#guess who did some pvps to get the emote

[ahollowgrave]

/handtoheart

[nfumbewalk]

Dead Flowers & Tom 💀

Rodolfo's shrine. Last night, Rodolfo said he liked Santa Muerte's dead red roses and he wanted them on his shrine. Tried to give him live flowers before and he hated it! Plus they were yellow. He's not a fan of that color. Anyway, he got his wish. Sorry his table looks dirty. Its just fuzzies and other things that got stuck because that altar cloth is velvet.

Then I got The Rolling Stones song, "Dead Flowers," in my head at his shrine because he started singing it! One of my top favorite Stones songs! Lol.

I've noticed something - just started happening. I got that voice that ppl talk about. The one that warns you not to do or say something. I haven't had that voice...um..ever??! Since I reclaimed my gifts and true power, I got the voice. Think it may help negate fights between Tom and I. I keep forgetting that he had a serious brain injury at 3 years old.

He fell out of a third story window because his mom wasn't watching him. It still affects him. He accuses me of fucking with his mind and very well could be but do not remember. I realize now that I gotta fuckin stop it. Hopefully the voice reminds me. It did last night, of some other stuff. I'm gonna do my best.

Tom is my twin flame. Just about everything you read about twin flame characteristics is true for us. We do the same things at the same time! Like yawning or reaching for the pack of cigarettes. Saying the same thing at the same time, same emotions, simpatico sex drives, so much turbulence - bicker bicker, but it ends well. He feels like an extension of me, just male with typical guy thoughts. But we share the same likes, dislikes, kinks and thrills. Same poisons too.

We have been extremely close since 2019. Before that, I did my own thing. After jail, I changed. I got interested in Tom's video games. I didn't want to be alone anymore. So I stayed. Now, I'm back in my room but always with him still. I don't watch television. I watch Elder Scrolls Online. Forever Cyrodiil. 💖 I love PVP! Our toons kick ass.

Belial, Astarte, and Rosier brought Tom to me. It was SO fast and once we met, we both fell hard. So hard that we cried, holding each other. I didn't want to go back to Portland. The day we met, it was rainy. I planned on just spending the night. Guess those Demons had other ideas. When I awoke the next morning, everything was covered in white. Deep snow! We had not planned on this - I didn't bring my meds!! Oregon gets some snow in the central part of the state, but it doesn't always go to Portland. Everything was blanketed.

I had no choice but to stay a bit until the snow melted enough to use tire cables. I was in Eugene about 3 days. We had a lot of fun, like bunnies. I got so addicted to him. Love came fast for us. Going back sucked but Tom encouraged me to hit another trade school. College of Legal Arts had medical transcription. It was a 9 month program. I entered, got a 4.0 GPA and perfect attendance the whole time. Same day as graduation, I moved to Eugene. Sweet! Never moved back to Portland again!

My dad seemed to like Tom okay but my mom didn't care for him. Why? Tom is a stoner and she hated ppl who smoke weed. She thought that pot smokers were all lazy good-for-nothings. Not Tom! He is very intelligent. He was an electrical engineer and worked in the wood/mill industry (and others, like satellites), not to mention that he can fix almost anything. The head injury affected his learning but he still beat the odds and excelled. Unlike what his mom thought he'd do. Be a criminal and go to jail! She said that she gave up on him right at the Thanksgiving dinner table, after too much wine!! She wanted an abortion when she found out that she was pregnant with him.

So she ran away after Roe vs. Wade was enacted. She was going to Oregon for her wonderful plan to rid of her 2nd child. What happened? Tom's father, a Roman Catholic man, chased her up to Oregon with his buddy Gooch. They put a stop to it. That was 1973. Tom was born February of 1974.

It really is odd to meet your twin flame and be with them and stay with them. We never had any break ups like I read about in articles about twin flames.

I read a so called medical article about twin flames saying that those relationships are abusive, codependent, toxic, and should be discouraged. Bullshit. For Tom and I, being twin flames is spiritual. Brings us closer, giving us an intense loving connection and a deep respect for each other and our roles in our marriage. The medical article was utter bull-fucking-hockey. While not perfect all the time, Tom and I are happy. We aren't typical though. Definitely have mirror souls. And Tom agrees, too. He's not overly spiritual, but does believe in twin flames.

Well...done for now!

M.M. 💖💀💖

[azerothtravel]

Dragonflight Post-Mortem

As this expansion comes to a close, it's once again time to ramble about the experience. And lemme tell ya, your mileage may vary, but this was a top 3 expansion for me. They did everything right. No oppressive and unpleasant system, great zones, a solid story with a satisfying ending. Anything you want to do at endgame has rarely been better, from raiding to pvp to alts. More secrets to discover, more transmogs to collect, more random fun things to do than basically ever before.

I think this may be my most played expansion, actually. I've traditionally played Gormorash with an alt or 2 in rotation (Most often Tinzul, Tinovan or Fiazko), but spurred in part by the new crafting system, I was logging into 7 characters every week, and my usual altaholic tendencies made it more than that a lot of the time.

Dragonriding/Dynamic flight/Skyriding/whatever it's called is a welcome addition, and the customizable mounts are cool. I look forward to more of that.

DF was fun to play alts through. Shadowlands felt like an oppressive slog after awhile, but I never got tired of these zones. Great scenery, storylines and music kept it fun over and over.

I was surprised and impressed by this expac being full of stories about empathy and forgiveness and acceptance. There were a lot of genuinely touching moments in this. Who could have possibly imagined Kalecgos eating soup could be an emotional moment? The wrap for the night elf story begun way back in Legion was pretty cool. I liked Merithra stepping up in her Mom's place, and Ebonhorn becoming the Black Aspect. All the smaller stories, too, like Baine overcoming his prejudice against centaur, they just did some great stuff this time.

At the same time, this expac felt fun. The endless gloom of Legion, BfA and Shadowlands replaced with the sense of adventure that characterized vanilla and Mists. Some of the funniest material they've ever done (Azmurloth alone...). I enjoyed the tone.

The Incarnates were genuinely cool new villains, and (Especially if you read War of the Scaleborn) the storyline between Alexstrasza and Vyranoth was done really well. Blizzard has a very uneven history with retcons (Don't get me started on Legion), but these guys slotted into the history pretty easily, and drove some interesting story beats. I'm glad Iridikron escaped to keep being a problem in the next one, he's a good villain.

I felt like they got War Mode down to a science this time. World PvP has never been more fun (or more rewarding).

My biggest complaint about Dragonflight is the new crafting system. Obviously more interesting than the old one, it still had its problems. The endless frustration of "I want to make thing C. To make thing C, you first have to make thing B, and to make that, you have to make thing A, and guess what, that recipe comes from Draconic Message In A Bottle, so you'll never get it" was maddening. Every profession seeming to desperately need a single herb was really annoying. Alchemy has felt like an afterthought for several expansions, but never more than here. The only profession without work orders? Come on.

But there was just so much stuff, such a variety of stuff. The wide variety of public events. The Zsekara Vaults. Sniffseeking. Little Scales Daycare. Unlocking old Scholomance. The various dragon racing cups. The game has just never felt like there was more to do. It seems like War Within will only improve things, content wise. But beating the story stuff in DF will be a tall order. We'll see how it goes.

[kurakurakura99]

Just read your post on AC6 about how connected you were to your AC. And I just gotta ask how you got that feeling? I've a good amount of posts about this same thing, such a deep connection to your mech, but I never got it. I want that feeling, to truly be one with a 40 ton war machine, yet to me my AC is still just that, a machine.

Even my PvP AC which is getting close to Mark 15 now is still just a tool for me. Like I love that AC and my lastest version is fucking genius imo the love is more like the love I have for my emotional support hammer (yes I have one sue me).

Sorry for venting randomly to you about this but like reading that part on your post about how changing parts on your AC felt wrong during a boss fight made me think about my toughest boss in the game. Not saying the name cause spoilers but it was beating my ass hard. After I realized my build wouldn't work the first thing I did was start changing parts, and even when I used the meta ones nothing worked. In the end like 2 days later I beat the boss, not by swapping back to my original design, but by using a pair or weapons that are entirely overlooked. But even after all that I didn't feel that connection to my AC, a newfound respect for the twin active homing missiles but once again only in the way I would respect a wrench that finally fits onto an annoying bolt.

So like how do you get so close to your AC, how did you get that connection with it? How can I get it?

Find common ground with your mech. its deeply personal, like I said, but I empathize with Capable so much because we are both Objects, means to an end. There is a certain kinship to be found, conceptually, between a person who has been dehumanized as much as I have and a machine. Theres also a measure of...sentimentality? that you have to approach building them with. My girlfriend is baffled by how Capable is put together. I use the DESSERT legs because they got big fucking paws and fat thighs, like I do. I picked her arms soley because they would hit harder with my Pile Bunker (Itself a dubious weapon choice for late game, some may claim) and it had a nice, flat surface to write "Forgiveness" on. Getting a little whimsical with it led to Capable being, frankly, a freaky little mech with weird issues when it came to boosts and mobility. Having something that didn't move like a more optimized design helped really cement her in my mind as a partner and not a tool. AC6 feeling by and large, much easier and accomodating to player expression compared to the rest of the games I've played in the series, makes this much more feasible. Beyond that, even a simple change of language towards your mech helps:I avoid using "It" for Capable, ever, and she is only "my mech" when I'm talking to someone who doesn't know her by name yet and needs the context of what the fuck I'm talking about. Otherwise, She is Capable.

These are tips I guess but. its just something that happens naturally for me so its hard to give anyone tips on how to force it

[just-zip-it]

i saw the first few sentences of this ask and went "AO is a PvP game disguised as a story RPG game" and i haven't even played AO since the first Dark Sea update dropped

oh hold on lemme turn on Proper Capitalization

I write things (citation needed). Almost wrote fanfic about Decaying Winter because I'm a maniac and god hates me - and very much did write some stuff about Starscape. Don't ask. What did I do in AO? I spent all of my time getting my HP stat as high as possible as a poison paladin.

I was a diver, I was a boss grinder, I did Dark Sea excursions - notice a pattern here? None of these are Story Things! None of these are even Lore! Dive points are random per server, bosses don't have cutscenes when you redo them, and I've yet to find a person that searches for lore in the Dark Sea.

I did teamfights too, and those were fun because you'd roll up with a guild and take another guild's island and all of a sudden it's be a 3v3 or whatever (or you'd run into one electric/ice mage who was trying to use the water to their advantage but guess who was a diver and had infinite water breathing!)

On top of that, the characters really aren't compelling? At least, so far. Iris is an emotional firegirl, Morden is a brooding Mysterious Background, Neviro might as well not exist, there's the quartermasters whose names I can't be damned to remember, the Order is just a cast of villains but they're secret so they might be anybody. I could really go on but they're like a week-old balloon - not flat, but not fun to play with.

So, uh, yeah! Story is uncompelling, characters are fine but not really great, and the game doesn't really compel players to interact with the world after the level cap (or hell, ever. ice smuggler grind, anyone?)

The AO fandom is kinda dry these days. Idk I feel like if Vetex gave the characters some actual personality and have quests where we can hang out more with the characters to learn about them (similar to Edward Kenton Grand Navy infiltration question) maybe the fandom would be more bigger or active?

