cornflakesdoesart

[icewindandboringhorror]

Recent ones of these even though they all look the same lol.. forcing myself to document progress..

[furifurii]

since you, the reader has school going for you, you rarely play honkai star rail.

the characters would always wonder where you went, or what you were doing outside of their world. they can still hear your voice, but very, very faintly. they would sometimes hear a name they would not recognize and idk, maybe just go:

"who the hell is diluc and why is he so hot??"

they would also listen in to your conversations whenever they would hear your voice. even if it's you talking to yourself about history, or you talking to your friends about things unrelated to their world. they wouldn't really mind. maybe just a little bit.

but when you go back to the game, the characters would be overjoyed and would try to make you stay there longer.

even going as far as to secretly double the stellar jades you would receive during quests or missions. and missing the excitement of pulling for new characters, you would gladly warp for the new characters on limited banners.

they would ask silver wolf to hack into the system to boost your chances of getting a character or the light cone you were pulling for. they would push each other aside just so they can appear on your screen for you to gush over how you got another copy of a character or celebrating when you got all of the eidolons of one character that you really liked.

just seeing you being happy just makes them want to spoil you even more, just so you will stay playing with them, forever.

but when you suddenly stopped playing the game while they were trying their hardest to give you what you wanted, you realised, oh, there's school tomorrow. so you decided to turn off the game for the time being and go to sleep.

but they couldn't let you go just like that! that would be ridiculous.

for a few days just before you played the game again, the cast begged for anyone who could take them to your world. just sitting idly on your device's screen and listen to your voice wasn't cutting it anymore.

they want to see— they needed to see you, to actually have an actual conversation with you and not just talk to you through this game's script. it wasn't enough for them to be living behind the screen for you to just watch, they wanted to show you that they are actual tangible beings that call you their "creator" .

the main character had begged herta to do something about this, and she complied without any argument, to their confusion. usually she would be saying stuff like how she would just 'give up in the middle of it' ,, but she.. didn't? nonetheless, they were grateful to have herta agree with creating a portal to your world.

as soon as the characters caught wind of this, they were ecstatic. they had left their duties just to hop on the astral express and to herta's space station, to finally see you, to meet you.

in herta's office, it was packed with all the playable characters, waiting. some patiently waiting, some, not so much.

to see opposing groups of people being in the same room and not being at each other's throats were such a random thing to see, but they didn't care about that, no no, they only cared about you.

you, their "creator".. how could they miss this opportunity to be meeting their own creator, the one who gave them life, something to live for.

as herta was finishing up some parts of the portal, you were sound asleep in your bed, snoring away in your weird sleeping position.

well, until you felt your blanket started to move with sudden gusts of wind. you heard a really loud thump, it didn't come from any rooms of your house, it didn't sound muffled when it happened. so it's,, in your room. but oh, would you look at that, your room is so dark you couldn't locate your phone which was usually near you to use it as a flashlight.

but what's that? you heard a voice , a very, very familiar voice.

———

yeah naur... i can't do this,, this sounds terrible i'm so sorry you had to read this sobsosb i am so soso sorryr

[iraprince]

do u have any advice for those that want to run a quest?

it feels a LEETLE silly answering this when all my own are currently on hiatus bc i got busy (SORRY TO CALLIST0 READERS LOL) BUT!!! yes i do. i have only ever run quests/interactive comics on the site questden, so i guess as a baseline this will kind of all be geared towards that, but i think most of this should translate to any hosting situation

you have to be cool with your plots branching and mutating in unexpected ways, and you have to be willing to play ball with your readers. quests are a collaboration between the author and the audience. it often feels a lot like gming a tabletop campaign (and that's the origin!! questden, specifically, was originally an offshoot of /tg/.) -- we've all had or heard about bad GMs who view their position as that of a narrative dictator who exists to punish and prod a captive group of players thru their own personal novel, but a good GM is interested in telling stories as a group. u have final say and have to stay true to the important stuff abt ur story, but if u get mad or frustrated when ur readers want to explore something "off topic" or aren't following the threads of ur narrative the way u expected them to, u don't actually want to run a quest, u just want to make a webcomic w mandatory comments. (the flip side of this is: consider if the story u want to make is the right one for an interactive quest. if it is REALLY important to u that the plot beats of a story go a certain way, maybe save it for a medium where u have more control!)

keep it loose and fast. the art does not matter. i am rly guilty of not following this one, but i still think it's really important! one of the things i like best about quests is the barrier to entry is very low and you SHOULD be able to start and maintain one very quickly. if i were better at keeping my art scrabbly and sketchy and loose, my stuff would not go on hiatus as often as it does. draw fast! it's NICE if the art is gorgeous to look at and definitely will draw readers, but it's way better if the art is simple enough that you can update frequently and without much stress. the quality of ur writing + character building, and whether u are telling a story that's engaging and that ur readers feel meaningfully involved in, is 100000x more important than the art.

on the more nitty gritty side: try to have a hook in each update. one of the most common reasons suggestions die off is readers being unsure of what they're supposed to do next. sure, too much spoonfeeding could end up feeling like railroading, and you don't have to end every single update by getting right in their faces and yelling "WHAT DO YOU DO NEXT??", but when you finish an update try to take a second to put yourself in a reader's shoes and see if there's an obvious next step. is there a course of action to decide on/debate, are there clear questions they can ask an npc, etc -- i can't think of a great way to describe it, but you want to avoid ending an update on a note where the player character and readers are basically sitting there looking at each other like "um... okay. that's that, then." some ppl even just end all their updates w multiple choice options, which is a super simple way to keep things moving if it fits the style of what ur doing. if you don't want it to be that overt but you still can't think of a way for there to be a clear hook, you can at least try to leave a little nudge in the narration that invites the readers to try to tie whatever they've just done/learned back into the pc's main goals/motivations or current tasks. (on this subject, VERY useful for your main character to have a very specific goal or end destination that everyone is on the same page abt. it's harder for your plot to lose momentum if you can always point at what your readers are supposed to be moving toward!)

finally: KEEP UPDATING EVEN IF YOU GET VERY FEW/NO SUGGESTIONS. it's a niche genre. questden is a small website. it's hard to get people to read something new, especially if it's in a new and unfamiliar format (and especially especially when it's on a website that looks like a chanboard lmao). picking up readers takes a long time, and a lot of people lurk without suggesting (ESPECIALLY if it's a difficult/plot-important decision, and also especially in the opposite, if it's a very obvious next step and someone else has already commented what most ppl would say). it's very tempting to want to wait for more suggestions bc u "only" have one or two, and then that wait becomes stagnation, and then you're frustrated and u end up dropping the quest bc "nobody cares." instead u just have to push thru!!!! u only have two suggestions and u wish u had more? maybe next update u'll get more. u have NO suggestions and u feel like that means ur quest is dead in the water? NOPE! the solution is to update again, bc maybe ppl with latch on more and have something to say in the next scene. the more u update ur quest, the more u'll be able to talk abt it (and maybe get more readers), and specifically in the case of questden the more ur thread will be bumped to the front page. think abt how many times you've seen ppl talking abt a webcomic or a book and thought "i need to check that out eventually...." but it takes months for you to actually do it. 99.9999% of the time, ppl need to see something MULTIPLE TIMES before they check it out!! most readers do not come from clicking something the very first time they see it!! i know it can feel lonely and discouraging, but u owe it to ur art and the stories u want to tell to keep trying, even if engagement is very low at first, otherwise you're killing it before it's even had a chance. like, get shameless about it. ask your buddies to comment on your quest. but give that horse a few really good whacks before you decide it's dead!! i think that's my main thoughts. if you have any more specific questions i'm happy to help if i can! but also i think you'll learn the most by just jumping in and fucking around. quests are easy to pick up and easy to drop, and imo do really well as a playground where u test different ways to draw and tell stories, so might as well just get messy.

[indierpgnewsletter]

GM-driven versus Player-driven (& more)

(Originally published on the Indie RPG Newsletter)

I talk about playstyles a lot. Or at least, I talk about playstyles a lot more than the average. I’m always saying “trad”, “storygame”, “OSR”, etc - they’re completely imperfect labels, for sure. But for me, I prefer that imperfection to ignoring the diversity of approaches that people take to roleplaying games. To me, there’s no generic “GM advice” - all GM advice has a style of play associated with it. It would be good to for folks to know which!

