#I know its real and in the game I just dont know if the log is fucked or if its a classic case of my laptop fucking everything up

[my-elder-scrolls-shit]

I've been replaying skyrim and- "Uh oh, Aph! Are you getting philosophical about a mid game that you've played 80 billion times now?" Yes, of course I am. Now, my take of the day is Astrid gets a bad rap in the fandom

If you have personal qualms for whatever reason with her (Cicero fan, upset she got everyone killed, her voice, whatever it may be), that's totally fine! However! I just finished the dbh quest line again, and she's honestly not as terrible as we've been painting her, I feel.

When you first join, she's pretty attentive - clearly keeping an eye on you because you're new, but as you prove yourself and she can worry less, she seems to almost losen up. I do think she asks you to do things that she wouldn't ask anyone else because she's testing you or because you're new and she's not as attached yet, but its clear she has some kind if concern for you and your safety. Especially when the Nightmother incident happens, and she thinks Cicero might have attempted to hurt you. Then shit hits the fan (in her eyes)

Now, here's something that might sound strange - I don't think she decides to sell you out until the last possible minute. Why would she ask you to find her husband otherwise? Why would she keep sending you out to further the plot against the emperor and keep rewarding you? These are shows of trust- and while maybe some could be seen as implicating you further as the sole thorn in the side of the emperor, again, why send you to kill Cicero- to help Abjorn? Someone she loves and cares for deeply? Why not send someone more experienced?

I think maybe her paranoia ramps up after the Cicero incident for sure- she gets more flighty and decides right around when you are going to kill the emperor, when things are seriously about to change, does she panic. I mean, imagine you've led a group for years and some stranger you brought into your family like last week, and a jester who brought a sacred corpse with him is claiming the stranger is supposed to be the faction leader and the only one who can hear the dead lady's voice! That's a shit deal! What the fuck!

If something goes wrong, everything will go wrong. She's probably not had a lot of control in her life previously (note: her story about her uncle making "unwanted advances" makes me think maybe it's something that had been happening and she finally decided to kill him after snapping but she definitely glosses over it very quickly in favor of being murder happy which is understandable) and now that control is once again slipping and everyone else can see she's paranoid (multiple members comment on it if you talk to them before hopping in the Nightmothers coffin the first time) so it's not a big surprise that you, the threat to her status quo and control, seem like the one to take out

And it all goes to shit! And she seems so desperately and genuinely sorry on her death bed - everyone she loved and cared for is dead, mind you. This is a woman who has lost everything and is now begging to die for a greater good and a desperate apology to you and to the people she's hurt. The game clearly doesn't want you to forgive her (based on the dialog options it presents), but i wish we could at least say something kind. But I that might just be me

[arolesbianism]

Hello oni lore fans, I have been fighting for my life to solve a lil mystery and I decided to finally clean up one of the logs I copy and pasted from the code so I can hopefully find someone else who's seen it in game before. It's called "a seed is planted" and I'm pretty sure it was in the research notes section, but in the code it's placed alongside the story trait logs so I'm not 100% confident where it's supposed to be found. I first saw it in a save that I was using sandbox mode to hunt for lore with, and it stuck around for a lil while before disappearing, and then it randomly came back for a lil bit before all my lore logs got wiped with the recent update. I have no idea how I got it in the first place nor what made it disappear and come back, so I'm basically just wondering if anyone else has had this issue with this particular log (or any logs for that matter)

I have copy and pasted the log under the cut, although the formatting might be a bit off as this was cleaned up from a copy paste directly from the code itself

"A Seed is Planted"

[Voice Recognition Initialized]

[Subject Identified: B040]

[LOG BEGINS]

Three days ago, we completed our first non-fatal Duplicant trial of Nikola's comprehensive synapse microanalysis and mirroring process. Five hours from now, Subject #901 will make history as our first human test subject.

Even at the Vertex Institute, which is twice Gravitas's size, I could've spent half my career waiting for approval to advance to human trials for such an invasive process! But Director Stern is too invested in this work to let it stagnate.

My darling Bruce always said that when you're on the right path, the universe conspires to help you. He'd be so proud of the work we do here.

[LOG ENDS]

[LOG BEGINS]

My bio-printed multi-cerebral storage chambers (or "mega minds" as I've been calling them) are working! Just in time to save my job.

The Director's been getting increasingly impatient about our struggle to maintain the integrity of our growing datasets during extraction and processing. The other day, she held my report over a Bunsen burner until the flames reached her fingertips.

I can only imagine how much stress she's under.

The whole world is counting on us.

[LOG ENDS]

[LOG BEGINS]

On a hunch, I added dream content analysis to the data and...wow. Oneirology may be scientifically "fluffy", but integrating subconscious narratives has produced a new type of brainmap - one with more latent potential for complex processing.

If these results are replicable, we might be on the verge of unlocking the secret to creating synthetic life forms with the capacity to evolve beyond blindly following commands.

Nikola says that's irrelevant for our purposes. Surely Director Stern would disagree.

[LOG ENDS]

[LOG BEGINS]

Nikola gave me a dataset to plug into the mega minds. He wouldn't say where it came from, but even if he had...nothing could have prepared me for what it contained.

When he saw my face, he muttered something about how people should call me "Tremors," not "Nails" and sent me on my lunch break.

All I could think about was those poor souls.

Did they have souls?

...do we?

[LOG ENDS]

[LOG BEGINS]

It's done. My adjustments to the memory transfer protocol are hardcoded into the machine.

I finished just as Nikola stormed in.

I may be too much of a coward to stand up for those unfortunate creatures, but with these new parameters in place...someday, they might be able to stand up for themselves.

[LOG ENDS]

------------------

[snapscube]

hi!! do you have any infinity nikki tips to share? your outfits look really beautiful- i'm not caught up with the story yet, and i wanted to know if some of those shoes were from resonance, recharge or storyline/world? im struggling with the impulse to spend money (i'd feel fine doing like a single purchase or something, but my road with nikki has been paved with quite a bit of money already, so i'm worried about the slippery slope)

some of my favorite outfits in the game are legit just free stuff you find/earn by playing! a lot of the stuff i’ve shown off here are in-game rewards entirely for free either by crafting or doing styling challenges.

so far here are my big tips i’ve learned just w my own experience (and mistakes 😬):

- there are SO many clothes in the overworld, way more than you might expect. check every chest and shop you find WHEN you find it. it’s never not worth it even if it’s slightly out of the way. same with dews of inspiration! they will only get harder to locate as you clear more of the map so make sure you never pass up the opportunity to grab one. EVERYTHING in this game ties back to clothes one way or another, so it’s never not worth it to be interacting w all of the systems in one way or another.

