#I've been playing for nearly two years and there's still SO much lore I haven't got a clue about and I love it XD

[sakurarisen]

A quick heads up regarding Natlan for anything GI related on this blog: I won't be writing in Natlan settings until the end of the Archon Quest. We all know I take games quite slowly; I'm an explorer first and foremost, and I like to get as much out of an area in a game before I move on - And with Genshin, I heavily dislike speedrunning new content, as it means being without quests and the like for several weeks and left with very little to do. I'd rather explore, learn as much as I can about the new areas and such, enjoy it, and have quests on my list to do later than speedrun plot, even though I'm excited for it! <3

But Genshin is also a game where it's going to be several months until we get the full, primary storyline, and I'd much rather wait to do anything in a Natlan setting so that I have the full plot and can decide what I want to do on my own, with all the plot points laid out in front of me - Just like I did with Fontaine last year. This is only for the setting, though - I'll still happily write with Natlan based muses, just not in Natlan~!

As usual, I will be tagging any spoilers I might mention/reblog for the next two weeks with TW: Genshin Spoilers. <3

Hope y'all enjoy exploring the new content~!

~Pom

[explodingchantry]

hi sorry to come into your inbox for this but i just need. to gripe. every new bit of info we get about the new DA game is making me more and more preemptively tired lol. mostly the way it's looking like eeevery bit of lore that's been revealed has something to do with such and such book. or this comic over here. or this podcast from two years ago. or THIS podcast that is happening now that's a ~discord exclusive~. or this youtube series. or this random VA talk show. etc etc ad nauseam. i am so tired of videogames coming with HOMEWORK you're expected to do just to know what's going on

Please never apologise for sending messages!!

I think its honestly REALLY funny how bioware just doesn't know what it wants. On one hand they say that the new game is fine for newcomers, the way they did for dai, and use this as an excuse for how dumbed down some of the writing is - but then in the other hand the majority of the characters and plot beats have origins hidden behind pay walls.

It was already bad enough when, to understand each game properly you had to have paid for the previous one's dlc (want to know anders' past as a warden? Buy awakening! Want to know wtf is up with Morrigan and the eluvians? Buy witch hunt! Want to know who tf corypheus is and what hawke and varric even have to do with him? Buy legacy! Want to understand ANYTHING about veilguard? Play the descent AND trespasser, our epilogue that we hid behind a paywall!!!!!) and you know at least the dlcs were pretty good on their own so I could forgive it a little bit.

But there's so much extra media now omg I haven't touched a single one of the comics because I'm not rly into American comics, I've read almost all the books and some of them are genuinely fucking mid. And at least back in the day the books were more... Bonuses? You DONT need to read the stolen throne to understand anything on the games, but it's INTERESTING. it explores characters you mightve been curious about. I love that ! Or the last flight is really interesting, just, to see how the 4th blight was beaten, to get to know those legendary heroes, and know why griffons went extinct. A bit annoying because you do need to read it to also understand how the hell they're coming back - but it still feels a bit more like a bonus than a necessity.

But then we have asunder, which also in general just kinda sucks as a book, that is really really needed to understand the mage rebellion, Fiona, Cole, and the cure for tranquility. The characters will explain a lot of those things to you in game, but it leaves you with the certain feeling that you're missing something. It's a huge advertisement for asunder.

Similarly wicked eyes and wicked hearts is hollow if you haven't read the masked empire which is also my least favorite book because it's so damn fucking boring I literally never managed to finish it, but it's mostly because I hate Trick Weekes' writing lmfao. Gaider was wildly misogynistic but my god at least he was entertaining as a writer whenever he didn't butcher female characters.

That's two major plot beats in inquisition that require reading one of the books. And ofc it's major villain and another major plot beat that require having played the previous game's dlc to properly understand.

And since then we've had so much more. I don't know. It's just complicated because I *like* book characters showing up and the books having importance in the sense that, I like reading and I'm a lore nerd lol. But I think there's a lot of frustration to be had as to the sheer quantity of extra media you need to consume if you want to be invested in the story. Because you could say "well just don't buy them then" but I LIKE dragon age, it's story, and plot, but omg some of the books and comics are also so hard to find and so EXPENSIVE. I think tevinter nights costs like 20£ if you want it on paperback rather than Kindle, and don't get me started on the dozens of comics.

