#critique the game all ya want

[thedissonantverses]

“This game has too many lore inconsistencies and plot holes.”

Nah see sometimes world states change and that’s a good thing for world-building and not actually an inconsistency or a plot hole you just missed a bunch of stuff. You might be more comfortable with Origins. A lot of people still think it’s the best one for some reason.

“There’s not enough religion.”

Good. We had three games of this. We’re in an entirely new part of the world. Go play Inquisition. You, get this, lead an Inquisition. Never in my life have I thought “You know what this situation needs? More Catholicism!”

“The romances are boring/bad.”

No. The game just doesn’t treat them like the most important part of the story cause it’s not. Go play a different developer’s games for that. There’s a full scope of humanity to explore beyond romance.

“The dialogue is bad.”

Tourist. I was there for “Hawke stepped in the poopy.” I have a tattoo of “swooping is bad” covering most of my back. Well, shit if you wanna miserably side by side the bad dialogue from each game be my guest. There’s a hell of a lot of great dialogue in Veilguard too.

“The elves aren’t acting elfy enough.”

…Kay no you’re done with video games. I know the made up language is neat but you need to stop. The lore and the writers don’t treat races like monolithic cultures so why do you?

Lo siento, I meant “fuck off shem.” Grrrr I’m an elf. This is what elves do.

“Rook is a bad p-”

Oh for fuck’s sake just go play Inquisition again.

[pumpkinrootbeer]

Not to rant about thg but to rant abt thg something that has always bothered me with all the hunger games dupes in the 2010s is the way they hollowly take aspects and apply them on a blanket level onto their world. Like a big critique of the ya genre is "why is it always teenagers in these situations" when thg had this clear explicit reason as to why the age range was teenagers and what that said about this society Suzanne Collins was trying to set up. A fictional society she was pretty explicitly using as a critique of real world american culture. Like it is not subtle!

And yes obviously ya novels use primarily 12-18 yr olds in their stories is because that age rage is typically the most marketable and the hunger games isn't this like radical exception to that, but what makes it stand out to me is that she had a narrative reason for that trope that isn't just "highschool kids meddling"

Just like how so many take the idea of "oppression government" and "being grouped into different divisions of society" at completely face value and don't try to add any meaningful depth. Even the love triangle, an aspect of those books I see torn to shreds constantly, was used as a device to analyze Katniss's character and motivations AND a way to explore that even her relationships are under control of this government. It all had purpose.

[lordsardine]

.

[daemon-in-my-head]

I'm gonna say smth and I need people to read and understand what I mean.

It is perfectly fine to critique games. It doesn't matter what exactly you critique. You don't like the story? Say it. You don't like the combat? Say it. You dislike the way previous lore has been handled? Say it. You dislike the character creator? Say it. You think certain aspects of the game feel lazy or odd? Fucking say it.

Games at this point of time cost 60-70 bucks. Just the game itself. And it's often not even a physical copy, just a digital key they can revoked at any moment if they feel like it. If you want an advantage or a pretty limited skin or what have ya its gonna be 80-150 bucks. Yes that's how outrageous the prices are becoming. Let alone any future DLCs.

And again, it's 60 fucking bucks for just the base game. That's a lot of money for games. Not too long ago you'd be chased with pitchforks and torches had you said your game was that expensive. Some phones are as expensive as two AAA games, games that usually shine with a shit ton of flaws, bugs, missing content, messed up lore and generally feel like the publisher just wanted to make a quick dime. And considering how little time they take to develop, the later often holds true.

But yk what else? If you don't express your disgruntlement or your anger with these practices it's gonna keep going. Shit is only gonna get more expensive while also providing a worse playing experience. Y'all know what the big guys said about BG3. That we, the players, shouldn't expect that to be the new standard.

But hey, listen, we fucking should. It's our money and time. Our enjoyment of long established series or the first title of many. We should expect it to be fucking good and finished especially for such a great prize. We should expect to find entertainment in the things we buy exclusively for entertainment.

So please for the love of god stop attacking people for voicing their very valid and personal opinions. In fact do the opposite and join them and encourage others to do the fucking same. I'm so god damn tired of publishers doing everything only for the sake of sales rather than the art behind it. And yes of course 'the poor employees' and whatever excuses there are for these attacks. Guess fucking what buddy? You encouraging the Publishers behaviour by shutting down any and all criticism and buying whatever the fuck they slapped a name on is just telling them they get away with treating their people like less than shit.

Criticism is healthy. Criticism is required for a system to work and develop in positive ways rather than whatever tf is happening now. Voicing your opinion and critiquing aspects you find poorly handled is not hating a game. It's being disappointed that something you love and are absolutely passionate about was not treated well because some rich guy wanted yet another bonus check.

If a game is shit, call it out. If a system was handled poorly, call it out. If publisher try to limit the content and systems you're exposed to in the first 2 hours because you can still return the game in that period of time, call it the fuck out.

[daisyychainssj]

The day people stop saying they want morally grey characters/villains and then cry and throw up when a character is morally grey/a villain is the day I’ll know peace. Bad who was beloved and trusted by the entire island going off the deep end and lying to basically everyone and kidnapping federation workers is INTERESTING!!!! Foolish has literally said from the start that he’s not as adverse to doing things for the feds as the others he sees this as a game, they’re stuck on the island and after 6 months are no closer to leaving fuck it he’s going to just play both sides for the hell of it. Baghera is keeping important secrets about her past and empathising with federation workers, Jaiden has a very close bond with cucurucho a closer bond (in her opinion) than she has with some of the islanders. Max is becoming a code (maybe idk I can’t wait for him to continue his story) and lying to everyone about what’s really going on. Cellbit accidentally fed info to the feds for weeks. Fit is trying to find data about the islanders and is lying to literally every single person except Ramon. Mouse and Tina are helping foolish snitch on those who were breaking the rules. Like let them be fucked up it would be so boring if everyone on the server was a golden boy hero! yaaaaawn. Obviously we’re allowed to discuss their characters and share opinions and critiques but I wish people would stop freaking out any time a character makes a choice that’s not like the perfect and most morally correct one ya know. Let’s just all enjoy our cubitos being a bit fucked up but we love them anyway 🫶🏻

[brewed-pangolin]

Got a headcanon request, since it's Super Soap Sunday:

What is Soap like when he's your spotter in the weight room? Does he keep things professional, or does the situation evolve into something...more riveting?

*clears throat*

A million apologies for this being so late. This started as a headcanon, then turned into a drabble and now is a full blown fic. It's definitely not perfect, but whatever. Thank you @deadbranch for all your love and feedback on this. Hope y'all enjoy it, whatever this thing is. 💛

Slippery Soap

Johnny 'Soap' MacTavish x Fem Reader

18+MDNI I can't resist gym rat Soap. Lots of teasing, tons of innuendos, pissed off Dom Soap, p in v, rough sex at the end. My typical filth, per se.

Word Count: 2.7k

It all started with a simple innocent request. You wanted to up your gym routine a bit and add some weight training to your repertoire. And who better than to ask than the buffed out Scotsman himself. 

“Hey Soap. You hittin the gym today? Thinkin about adding some weight training to my routine. Wanna be my spotter?”

First of all, the moment you ask him to be your spotter, he’s beaming. No matter where you are, his face is full blown flushed. Eyes glistening and those crystal baby blues are shining like diamonds. He’s a kid in a candy store and you just gave him the battered Mars bar mountain. 

But once you make it into the gym, it’s all cool, calm and professional. At least, that's how it starts…

"So, ya want me t'spot for ya eh, lass? A'right. But we gotta go o'er some ground rules first. Don't need ya blowin ya back out on me first go around, yeah."

Soap is the absolute epitome of safety in the weight room. It doesn't matter if you're a full blown gym rat or complete novice, he's going to start you with proper body mechanics.  And he won't be shy about it. He'll have his body flush against your back, hands pressing down in a delicate yet forceful manner to get you into the right starting position.

"Posture, bonnie. Most important rule 'ere. Ya go down wrong ya ain't gettin back up."

It’s subtle, He starts it that way. But you pick up on those innuendos instantly. You know this game all too well. And this is where the ball comes into your court. You can either let him continue with those sly comments and not react. Or you can counter him, hit back just as hard as he does. Just be prepared for what comes of it. You poke the Scottish bear, he’ll poke right back. Hard.

He'll start you on the free weights. Good way to get your body warmed up and ready for the heavier lifting down the line. And Soap will watch you like a hawk; circling, hovering, visually critiquing your technique and giving any pointers he deems necessary to correct your form. 

This is where an opportunity presents itself, and you can’t help but pounce on it like a cat to a mouse.

"Am I the only one that's gonna be workin here? Or are you gonna give me a sneak peak to the Soap Gun Show?"

Poke #1. He knows full well what you’re up to. Those blue eyes darken, and the smirk on his face may as well be chiseled into Roman marble. 

"Not bad hen, not bad. Ya gettin a front row seat, yeah. C'mere."

He'll motion you to the spare bench while he adds more weight to the bar. And he won't low ball this. Training lesson or not, he'll show off like a testosterone fueled peacock. Once he positions himself flat on the bench, he'll go over his posture and advise on the proper way to handle a bench press.

