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usagi-mitsu · 4 years ago

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Werlyt & Gaius - a bunch of thoughts.

I am a little late to the party. I know. But I just finished the Emerald weapon and before I go to try out the „not Zenos“ weapon as in „Diamond“, I need to get my thoughts on the story straight.

Perhaps I have been spoiled by 5.0s brilliant MSQ and cannot appreciate the inherent beauty of at least decent writing any longer. But this felt so wrong and out of tune with the rest of the game. I started writing this 2 hours ago! I wanted to one in bed by now! XD But I had to get it out of my system… so….

Spoilers for the MSQ and Werlyt incoming??? And no I did not re-read this so not just spoilers but also writing errors incoming. -.-

The good

These fights are epic! I have only ever cleared the normal versions, but I loved those. They are amazing. The callbacks to Eula (her being a woman here! When did they discover that???), Regula (may he rest in peace) and Gaius himself in his prime were delightful. But I could do with a little less rotating, ok? A dragoon has positional, you know? And being allowed to pilot my very own mecha was like *chefs kiss*. On that front? Well done Square Enix!

I am also glad they were able to get another use out of Porta Praetora! That place looks amazing with the wide open field and the lake – and Ala Mhigo across it. It was one of my favourite Stormblood areas and I am always glad to return there. And of course… being able to visit the allied camp again… And Werlyt itself. It’s simply a beautiful place. It reminds me very much of southern Greece. If you’ve watched the movie Mamma Mia you know what I mean.

The music too was really nice. But I don’t think I’ll… you know… listen to it on repeat as I am doing with other parts of the soundtrack.

I’ve also loved how much amazing lore we got about Garlemald and especially the garlean military. And the military abroad. The way soldiers not from the mainland get treated. I love learning about these things.

Gaius

The man. The legend. The guy yelling in Prae.

He’s so very boring here. He has so much potential as a character and maybe I’m missing something, but all throughout this story he has been nothing but passive. He’s a reactive character in this storyline. You know. The guy who made deals with Lahabread (the d is intended), tried to take over Eorzea, lead a whole army, stood idly by as the moon dropped, almost died but then decided just not to die and then though „hm… I’ve got so much freetime now. How about I go and hunt some ascians?“ That guy is NOT a reactive character. He is active. He goes out of his way to make shit he wants happen. And in here? He seems too starstruck and devastated by his adopted kids actions to actually have one clear thought.

The only explanation I have is that he might have gotten hit in the head by something on his way to the ruby weapon. I get why he would rely on Cid for help, but the WoL??? The alliance? If you wish to be an ally and help or something, fucking act like it. You were a former legatus and I expect you to live up to your name – even after retiring.

And yeah.. I guess it’s hard having to watch your kids willingly, knowingly dying. But you fucking raised them. You are a big part of the reason to why they are in that predicament. So like… Aside from that I don’t even get why you are in this story at all.

And for the record: I’m not sorry for him. I’m just flabbergasted by all the bullshit we’ve been learning about him.

To be quite honest, I think this story could have worked just as well or maybe even better, if we got another man as the „hero“ of the story. I am talking about none other than our engineering, hammer-swinging, ex-enemy - of course talking about Nero!

The MSQ has long established that his research into the Ultimate Weapon had been taken, twisted and turned – Estinien had to experience this first-hand. I’m not saying that Nero was in need of a redemption arc and I cannot remember if these weapons were of his creation or even stem from anything he did, but it would make so much more sense for me, to have him confront his past in the garlean military like this and be responsible for the death of his former colleagues. Soldiers that he served with, whom he faught with. Give me Nero and them working together to get the weapons going and him bonding with them as his pilots to a degree. Comrades. Not that strange familiar bond that Gaius appareantly has with them. … Scratch that: Let Gaius be the father figure. Him being that wouldn’t change Nero’s relationship with them, but maybe his with Gaius as his superior.

The story wouldn’t even need to try and redeem Nero: He has already gone through major character development with the MSQ and the Omega raid tier. It would simply be Nero, confronted with the things he created, hopefully instilling more morals and a sense of responsibility for his creations. Heck: Let Cid yell at the guy! Seriously! Cid sticking around to help out would make so much more sense if it was Nero instead of freaking Gaius! Cid hated the guy! He might be a professional, but he is not one to torture himself by staying around a guy he (as far as I know) detests.

Make Nero the central figure and give Cid and Gaius the roles of „angel and demon“: One desperately trying to reach out to his old friend, reminding him why they became engineers and trying to make him realise that he can’t just run around designing weapons and leaving the scematics for everyone to read; while the other has trouble letting go of his imperial past and is struggling to see the errors of his ways – if Nero was wrong, than he (Gaius) was wrong too -and of course they did all of this for their home, to further their cause, and to bring peace to the savage lands of Eorzea, who had been fighting amongst themselves for so long… You get the point.

And you could still have these gundam themed fights. But I think everything would make so much more sense in general.

But speaking of which-

The children

I do not truly care for any of them. And that is a shame: I do think there are great characters and dynamics hidden behind these very few cutscenes. When they were first introduced I was wondering why I was suddenly watching „heartwarming“ cutscenes of my foes as children – until I realised that I was supposed to care and that they were supposed to make me feel pity for Gaius. I was supposed to feel bad for him, because they died and he blames himself. But while their fates so far have been gruesome, I cannot say that I am sad they died. They chose to die as they did. There were a myriad more options. And they chose that.

Actually. Their whole story makes me feel like they were huge masochist from the very beginning. They could have just run away and gotten help from someone more competent than them, but they stayed in an abusive military arrangement just so nobody else got hurt?? Please. Use your brains next time. And for the Berserk-like torture scene? I mean. I get what was implied here. But was it necessary? As a writer myself I follow the rule that torture and sexual violence should never be used in a story, unless it must be in there for the story to work or to bring across a vital point important to the story or it’s moral (or if you are writing porn and you are into it – but we are talking official in-game content here). But the violence towards these „children“ seems unnecessary for the plot and the violence of their deaths by piloting the weapons is already gruesome enough. Sometimes it’s better to leave things like this out – the emotional torture of feeling stuck and having a martyrs complex would have been enough here, I think. If the rest of the story had been well written at least.

(I believe my utter lack of sympathy shows how little character developement they had. I love tragic characters, who choose to suffer for the good of other people – even better if those people don’t even like them. It’s just my thing. And those kids are just… well.)

Their reasons and especially why they were making Allie out as the one who would need to survive was also just… weird. Like. I feel like 75% of what happened would not have happened, if they actually talked to each other, used their brains and had done something about their problems. But no…

These characters are also so exchangeable with basic anime/j-RPG character tropes… I only remember Alfonse, Rex and Allie – because I just did the Emerald weapon. And right afterwards I thought, „huh. So… Fullmetal Alchemist?“ Which brings me to my third point …

…the story at large.

„Pacing is a virtue“ or was it patience..? Anyhow: The author of this story should have had more patience with his story and characters and taken a bloody break! And I am not talking about the obvious blunder of „How is Allie feeling?“, „she is in shock and you cannot talk to her“ turning to „oh yeah if you are careful you can talk to her now“. I mean. WTF. That was MAYBE 10-20 in-game minutes of dialogue.

But everything was moving so very fast – and not even in a good way. There are few things better than a fast paced, action rich story about a group of young people trying to safe (their) world. But if you try to cram in two expansions worth of character development and story telling into about two hours of content each patch.. Well, then you get whatever the hell this is.

Gaius is a very interesting character and while I did not understand why they needed to bring him back in 4.4 (?), I do see how he could be a good asset for endwalker. And his involvement in 5.0 with Estinien was just a dear delight. So I am not opposed to learning more about him, to watching his character grow and changed with time. But I am not ready for badly written content of which 50% get told by suddenly induced echo-sequences. I mean – weren’t there rules for the echo at some point???

I’m not sure which one of the devs said it, but the feature that let’s you play an NPC is super convenient for them to tell the story, because before they could only show what happened where the WoL was.

And that’s just it. Rule number 1 in writing anything is „Show don’t tell“. It feels like they literally turned this one around for these cutscenes. While Valens torture and diet-Fandaniel-routine were very much „show“, the rest of the story was one long cutscene of exposition: We get exposition by Cid, by Gaius, by echo, by Gaius and his crew again, then by Allie. Before having to watch scenes we are not there for.

BTW. Dear square Enix: Your writers are capable of writing amazing villains, antagonist and despicable assholes. You don’t have to write „asshole, must die“ on Valens name card. And I also think the „WoL, strike here“ sign above his head was a tad bit too much. Nuance, dear writers. Nuance. Or perhaps I just got spoiled by these last few foes in the MSQ.

When I said I wanted to just be able to punch a bad guy for once and not feel bad about it, I did not mean this! I meant that I just wanted to play training dummy with Danny-Boy.

(Oh! And as far as I’m concerned you can just… sideline Gaius … „would be killer“ and the lady? Make them targetable NPCs with Dialoge to read. Let them stand somewhere accessible and comment on the latest developement. But ffs don’t give me hour long speeches about how you are going to kill Gaius if he does something you don’t like. The guy could and would wipe the floor with you if he felt like it. -.- So. Please. Shut up.)

Conclusion

Basically. I have to finish the Diamond weapon. But I doubt it will change my perception of this story line even in the slightest.

