#Cato Adastra

[coldmail750]

[moodytanuki]

umm. no comment

[earthling-wolf]

Adastra MBTI

Marco: disagreeable INFP

Amicus: ESFP with developed Te

Neferu: disagreeable ESFP with developed Fi and Te

Virginia: disagreeable ENFJ

Cassius: ESTJ with developed Si

Alexios: agreeable INTP with developed Fe

Cato: disagreeable ISFJ with developed Fe

[luxims]

I remembered I did this last year

[thisfuckingdork]

[civilotterneer]

mr. neer, who do you support in this political struggle? mr. dadbod hot heir? fragile white twink? or Cato? surely bein a resident of adastra you have opinions

Oh dear interlocutor, you sure have poked the political beast, haven't you?

Let's get it out of the way, I really don't like my choices.

Cato: To start, he's immediately the worst case scenario. While he's kept things running during the trials to choose the next emperor, his rhetoric is rather concerning should he cede power from the two heirs somehow. Isolationism is my least favorite kind of philosophy, and doing so under direction of enacting possible war from what sounds like nothing more than a genital-measuring contest sounds idiotic. He seems rather level-headed and stoic, but from what I've heard in whispers, that's just a surface thing, and he's likely to snap easily.

Amicus: Amicus reminds me of the progressives of home a bit. Wears what the kids do, is homosexual, tends to be a fun-loving guy. What concerns me is a lack of what his policies will be. From what I've seen, he's currently planning on just keeping the current regime afloat, with a continuation of friendly trade policies. That's pretty nice, but other than that, he seems to be flying on his charisma alone. Nice guy, but a worrisome politician. He also seems very manipulable, which is concerning.

Cassius: Cassius has his fair share of conservative-leaning policy, since he seems to have no issue using Amicus's 'Tail Raiser' status against him. Concerning as I guess I count as a 'Tail Raiser'. However, Cassius actually presents his agenda, which actually is very socialist in helping out his common man. He's not as isolationist as Cato, but not as progressive as Amicus. If anything, he's Adastra's version of a centrist, and I really do respect that as a left-leaning centrist myself. However, he does seem volatile, which means he gains manipulable points like Amicus.

My honest opinion: I think I'm voting Cassius? (if it was a single-vote thing like home, that is) Amicus is, in principle, more aligned to me with some specific issues, but I have doubts that he'll be an amazing leader and will push useful policy. I could be pleasantly surprised, but I have no evidence towards either. Cassius is concerning from the lack of progressive thinking, but the fact that he seems dutifully dedicated to improving the lives of Adastrans is something I can respect. Plus, since he discusses his policy more, it's easier to debate the parts I don't like and possibly push for change.

I have to say, if Amicus discussed policy a bit more, I think I'd vote for him in a heartbeat. But alas, I can't, in good conscious, vote for someone based on vibe and intent alone. I need solid plans, and solid evidence of them likely working as intended.

Not voting Cato is a no-brainer. Don't vote in warmongers, easy.

[werewolf-gimmick-2]

I think if Alexios and Cato Adastra fused the result would be the first ever furry Char clone, all the ingredients are there but they are separate. Cassius would become the first furry Garma clone by proxy.

[cursed-elements-blog]

You dislike Adastra?

Tbh yeaaaaahhhhhhhhh. I just,, Amicus and Marco are not interesting at all and their romance doesn't feel as genuine or alive to me, Virginia isn't a character, Cassius is barely present despite having the most going for him, Cato is just??? Comically evil. I'd hit Alexios with a hammer and him just getting off scott-free kinda really pisses me off. Neferu was cool i like his hips. The Parents were pretty interesting though but beyond that the worldbuilding also felt kind of shallow compared to the other Echo Project works and ESPECIALLY against something like Burrows. The art was pretty good tho!

[h-worksrambles]

I feel like it’s my hot take that I really want Cassius and Alexios to come back in a future Adastra story.