"Feet flat, an' legs parallel to the floor. That's yer counter weight. Naw, on to tha' gun show a yers."

You're taking his advice seriously, but you can't stop as your legs squeeze together to quell that oh so familiar ache within your core to his first press. And Soap's well aware of the effect he has on you, and is now fully engrossed in this back and forth game. He knows exactly how to hit back with weaponized remark. So he ups the ante a bit.

He grunts. And they're not just any grunts. He uses those low, growling vocals that reverberate over your flesh, goosebumps rise in waves over your skin and form a maelstrom of heat in your belly. And you take it all in. His taut skin, the rippling of his muscular arms, the veins popping under his flesh. Your eyes follow the sweat as they traverse the curves of his biceps and land in the divots of his deltoid.  After ten reps he places the bar back in its hooked placement and rears himself into a sitting position.

Skin flushed, sweaty mohawk, skin glistening and breathless; gym rat Soap truly is a sight to behold.

"Yer turn, lass. Take a seat."

You don't hesitate. Even as the remnants of his exertion pool into the leather of the bench, you quickly line yourself up to the head, and following his advice position yourself just as he had instructed. Once he removed enough weights to be more fitting for your abilities he stood at the head, hands under the bars and motioned you to take them within your grasp. And as your eyes met he had to add his own quarrel just for good measure.

"Ya likin the view, bonnie?  Grab the bar 'ere."

Oohh he's having way too much fun with this. Lightly he tapped on the metal and you fastened a strong grip around the cold steel. And as you brought it down to rest on your chest you again countered him with your own jestering quip.

"C'mon now Johnny, y'know I always love looking up to you."

Soap's chest flared up as he broadened his stance, a vibrating moan emanating from his throat as his feet cemented into the floor and displayed a completely assertive posture. You were slowly breaking away at his control of this situation, and he didn't fully comprehend how to handle it. He couldn't very well bend you over, you were in a public place after all.

You took his wavering control into your hands, and as you began your presses you locked eyes with him. Not even bothering to count. And the flirtatious curling of your lips must have hit a nerve, accompanied by the view of you straining with a light glistening of perspiration over your skin. Soap was going down. Fast. 

Instantly, his hands laced into the hem of his sweatpants to readjust himself; clearly you were having a profound effect on him. You had barely done ten reps before Soap grabbed the bar from your hands, forcefully putting it back into its hooked resting place. 

"Enough a'this. Up ya get. On to tha deadlifts."

The rumble in his voice didn't go unnoticed. You were more than appreciative that the weight room was deserted, but there were still patrons in the gym area, who thankfully were too engrossed in their own business to bother themselves with the flustering banter going on between you two. 

As you made your way towards the dumbbells you noticed Soap kept himself unusually close to you, and stood at an almost full perpendicular position once you had found the correct weight. The sight of him red faced and frustrated had you swimming in victorious energy. Soap was never one to lose his cool in public situations, but this was new territory for the both of you. And somehow you ended up with the upper hand, a circumstance that most definitely didn’t go unnoticed. And most certainly wouldn’t go unanswered. 

You cocked your head towards him as he stood beside you, eyeing him up and noticing just the slightest tent within the fabric of his sweatpants. And you couldn’t help yourself. 

“Ya alright there, Johnny? Looking a bit flustered.”

Poke #2. Your whispered coo nearly sent him over the edge. His eyes bore into you, like a darkened stormfront barreling towards you. The muscles of his jaw clenched and you swore the veins in his forehead were on the verge of bursting.

“Grab the weight, bonnie. Ya workin my last nerve.” 

It was barely audible, but the gravely tone in his voice was electrifying. You obliged him for his own sake, and did a full set of ten reps without a single word or act of defiance. You could feel the energy soften around him, whatever loss of control he had he was beginning to regain. Standing straight you eyed him again, silently requesting any pointers or advice on your technique. 

“Good form, hen. Now, let’s move on to..."

“I think I’ll do one more rep.”

Your abrupt interjection caught him off guard. And unfortunately for his sake, this was the last of the control he would have in this flirtatious quarrel. Quickly you turned and pressed your back into him, the suddenness of your movements not giving him any time to react. Slowly you bent down and as your hands wrapped around the ring of the dumbbell you cocked your head towards him. With the best ‘fuck around and find out’ expression you could muster,  you returned that coy banter that put this whole scheme into play.

“Ya likin the view there, Johnny?”

Poke #3. Immediately his hands grasped into the curve of your hips, firmly pressing your ass against his pelvis and feeling that delectable bulge in the fabric of his pants. Even through the barrier you could feel the throb of his cock on your flesh. Soap had folded in the game he put before you, and fortunately for you, he was a sore loser.

“Drop it.”

The bark in his voice sent a bolt of pleasure through you, adding to the death grip his hands had on your hips and the pulsing of him between your ass you were already teetering on overstimulation. Yet you pressed on regardless.

“The weight, smartass. Gonnae deal wit tha’ attitude later. C’mere.”

“The weight, or the attitude?”

Standing up straight against him, he pulled your hips in closer letting you feel him hardening in the crevice of your ass. His lips ghosted the flesh of your ear and his hot breath fell over the curve of your neck. 

“Ya testin my patience, bonnie. And ya a’ready got me workin a full stauner ‘ere.”

The flesh of his lips was warm, soft. At complete odds with the cold stone frustration that wrapped around his words. He began to rock his hips into yours, desperate to feel any friction against him, wanting nothing more than to bury himself deep within your cunt. You had only now noticed how wet you were, so focused on the game at play you all but ignored your own arousal. But you weren’t quite finished with this cat and mouse match just yet. 

“Its your own fault, Johnny. I just wanted a simple lesson, you had to turn it into whatever this is.”

As you spoke your hands reached around to his hips, and at the trailing of your words you wrapped your hands around his hardening cock. The feeling of him throb through the fabric made your pussy clench, ache for him to fill you to the brim.

Soap’s breath hitched at the slightest touch of your fingers around him. Instinctively his hips thrust into your grip, eliciting a guttural moan escaping from his lips.

“Yer a fuckin minx, y’know that.”

There was something so endearing when he used nicknames for you, but minx was one you cherished more than most. You knew you had bested him at his own game. You would flaunt your victory in front of him for days to come, but you knew all too well you’d have to survive the onslaught of poor sore loser Soap first. And with that thought in mind, you decided ‘what the hell, go big or go home.’

“Is that gonna be it for it today Soap, or are you planning on giving me a real workout at some point?”

Ultimate Poke. All that playful beaming faded from his face, and those bright blue orbs turned as dark as the deep ocean. He knew he lost the battle, but that last quip threw him over the defeated edge. Quickly he dragged you over to the wall and pressed your back against the cold mirrored glass. His arms outstretched on either side, thick frame caging you in, denying any escape from his sorely beaten fury.

“Yer askin for it, aren’t ya. Meet me outside hen, an’ I’ll give ya a real workout.”

With that, he left you against the wall. Heart nearly pounding out of your chest and body electrified in victorious conquest. You had bested your Scot at his own game. So many times he had won you over, making you crumble to his feet in utter defeat. You relished in this, bathed in the energy that still filled the room. And as you peeled yourself from the cold glass you looked around and reminisced on those silent victories littered throughout the room. You left quietly, your feet floating on the high your mind had manifested. And as you turned the corner to go down the back hall, with your head held high and a proud step in your gate you marched towards door and openly invited whatever defeated torment Soap would throw at you. 

*************

“Steamin fuckin’ Jesus, bonnie. Got me runnin fire hot ‘ere.”

The taste and smell of leather rushed over your senses like a barreling riptide, a constant push pull motion not too dissimilar to the movements your bodies were making now. It was the only thing keeping you held down to reality as you felt him piston his cock deep within your hole. You had won the battle in the weight room, but Soap would win the war in here; a spare equipment room where the stench of sweat and blood hung to the walls like ancient moss. 

Even now he couldn’t help but run his mouth. One hand with a firm grip on your hip keeping you still, the other held down in the crook of your neck forcing your face into the fabric of the overwarn bench. The earlier comment about “not blowing your back out” rang between your ears, and the memory of the events only minutes before played through your mind like a sultry viewmaster. 

You were basking in the torturous pace he had on your cunt when he unexpectedly repositioned himself and the head of his cock hit that bundle of nerves deep within your pussy. Your walls clenched around him, and a husky drawn out moan escaped your sweat covered lips. 

“No more sass mouthin eh, lass. Aye, know how to shut that fuckin mouth a yers.”

The growl in his voice went straight to your core, and that familiar pulsing ache began to build deep within your lower belly. Soap was right; your grasp on speech had all but left you. Words were foreign or nonexistent all together. As always, he knew just how and when to make you fall apart around him. Soap’s pace began to falter, his hold on your flesh tightening to an all out death grip. A telltale sign that he was close.

Desperate for your own release, your hand traveled down and found the burning nerves of your clit and began to swiftly rub at its pulsing flesh. 

“That’s it. Come for me, bonnie. Come on my cock.”

