#but i'm just tired of gacha games as a whole

[hoshiszora-archived]

I'm not huge on Honkai (I've played Honkai Impact btw) and I'm not planning to play Honkai Star Rail tbh mostly cuz I've actually grown tired of gacha/mobile games and all he grinding has tired me out (and then sometimes there's all the meta bs about how we should build someone or whatever the hell people are rambling on abou for how we should play a game), but this blog is Honkai-friendly!

Hope you all enjoy HSR!

[evenyvn]

— streamer! aventurine x supermodel spouse! reader

cw ;; gn reader, fluff, sfw, kinda househusband aventurine since he's already retired from his former job on ipc.

and happiest birthday to my beloved aventurine ♡

streamer aventurine! who streams for fun and got popular quickly due to his former job, and he streams regularly now since he got plenty of times.

streamer aventurine! who streams about video games (mostly gacha games) and probably reviewing fancy products that he got, such as watch, perfumes etc etc. honestly he do whatever he wanted to do and everyone seems to like it.

streamer aventurine! that got viral because his god luck on rolling for gacha games, literally got 3 5 stars on his first 10 pulls, always won 50/50 and soft pity at that, he did stream contents like "pulling on my viewers accounts" and always ended up with crazy luck on his rolls, literally his viewers crying that they finally broke their 50/50 losing streak thanks to aventurine.

streamer aventurine! that shocked everyone when you accidentally walked in one of his streams, but with only your body that have been seen, and he's adamant to keep your face hidden because he wanted to keep your pretty face all for himself. his viewers think that you kinda look familiar but aventurine just shrugs it off with a knowing smirk.

streamer aventurine! that will get teased by his viewers once they knew he's married to a very attractive person (you). they'll be saying something like "is your roommate single?" or other down bad comments just to get his reactions.

stellarjadehunter donated 100 credits! : roommate's face reveal when?

"excuse you? that's my spouse right there!" cue him looking at the camera with an offended look, your laughter can be heard from the other room making him pout.

another comment pointing out that you look like you could be a supermodel makes him giggles behind his hand, trying so hard not to burst out laughing.

after that whole things happened, now you seem to be appearing more on his streams (without showing your face still). sometimes you just sit somewhere off camera or sometimes stand beside him while holding a food and occasionally feeds him, his viewers think your actions are cute and he think it's endearing.

that's it until someone point out how aventurine's spouse looks a little bit too much like a certain famous supermodel, aventurine saw someone who did a whole research and analysis on this and post it on social media, he just laugh it off saying that they're being delulu.

"seriously guys, i saw someone making a whole thread about my spouse, believe me when i say they're just a normal person"

yea no one believes him, ouch.

veritasratio : they're already know, you cannot fool them anymore.

"shut up veritas"

now onto the part where his viewers catch a glimps of your face or hair, the whole community went crazy and the truth finally unfolds. aventurine's spouse is the crazy famous intergalactic supermodel.

aventurine's not happy with it but he's definitely going to brag about it everytime on the stream now. everyone is tired.

"well, I'm a husband of-"

topaznnumby donated 200 credits : "okay okay WE GET IT, your spouse is a SUPERMODEL"

now that your identity has revealed you're showing your face more on stream, even sometimes doing a cooking or baking stream together with your husband (it's honestly just you cooking while he just looks at you with a lovesick face the whole time).

streamer! aventurine who sometimes get on a friendly banter with your fans, literally just him saying that he's your biggest fan and more bragging. he's greatful that your fanbase is actually really chill because you yourself never tried to hide the fact that you're happily married on interviews.

streamer! aventurine who gets more popular, because half of his viewers are just your fanbase now lmao.

✦thank you for reading, likes and reblogs are very appreciated♡

[mt-oe]

I’ve just been highly obsessed over modern Mizu. So I’m just asking for that, modern Mizu meets reader at uni or something like that! I love LOVE your writing!! 💖💖

✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧

Hey dear!

Thank you so much for the request! I hope you don't mind if I add a bit more to this <3 I've been wanting to write modern au Mizu hcs and your request really granted me the opportunity to do so.

Also, I'm so sorry for being so slow on the requests. I've been so eepy lately for some reason and I can't fight against it, like I tried but failed so many times ;; I am a slave to my own body

Anyways, I hope you enjoy! Mwa mwa :*

warning/s: not proofread, she/her for mizu, implied afab reader, game reference (league of legends)

general headcanons

✦ This woman would either overload or underload her units like crazy. She'd either be busy with her academics and work 6 days a week, even sending a letter to the admin so she can go past the mandated maximum amount of units in one semester or doing absolutely nothing while the rest of her friends are going apeshit on their finals. There's no in between.

She would plan it like an absolute psychopath too. Nothing special foreseeably happening in the next semester? She's going above and beyond. A convention she wants to go to on September? Signing up for the bare minimum amount of allowed units just for one event.

Her friends are either concerned for her and losing contact for a whole semester, or are pissed off that she's playing some kind of gacha game on her phone while they're losing their minds on their finals.

✦ Would be the type to be so pissed off by slow walkers in the hallway. The hatred she has for people who walk so fucking slow in the hallway is unbridled. Though she's not the type to pick fights, she'd be the type to sigh loudly, making you feel her anger, before overtaking and wouldn't be afraid to bump against the person if needed. Her hatred goes deep enough to the point where she even remembers people JUST because they walk slow.

✦ The type of friend who would walk to everything. Sure she has her motorbike, but if she can walk to it, you bet she's going to walk. She even knows different shortcuts to different buildings on campus.

"This looks like a good place," Akemi tells them, showing her phone. For once, their vacant hours finally aligned and they've been trying to find a good place to eat since the lunch hall food was getting repetitive and they could feel their taste buds dulling over time. Akemi, being the 'what do you guys want to eat?' friend, and the other three, being the 'I don't know' or the 'I'm fine with whatever' friends, is left to search for a new place.

They took a look at the place and shrugged in agreement, making her roll her eyes at their lack of opinion. "Okay but how are we going to go there?" Taigen asks. Mizu takes Akemi's phone and looks up the map to the place. The distance itself was enough to tell a person that they should take the bus. Hell, it was on the other side of town almost.

"We can walk. It's not that far," she says, closing the map and handing Akemi her phone back. They trusted Mizu. It couldn't be that bad.

Right?

By the time they arrived at the restaurant, they were already sweating, ready to give up, tired out of their wits. The food wasn't even worth it anymore.

"It's not that far" my ass.

Even Taigen, her fellow gym rat and workout buddy, was fucking exhausted. And this bitch (affectionately), has the audacity to stand there, crossing her arms with the most unamused expression on her face as if it was their fault for being so exhausted. If she tells you its walking distance, it is NOT within walking distance.

✦ She's a jack-of-all trades type of person, but she'd have the fattest fucking talent crush on anyone who can express themselves through art. The talents and skills she gathered were purely out of necessity. Fixing and modifying bikes was the only thing she was truly passionate about but it's hard to be expressive through repairing motorbikes, right?

