#also many post game stuff is still yet to be discovered but now that my boy is gone I'm a little less excited

[adelarsims]

Hi XD

I actually do wanna learn more ab them! And I have a few specific questions if you don't mind!

How old are they really?

They seem a bit obsessed with looking young, is there a reason for that?

Why don't they use a wand if it helps keep their hands looking younger?

What changed them from a snob to a slightly more uhm personable person?

What do they teach?

Also here is your excuse to ramble about world building and magic cus I love this stuff

Another more vague one, you mentioned their childhood was rough, can you talk more ab that?

Finally because I feel like I'm overstaying my welcome, how did they discover they have feelings for Caleb?

1. let’s just say over a hundred. caleb once told cassie that 100+ years old feels better than 97 or something, because there's something romantic about being 'over a hundred', like straight out of a fairy tale, while 97 is just a really old grandpa :D

2. when they imagine looking in the mirror and seeing their hair grey and face wrinkled, they're terrified. it’s not a simple vanity - many spellcasters share this fear, when you don't see the constant flow of time when you look in the mirror, your image of yourself freezes like a fly in the amber - and going back into that flow gets more and more terrifying because it feels like suddenly the end nears faster. not all spellcasters choose to prolong their life, but those who do find it hard to stop. as for the youthful look... i think Morgyn just craves to feel at their peak, being the perfect image of themselves in everything. they were deprived of feeling worthy in their early years, so they keep proving and proving otherwise. especially after some discoveries about themselves that upended their understanding of who they are and thrown them into a deep identity crisis – they would grasp at all perfection that is still within their power to maintain. well... maybe it's also a bit of vanity, too.

3. it’s just more natural for them to cast with their hands and gives them access to much stronger magic. a wand doesn’t hold any magic itself, it’s like a laser pointer for magical energy, helps you focus and direct it. spellcasters need wands, innate mages don’t, though they of course can use them too. hand magic is raw, it’s more powerful but requires mastery and precision, and allows to weave spells that aren’t accessible to wand users, because wand is a single-channel magic focus, so to speak, and hand magic allows multi-channeling it (so basically, there's a limit that former humans who learned magic can do, and for innate mages this limit is very far, if existing at all)

4. oh no, don’t mistake a snob for an insufferable asshole. they were always personable. they’re likeable, cheeky, warm and affectionate to those they’re close with, especially those who appreciate and accept them, even though their position as a grand sage and academia headmaster naturally made them more reserved. and they’re still snobbish about magic, they know no one will do it better than them when it comes to spells, tend to nitpick mistakes in others' spellcasting, and get annoyed when someone is being lazy or unreasonably cocky with their magic. they just were hot-headed about people doubting their prowess as a student, but they have matured a lot and have good self control now.

5. mostly advanced elemental magic, and a few arcane disciplines i’ve yet to find names for. magic schools in my morgynverse are quite different from what they are in the game, for example, practical school isn’t about cleaning dishes. it covers healing, herbalism and potions, enchanting equipment, crafting amulets, like that. the new jewery creating pack will work so damn good for my story, i can’t wait!

6. i already gave bits and pieces here and there on this post. i can tell you a couple minor things if you want. there’s a plant that is used in potions, it’s called cyclop’s brain, it has huge leaves and massive seed pods, and tiny tiny seeds. also, every four years, on 29th of february, “the day that does not exist”, the academia holds a huge event called Masquerade of Mysteries, it’s grand and magical and everyone is allowed to go all out with enchantments and costumes, every student and teacher is looking forward to it.

7. i’m not sure how much i should say considering that i hope to start telling my story one day and it’s a spoiler, but let’s just say they weren’t really accepted for who they are and were considered dangerous even though they never gave anyone any reason to be afraid of their magic (it’s not simply about them being a mage, that wouldn’t be as much of a problem as their origin)

8. slowly. eventually. they were physically attracted to Caleb from the beginning, but it’s doing right by one another that truly brings people together. Caleb was there for Morgyn when they needed it most.

[stillness138]

Since there won't be any more expansions (and i'm a chronic procrastinator), i updated my personal top 10 Gwent card arts into a top 20, including the few sets that came since then and shuffling things around a bit.

It's a long one, hence the cut.

Personal top 20 Gwent card arts:

20: Bone Talisman by Bogna Gawrońska It's still the most festive looking thing i like. My beloved blue-and-bright red fidget spinner. I really can't explain my weird attachment to it any other way; i generally tend to like the item arts, maybe it's the collector brain, maybe it's because after Homecoming and most of the expansion sets since later 2019 onwards, these base set trinket adjacent arts became more prominent to me among a lot of new, more dramatic and bleak character and scenery art.

19: Ceremonial Dagger by Katarzyna Bekus The entire set of strategem arts from Merchants of Ofir is honestly packed, but the dagger is the one i found myself putting in my in-game profile the most. Maybe it's the item hoarder brain again, maybe it's the color scheme i find relatable if that makes sense, most likely it's the premium helping a bunch to make that choice too. The background weirdly fascinates me. Does it have anything to do with The Spiral? I have never attempted to really assign any logical meaning to the strategem arts, they're clearly more symbolic than anything, but it still makes you wonder.

18: Ard Gaeth by Katarzyna Bekus Somewhat related, here's another piece of wonky multiverse lore. And once again, it's the color that first grabs attention; the contrast of teal and this dusty red. Then one starts realizing the implied size and scope, the birds help with that, apart from being a cute composition detail. The shattery effect makes it look volatile, unstable, dangerous. Ominous. Which ultimately makes it fit with the rest of the Wild Hunt archetype in more than just lore.

17: Coup de Grâce by Lorenzo Mastroianni There are two wolves in me, one loves bright colors, the other actually enjoys a lot of the bleaker scenes. Although to be fair, Lorenzo Mastroianni is a big contributor to that. And it's no wonder, when he casually drops stuff like this. It's almost symbolic, lot less than strategems but certainly more than other, straightforward "war sucks" Gwent art. How do you visually represent something sad in a way that makes it hard to look away not just because of the tragedy but because of the beauty put into making that image? You ask Lorenzo Mastroianni, the modern classical artist, to do it.

16: Viper Witcher by Valeriy Vegera I once described Valeriy's art as "where Lorenzo uses a tight color palette, he uses every pencil in the case". This one is perhaps not as obvious an example, the whole piece has a very unified atmosphere especially from afar, but still, there are so many colors especially in textiles and skin. They're harder to register sometimes but it's how Valeriy does texture and shading. And somehow, he bridges the bleak and the colorful world too. Admittedly, this card also had to be here because mr. Viper is my son, and the voicelines are done by an actor with the nicest, smoothest bass i've heard since Peter Steele.

15: Naglfar's Crew by Anton Nazarenko I was surprised by how much i ended up liking this one. It's the implications, i think; enchanted to laboriously upkeep this monster of a ship, this 'and if you see it emerge from a breach in the sky, you know you're fucked' symbol of death and decay. It's dark in a way i find compelling, i guess.

14: Serpent Trap by Marta Dettlaff Back to the bright ones, i liked this art ever since i discovered it as Nature's Gift in post-Midwinter beta. The card saw play in Scoia'tael spell decks, and to me it became linked to Francesca Findabair for their shared spectral snake thing. But that all aside, the art is just so pretty. Vibrant, yet not oversaturated. And like the item arts, needed to balance out the cool and badass and the dramatic and tragic. Looking at it now, another point comes to mind; it's still grounded? The way Gwent art at large is grounded compared to other card games. Like it's not trying so hard (both this piece and the game's art in general). That's refreshing.

13: Chort by Bartłomiej Gaweł It reminds me of the first game's main menu. The Witcher 1 main menu is, to me, one of the most accurate representations of this universe, its atmosphere. Even if the "you kill cows, you get ambushed by the fucking baphomet" is a meme game mechanic, something about it is...witchery. Superstition, folk legends, and ultimately, monsters. Or that's my takeaway, anyway. But the Chort art, beside being on the more rare side in-game, has always weirdly drawn me in.

12. Oneiromancy by Lorenzo Mastroianni This was the Novigrad expansion key art before they turned it into a card, and i sure am glad they did. Lorenzo can get a bit weird, as a treat, someone said. Are they Condwiramurs and Corinne? Possibly! But i'll abstain from the schizo theories now. It's a gorgeous, well composed and executed surrealist piece. Inception if it had strong palpable atmosphere.

