#but if there's a term for them (fan made or official) I'd rather call them that........

[karmaphone]

went thru eye of eden again and it only let me spend light on a few corpses despite having tons of light by the time I reached the sand so I only got 4 candles which I immediately spent on something I didn't want bc I wanted to see how much the thing above it on the tree was and it was like 200 goddamn candles

[crevanille]

Airing Out My Head

Hello everyone, how are you all doing?

So, as the title says, it's just me airing out what's in my head atm as I try to keep moving forward.

So, while I would never claim to be the most productive or busy person ever, I do still have things I'm trying to accomplish and get done all the same.

I like writing and do dabble in some fan fiction, which is mostly for my own degenerate pleasure and practice for my other personal projects.

See, I've loved video games for as long as i can remember. For me, and like many others I'd imagine, games were a close companion who were always there for me when nobody else was. Not saying I had no friends here, but I was never a huge people person either, preferring a small group of friends to huge crowds. Fun times hanging out with them after school and such back then... but, at home, video games (and especially RPGs) were what kept me company the most.

Times were.... rough growing up back then. Lots of family drama, unconventional relationship with my sister aside, going on at the time.

I'll spare you all the details on that and simply say that... there was no happy ending when it was all settled and things never really got better for anyone until probably long after we all drifted apart. We don't really talk much so we've lost touch with each other... or at least I have. Still, I hope everything is going well for everyone regardless.

But still, it's true what the say, 'absence makes the heart grow fonder' for what you never really had, only really appreciating it once it's gone.

Now, I'm not saying I'd want to do it all over again or even try to reconnect with them at this point in my life though. Really, so as long as everyone's doing well, then that's enough for me.

No, the thing I wish I had more of in my life is 'the love of family', and well... love more generally, I guess. A little whiny, I know. Sorry about that.

Still, I suppose that those desires are pretty much the biggest things influencing my interests and what I'm trying to do these days.

The biggest of which being inspired by my love of adult indie games and old school RPGs of yesteryear... is to try and make my own.

It's a slow going and very clumsy process for me, but... baby steps. I'll get there though.

If you had to ask me why games, then all I could say is that I just have stories I want to tell and thoughts, feelings, and desires I just want to explore... And what better place than a fictional world I made?

Considering the content of my last post and the realizations I've made about myself... Yeah, 'Family' and 'double love' are gonna be important themes I want at the center of it all. Nothing grand per se, just me making a world and telling the story of a family falling in love with each other while killing monsters in a fantasy world... It won't be for everyone, but I don't care. At the end of the day, this is just for me and no one else. Having said that, I'll update more about that specific project once I have more to share about it.

The other thing I want to do in the short term is getting back into a great manga series I read a LONG time ago after watching the anime adaptation first.

It's called 'Koi Kaze' by Yoshida Motoi.

It's a seinen(aimed at much older, typically male, audiences) romance between a man named Koshiro and a girl named Nanoka.

For those who have read/enjoyed the series, they'll already know the details, but for those who don't, the story tastefully and rather believably paints a very complicated, cute, and bittersweet love story...

Not only is this an age-gap romance, but a GSA consang romance of two siblings who have just been reunited and end up living together.

It's one of the very few pieces of fiction that's come out, officially localized even, that trats its subject matter with the genuine care it deserves.

I guess.. I want to look at it again from the perspective of an adult and see I think of it now after so long. Now, I still love the story, but it's still good to compare and contrast now that I'm older and after so long, especially now that I've come to better understand myself, so I'll post more about it after I finish reading it. It's not exactly a long series, but I like taking my time.

Alright then, see you all later and thanks for reading and I'll see you later with another post.

[frozaru]

Review: Soundcore VR P10

Greetings everyone! Here I'll be giving my honest thoughts on what I'd consider quite unique earbuds - the VR P10 from Soundcore. They're catered for gaming and have verified functionality with VR headsets such as Oculus Quest 2. Peak your interest? These can be found priced at £99/$99 via Soundcore's official website + Amazon directly, or in-person stores if you live in USA. Let's get started!

📦Unboxing Experience:

Pretty clean packaging imo with it's appealing design in addition to convinience. They also come with a decent amount of silicone ear tips which will suit many ears big or small (medium worked for me). Simply looked and felt premium all around, which gives me a great first impression. Good job so far!

