#everyone having a different perspective is what makes this game cool

[starry-teacup]

the fun thing about slay the princess is that I thought there was a clear 'right' answer and an obvious moral after my first run and then proceeded to walk straight into the fandom where I was immediately hit by the fucking cargo train of almost everyone having a different take than me

[txttletale]

Saw a tweet that said something around:

"cannot emphasize enough how horrid chatgpt is, y'all. it's depleting our global power & water supply, stopping us from thinking or writing critically, plagiarizing human artists. today's students are worried they won't have jobs because of AI tools. this isn't a world we deserve"

I've seen some of your AI posts and they seem nuanced, but how would you respond do this? Cause it seems fairly-on point and like the crux of most worries. Sorry if this is a troublesome ask, just trying to learn so any input would be appreciated.

i would simply respond that almost none of that is true.

'depleting the global power and water supply'

something i've seen making the roudns on tumblr is that chatgpt queries use 3 watt-hours per query. wow, that sounds like a lot, especially with all the articles emphasizing that this is ten times as much as google search. let's check some other very common power uses:

running a microwave for ten minutes is 133 watt-hours

gaming on your ps5 for an hour is 200 watt-hours

watching an hour of netflix is 800 watt-hours

and those are just domestic consumer electricty uses!

a single streetlight's typical operation 1.2 kilowatt-hours a day (or 1200 watt-hours)

a digital billboard being on for an hour is 4.7 kilowatt-hours (or 4700 watt-hours)

i think i've proved my point, so let's move on to the bigger picture: there are estimates that AI is going to cause datacenters to double or even triple in power consumption in the next year or two! damn that sounds scary. hey, how significant as a percentage of global power consumption are datecenters?

1-1.5%.

ah. well. nevertheless!

what about that water? yeah, datacenters use a lot of water for cooling. 1.7 billion gallons (microsoft's usage figure for 2021) is a lot of water! of course, when you look at those huge and scary numbers, there's some important context missing. it's not like that water is shipped to venus: some of it is evaporated and the rest is generally recycled in cooling towers. also, not all of the water used is potable--some datacenters cool themselves with filtered wastewater.

most importantly, this number is for all data centers. there's no good way to separate the 'AI' out for that, except to make educated guesses based on power consumption and percentage changes. that water figure isn't all attributable to AI, plenty of it is necessary to simply run regular web servers.

but sure, just taking that number in isolation, i think we can all broadly agree that it's bad that, for example, people are being asked to reduce their household water usage while google waltzes in and takes billions of gallons from those same public reservoirs.

but again, let's put this in perspective: in 2017, coca cola used 289 billion liters of water--that's 7 billion gallons! bayer (formerly monsanto) in 2018 used 124 million cubic meters--that's 32 billion gallons!

so, like. yeah, AI uses electricity, and water, to do a bunch of stuff that is basically silly and frivolous, and that is broadly speaking, as someone who likes living on a planet that is less than 30% on fire, bad. but if you look at the overall numbers involved it is a miniscule drop in the ocean! it is a functional irrelevance! it is not in any way 'depleting' anything!

'stopping us from thinking or writing critically'

this is the same old reactionary canard we hear over and over again in different forms. when was this mythic golden age when everyone was thinking and writing critically? surely we have all heard these same complaints about tiktok, about phones, about the internet itself? if we had been around a few hundred years earlier, we could have heard that "The free access which many young people have to romances, novels, and plays has poisoned the mind and corrupted the morals of many a promising youth."

it is a reactionary narrative of societal degeneration with no basis in anything. yes, it is very funny that laywers have lost the bar for trusting chatgpt to cite cases for them. but if you think that chatgpt somehow prevented them from thinking critically about its output, you're accusing the tail of wagging the dog.

nobody who says shit like "oh wow chatgpt can write every novel and movie now. yiou can just ask chatgpt to give you opinions and ideas and then use them its so great" was, like, sitting in the symposium debating the nature of the sublime before chatgpt released. there is no 'decay', there is no 'decline'. you should be suspicious of those narratives wherever you see them, especially if you are inclined to agree!

plagiarizing human artists

nah. i've been over this ad infinitum--nothing 'AI art' does could be considered plagiarism without a definition so preposterously expansive that it would curtail huge swathes of human creative expression.

AI art models do not contain or reproduce any images. the result of them being trained on images is a very very complex statistical model that contains a lot of large-scale statistical data about all those images put together (and no data about any of those individual images).

to draw a very tortured comparison, imagine you had a great idea for how to make the next Great American Painting. you loaded up a big file of every norman rockwell painting, and you made a gigantic excel spreadsheet. in this spreadsheet you noticed how regularly elements recurred: in each cell you would have something like "naturalistic lighting" or "sexually unawakened farmers" and the % of times it appears in his paintings. from this, you then drew links between these cells--what % of paintings containing sexually unawakened farmers also contained naturalistic lighting? what % also contained a white guy?

then, if you told someone else with moderately competent skill at painting to use your excel spreadsheet to generate a Great American Painting, you would likely end up with something that is recognizably similar to a Norman Rockwell painting: but any charge of 'plagiarism' would be absolutely fucking absurd!

this is a gross oversimplification, of course, but it is much closer to how AI art works than the 'collage machine' description most people who are all het up about plagiarism talk about--and if it were a collage machine, it would still not be plagiarising because collages aren't plagiarism.

(for a better and smarter explanation of the process from soneone who actually understands it check out this great twitter thread by @reachartwork)

today's students are worried they won't have jobs because of AI tools

i mean, this is true! AI tools are definitely going to destroy livelihoods. they will increase productivty for skilled writers and artists who learn to use them, which will immiserate those jobs--they will outright replace a lot of artists and writers for whom quality is not actually important to the work they do (this has already essentially happened to the SEO slop website industry and is in the process of happening to stock images).

jobs in, for example, product support are being cut for chatgpt. and that sucks for everyone involved. but this isn't some unique evil of chatgpt or machine learning, this is just the effect that technological innovation has on industries under capitalism!

there are plenty of innovations that wiped out other job sectors overnight. the camera was disastrous for portrait artists. the spinning jenny was famously disastrous for the hand-textile workers from which the luddites drew their ranks. retail work was hit hard by self-checkout machines. this is the shape of every single innovation that can increase productivity, as marx explains in wage labour and capital:

“The greater division of labour enables one labourer to accomplish the work of five, 10, or 20 labourers; it therefore increases competition among the labourers fivefold, tenfold, or twentyfold. The labourers compete not only by selling themselves one cheaper than the other, but also by one doing the work of five, 10, or 20; and they are forced to compete in this manner by the division of labour, which is introduced and steadily improved by capital. Furthermore, to the same degree in which the division of labour increases, is the labour simplified. The special skill of the labourer becomes worthless. He becomes transformed into a simple monotonous force of production, with neither physical nor mental elasticity. His work becomes accessible to all; therefore competitors press upon him from all sides. Moreover, it must be remembered that the more simple, the more easily learned the work is, so much the less is its cost to production, the expense of its acquisition, and so much the lower must the wages sink – for, like the price of any other commodity, they are determined by the cost of production. Therefore, in the same manner in which labour becomes more unsatisfactory, more repulsive, do competition increase and wages decrease”

this is the process by which every technological advancement is used to increase the domination of the owning class over the working class. not due to some inherent flaw or malice of the technology itself, but due to the material realtions of production.

so again the overarching point is that none of this is uniquely symptomatic of AI art or whatever ever most recent technological innovation. it is symptomatic of capitalism. we remember the luddites primarily for failing and not accomplishing anything of meaning.

if you think it's bad that this new technology is being used with no consideration for the planet, for social good, for the flourishing of human beings, then i agree with you! but then your problem shouldn't be with the technology--it should be with the economic system under which its use is controlled and dictated by the bourgeoisie.

[blacktabbygames]

why is scarlet hollow hard to pitch? you can romance a cool stylish goth girl who loves anime and has a pet stick bug. this should be enough for people

So part of the challenge is that, from a marketing perspective, that isn't really a pitch! You don't actually know what kind of game it is from that, and there isn't a story hook. A pitch needs to communicate: 1. Gameplay. 2. Story. 3. Why someone should play — what's ~special~ about the game?

And a good pitch needs to do all of that without falling back on specific genre-descriptors. So you can't just say, "it's a mystery game" or "it's a horror game," and you definitely can't say "it's a visual novel."

Slay the Princess has (IMO) a very strong pitch (and I can say that because we've got hard data on how well it sells!):

Juxtaposition of cute art with horror elements sets the tone and communicates the interesting narrative dissonance in the game.

Logo + "please don't" combination establishes a push and pull between the narrator and princess + communicates that the game is funny.

Short description tells you the story by giving you a task, and communicates that you have agency to do something different in the second sentence.

To capture what's special about Scarlet Hollow you need:

To communicate the story hook — harder with a slow burn!

Communicate how much your choices matter — useless to say as a developer, because developers lie about this all the time.

Scarlet Hollow is also dragged down a bit by being in early access — so we have high hopes for it performing a lot better after the full release.

Falling back on the splashscreen text we use as an intro (you won't be able to save everyone, etc.) helped improve things a lot — it communicates in a quieter way that choices matter. And it's also helped to lean on the reputation we built w/ StP by mentioning it at the beginning. But even then, most days we're able to move 1 copy for every 20 copies we sell of StP.

At the end of the day though, we're super comfortable and stable as a studio now, so we can continue to make scarlet hollow the best game we can without worrying about how well it sells on a day to day basis!

[synchodai]

"Mystra groomed Gale" takes rustle my jimmies like no other. I get how some people who don't know much about her beyond BG3 may have this interpretation, but if you're like me, a woman who's been playing since the days of AD&D, you'd understand why accusing Mystra of being the bad person in this scenario may hit a nerve.

TL;DR: Did Mystra take advantage of Gale's devotion to her as his goddess? Definitely, she's a Faerûnian deity — they subsist on worship and adulation. Does that make her his abuser? Eh... man, maybe it's high time that a lot of us learn different terminology for unhealthy relationship dynamics other than abuser-victim. I've seen a couple of posts that are really gung-ho about forcing every companion character to be some sort of abuse victim, because that's what they've decided the game is about. I mean, they're free to interpret the game that way, but damn, we're really out here flattening god, the very concept of magic itself, into the role of an abusive ex, huh? A fantastical, nuanced relationship between mortal and immortal set against the backdrop of a rich palimpsest multiverse digested like a YouTube drama video.

Let me try to explain my perspective by going through the history of Mystra, how she's utilized in Forgotten Realms lore, and treated within D&D games in general.

MYSTRA THE MAN-EATER

Since her creation, she has always been depicted as the sexy goddess whose main purpose was to be a wizard player's muse as well as their patron. Back then, D&D (and TTRPGs in general) was a heavily male-dominated hobby, so Mystra (and Mystryl, her avatars, and all her other incarnations) was catered and shaped by that demographic.

Because it's the player characters and Wizards of the Coast who have narrative agency and many of them want to fuck a goddess, they make stories where Mystra comes on to them because their character is just so good at magic. They designed Mystra to be a mysterious, beautiful love interest because they wanted to use her as the crown jewel of their power fantasy of being a super cool and powerful magic man. You can pretty much see this in the Elminster books and the Avatar series with Midnight (one of Mystra's avatars). Gale himself seems to be an exploration of this typical kind of wizard character.

As far as power fantasies go, making the goddess of magic have an intimate relationship with a mortal character is fine. It's the ultimate validation for a burger-flipper when the god and all source of burger-flipping is head over heels in love with them. It also doesn't have to have a sexual component to have "magic" and the magic system itself enamored with a character — depending on the game and DM, Mystra's favor can be entirely symbolic and metaphorical. A fine power fantasy in the power fantasy generation game.

So because everyone literally wants a piece of her, you end up with Mystra having more Chosen running around than any other god. Understandable given what she has to do to maintain her massive portfolio. It fits her as the personification of magic — someone who entices ambitious young spellcasters but burns them out through obsession and overreaching. Consume any Forgotten Realms-related media, and you've probably come across at least one campaign, novelization, or character backstory that use Mystra for the role of sexy sorceress goddess that's the alluring (yet often demanding) patron of some magic man. Whomst amongst our wizards haven't been visited by Mystra in the night ordering him to do plot point, he rolls to seduce her, and she has no choice but to admit that she's actually attracted to him because the dice said so? It was a community inside joke passed around tables: Mystra the Man-eater.

But then some BG3 fans started taking the joke seriously...

MYSTRA THE GROOMER AND WHORE

This piece of dialogue has done so much irrevocable damage.

