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nonsubstantial · 6 months

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MARCH 2024 DIARY POST

I'm keeping up the habit of writing a monthly post to catalogue all the things I've been obsessed with in 2024. At the end of the year, I want to be able to look back and remember what was making me happy all year long! If you are reading this, I hope you will enjoy hearing about these things or checking them out too! First, a chaotic collage of those things!

VIDEO GAME: As you may already know, Splatoon is probably my favorite video game franchise of all time. I really cannot overstate how important it is to me. Naturally, I was highly anticipating its new singleplayer DLC, titled Side Order, but when it finally came out at the end of February, my elbow was fractured in a way that made it painful for me to play. So, I had to wait until about a week into March for my elbow to heal a little. Then, I spent about 10 hours obsessively playing it, and I loved pretty much every second of it. It featured by far the most difficult levels ever seen in a Splatoon game, which was a treat to me as a player who was disappointed by the rather simplistic story mode of the base game. Splatoon 3: Side Order took the form of a roguelite battle tower, similar to Salmon Run but with new enemies, unique (and sometimes puzzling) stages, and customizable weapon builds. Even players who find it a bit too challenging at first can eventually mod the difficulty to an extent that (hopefully) makes it doable. The story was nothing crazy, but the gameplay and visuals were so unbelievably good that I honestly wished I could erase it all from my mind and play it again from the start. Just yay 💕, I love Splatoon so much.

TWITCH STREAM FAN EDIT: If you don't already know who Jerma is, he is a prolific video game streamer that I became a big fan of a few years ago. His unique humor has consistently impressed and appealed to me, and his fan community has proven itself to be both creative enough and motivated enough to persistently churn out edited “best of” versions of his streams. For better or for worse, Jerma announced his retirement from streaming last year, leaving his eager fans with nothing but his earlier content to dredge for, well… content. One such fan edit that was released this year, post-retirement, was a massive compilation of all his Nancy Drew playthroughs (save for one). This edit in particular was one that I found overwhelmingly funny and good, and it inspired an ongoing fanfic that I’m still currently working on writing. Oddly enough, watching this caused a domino effect that got me back into writing in general and has given me the surge of confidence and inspiration that I needed to keep working on creating the fiction that has lived inside in my head for years. I really hope this feeling never dies. You can watch the stream that inspired me, linked here!

MUSICAL ARTIST: Peach Kelli Pop is probably tied (with a few other artists) for the title of my favorite band of all time. Their entire discography is only about 2 hours long, but they were still my most listened to artist for several years in a row. It’s due to the consistency of the vibe across all of her work: upbeat and positive while still delivering a profound emotional impact. I've been able to just listen her entire catalog of music over and over and over again on shuffle. I might describe it as DIY rock, or feminist punk, and if you haven't heard it before, Gentle Leader is probably the best album to start with. Listen here!

MUSICAL ARTIST: After listening to nothing except Peach Kelli Pop for about a week straight, I started to look into similar bands that I hadn't already checked out and found one that really caught my interest. That's how I was introduced to Tacocat! Their band name is both a palindrome and euphemism, and their album Lost Time was love at first listen. They have cozy lyrics about aliens, birth control, and creating your own values, and their music has left me in a good mood every time I've thrown it on. You can listen to the first song that I heard, linked here!

SONG: It's Don’t Rain On My Parade, by Barbra Streisand!! I still haven't watched the musical that this song is from, but the drag queen Plasma mentioned it on RuPaul Season 16, which is how I ended up hearing it. This song gets an individual mention because I was absolutely blown away by this one individual track! It's brilliant and catchy right out of the gate, "Life's candy and the sun's a ball of butter! Don't bring around a cloud to rain on my parade!" It's from 1964, but its recording sounds crystal clear and it channels its intended emotions perfectly. I felt compelled to listen to it over and over again, because it really is just so cheerful and artistically inspiring. I feel like it's a perfect piece of music. Listen here!

SONG: I have to give another song an individual mention! It's Mood Indigo, by Nina Simone!! I’ve been a big fan of Nina Simone for years now, but more often than not, I've stuck to my favorite album, Pastel Blues. I did branch out and listen to this song a few times in the past, but it only recently dawned on me just how perfect it is. Wikipedia says that it was recorded in 1964, about the same time as Don’t Rain On My Parade, and while it's technically a cover of an old Duke Ellington song, Nina Simone’s version has a totally unique vibe, evident from the first few bars. Its lyrics are meant to be cathartic, as they discuss suicidal ideation, while the drums, bass, and piano create a beautiful and upbeat swing melody that perfectly juxtaposes and rebuts the content of Nina’s vocals. It's menacing, catchy, uplifting, and truly perfect! I now believe it to be a landmark in Nina Simone’s career, and the whole of music history in general. Listen here!

MUSICAL ARTIST: Okay, one last music rec, I swear!! I was really feeling the vibes this month (but mostly just listening to bands that I already know and love). Along with Peach Kelli Pop, another one of my favorite bands is King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. Ever since 2017 (aka, the year of the gizz) they have probably reigned supreme as my #1 most listened to band. They just have so much music, with so much variation, that I can usually find at least one of their songs that appeals to me. Since the start of this year, I've been collecting and organizing a playlist of my favorite songs by them, titled 31 Days Of Gizz. Not for any particular reason, but just because I find it fun to make lists! At the last minute, I decided that I would organize the songs, specifically in the way that I would play them if I were introducing someone new to the band. So, if you haven’t heard their music before, maybe it’s time I introduced you? But no pressure, I just like their songs and I made my playlist just for me! I'm linking to it on spotify, HERE, if you’re interested! (forgot to put this one on the collage, lol)

VIDEO GAME: Right before the month ended, I bought the new fantasy tactics game, Unicorn Overlord, and I am fucking in love. I’ve been a longtime fan of the fantasy tactics genre, so as soon as this game started making waves, I begrudgingly accepted that I HAD to play it. I really don’t have a lot of time in between trying to take care of things at home and working on my writing, as I mentioned before, but I briefly dropped all my other hobbies and managed to fit about 10 hours of gameplay in before the month ended. I really wish I had time to obsess over it, because I feel like it is a masterpiece, even if the rumors about there being gay content ended up being a disappointing exaggeration (the game was developed by Vanillaware, but was published by homophobic giants ATLUS and SEGA, so I’m not surprised). Despite the story being pretty much dog shit though, I believe the gameplay is damn near perfect, and even revolutionary within its genre. I’ll probably be sinking all my game time into it until the new Elden Ring DLC drops. If you’re a person who also likes fantasy tactics, then I highly recommend playing it (I got it for the Nintendo Switch, where it seems to run perfectly).

(that’s it. It is now APRIL!! There might be some repeats this next month, or I'll leave them out... we'll see. Hope you have a good day! ♡)

#personal #2024 reviews #2024 #march #splatoon #jerma #peach kelli pop #tacocat #don't rain on my parade #mood indigo #king gizzard #unicorn overlord

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wolfram-everhearth · 10 months

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BG3 Act 1 - The First Day

Figured I'd put some of my playthrough notes / headcannons / GaleFram / basically sitcom scripts out here for anyone interested. I also added several screenshots because the game is pretty.

See this post for the Pre-BG3 Tav backstory. (Minus 10 years in the Feywilds & 5 in Baldur's Gate which Wolfram tells the companions about as the game progresses. Please look forward to it! 😂)

Here's the Carrd (Better Organized)

This includes story stuff so don't read if you haven't played the game yet!

The Nautiloid

After ten years of serving his patron in the Feywild, Wolfram returned to the mortal realm. He gave up his powers after an argument with the archfey for deceiving him. He's been living in Baldur's Gate for the past five years. One day he wakes up aboard the Mindflayer ship with no recollection of how he got there.

Wolfram is trapped in the pod and calls out to his former patron in desperation. He apologizes for how he spoke to her at the end and says that her deception was his own fault for not being clever enough to ask more specific questions when creating the pact. He says he realized she was just trying to protect him a while ago but had let his pride get in the way of making amends.

The archfey tells him she'd never severed their connection because she knew he'd calm down eventually - she merely cut off the flow of power. She's glad he's come to his senses in time. Of course, she will help him escape but would like his aid with something as well.

Fey are being captured, tortured, and killed. Somewhere nearby. She wants him to find the cause and stop it. His patron will honor the initial pact and in exchange for her power, he will defend nature and fey kind from any threats. The 10-year term had been met so now he has more autonomy but she may have the occasional specific request. The worm has done something to him and it will take a bit of time for her to bestow all of his old powers to him. He accepts and thanks her. As the power surges into him she says she'll check on him when she can.

He blasts himself out of the pod, unable to stifle a giggle as he realizes how much he has missed his warlock abilities. He finds a longsword on the floor - which he uses to pry open the few remaining pods. Unfortunately, he doesn't find any survivors.

Wolfram goes into the next room and explores a bit, hoping to get his bearings on the alien ship. He curiously pokes at the creepy talking brain and then cringes, stabbing it repeatedly. 😂

He meets Lae'zel and thinks she’s abrasive, but chalks it up to being from a very closed culture. He lets the rudeness slide, happy to have help in the escape from someone who seems to understand these ships.

He insists on rescuing Shadowheart despite the Gith’s protests. He easily opens the pod with magic. She’s grateful and he introduces himself, saying he was happy to help, while giving Lae’zel a pointed look. Shadowheart gets something out of the pod but he puts off his curiosity about the artifact for later.

They continue on to the helm and escape the ship. He wakes up on the beach the next day and quickly finds Shadowheart. They decide to search the area for a healer.

Introductions and Meet-cute

He and Shadowheart sneak up on the intellect devourers and push them into the fire of the wreckage. Wolfram cheers as the brains shrivel up in the flames and Shadowheart quirks a brow at this oddly cheerful man - fighting an amused smile.

They come across a very pale elf shouting for help. Wolfram offers to aid Astarion. He sees the boar but is too slow and the rogue gets a blade on him. The warlock calmly motions to Shadowheart to not attack and talks Astarion down, saying he won't hold it against him. They're all a bit anxious after the ordeal. Wolfram notices the teeth marks and red eyes but he has read books on vampires and even met a few so he second-guesses his instinct since Astarion is in the sun.

They come across some swirling energy against a rock. Wolfram hears someone shouting for help from inside. He focuses on stabilizing the arcane energy and then pulls a man out of the portal, falling backward onto the ground. Gale falls on top of him. They look each other in the eyes. The warlock smiles “Hello there, handsome.” The wizard is a bit flustered “My apologies!” Wolfram points at Astarion and smirks “It’s alright. The last guy pulled a knife on me.” Gale looks around to see the others. Shadowheart standing with arms crossed and brow furrowed, holding in a chuckle. Astarion gestures to the mages on the ground “Well darling, if I’d known *this* was an option…” Wolfram laughs. Gale gets to his feet, muttering while dusting himself off “That was certainly not the softest of landings…” The warlock chuckles “I beg your pardon. Alas, all of my cushioning is gone after years of pulling random wizards from boulders.”

Gale laughs then extends a hand “Hello, I’m Gale of Waterdeep. Apologies, I’m usually better at this.” Wolfram snorts and shakes his hand “Better at introductions? I should hope so.” Gale chuckles “At magic…do I know you?” Wolf shrugs “I’m Wolfram of Sen - uh - of Baldur’s Gate? I’m quite certain we haven’t met before. I’d remember you.” Gale ponders “OH! I know! You were on the nautiloid as well!” The warlock eyes the stone “Nevermind the Nautiloid - how’d you end up in that blasted thing?” Gale starts explaining animatedly as if trying to entertain them. The rest of the party’s eyes glaze over but Wolfram just listens with an amused smile. “I don’t know what transpired exactly, but the ship broke into pieces and I suddenly found myself in freefall. As I was plummeting to certain death, I spied a glimmer quite near where I estimated my body to impact with less-than-savory propulsion. Recognizing this glimmer to be magical in nature, I reached out to it with a Weaving of words and found myself on the other side as it were.” Wolfram smirks “Ah, so in other words - a spell gone wrong. I’m glad we found you when we did.” He gestures to Shadowheart “Shadowheart and I escaped the Nautilid together and woke up on the beach. Not sure how we survived to be honest. There was another with us but we lost her after the crash.” He gestures to Astarion “And he -” Astarion scoffs “Oh you can leave me out of the introductions.” Wolfram smiles sweetly and points down the road. “Well then make yourself useful and go see if those goblins have anything good.” Astarion rolls his eyes but begins looting the corpses as the others walk slowly in the other direction.

He and Gale talk about the tadpoles and what may be done about them. When asking about a cleric ("uncannily adroit with a knitting needle?") Wolfram smugly states “Well, I am quite good with a needle, but otherwise I’m more adept at hurting than healing.” He points to Shadowheart “This lass is our best bet. She's a very talented cleric.” Shadowheart unamused “Lass? I’d warrant I have a few years on you full humans… and this is beyond most healers' expertise.” Wolfram winces “Just my way of speaking from living in - Aye, I’ll try to correct it.” He nods respectfully.

Gale smiles hopefully “So Wolfram, as you seem to be the leader of this party - How about we lend each other a helping hand once more and look for a healer together?” The warlock nods “Oh… I suppose I am? We’d be happy to have you join us.” Shadowheart shrugs “The more the merrier to deal with these little monsters in our heads.” Astarion groans audibly while catching up to them with a pack of new weapons. Gale smiles “Most excellent! A parasite shared is a parasite halved… Or something to that effect.” Wolfram snorts “That’s one way to look at it.” Gale stops walking and faces him “Oh! But before you think you’re about to embark on a journey with most ill-mannered a man: thank you for pulling me out of that stone. It was an act of foresighted kindness I assure you, for I have the feeling ample opportunities will present themselves for me to return the favor.” Wolfram winks “Oh I certainly hope so.” Gale confused. "I assure you I am most practiced in the arcane arts and pledge to make myself useful in combat." The warlock gives an awkward thumbs up and giggles then starts walking along the path. He mutters to himself to get it together, damned fey magics.

