#and a good starting point to update and develop new lore

[teeto-peteto]

The sentinel's should've recruited Lux. Magic light to take out the undead? Just toss Lux into the isles and she can have the place cleared up by lunch. The girl's a nuke of magic light.

This and i believe it would make a great impact on Demacia as a region, she would've done a great addition and also good friends with Gwen probably and it would be cute to see her interact with the other sentinels as she's out of her comfort zone and she would be pretty useful, also great content to animate on a cinematic!

This could've been a great addition to the Sentinels of Light event even if you didnt give Lux the paper and let Vayne keep it, its boring to see how Riot treated his supposed Infinity War/Endgame event because the outcome was absolute nothing. Vayne using suddendly magical weapons and sticking up to Senna, wich is technically a 'magical creature', would've done an interesting impact to what Demacia thinks about magic. However they just let everything like it was as if the whole thing of stopping Viego was easy task and wouldnt be considered as a victory for Demacia. Point is that shit happens everywhere in Runeterra yet there's not even a consecuence to any of the regions that arent the Shadow Isles. Imagine Lux reaction knowing that magic technically saved the world and that this was possible because of Lucian, Senna and Vayne and also a ton of people (and a noxian let me tell you), imagine the consecuences of Riven knowing that she has helped demacians but that she has also saved the world, Pyke having to do this shit again but having to watch Fortune finally corrupting to Viego's ruination, imagine the clash of emotions in Rengar and his kind, knowing he took down the ruined king.

Yet we have this sandwich of nothing. But yes, Lux would've have clapped everyone's shit with just a light blast. Let her traumadump by light nuking a ton of mist walkers.

[dalishious]

A BioWare Guide on How to Murder a Fanbase

I have been a Dragon Age super-fan for almost fourteen years, now. I have played every game, with every DLC. I have read every novel, lore book, and every comic — yes, even the terrible ones that are better off forgotten. I have seen the anime film, the animated series, and the web mini-series. I have enjoyed all of these pieces of the franchise over and over, more times than I can count. So, make no mistake: the negativity you’re about to hear comes from a place of love for this fantasy world, developed by many creative people over the years. I would love nothing more than to see the resurrection of passion in the Dragon Age fandom again. But the unfortunate truth is, that resurrection is only needed because BioWare took the fandom out back and shot it in the first place.

In December 2018, three years after the release of Dragon Age: Inquisition’s Trespasser epilogue DLC, BioWare first announced the then-untitled next Dragon Age game with a teaser trailer. At this point, most fans were anticipating this would mean within the next couple years, we would see the game. This assumption was based on the fact that Dragon Age: Inquisition was first announced in 2012, and released in 2014, with an extra year of development added last minute.

There have been dribbles of extra content since then, adding to the franchise. This was enough to keep some fans still breathing and interested. 2020’s Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights was a lovely anthology. 2020’s Dragon Age: Blue Wraith and 2021’s Dark Fortress were wonderful comics tying up the story started in Knight Errant. And 2022’s Dragon Age: Absolution was a well-animated series with an interesting cast of characters and story. But all these still left the fandom with a major question: What was going on with the next game? It was untypical of BioWare to be so secretive, in comparison to how they handled sharing information of the past games in the franchise. The only form of updates fans still have to go on is mostly just concept art and short stories, hinting that something must be in production. But why was the wait so long?

In 2015, the first version of the next Dragon Age began with a clear vision, clear scope of practice, and a reportedly happy developer team. Most gloriously in my book, there was no multi-player… but this did not align with the Electronic Arts typical money-mad schemes. EA’s push for “games as a service” meant they wanted to monetize all their games as much as possible, and therefore, they wanted them to be a live service — as Anthem demonstrated, that meant sacrificing things that are staples of good RPGs, like narrative and character choice. So in 2017, version one of the next Dragon Age was scrapped and replaced. This new version would have, in total or to at least some degree, an online portion of play.

There is one part of Schreier’s article, “The Past and Present of Dragon Age 4,” that really sticks out to me, regarding this:

“One person close to the game told me this week that Morrison’s critical path, or main story, would be designed for single-player and that goal of the multiplayer elements would be to keep people engaged so that they would actually stick with post-launch content.”

The idea of splitting up components of a game into single-player and multi-player is a terrible idea, because it means that there would be a large bulk of content only accessible through online gaming; something many fans, like myself, are repulsed by. Even if I did enjoy it, I spent most of my life growing up with either no internet or shoddy internet incapable of playing online games. I know many rural people who are still in that position, losing more and more of their favourite gaming pastimes because they are locked out of the ability to play them. It is a disservice to hide content behind a wall like this, especially in a world that is so lore-heavy like Dragon Age. The news of multi-player in Dragon Age understandably upset many, and this is when I first noticed a large drop off in excitement over the next game.

However, in 2021, the failure of Anthem (multi-player) and success of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (single-player) led the executives at EA to bend to the wishes of BioWare leadership and allow them to go back to the drawing board yet again on the next Dragon Age. This meant removing all multi-player content!

While I am very happy that there will reportedly be no multi-player in Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, I can’t help but feel bitter and a little disgusted over the ridiculous development time spent on something no one but EA wanted in the first place. If it weren’t for this foolishness, Dragon Age: Dreadwolf would be in our hands right now. Instead, it’s been in development hell for nearly nine years and counting. Nine years is a long time to expect fans to carry a torch for you through radio silence, but it’s no wonder BioWare has shared barely anything about the next game; it’s been in flux for so long, they likely haven’t had anything concrete to show.

BioWare hurt its reputation even more when the news broke that the studio very suddenly laid off 50 people who were working on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. This is pretty damning on its own, but BioWare took it a step further. Former developer Jon Renish shared a statement revealing that the studio was only willing to offer laid-off employees two weeks of severance per year of service, and denied health benefits. The denial of health benefits in particular is a pretty wild move for a studio with a reputation for “stress casualties”. The latest news on this is that BioWare has still so far refused to negotiate better severance packages, leading to a lawsuit. The lawsuit originally had 15 former employees, but this dropped due to the fear of not being able to afford to pay their bills. So now, while EA sits on $400 million net income, the laid-off employees are struggling to buy holiday presents for their children. These horrid business practices are not to be ignored when accounting for a lack of faith in a studio. What kind of monsters reward workers who make your games special with vaguely reasoned lay-offs?

The latest news on the Dragon Age: Dreadwolf front from BioWare came early this month, December 2023, with a trailer… announcing a trailer that will come next summer… that will announce the release of the game. Supposedly. Maybe. We’ll see. But by this time, BioWare is something of a laughing stock of their own fandom. Reactions to the video released with a pretty map graphic and a few rendered locations were, from what I personally observed, mostly sardonic in nature. People have commented on the vapourware nature of the game, and like all vapourware, that leads to disintegrating trust.

Despite all this, people like Mary Kirby, (one of the veteran Dragon Age writers who was a victim of the layoffs,) said, “it’s bittersweet that Dreadwolf is my last DA game, but I still hope you all love it as much as I do,” encouraging fans to still support the game when it eventually is released. But after every misstep BioWare has taken, that’s a tough sell now. Fans are finicky, RPG fans more so than others, one could argue. We have our favourites, and many of us stick to those favourites for life over our appreciation for the artistry — but that relationship between studio and fan should go both ways. EA and BioWare has betrayed that relationship, and it will take a hell of a lot to build it back up again, now.

[This piece is also available on Medium!]

[stemclann]

Hi! i’m going around asking different clangens for different clangen reccs bc I’ve been interested in reading more! Do you have any reccs?

Oh I DO !!!

