#but i am gonna start a new playthrough + have this save file as a 'wind-down grind' type thing as i try and perfect it

[milktian]

i have beaten code vein with the good ending yippee!!

i've put my final stuff under the cut. im gonna try and perfect it before starting a new playthrough, but it's gonna be hard letting go of the big bonk build.

i've been really into strength builds recently which is wild cause im usually a dex or magic user dfsglksjdgl once you go bonk you never go back ig

side note: i never got the offhand weapon stuff so i kinda just put a bayonett in there so i could lure enemies away. it's a queenslayer bayonett+7 aside from that, my weapon (was the impulse anchor) felt like such a reward cause I struggled against mido like actually.

the final boss also gave me trouble but thanks to io quick healing me, I got there yippee. Aside from just being a bit awkward to fight in a small space, the camera really was out to get me.

i really liked code vein tho!! i picked it up cause i thought it would help me get over my fear of dark souls (for some reason im so overwhelmed playing them it's wild) and turns out it's one of my favourite games now.

there are some parts that uuuuh definitely bugged me (for some reason there are only like. two mistles max allowed in later sections, and even with shortcuts, made run backs so annoying).

Also knock-off anor londo wasn't bad you guys, I think you just hate mazes. provisional government outskirts + centre sucked way harder /lh

[through-fire-and-flame]

[ okay. what if i made a sideblog for this guy

this is Garland, my first ever Elden Ring character

i made him the day the game came out and proceeded to play him for around 60 hours, cleared my way up to the deeproot depths (is that what they're called) and then made a new character because i felt like i'd borked my experience by relying on the sword of night and flame

when i was getting ready for the DLC and realized how much game was ahead of me, with three full playthroughs under my belt i figured i could go back and "fix" Garland and get him ready for the DLC

now Garland started as a Confessor, and in my lil' "I'm gonna do a backstory for my Elden Ring character" mechanism I figured he was a Golden Order loyalist at the outset.

here's the thing: by the time I got back to his save file he had completed most of Ranni's questline and most of Fia's questline. moreover, if I wanted the armor you see above, I had to do the Volcano Manor questline (there is an unreasonable amount of nice armor behind the Volcano Manor questline.)

i thought really hard about the mental gymnastics that would lead a Golden Order loyalist to complete those questlines - what kind of faith shattering sights and principle-obliterating trauma would Garland have suffered to attend all three of those causes? what would that do to a person, to shift allegiances so dramatically and so thoroughly?

i think it'd be a fun experiment to try and logic out a 100 percent playthrough into a workable, write-able character!

will i stick with this? probably not! will i complete a single thread? statistically speaking, probably not! but i am falling back into ER as a result of the impending DLC and i really want to explore this notion

question is would anyone read it ]

[khaire-traveler]

Ok, I will try not to talk too much about this on here, since this blog isn't really about this type of content, but I need to nerd out to someone, none of my friends are into this, and this is my main blog, so here we go:

***BALDUR'S GATE 3 SPOILERS AHEAD; READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION***

This is mostly just me needing out and gushing, though, lol.

Ok, ok, so for the past five days, I have been fucking binge playing this game. I literally spent the first day I got it sitting around for, like, seven hours (don't be me, and make sure to get up for breaks if you're gonna do the same thing). I was - and still am - absolutely hooked.

I LOVE this game!!! It's the first DnD based game I've played, especially of this quality (even though my laptop runs it like shit and the lag is killer ☠️). I'm playing on Explorer, so it's been fairly easy and very story-focused. I find the lore so intriguing, and I'm so interested in seeing where the story goes! I haven't seen anything past the camp party after saving Halsin, though, so no spoilers please. 🙏

So, I started off with one playthrough, but I came in with the knowledge that you are able to romance the characters and such. I REALLY wanted to romance Astarion (as most people I see talking about the game lmfao), but my bitch ass just could not get his approval, no matter how hard I tried. It got to the point where he actually made fun of me after we saved Halsin and had the camp party. 😭 I honestly suspect he might've glitched out somehow, since I had read online that people have had similar issues with earning the trust and approval of companions. This definitely bummed me out, but I was still enjoying the game a lot.

Along with that, in my original playthrough, I literally forgot to seek out Lae'zel. I had planned on doing it, but I just didn't know where to go, and by the time I had met Gale, I honestly forgot about finding her because I had to get offline at that point. 💀 I felt really bad about it, and I only went to go look for her after saving Halsin because I was reminded of her, and she had already broken out of the cage and killed the two tieflings who trapped her. I felt so bad that I just left her there on her own all that time. ☠️

After realizing that I wouldn't be able to recruit her until a bit later, I just decided to restart my playthrough on different save files. I figured I'd also at least get a proper chance with Astarion as well (love him so much; he is my meow meow 💕), and all while still playing as the character I took quite literally two hours to make (I was very indecisive about them lol).

So far, the new playthrough has been going very well, and I'm actually pretty happy that I restarted, since I had also apparently missed the scene of Astarion sharing his vampiric nature as well as some very key information from, and about, Lae'zel. I'm only about seven hours in right now, but I feel like I've somehow gotten more done in this playthrough than I did in my original which had something like fifteen hours. I've explored places I didn't even realize existed, picked up a ridiculous amount of loot, and even acquired all the companion characters that I know of in the First Act. It's been extremely successful! Not to mention things with Astarion are going very well. 🥰

Anyway, I've been enjoying this game a lot! This is my first ever time playing it; I didn't have Early Access and hadn't even heard of it until my friend told me about it this past Sunday lol. I'm honestly really glad that I got this game, despite the price of it and the price I had to pay for a new storage drive for my laptop in order to run it. It was certainly lots of money spent, but it was definitely money well spent.

I feel like my perspective on the world around me has changed slightly from playing this game (in a positive way). I feel a lot more curious about things than before, and I'm more inclined to take spontaneous risks which has always been a struggle for me beforehand. I also kind of feel like I can talk to other people a lot easier as well, as strange as that sounds. I play a Bard in the game, so my character has high charisma and stops to talk to other characters a lot, and I'm not really sure why, but seeing my character interact so easily with others has kind of inspired me in a way and helped to make social situations a lot more comfortable for me (I have social anxiety, so talking to people has always been pretty tough). As unusual as it may sound, this game has already changed me in such positive ways as a person, and I can't wait to see what other lessons it may have to teach. ☺️

All of that said, I couldn't recommend Baldur's Gate 3 more! It's genuinely one of those games that I think anyone can pretty much enjoy, and I also appreciate how inclusive it is with gender stuff and queer relationships. The other characters even refer to me with the correct pronouns, despite me never needing to enter my pronouns in! It's a very impressive game, and the graphics are absolutely gorgeous (especially when your laptop isn't absolute shit like mine lmao). Frankly, it's just great!

Of course, being so new, it does have its problems. I've personally experienced lots of lag issues - dialogue and animations won't be in sync, characters taking a long time to go from one location to another, environments not loading in very quickly, etc. I've also had the game crash on me a few times, but I honestly believe it's more related to my laptop than it is to the game, and for the most part, it hasn't caused me too much grief.

Despite its flaws, I personally believe this game is very much worth a play. It's loads of fun, and the characters are pretty charming and entertaining. The storyline is interesting with lots of twists and turns, and if you ever get bored of the mainline quest, there are literally endless sidequests for you to enjoy. Exploration is highly encouraged, and as you explore the realm, your map actually reveals the locations you've been to. Fast travel is also a super great feature, although there are some locations I wish that were on there that aren't, sadly.

Ok, I've...talked a lot, so I'm going to stop now. 😂 Thank you to anyone who actually read all this, and I hope you have fun playing or watching someone else play, if you plan on doing either! Take care. 🧡🪽

[yourfavsinbg3]

Honor Mode Liveblog part 4

I finally made it to the Underdark! Hoorary!

Wait wait wait. Back up. Last time I updated I had just killed the Spider Matriarch and was heading to the goblin camp, what gives?

Yes, well, you see. Life happened, and I didn't feel like posting. However, I've made a pact with my real life partner and multiplayer co-pilot that neither of us are allowed to start a new save file until we've either completed our multiplayer save or one of our single player saves, so for a while I was just putting my head down and going without much in the way of notes or posting. I've gotten the itch to play again, and this time I'm going for those fucking golden dice so I can use them in an upcoming Dark Urge playthrough.

So! The TLDR of what happened:

Absolutely wiped out the goblin camp. I even freed the worshiper of Maglubiyet only to accidentally unleash spiders unto him. I never said I was a smart player.

(This involved getting the 'pentacrush' soldier inspiration for Lae'zel via killing like 8 goblins with one cast of 'Radiance of the Dawn', which felt great)

This did include Minthara, despite my desire to redeem her, because I hadn't realized she greeted half-drow with a speech about 'impurities of the blood', so of course she had to go. Lyra ain't gonna stand for that

Killed Gandrel the gur because I didn't realize non-lethal knock outs also grant EXP. I am not a smart man

Most of it was Wyll's doing I mean look at this

Killed Auntie Ethel before she could even get to the basement with a combination of a glyph of sleep, Lyra finally getting fireball, and some very lucky crits

I am now also scared and more appreciative of fighters after all of it because GOT DAMN LAE'ZEL

(That's using the Everburn blade you can snag from the cambion in the tutorial btw)

Dealt with the mud mephits handily enough that I don't even have notes about how the fight went. Considering the first time I fought them in a different save they nearly TPKed me? That's character growth babey

Finally gave the good news to the grove and sent the Tieflings on their way, tried to woo Wyll but he was too busy being sad to act on it.

Then, FINALLY, we're at the Underdark!

Some miscellaneous highlights:

Wyll is an Oathbreaker paladin/Fiend Warlock. This is both because I'm enamored with the plot implications of it and because Oathbreakers get some really excellent extra damage bonuses, to the point where I miiiight have to replan his overall leveling scheme.

Lyra was retconned to be a cleric of Lathander; nothing else has changed but with her lowering tolerance for BS I felt her being a Selunite and traveling with Shadowheart wouldn't actually work out that well. Plus, she looks fantastic in red.

(yes, that is Minthara's armor. Lyra's pulling double duty as the High Dex party member)

And despite that newly in-built hatred for undead, Lyra is the one bound to the Necromancy of Thay. Whoops!

Lyra got Volo's Ersatz Eye in what was a decision that would not have made sense in character, so as the player I made the executive decision that any action like that is due to Lyra having some form of pre-cognition. Plus, she looks so cool; how could I not take the eye?

Had possibly the busiest long rest I could have: Oathbreaker Knight came to deal with Wyll, Lae'zel and Shadowheart fought over the artifact, then Shadowheart attempting her midnight murdering... I was honestly surprised that the owlbear cub didn't show up for a piece of the pie.

Because I've never really used them before, Lyra's using her high wisdom to take on the burden of tadpoles and consume them all before anyone else needs to. I have Illithid powers now :D! This can only end well!

The Owlbear cub and Scratch are here!! They're the best of friends :D

First thing I did in the Underdark was get Phalur Aluve and give it to Wyll; there is so much extra damage to be had with that sword.

