#(the demo is pretty neat too!)

[sashimew-the-cat]

Demoman: the Explosive, Scottish Cowboy

(Click for better quality, close ups and textless version under the cut!)

[expvrgction]

"Can a dodgeball cause concussion if you throw it at someone hard enough?" Blazkowicz totally didn't ask that because of a certain video game he decided to play when he took a break from demon hunting.

[all-purpose-dish-soap]

TF141 reactions to "want me to paint your nails?"

PRICE has never been asked that question before

knee-jerk reaction is no. because he is a man.

but he knows better than that, too; it's just an assumption he was raised with and he's lived too long and seen too much to care about other people's judgement.

he leans over and watches you paint yours. seems harmless enough.

he allows you to paint one (1) pinky nail.

you do as neat a job as you can. very deliberate strokes. sliding one of your unpainted nails around the edge of his cuticle to catch a smudge.

you say "there you go :)"

he nods, seems pretty unaffected by the whole thing. just indulging you, it's a good captain thing to do. fun is allowed sometimes as a little treat.

if you catch him looking down at that one painted pinky nail in thought, in meetings, running his thumb over it in thought, no you didn't.

GHOST balks. acts like that's a stupid question. this is a lie.

even if you shrug and say okay, your loss, he feels kinda tingly about it in the stomach for a minute.

but if you were to just... maybe reach over and pull his hand in anyway, he wouldn't stop you.

he just lets you paint his nails. all of them. just sits there like it's not happening.

activates the monkey grooming part of his brain. not only are you doing a nice thing for him for no reason, you're touching him.

like, you're holding his hand almost. that shit is intimate.

his touch-starved ass starts having pavlovian reactions to the smell of nail polish after that.

GAZ says yeah. asks you to show him.

you lean in and show him the hand you're working on.

when you pull his hand over to do his, he pulls an uno reverse. flips your hand over in his.

plucks the nail polish brush out of your hand and starts painting the thumbnail of your non-dominant hand.

he's just doing it as an excuse to have your hand in his. he does not deny it when you point this out. no, he's not letting go.

his grip is secure. you protest and he counters by asking you how long it takes to dry. how many layers. if this is your favorite color. how to clean up that dot he just made on your fingertip.

he is so coolheaded about it that he flusters you the more you try to argue. you eventually have to just shut up and let him work. and answer his questions.

he is smirking.

after that, he makes a point to grab your hand whenever you're not wearing gloves and check your nails. if they're chipped, he quips it's time for him to fill you in.

SOAP says sure >:)

do not trust him. this is a mistake.

the minute you scoot over to pick his hand up, he yanks you over and wrestles you to the floor.

pot of nail polish? spilled. your freshly painted nails? ruined. done for.

you should've known. like this is seriously your fault. you know him.

he gets your nail polish on his fingers by accident. then happily smudges it wherever he can reach. 

he loves wrestling :) and playing too rough on purpose

eventually he will apologize for ruining your manicure.

helps you repaint them. you're awed when he does a better job than you could.

he has steady hands. part of his demo skillset. and he likes sketching, so

you don't have to clean up any of the nails he paints.

he even uses your detail brush to draw a little something on your accent nail to remind you of him. you think it's just something to make up for his bullshit, but now whenever he sees it (and that thumbprint of nail polish he left on the back of your shoulder and didn't tell you) he feels like he signed you <3

...

more multi-141 and poly 141 / masterlist tag

[honkbird]

The big art post !! the behind-the-scenes of the tribalhunter PNGtuber stuff ! At least on the art side-- I can talk about the coding mechanics but that's not quite my place to. The high-level overview of that is there's some cool stuff going on with memory wrappers and godot to get stuff shake'n and jamm'n The rest of it is below the cut just so you don't have to scroll tons if you don't care, but take some time and read !! 3 days of work y'know !!

The first sketches were started at 10 pm tuesday the 15th. I tweaked it with some edits until about 1 am

For people working on pngs or long term projects -- make notes !! genuinely !! you can see "ok what was i thinking when i did this" and it made like infinitely easier. You might notice that stage 2 png was not long for this world -- we ended up cutting that one and shifting 3-5 down a stage, and just making a larger final stage. The night ended with: these!

Larger final, we moved where some hands ended up, cleaned some notes, and so on

Wednesday I got to work

on some second pass ones, e.g., cleaner lineart. Mind you, not final! To have proper safespace with the png we had to make actual layered sections to avoid ripped seams on squashing and stretching and rotating and etc.

These also had the first of the talk sprites! I don't do entirely new sprites for the talking ones just because of the pure quantity of images. So, just an arm tilt and head angling. This means we have mute and a talk variants of a few sprites (e.g., the stage 1 is 3 sprites. Body, scarf flappies, and head. We have talk versions of the body and the head). Also, he used to have nips! there was going to be a slightly darker purple but we scrapped it for . well . obvious reasons. We went with classy scarf modesty.

This is how you know you're doing well!

Thursday I started on the finals!

This was the first one sent -- showing off the layers. Tip, I used to layer based on like "back arm" "head" "fore body" etc. It's weirder to get used to when you use numbered layers, but holy shit it made importing easier. You automatically know the layer order to put them in to avoid clipping. Getting these done I got to work on testing 'em too!

this gave us our first working model! Oh, he used to have black robes too! this was to match the custom ingame sprites he got, but the color wasn't quite popping enough. The scarf saturation would later be turned up too, and more color adjusting. But this was workable! A lovely demo. All that was left was design tweaks and the talk sprites!

Friday was dedicated to

figuring out the colors and the talk sprites. For giggles, here's a bunch of variants produced!

We changed the robes, the scarf tone, and his lower gradient. neat Brave fact, his design has a gradient! It's horrible for gif compression! With all that done, then came doing well . all of the sprites!

Note, the talk sprites had some copied mute ones for visual reference. Gotta be consistent! It was at this point the pngtuber was "done", so to speak. Talk sprites worked and everything uh . jiggled right. But I still had a whole weekend! There wasn't as much photo evidence. What WAS changed between then and the final was: 1) the gradient was shifted to be a smooth curve instead of dappling 2) the talk sprite for stage 5's beak was fixed to remove a tangent line 3) the belly for stage 5 was rounded out to be more consistent with the game (less "doughy" to quote) 4) we added another sprite for the arm on stage 5 to layer better. Those changes weren't done until about Saturday, and then the code was tweaked all the way up until adding damage and transition effects on sunday and monday!

P.S., the model still clipped in the end a little! The code did some growth based on the fullness factor and . uh. wow!

Anway woo !! that was some wip photos and stories, I wish there was more of an intense struggle to tell but it was pretty quickly done. My shoulderblade hurts a bit to tell the truth and I think I overdid it on the pace but hooray!

[lightweaver-chosen-if]

Hey, I love this story so far!

As someone who is considering writing their own Interactive Fiction, I'm curious what your process for writing a chapter is. Like you mentioned zero drafting a while back, and I found it's really helped, so are there any other techniques you'd recommend? :0

Omg hiiii! It’s definitely a labor of love, but it’s so rewarding. I wish you luck if you end up going for it!

I'm a feeling a little uhh shy doing this since I'm not the fastest nor greatest writer out there... but I’d be happy to share what’s worked for me so far.

Just know that everyone's process is unique, but I hope something here clicks for some of you :D

Tips?

Try to avoid jumping around scenes/routes

I used to jump around from scene to scene, but I’ve found that it makes me prone to flow and continuity mistakes. It's especially troublesome as the story gets bigger.

Now I try to focus on one route or scene at a time. This helps me stay in right headspace, keeps everything cohesive, and is much more efficient.

If you find yourself tempted to jump around, try sticking with one part until it’s complete, or at least until you’ve written a solid chunk of it!

Use CSIDE's (find | find & replace) function to help look for pronouns/names. And do a quick test before playtesting your game

Not sure if everyone uses this... but Ctrl + F then typing the word (ex. he/she/her/him etc) you want to change into a variable helps so much. Especially for hunting pronouns. Highlights words making them easier to see.

A quick Ctrl + T will save you from pain when you're deep into playtesting...

Try the CGST plugin for playtesting routes

I mainly use it for the back button and seeing notifications when a variable changes. With this you can quickly check if all choices are working as intended. It's super useful!