For me, everytime I write or say things that sound like advice, I’m usually talking to myself. I’m articulating something I’ve figured out and by making it explicit, I’m sort of formally adding it to my toolkit. This means that my advice is best suited for folks who play like me. So part of my job is to articulate my playstyle. I wish I could just say “storygame” but I think that is an obscured word. The best explanation I can come up with right now is, “playing where the fun comes from dramatic characters and improvised narrative”. (We can totally workshop that but it’s what I’ve got right now.)

So I also like it when other folks talk explicitly about their playstyle. Like in this recent article, the blog RiseUpComus had an interesting matrix that described four playstyles. It has “blorbiness” and “quantum” on one axis and “railroad” and “sandbox” on the other axis. I liked the idea but I’m a bit wary of those words - “quantum” and “railroad” can have a negative connotation. I tried to be careful about this with my Axes of Game Design posts.

So with that in mind, I would frame this as “prepped” versus “improvised” on one axis and “GM-driven” and “player-driven” on the other axis. I like this because all games are to some extent prepped and to some extent improvised, all games are to some extent GM-driven and player-driven. It’s usually a question of degree or priority.

Prepped and Improvised are pretty self-explanatory. The more prepped a game is, the more the GM knows the world before the session begins. The more improvised a game is, the more GM leaves to being decided at the table.

GM-driven and player-driven is a bit more complicated to explain. In almost all playstyles, the GM kicks off the first session with a clear premise for the players. It is one of the sacred duties of the GM - “Help Us Start Playing”. In a GM-driven game, the GM is constantly “starting” things like they did in the first session. The players mostly “finish” things and look to the GM to start the next thing. This could be encounters, plot arcs, locations, quests, etc. In a GM-driven game, the GM isn't usually building on the player’s actions from the previous session. In a player-driven game, the players start things. The GM reacts to what they’ve instigated. Before every session, the GM is asking, “So my players did this last session, what consequences should that attract? What would my NPCs or factions be doing in response?”.

I think some games are designed to be in a specific quadrant. But often games can be played across multiple quadrants. For example, Troika! is often played in Improvised+Player-driven quadrant even though it can be played in the Prepped+Player-driven quadrant (where most OSR games live). Theoretically, you could play a game like Spire in any of these quadrants but I think it probably works best in the Prepped+GM-driven quadrant.

What do you think? Keeping in mind that this stuff is a spectrum, do you have a sweet spot for where you enjoy games best?

[tranquilpetrichor]

zb1 as honkai: star rail players

— may this journey lead us starward.

synopsis: you end up getting the zb1 boys to play the popular hoyoverse space fantasy rpg called honkai: star rail, and this is how it goes...

genre: headcanon, fluff, crack

wc: 944

warnings: mentions of video game deaths, cursing, there may be unfamiliar video game terms

a/n: haha please lemme summon all the zerose that play this game. very self-indulgent headcanon. i actually have not played this for a couple weeks because college = busy so... yeah.

taglist: @restlessmaknae

sung hanbin

he now thinks it would be a fun idea to have the members play video games like this for content so there you go

i can see him looking at bronya and thinking "she's a great leader" because honestly so true

he starts off with a fairly standard team composition (shielder, healer, support, dps) because you know less is more

likes the story, finishes it fairly quickly

thinks the feature where characters text you is cute

gets really happy whenever you use his support character

kim jiwoong

absolutely confused as hell and really, you can't blame him

"wait, why i can't jump?"

you spend a bit of time explaining the turn-based combat stuff to him and now he does get it... sorta

doesn't play too much but sometimes does it on a free day

pulls for characters he finds pretty (so valid)

and that's how he ended up with luocha, imbibitor lunae, jing yuan and kafka

has decent luck too

zhang hao

plays with chinese dub, chinese dialogue text

pulls for as many characters from the xianzhou luofu as he can

a lore enjoyer, probably excitedly talking about his favorite parts with you

probably got sucked into all the side quests

busy testing out the simulated universe, enjoying every second of it

has the ost samudrartha on blast, he'd love to cover the song one day

having a field day with any lore-heavy updates

seok matthew

he probably tried memory of chaos with f2p characters "because he was bored" and already did it w cracked as hell 5 stars

i can see him having a bunch of the standard banner characters from losing the 50/50s

he prob saw welt and said “haraboji" which means grandpa. if y'all know that joke i love you.

curses a lot if he dies

if something actually ends up being too hard for you to beat he gladly tries to help you (he's sweet like that)

named the trailblazer (main character) woohyun

also loves exploration and just running around the map even if he can't find everything

finds it fun in his free time

kim taerae

plays it casually (because he’s probably already too dedicated to valorant or something to pick up another game)

yk i think he would be a fan of the music, this game has a very good ost

in the parlor car of the express there’s a phonograph and one of the songs you can play on there is called “take the journey”, it’s this acoustic guitar song with soothing vocals

if that’s not taerae, idk what is

as a music lover, he's probably listening to the whole ost for this game

a very proud serval main (no did you see that pic of him with the electric guitar on his birthday? i'm sure he can appreciate a fellow guitarist)

thinks it's funny that gepard uses serval's guitar case as a weapon

probably builds at least two good teams

and complains when realizing he didn't get that many materials from beating the calyxes (same)

ricky

plays with chinese dub, english text

lazy af, turned on auto battle feature we stan

plays maybe twice per week

dialogue skipper

yk this man is buying whatever the equivalent of the battle pass is for this game

he can and will whale for the characters he wants (and this man already has better 50/50 luck than you, for sure)

probably doesn't give a shit about meta when deciding to pull on banners even though because oh wow that character is cool

actually pulls on the lightcone banner (because he can)

sees asta and her constant purchases and goes yep that's relatable

he jokingly tries to name the trailblazer something like youngandrich

kim gyuvin

sometimes starts leveling up relics randomly not giving a crap about stats even though he probably should

"it's a 5 star one and the correct mainstat, so here we go!"

he shows you relics leveled all the way with absolutely shit substats just to troll and annoy you

another proud dialogue skipper

but when the trailblazer speaks, guyvin picks all the funny and wacky dialogue options

lets your support character do all the work for him

probably let excess exp accumulate until he finally does his equilibrium trial or whatever

thinks it would be funny to main sampo or qingque. so that's exactly what he does

says fuck it we ball and puts 4 dps characters on one team

randomly says character voice lines like "HELP ME MR. SVAROG" and you're just like "please shut up"

probably named the trailblazer eumppappa

park gunwook

the most likely to enjoy the game imo

also ends up getting good at it (because he’s talented and good at learning new things)

doesn’t like to auto battle, actually enjoys grinding battles

started laughing at you because he got gepard for his beginner pulls and you don’t even have him yet (but you laughed when he lost his 50/50 to himeko of all people so you’re even.)

has a decent amount of characters

you give him so many credits because you keep using his gepard

to return the favor, he uses your characters occasionally, mostly seele.

he likes putting shielders and healers as support characters because "some people need to be able to not die"

easily finds the chests, is a completionist

always updated and knows when new redeem codes are out

han yujin

very intently focused on the game, you find it hilarious

but since our maknae is very dedicated, you’re quite surprised at his trailblaze level..

“yujin, slow down, you’ve been playing for what, two days?"

he’s probably already reached somewhere around trailblaze level 25 already

truly a yanqing enjoyer, he likes everything about him and sees a bit of himself as yanqing is also young and dedicated to his particular craft (yes i wish i had him on my account shut up!)

sulks whenever he loses a 50/50

ngl i imagine ricky probably buys some stuff in-game for him

[the-eclipse-is-in-me]

Fanfic

Hi babes, I just finished Chapter 7 of my Fanfic, It's Death or Victory on Ao3, and was wondering it I should start putting it on here as well for people that somehow survive without Ao3. So I'm going to put down the First chapter to see what y'all think.

Chapter 1: People Watching (Cresent's POV)

Its been 2 years since I arrived at camp, 2 years since I was claimed as a child of Hades, and 2 years of being completely, utterly, alone. Cabin 13 was usually empty, even if my brother, Nico, just got back from his world-saving quest with the seven. He’s been back for three weeks, but obviously, he decided to spend them with his “definitely not boyfriend” Will Solace, my cousin. He’s an Apollo kid and the Head healer, so I already didn’t see him much, given his almost never-ending shifts. Now he hangs out with my brother, cutting bandages and doing whatever other stuff they do in the infirmary, so I had no one to talk to.

