#aaa i want to see these designs better

[gradelstuff]

League of Villains - Chibi Trading Badges by Takara Tomy Co (2024)

[guppybibi]

Late WIP Wednesday ..

(aaa km not sure if i should finish this, it started off strong but just fell off and now my brain isnt working)

Simon’s home & marriage was his refuge, until it wasn't. He knew something wasn't right when you were coincidentally prepared for his return, all dolled up when you greeted him with an “I miss you” kiss. No, he was sure it wasn't you when he saw that the dinner table was prepared with a generous spread of food on it.

There was no reason for you to come this prepared, everytime he comes home from deployment is a surprise. So..how exactly are you this ready? It didn't sit right with him, the whole thing felt like it came out of a painfully obvious scripted reality TV show.

But food was food and after countless weeks spent eating barely edible MRE’s, a home cooked meal was all he needed. Sluggishly, he sat down at his unsaid designated spot at the dinner table. He closely watched if you would sit down at your designated spot, if you didn't; that’d explained a lot. You do end up sitting at your spot, it wasn't all that hard to do though. Dinner with you was unsettling to say the least, all of the small talk you were making felt forced, it’s barely been an hour and he already feels like he's going crazy.

He knows more than to question you upfront though, having gone through enough interrogations to know that he should take his time and that you could get hostile if things don't go your way. You could be a threat for all he knew, and it's better to be safe than sorry. Unsure if it was the right decision, he starts out some sort of small talk himself, asking you some seemingly innocent questions.

“What were yer up to while I was gone, luv?” He asks mid chew. “Oh not much, I just picked up a new hobby actually. Clay sculpting! I've been watching online tutorials, I could say I’ve been getting the hang of it if I do say so myself.” Liar, was all he could think while he subconsciously nodded to your words. You hated clay, not fond of the texture it had and the way it’d get stuck under your nails. Perhaps it was another one of your impulsive decisions, jumping into conclusions should be the last thing he should be doing. It could cost him more harm than good, so he lets it slide. For now at least.

“Sculpting eh? That's new, have ye finished any?” He pauses, swallowing his food. “I’d love to see them.” A spark lights up in your eyes, but it didn't look right. There's a lit candle in there but it's far, far away. The lack of life in your eyes makes his stomach spin like there's a guinea pig rolling around in their wheel in there, it made him want to puke. He wasn't the biggest fan of prolonged eye contact anyway, so he’ll just avoid looking you in the eye to prevent making a mess. “Oh yeah I actually do! They're already displayed on top of our shelves, I’ll show them to you after.” You exclaim, if that was you anyway, which it wasn't.

Dinner passed at an uncomfortably slow pace, Simon swore he could hear each individual tick and tock of the clock, the scraping of utensils against the porcelain plates and each chew you took. He’s gone through debatably louder things than this, the booms of the explosions were unforgettable after all but this somehow takes the cake. Wanting to distract himself further, he helps with washing the dishes which you normally did but you specifically chose today to help do the other minor chores. Water, that was your weak point. He noticed it, you didn't drink water after dinner either. What kind of monster doesn't drink water to hydrate after eating roasted pork?

To test out this thought of his, he decided to ask another question. “I'm heading to the shower, luv. Care to join me?” Meekly, he suggests to you, deep brown eyes staring intently as he awaited the already expected answer. “Oh I..actually already showered earlier dear. Maybe next time.” A dishearteningly dismissive reply, just like he expected. “Alright, suit yourself luv. I'll be back.”

He thought about it, almost forgetting about the bubbly soap running down his body from how deep in thought he was. There was no doubt about it anymore, everything about you being you, pointed away. At this point, he didn't care what the fake you was anymore, rather where you actually were. You could've been dead for all he knew, replaced by the soulless woman that now roams around his home.

This was beyond cruel, beyond the pain physical torture could've caused. It was like the universe was a cat and he was a yarn ball, being played by it meticulously. The whole thing was definitely planned out by a certain someone he knew, the both of you are fairly private so it couldn't have been a random person. He couldn't handle this alone, as much as he’d hate to admit, the situation was way bigger than him to do alone. So, he decides to call a trusted someone.

“You tellin’ me ye think your wife got abducted or something..and a doppelgänger replaced her?” A gruff voice questions, lightly tapping his cigar against the side of the ashtray. Price, him and Kate are the only members of the Task Force so far that Simon allowed you to meet. Well, it unfortunately looks like the sergeants won't get to meet you under these circumstances just yet. Strangely enough, the clocks inside the pub weren't working. Must be a malfunction. The masked man nodded, sighing through his nose when he got a whiff of the alcohol-filled air in the bar.

“I feel so.” He grumbled. “Couldn't she be just having an off day? We all have those, Simon.” John opposes it, it was an unquestionable possibility they couldn't simply ignore. “No, I know my wife. In my years of being with her, she's never acted this way.” Ghost hissed back, a hint of crystal clear impatience seeping out from his words. The lack of respect in his tone wasn't intended, but what could he do when his wife is apparently kidnapped and replaced so seamlessly? “I guess you have a point, but you need to confirm it Simon. You shouldn't make any decision on impulse, if the woman in your home really isn't your wife then this is a bigger issue.”

Then the plan was set, still a little all over the place but there really wasn't any time to lose. Simon would further observe the woman who's allegedly ‘you’ to make sure he isn't making things up, then if he was incredibly sure it wasn't you, he’ll head to the police and file a report for a missing person. In all honesty, it wasn't hard to do, having gone through missions more intense than this. Yet the fact that you were involved made the bugs inside of him crawl, this was totally his fault.

He didn't hide you away from the world enough, he should've just kept you locked inside a cage like the little birdie you were to avoid any danger coming your way. Simon wasn't stupid though, that was inhumane, you were one of the only few people who has managed to make Simon feel less of a ghost and more of a human. So doing such a thing to you was unethical and out of the books, but how could you blame him for subconsciously letting his possessiveness and worry take over when you're literally so far from his grasp? Being so near before that he could easily grip at the back of your top, now so far that the trace of your scent is long gone.

It makes Simon feel sick, his core being left to rot. He comes from the pub to what felt like an empty house, not home because nothing would feel like home without you there. He’d rather be living in a pile of rocks and plywood with you than in a giant mansion without you, that would be the real hell. “Bloody hell..where are you?” He murmurs under his breath, stressedly rubbing his creased forehead. If he could, he’d pry at every surface that comes up within his sight just to find you.

“I’m back.” He whispers, unsure if the fake you was asleep or not. Anyone, human or not wouldn't be happy being woken up from their slumber. “Welcome home, hun. You alright?” Looking up from your cup of tea, you ask. “Yeah, just spoke with the Captain. That's all, no alcohol.” Simon was so used to you being a worrywart about his alcohol intake, telling you that he didn't have any alcohol is practically ingrained into the wrinkles of his brain. But the woman in front of him didn't seem to care less about his health, let alone him in general. The lack of nagging that usually filled his ears to the brim didn't feel right, he would've much rather gone through another one of your yap sessions about how constant alcohol intake affects him in the long run than..just silence.

He feels the desperation inching up on him, eating him whole. At this point, he's willing to admit he doesn't want you. He needs you. He needs to hear your fretful complaints about him getting deployed, knowing you’d shut up because you were used to it by now. He needs you to tell him to include more vegetables in his diet because he's not some kind of carnivore to be eating that much meat. God, he just needs you with him. Whatever bloody thing came with you he’d take like it was on a stupid Black Friday sale.

“Not yet..” He’d think every single night, eyes wide open as he prevents himself from making a rash decision. The woman sleeping soundly right next to him, if that was you..But it wasn't, even if he stared at the unfamiliar woman for ten hours straight, she wouldn't just magically turn into you. Well sure, she was a carbon copy of you from head to toe but she simply just didn't scream ‘you’. Whatever and whoever you were anyway.

“When all is said and done, I think it'll end well Simon. My gut feeling tells me so, it's rarely ever wrong so I’m pretty sure we should trust it.” You ramble on and on, the little amount of alcohol taking over your lightweight self. Simon was still courting you here, yet he remembers it like it's been replayed in his mind like a broken record. He trusted your gut, and he could consider that as one of the best choices he's ever made in life.

But..trusting you now? While you're probably out, all shivering & teeth clattering from the immense cold night? Impossible, he’s fully aware that you're a capable strong woman however..how far can his trust go? How far do you have to venture into someone’s soul to gain their fragile trust, something that can be easily broken with your own bare hands? Ghost doesn't trust you, but Simon does.

“You're a strong gal, you can hold on for much longer.” He supposes, deep in thought while he flipped around in bed. The fake you hasn't set off any red flags yet, acting normal. Too normal. He knew ‘you’ had a purpose for being here, one with malicious intent, though what exactly? One wouldn't simply come in here and replace his wife with a fake one just out of spite, unless they were a little cuckoo. Tossing aside to check the time, he presses the ‘on’ button on his phone. Weird, the time didn't show up. Maybe it's just a glitch in the system.

“Simon, Hey? Simon, wake up. Hurry, you need to get up.” A voice shakes, lightly nudging him in order to awake him. It's your voice, he can instantly sense its meekness. With one eye and another, they flutter open, still full of sleep in them. “Oh thank goodness, you're awake! But you seriously need to wake up, like right now.” You crooned, hoping he’d fully wake up to the sound of your voice. Groaning, Simon sat up, a few joints popping in the process. “What..? Yeah, I’m awake luv. Whad’ya need me for?” He questions groggily, eyes opening further once he gets a closer look at you. It's actually you, he can tell! The way your eyes meet his, connecting like a bee landing on a precious flower. The way your voice lilted to him like a mother bird nursing her hatchlings, it really was you.

“Wait–luv? You're here? Bloody hell, you actually are–Did you see the other gal who looked just like you? Tell me I’m not losing my shit please.” Then you shushed him, convinced he’ll continuously go on and on if you didn't. “Please listen to me closely, Simon.” You pause, noticing how his eyes bask in yours like it was long overdue. “You need to wake up, hurry.”