Only caveat is that it only works in Firefox.

Oh and yes, you'll have to upload a private demo for playtesting in COGDemos to try it out ( ˙▿˙ )

Zero Drafting

I know I mentioned it already, but I have to rave about it again!

If you're struggling with where to start, this method might help you. It’s all about getting your ideas down first. It's okay if it’s a mess. Just pour everything into your draft. The main goal here is to keep your ideas flowing, you can always refine them later.

This gives you a foundation to work from and, in my experience, it's a huge relief knowing you don’t have to perfect everything immediately.

You can also mix in coding during the zero draft phase! It’s a great way to test how the choices fit together with the scene you’re working on.

Laying out all the groundwork can save a lot of time in the long run.

Apps that helped me (and might help you too!)

Articy (free)

Not only can it help visualize the paths, but it can track variables too! Also has tabs where you can store character and other lore entries. It has its own language so you'll have to learn it for awhile, but it's pretty easy to understand if you have time :)

I don't use it anymore though since I feel more comfortable doing everything in CSIDE now. But it still helped me a lot when I was getting dizzy with all the gotos, labels, and stuff.

Notion (free)

Just a neat place to store outlines, lore, or ideas! I used to use simple google docs, but this one has more features like; create checklists, put existing pages (scenes) into a timeline, etc. In case you're curious, I used this template in particular.

[darkfictionjude]

While checking the EC tag, seeing your answer below to one of the asks:

> Anyway, I think Greer and Imre would get along super well and I think Lazlo and Lorcan would hate each other

Made me go: «oh? Lorcan and Lazlo would hate each other? The two most sympathetic to the plight of others ROs in both demos would not manage to get along?” And could you pretty please elaborate why? 🥹

I like you guys the ones who go back into my asks y’all are neat

The thing is that they’re too similar. Lorcan is judgemental towards the rich so he would think Laz is a fake and Laz would think Lorcan is one of those orphans like him who instead of trying to be good just gave credit to the stereotypes about orphans (that they’re all psychopathic criminals and who give nothing to society)

So it’s mostly based on the fact that both of them would judge the other too much. It has to do with projection. Lorcan is also more energetic and hot tempered than Laz who is cool like the breeze over a cnoic (hill)

[meggannn]

Games I Played in 2024

I played a lot of games this year (finished 33 but dropped a few others) and thought I'd write up some quick reviews. Didn't include Metaphor Refantazio since I only played the demo of that (really enjoyed it though), but I did include Hades 2 since I put in 100 hours into it and I think it's pretty obvious I like it lmao. listed in chronological order of when I played it

Howl: Hate to start out with a game I dropped, but I was just really bad at the puzzles in this one lol. You play as a deaf woman who is immune to the "howling plague" which turns people into feral beasts, so she alone travels the land to help villagers and try to find a solution. Really neat concept, I was just bad at the grid-like puzzle system.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits: 3/5 Thematically it's maybe a story more appropriate for children, in that you play as a young woman charged with taking care of spirits who have moved on and looking after the environment, but the combat was hard enough that it felt more suited for adults, which made me kind of wonder what the target audience really was. Visually it's stunning, and it's got all the elements of a typical AAA game these days (collectibles, puzzles, zones to explore). I found the plot a little simple, like if Disney wrote the game and Pixar animated it, but the gameplay could occasionally get hard. I've never played a soulslike game before so I can't comment on whether it is appropriately challenging for a "soulslike," like some have debated.

Persona 5 Tactica: 4.5/5 I enjoyed this one! The gameplay feels like Fire Emblem strategy set in the Persona world, which can be a bit simple in the main story maps but gets increasingly complicated in the challenge/side maps, especially those where you have to accomplish an objective in one turn. The chibi art style might turn people off but this feels very at home with the main game's story and themes with two surprisingly fun new companions.

Venba: 4.5/5 What a surprise I like the cooking game about a family adjusting to life and dealing with Asian diaspora. I think it could've been longer because I was enjoying the recipes but it did make me cry. Phenomenal soundtrack too.

Eastshade: 3/5 The idea is that you're a painter and you can walk around an island and capture the scenery on your canvas to fulfill requests from locals. Unfortunately it felt more like Crafting: The Game which wasn't really what I signed up for but it's still a relaxing time.

Dépanneur Nocturne: 3.5/5 A short little game I picked up randomly. You go shopping at a convenience store late at night and find some weird things on the shelves. Unexplainable, cute, kinda fun.

Hidden Through Time: 3.5/5 A cute little find-the-items game with the ability to make your own themed maps. There was a lot of variety in the levels.

Yoshi's Crafted World: 3/5 I played this at May's when I was catsitting at her house lol. Cute time-waster for a platformer I'd recommend for kids but honestly got a little grindy at the end.

Hades 2: (Personal GOTY) 5/5 Though it came out in May, I played this pretty much throughout the year. It is in Early Access, but I truly believe this game has more polish and content than most finished games have on release, so in my heart it counts. Melinoë is a wonderful character, there's some real depth, heart, and humor to the writing, and the world has gotten even grander and denser than in Hades 1. The stakes are high in that she has to defeat an undying Titan over and over again to save her family, but the game still feels quintessentially Hades while also reshaped to fit Mel's character and journey. I feel like the team knows exactly what they want and what they're doing. Supergiant doesn't miss and I'm very excited to see what future updates hold.

Synergia: Dropped. This is a cyberpunk visual novel with robot yuri about an overworked detective who purchases a new household android for company. I ended up putting it down because the writing was... mostly fine, but when it stumbled, it felt very awkward and unnatural; I also realized the main writer was a man, which made some of the "oops, I have to sleep naked" lines coming from the childlike android feel fetishy at times. It wasn't constant, but it was prevalent enough to bother me. Still I've seen some wlw enjoy it anyway or even embrace those aspects, so what I don't like someone else might.

Harmony: The Fall of Reverie: 3/5 This one has a neat concept. Polly, the main character, is tasked with keeping balance between two worlds while juggling the desires of Glory, Bliss, Power, Chaos, Bond, and Truth, who are anthropomorphized characters you can agree or disagree with in their direction to lead humanity. The gameplay idea is that you can see the consequences of your choices branching out before you make them, which at times is really cool because it lets you plan what you want, but at times also feels like you're really just looking at the behind-the-scenes of the developer code lol.

Hello Goodboy: 2.5/5 I must've misjudged this one because I think it was either for real little kids, or it just wasn't translated well. It's a story about a kid and his dog in the afterlife. Felt approachable for teaching kids how to play a video game for the first time.

Hohokum: 3.5/5 At first I could not get into this for the life of me but then it clicked after a few sessions and now I think really fondly on this weird, abstract experience that is more of a toy than a game. I only mark it down because I found the map so damn confusing.

Pentiment: 5/5 No notes, full stars, going right up there on the shelf of "games I'd recommend to Disco fans." This game officially made me a Josh Sawyer fan. I didn't think I'd get invested in a story about 16th century Bavarian monks but I cried several times.

A Tiny Sticker Tale: 4/5 A cute puzzle game set around the idea that you can pick up stickers of items and people, and place them somewhere else. Nice for an afternoon!

Pyre: An excellent 4.5/5 that I look more favorably on in hindsight than when I was playing; I want to give it a 5/5 rating but something about the combat really didn't click for me. You have been banished from the Commonwealth after an unmentioned crime, and after finding allies, you discover you can guide them to partake in ancient rites that will grant ascension back into the Commonwealth one at a time (if you're successful). To earn everyone's freedom, you basically have to play basketball while juggling all three of your main player characters on the field, who all have different abilities and movement speeds, and I struggled with that. That said, the story is Supergiant at its absolute peak, and I think it has the best soundtrack of all their games, which is saying a lot. There's light character roleplaying, but the main choices are made for you in how well you play fantasy basketball: the game will move on whether you win or lose, and the story will adapt.

Landlord of the Woods: 5/5 I really enjoy Madison Karrh's games and Landlord of the Woods is no exception. It's a short puzzle game about finding a new job and showing up on your first day... except your job is a landlord to a community living in the woods who do not want a landlord. Lighthearted yet also creepy, ironic without being jaded, it's delightfully unique.

Insomnia: Theater in the Head: 4/5 A short narrative/puzzle game about a woman's struggles with insomnia. Really captures the energy of all the wild thoughts running through your head at 2am.