I did get the cutscene of the Dream Guardian halting ceromorphosis which reminded me that I made the dream guardian by hitting random a couple times then making the result old and boy howdy is it somehow the Hottest Character I Have Ever Made

That's all for now! Onto clearing out the Underdark and the Mountain Pass so I can finally move on to Act 2!

[gb-patch]

Ask Answers: July 10th

I really let asks get away from me lately. I was super focused on working on that Patreon Moment. With that done I can finally think about doing other things, so here’s a new collection of answers!

Thank you for sending in questions everyone ^^.

For the new Patreon moment, will you be able to reference it in step 4? Or just like a tiny nod to it if you pick certain choices?

There won’t be. I’m sorry if you were hoping for that! The Patreon moment is meant to be entirely optional, it’s not something that gets you extra content in the main game.

Is the new CG artist the main one now? :0 I’ve noticed theres been a difference in the art style recently. Is the old CG artist still going to make art for the game? :0

The original artist still makes CGs for the game sometimes, but he mainly focuses on character sprites.

Are you going to put the NSFW our life moment on a website other than patreon? I would love to get it but I can't use patreon atm.

I don’t know. I'm afraid we can't release the Patreon Moment on a normal game storefront because we can't mix 18+ content with our family friendly game. If there's some other place similar to Patreon where it's not the normal type of full-scale public content releases we'd consider using that, but I’m not sure if there is another site that’s better than Patreon in that regard. I'm sorry.

Out of curiosity, in all of your games so far, which characters in each were the most fun to write? They obviously don't have to be your favorite characters!

Buffalo Seer in AFA, really everyone in XOD/XOBD is pretty equally entertaining to write, The Guide in LoV, and Cove in OL!

idk if you accept "personal" questions, but is there anything you've been watching/ listening to lately

Mostly, I’ve been watching/listening to Authortube videos as of late! It’s people who talk generally about the process of how books become traditionally published and/or share their own experience as they attempt to be published. I don’t have an interest in writing normal text based books, but it’s really interesting to hear about that world. I’m listening to a video about royalties right now as I answer these asks.

Will one of the desserts we get to pick be fudge? That'd be such a cute reference! 

Haha, yeah, it should. Unless I completely blank on it and forget when trying to include the various referential food options.

I don't know if this has been asked previously but what would be the approximate heights for the presets MC can choose from Step 2 ~ 4? Are there any measurement you had in mind? Sorry if I didn't make myself clear kk I've been struggling with my English lately 💀 

I don’t know, ahah. I didn’t have any numbers in mind for that. So it’s whatever you imagine it is!

I noticed a bug with the Patreon moment when it comes to what your character wears. When Jamie and Cove are kissing while my character only had dresses selected, I had both the option to remove the dress or to remove the shirt... Picking one of the options to interact with Cove, after he removed his shirt, it had Jamie remove their shirt followed by ther pants despite only having dresses picked. 

Thank you for reporting ^^

I keep refreshing steam to see when the new doc for xobd will be released. I noticed you haven't posted anything about it in quite some time. Would it be possible to ask about a timeline/potential date? (If it's even this year—) I know you and your team are probably working super hard, I'm just super curious! ~Thank you!~ 

There are more stories done, I just haven’t gotten around to publicly releasing them. Hopefully I will have a chance to spend the time on that sooner rather than later!

hello!! i’m not sure if it’s an update but i’ve just replayed our life and at the end i can’t propose to cove anymore? :(( i’ve actually tried playing twice but the options are not there anymore, did you guys remove the options? i’m sorry if you’ve answered this before!! thank you and have a good one :) 

I’m afraid things haven’t been changed or removed, so I think you might’ve accidentally picked the wrong things somewhere along the way and locked yourself out of being able to propose by mistake. Sometimes you meant to say you want to get married but instead you mis-click and have it so the MC isn’t thinking about marriage or something. All I can suggest is starting from the beginning of Step 3 and making sure to follow the steps listed in the FAQ. I’m sorry for that.

Did yall remove some of the options for when youre making out with Cove in the charity moment? I could've sworn you could grab his bonkadonk and its not there anymore 

This is the same situation as the above. We didn’t remove things and you’re not wrong that there are sometimes those options. But there are various choices you have to make to get those options and it sounds like you accidentally missed something. If your relationship isn’t long-term, you can’t do it for example.

HI IM SO EXCITED I CAN FINALLY GET THE STEP 3 DLC 

Thank you for getting it!

Is Shiloh super totally straight bc I’m very gay and a huge Shiloh fan, would my man make an exception?😩

Sadly, he is one of our super straight characters. I’m sorry.

Hi, I have a very dumb question. In Step 2 does Cove not wanna share his drink with us at the mall (or rather why he stops drinking it) because it's an indirect kiss? Or is it like ...weird to him to share? Because if I remember right he eats off our spoon in the birthday scene right? 

Yeah, he’s awkward about it because he likes the MC and it feels very personal to share a straw with his crush.

Hi! If you don't mind me asking, who is the artist for OL2? Their style is so pretty! 

Thank you for saying so! This is her Twitter- https://twitter.com/redridingheart

Do Beginnings & Always and Now & Forever exist in the same universe? 

Yep! XOXO Droplets also exists in the same universe. It’s one big GB Patch world, haha.

Do Pran's parents regret the way they raised him? Do they feel ashamed of it?

No. They’re the type of people best cut out because they’re not gonna change. Which is why Pran does go very limited contact when he’s an adult.

Hi! I just wrapped up my second playthrough of Our Life, and I absolutely adore it, but I had a question. I went to the gallery and found I was missing 2 CGS (specifically Step 1-3 and 2-3) and I had no clue where they would've shown up. Which moments are those found in? 

You get it by telling Cove about his dad offering you money to be his friend in Step 1 and Step 2. You can’t get both in one playthrough, since you can only tell Cove the truth once. I’m really glad you liked it!

Hi hi! Please, how tall is Baxter and Derek? Love the game so much and I can't wait to see more! 

I don’t know, aha. I think Baxter was around 5′10 and Derek was like 5′8/5′9, maybe. I really am not one who has specific heights for things in mind.

is adult cove a bottom, top, or switch? 

A switch, though would choose the top if he had to pick.

I was wondering if there is a way to transfer save data? Even if through the game files. I wanted to be able to transfer my save data from my desktop over to my laptop so that I could continue playing right where I left off from but I'm not entirely sure how to go about that. 

If you save the save folder/persistent data of the game from your desktop and put it into the game folder on your other device, that could work.

Hi! Is it possible for us to know the date when our life: now and forever comes out on steam? Sorry if you've mentioned it before but I haven't seen it and I'm looking foward to that happening and just wanted to know :) 

It’s gonna be a long time, I’m afraid. There’s no estimate right now.

I started playing Our Life with my sister a while ago, and I think you guys should know that we discovered your secret. >:)

L from death note and Cove are clearly the same person, and this whole game is just an origin story!!

I’ve never seen that show so I’m sorry to say I don’t understand the connection/reference you’re trying to make. I’m pretty out of the loop when it comes to media. I don’t watch movies or TV.

Will OL2 have options for disabled MCs?

I understand if it's too complicated, just curious

Unfortunately, it’s not really something we have a plan for. We couldn’t finish the game if we tried to include every disability and have it be meaningful. It’d just be too much content to create. But if we decide to only include a few, how would we choose which disabilities get to be represented and which are left out? I don’t know. It’ll probably have to be something we don’t include as an option again, sadly. I’m sorry.

playing our life > anything else 

Haha, I’m glad you’re enjoying it.

Honestly, I would like to thank Our Life for helping me come to terms with my sexuality. Before, I never would've actually thought that it was possible to like boys romantically and still be asexual. Almost all of the BL visual novels I've read had unskippable sexual content in them and it honestly just didn't click with what I feel. I'm glad I found Our Life. I love the game, the developers, and this fandom so much. Now, I can safely come out as homoromantic AND asexual (at least anonymously here anyway; my parents are still huge homophobes 😂). 

Aw, it’s great to hear you felt comfortable being yourself in the game! That’s wonderful. I’m really sorry about your parents, though.

Will the demo for OL2 be on android? Really not sure if I could wait any longer than I have to aha 

Yeah, it’ll be available for Android once we eventually release a demo!

Do all these reveals perhaps mean development is progressing ahead of schedule? Please let that be the case I'm already obsessed with Qiu 

No, sorry, aha. Art comes along much faster than script/programming-work for us. It’s gonna be a long time before the game is a finished thing you can actually play. But at least we can look at the beautiful images.

Hey! First of all I wanna say I reallllllyyyyy loooovvveeee Our Life and XOXO Droplets! I have over 300 hours of playtime on Our Life… Anyways, I was just wondering, are the Derek and Baxter DLCs going to come out at the same time? If not, which one do you plan to release first? :3 

They will come out separately and Derek will be first! Glad you like the game.

I keep replaying Our Life to get every possible iteration and I am loving it <3 I was wondering if Cove gets locked out of his confession because MC was talking to Lee, would it be possible to confess to him in step 4? 

Yeah, you can avoid the confession in Step 3 and then get it in Step 4.

Hi, my Cove wears bracelets through step 2 and 3 but I still don't get an option to give him a bracelet? I didn't even know that was possible until I seen someone else ask about it lol 

Hm, did you use the Cove creator? Maybe there’s a bug where using the creator to add bracelets doesn’t fulfill the requirement to give Cove a bracelet in Step 3.

Wait, I'm dense, when does Baxter appear in step 2? Is it from big park firework? I feel so bad since i really love Baxter and waiting to buy his dlc. 

It’s in the Soiree Moment. You have to be just friends with Cove, indifferent, or crushing but not ask Cove to the dance at all. Then while there you can find someone new to dance with. But if you bring Cove to the dance while crushing, the MC won’t wanna dance with anyone else so you can’t get the scene.

In step 2 when we go to the soiree I made my mc go alone and baxter chooses the mc to dance, i'm curious, why did he pick the mc? sorry if this has been asked before! 

Because the MC looked to be around his age, seemed to also be searching for a partner, and had nice legs. A perfect option for him.

I read some of the FAQs, and I saw that we could tell Baxter about the condo that he rented there was previously the mean old grandparents. how do we get the mc to tell him that? 

It happens in the DLC Moment “Late Shift”. If you don’t have a job you instead get a longer scene with Baxter.

I don’t know if you’ve addressed this or not, but are you planning on paying voice actors for our life: now and forever? 

Yeah, we pay our VAs in all our projects.

hey can i ask how you did the moments thing in ol? im trying to get into making visual novels and while im VERY sure its out of my comfort zone and all that atm i kinda wanna know just for the future, bc im p sure it would work well for something i wanna do :O but its also fine if you cant say for other reasons :> 

I’m afraid I’m not sure what you mean. Are you asking how we programmed the screen or something script related? Adding Moments like that is pretty straightforward, though. You just have buttons that open to different labels and then the scripts are essentially individual short stories/vignettes. Good luck with your VN!

Since Autumn becomes gender fluid later in the game, will there be a character who remains as he/him to romance in game? 

OL1 has the he/him LIs, OL2 is all about other genders.