She has always been so amazed by stories of painters, sculptors, singers, and writers who have deep backstories and can reflect it through their art. She would be the type to read the whole description in art museums just because she's so amazed by them.

Deep inside her, she wished she could do that too. To express herself through a medium. Like what do you mean you wrote this poem because you're sad your cat died? Or what do you mean you took this professional-looking picture just because you had the best picnic date with your friends? How can someone write a song about casual sapphic sex? She can't even vocalize her feelings, how much more in art? Whenever she sees someone writing their English essay so well or drawing randomly, she'd secretly be so interested.

✦ Mizu would have social media accounts but would use it bare minimum. She'd be that type of classmate that you're not sure if it's really her because she doesn't have a profile picture you can check or if she does, it's like a picture of an item instead of her face.

Her friends would be so happy whenever Mizu posts an IG story even if it's just a picture of where they were eating or even if their face is barely in the picture.

"Aww you posted us!" and they're like little ants with how small they were in the picture.

Or

"Do you want to eat at that place again?" and she'd be like 'what? why?' but they'd know she actually enjoyed the food because she bothered posting a picture of the place.

Deep inside her, Mizu wants to keep up with whatever trends her friends are into but she's very lowkey about it. The tough love friend who secretly really enjoys being friends, y'know? She'd search about it and try to figure it out. Everyone's surprised by her internet knowledge since she always acts like she wouldn't give a shit whatever new trend is on.

✦ This sounds so corny and stereotypical, but Taigen and her would be those gym rats who solve everything by working out. It didn't matter if it was a weekday, a weekend, a holiday, or whatever weather condition was going on outside, they are going.

They failed a test? Gym. Hungover? Gym. Too much homework? Gym.

When Megan Thee Stallion said she'll go to the gym two times a day, they go three. When she said the results are resulting? The body is bodying? These two are taking it seriously.

Taigen would focus on biceps, chest, and lats, cutting down on fat so his body would look more lean. He'd hate leg day but would do it anyway just to balance out his physique.

Meanwhile, Mizu would have a 'sleeper-type' build and her routine would be more well-rounded and would even include calisthenics on her free time. They'd try to beat each other's PR but it really ain't a competition when Mizu is always winning.

.　 . • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆

how did you two meet?

Stupid shitty project.

Stupid fucking publisher gatekeeping the fucking article.

Stupid bitch ass school wifi keeps disconnecting.

Mizu resisted the urge to slam her laptop shut as her device disconnected from the wifi for the nth time. She was stuck in the library trying to finish her midterm project for building design system and holy shit was she frustrated.

She needed to create a specific building design that was supposed to be environmentally friendly, using what was considered as 'green materials' and had minimally destructive designs. It wouldn't be so bad if this fucking publisher just had to put a price on the article she needed. Wasn't education supposed to be free or whatever?

Her friends tried to help her, telling her to use the library computers, but none of them were working or free at the moment. That leaves her to use her laptop in the library. Usually, that wouldn't be a problem but due to the recent rains, the school wifi has been pretty shitty.

After a few more tries, she decided that this wasn't worth the frustration and trouble, and decided to collect her things to get ready to leave. Just as she was about to zip up her bag, a tap on the shoulder stopped her. She turned around to look at who was trying to get her attention, ready to tell them off. But upon turning around, her heart skipped a beat.

There you stood.

In your oh-so fancy sweatpants and college logo hoodie (whose logo wasn't even the university's). Your hair was ruffled and messy, eyes tired and more exhausted than her's. Understandably so though. It was hell week and everyone was tired, but somehow, your tired looked so pretty.

Her eyes continued to stare at you. Like the world stopped moving and it was just you and her in the room.

"Umm...there's a free computer over there if you still need it," you said shyly but in a straightforward manner. A small tired smile on your lips, trying to appear as friendly as possible. Mizu snapped out of her trance and nodded, slinging her bag over her shoulder to move to the said computer.

Maybe she'll stay for a bit. To finish her midterm project.

Definitely not for the pretty lady.

No, of course not.

Upon sitting down, she couldn't help but sneak glances at you, looking back down at the screen when you looked in her direction. She felt stupid, like a lovestruck fool. Borderline, like a child getting their first actual crush.

In her mind, she was already planning how to approach you without making it awkward. Maybe she'll try to strike up a conversation? But how? Hmmm..

It definitely took a while, being distracted and all, but she was finally able to finish her report. Taking a deep breath, she prepared herself mentally to talk to you. She stood up and stretched after logging herself out, pretending to look around the room but in reality she was looking for you.

Much to her dismay, you were no where to be found. A small "fuck" left her lips as she sighed, picking her bag up. The universe must hate her. Giving her an opportunity to see the most beautiful person she's ever seen only for them to leave early? Fuck.

Her thoughts continued to plague her for the rest of the day, even until the next morning. It sounded so silly and so stupid for her to be this bothered, but she really just couldn't forget you. She sighed once again as she stared at the lecture hall walls, face hidden against her palms.

"Excuse me. Do you have an extra pencil?" a voice asked as she felt a tap on her shoulder. Looking up grouchily, her eyes widened immediately.

It was you.

And this time, she wasn't going to let this opportunity pass.

.　 . • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆

but what now? (girlfriend headcanons)

✦ Mizu would absolutely remember EVERYTHING about you. Your birthday, MBTI score, favorites, dislikes, and even the silliest things such as what makes you sneeze.

She has a second brain for these, an internal SSD in her brain just for you. You won't even have to remind her about anything, because she already planned it out before you remember.

It's especially great for errands since you don't have to give her a list, she already has a list in her brain. Sometimes, you'd think she forgot because she's so quiet about it but she always finds a way to prove you wrong. If she says she forgot something about you, it's a lie. She never forgets, especially when it comes to her girlfriend.

✦ Would pretend to not understand or know how to do something just so you could teach or show her. Mizu definitely has a lot of skill up her sleeves, but whenever you asked if she knew something that she knew you were good at, she'd pretend not to.

"So I just click like this?" she asked you through the call, clicking on a minion. You had enthusiastically called her, asking if she wanted to learn how to play League of Legends. Unknown to you, your girlfriend already knew how to play and was quite good at it (that's a lie, she's beyond good).

She couldn't help but smile slightly as she watched you nod enthusiastically. The thought of you being so eager to spend time with her was heart-warming. She even made a dummy account just to make her beginner act look believable. "Yeah, you just need to keep this up. So should we queue together?" you asked, sounding really excited.

Mizu chuckled and nodded. "Don't get mad at me, okay?" she joked lightly, accepting your invite. "I won't. I'll be the ADC so you can play support until you get the hang of it, okay?" you said, checking which ADR champions you had cool skins of. Your girlfriend let out a small laugh at your enthusiasm, signaling you to start the queue.

The game went really well. Extremely well.

To your surprise, Mizu was quite a good support. Never accidentally stealing your CS, always being there during a clash, skill shots always hitting, knowing who to focus on. "It's because you're good at teaching people," she said.

But really, you wonder how she knew which items to build when you never even taught her.

