#at least i won't be alone

[alienheartattack]

Sticking my head in the ground and insisting that AOT never ended, it just sorta trailed off and ended with Yams going on permanent hiatus, and whatever's being released this weekend is just an OVA.

Someday I'll be able to eloquently detail how fundamentally betrayed I felt by how slapdash and philosophically inconsistent the ending was, how Eren and Armin's conversation both sidelined Mikasa in her own story and appeared to endorse fascism and genocide, how wildly offensive the extra pages were in terms of Mikasa's inconsistent character development and her designation as eternal Eren simp, and the 47,000 other complaints I had with the writing of the series, but I don't know if that's gonna happen anytime soon, or ever. I loved doing AOT fandom stuff and I still love my Rivamika crew, but I just feel sick with disappointment when I think about AOT as a whole.

I do kinda want to watch the finale but I haven't seen a single episode since the final manga chapters dropped over 2 years ago. I've never had my love for a series killed so thoroughly and completely before, and now it's truly over.

[cesium-sheep]

she wasn't telling me directly but she says she's just planning ahead to like. essentially check herself in on match day before the match is even announced? which it's good that she's planning ahead and taking her mental health seriously but also. boy it's gonna be another rough one for me huh.

[rey-jake-therapist]

If victorious why sad?

[thechy-fychannel]

y'all ever think abt how it was julie having the affair and it is even said multiple times that she was the one who left him, yet wilson was still the one who left their home and moved in with house. like. he couldn't bear to stay in their home alone. he immediately ran to house and stayed on his couch for weeks. suffered through his pranks and his laziness and his manipulation. telling him he wants him gone while sabotaging his attempts to leave. and he only left once he got a girlfriend again.

[ask-the-pioneer]

I have a question for marbles, If they were to meet all of the slugcats from downpour and vanilla (minus Artificer & Inv), what would their interactions be, and who would they like most and least (maybe like a teir list?).

// I will answer this in text, I hope that's okay!

Gourmand, Survivor, and Monk - Marbles will meet all three of them in Act 2, when a colony of slugcats is temporarily staying over around NSH's can. They can't progress further into the area of the big slugcat trees (known in-game as Outer Expanse) as the way is blocked by the heightened presence of vultures. Gourm is the colony leader who bravely ventured out to the 5P can to scout the area and find a different, suitable spot for the colony to spend the dryer season. On his way back he found Surv and Monk (who are also from his colony), and brought them back safely to their parents.

Gourm - fella is a gentle giant with a big heart and a passion for cooking, he and Marbs would get along well! In my story he teaches her new delicious recipes as a thanks for housing the colony members.

Surv - they are about 20 in human years by the time Marbles meets them, so only slightly younger than our protagonist. Being peers, I think they also would get along well. Surv would tell her all about their adventures in the 5P area.

Monk - Surv's younger sibling in my AU, they are about 12-13 at the time of meeting. Monk miraculously survived their journey to save their older sibling despite being very very young themself, I headcanon them to be maybe 8 or so when their in-game campaign begins. They would be shy, but Marbles had a lot of adoptive younger siblings so she would know how to win Monk over quickly.

Hunter is Marbles' adoptive parent, he found her when she was about 7-8 years old, and raised her as his own (along with over a dozen other slugpups that he found orphaned during his expeditions). They have a very strong familial bond.

Arti - Marbles' long-lost mom. They meet again in Metropolis after almost 15 years, but it's not a happy reunion. After Marbs makes her leave the scav colony, the two of them move on to live with other scugs around NSH's can. Arti is very socially maladjusted and avoids contact with anything that is not her only surviving child - the only person in the entire world she has love for.

Saint - they will make a brief appearance during the story (visiting Hunter after he's brought back to the NSH's can and given rot treatment), but they probably won't meet Marbles in person. If they did, I see both Marbs and Saint having lengthy philosophical conversations about the nature of life, karma, ascension, and so on.

Spearmaster - won't be appearing in my AU in-person as I assume them to be very old and retired at the time of my story taking place, or even deceased... perhaps already reincarnated? Or ascended? I haven't decided yet. However, they will show up in Hunter's flashbacks. If Marbles and SM were to meet, she would probably be scared of them, lol. I imagine Spears to look very tall and freaky for a slugcat, but also very collected and duty-driven like Hunter.

Rivulet - Riv won't show up in my AU, their campaign takes place far ahead in the future and it wouldn't make sense to include them (sorry!). I headcanon Riv as very energetic, and so if Marbles met them she'd find the aquatic scug rather... overwhelming.

