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an old drawing.

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A hand drawn mug by Amiya. It's packaged just for you, Babel's #1 Doctor.

More merch & info can be found in the forms below: 🇵🇭 PH Pre-Orders: ✨ tinyurl.com/DoktahMug ✨ 🌐 International Pre-Orders: ✨ tinyurl.com/DoktahFamily ✨

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🌾 new merch!! 🌾

get your own drawstring sack of Sister Shu Rice today! 100% healthy, organic, clean, and 100% shu approved!!

when I first saw shu, her colors looked funny to me in a way that reminded me of bootleg looking anime characters on stuff like random sacks of rice or bags of chips at the grocery store

more silly arknights merch & info can be found in the forms below! 🇵🇭 PH Pre-Orders: ✨ tinyurl.com/DoktahMug ✨ 🌐 International Pre-Orders: ✨ tinyurl.com/DoktahFamily ✨

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♜ SILLY ARKNIGHTS STUFF ♜

Our #DoktahFamily Mugs are hand drawn by Amiya🐰 and Rosmontis🐱 and packaged just for you, Terra’s Best Doctor!

Definitely Kal’tsit approved.

More merch & info can be found in the forms below! 🇵🇭 PH Pre-Orders: ✨ tinyurl.com/DoktahMug ✨ 🌐 International Pre-Orders: ✨ tinyurl.com/DoktahFamily ✨

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shu 🌾🍚🧺

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"Don't give me that look. ...See you again, Doctor."

Kal'tsit, tearfully giving the Doctor one final look before she is taken by tides of Originium. You promise to take care of Amiya and the city. And one day, you'll see her again.

Based on Kal'tsit's Remnant skin's Trust 3 Dialogue, my favorite Trust line in Arknights.

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♜ Our Doktah Family Mugs are hand drawn by Amiya and Rosmontis and packaged just for you, Terra’s Best Doctor! Definitely Kal’tsit-approved.

And if you're not into paramilitary pharmaceutical companies, we also have Family Reunion Mugs for your inner rock-cancer revolutionary!

Pre-Order mugs and more silly Arknights stuff here: ✨ http://bit.ly/DoktahFamily ✨

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kal'tsit mug!! ☕🍵👾

+ some close ups!

also it's ready and available for pre-order on the usual #DoktahFamily forms!! 🇵🇭 PH Pre-Orders: ✨ bit.ly/DoktahMug ✨ 🌐 International Pre-Orders: ✨ bit.ly/DoktahFamily ✨

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Not exactly Arknights related, but I've added Fern's Doodle Tote and Falin Tote-den to the Doktah Family order form!

Check them out if you like Frieren or Dungeon Meshi! Order yours here: ✨ bit.ly/DoktahFamily ✨

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let's talk abt video games - cruelty squad

cruelty squad's premise is very simple: it is an immersive sim (yes, like deus ex and dishonored) where your goal is to take down your targets for each level, who is usually a (rival company, insubordinate subsidiary) CEO by any means necessary. it is grotesque, clunky, jank, and will destroy your senses.

and it is the best game i've played in a long time. do not mistake cruelty squad's simplicity or grotesqueness for a lack of depth, effort, or intelligence— this is absolutely a work of art.

when cruelty squad says "any means necessary", they mean ANY means. this game COMMITS to player freedom. whether you go in guns blazing, turning the level into a pathfinding platformer, sneaking your way around an alternate route, or breaking the game's geometry, go ham. you will be punished, challenged, and rewarded no matter which way you go.

enemies are so straightforward you will almost instantly die in 2 bullets the moment you are detected. in many other games that'd be incredibly frustrating, but that frustration gets quickly turned into a legitimate space for a player to explore options. and after you're done clearing enemies, to make money, you must harvest their organs and sell them on the in-game stock market. yes.

it's not exactly clear /when/ cruelty squad is set, but it is absolutely clear about its cyberpunk themes. (except i suppose you can replace the cyber with gross biological body augmentations like fartvomiting from your feet to double jump)

other cyberpunk stories still have the "😭 its so bleak and sad but i guess the tech and aesthetic is still kinda rad and cool", but cruelty squad doesn't give you a moment to want you to live in its absurdity. it has the same commitment to its thesis as it does with its level design: that capitalism is so miserable and stupid. the second mission, the target who is a startup founder who wasted company funds by buying many Chunko Pops, literally has searching for him in a posh executive village with the dumbest looking architecture (built over an ancient mass grave). every single NPC in this game spouts the most mundane, miserable, "i've been stuck in my desk job underpaid too long" vibed lines. the most expensive upgrade in the game is having your own house and your own clothes.