They continue on. Shadowheart listens quietly as Wolfram and Gale talk. Astarion follows at a distance, sticking to the shadows. Gale asks “You’re not versed in magic, are you?” The warlock looks uneasy “...Why do you ask?” Gale eyes the large sword on his back “Oh, I *do* apologize. I meant to ask: are you *studied* in magic? Which you are not." Wolfram smirks and nods “Indeed, I am not studied.” Gale continues "If you meet any elder wizards, let me know. There is a matter I’d like to seek advice on from a master.” Wolfram eyes him wearily “Well… I’m not close with any wizards exactly - but I am friends with a few powerful magic users. Those that live in this realm are in Baldur’s Gate though… which I have a feeling is quite the journey from here. Wherever here is.” Gale is confused but intrigued “In *this realm*?” The warlock smiles awkwardly and starts ranting about how pretty the trees are.

They find Lae’zel in a cage with two Tieflings arguing over what to do with her. Wolfram convinces the Tieflings he'll take care of Lae'zel and they should get to safety. After they leave he teasingly tells her to ask nicely to get her down. She responds with violence and he rolls his eyes and shoots her down. Shadowheart is upset and says they can't trust her. Gale says he's not met any Gith and would be happy to learn more about them. Astarion says this is all very dull but at the very least he must mention that she shouldn't be seen around these parts for a while because the next time she won't be so lucky. Lae’zel says she could defeat any of these ‘teeth-lings’ in combat. Wolfram says it's a shame she wants to explore with them because she's clearly the only one experienced enough to find an easily defensible campsite in case the Tieflings return. The others are impressed he was able to convince her to go find a patch of dirt to guard.

They take a short break. Wolfram goes off into the forest for a bit then returns, saying there is a place up ahead worth checking out.

The Ruins

They continue on to some ruins. Wolfram convinces the bandits at the entrance to leave. Gale Is impressed again "You certainly have a way with words." The warlock winks "I have been told I've got a good tongue." Gale scoffs “I believe the term is ‘silver tongue’” Wolfram shrugs “Yeah, that too.” Astarion amused, mutters "Someone thinks highly of themselves." Shadowheart chuckles "Wolfram, your charms will serve us well, but please let us focus on the task at hand." Wolf nods to Shadowheart. "Aye, sorry. I’m a bit out of sorts still. Anyroad, words won't be enough once we're in here. My friend just said there are about 10 more of them in the ruins. We'll likely need to fight. Shadowheart frowns in confusion "Your friend?" Wolfram beams "Felicia. I sense that she's very trustworthy." He points to the boar who has been following them from a distance since the cliffs "Alright my dear, thank you for showing me. As you make your way back to your family please do stay clear of that wreckage." Gale eyes him with an amused grin. Felicia grunts and runs off before Astarion can shoot her. Wolfram glares “Oy! Don’t kill her! She just helped us.” Astarion pouts. Shadowheart asks "Oh? Are they a druid?" The warlock chuckles. "No, just a normal boar. I make a habit of talking to everyone I come across. You never know who has good information. Now - let's see if I can talk our way in here.”

After Wolfram works his charms, the bandit guard opens the door to the unexpected guests. Gale manages to put the guard to sleep as he starts to shout for his friends. Wolfram gives an approving nod to the wizard, impressed. They position themselves in the shadows. Shadowheart and Astarion stand close to the next door. Gale stands back and Wolfram follows him. He eyes him with confusion "Surely this is too far back. Or do you plan to throw your sword?" Wolfram laughs "Ah, that's a bit of a last resort." He pauses then says, hesitantly. "I'm a warlock." Gale frowns in disappointment "Oh..." He recovers quickly and smiles "Well that's alright I suppose. You did get us in here. I don't mind doing the brunt of the spell work." Wolfram mocks gratitude "Oh well thank you so much! It's nice to have a proper magic user around." His hands crackle red with energy then he winks and hits the door with a powerful Eldritch blast, knocking it off the hinges and crushing two bandits under it.

After the bandits are defeated (and looted) they make their way to the dank crypt. Shadowheart notices the statue and says it's amusing that Jergal is here. Gale is curious about what information the scribes had that was worth killing over. As they're looting Astarion finds a book and unlocks it then sees the cover "Dead Gods? Sounds awfully boring." He sets it aside. Wolfram picks it up and thumbs through it, curious why some names are scratched out. He hands it to Gale who says maybe the book is why the scribes were killed. Whoever scratched out the names was clearly trying to hide something. Wolfram agrees. They look around the statue. Wolf notices a button and Astarion argues with him over who should get to push it. Gale inspects the device and the wall it's on and concludes that it likely opens a hidden door. Shadowheart says a secret room is likely trapped. Wolfram draws his blade and stands in front of the door while Astarion presses the button. The dead scribes rise and start towards them.

After defeating the undead they go into the room and meet Withers. They’re all a bit surprised with the talking skeleton, but it’s not the strangest thing that’s happened to them recently so they roll with it. Withers asks Wolfram what the value of one mortal life is. The warlock takes a moment to think as the others debate among themselves. Astarion scoffs and says the only life he cares about is his own. Anyone who says otherwise is an idealistic fool. Shadowheart says a life's worth should be measured in their devotion. What they're willing to do to remove the suffering of others. Gale says every life is precious in its own way. Full of potential…for good or ill - hopefully good.

Wolfram listens to them, smiling at Gale’s answer. He turns back to Withers and says, hesitantly "I suppose that depends on the person. Everyone approaches their life goals differently and therefore have a unique effect on the world around them. Ideally, the intentions behind their actions are judged along with the result. I’m certainly counting on that." Withers is satisfied with the answer and then cryptically says he'll see them again at the appropriate time and place.

They leave the tomb a bit confused… but they find an amulet that lets them speak to the dead so that's cool.

They return to Lae'zel at camp (She set it up in an open area near a stream). Wolfram thanks her for picking such an easily defensible position. He knew he could count on her. She scoffs and says she needs no thanks - but hopes they found some food.

As Wolfram is stacking wood for a fire Withers shows up and says he'll be there at camp to aid them. They're all a bit weary but he seems powerful so better to have him as an ally.

The First Night at Camp

Party Banter

Shadowheart: I'm a tad surprised you change into more comfortable garb at camp, Lae'zel. You strike me as the 'sleeps in her armor' type.

Lae'zel: It would cause too much noise during my nighttime…exertions. I do not wish to alert foes of our location.

Shadowheart: Nightime exertions… oh! I see. Well, considerate of you I suppose.

Wolfram: Who were you planning to uh… exert with?

Lae'zel: Whoever I wish, Wolf-rum.

Astarion: (giggles) I think you'll find a bit more effort is required to secure a partner around these parts…only a bit.

Gale: I'm surprised you're allowed to choose a partner outside your own people.

Lae'zel: We are to use and misuse every civilization in the stars in every way we know. I do not conquer by blade alone, Gale.

Gale: I can't imagine mother Gith would approve. Doesn't she prefer us lesser species enslaved? Or eviscerated?

Lae'zel: T’chk! And with that comment - this topic no longer concerns you.

Wolfram: (chuckles) What a shame, Gale. I hope you're not too heartbroken.

Lae'zel: What is this talk of breaking hearts? The wizard is still useful - I merely do not wish to lay with him. There is no cause to fear for his life.

Gale: Ah, well that's quite kind of you! Thank you for your mercy…on both counts.

The group is eating some fruit and dried meats they’d stolen from the bandits. (Astarion is just pretending to eat.) Lae’zel is sharpening her sword while chewing. Shadowheart asks Wolfram what he’d been doing before all this. He throws an apple core into the forest and then answers “I was a cook in Baldur’s Gate. Had my own place. Just a little 10-seater but I got by. A nice simple life. I'm eager to get back to it.” Gale laughs. Wolfram looks at him with a confused expression. Gale is surprised ‘Oh! You were serious? You don't seem the type.” Shadowheart frowns “After seeing you fight I must admit that’s a shock to me as well.” He shrugs “I’m full of surprises.”

Shadowheart nods "Well it's quite the coincidence. I need to return there as well." Astarion looks at them with interest but says nothing. Wolfram asks Shadowheart if she has business there or is a resident. She says it's a bit of both but would rather say no more. It's a…sensitive matter. Gale nods then picks a scroll out of his pack and starts reading. The warlock holds up his hands saying he’s not the type to pry.

Wolfram smiles "Perhaps once we have a cure we could travel there together?” Shadowheart nods "I don't see why not, Wolfram. You've proven yourself to be very helpful so far." He chuckles "Well, I'll take that as a compliment." She smirks "Perhaps it was." Lae'zel scoffs "You Fae-run denizens and your subtle courtship rituals. It's unnecessarily complicated." Wolfram and Shadowheart object at the same time. Shadowheart scolds "People can simply be friendly. Though I doubt you know the meaning of the word." The warlock scoffs smugly "I assure you I'm anything but subtle in my 'courtship'." Astarion giggles "I'll say, Wolfram. Your flirtations are completely artless. It's embarrassing really." The elf glances at Gale who is still intensely focused on reading a Ray of Sickness scroll they found. Wolf follows Astarion's eyes to Gale then shrugs "We’re in mortal peril, so why bother being subtle?"

Wolfram smiles awkwardly at Gale "How about you, handsome? What will you do after all of this is over." Gale keeps reading. Shadowheart and Astarion chuckle. Lae'zel scoffs and goes back to sharpening her blade. Wolf nudges Gale, who looks genuinely surprised as he sets down the scroll "Yes? Apologies, it's been some time since I learned that one. Quite an engaging read. I was miles away. How can I help you?" Wolfram smirks "I was asking what you plan to do once we've been healed." Gale's face falls briefly "Oh…" but a smile quickly returns "Well Wolfram, I suppose in a perfect world I'd return to Waterdeep. Back to my tower - surrounded by old tomes and having collected new tales to entertain my assistant." The warlock senses Gale is hiding something, but smiles "That sounds nice."

In time the sun sets and they all go to their tents. Wolfram goes to talk to Astarion. The elf complains about having to rough it outdoors. Wolf tries to reassure him and says it’s not so bad. Astarion frowns “It sounds like he’s done it before.” The warlock nods “Quite a bit. This is nothing compared to the time I managed to get some shuteye in a bog surrounded by will-o-wisp. …Although the normally peaceful forest with a satyr party raging outside my tent was its brand of challenging.” Astarion impressed “Oh my…how did you manage to rest during *that*?” Wolfram looks off dreamily “Oh I didn’t, not a wink. I failed miserably.” Astarion laughs “Well well! Our hero seems to have quite the past.” Wolf laughs “I’m no hero, but as for a past… I suspect we all do, right?” Astarion becomes guarded, furrowing his brow and crossing his arms. Wolfram smiles reassuringly “All I’m trying to say is that this place isn’t so bad. You’ll be fine.” Astarion's frown lifts a bit “Oh, alright. I suppose it’s only until we get these worms out of our heads. Then I'll find a decent inn with silk sheets and a nice drink.” The warlock nods “That does sound more comfortable. Well, good evening to you.” Wolfram walks off, muttering “What I wouldn’t give for a proper bath right now. Ilithids are nasty.”

He talks with Shadowheart and asks how she’s feeling about the worm. She says there’s no point thinking about it. They need action. He nods and says that’s fair. They’ll continue looking first thing in the morning. She tries to warn him to be wary of Gale. Wolfram looks over at the mage pacing by the fire and smiles warmly “Aye, wizards may have a reputation…but who doesn't go a bit mad with power from time to time? I’ve a good feeling about this one.” Shadowheart shakes her head in disapproval as he walks away and mumbles “Lady guide me. Is there a reasonable one in this bunch?”

Wolfram talks to Lae’zel. She says they need to find a creche. She thinks one of the teeth-lings has seen her people. He asks if they'll be safe among them. She says they will so long as she's with them.

He goes over to Gale. (‘Go to Hell’ scene.) The warlock smirks "Good evening to you too." Gale chuckles “You’re a good sport.” The wizard is contemplative about the day's events. Wolfram stands next to him and looks into the fire. “I understand. We’ve been through a lot in a short time... and it's a scary situation we’ve found ourselves in. I’m trying to focus on other thoughts.” Gale nods “I must say - you seem more serious than earlier.” Wolf smiles awkwardly “Ah… well aboard the ship I was… under the influence of something that improves my mood.” Gale smirks “I won’t judge. I’ll confess I’d enjoyed the occasional recreational potion in my youth.” Wolfram laughs “I wasn’t high, Gale! Well, not under the effect of a potion anyroad.” Gale grins “Well, I’m pleased to see you taking things seriously now. Perhaps fewer attempts at humor? I have that domain covered.” The warlock chuckles “You certainly do, but I’ll have you know going forward I do tend to laugh in the face of danger. Rest assured I still take every fight seriously.”

Gale smiles, a bit more relaxed. Wolfram jokes around but is ultimately comforting. He offers Gale a drink to calm his nerves. Gale takes a sip of the liquor “I suppose this is one way to handle the situation we've found ourselves in. Alas, I have no books. A good read and a glass of wine do wonders for my constitution.” The warlock roots around in his bag and hands him two books he’d found in the ruins. “I guess I can share.” Gale is surprised “You looted them?” Wolfram shrugs “Of course. Some dusty tomes in an ancient ruin. How could I resist?” Gale smiles warmly “I seem to have judged you incorrectly. A fair few times today.” Wolf shrugs “In all honesty I’d expected it. You’re not the first wizard I’ve known.” He chuckles “A recent customer was quite possibly the most arrogant person I'd ever met. I suspect I won't need to cut you off and throw you out onto the street too?” Gale scoffs confidently “I’d like to see you try. Besides, I'm sure you're aware we're not all the same. I, for instance, am exceptionally humble despite my many impressive accomplishments.” Wolfram chuckles at Gale's smug expression then winks "I'm just teasing you. How about this, handsome - you keep an open mind and I’ll do the same?” Gale looks confused, more by the nickname than the proposition. He recovers and smiles apologetically “That sounds like a most excellent idea.”

