#I want more of that I want a ton of the rebels to have lasting scars from this mental abuse

[torchship-rpg]

Dev Diary 19 - State of the Union Part 1

It’s been a while, cosmonauts, but we’re back at it. This last week has been an incredibly productive one for Torchship, solving a ton of longstanding issues holding up the Alpha, and digging back into the art.

But you’re here for the mechanics, and boy, we have some pretty cool ones for you this Diary. Today we’re going to be talking about the meta-campaign and the core of what drives a multi-episode run of Torchship; playing not just to encounter little morality plays out in the stars, but to find out how the resolution of those issues changes things back home.

To be clear; this is campaign mechanics, and long campaign mechanics at that. You can play short campaigns and one-shots too, but we want to write a game that’ll hold up to truly epic campaigns, or sequential campaigns if you ever wanted to do Torchship: The Next Generation.

Your campaign can take you a great many places, but all of them revolve around one question:

The Star Union & Representative Agents

As we’ve mentioned before, the players are not just playing the crew of their spacecraft as they go trekking around the stars. That crew is the product of a society, and when the players are out making decisions in the stars, we assume that similar choices with similar reasoning are being made by the people back home.

For that reason, players get to have a lot of influence over the direction of the Star Union both through their actions in the actual episodes, and through decisions and votes they hold over what the Star Union does. This isn’t actually their characters deciding what’s happening unilaterally; it’s the assumption that your crew are, in a sense, the median voter. When the players decide to invest the Union’s resources into a certain upgrade path or project, this represents the Union’s population settling on that course of action for all the same reasons the characters would make that decision in their place.

For this reason, while you can be many things in Torchship, you can’t really be a rebel. If you try, you will be part of an enormous rebellious movement that will very quickly become the new authority and now you’re right back to your day job as a government employee, looking wistfully at your old leather jacket as you file a T-18 Use Of Telemat Report.

I can already hear your protests that you want to be a bold iconoclast that strikes out in defiance of the norms of society. I regret to inform you that you want this because it is a norm of your society to be a bold iconoclast striking out in defiance of things.

It’s The Economy, Stupid

The Star Union is mechanically represented with its own character sheet and its own stats; changing that sheet over time is your job. It’s relatively simple, with stats primarily acting as ways of gating your access to the cool upgrades that improve your capabilities, make your rocket better, and get you shiny new toys, but it matters a lot.

At the end of every Episode, you go into a mode of the game called Resupply. This quite literally represents the time passing as your rocket flies from one star to another, usually taking about one week before arriving at the next planet/on the television sets of households across the nation.

Resupply is a portion of the game which can be resolved immediately after the start of one episode or before the start of another, but one of the best ways to do it is during the time between your play sessions; it’s designed to be something easily hashed out over chat programs and the like. We’ll go into more detail about what you do there and how in the future, but the important part is knowing that this is when the Union’s economy starts mattering.

The Union has two sets of Economic stats. The first contains just a single stat, Productivity. This is how many Credits the Star Union generates at the end of each Episode because it has a bunch of factories and farms and stuff. Productivity is difficult and costly to increase; you can do so by starting Projects, with the amount of time and Credits required varying depending on what kind of Project it is. 

Getting infrastructure in place to exploit a rich belt of Very High Rotation asteroids for the valuable quark nuggets inside is a relatively quick and cheap project; it just requires you the players to find and secure such a resource. By contrast, building up Production through modernization and expansion of existing industrial capability is slow, hard work that will take multiple episodes to complete.

The second set of stats is the Infrastructure stats, covering all the stuff that production is used to maintain. These are Social, Technological, Military, and Redundant Infrastructure. Respectively, this is the Union’s standard of living, how shiny and new its stuff is, how big Star Force has gotten, and how many warehouses you have. You increase all of the stats by paying into funds for them, investing your Credits when you have a surplus until you’ve paid them off.

For the most part, these are used to gate access to upgrades; if you want that shiny new laser, you need to get Technology and Military Infrastructure to a certain point first. Redundant Infrastructure is the odd-man out; it doesn’t really give you access to many new Upgrades, but it has a vital function we’ll get to in a second.

Every point of Infrastructure costs 1 Credit per Episode to run, and at the start of the Campaign, the Star Union is overextended; it’s trying to take on all the costs and responsibilities of being the leading power of Local Space while simultaneously managing an enormous humanitarian crisis partially of its own making, and integrating a large number of refugees from the aforementioned enormous humanitarian crisis. Infrastructure will be higher than Production, and that means the balance has to be paid by none other than the Star Union’s exploration, diplomacy, and prospecting service.

That’s you.

This difference is called your Union Dues, and it's very important that you pay them. If you fail to pay, you’ll have to roll on the WHOOPS I FORGOT TO PAY THE POWER BILL table. Regrettably, this is not its final name, but it is what’s in the document right now.

You might think that this isn’t too big a threat; you’ll just always make sure to save up enough Credits to pay your Union Dues even if you have a bad Episode. That’s where we smile maliciously and tell you that you can’t. Societies don’t typically like sitting on huge amounts of surplus production and not using it on things that people want and need, so for that reason, the amount of Credits you can store between Episodes is limited by your Redundant Infrastructure. You know, Infrastructure you also have to pay for.

If your Dues aren’t out of control, you aren’t running too many Projects that you don’t want to fail, and you’re not burning your expensive consumables, then yes, you can usually meet your Union Dues no problem using the banked Credits from Redundancy. But a streak of bad episodes or out of control spending can send your campaign into a death spiral. The good news is that eventually, the Star Union will contract until it reaches equilibrium, either voluntarily or through terrible rolls.

The bad news is that the Star Union will contract until it reaches equilibrium, and you live in the Star Union! And so do a great many people who are going to have opinions about that.

Speaking of…

Getting Political

The Star Union is more than just a series of economic stats. All the people those stats represent have hopes and dreams, and more importantly, they have voting power on local councils. Being a direct democracy, the Star Union has a tendency to undergo pretty seismic political shifts very quickly when circumstances change, and any good campaign is going to have a lot of Circumstances.

To represent this, we use a series of Movements. You may remember us talking about these way back, or rather an earlier version of them; we’ve since expanded how they work and set up a system which allows them to exist alongside others.

So… let’s meet a Movement.

The Centralists are the Leading Movement at the start of your Campaign; they’ll be largely unopposed for the moment, but the Civil Anarchists and the Neo-Trotskyites are waiting in the wings and can join them in a coalition fairly easily.

What that means in practical terms is that they have the highest Power Rank at 5. As both a Major Power and the Leading Power, the Centralists give you two passive effects. Their Major Power bonus relates to Stability, which we’ll talk about in a moment, while their Leading Movement Effect is the benefit you get for being at 10-12 Unity on the Unity track. You’ll remember that from Dev Diary 15; that universal rule is actually just the default you get from these guys being in charge!

They also have a Taboo, which represents a value of this Movement, the violation of which discredits their influence; it’s stuff that makes them look hypocritical or disgusts their followers. For the Centralists, that’s failing to keep Promises made to groups in negotiation; their reputation is built around being the trustworthy and reliable ones that follow through on their deals.

Here’s some examples of other Movements’ Major Power Effect, Leading Movement Effect, and Taboo:

Progress Triggers

Movements advance in Power Rank by gaining Progress; that’s what is tracked on that neat little circular dial. At the end of each Episode, you go through the Triggers for all the active Movements and add Progress based on which ones got done. As a Movement rises in Power Rank, the Triggers are reduced in strength proportionally; at Rank 5, the only Trigger which actually gives the Centralists Progress is bringing new Members into the Union. Don’t worry, though; they have another means of keeping power.

You’ll notice that the 4 Progress trigger, Focus on Fundamentals, triggers when you miss Union Dues. A lot of Movements have triggers like this; this is where we put the stuff that the Movement specifically believes they’d do better. So when the Centralists are out of power, they get a boost from the economic mismanagement of whoever is, but once they have influence in government, failing to balance the budget isn’t going to work in their favour.

By extension, lower-value triggers tend to be things that drive or revitalise a weak Movement, while high-value triggers are triumphs or threats that validate them, either mobilizing a weak movement with a victory, or cementing the authority of a strong one.

For another example, here are the Neo-Trot Triggers. You can see how their lower triggers, the first ones to fade, are the relatively small fundamental issues that form the emotional foundation of the Movement; the Neo-Trots won’t be irrelevant so long as we keep finding planets ruled by jerks and evil computers, and their quest for increased military spending grows more pressing every time a Star Patrol rocket limps back full of holes.

The #4 trigger here ceases to help the Neo-Trots once they take power; it’s expected of them. Both the Centralists and Civil Anarchists get this trigger at 5 instead, which creates an interesting contradiction; once they’re in power, winning battles empowers their rivals because, through victory, they are making themselves obsolete. If they keep winning their fights, why do we need to shovel more resources into Star Force?

That’s why their highest triggers are stuff that give them more material power directly instead. Producing and distributing weapons increases the size of those sectors in the Union’s economy and bureaucracy, increasing their influence, while a war breaking out mobilizes the economy and places all their experts in positions of authority. This also, of course, gives them an incentive to keep arming people and fighting wars once they’re in power…

Stability

Each time an Opposition Movement (that’s any Movement which isn’t the Leading Movement) goes up by a Power Rank, it prompts a Stability Check. You also have to roll Stability Checks if you fail to pay your Union Dues. This is pretty simple; Stability is a number from 0-6 representing people’s faith in the current leadership of the Star Union. You roll 1d6 for each Stability Check; if the result is above your current Stability, the Leading Movement loses 1d6 Progress, potentially sliding back to lower Power Levels. If that happens enough, they’ll be displaced as the Leading Power.

Note that passing Stability Checks has an effect; each test you pass lowers Stability by 1. Fortunately, restoring Stability is pretty easy; every Credit put into the Social Infrastructure fund raises Stability by 1, and incidentally also gives the Leading Movement 3 Progress. 

