#i did struggle a bit with the bg like always

[maple-and-pie]

March Fruit Tier Rewards - Spring Blossoms🌸

Another month, another art print and stickers! And another OC win in the poll! I am always appreciative when I get to draw OCs for the rewards, and this time Kusa Leafeon won, which automatic means I have to draw Yuki Glaceon too!

🌸Kofi link🌸

[foxglovegames]

Trouble Comes Twice - the Postmortem

We celebrated Trouble Comes Twice's anniversary around a month ago! We'd hoped to post this postmortem back then as well, but it's taken us a moment to find the right words haha.

Anyway, we hope that this postmortem can give our players and other visual novel devs some insight into what the development process looked like for us. It's also a great way for us to look back at what went well and what went less well.

We'll be taking about the ideation phase, our (lack of) marketing for the Kickstarter, and also sharing (what we can) on our earnings from the game!

Coming up with Trouble Comes Twice

The original tone of Trouble Comes Twice was a lot more comedic and packed to the brim with anime tropes we enjoy. Most didn't make it into the final game, but some stayed and evolved e.g. all of the love interests are based on popular visual novel archetypes - the childhood friend, the tomboy, the shy girl, and the bad boy. 

Some, like Cameron and Zoe, changed a lot from their concept while Adrian and Stephanie stayed quite loyal to our original ideas of them. Cameron's character actually underwent the most changes after the initial reception to the demo, where a lot of people felt like he was too much of an ass haha. (Fortunately, he became a fan favorite when we dropped the new demo!)

The premise with the bet was something we invented to create some drama and establish a common plot thread throughout each route. Honestly, looking back, we would probably have approached the bet differently if we wrote it today and a lot of our pre-planning was... clumsy, at best. Still, it was a labor of love and I'll never forget the fun and excitement we had everyday balling ideas for the characters and coming up with their designs.

As Melli and I are just writers with limited coding experience, we worked with a past game jam friend to code the GUI and set up the base for the game (though the actual scripting was done by us and Melli put everything together in the end). Our biggest expenses pre- and post-demo was the character art and CGs, meanwhile we relied on free music and BG packs to save money.

Why a bisexual romcom?

So, this was sort of a no-brainer to us. We had decided right from the start that both twins could date both the male and female love interests, and (at the time) we feel that a lot of similar games had playersexual MCs rather than established bisexual/pansexual MCs. While playersexual charas are also awesome, we wanted to write a romcom where the main cast are always queer regardless of who you end up romancing. 

At the same time, bi/pan people don't all approach romantic relationships the same way e.g. Cameron is confident and has experience dating people of all genders, while Adrian's demi and Jace still struggles a bit with his attraction towards men. We know that some of our players felt like that made certain routes less romantic than others and we hear you on that feedback and have 100% taken it into consideration for our future romance games. But anyway, that was our thought process behind Trouble Comes Twice's romance dynamics!

Preparing for Kickstarter & the actual Campaign

Our Kickstarter launched at the start of August and let me tell you, we were nowhere near as prepared as we should have been. 😭 We hadn't set up a Steam page yet, we were trailer-less, and we only had a couple of hundred followers across our socials at best. I feel that there's a lot more successful Kickstarter projects to refer to and even a lot of marketing guides and advice now, but mostly it's on us for not researching more. 

The Kickstarter campaign did surprisingly well despite the lack of promotion and only having a rough alpha demo - we were even able to double our goal! - but we  wouldn't recommend what we did for other devs.

You should invest time into making a good demo, spend time building an interested audience before launching your campaign, and research so you've got some kind of marketing plan. We were lucky with word-of-mouth and that other visual novel devs with larger followings helped share our game, but we should have made more effort reaching out to bloggers, streamers, and game sites. Some crowdfunding successes may seem like they came out of nowhere and were just pure luck, but there's usually a lot of grinding behind-the-scenes that you don't notice.

The post-Kickstarter era, at least for us, was the harder bit. We now had 353 loyal backers who had expectations based on promises we had made and we had to make sure we met those expectations while also staying true to our wants as the devs. It was a learning process for sure, but we're fairly proud that we always did our best to keep our backers in the loop. It's frustrating to write an update explaining that the game has been delayed again, but backers are more open to being understanding than you think as long as you communicate!

A tip we'd give to new devs considering Kickstarter: Don't overestimate what you can do, but overestimate what you need. There's always hidden costs, unexpected taxes/fees, and other unknown obstacles that might eat up your budget. In our case, we made enough to make the game as planned, but had to change CG artists around halfway through development which meant our original budget didn't cut it anymore. Fortunately, we had earned a decent amount from our Patreon and pre-orders that we were able to use to complete the CGs, but that isn't always going to be an option for everyone and that also meant we were unable to use that money ourselves. (We didn't take any money from the original Kickstarter campaign, so whatever was earned through patreon and pre-sales was our only "salary" at the time.) 

Writing the game

Writing is, for obvious reasons, one of the most important parts of a visual novel. Melli wrote Jace's routes and I wrote Hazel's routes, which removed some pressure off our shoulders compared to trying to write over 300,000 words all on our own. 

It's fun working with another writer, but there are also some unique issues and considerations that come up when you're writing a game with two protagonists split between two writers. Especially because at the time, there weren't many visual novels with a similar set up to refer to.

The main things we learned, were:

Consistency. We wanted each couple to have their own dynamic, but the characterization needs to remain consistent between routes. You don't want Adrian in Jace's route to feel like a totally different character in Hazel's route. Additionally, we had to be careful that the tone and writing style of the protagonists' POVs still felt like you were playing the same game. Some routes can be more comedic than others, but we've got a problem if Hazel's routes are all (unintentionally) more serious/angsty in tone than Jace's or vice versa.

Watch out for your word count! Longer does not always equal better and writing eight routes, we had to put some restrictions in place. Even when writing on your own, it can be tough to guess how long your story should be, and it was important to us that the routes were roughly the same length so that none felt more "canon" than the other. However, with two writers who have different writing styles and ways of planning, it was tricky to compare our outlines and we struggled at times when it came to matching each other's word counts. Moving forward, we're probably going to be more lenient when it comes to word counts - some routes have to be longer than others, it doesn't mean that route is automatically more "important". We're also doing more regular meetings and frequent check-ins to make sure we're on the same page. In the future, we hope that should save us a lot of trouble when it comes to pacing! 🙈

Balancing your own wants with the wants of your players. In theory, these overlap most of the time. But making a commercial game (that people had already "bought" through the Kickstarter), there is some pressure when it comes to meeting certain expectations. We can't always just write what we want and assume everyone else is going to love it, but we also don't want to neglect what we personally like. We had a survey for the beta where we were able to get regular feedback and a lot of helpful advice. We definitely want to continue with surveys in the future - they are a great way to gather opinions from different players and figure out what works versus what doesn't! 

We took on too many tasks outside writing that distracted us. This bit is sort of inevitable for indie devs like us. 😅 Working with a limited budget and limited resources, you just end up having to wear a lot of hats! We think we did quite well sharing these duties though, and moving forward (thanks to you guys) we can afford more hands on deck to help us out. 

Marketing

The bane of every indie game dev's existence... although secretly, I kind of enjoy marketing but don't tell anyone that!

Having learned a thing or two from promoting the Kickstarter, we spent more time researching games marketing but in the end, trial and error was the best teacher.

As we got closer to the release date, we were posting almost daily on social media and grew our Twitter to over eight thousand followers. We didn't have any viral posts, but we saw a consistent growing interest in our game and it was such a motivation boost to see comments from potential players being excited for the game. We know a lot of devs have said that Twitter didn't help their game much but according to our stats, a decent number of our players found us through the platform. 

We saw less success here on Tumblr. Perhaps we haven't cracked the code here yet or maybe we're just comparing our numbers from Twitter unfairly! We're not hung up about it though, we love it here because it feels easier to connect with our followers and other devs there, and it's nice because we're able to write longer posts like this one! 💓

Aside from posting on social media, we reached out to several streamers and some bloggers prior to release to send them free game keys. 

We also commissioned some art from other artists to share, as we obviously couldn't reveal ALL our CGs before the release lol and visual posts tend to do a lot better in our experience. It was so much fun to see the characters in other art styles and we hope we can afford to commission guest art pieces a lot more frequently in the future!

In hindsight, we definitely regret not releasing a trailer sooner! We underestimated how much interest a good trailer could garner and delayed setting up our Steam page because of it. Steam was the platform where we sold the most copies and most of our buyers found the game through Steam itself.

Also, posting your trailer on youtube adds another site where you're promoting your game so there's really no reason not to get that trailer done as soon as you can. 

