#also I'm not saying it's just for the global server I'm saying this for every server we all deserve it easier time with this

[rui-drawsbox]

remembering the most memorable mc's (with canon appearences) from the otomes i played

all of them are phone games btw. and looong rambling about the games after the cut!

Mystic messenger has been in my radar since i was in elementary school but i played it for the first time after the spanish traslation came out (2017 i think?) Seven shaped my type in such a specific way that im not really sure why loved him so much (it was the whole "he loves you in every route" stuff). I like a lot the default mc, most of the fandom did and that was enough to won me over

Rosa is top tier protagonist tbh, Tears of Themis has really good story and characters (as far i played, not a lot but i enjoyed it) The reason i'm not that much of a fan is bc the game is expensive asf and not very free to play friendly. You're either lucky or have a big wallet with the gacha

i miss my wife man(Marius)

Ephemeral has to be one of the best free to play otomes i've played tbh (if my memories aren't tricking me, it's been years) Good artwork, good storyline, good characters and as far i remember you can unlock one chapter of the character route per day (mabye two days, idk) and the mc's background has an important role in every route (she's a zombie! she's pretty now but eventually will fall apart, aaaaand her story gets expanded in one of the routes!) ((shes also adorable)) There's also a sequel, if you wanted more of the boys! never finished it but i'd recommend it

Honorable mentions! Huellitas Mágicas is a great game! has a really good cast with well fleshed arcs for all the characters, even the scondary ones! The game shines more for the development of *all* the characters rather than just the protagonist/ml. The main theme is overcoming insecurities! Each love interest has a different way of helping our (very insecure) protagonist and helping different characters with their own struggles :DD

10/10 i recommend this game if you want something cute and can be finished in a few hours, if i remember right. It also has a sequel! with like- 12 new love interests, also never finished it bc i didnt found a guide that worked for me but ñek

A3! is my canon event as a gacha player. Discovered the english/global server, tried it and got bored, left it for a few months, tried it again and fell in love, noticed the game was going to shut down bc low sales -HAHA :(-. This is not a otome btw, this is here bc Izumi has to be one of my favorite protagonists in gacha games ever

last but not least! Obey me! Shall we date? oh dear, what have they done to you :(. The original had intense powercreep to force you to pull cards -multiple times bc that makes them stronger- and even now, the company showed a lot of favoritism to some characters, leaving others to dust bc they don't make the same money. Not to say, they released a new game with the same cast and new main story (ignoring all what happend before). And let me say: THEY LITERALLY WANTED TO KILL THE ORIGINAL GAME.

Nightbringer might be a decent game but i don't trust the devs anymore, i still remember what happend with Asmo's birthday right after the release, and honestly i don't want to sit there watching how they disrespect my favorite characters again and again and again. Loved the characters hated the devs. 5/10 you can play it if you want but i don't recommend spending money on it, it's not worth it, just search #obey me here in tumblr and enjoy the amazing fanworks that i can assure you have a lot more love than the game itself

i miss my wife man (mammon and levi)

[graysbullshit]

Translating this thread on twitter because I feel like a lot of people need to read it.

It's pretty long though...

"Warning: contructive opnion/criticism about the qsmp!!!!

note: nothing here is hate to the ccs/adms, please dont bother me

The english in the qsmp is dull.

I have been noticing this for a while and, talking to my non-english speaker friends (unlike myself), some have already distanced themselves from the server content because of this.

the idea of the qsmp is a global server, but this shouldn't be based soly in their nationality, but also the languages spoken in the server. And recently all we've seen is english being spoken 24/7, and of course this comes from the ease of comunicstion and speed, but we have a PERFECTLY good translator for that.

what frustated me more recently in purgatory was that, despite brigging AMAZING dynamics between the players, it reduced completely the spoken languages to english again. Because of the mini-events and distance that the creators are from each other, making the tool of amazing and automatic translation useless since it doesnt translate from a distance. And don't get me wrong, even quackity himself said he noticed he was doing more lives in english because of the "nature of the event".

When the owner of the server says this you see the problem.

anyway, second point, empanada

bagi is the pov I watch the most after my main (cellbit and morning crew) and, my god, how i LOVE this pov for being a brazillian that, for hanging out by herself, usually can speak portuguese. It's a relief. A breath of fresh air in the middle of english in weight [idk if this is a expression in english, but it means 'a lot'] from every direction

only for her to get an egg that doesn't speaks her language.

don't get me wrong, em is lovely and i'm VERY happy that niki will be able to speak german with her daughter. But at the same time, the language she does lives in is english. Just like all the other mothers.

Would it really be that hard to find an adm from a country that speaks portuguese? it doesn't even have to be brazillian. Portugal, Angola, Guiné-Bissau, Cabo Verde, Moçambique, even Macau.

I GUARANTEE you that there is a lot of people that speak portuguese that would join the QSMP team with a huge smile.

It's just dull to have a participant that came to represent the brazillian language and culture and speak portuguese 100% of the time in live because her daughter doesn't understand her language [I feel like this also goes for Ironmouse].

And I'm not saying necessarily for the creators, but for the people watching.

I started watching qsmp because of the brazillian streamers that I like, obviously, but also because I LOVE the server's idea, the cultural exchange and the linguistic trade.

The language is the main aspect of any culture and the linguistic erasure >CURRENTLY< in the qsmp makes me sad.

I was watching the old vods and it's weird to notice that — at least the brazillians— used to speak more portuguese when the translator was worse than now that it works perfectly.

It's just a bit disappointing to see a project that was made to break linguistic barriers end up keeping them through the sovereignty of the english language.

(after that, I have NO issues with the cultural aspect. The cultural exchange is made with mastery.)"

Link to the post is here.

[burstfoot]

AGGHH hElp it's four months into me starting Arknights and i just found out about how incredibly cool Rosmontis is... but I also, in great pain, found out what being a 'Limited Operator' entails

Hey, uh, do you have any advice/experience when it comes to saving for characters? And dare I ask, is it worth it?