[snaccpopstudios]

Hi everyone! We're here with the long awaited post on our newest bachelor, Simoun. We know you've all been abuzz with questions about him so we hope to answer some of that in this deep dive into his creation. This post is in lieu of our usual Wednesday devlogs as we've been writing this over the span of several weeks, and was co-authored, edited, and reviewed by Tobias, Jude, ToyboxToonz, Primarvelous, and Sauce. The above image was drawn by @toyboxtoonz.

You can read the full post for free on Patreon, or click the readmore to see it all!

Personally speaking, some of my concerns since Simoun's debut are thoughts like "Do people think I'm making SnaccPop Studios push an agenda?" and "Do people think I'm going through a checklist while making new characters?" It's made it difficult for us to write this quickly because this is quite personal to myself and the rest of the sensitivity consultation team on the DachaBo team.

Concept to Creation

The story of DachaBo begins way before SnaccPop Studios itself was even a concept (that's Sauce's story to tell though). Early Patreon art of Simoun exists from November 2022, back before I was signed on to manage the Patreon and any other projects besides Sunny Day Jack. Sauce had some ideas laying around for several other characters in the DachaBo universe that didn't make it into the proof-of-concept demo:

I dug up an old draft for the DachaBo cat character we teased and it featured a story concept where the cat character was originally a female DachaBo character, referencing the original female design. And overtime he got tired of how he was being treated and decided to change his own self to reflect who he wanted to be, not the sycophants who collected the toys and whatnot ... It was shelved because I didnt have the means to sensitivity check it The designs are half cooked is all but he was supposed to be Indian ethnicity coded for no other reason than I've never seen a character like that

One thing that's important to note is that there definitely are Indian folks who are gender diverse (see Hijra on Wikipedia for a quick primer on one of the traditionally recognized nonbinary genders in South Asia) so it's not a novel concept by any means, but it's also not very common in media whatsoever.

Why The Long Wait?

One of the other contributing reasons as to why Sauce wasn't able to do much with the concept at the time is because we didn't have a VA for him confirmed yet, as I explained in May:

One thing that's rather unique to SnaccPop Studios in all of my experience as a game developer is the fact that all of our series involve coordinating with Voice Actors from the start, which means we need to take the VAs themselves into account when making characters. Adding another layer of complexity in hiring is the fact that SnaccPop Studios is a strictly Erotic Adult brand focusing on masculine love interests, and even if we focus more on the softcore, there's still the unfortunate stigma that any 18+ work has when attached to your name. All of these contributing factors make the potential talent pool that much smaller. This isn't to make excuses: I know SnaccPop Studios can do better on this front. While we can't make changes to some of the existing series' main cast (we don't want to put people out of a role they've been promised), we will do better moving forward to incorporate more diverse characters into our future titles, and that's a pledge

In the field of voice acting, it's best practice to cast actors with similar backgrounds to the character they're voicing, particularly for characters from marginalized populations (ethnicity, culture, gender, etc.), because it's a recurring issue in all professions where marginalized folks are regularly turned down for employment or career opportunities. You don't have to look far for instances where other voice directors failed to cast the proper talent for a character, even in the AAA sphere where they ought to have the resources to be able to find the proper talent; at SnaccPop, we wanted to avoid that situation at all costs.

Finding Simoun's Voice

So we had to confirm a VA first before we could do anything. Sauce, Reece, and I all tried to put private ads out for a trans masc POC (any ethnicity with dark skin) actor for a R18 game, which was largely met with silence at first, then responded to by folks who didn't fit the role in a full capacity (many only hit one or two of the criteria we laid out, some of them none at all). And it's not hard to imagine why: it's common knowledge that the majority of erotic works often fetishize marginalized people who are otherwise underrepresented in mainstream media. Things such as skin color, body type, hair color, age, etc. are treated as traits to be objectified, and on the off chance that queer folks or people of color might see themselves in porn… it's usually not for the most flattering or empowering of reasons. How could we, an exclusively Adults-only studio, convince someone who isn't familiar with us that we wanted to make something for people like them rather than something that turns them into mere masturbating material?

We were almost about to give up on the Catboy until I decided to take a chance on contacting a VA whom I hadn't had any formal and proper interactions with before. I'd been a fan of his work and knew him from an audition he sent in from a previous game I had worked on, but he knew me solely by name at best since we were following each other on Twitter. Still, it was a lead, and after chewing my nails for half a day, I shot off a message to Soren Viloria.

And what do you know? He said he'd give it a shot as his first NSFW role.

Naming the Lad

Soren is a Filipino VA, and despite the fact that I myself seem to be mistaken as Filipino by other Asians quite regularly, I'm actually not as well-versed in that culture as I ought to be.

There's actually a reason why we were so secretive with Simoun's name for a while: he didn't have one yet, so internally we just kept calling him "the Catboy." We wanted to pick a culture-appropriate name for him, something that was meaningful: Soren initially suggested "Siopao" as it was a common cat name (it's a type of Filipino Steamed Bun, so think of how many pets you've seen who have names like Cupcake or Nacho Supreme), but that didn't seem serious enough for a tsundere catboy like him. A few days later, Soren did a little research on a few well-known characters from Philippine media/culture that fit the bill a bit better:

Elías from the Philippine Revolution novel Noli Me Tángere (a required reading in the Philippines). Cat may like his radical tendencies for revolution and his deep, devoted connections.

Simoun from Noli's sequel, El filibusterismo. Holds revolutionary values similar to Elías, but far less noble and more of a loner. Violent at times, and will do what it takes to get his way.

Panday/Flavio, a very popular hero. Part of his charm is that he doesn't have special powers, but took matters into his own hands and forged a magical blade. Has been portrayed in both 'cool' and comedic ways.

Ricardo "Cardo" from the Philippines' longest-running TV drama Ang Probinsyano. Just a cool action hero dude who cares about family, but is also very ambitious and angy.

Seeing as how we already had an Elias Gallagher, Simoun seemed to be the perfect fit, and the name stuck pretty easily.

Simoun's Boundaries

Now that Simoun had a name, we were able to talk about him more seriously beyond the simple "tsundere cat" tropes. You've all already met Gil Finnegan, who we originally brought into SnaccPop Studios to handle the narrative design for DachaBo but was then onboarded to help with Sunny Day Jack, and those of you in the Patreon Discord server are familiar with our mods Tobias and Jude; along with me and Soren Viloria, that brought the grand total of openly trans masculine members on the team.

We all talked about our personal experiences as trans masc/AFAB people, what things we rarely saw reflected in both mainstream and indie media, things we wanted to see more of. Something we all agreed that was difficult to find was trans masculine folks in sexually dominant roles in erotic media, whether that was live video, audio, writing, art, or a combination thereof; there was only a handful of series we could count on our fingers as far as sexually explicit content that featured trans masculine people in roles that weren't exclusively submissive/bottoms, and the majority of us had already seen those or at least heard of them before (ie. Gummy and the Doctor and Sasha From The Gym were prominent ones). Either discovering this content was difficult due to Search Engine Optimization favoring depictions of trans feminine folks, or it simply didn't exist.

All of this, along with the backstory that Sauce had for Simoun, led us to determine that Simoun would be adverse to submissive roles in intimate situations. Simoun isn't the type to want to be penetrated either due to previous trauma surrounding his gender. Bear in mind that this isn't meant to imply or suggest that there is only one "acceptable" sexual preference for trans masculine folks, nor is Simoun meant to represent all of trans masculinity; he may be our first trans masculine character but certainly isn't the last, as we hope to feature more types of characters at SnaccPop Studios.

As an aside, it should be noted that the trend of erotic trans feminine content being more readily available doesn't necessarily mean that trans women have more positive representation per se; for every kinky piece of art created by trans feminine folks out there, there could be ten more works that fetishize and objectify their bodies. We probably don't need to tell you about the common derogatory slurs that have been used to refer to them; trans feminine and trans masculine people deal with varying levels and types of transphobia as well as situations that oversexualize (or even undersexualize) them, and it's important to focus on content that doesn't strip them of their autonomy.

There actually was a period of time between the release of his concept art after Soren was onboarded where the team observed comments both on Patreon and in the Discord regarding Simoun, and we discussed how we could avoid having people try to ship Bo and Simoun together; because Simoun hasn't had bottom surgery of any kind, we wanted to ensure that tokophobia (fear of pregnancy) or dysphoria wouldn't become a thing for any of us involved in the team or for our trans masculine Patrons. It was a bit of a chicken or the egg situation, trying to keep up with the evolving comments about Simoun to try and anticipate what people might accidentally say.

Debut Day Thoughts, & Moving Forward

We were quite happy with the general reception everyone had with Simoun, and we're excited to see so many people taking a liking to Simoun after his reveal. SnaccPop Studios has always strived to provide inclusive and diverse stories for those who don't often get represented in media, much less NSFW media, and the team was quite elated to see folks who were just as happy to see Simoun.

We hope that the love and care we put into building Simoun has shone through in this post and will continue to shine as we write more of him for DachaBo, because we're just getting started.

[thingsidrawgohere]

I just finished my first run of DA4 and let me say- I probably got my money's worth. If one wants to view the experience via a purely mercantile lens. I found many bits of cheese and touched the insides of many angry creatures. But if one wishes to frame the thing as Art- Hell, if one wants to solely discuss it as the Fourth in a series of lore-dense, narrative RPGs, then, Cousin, We've Got Problems. Three interconnected niggling ideas that kinda all lead to the conclusion- for me, at least- that modern design practices simply do not trust the player. News flash, right?

Anyways, I think I'm going to have some thoughts on this subject to avoid other thoughts, thank you.

Full-Throated Spoilers Beyond. And a lot of them. It's long.

Idea 1: DA2 is my favorite of the series. That's not the problem; it's the setup. I know what I'm about and it's interesting characters interacting over time. Flawed characters. Abrasive, opinionated, STUPID ASS ANDERS characters. The story was scaled well for a handful of total losers and it was political. The most humanly political of all the games, I think. That's a very low bar, particularly for AAA, but it felt better to stand in a street, to be personally effected by events, than to look at a literal map of icons and notes and distant decisions as in DA3. It's important, I think, for DA to be about Being, Getting Dirty. You aren't a king. You shouldn't be.

