#i guess? everyone go watch the official playthrough

[peachypizzicato]

had to commemorate what is easily one of the most mecore posts i've ever seen

the og :)

[baldursgate3tempobsessed]

Astarion Very Happy Ending, Part 2

Hey y'all, so I did a part two of this because I love happy, insanely, fluffy romantic endings. So I'm going hard here. There will be one more part!

Also, don't judge my Gale x Shadowheart bs here 💀💀 Long story short, first playthrough that was abanadoned, I picked her orgin and did get sweeped up by the mage man. It has not left my brain since.

Also, this has a time skip! A pretty long one too (10 years)

~

Astarion had been having… thoughts lately. Ideas that he couldn’t quite shake. Nothing bad, no. There really wasn’t much to complain about in his life, not anymore. Not when he could walk in the sun freely, unburdened by parasites and his own vampiric nature. The two of you were free to explore the world with no shackles, not including your religious zealotry. And ironically enough, his own. 

Astarion would never have guessed that he’d ever become a Selune convert. Well… even now convert may have been to strong of a word. Yes, he was immensely appreciative for the whole sun immunity blessing and he did have a newfound respect for the work of her worshippers. But Astarion wasn’t exactly looking for a deity, or anyone, to be subservient to. Not again. No, he’d much rather watch his love do the dirty work for his savior than fully commit himself. Besides, just because he wasn’t devoted to Selune didn’t mean he wasn’t devoted to you. Which might as well have been the same thing. 

Astarion loved you, adored you really, but gods could you be nonsensical at times. He was so happy the two of you had met because someone had to keep this idiotic fanatic alive. Someone to remind you that no darling, not everyone is redeemable. Please put the goblin down.

But he’d be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy being your protector. It was the least that he could do considering everything you’d done for him. And he just… liked having a valid excuse to accompany you everywhere. Astarion had never imagined himself to be such a clingy lover, but here he was. The two of you had been attached at the hip for nearly a decade now, with no end in sight. You had built a life together, had friends together, adventures and celebrations that filled his days with endless excitement and amusements.

That is one thing Astarion had to give Selune and her worshippers, they didn’t exactly lead boring lives. Though he supposed half of that had to with just how involved the opposition was. The two of you had slaughtered enough acolytes of Shar over the years for him to know just how covert they really could be. But it wasn’t just bloodsport that made things interesting, though it certainly did help. The exploring for ancient artifacts definitely helped to fill the time, as well as the constant search to find a cure for the rest of his unholy symptoms. 

As great as being in the sun was, Astarion wasn’t quite satisfied with that being the end. It was almost certainly impossible to find a full on cure to being a vampire spawn but… that wasn’t stopping either of you from looking for it. It was morbid, but Astarion wanted his life to have an ending. A natural one like what he hoped for you, not one where he was doomed to immortality and bloodlust until the end of time. 

Thank the gods that he had managed to fall in love with an elf. It at least gave him centuries instead of decades to figure out a solution to an eternal problem. Which brought him back to his current problem. Because the two of you had many, many years ahead. And as far as Astarion was aware you both planned on spending them with each other. Which implied… certain things.

Astarion had never been someone to fantasize about marriage. He had no reason to, not when he had been too busy barely surviving. Even when things became serious between the two of you it hadn’t been on his mind. He was much more concerned with keeping you at all instead of keeping you forever. 

But that had changed recently. Maybe it was because he had seen you officiate countless weddings over the years; young couples always clamoring at a chance to get a newlywed Selune blessing. Or maybe it was how others took note of the lack of a ring on his finger, taking it as an opportunity for unwanted flirtation. But either way, he couldn’t stop thinking about it. Obsessing about it really, as he was want to do when it came to you.

He just… didn’t exactly know how to broach the subject. What was the reason? A silly little ceremony and a ring had no bearing on the depth of your relationship. He knew that. The two of you were bound to each other by choice, a love that felt as though it got stronger every day. But… it would be nice to have you in such a way. For the world to be aware of the seriousness of what you had together, shown simply through a pair of rings. And the thought of calling you his wife was quite enticing. 

He wasn’t quite sure why he was so hesitant to bring it up to you. Well… there was the slight delusional thought in his head that reminding you of forever could possible wake you up into realizing just how much better you could do than him. It wasn’t true, he was aware. But gods, your relationship had lasted a damn decade. When was he going to start feeling secure about all of this? 

It didn’t help when Gale of all people beat him to the punch. He and Shadowheart had developed quite the bond since your tadpole days. And your excitement over the announcement was adorable. Adorable enough for him to wonder just how you would react to it happening to you.

But he shoved his worries to the back of his mind, too busy being dragged all the way to Waterdeep for the week-long nuptials. You were highly involved in the wedding, which wasn’t exactly a shock. Shadowheart had stayed your best, most appreciated friend throughout the years, the two of you eternally tied through your shared goddess alone. You wrote to each other constantly and this was far from the first time you had dragged him across the realm for a visit. 

But this was probably the best time. He had to give the people of Waterdeep this, they knew how to celebrate. He wasn’t one to complain over a week filled of music, dance, and drink. The ceremony had been nice as well. Heart-warming even to watch Shadowheart walk down the aisle, smiling in a way she never could when she was devoted to Shar. With Gale sniveling at the other end and you officiating of course. 

The jealousy had been an unexpected touch. He couldn’t help but wonder what you would look like in her place. Dressed in white and silver, walking towards him with eternity in mind. 

It certainly wasn’t helping his dilemma, he could tell you that much. He was still thinking about it when they made it to the reception. It was impossible to bury thoughts of marriage when you were at a wedding. Would you want a large celebration like this? Or something more small and intimate? Hells, the two of you and a cleric in the middle of the woods would suffice to him. 

“To think, Astarion Ancunín at my wedding in the sunlight,” Gale laughed as he plopped down in the seat next to him, effectively putting an end to his internal fretting, “Who would have ever imagined?”

“Certainly not me,” Astarion scoffed with the slightest hint of a smile, “But I suppose things change.”

“I suppose they do,” Gale agreed, his eyes scanning the dancefloor for his new bride. There she was, dancing and giggling with you in the middle of ballroom,  “I just never expected it to be for the better.”

“It is a wonder that we’re all still alive,” Astarion agreed, smiling to himself when Shadowheart dipped you as you laughed hysterically, nearly falling over herself in the process, “Let alone being able to find love. Who would have thought the worshiper of the goddess of the dark would end up here.”

“Turns out she was hiding quite the personality behind the Shar mask,” Gale laughed, “Though I suppose we have Tav to thank for that. It was a real fight on who would have her as their best woman. A fight we both obviously lost. Though officiating seemed a good compromise.”

“She certainly has the experience,” Astarion sighed, “But I have a feeling this one will be her favorite. She’s happy for you two. We both are.”

“I’m happy for you too you know,” Gale added with a small smile, “I always thought the two of you would work out. I even made a killing in the pool we had going on for it.”

Astarion stared at him, brow raised, “You had a pool?”

“Oh absolutely,” Gale confirmed, completely shameless as he listed out the rules, “It got quite competitive after awhile. First, it was all about if you’d ever realize your feelings for her. Then when you went and did that we were betting on how long you’d both last before you left. And then when that didn’t happen, well. Let’s just say I got a few platinums richer.”

Astarion rolled his eyes at the news, barely even surprised, “I feel as though I’ve earned a cut of that.”

“Unfortunately it’s now our honeymoon fund. But I’ll owe you one.”

That was another aspect of this whole debacle that Astarion hadn’t even thought about. But gods, did it sound nice. Whole weeks dedicated strictly to the two of you. No religious duties or adventures to worry about, just… them. 

The joy of the thought must have shown on his face, because the next thing he knew Gale was looking him up and down, a small smirk on his lips, “What’cha thinking about over there?”

“That this wine is mediocre at best,” Astarion lied, avoid Gale’s eyes, “Tell me you at least got a good deal on it?”

But Gale wasn’t taking the bait. He was still watching him like a hawk. That was the problem with getting closer to people, and having, gods friends. 

You had to deal with the discomfort of being read like a book, “Does our little Astarion want to be wed?”

Astarion flinched at the accuracy, taking the time to shoot him a glare as he avoided the question, “I am nearly three centuries older than you.”