Some (Galemancers specifically) have interpreted this to mean that Mystra is known to go after young men. She does not. She has more documented Chosen than other gods due to her massive portfolio and power level, but there are just as many female Chosen as there are male Chosen. Minsc, like most of us in this fandom, is speculating and doing so in a way that uplifts Gale at the cost of taking a bit of a jab at Mystra.

"Mystra's a whore. She boned Kelemvor and Elminster and so many of her Chosen, taking advantage of them as a goddess," they say as if she didn't have her romantic relationships all as different people and in different bodies. Her avatar Dasumia was the one who had an intimate relationship with Elminster, and it was the human Midnight (who later ascended to become Mystra) who was Kelemvor's lover (who himself was a mortal adventurer at the time).

This is why Mystra is, how other people put it, "a whore." Because WotC canonized a handful of those stories where different sexy female mage love interests whom otherwise have nothing in common are slapped with the Mystra label for one reason or another. Sometimes they're mere avatars or magical projections, sometimes they're actual people possessed by Mystra, and sometimes they're destined to be the new Mystra but don't know it yet. But those sort of nuances are lost to people who learn their lore secondhand from deliberately provocative tweets and reddit posts, flattening extremely fantastical relationships to clumsily fit a more relatable framing that'll net them more online engagement.

I don't want to argue what is and isn't grooming. But I have encountered arguments taking Gale's mentions that he was "a young man" to mean Mystra groomed him as a child. But I doubt he would have said "young man" if he meant child...

Mystra took off the gossamer veils from her body to fully reveal herself to him — or whatever romanticized way Gale tells you that they were intimate. The man speaks in half-abstraction and metaphors because it's revealed later on in the romance that all their love-making happened outside the Material Plane. They were very intimate, but never physically had sex (or had any physical contact at all because gods are only allowed to interact with mortals through their avatars or projections). If Mystra "groomed" Gale, so did every other god who revealed themselves and made themselves vulnerable to their followers. Shar grooms her justiciars when she brings them into her dark embrace. Umberlee grooms her clerics when she swallows them up and gives them her wet kiss.

MYSTRA IS A FAIR GOD ACTUALLY

Look, gods in D&D-verses are, more often than not, dicks. They have to be or else there would be no need for adventurers to fix wrong-doings if the gods weren't so detached to the suffering of mortals and regularly making earth-shattering calamities.

Mystra, as a patron, is actually one of the more fair and hands-on dieties. She's one of the few gods who rewards benevolent ambition and punishes destructive hubris, knowing the line between the two. In the Elminster series, she (or one of her avatars) assists Elminster in taking down one of her rebel Chosen who has abused her blessing to become a tyrant. Azuth, one of her Chosen, has achieved godhood through her. In fact, she is divinely obliged — forced against her will, some might say — to help mortals she would personally rather smite. There have been so many instances where Mystra has to be the bigger person. As far as gods abusing their followers go, Mystra is low on that list.

There are barely any stories of magic abusing spellcasters, but there are cautionary tales aplenty of spellcasters abusing magic.

ON GALE SPECIFICALLY: HOW IS MYSTRA THE BAD GUY HERE?

Gale is the first to tell you that he "violated her boundaries." Mystra told him not to mess with the Tome of Netheril and he did it anyway, so he's fully aware that the orb in his chest and his fall from grace is his own fault. Mystra didn't cast him aside just because she felt like he was getting too big for his britches. His actions actively endangered her and the Weave.

(Mystra is wrong about certain details on the Karsite Weave if we're going by Forgotten Realms lore, but she's not wrong about its existence being a danger. BG3 takes a lot of liberties with the world Faerûn, so I can't definitively say whether Mystra being wrong was her lying, Larian rewriting canon, or this incarnation of Mystra not knowing the true nature of the Fall of Netheril. I could go on about what effects the Karsite Weave actually would have on magic, but this post is already long enough. )

Gale only starts to resent Mystra when she asks him to detonate himself. Elminster makes it sound like an order, but from the way she doesn't punish him in the epilogue if he chooses to keep the orb, it feels more like a suggestion. If Mystra wanted Gale well and truly dead, she has so many options.

Throughout Faerûn's history, Mystra herself has constantly been betrayed and taken advantage of — her power coveted by ambitious men who claim to worship and love her. Honestly, as far as goddesses with traumatic histories of being killed by ambitious men go, she's pretty chill about Gale. The fact that she allows him to become the god of ambition in the end if you choose that path? Well... let's just say she's not the one who looks like the evil ex who was only with their partner to take advantage of them in this scenario.

CONCLUSION

Mystra isn't the only goddess to have romantic relationships with her followers. I've already yapped on about how Forgotten Realms writers and D&D players love to make goddesses fuck their heroes, and all that pearl-clutching over "power imbalance" and "consent" is moot when the mortal party is actively rolling to seduce the divine entity.

But notice how the male gods rarely have intimate relations with their mortal charges? It's almost as if Mystra was objectified for years by horny nerds to be the sexy sorceress who validates the more important male hero. Fast forward years later, she's now being slut-shamed for all the lore of her sleeping with the more important male hero by a new crop of fans who would love to think they're more progressive than the horny nerds of the 80s, but fall into the same trap. Mystra has so much potential for complexity, but they choose to flatten her because they ultimately don't care about making stories involving complex female characters.

Instead, one of the most powerful beings in Faerûn has no bigger role in this universe than to be your girlfriend or your current boyfriend's evil ex. Wow, the realms of your creativity and respect for women truly know no bounds.

[cyberstudious]

✨ 📖 ✏️ studyblr masterpost jam ✏️ 📖 ✨

📌 what is this?

this is a masterpost jam, like a game jam or a hackathon or a writing challenge, but for creating masterposts! the goal is to share knowledge and resources, as well as connect with other cool folks on tumblr! this challenge was born out of the studyblr community, but anyone who loves learning is welcome to participate. each day, share a masterpost following the prompts below and tag your posts with the hashtag #studyblrmasterpostjam so we can all reblog them and share the love <3

🗓️ when is this happening?

the main challenge will run August 12th through August 18th, although you're welcome to participate on your own timeline :)

✨ everyone is encouraged to participate in whatever way is comfortable!

you don't have to be an academic or a professional! tell us about your special interest, a favorite hobby or craft, or something else that you like learning about!

even if you're a beginner, you still have a valuable perspective that's worth sharing (and writing posts for this challenge is a great way to do some research and learn!).

you don't have to do all of the days or share posts on the "right" day! pick and choose your faves if you want, combine things, and take as long as you need to put them together.

you don't have to make super long posts! if you have a single resource or tip to share, please do and we will appreciate it all the same <3

if you don't want to write any posts, you can still participate by reading posts that other people make and reblogging them so we can all learn from each other!

please feel free to interpret the prompts below in your own way and expand upon them! there are so many different topics out there and the questions I've written probably don't make sense for some of them, so take what makes sense and use the rest as inspiration!

✏️ prompts

[monday, august 12th] an intro to your topic or field of study

how would you describe this topic to someone who has never heard of it? what careers are available? what professional organizations/conferences are big? what journals do academics publish in? what are the big questions, goals, or challenges? what are the sub-fields/sub-topics/areas of specialization? what are some resources for learning about the field itself?

2. [tuesday, august 13th] books

textbooks, fiction that relates to the field, inspiring memoirs, biographies, art books, graphic novels, audiobooks… anything that you think is relevant to your topic and helpful!

3. [wednesday, august 14th] free resources

online things! resources that you might be able to get from your library! and and all ways to learn/study/practice that don't require money - feel free to get creative here and come up with some cool ideas beyond just links to websites!

4. [thursday, august 15th] notable figures

who has made important contributions to the field? is there anyone who made big contributions in the past that are now outdated or incorrect? who has done great things but been overlooked because of racism/sexism/ableism/etc.? who is making interesting contributions today? is there anyone in the field that you look up to? this is a great time to do some research if you don't already have some notable figures in mind!

5. [friday, august 16th] study tips

what are your favorite tips and ways to study this topic? are there lots of things you need to memorize or tricky concepts that are hard to understand at first? is there a skill that requires lots of practice? tell us about it and how you approach it!

6. [saturday, august 17th] tools of the trade

do you work with software? lab equipment? art supplies? your favorite pen and notebook? certain analysis frameworks or processes? tell us about them!

7. [sunday, august 18th] beginner's guide

what resources were most helpful when you were a beginner? what are the important concepts/techniques to start with? are there any prerequisite skills? also, include links to your previous masterposts!

remember to tag your posts with #studyblrmasterpostjam! if you want to participate, feel free to reblog this to spread the word. I'll see y'all on August 12th for the first masterpost!

[wirewitchviolet]

That thing about 'the arc of history bending towards justice...'

I'm pretty sure I've gone on about this before, and I'm pretty sure I'm preaching to the choir, but I just had a well-intentioned acquaintance try to give an inspirational speech about American trans people's fears right now, and his heart was in the right place, but all his facts were wrong, in some really important ways. I feel like the perspective he has is the same one as... basically every decent person who isn't like, intimately familiar with WPATH, so please spread this around, and please if you only read one rambling history lesson from a trans person about the current state of things, make it this one.

So here's the big problem. Trans people get brought up in the mainstream media a LOT these days, but the framing is totally wrong. The impression people get is that there is presently a big push for new trans rights, where we want proper government recognition, and trans women in particular want to be able to use public women's restrooms, and play on girls-only sports teams, and a dozen other things. That is a lie you are being fed. These are all rights we ALREADY HAD, for decades. Possibly centuries depending what we're talking about specifically and where we're talking, even. The big issue right now is that a bunch of bigots just woke up one day about 10 years ago and decided that nothing else they were angling for was getting them anywhere with the general public, so hey let's make a boogieman out of this minority of a minority nobody knows the first thing about and act like all the horrors they're inflicting are just them enforcing some totally fictional status quo.

Speaking personally, I can say that The Trans Agenda in like 2014 was something like: 1- I'm gonna make a nice big pot of chili. 2- I'm gonna maybe replay some old video games from the '90s I haven't taken down off the shelf in a while. And OK maybe 3- It'd be cool if it weren't just the medical professionals who specifically specialize in trans stuff had enough of an education to know that when there's a difference in how a drug is going to effect men vs. women, it's for reasons directly tied to the levels of various hormones, or would at least trust their trans patients to know what we're talking about and not give us the wrong doses of things and maybe kill us as a result. And also like, treat us for regular things like broken arms (real example) without weirdly panicking about some prescription we're on they don't recognize.

There was absolutely not a point where some trans woman started petitioning the government or whatever to let her pee in a toilet with a little placard of a stick figure in a dress in front. We've just been doing that the whole time. Nobody's ever had a problem with that. You didn't know we were in there? OK. If I'm like at a restaurant and have to use the bathroom, I don't know how many of the other women in there have like, type O blood. I also don't care, and I think everyone would agree it was weird if I suddenly did care, and demand they post a guard out front asking to see driver's licenses. Just completely out of the blue some nutcases from the UK started foaming at the mouth and writing weird tabloid articles about their completely unfounded fears that... I don't even know. Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs might put on a wig and follow them into the bathroom, dose them with chloroform, and drag them to some basement dungeon through some series of secret passages or something.

This was based on literally nothing at all, to be clear. Like, people pushing for this went and did serious research for anything even anecdotal to back them up on this, and didn't actually find anything. Then they started walking into public restrooms with cameras throwing doors open on people and going "see? See? Some creep could totally do this if we don't ban trans people from using bathrooms!" And... somehow this got traction? I figure it's because coincidentally there was this whole other thing going where people were looking at how every building had equal numbers of men's and women's rooms and saying "you know, like, 90% of people who come in here are the same gender and we end up with really long lines, what if we just took the signs down and told everyone to just use whichever?" which... when it's happening at the same time Chicken Little is ranting and raving about the boogieman wearing a cheap wig, wires got crossed? And suddenly we've got waves of legislation passing all over about who's allowed to use what bathrooms with weird standards that'd involve like DNA tests to actually enforce properly. Absurd stuff.

Meanwhile, your average trans activist at the time was just like... sitting there eating a sandwich and going "huh, they're making a TV series based on Fargo? That's an odd thing to happen out of the blue. And yeah we started going "hey, what the hell?" when this stuff started passing because like... yeah that's what you do when you see an article in the local newspaper that says you can't go to the bathroom at work or whatever without swabbing your cheek and waiting for lab results for 3 weeks first or whatever.

