#dont read npc dialogue?

[weevmo]

Good evening,

You'll never guess what I just posted.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/60479521/chapters/156202336#workskin

Enjoy 10k more words of content.

From,

Someone actually studding to become an engineer

I ENJOYED EVERY BIT OF IT AND CAINE ESPECIALLY BUT THIS -

THIS BIT MADE ME LAUGH SO HARD

[sci-bax]

Does anyone else find that music gives them inspiration for stories? Im working on my first game's story rn and quite a few songs have helped me figure out what i want some of the places/characters to be like

Spider Girl and 1000 Doors helped so much with thinking up a certain part of the game😭

In terms of dialogue, Ive got some dialogue options for a shopkeeper but nothing past that💔

[astyrra]

persona 3 fans:

if i read the manga/watch the movies now and then play reload when it comes out, is that a decent way to experience persona 3?

[helpmelilithcaughtme]

Imma be honest, ZaelxCalista doesn't come ANYWHERE CLOSE to ZaelxMina, they're so damn cute. I'll gladly take Calista in place of Zael

[dawnleaf37]

also theres this npc in world // zero in the first area that says "im gonna grow up to be a summoner just like my dad" and in the new 10th area you can actually find him with a summon next to him and he says like "i became a summoner, just like my dad! he was the very best..." and i kid you not i nearly cried

[asexual-levia-tan]

anyway, im a bit confused by this mc. im trying to convince myself that its a conflict between him and the character whose body he's possessing. but.

bro keeps talking about how god-tier the npcs ai is that he can roleplay all he likes and they respond appropriately. and he's aware that they're plot related npcs who are part of the main quest. and he's always complaining during downtime that he wants to be doing a quest (not to mention he spent the entire tutorial wondering when the main quest was going to start to begin with)

but he hates all of the companions and wants them to leave him alone? he wants to shake of the main quest related companion npcs? and then what? wander around in the wilderness?

half of the story is just him complaining about being bored when nothing is happening, and the other half is him complaining about the plot-related npcs that are following him despite supposedly loving how much he gets to roleplay his character to them

[dishashazz]

love these little fellas but can someone with vroh lore knowledge explain to me why one of them is a kidou

New Victory Road character illustration - Raimon Junior High!

[assassin-artist]

meeting him like this just about killed me emotionally btw

ok listen, a little bit yapping because i think about him too much and this encounter makes me so so sad. if u dont know, morton has a chance to show up at your door either as a friendly recruitable companion, or in a hostile state and will attack as soon as u open the door. the chance to get his hostile state goes up every day that u dont recruit him i believe.. which i have many many thoughts about

i assume the red on him is someone elses blood bc he's gone insane and potentially is just attacking anyone on sight (which is why he attacks us as soon as we open the door). the green would make sense if it's meant to portray acid, since we know he has an acidic bite of some kind, and the description of him biting with 'disgusting teeth' (which i personally took to mean he has some kind of weird human-bug amalgamation for a jaw/mouth)… but also i think it'd be neat if the green was actually his own blood. first of all because i like the idea of a mutated creature having odd colored blood, but secondly because i don't think he was ever much of a fighter before we meet and recruit him. in our team he starts out pretty weak and a lot of his dialogue throughout the game when we're in dangerous situations is him saying we should leave. he seems like the kind of character that runs away when something is there, and comes back to loot once the danger has passed.

ALSO i reaaaally like his dialogue when he shows up in a hostile state… the stuff i wrote is his quote in-game if you ask who's at the door. he sounds like he's really struggling with himself, maybe like he's torn between attacking or not. maybe there's a liiiitle bit of his original self (or, original after being changed by the visitor) in there but it's wrestling with whatever has caused him to become so violent. a character who is known for his incredible vocabulary suddenly struggling to speak a coherent sentence. growling, even, if the "rhrgn" is anything to go off of. he can't think of anything more intelligent to say than a simple "just… just let me in…"

if you attack morton when hes a friendly NPC he drops some money, some clothing, and some food. he collects a lot of things, not just junk and trinkets, and he uses the food and clothes as trading items to get other peoples junk, so its normal for him to drop those kinds of items after killing him in his normal state... HOWEVER... if he shows up in his hostile state and u kill him, the ONLY thing he drops is junk. like he ran out of food and other items, or like maybe he just stopped collecting those things... i think its so interesting...... not collecting, not trading with others, and being isolated from others is potentially what drove him mad (if we're assuming it wasn't some other outside force, like a cursed attacking him and maybe infecting him with something)... i know i made a joke about how the power of friendship is whats keeping him sane, but every day i think about it is another day where i go wait.. maybe its for real that he.. he might genuinely need companionship or else he'll lose his mind

or maybe im just reading into it too much bc i think he's fascinating. who knows

[eternalartblock]

overanalyzing kyoko's letter because i have nothing better to do

im having a fucking field day out here.

so in case anyone reading this is unaware, campyfire recently dropped these:

there is a LOT to unpack here. i am losing it over the namedrop but i would mainly like to focus on psychoanalyzing kyoko because. i mean this is her letter, plus in context it wasnt really meant to be read by anyone other than herself, so its likely that shes being pretty damn genuine here. which means i get to look at it and read into it and convince myself even further that she is!!! not okay!!!!!!