✦ Would do the most random or the smallest things for you. She's not good at expressing her feelings so she makes up for it through acts of service and gift giving. Mizu tries her best to be as loving as she can without overwhelming you.

Can you even remember the last time you tied your own shoelaces? You can't. Can you?

Sometimes, you'll be surprised to arrive home with the fridge already stocked even though you had told her that you'll do the groceries on your next day off. The only response you'll get is a shake of her head and a random thing you mentioned you wanted to buy.

Sometimes, she's a bit silly though. Putting in the effort to remove her jacket to shield you from the rain even though you had an umbrella, removing the buckle of your helmet so she'd be the one to put it on you, gifting you random goofy greeting cards.

It's both endearing and a bit funny.

✦ Secretly loves it when you put makeup on her or if you let her do your makeup. Her amazement and fascination skyrockets whenever she watched you put make up on. It was a line of femininity that she was never taught to cross. She'd watch you with deep interest, observing how carefully you did it, how purposeful each step you did was.

"So why do you put it on?" she asks. You hum in thought before shrugging. "It just...makes me feel pretty."

What do you mean it makes you feel pretty?

You were already pretty.

You can't help but laugh at her and her curiosity. "It just does. It feels therapeutic to put on and I like how I look after, it's like expressing myself or something. Like painting but on your face," you explained to her, making her raise an eyebrow.

"But what if you don't like the way it looks?" she asked, picking up your eyeshadow palette and swatching a color on her hand curiously. "I can always take it off," you answered, blending the blush on your cheeks.

She stayed silent for a moment, continuing to swatch the colors on her hand. Her mind still couldn't wrap around the fact that this could make you feel better. Its just color and chemicals, and it washes off too.

Your eyes scanned her face before a soft laugh left your lips. "Here. Want to try?" you offered. Your girlfriend looked a bit hesitant but she wanted to understand.

Was this really fun?

After a few minutes, some struggles and squirming, you finally finished putting some make up on her. You tried your best to make it look as natural and as light as possible, knowing that she wouldn't appreciate the texture of heavy makeup immediately.

Blue eyes scanned over her own face on the mirror. She didn't say anything, but the slight twitch of her lips and the shine in her eyes spoke thousands.

"I want to do it on you too," she said quietly. "At least one thing. Let me try to do it for you."

You heart melted at her excitement. How could you refuse her when she finally finds something she likes? You handed her your eyeliner and sat down. "Here, follow my instructions.."

Mizu actually ended up liking it. Although she enjoyed putting it on you more, she still enjoyed it nonetheless. The amount of practice she put in made you wonder if she was actually better than you now. Somehow, she felt a bit of relief and a bit happy that she finally found something she could do that was considered as 'artistic'.

What started off as a simple "let me try" ended up being part of your routine. This woman never stopped practicing different eyeliner looks and now she just sits on your bed, waiting for you to finish your routine so she can put it on you. Sometimes she'd do a more creative graphic liner look, but on days you had to go to uni or work, she'd do the usual. She could probably do it with her eyes closed.

And the results?

SHARP.

Capital S H A R P.

[massivechestplate]

Is anyone else tired over recent events? Not in a sleepy way, but in that bone-deep depression way?

Bit of a long post about the general Gacha game-sphere. Needed to get this off of my chest, might as well scream into the void.

I ask this as someone who flirts between these gacha games out of boredom mostly. They're free, they're phone, they got Story, and I'm not spending a cent on them personally, so that's why I play them.

But every fucking day it seems we got another controversy. Bad VA this, fired an artist that, White_Pharaoh.png being handed out like fucking candy on Halloween lately.

And then we discuss on how Its Bad, and we all know Its Bad, people discuss on what to do, Boycott, torch the franchise and run, stay and try to fix it, ignore it because it's been your Comfort Media for the past 3 years, all that stuff. And it's hard. And a lot of those choices always feel half-assed.

I've been around a bit, I've seen it. I was around when Fate Grand Order had LB7, Wandjina, and all the other shit on 2023 JP hit, and there was talk, some talked but stayed, others left but chose to still engage with Type-Moon works, some might've left completely but I never heard of them.

I was around when Project Moon fired Vellmori, and there was betrayal, some deciding to leave, others staying because Project Moon wormed into their hearts and they decided to stay even knowing what was happening. Knowing what it was now built on and where the lines were drawn.

And I'm here now in the midst of the Hoyoverse shittery round 2, I don't think I need to speak at length on that. We've all seen it.

And all the time every potential choice to take feels half-assed?

Do you leave, abandoning the franchise as if leaving without fighting to improve something makes you good, preserving your own morality at the cost of never making anything better? The lack of evil substituting for substantial good?

Do you boycott? If so is it purely not spending money or not even logging in? Does it even make a difference? After all, when do these oversea companies really listen to anyone outside their country of origin? Is it enough to stop on that one specific game and still buy other works, or do you condemn the whole?

Do you continue on as normal, to indulge in the media? To continue what brings you joy and comfort? Is criticizing and acknowledging the faults enough or just lipservice?

Are we arrogant to impose our values on others, hating foreign companies not conforming to our beliefs? Or is this completely reasonable, every scathing speech and point completely justified and never bordering on some level of sinophobia?

And just... it's hard. Hard enough trying to be a Good Person normally but here? In this space? Part of it feels natural and some action is necessary for the Good of Everything, the other part feels like a big fuss over something ultimately small and meaningless.

And it hurts. You give out pieces of yourself to these stories, let it become a part of you, then become forced to tear it out of your heart just to be Good. And when I say that I don't mean in that internet point "I'm a good person way" but the way of being Good with yourself, proving only to yourself.

And it doesn't help that plenty of us have devolved into humanity's good old passtime of tribalism, mockery, and a lack of empathy for The Other. Everyone's been taking the piss out of the other gacha players for the stuff their games pull as if their own games haven't done the same. Some of it might be in good nature, over exaggerated and self-deprecating, a joke or criticism, but its honestly become indistinguishable from genuine malice and contempt.

And...

I'm tired.

Tired of seeing this. Tired of dealing with it. Tired of wondering what to do, what's the best choice, what choice even is there.

Part of me is honestly tempted to just not care. To accept that I'm a bad person by playing these games and going through with it anyways because I'm so tired and cynical that hedonistic indulgence just becomes more worth it than trying to be good. At most accept a Gacha-game that's a 'Lesser Evil' compared to another, if that even counts.

Because it hurts. Because you let these stories change you, touch you, let them into your heart, and then have to tear it out with your own two hands and pretend it doesn't hurt. And you can't feel like you can mourn what you lost, because someone will come in and start raving about how it's dumb you even cared to begin with.

I've seen arguments for every option, from people I don't respect and people I do, strangers and prominent community figures. I've warred with the argument of "Morally Pure Media doesn't exist, don't beat yourself up over it" and wonder just how absolute that statement should be.

And I don't know.

And all I want is to go to sleep, and wake up and have it magically be better.

