#for real it took me two playthroughs to realize this

[windienine]

me: wow! in the ending, ysme without her glamours sure is drawn differently! and actually, on second glance, she's completely flat-chested without them. and that's true for her ghost mode too. huh. but not her goddess form. and she says she normally applies her glamours as soon as she wakes up. i guess it would make sense for her to be shy about loic seeing her naked, but it's interesting that there's this textual implication that she doesn't even like looking at herself without her artisanry illusions up--

me: ohhh okay

[the-bitter-ocean]

for the ask game- 12!

12- what got you interested in the game?

See I initially found and played the previous game START AGAIN START AGAIN START AGAIN: a prologue back in early 2022 and fell in love with it. There wasn’t a lot of talk or traction about the prologue, aside from some really chill ( now mutuals of mine ) on tumblr drawing fanart and writing fic for it and shortonegaming doing a lovely playthrough of the entire game. I stumbled across it by pure coincidence. Steam recommended the game based on other games I played, and it took me a hot minute to realize the artist I followed for years is the one who made the game to begin with! So yeah I beat the prologue, joined the official discord server the day it was made/ was revealed to the public and have been here ever since.

I was really happy when it was announced that In Stars and Time was going to be real and I kind of got all my friends to play it and/or watch a complete playthrough of the story in its entirety via word of mouth! Seeing how the server grew from like at most 200 people tops to over 5K people in the past two years alone is nuts.

But yeah basically I got into it initially because of the cutesy art and the story/ characters is something that’s right up my alley that I knew I would fall in love with. Plus both the game and its prequel are really affordable and I got both when they were on sale so that’s a plus.

Thank you for the lovely question @tbdragoonfly

[latoyalestrange]

ghost of our love

s. sallow x gn!reader

(inspired by real events in my second HL playthrough made possible by the companion mod lmao)

summary: a map with messy sketches of landmarks was all you had to go on. that normally wouldn’t prove so challenging if you hadn’t been at hogwarts for all of a week and hadn’t gotten a chance to leave the castle yet. the remedy? a somewhat overconfident fellow fifth-year, who’s face hadn’t slipped your mind since the moment you saw it.

warnings: fluff, fluff, and more fluff <;3 not edited!

words: 1.8k

you needed to use lumos, that much was clear. a bridge, some floating candles, a disheveled archway, some trees, and…hogsmeade? you took your eyes away from the dusty parchment for a moment to scan the boundless grounds that surrounded the northern exit of hogwarts. You stood just outside the courtyard with the gentle wind flowing through your hair behind you. Your scarf followed suit, protecting you from the dusk chill that nipped at your now blushing cheeks and nose.

you saw a few different bridges leading to what looked like an endless sea of forest and no floating candles. having already circled the castle looking for good amount of time, you realized treasure hunting was a lot harder than you had anticipated. you eyed the map again, searching for the missing piece of the puzzle.

being at hogwarts so far had taught you many things. one of those being honing your ability to focus. casting ancient magic required great amounts of focus and discipline, as did any spell. sometimes your ability to drown out distraction came to your benefit, and other times— well, other times it just made it easy to sneak up on you. and, of course, sebastian sallow loved it.

“searching for buried treasure, are we?” the familiar feeling of your soul jumping out of your body momentarily rushed over you, an instinctively deep breath entering your lungs.

“for the love of merlin, sallow! don’t you know it’s rude to sneak up on people?” you pouted, clutching the parchment to your chest. your chest heaved as your heart settled and he just chuckled looking at you. you hoped the heat rising in your face would be excused as wind chill.

you couldn’t help yourself around him. around everyone else you were cunning, witty, and charming, but in front of him, you were a awkward school-girl, tripping over your words at every turn and blushing at his every remark. the flirtatious slytherin boy picked up on it immediately and it pulled him to you “like a moth to a flame” as he described it to his closest friend, ominis.

“yes, actually. i just like to knock you down a peg. the ‘chosen one’ ordeal is going straight to your head,” he replied sarcastically, gesturing to your head with a poke of his finger. you swatted his hand away, unamused.

“i’m not the chosen one,” you mocked him, returning to your map.

“that’s what it sounded like to me!” he retorted, but you didn’t bother responding as your eyes locked on the sketches again.

“hey, is that the entrance to the forbidden forest there?” he invited himself to investigate the clues, pointing to the rocky archway in the center. he leaned in to get a better look, closing the gap between the two of you. at that very moment, you were pretty sure you forgot how to focus because you couldn’t even try if your life depended on it. the wind carried his scent over to you as he started to fill your senses.

“yes, there’s the bridge, the entrance, then the trees and hogsmeade to the northeast…that’s just over there.” your gaze followed his hand, indicating to the furthest stone bridge from you and if you squinted, you could see the forgotten archway. he casually grabbed your hand, starting to lead you in the correct direction.

“i don’t remember agreeing to this!” you called to him as he walked swiftly in front of you, trudging through the wild grass to cross in a more direct path.

“you didn’t!” he called back, turning to meet your eye with a mischievous smirk falling to his lips. you stifled a girlish chuckle and jogged lightly to catch up to his long strides. after finding your way back to a path, the bridge was just a few paces in front of you. you eyed the forest’s edge, wondering what might be hiding behind the thick brush. you stop just before the bridge and sebastian notices your distant stare.

“don’t tell me you’re afraid of the forbidden forrest. nothing you can find in there is worse than what i’ve already seen you best.” he assures you.

“i’m not afraid! just thought i heard something…” you trail off, leaving the two of you in silence for a moment. you listened to the wind howl around you, taking in the path you could now clearly see you were meant to take. you took a deep breath and held up your wand.

“lumos.” now you wear leading the way across the stone bridge, scanning the space around you for any reaction. then, as if they appeared out of thin air, a few flickering candles began to float into your view, taking you across the bridge and under the ancient-looking archway that held several warnings against your very actions.

“ah, following floating candles into the forbidden forest. this should be interesting.” you welcomed sebastians familiar sarcasm. at the present, even though you previously denied it, you were trembling in your little boots. the countless duels didn’t scare you because you were at the advantage. no one expected a 16 year old to wield such powerful magic, so you were always underestimated. it was aggravating, but it gave you the upper hand when they were too shocked to cast back.

in the forest, however, you were left vulnerable with so many possible blind spots and vantage points that enemies could hold against you. it made you nervous, to say the least.

"we're looking for a large, dead tree..." the both of you continued to hold your wands up as you followed the candles deeper into the forest. owls cooed and dugbogs crooked in the distance, saving you from the awkward silence. If only the peaceful ambiance and captivating nature around you could calm your nerves too.

"ah, here we are...just a bit further i presume." his casual and confident tone ignited a warmth in your stomach that was fairly new to you. you couldn't quite put your finger on it, but being in his presence, especially hearing his voice, made your entire body buzz. you weren't sure what to call it, but you knew you wouldn't be able to keep your feelings hidden much longer if it kept recurring. you wouldn't be able to bare it.

"jackdaw didn't exactly tell me what i was looking for. we could be walking into anything," you admitted, biting your lip as you realized how far you had traveled.

"jackdaw? i doubt he would give a map of certain death to a student.

"you should've seen where i had to go to find the blasted map,' you retorted, causing the boy to snort with laughter. without thinking, you giggled along with him, your eyes meeting for a brief moment. you looked away instinctively, but the furious blush on your cheeks still remained.

"look! just up ahead!" he swiftly passed you, following the candles around a sparse, rocky path with a large brush on either side. you found yourselves on a landing looking over a charming river, an overgrown wooden bridge going across it. the bundle of candles that led you here joined a larger swarm that lit up the romantic scenery in front of you. an iron set of two chairs and a matching table with more candles and a bundle of wildflowers as a centerpiece. the flames flickered like shining stars that surrounded you, illuminating the various flowers and shrubs planted around the table.

your heart instantly started pumping faster in your chest as you searched his expression for a reaction.

"you could've just asked me on a date, you know," he teased, looking around at the scenery.

"i didn't--"

"i'm only teasing, calm down now," he held a defensive hand up and interrupted you before you could respond. "treasure!"

you followed his sight to see a shiny bronze chest with a lock clasped around the opening. he immediately tried it, just in case, but no luck.

"just our luck..." he scanned the area for a clue and you followed suit. while investigating the table, you noticed a tiny glowing swirl in each seat. you looked back to the lock to see a matching light coming from it as well.