To be perfectly honest though … bringing Gaius back, having this story with and about him, forcing a sort of redemption ark here. It feels like they are really „grooming“ him to be a morally grey ally in Endwalker, with perhaps a big part to play in the endgame. At this point I wouldn’t even be surprised if they pulled a GoT and made him „King in the North“. Or if they had him die a heroic death to save the world, but especially his country. And to do so they need us to think his sacrifice means something. Or that he is the right person to lead Garlemald into a new future (I don’t think he is). But: For one, neither we (the players) nor the characters need to find him worthy of throne or death by heroism for his sacrifice/ascension to work. To be a useful tool for the story, only the other garleans who might oppose the alliance and scions need to deem him or his sacrifice „worthy“. And only they. And Ishikawa-san has all of 6.0 to accomplish whatever the hell she needs him for. He did not need to be the center of his own botched redemption ark. If that’s what they wanted to do. Or maybe I’m looking at this all wrong and all they wanted was to give the writes in training some literal training grounds to test their abilities.

But! On a positive note: I have yet to be told that raids and other side content are canon to any degree. So when playing the next story quests I’ll blissfully ignore all that happened in Werlyt and if it get’s mentioned (because they do that sometimes when you’ve done certain content) I’ll just ignore it.

Happy ignoring! Also: GIVE ME MORE NERO CONTENT!

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tsukikoayanosuke · 4 years ago

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Behind the Fic: TW:OPT - Chapter 110 - 112

Three notes in one because, other than some name trivia, I have nothing to say for these filler training camp chapter.

WARNING: This will contain a bit of spoiler for the newest chapters of my fan fiction, Twisted-Wonderland: Our Precious Treasure.

Chapter 110: Extreme Banquet!

There isn’t that much thing to say about this chapter really.

Kalim’s parade is inspired by Prince Ali sequence in the animated movie and his SSR Dorm Uniform story.

Chapter 111: Follow in My Footsteps, Shoe by Shoe!

This chapter and the next's format are inspired by Ride 34 of Cardfight Vanguard, which my favorite anime of all time (my childhood and still makes me smile rewatching it).

The title is a lyric from Learn to Do It from Anastasia.

There’s a HARDSTOP LUCAS’ 6 x 3 reference here.

Switching up a bit, we have the physical training before the cooking, which is more similar to Azul’s training later. And since Kalim is not in hypnotic mode, I imagine he’s more laid back and has a small get-together activity before bed, like a pillow fight, telling a scary story, or in this chapter case, fireworks.

Kalim is not stupid academically. Jamil teaches him and I believe his father at least teaches him too since he's the heir of the family. And being from a family of merchants, I'm sure he's good, if not better than Jamil in mathematic and economy. From how I see it, Kalim is more of a kinetic learner, like me, where you have to do something when you're studying (I personally prefer to rewrite my notes to memorize). So I can imagine his dad taking him to his office and teach him to count some treasure and trading profit.

Also, I can imagine Kalim will have sibling rivalry. Though whether it reached Mahabharata Pandavas vs Kauravas siblings rivalry, I have no idea. (I want to put more Mahabharata reference, but I don't know the full story, okay)

Okay, renaming the Scarabia NPC. I tried some variations from India and the Middle East since Aladdin is inspired by them. Also changing up their hairstyle and giving them eye color based on the characters from Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic because 1001 Nights has a big influence on it.

Scarabia Boy A: Ashoka Nigam His first name is named after Ashoka the Great, an Indian emperor of Maurya Dynasty, considered to be one of India's greatest emperors. His last name is named after Siddharth Nigam, the actor who played young Prince Ashoka in the 2015 Indian historical drama serial, Chakravartin Ashoka Samrat (English: The Great Emperor Ashoka). His hairstyle is based on Alibaba Saluja while his green eye color comes from Scheherazade from Magi. (Originally, he would also have Alibaba’s gold eyes, but Chandra took it first)

Scarabia Boy B: Chandra Asmoro Bangun Named after the two characters from the Panji tales, a cycle of Javanese stories, centered around the legendary prince of the same name from East Java, Indonesia. The characters are Prince Panji Asmoro Bangun and Princess Chandra Kirana from the tale of Chanda Kirana or the tales of Dewi Anggraeni. His hairstyle is based on Aladdin while his gold eye color comes from Sinbad from Magi.

Scarabia Boy C: Yudhi Bhardwaj His first name is named after Yudhishthira from the Hindu epic Mahabarata, the first among the five Pandavas, ruled Indraprastha and later Hastinapur. His last name is named after Rohit Bhardwaj, the actor who played Yudhishthira in the 2013 Indian mythological television series, Mahabharat. His hairstyle is based on Ren Hakuryuu while his eye color comes from Ren Kouha from Magi.

Scarabia Boy D: Mustafa Günsür His first name is named after Şehzade Mustafa, the first son of Sultan Süleyman (Suleiman the Magnificent) and Mahidevran Sultan and the first heir to the Ottoman throne. His last name is named after Mehmet Günsür, one of the three actors who played Şehzade Mustafa in the Turkish historical fiction television series, Muhteşem Yüzyıl (English: The Magnificent Century). His hairstyle is based on Morgiana while his eye color comes from Jafar from Magi.

I’m giving so many things for NPCs who probably won’t appear again. Then again I like to make my story unnecessarily packed.

The battle is loosely based on Kingdom Hearts’ Birth By Sleep Terra’s Experiment 221 Boss Fight, because I can’t really think of any Pokemon vs humans battle. Disappointing battle scene is disappointing.

Chapter 112: Once You Find Your Center, You Are Sure to Win!

The title of is from Mulan’s ‘I’ll Make a Man Out of You’.

This chapter is supposed to be one with the last chapter, but because I have no clue how to do training camp (Break & Gosh still haunts me), the cooking section is moved to this chapter.

In addition, a video call with Heartslabyul. The names were inspired by Shadowhope’s comment on AO3. Riddle and Deuce’s nickname is especially. I’m so sorry for Trey’s nickname though, I was thinking of ‘Dessert Dad’ but then ‘Sugar Daddy’ came to mind and I can’t stop laughing despite how out of context it is. Cater’s name is a spin from ‘Caw Caw Motherfucker’

The conversation between Jonah and Jamil mostly to giving a base for the later confrontation. Planting the seed of doubt.

#twisted wonderland #disney twisted wonderland #twst #twisted wonderland fanfiction #twisted wonderland fanfic #twisted wonderland fic #twst fanfic #twst fic #behind the fic: tw:opt #twisted-wonderland: our precious treasure #jonah argentum (my oc)#kalim al asim #jamil viper #twisted wonderland oc #twst oc

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pleasantsaladnerd · 4 years ago

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I have just finished episode 113 of campaign 1

I was epic I can’t believe I’m so close to finishing this campaign I’m scared and excited for Vox Machina

Be Aware Spoilers if you haven’t watched it

It’s currently 1:10am as I am writing this but I came off the episode on an adrenaline high the whole episode was a rollercoaster. From Arkons backstory to the Brairwoods and Vex getting the HDYWTDT on Delilah Then in the second half the climb of the tower and Gilmore just completely wrecked me and I very definitely cried when they realised who the 3 guards were.

I Love how Matt crafts these intelligent Villians that have story outside of the group and all the things that happen in the background.

Vecna is an awesome Villian that is very embedded in d&d law and is very feared. Matt has managed to put a spin on him that I wouldn’t have expected, from the way he so easily picked NPCs that would quickly disable VM with very little effort from him is amazing and ingenious. Pike has cast revivify twice now and doesn’t have them for the coming battle. That is amazing planning on the dms part.

The brairwoods are still dicks and need to die but I have to say I do love to hate them their backstory is so intwined to VMs that when they come back or are even mentioned in passing it brings back all of the feelings I had at the beginning of their arc. I live for that kind of story.

Im not sure what I’m gonna do after this I started watch at the start of quarantine and have basically been able to watch it back to back campaign 2 and then 1. I know I’m gonna miss these nerdy ass voice actors so much and I almost don’t want to finishing watching but I can’t stop myself

Anywho I’m off to bed now as I actually have to work in about 6 hours but I regret NOTHING!!

#critical role #dungeons and dragons #matt mercer #d&d campaign #critical role campaign 1 #my observations #vox machina #jocks machina #critters #i cant belive ive nearly caught up with all of the main story of CR #i love critical role #critrole #CR #Campain 1 #vecna

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writingonjorvik · 5 years ago

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What's wrong with the "everyone is special" thing? I thought that message was really touching and it made me really emotional playing those quests.

Ok, start of, honest, same. Like, spoilers right away, but like, getting to take Justin to see his mom, this really touching beat of getting to see Catherine happy outside of her “destiny” was beautiful and I was really choked up. I think her message, in particular to Justin, was really moving, particularly as he’s feeling trapped by his family and his past choices. And I should say that I do still love these quests as a whole, my issue is largely with the lore ramifications of these reveals.

To follow on your question though, nothing. There’s nothing wrong with this message in it of itself. But, and maybe this is me spending too much time editing the deck, two messages can be true and one can not be good as a response. Like, I could say “You should take care of yourself” and “Don’t use self care as an excuse to not deal with your problems.” Both of those are true, but one of those is obviously going to be more helpful to the person I’m talking to. And the situation in which I use either needs to be dependent on where that person is in life.