- do not spend a ton of bling until you are further in the main story quest. it’ll be tempting to roll stuff like the wish o matic but if u blow all of your bling on it or anything else early on you WILL regret it later. bling is used for every other upgrade system in the game.

- make sure u are not capping out on vital energy too often, its super quick to run a realm of the dark fight or trade it in for collection insight if you’re close to cap and about to log off. its constantly replenishing and the currencies/materials you can get from it are so valuable down the line.

- i would HIGHLY ADVISE that you save the diamonds you earn exclusively to use for pulls on limited time gacha banners. the ones with the pink resonance crystals. do not use them to refill your energy, do not use them for the permanent banner pulls. you are going to need to do a good chunk of pulls to get everything u need from limited banners before they go and this will make sure you are minimizing the temptation to spend real world money when u dont need to.

- don’t skip out on leveling eureka! the system can be a tad confusing and somewhat de-emphasized at first but it’s low risk and so worth it. ANY well leveled eureka at all is better than nothing for styling contests. you can literally double your score with a good set of eureka, it can be the difference between an average or perfect score.

- speaking of styling challenges, try to unlock the mirror styling challenges as soon as u can! you will know them when u see them, i forget exactly how you unlock it but there is a weekly reset version of the challenge that gives great rewards.

uhhhh that’s all i can think of rn feel free to post other tips in the replies if you’ve been playing tho :)

[vind3miat0r]

project meridian loop theory

oohhh boy, we're back with me putting on a tinfoil hat and yapping about theories again

this is, of course, about the newest Project Meridian audio, so spoilers for that!!

(putting everything under the cut because theres a LOT)

JESUS CHRIST. okay. thats a lot. lots to unpack here mhm yep.

okay guys hear me out: Asset is stuck in a time or a simulation loop

bear with me im about to get REALLY nerdy with this BUT

Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 5 Episode 18 — "Cause and Effect" is a time loop episode. the entire crew gets caught in a time loop for about 27 days (but they obviously dont realize this until theyre out of the loop) the loop always begins with Captain Picard's personal log, and always ends with the accidental destruction of the Enterprise brought on by their warp core exploding due to being damaged while attempting to get away from an incoming ship that lost control of its direction

throughout the episode, each time the loop resets, the crew experiences intense deja vu, brought on by the fact that theyre reliving the same day over and over. theyre able to predict small events that happen (what cards come next in a poker game, Beverly predicting Geordi coming into Sick Bay, etc)

AND in one iteration of the loop, the crew figures out that theyre IN a time loop, and devise a method to avoid getting hit by the previously mentioned ship, which would set off the chain reaction of the warp core exploding

they do this method by using big brain science time knowledge that im too tired to understand, but basically the motif of the number 3 starts showing up in the next loop reset, and when the Enterprise is once again faced with only two choices to get away from the incoming ship, Data realizes that the reoccurring 3s are connected to Commander Riker (who has three pips to signify his rank)

(for context, in every loop where the Enterprise gets destroyed, the Captain followed Data's plan of using the tractor beam to steer the incoming ship away from the Enterprise. Riker's plan was to depressurize the cargo bays) Data follows through with Riker's plan, and this time the Enterprise doesnt explode (yippee!!)

you might be thinking, "Vinn, you just explained the entire episode to us. what does that have to do with project meridian??"

well, using instances from "Cause and Effect," we can compare them to some instances that just happened in "Something's Wrong"

— the second phone call could be an outside attempt to break Asset from the time/simulation loop

— Asset knowing who the Solitaires are despite not having access to information on them could be from another loop where James told them who the Solitaires are, and Asset remembering

— the phone at the end could signify the end/restart of the loop

— Asset's uneasiness about the Meridian in the beginning of the audio and their want to "seek approval" before entering it ( could be brought on by them somewhat remembering whats happened in previous loops)

— the first phone call (the one James picks up), theres some spooky ooky ambience in the background (could be that the phone is a conduit to the "real" timeline/world and only Asset is able to pick up on that??)

— when Asset and James leave the first room and enter a new area, someone on the PA makes an announcement for the Deltas. this announcement glitches, but James doesnt seem to notice, as he continues talking (i cant quite make it out, but it almost sounds like someone else is saying something?) (again, it could be interference from outside of the loop attempting to reach Asset)

— when stepping out of the elevator, someone brings James "the latest simulation report." again, outside interference/echoes from a previous loop perhaps trying to signal to Asset that theyre stuck in a simulation

— phone at the end also as someone saying "pick up" or "wake up," didnt realize until someone pointed it out. its very faint, but its there (again, could be someone attempting to break Asset out of the loop)

one thing that i find interesting (thats not related to the loop theory) is that James says the force in the Meridian "diverts demons away" and "breaks human minds" when usually demons are allowed through the Meridian and humans just. die. then again, we have no idea when PM takes place, so it could be normal if this is like,,, a good number of years in the future

uhh hashtag yeah. im perfectly sane guys :3

[oetscop]

okay so im making a new post abt this since its a little different from my last analysis post. but @petscopping brought up a very interesting point in the tags! that being "nobody is innocent" and he is so fucking right abt that

that was in regards to the objectification of care, and how paul also contributes to that. but like, even characters that aren't explicitly on screen are culpable. specifically belle.

i always get this impression that shes hiding something. she knows far more than she lets on, and i almost have to wonder if its in a way to protect paul? which is interesting since we know how in denial he is about Literally Everything, which is actively harming himself in some way.

she knows. a LOT about this game. like, paul is only recording gameplay to prove that hes "not lying" about the weird game he found. then later down the line after paul gets to the other side of the quitters room and tells her tiara is gone and her reply is "of course." the way paul replies to that too is telling since hes confused as to why she knows somethings up. even earlier than that paul mentions how he was shocked to find "his room" but isnt anymore since it makes sense that the game would be connected to him through belle. not to mention she knows an older version of the game that had the passageway to the caskets. she had played it as recently as 2004. why lie at first?