I know it’s weird for someone to be in a place for 2 years and not have any friends, but that is not the case, I do have friends, for example, Rachel, the oracle and my mentor since I took an interest in art. The problem was that it was the middle of September and she wasn’t here right now, which was very sad for me. So it has been me, my dairy and my growing army of characters in my little notebook.

That all changed on the faithful day I met the brilliantly annoyingly, crazily amazing, child of Nike, Quinn Victory. I had decided that “Hey, maybe we should go get some sunlight and fresh air, and train with our sword since it has been a while.” I got up, found my magic headband in case I decided to practice some archery on my way back and walked out the door.

When I had finally reached the training grounds, I found someone already there, wiping vigorously at the training dummies, as if they had said something very bad about their mother’s cooking (which I would have fought tirelessly for). In their hand, I saw the worst thing that fool could have been holding at the time, my training sword. I can’t say it was my sword cause I didn’t have one, the only weapon in my possession was my magic headband/bow/staff I had gotten from Artemis as a gift for completing a quest for her that for some unknown reason, known of her hunters could do themselves, (they DID NOT take that well).

I loved my bow, but I was also quite skilled at fighting with a sword and daggers (I’m a girl of many talents, and few words, except for my dairy)

Whoever the person was, they were using the one sword I felt comfortable with, and there for worked very hard to hide. Because I was also an idiot, I marched straight for them and almost got impaled by a sword going right for my heart. If it had not been for my quick reflexes and powers, I could have died. Though the burst of energy did send me falling on my butt.

When I focused again, I found a hand outstretched towards me, and attached to that hand was one of the prettiest faces I had ever seen. I still don’t know how I had managed to miss it before, but now that I had seen it, I definitely wouldn’t be getting it out of my head anytime soon. “Why did it look familiar, though” The figure in front of me had the most solid gold eyes I had ever seen and curly red hair with a fiery orange that fell onto it in just the right way. I wanted to stay in that moment forever, but I quickly remembered why I was there.

I swatted their hand away, because chivalry is dead, and got back onto my feet. I dusted myself and turned around before I embarrassed myself any further. I ran to the infirmary the moment the cute redhead was out of sight and pushed through the door. I found my brothers (since I consider Will my brother and as I said before he’s my cousin) having a conversation about something to do with Star Wars, Will’s favourite movie franchise and I abruptly interrupted them with the most important question of our time, (ok, fine, of the next week of my life, but still) “Who is the red-head in the training area?” Will gave me an exasperated look, though I was too distracted to worry about his conversation with Nico.

“You’re going to have to be a little more specific, moon,” Will answered, already getting up from his seat to get the camper files. “Well, they had beautiful, solid gold eyes, and red hair with orange highlights, tan skin and you know that sword I usually use while training, they used it with such ease and flow, if I didn’t feel like training, I would have sat there for hours to watch.” “Wait, did I say that part out loud, well there goes the secret in secret crush”

“Well, I think I found his file, their name is Quinn Victory, non-binary and gender-fluid. They got to camp 2 years ago, same as you.” Will responded, to my internal panic and dismay. “Did you just say Quinn Victory, the same Quinn Victory that betrayed me a year ago, but everyone was too busy with the quest to care? That Quinn turned into the beautiful person I just saw outside.” “There was absolutely no way he became that hot, stupid traitor”

I was not getting a crush on the one person who bothered to notice me and then ditched the moment they got the chance.

Here is the rest of it on Ao3

It's Death or Victory - Cresent_Solace - Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types [Archive of Our Own]

Tell me what you think.

[oh-my-may]

Hi it's me. Finished playing main quest in Wuthering Waves so lemme give you a few thoughts on it, and development with the game in general.

First of all I like the length of the main quests so far. Long enpugh to tell the story in proper parts that feel concluded, but short enough to not lose my attention. Overall gameplay for me for most parts of the story so far was like 2 hours I think? Very good length.

The final chapter focused more on Jiyan and the Threnodian more so than the Fractsidus, since their active involvement kinda came to a stop when Scar got arrested. They focused a lot on them in the previous chapter so that was alright with me. They'll save mlre important stuff for later, which is totally alright with me.

Something that WuWa does that I really like is giving us complete trial teams for certain parts of the story, so it felt even more immersive going thrpugh the battlefield with Rover, Jiyan, YangYang and Jianxin. Still a big fan of the combat in this game, I wonder what future characters are gonna be like gameplay wise and how they'll influence the playstyle and meta.

I like that we get scraps of Rover's identity and backstory pretty early on. They make it no secret that Rover woke up on the world before and had a previous life? And also the girl who wakes Rover up/gives them life or so in the very forst scene in game being explained pretty early on is very helpful. I wonder where they will take this story.

Also love Aalto and Encore. Kinda a sucker for quirky child with adult extroverted guy as their guardian who do shenanigens together. They were very fun.

The story boss fights don't feel too hard, which is very nice for someone like me who is only slowly getting a hang of the battle gameplay on mobile. Still have a problem coordinating my exact thumb placement at times. Me problem.

Final boss was cool. Havoc MC is very cool, too. Just MC on general. Still haven't taken her off my team, probably won't for a while. Slays with either Spectro or Havoc. Very refreshing. In hyv games I dropped MC at around level 50 and only took them again later (genshin with dendro and hsr with harmony now).

I'm quite curious to see where else they'll take the story now. The threat of the Threnodian is quelled (for now?) so the one enemy we have remaining is the Fractsidus. There's also the Black Shores ofc, who seem to know A LOT about the world and Rover'a origin. Very funny how I first thpught Chamellya was with the Fractsidus. Must have been the colour palette lol. Loved her though, but I'm curious to find out what her deal is and what she wants from us. They did tell us a few basic informations about Rovers origin and backstory, but its still very little.

There is still Jinhsi and the missing Jue. She will be playablw next patch and apparently Jue will be a new boss? Curious to see where this will go.

Thid leads me to talk a bit about current changes to the game. Because of certain improvements the devs want to implemdnt sonner rather than later they have pushed forward content by 1 week and already gave us Yinlin banner and second phase events. I understand that to a certain extend but I was really worried I wasn't gonna be able to pull Jiyan in time 😭 SO I decided to pull then and there and got an early, which was Jianxin. Wasn't gonna complain but I was kinda losing hope. Jiyan came through for me at like 40 pulls. This game has blessed me with lots of early 5stars until now. Idk if I'll get Yinlin, her gameplay is really cool tho. Gonna take some time to think. Bit since I habe decided to take WuWa more casually than hsr and genshin, where I am careful with who I pull for, I might just make a few pulls on her banner and see what happens.

I'm now at level 31 in the game and still have basically the entire map to explore still. They have announced that controller support is gonna be a thing for mobile in future patches, which means it won't be implemented in 1.1. It's okay, though. I have gotten a good understanding of most controls now and I'm starting to level my characters and look for good builds. There's just so many layers to the character leveling, and having the bosses cost 60 waveplates for the 2 drops you get feels kinda expensive. Apparently they will work on that too? Implement a system tp save excess waveplates when you have reached full storage of them like in hsr and stuff.

Overall having good experiences with the game so far! Really looking forward to future patches, maybe I might also save for Scar? Idk.

As always, some screenshots from my gameplay!

(btw gotta mention love how basically everyone is in love with Rover. Everyone they meet is immediately down bad. Scar, Jiyan, Yangyang, Chamellya. Jinhsi... same)

[artistic-moth-man]

So I've been wondering if I should make this update post and I decided I'm gonna

Basically it's just to let you guys all know what exactly is going on in my unmedicated ADHD Brain by explaining every single project of mine that's currently in the works. pretty much nothing in this list is released yet so don't go looking for them

Starting off with stuff I'm collaborating with others on

Danny and the Light - an original graphic novel on webtoon that got cancelled and is getting rebooted (don't get excited though we're taking our time with it) with @stormcloudquill

Chrysalis Chronicles - An original illustrated novel or graphic novel (i haven't decided) that's ripping off/fixing all the things wrong about harry potter; with @thekrazykitsune

Mincraft Diaries - Yep! Aphmau's Minecraft Diaries, rekindled and made into fanfiction and/or a graphic novel (probably both) and this one will actually have an ending; also with @thekrazykitsune

Avatar: Lion Turtle Heart - a fanfic graphic novel about a firebending avatar after korra named Akira working to unravel the mysteries of her past self, Avatar Kazu, and his death that even she can't comprehend, as well as the strange appearance of a baby lion turtle that Akira now has to care for. Doing this with @mayday396

now for fanfic works I'm doing alone

Legend of Emily Windsnap - Rebooting Emily Windsnap's story in fanfiction form. this fic is actually going to be released some time this or next year (hopefully this year but shit's hitting the fan on my life currently) and book 1 is actually near finished!

