#I haven't done the new story quest yet but

[lunaetis]

[ finished f.rieren ! I LOVE IT SM UGHHHH. WHAT A GOOD SERIES. now i'm going to speedrun the hsr story & event then back to wuwa events & quests ! so many games, so little time hjkhlk ]

[tastycitrus]

Neinheart: Alright, knight, your first mission will be— *he stops short upon seeing level 260+ Dawn Warrior* Neinheart: Dawn Warrior: Dawn Warrior, sweating: The remaster reset my story quest progress and I never bothered to replay it until now because I need to complete it for the artifact mission, okay?

[valwrote]

I had a brain dead idea after suffering from wriothesely brainrot courtesy of catching up to the Fontaine story quest uptill version 4.1 story. I haven't finished 4.2 story yet.

Meet arranged marriage idea, ft. rizzly (wriothesely) + fem!reader

What if the reader is some high class lady in Fontaine and has been brought up with a silver spoon. They end up marrying Wriothesely because their father sold them off for political power and status and over all terrible family dynamics between the reader and their aristocratic family. The reader is treated as a burden in their family, constantly nitpicked on (sticking to etiquette and eloquent behavior is hard.)

Wriothesely who's permanent abode is the Fortress and is the king of a no man's land, doesnt leave the Fortress much, isn't seen by many. When the reader first enters the Fortress for the first time they are like lowkey grossed out like "what is this dump?" and casually offending prisoners because thats the way the reader has been brought up and childhood teachings aren't changed in one night.

Yes, the reader is bratty because it is a weird change of pace for someone who grew up in lavish white halls and greenery getting sent into dark, eerie depths of the sea.

And the prisoners don't like their new Duchess (reader) and neither does the reader like the prisoners. Wriothesely tries to make the marriage work out by taking the reader on tours, throwing small surprises, showing them various fishes through the clear windows, attempting to cook homely foods for the reader with sigewinne's help, probably telling nem about fortress's past , how the prisoners are actually nice, doing cute fun things to get the reader to like the Fortress and convince them that it is a good place in it's own way.

The reader starts to like wriothesely (who doesnt like rizzly tho-) as nobody had done so much but still wants to return back to the overworld and its luxuries because of sense of longing.

Reader ends up helping someone who didn't had coupon vouchers out of generosity because that prisoner was starving and nobody could help because they were saving their coupon vouchers and that person is grateful to them and then they return the gesture by doing something sweet and then all other prisoners like the duchess too because they realise that the duchess (reader) is nice and the duchess is accepted as a part of the Fortress family.

The reader is like touched and agrees to stay but then her sucky family comes back to take her as whatever the marriage contract was, ended but the reader is like

"No I am staying here."

"But daughter, the contract of your marriage to the duke ended."

"Well father, who said I can't marry him again? You don't see me complaining."

I dont know, it sounded cool in my head.

BUT LOOK AT HIM WOAH?

©definitelysel

do not steal/copy/plagarise/translate.

[fyeahaudiodrama]

Happy @podcastgirlsweek to all who celebrate! While I haven't had the time to properly work on fics (and probably won't this week because oops, hurt my hands yesterday) I still wanted to take the time to highlight some favorite podcast girlies along with everyone else!

The prompt for Monday is highlighting podcasts with women in the leading roles, so here's a few of mine (and hopefully, some new ones of yours if you don't know them yet):

Back Again, Back Again: Ilyaas, you absolutely fantastic disaster of a fantasy ace, never stop trying.

Breathing Space: While the show is anthology with a rotating cast, some of my favorites from across its run include:

Evie Yuriskin

Amity Archer

Any characters who were introduced one episode and then started referring to each other as "my wife" by the end or by their next appearance

Camlann: Some apocalypse survivors interpret dangerous dreams about dark magic to cope. Some knit sweaters. Both are valid and should kiss.

City of Ghosts: Featuring the grungy, disgruntled, tormented-by-visions LADY detective of your dreams.

Desperado: Take note - give your ladies knives. And god powers. And witchcraft. And a sniper rifle, for good measure.

Do You Copy?: I think [REDACTED] deserves three weeks of paid vacation

Fawx & Stallion: Madge Stallion is THE moment. She's six feet tall. She can't stop making innuendos. She's not your fucking Mrs. Hudson (although, she is - no, I shan't say).

Hi Nay: Mari & Laura are my everything - the loving and self-sacrificing hero and the newfound friend who chooses to stand by her side (fire axe and all).

Inn Between: Oh, my Inn Between girlies, where do I start? Fina and Betty, the OGs and life partners that even death couldn't stall? Rosie and Zara, the new best pals who chose to stay together? Phoebe, just one step at a time learning what she deserves and what she doesn't? All impeccable, A+.

It Makes A Sound: Any show focused on music is going to be a slam dunk for me, but Deirdre's quest to reclaim her memories as well as those that tied her to her mother is so damn real and compelling.

The Kingmaker Histories: No female character in this show has ever done anything wrong. Colette gets a migraine pass. Ariadne can turn people inside out. Daphne is owed this for working in a theme park.

Life With LEO(h): Janiiiiiine, so messy and smart and dedicated and she cares so much, I love yoooooou.

Me and AU: Kate's worries and desires and doubts are some of the realest out of any audio drama so when do I find an Ella too

Palimpsest: My faaaaavorite gothic horror anthology, each one fresh with a different brand of haunted, tormented, secret-keeping (and quite frequently gay) gothic protagonist

The Pasithea Powder: Jane and Sophie. Sophie and Jane. What more could you need? <3

The Silt Verses: Women who start cults/leave cults/seek an end to the endless cycle of meaningless sacrifice as so valid. For all your wet cat(fish) woman needs.

Second Star to the Left: Because I always love a good Ishani performance. Hi Gwen, please tell Boots I love them.

Small Victories: You want sad wet cat women? How about one that literally can't stop self-sabotaging (but at least manages to draw the line at sabotaging others...occasionally). She even gets stabbed!

Starfall: I mean, kind of a given, but anyway, Leona definitely exists because she's the kind of action protagonist woman I always wanted - one that could be unapologetically powerful, but still full of flaws and desires (especially ones that weren't about falling in love and minimizing her own strengths). She's even autistic!

Stories From Ylelmore: Keryth! Keryth, Keryth, Keryth! She reminds me so much of the kinds of characters I would make up when I was younger - I love her and her small magic so dearly.

The Strange Case of Starship Iris: Hi queer space pirates <3

Unseen: Another anthology show, but Harry Winters and Never-Ending Circles remains one of the most perfect premiere episodes I've ever heard in audio drama.

The Way We Haunt Now: Get your podcast ladies here, dead or alive!

We Fix Space Junk: My favorite type of repairman is a woman who could kick my ass.

Wolf 359: I don't think I need say much more here - y'all know and love 'em just as much as I do.

[kopivie]

share some hades!wrio headcanons? I'm actually SO invested i'm going to die

oh! i think i can come up with a few! it'll probably be some facts about him, and maybe some writing? (note: i'm coming back after finishing this and.. i got so carried away.)