I don't want to impose on your creative plans, but a parrot could possibly make a good pet in an OL-type game? They're pretty long-lived and likely to still be thriving by the end even if the MC got them back in step 1. 

I do appreciate the suggestion, but I’m afraid it’s not likely going to happen. I understand there are technically some animals that could theoretically live long enough to last the whole game that or we could have the MC only get a pet after some years have already passed. But the many things that would have to be considered/accommodated for makes it just something we probably can’t manage adding. I’m sorry.

As time passes will we be able to see Qiu and Tamarack's other stage arts as well?

They are both so cute i can't wait to be friends with them!

Yeah, we’ll show content from other Steps in the future. It’ll be a little while from now, though.

Can you date Cove and still have your family comfort you in the car?

You can’t get Cove’s Step 3 confession scene if you have the family comfort you in the car. But that’s not the only way to date him. You can get together with him earlier in the game or later on in Step 4.

Is Mc always going to be the one walking down the aisle or could Cove do it? Also could you choose to have one of your moms walk you? 

No. Cove wouldn’t want to walk down the aisle like that and the MC automatically respects that. And the MC also gets to have their preferences respected, so it’s up to you whether they want to do an aisle walk or not. You also can pick who, if anyone, walks with you.

Once step 4 is out, will you be able to go the whole game on crush/love without either of you confessing? 

Yes, as long as you tell the game you don’t want to progress the relationship. Even in Step 4 it won’t force you to officially get together.

Howdy, so in Step 4, there will be any Romance with Derek that is not part of any dlc? 

He’s only a friend unless you get his romance story.

Will the step 4 in OL2 be one big step or are you considering moments? 

Step 4 is just an epilogue in both games.

hi kind of a weird question but!! we know tht cliff doesn't start dating again but. wht abt flings? like does he ever do 1 night stands or anything? thank u!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Nope. Cliff has a very small interest in sex. If he’s not in a real relationship with a partner he’s crazy about it simply isn’t something he feels a need for, so one night stands wouldn’t even cross his mind.

sorry if you've already answered this, but i was wondering if there were plans for there to be bonus love interests in OL2 like how we have derek and baxter in OL1.

Maybe! There are side characters who could be given romance stories, but whether or not it will happen depends on funding and how long everything else takes to finish.

I don't know if i'm allowed to ask about ol2 here yet, if not u can ignore this or answer it later. My question is can you date one of them and be good friends with the other? I don't want to be strangers with the other bcs i love them both a lot :<

Yes you can!

what patreon level do i have to be to unlock the nsfw moment? im on the $5 one right now, will that give me access to the moment, or just access to the moment progress? 

That’ll give you access! Tier 2 and anything higher allows the player to download it.

[thechekhov]

So glad you decided to play Undertale! I think it would really suit you so I’m so happy you got into it! Could I have your thoughts about the game? I would LOVE to hear them. I’m ALL for long essays and rants, that’s my jam, but even just a small review from you would make me ecstatic!

Alright alright alright alright. 

I am ecstatic that someone asked because I have a lot to say AS ALWAYS. 

I’m gonna try to keep this readable, I swear. Will add pictures in between to keep things interesting. 

However, due to the length this will SURELY achieve, AND due to spoilers (and yes, laugh at me all you want, the game has been out for 5 years) I’ll put this under a cut. Read at your own (f)risk.

Metagaming - the game plays YOU

When I first started Undertale, I ‘knew’ these things:

there’s a stabby one with a knife, their name is chara

there’s a flower everyone hates

something something sans something something

and the last, and perhaps most important thing

you can spare your enemies to avoid killing them

The thing is. The THING IS. 

I did not realize how pervasive this strategy was. My thought at first was ‘okay, so I don’t have to kill EVERYONE.’

I had no idea that the reality was that I didn’t have to kill anyone.

I’m sure many others have already said this, but Undertale kind of changes the way you think about other games. It forces to you examine simply fighting your way through the RPG by introducing completely non-murder-y ways to resolve issues. This conversation-based combat style is not the first of its kind, I’m sure, but it’s also incredibly well done. It ties into the story, it ties into your decisions.

It ties into your decisions SO MUCH that it changes everything else in the outcome.

Undertale is a game well known for breaking the 4th wall. However, it does so in a strangely eerie, heart-wrenchingly real way. It teaches us that there are other solutions to conflicts - and it really... it really TEACHES us, you know?

Which is funny because to be honest, it took me a while to get the lesson.

(You may already be fully aware of this but yes, my first True Neutral Route was extremely organic. I legitimately had no idea that there was even more than one ending. I was just stumbling about er... killing. Out of habit.)

The beauty of this is that the game drives home that point even more effectively because I was fully unaware of my own bias. I had assumed that some enemies would require killing - DESPITE TORIEL SPECIFICALLY TELLING ME TO TALK TO THEM, and the entire Ruins tutorial being about Mercy. I killed the Dummy on accident (granted, it was due to me pressing the key too fast a few times) and didn’t think much of Toriel’s disapproval. I killed a few monsters because I saw my level was low and decided to automatically grind a little bit. 

By the time I got to Toriel, I was still not comfortable with the mechanic. I knew I could Spare her somehow - after all, she was a kind monster, and clearly an important character - but the Spare option didn’t yield promising results the first few times I chose it. I ran out of patience and decided that maybe... maybe it was like pokemon! 

Maybe I had to get her health down to a certain level before she would allow me to pass through.

Funny thing though.... you know what happens if you attack Toriel one too many times? Even if she has most of her health left? 

Yeah uh... it activates that one-hit-KO thing from No Mercy Route.

So of course, what happened? I hit her one too many times... and killed her! And of course, immediately panicked and reset. 

I got back to my previous save, Spared Toriel PROPERLY this time, and walked out of the ruins only to be confronted with my own reliance on the magical ‘redo’ button which was... apparently... not that magical.

Because it WASN’T a clean redo. Flowey apparently remembered. 

The idea that the game would KNOW about my previous attempts beyond the save file snapped me out of my casual Undertale playthrough. I realized that something was up - this game was not going to be like the others.

I think it was from this point on that I tried to be more careful, but again - I still hadn’t quite gotten the memo about not killing. I took down a few monsters around Snowdin. And when I got to Papyrus, I grew frustrated about not being able to beat him (I ended up losing several times and coming back to try again) and went off to grind SOME MORE because I figured that could raise my HP and increase my chances of holding off long enough to Spare him. 

(The incredible thing about this game is that actually, raising your level gives you only a slight advantage. You can be level 1 and carrying no items, and as long as you’re relatively proficient at dodging the bullet hell style projectiles you will have no issues.) 

Anyway, the point is that I realized I could spare the big monsters and did so readily - but I didn’t bother to spare many of the smaller ones. 

I figured it didn’t matter. 

And then I successfully evaded Undyne, gave her a cup of water, etc... and then went to her house to meet Papyrus, fully expecting her to befriend me anyway. 

And you know what happened?

“She said she won’t hang out with a murderer.“

I think that probably hit me the hardest at that point in the game. 

I had a bit ‘....oh’ moment at that point because I realized that the game would punish me for killing even the ‘not-important’ civilians of the Underground. It wasn’t about just sparing the ‘boss monsters’. My actions had consequences beyond just the ‘elite’ characters that we all tend to focus on.

Because yes, it made sense. It wasn’t about just Undyne - why WOULD she randomly be my friend after I killed tons of living beings?

From there on, I spared everyone, but didn’t reset. I decided to see how it would unravel.

The thing I want to talk about, which is a little difficult, is that...

It took me that long to learn that kindness was the answer. And that, in itself, ends up being a metaphor. 

It’s difficult to be kind if you have not been show how to be.

It’s difficult to change the way you behave (in a game or out of it) if all you know is using other methods.

It was hard enough to spare Toriel before I realized I had to just be very patient and trust that her attacks wouldn’t hit - though at first I thought she would just kill me! 

It was hard to avoid Papyrus’ attacks and I had to die several times before I successfully got through it. 

It was near impossible to fight Undyne because I legitimately had no idea Fleeing was an option. I struggled for ages at her stage, and I had to ask for help to understand what I could do.

And that’s actually honestly very true to life as well.

Being kind takes risk. Being kind takes effort. And sometimes, being kind means asking others HOW to be kind. 

When you choose to be kind, you risk being hurt, and you risk being trapped (Toriel). When you choose to be kind, you need to expand a lot more energy to succeed (Papyrus). When you choose to be kind, you need to sometimes reach out to others to show you how to properly do it (Undyne).

The rest of the playthrough probably went about as you expect. I completed the game, didn’t kill any Boss Monsters, fought to the end and... got that really unsatisfying Neutral Ending which felt strangely bittersweet. 

And of course, after I was done, I was prompted to go back and do a proper Pacifist Run. Which I did. I learned about the background of Determination, about Chara and Asriel... and about how everything came to be the way it was.

The thing that gets me the most about this game is how it serves as a direct parallel to how we use videogames. In fact, Undertale is a videogame... about videogames. 

Chara appears to be a direct metaphor for the people that use videogames to escape - to cope with whatever happened to them in The Overworld. Bad family life, or bad relationships or whatever we suffer - escapism through games is not, in itself, a new theme. 

Chara arrived in Undertale by dropping themself down a hole in the mountain, perhaps even seeking to end their life. They dropped into a world which offered them comfort and companionship, a new family and a new life - but in the end, their nature was destructive because their means to finding a solution inadvertently used other people as fodder. Asgore, Asriel - they used everyone else to complete their plans. It wasn’t about forming connections - it was about Completing the Quest. 

I wonder - did Chara even HAVE access to a MERCY option? 

Was their world one without the option of sparing someone? Did they only have the choice of acting - and was Mercy in the hands of whoever attacked them? I wonder how difficult it might have been for them. I wonder how that, in itself, shaped their perception of the world. 

I wonder if that’s why, during the No Mercy run, people recognize you as Chara? If they come back and attach themselves to your resonating DETERMINATION?

If this is true, was MERCY perhaps created later, brought into existence once Asriel himself made the choice to NOT fight, to turn back and flee, even after being attacked by humans in the Overworld? 

(It would be a nice parallel to Asgore DESTROYING the Mercy option when you enter the fight with him...)

...

In the end, I think Undertale is about many things, including video games. 

But it’s also hurting - and being hurt. 

It’s about how trauma can shape us, how we deal with feeling grief, and loss, and depression - and not being able to feel anything.

It’s about how we focus on goals and use DETERMINATION to keep going - even when whatever it is that’s driving us no longer has any SOUL. 

It’s about how our action have consequences, but they also carry the weight of a choice, and how powerful those choices are, and how powerless we feel when we aren’t given a choice - not to fight back, nor show mercy. 

I think that’s probably the reason this game resonated with so many people. It really brings something we love about videogames to the forefront - that ability to fight back, to have full and total control of our own lives...

And it also shows us how having that endless loop of repetitive grinding and fighting with zero consequences can lead to an incredible hollowness and make us numb to how we interact with real-life people. 

Anyway. 

Good game. 

[farshores]

What mods do you have running for your games?

