in their battle conversation (which I totally understand if most people haven't seen, because it would require NPC Tibarn to make his way to Nailah and actually engage in combat against her, which is practically impossible considering the bird tribe doesn't make their way upwards on the battlefield like the beast tribe does. They're also deployed on the right side of the map, whereas Nailah is all the way at the top left iirc), but Ranulf literally says he can barely see straight.

Also:

Tibarn: “Everyone, let’s get one thing perfectly clear here…This isn’t a natural peace. It’s Ashera’s work. Don’t forget for an instant that the world isn’t supposed to be like this. It should be noisy, vibrant, and chaotic.” Elincia: “You’re right. A peace built on the sacrifice of so many lives is monstrous and unjust. It cannot be allowed to stand.” Ranulf: “I didn’t mean that I’m losing motivation to save the petrified people. It’s just that, before we started talking about it, I was feeling…complacent. Is it just me?”

It's kind of interesting here how Elincia doesn't seem to be at all in the same headspace as either Ranulf or Tibarn (she says she doesn't understand Tibarn when he says he prefers a fight right then and there, but she definitely isn't as calm as Ranulf). You'd think Elincia would be further on the side of Order in general, but based on this, it seems like Ranulf is even further on the side of Order and Balance than Elincia is (and we interestingly don't ever see Elincia reacting to the chaotic energy, and they do show us other people reacting to it outside of the battlefield, like Sanaki becoming antsy and needing to see how her soldiers are faring in the battle and Leanne collapsing).

Ranulf only fights because he has to, certainly. The Laguz Alliance of course had every reason to fight, but once they start, it's hard to get them to stop (seen with the beast tribe pretty much throughout the war, and Tibarn admits he'd have to go around knocking all his men out to stop them by the time they realized they had to stop the fighting now or never as far as the medallion was concerned). Ranulf was, throughout the entirety of part 3, the only one trying to stop Skrimir from continuing to make very rash orders to his troops, and it took Skrimir almost dying for him to understand. Ranulf is more the type to prefer negotiations imo, but considering what the senate did, I can totally get him being on board with fighting them.

I think the "is it just me" is also interesting, because it might reflect on the fact that he's pretty close to Mist on the side of Order (who isn't in their army at the time). I think he does have Chaos in him, if his reactions to Izuka are anything to go by (compare to Mist, who reacts in anger toward the Black Knight in PoR chapter 27, but it's more pure rage than chaotic), but he has to be pushed really far emotionally for that chaos to show. The only other person who seemed to react similarly to Ranulf regarding the amount of Order in the world was Micaiah.

I wish they elaborated on whether or not Ranulf's headaches were specifically from Skirmir alone, or if the Chaos had anything to do with it/added to it, or if he got them recurringly throughout the war. More missed opportunities I guess, but they probably forgot about it tbh since it was only mentioned that one time.

He does deserve the world! And more! Poor man is too good for the crazy world he lives in, but then, what would Tellius do without him? 😭😭😭

Ranulf is by far one of the characters with the most potential that I wish they went more in depth with. He's such an important and prominent character, but the fact that you don't even hear he's been having these nightmares for the past three or so years now unless you get this specific dialogue is such a shame.

I think he's a perfect comedy relief/plot serious balanced character, but the amount of personal information we have about him/his feelings/his life are minimal. We see a completely different side of him when they went to Gritnea Tower in PoR, but it's something we only see again one more time, and that's in this chapter.

It's basically like, he has a lot of depth and personality, but they only sprinkle it very sparingly. I just find that to be so odd considering his importance in both games, and the fact that he's one of the central characters in RD in general (that is, he's even more prominent in RD than he was in PoR, and he was still relatively important in PoR). He's no less filled with characterization than other main characters like Ike and Soren, but we're given it so infrequently that it's much easier to gloss over and not think much about again.