Final Notes

After the initial stress, we were pretty happy with our release! Although there were some things we would go back and change if we could,  that's just the nature of these kind of things. For the most part, we're proud of what we achieved and happy that we have learnt so much from Trouble Comes Twice that we can take into consideration for future projects.

We can't share exact numbers, but we wanted to open up a bit about our earnings for the game to help other aspiring devs: As of writing this, Trouble Comes Twice has earned close to 85,000 euros. This counts our profits from 2020 to now (the Kickstarter, Patreon, pre-sales, and actual sales). Removing fees, taxes, the salaries of our talented artists and other freelancers, as well as the money invested into our next game, our personal pockets did not see anything close to those numbers. But we're super proud of how much our little game has made and so grateful that it's allowed us more creative freedom with our next title! 

So, what's next?

You might have heard but for the past year, we've slowly been working on the demo and upcoming announcement for our next visual novel:

A 17+ supernatural neon-noir romance game about monsters, love, and other horrors. 

Play as vampire detective Circe (female protagonist) or hellhound cop Dante (male protagonist) and delve into the mysteries of North Haven, where demons, vampires, and supernaturals hide in plain sight among humans.

The game features six routes, with three romance options available to each protagonist. Dante only has male romances and Circe has both male and female romances. 

The game tackles a darker, more angsty tone compared to Trouble Comes Twice. Still, we hope that those who decide to check it out will enjoy it! We plan to announce the game this coming Autumn. Follow our Twitter (we're still not calling it X sorry) or Tumblr to stay up to date.

[amysgiantbees]

I LOVE Wyll and I understand why they did the rewrites I think he's a wonderful character and wouldn't trade him for his EA counterpart. However, since they chose to rewrite him the lack of material does a disservice to his character.

I love Gale and Astarion and would not change their stories for the world but they aren't really integral to the main plot. Wyll is though. Yet Astarion especially has SO much dialogue he comments on EVERYTHING and Wyll barely has anything to say even on the stuff that's important to him, like Gortash's coronation. It's called Baulder's Gate 3 yet the son of a BG duke has almost nothing to say. He's a monster hunter and we're fighting mind-flayers. There's rarely an instance where you couldn't come up with something for him to say.

It's just so heart braking that Theo, his voice actor, is so passionate about and loved doing his romance scenes so much but Wyll has the least amount of hours dedicated to it.

Scenes I would have liked:

Wyll talking to a child or an innocent post Karlach and he either gets hugged and gets to be surprised that people still see him as heroic. Or he's a bit too smug about it or guilty if he killed Karlach.

Wyll meeting up with a member of the flaming fist he used to know in Act 3- maybe they were trainees together when they were teens - and getting to talk about the old days like Karlach and her friend.

Wyll getting to be really surprised Florrick still wants his help in Moonrise after he's been transformed and she puts 2 and 2 together at his reaction and asks if this is why he left Balder's Gate and he tells her that his father asked him to leave. Florrick can agree or disagree depending on whether Wyll is on a good route and become a pseudo parental/familial figure.

The companions dialogue reaction to him braking his pact is fixed so everyone is more like how they react to Shadowheart killing her parents and aren't instead jumping down his throat like he's a power hungry maniac. It's clearly leftovers from EA Wyll when he was more power hungry but it throws his whole character off because clearly this version doesn't struggle with selflessness, he is nothing but! He needs to put himself first over his dad for once in his life. Like the only one I even kind of like is Halsin's dialogue about how a plant sometimes need to strangle a tree to find it's own light. I'm wondering if that isn't something to do with Halsin being expanded upon later in development so it was easier to match it to the new Wyll. Like Wyll damning himself for eternity is satisfying if he's been selfish, but at present it's just him risking himself again and not even for someone we know yet (or *spoilers* someone useful like all the dragon tip does is give us a bit more info about the Emperor and give Wyll some confidence(but that's less Ravenguard's fault and more the writers for not giving Wyll a proper Act 3 quest)).

I think it's VERY bold of Ravengaurd to say he WILL make it up to Wyll. Not that he'll try but that he knows he can make it up to him. Despite throwing out the sweetest teen on earth even though he was clearly trying to tell him something. Despite likely hearing about the Blade of Fronteir's exploits and never reaching out. Even after being rescued by him to just be still so full of bitterness. Despite all his failings as a father and always putting his reputation and Baulder's Gate above his son he really thinks it'll all be water under the bridge soon. So, I would like it if your TAV was able to challenge this assumption.

I would like it rewritten so Wyll actually has it out with his Dad instead of tadpoling him what has happened post rescue. Let them actually talk finally. Wyll lacks so much agency and could really use a dramatic moment like everyone else gets in Act 3 to shine.

I would love if your approval is high enough or you're romancing him for you to be able to see his walls come down once. I think it would be so powerful if after this whole journey he's been so composed and careful and then whatever happens with the contract in Act 3 he lets you see how he really feels for once. Like you still have your talk and he's all composed and tells you he just needs some time. However, later that night when you've gone for a long rest you catch him on the roof of the Elfsong or something. He could be crying, or praying to Tyr to save his father, or screaming, summoning dark tendrils of magic and yelling about how he resents his power.

Also Florrick should not show up if you break the contract unless the Duke is dead. It screws up Mizora's dialogue and brakes it a bit. Like if Florrick didn't show up till after you killed Orin that would probably work because if you kill Orin first you probably aren't going to kill Gortash or go down to the Iron Throne. Or at least give it a long rest or two before she shows up.

There's also just dialogue that does not fit that's leftovers from EA I believe. Like after braking the pact TAV being able to tell Wyll he shouldn't be a duke because he's too power hungry. Or even the companion dialogue where Wyll is a bit of a playboy and flirts with Lazel and then Shadowheart immediately afterwards - it totally goes against his hopeless romantic nature. Not that I want them to take even more content away from him though.

[priintiisor]

the people seem to be enjoying my pmv and someone said they d like to hear me ramble about it, and i want to ramble about it. so here we go

the struggles of making neglected space

part 1: this thing has been haunting me for at least a year now

so as i said in the description of the video- yes i know this song from the warrior cats map. for those who don t know there s a warrior cats map (multi-animator project) to this song, and it s absolutely beautiful, and you should watch it. it s actually one of my favorite warrior cats maps and that s saying a lot, there s a lot of really good ones-

anyways so i was watching the warrior cats map one day and. i don t remember exactly which part of the song it was, but i believe it was the line that goes "save me the ache of slow decay", that i heard and i was like, haha that kinda sounds like rain world. and then i listened to the rest of the song. and i was like holy shit this DOES sound like rain world- i mean. i think i realised this after i d had the idea for the pmv, but the song is literally about an abandoned building slowly deteriorating, there are very few stories where your characters are literally abadoned buildings lol, it just works too well

the final version of the pmv is in fact not my first attempt at making it- i always imagined the finished thing with beautiful colored backgrounds and some fully animated segments and cool lighting (probably because of the warrior cats map, which, again, is really beautiful) but i didn t think i d be able to pull that off. the final thing is 4 and a half minutes long, which doesn t sound like a lot, but my previous longest ever animatic was 3 minutes long and nowhere near as detailed and i spent the entirety of last summer on that one. this was a big project

the first attempt at making neglected space was in october 2023. i decided that i wasn t gonna do the pretty bgs and fancy lighting, but i was going to animate it! well, not exactly animated, more like manual frame by frame twinning (kind of like what i did for the terrible things saint animatic, but a bit smoother) it was going to have different color palettes for all the different flashbacks and stuff, but i only ever got the first 4 shots done

(unlisted yt video because tumblr won t let me put more than 1 video in a post)

i think the reason i gave up on it the first time is because i was trying to make it in an animation program, and my poor laptop could not handle it- it was really laggy and annoying to draw in, so i just gave up eventually. i really don t like the art for it anymore

oh yeah, it should be mentioned, i have a kind of dumb way of making my animatics. apparently some people make them in animation programs. i just draw everything in a drawing program, save all the pieces as pngs and edit them together at the end. idk if that s weird but that s how i ve always done it lol

attempt no 2 was in april 2024. this attempt got a bit further, i got to the shot of survivor and monk reaching for eachother in the void (so i d made about a minute of it). i didn t get to editing everything i had drawn of it, but here s the first few shots of it

oh yeah, this is the one where i got the idea to write the lyrics in the color of which character in meant to be saying them :D i think it looks a lot cooler as subtitles tho. that yellow was barely visible on some of the bg colors

i think i gave up on this one cuz i just got burnt out. i still thought the idea was cool. but in my head i was still imagining it very beautifully rendered and i didn t like a lot of the art i d made for this attempt, so i gave up

attempt no 3 is from may 2024, and this one was colored! this time i had actually planned out some of the color palettes

and this one was once again going to be kind of animated! still making it in my drawing program (even tho i think this was after i got my new laptop that i have now, but i wasn t gonna try with the animation program again), but it was essentially gonna look like the final one, except with slightly nicer color palettes and slightly less detailed bgs. this one didn t get very far

it is the only one that didn t get to the shot with the title. i assumed that i got burned out so quickly because i was trying to make it so detailed, so i decided that even tho i really want to make it as pretty as it is in my head, that s probably not going to happen

i briefly fantasized about making neglected space a storyboarded map, but then i remembered that i ve never hosted a map before and no one knows who i am so that would take forever to be finished and probably wouldn t end up looking exactly how i wanted it. still, a fun thought

attempt no 4 was called "neglected space storyboard edition", in honor of the idea of making it a storyboarded map. i knew that wasn t happening, but i was like ok, i just want to see some version of this idea realised. let s just make it some messy sketches, as if it was the storyboard of a map. just to see it put to paper. i never edited any of it together, but here s some bits of it!

