#because god it's been fun cooking that lore

[reticent-fate]

takes place in the middle of part 2

i know nothing about biochemistry but i do know a lot about digital companions

from the beginning

[tanoraqui]

Dungeon Meshi Liveblog: Some Much-Needed Downtime TBH

ok I kinda read these species-swap chapters quickly without commenting 2 nights ago bc I REALLY wanted to catch up to the show, and honestly I didn't have much to say? It was a fun showcase of some different species talents, and introduced multiple fun problems for the characters to solve [takes notes in DM]. But it didn't seem to move either plot or characters forward much. Some notes:

Honestly it's surprising that there's only been 1 count of food poisoning so far, when they're trying SO MANY new things. One must credit Senshi's cooking skills!

This might be the single funniest joke so far:

I've seen multiple posts saying Senshi's elfsona reveals him to be feminine by dwarf standards, and I'm genuinely BAFFLED by that take because it is SO obvious that Senshi's elfsona reveals him to be 1. the Hottest Man You Have Ever Met, and 2. HAIRY. We have seen 0 other elves with facial hair. I dug up that showcase of different elves and 0 of them have facial hair. In the Tolkienien lore from which all modern fantasy, or certainly this sort of fantasy, is derived, exactly 2 elves in the history of the world are said to have had facial hair. Elf!Senshi has a tiny little moustache. Elf!Senshi isn't feminine, he is the HOTTEST, HAIRIEST bear in the metaphorical gay club.

...it's possible that he's more of a himbo than we realize, though.

I don't know what's up with Kensuke and I AM worried that it's being directed by the demon. I want it to be Laios's friend so bad...

It occurs to me that "the winged lion is actually the demon at the root of all of this" is probably the biggest spoiler I've gotten, and I didn't even realize how huge a spoiler it was because I DIDN'T get spoilered for the fact that, so far as the characters know, the lion is supposed to be a helpful god. Don't play with spoilers, kids! Even if you want to read the juicy meta!

This initial fight with the gargoyles is probably my new second-favorite "Laios is really quickly analytical and problem-solving in combat" moment (the living armor fight is still #1). He sees how everyone is failing, prevents more problems as he can, realizes they can't win and puts together what pieces they need to get out. In group social dynamics, he's a mediocre leader at best, but he's a superb combat tactician.

Laios is just living in his own little after-school special, and I love him for that.

That first panel is definitely support for the theory that the 50-60yr life expectancy of "short-lived" races like tallmen, orcs, kobolds and halffeet is shorter than it should be, relative to their ages of maturity, because the long-lived races control and hold most of the resources. It's even possible that their ages of maturity SHOULD be even older, but social conditions force them to become "adults" at a younger developmental age than dwarves, gnomes and especially elves!

Panel 3 is Marcille mentally shoving Chilchuck higher on her list of Lives to Extend by Whatever Magic I Can Learn.

I love how the way they figure out that the mushrooms' effects are easily reversible is literally by thinking through the greater social worldbuilding implications of the effects.

^This is the single most Dad we've ever seen Chilchuck...topped only by that 'carry child like a football' a moment later. Actually, he yeets Marcille a LOT while tall - here, over the jump in the travel montage, with Laios to make a loop for the gargoyle...which I'm dead certain is an indication of how he physically treated his daughters. Those kids got casually, affectionately tossed like salad.

.

AND THAT'S WHAT WE CALL FRIENDSHIP.

...okay maybe I did have several thoughts about those 2 chapters.

.

"[Falin] was much tougher than I was. I hear she and our parents still write to each other" is SUCH a line for painting a picture of Laios and Falin's childhoods, and Laios's feelings on it.

.

you can keep your Kabru Wink(TM)s, I am weak only for the Laios Fond Little Smile(TM).

.

I love how Senshi is still musing on this soul = egg metaphor, and I LOVE how both times now that we've seen Laios genuinely lose his temper, it's because someone was saying "why are you just being excited about eating monsters when Falin is in danger?!", and he's snapping because he is fucking NOT dismissing his sister in favor of eating monsters, he is doing EVERYTHING IN HIS POWER to save her and it just so happens that the only plans with a smidgen of success involve leaning into eating monsters. And by trying to stop him from that, you're stopping him from saving Falin.

.

Laios, how tf do you remember the Wink? I'm 99% sure Kabru never once winked in your interactions; I WAS looking for it. Was he just exuding wink energy? (I mean...yes.)

.

The dramatic irony jokes in this chapter are on POINT. Chilchuck: "There's no way this thing still works" [tram door slams shut on his heels, cars immediately starts moving]. "You won't find a military company in the dungeon" [smash cut to Shuro, Namari and Kabru unhappily leading the Canaries into the dungeon]. Impeccable.

Stopping this one here in preparation for going nuts about implied elf-related worldbuilding in the next chapters!

[zoeys-ksbd-fan-blog]

Book 1 First Impressions

Part 1

Hiya, so as a kinda fresh ksbd fan I feel like other fans would enjoy hearing what it's like for a newcomer to read it for the first time. Maybe give them a little taste of what it was like to read it the first time themselves.

So, my first impression...

...was oh my god holy shit the art is so good wow wow wow cool oh my god wow

Also, as of writing I'm a decent chunk into book 3. When I first saw this panel I was actually overwhelmed. Which I feel like is the intended affect since the leading up pages are pretty typical. I didn't even notice the center figure got fucking beheaded until my 2nd reread.

But also it's fun seeing this panel now and being, like, hey I know what all these characters are

On that note, I am excited to eventually learn exactly what's happening here. Is that bird significant? I know what this area is called but is there anything more significant going on here? Is it all metaphorical.

Which i dont think it is, because in the description of many pages there is supplemental stories. They mimic ancient poems, and other historical texts.

And birds are mentioned pretty frequently, as small creatures made by old gods that are small enough to travel through holes in reality to other realms.

White Chain is a trans king. A male person stuck in the shell of someone who looks feminine. Based.

Although the more I read an angels gender seems to be pretty fluid, which would make sense.

I'm not trying to summarize the comics, but I guess for context. Angels can only affect the physical world through one of these sets of armors. Their real forms are less human, usually.

And I guess this is a good place to compliment the visual design. Holy shit the aesthetic of these cities being built on these corpses is extraordinarily fucking cool.

And in the description the author left an I-Spy sort of puzzle in the description which is an excellent way to get a reader to look at a panel longer.

And shoutouts to the commentor who told me to read the description and comics, there is so much extra content there I've re-read book 1 four times and have had new experiences each time.

The world building is so intricate it completely trumps most other media I've seen. I dunno what to tell you, its just great. You can just taste how long the author has been cooking this world for. And it all paid off.

Cool background character is cool.

In gonna talk about the extra description content again, they're cool and are mandatory to read. Although maybe leave it to your second or third reread because the world building already present is still very dense.

Some of them involve a figure who is talking to their birds and asking questions to the reader. Which people answer in the comments.

Those same answers are then mentioned later as conversations had by people in Yisun's hall.

Don't know who Yisun is? Read the comic.

But things get confusing, the figure asks the readers where they believe Allison is traveling right when she is pulled from her own world. Someone says that she is going to the future, and Yisun likes it and makes it true.

But she isn't going to the future? Like she just isn't? We know later that this is all taking place linearly.

It's all very meta.

On page 16 we get some wild lore. It seems to be a background on Pree Ashma. Who's name I definitely recognize but deadass cannot remember who they are.

I'm probably not gonna mention the description again, but I wanted to yap so there you go.

No clue who this person is but I thought she was cool enough to make my pfp. We know her last name from the description though.

Later clues tell us she's a knight. That and people call her The Beggar Knight.

Boy would I love to pick the authors brain about where his mind goes when he creates these characters. Because they are so consistently unique and impressive. Praman Nand is a more important character so I would expect his design to be more striking. But the effort in his design is present in even the most insignificant background characters.

I imagine the dialect Cio is speaking here vs how she speaks to Allison and White Chain is the devil equivalent of code-switching.

I really love the action scenes. The author packs in so much detail that one panel feels fast paced. While giving the important events time to breath.

And this is where I learned tumblr has a 10 image per post limit i didn't know about. Continued in part 2!

[derww]

since it doesnt really seem like id post my actual lore post any time soon, my technically headcanons (more like +- canon-compliant lore au) about devils trio (mapicc-poafa-jepexx) and demons in general.

- devils trio are from the hellish dimension where war is a consistent part of reality

- everyone is taught to kill. mapicc is good in it, poafa succeeds in more protective measures and traps, jepexx... is jepexx.

- demons are the kind that was raised in battles as the apotheosis of surviving, they are able to convert almost anything that contains energy in one form or another into their source of food.

- the main type of energy consumed by a demon determines their visual features and colors.

- different demons eat different things, it depends on the homeland, position, upbringing and personal choice, but basic one is netherrack/lava, so most of the demons are either dark pinkish or orange or kinda gray (like s1 poafa whose been eating netherrack back then).

- its not required, but some demons do cook their energy sources in one way or another.