[doyouknowthischaracter]

Y'all act like you're automatically better than gacha game players and I need y'all to let go of your stupid fucking superiority complex. Yeah these games have problems, so fucking what. They're not unique in them, they're not the first games to have these problems, and the fanbases aren't uniquely annoying. I'm tired of hearing the bitching of you fuckers. "Choosing peace and love" my ass, then don't publish these asks shitting on the games.

.... I promise it's not that serious. I promise. I didn't want to put you guys on blast when you told me to die etc. in the tags because a submitter made a mistake about a character's source material and I didn't know enough about it to catch and correct it, but that coupled with this kind of reaction? Not a good look for you. You're not exactly beating the "uniquely annoying fanbase" allegations. (Which, btw, is something YOU came up with. Nobody else here claimed that.)

Anyway, I'm not mad. I just think this is funny. But I won't be answering any more asks about gacha games or whatever for now because I don't want this to turn into a whole thing.

Happy first dyktc mini drama to all those who celebrate!! ✨

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for not paying for my fiancee's trip?

(Sorry mod, sending this again as I forgot to add an important context detail)

This is going to be long, I'm so sorry!

Okay, so I (23M) am engaged to a very wonderful fiancee (27NB). She's fantastic, and I want to make it very clear that our relationship is great - we have good communication, we never argue, we're always on call without getting tired of each other, etc etc. There is just one issue we have - her financial habits.

For context, I am disabled and can't work due to both mental and physical health issues, so I'm on disability benefits. She can and does work.

We're long-distance (she's in America and I'm in the UK), and we've been dealing with it pretty well so far. At the beginning of our relationship, we agreed that before we got to the point of talking about moving in with each other etc. we would need to have her visit me here at least once to meet my family and get used to how things work here (as she wants to move here), and I would need to visit her at least once to do the same there re: meeting her parents etcetera.

The agreement was that I'd pay for her to come here, and then when it was my turn she'd pay for my visit there so it was fair.

She first visited me about a year and a half ago and came over here for two weeks. I paid for her plane tickets, our transport everywhere (we don't have cars), the AirBNB we stayed in, etc. This ran me about £2k, which was all I had at the time, and I didn't have enough left over to pay for her food on top of that, so I asked if she could cover her own food costs while she was here. This caused a bit of an issue at the time as she was very clearly frustrated at having to do it, and would make comments like "Ugh I wanted a new computer but now I have to save for this trip", "I'm having to sacrifice so much to pay for this" and it made me feel incredibly invalidated, like I was covering everything else and also sacrificing a lot to pay for everything else for us but the one thing I'd asked her to help with was too much. We had a conversation about it at the time and she apologised and said she'd work on it, so we moved on.

Plans changed a bit very early this year, as I was due to get surgery and the friend who was supposed to accompany me there dropped out last minute. I had no one else nearby to turn to and I couldn't go alone (it was the kind of surgery where I would need someone around for at least 1-2 weeks afterwards to help me move around and do daily tasks). As a last ditch effort I asked my fiancee to fly over again and help me out, and I paid for this again which I was completely fine with doing as the trip was a favour for me and it was unplanned from her end. This was another ~£2k.

So cut to summer this year. This was when I was supposed to have my visit over to America. She, at this point, was making pretty good money at a school job. However, when I asked her if we could finalise the plans and buy tickets, she told me that she had no money.

This is where I explain that she's really, REALLY bad with money. She impulse-buys clothes and things for her room etc., she plays gacha games like Genshin Impact and spends quite a lot of money on 'pulls' and the gambling mechanic, things like that. It turned out that through the whole time of having this job she'd been basically spending money as soon as she got it and she now had nothing for the trip. I was admittedly frustrated with her (especially as she initially lied to me and told me she hadn't spent money on games etc. and then later confessed that it IS where the money had gone), but we agreed we could push back the trip to winter/Christmas-time to give her more time to save, and honestly I didn't really mind because I've never spent Christmas/New Year with anyone before, so shifting the visit to over those days would be a nice experience.

However, soon after this she was fired from her job for too many call-outs/absences. For the next few months, she didn't get another job - she said she was doing all she could and was applying for, but I often got the impression that she wasn't and was sort of throwing out an application every few weeks and then writing it off as 'done', which I could be completely misinterpreting so take that with a grain of salt. I kept pushing her to get a job so we could get the trip sorted out and I know she got kind of frustrated with me a few times for it.

I ended up giving up the closer we got to the time and offered to just cover it again if she could pay me back when she did get a job, and she agreed.

Unfortunately, after this I was rendered homeless due to my abusive home situation. I was fortunate enough to be offered government housing and I now have an apartment in town, but it's completely unfurnished (literally all that's in it is a single bed and a cooker, there's no flooring or anything yet). I now have to put all the money I have saved (about £3k) towards getting flooring (which is a little over £1k by itself), furnishings, getting the walls painted, sorting out gas and electricity, etc. I'm also now paying the bills for this apartment. As a result, there's no possible way I could afford to cover the trip anymore myself.

It looked like things were getting sorted because my fiancee got another job recently. It's pretty well-paying, she seems to enjoy it so she's not calling out, and she kept prompting me to talk details of the trip with her so it felt like it was all getting figured out and she was ready to finalise it.

Then today I asked her how much money she had ready for it and she said... $15. I'm genuinely lost on how she still hasn't saved any money, she claims she used it all on "bills" but she doesn't pay rent or cover any housing costs as she still lives with her parents, so I don't understand at all where it's all going. We have less than a month before the trip is supposed to happen, nothing is sorted, we still have no clue where we'd be staying, no plane tickets have been purchased, and now it's looking a lot like it's going to have to be pushed back AGAIN to next year.

I thought about trying to pay for it again, because I DO really want that Christmas and New Year with her. Delaying it again would also mess up our future plans, as the plan was to get this trip to America and meeting her family done this year, then spending the first half of next year on the Visa process and then the latter half getting her actually moved over. It also means I would have to delay my college education, as I was going to start my course early next year, which I wouldn't be able to do if the trip is next year instead as it would require me to take weeks off.

If I tried, I probably could cover it - I need to spend the ~£1k on flooring as that's already arranged, but I could technically use the remaining £2k to fund the trip. However, this would mean my house would remain unfurnished and barely habitable for months longer. It's not so bad if I know she'd be able to pay me back quickly, but the reality is that I don't know how long it would take for me to see the money back.

Part of me also feels like she's kind of expecting me to give in and pay for it last minute in order to not delay it, because I offered before and I was willing to pay for the last two trips. But it's just so depressing and frustrating, because it feels like I keep giving things up and putting things into these trips and getting her over here, and trying to get it back from her is just like running into a wall.

We've talked about it before, but she insists there's nothing more she can do, she's trying as hard as she can, and that she's upset about it too. I just don't know what to do about it anymore.

So I guess my question is, AITA for complaining about the trip, missing Christmas/New Year and pushing her on money and nagging her about what she does with hers instead of just taking the L and covering the trip again until she can pay me back?

What are these acronyms?