Side Note 1: DA2 is a fucking miracle. The old gag that FO New Vegas, blessed be, was made in 18 months is trotted out to display Can-Do Attitude and DEEPLY unethical labor practices. DA2 got less time, fewer reusable assets (due to a different art style), and had to rebuild most of the engine. A. Miracle.

DA4, on the other hand, has a series of supportive, well-adapted people who have all worked very hard on themselves in therapy and know all the fucking right words to say. They chat with one another with kindness and sober fondness. In the One Instance of interpersonal friction, it is resolved with grace and speed. I find this Horrid. They fucking forgot to give these people negative traits. It's likability slurry. They experience no hard growth, hold no horseshit ideas, suffer no lingering doubts. It's not only unnatural but it's lifeless. It becomes Written. I can see the fucking author waving at me. I've got a note from my run that reads 'Rook told the man who is forcibly living inside his head "Thank you sharing that" and I want to scream.'

And that would be bad enough except the ideas are there. You've got a reluctant father story. Someone trapped between two cultures. A older man, already terrified of aging, of death, taking a Much Younger lover. That's Fucking Meat. I can see the writers straining against something but what they deliver is still person-shaped missed opportunities that repeat, that repeat, that repeat. It's So Frustrating. There's flashes of Good Writing. Of good character beats. But Also- from my notes, a character had just held her brother as he died, inexplicably for a second time, and Rook gives her a little pep talk that ends with him asking "You good?"

And the fucking woman says "I'm good" in response. She seemed to mean it.

How does one- react to that as a viewer? I told a man who wanted to be a lich more than anything to Not and he was cool with it. He never brought up being a lich again. He wasn't even upset. I let a man's city die and he's like I Get It, Bro. No Harsh Vibes. It rings hollow.

Talking over Solas' memories, collectively pulling out the meaning behind them- that was some of the best characters-interacting writing in the whole thing. And it's HOURS into the game. A shame.

Side Note 2: A lot of a loved-one death as motivation in this old refrigerator. If you get a name and one line, Oh Boy Brother, you are prolly gonna die bad. Lazy.

If I'm going to talk about Emmrich, let's talk about his romance. I honestly thought it was bugged. I Am playing through another run as a comparative but Wow. Larian and BG3 absolutely reconfigured what's acceptable in these types of story beats. This particular romance felt regressive, in a sense. Like a last minute addition. The very definition of love coins. No charisma or honest affection between the characters. Nothing allowed to percolate (more on that in a second). Just- now you are ROMANCED. Which means on the Blue Moon instance he has anything to say regarding being in a relationship, the best you can get is a 'dearest' at the end of a sentence. I was Excited by the idea of Emmrich really struggling with a May/December situation but he Doesn't. He has a few lines implying that he Could but it leads nowhere.

And they fuck in a coffin (???) and it's not even hot (!!!). Unforgivable. Double Unforgivable. I heard there was spice in this game? This is baking soda.

Related, a few lines awkwardly dodged the question of Emmrich's previous relationships and I have an inkling, without experiencing the other romances, that this is the world's largest case of gun-shy after the backlash with DA3's non-playersexual romances. This man can not be confirmed to be Anything but Into Rook, whatever they might be. There was also a throwaway line with Taash how she prefers women and that's as much as I saw of explicit preferences. I don't envy anyone trying to address the rabidity of fandom but it feels like unnecessary acrobatics.

Side Oh No: It's so bad that I'm honestly thinking of doing a fixit fic regarding the romance/character writing. And God, I can't right now. I have to finish my other project first.

Idea 2: The pacing. That's what ruins so much. There was a scene of a gnarled, fucked-up gate, torn from its hinges. And my guy says "Something Big must have torn apart that gate" all ominous, building a sense of- Nope. The very big darkspawn is standing ten feet away on the other side. I hadn't even swung the camera around the hall to see it before my guy goes "That big darkspawn must have torn apart the gate!"

Yes, I know there's an issue in open world games these days wherein devs are allergic to a player's millisecond of not knowing where to go but this feels applicable across the whole game. A problem isn't allowed to fester. It is brought to attention and then swiftly dealt with. If there's a locked door, a difficult decision, a feeling beyond Protestant determination, it will be dealt with, Post Fucking Haste. It's like the game doesn't trust the player to hold tension.

This happens not just in barks or small set pieces. Whole arcs work this way. Like Harding's longterm personal quest. She gets a handful of lines about feeling vaguely angry or perhaps thinking she Should be More angry about Lore Dump Retcon and then at her culmination, she's fighting her own anger. A vicious, hot, searing thing- and it wasn't earned. At all. There was room to telegraph this theme, bury it in the dirt to let grow roots. They didn't. One Line was given about her people pleasing tendencies And she's not really shown to be people pleasing to her own detriment. This is Chekhov's Gun in running shoes. It doesn't work. It feels like it comes out of left field.

Hell, there was a mission that was like SURVIVE IF YOU CAN and it was like- literally a long hallway. The Pacing is all Off.

Idea 3: I don't like that I must do this but DA4 doesn't understand its own flavor. The One Thing you Cannot Do is have Minrathous, the city of slaves and blood mages, seem nice. Particularly in the poor parts of town. You Cannot have the Crows be a lovely dovey band of scamps. You Cannot have the Blight be reversible. You Cannot CANNOT say "elves have it pretty good" as my Elvish Rook said with his face flaps. No. NO. You Cannot side-step the politics of this setting. These are the bones on which these characters are hung. To lessen the world is to lessen, to decomplexify them.

You know what my elf didn't hear in the town that canonically trades in bodies that look his? Knife ear. Eh to fantasy slurs but my point is no one said a cross word to my guy. The Qunari living in the town that had been warring with the Qunari for Centuries seemed totes fine. There were no alienages. There were no proper templars- even from other regions. No Mage Circles. No mage issues at all. Hardly anything whatsoever regarding the Chantry or Andrastianism, even as the game takes place in the Super Anti-Pope town. I had a literal demon-possessed man in my party and the world did not react.

I had a friend describe this Thedas as feeling smoothed out and Yeah. It feels like all the nasty bumps have been deemed undesirable. I don't know what to make of it. Is this simply taking the world in a different direction? Is it a mandate to tone down the unpleasantness, for sales? A shift in design ethos? Is this a sign of a very troubled project as it was with Andromeda?

I don't know. Is this still a Dragon Age game without its politics? There's enough here for me to wonder if Bioware is even Bioware anymore. There's a TREMENDOUS amount of work, of skill in DA4. Just Absurd. The environments are thick, Thicc. But work alone is not a virtue. Have we ship of Theseus'd so far that the people- the real people, not the logos- who have interests aligned with what made DA1 special are no longer there? Something went wrong with this project, narratively. Something I don't know how to fix without addressing basement level assumptions I'm clearly not privy to. I hope they can.

Final Thoughts: Game development is a fucking hole into which one pours one's relationships, time, and health, physical, mental both. It gives satisfaction very rarely. They shipped. In that way, huge success. It's not even, fundamentally, a 'bad game'. But it is a victim of a modern philosophy of pre-chewed ideas and player distrust. VGs are ultimately a business and, in these last few years, there's been a unimaginable devastation to the workers in the industry- even as the money flows ever upward. The desire to sell well has morphed into a NEED to sell well, even among the 'kept' studios. Big studios, Grand Dame Studios sitting on top of past critical and financial successes, been killed by their overlords recently. No one is safe. It's suddenly quite dangerous for large studios to make anything remotely niche, remotely unclear and Bioware has both Andromeda And Anthem under its belt. They're probably feeling the pinch. They needed a hit and hits, these days, are increasingly smooth. And DA4 is very smooth.

That's just my feeling on the matter. I'll see what a second run yields.

Smaller thoughts:

I don't care about the combat but that was- odd. The illusion of depth with all the skill trees and types of damage and subsystems of attack- all boiling down to a one button push. It's odd. I played rogue on PC so perhaps it's different for other classes, on console. But I pressed the button at the man and when I got a halo, I pressed another button and then pressed the first button again. No matter where I was on the skill tree, it never changed, never felt different. I don't know. It felt. Odd?

There was a Honest To God "It's quiet- Too quiet" and it just Happened. I would have pulled out every one of my teeth to avoid that. I get the jokey-okey but fuck, man.

Where's the chest hair? WHERE? Body hair? ANYTHING? Davrin has plastic chest. It's freaky.

Gloom Howler Gloom Howler Gloom Howler. Frankly, that whole storyline had a large gulg of the farcical. I laughed my ass entirely off when, upon her defeat, the Gloom Howler said "I'm sorry" and took a nap so hard that the scene wiped to 'some time later'. That was insane editing. PACING. And- naming. Gloom Howler. Gloom. Howler.

Teeth. Dear God, the teeth.

The devs were in a real pickle here, no doubt. My great sympathies. There's an Overwhelming abundance of world states that DA3 could have left on the board and I understand the balancing act between acknowledging the events of older games and staying generic enough DA4 could apply to All of them. Is Cassandra the White Divine? Or is Leliana? It's a nightmare of choices. Any of the people that Could be Divine can not be mentioned without lore issues. Who's on the throne in Orlais? Ferelden? Where's beloved so-and-so? Dorian canonically did return to Minrathous so he can 'safely' appear in game- but he fucking can't talk about Iron Bull, who may or may not be alive. Isabela canonically goes back to piracy but she can't talk about events in Kirkwall because she may not have been there for them. Oof. That's not a lot you are Allowed to acknowledge. The Poor Bastards.

Watched a braid slip off a person's shoulder, organically, as they were talking. Started at the bottom and look where we're at, technologically. And speaking on the technical, a lot of textures didn't load right. For the entire game, my guy's left shoulder armour thing had a much lower rez texture than the rest. Three hard crashes, which isn't the worst. One Wonderful mission wherein Lucanis' hair and his knives were the only bits of him to render.