“Perhaps, but we both know two of them don’t count,” Gale said, barely missing a beat, “So tell me, do you already have a ring picked out?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I can help you pick one you know, there are many fantastic jewelers in Waterdeep. I believe she has the same ring size as Shadowheart, we can bring her along.”

Astarion rolled his eyes, ignoring the small blush creeping up his neck, “I want you to know that if this wasn’t your wedding day I would have slapped you by now. Consider my reluctance as your wedding present.”

“How generous of you,” Gale chuckled. But then he started to speak quieter, his voice taking on a more gentle and serious tone, “She would say yes you know. You’ve had her wrapped around your finger since the day you held that dagger to her throat.”

That was an exaggeration, but Astarion would be lying if he said the mention didn’t make him preen the slightest bit, “You forget that I did have competition.”

“Oh, barely,” Gale laughed, “You don’t get to reminisce of what could have been when you won. Gods, no one had any chance against you. And trust me, we tried.”

Astarion blinked at him, more than a little surprised, “You did?”

“Of course we did. We all did. What do you think Shadow and I bonded over? But the pining stopped eventually. Then it became…something more. Something deeper. She’s… a magnificent woman, my little shadow. Who has gone through too much…” Gale trailed off, his eyes still following his bride as he softly smiled,  “Suffice to say, neither of us are pining anymore. And I’m sure Shadow would love nothing more than to help plan her dearest friend’s nuptials.”

“Who ever said that you two would be involved?” Astarion scoffed, just to be an ass, “For all you know we’ll elope in Neverwinter.”

But Astarion’s grip backfired, if the smile on Gale’s face meant anything, “So that means you are going to propose?”

Oh for fucks sake. Astarion glared at him for the accuracy, at a loss for words. Besides it… it was true. Of course he was going to ask, where else would this fanatic line of thinking end? He just hadn’t expected Gale of all people to be the one to force him to admit it. 

“I-yes,” Astarion sighed, finally giving in, “Are you happy now? Yes, I’m going to.”

“Extremely,” Gale grinned, “Because you just won me another three hundred gold.”

[cat-mermaid]

so this thanksgiving i was rewatching one of my fav youtube lets plays ever, jacksepticeye's Deltarune playthrough, right? Its one of my favorite comfort watches, a series i rewatch at least once a year

Its gotten to the point that my mental cannon character voices are all the ones he gave to the characters!

so throughout this last viewing of this playthrough and his Undertale one (was watching 'em all for the holidays while sewing), he talks about tumblr and seeing fanart on tumblr and tumblr discourse and i was wistfully going, like an old man sitting in his rocking chair on his porch, ah remember when everyone cool was on tumblr.com? remember when splatoon had an official tumblr? even Toby Fox was on tumblr. Ah, memories

well holy chicken pot christ GUESS WHO BACK BABES

wotta time 2 be alive

mack, jack, watever. HE RETURNS

[koivoid]

p:eg posting part 3!

Continuing from last night, where I spent a very normal amount of time playing pinball...

Very interesting how little Tozu shows up.

Room switch... surely this won't be relevant in the trial, right...? RIGHT??? (hey, at least Ulysses is there to record the switch, I guess?)

The laundry scene... I actually missed it in my playthrough bc I didn't agree to help Ingrid.... so I just watched on on the official yt lol.

Ingrid essentially calling Wolfgang a malewife was pretty funny, though. Also he doesn't know how to do laundry... no way CHARLES CUEVAS FROM DRDT REFERENCE??!?!?!??!?? CHARLES MENTIONED????!?? (im stupid)

Oh, so eva has desmond's secret, eloise has grace's, and mark has ingrid's. we now know 5 secrets in total, yay! I really hope this is like drdt where everyone's secret is revealed and we have to match them up or something.

also, the 1 on 1 meetings to talk about secrets reminds me of drdt. although wolfgang seems to have a more genuine reason for everyone to share their secrets that david. hopefully this cast is more chill about it, though. surely someone won't lure someone else in with a note to meet in the playground, right? :)

SUPER SLAM SISTERS LOL

Also eva liking video games is honestly so cute :D she's growing on me a lot, please don't die first chapter, eva..... even with the amount of character development and death flags you have....

VIDEO GAMES TOURNAMENT!! The cgs are so pretty! It's nice to see them having fun, and-

oh no, there's a blackout. yeah, someone's 100% dead.

genuinely, kinda smart how they navigated the darkness, going in a group/pairs means none of them could have run off and committed the murder while they were exploring

footsteps? surely that can't be the killer, that's way too obvious, right?

having no music for when kai and damon are in the hallway genuinely scared me a little bit...

uh oh, it's the bda, isn't it....

HUHHHHHHH. WHAT. WHAT??? WOLFGANG IS THE FIRST VICTIM????? I was NOT EXPEVINTG THAT BRO> I GENUINELY THOUGHT HE WAS GOING TO BE LIKE. THE ANTAG. HUHHH. I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS

and idk if the game explicitly stated the 3-person triggering the BDA rule, but if it does apply, that means the person who just ran out saw the body, and wasn't the killer.

anyways, now it's investigation time! I'll probably make one post for the investigation/my theories on who the killer is, and then one for the class trial.

man... I just can't believe wolfgang is dead. :')

[sl33py-g4m3r]

demon fusion lets go~~

genuine question, should I fuse the demons that have learned all of their skills into something else and then recruit them again?

I can see myself getting lost and having fun with fusion~~

got to stop seeing them like pokemon because; as I've seen especially through older games I've watched playthroughs or retrospectives of, demons don't level or get experience there and are just fusion fodder.

or I guess in IV they learn all their skills and become not useful after a while.

If and when I do fuse, should I go for something specific? or force a fusion accident to see what happens?

fusion is going to be a lot of fun~~

sad now that I'm playing on official hardware now. and it's the virtual copy so there's no way in hell i don't think that I'll be able to get the DLC and the extra demons along with it...

am I missing out or is it not worth it really?

just realized that everyone in the front row (in my active party) is weak to poison~~ Oh no.....

for as hell as demon negotiations can be, fusion is going to be so fun~~

[danganronpafan777]

danganmon reading update also how thy day going!

Not too bad!! I’ve been busy with a Wattpad story, and a TON of irl stuff, but I just finished Chapter 2!

Here’s some notes/reactions while I was reading it/watching Blaze’s playthrough

SPOILERS

Danganmon Chapter 2 from someone who knows nothing about Pokémon:

I’m curious to see what Faust looks like without the mask as much as everyone, but ngl it kinda rubbed me the wrong way that they were pushing him so hard when it’s clearly a sore subject

HE LOOKS SO FREAKING CUTE THO

Sam: “…I think it looks nice too, maybe in this case “cute” would be the right word”

Ayooo

Last chapter, I wasn’t sure whether I should ship them or see it as a sibling relationship, but I’m leaning towards shipping

Faust keeping the mask on because he wants to be taken seriously is honestly a pretty valid reason (it’s a nice twist instead of a scar or trauma)

Maya is growing on me ngl

She reminds me of a more socially awkward Rei

Flidgey being amazing as always 

Cyrillo and Wimessir give that “We will be adored” energy 

Kami deadass asking Cyrillo why he’s tall- 

This premotive game sounds like a fun concept! I feel like Sam is gonna let Faust win

Fry seems like such a cutie that it makes me scared

So Kami and Fry don’t actually have to face off against each other? I’m assuming all the funhouses are different, so theirs is just not competitive?

BRO LAVA??

They’re literally exchanging their fav flowers while trying to escape from lava 😭 I honestly like this duo and I’m scared Fry might die

Sam really disappeared faster than my will to live 

Okay Zoro definitely giving blackened energy

Zoro and Roxanne got some sibling energy tho

I want to hug Faust so bad 

Maya and Flidgey friendship is unexpected but not unwelcome in the slightest (I actually love this dynamic)

Flidgey: A ghostly guy and a ghostly girl… lemme guess, some guy tried to suck you up with his vacuum? 