Like take Phighting for example. The player count of the actual game ranges from about 400-1000 players but the fandom is pretty active with a good amount of fanfiction and fanart pouring in everyday. As a person who’s part of the phighting fandom, I think it has a lot to do with the appeal of the characters’ personality, lore, and dynamics with one another. In game, you get speckled with characters dialogues. Sometimes they’re one liners, sometimes they’re interactions with another character. Just from these tidbits, you learn more about the character’s personality and relationship with another. For instance, it can gathered that Medkit (a fan favorite) is a worn out, tired, and irritable individual who is enemies with Subspace due to bad history with the other and is friends with Sword who he gets along better than the others. Along with other interactions, it invests the players into these characters and learning about their lore is the candy on top.

Other Roblox games that I can think of with big active fandoms is Regretevator and Block Tales. From what little I know of Regretevator, it similarly sprinkles in dialogue between characters that come into the elevator, and with Block tales, it’s a whole story with lovable characters laid out to you (Griefer my beloved!).

Basically, people like interactions of characters with interesting traits and personality but unfortunately for AO, there’s not much of that. Like there’s interesting setup for characters, but not just don’t get enough interaction with them. I suppose the most obvious case is Neviro. We meet him once at Sky Island, do our business, sail off, get thrown in jail, get broken out by our friends and he’s there?? Like at the point of the game during my first play through, I don’t remember who is at all (a sentiment that’s commonly shared through the community). Just before we fighting Calvus, Calvus drops that Neviro is the lost prince of Winterviel which is actually very interesting information in regards to what we learned in the mines. But then after fleeing Ravenna, Neviro decides to go back there and just straight up leaves us?? Like bro, you were starting to get interesting. I want to learn about you more come back 😭😭 Sure, we get to learn about him in his journal but let us spend time with the guy. I know Vetex is going to make more journals which is cool n all but I hope it’s not the only way we get to see the characters lore and thoughts and feelings

OR. Or maybe Vetex just has to add a sexy man character for the appeal. Pressure has Sebastian, Blocktales has Griefer and Cruel King, Phighting has Medkit and Subspace… I suppose Edward Kenton fulfills that role but yeah.. idk. Guts and Blackpowder has a pretty active fan base for its named NPCs (Barry, Jean, Jacob, prob some others I can’t remember) who only say a line or two.. it’s a outlier to whatever thesis I had going on but that’s okay

Idk. It’s very early in the morning and maybe all this makes no sense (I definitely could’ve developed some parts of this rant better). There’s still a lot to be added and revealed in AO so take all of what I said with a grain of salt. Maybe the characters will be fleshed or more, maybe we can see more of em, maybe more people will be more attached to these characters. Who knows. Time will tell.

-💥

.

[apompkwrites]

I just read your story, the one with Xiao and Albedo, its really good! I love it! Is it ok if you do the same thing but with Kaeya, Zhongli, Childe and Diluc version. I can see how excited these guys are since Kaeya first appeared is clapping his hand, the way Childe call Lumine 'Hey Girlie', Zhongli with how handsome he is especially his eyes and with Diluc how mysterious he is when he appeared out of nowhere

Feel free to do it if you're not busy or you can ignore this :3

reader impact || first meeting cont.

series masterlist characters: kaeya, diluc, childe genre: fluff summary: a game has been released entitled genshin impact, consisting of otherworldly abilities relying on the basic elements of nature. the game follows the story of an interdimensional traveling twin in search of their other half. along this journey, they meet different characters that live in this world. including you. notes: i’m glad you liked it! i’m having a lot of fun writing these so expect some more coming out :D i plan on doing more first meeting hcs and then branching off to other scenarios, so if there’s something specific, please request it! also, i’ve already done one for zhongli!

kaeya's playthrough -

he's more of a variety streamer, honestly.

most of his viewers watch him because of his carefree nature (as well as his looks).

obviously, he'd do a bunch of drinking streams whenever he could where he would just talk to his viewers about whatever came to mind.

during those streams, his viewers often try to ask him questions, which are only answered in vague statements.

his gaming streams are pretty rare compared to his chatting streams, but they're there nonetheless.

his viewers jump when they hear he's planning on playing genshin impact.

just neverending messages about a character they are convinced he will love.

he's so tempted to ask but decides not to, wanting to learn who this mystery character is on his own.

honestly, he was expecting you to appear way later in the story.

he's very interested in the looming threat of stormterror.

his character lands on the ground and he leans back to watch the cutscene play.

then he hears footsteps and sees his character look to someone offscreen.

this man practically LUNGES INTO HIS MONITOR WHEN THE CAMERA PANS UP TO YOU.

you walk in clapping at a calculated pace, which is when he leans forward and stares at your character model.

"i can't believe you have the power to stand up against that dragon... that said, are you a new ally... or a new storm?"

"oh, hun, i can be whatever you want me to be."

HE'S ALREADY FLIRTING WITH YOU PLEASE HIS CHAT IS IN HYSTERICS-

he knows his chat is freaking out, so he turns to the camera and sends his signature smirk.

"now i know why you guys wanted me to play this so bad."

"(name), kaeya, you've come at the right time. we must..."

"now now, don't forget to introduce us."

"oh... right. this is (name), our cavalry captain. these two are travelers from afar."

"ooh, they're a person in charge, too?"

HE KNOWS WHAT HE'S DOING TO HIS CHAT BUT THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU DO TO HIM.

he genuinely likes you. like genuinely. he's fallen deep and he doesn't plan on leaving anytime soon.

if your costume has that long v-neck like his does...

hOO BOY HE'S THANKING EVERY DEVELOPER OF THIS GAME.

anyway, he's heard that there are characters you can only obtain throguh wishes, so he's kind of nervous to find out if that's the case with you.

he just really wants you in his party so y'all can be mysterious together.

"let me show you how the knights of favonius conquer our adversaries!"

"oh, yes. please do."

his viewers can and will make compilations of him flirting with you.

ngl, he's looking forward to those.

sometimes, your voice gets all quiet and he melts when he hears that.

he will pay to have voicelines of you flirting with him--

when he enters your trial domain, he will purposely avoid completing it just in case he doesn't get to keep you.

he sees some of his viewers talking about how you're a bad character and that the other characters are so much better.

too bad, they're banned now.

no (name) slander in his chat, thank you very much.

he loves your quips whenever he uses your elemental skill.

he loves you even more if those quips are puns based on your element.

finally, he's nearing the end of your domain. when that happens, he will slowly turn towards the camera and stare.

"if they aren't a permanent member on my team, this'll be the last stream of genshin."

"let's continue our adventure, shall we?"

obtained (name): a thinker in the knights of favonius with a somewhat exotic appearance.

"okay, so we'll continue streaming genshin soon."

he'll put you in the first slot of his party, moving his traveler character to the second.

his streams will always include him flirting with you, even if you don't reply.

diluc's playthrough -

his streams are mainly bartending based, so he likes mixing drinks on stream for his viewers.

he doesn't drink them, though. he gives them out to his friends and family once the stream is over.

it's pretty rare for him to play games but he'll do an occasional gaming stream if his friends and family don't want any drinks.

his chat always makes fun of him because he's a bartender that doesn't like the taste of alcohol.

he's very blunt, so he's not afraid to drop a game immediately if he isn't interested.

in fact, that's almost what he did with genshin.

it's not like the game is bad or anything, diluc just didn't care for it because of all the hype his chat shared.

he keeps playing, though, because someone promised he would really enjoy a character that comes up in the prologue.

granted, it's over an hour or so but it doesn't matter--

when he gets to the domain teaching him how to use cryo, he hates every minute of it.

he hates the character he's given and just wants to leave.

the demo character is one he doesn't really care for, especially because he's the type of person he dislikes coming to the bars he works at.

his chat is laughing at him when they reach the end because the cutscene continues with the character he hates.

he feels a bit better when he learns the abyss mage is in the domain because he gets to see and hear something that isn't the cryo character.

then he meets you.

you run into the domain out of nowhere, quickly defeating the abyss mage and tossing it towards the corner.

"knights of favonius... always so inefficient."

his chat goes insane when your character appears, especially because of how dumbfounded diluc looks.

he's known for not really emoting and it's the same case for this scene. however, his chat knows he is in love with your character.

he takes a few minutes when he's kicked out of the domain but he clears his throat and looks over at the camera.

"i'll be streaming this game again soon when the others don't want any drinks."

YOU SINGLEHANDEDLY SAVED THIS GAME FROM BEING TOSSED AWAY WITHIN A MINUTE OF APPEARING

THE POWER YOU HOLD OVER THIS MAN AND HE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW YOUR NAME--

cut to after he's stolen the lyre and is sent to the tavern.

he's a bit excited because he gets to visit mondstadt's tavern but then--

"master (name), this is this week's accounts."

"they're back."

HE'S SO NONCHALANT BUT WE ALL KNOW HE'S FREAKING OUT

he gets second-hand embarrassment when venti talks to you asking for the... least conspicuous table.

he's kinda sad when your character is suspicious of him, but he understands.

when the knights leave the tavern, he really wants venti to just shut up.

please you're embarrassing the man.

when he hears how you feel about him joining the knights, he is so willing to quit--

man just wants you to be proud of him and trust him :((

he's relieved to hear that you will help him and you don't hate him.

please give him validation--

childe's playthrough -

man is still rich he can do whatever he wants.

his gaming streams would definitely be pvp based games. honestly, just any game where he can fight someone, he'll play.

his chat also has a few little games they like to play together like guessing what the hell this man does to have so much money--

also his siblings crash in on his streams sometimes :D

those are pretty much the only times you'll see him be soft and not so competitive.

teucer likes crashing his streams to show off his plushies :))

anyway, genshin time!

he definitely tried to fight paimon the first time he loaded the game.

please expect lots of genshin stream from this guy because he needs to make his team deal the highest damage he can get.

also his wallet doesn't even have a dent in it despite all of the money he's spent on characters and weapons.

please sir what do you do for all that money

ok so onto your first meeting

he was really excited when the exuvia fell during the rite of descension because he thought he would get to fight whoever killed the great archon of liyue.

he really wanted to fight the millelith but then his chat convinced him to dodge them first.

one of his viewers explains that there's a character they know he'll like and he was very... intriguied to say the least.

he moves forward in his chair once his character is heard by the millelith, prepared to fight the various soldiers surrounding him.

"hang on, sweetheart. i've got this."

this man will squeal when you flip over the stairs in front of his character.

he doesn't know who you are and what you do but he knows for a fact that you are his new favorite character.

you take down all of the guards in two seconds, leaving him (and his in-game character) dumbfounded.

"come with me."

"o-okay..."

he's smitten.

he absolutely loves the way your character fights even if he met you about... a minute ago.

his siblings definitely come into his room to check on him because he's so quiet.

once he realizes you're a part of the harbingers, he's even more obsessed.

he hates the options the game gives him when he needs to respond because 2/3 of them are insulting you.

anyway he really likes listening to your voice.

he will give anything to hear you call him sweetheart again.

his chat informs him that the traveler he chose changed the nickname you give him, which makes him very happy.

when you send him off to talk to the other adepti, he's kind of disappointed he doesn't get to hang out with you.

but when he gets back to you...