- normal food also can be an energy source, but its an unpopular option since the need to constantly seek it out for the sake of survival seems surreal and irrational. survival is important, and non-darkness and lava are everywhere, so it's just a much safer and smarter option.

- since everyone is a fighter, having your energy source being anything battle-related seen as unworthy and barbaric as most or demons are very arrogant and proud.

- 90% energy sourses used are nether related. because their world is, generally, the nether.

- one day, poafa decided that he was tired of hell and that he wants to photosynthesize. some of his relatives (not mapicc or jepexx) said that he would die. he cut off contact with them completely and survived out of spite.

- one day mapicc just stumbled onto a fucking massive fresh battlefield with enormous amounts of dead bodies and came into contact with energy surrounding him. he overdosed, went berserk for a week, probably killed a couple of demons from the neighborhood, and then turned red. he quickly learned to control himself and doesn't really care what other think about battle-related energy types because they're just dumb. he beats up especially annoying one.

- devils trio are blood brothers who once decided to play gods and created lifesteal smp for fun. they had no idea what theyve started.

- its really fucking hard to die being a demon (they can regenerate their bodies almost fully while having their energy source) so violence is very normarized.

- devil trio totally were cheating on the exams by pretending to be each other.

- nobody fucking knows that jepexx eats. poafa thinks its carrots. mapicc rolls his eyes up and says that jepexx feeds on everyone else's spanish shame. they just know that its probably not lava.

- demons really rarely actually speak about their energy type bc it is their achilles' heel, lifesteal included. only to the closest teammates and not that often. mapicc is an exception, he doesnt really cares, but still dont speak about it often. devils observe an unspoken rule never to use this knowledge against each other.

- in the demonic community, however, the shades of the most common, as well as some other sources, are known and sometimes are used against.

- im not totally sure, but rn devils trio are the only demons on the lifesteal.

[thatringboy]

A Body Built for an Undeserving Soul, A Boothill Theory

My definitely sober thoughts while grinding for the eventual Ruan Mei rerun and writing some robinhill have led me to a startling train of thought. I’ll do my best to sound sane as I say this, but the 18 minute discord voice memo I originally made is definitely anything but. Spoilers for Boothill’s backstory, character stories, and other lore, and no I’m not really gonna be citing things because it’s 3 in the morning and I’m high. If at any point I say something that isn’t really supported by canon, please be nice i’m a little silly boy

Anyways

I don’t think Boothill is a Pathstrider.

Let me cook, please. Here’s my reasons why:

The way he talks about Aeons and Paths

The way his body is designed

And 3.

Enjoy the madness below the cut

So, there’s not really a proper way to word any of this without it being an ADHD word vomit. Bear with me. Please.

Penacony has been a fantastic update for those of us waiting for worldbuilding. We’ve learned a LOT about the many factions in the cosmos, the true nature of the IPC, the powers of the Aeons, and that the Paths are tangible things in the universe. The Luofu arc opened up a bit about this, but since it was so focused on The Hunt and The Abundance and The Permanence, we sort of fell back into the same story beats as the Herta Station arc. Either way, Penacony has been amazing for little lore bugs like me.

So what does this have to do with the wild claim that Boothill somehow isn’t a Pathstrider?

Let’s touch some grass for a minute and consider our places in the irl universe. Hi, I’m Perseus, a young transmasculine white adult guy from South Texas who grew up reading too many Rick Riordan books and now has a complicated relationship with both the christian god and the greek gods. It’s an autism special interest of mine to learn about the greek pantheon and while I don’t know everything about it, I’m a silly little guy and can recite fun facts about dozens of gods. I can also recite fun facts about the christian bible and christian mythology because I was forced to study christianity when I was younger. Nice to meet y’all. Now, when I, Perseus, talk to people about the various religions I know a thing or two about, I infodump. A lot. I think I once ranted about Dionysus for 20 minutes before my sister told me to shut up. It happens.

Now focus back in on the important topic: the fictional cyborg with jiggle physics. I’m working purely on memory, but I’m pretty sure when he first meets Dan Heng and Pom-Pom, he does go on a spiel about the Aeons and Paths as he tries to prove his identity as a Galaxy Ranger and Acheron’s identity as Not a Galaxy Ranger. The way he describes The Hunt, The Nihility, Emanators, and Paths, it all just sounded… i don’t know, canned? It came across as very emotionally disconnected, even as he talked about The Hunt, but he was saying all the right words. Like someone who studied a religion but isn’t actually a part of the religion. 

On its own, this means absolutely nothing besides just reminding us of his home planet’s hostile takeover by Qlipoth-worshiping IPC workers. If you haven’t seen the post yet, I really recommend reading the So, Honkai: Star Rail made a cyborg cowboy... an INDIGENOUS cyborg cowboy. post by @ahworm I’ll link it here, please check it out because it recontextualized a lot of how I viewed Boothill’s actions and mannerisms

So the way Boothill talks about the Path he should be a Pathstrider of sounds more like an encyclopedia than a follower. Now, maybe this can be explained by the fact that Galaxy Rangers aren’t the most zealous bunch, especially when standing next to the Xianzhou Alliance who worship Lan as a deity more than The Hunt itself. The Galaxy rangers are the opposite, they are hunters first and last regardless of what Lan in THEIR “greatness” does.

But if Boothill is just a normal Galaxy ranger (whatever that means), then how does he recognize the Jade Abacus of Allying Oath instantaneously? Dan Heng’s barely put the damn thing on the table and Boothill’s already jaw on the floor amazed. One could make the argument that, well, Boothill’s a well-traveled guy, of course he’d know the most valuable artifact to his Path. To that, I say: there’s more to it.

Boothill’s main accusation against Acheron in the beginning is, what? “An Emanator that shouldn’t exist.” He talks about The Nihility and Device IX the same way he talks about The Hunt; learned and detached in an agnostic way. He’s aware these are real concepts and beings, he’s crossed paths with an Emanator of Elation before so he can’t deny the existence of literal gods in the universe

We also know that it’s canon in the star rail universe that there are planets who haven’t heard of the Aeons before, like Sigonia - Aventurine’s planet. Instead of Aeons, we know the Avgins worshiped the goddess Giathra Triclops. I’ve seen the argument that Giathra is just another name for Xipe since THEY have three faces, but Aventurine’s flashbacks are very clear in showing that the worship of Giathra was very different from the worship of Aeons. We don’t know much about Aeragan-Epharshel, but from how the IPC described the indigenous people as needing civilization and other disgusting things (not to mention how they forced a synesthesia beacon into boothill when he was maybe like a teenager? And then his brain nearly broke from the influx of information?), I think it’s safe to say that the tribes of Aeragan-Epharshel also didn’t follow any specific Aeon.

But Aventurine is now a Pathstrider of Preservation, so why can’t Boothill be a Hunter Pathstrider too? Well, dear reader, allow me to bash my head against the wall trying to form words. Aventurine doesn’t believe anything about the sovereignty of The Preservation, just like the rest of the Stonehearts. He has his agenda, and if he has to play Preservation to do so, then he will. I think Boothill is the same, which is also why I can’t wait to see what happens in the upcoming quests with the two of them in the same room. That being said, Aventurine’s Preservation powers only come from his Cornerstone, crafted by an Emanator of Preservation. It’s how he and Topaz and Jade can all be such different people but all be classified as Pathstriders of Preservation, the sheer proximity to an Emanator’s powers canonically give them powers equivalent to actual Pathstriders.

So… what about Boothil? This leads me into my next point: Boothill’s cyborg body. By looking at his Character Story Part 3, we learn that Boothill VOLUNTARILY became a cyborg to become stronger. He literally shed the skin and name from an ancient, dead tongue to become a real loaded gun. His voice lines in combat talk about death a lot, his name literally is in reference to a graveyard - this man cannot wait to finally die in some sort of blaze of glory and vengeance. I say that with a little bit of sarcasm, but Boothill designed his body to be a weapon. 

In a lot of parts of the USA, it’s illegal to even insinuate that you have a firearm as that constitutes as the crime of  “armed robbery”, even if you don’t even have a gun. The threat alone is enough to warrant a higher penalty. But Boothill is already a great shot with a gun, why does he also need augmented teeth and crosshair eyes and hips that can fold his body into any sinful shape he needs? Because the threat alone is enough to give him power over his prey. Almost as if he’s compensating for a lack of magic godly powers. He needs to be able to keep up with even the strongest IPC goons, to pierce their Preservation shields with his bullets so that he can get closer and closer to Oswaldo Schneider.

But how can I prove that Boothill doesn’t have any Path magic? Well, let’s take a spin around his character model. What’s that thing sitting snugly against his exposed asscheek? His pistol? But that’s not weird, Perseus, most cowboys hold their guns there!

But what other playable character has their weapon on their actual model like him?