We hope your adventures haven’t taken you too far.

“we” is likely referring to the rest of her family, so theyre probably alive and present. which is good because i would actually kill someone if she lost her sister and had literally no one else. i really hope they gave her some support at some point because it seems like she really needs it

Since you’ve been on your journey, I've decided to become an adventurer, just like you!

becoming an adventurer is a lot. leaving home and letting go of your old life is a lot. and kyoko did that because it was something her sister liked to do, because it made her look strong and brave and she wanted to be like her. she mustve really, really looked up to her :(((

…I was scared at first, but talking with them made me happy… really happy.

ok hold up. she was scared??? while she does seem scared for them, shes never appeared to be scared of them, so… why? maybe its because they just come off as intimidating to everyone? it could be like how several npcs in the manor thought they looked off. but that was after she first met them, plus they were definitely a doing a lot better back when they only had one sword. i personally think this might be hinting at some kind of attachment and/or vulnerability issues? idk it REALLY seems like shes got some shit going on, especially because of how she lets you vent about your problems but immediately changes the subject once she mentions hers in her manor dialogue. still not normal about that btw.

Things are weighing down on them though, I didn’t want to trouble them…

shes clearly worried about being a burden to player while theyve got so much going on. even though she has literally let them vent to her. while she ALSO had some shit going on. dont get me wrong, i get why she'd think that way, player IS visibly going through it and they dont need more things to worry about. but it would probably be worth it to at least ask if theyd be ok with listening to her talk about everything. theyre her friend, and theyve got quite a few things in common. they would understand.

I shouldn't give up. I know you're out there, so I'm going to be just like you and never stop trying.

aughhhh fuckkkkkk

the thing about having a loved one go missing is that anything could have happened to them. there so many horrible ways for calypso to have gone out, especially since kyoko has ZERO IDEA where she could have gone. and yet, she chooses to believe that shes still out there somewhere, because she knows her sister, and she knows that shes stronger than that. and she wouldnt leave her.

also consider: calypso's an adventurer. it would be normal to not hear from her for a while. so imagine how long it took for her family to even realize something was wrong. calypso has been gone for a very long time.

im glad kyoko's at least coping somehow... still think she should open up a bit, but its better than nothing. i really want her to get the support she needs, because shes clearly going through a lot, despite how cheerful she might appear. also i wanna know more about calypso, it seems like she was super cool.

anyways kyoko is the best and most well written block tales character. thank you for coming to my ted talk

[future-bog-body]

i just wanna yap about the Walkers and the idea of favoritism with them and why i personally dont subscribe to the idea that Logan is "the favorite" and also just. yap abt Logan and relationships in general.

Logan is a character defined by his relationships. ALL characters are, but Logan is to an extreme degree. lets keep in mind that video games, like tv shows, film, books, and stories are a form of literature, theyre story telling. we must assume that all choices are intentional, especially with regards to the way character's dialogue is phrased. so lets take a look at what Elias says about his boys in that little "one minute interview" and how he phrases it.

obviously that clip is where we get the story about the beach, but Elias also "introduces" his boys in it. heres what he says about Hesh; "There's David, my oldest. He's 28, likes to go by the name "Hesh". He- well, he, he joined up the day he turned 18. He's one of the best soldiers we have in the field today. Then again, maybe I'm biased."

so to start with this, Hesh is defined by HIMSELF. we learn his name first, David, and then his relationship to Elias. we then learn more about Hesh, we learn his age, we learn that he has a nickname that he likes to go by (that he might have given himself, a nickname which can have multiple meanings depending on how u want to read it), we learn that he joined up as soon as he could. its notable that he joined up at 18 because thats the youngest u can join without parental consent. Elias it seems did not give parental consent to join up at 17. this introduction shows us that Elias is proud of his son and likes to brag abt him, but we also learn abt Hesh himself.

in contrast, heres how Logan is introduced; "My youngest, that's Logan. He, uhm. [Chuckle] Well, he reminds me a lot of his mom."