The same thing is true about this message in SSO. It’s not that the content is wrong, it’s that it’s undermined by the medium. I would never, ever, ever use the “Make your own destiny” or “Everyone is special” messages for my players in a D&D campaign. Why? It’s not because it’s not true, it’s because if we’re playing something like D&D, they’re already doing that. They’re already doing that by being adventurers and it’s basic in how they’re experiencing the story. Telling them to make their own destiny is redundant. I’m supposed to be supporting them in making their destiny feel cool in that beat, cause that’s what’s satisfying about that kind of storytelling. It’s seeing how your choices affect the world. It doesn’t mean that they aren’t special, but if I said that, then every dumb NPC they talked to is special too. And when you compare that to all of the epic things they’re doing in their campaign, that’s underwhelming. It’s them choosing to save the world, so they should be the ones on the pedestal as the cool ones in this setting.

And as video game storytelling is built off of TTRPG storytelling, the same is true. If you are picking up the controller on a game, you are making the choice to be the hero of the story. So the story should reinforce that in its narrative by making it feel like the choices you’re making matter. If the “everyone is special” trope is central to the lore though, then that’s undermined. Your party members could be saving the world, the shopkeeper you rescued a hundred times could be saving the world. It doesn’t matter that you are because anyone could do it. But mechanically they’re not. You are. So you should be rewarded narratively for those actions. The narrative should reinforce that you, the player, are the one acting on the story, not everyone else in the world. Saying you need to shape your own destiny is dismissive of all of the destiny shaping you’ve already done up to this point.

It’s like the frustration people had about Rhiannon second guessing us before we had her reveal. It felt like all of the actions we had taken up to that point in the story didn’t mean anything. Despite the fact that we had been a badass hero several times up to that point, it didn’t matter to Rhiannon. She made us prove ourselves again, and at the onset, there was no obvious reason. This kinda hits the same mark. We have been shaping our own destiny for the whole story now, so to repeat that point now is kinda the story saying “keep doing what you’re doing” instead of progressing it.

And I think that’s the biggest issue. We went into this quest chain looking for answers on our powers and how to deal with Garnok. You know, the central plot line. But the end reveal is that...none of that mattered. We don’t have any answers on how to deal with Garnok. We have no better understanding of our powers. These beats didn’t progress anything, they just repeated staple ideas in the lore. We knew everyone on Jorvik has a bond with horses since the start. We didn’t need Catherine or Rhiannon to tell us that again in max level quests. We needed answers as to how we’re going to take down Garnok, or guidance on how to use our powers.

Even if we do go with the Aideen is the Force angle, which I will point out I used in my arc suggestion, there has to be some use for what we learned. A pretty message is nice, but it progresses nothing in the story. We’re no closer to defeating Garnok than we were before we started these quests. And Linda, who suggested doing this for that very reason, doesn’t acknowledge that either.

So I guess, in short, it’s not the substance of the message, it’s the context of it. It’s not helpful to the narrative because it repeats basic understandings of the world and it doesn’t move us forward in anyway. That’s the issue with it.

#star stable online #star stable #starstableonline #starstable #woj analysis #sso spoilers

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nice-day-for-fishin-aint-it · 8 months ago

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Made it to the part of the campaign where they split up and then Britt comes in 🦊 I absolutely love Britt 💚💛

#vldl #viva la dirt league #britt scott clark #epic npc d&d spoilers #epic npc d&d

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jq37 · 5 years ago

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May we have a recap, please? :)

**spoilers for panic at the art show and home for the holidays**

OK people. I actually don’t have a ton of commentary on these two so I’m gonna try and keep it (relatively) short and sweet [Edit from Future Me: Failed Step 1].

Also, iirc, this is the week Dropout starts streaming new Fantasy High eps on Wednesdays which is very dope and I am very excited for. I probably won’t do full on recaps like I do for normal eps because, lbr, I don’t strictly have the time to be recapping these eps at all and it’s pure stubbornness that keeps me from making wiser time management decisions. But, rest assured, if I have an Opinion, you will hear it whether you want to or not.

Anyway, on with the show.

Last recap, I mentioned that this ep was giving me Aelwen house party vibes and now it reminds me of that ep in another way: Everyone rolled like TRASH almost the entire ep. It was so frustrating! They barely got any hits in until like halfway through the ep.

(Aw man, I just realized I’m gonna have to remember which spelling of Aelwen is correct again now that FH is coming back.)

I love how Murph is immediately like, “I need to make sure my wife doesn’t die during this fight avenging her fictional husband.”

Isabella also has Aelwen’s trick of poofing around the battlefield which is annoying as hell (ha) for the group.

Siobhan hilariously casts fear on Priya just to be spiteful. I thought she was doing it to help the evac process but no. It was a purely spiteful action. Bless.

When Kug turns into an ape he, of course, turns into *the* NY ape, King Kong.

“I roll a nat 20 on an epic shit.”

When Brennan was describing Kingston’s spectral New Yorker Guardians I was already thinking about that one part of Spiderman 2 (the OG Toby Mac version) and then he straight up said, “You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us,” and I lost it.

“Deny the stairs the pleasure of my feet.” Emily is a poet.

I want to know what makes a pigeon spicy more than anything.

The fact that Brennan killed Ox AGAIN and then immediately looked into the camera and let the audience know the dog was fine because he clearly Oracle stared into the future between eps and saw the entire internet sharpening their pitchforks was so funny.

About midway through the ep, Pete tries and fails to send Isabella back to hell and Isabella starts monologing about her plans and connection with Robert Moses (she stole the list from Santa and is/was gonna marry Moses apparently). I wonder if Brennan was like, “These players are for sure gonna murder her without getting any useful info out of her unless she goes full Bond Villain right now.”

And, proving my point, Emily immediately does 56 points of damage, royally f-ing Isabella up.

This is a really civilian heavy fight which feels weird in a way the FH fights never did. Like, these aren’t even civilians who live in an adventuring town in a fantasy world. These are just normal ass civilians in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Pete fails a wild magic roll after failing to teleport into the building and then gets a choice of getting really strong (which prob would have let him bust down the door) or to teleport in (which is what he does and exactly what he wanted). Very clutch when the dice rolls play into the story like that.

Kingston lightning bolts Isabella’s hair off which is just malicious but also totally called for.

On her next turn, Sophie gets hurt on purpose to get low enough to activate her ring, lets her hair burn for long enough to shorten it to a cute bob, insults Isabella, then knocks her tf out.

I love that Emily took one of her teeth (a seemingly crazy move) and when called out by Lou was like, “It’s a link to Robert Moses” (a completely reasonable answer). That’s the Axford one-two punch.

I didn’t mention it before but, Willie the golem is here, first immobile but then brought back by Misty. Post fight, he says he was somehow brought here by one of the evil factions of the city and says they’ll talk about it later. Also, Misty makes out with him (DON’T KINKSHAME HER).

With a high insight roll, Kingston is able to deduce that the group was ambushed (though not by Priya) and that their victory was a really important one for the fate of the city.

(Sidenote: The amount that Pete is Over Priya in this ep is so funny.)

Back at Wally’s (which is where Kug is now staying) Wally has gotten Kug a dog bed to sleep in and fancy charcuterie cheese because he and Ricky are the only pure-hearted people in NYC.

At the same time, Pete and Kingston have a very sweet heart to heart and then settle down at Kingston’s place to chill and listen to jazz. Idk how else we expected this to resolve, considering this is a Brennan Lee Mulligan DM’d show where the sacred pillars are Teamwork, Friendship, Communication, and Making up an NPC on the Fly Because One of Your PC’s Decided to do an Insane Thing.

Next up is the Christmas ep and Brennan, Emily, and Zac are in sweaters for the occasion.

Well,actually it’s the 21st and Emily immediately clocks that that’s the solstice.

Are cookies the good carb?/Absolutely not. But have fun with your life. (I love Ricky’s soft jock energy.)

“I run deliveries,” Pete says to Kingston’s parents, not technically lying but also not being completely truthful. Misty would be proud.

Going over to Misty, it seems pretty clear at this point (and it’s confirmed in the promo for next ep) that Misty’s fairy business is some kind of de-aging/reincarnation for herself. I wonder how many of these she’s done so far. She said she’s been around for, what? 200, 300 years? Assuming she’s been doing then reincarnations at about 65-70 years old and she reincarnates to around 25? Maybe 6 times? Idk. Just spitballing.

Saucer of milk to keep the faeries from stealing her (non-existing) children. Faerie lore is wild y'all.

Did you take another level of warlock?/Yeah bitch.

The fact that since Sophie has joined a monastery, she’s only taken Warlock levels and no Monk levels is very funny from a story perspective. It’s like, she finally comes to this sacred place to be trained to her full potential and she’s just spending what should be her sparring time playing with her cat in exchange for spells. Wild.

Emily’s cat-like, self-satisfied grin when Brennan is like, “So you just jerry-rigged yourself clairvoyance powers, huh?” is so good.

And she did it on the fly because Emily Axford is winning D&D. There are no points but she’s winning.

So, uh, Emily does, two things, very in character right after the other:

Thing number one: She send her unseen servant to spy on her family. Her dad seems hardline, “F, Dale. Whatever. Family first. She needs to get over it.” On the other side of the spectrum is her mom who is very upset about the whole affair with her siblings falling in the middle.

The second thing she does, very casually I might add, is have her unseen servant BURN DOWN HER HOUSE SO SHE CAN COMMIT INSURANCE FRAUD.

EMILY

Everyone loses their minds and rightfully so. What a wild-ass swing that no one could have seen coming. I love it.

“I look in my backpack which is now my home[…]"

I almost forgot that Ricky was a fire fighter who would not abide that nonsense until Brennan decided to cut to him.

Ricky just dolphin swims across the Hudson in 2.5 mins to go put out the fire that Sophie set. Amazing.

