#but I have never used a game engine so I genuinely have no idea how difficult the development would be

[meliohy]

Does anyone know enough about game design and development to give me some advice?

I'd like to know how realistic it would be to create a web browser 2D pixel art multiplayer game where players can customize rooms and explore them and chat together. Basically create a mix between habbo hotel and manyland.

And how realistic is it considering I'm not actually a developper and only use Python and SQL in my daily life? I did learn other languages but it was a while ago.

I have also never created a website though I know some people who could help me with that.

Anyway I'm a total beginner and don't even know what difficulty this project would be. Does anyone know?

[papaya-twinks]

Oi, oi Frankie!

I have a big ideia for another Lando short fic and I only trust you to write it 🫶🏻 (Hope you like the idea as much as I do)

The idea is: Lando is very good friend with his strategy engineer, the reader (she has the same role as Hannah Schmitz at Redbull).

They often play flirting with each other but the reader thinks it's just an inside joke and that he doesn't have any romantic feelings for her. Because of this, one day when they were a little drunk, the reader blurts out that of that the few sexual experiences she has had in her life, none of them were really good for her and Lando is incredulous. So, he tells her that in the next race he wins, if she has a direct connection with what happened, he will show her how good these activities can be for her in form of thanks, but she doesn't believe it's a promise because he's drunk and they're just friends.

A few races after the "promise", Lando wins the race precisely because of the strategy made by the reader. Neither of them talk about it and just enjoy their victory until the end of the day. Later that night, the reader is surprised by Lando knocking on her door, she doesn't believe he's there because he had gone out with Verstappen and Sainz to celebrate the victory and it was still too early in the night for him to be back and he says something like 'I couldn't keep my girl waiting. especially when I have a promise to keep' (something like that, I'm freaking out imagining it). After that, you know... The reader has the best night of her life

I'm really sorry that my requests are always THIS big (I can't help but give details 😭😭😭)

Warnings: smut, 18+, teasing

Pairing: Lando Norris x fem!reader

“Lando,” you sighed, walking into the garage and seeing the driver perched on one of the ledges, his legs swinging away. “Y/N, strategy meetings suck,” he whined, seeing you walk up to him as you rolled your eyes. “They help you win, Lando,” you raised a brow at him as he huffed. “I won one race,”

“Lando,” it felt like you were talking to a toddler or some disobedient child, “you need to come to the meeting,”. Lando crossed his arms, your eyes narrowing at the almost pouty expression on his face. “Look,” he said, “I won Miami and we didn’t do a strategy meeting coz we were busy playing Mario cart,” he pointed out, making you flush slightly. 

It was true, you had both lost track of time and found yourself playing the game well into the night. “We can have a telepathic thing,” he said, tapping his temples with his finger as you rolled your eyes. “We’ll see about that,” you used, shaking your head at the man in front of you, 

You and Lando had an interesting relationship - you’d both make flirty jokes to each other and think nothing of it. Well, you’d think nothing of it. In your mind, you thought it was just inside jokes and shit, not that Lando actually had feelings for you. That would be dumb…right?

Well, it was safe to say Lando’s telepathic idea had not worked, and he finished the race in second, a good result, yet he was hoping more. “What did I say?” you muses as the man grumbled under his breath, sticky from the champagne as he mumbled something about it being Opposite Day. “Look, why don’t we go out for drinks with Oscar and some others?” you said, seeing he looked genuinely annoyed at the race as he nodded, never one to say no to drinks. 

So you went to the club, you in a pretty black minidress which showed off your gorgeous body, your hair down and makeup done but still slightly natural. You spotted Oscar first, standing by a table as you made your way there, seeing him with his arm lazily round his girlfriend and Lando standing beside them, sipping on his own drinks. “Didn’t even wait for me,” you said in mock offence as Lando spotted you. 

It was almost like you were trying to get him all worked up with your pretty outfit. How he wished you’d just see how much he wanted you. “Nah, I got you one,” Lando grinned, pulling you to sit on the couch beside him and handing you the cup. Oscar smirked or Lily at the interaction but said nothing, choosing to let the situation flow on its own. 

Your conversation started with teasing about the race, Lando’s huffs and protests making you snort with laughter. “Yeah, well you need for fix your telepathy then,” you missed as he rolled his eyes. “Yeah yeah, shut it Y/L/N,” he said, giving you a light push. As you took more of your drink, downing glass after glass after glass, Lando couldn’t help but comment. 

“Jesus, someone’s unwinding,” he mused. “Yeah, shush,” you said, voice slurred slightly. “Awww, how you gonna get home, Y/N?” he grinned, “you can’t even drive. Gonna get your little boyfriend to pick to you up?”. Lando would be lying if he said that the mention of you having a boyfriend, if you did, didn’t get on his nerves, even if he was the one who said it. 

“I don’t have a boyfriend,” you scrunched your nose towards the man in front of you. Oscar and Lily were busy dancing somewhere, leaving you and Lando leaning close to hear each other over the sound of the loud music and lights. The proximity did make Lando slightly nervous, but you seemed fine with it, your head on his shoulder, the smell of your pretty perfume filling his nose. 

“Sex is shit,” you muttered, making Lando perk up. “Sex?” he asked, “where did that come from?”. You shrugged, fiddling with the hem of your dress, your drunken state pulling random statements from your mind. “Every guy I’ve slept with was so bad,” you varied in with your rant as Lando watched with a mix of need, shock and surprise. 

“Really?” he asked, his eyes darkening slightly as he thought for a second. “Yeah,” you shrugged, your drunken mind not clocking his dilated pupils. “Never once had good sex?” he asked, clucking his tongue in mock disappointment. “The world is doomed,” you groaned dramatically, “can’t even find good sex nowadays,”. 

Lando snorted at your sudden comment, his eyes rolling. “Yeah yeah,” he huffed, “I’m good at sex,”. Your eyebrows shot up in surprise at his almost defensive tone, your head cocking. “Yeah, I wouldn’t know,” you giggled, the sound like a melody to Lando. Oh how he’d love to pull out other sounds. Dirtier, filthier noises from your pretty little mouth. 

“D’you think I’m a good strategist?” you asked, your eyes turning to Lando suddenly, his eyebrows shooting up once more. “Bit random,” he mused, tapping his chin in mock thought. “Be honest,” you said, desperate for his honest opinion. He could see you wanted his true opinion so he shrugged and gave it to you. 

“I think you’re amazing,” though Lando could still see the uncertainty in your eyes, the alcohol no doubt doubling the feeling inside of you. “Got an idea, Y/N,” Lando said, leaning forwards, your eyes brightening with curiosity. “If we win the next race,” he spoke slowly, his voice tantalisingly slowly as you leaned forwards too, sitting on the edge of the sofa. 

“And the strategy is coz of you,” his hand ran lazily up your thigh, stopping to fiddle with the hem of your dress as your eyes traced his finger, “I’ll show you all the things you want from sex…and more,”. Your eyes widened at the proposition, thoughts of professionalism and your job not even once entering your mind as you nodded slowly. 

“How does that sound?” Lando asked, looking at your face for any sense or hint of fear or uncertainty. “Deal,” you said firmly, his hand moving off your thigh. “Then we have an arrangement,” he clapped his hands, his tone shifting as Oscar and Lily returned. 

The British Grand Prix, Lando’s home race, where he was desperate to score a win. And so, for the first time in a few races, Lando actually turned up to the strategy meeting and paid attention - well, more attention on the way your skirt rode  up when you walked, his tongue flicking to the corners of his mouth as he usually did. Your eyes darted to him every few seconds, noticing the way he stared. 

God knows if the damn information actually went into his head. “Okay Lando, qualifying,” you clapped your hands, taking control of his radio for this weekend. “Okay Y/N, qualifying,” he mimicked you as you rolled your eyes. “Behave,” you said, well aware the radio could be broadcasted for the world to see. 

Lando had said much worse things, a few of your favourites being: ‘tickle my pickle for a nickel’ or ‘Y/N preferred the hards to the softs, then we had to get the wets’. The second sentence didn’t even sound weird, but the way he’d said it? Jesus, this man was trying to kill. 

“Now, what about you listen to my strategy, yeah?” you asked, listening for his answer. “Sorry mum,” he grumbled, but listened anyways. And, as predicted, he qualified in P2. Not P1, due to a slip up on the final lap, but P2 anyways. “Told ya,” you said, but he waved it off. “Yeah yeah, I said a win,”. 

Your thoughts immediately flicked to the promise he’d made, and some sort of fire seemed to light inside of you, desperate to secure your driver a first place. “Okay, Lando,” you said, “you’re running P2, but George isn’t pitting,”. Lando responded with a quick ‘yep’ as he drove round the bends of Maggots and Becketts. 

“Lando, box, now,” you said, watching him drive down the straight. “Y/N, next lap, we-,” you cut him off. “You said you’d listen, Lando, and I say pit now,”. He grumbled something incoherent but drove into the pit lane anyways, pitting. “What did I say?” you grinned as he came out in first, effectively undercutting George. 

“I hate that you’re a smart ass,” Lando grumbled, though there was a hint of a teasing tone in his voice. You watched as he walked out of the car, jumping into the arms of the team. “I said first, Lando, and that’s what I got you!” you grinned, shouting over the noise of the cheering team. He smiled and hugged you back, but didn’t mention the promise from earlier. 

“Where’s Lando?” you walk into the garage, looking to Oscar. “Gone to party with Max and Carlos,” the Aussie answered and you nodded. You guessed it was true - Lando probably didn’t actually mean his promise, did he? He was just drunk and it slipped out. You ended up going back to your apartment, sending Lando a quick ‘well done x’ text. 

Sure, you were a little upset that he didn’t end up fulfilling his promise but you never truly believed he would. You were sitting on your bed, wearing a thin night gown with your black lace bra and short shorts visible. Just as you were laying on your stomach, scrolling through your social, the sound of your apartment doorbell went off, making you frown. 

Who the hell was at your door at 11pm? You grumbled something under your breath as you walked to the door, peeking round so your body wasn’t on show. “Lando?” you cocked your head, seeing him standing outside in a white button up shirt, open at the top and exposing his tan chest, accented with pretty chains. His curls were slightly ruffled, cheeks flushed red as he gripped a bundle of flowers in his hand. 

“Y/N, thank god,” he said, seeing you there, his flushed cheeks fading slightly. You were still hiding behind the door, only your face on show. “Sorry to keep the pretty girl waiting,” he said voice laced with small hints of shyness. Cute. “Thanks, Lando,” you took the bundle of flowers from him, opening the door to let him in. His jaw visible dropped when his eyes landed on your body. 

You didn’t notice, busying yourself with placing the bouquet into a vase, the pretty dark red roses adding so much colour to your little apartment. “So,” you said, clapping your hands as if to prompt him to continue and say what he needed to. Surprisingly, his promise hadn’t crossed your mind as the reason he could be here. 

“Remember the promise?” he said, his voice laced with slight disappointment that you’d forgotten. “I hadn’t forgot,” you said quietly, “I didn’t think you’d act on it,”. Lando raised a brow at your words as you walked up the stairs, his body quickly behind you. “I’d be a dick if I didn’t,”. You inhaled sharply as you felt him shut the door, before pressing your body to it, your eyes wide. 

“Lando…” you trailed off, eyes wide. “You don’t have to,”. A sort of scoff left his lips as he watched you, his eyes flickering to your lips every few seconds. “Do you not want me to?” he asked, his voice huskier than usual. “I do,” you said. That was all the confirmation he needed as he slipped your night gown off, his eyes roaming over your lacy bra and shorts. “God you’re so pretty,” he groaned. 

A small blush formed on your face at his appraisal, his eyes taking in your natural beauty. You gasped as his hand tangled into your hair, pulling your head to the side softly to press kisses to your neck. A small whimper left your lips as he nipped at your collarbone, his hands me in to grip yours together, holding your wrists above your head. “I’m gonna make you feel so good,” he whispered, lifting you into his arms. 

You wrapped your arms round his neck as he lifted you, dropping you onto the bed softly. You landed with a gentle ‘thump’ as he moved to remove his own shirt, your eyes trailing over the small beauty marks across his body. “Like what you see?” he asked smugly, as you shook your head,his cockiness being a defining part of him. 

“Yeah, yeah,” you shook your head as he smirked. Your eyes widened as he grabbed your thighs, his nails digging into your plush flesh softly as he pulled your body to him, your legs instinctively wrapping round his waist. “Needy,” he clucked his tongue, his finger pulling your shorts down as his eyes widened, trailing over the wetness between your legs. 

Immediately, you went shy, squeezing your legs together in embarrassment as he frowned. “No, no, don’t,” Lando said, shaking his head as he forced his hand between your legs. “You’re beautiful,” he hummed, moving to kneel between your legs. A small moan left your lips as he licked a long stripe across your core, his fingers dipping into your heat to tease at your entrance. 