Same deal with sports. Major sports organizations like the Olympics have been weirdly paranoid about men pretending to be women since 1950. And there have been, to the best of my ability to research... zero men who have actually done this. And while the weird standards used for this have been used to kick a good number of women out over the years, none of those women have been trans, for what that's worth. Really, the whole gender testing thing has only ever been used for horrifying stuff like forcing women to strip in front of random creeps, or let them do "invasive internal exams" and of course so many incidents where some woman who isn't white wins at something and people move the goalposts to in some way to get her specifically banned. You may be thinking, "wait didn't I just see a whole bunch of news coverage about someone getting banned after some gender testing thing? She was trans right?" No. You're thinking of Caster Semenya. She's a woman. A cis woman. F on her birth certificate, born with standard issue female genitals, has periods, all that. People are just being weird racists there and crossing the streams with random transphobia. That and just... half-reading stories and making stuff up.

To the best of my knowledge, the total count of trans athletes who have competed in the Olympics would actually be... three nonbinary people, who so far as I can tell all competed against people with the same gender they had on their birth certificates, nothing done medically, so, nobody should have any problem there. Caitlyn Jenner, who didn't come out as a woman until like... 40 years after competing, on the men's team, and Laurel Hubbard, the first and only trans woman to compete at the Olympics as a woman, who placed... dead last, flubbing all three of her lifts.

If we just look at sports in general, OK, there WAS one big famous where a trans woman wanted to compete in a major sporting event, was banned from it, took the organizers to court over it, and the eventual ruling was there was no reason at all she shouldn't be allowed to play against other women. Renée Richards. And this was all the way back in 1976. Nearly 50 years ago now.

And of course in more recent years, again, after a bunch of random bigots just completely out of the blue started losing their minds about trans people with no prompting and started lobbying for new laws banning us from all kinds of things nobody had had a problem with us doing forever, there was Mack Beggs, a trans guy, who was forced, by one of those aforementioned baffling reactionary new laws, to compete on his high school's girl's wrestling team. He didn't want to be there, they didn't want him to be there, but the law said hey, F on your birth certificate, we're classifying you as a girl despite how clearly wrong that is. And then there's been a bunch of other weird cases like that like one state banning trans girls from playing any sports with other girls which only affected one single girl in the entire state, who was playing lacrosse on a team that wouldn't have even existed if she hadn't personally organized it.

But the point here is, trans people aren't asking for anything here. We're just standing here, and people are flipping out and banning us from doing all these things without any prompting. And hell, I THINK this one got shot down in higher courts, but when Florida got the brain worms on this and started passing all the anti-trans legislation they could think of, they actually included a ban on us just standing there! The wording was something like (and I apologize that I can't find it, search engines are useless now), "if a child can potentially see someone who was assigned male at birth who is wearing women's clothes, it's considered sexual assault."

It's important to understand what's actually going on here, both because what's going on here is just plain terrifying, but also because there is this huge segment of the population who has this weird idea that people's rights only ever get better, there's just some weird arbitrary ratcheting where you have to take a number and get in line. Like, "hey, used to be only white men could vote, then eventually the Progress bar filled enough that we let white women start voting too. Then we had to wait for it to fill up again, hey, we're ending this whole segregation of black people thing. Gotta give it another 30 years or so to fill up, now hey, gay people can get married! Don't be impatient trans folks, you just need to stay in line and wait for it to fill again for your turn!"

That's not how anything has ever actually worked. It would frankly be absolutely insane if it actually did, but like, this is an idea people get in their heads because history textbooks really like to gloss over all the stuff that makes the country look pretty bad and promote this whole "stuff is just always getting better!" vibe. But no, sometimes, things just straight up get worse for people. Ten years ago I could go to the damn bathroom, I could have social media accounts, I could access all the medications I need to live, I could safely set foot in any given state in the country... at least if I kept some witnesses around at all times to verify I was not in fact hitting on my would-be murderer in any of the black states on this map.

The problem is NOT that with Trump in power, the pause button is getting hit on trans people climbing towards some state of finally getting to be regular people. We were (largely) already there, and there's been a huge push over the past decade to strip that away from us. And Trump plus the rest of the Republican party in general have made very specific promises to make that way worse real real soon, including several things that will straight up kill a ton of us.

Like, when I'm talking about losing access to necessary medical treatments, I'm not talking about "THE SURGERY" and magic pills that give you boobs or beards. A lot of trans people are trans because there's weird medical stuff that in addition to messing with what does and doesn't grow mess with things like whether your blood flows properly and whether various organs do what they should. Just one of those many things the average person doesn't know, because everything written about us is from deranged bigots making crap up.

[feroluce]

So I spoke somewhat about my thoughts on Emanator Sampo here, but I never really thought of it from a design point of view or what kind of powers he would have until just recently. But I actually kind of love leaning into it from a "stage hand" perspective?

Because like. Aha's body in THEIR official art is completely black, giving attention to all the fun brightly colored things around THEM. And that's so fitting for Sampo! He usually prefers to be a side character. He likes to act from the shadows. His is a much more subtle hand.

So I wonder if as an Emanator, a lot of his clothes are actually very dark? Not necessarily plain, still extravagant and needlessly detailed in things like cut and quality with lots of different fabrics and textures and ornamentation, but dark. Or maybe even his skin itself becomes blackened further down his body; his hands in particular are dark, as a sort of sleight of hand reference.

The motif of a lot of straps wrapped around him like in his canon design is still present, but they're all loose and flowing off of him like paper streamers now instead of restraining him or holding him together. He is no longer contained! Or maybe they're still a bit more rigid/heavy, but just draped more like red stage curtains!

And this is like. Fully self-indulgent, but I love inhuman designs, and there's nothing in canon to say I can't do this, so screw it! Go for broke!! Maybe it's not visible to normal people, but Sampo having a second set of arms would be really cool, as further sleight of hand reference. One set is almost normal looking, but his hands are a bright, attention-drawing white, and the other is dark, set almost in the shadows of the first arms, to act less noticeably.

He also has something of a broken heart design to him in canon (the front of his black shirt with its jagged shape down the middle; his coat looks like a full heart shape in the back), and I actually like him keeping that element as an Emanator, because I think it suits him. Sampo says his taste in aesthetics and views on Elation involve human dignity,

and the story he helps create in Belobog involves the long and winding road of resistance and survival and eventual triumph in the face of some very adverse, oppressing odds. (I'm pretty sure I heard he once called Wildfire "artless" though, plus the man acts like he thinks Shame is some kind of dessert, so like ndkdjzjskkd) But the point being!!

I think Sampo is someone who can appreciate heartbreak and angst and tragedy in a story, because it makes the victory at the end all the sweeter. And this would be another thing he shares with Aha, because I think THEY did bless the Mourning Actors partly just to be a little shit, but also because Aha does recognize tragedy as part of THEIR Path, too, and you can see it in some of the game. So a broken heart motif can still suit him, and I like him having elements of both comedy and tragedy. Like his clothing having a happy sun/sad moon (like the moon in Aha's art) or him having both of the traditional comedy/tragedy masks in his design.

And as Emanator, Sampo can maybe play with the stage settings environment, too. Like lights sometimes behave strangely around him, appearing blindingly bright to someone or dramatically dark. Sampo wills it and suddenly there seems to be a metaphorical spotlight right where he wants everyone to look. And when he doesn't want to be noticed, his face seems to be cast in shadow, he seemingly just fades into the background, no one notices or recognizes him and he sneaks away easily. He can create smoke or fog literally out of thin air without his bombs now, too, the air will just suddenly thicken until his stage is obscured, and Sampo can set the scene as he pleases or disappear without a trace.

And in line with being a stage hand, Sampo can direct attention like no other. He was already extremely good at this as a normal mortal, and becoming an Emanator only took it up to 11, past human limits. Sampo points, and all present feel compelled to follow his fingertip. He looks away, and they all follow his gaze. He can even affect the mood of an audience; he can influence everyone to be calm and placid or he can whip them into a feverish frenzy. Sometimes a crowd will start to become unsettled, agitation stirring until it boils over, until it incites a full on violent mob.

And in the middle of all that chaos will stand one perfectly calm figure, face cast in shadow, until they quietly slip away out of sight.

[hyperions-light]

Good riddance to that mess: Thank the Dread Wolf we’re done with the Mage-Templar conflict

(because magic in Thedas is more interesting this way)

Okay the people who love conflict have won and I am going to talk about this now lol

I've decided to stick within the framework of the world/story for this particular post, because I think you could talk about the issues with the mages/templars in connection with how they relate to real-life groups for an entire essay AT LEAST, and I want to focus on magic here, so I don't think it's that germane to the discussion. If you all want to talk about that later, I can put it on the pile.

It turns out that Jenny Nicholson was 100% right about the efficacy of numbered lists on the internet, so this essay will be hybridized into a list. Here are the reasons I'm glad the mage-templar conflict is gone and hope it never returns:

It limits storytelling avenues I understand how they arrived at this dichotomy as the logical extrapolation of a minority of people in Thedas being born with magic BUT it's very boring and it doesn't facilitate interesting stories. If you have this strict system and hierarchy that means that every mage has to live in the tower or they're a) a criminal or b) Dalish, that seriously limits the kind of characters you can make who are mages, which is dull as both a player and a writer.

Trying to make it nuanced is difficult Attempting to show that everyone has a point in a situation is difficult when one group has absolute power over the other and can kill them whenever they feel like it. Also, with the abuses the Templars regularly perpetuate against the mages established in DAO and DA2 any attempted justification reads as the story sanctioning an oppressive force. If they try to demonstrate the danger of magic, they end up with the 10,000 blood mage problem from DA2. It's a hard thing to do within the framework they set up, but they also haven't been particularly successful with it, imo, so abandoning it is a better choice.

It's the most reductive version of the conflict Reducing the entire discussion to whether magic is good or evil, whether mages should be free or confined is really boring. It's a false dichotomy that promotes extremism in characters on either side of the conflict who never interact with one another. "Is magic bad?" is a useless and uninteresting question. Who cares? What does it do?; Where did it come from?; What different ways can you use it? are all better questions.

Makes it difficult for the audience to learn more about magic If the only characters the audience ever meets are people who come from the Circle, Dalish mages, and apostates, the amount they're going to learn about different perspectives on magic and its various uses is limited. Part of the reason Jaws of Hakkon was such an interesting DLC for DAI is because the Avvar have a completely different philosophy about magic and spirits. It was refreshing after several games of having the same ideas about magic shoved down our throats to hear someone give a different perspective and ACTUALLY NEW information. Everything I needed to know about the mage-templar conflict, I already knew by the end of DAO, but I had to sit through two more entire games while people discussed it at length.

Magic in the North is fascinating Now that we're finally rid of that conflict, look how many different kinds of magic we get to see in DATV! We get to meet a Rivaini Seer, a Mortalitasi (who can use magic to TALK TO REAL DEAD PEOPLE!!!), a non-Altus mage from the Tevinter Imperium; we get to see magic as it was utilized by the ancient elves and how it interfaces with technology. We got DWARF MAGIC!! Finally, an answer to what Sandal was doing! We found out you can use it to turn yourself into a LICH!!! All of that stuff is so cool, and we had never encountered it before this game! It brings up so many new questions about the nature of the Fade, the source of magic itself, the strength of magic in Thedas relative to other places in the world. And NONE of it could be discussed in the South because they are too busy arguing about fucking towers!!!

tl;dr: The mage-templar conflict was a boring and reductive lens through which to view magic in the DA universe, I'm glad it's gone, I hope they continue what they started in DATV and explore different ways magic can be used in the future.

[hotricebowlsoup]

you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes

(evamon + lots of other side interactions, 6k, sequel to this)

Life goes on as per normal, for Damon. His routine doesn’t change much, if at all; wake up to study at seven, have breakfast at eight, call his mother on the way to his first class, have lunch with Cassidy’s gang, attend afternoon classes, and resume studying at the Corner. The only thing that’s possibly slightly different in his daily schedule is the new presence he welcomes every late afternoon.

‘Welcomes’ is a little understatement. To be exact, he asked ( not pleaded, asked) Eva Tsunaka of the Mathematics course to leave her dormitory room and study with him through the lonely evenings instead.

It’s not like the new presence is life-changing, or anything. From Damon’s perspective, it’s always great to study with company, moreso if they are just as diligent and quiet as he is. It makes for good motivation to keep going, when the words in his notes start to not make sense.

So, why does literally everyone keep insisting there’s something more behind the scenes?!

i.

“I don’t believe you.” Cassidy Amber, for all her spunk and laughter, says very solemnly, staring Damon down with an unusual grouch on her face.

“There,” Damon sighs, already getting tired before the clock strikes midday, “is nothing to believe. Let it go, Cass.”

“Nuh uh! There’s totes something going on between you and Math Girl!”

Damon does not associate himself with these idiots, thank you very much.