Digidestined Diaries - a reboot of seasons 1-4 of Digimon in either fic or graphic novel form. may or may not do this with stormcloud, but I'm not sure. the thing that makes this so special is that tamers and frontier take place in the same universe as adventure. yes, takato meets Tai, and no it does not go well for the others involved

Wizard101, The Legacy of Atlas - telling a story heavily based off the first arc of Wizard101 quests with a balance wizard as a main character, featuring the friends they make and the enemies they face as the chosen one to defeat Mallistaire. this will absolutely be in fic form, most likely with illustrations

Bloom's Magic, Beta writing - a written fanfic reboot of Winx Club as a beta version of the story I planned with Storm. the comic version of BM is currently on the backburner and is gonna have some differences to the written version, but it'll be something I promise

Finally, some original works that I plan on publishing!

Chronos and Kalayah - a Time Traveler named Chronos rushes around time looking for their best friend, an immortal named Kalayah. the two of them constantly avoid the temporal police while simultaneously helping Kalayah survive being a black lesbian in American history. likely only going to consist of one book and have a novel and graphic novel form

Call My Soul - a Magic Girl series featuring Blake Janes, an ordinary boy who stumbles upon an alien named Alexandrite. Alex is tasked with keeping safe the artifacts of the ancient magical shogunate, whose spirits end up choosing Blake and his gal pals to protect themselves from the evil prince Tsukuyomi, who wants nothing more than the artifacts. this graphic novel gets really gay really fast so strap in when it comes out

Roll For Adventure - a young boy named Matt who loves playing DnD is isekai'd into a land straight out of Lord Of The Rings, and he is absolutely stoked. while he is looking for a portal back home, his elf friend Sequoia and Orc friend Yevelda help him fight his way through the coming war between the eight races. Fun Fact; I use my dice to help the characters make decisions. even major story beats are going to be up to my D20!

Lucifer the Good - this story is precious to me, and hard to describe. it involves four kids being isekai'd into a world filled with magical monsters and elemental creatures, being guided by a young voice to find secret angels, all while villainous demons under King Devil work to stop the kids from ever leaving this new world. even worse, the human kids are the only ones who can undo the vile curse on the land of magic.

that's all the stories that I'm actively working on, but I do have at least 10 more that I'm leaving on the backburner to focus on these ones! Call My Soul is also getting very little attention, but I am actively working on it! I'm seriously hoping at least one of my original works will be released to the public by 2025, but again, life is crazy. anyway, my next few posts are gonna involve Digidestined Diaries while I work on finishing up Emily Windsnap Book 2 and finalize book 1. there's only one change I wanna make, then I'll get to releasing it to AO3 and Wattpad! I promise, at least one of these will be worth the wait :3

[ikimaru]

lollybliz responded to your post: ISNT THE CHASM BEAUTIFUL??? I loved that area, and the questlines in it; I got such giddy joy out of unequipping the luminstone and just Falling down one of the many many seemingly-endless pits fjfjdndn

yess I do like vanquishing weird blobs using a shiny gem eheh the music was so beautiful/sad too! the part at the end tho 🥲

napstawantstosleep:The Sumeru archon quest is definitely one of my favorite if not my number 1!! There's just so much cool stuff about it I'm sure you'll enjoy it a lot :DD

I am 👀 looking forward to it 👀 I’ve been seeing a lot of the characters so I’ll finally know who they are lool (also will finally know all the Scara lore I’ve seen around in the right order fjksjd)

no-myers-briggs: Good luck with the 50 hours sumeru and the desert takes to finish 😭😭 I still haven't finished the desert quest fully

50 hours omg hahah I will do my best! 😔✊ I haven’t finished every single quest I got so far yet but enough of them to move the story forward

queerbabescully: Nice!!! Playing catch-up at this point can be a bit of a slog so I’m glad you’re powering through!! You’ve got some really fun stuff to discover ahead of you 🥰

I took a p long break from the main story after Liyue/beginning of Inazuma so I decided now I should catch up or it would take me literally months to lool esp seeing as it’s getting closer to newer stuff I’m moving faster now :’)

[ocie-vt]

Thoughts on ARCADEA / AWOL

Quite a while ago now I played the ARCADEA demo on stream with my good friend Purea Patel… I'm only writing this review(?) so much later because Ive just uploaded the VoD.

To get things started, ARCADEA Is an upcoming RPGmaker game in which you take control of Maisie, a mute girl on a quest to find her brother Jas. To do this, we must go through the world of Arcadia. It should be noted that Arcadia here does not refer to the Greek province, but instead refers to one of the interesting phenomena that can be found here: you see, In everyone's dreams lies an Arcade machine which represents their innermost psyche or something. It seems that we can go into these arcade machines for… reasons. Something to do with a cat? Here's the problem with writing a review of sorts from memory months after I've played something, A lot of the exactitudes of the game story have become hazy in my mind. For instance, I remember there was a talking cat who acted slightly sinisterly and seemed to be important somehow… The only other thing I remember about him is that we made him Australian for some reason. A lot of my recollection is like this, so from now on ill just mention the stuff that's stuck with me the most about the game.

Firstly, I must mention the art here, especially the character portraits. It's very good, I feel like all the main characters have very distinct designs, they're all vaguely colour coded in these nice lighter colours which both makes every character easy to tell apart which also giving them a nice sense of cohesion. It's all very cute, and this carries over to the level art, which also has pleasing pallets whilst keeping a good sense of variety between zones. Secondly, I must mention the minigames: they are of paramount importance in a game literally structured around arcade machines, and they most certainly do not disappoint. Even this demo has quite a few varied little gameplay segments, and it honestly does better in them than even some other extremely well produced or popular RPGmaker games like Pocket mirror, which relies a bit too heavily on variations of the chase sequence. Of course ARCADEA isn't exempt from having one or two chasers, close to the end there's a chase sequence against a paintbrush monster thing… but at least there is a mechanic there where you can leave bait for the monster to stall it a little. The other games are a bit more interesting though, for instance there is a puzzle in which you have to stand on a certain spot and then line up a piece of paper to reveal a symbol that tells you what direction to go next. It's a bit like that one forest sequence from Metal Gear, except in Metal Gear, the devs just left you to flounder until you got out. There's also one or two quick time button presses that I was very bad at… but it's also an interesting change of pace from other games I've played.

Last thing I'd want to mention here is that in one scene you are put in a greenhouse and told to draw one of a few plants highlighted in the room, except there was also a random set of vines highlighted that had nothing to do with this, and I was very disappointed when I couldn't try to select the random set of vines over all the pretty flowers to draw.

Anyway, all in all I had a very good time playing ARCADEA, and I'm excited for the full release. I would highly suggest that you play the game for yourself, you can download it here.

After we finished that demo on stream, me and Purea still had a fair amount of energy left, so we decided to look at the other game that the ARCADEA dev has worked on, A Wave Of Lights (AWOL). It's a cute little visual novel about a shut in girl meeting an alien girl and then, like, being gay for two hours. I've not much to say on the actual game itself since it's relatively short, It's just well written and the art is also cute. I will say that, uhh, I made some choices on the stream's end that might have impacted the drama of it a tad… When we played it we decided to voice one character each and whilst Purea gave a pretty neutrally toned voice to the main character, I heard that the other character was an alien and like… I can only decide the voice I went with as somewhere between Skeletor and a Dalek, because alien. It was really something going into the more dramatic or serious scenes with the characters opening up to each other and whatnot, where Purea was playing it 100% straight, and I was doing the silliest goddamed voice I have ever attempted.

to close this out, I should say that the Dev for Arcadia is named Aishin, and you can find them here on tumblr @arcadea-rpg.

Whilst Aishin was the artist for AWOL, it seems that the writer and lead dev listed was Tabby Wright, who you can find here.

AWOL itself can be downloaded from here, and finally you can find the VoD for my stream here.

[popculturebuffet]

Pirate Month III: Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold!