At least the podcasts and discord only content isn't nearly as offensive, imo, because they're free. But also there's another issue with all of this extra content - it's that it doesn't get fucking translated. Not often, anyway. Not in as many languages as the games do. That means there are many, many many many players and fans who are just not allowed to learn more about their favorite game series because they don't speak English, because theyre not rich enough to buy 10 books and 20 comics. It feels a bit wrong

[thefirstknife]

I am LAUGHING at the people upset about Bungie's pride flare and saying they'll quit D2 over it. D2, the game with so many completely normalized queer characters of many flavors you're practically tripping over them, that had an on-screen gay kiss and has a they/them nonbinary as a major expansion characters and destination vendor? What game have they been playing all this time??

It's so cringe. You can see in the comments that everyone who's shitting on Bungie has been poisoned by the recent conservative anti-trans and anti-LGBT+ propaganda that strives to take away primarily trans rights but also LGBT+ rights in general. Don't look at the comments though, for your own sake. They're particularly nasty this time around, because of the propaganda they're all slurping from their fave right-wing youtubers. I'm glad Bungie isn't backing away from this and that they continue to support us, especially at this time.

And yeah, it's really ridiculous how little attention they pay. Destiny is basically led by LGBT+ characters. From the very start. Even when they were not really allowed to have open rep, they still did it. Maya and Chioma have been canonically wives since vanilla D1. We've come from some minor lines in lore tabs that weren't even in the game to having an on screen kiss between two gay men and a major non-binary character! And not just that, but so much more. And none of it hidden away on a website.

Also people tend to either not know or purposefully ignore it, especially when they try the usual "corporations just want your money and don't care about gay people" cinicism but: Bungie has been supportive of the LGBT+ community for way longer than people think. They've been participating in and sponsoring Seattle Pride Parade from at least 2018. Their first LGBT+ pin was released in 2019. As I've noted, there have been LGBT+ characters since vanilla which released in 2014 which means that Bungie has been writing LGBT+ Destiny stuff since the early '10s.

Absolutely incredible that these gamers haven't noticed any of that. They're so good at poking around every single detail about Bungie, but somehow they didn't notice just how much Bungie has always been supportive of the LGBT+ community. My dudes, if you're bothered by this, I'm sorry to say but you've been playing a gay ass game and giving money to gay ass developers for nearly 10 years now.

[whisperingrockandroll]

WR&R MYSTERY KIDS LORE & WORLDBUILD MASTER POST

Gear up, kids, because this will be a long one.

It's been a while since I posted a new comic. Pretty soon there'll be a bunch, because I've been sitting on a mountain of scripts and just started making progress on actually making them into comics. I wanna build up a nice little backlog that I can queue up and not worry about for a long while. In the meantime though, I have something I hope will tide you guys over.

There's been a problem with my comic from the very beginning I've never really thought to address for years, and until now, I never found a good place for it. That problem is "worldbuilding." Originally when this comic started out, it was just a Psychonauts comic. Then I got into Mystery Kids, and the MKs just showed up out of nowhere.

If you're still interested, click under the cut. If you already find this post boring and kind of long, just skip it.

We never got any information on how the Mystery Kids club started or how they all met. For the longest time, I kind of just defered to the collective fandom's various disorganized headcanons and ideas and stuff. But I think enough time has passed that those ideas have all changed, been forgotten about, or branched off into their own individual works.

So, it's finally time for me to fix that by giving this comic its own set of lore and backstory. In this post I'm going to explain how everything happened, how the kids came together and what order everything happened in. This is kind of written for my own personal amusement, but also as a guide to keep in mind when I'm writing new stories in this setting, to keep things consistent.

PART ONE: THE CANON HISTORY

The first step for this little exercise is to figure out when all the stuff in the original "canon" happened. This is where things get a little messy, because we have to figure out a proper order for everything so all the pieces can fit into place.

First, we have to come up with a system for naming the different eras and phases where things happen, so we can more easily compartmentalize the different events. So we'll call the first year the Mystery Kids are together "Year One." Anything before that we'll call Year -1 or -2.

