#I'm just really in love with this game and having one really thorny part is just HNG

[frenchy-and-the-sea]

There is a very exquisite agony in playing a game you love so so so so so much, and realizing that one of the other players is trying to play a totally different game than you.

[2hoothoots]

Revisiting P2 since the docu epilogue dropped and your AMV (<3) popped up as a sign for me to ask something that hopefully you haven't already spoken about years ago: What did you think of the in-game psych explanation for Maligula, that she's the primitive savage part of the mind? P2 is a weird mix of sketchy Freud/Jung concepts that Tim likes meshed with modern psych, and Maligula's deal seems like something they probably wrote a lot of different versions of but never quite solved elegantly

yeah, i think you totally hit the nail on the head - it's always felt like one of the parts of the story that they couldn't quite give enough polish to before they had to finalize it and move on with development. like - i went to go get my artbook to see if it had any insight into the writing process, and did you know that Nona and Maligula being the same person was apparently added way later in development? that's wild! i didn't know that until literally right now! i may or may not have skipped straight to my favourite characters when my artbook arrived and then put it on my shelf without reading the whole thing

ANYWAY, retrospectively i think it being a twist that was added later actually makes a lot of sense in the context of everything you mentioned. the Maligula problem, to me, is the fact that they're trying to juggle a bunch of different things that she has to be in the story. there's Maligula, the ruthless big bad, and Nona, the beloved grandma, and if you suddenly have to also make them both the same person... well, it ends up being kind of a thorny writing problem to make that work, haha.

here's some art i made so this isn't just a wall of text, rest of the answer under the cut

i think one thing they could have done when they needed to rehabilitate a mass-murderer into a lovable old lady was pull back on either end of the spectrum. make your villain softer and more sympathetic, or give grandma a mean streak like she's one bad day away from a tragedy at the crochet club. and to give the story credit, i'm really glad they didn't. Nona is relentlessly sweet and endearing - and that's great! she needs to be in order to make the audience care about her, otherwise the emotional beats are never going to land. likewise, Maligula is a great villain, she's vicious and ruthless and at the culmination of her arc we see she simply does not give a shit about murdering hundreds of people. i love that for her, honestly, you go girl

but then, like - how do you connect the dots? how do you frame grandma having a violently murderous streak in a way that doesn't make the ending of "but she's over it now" feel kinda weird and hollow? and how do you do that while also being sympathetic to the game's themes around mental health? Maligula's informed by the traumatic things that happened to Lucrecia during the war, but she can't just be a manifestation of trauma, because the moral of the story being that trauma makes you a mass-murderer (until you beat up your trauma and shove it in a giant pit) would feel... really tonally dissonant!

so i think you're totally right that the sprinkling of pop-psych concepts we get ends up feeling a little bit like an awkward band-aid. Maligula's story is about how the horrors of war can shape you into a terrible person, who does terrible things - ...but there's also, like, special circumstances, so it doesn't feel weird that she goes back to being Raz's sweet grandma afterwards. special psychic circumstances! she's not just any war criminal, she's the fight or flight response gone out of control!

which - i dunno, i think that line in particular always stood out to me, because that's not really what the fight or flight (or freeze or fawn) response is, right? it's a temporary boost of adrenaline to the system to rev you up for getting out of a dangerous situation. an overactive fight or flight response is called chronic stress and anxiety. i know the games are pop-psych and not actual science, but it always stood out to me as a little awkward.

if it were me in the writer's seat - with the benefit of all the time in the world to workshop it, and no looming deadlines, and the hindsight of having a full completed game in front of me to think about - i might have tried to frame it around connection. i think you could swing the lens to instead focus on how violence, stress, trauma etc., make it harder to understand and empathise with the people around you. the tragedy of Lucrecia's story is that she came home to try and help her countrymen, the people she cared so dearly about. but the more time passed, the less she cared, the less she was able to see them as people. after Marona's death, the Maligula that remains is one who's unable to even care about killing her own sister. the alternative is too raw, too painful - instead, she sheds her last vestiges of remorse, and throws herself into the easy relief of violence. (we see this again, when Nona "awakens" as Maligula - when confronted with the baggage of her past, she chooses to wash it all away with force, unable and unwilling to care about the people she used to call friends.)

and i think shifting the focus like that ties it in thematically, too. a big theme (of both games, but especially the sequel) is how important connection is, how being able to understand and reach out to and rely on other people is a lifeline during hard times. PN2 touches on how there aren't really "good people" and "bad people" - everyone has the capacity to do wonderful or terrible things, and i think Raz's line to Maligula about how "everybody's got something like you" works. Lucrecia was never a monster, no matter how everyone tried to pretend she was. she was just a person, the same as everyone else - and just like everyone else, she could be pushed to extremes under the right circumstances. it just feels kind of odd when the implicit context is "everybody's got a mass-murderer hidden in the primal recesses of their brain", hahaha.

but like, again, that's the privilege of hindsight, right? i've definitely also been on the other side of the creative process, stuck with something i suddenly need to make work in a story and having to come up with a solution that feels like a band-aid. sometimes you just gotta call it good enough, and move on. and i think the game is overall much stronger for having Nona and Maligula be the same person - it plays into the wider themes, it sets up some great emotional beats, and i think it's overall well-executed, even if there are one or two hiccups in the writing.

anyway, great ask! thank you for the invitation to ramble, this is something that stuck out to me on my first playthrough of the game and it was fun to sit down and get my thoughts in order

[verbosebabbler]

Made a mockup of a theoretical Zampaniosim gameboy game. @jadedresearcher

This was really satisfying to make, just seeing all the parts, the character sprites, the background, the UI, all come together to form a cohesive whole. I love mockups and concept art and creating something of my own that has that affect on me was great.

I have ideas on how the game would play. Basically, it's a position based combat system that will have some looping system of preserving experience points and levels. I'm not going to make it real though, I don't have the game making experience to try that. But I liked having the mechanics in mind for if I want to make more screenshots from this fake game.

As for why I chose these characters to focus on, I just see a lot of potential in how their motivations can clash. Just, the pathos of it all. I'll explain more below the cut

Peewee, after enduring several lifetimes of watching the world around him, everyone he knows, and even his own body be corrupted by forces outside of his control, gets some semblance of hope with the forming of the new universe, the :hatched_chick:, that he may be free from this torment. Only for a heinous echidna universe to sprout into existence, siphoning and slowly killing this new universe. Then, after being thrusted into this corrupted world, finds himself even less in control, being directly puppeted by beings beyond his understanding: the Observers... us.

While he was initially forced into being the adopted father of these kids through both the Observers and the nebulous concept of relevancy that kept these kids around (unlock other lamia), Peewee does end up actually developing parental feelings towards these three lamia kids.

But his sole purpose for being here is to destroy this universe from the inside. To maybe make things go back to the way they used to be.

But for Rebel, Rod, and Melon, unlike most of the other characters in this series, this is their world. It's the only world they've ever known, and each have their own motivations for protecting it.

Melon's is most obvious, and what got me started thinking about this storyline in depth. Melon is an eco terrorist, destroying business with harmful business practices towards the planet and nature.

Then there's Rod, who seems to have a connection to the echidna of the echidna universe itself, always carrying around an echidna doll. And Rod is the most externally compassionate of the three, so he'd likely be the one to rally the others to work together.

Finally there's Rebel. Less obvious with his thorny exterior, but Rebel is the one of three that's most connected to the people of the outside world, making friends with some of the mall characters. And the little peace symbol on his pocket betrays his true feelings.

And with all this it turns out that their father figure wishes to destroy it and everyone in it, including them.