"sebastian...i see something." he rushed to your side.

"what is it?"

"the seats, they're glowing..."

"okay, are you sure this wasn't a secret plot to get me to go with you? you really didn't have to do this--"

"enough, sebastian." you rolled your eyes, and he broke.

"alright, i apologize, that was the last time. i promise." he couldn't help from chuckling at your furrowed brow and twisted mouth. you hated when he said it, but he found you incredibly adorable when you were angry. you sighed and he silenced himself, clearing his throat.

"okay, i think it's pretty clear what we're meant to do." it was his turn to show a flustered demeanor as he straightened his robes, looking at you from the opposite end of the table.

"right..." you fidgeted where you stood before he finally gained the courage to round the table, placing both hands on the back of your chair. his hazel eyes met yours, almost asking for permission. you nodded and he pulled your chair back for you, watching as you took your spot in it. the grass floor prevented him from pushing your chair forward, so he lifted it to set you down further beneath the table. he returned to his original stance, facing you as he fixed his suit once more before sitting down as well.

the candle's glow grew significantly, lighting up the area as if a street lamp was just above. you heard a prominent click-click come from the chest as the lock fell to the ground. you almost turned to look at the chest, but your eyes were locked in with sebastian's, unable to falter. he looked breathless, almost. completely and utterly taken aback.

"sebastian? are you alright?" he blinked as if your voice brought him out of a trance.

"yeah, just...you look stunning right now." he admitted honestly.

"oh! thank you." the redness in your face returned just as quickly as it faded. silence fell on both of you again. he seemed deep in thought as his gaze fell to the table.

"sebastian? the treasure?" his head popped back up, and reality set back in for him.

"right. you're splitting that with me, by the way." he was back to his cocky self as he stood to investigate the chest. you followed suit, rushing to catch up to him.

"you wish, sallow."

"is that so? you wouldn't have been able to open the chest without me here, would you?" he taunted you as you joined him next to the bronze treasure.

"fine, but you're getting us butterbeer after this." he opened the chest, revealing what looked to be around 250 galleons.

"I don't think that will be a problem."

[leescoresbies]

if it's of interest to anybody at all, here's my big picture review of veilguard after my first playthrough! it's not all negative - i think there's a lot of gameplay reasons to really love the game but it also lands overall as a weirdly disjointed, sanitized, and at times soulless followup to a game series that's known for being kind of messy, polarizing and opening doors to argue about inherent contradictions and bad decisions.

i'm a dai HATER so the things i loathed about that game i loathed here too, including a very hateful and lazy engagement with oppression, history, religion & cultural connection, & everything to do with modern elves engaging with their past.

good things: combat! maps, just pure enjoyable playability, scenery, the home base setup, companion banter and some of their relationships, at times the protagonist.

things i hated: immersion, commitment to the bit, an almost dismissive attitude about previous lore and worldbuilding, how all the lore reveals are pulled off, a fear of anything challenging or crunchy that ultimately just pissed off players who love the "argue about inane nonsense" part of da games!

under the cut for spoilers

the good stuff is GENUINELY good. i can tell a lot of focus and time went into elevating some of the clunky parts of previous da games. the character creator! the HAIR! it's so genuinely beautiful and at times breathtaking in its design (realizing that mountain is a titan??) and deeply enjoyable to look at. i LOVED the combat playing as a mage, and loved being able to respec any time to try things and experiment. flexible, entertaining, flashy and fun. inquisition's actual gameplay was such a slog for me as someone who isn't motivated by minmaxing combat strategy in any way, so i loved this.

a lot of people are comparing it to the two new god of war games - for good reason! i think it took a lot of positive notes from them, which is one of the reasons why it's so darned fun to play. it moved away from the party mangement rpg setup of previous da games and, while i do miss that and also understand why people might be frustrated by the change, i think it resulted in a game with compulsively playable combat and a navigable world that's a lot more constrained and exciting - both bigger than origins and da2, and more locked down and specific than dai. this was all a major win, with a few art design things i did struggle with (like the outfits? why? and the fact that you can't preview fits when you buy them from vendors?) i think this let the environments shine, and exploring them was so exciting.

however -- the comparisons to god of war reveal what my fundamental biggest problem with the game is. the GoW games are beautiful, thrilling to play, full of epic fights -- but for me anyway, at their core they're so good because they're a deep dive into a really complicated relationship between two people. they focus on a very specific story, and let that story unspool as you move through the world. the environment supports the story, not the other way around. characters fight and scream with each other, and have friction in their worldviews, and make decisions they regret badly. and the story is linear enough that there's nothing ambiguous or loose about any of it. sure, mainlining those valkyrie fights is fun but the games are incredible because they let the characters really have space to develop their points of view, make hard decisions, get pissed at each other!

DAV does none of this. offers no friction that isn't surface level, gives its characters no space to have contradictory or complex political opinions, and does not touch its own thorny and convoluted worldbuilding that's built on fictional oppressive systems (that are allegorical for real oppressive systems!) there is no discussion of slavery, even though the companions include a tevinter mage and two elves and your character can be an elf, a freedom fighter, or an ex-slave (which i discovered in one-off banter between laidir and taash?????? what?). there is no religious friction between people of different backgrounds. there is no depth or history or context.

the only time the game tries to think about its oppressive systems is when its telling the story of the ancient elves (powerful elf mages oppressing other elves), and has its elven characters (marginalized in the world they live in! they are forced to live in slums and work as servants or be enslaved, or else abandon society to hold onto their fractured history! hello!) APOLOGIZE for the decisions of their ancestors. the moments where bellara or davrin or the veil jumpers discuss how their people's lost deities returning (people who, again, have been slaughtered over and over and over by fantasy catholics for believing in them) and, surprise!, being power-wielding evil aristocrats who enslaved them are few and far between. it's disrespectful and dry and so, so, so boring.

as an example: lace harding (red head, white, grew up on a farm, follows fantasy catholicism) gets a whole moment where the player can lament in her feeling her religion's truths have been turned upside down. you can also say you're a fantasy catholic! bellara and davrin (both a fictional minority in the game, both represented by real-life minorities) are never given that space. and neither is rook.

there's no space for any of the characters to wrestle with those contradictions! to draw connections between themselves and solas, for good or bad! to hold him accountable! there's a reason so many people were expecting a game about a slave revolt in tevinter in the last ten years, because at some point we expected these things to come to a head and explode, changing the rules of the world. that would have been satisfying! leveling a city for no reason with no narrative impact is not.

at the end of the day, i wasn't convinced by the elven god lore reveals -- this is true about DAI too, and i hated it at the time. i wasn't convinced that anything world-shaking was actually world-shaking. i'm a serial RPG character repeater (i've played every background for dao at some point but have settled into a character i love and will play her over and over and over again) and it took me hours and hours to connect with rook because i was so disconnected from her background.

essentially i feel that: this group of writers have inherited a universe with a TON of baggage (racism, sexism even though they say there is no sexism, confusing lore, many worldstates, etc etc) and a ton of possibility. rather than embracing any of these things and trying to commit to saying something, even imperfectly, they ended up saying very little. being scrappy and caring for your friends is good! being evil is bad! there's nothing along a sliding scale of those two opinions that might present itself, and no space where somebody good might also hold opinions that harm somebody else.

the thing that makes da2 so beloved, even though it's repetitive and kind of ugly and at times a bit half-baked, is that the characters hold their own, dig into their opinions, evolve as their circumstances evolve. and so does hawke! i actually wish DAV had just given us a true background for rook and let us play their story, because trying to do everything has resulted in a game that says almost nothing, and seems almost disinterested in the fact that it's a dragon age game at all.

[w98pops]

So Nico's parents were Khans 👀👀👀

YES!!

I didn't really thought out them that much, Nico is a new character after all and I wanted to explore him a bit, before going all in into my obsession with writing a whole bloodline with 15 generations and personal backstories for each and everyone.

BUT. I have a silly little drawing of them ⬇️

They both were kids at the time of New Khans wipeout, first generation Great Khans. They were good friends with Papa Khan. (Pretty much the only reason Nico was allowed back in. Papa recognised the memorabilia that Nicodemus has on the hilt of his machete-sword, that one of his moms wore.)

I don't think Nico had any thoughts about his parents before the meeting with Papa, he never remembered them and the only reason he got his mom's necklace back is because Aletus won it in caravan from a legionary who participated in killing of Nico's parents.