Year -2 is where we'll put the events of Paranorman. They happen in Fall, around Halloween probably. Nearly the end of the year. It's important to set this part the furthest back for reasons we'll get into later.

Year -1 is where we'll put Coraline and Psychonauts. Dipper and Mabel are still in Pidemont. There are a few references in the comic to Raz still having a water problem due to "the curse." But in PN2 he conquers the curse. We'll chock that up to lingering after-effects and him trying to get past the mental block.

Near the end of Year -1, Aggie returns and reunites with Norman in events identical to how they played out in Ask-Norgatha. A lot of things that happen are very similar to that old blog, with the exception being Norman and Aggie don't get together. That comes later.

Year 1 is when Gravity Falls happens. Coraline and Norman are family friends (or cousins? I haven't decided, maybe not. Maybe 'honoary cousins'?) Anyway, so: things play out pretty much how they did in that fan episode people made. Doctor Loboto (during a villainous relapse, or a manic episode) comes to Gravity Falls, Raz and Lili chase after him, Coraline and Wybie come with Norman's family on a vacation to Gravity Falls. Aggie stays behind because Norman doesn't want her to get lost. At this point, her Poltergeist powers haven't kicked in yet and other people can't see her, meaning she'd have no way to get home.

So, during Loboto's shennanigans, the kids all come together to stop him. That's when we move into…

PART TWO: THE FANON HISTORY

Note: in this period, my comic has a lot of Holiday specials. We're operating on Peanuts rules here, where the time-scaling slides around to keep the characters from aging. But we'll say in the "real" canon, the stuff that happens on Holidays actually happen on regular days, for the most part. If things "have to" happen on a Holiday, they'll all happen on the same one, just at different times. We'll try not to think too hard about this, because it's just a cartoon. We're out to make a consistent world, but not to arbitrarily restrict ourselves. None of this stuff happened in the "real" world anyway.

Anyway, moving right along to the rest of "Year 1." This is for the comics I made while the show was still airing, so things all kind of click together.

This is where the first Mystery Kids Adventure happens. The kids are all united and save the day. All of this happens right in the middle of the events of Gravity Falls. From then on out, the kids have adventures together on and off, but its a little hard because they have to travel a pretty great distance to hang out together. They keep in touch on social media and stuff, occasionally finding ways to fake excuses to go out and travel together. But mostly, the group is pretty disorganized.

Dib is also a mindless fanboy of the group and wants to join, but everybody thinks he's weird and annoying, so they try their best to politely blow him off. Then he builds a teleporter that lets the kids get together easier, but the thing just barely works. Dib is made a "junior member" and just sort of hangs around.

The kids have a "clubhouse", but it's just a shanty shack built by Soos, half a mile away from the Mystery Shack.

At some point during this period, the Bedlam returns and the kids have to team up to stop her. Aggie helps somehow with her newly-emerging poltergiest powers. The Bedlam is defeated, and that's the last "real" adventure they have for a little while. They don't have a reliable way to meet up anymore, so they only get together for parties and stuff. This is where the Season 3 Finale happens, if you've read my archives.

PART THREE: THE CURRENT SITUATION

From Season 4 and onwards, everything that happens to the Mystery Kids happens in Year 2. That's where we are now.

It starts with Dib on one of his own little adventures. Somehow, he ends up stumbling on an abandoned treehouse that used to belong to the Kids Next Door. It hasn't been populated in years, but its full of still-functional tech that just got left behind. With it, Dib's able to power-up the teleporter technology and now the Mystery Kids can come together whenever they want. You need to stand perfectly still for like five minutes for the teleporter to work, so it isn't a "get out of danger free" plot device.

Seems like a REALLY important development to happen offscreen and go totally unmentioned, right? Well… I thought of it retroactively, so, whoops! But it's fine. We'll just have to make a flashback comic later where the kids find it.

So, from now on, everything that happens in the comic happens here, in Year 2.

If you've read this far, I'd like to thank you for humoring my nonsensical fanfiction ramblings for my silly mspaint webcomic. I hope you had fun and got as much out of that as I did. I'm really happy I was finally able to put it all together in one coherent place.