a little tangential, but i really gotta wonder about her connection to rainer. obviously they were close enough for him to be doing...whatever the fuck happens during a rebirthing event. or whatever he thinks is supposed to happen, i should say. shes heavily connected to tiara in some way, and has a stupid amount of play time on the damn game. if you ascribe to the theory that tiara and in game marvin are based entirely off in game behaviors of real people playing the game, its no wonder tiara seems to be almost...sentient? all marvin does is run around and say shit and like be weird and the game was literally made for him. tiara like. can edit texture maps, and use that to also speak directly to paul thru tool. and because of that, she can speak more directly, and isnt hindered by the p2 to talk mechanic like marvin is.

point is, belle has logged a crazy amount of time into the game. sure you could probably say the hours played is inaccurate, maybe she just had the game left open on a console for what. 17 years was it? even rainer admits its dubious. but imo, it feels more...symbolic? like sure maybe she wasnt playing it for that long. but she had some kind of passive connection to the game in that time. she is/was in contact with rainer. she HAD to be. (this also might imply the game was still being worked on after 2000. but thats a whole nother can of worms)

i cant think of any other motive for her lying about that other than to protect paul in some way. which, in a way, ties back to cares objectification. paul is absolutely denying any humanity to his child self. its ingrained in the very code of the game.

and in some way, belle is also participating. maybe im reading too far into that, but with how much the series is able to tell us abt characters who dont even fucking talk is really impressive so its not completely unrealistic.

[werlikesreblogging]

Well i havent posted in a while well, mostly because, i forgor

BUT

wow pretty busy really said fuck you f2p players

I didnt complain untill now so i think i can get a little treat

So ok prepare cause this will be a prob long post or just very well mostly negative about my whole expierence with this game because well I AM PISSED

So I acually first played this game around the time of its release (of couse because of the Leviathan Bath card lmao) but didnt like how the game looked like that much so i quit pretty much as soon as i started

Then my friend got me into it again and well i fell in love with the characters and the plot LITERALLY DONT JUDGE THE BOOK BY ITS COVER

And why am i talking about it well its because it was around the time of christmas gabriel nightmare pass and i was new so i just kinda didnt care about it back then

But now back to the present

so the whole reason im writing this is in the first place is obvs the nightmare pass

Like gabriel one, ppyong one i could live i was like ok it sucks but what can i do i can still get all the 7 kings eventually so thats fine

AND THEN VICTORY LUCIFER NIGHTMARE PASS CAME OUT

AND OMG ok i was like ok im pissed but its probably just the victory cards that will be in the nightmare pass right ?

WELL NO NOW BATH BEEL NOT EVEN A FEW DAYS AFTER LUCIFER'S

both of my favourite characters in a row well how nice

Dont even get me started on how fucked the pricing of it is like i payed for battle passses in games before im not even a total f2p and i was acually considering doing the same here because i mean its a small company and i really like this game so i might as well support it well no. not with this price.

And not only are there no new stories, previous events are payed if u havent read them, oh and if u want to reread them well fuck you too

I honestly havent even read the belphie's event cause i just really dont feel motivated to do it

Maybe its just me but unlocking the character card stories is also a little hard because getting the BEGINNERS candies is just annoying even though it well should be the easiest out of all of them

And the story is what made me get into this game as much as i did

I think it was the first time a game was so perfect for me when it comes to story length, and amount (i tend to get very overwhelmed when theres a lot of content)(I acually quit playing genshin impact after 2 years because there was no skip button)

The 5 chapters, all the events, some of the character's stories i read were all so interesting and fun

and well now we get literally no new content

plus like thats very personal but i would have loved it if this game had some sort of a routine because i feel like everything is such a mess ?

like now we get 3 fucking nigtmare passes in a row, new characters and event are so random and the main story well it left to get milk

also when i say i play this game for the story i really mean it because the battle system is really not my cup of tea overall the game mechanics im just not that big of a fun of that

+just the fact that PB hates that we share content of payed cards with each other but also puts important lore in it just man be fucking for real

I log in everyday just to log in and get my 10 key pull from the pancake shop to feed my gambling addiction and maybe get that mammon or satan attacker cards cause they are the only ones i lack from the ones u can acually get from the standard gacha at the moment

oh and now they erased the free 10 pull from the store huh

well with how little red gems we are getting say goodbye to any gacha in a fucking gacha game

Oh and also i dont know if anyone noticed but now selling S tealeaves gives u 6 pancakes and L tealeaves gives you 9.

3 pancake diffrence. For an S character and L character.

oh and lower grades just dont give you anything really i have like around 14 milion gold and books so yea

and while i wont have that much of a problem cause i already have most cards,most artifact, almost maxxed out bloodshed beelzebub (not his skills)

But now imagine you are a new player trying to get into this game.

And you cant read events unless you pay, u can do the story but i mean u might finish it quickly or it might get hard if u cant get any characters because well doing any gacha at all just got 1000 times harder,you just see another nightmare pass thats just expensive af, oh and a new character comes out and you didnt get lucky with your one ten pull that u managed to get after weeks of working ? well u have to wait 3 months TO MAYBE get it in the standard gacha that well you might do once a week maybe

and so the low maintence game i loved in a span of a few days changed for much much worse

I will probably keep on loging in just to see if maybe anything changes but i dont have my hopes high

ngl with how it looks like rn i doubt even asmodeus for who i was waiting so much for will change my mind about this game

what i need them to do is honestly just bring back the whole previous pancake shop along with this new nightmare one i feel like for me at least selling tealeaves for the normal pancakes and then if i have a lot of it i can changee into nightmare pancakes and then maybe exchange it for some thing would be much cooler and honestly i just want my very easy ten pull back........

for the nightmare passes just make then like i dunno every 3 months even would be better and just make it so that its smth special not neccessary or just make it more affordable for players to acually afford

and i mean what im saying is just random stuff i havent even thought about it that much there might be better ideas for what to do but i honestly wish the best for this game and what is happening right now is just pretty much ruining it for not only me but most players i doubt only f2p, cause even if you pay for a game u need a reason to do it if the game doesnt provide then you might as well go to a diffrent one

Ok i think thats pretty much all there might be more i wanted to say but well i forgor and well im gonna get bubble tea as a treat prob......

