#and this game is very much about the ways our connections and relationships or lack of them shape us for better and for worse

[wardensantoineandevka]

it would easier if I could just dump the entire conversation I had in DMs about this for the actual nuance and rationale and thought process, but the starting point was: it's both comically reductive and entirely accurate to argue that an appreciable portion of Illario's issues could be alleviated if he had any actual friends or stumbled into a stable relationship and these things would still go a long way, especially after he's forgiven

[pwurrz]

writing off nukani as “just porn” is really watering down what a wonderful, lovely, inspired and heartfelt piece of media it truly is. i honest to god have not seen another bl quite like it.

each of the characters are complex and unique, with their own backstories and goals and personalities and traumas, including our lovely protagonist. and the relationships each of the clan members have with eiden feels so realistic and natural. it’s not immediately love at first sight for all of them. their relationships grow and evolve over time, you can see their connection becoming stronger as the years go by.

it’s a very.. mature game, and i’m not talking about the sexual content. i mean the writing is very mature, the dev team has been able to handle sensitive subject matter in a way that doesn’t feel reductive or dismissive. so much love and care went into every aspect of this game, from the lore to the artwork to the music to the characters we all love and adore so much. its so much more than “just porn”.

but, on the topic of porn.. that’s also very good!!!! the lack of stereotypes is huge, and the amount of diversity between characters and even rooms is amazing, but i personally love how the sex scenes feel like an important part of each character’s story. it’s hardly ever just about sex. it’s about love, about trust, about embracing the parts of yourself you’re most ashamed of, it’s about loving wholeheartedly and unconditionally, about unlearning guilt and shame and examining why we have those things in the first place, it’s about allowing yourself to be cared for, it’s about letting go and having fun.

i know i like to joke about how nu carnival is a silly yaoi gacha porn game but… this silly yaoi gacha porn game has made me cry on several occasions. this game feels like a love letter to my soul and i’m extremely grateful i get to be alive at the same time as this wonderful game.

[maximumzombiecreator]

I would actually like to know what you consider the basics of improv to be! If nothing else, you phrase these things really well and in ways I haven't heard before, and I'm also aware there's a lot of things I don't know (I'm in a student run college improv group, our theory might be a bit lacking)

Be glad to. A lot of improv stuff is just oral tradition at this point, passed down in musty school drama rooms and community centers, so everyone has to pick it up somewhere. When I've taught people before, beyond the basic definition of what an improv scene looks like, I usually focus on a set of do's and don'ts.

Do's:

Make offers, and make them good offers. A good offer should be strong and elegant, like a power lifter in a ball gown.

Broadly speaking, I'd say the strength of an offer refers to how much it establishes about the scene, and how much what it establishes is different from a theoretical "default" scene. Typically, you think about how much an offer is establishing in terms of the questions words: who are the characters, what are they doing, where are they, etc. An offer that establishes "two characters who are old friends since high school meeting up at a coffee shop to catch up" is establishing a lot, but it's still a weak offer because it's such a typical scene. You're not adding much that can't just be taken for granted.

When I say a good offer should be elegant, I mean that it should be as compact as possible while still doing a lot. The typical inelegant offer is verbose and unnatural. A character walks into a scene and says, "Hey, big brother Billy, I hope you're recovering from the illness you've had for the last six months, ever since our father died," or some other expository nightmare.

So, the best offers are both. They create a lot of unique, interesting details about the scene, and they do it quickly. Let's say you stagger into the scene, miming carrying something under your arm, and say, "Doctor! I've been decapitated again!" In five words, you've established who you and another character are, where you are, and why, and you've implied a lot of very unusual details about the scene, world, and your character's history.

When thinking about elegant offers, it's also worth noting that a lot of offers that you should be making are physical. Depending on the type of improv you're doing, you might be physically embodying objects and the environment, and if you're doing background like that you can add a ton of detail that the audience can pick up without friction. But even if you're not, you can establish location through miming actions, you can create details about your character through how you walk and hold your body, you can endow others with traits through how you physically react to them.

That brings us to the next do: make strong character choices and enhance other actors' characters. People have written whole books on what comprises a "strong character" but for improv purposes I'd focus on three details: quirks, status, and connections.

Quirks are fairly straightforward: what makes this character unusual? Establishing character quirks is the focus of a lot of improv games and exercises, and the best quirks are quick to establish, significantly inform the character, and are handled with enough sincerity to make the character compelling rather than only funny.

Status refers to how powerful and important a character is. High status characters will command the room, low status characters will be ignored or mistreated. Status might shift over the course of a scene. The sheriff is a high status character until the king shows up, for example. Status might seem like an obvious thing to figure out from a character's role, but it's useful to play with it. What does a low status king look like? What does an employee-boss scene look like if you decide your employee is higher status than the boss?

Connections refer to the relationships between characters. This is going to drive scenes more than most other character details, and you almost always want to avoid unconnected characters. Choosing a connection to an existing character is a very good first choice when entering a scene, as it should immediately suggest a direction for the scene to take. This is also a reason to favour unusual connections. If two actors are in a scene where they're arguing about a fender bender they've been in, you could choose to enter as one of their friends, but it'll be far more dynamic if you choose a more unusual connection. What if you're one of their anger management therapists? Their boss? Their dominatrix?

In addition to creating your own character, you should add to other actors' characters. The main way you do this is endowment, giving the character traits through your offers. Direct endowment is when you simply ascribe them a trait. If you say, "Bill, you've been mayor for the last ten years," then you're obviously giving them the trait of "mayor." But there's also indirect endowment, where you add something to a character through part of how you react to them. If you flinch when another character moves suddenly, you're endowing them with the traits of being dangerous and erratic. If you speak to them very slowly and simply, you're implying something about how intelligent your character perceives them to be.

Putting it all together, the last big thing to do is build up. There can be a temptation in improv to build out, to add new details to scenes that sort of sprawl outward from the original premise. Try to avoid that. When you add new details, make them ones that build on the existing details. Instead of adding new tensions or conflicts, raise the stakes of existing ones. Reincorporate and re-contextualize things that have already been established. Incorporate audience suggestions repeatedly, using them to colour other offers.

Don'ts:

No blocking. This is the one even people who don't know improv know. If someone adds something to the scene, go with it. Don't reject or ignore offers, incorporate and build on them.

No wimping. Whatever the scene is, whatever your character is, whatever offers are made, fully commit. Bring all your energy to it. If someone says your character is on fire, don't just stop, drop, and roll and then go back to whatever else was going on. That's wimping. Be the most on fire that you can be.

No dithering. When you're in a scene, always be adding to it or moving it forward. Saying something that just fills space, at best makes a joke, and doesn't add to the scene is bad form, it doesn't give other actors anything new to work with. If you're dithering, you're forcing other actors to pick up the slack. This is called "gagging" if you're being funny by not adding to the scene, and is a great way to be popular with the audience and have everyone else hate you, don't be that person.