🔎Appearence [next to Soundcore Life A2]/Comfort:

Though I'm not a fan of this "Airpod stem" trend, these make an exception for me with nice silver details, signature logo finish + 3 customisable lighting modes (breathing, lights on and battery saving/lights off respectively). Those lights can indicate helpful stuff such as solid purple for on/fully charged, blue for pairing or flashing red when very low. Case looks great with a shape akin of stones...can I say it's included dongle is pretty neat too? Okay ty! Moving on, ear tips themselves also felt comfortable enough with only fatigue after some hours which was usually when both buds were low anyway. Speaking of...

🔋Battery/Connectivity:

You'll be glad knowing that these earbuds have USB-C featured both on case for charging and a connector on the dongle. Also expect about 5/6 hours on buds (in 'battery saving mode') with an average 24 hours of battery life after giving them a full juice up. This is enough to get through 4 or more gaming sessions in my experience! In terms of speed, 10 minutes shall grant approx 1 hour of battery life for those clutch on-the-go moments.

Facts regarding this dongle btw...it's incredibly versatile featuring multi-platform support for PC, PlayStation, mobile and even Switch with lag-free playback. What's more, it allows Bluetooth audio from phone + received audio SIMULTANEOUSLY with Game and Talk (something I haven't come across before in other true wireless earbuds)! They can also be further compatible for Switch in docked mode or older devices with a USB to USB-C adapter (here's my recommendation). I've found the feature pretty useful for communicating on Discord or taking a phone call without much compromise.

🎵Sound Quality/App Features

From my experience of "default" aka Soundcore's signature (no super hearing or Bassup), it seemed clear with bass which gladly dosen't drown out the mids and highs. Highs may sound weaker but that's kind of justified as these are geared for subtle audio like footsteps or gunfire rather than instruments like violins and pianos. BUT as we get into Souncore's feature rich app, there's so many settings to tweak and fit your personal taste!

You've got a plethora of equaliser options + the ability to create custom ones as standard with their app. Acoustic (my fav as it brings everything up a notch), Electronic, Pop, you name it. Mentioned earlier is bassup which allows bringing in more for a stronger punch which bassheads may enjoy and super hearing that will make subtle noises more audible, perfect for a competitive edge.

Speaking of tastes, let's talk colours with 5 options being light purple, red, pink, blue or Violet. Heads up that lighting will effect battery life to varying degrees. Have multiple dongles? Great news as which ones in use can be selected directly from app! Very useful if you're someone who has a busy life (on the flip side though, Soundcore hasn't made things clear rn regarding where more can be purchased).

💭Are these worth the purchase? If you're looking for something with striking design, good sound for gaming in a small package and flexibility with software and hardware, absolutely Imo! Although I would personally like to maybe see slightly improved battery if Soundcore ever comes back to this concept in future. That's it for this review, tysm for getting here! Oh, and if you'd like to help me create better content or maybe obtain better equipment by donations, I've recently created a Ko-fi! It's completely optional but if you do, I'll be really grateful. Take care and live a good life!

🎴My Carrd

[therising-boar]

I got the job through nepotism

But seriously, It's been over week since this ask was sent and I've been mulling over how exactly to respond to it. This was one of the fears I had when I'd accidentally shared that ask without being anonymous but I was reassured by my sister that it would be okay. I'll answer each point:

Firstly, that's right, they didn't officially hire me as I became an "intern" at Video Cult via a recommendation of friend of a friend in 2021. I'd met them through a small group of other creators at 15 when I was working at a small comic company. At said company I worked as a Scene Choreographer and Concept Artist and occasionally drew and shared personal works and fanart of different media I consumed, including Rainworld. One of my peers, who knew someone on the Downpour development team really liked my interpretations of the different creatures and introduced me to others who were working on converting the More Slugcats mod into full DLC content. With this I started working on some of my own designs and concepts for the team to see because I was a huge fan of the game and wanted to be noticed by them. As time went on I eventually became a QA tester and a minor creature concept artist that wasn't officially working for Video Cult. I was called an intern because at the rate I was involving myself with the project they began referring to me as such