(also as a side note, if i were to write a fic about this, i might use a lot of greek/ancient greek terms and words, so if you see something like that, please don't be alarmed.)

first and foremost, i'm definitely clinging to That One Part of wriothesley's canon lore of him abandoning the name given to him before his murder trial. canonically, he just picked up the name "wriothesley" from an obituary because he didn't want to use the one his foster parents gave him. what that name was, we will probably never know (unless it's said in his story quest, which i haven't done yet.) that said, allow me to jump into my hades!wriothesley hcs :D

"wriothesley" is a name that very few actually use. much like canon, people often refer to him as "your grace". however, he has many, many monikers; "the duke of meropide" and "king of the underworld" are just two of many.

underworld residents (or to overworlders, meropide prisoners) coined a bunch of new terms to refer to the elusive duke: aides or aidoneus (meaning "the unseen" or "the invisible one"), orcus (meaning "killer" or "the one who kills"), ditis pater/dis pater/dis (all meaning something along the lines of "rich one"), or clymenus (meaning "the illustrious" or "the revered one")

note: these are all actual names used to refer to hades in greek mythology.

no one calls him those names to his face or in his presence. those names are spoken in whisper -- saying any of those names seems to evoke a physical reaction to anyone who may have been in the fortress long enough to understand the weight behind those names.

hades!wriothesley is not a benevolent being. he is extremely objective. he seldom makes emotional decisions, which leads people to believe that at times, he has no emotions to speak of. (which isn't true, obviously.) his impartial decisions have cost many a life.

i think that because he doesn't rely on his emotions when making many decisions, that is the reason why he goes overboard when it comes to you. it's a little like shaking an unopened soda bottle for an hour and then suddenly opening the top.

wriothesley's love overflows, it gushes, it stains everything it touches. it seeps into every pore and changes you from the inside out. the problem with this, however, is that you resist this change initially.

you are receptive to his... i don't wanna call it advances, since that often has a negative connotation. wriothesley is anything but pushy and inappropriate. he's gentlemanly and chivalrous, so much so that you almost want to scream sometimes. let's call it courting — you allow him to court you, although you keep him at a distance.

why do you keep him at a distance? i... don't really know. perhaps someone can send in a suggestion. but the point is that you don't fully indulge yourself -- sometimes you do, but you become slightly distant and apologetic afterwards. wriothesley understands and is happy to be patient with you, but...

i think my suggestion for your hesitancy would be that you can feel the love that he exudes, and it scares you. you're afraid of what might happen if you allow yourself to sink too deep.

and that... that is probably why you resent him when he takes you to the fortress. that's part of the reason, anyhow. you were afraid of drowning and he literally took you to the bottom of the sea. in a metaphorical sense, he basically tied a brick to your ankles and dragged you down to his own depths against your will. you can't fight, you can't resist -- you can only endure. that is why you're angry with him.

"why do you resent me so?"

hades has the audacity to ask you such a question as you study a flower that he'd brought back from his latest visit to the overworld. you hadn't known of his departure, but when he gifted you this fresh plant, you felt something ugly and bitter stir within you. you became fixated on it, deciding to hole yourself up in your room to spend time with the only thing that gave you peace. you don't react to his question.

he stays quiet for a while, but he doesn't leave. after about five minutes, he inquires again. "please, blossom. i must know. i just wish to make you happy."

you all but slam your hand down on your desk. "happy? you want to make me happy?" you haven't raised your voice, but your tone is as icy as the vision that dangles from his clothing. "set me free. let me go home."

wriothesley is quiet again. "...will you at least look at me?"

the wetness in your eyes forces you to shake your head. "you haven't earned my gaze."

"and what must i do to earn it?"

"i've already told you."

"what else must i do?"

that gets you to turn around. "why are you so stubborn? what is preventing you from letting me go? you yourself can wander between the realms freely, but i can't?" your eyes sting with unshed tears, though the sensation doesn't last long. your frame trembles as you cry, and wriothesley cups your face to wipe the tears away. "do not touch me." you hiss at him.

wriothesley gives you a humorless smile. "you're not pushing me away."

...he's right. why aren't you pushing him away? "you haven't earned the right to touch me."

"haven't i?" hades is leaning in closer. you can smell peppermint on his breath. did he drink tea before coming? his thumb caresses your cheek. your eyes list to the side. "blossom," he calls you. "please."

you have a hard time resisting when he begs you like this. you hate how you let him get away with murder. he's trapped you here against your will, denied you of your freedom, and yet you still allow him to treat you like a deity. you allow him to do as he pleases. you don't feel threatened by him, no -- what you feel is his sincerity. his longing. his love.

you lock eyes with wriothesley. he's sharing a breath with you now. "wh-what do you want?" you ask. "you've already taken everything from me. how greedy can one man be?"

wriothesley's eyes glimmer in the lamplight. you can feel his gaze drop to your lips. his voice is noticeably deeper when he asks, "do you want to find out?"

you're not sure what you feel when he kisses you. the kiss is soft, sweet, and tastes of peppermint. his lips are warm, as is the rest of him. he licks into your mouth slowly and patiently, and you don't fight him.

because really, you've never wanted to push him away. you want to accept wriothesley for who he is, bloodied hands and all. you want him almost as bad as he wants you. and yet you just can't accept him in his entirety-- not as he is now. not when he's secretive and evasive. but his affection gives you some reprieve; his love gives you peace overwhelming, so much so that you let your own feelings shine through in moments like these.

you end the kiss first. you pull away, breathless, though you notice that he doesn't move an inch. after a brief silence, you finally speak. "you're too much for me." you murmur. "you'll be death of me."

wriothesley takes your hands in his. "for as long as i rule the underworld," he replies, "death will never find you. and that's a promise."

(also obligatory catte tag bc i need a fellow wrio lover to see this 🫡🩷 @catcze)

(p.s.: lemme know if i shouldn't tag you in this stuff, okay?)

[be-it-so]

Okay, I lied, I'm not done with vengeance saga.

For some reason I'm still so angry and sad because of it, that I need to criticize it more or I won't be able to sleep.

I'm again so fucking disappointed, the whole saga felt like some kind of joke. I mean, the song I was worried the most about - "not sorry for loving you - turned out to be the most normal one. Like, yeah, Calypso is still very selfish and manipulative, Odysseus just want to be as far from her as possible and etc, I don't like that we are clearly expected to sympathise with her, but you know, in the context of this saga I'll go with it.

Dangerous felt a little overdone. I love Hermes, "wouldn't you like" was my favorite song for a long time, and maybe compared to it "Dangerous" is trying so much to go with the same vibe, but feels so deliberate about this.

I don't have much to say about "Charybdis" because there is nothing really to talk about, visuals were great, but everything felt so rushed, and also so meaningless, like they just needed to show at least one obstacle for Odysseus before Poseidon and nothing more.

And, yeah...

"Get in the water" and "600 strikes".

If you haven't guessed it yet, I'm very disappointed.

First of all, it is a lot weaker musically that I've expected. Okay, maybe there are good. Maybe I just am not able to hear this, because through these two songs I just stared at the screen with the confused and disappointed look, so I wasn't able to enjoy music or acting on its own.