So basically, the Leading Movement can have whatever ideologically it wants, but once it's actually in power, it only stays in power by raising people’s standards of living, though it does benefit from a slow decay of everyone else’s Progress. If the Centralists spend the entire budget on giant golden statues of Yuri Gagarin, then they won’t be in power for very long, and if they really screw it up… well, that’s what Crises are for.

Endgames

Each Movement has a number of Endgames; the five major movements all have a sort of soft ‘win’ condition that cements their power in some way and makes a lasting change on your game. For example, Federation-Builders basically cements the Centralists’ power for the foreseeable future by having them make good on their promises, and in the process gain a new and fiercely loyal following.

Well, I say soft win condition; they aren’t always.

A ‘lose’ condition deactivates or disempowers a Movement, representing the movement breaking apart, being thoroughly discredited, or otherwise losing their ability to carry on. For the Centralists, the only thing that’ll knock them out of the game is the Cybernetic Democrats actually getting their wild experiment off the ground and fully implemented, which is a huge and expensive Project.

How severe these lose conditions are will vary. Some movements will be outright destroyed, either instantly or by fading out, but others are more resilient.

Finally, we have the Crisis. Crises are triggered if Stability hits 0, and they’re bad. The most survivable ones prompt multi-episode arcs in a mad scramble to save the Union; the worst functionally end the campaign. The Centralists being in charge when the state they build fails means that it all comes apart in their scramble to save it; the cordial competition for the future of the Union becomes a shooting war. This might be where you end your campaign, or it might be where you throw in with another Movement and try to win it for them!

Many Crises will be internal…

… but not all of them.

Expanded Movements

The five core movements we mentioned before are all primary Movements, with a full set of triggers, effects, and endgames. Each of them represents a potentially valid direction for the Union that you, as players, can choose to back or suppress. 

However, the nature of this system makes it very easy for us to add new Movements to the game. Most of these Movements are Minor Movements, with reduced triggers and rules which are usually single-issue and whose Endgames are simplified and easier to hit. Minor Movements don’t cause Stability hits when they gain Power Ranks and can’t take the Leading Faction slot, they can slot easily into a ruling coalition without breaking things, or fade once their purpose is achieved.

For an example, if you integrate the Nariene into the Star Union (either by defeating its current government or making an alliance that bypasses that; we’ll be talking about them in the next Dev Diary), you get the very pressing Minor Movement “Nariene Green Movement”, which is clamouring, quite reasonably, to have their planet saved from the runaway greenhouse effect they’re under. They’ll gain power quite quickly with triggers firing based on the Union’s economy growing, and once they hit Major they’ll mandate the funding of their Project. Once their homeworld is saved, their endgame is triggered and the Movement fades, leaving you with a nice permanent bonus as everyone in the Star Union gets a bit better at reducing, reusing, and recycling.

Not all late-joining Movements are Minors, though; some of them can very much become the Leading Power and change your game accordingly.

Finally… not all the Movements are intended to be viable paths forward. Movements can emerge in dire circumstances, reflecting adverse pressures, but they can also come out of your actions as Star Patrol, if you feed the worst impulses of the Union and give material power to bad actors.

Which is why you don’t start your campaign with five moments. You start with six.

[bonefall]

What kind of dishonor titles would the imposter whip up?

Ok so, in BB!TBC, I'm planning to overhaul many of the cats who get exiled. Ashfur IS a... 'competent' leader this time around, and being in his Clan is hell on Earth. But he does know how to run it without exiling everyone who breathes funny.

I think Blossomfall in particular should comment about how much this reminds her of the Kin, only...

"I hate to say this. But Darktail was more calm lol. Ppl would disappear but he didnt call a meeting every 5 minutes he did it"

The way he gives Dishonor Titles is by finding their insecurities and throwing it back at them. The point of DTs is that they're supposed to make you sit with your mistake and they're supposed to be VERY serious, egregious punishments.

But Ashfur is just trying to break his cats and make them not want to defy him. He wants them to hurt.

Cats who will almost definitely get a Dishonor Title:

Blossomfall = Clearface, because she might as well be invisible. No one wants to hear from her, she's worthless

Sparkpelt = Flickercry. To remind her about her failures, remember that she's made worse mistakes than anybody else and should be mindful of how she chooses to criticize others.

Twigbranch = Fumbleclaw. For a hunting mistake, he says she's clumsy and lazy and doesn't deserve to eat from the pile until she learns how to catch her own food

In addition, I can see him really WANTING to give Briarlight a Dishonor Title, but politically, it's too far. She's defiant, loved, a beacon of light that keeps people united. To brand her would be a mistake, it would make her a martyr.

I may rework the Sparkpelt Dog Situation to be his attempt to get rid of Briarlight. I think that would make a MUCH better sendoff to her, dying as a result of the wonderful person she is, instead of the garbage greencough death back in AVoS.

[gildeddlily]

this is literally me being excited about the new star wars show I just watched going on any social media and only finding people hating on it for the dumbest reasons

[dis-astre]

OK A BREAKDOWN OF LES MISERABLES IN FRANCE

- they changed a lot of the lyrics (including my fav/funniest lyrics unfortunately) which was pretty interesting ; honestly i think it's a great thing bc it was last re-written in 1991 and they made the songs more textual, more like real talking and i think way more accessible for a lot of people (bc in france we have this habit of writing pretty words, with a lot of images and lyrical phrases but it's not always helping to understand the plot yknow)

- the new lyrics for do you hear the people sing/à la volonté du peuple are SO GOOD ! originally it says :

à la volonté du peuple/et à la santé du progrès/rempli ton cœur d'un vin rebelle/et à demain ami fidèle

(to the will of the people/and cheers to progress/fill your heart with a rebel wine/and see you tomorrow, faithful friend)

and now it's:

à la volonté du peuple/qui crie les mots de sa colère/le chant de ceux qui ne veulent plus/être les damnés de la terre

à la volonté du peuple/dont on étouffe jamais la voix/et dont le chant renaît toujours/et dont le chant renait déjà

(to the will of the people/screaming the words of its anger/the song of those who don't want to be/the damned on earth anymore

to the will of the people/which you can never choke the voice/and whose song always revive/and whose song's revive already)

and idk i think it's pretty freaking cool; but i'll do a big breakdown of the new lyrics of do you hear the people sing bc it's the song they changed the most and i think it's way better for our times and more hopeful and giving the will to fight

- the stage: honestly real cool and clever! it's a smaller stage, way smaller than the west end one if my memories are not mistaken, and we obvisouly don't have the rotating stage; but they played a lot with moving structures and transparent curtains to make special effect like buildings, rain, etc... and it's way real cool !

- idk who the sound guy was but props to him cause the sound was SO GOOD like it sounded so clean and like listening to an album, truly perfect on this aspect

- the actors were GREAT, you could see they rlly took the roles and made them their own (i think enjolras' actor loves his role bc ive seen some of his tiktok and he looks like he loves it a lot so that's cool af)

- also i bough this

which is a conversation with boublil and schonberg retracing the story of the musical so yay

Anyway i'll do another big post to tell y'all act by act what was happening !

[angstflavoured]

You have any fic recommendations? Any fandom really lol. You have good takes and interpretation so I feel like you’d have some fire recs

AWH WELL THANK YOU !! I dont actually know how great the ones I read are gonna be since usually the fandoms Im in are scarce on content 💀 but ill go ahead and list a bunch of the ones I really like. I definitely spend way too much of my time reading one shots. REALLY wanna get back into longer fics, but its hard to find ones I care enough to sit down and dedicate time to these days 💔

Smiling Friends

bittersuite, charlie/pim: AND THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED !!!!! THIS FIC CHANGED MY LIFE FOREVER !!!!! It is hurt/no comfort, but its soooo good it hurts so good and also there is supposed to be more eventually so i'd get on this one first bc when the second one drops its gonna be a day in history

Dimples, charlie/pim: I just read this last night and was so pleasantly surprised ☹️ Its so damn cute and I love how it delves more into both of their characters.

Portal 2

interface, chell/wheatley: HANDS down, best portal 2 one shot out there. the way the characterize chell is fucking insane, altered my brain chemistry forever. also wheatley is so hehehheheheh

You Do It, adventure/fact: I have a very love/hate relationship with this author..... Im not the BIGGEST fan of how they characterize them, esp Fact, but its definitely the most decent factventure content out there. I so like this one quite a bit, though their ideas are definitely better in theory than completely in practice. That's how I feel abt a lot of their works, but this person unironically holds the title for like 90% of the factventure content. If you just want some quick cute smut of them, i'd say you should check out their acc, cus I get the factventure fandom is starving LMAOO

I've got the fuse if you've got the light, adventure core/reader: ....erm, very self indulgent for me hehe!!! i was so fucking excited when this dropped

Half-Life/HLVRAI

Autonomous Sweet Mesa Response, benrey/gordon: THIS FIC IS SOOO FUCKING FIREEEEE !!! OH MY GOD, I can't even count the times I've read this one. their dialogue is as good as it comes next to canon. If you like this one, this is the first in a huge series and litearlly all of them are just as good as the first. such a good sit down and binge author. They also have a shit ton of other good hlvrai stuff on their page and they make fire art

If You Asked Me To, benrey/gordon: the way they wrote the sex scene in this changed my brain forever, it was so fucking awesome.... frenrey dynamic makes me WILD

Whispers and Moans, barney/gordon: this whole author has a lot of super cute freehoun :'[ this one deals with them before the resonance cascade AND after and shows how things changed between them and its so precious grrraah

Promise, barney/gordon: again, deals with the timeskip stuff which just always makes my heart hurt... also shower sex smiles

It’s Only Natural, barney/gordon: I DIDNT REALIZE THIS FIC JUST GOT FINISHED THIS YEAR OH MY GODDDD I WAS OBSESSED WITH THIS need to reread this immediately

Team Fortress 2

He's a Rebel, sniper/spy: SUPER fucking cheesy and corny but oh my god its like one of my fav fics ever..... it's just so much fun, like stereotypical fanfic and that's always a good time to me. biker gang member/school teacher au are you fucking kidding me i'll vomit

It IS the Size That Matters, sniper/spy: erm.... BLOWJOBS!! always find myself coming back to this one sorry i really like it hehe

Secure, demo/solider: Not a lot of fics of these guys, which really sucks!! super underrated ship. I liked this one a lot tho, its pretty cute and a little emotional

Something to Rely On, sniper/spy: casual sex but really sniper is in love will forever be my favourite thing ever, it never gets old istg

The Silent Game, sniper/spy: can you tell I really like sniperspy, MORE BLOWJOBS!!!

