#game liveblogging but bad

[male--byleth]

im so emo

[edenprime]

One of the strongest points of Mass Effect, if not the strongest, is just how well written the characters are. From Shepard, to the squad, to the side characters like Anderson and Bakara, to barely-there NPCs like Ereba and Charr the lovers, Etarn Tiro the enthusiastic turian merchant, Kargesh the krogan who wanted a fish, Lia'Vael, the quarian who gets falsely accused of theft, and the Salarian who wants to buy a memento to his asari lover to remember him by once he's dead.

I feel like so many of them are memorable, and they all serve a purpose to the overall world building. The krogan show that they are not the violent thugs the galaxy has made them out to be. The salarian shows the struggle born out of building relationships with people of a species with a life expectancy so beyond your own. Lia'Vael illustrates what Tali says about the quarians being treated like second class citizens. Those small little side quests have a meaning and a purpose, it doesnt feel like they are Just There, and they add more to the lore of them game to those who care about that stuff.

[lucabyte]

Nah, I'm sure it's still Dante if I try hard enough.

part one - (link) part two - (link)

Bonus:

[svtskneecaps]

in the midst of this fucked up bullshit i love this server for the simple fact it went

"i think we should keep this secret, just between us three"

[+] BadBoyHalo

"we should tell bad i think, us three and bad"

[waltwhitmansbeard]

some of y'all: if the sword was just a "thing" then orym should have no problem setting it aside and not using it!!! he's not entitled to it!!!

those same ppl: laudna deserves to unilaterally absorb the power of the sword to feed the necromantic bitch half-puppeting her corpse whom the party already knows is explicitly evil and untrustworthy

[flurmitcraff]

Breaking news!!!! The worst CEO/buisnessman on hermitcraft strikes again!!! Fumbling a deal that was a win-win for both parties!

[perilegs]

one of the things i'm most disappointed about is that da:tv will sell well. it's been designed to bring as much new players in as possible, and apparently a lot of people disappointed in it will still buy it on launch day. and ea will keep producing absolute steaming garbage with some ip slapped onto it just because it sells. theyre treating the series with as much respect as netflix originals with their medias.

[carpisuns]

me (newish zelda player, very bad at video games) being so so brave and venturing back into the depths (scary, real heebie-jeebies hours) to find a way into korok forest (my little haven, everyone loves me and calls me mr hero there)

I am in there for way too long and am being to feel more unnerved but then I see BEAN LIGHTS! I KNOW THOSE! I ascend. At last. My safe place.

but why is it so dark here?? It’s 9:25 am. All the koroks are zombies. gloom is creeping out of the deku tree’s belly. oh no.

I go in. I see chasm. I descend. gloom hands jumpscare. are you serious. I have never attempted to fight these things I only run away they’re so scary!!!

They squeeze my little lifey out multiple times and then i finally manage to do some damage but ALAS! I run out of arrows. I decide to retreat for supplies. I buy beedle out of arrows at three stables. I hunt for bombflowers. I bravely return. I end up using about 50 arrows and bombs and ice fruits (they come BACK if they’re not all down at the same time??? Good grief.)

but finally. finally. THE EVIL IS DEFEATED. I DID IT. THE HERO OF HYRULE. korok forest is safe!!!

WRONG! hello little guy says phantom ganon. I scream and die immediately. You can’t be serious. I already DID the hard scary thing. How is there MORE.

I fight gloom hands again and am killed by ganon again multiple times. I retreat for supplies AGAIN. More arrows. I go to the depths and collect millions of poe to trade for bombs and anti-gloom stuff. I transport to multiple locations to pick up more sundelions that I marked. I make so much food. I am finally ready.

I bomb the crap out of the gloom hands. I’m ready for you ganon. I eat my anti-gloom food. I still die. I try again. I am very bad at fighting. Theoretically I know how to perfect dodge and shield parry but I can never seem to manage it when it matters. But whatever. I brought so much food. I will simply eat a meal every time he hits me, which is many times.

Eventually I succeed purely from the power of kebabs. The forest is purified. I don’t even get a treat for it.

I miss the guardians.

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s2 episode 9 thoughts

whew! i had a busy day so it's nice to unwind with some scully and mulder time. although by the end of the episode i didn't feel very unwound tbh. it was still time spent with the babygirls, so i can't complain.

so we start with some volcano research. my only note here was "i know a geologist" which is true! shoutout to my one professor. you were chill but i hated that class.

there's a dead guy in the volcano which tbh doesn't seem too surprising... i mean volcanoes are very deadly. but it seems to be one of the dudes involved with the project so that's weird because why would he go down there?

there's this stream going on of the inside volcano and something is disrupting it... hate to see a streamer interrupted :(

then we had the title sequence but for some reason i was wondering, do you think if they got married they'd hyphenate their names... scully-mulder... mulder-scully... does it roll off the tongue? hmm...

so firewalker (the title of our episode) is a robot that goes into the volcano. noted.

here i wrote "holy fuck scully is beautiful". all she was doing was standing there but man.