Second, I was so interested in "get in the water", i liked the snippet we had so much before. It was so cool, emotional, and dark. I was so invested in finding out how Odysseus could escape this, what he might have said to change Poseidon's mind, maybe expected there to be some gesture towards the Odyssey, where Odysseus would tell Poseidon that he will go on this quest with the oar and so on. Also, i hoped to finally see "snake tongued" Odysseus in action because, like, that's what he is the most known about, for his mastery in words.

But this?

This was so bad. It also feels so fucking disrespectful to Poseidon, like, don't get me wrong, i like the change in power balance, I love when a character who wasn't able to do anything at some point now is beating the shit out of his former abuser and etc, BUT THIS IS NOT WORKING WITH THE GODS AND MORTALS IN GREEK MYTHOLOGY. AND THIS IS NOT WORKING WITH POSEIDON AND ODYSSEUS, THE STORY OF THE ODYSSEY IS NOT ABOUT HOW TO BECOME STRONG ENOUGH TO BEAT THE GOD. IT IS SO FAR OFF!

Like, yeah, the original is neither about "learning that you need to be ruthless to be able to return home if that's what you want so much", but there is difference in the level of what level of getting things wrong is normal and can be called "creative liberties" and what level is just bad. If you wanted so much for Odysseus to show how ruthless he became, well, we've already seen "different beast" to show us his cruelty, don't you think that maybe if they showed us how epic-Odysseus is able to put aside all the men Poseidon has killed and all of the pain he himself have gone through because of Poseidon and just talk with him, bargaining about his own life or something like this it would have also shown his ruthless side in a new way and be so much more believable? Even if he pulled out "there are other ways" move I think I would belive it more than that he is able to defeat Poseidon, the god of SEA, STORMS and EARTHQUAKES, PHISICALLY, in the SEA, with the STORM and fucking power of friendship (no, I will not stop calling it like this).

You know, I have a lot more to say about this, but I guess i'll stop with this. I guess I feel so bad about it because I really liked epic, yeah, I had problems with it, but I considered it nice adaptation even if it's kind of far from the source material, it felt very good and respectful to the original Odyssey, but now it became this. So yeah, I'm really disappointed.

And also, even if epic Odysseus was somehow able to defeat a god, what the fuck will stop epic Poseidon from returning after couple of months recovery and just wipe whole Ithaca off the face of the earth after such offense and shame? Like literally what? Or little epic Poseidon is now so afraid of big bad epic Odysseus that wouldn't bare even think about his name again?

[alitheakorogane]

My Genshin Impact SAGAU Masterlist

Made a master list for my SAGAU content so you won't get lost. Will be updated with new content.

Will always be updated as soon as a new SAGAU content comes by!

Reader's Protection Squad Series (SAGAU Imposter AU)

Freedom's Protection (Mondstadt)

STATUS: Still in the works!

The Two Imposters - Our beloved protagonist had finally met the Anemo Archon himself. Is he really one of your allies in surviving in this world where people wanted to kill you for 'stealing' the face of the Divine Creator or is he one of them?

May the Anemo Archon Protect You - You were chased out by your beloved characters from Mondstadt who thought that you were the imposter that 'stole' the face of the person you remembered who never even exist in the game files. Meanwhile, their own disguised Archon had done something stupid that could change everything forever.

A Blasphemy or The Truth? - Venti's outburst shocks everyone, making the people of Mondstadt question everything they knew about their Archon.

Stirring Up a Hurricane - The bomb was finally dropped, leaving nothing but a series of chain reactions spreading around the area... Literally. Venti revealed himself as the Anemo Archon Barbatos to his people as a last resort for defending you, causing the entire nation of Mondstadt to go into chaos.

The Eye of the Anemo Archon's Anguish - Venti had accidentally raised a wind barrier to defend you, your friends, and himself... but it caused some people to suffer the brunt of the Swirl reaction and activated his underlying trauma, causing him to lose control of his emotions and his power. As he was getting close to a nervous breakdown, the people noticed that the skies above the city of Mondstadt are starting to change.

Please Forgive Me - Venti tries to visit you while you're still recovering from your injuries and tries to apologize. At the same time, you found out the truth about the Divine Creator from Venti.

----------

Glitching Impact (Corrupted Game SAGAU)

STATUS: Title is STC, while still plotting ideas for this concept...

The Original Corrupted Game!SAGAU Concept of

Corrupted Game!SAGAU, but loosely based on Wreck-It Ralph...

Plot twist Idea Based on Corrupted Game!SAGAU

---------

Random SAGAU Oneshot Stories

"Who's your favorite Genshin Impact character?"

Just A Normal Genshin Impact Game Time...Is It?

SAGAU featuring the Unusual Hilichurl (Wei)

---------

SAGAU Fanarts

Corrupted Game AU - Venti (Based on Faceless Ayato concept)

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Random SAGAU Ideas and Thoughts

What if the Seven Gnoses are actually fragments of the Divine Creator's Soul?

What would happen if Venti got the same treatment as the Reader in those angsty SAGAU fics?

SAGAU and Regarding the Artifacts!

Short Villain!SAGAU Dialogue (1)

Short Villain!SAGAU Dialogue (2)

SAGAU (Imposter AU), but you have a snarky personality and a fiery tongue.

My SAGAU Playlist (Imposter AU) - PART ONE

Heights in SAGAU

Wishing for Characters Despite You Haven't Met Them Yet In-Lore

Kaveh: From a Humble Architect to a Man of Destruction? (Based on the now-confirmed recent hack using Kaveh)

Imagine Playable Characters Saying This (Screenshot came from a quest in Genshin Impact 4.8)

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Reply to SAGAU-related Asks from Anon

How I Will Portray the Archons In My Twist of the Imposter AU

Venti's Characterization In Reader's Protection Squad

U alive???

A Teaser for The Eye of the Anemo Archon's Anguish

We will give him the best treatment that our beloved Venti deserves.

--------

Random Incorrect Quotes for SAGAU

Among Us

Arrows With Love

Does Barbatos even know the existence of dental hygiene?

Chased Out By Obsessed People

Venti reacting on his SAGAU!Imposter/Cult AU self and his insane actions

Making Fun of Venti's Terrible Aim

Zhongli's Meteors Probably the Cause of the Dinosaurs' Extinction

Memory of Dust

Peace Was Never An Option

A Suggestion: Drinking Contest

[cellard0ors]

Okay so there’s been a few instances with 80’s Travis jerking it thinking of Laura (and hopefully many more 😌) but what about Laura thinking about HIM? And that pairing with her knowledge of him in the present / future and how she feels after the deed

Okay, so - a MILLION years later, I finally wrote this. Mainly to do a fun, smutty little dirty wherein Laura has some thoughts. It's not as deep as this prompt COULD have been, but hopefully it's enjoyable regardless!

Also, thanks to the skinny guy I saw at the gym who gave major 80s Travis vibes (glasses, brown hair, clearly dorky). Sir, you might have been a slim dude, but you handled that big ass dumbbell like it was no big thing!

This is all Travis Hackett's fault.

It was his fault in 2021 and it's his fault now in 1986. Granted, what he's at fault for currently is drastically different from what he did in Laura's regular timeline, but that's besides the point.

The man is a menace - in one form or another.