Don't make yourself look good at the expense of your scene partners. It's okay to get laughs at the expense of other characters, but not at the expense of other actors. Help others get into the scene, develop their characters, and give them things to respond to, add onto their offers.

Related to the above, don't steal the spotlight. If there's a scene going on that you're not the focus of, you should be trying to figure out how to enhance what's going on. Everyone can tell when an actor can't bear to be in a supporting role, and it's not a cute look.

More than anything, don't betray the trust of other performers. All theatre requires trust, but improv requires so much trust. If you lose that trust, you're done, you've got nothing.

[lilyminer]

The Theme of Family in Pathologic - a quick bit of analysis.

To me one of the most compelling themes in Pathologic is family, and how a persons connections to people represent their connections to a place.

Through my direct experience playing patho 2 and indirect experience learning about patho 1 and the demos (I’ll get to them eventually I promise) I found each of our 3 healers relationships (or lack thereof) to family communicates a lot about how each of them sees the town.

(Spoilers for the franchise below)

Daniil brings up his family in passing what? A handful of times? He has a family back in the capital somewhere, but he’s clearly an independent, high achieving young adult without the strongest ties to them. His personality makes it feel as though he’s been determined to handle his business on his own for a long time, judging by how quickly he steps up to take control of the town and how proud he is of his own personal achievements disconnected from anyone else.

On top of that he expresses a desire to not get married (he’s married to his work and all that). He’s just not that much of a family oriented person. Even if I do enjoy what I’ve heard of his interactions with the towns kids, to me his character stands in contrast to the close knit families and noble dynasties of the town. The other people in power in the town are that way because of their influential families, each bears their family name like a badge of honour. Then we have Mr. Daniil D. Dankovsky here whose name seems to almost symbolize him standing on his own, no ties to any name but his own. (Thank you little children playing your game with these characters, fantastic naming scheme 10/10) His disconnect from a recognizable family name also reinforces his place as a mostly unwanted outsider in the town.

And of course, gotta make a quick mention of popular fanon real quick. The very popular “fix Daniil’s life au” where he and Artemy raise Sticky and Murky together is just extra heart warming considering how separated from family Daniil is within the games. I’d say he seems pretty good with kids, but he’s focusing so much of his energy into a career we know he’s unfortunately destined to lose all progress on in the end that it leaves you wondering “What will be important to him after the loss of Thanatica?” And honestly I think “Maybe he’ll finally realize how fulfilling building family bonds can be.” Is a beautiful answer to that.

Then we got Clara. Clara shows up in the town notably missing a family. She’s a little girl all alone, stealing to survive because she has no one. Well, I suppose that mental image would be a whole lot more uniquely sad if we weren’t in the Town on Gorkhon where every second kids parents died of the plague a few years back. But unlike Daniil, I believe Clara having no biological parents actually connects her more to the town instead of just not having a strong connection to the parents one does have. Clara is a outcasted character in the beginning, she isn’t expected to have any strong family bonds, so she kind of fits into the crowd of orphaned children. She’s also more directly a child of the earth than others, which I guess ties her more to other miracles of the steppe then the town, but hey at least people like her are known of within the town.

But there is a position empty in the town, a vital role which must be filled, the third young mistress, someone to inherit Katerina’s position. Clara was implied to be created for a purpose, but overrode that purpose in many ways, by being a force of healing in the town yes, but also perhaps by seeking out a family she was not born into and taking on a responsibility for the town from there.

To me Clara’s adoption and how quickly she grows to care for her adoptive parents is very beautiful. As her mysteries are pealed back so is her perceived lack of humanity. She needs a family just like anyone else. It makes me wonder about the other kinds of people said to be formed of clay, if any of them ended up seeking out family dynamics of their own? Sorry if my understanding of her lore is a bit wonky, at this point I’m kinda theorizing off of lore crumbs lol.

Now time for the big finale of this analysis, the man who embodies this theme more than any other character, Artemy. As I mentioned in a previous post, Artemy’s relationship to the theme of family is one of the most compelling parts of patho 2 to me. Although I’ll be focusing less on his kids today as opposed to that post.

Completely unlike the other two healers, Artemy is connected to the town primarily by family ties. He’s Isidor’s boy, even if some npcs seem to not remember which son he is. To Artemy his last name is that badge of honour, that ticket to relevance as an authority figure that we see in the ruling families as well. To others he tends to simply introduce himself as Burakh, Burakh the local healer, sounds about right to them so he gets through situations quicker. Even after all three of his close family members are dead and buried his family connections still help him throughout the game. Trust, authority, familiarity. His name grants him all of these.

He is a menkhu, a title he inherited through blood connection, although proving himself is still an important aspect of being granted that title. His place as a spiritual leader among The Kin connects him to presumably countless generations of his ancestors. I’d be remiss not to mention the implications of the actual exonym The Kin (to be perfectly honest I’m not sure if Khatanghe literally means the same thing as “The Kin” in their language but I’m gonna assume it does because of its similarity to other family-related words in the language). A side effect of the cultural perception of the entire community as a family in The Kin is Artemy’s family circle being expanded greatly. Even before the passing of his father he had The Kin, his kin, in a literal sense too. Whereas the town seems to emanate this somewhat hostile, individualistic single family household kind of culture. Families feud with each other, what’s good for one family is prioritized over the good of the whole. But Artemy grew up partly within a cultural context where those barriers don’t separate people quite as much.

Of course, Artemy is not descended just from the people of The Kin, and that is a very deliberate choice. Artemy never knew his mother yes, but he grew up in the town likely because of her influence on the family. He is his mother’s son, he is a member of a friend group of townspeople, he is just as tied to the community of the town as he is to The Kin. In my interpretation since he grew up alongside Grief, Lara and Rubin he might as well be their pseudo-sibling.

All these family connections further complicate the difficult decision at the end of patho 2. In a way the game is asking you to choose one family over the other. When viewing the stories conclusion through this lense Sticky and Murky being your actual adoptive children becomes the least relevant of any family connection funnily enough. They’ll be there at your side regardless, but they also aren’t your only family.

Although like many members of the fandom I agree the diurnal ending, saving the children you were meant to protect, preserving the town’s future, keeping the livelihoods of all the people you’re closest to intact, is the more fulfilling ending, I can see the appeal of the nocturnal ending as well. Artemy balances far too many responsibilities, family ties, and deep bonds for it to be an easy choice. But surprise surprise, the devs said it best: his is a story about love. I think the games exploration of the impossible choices love sometimes leaves us to make is phenomenally compelling. And in a way, I believe Artemy is the only person who truly knows the town and The Kin well enough to be left in charge of that choice, he is a child of both worlds. That’s why I believe family bonds and connection to place is so intimately linked in Pathologic. Artemy is undoubtedly at the heart of this theme, not because his individual connections are stronger then anyone else’s, but because each bond of family pulls him in a different direction, and it’s your decision which ones must be discarded and which ones must be saved.