You were helpless against him. The walls of your cunt convulsed around him as your fingers continued to frantically rub at the flesh of your clit. The waves of your orgasm washed over your skin, goosebumps rippling over your overstimulated flesh. With one final thrust Soap buried himself deep inside you, both hands now gripping into the flesh of your hips as he pulsed his seed deep within your hole. Everything around you fell away; the walls, the stench,the feel of the cold leather against your flesh. All you felt was him. 

As you slowly came down from your orgasmic high he wrapped his arm around your shoulders and brought your body flush against his own. The sweat between your bodies melded with the fluids dripping from your cunt, still lightly pulsing around the flesh of his softening cock. Soap latched his lips into the crook of your neck, his tongue tasting the salty essence of his defeated wrath against you. As reality began to come into view once more, your mind finally regained the will for speech, and as usual you had to give him your signature ‘sass mouthin.’

“Shit, Soap. Is every workout session gonna end like this?”

He moaned into the flesh of your neck. No doubt there was going to be a bruised hickey left in his wake.

“Nah bonnie, ‘his is only for rewards members.”

You couldn’t help but chuckle at his remark, and as you turned your head to meet his lips you left him with one last playful quip before taking his mouth. 

“Then sign me up.”

And he followed suit, in proper Soap fashion.

“Yes ma’am.”

[exilethegame]

i've been having an itch to write an if game, do you have any tips? i feel like its a very bad idea to jump straight in head first yk?

So much of it is a "figure it out as you go" kind of thing, but here's what I've learned, personally, and how I usually go about things!

1.) Figure out the kind of story you're trying to tell. That goes with any form of media. Is it a comedy? A tragedy? Is it meant to read like an old fairytale or a YA novel? What makes writing good is incredibly subjective, so it's important to find your genre + voice as a writer and play into your strengths. You can't satisfy everyone, so aim to satisfy yourself.

2.) Figure out who the player character is. What is their history? What's their role in the story? Why are they the player character? Figure out how much variation you want for them-- what's solidified about their past, and what's open for headcanons, and what's open for choices in-game?

3.) Treat MC with as much dedication as your main characters-- don't separate them from everyone else. People want MC to feel like an active part of the story. This is a generalization, of course, but I know myself and others enjoy an MC who has agency and feels just as fleshed out as the other characters in the story. I don't want MC to feel like a "observer" but rather an active character in the narrative.

4.) Plan out your game mechanics + the affinity system ahead of time. This is something I didn't fully do, and while it wasn't earth destroying, it has made coding unnecessarily messy at times on my end. Is it a stat heavy game or choice heavy game? What are the important stats, and how often will the player be able to influence them? I find the second part of that to be the most important, as you want to pace stat increases/decreases with the length + pace of the game. For example, in The Exile, MC's personality can only change in the first three chapters. Once MC is brought to Plaithus, their personality is locked in. This goes for other variables too-- sometimes there are only "windows" when they're able to be influenced. This helps me keep track of what's what and not be overwhelmed by the amount of stats I have.

5.) Plan out your cast, and make sure everyone has a purpose to the story. If you can't defend the presence of a character in your story, you might need to rethink their presence, or otherwise change the character. This doesn't mean they need to have a giant, crazy character arc connected to the main story, but rather that they bring something to the table that other characters don't. That being said, it probably is a good idea to make sure every main character in the story has some sort of personal story arc. It can be small, but it's nice to see how characters change over the course of a narrative, otherwise they might feel "static."

6.) Know why you're making your story. Is it for yourself? Is it for fun? Is it to make money? Is it to make art? Will it be public or private? If you're making the game public, prepare yourself mentally and emotionally for critique and external opinions. I think we, as creators, sometimes underestimate (especially in IF and on Tumblr) just how crazy things can get with reader/author interactions.

And, my final piece of advice...

7.) Learn to set boundaries and say no with a full chest. Your game is your game at the end of the day, no one else's. Do what makes you feel happy and fulfilled and write the kind of story you want to read. And, of course, be easy on yourself. Writing takes time and effort, and sometimes you'll hit hurdles. The most important thing is to be patient with yourself and learn to keep on going forward, even when the going gets tough. As I always like to say, writing slowly is better than not writing at all!

Best of luck if you decide to make the jump and write a game!

[weisscoldglare]

Heya, been a while since I put in an ask with ya but I was curious if you've ever had any weird takes on ships (With RWBY in particular) that might have some angles that could be fresh.

For context, I'm currently writing a fic that has elements of @pilot-boi's "Mirror Man" and @davidellisartworkstuff's "Tarnished Spartan" (If I'm wrong on who originally had those ideas then I apologize in advance) And am currently thinking of if I want to include some less mainstream ships. One that I'm actively considering is Raging Bull which is YangxAdam, though the only reason I'm considering it in the first place is because I was thinking of going with a Monochrome ship to occupy Blake and Weiss, and later RoseGarden for Ruby, leaving Yang alone.

Ofc if you don't have any opinion on it that's fine, I'm just curious because I've loved a lot of your work for a good while now, so I figured I'd ask you directly. Thank you in advance for any insight!

Honestly, people would have to re-write or erase the basis of Adam, even in a modern interpretation to get him in proximity with Yang unless she too is being destructive. From different fic's I have read, Adam is never written true to his personality or pushed into a more unhinged version of his disaster era (v4-v6). Its as if Azula was only characterized as her final moments in the show ATLA.

we know what she was before and how she got there. She's therefore pitiable.

So no I don't see Adam as an end game with Yang in any sense of the way, but more a learning experience of toxic co-dependence like Ren and Nana from well Nana.

Oh but, If I had to choose a ship for Yang that isn't within the team or JNPR or Winter for whatever reason. I really like the chemistry and possible dynamic that could come from her and Neptune. He is a soft boy, a man who is emotional but receptive to critique. He's not very smart but clever. He has legitimate fears, has a best friend who is also a ball of sunshine but skips town on him. Often. Yang is a rough-and-tumble girl, maternal but also instinctive. She is so fucking smart but pretends it's no big deal, her fears are also legitimate of course but are fought back through sheer tenacity. Brave in the face of danger as a self-sacrificing manner. This part would be different from Neptune, he has a high sense of self-preservation and they could both definitely simmer each other down. There is also the play on water and fire symbolism.

Sun is unfortunately too similar to Yang but also too different in all the aspects that matter. I imagine he is someone she strives to be like. He is severely independent. So much so he skips out on his team and people he clearly has an interest in. She is, well, she is not. So the spell of being similar would waft away and you have Yang feeling abandoned every time Sun randomly takes off. Her spirals would be unhealthy unless she somehow was comforted or in therapy over the dependency.

Hope that answers your question

[simplegenius042]

Music Monday, WIP Wednesday & OC Speech Mannerisms

Tagged by @inafieldofdaisies @socially-awkward-skeleton @imogenkol and @noodlecupcakes

Tagging @direwombat @voidika @cassietrn @adelaidedrubman @aceghosts @josephseedismyfather @icecutioner @derelictheretic @shallow-gravy @strangefable @statichvm @cloudofbutterflies92 @carlosoliveiraa @wrathfulrook @raresvtm @starsandskies @ladyoriza @la-grosse-patate @minilev @thewanderer-000 @omen-speaker @justasmolbard @alypink @shellibisshe @josephslittledeputy @skoll-sun-eater @g0dspeeed @afarcryfrommymain @strafethesesinners @turbo-virgins @softtidesworld @florbelles and @yokobai + anyone who wants to join.

Music for The UnTitledverse WIP, aka another for my Walking Fate series, a WIP for The Silver Chronicles and OC speech mannerisms for A Radioactive Calamity Of Love, Bombs & Gore. Listen and read under the cut, plus the template near the end below:

Yeah, so I can't stop talking about Walking Fate. This particular WIP in the series is referred to as A Dark Era as it takes place near season three, or A New Frontier as we know it. Not only is the song chosen because of the themes of that game (and the central relationship between Javi and David), but its in addition to the growing decay (considering this is in The Walking Dead, does this count as a pun?) of Clementine's hope for Malcrum and Malcrum's loss of himself. I'd like to say that each "season" is about a certain aspect/form of a relationship. Season 1 is about the formation of relationships, familial and romantic (with hints of loss). Season 2 is about reignited relationships, the strengths and weaknesses in them, true and false relationships and lastly the loss them. Season 3 is the decay of relationships. Season 4 is forming new connections, and the finale is being able to let go. Listen to the song below:

"'Cause baby, now we've got bad blood You know it used to be mad love So take a look at what you've done 'Cause baby, now we've got bad blood, hey!"

"I can't take it back, look where I'm at We was O-G like D.O.C., remember that? (Remember that?) My T-L-C was quite O-D, I-D my facts Now P-O-V of you and me, similar Iraq I don't hate you, but I hate to critique, overrate you These beats of a dark heart, use basslines to replace you Take time and erase you, love don't hear no more No, I don't fear no more, better yet, respect ain't quite sincere no more."

"Oh, it's so sad to think about the good times You and I

'Cause baby, now we've got bad blood You know it used to be mad love So take a look at what you've done 'Cause baby, now we've got bad blood, hey!

Now we've got problems And I don't think we can solve 'em You made a really deep cut And baby, now we've got bad blood, hey!"