After making the rounds, Wolfram returns to his tent. Despite his exhaustion, he can't sleep. He tries to think of home... his cozy apartment, the little bar and its odd clientele, the street urchins that may be going hungry without him to dole out scraps at closing time, the contracts he'll miss out on in his absence - likely to go to some bloodthirsty Guild member without care for casualties... Unfortunately, the only image that seems to stick is one of tentacles breaking through his skull. How will he lead this group of misfits amid his rising panic? How will he keep up his calm facade? A restless night of tossing and turning won't help, but that seems to be what's in store for him.

#oc wolfram #bg3 tav #galefram #bg3 #bg3 warlock #bg3 screenshots #galetav #gale x tav #bg3 spoilers

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silentstaresfanficandfanart · 3 months

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h9yfx7rx8titcoycyov9yc9tdt8743uriti

Give us your best and worst feelings while experiencing being a game dev

okay!

some of the best feelings: working with my new teammate person (the one i mentioned was teaching me a while back! now we're a proper dev team!) and talking about and planning idaes with him

when something finally works

solving a probelm i couldnt figure out a few days ago

when its finally done

watching your characters come to life

COMMENTS HWEN SOMEONE COMMENTS :D ive only gotten one comment on my itch.io games so far but IT MADE ME SO HAPPY and i keep going back to look at it when i need motivation-

playing through with my friends over vc and us making up funny bits and doing voices while we're at it! We had one playthrough where the main character was named paperwork and all their diologue was just paperwork, by the time it was done i was struggling not to say paperwork in the middle of random conversations and frankly it was hilarious

when your friends like your game : ' )

that relatable feeling of playing a game or recalling an odd choice a game developer made in a game you loved once and being like oh I get it now. iiiiiget it now (*glances at pokemon in solemn understanding* i see why you didint do that now. I get it.

the loving feeling of you and your fellow programmer workign on a script and you putting your cursor next to theirs (it feels like a hug <3, its like, programmer cuddles, i am 99% that just an us thing) the utter TRIUMPH of getting something fully functional

when one of your friends decides to latch onto a specific character and loves them and its like YES PLEASE LOVE MY SON I WORKED HARD ON HIM HES A GIFT TO YOU YIPPIEEE

WHEN YOU TRY TO FIX A GLITCH AND THE GAME BOOTS UP PROPERLY AND NOTHINGS WRONG :D

the worst feelings:

when something you worked really hard on doesnt get much attention

when you cant solve a weirdly specific problem (*Shakes fist at color wheels*) and you know its objectively making your game MUCH worse and harder on the player, but you just cant find the information you need to solve it

when youve tried to fix the same bug 10 times and the error log isint changing

thinking you got all the bugs only to find out your newest update is a buggy disaster and one of your characters has decided to become a nudist and preform mitosis which was NOT your goal whatsoever because your naming conventions were flawed

when you have too many files and its just overwhelming-

messing up ONE letter or the indentation on something

problems that take 3 days or more to figure out solutions to

and as the artist and one of the two main programmers: character creation. i understand now why its not more common in video games. this is hard. I definitely intend to do it but golly

trying to balance stats and things

when the game crashes while youre bugfixing-

trying to figure out what strange seemingly alien language your fellow programmer is using to get amazing results because you have to understand how it works so you can actually use the amazing system they made but if you COULD understand it very easily already you would have made it yourself so youre just crawling through it trying to reverse engineer it so you can avoid breaking what they made and add onto it lol

#gamedev #indie game #indiegamedev #indie dating sim #indie games #indie dev #programming #python #coding #developers #developing #games #video games #video game dev #beginner dev #beginner game developer #indie devteam #indie development #indie developer

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eljackinton · 9 months

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All the video games Jack played in 2023, reviewed.

Since it's a tradition of mine and I like seeing how far I've come vis-a-vis video games, here's another quick-fire round of every game I played this year.

Deathloop

Arkane's actionized spin off to Dishonored is a fine game in its own right, but after years of experimentation and refinement in their field many ImSim heads such as myself expected something more grander and complex, when Deathloop was in many ways the opposite of that.

Hitman 3

Agent 47's swan song goes to the series greatest heights possible, but the formula starts to bristle at the edges a little. About the right time to conclude the series I think. Freelance mode can go fuck itself.

Bioshock 2 and Minerva's Den

Definitely a strange beast. An attempt to simultaneously capture what made the original so iconic while also trying to put a completely different spin on it. I'm not sure it really works, but it's interesting to compare the two. The DLC on the other hand, manages to use it's limited scale to much better effect.

Alien Isolation

Finally finished this masterpiece of the franchise. The plot sort of goes nowhere in it's back second half and the DLC is for completists only. Still, the vibes and visuals look as good today as they did ten years ago.

Battlefleet Gothic Armada 2

A well designed and fun space strategy game that really gets the 40k vibe, but even so the campaign feels just a little too long to warrant multiple playthroughs. After finishing the Imperial campaign I'm in no hurry to go through the whole thing again with the other factions.

Aliens Dark Descent

After Isolation it was such a surprise to see another Alien game that just 'gets it.' While there are certain creative decisions I didn't jive with, the overall experience is a tense and genuine horror romp.

System Shock

That Nightdive managed to preserve the overall experience of the original, and also update it to modern sensibilities is nothing short of a miracle. I have some minor criticisms about the music and the ending, but otherwise an uncompromised update of a trendsetting classic.

Return of the Obra Dinn

One of those games that really tries to tell a story that only video games can. Glad I went into it blind, and I'd love to see it inspire more experimental mystery solving games.

Divinity Original Sin 2

I don't see the masterpiece in this that some do, but an impressive effort nonetheless. Too long and too sprawling, but expertly designed and deftly told.

Zeno Clash and Zeno Clash 2

I love these stupid weird games even if I still can't tell if I was playing it properly or just flailing about. They deserve far more recognition than they got.

The Walking Dead: Michonne, A New Frontier, The Final Season

As ever you can understand that Telltale put a lot of heart into their games, but ultimately they still collapse under the weight of the source materials tropes and conventions. A noble effort, but not without an eye-roll or two.

Neverwinter Nights

So far I've played just the base campaign and I can do nothing but call it a slog. Beyond a few interesting ideas here and there it's a distillation of all the worst parts of the Infinity Engine era with no improvements of it's own. No charm, no atmosphere, no character, physically and literally.

Alright then folks. That's about it. Let's see what the video games of 2024 bring.

#video games #reviews

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m39 · 2 years

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Doom WADs’ Roulette (2003): MassMouth 2

Another day, another WAD made by Cyb. It feels kind of ridiculous that the main contributor to the Top 100 WADs of All Time has not only 2.1 WADs on this list (that .1 part being his contribution to 10 Sectors compilation) but also two of these ending up in the 2003 roster. Not to mention having the second main contributor, Linguica, starting as one of the bosses of the WAD I’m about to cover.

And that’s just the tip of the Iceberg of today’s WAD.

#5: MassMouth 2

Main author(s): Mike Watson (Cyb)

Release date: July 15th, 2003 (original release)

Version(s) played: final version (released on July 18th, 2003)

Required port compatibility: ZDoom

Levels: 17 (15 main levels, training level, and the secret level)

MassMouth 2 is, as you guessed already, the sequel to the original WAD titled The Adventures of MassMouth (originally released in 2000). It is also a drug-fueled trip of a WAD.

I might be exaggerating right now, but that’s how I felt during my first playthrough. MassMouth 2, at least thematically, was some of the weirdest WAD I’ve played (at least in terms of the early-mid 2000s). And I played Void weeks ago.

By the way, do not expect this review to be like the other ones I did or completely in-depth, because I don’t think I have the time, strength, or desire to find all the secrets, weapon 7 parts, or check out every ending combination (I’ll get to that later).

So let’s dive into the weirdness of the MassMouth world.

So what’s the story you may ask? Well, you are the titular MassMouth, which is this abomination below:

Anyway, you are working for the Pit Worm from Opposing Force. One day, your boss gets kidnapped by another group of aliens (which later turns out to be led by John Romero himself and the previously mentioned Linguica is his right hand). Now you must save him, with the help of a friendly Shock Trooper (also from Opposing Force).

That’s the basic synopsis. There is more to it during the WAD itself, but it all comes down to Evil aliens running away with Worm when you get close to him. And it happens, like, a few times. Plus, there are a couple of unfunny jokes based on referencing (at least the ones that are said). I know, it was 2003 but I think I saw similar stuff from the early-mid 2000s that was better than this.

The cutscenes also have voice acting. It might not really be good but it’s still better than looking at the wall of text that stops you from playing (007 WAD, everybody?).

MassMouth 2 looks, in my opinion, good. While its architecture may look dated in some places even by 2003 standards, this WAD is very versatile with its locations. I’m talking about many planets you visit, including your home world. There is even a moment when you end up in the famous red cave with the invisible stairs from Doomsday of UAC.

We have reached the full circle, people: WAD from the 2003 roster references the map from the 1994 roster. Peak moment!

The music is even better. It was all fun to listen to it (there are even some remixes from Memento Mori II), even though sometimes it was too loud for me. And it was sometimes louder than the dialogue even. But honestly, I don’t mind it since the plot is...

...yeah, let’s move on to something else.

As for the other sound effects that are not related to voice acting, they are fine. Like, I don’t think there was anything annoying to listen to. The only interesting part about these is that the shotgun uses the same sound effect that was used in Equinox.

MassMouth 2 is kind of boring to play. Not gonna lie. As I said before, you are basically chasing after your boss while John Romero, pretending to be Generic Bond villain #whatever, and/or his goons, teleport him away for almost the entire WAD.

But the ways of getting to Worm are mostly different. Once you have to rely on a moderately dimwitted robot as a guide to teleport to another map, other times you overload diet Orkz’ space ship by turning off its power, and yet another time you smash into a scientist’s house and slaughter his bodyguards just to talk to him.

There is also Training Course, where you can learn the mechanics of this WAD... alongside things that every person that played Doom already knows... Okay?

I mentioned earlier about ending combinations. That’s because this WAD has multiple endings. Now the first ten levels are relatively linear, there is no branching except for some secrets to find. Once you reach Regression, things start to get interesting. It all mostly comes down to choosing if you want to stick up with Worm or start working with Romero. There might be another branching path related to saving Worm in Space Station Romero, but I managed to save him. I think I got the best possible ending, but I wonder if that’s actually true since MassMouth gets Daikatana copy for all of the trouble he went through.

...

I think I made a huge mistake.

Do not underestimate this WAD. Even though it has only up to dozens of enemies, MassMouth 2 can kick your ass. Although, if that’s true because the fights are actually fair is debatable due to the enemies and your weapons that I will talk about in a moment. And I’m not even talking about moments where you find yourself fighting multiple hitscanners without any proper cover.

So. New weapons. Some of them function the same as their original counterparts but most of them are changed:

There is the Shovel that can be powered up to deal higher damage (although with limited usage).

MassMouth’s personal laser gun acts like a slower Plasma Gun. It works fine when you don't have ammo for your other guns.

Diet Orkz’ rapid-firing shotgun is an absolute beast. It can wreck almost every enemy (providing that you can see from its muzzle flash).

There is also Railgun, which also works very good, especially on Orkz.

Oh yeah, there is also Freezethrower... it’s useless against MassMouth enemies.

And the enemies... well... how do I say it... Almost all of them are bullet sponges who barely have any attack windup (if any at all), even the hitscanners. Now let’s see who you fight:

We have Ontras, your typical cannon fodder that is basically a replacement for Zombies. One of the three versions uses a laser gun, while another doesn’t scream when getting hurt.

Shock Troopers are replacements for Mancubi, just as Raptors are for Pinkies.

Genestealers attack you with two projectiles and come out in two versions – Minora and Majora. Aside from their sizes and colors, I didn’t notice anything different between them. maybe one has more health than the other.

The... uhm... Rattamahattas (the fuck was Cyb smoking when coming out with this name) AKA diet Orkz are acting like Evil Troopers from The Troopers' Playground, as in they fire Spiderdemon’s chaingun blasts but with added head-butting when you get close. Good thing that they die to two Railgun blasts.

Yodan uses a stomp attack that deals hitscanning damage.

There are also bosses that mostly function the same way. Linguica shoots Nitrogolem’s fireballs while Romero uses Railgun himself, and after his first phase, his head acts like Lost Soul.

MassMouth 2 is definitely one of those ZDoom WADs of its time. It might look impressive but my final verdict for this MegaWAD is... fine. It’s ultimately just a fine WAD for me. Yes, it was cool to see all of the weird stuff during my blind playthrough but after the shock is gone and now knowing what to expect, it becomes worse with each playthrough since you can’t skip cutscenes (I tried with the intro one and it broke, showing MassMouth and MassMouth Jr.). At least the characters are voiced so the suffering wasn’t really that big.

And with that WAD out of the way, only maps are left to review. Yes, the 2003 roster’s remaining four WADs are actually maps, so it will go pretty fast with these (at least depending on their sizes).

See you next time, folks.

Bye!

#doom #Doom WAD #review #Doom 2 #doom mod #doom 2003 #2003 #MassMouth 2 #Doom MassMouth 2 #Doom WADs’ Roulette

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stranger-who-writes-fiction · 3 years

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i don't know what to be without you around

Fandom: Supergirl Rating: K Pairings: None A/N: I fully intended for this to just be a goofy headcanon and then WHOOPS it turned into Danvers Sisters feelings. (Not k*lex. If I see it tagged as such, ya get BLOCKED.) Short. 99% fluff. Probably contains spelling errors. You’ve been warned.

...

Then

Occasionally, Alex would regret all the time and effort she'd wasted focusing on the downsides of having been thrust into elder sibling-dom. Because while, yes, a lot of the changes that occurred in the Danvers household upon Kara's arrival were...not great...there were definitely some perks to having a sister.

Like the simple satisfaction of a perfectly timed, “Shotgun!” victory.