So each has to fight between their own feelings of familial care for each other, and their own goals to either protect the world or destroy it. There's just so much drama here worth exploring.

And for sticking around, here's some alternate color palette versions.

[theinstagrahame]

One of the best things about Crowdfunding is, stuff arrives even when you're cutting way back on spending. A *ton* of stuff arrived in the last month and a bit. Got a bunch of really neat projects in, and it's time to get hype about it!

Why these games rule, under the cut

The Revenant Society: Banana Chan is one of those names that immediately catches my attention when she's on a project. Actually, looking at the list again, the team for this game was stacked, it was a real All-Star Cast. But like, even without the powerhouse designers on the case, this just gets all the things I want in a game: Time loops, murder mysteries, trapped on the Underground. A PbtA game where you solve your own murder is, y'know, a pitch that'll attract my attention.

Hellwhalers: I saw this game coming up through design phases in the Plus One Exp Discord, and it sounded incredible. Using tokens and an old ship betting game, you're part of a whaling crew chasing Moby Dick into actual hell. Maybe Ahab wasn't crazy after all, and maybe we won't survive.

Xenolanguage: I might own everything Thorny Games makes now, because they make games about language. Folks who may not know me might not know that I *love* linquistics. Honestly, if I could repeat college, I'd put more of my time into Linguistics. But due to the linear nature of time, I'll settle for playing games about decoding alien language in a first contact situation. Sorta like that movie Contact. Which, I loved.

Mothership and Desert Moons of Karth: I read through the original version of Mothership a couple of years ago, and it's one I wanted to get more into. When I saw that there was a chance to pick up the full 1e boxset on KS, I jumped. I've also seen tons of people talk about Karth as a really awesome sandbox module for the system, so when I had a little cash on DTRPG from selling books, it was an easy pickup.

Inscrutable Cities: Possum Creek Games told me to back this, so I did (this is a joke, but I do love PCG a whole lot). In reality, I saw Inscrutable Cities on Itch a while ago, and the pitch grabbed me. I love reading solo journaling games (I still haven't found a way I like to play them, if I'm completely honest, but they're really neat reads). Walking through an impossible city is something I'd love to do, so, I have the book for it now.

Reap: Spencer Cambell makes bangers, and bangers only. I'm not *not* on a mission to collect all of his work, but Necromancers? Solo tactical board games, built on Rune? Sure. I'm in.

Luna: Spencer Campbell makes bangers, and bangers only. I also picked up another of his books this month. The Nova universe? Moon cultists trying to destroy the sun? Sure, I'm in.

3 Moonlight on Roseville Beach zines: I played Moonlight on Roseville Beach on my now-defunct podcast, and it's a game that I honestly think about a lot. The dice system was complicated, but in a really neat way that gave the players a ton of really interesting decisions with every roll. What part of my action succeeds? What kinds of complications am I opening myself to?

Anyway, R. Rook put together some characters, mysteries, and monsters for the game, and I really wanted to explore more.

Hiria, In the Margins, A Visit to San Sibilia: I mentioned earlier that I like the notion of exploring weird cities, right? Well, here's two games about that, and a cool bookmark RPG for reading. I listened to San Sibilia played in an episode of Friends at the Table, and it really captured my attention. The questions were fascinating, and they let the players flesh out a city we'd only heard of, but not seen prior to that game. It was a cool coda on a really fantastic and weird season, Sangfielle.

Grandmothership: The title alone had me, but Armanda Haller is a creator I keep an eye on, because she makes really rad stuff. This caught my attention because solving mysteries in a weird, Mothership-esque sci-fi setting, as nosy grandmothers, really just, gets me. I want to do that. I want to live that.

Holdfast Station: I've been watching Stonetop develop through its email updates. It's another PbtA game, but with a robust city-building and city development core loop that, is 100% my jam. (Low-key, one of my favorite games is Dragon Quest Builders 2.) This game takes that concept to space, which is 1000% my jam, in fact.

Spectres of Brocken: Aaron Lim is a designer I got into early on in my foray into games, and I do love Mech Anime. I am eager to see his take on Mech Anime, and I am really intrigued by the way this game handles playsets and worldbuilding as part of the game itself. Really can't wait to dive into this.

Lay on Hands: This is another of those games I've heard about, but never actually checked out. I know Alfred Valley better by reputation than by direct experience, but this is one of those games I hear people constantly telling people to check out. So, I'm gonna!

Penumbra City: Maybe 5 years ago, I read a novella by Margaret Killjoy about anarchists living in an abandoned city, and beset by assholes within their community, and supernatural horrors from without. The world kinda stuck with me, so when I saw she was working on an RPG not in the same world), I was curious to see what that would look like. I haven't cracked Penumbra City open yet, but I'm jazzed to do so.

These two fell off the pile for the big photo, so I forgot:

Deathmatch Island: I enjoyed the Hunger Games and Battle Royale movies a pretty moderate amount, but what really caught my attention here was the promise that players could also break the Reality TV Parody. The use of the Paragon system also caught my attention. After hearing one AP of Agon, I really wanted to see how that would translate into this, and it didn't take me too long reading it to go "Oh, okay, this rules."

Our God is Dead: What if you were a paladin or priest of a faith, and you found out your god was dead? What if you also had like, a bunch of people who really needed that god not to be dead, like this weekend? This sounds hilarious, and I am going to insert it into conversation often to see if people want to play it. Apologies to people who know me.

Eagle eyed viewers may have noticed a second Mothership box. What's that about?

It's a storage box for all my Mothership Zines so far... Except the two that are just slightly too big!

And, some fun comics/graphic novels:

Good Boy Paws: A friend of mine in comics put this together, and it looked extremely cute. A sweet tale of a good boi.

Wine Ghost Goes to Hell: Picked this up because the creator had contributed to Bugsnax, which is a game I enjoyed, and the concept seemed fun. Will have to check it out and report back!

[ouroborosorder]

what do you think the most stellar examples of arknights' vfx are?

Okay so there are a lot of examples, so I'm going to try to keep my description of each one short. Unsurprisingly, most of my favorite effects are on more recent, paid skins for fan-favorite/meta 6* operators, since those are the ones they put their whole ass into.

Executor the Ex Foedere. The way that it weaves blasts of light and the shapes of Sankta wings into his shotgun blasts is absurdly creative. Perfect for a saint of Laterano.

Passenger's Skin. Specifically his S3. Stellar lightning is a weird pitch, but it's so fucking beautiful that it works. This is the effect that convinced me that I might enjoy being a VFX artist after all, not fucking kidding.

Jessica Alter. Look. Her skills are underwhelming as fuck, they're all the same shot effects every time. But. Do you genuinely understand how amazing these gunshots look? Do you know how hard it is to make a stylized gunshot that doesn't just look like magic? These are breathtakingly good. The glass shattering on hit genuinely made my jaw drop when I first saw it.

Eyjafjalla the Hvit Aska. It's hard to make a healer that genuinely looks unique, but Eyjalter's dreamlike colors and flat effects manage to bring the visual style of So Long Adele into every map and make it look reasonable with the artstyle.

Kirin R Yato. Monster Hunter's effects are extremely distinct, and seeing them recreate MH's style in Arknights' is really lovely. My one sorrow is that I wish there was more lightning, since like. Kirin.

Lin. Glass is a legitamately hard thing to pull off because it so often just looks like crystal, but leaning more into glass dust and shards makes it work perfectly. Her skin is also quite pretty, but it loses the glass look that made me love Lin to begin with.

Reed the Flame Shadow. Holy fucking shit holy fucking shit holy fucking shit holy fucking shit fire made of flowers?? The way the fire looks secondary to the whole thing while being undeniably present is stunning. Her skin is nowhere near as good tho.