About their death, I think Legion not in a million years could've openly confront Khans, they unknowingly found Nicodemus' moms in a vulnerable position (They were having sort of vacation, to celebrate their child's birth) and AFTER losing 12 good soldiers to raid this one house, and finding just two Great Khan women and a child, Legate and Caesar took a note of the tribe's strength, which contributed years later in the decision to try to negotiate "peace" with Khans, instead of just doing it the Legion way.

Also, in my playthrough as Wendy I did expose Legion's plan to Khans, which now that I think about it kinda doesn't make sense because at that point in time Wendy had no real agenda against the people who she literally grew up with.

I think she visited Red Rock twice, before the Fort, and after. Before the Fort she just kinda hang out, met Nicodemus and Chance, and then after her witnessing the horrors of the Legion she never faced as a child, and having a talk with her dad, she deliberately came back to convince Papa (and Nico) to drop this stuff.

Nico got some insight about his parents from Papa, came back to the Legion, got demoted from the frumentarii position because of a failed negotiation, (not crucified only because Nico is too valuable of an asset and also too heavy to lift him up on a cross) was sent to Arizona, deserted and joined the Khans.

Silly chain of consequences regarding the necklace ⬇️

Aletus just randomly won it > Aletus remembered it belonged to Nico's parents > Aletus gave Nico the necklace > Nico thought it looked like the Eye of the Providence, religious man he is, and kept it > Papa recognised it > Wendy and Papa provided Nico with information that changed his life forever > Nico is now on the right path and fixing the mistakes he made > The world is a little bit better!!

It's a bit silly and I just realized I barely talked about the question at hand and just rambled about Nico's relationship with Khans 😭 But hopefully it's fine.

Thank you so much for the ask and letting me ramble about my characters!!! Much much love 💗

[boyswanna-be-her]

I had the sweetest halloween of my life. I got up super early bc there was a big protest planned at the abortion clinic that day and I'd volunteered to be there w two of my favorite volunteers I hadn't seen in a while. It ended up being low key and I played my entire Kelloween playlist for them in the parking lot while antagonizing the protesters so all in all a good session. I was satisfied with my halloween already.

When I got home, I realized Bfr had secretly been planning an entire spooky day for us. They queued up a playlist of creepy music. We made rice krispie treats (which i'd brought up recently i'd never made before and had no idea how they worked). They'd bought two horror games for us to play specifically on Halloween--one goofy one that only took a few hours to play through that made me laugh so hard I couldn't breathe, and a longer one that was a game I'd mentioned a long time ago watching a playthrough of and thinking it was creepy. They set up a "spooky" civ 6 scenario for us to play after dinner (civ 6 is my favorite, so real nerd hours). They queued up "It Follows" because I'd mentioned that I thought they might like it (they don't generally like horror movies or gore so extra points for being down to watch a suggestion, they watched parts through their fingers).

Like, I never had to even say Halloween was a holiday I care for. They know enough about me to know that October can be rough for me and obviously I must love Halloween bc I'm a nerd creep with a collection of horror shirts. It just meant a lot that they decided we were going to celebrate halloween, even if I didn't want to get dressed up or to go out, even if I had no energy to decorate and no money or mental bandwidth to plan stuff, and they planned hours and hours of spooky entertainment for us. I felt very seen and appreciated 🖤💀🎃

[derekscorner]

Ghost of Ramblings: Dad of Boi

Started a New game plus Recently

I have been playing God of War from Ascension in chronological order over the past few months and I've finally made my way back to GoW 2018 and it's new game plus.

It's been a hot minute since I played the NG+ and it took even more minutes to adjust to it's combat after playing Classic GoW for so long. I got hooked on Ghost of Sparda and GoW3 for quite a while.

The whole while I was just taking in how beautiful the whole game is. Remembering the story beats or how this one game got me into the whole series. My god slayer journey began here with Dad of Boi.

I was reminded of how good its story truly is. How tightly written and delivered it's dialogue is. The nuances of Kratos hit harder too since I have played classic GoW this time unlike my first time playing Dad of Boi.

Back then all I had was curious youtube and wiki searches to get a grasp of Kratos' world. It's hard to explain but it truly does feel different if you play GoW 2018 after playing, at minimum, GoW 1, 2 and 3.

Hell, I'd even argue that GoW 2018 will hit different after plaything through it's own sequel Ragnarok. I know Ragnarok has some harsh critics, I'm not one of them, but it is hard to deny that it's predecessor is just written better.

Every little story in the boat, every little dialogue when exploring, the whole adventure is a bonding and learning moment for Atreus and Kratos. Every scene with Odin's kin, the parallel to Freya and Baldur in particular, shows what Kratos is trying to avoid.

A pacing and blend so well done that I'd call it a lightning in the bottle moment.

I love this scene ^^^^

Nothing in this world is perfect mind you but it's hard to talk about GoW 2018 and not praise its story.

Of course, Ragnarok is still an improvement in gameplay overall. I had grown too addicted to the customization options for appearance. The very fact that I can unlock and play young Kratos in Ragnarok is amazing to me.

It does make me wonder what went wrong in the story department of Ragnarok though. As I said, I'm no harsh critic of Ragnarok but I can't deny it has pacing issues.

Thankfully they added scene skip so even the Atreus segments can be skimmed on repeat playthroughs. They didn't bother me on the first run but I can only handle so many two hour stretches of Atreus wandering Ironwood.

I've always heard rumors that it's because they chose to make the Norse story a duology which I could believe. Ragnarok feels like it needed to be the third game not the second one.

The whole personality shift of Freya truly does feel rushed. As beautiful as that scene is when she lets go it needed more time to be truly believable.

I also think it would've made her conflicted feelings more conceivable if she had witnessed Kratos' memories in some magical mumbo jumbo way. It's hard to imagine he's talk so freely about his family yet I also think it's crucial for Freya to shift the focus of her rage after hearing about Calliope.

Kratos did do her wrong while trying to do something right but I think that would only get through to Freya if she saw that moment. Kratos was by no means a good person but his love for his family was real and it drove him to a madness that ended a pantheon.

Kratos is easily the only man there that understands her feelings.

I glitched the blades in these scenes somehow

But even this is a minor complaint. I do not consider the narrative of Ragnarok worth some harshness I see it get. It's badly paced to be sure but it's not offensive.

If anything, I hope they learn from it for their new projects. I have next to no interest in Atreus since he genuinely is annoying in Ragnarok but I wouldn't mind giving him a shot in a spin off if they learn from it.

Or, ya know, send him to Greece. I do not care how annoying the boy of war is. I would pay them money to see him walk through Greece and see the monster that his father was.

I'd even give them my respect if Atreus realized just how hard Kratos worked to channel his bottomless rage into a weapon to use. I know many fans hate how weak Kratos seems to be now and I personally find the "holding back" excuse weak on the devs part.

So I relate a bit. I do not fully agree since I began the series with 2018 so my opinion is forever biased on such topics.

I have no real point to make with this post by the way. I am just gushing about a game I like and rambling about the contrast it has to it's own sequel or predecessors.

The whole of my praise is also limited to GoW 2018's narrative. In terms of world building or story consistency I could rip the God of War series apart.

The classic games weren't exactly consistent with some things like the potential paradox of using Fates threads, Kratos losing that time travel power in 3 despite using it moments prior in 2's ending, or the whole ambiguity of his godhood. (I wont even get into the last minute hope thing in 3)

It's not a mess like I'd rant about with Kingdom Hearts or Bleach. Sure, there are some details in a novelization or two, a comic story here or there, but it's nothing you need to know.

Kratos even references a novel detail in Ragnarok. When asked why he doesn't just throw his blades away Kratos will retort with an annoyed statement that he "tried".

Step into the light Boy

That doesn't confirm a novel as 100% valid but it does show subtly that the blades follow him against his will.

My own personal take on Kratos' continued godhood is also a curse. He's got to live as what he despises most until something powerful enough finally kills him in a way where he won't burst out of Hel's gates.

That's a tangent all its own I think. I just felt like rambling a bit, there's even a lot I left out. Like the pure pointlessness of a lock-on in either game due to how often the enemies dart around and break the targeting.

I wonder what many of you think about 2018 now that Valhalla has come and gone. Ragnarok may have been hit or miss for many but Valhalla is nearly as good as 2018 I feel.

Though, not having young Kratos speak with his original voice actor in that one scene felt like a missed opportunity imo.