“What?” Kara protested, her yawn undercutting her indignation. “You can't call shotgun yet, we don't leave for another hour.”

“You snooze you lose,” Alex told her, giving her a pointed look as she yawned again. “Literally.”

Kara rolled her eyes and returned to stuffing pairs of t-shirts and shorts into her duffle bag. Alex did the same, surveying her own bag to see if she'd missed anything. Bug spray, maybe?

She turned to head out into the hall, but Kara stood in her path, wearing a sly smile.

Alex didn't like the look of it. Not one bit.

“What's with the face?” she asked, attempting to sidestep around her younger sister. Kara easily blocked her, and crossed her arms.

“Okay, you get shotgun,” she said. Alex blinked.

“Uh, yeah. I know. I called it.”

“Which means,” Kara continued, complete with dramatic pause for full effect, but Alex already knew what was coming. The second half of the rule...how could she have forgotten. How could she have been so foolish. “I get to pick the music.”

Alex groaned in dismay.

“Kara, no.”

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

It would take them four hours to get to the Tuolumne Meadows campground. Alex sighed, and rested her head against the passenger-side window. That meant four rounds of Fearless, though it was more likely that Kara would just play the same five or six songs she'd been listening to on repeat ever since she bought the album.

“Can't we listen to something else? Please?” Alex begged.

Kara smirked, and turned the volume up.

But of course, her mom immediately turned it back down, giving Kara a stern look in the rearview mirror.

“Kara,” she said in a tone that suggested, knock it off.

Kara quickly cowed, retreating further into the safety of the backseat. “Sorry, Eliza.”

“Great,” Alex said, sitting up straighter in her seat. “Now get her to play something else.”

“Alex, just listen to your iPod, if you don't like Kara's music,” her mom suggested. Alex sank back into the seat.

“...It's not charged.” There was a snort from the backseat. Alex glared into the rearview mirror. “Because someone lost their chord and was hogging mine this morning.”

Kara shrugged, and smirked that same insufferable smirk.

“You snooze you lose.”

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Four hours and what felt like a billion playthroughs of “Forever and Always” later, they arrived at the campsite, the interminable car ride almost instantly forgotten as the rocky banks of the river came into view. Alex had been here before, years ago on a father-daughter camping trip, but it was Kara's first time. As they filed out of the car and began to pull duffle bags and ice chests from the trunk, she turned to gaze out at the trees, taking a deep, calming breath.

Alex joined her, and gave her shoulder a good natured nudge. “It's nice, huh?”

“Yeah,” Kara agreed. “It's...a softer kind of noisy, than Midvale,” she explained with a happy sigh. And then, after a moment, she said, “...Sorry for being a jerk, in the car.”

“It's fine,” Alex shrugged. “Here, grab the tent.” Kara lifted the gear with ease, and followed Alex over to a level patch of dirt. “I just don't get how you can listen to the same, like, five songs.” She gestured for Kara to dump out the contents of the tent.

“No super speed, Kara!” Eliza called from the car. “You'll kick up too much dust!”

“Okay!” Kara called back as Alex began sorting the pieces. Kara stooped to help her. “They're good songs. You listen to your favorites a lot.” And Alex had to pause and silently admit, that was true.

“Yeah, but not over and over,” Alex finally said. “I'd get tired of them.” Which was also true. She remembered liking that Fray song, once upon a time, but now, it just annoyed her, any time it played on the radio.

Kara shook her head at Alex’s remark. “I don’t. There's something new, every time.”

Alex glanced over at her, ready with a retort—how could there be anything new in Taylor Swift songs? Weren't they all just...basically the same thing? First dates at fifteen, feeling fearless in the rain at 2AM?

But Kara's eyes were bright behind her glasses as she enthusiastically went on. “Like, sometimes, I'll just listen to the rhythm, or the vocals, or I'll pick out my favorite sounds, and it makes the whole song brand new again.”

Alex narrowed her eyes. “So...it's an alien ears thing, or...?”

Kara considered the question as they continued to put the tent together—they'd located all the poles and stakes, and were maneuvering the tarps into place. “...Maybe?” She said.

Alex kept working on the tent, waiting for Kara to continue, perhaps offer some sort of additional explanation. When she didn’t, Alex looked up to see that Kara’s eyes were on the tree canopy overhead. Her expression was neutral, but Alex had come to recognize that particular look.

She was listening.

To what, Alex didn't know.

“Yeah,” she said after a time. “Yeah, I think it is an alien ears thing.” She smiled. “I like the way guitars sound.”

Alex might've teased her about that, if Kara hadn't sounded so achingly sincere. Did they have guitars, on Krypton? Alex couldn’t remember Kara saying anything about music from her home world. Alex knew it probably wasn’t the case, but she imagined it being a lot of...synth-y sci-fi stuff.

She considered asking Kara about it, but decided against it--sometimes, Kara would get...weird, about such topics, and they were having a nice time. Alex didn’t want to ruin it.

So instead, she feigned offense. “Well, if you like guitars, I don't see why you don't like my music.”

Kara emphatically shook her head.

“Your music is loud.”

Alex started feeding one of the poles through the tent material. “Um, yes? That's the best part?”

“Yeah, no thanks,” Kara chuckled as she hammered a stake in place. The repeated the process at each corner, and soon enough, the tent was upright, and ready for them to store their gear inside. “It's loud and it's so emo.”

Alex snorted, heading for their pile of backpacks and duffle bags.

“Okay, Miss 'Romeo save me I've been feeling so alone'.”

FWUMP.

A sleeping bag collided with Alex's right arm.

“That song is great!” Kara insisted, already reaching for more ammo with a wide smile.

“That's not even how the play goes!” Alex teased her. “Right? Aren't you like, the Romeo and Juliet expert?”

FWUMP. The second sleeping bag hit home, but Alex didn't care. She was having fun.

“That's not the point, and you know it!”

“See the lights, see the party, the ball gowns, see you make your way through the crowd--” Alex thought she was safe, as there were no more sleeping bags.

But Kara had found their pillows.

FWUMP. FWUMP.

She laughed again, careful not to let the pillows fall in the dirt. And she was just about ready to give Kara a taste of her own medicine, when she saw that sly smile once more.

Oh, no.

“Hey, Alex, if you hate the song so much,” Kara said with a knowing look, “how come you know all the words?”

Well, shoot.

“...Cause...you play it all the time. Obviously.”

“And you’ve listened close enough each time to learn all the lyrics?”

Alex scowled. “...I mean. It’s...it’s kind of catchy, I guess.”

Kara beamed.

“Ha! I knew—”

Alex hurled both pillows at her.

FWUMP!

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

Now

Alex lets out a relieved sigh.

Kara is back.

Kara is safe.

Kara appears to be whole and...mostly healthy. Her sodium levels are low enough to give Alex some pause, and her right leg shows signs of muscle strain, but otherwise...

“Can I go home now?” Kara's voice is raspy from fatigue. Alex shakes her head.

“Not yet,” she says. “Sodium has to be administered slowly. It's gonna take a while.”

Alex expects some sort of pushback, or protest, but Kara just offers a small hum of understanding. She really is tired, Alex realizes.

“But hey, good news,” Alex adds with forced brightness, “you do get to eat in about,” she consults her watch, “fifteen minutes, or so. Anything you want. Me and Kelly are buying.”

This earns a groggy grin from Kara, and Alex stores the image in her mind, filed under 'reassurances that Kara is still Kara, even after...everything.'

“A dangerous offer,” Kara jokes.

“Well. It...would not be the first time we bought a mountain of food, to welcome you home,” she admits. Kara shoots her a sad, questioning look, but Alex pointedly ignores it. “So. What'll it be? Pick your poison.”

Her sister's brow furrows in thought. “Um. I guess...whatever will get here fastest?” she suggests. “I'm starving.”

“Ah. We all had a feeling you might be, so,” Alex scoots her stool across the room and extracts a plastic bag from under one of the lab tables. “Snack run,” she says, revealing the spoils with a flourish. Kara laughs outright. It's soft, but it's the strongest she's sounded since returning from the Phantom Zone.

“Thank you,” she says. But Alex taps her watch.

“Still have eight minutes to go,” she reminds her. Kara nods obediently, though she's already sifting through the bag.

“I assume the apples and olives are from Brainy,” she says.

“He swears by that combo,” Alex tells her. “Don't worry, I'm pretty sure J'onn put some actual sustenance in there. You know. Red Vines. Pretzels. The good stuff.”

“...What's this?” Kara asks, and Alex wonders if Brainy perhaps added other questionable food combinations, but the item Kara pulls from the bag isn't one of the snacks.

“Oh.” Alex rubs her arm, a little self consciously. She forgot she left that in there. “That's just...” She pauses. “...I saw that. While you were...” Alex tries to think of a good word for it, but there isn’t one. “...away. I guess I thought...that if I got it. It...was like a promise. That we'd find you. And I'd give it to you.”

The logic doesn't seem quite as sound, as she says it out loud. Regardless, it dredges up memories of awful days marked only by failure, frustration, and fear that they'd never find Kara.

She shakes her head, clearing the thoughts away, and continues in a lighter tone. “Because obviously, pot stickers would go bad, so. This seemed...less wasteful.”

Kara nods, still staring at the shrink-wrapped copy of Fearless (Taylor's Version). A wistful sort of look tugs at her features.

“I haven't listened to these songs in years,” she says.

And Alex can't pass up the opportunity to tease her. “Yes. It's been nice.”

Kara rolls her eyes, but she's still smiling. “It's a good album and you know it,” she says. She sets it aside and yawns. Alex notices that she's looking a little worn out, and she doesn't appear interested in the food anymore.

“You want to rest, while I order the food?”

“...Yeah,” Kara decides. Alex stands to collect the snacks and put them back on the lab table. Kara inclines her heard towards the CD. “Did J'onn put a stereo down here?” Alex gives her a look. “Wait. Of course he did.”

Alex takes the hint and grabs the CD, pulling off the wrapper before heading out onto the main floor. The mismatched selection of furniture is currently off to the side, having been cleared away for one of Nia's training sessions. Alex finds the stereo next to one of the lamps.

When Alex returns to the med bay, Kara's already nearly asleep, her breathing slow and steady.

Alex checks on one of the computers—everything is holding steady, and Kara's responding well to the sodium. She should be able to go home tonight.

It makes Alex sigh in relief once more.

Kara's safe.

Kara's healthy.

Kara's home.

Alex places the CD into the open tray. Checks the track list, turns it to one of the softer songs, and lets it play.

Kara smiles as the opening chords drift through the speakers.

“I like the guitar,” she says quietly.

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NOTES: - Brought to you by the release of Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and the realization that the original album would’ve dropped at the perfect time for young, impressionable Kara to become a huge fan. - Title pulled from “Breathe” because WATCH ME repurpose select lyrics from love songs for platonic/familial relationships. - I want to say that Kara and Alex went to a MCR concert together...or maybe mentioned MCR? In the tie-in comic? I forget. This isn’t really crucial to the story, I just think it’s a fun aside. - Apparently it’s National Siblings Day so...yay for good timing? XD

#stranger writes #supergirl fic #long post #alex danvers #kara danvers #starts canon compliant #then diverges #supergirl season 6 spoilers #(not really #it just takes place during the current season)

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maskedpeach · 4 years

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RPG Maker Fever Hero & Issues

Warning: This article may contain spoilers and the content inappropriate for children…or may not contain.But get the children away from the screen just in case.

Five little authors went out to write. One little author has missed the deadline. Four little authors didn’t pay him much mind. Three authors are left since fourth drank the lye. Three little authors are bursting with confidence. One overworked himself and other two ignored his absence. Two little authors try to finish hard task. Teddy bear hugged one and one stands at last. One little author is left all alone. He hung himself on the chandelier and then there were none…Then who has finished this article? And why this teddy bear is giving me a weird look?

1. Walking on a Star Unknown

Walking on a Star Unknown is the latest game made by Segawa and most heartwarming out of her three games (while End Roll was more heartbreaking than heartwarming, and Farethere City is somewhere in-between). Game tells a story of two alien siblings, whose ship has crashed on the unfamiliar planet, where they decide to participate in the cooking tournament to get their ship fixed. Gameplay is simple yet very fun - most of the time you gather ingredients, learn new recipes, do side-quests and make friends with the planet inhabitants. Game has memorable cast of characters with their own interesting stories and bright and stylish visuals. As previous Segawa’s games Star also has some disturbing themes and some areas are dark and creepy, but overall tone of the game is bright and optimistic.

2. Witch’s Heart

Actually I wrote the detailed review on this game few posts ago, but I’m still including WH in the article for those who are lazy to read that enormous wall of a text. The most notable part of the game is its plot (which is interesting to follow and full of good twists) and memorable cast of well-developed characters. Along with it WH has entertaining gameplay (mini-games included), great presentation and catchy soundtrack. Overall it is one of the best games I’ve ever played, so if you like rpg-horrors I suggest to at least give it a try. Game is still unfinished, currently only one ending (out of four routes) is available, but even in the present state it means about 15-20 hours of gameplay.

3. The Mystery Files of Detective Inaba No. 1, 2, 3

Here goes a game trilogy about Sogo Inaba-a tsundere detective with adorable side and Nina Arimura – his energetic assistant, together they solve various cases, some of the cases are pretty normal, and others are somewhat paranormal. First game of the series is a detective with minor supernatural horror elements – some rpg-horror typical puzzles and minor chasing sequences included. Second game is purely realistic and much more simple gameplay-wise comparing to the first game. Stories in first two games resemble Agatha Christie’s detective novels mixed with japanese psychological horrors. Third game of the series is closer to pure survival horror with minor detective elements and plays like many other rpg-horrors . To be honest, the third game is my personal favorite, since it is the most polished game out of three and the good conclusion for the Inaba and Arimura’s story. All three games are about 2 hours long and have great presentation (like quality art-style and great in-game music).