He doesn’t even know when he even got dragged into this… messy group. He was perfectly fine sitting by himself, undisturbed while having lunch, until a few months after freshman orientation when these seniors just decided to sit with him. Uninvited.

“You looked sad and lonely, and we’ve always wanted to adopt a junior of our own!” The masked senior says, bumping shoulders with his energetic redhead best friend, who nods so passionately Damon wonders how her hat didn’t fall off.

“You have him,” Damon pointedly says, referring to an obviously rather reserved boy behind the loud duo.

“Not enough! As Pitbull once said, three’s a crowd, but four’s a party!”

“Actually,” The reserved boy speaks up, “that’s not—”

Okay, yeah. Their introduction was messy. The way they eat and talk is even messier.

Damon would never ever ever admit it upfront, but now that he’s given unlimited permission to have lunch with the two rowdy seniors, along with his fellow freshman Mark, he doesn’t see himself sitting alone ever again.

Even if they are messy. Even if he was forced into it. Even if they relentlessly tease him about what they insist is a secret relationship between him and Eva.

“Jett,” Mark Berskii, the most normal person in this odd group besides Damon, picks at his food and mutters to the masked man. “If you call her ��Math Girl’ again, Damon won’t let you hear the end of it.”

“Hell yeah! We wanna know more, that’s what we’re here for!”

Damon groans, and runs a hand through his hair. “We’re not dating.”

“No way! Damie, you literally personally invited her to my game tournament,” Cassidy shakes her head, waving her fork rudely at him. “And she showed up! And you even introduced her to us, which is like, totally cool, ‘cause I’ve always wanted to meet more fans of Sublime Slam Sisters. But like, whaaaaaaaat? ‘Cause who does that for a girl they knew for a week?”

“Someone in love, of course,” Jett unhelpfully snickers. “And broskii, before that, you said you were gonna go out the lounge for some fresh air. And what happened?”

A sigh from his left. Mark picks at his food harder. “...I don’t remember.”

“No, you definitely told us that Da-bro and Math Girl were squatting outside, holding hands!” Jett insists. “And what’s more? Damon was apologising, right? Apologising??? ”

“For a girl he knew for a week?!” Cassidy gasps scandalously, “You can’t tell us that wasn’t straight outta a shoujo, bargain bin!”

“Dude, I been saying!!!!!”

Cassidy and Jett excitedly high-five each other, the combined ‘smack’ of their palms sounding like a firework heard up close. Damon buries his face in his hands, ears red from both embarrassment and fury.

“I’m leaving,” Damon grits out, but he shows no real will to. Mark sympathetically pushes his drink towards him.

“Pardon my intrusion, but I’m afraid I’m not quite following,” Jean DeLamer, who was sitting to Jett’s left, chews thoughtfully. “You held Miss Tsunaka’s hand, and spent time alone with her outside of the student lounge? That’s the sort of intimacy you don’t just show to any friend, aye.”

“Any normal friend is what you mean,” Cassidy laughs boisterously, answering the muscular senior she had graciously welcomed into their lunch gang some few weeks ago. “If Damie here isn’t dating Math Girl, then he’s gotta have a crush on her at least!”

Nobody is taking Damon’s humiliation seriously. “You’re all wrong, I—”

“Yo, ten bucks Damon gives in and asks her the fuck out by the end of next month,” Jett suddenly butts in, voice loud and serious.

“Are you kidding?” Cassidy gasps, “ twenty Math Girl does it instead ‘cause Damie’s too busy being pussy.”

“Fifteen the girl does it, but before this month ends,” Mark adds, and Damon turns to him, utterly betrayed.

Jean chuckles from across him. “I see we’re all placing bets now. Hm, I’ll put fifteen bucks on Damon confessing before this month ends. I have faith in him.”

“No one’s,” the subject of the bet screeches, face flushing hotly, “confessing anything!!!!”

At Damon’s frustrated outburst, the group only laughs in kind.

ii.

“What was it like…” Damon swallows, face scrunched in a grimace, “to confess?”

Desmond Hall, professional archer and charmer extraordinaire, chokes at his sudden question. Damon awkwardly watches as the usually composed senior wheezes and flusters.

“Uh, you…” The older boy turns to his junior, cheeks beautifully darkened, “Sorry, repeat that?”

“...I don’t want to.”

“Ah, sure,” Desmond rubs the back of his neck, still a little too embarrassed to look at Damon again, “...but when you said ‘confess’, did you mean it in…?”

“...in that way, yeah.”

“Ah, right. In that way.” Desmond pokes his cheek, eyes looking up to the sky. “Gotta be honest, I don’t remember it at all. At that time, it was a pretty big thing, sure, but after it happened I completely forgot I was nervous.”

Damon huffs. “That’s not helpful enough.”

“Sorry, I don’t really know what your situation is,” Desmond awkwardly chuckles, “Is it courage that you want to build up, or are you just not sure on what to say?”

Twiddling his thumbs, Damon mumbles, “Just… if it’s even worth doing it.”

From the corner of his eye, Desmond smiles, empathetic and kind. He sits a little closer to Damon, clearing his throat. “You always have to take the leap for things you want to change, Damon. You never became the best speaker on the Debate Team by waiting around. You never got into Eden’s Garden Academy by hoping for a miracle. You never knew what the outcome would be, yet you made the first move anyway, which ultimately led you to where you are today. Who says confessing isn’t the same?”

Damon looks at his senior, who fondly chuckles, “Personally, I think that confessing was super worth it. I wouldn’t be waiting outside for Eloise right now if I didn’t.”

A breeze passes. It blows against Damon’s face, and carries Desmond’s words with the wind. He presses his lips together, letting the archer’s words sink in.

He closes his eyes, and dreams. Of a possibility, a world where he confronts Eva, and gazes into steel grey, far longer than he should. A world where he works up the courage to say the words he was too afraid to spill in ink. A world where his hands hold hers, and she stands close, and his mouth runs faster than his mind can think.

A world where she opens her mouth, demure and quiet, and says…

When he opens his eyes, he thinks that being at the mercy of a bloodthirsty murderer would be a much more favourable position.

“What if…” he trails off, looking blankly to the front. Desmond notices the way his eyes dart everywhere, the way his fingers fidget on the wooden bench, and the way his Adam’s Apple bobs uncontrollably. “What if… she says no?”

“If she’s got the high and mighty Damon Maitsu to fluster like this,” Desmond gives him a friendly nudge, getting a ‘yip’ out of him, “why would she?”

The few minutes of silence that follow gives plenty incentive for Damon’s thoughts to run amok. Fortunately, Desmond’s girlfriend finally arrives, having been in fencing training prior to Damon seeking him out.

“Thanks for keeping me company, Damon. I hope all goes well on your end,” Desmond encourages, making his way to the approaching Eloise. “Who’s the lucky girl, by the way?”

“I’m not telling you, go away.”

Desmond laughs and bids his junior goodbye, walking off with Eloise’s hand in his.

Damon watches them go. When Eloise gives Desmond a quizzical look, most likely referring to the unexpected conversation between the two, his senior only shrugs, pressing his lips to the fencer’s temple.

Damon watches, and for a moment, sees a curly haired girl and a blond haired boy in their place.

He slaps himself quickly afterwards.

iii.

“Going out to see Damon, again?”

Eva stops still, very still, in her tracks, and turns around at a snail’s pace. Diana Venicia doesn’t look directly at her, still looking for something in her makeup drawer, but Eva can see the bright smile that pokes out from her half-turned face.

“...Does it matter?”

“Well…” the pink haired girl giggles, and faces Eva, “You’re hurried in your movements today.”

“I don’t like wasting time. You’re holding me back.”

Diana’s smile drops quite noticeably, and Eva feels the massive need to look away. “Ah… sorry, I didn’t mean to do that.”

You probably don’t mean a lot of things either, Eva bites her tongue.

Her hand rests on the cold metal of the doorknob. She turns it, not yet pulling it open, and keeps her hand there. Then she stays in her spot, silent in thought for so long, that Diana carefully comes up to her to ask if she’s okay.

Even as she’s rushing, Eva doesn’t feel quite ready to leave their shared dormitory room yet.

“My roommate’s friends with your roommate, apparently.”

She bites her lip, mentally preparing herself.

“You…” Eva starts cautiously, getting Diana’s immediate attention, “You told Damon’s roommate about me.”

“Well, he did ask, in Damon’s name,” the latter fidgets nervously, “I’m really sorry if you didn’t want me to tell them, but Kai seemed like he really needed it, so…”

“It’s alright,” the bespectacled girl says, using the softest tone she’s yet to use with her roommate. “Things turned out well, in the end.”

Slightly embarrassed, alongside the reminder that she would be running late for the daily study session, Eva fully turns away from Diana, pulling the door open.

She almost mumbles a soft ‘thank you’ when the other girl stops her this time.

“I’m a little hurt, you know,” Diana says, voice kind and lovely, even with the sad smile on her face, “I heard that he introduced you to his friends because you said you didn’t have any. I thought I was a friend to you.”

Eva’s head turns slightly, not enough to look Diana in the eye.

The soft hand curled around her wrists burns in its spot.

Shaking her head, Diana withdraws her grip, holding her own wrist close to her chest. “Sorry. I just… since we became roommates, I’ve always wanted to be your friend, and know more about you. I really try my best to reach out, even when you leave the dorm earlier and come back later than I do.”

Eva hears, for the first time. Fully hears Diana.

All her life, she’s lived and breathed alone like it was her purpose. Because when people did actually reach out, no matter if they were an adult or peer, they always had an ulterior motive in mind. There was always something to be used. There was always someone to be used. And that someone would always be Eva.

All her life, there was no such thing as true kindness without a give and take. So when the pink haired girl stumbled into the room on the first day of orientation, catching her attention with a big bright smile, it blinded her vision and she locked herself away. There is no light without darkness. Surely, her optimistic roommate must be putting on a front, too.

But, Eva concedes, as she sees the way Diana’s hand anxiously clenches her clothing, hasn’t she been far too mean to her?

While she’s still not brave enough to look at her, she nods, very slightly, and notices how Diana’s figure relaxes a little.

“If you want me to stop,” the pink haired girl offers, albeit dejectedly, “I won’t bother you any more.”

“No,” Eva says, before she can stop herself, before she realises she even opened her mouth. 

Diana looks up, eyes wide and jaw hung open.

“I— Um.” Eva fumbles, “Thanks. For doing it.”

She takes a quick glance at Diana, meeting her eyes, and very shyly looks away just as quickly.

Even then, she can feel the other girl’s posture straightening itself, and she’s back to being cheerful, bouncing on her toes.

“Okay,” Eva hears the cheer in her roommate’s voice, and the corners of her own lips almost twitch up by themselves. “I’ll keep reaching out, if you don’t mind.”

She sucks in a breath for courage, and looks up at Diana, who’s smiling as bright as the sun. Choosing to put her point of focus on the pink haired girl’s cheek, instead of her jovial doe eyes, Eva raises her left arm, stiff and awkward.

She brings it up to shoulder level, then, even more awkwardly, clamps it on Diana’s shoulder. She raises it again, slightly, and brings it down. Pat. Again. Pat.

Diana blinks, her smile growing wider, even with the confused look in her eyes. “Was that a… shoulder pat?”

Eva doesn’t speak. But her cheeks burn, and she swiftly turns the opposite direction to hide her expression.

“Oh my goodness,” a giggle from behind her, and she can feel the flush spread to her neck and ears. It must be glowing right now, even. “Eva, that was so cute!”

Hastily fixing her spectacles, all she can mutter out is an ‘I have to go’, and pulls away from Diana, running out the room in embarrassment. The giggles get softer behind her, the faster she runs away.

Left in the room alone, Diana forces her laughter to come to a stop. But she keeps an overjoyed expression on her face, eyes smiling at the adorable memory of her roommate. She sincerely, sincerely hopes there’ll be much more fun times like this with her. And maybe, now that Eva seems somewhat willing to open up, they’ll come pretty soon.

“All the best with Damon,” The pink haired girl whispers, and closes the room door, “I really hope you’ll be happy, Eva.”

iv.

“You there, clad in the dark jumper and green tie,” Toshiko Kayura, self-proclaimed professional matchmaker of Eden’s Garden Academy, addresses Damon from behind her fan, “are going through a tumultuous period in the perilous journey of romance. Hmph, from the way it oozes out of your soul, I can practically smell it from where I am sitting.”

“Who the fuck,” Damon responds, blinking, “are you.”

Toshiko stomps her foot on the ground, already going on a tangent about her “reliable” matchmaking skills. Ah, and Wolfgang Akire of the Law course, the other bane of his existence, is sitting there too. With his legs crossed elegantly, and a picture perfect smile on his flawless face.