There are so many in-game cutscenes showing that, canonically, the Pathstriders summon their weapon from some sort of unseen storage or hammerspace. I like the term hammerspace, let’s use that. The playable Pathstriders all use hammerspace to easily summon their weapons. None of them actually carry their weapons on their model. Even Welt Yang has scenes of him summoning his herrscher cane (I’ve never played hi3 please forgive me for using incorrect terms) from his hammerspace. But not Boothill. He has his arm gun and he has his trusty 9 millimeter pistol on his little slutty hip. His idle animations involve reloading his weapons and putting them back on his person. No particle effects, no vanishing tricks, just a man sticking his tongue out to catch a bullet for a snack.

So what have we learned?

Boothill doesn’t have an emotional connection to his Path, it most likely is just the Path he figured met his needs and decided the philosophy was good enough

Boothill’s body is designed to perform specifically to kill Pathstriders, especially sturdier Pathstriders of The Preservation

Boothill either can’t or won’t use the same hammerspace the other canonical Pathstriders use

Each point by themself means nothing, or can be chalked up to unique character designs. But together? My intoxicated mind theorizes that Boothill is not a Pathstrider, merely a broken man trying to play the game according to the rules of the oppressors that colonized his planet and bombed his tribe into reservations and the dirt. Thank you for your time.

[emmrichlover]

I JUST FINISHED VEILGAURD FOR THE FIRST TIME AND HOLY FUCKING SHIT

Fuck ANYBODY who shits on this game, I waited a whole decade to finally see this. My Inquisitor’s tragic love story with a god she finally gets to be with. The closure to what was started in Inquisition.

I love these characters, I wish we got more time with them but I truly enjoyed ever second of it. Emmrich has stolen my heart. I don’t care if the writing is “bad” or Taash’s identity isn’t “lore friendly”, it’s campy and queer, and found family and fun. I got to play a canonically trans man for the first time ever in a video game. I have been playing video games for 20 years and I have never seen myself represented in them the way I got to be in this game.

The music is just phenomenal too, chills for those last two hours especially. Hans Zimmer you cooked with this one chief.

We almost lost this game to EA’s fucking bullshit. I am so grateful to the developers who fought for it. I am so grateful it exists despite it’s flaws.

Trigger Warning: self harm, suicidal ideation, addiction

I’m going through one of the worst periods of my life. I have BPD and am grieving the loss of my ex partner of three years (who just suddenly up and left me for somebody else). I am so depressed that getting out of bed is a hard most days. I’m a recovering alcoholic in early sobriety (4 months) and staying sober is becoming harder by the day. I have been constantly suicidal, to the point of seriously considering it, for months at this stage.

I have clung to life for this game since February. I have poured myself into it every single day since it came out to try and keep myself going. I have lived for this game, and it has genuinely saved my life.

Now? I am going to have a shower, pour myself back into it for the remaining *5* achievements left, and then check myself into the psych ward so I can get through this weekend. Get through this period. Get to the other side of the nightmare. Because I want to.

God I am so grateful this game exists

[venus-is-thinking]

DRDT Chapter 2 Episode 12: Initial Thoughts

Hello everyone! I thought it'd be fun to do a post going over some of my first thoughts from the episode after each release. "Initial" is a bit of a stretch, considering I did watch it a second time while making this post, but it's more "initial" in the context of being before the next episode drops. It's sort of like my "initial thoughts" of the Milgram MVs, which are actually the result of, like, 3 hours of obsessing and research, lol.

(By the way, @accirax and I watched the episode together, so apologies if her initial thoughts end up being, like, the same as mine.)

SPOILER WARNING FOR DRDT CH 2 EP 12!

T/W: Body image issues/body dysmorphia, murder, suicide

The Reactions

Confirmation of what I think most of us already suspected! I do think it's a little weird that Nico didn't bring up their testimony about all of the fish being there at the last time they fed the fish. That probably means it's being saved for later in the Trial, I guess?

It's okay Teruko, I saw literally no one in the entire fanbase figure this one out either!

Why is everyone so mean to her though. Everyone here has been an idiot in the Trials at LEAST once

God I missed David

This was so funny. Get his ass.

(In all seriousness, though, I do wonder if we're going to come back to what J said. I don't currently (?) think Arei was drenched, unless the real purpose of the water WAS just to confuse the time of death, so if the water didn't connect with her enough to cool her down, it might be weird that the body isn't warm after all.)

This took me out. Who let you say that. What.

Okay, but Ace, outside of a killing game... why. Like, literally why would a plastic surgeon need to know how to do an autopsy. King.

Like Felicity...? /hj

All in all, though, this was a really interesting character moment for Arturo! And god, the fact that he started learning medical knowledge and spedrun plastic surgery specifically since age 12 HAS to mean something. My vague theories of Felicity having struggles with body image/dysmorphia (Arturo's section of this post) are... maybe real???

Honestly, I'm starting to wonder if Arturo is going to go farther in this game. I don't expect him to survive or anything, but I could see it taking him a surprisingly long time to die. He feels like he's got too much lore to unpack to die, like, next chapter. Unless he gets HELLA focused next chapter, which is definitely possible.

This is so silly. I love them.

(Note: I'm not a Whit mastermind truther, but if I were, I would point out that MonoTV sort of covering up a rules violation for Whit could be relevant. I'm not a Whit mastermind truther though, so I think this is just a very silly joke a la "no wifi! why live :(" )

Well you see Eden, the killer would have actually had all night to prepare. If, say, they mentioned that they could dial in and focus on their work for like 14 hours straight, they could have gotten a lot done before 7:30 AM!

I'll talk about this more later, but the fact that J, David, Veronika, Hu and Nico seemingly have alibis that actually matter is so iconic. I can't believe that many theories died that quick. I'll talk about that more in my theories section, though!

It's been said before, but. Funniest fucking reaction to being declared innocent of murder.

"David still has a family history of depression even if that isn't his secret" nation where you at?

This one made me laugh out loud. Who does it like him

How truthful do we think David is in this next section? I refuse to believe it's 100% a lie, just because he's cooking SO hard on SOMETHING, but I could also believe David thinks he's lying to an extent. I could definitely see a "the best lies are based on the truth" kind of thing?

Also, damn. Xanvid really is real. LGI got me to believe it but WOW David's just being gay on main now

This was a really good, succinct way to have Teruko show her opposition to David's ideas. Even if it is to end the killing game or do something "good' or whatever, Teruko is still hurt and betrayed by what Xander did. Xander tried to kill her, and presumably would have tried to kill everyone else. David is now doing the same thing.

It's going to be really interesting if, whether genuine or not, David is kinda taking on Xander's position. That's going to give Teruko a reason to (outwardly) hate him even more. I'm really looking forward to learning more about how both Teruko and David view Xander.

Also, it's so fucking funny that Teruko and David are literally fighting over Xander. Like, valid, but. Guys.

(Also, David soooo knows Teruko's secret is the killing game is all your fault. Idk if he specifically knows that Xander's plan was to kill Teruko no matter what, but he's definitely caught on to some extent.)

This was crazy. Is Xander famous? Why would everyone recognize him? Like, did David just take particular notice of Xander because he's a simp, or is there something else going on?

Notably, it's also extremely interesting that David says "Even if you all lost a year of memories for this killing game." It almost implies that David didn't? What do you know???

Also, if David DOES have weird memories about this that no one else does, it's a really interesting comparison to Teruko remembering the existence of a killing game in the area investigation when she was talking to Veronika. Are these two getting special memory privileges because they're important? Or does everyone have some kind of memory that they all should have, but only one person knows each thing?

At first I was confused when David said this, because I really don't know how dear anyone in DRDT's life to him was other than Xander. But then I realized, if David is talking about killing 15 others and yourself, he's definitely still talking about Xander's mindset. Xander had something worth the lives of 16 people that he was trying to do.

I don't know how much David cares about ending the killing game. I wonder if "belief in Xander" is the thing he's willing to kill 13 people plus himself for?

I'm starting to get REALLY curious what J's deal is. Between this and her voiced line earlier in the trial saying something along the lines of "it's like you all still haven't grasped just how serious murder is," she definitely seems to have strong opinions on specifically the morality of killing other people. WHY is she being singled out with these beliefs, what does it say about her, and where is her character headed?

(If she is the mastermind, does this couple with the "all murderers must be held accountable" rule?)

"Any answer" is so funny. I think she's looking for the truthful answer, David. This is why no one believes you when you say anything ever /aff

Notably, this is VERY similar to the plan Eden came up with that Veronika described: using the fact that TV shows need entertainment to continue to end the killing game. It's the same thing, but with a much more depressed "everyone should just give up" kind of flavor.

The level of similarity does make me think David is probably not being 100% truthful, and that he just repurposed Eden's escape plan to be something sort of similar to what he was going for.

I do think that he WAS trying to defeat the killing game by killing people through the class trial. I just think that, between Xander's actions and the motive secret he received, he was trying to kill Teruko specifically. Yet another way that David's unhinged behavior ties into the Chapter 2 secrets.

*Hu hopeless child looms in the distance*

I'm so glad that Hu gets to pop off though. She really hasn't gotten, like, any content in the series so far. Here's hoping this is kicking off her getting a bunch of time to shine!