Disco Elysium

The Collision in Cardiozone HQ, harry/kim: holy. fucking. shit. actually life changing i am not joking. so fucking heartbreaking, it left me hollowed out for like a WEEK after the ending. A longer one for sure, but SO worth it like oh my god

The Catacomb Killer, harry/kim: I don't think I ever fully finished this one, but I remember REALLY liking the whole case the fic was set around. there was so much thought put into it, it was genuinely interesting like a murder mystery show

Retour à nouveau, harry/kim: I did really like the whole plot and buildup in this one, but from what I remember, them getting together was super anticlimatic :P i recall being disappointed, but the whole actual case and their interactions during the fic are super cute

Mortal Kombat 1

the game of idiocy, johnny/kenshi: BY THE SAME AUTHOR AS BITTERSUITE!! this one is sooo fucking cute, the way they write them interacting is so much fun. a little troupey and on the cheesier side, but cmon who doesn't love that

Undertale

Flowey is Not a Good Life Coach: no ships but delves a lot into flowey and papyrus relationship and there's so much good sans development too. SUPER GENERIC, it IS one of the most liked fics, but I remember reading it back when I was a teenager and it blew my fucking mind. ghhghggh i love the way they write the brothers interacting so much

The Party Incident and Other Embarrassing Anecdotes, sans/reader: uhmm.... soo sorry, this fic will forever hold a special little place in my heart. I'm sure if I read it now it would be SO corny cus oh my god it was fucking 2016 like are you kidding, but I'm just a fucking sucker for fake dating. there like 5000000 troupes in this one and theyre all so cute and its just a fun and silly time. it subconsciously inspires so much of my writing in fics. will probably forever be unfinished before they get together though HAHAH so definitely do not read if you're looking for a solid ending. its just about the journey i swear

[utilitycaster]

Voting sticker was sent via DMs because it's shaped like the state I live in lmao. Also, if someone reading this is in Fly Free or Die by some minuscule chance, please look away now; there be spoilers ahead.

The character I'll tell you about is RH-1/Istra Gryffis/Cassiopeia Wulfren/Stellasa Drith, a Human Replica Droid in an SW5e campaign. Originally an Imperial Agent, she was sniffed out by the scientist she was monitoring on her very first assignment, subdued by him, had her programming jailbroken and a teleportation device installed in her chest, and was then just turned loose on the galaxy to make her own way.

She still believed herself a tool of the Empire, but a broken one, who failed in her mission, and couldn't bring herself to go back to her handler/creator/mentor so spent a few years just roaming the galaxy aimlessly doing small time security work.

Eventually, a smuggler she was contracting with (one of her party members) got into a Situation with a crime syndicate, and the pair had to run off into corporate bureaucratic hell to escape their eyes--or rather, the smuggler did; she suggested that specific approach because the last she knew the scientist who jailbroke her had been planning to go work for that corporation. With danger pushing her toward decisive action for the first time in years, she took that as a sign to go and hunt him down to bring him back to the Empire and get back in its good graces. And, perhaps, demand to know why he shoved a unique piece of tech into her chassis then just left her to do what she wanted with no guidance whatsoever.

Regardless, working for this corporation put her and her smuggler buddy into the party, working shipping as contractors for a major corporation. The details of our current, first arc are, while interesting, also mostly unimportant to what I want to talk about regarding party dynamics/info.

Essentially, the party (who don't know she's a droid) includes her, the smuggler (always getting himself into situations), a clone (hates droids), two droid-specialist engineers (one who just unreservedly loves droids and the other who isn't exactly pro droid rights but wants to rehabilitate their image), and a (secret) Jedi. Various dynamics:

The smuggler is someone Cassioepia's decided she's responsible for the well-being of, because she develops strong loyalties very quickly (great trait for a spy).

Thus far, there have been multiple arguments over droids and how much they matter (she comes down on the side of "just tools, and unreliable ones" like the clone does, if less adamantly).

The clone appears to be coordinating at least a few small rebel groups, and is very anti-Empire, as well as looking to her as essentially his second-in-command.

The clone and one of the engineers are on opposite sides of idealism-cynicism, and she's had to mediate a couple times now.

Finally, in the most recent session, the Jedi used Sense Force (equivalent to Detect Magic) on her. Said Jedi sensed nothing from her since she's a droid, EXCEPT the teleportation device in her chest, which sucked the Jedi's perception in, knocked her out, gave Cassiopeia a heart attack essentially, and knocked her out (also granting her, a droid, Sense Force as well) and that's where Cassiopeia left off.

Word count (after the 1st paragraph since that's unrelated): 518

(Quick note: if you're reading this, yes, DM-ing me the sticker/proof is an option if the sticker reveals more about your location than you wish to share (whether it's that you don't want to share your state, or whether you have a county or city-specific sticker, or what); I will not tell people where you live.

so I do NOT know a ton about SW5e (I saw Starstruck Odyssey and I have seen. the original trilogy and like. 4 other Star Wars movies, none comprising a full other trilogy?) but I love when a character has complicated and conflicting loyalties and a strong sense of duty, which she clearly has, and that is a GREAT cliffhanger that seems primed to absolutely blow your party's collective mind and reveal a whole lot of messy truths, and that's really the best possible thing you can hope for in a TTRPG!

[rileys-battlecats]

Finally made some simple reference sheets for my little guys :D I also put together some little facts about them and their personalities :P

Minare

pronounced mee-NAH-ray

Half leader, half figurehead to the rebellion against the current king and his heir

The people who work with her respect her as the last scion of the true royal line, but also they have known her since she was Fresh Out The Womb so she's also kind of their baby. Collectively. Collective rebel baby

Disregard the fact she's like. Early twenties. That's their baby girl

This makes Minare A Little Insane. She loves the rebels, they've supported her and her family through the worst times they've seen in living memory, but also She's An Adult and she NEEDS to have someone respect her and her decisions.

Her opinions don't always hold the weight that she thinks they should, her being the future ruler of the kingdom and all

Much of her work in the rebellion is stunted by the fact that she is THE last of the true royal family, so she is Not Expendable. They have to keep her safe, and she knows why, but it's also a little infuriating that she can't help more

Dangerous missions are an Absoultely Not, but Mina still helps by doing safer missions and planning/strategizing

She's been given tons of self-defense training, and she carries a short blade with her just about everywhere. This is seen as slightly unusual, but ultimately understandable for a young lady when she's traveling on her own often. Like having a can of pepper spray with you

Makes casual friends very easily; she manages to seem incredibly open and personable while simultaneously telling you Nothing important about her personal life

That being said, she doesn't have many close friends. She doesn't want to put anyone in danger, and she also doesn't want to put herself or the rebels in danger by making an opening that could be exploited. Her friendship with Vaitus is something that happens without her really meaning for it to happen. She just looks up one day and realizes she's gotten way too attached to this guy that was supposed to just be another acquaintance

She's got a protective streak a mile wide. if she makes the connection in her brain that she's responsible for someone, they INSTANTLY become someone Under Her Protection. This clashes with the inherent sacrifices she has to make as a leader of a political rebellion with high stakes consequences for each decision made

If one were to ask a random citizen of the capital if they know Minare, 9 times out of 10 they're at least acquainted with her. she's always keeping an ear out for people who need help, and is known for being able to give them a hand. If she's not doing the helping herself, she probably knows a guy

Loves finicky work. tinkering, fixing things, touching up stuff, anything that most people would find boring to work on, she's your gal

Vaitus

I'm. not sure how to explain pronunciation like I did with Minare. It's 'Vai' like in 'vital', and 'tus' like in 'tusk'

Doing His Best™

Crown Prince of the kingdom. I think I might name the kingdom 'Acora' but I haven't decided on that quite yet

"Crown" Prince is kind of an unnecessary title, since there's no other heirs. There used to be! Up until Vaitus was around 7 years old, he was one of the last in line for the throne. But then An Event occurred. I will get into this event at another time, I've got a few animatic ideas for it :P

Vaitus is less than enthused (read: terrified) by the idea of becoming king one day, but he's also aware that the kingdom would almost certainly fall into chaos if the current king died without a ready heir. A rush to fill a power vacuum could tear the kingdom apart. So he just. keeps on keeping on!

Fantasy autism. it's just like real life autism except the royal physicians diagnosed him with "occasionally possessed of foul spirits and daemons" so the diagnosis wasn't really helpful. He has no idea why he suddenly loses the ability to speak (or sometimes even think) in high stress situations. this is especially unfortunate when most of his life consists of going from one high-stress situation to another

Very thoughtful. will not speak until he's got the full sentence ready + 3 possible follow up sentences depending on where the conversation goes

Animal lover. but he doesn't know this until he gets to interact with an animal. he meets one (1) stray dog and is so normal about it (lying)

TERMINAL rbf

Was told as a child that it's impolite to not make eye contact with people, so now he makes All The Eye Contact. he's being polite. wait what do you mean he's being scary

[indie-ttrpg-of-the-week]

Armour Astir Advent

https://weregazelle.itch.io/armour-astir A game about mechs fighting eachother! What else to do with a giant robot, I mean You could stand around and yell about ideology for a while, but what is this? Gundam?