ah yes, this was during the very brief time when i was drawing iterators with 3 fingers on their hands to match the scugs. i would still do that but drawing these guys is the only reason i somewhat know how to draw hands and i don t want to lose my practice so. i don t do that anymore. but it s fun.

i actually still really like the art for this one!! the colors are nice and at this point my style was pretty close to how it is now. in fact for the shot of survivor and monk in the void in the final version, i was struggling with drawing it and i ended up just using the sketches from this version lol

this one s fine. but again in my head this thing had always been beautifully rendered and i just wasn t happy with it as a low effort animatic

and then summer vacation came

and i had spent the entirety of last summer vacation making the fall, my previous biggest project, that i was really proud of. and now i had the time and i felt the need to work on another big animatic

and i was like. fuck it. we re making neglected space

and we re making it beautiful, with beautiful shading, and beautiful fully rendered backgrounds, and if i feel the need to animate bits of it then i am. i m making this thing the way it is in my head if it s the last thing i do.

and i did. i m kind of surprised i finished it, but then again i kind of think i did it out of spite. usually i get bored of big projects and take months long breaks but for this one i never did. i really wanted to make this thing man

see you in part 2 for more rambling about how i made the one i actually finished!

[uninformedartist]

So a review on Helluva boss So2 ep 6

Ok so gonna break this review down into positives and negatives with my additional thoughts.

Positives:

So always start off with this, big props and love to the animation team we know know and see your struggle working under Vivienne and animating her over-complicated designs. Props to the BG team really stunning backgrounds, was actually a bit over the top for me (Ozzie's palace and especially the dildo factory shit was moving way too fast) but did pause to have a look at the BGs it is really pretty, the shit pacing made everything a visual blur tho.

VA work stunning love always a joy to hear Alex and James in any VA work tho Fizz's song was eyyy not the best but don't blame Alex it was a shittly written song in general especially when it went to the heavy metal part, overstimulating af and again shit pacing during the song and the flashing visuals gave me a headache. Striker's new VA, Ed's voice really grew on me he should've been Striker in the 1st place because I know for a fact Norman couldn't reprise his role for future episodes.

I loved Ozzie and Fizz's relationship especially the end scene where you can see Ozzie development or got hold of the best technology to give Fizz functional limbs, was a tender scene their relationship and interactions made me smile. I'll give Viv 1 ty for not fucking up their relationship, ty Viv (I can be nice to her :). Tho 1 scene that bothered me... the 12 sec Ozzie dong scene 💀 my soul it was just so jarring especially with the fast pacing. Felt like a race car coming to an immediate stop then speeding off again. Would've like the scene replaced with Fizz telling Bliz something nice about Ozzie, why Fizz likes him. I'm tired of queer couples/pairings in this show describing their partner in 2 ways, 1. how good they are in bed or 2. they got x anatomy that's amazing. But its Viv writing this ep, sigh her and her damn middle school sex jokes I'll let it slide.

Now negatives:

I said it before I'll say it for all eternity, the pacing was dogshit bad oh my soul wtf... Viv, Adam whoever I know you guys don't listen to criticism but if any criticism you take fix your damn pacing 😑. I had to pause multiple times just to see what has happening, what was said, what this paper/sign etc said. It was bad, and that paired with the overdetailed BGs and character designs, for the 1st time ever I got overstimulted from a HB ep and had to take a 5 min break to rest my eyes (was by Fizz's song). Its a noisey spinning kaleidoscope this ep, so unpleasant and its all pacing. Stay on certain scenes a bit longer and allow the audience to take in the scene before them (that flackback scene) its makes a difference. If you get overwhelmed/overstimlated ect by such visuals I recommend watching the leaked episode its much better in terms of pacing since its mostly storyboards and there is no color, plus its just the VAs talking with no background music and zero to minimal sound effects.

I didn't care for Crimson in this episode, I know he became Viv's favorite 😒 but seeing this fucker back so soon, it wasn't enjoyable, especially since the only reason he's in this ep is for a "big score" 😑. Also I'm tired of this over convenient plots, Fizz so happened to be in the greed ring and so happened to run into Blitz and Striker so happened to be in greed meeting with Crim who need a man for a "big score" AND SO HAPPENED Striker sees Fizz/Blitz fighting outside the window 🙃. Its all too convenient for me it takes me out and I then think how the plot coming together is ridiculous.

Striker is so under utilized. Since Viv hates him (confirmed by sources I can't pull now apologies) and she wrote this episode, everything established of Striker in So1 is destroyed. He's a husk of his intended character, all talk no show, a misogynistic clown who you can see Viv has no care writing him properly because she doesn't like him which is fucking horrible, this woman will butcher an integral villian, one with a good motivation (he hates blue-bloods) all because "oh I don't like him he's not in my fav OC list", petty af.

Fizz's disability and how its handled, spoke about it in this post:

It still remains the same though now we see it wasn't Wally holding the cake just some other imp and the card Bliz made for Fizz was a love confession still doesn't justify his reaction shoving the imp and his still underlying jealousy of Fizz since they were young. Yes it was backing off from a love confession/ashamed he's not as good a performer as Fizz, Blitz was jealous of Fizz. Made another post saying how I like how Fizz sees his disability, he's content, happy, has Ozzie who understands him and even made/went out his way to get Fizz the best prosthetics to better his quality of life, I like that good on Fizzy :).

5. Going to be a separate long post on (ಠ_ಠ) Blitz, THE FUCKING BIRD IS BACK 💀💀💀 why your rotisserie chicken ass not in hospital or we just skipping past that and how Viv keeps I'm gonna say it, forcing her characters to have daddy issues by writing this fucking irritating basic fanfic trope of killing the mother offscreen/not having the mother in the picture/us seeing her face. A commenter pointed this out and it irritates me because its the 3rd time she does this, she show Tilla (Blitz's mom) in pictures, you think there would be an episode revolving around Blitz's childhood etc but no she's "in" a fast paced pitty party flashback. This woman really can't show an ounce of respect to any female characters.

This is all for now, will be making more posts the more this ep settles in.

Score: 4.7/10

[barrenclan]

imagine my surprise when the issue started WHOLESOME!!!!!! sure it was advertised as a baby issue but STILL!!!!! i fucking love cormorantpaw playing with them and giving them the childhood he couldn’t have, it makes me so happy. and he’s happy, too!! i’m sure if he heard what cootstorm said about them, he would have thrown hands. begging for more scenes of corm babysitting/playing with the kits, even in the bg. him being this happy about the babies being happy is just. AAA!!

of course, in patfw, wholesome bits can’t last forever. daffy is in the issue at what cost !!!! i love how she just casually drops it and YES I WANTED TO SEE HER REACTION BUT IT HURTS IT HURTS SO BAD. i love how complicated it is, daffodil’s feelings and pinepaw struggling to apologize due to how neither of them did wrong.. aagh. i love this causing daffodil to realize that she kinda forced herself to love cormorantpaw due to the circumstances, and her opening up about how she really thinks about romance! i know she deserves the love she can so easily give to others, and i love how just.. the cycle is still kinda referenced in this issue? not with dustfeather, but with cashew. i never thought we’d touch a cycle of abuse other than familial but i’m really happy we did now and it makes so much sense? abuse comes in many forms, after all!

mallowstar’s struggles of being a leader and blacknose’s struggles of being a mother, aaaaa. it’s so intertwined and so different and they really need eachother. also, more cycle discussion!!! mallowstar wanting to break free is sooo important to me, everyone needs that. hopefully the green isn’t defiance territory, though.. maybe if it is, throw cootstorm as a sacrifice and run

ALSO THAT ENDING???? HACKSAW GO AWAY I��M GONNA THROW HANDS RN 🤼🤼🤼🤼🤼🤼🤼🤼

i always love your writing and your expressions in these, keep up the great work!!