Secondly, who are you to scrutinize someone's skills and deem they have no place on a dev team, especially when you know nothing about me and the actual work I did back then? My art at the time was used to represent baseline ideas for various concepts I wanted my peers to consider, and along with my renditions I included fauna and floral info to help justify the existence of said concept and how it interacted with the player. That included it's aesthetic and behavioral qualities, it's "lore", and possible pearl entries it could show up in. Please for the love of god never talk down on someone's work if you truly know nothing of it and it's purpose, because all you're doing is setting a bad example for future creators and essentially telling them not to hope for anything above mediocrity

Thirdly, my real name, of course, isn't among the credits list because I was a kid who happened to roll a nat 20 on networking. And no, I'm not giving my alias because I'd like to keep my privacy private. I would've done so you didn't go snooping through my personal life because now I really don't feel all too safe doing so

Fourthly, if you must know, the "NDA" I talked about on my reddit was an inside joke I wasn't aware of because realistically there is no way I was bound by an NDA when I was a minor who didn't have their parent's consent to sign a legal document. It wasn't until months after the "NDA"'s term had completed I was informed of the nature of the joke and how it was made to prevent my teenage blabber mouth from leaking all the things I'd seen and heard during development

Lastly, I'm not here for "clout". I'm just excited to share what I know about the work I did and engage in the communities I'm interested in. I'd be just as happy screaming into an empty void about all I've done if it meant having some outlet for what I know

I really did want to talk about this sometime down the line as some sort of milestone post or something, but I felt the need to do it now because it's ask is scary and I'd rather not have it lingering in the back of my head while I'm working on other things

[theangrypokemaniac]

@nyarthsis

If Team Rocket 'always had a heart for unpopular Pokémon', that's an admission their Alola catches aren't particular loveable creatures, so I'm not thinking anything too controversial.

You're saying they take pity on the animals no one wants, as in it's normal for me not to find them adorable.

Some Pokémon, such as Lucario, become fan favourites without the advertisement of a regular role the anime. With Wobbuffet, Bewear, Stufful, Mareanie and Mimikyu, do people like them for themselves, or because of their association with Team Rocket?

I think its the latter. I can't imagine there would be such interest in them were they to be owned by a Twerp or appear as a one-off. Really then, it's not what or who they are, it's to whom they belong that matters.

Alola has really devalued catching. Rather than be true to the source material, so battering a Pokémon into submission, as Ash did with Bulbasaur, Primeape, Muk, and many others, now you have to ask their permission!

Bewear didn't even get that. She hung around for no reason, and her 'friend' Stufful was belatedly tacked on. I see why those two were left behind, as Team Rocket had no right to take them elsewhere.

In terms of welfare, Mimikyu and Mareanie are better off staying with them, free and safe, rather than locked in the insalubrious depths of H.Q., but then it never bothered the writers sending previous Pokémon into an uncertain future, so what difference does it make now?

It can only be that, like their predecessors, there is no intention to ever bring them back, but unlike the rest, the fans can't even be allowed the vain hope of a return, not with this rather awkward disposal.

It's feasible that Jessie and James could call their base and request old monsters to join them, but it's difficult to imagine they'd fly across the world to Alola, wander through the woods, pick 'em up and go all the way back again. Why make parting so final and irreversible?

It does imply that Game Freak don't like them, so why should I?

I keep noticing this fickle attitude. A new era starts, we're expected to fall instantaneously in love with every element, beg for more and yet more. Then, once the next region arrives, this adoration asked of us is meant to evaporate and immediately transfer to the next batch.

Well why start to like them, if eventually the makers don't care, to the extent you wouldn't even know previous Pokémon had ever been alive?

Have you heard one mention of Seviper, Yanmega, Dustox, Cacnea, Carnivine, and Mime Junior since they left?

Why were they happy to chuck Wobbuffet after Sinnoh, yet fetched for Kalos?

How could Team Rocket live without it for an entire generation but suddenly it's indispensable again? What do you imagine the rest of their Pokémon felt about that?

Have Jessie and James wondered allowed how Arbok, Weezing, Lickitung and Victreebel are doing?

What of the last two generations?

What is this nonsense where every character is so detached from the past?

Supposing I was to force myself to appreciate them: since they've gone, never to return, I'd be dissatisfied with the show, thus no better off than I am now.

My feelings don't run on a switch. I can't find myself besotted one minute then dump the object of affection without a second thought, just because Nintendo want it from me.