Penance. Penance has such a stunning aesthetic that it immediately endeared me to her. Her vibe of gilded thorny chains carries to her effects and it works.

Texas the Omertosa. Fucking. Duh. It's hard to make a normal sword swipe look unqiue but Texas nails it. Her skin's effects are even more stunning, even if the animations are awful.

Minimalist. It's hard to make effects that are minimalist and still look good.

Specter the Unchained + Skin. I need to specificially call out her skin. Her skin may be one of my favorite pieces of effects at all time. The colors, the aegirian poetry as part of the visuals, the stellar water, it's all practically perfect.

Kazemaru. A sleeper hit!! She's got a lot going on with the "paper-controlling ninja whose clone has a completely unique aesthetic" thing so it seems like she might be too busy, but it manages to pull it off. Shoutouts to her clone's spawn, which actually does the slash mesh slightly wrong intentionally because the ring look actually helps a lot.

Goldenglow. It's rare that I see a lightning character and say "I have never seen anything like that before in my life" and Goldenglow's pink and blue stylized lightning genuinely shocked me.

Ling (Does it Wash The Strings). If you want my choice for best VFX in the game, this would at least be in running for first. It's flashy as hell, but manages to not be overbearing. The S3 dragon attacking with mountains rising from the earth alone is stunning, but the normal attack impact is my favorite part of the entire thing. It's so simple and elegant and stylish.

Amiya Guard. Amiya's Guard form is the combination of Amiya's Arts, Sarkaz Arts, Ch'en's swordfighting, the normal AK Arts and sword design languages, and a tiny bit of weird space tech to represent the Precursors. And it manages to come together to something that feels really cohesive while still drawing attention to how incongruous these elements are. The effects actively tell the story of Amiya - a girl with big shoes to fill, carrying the legacy of so many.

Ceobe, and her Unfettered Freedom skin. At this point in Arknights' lifespan, they had a much more defined visual language for how Casters look compared to melee units. Ceobe, being a Caster who throws fucking enchanted melee weapons instead of casting spells? So she combines their languages, with the buildup and trails of Arts casters and impacts of melee units, it's subtle and I love it. Unfettered Freedom deserves a special shoutout because I love geometric magic so fucking much.

Conviction's Skin. Why is this so good they're a joke operator.

Dorothy's Skin. I may have mixed opinions on this skin, but the effects are objectively stunning. I am personally heartbroken that she doesn't have the sand anymore, but that's a personal thing. I also don't like that her S3's range is obfuscated by the explosion but again that's nitpicking.

There's probably WAY more that I've missed and even more I cut for time, but those are my favorites after browsing the list of operators and skins for like, two hours straight. If there are a few I missed... Look, this list is this long already.

Also note that I didn't really list enemies or anything other than playable operators. Their enemy effects are usually... servicable, with a few standout exceptions with Talulah and Frostnova.

[distort-opia]

The joker has many names in many stories, but how did you (in your opinion or point of view) reveal the "true" origin of the villain and I loved it and I want you to do the same with the "true" name of the joker, please 🙏

Thank you, glad you had fun with my previous Joker-related meta! Oof, Joker's "true" name... That's a very thorny issue.

First of all, there's a canon name for Prime Earth Joker right now, and a canon origin. You guessed it, it's The Killing Joke one. This wasn't really surprising to me when it came out, the TKJ origin has been referenced as canon multiple times at this point; it's only the last name that remained a mystery. But then they revealed his name to be "Jack Oswald White":

Flashpoint Beyond #5

I'm pretty sure we all agree that the only good part of that is "Jack". Don't know why the hell they went for "Oswald" (let Penguin have the monopoly on that goddammit!), but "White" is not that much of a surprise, it's just... a bit boring. Basically, Joker's had "White" attributed to him before in the Arkham games, he used it as an alias.

The fan-favorite (and my own, actually) name for Joker is actually "Jack Napier". It's got a long history... First used in Tim Burton's Batman (1989), it then got adopted by Batman: The Animated Series, The Batman (2004) and multiple other adaptations, like the Black Label Batman: White Knight comic-- which is just the most famous recently, but Joker's been named "Jack Napier" in so many other Elseworld and alternate universe DC comics. However, the name has popped up in comics closer to main continuity too. Joker himself used it as an alias in the New 52, in Red Hood and the Outsiders; but more importantly...

Arkham Asylum: Madness

Tough to say how canon this comic is, but it's heavily implied Joker's surname is "Napier". And since it's been canonized Joker's kid would've been a boy, "Milton" was probably his name (if you follow Falls the Shadow, my Joker-centric fic, you're probably familiar). But most recently, and having the most weight, they showed that the Joker equivalent of one of the Dark Multiverses was named "Jack Napier":

Tales of the Dark Multiverse -- Batman: Hush

So... it's a bit of a mess. It's been made official that his name was "Jack Oswald White" (maybe they want to do something with the initials JOW??), but the name people have been using for him for years is "Jack Napier". More generally though, you'll find that even comics that never give him a last name use "Jack" (like Batman: Gotham Knights #54, or Batman: Three Jokers, or the name of Jokester, the good Joker of Earth-3).

...And alright, I can't help myself. I'll go ahead and rant about a pet theory of mine, since I think Zdarsky intentionally tried to fit this all into an explanation. He tried to do something about Joker being people with different names and even different genders (like Martha Wayne) across worlds. But everything from here on is a spoiler for the main Batman run, so I'll put it all under the cut.

In case you're not familiar with the plot of The Bat-Man of Gotham, basically Bruce got thrown into another Universe in which Batman didn't exist. Here he found a guy called Darwin Halliday or Red Mask, who never became Joker, but wanted to. He'd glimpsed into the Multiverse with a chemical, and as a result created a machine that allowed one to travel the numerous Universes. In their final confrontation, Bruce and Red Mask both get hurled across the Multiverse by the machine, and here's an interesting panel from a world (clearly Burton's Batman movie world) Bruce encounters:

Batman (2016) #135

They have Bruce see his name, and the name "Jack Napier" on panel. Meanwhile, the "sane" Joker Bruce is chasing is named "Darwin Halliday". Then there's freaking "Jack Oswald White" for Prime Earth, an existing alternate called "Jack Napier" in a Dark Multiverse, and don't even get me started on freaking "Alby", another potential Joker name from Detective Comics (2016) #1000.

Bruce however, in Zdarsky's story and not only, only has himself. All the Universes he hops through have "Bruce Wayne" as the connection, even when Bruce isn't Batman (like in Batman Beyond). Is Bruce the only one to be Batman? Of course not, different others have carried the mantle (like Dick Grayson, Jean-Paul Valley, Tim Drake, Damian Wayne, James Gordon etc.). But I'm not trying to refer to worlds in which Bruce Wayne was Batman and then something happened to him and he was succeeded/replaced; I'm trying to refer to worlds in which someone else became Batman from the start. Those are quite rare, but they almost always have a Wayne: Thomas Wayne, or Helena Wayne. Even Owlman, the "evil" counterpart, is Bruce's brother.

Of course, the connection linking the Bruce Waynes is meant to be there so that the "infection" of Zur-en-Arrh can take place across the Multiverse. But then how exactly is Red Mask finding each Universe to jump into, right? How is he connecting mentally to all the Jokers, if the Jokers are different people and not the same as for Bruce? Why is it that whenever a Wayne becomes a Batman, someone becomes a Joker? Well...