[burningcheese-merchant]

I have. A few things to say! First of all, thank you for writing for here (and there, but I do not have an AO3)! I’m very in much love with someone going crazy for another and *mwah* do you do it right and justice! That said, prioritize yourself! Drink water! Eat! Do not burn out, and do not feel pressured to do stuff! I hope that your spark burns for long after this fandom!

Thank you so, so much for your kind words! I know you sent multiple asks, so I'm going to try to respond to the first two in one post, if that's ok! (I'll answer the PitayaFire one separately)

Don't you know that the truest, most profound kind of love is born not beneath the soft, pale light of the full moon, not in the sound of a pair's steps as they dance the night away, not within the warmth and security of a tender embrace, but within the walls of the solitary confinement cell in the "dangerous and violent" housing section of a psych ward? LOL jk. It's really fun writing a lovesick/obsessed person for some reason. I don't have this dynamic for any of my other ships, this is the first time I've opted to explore a darker, more uncomfortable and unstable route/interpretation of a "relationship" and it's honestly been a blast lol. (I DO also ship mutual BurningCheese, but under specific conditions, AKA Burning Spice has a redemption arc and GC falls for him on her own. I just can't justify them being together if he's still evil. So long as he is, the love is one-sided)

I really am grateful for your compliments and encouragement. I've got a super big and important BurningCheese fic in the oven rn, but I do need to actually focus on real life for a bit, so it'll be some time. I'll be posting drabbles on here and a fic or two on AO3 where BS is NOT dangerously insane, just a regular asshole who's down bad lol

You can rest assured that my crazy diamond will continue shining on long after I get tired of these games about talking cookies. I always loved writing, it's my favorite hobby and it's my only way of expressing my creativity since I can't draw to save my life. I actually have a 100% original work I've been tinkering with for a loooong time, but I always wanted that story to be told in comic form, and to do that... I have to learn to draw lol. (And that's... a really big mountain to climb. I want to climb it more than anything, but I don't know if I can. Feels like I keep slipping and falling on my ass every time I try to take and retake the first step on the first rock, you know? Idk how anyone does it, honestly...) In any case, I'm truly grateful for you and everyone else who bothers to look at my work and actually thinks it's good for some reason

Did you see that gacha animation though 👀 The way BS is looking at her 👀 y'all can't tell me he ain't thirsty. Look at that twinkle in his eye. Look at that smile. He wants to tear up more than just those wings, I'm telling you 👀 Shadow Milk is a silly billy, he thinks puppet shows and gaslighting are how you flirt with people. Mystic Flour is probably just like "what. What is this. Who is this man. Why is he handsome. Why do I feel this way. Emotions are futile. Love is ephemeral. I will not stray from the path. I will trap him in my mind prison and torture him. That will fix it. He will surrender to apathy. He will return my soul jam. He will see how smart and correct I am. Cloud Haetae will sing my praises to him until he believes them. Yes. That is what will happen. Victory is mine. I am Very Normal about this." Burning Spice? Down horrendous. Down crazy. When GC is there, it's like no one else is in the room. Won't stop smiling. Only mentions the Soul Jam once, focuses on her specifically the whole rest of the time. First real thing he says to her is how much she impresses him. Throws a tantrum after their fight essentially because she didn't step on him hard enough. Down bad. Down bad. Down bad. Ain't no way he isn't. You can't change my mind

Sorry for rambling. TL;DR: Yo Socrates, it's a fucking cookie (also thank you for your support)

[hisaribi]

so, a batfam as hsr paths and types and maybe some backstory they might have in the universe

Part 1 of ???

I'll start with Gotham being something like Luofu or Penacony, they aren't really a planet, but they fly around, my guess because of the Court of Owls they're more on the Abundance path, as dudes were searching for eternal life, and also Talons fit abominations pretty well, or they were a mining ship, that got rich for some time but now they have like incredible crime-rate and a difference between rich and poor to cause another great october revolution, but alas. maybe they're on the Beauty or Elation path, they also aren't a part of IPC, but this one is weird, so don't worry

Then let's go to my favorite, Dick. He was born on a ship traveling the universe, performing life, circus, so basically he has no roots or home other that the ship. Most Carnies are following or blessed by Elation, so Dick grew up around mentions of Aha eon and Fools, also probably somehow connected to Masked Fools (and honestly this way for Dick to be, like how he deals with the world, being constantly happy as a pretend, keeping laughter to fight the misery, a light and a hope or whatever, I'm sure he has his mask somewhere), but because elation isn't a playable path in hsr, we need something else for Dick. I'm actually torn between Abundance and Preservation for him. Abundance blesses selfless, altruistic and healers (though ok Dick isn't really a healer of the party, I guess), and Preservation is for patient, sacrificial and proactive, they act like support with a shield role. Let's stick with Preservation. As for the type, also torn between lighting and physical. maybe we can pull Dan Heng and make his Robin physical with healing (hey, Natasha), and as Nightwing he's Preservation and Lighting, so let's stick with that.

So the story, they come to Gotham, his parents die, Bruce takes him in and Dick stays with him on Gotham.

let's move to Bruce then. He's either on Nihility, Erudition or Destruction path. actually Erudition fits most Bats, so let's stick with Nihility for Bruce, because fighting crime in Gotham is pretty meaningless thing. It also puts a bunch of DoT (Damage over time). I also think he should have Quantum type of damage, once again, because it gives a neat debuffs. so as for his life, his family was killed the same way, as in canon, then he run away from home and traversed the universe, maybe even with trailblazers, he studied blade and all that to become Batman, to help Gotham. Also just thought that now Gotham being a ship and it makes so much more sense to call her a She.

actually @brucewaynehater101 suggested for dc having their own aeons, or some entities, so Lady Gotham might be really cool, but I'm probably not in the mood for recreating a whole world building for this silly small thing that's already way too long

anyway, I'm sorta tired of thinking for now, so let's finish with Alfred being Hunt with Ice type of damage, because of his spy bg and because he has such vibes.

anyway, strike me with who to do next or your ideas about other characters, ye. don't donate to gacha games, good luck in pulling, I want Avanturine rerun

[godisasimp]

Terrible news were brought to me (Seele's gacha outfit is rerunning) and now I wanna talk about the neglect Herrscher of the Void suffered, still is, by MiHoYo. She is my most favorite character in all of Hi3rd, and I am just so very tired of it all.

New Divine Key.

MiHoYo has been giving old herrschers battlesuits (ie +2yo) new Divine Keys, they started with HoReason then HoThunder ; logically speaking HoVoid should have been next, she is the last member of the original Herrscher trio.

However, HoSentience got it. It's not even because giving HoVoid would be a "lore issue", just look at HoSentience.

I can understand why MiHoYo gave one to HoSentience, they tried to replace her with HoRebirth and the fandom might have not liked that, so they had to keep HoSentience meta. It's not the first time MiHoYo does things because of the fandom (especially CN).

HoSentience was still good mind you, so HoRebirth impact on HoSentience meta placement wouldn't have been much, especially considering that HoRebirth can be a dps who needs HoSentience.