[dez-wade]

IDK man I think the real reason no one likes Blue team or rather no one ever celebrates their wins is cause almost all their wins they got threw exploiting some kind bug or just unfairly killing people. People can say all they want that Tubbo got their kill fair and square but we all know they wernt winning without that kill and I highly doubt they would have gotten said kill without that lag. It dosnt matter who wins or loses in the end its just a game but I think its fair to point out that whenever Blue wins there always some discrepancy that makes them win. Red has also done this once but their other wins they got not out of lags and bugs (the 2nd day was threw exploiting a game feature tho), Green just got beat into the ground cause they always tried to play fair (and again Blue used their crap ping against them for a diffrent win a diffrent day that also felt like a shit win) I switch between all POVs so its not like im biest for Red I just think Blue has gotten nothing but unfair wins and thats why no one likes them. I do get that their like "unlucky" but I dont know man I dont think I want to watch a bunch of people cheese an event just cause they wanna win so bad. Seems like cheating a win and that dosnt feel satisfying :/ like if they had gotten that win without killing a lagged out player id feel better about it.

Sorry but when Red stole the Green's NPC and killed El Quackity all by himself multiple times getting their first win, everyone was celebrating and saying they were allowed to do any dirty tactic because they deserved. Blue never got this treatment.

Their win yesterday was fair, but people started making up shit like metagaming and rule breaking to make it as if they only could win through cheating. And every single accusation was a lie, which just shows it's all about people being sore losers not about caring what's fair.

As Aypierre said "We win as a fraud, or die villains".

Also, it shows you clearly didn't see any stream post-event. Tubbo, Etoiles, Roier, and Cellbit went to a PvP practice server and kept dueling each other all night. Tubbo won a lot of fights against Roier. He won a lot of duels against Etoiles too. And that's where they have their equipment evenly matched. Roier's helmet was broken in his fight against Tubbo. Tubbo had a very big chance to with regardless if he had lag.

And why are you blaming Blue for the fact that Red logged in even though they didn't need to? All they needed was a kill and Red could have just left them, there was nothing that they could do. Roier was the one that decided to take the risk with his bad connection and fight. Why are you blaming Tubbo for Roier having lag?

Don't you feel not even a little ashamed?

[thumperdaetime]

A Gentle Reminder:

if you feel like you're spinning your wheels, and stuck doom scrolling this week -due to the current political landscape. I highly recommend logging off for a bit and seeing if you have the stomach to call a loved one who has political veiws that clash with your own.

social media and news coverage is fantastic for getting info out to people who want to listen, but it is an ineffective tool for actually communicating with people you disagree with.

I'm not a people-scientist but every time i see "yelling at each other online doesn't actually help" and have the energy to look into What does actually help, experts always say that it's empathetic, long term relationships between people that disagree.

so if you have a bunch of nervous political energy and no clearly helpful place to put it right now:

go call your grandmother. talk about the weather, and the way you miss her cooking. give her a real living person to picture The next time a newscaster talks about the radical-left-mob. if you talk to her regularly consider asking what she thinks about the recent political thing. you're not there to debate or prove her wrong or even change her mind. just listen to someone you love confess their fears, and then share your own fears. you are probably actually on the same side when you get down to it. you both want a safe place to live and the people you love to be happy, (most people do) its just you dont agree about how to go about that.

text your little cousin a random meme, when they send back a thing about how voting is a scam, let it go. share a vine to find out if they know the deep lore. make plans to meet up and play whatever video game they're obsessed with right now. and if the vibe is right and its not going to become an argument, try talking a bit about why the whole not voting movement scares you. don't talk down to them, talk like your two friends who respect each other's opinion (Thats The whole goal actually) ask them why they think its a good strategy, collaborate on other activist things you can do together. included them in your politics instead of dismissing their points.

and its not easy, as wild as it is to think about having a deep but pleasant conversation with your worst Uncle. the fact remains that Your Problematic & Uncle is much more likely to speak up for gay rights. if you can get to a place where you enjoy each others company, and you feel safe talking to him about your struggles as a queer person. and to be fair, you are more likely to take into account the effects of a gun ban on the local wildlife balance, if you sit through your Problematic Uncle complaining about how local restrictions made deer season hard to do last year, and now the tic population is up and the food banks are empty.

divide and conquer is a long standing tactical strategy. and we have seen that fascist in particular like to divide people into a hierarchy of ""real people""" and an ""inhuman enemy"" . when we let their rhetoric turn our peers and neighbors into an inhuman enemy, we can loose sight of what we should actually be fighting for and against.

and if you spend all your time yelling at Doug Nobody who was taking an angry shit when you were typing out that essay, you take energy away from the real fight (the systems and actual active oppressors). the best way to stop that tactic is by standing together with people outside of the box you've been assigned (as much as ethically possible). and refusing to let the system make you perpetuate usless infighting.

When we let the political fandom (yes i mean the media made around politics and not actual political action) act as a wedge between us and people who could have been in our lives, we end up with weaker support groups and less per review for political ideas. it is easy to believe Q-anon if the only people you talk to believe in Q-anon. the same way it is easy to believe that Taylor Swift is a lesbian if everyone you talk to believes Taylor Swift is a lesbian. sometimes we need a person to stop and say "wait, can you run that idea by me again? it doesn't fit my perception of reality"

and Yes. it is probably unlikely at this point to convince someone who has voted one way their whole life to change their political views before November. but that doesn't mean we dont reach-out ever. there will still be politics in September and October, you will still need a diverse support group, and people you trust to bounce political ideas off of. and if you are as worried as i am about this upcoming election, it is very possible that having a community of people who are okay with working together despite political differences will be very helpful in the coming years. (and holding a meaningful, satisfying conversation with someone you disagree with on a fundamental issue is a huge skill to have if you want to take part in alot of activism, community building, or family gatherings)

a quick list of things Op is NOT Saying in this post:

it is your duty and responsibility to do this thing and you're a bad person for not doing it.

this is really easy and everyone should be able (and willing) to take on the emotional energy needed to do this for everyone they know who doesn't agree with them.

watching news or being on social media doesn't help anything.

this is the best way to help and there are no other things you should be doing with your time/energy.

the conversations will be pleasant and/or will always have a positive outcome.

any beliefs i listed together are some how morally equivalent.

you should compromise your beliefs for the sake of getting along with others.