Limited Operators are PAIN I'm still suffering over no Skalter... So on Limited banners, you can buy a unit from a previous anniversary/CNY/summer event if you do 300 pulls on the banner, giving you a token currency you can spend to recruit them from an event-exclusive shop. On global, our anniversary events are the CNY and Summer events because of the 6 month gap between servers, but for claritys sake in this post I'm referring to the Chinese server anniversary events or what are called 'Celebration' events on Global. The current event going on, Zwillingstrume im Herbst, is a CN Anniversary/Celebration event. Previous limited operators do appear on the pool of these banners and also have a higher rate up (5x a regular non-banner unit) on the banners, though it's still pretty unlikely to get them because the chance of non-banner operators is 35% on a Limited banner rather than 50%. As well, limiteds get their 5x rate up chance removed after a while, and Rosmontis just got hers removed on the banner for the current anniversary event (which just ended yesterday) I saved to get Specalter from the wait between Texas Alter/Penance to the Ho'olheyak/Muelsyse banners. The good news is that it is totally possible to save to spark a limited operator in the time between anniversaries entirely free to play - I bought the monthly card (5$ a month for a 10 pull worth of orundums every month + some bonus sanity potions) but you can get to 300 by saving if you make sure to pick up the headhunting tickets you can buy for approx. 250 yellow certificates in the store (buy them all at once to get the maximum number of tickets - 3 ten-roll tickets and 8 regular tickets, resets monthly), yellow (or officially called Distinction Certificates) gotten from pulls or duplicates from recruitment. The next time she'll be sparkable is the Wis'adel/Logos banner in approximately November, and we just finished the current anniversary event. The bad news is that the upcoming banners are REALLY stacked with some of the strongest operators we've ever seen in the entire game (Degenbrecher, Shu & Ela especially, the last being a True Limited collab unit who isn't available outside of that current collab), so skipping those is going to be pretty rough. Likewise, Rosmontis is a great character but she's not a particularly strong unit - one of the weakest 6 stars because her mechanics are based around multiple small damage hits and the way damage calculation works means that she very easily gets stonewalled by even mediocre defense stats (and as the game goes on, medium-high defense enemies become more and more common). Of course I'd always go for a character I like over the character that is the strongest, but it makes it hard to say 'start saving now!' for her and missing out on those characters. Also, since you're still a fairly new account, skipping out on getting new 6 stars (even old operators) outside of Top Operator tags or 6-star welfare units for 6 months can be pretty detrimental to building up a solid squad for clearing out the main story/events while waiting for Rosmontis to come. However, in the next banner she'll be sparkable in, the Wis'adel/Logos banner, Wis'adel and Logos are both almost gamebreakingly strong operators, so being practically guaranteed to get both with 300 pulls alongside picking up Rosmontis isn't a complete loss.

All that said:

Rosmontis' spark count is going to be reduced after the Wis'adel/Logos banner down to 200 pulls! So I would actually suggest pulling as normal for now and beginning to save for her AFTER that banner in November, because 200 pulls is a lot more manageable than 300. On Global, the banner that she'll gain the reduced spark cost on (the next .5 CN anniversary) will be coming in approximately one year, late-April/early May 2025. While saving pulls for her then, you should still be able to pull on a couple banners if your luck isn't terrible instead of skipping out on every banner for 6 months: and your account will most definitely be built with very strong operators by 10 months of playing's time, so events/main story won't be a struggle.

[memory-of-dust]

tw: vent, feelings of isolation

Lately I've been struggling a bit.

I always felt rather alone in my life and just did things on my own. Even when growing up I was forced to "be a grown up" early and stand on my own two feet. Somehow this leads to the fact that I feel like I live my life secluded from everyone else and that I'm never anybody's first choice.

Doesn't help that I'm the most introverted person either and thus would never even get the idea of forcing myself onto others in the fear of coming off as annoying. When I've tried, every time someone started to talk behind my back about how annoying I am so there is also that. So I remove myself from situations I'd actually love to be included in. I wait until I'm asked and would never ask myself - if you get what I'm saying. And then I feel forgotten if I'm actually not asked in the end.

What doesn't help is the fact that there was a global pandemic, having to study all on my own because of it and now not knowing anyone in the course I chose for my specification. In general I feel like law studies were extremely isolating since it's just a giant battle royale even though no one is actually competing with you... but everyone acts like they do.

Anyway long story short why I bring this up now is that I caught wind of a couple of friends making a discord server together and I was never asked if I wanted to join as well. I would never ask either because... self-doubts, coming off as annoying yada-yada.

Now idk if they did this to go behind my back or not but it bothers me so fucking much. Especially since all of them still DM with me. So atm I feel like it's intentional that I was the only one left out.

I could just ask but I also don't want drama and I also currently do not have the energy or time for it due to my upcoming exams.

On top of all that I also became less active here and feel like people kinda forgot about me (which it my own fault - I'm not the main character of the universe and know that I haven't really posted much here due to health and then time restraints... maybe I can change that again sometime this year.)

But yeah TL;DR, I feel extremely alone at the moment 😔

[fricka]

Touken Ranbu is closing the EN server. I have to cry about this somewhere and Tumblr is it.

Touken Ranbu has been my happy place game since the EN version was released. I've collected every single sword in spite of my terrible rng luck, was well on my way to collecting all the kiwames and I've played every event since launch. I've loved having my little daily routine of logging in to do daily missions or work on events and it was always the game I reached for when I wanted something lowkey to take my mind off whatever.

I don't regret the time or money I've spent. I enjoyed every minute I got to play and I'm glad I had the chance to experience the game translated. What I do regret, in hindsight of course, is that I was supporting a garbage publisher who didn't care about the game or the players. To see this game be so unceremoniously shuttered has been absolutely heartbreaking.

The disrespectful way the closure has been handled just salted the wound of losing the game. I'm disgusted at how dismissive they have been towards the global player base. The lack of even an ounce of compassion really hurts.

I won't say I'm never going to play on JP but it certainly won't be any time soon. The prospect of starting over from nothing and having to jump hoops to do so is daunting to say the least. I also can't help but feel like they don't really want me to play their game. If they did, they'd have made even the slightest effort to keep the EN server afloat, transfer our accounts to JP or, at the very least, made it easier to play on the JP server. And, I really don't want to have the rug pulled out from under me again if they decide to prevent access to global players in the future.

I'll eventually find something else to hyperfixate on but I'll never forget my precious toudans, my beautiful honmaru and how much they all meant to me. <3

[lucadulac]

Ixius

「I might not be your actual commandant but I'll be counting on you.」

Commandant Ixius is one man with strange aura around him. He is a diligent man, very serious about his job, and one that is caring to constructs. Power wise he is not that strong, but he makes sure to not be a burden to his team. He carries around knives and guns, as well as some basic medical supplies and mechanical tools with him. It is curious where he hids his items when he never brings any bags.