I wish they did more with the other facets of his character, outside of him being one of the most kind, intelligent and empathetic characters (especially among the beast laguz, since the general impression we're given is that the bird tribe uses logic over emotion in comparison to the usually emotional and erratic beast laguz, and those are the two most prominent laguz species in the story).

Like, it's great that he has those qualities, but people get angry. They get aggressive. They get enraged. No person is just a solid funny and nice person, and Ranulf has all of those kind and angry qualities, but they skimp so much on this amazing writing of him. You learn so much about him and what he's been going through from these few brief instances of him becoming angry, but they just don't touch on it enough. They had a chance to continue his first base conversation with Ike and bring it up to him. It would've been the perfect time, because we have this dialogue in their first conversation:

Ike: You can come talk to me anytime you want. Don’t think you’re alone in all this. Ranulf: Heh… What are you, an inquisitor? Ike: A guy’s got to do something between battles. Talk to you later. Ranulf: …

At first Ranulf was talking about feeling bad for bringing beorc into a laguz affair, and then they discuss that Skrimir is giving Ranulf a headache with his behavior. That could've been their first conversation, but then they could've had a follow up based around the end of their conversation (the above). It would've been the perfect opportunity to give us another base conversation where Ranulf does go to talk to him because of these nightmares and all the stress he's been having. Imo the way they end the conversation with "...", makes it sound like there's more on Ranulf's mind than just what he was open about.

If you consider that he's been having nightmares about what he saw at Gritnea Tower for the past few years, then you consider that the laguz all just found out from Rafiel that the Begnion senators started the rumor about the herons to get them all killed, it's reasonable imo to consider that Ranulf is intelligent enough that he may have been starting to put the pieces together.

We learn late into part 3 that Izuka was working with the senators, and I feel like Ranulf's suspicions should've been raised. I don't think it's necessarily bad writing that he didn't catch on, but more of a missed opportunity. The whole situation affected him very deeply and they were very expressive about that in both games, but it's just that we don't see enough of that side of him, as in, we don't see it enough times.

In a way I feel like it also hits harder when you have the fun/funny, friendly, kind person experience something that tragic - witnessing the result of his race having been used for experiments and seeing their rotted corpses. Knowing people see his race as expendable and on top of that, left their carcasses to rot after pure torture. He saw innocent lives that had been taken and after all that horror, not even given any sort of burial, let alone a proper one.

There's also the fact that he's a cat - he has a very good sense of smell, and that's how he realized who the Black Knight was before anyone else. The smell of rotting corpses alone would be a lot to handle, but to be able to smell it better than anyone else in the room would have been absolutely traumatizing.

Again - the fun and funny, friendly, kind person experienced something horrible enough that he had a breakdown over it (and (presumably extreme based on context) subsequent emotional distress for years following). Tibarn and Reyson had their own ways of dealing with it that we were also shown (Tibarn was more much collected about it, and he put his rage into his strength, which Reyson similarly did, versus Ranulf's very outward emotional response), but Ranulf has never been subjected to anything that horrendous through the events of the game prior.

To have it be a one off situation in both games (as detailed as they were at the times they happened) is a huge shame imo and deserved to be expanded upon. It's clearly not something he got over over the years, and may never have gotten over post RD (even if he did feel better about it after killing Izuka or, if you didn't have him kill Izuka, if he felt better about it knowing Izuka had been killed for his crimes by the army Ranulf was part of).

I just wish they went more into detail about his feelings, because they were very powerful and emotional and felt like they should've been a stronger part of his character as a whole. Considering his role in RD is about as important if not more important than Elincia's PoR presence, it's something he really deserved as a central character. I love this battle dialogue because it shows you his raw feelings outside of that good ol' sweetheart guy. We can see something he's been struggling with, and we can see him express that so well in the scene they did give him that it would've been amazing to have more of that.

[motheatenscarf]

I'm trying not to get mad about Stormblood not being what I want it to be and just trying to take it as it is, but man, it's disappointing when there's so much potential.