A lot of the blogs I follow feature heavily stylised characters and colorful pages, wich I love. For some of them I'm not even quite caught-up but I just love seing their art coming across my dash because I love making my tumblr feed an inspiring place (don't we all) Also, I'm fairly new to the Clangen side of the WC community tbh, so some blogs featured here might be already pretty well known in the community.. But who doesn't love a nice shoutout <3 🥰 For some of these blogs I don't know wich pronouns their user might want to be used, so I'll refer to them as they/them.

☁️ First off, the blog that litteraly inspired me to start my own : https://www.tumblr.com/vaporclan @vaporclan // I just LOVE their character designs and expressions. plus the intrigue is REALLY GOOD. They also have a side-blog wich is very promising : 🐅 https://www.tumblr.com/tigeroftheskies

💧 Second one that I came across : https://www.tumblr.com/moons-of-dewclan @moons-of-dewclan // BEAUTIFUL artstyle. The composition of each page is gorgeous and the ambiance is always on point. Can't wait to read more about their traumatized cats.

🪴 @gray-thistleclan // I realize from the amount of notes that their art is already pretty well received in the community, but I LOVE the character designs featured on this blog, plus the intrigue is really unique and fairly new in the WC community (depending on if you were here when we all thought Bramblestar was gonna get rabies lol) But yeah, gorgeous art with very intense moments of drama!! Can't wait to read more!!!

🪩 splinterclan.tumblr.com @splinterclan // Artstyle is *chef kiss*, immaculate, very modern, I love the way they portray their character interactions it's always very believable.

🍄 https://www.tumblr.com/sporeclan @sporeclan // First of all how great is this Clan name --- Second, I found this blog throught the official Clangen blog, and fell in love with the way the artist composes her pages, it's beautifully done. Her colour palettes are also very pretty, and tho I'm not perfectly caught up with the intrigue I admit that I followed her when I saw the family tree she composed for her allegiances. Very efficient, beautiful, and the expressions are very cute.

🪷 @lotusclans-luck // This blog is kinda on hold right now but their artstyle is just a joy to watch, very delicious, I would eat it for breakfast everyday. Very 2D animation style, I can't wait to see more of their art in the future if they update it !

🐌 @snailstep-and-her-clan // The story here is really interesting, I love the main character, Snailstep, and her developement. Also, the character designs (I feel like I'm saying it about every blog ahahah) and colour palettes of this blog are so cute, unique, and original. I love when artists have fun with their palettes,, ugh...

🌿 @juniper-clan // This artist has been posting about his clan for almost a year now, and I LOVE how it evolved. It's very refined, the setting is unique and their characters have a beautiful depth that's a joy to explore. I can't wait to read more about Heronstar, she might be one of the characters I like the most out of all these blog listed. (With Snailstep)

🔊 loudclan-clangen.tumblr.com @loudclan-clangen // Very unique and interesting artstyle, designs are handeled with a lot of care and efficiency, you just can feel that the artist knows her characters on the tip of their fingers. Alos, character interactions / jokes are GOLD omg the writting is so good. I wanna be able to write such good dialogue that naturally (but the neurodivergence is holding me BACK fljgdjgs).

𓀒 fallenclan.tumblr.com @fallenclan // The story is immaculate and I can't wait to read more even tho there's so much lore that I know I won't be able to keep up entirely 🥹 But the artstyle is very efficient here as well and the character designs are very memorable. Once again, character interactions are on point and very natural, it's a pleasure for the eyes.

🦋 @the-blight-of-mothclan // Who doesn't love a good lineless artstyle ?! It's so pretty, and the soft colour palettes pleases my eyes a lot. Beautiful backgrounds also ! It must take so much time to paint those, couldn't be me 😭

And finally :

🎍 @black-buttercup-clangen // HUGE inspiration when it comes to palettes. I don't know how they manage to make their art so textured with such effective and "simple" (NOT derogatory, quite the opposite) details. The artstyle is SO effective and the colour palettes are just beautiful. Go check them all out they all deserve support and love <3 I hope I helped you discover some gem that you will like :D 🤌🏼 🎨 Also, for more discoveries, you should DEFINITELY check out @officialclangen - They often reblog some very interesting and cool blogs, that's how I came across a lot of these.

[yukidragon]

Okay so I'm trying really hard to get into SWWSDJ but there's so much lore not e en in the games I feel very much in over my head lol. Can you like...give a rundown? Or at least point me in the direction of where to start? I wanna write fic about the clown man damn it lol

I understand what you mean. When you fist enter into a fandom it can be pretty daunting, especially if you don't get a lot of the references and information that the bulk of the fandom takes as common knowledge.

A lot of the information we have about the lore for SWWSDJ comes from the various demos and teasers. However, the lore is being updated as the game is in development, as evidenced by the differences in each of the demos. Things have changed since its initial demo release, and will likely continue to change until the full game is released. SWWSDJ is very much a work in progress.

The most obvious place to start of course is the latest demo. You can check out a public release of it on the SnaccPop Studios Patreon over here.

There's a release that came after this one with a bit more content, but you'll have to become a member if you want to see it for yourself. Personally I think it's worth it for all the goodies that are regularly released on the patreon. If you've signed up, I highly recommend checking it out.

After that, I think it's good to look at the official webpages for SWWSDJ, including the official tumblr over on @sunny-day-jack-official. The tumblr page answers quite a number of questions from the fans, as well as some teasers. They've even made a listing of most of the other official webpages in this post here.

Another page that teases some juicy lore is the official profiles over on Toyhouse. Want to know the canon heights of the love interests and their birthdays? This is the place to get that info.

The official twitter page has been a place to pick up bits of lore since the beginning. There's plenty of teasers, profiles, and it gives a good sense of how things have evolved during development.

There are some teasers that are floating around posted by the original creator and others working on the project, but the rule of thumb is to take these with a pinch of salt. They're very good to inspire ideas and lore crafting, but if it's not on an official page like the twitter, tumblr, patreon, etc. then it's technically not canon.

Speaking of technically not canon, if you're interested in seeing my deep dives into my theories about the lore, AU crafting, and just gushing about the series in general, feel free to check out my rambles. I've done a lot of thinking about this series, and my opinions keep evolving as new developments release. I've also done quite a lot of writing as well.

I hope this can be helpful to get you started, and that you enjoy your time in this fandom. If you have more specific questions, feel free to toss them into my inbox. I might take a while to answer, but I appreciate every ask sent my way. I look forward to seeing your stories, as well as the stories of everyone else in this lovely fandom.💖

@channydraws @earthgirlaesthetic @sai-of-the-7-stars @cheriihoney @illary-kore @okamiliqueur @kurokrisps

[riseoftheclansrpg]

Welcome to Rise of the Clans!

RISE OF THE CLANS | 18+ DISCORD-BASED WARRIOR CATS RPG

SKILL LEVEL - CONTENT / TRIGGER WARNING

OFFICIAL WEBSITE:

Welcome to Rise of the Clans (RotC), a fantasy discord-based RPG directly inspired by the warrior cats series created by Erin Hunter.  You are not expected, nor required, to have read any official canon material released to be a part of this group! All lore developed is original, based on the worldbuilding from the canon series.

This group originally started over on deviantart several years ago, as a deviantart and skype hosted RP. Over the years, the group has changed with the times, and was formally rebooted and opened to the group it is today, on August 19th, 2019! With deviantart's recent forced changes, RotC has left deviantart for good, and is now hosted on Discord, with a google website (coming soon!) in tandem.