Batman (2016) #135

So. Red Mask was following Batman, the one who's existence directly lead to Jack going insane and becoming Joker. Wherever there was a Batman, Red Mask precipitated the creation of a Joker... who wasn't always the same person. Just the person who needed a "push" into becoming it, hence explaining why Joker is different individuals. "Joker" is pretty much the cosmic curse following Batman, his inevitable shadow. (Not only that, depending on the moment Red Mask arrived, he also brought back the existing Jokers from the dead or made them worse.)

Now. Do I like this explanation? Not really, I think it sucks to unravel Joker's character so much and take away all his mystery, all the cool alternate interpretations. Not only that, but this explanation essentially takes away agency from Joker's character and attributes it to freaking... Multiverse shenanigans. However, I did appreciate Zdarsky's effort to give the whole thing some meaning. You don't see that frequently in comics. And in a way, it's so insanely soulmates-as-a-curse for Batman and Joker. They're so tied together it's impossible to unravel them.

[not-poignant]

1 & 13 for palmarosa! I'm so hooked on it and it's lovely to immerse myself in such a crunchy, well-written dynamic :3

Oooo less go, Palmarosa time :D (I'm so glad you're enjoying it!!)

1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?

So, I looked for Astarion fics early on and saw a lot of Astarion/Halsin, Astarion/player and general pairings I wasn't super interested in, or scenarios I wasn't very interested in. I tried a few, didn't bookmark any, and was like 'hmmm, I expected some more angsty fics for Astarion.' At the time - which to be fair was quite some time ago and the fandom has grown since - everything biased towards very fluffy, or very dark, but where Astarion had the power and was the top, and it was just not quite what I was looking for.

I knew I wanted to do something with Astarion, but I didn't ship him with anyone. I don't ship him with Gale, I didn't want to write an Astarion/player fic, I don't ship him with Halsin, etc. (I am playing an Astarion/Gale run now, but mostly because I enjoy their bitchiness and not because I truly ship them). But when we started spending more time with Raphael I started thinking 'hmmMMMM WHAT IF....'

I looked for fics, there was like 3 at the time (literally, mine is the fourth in the rarepair on AO3), and it was like 'well.... ehhh.... we'll see.' At this point I knew what Astarion's endings were - good and bad, according to Larian - and I didn't like either of them. I was kind of salty in advance that some companions get very clear cut happy endings, and others get sort of...shafted either way. And around that time I was like well... if we take Astarion's 'good' ending (according to Larian) and then actually give him the things I wanted him to have at the end (sans my player character, because I don't like player/X fics), then I could do something with that.

I knew I was shipping him with Raphael, but I actually spent a fairly long time thinking about how to solve the sunlight issue, and what Raphael would want in exchange for that, and how much that would actually matter to him, and why he would offer something like that, and what that would mean for a run where he was killed. I made a lot of thorny choices early on, like killing off Hope (she survives in my run) so Raphael could return to the House of Hope, etc.

But yeah! Basically a very classic 'once more fandom wasn't delivering a weird specific niche thing I wanted in any pairing, so I found a weird rarepair that almost no one was writing, and decided to do what I wanted in that little corner' scenario + 'I love BG3 as a game but fuck what they did with Astarion's character right at the end, I'm going to make a third ending just for me.'

...I'm both really stubborn and pretty weird actually when it comes to writing fanfiction *hangs head*

I'm just kind of obsessed with Astarion, he's a very specific kind of character 'type' for me (he gives me Felix Harrowgate from Doctrine of Labyrinths vibes and frankly I wrote a similar-ish fic about him too at least in spirit). Raphael I find fascinating. Because we get so much less information about him, I can put more of my own needs for the fanfiction into him, and develop his back story in a more robust manner in a way that suits the pairing. Him being a cambion, being able to add monster fucker elements, being really certain mentally that he's like... that he doesn't have a very 'classically' human way of thinking, makes him extremely interesting to me as a love interest to write!

(Not gonna lie, part of me actively resents how fluffy fandom is getting, and I wanted to put more rape and dubcon into AO3 overall for Astarion in particular. Like, I want more angst and hurt/comfort etc. I get that his back story is tragic, but I also wanted to push that in a different direction, and I really love writing a character that's been through so much awfulness they become almost expectant of it? That's also a Felix Harrowgate vibe. It's fun kind of...guiding those characters specifically to a better place internally, and not just externally).

13: What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn’t listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

The Palmarosa playlist! I put it on every time I write for this story. Some songs I listen to more than others, Trench and Menace generally accompany me during the more sexual scenes for example. And I have put on the instrumentals for I Want To Live from the official BG3 soundtrack (by Borislav Slavov) on repeat for sections as well. I still am expanding the Palmarosa soundtrack but I have enough kind of music to also be comfortable writing the story as well. :D

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From this fanfiction meme!

[olderthannetfic]

Been thinking about daring to try to get into vidding (but I have zero knowledge about video editing lol) and wondered if there are ship manifestos that are in fanvid-form, so to say. Am shocked that there are only six on AO3. Though I guess it may have to do with videos being taken down because of copyright stuff?

(One of them was by you by the way if I'm not mistaken, ha! And now I want to watch Veritas: The Quest. Your video got me interested.^^)

--

Haha. I was going to say!

Veritas is a fun dumb time. It makes me sad that they never released properly. (And yes, my love of baaaaaad "archaeology" canons full of magical woo and tomb raiding goes way back. Also my love of fake death and fake betrayal plots.)

AO3 is only moderately popular for fanvids, and mostly in a very specific community of people who send vids to the small-scale fancons—the sorts of people who founded OTW and who were vidding on Livejournal. (It won't be because of takedowns. The AO3 work would still be there, just with a dead embed.) That lack of popularity overall is part of why you don't see so many video manifestos, but I think it's more a terminology thing:

I think it's rare for vidders to call their vids "manifestos". I don't think of that one video as a vid that is a manifesto: I think of it as a vid I made to include in a manifesto. Instead, we tend to call them "pimp vids", but you don't tag with that because it's presumptuous. It's something you say retroactively about other people's vids or that you tell a vid beta you're aiming for. You don't get to decide if your vid successfully pimps people in any more than you get a say in whether you go viral, you know?

--

There's a weekly vidders' zoom run by DC Slash (one of the tiny slash cons), and we just had a week where we brought in vids that got us into fandoms. A lot of other people's were ancient, blurry VCR transfers because they've been at this a lot longer than I have, but I can show you some of the vids that have gotten me into fandoms:

Killa's Haven vid Soldier annoyed me so much. What is that one brief flash of a scene? Did that dude die? It's not that sad a vid though? What the hell? So I had to watch just to find out. (Yes, he died. But he got better. Because Haven.)

The fact that I know and like Killa didn't hurt, but it's not like I loved the vid itself: a lot of it was my sheer annoyance at that one shot.

Of course, then, I made my own Haven vid, Captain Kidd, that was supposed to be an angry deep dive into show lore and how the other sanctimonious, fake-moral but actually pretty useless characters were treating my blorbo. (This is a theme with me, it appears.) It was not even 1% supposed to be a pimp vid...

To date, this is by far my most successful pimp vid, luring a whole bunch of people into the show just in time for it to massively jump the shark. (Damn it.) I've never even seen the ending.

More recently, akiv's Beyond Evil vid I'm a Ruler made me fall hard for Beyond Evil. Imagine my shock when what looked like a relatively normal buddy cop series starts with one of them secretly investigating the other as a serial killer. It was so much more intense and fucked up than I realized! Yessss.

After bouncing hard off of DMBJ, it was this Youtube vid Hei Ye falling for the Thorny Flower that got me intrigued again. The tone is so obvious and the dynamic is so clear, which really helped me get interested in a franchise that's often pretty hard to follow plot-wise.