the scientist who has come to them requesting help is like, this lead scientist named trepkos started this project, and scully says "i always heard he was brilliant", which raises the question: why is scully keeping up with volcano science? nerd

at this point the visiting scientist was explaining how he and trepkos had a professional breakup kinda thing and i'm very sorry for them but i genuinely could not take my eyes off of scully. hope they work it out or whatever. i have bigger priorities.

she wants to get out there and investigate but mulder says "i don't think it's a good idea for you to go" AUGHHH. i am wailing and tearing my shirt. she says that she's fine!!! really!!!

and he has this look on his face that says "i cannot tell this woman what to do, even after she just woke up from a coma, and i never will be able to" and he's very right in that regard

HELICOPTER TIME! mulder is such a gentleman helping her climb out

she has very messy hair at this point and the scientist seems a lot more concerned about his equipment than the fate of the people trapped inside the compound and she seems so thrown off by this

next we have some BIG ASS FLASHLIGHTS!!!! WOOHOO

at this point i made a note that i think i might have been going feral because mulder also looked SO good prowling around that creepy base. and i don't take back my observation but i will psychoanalyze it a bit later. reluctantly.

a creepy dude is hanging around the corner. OH SHOOT he tries to bash mulder's head in and he is MAD "do you always greet people this way?" LMAOOO he took it personally

the other scientists in the base seem to regard the missing trepkos as a threat... hmm...

i really like this jesse character, who is a student and is here to do some research with her advisor

mulder asks for the data on the research trepkos has been doing and she says he destroyed his field journals and computer discs. ahh, computer discs. my old friends. i used to have some games on discs when i was a kid. positive memories.

mulder sees scribbled in some of the notes trepkos didn't destroy that he had written about a "new life form" which honestly kinda happens a lot. like people are always discovering new life forms but the gag is they're beetles. everyday we find new species of beetle. they just won't stop coming. so i'm thinking, well they wanted this to be all dramatic, but statistically it's probably just a volcano beetle this guy found.

mulder and scully have an exchange and again i'm distracted by her freckles but she says he's being paranoid and i'm like. yeah that's kinda his whole deal. mulder being paranoid is like a fork spotted in the kitchen.

so the other scientist who was checking on his equipment was, at this point, killed by trepkos. with a rope. and we get the great closed captions "(neck cracks) (body thuds on ground)" which were very descriptive of the whole process

mulder and scully are having a science based argument on the probability of a silicon-based life form and it was really funny to me because it was a nerd off. and frankly i wouldn't go into a science debate with a doctor but mulder is going full steam ahead. it's getting heated and i'm like damn does this ever lead to them kissing because i can see it happening. anyway she's like no trepkos did not discover a silicon-based life form (spoiler alert: he did)

he's looking around like damn. i'm glad she's back but she's such a pain in my ass <3

scully goes to talk to jesse by knocking on her door and asking to chat and then not waiting for an answer and coming in because that is my girl!!!

jesse says trepkos stopped taking his pills that treat his bipolar disorder and he started being weird, saying they polluted his mind and that she was "polluting his body" which has... implications i prefer not to think about?

(why must we make erotic the bond between a student and their thesis advisor? there is no stronger connection! but. not in this way, tv writers, not in this way. i mean Maybe it wasn't meant that way but it seemed like it was)

mulder is streaming the descent into madness of trepkos because he recorded his ramblings which is probably what my friends on my private story think each time i post. but he's going on about finding a silicon-based life form.

this whole time one of the scientists has been very noticeably coughing and losing his voice and i knew it was gonna go somewhere but all of a sudden he collapses. and mulder yells for scully who is undergoing her shift to Doctor Mode. but we see his neck... pulsate? is that the best word to describe it? augh i don't want to even think about it so we'll leave it there

(jesse was also looking super suspicious but i liked her...)

anyway they put the sick guy on a stretcher and he's down and out until he isn't, and now he's making a RUN for it. he runs and runs and falls in a ditch until a THING takes over his body and explodes. i thought it was a worm at first and it was sososo gross i started sweating. i do not like body horror. the things i endure for these two.

so scully's doing some testing and she's like, yeah this is a silicon-based fungus. and poor jesse is having a nervous breakdown because she has been in this base for 8 months and she just wants to go HOME but now they have to quarantine and i felt so bad for her.

then i remembered the line about her "polluting his body" and things were adding up... and they were NOT looking good for her... no... i cannot do this...

scully's really worried about jesse which is justified because this poor girl is freaking out. but mulder is really worried about scully! he wants to go look for trepkos and he's making excuses why she shouldn't come and finally settles on the need to autopsy the body which he seems to both genuinely believe and also say to keep her back at the base

she knows he's being protective so she says "i'm here and i'm not going anywhere" which is sweet but girl you were in a coma. they had your gravestone made. you are lucky he has not put you in bubblewrap entirely. you can't blame the man for needing you to be safe!!!!