Ally mocking Emily/Sophie: Truthfully, I don’t know what happened.

"I love John McClane, because he loves his wife.” WALLY

Wally: Oh we’re gonna tell a lie on Christmas.

“This is what winning looks like.”

I would really like to know what trace stuff what on the drugs Pete got from 7 but Ally rolled too low to figure it out.

“I disassociate fully."

Well it took him a long ass time but glad to have Pete on the selling drugs to kids is bad train. Choo-choo, dude.

7 saying you can hack in real life in reference to his AK-47 has the same energy as Hardison using the word hack in literally any semi-weird episode of Leverage.

SOCIAL MEDIA IS VOLUNTARY PANOPTICON

So Kug goes with Wally to David’s house disguised as a dog and, despite that, blurts out that he’s his dad immediately. Well, he tries to. The Umbral Arcana stops him, unfortunately.

"I lick my son’s face.” KUUUUG.

Sophie showing up with a raw goose and hellish rebuking it is so metal and it’s a shame no one got to appreciate it.

Me when Sophie’s Mom changes into black top in solidarity for Sophie’s mourning: F EVERY OTHER NON-SOPHIE BICICLETA. I RESPECT YOU.

Kingston is hustling very hard to get his man Pete a job which is a very Kingston move. That’s how guys like that show affection.

Didn’t mention it before but Kingston’s parents and Mom specifically adopting Pete is very cute.

Sidenote: Idk what 7 was talking about Pete trying to stay low profile. He wears a cowboy hat (now a ZEBRA STRIPED one, courtesy of Kingston). I think the subtlety train has sailed my guy.

Esther shows up at the firehouse, carrying presents for her mom and grandma and looking for Ricky. The says that she’s kinda dealing with something and it feels good to be around him (beat) magically speaking. Sure. I’m gonna keep my Hercules soundtrack on hand just in case anyway.

I think Ricky is the only person who, with no pretense, could give his crush a sexy calendar featuring him.

Anyway, turns out Esther’s mom and grandma are the furies of Tompkins Square and she’s fated to join them or something.

Esther causally: I defy you, I defy the prophecy.

The fury thing would explain why Esther’s mom would have cursed Kug. They are famously magical punishers.

Ricky is a magically certified Good Boy but we been knew.

Zac’s restraint to respect Esther’s personal boundaries in lieu of getting a lore drop to stay true to Ricky’s character is amazing. Mad props.

So we slide over to Misty’s Christmas party which Stephen Sondhein is attending and him having a character card kinda killed me.

There’s a post on tumblr somewhere about playing faerie incapability for impoliteness against a vampires need to be invited in and that’s what I thought about when Moses and his vamp friends showed up at Misty’s house.

Robert tries to talk Misty into striking a deal with him for protection from Titania. She’s very much not having it.

“You know Robert, I love a comedy and I love a farce. I’d like to remind you of who it is that started this and it’s not me and it’s not my friends but I can assure you Robert Moses that we will be the ones to end it if you do not. Do you understand me?” Damn. That’s a mic drop from Misty.

[As I’m editing this, I’m realizing I somehow lost a BIG chunk of text. I’m not gonna write it all up again but the Cliffnotes are as follows:

Between the Solstice and Christmas, the gang goes Grand Central Station to see the clockwork gnomes that live there because trouble is apparently afoot. Some size changing nonsense happens and Pete shoots a dog (with mini bullets, the dog is fine). Lou is enchanted even though Kingston is not (a common theme with him). Ally and Emily are on the same nonsense wavelength (as usual).

There are dope magical dragon trains under Grand Central Station that go to the shadow realm which is a place I’d like to know about. Kingston has never seen these trains before even though you’d really think he would have.

Murph says Gnome Rights which is wild if you know what Naddpod is like.

Anyway, the high priestess of the gnomes passed out the other day and they figure out it was due to pixie magic which is suspicious. They also know they pixies have access to a “time stone” which leads me to believe that it’s Brennan and not Aguefort who thinks that Chronomancy is the most powerful magic of all.

Sophie and Jackson go to Dale’s grave on Christmas. Jackson explains that the Order of the Concrete Fist is basically a literal school of hard knocks. A counterbalance to all the reach for the stars dreaminess that comes with NYC.

Dale was their chosen one who was supposed to stop the monastery from falling when some unspecified badness crossed over to this side, but when he went to the place where he was supposed to get guidance, there was no one there (clearly tying in to what Dale said to Sophie last time they talked. I wonder what she needs to get to the top of? Empire State maybe?).

Watching Murph watching Emily, his real life spouse, play at grief for her fictional husband and do some truly insane things is so funny because you can clearly see him thinking, “I am married to this woman,” which, in fairness, is probably the main thing he’s thinking when he’s playing D&D with Emily.

I’m probably missing something but that’s all I remember. Back to post-Christmas!]

So it’s opening night at Misty’s show and, somehow, Ricky’s first show ever.

I love that Don Confetti is there because of Siobhan’s offhanded comment for a handful of eps ago about him being a supporter of the arts.

Anyway, everything is going great until the second act when Titania busts in through the mirror which is *not* is storage as Misty requested but on stage. It’s a theater fight, y'all! And not the West Side Story kind although if that doesn’t come up I will be very surprised.

“Let’s kill Titania!” –Misty in the promo

Just going straight to 11, huh Misty?

See y'all then!

#dimension 20 #the unsleeping city #d20 #asks #kickmuncher3

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done-dm · 5 years ago

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Talks Machina Summary, SDCC Panel 2019

We get a sneak peak at the first three pages of the second issue of Vox Machina Origins (out August 14th) as well as a reading by the cast.

Ashley and Matt never really discussed what happened to Pike's cousin JB at the end of the first campaign. According to Ashley, "they all died." I mean, I guess that's true eventually...

When asked what was the biggest lesson each member of the cast has taken away from their experience together and journey with Critical Role, Liam said it's all about the people you travel with. For Matt, it was about making their friendship the top priority and allowing everything else to happen as a result. Sam has enjoyed growing closer to his friends.

When asked what was a favorite roleplay moment from campaign 1 or 2 that did not involve their character, Travis said one of his was when Vex popped out of the bathtub with Percy. Sam appreciates anything Matt Mercer does, Liam liked Avantika's demise, Laura (as much as she hated it at the time) loved Scanlan's arc when he left the group, Marisha liked some of the Percy vs Vax standoffs, Matt mentioned Percy and Grog's fight beneath the keep. Liam added another favorite moment with Percy and Vex's interactions in Syngorn, and Taliesin answered that he particularly loved Beau's moment with the pirate king.

When Matt was asked about how it was adapting critical role into animation and "handing off the voices in your head to different people," Matt admitted that adapting the show is difficult when trying to take hundreds of hours of time spent playing and condense it into a season. There are some changes he feels make sense and others he is absolutely unwilling to compromise on: "This isn't mainstream media, this is Critical Role!" He's excited about the process of casting people to voice the various NPCs.

"Given the ever growing pervasiveness of Sam's D&D Beyond sketches at the beginning of each episode, at what point can we expect a day of the Twitch channel to be dedicated to an entire Sam Riegel D&D Beyond telethon?" Sam's response? "That's legitimately a great idea." So, that might be something to look forward to.

Marisha was asked how playing characters with very different opinions of authority has impacted how she handles her position of authority in the company. Marisha's leadership journey with Geek and Sundry coincided with the beginning of Keyleth's journey, and she learned a lot from the experience. Beau helps he to be more assertive in her opinions. She discusses her role as creative director and how certain projects become reality.

When Liam was asked if he chose spells more to optimize the party mechanics or fit with how his character is portrayed, Liam says it's a combination of both. Caleb has long term goals, but sometimes changes his mind to do something good for the group. Liam recently chose the spell seeming, but hasn't had a chance to use it yet.

Taliesin gets asked if there's a certain number of character deaths that would stop him from playing this campaign. According to Taliesin, "there's really only one way to find out." He's got two more ideas he's saving for the next campaign.

When asked if there were any moments or plot hooks the cast wished they had explored more from either campaign, Matt couldn't say much since they're playing in the same world and can still go after those plot threads. However, one hanging plot thread from campaign 1 will be explored in a one shot. He admits that he wished they had gone into Thordak lore more. Liam mentions being curious about the horn of Orcus, and Ashley's thoughts are still consumed by the box. (Matt mentions this during the next question, but the relationship with the clasp in Emon)

When Sam was asked if Nott was seriously considering leaving with her family, the answer was yes. Sam has been trying to justify a mother willingly leaving her family after being separated for so long. Nott loves traveling, but she really wants to be home.

Matt is asked how he balances his ungodly knowledge of D&D rules when playing to avoid min maxing constantly as a player, Matt said he sees nothing wrong with min maxing and occasionally experiments with combinations he think could be broken. However, a lot of the fun comes from quirky character combinations and there is still a need to respect newer DMs and players. He admits it takes a conscious effort to keep that in mind.

When asked about Sam's reasoning in playing two small characters with secret children, Sam says that Liam picks his characters (accounting for the small thing), his child in the first campaign was a suprise, and this campaign he wanted to bring some of his love for his own children into the game.

Matt's favorite sorrow sworn is the lonely.

When the campaign is over, Matt and Taliesin would be willing to release Molly's entire backstory.

Taliesin is asked if Cad thinks he will meet his family at the kiln and what does he think about confronting them given his recent experiences. Cad hopes his family will be there and is "built on expectations." He feels like there will be something great there.