Interesting that they had both Ace and Hu cut Nico off in this interaction. The staging definitely implies that they're trying to show that while Ace is wrong for talking over Nico and not letting them say anything, Hu is also wrong to an extent for not letting Nico defend themself and running to their rescue all the time.

I am begging you. Please discuss the murder method. I didn't realize until my rewatch of the trial that they have actually literally not talked about the murder method at ALL except for telling David that he doesn't know shit about it.

HUH?????????????

Theory Update/Analysis

Well, I'm gonna start this off by saying that I'm still pretty locked into Eden being the killer. We still need to address the tape, and I personally still found her to be decently shifty now behavior wise (she seemed nervous when we turned back to solving the trial, and she says something about "it's too hard to narrow down the killer :/" when people were talking about morning alibis). I just think it makes the most sense.

While obviously my logic for why Levi would be the accomplice has to be at least somewhat flawed, given Levi's surprise confession (!!!), I still think it's possible that Levi is the accomplice here. He could be doing this to further confuse/complicate the state of things (hence why he calls it leading people astray), and it's possible he's not being 100% honest here.

Something that Levi could be doing here is taking control of the situation and spinning the truth in his favor. Hu mentioned earlier (e11, I think?) that the secrets are phrased dramatically. Similarly, Levi may be trying to offer an explanation for his secret that might be more tame, but still believable.

For example, if Levi says that he killed one of his parents because of the circumstances he grew up in, but it turned out that his parents were extremely abusive to him in some way (cough cough Amane Momose), wouldn't people be more willing to forgive the fact that he's a "murderer"? There are different levels to the culpability of murders.

So, it's definitely possible this is still an attempt by Levi to conceal the truth of his secret. It's true that, right now, no one's really trying to match all of the remaining secrets up with the remaining secret holders in-universe, but the entire fanbase pretty much slam dunked this one. Once the content of the secrets was revealed, it wasn't too difficult to track the origin of this secret to Levi. Levi might know that, and might be trying to spin it in a positive way while he can get everyone's attention and tell everyone the same narrative here in the class trial.

I don't think any Levi accomplice or killer truthers have to fully give up on the idea, or at least not until we see what Levi actually says after this. It's a WILD topic to reveal we're going to talk about, but we haven't actually talked about it yet. If we were told "we get David's motivations for trying to throw the trial," I doubt literally any of us would have locked in the prediction of "David is trying to follow in Xander's footsteps by killing everyone via the trial because he kind of remembers Xander." So, until next week, I'm keeping an open mind!

This was insane. I can't believe we actually got a new episode, and that we're gonna KEEP getting new episodes until the chapter finishes. What the fuck!!!

[thewandererh]

*checks watch. oh damn. anyways it’s not midnight*

today i extensively scrawled down (neatly ordered) gabbering thoughts (reoccurring details) about my cccclinic guys’ phycological and emotional traits (that checks out). i have. a front and back and front of a lined paper with all the lines filled. i have been COOKING. i am at WORK. i am EXPANDING on their LORE💥💥

mind and whole are finished, and heart’s almost done :]. soul will soon be too! i recommend this exercise a lot—having a place to put all your overlapping hyperfixating character thoughts is awesome, and you can figure them out along the way! you’ll come up with new traits as you write and have fun :] (ex. how they express anxiety, their general demeanor, reasons for disliking what they dislike). and!! for me it helped with perfectionism a lot! on one side i wanted to put the same info as the other (in terms of field. different ways two characters do/feel the same thing, etc) but i DIDN’t!! because notes can be MESSY!!!! and it’s AWESOME!!! and OH my god i need to sleep

also it helped me humanize characters i don’t usually think about :]. i’m a bigger mind fan than a heart fan so i don’t usually focus on him, and end up giving him a general concept for the story—a loose and shallow demeanor that i expand on less than the other two. i changed that today!! i’m don’t like when people infantallize heart or anyone of the gang, and was afraid i was doing that myself with the lack of thought. he’s a real guy with real problems and real mistakes he’s made! all of ‘em are! and those are FACTs. anywyas. passes out.

[knightposting]

Thoughts on Veilguard. Spoilers abound.

THINGS I DID NOT LIKE:

-Very little flexibility in how you play Rook. Rook is always just... nice. Not even good, just. Nice. Very little spice opportunity and the only way you can play them is "group therapist".

-I could complain about lore butchering, but people who are way more articulate and care more about Dragon Age lore can put it much better than I can. I'm not even trying to be mean, I just haven't been keeping up in the ten years since Inquisition. It did suck tho

-Honestly the lore butchering takes second place to the fact that I can't even DISAGREE with the shit going on. This will just tie in to my first point but like, maybe it would be nice to point out that "sexy leather clad rooftop assassins" isn't even that good of an alternative to having a military.

-The Venatori and Ataam are boring as hell antagonists without good motives. Also I hate the focus on the Venatori when the real problem should be Tevinter itself.

-The combat, while fun, is held back by both a skill tree bloated with near meaningless passives on the way to abilities you actually care about, and repetitive, spongy encounters. If you've fought one dragon, you've fought them all. If you've fought one mage/warrior/rogue boss, you've fought them all.

-I'm still mad about how smooth Qunari are now. What the fuck.

THINGS I DID LIKE:

-They COOKED with the Mourn Watch, the Grey Wardens, and those two faction's respective companions. I always had a good time with Davrin (which makes one of my ending choices really sting. I'm sorry homeboy, but it was you or my Love Interest) and Emmerich, and the Necropolis and Lavendel missions were consistently my favorite sidequests.

-I loved fighting for my life in Weisshaupt.

-The ending was sick as hell. I did every sidequest I could but still forsook the golden ending because the concept of outfoxing THE ELVEN GOD OF LIES was too good to pass up. Sorry Mythal, but thanks for the runes and making that one lvl 50 dragon fight easier.

THINGS I'M CONFLICTED ABOUT/JUST THINK ARE ALRIGHT

-I didn't care that much about Bellara in comparison to the other companions. I think a combination of already being tired of the game by time her personal quests showed up+finding her "maybe the other races are right to distrust us 🥺" schtick weird and annoying left a bad taste in my mouth, or maybe I'm just being unfair. idk.

-I love Harding, but her and the Kal Sharok dwarves needed more time to cook.

-I don't care that they made the Lords Of Fortune "too nice". I just don't. They're fine as is, just woefully irrelevant even in their own designated zone.

[tsams-au-confessions]

Hi I want to ramble about Ocean Bloodmoon some more

Ok so! They were kinda cursed into being bound to the swamp-forest-environment-thing-whose-English-name-I-don’t-know they were raised in after “becoming The Bloodmoon”, they swim around the ruins of the village and have their den in the house of worship they now claim as their own.

Lunar went to their place because of rumors he had heard about a powerful creature who could outmatch Eclipse in strength and found the Quartet— then presenting as Twins. They made a deal that Lunar would free them from the curse if they helped defeat Eclipse. And they’ve been besties ever since :)

Once freed, Bloodmoon swam around a lot of different places before stumbling into KillCode, who saw their strength and decided to take them in. Bloodmoon was ecstatic to have a what people call “family”.

Ok that’s enough story lore, let’s do fun facts

The existence of the Quartet’s different consciousnesses is probably the least magical thing in the au

The first breakfast Foxy made for them was eggs. They ate an egg raw while he was still cooking

Their nose is very sensitive to smoke and acids

Eclipse is a good decade older than them, and yet he was absolutely terrified of them when they first met

Their favorite book genre is thriller//suspense

Bloody is a God of Death, represented by a Squid Mermaid covered in black algae and wearing bones as jewelry. They are less than pleased with the mortal shell it currently resides in

The reason Scythe speaks in rhymes is because she read way too much poetry whenever she was fronting. It’s also a fun game for her to see how many rhymes she can string together

Ironic considering their name, Rabies is the one who usually patches them all up and finds any medicines for when they get sick or injured. They have encyclopedic knowledge of medicines basically

Out of the four of them, Harvest is the most protective of those they consider family. This has unfortunately led to him being the most affected by the betrayals they’ve gone through

They have an old machete they carry around with themselves everywhere, it’s their single most precious possession

And that’s all I can think about atm :P

Interesting ^^

[rahkshirock]

Hypognosis character building, and Lynn's thoughts on role-playing

(If you don't know what this is, I'm writing about a game I'm making! you can read the introduction to it here!)

Alright so, when making a game, I think it’s important to establish your intentions. For one, when you do, you can write your drafts, step back, and compare your intention to the product, and see if you got lost down a rabbit hole along the way and missed the mark overall. 

Second, since I'm going to be doing this planning process semi-publicly and giving updates along the way, it’s more important to show my thought process than it is to give you a few paragraphs of finished semi-technical info before it’s fully cooked. I want to get yall *excited* for this project, not tell you exactly how to play it at home, for the time being.