the best answer is most likely centrist because both sides are extremists.

voting this one time will fix all of the things and you're evil if you are conflicted about it.

voting is the best way for a single individual to enact change in their country.

i love the president, and the candidates, and the voting system, and the two parties, and the electoral college, and the bombs, and the genocide and all the death and corruption and violence its all holding up and being held up by.

we should listen to "both sides" to get a fair and balanced picture of the issue

we should let nazis, and bigots, and fascist talk openly about their ideas openly as if its not hate speech calling for violence against marginalized people.

you Have to go reconnect with your abusers and toxic relationships from your past in the hopes you can convince them to vote correctly.

the current political thing that made me make this post is The Most Important Thing!!! that has ever happened in the whole world over all of written history, and we should all be talking about it for forever, otherwise you're helping the inhuman enemy!!!

things are already fucked so theirs no point in trying to get enough votes.

things will be fine and ok if nothing changes and we just keep on this projected path forward.

i know so much and am so smart and I've solved political discourse and if only everyone listened to me we would have world peace already.

Taylor Swift is a wlw

things I am saying. now. here. at the end of the post:

be kind. go look at the sky. i love you <3

[mik-mania]

ok TWO tadc things cus i had a thought mid-post

1. i think theres a good likelihood that the humans (or most of the humans) are all just uploaded consciousnesses. maybe that explains the name-amnesia (redacted info and/or just being a "player character" created by the real person youre supposed to represent.)

@gooseworx is really good at foreshadowing, so i think making the choice to explore gummigoo finding the game assets under the map in the 2nd episode was very purposeful. pomni clearly relates to the guy--so it wouldnt be too much of a stretch to say that gummigoo's existential crisis of realizing that he isnt "real" could be a parallel to pomni in the future having a similar kind of crisis (irt finding out she isnt "real")

2. i was watching vixen (gangle's VA) do commentary over TADC episodes and revealing little easter eggs. she was discussing this one mannequin that seems to be following the humans around and watching them, which lead to talking about the possible theory that one of the humans is secretly an AI or one of the AIs is secretly a human.

in the middle of writing #1, i suddenly connected that thought to the end of episode 1, where everyone is seated reminiscently to The Last Supper.

what does the last supper represent? it depicts the last supper that jesus will have with his disciples before judas betrays him. im pretty sure a lot of people have gone over this already, but this artistic decision seems like its foreshadowing that one of the humans will betray pomni and the rest.

in relation to #1. assuming that the humans are actually just their uploaded consciousnesses/player avatars meant to represent real people (but not the people themselves), what if this manifested as one of the humans *actually* being real. possibly even knowing the truth about the other players--that there is no escape for them, because there is no logging out for a player character.

i think keeping this knowledge to oneself would feel like a betrayal to the others. even if it was done to protect the others. maybe abstracting is a good example of what happens when you ultimately come to the truth, which is the same as giving up--youre never going to leave. and you cant deal with that. so its almost like, in game terms, your save file corrupts. theres no returning to that player character.

3. a surprise third point! this is pure speculation, but if this is all correct, i think kinger would be the real human. why?

1) good shock factor. "betrayal" communicates a sense of malevolence, and kinger is definitely not the poster child of malevolence. if anything, jax is a pretty good red herring when it comes to this. (as a side note, its possible that jax knows the truth? or hes just an asshole. lol.)

2) chekov's gun. or, more accurately, chekov's computer science degree. was kinger's line just a red herring throwaway? possibly. but it was put in there for a reason.

3) one of my first thoughts when it comes to dementia (a pretty direct parallel made with kinger), its honestly those virtual worlds/headsets made for dementia patients. VR can be incredibly beneficial for dementia patients, and can even provide comfort and familiarity given inclusion of an environment and/or people the patient was familiar with.

ive followed goose's content for a long time (based little runmo), and although i dont know how to articulate the pattern that ive noticed, she has an abstract way of relating cosmic horror to everyday issues. basically this idea is just giving me the same vibes. yeah, sorry, this point is just vibe-based.

4) kinger has been there the longest. itd make sense if he was the original, in the sense that this world was created for him. my assumption is that he's in end-of-life care, and that this is part of that care. that, or he said fuck the real world, this is my life now.

5) this whole theory kind of relies on kinger being older than his stated canon age, which is in his 50s (i forget the actual number). while early onset dementia happens, it IS more typical later in life.

that said--the 50-age-mark is kind of negotiable. when youre inside your own head, when youre disconnected from what is reality... what does age really mean? its just memories, isnt it?

my grandmother had moments where she was 20 years old again. and that was real to her.

the best way to care for someone with dementia isnt to argue with them over their reality. our perception is everything--that's what makes our reality.

6) kinger's increased cognition is almost like an inverse depiction of sundowning. if you dont know what that is, its a term for a common behavior in dementia patients where they become increasingly agitated and/or distressed in the later afternoon or evening (ie. when it gets darker.)

light therapy is said to be beneficial for those with dementia.

for kinger, the reverse seems to be true. it may be an intentional subversion of the "light=good, dark=bad" trope. if it is, i think its a beautiful choice.

anyway. yeah. i had some thoughts.

[kozykricket]

havent been very active on tumblr, for no reason in particular. anyways, as a risk of rain fan, i must clarify my opinions on the SOTS release

i think we can all agree on "the dlc is great content"

but anyways, its clear to me that the devs are people who care and are passionate about ROR as a series and about keeping ror2 going as well. i mean, hopoo and ghor have said as much! and their community manager seems nice i really dont blame the actual DLC team, because like. its always rude to just point fingers at the people who are just doin' darn good work. point fingers at the executive decision makers i think uh, the unification of console and pc code is... well, ill miss the old codebase, but honestly? the fact they've rewritten the games code from the ground up basically... tells me that they're in it for the long-ish haul. that they dont want to just drop ror2. they want to make their own basis that they can cleanly work on and continue this game into its second life of sorts i guess its like a soft reset of development - everythings jank like early access now. but itll get better is the current ror team the best at making decisions for the game? maybe not, but i really dont think they're malicious

its funny though, because the 2 things i was worried about was "oh gearbox is totally gonna mess up the lore with weird inconsistencies and it wont feel right, and they'll add powercreep" but honestly. imma be real, knowing some stuff ghor has said about his intentions behind the lore (shoutouts to Ghor btw, hes done so much for both the lore and the... well, the creation and foundation of risk of rain 2s codebase as a whole. the more i look into ghor, the more i realize he truly is mr ror2) anyways knowing his intentions with certain things, i can say... the Anniversary Update and SOTV actually messed up lore more than SOTS has, lol. the lores well done in SOTV. the non-lore-important logs kinda suck though, they're clearly unfinished. but i think... what they lacked was Time. Time, to complete the clean unification of code ... and for general polish. so i say we give them what randy pitchfork didnt. lets give them time, aight? im not super happy with the idea of a ror2: bedrock edition future, but... i think if the right balancing tweaks are done, then things can look pretty bright. and they do seem to want to listen to the community (though i doubt randy pitchfork wants them to. heck CEOs)

and as for powercreep? lmao we got the opposite, the items are almost too underpowered.