[daandism]

helloooooo :D

whats your BIGGEST HOTTEST takes on funger in general? your takes on the characters (playable or not *wink* *wink*), lore and overall stuff. :3

SO ☝️

there's A LOT to talk about but today, here, my main focus is gonna be the old gods! i love how influential they are for the game (the first and the second) specially Sylvian and Gro-goroth! obviously Alll-mer is essential as well and i'll talk about him a little too but not here! the God of the Depths is really interesting too, so he'll shine eventually

we all know Gro-goroth and Sylvian are kinda "consorts" (Vinushka exists because of them!) but there's a detail i like to point out everytime because idk it's so cool! you see, Gro-goroth is primely destruction, chaos, death energy, his followers do blood sacrifices, sacrifices in general (but i bet it's mainly human sacrifices) and cannibalism (they're known as wolfmasks!) and if we go back in time, that accompanied the human race pretty much all the time! many ancient civilizations partaken in sacrificial stuff for gods, to placate their thirst, rage or simply to satisfy their gods needs. I'm not talking about it in a negative way, never. it's a REALLY interesting topic and tell us a lot about human relationships with the divine! it's cultural, it's HISTORY!! and I'm very passionate about it too!

i absolutely adore how Gro-goroth sums that chaotic, deadly energy that surrounded humanity since ancient times and i love how his design shows it well, on the other hand, there's Sylvian, goddess of lust, creation, fertility, life energy, she embodies the human carnal desires that, well, we all have, it's a primal human desire. lots of old civilizations (that persists until our days, like Hellenism! my friend @getagirlie is an Aphrodite and Hera devotee, i learn a lot with him!) had ways of worship that required sexual acts, like masturbation

sex can be a powerful way to connect with gods and this is fascinating! Sylvian design show us that even if she is a feminine goddess, she has both masculine and feminine symbols like voluptuous breasts and fallic stuff

and it's SO COOL that their "child", Vinushka is a nature goddess. because nature destroys, but also birth life. it's chaotic and harmonic at the same time. it's fertility and death. and these 3 gods are perfect to summarise human "needs" and "desires", the deepest and primal human emotions and relationships with the nature (humanity is nature too!)

i ADORE how Miro wrote the gods and the different takes each character has with them, their visions, opinions (or lack of opinion), fears, etc. they add A LOT to the game and i wished ppl talked more about them; the way these fictional gods are so similar to irl gods and religions makes me so happy... love talking about it...

anyway i think i rambled a lot and idk if it makes sense but!!! thanks for asking 💜

[gabyiisart]

Hey there! I wondered if I could ask - what is it about Kralsei that appeals to you so much? For me, it's partially how rich the pairing is in symbolism and meaning, and how much it could potentially represent with regards to Deltarune's themes... and it's partly because I love the boy with every shred of my soul and I want him to be happy :')

Would love to know if you were willing to share!

Oh Hello!! ^u^

I believe our reasons for liking Kralsei are just VERY similar, symbolism, meaning and Ralsei as well!! And that's why I always identified so much with your analysis about them! You basically write everything I would like to say of them in your texts, haha!!

Kralsei, to me, it's about how the narrative is trying to tell implicitly that Kris and Ralsei's relationship will be about a journey of understanding your identity, understanding yourself, belonging...

Kris and Ralsei have very similar problems at the moment: lack of identity. You see that everything Kris and Ralsei do will always be on Asriel's shadow. Everything Kris had before he left was always because of Asriel and how he was a kind of guide for them. Ralsei clearly has references to Asriel, (and Flowey) the kindness, prince thing and etc. But YET, he still doesn't know what it's like to be Ralsei: he doesn't know what it's to be HIM. And honestly, from there you start to think that there is something much deeper to Ralsei than just being an Asriel from a different universe.

This video talked about a little theory: how Ralsei is there to make Kris find their own identity, I highly recommend watching it! And that's where I wanted to start my point about: Ralsei is here to help Kris, to serve his lightner. But on the other hand, Ralsei also needs to be rescued, he also NEEDS his identify, without living in someone else's shadow, if he will help Kris to be themself, will Kris be grateful enough to do the same for the Darkner who helped them?...

I honestly got to think that maybe this is one of the connections of their names? The Undertale Frisk/Kris Ralsei/Asriel connection?? Where Frisk had to save one last person and it was Asriel????/Hj

This idea of Ralsei and Kris being an allusion to "find yourself" or even "self-love"... It's beautiful to me. Not wanting to go into too much detail, but since 2023, I feel like I've been having symptoms similar to identity crises, very focused on who I am, what I should be and how I should act with everything in general, learning that this is an aspect of Ralsei made me find comfort in him, and Kris as well. The supposed meaning of their relationship comforts me and makes me want to see lots of arts, fics, anything good related to them. I hope one day they develop and we have lovely scenes of them doing arts and crafts, hanging out in Hometown and having fun at school!!!!

I can't forget to mention that the thing about light and dark symbolism!! Both need each other.

If we have the few implications of love between the two in the game, I hope Toby will lead this nicely, in a good developed way. In case of becoming an endgame, could be a good one for the end of Deltarune! And then we will have another important canon couple like Undyne and Alphys and the royal guards muahahaha

Shipps where the two individuals help each other, especially in things as profound like in this case: knowing your own identity, just touch me so much! And that's why Kralsei is my favorite ship. Love them forever! <3

[petruchio]

Bestie YES exactly!!!! You really put it into words perfectly, like we know about the pin as a symbol, but it’s the connection to Madge that’s so intriguing!!!

And the piano??? I forgot?? Like SC was very clear about her Appalachian music connections, Katniss’s father, known rebel, was a music loving man killed in a Coal mine. But I didn’t remember it extended to Madge!!!

Singing is rebellious when they want you quiet in the coal mine. Piano with a friend is rebellious when they want you dead in an arena.

And THANK YOU for the comment about Gale, because literally his dig at Madge is, I think, the most important moment of the chapter. He shows us exactly who he is immediately (righteously angry, but notably unconcerned with his collateral damage) and it’s always stood out to me.

Madge is connection, music, friendship. (Rebellious) Gale is necessary for survival. (Conformity)

We always Gale against Peeta, but it’s so much more interesting to consider Gale against Madge. Katniss has two friend in 12. (Direct foils? 👀) One of them does music, gives gifts, and makes Katniss happy. One of them never makes Katniss happy, is a mostly transactional relationship necessary for survival, and ends in the death of a beloved sister.Talk about real and not so real lol 😬

UGH i meant to be responding to this ALL DAY and then i got busy at work but YES! yes yes yes yes yes it's all connected, nothing in thg is wasted, it's ALWAYS about love and music and why those things are actually the most rebellious things you can do in a society that seeks to isolate you from your community!!!!!!