I'm just gonna share the ones i have in mind for Tei's games bcus I use Vortex's profile feature to make multiple modded playthroughs & that'll just go on forever sharing those lists lol

Note this is an SSE modlist (that gets a lil long) & doesn't represent the load order these mods are in. There's are 4 specific lists for mods I added for: followers, fun/flavor, for general bug fixes/QOL improvements, & the respective patches

also note that im kinda tired atm & also just lack braincells so if there's something wildly misspelled lmk so i can fix it asap lol

Alrighty here we goooooo

FOLLOWERS + FRAMEWORK

Extensible Follower Framework

Interesting NPCS

Lucifer - Argonian Custom Voiced Follower

Khash The Argonian (A Fully Custom Voiced Follower)

Scouts-Many-Marshes Improved

Inigo

Nebarra

Miraak - Dragonborn Follower SE

Kaidan 2

Lucien - Immersive Fully Voiced Male Follower

Auri - Song of the Green

Gladys the Corgi

FUN/FLAVOR/VANILLA+/WHATEVER CAUGHT MY EYE LIKE THE EASILY AMUSED FOOL I AM

SkyHUD

A Matter of Time

Fuz Ro D'oh

More Informative Console

Alternate Start Live Another Life

New Beginnings - Live Another Life Extension SSE

Simple Follower Sandbox

Pronouns

Classic Classes and Birthsigns (Reimagined) _ Racial Levelling addon

Experience

Optional Starting Spells

SUNS - Season Unending Neutral Stance

Campfire

Simply Rest Anywhere

Immersive Movement

True Storms Special Edition

Supreme Rainstorms SE

Supreme Blizzards SE

Wet and Cold

iNeed [Will be replacing with Last Seed - Primary Needs]

Touring Carriages

Simply No Fast Travel

Weighted - A Compatible Item Weight Mod

Civil War Aftermath SE

Civil War Neutrality SSE

Diverse Skyrim SSE

Hearthfire Multiple Adoptions and Custom Home Support SE

Forgotten Magic Redone

Mysticism Spells for NPCS (high level + spells for spellcasters files)

Mysticism - A Magic Overhaul

Adamant - A Perk Overhaul

Arena - An Encounter Zone Overhaul + Harder Easy Spawns optional file

Apothecary - An Alchemy Overhaul + Food and Drink Addon

Apothecary - Instant Restore Potions (separate mod someone made to undo the recovery time change Apothecary added to potions)

Pantheon - Worship and Prayer

Pilgrim - A Religion Overhaul (NOTE: THE HIRCINE SHRINES WILL NOT WORK IF YOU HAVE HUNTERBORN ENABLED! IF YOU WANT HIRCINES BLESSING - GET IT FIRST THEN ADD ON HUNTERBORN)

Blade and Blunt - A Combat Overhaul

Incremental Injuries

Strike Obstruction Systems - Combat Blocking Overhaul

Leviathan Animations...All of em

Manbeast - A Werewolf Overhaul

Canis Hysteria

Diverse Werewolves Collection

Diverse Werewolves Collection - Player Replacer

Werewolf Feral Beast Run - Faster Werewolves

Simple Werewolf Favorite Howls Menu

Unlimited Werewolf Transformations

Werewolf Loot and Activate

Bigger Tails for Werewolves

Hypertrichosis - Alpha Extra Gore Edition-

Hircine Restoration Project

Mundus - A Standing Stone Overhaul

Aetherius - A Race Overhaul

Dragonborn - Shouts Perk Tree + portable optional file

Dragon War - A Dragon Overhaul + Variants Optional File

Forceful Tongue - Shouts Overhaul

Sil Gahrot - Improved Shout Learning

Dragon Combat Overhaul UPGRADED BABY YEAH

Aurbic Alduin

Talkative Dragons

Enigma Series -AIO-

Play as a Dragon

Sets of Skill - A Skyrim Class Mod

You Are Not a Novice - High Level Start (To be soon added)!

TK Dodge SE

TK Hitstop SE

Ultimate Combat SE

True Directional Movement

True Directional Movement - Tail Behavior Fix

Better Jumping SE

d13 Faster Get Up Stand Up SSE

Immersive Armors SSE

Immersive Weapons

Practical Female Armors SE

Redguard Noble Armor

Signature Equipment

Bandolier Bags and Pouches Classic SE

Guard Dialogue Overhaul SE

Immersive Patrols SE

Immersive Citizens - AI Overhaul

Immersive College of Winterhold

Better ICW Map

Convenient Horses

RaceMenu

Racial Body Morphs

Bodyslide and Outfite Studio

CBBE

CBBE Rugged Preset

Pride of Valhalla CBBE

HIMBO (quick note: you don't need the NSFW mods in the requirements list! If you're messing around w/ mods of that nature it's required but if not, it's safe to just up n download the file - just use the underwear options when batch building)

Vanilla Warpaints Absolution

Authentic Eyes

BeastHHBB + Immersive Encounters file + Kharjo alt file

Beast Race Bodypaints SE

Forgotten Argonian Roots (FAR)

Horns Are Forever SE

Argonian Improvement Horns SSE

Digitigrade Beast Races for Skyrim SE

Better Claws and Gauntlets SSE

BAT - Bigger Argonian Tails

Tail Armors

Interesting Beasts and Beards to Find Them

Dominions More Argonians

Adoptable Argonian Hatchling Chases Starlight SSE

My Little Hatchling Ram-Ku

Cyb's Interesting Natural People NPCs SE -3DNPC-

Real Bosses

EVE - Arvak Burning Hooves Restored

EVE - Footstep Sounds Restored

EVE - Giant Campfires Cast Shadows (Standard Vers)

EVE - Tavern Ambiance Sounds Restored

EVE - Ice Skating Fixed

TESL- Loading Screens

Less Boring Loading Screens

Loading Screen Smoke Removed

Immersive World Encounters SE

SkyTEST

SkyTEST Bellyaches HD collection

SkyTEST - Better Sheep SE

SkyTEST - Mihail's chicks replacer

SkyTest- Mihail's goose replacer

Hunterborn

Seagulls of Skyrim

Serana Dialogue Edit

Vampiric Serana

The Choice is Yours

Timing is Everything SE

At Your Own Pace (Misc & Main files)

Thieves Guild Requirements SE

Barenziah Quest Markers SSE

Autumnwatch Addition

Pandorable's Kaidan SE

Mannequin Stay Put

Simple Forsworn

Simple Outfit Manager (Might need to toss this one, I think EFF handles outfits as well)

Run For Your Lives

Sarcastic Player Dialogue

Let Me Drop It

More Tavern Idles - compatibility version

Honed Metal SSE Updated

Honed Metal Revoiced

Honed Metal - Additional Materials

Death is Highly Overrated 2021

Save the Dark Brotherhood

Your Choices Matter - Dark Brotherhood Expansion SSE

Shut Up Night Mother

Skald's Mail

Missives

Headhunter - Bounties Redone

Store Entrance Doorbells

Paarthurnax Quest Expansion

The Library of Paarthurnax

Immersive Good Boy

Smart No More Stupid Dog

PC Head Tracking

Alternate Conversation Camera

Realistic Ragdolls and Force SE

Redguard Children Skintone Fix

Skyland 8K Night Skies

Wearable Lanterns

Wearable Lanterns MCM Fix

Xbox Control Scheme (Full file version)

IN GENERAL BUG FIXES/QOL IMPROVEMENTS/MAIN REQS FOR A GOOD CHUNK OF THESE MODS

SKSE 64

Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch

SkyUI SE

SkyUI - Flashing Savegames Fix

Cutting Room Floor

Enhanced Lights and FX

UIExtensions

Static Mesh Improvement Mod

Underwater Visibility Fix

Engine Fixes

NetScriptFramework Skyrim SE

Papyrus Extender SSE

PapyrusUtil SE

Address Library for SKSE Plugins

Face Discoloration Fix SE

Jaxonz MCM Kicker SE

MCM Helper SE

Monster race crash fix

Spell Perk Item Distributor - SSE (SPID)

PATCHES...SO MANY PATCHES

Save the Dark Brotherhood Patch (available under the Your Choices Matter file tab)

Unoffical Enhanced Lights and FX ELFX SMIM fps patch for SE (own mod under same name)

Alternate Start ELFX Hardcore Patch (own mod under the same name)

Apothecary USSEP Patch (Available under Apothecary's files)

Apothecary SktTEST patch (currently unavailable)

Apothecary Hunterborn & Campfire Patch (Both available thru "Apothecary Food and Drink patches")

BEASTHHBB - Immersive College of Winterhold Patch (Available in BeastHHBBs file tab, might need to do a bit of scrolling)

Dragonborn - Adamant Patch (Available in Dragonborn - Shouts Perk Tree's optional files tab iirc)

Talkative Dragons Enigma patch (under files for "Enigma Series Compatibility Patches (Official)")

Forceful Tongue - SimonRim Patch (Under "Forceful Tongue"s file tab)

iNeed Universal Water Patch (own mod under the same name)

True Storms - Supreme Rainstorms Patch (Under Supreme Rainstorms SE files tab)

Interesting NPCs Cutting Room Floor, EFF, Alt Start patches (all available under the Interesting NPCs file tab)

Inigo Marriage Commentary Patch for Kaidan 2 (own mod under same name)

Missives -Solstheim Patch (under Missives Worldspace Additions)

Khash the Argonian Patches (under Khash's file tab)

kryptopyr's patch hub installer (its own mod under the same name, has a lil fomod to help pick out your patches)

lilebonymace patches (same as above)

[ranvwoop]

I've seen you talk abt it before but what's one-shot? You make it seem so cool, I'm very interested :]

AA thank u. Thank you for the opportunity to yell. It's so good. I am going to offer you a Spoiler Free OneShot Rundown BC it's,,, so good. I played it years ago, and like, it's still in my top games. I care them very much.

If you're a Ranboo Enjoyer tm I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you're probably acquainted with Undertale/Deltarune! (If anyone isn't, go watch his playthrough somewhere on YouTube vod reuploads, it's super good!!). OneShot fans don't. Exactly like being compared too much to Undertale since Undertale was everywhere and immediately overshadowed everything and is not the end all be all of meta fiction and OneShot came first guys but— it's a good starting point.

So like, the whole thing with Undertale is that the game knows it's a game and knows that you're the player, and your character is just sort of a vessel for The Player, and Flowey is like. Aware of that. Or whatever. I can't actually remember how undertale went oopsies.

OneShot is that but dialed up to ten, so to speak! The player character is referred to as a god by the characters, with the main character as the messiah sent to save the world with your guidance to restore the sun to its place at the top of a very large tower, and then they can go home. You also will get attached to them, and have to make some hard choices regarding what's best for the world and what's best for your lil buddy and their new friends you meet on the way! But, there's an Entity that does not want you to succeed. (I'm not being cryptic, that's the name of the antagonist hehe.)

And like, it gets really meta. I'm honeslty kind of iffy if it's a good stream game, actually, considering it needs you to close the window a lot and plants things in funny places like your desktop screen or your files in some cases! As well as taking some information from your computer to give you a little scare. But... it's so so good it'd be so worth it.... as long as mister streamer man knows and can prepare for stuff..