I love her sm

Stella and Cyrus being bullied by a robotic Gordon Ramsay for burning bread is def my favorite fun room 

Voodoo doll motive :0

Apollo probably got Maya, I’m calling it now

I’m getting some death flags from Lillie and Juno…

At least one of the melons is probably poisoned

Glad Sam apologized and everything worked out. Genuine apologies and communication is rarer than it should be in dangan/fangans

I’m officially on board with Sam x Faust and Maya x Flidgey 

If any of them die I’m rioting man

(Flidgey raised some death flags and if she goes then I’m quitting this fangame I swear /hj)

…FUCK

*end credits*

(I swear that wasn’t planned)

A trade between dolls?  Apollo is probably involved, but it’d be a cool twist if Flidgey was the one who swapped

I’m never forgiving whoever the hell killed Flidgey tho 

Okay now Apollo starting to piss me off (Still like his character tho)

CALLING HER FRIDGEY BRO THE DISRESPECT

(I hate how it made me laugh)

Wimessir is my top suspect tho, she’s just acting a bit sus

I KNEW IT

WTF APOLLO YOU BITCH

Okay I forgive Wim but Apollo you’re dead to me

Oh god, using Cyrillo against her is a whole new level of screwed up

KICK HIS ASS CYRILLO

Sapphire tucking in Juno’s doll makes me feel a lil better tho

CYRUS MY MAN

Out of all the antags in dangan, Apollo is the first to just be badshit insane, and like a genuine pychopath

(Well, his backstory does sound screwed up from what little we’ve seen of it)

The bags under Cyrillo’s eyes makes me sad :(

I actually loved this chapter tho, the funhouse games and the bonding between the characters is such a good buildup

9/10

The investigations are a bit short and Wimmessir’s guilt came a bit out of nowhere (In terms of evidence. I had suspicions from her behavior, but Apollo’s accusation and the purple hair was a bit abrupt) It felt like everyone turned against her rather quickly, and not much could really prove her involvement, but her execution was well done

This was great, but I kept thinking of the ways a reader would fit into the story which really shows the type of person I am (I write too many x readers lmao)

[3dsangel]

I love when things wrap back around for me with interests its so awesome <3

ramble below about how things I love now wrap back into things I loved as a child, how other interests or favorite creators intertwine etc.

For BFDI:

I remember seeing scale of the Universe when I was likeee 8-9 years old w/ my older brother and being like. soooo mind blown. (Seeing the minecraft planet made me genuinely believe that minecraft was real ... I remember thinking that would show on International television soon 😭)

then like. i think from 15 years old I got into Kurtzgesagt : In a Nutshell youtube videos and it was kinda lowkey but I think in around 2020-2022 I started really loving their content ...

And then in 2023 I binged BFDI ^_^!! And It wasn't until I believe in November I found a video on carykh's channel about how he was mentioned in a Kurtzgesagt video (WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!) so I clicked and it was cuz HE MADE SCALE OF THE UNIVERSE.!!! mind freaking blown ... Cary teaching me 2 love science and the world when I was a little baby 🍀

For Pokemon:

I enjoyed pokemon very casually compared to my brother, but I still loved the franchise as a kid. The piece of Pokemon media that influenced me the most was the Pokemon 2000 movie... I think everyone and their dog remembers the scene where Ash turned to stone and all the pokemon and their dopplegangers started crying </3

After I gave away my NDS to a childhood friend/sibling I never really touched another pokemon game for some time. Even for Pokemon Go I didn't use it all that much....

In early 2016 I watched a playthrough of Undertale and it changed my brain chemistry TBH (first instance of young fran seeing the usage of a singular "they", and I knew the characters did it out of respect for the player character, not because they didn't know the gender of frisk). And well Undertale will remain a game close as hell to my heart. for more reasons than just the game cracking my egg

Literally day one of 2020 I got myself Pokemon Shield while drugged on novocaine (I had 4 of my molars removed in the morning, and the night before i had 2 best friends cut me off... not the best day) And played the hell out of it to ignore my problems. I know the game isn't the best but I still do love it okay........

Then on Twitter I see the official pokemon twitter talk about collabing with Toby Fox. freaking hi ... (I learn about the mpreg reference later but thats not important 💙)

and okay one more thing to wrap it up. well two i guess. I didn't realize Weird Al's "Polkamon" was an official(featured in a pokemon movie soundtrack) pokemon song ... for Pokemon 2000 Specifically... Weird Al omnipresently polka dancing around my whole damn life forreal

And well before I learned about weird al's (official) contribution to pokemon I hear about "Project Voltage" with a bunch of voca producers coming together to make pokemon themed songs using Mikus vb!!!! with designs for miku based on pokemon types!!! However when I heard about this I really didn't GAF despite all this love i have for vocaloid and pokemon ... you'd think I'd be hype over this <_<

[nishihii]

My mom wants to go as Lady Maria for Halloween and I still haven’t even gotten started on the Bloodborne lore and she wants to know about it what do I do 💀 (btw I’ve watched like two playthroughs and read the first comic and still know only that there were two schools 😭💀)

1. that is really cool and 2. holy shit thats tough jssgsgsg

im not sure if you mean she wants to know ALL of the bloodborne lore or just maria lore? i can sum up maria's lore very easily but the entire lore of the game thing is bound to have mistakes in it jsgshssh

but uhhh the MAIN story is a college of students and professors who strive to ascend discover catacombs of the gods underneath the college building, discover the healing blood and establish the healing church. the blood, however, is addicting and turns people into beasts. they take care of these beasts via hunters. the beast problem becomes more prominent with time and so the official church hunters are established, many commoners are also hired to participate in the hunts. all the while the vicar of the church and his comrades are attempting to contact a god (ascension never stops being a goal of theirs, its why everything happens) and uhh one of them gets sucked into a dream made by said god as a pact. the vicar clearly has to do something for the god but we dont know what. something with babies probably. (its complicated) (also the old part of the city of yharnam gets burnt down bc of the beast scourge but i cannot recall when this happens in the timeline) there is this thing called the choir that gets established (their goal is ascension who could have guessed). they find a god from the previously mentioned catacombs who is friendly and gives them her blood and thats epic and cool. anyways they experiment on a bunch of orphans. there is a school fromed from the choir called the school of mensis which eventually gets split from the church. why? different ways of wanting to reach ascension basically. the timeline of mensis happenings isnt really clear at all + i really need to refresh my memory of it- so sorry i cant explain this part properly. 😔 anyways they get sucked into a nightmare made by a god baby. they did this by performing a ritual and that ritual fucks everything up!!! a woman who managed to ascend into a god hides this so the world seems normal to everyone. so uh, this is where the player character, our hunter comes in. they have a sickness and come to yharnam to be healed via their epic blood, get transported to the dream where the vicar's comrade STILL resides. they kill a bunch of beasts, slowly uncover the weird shit going on in yharnam and why its going on- they kill the god hiding the effects of the ritual and then get inside the nightmare that mensis got themselves into. kills the main guy and silences the baby's cries. they come back to the dream and the house is burning down. they fight the guy in there and then god comes down to make them take his place, but she gets repulsed by the hunter because they've crushed 3 umbilical cords (still trying to figure out why she gets REPULSED of all things?). the hunter kills god and becomes a baby god. we dont know what this means for the dream or the world. you decide. the end

you will notice i didnt include the story of the old hunters- it's very important to understanding bloodborne's story and why things are happening but again this is a TL;DR. a long one but what else do you expect from bloodborne

[lemonlurkrr]

@aureateart​ ok. My favourite parts of twilight princess  (and some other random thoughts about TP sprinkled in there) taken from my monster TP word vomit google doc :

Link lmao

Ok but for real, I like this incarnation of Link :)

I love Ordon (it just seems like such a chill and cozy village)

ALSO love how easy it is to interpret Link as being a sort of older brother figure to the Ordon kiddos. It’s just,, super cute? AND GHHH nice nice good thanks nintendo for giving me characters to care about/characters that I can imagine Link caring about

He didn’t sign up for any of this (tbh, none of the Links really signed up for this jshdjsd). But I mean like, dude was just going to take a trip to castle town, drop a gift off for the royal family, and come back. But haHA oopsies he did get to castle town eventually but definitely not the way he expected hsjdhsd

He’s just a little dude?

AND FUCK. HE REALLY HAD NEVER BEEN OUTSIDE OF ORDON UNTIL ALL OF THAT

everything is new for the player AND Link

Midna

She’s cool :)

she really just

*teleports into your jail cell* hello whore.

I am no master at writing but AYYYY she do got a character arc!!!