Ahoy me hearties and welcome back to pirate month, my celebration of all things piratey! Today's review is a bit special. See this blog was founded on duck rviews: I started with Ducktales Season 3, seeing it thorugh to the series end, and never really stopped covering other classics like life and times, recently finished and with a look at the extra chapters and other related works next year

but until this year it'd slowed down. But with both the end of said retrospective and donald's 90th birthday I got my fire back, and thus when it came to said birthday I had a few ideas. Ultimately I went with mr duck steps out, my faviorite of the classic disney shorts , the debut of daisy and one of many masterminded by Donald Duck's real dad Carl Barks

But it wasn't the first Carl Barks work I considered. Given how much the comics shaped donald and how much barks defined him I had another idea in mind at first before pivoting to Mr Duck Steps Out. See there's something I simply never thought about, something so basic to cover for a creator yet i'd never looked it up: What was Carl Barks FIRST Donald Duck Story? The Answer? Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold. And since I just so happened to have pirate month every year, I decided to save this treasure. It's still one I was fascinated to read though both for starting one of the best careers in comics.. and for being the first american donald duck adventure story, yet never really being talked about. While Don Rosa went all over scrooge's story he didn't , as far as I can tell at least, refrence Donald's own adventure stories often. It's somethign that dosen't get as much love and something I was all too eager to give some to since my reaction to almost anything iwth donald duck is

Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold actually started as an idea for a shot, then starring Donald, Goofy and Mickey, who'd go up against pete in a quest for pirate treasure. For whatever reason the short didn't happen, but the materials found their way into the hands of Del Comics. Del was allowed to use Disney's research materials, per disney historian Jim Korkis, he's quote din a story done for mouse planet you can find here, and thus tapped Jack Hannah and Carl Barks, animatiors at disney, to draw the story as they wanted a big 64 page comic for their four color series.

As Hannah Recalled via interview in said article: " Story Research Director at the Disney Studio, "took us to meet Eleanor Packer who I believe was in charge of Whitman/Western Publishing. They wanted us to draw 64 pages of a Donald Duck story. I suspect the reason we were chosen for this assignment was that it was a more story related project. We were doing all the Donald Duck stories for the shorts and doing all the story sketches at the time so I'm just guessing that they probably felt we could work out this story as well, maybe even add in a few touches to help it flow properly."

Barks would reflect on the process of making that in another interview " "Jack and I looked the script over and decided which pages we would like to draw. After we had drawn a few pages, we decided that I should draw all of the stuff that was involved with the ducks outside on the deck of the boat or on the island, and Jack would take care of the inside stuff."

The result is a gorgeous story light on words at times but heavy on expression, with both Hannah and Barks bringign their a game. Hannah would continue in comics but unlike barks never went full time, staying with animation but it's the combination of these two titans and a solid script by Bob Karp that makes this something special. Pirate Gold may be one of the first Donald stories.. but it's also easily one of my favorites and i'd like to share with you why under the cut

We begin with a shot of the Bucket O Blood Seafood Grotto, donald's latest hustle and I find it fun that even just starting his career, even in a plot he didn't come up with... we still have Donald working a random odd job and still have a lack of money being a major plot point.

In this case Donald is catching his own fresh fish with the boys during a big wet rainstorm when they nearly die and loose their nets.

I love this little gag though it points out something neat about this one: the boys often finish each others sentences. This feels like the biggest giveaway this was supposed to be a short and barks and later writers woudl do away with this gimmick in print.

The boys find another way to be annoying though: pestering donald about loosing their nets... while he's trying to batten down the hatches so they all don't die in this massive storm.

They get a knock at the door.. thankfully i'ts not dave bautista and rupert grint trying to get them to murder themselves to prevent the apocalypse, but Yellow Beak, a character I don't see much in disney comics but had heard of and i'm shocked was in first carl barks story. Yellow beak is a diminutive parrot with a bossy attitude and a craving for Slumgullion. Slumgullion is a type of goulash, an american based one using pasta, red sauce and ground beef that honestly sounds delightful. I only know it exists thanks to this comic and now having some is a personal dream of mine.

For now though i'll just have to watch Yellow Beak have some as he thinks he's safe

I'm going to get SO much use out of this panel. I love a good goofy golden age panel, a love I recently discovered binging 80 pounds of batman.

Anyways BUT OUTSIDE is Pete. Yes that pete. As for why he's the antagonist for this : He was born to cheat and lie, he's a mean rotten guy, if you ask him why he's nasty here's his reason why: at a stork delvery his mommy screamed "Woe is me, such a dork hey mister stork behold my misery! Peteys Ghastly, pete's a blob, pete's a nasty nutty slob" can it sister because he's the mister who will get the job. In this case it's sadly not becoming king of france, but it is trying to become king of the pirates, which is even better and means you get to fight a rubber man who can become a rubberhose cartoon god if your lucky.

For now though Pete is trying to find yellow beak and we get one of my faviorite panels of the comic, only second to one i'll talk about more later.

I really wish Barks got to draw pete more often. His pete is incredibly expressive , meanacing and when neeeded hilarous.

Pete knocks on their door and Yellowbeak hides the map he's after with donald, agreeing to cut him in for the treausre. Donald only agrees after A) Being assured this isn't the police as he'd happily turn him in and B) being reminded about those gosh dang nets they need.

WE get a fun scene of Pete going around the place, even going into the kitchen because he's "very hygenic"

God I love that line.And hannah's art's also great nice and expressive.

Pete leaves but makes sure to listen in real good as Yellow Beak, thinking the coast is clear confides in the ducks

Pete in this story is just such a delight. He had me thinking about something i'd considered before when I thought about a fanfic adapting the quackshot video game but following donald , daisy, and the twins on their world tour. Donald and Pete.. are good mirrors to each other. Both are impulsive, prone to chasing an easy buck, hot tempered, and in some versions family focused. But Donald tends to barely scrape by as the underdog, while Pete tends to find or steal his way into authority. Donald is batted around by the system while pete either makes it work for him selling used cars or what not, or slips into the cracks doing crimes. Donald's tiny yet scrappy, pete's big lumbering and imposing. I honestly wonder WHY the comics dont' have them throw down more often: Yes Pete is one of mickey's arch villians, but I don't see the need to so evenly seperate the Duck and Mouse comics. In the comics Pete was born to steal and lie he's a mean rotten guy, a criminal who engages in various schemes.. so him alternating between mouseton and duckburg when it one gets too hot makes sense and he makes a good foe for Donald and for Scrooge, being the kind of skeezy criminal Scrooge fights regularly.

Yellow Beak reveals the map is actually in the restraunt, retracing steps he hold from an old mate who talked to the ghost of captain morgan who had nothing but wisdom for him

They find the map.. and not knowing their evesdropping Yellowbeak reveals they need to buy a boat. Why not just rent one is beyond me but i'm not up on 1942 economics. So pete goes off to plot

After a breif comedy bit of donald buying a fancy hat and Yellowbeak not letting him be captain, which I thought was harsh at first but honestly fair.. I mean he shoudl've let him keep the fancy captains hat, but I get that since Yellowbeak brought them the mission, he should get to lead.

I also get shades of their future dynamic with scrooge: a curmudgeonly seasoned adventuere, a frequently complaning donald as the lancer and the boys as eager assitants who are oftne key in saving the adults necks with their canny observations. The script wasn't by barks, but I wouldn't be suprised if he remembered how well it worked from before, with Scrooge being easier to squeeze into stories. After all Donald's rich dynamic uncle who always is after another rainbow is a bit easier ot set up adventures for than "a pirate parrot donald knows and dosen't like all that much"

SO pete's scheme is clever. He actually bothers to disguise himself as a greeving widow, shaving up nice and putting on a wig. As per 40's cartoon logic this works perfectly and he cons them into renting the boat instead of buying it by pretnedin gher husband the captain died. I again like seeing pete like this: he can be short sighted but I like him with a good scheme: it's part of what made Goofy Movie and Three Musketeers work so well: he CAN plan or think he's a master of psychology, but he's too arrogant to win.

We get a LOT of good gags in this comic as pete's goons, two mice wheel in tons of heavy ordanance while Donald is understandably worried. He brushes it off as a hobby but their undrestandably not convinced.

We get another fun sequence as Pete tails Yellowbeak after he gets a letter.. only to find it's agrocery list. This leads to my favoirite panel of the whole comic

Everything about that panel to the right is perfect, from the facial expression to the clouds that weren't exactly necfessary but add to the scene. It's just such a perfectly donald expression, so "what the hell did I do" so baffled. While it was only his first comic... Barks already got how to perfectly put donald in panel. It's expressive, funny and great to look at.