Oh well, I'm done now. Bye~

[pbandjesse]

We are just now leaving Jess's soupsgivings party. It was such a nice evening. And it's been a pretty great day.

I am wildly full right now though and pretty uncomfortable. But I will be okay. I am glad we should have a fairly quick hour drive home.

I didn't sleep amazing. I woke up with a nose bleed. I had had such a nice time watching shows with James and felt really happy but physically it is starting to be consistently hard to find a comfy way to sleep. I'm trying really hard to not toss and turn and just stay in one orientation. But man. It is tough to stay comfortable, and on top of that I can't breathe? Not fair.

I didn't wake up enough to hug James but I do remember them kissing my cheek. Love them so much. They had moved the car and unloaded some stuff so we would have room for what Jess was giving us this evening. And I appreciated all the things they do for me.

When I woke up I made the bed, and took a shower, washed my hair, and tried to feel ready for the scary Ticketmaster queue.

I have never bought tickets for something that may sell out, something people describe as a war. All I have heard was about the app or website crashing and scalpers getting all the tickets. And I had resigned myself that it may not happen. I felt like I have to be emotionally ready for that.

At 945 I realized that while I had attached my PayPal, I had not attached my credit card to my account. So I quickly did that. I would get that done one minute before the waiting room lobby opened. I was basically trembling with nerves.

I would be in the lobby for 9 minutes. And then I was in the queue. With almost 16,000 people ahead of me. I was stressed. I was doing all of this on my phone and was very afraid of closing the app, in case it made it restart or crash. So I was also on my tablet googling things.

This is a stadium tour. I checked how many seats are in citizen's bank stadium. About 50,000 seats. So I figured with the behind the stage seats not being available, but the field being available, I was probably in a good spot. And the time would slowly ticket down. I was in the queue for a half hour but then it was my turn.

No thoughts when into this. I grabbed the first two tickets I saw. $93. Some of the cheapest tickets they had. I was thrilled. And even with fees they were only $127. And then I had them! I didn't even know where they were in the stadium. I would check later and was fine with them. Like they are high up, but a baseball stadium is set up to see a tiny ball so there aren't actually any bad seats. I was so excited.

My chemical romance has been one of, if not my favorite band since I was 13. I have never seen them perform. I never thought I would get to see them perform. I feel so lucky that I got tickets. I didn't even try last time they were in Philly and I have regretted it for years. I am just thrilled. Like I don't even know if this is going to be a full album playthrough, new music, or what. But it for real does not matter. They could just play covers of other bands and I would be so excited still. This is going to be such a good time. Can't wait for August.

I was in a great mood after getting the tickets. And the day wasn't even over yet. I still had soup to make!

And my soup went really well. I was proud of how it came out. I wrote out the recipe in a post earlier. But in the moment it was mainly off the top of my head. Loosely based on Liz's chili soup from back when I was in bronze casting classes at community college. I always loved when it has lots of bell peppers. And so that's what I do. And I added orange bell peppers this time and not just green. I could have minced the garlic a little more maybe but it was a valiant effort for something I hate doing (cutting garlic and shallots).

It took me about an hour to make my soup. And once it was done I had a bowl, and put the rest in jars to bring to the party. I was also just texting with my dad and talking about music. He told me that him and his brother saw Led Zeppelin for $8. Wild.

I would spend some time resting. Just hanging in bed. It was nice to just lay down. I'm 22 weeks pregnant today. Baby is the size of a papaya. She's finally reached a pound. At least statistically. The last ultrasound they said she's 29th percentile so she's just a little small. But I am feeling very round. My organs already feel squished under my ribs. But I am doing okay. I'm more comfortable in some ways, and way more uncomfortable in others. I'm just taking it a day at a time.

Eventually I would go for a walk. I went to the CVS down the street and picked up some cereal. It was nice outside but I got a sharp pain in my leg and didn't want to walk more then I had to go get back home.

When I got back home I had a bowl of the cereal. Hung out on the couch with sweetp. And eventually went upstairs to gather myself for heading to pick up James to go to Jess's party.

I got a flannel for James. And packed up my soup. When I got to the car I realized that I couldn't put the seats down because of the wagon behind the passenger seat. So I took that back to the house. Jess said she had a bunch of stuff for us so I wanted to make sure we had the space.

And then I was off. I would get to the musuem a little before 4. And I was just happy to sit with James behind the desk. It's been kind of a hard week of work on James. I hope that my presence brings them some peace.

I told them about my day and getting the tickets. And it was just nice being together.

We would finish up at the museum and start the journey to Jess's at 430. And it was a fine drive. Not much traffic and at all and got to her house right at 6.

We beat the other guests. But it wasn't a long wait. In the mean time James helped Jess bring a box to the attic and loaded up all the baby stuff she had for us in the car. And then we were just waiting.

4 other people were coming. And I was looking forward to trying the soups. Besides my chili soup, Jess has made a cauliflower, Kelly made a pickle soup!!, Rex and their partner made a gourd soup, and Chuck made a Thai noodle soup. It was so fun to get to try all of them. Jess also made an excellent salad and tiny bread bowls for each of us. The conversation was good, though I was feeling really tired which made me feel withdrawn. I have been feeling very withdrawn lately and it's hard to hold conversations. I feel like I'm making a really big effort every time. But I still enjoyed the conversation. I liked sitting next to James in the bench seat. And I was just feeling happy and warm surrounded by the holiday decor.

We stayed for the ranking of the soups and then dessert. The pickle soup was a favorite of basically everyone. I liked my chili best but no one should be surprised by that. All of them were good though and the bread only made it better.

But I was feeling wildly full. Which was just not comfortable and I was struggling finding a way to sit. If I crunched up I hurt my back, but if I sat straight I hurt my belly. I couldn't win. Jess let me try her new back massager thing but I found it a bit painful. But really it was just time to go.

We said goodbye to everyone. Jess yelled at my belly to try and get baby to hear her. And then we were off.

We're about 40 minutes from home now. And I am very much looking forward to bed. Tomorrow should be a full day. With the market and then an educator event in the evening. I believe that's a wedding. So it'll be a busy day but I hope to get some rest in the middle. And hopefully I can make some sales and just have a good time.

I hope you all have a good day too. Taken care of yourself. Goodnight everyone.

[ava-core]

me, a bethesda shill: so what if my courier six was an elder scrolls character

May Bell, Deathbells: Daughter of Coldharbour

headcanons under the cut!

so i also used to play so much skyrim back in the day! it was also my first ever game that i played (around 2016?) and it was a hilarious initial experience because it took me five playthroughs to realize succubi weren’t actual members of a real race in elder scrolls lore…rip my older cousin’s copy i borrowed that used to run with 200+ mods

ANYWAY! lore-wise, there were so many opportunities i could take here, but something called to me seeing may as…undead. this is mainly centered around skyrim, btw!

but of course, may is a vampire in tamriel. not just any vampire, however: she’s a vampire lord, ghosting about lord harkon’s court in castle volkihar as one of the senior keepers of the library.

i considered making her a daughter of coldharbour, but i remembered in the middle of my thought process train going choo-choo did i remember what it takes for women to be daughters of couldharbour…poor may already has so much trauma as the courier in fnv. i will spare her a similar fate in terms of her origin here in tamriel :’)

still, even for vampire standards—already within these folks who outright drink blood and cannibalize as rituals and habits—may is an odd egg. she keeps to herself, eats in the dungeons instead of with the others, and idles either in the dusty tomes of the library or silently beside feran sadri’s side doing alchemy. in short, may retains her reclusive nature even as an all-powerful vampire lord.

she’s also most proficient in alteration and illusion magic, as well as alchemy. she’s also better than most in destructive magic, but she’s the most adept in the two aforementioned schools of magic. she also practices restoration magic on some of the wounded vampires who go out into the mainland.

she’s also good with one-handed weapons, but prefers to use staves or daggers.

no one really knows where she came from; just that harkon put her into court out of nowhere, and that she was a necessary part of their strategy-making with a big mind like hers. she was, after all, a former priestess of Julianos—the divine in charge of wisdom and logic. that’s all they knew about her. they don’t even know what region she’s from. short: breton? but her features are peculiar, not like any breton girl’s…

in this vein…boone, i see becoming a dawnguard soldier, a valued one, in fact: his skill with a crossbow makes isran weep for joy. almost.