Detective Grimoire: Secret of the Swamp: 3.5/5 Starting to show its age but I really like detective games where YOU have to figure out who did it. It is also fortunately not very punishing but you do have to think a little.

Roadwarden: 4/5 This gave me maybe the closest feeling of roleplaying Dragon Age Origins that I've had since playing Pillars of Eternity, just with a smaller budget and largely text-based. You play as a Roadwarden, who is charged with keeping the roads of a peninsula safe from monsters and bandits; but you have another job from your supervisors to see if the peninsula would be open to trade in the future, and would require new merchants and changing leadership. You can be a hero, an asshole, you can sell out the villagers, or quit your job and live with them... there are lots of small discoveries and connections to be had in this game.

Sarawak: 3.5/5 Another short little game, this one a literary mystery set in Oxford and Malaysia, about a woman investigating her parents' histories. I find myself really enjoying these small narrative adventure games as I get older.

Catlateral Damage: 2.5/5 Wish I enjoyed the "cats knocking stuff off stuff" game more, but truthfully it got a little boring after ten minutes.

Planescape Torment: 4/5 Clearly a long-beloved game for a reason, and I see how it inspired Disco Elysium. The combat is horrible and mechanics are old as balls, but the story and writing are top-tier. You play as a man who wakes up in a morgue after dying with no memory of who he is, and you have to hunt down your memories through the clues your previous lives have left you. But it's not a detective story, it's more about reinventing yourself and deciding who to be in your new life. The OG Harry du Bois, in a way.

En Garde! 4.5/5 What a goofy game! It's a quirky, funny action/adventure game that fully embraces the swashbuckling energy of fencing with a woman lead, which is a nice difference. The characters are flamboyant, the lines are overdramatic, and the game is very self-aware of its genre and embraces it. Found the enemy waves a little overwhelming at times but nothing insurmountable, it just has a lot of mechanics.

Robotherapy: 3.5/5 An interesting little premise about a robot that wants to be a therapist. The writing is fine, but occasionally weighed down by its need to be funny; still it's got a few interesting twists.

Lieve Oma: 3/5 A short story about a child who goes walking in the woods with a grandmother hunting for penny buns throughout the years. This kinda touched me because I never knew my grandparents well.

Hatoful Boyfriend: 4/5 Yes, I'm about a million years late to this game. Turns out the pigeon dating simulator is, in fact, really interesting, genuinely funny, and an absolute horror show at times.

Lego Horizon Adventures: 3.5/5 What the hell, it has Aloy shooting machines and Varl loving comic books and Sylens as a DJ. It definitely feels like it was made for kids who have watched for years over their parents' or older siblings' shoulder as they play the more difficult Horizon mainline games. I did wish it were longer and the gameplay a little more complex but I had fun with it.

stitch.: 4/5 Great little puzzle game where you group certain numbers of stitches together to form shapes with a truly INSANE number of puzzles.

Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery: 4.5/5 A short narrative adventure about an artist trying to paint "the finest scenery" with some simple puzzles. It reminded me a lot of Ghibli films, maybe not as polished but with some really heartbreaking twists and moments for me about inspiration, communing with your fellow artists, and also the passage of time.

Wavetale: 4/5 A 3d platformer about environmentalism and worker's rights that takes place in a flooded world with only boats to get around... until Sigrid discovers a supernatural ability to run/ride on water thanks to the help of a mysterious shadow. I didn't think this was going to get as deep as it did, and while I think it did go a little long, I respect the vision even if the platforming was kinda clunky.

Summerhouse: 3/5 Another game that's more of a toy than a game. You unlock different walls, windows, roofs, trees, people, etc. to build your house. I like the style of this one, just wish there was more of everything.

Between Horizons: (GOTY RUNNER-UP) 4.5/5 Hidden gem of this year! Despite having just a few things in common with Mass Effect 1, it reminded me a lot of that game (red-haired default female protagonist on a spaceship suddenly thrust into a position of authority and tasked with tracking someone down). It takes place on a generation ship deep into its journey when suddenly systems are sabotaged and rebellion looks like it's brewing. Stella, the new Chief of Security, has to find the culprit before the mission reaches a point of no return. REALLY good puzzles in this one imo, I actually had to pen-and-paper some stuff to figure out who did what.

Dungeons of Hinterberg: 4/5 Another hidden gem in which dungeons appear around the modern-day Austrian Alps, sparking a sudden wave of tourists and dungeon-crawlers to visit. Part Zelda and part Persona, you explore dungeons by day and hang out with friends and locals by night. The game questions us on if the tourism brought to a small town as a result of the magic spawning there is actually helping, or if the capital and greed it brings might change the village for the worst. The game is about 1/3 relationship sim, 1/3 combat, 1/3 puzzles; I enjoyed all three to varying degrees but I think the puzzles are the strongest.

Paper Trail: Another grid-based puzzle system I dropped (I'm noticing a pattern). You play as a young woman who runs away from home to go to college, and she can "fold" corners of reality to make bridges, connect landpaths, etc. Gorgeous environments and neat concept, I just struggled with it.

1000xResist: (GOTY RUNNER-UP) 4.5/5 Half of Tumblr should be playing this. It's a scifi game set in the distant future in which aliens have arrived on Earth and brought with them a devastating plague that kills most humans. A girl called Iris is the only person who seems to be not only immune but also now immortal, who is cloned/later clones herself throughout the years (first to study a cure, and then to keep company/create a new society). You play as Watcher, a clone created a thousand years later to record Iris's life, now known as the ALLMOTHER's, life, and ensure her authority goes unchallenged in a post-apocalyptic world. I can't even talk about it more without spoiling but it tackles authority and rebellion, identity, memory, bad friendships, generational trauma, modern Asian American/Canadian diaspora... If you enjoy any combination of the following you will probably enjoy it: Everything Everywhere All At Once, Evangelion, Imperial Radch, Arrival, Ghost in the Shell.

not included are my gatcha games lmao which are currently animal crossing pocket camp (og and complete) and fire emblem heroes

[tigernick369dragon]

Nami and Shanks similarities

Oda has intentionally written many similarities between Shanks and Nami, and I find it amazing that not many One Piece fans have noticed it.

Everyone knows that Nami appeared alongside Luffy and Shanks on the very first color cover of Chapter 1. But why? After all, Nami didn’t meet Luffy until after Zoro became his first mate.

Well, there’s a logical explanation for this. In the early days of One Piece, Oda originally planned for Nami to be Luffy’s first crewmate. This is shown in a lot of concept art as well as in both demo versions of Romance Dawn.

We later see another color spread of chapter 28 where all the current Straw Hats are featured alongside Shanks:

However, in 2001 — four years after Chapter 1 was released — Oda published Color Walk 1, a collection of his color spreads, and included this:

Here’s an illustration showing all the Red-Hair Pirates together with Nami. It makes you wonder — why is Nami standing alongside the Red-Hair Pirates? This was released four years after Chapter 1 — if this was just old concept art, couldn’t Oda have simply edited Nami out? After all, Oda himself revealed that he removed Jinbei from early concept art to avoid spoiling that he planned Jinbei to join the Straw Hats Pirates.

Some fans believe that Nami being shown with the Red-Hair Pirates may have later inspired the creation of Uta in One Piece Film: Red

Ironically, Film Red also showed another hint at the connection between Nami and Shanks. When Uta uses her full power, the movie’s subtitles change into Norse runes.

This is not a coincidence. Uta is Shanks' daughter and Shanks is very heavily inspired by Scandinavian culture.

Oda has always loved Vikings — they were, after all, his main source of inspiration for creating One Piece.

Just as Vikings inspired Oda’s interest in pirates, it’s was only natural that Luffy’s own inspiration to become a pirate through a similar scenario with Shanks.

So what is Shanks connection to Vikings? Well, there are plenty of clues. Besides being a redhead and having a Viking-inspired ship, Shanks also sacrificed his arm to save Luffy’s life. This is very similar to the Norse myth where Týr, the god of war, sacrificed his arm to bind the great wolf Fenrir.

Ironically, Fenrir is said to be Loki’s son — so it’s pretty neat that Shanks not only loses his arm but is also responsible for binding Loki.