There's a lot of good elements but it's just not more than the sum of its parts. None of these characters seem to be displaying much of an internal world beyond reacting in the moment, as endearing as some of those moments are. Gosetsu, Yugiri, and Hien are absolutely wasted potential; the old samurai, the outsider as a loyal retainer, and the exiled heir returning to claim his throne are fantastic archetypes and narrative goldmines. If they would take like... 2 minutes to establish that these people have feelings about the lives that led them to this moment and maybe had opinions about where to go to move forward.

I did like the quiet moments of reflection we got with Gosetsu where he sits with the corpse of the plains nomad warrior and contemplates the peace a warrior seeks before death, and then his drunken ramblings when he regrets not being able to protect Hien's father. But that was all we got.

I don't know. It just feels like if they're gonna sideline their best characters to focus on new, regionally significant NPCs, they should actually, uh... do... something with them... Not to compare everything to Heavensward again, but goddamn, did they make me eat the words "I don't care about the Catholic elves," because I came to love Ishgard and all of the elves there.

I know they're called elezen, but shut up, they're elves.

Anyway, it is again unfortunately leaning into that addage that "villains act, heroes react," and taking for granted that Heroes Do Good Because It Is Right, and meanwhile are left with answering the question of, "But what makes someone a villain?" which has y'know... motive and drive inherently baked into it. So that's why villains as active antagonists tend to be more interesting than passive protagonists who just react to things. Even though Hien and his retainers actively planning to take back Doma, they're not given the time to reflect or the drive that they need to make compelling characters and it's hugely disappointing.

Their last rebellion nearly saw their entire nation stamped out in genocide under the Empire's boot, you'd THINK they'd have thoughts or feelings about that. But they just shrug and go, "But ever onward," and no, fuck you, let them FEEL THINGS!

Anyway, the villain lady, Yotsuyu, is a monster, objectively, but her hatred for her own people is born of her aunt, uhhh, apparently selling her into slavery in order to secure her cousin's future. She's terrible, but DAMN, that's a helluva motivation, and I feel BAD for her interacting with Zenos and being forced to endure his humiliating retaliation. It's heavily implied she was sold into specifically sex slavery for Imperial soldiers, and here comes this Imperial crown prince to grab her by her hair and tell her off and threaten her with death "if she's lucky" RIGHT in front of her own subordinates.

SO, that's, uh, loaded, and YEAH, I'm more invested in her story and maybe getting her to hate the right people in turning her against the Empire than I am helping Hien. I want to watch her rip Zenos' heart out of his chest and eat it, we're gonna make a pearl earing for her out of his third eye, fuck that guy

[changeling-rin]

Do any of the links know about or use glitches? (I know gen would be very mad that wind has been hiding an infinite soup trick from him at the very least)

From their perspective, a glitch looks like their reality falling apart at the seams in a way that is wholly unnatural. Take a moment and imagine how you would react if you suddenly clipped through a wall/floor/door/etc. Personally I think it's just a matter of exactly how loud you'd scream. Now let's take a moment to imagine one of the less benign glitches, such as NPCs being horrendously distorted or just straight-up not there. Sounds like horror nightmare fuel to me!

So no, I don't think they know how to use glitches. They might know about them, but more similar to the same way that one remembers their nightmare in the morning as opposed to anything concrete.

(But you're right, Gen would be rather miffed at the idea that people can just, randomly spawn infinite amounts of soup, whereas he has to cook for several hours and he still can't get it quite right-)

[libertybri]

Fallout 4 - Companions + select NPC react to kids making a comic about Sole!

Sole arrives at Diamond City with their companion, ready to take a load off and grab a bite to eat. As they approach the noodle stand, they see some kids pointing at them and instantly going wide eyed.

"General/Sentinel/Sole!" They either exclaim their title or name with passion as they rush to show them some drawings and stories.