4. Asadoke no Majo

Asadoke no Majo starts with our protagonist Yui arguing with her father and as a result running away from home to …another country, where resides their old family mansion along with dark family secret and a handsome guy managing the estate as a bonus. Game is about 2 hours long and has pretty simple puzzles, minor jumpscares and several chasing scenes (but a final chase is the only frustrating one). Despite being pretty typical rpg-horror Asadoke no Majo leaves very positive impression thanks to bright cast of characters (the Nogi guy here is something else), good story and atmosphere along with well-chosen soundtrack. Currently game is available in japanese and russian.

5. Hero & Daughter

H&D is a dungeon-crawler made by tachi (Headless Prisoner, Moonlight Ghost, Hello?Hell…o?), which mocking famous fantasy cliché “hero defeats a dark lord”.Our hero Ralph get his level reduced to 1 because of his arrogance, and with this permanent level 1 he is tasked to defeat the Demon Lord. Again. That’s where Ralph’s friend of the haremancer class comes to rescue. This guy can summon pretty girls (including heroines from previous tachi’s games like Erina and Akari) to help Ralph in his quest. H&D is fun and entertaining, battles are fast-pacing, dungeons are complex, visuals are nice, also game has enormous level-cap and loads of optional content and many playable characters. Plot may be simple, but H&D has good humor and characters ( even generic Ralph got a nice personality). If you like quality role-playing games I highly recommend to try it out

6. Ai korosu yori, Ai korosaretai

An ordinary (alright, maybe a bit eccentric) family moves into new house. Soon after that their daughter Lucy falls with high fever.When she gets better, she discovers that her parents are gone and various weird phenomena is occurring in the house. To find the missing parents Lucy will have to search the house and learn about its history full of mysterious disappearances and tragic events. AiAi has very interesting story (good mix of horror and sci-fi) and entertaining gameplay with interesting puzzles and action cut-ins. Also beside proceeding the story you can also do some optional stuff like gathering collectibles and later saving runaway cows. If you like quality horror-adventures I highly recommend to try this game out. AiAi is currently available in japanese and russian.

7. Escatpade

Here goes another quality game for those who is tired from horror and tragedy and wants something warm and relaxing. Escatpade is about the girl who falls into the pit and finds herself in the weird place full of adorable talking cats. Game is nice and fun, have a bright, adorable designs and simple yet elegant puzzles. Also some items in the inventory can change appearance of our heroine (like clothes, glasses and stuffed kittycats).

8. Tower of Feles

ToF made by the author of Escatpade and also full of adorable cats. But unlike Escatparade this game is slightly more challenging. ToF is an action-puzzle where your objective is save your little sister from evil witch. In order to do so you have to climb on top of the tower, solving various puzzles and avoiding witch’s servants in the process. Every floor has a time limit, and if either time runs out or your health drops to zero you’ll have to start the floor over. Game is a bit tricky and very fun to play. If you have beaten Escatpade and want more cats and cuteness- Tower of Feles is what you need.

9. Twilight Epic

Twilight Epic is a sequel to Amayado Bus Stop. This time the main character is Akane’s and Akari’s cousin Akino, who receives a call from unknown girl, who tells him about certain “promise” and right after that he finds this girl’s dead body (or not quite dead). The boy decides to find out the truth and grown-up Chitose and Akari are helping him out. Game is far more simple than its predecessor-puzzles are mostly gone and chasing scenes are pretty straightforward, but still the game is very enjoyable, since story is good and heartwarming. Also game has quality art-style and skit system similar to one in Tales series. Twilight Epic is currently available in japanese and russian.

10. Peret em Heru: For the Prisoners

Peret em Heru is survival horror with rpg-elements about a group of tourists, lead by an archeologist, professor Tsuchida, exploring ancient ruins underneath the Great Pyramid of Giza. Needless to say, that these ruins are filled with deadly traps and Tsuchida’s intentions are far from mere scientific interest. Gameplay resembles Sweet Home and Corpse Party –Rebuilt-, but more simple and straightforward – you play as one of the tourists, fight monsters, grind levels, and save your teammates from booby traps. Overall Peret em Heru is a nice game with stylish old-fashioned visuals and good music, game is about 3 hours long and have one ending, which varies depending on how many of your teammates have survived.

11. The Object

You awake in the dark room in the unknown place and find out that not only your memories are gone, but your head is gone as well. On top of that you can attach literally anything to an empty place where your head once was. Now your goal is to regain the lost memories along with the head and leave the house. Game consists from exploration and simple yet elegant puzzles, which you solve by swapping your heads. Game is pretty interesting and has five endings , to get all of them you’ll need about 30 minutes.

12. Colors: Lost Memories

This time you play as a little girl who finds herself in the colorless world inhabited by talking animals. To get back home she must return this world its colors. Colors have stylish visuals highly reminiscent of old GBC games as well as unique puzzles based on using various colors you get during the game at the right places. First you can use only one color (for example red is needed to light or put out fire), later you will be able to activate up to three colors at the same time.Game is cute and fun to play, approximate time of the playthrough is one hour.

13. Nemoral

Nemoral is a short game about two cops who end up in the abandoned mansion while chasing the cult followers, assuming that they have something to do with the recent disappearances of children. And this mansion hides pretty dark secret about a project based on the famous fairy tale. Nemoral is quality action-horror, where both visuals and gameplay is somewhat resemble very first Resident Evil (in the good way of course). The only con of Nemoral is anti-climatic ending (game was made for the contest, and author was short on time). But even in present state the game is still enjoyable.

14. B*x. Colorful.

I’ve decided to unite both games in one mini-review, since they are both made by the same author and both are very short. B*x is about lonely girl in bunny outfit, who lives with her boyfriend, the only person who cares about her. But it seems like he’s hiding something from her. Game is about 30 minutes long and have few easy puzzles. Colorful is only 10 minutes long and have no puzzles at all, and more depressing than B*x. In Colorful you just listen to the story and watch pictures. Both games have very nice art style.

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arcaneyouth · 3 years

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i saw youve been rbing a lot of subnautica recently and i dont really know much about the game so please tell me abt it? its very pretty-looking :0

Subnautica is super fun!!! You crash land on a mostly-water planet and have to figure out a way off the planet using resources from the planet and the limited resources you landed with. Some of the fish are friendly while others will eat you on sight. Meanwhile you discover a lot of different things, such as a (allegedly) dead race of aliens that left lots of artifacts and said artifacts are preventing you from leaving, what happened to this struggling planet, and the logs and bases of a group of other humans that also crash landed here years ago. The story is incredible and the worldbuilding blows my fucking mind, there's so much thought put into everything and every creature that lives here!!!

I'm not usually one for survival based games but GOD. Subnautica really takes the cake. It's so beautiful and I love observing the fish and learning about them so much. Personally I like to play with the invisible cheat active, which makes all creatures ignore you, because otherwise it's a horror survival game and I'm kinda just here for the exploration. And there's a LOT to explore.

I highly recommend playing it or watching a playthrough at least once because it really is An Experience

#asks #i'm hoping to get into vtubing some time soon and one of my first plans is to make a subnautica series/stream subnautica #i've got one specific friend that i really want to show subnautica to which is the main reason why i'm doing it #cause i already know so much about the game but AAAAA it's good and i want people to see it #subnautica #slight spoilers (probably idk you find out early in the game) but this game is so fucking funny to play in the middle of a pandemic #*points at kharaa* haha that's happening to us

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ducktastic · 4 years

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2020 Gameological Awards

Over on the Gameological Discord, we have an annual tradition of writing up our games of the year not as a ranked list but rather as answers to a series of prompts. Here are my personal choices for the year that was 2020.

Favorite Game of the Year

I didn’t know what to expect when I walked into Paradise Killer. I knew that I liked the vaporwave resort aesthetic from the game’s trailer and figured I was in for a Danganronpa-style murder mystery visual novel with an open-ended murder mystery at its core. Those assumptions were… half-right? The game definitely plays out like the exploration bits of Danganronpa set on the island from Myst but with far simpler puzzles. What I didn’t expect was to fall so deeply in love with the environment—its nooks and crannies, its millennia of lore, its brutalist overlap of idol worship, consumerism, and mass slaughter. It makes sense that the world of Paradise Killer is its strongest feature, since the cast of NPCs don’t really move around, leaving you alone with the world for the overwhelming majority of your experience as you bounce back and forth between digging around for clues and interrogating potential witnesses. And despite what the promo materials indicated, there IS a definitive solution to the crimes you’re brought in to investigate, the game just lets you make judgment based on whatever evidence you have at the time you’re ready to call it a day, so if you’re missing crucial evidence you might just make a compelling enough case for the wrong person and condemn them to eternal nonexistence. Am I happy with the truth at the end of the day? No, and neither is anybody else I’ve spoken to who completed the game, but we all were also completely enthralled the entire time and our dissatisfaction has less to do with the game and more to do with the ugly reality of humanity. I’ve always been of the mindset that “spoilers” are absolute garbage and that a story should be just as good whether you know the twist or not and any story that relies on surprising the audience with an unexpected reveal is not actually that good a story, but Paradise Killer is a game about piecing together your own version of events so I feel that it’s vital to the gameplay experience that people go in knowing as little as possible and gush all about it afterwards. Just trust me, if the game looks even remotely intriguing to you, go for it. I’ve had just as much fun talking about the game after I finished it with friends just getting started as I did actually solving its mysteries myself.

Best Single Player Game

I honestly missed out on the buzz for In Other Waters at launch, so I’m happy I had friends online talking it up as Black Friday sales were coming along. The minimal aesthetic of his underwater exploration game allows the focus to shift more naturally to the game’s stellar writing as a lone scientist goes off in search of her mentor and the secrets they were hiding on an alien world. It only took a few hours for me to become completely absorbed in this narrative and keep pushing forward into increasingly dangerous waters. In Other Waters might just be the best sci-fi story I experienced all year and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys sci-fi novels, regardless of their experience with video games.

Best Multiplayer Game

Look, we all know this year sucked. 2020 will absolutely be chronicled in history books as a fascinating and deeply depressing time in modern history where we all stayed inside by ourselves and missed our friends and family. It was lonely and it was bleak. Which is why it made my heart glow so much more warmly every time I got a letter from an honest-to-goodness real-life friend in Animal Crossing New Horizons. Knowing that they were playing the same game I was and hearing about their experiences and sending each other wacky hats or furniture, it lightened the days and made us feel that little bit more connected. Sure, when the game first launched we would actually take the time to visit one another’s islands, hang out, chat in real-time, and exchange gifts, but we all eventually got busy with Zoom calls, sourdough starters, and watching Birds of Prey twenty-two times. Still, sending letters was enough. It was and still is a touching little way to show that we’re here for one another, if not at the exact same time.

Favorite Ongoing Game

Zach Gage is one of my favorite game designers right now, and when I heard he was releasing a game called Good Sudoku I was sold sight unseen. The game as released was… fine. It’s sudoku and it’s pleasant, but it was also buggy and overheated my phone in a way I hadn’t seen since Ridiculous Fishing (also by Zach Gage) seven years ago. Thankfully, the most glaring bugs have been fixed and I can now enjoy popping in every day for some quick logic puzzle goodness. Daily ranked leaderboards keep me coming back again and again, the steady ramp of difficulty in the arcade and eternal modes means I can always chase the next dopamine rush of solving increasingly complex puzzles. It’s not a traditional “ongoing” game the way, say, Fortnite and Destiny are, but I’m happy to come back every day for sudoku goodness.

Didn't Click For Me

With Fortnite progressively losing me over the course of 2020, finalizing with my wholesale “never again” stance after Epic boss Tim Sweeney compared Fortnite demanding more money from Apple to the American Civil Rights movement (no, absolutely not), I dipped my toe into a number of new “battle pass”-style online arena types of games, and while Genshin Impact eventually got its hooks into me, Spellbreak absolutely did not. With graphics straight out of The Dragon Prince and the promise of a wide variety of magic combat skills to make your character your own, the game seemed awfully tempting, but my first few experiences were aimless and joyless, with no moment of clarity to make me understand why I should keep coming back. Maybe they’ll finesse the game some more in 2021, or a bunch of my friends will get hooked and lure me back, but for now I am a-okay deleting this waste of space on my Switch and PC.

"Oh Yeah, I Did Play That Didn't I?"

I remember being really excited for Murder By Numbers. Ace Attorney-style crime scene investigation visual novel with Picross puzzles for the evidence, art by the creators of Hatoful Boyfriend, and music by the composer of Ace Attorney itself?! Sounds like a dream come true. But the pixel-hunt nature of the crime scene investigations was more frustrating than fun, the picross puzzles were not particularly great, and the game came out literally a week before the entire world went into lockdown which makes it feel more like seven years ago than just earlier this year. I remember being marginally charmed by the game once it was in my hands, but as soon as my mind shifted to long-term self care, Murder By Numbers went from hot topic to cold case.

Most Unexpected Joy

I was looking forward to Fuser all year. As a dyed-in-the-wool DropMix stan, the prospect of a spiritual sequel to DropMix on all major digital platforms without any of the analogue components was tremendously exciting, and I knew I’d have a lot of fun making mixes by myself and posting them online for the world to hear. What I didn’t expect, however, was the online co-op mode to be such a blast! Up to four players take turns making 32 bars of mashups, starting with whatever the player before handed them and adding their own fingerprints on top. It sounds like it should just be a mess of cacophony, but every session I’ve played so far has been just the best dance party I’ve had all year, and everyone not currently in control of the decks (including an audience of spectators) can make special requests for what the DJ should spin and tap along with the beat to great super-sized emoji to show how much they’re enjoying the mix. Literally the only times my Apple Watch has ever warned me of my heightened heart rate have been the times I was positively bouncing in place rocking out to co-op freestyle play in Fuser.

Best Music

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Only one video game this year had tunes that were so bumpable they were upgraded to my general “2020 jams” playlist alongside Jeff Rosenstock, Run the Jewels, and Phoebe Bridgers, and that game was Paradise Killer. 70% lo-fi chill beats to study/interrogate demons to, 20% gothic atmospheric bangers, 10% high-energy pop jazz, this soundtrack was just an absolute joy to swim around in both in and out of gameplay.