Touchstones: Gundam (Turn A especially), Breath of the Wild, Escaflowne, Mazinger, Ghibli movies (add a quarter)

Genre: Mech game, PBTA, High Fantasy

What is this game?: Armour Astir: Advent is a game about mech pilots fighting against an oppressive empire, fighting using not only head to head mech combat, but also stirring dissent, using backhanded diplomacy, and guerilla tactics

How's the gameplay?: AAA has one of the most unique bits of gameplay I've ever seen in a PBTA game, refer to the Apoc World write up for the basics of the game, because there's a lot to unpack here. AAA's got a ton of standout mechanics, Let's start with Gravity Clocks! You got 3 Gravity clocks to use on anyone, and one to use specifically on your rival, Gravity clocks represent the volatile relationship you have with 4 different characters, the clock always has a value, starting at +1, that you can add to any roll related to that character, when you do so, you tick up the clock, when the clock is full, your relationship levels up, you change the nature of your relationship and that +1 becomes a +2 babyy, This encourages players to choose carefully what relationships they want their characters to focus on, and adds a lot to the Drama. AAA also has its really cool mech creation system, it's a bit too complex to get into here, but its less like Lancer's Subway style mech creation, and more like cooking from a recipe, you get to create some of your own abilities, and pick from a few pre-made ones, all mechs also have a type, which works into a weapon triangle type mechanic where certain mechs are better against other mechs. Another thing about AAA is the Faction Turn, the player's rebel group is made up of many smaller factions, each with a different role, while the empire is one group with small divisions, the idea is that while the authority is one imperialist gestalt, the rebels are more of a confederacy of farmers, local mercenaries, villagers, etc, but because of this, a lot of drama and miscommunication can happen, the Faction turn represents this, its intricacies are a bit complex to really get into, but basically during each Conflict turn, players run a scene where they instead of the big damn heroes, play as random soldiers and mooks from the individual factions, and try to fight back against imperial schemes, or try to solve local problems, this is meant to humanize the soldiers in the war, as well as show that the players aren't the last bastion against the Authority. That's about it for the gameplay, I tried to be brief but AAA is just something really really special when it comes to how it plays, there's a ton of other intricacies I couldn't even touch on here Oh right, half the playbooks don't even use mechs, they can fight during mech battles but are significantly worse during them, they're instead intended to help on the intrigue part of the war, commanders, celebrities, diplomats, footsoldiers, people who would be more connected to other parts of the war that aren't just the mech fights, during mech fights they play on the "B-Plot", basically a second narrative layer usually going on around the same time as the mech fights, think of it like a gundam episode where the main newtype child is fighting against a person who could have been a friend in another timeline and at the same time the soldiers inside the main base need to figure out who's been stealing their food supplies What's the setting (If any) like?: AAA is Setting Agnostic... kinda, there's 3 universal constants: - There's an authoritarian group known as the Authority, being fought by a union of scattered factions under one banner known as the cause - Magic exists, is fairly common place but restricted to certain people, and is connected to how mechs work - Some smaller chunks of lore like the existance of Angels, Demons, Eldritch entities, smaller scale vehicles called Ardents, etc, stuff you'd expect to see in any fantasy setting

What's the tone?: AAA is a game with a tone set by players, but the overall tone is not asimilar to that of most post Gundam mech anime, there's an overwhelming sense of war being hell, but there's still hope in fighting an evil fascist empire, also there's always expected to be a little bit of Angst

Session length: This is one of the few games I've written about I've actually sadly never played, but from reading the rules AAA does lend itself to longer, 4 or so hour sessions

Number of Players: 4+ is recommended

Malleability:  AAA is as said above, setting agnostic, if its got mechs you can run it in AAA

Resources: AAA has a fanmade google sheet, a few fan-made expansions, and two official expansions, Encore (more playbooks) and Amor Astir (romance rules, yeah idk either)

AAA is one of those games that is just a mechanical treat, everything works really well and serves a greater tonal purpose, just a really good game

[galactic-space]

Making a follow up post for my stupid ass MHA X Monster high x Ever after high x fucking Winx club??? Ehhh???

Anyways…

Soooo answering this dude up here ^ @faemagic88 let’s just say I got a few ideas

So basically, for anyone who didn’t see my last post?

Quirk toddler uses quirk on Izuku, bakugo, and denki and sends them to monster high, ever after high, and Winx respectively

Lord explosion god dynamight and his fairy tale adventures

For ever after high I totally want bakugo to be apart of the school purely because he heard how the school has a lot of secrets and magical items that might help with his issue, so he decides to force his way in to get back to his universe ( somehow… he’s working out the kinks of his plan )

While there he’s definitely gonna throw a ton of kids for a loop. Not caring about royal or rebel because A. He’s from another universe and B. He just thinks it’s so dumb to follow the paths of your parents just because of something as silly as “destiny”

He’s the type of person who believes that you chose your life, and he’s not gonna be silent about it.

Is he gonna cause more drama in this school? Yes, but this school is already filled with it so whatever

I don’t know what fairy tail he would pretend to be. I think he might pretend to be the son of “Momotaro” from the story “Momotaro; the story of the son and the peach” where basically this boy is born from a peach, soon taken in by a couple. When the boy turns fifteen, he goes off on a journey with a dog, a monkey, and a pheasant to slay the demons on an island, before returning home to be with his family

It makes the most sense, as Momotaro is fairly popular in Japan- or so I’ve heard

But an alternate story I thought of was of him pretending to be the son of Kintarō, “the golden boy” who is a warrior who goes on many journeys throughout his life, slaying beast and saving towns n what not.

Neither story would explain his weird… “explosion magic” as people call it, but hell it’s the best thing that he gots so.

I was thinking of mimickings ever after highs small story structure and maybe have an “episode” where Apple white realizes that he doesn’t seem to care about her, her status, her story, or even her looks and how that kinda bothers her ( more like gets her all riled up. She’s not used to boys just… not even giving her a second look. )

And then another small “episode” of bakugo deciding to take part in a sport cuz… well… let’s just say daring and his group found out that if you tell Bakugo he can’t do something, he’s gonna do it just to show off

Thing is, cerise is in the sport as well in the opposing team, and maybe bakugos team is like “well most of them are girls maybe we should go easy”

Cue the “equal rights equal fights” from bakugo, and basically forces cerise to show off her wolf abilities if she even wants to try to actually win against him.

And… who knows maybe that’s when people realize she’s haft wolf or something lol

I was also maybe having him be apart of the Dragons games??? Like maybe he wasn’t gonna be apart of it, but when Apple white accidentally releases the evil queen and the evil queen he senses some shit is about to go down and thinks “ugh, god, not more bullshit”

Also maybe he gets his own dragon for the games by literally TACKLING AND SUBMITTING ONE OF THE EVIL QUEENS BAD DRAGONS so he could ride it and use it so he could be apart of it.

And yes, Goldielocks did record this for her mirror channel and a bunch of kids did just see one of their “new students” fucking wrestle a dark dragon just cuz he needed a dragon to be apart of the games

Also maybe bakugo finally talks about his… HIS… FEELINGS?1!1!2??2!2?2 GASP lol

But that’s enough for bakugo

Next up

Dekus freaky experiences

Ok so deku… doesn’t know what the FUCK anything is. He just appeared in like the monster high catacombs, got fucking lost in them til Operetta finds him in there.

She’d probably be like “woah hey aren’t you a normie” and dekus like “wh- huh???”

Course before the two can get more into it maybe the place starts crashing down. Cue deku quickly realizing what’s happening and using his quirk to save operetta, there for showing that he definitely is a lot more then JUST a normie

Operetta concludes that deku might be a hafta like Henry Jekyl, and takes him to monster high to help him

Cue deku realizing that he’s NOT where he’s suppose to be. Maybe he tries to explain it to operetta, but when she simply gives him a weird look and ask if he’s ok, he realizes that no one is gonna believe him. So with a deep breath and shaky smile, he simply goes “maybe I just hit my head to harshly…????”

Which- yes, that’s even weirder, but he isn’t about to explain how he’s a human with a quirk when it’s so obvious that everyone is weary of him because of his human look ( he can always tell when people look at him with pity or fear. Being quirkless for most of your life then suddenly having a terrifying, powerful quirk will teach ya that ) so he does his best to just seem normal

Maybe he’ll pretend he didn’t know how he got here, talks to headmistress blood good and asks if she could PLEASE let him stay cuz “he doesn’t remember anything”

And- she’s nice, so she’ll let him stay just as long as he promises to help around the school anyway he can ( she is letting him stay here for free, it’s the least he can do ) and deku agrees to it

Now deku is… SOMEHOW a student at monster high. Everything is weird, but… here comes Frankie, who totally gets his feeling. She helps him out, teaches him all he needs to know, and helps him out- cuz, she knows what it’s like to be the new ghoul in school, and she can tell he definitely needs the help.

Cue Izuku befriending her, and maybe some of her friends.

Of Course, he still wants a way back home, so he’s gonna do everything in his power to do research into this world and ( hopefully, maybe ) try to find something to help him back home.

He’s probably not gonna tell the ghouls what’s actually happening with him til he literally has no where else to go to.

Cue the ghouls helping him go back to his comic book like world ( and maybe finding a way to get there cuz… heroes???? Villains??? Sounds like a scare-tastic experience! )

And ysaaaa they find a lot of secrets in this school. Like a lot. Oh dear

Also I totally want a scene where toralei just drills it into izukus head that he definitely isn’t gonna be all accepted here just cuz he’s “1/3 of a monster” and that he’s definitely gonna have people having it out for him because he’s mostly Normie in nature.

Idk, maybe Izuku might have some dejavú about feeling excluded because of his apparent lack of something

But it’s ok cuz Frankie would definitely cheer him up by saying “haft normie or not, you’re a great person Izuku. Don’t let someone like Toralei get under your skin, she doesn’t know what she talks about. Me and the ghouls care about you, Freaky flaws n all. And nothings gonna change that.”