Logan is introduced to us first by his relationship to Elias. we learn that he is Elias' youngest child before we learn his name. then we don't even learn more about him, we learn only that he reminds Elias of his mother. following that, we get the story on the beach. Logan is defined by Elias entirely on how he relates to Elias or Hesh or their mother. Logan's age we only get from different supplementary material, its never stated directly by Elias the way Hesh's is.

throughout the game, Logan is also introduced by his family via his relationship to them. its not "This is Sergeant Walker" its "This is my brother Logan", "this is my youngest". in fact, Logan's name is rarely used in the game. primarily its used by Hesh and Elias and, notably, Rorke. most characters dont actually speak to Logan directly that often, rather they speak to him THRU Hesh. in the amazon after the crash, Elias asks Logan a question, but its Hesh that answers, without even waiting for Logan to do so himself (obviously this is bc Logan is a mute protagonist, and i actually have a theory that hes meant to be mute in the story too, not just as a result of gameplay). Elias gives orders to Hesh for both of them. Merrick speaks to Logan maybe twice in the whole game, primarily speaking to Hesh and assuming Logan is also included. while Keegan does speak directly to Logan more often than others, he almost never uses his name, sticking instead to "kid". Kick never speaks to Logan directly, neither do most other NPCs.

Rorke is, again, an exception to this. Rorke speaks to Logan directly, and while he uses "kid" similar to Keegan, he also uses Logan's name pretty often, or he forgoes a name and just looks at Logan directly when hes speaking. Hesh is the character that speaks to Logan directly the most, and the second most is Rorke. in contrast, Rorke very rarely addresses Hesh directly. he does on the train, but even then, his gaze is almost always fixed on Logan or tracking the player if u move around. he also does during the interrogation scene, but once again his focus is on Logan, and he responds to Hesh primarily to taunt him and Elias. also, Rorke's Vanguard lines imply a genuine affection for Logan but thats neither here nor there

i think the two biggest reasons that Logan is thought of as the "favorite" are bc of Elias' last words and Elias' mask. but the thing with the mask is that as far as we know, up until then, Logan might not even be wearing a mask like the rest of the Ghosts, however. Hesh has his facepaint that is clearly meant to mimic the Ghosts' mask. Logan getting Elias' mask reaffirms his connection as Elias' son, whereas Hesh's facepaint reaffirms his individuality as a person and character.

as for the last words, i mean. Logan was the one who was just forced to shoot his father. Logan is the one who just got shot - who got stabbed not too many missions before - and who Rorke has shown an uncomfortable amount of interest in. while both boys need comfort and are scared in that moment, Logan is to a greater degree. hes been shot and injured, hes actively bleeding out, hes just shot his father, and hes laying on the floor about to watch his father die not even a foot away from him. hes close enough to Elias in that moment to feel Elias' breath, to watch his eyes dilate. Elias' words are aimed at Logan because its Logan who, in that moment, needs to hear them the most

[lokh]

OK FOUND IT so verbatim it was

Oh, man. He's always leaving the Outpost and causing trouble for Admiral Galleus. Wish he'd think about the Admiral more —

*ahem* Er, I mean, I wish he'd think about his responsibility more... Heh. Anyway... For saving Bahari...

insert cohoot related dialogue here

And about that little slip of the tongue back there... Please keep it between us! Don't tell a soul, pleeeeeease!

like does that not read as someone who accidentally told u about a secret relationship!!

directly after you finish the urgent anjanath master rank quest in mhr, if you speak to jae he says something about wishing bahari would think more about the admiral before quickly correcting himself to 'about the investigation' or something, and then makes the player promise to not bring up his 'slip-up'. maybe he was just trying to cover up how much he looks up to the admiral, but my first instinct was that he was scolding bahari the way you would someone who wasn't thinking about how they were worrying their partner, only now I went through the dialogue so fast and there's no way in the world to see the dialogue again so now im left wondering if it was a figment of my imagination

[sha-brytols]

i'd love to hear if your opinion on mythal's depiction in datv changes after reading masked empire. while i do agree that it is disgustingly misogynistic in some respects ("benevolence", the way they took her from chess-master into woman in refrigerator, where is the reckoning??), i don't agree at all that her portrayal as solas' toxic ex is a direct attempt to stoke fandom misogyny in order to appease solavellans or whatever. it was pretty clear after trespasser, and even moreso now that vg is out, that the masked empire is, in broad strokes, meant to be solas' backstory - with Briala as a direct stand-in for solas and Celene as a direct stand in for Mythal. and imho Celene and Briala's delightfully twisted ass relationship is the highlight of the whole book. TME was written before solas was romancable or even decided to be a companion in dai rather than just an npc, so solas/mythal's dynamic was established (by proxy) verrry early into the creation of solas' character, and it comes through in a fair amount in his dialogue in inquisition too. bearing that in mind i don't believe that her role as an antagonistic figure in his story was written in conversation with any sort of fandom response to either character. though i do think that the weird softening of solas' actions(even though they are loudly condemned they are softened) places more culpability upon her as a result, and i do think the refusal to outright state that the relationship is romantic is an attempt to pander to weird fandom amatonormativity.

i feel like i probably didn't explain myself super well LOL it doesnt surprise me it comes across like my issue is necessarily with the toxicity of the relationship, i couldn't really find a way to articulate the nuance. i do agree there were breadcrumbs throughout the games! flemeth as a chronically abusive mother, mythal in the legends as a ruthless judge jury and executioner, mythal's general role in inquisition along with, as you said, the parallels with celene in regards to her relationship with briala. i was always under the assumption that solas' relationship with mythal would be imbalanced At Best so that isn't actually my problem.