I admit I never actually watched canon, but this Mr. Queen vid by Mozzaphne made me go look up a plot summary so I could read all of the fic. Lots of youtube vidders overuse show dialogue and mix it horribly over songs, but this one was really well done and adds a lot to your understanding of the character dynamics.

I don't think my foray into Detroit: Become Human was entirely because of a single vid, but Figure 8 by Dirty Mind Gene definitely helped. I knew it was a video game with robots. Nobody fucking told me it was a Caves of Steel ripoff with a jaded cop getting his mojo back via getting to know his robot partner.

I of course then went and made one with all of the zillions of deaths in the game because I love that shit. This apparently also got at least one person into the fandom.

Another vid a different person mentioned pimping them into a fandom was Lola's Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty vid ME!

It's a fabulous vid, and it's a fantastic illustration of how the central (canon) ship is supposed to read. Sadly, my personal opinion of the show is that Tang Fan is a perpetual victim and piece of shit who puts his own shallow grasp of morality and his personal feelings over the greater good, often getting characters killed unnecessarily. (I hear this is largely due to some questionable adaptation choices where they swapped who's the hothead and who's the one cleaning up messes.)

I've noticed that fluffy bunnies who watch the show tend to think Tang Fan is ~nice~ because he spouts modern morality instead of a selfish little bitch because he refuses to face the reality of the setting he's in and find the best real world solution instead of holding out for an ideal he'll never attain and thus making everything ten times worse. It reminds me forcibly of tumblr wank where people see themselves as these great moral leaders but lack all grasp of nuance. Their sensitivity extends only to their own feelings.

Yes, Sleuth left me with a lot of rage...

How dare the writing pretend like Tang Fan is the moral arbiter of anything, when my own personal fave, whom half the cast thinks is a villain, is constantly cleaning up after him, trying to keep the body count low, trying to maintain order as everybody else flies out of control...

And then the show made it all better by tormenting Tang Fan in the iddiest way possible. Ohohoho. It's not just that he gets his face rubbed in his own inadequacy and inability to save people. It's the ridiculously over-the-top flashback to "You're my only friend" right in the middle of the death scene. Way to twist the knife!

I, of course, have made my own vid for this fandom, Tiny, Pretty & Angry, and it is absolutely a manifesto, just not a ship one. It's a manifesto about how Wang Zhi is not only the most competent, but also the actual moral center of everything and fuck all of y'all if you don't agree.

In fact, there's probably another reason we don't call them manifestos:

In the oldschool Media Fandom vidding traditions, most vids are video essays and manifestos, really. That's a lot of the point of the aesthetic: making an argument. Partly due to technological limitations and partly due to vidding being innovated by slashers who were constantly challenged about their ships, the pretty visual spectacle styles so common in AMVs and currently on Youtube were largely absent. Meta argument was everything. That's the default.

Here's another one of mine that's pretty explicitly a fuck you to how most people in Untamed fandom see Wen Ning.

[marsmarvel02]

So, I played Princess Peach: Showtime! last night, and I have some thoughts.

Warning: Spoilers for the entirety of Floor 1 under the cut.

Opening

Wow, the music is good.

I love Grape's design! So... unique!

Grape's name, however, is ... ehh. It could be worse, but I'd still prefer something a bit more intimidating.

Why does Stella have to make crying baby noises when she's upset? It makes it hard to take her seriously and it's honestly just really grating to listen to.

Stella's design, while not the worst thing in the world, just seems a bit... off to me. I can't place it, but something about her just looks... weird.

Why is light magic named "Sparkle"? It just sounds a bit... goofy.

Swordfighter-1

Wow, the loading times for levels are... a bit much.

Why does the "level loading" music have to have that long, low horn that sounds almost exactly like the noise older Nintendo games make when they crash? The first time I heard it, I freaked because I thought there was something wrong with my copy of the game.

Why did they make B the action button and A the jump button? In every other game I've played, B is jump! That button switch has actually made me die a few times in a later level, and generally made me bad at parts that require jumping with quick reflexes.

Wow, this game IS easy.

The pre-transformation sections of levels where you just run around swinging your ribbon at stuff are honestly kinda boring.

Oh man, Swordfighter Peach looks AWESOME!

Again, the game is still really easy, but blasting your way through hordes of Sour Bunch members makes you feel INCREDIBLY powerful.

And I love the acrobatic and flashy dodges too.

Why does the very imposing knight with the hammer go down in one hit? Seriously, all you need to do is jump over his shockwave once and oop, down he goes.

The end boss is CRAZY! Who'd've thought that a Mario (spinoff) game would have you fight a giant killer plant that ISN'T a piranha plant! Also, wow, this random spinoff gets original bosses and Mario Wonder doesn't.

Jokes aside, though, I love the thorny flower bud boss. Does it have a name?

Ninja-1

Normally stealth levels in games are the ones that everybody hates, but honestly this one is GREAT!

Again, the game is still pretty easy, but stealth-attacking enemies and taking them out in one hit also feels POWERFUL.

I love how the guards can't tell where Peach is when she has a freakin' SPOTLIGHT shining on her. Or when she's pressed up against a wall and her GIANT YELLOW PONYTAIL is sticking up above her camo paper.

Why does being spotted make Peach turn into a log and then teleport to just before whatever stealth section you failed? I mean, I get sending you back to try again, but what's with the log? Is it a reference to some ninja trope I'm not familiar with?

Oh man, the chase sequence is SUPERB. Especially the wallrunning bits, and

When the enemy drops one of the scrolls, and Peach somehow uses it to summon a giant wave to ride. It makes no sense, but it's FRICKIN AWESOME.

Honestly, I'd really like it if the wave chase had ended with the enemy dropping a second scroll, and Peach using it to summon another crazy setpiece. (Hey, I just realized, that wave is a "dramatic setpiece" both in-universe and in the video game sense.)

Patissiere-1

Once again, the section before the transformation is... rather slow.

Honestly, I was expecting this to be the "annoying gimmicky minigame level", but I'm pleasantly surprised. It's a gimmicky minigame level, sure, but not an annoying one.

While getting above the minimum required to advance in the cake-decorating and cookie minigames wasn't too hard, I can see that I'll have my work cut out for me when I come back to get all the Sparkle Gems.

This isn't too bad, but it's annoying how in the cookie minigame there isn't any visual indicator that you're about to overmix something.

Cowgirl-1

One word: AWESOME!

Again, the ease at which you can lasso enemies and throw them around makes you feel powerful.

Oh, and that barrel-throwing fight sequence manages to simultaneously be both awesome and hilarious. I don't know why, it's just funny in the best way.

Crazy Thought: Cowgirl Peach tests her barrel-lassoing skills against Donkey Kong.

That horse chase sequence is pretty fun, but it's also where I died a few times because I lassoed when I meant to jump.

And, to top it all off, the boss fight against the leader of the robbers is epic. My only disappointment is that, when he's charging around the arena after you, you can't matador him into those piles of gem boxes landing the first hit revealed. I understand why you can't, but I still wish you could.

Floor 1/First Main Boss

It appears that Peach understands as much as I do that, while forcing open the door that's obviously full of dark magic might be a bad idea, it's also the only way to progress the game.

I'm not sure what to think about the fact that you need Sparkle Gems to open the Spooky Floating Door. I mean, the cost was low enough that it wasn't a problem for me, but I could see it frustrating someone who isn't very good at the game (especially since doors on later floors will probably use the same mechanic), and speedrunners are probably going to HATE it.

Why is the evil version of Sparkle named "Darkle"? It just sounds stupid.

WE'RE FIGHTING A GIANT DISCO CHICKEN!