for him, i can imagine him being a former imperial guard who moved to skyrim because both his wife carla and child died during labor. he’s a full-blooded nord, of course

he has this one-track mind against vampires: as creatures of the night, they’re not really deserving of compassion and kindness as the suck the life out of their victims and constantly terrify the populace with their cruelty; it’s why he signed up with the dawnguard. they looked promising eradicating the scourge of vampires (basically the way he sees legion, but a smidge less personal since vampires had nothing to do with his wife and child’s death)

DO YOU GUYS SEE WHERE I AM GOING WITH THIS…

so can you imagine when boone tries to play hero and rescue a captured dawnguard brother in volkihar castle, only to be kept as well

he spits in the eyes of the vampires, cursing and muttering profanity at his captors…

until he meets the most captivating young woman dressed in a sleek dark gown of velvet…and when she speaks, her fangs protrude.

imagine falling in love at first sight while also knowing this is the enemy. how could he: this is a vampire, just like one of them, with her big, sharp teeth and irises of dark red; how could he not, with her unique, beautiful face and the fact that even if she seemed like she was doing grunt work feeding the humans in the dungeon she wasn’t disgusted by them or looked down on them

when after a few days, may sees boone’s uniform, she asks about the sun emblem. awkwardly. boone spits in her direction, and may sighs.

it’s only a day after when may comes back to feed the humans when he says he’s dawnguard. weirdly enough, may had never heard of them before. he tells her they’re here to rid the world of the plague of vampires

may only sighs. she doesn’t get mad, get angry, or be disgusted at the thought of being wiped out. instead, she nods her head. “yeah, i get that.”

it intrigues boone. of course he can’t sweet-talk her into getting information about her out of her, but the least he does is stop growling at him.

after a while, boone also notices may’s face. as beautiful as it is, she didn’t look like anyone he’d ever seen in tamriel.

all she murmurs as she feeds him is, “i’m akaviri.”

a foreigner in strange lands. a vampire, too. but why volkihar? why here? why couldn’t she have just been a priestess he could carry in his arms to mara’s temple?

boone, after months of trying to decide whether to kill or kidnap this strange, beautiful vampire who’s been helping him infiltrate the volkihar castle: i didn’t say you could feed off anyone else

JUST A LOT OF THOUGHTS RINGING IN MY HEAD

[rjjameshiii]

RJ's Platinum Collection #12: Stray

Achieved on 10/5/2022 at 6:30 PM

Do you know how happy I was when I discovered Stray was available as a free monthly game on PS Plus?

EXTREMELY happy. I get to play as a CAT?

I didn't even hesitate to pick this game for my next platinum.

I decided to start my trophy journey off by playing the game blind and seeing what trophies I could get. And can I just say, the fact that this story starts off with a precious little kitty falling into a deep hole and ending up in an underground city is surprisingly heavy?

Anyway, entering the city got me my first trophy.

1/25: Missed Jump - Fall into the city.

And then I quickly got a second trophy because I abused the hell out of the button that made the cat meow.

2/25: A Little Chatty - Meow 100 times.

And then I met a robot friend who accompanied me on a journey to continue exploring the city populated by taller robots!

3/25: Not Alone - Meet B-12.

4/25: Cat Got Your Tongue? - Have B-12 translate a robot for the first time.

Ok, so I wasn't going in to this completely blind. I knew from one of my friends who played this game that there was a trophy for having the cat sleep for one entire real-life hour. So I decided to do that while I was in the Slums just to get it out of the way.

5/25: Productive Day - Sleep for more than one hour.

And then I continued through my blind playthrough, this time being completely surprised by all of the trophies I got as me and B-12 journeyed to reach the surface and free the robots trapped in the city - and get the cat home once and for all.

6/25: Tele A Chat - Browse through all the TV channels.

7/25: Cat-a-Pult - Jump 500 times.

8/25: Curiosity Killed The Cat - Wear the paper bag.

9/25: No More Lives - Die nine times.

10/25: Cat-a-strophe - Try to play mahjong with two robots.

11/25: Catwalk - Reach Midtown.

12/25: Al-Cat-Raz - Go to jail.

13/25: Eye Opener - Complete the game and open up the city.

Now with the game finished I started doing clean-up, starting with me deciding to get the trophy for completing the first Zurk chase sequence without getting caught. This trophy was VERY difficult but I eventually managed to get it after about 20-30 tries.

14/25: Can't Cat-ch Me - Complete the first Zurk pursuit without being caught.

Then I returned to the Slums level and decided to bring all of the music sheets hidden throughout the neighborhood to a robot musician named Morusque. There are eight total music sheets, and I also got two other miscellaneous trophies while I was in this area.

15/25: Boom Chat Kalaka - Dunk the basketball.

16/25: Meowlody - Bring all the music sheets to Morusque.

17/25: Cat's Best Friend - Nuzzle up against 5 robots.

After that I got the two other "challenge" trophies out of the way. These were completing the Sewers level without killing any Zurks with the flashlight weapon, which took me a few tries, and the one for completing the ENTIRE Midtown level - including the entire factory sequence AND sneaking into Clementine's apartment - without getting spotted by a single Sentinel. That one was much harder, but I did eventually manage to do it.

18/25: Pacifist - Complete the Sewers without killing any Zurks.

19/25: Sneakitty - Go through Midtown without being detected by the Sentinels.

After getting that trophy, I decided to continue on to the nightclub so I could get one more miscellaneous trophy.

20/25: Scratch - Scratch the vinyl in the club.

And then I realized that I needed all the badges, to scratch something in each chapter, and to finish collecting all of B-12's memories. However, I could not remember what chapters I had or hadn't scratched in, so I decided to just play the entire game all the way through one more time to get those three trophies.

21/25: Badges - Collect all badges.

22/25: Territory - Scratch something in every chapter.

23/25: I Remember! - Gather all B-12 memories.

And finally, I had one trophy left. I absolutely detest speedrun trophies, but luckily I found a YouTube video that basically gave me a step-by-step guide on how to finish the game in the time limit. It still took me about three tries, but I was able to finish the game in 1 hour and 46 minutes, getting me my last trophy and then the Platinum!

24/25: I Am Speed - Complete the game in less than 2 hours.

25/25: All Done - Unlock all trophies.

Like several of the games I have gotten platinums for, Stray is not very long, but my goodness is it fun. The cat is really great to play as, and I think the story is heartwarming. All cat lovers should get the platinum for Stray!

Rating: 10/10

[loquaciousquark]

Okay, if I want to have any kind of a good time in this playthrough, I have got to figure out the differences between these two characters in my head. A bunch of character rambling under the cut.

Tavish: rogue, survivalist, starts the game off very self-centered not necessarily out of a desire to have more than others, but because she knows if she doesn't take care of herself first, absolutely no one else will. Grew up in Baldur's Gate in a loving family with a younger brother who all died (I think of plague) when she was about ten or eleven. After that she was sent to live with her mother's sister, who absolutely hated having a kid kicking around her place, and spent most of her time drunk as a skunk and scamming the tourists & hoity-toity in the city.

Aunt used Tavish pretty regularly as a participant/face/distraction in these scams & that's where she picked up her light fingers. Aunt was violent in her drunken rages, & when Tavish was about fourteen she killed her aunt in self-defense. Hid the body and lived alone in the tiny (slum, probably) housing for as long as she could, hiding the fact that she was alone, until taxes came due and the whole story came out. At that point she took off on her own rather than go to some city-funded orphanage and spent the next several years living on the streets and trying not to step on the toes of the Thieves' Guild. Definitely got her bell rung a few times for picking the wrong target and wasn't quite good enough on her own to get into the Guild on her own merit. Once tadpoled, has lots of imposter syndrome and has no idea why anyone's asking her to lead this group (obviously should be Lae'zel). Just does what she needs to for herself and lets the rest of them follow along with some bemusement.

However, discovers as soon as she has an ounce of real power/ability that she can't bring herself to be as selfish as she was, that she has a genuine interest in helping others she perceives as weaker and in need of defense. A lot of pity, a lot of "let me extend my hand back into the muck I just crawled out of." Still talking a big talk, still saying all the hard selfish self-centered out-for-myself things, but when push comes to shove does the right thing and doesn't really care if she's thanked for it. Good at the "big-picture kindness," lousy at the one-on-one right thing when she's got her hand in someone's pockets.