Even if I had a more positive opinion of the current interpretation, there's no benefit to becoming involved when it's all so fleeting.

Mareanie is ugly, with three teeth. I think he's a sea anenome, so ought to be more attractive, but it's covered in nipples instead!

It looks like a bonsai tree growing breasts, reminiscent of the hideous content lurking within an Hieronymous Bosch painting.

The idea that all Mimikyu copy Pikachu, the most famous Pokémon, when in their world it's nothing special, is too stupid for me to accept. How could that be coincidence?

It's referencing reality, acknowledging the real world's view of Pikachu as the star, so if it's breaking the fourth wall, it invites disbelief.

Wobbuffet does sod all. It's a complete dead weight and has no attacks. Yet it's the one to survive generation after generation. Where's the logic in that?

I suspect his popularity rests on being there so long he's considered part of the furniture, the sole catch in which you can invest an emotional connection whilst fairly certain he'll remain around.

By now it ought to have developed some semblance of a personality, but it's as faceless as ever. Other Pokémon that have been and gone had a bit more about them, but Wobba's so bland no one can summon the energy to write him out.

If he went, what would you miss? Breaking out of his ball and hissing 'WAAAAAHBUHFEH'? Is that so integral?

I have several objections:

What is it meant to be?

Why does its tail have eyes?

Why is that never mentioned?

Is it a sort of quadruped, or has it only one foot with four toes, arranged like the bottom of a medical walking stick?

A lot of my reactions to Pokémon are influenced by encountering them in the games. With Wobbuffet, I remember first coming across it in the cave near Blackthorn City, and just as you're winning the fight, it pulls out Destiny Bond and suddenly you're both down.

When you finally get one, it's tricky to train. You have no choice but to guess whether the opposition will launch a physical or special move, and mostly you get it wrong. He never learns anything else and doesn't evolve, so it's that forever.

Persevering with Magikarp is worthwhile, but what's to be gained from taking any time out to fight with Wobbuffet?

The anime eliminates this problem. You're aware of the nature of the approaching onslaught because you can see it coming, and the opponent said it aloud.

In this context Wobbuffet should be the most powerful Pokémon in the universe. Come on, it can deflect every attack!

Is it? No. It has a successful defence about once a generation, and still loses the battle. I can't say if it's worse to be utterly pointless, or to not fulfil one's potential.

I resent it muscling in on the motto, as if it's considers itself of equal rank to Meowth. No it's not!

When I was young, there was a tendency for magazines to refer to Team Rocket as a duo. Meowth was judged to be in the same position as Pikachu: a main character yes, and valuable enough to be accorded the privilege of liberty, but still very much owned by people.

You would see references to Jessie and James as his Trainers, though how they assumed this worked went unexplained. Even if shared, one had to have to caught him, thus be his proper owner.

Later on this developed into them being three equal members, and the term 'TRio' emerged, but now, although perhaps not officially recognised, there's an attitude of treating them as a quartet.

It's just wrong! Wobbuffet's not been around since day one. He didn't join Team Rocket voluntarily because he had nowhere else to go. It was a choice made for him by his original Trainer, so out of his hands, or rather his flippers.

If he was an independent Pokémon who just tagged along one day, that would be different, but it belongs to Jessie. Promoting one of hers means James is lesser, and no longer equal.

In each generation Team Rocket catch at least one local Pokémon, but as Wobbuffet's there, it ends up with Jessie having more on her side than James, and I dislike the imbalance. Plus the one he does get is violent.

It can't be solved by giving him another new one, as then he's captured two in the region, and she has only one, so again it's skewed.

Whilst Wobbuffet does count in numbers, he's not on the level of the rest, who fight regularly. He's both there and not simultaneously.

I'm still irked the way Lickitung was ejected to make room.

It was the best Pokémon they ever had! It took out Pikachu, Vulpix and Bulbasaur with one move! It would've won those Princess Dolls for Jessie if the writers hadn't changed the rules so that Lick only affects those of sound mind!

It was as if they realised their mistake too late, and so Lickitung was featured less and less to avoid it dominating a fight, then hurriedly traded away for something reliably feeble.

The following analogy you may not understand, but I think it fits rather aptly:

There's a game called Final Fantasy VIII. One of the side quests involves you racing through a castle under a time limit. If successful, you are rewarded with Odin as a Guardian Force, which is a deity that will provide a defence.