"welcome back, sweetheart. how was your trip to jueyun karst?"

HE'S SOFT ALL OVER AGAIN PLEASE KEEP CALLING HIM SWEETHEART!!!

when he learns you're rich just like him... he gets all pouty. his chat, of course, wants to know why.

"... i want to be able to spoil her."

PLEASE HE'S SO IN LOVE WITH YOU <3

[emocka]

My model sweetheart

Genshin men and girls with a chubby s/o

Note: possible harem (?) Still debating on it reader is gender neutral short

It was just a small idea. The teyvat modeling agency proposed that the world hottest models pose with a plus size model. A new sale tactic to sell plus size clothes.

They agreed to it.

Thats where you come in. A freelance model who couldn't land a permanent spot in a lot of angecys because 'its not the season for you'

Diluc 'the newly weds'

You two possed as the rich couple who just married. Both exchanging rings for the shoot

Wedding bells and flowers hanging off the balcony. The arch decorated in red and purple roses.

To say he fell hard was an understatement.

You were perfect. So beautiful why did the other model agency reject you?

For now he'll hide his feelings

Kaeya 'forbidden office romance'

You two modeled as a two office employees in a forbidden romance.

Flower petals scatterd on the desk. Kaeya staring at you arms crossed while you leaned on the desk smirking.

He flirted with you through out the entire shoot. You flirted back at him.

So...why was he blushing at the end?

Well he'll get his game on and flirt with you more

Childe 'the mafia couple'

You two possed as a mafia couple. His was in the chair you sitting in his lap snapping a glove on. The background barely lit.

He flirted with you. You just waved him off and giggled.

Something about you was drawing him closer to you.

Whats the harm in getting to know you?

Lisa 'the beach vacation'

You were shy about your body but with encouraging words from the company you came out in a bathing suit

You two were on an actual beach when the shoot happened so they got some real photos of you two having fun.

Lisa felt something and she wasn't sure what.

Guess she just hang with you some more and find out.

Jean 'nightout on the town'

You two were passing as best friends spending the night out.

Jean was made to look like she was overworked.

They caught photos of you pulling on her hand pointing somewhere.

The street had to be cleared to do this shoot.

The more jean spent time with you the more she fell for you.

God you were pretty.

Alebdo 'the high school sweet hearts'

Albedo wasn't one to show much emotion

But when he meet you it changed.

You two posed as high school sweethearts.

Pictures where taken of you two hold hands whispering in each other ears. The background taking place at a really high school with real students walking in and out of the pictures.

This new feeling was kinda nice. Maybe he'll experiment with this feeling a little more.

Xiao 'the e sport couple'

You and Xiao posed as an esport couple. You were sitting on the desk him in the chair.

The monitor was showing a old pvp game.

The two of you were looking at each other in a way that made fans scream for more.

Xiao felt a little different.

Guess he was going to have to hang out with you more.

Because this feeling wasn't going away no matter what

Aether "the college roommate romance'

When you meet aether you never felt more at home.

He treated you like royalty on the set

You were both posing as roommates in love.

Photos showing you two on the bed cuddling you in his lap hugging.

When ever aether hugged you he felt warm.

Warm hugs.

Warmth.

Aether knew he fell for you. So he handed you his number with a kiss on your hand.

Call him later?

Kazuha 'ship romance' (NOT A REFERENCE TO THE TITANIC MOVIE)

Like aether kazuha treated you like royalty.

His heart was fluttering as the shoot went on.

The photos showed you two almost kissing. (With both parties consent of course)

During the shoot kazuha flirted with you.

You flirted back but in more shy manner.

By the end kazuha had handed you his number with a small poem.

Text him later? He wants to make plans

Tighnari 'the secret garden romance'

You both were placed in a real garden. You were given a book and told to you to read it.

Tighnari was behind you placing a purple rose in your hair.

The two of you were blushing. Tighnari flirted with you in a gentle and teasing manner qith you returning it in full.

The shoot caught pictures of tighnari holding you bridal style.

The final picture captured was him on one knee offering you a banquet of flowers.

When you went back to the dressing room you found a huge banquet of various flowers from him.

Wait he asking you out on a date?

----

By the end of the week Teyvat modeling had the spread ready. They sent in the final draft.

They had emailed you with an offer to come back.

After many requests from their models you were wanted back.

Maybe this would turn out better.

[hellebore-petall]

I have spent all day thinking about Unprepared Casters Arc 6 Episode 6, and have finally processed the events enough to put a post together - So spoiler alert for The Glacerian Trail Episode 6 I guess. Buckle up, it’s going to be a doozy.

Gosh, I have so many emotions about the whole Remeny vs. Beryl situation. It’s interesting, because of all the bad memory scenes I was not expecting Remeny’s to be the one who brought me to tears. It is rare for me to cry actual tears at media, but fuck Unprepared has gotten me so many times. And this was one of those times that caught me off guard. My heart just felt for her, and her experience being betrayed to the point she felt is was only a matter of time before her closest friends turned on her as well. That’s not a good headspace to be in at all, and I am sure many of us have felt at one point or another the level of insecurity that we fear our friends actually hate us. This was that to the extreme.

And then we hit the PvP and shit got real. I was totally expecting this to be a huge schism between the party, where some people would follow Remeny, and others would follow Beryl. I thought maybe the conflict would perhaps even lead to death, adding more guilt and pain to the whole situation. I thought this would be Remeny’s spiral from morally gray captain into full on villainhood. Her voice as she went on was so scary (props to Jenny for that brilliant performance)! And then she physically attacked Beryl with her axe and I thought that would be it.

But then, after all of Beryl’s challenges of Remeny’s decisions, the unthinkable happened. I truly did not see it coming.

The rest of the crew refused to fight. They could see that their friend was hurting, that Remeny was not herself, that she was at the end of her rope, that this was a person who had made a lot of bad choices with a lot of bad consequences, but someone who was worthy of love despite that. That she was worthy of compassion. Of yet another chance.

And they talked to her, until she calmed down. They reassured her that they trusted her, and loved her. They were patient with her, when they were totally within their rights to get the hell out of there and save their own lives. No one would have blamed them. The party is by no means okay, they have a lot of healing to do. I doubt this is the end of it, and there is a lot of stuff that is going to need to happen post-arc before things are okay again, to ease these tensions. But FUCK that grace, that compassion, the forgiveness, it was beautiful. It hit me like a truck, but in a good way. The degree to which these characters are willing to go to. When Kix said “If I have to kill you to show you how much I love you, I will.”

And it’s so profound. Because I didn’t expect it. I didn’t even think it was a possibility. And it is a way that it changed something in my mind, the way I understand certain things. This is not the first time Unprepared Casters has changed my life, and I am certain it will not be the last. And I have to thank the cast of The Glacerian Trail for the impact this episode has had one me. I cannot wait to see how the arc is closed out in the next two episodes. This arc is going to stay in my mind for a long, long time.

[heeleys-the-musical]

Ideas for Season 2 of 3rd Life

Happy one month anniversary of the ending of 3rd life season 1! I’ve still got the brainrot hard so please enjoy the thoughts that have been pinging around inside my brain like a DVD screensaver. In this post, I will present and defend changes I would like to see, storylines that could be used, and team-ups that I think would be entertaining.

Addition: Player Head Drops

If you watch Hermitcraft or Empires SMP, you may know of the Player Head Drops addon. For those that don’t know, it is a datapack that drops an item that is textured to look like a player’s head when that player is slain by pvp. This could add a new dimension to both roleplay and gameplay. For a morbid example, someone could mount the head of a slain enemy on a pike outside their base to warn off invaders. For more emotional impact, dead players would now have in-game remains so there’s an actual object to use when you bury your dead husband ally. For those less inclined to roleplay, the heads can be worn in the helmet armor slot and layer the texture over the player’s skin. This wouldn’t fool anyone at close range, but there is a lot of remote observation is 3rd Life. At a long distance, you can’t see a player name or its color, and in armor the only identifying feature would be the player’s head (this becomes more relevant in version 1.17 with the addition of the spyglass). Since helmets are banned, it wouldn’t be out of place to see someone heading out without headgear. Player heads could actually be used as an effective disguise. I think this change would add a fun new dimension to the game.

Plot Idea: Chosen One

In season 1, Martyn introduces the concept of some kind of divine being that is protecting and guiding him. The watchers mysterious voice seems angry that he did not win season 1, so why would they not redouble their efforts for the next try? Martyn is the chosen one, destined by the gods to be the last one standing in season 2. Ren is his head priest and they start a cult together (of course he has to team up with Ren again their dynamic is just *chef’s kiss*). I see Ren having a lot of fun with the ‘evangelizing preacher’ role. To convert people, they convince them of the concept of a shared win--if Martyn is the last one standing, everyone in the cult may consider that a victory. They could bring back Black Heart Altar and do more spooky blood sacrifices. It would also be really funny if they borrowed the ‘BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD’ meme.

A List of Potential Team-Ups

Grian and Etho: Etho is a lot more wholesome than we think. I know we were all psyched for a villian Etho arc after his tree burned, but it turns out he’s just a big softie. He constantly teased Bdubs and while he did fire missiles at the Crastle, killing was not his intention. Even when they were enemies, he never went too hard. Etho engaged in audio warfare and even says he doesn’t want Bdubs to die. He was loyal to the Red Army, but I think his heart was always with the Crastle. GRIAN, on the other hand, is a bloodthirsty gremlin who loves chaos. Scar may have guided the Sand Alliance, but Grian was the driving force. He got 5 kills while on his green life! I’m sure he would have gotten way more if he knew how to make working traps. Guess what Etho can do? These two would be a good team-up because they mutually simp respect each other and could play to each other’s strengths and weaknesses (and by that I mean Grain could lure Etho to the dark side). This would be a frightening team. Potential downsides: this may lead to Grian winning again. Counterpoint: the other players may recognize how powerful this team is and and take them out early.

Skizzleman and BdoubleO100: while these two didn’t interact much in season 1, they both have a level of voice control and manic energy that I think would play really well off each other. Could you imagine them in a yelling match? I would also add Joel to this mix, simply to encourage him to go crazy. His delivery of “THE RED KING DIES TONIGHT, FELLAS!” was in my opinion, the peak of his series, and the energy of this team could lead to more. As a counterweight, I would add Bigb to this team. He’s like a capybara; he just exudes chill. He could keep the team focused and prevent them from turning on each other. Someone has to be the responsible mom friend here.

Cleo and Scott: The Gays Star-Crossed Widows Alliance. I don’t know if these two have collaborated before, but It seems like these two get along really well. Cleo and the flower husbands had a secret alliance because they trusted each other, they had the widows alliance that never happened, and Scott even intended to put flowers on Cleo’s grave after she died. Plus, their dynamic is really fun. Imagine them running around heckling the roleplayers.

Jimmy and Scar: The Himbo Alliance. This one is kind of a joke but please just imagine this for a minute. Scar’s charisma stat is through the roof, and Jimmy is a trained MCC champion. Similar to how Scar performed in season 1, they could come off as so dumb and harmless that no one would expect them to come in from behind and sweep the competition. Honorable mention to Bdubs.