With that in mind, the goal is to make a speculative fantasy role-playing game where a group of strange and varied people ally together to go on quests. *groundbreaking,* right? So… what makes Hypognosis something that I’ve wanted to play for a few years now as I’ve been trying to write it? Let me try to show you by walking you through how I *want to* make Estver, the guy from the last post, into a playable character.

When I make a character in an RPG, i usually look to the classes (whatever form they take) as inspiration for what *sort* of character to make. It’s rare that I get completely taken by the lore of a setting enough to make a character completely seamless with it. Instead if I see that there are Holy Knights, it follows that there’s probably some sort of feudal system with a church. Since I have some experience with churches in my life and have read a lot of fantasy about holy knights, i get the idea of character’s I am *encouraged* to make. It’s like the game is giving me permission.

Now, you don’t need permission from a game system to make the sort of character you want of course. If the mechanics of said holy knight class would let me make a pretty good cowboy marshall type, I might find value in re-flavoring an existing thing to form my character, while making no mechanical changes. It’s fun to think about this sort of thing to me: if the mechanics in front of me were stripped of their flavor text, would I be able to tell what the class was supposed to be? Something to keep in mind.

Now, Estvar as I’ve written him is devout and traveling on a pilgrimage. He has training as a city guard, so he has some skill with weapons and armor, and he is faithful to his god. His character motivation is that he is devoted to a cause: that of the friend he made once years ago, thinking every day about the life he could live on the other side of the gate, eventually swearing to travel all that way. Is he a paladin in the making? Uh… No, actually. I don’t think so.

Do you see how, if I were playing 5E, all these little character details in the fluff of Estvar’s backstory would lead you toward making him a paladin? It would be a natural fit within that system and yet if I did, I would be dissatisfied because a paladin fights with a specific set of mechanics that *do not fit* in what I have in mind. I don’t think Estvar would ever cast a spell, even if it was a “holy” one. and his home city isnt really feudal, he's a soldier not a knight...

So since I’m making my own game, do I simply eliminate all the mechanics that might interfere with the story? I certainly could. Fiction-first games are popular for a reason. I’ve played and GMed for a few and they were great fun! But I think mechanics are great tools for telling stories when you the storyteller aren't too experienced with what *should* happen. What if I’m asked to describe exactly what my character does and im a bit exhausted that day? I want to play and be helpful but im just not up to being a *storyteller* atm. Well, a rule that lets me swing a sword with such-and-such dice to resolve what happens is useful.

Complicating that, I like rolling dice as more than a *resolution* mechanic. All too often when you ask an interesting question and roll a die, that die roll is the *end of play.* It is the deciding factor that resolves the tension so you can continue with the scene. I much prefer them to be a *complicating* factor in a compelling way, where my carefully planned ideal solution breaks and I have to scramble on the fly for a new plan. That’s what I find fun!

All this coming to the point: Hypognosis is my attempt to have a crunchy game that is crafted in such a way that someone who doesn’t have the same mental image of combat that I do going in, will *fall into a natural pattern* that the game describes that looks like that cool fight that I the author have in mind. That isn’t an uncommon goal for games. It really comes down to execution.  

Getting back to Estvar, his cultural background is very textbook for the people of his home city of Buldren. He has a strict set of rules he’ll have to follow, notably a prohibition on spilling blood, and he’ll want to seek absolution in some way if he breaks them. His faith is a *morale* concern rather than a *magic powers* concern for him. If he comes into a situation where he’s forced to kill someone with a sword and comes out covered in their blood, he will suffer a mental wound. (distinct from just usual trauma) He’ll take that wound and either treat it after the battle with appropriate penance, or else will fester into a scar over time. 

On the flip side, his home city has more modern technology and medical knowledge than their neighbors. He’ll have learned martial arts leveraging blunt weapons to crush an enemy rather than hacking them to pieces. In addition, with his soldier background, he’ll have moves that synergize well with allies standing shoulder-to-shoulder with him. He’s efficient and effective, not flashy. 

In game terms, how do I select those options for Estvar? Each region in the world has specific traits you can select which make up your character’s Heritage. These are a wide-ranging suite of powerful options that come bundled with Complications. Not necessarily negative qualities, but consequences which are designed to conflict in interesting ways with other characters’ concerns in the party. His concerns are born from his home culture, and that culture will continue to be a part of him as he travels abroad.

From there, a character spends Time in order to select what their skills are. A character learns by doing. Since Estvar has his military background, he’s skilled in the sorts of things his home would find useful and spent years training him in. However because he is a member of a religious sect that is more strict than his home as a whole, he won’t wield the more technologically advanced weapons his home can field, as they are far too much like magic. 

His is a pretty sparse background, the sort of life lived without much self-direction. Estvar is dutiful, but has not *pursued* a goal of his own. As such, he will fall behind a character built from the ground up to be the user of some powerful and arcane type of technology or the heir of some destiny.

So how to represent his actual *character?* there comes in the closest thing to a character class that this game has. A character’s Fate is a representation of their personal drive and the arc of their story. If a character’s skills tell you what number you have to roll on your dice to perform an action, a character’s *Fate* will let you manipulate the dice themselves in your favor. A Fate is a quality that can’t be quite defined in the fiction of the world itself. It’s a tilt to the world that makes unlikely happenstance occur suspiciously often.

Estvar’s Fate might be called that of The Pilgrim. He is just a traveller, stepping temporarily into the stories of others along the way, with a city in the far distance, so far away that he feels he might never reach it in his lifetime. It’s the journey that matters.

His journey is one of discovery, and as such he starts a little less capable than others. But his ears are open to other’s stories. When he eventually finds himself at the end of the road, he will look back on his journey as the same man who started, and yet profoundly changed.

Many of those changes will be in the form of new skills or in connections to other characters. He’ll build a web of relationships and pick up new goals, whether his own or shared with new companions. Perhaps he will even turn his back on his path, inverting his Fate and defying it, becoming a Wanderer, aimless. But there is no dual-classing in this game. If a character rejects their path, it will continue to loom over them as that inversion. A man avoiding the inevitable end of the road, but the city will ever be on the horizon, waiting.

But the other side of time passing is injury and hardship. Wounds tell a character’s story as much as the character’s goals do. Estvar starts with a mental scar that is difficult for him to recognize or overcome: a paranoia that if he does not undertake certain rituals, that bad things will happen as a result, an illogical fixation he can't overcome by fighting it. There’s no great reason behind it, he simply has this scar and will carry it for his journey. 

As odd as it is to say anything can synergize with a mental illness, his faith gives him a way to mediate this problem by being Absolved when he feels that he has sinned in some way. Many of the sins he holds against himself are not ones that anyone else would worry about, but they weigh on him. And this is one way he can be free of them.

Physical injuries are handled the same way. If he breaks an arm, Estvar will need to get medical treatment for it and rest enough to recover. Should everything go well, the wound may heal without a trace. But equally, he might carry a scar for the rest of his life. Scars are permanent, and vary in severity. They tell a character’s story, and inform their future actions. They can be dramatic to roleplay, and sometimes they’re cool to look at.

And with that, without getting too far into any specifics, is Estvar. I’ll be talking about his home city and its allies next, but this is the end of this blog post. It’s an *intention.* calling my shot. These are the types of things I want a player to be thinking about when they make a character or try to bring a character over to this system.

and as for something a little further in the future... I never said Estvar was *human* now did I?

If you’re interested in hearing more, I’m aiming to make a post like this every week. If you’d like to contribute to this endeavor and help me pay rent, i have a Ko-fi! you can find it here, and every bit is appreciated:

[museofthepyre]

Did a fun Q&A thing on insta about my ocs, here are the highlights, lore and shit! For context I am writing this into a horror-ish book as we speak. Brewing my dastardly schemes (gay tragedy).

Q: Is Eden also a cannibal?

A: Eden isn't a cannibal in the way Harlow is. I mean he eats people but only because Harlow's cooking is too good to turn down /hj. Eden's thing is... kinda the opposite.

He's slowly being consumed by the rot that's festering within him, a manifestation of hatred and shame. To him love is consumption, and he is inedible. Insert vulture metaphor here w Harlow. For every rotting corpse there is a very greatful vulture who will look past the decay, and see your worth. Eden is ultimately finished off by something that loves him, a consumptive love, unconditional and indiscriminate.

Q: ABOUT THE ROT, HOW DOES IT WORK? HOW IS IT AFFECTING HIM??

A: This rot is really the only story element that isn't totally grounded in reality. It's an illness that's a manifestation of his self hatred/ repression/ internalized shame- not an actual condition.

It appears at first like it just affects his chest- but it’s been slowly burrowing deep into his body. Its spreading like roots/ mycillium through his flesh and will finish him off in one foul swoop once it's finished spreading.