Unlike others, he is out of your control, but every so often, as you enter battle, he turns up and annihilates your opponents. It's very welcome.

Unfortunately this game was programmed by bunyips, who clearly didn't want the last section of the game to be accidently easier for you. Oh no. If you're progressing, it ain't gonna be through luck, or turning the console on and off until he arises.

Therefore, towards the close, you come up against ex-friend Seifer. Odin is fixed to rush to your aid, but when he does, bloody Seifer slices him in half, horse and all!

He killed Odin, the ancient King of the North! The Lord of Valhallah! The Father of the Vikings!

It's not normal fighting death, it's irreversible. He's gone for good.

After this Gilgamesh introduces himself as a replacement. He too will randomly appear and set about the enemy.

The problem is that whilst Odin destroyed monsters unfailingly, with Gilgamesh it's a rarity.

He uses four swords, and which you get is also a lottery.

One is the same as Odin's, two deal average damage, but not death, and the worst one depletes 1 HP, so it might as well not have bothered.

Not only does it arrive but a fraction of the time, but it's in a fraction of those times that it's of any assistance, which is something of a comedown.

Lickitung is Odin: didn't see it often, but it tore the place apart!

Wobbuffet is Gilgamesh: once in a blue moon it provides rescue, but it's on a lot lower percentage than it's predecessor.

It's difficult not to be disappointed.

[ask-the-friendly-red-cyborg]

I'd love to know more about your characters, but I don't know where to start with questions. ;v; Could you tell us a few facts about each of them we might not know? 'v'

((I think I'll do a quick recoup for everyone, as the blog has been around for more than 2 years already, and some story bits are quite far in the past - so beware of a really long post

Fukase, nicknamed by this here fool of the mun Red Boi

He's a V class cyborg of F558.x build, with the lower case x pointing that his build was experimental. In his case, the experiment was in creating a possible spy build with extra adaptive abilities, and to achieve this the DNA was spliced with some cephalopods and who knows what. The results left the DNA unstable, leaving the build with a chance of undergoing permanent changes in their bodies under high stress. But on a positive note, their natural regeneration is outstanding, but kinda hindered by the wrong setup of the regeneration system. In general, there were quite a few programming errors, as it was seemingly decided last minute as to which manufacturers were going to finalise their production and what are the final class they were to be.

Prior to his synchronisation, he was a performer with Yamaha on one of a rather sparsely populated planets. He had an accident during one of performances when the building caught on fire but his system failed to respond in any way, leaving him inside before his absence was noticed. He recovered quickly due to his natural regeneration, but the programmed block of regeneration on the left side of his body left him with burn marks and a need for his left eye to be replaced with an artificial one. (When the spacecraft he's currently on got into a star storm - akin to solar storms here, - his system shut down, allowing the natural regeneration to take over and heal the scars)

After synchronisation, he lived on his own, sometimes travelling to join a friendly Miku in performances when she asked him to.

When he checked in with the scientist overseeing the experiment, due to his regeneration failing he was written off as the final failure in the 558.x project and sent off to the main base of operations to be disposed of, but he was told it was so that he'd be treated for this. F112 caught it and sent him coordinates where they could meet up, since then Fukase has been travelling on the cargo space ship with him, officially not becoming a member of the crew, though.

Personality-wise, he's just a cinnamon roll, with the downside being he's the worst at keeping secrets. He's a guy to say something like "so and so hates this, but they told me not to tell anyone ever", and only then realise he's said something wrong. Other than such slip ups, he's very attentive to others, and might be surprisingly serious and insightful on some issues.

He hasn't had much life experience, and is pretty excited about anything new he learns about, and always tends to point out the best in people and situations. Unless it's him, as he's a bit self-conscious, especially about his unhealthily thin appearance, which leads to him exclusively wearing oversized clothes, especially thick sweaters.

F112, or Shitsui, or pretty much any way you want to address him (just not Fukase)

He's quite old for a cyborg, being one of the first V class cyborgs to use the second generation CPU that could interact with the brain leading to the "synchronisation", or a cyborg gaining self awareness and personality.