Damon feels ready to head to bed at eleven in the morning.

He almost walks away when the young girl quickly composes herself. Clearing her throat, she continues from behind the fan, “What is it that troubles your soul, Damon Maitsu? I simply cannot bear to let you walk around with that… unrest oozing out of you. Not when it disrupts the zen of those like me.”

He fiddles with his hair and grumbles, giving Wolfgang a pointed look. The law student who challenges his stare only smiles in kind. “It’s not particularly something I want to say. Definitely not in front of Wolfgang, at least.”

“Are you afraid I might ridicule you?” the man asks, the smile on his face looking almost condescending.

“Absolutely.” Damon squints. Absolutely no doubt he would, if it’s about Damon.

“Hmph! Fear not, unwise one,” Toshiko’s eyes crinkle, amused. “A shared joy is a double joy, but a shared sorrow is half a sorrow. Believe me, it will alleviate your turmoil to speak your mind.”

He raises an eyebrow, unconvinced.

The young girl flutters her eyelashes, expecting.

Damon notices the action, and for a split second, steel-grey eyes come to mind.

It disappears just as quickly as it came, but even then, it doesn’t stop the heat that he feels travelling up his skin from his neck to the tip of his ears. Instinctively, he looks away and scowls. Big mistake, because Wolfgang Akire lets out a low chuckle at his unfiltered expression, and if Damon weren’t trying to hide his vulnerability, he’d totally be sacking the other guy right now.

On the other hand, Toshiko Kayura sees his visceral reaction, and all but giggles, offering the seat in front of her. Damon doesn’t see any other option, so he just sinks into the chair, hiding the lower half of his face with both his palms.

“So?” She leans forward, impatient but thrilled, “What is it that ails you?”

Damon shuts his eyes, gears in his head turning. Is this really something he wants to talk about out loud? The great Damon Maitsu, veteran debater, throwing his dignity away to ask for help in confessing to some girl?

“How’d you even know I was deep in thought?” He asks, trying to stall.

“One never doubts a matchmaker’s intuition!”

“I do.”

Toshiko huffs and fans herself, expertly keeping her face covered. “Perhaps I should forgo the skirting. You have feelings of affection for someone you have yet to be closer to, but because of the odd characters you both possess, you are unsure whether to proceed. Am I wrong?”

The blush that had previously subsided from Damon’s face returns, in full blossom. “How did you—?” he screeches, startling some passersby.

“How peculiar,” Wolfgang laughs lightly, unfortunately still present. “Damon, this might be the first time I’ve seen you so flustered. I’m rather curious about who they are now.”

“Do not interrupt this sacred moment, Wolfgang!” Toshiko silences him, snapping her fingers in front of his eyes. Then, her eyes crinkle again. It’s suggestive this time. “Or would you like to share your successful endeavors with Miss Madison?”

Wolfgang draws back, a small flush taking over his neck and cheeks. He coughs into a fist, letting out a slightly strangled, “...Apologies. Please continue, Miss Kayura.”

Damon internally cheers at Wolfgang’s small defeat, almost forgetting he’s still being interrogated about his own romance issues.

“Back to you, Damon Maitsu. I implore you to take my advice, for if you don’t… I’m afraid disaster might strike.”

“This is,” he deadpans, “about a confession.” He’s so glad he’s normal. Everyone else is so weird.

“Verily! My point stands!”

“Right, so,” he begrudgingly humours the young girl, fidgeting with his tie, “What exactly should I do to avoid this so-called “disaster”?”

Her eyes light up. “Communication, of course!”

“...Right.”

“Take me seriously, Damon Maitsu!” Toshiko kicks his leg, causing an immediate reaction from him. Who knew fourteen year olds had so much strength in their knees? (No, Damon is not weak, others just happen to be stronger. It’s not strange at all in Eden’s Garden Academy, really.) “Without proper mutual understanding between you and your beloved, you will find your relationship to be as sturdy as a sandcastle in front of the raging sea.”

“What Miss Kayura says is true,” Wolfgang interrupts again, to Damon’s chagrin. “We’re both students in the Humanities, Damon. I’m sure you’re aware of the significance of a well articulated speech.”

“Why haven’t you run back to your girlfriend yet, Wolfgang? She’s the only one who actually likes you.”

“How crude, Damon.”

Toshiko raises a hand to silence the two men. “Ahem! Damon Maitsu, that is all I have to say for your situation. You are your own obstacle, in any case.”

As Damon stands to leave, she leans in one more time. He sees a twinkle in her eyes that screams mischief, not uncommonly found in a growing teenager. He braces.

“All the best with Miss Tsunaka,” she giggles, “Damon Maitsu.”

Damon draws back, eyebrows shooting up. “You— You knew?”

“One never doubts a matchmaker’s intuition,” Toshiko repeats, looking very proud of herself. What an odd kid. He should’ve just left from the beginning. Why did he even bother to stop and listen to one of his greatest academic rivals and some fourteen year old?

But as he leaves, ignoring the polite wave sent by Wolfgang, he ponders on the advice he was given. If everyone except him was succeeding in their respective romantic fields… maybe… there was merit to be had. After all, as Hegel mentioned, “Truth is found neither in the thesis nor the antithesis, but in an emergent synthesis which reconciles the two.”

Communication, huh?

v.

“Oi, idiot,” Kai yells, slamming the door open on a fine Monday. “Why the fuck aren’t you and Eva dating?”

Damon jumps in his place on the bed, halfway through taking his sweater off.

Kai gags. “Eugh, don’t strip in front of me.”

“Maybe don’t barge in without a knock???”

The door slams shut just as loudly, making Damon flinch again. Kai drags his feet as he enters, making sure to slouch backwards and groan as dramatically as possible.

He flops onto Damon’s bed, right beside him, despite the blond boy’s protests. And then, instead of loudly complaining about his terrible day like usual (Kai has a terrible day everyday), he just lies there, quiet in thought.

Kai thinking scares Damon. Genuinely. He’s not even trying to be mean.

“Did something happen?”

“You happened!” Kai bites back quickly. “Dude, I didn’t beg Diana for Miss Mathlete’s name so that you could go up to her, apologise, play video games, and still not get to first base!”

“You’re so dramatic. Diana would have told you without you needing to go on your knees.”

“Nuh uh. Your rizz is like, freaking negative, dude.”

Damon rolls his eyes, pulling his sweater off completely, having been interrupted earlier. Unbeknownst to him, Kai’s eyes follow the movement of his arms, gaze intense and longing, allowing silence to take over instead of opening his mouth and betraying the way his voice might overflow with desire.

Gods, if Damon doesn’t hurry up and get with the love of his life and out of Kai’s, he thinks he might kill himself from all the pent up tension.

“Kai.”

“Hm?”

Damon opens his mouth, but stops himself and just shakes his head. “...Nevermind, it’s nothing.”

Kai rubs his eyes, knowing exactly what his roommate’s so hung up on. “You’re so… stupid, man. I don’t get it, I really don’t. You like the girl, the girl likes you, so just… go for it.”

“You don’t know that,” he hears the uncertainty creep in Damon’s voice, as he turns around in his seat to look at his influencer roommate.

“No,” Kai whispers back, because Damon couldn’t be more wrong. He does know. He does know the difference between the look of someone who is utterly besotted, and someone who isn’t.

The look on Damon’s face when he talks to Eva. The look on Eva’s face when she talks to Damon.

The look on Damon’s face when he talks to Kai.

Kai shuts his eyes.

“No,” he repeats, firmly. “I do know that. I couldn’t be more sure of it.”

He might’ve overdone it with the forced coolness, because Damon, literal master of picking apart debate arguments, does pick up on the uncharacteristic behaviour.

“Huh,” Damon’s lips quirk up a little, “I never realised you wanted me to get a significant other this bad.”

Kai smiles, trying to keep the bitterness out as much as possible, “Nah, just don’t like seeing you mope around. It’s minus aura.”

“You and your online lingo.”

The air is a little lighter, and Kai’s chest unconstricts.

Saliva rests heavy at the back of his throat, along with a thousand words. Don't go. I hope you'll be happy. She's bad for you. She's good for you. Choose me instead. She's everything I'm not. I love you.  

Instead of spilling all over, he reminds himself that this is one of the last few moments of peace special to both him and Damon alone. So he soaks in it, crossing his fingers, hoping it lasts longer. Just a bit longer.

Kai dozes off, gripping loosely onto the fabric of Damon's dress shirt. He relishes in the way he isn't stopped.

Eva will have him soon, but for now, this moment is his to treasure.

+ i.

“Damon.”

No reply.

“Daaamon.”

There’s an annoyed grumble, but the boy stays focused on his work. The clack of his laptop keys sound louder and harsher.

Eva taps the top edge of his laptop screen, wobbling it a little. Damon looks up, a scowl on his face. “What?”

The girl blinks at him, sitting still, before moving her chin to rest on her hand. She doesn’t say another word.

Damon huffs. “Are you serious?”

She blinks again, silent and cat-like, and enjoys the way he bristles further.

He turns back to his laptop screen, glaring at the material on it like it personally challenged his bloodline. His eyes flicker, left and right, left and right… and then he just sighs and gives up, and closes his laptop.

“You’ve got my attention.” Damon frowns, “What do you want?”

“This is of utmost importance, Damon. It’s crucial that you absorb everything I am about to say next. If you don’t, a world shattering event will take place at once.”

…This can’t possibly be the ‘disaster’ Toshiko was referring to. “What is it?”

“Are you ready to absorb the weight of the universe?”

“Hurry up, Eva.”

“Did you know,” Eva says, looking directly into green eyes, speaking very solemnly. “black holes vomit.”

Ah. It indeed wasn’t. “...Eva.”

She leans in further, and with the flawless poker face she wears, he genuinely cannot tell if she’s trying to joke or not. “To be exact, they can ‘burp’ up stars that they’ve previously swallowed, and no one can explain why this happens.”

Damon stares, and stares, until his eyebrows droop outwards in utter disappointment. This is the girl he chose to crush on?

Eva Tsunaka ignores the pointed silence from the boy across her, and leans back, with an unspoken satisfaction with her own ramble. Said boy caves and lets out a very long sigh that spans approximately twenty seconds long.

“Why do I even deal with you,” he mutters, pinching his nose.

“You like me,” she replies, swift and easy.

He stops cold, eyes shooting wide open.

In front of him, Eva returns to her work, completely unfazed, while Damon stays frozen in place. Did she… did she…?

How could she confess with such a straight face, when he’s been tormenting inside all over for the past week?

Wait, there’s literally no guarantee that she means it in *that* way. Damon breathes in deep, his fingers shaking as he brings them down to his lap. Yeah. Maybe you’re just misunderstanding because you’re nervous.

Although, he has long been waiting for the right time to spill his feelings.

Surely, now that she’s made the first move, he could at least return the favour, right?

“I…” Damon begins, sounding like a strangled whisper. He clenches the fabric of his pants tight. “I like you, too.”

And then, Eva Tsunaka looks up at him.

And goes back to her work barely a second later. “Yeah, duh.”

?????????????????????????????

Oh, okay, sure. Yeah.

Leave it to Eva Tsunaka to remain nonchalant even as they’re spilling the very depths of their vulnerable souls, while Damon’s heart is pounding at a thousand miles per minute.

“You— You’re—” he splutters, “Why are you so calm about this?”

“About what, Damon?” she raises her head, exuding the very definition of calmness.

“I— You just confessed, and I confessed back, and— you’re acting like this is a totally normal day!”

Eva’s brows furrow. She sets her pen down, fixes her glasses, and steel grey stares into green for the second time this afternoon.

“Confess?” she asks, “I didn’t… Damon, we’re dating, right?”

We’re.

We’re WHAT?

Damon squints so hard at her, letting utter confusion seep through his expression, that he forgets to reply.

At the long silence, Eva’s cheeks dust with pink, and she repeats, much softer and much slower. “Damon. We’re dating, right?”

“Are—” He answers intelligently, “Were we?”

The mathlete blinks repeatedly, cheeks growing a dark shade of red, and only now does she have the audacity to look like she wants to run. 

She buries her head in her arms, letting out a strangled, guttural sound from her throat, and Damon winces. Oh no. Oh no. He didn’t even get to confess properly, and he already fucked it up. Way to go, you stupid loser. Pushing his own confusion and embarrassment aside, he leans over his side of the table and grabs onto Eva’s wrists, not wanting a repeat of the last time he scared her away with his insensitive words.

“Don't run away,” he insists, voice teetering on desperate, “We need to talk this out.”