Yes, I know. Alex is a back stabbing, lying little shit, 90% of the things that go wrong in the visual novel are his fault and the majority of fans’ instinct at me even showing this image of his face will be to instinctively reach for something to throw at it. But dammit, he’s genuinely really interesting to me. He voices a lot of the same criticisms about how screwed up wolven culture is that Marco has. A big thing they bond over is that they both have the same perspective on their society as outsiders. The Omorfans aren’t entirely wrong to see the wolves as dangerous, bigoted warmongerers. Neferu makes a lot of the same points. But I think that’s another factor in why Alex’s betrayal hits so hard for players. It’s not just that he’s nice and he presents himself like Marco’s first friend and violates his trust. It’s that you thought he had a moral backbone, that he shared your viewpoint, and yet he was able to use all those points you agreed with him on as justification to do something awful, to sabotage Adastran government and send the whole city spiralling into chaos.

But here’s the thing, and this is definitely not a defence, but it’s why I find him so interesting. Alexios is willing to sabotage a nation in a way that results in horrific riots, which is of course, disgusting. But he’s able to mentally excuse himself by saying ‘hey they’re not MY people. I’m just doing my job for my country and planet. It’s not MY problem’. Alexios is doing what’s expected of him by his country. I’m not saying that excuses him. The fact that he doesn’t grow a trace of conscience about this is deplorable. But I can see the thought process at play. The Omorfans think they’re doing the Galaxias a favour by keeping the wolves at bay, even though actually they’re just responding to one form of bigotry with another. Alex going along with his orders without complaint is horrible but at the end of the day, he’s a spy. That’s his job.

What complicates this is Cassius. I do believe Alexios’ feelings for Cass are genuine. Do I think he started out with the intention to manipulate his position at Cass’ side to help him spread chaos on Adastra? Yes. Do I think somewhere along the way, he became the mask and started to care for Cassius genuinely, but still pressed on with his mission anyway? Also yes. I know it’s easy to see this as ‘poor baby Cass being used by evil Alex’ but not only is that kind of a simplification of Cass’ character (which I could also write more about but some other time), it makes Alex more one dimensional if there’s nothing genuine there.

The payoff for this is when Alex tips off Cato to Marco and Virginia’s plan and so Cato poisons Cassius. Cassius nearly dying forces Alex to experience the pain his actions have inflicted on others. Because now all his lying, manipulating and playing both sides has gotten someone he cares about hurt. Now for the first time, Alexios feels even a fraction of the pain his actions have inflicted on other people. The shoe’s on the other foot for the first time. He can’t pretend this doesn’t affect him anymore.

Look at this face. This doesn’t say: ‘I’m just using this man’ to me. This says: ‘I’m in too deep. The one person I care about here has gotten hurt and it’s my fault.’

Of course, the question a lot of folks ask is, why does Cassius still love Alexios knowing what’s he’s done?. Well the justification Cass gives is that Alex was just doing what he was ordered to do. He had no choice. Now I’ve already given my opinion there. Alex very clearly had no moral scruples about following this orders. This is not something he was forced to do. But why does Cassius think that? Well, because that’s how Cassius feels about himself.

Keep in mind Cassius has gone from a bid for power that he believed would allow him to enact major change on Adastra. Only to realise that he got taken in by the words of a fascist (who he trusted as a long time family friend, mind you) ended up being little more than a mouthpiece for the guy, had his his self image utterly shaken and is almost killed for his trouble. Cassius insists that Alex is a good person following orders because he desperately wants to believe that. Because he sees himself in Alex that way. He’s realised that he was little more than Cato’s puppet for so long and wants to believe Alexios is the same. He wants to believe he’s found a kindred spirit who understands what he’s been through. But has he? I want see that explored.

Assuming that they’re going back to Omorfa as they planned, that can go so many different ways. Can Alex maintain that level of cold indifference while serving his country in the future now that he’s gotten attached? Even if his feelings for Cass are genuine, how far would Alex go for him? If Alex had to choose between his duty to Omorfa or his love for Cassius, which would he pick?