Oh man, Disco Wing is awesome. Especially the part where THE GRAVITY FRIGGIN' FLIPS UPSIDE DOWN!

It's funny how the only time Disco Wing does that giant rolling attack is when the arena has been changed in a way that makes it possible for Peach to dodge it. Disco Wing, you could've won easily if you'd just done that attack a few times at the start of the fight!

Crazy Thought: Disco Wing meets Hole Punch from Paper Mario: The Origami King.

NINTENDO, I WANNA REFIGHT THE DISCO CHICKEN! LET ME REFIGHT THE DISCO CHICKEN!

So, after fighting Disco Wing I finally checked out the dress shop, and THERE'S A DISCO DRESS! That is DEFINITELY what I'm wearing for the rest of the game (or at least until beating the next floor boss unlocks another crazy dress pattern.)

Disco Wing's boss theme wasn't very disco-y for some rea- WAIT, I JUST CHECKED THE OFFICLIAL SOUNDTRACK AND ALL THE MAIN BOSSES HAVE THE SAME THEME?! Nintendo, WHY??! Now I won't be able to hear Juno Songs make covers for each individual boss!

In conclusion, Showtime! is definitely a straight A of a game so far. If it keeps on being as good as it was, I might even consider pushing its grade up to an A+.

[usamingif]

How do I get into THE IDOLM@STER?

...is a very frequent question we idolmaster fans get!

I recently got a message from someone asking me if I could make a post answering this question, and I said I would try. I'm very bad at explaining things, but idolmaster is my biggest special interest, and I am always really happy to try to get people into it.

Before we start, I want to remind you that Idolmaster has no localization. All translations are fanmade. Please remember to support translators. I'll leave as many resources as possible. If you have any translators or sites you'd like me to mention, please let me know.

If you're willing to try and get into it, please open the readmore. I wont only be including Cinderella Girls, I'll try to include every branch.

How do I get into THE IDOLMASTER Cinderella Girls?

Alright, I know I said I wouldn't only be including CG, but this is still a deresute gif blog. I know what most of you are here for.

Cinderella Girls is a huge branch. There's 190 idols. I see some people backing out when they realize this, but I don't think that should discourage you! With that many idols, you're guaranteed to find someone for you. And please, just because you think the voiced girls are more worth your time, please check out the unvoiced ones as well.

Alright, but how do you get into it?

There's a lot of Youtube channels that translate different commus from it. From card lines, to memorial commus, to entire events. Simply search "deresute translation" if you'd like. HNKM_days on Twitter also translates most of the events as they come out.

CG's music is great! there's tons of uploads on soundcloud. My soundcloud playlist has about 200-ish songs. You can find a bunch by just searching "idolmaster".

To find more information on a song, search it up on project-imas.

Project-imas is *the* best idolmaster resource I can think of. It's entirely in English, it has every single song, CD, card — anything you can think of. I use it everyday of my life, which might sound sad but I assure you it isn't. Probably.

How do I get into THE IDOLMASTER Million Live?

Sankyuu ML subs on YouTube does a great job at translating mirishita related content! Another personal note I wanna add is that million live has an amazing discography, and full versions of pretty much every song are on Spotify. Even tho the cast is way smaller than Cinderella Girls, there's still a lot to love about the branch. I dont play Mirishita as much as I do some of the other games, but I still consume lots of content from it and it's a lovely branch I definitely recommend you get into. As of writing this post, Mirishita is celebrating it's 6th anniversary! It's a good time to download the game. Remember, you will need a Japanese VPN or Japanese Apple ID to play it. This goes for every imas mobile game.

How do I get into THE IDOLMASTER SideM?

Well, this is where we're gonna have to start getting into the thorny dark side of being an idolmaster fan. SideM is a great branch which I absolutely adore, and all of it's producers are so passionate about it, however.. Bandai Namco has never been kind to it.

This year, it was announced that it's only current running game, THE IDOLM@STER SideM Growing Stars, will be ending it's service. This was extremely sudden, and hard for everyone to handle. This means that there will basically be no way to properly produce the idols. SideM won't fully die, with there being lives and such, but producing the idols is such a big part of this franchise. I don't want to make this post gloomy out of nowhere, I swear. It's just a bit touchy for now.

There's a huuuge translation masterdoc for SideM, if any of the units or characters catch your eye from the project-imas wiki page on SideM, I suggest you search for whatever idols intrigue you most in the doc. As well as the doc, you can search up "#sidemTL" on Twitter for more translations not on the doc. There's so much to love about every unit and idol, I swear it's worth your time! Even tho it's current state might steer you away, I think it's important to still appreciate the branch for what it is. Oh hey, SideM's discography is also on streaming services! Please stream Piece Montee and Secret Ornament.

How do I get into THE IDOLMASTER Shiny Colors?

Here's ones that's been gaining traction! Luckily, it's actually a pretty accessible branch to get into, if you're willing to download the English patch. The gameplay might seem complicated and scary at first, but even that has tons of guides. I think a lot of this post is motivated by my emotions on the franchise, and I'm sorry about that, but I really mean it when I say the writing is incredible.

You can play Shinymas on your web browser here. If you search up "Shiny colors English patch" on google, you can download it using the instructions. If you're still hesitant on playing for whatever reason, you can read episodes recorded in the English patch on YouTube. I'm not exaggerating when I say the writing is amazing.

p.s if you dont care about that then I should let you know there's unlimited free ten pulls when you start the game

How do I get into the original idolmaster games? (765AS + Dearly Stars)

If you specifically want to get into the console games, there's English roms and translations of routes on Youtube, as well. Dearly Stars is currently in a very weird state, tho. You see, the 765AS girls are all in Million Live, and there's a lot of consolemas games they appear in. But for Dearly Stars, there's only one game. Which is, well, Dearly Stars. And 2/3 of the Dearly Stars just.. havent gotten content since?

I think that it's still a game you should check out, tho! There's not a single bad song in it, and even tho 3 idols might seem like an underwhelming number, they're all brilliant and very lovable. As with a good chunk of consolemas games, there's Dearly Stars translations up on YouTube! A really dedicated RyoP posted them all and I am eternally grateful to them for it.

Alright, phew. I wrote half of this at 11 am and procrastinated for a few hours then wrote more at midnight. Remember that project-imas is an insanely good resource and I encourage you to tell me if I should add more things onto this post. 100% of this post was made off the top of my head and based off of my own experience with the games. I want to mention that there's also a channel called "アイマスSUBS" that covers all the branches in terms of translations, and they've got a bunch of those. Have fun, producers!

[littlekiara96]

Meet Rose, my HSR OC :D

Her kit is based on life-stealing through DoTs and she's part of the Stellaron Hunters :D

I'd love to get asks about her (anything, really) ^^

I've tried to make her kit not too OP because she is meant to be a 4-star but huuuuh... Not sure I managed that...

[Kit, Eidolons (titles only) and voicelines under the cut]

— Ability

Basic ATK: Flying Thorns

Shoots 3 needles out of her umbrella to one enemy target, with a 70% base chance of inflicting them with Wind Shear for 3 turns, up to 5 stacks. Each DoT applied life-steals for 30% of her max health and 10% of her attack.

Skill: Lovely Sacrifice

Heals all allies by downing her own health by 30% of her max health. Each ally receives 20% of her max health.

Ultimate: Sweet Revenge

A blast that hits up to 3 enemy targets, life-stealing for 70% of her max health and 30% of her attack.

Talent: Unbearable Loss

Revives one ally per battle at full health but she sacrifices 70% of her Max HP in the process. She cannot go lower than 1 HP.

Technique: Delicate Touch

Attacks her target, applying one stack of Wind Shear on all enemies at the start of the battle.