The next two pages are some antics as Pete tries to get the map since it's hidden. And their good antics: he goes in at night to try and find it and gently hangs donald on a hook

His minons suggest he just "cut dere throats and take the map" but pete TRIES to play it subtle and just get it when they take it out to plan.. but it's their plans for AFTER they get the map.

Finally Pete decides to take their advice to heart and just cut dere throats. Luckily the boys spot him and dump him aboard. While there's some good dialoge in this one, a lot of the comedy is more slapstick, as this WAS supposed to be a cartoon and it's easier to animate actions rather than talking. It still works in comics just as fine and Hannah and Barks art is super expressive, it's just neat to contrast to Barks more heavy use of dialogue in the rest of his career.

They dunk Pete and call "Woman overboard".. so Donald and Yellow beak see him sans disguise. The gig is up and a fight begins, with some beautiful actions and the boys being thrown in the brig..w hich they easily escape. This comes in handy as whlie putting up an impressive fight, complete with a little sword action as any good pirate adventure needs, Donald and Yellowbeak are cornered and forced to walk the plank.

Thankfully the boys built a raft offscreen so our heroes ar esaved by plot convience and a daring rescue and are already off in the distnace by the time pete realizes> he plans to just let the sharks have them.. only to find out Yellowbeak cut out the center of the map, the part both parties need next.

So out to sea Yellowbeak doles out rations

Now to be fair we don't KNOW that shark had self respect. I mean most people love pringles, but I woudln't cal lme wolfing down a can of all dress pringles in one sitting self respecting. I would call it delicous. Their new to the US and their a delight. Need to get me more. THEY CONSUME ME, THEY CONSUME ME

Anyway our heroes reach the island with yellowbeak having remmebered some steps and not letting the others eat because he's a bit of a dick. They find the cove.. and pete monotring it so they break into his boat at night.. only to find he's already out searching for treasure. If this sounds a bit circular that's because.. it is> This small section feels like not a lot happens.

Thankfully it picks up soon as our heroes head to a pirate cave and find a ghost! Before donald can deal with it in his usual way

The ghost gives them the rest of the mask and they ask no followup questions despite it obviously being pete in a bedsheet, who gave them the map back to lead him to the treasure.

So we're at the climax: our heroes dig it up, the boys make themselves scare and pete understandably waits until the two idiots have done all the work for him to strike. The boys once again prove to be the only compitent ones here, and strike back with some coconuts

Once again Pete is cruelly denied becoming knig of france. They quickly take out the two mooks and since this is their swan song I love the designs of these guys, the buck teth, big ears. Reminds me of mortimer. Maybe he has a twin brother or two, who knows.

We end with our heroes taking the bad guys back to the ship. Donald and Yellow Beak argue about whose the captan now only to get a rude awakening to end the comic

You know I never thought I'd see a story that ended with the boys holding Donald Duck and a modern day pirate who still acts like a goldena ge one at cannon point but i'm glad I lived to see it.

Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold is a fun story, expressive, full of great jokes, and with a nice sense of swashbuckling adventure. I wasn't sure how much of a pirate story this was going to be but I was delighted that it kept the feel. Pete tends to be the real star with tons of great expressions, gags as he tries to outwit the heroes and some genuinely clever planning. While it was barks first story and he didn't get to write it, I was shocked by just HOW good it is. While some comic writers artists do start firing on all cyllenders, most take a bit to really lock down their style. And while barks did have some stuff to figure out, when it came to drawing comics he was fantastic and got the medium from the start. True he'd been an animator for this so he wasn't a complete newbie.. but it's still a hard medium to get just right snf hr killed it on his first try. Jack Hannah's work also can't be understated: a lot of the great pete art is his and he gets the slapstick down to a science.

It also feels like, as I mentioned before, a blueprint to barks other stories: while yellowbeak would be swaped out for scrooge a lot of the comedic beats, the skeezy protaganist of the day, and the comedic ending all fit his scrooge adventures. This comic is utterlyf antastic and since Disney hasn't repinted it recently you can find it here on archive.org

Thanks for reading and happy pirate month. Yarrgh

[juliwuzhere]

If you were randomly selected to come up with titles for new Camp Camp episodes, what would you name them?

I only have one episode idea that I already have a title idea for but I would need to explain a little bit about the one shot idea so bear with me.

One of my episode ideas, and one I wrote about a while back, is about Neil creating the matrix on his computer ( because, like, c’mon. If he was able to make a portal with a 3D printer, he can probably make the matrix.)

But while taking a break after finishing the project, Nerris decides to use the computer to type out her dungeons and dragons writing, like assigning the campers roles as knights, royalty, elves, giving them backstories, etc, because she doesn’t have anybody to play dungeons and dragons with, so this is the next best thing. She clicks enter and everyone is transported to the matrix world nerris created but they have to complete the tasks given to them to make the other campers remember who they are.

Only Nerris and Neil still have their memories so they are forced to go on quests like saving the princess from the tower or stuff like that. But the longer the campers are there not only could they be stuck forever, (Neil forgot to work out the kinks,) but the campers who have yet to have been rescued, helped, etc, will forever think they are the character that Nerris wrote them as.

Because the two main ideas are the time limitations they have due to the matrix and dungeons and dragons. I would probably call it “Deadlines & Dragons.”

I know my explanation was a bit convoluted but this is a fanfic idea I’ve had for a while. I’m not sure if I should actually write since I don’t think many people would be interested in it but at least I got to talk about it! Thanks for asking this question! I love talking about camp camp AU’s/ one shots I have :)

[ferrocyan]

top 5 memories!!

these are mostly abt my friends from my fc bc they make playing this game so much more fun and awesome (long post warning)

#1 so there's this guy in western coerthas whom you can challenge to a fight named alaimbert of the spiked butt. funny guy with a lot of butt jokes. one day i was leveling samurai and thought eh why not fight mr spiky butt? then i ate shit and died. and like. the moment i died i got a dm from a stranger. this player named "yuyu nekomata" was... asking me to join her fc?

fellas i have no idea how fc recruitments work. i don't know how this girl found me. so i thought. that this person. saw me get buttspiked to death. for no fucking reason, just being a shit gamer. and thought "yeah i want THAT guy to be in my fc, i gotta ask him to join right now"

i fucking lost it dude i laughed so hard i was fully crying. and then i said yes, ofc. best decision i ever made fr. also since i mentioned going to level my gatherers yuyu gave me like 10 sideritis cookies and i still have 6 in my inventory www

#2 i started playing in na actually, in coeurl, crystal bc dreamer was there and i wanted to meet him ingame haha. but the ping was horrendous and i could never avoid aoes. i started to suspect if orange aoes weren't actually unavoidable. i could only get through the hall of the novice "avoid aoes" training by using sprint (it has a 60 second cooldown!) and praying. and i thought man, i want to try raiding in the future, there's no way i can raid if i have to sprint out of every aoe. so i packed my bags and moved out to jp. basically just picked a dc and world at random? the english speaking jp server is elemental (literally every other indonesian ffxiv player is in elemental fml) but i went to mana instead. it's good out here though since mana has an active raiding scene and the queues are super fast :]

anyway the actual memory was when i remade my character and restarted arr and i went out into the world and aggro'd a monster AND I COULD STEP OUT OF THEIR AOE WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO avoiding damage has never felt so fucking good

#3 at a time when i couldn't play ffxiv, around after i finished base hvw but not the patches, i watched jocat's ffxiv stream vods on youtube. i kept watching until the last available video, when he'd finished the rak'tika section then detoured to do all the role quests. that was around endwalker's release so the guy was too busy streaming to upload the old vods. since twitch vods were only available for 2 weeks i skipped ahead and watched edw instead of waiting for more shb. i followed his streams to the very end, then went ahead and purchased ffxiv to finish shadowbringers on my own

i hadn't planned to play endwalker, for reasons. i finished 5.0, then i did the only thing left i wanted to do: the twinning. i wanted to jam out to a long fall, haha. and i did! it was a very fun run. i hadn't done alexander and omega yet so alex to me is a twinning boss first and foremost. the unlock quest's cutscene where we hear the message from the doomed timeline was so touching that i teared up. i felt satisfied. i was done with ffxiv! yay!

the story of why i decided to continue playing... is for someday in the future :)

#4 and so i did continue to play, and even finish endwalker. really though, the twinning wasn't the only thing i wanted to do. i wanted to try raiding, remember? and so i got to level 90, my first time at level cap, excitedly went to labyrinthos to try the pandaemonium raids, and

my item level is too low. noooooo!

i had no idea how to get gear. what the hell is a tomestone? why do i need so many of them?? i asked around to the raiders in our fc for tips. they told me some stuff about how to farm tomestones but i thought mannn that's gonna take so long though. so i went to the marketboard and bought the then-bis rinascita gear.

one of the guys i asked, koi, saw me at the sharlayan marketboard and went OH NO. i'd just bought the sabatons when he stopped me. koi told me, "this was supposed to be a surprise, but i'll say it so you don't waste your gil. actually yuyu has bought all the gear for you! please come to the fc house to receive it."

i was.. floored. i'd joined the fc while in the middle of playing shadowbringers, so it wasn't too long ago. i hadn't talked with anyone much, only saying hi when i see them pop in or out of the game. since i was too busy doing endwalker msq i couldn't play with the other members either (though we did go into the aitiascope and the mothercrystal together, it was such a blast). but they still gave me a ton of gear and raid food and gil for materia. man even now thinking about it i get choked up. these people are the nicest and i love them so much.

the time when i would have to stop playing ffxiv again was approaching, but i swore i would first clear at least the first savage trial of abyssos when it came out, to show my friends how much i appreciated their help. i'm still holding onto this promise now.