[epickiya722]

You can tell who doesn't really read JJK and/or has a bias against Yuji over Yuta because if you think Yuta becoming a Gojo clan head is a flex, you obviously weren't paying attention to Satoru's story.

[utilitycaster]

I do agree with the post going around about how you cannot, actually, run everything in 5e and hacking 5e is a recipe for GM burnout. What frustrates me is that it's true that there's a dropoff in viewer/listenership for Actual Play using non-D&D 5e systems...but in my admittedly limited experience it's often the most dedicated D&D players who are willing to check out an Actual Play in something different. When I look in the CR fandom at who watches Candela Obscura or the Daggerheart episodes or various one-shots? When I look at who praises TAZ Amnesty and Steeplechase? When I look at who recommends Mentopolis and Misfits & Magic? Mostly, they're people who also are huge 5e fans. I've said it before but, nine times out of ten, if you find someone who complains at how 5e-centric actual play is you will not find a single post about a popular actual play channel's non-5e work (while finding plenty about their 5e series) and usually you won't find many posts about actual plays that never do 5e either.

[the-blossica-fan]

Art by tenrino_ on Twitter ^-^

...Three Semmelweis' in the suitcase???

We have normal Semmelweis, we have gothic Semmelweis and we have the second personality that's haunting them.

I love that they're all wearing the same bow but everything else is entirely different. The bow is unchangeable.

[fisheito]

@requiodile EXACTLY my thoughts !!!! rei's too old and tired and will probably have to clean the loads outa his butt for the next several hours. yakumo can carry HIMSELF back home after wreaking that kind of destruction

[villain-byteniwoha]

it's ironic that accounts saying they "block klk shippers" and "don't want to interact with proshippers" can always find something to say in my posts/reblogs. while I, a kaeluc shipper, personally have the "ragbros" tag blocked because I do not want to accidentally share something with a romantic context in mind, in case op is uncomfortable with that.

because I know how to put my own, as well as respect other's, boundaries in online spaces.

because I know that every single thing isn't meant for me and everyone has their own preferences.

because I know it's not only weird but also rude to go out of my way to put someone down for their interests or hard work.

but sure, call me the immoral one here for liking a fictional relationship between two fictional characters—who, keep in mind, I first started liking on the grounds that they were previously sworn brothers.

[monstermoviedean]

if you have a good vibe/kind thought to spare and could send it my way. i'd really appreciate it.

[sukibenders]

I laugh every time someone says Penelope is more of a feminist who understands women's rights more than Eloise simply because she's LW because, be so for real right now, that is such a lie. Like Eloise has her moments and her feminism is very yte and privileged, but at least she takes the time to actually consider from other's perspective, even if she's rude here and there, and appears to make attempts to grow as a character (when the narrative allows her to rather than picking favorites). Penelope exposing secrets and being feared by most of the Ton, especially the women and young girls, for the amount of power she has does not scream feminist to me but go off.

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

I've always felt that it'd be Killua who initiates the first hug we see between him and Gon

[naamahdarling]

Augh

[thefirstknife]

rip gambit you will be missed 😔

Don't even know what to say tbh.

For those that don't know, the big State of the Game article came out detailing incoming changes and adjustments and all the big stuff. Gambit was mentioned! But at what cost. Basically, they are ceasing any kind of support for Gambit. What we have now is what it is. We will get the Dreaming City map back in TFS and they will add Shadow Legion and Lucent Hive as enemy factions in TFS. That's all.

Full text:

As many of you have noticed, we’ve been quiet on Gambit since last year’s overhaul that launched alongside The Witch Queen. In that revamp, the team made significant changes across five categories in Gambit: core activity fundamentals, Primeval tuning, invasions, ammo economy, and rewards. Unfortunately, these updates didn’t move the needle for player engagement. Although we know our Gambit fans mostly care about new or returning maps, this is an area of the game with lower engagement that would take resources away from more popular parts of the game to shore up.   While we don’t have plans to dedicate more resources to significantly transform Gambit, we do have a few updates planned for the year of The Final Shape. These include porting the Cathedral of Scars map and its beautiful Dreaming City setting into the latest version of Destiny 2, as well as adding the Shadow Legion and Lucent Hive enemy types. 