Ok, so Shanks is Scandinavian. What does that have to do with Nami?

Well, Nami is Scandinavian too. We got load of hints — her ginger hair, her role as a navigator, and her close friendship with Usopp, who always has strong ties to Scandinavian elements like the giants and Elbaph. It's intersting to note that Usopp’s father, Yasopp, follows a Scandinavian-inspired captain.

But the clearest proof is that Oda confirmed in SBS Volume 56 that if Nami had a nationality, she would be Swedish.

Ok, so Nami and Shanks are Scandinavians and have shared a few color spreads together. But so what? Lots of Elbaph residents are based of Scandinavians, and unlike Nami, they have actually met Shanks face to face.

This is exactly what makes the connection between Shanks and Nami unique:

Nami and Shanks are orphans, more specifically they are orphans from kingdoms torn apart by war. It’s quite possible that their real names aren’t actually Nami and Shanks — but something entirely different.

Both Nami and Shanks have worn the straw hat that belonged to their captains. But more importantly, while others might just see it as a simple hat, Nami and Shanks view it as a priceless memento of their captain.

If anything, Luffy acts as a bridge between Shanks and Nami. Everything Luffy learned about being a pirate from Shanks, he passes on to Nami, which changes her perspective.

As the story progresses and the more we learn about Nami and Shanks’ mysterious backgrounds, there’s no doubt we’ll discover even more similarities.

Since the current One Piece arc is set in Elbaph, which is based on Scandinavia, it’ll be interesting to see what else gets revealed. It might even offer some hints about where the final arc is heading towards.

Here are some other updated stuff I find interesting that have yet to be properly explained:

Left arm tattoos...

Nojiko is unfazed with Vegapunk announcement about the end of the world?

Shanks destiny.

[thatoldstandby]

Games What I Played June 2k25

Happy Steam Summer Sale to those who celebrate, and welcome to Games What I Played 2k25 June Edition. Again a bit early, but I want to work on a model today and have hella work tomorrow, so nothing new's going to be added. Also, heavier month than usual, thanks to Steam NextFest demos. Sorry. Previous months: January, February, March, April, May. Also holy fuck it's 2k words. I did the previous five months in 4k combined. Oh noooo too many games.

It’s Demo Time

Hunter x Hunter Nen Impact

I have a weird relationship with fighting games, in that I absolutely adore them, but I also suck complete shit at them. This is for a few reasons. Primarily, it’s because my reaction speeds and reflexes suck, so there’s a ceiling as to how good I can get that I realize. The second, and more important one that I refuse to acknowledge in a serious way, is that I don’t have the willpower or focus to actually spend time with any given game for any length of time or in a way that would allow me to become good. But as someone who adores interesting characters and responsive, interesting play decisions? Fight games are my shit. I also had super high hopes for Nenpact; not only is it Hunter x Hunter, a franchise that is rife with interesting ideas for fighting game characters, but it’s by a company that made one of my favorite fightmans ever, Marvel v Capcom 3. Nenpact…. Feels weird though? Not bad, just not like anything else. It’s got a weird pace, the characters are very different. It’s going to be weird, it’s going to fail. But, if you want to see some *degenerate* shit? Pay attention here. There’s going to be ToDs and happy birthdays galore.

Mina the Hollower

I’m not going to say much here, because I’m *going* to play the full game now, partially on the strength of this demo, partially because Shovel Knight was that good. I wasn’t expecting to like a Bloodborne mixed with classic Zelda as much as I do; but hey. It’s pretty great. Keep an eye out.

Mecha Simultactics

I’m also not going to say much about this. Not because I”m going to pick it up immediately, but because there isn’t a lot of meat on these bones just yet. It’s an interesting turnbased game in that both parties take their turns simultaneously, so the trick is guessing what your opponent is going to do while also setting up your own attacks. It’s an interesting puzzle, and at the end of the fight it gives you an animation of everything happening in real time, which is super cool, but more of a proof-of-concept at this point. Neat, worth watching.

Ninja Gaiden Ragebound

This was a lot more fun than I thought it’d be; it feels great to play and it’s absolutely gorgeous. Which makes sense, given that it’s the guys behind the Blasphemous games, and it lives up to the violence the modern Ninja Gaiden games are known for. I don’t know that I loved it; I could very much feel that the normal game was leaning into a classic difficulty, which is great, but I don’t know that I”m as interested in going deep into it. Looking forward to watching this be played at a high level though.

BALL x PIT

BALLBYLON HAS FALLEN. A PIT IS ALL THAT REMAINS. NOW TREASURE SEEKERS FLOCK TO EXPLORE ITS DEPTHS. Look. This game is going to be a Problem to me. Thanks Devolver. 

Hotel Barcelona

I adore games by Suda51, and I think Swery makes some really interesting choices. I don’t think either of them has ever made a good game that I can recommend without reservation, and frequently they’ve both made some really bad shit.I love Killer7 more than any sane person should. Vinculum Gate is frequently just playing in my head in the background. Doesn’t mean I think it’s good, or even recommendable. But I will always give Grasshopper Games the time of day. So when I saw that Hotel Barcelona, a game I have never heard of, is a joint project between Suda and Swery, my interest was immediately piqued. It helps that the game *feels* aesthetically like a game by both of them. It also plays like a game from both of them, in a really bad way. The basic actions feel bad, movement feels worse, and the actual character models look cheap. The gimmick of the game, which is that you’re joined by ghosts of your previous attempts at the level so long as you don’t change your pathing through a level, which means you can have up to five other versions of yourself beating on enemies/the boss. It’s neat; but it’s neat in a game that is… Bad? It’s not good. But it *compels* me.

Old Games

Trails from Zero (NG+)

I decided to take some time off from the Trails series, so what better time to go back to the Trails series! Though in a more condensed version. The first time I’ve played through the other games I did so without a guide for an exploratory experience. Based on the final scores, I didn’t miss out on *too* much. But with Zero? Oh I missed a ton. And I want to carry over the ideal save into Azure, so I wanted to go through with a guide. Good thing I did; I ended up missing like three major subquests my first time through. Luckily, it goes faster when you can skip past all the dialogue and cutscenes. Still took about 20 hours; but at least I could do it mostly mindlessly, even on the highest difficulty. Luckily I didn’t touch any other Trails game, otherwise I’d have made a liar out of myself.

Final Fantasy XIV

Cat hat cat hat

Battletech

This is just a comfort game for me; the fact that it doesn’t have a sequel is maybe the greatest disservice this industry has ever personally done to me ever. I’m doing this with the 3062 BTA modpack, which brings it more in line with tabletop Battletech and introduces… maybe too much shit. But it’s fun. Snake Eyes there is the pilot that the game randomly generated at start. Unfortunately, she had to be hosed out of the cockpit after a crit detonated 100+ short range missiles in the mech, which destroyed everything. 10 out of 10 no notes.

A Death in Hyperspace

I don’t usually play IF games; something about the pure text format leaves me cold and also loses my focus really quickly. But, I saw that this won the Nebula award, so I was curious and also bored at work. It’s… neat, I think? I fucked it up because, again, attention span shot, but it’s a murder mystery where you, the ship, have to determine how the captain died. There are some neat ways to influence dialogue and story events that I haven’t seen elsewhere, and the characters seem interesting. I didn’t put a ton of time into this; and I fucked up the one run I did do, but I may go back to this at some point. Plus, free. 

Void Stranger

God I wish I was better at this game. I love everything about this game except that it is, at the most basic levels, a Sokoban-style puzzle game. I am dogshit at Sokoban. Just historic levels of awful, so the amount of stuff that I can actually get up to in this game are limited. Which sucks because Gray is the best and I love her.

Trails to Azure

Oh nooooo I’ve made a liar of myself. Rip. (I didn’t I just fired it up for this very bit; I haven’t actually spent any amount of time in game. Is good bit [it was not a good bit.])