Your back arched slightly as he started to flick his tongue against your bundle of nerves, his finger, still adorned with a ring, pressing to your opening. Your hands gripped at his curls, not hard, but enough to channel the pleasure from his licks. A small gasp left your lips as he pushed his finger in, the coldness of his rings contrasting the heat of your body as he pumped slowly, his middle finger coming to tease beside your index. 

“Lando, feels so good,” you mumbled, his lips slickening as he pressed wet kisses to your core. You moaned as Lando added another finger, sliding his digits in and out of you as his tongue moved, skilled and evidently well experienced. A small whine of protest left your lips as he moved his mouth away, his cheek coated in your wetness as he still slid his finger in and out of you, 

Your body arched towards him as he carried on moving, his other hand coming to unbuckle his trousers. A small gasp left your lips as his cock sprung free against his abdomen, your eyes wide. “Fucking hell,” you gasped, eyes wide at his length. Lando seemed to notice your slight hesitation as he pressed a soft kiss to your lips. 

“I’ll go soft,” he smiled gently, moving his finger out of you as he ran his tip through your folds a few times, pulling whimpers from your lips as he slickened himself. “Lando!” you squeaked, your nails digging into his biceps as he pushed into you a groan leaving his lips. “That’s it,” he mumbled, “you’re taking it so well, love,”.

A soft moan left your lips as he started rocking gently, your eyes rolling gently. “Such a good strategist, aren’t you?” Lando groaned, his thrusts picking up pace. “Even better beneath me,” his voice was airy and breathy as he carried on, your body rocking with each movement, small moans of pleasure leaving your lips. 

“Taking me so well,” he leaned forwards to press wet kisses to your jaw, your hands digging into his back as your legs wrapped round his thigh. “I’m close,” you whimpered, your eyes squeezed shut as you gripped him, desperate to feel your orgasm. A hiss left Lando’s lips as you clenched round him, his hands moving to grip your hair softly. “Thats it,” he panted, his thrusts slamming into your body fast. 

“Should do this before and after every race,” he mumbled, “I’d win every time,”. You gasped as your high washed over you, your hands gripping his arms as he groaned, your movements and the way you clenched round him bringing his own orgasm too. You gasped as you felt his cum shoot in thick hot ropes inside of you as he pulled out slowly. “Let go, baby,” he chuckled, hints of exhaustion in his voice as you clenched round him again. 

Your body calmed from your high as he lifted you to sit on his lap, your eyes wide from rub feeling. “Felt good?” Lando asked, his eyes trained on you as he held you to his chest, grabbing a small towel from the side to wipe your thighs and his own body. “Stay,” you mumbled, gripping his shoulders tightly as he smiled. “I will,” he grinned. 

[rea-can-yeet]

I’m not reallyy confident with this oneeee lmao. Probably should have not wrote this during a burn out. I wonder if I could draw my barbie series this week

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REMINDER: This is gender neutral for all readers. Sagau stands for Self Aware Genshin Alternative Universe, but this is leaning much towards the God/Creator AU where the characters are aware that they’re being controlled but not aware enough to know that they’re in a game. This story is set in God/Creator AU, imposter AU, and lastly villain AU. This contains religious and cult themes, graphic violence, and probably some suggestive scenes (not this chapter yet, but the series will show some) so viewer’s discretion is advised.

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🔻

🔻

♦️

𝕄𝕌𝕋𝕀ℕ𝔼𝔼ℝ

Y/n was known as someone... normal to most. But if you have taken the time to get to know them, going so far as saying that you've known them for their whole life, you'd know Y/n as someone who'd be willing to commit a crime if the need arises. Such a thing has not happened so far (or at least one that gets the authorities’ attention), because Y/n's tenacity to thrive with their own hard work and resources has carried them away from resorting to such actions.

Y/n was clever.

Not a genius, but clever enough to survive in this generation's fast pace and harsh waters veiled under surface media's insistent idea of a calm country.

That's what Y/n's friend believes. This girl was fortunate enough to have been born wealthy, in contrast to her friend, Y/n, who was not poor but not well-off enough. She thinks Y/n was heaven-sent. No one was as loyal as them. Most approached her for their own selfishness, for their own benefit. Honestly, the world has less and less dependable and honest folks these days, she thought. Y/n was the only person to not try to exploit her ever since kindergarten and genuinely was a true friend to her to this day.

But like the wise once said; no one is perfect.

Y/n is nice… but is not harmless.

Y/n is clever, and parents who have no wealth enough to protect their child, have honed Y/n to survive any worst-case scenario. Be it how to manage money and tax, how to find a job, how to fix house materials, how to survive in the wild, how to defend against assailants that are twice their size, and other skills beneficial for Y/n.

Their parents almost thought that most of the knowledge they've bestowed on Y/n would prove to be useless in this current generation, but one could never be too careful.

They're happy for their child, how reliable they are, how Y/n used their parent's teachings as the foundation to hone their own weapon and armor, using the resources from this generation accompanied by old techniques to thrive. And they’re glad to see how Y/n is still capable of being kind despite having the child see the world without the rose-tinted glasses.

But for Y/n's friend, it's different. But it is normal for parents not to know every aspect of their child, right? The parents are correct when they believe that Y/n is nice yet strong, but the side of Y/n that is capable of being unhinged is something Y/n would keep to themselves to save their parents from a heart attack. But as Y/n's friend, she had the privilege to know this side of them.

The one who gets to see the Y/n that doesn't have the goody-two-shoes on to save them from any inconvenience.

The one who gets to see the Y/n that would use their cleverness to seek vengeance against others.

"Did you hear? I heard that the teacher from the other department got a suspension. Maybe getting fired."

"Right? The same person that accused a student from the Engineering department of stealing."

"A friend of mine who had a friend from that department said that the student was innocent."

"How did they prove it?"

"I heard that they still had the receipt from when they last shopped at a store. The time the teacher claimed that the student had stolen from her classroom was around the time that the student was shopping. The receipt contained the purchases as well as the date and time the transaction happened in there, serving as their alibi."

"How lucky that the student hasn't thrown away any receipts that day, huh?"

"Right? I'd throw away the receipt after shopping if it were me. I'm still trying to wrap my head around that teacher possibly getting fired. She's been suspected of drug use. The superiors and the police are still looking into it."

"I heard someone had given evidence to the police. A CCTV footage or something. This week has been full of things to distract me from mid-terms. And it doesn't help that the jock Steph has been admiring got kicked out from the basketball team."

"Yeah, not that I'm surprised after what he did. The captain must have been so livid to find his girlfriend's panties inside that guy's locker."

"Don't you think it's possibly the girlfriend's fault though? Like how did her panties get inside his locker? Sus..."

"No, the girl was with the captain the whole time... Oh and..."

The two students that were walking in front of her had finally swerved into a new topic while taking a left towards their classroom. She can only sigh, seriously, who knew criminology students can be this nosy? Then again, she could see how this characteristic could be useful for them.

She too, enters her classroom upon arriving. She spots her h/c friend playing with their phone, and she approaches. She sits down on the chair beside them, greeting them a good morning to which Y/n reciprocates before proceeding to finish their game.

“Hey, the prof. is coming.”

“Haha, I won’t fall for that again.” Y/n laughs lightly, eyes still on their screen.

“I know, but I want to talk with you about something.” And with this, Y/n turns off their phone to face her.

“Y’know, I heard people talking about the incident with that Karen teacher… and also the jock.”

Y/n hums, a smile on their face. “Hmm is that so?”

She watches Y/n place a hand under her chin with the elbow propped on their table, finger tapping on their cheek as Y/n wears a wider smile, eyes crinkling in faux innocence. “I guess it can’t be helped. I too would do the same.”

The girl can only sigh at her friend who was still holding that innocent look in their e/c eyes. She stops beating around the bush and gets to the point, curiosity eating at her as she is dying to know what Y/n had done this time. “Good thing that you still carried around that receipt Y/n. You wouldn’t have proved that you’re not a thief. But please bless your friend with the tea cuz I’m dying to know. Like, everything. From the teacher to the jock, everything bestie babes.”

She watch Y/n who only giggled, as if they have not just ruined someone. “Easy peasy, I followed my parent’s tips about keeping receipts. And used a good data recovery app to get the deleted CCTV footage.”

“I’ll hit you y’know.” She said annoyed as Y/n laughs. They then decide that they’re already done messing around and explain to their dear friend everything that happened. Not that it’s anything amazing in Y/n’s eyes. To them, it wasn’t that hard or anything incredible, just actions that they needed to take, but who were they to deny their friend to satiate their curiosity? Someone’s gotta entertain a rich girl’s dull life, and Y/n happens to provide enough exciting exploits.

.

.

.

.

.

You wonder how Bennett is taking this whole thing. He knows you, he knows that you know him. If someone knows someone’s name when they just met should garner suspicion. But he didn’t even think twice to help you. This doesn’t make sense to you.

And despite this being a game in your world, you have expected that there’s a system procedure that should have been followed, and bringing you to Jean immediately is something weird. Why is a stranger suddenly being brought to the acting grandmaster? Shouldn’t you be brought to someone of low rank for help or investigation till your situation was deemed appropriate to be handled by someone higher? After all, you’re not an immediate priority, so why bring you to Jean?

You both are walking down towards the city you assume. And so far Bennett was such a kind young man, the same from the game. Helping you out when you almost tripped (intentionally), gave you something to eat, and even showed a bright smile every time you show appreciation towards him. You decided to even shower some small compliments towards the poor boy, to which he gets shy, rubbing his head while bashfully looking away.

After walking for some time you realize the exact location you have arrived. It turns out that you woke up on the edge of the Snow-Covered Path. And now the two of you are walking on a path that leads to Daduapa Gorge. Following this (long) path, it will lead you to Windrise and then eventually to Mondstadt. If you were still in control of the game, you would have resorted to either just using the waypoints or scaling the mountains for shortcuts rather than using the current path. But Bennett insisted that following the path was much safer.

You think you have cozied him enough.

“So I want to ask you something, Bennett.” You asked, eyes staring at a sunsettia, pushing down the urge to ‘farm’ it. He looks at you, his attention bare for your question. “You seem to know me. May I ask? How do you know me?”

“What do you mean, your grace?” Asked Bennett, confused. At least Bennett is comfortable enough that he does not hesitate to answer without worrying about his words.

“Why do you call me ‘Your Grace’ Bennett?”

He pauses his steps and so do you. “You… You don’t know who you are?

“Well, I know my name is Y/n. Grew up in C/n, an Aerospace Engineer student, e/c eyes and h/c hair, home address is XXXXXXX, and still waiting for TBHK season two. I know myself completely, from childhood, my emo era, to my current state now. What I’m confused about is why I’m called the way you’re calling me now.”

“Do you at least know about Teyvat? Me? Your chosen blessed vessels? The Grand Plan?” He asks, every question turning him even more worried.

“I mean, I can’t lie. I know you, I know about Teyvat. Not much about chosen blessed vessels or the Grand Plan trademark.” It looks like it’s not just Bennett who got comfortable.

Bennett’s eyes shined at the prospect of you getting closer to understanding what he meant, although slightly. “Yes, Your Grace! Me and Teyvat!”

“However, that does not answer my question. Why do you call me that?”

“I…” His smile falters, “You don’t know what you are?”

You chuckle, “How am I supposed to know if you don’t tell me.”

“You’re supposed to be our creator!” He said worriedly, eyes expectant.

“You’re what now?” You said almost immediately.

“Our divine Creator! The one who breathes life into Teyvat! Who makes anything move according to your will! Weaving fate towards the ultimate Grand Plan. You who…” His voice lowers, eyes cast down, “You who made me feel like I was not worthless…”

“Benny… You are never worthless.” You reassured, hand on his shoulder.

Bennett suppressed the feeling of melting right there on the spot, your touch was comforting, it made him drop any guard he had and the urge to just lean onto you was so immense but he refrains. ‘You really are the creator… I can feel it.’

“But still, me? Creator? How? I don’t think I’m this omnipotent being you’re talking about. I don’t have memories of making Teyvat.” You said after letting go of his shoulder and stepping back a bit.

‘For all we know, this could just be the regular Teyvat. Then again, this Teyvat may as well be the Teyvat in my account too. We’ll confirm that when we find what point of the story Aether is in now. If it’s the same as in my account, then this is Teyvat from my account. If he’s on his way to leave Sumeru to look for the Hydro Archon, then it’s the cannon Teyvat of Mihoyo.’

She internally sighs, ‘But will that be enough to tell? Even if Aether is at the point of the story where I have last left him, I don’t think it’s enough to prove that this is my account. I need more concrete evidence. Knowing what state Teyvat is in right now will help me in getting back home... I hope.’

“Is there proof that I’m this… Creator? I don’t even know what you mean about this blessed vessel thing.”

“You know me but you don’t know the other vessels? And the Grand Plan?” He asked, “The last person your divine gaze has been on was the Traveler.”

You register what he meant about blessed vessels. It took some time to connect the dots but you get it now. The last character you used to farm was Aether, the Traveler. So these ‘blessed’ vessels are the characters that you control. And ‘divine gaze’ is probably you using them. Now how odd… divine gaze? Why does it sound familiar to you?