That’s all for now! I probably have more ideas but I just can’t put them into meaningful words yet. Signing off, this is a grown-ass adult who needs a hobby.

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

It's that time once again when Diabolical plays in my head on loop.

Can I please get fic where Hels gets back on hermitcraft server? Causing some shenanigans and general trouble?

This was so much fun to write, thank you!! It also ended up being WAY more angsty than I expected but I’m sure you’ll enjoy it anyway, my friend :) Slight CW: minor descriptions of injuries

...

  Welsknight had been avoiding his nether portal as much as possible since he saw his doppelganger disappear through it. Something about the formerly harmless particles and whooshing noise when he walked past it now just about gave him an anxiety attack every time he walked past it. Once, when Jevin popped out of it to say hello just hours after Helsknight had left, Wels had reacted so violently that Jevin was STILL wary around him all these months later. 

  Nobody used his portal anymore. He made sure of that. 

  One sunny day, he finally worked up the courage to go to the shopping district, something he hadn’t dared to do in weeks in case something happened. He went straight past his own portal and flew all the way to Etho’s; there was no way he was going to use the portal his evil clone went through to go back to the hell dimension from which he had come. 

  The shopping district had changed a lot in the weeks Wels had been avoiding it. He couldn’t help staring around at the myriad of new shops that had sprung up. It almost seemed like an entirely new place. 

  As Wels entered the barge, he found another Hermit already inside, browsing the chest full of golden carrots. 

  “Hi, Joe,” said Wels politely, unable to hide a smile at the sight of his old friend. 

  Joe turned and gave him a wave. “Howdy, Wels. Haven’t seen you around here for a few weeks.”

  “Yeah, it’s been… a while. Just been busy, that’s all.” Wels awkward;y indicated the chest. “You, uh… buying stuff?”

  “Nah, I’m not dealing with diamonds this season. I thought Grian might be open to some kind of trading system using stuff other than diamonds but he hasn’t responded to my message yet, so in the meantime, I’m-.” He broke off with a frown. “Okay, I think I might have forgotten to actually send the message.”

  Wels chuckled. “You’re busy too, huh? You only start forgetting stuff when you’ve got a lot on your mind.”

  Joe matched his chuckle. “I’ve got quite a few projects going at the moment, yes. You wanna come over to my base sometime and I’ll show you what I’m working on?”

  “That sounds nice, Joe, thanks.”

  At that moment, the sound of a firework going off nearby caused both of them to look up. A second later, a figure glided through the door and landed neatly on the ground, his elytra closing as he took a few steps further into the room. “Hey, Wels,” Etho said, giving a friendly wave. “Man, you really got here fast.”

  Wels frowned at his friend. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, I just saw you over by Shade-E-E’s a minute ago. You said hello to me and everything.”

  “That…” Wels’s heart skipped a beat. “That wasn’t me.”

  Etho frowned back. “Well, then… Someone must’ve stolen a spare set of armour or something, cuz it looked exactly like you.”

  “Oh…” Blinking very fast, Wels let out a nervous breath. “Oh, boy… Please don’t tell me he’s back…”

  Etho and Joe exchanged a confused look. “Who?” asked Joe.

  Wels considered either making something up or dismissing his comment, but looking at the concerned faces of two of his best friends on the server, he decided to tell the truth. “The evil clone of myself that Beef and I accidentally created who ran off into the nether after I beat him in a rap battle when he tried to destroy the server.”

  Etho stared at him with wide eyes. 

  “I thought it might be something like that,” said Joe, nodding.

  “How can you possibly have been expecting that?” Wels said in disbelief.

  Joe shrugged. “I’ve heard weirder.”

  “Well… anyway. His name is Helsknight and he’s from a nether-like dimension called Hels, apparently. I thought I’d driven him back to where he came from but I should’ve known he wouldn’t stay away for long.”

  “To be frank, beating him in a rap battle isn’t quite as definitive as beating him in PVP,” said Joe. 

  Wels scowled. “The last time I tried PVP, you dropped an anvil on my head from a great height.”

  “Oh yeah.” Joe snickered. “I did.”

  “Leaving that aside,” said Etho, “it seems there’s an evil clone of you loose on the server, so we should probably deal with that. Helsknight, you said his name is?”

  Wels nodded. “He looks exactly like me except his eyes are red, his armour is slightly greyer than mine, and his hair is a darker shade of blond.”

  “Ohh, I noticed the darker armour,” said Etho. “I just thought it was the shade from my shop. I guess we’d better go find him, huh?”

  “Yeah, I need to find him before he causes any more chaos. You guys should probably warn the other Hermits so they-.”

  “No, we’re coming with you to find him,” Etho interrupted. 

  “It’ll be quicker if the three of us look together,” Joe added. “Plus, I’ve never met an evil clone before, so it would be rather thrilling to do so.”

  Wels frowned at his friends. “Are you sure? He’s really dangerous. I don’t know exactly what he’s capable of, but he’s from a hellfire dimension, so...”

  “As sure as the day is long,” replied Joe, patting his friend on the shoulder. “You need our help and we aren’t gonna abandon you.”

  As Etho nodded, Wels gave a small smile. “Thank you, guys. I really appreciate it.”

  “No worries. So where should we look first?” asked Etho.

  “Well…” Wels thought for a moment. “He’s probably trying to cause some shenanigans on the server. If we check certain prominent places on the server, we’ll probably find him trying to lure me out somehow.”

  “I’ll check the rest of the shopping district, then,” said Joe. “He might still be here.”

  “I’ll have a look round the nether hub and the Upside Down,” Etho added. “You said he’s from a nether-like dimension so he might gravitate there. What about you, Wels?”

  “I’m going to Bdubs’s castle,” said Wels. “It’s the most medieval build on the server, so if he isn’t there now, he’ll end up there eventually.”

  “Okay, but be careful, Wels,” Etho said softly. “Don’t do anything reckless.”

  “I won’t.”

  With that, the group split up. 

  Wels flew straight over to Bdubs’s base. As he got closer, he couldn’t help marvelling at the sheer size and grandeur of the cliff and the castle sitting atop it. It was one of the grandest bases on the servers, so Wels felt sure he would find his clone here.

  He landed atop the cliff and started looking around. As he explored further, he spotted the person he was looking for standing at the entrance to Bdubs’s castle. 

  “If you’re looking for your little friend Bdoubleo, he’s in the nether,” crowed Helsknight. “I watched him go through his portal.”

  Wels glared up at his doppelganger. “You know I’m not looking for Bdubs.”

  “Are you here to rap battle with me again, then?” Helsknight grinned. “I warn you: I’ve been practising.”

  Shaking his head, Wels drew his sword. “No, Hels. I’m going to do what I should have done in the first place.” 

  Helsknight sighed and drew his own sword. “So boring. Come on, then.”

  His doppelganger’s relaxed, indifferent manner sent a bolt of anger straight into Wels. Letting out a yell, he charged to attack.

  Their battle lasted at least ten minutes, though to Wels, it felt like hours. He poured all his energy into his swings, attacking his evil clone with all the rage and fear that had threatened to consume him since Helsknight had disappeared into the nether all those months ago. He was done letting his negative emotions control his life. 

  Finally, Wels managed to knock Helsknight’s sword out of his hand and kick him to the ground, aiming his own sword at his evil clone’s neck. 

  Helsknight simply grinned evilly up at him. “You gonna kill me, Welsy? I wouldn’t do it if I were you; we Hels Hermits only get stronger when we die. If you kill me, I’ll come back with a vengeance. We have a special lava fountain in Hels that can-.”

  “Oh, shut up,” snapped Wels suddenly. “I’m not going to kill you, but not because of any stupid threats you make. I don’t care what you have in Hels. I’m not going to kill you, because I’m merciful. But if you ever come back here again, I won’t be so forgiving. Do you understand?”

  Helsknight simply stared back at him. “You’ve got some great friends here, Welsy. Better hold onto them in case something… happens.”

  Wels narrowed his eyes. “You stay away from them. I swear to god, if you-.”

  He hadn’t realised that he had lowered his hand slightly until Helsknight moved, fast as lightning, and kicked the sword out of his hand. Before he could react, Helsknight jumped up and grabbed him by the throat. He took two steps forward and threw Wels over the edge of the cliff. 

  The fall seemed to take only a split second, but the cliff was tall enough that Wels’s left leg broke immediately upon impacting the ground. He lay still in shock, too numb to cry, despite the searing pain in his leg, which was folded painfully underneath his body. 

  Helsknight appeared above him and effortlessly picked him up off the ground, again by the throat. He grinned, his face less than a foot from Wels’s.

  “You know what else we have in Hels?” Helsknight taunted. “Fire. Lots of fire.”

  He lifted his free hand, which was now engulfed in burning hot flames. Wels weakly struggled in his grip, trying to lean as far away from his counterpart as possible, as Helsknight slowly moved the fire closer to his face, taunting him with the fact that he couldn’t escape it. 

  The flames started to burn his face. He held his breath, trying not to let his pain show, trying not to give Helsknight the satisfaction. 

  But finally, he couldn’t hold it in any longer. He let out a cry at the burning agony across the side of his face.

  Helsknight barked a laugh and retracted his hand, as if all he’d been after was a reaction from Wels. “Maybe you should stick with the rap battles next time.”

  With that, he dropped Wels on the ground and walked away.

  Wels lay where he fell, unable to move through the burning pain in his face and leg. His chest moved quickly up and down as he struggled for oxygen, still winded from the battle. 

  “Wels!” yelled a familiar voice from somewhere behind him. 

  Seconds later, Joe appeared on his right and Etho on his left, their worried faces peering down at him. 

  “Is he okay?” Joe gasped.

  “H-His face…!” Etho gently touched Wels’s burnt cheek. Wels could feel his friend’s cool fingers trembling. “Wels, can you hear me?”

  Wels couldn’t speak, couldn’t reassure his friends that he would be okay. His leg would heal. His face, he wasn’t sure yet. The only thing he knew wouldn’t heal was the crushing feeling of failure, of knowing that because of said failure, an evil clone of himself was still running around the server, potentially hurting people he cared about. The pain in his leg and face served as an agonising reminder that he wasn’t strong enough to stop his doppelganger. 

  How was he supposed to protect other people when he couldn’t even protect himself?