[hellscape-halogens]

high school...

I was a solid C/D/F student in high school, at least in 9th grade. all I know is that the very next year, my first report card had straight As, all perfect 100s and above. I had a real boner for extra credit. my parents were never prouder, especially given i was active in many extra curriculars. i was so promising.

but I don't remember my last three years of high school. I just remember my grades were ass, and then they weren't. it was like a switch had flipped. after i graduated and ended a horrendously abusive betrothal, i started suffering with migraines and chronic pain and had no idea why. i was miserable.

i hadn't listened to Gorillaz or Gerard Way properly since I was 17, and i finally did while infodumping to my current partner about Gorillaz and MCR lore, and then Clint Eastwood and Don't Try played back to back on youtube shuffle... and everything just came flooding back.

i'm not comfortable saying outright what my DOCs were, but you can probably guess.

i was under so much pressure to perform academically and i already had a mild caffeine dependence at 14 but i hated coffee because it made my stomach hurt and often made me vomit and I was already in my peak ED days. i needed something more long-lasting, more effective, something that made me think creatively just for long enough to allow me to be what everyone else wanted me to be. i had hit rock bottom already.

i've just been so numb and angry mainly at my parents these past few days- i haven't spoken to either in nearly two years. but i'd like to think in a perfect world they would care they were directly responsible for me being a teen addict. the cravings are unreal. i've found myself crying silently by myself off and on without realizing.

i will cope and be okay. i have a support system. it is still hard... but fuck man.

i was a kid.

i should have only had to worry about stupid crushes and prom, not strategically plotting out bathroom breaks during class and spending my weekends out of my fucking mind.

Photo source: Pinterest

[cherry-toxic]

For the ask game--🗣️and ❌️?? I hope youre doing well!!❤️❤️

🗣️ Talk about your favourite WIP

Metamorphosis. Despite all the stress is causes me.

Like all my fics it has turned out to be far longer than initially planned. Chapter three has been a wip for almost two years and I'm pretty sure by the time its done the sheer length of it is going to turn a few people off.

But, I've come to realise quite recently that I don't really care if this fic gets a lot of attention.

I haven't had a lot of luck when it comes to grimmichi, I've shipped them for about ten years but most of my fic ideas end up becoming way too complex and plotty and I end up losing my patience and burning out before I get anywhere with them.

I think I haven't encountered this problem with metamorphosis because the plot basically follows canon except Grimmjow is an omega and he's got to come to terms with how that affects his life once he becomes an arrancar. That gives me plenty of room to play around and explore a lot of the little things that I've wanted to over to years, particularly those surrounding hollow/arrancar lore, which hasn't been expanded on nearly enough imo.

I've enjoyed fleshing out the different relationships dynamics Grimmjow shares with others too. There's more of his fraccion in chapter three, and Starrk, as well as the introduction on Ulquiorra. Plenty of Aizen and god I love writing Aizen from Grimmjow's pov, it's a combination of intense dislike and admiration which will later contrast with the dislike and admiration he comes to feel with Ichigo...

...but we're still miles away from that yet!

❌️ What WIP do you find the most challenging? Why?

That would be end the fight.

The difficulty I've had with most of my harringrove fics is that they're set in the 80s (before I was born) and in the US (never visited). There's a lot of little cultural differences to keep in mind and I've constantly got to check myself for using British words/phrases. Obviously there's going to be some inaccuracies and I'm okay with that but I don't want readers, most of whom will be US-americans, to be taken out of the story because someone said "wank".

So, there's been a lot of research needed for this fic. Some of it I don't mind, like finding out how a broken jaw heals - I actually found that really fascinating, but other parts like trying to figure out how much the medical bills would be, insurance and all that... yeah my patience ran out and I just skimmed around that part. But it can really slow me down if my brain is refusing to move on and come back to it later. Which happens a lot!

Thank you so much! I have been doing pretty well recently :) <3<3

[saturniandragon]

I really wish to know more about your characters, I took the time to read your post about their specie and ngl I've wanted to draw one of your dragons for a really long time now (but alas real life happens. Not saying I don't want to draw them). So if you don't have some more drawings or photos to share, could you share some more information about them 👀 any will do

??? Anon?? You want to draw my dragons?? IM FLATTERED

Official ref sheet for Adra, Mira, and Jesse.