"Remember when you tried to write me off? Remember when you thought I'd take a loss? Don't you remember? You thought that I would need ya Follow procedure, remember? Oh, wait, you got amnesia It was my season for battle wounds Battle scars, body bumped, bruised Stabbed in the back; brimstone, fire jumping through Still, all my life, I got money and power And you gotta to live with the bad blood now."

"Oh, it's so sad to think about the good times You and I

'Cause baby, now we've got bad blood You know it used to be mad love So take a look at what you've done 'Cause baby, now we've got bad blood, hey!

Now we've got problems And I don't think we can solve 'em You made a really deep cut And baby, now we've got bad blood, hey!

Band-Aids don't fix bullet holes You say sorry just for show If you live like that, you live with ghosts." "You forgive, you forget, but you never let it go." "Band-Aids don't fix bullet holes You say sorry just for show If you live like that, you live with ghosts." "If you love like that, blood runs cold."

"'Cause baby, now we've got bad blood You know it used to be mad love So take a look at what you've done 'Cause baby, now we've got bad blood, hey!

Now we've got problems And I don't think we can solve 'em (Don't think we can solve 'em) You made a really deep cut And baby, now we've got bad blood, hey!

'Cause baby, now we've got bad blood You know it used to be mad love So take a look at what you've done (Look what you've done) 'Cause baby, now we've got bad blood, hey!

Now we've got problems And I don't think we can solve 'em You made a really deep cut And baby, now we've got bad blood, hey!"

New FC5 WIP, and it's a bit like a crossover. Actually, more like a Bloodborne AU type deal with Far Cry 5. To note, this no way in which relates to or is connected to my own Bloodborne WIP. Anyway, so the deal with this FC5/Bloodborne WIP AU is, Hope County has a bit of a werewolf problem. It's supposedly a plague that irreversibly changes people into bloodthirsty beasts and these creatures usually come out a few nights in the year. Or maybe they come out every night, I'm unsure. For this reason, Hope County has a curfew installed and contracted a local monastery to send out special hunters to hunt these beasts down and keep the populace safe. In this WIP, the monastery and hunters are lead by Paul Yellowjack, who is the first hunter (he takes on a combination of roles from the actual Bloodborne game; most tellingly, Gehrman), with Silva (my deputy OC in any regular FC5 fic) leading the hunts as his first student (taking on the role as Lady Maria in a way; and unlike Gehrman, Paul is not attracted to her (if that is the correct interpretation, because Bloodborne is a game that is really up to interpretation), however, just like Gehrman, Paul has a bit of an obsession with her, just more paternal and codependent... the moon may or may not be involved in this). In this AU, hunters don't really interact with people outside of the hunts for the people's safety and because their profession doesn't really scream long life expectancy. Some FC5 characters, like Jess, Grace, Sharky and maybe the Whitetail Militia have become Hunters. Some OCs who were Eden's Gate or Resistance (Nadi, Alexander and Gavin specifically) are also Hunters. Eden's Gate takes on more-or-less the same role as it does in the game, they're just (a) better at hiding their crimes because everyone's preoccupied with the werewolves and (b) using the fact there are werewolves as a sign the Collapse is coming closer, and honestly, it manages to get them more converts. In the early years, Eden's Gate and Paul's Monastery (of Hunters) did trades; Eden's Gate transferred Paul more hunter converts, and Paul in turn would give resources and lands (of the recently deceased) over to them. However, after Vicar Laurence turned into a Cleric Beast, Paul's Hunters and Eden's Gate align with each other to combat the scourge plague and find out how to both eradicate the beasts in hiding and completely destroy the source of it so they stop growing in number. Joseph and his family still have their goal of bringing forth the Collapse, however the Scourge Plague needs to get gone so law enforcement can actually patrol the nights again, so their willing to wait and work with Paul some more, especially since this new alliance has opened up a new chore Paul will do for Joseph's family; clearing out the beasts that use the bunkers the Project wants as a den. But Paul expects this alliance to go both ways, meaning Joseph has to be ready to give somethings up to the Hunters... or even someone. Here's a bit of a snippet of the prologue, where these proceedings go down. A bit choppy and personally not my best but I'll fix it up when I got the time:

Paul offered the glass to Joseph, but he declined with a wave of his hand.

The older man tried to offer it to Jacob and John. While John looked at the glass with disdain when turning it away, Jacob took a moment to consider the tempting offer before deciding against it.

The night days before may have been a dreadfully long one, but Jacob had no intention on compromising his values now. Especially not with both his little brothers present.

Paul didn't push against their refusals, instead taking the glass drinks for himself, downing both before slumping into his seat, exhaustion heavy on features. And yet he hadn't lost his composure that night. No wonder he was a more favorable leader than Laurence was... or had been.

Jacob tried not to think about the masses screams... and the loud inhuman shrieks that bellowed from the flames.

Paul sat up, hand brushing through his light brown hair. Soon his exhaustion was replaced with his usual cheerful facade, an optimism that Jacob was unsure was more for the older man or his people.

"As I was saying," Paul stated, catching the brothers attention, "While the public and some of the newer recruits are under the impression that the most recent hunt was merely bad luck. A tragedy, of course, but a one-time fluke... I am in agreement with your assessment of this event, Father Joseph."

Joseph blinked in response, and tilted his head quizzically. Jacob himself was suspicious of Paul's words. While the Monastery and Project had never butted heads, especially during trades, there was an unspoken judgement of the other's practices and beliefs.

"You've finally accepted these monsters to be a sign of the coming end?" John poked, hoping to receive clarification from what he to was hearing.

"Don't misunderstand, I'm not saying this scourge is a sign of this "Collapse" you yap about," Paul responded, the clarification disappointing Joseph and making John frown with narrow eyes, "What I am saying is... the scourge is only going to get worse. The hours of the night longer on each hunt. The beasts stronger. Vicar Laurence... succumbing to this plague is evident of this. What I offer is an accord... that I believe will benefit both our groups greatly."

John's eyes lightened up with intrigue and Joseph's with attentiveness and curiosity. Jacob... didn't know what to make of this though. Not without more information.

"You want more trade?" Jacob prompted, hoping the Hunter's Chief would spill more.

He didn't have to wait long for Paul to immediately reply, like he had been waiting on the question, "Well, not exactly. What I'm offering is a partnership... an alliance. For your brave men and women to join in on the hunts; to put an end to the scourge together."

Jacob paused at Paul's words. Realization hit that Paul didn't merely want to trade numbers; he wanted help in putting down the beast threat for good.

John was grinning ear to ear, taking a step forward to bring Paul's attention on the youngest of the brothers, "You're asking for more than just a trade then?"

Paul gave a half nod and clasped his hands together, "After the Night of Flames, we lost several of our best and oldest hunters to Lau- the beast's rampage, some included being family. Not only that, resources are getting lower as the hunts becomes more frequent and the nights longer, and incense can only ward off beasts for so long. Safe havens such as this monastery are being viewed as unreliable due to Laurence's affliction. Worse yet, the people have just lost their source of hope on the darkest night to date, and gentlemen; while I'm spectacular at giving advice and assurances over radio, I am no good a leader as I am a savvy tactician. Frankly boys... I need your help."

Jacob saw the exhaustion etched in Paul's face return, and for the first time since he's made contact with him, the eldest Seed could see the age weighing down on Paul's struggling shoulders. One man who has given it his all against an adversary far beyond his human limits, and doesn't put his pride above the safety of his people, unafraid of reaching out for help. Jacob could admire that, even if Paul was an opposing force to Joseph's vision.

Unless...

"And what do you offer in return?" Jacob inquired, giving Paul an expectant gaze. While Paul was not someone he could ever hope to influence, he was aware of the Hunter Chief's observations in behavioral patterns and societal expectations that allowed him to create a psychological profile on his target. Not too dissimilar from Jacob himself, "After all, you've already promised us your tools and protection, if we're forming an alliance that puts our people further into danger with the beasts, I expect you have some kind of compensation to give us, right?

As Jacob suspected, he wasn't disappointed with Paul's answer.

"Well, I'm quite aware you boys and your posse desire a shelter from your God's doomsday; and while I'm not superstitious, irony not lost on me, I am quite vengeful against these beasts," Paul spits out, the bloodthirsty wrath tinged in the very roots of his words, "They've made dens out of abandoned silos that keep them out of the sun. Impenetrable to raids and stubborn against our explosives. If we were to get rid of those beasts, that leaves a whole empty construction up for grabs. We hunters have no use for such things, not even as storage; but perhaps, with a bit of repairs and expansion here and there, it can provide your Project everything you want."

Jacob allowed a small smirk to slip past his stoic mask. He gazed to his brothers, and saw both Joseph and John were both as satisfied and elated with Paul's answers as he was.

Joseph took a moment to consider his answer to Paul's offer. While Jacob himself thought the opportunity wasn't something they should sit on, ultimately it was Joseph's final word as the Father that determined the outcome to this meeting.

Joseph glanced to Jacob and John, and received encouraging nods from both.

With one final contemplative thought over the deal, Joseph spoke once more, "These demons only desire to afflict destruction upon us all; including the sinners. They are vile in their service to their own blood lust. If any of us are to reach New Eden after the Collapse, this plague must be purged from its very roots. You have Eden's Gate' word; your hunter's call for help will not go unanswered."