Ah right. Isn’t that what Blueberry- correction, Il Dottore, said during the Harbinger’s trailer? About Scaramouche conquering the divine gaze and shit? Well, you don’t really have time to contemplate that yet. Especially when you notice Bennett getting worried about your silence. You give him a smile.

“Ah, right. I didn’t really understand at first, but by vessels, do you mean the people I have controlled? Like Ae- the Traveller, Mona, Klee, you, Kaeya, and the others from here and the other nations?”

Bennett’s eyes brighten when the two of you have somehow landed on the same idea now, finally making an understanding with each other. “Yes! See? I knew you’d remember!”

“Hold your horses, little guy,” you let out a laugh, “I control some of you, so what? That does not answer my true identity.”

“But what powerful being could make us feel like we’re in a dream? Being controlled and making us stronger? No one in Teyvat could do that, at least control a lot of people without brainwashing or any dark magic according to Miss Lisa. You control us with divine powers that are strong yet warm at the same time. You gave us gifts, strength, and unforgettable adventures.”

You’re eyes widened. Of course, why didn’t you think of that?

“Okay, million dollar question-” Bennett’s confused but still listens, “-did you receive a Skyward Blade? Like around recently?”

Bennett gasps before nodding vigorously. “Yes! Yes, I did!” A bounce on his step as he gets a bit closer, “I heard you whisper that you’d test it out on a few Hilichurls! We took down at least 4 camps the other day!”

‘He’s right.’

“Then, did you also go around and collected a bunch of Sweet Flowers after?”

“Yes! We collected some Sweet Flowers and a few Sunsettias.”

‘Okay, holy crap this is my account.’ You thought while holding your head a bit. That’s one mystery closed, but didn’t mean that you have your questions answered.

“So everyone in Teyvat just collectively agreed that whoever is controlling you all are… your god?”

Seems impossible for you. Who in their right mind would just automatically say that you’re god? You know some well-brained characters in the game, those who are also politically influential and prodigies in certain fields, would find it concerning to suddenly lose their own control and start running around.

“Could you explain this Creator thing? I first used- I first had Amber as a vessel aside from the Traveler, it should have been worrying for Amber to suddenly lose control of herself. But looking at it, you act as if it’s not a huge concern. How are you confident that the one who is controlling her is your so-called Creator?”

Bennett nods, digesting his Creator’s question. He doesn’t understand why his creator is not sure, but he’ll try to help explain however he could.

“When Amber first got ‘pulled’ towards the divine light, she went to acting grand master Jean, I was there when I was getting treated by Barbara with Jean visiting the church for an inspection. At first, it was concerning but after some investigation with Jean and Miss Lisa, it was confirmed that it was the Creator. Then everyone was happy to have you showing yourself after going missing for centuries. According to Miss Lisa, you have a Grand Plan to guide the people, saying that salvation will come in a form of a person, with you guiding them.”

“Lisa said that? How do you think she knows that? And what is this Grand Plan?”

“Miss Lisa has read all the information regarding the Creator during her time in Sumeru and even from the books here in Mondstadt, she said. I don’t know about this Grand Plan too, no one does. Some have theories, but the only one who knows is the Creator. We thought only Mondstadters got the opportunity to be blessed as vessels, but it turns out others from different nations got the same treatment. Everyone has now believed that you’re starting to let your presence known.”

‘Huh, I guess I have a somewhat established title here for such a long time? And with religious power to boot? This is already starting to get even more confusing. Answers are only bringing in more questions.’

“You don’t remember the Grand Plan?” Asked Bennett worriedly, you could only smile.

“I’m sorry, I don’t.”

Bennett can only shake his head. “It’s just… you’re suddenly showing signs of activity and with your actions so far that matches with the scriptures and the bible, we knew that you were our Creator! So what if you forget about the Grand Plan? You’re already showing signs of being our Creator! You know about our adventure, it showed that you have been with us with your divine presence. You’ve made me stronger, you gifted me this amazing sword. To me, you’re the Creator I’ve been praying to.”

‘Is he trying to encourage me? How sweet.’ You smile gently and pat his head. He wears that shy face again and stands up straight after you prop your hand back to your side, his face getting back to its cheerful look.

“And besides! I read in the bible a long time ago that you needed a reminder or something! So you probably just need something to help you remember!”

You hum. Now that’s interesting. So far everything felt like a fever dream, ridiculous yet… amusing. You guess it won’t hurt entertaining the idea of you being god for a while (even though you doubt it) “What else have you learned from the bible, Bennett?”

“Um, about how you look! You’re hair, your face, oh! And your name!”

“Uhuh, then?” You smiled. You find yourself doing this for your own enjoyment rather than for your own investigation to find home. But it won’t hurt to be unserious for a bit, right?

“Yeah, you’re name. Though, not many used it because they didn't want to use your name in vain. Your name is Y/n, Y/n L/n. And what else…” Bennett started to act bashful, realizing that he did not read his bible much. Oh Celestia, what would you think of him ditching the bible to play? Hopefully, you wouldn’t mind.

“I’m sorry, that’s all I could remember so far-” Bennett stops. His eyes went wide with worry as he sees your shocked face, the silence unnerved him as he stares back at your unreadable face.

Why were you looking at him like that?

_________________________________________

End of chapter 3: Purple Carnations

_________________________________________

[luigiblood]

I'm going to semi-retire from the game preservation scene.

This is by no means a decision that I took on a whim. I am genuinely sad that it came to be this way, I've been involved in this stuff for a genuinely long time, I've seen many things, met many great people, also the bad and stupid dramas, which shouldn't really be discounted either, even though this was not the kind of thing that affected my decision.

I have no regrets on how I handled my job and I wouldn't have it any other way. But I just don't have the heart anymore. For roughly a year as I'm typing this, I started to seriously resent any attempt at public releases and contextual research.

This kinda sucks for how I want things to be treated with respect. I blame myself for giving myself too much responsibility and was not able to successfully pass down some of it to other people. This definitely did not help as it took a toll mentally speaking. But despite trying to change this, I found out how I just stopped caring about details, and just wanted to move on. I gave myself a little more time to ponder about it, and my final decision is that, yeah: I need to quit, I really don't have the heart anymore for it.

That doesn't mean I want to stop everything though, there are still things I need to do, and still have interests with, like with Satellaview and 64DD, but I want to gradually move away, and eventually pass the baton to people who still has the fuel. But I don't intend to disappear.

I still have a burning passion for the obscure parts of Nintendo, that's not changing any time soon, but the work I've been doing really just felt like a chore, and it was a job I've been doing for years.

I've been involved with Satellaview since around 2008/2009 with my Hello World SNES homebrew adapted for BS-X. The technical knowledge of the Satellaview was just very limited. I've started then a project to at least reveal how the satellite signal worked, and I got it working (then nocash did even further work that shouldn't be discounted, but he's really just too fast at this). It was my first reverse engineering project, and it was very formative, and shaped my knowledge of computer science like never before. I've then worked on emulation and preservation, managing quite a few dumps of Satellaview content.

Then in December 2014 I've had my first version of the 64DD Disk Dumper, done with help from the N64 scene people, on December 31st, all commercial 64DD titles were dumped, then I worked on 64DD emulation for a bunch of emulators, based on the works of Happy_ from MAME, and eventually was able to write my very own emulation code from scratch and higher accuracy than before on Ares. This year will be 10 year anniversary of my 64DD Disk Dumper.

So I've been doing this stuff for like, 15 years at this point, and now... Aside from the fact that I haven't been as into it as I used to, I also got older. I'm at an age where I'm sorta thinking if I want to do other things with my life, but in that case, other things have to be put on the wayside, to an extent.

I can't say what I will bring in the future, I have tons of ideas, and besides, I'm still gonna be behind a few game preservation works here and there, but my involvement will be limited from now on.

Also, Nintendo: Don't think I'm done datamining your NSO apps lol You still have so much shit that we don't have and I'm not gonna give up on having hints.

[gavisuntiedboot]

Gavi in love with an author or astrophysicist?

A/N: Welcome back to another installment of boot on the bus!! Because of the F1 kick I’ve been on, it took everything in me not to change this to an engineer :,) so we went with author

~~

“Thank you so much for joining us! We at Blaugrana Publishing are delighted to welcome y/n, author of the NYT best-selling series “Instinctual”, to unveil her newest work.”

A loud, thunderous applause filled the hall, as 200 people cheered while you waved back, placing your hands on your chest to express the immense gratitude you felt for everyone that had supported your book.

You had started your debut novel “Instinctual” when you were in college, eager to turn all of your experiences into inspiration for a doomed love between a headstrong physics girl and and an idiotic business boy, who didn’t realize what he had until she had slipped between his fingers. Your publisher has taken a huge risk on you, but had backed you regardless to support ‘budding local talent’. The booktokers instantly fell in love with toxic, spicy romance that you weaved in your pages, which gave the publishers enough confidence for you to continue writing your series.

You had decided that your protagonists next love interest was going to be a footballer, prompting you to start researching footballers, watching interviews, and just learning their general mannerisms. Your publishing group had gotten you a media pass to La Masía, allowing your to interview players and watch games to get a full character study. You had every intention of making this footballer an ass - someone who would use your protagonist when convenient and abandon her for the “love of the game” when the time came.

Sitting in the stands of a La Masía match against the Sevilla football academy, you were hurriedly scribbling notes into the pages of your journal, taking in the sights, sounds, and interview responses from the players to get a full picture. You registered when someone had sat down next to you, but made no motion to look up or acknowledge their presence. About 15 minutes into the game, the person beside you tapped your shoulder. Looking up at him, your eyes met his honey ones, bright in the afternoon sun. He looked familiar, but you couldn’t place where you had seen him before.

“Sorry, if you’re going to spend the game doing homework, do you mind switching with my friend sitting behind you? We want to watch the match.”

The question had thrown you off guard. You looked the teenage boy up and down, unimpressed by his laid back demeanor. He and his friend beside him had spent the entire game muttering in hushed, angry tones. You didn’t see why they needed to add a third commentator.

“Sorry, but I’m taking notes of the game for my book. If your friend wanted my seat, he should have bought this ticket.”

“We never buy tickets for La Masía games.” He responded, sounding genuinely surprised by your suggestion. His friend beside him nodded.

“Then how did you three get in? Did you hop the fence?”

“No, we used to train here.And even if we didn’t- they always let the first team players in for free. ” The boy responded, eyes flicking between you and the game on the field.

Your eyes widened - you had struck gold. Actual first team, professional footballers to help you with your book. The excitement flooded your brain, and you spoke faster than you could think.

“Could I get your number?”

The three boys all turned to you, the one beside you confused, the other two holding back giggles.

“Usually don’t give my number to fans. Sorry.”

“I literally have no idea who you are.”

This statement made the two observers burst out laughing, unable to contain their mirth at what had just transpired between you two. The boys introduced themselves as Gavi, Ansu, and Alenjandro. Gavi begrudgingly accepted handing over his number, taunts from his friends heard for the remainder of the match about how was “still unknown” and living in someone named Pedri’s shadow.

Over the next several weeks, you messaged Gavi almost daily while writing, asking him about football, his personal life, the team dynamics - everything.

“Do fans give you their numbers often?” You asked, phone held up to your ear with your shoulder as you typed vigorously.

“Yeah, more often than not. Sometimes they’ll throw it into Pedri’s car as we drive home. Actually, there was this one time I was doing a signing at the team store and this girl slipped me her number. I didn’t want to embarrass her so I just took it and held onto it. There’s a video everywhere of it happening. Apparently I have amazing rizz?”

You laughed into the phone, taking a break from typing just to imagine Gavi, awkwardly accepting a paper slip, being turned into the master of getting girls. It had become a routine for you to call Gavi in the evenings, usually to ask about the character. But at some point it just morphed into calls about your days, your lives, your frustrations. It went on like this for two months. One evening, as you sat jotting down title ideas, you asked Gavi:

“Can I ask you something kinda personal?”

A pause.

“Sure. What’s up?”

“Where would you take a girl out on a date?”

There was silence on the other side of the line for so long you had to make sure the call didn’t drop. After this long pause, he cleared his throat and said, “Well, how much do I like her?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well like if it’s a girl I found on instagram and I just think she’s pretty, then she’s meeting me at whatever club I’m going to with the boys. But if I’ve known her for a while and I like her, then it’s different. There’s this one kind of whole in the wall place near the stadium, it’s just- actually wait. What are you doing tonight?”

“Huh?”

“What’re you doing tonight? If you’re free, I can just show you rather than try and describe.”

You froze momentarily. You had noticed the dynamic shifting between you and Gavi, but that was just phone banter- nothing serious, nothing real. What he was proposing (a date) would shift the paradigm of the two of you more than you were ready for. But still, something within you was intrigued. Gavi was handsome - no questioning that - and there was something about him that drew you in, like a warm fire on a cold day.

“I’m… not doing anything. I’d love to go see it.”

“Perfect. I’ll text you the address and we can meet there at 8?”