I actually do have some more images to share although they may be a bit outdated. Frankly real life also happens to me (thesis) and I'm not able to draw frequently. I won't lie, the design for my Saturnian dragons are based on Spyro. The first video game I've played pretty much, back on my old PS1.

Anyway here are some old images

Adra and Jesse, last updated 2020.

Ditto, in Skyrim's ebony armor. This is an eternal WIP in my drive, too lazy to finish it with armor reflections and shading and stuff. Last updated 2020.

Adra in spec ops outfit, last updated 2017.

Feral/European dragon form (not quite WOF, I haven't discovered WOF by this time) of Jesse, last updated 2018.

There are also some uhh... ehem... adult-oriented drawings. I can send them through private message if you want to.

--------

Earlier today I also shared the Saturnian lore with my best friend, and he asked me some worldbuilding questions about them. I'll paste some of them here, prepare for massive infodump.

Is this like written by the Saturnians pov or Humans? Since its like an exstensive look on Saturnians

Human observation, yes. Saturnians are very secretive on what data they want to share. Except basic census data, that is still fine for them.

Does the inter space travel from earth and satun back and forth exists?

It does exist. Their space travel enables Earth-Saturn travel in 3-4 months depending on orbit position of the two planets.

For comparison, Pioneer 11, the first Saturn space probe, reached the ringed planet after about 6 years (1973-1979)

also interplanetary space travel is now common? Like earth residents can afford tour to Saturn or is it still closed off to general public?

They use Saturnian ships to transfer people back and forth. Frankly no one really wants to wait 6 years to reach the ringed planet when it can be done within 4 months.

The agreement that the two races had to make to get permission to board Saturnian ships was lengthy. Even then human passengers are closely supervised to make sure they don't "steal" technology.

its interesting that if Saturn itself is 'alive', does the Saturnian revere every land that they built upon and try not to damage or relentlessly build on them and have lenghty process to learn if the soil should be preserved and everything like that?

They try to build… what's the word… respectfully? Responsibly? One of the two. Minimizing altering the landscape and build on whatever is there for them to use.

They claim to be able to "speak" or "hear" from the planet itself, a concept that's truly out of human comprehension. Whether it's actual extrasensory perception, a form of indirect communication with other individuals, or simply just a belief is anyone's guess. They have words for things that humans can't define. And the fact that their life expectancy is 5 to 7 times longer than an average human is already well beyond human comprehension.

They've been around for more than 1.5 million years. Modern humans (that is, homo sapiens) have only been around for 200,000.

whats saturnians blood color? Do they have the same blood types like humans

It's black, nearly void black. Blood types, I haven't done that far on worldbuilding. I may just left it out for simplicity.

also what they were look like in their tribal stage before being one of the most advanced race in the universe? Also if we ever venture outside Saturnia, will we ever find other settlements or civillizations or maybe ruins of Saturnians past?

They've conserved their history completely in digital media through augmented reality in almost perfect detail. This allows anyone in Saturn to access it for research purposes with minimal need to travel. Any leftovers of past civilization have been repurposed for building and manufacturing.

Currently they're experimenting with copying consciousness into digital media although the ethics for that is still debatable among various cultures and subcultures.

if Saturnia inspired from solarpunk aesthetics, does communal events exist? Like maybe a massive festival dedicated to Saturn or 'nature' in our sense or a national potluck day or smth like that, just wholesome communal events that connect with nature and everything

They still do in less populated areas. A bit difficult to do in large dense settlements, where instead it's done through virtual reality.

Saturnian "virtual reality" has successfully replicated senses like touch and smell, alongside visual and audio, by directly and wirelessly interacting with the brain stem and providing "fake" senses. Which means this has also allowed the disabled to partake in virtual reality events.

I don't have ideas for Saturn-specific social events right now, but once I do, I'll tell you.

did they ever harness nuclear power?

Fusion reactors, in extremely limited numbers and in very specific use cases. Majority of power is still harvested from wind farms.

i mean if saturnians are technologically advanced, they must've created a technology that can replace or repair limbs?