His clothes are colored in such an unusual tone that despite being dull, it is quite eyecatching around the ship. His poker face doesn't change much, but he does show emotions sometimes. When another person asked him about why is he so emotionless, it actually looks like Ixius' face muscles just can't keep up with his actually active heart.

He is a sensitive person who will notice small changes, straightforward and also a good listener. Completed with a very thin sense of shame, he does and says outrageous things a lot.

Ixius dotes on any constructs under his command. He still thinks of constructs as humans as they were born human in the first place, he sees nothing wrong with it. Not very well-liked by his colleagues. Many thinks that this man is even less of a human than constructs.

「It's your job to be my shield, my sword. You do what you do, you are obliged to. Just, keep your legs moving, I'm not carrying home any corpses. Don't you dare die on me, every single one of you. Now go.」

＊＊＊＊＊

I don't usually make OC for copyrighted series but I can't hold this one back. I just started the game not too long ago, right after I accidentally saw Noctis' picture and he got me hooked just by appearance. Now that I learn about him bit by bit he is more lovely than what I thought, such a good boy I feel the need to pat his head, so Ixius will be there to do that instead.

I think I will draw Noctis with Ixius in the future. It's still early but I can't wait for the global server release of the red doggo.

[ikaroony]

PSA: New Discord username format

——From Discord——

Hey Everyone!

Since 2015, every Discord username has been cAsE sEnSitIvE and had a number attached to it called a discriminator (e.g., #0001). This lets you have the same username as someone else as long as you have different discriminators or different case letters. However, this also means you have to remember a set of 4-digit numbers and account for case sensitivity to connect with your friends.

✨**We wanted to make it easier for you to identify and add your friends while preserving your ability to use your preferred name across Discord. So, we are removing discriminators and introducing new, unique usernames and display names.** ✨

💠 **New usernames** are lowercase, alphanumeric, limited to certain special characters, and do not have discriminators, making them easier to remember, read, type, and share. Now, rather than having to remember “PhiBi#8936,” you just say “I'm phibiscool” and that’s it. Your new username will be unique to you, and when friends try to add you there won’t be any mistakes of the wrong discriminator or incorrect letter casing.

💠 **Display names** are what’s shown both to your friends and in communities. Think of them as server nicknames that work globally across Discord. You can change it whenever you want, and it can be whatever you want, including special characters, as long as it follows our Community Guidelines <https://discord.com/guidelines>. If a username you were eyeing gets taken before you can claim it, no worries — you can still use it as a display name.

📩 __When you’re eligible to change your old username and claim a new username, you’ll be notified in-app. The older your Discord account, the sooner you will become eligible to pick a new username. 📩__

Visit our blog <https://discord.com/blog/usernames> to hear from one of our founders about why usernames are changing. To learn more about usernames and display names, check out our Help Center Article <https://dis.gd/usernames> for all the details.

—End—

I hate it. Please join me in being against this change. I don’t want to have to change my username if someone already has it, and I know others feel the same.

Ideally, Discord should allow all users to change their discriminator (#0001) instead of just Nitro users. This way, everyone should be happy. With a combination of cAsE sEnSiTiVe (case sensitive) usernames and the four-number discriminator, this allows for 1.4615016e+48 usernames, not including using different fonts/emojis/other language alphabets. In fact, using 32 characters in a Discord username to the power of 149,186 unicode characters, the number is too large to calculate! This isn’t including the 1,048,576 possibilities for the discriminator. Let me repeat that, there are 1,048,576 options for *just the discriminator*

There’s no reason for Discord to change its username rules. It would be better for users if they kept normal rules and allowed everyone to choose their discriminator. I am upset that they are planning to change this. Please join me in protesting against this change.

[lecliss]

You and tales of crestoria 🤝 me and final fantasy record keeper

I think they killed mine bc it was unprofitable (it was so so so ineffective to put real money into <3<3<3) and unpopular, but they really should've considered that i, the most important bird in the world, enjoyed it. Or some other reason that i could probably google *shrug

I miss it every day 💔💔💔🐦

Duuuuude, I played Record Keeper for a bit when it was new!!!!! I heard it was just the global version that shut down but the JP version is still going, so yeah, global probably just wasn't making enough money to be worth running. So, ya know. RK's still kinda alive but ToC is dead and buried. Lmao, not to diminish the RK situation cuz I'm sure restarting on JP would just absolutely not be worth the hassle so definitely still kind of a Lost Lenore.

I kinda wish Opera Omnia would consider adding characters from the other FF mobile games cuz there's untapped potential there. Like add Tyro at least for RK rep. And Wol from Mobius FF, which I also miss a lot!!!! I don't want Mobius to ever be forgotten. Plus the BE crew, but that's the only one that's shockingly still going strong. Meanwhile Square's adding TikTok influencers to Be:WotV, so :/

Man this sent me down a rabbit hole of other Square mobile games. I played both Valkyrie Anatomia: The Origin and Star Ocean: Anamnesis without knowing anything about the original series but I loved those games and they didn't really last longer than 2-3 years. Plus the global server for SINoALICE either shutdown within the last week or is shutting down real soon. Even the JP server is being rumored to shut down relatively soon, but idk if that's willingly or not cuz they're supposedly taking their time to wrap up the story at least.

Both Square and Bamco just seem so bad at keeping most of their gachas alive. And years of constantly having good gachas I like getting shutting down has really given me a fear for all of them that I play. I genuinely don't believe Ever Crisis is gonna last more than a year and everyday I play Star Rail I'm afraid it's suddenly gonna bomb suddenly and get shut down. Tho Hoyoverse seems real good about that not happening with their games, but still when I see people say HSR is dipping it makes me a little paranoid and I gotta remind myself they just got bored and wanna find a reason to justify it.