In his fifties, he was a menace who kept her prisoner for two months. In his twenties…

Laura growls and rolls over yet again. It's after midnight and she can't sleep. Not one wink. She's been struggling for hours. Not to mention a vicious thunderstorm is doing its very best to be as big, if not bigger, a nuisance than Travis.

Occasional flashes of bright white lightning and booms of thunder haven't done much to aid Laura in her quest to sleep. It's also staggeringly humid, even with the rain.

One would hope the storm would break the heat - not add to it. If anything, it's just made things feel…sticky. Or maybe that’s Travis. And her memory. And her stupid fucking libido.

Ever since she shared that ill-fated kiss with him here in the Lodge's music room, she’s found her long dormant sex drive ramping to life. Damn thing has been dead for over a year, yet here she is now - struggling with it.

She rolls over again, punchs at her pillow, scowls into it. Her memory replays the moment - not of their kiss, but of what she saw him doing today. It's so stupid. It shouldn't have affected her then and it shouldn't affect her now.

But it does.

Laura had been looking for him - looking just to tell him some information Zachariah wanted her to pass along about the change to the night's camp group activity.

Initially it had been for everyone to meet for a bonfire and ghost stories, but with the predicted weather forecast, it was changing to game night inside the Lodge.

Simple, easy enough news to pass along.

But when she found him…

Laura rubs her eyes and feels like a complete idiot. She remembers when her friends were all mooning over that Chris/Captain America guy when he did that stupid log chopping scene in that super hero movie - she hadn't gotten the thrill of it.

It was just some muscular guy doing a film scene. Hell, the one log he ripped in half was a fucking prop - not an actual log! What was the big deal? Why had they all been so stupidly horny over it?

God help her…now she knows.

Because Travis, completely unaware she was walking towards him, had been splitting hunks of wood. With an ax. Shirtless. Laura had stopped several feet short of him when she realized what she was witnessing.

Vaguely Laura recalled David mentioning Travis was no wimp - that he'd seen him cut a large amount of firewood - that he was strong. For several reasons, Laura had disregarded this piece of information.

At that moment, she regretted it.

Because Travis was working through each piece of wood like it was nothing. His movements were smooth and controlled. He raised the ax and dropped it down with a force that was…compelling.

Mainly because his arms were flexing with each chop and the wood he struck always parted neatly in two. He'd put a log on the chopping block, raise the ax, split it, and then repeat.

A clear sheen of sweat coated his bare flesh and while his lithe form didn't scream strength or muscle he…was. Strong. Muscled. Masculine. Travis just radiated all of it and Laura's throat went dry, heart pounding in her ears.

…and an unmistakable throb pitched between her legs and in her womb and she truly hated herself and him…

More so when he suddenly seemed to sense her. Travis looked up from his work, wiped at the sweat on his brow with the back of one arm and then turned to another nearby chopping block to grab his glasses.

Travis put them on and he was panting and shirtless and wearing 80s jeans and looking annoyingly attractive - more so when he beamed at her and gave a little wave, “Hey!”

Laura loudly and quickly blurted out what she needed to tell him before turning on her heels and stalking off. Thankfully he didn't follow. But now, here in her bedroom in the Lodge, it's as if he did.

Certainly the memory followed her around all day and another flash and boom makes her roll onto her back and pound both of her fists on the mattress in frustration. If only she could forget! If only she could sleep! If only…

Suddenly Laura goes lax, a rather naughty fact coming to her.

She’s alone in the Lodge. Yes, Zachariah’s bedroom is here as well, but she's hardly ever seen him use it. She has the sneaking suspicion the man sleeps elsewhere - after all, he’s hardly ever in the camp leader’s office.

And if she’s alone, well, there’s always one method of relaxation that helps her go to sleep. Shifting about, she removes her sleep shorts, her underwear. Laura toes them off to one side and she's pretty sure they fall off the small bed.

Sighing lazily, she closes her eyes and lets her hands stroke along the sides of her face, fingertips dancing over her lips. They roam down her neck, slightly ticklish, yet stimulating before both palms pass over her breasts.

Laura lightly squeezes them and tries to imagine it's someone else doing it. She tries to keep her lover faceless - she doesn't want to think of Max, that's long over, and she absolutely refuses to think of…

No.

She won't even think of his name, lest he be conjured up against her will.

Laura's hands soar down to the hem of her white camp T-shirt and she draws it up, exposing her breasts to the air. While it's still stifling inside the Lodge, the air on her bare chest can't help but make her nipples pucker and she goes for them, tweaking them just the way she likes.

She moans and arches her head back at the exquisite sensation, fingers working to roll and tease her tits until they're hard as diamonds. As her open palms press against them, Laura pictures a mouth on them instead, the feel of a wet tongue bathing them and whimpers.

It's exactly what she wants, but not what she has. Still, her imagination is good enough to make the fantasy feel damn near real. She can even see her lover’s dark, puppy dog eyes looking up at her searchingly, asking her without words if she likes this.

“Yessss…” She hisses and she wishes she could comb her fingers through his thick dark hair, clutch at it as she encourages him to take more of her breast into his mouth, to have him suck at it with abandon until she feels that undeniable pull.

But then his mouth disappears and his large palms move down to her thighs. They ease them apart, thick fingers dancing enticingly over the sensitive skin between her legs before moving up, lightly stroking a few fingers along her pussy’s slippery plump folds.

“Oh! You? You're…you're so wet...” His imaginary voice rings in her ears, choked with both excitement and awe. Laura tosses her head about again, feels strands of her long hair sticking to her skin as she moans.

“Travis!” Laura hears herself say his name and then he's clearly there, glasses and all. Out of her mind with lust, she doesn't question it or fight it anymore (her fighting it had been rather lackluster to begin with), and it especially becomes moot as the tender nub of her clit is carefully twisted.

A sharp cry leaves her, hips rising from the mattress and into the feeling. Her whole body shakes from head to toe, a tight coil forming in her center, her breathing choppy as those fingers fall to her entrance.

One enters her with only a little hesitation and she bites her lip, chews it as he husks, “You're so pretty…”

Who says something like that? Who says something so innocent, yet so hot and the finger moves slickly in and out of her honeyed channel. Pleasure washes over as he works methodically, smoothly - he splits her open just as easily as he did the wood and she can't help but choke out an odd chuckle at the idea of his wood.

Fuck - what would it be like? Would it be long and thick? Her and Max had had a field day suggesting he was limp and small or just dickless in general, but in this moment she pictures him as being an impressive size.

Big and solid and perfect for her to ride, for him to thrust deep into her without mercy and sometimes she likes it that way - rough and enthusiastic. Max had always been worried about hurting her, even as she joked that he should just rail her brains out.

…could Travis do that?

He seems so timid now - so gentle and sweet, but his older self…

And suddenly a second finger plunges deep into her, joining the first and both start to relentlessly hammer in and out of her with savage force and her Travis changes - becomes older and without glasses and with a confident sneer that borders on a smile as he works her over.

“You're hungry for this, aren't you, girl? You want me to make you scream.”

Laura doesn't know if she's shaking her head or nodding it, but she doesn't let him stop. If anything she rides his hand for all its worth, her inner walls squeezing at the intrusion and the pressure build at the base of her spine, in her pulsating loins and oh god, oh god, oh god!