Denis Villeneuve > Christopher Nolan. but Lorenzo beats both

11: Funeral Boat by, you guessed it, Lorenzo Mastroianni One final yippee for the last card set. And my god it's beautiful. Tight composition can get surprisingly hard to coordinate and make decisions for, but this is so well-balanced. The left end of the boat is closer to the frame, but right side has the most noticeable color, the character's face, and of course the bird to even it out. As if to defend the title i gave him earlier, Lorenzo references Isle of the Dead in a way that, even if symbolic, fits into the universe perfectly. Someone stop me before i start rambling about similar concepts in different mythologies.

10: Dana Méadbh (now the token spawned by Call of Harmony) by Anna Podedworna The most famous Gwent artist enters the list. With a piece made around two, when you think about it very bold choices. The goddess of nature and life, glowing with inhuman light in a black and barren forest. Obscured by thin, bare tree trunks. But to make her emerge and stand out, that was necessary. And it's working wonders. A lot of the Scoia'tael faction is obviously green, all kinds of green, but even a simple choice like making it pop out of black makes the card art stand out among others.

9: Circle of Life by Oleksandr Kozachenko It has everything i usually look for in Gwent art; nature, color, atmosphere. A certain tranquility, perhaps. A little bit of story - the orange badge is the Kerack coat of arms. It's that environmental storytelling thing gamers keep talking about, complementing the character and faction drama of the rest of its card set.

There's a slightly changed, extended version, too, and somehow it's even better.

8: Gezras of Leyda by Bogdan Rezunenko As much as i tend to dunk on Bogdan for having played Blasphemous once and making it his entire personality, Gezras is easily the best school founder card art of the set. Once again, the choice to have these prominent arts on the more symbolic side paid off, and the result is a stalking nocturnal animal out for revenge, backed by a giant image of what simultaneously did him irrepairable harm and gave him the means to defend himself. The premium doesn't disappoint either.

7: Rioghan the Undying by Daniel Valaisis To nobody's surprise, the atmosphere, once again, got me hooked. I love the cold color, the dramatic flow, the big imposing silhouette of a ship in the background. Poor boy is the picture of misery. It's pure melancholy (something not that common in the Skellige faction by the way, which is a point in favor of Funeral Boat too), that i, of course, am inevitably drawn to.

he's just like me fr...

6: Witches' Sabbath by Michal Lisowski Did i craft this card already or not? The realist's complaint towards near-greyscale card art. I share this sentiment, if only for the comedy of it, but with a few notable exceptions, and this piece is the main one. The Robert Eggers comparisons were made already i'm sure, but it really is a take on the last good Witcher 3 quest with a dramatic, more dreamy, or you could say cinematic quality ramped up to 11. Gone is the fanservice present in the game and the unnecessarily grotesque depictions of fatness of other parts of this card set, and what remains is a beautiful, ominous callback to folklore and classical art.

5: Tinboy by Valeriy Vegera This is a baroque painting. The drama. Tinboy doesn't take that scarf off, ever. And here this poor soul is, their last will to live dragging it off him. On purpose? On accident? Probably both. The pattern marking Tinboy as a gang member staining with blood of a victim, something something symbolism. All in Valeriy's signature 'which pencil should i pick up next' style. Underrated piece.

4: Lara Dorren by Toni Muntean They finally got our girl. And once again, despite heartbreak, it's gorgeous. Soft, sweet colors with a necessary hint of melancholy (the lighting suggests it's sunset?), and a pure, painted quality without the need for texture assets. A scene like this is better left a comparatively simple and laid back tribute. Beyond the technicalities, i also really, really applaud Toni for the outfit design. This is the Aen Elle princess, dressed well but for the weather. And the fact her mostly blue clothes with yellow sleeves mirror Cregennan's yellow jerkin with blue details, and her red brooch above the heart might, beside contrasting with the blue, very well reflect his fatal wounds... well. As much as death on card art isn't always done the best, Lara is represented together with that which mattered to her the most. Despite being categorized among the Wild Hunt, she remains herself.

3: Lydia van Bredervoort by Igor Klymenko The joy i felt when this was the art of Lydia they managed to get into the game. It's easily one of the best contest pieces and on par with the best Gwent has to offer - it has mood, and that ever present air of groundedness, realism, and in that, unfortunate tragedy. But similarly to Lara, it shows Lydia being her own person; doing what she loved and was good at without sight of Vilgefortz despite her being known as his ever loyal assistant. Likewise, it doesn't sensantionalize her condition, but references it in a subtle, tasteful, and even clever way. I also love her dress and the overall color palette. Igor understood.

2: Eldain by Anna Podedworna Couldn't help it, this asshole has me in chokehold and he's enjoying it. In my defense, this piece highlights everything Anna is known for, because she's damn good at it. Incredibly sharp main subject of the piece contrasted against a blurry background, which allows for insane details like the strings extending from the top of the lute. To add more fun to it, Eldain isn't even in the absolute foreground, but the piece is still composed smart, so he remains the main focus. His silly red collar on mostly green helps. On top of all that, the art tells a little story, something Anna often does too, and in this case it delightfully sums Eldain up. It's also the best premium in the game.

look at his little red ears from sitting against the sun aww

Honorable mention: Lake Guardian by Anton Nazarenko Like the following #1, this card has sentimental value to me as my second card reveal and artwork i made my best emote of. It was a perfect match, bird gals and all. It's a Sirin, bringing in a more obscure but not unwelcome mythology reference to the universe. And I love her vibrant, marble-like eyes.

1: Dol Blathanna Sentry by Lorenzo Mastroianni ...remains my favourite card art since that fateful day sometime in January 2018. I was just discovering what there was to know about Witcher, downloading Gwent in the first place out of need for more content as i was slowly reading through the first book. Gwent has done a lot to explore and build on this universe, and it has helped me contextualize a lot of things early on. I remember scrolling through the deckbuilder, seeing this art, and being struck by its mood, this aura of secret and wonder. "Oh, so this is what Dol Blathanna looks like..." It's quintessential older Lorenzo. Very much admitted brush work, fog, tight color palette. The little specks of blue in flowers and face paint work just right. Maybe it's a reference to Arthurian myth and Avalon, maybe to Greek myth and Hades, or maybe, as is often the case and was the case later (or earlier in this list), both. It spoke to me and my sense of wonder back then. It speaks to me when i search for comfort now.

now, time to tear Karol Bem to shreds in the top 20 least favourites xd

[ganondoodle]

feeling much better now having gotten some sleep (the dont trust how you feel about yourself past 9pm is good advice no joke)

of course all my criticism of totk still applies but im feeling less depressed about it, tho i will say its honestly kinda baffling how many times the game actually got me interested and excited about stuff and then just kinda drops it in a dead end, of course they were those kind of things in botw as well but it seems much less .. balanced in totk

(not even just the big things like making me want to actively do something to help zelda turn back when it just gets solved on its own in the end, but also some lil things like the fact that so many NPCs tell you about that newly discovered animal species and when you find the dongos they are just gem vending maschines)

in the end i can say, no, i dont like totk, tho i still love the graphics and the way the world is made ( botw showed me jsut how immersive and alive a world can feel i love it to death), i liked the gameplay and that it kept the freedom botw had established, the bossfights are mostly fun (tho i wish you could refight more of them), i LOVE the yiga and im glad they got more of a spotlight, the music is FANTASTIC i keep catching myself humming along, alot of the sidequests are much bigger and feel like you are actually doing something, i like how the sages are a bit more integrated into the story, the majority of the new designs are great, both the japanese and german voice acting is great, and the end fight has some of the best build up i have ever experienced, my heart starts to race when that music build up starts even tho i have beaten it 3 times already-

however, the story is both simple and incredible flat with lots of stuff that doesnt make sense especially when it was said to be a sequel, the zonau should have stayed a mystery imo, they failed to make me care about them even a little bit and often felt forcefully crammed into the world and its history, i think you could have told an incredible story taking place in the present and leave the past be the past, you easily could have connected botw and totk in a much better way than they did, i dont like how it changes aspects about botw all the while nigh ignoring it ever happened, it still feels like it was trying to be a replacement and not a sequel and all the referencing and callbacks to the old titles may have been done in good faith but that and including time travel yet again ultimately lead to people ripping each other to shreds over trying to prove its placed in the old timeline despite it making no sense at all and confusing people even more; often when the game made me care or be excited about something it was dropped in a dead end, there was a ton of missed opportunities and lost potential to tell a much more nuanced and interesting story/lore, and thinking about it only makes me sad for the things that could have been

overall i think my disappointment is outweighing my fun and the only way i can keep playing it while having fun is ignoring everything that isnt, which works quite well most of the time since im pretty much done with all story stuff but i keep slipping into my little rants nonetheless; i will say its making me a little worried about the future of the franchise, but i know im in the minority and maybe i will just have to accept that the new stuff wont be for me anymore and i should not hope for anything that interests me xD

except for some meme material or specific characters i love i dont think i will make much use of anything totk tried to establish, and i hope thats fine with the lot of you (<3) hopefully that also means my ranting days are over xD

anyway, back to making niche art i go! (sorry for making you endure these long ass rambling posts :,) )