I don’t even necessarily want an Alexios redemption arc. I think that’d be going a little too far. But I certainly hope that Howly will give us a deeper examination of the Cassius/Alexios relationship because it’s honestly fascinating. I think seeing despicable characters navigating concepts like love in a way that doesn’t absolve them of wrong doing can be so interesting when it’s written well. And this dynamic gives me that in spades.

I guess you could say Alexios is my poor little meow meow (no pun intended). He’s an awful person who does despicable things but that’s what makes him so fascinating. I don’t know if there are plans to bring him back in Khemia specifically, but he is still around for Interea, and I hope that dichotomy of his selfishness, his duty and his love for Cass are explored further at some point.

[nyaagolor]

I just finished Adastra and I am about to make that everyone's problem

Tldr: it slams and (if you are over 18) you should play it

Disclaimer: Adastra is an 18+ VN. There will be no nsfw content in this post but like. If ur a minor get outta here

This isn't a liveblog, since I already finished the game, but it's a pretty similarly scattered collection of my thoughts while playing so there's no real narrative cohesion to this post. If u were looking for a detailed review just watch the video by Boringkeith

I think the biggest thing about the game to me is how insane the plot gets at Act 2. Act 1, while admittedly kind of dull, does a great job at setting up characterization and tension over time, introducing motivations and worldbuilding in a really natural way. The way the author handles the delivery of information is just. Fucking fantastic if I'm being honest, and the conversations-- ESPECIALLY arguments-- just feel so natural. There's a great tension and release that the game has, and it's a really gripping story. I think writers like this shine in this medium because God. GOD. the dialogue is good. Then Act 2 happens and shit hits the fan and does not STOP hitting the fan until the poor thing is bowled over and unplugged from the wall. Genuinely unhinged, the pacing is breakneck and it is GOOD

The protagonist actually being their own person was also fantastic, and honestly one of the only ways I can see this story going. Despite inevitably being a romance VN with intertwined political drama, I never really felt myself occupying the protagonist (Marco)'s role too much, and this is for the better. Ultimately, Amicus (the love interest) is perfect for Marco, but not for me. Neferu is hotter anyway. But Marco? Amicus??? Those two dumbasses are made for each other. Plus, the actual codified personality of the protagonist allowed for a great deal of information to be presented and withheld in ways that wouldn't be allowed by a blank slate protagonist. The dynamics wouldn't have worked as well either, and I think the story is all the more engaging for it. I, personally, would have been more lenient on Alexios but Marco? He wants that twink OBLITERATED

Cassius is the funniest character in this game I think. He just reeks of like. Loser redpilled 17 year old projecting all his insecurities into the incel takes imaginable. I'm going to wring him out like a wet paper towel. Yes he's a borderline space fascist but I can fix him I swear. When he hotboxes and trips so hard he sees God, only to have God call him a cringefail loser and he starts crying about it? Yeah that's babygirl material. Pathetic beast

It is very funny to me that the game has to spend 80% of its runtime trying to convince you that Amicus would make a good emperor and explicitly has rules in place to say that females can't rule because you KNOW within 15 seconds of her opening her mouth that Virginia is the un-debatable best choice. The fact that Amicus doesn't immediately give up his throne for her is his biggest flaw

Cato is kinda one note but he is supposed to represent heternormativity and the pitfalls of bigotry in this giant scifi queer allegory so he gets a pass. I'll admit I found him to be a lil too mustache twirling snarky towards the climax, but eh. Also I'm dead convinced that the parents meddled with him. He started freaking out when his visor got taken off and acted more erratically now that he lost his parental tech (hm) and also him crashing the parents' ship was totally out of line with his motives even as mentioned by other characters. The parents def manipulated him I can feel it

The Parents are sus as fuck I will stand by this. The game really makes you want to choose the option of trusting them (and I did bc I just want Marco and Amicus to be happy) but like. Fuck man. They mad shifty I don't trust like that they got some other shit going on. BoringKeith says more than I ever could about it just watch his video

For personal reasons I am furious about them not showing the ram civilization. We know about four of the civilizations (greek cats, roman wolves, egyptian jackals, and indian tigers) but like. What about the rest? Based on the little we've gotten it looks like the bears are norse and there are rams but I don't even remember the other two. What are they I want to see them