I'm not touching the non-binary storyline. It was clunky, for sure, but the greatest sin was using Our words. There is canonical words for NGC/NB people in fiction and to not use them shows a fundamental distrust towards the source material and the players both. It's the linguistic version of the quest marker or the barks telling you where to go.

I still don't know how I feel about the dead Varric twist. Feels goofball but he got to hang out in his little pajamas. I wish I was in little pajamas.

Solas was pretty fucking tight but I think a lot of that was due to his VA. Something about the voice direction, in general, felt- flat? But old Solas was doing it good.

Ending. God, I get it. People are tired and satisfying endings are hard. And DLC exists, more cynically. But Hells Bells, I'm getting to the point wherein even the slideshow is annoying. Give me a fucking Ending to the Choice Game. Don't you fucking 'Spider-Man Will Return' at me, you bastard. I'm a child of fucking god.

Yes, I got the secret ending. I know. That was Also bullshit.

I feel better getting that all out of my system. Thank you for sharing that.

[cosmic-wonders-series]

Tl;dr: the new coswon world building makes my brain VERY happy

Just want to say I absolutely ADORE the world building that your giving us. As someone who loves speculative biology, I love looking through each new page and thinking about what adaptations each race seems to have for their specific planet based on their designs. Especially love doing this for the plants (but that's the horticulturist in me, I'm a massive plant nerd). Like, I can see how they could be related to earth plants, but they're changed in ways that would better prepare an irl plant for that type of environment. The biology and adaptations are clearly thought out, it's not just weird bc alien planet/ not grown on earth. These thing (plants, animals, ect) look the way they do for a reason. It's amazing to see and makes the world feel so much more real.

Keep up the amazing work pm!

Aaa thank you ;0;

[askmerriauthor]

regarding pokemon sleep, it looks like you’re just looking for things to complain about. it’s designed to be this chill thing you check on during the day and leave running at night. to play it, all you have to do is sleep and feed your pokemon. no one’s telling you you to have to be the very best at it or pressuring you into paying for stuff, let alone the game itself.

If I was just looking for things to complain about, I'd still be out here whinging over Pokemon Cafe's delightfully charming art style being absolutely wasted on a junk puzzle game instead of a full RPG or cozy slice-of-life Sim.

Regarding this post here.

Hi, I'm MerriAuthor. Apparently we haven't met because anyone who follows my blog would know that I've worked in game development well on 20 years now. I've worked across the industry from little nobody indie houses, to overseas gacha-fodder, to big ol' AAA major studios. Video games and their design are a big part of my life and, boy howdy, do I have some FEELINGS about the direction the industry as a whole has gone in as the years go by. Especially in regards to the predatory monetization of gaming and how it actively preys on children, uninformed parents, people with addictive behaviors, people with hyper-competitive personalities, and similar behavioral traits solely for the purpose of making money at their expense.

it’s designed to be this chill thing you check on during the day and leave running at night. to play it, all you have to do is sleep and feed your pokemon.

As with the previous person I spoke with on this topic, that is the base function of the game. But it's by no means the design of the game. Pokemon Sleep's entire game play rotation and marketplace are designed around encouraging the Player to interact with it as much as possible within an intentionally limited time frame. Meanwhile, the game's own time scale is such that it expects Players to log hundreds if not thousands of hours of interaction with it. Its own base gameplay loop is a weekly schedule and its shop schedule is monthly. Some Pokemon require a bare minimum of 150 hours of logged sleep to even access. Pokemon Sleep wants you to be in it for the long haul.

It's also based on collection; nearly every facet of the game is listed numerically and with a percentage value or progress bar, which are functions designed to produce urgency to complete them in the Player. Human brains don't like seeing an unfinished goal, especially one represented so overtly as an unfilled progress bar or a percentage value with a decimal. Want to have your favorite Pokemon as your napping buddy but don't want to put in a ton of effort playing the game to boost up your Snorlax's power score? Better hope it's one of the low-tier Pokemon assigned into the lower brackets of the gameplay progression, because otherwise you're never going to see it. Though you could always just fork over some cash. Nearing the end of your week with Snorlax and you're just shy of a milestone you've been aiming the entire week for? Good luck! You can pay money for that extra little boost, and once you've done it you'll resent its absence enough to want to buy it again! Do you want to level up that cutie first Charmander the game gave you at the very beginning specifically to ingrain itself with faux emotional value into your favorite Charizard? Want your Eevee to evolve into one of its most popular Eeveelutions? Want a Lucario, period? You'll need to put in hundreds of hours of consistent sleep to save up enough Sleep Points exclusively toward that goal... or you can just buy access to it immediately, through first purchasing access to the Premium Subscription! A Premium Subscription which, again, doesn't auto-cancel if you delete the app and can't be canceled through the app itself, for all you distracted parents who don't pay attention to fine print and wonder why your kid's game is running up a bill on your credit card each month after the 14-day free period - just long enough for you to have forgotten all about it in the first place. Snorlax wants a specific kind of Berry this week, but none of the helper Pokemon you recruited gather that berry, or they do and are just too low on Energy to manage it? Aren't you lucky! The shop will just sell you solutions to these problems the game itself created specifically to get you to shell out money!

no one’s telling you you to have to be the very best at it or pressuring you into paying for stuff, let alone the game itself.

Here's some screen shots from the game's own app page. Buttons to make purchases and drive interaction - the app store, sleep pass, how many dream shards you have, a prompt to buy more inventory space, your missions, your current goal, the progress meter and rarity values of your Pokemon's sleep styles, your collection and their levels, etc - are all constantly and prominently displayed. The entire first day of actual gameplay in the app is a tutorial explaining how it wants you to do more than just sleep and passively collect to the point that it literally sets a daily schedule of activity for you. The mechanics explanations are so egregiously long that the Professor character literally apologizes to the Player for being so long-winded about it. Oh, an adorable moment of self-depreciation and understanding! How humanizing and encouraging of empathy from the user, done with a cheeky wink and nod. Now that we've softened your emotional state ever so slightly, here's some more microtransaction-driven gameplay elements!

If this was really just a cute little game to idle around with for its own fun, there wouldn't be a cash shop, nor would the game require a consistent internet connection to its servers. The big thing with games like these is that they're not made for the Player's benefit or entertainment. They're made to make the parent company profits. That's it. If the Pokemon Company didn't think they'd make substantial returns on the investment of development, support, marketing, and online distribution costs to put this game out into the world, they never would have made it. That is a core reality of any product put out these days. I just spent this last week helping my studio's marketing and sales team make sales projections for one of our upcoming titles, figuring out how much we could reasonably charge our potential customers literally down to the penny. And the game we're selling isn't even a service with any kind of microtransactions or DLCs. Profits are fundamental in any studio production and, where microtransaction apps are concerned, are the core focus of why the app exists.

If you're perfectly happy with playing Pokemon Sleep as an idle "pop on every once in a while, poke for a few minutes, then forget about and never pay a cent" kind of game? Totally fine, you do you. But understand that Pokemon Sleep doesn't want you as its player and will not cater to your experience. The core gameplay of Pokemon Sleep is already designed to actively degrade into a subpar experience for those who don't pay to play and that rift will only become more pronounced as time goes by. Everything around the cash shop exists for no other reason than to encourage you to use the cash shop. Over time, the gameplay will further contort itself to drive more interaction with and reliance upon the cash shop as the app sheds its non-paying users who just tire of it and move on, instead doubling-down on the lingering, paying users who have already proven themselves a reliable stream of revenue. That is how these things always go and have always historically gone.

There's also the consistently apt adage of "if you're not paying for the product, you are the product". Pokemon Sleep requires an internet connection any time you want to interact with the app - there is no offline mode. Further, the actual fine print in the terms of service (not the bubbly, legally-meaningless assurances put into the game text itself) addresses that it will collect and may share your device information, user ID, and app activity (ie, the schedules, timing habits, and spending habits the game itself has ingrained into its interaction with the Player) for analytics and advertising purposes, and that they're okay with sharing (ie, selling) that information to third parties without naming who those third parties are. And boy, does the game really want you to link your Google, Apple, and Facebook accounts to it as part of its core functionality! Worth keeping in mind as well is that the app requires constant access to your microphone and can pick up sounds as minor as a sheet rustling when you turn over in bed. The game's bubbly, meaningless text assures you that it doesn't save or transfer the snippets of sleep recordings it makes of you each night, but it makes absolutely no assurances whatsoever in the fine print that it's not using your microphone for other purposes. It does, however, point out that it will be making use of your phone's functions even when you're not using the app.

So, yeah, I'll just still be over here not playing Pokemon Sleep and encouraging others to do the same, as well as pay closer attention to the nature of so-called "free to play" games.

[creatingblackcharacters2]

FAQs!

I go by Ice, she/her pronouns 💕. In case you had any of these questions, here you go:

1. "Why'd you make this page?"

I want to make the creation space- fandom to professional- more inclusive for people that look like me.

It is very disheartening when you really like something, and you see that oh! It's going to include a Black character! And then you get that character and... They're subpar. Especially in comparison to the usually white characters that have so much thought put into them. You accept them because you REALLY want that rep, but... We deserve to wholeheartedly accept our characters too, no ehhs about it.

I wanted to challenge myself, using my amateur art skills and my teaching skills, to convey to creators how that makes us feel, and little things they can do to more intentionally create their Black characters. There's more to us than adding to a diversity quota.

2. "So you aren't even a professional?"

I got 28 years of being a Black person on my resume 🤣 jokes aside, I am a self teaching artist. It's only been about a year and a half for me. My more specific goal here is to use my skills to convey a perspective change towards Blackness, not necessarily a "how to do". If you want to learn the specific how-to's of drawing Black characters, there are Black artists all over Tumblr and the web that can show you! I will always actively encourage you to go check them out and support them, it's a great way to learn as well as to support our community!

3. "But if you're not a professional, why should I trust you?"