AAAAAND if we want to tease out the madge/music/bird/coal mine/etc etc etc connection even further, there's always the layer of her aunt giving katniss's mother her canary before she went off to the games. i feel like that detail is one of the most layered metaphors in the whole series and we just kind of breeze by it but it's doing SO much work in the whole thing.

and wow i'm so interested in the gale vs. madge argument! because there is something to that, you're so right, about katniss having literally two friends (our sweet angel, she's so relatable) and them being such opposites in so many ways. really makes you want to dig deeper into the scene where madge brings gale the medicine in catching fire. it's a bit peeta-ish if you think about it -- it's a selfless act that she does in order to lessen somebody else's suffering, at the expense of potentially facing her mother's anger. (peeta -> bread -> mother's rage at burning it; madge -> medicine -> mother's potential rage at not having it during one of her painful episodes.) and yet, like so much of peeta's character, it is her very privilege (as the mayor's daughter, having access to these more advanced medicines) that even enables her to ENGAGE in selflessness. whereas gale and katniss often try to operate much more transactionally -- by nature of their LACK of material and social privilege. (and i know, a thousand people took that random line to indicate that gale and madge had something going on, and look, i am not going to rain on that parade because it's super fun in fanfic. but maybe the broader reading there is that katniss is so perturbed by the implication that there's something going on between them because madge's kindness is one of the few non-familial places she experiences kindness that DOESN'T become complicated by the layers of romantic interest.)

anyway, just more food for thought. strawberries for thought, i guess. madge is such an interesting figure, i dearly hope we get more of her family history in sotr!!

[ladyjae24]

Here I am. Here I remain.

What's up fuckers! It's me, Jae, here to be the hottest funniest dorkiest transfemme you know. I heard all my lesbian friends talking about their time on tumblr, and I am nothing if not susceptible to beautiful women. So now, prepare for extreme gayness on here!

Who am I? I am she! I am Jae, and you can call me the Red Ranger the way I'm a marxist with attitude. I'm a pagan who worships the Lady Ishtar, I'm in a polyamorous lesbian relationship with my four beautiful wonderful amazing transfemme girlfriends, and I've been on HRT for one year now! I like baseball, board games, video games, Yu-Gi-Oh! and 40K!!! I'm a big fan of punk and metal music and I love sci-fi TV and movies and especially love a good anime! Lastly but certainly not leastly, I'm also an author and I have a book I'm writing that I will be yapping and yammering about shortly :3

Who are we? We are us! I'm also plural! I, Jae, am the hostess of our system, known as Prosperity. AFAIK there are five other members, but we are very new to this, and think we may be a median system. Honey Welker Honey is a very young puppygirl who is full of nothing but love and joy, she's known as the Heart of Prosperity!

Rigid Riser Rigid is a young teenage boy, who carries much of our trauma. He is shy, scared, and closed off to a world that brought him nothing but pain. Still, he took the weight of that trauma off of my shoulders, and for that he is known as the Protector of Prosperity.

Siren Sihaya Siren is my nurturing and caring side, and while I am very kind and gracious, Siren has the patience of a saint. She's a much older lady, though she doesn't tell me anything other than that she is around 40, because, in her words, "it's rude to ask a lady her age." Her gentle, loving, providing nature earns her the title of the Mother of Prosperity, although she is much more dominant than I am, being a service top who delights in providing the sadistic experiences of those she finds particularly endearing.

Alex Nostromo Alex is someone who hides, even more than Rigid. I don't know much about her, because she doesn't want anyone to know about her. She is wrath and fury and rage, the deep buried rage of me struggling against feelings I didn't understand and a world that didn't accept me and a life that felt empty and aimless. But there is a loneliness to her, a self imposed exile she maintains, stemming from years of my feeling isolated and unable to connect with others. Her main role, however, is to be a repository of anger, so she is known as the Fire of Prosperity.

Demeter Steel Demeter is the confidence and wisdom I so often feel like I lack. She shares a lot of traits with Siren and myself, she is kind and caring and a great conversationalist but she expresses them in a very different way. She is the voice in the back of my mind pushing me to believe in myself and do what I know I need to do, what is the right thing for Jae in that moment or in the long run. She's got a wholesome southern charm to her, and she is the encouragement I and others often need, helping me to have important conversations or knowing just what to say to make someone feel special. This is why I call her the Hope of Prosperity.

About My Book!!!

And now we come to the main event, my book! I am currently five chapters and 29,000 words into the novel which I have titled The Garbage War. It's a story about a group of trans people living on the planet Inutilis, a world which has seen its ecosystem utterly destroyed by centuries of industrial waste being deposited onto the planet, and it is now entirely covered in literal mountains of junk and garbage. Nonetheless, people scrape a living in this harsh environment, including the protagonists, a pair of transfemme lovers named Allison Hale and Lily Fortera. When civil war in the wider galaxy reaches their solar system of Cartifex, Allison and Lily find themselves conscripted into a conflict they care nothing about, and see only as a job to give them more money to afford their DIY HRT. But when they encounter another trans woman, Willow Ferisi, from the planet of their "enemies", Morticul, they find themselves suddenly thrust into the heart of the war, and a dangerous journey across their planet, and their solar system. The novel focuses on themes of anti-imperialism, anti-capitalism, and queer, trans, and polyamorous life. For most people like me, the subtext is so blatantly obvious it might as well be domtext, but I have woven the lived experience of being trans into the narrative itself, so that by the end of the book, any reader will have a much greater understanding of what it is like to live as a trans person and the struggles we face. This right here is concept art of the main character, Allison Hale, done by my lovely friend Corbin who is also working on concept art for the other characters!!! Go check him out @crowbones4809!!! Or on instagram @ _itsjustbones_

Well, that's all that for now! See you around! Oh! And if you wanna check out my book, the link is in my bio or you can find it right here!

DEATH BEFORE DETRANSITION

[need-more-meta]

Fic Questionnaire

Thank you, @enteselene, for tagging me! I'm a tiny fic writer, but I like talking about my fics, seeing that I have nothing else in my life.

1. How many works on AO3?

150 (50 of them are a series of ~500-1,000 Kylux ficlets written to a list of prompts)

2. Total AO3 Word Count?

1,155,848

3. Top 5 fics by Kudos?

Ease My Mind (a TBSATDH one-shot I wrote and slapped on AO3 within three hours after finishing the show because I wanted to try my hand at writing polyamory)

When the Line Connects (a fluffy MCU Steve/Bucky comedy that features fannish practices as a love language)

Hold His Broken Pieces (a dark Kylux story about non-sexy sex slavery and a long, convoluted, but ultimately hopeful path to recovery)

Give This Man a Hug (a gen MCU story about Steve Rogers needing—and getting��a goddamn hug)

Compatibility in the Time of Cholera (my very first omegaverse fic, a Kylux story featuring an epidemic that turns all heats into fuck-or-die situations where Hux finds a creative solution to handle the issue)

4. What fandoms do you write for?

I've written for Fullmetal Alchemist (Roy/Ed), Marvel Cinematic Universe (Steve/Bucky, Bucky/Loki), The Bastard Son and the Devil Himself (Nathan/Gabriel/Annalise), Our Flag Means Death (Ed/Stede), Star Wars (Kylux), and Supernatural (Wincest). I also wrote fic for Card Captor Sakura when I was ten, not knowing what fanfiction even is, and for Gravitation when I was 16, but, thankfully, those works have been lost.