— Eidolons

Under the Umbrella

Means to an End

Gentleness Aplenty

Irreplaceable Ire

Love Abounds

— Character Lines

First Meeting: “Hello, darling~ Don't fret; the name's Rose and I'm merely here to help you. Do tell me if anything hurts. If you behave, I might even kiss it better~”

Greeting: “How have you been since last time? Tell me everything!”

Parting: “Aww, don't worry~ I'm not going anywhere without you.”

About Self: “Oh? I’m not all that special! I just take care of the people dear to me, and I make sure nothing bad happens to them. Just what any good friend would do, right?”

About Self - Pendant: “You wish to see…? I'm sorry, but it's very precious to me. It's… a souvenir of sorts.”

Chat - Flowers: "I can't help but like the smell of roses… It reminds me of… old times…"

Chat - Love: "I say I love everyone, but in fact… There is one person I despise. Who? I'm not telling you~"

Hobbies: "I mostly read whenever I have nothing better to do. Do you know about a romance writer from Jarilo-VI? I just love her work!"

Annoyances: “Anyone who hurts my friends, be it physically or not… shall face the consequences.”

Something to Share: “Isn’t life just so wonderful? All the little things that make up the universe… It’s a beautiful, chaotic miracle, don’t you think?”

Knowledge: "Have you heard about the Knights of Beauty? They are quite the interesting bunch. I wonder what they are up to, nowadays…"

About Sam: "Oh, funny Sammy? He's a bit all over the place, but he's always there when I need help with anything. Sometimes, it's like he pops out of nowhere… I whacked him once with my umbrella reflexively. He asked for compensation. What was it? Oh, hum… Heehee~"

About Silver Wolf: "She's a good kid, once you explain things to her like it's a game. She has a passion for high scores and such, so she just needs a feeling of competition and she'll do anything for you!"

About Kafka: "Aaah~ I always go shopping with Kaykay! She has impeccable taste in fashion, and she even helped me train with my umbrella!"

About Blade: "I wish Bladie would stop telling me not to heal him. I don't even want his thanks, I just want him to… Ah! Don't tell him I called him Bladie!!"

About Elio: "Now, now~ If you think I will tell you anything about my boss… You're dead wrong."

About Argenti: “Wh- Why would you want me to talk about him?! N-No, I am not blushing! Who taught you to be so rude to a lady?”

— Combat Lines

Battle Begins - Weakness Break: “Careful not to prick yourself.”

Battle Begins - Danger Alert: “That's a thorny situation…”

Turn Begins I: “Time to reap what you sowed!”

Turn Begins II: “Let’s pluck some petals!”

Turn Idling: “Is there a problem, dear?”

Basic ATK: “Stay still!”

Skill: “Please, don't look…”

Hit by Light Attack: “Just a prick.”

Hit by Heavy Attack: “That one hurt!”

Ultimate: Activate: “Do not interfere.”

Ultimate: Unleash: “The constant flow of change in all that exists… How poetic!” - x2 “The flow of change… Wonderful!”

Talent: "Not on my watch!"

Downed: “Should've been… better…”

Return to Battle: “Did you miss me?”

Health Recovery: “How sweet of you~”

Technique: “Here's a gift~”

Battle Won: “Does anyone need a magic kiss?”

Treasure Opening: “Oh! How nice~”

Successful Puzzle-Solving: “Keeping one's mind sharp~”

Enemy Target Found: “Beware. That flower has thorns.”

Returning to Town: “We can rest whenever you need to.”

[saltysunflowersugar]

IT'S THE SECOND DAY OF THE SPOOKY MONTH AND I'VE BEEN GOING DOWN A BIT OF A RABBIT HOLE EBER SINCE I MADE THAT FREDDY KRUEGER X TF2 HEAVY CRACK ART, SO I DECIDED TO MAKE MY OWN SLASHER HOUSE AU BASED MOSTLYBON SPOILERS I'VE GOTTEN FOR THE VARIOUS HORROR MOVIES REPRESENTED HERE! LET'S GO!

I'm just gonna make bullet points for each character and what I think they'd be like and their dynamics with the others:

Basic plot:

• After the events of the movie when she went on a rampage and burned her school down, Carrie White has been on the run, and decided to hide out in an abandoned cabin, unaware that she was trespassing on Camp Crystal Lake's campgrounds because it was fall and no one was around to kick her out anyway

• Somehow she finds a creepy tape with some Japanese writing on it, and decides to put it on, unaware of the ghost inside, but after the seven days have passed, she finds out about Sadako and somehow manages to get her to show mercy to her, once she finds out that this little ghost girl shares the trauma of being hated by her own mother and Carrie decides to become like a big sister figure to Sadako

• the girls are taking full advantage of their powers to basically threaten the camp staff to let them live there year-round since neither of them really have anywhere else to go. And the staff comply, because they're terrified of what happens if they don't. All is well between these two until Jason Vorhese rises from the lake, and once again, the two face off until they eventually realize they have very similar traumas, but instead of mother issues, they vond over the fact that they were both bullied.

• yes, I'm counting the bear from Cocaine Bear as a slasher, deal with it, I just think it's funny if she just shows up sometimes

• I have no idea how Michael Myers shows up but he was in the Hunger Games simulation that started this whole thing so it would be wierd not to include him, I really don't know what to do with him lol

• I don't know why Freddy Krueger is here, but he is, and I think it would be funny if this au was in the same continuity as my Hunger Games (ignoring the fact that Michael Myers died in that Hunger game) so he apparently had a brief romantic thing with the TF2 Heavy, assumedly killed Heavy and Spy with thorny vines, won the Hunger games, and somehow ended up joining a slasher found family

• also Patrick Bateman is here because he's so comically underpowered compared to everyone else here. he absolutely despises everyone here but can't really do anything about it, he's kinda just the guy that everyone asks for money from. As for why he's even part of this mess in the first place, IDK maybe he just took some vacation days to go upstate (I don't actually know if any of the other movies in this AU take place in New York, but let's just assume they do) to fump a body or whatever and just got dragged into this

• also, cute headcanon, Sadako becomes an E-Sports champion, and she really loves it because she gets to vent all of the rage she feels about being abandoned in that well, and she can do things that shouldn't be possible in the game.

• I'm debating on putting Herbert West in here mostly because I don't know if he ever actually kills anyone himself or if he just raises the dead, but then again I haven't actually seen any of the movies represented here in their entirety except for Cocaine Bear, but why not, maybe he's like the team healer with all of that re-agent he's got

[gloriadenton]

Donna/Laura, Harry/Cooper for the ships ask game :D

Donna/Laura: Ship It

What made you ship it? Donna's sad possessiveness of Laura in the pilot. She's obviously devastated by Laura's death, but she also has this kind of bruised determination to take control of Laura's memory: there's a lot about Laura she didn't know and which eluded her while Laura was alive (look at her face when she's watching the video!), but now she can say no one loved Laura like she loved Laura, and if she finds out who killed her, it's like she can in some way have all of Laura all to herself like she wished she could when Laura was alive.

What are your favorite things about the ship? I love the messiness it brings to Donna's character and the unguarded emotion it brings out in Laura. Donna is perhaps the only person who Laura will let herself take happiness in, and it's an incredibly vulnerable relationship for her, but because of the distance she puts between them there's also this thorny, resentful side to Donna's love for Laura (THEY DIDN'T BURY YOU DEEP ENOUGH) that is just [chef kiss].