And have him feel so… happy, because let’s be honest he was only accepted back into society cuz of his quirk. It would probably heal the poor little quirkless kid within him because she basically just told him that he matters, not because of what he has but because of who he is as a person and UGHHHBBN

But that’s enough of deku. Let’s talk about… denki??? How did you get here-

Denki kamanari and his strange, magical journey

Admittedly, I don’t have a lot of ideas for this one. I seriously need to rewatch Winx club, it’s been ages for me lmao

But the basic idea is that he appears right near “Redfountain School for Specialists”

Naturally, he’s freaking out cuz WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS PLACE

After a while of freaking out, he looks up to see the WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT??? THATS A GIANT ASS PLACE

But as he looks around, realizing that there’s only trees for miles on end, he decides to head into the school to try and find someone to help him. Because… where the fuck is he? He just wanna go back to Izuku and Bakugo :(

So he heads in. I was thinking that it’s probably assembly day, and the kids around him just assumes hes just some poor new kid who’s about to get in trouble cuz he’s not in uniform. It’s an important meeting for the school, so he just gets dragged in with a bunch of boys who are about to be late.

I imagine he’s just trying to ask questions, sees these boys running, and says “what’s going on??” And they turn to him and go “dude, important assembly today! We’re about to be fuckin late, come on”

And they just run off.

And welll- denkis confused and weirded out but… if it means finding someone who can find him, then he’ll just follow behind and play along for now

Long story short, he ends up accidentally becoming a part of the school cuz- just- no one is questioning this yellowed hair boy with a lighting streak on the side. He’s not the weirdest thing they’ve seen. Not to mention- school in the middle of the forest, not really seen by outsiders?

Most people probably wouldn’t think it’s an outsider. I mean… who the fuck would be out in this forest anyways?

And well- it’s probably only haft way though does denki actually tell them what happened to him. And maybe they don’t believe him at first, but once he shows off his “magic” they might start to believe him.

Thing is, the show never really went into this school a lot ( at least what I remember ) sooo I might just make up a bunch of shit for this

I mean the other plan is just to have him be in the fairies school, they quickly realize he’s not suppose to be here, and probably do everything in their power to bring him back to his old world so idk

BUUUTTR the idea of denki learning to fight with a sword is cool and funny at the same time SO-

Also also I’m definitely gonna take some shit from the scrapped monster high x ever after high movie that was suppose to be made but never was, so that’s actually a perfect way to get deku and bakugo back together

Not to mention I’m probably gonna have Cupid ( who actually appears in both shows as an important side character ) to be involved. I mean, dimensional traveling? That’s kinda her thing, I think she would catch wind very quickly that bakugo ISNT from a fairy tale story.

But uhhh yea that’s all of my ideas I guess. Do with them with what you want lmao

[comicaurora]

any tips on how to write a non protagonist-y protagonist? (as in, a protagonist that is not at all the leader of the team, generally isn't the most Morally Righteous, and has more lancer characteristics than protag characteristics)

I could probably give helpful thoughts if the question was more specific, but this is hella broad. The protagonist is just the character who's the central focus of the story, there's nothing inherently heroic about the role. Following an unheroic lead can be compelling for all sorts of reasons, but they're all very specific to the character and story.

Just for a quick look into the scope of this question, a few examples: Hamlet is compelling because he's a Hot Mess in a world of slightly more lukewarm messes; Chicago is compelling because every protagonist is so spectacularly awful you're rooting for their success just so you can watch them crash and burn; Death Note is compelling for similar reasons, with the added bonus of watching two terrible people pitted against each other - but while stories with protagonists that are terrible people can be fun in a "watching a trainwreck" sort of way, there are also stories with unheroic protagonists that the audience hopes become more heroic, which is the entire pull of Logan, Mandalorian season 1, the early stages of The Last Of Us, and basically everything in the "serious grumpy dad" genre where we spend some time waiting for the damaged loner to figure out he's adopted a baby.

Tons of stories have main characters that aren't the leaders of whatever team they're on, and that can be fun because it gives them a leader to follow or rebel against - Hellsing Ultimate is all about the chain of command on both the protagonist and antagonist side, and the nominal main character Alucard is a morally incomprehensible eldritch abomination who's the scariest thing in the entire show. He's fun to watch because he's a literal living nightmare and every time a bad guy looks like they've got him on the ropes he just goes "neat" and farts out a hellhound or a knife tornado or something and rips them to shreds. Then there are about a million cop shows with a protagonist who's a Loose Cannon who Don't Play By The Rules, almost always defined by their rebellion against the exasperated leader who has a duty to actually follow and enforce the law. Copaganda aside, there's a lot of ways to write a character operating under a protagonist-y but potentially unhelpful authority.

Hell, if you squint, a ton of heroic characters are ultimately motivated by entirely selfish drives - which, if unpacked, end up looking very questionable in the morals department, despite the protagonist being a broadly likable person. Last Airbender has this in spades, with Aang's entire arc taking him from the starting motivation of "my responsibility as Avatar will stop me from having a life and I don't want that so I'll run away" to "my responsibility as Avatar is at odds with my Air Nomad philosophy against taking life and I don't want that so I'll find a way to stop Firelord Ozai without killing him". His initial motivation was obviously a lot less heroic, but through the entire story Aang holds onto his personal wants and desires, which is on paper a selfish and unheroic thing for the Chosen One to do - but in the context of Avatar, a war story about a group of children saving the world, it is the ultimate victory of the story that Aang and his friends don't have to sacrifice their personal happiness to win. The fact that Aang can still be a little bit selfish means that the war didn't take everything from him, and if he'd done the "heroic" thing of selflessly sacrificing his own spiritual needs to end the war as fast as possible, from a narrative standpoint it would've been a pyrrhic victory at best, because the Fire Nation would've succeeded in destroying him.

These are all wildly distinct stories, and trying to draw a few easy tips and tricks from them would be borderline impossible, since they're all doing "unheroic protagonist" in totally different ways.

[fandoms-in-law]

Muddy Letters - The Beginning

Authors Note: I have 2 possible summaries for this fic and neither really work for posting it all in one story. Instead both the summary I want to use and the story is in 3 parts: The Re-Beginning, The Beginnging (you are here), The Conclusion

Contrary to normal expectations, I suggest reading the Re-beginning first.

Summary: It starts with a car theft an apology note. It ends with a fathers anger and another apology note.

/\/\

Dear kids in this house,

Dad says he had to steal the car but I’ve passed here before. You’ve got an angry dad too. I’m sorry if he takes it out on you or is angrier because my Dad did this. I hope you’re okay.

I’ll bury this in your garden hoping you find it. Dad’s don’t dig but kids do.

Sorry again, Eddie, that isn’t my real name in case your dad sees this.

>

To Eddie

Do you like that name cause I wanna keep calling you it?

He was angry but I could hide. They’ll be on a trip soon so I’m not worried.

I’m Steve, and you’re forgiven if you need me to say that. My nanny says that’s how I should respond to apologies but you’re apologising for something your dad did so I’m not sure. You’re forgiven anyway.

From Steve.

<

Hey Stevie

I like Eddie more than my real name, Please do.

This is fun, burying letters, much better than sending the,. It’s like we’re rebels planning to take down a corrupt kingdom in secret-

>

Eddie?

Were you hurt? You looked hurt or I think it was you I spotted from my window. Do you need help? I can try to do something. Just tell me what.

Steve

<

Stevie, don’t worry.

Dad got mad and interrupted me writing that note but never fear, I am fine.

I don’t like my Dad. We’re staying with Uncle Wayne now, or I am. Dad keeps disappearing. I think it’s cause he’s stealing things and Uncle Wayne says I’m smart for noticing that. My teachers and Dad never thing I’m smart.

You’re my friend, my digging friend, so I can tell you all that. And about this book Uncle Wayne has.

It’s called ‘The Hobbit’ and is about more people who dig! Just like us! But they have hobbit holes or smiles and dwarven mines. They’re so awesome. When we’re older we should dig a hobbit hole and live in it together. Eddie and Steve of the Hole in the Woods!

From Eddie

>

Eddie

That sounds fun! I can get blankets and pillows. Let’s just start digging now actually. A bit further into the woods than this so my Dad won’t notice. I’ll start looking for where there’s a glade or something we could manage it now.

We could make it our secret den if you want to meet?

I tried asking if I could read the Hobbit but Mom doesn’t think quests and battles should be read about and Dad called it ‘fantasy mumbo-jumbo unbecoming of our family.’ That means I’m sure it’s brilliant but don’t think I’ll get to read it for a while. Can you tell me more about it?

From Steve

<

Dear Eddie

You’re my friend. I was surprised but you’re my friend and you know who you are better than me. If you say you’re a boy called Eddie then that’s who you are.

Please come back, Steve

<

Stevie

I shouldn’t have run so quickly before. Thank you for being so sweet. See you here on the weekend?

Eddie

>

Eddie

I know you were still sad when you left. Men can have long hair. I saw it on Dad’s last city business trip. We could grow our hair out together if you want, be two long haired boys. That’ll make growing it out of the buzz cut more fun, right?

Look at this book. It’s got tons of hairstyles we could try.

Steve

<

Dad’ll never let me do that. He’s so pissed I cut all my hair off I don’t think he’ll come back for a while. He even his Uncle Wayne when he called me Eddie. I don’t want him to take me away again, Steve.

You keep the book. I bet you’d look great with any of those haircuts.

Eddie

>

Eddie

My dad found the letters so I have to stop. He – I – I’m saving the letters I can but I have to stop. I’m sorry.

We’ll get our Hole in the Woods one day, I swear.

Steve

<

Steve

Here are the ones you sent to me. Uncle Wayne would keep them but he clears my room out occasionally. Look after them. I’ll find you again.

Eddie

>

Eddie

I wish I wasn’t a Harrington. I’m sorry, so sorry for everything Dad wants me to be. I – I don’t want to die but I can’t survive unless I become him. I’m sorry, please hear that, read this.

Steve

<

I guess you never checked for this. I hope I can give it to you one day. I’m Still Sorry.