Prosthetics? They're not super advanced in medicine. They still haven't solved their low healthy birth rate issue. 1.5 million years and they haven't figured out why only 7 out of 10 to 11 of their eggs are able to successfully hatch.

Some cultures believe it's the way Saturn intended and they shouldn't try to figure it out, like why would one question how nature works. Some other cultures believe it's a hidden genetic code waiting to be unlocked, and then some other cultures also believe that doing so will just cause disaster.

If it was an alien utopia, they wouldn't need weapons like railguns. But here they are, still having internal issues waiting to be solved.

[pqrachel]

Lore Dump Questions

It's been a bit since I've done something like this, but I found a giant list of character design questions here. And so I'm gonna pick some of my OCs and generate a couple random numbers from 1-253 for each of them and and then just ramble and explore the characters a bit.

So yeah just an insanely long rambly bit of character exploration below the cut...

---

So the first character I'm doing this for will be Taylor Che. He's one of my main 4 Blanksford cast and I've been trying to figure out some stuff regarding where I'm taking his story.

36. Do you have any siblings? What are/were they like? So I kind of haven't thought about Taylor's family like at all. Gabby has one sister, Aeri and Madi have no siblings, but Taylor I just don't know. So I guess right now I'm making the decision that he's got two brothers. I know Taylor figured out he's genderfluid around 15 / 16 years old in upper school. I've got a story in progress about him figuring that out and there's tension between him and his first boyfriend. And I think him having to figure that out mostly on his own makes a lot of sense. Maybe one brother is older and already moved out and doing his own thing, and the other is younger and not super able to help him think about that kind of thing. I think his family would be respectful but not like too helpful if that makes sense. I don't want to decide too much on a whim, but that seems like a decent starting point for when I want to come back to his family later.

158. What is your favorite animal? Why? I haven't done a lot of ecological set-up, but Taylor's born in Blanksford which is like a pretty dense city. I know Gabby's into birds, Aeri's into dinos (dino fossils aren't nearly as common due to the ecology of Solthra, but this is a question about Taylor), so I don't know what Taylor would be into. Maybe something aquatic but the only aquarium in Origia is in D-City, so that might be better for Madi since she's born in D-City and could have had some family trips their with her parents before they got divorced when she was 12. So I guess for Taylor I could do like city cats that'd be cool and I don't have any actual pets either so maybe giving Taylor a pet cat could be cool. I could even make Jaspurr from my Colostle story be Taylor's cat. Because I've done story crossovers a bunch and I really like Jaspurr and I haven't touched my Colostle series in a while and it'd be a shame to not use my lil cat design, so that seems like it could be a lot of fun.

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Okay new character, let's keep with the Blanksford characters I'm focusing on in my latest wips, so Artemis. I'm still trying to place her fully in the story. She's a vigilante that the majority of the population hates, and Taylor's coming around to seeing her side of things, and it's creating some tension that makes me want to flesh out her character a bit more so let's see how this goes.

15. What does your voice sound like? This is a question I don't think about too much. Like even when watching shows / video games I just don't think about a character's voice that much. The only character of mine I have a voice actor head-canon for is Aeri who I'd want played by Ashly Burch because Life is Strange brain go brrrr. But for Artemis I don't know. I spent a bit looking for voice actors who I'd like to see but that's so far out of my wheel-house. Like I'd want her voice to give villainous vibes. Maybe the VA who played Sylvie *checks notes* Sophia Di Martino. ...but after rewatching some clips that's not really right either, but Tom Hiddleston could be a fun voice for Taylor. I don't know...

49. If you died or went missing, who would miss you? Damn straight at her insecurities. But she's got no remaining family until she got her powers no serious friends. And afterwards Blank had to be coerced to even help and doesn't really like her that much even though they sort of work together. There's something going on with her and Taylor but it's complicated. Definitely in the future, I think Taylor would miss her, but where the story's at in my head, that a bit ambiguous on his feelings.

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OK next character, let's do a big jump out of Blanksford and to Mystic Mysteries with Dawn Ronik. Her story is all over the place so this good be interesting.