HoSentience wasn't in a place where a new Divine Key was needed, and yet she got one instead of HoVoid, and I'm afraid that mihoyo might use that as a way to skip HoVoid all-together, they'll have to "follow the Herrscher order" and give one to the Herrscher that came after HoSentience (i sincerely hope that this fear of mine doesn't become reality).

Her treatment in story and Story Recaps

This is pretty well known by that point that HoVoid is completely ignored and skipped over when MiHoYo does story recaps.

In an event recounting Kiana's journey (a puzzle picture event) MiHoYo opted to skip HoVoid and instead put the Moonbeam battlesuit.

In a set of Stigmatas recounting Kiana's life and growth, HoVoid was not included ; instead less important (to Kiana) characters made it in, Li Sushang and Rita for example ; which is odd considering that the PROMOTIONAL Stigmata for chapter 25 was excellent as it included all Kiana's steps.

All of this is an issue because HoVoid is one of the most important part of Kiana's story, without her Himeko wouldn't have died, and therefore the whole story might have not have happened at all, she is the reason we have the story we have, and yet she is ignored ; after chapter 9 we do not see her and she only reappears to be killed off in chapter 25, only to be ignored again and reappear for a small cameo in Da Capo.

Which is a shame because she is such a well written character, that could have offered so much to the story. But she was ignored.

In-game

First of all I wanna talk about outfits ; she has 3 of them (not bad some battlesuits don't have any) one of them is her gacha outfit : Frigid Empress.

It hasn't had a single rerun in more than 3 years. While MiHoYo reruns outfits that are less than 6 months old.

The most outrageous example is the most recent : in December of 2023, during Kiana's birthday MiHoYo reran her newest summer outfit that came out the same year.

They prioritized a very new summer outfit over Frigid Empress in DECEMBER.

Next is Elysian Realm : HoVoid was the last Herrscher (at the time) to join, alongside HoHuman who was literally coming out. And ever since, there hasn't been a single instance of a weather benefiting her appearing, she was good once and never again since.

And while HoVoid (the battlesuit) has appeared in recent Captainverse events, it hasn't brought anything new to her, other than some minor exposure, i won't just take exposure as a gift, this is the bare minimum.

[katboykirby]

your takes and explanations are always so nice and refreshing to see on my dashboard, thank you for giving a bit more insight into these things and explaining why obey me is the way it is! a lot of criticism is valid but sometimes i think people just don’t actually understand what kind of game they’re playing which makes reading the same takes rather tiring…

Thanks so much 🫰

I haven't ever really talked about it in much detail (mainly because I'm not contractually allowed to post very much company-specific info, aha) but working in the industry, particularly with live service mobile games, has given me a good amount of lived experience with how these games work and how they're made. So I like being able to offer a different perspective from the development and writing side of things!

You're right, there's always going to be valid criticism for any game or media, and OM is no exception. However, while it's no one's fault, you do sometimes see criticisms and complaints about things that don't actually have anything to do with Solmare. A common thing I see is people having grievances with the live service model, or the fundamental mechanics of gacha systems. While that's totally valid, a lot of people will misplace blame on the actual game itself (in this case, Obey Me! and OM: Nightbringer) instead of looking at the genre or medium as a whole.

And I don't blame anybody for that, especially when it's not common knowledge! But something I find myself telling people a lot is "well, that's an aspect of all gacha games, it's not unique to OM" or "that's an issue on an industry level, you'll find that happens with every live service game and not just OM"

But I'm really grateful that people like to read my long, rambling posts about game development! It means a lot to me 😅

[hoshiszora-archived]

Part of me wanting to get into HSR, but as cool as HSR looks I'm... likely not even gonna bother with it

[coconox]

random ramble since i’ve been thinkin a lot lately instead of doing hw but ermmm anyways

i guess for some lore about myself i was a lurker on pgrtwt starting late 2021? then august 2022 was when i started posting there (basically around the time of pgr’s 1st anni art contest). anyways i’ve been playing the game ever since day 1 of its global release and it took me a while to get out of my comfort zone to interact with people cause my social skill levels are in the negatives lol

from my swiss cheese memory i’d say my experience was relatively ok in terms of interacting with the fandom at first. i’ve made so many friends whom i still talk to to this day and i honestly love and appreciate them with all my heart. and as much as i wanna shine on the positives i remember, there’s definitely been more memorable negatives that i want to let off my chest after idk how many years at this point.

to not turn this into a giant essay i’ll just say it upfront here: i left pgrtwt and ultimately twt as a whole last year because it's simply just not for me. these past few days/weeks from what my friends had been showing me really shed light on my experiences in the past, how a lot of the fandom just doesn’t appreciate artists/creatives, even months ago saying ai images are better which is fucking absurd and i will never, EVER tolerate that.

i loved the game so much, hell, i still want to love this game and as much as i want to, a huge part of my thoughts/feelings towards the game are also dependent on fandom interactions/experiences, and majority of that has been fairly negative whether that had been through twt or guild-related discord servers.

i’ve rarely ever felt like i was respected during my times of interacting in those servers, i have friends who felt/are feeling like they aren’t being respected on either twt or certain discord servers, and i’ve gotten tired of everything that has happened with this fandom. 

i’ll be announcing here that i’ll no longer be making any pgr fanart. my love for the game has been slowly dying out too, as personally future patches after vera’s gacha coating story just don’t interest me. i pretty much have it set in stone that i’m quitting gacha games altogether by the end of this year anyways. i'm still in school so the process of changing aesthetics and whatnot have been rather slow, but i have been moving on to other games/projects i've been wanting to work on

[literalite]

hi joseph! what are your thoughts on penacony arc? started it just yesterday and i'm not vibing with it 😭 afaik this is a pretty common feeling towards the beginning and especially 2.2 chapter but i've also seen people defending them. it's always intersting to see your opinion about any media in general, you have some insights i never really thought about. good luck on whoever you choose to pull!

omg hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii im so glad u appreciate my takes about these sillyyy gacha games rubs hands together lets get into it.. ive finished the whole story at this point but so sorry if i end up spoiling ill try break it up patch by patch

tldr; i think penacony is def a plot that gets more refined the further u go on, which i think makes sense because of how large and expansive the cast is to begin with they also throw like a fuckton of different plot points at u so theres a few different veins of thought u can chase in various directions. theyre going for more of a mystery and more morally ambiguous cast than the other planets/locations we've been to so far so i think its more a side effect of the genre so to speak. there's more room for error here and i admit i got tripped up at times esp in the beginning. i actually really liked 2.2 but it might be because my personal favourite penacony character got a lotttt of screentime, my fav patches have been 2.1 and 2.2 because at least in my opinion thats when the plot sort of tightened and wrapped up so it was less just stuff all over the place left to mislead us. this latest patch's story (2.3) is probably my least favourite but im still like sorting out why exactly. overall i think penacony might have had the best plot so far