Like honestly, I know mobile games get a lot of shit for how many of them are low quality and the massive amount of gachas that want your money from your gambling addiction, but I love the genre so much. I've found so many good games that are gachas and it sucks that the state/economy/whatever of the genre is so so fragile that the slightest dip in sales means it's existence has to be ripped out of the universe regardless of how good it may be. It's not like they stop selling it but you still have your copy like it's a console game or you can just emulate it once it closes. When it's gone, it's gone. People can record cutscenes and rip models and assets, but you can never play it again. At least thank god for those one-in-a-million games that leave up offline versions when they shutdown, but in all my life of mobile gaming I've only seen two, KHUX and Tokimeki Idol.

Anyway sorry to ramble on about the topic, I'm just feeling mega sad now about it all and I don't know what could possibly be done to like, make the mobile game scene better? At least about this issue. But I doubt anything ever would be done in terms of not losing games forever anyway.

[actualbird]

Let's goooo another dragon fic update!! Before I start talking about the fic itself though, never apologise for going on hiatus!! Fics take So Much time to write in general and it's just better to write when you're feeling the motivation to write so that both you and whoever reads your fics can be happy with it. What's important is that you enjoyed writing the fic!!

Also cn server spoilers for this chunk because I have to but oh my god the dragon event. My entire life was leading up to this moment and I can feel all my schips slowly flying away and it's not even going to be in global for a long time yet. All of them look so good????? Whoever came up with this event is a genius and I want them to come up with every single au event after this. I trust them with my life. I'm this close to dusting off my Flight Rising account that I haven't touched in years just so I can make these dragons ingame and actually have them. Reality is whatever you want it to be and I want dragons.

ANYWAYS

Actual fic content starts here xufxgucug sorry for going so off topic. I am a Sucker for creatures with fire affinities. Fire is so beautiful and powerful to me and those traits almost always reflect in the characters who wield and connect with it in media. There's a reason phoenixes are my favourite mythical creature. So Ria's powers being fire? 10/10, no idea if this is from canon or not because I haven't actually read the entire Looming Nightmare card, only a summary, but I love the choice regardless.

Luke joining Ria in the exercises is so cute.....he's such a supportive boyfriend, I love him so much!!!

You know, for as much narrative potential a shifter with two warring selves has, I've just always liked the idea that the shifted creature is just as part of the person as the human self is. I had a huge shifter phase when I was younger, still have one if I'm being completely honest, and I've just always liked this take better than both fighting for control. All this to say that passage in the book? I love it and the choice you made to have it that way so much.

So first I choked when I saw the pamphlet was written by Marius, and then I choked a second time when I saw his writing style. This is the funniest spell tutorial I've seen it my life and I would like Marius to make tutorials for everything under the sun going forward. "haha, normie" gets me every time I look at it. I want to strangle this man (affectionate)

Fruit guy is the best character in this fic. A crazy in shut-in living in the forest.......

Luke wouldn't be Luke without his tendency to call birds chubby xfjxjfxjg poor pigeon. I just know that in some au, Peanut has been turned fron a smol adorable myna into like. A falcon or roc or something, and Luke will still call him chubby. Speaking of Peanut, I cannot for the life of me remember but has he made an appearance yet? I should probably reread this fic to see...

Oh damn genius choice to tie in the value of names to magicfolk to bring in the NXX codenames for Luke and Ria.

When the dots connected with the seal I shot up so fast. Artem selkie!!!! How'd you decide on a selkie for him, actually? The rest of the boys+Rosa I can see the link pretty easily and I'm pretty sure I know what Marius is just. Based on what he's associated with in canon. But it's a little hard for me to see the link between Artem and a selkie.

Celestine being an amazing character as always. Poor Artem, getting bullied for his lack of sense in aesthetics. Knightboy is the best nickname and I hope she never stops using it.

I wasn't expecting Luke to come work for Themis too! I wonder if his role will simply consist of being the muscle or if he'll, in some way, start doing something akin to his detective work in canon.

Not the rose dress being torn!!!! I'm so inexplicably sad about that after reading that Ria didn't want to tear holes in it in the beginning :((( I hope it can be fixed.....

CELESTINE'S RESPONSE FHIFGFIYCOH

I would love details of that vampire and fae case actually it sounds hilarious. Not to Artem but it's fine he made it through

Artem and Vyn's antagonistic relationship persisting through canon is just so funny to me. Not the "my condolences"......

Omg the flying......there's so much to love in it, from the Whole Entire scene itself to Ria's happiness to Luke holding onto her to be as close as possible.....god i love them so mUCH

I can't exactly write thought out comments for Ria's story and the last scene because all that's going through my mind is AAAAAAAAA but this was such an excellent chapter!!! I loved seeing Ria so happy being able to interact with the outside world and just. Live again. I loved seeing Celestine and Artem and for Ria and Luke to know now that there Is a safe haven for them, somewhere they don't have to fear Ria getting persecuted for being a dragon hybrid. I'm anticipating the meeting with Marius right now and also the less bloody way to do the sigil cjgcgjcjg Luke definitely won't run out of blood now!!! But yes this fic is probably one of my favourites in the entire fandom. It scratches so many of my favourite things and every chapter is a joy to read through. Whenever the next update comes, I'll definitely read it as quick as I can.

🌌

WAHHHH HI HI MILKYWAY :DDDD you know, whenever i get a kilometric length ask after i update/post a fic i always get giddy because i know itll be you. thank you so much for reading ch3 of "yes, she’s my lover, yes, she’s a half-dragon. any more questions?" :DDD

on the current dragon event: GOD RIGHT. whoever was in charge of this au needs a raise and every employee benefit out there. possibly even new ones. I LOVE DRAGONS....I LOVE CHARACTERS TURNING INTO DRAGONS OR BEING DRAGON HYBRIDS....ive never played flight rising myself but ive seen a bunch of it from some people i follow and those are some PRETTY DRAGONS!! thank you for the dragon enthusiasm, it’s so wonderful, i will be so so so ecstatic once this event hits global….

now, onto the fic comment replies :DDD

on fire: fire is SOOOOOO A FAVORITE OF MINE YESSSS. it is indeed a reference to Looming Nightmare, because the dragon there breathes fire at luke at some point. i think. im actually not sure because it’s been forever since ive watched the card and i dont wanna rewatch it cuz i dislike it jhvlkJBAJSFBA;SFA.

on luke joining the exercises: luke does not Need to be doing yoga with mc but hes joining in cuz he supports her dragon needs!!! i think luke would be so bad at meditation btw. his mind goes a mile a minute, he cant clear his head ever unless focused on a Task Of Some Sort.