5. Do you respond to comments?

Absolutely. I cherish every comment and I do my best to respond to all of them.

6. Angstiest Ending?

Hands down "give me another version, a different room"; it's the second part of a Wincest trilogy "Other Voices, Other Rooms" where Sam keeps trying to kick Dean out of his life, and in this installment, it works. (They do end up together in the end, but that's a different story.)

7. Fic with the Happiest Ending?

Almost all my fics have happy endings because I'm a big, big softie. But I'll say Great Heights, a Wincest story of Sam's love for Dean that spans from pre-Stanford to Heaven and features so much angst, the ending feels that much happier.

8. Do you get hate?

Although I write Kylux and Wincest, I've never had to deal with hate (yet), possibly because I'm just a little guy, not popular enough to be noticed by someone outside a small circle of readers.

9. Do you write smut?

Yes. Yes, I do. All my Wincest fics are explicit because, to me, actual sex is the only thing the show lacks in terms of their psychotic, irrational, erotic relationship. So that’s the hole I’m filling (all puns intended). (I should probably note that I’m asexual, and it always thrills me when someone calls my smut hot, because I myself don’t see it like that.)

10. Do you write crossovers?

I've written about a dozen Kylux Adjacent fics, which are technically crossovers. Apart from that, I wrote a crossover between Our Flag Means Death and a horror video game Slay the Princess.

11. Ever had a fic stolen?

No idea. Hopefully, no.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, two, both Kylux.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Yes, with a few other members of a Kylux discord. We are yet to post it, though.

14. All time favourite ship?

Wincest. As much as I love Kylux, and I still do, Wincest is THE sibling incest I'd been waiting for my entire life. These two boys are perfect for me. They're the answer to all my dark, twisted heart's prayers.

15. WIPs you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

A Steve/Bucky story "Shared Death Experience" that I started in 2020. It was supposed to be a story about ghosts where (almost) everyone is dead but it's a comedy. I have 10k written, and I love them, but I just don't have any time left for MCU with my life taken over by SPN events.

16. Writing Strengths?

I've had people praise my phrasing, my dialogue, my characterization, my angst, my fluff, my porn with feels, and my humor. Naturally, I myself think people are being way too kind, but that's what they say.

17. Writing Weaknesses?

Plot. I either get my stories fully (or almost fully) formed in the middle of the night, or I have to sit down and squeeze the story out of my brain with a great deal of pain. Coming up with actual events to take place in the story is like pulling teeth with my bare hands. I can't sustain long plots at all; my two 100k+ fics were written by accident. Don't get me started on Wincest case fics. Which I keep writing. Because I hate myself.

18. Thoughts on mixed language dialogue?

I had Natasha use some Russian curses in When the Line Connects and a couple of OCs use Ukrainian phrases in How Deep Does the Water Go (a Kylux FBI!Hux & Hacker!Kylo AU), but I mostly avoid mixing languages.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

As I've already mentioned, it was Card Captor Sakura. I was ten. I don't remember a single word, which, I think, is for the best.

20. Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

I mostly forget every word as soon as I post a fic, and I almost never re-read my own work because I'm too embarrassed by it. However, I had the sweetest time writing "every day, we stray further," a Wincest omegaverse Christmas fic set after 15x19 where Sam softly and tenderly seduces Dean into the best relationship of their lives. This one, I did re-read and it made me happy.

Tagging @spnj2fanlw @jinkieswouldyoulookatthis @fictionallemons @jaynesilver @notlikelybutpossible @nylon-rabbit (apologies if you already did it and I missed it)

[ardentblossomings]

Honestly, I think my biggest issue with Veilguard is that I feel lied to. Over the years, I repeatedly stated that if the next game were to be bad, I would be okay with it -- "at least I'll get more Dragon Age and see a new area". Then, they went ahead and hired Hans Zimmer (a big name), had pre-release ratings that were amazing, and had a more than solid character creator as well as gameplay.

But at the same time, the character creator is very lacking in colour options and limiting in certain areas (chest), while specializations don't feel... special anymore. Both things I can live with.

What I can't ignore, however, is how the characters were supposedly the most "romantic thus far"... and while I agree that Emmrich certainly fits among one of the best written characters in DA (honestly didn't expect him to be my favourite), I didn't even realise in my first playthrough that I was actually dating Bellara. Or rather, I wasn't sure if I was locked in, because until the very end of the game, we only flirted. Again, this is a valid type of relationship and all that, except, it didn't feel like it. Worse, the podcast made me believe that relationships would go much, much further this time around, with its ending seemingly implying adoptions being possible.

I'm not sure if that was supposed to happen, or whatever else was going on, but it's also strange to me to have two characters that basically take on the role of Rook and meet every single companion, only for the actual companions to never ever bring up that hey, what a coincidence, we all happened to meet the same guys previously. I know Dragon Age sometimes had connections between characters that seemed unlikely, but come on. Don't make these characters likeable and then throw them to the side.

"We've changed the name to The Veilguard since we want to focus on the characters". Okay, then do it. Flesh them out. I know opinions differ on who is written best and who is written worst, but every single character, including Emmrich and Solas, could do with more of... everything. Make Varric matter. I cried, yes. But I also got fed up by the way he was handled before I got to that point.

Veilguard has so many good aspects... and yet, for every good aspect, there's also something bad. We get factions back - and yet, Lords of Fortune ends up being nothing more than a fighting arena, with Isabela being an afterthought. We finally get to kiss Harding - yet she doesn't acknowledge flirting with the Inquisitor. It makes sense for her not to know about everything that went on - but the way it's written just needs... polishing.

Make Andraste matter. Make people react more to literal elven gods being the threat. Hell, don't pretend like they were "known to be evil" because if that were the case, Dalish wouldn't have their marks on their faces. And don't lie to me.

"I'm not calling you a liar Just don't lie to me" (x)

Also don't @ me about pronouns or anything. Those aren't the issue whatsoever. Yes, I personally feel like Veilguard sometimes feels like "baby's first introduction to non binary people" (I say, being x-gender myself). But if that were the only issue, Veilguard could easily be the best DA game still. Hell, Origins had Shale using it pronouns and no one thought to bash it for it (On that note, why couldn't we make our Inquisitors nonbinary in DAV?). Sure, perhaps it wasn't the best idea to let the game be led by someone who mainly worked on the Sims beforehand, but having some representation is a GOOD thing. Lying to me is not. "No DLC". Because you knew it'll underperform.

I know you had to sell the game somehow. And I maintain that it has a great story. But it's a very, very rough diamond. Surrounded by a lot of dirt that no one bothered to clean up. I yearn for Dreadwolf, in spite of thinking that not all of it would've made me happy in the next Dragon Age entry. Still, I am glad that Veilguard happened at all.

[just-1other-nerd]

Prepare! For I will go on a tangent why a lot of long romantasy book series suck.

Disclaimer: I am not shaming people who read and enjoy those, you do you. But if you really like this genre and can't handle constructive criticism don't read further for your own good.