my problem is more like. you know using the masked empire comparison — celene, despite literally all of her faults, is still a very sympathetic character in her relationship. like yes as an outsider looking in with an objective viewpoint it is incredibly clear that her actions towards briala are often guided by a deep-seated selfishness and lack of true respect and/or empathy for briala. it is also incredibly clear that the relationship itself is horribly unhealthy and celene uses briala's feelings and love for her to her own advantage repeatedly. however it is ALSO incredibly clear celene is deeply in love with briala. she is just as dependent on briala as briala is on her. she has no sense of self without briala and is genuinely unable to conceive of a life in which they are apart to such a point where she literally can't sleep without briala by her side. and the book does go out of its way to make you understand that this is because and Only because celene genuinely loves and cares for her. it doesn't excuse literally anything she does, it just contextualizes her behavior as being more complicated than just being a pure power-hungry manipulator. her problem lies in the fact that she cares about her goals more than she loves briala.

this got long. sorry.

veilguard doesn't. necessarily Deny this as a factor with solythal. like i dont think they made mythal a complete one dimensional abuser. but i think it does Really Really Really rely on the narrative that mythal was always the antagonist in every aspect of their dynamic. like solas only does ANYTHING EVER because mythal forced him to. every single bad choice he made is mythals fault. tranquilizing the titans? mythal's fault. creating the veil? mythal's fault. destroying the veil? mythal's fault. the only thing he does of his own agency is killing varric and even then i would argue that just by virtue of it being caused by him desperately trying to tear down the veil there is still a narrative that it's ultimately mythal's fault. there's even a really hilarious implication that solas MURDERING MYTHAL is also indirectly her fault because he needed her power to tear down the veil. which he's doing for mythal. it's all mythal. he has absolutely noooooo culpability whatsoever in anything. everytime he does something bad we're shown in his regrets that actually oh he didn't want to do it. he begged mythal not to. she just made him.

going back to brialene, briala does a lot of horrible things in service of celene that she does of her own free will. trying to quietly stifle the elven rebellion by telling the rebels to just quietly look the other way and be good boys while the nobles retaliate against them was all briala's idea. she did it out of concern for celene, but it was still a decision she made of her own volition and was in fact directly in opposition to what celene would have done. like it doesn't change the fact that celene is ultimately the architect of this, but it gives a brutally realistic layer to their dynamic. they are BOTH responsible for the terrible things they do. briala isn't an aggressor or a bad guy or anything, but the reality of crazy codependent relationships like this is that it consumes both people to the point of no return. and we see this sooo many times in the games.

and i get that the masked empire has the privilege of celene's pov to give her more depth, and veilguard is only through solas' eyes so that would color everything, but i still don't think that really explains or excuses why it's taken to the extent it is. leliana and justinia for example have a very similar relationship as the one described here. justinia was a powerful figurehead that leliana adored and whom shaped leliana into her own personal weapon that ultimately destroyed leliana's life. we even have a very similar conclusion to solas' story with mythal where justinia eventually "releases" leliana from her services and leliana can finally Breathe. but the big difference between these two is that leliana still ultimately makes every choice of her own volition. she does what justinia tells her because she *believes* in justinia and justinia's cause. justinia never has to strongarm her. justinia never has to beg, coerce, or even order leliana to do anything, because leliana believes in the same thing as her and would do anything she says because of that belief. even leliana's "freedom" is ultimately her own decision: she can choose to just NOT stop following the path she's been set on, even when the one pulling her strings lets her go, because there are certain runs where her belief in her mission is so strong that even without a master, she'll still continue the fight on her own.

solas doesn't have any of that. solas begs mythal not to make him do anything bad and only does it because she told him to and then he hates himself for it. there is absolutely zero room for interpretation that this could possibly be his choice, that he is even remotely willing, even just for his own goals, to go through with any of the terrible decisions he makes. he is always the victim in every single perspective of the narrative and mythal is always the perpetrator. this is only strengthened when veilguard outright tells you that the only way to ever make solas give up is by having mythal tell him to. no nuance. there was never any way to stop him because he was never truly capable of making that choice himself, it was only because mythal LETS him that he was able to.

and at the end of the day i do think this is partially motivated by a desire to have an easy explanation for solavellan shippers as to why the romance was doomed. "he always loved you! he would have stopped for you! he just literally physically couldn't! mythal's the one you have to be angry at, not solas! it was all her!" i also just fundamentally believe that if the devs truly didn't see solas and mythal's relationship as romantic then that specific topic literally would have never been brought up because it's literally useless for the story. "were solas and mythal fucking? haha. maybe. no they weren't lol." like ok. thank you. net zero information gained. why was this even mentioned if they didnt want people to at the very least entertain the possibility? 😭 like it comes up BECAUSE mythal calls him "love" like it's such an awkwardly forced line that literally only exists so that the characters can be like woah... solas and mythal.... love? she doesn't even call him that again its sofjsotnsotnnsifmzktkxmg

but yeah 💔 solythal codependent relationship would have been hotsexy if it played out more like the way it was set up to be, i don't want to give the impression that i hate the concept. it was the execution that felt very weird and disingenuous