he says he's counting on her and grabs her shoulder with some heavily lingering eye contact that, when i see in gif form, i will surely slam the reblog button upon because. good lord.

jesse is talking to the other guy and he says something like "do what we said" and i'm thinking oh man, they're gonna try to get mulder (spoiler alert: they did not quite do that)

the guy is like "you need a guide to go get trepkos" and i'm even MORE suspicious but his reasoning kind of does make sense- it is a volcano maze, after all- still, when mulder goes with him i was tense

BUT THEN he immediately gets shot with a FLARE GUN? which i did NOT see coming. and trepkos emerges from the back of the volcano caves all burned and wild-looking.

he's covering the newly dead body with gasoline and mulder's asking why he's trying to kill him twice when we see the parasite wriggle in his neck (GAG) so then he shoots him with ANOTHER flare to burn up the evil creature. and he's explaining how if you're exposed to the parasite's spores you're gonna be sick...

and scully is back at the base with jesse... who was exposed... so she's not going to be safe...

and we see jesse in her room gagging and convulsing... oh man... it's not looking good....

trepkos is not letting mulder leave, but mulder does not give a fuck LMAO he says "you're gonna have to shoot me then" and goes to walk out... this man was really thinking "they are NOT gonna take scully from me again" and i know that is exactly right!!!!!

NOOOO the lights go off in the compound........... NOOOOO JESSE ATTACK.....

she's handcuffing her and scully together!!!!!! but scully was smart enough to get her behind a door really fast before jesse collapses and the fungus explodes...... but the handcuffs... was the door open a crack?? was it enough to get her infected???!?!?

mulder BURSTS in to see her handcuffed and she keeps repeating "i'm okay, i'm okay" but he must be so shocked because he asks "you alright?" and gently cups her face and at this point i wanted to do some powerful screaming to let out the things i was feeling

we see trepkos come in and look at jesse's body and he says that he told her how this experience would change her life... and i'm getting callbacks to when mulder told scully it would be a nice trip to the forest, but then the whole evil bugs thing happened in s1 ep20... and i am filled with a deep sadness...

so the duo has been sentenced to a month long quarantine, which i'm sure had to absolutely drive them wild. but i think my mutual wrote a fic on this subject so i just simply have no choice but to go read it now! and i assume that, since there are more seasons, the spores did not actually infect them

(and mulder, who was earlier suggesting time off for scully, must be some mix of terrified that any day now the symptoms will start showing and the end will be near, deeply satisfied that she has been forced into getting rest and healing like he wished, and regretting his words that she should take a break, because here she is taking a break. with him. and they're driving each other crazy)

we see trepkos hiking back into the volcano maze with jesse's body and it was actually really sad :(

overall a good episode, another one in the vein of s1 eps 8 and 20 where there is some sort of contagion and we must figure out from where it started and to whom it has gone... but the formula in these episodes keeps me on the edge of my seat and allows for a convergence of doctor scully and protective mulder, two things i am deeply invested in seeing. and seeing mulder try and keep her away from the case after her whole incident made me emo as hell!!!! he is never going to let her out of his sight again unless he has to go keep her safe by finding the wild man in the volcano!!!!!! and even that backfired!!!! ugh my heart!!!!! i love them so deeply!!!

rip my girl jesse i thought u were rad in the brief time we knew each other

[eerna]

my brother, crying sobbing: please just play the main story please just finish the main quest you can do everything else later I am begging you

me: what if I went from Akkala to Gerudo without warping to compare the town before and after the kid's arrival and compile resources. let's go

[pochapal]

btw for reference Here are all the spoiler glimpses of beatrice's form i've been accidentally exposed to for the sake of transparency and also so you can know how surreal/funny it is for me to be unravelling the meaning of this vicious murderwitch in canon while also seeing occasional iceberg tips of what seems to be some kind of extremely thorough and comprehensive blorbo memeification going on. i think you guys are doing some breaking bad fandom shit to this woman.

[male--byleth]

finished

[demento-mori]

Out of curiosity, how long did it take you guys to beat isat?

I ask because I've heard that the playtime is around 30 hours but........

I feel like that's severly underestimating my dedicaction to dilly-dallying

[goldensunset]

my man alder actually deserves financial compensation for this

[citrusinicake]

damn im so lifesteal-brained that when rift found out he can essentially teleport when theyre without his partner and immediately told his roommates i was like why are you telling them this youve basically got a one up against other ppl 😭 but then i remember this is a perfectly normal response to finding an exploit in your friends mod

[mysecretdsmpblog]

foolish saying he genuinely trusts bad especially after the election announcement is like. oh

like i knew it a little. i knew they bantered but bad still came to help him when he thought he was dying in that hole. bad still takes care of the eggs, bad shows up, etc.

but leo and foolish are literally talking about how good of a person bad is and like. yeah. yeah even though foolish is all 'oh i hate bad he's terrible and a menace' it's clear he really does trust bad. and he's not the only one

it's easy to forget just how many people trust bad implicitly on the qsmp, especially with all the shenanigans he gets up to. but like. oh