Ashley says it feels weird for Yasha to be an NPC, but she's in good hands with Matt. Depending on when Ashely gets back, she may have to make another character.

When Matt was asked how he makes sure each member of the party gets enough attention, he said it took a bit of preparation and doesn't always work out. Trying to consider the things they might go into that play to their individual strengths can make each member feel helpful. A lot of it also comes from players communicating with each other before it becomes an issue.

Sam is asked about his experiences playing a bard that was barely resurrected by a player whose character is going through something similar. Sam recommends maybe mixing up the type of music the character plays or making her motivations more selfish or self-protective.

If Matt could give his past self starting the livestream advice, he would tell himself not to stress out so much about what people on the internet think of you and that what he is doing is right.

If Beau were a druid, her wild shape would be an owl: "Take that Thaddeus."

When asked about the difference between Vox Machina and the Mighty Nein in how Vox Machina was much quicker to involve themselves in things, Marisha says Vox Machina quickly got involved with higher ups and that the Mighty Nein is more about fighting for the everyman. Laura adds that it was easier to tell good from bad in the first campaign.

Matt is still working on mentally and physically preparing himself to DM the show. He reiterates the importance of making and effort and keeping friendship a top priority.

If Matt has more than 20 minutes to drive somewhere, he's usually brainstorming for D&D. He also sets aside certain evenings and sometimes a frantic Thursday morning to get things prepped.

Also, since this is late, if anyone want to scream about the last episode with me I am always down. No spoilers, but that whole second half was epic!!!

#critical role #critical role spoilers #critrole #talks machina #talks machina spoilers #sdcc19 #vexahlia #vex'ahlia #cr vex #cr scanlan #scanlan shorthalt #vaxildan #cr percy #percival de rolo #percy de rolo #cr beauregard #beauregard lionett #cr keyleth

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iffeelscouldkill · 6 years ago

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The Strange Case of the Starship Virus

A/N: Hey, what up guys! I come bearing another thing that has nothing whatsoever to do with any of my ongoing projects :D

This was born of an idea I had on the tube - where all good fic ideas are born, obviously - while listening to Episode 7 of TSCOSI. I was thinking about how Sana pronounces her name when signing off, like it’s one word (“SanaTripathi out”) and how many of us have joked that it sounds like a username. This led me thinking about a TSCOSI cyberpunk AU and what I might call such a fic if I did write it.

And then it hit me.

“The Strange Case of the Starship Virus”.

Obviously, after coming up with a name like that, I had to write it (I’m not saying it’s better than “Firewhisky in the Jar” but it’s almost as good) and so a Plot was born. Rather than make it another multi-chapter epic that doesn’t see the light of day for several months, I decided just to write the first part and chuck it up for people to read. There will be more - and I have ideas for what that “more” will be - but I don’t know when it will get written. Maybe soon! Who even knows with me. Until then, enjoy this thing!

(Content note, slight spoilers within: There’s a paragraph in the fic which describes the POV character bleeding, but it’s less severe than the character initially believes. Also warning for descriptions of anxiety)

RKD has logged in

Arkady takes in her meager surroundings as they materialise around her. The virtual bar Sana picked for their rendezvous is a cheap effort, not much by the way of ambient effects. The bartender at least looks to be real, not a bot-operated NPC, and Arkady feels the edge of the bar digging into her back when she leans against it, but there’s no smell, and the sounds are just a looping track of clinking glasses with an easily detectable hitch where it stops and starts again.

After a while, it starts to grate on her nerves.

“Can I getcha anything?” asks the bartender. Arkady eyes his v-self design: covered in tattoos and piercings, a scar running artfully down his jaw. Obviously thinks he’s a tough nut. Arkady wants to tell him what being a real outlaw is like: unglamorous and boring.

And no-one who had actual scars would think it was romantic to put them on their avatar.

“Do you guys do actual taste here, or is it all just decorative water?” she asks.

“Of course we do. Best booze in the dark web,” the guy replies, quick as an auto-response. Then, privately, he tells her, “The absinthe packs a decent kick. The rest might as well be soda pop.”

Great. Arkady hates absinthe. “I’ll have a beer,” she says, resigned.

As Arkady pays, the guy must catch sight of her handle, because he says, “Hey. You’re…”

sanatripathi has logged in

“Just here to get a drink and mind my own business,” Arkady says, as she turns away to greet Sana. Just her luck that she gets the one guy who actually reads the news boards. “Hey, Sana. What’s the word?”

“We need a private room,” Sana tells her flatly. Then she turns to the bartender. “I’ll have a cuppa, thanks.”

“You’re ordering tea?” Arkady asks her sceptically. “Private room sounds like a hard liquor kind of situation.”

“Oh, it is,” Sana tells her. The bartender sets a tin mug down in front of her. It’s filled with a clear liquid.

“Is that vodka?”

“Moonshine. It’s a code,” Sana says, winking at the bartender, who of course looks helplessly smitten with her. “I limit it to emergencies only. This way.”

Arkady follows Sana in the vague direction of the back of the bar, and their surroundings dissolve and reform around them until they’re standing in a dim booth mostly taken up by a small table with a booth seat running around it. There’s a candle on the table, and Arkady realises it’s probably because these types of room tend to be used by couples and hook-ups. The thought makes her a little wary about sliding into the booth, but she does so.

Sana doesn’t say anything, and Arkady waits, knowing that her friend is busy running checks on the room and securing its settings. She could do all of that for Sana in half the time if her friend asked her to, but she knows to leave well enough alone by now, so she lets Sana work.

Finally, Sana looks up. “All right.”

“Okay, spill. The suspense is killing me. What’s happened that means you had to pull me into a private room without so much as a hello?”

“There’s been another Starship attack,” Sana replies, and Arkady goes silent, her eyes widening. “It hit around four hours ago, by my informants’ estimates.”

Jesus. Arkady lets out a breath and scrubs her hand over her face. It’s been two months since the last report of an attack by the infamous Starship virus, the deadliest virus on the net. And Arkady normally wouldn’t be one to buy into melodramatic taglines, but Starship is literally deadly. So far, it’s killed everyone that has come into contact with it. No-one knows how or why.

“Where?”

“A small corporate node called Iris. Nothing there except some kind of experimental lab.”

Iris – that has to be an IGR Corp node. They’re always giving them dumb mythological names. “So, another IGR target? Didn’t they make a huge song and dance about how they’d figured out the culprit of the attacks?”

Sana gives her an amused look. “Yes, because either of us believed that for a second.”

Point. “Okay, so what was the damage? You said it’s a small node – why would any kind of corporate saboteur bother to target it? Especially with Starship – that’s like swatting a fly with a sledgehammer. Was it a crucial site for R&D?”

Sana shakes her head, frowning. “Not so far as any of my intel can make out. It only had half a dozen on-site staff, a few more working remotely. It’s kind of secretive – everything IGR does is secretive – but nothing that would make it an obvious target.”

“Okay, so who would go to all that trouble just to take out, what, half a dozen lab techs? There’s something else going on here. I can-”

“That’s the other thing,” Sana says, and Arkady looks at her. Her v-self is perfectly composed, of course, but Sana’s voice is as tense as a bow string. Arkady imagines her fidgeting in her rig, her expressive face discomfited.

“What’s the other thing?”

“The virus didn’t take everyone out.”

Arkady frowns. “What do you mean? We’re talking about the Starship virus, Sana. That’s what it does. It kills. It’s killed everyone who’s come into contact with it – I think the body count is up to forty-sev-”

“Not this time,” Sana interrupts her, again. It’s so rare for Sana to ever talk over anyone that Arkady isn’t even offended. She just stares at her blankly. “Someone survived.”

Four hours earlier

“Oh, Jesus…” Violet Liu whispers to herself as she stares at the blackness around her. At least, she thinks that she whispers it – there’s a loud ringing in her ears that makes it difficult to be sure. “Hill? Hassan? Can anyone hear me?”

Nothing but more ringing in her ears and more darkness. Violet takes a shaky breath in, and out. “Well, Violet, you just watched the visual display in front of you get eaten by static. What did you expect?”

With numb fingers, she pulls her haptic gloves off. It could be the panic affecting her, but – Violet is sure she felt something like an electric shock go through her fingers a minute ago. Maybe the company was right in outlawing non-neurointerface devices. Maybe they are dangerous.

Slowly, painfully, she removes her HMD – a lightweight band around her head with a wrap-around visual display that covers her eyes – and then reaches up to remove her in-ear connectors. Her fingers come away bloody.

Violet stares at her fingers, her mind instantly blanketed in panic. Oh god, what’s happened to my ears? What’s happened to my brain??? Diagnoses and neurological disorders – eardrum rupture, acute ear barotrauma, bleeding in the brain – bubble up in her mind.

Violet drags in a breath and feels a pain in her ribs as they start to seize up. Don’t have a panic attack, Violet, not here! her mind – the small part that’s somehow not insensible with fear – orders her sternly. You can still think, and that means that most things are still working. Focus on your senses: what can you feel?

Violet breathes out and in again. Feel… Her ears are still ringing, but the pain is only in one of them. With shaking fingers, she reaches up and feels around inside her right ear. She finds the source of the pain and presses down: by the feel of it, it’s a small cut.

It’s just a cut.

Violet lets out a breath that comes out more like a sob, and some of the panic begins to recede from her mind. Okay. Focus. You need to check in with the others. Who else works on-site?