Yes you had initially wanted to make your footballer dark and sinister like all the men you’ve known in your life. But sitting across that table, looking at Gavi, listening to him speak about his love, his passion, the future he wanted - you couldn’t do it. This man was softened butter on the inside, shy and courteous, like the boys in 50s movies. He walked you back to your place like a true gentleman, holding your hand at your door, and professing, confidently with some slight stuttering, that he thought you were beautiful, and wanted to be more than just your friend.

That was the night that changed your writing (and life) forever, for the better. Your second book, “Enticement”, was even better than the first, this time awarding you critical acclaim for your ability to “provide humanity to a callous character, creating compelling and layered people”. Your final book in the trilogy, “Enraptured”, won you a YA book of the year award, as it told a compelling love story where two young lovers could break down each others walls and love them at their cores. Your protagonist and her footballer lover were praised for how “real, honest, raw, and romantic” their relationship was. That was all thanks to Gavi. He taught you so many new forms of love and ways to express it - like someone seeing color for the first time. He showed you how to weather storms together, build each other up, and ground one another when everything seemed to crumble.

“Before we get onto talking about your upcoming work, we have a few questions from the audience.”

You answered questions about your thought process and your world building, encouraging all the young writers in the room to give it their best shot. The last question arrived, and a young girl in round glasses approached the microphone.

“Hi I’m Valeria. First of all I really love your book. I just wanted to ask about the final couple, Maria and Xavier. A lot of your book seems so realistic, except for the way Xavier acts. He’s almost too perfect, like he’s not like any man I’ve ever seen in real life before. So I just wanted to ask: do you know any men in real life that are like Xavier?”

The crowd erupted in cheers at the question, and you laughed to yourself. You looked off to the side of the stage, where Gavi stood leaning against the wall. He smiled widely, winking at you.