[foster-the-world]

Ethiopian Dinner

A new Ethiopian place opened a few blocks from us a few months back. I walk by on my way home from work and rarely see people. Which makes me nervous. I think its so brave to start a business and am always afraid it won't succeed. Admittedly, weird to be worried about people I don't even know.

Took the kids last night. Rebel loved it. Bee a little less so but was still happy. Baby boy did pretty well. It's a little small/open for his loud self. I prefer places with booths or more distance between tables for him. But we gave him a phone about 15 minutes in and he was quiet as a mouse. Of course, he ate a ton. He eats a ton of everything. I'm so glad my kids are into trying lots of different kinds of foods. They def aren't totally healthy but they are very adventurous eaters.

The restaurant was busy as we were leaving. It has a nice vibe. They were playing Ethiopian music videos and had an area for Ethiopian coffee ceremony. I lived in Ethiopia about 5 months at least 10 years ago. Its a beautiful place. I was working in a refugee camp on the Somali border. I was lucky to do a vacation with my boyfriend at the end of work schedule. They have these amazing churches built in the ground. The food is amazing. Although at the refugee camp we had to beg for injera/Ethopian food. The local ladies who cooked for us wrongly assumed we want the Italian food - that is also common due to Somalia's colonial history. Except they didn't have real Italian food just nasty canned pasta sauce and plain noodles. For obvious reasons it was difficult to get food in so we at plain jarred pasta sauce and noodles for meal after meal after meal after meal. We each had a tent. The threat of kidnapping was real. It was an interesting time. I'm happily still friends with that ex-boyfriend. He came and stayed with us when the girls were little. Nice guy with a lot of his own demons he struggles with. My husband also liked him. Its funny how little I think about the almost ten years I spent traveling the world to places like that. Whenever something brings back the memories i'm always so thankful for that time while being glad its over. Maybe we will do it again when my kids are out of the house. My husband is always up for an adventure.

[c0rpseductor]

i kind of want to play sims again. wow you can really determine my mental state just from that

i already did my star wars build and finished it and then kind of lost enthusiasm when i started playing in it and remembered that ts4's gameplay is unbelievably boring. i wish it was like ts3. ts3 had really fun gameplay, i remember really liking it and being able to get invested. but i like ts4 so much more visually and the build mode is a lot more sophisticated, and making pretty sims and builds is a massive part of my enjoyment also. so What's a guy to do.

if i start a new build idk what i want to make. that's part of the issue. i could always keep making star wars stuff...in my silly emetwol star wars au emet is emperor instead of palpatine so i could try to imagine what some of his palace would look like. i could also make pfeil's little apartment when he lives on that shitty industrial planet before rebels (on HBO) happens. my last star wars build was very upper middle class in vibe so it would be a natural choice to either go extreme wealth bougie or destitution. to cover all my bases. i also found out there's a whole slate of cc that would help me sort of approximate star wars pfeil, since he's a cat furry and i thought that would just not work, so i could make him. (although i dont think i would be able to get his hair right.)

i also like. for my own personal setting i have these two characters who are wealthy twins, and one is a rebellious flapper and the other is like, white knuckle clinging onto edwardian fashion and is Weird looks a bit gibson girl. (autistic. shes autistic.) and i thought that it would be fun if the manor they lived in was like, very greenhouse-esque, like TONS of windows and very bright inside and kind of constructed in that style but still having enough coverage for privacy. so i could always make the greenhouse manor and try to get some cc to make those two

[musingmemories]

« Continued from @retrologists answered ask. »

Oh those eyes. They summoned so many songs at once Debora felt herself gasp slightly in shock from their gravity. Memory certainly hadn’t done them justice. To go five, long, agonizing years and finally have them set back on her, Debora felt like the luckiest gal in the world. If the luckiest girl in the world ended up in a romantic relationship with an accidental criminal and went on a Bonnie & Clyde joy ride, anyway — but Debora wouldn’t have it any other way.

Their story was the painted poetry of lyricists: a whirlwind romance, a good guy turned bad boy on the road to redemption, the girl next door’s metamorphosis into a rebel, adrenaline rushes, betrayal, murder and mayhem. ‘You were never supposed to be a part of that.’ Debora’s heart went out to him, a gentle huff of amusement and bewilderment exhaling through her nose. “All this time and you think that’s why I’m telling you I was scared? Cause I got involved in all that?” Her words brushed over his lips, dazed smile tugging on them as a loose chuckle followed after. Too sweet for his own good, that’s how Debora had always pictured Baby. “If I hadn’t been… it would’ve been a lot worse. Like you’d taken all the music in the world with you if I wasn’t there.” Knowing Baby was alive somewhere and receiving her letters, the colors hadn’t left. Not fully. Dulled yes without Baby there to light up her life, but with him snugly against her now, it was like no time had passed.

He wasn’t going anywhere. “You promise.” Debora giggled, giddy to think about the possibilities that lay in store with the past behind them. Uninterrupted. Just them and the road. If she still wanted to make that unplanned plan happen. Debora’s heart skipped a beat, sleepy butterflies awakening from their hibernation stirring in stomach and chest. He remembered. Was the first thing brought up after reuniting, like he’d been thinking about it the last five years just as much as she had. “There’s a tiny problem with that…” Round eyes gazed up at Baby, feigning somberness delivering bad news, nose scrunching apologetically. “It’s kinda sorta got the possibility to be a full plan now. See, five years is a long time — surprisingly — and well, I was so excited to see you again I just started… to plan.” Fishing into her skirt pocket, Debora produced two IPods. One bedazzled with purple rhinestones, and the other a cloudy lightning bolt sticker. “I’ve got tons more of these cause… like I said when we first met: we could drive back and forth across the States forever and never run out of Baby songs.” They’d filled up loads of them. Confirming that yes, Debora was still in on their plan-not-plan and had been daydreaming over it for five years.

[marvel-starwarsfangirl]

Desix vs. Barton IV: how two missions reflect Crosshair's character

I'm back with another Crosshair analysis. One thing I noticed on my rewatch of "The Solitary Clone" and something I discussed with my cousin was the whole mission on Desix. The mission plays out like an episode of Clone Wars. Think about it: Crosshair is under the command of Cody, a seasoned military commander, they have to go fight separatists and droids, and liberate a government official. In Clone Wars, we have tons of characters fighting against separatists in order to liberate something or someone. Even Rebels had an episode like this called "The Last Battle." I personally think that this was intentional. The writers didn't have to bring back Cody or have a whole mission that plays out like a Clone Wars episode. It was something that my cousin said that made everything click: the mission is similar to Clone Wars because it represents everything Crosshair's holding on to.

Before the Republic fell, Cross and his brothers would be constantly going on missions to fight separatists and swarms of droids. In the Empire, the missions are to occupy planets or assassinate potential defectors and anyone who stands against them. When we meet Cross in the second season, he's struggling greatly; his internal conflict his eating him alive. His conversation with Cody at the end indicates just how tormented his truly is. But when he goes on the mission, he's presented with very familiar things that are reminders of days long past: Cody, separatists, and droids. Being a soldier is a big part of Crosshair's identity because he doesn't know who he is without it. I think in his mind, Crosshair continues to hold on to the Empire because of familiar missions like Desix. This reminds him of the good old days and if he can keep it that way, then he'll be fine. After all, this is what he was made to do and it gives him purpose. At the end of the mission, Crosshair shoots the governor after Cody refuses. And in my eyes, there are two interpretations as to why he made this decision. The first being, he's sparing Cody from making a hard choice. Cross is clearly attached to Cody as I mentioned in my past post. When Cody can't take the shot, Cross takes it to spare him from facing the other imperial governor's wrath. The other, even bigger, reason is because he's still holding on to his deep desire for belonging and the past. If Crosshair doesn't shoot the governor, then what happens to him? What happens to Cody? Will he be discarded? Abandoned? Crosshair can't fathom that idea. And so, in order to preserve everything that he fears will be lost, he makes the shot. On another note, Desix's color palette is all warm colors. While not very inviting colors, there's still a warm undertone nonetheless. Warm colors make people feel comforted and that's certainly something Crosshair wants.

Compare that to the mission on Barton IV. Barton IV is an ice planet; it's cold with an even colder color palette. There is no life other than the harshest creatures and people. The faces are also very unfamiliar to both Crosshair and us: Nolan and Mayday. In "The Solitary Clone," we still had Rampart and Cody, two characters we've known for years. If Desix was everything he was holding on to, then Barton IV is the complete opposite. In this episode, we see Crosshair letting go, both willingly and unwillingly. Cody made a choice to go AWOL, but not Mayday. Mayday wasn't given a choice and he died. Crosshair had to witness someone he cared about die before his very eyes. Has that ever happened to him before? Probably not. The mission itself is anything but familiar. There are no droids or separatists. It's actually a very dull and mundane task: watch cargo. When you think of the clones and their purpose, the first that comes to mind isn't watching cargo. And that cargo turns out to be nothing more than equipment for the new recruits aka, not clones. Is this what Crosshair signed up for? No. He's a soldier and the Empire is giving him a purpose. They are willing to keep him and send him out to do missions and maintain its grip on the galaxy. But that's not what we see on Barton IV; Barton IV is where the scrap heaps go: a rookie lieutenant who hasn't been on a mission in his life, unwanted clone troopers whom the Empire could care less about, and a forgotten sniper that desperately clings on to the remnants of his past. This is not a place for anyone.

The juxtaposition between the two is clear as day: Desix is warm and full of familiarity. Barton IV lacks any source of familiarity and is as cold as ice (pun intended).

Furthermore, "The Outpost" is Crosshair's breaking point. After trying to cling on to everything in "The Solitary Clone," he has to let it all go in "The Outpost." There is no life on Barton IV; it's all stripped away. Now that I think about it, "The Solitary Clone" represents Crosshair's mask while "The Outpost" is his true self underneath. The mission on Desix feels very familiar and makes Crosshair feel useful. But in "The Outpost," we see a dull, barren wasteland with a mission as bleak as the terrain itself. Crosshair's internal mental state is also just as bleak. He knows he can't keep going the way he has; all semblance of the old days are gone. The Empire doesn't care if he dies. If anything, the Empire is trying to rush along his deterioration so they can get better replacements.