There's also a free dlc route which gives a lot of backstory about what the entity is, how Niko got there, and how they know about you and just !!! AAAAA. It's a very spoiler heavy game. But almost all of the puzzles require a lot of thinking outside of the box and, well. Meta computer stuff.

And they're committed to the emotional pain, too. In the original release, if you closed the game and didn't finish it in one sitting, you'd get a message saying that you killed Niko when you opened up the game again. That was taken out of the final release, Niko can't die and you won't be penalized for closing the game other than confusing and upsetting Niko, but. It's sure designed to be played in One Shot. It's cruel. In a very very good way.

bonus points: Niko's adorable! (And nonbinary! rights!)

evidence: baby

bonus points 2: it's got robots and objectheads, both of which are pretty cool!

bonus points 3: the soundtrack is very cool!! some of the song titles have spoilers, but this one is Neat and Spoiler Free.

In conclusion, I think that a) this game deserves far more recognition. I have reccomended it personally to every one of my friends. They are tired of hearing about oneshot and b) streamer man playing it would be fun because he is a softie and it is some existential foolishness wrapped up in Emotional Attachments and Pretty Game. I would also reccomend anyone reading this to play it, just cause like... it's a good time. It's a really good time.

[an0nymousghost]

simblr asks v2

here are my answers! find the questions here.

i wrote soo much ahaha. like however much you think i wrote, i wrote more than that. imo everything i write is gold though

1. are you going to buy the new pack (cottage living) when it comes out? no, it looks really nice but i legit never ever buy packs at launch, especially cause this one is a expansion and it will probably go on sale at some point

2. do you p*rate your dlc or buy it legitimately? buy it legitimately 👌

3. what’s your favorite world? brindleton bay, it gives like seaside cottage vibes. willow creek is good but it’s boring. 

4. if you use a queue, how many posts per day do you set it as? 3 or 4. i used to do like 12 lmaoo what even was wrong with me

5. do you watch sims on youtube? yes, i watch mainly malixa, oshinsims, and msgryphi

6. what are your thoughts on the most recent pack? (dream home decorator) those sectional couches look good! but honestly im kinda annoyed because now it’s even harder to have all the items filled in when i place lots from the gallery. like i’m just saying like a lot of builds will use that pack probably and if i don’t get it then i can’t really use builds/save files 

7. how many packs/kits do you own? lemme count

expansion: all - 10/10 game: 5/10 stuff: 9/18 kits: none xo

24/38 - 63%

8. what’s your origin id? is it the same as your url? 🤗 it’s in my title, it’s celeschul. it doesn’t look that nice in my title but i use celeschul in my package files and i’m guessing people search things like, “celeschul penny hair” or something like that in order to find my cc- so i keep it in there so the search results are easier. i do want to change it though..

but no it’s also not the same! well i mean it’s the username i use for cc. my origin id used to be an0nymousghost but i changed it. i wonder if anyone’s taken that one?

9. is your simblr your sideblog or main blog? main blog ✌️ my old blog @stardze​ is a main blog as well.

my old old simblr was a sideblog but it had like 1 follower and it literally a bot so i don’t think that counts. i have a multifandom sideblog though 

10. do you have a cc finds blog? i wish. i was thinking bout it earlier and that would be sooo neat but sometimes i download stuff that doesn’t have a tumblr post attached to it, and also it’s stressful to keep up with so nah

11. are you wcif friendly? yes sir. in fact i bring the trouble of wcifs onto myself but doing them even when nobody asked.

12. what’s your favorite sized household to play with? (ex. 1 sim, 4 sims) gonna have to think on this one, honestly 1 sim is really fun and stuff goes by so fast. doing stuff with astrid when she was on her own, it was much more efficient. 

for families, i haven’t done that in a while actually. 5, 2 parents and 3 kids is cute tho. why did i write this this is honestly such a hard question

13. if you have c&d, do you play with pets? i feel like i haven’t played with cats and dogs in forever. honestly i just have no paitence. noelle fae was supposed to get a cat (there’s a food bowl + cat bed in her house) but when summer vacation started, the amount of time i spent playing ts4 decreased a lot. (this doesn’t really make sense, i have a lot more time. honestly it just has to do with my recent obsession with a certain anime/manga and some other personal thing)

i did random nightmares in may though and i had pets frequently. g5 didn’t because sofia scarlett lived in an apartment, but g2/3/4 had cici, and g1 had all the cats. but that was back in march so it’s been a while.

14. what lifespan do you use? i really want to do aging off but then i feel like it drags on. but aging legit stresses me out, sometimes i just want to sit down and do some cas stuff but i only have 2 hours in real time and there’s like 4 days left till one of my sims’ birthdays. 

15. if you own a lot of packs, how many of them have you actually played through? just so everyone is aware this question was made for me

i feel like eps require a specific save made for testing them out, but the only save i’ve ever made for an ep is noelle fae’s get famous save. 

that is literally a lie - i made a save for island living with one of my 100bc kids, maisie acapella. i did actually post it on tumblr BUT then i deleted all the posts BUT i reblogged them on my alt account BUT i privated my alt account so i honestly forgot about it

i have never played through discover university or watched anyone do it on youtube, i’ve read gerbits’ story about it so i think i’m pretty qualified. i’ve always wanted to do one with periwinkle acapella but i never got around to it

another ep i know nothing about is get to work

i tried doing a eco life playthrough but i hadn’t watched any videos and i was like..what is going on. so i quit lolx d ;;;;; i mentioned it but the whimsy stories legacy was the first time i had played with the eco lifestyle features so technically i think i know what im doing

i got outdoor retreat literally on monday of this week so i haven’t played through it yet. 

jungle adventure i still don’t know what’s going on. i remember last year before i bought the pack i was brainstorming, and wanted to do a ja playthrough with luna and cedar, who are a couple who i did a random legacy with and it was all queued to post when i deleted everything (if you’re wondering why, it’s because my queue was literally 200+ posts). except this time i didn’t save them to my sideblog so i lost them. 

i still havent had a restaurant in dine out 

also never did the vet thing from cats and dogs

i have no idea what that rock climbing thing is from snowy escape but i did most of the other stuff because rn g5

city living i did through psc stage 5 and also it was the first pack i bought anyways

the rest of them are either stuff packs or i ended up playing them through casual gameplay (seasons, parenthood)

16. what do you do as you play sims? (ex. listen to music) i listen to music most of the time, or listen to commentary youtube videos because i am an alpha chad. i also used to talk with my friends on voice call but i don’t do that anymore 🥲

17. which sims challenges have you tried? random legacy, whimsy stories, perfect sim challenge, 100 baby, legacy (just the plain get-to-10-gens one), random nightmares, berry zodiac, astrology legacy, apocalypse

i feel like im forgetting some.. honestly most of the stuff i did before simblr was either 100 baby (i love that challenge) or random saves that lasted for 2 seconds. 

18. do you like the new(ish) hair swatches? nah. 

i do appreciate that most cc hairs have a true (ish) black, thank god! and the fact that the hair update is what inspired me to update and fix a bunch of hairs with different issues is pretty nice. but will i use them? no. 

plus it takes up like 5 gb? depending on how many packs you have.

19. post the latest screenshot you took 📸

i live in cas

20. what is the cc/ingame hair that looks the most like your own? i think that dream home decorator side part hair looks a lot like my hair. honestly i havent see much like my hair but that one is kinda-? close

21. who is your favorite sim of yours and what is their story? noelle and alari fae i think! 

link to post

noelle is blonde and has blue-grey eyes. she wears purple contacts pretty often though (because she wants to 😌)

alari has light brown hair that is kinda curly, and she’s got pretty vibrant blue eyes. 

they’re sisters, alari is 3 years older than noelle. noelle was 19 and alari was 22 when they got spotted

they worked as models when they were young adults. their jobs involved dyeing their hair blue/pink, and they would model like clothes and stuff. anyways, they were pretty successful. like not ultra famous but they had enough money to not work for the rest of their lives. 

their modeling group was made of 4 girls, the others were named paisley autumn and they were green and red, respectively. some things are: 

paisley and alari started dating during this 

autumn was a single mother to a little girl named destiny

noelle dated many people during this but never ended up finding the one <3

when their contract ended after like 6 years, paisley and alari went to go live together and noelle decided to get into acting. so thats when get famous playthrough started!

there’s more but basically they’re like oc’s with sims on the side. xoxo

22. if you use cc, are there any cc creators that you have like ALL of their items? this is such a good question! i hoard hair very heavily (my folder is 11gb) i so i have like 97% from most of the popular hair creators. 

i think i had legitimately EVERYTHING from simstrouble though, i went through multiple times to check and i also have all of her retired stuff. 

i have everything from ridgeport i think-? because of the fact that she uploaded all her stuff in one big zip. 

i think that’s it.. for a long time i also had everything by clumsyalienn, but then i ended up deleting it and only keeping my faves. 

and looking at my collection, maybe ah00b? i might be missing a couple but i at least have like 99%.

23. what’s one pack you think is underrated? dine out, it’s laggy af yes but it’s such a nice thing for my sims to do. 

24. what are your favorite sims stories/legacies? melons by gerbits always and forever

this question was inspired by this ask anyways so 

25. if you could change one small thing about ts4, what would it be? most of my suggestions are pretty complex but literally just - when you add tray files, they appear at the top. my life would be so much easier

this took me literal hours to answer

[curechocolattymilk]

I am in a sorta rambling Skyrim mood again so if you want lists of my mods i have/want to keep for Skyrim Extended Cut’s release/want to get for a fresh save under S:EC uhh here you go??