Paul clapped his hands together as he chirpily stated, "Great! We'll go over the details at your place."

Joseph wasn't bothered by Paul's response. John though seemed to want to refute but refrained from ruining the mood. And Jacob was satisfied with the results and benefits the Project would be receiving. As the brothers prepared to make their way to the office door, Paul spoke up.

"Oh, uh, one last thing," Paul held their attention, curiosity piqued, "I request a favor. As you're aware of, my vicar is, well... dead."

Jacob heard Paul mutter out a half-ass "may he rest in pieces" before the older man continued, "And with that position open, there haven't been any candidates too eager to take on the role to calm and take responsibility over our masses. Frankly, I don't want our next Vicar to be too similar to Laurence. Trust and faith in the Hunter's are being called to question and I'd like a fresh young face to ease their worries."

Jacob narrowed his eyes at Paul, his instincts alerted towards the older man's odd request.

"What I'm trying to say Father Joseph is if you have someone you have complete trust and faith in, with proficient experience in easing the doubts of people sharing not unfounded concerns, young enough that they can differentiate themselves from Laurence, but adept enough to take on the role of my people's Vicar without much training. Anyone come to mind?"

Jacob raised a brow at Paul's description. Amongst the Project, he couldn't think much faithful within the family's, nor the herald's inner circle that could fit that description. If Paul was wanting one of them, Jacob still hit a blank wall, considering neither he nor John shared all the qualities Paul desired. The ideal vicar Paul desired didn't fit them anyway, with exception to Joseph and their newest so-called-

He paused, brows slightly furrowed. He glanced to Joseph, and saw that his brother reached the same conclusion but far from skeptical of Paul as he should be.

"I have someone in mind," Joseph answered Paul. Jacob watched as the Chief Hunter leaned back on his chair, a relaxed smile resting on his face, uttering a proud, or perhaps smug, "I knew you would."

And finally OC speech mannerisms for Marissa "Ress" Bishop, Ortega "Ore" Brantley and their father, Arcane Urias from my Fallout series A Radioactive Calamity Of Love, Bombs & Gore.

MARISSA "RESS" BISHOP (FO3, FONV & FO4)

NO. OF SPOKEN LANGUAGES: 1 / 2 / 3+ (I believe she's learned a lot of languages, especially when being raised by the Bishop family, considering many of their business partners would have been of different ethnicity. The one's she's strongly mastered are English, Chinese, Japanese and French)

TONE OF VOICE: high / average / deep

ACCENT: yes / no

DEMEANOR: confident / shy / approachable / hostile / other (off-putting)

POSTURE: slumped / straight / stiff / relaxed

HABITS: head tilting / swaying / fidgeting / stuttering / gestures / worrying lip / arm crossing / strokes chin / er, um, or other interjections / plays with hair or clothing / hands at hips / inconsistent eye contact / maintains eye contact / frequent pausing / stands close / stands at a distance

— COMPLEXITY

VOCABULARY: ⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚪️

EMOTION: ⚫️⚫️⚫️⚪️⚪️

SENTENCE STRUCTURE: ⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚪️

— PROFANITY

FREQUENCY: ⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚪️

CREATIVITY (in regards to profanity): ⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️

BOLD ALL THAT APPLY: arse. ass. asshole. bastard. bitch. bloody. bugger. bollocks. chicken shit. crap. cunt. dick. frick. fuck. horseshit. motherfucker. piss. prick. screw. shit. shitass. son of a bitch. twat. wanker. pussy.

— THIS OR THAT

straightforward or cryptic? / finding the right word or using the first word that comes to mind? / masculinity / neutrality / or femininity / formalities or with abrasiveness? / praise or equivocation? / frankness or lies? / excessive or minimal hand gestures? / name-calling (affectionate) or magnanimity?/ friendly or blunt?

— IMPORTANT QUESTIONS

DO PEOPLE HAVE A HARD TIME HEARING OR UNDERSTANDING YOUR CHARACTER? - almost always / frequently / rarely / never

DOES YOUR CHARACTER’S POINT COME ACROSS EASILY WHEN THEY SPEAK? - almost always / frequently/ sometimes / rarely / never

WOULD YOUR CHARACTER INITIATE CONVERSATIONS? - almost always / frequently / sometimes / never

WOULD YOUR CHARACTER BE THE ONE TO END CONVERSATIONS? - almost always / frequently / sometimes/ rarely / never.

WOULD YOUR CHARACTER USE ‘WHOM’ IN A SENTENCE? - yes / no / only ironically

YOUR CHARACTER WANTS TO MAKE A COUNTERPOINT. WHAT WORD DO THEY USE? - but / though / although / however / perhaps / mayhaps.

HOW DOES YOUR CHARACTER END CONVERSATIONS? - walk away / ask if that’s everything / say that’s everything / gives a proper goodbye (if she likes you well enough) / tell their company they’re done here / remain quiet / they don’t.

WHAT SOCIAL CLASS WOULD OTHERS ASSUME YOUR CHARACTER BELONGS TO, HEARING THEM SPEAK? - upper / middle / lower.

IN WHAT WAYS DOES THE WAY YOUR CHARACTER SPEAK STAND OUT TO OTHERS? - accent / vocabulary / tone / level / politeness / brusqueness / it doesn’t.

ORTEGA "ORE" BRANTLEY (FALLOUT (1997), FO2, FO3, FONV)

NO. OF SPOKEN LANGUAGES: 1 / 2 / 3+ (he's likely picked up a few here and there)

TONE OF VOICE: high / average / deep

ACCENT: yes / no

DEMEANOR: confident / shy / approachable / hostile / other (awkward)

POSTURE: slumped / straight / stiff / relaxed

HABITS: head tilting / swaying / fidgeting / stuttering / gestures / worrying lip / arm crossing / strokes chin / er, um, or other interjections / plays with hair or clothing / hands at hips / inconsistent eye contact / maintains eye contact / frequent pausing / stands close / stands at a distance

— COMPLEXITY

VOCABULARY: ⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚪️

EMOTION: ⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚪️

SENTENCE STRUCTURE: ⚫️⚫️⚫️⚪️⚪️

— PROFANITY

FREQUENCY: ⚫️⚫️⚫️⚪️⚪️

CREATIVITY (in regards to profanity): ⚫️⚫️⚫️⚪️⚪️

BOLD ALL THAT APPLY: arse. ass. asshole. bastard. bitch. bloody. bugger. bollocks. chicken shit. crap. cunt. dick. frick. fuck. horseshit. motherfucker. piss. prick. screw. shit. shitass. son of a bitch. twat. wanker. pussy.

— THIS OR THAT

straightforward or cryptic? / finding the right word or using the first word that comes to mind? / masculinity / neutrality / or femininity / formalities or with abrasiveness? / praise or equivocation? / frankness or lies? / excessive or minimal hand gestures? / name-calling (affectionate) or magnanimity?/ friendly or blunt?

— IMPORTANT QUESTIONS

DO PEOPLE HAVE A HARD TIME HEARING OR UNDERSTANDING YOUR CHARACTER? - almost always / frequently / rarely / never

DOES YOUR CHARACTER’S POINT COME ACROSS EASILY WHEN THEY SPEAK? - almost always / frequently/ sometimes / rarely / never

WOULD YOUR CHARACTER INITIATE CONVERSATIONS? - almost always / frequently / sometimes / never

WOULD YOUR CHARACTER BE THE ONE TO END CONVERSATIONS? - almost always / frequently / sometimes/ rarely / never.

WOULD YOUR CHARACTER USE ‘WHOM’ IN A SENTENCE? - yes / no / only ironically

YOUR CHARACTER WANTS TO MAKE A COUNTERPOINT. WHAT WORD DO THEY USE? - but / though / although / however / perhaps / mayhaps.

HOW DOES YOUR CHARACTER END CONVERSATIONS? - walk away / ask if that’s everything / say that’s everything / gives a proper goodbye / tell their company they’re done here / remain quiet / they don’t.

WHAT SOCIAL CLASS WOULD OTHERS ASSUME YOUR CHARACTER BELONGS TO, HEARING THEM SPEAK? - upper / middle / lower.

IN WHAT WAYS DOES THE WAY YOUR CHARACTER SPEAK STAND OUT TO OTHERS? - accent / vocabulary / tone / level / politeness / brusqueness / it doesn’t.

ARCANE URIAS (FALLOUT (1997), FO2, FO3, FO4, FO76)

NO. OF SPOKEN LANGUAGES: 1 / 2 (English and his own) / 3+

TONE OF VOICE: high / average / deep

ACCENT: yes / no

DEMEANOR: confident / shy / approachable / hostile / other

POSTURE: slumped / straight / stiff / relaxed

HABITS: head tilting / swaying / fidgeting / stuttering / gestures / worrying lip / arm crossing / strokes chin / er, um, or other interjections / plays with hair or clothing / hands at hips / inconsistent eye contact / maintains eye contact / frequent pausing / stands (too) close / stands at a distance

— COMPLEXITY

VOCABULARY: ⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️

EMOTION: ⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️

SENTENCE STRUCTURE: ⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️

— PROFANITY

FREQUENCY: ⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️

CREATIVITY (in regards to profanity): ⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️

BOLD ALL THAT APPLY: arse. ass. asshole. bastard. bitch. bloody. bugger. bollocks. chicken shit. crap. cunt. dick. frick. fuck. horseshit. motherfucker. piss. prick. screw. shit. shitass. son of a bitch. twat. wanker. pussy.