[angelicguy]

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS deltarune spoilers:

Finished the new deltarune chapters. Found it really really great- i was worried about how they were going to combine the wacky stuff with actual story momentum and I think they did a great job by essentially separating it into the two separate chapters. The "real" game in chapter 3 was phenomenal- it had the perfect blend of wowww this is fucking creepy and stark without being overt, played on how "off" the original zelda games felt super well- the format of these games always criticize how people play RPGs specifically, so it was interesting to get a version of that with a different genre. honestly wish it was longer, but it was juuust enough developed gameplay to make it feel like an uncanny haze rather than an entire other segment. really really good. chapter 4 was bomb too, a more meat n potatoes for my approach (not killin nothin), way more of a focus on moving the broader plot forward, which after 7 years was absolutely the correct move. made sense pace-wise too- i was initially a little hesitant on the pace after how breakneck chapter 3 was (i think i almost finished it in 2 sessions, each about 2 hours? i had to replay the whole thing to get the secret boss, and that took 40 minutes) but knowing 4 was essentially the opposite tonally it made me appreciate them both more.

I do wonder if the presentation of all of this would have worked better if we just called the entire thing chapter 3- i get not wanting to set standards too high for future chapters length+content, but i still think chapter 2 was the best blend of gameplay, dialogue and secret stuff. how its divided now made chapter 3 feel more like 3/4ths of a full chapter- the lack of hometown segment didnt help with that impression, either.

i make fun of the dialogue often, and i dont think that's inappropriate- it can be really clunky and blunt. susie really does end up repeating the same handful of "i cant believe i have friends!" lines 30 times, ralsei is so obviously more aware of the broader story already. even tennas lines felt like watered down spamton tropes. after years of waiting, i felt a bit silly reading a lot of it- if i could make a single change to the writing, i would cut down on these hit-you-over-the-head obvious "wink wink" moments. in a game with so many well-hidden routes and interactions, i dont know why they have to allude to its weakest themes so often. make me search for it! finding tenna freaking out in the secret spots would have hit a lot harder if he didnt say what was on his mind in the base fights already.

but the games greatest narrative strength is making all the characters feel more in-depth than the average rpg npc- you WANT to interact with them, hear their next line, see what they would say to different dialogue options, etc. its the kind of thing you can't really get from other games and i think is what gives deltarune its energy. its short, but it really does feel like the 4 years it took to make werent wasted- the obsession with every possible outcome being acknowledged and covered, despite being such a linear game, gets me excited in the same way a good book or movie does. \

it feels like a culmination of a very late 90s early 2000s experience with gaming too. all the tropes it plays with dont really exist in the most popular titles of the last two decades, so im really impressed by how well it managed to keep plot that's rooted in what are now VERY OLD RPG mechanics (you controlling kris, who is a different person than you, the player) engaging and independent from the tropes theyre pulling from- you dont need to know about how saccharine and cloying old rpgs are (while i know toby fox is inspired primarily by earthbound, i get more criticism of dragon quest style rpgs here) but if you "get it" in the way the game does, it really adds a lot. undertale was always good, but undeniably 1 note in its presentation a decade after its release. the message in deltarune isnt simply "killing enemies in a video game just to lvl up is mean" anymore, but rather "isnt it strange that the RPG protagonists had entire lives before you take control of them?". i think that line of thinking allows the game to play with the fourth wall in a far more interesting way than simply having a character scold you for your actions- the game is scrambling to keep itself together during the weird route, and as someone who plays a LOT of video games im always thrilled to see something ive really never seen attempted before play out with such depth. So cool cant wait for chap 5

[benevolentindigo]

"Heya there pal! Got anything of interest with ya?"

"Maybe spare a wallet or two?"

EVENT: GREED TAKEOVER

Greed will be taking over this acc for idk how long lol

Minor winter event:

Will be snowing until the end of march

(Read below for more info :3/original greeting)

"Hello, visitors. It's... Nice to be able to commune here..."

"I hope that all of you are nicer this time around..."