[serenedash]

I started rambling about my experience with kh and then it turned into khux and then it just turned into me rambling about Ryou and my art journey????? enjoy I guess,

it’s very long but there’s art in there :)

It’s funny to think about my kh journey as a whole tbh, I grew up watching my mom play video games, which included kh1 and 2. I wasn’t allowed to play the playstation2 we owned BUT I did have a gameboy so the first game I played was CoM (after my mom finished it ofc,) so I guess you could say I’ve always been passionate about kh “””side games””” lmao but I did fall off of kh very quickly bc again, I wasn’t allowed to play our PS2 and also I Am A Terrible Gamer I’ve Never Finished CoM I’m sorry you all had to find out like this, but then 358/2 came out when I was in middle school and!!! I didn’t care and I didn’t play idk why lol

Anyway, fast forward to high school I’m like 15 and my older sister, who HAS been keeping up with kh, has a wallpaper on her phone of roxas and ventus. And bc I haven’t kept up I say “nice roxas wallpaper” and she says “thanks but it’s roxas and ventus” and I proceeded to get so mad that I was determined to prove to her that her wallpaper was just roxas twice and then I fell down the BBS rabbit hole and suddenly I was reading about vanitas and then I’m reading the fan translations of the BBS novel and I’m crying??? I am sobbing???? and that’s how I actually got into kh for real lol we are vanitas stans before we are people,

It’s so funny how I thought I was some kh super fan, knowing all this stuff that I spent so long reading and rewatching cutscene movies, but I never once, SOMEHOW NEVER ever came across khx. It’s so absurd and bizarre I seriously have no idea how I never once encountered khx prior to khux. I suppose that has to do with the fact I wasn’t involved in the fandom? In early high school I had stepped away from fandoms as a whole and I didn’t have any interest in really posting content or interacting with fans anymore bc of how burnt out I was from a previous fandom,

but khux released! and I was so hype and excited for it! on launch day I was a senior in high school, I had ran around to every “nerd” and weeb I could find in school to ask them to join my party and fun fact about me is I have crippling social anxiety I literally refuse to start conversations irl so holy shit I was OUT HERE doing the MOST

My player just originally had my name (Matt) but everyone in my party had fun names so Ryou was born! High school was one big yugioh phase for me and ryou bakura is one of my favorite characters ever so it was just the logical name choice lol I quickly started creating Ryou, the character, as well. I was also leaving my homestuck phase and that + vanitas obsession made This character design (art circa 2016)

If y’all are familiar with my kh oc’s you might notice that keyblade now belongs to my kid Monty LOL

Anyway that got scrapped quickly for the chip and dale outfit (which is where Ryou’s trademark goggles are from <3) Goggles have been a staple of my character designs for a LONG TIME so like, it had to be done, (that’s a separate ramble about a separate oc tho)

OG Ryou was an interesting guy; he was a young party leader with this overwhelming responsibility on his shoulders bc of his status as a party leader. In his original story, he also struggled heavily with darkness, much like Terra but for Ryou it was more that the darkness was controlling him and not like a source of power like it was for Terra

A big part of early Ryou I kept, however, was the crushing awareness of loss. One of my party members (the strongest one at the time,) had left without saying a word and I was very confused and hurt. This was around the time the ephemera plot was happening so I decided to incorporate it into Ryou’s story; having him experience losing a friend to darkness since it’s so normal for wielders in Daybreak Town to just disappear, and this would unintentionally become a theme for both me and Ryou as khux friends would just randomly disappear.

I was desperate for khux at this point and I decided to watch the fan translations for khx and GOD, god, was I obsessed. I couldn’t stop thinking about the foretellers. And I’m not going off about that here bc I already did that, but I actually started entering fandom again! I did it slowly, I started on tumblr before this blog was made altho it was me sending anons to the few khux related blogs I could have lol a friend convinced me to get twitter where I got involved with the ffxv fandom, which led me to the kh fandom and eventually the khux fandom there which is what REALLY got me going on khux.

I joined discord servers, most of the servers I’m in are khux related, and from there I joined the khux oc rp (shout out to anyone there who might be reading this lol here’s some art from the beginning of the rp,)

It’s SO FUNNY how the RP influenced me so heavily. I hadn’t RP’d in YEARS, I used to have a strict no oc rp policy, but here I was? And the funny part is, I had barely developed Ryou. I had scrapped his original story and all I had was POST WAR Ryou so I literally had to reverse write him; I had only ever written him as a depressed, guilt ridden adult, but it was a fucking blast and I have such fond memories of this rp when it was active,

But anyway, this encouraged me to get more serious about art! I started drawing, writing, cosplaying, and roleplaying when I hadn’t done any of that stuff in a very long time. The first time I ever drew a background was for a deviant art khux competition actually LOL

also! I always think extremely fondly of the drawing I did of Aced in the keyblade war. It was also one of the first backgrounds I ever drew and it felt like my real starting point in the khux fandom. It got a ton of notes on here and someone wrote a tiny fic in a reblog which just made me SO HAPPY like it really felt like people were noticing me :) I was going to draw a matching Ira but!! I just never did!! One day tho, it’s on my art bucket list to redraw this along with Ira,

Aside from my personal growth, khux was great for my social life ngl, I made SO MANY friends online and got to meet a ton of people irl over the years! It’s crazy to think about all the people I now know and talk to? It honestly makes me really emotional. I’ll never forget taking the train into NYC and meeting up with discord friends. Going to conventions and talking with people about the latest khux update? Absolutely insane and those were some GOOD TIMES, if I thanked every khux friend or even just person who made an impact on me then we’d be here for a LONG TIME,

Fun fact, for my Lauriam cosplay all I needed to buy was the wig I just owned his outfit LOL also? Probably retiring that cosplay ngl people treated me like absolute garbage when I wore him and it led to a lot of confidence issues for awhile ngl. That’s probably one of the only memorable negative experiences I have with khux; it was great when khux people recognized me but for kh fans that weren’t in khux? They were FUCKING MEAN??? fuck kh fandom at large, I only care about khux fandom,

This leads me to another huge part of my experience in khux fandom: THEORIES!! I used to write SO MANY and oh my god my brain was so full all the time. It was a huge appeal for me in the fandom; I had been previously writing theory posts in the RWBY fandom and it just migrated over to khux for me lol I had done a ton of theorizing around Lauriam tbh, it was really the only reason I liked his character at all bc initially I did not care about the dandelions, anyone who wasn’t Skuld I was like “please leave Now thanks”

A funny part of khux fandom I never intended to be apart of is the MEMES, I really only started doing memes as stress relief bc college had me so busy all I had time/energy for was these quick little shit post drawings.

The first meme I made, file name “invi despair” LOL we need to get her a girlfriend smh anyway, I think in my senior year of college I did a bunch of rapid fire memes all in one month bc the stress of finals was getting so bad afdgfhdgf as far as I know my impact on this fandom will be my memes bc all I do now is enter a kh/khux server and introduce myself and I go “yeah I draw art. here’s a meme” and everyone goes OH YOU, honestly I am nothing if not a clown

I’ve talked so much idk where I’m going with this. Khux is just a good game even if the gameplay actually kind of really sucks yknow lol but it was the first game I played where I like, REALLY got into the meta and the mechanics. I used to read so much on the mechanics and watch youtube videos on which medals were worth pulling for. I was never a whale or a top player exactly, but I could rank well if I tried lol I’ve made it to the top 100 for solo rankings, my party has made it to top 10, and in pvp I’ve made top 300. I’m not the highest level in my party but FUCK do I know how to manipulate this game LOL

And with all that hard work, the strategies, the theorizing, the content I’ve made-- it’s been my life for 5 years. I’ve logged into khux almost every single day. At the end, I have logged 1820 days in khux out of 1910 days. Kinda crazy. Crazier I’ve never spent money on khux either lol the only “money” gone into it was one time my mom gave me a google play store gift card and I used it on my birthday for a VIP xemnas medal which eventually made it to regular pulls anyway but it was nice and a little treat :)

I’m not a gacha fan, I don’t care for it, so I don’t think I’ll be touching another gacha again. But for kh? This was pretty fucking awesome, even if it sucked a lot sometimes LOL It was worth it for the people I’ve met most of all I think. I would honestly be a completely different person without khux and that’s REALLY insane to think about.

[biinaberry]

The Man with the Spiral Sweater

23

10 pages.. 10 pages and I have nothing. What am I even supposed to write about? He gave me no list and just told me to finish these before he visits. What would he even want me writing about? Imagination and storytelling aren’t my strong suit, yet I guess this is my irony. The one thing that I haven’t practiced over and over. This is going to be a chore.

Well... I guess that counted as filling this book, but 10 pages of just me questioning the words of a teenager wouldn’t be the most exciting thing in the world… What are the limits here? Does he want full sentences or do bullet points work? I really wished he actually told me what he wanted. 

Maybe I can use this book for concepts. Get my thoughts down and then work from there into something that he would enjoy. Now, what do we have to work with?

History book (write down everything) Doesn’t want a rehash of everything

History (Our Pov)  Definitely wouldn’t believe what I say

Instructional guide Can’t explain/demonstrate pvp when it isn’t in person

Doodle book?  Boring

Something I have experience in?

Something you have experience in

Now we have something, I remember someone saying that the best writing comes from your own experiences. Okay. Good. Good. We have a start.. Now what do we have to work with:

PVP

Survival skills

Connections

Consequences

Letting go

Awareness

Those you are working with

Partner’s connections

Emotions

Strategies

Location

Those beyond what you see

Wait

wait wait wait wait

…..

I’ll get back to this later

25

He didn’t visit. 

Should have expected that honestly, god that was idiotic to actually believe him. 

Says you tormented him and you expect him to actually want to face you again, like the first visit went so well. At least it gives me more time to actually process this…assignment.

There are some extra books. 5 more than needed if I remember correctly. 5 mistakes, 5 chances to redo… 5 books I can use for myself. But why would I need these extra ones? I have no use for them. I’ll go back to brainstorming

31?

Drip Drip Drip Drip Drip Drip Drip Drip Drip Drip Drip Drip Drip

Drip Drip Drip Drip Drip Drip Drip Drip Drip Drip Drip Drip Drip

Drip Drip Drip Drip Drip Drip Drip Drip Drip Drip Drip Drip Drip

That's all I hear anymore, at least a week of just the sizzling lava to keep me company here. I thought chucking that clock would bring the warden’s attention, but that was for not. Beyond the loss of communication, now time is against my side as well. 

It had to have been at least a day right? No way it couldn’t have been. Yet why hasn’t the warden come back? Meals were at least once a day, so what is taking so long. He should have visited by now. Maybe different measures will get his attention.

??

I find it harder to pick up the pen every time I fall asleep. I wonder if one day it will be stuck here, unable to even stand up. 

Could I leave? I will one day, inevitably but will the rest of the world allow me? Or will they keep pushing against me until I give the reaction they are looking for just to send me back here. I might follow them then, try not to change their mind because what use is it to change those who are not willing to do so. Or maybe I'm the one who still needs changing, or maybe neither do. If I were given the choice:

I don't want to leave, not yet. 

I’m not ready.

What would await me out there? How much will be different, and how much will be the same? 

The latter half is what keeps me awake really, how much wouldn’t change. Would Sapnap still want to spar with me or simply banter, or just sit around and watch nature with me and George. George.. God what a mess that will be wouldn’t it. Another burnt bridge for a plan I believed in, do I- should I fix these connections? I internally want to say yes, yet I feel the urge to just let it be. Let the sleeping dog lie for what good is it to try and reform what cannot be made. Would creating new connections work? Is that a better approach? 

Good thing I have a long and silent time in order to do so. 

I used to believe obsidian was a sign of adventure, to face one's fears and enter a world unlike those you’ve grown up in, yet this isn’t the same obsidian. The tools made to form your own path and mark your own now a tomb for myself and the land I called my home. To contain instead of release, to wither instead of strengthen. What do you do now with no one by your side. Do whatever you want? 