She was actually pretty helpful sometimes, I ALWAYS checked in with her before turning to a game guide

Other NPCs

NICE

Love all of the TP character designs (ASHEI’S ARMOUR??? AOWOAOAOOAO)

Saving Zelda and all of Hyrule was important yea but thinking back maybe it was more like, the Ordonians and the kids were what was pushing Link to keep on going

I like the Resistance members :) Very video gamey of them to have one NPC assigned to each dungeon but hey!!! Kinda cool getting to see a little glimpse of each of em

Idk, it’s just fun to imagine Link popping into Telma’s bar after each dungeon and taking a little rest :) (or to celebrate? maybe just chat, idk, give this man some downtime!!)

Honestly it was just kind of nice that Link wasn’t entirely alone. I mean, I know Midna was there the whole time, but I am always for giving Link a big group of friends (see my love for hyrule warriors, age of calamity, and LU LMAO)

Hero’s shade, very very cool, kinda sad he died with regrets but HEY. He got to pass on his knowledge eventually

AND the connection to OoT?? AND assumed to be related by blood too????? GOOD SHIT

Ilia, I REALLY really wanted to like her (er, it’s not like I dislike her, she’s just,,, kinda there for me).

It definitely seems like Nintendo was pushing to make her the romantic interest, but GHHHHH they really threw that out of the window for me by having her lose her memories

I saw a text post a while ago that said it would have been interesting if Ilia was Link’s sister instead and YES!! That would have been cool too :0

Wish we got to know Zelda a little more

I feel like we barely know anything about her

Idk man, like I said earlier, I never really had any sort of drive to save Zelda during my playthroughs

She obviously knows Midna, so maybe if they gave us just a little bit more of that relationship I’d be more interested in her?

TP WORLD BUILDINGGGG

Botw has good world building too, but each race felt kinda,,, isolated? I absolutely love the different architecture and vibe each town has (and all the the weapons too) but ghhh yea everyone felt so separated. As far as I can remember, we don’t see tooo much of the races interacting with each other? Now that I’m typing that out maybe that’s to be expected because of the calamity but KLSJDKJFD ANYWAYS THIS IS ABOUT TP

The world feels nice and alive, love how populated everything is

Castle town I like castle town a lot, it feels dense and busy and I really like how you can’t talk to every NPC you see

Very cool very fun that we got to see the Gorons hanging out in multiple spots

kinda wish we got to see the Zoras a little more (I guess they are a bit limited since they need water but GHHHH the tp zoras are so prebby,,)

BUT HEY, I do remember seeing a zora or two hanging out in the hot springs around death mountain after beating the lakebed temple (I think, might have been a different dungeon) 

but aaaa would have been nice to see them in at least a couple of other places. I think it would have really added to the “congrats Link!! You’re restoring peace to Hyrule” feeling you get from seeing the Gorons hanging out in Kakariko and Castle Town

ORDON

Love how chill it is and how it’s kind of separate from Hyrule proper

They really do seem to be doing their own thing apart from the rest of Hyrule

Just kinda adds onto the “he’s just a regular dude minding his own business” kind of vibes I get from TP Link

Also I like Ordona :)

THE LIGHT SPIRITS,,

Love their design

And love how they’re not exactly like a pure white?

Different spirit representing each aspect of the triforce my beloved

But yes hi I think Ordona is very cool

Who are you, how did you get here, which goddess do you represent? Do you even represent one of the three golden goddesses? Do the Ordonians know about you? Have any of them ever SEEN you??? Do they worship you? Does anybody even know about the existence of the light spirits?? FUCK so many questions but ghhh I like how they broke the status quo a bit by throwing in a fourth spirit :)

I feel like this one is kinda weird but I like that voice sample they used in the light spirit music. It’s spooky and pretty at the same time :)  

cutscenes mmmmm

Ok ok, the spooky lanayru cutscene is very good

BUT THE “Link, Chosen Hero! Lend us the last of your power!” CUTSCENE MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM LOVE IT SO MUCH

IT just

Idk man

It just hit different

I like the music

And seeing the light spirits swimming around in the light juice water whatever it is

Summoning the light arrows?

AND HHHHH “Lend us the last of your power!” THIS IS IT. This is the final battle.

Seeing Zelda bow down, and then Link putting his hand out 👌👌👌

Link: ok bud, let’s do this together :)

Connection to OoT (did I already mention this? Maybe., Whatever)

Very cool nintendo :)

I love seeing connections between all the diff zelda games.

Because like, on one hand, they’re all separate from each other because of yknow, individual hero stuff. BUT ALSO, they’re all connected because of the reincarnation stuff

Grrrr walking through the sacred grove and going “The Hero of Time walked around here a long time ago” FUCK THATS SO COOL

Is the Hero’s Shade watching me? What does he think of me? DIsappointed? Proud? The Hero of Time went through HELL so this timeline didn’t have to deal with any of the shit Ganon was gonna pull with the triforce, better not fuck this UP Link!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Midlink is cute

Kinda hurts that she smashed the mirror but that was probably so Nintendo didn’t have to worry about people going “but what about the twili??????” for any of the other games LMAO

BUT ALSO LIKE SKJDKLJFJ There are some pretty massive plot holes in TP anyway so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ whatever it’s fine we’ll just use this for angst because GOD do y’all like angst

So is Shadlink

Honestly don’t know where this ship came from but it’s cute so whatever

THE MUSIC??

Love Midna’s theme and how they referenced the dark world theme from ALttP (I remember trying to learn the dark world theme on the piano and doing the Leonardo DiCaprio point meme at the little jingle I recognized from Midna’s theme)

Hyrule field theme SLAPS.

Apparently references a couple of the other over-world themes from the previous zelda games (I got this from 8-bit Music theory’s video on the over-world zelda themes, he talks about TP at around 11:40 but def recommend watching the whole video if you’re into music analysis stuff)

So there’s this bit of the Hyrule Field theme, I don’t know the official name for it but I remember seeing somewhere it being called the “at an advantage theme” since yeah, you hear it during the boss music whenever you expose their weak points. FUCKINGGG LOVE THAT. Didn’t notice it during my first playthrough, but hearing it during my second was like a little easter egg for my ears every time :)

Midna’s lament is very pretty (and fun to play on the piano)

COURAGE THEME.

I didn’t care for it too much when I started playing the game but hearing it in ZREO’s arrangement of the Hyrule Field theme literally makes me turn into a puddle of emotions. Also hearing it around and of the Ordon kids (I think it plays after Link saves Colin) AAAAAAAAAAAAA

Orchestra piece #1 and #2 HOLY SHIT???????????????? 

Literally, the first time I listened to those I just,,,, plugged in my headphones, volume 100, layed on the floor/against my desk and silently vibed. I don’t know what the hell it is, but those two just fit so well with TP?? I still avoid listening to them nowadays cause if I DO I definitely will get overwhelmed with the “god I love this game so FUCKING MUCH” kind of feels.

Wolf link sucks at singing

the first time I heard him howling Zelda’s Lullaby I lost my shit because LKSJLDKSGLKJFSKG god that was.,, Bad. Anyways, hearing him howl some of the songs from OoT was cute :)

TP STAFF ROLL??? 

VERY GOOD. IT’s like 10 minutes long and GOD do I love every single second of it. It doesn’t have the same energy as the skyward sword staff roll or the orchestra pieces but GOD does it hit good??

Nice and calm after that big exciting adventure. Maybe it would have been more fun or emotional to have a higher energy piece but it was really nice getting to sit back and watch the camera fly around Hyrule. Seeing like, the Gorons and the Zoras having a good time, the kids returning to Ordon? GOOD SHIT.

and AAAAA that end, when you hear the main Zelda theme and see Link riding off out of Faron woods on Epona… good shit. It gets you thinking, where the hell is he going? What is he doing? Off ot do more adventuring? Going to help out the resistance or something? Going to help Zelda? Or maybe he’s trying to figure out a way to restore the mirror of twilight? Whoooo knows.

hhHHHHhhh it’s just that final reminder that YES!!! YOU JUST PLAYED A ZELDA GAME. JUST ANOTHER STORY APART OF THE WHOLE EPIC OF THE ZELDA SERIES AS A WHOLE

I also want to acknowledge the instrument/samples they used for all the twili stuff.