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship? That they're Gillian Flynn levels of messed up, lol. I think it brings out a kind of steeliness and even sometimes a sadistic streak in Donna (calling Laura "so stupid about so much else" in the grave scene is one of the ultimate Donna/Laura moments of all time imo), and I really like that side to her character. There's so much love there on both sides, but Donna's never just been the supportive best friend on the sidelines, however much she tried to present herself as one, and I like the twisty ways her own desires and agency come out through her relationship with Laura.

Harry/Cooper: Don't Ship It

Why don’t you ship it? I like Harry, and I really like Cooper, but as a ship, I think it tends to affirm the "safe," self-consciously wholesome sides of their characters at the expense of everything else. It kind of takes it as a given that Harry and Cooper are both Good All-American Lawmen, that they like all the right things a good small town man should like, that this is the most essential part of their characters, and like... it feels a bit too much like a circlejerk of nice soft guys liking nice soft guys to me? I think @thefudge says it better in this meta about ships that push the characters to choose comfort over growth.

What would have made you like it? I'm actually not sure? I like Harry as he is, so it feels wrong to say "make Harry more weird and complicated," but that's kind of where I'd want Harry/Cooper to go to make me ship it.

Despite not shipping it, do you have anything positive to say about it? Oh, for sure: they do have a sweet, easy dynamic and I get why other people like it, it's just not for me and not what I personally like to see for Cooper or Twin Peaks on the whole.

[hungnitan]

Genshin anon back again, faster than Ayato's normal attacks to thank you for the advice! (≧◡≦) ♡ It's settled then, mistsplitter here I go! (hopefully lmao)

And honestly I'm the same as you, playing genshin because I love the handsome faces and love the lore xD So believe me when I tell you that Raiden has come a long way for me, and I've skipped her so many times (a few times I skipped her bc I was poor tbh and the other times out of pure spite lmao xD) I'm of the opinion that Inazuma's storyline was kinda messy and it didn't let the region's characters shine like they should, specially their leader, as you said.

However my archon collection needs to increase as well, as I only own Venti and Zhongli (strongly devoted to those two lol 🙏) and in the future versions I'll try to pull for radish god Nahida, but farming her flowers is a pain similar to the handguards, RIP (╥_╥)

Also! Are you pulling for Xianyun aka Ganyu and Shenhe's momma aka Cloud Retainer? xD And have you seen Gaming? He is a must pull for me, but I will forever mourn his beta/original design that was leaked a while back, truly sad (-ω-、)

Ahahaha you really reply faster than Ayato NA this time Genshin anon-chan🤣, well glad can helped then. If I need the reason for pulling Raiden (which won't happens anytime lol) is just her e skill really useful and that's it which become one of reason I pull Yae before.

Let's be clear then, if you need to increase archon's collection, Nahida and Furina are enough for now, their lore really solid. Me too had archon collection except Venti Raiden, for Venti I need to wait for more lore reveal I guess (lol). And I know what I gonna said will make Mei series lovers hate me but Raiden shogun just famous because of Mei AU and archons title for godness sake, she even can't cook or doing something different like other archons (maybe can't cook consider special traits lol)

The things with handguard (and additionally dust mushroom for Nahida) are even you kill those kairagi samurai mushroom in all Inazuma Sumeru to getting its 3* rarity are more lower than chance like you getting Ayato in 10 pull. BUT handguard definitely had more thorny side since most Inazuma characters and weapons want that sh*tty items. I even hold Haran and Mistsplitter sword since I scare with Kairagi lol

If you want to prefarm Nahida flower, I suggest to weekly buy the flowers at Aranara shop from now (if you already finish Aranara world quest)

PS : in term of hard local items, the number one for now is Cyno scarab and side by side is subdetection unit Wriothesley. Cyno definitely not worth the hard work (he even had ER issue lol), even you can appreciate Wrio more since he's cryo catalyst

I definitely skip any pull since there's info saying about Siggewinne Arlecchino at 4.6. Did you know one meme about Madame Ping and Cloud Retainer mentor-student meme ? Like Ping more into kids and small while Cloud Retainer into sexy and big team so yeah I prefer small one (Guizhong more into my target lol) while I can't pull for Gaming especially Lantern Rite event definitely giving us one chooseable 4* for free include the newest one. Oh yeah Gaming prototype feels more wild but this one too isn't that bad I guess~ talking about prototype Skirk definitely hitting us in very hurt part (lol)

[trace-of-a-song]

Your Project Doesn't Need Original Music - But It Might Make Things Better

My spicy take for the weekend - brought to you by wandering down a thorny path where people's choices for production costs for AD were put under a really strange funhouse microscope, is this. Yes, you can use premade, royalty-free, or low-cost licensed music for your game/film/show/project. You absolutely can. It might suit your needs perfectly. It can definitely cut costs when you're figuring out your project budget. There are people out there putting great music into the world Just for folks to use in exactly this way. No shame, no side-eye. Important disclaimer: I'm a composer. I do this for part of my living. I've been doing it for a while, and at some point in the near future when I have the time to figure out how I want to do it, I'll be putting some of that music into the world too. I like to think I do it pretty well. All of that said, here's what a composer can do that the above solution can't. - Tailor the music to your project's timing precisely. (Depending on the license you may or may not be able to edit the premade "trax"you're using. - Make it so the music fills in exactly where the mood shifts. - Evolve with the show, the scene, the moment. - Take feedback and make changes based on that. - Become an active part of your storytelling. - Be inspired by your project (and maybe do a bit of inspiring back) - Add a collaborative partner to your team.

That last one is probably the most important, and in a way it sums up the rest. When you bring a composer onto your project, whether it's for score, a theme song, one episode, or a 6 season epoch, you're adding to your team. Even as a one-off hired gun, a bit of their heart, spirit, energy, caring, passion, and interest is in your project. You gain another voice to bounce things off of, another pair of ears on the mix, a cheerleader, a co-conspirator.

Music that is made for your story is different than music that happens to fit. It just is. It breathes along with your scenes. It's a custom suit vs the closest fit you can find off the rack.

Does that mean it's expensive? Well, not necessarily but it's often more expensive than free!

It takes me 2 hours on average for a minute of custom music (I've recently started timing it because as I move more of my income to freelancing, planning is a thing). That's time spent planning, composing, editing, timing things to the scene, tweaking volume, polishing, and sending it wherever it needs to go. The most recent project I'm wrapping up has just shy of 17 minutes of music in it. An average TPNAN episode has 12. If I charged something like $20 an hour for my work, which is a number tossed around as a living wage a lot, I'd be making almost $500 an episode for TPNAN. That's not taking into account that creating music is a specialized field and that maybe that expertise and practice time means it's worth more than $20/hr. Let's just say... I'm not charging $500. (To be transparent, TPNAN is half my baby so I'm charging $0, but it's an example I know really well so I used it.) My point here is that many composers, myself included, will work for less than that. We'll do it for projects we love, people we respect and want to support, stories we care about. We'll do it when and because we can afford to spend the time, because we're supporting ourselves in other ways, or because we don't mind sticking 7 or 8 wicks in a candle just to see what happens. If you're a project with a tiny budget and want custom music, talk to some composers and I am beyond certain you'll find someone who wants to work on it with you and will work with what you can offer them. Yes, that includes "I can't offer you any money but I can trade you this skill I have" or "None of us are making money on this but would you be part of telling this really cool story with us?" I'll get into when people CAN afford to pay "fairly" another time. It would muddy the waters too much today. What I'm saying is, if you want to add a composer to your team, you can. And your project might well be better for it. And there is no shame in carving out a little of the budget you have whatever size it is for something that will make your project better. Graphic design, a good director, custom music, all of the things. You get to decide what counts as necessary to tell the story you want to tell, and what's extra. Rant over. Back to making pretty math noises!