Hey, sometimes I do wholesome issues! They're not all depressing!

Cormorantpaw is the best babysitter ever, he's great with kids. He knows how to vibe on their level, and his lack of self-consciousness means he can really get into the spirit of a game or a kid's conversation.

PATFW when they ask me for emotional weight: hey what's all this emotional weight doing here??? Haha, I'm glad you liked the section with Daff, it wasn't always something I had planned to include in this issue but it ended up being necessary to resolve. Since Daff and Slugpelt are both very romantically-inclined characters (when Slug was young, at least), they share a lot of similar worries and needs, and having those problems that her mother faced unconsciously be consciously present in Daff's head has made her do a lot of thinking.

Mallowstar and Blacknose really are so good for each other, they're so sweet,, it's fun to write their interactions because it's just totally interpersonal drama-free. Mallow's been thinking about leaving for awhile, largely buoyed by Blacknose herself (the biggest BarrenClan radical), and I can confirm that the "western border" is opposite Defiance's territory, which is past the eastern border of BarrenClan territory. Hopefully they can get out in time!

But I can't end an issue in the second half of the comic without a little Horrors. :]

[sebastianswallows]

I adored the hell out of your Feyd/girl!dad headcannons because it wasn't only well written, but yoy actually used little Marie as the inspiation and main character to Feyd. But I have one question, wgen you wrote that Margot was to go to Ksitain to answer for her crimes, do you propose that she SA' ed Feyd as you may have interpreted it from the movie, because I felt that Feyd was very willing even with being under her BG influence. As one commenter wrote, "Margot may had led Feyd to water, but he was alredy thirsty and was willing to drink,". I love hearing different opions on their interaction, so it helps me understand more fully. But I reakky do enjoy Feyd and Margot together cayse they had a lot of chemistry.

Hello! Thank you for your kind words, I'm glad you liked it! 🖤

When I was coming up with a "plot" for the headcanons (because I can never seem to just write ideas, I always have to have some longwinded narrative to it), I initially thought that Feyd would just kill Margot. And then I decided that he would very deliberately not do it in front of Marie, as it would traumatise her and it would be too much of a dick move, even for him. But then as I was writing the idea came that they'd just be upfront about what Margot did and have her tried and sentenced. That was the gentler option. Because leaving Margot alive and free would just be a danger to him at this point. He wouldn't risk her trying to get Marie back.

Now, as to whether it really was sexual assault, yeah. Rape, even.

I don't really go by the movie version when I write, mind you, I go by the books. And in the book, Feyd is indeed attracted to Margot, he even offers to dedicate his kill in the arena to her (which she rejects), although he's also slightly intimidated by her. He's just turning 17, by the way (a fact which might get lost since he always seems to be played by 32 year old actors lol). But even if he's attracted, the fact that Margot uses Bene Gesserit mind tricks on him makes it non-consensual. This aspect is more clear in the movie, because there's no scene in the book of them being alone together.

What's not in the movie, however, is that while they're having sex Margot imprints Feyd with a phrase (a meaningless prana-bindu word, specifically "uroshnor") which is meant to paralyse him temporarily if he should hear it again. It becomes relevant before Feyd's duel with Paul because Jessica, being able to tell from how Feyd walks that he's been imprinted, advises Paul to use this word if he begins to lose the fight. Paul outright refuses because he wants an "honourable" win, and it's in fact his visible, dramatic struggle over not speaking this word that confuses Feyd and gives Paul the chance to stab and kill him.

So clearly there were a lot of mind tricks involved between Margot and Feyd, and even though he would have slept with her consensually, this hypothetical scenario could not be proven in court. The only thing that can be proven is that she manipulated Feyd, and imprinted him with a word that could paralyse which, obviously, can be fatal in certain situations.

So I guess this was my version of mercy for Margot, because yeah, originally I thought Feyd would just kill her 😂 But I figured he'd be a bit more forgiving for Marie's sake.

[crescencestudio]

Devlog #29 | 03.27.23

Hi everyone!

April is almost here, which terrifies me since the year is going by so fast. Before I get into game updates, I wanted to share a bit of a (somewhat) personal one.

This month, progress on Alaris was overall a bit slow---or at least, slower than usual. I noticed this month I was struggling a lot with working on basically anything, whether it was for school, work, Alaris, or just taking care of myself. And I realized basically a year late that I was feeling extremely burnt out.

For those who have been following Alaris for a long time, you may know that early 2022, I was struggling with a lot of personal circumstances. I had taken a week off back then to "take time for myself," but in actuality, I had continued working on Alaris and other things because sometimes when I have too much time on my hands, it's worse for my mental health. This was a recurring theme for basically all of 2022. Even during the holiday breaks (e.g., summer, November, December, etc.), I continued working on Alaris, partly because I love the project, partly because it helps me cope with irl things.

This past month, I think the break that I've desperately needed since the start of 2022 made itself Very Apparent and made progress slow on my end. I'm very sorry if the update this month is disappointing because of that! I tried to take a break this past week and am feeling a bit better now, so hopefully, things start to get back on track this upcoming month <3 With that, I'll get into actual updates!

Writing

I'm not going to lie to you all; writing was Slow this month LOL. Basically, the entire writing team got taken out by some sickness or another. I would say for 2-3 weeks of the month, there was no progress on editing or writing at all since everyone was sick at the same time <\3 We are starting to pick things back up, but please send your best wishes to the writing team since they were Going Through It this month!! Also, if you got sick this month and got whatever has been going around globally, I hope you are feeling better as well <333

I did update a good amount of the demo script---just rewriting things since my writing style has changed a little. Small things, but hopefully enjoyable changes nonetheless!

Art

As always, we have continued to make progress on BG art. This month, Vui finished the River BG and the Forest BG, both of which appear in Chapter 2 of the demo. We actually only have one more BG to finish, which is the Flower Field, and all the BGs for the demo will be complete (ahh!!!). It's been about 5 (?) months in the making to revamp all the BGs for the demo, but we are finally reaching the finish line, and everything is slowly getting ready for a revamped demo release ^^

preview of the forest BG

I also have a preview of the GUI for you all! There will be some small changes, like colors, before the final version. But a little crumb to feed you all since I didn't make much progress this month

I also mentioned in the last devlog how I might update the personality icons for Alaris, which were completed this month by the same item artist who did the affection point icons!

The overall vision for this was little potions to build on the "magical" setting of Alaris. I think they're much easier to differentiate and so cute <3

My focus was more on demo art assets for this month, so I finished up the individual CGs for each of the LI's introductions.

soft and fluffy updated Etza CG

I also started updating the sprites a bit---mostly small touches so the art looks a bit more cohesive since my style has changed a bit since the demo first came out. Aisa and Kuna'a are receiving outfit changes so that their clothing stands out from Central gang and looks more cohesive with the aesthetic that will be used for Fae.

Additional Notes

Something else I got to work on this month was finally reviewing the demo voiced lines in full. I hope you all are EXCITED to listen to them in the updated demo! A lot of the lines had me giggling (heehee!). I can't wait to see everything together once it's coded into the game ^^

I also opened applications for playtesters. They close at the end of this month, aka in a couple of days. So if you are interested, please don't forget to submit an application! Thank you already to everyone who has submitted something. The response was more than I expected, so as always, I appreciate the support you all provide wah <3

Market Research

Lastly, I actually got to do some "market research" this month (yay!). I finished up Piofiore finally.

the man, the legend: gilbert redford

Touchstarved also came out. I unfortunately haven't been able to play the demo yet since I was traveling when it was released, but I already know I'll love it and I drew Kuras even though I haven't even played the game yet LMAO

gender envy

Anyways, I think that's enough from me, so that is all for this month's update! Stay safe, and see you all next month <3

[gloriousmonsters]

since @morgainedarc asked about how I did the metallic text for Bitter Heart, I started off with this video tutorial (thankfully short and clear) to make text that an underlying image could show through, and made the image that showed through a stock photo of some nice bronze. That gets you the metallic text, but it's on a black background; so what I did next was 'save as PSD', then use CloudConvert to change it to a PNG file so it would all be one layer; then I opened that PNG in Photopea.

When you go to 'Select' in the top menu bar, there should be an option that's simply 'Remove BG.' If you use that, it should make the majority of the background transparent--the one thing it struggled with in my case was a couple of spots inside letters. I recommend making the text very big originally to help with this bit, since you can always use 'free transform' on it like any image and resize it later. If you have those missed spots, you want to go to 'Select' again and pick 'Magic Cut', which will open a screen where you can apply green to the areas it's supposed to keep and red to areas it still needs to make transparent. Sometimes it's easy and you just need a bit of red for it to realize what it's supposed to take out, sometimes you need to zoom in and mess around with a smaller pixel 'brush' to take out stubborn bits, but either way you should wind up with an image of the metallic text with a transparent background. Save it, convert it to a PNG again, then when you have your background later on you can just 'open and place' and mess around with it as you will.