AS for the dlc content, i think seeker is goated. really fun character to play. chef is... undercooked tbh, jank m1. still havent gotten the third survivor, though i know who it is, and seems pretty well done minus the lack of visual and audio feedback / game-feel i think the stages are fantastic, the music is as always banger, and honestly the items are like. really CLOSE to being interesting. like noxious thorn? a green item that plays with debuffs? very cool. but why is it "on taking damage" and. i dunno, instead of adding more stacks of debuffs, i'd make it spread those debuffs to more enemies! knockback fin should be turned into a void of stun grenade if you have both DLCs on, tbh. so yeah, im. cautiously optimistic for the future. dont fall for all of the doomerisms that the youtubers are trying to spread - they're doing that to apply pressure to gearbox, mostly. which is fair, but its also fearmongering kinda. and like actual devs dont seem too concerned for the games future im just hoping that everyone who has been involved with ror2... has a good future. i dont want gearbox to just cut off the ror2 team, and i hope ghor can find whatever he needs

[unpopularshipbracket]

Round 2b Match 1

Rashmi Jamil/Amelie Macon (Entropic Float)

Fic count: 0

Milo/Piers (Pokemon)

fic count: 29

"COUNTRY BOY X EMO CITY BOY, HIMBO X GOTH, SHORT AND STRONG X TALL AND SKINNY, SUNSHINE ONE X GRUMPY ONE C'MON GUYS THEY'RE EVERYTHING it is MIND boggling they aren't more popular"

Rashmelie propaganda under cut!

Rashmelie:

"this essay is going to be reused whole cloth from the submission of them to the 17 million years of pining poll! because unfortunately i do not have the energy to go insane enough to write up anything new oh.

my god. where the fuck do i start with them for real.

okay so, theyve been friends since early childhood, and before either of them came out (Rashmi is agender, they/them, while Amelie is a trans girl, she/her, and they are both mspec which is a bit less relevant but is also there). the earliest time that we know that they have feelings for each other is when theyre both 14, and Rashmi - already out, with their entire family (parents and grandma) supporting them without question - is moving. uhhh 90% of american geography names are the same to me so i might lie there. from Nevada, where they both grew up, to New York, where Rashmi is planning on studying dance further, which has always been their plan; around 14 is when they ran out of teachers at home.

they quietly hope Amelie doesnt confess her feelings for them, as they fear it might tempt them to stay, which they cannot allow themself to do. Amelie, meanwhile, is very carefully not thinking about gender, because her parents are quite frankly the worst. over the course of the years before they meet back up, Amelie has had some dates, but each time, they dont work out, and in her own words, put logs on the flame she carries for Rashmi.

Rashmi, meanwhile. gets married. one of Rashmi's biggest struggles in their romantic pursuits has been the fact that they are both Indian and queer. it has been a struggle for them to find someone who respects both - someone who respects their gender identity while not throwing their culture under the bus. that is one of the factors contributing to the way their relationship with "Ajay" (we learn that this name isnt his real one, but it was magically replaced in Rashmi's memories of him and we dont know it) played out: he is also Indian, and the first thing he asked them upon meeting them was what their pronouns were. and it was all good.

until it wasnt.

i would love to get into that deeper, but the important point is that "Ajay" is kind of a piece of garbage, whose crimes include finding Rashmi's address when they didnt give it out, deliberately not sending Amelie her wedding invitation because Rashmi told him they used to have a crush on her, driving them to drop out of dance school, and general possessiveness (notable being the fact that, whenever he is home, he always asks them to stay home too, which leads to them dropping their social circle and their hobbies). one of the places it grows from is "Ajay" being ace and not quite believing that Rashmi accepts that. he also has a substance abuse problem.

all of that culminates as they return from a short visit to their parents, and he in a fit pushes them down a long flight of stairs.

in the meantime... god, i cant even figure out what parts of information are important about Amelie here. i would put as notable the fact that she only figured out she was a girl something like a year before the events of the game - and only ever came out to Rashmi, who in turn told their parents...

and who didnt realize that Amelie's workplace didnt know. her workplace is just. terrible in social terms. she loves the work itself (its food industry, a restaurant in a casino, dont remember the exact job description) but her coworkers are being the absolute worst. a cesspool of toxic masculinity. also an environment for Amelie's undiagnosed psychosis. she is prone to auditory hallucinations.

after being outed to her boss while also hearing from Rashmi's parents that their husband is... lets just say bad for them, she, while safely at home, hallucinates that her boss or maybe her father is breaking down the door.

simultaneously with Rashmi as they are falling down the stairs, they make Wishes.

these are not widely understood; from the context of the game, it seems as though some people get a Wish when in significant peril, or in distress. you do not need to use the Wish immediately as you get it, but they both did.

essentially, what Rashmi Wishes for is a way to escape from their husband that wouldnt raise a fuss; and Amelie Wishes for a place where she and Rashmi can both be safe. (i am very muddly on the details there) their Wishes create the anomalous clocktower where the game takes place."

[arolesbianism]

Horrible realization that if I go through with recollecting all the oni logs then I'll have to actually find out how to get "a seed is planted" like for realsies this time. Maybe I should just cheat them all in actually. <3.