It's why the tiefling abduction in Act 2 hits her so hard--saving them in Act 1 was the first real big gesture of altruism she ever managed in her life, and it felt like suddenly it didn't matter at all. However, Karlach especially gives her a lot of guidance on what it means to be kind despite the pain, and it's something she actively works on and becomes a lot better at it through Acts 2 & 3. By the end of the game, a perfectly reasonably mostly well-adjusted person who has a good time and mostly does the right thing.

Relationship with Astarion: built on recognition of mutual artifice. She knows he's using her from the start, and he knows she's letting him do it--he's fully aware she just wants the distraction and she knows he's ingratiating himself & they're both fine making that sort of trade. There's definitely a tangible attraction that starts the first night he feeds; she's surprised at how into she is and likes knowing she was his first humanoid bite even though she straight-up dies, lmao. I think they both enjoy their mocking flirtations because obviously they don't need them, they're already getting what they want anyway: a good time, mind off bigger matters, assurance of mutual protection in a fight. Only much later do they realize they've caught feelings. His comes somewhere around the arrival at Last Light Inn when she's very upset about the tieflings, and he takes her out in the woods and uses sex to help her forget her troubles for a bit, and her genuine gratitude afterwards is what kind of flips that switch in him from casual FWB to something he actually cares about preserving.

For her, she starts really caring for him about the same time, but it's not until he says something in early 3 about wanting to protect her and keep her safe that she gets hooked for good bc she's never really had anything like that since her parents died. Struggles to recognize her worth in the group outside of her utility; probably struggled with having overlapping skills with Astarion and really tried to make herself charismatic and winning in conversations to distinguish herself from him. Ride or die by the Cazador fight and has no idea what to do with this certainty that they're not going to give up on each other anytime soon, but genuinely eager to have some kind of future to look forward to for the first time since her parents died.

Overall, symmetry in the initial fwb -> genuine care pipeline, affection expressed as needling sarcasm and insults, feral defense when one is injured or in serious danger. Parallels in one spending centuries trying to climb out of the shadows and the other trying to hide herself deeper and deeper in them.

Tavaea: I'm still very early in Act 1 (just ran through the owlbear cave and met the tieflings), but I think where I'm landing is that she's playacting good out of a desperate attempt to counteract the dark urges. Ferociously needs to be in control and has an unspoken expectation (which she doesn't know the source of) that everyone will fall in line behind her. Of course she's the leader--why wouldn't she be? Of course Lae'zel should stand down with Zorru--how dare she speak up in the first place? Genuinely doesn't understand that not everyone sees it this way yet & really is clashing with Lae'zel a bit here.

Not really interested in the altruism of the deed--more interested in that it feels like the natural counterbalance to her desire to slaughter. If she's good enough with her actions, she'll balance out her ledger, right? Basically reactionary goodness. Even though she doesn't necessarily believe in what she's doing, has an unquestioned expectation for everyone else to obey her anyway and doesn't understand why they keep having opinions. Definitely is so wrapped up in her own problems she's not noticing any other party members' issues right now--I think the vampire reveal is going to be a genuine shocker.

Expected arc: starts doing right things for the right reasons, I think probably towards tail end of Act 2. I've read just enough to know to expect some NPC death(s) with this background, but I don't know when they occur, so I'll have to see how this shapes the narrative (and is probably the single biggest reason I can't bring this to be my canon Tav). I'd like to use this death as a catalytic event but that'll depend on the timing.

Expected relationship with Astarion: a surprise mutual understanding of compulsion and dependence and the desperate search for freedom and real autonomy. I'm not yet sure how the first night happens motivation-wise; I don't think she's capable of being attracted to anyone as she is right now. I think honestly she's going to be bemused by him more than anything--why is he flirting with her when there are so many more important things to be worried about & focused on?--and I'm hoping she'll be surprised enough to not run screaming for the hills. I do think she feels the easiest around him so far, just because she thinks he's least likely to be repulsed by the urges in her head, so that might help her acquiesce even if she doesn't find him sexy yet.

Interestingly, I haven't found her willing to share the presence of the dark urges to any party members yet (I have everyone recruited but Karlach), and very interestingly to me Astarion is one she actually CAN'T talk to about the urges! So far only Gale, Lae'zel, and Wyll have options for her to confess, and she hardly knows any of them yet. She doesn't trust any of them to not try to do anything risky and definitely doesn't trust herself not to retaliate, so I'm not sure when she's going to get herself over that hump.

Okay. I think that can get me enough to start with. Playacting good in a desperate attempt to get control of her life and balance out the evil she's walking around with in her head. We'll see if she ever gets to the heart of things as we progress!

[candaru]

bits from our not-recorded Mother 3 playthrough

everyone in town wants to fuck Flint. everyone. he has zero interest and is so happy with his wife and kids :)

oh no his wife and kids :(

the flirting only gets worse when Hinawa dies. "fuck this I'm fucking off to the mountains"

Lucas is smiling he's totally smiling. look you gotta trust him, see? if you turn him to the side it looks like he's smiling. he's fine. he's fine.

Allie's mom does not make nutbread for other people. Allie is a pathological liar

the magic people are called Magpies!

Duster does NOT fully register how awful Wes treated him. "yeah as a kid he'd lock me in the basement while watchin' his shows so I learned to make my own toys outta clay and staples. look! an action figure!"

Kumatora didn't realize Lucas's mom was dead until like chapter 5 and immediately went full big-sister mode and started crying over him

Samba's real name is Chips!

Baccio definitely had a crush on Lucky and almost confessed just before he left.

Magic may or may not have also had a crush on Lucky.

there was a club-wide rumor that Violet had a crush on him, because she was always trying to talk to him; however, these rumors were completely wrong

Duster is completely unaware of all of this

Lucas doesn't really like soda. he also doesn't really like Thomas. he was always trying to flirt with his dad...

the "ultimate attack" was named P.K. Ponies!! with two exclamation marks. whenever he used it, Lucas would shout the name of a MLP character, followed by confusion over what he just said.

the Masked Man had an evil version of the attack called P.K. mon, and would instead shout the names of Pokémon when he used it

Boney talks like a TTS machine

Kumatora was NOT okay when she learned about Fassad's true identity. She bawled and then took a nap on the floor

everyone's favorite food is Jello.

...as in, the youtuber. they grow clones of him in the dirt and are cannibals specifically for YouTuber JelloApocalypse

[lente-ment]

Despite my horrible terrible chaotic indulgent playthrough of BG3, I will have ch20 ready soon. Probably next week. However, it's at around 12k words right now with a few more hundred (at least) to go, so I think I'm going to split it and have two chapters for September!

And I'm very happy about the fact that I've reached this point in the story. Iriam and Laura's dynamic is about to evolve. Which is equally refreshing and scary and I will admit I've had my own share of writer's block because this transition required Iriam and Laura fighting and boy.... I realized I do not feel like writing about characters who don't want to fuck the hell out of each other at any given point. The things we learn about ourselves on AO3...

Meanwhile, here's how my BG3 playthrough is going. Perhaps spoilers ahead for some?

I'm nearing the end of Act 2. I've essentially killed literally everyone and everything in my path. I'm usually very very scared of making enemies in RPGs, but this year, I've been working on letting myself try out new things or acting however I want. Those are mostly supposed to be my lessons for real life, but I've decided to apply them in BG3.

This resulted in me having only SH, Astarion, Lae'zel, Gale and Minthara as companions. Karlach and Wyll left me immediately after I [redacted] the Grove, and Halsin never joined as expected. Gale also almost left but I managed to persuade him to stay. I took SH down the evil path so I'm pretty sure Jaheira is dead as well.

I keep wanting Minthara in my party because I am so weak for her, but the plot constantly requires Shadowheart and her skills... Ah, Minthara my beloved, your time will come.

I may be tempted to write a Minthara/Tav oneshot these days, guys.......

Anyhow, back to regular daily life of a disillusioned lesbian.

[risu5waffles]

Holy shite, i missed a (ten) spot!

When i tell you i actually panicked a bit when i realized i'd not put up a recap post. It took me a hot minute to figure out that i was only a day late, but still.

This level is so loud. Like, thankfully it's also pretty short, but it's still awful damned loud. i try not to get on creators' cases about sound balancing; my ears are so bad, whenever i use music or sfx they're either too loud or too soft, because i honestly can't tell? But even still, i wish more creators would fiddle wiv the volume a bit, especially when they're using community-made tracks; they're always way too loud. Otherwise, this level is, it's fine really. Nothing that really stands out about the gameplay or presentation, but it's fun enough for a couple of minutes. i do have to say it was interesting they used this section of The Cosmos backdrop, 'cause i hardly ever see it. Usually folx (myself included, mind you) pull it down to the arcade cabinets, or mid-way up to the more space-y section. This part is kind of neat too.