Rise of the Clans is set in a fictional region in the United States, generally assumed to be located around the Pacific Northwest! As a result, there are a variety of naturally occurring phenomena, such as mountain ranges, lakes, marshes, the ocean, as well as more urban lifestyle, with a city located far away, along the ocean's coast. Weather can be extreme being so close to the ocean, as well as closer to the United State's northern border.

Communities of feral felines have come to dwell in several places across the region. From the city to the mountains, felines live all different walks of life.

There are four Clans that reside besides a lake with territories filled with diverse terrain and foliage, known as WoodClan, ValleyClan, RockClan, and StreamClan. Up within the mountains are a feline community known as Fjell'Byr, who organize themselves into factions to support a united, large population. Outside of these populations are rogues, loners, and kittypets.

This roleplay is plot-driven, both by an overarching groupwide plot, as well as both indirect and direct influences by personal character plots. As a result, roleplay mechanics are always updating and expanding, as members contribute and introduce new canon.  Through group participation to earn group currency, simply called "points", your character can unlock potential plots that can result in permanent, canonizing changes to the roleplay.

We are LGBTQ+ friendly, and encourage character creation from all walks of LGBTQ+ life!

A discord account is required to participate as an active member of this roleplay. All roleplay happens in the official Rise of the Clans discord server.

Rise of the Clans is OPEN FOR NEW MEMBERS! Click here to learn how to join!

[cookieblobber]

The Possible New Future of the Sonic Franchise - Thanks to fucking Sonadow

WOW! SO…THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED 💀

A few days ago it was rumored a Sonic Generations remaster was happening and will be revealed in the State of Play, which then revealed Shadow will be playable. It was really unknown what the hell this meant, but many theorized this was going to be a Bowser’s Fury/Kirby Return case: Game from an old console is remastered/ported with a whole brand new campaign that may or may not be related and possibly intertwined with said game’s story or lore.

They were correct.

Oh yea did I forget to mention BLACK FUCKING DOOM IS BACK?????

There isn’t much yet to go off of right now in terms of what’s being planned here besides this excerpt on steam

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Alright, enough showcasing, what the hell am I talking about by this game (that was just revealed) being a new future for the Sonic franchise? Well, it’s mainly due to these two things: the usage of Black Doom, and this fucking logo

A little bit of a history lesson -

Shadow the Hedgehog (2005)

….wasn’t really a well received game. Besides how many viewed it to be trying too hard to be edgy and dark and gritty, its gameplay was a lot left to be desired. Confusing and lore retconning writing, weird awkward gameplay, you probably already know by now, it was arguably where SEGA/Sonic Team got scared of doing spin-offs with other characters. The concepts and ideas were there, there were still reasons to like the game and like how Shadow improves as a character in the canonical story of the game, it was a small shiny stone in a pile of coal. Besides 06, this was the most development or focus Shadow would ever receive as a character before his massive change in writing in 2010.

Due to the 2010s change in writing style and how characters were written thanks to SEGA to avoid any association from “erm Sonic tried to be serious at one point? Cringe!”, Shadow possibly became the most controversial character of the cast, with him going from a really intriguing 3 dimensional character about trauma, loss, and trying to move on from the past, to many feeling like he’s regressed into a Furry Vegeta or a tryhard loner who doesn’t need friends to help him, the IDW comics being a big example of this. He still had a few good moments like his whole prologue in Sonic Forces, but even then it wasn’t anything intriguing like his story in Sonic 06 where he learns to accept his future might turn out shit, but he’ll always fight back with his team if things get dark (see what I did there?).

Before I continue, I would like to say - blaming Ian Flynn for how Shadow’s written in the IDW comics where he’s more brute and moody…..doesn’t seem correct, imma be real. I know he may have the occasional odd idea of the characters, but it’s very clear the way he’s written is due to certain mandates from SEGA and how characters/the world should be like. If Shadow’s whole moody brute demeanor is truly how Flynn views the character…..how does that explain how he was written in the Archie comics? aka the older comic series Flynn wrote for before SEGA started to get strict with the franchise, aka the series many believe to have had really great Shadow moments? I’m not saying there can’t be criticism for how Flynn may sometimes write characters, but in the case of him being the sole reason for how Shadow is written, that assumption made on him is a lil unfair.

Regardless, in recent times, it’s no doubt that the franchise is starting to rebuild it’s confidence again: acknowledging the old 3D games, including 06, having a more serious story with layers and depth like in Frontiers, Frontiers itself reintroducing Sonic’s friends and their struggles, making them playable once again in a 3D game (again, Shadow was cool to see in Forces but, you could only go so far with a simple reskin of Sonic). Not to mention after the update that brought back these characters, we got Sonic Superstars where the main selling point was that it was a co-op game, and Sonic Dream Team having a focus on the franchise’s more forgotten character: Cream the Rabbit (not to mention bringing back a sorta SA2-style gameplay where 6 characters were grouped into 3 styles of controls). Oh yea also prior to all that, Amy was made playable in the original Sonic genesis games via Sonic Origins.

———————————————

So, what does all that have to do with the future of the franchise, and why is Shadow 05 important here?

First off: Shadow is getting that same treatment as other friends, but possibly on an even bigger level: being a new playable character in an older title and being a big enough deal to get his own story and reintroduce people to what makes him who he is sadly no co-op gameplay but hey that would require completely changing this game from what it was initially was. This is really perfect timing as with the upcoming release of Sonic Movie 3 and Shadow being the next foe for Sonic to face off, Sonic x Shadow Generations will be a perfect title for new fans to dive into and learn more about Sonic’s history and dive further into Shadow’s history, just like what Sonic Origins was for fans who just came back from watching Sonic Movie 2.

This whole thing is also a massive implication that other characters than Sonic may start to get their own campaigns again, building more lead-ups to possibly full on spinoff games. I should say this again: Forces did try to do something with Shadow, but for the most part it was just reusing whatever the game already had to create a quick and easy 3 level prologue that…doesn’t really add all that much to the overall story (at this rate you can probably assume Forces tried to do a lot of things Sonic is now attempting to do, however due to the kinda era it came from, it didn’t have much going for it). Sonadow Generations seems like something bigger and more personal to the character involved, something that could possibly rival the OG game’s campaign.

The fact in this story, they’re going so far as to make Black Doom the main antagonist of this campaign and giving back Shadow’s tribal logo is a massive sign that this is a true attempt to revisit Shadow’s entire legacy. They could’ve easily just made his whole ordeal involve what happened in Sonic Adventure 2, after all that’s what he’s most remembered for, but going as far as to properly acknowledged a lesser known game as being part of the Sonic lore instead of dismissing it simply because it wasn’t well received, it continues to show the confidence this series has started to regain. Sure, it’s weird, it’s wacky, it’s wild, but it doesn’t make it any less something to acknowledge or at the very least make good out of something bad. While we did get hints of Shadow 05 still being part of the canon via the Eggman logs in Frontiers mentioning Black Doom, having him come back officially was still a completely wild thing to see; never in a million years would anyone have thought he would come back as the main villain.

The biggest part of this whole thing is: if SEGA is allowing for Shadow 05 to be fully acknowledged

.

this might mean they’re starting to pull back on their restrictions on the character.

——————————————

As I stated before, it is very clear they wanted nothing to do with this game or anything similar to it ever again, I mean the fact we never got any spin-offs after this really shows they weren’t gonna come back to other characters ever again. But now…everything’s on the table. If Black Doom is making an appearance, if Shadow’s tribal logo is back as part of his identity, what else could there be next? Will Shadow start to use guns again? Will he ride his motorcycle, and other vehicles like in 06? Hell, will motherfucking Mephiles come back again for this campaign?