Favorite Game Encounter

It’s wild that in a landscape where games let me live out my wildest fantasies, the single moment that lit me up in a way that stood out to me more than any other was serving Neil the right drink in Coffee Talk. Over the course of the game, you serve a variety of hot drinks to humans, werewolves, vampires, orcs, and more, all while chatting with your customers and learning more about their lives and relationships. The most mysterious customer, though, is an alien life form who adopts the name Neil. They do not know what they want to drink and claim it doesn’t make a difference because they cannot taste it. Everybody else wants *something*. Neil is just ordering for the sake of fitting in and exploring the Earth experience. It’s only in the second playthrough that attentive baristas will figure out what to serve Neil, unlocking the “true” ending in the process. Seeing the typically stoic Neil actually emote when they tasted their special order drink? What an absolute treat that was.

Best Free DLC of the Year

It’s still only a couple of days old at the time I’m writing this, but Marvel’s Avengers just added Kate Bishop, aka Hawkeye, and THANK GOODNESS. Almost every character in the game at launch just smashed the endless waves of robot baddies with their fists and that looks exhausting and uncomfortable. Hawkeye (the game calls her Kate Bishop, but come on, she’s been Hawkeye in the comics for over 14 years, let’s show her some respect) uses A SWORD. FINALLY! Aside from that, I’m just having a blast shooting arrows all over the place. She and Ms Marvel are the most likable characters in the game so far, so I hope they keep adding more of the Young Avengers and Champions to the game, and if the recently announced slate of Marvel movies and tv shows are any indication (with America Chavez, Cassie Lang, and Riri Williams all coming soon to the MCU), that seems to be what Marvel is pushing for across all media

Most Accessible Game

Nintendo is, first and foremost, a toy company. They got their start in toys and cards long before video games was a thing, and they still do more tests to ensure their video game hardware is childproof than anybody else in the industry (remember how they made Switch cartridges “taste bad” so kids wouldn’t eat them?). This year, Nintendo got to rekindle some of their throwback, simplistic, toys-and-cards energy with Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics, a Switch collection of timeless family-friendly games like Chess, Mancala, and Backgammon, along with “toy” versions of sports like baseball, boxing, and tennis for a virtual parlor room of pleasant time-wasters. The games were all presented with charming li’l explainers from anthropomorphic board game figurines, and the ability to play quick sessions of Spider Solitaire on the touch screen while I binged The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix made Clubhouse Games one of my most-played titles of the year. Plus, local play during socially-distant friend hangs was an excellent way to make us feel like we were much closer than we were physically allowed to be as friends knocked each other’s block off in the “toy boxing” version of Rock’em Sock’em Robots.

"Waiting for Game-dot"

I get that everyone loves Disco Elysium. I saw it on everyone’s year-end lists last year. I finally bought it with an Epic Games Store coupon this year. This year was a long enough slog of depressing post-apocalyptic drudgery, I didn’t want to explore a whole nother one in my leisure time. I’ll get to it… someday.

Game That Made Me Think

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Holovista was an iPhone game I played over the course of two or three days based on the recommendation of some trusted colleagues on Twitter and oh my goodness was I glad that I played it. What starts as a chill vaporwave photography game steadily progresses into an exploration of psychological trauma, relationships with friends and family, and the baggage we carry with us from our pasts. In this exceptionally hard year, I badly needed this story about spending time alone with your personal demons and finding your way back to the people who love and support you. Just like with Journey and Gone Home, I walked away from Holovista feeling a rekindled appreciation for the people in my life.

#video games #holovista #paradise killer #animal crossing #animal crossing new horizons #spellbreak #good sudoku #fuser #dropmix #in other waters #marvel's avengers #avengers #clubhouse games #coffee talk #2020

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surveys-at-your-service · 3 years

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Survey #446

“so you can throw me to the wolves / tomorrow i will come back, leader of the whole pack”

Favourite cheese? American. Superman or Batman? I know literally nothing of Superman, but I like Batman. Who are your best friends? The only person I consider a best friend is Sara. Name the 3 most important people in your life: My mom, Sara, and... I suppose myself since I cherish my mental health VERY deeply. Are you currently learning from anyone how to play any instruments? No. Do you know anyone who is overly flirty with people? Girl or a boy? In my personal opinion, yes. I do believe it's possible to be "overly" flirty, considering you can really lead people on. It's a she. Do you believe vampires are real? Not the stereotypical Twilight kind. No. Have you ever been to a porn website? Were you addicted to it afterword? No. I'm really not into that. What is the most disgusting thing you think the opposite sex can do? I think the most disgusting thing anyone can do is commit rape. Would you rather be able to teleport or freeze time? Which one seems best? I feel teleportation is obviously more convenient and useful in dangerous situations. Have you seen the movie Twister? Did the tornadoes look real to you? LKJFL;AKSDJFKLASJDLFKA;WE NOOOOOOOOOO. I am WAY too terrified of tornadoes to watch that. Have you actually been through a devastating natural disaster before? Hurricane Floyd was pretty devastating. I was too young to really remember it, though. Did your mom ever fix your eggs and bacon into a smiley face as a kid? She probably did. What fast food place, in your opinion, has the best french fries? BOJANGLE'S, AHHHHHHHHHHHH. Do you believe one day aliens might take over the planet Earth? I mean, it's possible, but I don't know. Do you remember when they used to actually throw candy out at parades? I didn't know they stopped. Does it bother you when people burp around you or do you do it too? I couldn't possibly care less, it's a natural bodily function. Just because of societal standards though, I don't burp in public, though, but only around family and close friends. What is one kind of music you’d do anything to not listen to in the car? Anything like rap that has a STUPIDLY loud bass that just annoys everyone within a ten mile radius. When was the last time you babysat, if ever? Did anything bad happen? A year or two ago, for my nephew. No one else was free to watch him, so I had no choice. Nothing bad happened, besides nearly having a panic attack. Do you ever talk to people you met online through webcam? Or is that weird? No. Even Sara and I don't do it, because I'm too self-conscious of how I look. Even though she's seen me plenty before irl. Would you ever consider becoming a scientist? Why would you or why not? Well, I majored in biology briefly... I wanted to be a wildlife biologist. I just adore animals and thought I could do it. I just couldn't handle school. When is the next time you’ll talk to the cousin you’re closest to? I'm not especially close to any of my cousins. Are you really into vintage things? Have you ever been into that stuff? Yessss! is writing something that you enjoy doing? Definitely. Would you rather read or write? Write. Would you rather draw or take photographs? If I wind up being very proud of the product, I prefer drawing, but I take pictures far more. When was the last time you cheated at something? I have no clue. Has anyone ever copied off of your homework assignments? I think so? Do you have any pictures of celebs saved to your computer? ... *stares at my folder labelled "Mark"* What would you consider your favorite holiday? Why is this? Christmas. I love the whole vibe of it. The weather, the smells, the treats, my niece's and nephew's excitement... I adore all the lights and decorations, the gratefulness for family and your loved ones in general... I just love Christmas. If you’re a girl, do you have big hips? Too big? I'd say my hips are normal. Girls, do you think you look good in dresses or not? God no. Not anymore. Have you ever taken a pottery class before? Nope. How many times have you seen Star Wars? Be honest. Once. I didn't like it. Has your best friend ever made you cry? Yes. But in her defense, we've both made the other cry. Have you ever entered a talent competition? God no, I ain't got shit to flaunt. Are you smiling in your Facebook profile picture? Yes. If you wear eye shadow, do you put on a dark colour or a light? And if you wear mascara, what colour is it? I only ever wear black for both of those. What is your favourite Christmas movie? Jim Carrey's How the Grinch Stole Christmas. What do you get complimented on the most? My Markiplier tattoo, actually. What do you think of your best friend’s ex? One I REALLY don't like, the other I'm neutral about. Are you biracial? No. Do you have Pop-Tarts in your house right now? No. We try to not buy them, given they're just TOTALLY empty calories. They don't fill me at all. Is anyone’s birthday coming up? No. Does/did either of your parents serve in the military? No. Do you like sour candy? I LOVE sour candy. Where would you like to go on your honeymoon? Alaska, to see the Northern Lights. Do you usually wear sunglasses when you’re driving? I haven't driven in well over a year. Hell, maybe two. But no, because I'd need prescription sunglasses. Ignoring nutrition, could you live off veggies for the rest of your life? God no. Has anyone taken their shirt off in front of you? Yeah. What time do you usually have dinner? 5:30-6:30, usually. What’s your favourite meat? Chicken, I think. What is your favourite meal of the day and why? Breakfast. I just enjoy breakfast foods. What colour is your shampoo? White. Tell me a silly little old wive’s tale you believed when you were a child: My older sister got me to believe that if you said a word a ridiculous amount of times, it'd be the only word you knew how to say anymore, lmao. Shut up, I was little. What was the last magazine you bought? Do you subscribe to any? I don't buy magazines. Whose Facebook profile did you last look at? Was there anything that caught your attention? Uh, that's a good question. Do you regret your last relationship? Not at all. What’s better, mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes? Mashed potatoes, though I'm picky with them and the texture. Did you ever used to make cookies, cakes, or pie with your grandma? No. Do you like kids? Not especially. They ask too many questions and can be really rude, even though I know they usually don't mean to be. What are you listening to? I'm watching Gab Smolders play Dino Crisis 2. I finished her playthrough of Final Fantasy X, so now I feel a void in my soul that I am trying to fill with a new series lmao. Do you burn incense? Not really anymore. I'm not against it, I just... haven't. What is your favorite kind of cracker? Cheese-Itz. Can you name a single song by Billy Joel without looking it up? Yeah; I can name a few, actually. My dad loves Billy Joel, so I heard him a lot growing up. "Piano Man" is a classic. Do you like regular peppermint candy canes, or do you prefer different flavored ones [fruits, bubble gum, cinnamon, etc.]? I actually really like the Jolly Rancher ones. Have you ever been kissed while sitting atop the hood of a car? That's actually possible... but I'm not sure. I think I have a faint memory of lying on a car hood with Jason before. What do you think is the dumbest/tackiest piercing? I don't like calling a piercing either of those, like if they make someone feel more confident and attractive, good for them. I can say I'm personally not a fan of the smiley piercing, though. Have you ever requested a song on the radio? No. When I was a kid at a birthday party, though, one of the girls did. Does your mother still take care of you if you get ill? She helps a lot, yeah. What is one song that always brings back memories every time you hear it? Honestly, too many. I attach way too aggressively to songs. Do you currently have any pimples? Not currently, no. Did anything disturb your sleep at all last night? Ugh, yes. I couldn't sleep for shit. How does it make you feel looking at pics with your ex and someone else? I have only seen one picture of Jason with the girl he dated after me and it. Set. Me. On. Fucking. Fire. It's pathetic. If you’re not in college, why? All it did was give me emotional breakdowns. What do you think about MTV? I am way too out of the loop on what goes on on any TV channel to answer this. What was your very first day of your very first job like? What’d you do? How long did it take you to get the hang of it, and feel comfortable with working? This was waaaay too long ago... All I remember is actually being hopeful, though nervous. I never got to the point of feeling comfortable there. Or at any job. If you have a dog, are they friendly to strangers or other dogs? We don't have a dog, but we do have a cat that is EXTREMELY skittish around strangers. Someone he doesn't know comes through the door? He's bolting to hide. Do people ever comment on or joke about your driving? Well, I got flipped off once by a driver, so... I'd consider that a silent comment. I, to this day, don't know why they (it was a group of guys) did it, but it's stuck with me. What was the last thing to move you? Are you easily moved or inspired? The ending of FFX alsdkfjkaljlkwjer. And yes. If you`ve ever seen your very favorite band, did you cry when you saw them? Was it like a dream come true? If you`ve never seen them, do you think you would? I haven't, but I probably would a little bit. Of all the reality competitions you’ve watched, who are some of your all-time favorite contestants and what shows were they from? From America's Got Talent, I adore(d) Landau Eugene Murphy Jr., as well as Prince Poppycock. I keep up with them both on Facebook. Ever had a friend named Alex or John? One of my closest online friends was Alex. A couple years ago she just... got a boyfriend and fell off the face of the earth. Are you happy with your relationship status? I mean... no, I'm ridiculously lonely, but being single is for the best right now. What kind of stuff do you like on your hot dogs? Just ketchup and mustard. Have you ever been in a spelling bee? No. What is the most annoying thing that your parents do? Mom absolutely always assumes she's right. Dad repeats himself like CRAZY. Would you say you’re someone who has good manners? Yes. Did you parents know what gender you were before you were born? Actually, the doctors couldn't determine mine (or any of Mom's kids') because my legs were ALWAYS crossed when they did ultrasounds. Mom says she "knew" I was a girl, though. Have you ever been addicted to something unhealthy? I'm addicted to caffeine, yes. Who makes the best desserts in your entire family? Hm, I dunno. Do you have good dreams or nightmares more? I have very severe sleep apnea that results in very violent nightmares almost any time I sleep without my APAP mask. Even WITH the damn mask, I have them a lot. When was the last time someone insulted you? What was the insult? *shrug* Do you have trouble reading small fonts? Yes. I used to find it aesthetically pleasing, but my vision is just too bad now, even with my (shitty) glasses. Do you know anybody that believes that magic/witchery truly exists? I think so. Do you find watching animals in their natural habitat to be exciting & fascinating? Absolutely!! The last time you had sex: did you want it, or did the other person want it? ... You know it's supposed to be a mutual desire, right?? What does your sibling(s) call you? "Britt." Has anyone you’ve known claimed to be psychic? Maybe? I'm unsure. Did/do you believe them? Hell no. I don't believe in psychics and believe people who claim to be so are manipulative pieces of shit. Is anything annoying you right now? I am bored to an inexplicable level askldjfla;wejlr. Have you ever worn a pair of scrubs? Yeah. Anything in your room that you’re hiding from your parents or someone else? No. Have you ever felt abandoned? Well yes. By definition, my dad abandoned our family. Where are you? I’m in my bed. What’s been the worst part of this day? I've just been so, so bored. I'm sick and fucking tired of dealing with anhedonia. Who last encouraged you to better yourself? My therapist.