//Pfp by @whilvlc :D

Fear Parody account run by @brokerplushsg / @9blueflame9 :D

Hai gang, Blueflame here, but y'all can call me Blue for short. I'm currently 17 so ya, I am a minor (so shoo, weird adult accounts) Uhhhh this is my first time roleplaying on tumblr so don't mind me if I make mistakes 😭 djdhdjdhdkdhdhjdhdhd (But def not my first time rping in general)

Shoutout to @fearfulpurple for inspiration to start this account lol (Go check their parody too :D)

Also if y'all curious no I don't have a schedule for posting, I just do whenever I wanna. And if I am taking particular long to answer a certain question, its probably because im drawing it lol-

If u wish to contact me, Dms are always open so feel free to pop by. :D Also I have discord and I'm most active there so if u want it, just dm me. :3

My favourite post I've made so far:

"To deny my existence, is to accept death."

- Fear

Also ig imma put some mostly obvious boundaries here too because like I wanna keep this as a safe space-

No NSFW (Self explanitory)

No political stuff/troubling real world stuff (Here is not the right place for such things)

Don't be too mean/rude (like a little is fine for the sake of rp but like don't take it too far)

Don't be weird in the bad way (Dont be too freaky with fear or just do stuff that makes people uncomfortable in general)

Roleplay info

◤━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◥

Anything associated with Roleplay is in chat font.

Anything associated with Fear is Purple.

Anything associated with a Phobia is Pink.

Anything associated with players/NPCs/people in general is rainbow.

Anything associated with narration is white.

Other characters not specified here may have their own unique colored text.

"Spoken dialogue is in quotations."

*Actions start and ends with asterisks and are in italics*

//OOC have double slashes before the message.

//OORP have double slashes before the message, and is in normal font.

◣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◢

Headcanons

General info:

Their MBTI personality type is ISFP-T, also known as the Turbulent Adventurer. (Ngl I'm surprised when I got these results when I did the test in character but eh it surprising fits)

Their Toastology is Galic Butter Toast. (I did it for the funnies)

They are surprisingly proficient with the guzheng if given one.

They have mixed feelings for Kikuo's songs. A few they find comfort in (Like Song of the Night and Astral Travel), many they find disturbing (Like Dust Dust Curse and Love me, Love me, Love me), and some they have conflicting feelings about. (Like Let's go to Heaven and Welcome to the Star Inn.)

Since they are a manifestation of an abstract concept, it does not associate with any gender nor does it have any preference in pronouns because frankly, they do not care.

Despite not associating with any gender, they are slightly leaning more towards being feminine presenting, but it can depend on who they are interacting with.

Nobody can agree on what their voice truely sounds like, as everyone hears it a little differently, but generally, they are soft spoken, only loud when scared or pissed off.

Technically, they could speak in any language, but they prefer English and Japanese.

Despite being the embodiment of fear, they have certain things that they are personally more afraid of, like bees, thunder and most of all, death. (And Hatred too)

When feeling threatened or just angry in general, they would growl, it sounding very similar to the rustling of leaves.

When they scream, it sounds similar to that of a Banshee. Very loud and ear piercing.

When startled, they would raise their arms and open up their claws, somewhat similar to how red pandas react when startled.

Normally they do not really swear, but if you somehow made them VERY pissed off, they would begin swearing like a sailor.

Despite Fear being ageless due to being an abstract concept, it still can be considered the "oldest" of the vices as they were developed as a survival adaptation in the very, very, distant past, about 500 million years ago. This also explains their more, primordial and tree like appearance, representing security and uncertainty at the same time.

Their anon account is @anonymous-hyacinth :D (for the sake of rp pls act like ya don't know who they are until revealed)

Abilities/Biology:

They are similar to Shinboku, Leshy, dryads (more specifically a hamadryad), and Banshees.

They are connected to the Fear Forest as it's their domain, and they are one with all the trees. Thus they have the powers and abilities to manipulate and change the forest at will.

They are connected to each tree in the Fear Forest through the root system, kinda like IRL trees.

They are able to feel and sense through the trees due to their connections. Therefore if one tree were to get damaged, or even chopped down, Fear would feel the pain too.

Fear and the trees of the Fear Forest function a little more like purple sulfur bacterias living in deep caves rather than actual plants, having roots that sink deep into the depths of the dreamscape to gather minerals like memories and thoughts to keep growing.

They "eat" food (burgers, colas, apples, etc) with their roots, bringing it into the ground and breaking it up into smaller, more soluble pieces with their roots, or just straight up absorb it if it's already like a drink.

They have the ability to extend and retract their roots, as well as partially extend it above ground. (As shown in their Shockwave attack.)

Fear barely moves from their position, but if they really need too, they would need to retract their roots fully, before dragging their body along the ground with their arms, moving in a similar way to stick insects. They can be surprisingly fast if need be, but that doesn't change the fact it's very uncomfortable for them to be dragging around their body like that.

Their "torso" and "leg" are slightly flexible, but not to the point where they could "sit". At that point it's the equivalent of breaking their spine.

It's "Tree form" is their true form, they just shapeshift into their more humanoid one when interacting with others or engaging in combat.

In their "Tree form", they are able to have a better connection with the forest, making it easier to manipulate and change the environment of their domain.