They’re all just so unique and contrast SO well with the rest of the TP OST. LIKE FUCK!! Anytime I hear the screech from the Twilit Kargarok? Sends a shiver down my spine. I associate those sounds SO strongly with the twili realm. (Like, the same way you associate the BSHEWW VVWWMMM sounds with light sabers)

I love it so god damn much

literally any time there’s a certain sound or motif associated with something I lose my shit

Sacred grove sacred grove sacred gro-

lovely lovely lovely so much fun playing that on the piano. AND again, I did the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme when I heard the theme from the lost woods come in GHHHHHHHH

shoutout to TP Faron Woods for helping me study and get through all of my schoolwork

BLEGUUHHH can you tell that I really love music?

and also yea I guess TP is kinda cool too :\

IF YOU READ ALL OF THAT THANKS I GUESS

[4ragon]

Eh fuck it, since we don't know how long Twitter is going to last, I'm going to start randomly posting my thoughts on random ass video games here. Here's all the shit I've been playing a bunch recently.

Portal Reloaded: I legit don't know if this is an official Portal dlc or just a mod, but it's free, and it's so much fun. Do you like Portal? Do you want Portal Hard Mode (TM TM TM)? Get this funky little game. It's not quite as funny as the OG, but man are the puzzles Tough.

Divinity Original Sin II: Have I played Divinity 1? No. But I am having a ton of fun with this thing. I was not expecting to enjoy myself so much, especially considering my hatred of games with the fucking hotbars, or whatever that little UI thing is at the bottom. At the very least, it's turn based and not real time so I don't find it nearly as obnoxious. I've also been A) doing Multiplayer, and B) using a mod so that I can take all 6 of the named characters with me, which unfortunately does have the tradeoff of making the game a little too easy at times. Also, since you're not suppose to be able to have all of the characters in one playthrough certain characters just straight up will not speak to each other? Which is kind of disappointing. Come on, guys, it's a 60 hour game at minimum, it doesn't have the kind of replayability you think it does.

Professor Layton and the Last Spector: Oh, so THAT'S why plvsaa is like that. I was not expecting to adore these characters as much as I thought I would, but they are just so much fun. I haven't technically been playing, since I'm watching my friend's playthough on twitch, but the puzzle difficulty range is so wild to me. Anything from "What color is the umbrella" to "do some fucking AP Geometry fucko," which I feel like I'd find a bit frustrating, though I guess the worst of it is optional.

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask (Not Finished): Can't give my final opinions here, but at minimum, the 3D graphics are a huge downgrade. I hate when visual novels decide to switch to 3D graphics. It's never going to be as charming as the sprites! Story-wise, I'm still deeply invested, and theorizing to hell and back is so much fun now that I'm getting into the swing of How Layton Games Do.

Zero Escape 999: Guys. This game drove me absolutely bonkers. I'll love any murder mystery visual novel put in front of me of course, but something about this game... Admittedly, it took me a few hours to get invested. I found the amount of talking a bit exhausting, especially when SO MUCH of it was dedicated to things like "Let's walk through this whole room trying doors, talk about it, and then start trying new doors." Like I don't need to know the logistics of "we're locked in a boat." I don't need to know where everyone is at all times. But once I went through one full playthrough, and could skip a lot of those boring logistical issues, I got SO into trying to figure out what was really happening. They really did give us the exact right amount of information to start figuring out what the Actual Plot was.

Zero Escape Virtue's Last Reward (Not Finished): I'm enjoying myself so much, but somehow, everything kind of feels like a downgrade? The 3D graphics (especially the lip flaps) suck ass, and there's so much stuff that feels like it's pulled from Danganronpa. Guys, I liked Danganronpa. I liked Zero Escape because it WASN'T Danganronpa. I don't know, I've hit my first real ending, so I'm hoping that it's just still waiting to impress me, but the main conflict just feels less personal this time around.

Dragon Age: Origins: I love playing watching my roommate play this game and then letting me make all of the narrative decisions. I just. I hate the gameplay, but the story is fun as heck. There are some weird writing choices, clearly, but the characters are fun to talk to and that's all that matters. It doesn't give me as strong found family vibes as other RPGs, but I still love them anyway.

Disco Elysium: You all know my thoughts on Disco Elysium. I love you Kim. Mostly, I'm just wondering what the fate of a potential sequel is going to be. I both want it and don't, but at the end of the day, if the original creators aren't able to wrest control from that game studio, I just worry the heart isn't going to be in the next one.

[xyztrio721]

Sorry for the wait, but I want to share my thoughts on certain events that took place in Chapter 2 of Xenoblade 3.

Warning: Spoilers for Chapter 2 of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Under the Cut

First of all, Ethel. I have two screenshots of her, and here’s the first one, taken during the scene where she saves the lives of Noah, Lanz, Eunice, and Joran.

I remember seeing a small portion of this cutscene on the official Japanese Xenoblade Twitter account, and I wanted to take this screenshot as a reminder of the amount of hype I got from watching a part of this scene for the first time.

Next up, Z. This was his first appearance in the game, and as you can see, I (and likely everyone else) couldn’t see his face clearly in the cutscene.

What are those purple things on his face? I have no idea, and I’ve cleared Chapter 3 right before I made this post (more on the Chapter 3 stuff later).

This next screenshot was meant to start a series of screenshots in which I take at least one screenshot from every area in the game. I… failed to keep up on this, but I suppose it isn’t too late to try again.

Anyway, here a screenshot of Millick Meadows. Not much to see, I know, but I wanted to highlight the fact that this area is a mass-up of the Bionis’ Leg and possibly the Garati Plains (I’ll give you the opportunity to determine that yourself in the next screenshot).

BIG FOOKING MONKE in this next screenshot!

Believe it or not, this is NOT Territorial Rotbart (though there are similarities between this giant Gogal and the Territorial Rotbarts from Xenoblade 1 and 2). This is Jingoistic Gigantus, which is a fitting name for an Unique Monster this big. Thankfully I haven’t had to deal with it chasing after me/incapacitating my party, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens at some point in my playthrough.

Here’s another screenshot of Ethel, right before Consul K takes control of her and her forces (or at least, I assume that he took control of her, if the glowing red eye she had was any indication).

Since this is the last screenshot I took of her in Chapter 2, I want to say this: I genuinely thought Ethel was going to die during the fight against Consul K. Thankfully she didn’t, but she came pretty damn close to becoming K’s food source.

WOTAR. That’s it, that’s the context behind this screenshot. Also the way Mio’s ears perked up at the sight of the oasis was adorable.

I don’t have that many screenshots of the party hanging out at Rest Spots, but I do have one (and another one from Chapter 3, but again, I’ll talk about that later).

I don’t know what Mio and Sena are doing here, but whatever it is, it’s super cute!

And now onto the more serious stuff. First up, the new Ouroboros. Here’s Lanz’s Ouroboros.

And here’s Eunie’s Ouroboros.

This was the first time two Ouroboros showed up in a single cutscene, and just like the first appearance of Noah’s Ouroboros, I was hyped as hell to see them for the first time in my playthrough!

I do have a clip of Noah and Mio destroying the Flame Clock with Lucky Seven (which by the way, I’m very curious about this sword and what Noah refers to it as. Does he refer to it as the Infinity Blade [named after his second Talent Art], or does he refer to it as something else? If you know the answer to this, please refrain from answering, as I don’t want any spoilers), but I need to find a way to post clips saved onto my iPad to Tumblr. Once I figured that out, I’ll make another post for that cutscene.

Finally, we have Noah and Mio sending off Consul K. I’m surprised that they did this in the first place, but that’s just how they are I guess (especially Noah, since he doesn’t like to leave the husks of foes and friends alike, which is one of the reasons why I like him the most out of the entire cast).

I’ve got to admit, I teared up a bit at this scene, even though I think the Consuls are monsters (which is a bit of an understatement, considering all of the shit K did and what some of the other Consuls would do later on)

I think that’s it for now. Next up: Chapter 3, and I’ve got a lot to say about the final boss of that Chapter in particular, none of which is positive.

[quietest-rebellion]

Do the chaos household for that character meme you coward

Me upon realizing I have to explain what that is

Basically it's the idea of my fav murder boys having to live together. This being Stefano, Eddie, and Higgs. @christmasace and I came up with this one night and it has been our main source of serotonin since.