[sweet-potato-42]

I think the fact blue has no real leader and they all work togehter is both their greates strength and their weakness. I elaborate below

Obviously 0 neg i ADORE blue team and i LOVE their dynamic and i wanna see them grow

So tubbo is technically leader but in reality blue has no one who actually takes the lead and tells others what to do. Instead everyone just works together seeing what they need to do as a team. Sometimes tina, bbh and tubbo become leaders since they play the most and they tend to be the ones to find out what the team does the most (more on this later)

Everyone being able to work on their own thing is great because thats how they end up with very interesting developements and creations from indivdual players (aypierre xp farm, pac decorating base, tina with tea, etc). This sort of thing can give them advantages. The lack of leader is also really wholesome and makes it feel like they are a nice team. As aypierre said the greatest strenght of blue team is their knowledge of the game.

However the lack of leadership means that the team often struggles to communicate things between each other. It is also made harder due to timezone differences. Often players will make advances and forget to tell others about them. Or theyll have a plan and forget to tell as well. An example is bbh hiding stuff in blue base but not telling the rest of the team where he put them. They are getting better at this though as the game continues especially with the new base having everything together. In the end its usually bbh, tubbo and tina that find out about what other team memebrs are doing since they tlak to most of them however they sometimes laso forget to make sure those who dont log on often know everything as well.

I am hoping for some more days that are focused on resource gathering and quests becuase thats what blue excells at

many issues could be solved if htey like just discussed some system to make sure the whole team is aware of whats going on at all times

[coconox]

"mini" rant abt bp, dont mind me

tbh what bothers me most abt bp isnt even the pricing, its how its set up as a whole

like, lets look at examples from pgr and pnc, the main 2 gachas i maintain

first up, pnc

the 1st img just shows what you get from bp, that being 2 options:

option 1 ($9.99): you get a skin of a certain char that changes every month + a bunch of currency for banners and just general materials

option 2 ($14.99): everything from option 1 + exclusive decorative items like a profile frame or background to customize your profile, all those decorative items are themed around the char skin you also get

youre not forced to get option 1 to get option 2, option 2 automatically gives you everything from option 1

the 2nd img is how you increase bp level. "but its just the dailies and weeklies tabs" you might be wondering (or not idk lol), but thats exactly it. you increase bp lvl by simply playing the game like you normally would any other day, no additional tasks outside of that

now lets take a look at pgr, which has a different formatting of bp but the concepts relatively the same

just like w pnc, you have 2 options, but this time, these options are completely unrelated from each other

option 1 (30 rc or $5.99): lets you get mats and gacha currency for pets

option 2 (68 rc or $11.99): lets you get a weap skin, gacha currency, and other general mats for chars

the actual $ prices for these options give you extra rc, idk just wanted to point that out lol

again, you are not forced to get option 1 to get option 2 or vice versa. this bp system lets you pick which option you want to buy as they both have completely different uses�� you could even buy both if you wanted to

similar to pnc, the way you increase bp lvl is by playing the game like you normally would (i.e. doing your dailies and weeklies). the only addition to this is that theres also event missions, which are very achievable since most of the time the main requirement is to simply just play the events that are currently running during the patch

now lets look at bp in whb

as most of us know by now, you need to buy the advanced tier before getting the superior tier

ideally, we should be able to unlock the superior tier and automatically get everything from the advanced tier, but ig not :') we gotta spend $10+ on top of the $43 just for like 1 sig and general mats :')))

and to progress through bp, we would need to do a multitude of things outside of doing dailies/weeklies, ultimately struggling either due to lack of resources like not having enough tears or having the inability to progress through unholy board if either the ones incomplete rely on pies/insane amounts of tears or youre stuck on needing to get a char's sig

theres also the fact that logging in everyday is a requirement, and that you cannot progress to the next stage without completing the previous one. this would be detrimental to those who either join the game late or start on bp late, as youre essentially unable to progress bc of real time.

honestly an "easy" fix would just be to remove the login requirement, but i can kinda get why the requirement is there just so it forces players to at least log on and maybe play

another thing that irks me is that f2p users still need to "unlock" the advanced/superior rewards despite not even be able to collect those rewards. ideally the free and advanced/superior tiers should be displayed in seperate tiers so at least we can see whats obtainable for free and whats behind a paywall. f2ps shouldnt need to unlock the p2w stuff, they should just need to only unlock the free stuff

theres also the fact that whb's bp isn't like most bps in gachas. bp is generally a monthly thing, while whb has it every once in a while. maybe in the future it would become a monthly thing but rn its essentially a p2w event

now to address the elephant in the room, the prices. i cant compare whb's prices to pgr or pnc, as both pgr and pnc are made by big companies that have been doing this stuff for a while and pb consists of a mere fraction of that. also, pnc and pgr give skins aka cosmetics in bps, not whole chars. yes, pgr gives shards to help boost a char's ranks, but it isnt enough to straight up get the whole char through bp (ignoring bp shop). if i had more knowledge on how pb prices packs/bp/seals aside from it being lower than the usual gacha games in jp servers, mayb i could form a stronger opinion, but rn i cant say much without comparing prices to bigger companies.

theres also the fact that erolabs users have to pay $3-5 more than app store users. while to some that doesnt sound like a lot, im very much a 'every penny counts' kinda guy and $3-5 extra to pay compared to normal is a huge turn off for wanting to spend on this game

thankfully w this bp at least juno isnt dependent on needing specific l ranks (>looks at gabriel needing michael and raphael to work effectively), i just hope that it stays like that? as in, i hope the characters that show up in bp dont need to have other l ranks that are dependent on them

anyw rants over i just wanted to let that out my system 💀

[thegeminisage]

casino skip??? that sounds fun!! the skyrim glitch i was talking about involves goimg out of bounds too, i only managed it on ps3. i mostly just dont care enough to do glitches.

i have sooooo many games i want to play rip, instead i replay ratchet and clank for the 500th time

also whats your favorite final fantasy game? mine is 12 bc baby me had big ol' crushes on fran and balthier. (fun fact, the guy who voiced balthier was deucalion in teen wolf)

- dl anon

CASINO SKIP. this person makes it look easy but it took my brother a few tries to get it. i don't normally care much about glitches either but it IS fun to see them done in real life

favorite final fantasy is such a difficult one...i like almost all of them that i've played* (ff2 you will forever be my enemy). ff5 for sure has the best humor, ff6 is the most innovative and closest to my heart, ffx for sure has the best story...but i think 13 wins. 13 has a bit of a swiss cheese problem as far as its plot goes (so much critical information is hidden in the logs in the start menu or simply missing or translated incorrectly), but the cast grows so wonderfully together and with such charisma and charm, the graphics hold up 10+ years later, the soundtrack is a fucking banger, and it has my absolute favorite battle system in any rpg i have EVER played. not only that, its ratio of male to female characters is a perfect 50/50, AND the female protagonist does NOT enter into a romantic relationship of ANY kind during all 3 games - it isn't even hinted at, isn't at all implied that it should be a thing. like, first of all, aro queen, secondly, feminism, but thirdly, how refreshing for a piece of media like that to place nonromantic bonds above romantic ones when the FF games normally have the big sweeping kind of romance you get with like tidus and yuna or locke and celes. i love the protagonist of 13 so much, she's about half the reason i finally dyed my hair pink. 10/10 games i had some mixed feeling about the third game in the trilogy but ultimately i didn't hate it which is what matters.