#5 savage is hard. oh my god is it hard. i have to admit to giving up because my internet connection is very unstable, i get a lot of lags and disconnects, and devour is an extremely unforgiving mechanic with lag. i only went back to high-end content with golbez. his trial is extremely attractive for me to prog because the mechanics are mostly forgiving and easy to learn. the only one that has me by the throat is void comet rain (void stardust? idk i learned this from jp resources so) since that one is unforgiving with lag lol. and it took me a good while to prog this trial. i gave up again when 6.5 released with a new extreme, zeromus, and went for that one instead. actually getting to see enrage for the first time ever was very motivating, but i just... i like golbez a lot. i want to clear the voidcast dais extreme first, as it was the new goal i'd set after p5s broke me. so i tried again! and

i did it baybeeee hahahaha! we were a "learn from the beginning" party that was supposed to go on for only 1 meal. but at the 30 minute mark we got to like 7% and i was the only one left alive and i was like no, no we can't stop here LET ME SOLO HIM! LET ME SOLO GOLBEZ I'M A WARRIOR I CAN DO THIS IN NORMAL MODE SURELY EXTREME IS NO DIFF(explodes to void meteor)

we put it to a vote if we want to continue progging, and everyone unanimously agreed. so one final pull! in which i fucking died to void comet rain like a chump! but we ended up clearing well before enrage!! yaaaayyy!!! i got my first ever endwalker extreme clear, and also somehow the weapon coffer despite being the only one (probably) who messed up. sorry everyone ;p all the luck goes to the most undeserving in the party! now i just need to farm the mount and the golbez minion from the lunar subterrane and i will have my full golbez regalia. this is my current goal www

anyway since we're already here have a bonus sweet memory, last christmas one of the fc members, kou, gave us all drawings of our wols! look at the gang all here /;w;)/

answer correctly or else i will have to write more smut to set things right

talking about the other fc members under the cut www

from the left that's koi, one of our serious raiders. the guy is such a troll, he taught me by force to play better bc when someone else dares take the tanking role from him he will run off alone and aggro everything in sight, cuz fuck you. he did also accompany me progging both p5s and golbez and taught me a lot about tanking and communicating in pf :]

second is yuyu, our most wonderful guild leader! she's sweet and kind and loves to shower the rest of us with gil from her billionaire coffers. she's the best. beside her is hoshi, who is a pretty cool person but she's been taking breaks a lot. she's our healer for treasure map runs and it's always hilarious w her there

the bunnyboy is skyler, our most chill and cool guy B) he's a vtuber on tiktok i think? he maintains our main discord server and is usually the one organizing fc events with yuyu. also the sage main who always takes the job to heal the rest of us tank-dps mains www

lastly beside tart that's kou! i hadn't met her a lot at the start and that was because she has a very serious raiding static. she did the omega protocol ultimate, THE hardest fight in ffxiv, on patch. it was nuts. she was in that dimensional rift 24/7 lmao. she's also an artist and always has the best glams and has gotten into gposing too, a real ffxiv renaissance man. kou does old extreme/savage content for fun and often gifts the rest of us special crafted weapons that glow. like the tsukuyomi sword, my beloved

there are other members but that's all for now! thanks if you're reading this far hahah

[silvertws]

Mh yes, I could have been obsessed over I don't know... mythology, dinosaurs, maybe some more known media like Percy Jackson.

But no.

I got obsessed, over Minecraft steves.

You've read that right.

FUCKING MINECRAFT STEVES.

CURSE YOU YOUTUBE FOR YOU PAGE.

I could have been watching maybe good quality Rps.

But no.

One video, and I was already hooked.

Goddamn it.

You know how many different series I've watched up until now?

Let me show you.

First video was episode 118 of "The Legends of the Balancers" back when it just came out, then I kept watching from there and after I finished that I decided to watch it from the start.

And you may think "surely 100+ episodes of a Minecraft Steve saga satisfied their needs" right...?

WRONG.

I.kept.going.

Bedrock Rising, Ruined Reality, Steve Saga (no, not Sabre's one, I tried that one but uh... I couldn't bring myself to enjoy it, I do love his newest series tho!), Ore Quest prime, A dark soul, Crimson Life Origins, and AT LEAST another one that I can't remember the name of- ToT it even was a log one I'm pretty sure. AHHHHHH

Oh and yes.

This all happened in less than a month.

I have a problem.

But it's fine :}

THIS IS MAKING ME WANT TO MAKE A FANON OC- WHY- WHY DO I EVEN HAVE A STORYLINE IN MIND- WHY AM I LIKE THIS.

AND. I STILL DON'T KNOW HOW TO DRAW THEM MFS-

LIKE WHAT.

like sure, I have head canons, I have made some sketches, BUT HOW.

Like, take FUCKING TIME STEVE-

IS IT A MASK? IS IT A FLOATING CLOCK HEAD? IS IT A CLOCK FUSED WITH HIS FACE?

I don't know.

It just exist.

oh and let's talk about THE FACT THAT THEY ALL WEAR THE SAME FUCKING SHIT-

MY MANS, I AM HORRIBLE AT DESIGNING OUTFITS, GIVE ME SOMETHING TO WORK WITH PLEASE.

I am going insane.

I am now attached to all of these characters.

Yes.

All of them.

I cannot help myself.

I have low standards I know, I'm well aware-

Anyway.

Someone should really make a Bingo for those series like:

"Naive AF mc, Darkness Go brr, Fought a God, Got mind controlled, has multiple people in their head, is in the WRONG DIMENSION, uses a crystal of some sort, L i g h t, music is loud AF and I cannot hear what you're saying, puberty hit during the series so the voice just changed, Sabre (which, I can exuse cuz yk, it's Sabre), got created by an all powerful being, is supposedly very powerful but somehow loses pretty often ngl (sorry <3), amnesia..." and so.much.more.

Which isn't bad, cause they're all unique in their own way <3

I mostly find that funny :3 they are all based off the same thing after all, so it makes sense.

I swear I am a responsible and serious adult.

I just uh... Like funky stuff ig-

Don't come at me please :'}

I feel like you can see my road trip to madness here.

Don't worry, this happens everytime I hyperfixate on anything.

Well, anything that I can't really talk about with any of my friends because they don't know and I don't want to bother them because if I start talking about the lore...

I won't stop.

You will have to stop me, knock me out or something.

I know my friend will read this, so *hi* :}

[woaddragoon-nadya]

Predicting the end of 2.55

Just finished up the fight for Ishgard, but I haven't started crystal tower yet so I'll give my thoughts just to see what comes of them. Also just some of my thoughts on stories/characters

Spoilers for 2.0 onwards below!

1. Betrayal of the Braves

I think the leader of the Braves is going to backstab Alphinaud. Obviously he's still alive given the trailers, but I think maybe the leader turns the Braves into an evil organization? I don't see any promo materials after this that include them. Idk he for sure killed that other kid. I just don't see the benefit other than money. Maybe he's a monetarist?

2. Alphinaud is SUPER immature

Alphinaud is pissing me off. Still love him, but he is just so naive. "You guys are the absolute worst for not helping Ishgard!! 😡😡"

The Admiral (being logical) "We have to farm out jobs to WOL because we don't have enough people for our own problems? Also we literally JUST had a war that killed hundreds (if not thousands) of soldiers? That Ishgard didn't help with? WOL also just uncovered a double agent within the Flames even though Ul'dah is already on the edge of collapse? Where are we getting soldiers from??" And Alphinaud, who really shouldn't even be at this meeting, gets mad at her! Buddy this is a stupid hill to die on!!