Violet begins to check the names off on a mental list, the action helping to ground her as much as anything. Ebgeyemi and Hill work off-site. Westley is on-site. Mitchell, Lee and Hassan all work in the main lab. Oh, and Connors too, even though he’s an engineer…

Violet had always thought that was strange, Connors’ insistence on being on-site even though his skills were rarely required. “I can more easily keep tabs on the equipment from here,” he had told Violet when she questioned him about it. “And this way, if a machine develops a fault, I’m right on-hand to fix it.”

Violet didn’t bother pointing out that virtual twins existed and could easily alert him to a potential fault if he worked remotely, and also that they depended on very little equipment of that type for their day-to-day experiments. She figured Connors was just a bit of a slacker. He seemed to do very little actual work all day, always on some kind of chatroom on his rig whenever she was in the main lab

Violet stashes her equipment out of sight, then moves to the door of her tiny, closet-like office, peering out into the corridor. All the lights have gone out – whatever malware that just hit them must have also killed the power grid – and she can’t hear a sound. No equipment humming, no movement of any kind. No voices.

Violet walks down to the nearest office, Lee’s. She realises she’s holding her breath. Don’t be stupid, Vi, she tells herself, though even the voice in her head sounds uncertain. You don’t know yet that anything is seriously wrong.

“Lee?” Violet taps on the office door, waits a second, and then enters. Her hand flies up to cover her mouth.

Lee is sitting slumped in the chair attached to zir rig, zir eyes glassy and unseeing, reflecting the blackness of the screen in front of zir. Violet presses two fingers to zir neck to try and find a pulse, but it only confirms what she knew from the moment she opened the door.

She backs out of Lee’s office and sprints down the corridor to the main lab, her footsteps echoing in the stillness of the building. As she bursts through the door, her worst fears are confirmed. Mitchell, Hassan and Connors are all slumped over at their respective rigs, just like Lee. Violet runs from body to body, urgently pressing her fingers down. Mitchell and Hassan show no signs of life, but as she presses her fingers to Connors’ neck, she feels it: a faint pulse, barely there.

“Connors! Can you hear me? It’s me, Violet Liu.”

Connors doesn’t stir, though one eyelid flickers. With a strength born of desperation, Violet manhandles him out of his rig and into the recovery position on the floor. She’ll look for the first aid kit once she’s figured out a way to contact-

The sound of footsteps and voices in the corridor outside interrupts her train of thought. Head swimming with relief, Violet draws in a breath to call for help – and then stops.

Maybe an alert went out when the systems went offline, and IGR Corp’s response times are just really good. But the malware could have been the work of corporate saboteurs, and it’s a lot easier to hack into a system if you’re physically on-site.

Violet silently gets to her feet and casts around for a suitable hiding-place. Then she sees it – a large cooling chamber that they use to store samples when they’re working with live material. All of the samples from the last experiment were removed and shipped to HQ the day before, so it’s empty. It’ll be a little cold and a bit cramped, but that’s the least of Violet’s worries right now.

Violet runs to the chamber, casting a last look back at Connors’ prone body as she does so – she wishes she had time to hide him, too. She pulls open the door, and for once, thanks her lucky stars that she’s only five foot one as she ducks inside.

About a minute after she pulls the door closed, she hears footsteps and muffled voices outside her hiding-place. “Same deal? Bag ‘em and tag ‘em?” says a deep voice with a tone of slight disdain.

“That’s correct, Goodman,” replies another voice, and Violet goes very, very still.

She knows that voice. Even muffled through a cooler wall, she knows that voice. She had a conference call yesterday with the owner of that voice.

It belongs to IGR Corp’s Head of R&D, Ashley Seiders.

“Hold on,” says the owner of the first voice – Goodman. “Someone’s put this one in the recovery position.”

“That can’t be possible,” says Seiders sharply. “Everyone in this complex was hit by Starship – we know they were connected at the time of the hit. None of them could have survived.”

Violet can hear her own breaths coming quick and panicked. What does this mean? The virus was triggered by an IGR Corp employee? And not just an employee – someone at a high level in the company? Seiders must be a rogue agent. But the fact that she now knows who is triggering the infamous Starship virus – the deadliest virus on the net – makes Violet acutely aware of the precariousness of her hiding-place.

And what does it mean that she survived it?

“Unless another team got here before we did, I don’t see that there’s any other explanation,” Goodman responds. “A visiting inspector?”

“There weren’t any visits scheduled. I checked,” says Seiders, but they sound uncertain. “We’ll do a sweep of the building.”

“And this guy?”

“Load him up with the others. He won’t last long – they never do.”

Violet finds herself shaking with fury at the callous disregard in Seiders’ voice. Angry tears prick her eyes. But she forces the emotions – all her emotions – back down. She can’t afford them right now. If she makes one wrong move, they’ll find her – and God knows what will happen to her then.

She hears faint shuffling sounds and realises that Seiders and Goodman must be removing the bodies of her colleagues from the lab. A wave of nausea hits her and Violet forces herself to count her breaths, in and out. By the time she gets to one hundred, Seiders and Goodman’s footsteps have receded, and the lab is still again. Violet thinks she hears the door close.

She makes herself count to twenty again to be sure, and then slowly, slowly reaches for the chamber door and opens it a tiny crack. The lab is empty.

Violet crawls out of the cooling chamber. She’s shaking, and it’s only half from the cold.

She needs a plan, now.

“A biologist?” Arkady repeats, staring at the personnel files in front of her. “There’s no way someone like this would have been able to evade Starship.”

“Maybe she has neurological knowledge that allowed her to avoid its worst effects,” Sana suggests. “Or maybe it was a fluke.”

“After forty-seven other victims – fifty-four, now – I’m not buying ‘fluke’,” Arkady tells her flatly. “There’s got to be more to this woman than there seems.”

“Well, she could be a corporate saboteur with a really good cover,” Sana posits. “I’ve tried looking into IGR Corp’s records, but they’re… confusing. It’s almost as if she’s lived two separate lives.”

“So, double agent?” Arkady muses. “Or, maybe there’s just more than one Violet Liu working for IGR Corp. I wouldn’t put it past them to genuinely not be able to tell them apart.”

“I sometimes forget you used to work for them,” Sana says, her voice somewhere between amused and gentle.

“Yeah, well, I try my best to forget, too.”

Arkady drums her fingers on the tabletop. She’s not an idiot. She knows Sana didn’t tell her all this just because it’s interesting. “You want to look into this, don’t you.”

“Aren’t you just a little intrigued?” Sana asks, instead of giving her a direct answer. “She’s the only known survivor of the Net’s deadliest virus-”

“Good for her.”

“-Don’t you want to know how she survived?”

“Not badly enough to want to stick my hand into the IGR Corp hornet’s nest,” Arkady replies. “But I look forward to finding out from a safe distance.”

A thought occurs to her. “Wait… did Campbell put you up to this?”

“No!” Sana protests. “Campbell is-” She’s cut off by a chime.

“Hold on, I’m getting a call from Brian,” Sana says, concerned.

“Didn’t you block all incoming?” Arkady asks, suddenly tense, sure they’ve been compromised.

“He has an override passcode – it’s for emergencies only,” Sana replies, concern now up to 11. “I’m gonna put him through.”

“You gave Jeeter an override passcode? How could anything he has to say be-”

“Hey, Cap’n,” Jeeter’s voice cuts in, echoing a little weirdly around the room. His tone is a shadow of its normally upbeat self, and Arkady almost feels bad for being disparaging. Almost.

“I told you guys to stop calling me that,” Sana says with wry amusement, but then becomes serious. “What’s happening?”

“You know Alvy, my coder friend from Ryedell node – the one who gives us all the useful backdoors into ELLA-OS?”

“Sure, yeah?”

“He’s sent me this message, but it’s got, like, multiple layers of encryption on it. And he sent it using his old alias – one he hasn’t used in years. He used to joke that if he ever used it, then I’d know he was out of options. I’m… worried.”

“What’s Connors doing these days, anyway?” Arkady asks. She keeps her tone casual, but Sana shoots her a sharp look.

“Some contracting for IGR Corp, I think. Which I know is not, like, super great, but you gotta earn a living somehow.”

“Hey, I’m not one to judge. But do you remember what node he was working on?” The timing could be a coincidence. Arkady hopes it’s a goddamn coincidence.

“Uhhh… it was some kind of mythological name. Ibis?”

Krejjh’s voice can be heard off-mic. “I think it was Iris.”

“Yeah, that was it. Why?”

There’s a heavy silence. Sana looks at Arkady.

“Guys, what is it?” Jeeter asks urgently.

“I think you need to join us over here.”

Once Jeeter and Krejjh have logged in, it only takes Sana a few minutes to fill them in on the situation.

“No,” Jeeter says, shaking his head. “No, Alvy can’t be gone.”

“Brian… there were no other survivors,” Sana says gently. “I’m sorry – I know it’s not easy to hear, but if he was working on Iris node-”

“Maybe I was wrong,” says Jeeter wildly. “Or- maybe his contract ended. We don’t know!”

“Both of those things could be true,” Sana admits. “But the timing of this message he’s sent you…”

“Well – we don’t know what it says yet,” Jeeter points out. “It could be a clue! Are you anywhere with the encryption?” he asks Arkady.

“Give me a second, Jeeter,” Arkady says, a little snippily. “I know I make this stuff look easy, but it’s not a walk in the park.”

“Sorry.” Jeeter is subdued, and Arkady immediately regrets her sharp tone.

“On the bright side, your friend is… actually halfway decent at what he does,” she admits by way of a peace offering. “And it’s probable that this hasn’t been intercepted or tampered with.”