She's completely unaware she's chanting the words aloud until they turn over to wordless, ear splitting cries and Travis looks down at her with a rabid intensity as he snarls, “That's it, cmon. C’mon, sweetheart - cum for me.”

One light flick of his thumb against her clit and she nearly jack-knifes off the bed, wailing his name repeatedly as she breaks apart. Her whole body spasms with ecstasy, her orgasm washing over her in a joyous rush.

Slowly her fingers stop their rapid movements, slowly they withdraw from her body. She gets unsteadily to her feet and goes to the bathroom, washing her hands.

Laura doesn't look at her reflection. She just cleans her hands and then stumbles back to the bed, her legs uneasy, the blood in her veins still singing.

She pulls the sheet over her nudity and Travis is there again, young again, and lying right next to her. She feels his hand brush over her hair, her shoulder and his words are tender, “I hope that helps you sleep, Laura.”

All she can manage is a hum, sleep so close to taking her that she doesn't even analyze why Travis is back - why he pleasured her with both his younger and older self - why she responded to both.

Instead Laura finally falls into the sleep that proved so elusive to her before, a happy smile on her face.

[formulaorange]

2024 Summer Anime

Sorry I'm late on this - I'm going back to school for a second degree this fall so it's been chaos Lots to look forward to for this season!!

Oshi No Ko - Season 2 Such a killer series that I think a lot of people have been looking forward to the second season. They did a great job giving us something to look forward to in the story. Must Watch Noteworthy On-Going Shows: Tensura - Season 3 MHA - Season 7 New Seasons:

Fairy Tail: 100 Year Quest This series was one of my first "longer" shows and I still love the original series. I know it really fell off with the 2014 reboot and the ecchi scenes were ramped up but I think 100 Year Quest gives it a nice fresh start now that people kind of know what to expect.

Additional New Seasons: Kimi ni Todoke: Season 3 A romance drama that my friend has tried to get me to watch for over a decade now. Tower of God - Season 2 I never finished season 1, but I've heard that this series is supposed to be highly reviewed and anticipated. Will go back and watch season 1 to catch up. Shy - Season 2 After letting this series sit for a minute, I'm not entirely sure I'll go back and watch the second season. I think there's definitely an audience for it, but I've got my list full of other priority shows at the moment.

New Noteworthy Shows: There's lots here for everyone this season.

Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction This is a big one I didn't realize was getting an anime adaptation. This is one of the highest rated manga series, I'd say of all time. I'm hyped to watch it. Done by a new studio called Production +h, the style looks perfect.

The Elusive Samurai This is a fairly new shonen jump series that has gained a lot of traction in the manga community. I haven't had a chance to check it out yet, but I've heard good things.

Rick and Morty (Anime) I have so many mixed feelings about this one. I love Rick and Morty but man, and I don't know if I want see them in Japanese/Anime since it's literally already an animations series - but then I realized, because it's produced by the same studio this could be a legitimate "version" of the series that's just a part of the canon Rick and Morty Universe which is kind of cool. Will just have to wait and see I guess.

Suicide Squad Isekai I'm completely on board with this one for some reason. Really not sure why, but it makes perfect sense to me. Honestly pretty stoked to watch it. (+ it's by studio WIT) Wistoria: Wand and Sword A kid enters magic school, although he can't use magic, he's particularly good with a sword. Almost like if Mashle were more serious and less out there? Read the first few chapters of the manga and enjoyed it quite a bit. The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies I think this looks really cute, will give it a few episodes. (Also because it's done by studio bones) Senpai is an Otokonoko A story about a highschool boy who cross-dresses, friendships between him, another female classmate and his childhood friend who's very protective of him. I'm curious to see how the story progresses and what kind of representation will actually be show-cased in the series. (Looks wholesome) Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines Amazingly animated slice of life of a group of girls who get rejected by the guys they like. (A1 Pictures) Plus-Sized Elf An elf that came to the human realm falls in love with junk food and now needs help and motivation to lost it. Ecchi series that I saw in manga format a few years ago that I wasn't really expecting to see an animated version for. Mayonaka Punch Has a super unique style that I'm interested to see if the story is actually worth watching at all. Delico's Nursery Same style as Mars Red - group of Vampires taking care of kids and murder mystery solving on the side. Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin - Anime Anime adaptation of the game, animations and character design look great.

Lots to check out this season, seems like a good bunch that are actually worth watching too. Enjoy!!

[ddwcaph-game]

The Chapter 4 Public Beta is finally here!

138,000 words later, the Chapter 4 Public Beta is finally ready!

✨ CHAPTER 4 UPDATE HIGHLIGHTS:

~ 369,000 total wordcount (including code) ~ 138,000 additional words (including code) ~ New average playthrough of ~96,000 words!

21 New Secrets to discover, 20 New Character Traits, 17 New Passives, 1 New Phobia, 5 New Trinkets to collect, 8 New Achievements, 3 New Main Quests, 3 New Sidequests, 7 New Status Effects, and 1 New Song to sing along to!

Tito Nestor, Tita Stephanie, and Lily's moms' introductions!

Get a sneak peek into the story worlds you'll visit in future, in the Story Exchange!

You can now choose the name of MC's dad! (+Diary Entry!)

You can now choose a second bestfriend if you pick your twin as your bestfriend!

New choices and bestfriend scenes for JM and Lily in Chapter 3!

Added a new trait option that reduces the frequency of Filipino expressions and gives additional context.

A lot of references to In Auctorem Credimus!

Roselyna is now approximately 20% more huggable!

The full change log can be found by selecting "What’s New?” in the start menu. It's way too long to list here!

How do I join the Public Beta?

You can join the public beta by joining the DDWCaPH! Discord Server. From there, go to the #roles channel and ask Ma'am Bianes to give you the Open Beta Tester role and get access to the link and the discussion/bug report channels.

Why limit the beta test in the Discord?

Let me begin by saying that I didn't want to do this. But the last time I did a strictly private beta, I got ABSOLUTELY ZERO feedback weeks after release until I explicitly asked for it.

This is the best compromise I can think of for now, that should still be convenient for most people.

Chapter 4 also isn't 100% complete yet. There are still a bunch of choices I haven't written yet, but I'm leaving them for a later update because I'm not in the right headspace to finish them, and after 138k words, I need a break from writing.

When will Chapter 4 be out for everyone?

I'm not really sure. Depending on how well this beta goes, it might be after a couple weeks, or after a month.

I also want to draw some new character art, so I might wait until those are done as well.

Again, depending on how well the public beta goes, I may keep doing this, or go back to doing private beta tests. If I do go back to private beta testing, Chapter 4 will be the LAST PUBLIC UPDATE until Volume 1 is fully complete.

If you want the next chapters to still be in public, be sure to send in your playthrough codes and feedback in the survey! They really mean a lot to me, but I'm not releasing chapters publicly anymore if I'm getting absolutely zero reception.

And to the person who leaked an earlier version of the demo: I hope you liked that buggy mess. 😊 Send me your playthrough codes, will you? I'd really appreciate it.