I'm going to do the character break downs for them in the context of their original games though. So anyway, buckle in, lads, this'll be a long one. (Eddie and Higgs will be below the cut)

Stefano Valentini

How I feel about this character

Fav. Favest of favs. I would willingly die for this man in a heartbeat. His voice? Beautiful. His personality? Snarky. His art? Breath taking. The way that he has to fix his hair after getting shot with a smoke bolt? Hilarious. Me? I'm in love. Also the fact he put jokes outside of the theater is iconic. Anyway, Stefano was an appealing character from the moment I first saw him in Markiplier's playthrough. I didn't realize I'd fallen until I started crying at his death and Mark was like "I don't even feel a little bad!" Because then I was like "oh shit why am I crying" Also I believe Stefano is an undiagnosed autistic man with horrible PTSD and brain damage(obviously) and I will die on this hill. I could talk about how I feel about Stefano for pages but I won't right now.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Me. Honestly I feel like Stefano is either an asexual aromantic, who only cares about his art, or he is a raging bisexual who is extremely picky with men since he himself is such a perfect man. As for actual ships though, I feel like Stefano is attracted to Sebastian and flirts with him throughout the game. I just don't really see the idea of Sebastian flirting back. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Emily Lewis. I love the idea of them being in a relationship, official or unofficial, and then things went south and he killed her. Stefano killed a lot of people before being put into STEM, why was this one so special he had to make a series of displays representing her? I don't know, just my thoughts.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

This is gonna sound weird, but I guess Theodore? Look, I just love the idea of Stefano driving Theodore insane and making him regret ever hiring him. And like, all the memes everyone makes about it? Amazing. (A personal favorite, also the one that I made) Plus, "You are special. You've always been special." Yeah, anyway I really need to know what the other half of that conversation was. Does Obscura count? I think she does. I see Stefano and Obscura's relationship being like that of a father and daughter or of a pet and an owner. He just loves her so much and he's so snippy when Sebastian gets to the theater the first time. "You did not appreciate my beautiful Obscura's performance." I imagine if you actually chose to fight and kill her in Ch. 7 he was really upset about it. Guardian is along the same lines as Obscura but I think Obscura has a higher place in his mind. 1. Because she is a camera and takes more photos for him. 2. There is confirmed to be more than one Guardian so he probably doesn't grow overly attached to any particular one, where there is only one Obscura. 3. Stefano seems to love whatever he did most recently the most, which is fair. As an artist, it really just Be Like That.

My unpopular opinion of this character

Unpopular only in the world of the game, but his art is good.  Actual unpopular opinion? Not sure I have one, tbh.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon

I say it literally all the time but I really want a prequel comic or SOMETHING to tell us more about him as character. What happened to his family? Why did he come to America? What war was he injured in?  Also the idea of him getting some dlc for the second game is still always on my mind, like, it could take place before and during the main game and it’s just us fucking around and making art and then catching Lily and fighting Sebastian. I am not gonna say that he didn’t deserve to die in canon, so really I wouldn’t change that.

Eddie Gluskin

How I feel about this character

Look... uh... I honestly am not sure how to describe my feelings for him. Because on one hand, is a misogynistic asshole who deserves literally everything that happened to him as an adult. But on the other hand, he was an abused child that grew into a hurt and sick adult. Also, when he’s not trying to kill you he is quite the gentleman.  Basically, I love this character, but I have no idea why and am slightly ashamed about it.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Literally no one. This man should not be in a relationship with any of the canon characters. I’d like to imagine an AU where he is sane and settled down with a wife and had 2.5 kids and lived together in their house with a white picket fence but that isn’t going to happen obviously.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Look, I know they never interact with each other, but Eddie and Trager. And like, not as friends really but more as weird acquaintances. They talk about surgeries and such, share a drink every now and then, complain about women, etc. 

My unpopular opinion of this character

He’s straight. 

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon

I just wish he would’ve been sent to a place that could actually help him instead of Mt. Massive. But then he wouldn’t be in the game, lmao. ALSO, there is a lot of unused Eddie dialogue in the files for the game. I really wish that all of them would have actually been included in the game. Some gems include: “Did I...? Oh lord. I forgot to give you an anesthetic, didn’t I? Eddie, you doofus! Would forget my own head if it was screwed on!” (Timestamp 16:32) “There you go. No, no, don’t cry. You’re not dying. I’m going to make you better.” (Timestamp 10:13) 

Higgs Monaghan

How I feel about this character

Garbage boy stink man. Just a rowdy, dirty boy. Pizza rat. Like, I sometimes have a difficult time imagining that he ran a company before he was a terrorist, because he doesn’t seem like a very organized person. Higgs is so multifaceted it’s impressive. In the game we only really get to see him a this asshole who wants to end the world. In his journals we see his hunt for power and want to be important. In his bunker we see the organized chaos of how his brain worked and how he operated his life. Not to mention the Peter Englert emails that are so well written. Anyway, I love him.  Plus I’m gonna mention something my sister(Thrushheart) pointed out when I was having her watch me play. He is the exact opposite of Sam. Examples: Sam hates being touched or touching people. Higgs is touching people as often as he can, including but not limited to even licking them. Sam is reconnecting the world, at first for Amelie, then for everyone he’s met along the way. Higgs is ending the world, at first for Amelie, then for himself(or possibly still for Amelie). Higgs is loud and bombastic while Sam is more quiet and reserved. Sam is smol and Higgs is tol.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Look, I’m not gonna say that I do or do not ship Goldenbridges. I’m not sure how I feel about it because, as I said, Higgs and Sam are such contrasting personalities I don’t think it would work. Fragile. Okay, okay, I know what you’re thinking, but I imagine they were together before he met Amelie. His betrayal would mean even more if this was true. And in his journals he only ever refers to Fragile as “his partner.” Now I know this was done to hide that they were his journals and because they were work partners, but it could also mean more. And of course we can’t forget the somber and clear writing, directly over his bed in his bunker. “Fragile forget you ever met me.” And how surprised he was to see her on the beach after the fight. The sad look he gave her as she caressed his face. Aaahhhh.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

I wasn’t sure whether to include Higgs relationship with Amelie here or in the last section. But he quite literally worshiped her and the ground she walked on so  🤷🏻‍♀️  I don’t feel like she ever really gave a fuck about him though. Amelie is extremely manipulative and proves that every time she opens her mouth so I have no doubt she told him whatever he wanted to hear so that he would help her.

The Veteran Porter. If you worked hard enough to get more than one star with this guy, you learn that he used to work for Higgs and that’s why he is reluctant to trust the UCA. I like to think that he and Higgs were good buddies before Amelie.

My unpopular opinion of this character

With likable villains it’s hard to figure what is a popular opinion and what is not. So I’m really not sure. Maybe just that he didn’t get enough screen time?

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon

Redemption ark! Redemption ark! Higgs is the one guy on this list where I’m like, “Okay, he saw the error in his ways. Maybe he gets a second chance.”

______________________________________________________________

Anyway, that’s all of them! If you actually read this whole thing, first of all... wow. Second of all, thanks! Here is a screenshot of these chaos boys from The Sims 4 as your reward. 

[bomberqueen17]

Witcher 3: Monster Bone

So for the 4th of July my Dude and I stopped off at DF&MM’s in Rochester; I continued on toward the farm for more agricultural laboring, and Dude went back to Buffalo to continue his self-isolation working from home, but we had a small precious respite of socialization. 

We sat outside on the patio and had a little fire and made smores and the kids ran around and were goofy. In the midst of this, DF went to fix some bit of playground equipment, and came back to where the adults were sitting and declared “I put it in a new hole," standing with his hand propped triumphantly on this ridiculous axe/sledgehammer combo he owns. 

He’s prone to declarations like that and long ago we decided it was best to never enquire as to the context. 

As dusk drew down, the kids vanished indoors to be put to bed, and we adults decided not to sit out and get mosquito-eaten, but rather to come inside and close all the windows and doors and blinds. We contemplated watching a movie, but DF was on transplant call and had done two consecutive days with 14-hour shifts (and had suddenly discovered that despite being firmly within the liver transplant team, he could be drafted in emergencies by the kidney transplant team, so that was a somewhat unpleasant surprise; fortunately, his portion of the job is largely unchanged.)

Anyway, he was loopy enough that he thought Xboxing would be fun, so we all got drinks and settled in and he fired up Witcher 3 again.

“We only play Xbox nude and drunk now,” DF said. “New household rules.”