“Only probable?”

“Well, no encryption is infallible. When did you get this?”

“It came in a couple of hours ago, but I think it was sent before that. Maybe five hours ago?”

“It fits with the timeline,” Arkady says to Sana, privately. She nods.

It takes Arkady another 15 minutes to break through Alvy’s encryption, during which time Jeeter stews and Sana reassures, and Krejjh starts making up ridiculous limericks to try and lighten the mood.

“All right. I think I’ve got it, Jeeter,” she says, and Jeeter stops short in the middle of explaining a soap opera plot twist to a bemused Sana.

“What does it say?”

Rather than read it out, which feels a little weird, Arkady pings the text of the message over to Jeeter. He reads aloud:

“Hey, buddy. It’s been a while, huh? Not sure how long I’ve got, so I’m gonna get down to it.

“I think my ship is coming in. They know I know. I’m going to do whatever I can to fight it off, but it might not be enough.

“I didn’t want to risk leading them to the others, so I need your help. There’s a woman here – a colour and a flower. But she’s not the only one. You need to find the other – if she’s safe, she’ll tell you everything.

“Hope to see you soon.

“O. Cyrus”

No-one says anything for several minutes. Then Jeeter says, “So – Alvy could still be alive! ‘My ship is coming in’ – that must be the Starship virus. He knew it was coming – and he was going to try and fight it off-”

“Yeah, try,” Arkady emphasises. “Jeeter, we got no word about Connors surviving the attack.”

“Yeah, well, maybe IGR Corp would try to cover it up-”

“What did Alvy mean by ‘she’s not the only one’?” Krejjh asks, puzzled.

Sana answers. “We think there might be more than one Violet Liu on IGR Corp’s books. The official records seem to confuse them a lot, so it was hard to be sure, but Alvy’s message pretty much confirms it.”

“So – maybe the first Violet knows what happened to Alvy. The one who was working with him,” Jeeter says eagerly. “We have to contact her.”

“That might not be possible,” Sana replies. “My informant is positive that she’s the only one IGR Corp didn’t confirm internally as deceased, but there’s no word at all about what’s happened to her. It’s like she’s vanished.”

“If she did have something to do with it, you’d better believe she’s in the wind,” Arkady points out.

“And if she didn’t have anything to do with it, she’s probably still in a lot of danger,” says Sana. “She might know who the culprit is. And she’s an immediate suspect. Plus, there must be half a dozen groups who will do anything to find out how she got away.”

“Black hats, grey hats…” Krejjh gives a little wave to indicate their group. “Her former employers… Even Dwarnian Incorporated is going to want to get a hold of her, if only to clear their own name.”

Arkady still isn’t sure why she’s supposed to care so much about the wellbeing of this complete stranger. “Didn’t Alvy’s message specifically tell you to find the other Violet?” she argues. “As in, not this one? Also, if he was so worried about the risk of leading ‘them’ – whoever ‘they’ are – to the people he was originally planning to contact, it’s too bad he couldn’t spare the same consideration for us.”

Sana inclines her head in acknowledgement. “If we look into this, there’s a strong possibility we’ll be drawing all that heat onto ourselves. But, we might also have the chance to find out what happened to Alvy – and help out another person in need.”

Arkady knows without a doubt that Sana’s next words will be-

“I think we should vote on it,” Sana says, and Arkady congratulates herself on winning the easiest bet of all time. “All in favour of trying to find Violet Liu – the one from Iris node?”

“Definitely,” Jeeter says immediately. “I think it’s a lead, and if we don’t move quickly, the trail is going to go cold.”

“I’m in,” Krejjh agrees, predictably. “Worst case scenario, even if she doesn’t know anything, we helped somebody out.”

“Worst case scenario is that we can’t help her and we bring a metric ton of unwanted attention down on our own heads in the process,” Arkady counters hotly. She’s about to follow it up with an unequivocal “no” vote when she hears a different alert go off, outside the room. It’s the one that she uses to keep tabs on IGR Corp – know thy enemy, as the saying goes.

From Sana’s reaction, she’s pretty sure the other woman just got the same alert. “Hold on. What was that?”

“I’m checking…” Arkady brings up a holographic feed in front of her – invisible to the room’s other occupants – and skims the content of the news alert. “Oh, shit.”

“What is it?” asks Jeeter.

“IGR Corp is officially naming Violet Liu as the culprit behind the Starship virus attacks. They’re calling her a rogue agent. ‘History of suspicious activity’… ‘fled the scene of the crime’… they’ve put up a reward for information or capture. A big one.”

Krejjh swears.

“But… if she’s really an IGR employee gone rogue, wouldn’t it be in the corporation’s interest to try and cover that up?” Jeeter says slowly. “Surely it looks pretty bad on them.”

“Unless they have more reason to want her brought in fast than to cover their asses,” Arkady finishes. “Which means she knows something that they don’t want getting out.”

“Chances are we also know a few things that they don’t,” Sana says. “So if we move quickly, we could pull one over on them. We don’t get an opportunity like this very often.”

Arkady disables reactions on her v-self momentarily and runs her hands over her face. She knows what Sana is doing by framing this as an opportunity to get one over on IGR Corp – or as Arkady likes to call them, “our corporate overlords” – rather than some kind of humanitarian gesture. She knows which argument will appeal to Arkady more.

“Fine,” she says finally to the others through gritted teeth. ��Let’s go save the biologist.”

Next time on The Strange Case of the Starship Virus…

Q: I know we haven’t always been the best of friends, but trust me, you’ll want to hear this.

sanatripathi: I don’t trust you, but go on.

Q: That woman everyone is looking for? Violet Liu? I know where she is. And I’ll tell you – if you do me one favor.

A/N: If you’re wondering why Arkady and Sana seem a little less well-acquainted with each other in this fic, it’s because although they go back a way, working together on various jobs of dubious legality still doesn’t breed quite the same level of familiarity as living together 24/7 on a smuggling ship. I figure their relationship here is more like it would have been a couple of years after they started flying together on the Rumor, whenever that was.

#tscosi #the strange case of starship iris #cyberpunk au #arkady patel #sana tripathi #violet liu #alvy connors #brian jeeter #krejjh #virtual reality #the strange case of the starship virus #i would love to know why tumblr keeps eating my dividers #really i would #it's bad enough that they apparently don't show up on mobile #maybe i should just switch to using a dash to divide the sections #because why leave anything in tumblr's hands am i right #i am right #my fic

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ghosty-schnibibit · 5 years ago

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very late (both in terms of date and time) ttazz liveblog before graduation comes out later today!

the main reasons i put off listening to the ttazz for as long as i did:

was in the middle of a balance relisten, specifically in the middle of eleventh hour, and didn't want to break my flow there (iirc i was right before That Episode and i didn’t want the mood whiplash of going from ttazz to the emotional gut punch of the chalice)

still getting over amnesty in general because d a m n, this was my first season with taz from beginning to end that hit me hard, i needed some decompression time

i'm always a little terrified to listen to ttazz eps because i've been here for a long ass time and have seen interactions between fans and creaters go bad fast and am always quietly worried for our good good brothers even though most of the fandom is relatively chill

but graduation begins today so! i felt like i needed to get it over and done with. going into this with my only spoiler being that sternclay is canon, let's do this!

OH SHIT! new ttazz music! :D

kill me with emotions more like

or clint could be pollution a la g’omens

YES PLEASE I HAD TO GOOGLE HIM

... is there some reverb on justin's audio? he's echoing

i literally only saw ferris buller for the first time a year ago and i cannot remember wayne newton being in it

whomst???

yes please i am so curious

aww, that's fun

... so the ending was likely originally going to be duck taking over as mothman??? i'm so mad

YES PLEASE EXPLAIN GRIFFIN I WAS SO CONFUSED ABOUT THIS

g i v e m e t h e l o r e g r i f f i n

oh my god that is so good, holy shit

oh right, the npc who was a ghost that i couldn't stop picturing as owl from winnie the pooh because of his voice lmao

oh dang griffin and trav's audios are echoing too, this is super distracting

i would agree with that honestly, i feel like it was more like a tv season-esque build than an epic

... mood, and also why i think it hit everyone so hard that ned died

same, i love bad liar duck so much

the audience struggled with it too for a bit there lol

it has been so fuckin long since i listened to the first few eps of amnesty, i legit do not remember what aubrey's original voice sounded like

"how did we come to ned chicane?" damn trav

i always made a connection between suffering game and the shifter arc in my head but i didn't want to compare the two seasons unjustly, i feel better now that griffin's made it more implicit

who is clinking a spoon against a porcelain cup

"i'm checking slack, fuck you guys" pfff

that is literally how you brought barry back griffin

i need someone to write an au where aubrey touched thacker and got quelled earlier in the timeline, holy shit

dang, i could have guessed it was planned... i guess a lot of this arc's foreshadowing came in the form of "the boys all picked red null suits" moments where random things all added up

... wait, didn't duck kill the tree abomination? i need to relisten to amnesty so bad, i honestly cannot remember, i think that arc’s finale came out while i was in the middle of finals

ilu griffin

we could have had a "you earned love, but you didn't earn LOVE" moment??? g r i f f i n

YES, give me those great parallels trav

i have literally never seen a national lampoon movie guys

i thought it was!!! dang :(

honestly i wish pigeon had gotten more screen time between the arcs, she was really a wasted character imho

i love danbry so much :')

i'm only familiar with brian blessed as hamlet sr.'s ghost lmao

YEEEAH, STERNCLAY! :D

...

i maintain that she fell off a pudding fruit tree lol

oh fuck i am somehow even more happy thacker did that knowing that now holy shit

nice, time for some graduation hype!

tiny heist? i don't remember hearing anything about this :0

i am so fucking excited to see these maps trav, holy shit

i! cannot! wait! for! travis! dming!

oh my god i do the same thing with all my ocs, i have an entire publisher doc with all their info written out too

i'm so damn exited! holy shit!!!

nice one griff lmao

alrighty, that's the end of amnesty! i can't wait to see what trav has in store for us, and i'll still be here livebloging along with it for the foreseeable future ^u^

p.s.: thank you guys so much for all the love on my recent post!!! i didn't expect so many people to enjoy me venting my emotionsTM over suffering game lol

#taz #taz amnesty #the adventure zone #ghosty liveblogs taz #veeery late lmao

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masked-puppetmaster · 5 years ago

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Alright buster, since the Tumblr ask thing doesn't allow me to press enter, here's a list of my questions, hope you like them.