In the meantime, it manifests like a chronic illness- his muscles are all atrophied and he feels constantly drained of life. It's taking small pieces of flesh to sustain itself while it spreads (the chest cavity is the result of that-though the REAL damage is invisible. It's the ticking time bomb roots beneath the seemingly unaffected surface). It functions like a slow acting Chronic Wasting Disease (aka zombie deer disease, humans can't get it in reality, but it was the inspiration)

Q: What happened when Harlow discovered Eden was a guy

A: Eden is trans, and closeted in his life. Harlow is the first person he ever discusses his truth with.

At first, Harlow was just kinda... confused? Transness is not a concept he was familiar with. At ALL. The idea alone was completely unheard of to him. Again this is the Bible Belt in the 8os, the area so rarely encountered visible transness- trans people existed of course, but so many stayed hidden to survive. The roaring tre of bigotry did not have much tuel in that regard... no trans people to propagandize against. It was not on the public's vitriolic radar. In that way, Harlow hadn't developed the knee-jerk reaction of hatred... he was more fascinated than anything, but it did challenge him to understand at first.

Unlike his journey with accepting homosexuality this was not so much a task of unlearning as it was just... learning.

Also Eden's whole rotting thing adds another layer to this Harlow is stupid and takes everything VERY literally- he thought Eden's condition must be divinely brought.

Harlow saw a gift from God, a rare flower planted in inhospitable soil, wilting before it ever got the chance to bloom. Like the angels sent to Sodom and Gamorrah in human disguises, to test the townspeople's virtue. To present them with something foreign yet beautiful, to judge their inherent goodness based on how they treat it. Like in the biblical story, the townspeople were so vile and inhospitable that it endangered the angels and forced them to leave, burning down the town behind them. Harlow saw this as prophecy. He was eager to get to the “burning down the town” part.

Part of my motivation for incorporating that specific biblical story is SPITE btw since so many people use it to justify homophobia. Reverse uno idiots. I'm putting you in my GAY BOOK as a metaphor for hateful queerphobic societies.HA!

Q: Describe the rot in Eden's chest in sensory detail (texture smell “cause" etc) I want rot details!!

A: I used CWD and necrotizing fasciitis as building blocks for this thing... starts in the brain, spreads like roots through the body, eating away at muscle and skin as it does. Once it's fully spread, it'd rapidly worsten and bring death within a matter of hours.

In the meantime it sustains itself off of non-fatal bits of flesh (his chest here, since it's a manifestation of self hatred and all, and dysphoria is a bitch). It is an open wound so it'd feel scabby and it is perpetually weeping... which is how Harlow finds out about it so quickly (seeps through white nightgown after being left unbandaged for a few nights). He would also have to take care to hide the smell of decay

It advances throughout the story and by the end there's barely any soft tissue left on his chest, nothing alive anyways. The final overtake begins, and his organs enter the early stages of consumption (which happens very rapidly in one foul swoop). That's when they decide it's time for boy dinner!

Q: How smart are they

A: GREAT QUESTION! HARLOW IS FUCKING STUPID. LIKE not only does he lack emotional intelligence entirely, but he's also very impulsive and reckless. The ONLY reason he's getting away with his murders is because the society around him has shot itself in the foot with its homophobia. Noooobody is suspicious of him for the string of missing attractive dudes. They're looking for a "vengeful woman" profile, or possibly a "debt collector with many social connections" or something. Not some solitary redneck who barely shows his face in town and is very polite and quiet when he does. He appears, in all respects, like a normal guy in public.

Once they have mutual blackmail (and also start caring about each other)... Eden realizes that if Harlow gets caught, he's fucked too. So partially for the sake of self-preservation, and... partially out of pity for this stupid stupid man... Eden starts to help him cover up.

Harlow is pretty disillusioned as to how society functions as a whole, since he grew up pretty far from it. Eden is the opposite, he was suffocated by it and learned how to be sneaky as a result. Eden is very good at getting people to trust him, he's good at lying, he's good at acting. Thing is, he's overly trusting to his own detriment. He's desperate for genuine connection and easily deceived himself. He's bad at reading people.

Q: What happened to Harlow's mom?

A: Harlow's mother died due to complications during childbirth. He never had a maternal figure in his life, he was raised as an only child by his father, who had become calloused and would never remarry. Harlow dropped out of high school and kept to himself at his house/ in nature after that very isolated from society. Considering all this... he not only lacked a maternal figure, but any female influence... at all. Which manifested as this warped and idolized understanding of women as a whole

He thought of women in a very high and almost mystified regard- like how a child would imagine a mythical creature. One massive blank filled in by a clueless imagination. He respected them greatly, he feared them like gods, and he felt a need to repent to them as such. He never properly processed the guilt he felt over his mothers death-largely thanks to his father's handling of it. This guilt left him feeling indebted, like he owed the world for what he “took", like if he ever so much as inconvenienced another woman it would be an irredeemable sin.

This all sounds like it comes from a good place, but it's really all just deluded naivety this is not a positive trait of Harlow's. It contributed a lot to his toxic masculinity, the pressure he put on himself to "be a man", etc.

He's not a white knight, he's a cowardly dog.

This is why he didn't just kill Eden on the spot after being caught, he needed to make sure...)

MORE TO COME IM SURE I LOVE GETTING QUESTIONS ABOUT THESE FREAKS IF ANYONE HERE HAS ANY

[stuck-in-the-ghost-zone]

MAC HI don't mind me i just finished the genloss founders cut and im putting my ful lreview in ur inbox bc u said u weren't gonna watch it i think but i want 2 share my thoughts with someone who will not rip me to shreds for criticizing it even slightly <3

OK. I'M NOT GONNA LIE. IT KINDA SLAPPED. maybe i just think it was really good in comparison to the original four hours of streams that dragged on. i honestly thought the original streams of genloss were longer but NO all three streams add up to about four hours???? it just felt so much longer when i originally watched it i guess!!! u can understand why i am sure. but the founders cut was like two and a half and oh my goddddd cutting out a lot of it made such a huge difference. holy shit. like i definitely did get bored and skip through a little bit but honestly i didn't skip through much!! every time i got to a part where i was like "oh fuck not THIS bit that goes on for 30-45 minutes god dammit" it ended up being like maybe ten minutes at most which was SUCH A GODSEND. i am delighted to report that they cut the half hour cooking bit in the first episode down to like 7-8 minutes <3 the best surprise ranboo could have given me tbh. like with the way things were cut down and framed differently i actually laughed at a couple points????? WILD. did not think i would find any genuine comedy here. lowkey there were points that were funny. insane

honestly with the unfunny bits being cut down, it actually let the slightly more serious lore bits shine more, and the payoff for when it got to the third episode felt SO much more deserved. like. the original streams i'd probably give a 3/10 collectively and that's being generous but i would unironically say the founder's cut deserves like a 7/10. maybe a 7.5 if i found it in myself to ignore the bad special effects. (there was still plenty of bad comedy ngl i still don't know why charlie slimecicle's face was superimposed on a towel. that scene was nothing. it was literally nothing. they could have removed it and it would change nothing but they kept it in idk why)

ANYWAY. if they had released genloss like this first maybe i would unironically be a fan of it now. tbh. i would still be making fun of the bad comedy and the horror that was barely horror but i think i would actually be like participating in the fandom a lil and i would probably find it in me to find some charm in the bad special effects. all in all Not Bad!! not good, but not like actively bad. ofc im still running on the adrenaline of the ending because episode 3 was objectively the best out of them all so maybe my perception is skewed but. kinda decent. 7/10 👍 anyway i hope ur havin a good day i hope to finish pd season one soon over the next couple days!!!!!

taking the cowards route and putting my thoughts under the cut bc a lot of my mutuals these days really enjoy genloss and i don't want them to be mad at me

(genloss crit/neg/whatever under the cut)

dude this makes me so unironically sad . why the FUCK was genloss what it was the first time around when this was obviously the better route to go from the very beginning. I am still staunchly in my "I don't like genloss" position but. I DID WATCH IT. i sat through ALL of the original streams and it was so miserable for me. im not going 2 watxh the directors cut or whatever bc i dont hate myself enough to sit through all of that again but i trust your opinion!! if only it would've been planned out thought out prerecorded videos from the start I also probably would not hate it as much as I do!!! maybe I even would've liked it !!! (<< not likely bc i do have Other Issues with it than just the fact that it was too long too unfunny too unfocused etc whatever im getting into hater territory sorry. always welcome 2 genloss fans to try to explain to my why its Good Actually so i can recommend them actual horror media)

like . the streams added absolutely NOTHING to it other than that final choice scene or whatever. and even if they wanted to do that still u know what would've been an awesome smart choice??? prerecord and edit the whole thing and then premiere THAT video on twitch- then when it comes time for the final choice you can still have people vote!! then you can have two separate endings prepared based on which way the vote was swaying. like. its that easy. it would've made the whole experience so much more enjoyable . ughhghghg the fucking wasted potential on HOURS of unfunny badly improvved bits is so devastating

personally I still cant excuse the bad effects considering the amount of times ranboo bragged about the genloss budget like. maybe you should've used your resources better and also if it would've just been prerecorded from the start things wouldn't look as rushed as they did but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ what do I know !!

anyway I'm so glad this version was better but for me it will always ALWAYS be tainted by the . misery I felt while watching the streams lmaoooo . I wanted to like genloss so bad. I tried so hard. head in hands !!!!!!!!!!!