[4004notfound]

ok RIP i am very late but without further ado let's get it, i'm ines and this is kim noeul who tbh was a poor, easily forgettable girl in hs and now is one of the preeminent young novelists in south korea! under the cut here i'll get into a little more but pls like this and i'll def hit u up for plotting!

ok so first of all: pisces sun/taurus moon/aquarius rising

now onto like bg stuff so she's born to two teenaged parents right

and what's wild is her parents genuinely really love each other and like get married and noeul has a little sister who's like 9 now which is crazy

also bc a 16 year old girl named her like her actual name is noelle not noeul but like she's let everyone just assume it's noeul bc it's easier than explaning that her mom thought noelle would be a trendy name

but anyways having two teenaged parents doesn't like set you up the best financially so she lived with her parents and grandparents for a while when she was growing up and evenutally her parents moved out of her paternal grandparents place only to be living in a shitty half basement apartment with noeul bc like again how far can two high school grads from poor families with a whole ass child get in seoul

and tbh like bro noeul loves her parents but she DEF kinda resented them for being poor growing up and like so combined with this hatred of her situation paired with being a smart girl with a lot of drive she worked REALLY hard to get into shinhwa

only kinda realized that getting into shinhwa didn't mean a ton in terms of social standing bc u know she's still fucking broke and tbh rather than bullied i don't imagine people particularly even took that much notice of her bc she kept to herself a lot with like insecurity bc she was v obviously poorer than everyone and stuff and probs had a few friends but not a lot

tho lmao wildly and fully relating to her secret despite being this smart girl who worked hard to get her scholarship and school was v important to her she got pregnant right at the tale end of her last year at shinhwa and actually had to delay going to college the following year bc u know PREGNANCY

and there's like a lot of stigma that comes with being a single mother in korea and shit so like tbh did she want to keep her daughter? yes of course but like she didn't have the financials bc atp it's her, her parents, and her little sister living in a shitty little apartment and she literally shares a room with a 3 year old at the time, and then like she wants to go and better her life and stuff and it's hard to do when everyone judges you for being a single mom and it's not fair on the child so she makes the hard choice to give up her daughter for adoption and then go back to school

and like ok she goes to ewha womans and she does well there too bc again very determined to do well in life and all but like i think giving her daughter up fr had a sense of guilt, regret, and honestly depression that she never really expected so like she struggled with that and she ended up writing this story about it for a creative writing class and her teacher was like "hold up this is kind of good have u ever considered writing it into something more?"

and with her teacher's help and encouragement she did just that and ended up writing what would become a very popular novel about a young woman who gets pregnant, gives up her child, and navigating life through the tragedy over it. tbh it's kinda in the style of kim jiyoung, born 1982

and even cooler u know later it gets turned into a movie that's scheduled to come out later this year and fr like idk shit turned her whole life around like writing about the biggest misery and regret of her life gave her the money she always craved and a bit of notoriety and everything is cool and all but like on the other side of things people fr think the story is just a novel and are like "wow how did you come up with the concept?" and for obvi reasons like noeul is def more comfortable with letting them thinking it's all fictional

and yeah so ngl life has fr turned around really recently for her and it's really nice but like rip now the dawn of realization is setting in that like... people are gonna expect another novel and how is she supposed to provide that like...

[petrichoraline]

EIGHT SHOWS TO GET TO KNOW ME

tagged by @littleragondin mwah🥰 these are not all my most fave but they all represent a bit of me so i find them suitable

W.I.T.C.H - now i'm not gonna pretend to be the biggest fan but this used to be THE show for me before WINX came along and i'll always pride myself on being a witch girlie first and winx girlie second (the "not like other girls" syndrome began very early on for me); their powers, the visuals, the adventures combined with the daily struggles of teen girls, the boyfriends, the intro song omg, there is sm about this show, the countless books, the og comic.. good stuff <3

also those two >>>

Lovely Complex - my first anime iirc, i wish people would pay attention to it (but also i'm the only one who's allowed to get it, y'know); only a young romantic towering over her classmates could have the chance of understanding my feelings for it

also read the manga <3 but uh you can skip the live action lol

Hana Yori Dango - broooo- bro. this show was made for my basic romantic ass, it was my first asian drama (or one of the first), it introduced me to Matsumoto Jun, had me hooked for two seasons (though im pretty sure i binged the second season and movie in 24 hours, long after i had watched the first season..? idk what that was about)

i am of the opinion f4 thailand did best in many ways but this will forever be THE adaptation in my heart. the songs were unmatched, the drama breathtaking (there are so many cliches that i didn't know were cliches back then lol) and the experience surreal. i'll always treasure this questionable classic 💖

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? - i enjoy this an unreasonable amount - my country's edition, that is; i just like having it in the bg and being a smartass, sometimes i run my mouth off so confidently and proceed to apologise to the tv when the contestant turns out to have been right lol

Weekly Idol - hear me out on this - aside from all of its issues, the show has always been my way of finding more about groups. especially back in 2015, those low quality episodes on yt helped me so much with getting into kpop; it can be very hit-or-miss but i have so many faves; many artists have been on multiple episodes throughout the years and yet show something entertaining every time. you can find new groups to stan through the mixed episodes and learn more about the members of groups you're already interested in (though for that i also rec individual shows like gose, wanteez, monsta x-ray etc.). i'm especially excited for eunkwang and minjoo as the new hosts, they are so funny on their own and i want to see their dynamic so bad

Pride & Prejudice - i've watched this just once but i can't not appreciate the accuracy to the book (except for the iconic lake scene lmao) and it covers british tv, 90s shows, austen books and period dramas all at once - all things i enjoy

Bridgerton - i had a whole piece written bout this but simply put - season 2 and kathony were a Thing for me. got me researching and binging a bunch of jonathan shows, reading most of the book and a bunch of tumblr posts..even looking through gifs now im going feral, i love them

New Girl - i usually play shows like this in the bg but i found myself paying a lot of attention and actually losing it laughing so many times, also nick and schmidt are the most precious intense bromance i've witnessed in fiction

[jmeldog]

Wow thank you so much for that very detailed reply! That was such a fascinating read, I had no idea this was how the series is atm. I really thought that Win's middle school arc was done and Lost was the sequel, I wasn't aware at all that they're co-existing series. I was really worried and sad for the last few months that Win had the same terrible fate Shobu did so this is a bit of a relief for the time being.

So is this the same case for the anime as well? Both the middle school and Lost arcs have their separate anime adaptations at the same time as well? Win having these darkness powers seems really dark for the show considering the screenshots I've seen of certain eps, is the anime going to go down that route at all in your opinion?

No problem! Again, I am always happy to infodump. I can infodump about duema as much as anyone wants. Just ask me to elaborate on near anything and I very gladly shall.

Long story short for this ask:

Honestly. I have no clue what they’re gonna do with the mainline adaptation 😭 darkness and horrors aren’t new to duema at all, even when seasons seem silly. But they handle Win weirdly. They drag their feet a loooooot.

However, the door still seems open for it to continue with what the manga’s doing. Even though Nonno didn’t show up, the monster that messed with Win’s friend had a woman’s voice, and said it’d come back. So. Shrug. She could be related.

We have no clue when Duewin anime is actually coming back, it’s on hiatus. But the Duelost anime is coming to YouTube this fall. It’d be awesome if it wasn’t region locked, but my hopes aren’t high, per se. YouTube uploads of the TV airings have always been region locked, but an anime exclusively to YouTube could be different.? But again. Idk.

Now the ramblings… (i really really rambled a lot whoops……… but there’s a lot that goes into how I think about this series………….)

But yeah, it’s is kinda strange to have Duewin and Duelost running at the same time, but like I think I get why. Dai-sensei wrote a letter about why he wanted to make Duelost, and basically he wanted a story for all the adults who grew up playing duema who still make time for it throughout the struggles of adulthood. So in that sense, yeah I can see why they’re existing concurrently—one for kids and one for adults.

In regards to how Duewin and Duelost anime counterparts are going… I honestly wish I could say what’s going on.

We know for certain Duelost anime is getting an anime adaptation by JC Staff in fall this year. Seems like it’s gonna be uploaded on YouTube.

As for mainline Duewin anime………? I don’t think we know anything about when it’s coming back???

Afaik, we’re in a fucked up purgatory of

Duewin anime: hiatus

Duewin manga: currently monthly

Duelost anime: coming out in fall

Duelost manga: hiatus

So anyway, in regards to the statement

“Win having these darkness powers seems really dark for the show considering the screenshots I've seen of certain eps, is the anime going to go down that route at all in your opinion?”