I could never

I already stood alone and now I stand with the dust and ashes of a self I do not see as my own...

To fear the inhuman isn’t wise. More than 60 percent of the population is some form of inhuman, even if they don’t appear so at first glance. I, a mannequin, Wilbur, part whale and Quackity.. is quackity. However to say what I saw was your typical inhumanoid would be an understatement- 

I need to stop. I don’t want- But I-.. they won’t find this right? I don’t want them to- they Can’t find this. I’ll burn it if I have to- but.. But this- I need this..

I can scribble it out if needed, or rip the page out! I- Are those footsteps.. No no no- He- The Warden isn’t until later. Don’t let them know. Don’t let them know. 

But things will get worse if I don’t say anything.

I always felt watched, ever since I first made a name for myself. Whether it was from an adoring fan or those parting the way, not wanting to inconvenience me. So I’m not unused to having attention thrusted upon me at any opportune moment, even if I wasn’t trying to be. Though after a few months there started to be this.. presence to say the least. I could never identify who or where this feeling came from, but there was this feeling of.. wrongness. Like how you feel like you are forgetting something, but it’s on the tip of your tongue. It always happened when I was alone or nearly so. I rarely found myself in any form; whether that was doing challenges with Sapnap and George or simply bantering with Callahan and the others. I never liked the quiet, maybe that's just from the manhunts, but the anticipation of waiting for something to happen was never a comfort to me. I’d much rather be the one causing that then be on the receiving end-

When I first realized he was there, I wished I didn’t. Ironic in a way, it was a tournament.. or well more so a duel between me and Techno. The air was crisp but not too cold, the way you imagine August to be before the first chills of October. And even though I lost that day, what made me stop was what I saw while on the ground, exhausted after the final round. To describe him as anything moral would be a lie. He was watching us; watching me, and I’m used to people staring. I'm not the most humanoid creature in existence, but that man. There was something off with him. 

The me back then wouldn’t have remembered anything physical about him other than the innate feeling of deja vu when we made eye contact. And then it clicked and at that moment, I felt myself want to run. But I couldn’t, millions are watching and if I run now then all that attention would be used against me. I bared through the hollow feeling of Techno hauling me up off of the floor and eventually meeting the duel organizer and his crew. And right there was when I saw him. Shorter than me by a few inches with brown eyes and a smile others would see as trustworthy, he had a simple black hoodie with a smiley face, my own merch. It shouldn’t have affected me as much since the event literally had my name plastered over it, but the implications of that sweater did not bode well with me. 

He congratulated Techno and said his condolences with me, saying he was rooting for me the whole time, but the only thing I processed was how it felt like claws were grabbing at me when we shook hands. I was clearly bigger than him, yet it felt like I was miniscule compared to him. As if something was hiding just below his skin and was just waiting for the right opportunity to rip it away from me. His grip was like 10 different hands were digging into my plastic skin and were hooking their claws into me. He told me his name, but I can’t remember it, it feels like static and errors, the kind of noises George would emit after getting severely injured, but he had no scratches on him; no implications of injuries either. I took as swift a leave as I could while also being respectful, but I could not wait to leave that man's sight. 

He never did leave me.

Out of the corner of my eye I could almost see him, and understand why I hated that handshake. His body was stretched, his legs disproportionate to his body, arms almost touching the ground and his hands. His hands looked like three separate pairs of fingers were all melted together on the same base, yet each moving together in sync. Besides the blatant horror that I couldn’t even perceive head on, it was the purple tint to him that really made me double take, not just turning around and questioning why he hasn’t left me alone yet. Purple scales were normal for dragon hybrids, yet his skin had a magenta tint to them. Different spots had dark magenta spots that would blend out with the rest of his pale skin. It appeared in some spots like he was melting as well, unable to withstand the constraints and contortions of his own body in a host too small for their own. 

It was then that I realized why I hate the quiet so much.

For it was his calling card.

The next time I met him was before all the wars and the eventual degradation of the server I once called home. A time before the wars, a time before Tommy, I yearn for those days sometimes, when the prison walls are so bare they allow me to daydream for a long forgotten past. I was chopping wood, taking my diamond axe and skewering the wood with the sharp blade before I heard the sounds of parrots. I was in the middle of an oak forest and the closest jungle wasn’t for another two thousand blocks. I followed the noise until a twig broke behind me and I turned and saw him again. The same creature from the duel. His long torso was bigger than that of the trees and his head brushed against the tallest branches of the trees, leaves falling to the ground, turning to stained glass when they touched his body. He had a smile on his face, one of contempt as he looked down upon me. My first instinct would have been to aim for his arms, but something told me that would have ended badly for me, so I didn’t. I found myself asking who he was and he chuckled, in the way molten lava does and responded “As time would describe itself to history >;}” before going back to smiling down at me. I knew there was more to it but when I turned my head to grab a potion to ready myself, he was already gone. I didn’t want to admit to myself that I’d see him in the reflections of the water, he never did truly.

The last time I saw them was when I was gathering my own supplies in the final battle against them, the heroes of the story. I needed everything I possibly could in order to insure a victory that I would never achieve. I had gotten used to working alone after everyone started leaving each other. I couldn’t trust anyone anymore so what use would the company be anymore. It’s been so long since I’ve seen the figure that I’ve allowed him to slip my mind, and that's when I felt a tap on my shoulder.

I drew my blade, turned around, and there he was.

The dark tinted purple of the portal bounced against his skin and the floor from the other side of the room. His shadow, a kaleidoscope of colors even against the blackstone flooring, almost touched my feet. I wasn’t stupid, I tried banning the creature so many times, but he always broke through, always able to make his way back in, and at that point I didn’t see a reason to try anymore and I let him be. 

I regret that action now. 

He stood by the portal, not moving an inch as his body melted together and reformed as our eye contact never separated. It never felt like he was looking at you. It was like he was looking beyond you at something you didn’t even know existed in the first place. He tilted his head to the side slightly and with a smile too big for his face he asked. “Does the character now want to become the playwright <:} ? Discover a level of self identity that you can never contain ;}”? He giggles like broken glass and as he walks behind the portal frame, and leaves me alone in my thoughts as I clench the cold glass bottle in my non dominant hand. 

I don't want to meet them again. I don't want to see the Man in the Spiral Sweater who only appears when I’m alone, yet where do I go? I am contained within a commissioned cage and all I have is the lava to keep me safe. But it won’t keep him out, it never will. If code couldn’t before why would molten rock do the same. I’m biding my time for I know that he has something  he wants to do to me- but what- why- what could I possibly give to him that I haven't destroyed by my own two hands- Why hasn’t the warden shown up- where is everyone else- how do- “Why, hello there Dream :) “

[cathcacen]

Today, I want to talk about gaming communities + (some) Jonsa/SnS community gushing.

I’ve been in partial lockdown for three weeks + one day now. In this time, so many things have happened to me. My life has been turned upside down. My heart hurts. My body aches.

Life in the time of Covid-19 has not been kind to me, with just about every single thing I have worked for in these past three months tumbling like dominoes one after the other.

I am alone and I am exhausted, but I haven’t been half as lonely as I imagined I would be.

There are so many feel-good-stories circulating the web about people being brought together through video games. And you know what? It’s true. Because when you take away all the PVE and PVP, what you have is a community of folks who somehow end up becoming more to one another than just ‘that persona on the other end of the screen’. People who will be there for you, people who want to offer online hugs and who want to hear every single thing you need to cry and wail and wallow about. People who will always have your back.

These people had my back when I was drunk and crying over lost opportunities and various other heartbreaking incidents. And these people continue to have my back. And it’s not just me.

Every where I turn, someone is sad, and someone else is helping them out. An online roleplaying TORG (text only roleplaying game) that I play has been steadily paying tribute to a deceased player for years since his passing. This year, they’re even bringing his mom in to the game so she can see for herself what he meant to so many people, and that makes me so damn emotional I cannot even.

He was a soldier, he was kind, he was creative, and he was so, so beloved.

I never knew him. But through people I now know and love who knew and loved him, I feel as if I did, and do.

So I guess I’m grateful, even if I’m still exhausted and everything still hurts. I’m grateful I got the chance to make friends, and I’m grateful I get the chance to be a part of something really special.

Moving on from that, this sort of camaraderie is also sort of how I feel about everybody in the Jonsa (and some of my favourite people in the SnS) community. I don’t have enough fingers or toes to name every single person who’s ever been here for me through the toughest times, but I know, without a doubt, that if I sat down and cried, you would all come and dogpile me and feed me Jonsa stories and lemoncakes until I felt better. That’s just the way humans roll when they care about other humans. And somehow, that... doesn’t make me feel nearly as alone as I am sometimes.

So, if you’ve been a part of/are currently part of a gaming and/or shipping community, I know you feel this too. There is an outpouring of love and support, and you are never as alone as you might think.

I love you all <3 Thank you for being a special part of my life. Thank you, internet. Thank you video (and text!) games. Thank you, Jonsas. Thank you, SnS folks. Just thank you.

[tyrias-library]

Thought I'd try a different type of alternate universe

The Twitch Streamer AU

Subtitle: One small change can make a huge difference

I’m Kazukoh, and I guess you can say I’m a leynet celebrity. Despite being born with a metabolism-afflicting chronic illness, I’ve managed to blossom in my own right.

I guess you can say much like another prodigy born a season or so after me.

Though outside of my diagnosis, my life was fairly average. My Grandma Miimii was horribly injured during a lab accident, and we thought she wouldn’t make it, but she pulled through. If anything, I owe my success to her for being there for me when Mom and Dad can’t.

Went to college, Dynamics, specifically, did an internship with Terranexic after my graduation, as my revolutionary power source that was my final project had all of the Golemancy Krewe’s eyes on me. I remained with Terranexic after my internship as a lab assistant until a position in a relatively small Krewe opened up.

The Krewe I joined was one that made custom Golems for people who were less versed in Golemancy-or were physically unable to put them together. We occasionally also got bulk orders of standard issue Golems, since we could put together simple ones in a relatively quick manner.

It was on one of those bulk-order days that Golemancer Klikk asked the Krewe Chief if we could use the projection-screen terminal to play some videos in the background, since today’s bulk order was extremely simple. Our Krewe Chief, being the generous leader she is, approved. Klikk navigated to a leynet site called “Stream.Ear”, and put on a Calamity tournament, between a handful of Statics-backed teams. Given that I enjoyed playing videogames in my spare time, I thought perhaps I could do such a thing.

~~~

Headset, check. Terminal, check. Motobox and capture card, check. Layout. Check. Leycam, check. Going live now.

“GOOOOD EVENING, GENIUSI AND GENIUSETTES! Golemella here, coming at you live with Super Adventure Box! Yes, folks, the home edition of Super Adventure Box, with 8 completed worlds-but only normal difficulty! I’m not just going to beat it, I’m going to attempt to beat it as fast as possible!

And beat the game, I did, since I’ve been playing for as long as I can remember. While it wasn’t even close to a top 100 on leynet records, it was a fairly decent time.

“And that’s that! Sorry it’s so short, I’m just here to test the waters, but I’ll be back tomorrow night! May all your games be winners, and may all your theories be sound!”