“Oh, okay,” my dude said, and stood up to unfasten his pants. Unfortunately, both of them were bluffing, but that would’ve made this playthrough write up MUCH more entertaining. So, if you prefer, I give you permission to simply imagine that everyone in the room is drunk and naked, as I recount the events onscreen. (What it says about me that I’d still be taking notes is, well, let’s just not consider that too deeply.) (I do think we’d had about a bottle of wine apiece, except that DF had stopped at one glass in case he got called in, so we’d had four bottles between, mostly, three people, and then MM moved on to just drinking a glass of straight vodka that I had assumed was water until I got a whiff. Well, listen, you only live once.)

We loaded the game and were in Novigrad... underwater, breath half used up. “What the fuck,” said DF, “why am I underwater?”

“Well, I mean, in a second you’re going to die of it,” I pointed out, and he swore and had Geralt pop up to the surface. The water was only like nine feet deep. 

“What the fuck,” he said, and got out of the water, and Geralt, unperturbed, proceeded to run around near the wharf in Novigrad. 

We happened upon a strumpet, who with a sultry sort of fretfulness, gave Geralt a quest to save Crippled Kate’s from a bunch of hooligans who had taken it over to drink all the booze in it. 

The hooligans were triflingly easy to defeat with a single application of Axii, which Geralt only bothered to apply to one of them; the rest of them obediently packed up and filed out after their slightly dizzy leader, without questioning his sudden transition to obsequious compliance. The delighted strumpets came back in to reclaim their home.

“This girl’s wearing the Pennsic Uniform,” DF said. (A crop top and broomstick skirt.)

“Oh, yes,” MM said, “I own at least three of that outfit,” which gives rise to the question, why don’t we ever dress up for these gaming sessions? Drunk and naked is one thing but Pennsic Finery would be hilarious. I guess the omnipresent jingle belts would be awkward when dealing with children violating bedtime curfews... The costumes for this whole thing are very Pennsic, as is the combat, but there’s officially No Death Allowed at Pennsic so that’s one very important difference, there.

Geralt didn’t let the strumpets pay him for his work, figuring they’d suffered enough loss of income. Meanwhile DF went to the inventory screen and browsed the list of quests he’d been meaning to get to, and decided it was time to go to the Temerian Peasant Hideout to find out what the deal was with the girl with the shirt open to her navel. Like, she’s not a strumpet, she’s not a mage, why doesn’t she wear a shirt?? We must know. 

Weirdly, even though we just finished a quest with Roche a few hours of gameplay ago, there was some kerfuffle of re-introducing him as a character, that made us wonder whether the right save was loaded. But I had by then recollected the ending in water of the previous session, so I reassured DF that this was in fact the right save. 

Roche was square-jawed and noble at us for a bit, and we got a quest to go save Ves (Shirt Open Girl) from herself, which seems sort of weird/dumb but like, I guess, that’s, what’s going on? OK cool. On the way out of the cave, DF accidentally made Geralt walk through a bonfire and set himself dramatically on fire, but it does tend to go out quickly enough when that happens. So, for the record, Witchers are slightly fire-retardant. (@akilah12902​ informs me Quen will put you out if you’re on fire, as well as stopping bleeding, so that’s a useful bit of knowledge. We did not utilize this knowledge. DF maintains an irrational prejudice against Quen, in part because to be fair it’s fairly useless in Death March mode.)

Now, I’d forgotten, but the steel sword Geralt currently has is like, this ridiculous fucking scythe of a Fantasy Blade that clips straight through the scabbard and looks goddamned silly. My dude, who has only ever been present for one other episode of this game play, was like “... what is that sword. That’s a big sword.” And the rest of us were laughing too hard to get out a “that’s what she said”.

Anyhow. We met up with Roche in some godawful countryside with hanged peasants, where Ves was off on a mad chase to try to keep Nilfgaardian soldiers from executing peasants on suspicion of being partisans. 

We instantly died as soon as the fight started. Whoops. 

“That’s ok,” says DF, “now I know how the controls work.”

“Well,” my dude suggested, “is it time for Gwent now?”

Ah, so he does know how this game works. Maybe. DF meandered through the inventory screen after the game reloaded, taking a moment to equip himself, and my dude proved that no, in fact, he hasn’t seen much of this, when he asked “wait is that just raw meat?” and DF was like “crunch crunch!”

Geralt instantly got polearmed to death on the reload. “Shit,” said DF, “we gotta grease up for this.” And part of the quest is that we have to save Ves, and she’s got a status bar displayed with her health and it’s getting lower and lower as we fuck around. “All right,” DF said, “we juicin’,” and decocted himself up. 

This time he started off the fight by setting a bunch of Nilfgaardians on fire. Some of them are kind of fire-resistant too. It is super, super, super fucking handy that your enemies are by default fire-resistant, because you can just Igni a crowd and only burn your enemies. 

We did manage to rescue Ves. Finally, finally, someone else noticed she’s not really wearing a shirt, and was like, “why is your navel showing” and she was like “none of your business” which I suppose is a reasonable answer.

At the end there was one wounded Nilfgaardian and Roche was like “ah we should be merciful” and I get that Geralt’s supposed to be noble here, but like, the guy’s fucked up and there’s no medicine in this game and also, as Geralt pointed out, he takes jobs for Nilfgaard sometimes, having a survivor to go and be like “yah this white-haired Witcher showed up and fucked us all up” would be fucking awkward, so DF opted for the dialogue option of “why leave a witness alive to linger in agony what kind of mercy is that really”, and maybe that was wrong but we went on with our lives.

Meanwhile, the children of the village have come out, since the fight is over. DF ran Geralt around to loot the bodies and there were children literally playing on top of the corpses in several cases, which was a bit annoying and also disturbing. Like... guys. 

Anyway. We poked through the loot, and switched out the lovely matching Griffin armor for a ridiculous Guy Fiery flame-patterned sash gambeson, but the stats are better so. Welcome to Flavortown I guess.

We decided to go Check Out The Devil’s Pit. It sounds badass. We wandered away picking flowers and killing lvl 6 nekkers. We found a bandit camp with a lot of wooden staircases and chased people around and killed them, but it wasn’t super exciting, there was a random pit to hell that you couldn’t interact with in any way. Maybe it was supposed to be a mine? I don’t know.

Just to see what would happen, DF Igni’d a goat. “Rude!” Dude exclaimed, but we actually did manage to loot the meat so this went down better than the Skellige Bunny Crimes incident. 

Anyhow. Radovid wants us to repay him for giving us Junior by going and getting him Phillippa Englebreit. Earheart. Whatever. He’s got a bunch of witch hunters posted up outside her hideout-- apparently they chased her there as an owl, which sounds like a really great high-speed chase I’m sorry there’s apparently no depiction of.

So we started off by talking to the witch hunters, who were kind of... they’re a bunch of thugs with dorky chinstraps and bowl haircuts and they’re rude to Geralt, so like, fuck those guys. 

We left the rude dorks behind and went down into the weird compound. There were some Aardable walls and some debris. “Ah, nekkers,” said DF. 

“They just want to neck with you,” put in MM.

They did not. They cornered Geralt, who wound up stuck in a dead-end passage without an escape except falling to his death, so he fell to his death. Whoops. Reloaded, had some more difficulties with the nekkers, realized belatedly that they need ogroid oil, duh. 

Properly lubed, we resumed our fight and in the midst of it, leveled up to Level 17. Not too shabby. We also recollected that nekkers do not like being on fire, which, being a guy who can produce fire from his hands on command, that’s a useful bit of information and made things go much more smoothly. Also also, DF realized belatedly he’d been using his steel sword instead of the silver one for the nekkers, which also explained why he’d been doing so poorly. Right, right, that’s how this game works. (I pointed it out. “Wait, isn’t that your steel sword? The huge one?” and DF was like “That’s my pork sword” and we all groaned at him, but like. I’d asked for that, pretty much, hadn’t I.)

One of the nekkers dropped “Monster Bone” as loot, which Dude saw and started singing. “Monster boooooone,” he sang, and MM and I were like “Yeahhhh” in unison and DF was like “Monster Bone sounds like the name of a funk album”

Then there was a roaring fire creature, an Ifrit or somesuch, which, like, well. It was on fire, so we figured it was probably an elementa or something. Also Aard puts out fires sometimes, which did help with this. 

“Oh,” DF said, “he’s killable,” and proceeded to kill him. When he disappeared I was like “oh, he teleports?” but then he didn’t reappear, and DF was like, “No, he doesn’t teleport, I just obliterated him.” Oh. 