MacCready:

"Oh man, this is incredible! Can I get a copy?"

Hancock:

"Oh, would you look at that, you guys even got my good side! (Heh) Keep it up, kiddos, this is a great job."

Cait:

"Well color me impressed... We get to take a copy home, right?"

Piper:

"Hm, how would you kids like a comic short in the paper? I think that would be a really cool edition, plus you'd get more recognition, Blue! Heh, I'm getting way ahead of myself."

Nick:

"You kids have some serious talent... oh— oh no, who told you about the vault incident?"

Preston:

"Wait, this one's about us taking back the Castle! And that's you saving us in Concord! Look at that one—!"

Danse:

"Pink power armor... hm."

Maxson:

"Do you think the squires would like this? It could be a great example for them, the two of us."

Curie:

"Oh! Madame/monsieur, these children have incredible talents!"

Deacon:

"A pet Deathclaw? Awesome!"

Desdemona:

"Well, this is shocking. Most of these were supposed to remain undercover..."

Sturges:

"Just when I thought you couldn't get any cooler, you go and get your own comic. When you kids finish, I'm gonna buy a copy, alright?"

X6-88:

"I don't exactly see the pleasure in these cartoons."

Gage:

"What exactly do these kids think you do for a livin'? It damn well ain't what's in these things..."

Mason:

"Not as primal as I would envision us, but I guess I won't ruin it for the kids."

Mags Black:

"Hm, seems we have quite the double life you kids don't know about. (heh)"

[spiderling-space]

Hey so this thought has been on my mind for like ages and I think that you'd be able to write a headcanon about it in a wonderful way, so I'm presenting this idea to you hehe ( I love ur blog so so so much btw!)

So let's say that whatever miracles of seven happened, that Yuu overblots. Being constantly pushed around by other students by being magicless, solving the idiot trio's problems, trying to survive overblots and dealing with Crowley's neglectful ass cheeks sure is not easy. With all the piled and bottled up negative emotions, Yuu like the previous boys, overblots. Yuu wasn't that hard to defeat cuz you know, they're magicless, but the twst boys did struggle and Yuu's quite the challenge too. So what if, after Yuu's overblot, they had a full on mental breakdown. Not like crying mental breakdown, they're full on SCREAMING, their voice are cracking too, and very painful to hear. They started to unconsciously harm themselves so they have to be tied down to prevent to hurt themselves further. How would the dormleaders react to that?

(Sorry for my English and if I ever break a rule, it's OK if you decide to not do this too. Btw I got this idea when I watch ATLA aka Aang the last airbender, for reference of the breakdown of Yuu just search "Azula's breakdown" that practically how their breakdown looked like :D)

I cant write headcanons because you basically wrote everything. I will just make comments and additions to this. first I mention the background, secondly Azula’s breakdown so non ATLA watchers can understand a little and lastly, MC having breakdown like Azula. For the record, I could write about ATLA for pages since it is something I love since 2005. LOL This became a bit meta xd

You can join the discord server here 😉🤣

Firstly, the back ground:

I was 7 years old when ATLA started airing. I’d be excited to get back home to watch ATLA after school. Azula’s breakdown was awful back then when I first watch it as a kid. And of course, when they aired the episodes again and again. I rewatched again because I remembered the show being dope when I was in 12th grade which was stress relief while studying for university exams, and then I rewatched last year and even founded a Zutara server. Now I’m getting back to the point. In the last two rewatching, I saw Azula in a different light and her breakdown at the end of the show was understandable. I can recommend some ATLA meta that you might like. 