~~~

I’ve gotten quite into the groove regarding content releasing, especially now that I have affiliate status and can get money from this. While my job with this Krewe has good pay and decent benefits, I often allot most of my paycheck to an emergency funds account, given my medical issues, so there isn’t much left for leisure. I do have time for leisure, my Krewe is off 3 days a week, but which days vary depending on scheduling and tasks, but I stream all 7 days a week because I find it fun. I even have a schedule-at least for 6 days. Fun Fridays are party games with my viewers, Speedrun Saturdays are speedrunning games I grew up with, or have played a ton of-not trying for Tyrian records, but just for personal bests, Storytime Sundays are for visual novels, Mondays…I’m not sure yet, so I mainly just play what I feel like that day, Teamwork Tuesday is cooperative Leynet games, Wildcard Wednesdays I pick 3 random games and let my viewers vote on them, then play that for an hour before the process starts again, and finally, ‘Thunder’ Thursday, which is competitive leynet games.

What I’m about to dictate happens on one of those Thursdays.

A viewer of mine gifted me “Tyrian All-Star Battle”, a PVP game where you play as major figures in Tyria’s history, heroic or villainous…well most figures. One great hero has not enough records of their battle style, and the Pact Commander declined their role. Destiny’s Edge and Dragon’s Watch are in, however, as are many high level Pact members from recent history. I tend to alternate between Taimi, Snaff, and Dragon’s Watch!Rytlock, depending on if we need a support, DPS, or tank, respectively. You play in teams of 6, you have a main and secondary of each role (I often play secondary since my mains can take other roles if needed), and winning depends on different win conditions-either most points after a set time limit, or last team standing after a limited set of lives.

I chose Taimi for this set of matches, since I was playing with a team I signed on with, called Damsels in Dynamics, which is all female Asura streamers whom graduated from Dynamics, and we commonly play a team of all Asura heroes-and we already had a Snaff. My other teammates were Zojja, Warmaster Efut, Agent Zrii, and Steward Gixx. Our first matchup was against Team IGD-Inquest Gaming Division, a meta-team for the meta-krewe, though thankfully this was just six of them. They were playing Kudu, Kuda, Teyo, Tazza, Vebis, and Frizz. Kudu’s player was also a streamer, known as “TheBloodyDirector”, and was pretty much the ‘face’ of IGD. We were completely destroyed. TBD took out all of the Snaff and Zojja players’ lives alone, thanks to Teyo’s player taking out Gixx’s player early on. I was pretty much the only one healing, and since Taimi is not a high tier support, led to Zrii’s player getting wiped fast as well. It was down to me, and Efut’s player. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see my chat was blowing up to the point that my own fans could barely even speak. While I was trying to figure out the chaos, my last life was taken. Efut’s player struggled to hold on while I sourced this bomb. It was not a raid at all-TBD’s fans decided to swarm my chat. And he did nothing. This. Means. War.

Every day I would check his channel, and it seems he streams on Mondays and Thursdays, but only plays competitive games on Thursdays (Mondays seem to be clearing single player feats in said games). Every Thursday, I’d rally viewers to help defeat him as one of the matches/games of the night. And every time, I would fail. The closest I got was 4 members defeated before I, as the last one standing, was wiped out, and yes, this was in Tyrian All-Star Battle. That seems to be the game we usually battle in, though we’ve occasionally duked it out in others.

~~~

Another Thursday, another battle. I checked TheBloodyDirector’s stream…and turns out, he’s not streaming today. Instead, he’s hosting another Inquest member. I didn’t catch her name, but she’s advertising doing something called a ‘mukbang’…but she’s just slowly eating a single cup of instant noodles while doing paperwork. I then looked up what a mukbang really was….and immediately hit paydirt. People watch others eat monstrous amounts of food? Sign me up! Now I know what to do on Mondays!-well that, and social eating, depending on my funds during the week. But for now, I’ll just play some casual competitive matches with my viewers.

~~~

Monday came, and I had some extra money stored up, so I ordered 25 family sized buckets of Metrica Fried Moa, sides included, some curtains to obscure the hospital related things in my room, and a fancy leycamera. Hung up the curtains, my multipurpose Golem (A project from my spare time that transforms into various mounts, a hoverchair, or a Scruffy-like Golem) carrying the food, and I installed the leycam, running a quick test with it. The test was perfect, let’s go.

“GOOOOD EVENING, GENIUSI AND GENIUSETTES! Golemella here, and now I know what I’m doing on Mondays. Every Monday is food related! Normally this’ll be social eating, but today I’m doing something special. Some days, like today, will be mukbangs.” I then pulled each and every one of the buckets and sides closer. “I’ve got 25 buckets of Metrica Fried Moa here, and I’m going to eat ALL OF IT. RIGHT HERE. ON STREAM.”

I was shocked. People were HYPED in chat. Some people were worried that I’d fall ill, some others were concerned about my appearance, but nobody was mean. Most people were hyped up to see me eat all this food, and I sure gave them such. I ate ALL of the food on stream, engaging with viewers all the way. However, if anyone asked how I could do this, I kept it a well-guarded secret.

~~~

TBD wasn’t streaming this week, so I organized a spontaneous tournament between myself and a handful of my viewers in Tyrian All-Star Battle. Rest of the week was uneventful, as was Sunday. Monday on the other hand, was my first normal social eating stream. I sent my Golem out to bring back takeout-this time from the Canthan place near Mom’s lab-I moved out and into an apartment owned by the hospital out in Soren Draa, but visit often-and then started up the stream.

“GOOOOD EVENING, GENIUSI AND GENIUSETTES! Golemella here, we’re doing social eating tonight! I won’t be eating as much as I did last Monday, but it’ll still be a sizable amount, since there’s more focus on you, the viewers, my intellectual fans.” I smiled, waving at the camera. I began to interact with everyone, and things were going well. At least, they started out well. The food hadn’t come yet, and I was starting to grow hungry. I kept speaking with fans, answering questions, engaging in conversation, but it was not to last. My stomach growled. Loudly. And the mic picked it up. My face went dark purple and I was completely silent…but the chat. Alchemy’s Catalyst, the chat! Someone made a BETSEAR emote and uploaded it, and the entire chat was spamming it. That did get a slight chuckle out of me. The Golem soon arrived, with food, and I dug in, profusely apologizing as I did. But they didn’t seem to mind, thankfully.

~~~

I started feeling horrific after work one day, but I felt I was still up to streaming. Thought I’d do a Just Chatting stream since I didn’t think I could play a game, either competitive or otherwise-thankfully it wasn’t a Thursday.

“Hey, everyone. Sorry for no game today. I haven’t been feeling the greatest today, so I’m just going to take it easy. But enough about me, how was your day?” I asked, my voice still on the weak side. Questions and answers didn’t go super fast, unfortunately, as my vision started blurring a bit, and I was growing more and more confused.