MOD LIST IN GENERAL/AS A WHOLE (might be a long one)

Immersive Citizens - AI Overhaul

USSEP

Alternate Start

Cutting Room Floor

The Paarthurnax Dilemma

Khajiit Speak (disabled atm, only on for a Khajiit character I plan on remaking)

Wet & Cold SE

Static Mesh Improvement Mod (SMIM)

BarenziahQuestMarkers SSE

Immersive Patrols SE

Apocalypse

Ordinator

Horns Are Forever SE

Wildcat

Inigo

DigitigradeKhajiit_ArgonianRaptor

Falskaar (disabled & prob gonna be uninstalled. Wasn’t satisfied w the mod so i went back to a save before installing it that wasn’t too far back)

Run For Your Lives

Enhanced Lights & FX

True Storms SE (+Compatibility patch for W&C)

Civil War Aftermath

Hearthfire Multiple Adoptions & Custom Home Support SE

Derkeethus Dual

New Beginnings- AS Extension

No More Stupid Dog

D13 Faster Get Up SSE

Amazing Follower Tweaks SE

DWC Player Werewolf Replacer

Diverse Werewolves Collection

Dominions More Argonians

Immersive Good Boy

Skyrim Sewers

Convenient Horses

Fast Travel Ambushes & Consequences

Interesting NPCS/3DNPC (& with it, Cyb’s Overhaul) SE  Patches/Hotfixes

BAT- Bigger Argonian Tails SE

BS: Bruma SE (and patches)

Vigilant SE + Voiced English Addon SE

Cinematic Dragon Soul Absorption (disabled)

Shout - Immersive & Dynamic Overhaul

SkyUI SE + Flashing Savegames Fix

Destructible Display Cases

Dragon Stalking Fix

TK Dodge SE

Immersive Movement

Hun Lovaas & the mod authors other music replacer mods

Hoth

More Tavern Idles

Ultimate Combat SE

Library of Paarthurnax SSE

Dawnguard as vampire (didn’t want to lose part of my sould for the DG quest lol, turned right back into a werewolf)

Real Bosses (Light File)

Immersive World Encounters SE

Better Jumping SE

Kaidan 2

Race Menu

Miraak DB Follower + Dialogue Plus

Monster race crash fix (for the Play as a Dragon mod)

Lucien Flavius

Racial Body Morphs SE - Diverse body types & height

CWN - Civil War Neutrality SSE

Alt Conversation Camera

Guard Dialogue Overhaul SE

Deadly Dragons

Werewolf Feral Run

Bigger Tails for Werewolves

Predators - Werewolf & Vampire role playing tool (Lite version currently disable)

3DNPC Talkative Followers

Masque of Argonian Vile SSE

Talkative Dragons + Enigma Series

My Little Hatchling SSE + Adoptable Argonian Hatchling

Play As a Dragon

Growl - Werebeasts of Skyrim (I definitely recommend this for werewolf playthroughs! It doesn’t have Moonlight Tales’ features but its still balanced/fun & barely buggy in my experience)

Death is Highly Overrated redone 2020

SKSE64

MODS IM FOR SURE KEEPING/MAYBE KEEPING

To keep the bulletpoint list hopefully short: Patch/QoL mods that fix vanilla issues (i.e. USSEP, D13, SMIM, the like), follower mods (save for Miraak since S:EC seems to have something planned for him), mods done to tweak the Werewolf experience, combat & boss difficulty mods, Mods that overhaul NPCs dialogue/AI (guards, citizens in general), weather mods, music mods, & mods that make Argonians & Khajiit look a bit more fun are for sure staying! Any civil war mods I have might be trimmed off, debating on how S:EC approaches reworking the secondary story quest. That being said:

BarenziahQM - For the sole fact it makes that quest soo much better

Paarthunax Dilemma - a solid maybe? S:EC is also gonna do something bout this part of the Blades quest if I read their reddit post correctly, so I might just leave it disabled & see what happens first

Hearthfire Multiple Adoptions - yes pls let me make Tei a papa to every Skyrim also I need it to make Kaidan’s home available for the kiddos

Derkeethus - makes him a more decent follower but eeeh idk i rarely take him out often so it might be snipped itsa maybe

Destructible Display Cases- sometimes i’m too lazy to lockpick

No more Stupid Dog/Immersive Good Boy- Meeko is a good boy I should be able to tell him & also my kids + housecarls shouldn’t call him stupid >:(

More Argonians- I just like these funky reptiles (used to have More Khajiits too but it always would CTD at a certain inn w it installed. F)

Alternate Start- Makes things more spicy

CH- Sorta QoL for the skyrim horses, for sure staying

FTA&C- Again, makes things more spicy, but in the event of some group jumping you while traveling

Vigilant- Maybe?? It’s fun as hell but not really in character for Jeer-Tei. Perhaps re-enabled later as an end game thing alongside BS: Atmora whenever that comes out?

Shout- makes cooldowns more bearable so itsa keep

DSF- also a QoL mod

Immersive Movement + More Tavern Idles + Better Jumping + Immersive Encounters

AFT- big traveling groups are always fun/it makes it easier to horde keep all of Skyrim’s dogs

Race Menu + Racial BM SE- falls under “makes Argonians more fun” like some other argonian focused mods I guess? RBM plays around w everyones height and RM just lets you go buck wild (in a sfw way! unless...yknow you got nsf/w mods i guess) doesn’t hurt to specify tho lol

Alternate Convo Camera- Really fun!! Despite it pointing out how short my LDB is

Deadly Dragons- Makes fighting the Dovah much more fun w all the (honestly not as canon) diversity in looks & abilities! Can recommend, not too harsh on older devices either from what I know

Death is Highly Overrated

Play as a Dragon + Monster Race Fix- another hard maybe because well...you turn into a dragon which isn’t too immersive I guess?? Probably another “end game” mod for Tei

MODS IM EYEING/WANT TO GET (this post is so long so far I’m sorry)

Survival Mods!! (iNeed is one I’m looking at & maaaybe Frostfall?? idk i’ll have to see about that one i heard its not too fun for the Argonian gang) P much looking for something that’ll make exploring the wilds of Skyrim less of a bore

Camping + Hunting based mods! I’ve been eyeing Campfire & Hunterborn specifically, but open to any other suggestions. Same reasoning as survival mods, makes it more fun to travel! Plus, I’m going for an in character experience, it would fit Tei!

Khash & Auri follower mods. I’ve been eyeing these two for a bit, but from my experience w adding Kaidan & Lucien late game, I miss a lot of fun stuff D: So I’m planning on nabbing them for a fresh playthrough under S:EC (or at least, Khash! I uh...don’t know how to download mods manually/always mess it up & Auri doesn’t have the option to let Vortex do all the work unfortunately, but we’ll see!)

Maybe some nice armor mods?? Again nothing too heavy to handle but just to add some flavor(tm)

Saw a mod that made Animal AI a bit more realistic, might nab that

long shot but a mod that lets everyone refer to your LDB via they/them pronouns would be cool too but idk feel like it’d be a nightmare to attempt modder wise. Honestly i’d love the idea of having a mod or two that’ll let me confirm that Tei is trans themselves in game (3DNPC has a quest where you can say your character is, but that’s about it to my knowledge)! Buuut I’m unsure to search for any cause: 1) I don’t want to deal w transphobes ruining my searches & my day on Nexus & 2) Any curious google/bing searches keep bringing up Lovers lab & mmmm no thank you.

and uh...so far that’s the base of it? idk im still looking around & I might have to add/drop some things depending on like...how much my current computer can handle, Not grabbing any fancy graphics mods, that’s for sure lol

[lordcommanderdoge]

It’s time for my annual playthrough of Dragon Age: Inquisition.

I was gonna do another run with Ramsey, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to change things up a little. I realized that being a dwarf wasn’t exactly crucial to his character, and that it entailed more things that bothered me than those I enjoyed (animation issues, weird camera angles, armors looking not so great, and let’s be honest - some scenes make no sense with a dwarven Inquisitor). I also happened to have the save files from my very first playthrough, when I rolled a human rift mage - Shay Maxwell Trevelyan. One thing lead to another and I sort of combined the two characters into what I think might be my new favorite. About 75% Ramsey and 25% Shay.

Wasn’t sure if I wanted to play as an archer again or go with a mage and it pretty much came down to whether I’ll be using Solas or Sera more. And since this playthrough I actually planned to start taking Solas with me more often (usually when I needed a mage I went with Dorian), I stuck to being an archer.

Added some new mods (finally got Frosty to work), a nice new reshade, and am excited to get back into the game.

[endwalkr]

this is an ask based thingy but im really in the mood to infodump so im just gonna answer them all under the cut !

Favorite video game?

starting off with the absolute hardest question huh? i can’t possibly name ONE favorite game of mine because i adore my favorites for many different reasons. my overall favorite video game is ffxv or botw. ffxv because it has brought me so much joy for such a long time, and because i have such a connection with the characters. botw because i was actually in the fandom when it first got announced in 2016 so i got to be there when the hype was at an all time high– and finally being able to play the game after waiting for so long was an unforgettable experience. i have more favorite games but ill talk more about them in the ‘’special place in ur heart’’ question.

First console you owned?

my first console wasn’t a console. my friend and i used to play on her nintendo dsi all the time and at one point tiny little me reeeally wanted one of my own so i saved up and got one in [redacted] when i was 7. my first actual console was a wii though, we got that around the same time.

A game that holds a special place in your heart?

ffxv and botw mean the absolute world to me, but super mario galaxy and skyward sword are very important to me too. skyward sword is the game that got me into zelda which got me into anime which got me into final fantasy etc etc etc.  super mario galaxy was the first non-mini game collection and more adventure story-ish game i played. i was so proud when i beat it for the first time and mario was my first ever ‘’fandom’’ :’) 

Favorite video game character?

bro. i cant pick just one so i’ll choose one per game : prompto, ryuji and link. they were all my comfort characters at some point and i projected like crazy onto them. this doesnt mean that i wouldnt absolutely die for noct or zelda. 

Least favorite video game character?

i dont think theres anyone i distinctly dislike? i always talk about hating ardyn but that’s because he’s just a salty bitch. as a character i think he’s a great villain and i rly love him. i honestly always end up liking everyone somehow, maybe there is someone i just forgot about but i cant remember at all. 

Favorite genre?

adventure games, or action rpgs. 

Video game character you’ve had a crush on?

every character ever, but i distinctly remember the moment i fell in love with prompto sjghfkshd i was watching a playthrough of xv in december 2016 because i didnt have a ps4, and the guy got to the scene in galdin quay where the bros learn insomnia fell. i had watched about 6 hours of the game by that time and wasn’t particularly interested in the characters but not uninterested enough to drop it. i hadnt even gotten a good look at the characters faces yet, so when the camera zoomed in on prompto when he said ‘’might not be save for us here!’’ i noticed he had freckles. oh god. oh fuck. oh my god hes fucking cute. oh my god better watch 30 hours of this game now

First video game you remember playing?

wayyy before i got my own gaming systems, my then-best friend had a gamecube in her attic. i was around 5 or 6 at the time. whenever i was over at her house and we didnt know what to do, she’d sometimes propose to play ‘’mario kart’’. important is that we are dutch, and i was a literal child. i thought mario KART meant it was a fucking card game, so i always declined whenever she asked. on one fateful day, i finally gave in and was pleasantly surprised it was in fact not a card game, but a viddy game. so we played mario kart double dash. (…i had never played a video game in my life besides browser flash games and was Very Very bad)

Age you started gaming?

so i played my first video game that i didnt own when i was about 5 or 6. then i got my first supply of games at age 7/8, but i dont really consider that time to be when i started ‘’gaming’’. i’d say that was when i started mario galaxy, so i’ve been playing video games for real (ie. story adventure games with boss battles) for about 6 years now.

Hardest video game you’ve played?

this is gonna sound stupid, but the witcher 3. there’s like 7 difficulties and i played on the EASIEST and still had a hard time, i just couldnt get used to the combat. i had the same problem with assassin’s creed syndicate, but after about 10 hours i actually knew what i was doing, and ive played the witcher longer than that and still am clueless. this is kind of an unpopular opinion but i dont particularly like that game

Video game you’ve spent the most time on?

i guess i am what you’d call a casual gamer; i really like video games but during a normal school week i only game for like 2-6 hours. most of the time i dont play for like 2 weeks if im busy. gaming has kind of taken over my life not because i play so much but because i get so emotionally invested lol i’m currently on summer break and even now im not playing a lot because of exhaustion and executive dysfunction. this derailed slightly but the game i’ve played the most despite my casual gamer status is …. … …. ffxv. surprise, right? the runner up is botw, but xv wins by a landslide. 630+ hours. botw is 350. my main save in ffxv is almost 200 hours i think. damn. i really managed to keep myself entertained with that game… (………i was thinking recently, since the loading screens in xv are so long, how much of this total amount was spent watching screens. i imagine it’s several hours, especially if you fast travel a lot.)