Secondly, Azula’s breakdown: 

Azula lost everything. In the flashbacks, you saw she was getting along with Zuko, laughing and playing tag until Ozai’s influence on her grew while Ursa showed more affection towards Zuko since Ozai basically hated Zuko. These two triggered each other and it grew like snowball effect which came to the point that Ozai-Azula and Ursa-Zuko. She didn’t get love from Ozai, she was just a puppet, someone to empower him more, not his daughter meanwhile to Ursa, she was a monster. Azula was 8 years old  Ursa disappeared. Imagine how this would affect the child. After this, she had estranged brother that she was jealous of because of Ursa’s love, a father who manipulated her, and an uncle who was too in pain to do anything and he was more focused on Zuko. She only had Mai and Ty Lee as “friends” but it was toxic and Azula used fear to control them. After Zuko got banished, Mai and Ty Lee went to their own places, leaving Azula alone with Ozai. Just when Zuko got back, she was being like the last times, cruel teasing, Mai and Ty Lee with her. Later, Zuko went away and probably got lectured by Ozai for her lie. Mai and Ty Lee stood against her. In the end, she had no one. Ozai didn’t want her with him either because he only wants power. Being alone drew her to the edge. In the Royal Hair Washing, the girl sje fired had her face. Her self hatred was palpable. She started to reflect this via Ursa, the mother who thought her as monster and didn’t love her like she did Zuko. I believe she would have had breakdown if she actually killed Zuko. At the end, she couldn’t handle it anymore. Being all alone, not being loved, self hatred and finally failing at something which is something she knows Ozai would never tolerate like he did with Zuko. This 14-year-old wouldn’t be able to handle it anymore and had breakdown.

Now last section, MC having breakdown like Azula’s:

Let’s see the things MC went through:

Stripped away from home

Doesn’t have much memory of it

Is thrusted into a world so foreign to them, where everything is foreign to them. There is no familiar thing that can make them recall home or feel at home

Is forced to study things that they have no prior info where the others have prior info and they are expected to ace the tests. This puts on pressure on regular students, can’t imagine the pressure they would feel since they barely understand the magic.

Is treated like trash by everyone at least once. From the first moment they came to Twisted Wonderland, they were like dirtbag. Dire gave them a house where they could get Hepatitis A to C, tetanus, hypothermia and any other disease. They have lived in that state for months and the house barely got fixed by the end of exams. They got belittled or used by almost all characters at least once. Examples: Vil calling them nobody; Azul trying to take the only thing they have from them, the dorm; Riddle calling them uneducated because not having magical parents; Leona acting like they are a toy in E2; Jamil literally manipulating their choice; sometimes NPC characters talked; Cater making them do his work etc.

They are given more than a person should handle. They are not certificated psychologist, they aren’t superhuman, they don’t have super healing... They are just human but has to fight enemies than can easily kill them if it were not the magic users around them. They are given the task of dealing with the emotional breakdown of the other people.

All of these are building up more and more. Maybe they started to get along with people after the belittlement and being used but every new character does this. At one point, it will be too much and they will think “they are only nice to me because I did a favor to them. If not for that, they wouldn’t be nice to me” which would lead to self doubt. When one starts doubting themselves, everything else starts to go down. Also, new characters treating them that way adds salt to the wound.

MC isn’t a professional psychologist. They can’t handle other people’s issues without taking a toll at themselves. They don’t even catch a break between everything.

Dire is deliberately keeping them away from home as they all do the errands he say. To him, what MC wants doesn’t matter much. The game doesn’t show but if MC has family and friends or pets, you can’t tell me that they wouldn’t miss them once or see, hug them or know their state, alive-dead, healthy-sick etc. 

Lastly not being invincible. The end of Episode 5 shows this well. They couldn’t stand against Grim who isn’t as powerful as the other overblot characters. They are mortal who can get hurt easily.

Now all these build up meanwhile we don’t see an MC centered chapter, how they are etc. It’s all about the others. Maybe there were a few chapters asking if MC is okay after everything but it feels like it is in the second plan. 

Everything that I mentioned can lead to a breakdown like Azula’s. Everything is just too much to handle and they don’t talk with a professional about it. When they finally let out everything, it feels much better, screaming out their lungs, lashing out like all of them did. They are finally letting out all of their emotions, crying and screaming; yet still feels better than bottling everything up. They think maybe that’s how overblot characters felt.