[theamityelf]

I like how the full timeline of my knowledge of Danganronpa experience is, I saw the YouTube rap battle between Toko and Yuri from Doki Doki Literature Club (which dropped on Aug 28, 2021), I enjoyed it, I watched it many times, and then on some rewatch I thought, "Hey, maybe I should see what Danganronpa's about. Isn't that the game that the Game Grumps have been playing for a WHILE now, when I've been waiting for them to get to Deltarune Chapter 2?" They were already on SDR2 when I first partook in the first one, and if we're keeping up the timeline thing, I know that I hadn't yet gotten through the second game by Feb 6, 2022, because that's when the rap battle between Nagito and Dream was posted, and I had to wait to watch that one until I finished SDR2, so as to avoid spoilers. (But I finished SDR2 long before the Game Grumps did; I watched ProZD's stuff, and JazzyGuns for UDG.)

Meaning I went into Danganronpa knowing nothing except what could be gleaned from the Toko-Yuri rap battle. The only Danganronpa character I knew was Toko (and by extension Syo; I didn't even know about Monokuma), for wrecking Yuri in a rap battle.

After I had finished (watching LP's of) all of the games, I asked everyone in my friend group if they knew anything about Danganronpa, and none of them did. I decided to check in with an old friend from high school who seemed like Danganronpa would be right up her alley, and I discovered (embarrassingly) as soon as I opened Facebook messenger (because I did not have her number) that her most recent message to me was recommending Danganronpa in like 2016 or 2017. Oops. But I still reached out, we talked for a bit.

And I also found out that one of my cousins has played or watched Danganronpa, so he became my main person to reference Danganronpa with.

I don't know what my point is anymore, but pretty wild, right? That hyperfixation hit hard.

[koorinokujira]

Yakuza 0 is a SPECTACULAR game and I'll shove my love for it in everyone's faces now

Alright, I'll take a bit of a break from regularly scheduled Basara-posting (don't worry, the next batch of imagines is getting worked on), because boy, am I full of emotions right now. This will most likely turn into a mini-series of posts, I don't know yet.

TLDR: Background of me getting into it all and me gushing about my appreciation for the game since I finally finished it. Some (at least vague) spoilers will definitely be involved, so if you haven't played the game yet, here's your warning! Also, I ramble a lot, sorry.

So, I am still fairly new to the Yakuza fandom, all things considered. While I first discovered the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series a few years ago (through a Majima meme, lol), I wasn't that into it at the start. I had other hyperfixations at the time, and it was just sort of at the background. I watched some gameplays, saw some memes, and after watching a full playthrough of Yakuza Kiwami (and a bit of Y0), I eventually decided to get Y0 and play it myself. Bought it and played for a few chapters, but then it got buried again beneath other games, even if I liked it a lot. But this year, it all just came back to me, and I decided to throw myself into it fully this time, restarting my Y0 playthrough (and engaging with the fandom a bit more).

And I'm incredibly glad I did.

At the time of writing this, I finished the game like 30 minutes ago, give or take, and I feel like I'm feeling everything right now. There aren't many games that hit me so hard. Every single second of this game just kept my eyes glued to the screen, and even when I was not playing, the feelings from the story lingered.

You know, I've been sort of living through other people's experiences with the series lately, especially here on Tumblr. Even if I don't know half of the characters everyone talks about yet, I still appreciate the funky stuff everyone here creates. I love the ridiculous memes, the sweet Minedai and Kazumaji fanarts, the kick-ass cosplays, and all the other stuff! You guys made me love it even more and keep going, so I could enjoy it even more! But I have to say, experiencing at least Yakuza 0 for myself hits so much harder than just watching a gameplay.

I got to play as a buff, scary looking man that races toy cars with kids as if his life depends on it, and constantly gets tangled up in ridiculous situations and helps people around town, all the while he's putting his life on the line to protect those he loves the most. I got to hire a chicken as a real estate manager, enjoy some karaoke with my best pal Nishiki, and save some poor ladies from terrible guys who harassed them on the street. And there was also so, so many heart-wrenching things that made me stop what I was doing, because I just hated to see Kiryu's kind, gentle heart get torn apart by the world he willingly stepped into.

I also got to play as a man that went through hell and clinged onto life through sheer determination. A man that was lost, but slowly found what was important to him through the course of the story. But even with him, I got to experience a ton of hilarious weirdness, which may or may not include things like pretending to be a desperate girl's boyfriend, beating up a cult leader or accidentally raising the taxes for all of Japan. Majima, I love you too, you crazy bastard!

All the characters are written so well, and felt very real to me the whole time. Nothing was really black and white, and even the simpler looking characters ended up being very complex most of the time. Honestly, I could ramble on and on about how it broke me to see Tachibana cry, or how much I adore Kashiwagi, even with the limited screentime. I will probably make a few more in-depth posts about certain characters and how I view their themes in the future.

But all this is to say, I'm glad that I finally took the plunge, and I am looking forward to what I have yet to experience! I even have a few OCs that I may share in the future (if I finally learn how to draw properly, that is), and maybe some fanfics, too!

After I finally 100% Ghost of Tsushima, I am definitely buying Kiwami, too! Glad to finally count myself a "proper" member of the RGG fandom ＼(￣▽￣)／

Thank you for reading my excited ramblings, and as I always say...

Have an amazing day!

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 24/04/2024

Guardian of the Ride Chasers

Season 4 Episode 1 No Album Release (Read More) Overdrive Ostrich Stage - Mega Man X2

Ripper Unknown

I really don't know what it is, but I woke up earlier this week with Black Parade (MMX Remix) specifically stuck in my head. I guess that's a disadvantage to running this blog - in writing, I tend to listen to the rip in question on repeat to get a good feel of the tone I want to go for, and in the process get tunes stuck in my head (Raft Ride, for instance, has still not left my innermost thoughts ever since The Incident.) But althesame, getting a Mega Man X arrangement rip stuck in my head got me fervently looking for more like it - because really, I think it was just my brain's way of telling me that it misses listening to Mega Man X music. It was through this that I wound up stumbling onto something big, a rip I'd entirely forgotten about and one that's STILL lacking a ripper credit even five years later - Guardian of the Ride Chasers, with no attachment to its origin or its ripper, fucking OWNS.

Mega Man X2 has a pretty different sound to the original Mega Man X in a way that's controversial in a lot of ways, yet the ripper has leveraged those differences to absolutely incredible lengths here. You can TELL that the guitar samples used are different, in some's eyes "whinier" - yet they lend themselves to the dramatic flair of the arranged track ever so well. So then...what is that arranged track? Funny enough, it's a source of music I was only made aware of through a SiIvaGunner project later in the same season - Guardian of the Former Sea, or the theme of the Desert Scourge boss, from the Terraria Calamity Mod. The game is as far away from my area of knowledge as you could come - I've hardly ever even touched the BASEGAME Terraria - but its legendary composer, DM DOKURO, was a name I got very familiar with entirely thanks to SiIvaGunner. Remember the King for Another Day Tournament? Yeah - amidst many other guest arrangers, DM DOKURO lent his incredible skills to a bevvy of arrangements for the event, including one I've covered on here before - September!