My answer is… maybe…? I don’t think it’s too dark for duema at all…….With an incredibly large asterisk.

Yeah, duema’s absolutely goofy, but it also gets pretty fucked up too. So much so on both ends that I’d say the violent emotional whiplash is a feature of the series.

The powers that Win has—disintegrating living things—are pretty similar to the powers that a king of darkness character from a different era had. And that character literally killed the MC’s best friend, killed the best friend’s dad, killed tons of other bg randos, and tortured many with those powers. So. Eh yannow.

Here’s my friend, Ze-ro. From Joe era duema.

Here’s some kids getting tortured and killed by him (burning in flames, turning into sand)

And here’s Joe in the Minecraft parody ep.

But honestly, maybe they just don’t want their protags to look bad. In the manga, the previous protag, Joe, also had a breakdown, started using dark power, and killed the guy who killed his dad.

But um. Granted I haven’t seen all of the anime adaptation of this half of Joe era because I was warned that it sucked in comparison. . . But I went to watch the “you killed my dad” revenge match in the anime and Joe just did a magical girl transformation on him 😭 no murder.

Later Joe has a depression arc, and looks horrible and unwashed in the manga. While in the anime they kept him squeaky clean. Among many, many other changes that I’ll spare you the paragraphs about.

However, it’s not like the anime never adds things that are fucked up. They’ve done horrible things to my sanity. But I’m trying to prevent this essay from getting any longer, so for this section I digress…

The manga’s prolly always gonna be darker when it wants to be, because Dai-sensei is a visionary who’ll put his protags through whatever the hell kinda horrors he wants. Though it is generally because he believes in a light at the end of the tunnel.

Sorry for the but rambling about the prior seasons, but they all kinda play into what I expect from following duemas.

So anyway

They were building to Win snapping in duewin anime, but just kinda…? Pussied out??? Put it off??????? I guess????????????

Because they wrote the story so it could be cut off quite cleanly literally before Win snapped. It’s such a strange and slightly frustrating decision after they dragged their feet the entire 47 eps of the season. Like 🫠 I guess they can’t outpace the manga but… wagh who knows. Maybe it’s just one of those things that’s frustrating to have watched live, but if I were to binge it I wouldn’t be as annoyed. Maybe.

But what gets me tho is the anime even added some extra stuff to torment Win. The anime gave Win mommy issues + made him canonically atheist (really funny, btw) because his mom wouldn’t come back after leaving him no matter how much he prayed. But despite Jashin poking Win with it over and over, they didn’t do much with it in the season. (While the manga just never touches on how Win’s mom isn’t around)

But like I said at the very very beginning of this rambling.. yeah the door’s still technically open to follow the manga route.

So like I mentioned in a previous ask, in the manga Nonno messed with one of Win’s friends, Ugata. In the anime, it was just the monster that Nonno gave him. And a possessed mouse.? But in the anime the monster had a woman’s voice and said it’d come back, so………

But alsoooooo I really wonder how they’d get Win as pissed in the anime as he was in the manga 😭 he was so pissed off at her cuz he was fresh off finding out Ugata had been bullied in elementary school and was jealous of Win, and that Nonno had taken advantage of that. She’d gotten Ugata to destroy the school, attempt to kill Win, and hurt their other friend, and afterwards she was like “lol lmao whatevs why r you even so mad over something like this xD” while Ugata was still unconscious on the ground with tears staining his face, yannow? Like yeah they could always try to build the tension back up, but the moment was just really good.

(Also I’m 99% sure Ugata getting bullied in the past just wasn’t apart of his backstory in the anime. Weird.)

While the anime on the other hand had a really happy ending lmao. Everyone was around Ugata welcoming him back to being normal.

The difference in Win’s vibes between getting Ugata back to normal in the anime vs manga is well…. Well it’s pretty dang noticeable, alright!

Like obviously if they want to continue Win era they have to go somewhere with Win being a king of darkness, but if they’re being so deliberate with dragging it out I really wonder what they’re gonna do.

There’s a lot more I could get into over studio changes, amount of volumes being adapted per season, and shit like that but um I think I’ll cut myself off here. I rambled enough.

I think I lost the point of what I was talking about a while ago. Whoops.

This is like all speculation. thanks for reading I’m not proofing this anymore 👍

Fun fact this hiatus after Duewin anime is the first hiatus in the history of the show. Which tbh I’m happy they’re having a break, because the animation industry is hell and adapting an ongoing manga for 20+ years seems insane.

[withleeknow]

AHAH the patriotism prevails only with sports events (and it's honestly a struggle w/ england, but at least they finally broke their penalty curse 🤧)

ONIGIRI'S HAVING A MELTDOWN wdym we're getting mimo serving vocals w/ lee mujin??? vm.tiktok.com/ZGetNHKTF/ this brought genuine tears to my eyes 🐱🐰

oh, you mean: tinyurl.com/mr3v53we istg spending 24hrs with him would be a factory reset to my brain + I've started my to do marathon and I'm enjoying every bloody moment:'))

fyi rockstar husband's back: vm.tiktok.com/ZGetj15sF/ (with strawberry x carrot head hs lurking in the bg) this is a whole god: vm.tiktok.com/ZGetjpQWc/ also for one of the photo concepts, he's got a lip ring on and it shamelessly took me back to your mimo drabble that sent me to fucking orbit goodnight I hope inspiration came to you for your title <3

is2g he's going to kill me dead with this. vocalracha mimo is going to kill me. does he know how obsessed i am with his voice. when the episode comes out i will cease to exist 😭

ahhh i'm so excited that you're watching to do!! they are so healing to me :') i love beomgyu with my whole heart but honestly i would probably strangle him if i had to be around him all the time lmao. anywhomst, a little bit of a whiplash but this made my heart hurt, my poor son look at him :(((

lmao i didn't know enhypen's cb was yesterday until i opened spotify and the album was recommended 😂 but she slaps !! i was replaying it a lot last night, i'll let it marinate some more and i'll be back to give you my ranking hehehhe. didn't expect a jvke collab tho i kinda hate that dude bc he's annoying lmao. but anywhomst, 1 2 he is so beautiful i think there might be tears in my eyes. like objectively speaking he is one of my the most beautiful people i have ever seen !! crazy. insane. pair that with a guitar and your girl is gawneeeee. also i had to look up the lip ring pic and ngl i always forget that i have a thing for lip rings and whenever something comes out to remind me of it........ oof

dunno if you noticed (not that i was even subtle lol) but enhypen did provide the perfect title for the fic hehehhehheheehe <3

[adorablebanite]

I LOVE THIS TOPIC and this is such a good brain worm waggle! Mine always squirms whenever I see stuff like this, may if I partake in a crumb?!

I love the Q - Why was Gortash Chosen by Bane? It's so ripe with the opportunity to explore his character, even if we can only speculate!

Gortash's nature is super aligned with what Bane would look for in a Chosen, so I'm also going to assume he's chosen because he has "something the god wants."

-Used his strife/trauma/pain to become stronger

-Brilliant/ruthless/cunning/ambitious/pragmatic/measured and cordial/cooperative with (useful) allies.

(He also built up the church of Bane in BG, so that tells me he's a bit more dedicated than one of the "fodder" Chosen from the 2nd sundering, but I also could be wrong! I'm just going to go on ahead with this assumption!)

I feel like if we knew WHEN he was Chosen, it would help immensely to answer the first Q, but unfortunately we can still only guess. We even don't really know when he started worshipping Bane in the first place - was it when he was a child? Sickened by his treatment by his parents? In the HoH to get him through the torment? When he first escaped Avernus? Did someone influence him into worshipping, or did he start on his own from scratch?

We know that before Gortash became Chosen, Banite worship in BG was essentially non-existent (at least for a while), but one can only assume a small handful of faithful would linger, even if it weren't an established church/worship in the city at the time.