My only mark against this game is that both of the disabled characters are evil. I don't think there are any non-villainous disabled people which kinda blows. I heard Echo is better about it which is good? but even still it left a sour taste in my mouth

The art? is really good??????? I love the expressions and the way the CGs look especially. Fucking fantastic

The themes of homophobia in this game are ROUGH and really really raw. Again not gonna talk about it much here watch the boringkeith video but Woof. This game is so good I highly recommend

Go play Adastra

[mirrorred-star]

Whumpuary Day 8

prompt: back from the dead

fandom: Adastra

[yes, the gay furry porn visual novel. Yes, I have played it - I started watching a (3 hour) video essay on it by Boring Keith who left a link to the game in the description, mentioned it was free, and yeah. The game was longer than I expected, and I missed a lot of the gay cultural subtext due to aroace and just not knowing things, but its good, and has a lot of thought provoking things to say about the nature of being a queer. Its also pretty whumpy and is known to cause post-Adastra depression in the gays, so yeah.]

warnings: angst, alcohol abuse, grief, Adastra. romance?

Previously on Adastra: The player character was abducted by Amicus, a very buff anthropomorphic wolf, who is from a moon called Adastra, which is culturally similar to classical rome.

Amicus was in his quarters, inconsolable. The wolf, eldest son of the late Emperor of Adastra, had watched as the love of his life had gone into convulsions, fallen unconscious, and stopped breathing. The body had been lain out in the ampitheatre, wreathed in lavender and violets, and would remain there until... until it showed unmistakable signs of... not waking up.

He had stood vigil until he couldn't take it anymore. His lover wasn't getting back up. 

The love of his life was gone.

So Amicus had gone back inside, gone to his quarters, and drank himself to oblivion. His brother could have the empire for all he cared. There was nothing he cared about now.

Nothing at all.

He woke to someone shaking his shoulder. A paw too small to belong to Cassius or Cato or even Alexios. It reminded Amicus of him, and he hated it. The love of his life was gone, and even this gesture reminded Amicus of-

The figure standing before him was entirely without fur, covered in garlands of lavender and violets.

"I'm seeing things. You're... you're d.." The wolf couldn't even get the words out. The not-simian - the human - hugged him. "I'm here. I don't know how, but I'm alive."

Tears welled up in the wolf's eyes. "I thought I'd lost you."

"I'm here now."

The love of Amicus' life crawled into his arms and the great wolf pulled the human to his chest, wrapping his muscular, thickly furred arms around the smaller being.

The human curled up into the wolf's fur, comforted by the strength of his body.

"Amicus?"

"My love?"

The human wrinkled his nose. "Could you please take a shower? You smell like wine and BO."

Amicus reluctantly allowed his lover to depart his arms. "Join me?"

It was a plea more than anything, the desperate burning need to have his love within sight at all times, preventing fate from taking his human away from him again.

His love took Amicus by the paw, and pulled the wolf to his feet.

"The Parents couldn't stop me."

Author's Note: and then they fuck.

[valenfraux]

Hi I just wanted to let you know that ever since I saw the post about your Adastra Steven Universe AU I have losing my GODAMN MIND

I HAVE NOT STOPED THINKING ABOUT IT

AND IM STUCK IN THIS PURGATORIC LIMBO STATE BETWEEN JUST DAYDREAMING AND ACTUALLY WRITING SOMETHING. I HAVE SIMOTANIOUSLY THOUGHT OF THE RELATION THE PARENTS WOULD HAVE WITH THE DIOMONDS AND OTHER INTERACTIONS DOWN TO THE MOST INATE DETAIL WHILE ALSO HAVING NOT EVEN THOUGHT OF HOW THE STORY WOULD PLAY OUT.

(Love your art btw)

I'm glad you like it!! I'm kinda in the same state with everything too, actually! All I really know other than the details I already gave is that Steven is 100% going to sing a modified version of Change to Cato/Alexios.

Gah!! I'm not even certain on that either!! So many possible ideas!!