It's so interesting to see how two different missions on two very different planets can reflect a character's internal growth. Crosshair is such a well written character and I love him so much. He's definitely one of my favorite character of all time.

I do have one more analysis planned, this time on the rest of the BB so keep an eye out for that. Thank you for reading and take care!

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

Alright I got two trials to do and ironically enough both are from the same game. Yeah as much as I love some of the characters from it, I do have to unfortunately agree that SDRA2 is easily the weakest of the games here as it does have 2 dogshit chapters, 2 extremely flawed chapters and 1 okay chapter. Sucks because there was a lot of potiential but LINUJ fumbled in so many areas that it really lets the whole game down.

A2-6 is the grand finale for not just SDRA2 but for the Another series as a whole, and as such there is a lot riding on it. Does it get it right? The fact its the 3rd member of my unholy trio of SDRA2 bad cases isn't a good sign though I will admit compared to A2-3 and A2-4 its nowhere NEARLY as bad and it has the potentinal to be great. It does have really strong points to it but there are some areas it doesn't do well at all.

The biggest issue is a issue all Chapter 6s suffer from which is the fact the chapter becomes a lore/info dump as you try to get up to speed with the information given. But SDRA2 takes this to the extreme as its not just a lore dump, its a lore tsunami and one that can overwhemble you extremely quickly. Its extremely common for pepople to miss or forgot certain details because you are bombarded with so much information it kinda borders on sensory overload. This is because due to having two dud chapters, LINUJ realised he had a ton of infomation that didn't get parted and needs it all to come out, and so it comes out like this. Had A2-3 not been a emulation of 3-3, and A2-4 not have as much information muddled with due to last minute changes, while there would still be a lot of infodumping, tis a Chapter 6 after all, it wouldn't be to the point when you might feel physical pain.

But let's explore some of these info. Firstly the reveal of Mikado as an AI is quite an obvious twist once you realise the Utsuroshima Killing Game is a virtual reality, and he does have quite the creepy design as he has all glicthed effects and looks like he's some Missingno-like monster masquading as a human. AI villains can be quite terrifying especially with the rise of new advanced AI in modern society, its becoming a increasing fear, heck people say the most likely cause for human extinction is the rise of a super-intelligent AI. But with Mikado, you get that he is a creation of hubrus bordering on Brutus from the Fleetway Sonic comes. If you don't know, the Fleetway Sonic Comics is a UK Sonic series similar to Archie, but more focused on the canon classic series rather then introducing OCs all the time. And one of the arcs is when Dr. Robotnik creates a second in command called Brutus which is not only a highly advanced Badnik but also possesses his mind so he's as smart as him. But he also inherits Robotnik's ambition and thus eventually rebels against him, but is destroyed by Robotnik in the end. AI Mikado gives me similar vibes since due to being a Alter Ego, he is exactly like his creator, which is why I roll my eyes whenever people say Real Mikado is a cinnimon roll and its just the AI who's evil. No real Mikado is as evil as AI Mikado its just the latter had the power to do what the former could not.

One thing that's often said about AI is that they have zero imagination and can only reproduce what's been given to them. This is very much true to Mikado as not only is his plan a mismash of all the various other schemes from both canon and the first Another game, but he even loses in the same way as his creator did; he underestimated his own creation. And his defeat is really glorious as yeah he's the only villian you actually feel like you won over, as the others had all the cards on their tables and only gave up due to their own idealogy wanting defeat or the lack of disappointing to the audience, Mikado is none of that and while it might take years for the SDRA2 Dub to reach Chapter 6 (The 6 hour slogfest and Eli's vocal chords in A2-3 take priority) I do hope Swords of Sword gives a stellar performance which if his other roles have breakdowns would give us some indication.

The big twist I'm mixed on is the fact everyone in the SDRA2 cast is of different ages. Now while I do like a cast where nobody is the same age, this isn't foreshadowed in any way, and it killed nobody to ask what the year was? Shinji not being used to the tech on the 3rd island was a bit of a hint but he's also not the smartest so it could be easy to dismiss. Like for example having Hibiki ask Setsuka who her favourite music artists are and when Setsuka mentions them, Hibiki then follows up by asking if she likes old music artists or something, only for Setsuka to be confused as they are recent. Or have Koroko be amazed with the high technology of the place. Like I'm not even sure if the age thing was something LINUJ had in mind from the start or if he did it at the last second to fire nuclear missiles at various ships as so many ships got destroyed by this twist.

Iroha I'm 100% sure ONLY lived and survived because she's LINUJ's favourite, and is one of the worst examples of a Creator's Pet out there. Like Iroha in most Askblogs is quite decent but that's because she had this magic thing called character development happen to her, whereas in canon she really is a self-centred brat who only cares about her own survival and is a pure dead weight. ESPECIALLY when you consider that LINUJ often likes his villains to be killed off in karmatic way so personal attachment I believe was the only thing that spared Iroha. Heck, I wouldn't even be surprised if Iroha was meant to die early on but LINUJ didn't have it in him to kill her and even made her a Void at the last minute just so he could have her mean something. Because with the other Void members I was able to more or less get them right but Iroha completely took me off guard and not in a good way.

Now with Tsurugi's regression, while I like most people hate it, I can understand why. A big reason why Tsurugi in Another 1 was even having self-reflection and considering his actions was because of his relationship with Yuki. I don't think I need to understate enough that when compared to literally every other protag-rival relationship we have had, Yuki and Tsurugi have the most positive interactions with each other. I believe that had Yuki not been a fake personality and survived the killing game, Tsurugi would have kept working on his character development and become a better person overall. But nope, A-6 when we get to it, completely broke Tsurugi and for that we have gotten back to stage one. Plus having to chase down a bunch of people who worship the guy who mindfucked you so badly, Tsurugi's rage can be understood. Just because I understand it, doesn't mean I like it because it feels like LINUJ just wanted some unnecessary drama for the sake of it and because Syobai was gonna work with the heroes, and Iroha is...Iroha, someone else aside from Mikado was required to be a antagonistic force and Tsurugi fit the bill.

And yet despite this Ryohei Seki somehow manages to be even fucking worse. I won't go into details because I really want more people to watch Danganronpa The After, but all I will say is that Ryohei is Tsurugi turned up to eleven as he does actions that even Tsurugi wouldn't dream of doing, and my hatred for that police officer is on par of your hatred to Nikei.

I didn't really know what to think of Yuki as I didn't like how he was behaving throughout the game, but seeing as this whole thing is a trauma simulator to him, it makes sense why he wouldn't be mentally okay by the end. It is good he escapes in Akane's body in the end and its very open ended how he would go but I suspect we are gonna get a Onmake Story which addresses this at some point, but LINUJ has said that its left to the player to decide if the new person is Yuki, Sora or a fusion of them both; Yura? Yeah that works Yura. Yuki's body being stripped down to a brain I feel was only done so that we can have a way for Sora to die because if Yuki still had his body then this drama would never happen. It does a good job of highlighting how evil Mikado is but still there were other ways that could be done to reason why Sora wouldn't make it out.

The scene with Yoruko trying to forgive on Yuki's behalf since he wasn't there at the time, I can see why people would be angry about it, but this just shows I feel its very wishy-washy about whenever Sora is meant to be her own person or if she's tied to Akane Taira. Mikado blames Sora for all the crimes that Akane has done, even though she wasn't even alive when that happened. And the fact Sora has to die to "atone" is proof that LINUJ probably views Akane's and Sora's crimes as one and the same, as its the same logic why Akane didn't live in A-6 despite that being originally the plan because LINUJ believed she didn't deserve to live even though she's seen the error of her ways and said sorry.

I do like how ultimately Syobai turns out to just be very business focused and only care about either the value of life or how much he's getting paid as those are the only truths in life whenever people can lie about everything else. In the first few chapters Syobai goes AFK because he knows the world is fake so everyone will be fine, but I think at some point he realises all might not be as it seems when he finally wakes up for A2-3 and especially in A2-4 when Nikei says that everyone will live if they die in the virtual world, since Syobai knows as a Void, Nikei is most likely lying. Sora and Syobai don't exactly get off the right foot seeing as Syobai stabbed Sora in the prologue, but as the game progresses, the two do begin to understand each other and its also Syobai who really pushes the idea Sora might be Akane when he kidnaps her and strips her down to show a massive Monokuma shaped scar Sora has on her torso, in the same place where Akane was attacked in A-6 when she tried to defend Rei. And its why when Sora realises who she is and that she has Divine Luck, its Syobai she entrusts to help her with the plan to fuck over Mikado.

But just remember people it could have been worse since Syobai originally had Yuri's personality. Yeah...I don't think I need to say anymore then that no, do I? Same goes for Yoruko being a lot more deranged and psychotic.

I don't have much to say about Yoruko then you do, but I will say I'm unsure if the Soruko romantic subtext is translation fluff or part of the original text. Given how LGBTQ rights are in South Korea, I would be doubtful if it was intentional, but that's the thing about fiction. If certain interactions between two characters can read off like they are into each other, you can do it like that and really Sora and Yoruko's relationship doesn't change much if they are close friends or if they have feelings for each other.

Rei is someone who still stuns me even exists since she's a complete antithesis to LINUJ's philosophy on that humans can never change their nature, as while she's not as bad as Byakuya was in Another 1, she does learn how to grow and develop as a person and by SDRA2, she has ascended into elite girlboss territory. Her callout to Tsurugi is well deserved and it gets even better in Funeral where Rei really turns up the sharp tongue to eleven as she roasts Tsurugi so badly that after she leaves, he has a mental breakdown and decides to take a leave of absence. While Rei was drunk at the time, this makes it even better since they say alcohol is nature's truth serum and so what Rei was wailing at Tsurugi for, was things she always thought about him but held back out of professionism but now its unrestricted. The fact she also ends her friendship there, also shows how Tsurugi's actions have well and truely isolated her.