Not to mention the description of the game stated that Shadow will confront painful memories, will we see Maria in HD getting shot, or the commander from Shadow 05 who was out to get him making a reappearance? This might be the first time in a whole decade since other human characters (not counting Sage since she isn’t exactly fully human) making an appearance again in the Sonic franchise. Again, we may have gotten hints of them still being a thing with the likes of Frontiers’ Eggman logs bringing up GUN and Maria, but actually showing up in-game means other humans can still make appearances in-game.

(Take this part with a massive grain of salt but I’ve heard that Ian Flynn in the past has expressed he wanted to bring back Black Doom and Mephiles, but SEGA didn’t allow it, now that one of them happened, it proves that there indeed has been less restrictions now)

If there are less restrictions being made on stuff like acknowledging Shadow’s game, what could this mean for how Shadow himself may be written now? We’ve seen how apparently well written Shadow was in Sonic Prime, could this carry over to the games and comics where he has a less frustrating depiction? I mean, the fact Ian Flynn was hired for one massive mainline game (Sonic Frontiers) and suddenly they’re doing all these lore related things for the franchise or going back to pull up any old stuff and see what they can do with it, it shows there is a level of trust between SEGA and Flynn and letting the man cook. And it makes complete sense too, he’s been a long time writer for the franchise since the Archie comics, he seems to have a great understanding of the characters.

If Shadow 05 is getting this level of acknowledgement, what about other more forgotten games? Will we one day see Sonic 06 be better acknowledged, or more likely a character like Silver having a bigger role in something related to the events of 06? I mean for some reason recent episode titles of the upcoming Knuckles show revealed one episode called “Flames of Disaster,” who’s to say they aren’t already looking into 06 for some ideas for not just the movie canon, but as well as the main canon?

—————————————

I’m drifting off a little but I’m sure you get by now what I’m tryna say. This game, as it may seem like just a simple small remaster with extra content, may end up creating something bigger for the franchise going forward. Seeing how Sonic Team is behind this remaster and not Blind Squirrel (the people who made Sonic Colors Ultimate; while possibly rushed by SEGA, they’ve also have had a questionable track record with remasters), and hints that Flynn is behind this story, I think we are in great hands with this game. This may be the first remaster to finally be flawless in every level, which I know is a little sad to say when it comes to this 30+ year old franchise, but hey, can’t win them all!

——————————————

Before I end this comically large essay, I would like to make one final note on this whole topic. As I was writing this and taking breaks last night, I came across a tweet that was kinda starting to go around about this game.

To summarize, the tweet essentially claimed that Sonic was still stuck in the past. The franchise was still relying on nostalgia pandering as its identity, and due to the contents of Generations being a whole celebration of Sonic’s history (and what unfortunately started SEGA’s cling onto Green Hill and Chemical Plant), aka alleged nostalgia pandering, it proves the franchise’s identity is still about how when Sonic used to be cool. It hasn’t attempted to evolve in the past 14 years.

You can probably guess what my thoughts on that take is after reading this whole post.

.

.

.

.

.

No.

I don’t think so.

As I already showed, the addition of Shadow’s story more than proves this is still stepping forward. It’s taking an old beloved game and instead of just updating graphics or performance and leaving it at that, they’re making something brand new out of it that may define future ideas for other characters that isn’t about Sonic. Not to mention this game barely attempts to be all like, “Revisit all these iconic locations from your childhood!!!” SEGA is clearly looking at Generations not as that one game they can rely on for easy nostalgia pandering, but as a successful and fun game from the last decade in its own right. I mean to the general public, it’s considered to be “one of the few good Sonic games.”

It can be argued that the addition of Shadow and Black Doom may be pandering to the audience into Shadow but…really? They’re tryna solely pander and play on the nostalgia of a small minority of players who liked a game that was considered to be the start of Sonic’s downfall in the 2000s and make that the selling point of this remaster to the general public? Where some in said general public may argue that they’re about to ruin a rare good Sonic game with stuff that they think no one ever liked??? I don’t really believe it.

Hell, speaking personally, I’ve never played Shadow 05, I don’t own a GameCube, maybe a PS2 but even then I didn’t get much games at the time. While I sorta played around with the franchises growing up, I fully got into it around when Sonic Mania came out (and even then it took me a while to finally play it). So even though I may be hyping up Black Doom’s return, I myself am not coming from any rose tinted glasses or anything, these are just observations from the many discussions I’ve seen online or videos showcasing these games. Same would go for a lot of people into that game as many while loved it, still would acknowledge where it fumbles and how it’s definitely not the definitive Sonic experience to have.

Sonic has begun to evolve, experimenting with new ideas and offering new and different ways to enjoy the franchise. As mentioned earlier, lots of shit happened in the past 4 months. While I agree that something like Frontiers relying on the same old levels for Cyberspace to be stupid, that shouldn’t undermine the actual new stuff it offers for the franchise. I feel like we’re already far beyond the franchise needing to be like “hey remember Green Hill???” as it’s main identity for a game/the franchise. And even then, this shouldn’t mean Sonic can’t look back on previous entries anymore ever again.

Many want Sonic to be like other franchises, like Mario, Kirby, etc, they’ve been also occasionally doing the look back on an old title or old past, so why not let Sonic do the same? We shouldn’t immediately respond to a callback with claims that it’s poor nostalgia pandering, as the take away imo always should’ve been that there should be a balance between original and new and looking back on what worked.

I am happy to say that regardless what this remaster is, we are in good hands again.

———————————————

also unrelated as hell but pray for this man, he has not uploaded a Sonic video in 4 months, I think SEGA killed him by over feeding him with content 😭

[dr-spectre]

I’ve been seeing a lot of people in the Splatoon community say that Splatoon 3 ROTM will be the last time we will see the New Squidbeak Splatoon which includes Callie and Marie, but like… no?! Nintendo hasn’t outright said “hey y'all, you like the Squid Sisters and wanna see them continue to grow and develop? TOO BAD BITCH!! THEY AIN'T COMING BACK AFTER THIS GAME HA HA! IT'S JUST OFF THE PEAK AND DEEP PEAK NOW BUDDY! ENJOY!!”

When that person said in the Splatoon 3 direct “witness the finale of the Splatoon Saga” she meant the finale of the trilogy set up from Splatoon 1, the story of the New Squidbeak Splatoon vs the Octarians. The Splatoon games up until this point have always had a consistent throughline of developing the Octarians and giving more insight into the conflict between them and the Inklings. Octo Expansion was about diving deeper into the Octolings, them reaching the surface and living with the Inklings. In Splatoon 3, it seems like the Inklings have accepted the Octolings and are living peacefully alongside them. (Or they are just really dumb and still don't realize that Octolings aren't just Inklings with weird hairstyles.) 

Splatoon 3 ROTM marks the finale of the New Squidbeak Splatoon vs Octarians storyline as DJ Octavio’s entire army literally got turned into mindless furries and he became allies with the New Squidbeak Splatoon at the end of the game. Whether he’ll stay as a good guy remains to be seen but by judging Smollusk’s dialogue in Side Order where he says that Octavio is just flying around in his new machine nowadays, he’s probably gonna stay at the very least neutral to the Squidbeak Splatoon. His mission to save his race is basically over now, Octolings are living on the surface and his army is a bunch of furries. We will most likely never see the Octarians as enemies ever again in the series and the developers will move on to different threats never seen before and start a new storyline, or maybe they’ll focus on the Salmonids for Splatoon 4 but we’ll have to wait and see. 