“You know, I used to think men like that didn’t exist either. But then I found him, doing something I’ve never done in my life - watching a football game. So don’t lose hope that your Xavier is out there. He might be climbing a mountain or buried under booms in a library or by the side of the road with a busted car. You might find him in the oddest of places, but he’s out there. And when you find him, he’s going to turn your world upside down, and bring you joy you didn’t know was possible. Because mine has.”

~~~

I always wanna say more but that’s the end of the bus ride and the end of the Drabble. Almost iftar time!!

[aokozaki]

I do get your point but some of us have an intellectual disability because of our autism. We do, in fact, sometimes never grow out of our lame as shit interests and think they're cool

Right, not growing out of lame interests* is the thing here, not autism as a monolith.

*("Chuunibyou", Japanese, lit. "8th Grader Syndrome", referring to someone who's idea of cool still aligns with what an 8th grade boy would find cool, even though they "should" have grown out of it).

And even being Chuuni can be really fucking cool! Okabe from Steins;Gate or Gundam from Danganronpa come to mind. Those guys are genuinely cool by the end of the game.

But that's the trick. They start out as total lame'o's but by the end reveal they can be genuinely cool when it counts. Just being chuuni on it's own is neither lame nor cool, it depends on execution.

And in terms of "lame as shit" autistic interests, the cliché ones are "dinosaurs", or "trains", or "some TV show". And even when they're childish subject matters, autistics will tell you everything there is to know about that thing.

Musk doesn't care to learn things.

He wants the Tesla Full Self Driving to work on optical cameras, because optics is how the human eye works, so it's more AI-y. And ignores when his engineers try to tell him there's a reason that robots need motion sensors and specialized, non-human ways of looking at things.

He likes the letter X, he thinks it automatically looks cool. This is childish, even chuuni, but there's no real love of knowledge behind it, is there? He's fixated on it, sure, but not interested.

And that's what makes it so lame - it's completely vapid.

[roadandruingame]

RAR Musings #11: Rebuilding A System

I engaged in a reddit thread discussing "killing your darlings" lately, where they wanted their game to be "simple and approachable", "narratively driven", and "introduce elements of mech games that enthusiasts enjoy, but to people who aren't enthusiasts."

"Killing Your Darlings" has blown up as a game design buzzphrase people use to appear more experienced and wise than they actually are. Often, it's a bid to appear better read, or "oh woe is me, who must relinquish my idea to the void. Good thing I'm above all that, professional designer that I am, that I can sacrifice my preferences and ideals for the greater good," but for a single tear rolling down the cheek, but in this case, it was a genuine argument about whether something would contribute to the final product well or not.

I don't personally define a game with equipment heat, energy costs, and random lookup tables for an assortment of weapons in a catalogue to be "simple and approachable" for non-mech enthusiasts, nor particularly necessary for a "narratively driven" game, but I'm more upset about "narrative game" getting slapped on a lot of different products that don't actually have mechanics for driving a narrative. The 'stress' mechanic that they were dropping would actually give definition to the characters of the game, if the game's narrative was about said characters, but by removing it in favor of player agency, it's just... it's just a game. Not a story.

I fought about it, and offered some alternatives. Rather than a negative mechanic that removes player agency, why not a Brave mechanic, granting extra rewards for engaging in risk? Why have all these different mech parts, why not just have Parts, if non-mech enthusiasts weren't going to care? Why not come up with mechanics that actually DO tell a narrative, rather than just relying on DND-make believe?

The more I thought about it, the more mad I got, not just at the designer, but at myself, and Road and Ruin.

I don't like the phrase, Killing Your Darlings, to begin with. It implies that your idea is so specific, so inherent to the engine you're designing for, that there's absolutely no salvaging it. A new species, that winks in and out of existence, a twinkle, before you snuff it out, never to be seen again. Why not figure out a way for it to be used! Or if it doesn't fit or overworks the product, shelve it! Use it on a different project! Don't let your dreams be memes! You're a designer, not a farmer with a lame horse!

But I had invested so much time, so much design work, and been so pleased with the elegance of Road and Ruin's core resolution mechanic, that after coming to terms with the fact that it was bulky, time-consuming, involved adding too many numbers, and ultimately wasn't actually very fun, I resisted any notion of changing it. Even later, when I DID change proficiency from affecting the minimum dice value of the d10s, into being a flat value added to the d10s, the system still involved adding anywhere from 2-5 random values between 1 and 10, and then the proficiency value besides.

So why was I so willing to tear into this objectively decent mech game, and do so much design work trying to come up with ways to simplify it, when I wasn't willing to entertain simplifying Road and Ruin for a more enjoyable experience and a wider audience?

_______________________

I woke up the other day with a sudden idea.

Road and Ruin's core skill resolution system might involve too much math hinging on too many variables, but what about the combat system?

It was another system I'd done some major work on over time, but unlike skill checks, only really involved one dice roll, and no math after. I started to think how I might actually make the combat system the core skill check system, thus unifying the game under one mechanic, and being a lot faster, and more fun besides.

The gist of it is, that when making an attack in combat, you'd roll a d4 (Piercing/Accurate), d8 (Slash/Scrape, edged contact), or d12 (Bashing/Touch, only contact is necessary), subtracting the target's armor, and +/- an amount based on who had the edge in weapon skill. A 1 or less is a miss, and above half is full damage, based on a flat value determined by the weapon's weight, minus any lacking Strength needed to swing it. Anything in between is a Glancing Blow for half damage. There's also the Special system as well, but I'll leave that for another post; the point was, I wanted combat to come away having inflicted SOME damage each attack, rather than none, but for there to be a real fear of both heavily armored units, as well as expert swordsmen.

But what if that was how skill checks worked? Currently, the system assumes an average 2d10, up to 5d10, adding (proficiency/10 x specialization/5), and looks for multiples of 10; that is, 10+ is 1 success, 20+ is 2 successes, 30+ is 3, with successes being measures of what a creature can easily, with training, and with specialization do, relative to a creature of it's size and shape. An adult human can toss paper into a can with a 1; a wolf might be able to open a latched door with a 2-3, or 25. Blessings/Curses and gear could modify this in multiple ways, such as preventing rolls below or above a certain threshold, or allowing the reroll of one or more die.

If skill checks were instead a sliding scale, using a single d10, difficulty could be calculated before the roll was even made, like the impact of 2 points of armor on an attack roll. By sliding the scale of success, even physically using a sliderule, results of (1 Fail/And, 234 Fail, 5 Fail/But, 6 Succeed/But, 789 Success, and 10 Success/And) are moved left and right, and the die is left with the final say. Specializations can reduce the threshold of Succeed/And, while greater consequences for failure move up the threshold of Fail/And.

If 10% increments are too much, (especially for disciplines where the likelyhood of crafting a masterwork item should be less than 10%), a d100 still offers a "one dice" solution, but on 1% increments. In that case, the threshold for masterwork can be "specialization x proficiencies", and anyone with even one specialization can make repeat attempts, so long as they have the time and resources, to continue chiseling away until they've finished their magnum opus, gaining +1% chance of masterwork each roll, whereas a legendary master completes such works on a 50% basis.

In terms of gear, supportive equipment can either reduce the Success/And threshold, the regular success threshold, or allow for a reroll 'save' when rolling a failure, such as in the case of climbing rope stopping a fall. But, in each case that the support is used, it suffers a level of damage, and the Fail/And threshold of the follow-up save increases. Past a certain point, using intact, but damaged rope ends up being more risky than it's worth, without it explicitly preventing use.

In the case of blessings and curses, they can allow rerolls, or just flat +1/-1 effects. What I'm really warming up to with this idea is how just about everything boils down to using the single die, but in a way that's still got a lot of tools to play with.

________________

Now some cons. I'd done a LOT of work on the earlier system, and designed lots of spells, such as the Revision magic, Lethologica, a spell that allows the reroll of any one die in proximity, both supportively or debilitatingly. This was a lot more balanced when you were rolling 2-5 dice per throw, but a single die? Massively overpowered. I'd rather not upgrade the cost of what was essentially a cantrip to a fifth-level spell, so I'm going to have to figure out how I'd get to keep it and make it work still. One solution might be forcing the use of the d100, and having Lethologica alter the result by a number of points in either direction, being used to help sway results, but not effortlessly overturn them. It allows for spell scaling, with more mana converting to a greater degree of sway, and still allows sway in either direction, helping to save near-failures and fail near-saves.

Another issue is the case of Monstrous/Mini. When I changed RAR from being a 10-scale attribute system to a 5-scale, I was bothered by how I'd account for three-story giants, pixies, and small-world scenarios. I'd developed Monstrous and Mini, x5 and /5 multipliers for stats that helped to massively scale up or down the effects of 1-5 of any given attribute. So, a creature with Monstrous Strength 3 would multiply the results of their 3d10 roll by 2. Monstrous 2 Strength 4 would get (4d10 x 3). Boss monsters could still get trash rolls (2+3+1 x 2 is just 12, doable on 2d10) but still get high effects on average. Miniscule, on the other hand, reduces the character's Size by a stage, having them struggle to pick up thimbles and defend against ants. This complete overhaul of the core skill check resolution system doesn't have "10 = 1 success" anymore, so multiplying the results doesn't really work; not that it did, because it was slow, and unfun.

A solution for this is... a lookup table. Kind of. The actual value of each of the stats, 1-5, are actually still quite valid for establishing standards. If a creature has reasonable stats to do what they're looking to do, they should roll, no problem. If their stat is lacking, they suffer a -1 for every stage they're missing, and if they exceed, +1 for every stage they're over. But for Monstrous/Mini, like... maybe it's +/- 5 in each direction? And if Fail would get pushed off the board, it stays at 1, causing a chance for failure of 10%? I mean, engaging in a mental mindclash with an illithid SHOULD be next to impossible with their Monstrous Intelligence, but just the chance that they roll a 1 is probably more fun than "you literally just can't do it".

The question here is, if players who are generating their own creatures have a solid understanding of what Monstrous/Miniscule creatures are actually DO, without getting to experience them in action first. And, since the game actually IS narrative in nature, I don't see an issue with placing impossible monsters in front of players that they're not actually supposed to defeat, really. But it feels weird to not be multiplying the outcome of dice anymore.

[saiyomiya]

Mamiya Review

Man, I don't know many people who know what Mamiya is, and that's a shame. Hell, the only way I know it is because I checked Andrew Hodgson's portfolio the other day and was captured by the art.

People should REALLY check this out. It's like if Nisioisin and Subahibi and the bunker dream scene in Disco Elysium and your lingering yearning for whoever just came up in your mind just now had a love child with the brain the size of thousands of universes or something. Like is that not the most incredible sentence you've ever read? I'm me and I wrote that sentence but it would've made me want to read it.

Pros

Beautiful art

Incredibly curated freeware OST that made me a fan of Ludo for life

Great translation with beautiful and succinct prose

Incredibly well-paced and doesn't waste your time at all

Cons

There is some thematic messaging in the game that leaves a bad taste in my mouth which is obviously subjective but hey this is my review

Will probably leave you hanging and wanting more answers when you're done, maybe even a bit dissatisfied (warning: I am dumb and maybe something flew over my head, a single read is definitely not enough for this one)

Rating: It's good, great even. The part I don't really like about it is subjective and some/most people might be fine with it or understand something about it I don't. I tolerate it because the rest of the game is interesting and everything else about it is very up my alley. If you're interested, make sure you buy the DLC DoomsDayDreams as well. It contains the last chapter of the story.

Spoiler subjective rambling to myself below the cut. Warning: I am dumb and might be too stupid for this game

Steam | VNDB (Part 1)

Why this game is kino

The settings are super interesting and the writing is beautiful. Honestly I would love to fine tooth reread it someday, maybe in Japanese. (Too bad Textractor can't since the engine uses Javascript).

The scope of the game is impressive and how verbose it is about all of those things is an incredible accomplishment. There is something universally accessible about Mamiya's message. You don't need to read a trove of philosophy books to understand what it wants to say. (Though obviously there are references.) You don't need to tolerate great horrors to get to the good parts. The pacing is good and it doesn't waste your time. It doesn't think you're stupid and believes in your ability to figure stuff out. There's a chance I'm jabbing at a kamige a lot of people revere that I also like for the most part but despise at the same time

MAMIYA (meme), Natsume, and the trichiliocosm are all very interesting and well handled themes. I've never really been able to word these feelings myself, so reading a story that builds something about concepts I've felt in my core was very freeing. It kind of makes you feel like an atom, if we could understand how a single atom feels. I think we all have thought about these things at least once. As humans, we all worry and think of the beyond every once in a while.

The effect this story has on you is genuinely beautiful. How can you feel so small and yet so important at the same time? Not only are you a body, you are your soul, you are your mind, and you have an existence before anyone knew what you are. Yet at the same time, we are all part of an infinitely expanding universe that is not only what we ourselves see, but what everyone else generates.

You feel so cherished and yet so insignificant at the same time.

I find MAMIYA so fascinating as well. To verbalize and personify the idea of yearning and admiring a ghost of a person is super interesting. Everyone has felt that for someone else, a longing to be with or to become a beloved. A lot of people grow out of that, but what happens when you don't? What happens when the scars that that yearning left are too deep? Being able to write a story about this concept, give it a mind of its own, and make it metatextually infect actual readers is brilliant.

It's kaleidoscopic in nature. It's a story that is so many things. It wants to be a literal read, it wants to be an abstract read, it wants to be meta, it wants to haunt you, like a ghost, like a veil, for the rest of your life. It's an incredibly unique and unforgettable experience. The only other game to make me feel similarly was Subahibi but I felt way less miserable while going through Mamiya.

That, on top of watching these characters face their weaknesses and ultimately conquer them with their own strength really tickles the Nisioisin fan in me. Like, all of this is incredible stuff. EX is incredible too, even though it hurts so bad. The bittersweet and vague and confusing endings for me leave me wanting more and someone smarter than me to explain what happened help

It leaves you with a love that is yours alone.

If you like the Pink House characters don't read this word vomit

(Vague Door 2 Fata Morgana spoiler mention)

Okay, time to get negative. I dislike almost all of the Pink House characters. I mean, that's definitely by design. All of them are groomers who succumbed to mental weakness and also nobody likes a groomer. It's pretty hard for me to view them just as characters because they did such horrible things to vulnerable children for their own self-satisfaction and weakness. Like brother I'm sorry but I can't just look at characters like this as just characters.

I fucking hate Osamu as a person. He's my least favorite character. To instill MAMIYA is to leave yearning, but damn, him leaving Ryou with his abusive mother and his biological daughter behind is just despicable. He is insufferable to everyone he talks to, he's ugly asf too, I'm gonna kill him, give me ten dollars. If you like him, more power to you, you're better than me, but my brain just can't run the calculations to tolerate him. Just a subjective thing.

Mayuri's relationship with their mother is relatable and I think their struggles with their inner child and self love are very interesting. However, what they do to Minato throughout DDD is despicable and unforgivable to me and it's very hard for me to look at them objectively. Like I totally get that's a me problem.

I mean, I get it though. There are people in my life who've done awful things to me, but I don't want them to die. Rather, I want them to live and be happy, but away from me. I don't wanna know how they're doing either. In this way, I really have nothing against the better ending Minato has with Mayuri, and I found their duel together interesting. It's well done, in my opinion.

Touma is the least offensive of all of them to me and I don't have much to complain about with him, at least from my understanding of his struggles and what he did overall.

Okay he did bad shit too but somehow it didn't leave as bad of a taste in my mouth than the other two. That too, is subjective.