This one's such a neat idea, and really well presented too, right down to the music (tho', if i remember right, Baile-Flamenco was kind of known for that). Kind of half-in-half-out on puzzles and platforming, where you can transfer movability to objects by grabbing them (the in-universe explanation is you're painting them wiv a puddle of blood). i love the little diorama bit toward the end, wiv all the world's monsters, including... YOU! The Sadako climbing out the telly is a top notch bit. i also really appreciate that the creator went to such lengths to put the level in English. It's not perfect, maybe, but their writing/speaking style has a lot of charm, and doing that kind of thing is hard work.

Just a simple little bounce around the screen grabbing point bubbles and avoiding bombs kind of gig. It's well presented, tho', and the home-brew bounce pads are still functioning mostly right, which isn't always the case wiv LBP1 levels in LBP3.

i may have gotten on a bit of a taka061 kick that week of recording, but his levels are so good. It does raise a bit of an issue for me, 'cause sometimes i'd really like to just record a bunch of levels by one creator, but wiv only one episode a day, i feel a bit like i'm taking space from other folx? Honestly, i'd love to just take two weeks and play all of chronos' stuff for the archives. The only thing of note here, aside from the level just being really, really good, is i wound up having to record it again a few days after the episode went live, because i needed some b-roll for my LittleBite-sizedPlanet look at Tic Tac Sunset, and that playthrough was way better than the one we have here. Just a little salty about that.

Kind of weird we had two levels based around colouring the environment in the same chunk of ten. That wasn't planned at all. Neither was my having a pseudo-y Roman-y motif-y kind of level to be published on the Ides of March. Just happy accidents all over, i guess. This one is nice enough, but it is just a bit too much, and i felt like it'd worn its welcome out by the end (tho', in fairness, that was on me since i wanted everything i could get for the archive). Now i really appreciate that the creator apparently had the same idea, and gives the player two chances to bounce early. That's not me giving a backhanded compliment, i really do think that's a cool thing to do. There've been plenty of levels i've played, even quite good ones, where i've found myself thinking "please, just give me a scoreboard already." One interesting thing wiv this one, or at least how it dovetails wiv the LittleBite-sizedPlanet for this upcoming Friday, is how if you make too many things interactable, your brain (or mine, at least), just starts to actively not care? Because there are just too many things going on to track, or for any one of them to have real importance in comparison to any of the others.

It's a little weird that this level leads off wiv that wee robot-y(?) character being very clear that you have to turn every valve, and then half the valves in the level not actually doing anything. i wonder if that was on purpose, or if something went a bit sideways in the translation from LBP2 to LBP3. i liked this one fairly well; it's got a really solid material and decoration set that get put to good use, tho' i'd say they're presented best when the camera is pulled in a bit more. That happens a lot, i find. It's rare for a creator to get a big environment looking real good, even when it's necessary for gameplay to have a pulled out view. That's not meant to be a knock on any creators, just that it seems a tough trick to pull off.

We talked about this on Friday, and i stand by everything i said there.

i wound up really enjoying this one, and i'd like to give the LBP1 level it's adapted from a play on stream. The swimming bits were a little hard to navigate, on account of them being dark, and my always forgetting you can't just change layers underwater, but i really don't have any big complaints about this one.

Gameplay-wise there's nothing too flash in this one, but i really found myself charmed by the environment. kome managed to nail a scale that felt just right. The incidental details really put in a lot of work too. Like, those terrariums? <chef's kiss> i did discouver thanks to this one (we'd actually played it on stream before i recorded it for the archive) that Twitch mutes the audio in the VoD download file, not just the VoDs that are up on Twitch, and i hate that like the devil hates sin. i'd suspected it to be the case, but i never listen to my streams once they're up. Even searching for a thumbnail i tend to have it on mute. It just popped in my brain to make a point of checking this time, and sure enough. i tell you that really frazzles my frizzles.

Dry tree yo. Just.. Dry tree. i don't even really know what to say aside from it is so very, very good. The fact that it has still, somehow, managed to not be Team Picked (despite having picked up a Level of the Day nod) is, quite possibly, honestly a sin. If it weren't for the fact that some of the Team Picks are actually very much quality, i'd assume Sumo were throwing darts at a list of creators they already liked. i played through this one so many times trying to get a run wiv all the secrets, which is a difficult feat on account of i never put any points into Spot Hidden, but i did finally manage to pull it off. Gotta say it felt pretty good.

So that's another 10 down, yeah. After the kerfluffle wiv my level last week, i've got the feeling it's going to be a little late to justify an every 50 schedule for a hub publish. i kinda had that feeling tho'. i do think this build is going to go more quickly, since there are a lot of parts to it that i'm keeping from the previous one. Trying it out in dThermo is a bit of a worry; i've never had particular luck wiv that system. Based on what i've heard, tho', at least some of it was just me honestly using it wrong. Thankfully i've got chat helping out, and @mellangard , especially, has a lot of experience wiv dThermo, and his advice has been invaluable.

i don't know that anyone watches the episodes all the way to the end to notice, but i think i changed up the end card somewhere in this stack. Nothing really too drastic, just tossed a progress flag up instead of the black background i'd been using. i don't change the tagline every episode like i do wiv LittleBite-sizedPlanet, and i think we'll probably be sticking wiv "For Fierce Trans Joy" for at least a little while longer. Times have been rough for us, and look to be getting rougher depending on where you live (my trans sibs in Missouri, just... fucking hell); but i want us to have our joy, even if we have to claw it out raw and bloody.

[shadowonwater]

Pokemon Scarlet playthrough part 12: a shiny exploded, found another mysterious gate, fought an emo ex-snowboarder and a cool rapper, then I fought a fairy boy.

Playthrough Masterlist

Before going into the mountain area I wanted to explore the rest of the area around that big lake. And of boy did a few interesting things happen.

So first off Socarrat trail is really pretty! Also may I say I love the suction cup sound Kori's feet make when it climb's up walls. I also really love the animation where it gets wings when gliding, the sparkles are really fun.

I finally found a Toedscool! I've been wanting to catch one ever since I saw a video of one, even before I got the game for myself. There were plenty of times I saw its icon on the map but it was nowhere to be seen until now! This place is just full of them!

Honestly I thought they were only grass type, so I tried to have my Kilowattrel use Thunder Wave. But it didn't work and I ended up realizing it must be Grass/Ground. I switched to Clodsire and used Yawn. And then I caught it after lowering the hp a bit.

So getting to the shiny part in the title... I ran into a mass outbreak of Fortresses and I figured this would be good place to grind and bring my team's level up. But then I saw a shiny one... I got so excited I just ran right up to it, didn't think to save. It exploded... at least I took a screenshot? D:

So a bit afterwards... I found another gate! A yellow one this time! So I was right that there are multiple gates. But the real kicker is realizing these gates are connected to the fairytale that the history teacher told me about. I realized this upon clicking the door, and vaguely remembering what the other door said. So I guess there should be four in all and that the Pokemon from the tale should be behind the gates. btw, I also found two more yellow stakes while exploring in this session.

Also I climbed to the top of the rock the gate was connected to, I was very high up it was cool, I took a couple screenshots. I imagine it'll be even cooler to climb as high as I can in the mountains. While exploring I also found a small cave, nothing notable about it but I did find that new ice/dragon inside and caught it, excited to evolve it eventually and see what it looks like.

I will climb the mountain after this and get to my next gym leader (finally). I'm going after the ice one.

I got him pretty quickly, it's strange to see a gym without a town surrounding it, I wonder where the crowd came from? I went in way overleveled, had like 20 levels on him. Going in I thought I might be worried because like half of my team is weak to ice, but it was a cake walk.

Ice gym leader sounds so arrogant like telling me to give up now and all that but here I am with Pokemon like 20 levels above his team. He said I melted his ice, but really I just hit him with a giant rock.

Anyway the gym test was fun, was funny seeing Kori awkwardly slide down the slope. Kind of wished it was longer, but also a bit smoother, sliding-wise.

Anyway may I mention how hard it is to navigate up here? Elevations are incredibly hard to read on the map because it's all slightly different shades of blue. I wish they made it more clear.