Well, again, because I don't have to be a professional to recognize when supposedly Black characters... Don't look like me 😅. Or, in writing, don't have any thought about me behind them. I could show my 88 year old Grandma some art and she'd recognize the issues.

But also, I personally believe that if you start from the foundations thinking about intentionally creating your Black characters, it'll make it much easier for you moving into the future. I am holding my hand out as a Black peer to HELP YOU! There are professional video games and art pieces and projects out there with poorly designed Black characters. The concept clearly needs to be introduced to the people somewhere before a million dollar project is release 🤣 But I can't talk to the people at the AAA studios. I can talk to you!

4. "I don't think race matters/should matter."

Alas, it does, everything we do is affected by our beliefs unconsciously or not- but I'm not going to waste my time and argue with you. This blog isn't for you 🤷🏾‍♀️ this blog is for those who want to take that first step to be better, both as creators and as people. 👍🏾

5. "Do you support AI?"

Not in the arts. Learn how to create, it's very fulfilling.

6. "Do you answer asks?"

I do! However, this is a lesson based page, more than an ask based page. If I think your ask can be answered by one of my lessons, I'll refer you to that lesson. If it's an ask that's relevant to something coming up, I will answer it, but you will find more detail in the lesson coming up! I'm only one person doing this, and I can't answer every singular scenario. Also, keep in mind, if you ask me my opinion on something, I will be fair, but honest!

7. Will you be turning on anons?

Okay: right now, we've earned Anon Office Hours Wednesday 12:30pm thru Friday 6:30pm EST!

Most of this is due to the nature of what I'm discussing. Historically, these topics (and how race is relevant) upset some people, and it can get unsafe. Personally, I have no intention of allowing racists, or those who will take my advice in bad faith, to hide their faces. If you want to hate me, speak with your chest 😤👍🏾

The other part is that it is not a bad thing to ask questions! I did create this blog to be a learning opportunity. So long as you are kind to me and send me asks in good faith, I will be kind to you and reply in good faith. I'm also pretty sure I have the option to answer privately, so if you don't want your question posted publicly, You can say that.

If I get more questions, I'll update this!

[stars-n-spice]

🍀, ❤ and ✂️ for the oc ask game :))) Who ever you feel like answering this for really, I'd love to hear more about any of them!

Aaa thank you for the asks! 🩵🩵

I'll answer for each so it might be a little long! Apologies in advance!

🍀 What originally inspired the OC?

Jung-Myn:

I've always been upset over the fact that Star Wars is so heavily influenced by Asian culture–yet lacks a lot of Asian characters. So I knew I wanted to make one of them Asian (and being biased, I made them blatantly Korean, lol). That and because I hadn't seen a lot of Asian ocs either or specifically Asian ocs shipped with clones–so I was like,, let's change that. And to spice it up, I want a queerplatonic relationship since there aren't many of those, and I project my aroace-ness onto Hunter like a beam from an ion canon. Thus Jung was born.

Viram Cossa:

Kinda like with Jung, I wanted an alien oc because I hadn't seen many of those with canon characters and thought Mikkians were a cool species so I settled on that. I think I subconsciously based her off of Tiana from Princess and the Frog, in terms of personality, because I knew Echo would do well with a fellow workaholic. Her design is actually somewhat based off a jellyfish! I was looking at a lot of pictures of jellyfish when designing her–for whatever reason. So she's a strange mix of a couple of things.

Khea Nultez:

To be completely honest with you–it was myself, lol. Khea is somewhat of a self-insert because I just love Wrecker so much. Her appearance moreso than her personality (brown eyes, dark hair, tan skin, moles, short) was based off myself and in addition, she's also Korean/Mexican (at least in a Modern AU) same as me. I joke and say that she's who I would've been if I was a middle child instead of the eldest. That's essentially it.

Tay'kaa Marr:

Kinda like with Jung and Viram, Tay was just born out of my desires to see like,, more alien and queer ocs so I made him both. I don't know why I settled on making him a Chagrian–I just thought they were cool I guess. He came about when Crosshair was going through it, so I was like "I should give him a boyfriend. Maybe that'll make him feel better"–because let's be honest, Crosshair is not straight. Anyways, I knew that he had to be similar to Crosshair in personality–someone who could keep up with his snark–and who could understand him more than most–as in sharing similar experiences–then Tay was born. And I've latched onto him like a fucking leech.

❤️ What is one of your OC's best memories?

Jung-Myn:

Jung-Myn's best memory is the day they got their kyber crystal. After all, that's a milestone in many Jedis' lives–and Jung wasn't an exception. While it wasn't an easy task to obtain the crystal, the reward of doing so and constructing the saber was worth it. They can remember just how right the saber felt in their hands and how when they first ignited the blade into a light of green–they felt like they had a purpose. Holding that saber for the first time made Jung feel like they finally knew where they needed to be.

Viram Cossa:

Viram's best memory is from the war, when she saved her first patient. As awful as everything was at the time, when she was able to bring that trooper back to his brothers and show that his faith in her wasn't misplaced–it was the best feeling in the world. She felt accomplished and relieved. All that hard work from her youth had finally paid off and seeing that clone being happy and grateful to be alive, seeing his brothers and Jedi general also grateful was fulfilling. But more than anything, she'd been able to make her father proud.

Khea Nultez:

Khea's best memory comes from the day her father first taught her how to fix up a speeder. She'd just been training with her older brother when her father brought her to the hangers and they spent hours in there, fixing, laughing, and exchanging stories. She felt like she could be trusted and that was a wonderful feeling. Then later that day, her mom made her favorite soup and later told her brothers and her Mandalorian folk tales by the fire before bed. It was just one of those rare days where they felt like a normal family and Khea cherishes it.

Tay'kaa Marr:

Tay's best memory is that of his mentor, Ko, telling him about her wife, Na'yeli. The passion in which she talked about her love for her and the dedication and determination that Ko had to get out of the arena to be reunited with her had such an affect on him that it made him want nothing more than the love that they had. He saw how strong that love made Ko and he wanted something like that too. After everything, he still reflects fondly on all those stories and is grateful for how they shaped him as a person.

✂️ What is one of your OC's worst memories?

Jung-Myn:

Order 66. The attack on the Jedi Temple. Clones turning on them. Anakin killing younglings. Being unable to protect and save those he was supposed to guard. The fire and the smoke. That searing pain he felt when he was shot down by a blaster bolt that he somehow survived. It's bits and pieces in his mind, but he can hear the screams and smell the smoke better than anything.

Viram Cossa:

Seeing her father fall apart. The once brilliant man who was always happy to help and whom she admired greatly suddenly became a shell of the person he once was–and not being able to stop or help him–is seared into her brain. Watching him unravel into his grave day-by-day was worse than any of the memories she sustained as a medic during the Clone Wars.

Khea Nultez:

Watching her younger brother, Mitcan, die. After she promised to protect him. After she promised nothing bad was going to happen. After she promised she could bring their older brother, Jovaz, back to the clan and snap him out of his stupid Death Watch mindset. Seeing that bright light in his eyes fade as he used his last breath to tell her not to blame herself–she'd do everything to forget it and bring him back.

Tay'kaa Marr:

When his mentor/surrogate mother, Ko, was killed in the arena. Watching as she endured blow after blow and slowly coming to the horrifying realization that–despite how invincible she'd always seemed to Tay–she wasn't getting back up from this fight. Seeing her bleed out in a pool of black, hearing the audience cheer when it happened, and being unable to save her.

Thank you again for the asks! It was nice to yap about them and flush them out a little more in terms of the memories they hold.

Here's the Ask List if any of ya'll want it ^^

[brineffxiv]

My new old friends and I continue our adventures through Elpis.

We're about to be eaten by a shark with legs when Venat drops out of goddamn nowhere and knocks the thing out. So fast I didn't even manage to capture the moment.

Hell of an entrance. I can certainly say I didn't expect to meet her like this.

Venat is apparently a former member of the Convocation who has eschewed the majority opinion and elected to remain and continue her work after retiring.

*Gaaaaaaassp!!*

Former Azem!? OMG.

Venat knows Hythlodaeus and Emet-Selch of course, and they all have a little exchanging of pleasantries, discuss the current Azem (Me! It's Past Me! AAA!), and generally make smalltalk. When suddenly Venat turns to me, and asks...

DANGER! DANGER! THE CAT IS OUT OF THE CLOSET BAG!

Fuuuuuu-

The question is met with shocked reactions from my two travelling companions. Venat explains how she reached this conclusion: She senses her own magic upon me - a traveler's ward, designed to prevent the corruption of aether - and knowing she has never met me she surmises that she must have woven the enchantment at some point in the future.

I confirm her suspicions.

Emet-Selch is taking this very seriously. He is not going to like what I have to tell him.

Venat offers her accommodations here in Elpis as a place we can go where I can tell them all my story. Venat seems to me a very lovely person. She's difficult to dislike, even if I may have some grievances with her future self.

At Poieten Oikos, Venat prepares us some tea, and the group settle in to hear my tale.

I really appreciate how this was done. The time it took for me to explain everything, and the shots of the characters shown throughout as they reacted to what I was presumably telling them. The way the mood progressed from curiosity and hope to solemn horror as each of my new friends were confronted with their fates and the future of the star.

(It made sense to me that Venat was shown specifically contrasted with her future as Hydaelyn, and Emet-Selch with the fate of the convocation as a whole, but it was especially interesting to me that Hythlodaeus was confronted with - and presumably effected the most by - Emet-Selch and his phantom Amaurot. Not his own future as a shade sacrificed to Zodiark, but that of his friend and the burden he would bear. Curious, and food for thought... bad shipper brain! Not time for that!)

I speak for a long time; until the tea has long grown cold. None of them take what I've told them particularly well, and all express doubts. Venat seems the one most inclined to credit my story as being true.

I am extremely pleased to see that she has several of the same critiques of her future self's actions as I do! Perhaps we will get along better than I expected!