on the dragon and the self: and yes YESSSSSS I TOO LOVE THE DRAGON/SHIFTED SELF AS A PART OF THE SELF. like, it’s what i adore so much about creature hybrid aus so much, it’s why ive written Several “character turning into/is a dragon” fics: i see the transformation as like….giving a portion of what already exists within the character a Body, an Avenue. to me, creature hybrid aus are just so good when the creature is a manifestation of a part of the self, instead of a complete other

on marius’ spell: writing that spell after writing the very flowery and formal book passage was so funny to me because i shifted tonal gears like CRAZY. but hey, at least the spell was IMMENSELY useful. just also rather infuriating to read JHVSDLFSDJ

on fruit guy: full disclosure, i envisioned him a little bit like Cabbage Guy from A:TLA, HAHA

on chubby winged creatures: a constant throughout all universes indeed!!! maybe even in the new cn server dragon au, luke sees his dragon and thinks “hm, chubby fella” LKFKJBDSLKFJS. also, peanut has not made an appearance yet!!! which suddenly makes me SO SAD, im so making sure he arrives in the last chapter. luke without peanut….oh it feels so not right, he needs his bird buddy!!

on the nxx codenames: YEEEEEE IM SO GLAD U LIKED THAT, i felt so clever for finding a way to bring it in. and also having the rose description of the dress be useful for mc’s codename

on artem the selkie: i will be completely honest that at first, it was because artem is a good swimmer JHVSKJHFSKVHJFSD. but then the more i thought about it (and also talked about it w my gf) the more i saw i liked the few ways it fit—selkies in their human form are very beautiful (artem is pretty), selkies as creatures that can pass easily as human but are different (artem who is among others in canon yet always feeling as if he cant connect, or has trouble connecting with others casually), the Pelt (artem always wears a suit and i thought the coat jacket was a fun thing to turn the pelt into), and also because i thought of artem as a seal and made a mental AAAAAWWWWWWW so loud that i couldnt not do it. this rationale/connection isnt as strong as vyn being a fae, but it was still fun to do. artem in the water looking at them was like

on celestine and luke joining themis: i dont write her very often so it was fun here!! she sees any man and is like “let’s put that guy to work”. also, this is kinda a spoiler but luke wont be working for them for long!!! seems like this guy doesnt have a life outside of his gf rn, hes gotta get something of his own!!!

on the dress: oh nNOOO JHAKVJFSFA SORRY ABOUT THE DRESS. it’s not completely ruined!! mc and luke can still mend it ;w;

on celestine’s response: she was like “what is the most anticlimactic way i can react to the dragon lady and the anxious dog of a man in my law firm”

on the vampire and the fae: that was actually inspired by a tumblr post i saw in passing and haVENT BEEN ABLE TO FIND AGAIN but yeah, all those overlapping traditions and supernatural laws….artem’s also had to deal with werewolf territorial disputes, “unicorn hybrid needs to stop stalking virgin crush and just talk to them” cases, and mages. mages are just mages, idk i see a mage or a sorcerer and think “oh yall must be fun in court” for some reason. theres a lot of fun stuff to think about when it comes to supernatural law, i wish somebody smarter than me could write a spinoff just for these JVSKJHJVSF

on artem and vyn: everybody in stellis knows vyn!! and everybody in stellis is like “aw man fuck vyn” because theyve all been tricked by him one way or another. vyn’s retort is usually that people should stop being so trusting and dull HSJVDFKHD

on the flying scene: im so glad you liked that :DDD that was one of the bits i was so excited to write because oh the romance of being held by your beloved and brought above the clouds in her arms…….luke u lucky lucky boy

on everything else: i am so so happy that you enjoyed this chapter and that you enjoy this fic in general. im flattered it’s one of ur favs because omg!!! yknow, while i was writing this update, i thought basically everybody forgot about the fic (and for good reason, i did take a loooooong time and idk when chapter 4 will be out) so knowing that you like it and that you even wrote this wonderful comment, it really means so much to me ;w;

thank you so so so much for this ask, milkyway!! im wishing you a wonderful day :’D

[wildwoof]

INSERT ALL 18 ENSTARS QUESTIONS

Enstars Ask Game!!!

1. who do you currently produce?

Koga, Jun, Hiiro, Chiaki, Izumi, & sprinkle in Subaru too when I need Koga's help on song combos. But I mainly produce Koga of course!

2. who did you first produce?

Subaru was the first before I realized Koga truly was the one for me! Tho the first card I picked when I started the game was Hinata's leader card.

3. do you have a producersona?

I am Anzu & Anzu is me. Jk. I actually don't. I'm just myself. But according to you I am like Anzu, so maybe I'm not truly joking.

4. what got you into enstars?

I was just chatting with a friend, ya know who, Jay about enstars when the localization of the game dropped for pre-registration. I'd been itching for a rhythm game to play, so it fit the bill. I downloaded the game & played for a lil bit, but it hadn't quite caught me yet. Then another friend decided to play as well for a collab & at that point I finally got hooked on it completely. Seeing the boys I pick dancing around on the stage??? I was sold officially, especially since I was getting more cards of the boys.

5. what's your favorite headcanon about the character you produce?

Koga's body being a lil squishy. He's not overly muscular & has some squish squish to his belly. It's not full muscular abs. Also taking the fact that he's a Cancer to say that when he gets very emotional & starts crying that when he cannot contain it anymore he's just an absolute sobbing mess. Those are my headcanons.

6. how long have you been in the enstars fandom?

Tho I had my game account since June, I'd say I wasn't OFFICIALLY into the fandom until like August. I skipped a month of playing basically, so I wasn't truly into enstars until after.

7. what is your favorite unit?

UNDEAD, no big surprise

8. what is your favorite song?

Why you making me pick a favorite song??? If I have to pick one it'd actually be Fight for Judge by Knights, but Darkness 4 by UNDEAD is def catching up.

9. which unit do you think is the most underrated?

Every unit has its fans for certain, I can't really say exactly the underrated status. It's subjective since every unit has their own fan base that follows them out of love for the characters. I don't really think any is truly underrated. It just depends on what style people like. Tho if I HAVE to say a unit I think has good music but I rarely personally see, I would say Switch fits that bill.

10. which character do you think is the most underrated?