— THIS OR THAT

straightforward or cryptic? / finding the right word or using the first word that comes to mind? / masculinity / neutrality / or femininity / formalities or with abrasiveness? / praise or equivocation? / frankness or lies? / excessive or minimal hand gestures? / name-calling (affectionate) or magnanimity?/ friendly or blunt?

— IMPORTANT QUESTIONS

DO PEOPLE HAVE A HARD TIME HEARING OR UNDERSTANDING YOUR CHARACTER? - almost always / frequently / rarely / never

DOES YOUR CHARACTER’S POINT COME ACROSS EASILY WHEN THEY SPEAK? - almost always / frequently/ sometimes / rarely / never

WOULD YOUR CHARACTER INITIATE CONVERSATIONS? - almost always / frequently / sometimes / never

WOULD YOUR CHARACTER BE THE ONE TO END CONVERSATIONS? - almost always / frequently / sometimes/ rarely / never.

WOULD YOUR CHARACTER USE ‘WHOM’ IN A SENTENCE? - yes / no / only ironically

YOUR CHARACTER WANTS TO MAKE A COUNTERPOINT. WHAT WORD DO THEY USE? - but / though / although / however / perhaps / mayhaps.

HOW DOES YOUR CHARACTER END CONVERSATIONS? - walk away / ask if that’s everything / say that’s everything / gives a proper goodbye / tell their company they’re done here / remain quiet / they don’t.

WHAT SOCIAL CLASS WOULD OTHERS ASSUME YOUR CHARACTER BELONGS TO, HEARING THEM SPEAK? - upper / middle / lower.

IN WHAT WAYS DOES THE WAY YOUR CHARACTER SPEAK STAND OUT TO OTHERS? - accent / vocabulary / tone / level / politeness / brusqueness / it doesn’t.

[kateweathermachine2]

Thoughts on God Games

Don’t mind this post being on Wisdom when Vengeance already came out school is a lot okay-

So in a previous post, I mentioned how I was a little disappointed by the end of God Games. It came down to a combination of my expectations for the Zeus “round” versus the reality and some (well thought out) posts I read in my frazzled I-survived-the-wisdom-saga-livestream state critiquing Zeus’s character in Epic. I’m not going to go into more details than that for now.

While I was grappling with how I felt about God Games and how that impacted my thoughts on the Wisdom Saga and Epic as a whole, I started thinking about what I would have done differently, or what I would’ve liked to have seen done differently, in God Games. And this exercise turned out to be pretty fun and helped me with my thoughts and feelings about the actual God Games. So I decided to share some of my thoughts with you!!

So for my thought-scenario, I wanted to change God Games, but not drastically. I didn’t want to change any gods in the games or even alter how it ends. I just wanted to figure out how to tweak it just right. And I think I figured out the key: more time!

God Games is long by Epic song standards- at 5:19, it’s the longest song in the musical so far! And there’s one small word in the published song that’s distinctly different from the drafts Jay’s posted- Zeus’s “and me” versus “or me”. I have a small theory that there was originally going to be more to the song, that Zeus was going to be the final round instead of Hera. But that part likely got scrapped due to how long the song was/could’ve gotten. But hEY, THAT’S JUST A THEORY; A MUSICAL TH- I’m sorry I’ll go see myself out

So for my little re-imagine, the primary thing I’m doing is leaning *into* the length of the song! Make it longer! Honestly I was expecting more of an 8 minute song here and I’m impressed by Jorge’s ability to condense it all but still make it easily follow-able.

First change we’re making- turn that “or” back into “and”! There’s no choose whom to convince situation here, Zeus is clearly the final round.

Moving swiftly forward to Apollo and Hephaestus! Both of these verses are great on their own, but for this I’m thinking we extend them by just a couple extra lines.

Perhaps Apollo doesn’t need more convincing, but he says an extra quip towards Athena to sort of pay homage to the Odyssey, where he’s also watching over Odysseus (I think, I’m not a Greek mythology or Homer expert). Something like…

Apollo: “You’re not the only one who’s watched over him” ;)

Athena: “… Thank you.”

Apollo: “Release him!”

Or something similar. Hephaestus, now, I don’t have any specific ideas on how to make his verse longer, but I’d just add a couple other back-and-forth lines before he says to release Odysseus.

Aphrodite and Ares were perfect. They were great, I love them. Athena could potentially have an extra line towards Aphrodite about how, even though he missed his mother’s passing, if he’s released he won’t waste another second to get home to the rest of his family he loves. Not entirely sure how to condense that into a witty verse, but there ya go 😅

Hera!!! Hera’s… is perfect. I can’t see any good way to stretch it out, and I love how succinct it is. So leave that verse 100% as-is.

Now for the big one- Zeus! In this version of God Games, Zeus is the final round, so Athena hasn’t won yet. The verse even starts with Zeus instead of Athena. I’d pay homage to the original Odyssey again here, and have Zeus ask Athena why she desires to go against the fates, which is what ultimately landed Odysseus on Calypso’s island in the first place (by spiting Poseidon’s son and the cattle incident, even though it wasn’t Odysseus who killed the cow in the first place) (once again, not an expert, I’ve read this part of the Odyssey only once, so I could be forgetting/misremembering some details).

Athena may reply with something like “he’s paid his fair due, he deserves to go back home”, and also challenges(?) fate as to leaving Odysseus on Calypso’s island for such a long time. Athena’s and Zeus’s lines in this part are longer than most of the other gods’ lines in their verses.

Alternatively, instead of saying “fate” is what led Odysseus to the island, it’s Zeus’s divine punishment to Odysseus for the mistakes he’s made on the voyage home, and for the cyclops and cow and all the crew who died. In this case, Athena is (in)directly challenging Zeus’s authority on the matter. Maybe there’s another couple lines back and forth here, but it winds up to Athena directly calling Zeus out for Odysseus’s pain and demanding that Zeus release him as he’s suffered enough. And *thiiis* is what sets Zeus off.

I imagine his lines here are pretty similar to the ones he actually sings, but tweaked (obviously) to fit this new situation. Something like

“You dare to defy me?! To make me feel shame?! Your foolish pride is what will make you LOSE MY GAME”

I’m not entirely sure on the pride line, I know there’s something in Greek Mythos about pride/hubris being a solely *human* thing, something that the gods just don’t have problems with? But on the other hand, to Zeus this is Athena rising above her place and defying his authority, something he needs to put out right *now*. What would it be if not some sort of pride? (Obviously it stems more from Athena’s friendship with/care for Odysseus but that’s not gonna factor into Zeus’s perspective)

And from here on, the rest of the song goes as it was. Thunder bringer, the flashback, Athena standing her ground, and her making her final plea to Zeus.

And those were my thoughts on how I would expand God Games and fit a whole round with Zeus in it! I had a lot of fun coming up with this reimagining, and it’s actually helped me enjoy the God Games we got more too! I’m always blown away by how musically Epic(TM) the songs are every time I listen to them and the voice acting is absolutely phenomenal. Maybe God Games didn’t go the way I originally expected it to go but it’s a great piece of work, and I like seeing the depths of character Jorge’s able to convey in each song- even with Zeus!

And the biggest moral of the story for me is to not browse tumblr until my brain breaks the morning after a saga livestream. Good lessons, good lessons.

If you’ve made it this far I hope you enjoyed my God Game ramblings and could see a little bit of my vision with expanding the length of the song!

Also no Athena’s not dead, it’s not denial, it’s called foreshadowing with Calypso’s line and the fact that Athena doesn’t even get *close* to death in the Odyssey- I know Epic’s a loose adaptation but there’s no way Jay would deviate *that* much and kill her off, if Athena’s actually dead I’m gonna flip out probably I’m going to be *so* upset—

[antimony-medusa]

Okay so inspired by nothing in particular (it's inspired by reading the notes on the ace swag final poll, fun stuff in there), I have been thinking about being Cringe. Cause like, you enter a fandom, and usually, you find out shortly that somebody else hates that fandom. There is no fandom niche enough that it's not Weird to somebody, and there's no fandom mainstream enough that it's not Annoying to somebody else. And given the fact that some people do hatred recreationally, there's often going to be somebody mad enough about your fandom that they're going to go on diatribes about how your fandom is bad and actually harmful and destroying the fabric of civilization, etc. They're gonna pull out anything negative and blow it up until it's the size of the skyline and attack you for liking this negative thing.

Fun times, we've all seen it.

And the thing is, there's an impulse to have this happen and immediately find somebody else to point to and say, yeah, well, I might be weird, but at least I'm not THAT guy. I might read YA, but at least I'm not a Furry— those guys are sexual deviants! I might be into actual play podcasts, but at least I'm not into mcyt— those guys are all harmful and my guy is fine. I might be into danmei, but at least I'm not into bandom— rpf is so gross. I might be a furry, but at least I'm not into mainstream romance novels— senseless drivel aimed at middle class white women. Y'know. Immediately find someone to punch down on.