Now I wanna roll back to the Squid Sisters, listen, aside from the Inklings, Callie and Marie are the most iconic characters in the entire franchise. If you tell a random person “do you know Splatoon?” They are probably gonna think of the Inklings, the unique gameplay and then the Squid Sisters. The only other characters that rivals their popularity are arguably Off the Hook, Deep Cut are still recognizable but they aren’t on the same level of popularity as those two groups in my opinion. 

It would genuinely be a bad financial and story mistake to never ever bring back Callie and Marie for Splatoon 4 and onwards, they are extremely iconic and profitable characters that people LOVE and wanna see more and continue having brand new adventures. Now, do I think they are gonna have the same role as before? No, I think they may take a break or step back from the Squidbeak Splatoon and let Captain 3 take control over Agent 4, Neo Agent 3, etc.

For Splatoon 4, I am guessing they are still gonna perform as the Squid Sisters, but in the main story mode or dlc I'm hoping that the developers take an Octo Expansion/Side Order route with the Squid Sisters where you get to hang out with them and learn more about them. How are they doing currently? What was it like for them at the start of their careers? Some more info about how they were as kids? How do Callie and Marie look back on the events of Splatoon 2? How do they feel about the other Idols and characters? 

There’s still so much left for these girls and just never seeing them again after Splatoon 3 would be a massive mistake and destroy all that interesting potential and lore. 

Also, the way that the Splatoon world works is that it’s an ever evolving world that follows our time, meaning that the characters age and go on new journeys as the years go by in our world. We see updates on past characters and are shown where they are at, the only times when that doesn't happen is when a character is fucking dead (Commander Tartar and the Octoweapons except for Octostomp) or they are in a location that isn’t the focus of what the writers wanna tell (C.Q. Cumber), heck even a character like Iso Padre who was a small side character in Octo Expansion managed to make an appearance in Splatoon 3 and show that he actually made it to the surface! 

Callie and Marie are not going anywhere, you can rest easy. The credits song "Wave Goodbye" is not called that in Japanese, it's called "Star of the Sea Breeze" and we all know that the localization team can make some pretty bad mistakes....

[leonenjoyer69]

how do you write. (specifically fics)

i have like some ideas currently but i havent brought myself to write anything yet at all 😭

also any tips/advice you find helpful would be cool too

Vjejfiejkf ty for this ask, I'm actually so honored--

First of all, I tend to write everything on my phone in a writing app, bc I'm not about that Laptop life, but otherwise, uh, I'll throw this into two categories--

Oneshots: generally for one shots I get beamed with an idea and immediately go Yap about it, either on my server or with one or two specific people that I know will help me develop it via feedback :3

then, I generally jot down a synopsis of what I have so far and random little ideas of what I want to include, usually so I can return later and know wtf I was thinking to do next. I have a good few WIPs where I didn't end up doing that, and guess who doesn't know how to continue them now, so yeah, always do AT LEAST a brief little synopsis. Also goes for multi chapter fics, ofc. They also don't have to be serious or anything, like, this was the thing up top for my mind jekyon fic:

Very silly, but it gets the whole idea and big points across.

Multichapter fics: okay, this one's,,, a decent bit different, mainly bc I have my girlfriend (who also edits my stuff) plotting things for A Little Identity bc I'm actually really bad at plotting and pacing longer stuff.

I usually go to her with ideas and future plans and she'll dive deeper into the ideas I have for the next chapter I need to write so I have more guidance, makes things much easier for me, bc I get stuck less.

But, this could also probably be substituted once more by must talking with someone you think could help you develop it. Feedback and extra ideas are a writer's best friend! Go yap about your ideas! Especially with someone you know will bounce ideas back with you!

Motivation to write tho,,,, I have a few things.

-listening to a playlist or songs that remind you of a character or certain scenario you wanna write about. I have a character playlist for each of my tgs OCs, and then one for A Little Identity in general, and there are a few songs I straight up associate with future chapters that I can't even talk about yet. They form a whole little scene in my head, and having that makes it much easier to write it. Additionally, when I maybe get stuck with characterization, I'll go listen to that specific characters playlist. Music is your best friend! I've gotten beamed MANY ideas from songs, at random sometimes too.

-do a sprint with sprinto! It's a discord bot that gives you a 15 minute timer and takes your starting and ending word count and calculates it, ranking it against anyone else who did the sprint with you. It's very good for more competitive people, and it's a very nice thing to have on a server. I've seen it get people out of a writer's block on my server, so it's certainly nice to use.

-let the writing drive come to you. I won't lie, most days just aren't writing days for me. The English language will allude me, I'll get stuck on where I want to go next, dialogue will destroy me, etc.

I think writing is just kinda like that sometimes, so just write what you can when you can! If you have a main fic you feel you need to update but also a bunch of little oneshots, then work on whatever you feel the drive to! There's no point in trying to force yourself to work on one thing when you have a bunch of ideas for another thing-- the most important thing is that you wrote in general.

The time will come when you get the motivation and ideas for that other thing, so just do what you can when you can, writing is writing :3

-reread what you've already written, or if it's a fanfic, reread/watch the source material. I can't tell you the number of times rereading all of Lanyon's lore pages has given me new ideas with Elias, as well as just reading through old stuff or incomplete oneshots that have my OCs and such. Sometimes you just need a refresher!

-read other fics. This generally helps see how other people format things, which can sometimes help when you're struggling. Sometimes I'll also search for stuff that has specific things that I don't know how to describe very well.

Andddddd I think that's all I've got? Hopefully this helps people, so go out and write! There's never enough fan fics 🙏thank you again for the ask :3

[zombeebunnie]

Trembling Essence [Extended Demo]:💙Quality of life progress finished💙

Hello and welcome new followers! I've been focused on the quality of life changes I discussed in my last two update posts. :]

Happy one month of the [Extended Demo] being released! Yay! Thank you to everyone that has been patient and supported this! :,]

Quality of life progress:

*Please note that these changes aren't in the [Extended Demo] yet! I'm in the process of updating which I'll announce in a future post! :]

Here's the finished endings collection gallery! I enjoyed the process and learned a lot from this. I can't wait to implement what I've learned in other places within the game! :,]

When you load up the game you just have to click on each tab to see your progress. If it's greyed out that means you haven't earned it yet and if you do, it'll have color and a "+" added to it! I also changed the hue's compared to how it looked last week. :]

I also discovered there's actually 12* Bad Endings and not 13. At some point during development a Bad Ending was turned into a Neutral Ending and I accidently forgot to change that. :S

The game page will be adjusted to indicate this now:

12 Bad endings 6 Neutral endings 6 endings that continue the rest of the Day 3

For those that are new or have been here for some time, entering the cabin with Noah starts Day 3 due to the player(Y/N) being lost in the terrain for 2 and a half days which Noah mentions. Sometimes this can get confusing since some consider it Day 1 while the game considers it Day 3.

I added a notification tab in the upper left corner and moved it slightly to the right so it wouldn't overlap the player(Y/N)'s HP bar. This is meant to show what day it is in the game to resolve confusion. Once you enter the cabin with Noah it starts Day 3. :]

Q&A / Ask box is open:

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I would really like to hear from you guys!

I really wanted some of the lore to be found through playing so I'm comfortable with doing this now that the [Extended Demo] has been out for a good while now!

If you've already sent in a ask, I did see it I just need time to answer since I like to respond with doodles/drawings as practice. :]

Outside of a couple of spelling errors I fixed, I can't think of anything else that needs to be added right now so that's all I have to share! Thank you for the continued support, I appreciate it. :,]

[steamberrystudio]

19/11/2023

Hey everyone! Time for the bi-weekly tumblr update for Steamberry stuffs!