66. As a child, what kinds of personality traits did you display? So I've got bits of story from Dawn's past and all the way up to her growing up. And in her past right around the time she fell into the portal to the mystic plane, she wasn't too brave. But she was super curious part of the reason she explored enough to find the portal even at such a young age.

96. Who would be the one person you’d never tell your fear? This is a fun question because Dawn's actually pretty solitary after she returns to the mortal plane leaving behind Tehl. She has a kind of short relationship with Ashly Smith who is a character I've reworked to fit Dawn's story. And I think despite all she shared about her time in another plane living with an "aberration," she probably would have kept her fears a little more to herself, since it never served her to talk about it and since it was more of an abstract thought, it'd be much hard to share that with Tehl growing up having to make their own language to communicate, since they were two completely different species. (Although saying that now I realize I might have my timeline a little wrong but I think the sentiment and what it means for the story is still true.)

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Another weird character, umm... how about Twii'Jay. She's a character so new I haven't even drawn her yet. But she's the ringmistress of a travelling circus called the Cirque Destinae.

20. Do you wear any jewelry? I think on-stage she'd be very flashy and would like have jewelry, but when she's not working it's a bit tedious and she'd prefer wearing less accessories and being comfy more than anything with her clothing and accessories.

33. Is there someone in your family you wish you were closer to? So Twii'Jay is actually demonic. Her grandparent is an incubus making her a quarter-demon or a half-elf with how I have that all working. She very much wants nothing to do with her parents and she doesn't have any siblings. So as far as blood family goes the answer is a strict no. But found family like the circus is something she's super devoted to and she loves all of her crew very much.

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Okay one last character... let's go with Dee. She's the slime girl researcher I drew a bit ago, but I don't really have to much ideas for her other than being a way to explore the world by literally having her explore it. (Very similar to my initial concept for Dreya but she's now become a whole thing with the merfolk side of my Mystic Mysteries stories, so maybe Dee will last longer in me exploring...)

92. When and where were you the happiest? Like I said I don't have to much ready for this character, so going on-model. She'd be happiest making a new discovery about the world. She's pretty curious and at one point she's working with another character named Cass who's a gravity sorcerer and I think they'd be happy figuring stuff out. And since Dee was born under strange circumstances and doesn't remember / doesn't have a past. I think her getting to interact with someone and truly let loose thinking about a topic with someone would make her pretty happy.

175. What is your responsibility to the world? Why? Again, she's a researcher and that's something she chose to be and really believes in. While yes she finds lots of topics interesting. She's the only known slime-being, but she feel connected to the naglings and the misunderstand "false angels" as a whole, so she'd really like to be the one who shows humans the truth regarding the angels, and how misrepresented they are in the churches view of the angelic plane and its connection to the mortal plane.

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Okay I lied this is fun, I'm gonna do another one. Let's bring it back to Blanksford and do this for Katie Moore, she's Gabby's sister and I've only recently introduced her when I did the Blanksford Pride comics in June. She's still a bit underdeveloped but that's what's gonna happen when I focus on developing so many OCs independent of a specific story and I'm just having fun fleshing out side characters. (Arthur, if you're reading this, and I mean this in the best way, but I totally blame you for my obsession with writing OCs, you've shown me how fun it is and I've taken it to be my own thing and it's just so great <3 lol)

108. Who or what, if anything, would you die for? (or go to extremes for?) My initial reaction was to say she'd go to extremes for Gabby, but that's the obvious answer. I think she's got her own friends that she's close to outside of Gabby's friend group (that I don't plan on writing), and even within the main friend group, I like thinking her and Madi have gotten close, and at some point down the line. Katie would defend Madi or go to extremes for her if she had to. She's closer to her parents than Gabby is so maybe them too (again I haven't written them at all so idk for sure).

159. What is your least favorite animal? Why? This felt like a fun last question to end on it'd be totally subjective but right now I'm imaging Gabby's digital pet bird Mango annoying Katie when they were growing up and now Katie doesn't like birds all that much. Probably not like a deep hatred but her go-to if asked this would probably be birds.