As it was back in the day when cyborgs were viewed as just a cheaper alternative to androids, he was bought, privately owned and treated like a life sized doll for the first 3 years of his life, till his physical and cybernetic systems gave up, and he was taken for dead and quite literally dumped.

He managed to survive by consuming spoiled food found at the dumpster. With him having no sense of taste, his food preferences haven't changed much.

He managed to get away from the centre of the human civilisation here by hiding on different ships going anywhere but just far away. He managed to hack his system, delete most of his programming and "not necessary" databases (which leads to him not being able to talk on mundane topics without using technical terms or rather general words, or results in him not being able to process a question) and installed what he deemed to be useful: weapons, combat and technology related databases.

He went on to work with some space pirates, then with bounty hunters, after working with one specific team on catching a dangerous criminal of one of the alien races he, as well as all members of the team, got full citizenship from that race as a thanks. This made him able to get an id and find a job that doesn't involve risking his life on the daily...

At least, he thought so, as the cargo ship he works on currently is prone to malfunctioning, especially its navigation system, which poses a risk of getting totally not where intended when making a wormhole jump, and getting stranded in the midst of unknown time and space without the chance of recharging the wormhole generator. And being the mainframe maintenance and general techy guy, he's the one who knows the most about how much trouble it actually means.

Before finding this seemingly safe job he found himself on the same planet where Fukase lived, right after the latter got synchronised, received his check and apartment from Yamaha and was literally thrown into the world he wasn't used to and knew nothing about. F112 got a place to live for a time, Fukase got a rather sceptical source of information about the world, both got someone to trust in each other. For the more comfortable and convenient communication, F112 set up a direct channel between the two of them, which he actually never took down and sometimes used to check on Fukase. One of such checks coinsided with Fukase being told to go to the HQ, which made F112 really passionately reach out to him and explain the real danger, giving also the coordinates of the nearest stop where they could meet up.

Shitsui is understandably not a fan of humans, but is quite patient with anyone else, and feels a sort of kinship with any other cyborgs, or robots, androids and in general anything possessing AI (which lead to him befriending the ship's AI whom he calls Mathilda, and to him trying to strike a conversation with household appliances if he senses any trace of AI in them). He has a bit of a pet peeve against people not doing their job properly, as he's seen it backfire terribly too many times. He has extreme sensitivity to the touch, easily getting overwhelmed by a lot of textures, and as a result wears clothes that cover his whole body, including gloves which he takes off just when feeling extremely secure (read it as "when alone with Red Boi"). Outside of other cyborgs or AI possessing beings, has hard time trusting and opening up.

Himitsu (the name given by Fukase for his secretive nature prior to erasure of his personality matrix)

Spy class cyborg, as such - was going to be disposed of prior to synchronisation (shady military dealings), but because of the brain activity heavy tasks he got to perform, got synchronised beforehands, and escaped with his life - but lost an arm after being shot with a blaster and having his system switched off to avoid being directly commanded to return. By the time he got far enough away that he thought it safe to turn his systems on, the wound was so far gone that the regeneration system deemed it irreparable and cut it off from the rest of the system to avoid spread of infection, causing it to separate.

Being an army intelligence cyborg, he was transported between the missions mostly in the state of hibernation under a specific hibernation agent which was deactivated with an antidote when he needed to be awakened. Due to the use of those, he's unable to fall asleep, unless his body completely shuts down for literal 15 minutes once in a while, which causes him to be moody and sleep deprived 24/7 and as a result transforms slight amount of spice his personality naturally has into him being a SASSquatch.

Found out about the other two after casually reading through the army archives on cyborgs, decided to try and find them, first watched them from afar and then approached. As he was a spy class cyborg, he was properly screened from giving off any electronic signals that could've exposed him as a cyborg, which he offered to trade for removing any controls he had built in. As his last intelligence mission had his cover as an engineer, he was also offered a place as a ship's tech, and does his best to whip it to shape and help pressure the captain into realising that they really need some new parts and "if the fate says it malfunctions so be it" isn't a good motto.))

[doctor-ciel]

"What is OneShot and why should I play it?"

Ah, what a wonderful question. OneShot is an indie RPG with a 97% rating on Steam and a 98% from Google users. Its developer is Little Cat Feet and its composer is Casey Gu. It's a really cute metafictional game with interesting gameplay and endearing characters! Its description on Steam says, "OneShot is a surreal top down Puzzle/Adventure game with unique gameplay capabilities. You are to guide a child through a mysterious world on a mission to restore its long-dead sun. The world knows you exist."