And like, that was how I was initially introduced to the Terraria Calamity mod as a whole! I've talked numerous times about how following SiIvaGunner has given me exposure to so many things I wouldn't have checked out otherwise, be it with Aphex Twin Snakes, Plantasia 2, Owner of a Mahjong Board or countless more, but its an entirely new level of cool to discover a composer through their guest contributions on the channel. As I mentioned before, Guardian of the Ride Chasers was already bound to work for me as someone hopelessly attached to the specific sound of the SNES Mega Man X games, but the rip only works as WELL as it does due to DM DOKURO's incredible work with the original track. I love how Mega Man X2's more varied sound in particular compared to the former and latter game resulted in the track being adapted pretty differently, in particular using the particular plink-plonk sounds from Bubble Crab's theme for a lot of the track to give the rip some really nice texture. It can be easy for a banger melody to be lost amidst samey instrumentation, a lot of lower-quality "but in the (blank) soundfont" have shown me just how bad it can really get - but the ripper went above and beyond in making the entire track sound absolutely brilliant in the conversion here.

All in all, Guardian of the Ride Chasers was a two-for-one kind of rip - both being an incredibly cool rip to listen to in its own right, and helping spread DM DOKURO's exceptional work outside of his target audience. Hopefully in making this post, you as the readers will now ALSO be reminded to go check out the other music from the Terraria Calamity Mod, or the other stuff by DM DOKURO in general - this rip is truly only scratching the surface.

[fegirl1]

Thought I'd post my Lies of P OC, though I still have her bio in the works and will update her image later once I add the finishing touches! I also can't stress enough on how I had to look at the fashion of the era the game's based on, and I'm not that good with detailed clothing and such, but I'll keep trying XD

Even though I don't have the game yet, I've been watching streamers play the game (mainly Shenpai's streams), read as many PxOc/Reader fics as I can find, and various vids of the game (cause idc that I spoiled myself cause that's how it is with me with souls-like games), I got myself invested in the game!

Name: Lillian Porter Nicknames: Lily, Lil Age: Same as P's Gender: Female Weapon: Rapier Likes: N/A Dislikes: N/A (Will update later) Family: Mother, Father, Leia (Older sister apart by 2 years), Uncle Hobbies: Play the piano, read Love Interest: P

Bio

Born in a loving family, Lillian had a happy childhood. She loved her older sister, Leia, and would do all kinds of things together with her like play the piano, sing, read, and play together. When Leia came of age, she was to be married to a man named Adam, which both families arranged.

However, on the night before the wedding, three masked thugs broke into the Porter estate and began to attack the family! Lillian and Leia fled to a secret room they call their "hideaway" , which they discovered in their room during their childhood, while their father fought against their attackers. To their horror, they heard gunfire along with the horrified screams of their mother, before her screams were silenced. After what felt like a half hour of silence, Leia told Lillian to stay hidden as she would go check to see what has happened, much to her younger sister's protests. She left the hidden room and was about to leave their bedroom when the thugs walked in, parts of their clothes covered in blood, along with their weapons. Lillian peeked through the crack of the door and silently watched in horror as one of the men took off his mask, revealing to be none other than Adam himself!

"…Why did you do this…?" Leia asked with a shaky breath.

Adam sneered as he told her that he only agreed to the marriage so he could get the deeds to the estate so his family can sell it and get the money from the sale. He never loved her and then shot her with his shotgun. Then he and his goons try to find Lillian, but they never found her and as dawn was about to rise, they left. After a good while, Lillian came out and went to her dead sister's body, wishing that this was all a nightmare. She then went downstairs to find her mother and father's dead corpses in her father's den. The vault that had the estate's deeds inside were now empty, along with the stuff that was stored in there. She wept and asked herself why this had to happen! Why did such a horrible fate befall on her beloved family? She asked herself that and many other questions before her uncle and the police came that morning, thanks to a passerby who heard the noise from last night. She explained what happened and when the police stormed into Adam's house, he and his family were nowhere to be found…

After the funeral of her parents and sister, Lillian stayed with her uncle and learned how to defend herself as her uncle learned how to fight from his travels overseas. She swore to herself to find Adam and avenge her family! The clues she followed of their whereabouts eventually led her to Krat 3 years later, not knowing about the disaster that had befallen upon the city… ------- Disclaimer: Lies of P belongs to  Neowiz Games and Round 8 Studio!

I only own my OCs! DO NOT STEAL/EDIT/TRACE MY WORK!

[potential-fate]

Sims Tag

Tagged by @andrevasims ~~

Tagging: uhm... idk this was quite long, so I don't wanna tag anyone, so I'm not going to.

anyways, my answers under a readmore, cause they're 26 questions.

1.What’s your favourite sims death?

there's so many funny deaths in ts2, but I rarely see them (I can't help it I like keeping my sims alive lmao....) I have seen the satellite death only twice in.... almost 20 years? Also think murphy bed death is pretty entertaining. oh, and that sims can spontaneously combust if too warm.

2. Alpha CC or Maxis Match?

funny I was just talking about this with @nappe-plays-the-sims on discord. My style is definitely maxis mix/semi-realistic. I think it'd probably be fully alpha in ts4 though, if my computer could handle it. but for ts2, I don't like how a lot of alpha cc looks, so it stays squarely in the mix category.

3.Do you cheat when your sims gain weight?

hm. mostly not? there are certain sims that don't fit personality wise and I've cheated (in both directions both fat loss and gain) sheerly because their fitness just barely dipped and it didn't make sense. also as a storytelling simblr, I need consistency, so sometimes I'll cheat it for the moment, but then return them to their new fit/fat state once I have a bit of a time lapse.

4. Do you use move objects?

literally constantly. I mean, I have to to pose scenes, but also decoration in my game is ridiculously off grid so 🤷���♀️

5. Favorite mod?

I legitimately don't think I can pick one. I have like 200 'curated' mods that I have mostly been using for literally a decade. Even in my "cc free" game I still have my mods folder and my defaults in. That being said, if forced to, I wouldn't be able to live without ACR/Romantic Standards, and the Traits Project.

6. First expansion/game/stuff pack you got?

Glamour Life Stuff, but I pretty much followed the release date for ts2. for TS4, the entire reason I redownloaded the game was Cottage Living so... that one.

7. Do you pronounce “live mode” like aLIVE or LIVing?

Live as in 'we are Live 🎬" (because literally that's how I always pictured it. the game is in action now, it's live.)

8. Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made?

uhm.... probably Evren, though no one has seen much of him yet. I just think he's pretty.

9. Have you made a simself?

I have.... about 12 years ago. and that sim can stay back there LMAO.

10. What sim traits do you give yourself?

hm. I suppose Gloomy, Maker, Socially Awkward. it took me a while to decide though.

11. Which is your favorite EA hair color?

in ts2, I guess the red is okay? idk there's a reason all my hair is defaulted.

in ts4, I specifically like the light blonde and the dirty blonde, but would like to set the one labeled "blonde" (the yellow one) on fire.

12. Favorite EA hair?

see above answer. I'm just... not a fan of ts2 hairs. When I was a baby, I used to use exclusively this hair on men (like they literally all had that hair it was kinda funny), before I discovered cc. but now I think I'd probably pic Caesar if I had to.

13. Favorite life stage?

Teen through Adult. I like them all probably equally, but I spend a LOT of time at Uni 😂 I don't understand why everyone wants shorter UNI mods lmaooo.

14. Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay?

can I say neither? what you guys are playing the game???? jk jk. uhm... I guess I'll say builder, but honestly a good portion of my time is literally posing. though said scenes are normally based off gameplay. but I don't get to play that often. like ie: the story posts I'm posting now are literally based off gameplay from 6 months ago so....

15. Are you a CC creator?

Yup!~ though it's not consistent, in posting schedule or what I tend to make so 🤷‍♀️ (that being said, I do have hair retextures I'm literally planning on posting this week.)

16. Do you have any simblr friends/a sim squad?

I feel like I do, but I don't wanna post favorites and hurt someone's feelings. 😂 that being said, there's like 3-5 people I talk to almost daily.

17. What’s your favorite game? (1, 2, 3, or 4)

in case it's not obvious, it's ts2. I do like ts4 now with all the dlc now though. but ts2 will always be my ride or die tbh.