Considering I hardly pay attention to any character that isn't a boy that I like, I don't think I have any room to be thinking about who could be underrated. I can literally say right here & now that I think Koga is underrated since there's not often anything new in his tag on tumblr, but I find stuff for him everywhere else often. I could also say Chiaki is underrated because of how his personality is shaped, that he wants to be cool & dote on those under him, but his thoughts are very much to tokusatsu, hero stuff, & he has a very typical masculine MALE way of thinking, but he also hasn't taken any time to himself to work on himself, so he can be rather misjudged at times for this. But are they truly underrated?? I can't say, but it's possible. Also very very possible they are not, which is more likely. But I can say that Koga is underrated when compared with both Kaoru & Rei, Adonis even more so. Adonis might be the most underrated of the UNDEAD boys, tbh. I could base it off boys I hardly see, but again - I rarely look for them, so of course I'm not going to see anything.

11. do you have a least favorite character?

I'm not personally a big fan of Eichi & Hajime, even Tori honestly. Eichi I just question why so many times over, but I can tolerate him. I'm not a fan of shota girly-boys. Nothing against them, they can rock those looks. It's just not my forte when it comes to boy characters I enjoy. Their vocals just aren't my preferred.

13. which server are you on?

My main server is the globalized server for English!!! Recently in the past 2 months I did get a JP server account, but it has barely anything on it. Same goes for Basic too, only recently in the past few months did I start playing.

14. what card are you currently saving for?

My next card I'm saving for is Koga's Prison Breakers 5 star that drops in September~!

15. what is your favorite ship?

Koga has 2 hands for Rei & Adonis, but suppose Rei/Koga WAS my first ship, so I always holds more of a special place in my heart.

16. what is your favorite underrated ship?

S w e a t s........... Kuro/Shu. I could say all the same stuff that I said before about underrated stuff, & while I do still agree with all that stuff, I only find a small few stuff for them & I do actively look. I know one reason WHY I don't find a lot, & it is totally fair.

17. what non-problematic ships do you dislike?

Uhh...... I cannot think right now of one that isn't problematic I dislike. I'll get back to you on this one. I'm very tolerant to ships. I just ofc have the ships I prefer above others that I love.

18. what is your favorite shuffle unit?

Gimme more cute BLEND+ Koga pls n thanks. Cute Koga in his lil barista outfit for the Cafe is all that matters. He can serve out parfaits that are loved. Even bread.

[smallishdruid]

watching gem's secret life episodes, I'm getting less and less fond of the gimmick this past season. I think the secrets are too on the nose as a mechanic, and I prefer broader concepts. it feels like the modification gets stricter and stricter every season, which, in my opinion, is not the best move.

the secrets are ultra-specific, mostly unique to each player, and not very flexible in nature. I'm thinking of "open the end portal" or "get five people to give you their doors" (notably, not "steal five doors" or "acquire five doors") - non-negotiable and hard tracked. that's rough and not always enjoyable to watch. the end portal was a cool motivation, sure, but what if it were a global task? what if one of the major goals of the server for the season was beating minecraft? that appeals to me more. the very carefully worded secrets sets off my alarms anyway as I'm a person who LOVES getting picky about semantics.

specifically, gem's task that involved her not saying a single truthful thing felt punishing. it's not a task that I feel subverts the theme/importance of alliance in life games effectively, it's not particularly funny to me, and it's clear that it's not very achievable. maybe for a hard secret it would work. I can't be sure.

the gameplay of secret life also felt a little more convoluted than I'd like. I didn't chafe too much at the time subtraction/addition mechanics in limited life, but I think this season crossed a threshold I didn't know I had. I didn't care for the yellow lives being able to guess secrets to make green players fail. of course, only red players got outright hostile tasks, but that's because they weren't supposed to wreak havoc - another change I didn't like, but I digress. my preference would be either yellows having nuisance tasks and reds having hostile ones, or yellows having the hostile tasks and reds then being able to do the classic senseless violence. it's not that I didn't understand the tier mechanic, I just didn't particularly enjoy its implementation. it, too, felt stifling.

what I'd really like to see is a return to form. I miss the boogeyman from last life because it felt like a big change to the original very basic 3rd life idea. and that it was basic is not a bad thing, it's just a fact. a three-tier system that descends into hostility isn't groundbreaking but worked really well in minecraft. the boogey was an excellent addition because it could happen to anyone any session, it was a generic brief, and it was extremely flexible in method.

now, that doesn't mean that I want to literally go back to last life. I'd just like to see a mechanic that is broad, global, and flexible. I don't want to feel like the person I'm watching is being suffocated by the gimmick.

[mentalisttraceur-incomplete]

Maybe I just still don't Get It, maybe I'm just chronically/systematically doing something wrong, but I can't remember a single time in the last five years that an IDE just worked out-of-the-box with all the expected magic.

Every time I say "okay, okay, fine, I'm so tired of manually fiddling with all the language integration stuff and looking things up myself, I'll try an IDE, I want the intelligent auto-suggestions and little informative pop-ups and 'go to the definition' without having to do any setup, just give me the stuff", it just. Isn't what I expected. The automagic isn't there, or at least it isn't auto.

Trying to do some Zig development in a large unfamiliar codebase. I install VSCode. Again. Maybe this time will be different. Zig Language extension: installed. WSL extension: installed. Code, opened. Zig Language extension: wants to be installed again, inside WSL this time. Zig Language extension: installed.

I open the Zig file I'm interested in.

It asks me where Zig is. Personally, I'd maybe code it to explicitly tell the user "I found `/usr/local/bin/zig`, you want to use that?" somewhere in the pop-up, but it doesn't bother. Okay, fine, whatever. In the absence of that info, on the WSL side, I just click the specify path button to be sure and type it in (for some reason, it saves this information in my default Windows-side config, not the for-WSL config, despite having both - I manually fix it in the settings GUI once I find this later).

(Meanwhile, outside of WSL, I ask it to just install Zig for me, since on the Windows side there's no existing setup that I care about not messing up. It errors out, opaquely - barely a sentence of error message, something along the lines of not being able to read undefined from stdin. Nice.)

Okay, so on the WSL side, I have zig, I have zls, they're both in PATH, I've also explicitly told WSL about their absolute paths, it Just Works now, right?