Normally, they sleep in their "Tree form", unless suddenly knocked unconscious like using the Comatose ball.

Fear has a velvety texture around their main body, with their limbs feeling more bark like. The tuffs of "leaves" sticking out from the side of their body feel especially soft.

When put under extreme stress, the "fuzz" on their body would fall off. It does not make them look that visually different, except the tuffs on the side of their body are bare twigs, but now all of their body would have the bark like texture.

Depending on who they are talking too, they can mimic the voice of others that said person knows about. Most of the time, they use this ability to remind or comfort. However when needed, they can use it to threaten.

Having connections with animals due to being an essential survival instinct, they are able to communicate with them with ease.

Despite usually being soft, their voice can be quite powerful, as when they Screech like using Total Dismay, they can temporarily paralyse those they target.

Phobias are born from the sap of the trees in the Fear forest, and it's technically their blood too.

When stressed, the roots of the trees can excrete their sap, and thus Fear can use it to summon Phobias.

When Phobias use Rebirth, what is left of them is usually quite sticky, and what falls onto the ground usually gets absorbed back into the trees, ready to spring out again if needed to defend Fear.

Aside from Rebirth, Phobias can also bite and latch on as attacks unlike ingame.

Phobias generally act like slimes behaviour wise. Very curious. Have quite an appetite too.

Aside from general behaviour and appearance, there might be slight deviations between each phobia depending on what they represent. (Like Ophidiophobia acting and appearing slightly more snake like in apperance and behaviour.)

Fear of course knows all of their phobias and knows how to take care of each one.

Being naturally intuitive and observant of the world, they have a special insight and connection to every other embodiment. Thats how they know of the true nature of Hatred and how Greed and Solitude had been defeated before them.

Being an abstract concept, they, along with all the other residents in Dreamworld cannot be truly "killed", even when they are, they would some way eventually be rebirthed. Still doesn't change the fact that it's still a very unpleasant experience, especially for Fear, and they themselves really hate being "killed off" for many, various reasons.

If for some reason, Fear dies, the sturdiest tree in the Fear forest, would slowly become the new "Fear", kind of like how the alpha male clownfish chages and takes the place of a dominant female when the female dies off. (It's still the same Fear, just slightly different body)

When needing to revive, if there are no available trees in the Fear forest, like all are burned to the ground or chopped into stumps, new saplings would grow out from the stumps/soil from underground roots and grow into new trees, and depending on the damage, recovery might take weeks, months or maybe even a year.

To truly get rid of fear, not only must all the trees in the fear forest needs to be cut down, but all of their roots must be rid as well, which is definitely very tedious due to the amount of it as well as them branching far and deep into the crevices of the mind, it's etched into our behaviour after all. Even if a single centimeter of root remained, it can and will eventually grow back the entire forest.

Relationships:

They are generally netural towards most entities in Dream World.

They find Greed annoying sometimes.

They are friends with Solitude, even somewhat considering them like a sibling.

They are genuinely afraid of Hatred, and would avoid it as much as they could.

They hate Hatred as much as they fear it, so despite their fear, if they see others getting hurt by it, they would throw hands at it. (Probably also #1 Hatred hater)

Fear, Greed and Solitude barely see face to face, as there is not really much reason to meet up. And even if they do, they would meet up at Fear's domain due to their mobility issues.

Out of the trio, Fear knows every other member the most, as well as being the member of the trio that knows about Hatred the most aside from that one missing member.

They genuinely look out for players, despite being afraid of them sometimes.

They treat Phobias as their pets and adores them greatly if they so happen to summon one.

Design guide

Stylisation:

This is how I do the effect for the pics lol, just posting this here for reference for myself or if u want, u can take inspiration or use it with credit :D (Done in Ibis paint btw)

I might change it in the future tho-

[timefall-if]

hi again. just reading the older asks and now have some new questions:

so the occupation acts more like the "starting class" from rpg games, right? e.g. you pick the soldier class, you get +2 strength and +1 constitution & optional soldier dialogue options with npc´s

if occupations are not that important in the story, does this mean i can have a inventor MC, who is also very skilled in combat?

i think you said you would like us to share some MC-ideas we have. mine is the following (of course, i dont know how possible my idea will be in your IF): when there is a option to go the villain/evil path and/or be the villain/evil person, i go with it, since not many IF´s allow you to do this. i usuallly go with a combat focused MC, who leans more into the dexterous/assassine fighting style. depending on the setting, my MC supports herself with fitting support (like illusion magic to distract the enemy or gadgets like smokebombs etc.). for occupation in this IF i will probably go with either pit fighter or inventor, with the main skills being combat and tinkering.

since this IF have some cyberpunk elements, does this mean MC can get cybernatics (enhancements)?

i really like reading asks/comments, since this is a good way to get more informations/funfacts about the IF/characters/setting/... now i admit, i never saw the show "arcane", just not my cup of tea; and when i see an ask like "Is Marek more like Vander or Silco in character?" i feel like im missing interesting informations about (in this case) Marek simply because i didnt watch arcane. if there are similar asks in the future, maybe you can add a sentence or two about the arcane character, so someone who didnt watch the series can know what the ask is about (something like: character Y & Z are from arcane; Y is a medic, who wants to cure every disease no matter the cost, while Z is a emotionless and ruthless killer). obviously you dont have to do this and i know this is basically a me-problem, which could be fixed by simply watching the show. anyways thank you for your answers.

hi again!