*i have played 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, and 13. i really want to to 7 8 and 12 someday but i know what a timesink it will be lol (fun fact the guy who voices balthier in ff12 and plays deucalion in teen wolf ALSO voices my main man fenris in dragon age 2). i'm not gonna do 14 cuz i don't do mmos anymore, i'm not gonna do 15 cuz i know there are no women, and im not really interested in 16 either because it looks like it has no women and also very game of thr*nes-y. here's hoping 17 does a little better.

[rjshepofftheshits]

Ok real talk tho, here is how they can improve dead space 3 for a remake.

Less focus on saving the world and more focus on the characters. i want to see isaac and ellie try to repair their relationship, i want to see carver go from grumpy git to isaacs friend and i want to see robert norton go from a good man with good intentions to someone who cracks under pressure, not because of some dumb jealousy thing with Isaac. if you were feeling REALLY spicy you could even make Danik a reasonable if categorically wrong man who eventually goes absolutely fruit loops by the end instead of starting out that way.

give isaac more story besides running after ellie. i know saving people, particularly the women in his life is a running theme with mr clarke, we do stan a feminist king. but he was perfectly capable of doing everything in dead space 1 WHILE ALSO looking for Nicole, his every other word wasn't about her. Dead space 3 makes me feel like he is only capable of pining after ellie and that is just not him. Isaac and ellie were together for 2-3 years, he knows her and he knows she can look after herself, it's the rest of the fucking universe that needs his competence and intelligence, not her. and if you must go this way, please don't make it another rescue mission. Again, ellie is a survivor and an intelligent person maybe even as smart as isaac she does not need saving.

also give the girl back her sports bra im sick of the cleavage. how she jumped 3 cup sizes is beyond me.

keep carver in the story but make him either an AI companion or do what NIER : Automata or RE2MAKE did. you play all the way through as isaac, then as carver and then once again as whoever for the ending OR you play all the way to the end as Isaac and then on a second playthrough you can be Carver and the way that you played as Isaac is now how your ai partner isaac behaves.

do not lock Carvers story behind coop missions. i know visceral didnt want to do this, they were made to by ea but still it seems like a dumb move even on their part. Carver didnt need to be there but since he is, why are you hiding that light under a bushel ea???

big one: get rid of the micropayments and retool the fucking weapons and combat. most of the guns are like water pistols and the necromorphs tank hits like brick shithouses. i know SCAF weapons are 200 years old by the time of dead space 3 but like. Isaac is smart enough to make a ripper, a line cutter and a plasma cutter on its own without bolting them together.

do not hide the true ending behind a dlc paywall. i think i was the only person on the planet that actually liked Awakened, better than the base game too. so it pains me to say that it didnt need to exist: either cut it completly and use it as the opening for dead space 4 or merge it into the ending of dead space 3 somehow.

lastly i think the story needs some tweaking. if we look at the progression it goes > outbreak on one ship > outbreak on a station> universe wide outbreaks everyone is doomed. now granted i understand you need to escate things for sequels but i just dont feel the same gravity of the situation in 3 as a did in 1 or 2. we never see the world outside isaacs pov which is fine but i would still like to see some of the world before it got fucked over a picket fence by the unitologists. the only glimpses we get are in text logs and it would make me feel more urgency to save the world if i actually knew what the world was like.

Continuing on with my story point: isaac needs some tweaks. he is a broken and cynical man by 3 which is very fair given all hes gone through but he is also a savior and defender at heart. no, he didnt ask for any of this but since he's stuck in this situation you know damn well he is going to do his best to fix this. I always found it weird that Isaac was essentially suicidal by the time of 3s opening, he was killing himself with indifference and clearly not looking after himself but when Norton comes knocking he still says "find someone else for your suicide mission" outright refusing all of it until ellie is mentioned. why didnt norton open with "ellie is in trouble, she sent us to get you to help" ? and why did isaac flat out refuse if he didnt care about his own life???

all this to say i would very much like to see isaac living a somewhat normal life after 2. ok maybe hes still depressed and alone but hes also still trying to move on, anything better to explain his reluctance to get dragged back into things . Maybe instead of having isaac backed into a corner and avoiding the world it could be more of a case of "i fucking told you so" like the mass effect series. Isaac has spent 2 games telling everyone who will listen "do not fuck with the markers" and now maybe he could be really fucking annoyed that no one has listened and as the only competent man in the galaxy hes got to go sort this shit out on principal.

here also are some things id just like to see.

Isaac struggling with his marker problem less like psychosis and more like a general disability or chronic illness. yes it sucks ass and yes its disabling but hes still a badass despite it. i dont like the wooohhhoooo mental illness scary vibes i get from other marker touched people like stross. thats just not how it works.

isaac with psysical scars from his time in project teleomere/ the hospital in dead space 2. i would like to see him with wounds from the first game healed and also maybe some marker scrawl on him as a permenant reminder of what happened.

id like to see ellie have a more active role or even be a playable character. doesnt have to be a big thing, do something like the born from a wish scenario in silent hill 2, maybe cover the 2 weeks she was lost in space before ds3 takes place.

id like to see the necromorph process slowed down. it happens so fast its almost meaningless, not to mention unbelievable. if it happens over time and the characters can see and react to it happening that has more emotional impact.

In the ending where carver and Isaac get blown off the platform, I want to see them holding hands to stay together.

if i think anymore ill put them in the reblogs or something

but yeah ea hit me up im ready to advise

or if ur not ea and just wana chat shite about dead space you can hit me up too