#( i just thought i should probably make a formal post bc i didn't want anyone to confuse the other post for the actual starter call )

[erabundus]

i  can  see  i'm  being  enabled,  so  if  any  mutuals  would  like  a  LYRIC  STARTER,  you're  welcome  to  give  this  post  a  like!

[starsmuserainbow]

Look, I don't think anyone really cares about my OOC posts of this topic by now anyway. So I'm just gonna get out some things that actually are more about the actual stuff in the game, consider it spoilers or whatever. But I need to get these out, and I don't really have anyone to discuss these things with.

I got him a statue, let the painter paint him, because my man can't see himself bc vampire. But he didn't say a word about it! Come on! I like to imagine he was touched though, even if it doesn't happen ingame.

The whole evil master thing is such an emotional part of his story. He was entombed for a whole year in complete darkness/nothingness and without being able to move or anything really? Just, wow, ouch. I feel so much for this fictional man.

I love the RP-ish ideas of actually encountering him during these earlier times in his life, when he still had to do everything his master asked. Would probably not end well for my char, obviously, but, man. Perhaps some struggle on his end if he doesn't want to obey the command or gets like second guesses after already bringing my char into the palace or sth, idk, but all these ideas are so intense and I love them. Also, this whole 'this could have been me too if we met earlier'. So true, so painful, just. I can't put it into words.

About the master though, he did feel somewhat "unspectacular" in game. Like, idk. I'd have expected a lot more of the confrontation, to be honest. Some more mindgames before even encountering the guy, or some formal dinner he invites us to for whatever reason and we "have to" go (or think it can help to learn more about how to fight him or whatever) and then the guy could show off all that intrigues-creating, cunning, twisting part that he's supposed to have. But no, we just find him right at the ritual and do the thing. It's still one heck of an emotional ride, everything about the ritual, the scene before and after - especially after, those cries, oomph - but it still felt like there should have been a lot more about this guy.

I wonder how the endgame would go if you didn't confront/kill his master. Perhaps kill one of the other spawn to make sure it can't end with the ritual, but like. Once the worm's gone, would he immediately be mind-controlled-esque walking back to the mansion? Would he have the chance to try to run as long as he doesn't get a direct command? Questions, thoughts. Mmmh.

Ending is kinda sad, I want to go after him when he has to run from the sun. Why couldn't we just all collectively decide to continue our talking and celebration somewhere inside, or something? At least I get another scene after that, although I feel it could've been a lot more touching/emotional/romancey, that scene.

I imagine that 'I' (aka my char) and he wouldn't stop, would barely rest more than is absolutely necessary, while we try to find a way for him to walk in the sun again. I don't know if he'd want to be "cured" or stay as he is (tending to assume a full cure would be what he wants too, to just like, be alive again and don't have the hunger anymore either), but it should be possible to find a way so he can enjoy the sun again either way. Please.

[cinnamonest]

I got these and more asks regarding the post from last night so I wanted to elaborate and explain some things, and also make another point about the anniversary thing and clarify for anyone confused. After this I promise I'll shut up about this lol sorry

1) yeah please do NOT come after the VAs for any of this, not even the actual developer side either is at fault. This is largely an issue with the PR and marketing and higher up people. It's really awful that some people are harassing people who have no responsibility here. And thanks to the original asker's reply, I feel like I'm really bad at conveying my thoughts so I tend to overexplain lol, but thanks that means a lot.

2) I have seen people confused on this so if you didn't already, you should know that this isn't just about the anniversary so much as the anniversary was a final straw. While Honkai has similar rewards/exchange for irl money as genshin, mihoyo itself has some of the worst in comparison to other gachas from other developers. Games like Arknights, Granblue, Azur Lane, Dragalia Lost, hell even a cutesy casual gacha app like LoveNikki have much better real money to game currency ratios, huge anniversaries where they give out tons of free shit, and much more generous systems (such as Arknights giving free 10 pulls with a lot of events/new characters/etc). All despite being smaller, less profitable games. There's major glaring issues with the game that have gone unresolved for a long time despite people asking over and over to change it. It's a combination of the rewards, general stuff, and mihoyo's refusal to solve certain issues for a long time that has people upset.

In any industry, any company is going to be held to the standards set by the mainstream industry, which is what is happening here. It is natural to hold a company to it's competitors for comparison and expect them to match standards, especially when the company that is lacking is the richer one and could easily meet the standards if they were willing to.