#survey #surveys #random questions #lyrics: ''throne'' by bring me the horizon

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maraquanwocky · 4 years

Text

LOOKS LIKE I HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING AROUND HERE MYSELF

questions by teufortvr

How’d you find out about HLVRAI? my friend kitty linked me this moment and like five seconds in i decided “Ah yes. I must now watch this Entire Series.”

Who’s your favorite character and why? basic bitch answer: coomer, for his genuinely excellent one-liners and character arc big brain answer: gman coolatta, for being the g-man but also an enormous dork

Who do you relate to most in the series? tommy and benrey, for the nigh-incomprehensible rambling speech

What font do you use most? hlvrai: finurlig, probably in general: i use notepad a lot so i use consolas the most by default

Favorite Scene? “There’s nothing more refreshing than a nice dip through Sewage Waste Water.”

Favorite Act? act 4 is the best but nothing will ever compare to the feeling i had watching act 1 for the first time

Favorite Line? youtube videos: “Yes...YEEES! ...Is it working-- YEEEEEESS!” OR “Taste it! Gordon, taste it! Please! Taste it, Gordon! Please!” streams: “Weekeepidia. The online, Free encyclopedia that Anyone can edit...Missster Freeman.”

Favorite Beverage? mug’s root beer

Favorite Song (PASSPORT GUARDIAN, Dr.Coomer’s Bumpin Mix)? we can use these for MY-- CLONES-- ..........Hello Gordon!

Do you have a favorite headcanon or trope about any of the characters? i know its p much canon benrey was just licking the corpses but the first time i watched the series i thought he was eating them and i refuse to let go of that interpretation also the gman being an awkward but extremely loving father and tommy responding to the affection like its all normal while everyone else is looking on like “thats a hug???” also the gman being nice to benrey because he treats tommy like the adult he is

Have you watched any other series similar to HLVRAI (Gorgeous Freeman, Freeman’s mind)? i finished freeman’s mind 1 a few days ago and absolutely loved it. gordon’s ‘modern major general’ should be selected by the united states library of congress for preservation in the national film registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant"

Do you drink soda? yes and i wish i could drink more

Do you think aliens exist? outside our solar system, absolutely. inside? There’s nothing there.

What toppings do you like on your pizza? extra cheese and extra pepperoni. buffalo chicken if im at a cici’s

What weapon would you use in a alien invasion? i know nothing about half-life weapons but fallout 4 revolver cool,,

If you could be in any video game, which one would you be in? the elder scrolls online but you have to add in a no death mode

If you could memorize any Wikipedia page by heart, which one? Of the many eruptions of Mount Vesuvius in Italy, the most famous is the eruption in 79 AD. This eruption is one of the deadliest in European history.

What’s your favorite video game right now? i havent been playing the Bideo Gayme at all lately but ive been craving some fallout 4 this past week

Have you played any of the Half Life games? i played like twenty minutes of half-life 1 and absolutely loved it but then a computer fell on me after i crawled through a hole in the wall and i screamed irl and never opened the game again

Do you watch any of the gang (Wayne, Holly, Gir, etc.)? ive been going through wayneradiotv ON DEMAND and have enjoyed almost every stream ive seen. im currently watching his alyx playthrough

If they make a second one, what is one thing you want to happen in it? i know next to nothing about half-life 2 and its episodes but i wanna see how gman coolatta would react to being grabbed by the vortigaunts

What do you think is inside G-man’s suitcase? its hammer space contained within a bag of holding and thus is capable of holding an infinite number of items but somehow its still about 50% tommy-related items; from family photos to his old drawings to like..weighted blankets to soothe him

Is Chuck E. Cheese a restaurant or a entertainment center? people do not go for the rat’s pizza alone. they go for the arcade and cheap-ass prizes. it is a Family Entertainment Center™

#hlvrai

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randomfandomfamily · 5 years

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uhhhmhmjlots of angst one shots lately i see,,,you should write something fluffy w/ gary, avocato, & little cato,,.., you can never go wrong with those 3 interacting in a cute/happy way right?

---

You know what? You right. Have some fluff.

Avocato hadn’t seen much of the arcade, but when he heard Quinn and Gary shouting from that general direction, he figured it was worth investigating.

Though when he found Quinn and Gary, he was confused. They were peering into vents and calling out Little Cato’s name. “What’s going on here?”

Quinn looked at Gary. “You wanna explain? Or should I?”

Gary took a deep breath. “Don’t be mad-”

“Already off to a bad start,” Quinn commented.

“Okay, I didn’t know a root beer float was going to give him a friggin’ sugar high, Quinn,” Gary said, “I just thought ‘Hey! Little Cato’s never heard of a root beer float before, maybe he should try one.’”

“He didn’t have a root beer float, Gary,” Quinn shot back. “He had five of them because somebody left him alone at the soda parlor!”

Avocato looked at Gary in confusion. “What the hell is a root beer float?”

“Is this seriously just an Earth thing? There is a soda parlor on this alien ship, and you’re telling me no one has had a float ever?!”

“It’s ice cream and soda,” Quinn answered for him. “Basically just caffeine and sugar.”

“But root beer doesn’t have caffeine in it,” Avocato interrupted.

“So you’ve heard of root beer, but not a root beer float,” Gary muttered, “That makes perfect sense

Quinn and Avocato ignored Gary. “Usually it doesn’t,” Quinn said, “But turns out the ship is stocked with a Earthen root beer called Barq’s, which does.”

Avocato shot Gary a look. Gary shrugged sheepishly in response. “I didn’t know it’d affect him this bad, otherwise I wouldn’t have given it to him.”

“Great,” Avocato said, “How long has it been since you’ve seen him last?”

“Fifteen minutes?”

Avocato bit back a frustrated growl. He loved Gary, lovable idiot that he was, but he was about two seconds from punching his co-parent in the face. “Alright, let’s just find him before-”

“GARY!!”

The three adults turned to see Ash and Fox running towards them. “Ash? Fox? What’s wrong, are you okay?” Gary asked.

Ash’s eye was wide with panic. “I think something’s wrong with Little Cato.”

Fox nodded. “Yeah, I don’t know what happened to him, but he’s tearin’ through the ship like a madman!”

“He knocked HUE over just a few minutes ago,” Ash said, “And Sheryl, too.”

Gary fought back a laugh. “Wait, seriously? He knocked over my mom?”

“Gary,” Quinn said firmly.

He shook his head. “Right, right, right. Focused, I’m focused.” He looked back to Fox and Ash. “Do you know where he went?”

‘I do.’

“AVA?” Avocato was still unused to her voice. And HUE with a body was weird too. “Where’d he go?”

‘He’s currently in the ventilation system,’ she replied, ‘But he’s heading for the bridge as we speak.’

Avocato was going to kill Gary. “Let’s go before he gets into the control room.”

‘You won’t beat him there,’ AVA said helpfully.

Fox and Ash backed away. “Y’all have fun with that,” Fox said, “We’re staying far away from that little hell cat.”

“Yeah,” Ash agreed, “I’m gonna stay here and play games.” Avocato wasn’t too reassured by that, but he figured it couldn’t be all that bad. Right?

Quinn gave Gary a smug smile as they ran for the control room. “I told you to wait and ask Avocato but noooo, you just had to give the hyper kid caffeine, didn’t you?”

“Now is not the time, Quinn!” Gary said. “AVA! Is he in the control room?”

‘Yes,’ AVA replied, ‘Though I would advise against entering the bridge at this time.’

Avocato halted outside the door to the bridge. “Why?”

‘Little Cato appears to be trying to take over the ship.’

“That means we should most definitely be in there!” Gary exclaimed. “Open the door!” Not needing a second prodding, Avocato opened the door and ran in, his gaze darting around to find his kid. “Avocato, look out!”

He barely had time to register Gary’s warning before something dropped onto his back. “INTRUDERS!!”

“Little Cato?!” Avocato reached back and pulled the kid off his shirt. “What are you doing?”

Eyes shining with glee, Little Cato said, “I’m takin’ over the ship! This is my ship now!” He managed to wriggle out of Avocato’s grasp. “This is my ship, and y’all are intruding!”

Gary crossed his arms. “I don’t think so, mister. I’m the captain around here.”

Little Cato climbed onto the captain’s seat and put his hands on his hips. “I, Little Cato, declare this ship mine! Forfeit the ship to me, for I am the superior captain!”

“You can’t do that!” Gary protested.

Quinn interjected, “Sure he can. Provided the grounds on which he claims to be a better captain are supported.”

Avocato turned to her incredulously. “You’re encouraging this?”

She shrugged. “I’m curious.”

“I know how to pilot the ship.” Little Cato spun the chair in circles. “Oh, and I know how to fix it, too! And I have the most experience out of everyone here.”

Quinn frowned. “I’ll grant you the first two, but not that last one, I’m pretty sure you’re the youngest one here.”

Little Cato stopped spinning in the chair. “First of all, how dare you.” He pointed at Quinn disapprovingly. “And second of all, respect your elders! I am seventy-four years old, and I will kick your butt!”

Avocato rolled his eyes at his sons caffeine-induced antics. “Okay, now you’re just being ridi-”

“No, he’s actually right about that one,” Gary interjected. “Long story. Explain later, grab kid now.”

“Ooooooh, I like this game!” Little hopped out of the chair and braced himself to run. “You shall not defeat the captain!”

Gary cracked his knuckles. “Oh ho, you wanna bet?”

Quinn looked at Gary apprehensively. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Something my old man used to do with me whenever I had energy to burn,” Gary said, “Wrestling match.”

Avocato put a hand on Gary’s shoulder. “Nope. Bad idea. Gary, as your friend and the co-parent with the most experience: do not.”

“Too late! We’re doing it!” Gary and Little Cato ran at each other, Little Cato launching himself into Gary’s chest.

The kid was light enough that Gary barely stumbled, the real problem was when Little Cato scrambled over his shoulder, grabbed his arm and pulled it back. It wasn’t enough to really hurt, but it was enough that Gary could no longer use it.

Gary tried to pull Little Cato off like Avocato had, but it was considerably harder with his arm wrenched behind him. “Hey! Get off me!”

Little Cato cackled and jumped off, still holding Gary’s arm. With a small Ventrexian attached to the end of his arm, Gary was off balance and fell easily, landing hard on his rear.

“Ow! You little-” Gary stood and started aggressively taking off his jacket. “Alright, let’s go for real!” But as soon as his jacket was about halfway off, the idiot managed to get himself stuck somehow.

Avocato crossed his arms. “This’ll end bad.” He glanced at Quinn. “Should we stop him?”

“Nah. I’m interested to see where this goes.”

And where it went was Little Cato grabbing the ends of Gary’s half empty sleeves, still flapping in the air from where Gary had partially shrugged it off, and tying them into a knot. “Oh what the-? What is this?!” Gary struggled with his tied sleeves. “Explain to me how I’m supposed to get this off!”

“You don’t!” Little Cato giggled.

Quinn sighed. “Okay, now we intervene.” She gently nudged Little Cato to the side and untied Gary’s sleeves. “How about we find a different way to burn Little Cato’s energy.”

Gary readjusted his jacket and harrumphed. “Alright, like what? He’s about to vibrate through the wall!”

“I can see into another dimension,” Little Cato said to Avocato while Quinn and Gary bickered.

Avocato patted his head, hoping Quinn would come up with something to wear out this kid. “No, you can’t.”

“I can see it,” Little Cato whispered, “The floating roots of beer have shown me worlds beyond worlds.”

There was no response to that other than, “No.” Nothing had prepared him for this part of parenting. There wasn’t a book on ‘How To Deal With Your Kid on a Caffeine High’.

Little Cato bounced on heels. “I’ve never felt so alive.”

“You’ve got too much pent up energy,” Avocato said, “Why don’t we go for a walk or-”

His son suddenly waved his arms in the air frantically. “Oh! Oh! Pent up energy! Need to release!” He pointed up at the ceiling and shouted. “AVA!”

‘Yes?’

“The captain demands Loggins!”

Gary pumped both fists into the air, startling Quinn. “Oh, hell yeah, Spider-Cat! Let’s get some tunes up in here!”

“What’s a Loggins?” Avocato asked.

“Gary does he mean Kenny Loggins?” Quinn said in disbelief.

“What’s a Kenny Loggins?!” Avocato was growing more confused with each passing second.

“LoggiiiiaaaaaaAAAAAHAHAHA!!” Little Cato broke into excited laughter as music started blaring over the ship’s sound system.

Avocato stared as Gary and Little Cato started dancing in a weirdly synchronized way. “What is happening?”

Quinn sighed. “It’s an old song from Earth called Footloose. It’s stupidly catchy and it will be in your head all day.”

“Dance with me!” Gary took Quinn by the hand and swung her around.

Little Cato followed suit by grabbing his hand. “Dad, dance with us!”

“I don’t-”

“Obey your captain!” Little Cato demanded. “Dance with us!”

Avocato couldn’t help the laugh that slipped through. He still didn’t dance, but he watched Little Cato, Quinn, and Gary dance around the control room. At one point, Avocato even found himself humming along.

Quinn was right. This song really was stupidly catchy. He didn’t even notice that it was playing on loop until the fourth time through, that’s how catchy is was.

After fifth playthrough was over, Little Cato clapped his hands. “Yes! Aw, that was awesome!”

“Sounds like you’re starting to come down a little.” Avocato noticed.

“A little bit.” Little Cato rubbed his eyes. “Man, that wore me out. How’d that wear me out so bad?”

Quinn patted his head. “You’re about to crash.”

“Crash?” Little Cato asked. “I don’t wanna crash.”

Gary laughed. “She means you’re about to be real tired.”