Gortash himself wrote that he reestablished the underground worship of Bane, and so that helps a little bit...I can only logically assume he started rebuilding the church for Bane sometime after escaping Avernus thanks to our deceased friend Vance Farnol's WIP biography on Gortash (found on a skeleton in Wyrm's Rock prison, which by the state of the corpse tells me he's been dead at least a few years, which indicates he had a lot more influence in political affairs early in to get some guy who had the dirt on him thrown in jail while Ravenguard was still in charge...but that's here nor there 😅)

""The True Life of 'Lord' Gortash

A Biography in Manuscript by Vance Farnol

Outline of Contents, Final Pass:

-Enver Flymm, a Struggle for Survival

-Juvenile Felonies: The Flymm Rap Sheet

-Gang Years: The Heapside Reavers

-Same Face, New Name: Flymm to Gortash

-The Gate's Posh Kingpin

-An 'Independent Entrepreneur'

-'Rivals? All of my Rivals are Dead'

-Muscling in on Arms Smuggling

-'The Zhents' Day is Past'

-The Black Hand of Bane

-...Shakes the Bloody Hand of Bhaal

-'Not Even Everything is Enough'

-An Absolutely Ingenious Plan

-The Gravitas of Ketheric Thorm

-Decapitating the Gondian Hierarchy

-'Call me LORD Gortash'

NOTE: Add section about the Steel Watch with info acquired from interviewing that Gondian who escaped the foundry. Something about how the Watchers are Gortash's most powerful defenders but also his greatest vulnerability, since they're all controlled from one central nexus.""

According to Farnol, the "Black Hand or Bane" is fairly far down the list of Gortash's "accomplishments," so I'm going to assume he was Chosen only after supplanting and dismantling ALL his rivals - the Zhentarim being the last (save for the Knight's of the Shield (Emperor), who aren't mentioned - but he does dismantle them sometime after he dominates the elder brain). It would make sense that Bane saw him as a very capable candidate by that time.

Gortash could have started worshipping Bane at ANY of the milestones Farnol listed...and ALL of them are reasonable times for Gortash to start worshipping, or at least becoming interested in Bane.

Clearly he would have been devoted enough (or at least ambitious enough to see Bane as a vehicle to his success) to put time and resources into building the church back up in BG, meaning this probably took at least a few years, but he could only start building/recruiting once he had enough money/influence (and notoriety/Banite values)- so I'll assume he started building it around the time he became the "Gate's Posh Kingpin." He would have enough resources and prestige (and drip) at this time to start really attracting more Banite worshipers.

*GODS* I ache to write a whole fic on every milestone Farnol listed 😭 I would just want it to be as "accurate" as possible, even if there's so much room for artistic license!

-----

How did he get out of the House of Hope?

Who fucking knows 😫 but I love the idea of Hope being involved somehow - at least for moral support!

Some interaction between Gortash and Hope is another ripe opportunity for delicious character slurps! I can't imagine she would just sit back and ignore him - at first anyway (maybe he gets a little sour and wicked over his time there?) Would she be supportive of him? The only *genuine* kindness he pretty much had ever experienced? (I like to think Raphael has his own brand of kindness, but it was conditional, as a devil).

When we go to the HoH, she approaches us and guides us to help her escape - did she do the same with Enver at some point? Did he agree? Did he botch it, or betray her to escape himself in some way?

Also knowing about Nubaldin, the little turd seems cruel and stupid- and no doubt is easily tricked/deceived by Enver on the frequent, which makes him despise the boy. Gortash's nature is patient, observant and cunning - he may also have learned a lot from Raphael by just watching or actually being tutored in some aspect, so it's entirely plausible Gortash simply bided his time, and was patient about things. Maybe Bane was involved as early as Gortash being imprisoned here? Did he read about Bane from Raphael's library? I can't imagine Bane would be particularly interested in Gortash this early on to strike a deal with him to help him out, but who knows! Bane values those who use their tragedies, pain and trauma to "reforge" themselves ever stronger - so young Flymm had yet to prove himself in that regard.

----

Karlach - she was in Avernus for 10 years, and we run into her when she had freshly escaped. When we meet her, she's 30, so she would have been betrayed by Gortash when she was 20. She described Gortash as an "inventor, politician; wheeler dealer type with his hands in all sorts of pies" (I'm paraphrasing from memory).

Is it safe to assume she was hired sometime after he switched from "Posh Kingpin" status to "independent entrepreneur?" (Genuine question btw).

It is pretty interesting Karlach really seemed to have no concept of Gortash's darker dealings, which Gortash doubts (or at least says he does) when she confronts him later. Again it's just paraphrasing from memory, but he says she must have known what he was up to- there was no way she couldn't have, and he's kind of right.

But I think young/impressionable Karlach was so blown away by his ingenuity and generosity, as a young tiefling, eager to prove herself and be loyal to someone deserving; it's entirely possible she was just looking at her entire employment with rose coloured glasses. I say this because after the "Independent entrepreneur" milestone is just a slew of Gortash taking out his rivals ("Rivals? All my rivals are dead"), weapons smuggling, and more supplanting and usurping power from adversarial organizations. Then he was Chosen by Bane. She could have been hired at any point during that time, so it's hard to imagine she wasn't privy, as his personal bodyguard.

I can just imagine young Karlach swinging her greataxe with wild abandon, and some pride - cleaving the faces of Gortash's rivals - who were mostly, if not all, unscrupulous. Zhentarim, thieves, highwaymen/bandits after his shipments; or anyone, really who wanted to take Gortash out due to his rise in power. It wouldn't have been too far-fetched for her to think she was genuinely thought she was doing some good.

This means Gortash's was very very good at manipulating Karlach into thinking she was doing noble work -as her moral compass is PRISTINE, or she genuinely didn't want to believe he was what he was...in which I think it's a bit of both.

The "old friend" merchant Karlach meets near Sunderous Sorceries (sorry can't remember her name off the top of my head!) mentioned Karlach may have been "The only one to keep Gortash somewhat honest," and that "Things got dark fast after she left," which indicates Karlach's presence as Gortash's bodyguard had an overall impact on the nature of Gortash's endeavors.

It seems like Karlach was the last obstacle truly keeping him from his unbridled ambitions - business and religious-wise. I'm guessing he was in the process of secretly building up the Banite church at this time, as I mentioned earlier, and perhaps he had some hope she would join him in such endeavors, but ultimately recognized her morality is not compatible with his.

It was only a matter of time before Karlach truly figured out Gortash's nature, and if he saw she didn't have the mindset to join him, he had to remove her in order to progress the way he planned.

In some additional dialogue with Karlach, Gortash indicates he's disappointed she didn't appreciate her infernal engine "gift". He hoped that like him, she would come out of Avernous "reforged anew," like a Banite should, and even sadder still - maybe had someone he can relate with as an Avernus veteran. I think he kind of hoped in his fucked up way she would see the trial as an initiation of sorts, or at least a boon to her resolve - strengthening her. She got stronger, all right, but she sure as hell didn't see it as a gift, and so he was disappointed.

So going back to Farvol's milestones: knowing Karlach was In Avernus for 10 years, and Gortash was appointed Lord AFTER she was sold to Zariel (indicated by her dialogue from Councillor Florrick in the Last Light Inn in act 2), I'm going to estimate that in the 10 years between Karlach leaving, Gortash had been appointed as Chosen, met the Dark Urge, conspired to get the crown/dominate the brain, and so on.

This leads me to assume that the deal between Zariel, Gortash and Karlach skyrocketed Gortash's plans, with the introduction of the infernal engines, and therefore the Steel Watch.

My HC is that Karlach was the last pin in the map to Gortash's rising as the Chosen. Her moral compass is too good for her to remain by his side, and he needed to remove her - but he's also very opportunistic, and outright killing that badass beast of a woman wouldn't be very pragmatic.

Why not get something in return for losing his prized fighter? Gortash had already reestablished Bane's church, and this final act of sacrifice: someone he quite values (at least in terms of raw power and spirit) for more power, could very well have been be the catalyst that boosted his favour with Bane, and therefore what got him appointed as Chosen.

THANK YOU FOR LETTING MY WORM SQUIRM!! This is my favourite thing to talk about and I have no idea if it makes sense but HITTING SEND ANYWAY 😅

Trying to figure out Gortash's backstory

As I said before, I am right now very much inspired to write a redemption story for Gortash. Like post-canon, Gortash lives AU (because I still hate that he dies), and he actually gets a chance to redeem himself. Not only like: He turns good, but he actually does something good enough to be considered a redemption. And he does so without dying.

But... Yeah, that story is going to be from Gortash's POV, which means that I very much need to come up with some fillings for the big ass holes that the game leaves in terms of his backstory.

We don't know how old he is, but I would estimate him to be around his late 30s or early 40s. Which means we kinda have like 20 years to fill up.

While the entire timeline of Raphael "buying" him from his parents and him escaping the hell is very vague, he was probably somewhere between 18 and 20 when he got out of the hells. And the exact stuff what happened in between is vague. Even how he escaped the hells is not quite clear. I mean, was Helsink responsible for that? Or how did he get out?

And then he starts to do illegal weapons trading once he is back in Baldur's Gate. Which is fair. I am going to assume that he is actually going to throw some stuff in there that is of his own making, given that he clearly is a tinkerer.

Given Karlach is 30, I do not think he hired her before she was 15, so at max she has worked for him just a couple of years.