Also I keep accidentally stepping on small white Pokemon. They are just very hard to see in this landscape.

So I also met a new elite four member. They were literally a baby. Just a straight up child. Who's decision was this? She isn't even a preteen? How long has she had this position? This is already too young! Poppy and Rika's relationship seemed very cute though, like big sister and little sister.

While exploring the mountain side a bit more, I also found another blue stake, the 2nd one I've found. Anyway that's all I have to report from the last hour of playing, normally I'd go longer but I'm going to bed. Ghost Gym next, then Fairy Star Raid, then Elite Four probably.

Ghost gym complete! So how did it go? It went very easy. I was overleveled. I had Pokemon in the 60s she had Pokemon in the 40s. And because I had two Pokemon that could deal w/ ghost types (grass cat and giraffe) the double battle thing didn't cause me trouble. It was cool though, having another double battle gym.

The gym test wasn't anything special. It's pretty much the normal gym test you take anyway in other games. Just Pokemon battles, they just happen to be double battles.

The gym leader herself is really cool, I like her. I love that her name is a pun. And she just seems like a really cool person to hang out with. :)

It did a bit more exploring before fighting her, this led me too climbing to the Highest Peak as well as visiting the mountain's Reach. I also did some exploring afterwards, including the area around the Fairy Star Base.

I find the location of this last base very interesting. Like the Fighting Base, it's very secluded. I can't help but wonder how they even found that spot. But then again I'm guessing that tower was already there before they took over the place so I suppose this area was already known about. But if this area was already known about you'd think that there would already be people living there. Like a fishing town or something.

Anyway It's a very pretty location, with all these flowers and I can see why it matches the theme of fairy type. A few funny things happened here and I haven't even gone to the door yet, just explored around the area.

One thing that happened, three Florges spawned on top of each other on one spot. So it was like a face above a face above a face. Set of arms above set of arms above set of arms. Very Biblical Angel. As soon as I got into a battle with one they split up though.

I caught a Alomomola, I take note of this because I realized something about the swimming mechanic. You see I noticed whenever Kori fell into the water, they'd be underwater for a moment before lifting up to the service. I also noticed how there are Pokemon underwater that you can't get too when you're just swimming like normal.

I wanted to catch one for my dex but they were all swimming underwater. I accidentally though got into a battle with a Pokemon swimming underwater when I had Kori jump into the water. I then realized I could apply this to those Pokemon swimming out of reach. Lo-and-behold it worked, and I caught one!

The last thing I went to mention before I go off and face the Fairy Base is that I've never tried just jumping in before, I always just ringed the bell like a good little kid. Well I decided to try it this time to see what happened. Basically the game told me, "don't do that, that's rude" and then put me on the outside again, well I guess I know now.

I took out the Fairy base now. The raid itself? Easy. Ortago? Also pretty easy. I had 10 levels on that guy. I was also using Clodsire and tera-ed him. His tera is poison, so I just started sweeping his fairy's with my Sludge Wave. I was slightly afraid he would use Tinkerton because it's immune to poison, altho I did have a plan for that (Earthquake) but none of them were resistant to poison.

I think it's neat that the Fairy guy has been taking lessons with a tutor. Guess it shows that he takes education seriously, it was even more interesting to find out his tutor was the former director of the academy.

So basically the bullying at the academy was really bad, and I guess the teacher's weren't doing shit about it. In particular it seems the deputy director was overlooking the bullying.

So when Team Star got together to confront their bullies some shit went down and the bullies dropped out. It really makes me wonder what exactly went down but because whatever it was, it was wild enough that like all the teacher's resigned, which is crazy.

And then the deputy scrubbed the records, which seems really illegal? And he got fired. But you'd think they'd put something back in the records for whatever happened. And it's not like every student dropped out. I honestly don't see why Clavell doesn't know anything. Hell, he could've asked the old director.

So Penny (because it was clearly Penny), wanted to take full responsibility for what happened because she was the Big Boss after all. I'm not sure if she told the school if she was the Big Boss. If she did it's the sort of thing that should have gotten on her record. If she didn't why would they put responsibility on to some random girl who wanted to take responsibility.

Team Star are called the victims, which isn't really incorrect. But at the same time depending on whatever they did at the school, they aren't without blame. Getting back at a bully is a way to become a bully yourself, but if they kept asking for help and got none, the people who should have helped are also at fault. This is a real big mess. Whatever they did, I'm sure there's a reason there are a bunch of nasty rumors about them.

So Penny is from Galar, I just think that's neat. And also the reason she was away is because she had to go back home as her punishment. And she's only just got back. I don't know if she had a way to contact the rest of Team Star or not over her time at home. If not it could maybe explain why the Big Boss went quiet. All the same though, she really should have told them off herself instead of this roundabout way of getting me to take them down for her.

So yeah Cass comes clean about being the Big Boss, real shocker and tells me and Clavell to meet her at school to battle her so I will. I know who I'll see when I get there, it'll be Penny. That will be next post. Penny, the rest of my classes, and the elite four maybe.

I hope the elite four is Poppy, Rika, Hassel, and Greta then I fight Nemona at the end. That would be cool because it would fit the other paths ending with me fighting my friend. But considering Greeta is "la prima" It might be Poppy, Rika, Hassel, Nemona and then I fight Greeta. This is assuming there isn't some other random Elite Four member I've just never met, if there is then I guess Nemona's fight will be unrelated to the Elite Four.

So yeah, see you then.

[postgamecontent]

'Drova - Forsaken Kin' Switch Review

Well, this is neat. Homages to Japanese turn-based RPGs and tactical RPGs are pretty common these days. Games inspired by Bioware's old Infinity Engine computer RPGs also aren't terribly uncommon. But Drova is something else. It's a 2D game from an overhead perspective, I suppose coming off like Diablo with a bit more of a pixelated look. Hearing someone describe it as "pixel-art Gothic" helped the pieces come together for me. Yes, that's pretty much the feeling here, in more ways than one.

Dire world full of moral ambiguity and little in the way of joy? Check. An open-but-not-too-open world to explore, full of interesting detours that are almost always worth taking? Yes. Action-based combat where you're likely to get shredded until you know which fights not to pick? Mm-hm. Lots of interesting systems to dig into if you feel that-way inclined? Naturally. Jank? Oh goodness, you bet. Drova is a big game with a lot to do, and it's one that rewards those who prefer their video tourism to be dangerous and unguided.

Chasing a couple of druids on their stupid quest, you end up in a hostile world where the survivors are doing their best to stay alive. Naturally, there is some disagreement among them about how to go about things, leading to two opposed factions. Your choices and decisions will see you throwing in with one or the other, and that will affect the narrative and which quests, skills, and other things are available to you. Basically, there's enough here for two playthroughs. Each one is going to take you more than twenty hours, so that adds up to a lot of game.

It's a game that more or less leaves you to your own devices once it teaches you the basic ropes. You are free to wander and die, and you will. It autosaves often enough, but you'll probably want to make your own saves just to be sure. The interactions with NPCs are interesting and the overall plot is compelling. The combat is a bit awkward on the Switch, and you can tell it was designed around a mouse-and-keyboard interface. You don't get a ton of real options in battles, despite how many appear to be there on the surface. It's more about making sure you don't get in the wrong fights, don't get outnumbered, and whether or not you're strong and well-equipped enough to go the distance.

It took me a while to get into Drova. It was really buggy at launch, which probably didn't help matters. It's had at least one big patch since then and that got things into a far more stable state. Setting that aside, this was a slow burn initially. I couldn't quite figure out how the game wanted me to proceed, and it took some time to get the lay of the land. I'm glad I stuck with it through the teething pains, though. I don't think this kind of experience is for everyone, but there's something to an RPG that will let you be an idiot and pay the price for doing so. There's a solid atmosphere here, too.

Drova - Forsaken Kin has its share of rough edges, with some clumsy control and UI choices, and more bugs than I'd prefer to see, even post-patch. I think a lot of its choices (and they are indeed intentional design choices) aren't going to go over well with some players, as well. If you can stick with it through its awkward early hours, I think you'll find this to be a really good game to hunker down with. It rewards exploration, and its swift punishment for excessive bravado only makes it that much more satisfying when you get away with it. On top of that, you get an intriguing story set in a well-realized world. I'd probably advise playing this on PC over Switch, but if a Switch is all you have and this sounds interesting to you, I recommend giving it a go.

Switch Score: 4/5