2.0 - if one dreams at midnight aka black swan, sparkle and misha, and the introduction of penacony in general

the opening of this event/world was REALLY good i loved having acheron walk us through the hotel. probably one of the more engaging new gameplay tutorial processes i've been through and it raised so many questions (who is she/who is she to us/whats with the red text/WHAT IS GOING ON) that from someone who was admittedly not entirely sold on the whole dream hotel concept i was pretty easily hooked. admittedly i think the sort of concepts they were laying out for us in this new world are a lot more abstract than what we've previously encountered so i know a few of my friends ending up getting kind of tired of all the philosophical exposition and started just fast tracking their way thru the dialogue... which is a shame! yes theres a LOT of it and not all of it feels relevant in the moment but as someone who sat thru and read it all i think it was pretty solid. maybe they just need to get a bit better at being succinct

DGFghj the cutscenes and the characterisation in this patch were really beautiful moving stuff because i swear to u going in i didnt give a fuck about like. most of the cast like my only thought going in was oh i want sundays gender. but what i REALLY enjoy about penacony is that it felt like all the characters served a purpose in the story and there wasnt any characters just shoehorned in for the sake of more units to sell. does that make sense? for example in the xianzhou luofu i love that cast i swear but if you really look at them you could probably axe at least five of them from the roster and the main story would have remained exactly the same. like they appeared in the plot but they felt palpably unnecessary. whereas at least right now with all the playable characters that first appeared in penacony all played vital roles in progressing the story. i think for the amount of characters and how interesting they all are thats pretty solid storytelling, even if it amounts to just a lot of exposition at times. i liked the various clashing ideologies and paths it made for way more substantial narrative than any of the other locations so far

2.1 - into the yawning chasm aka the aventurine story ft. acheron

i think this patch had the strongest emotional story running through it, but i could be biased because i LOVE aventurine. to be clear i really didnt care about aventurine prior to playing through this story quest

im serious btw like i actually could not care less about him. it was solely the story quest that made me do one of my biggest 180s on him so far, and i know i'm not alone in this sentiment. i was actually really surprised they were spending sooo much time in his pov and mindset i think it was a decently bold move considering that we literally fight him by the patch's end- imagine if we'd spent half of belobog in cocolia's shoes for example. IT PAID OFF- i genuinely think the slightly less enthusiastic response to 2.2 is in part due to how fucking surprisingly amazing 2.1 was. i think acheron's presence in this one for me could have done with more but she has a stronger overall place in the narrative over the course of all of the penacony story quests that it somewhat balances out. the trailblazing crew took one hell of a step back for this patch but everyone was fine with that and i hope it encourages the writers and the devs to be okay with our like "main protagonists" being less of the pov characters. its interesting when you get to see other's lives, if anything for a gacha game it should honestly be encouraged? but anyways yeah this one was my fave patch on just the story alone

2.2 - then wake to weep aka robin and boothill's patch, as well as wrapping up the main plot of penacony AKA the sunday patch. to me.

i do think this one's story is a little weaker than the first two and especially in comparison to 2.1... but nevertheless i really loved it still mostly because i'd been waiting for sunday to unveil his true colours this entire time. the english va for sunday? fucking incredible it was the amount of just barely leased emotion holding on by the barest thread of control you could detect in pretty much every line he said that really hooked me onto the character. i think this update's plot is a little messy in terms of like pacing- at some points it dragged on and on others it felt way too fast but i adored the false ending and the whole twist of it all. some aspects of the story were admittedly really repetitive for some reason? a lot of the dialogue felt a little too overexposited- as much as i love the express crew when they're altogether they really just like yapping on about the same thing on repeat... i don't think the whole talent show thing was necessary LMFAO going into sunday's history lesson/mind palace construct would've been more than enough.

alllllso i get why boothill was here for this but at the same time of all the characters he feels the most... redundant? this sentiment is mostly influenced by the next patch because i really thought we were going to like actually go somewhere with his set up with aventurine but that kind of just.. didn't happen. like hes more necessary to this story than say, qingque or i guess bailu were for the xianzhou luofu but regardless his presence in this while amusing kind of lacked the oomph that all the other characters have had

this patch's cutscenes were definitely the best of all the ones we've seen so far, in my opinion, basically only rivaled by the aventurine vs acheron fight. all of sunday's scenes were chef kiss to the highest degree the way the line "through harmony, we obtain order" lives in my mind literally rent free. honestly i just like watching this whole thing

its fantastic. SUNDAY is our best villain so far hands fucking down i really liked the whole social contract aspect of his methodology. as much as people mischaracterise him sighhhh just the betrayal of his own sister in a bid to fulfill her dream, albeit misguidedly, is just so lovely and tragic i just. HRGHHH fucking phenomenal work. i know people got taken aback because sunday spent 2.1 being so focused on robin's murder, and i agree his turn straight back to his originally laid plans was more abrupt that i would have personally liked, but i still really enjoyed the whole thing fghjk. i am so biased because ive loved sunday from literally the moment his little chibi invited us to penacony at the end of the 1.6 stream (??) so every aspect of it was amazing to meeee. this patch had a slower build up to its climax than the others but its still my second favourite wuagh

2.3 - farewell, penacony aka firefly and jade's patch

im sorry this one is probably my least favourite ;-; they gave us really high expectations (the whole aventurine vs/with boothill ending, jade's introduction to penacony, etc etc) and i knowww this was always meant to be the last chapter of the penacony story so i shouldn't have expected them to unfold whole other untouched plot points at this stage but.... after all the high stakes of the rest of the story this ending while in some aspects kind of satisfying, fell short. for now! i expect them to bring the whole ipc scheming plotting thing back, they seem like a faction that will encounter a reckoning closer to the endgame of the story as opposed to being wrapped up right now. on an emotional level and specifically for the trailblazer and firefly's relationship, this was a fine patch! it was really cute... i just think that with how much emphasis we got on the pov of the other characters i really wish we'd spent time more with the rest of them. i guess i expected the ipc to bare their fangs a bit more here, but it still felt like it wrapped itself up cleaner than i would've preferred. sfdgfghjhkjk sue me i like chaos i want action i want them to fiiight... i guess it'll just be a matter of time though. not on this world, but maybe someplace elsewhere. we can only hope! in this regard i actually preferred the xianzhou ending, with tingyuns funerary service... it had more of a true weight to it than the goodbye the astral express gave the dead trailblazers and gallagher. they shouldve gotten a cutscene idkkkk

my brain is steaming so im gonna curb it here but basically in order of my fave to least fave the penacony patches go as follows:

2.1 -> 2.2 -> 2.0 -> 2.3

as someone who's only played genshin and hsr from hoyoverse i think this is a really good sign as to increasing complexity and depth to their characters and plotlines. the penacony narrative works because as self contained as it is it also presents us with a lot of questions and differing viewpoints that i daresay most of the other worlds both from genshin and hsr have so far been pretty much completely lacking. this really felt like a big beautiful puzzle getting assembled before our eyes and while the pieces didnt all seamlessly fit its just so much better than i am used to from this company im excited for the next worlds to come :D

[mdhwrites]

Star Rail 2.1: Rising Like a Phoenix (Spoiler Free)

This is one of those sorts of drops for a franchise that makes the bad content look worse. I dislike 2.0 MORE after 2.1 and for a pretty obvious reason: I like Aventurine now. I know for a lot of people that might be a non controversial statement but I did an almost a scene by scene breakdown for how much I didn't think he worked in 2.0. That anything they were going for was entirely flawed.