I don't know how to tell you this Bungie, but the reason "engagement is low" in Gambit is because Gambit sucks. Ever since half of it was removed with DCV, it just sucked. It has no variety, the gameplay is largely busted, it's not sufficiently updated, ammo changes suck, invasion cycle sucks (why is the enemy even getting a portal when their Primeval is at 5% health and the other team is still in mote collecting phase is beyond me), there are no cool armour sets to chase (just look at Iron Banner and Trials stuff, imagine dedicated cosmetics) and finally there are simply no weapons that are worth anything. Both Vanguard and Crucible have more weapons and also adept versions. There is zero reason to go into Gambit without major changes to Gambit. And now with the further changes to how playlists and challenges will work, there will be even less reason to go into Gambit. Observe:

Before then, we’re making Gambit entirely optional to maximize your rewards unless you’re looking for a piece of gear that’s specific to the mode. Gambit will continue to serve as a source of Exotic engrams via weekly challenges, though as we mentioned above, you’ll be able to complete all your weekly challenges in any ritual you’d like starting in Season 22. If you want to stick to Vanguard or Crucible challenges without touching Gambit, now you can.  We’re also reducing the number of Gambit-specific Seasonal Challenges starting in Season 22, so players won’t need to bank motes to be able to earn that big purse of Bright Dust for completing nearly every challenge in the Season. Finally, we’re adding Fireteam Matchmaking to Gambit next Season, which will replace the Freelance node and should result in faster, better matchmaking by combining both Gambit playlists. We’ll keep an eye on reception and player engagement after these additions take place, and we hope you’ll visit ‘ol Drifter next Season to get your hands on his new Void Machine Gun. 

Ngl, but I don't think anyone besides like a total of 6 people will play Gambit next season. The incentive to go in there is completely removed. You won't even have to go in there for pinnacles or for challenges. The Void Machine Gun will not be enough of an incentive because the chance of that gun being better than two recently available craftable Void Machine Guns (Commemoration and Retrofit Escapade) is very low. And besides, once you get it at the end of your first match, you can leave Gambit forever.

This is the feedback loop that just reinforces the idea that people don't like Gambit. And I mean. Who would at this point. I'm pretty sure that if Crucible had stayed the same as it was at the start of Beyond Light, engagement would be low there too. But you know. Crucible has received major updates pretty much every season since with multiple new modes, several Trials overhauls, Iron Banner overhaul, competitive overhaul, new armours and weapons added and YES, even new maps. God forbid even 5% of these resources went into Gambit.

Anyway, this is the whole section about Gambit in 6500 words. It's basically a "you guys aren't playing this so we're doing the bare minimum of keeping it in the game as is, no new work will be done on it ever." Thanks I guess.

And for the record, something I also added while having a rant in my discord, I want to make it clear that I don't want anyone to spiral into a Bungie hate train. Even for this. I understand perfectly well what's the community attitude towards Gambit and what it's been for years now. People just don't like it and they're not incentivised to like it and they're actively encouraged to hate it. Spending resources into a game mode on the hope that maybe you can change people's minds would be insanity. Like, the amount of change Gambit would need to MAYBE start appealing to gamers would be beyond any reasonable time and resources Bungie can put in. And if you could guarantee that people would love and play Gambit then, fine. But you can't. Most likely, even if major changes happened, people would still just do their weekly stuff and bail. It's simply not worth it. In order for people to like it, it needs to be completely and thoroughly overhauled in a way that would need more time and effort than the entire Light subclass overhaul and it's just not a reasonable expectation, nor is it guaranteed to work. So I get it.

I'm still disappointed and annoyed about it because I believe it wasn't given a fair chance at all. I also know how good it can be and how Gambit Prime could've been improved upon over the years if they tried. Instead, it got removed and that was honestly the death sentence for Gambit. It's unfortunate. It's my favourite game mode that could've been so much better was it given even a fraction of attention of Crucible.

I'll still be playing it. You will find me in the Gambit queue waiting for 2 hours to find 7 other lunatics to play with, don't worry about it. But I'm absolutely incredibly sad about them being basically forced to axe the potential of the whole game mode that is incredibly creative and fits with the type of game Destiny is perfectly.

There's other interesting stuff in the article and some upcoming really cool improvements and changes to the game. But if you're a fan of Gambit in any capacity, this is a death certificate for the mode. I suggest coming to terms with it quickly because Bungie changing their minds about this is highly unlikely.

[phoenix-clan]

Hey everybody!

been a while!

the last time you heard from me, i was having some pretty intense financial struggles. truth is, i'm still dealing with it all, and not totally out of the red, but things are finally starting to look up for me! which means hopefully soon i can get back into working on new pages :)

i have all of the sketches done, and truthfully, they've been ready for a while now. since i last checked on here, in fact! it's been a long time coming!

the biggest reason i haven't gotten around to it is due to some issues with our computer lately, which has made drawing difficult. however, i am still determined to continue working on this as soon as i am able! i still have so many stories with these characters that i want to share with you all!

i'm deeply sorry for the sudden silence and hiatus! i've had to focus on other things in my life, but hopefully soon i can get back into the swing of things here!