18. Do you have any sims merch?

I... don't think so.... I'm pretty sure I don't. I would be willing though probably. I mean, I sorta want a sims tattoo, and that's a lot more permanent than merch so.

19. Do you have a YouTube for sims?

I do not. I don't really.... like youtube that much. or letsplays.... or filming myself.

20. How has your “sim style” changed throughout your years of playing?

oh god. idk man, I was heavy into the whole scene kid 2008 type stuff back when I first started creating cc and stuff, let alone playing, so like.... "a lot" is really all I have. I'd like to say that it's improved? I definitely think my photo/editing skills are better.

21. What’s your Origin ID?

I want to say it's potential-x-fate but i am not 100% sure on that... I don't think I've ever shared anything for ts4 anyways though.

22. Who’s your favorite CC creator?

that depends heavily on what you're looking for. @deedee-sims, @mdpthatsme, and @serabiet for clothing come to mind.

Makeup by far is probably @lilith-sims. and JesstheEx (LJ).

Hair I do a lot of my own retextures, but @antoninko also does a lot of sunshine retextures.

For b/b I couldn't even begin to decide. I don't have as much and it's all over the place.

for TS4, like, literally 85% of my CAS is @pralinesims and I have 0 B/B so.... it's pretty much just Praline LMAO.

23. How long have you had a simblr?

technically? since 2008. I migrated here from LJ around then. but this account is newer than that, cause I used to have it as a side blog and that was not very convenient. the old account I deleted after I moved everything I wanted over. I also took a 3 year break from 2016-2019.

24. How do you edit your pictures?

Carefully. lmao. jk jk. uh.... lets see. I crop them (via my own action), apply actions (mostly other people's) depending on the scene, edit any clipping by hand painting, add in hair strands a lot of the time, and uh, then I add a 1% monochromatic noise filter, and the white border frame.

25. What expansion/game/stuff pack do you want next?

since I play ts2 this isn't really applicable. but in the magical world of Allie Gets What They Want, I'd want a fix for ts2 to allow more customizability via CAS. by that I mean, I want more slots for skin details/tattoos/etc and accessories and such like they have in ts4, but in ts2. Obviously this is theoretical. but it's the thing I miss most in ts2.

26. What expansion/game/stuff pack is your favorite so far?

ahhh.... for ts2, I probably play with Uni the most, but ts2 was better at integrating gameplay elements into their EPs so I'd be hard pressed to drop any of them, even ones I "don't use" that often. (ie: nightlife came with chemistry and I'd die without it, even though I don't use any of the downtown functions often.)

[sigmundite]

my thoughts on dawntrail (SPOILERS)

FFXIV twitter has decided the spoiler embargo for DT is mostly over. While I'd like to share my thoughts about the expac there, I figured it was all too much for a tweet thread (and I was right). Decided to post it here because it's a blogging platform and I keep telling myself I want to come back one of these days.

To put it simply: Dawntrail is fine.

I love power of love/friendship storylines so the fact we got a shounen protagonist in Wuk Lamat was something I enjoyed. Shounen stuff tends to be dragged out too long for my tastes so I haven't dabbled in any of those fandoms, so I don't know if people hate modern shounen heroes with as much vitriol. I think I'd have seen it if they did? But the Wuk Lamat hate is a classic case of misogyny with a transphobia multiplier because gamers sure do enjoy stat boosts.

DT is the ARR of whatever the new direction of FFXIV is. It became clear to me during this MSQ that this is a commitment to a new beginning - specifically in the sense of 6.1 as a fresh starting point for new players. I understand and respect their desire to simplify new player onboarding (especially as someone with too many alts) but it's also the center of the pain point I have with 6.x and DT so far.

I'm frustrated with the direction of FFXIV in its current state. The Hydaelyn/Zodiark arc took one main story and built upon it over multiple chapters. I loved that arc and have varying levels of fondness for the characters and places that got us through it. I am the CEO of #FREEAYMERIC and will continue to be a pest about that as long as I play the game*. Aymeric was always a favorite of mine, and I've never forgotten his wish to go on an adventure with WoL someday. I want to take him up on that!

But DT follows SHB's example of planting WoL and the Scions in a brand new setting, far away from Eorzea and all its creature comforts. Norvrandt was still reminiscent of Eorzea, but beyond that focused on characters specific to its region and story. It made more sense then, considering it takes place on a different shard and overlap was damn near impossible. 6.x and DT are still on Etheirys, but are so self-contained that they'd rather avoid referencing old content if they can avoid it. I hated this in 6.x and I still hate it now. There's an entire world full of characters, places, and possibilities left to discover and expand on, but new expansion packs seem to be heading in the direction of dropping all that and focusing on a new set of toys. Tural will probably be done and dusted in 8.0, aside from a bit of side content here and there regardless of the response to it. Hell, SHB is so sacred to the fandom and yet we only went back for a bit of patch story and crafting relic quests during EW's entire run!

This sort of "okay, next" manner of storytelling is only one side of my issue. On the flip side is how eagerly they seem to want to retread certain tropes that worked in past expacs. So many people have commented on this being the fourth final dungeon in a row that shows the end of a society and how that feels so much more hollow now. Running Amaurot for the first time was a masterpiece of storytelling because it made the end of the fucking world more tangible. I hate running that dungeon because to me it feels like a panic attack, but I respect what it does. The Dead Ends was similar but didn't hit the same way (and tbh its payoff is mostly backloaded). Alexandria pulling the same thing stole all of the feeling from it. Like oh okay, we're doing this again.

It's not the only part of DT that retreads old ground. We have yet another scene where everyone comes together to overcome a seemingly insurmountable obstacle, and the only thing I found noteworthy about that is that it had shards of characters who had helped us do the same thing in SHB outside of the dreary context of Norvrandt. Zoraal Ja, one of the main antagonists, is comprised of retreads of other story arcs done better (including one in this very expac!). He's like Zenos Lite - a royal heir with violent intentions made into the perfect weapon of his homeland - but he's missing all of the things that made Zenos interesting and the screen time needed to flesh him out. The circumstances of Zoraal Ja's birth weigh heavily upon him, but Bakool Ja Ja covered that territory in one of the strongest parts of the MSQ. Zoraal Ja is such an afterthought that bringing him into the shared Dawnservant title isn't even considered. WTF.

TL;DR: This all comes down to FFXIV being torn between retreading well-tread story beats that have worked for them in the past while at the same time, willingly discarding almost everything you've come to love over the past several hundred hours of gameplay. They're trying to recreate their past successes by using shiny new pieces in frameworks that have worked for them in the past, and that rings hollow to me. My love for the old pieces overshadows my impressions of the new ones, but the structural similarity is so blatant that comparison is inevitable. As time goes on, the comparisons are less and less in DT's favor for me, but that doesn't mean it's bad. It succeeded in what it set out to do: expand FFXIV.

It's fine, but if FFXIV is a choice between familiar storytelling and familiar story elements, I'd rather they keep developing the friends we've already made along the way.

*Which may not be long, given the lighting issues introduced by the graphical update and the fact that doing certain things in game trigger IRL migraines for me. Still no official acknowledgment of that yet. The graphics update is the biggest step forward in DTm and yet its existence and problematic state make me play the game less. I hate it but efforts to get the devs to notice have been unsuccessful.

If you made it this far, please perceive my catgirl:

[yuurivoice]

Hi! I don't know if this counts as profound but I got stuck in my creative feels so figured I would share. I create a different kind of media to your awesome work, but writing's still involved.

When I start out with a story idea, I often find it being completely derailed by the characters, the more I write them, the more I get to know them, until they eventually start writing the story themselves.

Does this ever happen to you? And if so, how do you stop them from running away with it a little too much?

That's a great question, and I've talked about it a bit before because it is definitely not the way I think most people expect writers to write, I think. lol So for me, BitterSweet is a great example of how sometimes I let my stories reveal themselves to me as I go. I may go into it with a rough idea and an outline, but BitterSweet started off as "Rival for listener's affection arrives in town, creates conflict, leads to two different routes people can listen to." and we ended up nowhere NEAR that.