[newbiespud]

Griftlands: Three For All - Announcement

Over the past few months, maybe even the past year, I've occasionally mentioned an idea for a second big Griftlands mod, one last hurrah to cap off my time with the game after Arint's Last Day and Grift the Spire. But I haven't gone into great detail about what this mod idea actually is, have I? I've been doing so much pre-production planning that I haven't really had the time to go into the basics. Let's fix that!

The Grifters Join Forces!

Anyone remember the cinematic early access trailer for Griftlands? How it greatly implies there's a story where the three grifters are brought together by chance and team up? And that didn't really end up anywhere in the game because it was just to show off how the main characters operate?

Let's make this tantalizing concept a reality!

The story of Three For All picks up where the trailer leaves off. All three grifters - Sal, Rook, and Smith, some time after the events of their main stories - are in Pearl-on-the-Foam, figuring out what these strange devices they've all collected are and why every faction in Havaria seems to be after them. In order to survive, collect the rest of the devices, and get paid, they'll have to team up, utilize their connections and skills, and watch each other's backs. If they can trust each other.

Choose Your Character and Party Up!

Three For All is a story about all three grifters working together. But, you get to decide who's taking the lead. You can start the campaign as any of the three grifters and the other two will be your NPC party members. Instead of being three separate campaigns, it's one campaign that can handle multiple playable characters, plus different routes when the grifters must sometimes split up, and even altered dialogue in many conversations!

This extends to battle and negotiation as well! You can play through many of the same conflicts as any of the grifters and the other two will back you up! You're a proper party now!

Of course, this means that battles and negotiations will be a bit harder on balance. Many factions are after the same things you are!

("But what if the other two grifters die in battle?" You might ask. You're right, that would get very complicated very fast, and be anxiety-inducing to manage. So instead, they are what certain games would call "Essential" - they won't die, but reducing them to 1 HP will make them Panic indefinitely until healed. So if you want to make the most of their help, keep them defended and alive! But if they get knocked down, it won't be the end of the world.)

While not much has been implemented or locked down yet, there will most likely be special cards or mechanics for controlling your fellow grifters in battle and receiving help from them in negotiation!

As a bonus, there will also be a special "All For One" solo route with its own dialogue that any modded character can add to their list of campaigns! (Or you could even use the Cross Character Campaign mod to replace one of the grifters in the trio routes, who knows?)

What's Done and The Road Ahead

The reason I'm making this big announcement post now is that a lot of the quest planning work is finally done. The structure of the main quest is locked in, and I've got enough concepts for new side quests and random events to justify making a campaign where you're expected to play through it a minimum of three times, once for each character, while maintaining a high level of variety.

(That means something like 25 side quests so far, 20 opportunity events, and 50 random travel events! I've been trying to frontload as much brainstorming as I can, and I'm still not done!)

Now I can really start getting into code and scripts and start making the content that goes into the mod.

The plan is to create a Day One Demo, with all the content that could appear on the first day of the five-day campaign, and push that onto the Steam Workshop for testing and tantalization. Then it'll be on to finalizing the rest of the days and their special quests and routes.

Oh, did I mention that this mod will be adding 10 new bosses to the game? Yep. And the Day One Demo will also include a special Brawl mode for previewing and testing all of those bosses!

That's a Whole Lotta Content!

Welp, my big mouth has written a whole lotta checks that I'm gonna have to start cashing. But Griftlands is a very special and important game to me. Working on Arint's Last Day, my first mod ever, really kind of saved me and restored a lot of my working confidence, and I want to give back to the game with one last hurrah, one last injection of raw content.

The goal is to make this an intricate, extremely replayable campaign where there's always something new you haven't seen, while enjoying the indulgence of the gimmicks of partying up and swappable main characters.

I roughly expect the Day One Demo to drop sometime in 2025, and the full mod will come later, either very late 2025 or more likely sometime in 2026. I may also run a private playtest group as the mod approaches completion, no solid plans there yet.

If this sounds great and you want to support my work - none of which will be paywalled in any way - consider donating to my Patreon. It keeps me alive, and you get access to my quiet little Discord server, which is probably the best way to find out what I'm working on day-to-day. Otherwise, follow me here or on Mastodon and I'll post infrequently about my progress, though most days it'll probably just be "yep, wrote a lot until my brain fried today."

So that's Three For All, an ambitious plan to create what's essentially another free DLC pack for Griftlands and write some gloriously indulgent fanfic at the same time. Wish me luck!

[reginrokkr]

In all honesty, I have a lot of thoughts I want to share about 「Bedtime story」, but there are still a few matters I want to give a deeper thought about because I want to change some details of Dain's background. Right now, what I want to discuss is the new canon divergence that will be added to this blog. So to keep some discretion for those who haven't played it yet, I'll dump that under cut:

For some reason, HYV crossed a line in abusing the narrative convenience in this quest to me. There are two things that bother me and that I need to think how to adjust it accordingly so the outcome remains still the same because it isn't bad, it's legit and the story has to continue someway. But the execution was bad.

✧ The first point being the false memory implantation in Dain. Not because this per se, but because how cheap it feels to me the way it was done. HYV made him a highly perceptive individual with high intelligence in order to decipher and join the dots on his own of what was happening, surrealist as it seemed. He's attuned with the Ley Lines to the point where he can sense these shifts in them, the exact time when his memory is being altered. But for whatever reason it's completely okay to take for granted that he has given Aether the eye of the first Field Tiller even though he says himself that the damage between the twins isn't irreparable yet and that he can sense him hesitating still. This just doesn't feel right to me.

✦ And secondly, it's obviously the fight. Lumine herself, presuming that she has some degree of her original powers in order to brandish her sword in combination to the abyssal powers already admits 1) that she could send an army after Dain and that would only lead them to their doom and 2) that she wouldn't have been able to defeat Dain even after 500 years if he wasn't kind as he is.

It isn't lost to me that these are meant to justify how Dain loses the eye of the first Field Tiller and I plan to keep it that way, but I'll think of a different approach for this and post it during this weekend alongside my other thoughts and the shift in his background.

P.S. How the hecky did Dain guarded the eye of the first Field Tiller in his body flying frick. I have thoughts about this being possible due to the power he holds, just as he retrieved the eye from the Field Tiller smoothly without damaging it nor the automaton, but that'll be a talk for another day.

[raycatz]

I wish so much that I could fully enjoy totk but I am struggling so much. Idk why some of the decisions for the game are the way they are. I can't help but be critical given how important the series and botw are to me.

I feel like the game is struggling to have its own identity. I feel like some creature has wormed its way into botw's skin and is wearing it poorly.

(So far I've played through the Gerudo and Rito story quests. What I've written here though is mostly about the world and direction. I just need to get some of these thoughts out. There are spoilers.)

The three main criticisms people had with botw were the story, weapon durability, and dungeons- and man so far in totk these things have only been worse. (The boss fights are incredible though)

The framerate drops whenever I use ultrahand, and combined with my left joycon drifting it makes trying to use the new mechanic difficult to the point that I will avoid it to do something else.

Some of the game does feel like mashed up dlc ideas. I would have preferred them to be dlc even. If the Zelda devs wanted to tell this story or make a game with these mechanics I wish they would have made an entirely new game instead of using botw.