New Games

Blue Prince

Spent more time in the house designed to hurt you, it’s still a really great game, but I’m starting to see the edges of the design. This is still a brilliant game, maybe the most intricately designed thing I’ve ever seen, and it’s first few hours are immaculate. It’s a puzzle box full of weird, interconnected puzzles that feel great to solve. These kinds of boxes are best at the beginning, when you have a thousand little things you can do and solve to get those dopamine hits for solving a puzzle. But, as you winnow those puzzles down, all that’s left is the harder, more frustrating stuff, a lot of which is (apparently) saved behind RNG. We’ve made it to the Antechamber a couple times, but we don’t know what to do with the item inside it, and there’s a couple room combinations that just haven’t popped yet. One day, I’ll have a full school. But yeah, still real good. Taking my time with it as I”m playing through with a friend.

Starless Abyss

This was a genuine surprise and random purchase. I think I saw it on Bluesky, it came out the same day or window as some other big release, and it seemed neat so I picked it up. I was right, this game is rad. It’s FTL by way of a deckbuilder with a hex-grid based combat system. It looks great, plays great, and the deck building seems to work well, though I’m not great at deckbuilders (because I get bored with status effects and small cards and inevitably pick big hitters that don’t sync together well.) It’s great, I’ve been using this to chill. Biggest surprise of the year by far, highly recommended.

Dark Diety II

I love Fire Emblem. I picked the first one up for GBA way back in the day after recognizing the title as one of those games I downloaded from ROM sites but couldn’t figure out back in the day. I swear to god, something about seeing a Myrmidon crit changed my brain chemistry (and made me think Myrmidons are the best ever, which they aren’t). So when I saw that Dark Diety was basically Fire Emblem, I mean, who am I to say I no? And this is….. Fine. It’s fine. It’s pretty impressive, honestly. The art is great, the voice acting is ever present, except for the S-links, and the tactics are fine. But…. I feel like it’s kind of sauceless? It doesn’t have the weapons triangle, it doesn’t have permadeath, and the characters are…. Flat. I’m not going to say that FE is a bastion of character writing, but they’ve figured out the most important thing of having 20+ characters in a game is to make them have one to two traits that they focus on exclusively. Eliwood is responsible, Hector is the best at everything, Matthew likes sweets, all the pegasus knights are lesbians, Nephenee’s just the best at everything, et cetera. The characters here…. Don’t really have that. There’s a few standouts, love Tal’dera, but the other nerds don’t really have that. The plot’s otherwise fine, but kind of by the numbers. It’s very much “We Have Fire Emblem At Home,” and this sounds more negative than I think I mean it to be. It’s fine, I’d recommend it if you’re down for an indie Fire Emblem. 

Tower Wizard

It’s an idle game; 4ish hours, fun enough. Not gonna change the world, not really trying to.

of the Devil

Far and away my favorite thing that I played this month, I cannot recommend this highly enough. Indie game, Phoenix Wright by way of Dangan Ronpa in a cyberpunk future. I can’t really talk about the main plot without spoilies, so I won’t, but it’s brilliantly written, and the devs know exactly what they’re making. So, for the most part, it’s just Phoenix Wright. The investigation and interview sections are just visual novel sections with limited pixel hunting. The game rewards you for paying attention by giving you currency, which is important for the later bits. So far, so good. The Dangan Ronpa bits come in during the trial and interrogation bits, where you’re given a minigame you have to play based on the main character’s personality. Here, it’s gambling games, poker and blackjack. Like Dangan Ronpa, the games can be…. Obtuse? At times. Making mistakes costs you the coins that the game gave you if you were paying attention (You were paying attention, right?). But success? Success gives you more coins, that you can then gamble in the future bits. It works well, and gives it a bit of flair. But the character work and plotting are excellent. Like I said, best I’ve played this month, and the only reason I’m not saying best I’ve played all year is that it’s anywhere near finished yet. There are only two episodes out; 0 and 1, with more planned for… some point. Cannot recommend this enough, throw money at these people so that they make more of it more quickly. This is a team of people that knows precisely what they want, have the skills to achieve it, and have the courage to actually shoot for it. I cannot wait for more.

Ok that's it go away. I have steam games I need to buy. Go play of the Devil while I'm at it.

[wettbewerberrr]

also heres the official full playlist for the archangel effect now that it wont spoil anything anymore :)

Mother Mary by Mr.Kitty

Church by Fallout Boy

Hellfire by Barns Courtney

Golden Dandelions by Barns Courtney

Sinners by Barns Courtney

Die For You by VALORANT, Grabbitz

Honey Whiskey by Nothing But Thieves

Icarus and Apollo by Ripto

Heavy in Your Arms by Florence + The Machine

Bedroom Hymns by Florence + The Machine

Hunger by Florence + The Machine

Big God by Florence + The Machine

Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) by Florence + The Machine

Prayer Factory by Florence + The Machine

Witch Image by Ghost

Dance Macabre by Ghost

Crucified by Ghost

Watcher in the Sky by Ghost

Call Me Little Sunshine by Ghost

Spillways by Ghost

Mary on a Cross by Ghost

Supernatural by Barns Courtney

Babylon by Barns Courtney

Things We Lost In The Fire by Bastille

Bad Blood by Bastille

Skulls by Bastille

Sleepsong by Bastille

Laughter Lines by Bastille

Previously on Other People's Heartaches by Bastille

The Draw by Bastille

I Can't Make You Fall In Love Again by Glass Animals

From Pinnacle to the Pit by Ghost

Lower One's Eyes by Will Stetson

Take Me To Church by Hozier

The Bog Bodies (Dorm Demo) by Rabbitology

Heaven, Iowa by Fallout Boy

Preybirds (Watcher Song) by Rabbitology

i am so so sorry it took me so long to post this one, i was enjoying the songs too much. i don't have a huge wall of text for every song because, as we all know at this point, my brain is a mush rn, but i still do have some thoughts

okay. so. Babylon. the song Babylon by Barns Courtney. when i listened to the spoiler-free version of this playlist and discovered that Barns Courtney is actually fire, Babylon became my second most listened song of the 2025 (the first one being Supernatural) and i thought - "hey, why isn't it on Echo's playlist? it's literally perfect for c!drunz" and here it fucking is. i mean, there's the whole thing about leaving the smp and pursuing something greater (i.e. Babylon, which may also be a pretty neat metaphor for the whole c!dream story as a character and his motivations) there's also "The madness in your bones, it's boiling in your blood" which is literally archangel effect c!dream. like i wouldn't be surprised if some lines from the very first part of the series were inspired by this song BECAUSE IT FITS SO WELL and and!!!! "These walls are caving in - You're paying for your sins - Over and then again - All within lurid lands", is lowkey just c!dream's imprisonment in pandora's vault from c!punz's perspective.

Preybirds by Rabbitology it's just poggers, as young ones say, i just adore this one and i'm stealing it for my c!dream playlist. i mean, the theme of c!dream being a part of exdee is conveyed PERFECTLY (if you want to read my very short "analysis" of this song, you can go back to my archangel effect conspiracy board)

Some short thoughts and my fave lines from the songs i just adore that are in my 2025 playlist now:

Take Me To Church by Hozier "Offer me that deathless death" "Only then I am human"

Hunger by Florence + the Machine "And for a moment I forget to worry"

Bedroom Hymns by Florence + The Machine this one is just the transubstantiation effect. and tbh selfish prayers kinda mean to me c!punz dehumanizing c!dream by worshipping him to have some guidance (which you can kinda see in Sleepsong by Bastille, but this one is also very applicable to c!dream)

Skulls by Bastille they are indeed soulmates in every reincarnation your honor

Laughter Lines by Bastille this is my happy ending fuck off

Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) by Florence + The Machine the "i must become a lion-hearted girl, ready for a fight, before i make the final sacrifice" just breaks my heart

From the Pinnacle to the Pit i have to brag because this song is, in Echo's words, associated with my Exdee and i am chuffed to bits!!!!!

[devilishmango]

what ifs wips are you most excited to drop a demo? i think we need more shoutouts to the authors instead of always whining and hating in their inboxes about taking too long and making them reconsider whether it was a good idea to start an if at all.

True, I've noticed there has been an increased amount of negativity in a lot of IF author's inboxes. 🤔 I remember following a few blogs that ended up being deleted because of the hate they were receiving- before they even uploaded a demo or anything!!

Anyway, here are some IF I found without demos that I think are really neat.

Wanted Game @wanted-game-if I'm so freaking excited for a western fantasy... with a lovecraftian twist, are you kidding me??? awesome.

Red Wood Point Park @campredwood-if UHM a IF where you play as a camp counselor?? AND IT'S COSMIC HORROR?? sign me tf up please.