[rock-n-onyx]

uhmsuhms so ok so you get the Haven. That is most written out oc who isnt a fandom one or anything,,,,,Or persona. Persona in oc world is lored up but dont feel like sharing.yet.

This blorb except I rewrote entire backstory because felt uncomfy with somethings

>O<

Okay okay this is prolly a lot and maybe too mych and uhmuhm yeyyeye

~ Basic Info ~

Haven (God. Of. Fate) | 20yo. | They/Them pronouns- Don't mind being reffered to as He/She though

> They can no longer age, such is the curse of being throned a god.

Has a partner (Cas) To which they are very happy gayly in love- And engaged!

|| Despite commonly being seen and misinterpreted as a girl, Haven's actually amab, which makes it more fun to fuck with people- Especially people who try to be mean.

:: A survivor of the old world (1/6)

Like to dress howerever, after all "Gender is bullshit" They will be as silly as they want- Always

Not only sarcastic, but also heavy with the randomest dark humor jokes to cope with any problems.. With close friends only (<Will eventually get therapy, just not ready to open up to some stranger)

Hates cooking, please dont make them do it, they cooked an egg following a recipe perfectly and it STILL ended up charred black

> No label for sexuality. They don't care, just love their partner.

the only happy ending they need is to stay with their partner. Even if they die together, even if they lost everything- Just would find comfort in being with Cas as any happy ending.

Very protective of friends/family. You don't fuck with someone they care about without having consequences

Originally their hair was a beautiful brown, yet now it only growns black and white. They call ot a curse- And specify no more then that

--|~|--

Okaokay backstory ihmuhmugxjnmmfmsnnfnsnf

Haven's childhood was. Unfortunate to say the least. Their father passed young due to health issues and sickness, though he was happy being there for at least two years.

After that it was just Haven and their mother. Who didn't know how to raise a boy. For years, she did try to be a good mother, she tried to love Haven and raise a healthy boy, but at the cost of her own sanity, and at some point she started breaking and falling apart.

It very quickly lead to emotional and mental abuse. Their mother was a mess, and she would constantly take out her emotions on Haven.

- Though she would never physically due something, the yelling and everything... It wasn't good. She was always greiving, and Haven was mostly just left alone for far too long as their mother would lock herself in her room constantly..

Haven was 11 when that changed. When the neglect and emotionsl abuse had come to an end. Because her mother had gotten so unstable, and due to the terrible smell that had come from the house- Neighbors assumed it was just hording, but when someone came to check on the two...

Haven had been left alone with their mothers slowly rotting corpse, as she hung from a noose... As she was written in a note; Sorry for being a bad mother, and willing to go away so Haven didn't deal with her anymore.

Haven at that point, just eventually moved around houses until being placed with their not much better grandparents! The place they lived in was filthy, and just disgusting. Haven was only there for a year, until eventually, almost at the age of thirteen-- ran away.

--> Haven had met Cas and [Spirit] when they were 7, they were best friends, as well as <spirits younger sister> ...They were close, and when haven ran away, they went to [Spirit] because they were closer..

Haven eventually moved in with [Spirit's] parents... Sister. Who was sweet. and absolutely adoring of Haven. She was there even when around fourteen, Haven started messing with their identity.

They wanted to be more. They saw girls wear dresses, and they wanted to do that too... For a year (14-15) they thought they may have been a girl! Where- Haven's name came from. It wasnt always Haven, but legally they had changed it finding their previous name.. Didnt feel right for them.

Around 16, they finally landed on their identity; Nonbinary. They felt both genders, and in a way neither at the same time. Yet the name Haven, they still loved.

By this time, Haven and Cas also got into a relationship- Nothing too serious, started platonic as they were both uncertain of their feelings.

...They had been 16 for 135 days, before the withering happened. They lost their new loving and caring mother, as she protected them. As she saved them, when the world around broke.

Haven and Cas got seperated when getting saved by morality... Both believed the other to be dead. For a while.

When being saved by morality, Haven was brought to somewhere unfamiliar. A field of flowers, yet, nothing felt real. All that layed ahead of them was a cursed mask.

They never would be a god, had they never touched the mask- But no matter...

They were 18 when they finally were able to leave, when they finally could control the abilities they had now... Which they hated- And instantly their goal became finding out what happened to Cas.

It only took a few months for them to be reunited, able to walk the same land, hug again... And for once- Kiss.

Eventually they'd meet up with some of the others too. Which brings the end... To the start of a beginning.

--

\\ There are holes and gaps in what happened as they became god. All thats known is that it wasn't easy. Especially knowing how long it took to be ALLOWED to leave.... but they know their role now. -R

...Only 2 people have had contact with morality, too hear them.. Know them... Haven is one. (1/2)

<3

Haven is my skrunkly blorbo and has been in many many forms and pasts and. Has changed a lot from what was. Has been everywhere and one of the few ocs i think didnt come from an old name i used.....

Used to be like an inserted oc into fandom canon whatever but i mean. Mehhhhh didnt fit up and interests changed so dragged back to the thinking chambers and YAH

anyways maybe i should post onto oc blog again but also lazy

GNDJQJFJVKVFJRIFN HOLY SHIT I LOVE IT

SO IN DEPTH??? I LOVE???

[bestworstcase]

@based7100 this tag made me snicker so

#forbidden tdt lore!

forbidden tdt lore!

we are not going to get into the whole entire TDT Salem Backstory for spoiler reasons and also because my gods we’d be here all day. the salient piece with regard to her semblance is that through the vast majority of the epoch between the moonfall and humanity’s return salem was experiencing varying degrees of deep deep psychosis and still, to this day, doesn’t really know How Much of what happened during that time was real. once there were people again and she’d had a few centuries to feel mostly sure of this fact, her semblance crystallized from her determination to. uh. live in this world.

(blows a kiss to ice queendom for giving me a leg to stand on here with this being in scope of what semblances can do.)

the baseline ability lets her enter and arrange her own mind as a tangible, real physical place. she has constructs representing memories, feelings, ideas, beliefs, pathways and architecture that she’s built out over thousands of years to guide and contain her thinking within the bounds she finds comfortable. which all adds up to salem being very weird but cogent Most Of The Time and having things she can do to ground herself when it gets. bad again.

in a sense her semblance is itself a realm. not a very large one—back of napkin estimate it takes about two hours to walk across end to end and four top to bottom following the main thoroughfare. but akin to ozma’s reliquaries in that it’s a real place where, conceivably, anyone could go if she opened a door. the pool of grimm and the waters of life are both In There.

(<- i had all this sketched out pre-v9 which made the salem-wrote-it ever after theory VERY FUNNY. btw)

sustaining that requires a Tremendous Amount of aura obviously but salem has an infinite reserve and also has been at it for almost the entire history of humankind 2: electric boogaloo so She’s Fine. anyway

that’s the foundation. the fun thing about giving salem a semblance of course is her immortality. what happens if you take a semblance and give it thousands upon thousands of years to cook? (one of my reasons for devising hers this way was to impose some restriction on the answer; it projects inward, not outward, because it’s a staircase she had to build to find the outside world. it can’t go the other way.)

when it originally manifested, the one point of ingress was through her dreams. (although the dividing lines between dreaming and waking and lucid semblance dreams were… permeable.) then she figured out how to cast herself in and out while awake, and from there developed a technique for making doors, which correlated with the interior construct becoming more real and let her physically enter it from remnant.

later on she decided that, since she could open the door in her semblance from anywhere on remnant, that door should also be able to open anywhere on remnant she felt like from the inside, and i think she spent a Long Time trying to make that work before it occurred to her that she could just… make more doors. (from the inside, a door always opens to where it was last opened from without; she still has not cracked this. but she does have a set of doors that all lead to destinations she’s “saved.”)

so she can use her semblance to travel, central location style, across remnant.

the other big thing she’s figured out how to do is use her semblance on other people, projecting herself into constructs of their minds. these aren’t real in the same way, they’re very dreamlike and fade when she withdraws, and of course she won’t have absolute control in a spatial model of someone else’s mind, but as you can imagine few of the outcomes of having salem in your head are pleasant. among other things this is how she “teaches” people how to communicate with grimm.

[jollyinha]

I have brought... My YuuriVoice listeners.