Emet-Selch is not taking this well at all. Honestly, I don't blame him. He plays the role of villain in this tale, and not only is he fated to labor in grief and isolation for thousands of lifetimes, he is ultimately doomed to fail. He alone among the Convocation must carry the burdens of sanity, memory, and responsibility.

In defence of your future self; I do not think you abandoned your brethren or your duty. I think assisting me was simply a backup plan in the event that I killed you. As to why you would do something so seemingly illogical as to invite me to Amaurot in the depths of the Tempest? I think, despite it all, you desperately wanted the person you still saw as your old friend to understand you. What you were doing and why. Deep down you didn't want to kill me, but rather, you wanted me to agree with you, to convert to your side of things. As impossible as that eventuality might seem, you still had hope that we could see eye-to-eye. The friend who disagreed so strongly with your chosen course that he left the Convocation might yet return. Your people - those sundered and those imprisoned with Zodiark - might be made whole and restored to life. All could be as it was, and the world could be restored to the version you loved, when you were happy and whole.

So you invited me to Amaurot. A final attempt to force me to see what we'd lost. It wasn't about winning, or the most logical course of action; it was about a desperate hope to reclaim even the tiniest sliver of what you lost. A friendship, a connection. Pain and loneliness and grief and love were your motivations.

Emet-Selch speaks and plans logically, and rationalizes his actions in the moment. But in truth he is ruled by his emotions: he feels too strongly and too keenly. He loved so much that loss turned him into a monster.

Anyway, back to the preset, Emet-Selch storms out the door with Hythlodaeus running and calling after him.

Venat and I are left alone.

I am concerned, but Venat assures me that if Emet-Selch is truly the man Azem has led her to believe he is, we will see him again.

Fortunately, Venat seems inclined to help me. I tell her of what I've learned of Dynamis, and of Hermes' experiments with it regarding Meteion. We set about questioning the nearby researchers regarding Hermes and his activities.

Our inquiries are mostly unproductive until we chance upon a researcher whose partner once saw Hermes, late one night, sending multiple Meteia skyward. We decide to speak to the researcher personally to hear this story in full. We ascend to the skyway, and, while waiting to hear from the researcher herself, Venat and I get to talking.

Venat wants to know what the world in the future is like. She asks me to tell her about my adventures - the smaller details, as opposed to the world ending ones.

In turn, Venat tells me of her own history; she has been a scholar, one who sought to learn and discover the mysteries of the world. Through her work she feels perpetually in awe of the miracles of creation. She is the Ur adventurer; the desire to travel and learn and experience runs strong in her. And she loves fiercely all that she has come to know.

Her people are her meaning and her purpose, and they are why she cannot bring herself to return to the star. Not so long as she feels they still need her. She speculates that her future self as Hydaelyn is still waiting for a time when She can let go, confident that we can guide our own way.

Oh. That is a hell of a question.

And one I'm not given time to answer before the woman we are waiting for appears. But here...

I think it's obvious I love this game. I adore it. It's fantastic. I'm already planning to play it through again once I've finished.

But what of Rhesh'a? How does he feel?

I imagine he's still somewhat in shock. He hasn't had a moment to rest and breathe in a very long time. He's very good at compartmentalizing, bucking down and dealing with stress in emergency situations. But, now, he's approaching the end of his rope emotionally, and he's going to have a hellish reckoning to face when he finally has a chance to come to terms with all he's been through. I do not think his journey can be described in such simple terms as "good" or "bad". Worthwhile? This is his life. All he is, all he has and loves has come to him through this journey.

I will have to think on this more.

The researcher arrives! She regales us with the tale of the Meteia, shooting skywards like stars from a little isle not too far off. This must be what Hermes was talking about when he told me of Meteion's sisters, off exploring distant stars.

When the researcher had asked Hermes about his secret project, he'd told her that he needed to do more tests before answering any questions.

I am strongly suspecting that this project of Hermes' with the Meteia is related to the root cause of the Final Days, and it seems Venat agrees with me. We are going to go to the little isle to investigate some more, but I cannot yet fly in Elpis so we need some way to get me there...

Argos is less than amenable to me riding on him this time. Venat's solution is for me to fight her, and prove to Argos that I am worthy. She does not go easy on me.

Ouch.

Venat kicked my ass. This fight was not easy with a broken hand, I tell you. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Yay! Argos likes me now!

Again.

...

Oh.

Oh no.

This dog. This fucking dog, man.

I'm sorry Argos, I'm sure you're the goodest of boys, it's just that you've suddenly become a symbol of everything about to go wrong for me. I tried. I tried so damn hard to ignore it, to put it aside, but my brain can't stop assembling the pieces of the puzzle. And the picture it's creating is upsetting.

Back up a bit. I've been keeping my eye out, and I'm certain I have yet to meet anyone who could be Elidibus. But this dog. Just made me think of something. Elidibus knew to send me into the past because he remembered meeting me here. Re-framed another way; the future I come from already exists as a result of me visiting the past. It's a closed time loop. In order for me to have travelled into the past, I must always have done so. The act of me travelling into the past itself does not create a change in the timeline because that act is a pre-condition to the existence of my own future.

All very well and good, but this dog.

This dog.

This dog knew me in the future.

Argos here had to learn to respect me before he would let me ride him. In the future I come from, my past, he liked me right away. The Watcher even remarked that it was strange for him to behave that way towards me.

But I'm the WoL: I'm used to being exceptional. Why would it be strange that the otherwise unapproachable dog liked me? I am Hydaelyn's specialest little boy, after all.

But here!

He doesn't! He fucking doesn't! I am NOT the exception to the rule!

Which can only mean, that when I encountered Argos on the moon, he was remembering me having earned his respect in the past.

Right now.

I always fought Venat in the past in order to earn Argos' respect. That's why he let me ride him.

Somehow. Incredibly. Horrifyingly. After all I have done. I have not managed to change the future. The timeline has not split. Despite Emet-Selch, Hythlodaeus, and Venat all knowing exactly what is coming... and the former two at least (if not all three) explicitly not knowing that in my future... this time still leads to mine.

While I'm having my little freak out crisis, Venat and I arrive on the little island with the pretty pink tree.

Venat informs me that there are two ways to view an event in the past with my abilities. The first is what I've always experienced with the Echo, the second is utilizing the ambient aether for the same purpose. While I still can't control the ability voluntarily, Venat will help me.

I am granted a vision of Hermes and Meteion, having just sent the other Meteia off on their journeys to other stars. Their missions are to seek other intelligent lifeforms on other stars, and inquire of them their conceptions of life and what they live for. In finding these answers Hermes hopes to bring enlightenment to the peoples of this star, and improve the quality of life for all beings, not just man.

Hermes promises to hold a celebration for Meteion upon her return, and gift her a beautiful flower. I wonder if this is why she wanted to in turn gift Hermes a flower?

Returning to myself, Venat and I agree that it does not seem likely that Hermes would cause the Final Days on purpose. But we cannot rule out an accidental cause, or an oversight. In light of this, Venat suggests we fill Hermes in on my story, and seek his expertise in the field of Dynamis on this matter.

That it would not. If there is anything that can be done to prevent Hermes from becoming the Fandaniel of my time, then I would do it.

[captainshyguy]

6 bc im curious and 9 bc i wanna see ur hit list /hj

aaa ty belle!!

6. Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?

hmmm, not to my knowledge! the closest has been somthing ve been neutral bout/thought was kinda silly like melli and ingo lol, like i didnt hate it, but was neutral, and now i think its hilariousKJDSNGSDJ

9. Most disliked character(s)? Why?

(if these end up in characters tag i apologise but i aint censoring every single damn name! im not tagging and that should be enough)

oooh im gonna expand this bit beyond my regular fandoms bc there are some little fuckers out there i really hatein othe thinhs gkgjd, lets do regular fandoms first though

hollow knght: tpk, lurien, tiso. tpk for obvious reasons (plus i dont really like a lot of high up characters in general like focusing on tpk in fics kinda makes me eyes roll when the vessels are right there. lurien for reasons :). tiso because people went through a stint where he was just silly himbo and kept shippig him with quirrel nd i fucking hated that lol. his design slaps though

tcw: the bad batch lol fucking HATE them. tech is tolerable, and i dont even count echo one of them, free him!!! but the rest are condesceding assholes sorry idc if they get better in their own show like sorry you sold them to me as 'ooo arent they soooo cool theyre so much better than those Regulr Clones Boooo, look at them!!! like fuck off lol. you will never be captain rex

pokemon: not a big fan of 'hehee im a cutesy quirky little girl!! chracters, like sabi or poppy like. theyre fine i guess but eh. not for me. otherwise swordbert and shieldbert were also annoying kjgskgj

off the top of my head i cant really think of many for mario besides like...idk cranky kong specifically in the mario movie? awful voice perfromace. i guess waluigi too sorry, i m not a fan of like..idk, more basic mario chracters who dont really show up in non mulitplyar games, bc they end up beign sooo known and its like. bro they didnt even put him in wonder or 3d world or anything. like if u want him to be a staple mario character to me then put him in other games too, or i'll just roll my eyes that he's taking up space where someone like cpatain toad or peasley could be taking it lol

undertale/deltarune: detanged one but ice-e. ex went through a period where he as weirdly obsessed with him and thought he'd be super important and it annoyed me :)

ok now outside of my regular fdoms, characters i still loathe include

ralph from the flash- he was this stretchy dude who was awful abt women and like sure he kiiiida got over it but it felt weak and i hated him and the actor ended up being shitty anyway.. in the same universe i didnt like either oliver or barry's daughters from the future, both were very annoying lol

mon el from super girl. i hate him. kill him.annoying boring no chemistry love interest. kill him

eric sparrow from tony hawks underground- though i will concede that like the hollow knight characters, he contrbutes in really important ways to the story. like your'e SUPPOSED to hate him thats the point, they do a very good job with it. like he's written fantastically, and i want to kill him. i alway think of this article i read about him that was like 'eric sparrow is my best friend and he wants to hurt me' like yeah thats it thats the character. like i LIKE WHAT THEY DID, which sets him apart from almost everyone else here, its just what they did makes you hate him lol

ross from friends. miserable, insecure little creep. kill him

there are little charcters i loathe more than peter griffin family guy. kill bite explode

[thirstyforred]

10 games I played this year, vaguely in the order of playing them and not by how much I liked them

This year was pretty good for me and games, I feel like I played more than in previous years. I also started to pay more attention to demos, which led to discovering new cool projects, and I want to see a few indie titles come out next year.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

I heard about it from NoClip Podcast, tried the demo that was on Switch, and just brought it immediately. I don't have nostalgia for the franchise and I'm not well-versed in metroidvanias or platformers, but this was just such an immediate hit for me. The visuals, the music, the smooth gameplay, the story! I love how unapologetically anime it is. I feel like I can't shut up about how good this game is. Also, Sargon is just such a good guy, love that short boy.