As I was writing Seth's introduction to the listener, it was the first time I was sinking my teeth into him and getting to know him. Up until that point it was just "he used to do crime with Alphonse and he feels like he got sold out" but I'm big on motivations, set ups, and payoffs...and his arrival didn't have enough stank on it. lmfao

As I approached the "I don't hate him, I love him" reveal gears just started turning and ideas started flooding into my head and it was exciting. Writing, sometimes, is sorta like playing a rogue-like game for me. Never know what loot you're gonna get, or what is behind the next door. At least, when establishing the story and characters.

Once I got to BS3 I was much more deliberate and my process was outlined pretty thoroughly. I made some detours (background on Charlie wasn't planned, but people's interest in him made me pivot to an entry with the Al/Seth/Charlie story) and ran into some massive decisions, but those were all primarily choices left up to me vs. letting characters show me the way.

I don't think I've necessarily ran into any character running away too much, or straying so far off the beaten path I felt like I had to wrangle them. Even if sometimes it's inconvenient for me, they haven't led me astray yet! The issue I find is that sometimes I am too ambitious in scope, or underestimate the time and effort required to see things through to the end. Sometimes that's just on me being exhausted and struggling mentally, sometimes I just get bored, sometimes I need to move on to other stuff because of timing.

So, when I'm first learning a character and discovering what makes them tick and how they fit into what I'm trying to do they definitely get in the driver's seat for a while. Once they're well established in my head though, I'm much more likely to outline, write, perform, and post without having to make many adjustments.

Now, in terms of structure and plot, that also changes as I go sometimes. For example with the spooky season AUs, I outlined three parts for each boy, and basically after the first script in each I was like...yeah okay so this needs to be tweaked. It wasn't entirely because of character, more so I didn't really know what I wanted to do with those stories until I was in the thick of things. I might go in with a plan, but as I discover what characters really want to say, how they want to act, etc. it might not necessarily reflect what I thought the plan was. Thankfully it's never TOO far off from where we were trying to go, so it's just a matter of shuffling and planning. The AUs probably didn't help a ton because while they're familiar characters, they're also entirely different in terms of motivations and situations so I have to familiarize myself with them as if they're new.

tldr: Yeah I'm changing and adapting all the time to what the characters want to do vs. what I thought we were going to do. From little things to massive things like...oh, they were lovers, oh they were best friends, oh he nearly killed someone for him, oh he's terrified of who he was and has a shitload of trauma, oh he's healing because he's been shown unconditional love, oh he's learned how to show that love to others, oh they're like a little family now.

It's beautiful because it's coming right out of my heart and soul, rather than my brain. The deepest parts of me wanted to tell that story and I didn't even know. That's art, and I didn't even know I could do that.

[zelenbug]

silly little originsing mod progress. discovered its WAY more fun to just draw origins-styled assets over the base sheets than suffer laying origins sprites over the legends ones

ive done kind of a lot here since hte last post.. i fixed glombrox weird white outlines (just had to mess with the alpha transparency, the background was originalyl fully white when opaque and that just Did not look great) first so thats really good

then yeah i implemented the base duck sprites and murfy, wihch was fun because both of these was almost entirely just drawing new assets

OH YEAH also finished the mosquito sprites for glombrox so hes finally like 100% complete. his mosquito sprites in legends are kind of godawful (he doesnt even have the weird thorns anymore) so thats extra good. though i will need to adjust. either the eye or the eyelid on the mosquito

murfy still doesnt look exactly like in origins bc his proportions are messed up in legensd but. still an improvement i just prefer looking at origins sprites i think

the only character-specific duck sprites ive done are glombrox as you see there and. just globox. i did nothing else for him yet literally just this

now im genuinely reconsidering if i SHOULD restrict this to just playable characters. sure that increases the workload drastically but doing this with playables already is mind numbingly tedious and theres so many of them (that arent even barbara im not bothering with barbara) and its just ?? ?oujgghh BUT drawing new art is fun. Idk well see as i go along

that said im genuinely kidn of excited to work on more of this mod bc i really like the end result. and hopefully bring my friends along to help out with this

but yeah on the other hand legends modding Annoying to deal with for Multiple reasons ... and i dont even like the game nearly as much as origins anyway ....... but hey i have something to do while watching a video i guess, just overlaying the sprites and stuff

[askthekirbysquad]

So, I finished the Magolor Epilogue yesterday! Thoughts Time, and also time for some notes on how I'm gonna work it into this blog's continuity, given its ending.

I won't be tagging this post with any spoiler tags, but I will throw the rest of this under a cut in case anyone else was late to the game like I was! ...And also because it's Long dgdgshs

First off, the mode itself was excellent! It might be my favourite of the "play as someone other than Kirby" modes now. I like the whole collection aspect and upgrading Magolor's abilities a lot (along with all the little things he has to say about it—Magolor likes puns confirmed! Which makes sense. Yet another way to harmlessly annoy his friends lmao), and I definitely strongly prefer the combo mechanic as a way of determining score over the time attacks that Metaknightmare, Dededetour, and such have. ...And I do also just adore Magolor and playing as him dhdhshf (though I love Meta Knight too!)

Getting Platinum ranks on Electricky Dooter and Hydriath was absolute hell though. I have no idea why those two bosses specifically took so many damn tries, but they did.

As for plot stuff, it's cute that they tied stuff in with the Kirby Clash games and offered a bit more of a backstory behind the Gem Apples. And also given the newly added conversation that you get from collecting all 120 Energy Spheres in Extra Mode, it's nice to see him follow through on what he told Kirby and actually set up a shop (even if in doing so he becomes more evil than he ever was before by forcing Microtransactions upon us). I also loved getting to see the origin/creation of Magolor's Ultra Sword attack from Star Allies in the battle against the Master Crown!

But! The ending also causes some slight issues for this blog's continuity, given that here, Magolor is chilling at Dedede's Castle with everyone else. And obviously, I'm not gonna change that.

I've got multiple ideas on how I could adjust things to make everything work! I haven't decided on which one to go with yet.

My initial thought was to create a timeline split. Instead of going to the Kirby Clash universe, this blog's Magolor was sent to somewhere in the main series' timeline (along with the Gem Apple still, of course). Halcandra was my first idea, since that would work best with my original plans for him that I think I've mentioned in an old ask (Magolor talks to Landia, who tells him a bit of what they know about the Master Crown. They also banish him from Halcandra for his crimes, but allow him to take the Lor with him as long as it agrees to it (which it does!)). And then from there, Magolor warps to Dream Land using the Lor Starcutter.

I could see the Epilogue's extra level being a pathway back to Dream Land/Planet Popstar, given the presence of Waddle Dees and (more importantly, since maybe there were Waddle Dees in the other Epilogue levels that I've forgotten about) the fact that Magolor is going through a lot of the Another Dimension Sphere Doomer sections from the Story Mode, which are connected to Popstar and Halcandra. So I could see that being the way Magolor gets back home. Maybe he decided to stick around in Another Dimension for a little while longer instead of taking the portal into the Clash universe? So he could gather more magic energy and fully restore his powers before leaving (so that, say, he's not permanently stuck without infinite flight). And eventually he discovers the extra stage, which takes him back to Popstar. He never does learn what was on the other side of that portal that appeared after he destroyed the Master Crown, and sure, he wonders about it from time to time, but ultimately, he's with his friends now and right where he wants to be.

The problem with Magolor being transported directly to Popstar, though, is that he wouldn't have the Lor with him anymore. ...Well, technically he would get it back once Merry Magoland happens (since I'm treating that as part of the continuity for this blog rather than an alternate universe), when it shows up at the amusement park like «HELLO MAGOLOR. COOL PLACE YOU HAVE GOT HERE.» dgdgdshf. But I have Merry Magoland set as the latest thing happening in this blog's timeline, taking place sometime after Forgotten Land, so Magolor and the Lor would have only recently reunited.

But I guess, given that the extra stage has the Another Dimension Sphere Doomer Story Mode sections (I Do Not Know What To Call Them, I'm sorry dhdhshf) from both Popstar and Halcandra, it might be fine to just say he followed the pathway and the portal at the end took him to Halcandra instead! And then once again, he got the Lor back from Landia since it was willing to accompany him, and then they went back to Popstar so Magolor could make up for what he did to Kirby and the gang (and also because he was exiled from Halcandra).