Summary

Finished writing all routes up through the end of chapter 9

Started working on editing for now

Added in-game achievements

Received some new BG art

Ramble

Okay, so writing-wise, I wrote Yren's content up through the end of chapter 9. Also revamped my end-route summaries for Yren and Raif.

The current word count is 426,000 words.

But I decided to hold off on finishing the endings for the four remaining routes. The main reason for this is that I have planned a lot of early-story changes that are going to shift the trajectory of the route endings. And I was really struggling with how to construct the route endings with those planned changes in a more nebulous state.

I usually try to avoid working out of order because I find it is not conducive to forward progress. But there are some points when you have to break the rules and go back to make important edits because you need them there in order to be able to move forward.

I'm kind of at that point.

So I decided I would fully edit Asher's route, which will allow me to inject all those planned changes into the story which will make it much easier to construct endings that call back to that earlier foreshadowing.

So writing-wise, that's what I've been doing this week. I am currently up to Chapter 6 in the edit (which means I'm a little less than half through the route).

Other Stuff:

I have received new BGs of course. Those are coming in at a fairly steady rate of 1.5 - 2 weeks each.

I also have decided to add in-game achievements to WSC. I've been thinking about it for a while but putting it off since I know that one more screen (like an achievements gallery) means more tweaks to the UI. But I finally sucked it up and did it anyway.

I've also been playing with a colour slider for Wil's sprite. I'm not going to go into detail about it here because I've talked about it more in depth on Patreon and will continue to post most of the details there.

But the idea is that instead of choosing from 3 skin tones and 2 hair colours, there would be colour sliders allowing for a much greater range of selection. One of the big concerns with colour sliders is whether or not the recolours can be made to look as good as recolouring manually - which has always been why I've stayed away from them. 

The more complex shading styles have always struggled with colour sliders. But a developer friend - Feniks - has made a really cool and dynamic shader that actually can recreate even painterly or non-outlined art styles with incredible accuracy.

Using a slider is really useful because it increases the variations the player gets while *reducing* my work load. Instead of having to recolour manually, I would actually only need to colour everything once in grey scale.

Of course, it's not as easy as just dumping in the code and art. It requires some experimentation and learning but right now it is looking like I will be able to make it work. So I may be able to show off some examples in the future.

Screenshots:

None this time...

Upcoming Weeks:

I am currently editing Chapter 6 of asher/common routes and there are some pretty substantial edits I have to make.

It's always tricky to estimate what I will get done editing wise because editing does not flow at a more or less even pace like writing. Chapter 5, 6, and 7 had (and will have) major updates and changes so it may take a while to get through them. Though I'm already through with Ch 5. So...that's one of three.

Anyway.

And I'm also working on the GS lore book, still (LoL. 🙃). Someone today reminded me that I still need to go through all the deleted content to see if anything is salvageable for the lore book too.

😭

Thank you so much to that person (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE. And you need to answer for your crimes, my friend.) 👀

[grifff17]

Audiodrama Sunday 4/7/2024

Lots of stuff to listen to this week. I really need to stop starting these writeups at 11:30pm on Sunday evening.

Loved the new Dear Liisphyra this week. I thought that the sponsor for this episode was really funny. I laughed out loud and looked like to an insane person to some guy I was walking past when they said that every weapon box comes with 50 feet of hempen rope.

Season 2 finale of @backagainpodcast! Man I love the themes of this show. It's such a well written tragedy, the dramatic irony is so good. Also I desperately want to know more about the other Soldier. We know several very relevant details about him but very little else.

New @spoutlore-blog was fun. Billie is such a good character, Jessica plays the "immortal child" trope so well. This show really puts the coolest worldbuilding you've ever heard with the dumbest dick jokes in existence. I still haven't gotten over the spider and the hummingbird.

Speaking of Spout Lore, the new Rude Tales of Magic episode has Abdul Aziz as a guest. He was a great guest, his style of humor fits perfectly with the setting of Piss Harbor. Are all the characters he plays street rats with a heart of gold. Excited to see who they bring on as guests in the future. They had Zac Oyama a few episodes ago, I would be excited to see more Dimension 20 people.

The new @midstpodcast was super interesting! Every episode in this season they've introduced another way that the Trust is incredibly fucked up. Why can't we go back to the Mother's Merciful, they were so nice.

Somehow I fell behind on @storiesfromylelmore. I'm not sure how that happened, I think my podcatcher didn't update or something, because I've been listening to new episodes of this show immediately. The second most recent episode was great, with Rion going through werewolf puberty. The most recent episode had some really good character work, with character development for all 3 main characters. I love this show so much.

New episode of SCP: Find Us Alive. A new Dash Two being created is really interesting, we've only had Dumptruck and Hiway Robbery for so long it's weird for there to be a third one. Where did they even get a bird?

I reached the crossover with Forgive Me in @kingmakerpod. Forgive Me is such a grounded show, especially by audiodrama standards, which tend to be way out there, so it's so funny when they cross over with shows that have such a wildly different tone and premise. The character interactions were on point though.

@camlannpod the fairy world! This show continues to have really cool takes on myths. The idea that you can shed a Name simply by going by something else is interesting. Could some random person start going by Lancelot and gain magical powers? The reveal at the end was great too, both from a worldbuilding standpoint and a character perspective.

Man that really was a lot. Lots of stuff to look forward to next week as well!

[cult-bull]

Crowns of Sins Thoughts

What's up with the red crown and sin? Why does it promote it? Does it eat it? Does it need its host to grow stronger? (Most certainly making a Crowns and Hosts thoughts posts later too)

Obviously, the sins of the flesh update came later on in the game's development and in interviews I remember the creators talking about coming up with ideas and letting their writers figure out how it fits into the lore afterwards, so who knows how much is intended from the start and how much just came later.

The red crown being able to talk seems to have been there from the start, since it has speech coming from it so to say during doctrine choosing, at least it feels implied now that we know it can speak.

How sins work seems quite separate from the bishops and their crowns… until you try to think about it. Kind of. Maybe it's retroactively fitting pieces into where they could belong but hey, this is my blog and my journal of random cult of the lamb thoughts not proper theory crafting XD

I don't think it works though when just limiting yourself to the Christian seven deadly sins.

Leshy I'm throwing out the window instantly. I'm not sure what sin his chaotic ass could represent, as I'm saving wrath for someone else and even then, Leshy doesn't really seem... wrathful. Angry, loud, first boss energy, but not wrathful. He is the youngest god though, so maybe he just didn't have the time to be that sinful.

The only sin he is so far guilty of is being a weirdly cute follower

Heket is almost too easy in comparison. Gluttony, and even greed in terms of hoarding food from others by causing famines and giving their followers food if they worship well, and possibly because Mida's cave is near it, being pretty close to it on Jalala's map right between it and darkwood

It would be a bit easier to tell if we got more proper lines of where each "territory" of a bishop ends and begins. How large something actually stretches is questionable

Anyway, Heket would certainly fit right into a user of a ritual like the cannibalism one (and regain all her devotion through the mushroom drugs) so it just fits right in there.

Kallamar is where my "seven deadly sin" thing not working comes up. He is not guilty of any classic sin, nor does he promote it. I know we all in the fandom like to make him lustful, partially due to that one bishop hotline video I'm sure, but I'm not sure if anything else points him into a lust category in game though, If yes, feel free to correct me.

However

I do say betrayal and selfishness could count as sinful. He is a scaredy-cat (a powerful scaredy-cat but still), but he rather throws his siblings, especially a broken Shamura under the bus of your vengeful wrath when you come to get him post killing Leshy and Heket, just to somehow live. He's a coward, a backstabber, no matter if he feels bad about it afterwards or not. That feels ripe for a sin.