Balatro

Listen. It's Balatro. It's numbers go up game. It's Balatro. It's the game everyone has been talking about this year. I have 130h in it and I still haven't unlocked all decks.

Neon White 2022

I heard about it when it came out, but for whatever reason I haven't played it until this year. They weren't lying, this is good shit. Real how to teach a speedrunner. I love all the abilities, movements, and levels. One thing is, I think that the boss fights are mostly unnecessary, or at least could be done better. The music is killer and the writing is fun.

Marvel's Midnight Suns 2022

I was actually supposed to play it when it came out, but I didn't. I think I just didn't have money at the time. But I got the game sometime later on sale and still haven't played, until this spring I was listening to Dear Dwyery podcast and was like "shit, I need to play it". I'm not even sure where to start on this one: the story is fun and exciting and very comics book-ish. This deckbuilding turn-based gameplay sucked me in for hours and was in the perfect mix with the not-dating-sim dating sim mechanics. I know it's not an RPG, but I swear my Hunter had a deep relationship with Morbius. Also, I'm not even annoyed about the queerbaiting, but it was funny as hell. A goddam shame this flopped and won't get sequels. Tho now I'm gonna look for the next project from Jake Solomon and his new studio.

The Thaumaturge

Hey Fool's Theory, are you in my walls? I have been keeping tabs on this one since the very second I learned this studio is going The Witcher remake. And holy shit what a little pearl this is. Deep atmospheric story, so much folklore and history. Absolute banger of the protagonist. The music! Man, some of these tracks I had on loop since March. Yeah, this game fucks.

Strange Horticulture 2022

I had a Moment this year of trying different strategy simulator puzzlers, some are still in beta, and some I just didn't like that much, but Strange Horticulture is just perfect for me. On a shorter side, occultist but not incomprehensible (yes, this is a dig at CultSim), with very nice visuals and story. I want more of it and can't wait for the sequel.

Knock on the Coffin lid

I put like 20h in the prologue and kinda forgot I'm not even playing the full version of the game. This is just a solid roguelike deckbuilder. Looks good, sounds banger, Bjorn is a dog, the toes are out, and the villain has hot ultimate form, this game has it all.

Hades II Early Access

It's fucking Hades, man, what's more to say here. Can't wait for the full release.

Dragon Age The Veilguard

I decided not to do top10 because I would have to put Midnight Suns above it and I feel like the Bioware team already embarrassed themselves enough. I like my Rook a lot, but that's more to do with the fact that I had him since 2016, not the writing of this game. I think the music is all over the place and I'm not a big fan. The game looks gorgeous but lacks interesting designs. It runs well and I had no bugs or performance issues, which apparently isn't the norm in AAA anymore. I did enjoy the gameplay as a rogue a lot, way more than any other DA game, and will return to this game more often. On the one hand, I'm satisfied, but on the other, I know there really wasn't anything to be satisfied with. Also, I fucking hate the secret ending.

Dungeons 4 2023

I may be the Ultimate Evil, but I love my little Snots.

Games I eagerly await:

The Diary, The Alters, Cabernet, The Horror at Highrook, Sultan's Game, Strange Antiquities, Arkane Studios' Blade, literally any news on TW1 remake, Two Point Museum, VTM2 if it even exists

[goldom]

HI3 day 5 (part 1)

Okay fine I'll pay some attention to the reading guide and go see the first manga chapters.

...mhy sure loves girls being impaled from behind and collapsing onto their gfs huh

having her horrifically spraying out blood while the panel also leers up her skirt is certainly A Choice. I mean, so do all the other panels, but come on, then? So glad someone took a cold shower before making HSR.

Himeko is straight lol

And now the guide is directing me to some side chapter in the game I've never seen offered, implying there are more menus I still haven't found. That's for later after work.

So uh, there sure are a lot of purchasable outfits in this game, huh? Which is completely normal for this sort of game but then why not any of their later games?! Let me buy all the cute outfits you keep designing for promo art ;_; It is so weird to me they don't. I can only assume it's out of some desire to keep Genshin and later looking like prestige AAA games rather than mobile games overflowing with microtransactions. I guess once you find the recipe to hit the top of the game income charts, you don't want to shake up your monetization strategy even one inch. I don't know how much it really matters, though. There's still a huge number of people who looked at Genshin once, saw the word 'gacha' and dismissed it as no better than random App Store slop, which is a stupid way to judge a game. Not that anyone in my audience needs that explained.

[snufflepup]

I mean it's good, I could've sworn I sent it last night, but I was super tired so maybe not lol. I do wanna get them for completionist reasons, but its likely they wont come back cause theyre collabs with companies. They did a sonic collab before i started playing, and i wish i played sooner cause itd be funny to have sonic and tails and shit. It's really cool! There's these phenomena that just turn back time in isolated spots on earth in random times and kill everyone that gets caught up in them. The mc is the timekeeper, the only person that's able to survive in the storm on her own. She's forced to work for the st. Pavlov foundation to find a way to stop the storms. (Forced, because she started working as a kid, and her immunity to the storm was found out when she tried to escape the foundation with some of her friends and all her friends died because they didnt have her immunity. Its really sad how sheltered they are and how badly they want to actually see the world outside the foundation). There's also this other group called manus vindictae, they're trying to speed up the storms happening to eradicate the humans and leave behind just arcanists that. Humans were historically super shitty and racist to arcanists, so the translation of their name "hands of vengence" makes sense! They used to have the only immunity to the storm, but in the most recent chapter, the st Pavlov foundation managed to find one out too, but their immunity item can protect humans too! God I'm so excited about this game!! The most recent patch (2.0) takes place in 1990 in San Francisco and it's so cool so far! We got the first adult guy character in a bit and he's so so hot and cool! It's gonna be a struggle to save up for him over mercuria, the other 6 star that got released in this patch before him. Oh There's also like a good couple canonical gay married npcs too! I love how casually they mention it and how respectful they are with it. A lot of the characters are girls, which I don't really prefer, but their designs are so gorgeous that i found myself actually liking them a lot^^ my favorite character is an italian half-blood arcanist named pavia! Hes so cool, though hes just a 3 star :P. My favorite 6 stars would be isolde, lucy, spathodea, Joe, and jiu niangzi! A cool thing about arcanists too is that theres awakened arcanists, items born from concepts and arcane! Lucy actually is one. Her core is a cog, and she came into existance when the first steam engine made a sound! And shes immortal as long as the concept behind her creation is alive. her concept would be progression and advancement, and omg thats soo cool to me, especially with how her representation of that concept was the first steam engine!! I could go on forever, i love this game so much, ive played since launch and im so glad i did! Things have gotten better with her, but I still think she's trying to limit how much we talk, so I'm gonna try and talk to her about it in a bit. I went trick or treating yesterday, so I wasn't really able to reply sooner, sorry. Did you do anything for Halloween? I walked around so much it still hurts lol.

-ike<3

aaa maybe ? Tumblr can . be a bit odd sometimes and mess up !! I understand how you feel, theres some games and things I like that I want to have everything in as well ! Those sound really awesome ! I'm sorry you missed out (◞ ⸝⸝ ◟ ) That sounds really interesting ! oh my god that's so sad :(( The manus vindictae group sounds really really cool too, I can understand why they would . hate humans after all that ! The story sounds really really amazing, I'm glad you like it so much ! I think it's nice you are so passionate over it ^–^ He sounds . expensive . good luck getting him and saving for him !!! aaa yay ! That's good then, it's always good when there are canonically queer characters ! Lucy sounds SO cool omg omg ! It sounds like the game did things in a really awesome and interesting way !!! I see. . . It sounds like a really hard situation, but I think you're doubg the right thing by talking about it with her ! It's okay !! Did you have a good time ? What did you dress up as ? If you did !! I didn't really . do anything for halloween . I planned to watch scary stuff, but I never actually got aroubd to it . and by the time I knew it Halloween was over !