They always say the Alphinaud is the negotiator but I'd argue like half of the other scions would be better candidates. It always is so weird to me that everyone calls him "Commander Leveilleur." He looks and acts like he's 19 (coming from a 19 year old)! Surely Papalymo, Y'shtola, Thancred, or hell even Urianger would be better? Somebody more mature with fewer anger issues.

3. Losing the Light

Also, maybe its just the RPer in me, but I really wish there was more emphasis on WoL losing the light. Hopefully that'll come after the crystal tower quests? Imagine you're the chosen one. The fabric of the universe decides to make you her sword. And some dead fuckin dragon just takes it away for no reason? The main reason anybody gives a shit about WoL is because they are so powerful and special. So the fact that we can't tell anyone that a part of us got ripped away? Minfilia goes "aw that sucks." And we just don't do anything else? Moonbryda probably would've lived if we still had the light. And we aren't IMMEDIATELY swords/wands blazing killing the thing that did that to us?

Every time my WOL shrugs when asked how she's doing I want to tell at the screen. Like "Babes, you're TRAUMATIZED. Everybody uses you for their personal benefit. You just lost like half your ability to fight the people you are famous for fighting. Say something please!" And she does not.

4. Tarturu future?

My final note: If Tarturu dies I'll riot. Idk I'm terrible with facial expressions so maybe it wasn't meant to be sinister but her send off at the end of her little quest is making me nervous.

5. Final Thoughts

I absolutely adore FFXIV, and I hope this doesn't make anybody think I don't. Most of it is great. I'm super happy to be working with Cid and his crew for the Crystal Tower because they were by far my favorite part of ARR. I've really been enjoying the 8-mans even though I fucked one up earlier by not looking up the mechanics beforehand (what a way to be introduced to tank busters lol). It's just some of the story stuff that can be a little frustrating. I know that shrugging off your trauma is kind of just the way it goes with MMORPGs but knowing that doesn't make me feel any better y'know?

[mrslittletall]

So, it is the last day of the year... Let's reflect, shall we... You probably all know what happened at the end of last year. My husband got sick, I brought him to the hospital thinking it is an easy fix and then he was basically dying with sepsis. So yeah, that was... not great. Especially with all the complications that arose. He is home now, but he is not healthy yet. We have at least one surgery left and it will happen in January and then I hope he can finally go into rehab for good. The good news are, he is getting better and better at home, he even can stand for a few seconds, so I am positive a proper rehab can be done towards the end. He will be disabled for a good while though. Anyway, this year has been a challenge, both emotionally and physically, because I was suddenly alone and had to handle things that my husband normally does. I kinda realized I am stronger than I look then because carrying two sixpacks of 1,5 l water bottles was impossible for me once. It isn't anymore. I tried being creative when I found time, but I had to admit to myself that it isn't happening somewhen in Summer, so I went on hiatus, only writing when I truly had nothing else to do and going on a complete art hiatus. I miss it though. I want to write and draw regularly again, but there are still too many things in my mind. Mainly the stuff with my driver's licence because for some reason me running to my husband in hospital while in distress and accidentally damaging a car while parking which I didn't even notice is a warrant to punish me really really hard. I am still salty about that, yes! So how did I cope? Easily with indulging myself in video games: Let me put that under the cut:

When the thing with my husband first happened I barely was able to do anything. I was mostly cleaning and tidying up the apartment and then watch videos on Youtube because if I broke out in tears during this it was easy to pause and blow my nose. It took a few days and my husband getting better so that I could try and do other stuff again. And I really really indulged myself into Pokémon Scarlet. The games were pretty fresh during that time and I played them a little but not much, but now... I was hooked. I had days off work and if I wasn't visiting my husband, I would sit in front of my Switch and play Pokémon Scarlet and my god, did I love it! The story, the characters, the open world, the music... yes they are technical not well programmed, but I did never mind because that game gave me a peace of mind. Even after I finished the story I sat there each evening doing the Tera Raids. I love the Tera raids. Gen. 9 games are easily my favourite Pokémon games since Gen. 4 and funnily enough, when Gen. 4 came out I also had a hard time in my life, so I guess Pokémon is like my therapy game now... But of course I wasn't playing Pokémon the whole year. After I was done with it, I decided to finally finish Darkest Dungeon with a little help of one of my Discord servers. I pretty much only had the Darkest Dungeon left, but it takes a while because a group that went into it will never enter it again, so you basically have to level up four teams for each quest and that only if you don't fail it. Anyway, I had the game on hiatus for a whole year, so it felt good to finally finish it. And then I was like "Oh, I remember Anno 1800. I bought the History version a while ago but never played it. Let's do it." I then installed the game and was like "Hmmm, maybe I should get the other DLCs as well?" and they were on sale so I just got the last pack and started Anno 1800 with all DLCs activated.

And I got hooked for the first part of 2023. God, I played this game a lot. I also streamed it to friends so they could indulge in the towns that are being build up. Me and my friend Panda called it the "Autism game" because it basically is like building up your own miniature model town, only that everything is alive and moves around. The game however, can get overwhelming, especially with all DLCs, so I wasn't able to play it lately. I want to come back to it though. I also got myself into the Cooking Mama games when I was depressed and browsed Amazon for used DS games to see if I can get some nice deals. I bought the first Cooking Mama, tried it and was hooked. After a while I decided to buy the rest of the series and had five games to play for my DS and 3DS. I finished them all and they were a really good time. They also renewed my interest in trying new recipes at home, but that has to wait until my husband is better. And then I downloaded Final Fantasy 14, in an attempt to connect better to my husband because he played this game a lot before he became sick. I quickly got hooked, mostly because of the music. I upgraded to the full game even before I finished Heavensward (which is included in the free trial) and am currently at Endwalker and wow, just wow! There are flaws of course, but this story has been a roller coaster and I really have fun with the group content like the dungeons and the alliance raids and stuff! I hope my husband can go back to his character soon (his hands bother him still so he doesn't want to play) so we can play together. And that after I was like "Nah, after WoW I will never play a MMO again." Whoops... Speaking of Final Fantasy, in February TheatRhythm Final Bar Line released and I played the shit out of that game! I love the FF music, I love rhythm games, it is a match made in heaven. I even tried my hand on the supreme scores and they are truly super duper hard! Could only clear them with a full healer team, but playing them also meant that ultimate felt easy... I also played a charming indie game named Ato at the start of the year. It is basically a Metroidvania bossrush, but a really really good one with hidden lore you can find in the world. The final boss had me in tears and the music was so so good! I wholeheartedly recommend this game. It isn't super long either, you can finish that game in eight to ten hours depending on your skill.

In summer there released the new Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons games, but I kinda wasn't hooked with them. I will probably play them more once my husband is better. Instead, however, I got hooked by Rune Factory 3. I bought both 3 and 4 Special Edition for my Switch and decided to play 3 for and this game is so charming and I love the characters a lot and the gameplay loop is fun and ugh, why didn't I play these games sooner?! Yeah, I played RF3 a lot and I still have to finish it, but my husband mostly has the Switch at the moment and he deserves it after being away for a whole year ^^ Speaking of the Switch, Metroid Prime Remastered! My birthday gift for myself. The game is as fantastic as ever and even though I didn't 100 % it, I got a lot of the items and then beat the final boss. And speaking of big Nintendo IPs, Zelda Tears of the Kingdom. Like BotW it needed a while to grip me, but once it did, I was fascinated! I still have to finish it however, it is a big game and it will keep me busy for a while longer. Now it is the end of the year. I am still busy with FF14 and Zelda ToTK. Pokémon DLC released and I wanna play that. And I bought Lies of P for my PS5 and love it so far! I am updating you guys about Lies of P regularly and sometimes about FF14 and Zelda. Also, I decided to use my Steamdeck more, so I play a dungeon crawler named Silent Hope on it (from the Story of Seasons developers, that got me interested) and I started a cozy game named Potion Permit. Of course I threw my Laurence into it. Feels fitting for him to be a chemist xD What will the new year bring? Hopefully my husband will be better and will be able to walk again. Other than that, I hope that I keep my licence. And then... I just hope that I can continue being creative and if not... I keep playing my games.