1. i'd say so, yes! depending on the occupation you choose, you can meet different people and raise different stats.

2. if you have an inventor MC, that stat will be the highest. you can make combat the second highest stat. same with the other occupations ^^ that's what i'm planning on, at least, so it might change as the story progresses. i feel like it would be more realistic for MC to be good at different things because they'd need different things to survive in the undercity!

3. sure, thanks for sharing! MC doesn't have any magic (like the illusionary one you mentioned), but i hadn't thought of having different fighting styles! i'll try to do that as well ^^

4. hmmm, i'm not sure what you mean by enhancements, but you can have prosthetics! so that's pretty cool ^^

that's a totally valid suggestion, thanks for pointing it out!! i'll definitely keep that in mind when answering future asks because people shouldn't have to be informed on the show just to understand specific comparisons or inspirations in this IF. thank you for the questions!!!

[beesmygod]

Hello bea, I am planning on getting a steam deck, and want to play the Dark Souls series for real.

What’s the best way to git gud? Are the remasters universally terrible? Do I just start at 1? Help me twisted guardian of Dork Souls

hello friend pablo. congratulations on taking a chance on the dark souls trilogy. this is a long answer covering many things, sometimes even the things you asked.

BUYING THE GAMES: make sure to get them on sale! i think the prices are, frankly, absolutely bonkers. these games are so, so old and they still want 40 to 60 dollars for them?! they reliably go on sale every steam sale for a less hair-raising price.

if you end up disliking the dark souls gameplay, theres always sekiro, which is pretty different. or even elden ring, which is the slickest and most accessible to new time players.

REMASTER QUALITY: the remaster of ds1, which is the only version available, is actually good; my complaints about it come down to aesthetic choices i dislike that no sane person should care about. it comes with the dlc (you may have to look up a guide for this once you get deeper into the game).

ds2 has a huge problem: there are two versions, and no one can agree on which is better. they are also significantly different in weird ways, like the enemy placements and the amount of enemies. i would suggest "scholar of the first sin" edition, since it should include the dlc.

i dont like ds2 and have never finished it. the movement changes turned me off bad. i do not usually recommend it to people and it is not required to understand the gist of 3.

ds3 has only the one version. ashes of ariandel is fromsoft's worst dlc, imo. ringed city is fine. you might as well get them if they arent included.

people who love ds2 tend to hate ds3, and vis-versa. i liked ds3. its fine.

GAMEPLAY TIPS (GENERAL):

learning to parry is always worth it

dont use ranged weapons

use a guide when youre really stuck, utilizing collective knowledge is the backbone of DS games.

sometimes its better just to run past enemy mobs than try to fight them

its ok to die. its ok to lose souls. easy come, easy go.

it is always better to learn not to get hit than it is to pump points into HP.

the games are esoteric and opaque by design. [defensively] its bad on purpose!

use your upgrade materials on your weapons first and foremost.

NEVER, EVER EXHAUST YOUR STAMINA. PUT YOUR SHIELD DOWN WHEN NOT USING IT.

read item descriptions

being heavy is almost always worse than being unarmored

GAMEPLAY TIPS (DS1): ds1 is showing its age quite a bit at this point. start here, because going back is pretty difficult.

pyromancy is broken in your favor. pyromancer is a great class choice for a first time player

you gotta do a lot of running around in this game. like a lot of hoofing it to and fro. sorry.

getting the curse status effect is one of the worst things that can happen to you in this game. when you meet the npc who sells the curse breaking item "purging stone", buy one.

each summon adds a huge % to the boss' health. summon wisely.

look up what each stat does before putting points into them. some are basically worthless and every point counts.

talk to npcs repeatedly until they start to cycle through dialogue.

there are stretches of this game that are tedious and intentionally aggravating. it was novel and exciting game design back then to be told to fuck ourselves.

some starting gifts are better than others. its worth looking up instead of guessing, unless you want the authentic experience

didnt play da2 sorry boss. cant help ya here

GAMEPLAY TIPS (DS3): remember ds1? its that but faster and with way more quality of life updates.

all the stats do different things now so you have to look it up again

theres fast travel in this one immediately and the tedious bits of 1 are largely absent here, barring the ashes of ariandel dlc.

pyromancy is no longer broken.

unlike ds1, you can join any covenant with no consequences

and of course you can always ask me/commiserate with me here!! good luck, chosen undead!