Finally, Samejima is so boring to me. I never cared about Yukimasa from Fatamoru, so more of the same is more shit I don't care about. He's not very interesting to me on a personal level. I just never cared for characters with his narrative.

I guess for me, since ALL of Natsume's friends patch things up with the Pink House quartet it starts to feel very vaguely like, the way to handle your abuser is to understand why they abused you and then accept that it is a cycle and maybe get along with them and cheer them on. Saying that hilariously minimizes every arc but I mean, this was the vibe I got from all four of them just... more or less forgiving their abusers who put them through psychological and sometimes physical hell. It just didn't sit right with me. I think, for a game like this, having at least one character NOT be the "bigger" person and not be amicable, not forgive even after trying, would've made the message come across more clearly. Forgiveness and handling of abuse is messy and a bit of inconsistency among the cast would've garnered a bit more goodwill on my end.

Of course I might be missing the point or blind. I might be dumb as hell who knows. I would love to be enlightened otherwise. It just left a really bad taste in my mouth for a story I overall liked and became the hugest con about it for me.

Character rankings

Upper layer: Nidome > Mamiya > Natsume > Librarian > Senior

Nidome is cute even though he doesn't do much. I liked his design and I felt like this whenever he called Natsume a silly goose. Librarian and Senior are cool I just wish we saw more of them. The upper layer itself is really cool conceptually and I would love a story about it, but who knows if that's gonna happen.

Natsume and Mamiya are givens to like. I honestly can't tell if I like one or the other more.

Natsume's friends: Minato > Haruki > Ryou > Keito

Minato's narrative is relatable and I like them a lot, Haruki I liked more than expected, Ryou is fine, and I like Keito enough, but I feel like as I've gotten older I've had less patience for characters of his archetype. Or don't care about them. Like he's just there to me.

Pink House: Touma > Samejima >> Mayuri >>> Osamu

Touma is the least offensive of them to me (to the point that I would say that I like him), I don't like how Mayuri was handled and Osamu is just trash to me for reasons I spoke of earlier. I don't feel anything for or against Samejima. It's not his fault I don't care for his narrative archetype, but at least he's better than the other two behind him.

Natsume: Spectator/Idea/As a part of MAMIYA > Body

I'm just fucking around at this point

Conclusion

What can I say that I haven't said? It's good and I hope it gets more popularity someday. It certainly deserves it and I think it could be considered a kamige among VN enthusiasts if they gave it a try. People are just going to have to spread the word. I do think that most people would more positive than me even though I feel relatively positive about it, so go crazy and become the salespeople Kenkou Land deserves.

I still feel like I have so many questions and want so many answers for the main endings themselves. EX is both heartbreaking and yet so freeing at the same time, and the main ending is bittersweet and confusing.

It's as if I woke up to news to my dear friend Natsume Souichirou dying myself.

[dontjinxx]

I know you love Ortega, so what are your headcanons for him?

I do (cracks knuckles)

So as some of u probably know, I hc Ortega as disabled . specifically, I hc him with juvenile arthritis . I saw that baton in the canon games and saw him leaning on it like a cane and took that and ran with it lol . to me he’s 100% a mobility aid user, who often needs a cane at the least but also uses crutches and wheelchairs on worse pain days . his friends of course are very supportive and respectfully make sure he’s ok, but I also hc ortega does NOT like being babied .

Ortega is hinted at to have relied on his parents / his parents money in the past . so from that I hc that as a younger child and before Team Star, Ortega was a very spoiled child who would run to his parents whenever something happened . his parents were probably the coddling and “throw money at the problem” people, so when Ortega started having problems their money couldn’t instantly fix, they didn’t know what to do and just left him hanging . Ortega never learned to deal with his problems head on, so when he started getting bullied ( and realized his parents couldn’t just fix it ) he had no idea what to do . Because of being small, he was 100% seen as an easy target for bullying, even physically . I think a big reason he’s got such a defensive / standoffish attitude is because he couldn’t solve his problems with fighting physically so he had to adapt and instead learn to verbally deal with bullies .

Also, from all of this, Ortega has grown to strongly dislike what he sees as coddling . he wants to grow and be his own person, and doesn’t want to be a spoiled brat anymore. However, this leaks into his perception of coddling vs offering genuine help and can sometimes get defensive when offered any help at all . He sometimes refuses to accept help, not out of ego, but out of fear that he’s being seen as a child or he’s being a bad person .

Ortega definitely doesn’t want his parents company . He has no interest in business, and his parents probably push it onto him especially since he started acting out with Team Star . I think he’d wanna pursue engineering more than anything .

I think he dyes his hair pink and it’s naturally grayish brown and yes this is solely because of the different colored hair at his roots

I also stand by the hc that he’s bratty and definitely not terribly nice to people he doesn’t know / trust ( and especially adults he doesn’t trust ) BUT he can be super sweet to people he cares about . I know in my heart he is so caring towards Star and will tell off anybody who crosses them .

His love language is gift giving for others, but enjoys receiving words of affirmation .

He doesn’t like being touched by people he doesn’t fully trust ( basically anyone outside of Penny and the Star bosses )

He doesn’t even like piano that much, he’s just been forced into it by his parents and got used to it

He’s a certified genius . like this is canon but I like to amplify it . dude was implied to have built a starmobile in a NIGHT like that’s insane . also he figured out how to integrate terastallization INTO his starmobiles so they could all have their own Pokémon type starmobiles like ??? that’s crazy bc tera research was literally the professor’s work and some fuckin 4 foot tall brat figured it out in a night .

Also I hc him as gay, and probably a cis guy since I kinda see him being comfortable as male and he just has no concept of gender norms / expectations . guys can love pink and being cute and also giant cars built for battle !!

[dykexenomorph]

Bela Re8, Karlach Bg3, and\or Isobel Bg3 for the ask game!

not upset just wanna complete the set 👍

this got kinda long so im putting it under a readmore LMAO (character asks!!)

BELA DIMITRESCU:

HOW I FEEL ABOUT HER: HOW can i put this. she is everything to me. i think about her daily.shes my right hand arm. MAN. shes my everything. all of this but she doesn't even make the top ten in my list of favorite resi charas LMAO

WHO DO I SHIP WITH HER: well nobody. sorry for being lame it will happen again LMAO

NON ROMANTIC OTPS FOR HER: IM SORRY IM SO LAME I JUST LIKE HER FAMILY DYNAMIC. BELA HAS NO FRIENDS SHES A LOSER WHAT DO U WANT FROM ME MAN

UNPOP OPINION ABOUT HER: i dunno how to put it but i think the way i generally see/interpret her (and the other two sisters) are so blatantly different from what fanon is (or at least what it was BEFORE i gave up on the re8 tag) tht its my most unpop opinion? if tht makes sense idk its late and im tired

SMTH I WISH HAPPENED IN CANON: I SO BADLY WANT MORE CONTEXT FOR THE WAY THE DIMITRESCU'S OPERATED AND TREATED ONE ANOTHER. like YEAH they were killing maids and being generally dykeish and cruel in that castle but how were they sustaining this. what like. day to day things did they do. were the sisters close or did they just see each other as competition or what!!! im so curious about them it hurts AUGH

KARLACH CLIFFGATE:

HOW I FEEL ABOUT HER: AUGAUGATGALHGALJSFSDLAJ !!! hope this helps :D

WHO DO I SHIP WITH HER: my DURGE!!!!!!!!!!! (real answer though is probably minthara or shadowheart. i love the idea of minthara ALSO going back to avernus w karlach and wyll to help her fix her engine :3)

NON ROMANTIC OTPS FOR HER: WYLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! they have THE dynamic of all time <3

UNPOP OPINION ABOUT HER: the way people baby her is SO stupid and ridiculous. this is a woman who fought in a demon army for TEN YEARS. she saw what happened when elturel fell and did nothing because she was worried about what it'd mean for herself. YES she is a kind, giving, and heroic person NOW, but she hasn't always been (even if her reasoning is understandable). if i see one more person act like she can't understand or cope with some of the more morally questionable things the party encounters along the campaign im going to lose my mind

SMTH I WISH HAPPENED IN CANON: dunno if this counts but i wish we could do more in terms of touching her (for lack of better way to phrase it) in act 1. like let me be silly and use mage hand to high five (or whatever else) her. let me and wyll dump cold beer in her mouth like some sort of shitty frat party. idk its very silly but i want more goofy interactions w her where tav + the party try to find stupid ways around the engine issue!!!!!

ISOBEL THORM:

HOW I FEEL ABOUT HER: NOBODY LOVES HER MORE THAN I DO AND I MEAN THAT SO GENUINELY. ISOBEL THORM THEY COULD NEVER MAKE ME HATE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHO DO I SHIP WITH HER: im not answering this. come on now. lets get a grip. (aside from the obvious answer i also like her + dame alyin + shart. tht trio is everything to me <3)

NON ROMANTIC OTPS FOR HER: does jaheira count? they were stuck for SUCH a long time protecting last light together in the shadow curse, they had to have ended up being good friends i think?? i think about it ALL the time

UNPOP OPINION ABOUT HER: its hard to have an unpop opinion when nobody thinks about her character as anything other than an accessory for dame alyin. i will give u an unpop opinion when u can give me literally ANY non-alyin related opinion this fandom has about her LMAO

SMTH I WISH HAPPENED IN CANON: GIVE ME MORE SOLO ISOBEL INTERACTIONS PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. I WANT COMPANION ISOBEL. I WANT AN ISOBEL-CENTRIC QUEST (NO ACT 2 DOESNT COUNT LEAVE ME BE). WHY DO I ALWAYS LOVE CHARACTERS W THE LEAST AMOUNT OF CONTENT

[button-mash]

What I played last week #10

Splatterhouse [Turbografx-16]

I very recently became really interested in buying a PC-Engine/Turbografx-16 (Japanese/Western name) as not only does it have a lot of fantastic games, but it's also a system that has an element of mystique as it never really caught on in the west - I'd genuinely never even heard of it until long after it had came and gone, so it's always been a bit of a blindspot. It's curious because it sat somewhere between the 8-bit and 16bit systems (it was actually marketed as the first 16 bit console, but really it had an 8-bit CPU with a 16-bit GPU, which gives a lot of the games a very distinctive graphical look compared to it's peers. Anyway I almost bought one for an amazing deal (although still very expensive) and decided not to at the very last moment, because I realised it was probably pretty silly to spend more than 250 quid on a system who's games I wasn't even all that familiar with and I had zero nostalgia for. Once I accepted that this was probably a dumdum idea, I decided to actually play some games for the system to get a good feel for what it's about. 

I'd always understood the Turbografx-16 version of Splatterhouse to be the best home version of the arcade game, but I didn't actually realise that the very first game never actually came out on the Mega-Drive at all, and in terms of home versions, it only actually came out on PC, Turbografx-16 and FM Towns Marty. It's one of those weird games where it somehow feels so ubiquitous and familiar, but when I really think about it, I don't think I've really ever properly sat down and played any of them for more than a quick couple of goes before bouncing off and doing something else.

Having now played through it, I actually think it's a pretty good game, if not a little basic - I remember 2 and 3 being a little more complex in their game design but this just a simple left to right brawler, although some stages do have sections where you can fall down into different areas you need to get out of, etc. Most surprising about this game is I actually thought it was pretty well balanced - its still pretty difficult, but when you die you start back at the section you were on and it's pretty generous with health and lives, so you get a decent chance at properly learning each section, although you only get 5 continues which go pretty quick. It's one of those games where the first time you play you've burned through all of your continues by the 3rd level boss, but after a few goes, you're suddenly getting back to the same section having not lost a single life. It definitely has it's frustrating moments, but its just one of those games that requires a bit of patience and experimentation to figure out your way through each level. There were a few bosses where I couldn't even figure out how you can possibly hit them without taking damage, and then you'll suddenly figure out a spot to stand that'll bair a certain attack out of them, or where you're harder to hit, etc. It's quite satisfying because it really gives that feeling of getting better and more familiar if you put the time in. There are 7 stages and I think at first I was getting to level 3 or 4 and having to start again, and when I finished it, I think I'd only actually used one continue. I imagine the Arcade version tries a lot harder to take your money, but I actually think the home version is pretty feasible to 1 credit clear if you practiced enough and got familiar with the patterns etc

I'm definitely tempted to play the others now - the first game is pretty basic, but you can still see the hallmarks of what some people love so much about the series - the weapons are really satisfying to use, and the enemy and death animations are really well done and have a lot of detail and personality to them, I can definitely see why that era of Nintendo were too shook to have a game like this on the system. The Turbografx version actually has a fake parental warning

Pretty good

Bonk's Revenge [Turbografx-16]

My apparent odyssey into checking out the Turbografx-16 library continues - kinda amusingly ironic in a way that I didn't buy one because I didn't want to risk spending a lot of money on some tech I might not use, and my solution has been to emulate the TG-16 on the Steam Deck, which until this point was a very expensive piece of tech I had literally not used at all since the week I got it last year...

The Bonk series was one of those games that I'd always seen around but never actually played - it wasn't until playing this and reading about them that although some of the games appeared on PC/NES/etc, the Bonk Series was originally created specifically for the Turbografx-16 and was their attempt at having a mascot franchise akin to Mario or Sonic. Obviously the system as a whole never really caught on in the west like they'd hoped, but I actually think they were pretty successful in making a mascot platformer. I'm not sure why I started with 2 (there are 3 mainline games as far as I am aware), but by all accounts this seems to be the best one, so no regrets really.

This was a game I really came to appreciate the more I played it - the stages and enemies have a lot of personality (as does Bonk himself) and it's a really nice looking platformer. You can hurt most enemies by 'Bonking' them with your head, either by doing a jump from underneath, a standing headbut with a very short range, or a diving midair attack you can also use to propel yourself higher into the air. You can also do more situations things like a wall-jump, as well as find power-ups, although these are mostly neglisible - they're more akin to something like Sonic where it's a temporary power boost that gives you an advantage, rather than something like Mario where it might be something that changes up how you fundamentally approach the level.

When I first played through the game I found it became quite difficult quite quickly and burned through my continues, but on the second time around I realised the game actually wants you to explore and use all your platforming abilities to reach and find hidden areas where you will gain items to win more health, bonus levels (some of which are genuinely very fun), and extra lives, which make the pathway ahead much easier. It made me realise that blitzing along the first time through I'd overlooked a few layers of complexity to the mechanics and level design I'd missed, and I came to really appreciate the game for trying to keep things so varied. It's actually a pretty long game too - at the start you can choose Beginner, Intermediate or Expert which I think essentially just chooses how many stages you complete rather than inherently adding any difficulty, but the 'Expert' full game had 8 worlds witch each one having 4 or 5 stages it seemed. Id argue that if anything it maybe begins to outstay it's welcome a little bit, but when looking at the individual stages all of them are pretty strong and it does a fairly good job of trying to change up what you're doing from level to level, whether that's focusing on a particular platform mechanic, making it more enemy focused, etc. It's not too hard of a game, but it definitely demands that you get to grips with most of it's moveset by the end

One gripe I had was that about halfway through I seemed to encounter a lot of bosses where I just couldn't figure out how to hurt them without taking damage myself, and essentially winning through a war of attrition and burning a few lives - it was a shame because what felt like pretty tight, consistent and fair platforming suddenly felt a bit clumsy and janky. I am actually fairly sure this was maybe an issue with the emulation as it wasn't something I noticed once the first time I played the game, and watching videos of one of the bosses I was struggling with, nobody seemed to have this issue despite doing the exact same thing as me, so I suspect maybe there is some weird issue with an emulator gamespeed causing some collission fuckery or something. Willing to give the game the benefit of the doubt because it seemed so jarring compared to the other 95% of the time with the game. I'd say the music is pretty forgettable too, which is a shame because I think it had so much personality that a killer soundtrack would have really sent this one over the edge. 