[wri0thesley]

IVE SEEN A FEW OF UR RECENT POSTS AB TAILOR!READER SO I HOPE ITS OK FOR ME TO COME IN AND DROP SOME RAMBLING !!

firstly, is the tailor!reader exclusive to mondstadt or do you think they'd ever travel to other nations? because omg the thoughts . . .

kaveh making excuses to meet up with the tailor for the umpteenth time that week before they return to mondstadt - ranging from "alhaitham's headphones snagged my scarf!" "cyno got a little competitive over the last tcg game.." always blaming the others in an attempt to get pity from reader 😭 dehya making (repetitive) small talk about weather (or makeup) with reader in order to soothe her nerves and an attempt to conceal the shakiness of her voice and the reddening of her cheeks. nilou inviting them to as many performances as she can manage before reader leaves for mondstadt, wanting to show how much she loves the outfits they designed for her !! or thoma meeting up with reader to discuss fabrics and sewing techniques and ayato begins to take a small interest in reader as he watches his loyal servant blush and ramble from afar. or ayaka finding comfort in the times they visit because of how well they listen to not only her attire needs but her interests and what she's been up to. she just hopes her occasional stutter doesn't give away how flustered she is !! visiting liyue AND OHMYGOD NINGGUANG good lord so much I could say about her, i dont even know where to begin. . . AND YELAN??? poor tailor!reader is going to faint within minutes of being in their presence ^^; and omg sneaky hu tao purposely ruining her clothes so reader is forced to schedule spontaneous appointments to fix the clothes, or her playing small pranks on them for the time that they are visiting !!! and finally returning home to mondstadt, only to see your co workers tired and drained from dealing with the tense atmosphere along with stiff and curt responses from your normally lively, polite, and/or chatty clients </3 and telling kaeya, jean, rosaria, albedo, etc., all about your travels in the other nations and all the lovely and interesting people you met; ignorant to the way the corners of their lips tug down or push into a pout, the slight eyeroll you barely miss, the minor twitches of their fingers when you make a comment on wanting to travel again . . . AAA I love the concept of mondstadt tailor!reader <3

OHH i have not thought of them beyond mondstadt but it's certainly possible; sometimes one needs to travel for new fabrics and notions themselves, because buying from merchants is becoming too cost prohibitive or they just aren't bringing the kind of things you want - sometimes it's nice to see fashion in other nations, to talk about fontaine's new silhouettes or the beautiful silk of liyue or the fascinating dye methods of inazuma, to be able to outfit your mondstadt customers for their adventures outside of the city of freedom too--

and all of these other characters from other nations growing charmed by tailor reader, their smile and their gentle clever hands and their innate eye for design and cut and fabric, their occasional fumbles when they get flustered . . . how cute. they have to invite you again sometime. ningguang who wants a dress for a new ball and for you to outfit beidou appropriately too. ayato who calls you in on the pretense of new clothes for ayaka, kaveh who can't help spend his meagre money on beautiful things. a fatui harbinger who loves luxury and excess and notes your prowess on one of his business trips and wonders what you could drape him in, given half the chance . . .

better take someone for protection to that one.

[muffy-official]

I haven't fully developed Gabbys parents and I feel ashamed aaa

Her mother is Joanna Kamiński, Henrys sweet Joanna

Her father is Henry Theodore Garland(fine with being called both names, he's used to that)

Haven't really thought of their full looks nor designs yet, might try to develop that

I had ideas for further lore:

I lowkey forget names I have written down tbh

But her dad mayhaps worked at a newspaper office for a while

Unhappy with the censoring that happened there

Eventually stumbling upon a cleaning lady who seemed to never want to speak, being Gabs future mother

From using gestures he tried to speak for her until her English got better, shielding her from possible discrimination and eventually it clicked between the two

Him perhaps even quitting his old job to pursue journalism as a job rather than a hobby, with her mom she maybe waited a bit or went for simple jobs when she felt the employers were somewhat immigrant friendly

Eventually deciding they wanted a child together

Being nervous, but loving first time parents, probably that's why Babri was so sour when seeing a 6yo Gabby run to her worrying sick father. She had what he never got.

Joanna was also aware of the dangers Henrys job might bring and Henry himself feels awful about said dangers that could happen when he isn't careful

Even if they were loving, they grew more protective over eachother and especially their child due to Henrys semi freelance journalism he's been conducting on Murkoff and hoping, praying even the mob family that did caught up a journalist was here in New Orleans undercover in 46 won't find his families location in Colorado. Unaware it's Murkoff that will take both him and Joanna forcefully from their home in 1950 while Gabby was away. Henry getting beaten unconscious by masked men in the process while Joanna was injected with a anesthetic as she was about to hit one of the many men with a bust she picked up from a little table. The house was left in a mess, somehow nobody caught wind of what happened or perhaps people were forced to look away who knows...

Henrys love language to Joanna was trying to find polish vinyls they could listen and dance to together. Even learning words, backing her up and always being there for her. He loves her dearly, he loves his child, she loves her child. Helping her around the house and with the baby as much as he could, comforting Joanna when news struck that part if not most of their family has been captured, killed or gotten in trouble in Poland. Just unfortunate that Murkoff took them. Even if they didn't, the alternative wouldn't be any better.. who knows what Salvatore Barbi would've done to or with Joanna and little Gabby if he did get his hands on Henry himself if he ever discovered their house in Colorado one way or another.

Henry also has a birthmark under his right eye, Joanna on the lower left corner of her mouth which Gabby ends up having both visible on her face

Henry also tried to avoid serving as much as he could. He couldn't handle thinking about how Joanna feels or leaving their not yet born daughter without a father

Henrys father, Albert hated that his son fell in love and slept with a Polish immigrant, being in that hateful mindset. He decided to just not allow his father to show up ever again, not even to Gabbys birthdays. The kid was only at his place a few times when her grandma Mary Ann was still alive, which she was a sweet woman, embarrassed of her husbands hateful views, but would feel guilty leaving his son behind like this.

Gabby as a child was a very alive and happy little girl, kinda reminding me of Bioshocks little sisters

Even though she still had to deal with mean things due to her hair colour and generally acting a bit different than other kids around her and be careful to not make it shown her mother's a immigrant

Listening to her dads rules to not trust most suited men upfront that may be trying talking to her etc

Her mother telling her to stay away from cops. There was one instance where a 3yo Gabby quietly wandered off from her mother, almost leaving the store as she saw something colourful outside that peaked the toddlers interest, her path getting blocked by a police officer who looked at the child and asked where her parents are, but before he could take further action her mother quickly picked her up seeing this, pointed at herself and left, leaving the man quite confused. Joanna doesn't like speaking in public due to her accent.

And what messes with her years since the disappearance her parents happened is that she eventually accepted they're probably dead, but something feels off about this. Something feels like they may be still here, but she doesn't know where or its just her still staying in denial, not wanting to believe if they're truly long gone.

Ngl I do hope this makes at least some sense and I also hope it's interesting and not bad to read

Update: tried to do a idea sketch for Joanna, not sure if this is the one

It's kinda hard to design parents that resemble their child enough

[archerinspace]

Fionna and Cake card analysis

Based on these cards, I wanted to give my thoughts on them since there was not much Fionna and Cake lore around the time the book was published (2016) and I'm forever searching for more. They'll be under the cut since this will get long but some of these things never cease to amuse me.

Note: All cards will be written out in text as well so if you have a hard time reading them, you can read them in plain text.

Fionna and Cake Marshall Lee and Prince Gumball Ice Queen and Lord Monochromicorn

FIONNA THE HUMAN GIRL FIONNA is a feisty little fist-flapping female fool who fancies stuff like swordplay, slush-monster deflection, and Prince-Gumball-butt-saving. Fionna has one weakness- a blinding infatuation with yours truly, Ice King, which transcends the boundaries between her and fan-fictional Land of Ooh, in which I don't even exist, and the real Land of Ooo, in which she doesn't exist! Hey for a figment of my imagination, she's a real cutie. I mean, what a backyard, and what a front yard! (Girls, take note of her white bunny hat, semi-ironic athletic stockings and Mary Janes, all designed to appeal to my, AHEM, I mean YOUR predilection for postmodern, anime-stylin' fashion culture. Let it not be said that Ice King doesn't dig Kawaii!!!) But this chick is zilch compared to the incredibly hip ICE QUEEN, into whose frosty embrace Prince Gumball is destined one day to fall, frozen forever in a cryogenic icicle stupor. C'mon, his dopey dalliances with Fionna are obviously just a phase! Just like his flirtations with expressionist gummy sculpture and free-form candy-whistle jazz! But I'll save that Magnificent Wint'ry Wizardess ICE QUEEN till last! See, when I'm excited I get way ahead of myself!

Immediately I find it interesting this book refers to it as the "Land of Ooh" instead of "Aaa", a name that was said to be mentioned around the writers room or by some of the AT writers at some point.

I don't know how to feel about Ice King knowing about Kawaii or anime but it makes sense. I can only assume he enjoys Sailor Moon and eats snacks while saying 'me too usagi, me too'.

I don't know when this book was written but this just proves to me that early F&C stuff was just in very early S1 stuff of AT or at least from Ice King's memory that Finn openly had a crush on PB. I'm going to ignore his comments about Fionna being cute since it was later fixed in "Bad little boy" he wants to be friends with her which funny enough I guess he does in 2023.

He's not wrong that this is just a phase(looks at gumlee), though this is only the START of him going on about Gumball and how he should fall for the Ice Queen and generally bullying him.

This card from 2014 also backs that up. I guess he's just mad and thinks Gumball thinks he's better than IK somehow...despite the fact he's writing the character.

CAKE Fionna's feline funkster gal pal and adopted cat sister CAKE is an insufferable, dulcimer-playing furball floozy and a bottomless dispenser of cheap sassitude. Basically a smelly lowlifer, cake is roughly the size and shape of an overstuffed throw-pillow with legs unless she is, oh, I don't know, ANY OTHER SHAPE AND SIZE SHE WANTS! Because this weird whisker-head has stretchy powers! She can make her legs look like monster mutations made of molasses oozing from her cat torso! But so what, I mean, big deal!!! Ice Queen does way cooler stuff, right? Okay, what else about this fuzzy freaky Friday? Oh yeah. Cake got totally hitched to the majestic Lord Monochromicorn (who's way out of her league, by the way, I mean, lets get real!). But it's no secret that, like her sister, Cake would ditch that weirdo in a heartbeat for one lousy date with that paragon of perfection, the Ice Queen!! Seriously, that annoying cat is all about me, I mean, the Ice Queen. But what Fionna and Cake don't realize is that those two are ALWAYS in danger of obliteration at the mighty Ice Queen's perfectly manicured hands, and I'm tellin' ya, folks, it's only a matter of time until the ice pick falls!

I don't really know what to make of this one since I didn't expect him to be so mean towards Cake. I think(?) its a good thing he's vaguely aware of IQ being a self insert of him and that's some way to feel important while his brain continues to be a mess of hallucinations but at the same time he admits on IQ's card that he'd break boundaries to date/marry her and rule with an icy hand. So I guess he takes it a bit as a personal attack Cake is against her.

Also Simon is showing his age cause only my mom has ever used the word 'floozy' that I know of and that's pretty funny.