Dead End @deadend-if an IF where I can romance a reaper? yes please!!

The Blood Curse Cycle @bloodcursecycle-if on hiatus atm, but I am very excited for this one. Love a good curse that runs in the family. 💅

Keepers @keepersif this looks like an interesting premise- being made/trained to be something like a killing machine. Just my kind of story. 😈

That's all for now, but I am always looking for more IF authors/stories to follow and whatnot. I have a pretty decent sized audience so I'm always happy to share blogs/posts of other IF to get them more attention.

[tales-of-wocdes]

I am OBBSESSED with your story, it's absolutely interesting! To be able to play as a troubled—and more than traumatized child is kinda fun and interesting to play with, added with the mystery of the MC's past and what it correlates to the last interlude. Not to mention, I picked my MC to have fox ears, with Harvard commenting I could be from a beastkin heritage or a kitsune... Is that foreshadowing I see?👀

Or maybe not, who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, either way. I'm completely hooked! But that just leaves me a dreading question, but may be necessary. If someday in the future, you'd release the full game, will it be payable? Do you have to pay to play the full game?

The game is interesting story-wise, one I keep coming back to in days and hours on end. Checking it out for new updates or trying out other options in the game, the mechanics are also easy to get used to, although I would have some trouble getting out of, for example profiles that are long since I play on mobile, and the writing is honestly amazing! It's pretty neat, and humorous at times.

But, still. I hope you succeed in this game and make it out of the demo, and I wish you goodluck! This game is really interesting, and i'd be a shame to end it so quickly. I also love how you at times interact with us users, and answering our questions, and also giving us some sneak peaks! Or more information. Keeps us hook, and eager to wait for more of your stories🥰

Anyway, did I ramble on too much?😅

Thank you very much! I keep repeating it a lot, here in these answers and in the comments to the demon, but it is important to say. Hearing that people like my writing and story is quite motivating.

The beastkin/kitsune thing.... maybe.... ok yes, that is a thing I have planned. I don't have all the details locked but I imagine that MC finding out that they have kitsune heritage happens when it is needed to happen (obviously a choice).

Now time to get a little real about my process and plans. If you would rather not see behind the scenes, I will cut this off here. Because I learned how to do it :D Also long ramblings ahead.

In all honesty, I get ideas while writing. Then I implement those ideas and worry about all the consequences later... A strategy that bites me in the ass quite a bit :D But I like doing it. For example what I said about wings in the previous post. Or the twins and Lexia interlude was not all that planned. I just started writing.

Of course, some of it is planned but a lot of it only comes to me while actively writing. This is probably why my outlines suck :D Maybe I indulge my whims too much, but I do sometimes pull back. Like having multiple heritage features did not happen... Even if that was mainly due to the fact, I am not good enough at coding yet.... Besides the point. Well I have cut some stuff! Like a reaction to meeting Havard where you just sort of squint at him... had no idea where to go with that one.

Now onto a completed game. This is such a far thing into the future, have honestly not considered it much :D This game is planned to cover MC from this age to full adulthood (or young adult at least). That is a lot of time to cover, and as I have said, I refuse to rush. That is a lot of words to write, code, and then edit. It would make sense to make it something worth money.

Yet, the world is something I have had in my head for years and years. I started writing this because I like writing it. I published this demo, because I wanted to see what other people thought of this story. If they like it too. I answer people with such long ramblings because I like discussing this world. I feel like this is the key. I like doing and sharing this.

Right now I am in a situation where I can spend a lot of time on writing the silver protector, and for the past two or so months I have spend most of my free time on the story. That is a lot of hours. This is something that I feel I should say: there will be a time when my personal life does not allow me as much time to work on this. It will happen eventually, though I am uncertain when. That will mean that progress will slow down, even if I don't it to. Until then, I will keep writing because I like doing it.

Of course I have considered things like a patreon or a monthly subscription on kofi or... boosty, I think it is called. Yet I hesitate. Why? Because I am afraid of this becoming more like work rather than a fun enjoyable past time :D Nothing kills motivation than not liking what you do, and things you like can turn into things you don't like... I know this quite well.

Then there is the question of what would I offer those who would pay to support this project? I like giving sneak peeks here to everyone which is a thing people like doing on their patreons right? Progress updates? I don't do those as often but I do them once in a while. Yet, writing this story is a huge use of my time. There is no getting around that truth either. Can I justify it to myself? As long as I like doing it, I think I can.

If I do start a patreon or a monthly subscription thing, it will be for early access to the demo. Perhaps smaller updates instead of full chapters. Then later publish to everyone. See, I have thought about this, and clearly do not like pay walling the story content itself. It would be possible to offer extra content or cut off something like interludes to use as exclusive content, but I don't feel like doing that. All of that is good and fine, but I want to focus on the main story, and if I do interludes, it is because I feel they serve some purpose. Of course, having something like patreon would have a benefit of having a "test group" that would perhaps report bugs and typos to me. Maybe. This is all something to consider and eventually I will need to make a choice.

All right, enough rambling about me and how my brain works. Thank you for asking, and for liking the story so far. I wish you the best.

Don't worry about rambling. I believe the above, and how I tend to answer questions I get in general, shows I ramble a lot :D And I have called the demo, my ramblings too . But what can I say, I like discussing and interacting like this :D

[maleyanderecafe]

Flowers of Evil (Visual Novel)

Created by: boyinajar

Genre: Romance/Horror

Just like a lot of games, I've been having my eye on this one for a bit. Flowers of Evil was made for the #yanjam, and I think as of writing this, the current demo could just be an entire game if some of the options were removed. It's really cool to have non human yandere characters in games, so it was pretty fun playing this one and seeing Wither in action. If you are curious about this game, please check out more at @flowersofevilvn, and they are creating another game called @darlingdollhousevn if you enjoyed this one.

The default name for the MC is Buttercup, so I will refer to them as such through this review.

Buttercup wakes up one day like any other to head to their class in university. Walking through the forest to get to campus, the find out that class is not in session, with a note that states there won't be class today instead of an email. With their new free time, they decide to head into the library and starts to read some poetry when they are interrupted by a man named Wither, who seems interested as well. Buttercup can either try to converse with him or try to leave after first meeting with him.

If Buttercup decides to converse with them, Wither will ask them out on a date. Buttercup will initially refuse because of their classes, though coincidentally, the class is cancelled due to car problems relating to plants. With this, Buttercup accepts Wither's invitation, and the two go walking in the town. After going through the flower shop, Wither suggests going into the woods next. As the two walk, Buttercup suddenly feels really anxious, and tries to leave, however, Wither grabs them. They realize too late that he's not quite human, and Wither explains himself as some sort of lichen. Wither drags Buttercup into the meadow, stating that he created it just for them, just to protect them from the rest of the world.

If Buttercup attempts to leave, Wither will be annoyed, stating that this isn't what was suppose to happen, attempting to sing more poetry to lure them back in. As they leave, they get a notification stating that their next class is cancelled due to some plant problems with the professor's car. Here they can either decide to go home through the path or through the town, freaked out by Wither's presence.

If they decide to go through town, Buttercup feels rather unnerved, and they see Wither following them around. They start to freak out, believing that he might have been following them for some time, even before their initial meeting. Buttercup decides to run home to safety, paranoid that no one can help them, not even the police. After falling asleep, they wake up to the sound of breaking glass only to find Wither, breaking open the window with their hand which has turned into a sharp branch. As the plants capture Buttercup, Wither ends up taking them with him, likely back to the forest.

Going through though the path, Buttercup starts to realize that they've been walking for a lot longer than they should have, and noticed that the path behind them is completely gone. Not able to try to go back, Buttercup tries to keep on going forward, until they reach a meadow that they've never seen before. They end up meeting Wither there, who reveals himself as a lichen. The plants grab at Buttercup onto the floor, with Wither happily lying down with them. Wither captures them, happy that they will be together.

I gotta say that this creator makes pretty good creepy designs, whether it be purposeful or not. I think it really adds to the dangers that yanderes have, and it's especially good for the scenes where Wither breaks into Buttercup's house or when he's stalking them around the town. I think that the design with it's leaves is pretty neat too, though it does kind of look like he's fallen down in the forest and forgot to clean himself up a bit. If he does have a more monstrous form, I think it would be neat to have holes in his face or hands to show off the more decayed side to him, but that's just an idea.