This felt like a proper treat getting to discover a top tier platformer I'd literally never tried before, but I think genuinely holds its own against other stuff on the big platforms. It looks great, it's super colourful and fun, the bosses are really imaginative and it has decent difficulty curve with a lot of variance in the levels and lots of secrets to find and explore. Most of all it just has a lot of personality, with some fun animation and sprite-work. Bonk himself seems to have so many different sprites and animations - actually way more than something like Sonic or Mario have, which gives him loads of personalith and it really adds to the game a lot. I said earlier I thought they were really successful in making a Mascot Platfomer and the animation and personality he has is exactly why. I've no idea if 1 and 3 are on the same level as this (or even the same style of platformer), but I'll definitely check them out now.

Castlevania: Rondo of Blood [Turbografx-CD] I did also play some probably the most famous game on the Turbografx-CD. Again I thought it was really impressive but I really didn't play loads to form some huge opinion beyond I can totally see why it's so beloved - it straddles that line between the original Castlevainia games and what it became with Sympthony of the Night, and some of the graphical flourises it has look amazing, particularly the parrallax backgrounds.

I had a little go on a few more Turbografx-16 games also - namely both Alien Crush and Devil's Crush, which are some very beloved pinball games for the system, as well as Blazing Lazers, another Turbografx staple - although to be honest I didn't really play any of them for long enough to have much to say about them. I'd been really impressed with the TG-16 so far to be honest - annoyingly so, since I regret not pulling the trigger even more now. Ideally next time I jump onto the system the next lot of games are dogshit

[thoughtsofadyingsoftwaredev]

Hello, Tumblr world! For some reason I am drawn to you in the Fall season. My last post was just over a year ago… sorry about that. Not that you, my lovely reader, care - and that is IF anyone reads this! I won't lie I don't care if people read these or not, this is essentially an online journal for me at this point, ha.

So, what's new with me lately, you might ask? Well, I'll break it down:

Still happy with our house. We've made gradual updates to it since moving in, including redoing some old flooring with some new vinyl faux-wood looking stuff. Super nice. Also replaced an old toilet in the process. Next we're eyeballing a bathtub upgrade for one of the bathrooms and big landscaping changes to our back yard.

Got promoted at work to Senior Software Engineer after 3 years. Not bad turnaround time for that title change, in my opinion. My responsibilities shifted from managing the IAM software to managing our search experience for the many different applications we provide.

This primarily means I'm responsible for drafting search document schemas, working with these other teams to get answers on questions they refuse to provide answers to without me having to ask first, and handling the logic for ingesting hundreds of thousands of items of varying types to different search engines. In my 3.5 years of working here, I have enjoyed the challenges of the job. Of course, it's not without it's awful days or days where my head is screeching, but the good days outweigh the bad for me.

Wife and I are still on speaking terms. That's my way of saying we're both as good and happy with each other as ever lol she's my best friend. We both got super interested in NFL this season and watch every Monday and Thursday game and watch Minnesota (wife's favorite team) on Sundays. RIP Vikings post-Cousins injury.

That's about all I can think of life-wise. My 31st birthday was a few weeks ago, and I feel old as shit sometimes LOL I look in the mirror and I see what seems like new wrinkles in new places, my hair is graying in small parts, and I find it hard to stay up late. It's 1:04AM right now and I find this to be the upper range of my limits lol

I had a dream recently that my wife and I died in a freak accident at some theme park (not a specific one, just some weird abstract dreamy one) - from what I can remember we were on what we thought was part of a ride, but what ended up happening is we both fell to our deaths.

After we died, we both were floating over family and friends as spirits, watching our bodies get carried in open caskets. For some reason, I had two huge pieces of hair that went down both sides of my face (this is nowhere near what my hair looks like so no idea why this was).

At first, when I woke up, I kinda had to laugh at it. The overall sequence of events was a bit silly. But I found myself thinking more and more about it throughout today. Who will care if I die? Not in a "bad thoughts" kinda way, but genuinely - what kind of footprint am I leaving in this world? Will people know or care that I die? Probably not, and I think ultimately I'm fine with that, but the dream gave me pause and kinda fucked with me today haha.

Can I tell you a secret Tumblr? I have a burner Facebook account that I use to see how my old friends are doing. I am very anti-social media, and as part of that, have no real ways of keeping up with people from previous parts of my life aside from those who have my cell or email, so this gives me an outlet to see how friends I've made over the years are doing now.

Some of them never left my hometown, which kinda bums me out, because when I think of my time there, I couldn't imagine having stayed. But I have to consider that they may really love the place and have strong ties to it. I don't want to sound mean when I say that, but it's just a very small, quiet town that seems like a place you'd stay if you decided not to attend university or a trade school. And that's perfectly okay, too.

Some are thriving, too! A very good friend of mine recently got married, and I'm thrilled for him. I remember late nights at college talking with him outside of his dorm in the night air, rocking back and forth in a rocking chair, like the ones you see at Cracker Barrel. We'd talk philosophy, religion, girls, music, and much more. He's an awesome, genuinely kind hearted person and I'm glad to see he's doing well. He's not the only one, there are others who are all out there doing their thing, so to speak. I can't say why, but seeing these people I've known at some points in their lives doing well makes me incredibly happy.

Music is always a wonderful memory and hobby for me. Music is what brought most of my friends I've made and I together. I recently started playing guitar again (thank you Rocksmith 2014) and it has been a blast! I recently acquired a dream guitar of mine for awhile now: a Surf Green Fender MIM Strat. I fucking love it.

Piano is still on hiatus and has been for many, many years. I think it might intimidate me a bit. I eventually will have to bite the bullet and revisit it. I plan on using ABRSM resources to find some appropriate pieces for where I'm currently at. I'm hoping I can ramp back up to SOMEWHERE close to where I was when I went to school for music. I realize it may take years, but I think if I devote myself to it, I can achieve it. Honestly the hardest thing will be getting that dexterity back and remembering scales/fingerings/etc. Hopefully by the time I post next, I can report back with some success on that front!

Hobby coding-wise, I'm starting a new project using a new stack (for me): Java (Spring), Vue, and Postgres. My goal is to create a web application for Veterinarians offices for administrative use. This app will handle invoicing, communications with patients, store pet/owner data, store data regarding prescriptions, surgeries, etc., and probably more I'm forgetting. It's a lot of moving pieces, but it presents a fun challenge on both front-end and back-end, and frankly I've seen the most popular competition (Avimark) and it looks like dogshit. So my plan is to work on this for the foreseeable future, get an MVP up, snoop around my local area and see if anyone is interested in testing it out. This will be a long-term project, though. I have some ramping up to do with Vue as I have not used it since it was still in v1.0, so many things have changed!

Started watching Frieren and that shit kicks ass! The music, the animation, the art style. Only 4 episodes in, but it is easily top 5 anime.

JJK Season 2 has been fucking insane. It started off so crazy, I ended up binge reading the manga up until the end of the Shibuya Incident and holy shit. Seeing the Yuuji vs Choso fight animated was a fucking masterpiece!

Games-wise, I've been deep into WoW classic and FFXIV. FFXIV has always been my go-to, but lately I've been doing WoW and I love the customization that is possible within a class (priests, wars, etc builds can vary wildly and that's awesome!).

And I think that's all I've got! I've been drafting this post for the past 20 minutes-ish. I have to start winding down for today. This may be my longest post so far? Not sure, I'll compare it to my others word count-wise after this and confirm!

[fawnsflowerbed]

Hello, You (Part Five) || Dark Leon Kennedy x Reader

We’re all back on our yandere!Leon shit (YESSSS) so I had to revive a bit of this series after rewatching ‘You’ again.

MASTERLIST HERE!

Safety reasons. Leon's keeping tabs on you for your own good, you just don't know it yet. But don't worry, sweetheart, he'll have you soon enough. He just has to play the waiting game for now.

Warnings/content: I WOULD CLASSIFY THIS AS A SEMI DARK FIC, suggestive language and allusions so NO MINORS THANK YOU KINDLY, fem reader, Y/N used, from Leon's perspective, mention of violence, OOC RE6 Leon, very stalker vibes.

This is inspired by the Netflix series 'You'.

Word count: 2,541

Safety reasons. That’s why I have your schedule memorised now. For safety reasons. That’s why I know the combination to your in-work locker, too. For safety reasons. This is the stuff I need to know to keep you safe, Y/N. You just don’t know it yet. You don’t know how much you want me. How much you need me.

From what I’ve read you don’t have any self defence training, you haven’t had it since joining the DSO. You have yet to be reassessed on it. That’s why I have to take care of you in every sense of the word. You’re vulnerable, you’re fragile. But I won’t let you break.

You’re simple, you have a pattern you run through, you’re easy. Easy to read and unfortunately easy to follow. We’ll work on that later, sweetheart. But you’re a creature of habit and I appreciate it, it means that when you move in you’ll soon establish a schedule all the same. Hold my hand on the way to work, sit on my knee in your office - I can take my business anywhere, don’t worry - until I escort you back to our home like the gentleman I am, lay you down and fuck you senseless. It’ll become a system. You’ll adjust, I know you will.

At exactly 7am you’re exiting your apartment building. In something comfortable but suitable for a work environment, on a rare occasion you’ll choose a skirt. On the days where you feel a little more outgoing, enough to try and potentially get a sliver of attention. You never do, though. Too busy sitting at that desk. I’ll give you that attention in due time, Y/N. Don’t worry.

You go to grab your usual drink from the coffee shop a block away. I should know, I’ve passed it a few times on my way to work. I’m not one to socialise with the kind of people that gather there so I avoid it, get my own stale brew at the office. You wave to that specific neighbour every second day as you walk past him grabbing his day old mail, because its so obvious he wants to fuck you. We can both see it in his smile, how he’s eyeing your outfit. It’s like he’s trying to find a peak of flesh or a collarbone poking out just enough to seem provocative. You want to be polite without making yourself too uncomfortable, so you let him think that he might stand a chance. Constantly a giver. You’re my giver, Y/N. One day I’ll have to teach you how to take.

You always pay in cash when you order and obviously know the barista personally. You mentioned something about highschool. Through the window I’m sure I can make out her face from an older post on your page, one where you looked genuinely happy. She’s good for you. Actually seems like she cares.  You’re asking about her daughter and school, she’s happy to reply. You like talking to people like her. People without judgement. People who just want to chat. 

Then you’re back on the street, pulling your earphones out of your bag while waiting at the bus stop. Tangled, as usual. God, Y/N I had no idea you were cutting this many corners for your quiet little life so you could stay buried in your work. The bus? You should’ve said something, sweetheart. I would’ve gladly taken you to work with me. Hell, I’d buy you a car. I bet you’ve never ridden a motorcycle before. You seem like the type of person who’d appreciate the rush though. I can almost feel you clinging to my jacket at first, talking over the engine about how you didn’t expect it to go so fast with those gorgeous eyes shut tight. After a while you loosen up. You holler over the rumbling, one arm daring to pull away so you can lift it in the air, feeling the wind whipping between your stretched fingers. You’d laugh that gorgeous laugh I caught a taste of from a video your friend posted of your birthday. Then I’d get a taste of so much more when I park behind the building out of line of sight. After all, you come to work so early. Shouldn’t we put that time to better use?

You sign in with your ID at the processing machine wordlessly, about half an hour earlier than everyone else. Those early rise people who are here at this time - for some godforsaken reason - don’t acknowledge you, don’t even nod at you as you walk your way down to the elevator to descend to the archives level of the building. You don’t even have your earphones in anymore, you’d taken them out after stepping off of the bus. Maybe in case someone decides to talk to you. But they don’t. Because they’re foolish. They’re just arrogant.

By this time the coffee’s at peak temperature for your liking, and you’re already booting up your computer and signing into your account. It works quickly thanks to the length of your passcode. 

I should know, I have your passwords memorised. The ones you have written down, anyway. A notes app document with your codes to everything? Seriously? For an archivist you really need better security, Y/N. You’re around top secret information on the daily and yet you put so much trust into this little device I easily swiped out from underneath your nose. The nose I can see you wrinkling as you begin to scroll through files. 

You love your work. It’s just so clear from the look on your face, the light in your eyes. This is what you were born to do. You were made to help with the debunking of cases, the nitpicking for details and the handling of information. You’re careful, gentle with the boxes stored in shelves far behind you, locked behind a door only you have access to. They put so much trust in you and they don’t even know your name. Some part of me is thankful for that.

 It’s been two days since I returned your phone, and two days since I locked your asshole of a fuck mate in my house. He’ll be awake by this afternoon. Ketamine is a powerful knockout, but not strong enough to keep someone under. So I made sure to keep him drowsy enough to hydrate but not long enough to cry for help. I’m not a monster, Y/N. I have standards on human lives no matter how fucking infuriating that human may be.

I want you, Y/N. Every little detail I can pick from that pretty little head. I want to know what makes you tick, what gets you excited, what makes you angry, what has you panting beneath me and moaning out my name. What has you writhing when I whisper it in your ear, squirming to squeeze your thighs together. I want your everything, sweetheart.

“You look like hell.”

Fucking hell I feel like I’ve just had a heart attack. Pretty sure I can see my soul drifting out the window Kyle always leaves open. Off it goes. Catch you later, buddy.

After tracking you on your way to work I sat myself down in my usual office chair. How long had I been staring into space? Who knows. with a disarray of files sprawled out in front of me. Yep. Totally doing work. Definitely not picturing our sweet little archivist bent over my desk, mouth agape from gasping and drooling, panties pulled down to show off that sopping wet-

“Long night?”

Helena has snapped me out of my Y/N fueled daze and dragged me back to the hellhole known as office chit-chat, because god forbid I spend a waking moment thinking of anything other than you. Nothing is worth my time anymore. Nothing but you. I want every second to be consumed by you.

Focus, Leon.

I just shrug. “Couldn’t sleep.”

“When can you ever?”

True, she’s got me there. I’m either too busy thinking about work or you. She knows how fast my brain runs, how I could run laps around my own head. Helena’s one of the least infuriating people to work here, I might even dare to say she’s one of my only friends on the force. Force? Squad? Team? Whatever you’d call this small knitted group I was sent on countless missions with.

I think you’d like her if you got the chance to really meet her. Helena’s strong willed, she’s been through her fair share of struggles ever since what happened back at Tall Oaks. I’ve learned to trust her. Strong, smart, willing to throw a few punches and fire a few bullets when needed. Reliable. I can see you leaning on her when I’m gone, swooning over how you miss me. Sure, it’d annoy her, but in all honesty I think she’d be happy to see someone so in love with me. She knows what I’ve been through.

Good job, Helena. You’ve made it off the potential hit list.

No. I don’t have a hit list.

Of course I don’t have one of those because I’m not a murderer. I am not. We’ve been over this already.

“Yeah, that’s true. Crime never sleeps, though. Or something like that.”

She puffs out a breath. Overexaggerated. She’s tired too. “Can’t even hit us with the one liners anymore. Ouch.” 

“Hard when you’re running on nothing but coffee and shame. Speaking of,” I’m already reaching for the empty mug at the edge of my desk, peering into it as if I’m actually doing what I say I’m doing. But I’m not. It’s always been empty. I haven’t touched coffee at all today, in all honesty I’ve been running on nothing but thoughts of you and a slice I picked up at that shop on your way to work. 

You’re already infecting me, Y/N.

“Ain’t that the truth. I’ll bring the pot over.”

I shake my head. “No it’s not worth it. Don’t bother.”

“Alright. Oh, and James wants us all on high alert. Something about flesh solvent going missing.”

Oops. My bad. Slip of the hand. These damn fingerless gloves must have a mind of their own. Guess there are perks to my status around here.

“Will do.”

There’s a reason that stuff was locked up. It’s strong. Good for cleaning up mistakes. I should know, I’ve tested it.

The DSO is looking for less hostile ways to bring in perpetrators nowadays, less lethal. Although I’m agreeing with most of their moves and motives I can’t help but feel like some people truly deserve to die. No matter how much disciplinary action taken there are those that’ll simply not change. No Scooby-Doo level bullshit trap could stop that. That’s when I wonder if they’re even worth redemption. 

I don’t think anyone’s really worth redemption. No-one other than you.

Focus. I’m meant to be focusing. Part of that is working.