"Metafictional, you say? Does that mean it's like Undertale or Doki Doki Literature Club?"

Oneshot was actually made before either of them! It was first released in 2014, while Undertale came out in 2015 and DDLC in 2017. It also had a Solstice update in 2016, but I'll talk about that later.

In terms how similar it is to them, I'd say Oneshot is by far more like Undertale than DDLC. The only way it's similar to DDLC at all is that it directly breaks the fourth wall, rather than "leaning" on it like Undertale does. But aside from that, the two games aren't alike at all. First of all, it's not a horror game. In fact, as far as I recall, there is little to no horror elements in the whole game. That's not to say it's saccharine, of course, in fact it's far from it. Speaking of which.......

"I'm really not in the mood to cry. Should I play this game?"

Absolutely not. Chalk that up to another way this game is similar to Undertale(note that I'm only comparing it to Undertale and DDLC because they're the most popular indie meta games -- I could talk about Oneshot's similarities to OFF, for example, but that's a post for another day). Anyways, Oneshot is a VERY emotional game. Without going into too spoiler-y territory, it gets you to care about the characters and the world a LOT, and then puts you in very stressful situations regarding them.

"What was the "Solstice update" you were talking about earlier?"

For the longest time, Oneshot had about half or less the content it has now, had lower quality sprites, and also if you closed the game you couldn't play it again(which, I mean there were reasons behind that, but it's nice that they removed that bit). The whole game was made in one month, but it was free to download.

Then, one day in 2016, an update came out, called the "Solstice Update." I am CERTAINLY not going to tell you what the update was about or the details of how it impacted the game, but for now all you need to know is that it doubled the content, added more to the story, and showed us characters that were only hinted at in the original iteration of the game.

"I'm starting to like the idea of this game, but I'm still on the fence. What are some things about the game that you like that will seal the deal for me?"

Oh boy, I'm glad you asked! As I said before, the characters are endearing, and they also have good character design. The world building is amazing, and focuses on a few specific things that really make the game unique(for example, clovers, libraries, robots, luminescent rocks called "phosphor", rams, the sun, etc.). It also takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, but not neccesarily our world, and (and this is important) it also isn't one of those gritty hellscape worlds where life sucks. The art and soundtrack are also amazing, in fact I'm listening to the soundtrack as I type this. The plot is fantastic, well-paced, and has moments of tension while also having lots of cute and fun-filled moments. The gameplay is unique, but I won't spoil how. And if none of this is working for you, then the main character is a cat child named Niko who loves pancakes, and if that alone isn't the cutest fucking thing, then I don't know what to tell you, you heartless person.

"Should I really get into it?"

I mean, I just wrote a paragraph talking about all the things I love about it, so this may be just a bit biased, but....... yes. Yes you should. The fandom may be small and relatively inactive, but we could always use more members, and I also don't think anyone should miss out on an opportunity to play a game as amazing as this.

“Alright, you’ve convinced me. How do I get into this?”

If you want to play the game yourself, you can buy it on Steam for $9.99, or buy the soundtrack bundle for $18.87. If you can't or don't want to buy it, this is a good playthrough of it that includes the Solstice content(if you watch these, I'd look up how to get to the Solstice content after you watch the all endings video, otherwise you might be very confused). Here is the official OneShot trailer.

"I have watched the trailer and played the game and holy shit you were right, this game is amazing! But the fandom is so small and inactive! What should I do?"

As Ghandi says, be the change you wish to see in the world! We can't do much to make other people join the fandom, but we can produce content ourselves! Make fanart, fanfic, and edits, no matter how "skilled" you might consider yourself to be! In fact, if you are a new or unskilled artist, fandoms like these are the perfect place to master your art! I can assure you that every work is appreciated by the underfed fans, and there's not a whole lot of pressure to make masterpieces here! We're all just appreciating this game together. If you're looking for some good OneShot blogs, I'd recommend @daylightsavings, @daily-niko, @here-at-the-eleventh-hour, @oneshotfanbase, @asktheoneshotcast, and @incorrect-oneshot-quotes-blog

[dark-puppet-832]

BlankGameplays Headcanons

First thing first: What is an Headcanon? The answer is given by Wiktionary:

Elements and interpretations of a fictional universe accepted by an individual fan, but not necessarily found within or supported by the official canon.