The other option would be to say that Magolor did go to the Kirby Clash universe, but eventually made it back to Dream Land later on. Since I mean, it's now canon that Magolor goes to Kirby Clash after Return to Dream Land, but there's also the already established canon that Magolor makes it back to Popstar since he's playable in Star Allies. So either there's a timeline split, or Magolor leaves the Kirby Clash universe sometime after its story is complete (...which. I've never finished either of the Kirby Clash games actually dhdhshf).

Magolor does mention that he could potentially warp to other worlds if he upgraded his Dimensional Vanish beyond the in-game maximum, and while that could certainly be exaggeration on his part, that could also be the way he gets home? He managed to further power up his warping abilities during his time in the Kirby Clash universe, and once he's no longer needed there, he decides to use those new powers to go find Popstar (and Halcandra?), which he succeeds in doing in time for Star Allies to take place.

Or alternatively, maybe Kirby summoned him home in Star Allies? If the Dream Rod is able to reach Dark Meta Knight from within the Mirror World and Ribbon from over on Ripple Star, then why not grab Magolor from the Kirby Clash universe too? Plus, I do have to admit, that would make for a pretty cute reunion scene, because Kirby wanted Magolor back and specifically tried to summon him, even after all of the horrible stuff he did.

I dunno! I'm sort of leaning toward the first idea (this blog's Magolor never goes to the Kirby Clash universe at all, spending longer in Another Dimension until he eventually goes through the extra postgame stage, which leads him to a portal to Halcandra), but I still haven't fully decided. Going with the second option (Magolor still gets transported to the Clash universe, but eventually gets summoned back to the main series' universe by Kirby in Star Allies) would mean that he isn't present for the events of Triple Deluxe or Planet Robobot, but I guess that isn't necessarily a bad thing? It'd mean I wouldn't have to decide what he was doing during those times and why he wasn't helping Kirby, since he'd be busy in the Kirby Clash universe. ...But at the same time, for Robobot specifically, I think it'd be funny for Magolor to be there and be torn between going "ooooooh cool tech 👀" and "hey can you guys maybe not destroy Popstar please" dhdgdfhshdhfs

[carnocus]

writeblr introduction

Hey! I'm Arsen, I'm a Ukrainian-American in high school. I've been writing and making other forms of art for many years, and am planning on posting both my writing and my other art on this account! I've had this account for a while, yet it has undergone many breaks and changes so I'm reintroducing myself.

Some basic facts...

I'm 17 and will be 18 later this year

I currently live in the Northeastern US but my family is Ukrainian

My main blog for everything but my art is @thembones07

My account used to be under @/cryptidsandqueers

I tend to write mostly dark fantasy, horror, gothic, and literary fiction. I write both short stories and novels, and most of my works include a good deal of body horror. I am a big fan of using gore and horror as a vessel to demonstrate themes and put societal commentary in my writing ("A Modest Proposal"-style). I write mostly LGBTQ+ characters, and am a big fan of haunted house and mad scientist tropes. I make patches for clothes, including band patches, make other crafts, and draw. I am also into goth, industrial, metal, and grunge music, oddities, and fungi. I am currently planning on studying biology or mathematics after graduating high school.

I love doing ask and tag games, though sometimes I do get lazy and forget to. I also don't mind adults following me, but I am very liberal with my block button, so don't do any weird stuff no matter your age!

I've been wanting to connect to more writers on here, especially more horror writers, and refreshing my dash!

So with that out of the way, here are some of my works in progress...

Novels:

The Promethean Society (working title) - novel series - currently planning - dark fantasy/horror/apocalyptic dystopian

On a post-apocalyptic earth where some possess the ability to manipulate bodily tissue, a prestigious university opens its doors for the first time in 15 years, and young adults eager to serve the god of flesh pour in. The select few with the power are taught how to harness and grow it, given special treatment above the rest. They stumble into a world of lies, illegal experimentation, and fraudulent history. While trying to stay alive in the dungeons of the academy, which are crawling with unfinished experiments, the students must decide wherever to obey the Clergy and the god they supposably serve, or rebel and reveal the truth.

This is my main project right now, I am veryyy attached to it and it has undergone SERIOUS changes over the years. It features me being overly edgy and also a nerd, and is an exploration of corruption in the scientific research field but with body horror and gore. There is also a great deal of speculative biology, mad science, sibling relationships, and enemies to lovers.

Untitled - novel - currently planning, on the backburner - contemporary fantasy/folkore fantasy

After being away from her hometown for many years, a Ukrainian trans girl comes back and discovers a ecosystem she believed she'd imagined there. This is a novel about reconnecting with ones culture while feeling alienated from it because you are queer and grew up in a different country, as well as a love letter to nature and folklore.

This is a VERY self-indulgent story. The main character is Ukrainian-American and trans, like me, and the story deals with many issues I face everyday. I still need to do a lot of research before writing this because its setting is based on Ukrainian folklore and spirits.

Short stories:

The Architect - short story - 2nd draft completed - literary horror

A man is pressured by his dead mother's aspirations for him, with her dreams for him physically manifesting on his body.

This is a story about parents who raise kids for self-indulgent reasons and pressure them to fulfill the parents' unrealized dreams.

The House of Famish - short story - 1st draft completed - gore horror

A couple living in a carnivorous house fight over wherever to live by tradition or reject the harmful past.

I am very happy with this title and this story. It discusses familial attachments to unhealthy traditions through very cool visuals and features a subverted haunted house.

If you read this to the end, ily <3

[misc-obeyme]

When I tell you, I'm still figuring out how to use this site correctly, please believe me xD So to answer a few of your questions..

She was raised by her uncle because her parents are gone, yes. By the time the exchange program starts, her uncle is also sadly gone. She finds out more about him once she discovers more of who she is and her connection to faeries. After she discovers more about herself and her abilities, she will gain a sort of affinity for plants and nature, as well as the ability to grow plants in a matter of seconds. I've been toying around with the idea of giving her a full faerie form that happens later on with like markings that show up when she's not in that form. The fae world I have her in includes like Seelie and Unseelie Courts.

Her love interest is definitely Asmodeus, I have them together by the end of the first season. (He is my favourite!) Other than that, she gets along with Mammon and Beel the most. (I went into the game with Beel as my favourite.)

I'm always happy to answer questions about her! Thank you so much! It really gets me thinking. I actually kind of... really write this all out in story format now.. xD

Oh you're doing great lol! I saw all the lovely posts you tagged me in!!

I'm just super curious about the fae side of her! If she's part fae, then some of her family must have been, too, right? It's so sad about her uncle being gone just before she ends up in the Devildom, what a whirlwind of stuff to deal with!

OHHH I loooove plants/nature powers lol! I also really like the idea of a faerie form, that sounds really cool! And having the markings manifest after she sort of discovers her abilities and they're just there all the time, I like that too!

Ah okay I thought it was probably Asmo! And honestly, what a freakin' power couple!! Are you kidding, someone half fae just feels perfect for him!

Listen I'm always going to encourage writing. I think it's perfectly okay to never write a story version and to just think about the story in your head. However, I find that actually writing forces you to develop parts of the story you wouldn't think of. It's part of why I ask so many questions lol. I know sometimes people only have the surface ideas, so when I ask questions it's often stuff they haven't considered yet. It makes them think about it a little more and fill in some of those details. (This is also why I like being asked questions too lol.) The same thing happens when you write the story - inevitably, you gotta fill all that stuff in!

It's just a process that I really enjoy, making my characters come to life like that. So I like to encourage other people to do the same with theirs!

And the best part is that you're doing it for yourself, so there's no pressure to write it fast or to make it something that "sells" or whatever else. You get to just enjoy the ride and the act of creation.

Anyway, I love your MC, thank you so much for sharing her with me!

[hamable]

Psychonauts 2 post-game mentor/mentee list I promised a while ago:

So I was gonna make a connection between the psychic 7 and the 7 interns, but it wasn’t a clean parallel and it excluded Lilly, so instead I’m reshaping it to Who I’d pair up as mentors/mentees post-game:

Interns (8 (no! 9 actually, I’m adding Fraizie.)

Lizzy, Sam, Morris, Norma, Gisu, Adam, Lilly, Raz, Frazie

Potential Mentors:

Ford, Lucy, Truman, Hollis, Milla, Sasha, Helmut, Bob, Compton, Cassie, Otto, Oleander.