Shamura is weird too, not because nothing fits, but more because it's speculating about their past self. Their broken mind self is... well, broken. Love them, but clearly something changed about them.

Through the lore tablets in game we learn a young Shamura was the one who asked/threatened the older gods to bow to their old-back-then-new faith and began a war against the many gods with at least I presume, the other bishops.

Shamura is a god of war, of conquest, and probably even wrath back then too. Once again, it feels ripe for sin to have someone who seeks the blood spilled in the battlefield. Again though, that's speculations about a past Shamura.

Narinder is a bit easier again, since one can likely assume pride to be a good sin for him. Prideful as he tried to rise, he fell, and retained his high and mighty pride when thinking the lamb couldn't possibly ever stand up to them until being forcefully shown that fact of life.

And fall he did, like he usually does.

With all the bishops having "access" to a main sin source though (except leshy), they could have easily had a way to make their cults, their temples and more, stronger. In the game, we only upgrade the temple visually, but since a god grows stronger with worship, likely do their crowns as well, and it just helps feed that.

Likely a way of how the new gods Shamura and co rose up to power that much could be through this, though i have other thoughts for later dates too on that (and if Narinder was around back then, having the literal death god as your sibling probably helped in a war too-)

The crowns and their relationship to the gods of new and old need more exploring in general, I feel like. Not just from the game, but like, I want to see other people throw their totally-not-a-crown hat into the ring. Where they came from, how they work, etc.

Ramble times over, did this make sense? Probably not. But I like my randoms to an audience of mostly myself👍

[quarrybee]

So I’ll complain here because the discord a mess rn but

CoS Events are progressively getting worse (A essay ™️)

Every time a new event update drops there’s never ending complaints about being too grindy. then the smoke clears, another update drops, more complaining, and that cycle has been snowballing since the Keys event. It almost feels like the devs of this game don’t know how to make an event that doesn’t ask the players to spend hours on busywork. the event missions aren’t even unique in the sense that they’re just the normal region missions. sometimes there’s minigames but most of the time it’s just “grow this, grow that, do these region missions, kill a bunch of tier 5s” (where do you find that many tier fives these types of missions basically requires server hopping)

and that’s not to mention, the rewards for these pointless brain numbing missions are oftentimes so small or unrewarding it feels like your progressing at a snails pace.

I feel like this mostly stems from the Easter 2022 event and the great economy crash that cost. Since then it feels like the devs are worried about over rewarding players who have gotten so used to afking for hours or grinding dull boring tasks for the duration of the event, to the point where they’d (the players) abuse the replayable minigames and get rich in 30 minutes. ever noticed how we’ve never gotten event missions that reward more than 100 shooms at a time since then? so instead the devs overcompensate with low paying, boring tasks that were part of the vanilla game experience to begin with.

I’d say the last fun recode event was the mystery of the keys, because it was unique, at least for cos standards. it introduced new minigames, new event type, new lore, there were cool awards to be earned, and there wasn’t a bunch of creature species to grind for, so at least in the completionist area there was a bit less stress. even then after the key ugcs ran out, the substitutes you could get for completing the missions afterwards were lackluster to say the least, and left anyone who didn’t complete the missions before the 4k ugc ran out were left underwhelmed.

And that’s not even mentioning bugs or vague instructions that left a majority of the playerbase without discord alienated on even how to complete certain tasks. so even their best events have flaws

I’m not a Roblox game developer and even if I did go into detail on how’d I’d personally fix these events we’d be here for another 4 paragraphs, but I’m just really hoping the game breaks out of this terrible continued cycle of progressively grinder events. people have been calling cos p2w more frequently and with these temporary event boosts and event currencies that are disposed off after the event (requiring players to start from scratch when the same event comes around next year no matter how many leftovers you may have), I can’t say their exactly beating the rumors. I really want this game to be good I really do because it’s becoming harder to love with every update for me

[shrekgogurt]

Thank you @youarenevertooold @alexalexinii @hushed-chorus @thewholelemon @prettygoododds & @forabeatofadrum for the tags today! I’m so excited for the COC work to start pouring in and for all your fic updates and new ideas brewing. It truly is creeping up on the most wonderful time of the year!

I have a lot of writing lore I’m dropping so most of this post is under the cut.

I posted Ch. 8 of IKABIKAM last night and truly it’s my favorite one so far! I’m working on the next chapter but it’s a little tricky. If you’re caught up you know I’ve just concluded the first arc. We are now entering Phase 2 and Ch. 9 needs to lay down the foundation for the next movement. There’s a lot of ground to cover and I’m very intimidated by it. (Like, uhhhhhh what even is Solsbury’s record this season?) I’ve had the setting and vague plot points in mind for awhile but now I’m working through particularities.

Due to the medium (chapter by chapter online posting) and the breadth of the story (an entire year), I’ve approached IKABIKAM more like a season of television rather than a novel. I want each episode to build on top of each other while also narratively standing on their own. Including, of course, my many callbacks to previous material. (Can you tell that Community and Arrested Development—only the good seasons—are two of my favorite TV shows?)

All this to say, I’m aiming for Ch. 9 to feel like a bottle episode. (Even though the budget for every chapter is the same: 0 moneys.) Small scope. Stripped back setting. Limited characters. And, the big kicker, emotional and/or physical claustrophobia.

So, here is a short Baz POV, present excerpt to set the tone:

Gravity rebels against the sudden ascent. But, it loses. It always loses. If it won, I would be dead.

Oh, and speaking of elevators? Here is my Labyrinth progress! (I only got to do two takes because the piano is in a shared space and it's the holidays so everyone is around.) (I wish I could have annunciated more and sang with more expression but also these are probably things only I would notice anyway.)

Now tagging (but it's okay if you don't do anything it's late in the day and also a long holiday weekend if you're from The States)! @artsyunderstudy @bazzybelle @brilla-brilla-estrellita @captain-aralias @ebbpettier @excalisbury @facewithoutheart @fatalfangirl @iamamythologicalcreature @ic3-que3n @ileadacharmedlife @ivelovedhimthroughworse @jasonfunderberkerthefrogexists @jbrrring @j-nipper-95 @larkral @letraspal @martsonmars @messofthejess @ninemagicks @onepintobean @palimpsessed @raenestee @rimeswithpurple @stitchy-queerista @theearlgreymage @theimpossibledemon @upuntil6am @valeffelees @wellbelesbian @whogaveyoupermission @yellobb @you-remind-me-of-the-babe

[themulitipurposechannel]

Hello!

I LOVE your story!!! CJ having healing Ninpo is so genius and it’s making my brain run wild with possibilities!

Are there any tidbits you’d like to share about the au? Also could you possibly explain what happened with CJ aging due to Ninpo (in the latest update)?

(No need to answer any of the questions if you do not want to)

AWESOME COMIC, AWESOME STORY, AWESOME ART!!! I can’t wait to see more!!!

Hope you have a great day ^-^

BDJDHDHDHDHD Aww dude stop you have no idea how happy this makes me 😭 I’m so so so happy you love my au!! 💗💗💗 I love the concept of Casey with healing powers! He’s has a temper but I still think suits him so well given how protective he is as a person ahah!! And I’m so glad there are ppl out there who agree with me too! But Hehe yesss join me join me in my healer!Cj brain worms hehehe

.