I should look like I’m actually getting some work done. Right. Maybe fiddle with a pen like I’m deep in thought, or scan over the endless sentences in front of me. Files droning on and on with words I’ve read over so many times to the point where they’re not even words anymore. Gibberish on a page. They’re lucky I haven’t painted half of these documents with my brains at this point.

But hey, what better way to motivate my work than to take a trip down to my favourite little archivist? After all, I do need to get some background information on my newest perp. You truly are the hidden gem of the DSO.

But when I descend the stairs leading to your usual cosy cubby, that one you call an office, I realise I’m about to interrupt a phone call. Someone’s having a conversation under the stairwell. A voice so sweet I’m sure I’ll get a cavity if I lean in for too long. 

And it’s none other than you. I can tell as soon as I get a quick whiff of your signature perfume, your scent. Like a wolf hunting down a rabbit I can identify you just by your smell alone. But who are you talking to, Y/N?

“No, no it’s fine Dee. Don’t worry about it.”

De. Short for something, likely a nickname for a friend. Likely Delancey. The red haired one in those photos, the one who seems to check up on you most. Texts you the most from what I see. You’re trying to keep your tone even, but it's so clear that you’re stressed. I can almost hear you rub a hand over that poor creasing forehead. Please stop worrying for one day, sweetheart. Just come home with me. 

I know it’s too early to make a move. You hardly know me and yet I know all I need to know about you. I can learn the bits and pieces, the iffy details as we go. I know about your little schoolgirl crush thanks to the murmurs in the break room, how you were probably fucking around with Benji to stop thinking about me.

You’re really bad at being subtle, Y/N. It’s almost adorable how naive you are. How you can’t see everyone around you giving you glares for existing.

Please say the word, sweetheart. I’ll have it all taken care of. 

God knows you won’t take for yourself.

“Look I’m stacked up with work and it’s just- juggling this much stuff is-”

Oh? What do I have yet to learn about you, Y/N? What have I missed in your usual day to day schedule? What detail have I left out of my long, long list of you? Maybe I should’ve set up cameras, snuck up through that fire escape to pull open the window you always leave unlocked for when you’re craving a midnight breeze. I have got to figure out what else you’re dragging with you.

Things have been building to an unbearable limit. You don’t know how or why, you sound helpless no matter how hard you try to push through. Oh, Y/N. You’re too sweet, too soft and innocent for the world you were thrusted into. There’s a pregnant pause in your conversation.

Your voice has fallen stern now, though with an affectionate curl. Like you know whoever’s on the other end means well. “Delancey. You know I can’t. My money’s running short. I might..I might have to quit my current job. Either that or get a second one.”

I can feel my eyebrows furrowing. That’s something I won’t stand for. The very thought of not seeing that precious face on a day to day basis is enough to have my heart dropping into my stomach. I have your bank details, Y/N. If you’re doubting it I won’t hesitate to transfer money right into your account so help me god. Just say the word. Say the amount and I’ll double it because I know how humble you are. Too much of a giver.

Who instilled this guilt into you? This guilt to accept?

When will you learn to take, sweetheart?

Maybe never.

Maybe I’ll have to take for you.

[tf2strategist]

Oh I am in LOVE with these headcanons! I found the mention of wondering how much of his personality at the base is an act as well an incredibly intriguing idea, and a fun one at that.

That, and the description near the end of him being “the friendly face on the other side of the street” or “the guy you run into at the grocery store that turns towards you and tells a bunch of jokes in a row and it’s so weirdly pathetic and charming at the same time you can’t help but laugh” puts him in such a familiar but different light that I had never really thought of him in, but that makes PERFECT sense to his character.

While in the comics he’s portrayed as a bit of an annoying loudmouth before getting a more genuine characterization near the end (or the issue before the end, anyway), the characterization you wrote sort of fits that more developed personality in the later comics alongside him in the games.

I just. Hgh. The idea of him being that good at manipulating people in his most comfortable environment (or is it even manipulating people? More-so himself) is SUPER cool and fitting to me, and also fits the autism headcanon where he’s just learned to mask incredibly well while remaining unfazed by deeper attempts to fit in with his peers since he’s just not interested in it—keeping him genuine and earnest, if that makes sense?

Having written that, it gave me the idea that maybe the longer he spends with the mercs as their unusual mercenary found family, the easier it becomes for him to manipulate on the field.

Thinking about how that’d translate, I imagine that he’s learned how to speak to enemy team members the same way he’s been spoken to for months or even years. He’ll ask questions with a more cutting tone towards the enemy Engineer using vocabulary he picked up from his own. He doesn’t always get it right, but more often than not he can waltz into enemy territory and as long as he’s not posing a threat during an active battle, he can end up making (tense) conversation with the opposite team.

Additionally, my initial idea was that the other mercenaries notice that he’s a little more careful in the enemy base, knowing better what turf is closest guarded, especially since he’s a predominantly flanking class.

Will reblog with more ideas about the above topic.

Scout has incredible street smarts! While it seems irrelevant in the base dropped in the middle of nowhere, he is invaluable during contract missions located within urban areas.

He can notice an undercover cop in a second, distinguish accents, recognize a scam happening, pinpoint a drug dealer who looks like a sweet old granny and see the signs of some group's terf markings. The team is looking for some local hotshot and they have no leads? Scout runs to the downtown and locates the first bodega/laundromat/bar/gas station/pizza parlor, blends in and befriends some entry-position-apprentice who gives him all the info he needs.

South Boston is the top school in the world for the street-smarts and Scout graduated it with honors.

yep! while scout has resigned himself to the position of “the stupid one” alongside a crowd of extremely talented, socially awkward PhD owners, once somebody finally has the idea that he seems good at talking and drags him along on a mission they figure out pretty quick that holy shit this kid is good at talking.

Engie’s usually the negotiator if they need one at all, mostly because he knows how to say please and thank you when it seems necessary, but he still has sort of a… distrustful aura around him. the accent’s disarming, sure, and does a great job pushing through a crowd of white middle-aged church moms, but it turns out there are a lot of parts where a moderately-wealthy-looking fourty-year-old white man with a little bit of a weird glint in his eyes ain’t really that welcome. so they might send scout in, since he really, really wants to go in and they’re all out of options (unless they want to send sniper, and he’d probably leave the building having bitten at least four people on reflex)—and when he comes back out he’s got everything they need to know, plus some free snacks, plus an invite to some teenage boy’s birthday party.

it turns out that little air of authenticity goes a long way—and the team watches him flip from polite upstanding church-boy cashier to poor sad orphan boy on the streets to egregiously annoying emotional armor-shredding “class clown” in what seems like seconds, and I guess it should occur to someone at some point that he’s spent his entire life figuring out how to blend in places like that and get what he wants.

(everybody would joke he got the ‘good actor’ gene from spy, if it didn’t just make them sad. also, a few people see him effortlessly skating his way person-to-person, molding his conversational targets like putty, and wonder exactly how much of an act he might be putting on back at the base, too.)

addendum: of all the characters he is able to axt in, “suave” or “ladykiller” or anything along those lines is not one of them. please don’t get me wrong. he’s the friendly face you see on the other end of the sidewalk, or the guy you run into at the grocery store that turns towards you and awkwardly tells a whole bunch of jokes in a row and it’s so weirdly pathetic and charming at the same time you can’t help but laugh, but he’s still terrible at romance, and as a matter of fact most things Involving charisma in general. he just takes advantage of that sad wet kitten energy, you know? it works out

[pianocat939]

I would to see a show down between platonic yanderes Donnie vs Kendra for their friend reader , who do think would think would win ? How would their treat the reader afterwards ?

Donnie content? I eat. Also I don't like Kendra that much. Like her design is really cool but I hate her personality so much. I would be pissed 100% if I ever had to deal with her.

I've been procrastinating so much this week :-;

Tw: manipulation, betrayal (guys it's Kendra), spyware installed in home, some possessive themes

Hangouts and Childish Bickering

"I don't get why you need to introduce me to another person when the people I'm companions with are already sufficient." Donatello quips, further hiding in his violet hoodie. He staggers his pace ever so slightly, clearly not wanting to proceed on.

"Maybe. But they really like technology and engineering just like you do!" Y/n exclaims, stopping their movement for a split second so that Donnie can catch up. Their mouth turns upwards, excited for the two to meet.

He turns his head away, mumbling to himself, "You're the only friend I need..."

A few turns later, they arrive at an alleyway to the side of a cafe. Donnie stays hidden behind Y/n, preferring not to expose himself. Not a presence is in sight; until they emerge from the darkness.

"Y/n~ What's up?" A lilac-haired girl speaks, her neon blue lipstick faintly glowing by the moon's light. The other two members appear behind her, giving a few waves of greeting.

"Not much. Anyway, here's the friend I was talking about-"

"YOU!" Donnie cuts them off, accusingly pointing one of his fingers at Kendra. "YOU DECEIVING MONGOOSE!" He defensively stands in front of his friend, eyes lightened with fury. He knew something was off when Y/n wanted to introduce him to new people because they knew his distaste for most beings. But he never suspected that Kendra, that lying little bitch, would manipulate his dearest friend.

"Oh look who it is. What was your name? Oh right, isn't it Othello Von Ryan." Kendra comments, malice woven through Donnie's pen name. She sassily puts a hand on her hip, a frown evident on her face. "Y/n, you shouldn't be hanging out with him, he's pretty, toxic."

"No, no. Again, Kendra is manipulating you, I'm your best friend. I would do anything to make sure you don't hang out with vermin such as herself." He retorts back, eyes narrowing.

The tension is intense, not even the bold would speak. Y/n leans to the side, over the turtle's shoulder, "I have no idea what's happened between you two but I'm not gonna stop being friends with either of you."

"Hmph. Whatever you say, but we're going back to the lair, now come on." He turns back to the direction they came from, his mind swirling with hateful thoughts. Kendra trying to steal his beloved friend? He won't let it happen under any circumstances.

Right before Donnie can get too far, Kendra offers, "Wait. What if him and I have a battle to see who's fit to be your friend?" She confidently steps forward, challenging him to an imaginary duel.

Donnie laughs a little, before flipping back to look her in the eye."As if you're not going pull one of your betrayals again, you did it to both me, Sheldon, and now Y/n. Clearly, there is no need to do such childish bickering." His eyes are dark, filled with no emotion except hatred.

"Nah. I genuinely want to have a competition with you. This is something much more important." She tilts her slightly, returning the look back to the mutant.

"Hah, I'll observe you suffering and laugh when I win."

"Back at ya'. It starts now. Whoever gets un-friended first is the loser."

"Guys do we really need to do this?"

——————————————————

Analysis:

First of all, how would they fight with each other? Obviously using technology, but there is a psychological factor as well. They'll try to steal your time, suggesting who's more fun to hang out with, or is better suited for you.

Princess Diana will offer you two to play video games or to go have fun on his jetpack drone, flying above the New York buildings under the dark navy sky. He'll be much more affectionate? In his own way. He'll try to compliment you (keyword: try) or gives you tech to improve your life. Basically, he pushes himself to prove to you he's better than Kendra.

Kendra, on the other hand, will convince you that you don't need anyone else. She'll point out Donnie's flaws (we still love them tho) and trash-talk about him really. She's pulling the Leo card (if you're unfamiliar with my blog Leo card essentially means manipulation) but more aggressively negative. Similar to Donald Duck she prepares the most extra "friend dates". She's researching the most expensive place (whatever you like to do) cheating her way in and being all friendly. You would think that she's trying to gain something from you based on how she acts but she truly does want to keep being your friend. Why? Because you're interesting.

Now, for the fun part.

Who would win?

This isn't up to debate tbh, it's Donnie. Guys, it's not that hard, it's Donnie ok? Just look at him, he's not going to be pulling a Leo card too much.

How would he react?

He gets somewhat possessive. It's not your stereotypical "you're mine" but it's there. He'll express it as more of "I'm much more fun to hang out with than ___." After your initial introduction to Kendra, he hates it if you reference a friend other than him (except April obv).

I don't think he would bring himself to the edge of kidnapping but he installs cameras, microphones, and other spyware within your house. He's internally self-conscious that you'll replace him with another and that he'll lose his title as a best friend. So he uses his resources and intelligence to ensure you don't become too close to someone else.

And he may or may not sabotage them if he needs to split you apart.

He would never admit this, but he's really lonely. Like throughout the show he tries to impress people with his tech and prove himself worthy of their companionship. With people, he respects I mean. April is the only one who sticks with him (minus his brothers obviously).

So it canonically would make sense that he would pull something similar to this. Maybe not as extreme, but it is a high possibility.

Oh and he's blocking half of the people you know.

——————————————————

Whenever I analyze him it's the most accurate compared to anyone else. I can easily point out his thought process so well it's almost funny.

Anyway, I'll try to get more requests out tomorrow~

- Celina

[gb-patch]

Hi~! I have a question. My friends and I are making a visual novel of our own, and I wanted to ask if you had any tips (I love your games, I hope we can reach that level of quality). Thanks!

That's cool ^^. I hope you have fun making it, and it's nice of you to say our games are good quality! But I'm afraid I'm not sure how helpful the tips I could give will be. Increasing the quality of a project isn't exactly something that can be done through general suggestions and I don't know what engine you're using or what you're going for, etc. I'm sorry.

I will say that, in my opinion, there are three stages devs go through in conceptualizing their project and sometimes devs get stuck at the second part and the game is finished under those circumstances. Getting all the way to third usually increases the quality a lot.

The first stage is the idea that you just want to make a game. Who knows what it is, but you want to do that. The second part is having an idea of what you want it to be like and what you don't want it to be like. It's a good place to be, but there's still a level of disconnection. The best stage is the third, which is to really, really understand what your own game is as a whole, individual concept. It's not comparisons to other things or fixing problems you had with something else or a jumble of ideas that you're just going for or a game that's created in a certain way because that's how games seem to work. You've gotten a true grasp on your own intentions and each decision is made with the goal of creating the specific vision.

i.e; Your game doesn't have bad endings because every VN has bad endings, it has bad endings because they are needed for what you're doing. Or the game doesn't have bad endings because they wouldn't do anything. There's just endings and the players can determine how good or bad they are for themselves, or there's only a variety of different good endings, or there's only one single ending, or whatever.

And if you're making it with the aim of getting it out to an audience who will enjoy it, I can give one other piece of overall advice.

Even if it's true that you do want people to like your game, I find it more relaxing and often more effective to never make your game with the intention it being something people like. It's not about liking, it's about convincing. First yourself, and then others. You've seen something in this idea and you're gonna do everything you can so that when people play, they've seen what you saw. This is also why being at stage 3 in conception is so useful. You don't have to jump through hoops for or to read the minds of people you don't even know. You've come to know a thing as valuable or worth some time already, your goal is to pull it off in a way that other people will hear the case you've made for your own concept and hopefully they'll agree. Or at the very least, they'll see what you were trying to do and understand it even if it's not their preference. You can't win them all or perfectly get an idea across every time for everyone, but you can try for it if you know what you're going for.

When I made Our Life: Beginnings & Always it didn't matter if the player coming into thought the childhood friend trope was boring or super cute, I knew what the concept was to me. I'd pictured an experience that was genuinely sentimental, nostalgic, and had a relationship based on shared moments over a lifetime together that actually happened. The genre, gameplay style, presentation, and everything was meant to show that. In the end I think players got to experience what I imagined for myself and I think that's a wonderful thing.

Good luck creating your own project!

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