The next thing I noticed was I was in my bed, hooked up to IVs, and there was a bowl of soup being placed in front of me, atop a tray. I glanced over to the terminal as I ate, and the stream feed was off, but the chat, there were people constantly asking if I was alright. I didn’t get a chance to even let them know what happened until a few days later, since I was resting, not working or streaming, and was under care of a new doctor-one whom watched my streams.

~~~

Even despite everything, I still practiced and practiced, getting better and better at Tyrian All-Star Battle. I was determined to beat TheBloodyDirector at his own game. Loss after loss, some completely wipeouts, others just close. Until that fateful day, where I decided to try Zojja out. I’ve found another hero I love to play. I got into a 1x1 match…against TheBloodyDirector, as, you guessed it, Kudu. And yes, he was streaming this day. Someone suggested in my chat that we hook up, and I was shocked. I heard him splutter over voice comms as well, so I suspect he got the same suggestion. No, random viewer, not happening. But despite this, the match was HEATED. And it was CLOSE. We were neck and neck, if he killed me, I’d kill him shortly after. And given that this was a time match and not a stock one, it was tense. But finally, the timer was up…and I had won. By one kill. Finally…sweet victory against TheBloodyDirector.

(A/N: You thought I was some random writer, but it was me, Kazukoh, this entire time!

Also I'd like to thank ProtonJon, StephenPlays, and Wahnthac for (unintentionally) showing me how Twitch works, and @lewn-acies for the idea for this AU!)

[scarletlotus182]

I know you already did characters so theres some overlap but what about favorite soulsborne bosses?

Seriously, though, do we count Sekiro?

Because Sekiro would be cheating, I’m gonna mention my one Sekiro pick at the end of the list. Honestly I feel like Sekiro perfected sword fighting in games and seeing the lessons that game imparted on me get brought out in Bloodborne and how effective just feels so satisfying and fulfilling. 

Anyways, Top 5 Soulsborne Bosses-

1. Lady Maria- Yeah I already gushed about her but I can’t stress enough how she’s the coolest fucking boss ever. Her fight is such a rush that doesn’t ever feel to unfair, losing to her just makes me feel like I got my ass handed to me by some PvP god. 

2. Sif, The Great Grey Wolf- The emotions and design of this fight are hands down my favorite in Dark Souls 1. Really, a lot of my favorite bosses from 1 are more emotional beat downs instead of physical ones. This is the first real fight in the game that makes you feel like maybe you’re the bad guy in this story. 

3. Ornstein and Smough- Okay I said the thing about DS1 fights being more emotional but then immediately remembered this fight, so I guess I lied. Ornstein and Smough is the last fight in the game that tests whether or not you have what it takes to beat Dark Souls 1, which is really weird for a fight that takes place halfway through the game. 

The rest of the bosses in Ds1 are more like you’re putting down sad old people and it really feels like this is the test of whether or not you can do it, if you can beat Ornstein and Smough, you can beat any souls game. I love that! The feeling of accomplishment that came through when I beat this fight made me feel like I finally understood the game and was no longer just bashing my head against a wall.

4. The Fume Knight- I tried really hard to think to think if there was a boss from Ds2 or Ds3 I really liked and, well, a lot of the bosses in 2 are bland and while the bosses in 3 are a lot better, none of them really stood out to me as much as Fume Knight in 2. If Lady Maria is a test in aggression and the spirit of being a Hunter, then Fume Knight is a test in patience and strategy. This fight was fucking insane and imo, the hardest fight in all of Dark Souls 2, not counting the dumbass ‘fake hard’ that is the Ancient Dragon. Fume Knight taught me to think during these fights and to not just try greed for as much damage as possible. You get openings to attack twice per combo of his and if you need to heal, you need to sacrifice an opening to attack for it. Not every fight is about DPS bursting an enemy as quickly as possible, sometimes you need a more careful and methodical approach. 

Fume Knight was easily the most satisfying fight in the game for me and the reward of getting the Iron Crown + the blessing of assembling all three crowns was probably the most rewarding feeling a Dark Souls game has given me. Ds2 may be my least favorite entry, but those DLC were perfect.

5. Gwyn, the Lord of Cinder- Everything about his fight is perfect. Over the course of the game, Gwyn is built up to be the legend, a conqueror who put an end to the age of the dragons and created a pantheon of gods in Lordran. But as we go through the game, seeing what has become of Gwyn’s friends and loyal knights, and the state of Lordran itself, you can’t help but feel like something’s wrong. When you finally get to the fight, Gwyn is no longer this invincible conqueror, he’s a husk. Gwyn is a burnt out empty shell of what he once was in his fight and it really shows. Shrunken down to the player’s size, almost all of his attacks are parryable, he can’t throw his sunlight spears anymore, and he’s easily staggered when hit, even if you aren’t a parry god when you go to fight, you can still just wail on him with an enhanced weapon and staggerlock him.

By far however, my favorite part of the fight is the music. With every boss in the game, the song that accompanies them always conveys the emotions and feelings the player is meant to feel. The demons all have a very frantic and panicked boss theme, which works as they are the first bosses you fight, Ornstein and Smough have this really cool and bombastic theme that feels like an epic fight against the final guardians of Anor Londo, But Gwyn’s theme? Gwyn’s theme is sad and melancholic, it doesn’t feel like some epic grand finale, it feels like Gwyn’s legacy is coming to an end. 

Gwyn’s fight isn’t the final duel between the humans and the gods, its the sun setting on the age of fire. 

[crystalelemental]

FE Fates Replay - Part 3

When we left off, we were ready to make the decision between the Hoshidans, and the Nohrians.  On one side, our peaceful blood relatives, who have finally been reunited with you after all these years.  On the other, the people you’ve grown up with, who serve a mad king that seeks only to subjugate other nations.  Now...we must choose...

The decision between the two is interesting.  Based on the Nohrian events at the outset, we’ve been given a glimpse of what the kingdom is like on the inside, and then we’re shown how brutal their tactics can be once we join the Hoshidans.  The Hoshidan segments prepare us for the inevitability of the choice, and frame things as a matter of which family you are siding with.  That’s an important distinction.  It’s not a matter of your ideals.  Those are never in question.  Regardless of whose side you’ve been on, Corrin remains true: she seeks to protect people, and create a peaceful end for both sides.  The question is, which family do you belong with?

The Hoshidans seem convinced that you are meant to be with them, by virtue of blood.  But really, what is family anyway?  Yes, they are your “true” family, for whatever value that has.  But what have they done as your family?  Mostly, they’ve just tried to assure you that, although you’ve been raised in Nohr, you are one of them.  Hinoka has a pure display of emotion toward Corrin, but beyond that, they offer almost nothing else.  Compare that with the Nohrian siblings.  Xander, your older brother, who helped you train, day after day, so that one day you could leave the tower you were kept in.  Leo, risked his own head defying your father, just to help you hold to your ideals.  Elise, who visited you every day and kept you company in your imprisonment.  Camilla, who looks out for you and the other siblings.  Though the few chapters we had with them, we’ve seen how devoted they are to you, and the bonds you share.  Comparatively, the Hoshidans offer nothing other than “the truth,” that you are part of their family.  There are no bonds, and Corrin herself remarks on how she feels nothing toward these siblings outright.  Though your blood relation is there, your bonds are in Nohr.  The reason to side with Hoshido is your ideals, the path that fights directly for peace, and doesn’t involve dealing with Garon at all.  But the game has insisted that the choice should be based on which family you belong with, and that being the case, the choice should be obvious.  We side with Nohr.

“But what about the true route?”  Shhh!  Later, okay?

When you pick Nohr, it politely informs you that you won’t be getting extra experience or gold.  That’s funny, because I have the DLC, so I assure you I will not go without.  “I thought you wanted to maintain the difficulty of the game?”  Yeah?  I’m not gonna power level, but I want my money.

Anyway, the Hoshidans are devastated, and Ryoma goes on a lot about how it was your destiny to be on their side, and the Nohrians must have brainwashed you or some shit.  This is honestly the point where we should just turn around and leave, but instead, the Nohrians are insistent on fighting.  If they leave, the Hoshidans might think they’re scared, or worse, might think that Nohr coerced you into joining them.  No, we have to fight to show them that Corrin picked them over the Hoshidan siblings!  ...guys.  Guys, this is really petty.  Like...really petty.  I’m starting to have second thoughts.

I will note that, if Corrin fights with certain siblings in this map, you get a bit of extra dialogue.  I didn’t get Hinoka’s dialogue with Corrin, but Takumi’s is mostly him being like “I knew you’d betray us.”  Yeah, I guess even Takumi saw how boring his family was and knew I’d go back to the cool kid’s club.  That said, your dialogue with Sakura is fucked up, man.  Sakura can’t even fight, you run up to her and she’s like “Corrin, are you really going to fight me?”  And Corrin just goes “No, I just...need you to take a long nap...”  I know you mean knocking her unconscious, but damn, that’s harsh.

After the conflict, Azura tells you that your choice can’t be undone, but you’re sure to see each other again.  Jakob arrives and tells you he’s been looking for you.  You also run into Lilith.  Jakob’s confusion here is great.  Anyway, this brings us into My Castle for the first real time, and we can start setting up.  You know what that means!  The entire rest of this is going to be me VIOLENTLY COMPLAINING about My Castle!

Fuck this goddamn shitheap.  I hate it.  I think half the detriment to gameplay is right here, in this fucking place.  Let’s start with the worst: artificial resource collection.  There are 12 resources and 10 kinds of food.  Resources are used to upgrade your weapons, with different weapons needing different types of stones.  The stones, I believe, are separated into 6 for Nohr, 6 for Hoshido.  You need a veritable assload of resources to forge one weapon, and the level you can forge is pretty low.  You also need copies of said weapon at the same level, in order to forge up.  So you may be wondering, if I’m playing Nohr, and money is tight...how do I get the resources for this?  Short answer: you don’t.  Forging is so goddamned expensive you can’t realistically do it without the DLC.  More importantly, you only get one unit of resource from your own castle, and only of one type.  To get others, you need to go to other castles with wireless features, and do all that.  Then, you can also get bonuses for how often you visit or battle the other castles.  Oh, and the cap is 9999.  So...good luck with that, I guess.

“Wait, battle?” you ask.  Yes, you can battle other players in their castle!  Finally, Fire Emblem has PvP!  ...kinda?  The other team is AI controlled, so it’s not proper PvP, but they’re trying, I guess.  Anyway, what’s really funny is no one really does that.  PvP in this kind of game is stupid.  Why?  Because when you win, you can buy a skill from your opponent at a discounted rate, if you have the same character!  So, remember having to choose an alternate class for Corrin at the start of the game?  Let’s take my choice, Samurai.  Samurai can learn Vantage.  However, by choosing this path, I locked myself out of, say, Knight class, so I can’t get Pavise.  I can rectify this by going to the castle of someone who did pick Knight, and learn their Pavise skill by beating their castle, and they in turn could get Vantage by beating my team.  Now, put on your thinking caps, kids.  What is most valuable for everyone: setting up a proper fighting team, or setting up your units to be far away from the Seize point and letting them just run up to capture it?  The second, obviously.  They get skills, you get more visits from people who want things from you, and everything is great.  If you actually defend your castle?  You’re an asshole, and are what’s wrong with society.  Now this also creates other issues.  Marriage options in this game allow you to reclass to the classes of the person you married as well.  This means that, in essence, you can get every possible skills on any unit, depending on your pairing choices.  So finding people who chose differently is imperitive.  But there’s no way to find people who chose differently with any sort of reliability, so you’re sunk.

Now, the flipside there is that Awakening didn’t have this.  You had the classes and skills that were inherent to you, and nothing else.  I do like the idea of better balancing the kids and adults by expanding what the adults can learn, but the problem is that this whole process is tedious.  The only way to find those other skills is to locate someone online who is sharing their information, hasn’t updated their castle since sharing that information, and is apparently in the same country as you.  But more importantly?  Half the enjoyment of this kind of system is that units don’t play the same.  But now...they kinda do.  Anyone can be anything, but certain skills are definitely better than others.  There are certain combinations, but mostly you keep to a few tried and true configurations and don’t deviate.  So when you randomly go to castles hoping maybe someone will have Nyx with something unique, they tend to all have the same characters (lords or kids), and generally have the same skills throughout.

That said, there is one hysterical outcome of this, and that’s hacking.  Apparently, they didn’t think it would happen to them, or just weren’t prepared, but people immediately found a way to hack Aptitude onto every character in existence, and it spread like wildfire through this system.  So in a way, for anyone who is anti-hacking (which should be no one, but I know better), this system allowed everyone to be a cheater!  Even when you didn’t directly cheat, you still have cheats on!  Hell, even Hoshidan Unity is floating around all over, and I’m pretty sure that was an exclusive skill too!  Anything can be anywhere thanks to hacking, and this unnecessary system!

Then we have the Dragon Points, which you need to upgrade facilities.  You only get them from clearing maps and visiting other castles.  It’s another slow resource you need a lot of, because eventually you get statues of your units that, when created, increase their specific boon stat by up to 3 points for everyone who is well-supported with them.  So have fun farming dragon points out too!  Technically, you can do a bunch of these things at once, but it’s astonishing how, in a game all about quickly going from map to map and figuring out the strategy, their best idea for a central hub was a location that required you to stop actually playing the game for hours to farm materials.  Brilliantly done.

And this doesn’t even get into the controversial areas.  Prison is one, where you can capture enemy units and convert them to your side through...apparently torture?  I’ve heard that some lines suggest rape as torture, but I don’t know that for sure and I am so not willing to find out.  I don’t think Prison is actually necessary to improve, so I won’t even be building it.  Oh, right, fun facts: you need to upgrade some of these facilities to their max to recruit specific characters.  Flora won’t join you unless you have Fire Orb at rank 3, for some fucking reason.  I’m all for hidden characters, but that’s just obtuse.

The other is the most notorious one: the face-rubbing minigame.  I...god, what the hell were they thinking with this?  Guys, it was only cute in Pokemon because you want to give your little pupper Growlithe head pets.  They’re animals, and you’re petting animals, as is good and proper.  But these are humans, and you’re inviting them into your bedroom to stroke their face.  The US version got rid of it for your general cast, and only allows it for your wife/husband choice, but that’s...really not any better.  At all.  This mechanic never should’ve been in the game in the first place.  It’s creepy and uncomfortable, and I hate knowing it’s there.

I’m sure there will be other things for me to complain about, but for now, that’s all that immediately comes to mind.  The short of it is, I hate My Castle.  It was a terrible idea that does nothing but stall out gameplay for far too long, and completely invalidated the concept of making people choose a sub-class in the first place.  Half the fun should’ve been working with the pairings to get the shared skills to work in some combination, and instead you just play My Castle until you have the access to things.  Which costs money, so good luck with that.  I know, I know.  I can always play without those elements.  But the fact that they exist at all, and that I need tremendous amounts of resources just to forge weapons or upgrade the facilities here, means I may as well get skills while I’m doing it.  “Why don’t you just not forge weapons and use the stronger ones as the game progresses naturally?”  Ooohoho, friend.  Buddy.  Listen.  That’s another shout-fest for another day.  Safe to say, there’s a damned good reason you can’t just do that.

Ugh, this is making me irritable.  I think I’m gonna sit the rest of the evening out on this one.  If I’m gonna be fair to the game, I can’t be this riled while playing, so next part tomorrow, because tomorrow is, thankfully, a holiday.