This is especially true for people who put money into the game. Due to the nature of gachas/online games, companies that produce these games are usually very adamant on rewarding players because whales/P2Ws, people who buy welkin and similar stuff, etc keep the game alive. When they do not match the standard of the industry, those people will feel unappreciated and go elsewhere eventually, which means they will not be able to afford much progress, then even F2Ps won't have content, and the game will burn out.

3) I probably should have clarified this last post but, I know review-bombing does seem like a kinda shitty tactic at first and I get that, but the reason people are doing that now is because mihoyo has completely ignored people complaining for months normally, and even now has started to censor and ban people, deleted critical posts, etc. Basically it's clear that mihoyo will just ban and censor criticism until people do something that actually forces them to listen, hence review bombing. Banning/censoring criticism is a really, really bad move for any company, historically speaking, it's insulting to players who keep the company afloat and results in losses. The review bombing + a lot of people uninstalled the app apparently + people who usually pay refusing to do so anymore, all of that hits them to where they can't afford to ignore it when people do it en masse. Because it will cost them money/players.

What people are kinda really upset about, even more than rewards itself, is just the silence and censorship on their end, which is more frustrating than the lack of rewards itself. I did have some sympathy for them up until they started censoring and deleting criticism on their site. At that point they're doing this to themselves by doing that.

4) Also, notably, this has worked with plenty of other game devs. You may remember the disaster that was Fallout 76. Bethesda also responded poorly at first, but spamming bad reviews and horrible coverage for Fallout 76 got Bethesda's attention, and they went the whole nine yards formally acknowledging the complaints and more or less apologizing to the whole world of players at E3 and even gave refunds, which is a very surprisingly humble thing for a company of their level of fame to do. The situation calmed down because people felt listened to, and while Fallout 76 was kinda a lost cause and didn't get fixed, the idea is that the refunds/open and honest communication restored the consumer base's relationship to Bethesda. That was a big blow, but Bethesda was willing to take that hit to maintain the sense of communication and mutual respect/value between players and devs.

In contrast, with mihoyo, what most people have been trying to beg/bargain for for an anniversary rewards is a free permanent banner 5 star, which would cost mihoyo essentially literally nothing.

So far they have responded by banning people for literal years on hoyolab, deleting posts, banning people from various social platforms etc, for criticism. Even putting whether or not that's ok aside, it's very unusual and not how game companies usually handle these things, and can only end badly for them.

Also mihoyo has had time to fix this -- it's not like Fallout 76 where they released the game and then the backlash came very suddenly and they had to scramble to prepare a response/plan and needed time. People have been complaining about these rewards for well over a week, so they could have easily fixed it by now if they had any intention of listening to people's complaints, especially considering the proposed fix of a single free permanent 5 star would be very simple and quick to implement.

5) also? it's extra unfortunate and really a marketing team issue bc they could have *profited* from giving more, if they opened rewards to new players as most gachas do. Genshin is incredibly popular right now, to the extent that a lot of people in the gaming/weeb sphere who don't play it, but still know of it, and even know a bit about it.

If you were someone who had never played genshin but had been considering downloading it for a long time, but just kept putting it off or forgetting, and heard "hey join now and you get free Diluc/Keqing," that would have convinced a lot of people to go ahead and join, and they would inevitably get sucked into the game and bring mhy profit. So it's a little strange imo that they chose not to do that, it would have been beneficial to them.

6) also, be aware that the glider we're now getting was supposed to be paid originally. Releasing it free now is damage control. It's also, well, a glider. Again, while it is pretty, it's paltry in comparison to the industry norm and does not have much use to most people.

Finally, criticizing all of this/the game/mihoyo does not mean people hate the game. I do see some people lashing out in defense of mihoyo and I get that bc they produce something we all really like. I really really do not want to see genshin become "that one game that was super popular for a year or so and then died" -- that's why people want improvements, because if improvements aren't made, that's where it's headed. What people are asking for right now is stuff that is very easily in mihoyo's capability and would not cost them much of anything. It would be one thing to ask them for something that would cut their profits or take time to develop, but that's not what's happening. People are asking for very little in the scope of their capabilities/the norm.

[theradicalace]

💕 tell us about one of your favorite characters and why you like them!

i see you talk about those funny kids from fnf (talk about lotsa characters itll be fun im interested)

"lotsa characters" you say 👀? alright, you asked for it /lh

this is gonna be decently long, cause it'll be a mix of headcanons (in bold) and other nonsense

so let's start with my personal favorite: pico (my beloved)!

-this orange haired man has rotted my brain entirely.