[gaast]

Anyway, if anyone wants to play a really good JRPG trilogy that tells a complete story and does not waste your time, play the three Final Fantasy XIII games. The first and last games are fantastic and XIII-2 is solid. You get really good emotional and character arcs. It's a found-family story. It's all about how regular people have the power to control their own destinies and rise against their oppressors. It's about how mistakes are human and they help us grow. It's about allowing yourself to love and be weak and ask for help. It's a series where you prevent apocalypse, cause apocalypse, and redeem the apocalypse. It's about fate, it's about endings, it's about beginnings.

The voice work is incredible, with nearly every line voiced in the last two games. The first two games have a really cool, unique battle system that's really easy to get into and really easy to master. The games have a ton of lore that you can read at your own pace whenever. You can make whole species of enemy go extinct in the third game.

Final Fantasy XIII has been reevaluated in recent years, but I genuinely think that the whole trilogy deserves the same treatment. It's really fantastic, you just have to let it be.

They show their age a little, yeah, but the graphics still look so solid, and the design sense is pretty great throughout--it's not perfectly for-me, but they keep it consistent. They're all so satisfying to get down. They've got awesome soundtracks. Like, really. I finished my replay in a little over a month, and I played Red Dead Redemption in there too. The games have a lot you can do but as I said, they don't waste your time.

I have so much I could say about these games. I genuinely do not know why we haven't accepted the whole trilogy for what it is: an incredibly unique, genuine, heartfelt, brilliant set of games. I don't think any other games I've played so firmly believe in people, or have so much hope for humanity.

I don't really know how else to sell them. I love these games and I want more people to love them the way I do. I really feel like they deserve it.

[aelaer]

More Oblivion Ramblings

No story in this one. Rather more OOC anecdotes (that have been in my drafts a while because I've been playing more than writing the last three or so weeks).

1. So I ended up pausing on the main quest much longer than I planned because I found out two unpleasant things:

Infiltrating the Evil Cult means losing all items and gold you carry. To make it so I didn't lose all my hard-earned stuff, I downloaded a mod that includes a bank for gold and item storage (though I use a free chest Jauffre gives me for item storage right now). So with that solved, I figured I was ready to rumble.

Nope. The infiltration quest involves sacrificing an NPC. And Stephen ain't gonna do that. I read the wiki on ways to save him and basically I need to create spells to help save the NPC. But I needed to level up much more to get those spells.

So yeah, so Stephen doesn't have horrible guilt about not saving the captive, I'm leveling him up so he has a fighting chance.

2. One of the quests I did took you into someone's dreams! And it was a complete nightmare! Ahhhh it was great, to save the man and himself Stephen had to do all of these type of puzzle quests for patience, courage, and so on. I loved it. Also, he went into the man's head naked (or at least video games version of naked). Very comic v4 of him. Definitely feels like astral projection.

3. For a while I had the game difficulty at 40% (around level 4 when I tried Kvatch for the first time... that adventure's coming up), then 45%. At around level 9 or so, I upped it to 50% again (which is default) and I'm forcing myself to learn some actual strategy spells that aren't just fireballs. More Stephen-like stuff like illusions, shields, etc. (But I'm still most fond of fireballs.) This also has prevented the game from becoming too easy so that's fun.

4. I discovered that a mod that I thought was working actually wasn't. This mod revamps all the main cities in the game graphically and adds more quests to them. I'm glad I didn't have it on originally, because comparing the differences with the vanilla game and the mod is insane. I can't believe how much work people have put into this game over the last (nearly) 15 years with user content. It makes the cities so much more immersive though, it's really great.

5. At one point I accidentally turned into a vampire. Wiki said that the curing of vampirism was quite challenging so I went back to an earlier save. Besides, if I ever want to explore that part of Stephen's comic book lore Oblivion-style, I can always find more vampires.

6. As I discovered more facial feature mods that helped alter the old ugly settings, I messed around with Stephen's face several more times. I haven't messed around with it for a couple weeks now though, so I think he's at his final version and as close as I can get him looking like Stephen without creating my own custom textures for the hair and clothing. And naturally I got a mod that allowed cloaks because he just didn't feel right without something similar to the Cloak. I wish I was better at photoshop so I could make textures of his clothes...