And boy do I understand why you want to do that, when people are pointing at you, but I don't actually think that it's helpful.

Cause like, every fandom has a logical train of thought and reasonable human impulses behind it. You might not share those impulses— I'm not a furry I don't think, I don't really get true crime— but that doesn't mean I can't have it explained to me by a very patient person in in the writer's workshop common room and go "oh, yeah, kinda pretending to be an animal, but you're gay about it, yeah, makes sense", or "oh yeah, morbid curiosity from the safety of your headphones, it's like a horror movie but real" and nod. Like there isn't a fandom or group out there that doesn't look weird from the outside, and there isn't a fandom or group that can't be explained if someone has thought about the human psyche enough.

And that isn't to say that there isn't sometimes salient critiques for what fandoms are doing or not doing— to grab the two examples above, I have heard people talking about issues with true crime reinforcing the current fucked up justice system, or bigotry at furry cons. But a) most of the time, there is already somebody inside that community that's fighting against those issues, and you just threw them under the bus with the problem they're trying to fix b) you don't usually know the nuances of the actual conversation and problems, you saw a couple callout posts. You saying "Yeah I'm a board game nerd but at least I don't play competitive trading card cames, those guys are doing nothing but feeding the capitalist machine" is not usually helpful towards fixing the ctg scene. It's just a cheap way to score points.

Like, I assure you that the YA scene is aware of the calcification of the genre into a tighter and tighter romantic form and their dependence on going big on tik-tok to sell enough to keep publishing. They know.

You specifically saying that your fandom is better cause it's not [problems you heard about other fandom having] is not actually going to make the person who's hating on you stop hating. They already decided that you're the person they're better than and that they're punching down on, you passing the punching down on to another fandom just makes more people sad on the internet, and potentially starts yet another chain of someone punching down at someone else. The wheel grinds on, everybody gets punched.

I guess this is just kinda turning into a "why hate on the internet, what good does that do" post, which is broader than I meant it to be. But like, there's a difference between thoughtful critique of problems (complicated to do fairly but very necessary) and finding someone new to curbstomp to make yourself feel better/morally superior (look, I'm writing this on a mcyt blog, we've all seen this happen, it does not increase the joy in the world).

Like in MCYT, we all decide to punch down on [other server we hate], or RPF, or people who write kidfic, or people who write e-rated fic/art, or people doing the popular trope of the moment, and sure, it lets you feel morally superior for the moment, at the cost of slapping the guy next to you. Haven't we had enough slapping the guy next to you? There but for the grace of god (got a fun idea/watched the wrong stream/ended up in the wrong brainstorming circle/got fixated on the wrong funny guy) goes I. You're not better than another group just because you saw a couple more callout posts (usually from people inside the community trying to fix things) about them.

We are all Cringe. There is nobody who's not Cringe. Don't say that you're not Cringe because someone else is more Cringe. Stop that.

[metanarrates]

I'm really interested in your takes on hunger games bc despite what this site says based on their memories of reading it 10 years ago in middle school I do think it's a little overhyped and there are political messages in the third book that are straight-up counterrevolutionary. and keep in mind it IS for 13 year olds and as an adult I personally would never reread it so if you've underwhelmed that may be one of the reasons why...I do look forward to hearing your thoughts on the final book if you get there tho! thanks for sharing your thoughts so far - in hindsight the narration WAS extremely cruel to haymitch for his trauma response. fwiw there are more compassionate depictions of addiction later but none that I think are...great

yeah I agree that me being underwhelmed is largely due to it being YA. it has goals and priorities that are not at all interesting to me given that i am a decade too old for it. I'm also not exactly sure how to handle it critically due to that - a lot of its political stuff makes no fucking sense but I don't know whether I'm expecting too much from a YA novel!

my other big critique, though, is I feel that it pulls its punches when it comes to its depiction of teenagers exploited by being objects of popular entertainment. again, I'm very aware that this is a novel For Children, but so far in the novel (just finished part 1,) there's just not as much discomfort as I feel there needs to be. katniss enjoys the food, she finds the outfits cinna has her wear pretty, and as much as she hates being trained to be a cute object of entertainment, there just is not a strong sense of her being dissected for the benefit of an audience. it's played quite straight that the audience likes her For Her. I want it to make my skin crawl and it doesn't! isn't the point supposed to be that it's scary and uncomfortable!

[indieyuugure]

Hi! Let me start off by saying that I absolutely adore your ROTP series. This is also one of the very few Rottmnt/2012 crossovers in existance that does justice to both verses and doesn't put a biases on any. I love this comic.

Now that aside, I need to get something off my chest. I wouldn't have gone on Anon but experience has taught me that opposing opinions will make the followers of a blog insult and harass you so I tend to err on the side of caution. You see, I Love Love Love TMNT. And I love 2012 series, it's something I relate to so much and grew up with. It's my most favorite version of TMNT.

But the thing is, ever since the Rise movie got released, I've been seeing nothing but slander against the 2012 series and it breaks my heart every time I come across it. It has escalated to an unfair point that I've seen even 2012 fans who love it just as much begin hating aspects of it. I mean, don't get me wrong, it does have its flaws but it's unfair how highlighted those select few flaws are to the point of extremely biased comparisons and blame games and general 2012 slander which half the time doesn't even comply with canon. Moreover, literally every TMNT has its flaws just the same.

And recently, I've been seeing an increase in posts on your blog that have 2012 slander undercurrents or simply blatant frustrations with it. I love the comic but keep seeing this hatred still is just... it hurts ya know. Like really actually hurts.

So if possible, can you plz tag such posts with something I can filter out? (And let us know what that tag will be?) You don't have to but I really really love your art and comics, it's just the 2012 slander again that hurts me and I don't want to see it anymore. I've been seeing it everywhere.

Again, plz don't take this the wrong way, it's just something that's been hurting me and I had to get it off my chest. And find a solution to it that doesn't involve blocking or unfollowing because I genuinely do love this fancomic

Thank you for your feedback!!💕 (seriously feedback is extremely appreciated to me!)

I sorry my posts came off as 2012 slander, I really never meant it like that. I will admit I do critique media pretty aggressively, but I never mean it in a hateful way. TMNT 2012 is one of my absolute favorite shows and I love everything about! It’s the weird quirky stuff about it that while yes, I will criticize, I still love. It wouldn’t be the same without it. Just like the weather, I will complain about it, but I don’t want it to actually change.

I will try to be more conscious of how my posts are perceived, I really never wanted there to be a bias on my blog. I love all of TMNT for all it presents, and I don’t want to ever be slanderous!

Thank you again for your kind nudge! I’m very thankful to have people like you who’ll tell me if I’m making a mistake! I truly do love TMNT 2012. I can’t fix what I’ve said, but now that I know, I can be sure to be more careful to not sound biased going forward.

Again, I’m very sorry it came off that way, I didn’t mean to be so harsh. I never want to harm a series’s reputation, especially one that I love so much!

You are truly appreciated!💕

I know this won’t fix the things I’ve said, but I’ll say 3 of my top favorite things about 2012:

I love the way they depicted characters! They do an amazing job using indirect characterization that makes the characters feel so real. The characters don’t have to tell you things about themselves, you learn about them from the way the interact with each other, the way they solve problems, the things they like and dislike, and even what they’re doing in the background! It really feels like you’re there getting to know these fun people and go on adventures with them! Truly amazing!

I love the way the turtles look! Seriously I think they look so cool, and at the same time cute. They’re visual designs inspired me so much in my art and I will watch hours on end of them because they’re just so freaking cool!

I love the way their stories are told! The episodes are so well paced that it never feels boring to watch an episode! Believe it or not, I have never once wondered how many minutes are left on an episode. It’s so good at sucking you in and addicting you, that while I was watching it for the first time, I was straight up binging it and would be forced to put it down by my parents. Several times I would stop to eat something and have that weird “wait, who am I? What is my life?” Thing you get from a really good story. The stories and arc pacing are so good that Indie TMNT, my original series is using massive inspiration from 2012.

Once again, I am truly sorry for coming off as slanderous. Thank you for being so brave and telling me what many people were probably thinking. I want to do better. Thank you! :]

[aconstantstateofbladerunner]

Is there a story you despise but whose worldbuilding you like?

Bro so many. I could never list all of them if I tried. Part of what fascinates me about bad books is seeing the lost potential and reverse engineering better stories in my own imagination.

Short list:

I love everything about the dragons of A Song of Ice and Fire. Don’t actually despise the series, a lot of it is very good, it’s just not my cup of tea. But the dragons, man. Nuclear bombs that are your pets. Special but subtle magic bonds. No matter how close those bonds are, no one can ever fully control them. They never stop growing. The implication that they aren’t naturally occurring animals and were in fact created artificially via lost magic. The weird fucked up cultural practices that developed believing it would keep them connected to dragons. The implication that that magic wiped out the empire that created them because they were never satisfied with their already unmatched power.

Bad YA book called Shiver about werewolves whose transformations were tired to temperature as opposed to the moon or their emotions. Shame the book around that interesting concept sucks ass.