Eva, ears burning red, goes silent for a while, and lets out another high pitched whine. But she doesn’t move from her seat, which he takes as a win.

Damon sighs, letting one hand go to ruffle his hair. He stands up, other hand still holding onto her wrist, and crosses over to her side of the table. Bending over her slightly, he exhales, breath hitting her ears and turning them even more red. The girl refuses to turn her head and spare him a glance.

“Eva,” he begins, cautious and soft, “look at me?”

A fidget, a grumble. Then a few seconds later, she complies, slowly turning her head so one eye is visible.

He sighs, noticing the way her spectacles are twisted awkwardly whilst being crushed by her arms. It must be uncomfortable for her. Stretching a nervous hand out, he gingerly coerces her face off the table, and when she reluctantly lets him lift her head, he slips her glasses off her. The action is gentle, intimate almost, in the way his fingers tremble while unlooping the earpiece behind her ear. If Eva jumps slightly at the ticklish touch, Damon chooses to ignore it.

Silence ensues, as steel grey struggles to meet green.

“Why did you think we were dating?”

She licks her lips. Her fingers fiddle. “When you invited me to your friend’s gaming tournament… and apologised to me outside. I thought…”

“Ah,” Damon sweats, “I didn’t know that was a… declaration of love.”

“I didn’t know it wasn’t!” Eva defends, “Damon, I told you I’ve been ostracized all my life. Where do you think I have the time to know what romance is?”

“You think I know what romance is, either?!” He argues.

They squint at each other, baffled. And then, it dawns on them.

They’re just two idiots. Two idiots, neither of which has ever been in a proper relationship before. Neither of which, despite achieving excellence in their respective academic fields, know how to do anything remotely sappy. Neither of which know how to properly cross the line, nor hold the hand of the one they want to do it for. Just two big idiots, who don’t know how to write their own story.

At the unspoken shared realisation, Eva is the first to laugh, in the form of a strange, amused huff. The corners of her lips quirk upwards. Damon is quick to follow, a small exasperated smile blooming on his face. He kneels right beside her seat, chest heaving with relief and joy, as quiet chuckles fill their Corner.

He’s never knelt in front of anyone before. He’d rather die than to have someone else literally look down on him like this. But when steel grey finally gains the courage to gaze into green, eyes crinkled so fondly, being on his knee doesn’t seem so humiliating anymore.

“We’re… kind of stupid, aren’t we?”

“Nope,” Damon has never been more glad to see Eva smiling, “That’s just you.”

He grumbles, all in good sport, and she laughs and extends an arm. It rests on his left cheek, and he’s very aware of the lithe thumb that brushes his lower lip.

“Because…” She leans in, and he gulps. “I believe I’m smart enough to do things at my own pace.”

Damon shuts his eyes on instinct. In the next second, a soft warmth presses against his lips.

A nose crashes into his, too.

“Ow!” he pulls back, hand flying to his nose. “Eva, what the hell?”

She blinks, and looks away, rubbing her own nose. “That was intended.”

“No, it was not!!”

But even as Damon massages his own nose and complains about the pain, his cheeks stain a beautiful pink, vividly remembering the lips against his.

“...Eva.”

“...Mm?”

“That was your first kiss, wasn’t it.”

“...Mm.”

He sighs in fond exasperation. A few more moments pass in silence, where all there is to be heard is the deep breaths taken by him. Before she can finish recovering from the embarrassing mishap, he reaches out and pulls her face back close.

“Don’t stop,” Damon whispers, and Eva can tell the moment his eyes dilate. “until I tell you to.”

In another context, it would’ve come off as commanding, or even seductive. Eva recognises this in the stories Diana talks about, the princely kind that makes your knees buckle. But this is Damon she’s talking about. Prideful, pathetic Damon, who’s never kissed a girl in his life. And if anything, he just sounds silly. Desperate. Full of want, dignity forgone. Not audacious, nor a prince.

If anything, it makes Eva’s heart flutter more.

Who is she to stop him when he pulls her in again?

Seconds feel like hours, when all they can focus on is the awkward and tentative brush of the other’s lips against their own. Too conscious of the other’s breath. Too aware of the other’s teeth. Too unsure of what to do next. It’s so embarrassing. It’s so special. It’s theirs.

“Your lips,” she murmurs when they pull away, soft and flustered, “are chapped.”

“They… I speak often.” he replies very cleverly, and also very soft and flustered.

“Oh, do you.”

Eva doesn’t give him a chance to speak.

She’s a smart girl, and she learns fast. It doesn’t take long for her to know when to pull away, when to return, when to let out a soft sigh that she knows drives him crazy. But Damon’s also a smart boy, and he also learns fast, and it also doesn’t take long for him to return the favour, eliciting gasps out of her when he figures out when to follow after her and when to swallow her sighs.

He’s going crazy. He’s never done this before. He wants to do it again.

And when she lets out another audible breath, nearly pushed over the edge, he strikes.

“Quiet,” he brings his hand up to the back of her head, “you’re still in the library, Eva.”

He pushes her over. She falls.

He follows.

[senseiofbullshit]

I think Connie, Jean, and Porco would be the messiest boyfriends. They’re always down to hear the tea and be in peoples business. I think they take three different perspectives on tea (especially work tea).

Jean is by far the messiest of the three. He asks “anything interesting happen at work today” or “what’s new, baby” while he’s rubbing your feet or doing skin care with you before bed. Even though he doesn’t ask directly, you know exactly what he’s fishing for. As soon as you sigh and say “lemme tell you about”, his eyes light up and he smirks. He’ll lay back and let you talk and talk and talk about Linda at work. You can tell him every thing like he’s one of your girls and he’s into it. He sees it as a form of trust but he's also just nosy as hell. He’ll ask questions and engage. He remembers everyone’s names and every single transgression against you. He acknowledges that you’re just venting and that you don’t actually feel angry enough the kill your coworkers. He’ll let you say anything terrible that you need to get off youe chest. You don’t even need to ask “can I say something terrible?”. It’s all fair game to him.

“She sounds like a miserable, dried up, old, hag and she needs to watch herself.”

“That’s right, baby. You tell her.”

“And she wonders why her kids can’t stand her.”

Jean is all up in your work business. He also knows never to repeat anything you tell him. So if you he ever meets the person you’re trash talking, the person will never know that Jean knows everything you’ve told him. He’s cool to play the aloof boyfriend. What’s great about Jean though is that he adopts whatever attitude you have towards these people. At your Christmas work social, he’s polite and professional (read: fake) with Linda. He’ll smile when he needs to and mimics your level of fake. Once Linda crosses a line though, he won’t let her slide. He'll drop the fake smile and put her in her place; never even having to raise his voice. After you guys leave the event, Jean is all “I see what you mean, baby”. Every time you bring up Linda in the future, he'll always mention how awful she was at the Christmas social. Jean doesn't forget.

If you ever stand up to the people giving you shit at work, he will praise you. “Talk yo shit, queen.” Like Jean, please be serious for five minutes.

Connie is similar in the aspect that he wants to hear all the tea too. Connie has a harder time keeping up and following. “Who’s Linda again?” And now your speed running him back through two weeks worth of tea before he goes “oh, oh, oh yeah! Uh hm. I’m following you, babe.” He may interrupt you and egg you on hard at some points. Connie wants the full retelling of the tea. He wants to feel like he was there when it happened. He wants ALL the details and he is quite the exaggerator. “Babe, if that was me, I woulda laid her ass out right there.” Like Connie, please. No, you would not have.

“You let her say that to you?”

“See? And that’s why her husband left her and she can’t find another man.”

“Isn’t she the one that made that nasty ass chili for your work pot luck?”

You have to warn Connie what he can and can’t repeat because if you don’t, he WILL accidentally repeat something about your boss' affair back to them without thinking about it. “Connie, you can’t tell anybody this,” or “I need to say something terrible but you can’t repeat it,” and he knows to lock it away in the vault. He’s very neutral when he meets the people you talk about. Sometimes he might even end the night like “Linda isn’t so bad. I think you misjudged, babe.” Find Connie sitting at a table laughing and drinking with the manager you can’t stand because he gets along with everyone.

Porco is a whole different story. He acts like he doesn’t care about your work drama and at times it may seem like he’s not listening, especially if it’s something you’ve griped about repeatedly, but the man is listening. He’s doing something else, not making eye contact, and giving you short answers while you talk, but he’s listening. If you stop just to see if he's listening, he'll wordlessly look at you and wait for you to continue. If you tell him to repeat whatever you just said back to you, he will sigh and give you a watered down version of everything you said. He will recall stuff you told him weeks ago. Sometimes, if the tea is really good, he'll stop what he's doing and engage, but will still wear that unimpressed look. Spilling work tea or venting to him may get a little frustrating because he frequently advocates for you rocking somebody’s shit. Porco believes violence is the answer to disrespect lol. Linda at work pissed you off? You should rock her shit. You found out your 'friend' started a terrible rumor about you? Crash out and two piece her. Your grandma offended you? Hands rated E for everybody.

“Baby, just rock her shit and quit. I already told you that I’ll take care of you and you won’t have to go back to that shitty place.”

“Knock her ass out and you never have to work again.”

“If I were her, I would be a bitter bitch too if had to look at you all day. (Insert a comment about how hot you are followed by something filthy.)”

How romantic. He’s trying to be supportive, but he just doesn’t enjoy the fact that somebody is ruining your day at a place where you spend so much of your time. He doesn’t think you should have to tolerate disrespect no matter how minor. He constantly advises you to square up with Linda, quit, and become a stay at home partner that lives out their dreams while he provides for you. If you text him while you’re working that you’re getting a headache because of Linda, he will either reply that you should just lay her out or he’ll ask if he needs to come up there. It’s hard to tell whether or not he’s joking.

“Baby, don’t let her disrespect you. Lay her ass out.”

“Do you need me to come up there? We’ll see if she still says that shit with her chest.”

What sets Porco apart from Jean and Connie is that he does not play nice when he meets the people you vent about. When he meets them, he’s a bit standoffish and uninterested. He’s gives a short 'hey' and does not shake hands. Something about how unapproachable he is makes the people you can’t stand vie for his attention. Porco will literally size them, keep a neutral, straight face, and not say a word, but something about that makes people feel like they have something to prove. No matter how much Linda tries to butter him up, he never warms up to her. Like Jean, Porco won’t let backhanded comments slide, but he’s much less pleasant about addressing it. While Jean says “what was that?”, Porco is more of a “fuck did you just say?” kinda guy. Jean will politely and calmly read Linda for filth if she crosses a line with you. Porco is loudly cooking Linda, her momma, her daddy, her grandma, ALL her kids, their kids, and any future kids. And though you’re proud and happy to have a man that stands ten toes down for you, you’re the one who has to show your face in the office Monday morning. As confrontational as he is, he will take a step back and let you handle the people you have problems with. However, if you're nonconfrontational and want him to handle it for you, he will pack them up fast.

[itsbenedict]

Games I Played In 2024 And Whether Or Not I Thought They Were Good (Part 1/4)

1 - [2] - [3] - [4]

It's that time of year again! I wasted far too much time playing videogames, but at least I can tell you which of those videogames were worth playing and which ones weren't. Again!

(2020, 2021, 2022, 2023)

The Roottrees are Dead

It's... the comparisons that leapt to mind immediately were "like Her Story, but also like Return of the Obra Dinn", which it turns out were the two direct inspirations so that makes total sense. Your job is to piece together a huge, sprawling family tree, identifying the names, faces, relationships, and occupations of everyone therein. How? You've got a search engine you can enter search terms into, and bring up various webpages and documents detailing the lives of the Roottrees. As you fill in the blanks and make guesses, the game will confirm them in batches, Obra Dinn-style.

This core gameplay is already really engrossing, but along the way you'll pick up hints of a mystery underlying the Roottree family history, and figure out a bonus objective on top of just filling out the whole tree. It's extremely cool and unique, and The Fluteknees are Bread.

Bounty of One

This one was recommended to me by my kid brother. It's... fairly brainless? It's a roguelike where you're in an infinite empty desert, enemies come in from the sides of the screen to try and kill you, and if you shoot them you get powerups and money for upgrades. The character auto-aims at the nearest enemy while not moving, so all you have to worry about is dodging and selecting upgrades.

It's pretty fun! Lots of different toys with synergies that let you snowball in a few different directions. I find it great for like, putting on to give my hands something to do while I'm watching a show or listening to a podcast or something. Not too much else to say about it.

Misericorde

There's been a murder in a convent in 1400s England. The abbey's anchoress, the only person with an alibi (due to having been locked in a room her entire life), is tasked with covertly investigating by the Mother Superior, who believes the rest of the nuns are keeping secrets from her and covering things up.