All in all, everyone in NRC needs a counselor.

[bunny-heels]

“Don’t say that. You’re going to be okay.” with Alyx and a character/NPC/OC you'd like to feature. ^.^

Kleiner keeps both his hands on Alyx's shoulders, as she fiddles with her tool that's usually in her holster. Gordon and D0G just left, so it was only her, Kleiner, and Lamar somewhere.

She didn't want to show her worry so much, especially in this situation, where Kleiner would share the fear he had for Eli, his closest colleague. But Kleiner knew it was worse for her, being she was Eli's daughter.

This situation wasn't new to her, but that didn't mean it hurt any less. Because at any moment, he could be at his end. At any second, Breen could decide that today was his last day. And she couldn't handle that. Not with where he is.

Kleiner couldn't either. Nothing about this was less painful for him as well. He was there when Eli had been captured before. The days he spent wondering when he'd come back, the nights he spent cuddled with Lamar wishing Eli would've been by his side. He did cry before. But he wasn't right now. For whatever reason, he didn't know, but he just wasn't.

Meanwhile, in the corner of the room, the fat little headcrab poked out from around the metal gated corner, not being noticed by either the sorrowed daughter or the worried old man.

Kleiner, despite his enthusiastic nature, always knew better, and never forgot what was happening around themselves. So when it came to comfort, he never used what he personally considered false hope. He used the truth. His own analyzed, hopefully correct truth.

To him, it was Alyx and Gordon.

Gordon's impeccable luck, with leaving situations as clean as he can, never going towards a near death experience, or would dodge the ones he was placed in. And his smarts were too good for even himself. That's what he always liked.

And Alyx. Although Gordon has the luck, she has the skills. All her life, being faced with obstacles, using her agility and wits, bouncing over fences and hopping over danger zones. Her computer skills, system skills, console skills. She's had the training of a lifetime.

But Alyx herself, during this time, doesn't believe so. She never usually has doubts, but it can't be helped right now.

"What can I even do?" She'll ask aloud. "What path am I supposed to take? Where can I use what I've learned in this state?" By this paint, she'll hug herself. "How am I expected to fix this? How do people want me to fix this? Will they get mad at me if I do it my way? Someone else's way? In no one's way?" Her head looks down as her eyes close shut. "Where are my opened chances? Where are those windows of opportunities? Where are those gaps in the plan for me to slip by in?" She holds her breath, she shakes slightly, she whimpers before she goes on.

"Will dad be proud of me?"

And Kleiner can't take that last question. He can't. How could she ask that of yourself? Ask that of what she's been through? Ask that of what she's done?

But he knows why she's like that. He hates that reason why. They both do. And they wish so bad to change it, but it's not, and can never, be easy.

But he knows it's not her. So his grip on her shoulders tightens, he gets ever so slightly closer, he looks to her headband where she should have her head up and her eyes opened to him. Lamar moves slowly out of the corner, getting closer to the two in the room.

"Alyx, my dear, please look at me? Please?"

She looks up. She's near tears. He breathes out.

"Your father is more than proud of you. He's never had anything negative cross his mind when he thinks of you and what you can accomplish. And what he's in right now, it isn't your fault."

Lamar gets a foot away from the two, more to Kleiner's side. Kleiner shakes his head ever so gently.

"It's no one's fault. We all do what we can, and that includes your own father. Please, believe me, when I say this from the bottom of my heart-"

He feels a small claw on the bottom of his pants, only to react by picking Lamar up in his thin arms. He looks to Alyx again.

"Don't say that. You're going to be okay."

And she can't help but mimic his expression; a soft smile. She puts her hand on Lamar, gently tapping her fingertips on the fat of her body. Lamar chirps, and Alyx makes the faintest, breathy, singular laugh.

"Thank you, Kleiner."

meme