Helmet & Augustus: (HA SIKE, ITS 10 INTERNS) I wasn’t gonna include Augustus, but then I imagined him interacting with Helmut and they gave immediate best friend vibes. They would get along swimmingly. They both have this love of performance and similar temperaments and I really think it’d be like throwing two theater kids together. They’d be inseparable. They’d have so many ideas for psychic flourishes and music performances and asdhdkfj imagine it with me.

Lucy & Raz: Lucy wouldn’t take an actual intern on, but I think she and Raz (and the rest of the Aquatos) would spend their time post game healing together. In that context, it’s an obvious pairing. Let them rediscover their familial connection to psychics together, let them literally test the waters they’ve been wary of their whole lives together.

Milla & Frazie: a perfect match to me, personally. Frazie still has reservations about herself and psychics as a whole. Who else to guide her through it than someone as warm, uplifting, encouraging, and fun as Milla? Added bonus is her specialization in levitation, and I feel like the circus born Aquatos would pick up and excel in that right away.

Bob and Lily: another obvious pairing, similar situation to Raz and Lucy. They haven’t spent time together yet, and I think it would mean so much to Bob to see his little firecracker of a niece so excited about plants and their psychic properties. And look at all the cool stuff he’s got: exploding plant bulbs, psychically linked vine system? Lily would absolutely lose her mind.

Otto & gisu: I love engineer Gisu, and while we don’t get a whole lot of in game time with either of them, I headcanon these two to be similar in temperament, especially with tinkering and experimenting. Perfect pairing, no notes.

Oleander & Sam: Extremely Funny. Will not separate these two even though Ik her grandfather is literally Right Over There.

Cassie & Morris: discovering even more ways to reach out into the world, psychically or otherwise. Also, Morris would be so pumped to have a doodle archetype Co-DJ.

Truman & Norma: she seems like she admires strong leadership and would wanna learn from the Head himself.

Sasha & Lizzie: chill vibes, and I think Sasha would like the challenge of helping develop a power set that isn’t as similar to his own.

Hollis & Adam: similar to Norma, I think he’d want to develop as a leader and learn what it takes to run something like the Psychonauts. I think she’d challenge him and help him grow into a really powerful psychic.

Ford: listen. LISTEN. There are split views on this man. I’m gonna tentatively say that maybe we don’t put this guy in charge of a child for a little bit...

Compton: I feel bad I couldn’t find an intern for him but maybe Queepie would like to talk to animals.

Alternates:

Truman & Adam: Adam was my other candidate to shadow the Grand Head. He’s got the feel of a future leader and would probably really enjoy learning from him.

Lucy & adam: now, I don’t think Lucy is in a place to be teaching or mentoring anyone immediately post game, and further down the line when she’s more recovered and like her old self, Raz would be an obvious choice to pair with her. But for some reason I really wanna see Adam and Lucy interact. Adam SCREAMS sweet, smart young man that old ladies just eat up. She’d tell him stories and teaches him tricks and I think hed have the right balance of humility and gumption, and patience. I think she’d find his yo-yo delightful.

Milla & gisu: like morris, gisu is skilled in levitation and definitely has an eye for fun that would work well with Milla’s whole vibe.

Compton & Sam: another family pair, but I want them to work together on cooking. I feel bad not pairing Compton with someone in my initial list bc his whole thing was about growing more confidence in himself and I think it’d suit him well to have an intern look up to him.

Otto & Lizzy: she’d be so into all his weird gadgets and they’d be squirreled away in their little lab working on unethical horrors beyond our comprehension and also a top secret soft serve ice cream machine for the intern dorms.

Bob & Sam: Bob has his exploding plant pods and sentient/psychically linked vine system and probably loads of other stuff that Sam would find fascinating. And that’s just what we saw while he was hiding away, imagine what he can do now that he’s happier and healthier. Actually, maybe it’s be dangerous putting these two together. Crazy powerful plant guy and tyrannical animal whisperer could be too powerful a duo…

Milla & Morris: I liked this initial pairing and wouldn’t be mad to see it continue!

Helmut & Raz: I love their dynamic and honestly I just need Helmut post game, freshly refunneled into his recovered body, hunting down Raz to give him the biggest, most monstrous bear hug anyone’s ever witnessed. This kid fully rehabilitated him for a near brain dead state. He save his life. He’s Raz’s number 1 fan and will be for the rest of his life.

[convexicalcrow]

Snowflake Challenge #6 In your own space, post the results of your fandom scavenger hunt. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

This one looked super fun, and I'm doing both physical stuff as well as a few digital things, bc for some of these I had more than one thing I wanted to share so. :D

Search in your current space, whether brick-and-mortar or digital. Post a picture or description of something that is or represents:

A favorite character

Sausage and Santa Perla oml <3

I can't list one without the other ofc. Sausage's lore captivated me in Empires s1, and hasn't let go yet. The lore he's running in Empires s2 is just incredible. It's made me cry far too many times, and I'm just so invested in whatever the hell he's got going on. Also I love a good excuse for religious world-building, and having Santa Perla to work with has been so fun. <3 I'm really looking forward to what Pearl decides to do with her side of the lore now that she remembers as well.

2. Something that makes you laugh

It's Mark Watson, Alex Horne, and Tim Key! This is collectively representing them as a group of friends and just doing stupid shit together, but also No More Jockeys, Mark's long shows, Key's works, and the non-Taskmaster stuff Alex does, though there's not much outside of the Horne Section these days lol, he's a busy boy.

For digital things, may I offer the following: - Longform: Big Fat Quiz 2015. It starts off fairly sensible then gets derailed by bad dong, and only gets more off-track from there. A classic. - Shortform: Carrot In A Box. Need I say more. rip Sean Lock, you bastard genius. </3 - TV series: 15 Storeys High, Sean Lock's sitcom from way back when. It was rec'd to me by a friend, and I don't regret finding a copy to download bc it's so good. <3 - TV series: This Is Jinsy, weird, full of songs, nonsense and whimsy, def worth tracking down a copy of this show. It's so good. Makes me laugh so much. <3 Greg Davies in drag is also a lovely touch lol.

3. A bookshelf

These are the Taskmaster books that still exist. I tore up an awful lot of them to make 1000 paper cranes a few years ago. XD Also have some Key and Horne and Watson. <3 The three books on the far left are my current reading material.

4. A game or hobby you enjoy

iykyk >_>

(and yes at some point I will be making a Dinnerbone nametag for that blue sheep :D)

5. Something you find comforting

Cub omg. <3 I just find his voice so soothing and comforting, and bingeing through his episodes or watching his streams is very comforting for me. I'm really enjoying all the daily speedrunning streams atm bc they're on when I'm awake during the mornings for me, so I can have breakfast and chill with Cub and it's so so nice. <3

6. A TV show or movie you hope more people will watch

Double The Fist is an old Aussie TV comedy that I maintain is actually a metanarrative about the intersections of queerness, homophobia, and toxic masculinity (ESPECIALLY in the second series) that I am woefully inadequately skilled enough to actually write on, but trust me bro, everyone in the main cast is some flavour of queer and I'm here for it. It's very good.

bonus shout out for Set The Thames On Fire, bc it's such a good movie and more of you need to see it frfr. <3 There were some really, really interesting headcanons going around linking Noel's character in this movie back to his character in The Mighty Boosh as a bonus if you like that kind of thing.

7. A piece of clothing you love

look I won't be able to wear these for like another four months but they are super comfy and I adore them so much. <3

also yeah I didn't take these out of my chest of drawers bc lazy and also I live in a dark cave of a room, the lighting is terrible everywhere. XD

8. A thing from an old fandom

The Prisoner! Dhani Harrison got me onto this bc he named his band thenewno2, I adored their music, and when I looked them up, discovered what it was named after, and then I dived right in and fell in love with it. I can't remember which specific episode order I prefer out of the five or so that exist, but yeah!

I've written crossovers with The Prisoner for my last 2/3 fandoms, so maybe I'll get there for Hermitcraft one day. :D?

9. A thing from a new fandom

ConVex my beloveds <3

If you want to know why they took over my brain, I would like to point you at this 3min edit of ConVex lore and let you take it all in. :D They're insane, I love them so much. XD