Link to the page:

So, I'd like to remind you that these are MY Headcanons, if you don't agree with me then I'd like you to be mature, so don't insult or mock me, respect others' opinions.

If you like my ideas and you're going to use it for a story, then I'd appreciate to be tagged or given credit to, not doing that it's called plagiarism and, even if it's not a crime itself, it's a nasty thing to do. People got into serious trouble with the law for not giving credit and stealing others' ideas, so, tag me or give me credit, thank you :)

Link to the page of Wikipedia:

After this infinite, but necessary, introduction, let's begin with the Headcanons:

Blank is not evil, he has no intentions to harm others and does not want people's suffering. The was he's portrayed resembles more a sad entity rather than a malevolent one. He's always seen mumbling, crying, or, in general, being sad.

Darkiplier manipulated him into thinking that without him he's nothing more than rubbish, that he does not deserve to live and that nobody would ever love him. He needed an obedient assistant, who would serve him without questioning him, and, in the meantime, idolise him.

Due to the manipulation, Blank now sees Dark as his saviour, rather than his tormentor. He firmly believes that Dark saved him from nonetheless, from being useless and hated, that he gave him life. He admires him beyond the limit, and sees the abuses and the beatings as a way to teach him a lesson, and that he deserves that.

He has a ton of problems with anxiety, he suffers from depression (and, sadly, he will never be able to recover completely, even if he will get out of that relationship at some point) and most of his phobias are related to the never ending abuse.

His phobias are:

Haphephobia (phobia of physical contact. He's beaten almost every day and he's scared that someone wants to touch him only to cause him pain)

Acrophobia (phobia of heights. This one is a little bit difficult to explain, but I'll try: one of Blank's powers is elecrokinesis, the power to control electricity and be immune to that. Dark, who has always seen Blank as an object and nothing more, decides to take advantage of his power and use electricity to find a new way to torture his victims. In order to do that, he made Blank climb power lines during thunderstorms, as his electrokinesis works better if close to an electricity source, and he made him stay up there for as long as he liked, no matter how much Blank would cry and beg him)

Mnemophobia and Oneirophobia (phobia of memories and dreams. When he will finally snap at Dark and kick his ass, he won't still recover completely. He will be afraid of memories and dreams, because they will always remind him of the times with Dark, the abuses and humiliations. He will have nightmares for a long time before finally experiencing normality.

Phonophobia (phobia or aversion to loud noises. Blank is really, really, really emotionally unstable, if he's scared or angry his exaggerated powers can snap and cause serious damages or even death to those who are around him and himself. Loud noises don't help. Particularly, the noises that can utterly terrify him are screams: one would thing that being yelled at every single leads a person to being used to it, but in reality the more he was screamed at the more terrified he became.)

Atelophobia (phobia of not being good enough, a disappointment, imperfect. He was yelled at whenever he made a mistake, that led him to think that he had to be perfect in every way possible)

He's a perfectionist, he's absolutely obsessed with perfection, he NEEDS to be perfect otherwise he'll feel worthless.

Ethan and him were actually on good terms, before they argued: Ethan tried to warn him that Dark didn't give a shit about him, that he's only a toy, a marionette, and siding with him will be a bad idea, but Blank, already fascinated by that authoritative character, strict and firm on his decisions, didn't believe him and this led to an argument. But don't worry, once Blank got out of that relationship, they slowly became friends again.

He has an hard time trusting people. Due to the trauma from the relationship with Dark, he just doesn't trust anybody anymore, not even Ethan. Deep inside, he still thinks about the argument that happened a long time ago. There's only one person that he trusts completely, but I will explain it in a next post.

He not trusting people doesn't mean he can't love them: he loves Ethan like a brother, he's important to him, he just... doesn't trust him.

He suffered from Stockholm Syndrome for a long, long time. I still can't decide if only in a platonic way or in a romantic way. Well, I'll leave it to you.

He's demisexual and gay and has a boyfriend.

He's atheist and, generally, cynical.

That's it, I think. I have actually a lot of things to say about him but hey, I already showered you with enough information, so if you're interested you can ask whatever you want.