She doesn't know the half of it.

Misericorde, currently unfinished, is chapter 1 of an episodic mystery VN, which is the only reason it's not my game of the year. It's got several strengths:

A great sense of atmosphere, with an extensive D&B-infused soundtrack that really gets across the protagonist's unease without being unpleasant to listen to.

Exceptional character designs, which manage to be distinctive and full of personality despite being in black and white and having every character be a nun wearing the exact same outfit the exact same way.

A dedication to historical accuracy, not flinching away from the realities and attitudes that would be present in a medieval English convent. Hedwig, our protagonist, is the stuffiest and most pedantic theology nerd of them all, and is constantly astonished by the irreverent-to-downright-debauched behavior of her "peers", largely forced into this life by circumstance. A really unique, harrowing, and sometimes hilarious perspective.

Despite this, impressively gay.

Good writing. Like good writing good writing. Not just structurally but on the prose level. Very important for a game that's 90% reading.

I'm not entirely sure how well the mystery aspect of it will shake out, since it's still in the setup phase and the whole thing isn't out yet, but all that aside, it's a joy to read anyway. Also Darcy is in it.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet DLC

Yeah, I know. I shouldn't be rewarding Game Freak for their shitty business model and half-baked games. And you know what? You shouldn't either. These were bad.

Gameplay-wise... total nothingburgers. You know how Paldea was this ugly empty wasteland of airbrushed textures with no rewards for exploration, sprinkled with random pokémon spawns and trainer battles? They did another one of those. Two of those, kinda. The second one's Blueberry Academy map had a little more visual variety but ultimately was exactly as empty and unrewarding to explore as before. Zero-effort design as always.

The base game of SV had, I think, the best story a mainline pokémon game has ever had. They broke out the "dramatic legendary stuff", "fight an evil Team", and "do a Pokémon League journey" components into their own parallel things, and managed to make all of them more compelling than they've ever been.

The DLC... uh, doesn't, really. There's a couple fun new characters- Carmine and Kieran are entertainingly fucked-up- but Carmine gets sidelined almost immediately, and Kieran is the only thing the game has going for it storywise through the whole DLC. His story's kind of effective, but it can't carry the whole thing, and all the stuff about Ogerpon and Terapagos is underbaked and disjointed and anticlimactic. You're not really missing anything if you skip it. So skip it.

Cluefinders series

Did anyone else play these edutainment point-and-click adventure games as a kid? Sort of... Indiana Jones by way of Scooby-Doo? These were my jam back in the day, and I went back to them to see how they held up. And the answer is... uh, there's a surprising range of quality!

I ended up having way more to say about these than I thought I would, so here's a separate post about them. Overall, I don't know that I'd recommend any of them, unless you're an actual elementary schooler who needs to learn math and stuff.

And if you are- hey! You should not be reading my blog! This is not a website for children! I say swear words on here! Kind of a lot of them, actually! Your mom's gonna be mad at me, and neither of us want that!

Project Killdance

This was a... kind of cool tactics/action game? It's kind of Superhot but a deckbuilder, and that's... not really to its benefit. Copy-pasting my review from itch.io:

This is really polished and has some super cool moments, but I'm kind of hung up on... the core mechanic of it being at odds with the rest of the design. The tense action where you have to decide moment-by-moment how to not die that turn is great, and the action economy is a good abstraction for it... but ultimately, success or failure hinges almost entirely on Did You Have Enough Basic Moves In Hand. The overriding concern is always "is a bullet about to hit me?", and the answer is almost always "yes", and the solution is always "play a move"- which means, if you don't have one, all the rest of your planning doesn't matter, and you're dead.  Other deckbuilders have this core problem, of course, but they usually smooth over it with a health system that gives you a certain tolerance for failure. When it's an iterative system, building your deck properly you can lower the chance of being forced to take hits on your turn, and the outer game loop is about managing that risk. But... in a game like this, where a single failure means death, any significant random failure rate is a feel-bad. And the failure rate varies with the level design: the less cover, the more movement you need to be doing, but the incremental deckbuilder thing locks you into a certain proportion of offense to defense, forcing you to mulligan over and over to find viable hands. I do like the action economy aspect- keeping an eye on your AP and moves-in-hand to ensure you don't get stuck taking a breath at the wrong time is a good tactical challenge. The question is how to preserve that core challenge- making the most of limited and unpredictable options- without creating as many situations where all roads lead to dead. Maybe... separate decks for moves and attacks? Or the ability to slash enemy projectiles out of the air? More cover options in the level design? I'm not sure exactly what the right solution is, but I think you want something to cut down on "a big guy with a machine gun is immediately firing at you turn one and your opening hand doesn't let you move, RIP" moments. (Also- is there any significance to those Corrupted cards that sometimes show up in longer levels? I thought maybe relying on them gave you a bad ending, but I played through twice without using Corrupted cards the second time, and got the same outcome. Just a catchup mechanic for if you find yourself in a stalemate, or is there something else going on there?)

It's very short and manageable (and free), though- I think this is like, a prototype of something larger they're working on? Its length mean its flaws don't really get too annoying, and it's very stylish and fun when it works.

Pokémon Infinite Fusion

This was fantastic. This is the best Pokémon game, I think. The concept: You can take any two pokémon, and fuse them. Into one of two new fused pokémon, depending on which is the base and which is the head. It gets extremely wild extremely fast.

But more importantly, the game is very good. It's got so many QoL features! They've got HMs, but every HM in the game has a sidequest associated with it that earns you an item that substitutes for the HM- so you get the sort of teambuilding and moveset tradeoffs, but they're temporary, encouraging you to try out new stuff instead of locking you into the stuff that runs the HMs you need. And there's a proper speedup function, and there's these sidequests with really nice rewards in every town...

It's also hard to overstate how many custom fusion sprites there are. There's a huge community filling out a dex of the things, and more often than not there'll be a custom graphic for whichever unholy combo you come up with. The odds have presumably only risen over time, as the game's been continually updating since I played it. The stuff you can make is crazy cool.

My favorite is Honchvire. He is going to kill you to death.

Spiritfall

It's sort of... Hades meets Super Smash Bros. It's hard to come up with anything more to say than that, mechanically- that's exactly what it is. The combat system is a Smash-style platform fighter, but it's a roguelike where you acquire synergistic boons from different gods over the course of the run, and unlock different weapons with different movesets (and slight upgrades to said weapons) through the metaprogression.

And it works! If that concept sounds fun to you, then hey: it is! It's gorgeously animated, well-balanced, and has lots of optional challenges. It didn't really need to innovate- it smashed two known formulas for success together, executed with care and polish, and bam, the result is successful. Fun Video Game.

(Story's kinda nothing- a few months later, I literally can't remember if it had one. Some vague thing about souls and a sealed blight and you have to save the world or something? Didn't seem to be trying too hard, and didn't really need to.)

-

I got, um... 23 more games on this list, so I'll talk about the rest later.

1 - [2] - [3] - [4]

[emmie-writes-stuff]

Okay!!!

New blue lock chapter!!!!!

Time for Emmie’s semi-regular ramble

Rin is one of my favourites so most of the screenshots I took this time are just of him-

I KNEW WE WOULD GET KILL MODE RIN SOMETIME DURING THIS GAME LETS FUCKING GOOOO

And looking at his eyes compared to how he was in the U20 match, this time, Rin is more in control of himself and not so zeroed in on Sae (even though he still flashes back to childhood this chapter, at least Sae isn’t here so he’s able to focus on the game more instead of his complex emotions about his brother)

Lick

HIORIN CRUMBS

I swear, I’m on the floor scavenging at this point-

I wish that we could’ve gotten more of them playing against each other, considering Hiori has had his playstyle and attitude towards soccer compared to Sae multiple times

It would’ve been cool to see, not just from a shipping perspective, but also from a story perspective, since the two meshed up real well during the third selection playoffs

Buuuuut they’re also two of my favourite characters and I much prefer to see them play against each other than see Isagi and Rin play against each other

Fucking freak-

Is there any better way you could’ve phrased that?????

Go wild you uncontrollable storm!!!!!!!

I’m legit so hyped to see Rin play, it’s giving me life!!!!!

I love seeing more of these two as kids

The way that Sae interacts with Rin gives me a strange sense of nostalgia

I’m the oldest in my family and I had to kind of do all the little things for my brothers and keep them from getting in trouble (I was the scapegoat child but we don’t need to get into my relationship with my parents-)

I practically raised the younger two, so seeing how Sae is with Rin when they were kids is so nostalgic to me and gives me too many emotions to put to words

I really need to know what happened in Spain to have Sae completely flip his switch

There’s a lot of ideas I have when it comes to Sae and how he really feels about Rin and why he does what he does, but that’s a different post for a different day

For now, we get to see them as children before everything went all upside down and sideways

AGAIN???

How many times have they got mad at Rin???

Sad parent backstory introduced

I’ve had this idea that their parents kinda were busy with stuff and that’s the reason that they weren’t around in the other flashbacks aside from seeing Sae off at the airport, but this gives me so many different ideas

I can only include ten screenshots so I have to skip the brothers with ice cream, but Sae saying that he’s always gonna be by Rin’s side, knowing how they are in the current time makes me feel bittersweet about everything

Like, I REALLY hope we get to see Sae’s experience in Spain and what took him from a hyped up 13 year old to the defeated 17 year old we saw in the flashbacks, to the completely numb Sae we have now

Also, THAT CLIFF HANGER OF WHAT RIN’S EGO IS HOLY SHIT I NEED THE NEXT CHAPTER NOW

I skipped over all the Isagi categorizing folks stuff because it’s not the reason I read and I’m much more interested in the brothers, but it’s a little intristing how he’s putting everyone in little boxes

I just don’t care enough to cover it-

Anyways, that’s all for now!!

[emblemxeno]

I feel like I live on a completely different world than a lot of Fire Emblem fans. My favorite game is Engage, with Fates being a pretty close second. And Three Houses is easily my least favorite (I’d even go as far to say I outright don’t like the game anymore).

I think what really turned me off from Three Houses was that it had no clue what it wanted to be.

Does it want to be a social sim with engaging combat, like Persona? Because it failed at that. The social sim aspect is simultaneously tedious and easily skippable, that I wonder why they even bothered. And the gameplay is not engaging in the slightest because the maps are boring and never demand anything of the player, and this game is the worst offender of the “just make everyone one class” effect.

Does it want to be a deep, “morally grey” story with multiple points of view where nobody is truly in the wrong? Then the Slithers existing is a rebuke to that idea. They are in every meaning of the word, evil.

Does it want to have a fun route where you play as the villains who know they’re doing wrong, but they do it anyway because that’s where their belief is? Then that’s also not done well at all, since in CF they all cry and whinge about how hard it is to be fighting a war that they started!

Sorry for the rant, but it truly baffles me whenever I see takes on Reddit or wherever that people think Fire Emblem should take more inspiration from Three Houses. I think that’d legitimately kill the series for me if they decided to do that.

Mmmm, I agree with pretty much all you're saying.

While they never outright admitted that they had a problem with content bloat, the devs and writers said they kept adding stuff to the game until it "had its own soul/life" at some point. Which to some-or many, considering how many people love the game-is admirable and worthy of praise.

Me? I think it's the video game equivalent of identity crisis combined with the dreadful modern game design ideology of "everything needs to be BIGGER."

In trying to explain every detail and every perspective, 3H ends up not saying anything definitive by itself. Things only start to barely make sense when you read the writer interviews, but then you start wondering why the absurd amount of chaff (cheap dialogue) couldn't be cut.

And when it came to making everything in the game design aspect BIGGER, it just ended up being "why don't we take all the familiar mechanics and make them take longer to fulfill." The 5+ experience bars for determining levels or class abilities or weapon proficiency or class mastery or blah blah blah. When in previous entries, all you had to do was level up and use seals to reclass, bada boom. Couple that with the simulation aspect being doubled down on with Loading Screen Monastery, multiple activities which get old fast but can't be skipped unless you want to risk gimping yourself, and the hundreds of button presses to do things that were so, so quick to do in the past... Like, even if I were to give in to what most people say and concede that 3H is a beacon of modern FE storytelling, who the hell cares when the game is such a slog to play? At a certain point, the only major enjoyment anymore for me is doing funny/cool builds like Grappler Flayn or Trickster Ignatz.

I feel you on that last part, if the next FE game is basically 3H The Squeakquel, I'm gonna be real sour :///

[wyrmguardsecrets]

How to engage and walk up to rpers

Pros and tips

• Have a reason

Make a hook/reason for your character to interact with others. Do they need a magical item appraised? Seek out mages or magic users. Noticed they’re of the same nation or faction? Channel that sense of unity and community. Seeking healing for an aliment? Find a priest, druid, evoker, monk, paladin or shaman that can aid you. Looking to rob someone? Find a weaker character and single them out. Searching for a lost relatives? Ask the locals if anyone has seen them.