What Campaign are you doing in DnD?

Who’s the big baddie?

What’s the plot

Is it original?

Who are your Player Chars? (the characters, not the people)

What Races are they?

Where are your Player Chars from?

When was the last time you played as a PC

Every campaign someone does something stupid that lasts the campaign, what’s it for yours?

How long have you been doing this campaign?

Has anyone left the party?

Tell us a funny/epic/dramatic scene if you want

Is there a surrogate for you in the Campaign or are you the Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient type?

Tell us the lore of your world

Do you have fun?

———-

Oh okay : D

1.) it’s a homebrew campaign; it’s one of those find the seven items type quests

2.) a big monster ; )

3) a band (a literal band) of people are on a quest to destroy seven items so they can kill a creature. It’s a horcrux situation where the items have to be destroyed before the creature can be killed ; )

4) sort of? It’s a homebrew campaign but it’s got elements of a lot of things, like taz

5) There’s sinead, a rouge elf who hates water and is dating Edmond, and she’s got a tragic backstory (I also think she’s trans?)/ we got Edmond, who’s a half elf bard with a tragic backstory; he never takes off his helmet, he seduces everything in sight including sinead and a dead rabbit he’s named Kevin, and he plays the viola/ there’s oli, a half elf rouge who woke up in the woods with no memories, he loves bugs and carries them around in his pocket and names them. He’s currently in jail/ we got Devin, a tabaxi bard; dating Augustus (an NPC) ; the only one here with any common sense; a total dad character ; the only character here who has no tragic backstory / then there’s two NPCs. We have Augustus, a Tabaxi cleric who is from a town who was trapped in a time loop for 100 years/ and we have jasmine, a ten year old girl the party found on the side of the road with no memories ; )

6) Sinead is a moon elf, Edmond is a half elf, Oli is a half elf, Devin and Augustus are both tabaxis and Jasmine is a human

7) It’s not talked about very much actually. Edmond is from a place called dewsbury and oli and devin are both from the woods I think. Jasmine is from someplace too; it was never given a proper name, but Augustus is from an old town in the middle of the desert

8) a few months ago, for a campaign we never finished lol.

9) Edmond picked up a dead rabbit in the beginning of the campaign and named it Kevin ; he’s gotten Kevin back to life and has carried Kevin around in his helmet

10) we’ve been playing for about a year now

11) tortle left the party after the first arc (his player kept not showing up)

12) hmmm…..a dramatic scene or at least an intense one was when Devin made a shitty comment to Edmond about his parents (his father, who tried to kill him; and his mother, who’s recently deceased.) another dramatic scene would be Edmond finding out about his mother ; he didn’t take it too well. As for funny scenes, there’s been plenty of seducing (a particular patch of grass really likes them…) or the time they bought a book on how to fuck dragons

13) there is no surrogate for me

14) The lore is kind of complicated and a little hard to get into without spoilers (my players follow me) but there’s a lot of kingdoms and two of them are currently at war. There’s also underwater places but they aren’t part of the kingdoms

15) yes, or at least I do. I hope my players have as much fun as I do : )

#dnd #submission #asks #my post #my campaign #the crimson quest

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liyuesbian · 3 years ago

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Ok tumblr decided to erase half my ask so here we go again 😔

I kinda forgot about ei’s friends after her teaser dropped ngl 💀 you are so right that they should’ve been there, like how both Zhongli and Venti’s quests had a “let’s pay a visit to our dead or dying friends” arc /hj in hindsight I also wish there was one of those cool 2D PVs for Ei as well hhh it would be Epic to see her three friends like that!! Ig they thought it was covered by her teaser/demo or something? Since that had way more lore than usual, idk though. still hoping for a second quest about her hh

I’m kinda the opposite about lore digging but it’s probably just me lol, I tend to read lore in game only, but don’t have many of the artifacts/weapons that contain the lore I want to read. But disregarding that, I still want some of the worldbuilding to be put in like a story quest or something, since it would be interesting to see what other characters think about the stories in the artifacts and stuff (do different mondstadters have different opinions on their history? What do they think about the white knight or the gladiator? Also I wanna see Eula interacting with the noblesse oblige set. same with Liyue folk and all the Morax Legends lol. I digress tho)

Big same with the La Signora gripe. Shame on me ig but I didn’t read the crimson witch lore before I did the quest so the spoilers I saw didn’t mean much and there was no shock value during the big reveal in quest 💀 yeah I hope we’ll see or hear about her in Snezhnaya!! Her side of the story would be infinitely more interesting (pls not another artifact set tho-)

About Xiao, Ganyu, and Zhongli: this is why fix it fics exist I guess 😔 I’ve adopted an AO3 fic’s retelling as my version of canon (or at least something the traveler didn’t see)

Mm true it’s strange because I think he said thanked the traveler for being his companion while he was testing out his human life at the end of the archon quest (iirc) maybe it’s just because Liyue’s supposedly a big city so one new person doesn’t really matter to most people (fhdksd if something contradicts this, do tell) I think the fake death was still kinda necessary, at least for normal people to accept that Morax is Completely Gone so that the Qixing can get ultimate authority and total acceptance/respect (that npc who said Zhongli will always be in true control since he’s a god and the Qixing are mere mortals and stuff), but agree to disagree 😌 they’re all shady in some way in the end

I saw you are on genshin twt how is it 😔 (sadly I am on it too but I hate the timeline format because I keep missing posts) the amount of discourse of “whos bad, good, which problematic characters and ships need to be canceled”, and the amount of dissing that goes on there scares me

LITERALLY YOUR 2ND TO LAST PARAGRAPH that was what was missing from the archon quest. Where is my group effort guys?? I missed seeing the resistance… I hope the people speculating Kokomi gets a nice story quest are correct and that we’ll actually wrap up the loose resistance threads there… (also a lot of people are saying morally gray Kokomi? Is there any canon(derogatory) basis for that? I’m just curious because with the way things are going I feel like she’s going to be purely nice dhdkskf)

Im so sorry I think these just keep getting longer and longer aaa anyways, signing off! -mystic

noo i hate it when tumblr does that :((

(2.1 spoilers)

LMFAOOO maybe friendship is not magic after all ahaha but srsly, i agree w you i also want a 2nd quest for her !

ah that's fair enough if u don't have all the artifacts. and it would be easier if it was told to us through a quest of some sort. hmm i never thought about that 🤔 it's a shame that there's so much lore and the genshin universe is so beautifully worldbuilt but players will only notice if they personally read through the archives etc. and go out of their way :( hmm yeah maybe like a historical back-to-the-past type thing with the three clans and they all interact with the noblesse set? or even just diluc/eula/jean tbh

ah i read the lore for crimson before but i didn't remember it fully during the signora part so i had to read through it again after. the way it clicked in my head when it said "crimson witch of embers" and i was like ".....wait a minute....." AHAHA and it was only after that her lines during the fight like "don't call me a witch" or smth made me :'(((( the pale flame piece too 😭 sad hours

yeah at this point, the fanfiction writers should take over the genshin writing lol jk jk

mhm i guess the fake death would've been better and easier for closure ! (and woah u remember so much! i can't even remember that npc... it's been so long 😔 haha)

ah i think on genshintwt i'm usually more on the good side (? if u can call it that lmao) i do see quite a few discourse on ships, western vs. eastern fandoms and other yikes stuff but for genshin, it's mostly art that pops up on my timeline :] i follow wayyy too many artists but they're all so talented and they make such pretty art it's so 🥺 oh do you mean ur timeline isn't organised by latest posts first? if it's not, i can share how to make it that way!

yeah the resistance... :(( mhm! i was rly counting on a morally grey kokomi !!! LMFOAOO THE "canon (derogatory)" took me OUT PWAHAHA (i may reuse that quote ;D) that idea was mostly based on ayaka's last sentence (was it in the 2.0 archon quest?) where she said smth along the lines of the resistance having ulterior motives... and also how baal and co. defeated orobashi, the god they worship (like maybe kokomi was out for revenge?) but no sigh she's ur average good person :( idrc either way but i rly wanna see a morally grey female character where they appear good but are actually super dodgy and evil, that would be chef's kiss. but yeah, after that quest, she's definitely gonna be purely good :')

#ngl i actually rly love reading ur long msgs (and long msgs in general!)#it kinda reminds me of when i used to write penpal letters :<#and they way u sign off aw it's so cute and rly adds to the penpal-like experience LOL #btw sorry for the late response !#phi rambles #answered

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