Okay so, the problem isn't just that the industry currently pushes authors to release books faster (especially in this genre) which results in bad writing style and a drop of quality when it comes to editing but also the fact that lots of authors don't know how to write an actual relationship.

The thing is that this is fine if you have a stand alone book where they get together towards the end or a duology that is an actual slow burn or something like that. But if your book has four sequels then playing will they won't they with the readers and the characters is about to get boring.

Unlike a contemporary romance the plot doesn't just revolve around the relationship of the main characters, there's a whole fantasy plot going on which oftentimes has got some stakes to it.

Your book can be really bad when it comes to this fantasy plot and worldbuilding and readers can still be intrigued by the character dynamics and relationships. But if you draw out certain things for too long it gets boring and repetitive, there's only so much compelling drama you can get from two people.

When I was about 13-16 years old I read a lot of YA romantasy which had an interesting fantasy plot but the romance was kinda toxic or boring but that wasn't why I kept reading. Now I see this a lot the other way around online, where people complain about plot holes but praise the romance which as I said is fine. But if your series has got 5 books and a very basic fantasy plot and generic world and you're not able to expand that because you lack the ability to actually write fantasy then you gotta step up your romance game. Most authors try to do so by writing more of the explicit scenes or by creating a plot twist along the lines of "this thing happened and now our love is forbidden", the ladder of which you can only pull one or two times until the reader is fed up with it, it is kinda like a 3rd act break up but stretched across multiple books. It will be unsatisfactory if the characters constantly fuck or something but still aren't together and committed. If you take drama too far you risk making the involved characters unlikable.

Authors just don't know how to write the relationship for which they made all the build up. They don't know how to make the struggles of daily life compelling to read and this is why they don't do it but as I said they will lose readers if they draw out the getting together for too long and can't compensate with the fantasy plot.

Example below the cut

This is exclusively what I have heard from multiple sources and not my own opinion since I didn't read the books myself.

The Fourth Wing series fandom has criticised the 3rd book for being filler and having an even messier fantasy plot than the two books prior and for not really developing the relationship. They can't be together because he's been changed but they can't help but lust over one another, there are things happening that could be potentially harmful to their relationship but it is so obvious that they are going to be endgame that you don't by those threats. They also don't have any scenes where they are deepening emotional connections or planning out a future in a meaningful way. All there is to it is lust that never turns into love because love isn't just a feeling but also a behaviour.

[sortingking]

Let's Talk About Reality

Hello, my loyal subjects. It is I, the King of Sorting, and today I feel like diving a little deeper into aspects! A lot of this will just be me mulling over the aspects and voicing opinions, so I would hold your applause until I do a little trick or something. If any of this seems obvious to you, take this as the ramblings of a senile old king.

Okay, so let's look at SBURB in a bigger-picture sense. The point of this game is to create a universe....to create a UNIVERSE. That's an intense goal to have, but when we look at the aspects we begin to understand that the game intentionally prepares you for this goal.

I touched on this a little in my Classpect College post, but every aspect has an important job in creating reality, which is important when creating an entire universe. For most of the comic the meaning and purpose behind the aspects is somewhat vague, until Calliope and Jade discuss it (this is Calliope and Jade discussing it), and over the course of the conversation, Calliope shares some very important information about aspects, using time and space as the easiest examples to showcase how the aspects interact with each other. Space and Time are opposing aspects, meant to be opposites. But one cannot exist without each other. Time and space are intricately woven together, made so that it is only with a balance of both that we are able to play the game on steady ground.

Do you get it? They aren't just random aspects. They have direct ties to their polar opposite, so much that the removal of one would not only destroy the other aspect; it would destroy reality itself. They interlock, they interact, they oppose each other, they ebb and flow, they dance in an intricate dance between two gods that shakes reality itself as it tries to maintain balance. Calliope tells us that all aspects work like this. They cannot be measured conventionally and they don't function linearly like us humans are used to. When she says this, not only does she mean that all aspects have an opposing aspect that functions similarly to how time and space work with each other. I believe she also means this generally; that all 12 aspects are woven together with the 12 different threads of aspects to then create something whole: a universe.

Okay, so let's think about space and time how we know of it (ie we are thinking quite literally). We know that space and time affect each other. We know that they are important to reality. Without it, we wouldn't have a here and a now. We wouldn't have physicality and we wouldn't have a linear timeline. Calliope talks about how if we were to stand still, time would seem to last forever. When we effect one aspect, we are inadvertently asking its opposing aspect to be affected as well. What a life without either of those looks like is beyond me, but I think by letting us know how important these are to the game, we get insight on the importance of all the other aspects. Reality is based in both space and time in a way that is familiar to use; but what about the others?

Light and Void are the only other confirmed aspect coupling, and I think this is a familiar pairing as well. Regardless of your spiritual background, I think we all seem familiar with the concept that first there was nothing but darkness and shadow, and quickly after, light is introduced. Light and Void have an existing relationship that's gone on for far longer than our own existence, rivaling only time and space. Because this is a canon coupling, we are able to infer certain things about the aspects. Light, figuratively, is also related to things like luck, relevancy, and wisdom/knowledge that we have received usually in a more direct manner. That's why, although void is kind of swept over as only about nothingness, it has been implied that Void also rules over the lack of luck, the lack of relevancy, and sometimes lack of information, although usually people instead note how Void players are connected to secrecy or information that is hiding in the dark. Information that attempted to stay hidden. If we know that an aspect is ruling over one area, we know that the opposing aspect will lord over areas that would balance its partner out. We know that if one person gain's relevancy, it's only natural that another person must lose it. For every lucky person there's someone who must be unlucky. This is important as we are intelligent beings. The physical and figurative components of each aspect helps us create a physical reality, but it also helps us understand the reality of being a human. What's life without the ups and downs of luck, relevancy, and the flow of information?

This, to me, is revolutionary. If you were to create a universe with just these four aspects alone, you would still picture a relatively stable place to exist, right? Light, Void, Time, Space....but it's missing something, right? Don't worry, we have plenty of aspects to discuss.

[wardencallings]

Okay. Let me preface this with I am enjoying this game. I like the story, pacing, and companions a lot. I enjoy the combat and the structure of the quests (mostly). But. Ugh.

Spoilers for Harding's romance under the cut (and note: I haven't finished the final fight yet):

This romance started so fucking promising. I LOVED the cute flirting at the start, the slightly awkward and nervous dynamic, and the lyrium kiss might be the cutest cut scene I have ever seen in my life. But why, if you're presenting an arc about two characters unable to touch each other, is there no on-screen yearning? Why do you leave how these characters handle this very specific problem off-screen, relegating it to an off-the-cuff banter between Emmrich and Harding? Why do I not see another kiss or point of contact between my character and Harding's beyond the final scene before she's made Hero of the Veilguard?