...On The Sims, because I can't draw for shit. I spent pretty much the whole day redesigning (except Rookie, who already got a glow up bc he's my favorite child) and dressing them up like Barbie dolls lol

DISCLAIMER: I'm being a lil' poser because I have never watched Bittersweet nor the Faust audios (and yet I still have Sugarboo and Star done, go figure), and am catching up on Lost and Found as I type this. ANYWAY HERE ARE MY BABIES, MORE INFO ON THEM UNDER THE CUT YIPPEEEEEEEE

FÉLIX/ROOKIE:

- As previously mentioned, he's my favorite child, sorry not sorry, I adore this boy so much

- Dumb of ass and home of sexual (out of the closet to everyone except his mom, oof), pulled a millionaire CEO with his ADHD swag. Also canonically a cheeky horny bastard

- An artist (draws/paints and crafts all sorts of stuff) at heart, but had to pursue a more lucrative career in order to support his family. So, Law school it is. Viva le capitalism

- Is an ENFP and his birthday is on February 16th

- His mother is Brazilian and his dad was Colombian. They have been living in the USA since Félix was a young child. He also has a little sister (not so little, she's in college by the time Shattered begins) whom he loves very much and basically raised her, to the point where she sees him as his dad more than their actual dad (whom passed away when she was a toddler)

- Has an excellent relationship with his uncle (and his wife), aunt and cousins. Him and Joy/Sunflower don't meet that often bc she lives a bit far away, but when they do, they share the same braincell

- Appears to be suave and chill when he's at work, but he's actually a SOFTIE. The biggest golden retriever... Well, not literally the biggest. He's 5'7ft/1m69cm. Compared to Auron, he's pocket-sized. But anyway-

- He loves Trish. They bully Auron together. Incredible dynamic

- Has pyrophobia bc ✨ PAST TRAUMA ✨. Began cooking as a hobby to try to work through it

- Likes: Arts, cooking, biking, peacocks, sun imageries (long story), sea monsters and plaid jackets

- Félix has SO MUCH LORE and tidbits (like his tattoos!) about him, I would need an entire separate post to tell it all. And I might do it bc I need that sweet infodump dopamine...

JOYCE "JOY"/SUNFLOWER

- Actually my first YV OC! I met the channel through the infamous Finn compilation

- Bisexual! Finn is her first serious boyfriend, though, up until she met him, she only had girlfriends... And she had the worst luck with all of them. Oof

- Colombian, just like Félix

- Huge animal lover, especially the aquatic critters and reptiles. Has a Bull Terrier named Cow (yes, that's her name.) that has her entire heart. Currently trying to get a job in the veterinarian field! Just... Don't put bugs near her. Please

- Is an ESFP and her birthday is on July 27th... The day the Finn compilation premiered

- Her mother had her pretty young. She doesn't know who her father is, and her mom refuses to talk about it... But tbh, Joy doesn't care that much. She loves her mama, and that's all that matters

- (also her mother loves Finn dearly. everytime they meet, he leaves with a piece of cake or some other home made food bc she loves to spoil her "son-in-law" lmao)

- Surfs on her spare time! Queen shit! Also plays a bit of soccer

- Had pretty severe acne as a teen and still has its marks

- Golden retriever energy runs in the Torres family, because she has it too

- Likes: Snakes, whales, surfing, soccer (as stressful as it is to watch it lol), jogging, her dog Cow, hoodies, fun scrunchies

CARINA/SUGARBOO

- Like I previously stated, I haven't watched Bittersweet, so, I may not have much to say about Sugarboo except for the (few) misc audios from Al and Seth I have heard... BUT GODDAMNIT SHE'S SO BEAUTIFUL OH GOD

- Straight, but poly

- Japanese, but was born and raised in the USA and, sadly, doesn't has much connection to her roots... Mostly bc she's not super close to her family :(

- (Canonically) Likes to bake! Also cooking, but still has a preference for pastries. Works in a bakery... Which isn't a very healthy workplace, but, oh well

- Is an ESFJ, and her birthday is on January 20th (it's coming!!!!! happy early birthday, queen!!!!!)

- Pulled TWO bitches by having ADHD

- Has A SHIT LOAD of tattoos because she's best friends with a tattoo artist... Who may or may not be Star 👀

- Used to have long hair when she met Alphonse

- She may be Al's impulse control, but Seth is her impulse control 💀

- Calls Alphonse "bug". Earlier on their relationship it was ironically ("so you and me together can be bugaboo!"), but the pet name has stuck

- But in reality, she does have a passion for bugs! Especially butterflies and moths ("NOT Mothman, Seth. Normal, regular moths.")

- Also love cats

- She bullies Seth for believing in cryptids... But believes in aliens

- Again, I haven't watched Bittersweet, so feel free to discard this part if it's contradicting canon events, but... She kind of likes Charlie. She thinks he's cute, even with all the shit that happened

- Likes: Baking, collecting jewelry like some kind of dragon, bugs, cats, tattoos, aliens

ASHER/CASPER

- The coolest mf to ever walk on this earth. I don't make the rules, it's the truth

- FtM trans of gender, also home of sexual

- Just american. F

- Yes, his last name is a Life Is Strange reference, sue me

- I... I have no idea what he works with? Because gotta wait for more Charlie videos to find out wtf canon!Casper is up to he's such a mysterious guy,,,,,

- (I really hope that the "Casper works for Auron" theory is true tho, the Auron/Félix & Charlie/Asher shenanigans would be so funny to imagine)

- What I do know is that he's kind of a gym bro, except if said bro was fruity

- Seriously though, he's a sporty guy. Likes to go jogging, (he and Joy/Sunflower would be good workout buddies!), climbing, hiking, good ol' fashioned working out and, of course, skating! But after Charlie left, he got into roller skating as well, and he's pretty damn good at it

- He's an ISFP, and his birthday is on April 22nd (Earth Day, get it, bc his favorite color is green,,,,,,)

- Disowned by his parents, but was taken in by his uncle and aunt, whom really support him <3

- Has a tooth gap! Cute shit

- Braided his hair as a kid, still does it nowadays. Certain things never change

- He WANTS to get SO MANY TATTOOS AND PIERCINGS... But he has a pretty bad case of trypanophobia (his ears are pierced bc his parents had him pierce it as a baby). Having his top surgery was challenging enough! He just wanted to get some tattoos... :(

- Always carries an extra hair tie on his arm, like a bracelet. Mostly for himself, but sometimes he gives it to Charlie too

- Has dyslexia! Fucking hated school bc of that

- Likes: Skating, roller skating, climbing, collecting sick ass knives, bad horror movies, hair styling (he wanted to be a hairstylist as a kid even!)

- I don't have thaaaaat much to say about him as of right now since I'm still finishing Lost and Found, but he's growing a lot on me, I love him

PAIGE/ANGEL

- URGH I LOVE HER SO MUCH AAAAAAAAAA ULTIMATE SASS AND NIHILISM

- Their relationship with gender is... Confusing. Doesn't like any labels, really. Just go with she/them and you'll be fine. Considers themselves to be pansexual, though

- British ("sadly, stupid ass country"), still has a strong accent even if they have been living in the USA for quite a while

- ...They like tea though

- She works on the IT department of a big company. Boring office job. But she doesn't mind it that much. Everyone is nice enough and it pays the bills. That's more than enough for her

- But besides programming and gaming, her big passion in life is... Sewing! 80% of the plushies in her collection are handmade, including Sir Gengar himself

- Also a huge cinephile

- Is an INTP, and their birthday is on September 4th (it may or may not be a reference to Gengar's pokedex number)

- Pulled a LITERAL DEMON FROM HELL with her autism swag

- Has chronic pain on her left knee due to a past accident

- Obviously, huge Pokémon fan

- Ironically enough, doesn't really like cooking, which explains why their house didn't had shit when it comes to ingredients lol At least now they have a demon boy to cook for them

- Awful relationship with her family. All of it. Ran away for the USA to escape from them

- Doesn't have many friends irl, most of them are virtual friends

- Considers themselves to be "plain and boring". Normally they don't give a damn about it, but got kind of insecure when they and Lucien got officially together... But in their most confident days, they think it's hilarious how the most normal-looking human ever managed to pull a demon

- Deep, deep down, Paige is a sweet and caring person. Heck, that's why her soul was so enticing. She just has trouble demonstrating it (Autistic Struggle™)

- Likes four leaf clovers. No idea why. She just does

- ...I feel like she would watch Faust's streams ironically. She thinks the cat boy is hilarious

- Likes: Cinema, games, programming, plushies making, clovers, tea

ENID/STAR

- ...I haven't watched a single Faust audio in my life, but Enid just... Popped up in my head. Their design came to me and they were yelling at me to bring them to existence. So here they are?????? I really gotta hear the twink's audios any of these days...

- I don't even know much about them tbh lol But here's what I do have:

- Non-binary (AFAB), bisexual

- A tattoo artist! They're Sugarboo's friend that I mentioned all the way up there

- Likes to write and read in their spare time (IMAGINE THEM AND AURON WRITING FANFICTION ABOUT THEIR S/Os! Beautiful)

- Likes to watch sports (don't look like the type, do they?)

- Likes questionable shirts with 80s/90s aesthetics

- I can see them being friends with Paige/Angel, ngl :D

- ...That's all about Enid for now, maybe I'll develop them if I get around to hear more of Faust eventually lol

Idk if there's someone reading all of this, but if there is, tysm for reading this HUGE infodump 🥺 If you have any YV OCs, I would LOVE to hear about them too! My DMs are open!