The lore of Genshin Impact is super interesting. There used to be tones of gods but most died off in a war with each other. The surviving gods each have a country that they exercise varying degrees of control over, some ruling directly, some indirectly, some just kind of being around. Each country’s culture is shaped by its god’s values and personal hang ups. The gods nuked one atheist country into oblivion. The gods let a handful of designated cool people have elemental powers if they want them bad enough. My personal headcanon is that it’s only socially acceptable to dress differently from the norm when you are a designated cool person, explaining the incredibly drag copy-pasted npcs. Used to play the game but realized I wasn’t having fun, i was doing busywork so i could earn gambling points, so I stopped.

Stephenie Meyer’s The Host is about a race of body-snatching aliens who travel the universe “peacefully” conquering planets and “improving” the cultures of their hosts. One host ends up not being fully dead when a new alien is inserted and so the alien learns that taking people’s free will is bad. Genuinely fantastic sci-fi premise that could have opened the doors for a critique of colonialism and assimilation, or just a fun romp, but because it’s from the author of Twilight all the attention goes towards a love triangle/trapezoid that’s also deeply uncomfortable.

[script-a-world]

Hi, I'm struggling to worldbuild a dystopia since I normally write fantasy. I'm not sure what to include in worldbuilding. Could you help me by suggesting what you'd include in dystopia worldbuilding or link me a dystopia worldbuilding template?

sorry for the awkward phrasing!

Utuabzu: The first, and perhaps most important thing to keep in mind is that both dystopia and utopia are literary devices for critiquing current society. The most successful dystopias had something to say about the culture they were written in. 1984 was written during a period of high censorship, in WWII Britain, and couldn't be published for several years after it was finished because it was considered potentially upsetting to the USSR, which was at the time an ally of the UK. The Hunger Games was written in the 2000s as a critique of the vast amount of reality tv shows and the pointlessness of the Iraq War.

The spray of frankly forgettable YA dystopia novels written in the late 2000s-early 2010s were forgettable because while they had the aesthetic of dystopia, they didn't really have anything to say about our current world. They weren't based on anything other than 'hey, wouldn't it be messed up if-', which just doesn't stick in your head like a dystopia that takes something in our current society and follows it to its logical, awful extreme. The Handmaid's Tale works because it takes the rise of Christian Fundamentalism and its inbuilt misogyny to the logical extreme, and given current events in the US that really resonates.

You also need to consider practicalities. People can live their lives in awful situations. In every dictatorship, no matter how oppressive or dysfunctional, people were still living their lives. Oppressive régimes collapse when the citizenry is no longer able to live their lives. Specifically, when the people upholding the régime are no longer able to get by day-to-day. Revolutions, to paraphrase Victor Hugo, ultimately, are always about bread. Ideals like freedom and justice and equality are just a nice bonus.

If you want your characters to be opposed to the system, you need to ask yourself why they're against it. People don't set themselves against an all-consuming society just for fun. Not really. They might play at being a rebel if there's little real consequence, but if there's serious consequences then most people will keep quiet until the system starts failing.

Common reasons for turning against the system could be falling through the cracks and seeing the hypocrisy of the ruling ideology, being the victim of the injustices of the system, having something to gain from the régime's fall. Or they could be part of an underclass that doesn't benefit from the system in any real way but is too beaten down to resist, in which case you need to ask what made this character's life under the system unbearable, when the rest of their group's life is terrible but bearable enough.

So, my checklist would be:

What is the dystopia critiquing? What does it want to say?

How does this work in practice? What do the people upholding the system gain from this? How is the system being upheld? Why are people putting up with this?

What are the system's flaws? What hypocrisies are in the underlying ideology? Why are most people not noticing them?

Why are characters against the system? What made them turn against it?

Is the dystopia going to collapse or endure? If it's going to fail, why and how? If it's going to endure, why and how?

Tex: To compare and contrast genres a bit, let’s look at J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth series (1930s to 1960s, ish) and C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia (1940s to 1950s). These are major establishments for the modern interpretation of the fantasy genre, but also contained many dystopic elements as a part of their narrative.

Dystopia in Tolkien’s works was featured as the aftermath of terrible tragedy, and the people who lived in the times following it - the falling of great cities and civilizations brought a downfall of peace, economic stability, and certainty in the future. There are as many characters that lived in the times transitioning period that an apocalypse incurs as those who have never known the heights their world had reached in terms of prosperity.

Dystopia in Lewis’ works was used as a parallel - the main characters are children that came from a London in the middle of war and the accompanying poverty and existential fear, where the fantastical world of Narnia occupies a narrative place of distance that allows the characters to see a world equally as devastated but whose devastation occurred, comparatively, in the far past. The trauma that the characters have from living in a dystopia allows them the skills needed to navigate the fantasy world and bring about several critical plot points that allow the story to progress.

In a way, dystopia is the inverse of fantasy, where time is make-believe. The difference is that the past is perceived with different forms of wistfulness - in a fantasy it is romantic, in a dystopia it is tragic. Both are full of speculation and yearning for simpler times, but full of emotion of what could have been, and what could still be.

Because of this, there is no formula for a dystopia, as it is a genre built upon other genres that borrows others’ tropes and gives them a bit of a twist from a removed perspective.

[obstinaterixatrix]

I read all of The Honest Life of a Game Studio and now I am obsessed do you have recs for anything like it.

I wish. I FUCKING WISH. but it’s really one of a kind. higefusa really just wrote mundane slice of life office drama with the level of detail that could only be provided by a gamer who has worked in the industry AND he threw in some life or death stakes as a treat. how often do we get an incredibly normal office worker stuck in time prison??? and it’s ONE ARC??? not often enough.

none of these are gonna be just like game-ya but in terms of romances with attention to detail for industry/niche fields… ok all of these are gonna be kind of weird so bear with me.

double section is a BL about an auditor for an insurance company and an insurance salesman, I wouldn’t necessarily give it a blanket rec but I liked how Passionate the main characters were about audits and workplace regulations. a lot of heated drama for the most normal office setting possible. in the author’s note the artist talks about interviewing health insurance salesmen.

ginmokusei is more of a conventional BL but it’s about a guy who inherited his grandpa’s tailor shop and an ex maître d who shows up and demands to help him before he goes bankrupt. there’s a little bit about branding and marketing and bank loans. what has Always Stayed With Me is when the love interest basically goes like ‘you’re using all these flashy ads and being really pushy with discounts. are you selling beef bowls.’ every time I pass a clothes shop that goes really flashy with the discount banners I think ‘are they selling beef bowls…’

panel x magic. okay I said it was going to be weird. so this yuri is about a recent graduate who applies for office jobs and ends up doing image editing for… I guess a brothel? it doesn’t go into critiques of the sex industry, but I thought it was interesting how it takes a really logistical perspective in terms of marketing, advertising, and image manipulation… one of the chapters has the main character going like ‘oh god I’m trying to edit this risqué photo by making the thighs thinner and giving the face a glow-up but I keep making the model look like a weird alien this looks like something from a photo booth’ and gets advice from her coworkers like ‘hey why don’t you look up makeup tutorials to get a sense of what to touch up.’ hasn’t been translated in a while but it kind of hits that… really in-depth look at the logistics of a job.

I think there’s more I’m not remembering at the moment, at one point I think sundry made a joke about rating office romances by how much office work is shown. there’s a couple ones that *kinda* fit but not really… wait. wait wait wait. WAIT. oh my god it has such a h•rny title. okay. so I’m being 100% sincere when I say that the main story for hammered and pounded is a BL with interesting office politics. it’s also incredibly h•rny, but game-ya gets pretty h•rny so whatever. but yeah there’s a whole subplot where the love interest, who works in sales, has actually always wanted to work in R&D, and it becomes A Whole Thing where the head of R&D is in conflict with the head of sales over whether or not a transfer is gonna happen and there’s no romance involved with the conflict it’s all office politics

and in a similar vein, to your right, you will see my boyfriend is about a guy who’s working as a tour guide in kyoto and at the artist talks about how she used to work as a tour guide. I think it’s fun, though I have my qualms. the main character does do studying about how to be an effective tour guide and goes from being like ‘ugh I’m saying all the facts but no one’s listening’ to ‘haha check out this extremely long name of the temple we’re about to see! make sure to remember it, it’ll be the password for getting off the bus ;D’

I have another category of vaguely similar vibes of genre bending mundane office work + fantastical situations

tokusatsu gagaga is a gen series that’s a BIG fave of mine, the main character is an OL who loves tokusatsu so she imagines a lot of scenarios with that sort of vibe. it’s not diagetic, but it’s really fun when it’s stuff like ‘I’M AT KARAOKE WITH MY COWORKERS BUT I CAN’T OUT MYSELF AS A TOKUSATSU OTAKU THIS IS JUST LIKE BEING ATTACKED BY A KARAOKE-THEMED MONSTER EMERJASON HELP ME!!!!’ the eng tl hasn’t been updated in a while but there’s a live action adaption that’s really good

magilumiere co. ltd. is a gen series that’s basically ‘what if magical girls were like… sanitation workers for monsters’ so it’s a lot of company logistics in a fantastical setting. I don’t think I got that far into it before getting distracted, but it was interesting (though perhaps overly generous/idealistic about start-ups as a concept).