I think that this game does a pretty good job of horror, especially the idea of the plants coming to basically take Buttercup into the meadow, and the way that they're not able to escape. The choice of music makes some scenes feel very tense, especially when Wither reveals himself to not be what he seems. I think the notions of using poetry are pretty nice and it does make me wonder where he learned all of it or how he was able to make a human body in the first place. I assume that he fell for Buttercup because he saw them walking in the forest and tried to make something that would appeal to them.

In terms of yandere behavior, Wither pretty much made their physical appearance based off what Buttercup likes, cancelled two classes to get them to hang out with him (possibly killing one of them, considering the note), stalks them in certain endings, breaks into their house with one and kidnaps them to a meadow filled with their favorite flowers. There's actually quite a lot going on in terms of yandere things, and it does make me curious how Wither was able to pick up on what kind of things Buttercup likes and again, how they got into poetry in the first place. From what I recall reading, it is stated that he has a bit more of chivalrous personality that he bases on the books that he's read, thus leading to all of the ways that they act towards Buttercup. That kind of idea is always pretty cool, with a yandere that tries to become what their lover wants to be.

Overall, a pretty fun and short game. This is technically a demo (though I feel that it could just be it's own full but short game if the other options were removed) and I am curious to see what will happen next. I am excited to see how this one and their other game will develop in the future.

[cosmos-dot-semicolon]

I am very curious about how your wrong playstyle/different interpretation of Slay the Princess

TLDR: I played a significant chunk of the StP's individual routes before I discovered how to get its actual 'ending', because I was unaware you were supposed to save your progress between playthroughs! This has made me think a lot about how some of the game's parts don't quite fit together very neatly.

For context, I first experienced Slay the Princess via the demo (highly recommend: better for the dev than you pirating stuff, enjoying it, and then never paying them). This never goes beyond the start of the second chapter, and hence you have to return to the menu whenever you 'finish' any route. And because they're short snippets of the full story, you don't need to save or load.

So I was under the impression this was how you were supposed to play the main game too. When I finished a route, I just quit to go to sleep. Sometimes I would play two routes consecutively, but I never saved. Whenever I encountered the character between worlds talking about how she would reassemble after you played enough routes, or the mirror sometimes changing, I would just go like 'huh. That's neat. It's taking a while for that to progress. Wonder what big surprise they have for us there?'

It took me nearly 3 weeks and partially spoiling the game for myself for me to realise that there was not in fact a master plan the devs had, and that I was just completely oblivious to genre conventions. The question you could ask among the lines of 'why can't I go back and replay the same route' tipped me off that I was doing something wrong. Because I had done that several times.

This has informed how I view the whole game, because when I finally got to the 'full' endings, I wasn't that impressed. Part of it was that I was expecting something cooler for all my time spent in the game, which I understand isn't completely fair on the creators. But what is more fair is how it's made me notice that the 'overarching' narrative threads of StP are the weakest parts of the game. At least next to the actual 'in-between' stories.

StP's overarching story has a philosophical question of whether you should stop things from changing to save the world, but its individual plotlines are far more personal than that. In the cabin in the woods, you can get your psyche and will shattered by a creature out of a horror movie, join consciousnesses with your partner only to be torn apart by your previous memories of your conflicts, and be paralysed and dying slowly alongside someone you backstabbed and despise. But because the sheer combinatorial complexity of everything you can do in this game, you never really delve into the connections between those choices, and what it might say about your thoughts on the larger question at hand.

My most recent experience with this was a playthrough containing Happily Ever After, which still let me pick the ending where you reset everything to how it was in the past. It would've been interesting to see how the game responded to someone who decided to free the princess after torturing her with the same domestic life over and over and over again, but ultimately decided reset the game and make her forget everything just to replay it. How would that change if she had done the same to me as the Moment of Clarity? But because the only run the ending has comments on is your first, all I got for that was a comment that the Princess tried to kill me the first time I met her that game.

Honestly, that ending was still pretty impactful, just because it managed to make me think about whether I should've tried to back out there given my past run. But I don't think that was intentional at all, and most other playthroughs I've done don't have an ending nearly that thematically coherent. You can pretty much choose any ending you want regardless of how you've played.

The whole sequence with each individual Princess coming back to meet you during the finale is also emblematic of this -- you just kinda shoot through one after another of their questions with a single word reply. They're secondary to the spectacle of the Construct breaking and the Shifting Mound arising.

And even if you like the Shifting Mound and the Narrator and the Voices, they're also still weakened by this. They're not allowed to have too much unique dialogue because any route they're on might be the first time you experience them, so they can get really repetitive even if you like them. The Shifting Mound has a lot to say, but she's very distant from what you've experienced in the world, and you never really get a look into how your full ascended partner has learnt about the world outside of the comments of the individual princesses. They literally mind-wipe the Narrator between each run (though I will give marks for the fact you can comment on him regretting his actions in Happily Ever After, whereupon he coldly disregards it!)

I don't know if I'd suggest they actually try change the game because of this. I ultimately still loved it. And it's gotten me to think this much.

Plus, it'd be a hell of a lot of programming and words to account for all the possibilities; there are people who enjoy the large-scale philosophising; and most of the game's moving parts are good individually. We need to have art projects in the world that aim big, but maybe don't hit every target (assuming they don't accidentally say something horrible in the process). It stirs up the imagination, and I think I empathise with people who try to see every part of their dream project through.

I suppose that I just think Slay the Princess would've had a bigger impact on me had they narrowed their focus down a little more, specifically onto the personal experiences you have with the Princess. It is a love story, after all.

[orangez3st]

Nail Polish Problems

Placing the clones in my everyday life at some certain points. A little sad they're incorporeal, though—could use the hugs. But I'll survive with their banters.

Featuring: Wolffe, Dogma, Scorch, Gregor

Word Count: 1k

I was looking at the array of nail polish. It was a neat display, actually, and I just happened to like to please myself with certain visual merchandising techniques. Like how they did in Ralph Lauren stores, to those polo shirts. It was a retail thing, and I enjoyed it.

The colors? Nothing bold. All lights and glitters and pastels. Not even neon. But I was intrigued specifically today by the glittered ones. My other friend who'd chosen to go with me to this mall was trying on a pastel green one. The tester bottles were lined up and ready to use, too.

“Looks nice,” I commented. She hummed as I picked up a bottle—clear polish, rainbow glitters.

“You gonna buy one of these?” Wolffe gruffly asked beside me.

I shrugged, unscrewing the bottle and answering quietly, “I dunno. Maybe? These are really pretty.”

“You've said that to every single thing we passed by,” Dogma grumbled.

“Oh hush,” I murmured, applying the polish on my index finger.

Both private and commander watched on. “Shit work,” Wolffe remarked.

“Wow that's really nice,” I deadpanned, too focused to be grumpy about it, “I don't paint my nails often. And my nails are weird, it's impossible to do them without smearing.”

Gregor popped his head out from the other side of the aisle. “But you do have about three polishes back home.”

“Uh huh.” I was already picking up another bottle—clear polish, pink starry glitter. “But those are bold colors.”

“I like the blue one,” Dogma said, not uptight but independently this time.

“Thanks Dog. I like it too. Forgot to discard it, tho. Used all of it, the brush can't even reach the bottom.”

Even from the corner of my eye, I could see Wolffe crossing his arms. “You said you liked the deep Corrie red one.”

“Oh I love it to death,” I said, inspecting the result of the second bottle on my middle finger, and shook my head. I could feel myself smiling as I spotted another one—clear polish, purple glitters. “Lookie, Commander. Purple!”

Wolffe was confused. “And?”

I looked at him and was brought back to his still before a purple sky of Teth. “You look good with purple.”

He was silent for a whole minute—an entire time I applied that one on my ring finger. “Okay,” Wolffe finally said, “I can imagine.”

“Maybe,” Scorch said, standing next to Gregor who was still inspecting the polishes on the other side, “Try to kark around and find out if a certain shade of purple fits your grey, Commander, sir.”

“Muted purple,” I rambled, “A little grey. Not quite lilac. Not quite violet. Just like, in the middle.”