“Oh… yeah, that sounds about right.” Little Cato rubbed his eyes again. “Note to self: limit the caffeine and sugar.”

Avocato put a hand on Little Cato’s shoulder. “Wanna go lay down?”

Little Cato nodded. “Uh-huh.”

“Good.” Avocato ushered him out of the room. “Because I’m gonna punch Gary in the face now.”

His son paused outside the control room. “Wha-”

“Nothing, go lay down.” Avocato closed the door and turned to Gary.

Gary shrank away. “Are you gonna punch me now?”

“No,” Avocato admitted, “But the next time you wanna give our kid something full of sugar, either moderate him or come ask me first.”

Sighing in relief, Gary said, “Deal.”

Quinn smiled and rolled her eyes. “Told you so, you moron.”

“Hey!”

#final space #gary goodspeed #avocato #little cato #quinn ergon #random disaster writes

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irandrura · 4 years

Text

And reading Verdant Wind too:

(same disclaimer applies, reading is not the same as playing, take these as impressions rather than as considered thoughts)

That seemed pretty solid. It’s not as character-focused as AM or CF, which seems like a bit of a weakness, but for the most part it seemed like SS only better. If I do a second playthrough, I’m probably picking VW, because I want to fight the Slitherers and Nemesis seems like a pretty fun final boss.

I didn’t see as much about Almyra as I would have wanted. Indeed, one of the things that stood out to me was... hm, how to put this...

I feel like Claude and VW are mismatched? What Claude is interested in is very different to what the VW story is interested in.

In AM, Dimitri is interested in vengeance and atonement, and so the entire story is about revenge, trauma, pain, moving on, and so on. That’s a good fit. In CF, Edelgard is interested in conquest/liberation and remaking the continent, so that’s basically what you do. What the character wants to do and what the plot asks you do are in alignment.

Whereas it looks like, in VW, what Claude really wants to do is open up Fódlan and make a big harmonious multicultural world - but there’s no room for that in the actual story. The story is about fighting Edelgard and the Slitherers and uncovering the Church of Seiros’ dirty laundry. Thus while I was reading about Claude fighting Edelgard, it was hard to escape the sense that Claude didn’t really care about fighting Edelgard. It was an important and necessary thing to do, but he didn’t have the sort of personal investment in it that Dimitri did. Similarly, in the assault on Shambhala, I couldn’t stop thinking, “Wouldn’t this be better if it was led by Edelgard?” The last few chapters seem they should actually be led by Rhea, or failing that Seteth and Flayn, because they’re the ones with a personal connection.

(In theory Byleth has that strong personal connection, what with having the spirit of the goddess, the Crest of Flames, and the Sword of the Creator. He is the product of Rhea’s schemes just as Nemesis is the product of the Slitherers’ schemes, so there’s an interesting parallelism going on there. However, Byleth cannot hold up a story by himself. He just can’t. Not without being substantially rewritten and given more of a personality. Maybe in an alternate universe, SS would have been a ‘Byleth route’ that gives Byleth the same amount of characterisation as the three house leaders...)

So, anyway, it was hard to escape the feeling that VW’s protagonist and story were just bad fits for each other. Claude wants to be the hero of a different story. This story wants a different hero. That dissonance was hard to resolve.

I wonder if this is encouraging for fan writers? Claude needs a different story to this one. Go write it?

Anyway, the other thing that stood out to me in VW was just how gonzo bananas the Slitherer plot is.

I mean, I’d read a summary of Fódlan’s ancient history, but actually seeing the javelin cutscenes and listening to Rhea’s explanation put a much more sci-fi gloss on it all than I expected. I was still thinking in terms of ancient deities and dragons and mystic powers, and then the javelins were just cruise missiles, the Slitherers had these mad science cloning pods for Nemesis to burst out of, and so on. They talk about Sothis as the Fell Star (Sirius?), and Rhea’s description of ‘the progenitor god’ coming from far away makes Sothis sound much less like a deity and much more like an alien.

So where AM, CF, and SS seemed to stay relatively high fantasy, now I’m thinking, “Wait a minute, is this like Dragonriders of Pern or something? Like, a long time ago ancient aliens came to the planet, uplifted some humans, the humans misused the supertech, something something genetic manipulation crests something cloning...” The inclusion of science fiction elements in fantasy isn’t new, but I didn’t expect it here.

(Heck, Final Fantasy does it a lot. After finding how crests come from slaughtered dragons, I was already comparing Nemesis and the Ten Elites to Thordan and the Knights Twelve in Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward, but then reframing Sothis, Seiros, and the Four Saints as alien dragons from another star is just... really similar to Midgardsormr and the First Brood. I am shocked at how similar the plot is. Fortunately Three Houses does it with less vore. It keeps the same amount of people toting around bloody dragon eyes for power, though!)

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joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh · 4 years

Text

Xenoblade X status update since I’m about 30-something hours in and haven’t detailed anything of my playthrough, granted some of those hours are just idling for revenue, but, yeah. Because this is a Wii U game I don’t have a capture button so enjoy the photos I took of my TV screen instead lol.

This is my uwu kawaii anime girl Cross, except she honestly looks really normal so, whatever. She’s supposed to be cute and like, a type of girl I’d be attracted to, because hey why not play as a babe, you know? And her name is Hope, since I like that name a lot. I know there’s already a character in-game called Hope, but I didn’t really care. Her appearance here is actually a tiny bit different from how she started out - she had freckles and her hair was a little more brown in-game than it looked in the character creator so when I got Yardley’s thing I fixed her hair, and also I just ended up not liking the freckles that much.

And then there’s her full outfit, I think it’s cute, and it’s funny how much it’s just ‘normal clothes’ in this crazy sci-fi setting where you’re fighting aliens and shit on a whole different planet. She’s been through a couple of outfits, most of them just the game’s various swimsuits, because they’re hot, but this outfit’s good because I value cute over hot and also if someone walks in on me playing as her dressed like this it’s way easier to justify myself than if she’s wearing a micro-bikini or something. Except this look’s hot anyway because hey modest is hottest or whatever, also jeans in this game on the female models are like pretty tight around the ass so, yeah. I have no issue being unapologetically horny in this post since the game’s really horny anyway. Also I had headgear turned off in settings but I turned it back on entirely so she could wear her glasses.

I have mostly been going for more casual looks with the fashion gear, though if they can look sorta sexy in the process then fuck yeah dude.

Taking Elma for example, I think this is a great look, again it looks practical enough as everyday casual clothing but it’s still hot because tank tops are hot and the tight jeans are hot and I chose really good colours for Elma specifically also cause hey she’s a babe also.

Lao’s the other character I took a photo of just because of what my party comp was when I decided to take these photos to make this post. Lao’s honestly pretty hot, and there are plenty of fanservicey male outfits in this game I could’ve given him, but I thought this looked so much funnier without breaking my casual looks rule. Outfit looks a lot darker in game and I think seeing all the serious Lao cutscenes while he’s dressed as a fuckin hikikomori with a stupid fade in his trousers is great.

Those 3 have had the most thought and effort put into their looks, I’m still on the fence about Lin’s outfit honestly, and then the tons of miscellaneous party members end up having pretty random shit. One standout though is Boze, right, cause I fuckin, hate that dude, maybe he gets better after more of his affinity missions are done but I’ve only done his first one and for now I hate him. But anyway I didn’t get a photo but I shoved him in a school uniform since it looked silly as well as the bunny whiskers thing because I can’t stand listening to him speak as like, a person, and I think the bunny whiskers completely remove my ability to take him seriously, which is epic.

Outside of what I’ve been doing with character outfits and shit, my general approach to the game has been to do as much as I possibly can as early as I can. So I think in my first playthrough however many years ago I probably just did random shit and then story chapters whenever, which meant when I returned to some of the earlier missions I was overlevelled as hell. I’m avoiding that here though because I’ve just been like, I’ll do every quest and affinity mission I can find and do before the next story chapter, and then once I’ve done all those, I’ll do the story chapter, and then rinse and repeat. I’m level 28 and have done the first 6 chapters, and I believe I’ve done every affinity mission available with those parameters. I’ve also been trying for heart-to-hearts as well, which I literally didn’t know were in this game until a few weeks ago when I put Enel’s playthrough on in the background as I did other stuff. No real rush with heart-to-hearts though since I believe Lao’s are the only ones that are missable, so I’ll try and be sure to get all of those before he disappears on us.

Speaking of Lao, yeah this game’s main plot is still pretty trash, but I think the character writing for all of the side content (which itself is all really fun to do, especially compared to what 1 and 2 had on offer) is generally really solid. Since I opened with Lao there I guess like, I’m feeling his personality a lot, he’s a super likeable and tragic dude, and maybe me having the knowledge that he’s the traitor already is playing into that appreciation some. I think Elma’s a really boring character who just gets hyped up by everyone in the universe of the game as being a big deal, and that’s kinda lame. If she’s this game’s true protagonist, which she is, then she’s far and away the weakest Xenoblade protagonist, doesn’t hold a candle to Shulk or Rex. Lin’s cute, she’s a fun character, lots of the comedy with her and Tatsu is insufferable, Tatsu in general is insufferable, you know the drill.

All of the bonus recruitable characters who I’ve still mostly just done their first affinity missions for are generally really fun, they cover a lot of different character archetypes and it’s easy to appreciate much of the writing, they add to the world in nice ways.

And then even just some of the normal quests fuckin, can hit hard dude. I just did the Biahno Water Purification Plant quest and that one’s heavy, but I really love it a lot. I got the good ending in that one by the way by telling the girl not to shower, so now I feel epic. It’s also a really nice feeling taking part in the missions that add more xenos to NLA and unlock new merchants and shit, makes the world feel really alive and populated and it’s satisfying as fuck seeing that bio and cultural diversity shoot up. And it’s all constantly unlocking new shit too so there’s just an endless feeling loop of satisfying narratives that do honestly make up for the lacklustre main narrative.

And then since I mentioned the world there, I love exploring Mira so fucking much. It feels like such a carefully crafted and fully realised world - nothing about the aesthetic design even screams “video game” - it’s instead just completely immersive and enticing in literally every corner. And fuck it’s so god damn beautiful too, whether you’re speeding through it in a skell or stopping to take in the sights the world always just fuckin, it’s stunning, it’s so great to be in it.

Gameplay wise, you can see the dual swords in that first photo, I’ve went for the dual swords dual gun class I forget the name of at the moment. Currently in the last class tree of that lineup. It’s a really fast-paced and fun style that leads to lengthy and powerful overdrives and I’ve been having way more fun with overdrives than I did on my initial playthrough because of that.

Now with 1 and 2 I was kinda done with those games after their new game plus and I didn’t really grind to beat superbosses or anything, but I’m not really sure what my endgame for X is gonna be. I could honestly try and max my character to some degree, go kill Telethia or whatever. After I max the dual sword/gun style I could start switching things up and aim for full weapon mastery, who knows. I believe on my however many years old file, I was drifter for a while because the game’s bad at teaching you shit so I didn’t change classes for ages, but when I did I just stuck with the longsword and assault rifle class for basically the entire game, and I switched to the fuckin, psygun and other sword thingy at some point just because they looked cool.

Certainly I think I understand the game to a much better degree now and my experience with 1 and 2 as well has made this game’s mechanics a lot easier to grapple with, so I probably could go for an at least somewhat maxed character. We’ll see. Gameplay’s fun as fuck though, even though I acknowledged in my 2 review that the gameplay speeds up it still feels so great going back to this game where I can, I dunno, actually run and jump around in combat, and use more than 3 arts, all that fun stuff. X’s combat’s so flashy and intense and it’s so fucking god damn fun, the sort of character build I’ve gone with has that one skill that multiplies melee art damage from behind so I’ve been using that in combination with melee arts to be doing fucking shit tons of damage and that’s really satisfying, I know I could try an infinite overdrive build or something but for now this is how I want to play the game so, yeah.

I don’t think I was looking forward to getting a skell this time as much as I was when I first played the game. I was hyped to have it for the movement, and yeah I’ve got a couple of otherwise really hard to reach probes because of it, it’s great speeding around the map and stuff. But while on my first playthrough there was a lot of intrigue for me in the mystery of how skells would play, when you already know how they are, the novelty wears off a bit. And actually, maybe it’s because I’ve still only got the one level 20 skell with only a couple of weapons, but these things are a lot worse in combat than I remember. They don’t do nearly enough damage to justify the insane cooldowns on everything, and the couple of skell fights I did were way less fun than most of the melee battles.

God what else is a thing I can say about this game. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong to have so little research probes but my revenue is ass because of it, meanwhile my mining is more intense than my storage so that’s been a bit of an issue. FrontierNav is honestly a really weird system - it’s obviously extremely rewarding to do in that you get money, miranium, a fast travel point, useful info, all that fun stuff. But then idk there are like battle effect probes and shit that can go on, and some other stuff maybe. I don’t know why I even called it weird actually I think it’s kinda fun. Oh well, it’s 3am. I stopped playing the game for today like 3 hours ago but I’m only now writing this post so.

I guess the last thing worth saying is what I’m currently doing in the game. And uh, all I’m doing is a couple of quests for some NPCs. I’ve got Oblivia Trailblazing on and I’m having shit luck finding those fucking worms, I know where to go for them and I’ve got 3 but despite the fact that they’re apparently common I’m just not fucking getting any. I really love that you can use squad tickets to get enemy parts, that cuts out annoying grinding, but I wish you could use them for collectables as well, presumably with the criteria that they have to be registered in the collectopedia first so you can’t cheese that. But like wandering around for collectibles really sucks and the mission descriptions will always say “oh find X of this in Primordia” when they really mean “in this one tiny specific area of Primordia that we won’t indicate to you” so you kinda have to consult a guide and that’s lame. Just fuckin, let us buy collectibles or let us track them directly, the current system is ass. But hey, that’s room for improvement if X gets a Switch port??? Time will tell.

Uh, yeah. Going to sleep now.

#xenoblade #12.8.20

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