So far totk has no through-lines between itself and botw. No one has mentioned the Champions, only a single npc has talked about the Calamity, no one has mentioned Calamity Ganon or the divine beasts Link calmed, and only a few people recognize Link himself. The champion successors I've met haven't spoken of the Champions or their divine beasts which is strange given how they spoke of them in botw, and at most have only referred to Link having been there in the past as, "when you helped us" without any specifics as to what. I've done all the side quests in botw and to have the people I helped call Link a stranger is saddening. It's even more pronounced in Hateno. I bought a house there. I helped its people. And the house no longer has Link's name by the door and Hateno's people remark at how Link is a new face in town. Didn't I live there? Given how some of the kids have grown it's probably been around 4 years since botw. Where has Link been in that time for the people to forget him? In Kakariko Cottla says she can't talk to me because she isn't supposed to talk with strangers. We've played tag together. I cooked meals with her sister. It's sad. In botw we spent the whole time collecting Link's memories and growing attached to the land only to have the land forget us. I feel like it's a disgrace to all of the time and joy players put in and found in botw, and to botw's story- to have none of that matter.

What happened to the Divine Beasts and the Sheikah shrines and the slate? Further, some important npcs from botw are just gone without explanation.

If the events of botw are so irrelevant then why use the same world and characters? I understand it's a way to save time and resources but this game took 6 years to make past botw. I would have preferred a new world and princess/hero entirely so I could go into it as a fresh experience. Instead, it feels like what made botw important was swept away, and the map and characters are only being used as an empty husk, like setpieces. Majora's Mask being a sequel with reused assets worked because in Termina there was no reason for anyone to know Link, and him traveling to find Navi made sense, and the look-alike characters are different people. In botw, there is no reason for no one to recognize Link or his achievements. He is the Hero of Hyrule for that world and it's people. He freed the divine beasts and put an end to the multiple local disasters they were causing, yet none of that is acknowledged and it sticks out like a sore. (I'm really really hoping that Sidon talks about Mipha and the constant rain caused by Vah Ruta because how could he not? That's his sister! Yunobo saw Daruk's spirit in botw so I'm hoping he says something of the Champions. I'm really hoping.)

I enjoyed exploring botw's world because there were always koroks and shrines to collect. I could wander knowing there was something in store to find. The world never felt too big or empty for this reason, and the solitude made sense because of the Calamity. In totk the number of shrines and koroks has been greatly reduced (edit: there are more shrines and just as many koroks as in botw. It just seems I'm having difficulty finding them ashfsjdf.) I know the overworld already so there not being a reward for exploring gives me no incentive to. The lack of shrines and the cutscenes required to go through to use the towers is another hindrance on exploration and quests. I can't get spontaneously sidetracked because there's no nearby place to warp back to, and I know how far I'll have to walk to get there. Traveling can feel like a chore instead of something enjoyable. It feels like the overworld has been stripped.

The world wasn't made for the new mechanics either, and so the areas to use them in are all tacked on as monster camps or fallen ruins, instead of a natural part of the landscape.

The new map content, the Sky and Depths, would have been better being condensed. They don't fit within the scope of botw's map. The Sky Islands so far don't take up much space and are significantly less important than I hoped they would be. The Depths is a fun concept and I enjoy the restrictions it puts on players, with the soft cap and kinda rougelite aspect while you're in the early game, but it's way too big, very repetitive, and there's not much point to exploring once you know what it's about. Both the Sky and the Depths would have benefitted by being more carefully thought out, concise, areas and suffer from having to fit the scope of botw's map. The Depths has poes and zonite to collect, but these things come in such huge quantities and require even huger quantities of to be useful that it feels grindy. I need 3 zonite ore for one crystalized ore, 100 crystalized ore for one fuel charge. There are three charges in one canister, of 8. That's 7,200 zonite ore like wtf. How is this supposed to be achievable? So far I haven't needed to use the vehicles all that often so it's not particularly useful atm either. The amount of cross-trading currency collectibles is overbearing. For some time I had no idea what any of them were used for so I didn't know what the point was in collecting them. Bubulgems, zonite ore, large zonite ore, poes, crystalized charges, large crystalized charges- too many. Please condense some of them.

Gone are all the very cool weapon designs, replaced in favor of the new fuse mechanic and endlessly scrolling through materials to find the right thing to attach.

The memories and the story in that aspect are still passive. Even more so.

We're all familiar with the Zelda formula- totk now follows the botw formula. Plateau area, back and forth fetch quests to upgrade your abilities, four main story beat locations, memories, and then the open world for players to tackle freely. I'm really hoping there is more. There has to be because the Sky and Depths haven't been used in the main story beats so far. In botw you could go anywhere and have everything to do in a given location immediately assessable to play through, but in totk there are things locked by progression. However, it's awkward because you aren't told precisely what's locked or why. I'm like- I went through the effort to get here but there isn't anything for me to do. I know there's something here! But I can't do anything yet and idk why or what I'm missing! and instead of building anticipation it just makes me frustrated. I'm not sure if what I'm missing is locked to progression or if there is something I've truly just missed.

So I have a feeling of having missed something important story/mechanic-wise when exploring, and then on the other hand I have the feeling of being very clearly shoehorned towards certain goals. Nearly all of the npcs have dialogue that leads you towards something. I don't feel like botw was ever this in-your-face about goals. The Calamity happened 100 years ago so the people have had time to adjust, while the Upheaval is happening now. It makes sense that the Upheaval would be much more pressing, I just wish the npcs would chat about something other than "go here, do this" once in a while. Like, I found Bolson, and instead of being greeted as a familiar face or getting to see Bolson in character, he just told me to go somewhere for a quest related thing. So many of the familiar characters are missing the quirky characterizations they had in botw that made them them.

With being shoehorned towards certain locations: many, many of the npcs want me to clear out monsters at Lurelin. So I went to Lurelin. At that point I'd only completed the quest in Gerudo and five shrines, yet the monsters I faced in Lurelin (and widely across the overworld) were black level monsters, which I was and still am nowhere near prepared for. Totk is either meant to be more difficult than botw or there is an issue with balancing. I've touched maybe 25 shrines and have lit a good number of lightroots, but haven't completed many, so maybe that's a factor into the enemy leveling? I also think there's a way for me to get help that I haven't found yet. Regardless, the enemy scaling across the world feels like it happened too quickly and I don't enjoy the npcs pushing me towards things my character isn't ready for. I feel like there should be more checks in place for this that determine the npc dialogue to the player's progress.

I haven't even talked about the story.

I know I'm being very critical with the game, and I wish I could just enjoy it. I need to stop trying to find botw in this game. And I should take a step back for a while too. I'm just disappointed.

The music and boss battles have been incredible! I hope there's more structured boss battles outside of the main four + ganon. Heck I even hope there's a boss gauntlet with a cool reward.

Just- yeah. So far I am not enjoying the new Zelda formula when it comes to totk. Botw worked for botw. totk looks and is structured too much like botw to feel like its own thing, and yet trying to play it like botw is just upsetting because it isn't.

Totk is a good game, but it's a bad sequel.