These can all be as long term or short term as you’d like.

Strongly encourage reading others’ hooks to see if any stand out to you.

• Put your desired themes in your trp and read others

Stating your themes helps you attract that crowd as well as state exactly what you’re looking for. You can branch out into other themes obviously, but a general idea of main themes helps people know what to expect or avoid. Some people may not like noble rp or dark rp and that’s okay.

• Ask questions

Inquire about people’s characters from a in character perspective. People love being given a chance to gush about their characters. It also gives you a better feel for what character and personality they’re trying to write.

• Don’t be afraid of unplanned or planned rp

People have their reasons for not liking one another, but stepping out of your comfort zone can lead to some cool stories. Both have their pros and cons.

• For flirty characters

There’s a line of flirty and sexual harassment. Some of you don’t know the difference. Groping or ass slapping? Assault. Making acomment on sexual features? Creepy. Making a clever joke, saying a romantic line or pick up? Flirting.

Try to be aware of how people are feeling. Remember that boundaries and expectations vary from every rper. If you’re uncertain about something, whisper them. Communication is half the battle.

• For mean or aggressive characters

You can play a mean and aggressive character that is easy to write with, but no one wants to be your rp verbal punching bag. Be witty and clever with insults, get creative. Do not randomly walk up to people and start insulting them or berating them. Remember that mean people still have other ranges of emotions other than asshole. They can have triggers, soft spots and other interactions asides from hostility.

A cool concept or angle would be writing a mean or aggressive person who is actively trying to change their ways. Whether they fail or not is up to you.

• For characters with high ranks positions or lots of power (whether magical, physical, political, etc)

No one likes someone flaunting around their rp titles while expecting everyone to rp their way. Irl or even in the games lore do you see Ashbringer constantly lord over others about it, or Anduin reminding everyone in the room that he is the prince and very important.

People in power never have to speak on their power.

Show your character’s power in subtle ways. Is it the armor or dresses they wear? Maybe a noblewoman is always preened or encased in jewelry. A powerful Paladin who’s seen many battles can have opulent armor and be decorated in medals.

Another way you can express power is the gap between powers. If you’re rich, you may not think about the poor or “smaller” issues in the world. If you’re powerful, you may have experienced within wars or physical effects from your growth (dark veins for dark magic, stretch marks and scars on rippling muscle, an aura specific to your magic type).

Show don’t tell.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Everyone has a specific rp style and no one rper is the same. These are just general tips to help people who may be struggling or wondering why they aren’t getting walk ups, not a set of rules.

-

[aranarumei]

on love (and basketball): hirano to kagiura, ch 23b

if the title's not obvious, SPOILERS BEWARE! I'll be putting this under the cut for extra safety and also because. i have a tendency to not shutting up

so i recently saw this wonderful post by @kalpalatas talking about how basketball is central to hirano and kagiura's relationship, and there's a lot of wonderful add-ons to it as well, so highly recommend checking it out (i may be one of them ;p)

anyways, to me, a lot of hirano to kagiura as a manga centers on the complications of the fact that hirano and kagiura both have deep feelings for each other, but the way they express these feelings and the way they're received hasn't quite aligned. hirano's confused by why kagiura isn't happy to be touched, and kagiura is absolutely in the dark regarding hirano's feelings, judging by the way he immediately thinks hirano's trying to officially turn him down. we saw it in that chapter with the distrail and we see it now--despite all that kagi's been doing, he's remained so careful about not crossing that line. that silly little love fortune has haunted him.

so here, it's a breath of fresh air for kagiura to just notice how much hirano loves "the kagi-kun that plays basketball." and for kagiura, who plays basketball morning, day, and night, the version of him that plays basketball is just. himself, entirely. it's this passion that hirano responds really positively to--because hirano responds positively to passion and drive in general--and it's probably the point in which they connect the most, I think. side note: though it's not explicitly said, kagiura zeroing on not missing any shots (the thing that cost them the game last time) really shows how much that loss affected him. i think this moment's really lovely because we get to see what we see in the first chapters of hirano to kagiura--that hirano's a genuinely affirming and uplifting presence in kagiura's life. for a moment, when it's basketball, it feels like that confusion between them suffuses into pure warmth.

anyways, when they're talking with ichinose, the question that gets cut off seems to be kagiura asking about hirano's passion, which I'm very excited about... if hirano understands kagiura's love through the lens of his passion for basketball, how much kagiura's understanding of hirano develop when he understands hirano's dreams? hirano's approached kagiura's feelings with a lot of curiousity (wondering about his expression in this chapter) and I like it when they discover and ask things about each other. it's very them. i also have a lot of crazy feelings about ichinose but uh. haha! perhaps another post. i don't wanna sound too unhinged yet...

I'd love to have formatted this post better but I hope my main points have got across... this is really just half a reaction post to the ch since it's a really cool chapter overall. also just for fun i'll let everyone know that a lot of the moments where kagiura gets blushy or something really romantic happens often has kagiura like... below hirano in perspective or height. seriously if you go back through the chapters you'll notice it. it happened again this chapter which I was so excited about. this chapter's so awesome. so many different things to talk about.

(like... how kagiura almost kissed him...! and hirano's reaction is. fascinating. i always love how it's so delayed. it's like... how do i explain it. when it's delayed, it feels like hirano's reacting to the feeling more than the physical situation, which is... wonderful to me. the way he talks about kagiura having dated before also makes me think he hasn't, which checks out to me.)

[theresattrpgforthat]

Hi! You have a really cool blog and have been getting me into indie RPGs, so firstly just thanks :) But anyway, any RPGs that could work well in a play-by-post format, even if you'd need to homebrew or hack it a little? Online friends on the other side of the world are a beast.

THEME: Play-by-Post.

Hello friend! So I haven’t done a lot of play-by-post games, but I’ve tried it out once or twice. I think in many cases, you might not even need a ttrpg in order to do online roleplay; I’ve played in Star Wars pbp that used the FFG system, but I’ve also seen Star Wars forums that are completely text-based and host their own wikis on information that’s been established in their world to keep track of what's happened so far.

That being said, I can understand having a framework to help guide you, especially if you enjoy the structure of traditional ttrpgs. The possibilities of playing these games by post are vast, although I'm noticing that most of the old forums have migrated over to Discord these days - and Discord makes things like rolling dice so easy, so it makes sense!'

If you're converting a ttrpg that uses dice into something that is play-by-post, you'll have a dice-bot, while if you're using a game that has no dice, or is a little more free-form, then that's one less mechanical piece that you'll need to worry about. Other considerations will likely be things like where you put character sheets, whether the game will be organized in a West Marches format or more like a traditional story, and how often players will be expected to write up what they're doing.

All of this is to say that the following recommendations are just the tip of the iceberg, really. Some of these are designed for play-by-post, while others are just games that I've seen out in the wild before.

Lords of Creation, by Five Points Games.

Lords of Creation is a rules-lite cooperative world building game with a focus on the Divine. Players create Divinities and populate a fresh, open world with a focus on myth telling and lore. The game is intended to be played via Play by Post, allowing players to run multiple societies, factions and elements at once.

Five Points Games clarifies in the game text that this game isn’t really their brainchild, but rather the culmination of play-by-post roleplaying on old WOTC forums. It’s a game about divinity and world creation, and each “turn” of the game takes place over the course of a real-time week. I think this gives a lot of time for each player to be involved in each step of the game, as well as providing in-universe ways to manage players who no longer participate, or who need to stop playing for one reason or another. Lords of Creation is also GM-less, allowing everyone to participate in a partial player, partial GM-style role.

Yowl! What A Strange Hotel, by Zargo Games.

Yowl! is a reviewing service that allows customers to rate establishments from 1 to 6 stars and tell the important details of their stay in a handful of paragraphs. This game is about telling the story of a particular establishment, in this case a hotel, through a series of Yowl! reviews. Reviews are from a different perspective each time, and should reveal something interesting and unusual about the hotel. Is there a dark secret that the hotel is hiding, or is something even stranger going on?

Yowl! looks to be designed for a shorter length of play. Together you will create a strange hotel, and then take turns leaving reviews, letting little pieces of information contribute to a larger story-line as you go. I think this is a relatively simple way of playing by post, although it relies mostly on each player’s creativity, as the game doesn’t come with any prompts.

World /Chronicles of Darkness Games (currently published by Onyx Path).

The World of Darkness franchise is a beast, and has been fuelling play-by-post form play for decades. There’s a number of reasons this collection of settings has been so popular.

It’s focused on factions and politics, which means that a large number of people can join in and fill out various political groups and start plenty of drama with each-other. Because the drama is so juicy, dice rolls can fade into the background. (I don’t think that stops you from being able to use it in a small group though!)

It’s got oodles and oodles of lore, but it’s set within the real world, so players can use something like Google Maps to create a fantasy version of a real-life city, and it provides a solid frame of reference.

It’s been around for a long time, which means that there is so much in terms of resources and advice that you can look at, such as the Onyx Path forums, or the WoD Discord Server.

The Chronicles of Darkness games are specifically designed to be cross-compatible. Changelings, Hunters, Vampires, Werewolves and more can all interact in the same universe - as long as the GM is on board with it. Most of the base rules are the same, with some tweaks for each splat, so if you have some players that really want to play a werewolf, while others are more interested in becoming mages, you can combine the two no problem!

Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine, by @jennamoran.

The Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine RPG is a dice-less RPG from Jenna Katerin Moran, author of the well-regarded Nobilis and an important contributor to Eos’ Weapons of the Gods and White Wolf’s Exalted RPG.

Pursue fabulous quests. Progress through Issues. And find a place for yourself in a world of breathtaking beauty.

Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine doesn’t require dice, but rather asks you to role-play through scenes and spend points in line with your character quests. You gain XP for the experiences your character has, the way they interact with other characters, and the steps they take to move towards completing their quest. Because character advancement is dependant on role-play, I think Chuubo’s is a great way to prompt interactions in a play-by-post setting, and character advancement is both a compelling reason for folks to participate and an engine that feeds the storytelling machine.

The rulebook for this game can be a bit of a big read, but there’s a starter adventure included, with pre-built characters to help you get going.

Kids on Brooms and Teens in Space, by Hunters Entertainment.

Kids on Brooms is a collaborative role-playing game about taking on the life of a witch or wizard at a magical school you all attend that uses the “Powered by Kids on Bikes” system, first used in the award winning Kids on Bikes. Kids on Brooms is a rules-light storytelling system that takes you on magical adventures.

Teens in Space is a space opera RPG that uses the “Powered by Kids on Bikes” system. Teens in Space is a rules-light storytelling system that takes you into the cosmos for adventure and profit.

Both of these games use the teen-horror inspired game Kids on Bikes. Since these games rely heavily on polyhedral dice, I think setting up a discord server that also has a dice bot is the way to go with this one. You can choose a character from archetypes provided in the books, or create your own piece-by-piece. Different locations could be represented by different Discord channels, and since these games seem to work really well in regards to mysteries, I think a GM could focus on putting clues in different locations for characters to find, allowing the characters to slowly piece together a mystery over time.

I think Kids on Bikes is a kind of game that is going to require a lot more work to replicate as a play-by-post game than some of the other games on this list, because characters will need to roll dice in order to get things done, and it's best used in a small group. However, one thing I think really works well for these systems is the relationship questions that you roll on to determine how your characters relate to each-other. It gives you a connection right from the get go, and it can give the players something to work with while they're finding their feet.

Belonging Outside Belonging Games.

As a rule, Belonging Outside Belonging games don’t require dice, and as a common feature, BoB games don’t usually require GMs either. Characters are typically organized into playbooks; tropes or classes or collections of abilities that both define characters and make it easier for new players to find their rhythm. These playbooks will come with three categories of abilities: things that you can always do, things that require a token to activate, and things that reward you with a token when you do them. These games also usually include the setting itself as a playbook, or a divided series of responsibilities handed out to each player.

I can imagine a play-by-post form of game moving between descriptive scenes and active scenes, with players alternating between introducing elements of the setting / narrative obstacles; and describing how their characters react to these new events. (I've also seen this kind of thing happen on a Wanderhome server.)

Some Belonging Outside Belonging games that sound interesting to me are Lunar Echoes (a solar punk hack of Wanderhome), Geese at the Beach (chaotic water fowl looking for shines), and Capitalites (urban Asian young people trying to figure out who they are).

I hope you found this useful!