Gregor grinned, pearly whites and all. “See? She gets it.”

Wolffe sighed, but judging by the three-second silence that stretched afterward, I guessed he was actually considering it.

Dogma pointed to hologramic bluish-colored polish. “This one looks nice.”

I hummed, picking it up and unscrewing it. “Had my eyes on this first thing.”

Gregor had walked around and peered behind my shoulder as I applied some to my thumb nail. “Huh. So is that clear or blue?”

“Milky. Not quite clear,” I answered, “The glitters are blue. Bluish? In a certain angle it looks lilacish too.”

Eyeing the result, the commando hummed. “I like that one.”

“How about this one?” Scorch lifted a incorporeal form of a pale yellow bottle. I smirked. Of course he would suggest yellow.

“I can't do bright colors,” I turned him down gently. It was also why most of the time I picked bold dark colors. “Won't look good on my skin tone. Darkens it.”

The demo expert lifted an eyebrow, his scarred face contorting in a certain way I'd been used to. “But all that you've tried are literally bright colors.”

“Uh huh but my skin can tolerate glitter, Scorch’ika.” Then I grimaced. “I also don't think yellow would look good on my skin no matter what shade it is.”

“See this one,” Wolffe pointed at a metallic silver glimmery one. Yeah of course he'd suggest that kind of shade.

“Hm.” I picked it up anyway, because well yeah it's pretty. “Oh,” I muttered, unscrewed the bottle and stared at the brush tip. “Clumpy. Tester bottle hazard, eh?”

Along with the other three—Scorch had joined—Dogma witnessed my struggle to at the very least paint my right index finger half-assed. “I wish I'm doing this to you instead,” he said, somewhat hesitantly. “Can't stand looking at your trembling hand. Sorry.”

I smiled as I screwed the bottle back on. “Don't be. It's just that it's clumpy. Blame the brush.”

“Must be there for quite some time,” Gregor said sagely.

I hummed in agreement. “My nail polish work isn't really shitty when I've got the time.”

Wolffe nodded. “This is a rushed environment.”

“See? You get it.”

“So?” Scorch brightened up. “You're getting the yellow one and that silver?”

At the mention of silver Wolffe’s eyebrows were raised slightly as well in anticipation. I chuckled. “You're so cute and hopeful.” I clutched the bluish paint instead. “But not this time.”

Dogma smirked at my choice. Scorch pouted. “Aww, but why?”

I started my walk to the register, throwing a smile over my shoulder. “Just not feeling silver this time.”

It was by then I was enticed by nearby displays too that I'd got to eavesdrop on their conversation among themselves.

Wolffe scoffed. “Girls and feelings.”

“Hey.” Gregor nudged the 104th commander. “Those two are not subjected to deniability.”

“Should trust them at all times!” Scorch cheerfully remarked.

“Gut feelings,” Wolffe stated, clear and loud enough as if to make up for his moment of weakness.

Dogma sighed out loud to cut the banter. “We can convince her to get the silver one some time later.”

Gregor slapped a palm onto his own chest. “Dogma, good plan,” he praised before glancing around the group with a relaxed smile. “There's always later.”

✧ Next ->

[jamisonwritestf2trash]

Hello again! I was chatting with someone and he said "someone should make writing style hcs for the mercs", and I instantly went "I know a guy" so now i'm here. How do you think the mercs would write? (note: he also said "Scout would write like Greg heffley" which is hilarious)

How Do the TF2 Mercs Write?

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I'm smiling like an idiot rn. This is so sweet, and the promt is very cool! (Your friend is 100% correct, btw.)

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I'm going to headcanon, whay they write about, how they write about those things, and some hand writing pictures of how I think they'd write! So be prepared for a long one 😭 Can you tell I'm an English nerd?

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Demo-

You'd think he'd have super messy handwriting, but he's actually a very neat writer. Has an ink and quill pen set, loves gold ink more than traditional black ink.

He writes about his mom and his childhood. He writes very vividly and with lots of detail. I feel like this man is a walking thesaurus.

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Engie-

He has very clean writing. I'm day to day life (he has the worst writing when working on his projects). Like he'll leave a note on the door saying that the gangs run out of milk and everyone's shocked. You'd think he'd have atrocious handwriting. Learned cursive in school and never really stopped using it.

When he's writing like this, he's normally sending letters to people he cares for or trying to order parts for his latest projects. He's very formal when he writes to anyone.

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Heavy-

Heavy is also blessed with very nice handwriting, but instead of the school system forcing him into writing better it was his mom.

He likes to write about animals and his friends. He keeps a small book by his bed to write little things he learns throughout the day. Not very descriptive, more along the lines of "I heard birds singing this morning, it was pretty." Or "Scout likes brownies more than ice cream." Normally, just mundane things. (Also, he writes mainly in english to improve his ability to understand English words but sometimes defaults to Russian if he can't remember or spell a word properly.)

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Medic-

Ugh. This man writes like a doctor nine times put of ten just to fuck with people. He'll give someone a note, and it just has gibberish on it. He likes to watch them try and decipher it. But when he's not being a menace to society. He has genuinely beautiful handwriting. While it can be overly fancy, sometimes it's also easy to read.

He has two journals, he has a leather-bound one where he writes about Germany, his experiences of leaving his country, when he had his medical license, medical school, etc. Loves to write about the past. He uses that journal as a therapist. And then, of course, he has his neon pink Claire's notebook that he uses to write down every single thing that could be used against someone he's ever heard, with matching glitter pens.

When he writes, he never leaves any details out and is pretty clear and concise. He uses German and English interchangeably. Using English mainly out of habit.

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Scout-

While I do agree that this man probably writes like Greg Heffley (and honestly, his handwriting probably looks the same too.) I'd be wrong not to mention that he writes out little :), :0, >:), and other little faces on his notes, and have almost graffiti handwriting. He practiced writing to look like that, actually. He used to have decently nice handwriting, but he likes this one better.

He doesn't write much, but when he does, this man writes paragraphs about the most random things. All horribly spelled. This man can't read or write very well. Dyslexic king. He makes sure to get help with spelling, though, so he can write to his mom at least once a month.

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Sniper-

Oh, poor, poor man. Can not write clearly to save his life. Not that he's big on writing to begin with. There was never really any pressure for him to have good handwriting, and he mainly only writes to write himself reminders.

Very nondescript and straight to the point. But has a little quirk of using different dots (like • ○ ● □ ■ ☆) for his notes. He has a little dark brown book for all his reminders.

☆eat (is a common note left in the book). He also has written poetry, but he'd rather die than admit that.

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Spy-

Pretentious motherfucker handwriting and style. Could just be writing a reminder to wish someone a happy birthday and will go all out. It normally takes him 15 minutes to write a small note. He writes letters frequently, with no reason in particular. I think he just really likes writing. Uses big words but not in the same way Demo does. Like Demo will say, "The food was horrific." But Spy will say some shit like "the meal I partook in was horrifically distasteful and..." So on and so on.

I think he can also switch his handwriting at will. If he needs to pretend to have messy handwriting for some reason, he'll do it. Not without sheding a tear at how awful it looks first though.

Writes exclusively in French. One or two words in English every 10,000 words he writes.

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Soldier-

He likes using all capital letters when he writes! He feels like every word he writes is important. It also helps him remember things. I also don't think his vision is the best, so it's hard for him to see any other writing.

He doesn't write often, but he's always listing things, marking things that have changed, and writing down random questions that he'll spend the day trying to answer. Very observation based writing. You catch him writing and it's just a piece of computer paper with a list like,

THE CEREAL WAS MOVED

I SAW A BIRD

WHY DO BIRDS FLY INTO GLASS

ARE BIRDS OKAY AFTER FLYING INTO GLASS.

Very simple writer.

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Pyro-

Scarily neat and beautiful writing. Somehow, they can write like this no matter what situation they're in. I definitely think they just rewrite things they overhear, facts that they like, good memories they remember, and just odd things. Has multiple quotes written down from books they've read. They write with glitterpens, too. They have a bunch of construction paper they use to write on.

They don't really write much for necessity. They only really write to make themselves happy. Can be simple or descriptive depending on what their remembering.

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AH! I HAD SO MUCH FUN DOING THIS ONE! Thanks again for the ask! I hope your friend likes the answers :D