[coldmail750]

So the Drusus and Meera story-within-a-story - if we wanted to invoke the parallel to real world history and myth we could compare it to Aeneas and Dido, shoutout to Dzhakh on Echocord and @h-worksrambles for pointing that out a while back - is a classic love versus duty story, right? Drusus and Meera are lovers, but Drusus must choose between his duty to his planet and his love for Meera, so Meera ostensibly sacrifices herself, allowing Drusus to choose his people.

Adastra's really explicit on how Drusus and Meera parallel Amicus and Marco; indeed, Amicus and Marco are the lens that Howly uses to explore how big that "ostensibly" in "ostensibly sacrifices herself" is. Amicus and Marco, lovers, play the roles of Drusus and Meera in the first trial; Amicus actively compares himself to Drusus when confronting the Parents at the VN's climax; if you get the Meera ending, Meera outright tells Marco he is her "successor and replacement". It's made abundantly clear that, ultimately, the Parents are the ones sacrificing Meera and Marco.

Except... Amicus and Marco aren't the only pair of lovers playing the roles of Drusus and Meera in that first trial, right?

Alexios and Cassius are doing the exact same thing literally just across the room.

Now of course, in this scene, Cassius is playing the role of Drusus, and Alexios the role of Meera. That matches what the player is being led to believe about Cassius and Alexios's relationship at this point in the story - this is around the point where Alex is reassuring Marco that he isn't going to immediately report everything they say to Cass, so Marco can trust him (a statement which is... half-true, at least).

As the plot develops, however, it's made clear that this is misdirection and the power dynamic in their relationship is actually inverted - Alexios holds power in the relationship, not Cassius, because of Cassius's psychological and emotional dependence upon Alexios. So the Drusus-Meera parallels are inverted as well.

The Drusus in the Cass-and-Alex relationship is, in fact, Alexios. Correspondingly, the big reveal about Alexios is that he has been sent to Adastra to sow chaos, to forestall the threat that a resurgent, militaristic Adastra might pose to Omorfa. Alexios, like Drusus, is doing what he thinks is necessary to protect his planet and his people.

And the Meera, the lover who the Drusus sacrifices in the name of fulfilling that duty, who is deemed an acceptable sacrifice for the greater plan by the Parents?

Well... it is Alexios's unwitting tipoff to Cato that leads to Cato poisoning Cassius, isn't it?

And it's not like the Parents seem to care much about what happens to Cassius at any point in the story, or in the backstory for that matter, so we're checking off that checkbox with flying colors.

And on top of all of that, those CGs, they're really mirroring each other, aren't they? There's some explicit visual callbacks going on between the dance and the poisoning, explicit enough that I can't believe I didn't catch them sooner:

In fact, in the process of writing this post, I decided to go into Adastra's files and double-check to make sure that I was remembering the Drusus-and-Meera story correctly, and in doing so I stumbled upon this little detail in Marco and Amicus's practice session:

That hand-to-the-head pose that Cassius is making in the poisoning CG? That is the in-universe stage direction for Meera dying.

Cassius explicitly makes the Meera death pose as he is sacrificed by the Parents for their great and mysterious plan, held in the arms of a lover who did not think that duty to their planet would mean this.

I don't think I'm going to be able to get this revelation out of my head for a while, lol. I legitimately cannot believe it took me this long to notice it, and now that I have I don't know how I ever missed it, and it opens up so many potential new angles for analysis - the Amicus's optimism versus Cassius's cynicism angle (credit to Kai on Echocord for their musings on that one), comparisons between Cassius and Marco (esp if we ever get an Omorfa to follow up Adastra and Khemia)... you name it, really.

The Adastra fandom is very well aware of the way that Marco-Meera parallels are drawn but I haven't yet seen much talk about the Cassius-Meera parallels, and ever since I noticed those parallels I cannot stop thinking about them

[unsafescapewolf]

First batch of summer kofi doodles!

[dontexpecttomakesense]

Adastra Playthrough Masterpost (or APM for short)

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21 - 22 - 23

[bedrock-brock]

it’s the bestboi, Emperor Warcrimes.