The romance is so front-heavy that the last part of the game makes it seem like we aren't all that in love, nor really all that close. I think what's extra frustrating is that my fiance is playing alongside me, and so I get to hear the cute banter between Harding and Taash while my Rook gets very little attention from her at this point in the game. Even the pre-final fight scene was lacking. Why can't I comfort Harding more thoroughly about her fear of one of us dying? Why, as a dwarf, can I not reassure her that I'll always be with her in some way because of our mutual connection to the stone? (Also, why, as a dwarf, do I seemingly have no resistance to Harding's lyrium while Taash can tank it fine? Hello?) That scene ends with a "Let's just focus on us tonight" sort of line, but I want to know more! What do we do? What can we do? I get leaving it up to the audience's imagination, but with so little context as to what Rook and Harding are up to in their relationship at this stage of the game, I would prefer something more concrete.

This romance would be almost completely perfect to me with the addition of one scene where Rook and Harding touch after weeks, or perhaps months, of yearning. I'm not even picky about how the scene would manifest (a goofy montage of them trying different ways to touch each other without triggering the lyrium, Rook peppering kisses on Harding's freckles to avoid long-term contact, Harding surprising Rook with her control over the magic leading to a longer, more passionate kiss, etc). As my Rook is trans, I really appreciated the line where I could tell her that Rook would love her for who she is no matter what, but give me MORE. Since Harding's romance is seemingly the shortest, there absolutely was room for one extra scene, if not more.

Also, I hate that Rook can't kiss her whenever he wants. My Rook is built different. He'll take the lyrium disorientation for even a second of contact with her. As I think many others would agree -- especially because of how charming the lyrium poisoning kiss scene is! It was right there!

All in all, I'm pretty disappointed with the lack of romance dialogue options and the sheer lack of Harding romance content after around the halfway point of the game. I still really am enjoying Veilguard, but I think it's a bummer we get more information about Taash and Harding's late-game dynamic than Rook and Harding's. I hate that it's making me resent Taash and Harding's relationship because I genuinely love Taash so much and think they're an excellent partner for an unromanced Harding! I hope the Taash romance doesn't suffer from this problem, for all you Taash lovers out there.

The silver lining: the romance is ripe for fanfic and fanart. I already have one commission on the way, and once I finish my school stuff for the week, I want to write a continuation of the pre-final fight scene for sure. And a Harding/Rook camping scene, perhaps! I also think I might be a little blinded by the initial disappointment, and once my vision clears a bit, I'll be able to appreciate it more.

[veilkeeper]

the emperor is basically roz's controlling boyfriend

disclaimer: *i do not hate the emperor and i am not admonishing anyone who likes him or interprets him in a different way. i actually really like the emperor as a character and i enjoy his writing. part of the joy of characters like this is that people can have vastly different interpretations and still have them all be rooted in canon. *im going to be speaking specifically about my tav throughout this. im using their name as a way to specify that this is my tav's experience and feelings, and not necessarily every tav's experience and feelings. *im only partway through act 3. this is talking about roz's feelings during and immediately following the scene in question. they may change and develop later.

so you know how when you meet raphael at sharess' caress he temporarily breaks the PC's connection to the emperor to give them privacy, and then as soon as you leave the devil's den the emperor slides into your proverbial DMs demanding to know where you were?

let's talk about that.

for folks who haven't been following the roz saga, let me set the scene really quickly. roz is a githyanki tav. the "dream visitor" took the form of the elven priestess who took them in when they were a teenager. it was a relationship that was pretty bad for roz, but they were always loyal to her. roz trusted the dream visitor and completely betrayed their queen to protect them. when the emperor reveal rolled around, roz refused the astral-touched tadpole but failed the save and became a partial-illithid against their will. they've been having a bad time because of that, mostly because everyone in the party had really bad reactions to them becoming partial-illithid and now they feel gross and unwanted.

so now that the truth is out about the emperor being a mind flayer, roz is a little conflicted. on one hand, he's already lied to them about a lot of stuff, and they can't tell when he's manipulating them or being genuinely vulnerable. on the other hand, he has been protecting them, and in a time where they feel very off-kilter and alone, he's the only one who doesn't seem fazed by their new... everything. he reaches for a sort of intimacy and implies a sort of understanding between them that roz craves but doesn't know how to reciprocate when everything feels uncertain.

needless to say, their feelings are complicated, and roz feels... trapped, for lack of a better word. despite their hesitation, they have to rely on him - he's the one keeping them from transforming into a mind flayer, and if roz fucks up with him then the whole group is in danger.

and it is on roz - correct me if im wrong, but at this point in the game it seems like the emperor has given up on manipulating everyone else. i say that because party members stopped commenting on dream visits even before the emperor reveal; the first two visits everyone had a "so, i had another visit from our mysterious protector last night" but after that those conversations stopped. it seems that the emperor picked out roz as the best person to focus all his attention on, and as it turns out, all of the emperor's attention is a lot.

which brings us to raphael. the first thing he does when he turns his attention to roz is shut out the emperor... and the dialogue when that happens is interesting.

*For the first time since the nautiloid, your mind is clear. It's... unsettling.* Roz: I feel... empty. What did you do?

unsettling. empty.

i think this is the moment that makes roz realize just how... present the emperor has been. they've been passively aware that he's around; as early as the grove the dream visitor is pointing out tadpoles to pick up, and since making it to the city he's made a few comments on the environment. but this is the first time it's really clicked for them that he's been here, in their head, paying attention, ever since they woke up on the nautiloid.

how much has he learned about them? how much has he seen? how could they ever trust a single word he says when he knows exactly how to manipulate them?

it's a terrifying thought, isn't it? to realize all at once that someone else truly does hold all the cards.

they need time to think, and making a deal with a devil while they're freaking out internally seems like a recipe for disaster, so they say no to raphael's deal. and when they walk outside, all of their fears are confirmed by a little voice in their head, questioning them before the door is even closed behind them.

The Emperor: There you are. I thought I'd lost you. Something was blocking me from hearing your thoughts.

he just says it. mask off, he tells roz as if it is the most natural thing in the world for him to hear their thoughts, always. it feels like he's making fun of them, suddenly. like they're on the wrong end of a practical joke and they only just realized, right before it was time to deliver the punchline.

they don't know how to navigate this conversation. they're frozen. they don't want to tell him anything but they know being too evasive will only draw suspicion and whether they like it or not, they still need him.

they're as vague as they can be. it was raphael, he wants the crown. they hope it's enough but of course it isn't - the emperor asks what raphael offered them.

Roz: Does it matter? I said no. The Emperor: I'm glad you had the sense to turn him down. But it certainly does matter. [...] So I ask again - what were the terms of the deal he offered you?

it isn't enough to have said no, it isn't enough that they told him it was raphael. the emperor needs to know everything, and that's the problem, isn't it? he talks about being allies but he has the upper hand, always has, and he won't tolerate roz knowing anything he doesn't. if he isn't in control of the situation then he wants to be, and he has the power over them to make sure they do exactly what he wants.

so they tell him the terms of the deal. they wonder if it's too late to turn around and accept it, if raphael would be willing to shut the emperor out of their head while they took the hammer into the prism, so they didn't have this looming over them a second longer.

but as they expected, the emperor knows exactly what to say to plant that seed of doubt, to make sure they stay in his influence.