Most embarrassing gaming moment?

many moments in my gaming experience are embarrassing, but a more recent one: i was in xv’s postgame, beating some dungeons on my new save file. i had just finished daurell caverns and hadn’t saved in about 2 hours. (uh oh) i was driving around in the regalia type d and got to the big cliff near lestallum, and remembered someone made a gif of jumping in there so i wanted to try it too. i imagined the game would just put me back on the road, like it does when you crash into something. except it didnt. i got a game over. where was my last save? 2 hours back all the way in hammerhead. yippee.

Scariest video game you’ve played?

i never play horror games, cuz for me games are supposed to be relaxing experiences. no hate towards horror games of course, they just stress me out. the only time ive played horror is when friday the 13th was for free on ps+, and my friends really wanted to play it. (theyre kinda addicted to it now. huh) they had already gotten over the initial fear of having jason chase you, but i was still terrified. i can play the game without getting scared now tho. the horror sound effects just rly freaked me out at first jhsdkghsd

Most memorable gaming moment?

playing breath of the wild for the first time, or beating it for the first time. both experiences were filled to the brim with excitement and nostalgia. seeing botw as a blank slate, a world for you to explore, having no idea where you’re going… that was pretty incredible. now i know every nook and cranny of the map, so i wish i could play it for the first time again. i was so incredibly immersed. beating it was insane. i cried for 30 minutes and the end wasnt even sad, i was just so amazed at the fact that i was really here, playing breath of the wild, it was really real. the fucking main theme in the background (which i cannot for the life of me listen to without crying) didnt help with my emotions sgkdjh

Video game character you wish you could meet in real life?

…………..its prompto again. maybe 2017 me …. was .. kind of a kinnie

PC, Xbox, Playstation, or Nintendo?

i dont care about console wars at all, but i think hardware-wise, pc is the best, because if you have a good pc you can basically do anything. i however do not, so i just play on consoles. ive never particularly liked xbox, so i only play ps4 and nintendo. not the switch though. its kinda petty, but my best friend and i really dont like the switch djghks

Gaming company you’re most loyal to?

none. i used to call myself a nintendo nerd (oh my god…. i m. gonna die) in like 2015 but since the switch came out and since i got a ps4 they kinda lost me. i still like their game series of course, but as a company i don’t care for them. the only reason i see square enix as one of ‘’my’’ gaming companies is because ffxv took up like 70% of my gaming experience, but besides final fantasy i don’t really love them too much either.

If you could only play one video game for the rest of your life, which would you choose?

atm i’m really into ffxiv because theres just so much to do, but that’s just a new, possibly temporary interest. if i had to choose, i’d say botw. maybe i’d say ffxv, but i feel like running around doing nothing in that game isnt very fun, because the world is sorta empty after completing every quest and getting to level 120. in botw, just fucking around on your horse is still really relaxing and nice. 

Do you use strategy guides?

yup. in certain games i try to avoid them but i usually end up stuck or in need of advice. i couldn’t have gotten so many p5 trophies if not for the internet lol

How often do you use cheats?

never, simply because the games i play often do not have cheats. unless im playing the sims and are in need of a motherlode, i dont use them.

Competitive or single player?

single player. im bad at video games and like to do stuff at my own pace. online multiplayer can be fun every now and then in games like mario kart 8 or splatoon, and i also like teamwork stuff like ffxiv or comrades. but ultimately, i prefer playing on my own.

Video game character you want to/have cosplayed?

have never cosplayed, dont have plans to either, but it would be fun to cosplay link. omg. i just remembered i have that fucking chocomoogle shirt… sorry link im gonna slap on some sasuke hair, black jeans and ugly sneakers 

Ever go to a video game convention?

i have not, i have however gone to three (3) video game concerts which is basically the same thing. 

Hardest boss fight you’ve been in?

the hardest bosses for me are usually the ones with a gimmick. you have to use a certain item or tactic to beat them or something. other hard fights for me are when you fight someone with a similar skill set. (in ffxv, this happens twice, once with the iggy-noct sparring match and once against ardyn. somehow, the final boss was easier than getting the prince to eat vegetables.) i don’t know an actual example of THE hardest boss fight ive been in though. at the time, the first bowser battle in mario galaxy was the hardest thing in the universe and i got stuck for like a month. currently, i’m having trouble with the riku-ansem fight in kh1. 

Video game you wish you could burn from your memory?

the zelda cdi games? no, i dont really know. i dont hate a game so much that i’d want to forget about it altogether, but i dont exactly love ocarina of time that much. it hasnt aged well and playing it on the gamecube for the first time in 2015 wasnt a good idea. im sure it was revolutionary at the time, but i cant handle the outdated controls gsdgksjs 

Favorite gaming series?

see, i love ffxv itself more than the entirety of the zelda series, but i dont love ff as a SERIES more than the zelda games. so if were talking series, zelda for sure. i fucking love those games and they mean a lot to me. 

Do you skip tutorials, or find them useful?

i often skip them because i cant pay attention, but then find that i need them anyway. so i usually do skim through them. 

Best online gaming experience?

one really good one happened a few days ago in ffxiv, some guy and i exchanged emotes for like 30 minutes and it ended with us becoming friends on psn :’) ppl dont usually emote back at me in that game so this was really wholesome and nice gjshksdj 

Worst online gaming experience?

i dont really have a worst? theyre more annoying. think try harders in gta online killing you 15 times in a row because they want to show you how good they are or something. magically, online gaming hasnt been too hard on me (mainly because i dont game online that much)

Why do you game?

it brings me joy. it’s a fun way of relaxing, while being stimulated at the same time. games have meant a great deal to me the past 6 years and i wouldnt want to lose them for the world.

[tissaia-turned-me-into-an-eel]

the further adventures of me playing Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

well, I have to say playing this game is an interesting experience

highlight reel:

i picked up like 30 rusty swords from a battlefield and had to call Roach to haul my overburdened ass to town so i could sell them

why are there geese inside the inn?

women screaming because i Aarded the geese, lol oops, anyway more raw meat for my stash

i finally finished the first part of the main storyline, and now there’s an even bigger map with all kinds of new herbs to gather!! :D

pretty red flowers!! so many herbs!!

so uhh.... exactly how many gratuitous bathing scenes are in this game?? i got to that part like 5 minutes before my mom got home from work, probably would have flung my Switch across the fucking room if she’d walked in while that cutscene was playing (yes i am an adult and read romance novels that my own mother recommends to me, and also my mother thinks it’s hilarious to make me read the “Pacman uncontrollably guzzling cum” card whenever we play Cards Against Humanity, but i still have an an instinctive panic reaction when it comes to someone else walking in the room when i’m engaging with adult content)

Geralt is such a fucking grump about putting on a fancy outfit, meanwhile i’m over here like YAY TIME TO PLAY DRESS UP!! 

i took a long time trying on the outfits and debating which one i wanted to wear even though two of them were almost identical

the Nilfgaardian pants look really good, too bad they suck as armor or i’d just keep them on

new goal: get better at fighting in this game so i can wear an outfit with only like 2 defense stat because i want Geralt to look CUTE while he’s running around killing shit

was i supposed to refuse to bow to Emhyr?? he seemed pretty shocked that i actually did it???

in town: get the ever-living shit beat out of you if you steal shit where a Nilfgaardian soldier can see you. in the Nilfgaardian castle: just fucking rob the place blind and the guards don’t say SHIT to you

Geralt, why do you need 5 copies of the same book *steals all of them anyway*

*gets a sidequest to go burn some bodies* cool, that’s not suspicious at all

“So i found out this quest was some bullshit after all” / “interesting..... let me buy your silence” / “deal”

hmm, i wonder what happens if you confront the corrupt priest, on the other hand i wanted more gold and he said he was gonna give me some so..... yeah

eventually i’m going to start another save file where i actually know what i’m doing, in the meantime my first playthrough is just going to be a dumpster fire of bad decisions and me running around not knowing what the fuck i’m doing

[thelapismoon]

MCSM S2 E4 Commentary

Wow I have forgotten what this episode even was about. *whispers* I actually never finished watching a playthrough so I guess I'll see some knew stuff. Heh. I'm scared. I managed to get changed, get my food, update my tumblr, and this thing is only 55% complete. HOW LONG IS THIS EPISODE? 