I mean, technically those details don't matter. What does matter however is: How does he become a Chosen of Bane, and how does he get into contact with the Dark Urge?

As quite a few people have pointed out: Technically the Dark Urge existing is very confusing given that they have been created by Bhaal and Bhaal was dead for about a hundred years until ten years ago. So unless Durge is ten years old, this does not fully make sense. Sure, technically speaking Durge could be immortal, I guess, but... Well.

See, the issue I see with Gortash is, that I just do not pick him as the religious type. I do not see him going to the Banite church and actually give enough fucks to make himself a name in the church and after some great show of faith getting the status of chosen. I mean, if you talk to him, he just... Ketheric is devoted to Myrkul, sure. And Orin was indoctrinated into the Bhaalist cult from her birth onward. But Gortash? He would follow nearly every god if that god gave him powers. At least that is my reading of him. Sure, the entire tyrant thing plays well with his pompous and kinda narcissistic personality (and I mean this in a neutral way - given how he grew up narcissism in a medical sense is to be expected), but... Like, had Oghma thrown him a boon, he would have served Oghma, right?

So, why is he a chosen?

Usually chosen are either one of two: Either, they are very dedicated to the god and have proofen themselves to them over and over again, or they have something (power, knowledge, influence) that the god is interested in. As I don't see Gortash falling underneath the first umbrella, the second one could be it. Was Bane interested in Gortash maybe, because Gortash had a lot of knowledge about the hells maybe? Was Bane originally interested in the crown or something else that Gortash knew about? That would be one possibility.

Though, there is another one. Because it just so happens that in the lore of Faerûn something happened just 8 years ago, that could have given him chosen status without him doing shit for it. Even though it would also mean, that him being a chosen is almost random. Because 8 years ago the second sundering happened. And during the second sundering for a variety of reasons the gods picked quite a lot of chosen. And yes, that included the Dead Three as well. And a lot of those chosen were in fact not people super dedicated to the gods or anything, but just people who generally aligned with the domain and alignment of the god in question. And I cannot help but wonder: Was Gortash just one of the chosen Bane got from that event?

It would work out fine. Because there is one thing that keeps bothering me: Sure, Gortash kept secrets from Karlach. But she still was his personal bodyguard. And she had no idea that he was aligned with Bane. Which makes me think that indeed he was not a Banite when he sold her off to Zariel.

And yeah, I cannot help myself. The timeline would work out rather well: Gortash becomes a chosen closely prior the events of the second sundering, but after he sold of Karlach. After a bit the Dark Urge (who somehow very much is an adult, because I guess he time travelled or something) finds him. The two hit it off (whether romantically or platonically) and come up with their grand evil scheme. At some point Ketheric joins.

Of course, there is one big hole in that explaination, though: Who are the other people working for Gortash while he just is a black market weapons trader? If he was a Banite it would be easily explainable (other Banites), but like this it leaves open the question: Who are they and what happened to them?

I don't know. I am rambling. But yeah. I like this asshole. And his story is fun to think about.

[ujuro]

saw your post abt hot issue/kiss of life whats going on??? or where can i read more abt the members ig (tysm in advance if you do reply but dont feel obligated)

Lmao it’s just industry stuff and nugu grind its nothing that should stop you personally from stanning the group (i mean Julie has said the n word but that’s a different thing I guess 💀)

I was just really invested in hot issue and really liked the group and the members so seeing them trashed after one cb pissed me off and seeing them trashed for another gg with slightly more well-known members instead of a bg like everyone thought enraged me. Like if you’re not prepared enough to get your group through a couple cbs to see if they take off then why are you even debuting them to begin with like what a waste of everyone’s time not to mention the uprooting the lives of seven young women like now yewon has to struggle through a survival show and mayna has gone back to China like good job everybody 🙃 it’s just a flat-out insult to the former members of hot issue and really any trainee in the industry who doesn’t have the connections of formerly being affiliated with a big 4 company (no one in the group has hybe ties as far as I can tell but the jyp yg sm links are all there)

So even though I like natty I just can’t particularly bring myself to care about this group or how it does. I mean nattys solo is also the only song of theirs I like so it’s not a big problem for me and like I said my anger at s2 entertainment shouldn’t stop anyone else from liking them. Also my definition of “not supporting” is different from most peoples lmao for me it just pretty much means not subscribing to their yt channel and shit-talking on tumblr I don’t have the money to buy albums to begin with and I’ve always flat-out refused to zombie stream songs

As for belle being a nepo baby that’s just a fact LMAO read her page on the kpop fandom wiki but alas she is not the most blatant nepo baby in kpop anymore that goes to my guy Anton in sms new bg alsjdhdhdhdhshshs she only held that title for like two months

I can’t believe kpop is now old enough and large enough that the blatant industry nepo babies are debuting instead of just the incredibly rich ones my girl sieun was a pioneer. Anyway I was actually legit angry when I made that post about belle but I don’t really care in all actuality (I mean sieun ranks last in my stayc bias order but that doesnt have anything to do with her dad or anything she did that’s just how it turned out). it comes with the territory but I WILL laugh at them a little bit cause what else can you do

So in conclusion idk stan kiss of life if you want but also stanning nugu groups is pain

(But also like hot issues cb/eventual disbandment song wasn’t even good it was just ok and the type of song that doesn’t ever chart so why was the company shocked it didn’t take off like it was an average song if the company had put more thought into their concept and given them a song that had shown off the members improvement between debut and cb MAYBE we wouldn’t even be having this conversation…anyway I’ll shut up now)

[the-firebird69]

Watch "Send this to the first person you would invite over! #luxuryhomes #newconstruction #backyard" on YouTube

You see there's quite a bit recently the luxury homes around here that the clones and the warlocks live in and it's not in the city and they're snooty and their snots and they're dying the summer in the city that they had that written and they mess with the verbiage whoop-dee-dee doesn't matter that much and we see like bugs in there that are 10 ft long so we approached the building and we're trying to shut it down after getting stuff out of it and we know that they're in there and they see us and we stare at them and don't move and sometimes they leave and we kill them anyways and sometimes we get in a fight and they die fast and you people never beat them you're out in the middle of the woods and these bugs are out there and they kill a lot of you and you don't seem to care and the head guys just keep your guys doing it recently we did bug control we got most of them and we're doing it now and getting more as you leave we can do tons of bug patrol and your gross people you need to die you're not civilized and you're very very stupid so we went there and the place was empty there are no bugs in this house at the time they were there you can see their footprints they ripped the carpet a little they came in and left because there was nothing there no they left because it was a strange house everything was on and they couldn't figure out why and they tried to shut it off one of them broke one of the screens a little and didn't stop it and they thought humans are around the whole time but that wasn't the most eerie part the weird part was there's no sign of a struggle no blood and no fight and nobody there to come and check on anyone and they've never seen it so it's boot them and it should because so we went in and we could see if I was watching us from about an hour away and we were getting ready to hit her in the winter maybe about 30 and they're looking at us like this what are these people they finally show up and they were strange cuz it look like myself those people look like they use a lot besides to try and fly away and that's what they say cuz he's gone some stuff and they say where are those things how do we get them from them so they flew away we hit him this is right there and they're flying using our wings we think it's not our fault either and that was it. How's her falling as sending signals and we had hefty stuff ready already and we blasted them there was a huge Army but they're just sitting there watching this house cuz it looks so strange it was just remote and nobody wanted to live there bugs and that was what it was yeah they're attracted to the light it's the dumbest scene you ever seen they're always killing them and then also they disappeared cuz we went in there and killed them all and we don't want to wait we did that to tons of you out here in the past week and you're saying it's his son and their witnesses and stuff and you're trying to arrest him and we're going after you and you don't stand a chance and we don't care if you don't stand a chance

This is a house that someone going after the sheriff position the actual sheriff and David stager came by and get hey John remillard and kill them and took his stuff and he died from some of the stuff and the whole troop got cleaned out by us and he took the responsibility and his plan is under severe attack it's a contingent of the clones and they're big they'll probably get wiped out here and that's the trumpsters is going on now

Abomination and She Abomination

And that would bring us down to like 1:20 or something that's true

Hera

It's about 1:30 but actually it's about a 100 and they're working on that now in a stereo it's really quite a scene

Abomination and She Abomination

We needed this break and BG you're a mean person to him and you're a loser you people so cheap although BG is like better than the most it's amazing but the rest suck but you start sucking too it cost you lives but it's the clones that help do it but our friend here says it's a culture and they just start sucking like mad and they have to be put down and now I understand it that's what you actually do you're just trying to start sucking like madness until it stops and it's not and you have to be put down

Mac

Actually know this stuff and that's how it works and we have to go after you now and we mean ubg

Mike tew