The Emperor: I trust that you will continue to remember who is really on your side. Without my protection, you cannot defeat the elder brain. You cannot even get close to it. No matter what the devil whispers in your ear.

he knows them. more than they ever wanted him to. they never told him anything, but he knows them better than anyone else they've ever met. and worst of all, they never gave him permission. for any of it. he has crept into every corner of their mind unbidden, looked through their eyes, seen some of the most intimate and personal moments of their life, changed them, all without permission.

yet as much as they want to get away, they can't. he's not wrong - they need him, and the only other person who can protect them, orpheus himself, will probably try to kill them on sight if they try to free him. and if that wasn't enough, the means to free orpheus in the first place is locked behind making a terrible deal with a skeevy devil or going on a heist to the hells that the emperor will watch every single moment of.

they feel violated. they feel manipulated. they feel like a puppet on a string. they feel helpless. and they feel like they can't breathe a word of it to anyone, not just because the emperor will hear it, but because they still don't know if their companions even want anything to do with them.

the emperor feels like a controlling boyfriend. the kind who grills roz on where they've been and demands to know everyone they've talked to. the kind who belittles them and tells them that they need him, and then turns around and tells them that they're the only one he trusts and he's so glad to have them.

at every turn they're being manipulated by people; guys with power who try to offer them whatever might sway them. but the emperor might be the worst of all of them, because he doesn't just want their cooperation - he's taking it, in the most insidious way he possibly can.

[enuratled]

I really think before anyone blindly goes for the 'toby fox wouldn't punish you for playing a game' belief re:the soul isn't/can't/wouldn't be a negative force on kris, you have to think about how deltarune approaches themes of attachment to [media/fiction/playscape] and how it takes the premise of 'you love playing with these things so much that they become Real to you' because we often consider the 4th wall-breaking metanarrative of deltarune, this idea of the player itself being a part of the cast in a way that's different from embodying a character in a world, but miss what it actually says about fanculture and how we treat fiction. c3, which has gotten some flak for 'lack of narrative/thematic importance' is entirely about >What if you like a thing so much and never want it to end, even when there's nothing to do! it's, in many ways, a reflection of undertale fandom and how it still spawns content even though the game is over, and has been for a long long time, and it's about how in the years between dr chapter releases, you were reaching for and creating anything you could to keep the game and it's magic alive. there's no doubt that toby fox is very grateful to the people who play and love his games, but so much of the message that comes through these chapters and the overarching escapism, is that there is some soft limit, there is a point where it's not enough, and there is a time where things should come to rest, or passed on to be loved by another person. when gerson talks about who owns a story or how it changes or how it should change, and whether it ever ends or should go on forever, and susie, in her all teenage naivete, goes 'it should never end' ... well, we know how the chapter ends, we hear her say 'it's not fun anymore', we see the way she reacts to a version of gerson that's been transformed. like even as she wants to believe that, she gets reminded that it can stop being enjoyable even before it ends. I don't think toby fox is ever a pessimist, but complex story-telling requires there to be an emotional impact that isn't just 'feel-good'. undertale itself has it's characters ask you to let it end. the same vein, deltarune asks you to tether to your connections to these characters in some way. the metanarrative lesson with kris and the soul, is both that you can have empathy for this character and treat them as real, but also ultimately, you are playing god in some ways, and this is the vessel you act you and experience the story, and that is what makes them unreal, fictional, and that is what allows you to play the game. I really think gerson's lines and tenna's segment are both there to touch upon our relationship as players, to the game, the property, and the characters. the same way kris and susie can make lancer real, we too do so with them. and this is never a bad thing, not at all by toby fox's book, but all the same, lancer is only a card, and deltarune is only a game.

[mythalism]

i'm sorry to drag you down with me, and we probably all indeed need to go touch grass several times a day for the rest of forever because problemer problems exists in the world of todayth, 2025, but post veilguard I can't help but feel my interest in dragon age dwindling by the minute and I hate to be a part of the "fandoms nowadays switching interests way too fast instead of sustaining support to the various creators like we used to do in the great olden days before the short video hegemony". So I stick around a bit longer out of a sense of duty for my fellows of a whole decade, but i have this considerable urge to move on from this strange mess in a ♫ want to break free ♫ way. Maybe i'm giving bioware what they want (shooing away the boring historical fanbase) and maybe this is how it's gonna be, it's just that yeah, I like my slice of the community, that's my last online community after severely decluttering my online attachments (to touch more of the aforementionned grass), there's this sense of duty like i said. times are dark and i dont want to leave everyone behind and being another -1 in our numbers, leaving more artists and writers to despair and be dejected over their lack of notes and stuff, getting black pilled into thinking it's pointless to try laying your heart bare in search for connection, i want to keep giving support !!!!!!! But then at one point there's only so much longer i can spread my interest... I want to use my time for other things...... than fussing over modern gaming slop... The hyperneoliberal bubble is gonna burst and culture will keep culturing anyway because that's what our species does, it will or will not get commodified to oblivion once again depending on how the times go, the artists and the queers will still be around because we are inevitable, and we'll need to be there for all of it. We're alive together through everything, we're gonna need everyone and stand for everybody,,,,,,,, (applies worldwide, im not from the usa) Anyway corporations are the death of us and it's unfortunate so many passionate artists depend on proprietary brands (i get it) to be left in shambles when it eventually sabotages. Maybe it's a non issue and just a part of the grass-shaped hole on my fingers, maybe im an obsolete hag loudly begrudging the clouds, maybe it's very easy for everyone else to hop from one special interest to the next and i'm just projecting my own sluggish inertia. Thank you for laying your delicate eyes on this wall, love you, stay great xo

this is so sweet and heartfelt jghrkhrgrgk and written so amazingly LMAO i loved reading it and i understand your struggle but i think it is okay to move on and maybe not move on entirely but at least take a break so you can come back with renewed energy and passion. i think one of the best parts of tumblr is how its pretty standard to maintain relationships even when one of your fave moots randomly starts posting about something youve never seen or even heard of and changes their entire brand but hey. you're moots. i have had this happen so many times with such insane thing. most recently severance but ill also never forget one of my friends as a teenager suddenly only posting about canadian hockey teams?????? and you bet your ass i stuck by her no matter what. i think your concern for the communities we build is admirable but also i can assure you the group of people who love veilguard are incredibly determined and will keep that shit alive on their own. i think if you need a change in the guard to get your oomph back you should take it. also genuinely..... not being dismissive...... you should play cyberpunk 2077 JHGJKRHGHR like im dead serious. it was so healing to me and restored my faith in video game writing very quickly. also literally the central message is "corporations are the death of us". i really needed the perspective that there are people out there telling good stories that matter after vg and it gave me that reassurance. and if its not for you i hope you find something that fires up ur fandom loins again <3