-oh my GOD i just want him to be happy

-canonically schizophrenic which i actually didn't know until now

-he's totally at least partially latino and can speak spanish change my mind

-he/it pico lives in my head rent free

-he can actually sing really well but usually doesn't around people

-secretly a massive theater kid but shh don't tell anyone he has a reputation to uphold

-taller than blake (bf), the same height as nene, NOT taller than gabby (gf) and darnell

-didn't formally graduate high school for obvious reasons but he did get his GED

-IN A HAPPY POLYAM RELATIONSHIP WITH BLAKE AND GABBY SHH THIS ONE'S CANON IN MY HEART

-they encouraged him to go to therapy

-learned sign language for blake the first time they dated

-taught sign language to gabby

-i think he's genuinely a very responsible gun owner. i normally don't like people who open carry in public but for some reason it doesn't bother me as much this time

-he canonically would have majored in computer science if he went to college i hate that he was robbed of the opportunity

-he goes back to college after he starts dating blake and gabby, at their encouragement

-he graduates top of his class

-he picks up ukelele as a hobby while he's in college because i think it suits him

-canonically wants to be a dj

-successfully becomes a dj as a side gig after graduation

-I SO DESPERATELY WANT HIM TO BE HAPPY

alright this post is gonna literally only be about pico if i don't stop so let's move on

the little beep bop man himself, boyfriend! (i call him blake):

-canonically bi we love that for him

-i know that his name has pretty much been confirmed to literally just be boyfriend but i refuse, i cannot call him that

-for some reason i seem to be the only one who wasn't surprised to find out he was 19

-a lot of people seem to think he was like 15?? i don't see it

-his concept art originally had bright pink hair what a king

-half japanese

-i accept the "miku is his sister" bit as canon it's just cool and fun okay

-the blue hair runs in the family

-he's CONFIRMED to be autistic and adhd i just found out i thought that was just a headcanon of mine but it turn out that i'm right as i always should be

-frequently nonverbal, communicates a lot with sign language

-japanese is his first language

-he learned spanish for pico bc it's pico's first language and LOOK im a sucker for "person learns their partner's first language for them"

-trans (but everyone knew i headcanoned this right? how could i not)

-he's actually the one who broke up with pico the first time around bc fuck those boring ass "pico breaks up with bf to keep him safe/bc he thinks he's not good enough/doesn't deserve him/whatever" hcs and fics, those are boring

-breaking up with pico was hard on him, but he did it because he recognized that pico was not ready for a relationship emotionally with regards to his trauma and everything, and staying would only hurt them both

-he was right, but that didn't make it any easier

-is him being a college dropout canon? i dont remember if that was canon or not

-i think his parents are probably not bad people, but they're the kind of parents who let work come before their kid. they were there, but not really THERE. trying to win him over with gifts and stuff when he just wants to spend time with him

-but they turn themselves around when he gets older and they realize "oh shit we actually weren't there for most of our son's life"

-it doesn't fix everything, obviously, but they put a sincere effort in and adult blake has a much better relationship with his parents than he did when he was younger

-hm maybe i'm projecting my own desires a bit with that last one haha what i didn't say anything

anyway

girlfriend! (i call her gabby):

-once again, it seems like a bunch of people thought she was younger than she is and i don't get it

-lost her SHIT when she found out that blake and miku are siblings

-she's a huge miku fan

-she tried to learn sign language on her own, but really struggled with it until she started getting lessons from pico

-she once dyed her hair blue to match with blake

-most people assume she's the fashionista of the poly trio, but she literally just wears her mom's clothes, shes not the fashionista

-she's also not the "brains of the relationship" like many people seem to think. that's just weird creepy language that i reject.

-SHE'S NOT MANIPULATING BLAKE FUCK OFF

-blake was her first partner, and she knows so little about being human, so when things got... let's say intimate for tumblr's sake, between them she needed a lot of guidance on what was good, what was painful, what walked the fine line inbetween, etc

-i mean, you should having those conversations and communication with your partner about intimacy regardless but especially when they're a demon who's never dated a human

-even outside of the bedroom, blake has taught her a lot about being human, and really helped her grow as a person

-it's growth she COULD have done by herself, sure, but it's a lot easier and faster when someone's helping you through it

-SHE IS ALSO CONFIRMED AUTISTIC AND ADHD EVERYONE SAY THANK YOU PHANTOMARCADE

-her parents homeschooled her

SPEAKING of her parents

the dearests! (i don't have names for them lol):

-lumping them together because i really only have one thing for them and that's that

-they're really not bad people either. they love their daughter to bits, and if they had someone to guide and teach them the way blake did to gabby, they would absolutely come around. they honestly think they're doing what's best for her. obviously this doesn't make it RIGHT, but they do say the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

okay moving on

the spooky kids, skid and pump!:

-i'll be real i don't know much about them or their source material

-i just think they're cute

-they stay on good terms with blake and gabby after their appearance in week 2

anyway

senpai, our favorite slender bishonen ;) (i call him seth!):

-HE'S NOT DEAD FUCK YOU

-canonically an entirely different character from spirit, which is good, because idk fuck all abt spirit

-i want him out of that video game right now

-when i tell you this guy gives me such "gay and homophobic" vibes...