one of the things i find most genius about cruelty squad is how good it is at pretending to be "bad". the game is ugly as sin, and all that does is reinforce its themes and the experience. and even then, the game is surprisingly readable and clear, enemies on screen are easy to identify, and it's not /hard/ to find things on the UI despite the initial mess. there are hidden collectables, paths, and easter eggs in every level that really do feel like the classic video game approach to level design. there's a really interesting take on adaptive difficulty that ties incredibly well with the narrative. it's insane how much thought went into it despite what it wants you to believe

for the rest, it's hard for me to say what hasn't already been said by other reviews. i think cruelty squad is a masterpiece; it is focused and committed to what it wants to be, and i think that's what makes it so /good/. it's right up there with breath of the wild, dishonored, and the first dark souls. and gorbino's quest, who could forget gorbino's quest?

extra notes:

- the secret levels are even more clear about how much thought goes into the level design, this is actually where the more "traditional" level layouts are and for some of them, you wouldn't even think they're from the same game

- the game is funny as heck. the mechanics and visuals are funny enough to laugh at, but the writing is sharp as well. the equipment descriptions are hilarious. grappendix.

- the stock market updates in real time and gets affected by the levels in the game if you're paying attention to what happens, which is so cool to me

- the latter parts of the game get pretty philosophical and existential, they're lovely texture

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red horse, extra strong 🐴💪🍺

the number one mare

KHAGANQUENCH

(A silly doodle based on a popular beer brand in the Philippines called Red Horse, the extra strong beer.)

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kal'tsocks for my kal'tcrocs

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ah yes my favorite arknights character

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pls look at my new tote bag

falin tote-den 🧙‍♀️🐓🐉

these'll be available this weekend at Patrons of the Arts: Magics & Mystics Nov 9-10, 2024 at Elements Centris, QC!!

we'll be at booth B10!!

see you there!! ✨ #PatronsOfTheArts #PotAMagicsandMystics

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now that it's done, here are some closeups of the doodles i made for Dokutah's Day Off, Arknights Cosplay PH's arknights cupsleeve event!

aaaaa i'm incredibly honored to have been able to contribute and i'm really happy with it all came out!!

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theresa good theresis bad hahaha

a big gripe i have w a lot of arknights story discussion is that it often comes with a whole bunch of oversimplification

reunion bad, RI good, priestess bad, theresa good, theresis bad, babel good, doctor bad, doctor good, etc

there are a lot of moments in babel where the doctor's decisions are rooted in trauma of the past and fear of the future, they're believable and human but also an outsider perspective, and wiping those memories for a fresh start is the "magic" in the story. we can't just erase the context of history, but given the chance to the story argues that humanity will continue to strive to do the right thing with what they're equipped to do. this is also reflected in kal'tsit's (skin) lines about how "we can no longer draw from past experiences", and babel doubles down on that

another thing is how theresa's solution to the plight of the sarkaz is imposed on them. outsider education, progress, colonization etc. they're ideas also explored in the kjerag events that i really like. i find it so strange that a lot of people also missed how theresis understands the pain of his people, and that the solution must come from them, both anger and justice, and how he also trusts Manfred, the next generation, to come up with a solution of his own.

and i think another important bit here is how amiya's growth as a character is also forgotten. theresa putting the burden of change on amiya is a similar idea as doctor's memory wipe, a fresh start. the entire reunion arc is about how amiya finds her own justice, and how that arc also comes with empathy for those who fight back, because it is not they who cast the first stone

eepy

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had a blast today at Dokutah's Day Off, our local #arknights cupsleeve event by Arknights Cosplay PH!! the team did an amazing job and im so happy i got to make art for it!! (i made the tote bag and the cupsleeve!)

there were lots of cosplayers and we decorated around the cafe with our art!!

aLSO FILIPINO THORNS REAL!!!!