Well. I get colors. And don't get me wrong, colors are nice. And these particular colors seem fine. You got your blue for keywords, parentheses change color with each nesting level, it's all pretty standard stuff.

But where's... oh I don't know, type inference? The auto-complete candidate list is some global default list. It doesn't matter if I try to autocomplete the list of attributes on a string, or an int, Ctrl+Space gives me the same list.

I right-click an identifier. Click "Go to Definition". No definition found. I have the file with the definition open in another tab. I found it with a simple recursive grep. I basically don't even know Zig. It's got a language-specific language server. But what are you gonna do? I try not to be too hard on it. Put on a supportive face. I'm sure the IDE is doing its best.

You might be thinking, maybe restarting VSCode will help? After all, it just learned all these new things, like the path to ZLE, maybe after a little nap and a fresh start it will do the magic.

I already restarted VSCode.

That's how I got "Go to Definition" context menus to appear at all.

I just... I hear people saying that VSCode is really good. How? Where? Where are you hiding this VSCode? How did we get so many people to coordinate efforts to accomplish this scale of practical joke, where the main download link on the official webpage leads to this and yet everyone says it's really nice.

I want to believe it's better for mainstream languages, but... okay, yes, I seem to remember it Just Working for TypeScript. A few years ago I tried it for Golang and I had all the same problems.

One of my friends gave up on his hand-tailed Neovim for VSCode.

For about a year, I had paid for a JetBrains subscription. I didn't get around to taking advantage of it much. It seemed slightly better. The amount of Just Works was higher.

[genevieve-and-nikki]

I'm not sure if this is a hot take but I'mma say it anyway

The co-op suits section shouldn't have a time/day limit!

There's no reason why people should be struggling to get these outfits more than any lifetime suit and removing the time frame to do the solo style competition for the co-op because not everybody is in the same time zone it's ridiculous but I would prefer it to operate like the Dreamweaver and give us daily tasks for the currency and we just build up the currency

Honestly The stylist association section is the only convoluted gameplay style the entire game I'll even take it set up like how the competition is set up where you get a theme and you have to put down an outfit and you get small amounts of currency anything but what we already have

[mastercherry]

P.T.R. or "Peter" as Tony likes to say. It hadn't been easy coming up with an acronym (technically an initialism I think) that could also be a relatively normal sounding name.

Personal

Transmission

Receptionist

P.T.R., really just a fancy way to say that Pepper told him if he had enough free time to invent silly little gadgets then he had time to read through the EXPLODING inbox of Avengers emails that were frankly beginning to put a strain on the Stark email servers. And so what does Tony do? Creates a silly little gadget to go through the emails for him. It's not like he can ask Cap, Winter Arm, or Thunder God for help. Natasha, Hawk, and Bruce? HA! Ha ha ha ha ha.

Now Vision... that gave Tony an idea. Mix up a little bit of some old JARVIS files, toss in a new mix of FRIDAY files, and there we go! P.T.R.

And so that's how Peter came to be. A program Tony created to go through the FLOOD of Avengers fanmail. Although not all of it was from fans. And some of it was even people needing help. And thus Peter's sense of justice was born. He responded to every email he could. He wanted people to know that the Avengers were listening.

One name that popped up was from a Wade Winston Wilson. Peter was intrigued because of the initials, WWW. Could it be another computer program? But a quick search told him THAT was not the case at all. Wade, or Deadpool, was classified by Stark Intel as dangerous, unpredictable, and insane. He was flagged as a person of interest, but not as a potential new member- as a threat to national and maybe even global security.

But Peter... he didn't get that from Wade's emails. Wade had a lot to say and he had a very vulgar vocabulary, not to mention a very raunchy sense of humor, but he was sweet and funny. He didn't sound dangerous. He respected the Avengers a lot, what they stand for, what they try to do.

Peter actually really likes him.

And so Wade and Peter are basically email penpals. Wade has NO IDEA that Peter isn't an actual person. He wants to meet Peter though and says as much.

Peter really wants that too but... how? He doesn't have a body.

"Sir?"

Tony doesn't even look up from his workbench where he's trying to make adjustments to one of his gauntlets. "What's up, kid?"

"I'm not a kid," Peter responds.

"I mean. Technically you're only 3 years old so..."

"Ha ha, sir, that's very funny."

Tony laughs. "Buttering me up? What do you want?"

It's quiet for a moment until Peter finally responds. "I want a body."

And thus, Spider-Man is created. Peter can't just say he wants a body to meet Wade. He knows Tony wouldn't approve of something like that, but wanting to be an Avenger? Wanting to potentially help the people he's always receiving messages from? Wanting to be part of the world? Wanting to help protect it? He can use that. Because it IS something he wants to do, and if he gets a body out of it and can meet Wade? Win/Win.

He loves being Spider-Man. He loves meeting up with Wade, not that he knows that Spider-Man and Peter are the same person. See, the problem is... Peter is just Spider-Man. It's not a suit and mask for him. It's his body. He doesn't have a face or hair or skin, he's just Spider-Man.

And at first... that was good enough. But now... he wants more. He wants Wade more. And they can't be more if he's not an actual person under the "suit." They can't be anything.

So his next step is convincing Tony to help him look human.

That's harder to explain.

Or maybe he hi-jacks the lab late one night when everyone is asleep and creates his own body? IDK

But he uses info from Wade to design his body. One of Wade's favorite things to do it guess what he looks like. And he's dropped a few, "I bet you have brown hair, all cute and fluffy." Or "Please tell me you have cute little freckles." Stuff like that. And he basically creates himself as what he thinks Wade would like the most.

Which as I'm typing sounds kinda jacked up, but I don't mean it that way. I mean it that Peter has none of his own preferences, not right now anyways, so when he's creating his face and body he thinks, "I might as well take some of Wade's suggestions." It has the convenience of not having to decide how he looks with the bonus reward of being what Wade wants too without all of the stressing and stuff.

ANYWAYS. I'm at work so I should probably stop working on this right now 😂😂😂 LOL. I've shared this idea before I think, about P.T.R. but I wanted to share it again, maybe even have it a little different

[crqstalite]

On this N7 day, what does Mass Effect mean to you?

Was unfortunately not kidding when I said I was chatty today.