Before we get onto the beauty that is Sora I need to bring up the bad endings since you didn't. Yes SDRA2 has TWO bad endings and both of them are triggered at different points. At one point in the trial, Mikado pulls a Enchantress and traps everyone into their own personal paradises so they cannot stop him. For Sora, her fantasy is that the Killing Game never happened, everyone is alive and everyone is happy with each other. She has a choice whenever to stay in this dream world, or whenever to realise this isn't real and wake up. If she wakes up, the game continues but if she prefers to stay in the dream world, we get our first bad ending when Mikado succeeds in stealing Divine Luck as he escapes in Akane's body, causes everyone in the Kisagari Foundation to just instantly die, and goes off to do who knows what else. And given how Mikado is as a person, I think he would just kill the human race or only leave a small population alive to torment as he pleases ala AM style.

And then we have the neutral ending and honestly this is quite funny. Again Sora is given another choice in the Class Trial where she has to choose whenever she wants to be with Yuki or Utsuro, if she chooses Yuki the game carries on but if she chooses Utsuro, then... Tsurugi wakes up in bed in a cold sweat, implying that the entire events of SDRA2 was a terrible nightmare he had. Its...kinda funny in a way that everyone was some fucked up dream Tsurugi had, and it also explains why Void are so irredeemable as due to Tsurugi's philosophy, his subconcious isn't gonna to create sympathatic villians now is it? I can relate since I tend to have incredibly deep dreams that sometimes have their own lore within them yet for all the characters to be all for naught when I wake up. Its a good thing this isn't the canon ending because I think the Another community wouldn't like it if it was all just a dream.

Again you go over Sora very well so I don't have a lot to add to her. Given how I realised Sora might have died back in A2-4 if inital plans were right, it makes me wonder if it was a good thing she lived or not. I personally think sparing Sora is the right decision since she does add a lot to the latter half of the game, and the fact is yeah when she gets Divine Luck she turns the tables on Mikado. I am NOT looking forward to when the dub does AA because for some reason my keyboard doesn't want to know how to do it as I keep getting sticky key alerts whenever I try to use it, which makes the minigame much harder then usual. Granted Mikado's is like Asrial's final battle where you literally cannot lose, but when say the Otonokoji's, Nikei's and Iroha's AA's come up I wonder if I will get a Game Over not because I suck at the game but because I'm fighting back against my own computer.

Like think its bad enough for you? Imagine doing it on a computer that likes throw alerts up EVERYTIME you press a command on that minigame which makes it so if you don't respond in time to take damage.

All Danganronpa endings are bittersweet but I tend find that with the canon games its more on the sweet side as while yes people died and the world sucks, the survivors have the hope and determination to carry on. Whereas the Another games are really more on the bitter side as yes people live but it comes at a steep cost.

A2-6 is a okay conclusion as it wraps up everything nicely but I just feel if we didn't have two dud chapters where more hints to some of the twists could be effectively foreshadowed, it could be even better. As it revealed some interesting stuff, made Mikado to be such a threatening villain and the fact there is TWO BAD ENDINGS if you fuck up at any point in the Class Trial is proof the stakes cannot be higher so when you do win against Mikado, and actually win because he really does 100% lose here and no see it coming, it feels so satisfying. As currently I feel the only thing holding it back is how not only does it throw too much information at you, to the point its extremely common for people to forget some Another lore as a result due to how rapid-fire it goes for you "here's one plot twist" "and another" "and another" "and another" Like as weirdly fitting as it is, its not good for the player, but also how its not fully voiced yet. The latter will eventually be fixed hopefully, but the former will not.

And with that we only have one case left in this game...and its the very first one, which is isn't a good look at this game.

//Okay, I'll go through these points one by one.

//In case I didn't make it obvious, I think if there's one thing I can credit SDRA2 on, it's that while it had a very middling runtime at best, it starts well and ends well. Yes, I agree that we cover a lot of information in the final trial, but it's information that I'm actually interested in instead of being pointless waffling for most of the time. It didn't bore me, nor did I ever tune out when Mikado was yapping about stuff. It kept me engaged the whole time, so I don't dislike this trial or this ending.

//One of the main reasons I find Mikado underwhelming is precisely because of how derivative and predictable his character feels. While the idea of him being an AI villain in a virtual reality setting has potential, it’s not explored in a way that makes him stand out. Instead, his plan comes off as a patchwork of tropes and schemes we've already seen in the Danganronpa series and the first Another game.

//Even his defeat, while satisfying in the sense that it feels like a true victory for the cast, doesn’t redeem his character for me. His downfall mirrors his creator’s in a way that feels like poetic justice, and I do like that, but it doesn't justify the countless hours I sat through starring a boring antagonist who doesn't do shit for the first half of the game.

//I get why the age twist feels sudden, but I think that’s what makes it work. While more foreshadowing could’ve made it smoother, the lack of obvious clues reinforces how deeply the characters were conditioned not to question their reality. Subtle hints, like Shinji’s discomfort with tech, are there but aren’t meant to give the twist away.

//It’s not meant to be a predictable or comforting reveal. It’s meant to challenge our perceptions, just as the characters’ own are shattered. And even with that said, it's not like it changes the plot TOO much, so what's the problem?

//As for Iroha, like I said, it's fun to see just how self-centered and lame she is one she drops all the pretenses, but yeah, I don't like the fact that she probably only survived because she's LINUJ's blorbo. Her overall contributions to the plot were fairly minimal, and even Nikei would have made a more compelling survivor than she would.

//When you put it like that, and how Tsurugi and Yuki generally had a good relationship in Another 1, then yeah, I get how the twist with Utsuro could have broken Tsurugi, but they're equally as chummy throughout that trial as well, and Tsurugi is genuinely super concerned for Yuki's safety, even though he doesn't technically know him. For me personally, I still feel like that's not an excuse because that one incident doesn't justify abandoning every other human principal that Tsurugi has, especially one that makes him willingly send Teruya to his death and act nonchalant about the fact that someone who genuinely saved him in the past is dead. Really makes him come across as an egotistical dickwad and little else.

//And I'm curious to hear how you think the thing with Yuki and his brain could have been done better, because I think it was fine?

//In regards to Sora being responsible for all of Akane's crimes, I've seen cases like this in the past, but as for the points, I have two things to say:

//Firstly, Sora is not an Alter Ego, as Mikado confirms here. She is based on Akane Taira, but is not Akane Taira herself. And even if she was, the stuff that happens between AI Mikado and real Mikado clearly proves that the two are indistinct of each other, even though Mikado directly copies his real self's personality and aspirations.

//Mikado himself states in the game that Sora isn't an Alter Ego. She's an algorithm that exists as part of the Neo World program, and she's based on Akane Taira instead of being a direct brain scan upload of her.

//And secondly, I am actually glad that Akane Taira didn't survive the first Danganronpa Another, as much as I love her. The fact that the last thing she did was sacrifice herself for Rei and betray Utsuro really showed that she'd come around, and that the students trust and faith really meant something and got through to her. More on that with A-6 though.

//Speaking of which though, I never quite understood why it was that Sora had that scar. I know she's a recreation of Akane from the ground up, but while I think the reason might be LINUJ changing his ideas later down the line, why would Mikado think "Oh, she has a scar. I'll add that too I guess?"

//With the stuff about Soruko, ultimately, it's not going to bother me too much if Sora and Yoruko are confirmed to remain friends, or if they don't have a romantic connection, because that's very uncommon in DR games, and when it does happen *COUGHNAEZONOKAIMAKISATSUHIKOUTSUKANECOUGH* it doesn't normally end well.

//But in the translation, as I said in the analysis, Mikado genuinely says this:

//And Yoruko's response is this:

//That, plus the fact that when she tells Sora that she wants to say one last thing to her, but retracts, waiting to tell her when they reunite, she's blushing.

//And that's enough for me, honestly. I doubt the translators changed the original dialogue THAT much, and even if its platonic love, that's kind of how their relationship is through most of the game anyway, so...

//And yeah, spoiler warning for if I ever do a Dangancember or other sort of countdown for the series where I rank my Top 24 Another/Another 2 characters, but expect Rei Mekaru to be in the Top 2 at least.

//And yeah, as I said in the analysis itself, Rei's rant, and all the stuff that Tsurugi goes through in this final chapter is largely why the Kisaragi Foundation are less heavy-handed in Survivor, and why Tsurugi treats his employees like actual people. Because regardless of how far he's fallen, Tsurugi's will to protect people is and always has been genuine. Being the villain of his own story is something that he cannot take emotionally, so in Survivor, while he's still problematic, it's because of these experiences that he's willing to be lenient with his allies, and not jump at the chance to take out Akane T. despite the fact that he still very much dislikes her.

//Just another part of why redemption is the key theme of Survivor. And one day, I might go through all the characters and how I symboize that idea through them.

//Also, I'm sorry that I didn't bring up the Bad Endings, but to explain why I didn't, it's because I never actually got them on my first playthrough of SDRA2. I didn't really even know they existed at first, and just did what I thought was correct, so for the longest time, I didn't even know they existed.

//But what I will say is that as sudden as it sounds, and I like the fact that you said everyone in the Kisaragi Foundation just instantly dies, the idea of a post-SDRA2 story similar to the plot of I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is REALLY interesting for some reason.

//As for the neutral ending, if I know Danganronpa fans, yeah, they really don't take kindly to "none of this is real" twists.

//Gives Tsumugi and V3 the side-eye.

//But yeah, that's all I have to say. I have always loved the fact that Sora and Akane's stories end so similarly, and how they parallel each other, and how Sora is more of a manifestation of Akane's guilt and her desire to try again rather than her villainy.

//But okay, I've decided, Sora and Akane are interchangeably numbers 2 and 1 on my ranking, and Rei is 3. Sorry for that, I just spoiled a potential future ranking.

//Looking forward to seeing you cover the next few trials, because the Top 10 is a real doozy, let me tell you.

-Mod