I hope the Zelda team returns to the old format sometime, or at least pulls forward some of the ideas. I miss the concise dungeons that take multiple play sessions to get through. I miss the tricky puzzles that make me feel smart for solving. I miss combat being a puzzle requiring certain items or learning boss phases and patterns (rather than sticking materials to your bow and taking a "just deal damage" based approach. I want to be closer to it.) I miss the worlds that were puzzles in and of themselves like Minish Cap or the Oracle games. I miss seeing a clearly marked spot on the wall or a tree in the way and knowing that I'll pick up an item that will help me here later. I like that there were clear solutions. The clues in botw and totk for progression are not as clear. And the botw open-world format is too large for concise puzzles like this. I enjoyed the open-ended way to combat and puzzles in botw, but I feel there should be space for both. No more ways to fenagle the physics or smack your way through obstacles. I want to see linear progression and long-form puzzles return to Zelda games, at least for the next one.

I'm hoping there's some plot twist or turn in gameplay that I haven't reached in totk yet. We'll seeeeee

[citrusici]

Should the next Zelda game be open world like BOTW & TotK, or linear like the prior games? Why?

Hot take, but definitely a little more linear.

Listen, I love open world as much as anyone. BOTW did a fantastic job at it! The main storyline split up into four threads across the regions and then converged again for the final boss, which I though was cool to be able to pick a region and work on it at your pace. But it needs to be done *well*. TOTK's story suffered a bit because when you met the past champions, they coughed up the exact same explanation four times, and it got old fast. BOTW managed to avoid this because each of the champions' appearances and personalities were unique, which just shows you that it can be done well, it just has to be written with that in mind.

Not to mention critical story beats are optional, not required (see: the dragon's tears), and if you head straight to the boss fight without realizing that you've missed important information, you end up losing some of that significance because you're not fully aware of what's going on. And you risk major spoilers if you try to look up what you're missing before the boss fight. (seriously, imagine going through the Demon King boss fight not knowing anything about draconification or the light dragon.)

Also, the storyline and characters don't get much chance to build off themselves. The new sages don't interact because each region quest operates under the assumption that you haven't done any of the others yet. I want the cast to interact a bit! The moment where the new sages all took a stand together? That was excellent! I miss having companions like Fi and Midna and Ravio that stick with you for your entire journey, rather than going it alone.

Also, most important of all: I need *some* objective to focus on or I'm never going to actually finish the dang story. I love vibing and seeing the sights and exploring the depths for treasure, but there's a reason why I never finished Skyrim despite having played ~200 hours. 😂

Nintendo seems to focus more on mechanics and gameplay than the storyline for a lot of their Zelda games. Which is fine! It is a game at the end of the day, and it's genuinely fun to play! And I don't mind the classic style of unlocking new regions as you go through the main quest, but I don't think linear storylines and open worlds have to be mutually exclusive, either. Technology has come so far in the past decades, and the BOTW and TOTK maps are excellent for exploring all the nooks and crannies and meeting the people of Hyrule. I do enjoy side questlines to fill out the world a bit! Wind Waker and Twilight Princess had them too! Heck, I loved the Hateno and Yiga questlines! Just, y'know, maybe help us not lose sight of what we're supposed to do along the way.

[confluencechimera]

Top 5 list of your own OCs. (｀∀ ´)Ψ

OUGH this is a GOOD QUESTION. I really had to narrow it down because I have so many babies but I think I got something solid

1 - Malech H'owl, an OC I made for St*r W*rs. she was based off an old chimera fursona of mine that I turned into a unique alien species and aaa I love drawing her SO MUCH. she's my go-to doodle char. she has a whole entire society and backstory where she was a ruler and a gladiator fighter and a tactician and a mercenary. because I got really into her. she is so self indulgent but that's probably why she's my favorite. I'm so attached to her I've thought abt making her a totally original universe recently divorced from the source media just for meeeee ✨

2 - Ace, who I've been trying to get a ref sheet done for for the past year and a half or so. He looks like a basic old furry on the surface but he's apart of a much larger sci-fi story where his species are trying to preserve history for future generations by inserting memory-recording ships into different members of their kind and then beaming all that into a supercomputer hidden somewhere in the galaxy. Ace comes from a middle generation (the first gen were adults who had the procedure done, the middle generation were fairly young, the newest generation are cubs), so his chip doesn't work entirely as well as the newest gen, and he gets weird deja vu moments of seeing other people's memories. He's also a mercenary. He has a cool spaceship and lives on his own on a barren icy planet. This is the best photo I have of him atm

3 - Howlite, another OC I made for a media (this one being TF!). I'm trying to redesign her atm so I don't have as many pics to show off. but he turns into a plane and later a big old SUV. she's got an insanely long backstory as well: loses everything in a big war, goes on a revenge quest, realizes she wants to live for something more, gets almost killed (twice) and then wakes up on Earth where she finds her old partner and learns to start a new life there. he's a Certified Strange Girlboy Bi Thing. here's a real edgy picture of her after killing a bunch of ppl.

4 - Glitch and Error, two REALLY old OCs of mine who I recently revived from my old dA days. They're personified computer viruses apart of a giant hivemind sort of setup, where the larger viruses "kill" and "consume" smaller ones to become bigger and stronger. The strongest virus rules over the entire hivemind and uses the smaller drones to go out and find electricity to feed on. Not a lot of super solid universe/hard-set rules for this story, it was just something I made for fun, but these guys have endured in my brain for over 10 years so they deserve a shout out.

5 - Comet, a very new character for me (and one I haven't entirely fleshed out yet), but a simple little black wolf furry. Her aes/story is a mixture of Stray Gods, a dash of Hi-Fi Rush, lots of Norse mythology and hard rock (Breaking Benjamin in particular) music. She's the lead singer of a band called Fenrir's Chains, and one day on her drive home from a local show she gets swept up in a Wild Hunt that actually gets her to meet Fenrir. The whole story is meant to be a sort of analogy for dealing with mortality but I'm still working the themes and kinks out. So, I only have a few sketches, plus the plushie she's based on in real life. (She's next to a plushie I plan to turn into Ace one day too!)

[thievinghippo]

Writing Accountability

OKAY

I want to write and post Baldur's Gate 3 fanfic. HOWEVER. I have some loose threads from previous fandoms that I would like to finish

MY SOLUTION. Post a writing to do list here and then hold my ass accountable for my actions. I need to accomplish the list below before I am allowed to post BG3 fic. Hopefully this will lead to new fics being posted and a happy hippo

Post your My Time at Portia fic, An Ever-Fixed Mark - WHY HAVEN'T YOU POSTED IT YET HIPPO? It's been finished for months. Stop being lazy and get it up on Ao3

Finish The Untamed lessons fic - You are 3/4 of the way done! You finished the hard part! You only need to write the happy ending (PUN INTENDED THE FIC IS ABOUT BLOW JOBS)

Edit and post the My Time at Sandrock Logan fake dating fic - The bones are there! You need like a couple of strong editing days and you will have a good fic! The game comes out in November! Post it before canon makes a mockery of it!

Post Sonya's alphabet fic - IT'S BEEN DONE FOR MONTHS WHY HAVEN'T YOU POSTED IT?!?!?!? Sonya deserves to have her story completed damnit!

There. That is my list. I need to complete these quests before I embark on my next adventure, which is BG3 fic. Wish me luck