Quite funny that I've already said this much stuff and the episode hasn't even completed downloading. I wonder who actually ever reads this? Sorry about not writing my commentary for the last episode. I just didn't want to stop the episode every three seconds to write. Speaking of that, I might just paused every ten minutes to write. Huh. Thank god it's at 83%. I'm worried. This soundtrack, oml. It's finally done downloading. See you on the other side. Is Radar the narrator now? Admin, Admin, let me like you. I want more Warden interactions. Oh look at this awful frame rate- that's my fault Wait I forgot that I gave in and became a guard. Nurm, I love you. Warden didn't deserve to die. This lighting tho. 10/10. Radar, if you're trying to make me feel bad, it's not working. Nurmie-hurmie, I could never leave you behind, dear. Please don't hurt Xara, telltale. That facial expression. NGHHH FEELS. *singing* Holy shiet. Radar you better be careful because I won't hesitate. Nurm can I hug you? I feel like if that was actual minecraft logic, that jump would've killed us. ITS H I M I love this music, reminds me of some old western but.. dorky. Baby zombie. Tag urself, I'm Xara. NURM. Don't cry.. Let me wipe the tears away, you poor soul. Nghh Jack and Nurm are a perfect couple. If something happens to EITHER of them, I'm gonna throw some hands. You sure that isn't just a carpet..? I haven't played minecraft in like three years so.. Poor Xara. Wtf is wrong with you guys?! Um... NO I DO CARE!! Can I lay down next to you? Well.. Bye? OH NO I SUCK AT FIGHTING. Oh my gosh, this is the first time I survived in one try. Yees. R A D A R. I swear to Persson... Hm. NGHHHH I'm only going to do this because if I don't, Nurm is gonna cry. And I refuse to let. Nurm. Cry. Argh. You're all ungrateful swines. Who is that? Hm. I want to draw her. OH shoot my iPad is at 5% power. "1 night in Fred's house"? That sounds extremely CONVENIENT. Hello, Binta. You look... Nice. *cough* Everyone here seems.. Off. Oh hi Kent. Bye Kent. Gonna just... Slowly walk away. Lapis blue..? *cackles because you must know by now* Wow, good job, Jesse. You just ruined the moment. Can't wait for that to be a running gag no one will stop talking about for two weeks. *sigh* I can't stop thinking about Star Wars right now... Ngh.. F o c u s. Wow I'm actually really proud of this. Oh look, I won. Well now I feel bad. Me and my darn feelings.. WAIT THEY WERE PRETTY CAN I- Argh. I don't like these people. <<nothing much until the Ivor fight because there wasn't much to say>> Doodle doodle doo everything is nice and calm POTION. NGHHHH!!! Oh shiet I don't have a sword. I have a feeling I know who it is <<well of course I do>> Welp, honey, If you gotta kill me, at least I'll know my favorite character of all time did it to me. Hope this stains your conscious, Ivor. Ivor, my love, you're back! <<me the first time I saw him, YES. OH MY GOD. YES. YES!!! HES BACK! HES BACK! ARGHHHH! HES BACK! AHAAAA!>> My sweet alchemist, let me hug you on behalf of my friend and just because I love you so very much. I totally wasn't writing fanfiction about you two hours ago :,)) AGHHH. Ivor, can I just hug you for the rest of eternity? Oh my god I think I'm going to start crying. He looks... Slightly off... CAN YOU HEAR THAT? THOSE CHORDS!!! Those are IVOR'S theme. ACK I love him. Oh wait yeh, ninja, I have questions... Shiet, Ivor. You punched a forest worth of trees? Add that to my scar-headcanon-list. I can't believe they made Ivor the karate kid When his voice gets really deep and husky oh my lord... You know who I'm thinking of.. *looks at you Zoe* Can I hug you? Sweet old man I love you. Harper? Where IS Harper? *hack* where is Soren also? Mmmmm I'm getting all these good vibes now I gotta drop some stuff in the Ivor askbox once I'm done. Darn I wanted the old order to come back :( If Ivor.. shows some type of question of authority towards the admin... Oh my.. "Disappear", hm? Wait.. Okay Ivor's voice ;v; What if Ivor actually killed Jesse? I'd like to read a fic about THAT. Ivor is whispering, I can hug him, he's being witty! everything I could ever want is happening. Ivor's voice lines are my Christmas present. I love you, Ivor. Oh my gosh he looks so short next to Petra. NO DONT GO. Actually. Wait. DO go, If the admin suspects anything of you or even dares to TOUCH you, I will lose my god dang  m i n d Ivor Ivor Ivor. Farewell, my beloved... Okay I'm sorry you all had to see that. I thought I had hallucinated ninja Ivor at first tbh. Well now what? I don't even really wanna play after that.. Argh, I gotta finish this or else I won't be able to play the new episode tomorrow. Stay strong, Lapis. Weren't these two people based off of the great British baking show hosts? I love that show. And now I'm craving cake. Ugh I don't wanna fight in there, don't you know that I suck at fighting? Argh. I wanna read some fic now. Horrifying, hm? I know exactly what I'm gonna do... Okay well that was definitely PG-13 We're gonna forget that ever happened. Heh. *coughs* Hmm.. I'm gonna choose "please don't hit me". RADAR! PUT A SHIRT ON! You're a CHild! Well I just deleted all of the commentary after this so.. *insert distant screeching* Ooo Radar's feet I feel mildly bad about that.. LEVEL SIX HUNDRED?! Boy I don't have TIME for that! Wait WHAT?! Sweet J E S U S. AAA WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?!! *panicked screaming* Aaaaaand now I'm dead. Darn. Okay... Oh my gosh that golemn death scene! I smell some foreshadowing.. Romeo.. Death by water? I should keep my mouth shut. That was sick, man. There's MORE?! That's it, I want this to END. Wow that attention to detail.. Me and my darn Romeo-loving-heart. There has to be SOME type of redemption. They could do so much with him... Tbh my friends think I'm crazy because of how I like Romeo but ARGH I like villains, okay?! "Just kids" just started playing INSIDE THE CABIN and now I wanna flip onto Romeo's bed and cry. NGHHH MY FEELS!!!!!!!!!! The music just synced up perfectly. *sigh* I relate to Petra too much.. I want to burst out crying now, this hit too close to home! Petra has never been my favorite character but I can relate to her on a spiritual level. Man I came to have a good time and now I'm feeling personally attacked. AND THIS SAD MUSIC ISN'T HELPING Potato451? Hmm Potato backwards is Otatop. Top? Ota.. Obsidian? Top? The top? Top of the world? The sky? I'm probably taking this way too outta context. OUCH. ma feels. ... Just kids. IS SHE CRYING?! OH MY GOD CAN I ALSO CRY???? Wait this is changing my story? Oh god what have I done? <<later>> Hello, Xara, darling. What exactly did she "repair"? Have a bed, forget my hypocrisy. Wait.. where did she go? FIGHTING argh. Wow I'm alive. Hey Jack. Oh yeh I was gonna go back and save his eye. ..can I do that? I hope that wouldn't corrupt my save file. Okay.. Oh no radar or Fred's people? Radar... I'll see you on the other side. I have a bad feeling about leaving him. But it's his time to shine, and I won't take it from him. The order's temple.. WHO DARES GIVE ME THESE F E E L S?! Nurm just jumped into Jack's arms, everything is going swell- *sees Beacontown* Oh fuuuuu WAIT NO DONT YOU DARE CUT OFF RIGHT NOW!!! Oh my gosh it's Jack's lament. 50% 50% on the scavenger deal, hm. 51% won? That contest was easy. 32% promised to stay with Petra 50% on giving Xara her bed 51% took Fred's friends MMM JACK YOUR BEAUTIFUL VOICE. I listen to that song everyday. LUKAS NOOOOOOO N O NOPE NOOOOOOOOOO LUKASSSSSSSSSSS ARGHHHHHGHHHHHHG I'm lucky that the next episode comes out in 22 hours, wow I'm late. Toodle loo until tomorrow, dears!

[spud-works]

Creatures Such As We

A quick little story to those who didn’t ask for this, ie all my followers and mutuals.

Since I sold my Xbox and my PC has croaked out, I am stuck with mobile gaming on my iPad 4 (which sucks kinda cuz it’s 7 years old and all good games are incompatible with it). Recently, the App Store recommended to me a choose-your-own-adventure book app called “Creatures Such As We”, a novel where your choices affect the outcome.

Basically you make your own character (I’d like to point out this game’s openness to represent cuz you have the option of being either a cis male/female or trans male/female and since it has a romance element it also has representation for bi ppl) who’s a tour guide on a recreational facility on the moon. It opens with your character playing a game titled “Creatures Such As We” where he’s struggling to find a “good ending” where the protagonist can save both the world and their love interest, something they fail to accomplish despite several replays (no it isn’t a telltale game they’re playing). After that frustration, they are told their next tour is the dev team to that game they play. Now basically the romance part comes in with which developer you choose to bond with. Here’s the list:

Andres, the average white guy, a bit of a pretentious asshole. Sardi, and Indian girl who’s a self absorbed asshole. Ren, a Chinese girl who’s a harshly critical asshole (do you see where I’m getting at here?). Grant, a stereotypical rich white guy (and asshole). James, pretty chill guy, a bit annoying (idk what his ethnicity is). And finally Diana, an American dreamer (the one really nice person in this group) with her head always thinking up the wildest stories and she’s the lead writer, basically the person you nag about the ending to that game.

So your first impressions have a strong effect on how these people will see you. You can either give them a strictly professional greeting or act casual and nice. (It is at this point I realize that I’m going into a full on summary but I honestly can’t be fucked to change it) So you give a thorough tour of the place (Grant’s sick so he’s throwing up until you send his sorry ass to med bay) and let them sleep in their quarters for this week long stay. It is also at this point I realize that all your character does in their spare time is work out and play video games. Anyways, your character decided to restart the Creatures game from the beginning, where basically you kinda familiarize yourself with the protagonist and their love interest. Then, you again reach the ending and the inevadability of Elegy’s (the love interest) death. The next morning at breakfast your character chooses who to sit with aka start a friendship with. I chose Diana cuz practically everyone else is an asshole and I’m curious about that game. I’m told that yes, there is in fact a rigged ending on the comment of the idea that for some people to survive others must suffer (in this case Elegy has to sacrifice herself in order to save the protagonist and the world). You talk about how there are moments where sometimes, people can survive without suffering and (I’m not gonna detail the rest of the convo cuz it boils down to she’s flattered by your idea cuz of a recent business merger of her company meaning she suffers under more intense scheduling and idea restrictions for the benefit of the CEOs). So then there’s the tour where you take the devs to the Lunar surface in space suits. To sum it up, Diana has a panic attacked and almost breaks her suit and suffocates until you take her back to the facility and calm her down (this is where the romance REALLY kicks in even though your boss and her boss would hate this). So basically for the next day my character snuck off and hung out with Diana and then had to go back to touring duties. Next day, SURPRISE SURPRISE THERES A REASON THE MOON IS COVERED IN HOLES GUESS WHAT OUTER SPACE DECIDES TO RAIN DOWN SUM DEATH. So a meteor shower happens and leaves a mile wide crater between the facility and the Evac shuttles. So your director, afraid to have a bad reviews cuz he failed to activate the asteroid defence, tells your character to lie and blackmails you into doing it. So then I take the devs into the space suits and try to get them past the crater. Of course, Diana falls in and you have the choice to either leave her as protocol dictates, or save her and get fired. What did I choose? If it ain’t obvious you’re a heartless bastard (and yes I AM being hypocritical by saying that). So I brought her to the shuttles, meteor shower is over and I’m told I’m fired until Diana takes the blame by saying her curious mind fiddled with systems. You get your kid to keep, you’re not allowed to even tell Diana goodbye as she leaves for Earth and you’re left heartbroken and with a rigged video game. No matter how many times I replayed I that section, I’d reach that outcome. It would be a different ending, but my character would still lose Diana. And that’s the end…

Actually it isn’t. Author basically asks if I enjoyed the story, and I said I did cuz I didn’t mind the ending too much, I’m thrown into the Epilogue. What happens? I got an email from Diana with a file for a “patch” she convinced the devs to make to Creatures, and I got the Alpha. What was the patch? I got an extra option in the end. Before Elegy turns herself into a black hole targeting the main antagonist, the protagonist gives her a hug and a kiss to stop her from killing herself, and with the guards knocked out they destroy the military base and save the world and live happily ever after. Then, you are basically given a list of things to change, and this turned out to be a LOOONG epilogue. My character managed to get the director who blackmailed him fired. Diana becomes the head developer and writer to a new game based on her friendship with my character. My character resigns his job and moved back to Earth, getting help from Diana to physically get used to the natural environment and starting a relationship with her and gets a job as one of her writers in the new game. The end.

No doubt there is one question on everyone’s mind. Why say all this? Well, to be honest I actually PREFERRED the base ending without the Epilogue. I felt like the Epilogue was unnecessary closure, after a five hour playthrough drove into my head the whole idea that some things you can’t change, a lesson that is actually harshly relevant in my current life, something I had to apply to my current relationships with the people I know and care about. The pre epilogue story was kind of my own personal closure, the idea that I just need to move on in order to survive, even if I do have to suffer to some extent. I can understand why the author put it in. Under normal circumstances I would have loved the fact that there was a happy ending. So yeah. There’s just a little peak about my weekend and the sort of impact a choose your own adventure book has on me. Hope I didn’t bore you too much.