-he's also trans

-i accept "monika is his sister" as canon in my heart

and rounding off with...

tankman!:

-i dont know anything about tankman. literally zero.

-HOWEVER.

-he has this line of dialogue

-which implies that he either dyes his hair or at least used to, and has gotten hair dye in his eyes

-i love that for him

-also he's canonically asexual. king.

-like yeah the tweet that confirms it is a little bit mocking but confirmed representation is confirmed representation.

-okay i like tankdad a little bit

-i saw a really good tankdad fic with him apologizing to pico about the school shooting comment because that was genuinely fucked up

-look i just want pico to have a father figure of some sort because his actual (unnamed) father is implied to be a shitty dude who doesnt love him and

-dammit, i'm talking about pico again

-i went back like 6 times to add more stuff to the pico part of this post and now i can't even keep it contained to one section

[leescoresbies]

Hi! I wanted to ask you a question about Judaism. I have a distant relative who was Jewish and I've been thinking about her, and I've seen a lot of your posts on Judaism. I've been interested to learn more. As a queer woman I'm hesitant to explore religion at all but everything I've read about Judaism I've liked. my question is, where should i start if i want to see if maybe this is for me? My family didn't discuss religion much so I feel a little lost. Any advice is much appreciated. Thank you.

hi anon! thank you so much for directing this q at me it tbh makes me feel very special & great & i hope i can provide some helpful advice! i am definitely not the best person to speak to anything relating to formal conversation as i’m ethnically/culturally jewish & ergo also an idiot about a lot of it bc i picked up a lot of information & never formally did the work to learn it, but i have been trying over the last few years to change that - & i can speak to that at least! 

the most obvious answer is frankly to reach out to & visit a synagogue & experience what that feeling & community is like for yourself. there isn’t another substitute for that experience. this might mean attending a social holiday celebration at a synagogue, just dropping in & attending a service or reaching out to a rabbi & asking questions depending on your comfort level. 

however - the leap from “this is interesting” to “i’m going to listen to a bunch of people in a strange place i haven’t visited before sing in hebrew on a friday evening” is definitely a big one. it seems you may be at the point where you want to do the research to see if & what is appealing about judaism’s values. nothing is more jewish than reading other people’s philosophical perspectives & then arguing with them so - congrats - that’s step one! step two is wine drinking. you can probably combine the two. maybe eat a cookie shaped like someone’s silly hat to feel very festive. 

judaism is not a monolith. it is a cultural, ethical & spiritual set of beliefs & arguments guided by rabbanic interpretation & community connection. & it varies not only with three or four main categories of practice (orthodox, conservative, reform – again very loose here) but within these categories themselves. so there are things that will probably appeal to you about certain perspectives, and not about others. i also think its valuable to consider what about judaism you think appeals to you - the community, the spirituality/theology, the history - which may shape how you then connect with it. 

hopefully looking into some of these things will also help assuage some of your fears & maybe misconceptions about judaism & sexuality in general because - again - not a monolith. a big complicated very old living breathing system of thought & belief. if there’s something you have concerns about in relation to judaism, chances are some rabbi has written extensively on the topic, & then some other rabbi argued with them why they’re wrong, & so on forever & ever & ever & ever. because that’s how it goes. 

i know i just spilled out a whole bunch of ideas & i don’t write them out to intimidate you at all! jewishness is a lifelong journey regardless of how you find & connect with it, & these are all things i wrestle with & work on all the time - finding the right congregation has been some work for me in the last few years & i’m lucky enough now to live in a big city with some variation in how judaism is practiced, which wasn’t always the case for me. but that work has not only shored up my own ethical beliefs & ideas, but it’s connected me to a long chain of history & existence that spans space & time which can’t in my opinion be substituted for anything else. 

if anyone has any recommendations for books & reading related to being introduced to judaism, or wants to weigh in with yr own advice for this anon, that would be lovely & i’ll share the responses xo