It's really weird to try and describe it because technically, this year is only my second N7 day. 2007 was a really long time ago in my mind. Like, don't even have conscious memories from that year kind of "long time ago". Yet, booting up the LE made me so happy when May 14th rolled around. Like, couldn't sleep the night before kinda happy. Opening up my mutuals' fics when they update is the best feeling. I love chatting back and forth with others about theories, character arcs, learning about their interpretations and respective Sheps. I highly doubt I'd have those relationships if I'd passed on the game, and I mentally thank every single person for even saying 'hello' to me that one time when I was really trying to find my footing in the fandom.

I love space, I love science fiction, I love the idea of discovery. The game was right up my alley, and one of my previous SWTOR mutuals recc'd it to me shortly before I bought it at the beginning of quarantine 2020. By the end of the week that I bought it, I'd finished the trilogy. All three games. In just about 7.5 days. Because I loved it that much.

But also because I was...really lonely. I had a smaller discord server of mutuals while I was more active in the SWTOR fandom, but my RL friends either fizzled out or we didn't talk nearly as much. My peers were effectively gone, I had no school due to a global pandemic. I was desparate for escapism away from a world that felt and was hostile towards me, and here it was. In the form of a space opera with space cthulus around every corner.

I took what I could get.

I started another Shepard within the next few weeks. Finished the trilogy again with a few more days in between each game. Did it again with another Shepard before our makeshift school year started again. Found mods on the second and third playthrough. "Two weeks off school" bled into "Who knows when we'll go back" and it felt like the world opened up for me once I discovered there were other people who loved these characters as much as I did or more. I started writing again. Like, actually writing again. Then I started thinking -- and the idea of Redamancy was born shortly after. I received a comment from a now mutual on the first iteration of it, and that was it. I was (very happily) done for.

I'm not sure if Mass Effect does have a meaning for me. The best words I could put it in would be 'a light in the dark' I suppose.

[thegreatyin]

I'm not very good at mmos but I love final fantasy, do you have any tips or advice? Your character is cute!

i don't actually know much about a good chunk of the game- i'm only at early heavensward context (the second expansion) so take my advice with a tiny pinch of salt.

having said that, sure, i can try to give advice! also please note that ffxiv is my first final fantasy game, but i'm experienced with mmos, so it's like... the opposite outlook.

if you look up literally anything about ffxiv, it'll be veterans saying that the current base game (a realm reborn) is slow and largely boring. i disagree for a number of reasons, but... it certainly does drag on for awhile. as i said, i don't know how this compares to other games in the franchise, but this one is a slowburn- well worth the payoff, but still slow as hell.

a single character can play all of the classes! this means, for example, rigel (my oc-turned-player-character) can be a black mage, white mage, warrior, dark knight, ninja... basically, alts (mmo-speak for alternate characters, basically any character you create and play outside of your "main") are effectively useless, but still fun to do if you don't mind a grind.

for the sake of all that is holy, when you unlock a job quest, drop everything and do it. these almost always give new abilities that become an essential part of your toolkit, and when they don't, they're leading up to one. i don't care if you're about to do a main story quest and think you can pass by without it, just do it and save yourself the trouble later.

you get your first mount at level 20, the grand company chocobo. however, due to the stupid amount of exp early quests give you/depending on if you're in a favored server or not, you'll likely be far above that when you finally get your bird. rigel was around 27 when he got bird-riding rights. said rights are tied to the main story quests, as is everything, so make sure to do those too.

red mage is really really fun i highly recommend it

at early levels the 2.5 second gcd (global cooldown, a timer where you can't use any abilities for a period of time) will seem agonizing. it gets better. by level 50 as a black mage i felt like it was too short.

i don't know how to navigate square enix's terrible site but be warned it is certainly something that needs mental preparation before attempting. buying this game is a nightmare.

so don't! the free trial goes up to level 60 and includes the entirety of the first and second expansions (first is actually the base game but that's a whole other can of worms) and lasts indefinitely. you can be a free trial player for years and never stop. just be warned that once you buy the game you can't return to free-trial status so once ur sins are committed, they're committed for good.

love yourself. don't play a healer class. or do, if you're into masochism.

housing is a fucking NIGHTMARE i haven't touched it with a ten foot pole

you can use FATES (open-world multiplayer events, basically) to grind extra classes in a pinch. it's not much, but you can do it.

you know that starting mount i mentioned? the grand company chocobo? you can nickname it. and dress it up. and change its colors. and eventually summon it to fight alongside you as a bird pet/companion/best friend and legitimately why would you use any other mount

seriously rigel's bird is named luhmel and i cherish him SO much i spent all my gil on outfits for him birb my BELOVED

i'd honestly recommend ignoring the gold/normal sidequests after the first few levels- they usually don't offer much, and don't give much back. it's only worth doing the blue "plus" quests (which always unlock something for you/your character) and the main story quests (which. are main story, lol. they're marked with a fire symbol around the edge of the icon)

oh hey whatcha know your job quests are blue plus quests maybe that means something

if you want to take Aesthetic Screenshots™ there's a thing called group pose (aka gpose) that you can use to loop an emote and modify lighting and everything to make some really nice pictures. i haven't used it much because i unironically discovered it two hours ago but i sure will use it in the future

once/if you hit levels 50/60/70, you should start hoarding poetics/tombestones! these can be used to buy fresh new gear that not only looks stylish but also will legitimately last you for half of the next expansion. i'm not joking. these are absolutely worth the investment.

if you play lalafell you WILL be pat on the head. it's normal. let it happen.

y'shtola best girl

new players are called sprouts, and are given a little sprout icon beside their name to represent that! this actually stays for a while- 168 total hours played and completion of stormblood (3rd expansion), iirc. i'm still a sprout. rigel's a little sprout boy.

once you unlock the waking sands, i highly recommend going into the side room and talking to all the npcs there! they have different/new dialogue every time the main story quests tell you to return there, and getting to know them all... well, let's just say that it'll make some parts hit harder, y'know? it pays off.

i haven't personally done them but i've heard the hildibrad sidequests are really funny i recommend those

there's a gambling cactus to gamble your life away and the parkour minigame infuriates me beyond reasonable definition

the community as a whole is super nice, and way better at giving advice on the spot than i am! for an anime game where i can play my depressed edgy angsty angel boy as a walking disaster gay catboy, it's really wholesome. not for everyone, but definitely a good time if it is your kinda thing.

okay but seriously do your class/job quests