Hmm since you asked bout the aging(and that’s a little complicated) I’ll answer that first. So I can’t go into too much detail cuz that will spoilers for a comic and some other art that will explain everything! ..Maybe😂 But I will say this. Cj unlocked his Ninpo when he was 10 he was fine, he was aging normally. Till a certain incident happened when he was 11 and well.. we all know what happened next, freshly baked trauma and he aged a couple years forward overnight plus some extra long term injuries (that I will go into later).

The good news is that as long as he doesn’t push himself like that again he will be aging mostly linearly again? But the damage has alr been done 😅. But anyways, after the incident, he never pushed himself like that again. One, cuz the Hamato fam would never allow it and Two, cuz the recovery period is so long/bad (cuz Cj is no master and worse he’s a literal child unlike Mikey who was in his early 20s when the cursed Aging started) no one can afford for him to be knocked out of commission like that again. It makes him wayy too vulnerable.

Post-incident, at his worst he has only aged a few days forward but cuz that’s so small no one except Master Michelangelo (cuz he’s a mystic master and cuz he’s also in the same boat) can tell the difference. Plus it’s so negligible it doesn’t technically matter.

But long story short, pulling himself tgt from that incident physically and mentally loooonnng time haha. But as you can see even now it still leaves its scars haha and probably always will.

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As for any other tidbits? Oh gosh where do I start ? Ahh there is just so much to say! Ok update wise I’m actually working a PMV for Healer!Cj so if I go quiet for a while that’s why. Idk how long it’s gonna take but I’m excited to show some sneak peaks along the way lol. This is my first time doing something like this so here’s to hoping it goes well!

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Lore wise: although Cj does have a subway car in the lair. Once he gets more settled in he actually bounces around quite a bit. Boy was not meant to stay in one place for too long. While he does spent most of the week at the lair cuz the underground is familiar too him, he will spend 3-4 days crashing on the couch at April/Casey’s apartment. And on a rare blue moon he’ll give Draxum a heart attack 😂 by breaking into his apartment and sleeping on that old man’s couch. After a while it becomes their own little inside joke 😂. Draxum tries Cj-proof his apartment using mystic or otherwise and Cj makes it a point to still try and sneak in.

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And the surprise of no one. In this Au, Uncle Mi is Cj’s favourite uncle. Sometimes second pesudo dad. But mostly on accident by a very sleep deprived Cj.

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I have plans for P!Casey to eventually develop Ninpo a few years down the line. But I can’t think of any powers for her so if ya’ll got any suggestions pls fire away.

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And oh P!Leo is gonna permanently need a leg brace. Sometimes on rlly rlly bad days, he will need to use a crutch (not that he ever does cuz he’s wayy to stubborn) but you get the picture.

Raph’s eye is permanently gone, Donnie and his shell will heal but bro will have chronic back pain for life plus certain parts of his shell where the tendrils dug into the thickest are now numb cuz ya know, nerve damage from being literally ripped out the technodrone. Mikey will need to wear compression gloves but his shaking gets significantly better over time. So he draw but he still needs to every two months or so he can get pretty bad flareups which are jsut Oof.

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Good news is April is fine aside from a broken arm during the invasion that will heal. Splinter was surprisingly not that badly injured just a few pulled muscles here and there. And Cj is Obvi fine too aside from a minor concussion that he got prior to time traveling. Which to him was basically nothing. The reactions by everyone else was hilarious and a major culture shock for Cj. Turns out his apocalypse pain scale was drastically different to their normal not apocalypse pain scale.

It was hilarious the gang were like: “you’ve running around taking care of us a lot. Are you good?”

Cj: “yup all fine. Just a few bumps and scrapes”

8 Hours later..

Cj: “It looks like everyone’s settled? Great. I’ll go grab painkillers for my concussion now.”

Them: “I THOUGHT YOU SAID YOU WERE GOOD!?”

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Long story short no one escaped the failed invasion unscathed :’D but also whoops sorry for the long ramble 😅 this kidna got away for me 😂

[sammywolfgirl]

This update is helping me develop my lore for how the flow of life works in the snow queen domain and honestly I’m excited

It’s kind of settled for me I want frost queen and fire spirits areas to be sort of parallels

Both of them have that sort of thing of, cookies die and their life essence goes into the land to make elemental creatures. Though what happens after that differs

For the dragons valley, it’s a self fulfilling cycle. When a cookie dies in the valley their life essence gets added to the valleys reserves, and these sprites can merge to become bigger and more powerful beings, sometimes even dragons, who can leave the valley and die elsewhere. And maybe that spreads life essence around like some bumble bee thing idk I still am trying to get a grip on how the flow of life works in the kingdom universe, but that works for my au atm.

Meanwhile in the frost queen area (idk what the snowy area is called) what matters is if w cookie is born there, cookies born in this area have a chance of getting that frost sickness, and as we’ve seen with sherbet they die and their life essence goes into creating frost spirits and snow creatures. Though things are a bit looser here, In some cases the cookie can become an elemental and not loose their memories, in some cases a cookie outside of this domain can be given a second chance by the snow. And when frost creatures die their life essence goes back into the cookies born here, and it’s more of a give and take. In some rare cases cookies have survived the illness but gotten ice magic because of it, but that’s uncommon at best. Point is the snow is mailable, and frost queens job is to make sure that things stay balanced, she can grant wiggle room if there is any, and if things get off balance she can use the flow of life to readjust the scale. But it’s an issue when thr flow itself is being stolen and that’s why dark enchantress is a problem.

I’m not totaly against the idea that the elemental rebirth thing only happens in the snow place, but it’d make it stand out that only the frost area does the reborn thing.

Other elemental areas have their own versions but are uncommon to rare (ie fire spirits ascension, wind archers creation, that sort of thing)

Plus icicle yeti is a healer! Idk what connections are being made but there sure are!!

Uh related thoughts on other elemental flow of life stuff.

Im going to wait till kingdom gives us wind archer or millennial tree before deciding how the Life cycle works for the forest domain, I got nothing in mind so I’m open to see what I’m given and going from there.

Millennial tree is still proficient in all magic, he’s kind of like the head of the flow of life, wouldn’t be surprised if he started it all those eons ago. So if frost queen is a manager Mille Is like the head manager or something idk. Though he’s not super attentive to it since the other elementals got it covered.

Sea fairys flow of life had to adapt without her when her curse froze her for decades. And when she woke up it became self sufficient, so she can just sorta leave it alone. The only duty she’d need to be directly involved in is the ritual giving gem mermaids their power, but since abyss monarch isn’t creating any new gem mermaids (they’re going through a character arc about stuff) she’s just not needed. I think she’d be open to doing that again but isn’t about to push abyss monarch into starting up gem mermaids creation. Same with heart of the deep sea, basically sea fairy is retired and honestly good for her.

Sugar swan I’ve been thinking about, I’m making them millennial tree’s wife in this au and since she’s like the head of the seasons she probably has a more broad thing on thr flow of life? Like seasons will change on their on without her intervention, (except in the dessert paradise, it’s very reliant on her presence or lack there of) but she makes sure things are running smooth. Winter is lasting too long here? She will cut it off so spring can roll in. Summer is too short here? She will extend it briefly so things can settle over for the next season. She basically makes sure nothing goes completely out of sync. I like to think it’s magic is powerful in its own right in comparison to millennial tree. Because they deserve it.

Moonlight governs dream magic which idk if it has a flow of life exactly but maybe it’s more, dream magic is Inherently linked to the flow of life because only living beings can dream? Idk at the very least she helps out because she’s nice like that. At most dream magic is connected to it so like if thr dream world is getting funky check the flow of life because something might be off. I’ll admit this one is a bit flimsy atm I’m going to brainstorm on that one a bit

So uhhh yeah