But they got back on track and now gave us arguably one of the best main content drops in all of Star Rail... But definitely not the best to me. I still have issues with this patch but compared to where I thought Penacony started, the fact that it's now well surpassed the Loufu already as a story is miraculous.

Admittedly, it's probably rivaling starting to try and rival the Loufu and Belobog separately in cutscene length at this point. There are definitely times during this patch where they could have used the FF 14 "Multiple cutscenes are about to play in a row" warning because BOY does this patch talk a lot. It has a lot to say which is good but...

Well, unfortunately without spoilers, I'm going to sound very negative about this patch. I swear I do like it. It has interesting character work and world building to it, some of which would have been hard not to run into these sorts of problems with, and the topics are good enough to warrant real discussions of them. There's just one major problem with it.

Their engine and the fact that this still needs to go on a phone.

Presentation is the death of this patch. I want to do a whole blog on this but I've once heard a reviewer say that one of the hardest things to make interesting is "Two people talking in a room." I actually disagree with that statement, almost anything done entirely alone (which ironically is one of the parts the game tries harder with when that eventually happened) is harder but... It's not a bad supposition. After all, if all they're doing is talking, not even arguing, you can end up just having it feel like an exposition dump. Even if it's entirely character work, it can still feel like we're being told a lot instead of being shown it.

And this patch has a lot of moment, especially early on with Aventurine, where it would get thrown back with "Show, don't tell." Not just because it's character stuff but ANYTHING to break up what is going on in these scenes. There's way too many, that chain into each other, that are just people standing in environments we've already spent time in (or are just not that visually interesting in general) just standing there, talking. Some are better, even great at this in the patch, but not enough of it is. I actually had to take a break midway through it because it was all coming in as a tiring drone that was giving me a headache from how much it was just getting on my nerves for being boring.

And I kind of have to assume part of that is a concession to the mobile market which admittedly, I'm not a part of. Star Rail is literally the first gacha game I've EVER stuck with for more than a week. I play it on my PC which runs almost anything that hits the market at top graphics even four years after I got it. So I probably feel this weird disconnect of Star Rail both being a AA game and it being a mobile game more than some might.

But it also begs the question of how much could they do in scenes? How much does their engine support that? The majority of cutscenes in the game are pre-rendered after all. There are VERY few gestures built into their dialogue system, at least as far as I can tell, which mostly come down to "Arms crossed, arms dropped, maybe a couple small facial expression changes." It all makes for a very monotonous presentation that can only be saved so much with the writing.

Even in a book, this would be most unacceptable. You'd still expect breaks from the dialogue to get into a character's head, detail their fidgets, their thoughts, show what others are doing and giving character flairs to add personality to scenes. Just SOMETHING to make it feel less boring and monotonous.

Which is the weird Catch 22 of this patch. It is the sharpest Star Rail has ever been with its writing... But it's also potentially its most boring. Again, not all of it and the climax is heck of a thing, but it's still one of the few times where I just wanted the game to shut up and let me do ANYTHING. It's one of the few times I've ever needed a break during main story content besides when the Loufu pissed me off in 1.1. Being angry would still have been more of a reaction than a lot of what this patch was causing out of me.

But the boring elements will also fade and I'll be left with the best moments in my memory so I suspect that unlike 2.0, where I actually keep forgetting about how good the Firefly stuff is because the bad felt more important to me and stuck with me more, I'll forget the bad and keep the good. You know, like the fact that Welt probably gives his best performance in the entire game in this patch, or the fact that I think the game is genuinely good at some of its politicking. Its mystery is still not great by ANY means but its leaning more into the strengths of Penacony at this point which is good.

It is a patch that has resold me on the game, both for why I'm bothering to stick around and more literally in that I'm DEFINITELY pulling for Aventurine when he comes around and getting Topaz to go with him when she comes around. Helps that losing my 50/50 and my 75/25 on Acheron got me both Clara and her Lightcone finally, giving me one of the best follow up attackers in the game.

And I do think I should mention that this patch just continues the fact that Star Rail is still one of the best turn based RPGs out there right now, let alone for the price, and this patch doesn't disappoint on that front. But I'd need to get more into spoilers for that so for today, thank you all, good luck on your pulls and see you next tale.

======+++++======

My UID, because I'm trying to include this on Star Rail posts more often. 601902728

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[pinkypastal]

OK I'm so tired of this.

The raiden shogun hate is dumb, yall constantly make her wayy worse then she is. People complain that she is just "waifu bait" while playing a gacha game whare literally ALL the characters are

And how is she waifu bait? Because she is a soft person under the cold exterior who due to self isolating for so long is unaware of things like photos?? Or the 'date' style first story quest that was LITERALLY HOW MANY INAZUMA STORY QUESTS WENT.

The hate mainly comes from scaramouche fans which again is so dumb,

yall are out here hateing someone for being a traumatised person who did bad things and hurt people after losing people close to them and then pursued a goal that they thought they needed when they didn't and then the narrative said "but the're baby 🥺" and then got off scott free

ALL WHILE STANING someone for being a traumatised person who did bad things and hurt people after losing people close to them and then pursued a goal that they thought they needed when they didn't and then the narrative said "but the're baby 🥺" and then got off scott free

Like??? If you have the problem with the writing, take it up with the writing, leave the characters put of this.

Also the whole thing with her abandoning scara mainly comes from him being an unreliable narrator, this is clear when you look at the 3 betrayals

2 of them whare people dieing of natural causes with no real betrayal and the first was just ei going "yo this boys sentient and emotional he can't be a puppet, ima give him this feather for protection and let him live his own life".

The situation and ei as a character has more nuance then yall give them credit for, but god forbid women have depth and do bad things out of trauma and be given the same sympathy male characters get

[self-loving-vampire]

Okay, relatively simple kinkrate- industrialized impregnation. No explanation given as to the impracticality of it compared to artificial insemination.

I'm a big fan of impregnation by default but as one may guess based on recent ratings I tend to prefer individual-level stuff over large-scale but more faceless and unfocused stories.

As a result I think this one may be a 5/10.

To highlight the difference, consider two hypothetical doujins.

In doujin 1, one character goes through some kink stuff I like for about 20-40 pages. This allows us to have more setup, more access to the character's thoughts, and more of an in-depth time progression throughout the whole process.

In doujin 2, about a third of the entire cast of a mainstream gacha game is undergoing the same events as in doujin 1, but with so many different characters all needing attention in about the same number of pages (often less, even) the whole process often ends up kind of rushed in a way that makes it more tiring for me to try to visualize and recreate the sensations involved.

I generally prefer the more focused approach of doujin 1. I can still enjoy doujin 2 (especially if the art is good enough or if certain priorities are right) but in general it's just not as intense for me.