In Philippa’s lair, where she was not (though there were owl feathers), we perused the assorted loot. Blood-covered gemstones seemed like a really really odd thing to find, until we discovered that she’d been using them to grow new tissue on to replace her eyeballs that Radovid had removed for her, which is just gross all around. Also, we picked up a book called Care For Your Sword, Soldier! which is far more peppy than I’d expect for the subject matter. We also got a chipped megascope crystal, which seemed useful and important. 

So, now it was time to pick a fight with the fucking witch-hunters, apparently. There might’ve been a way not to fight them but fuck those guys. “Time,” DF said with some satisfaction, “for some Axii executions.” Oh, and Dude Oil. Mustn’t forget to lubricate for dudes. 

“Why,” I asked, as we killed another witch hunter, “does everyone drop creepy dolls as loot?” Why on earth wouldn’t a middle-aged religious fanatic with a bizarre uniform and a bowl cut have a creepy doll on him? Why indeed. 

Anyway. We left the cave, and the dead witch hunters, and made a beeline for Triss in Novigrad to see what she thinks. We trust her more than Radovid; maybe she did some weird bullshit to Geralt in the past but at least she doesn’t seem to think chessmen have literal pulses. “We find her terrible fake American accent endearing,” DF said. As we spoke to her, she clipped through a chair twice. 

We gave her the megascope crystal, and she played back whatever message she could find on it, which was Phillippa talking to... some other sorceress... about regrowing her eyeballs. Well, fair subject matter I guess.

We left, and wandered through Novigrad. “Giant-ass sword,” DF muttered to himself, watching the Stupid Fantasy Blade clip through the scabbard again. And Whoreson Jr still got shooters out here, who keep trying to kill Geralt, and I’d almost suggest that they know Geralt killed Jr but if they know Jr is dead why are they still in his gang? Very confusing. 

Anyway. I had something deep to observe, here, that Dude pointed out, about the whole ecosystem thing here, and I just can’t recollect what it was, so I’m gonna leave this in drafts a tiny bit longer as I try to remember what the fuck it was. Ah, I don’t remember. Someone tell me a punchline!

[agonydearest]

Coffee Shops and Candid Shots - Tyril Starfury x M!MC

Ok, I’m low-key blaming @lxdy-starfury for this one because I was scrolling through my newsfeed minding my own business when I saw this and started having thoughts.  I romanced Mal in my playthrough, but I really liked Tyril and her Modern!AU was so damn cute that I had to write a little something!  Her work and especially the art 😉 is amazing, and I hope I do her version of the character justice.  

Also, here’s my BOLAS MC, Marcellus, just to give you guys a visual.  He’s flirty, cocky, reckless, and a bit of a dumbass, but he’s got a good heart and is fiercely protective of the people he cares about (especially Nia, who’s like a little sister to him).  In this fic, he’s wearing this.  

Marcellus Raine considered himself the luckiest guy in the world to somehow land a man like Tyril Starfury.  Some days he couldn’t wrap his mind around it.  The guy could have anybody he wanted, but he chose to go out with a scruffy troublemaker from tiny old Riverbend.  

He kept musing on it for just a few seconds as he watched his boyfriend through the glass window of the coffee shop where they met.  Tyril sat with Marcellus’ best friend Nia, who was taking Instagram shots if he had to guess (she was always taking pictures of everyone) but he couldn’t take his eyes off Tyril.  He was totally oblivious to his arrival, head propped up on his hand and elbow as he read another of his books.  Somehow he looked delectable completely covered in a turtleneck and dress pants, his beloved Burberry coat hanging over one shoulder and his long luscious hair falling in a curtain to shield him from prying eyes.  

After taking a deep breath, Marcellus opened the door, trying to remember to breathe.  With his heart going what felt like a million miles an hour, he pressed a finger to his lips to quiet Nia, but it was impossible to hide her excitement as her best friend walked into the cafe.  Tyril unfortunately noticed her change in expression, but it didn't matter because as soon as he turned and saw Marcellus, his face broke out into a radiant smile.  “What are you doing here?  I thought you wanted to meet for dinner?”

“Wanted to surprise you.” Marcellus said as he gave his boyfriend a kiss on the cheek.

They met a few months ago through Nia when she dragged Tyril out one night to see some live music at the same cafe where they were sitting.  Marcellus was Nia’s best friend.  He was a musician and played in a rock band with Mal Volari and Imtura Tal Kaelen.  Nia introduced them after one of their shows, but it wasn’t until she set them both up on a blind date several weeks later that they really clicked.  They say opposites attract, and in their case, it was definitely true.

“So what are you drinking?” Tyril asked as Marcellus sat down at their table.  He was putting his book in the bag he carried and taking out his credit card as Marcellus shook his head.

“Babe, I told you - I’m not letting you buy me coffee every time we come here!”

The beautiful man pouted, though if anyone pointed it out, he would deny it wholeheartedly.  “And I told you that might be considered insulting.”

“I know you better than that.  And I can pay for my own coffee once in a while, you know.”

“Will you please just let me spoil you?”

Marcellus sighed, knowing that arguing was pointless.  Tyril loved taking care of him, even if it was buying him stuff.  Marcellus grew up poor and struggled to make ends meet before he moved to Whitetower.  Tyril knew this and insisted on treating him a lot of the time.  He had to get used to the fact that it was part of Tyril’s love language.  “Alright fine!  One plain black coffee with sugar and cinnamon, please.”

The corners of Tyril’s mouth curled into a sweet smile. “Anything you want.”  

As he walked to the counter and left Marcellus alone with Nia, Tyril had no idea that his boyfriend’s hands were shaking slightly, one just sitting in the pocket of his favorite leather jacket and running his fingers over the box inside.  The other hand pinched the bridge of his nose.  “If I have a heart attack from the caffeine, I swear to God, I’m going to be pissed.” he said.

Nia looked at him in sympathy.  She was the only one he had told - in fact she helped him pick the gift out in the first place.  “Are you really that nervous?”

“I haven’t had any coffee all day.  What do you think?”

“Marcellus, you know he’s going to love it!”  She kept her voice low, despite her obvious excitement, and took a sip of her iced latte.  Marcellus just kept his eyes on Tyril, not that he could ever look away.

-------------------- 

Marcellus grinned as Tyril came back to the table with his order.  For some reason, he seemed uncharacteristically nervous when he took the cup and thanked him, but Tyril didn’t have long to question it.

Nia slung her purse over her shoulder and smiled so brightly that it could eclipse the sun.  “I’ll leave you boys alone.” As she picked up her half finished cup, she said, “Are we still going shopping tomorrow, Tyril?”

He nodded.  “Of course.  I’ll pick you up at noon.”

A nod, and then she spun on her cork wedge heels and addressed the man across from Tyril, “And Marcellus!  I’ll expect details later.”  Confusion set in and he tried to ask what she was talking about, but Nia was already out the door in a swish of skirt in her lavender sundress.  

With a shrug of his shoulders, Tyril sat down and got a good look at his boyfriend for the first time.  He was simply staring at the steaming mug in front of him as though it had offended him.  It was a strange sight to see; normally Marcellus was confident in everything he did, but not today.  Something was wrong and he knew it as sure as the knot forming in his stomach.  “Aren’t you going to drink it?” Tyril asked.

Marcellus shook his head.  “Not right now.” He sighed and leaned forward, one hand still in his jacket pocket.  There was a sheen of sweat on his forehead.  “Look,” he said, “I have something for you.  That’s why I’m here.  I couldn’t wait.”

When he placed the small white box on the table in front of him, Tyril was sure he was dreaming.  There was no way on earth!  His eyes grew so wide he was surprised that they didn’t fall out of their sockets.  “I...what?  Marcellus, I’m not...!”

Marcellus grinned and laughed, “Relax!  I'm not asking you to marry me.  That’s not what this is.”

After a moment of silence, his heartbeat pounding in his ears and his cheeks burning, Tyril opened the box and gasped at the contents.  “You got me a...”

“A promise ring.” Marcellus confirmed, “I wanted a way to show you just how committed I am to this relationship and to you.”

“Are you sure?” Tyril did not mean for his voice to rise so high.  Thankfully everyone around them seemed to be going about their day without even noticing the two men.  He whispered discreetly, “We haven’t even slept together yet.”

“And we won’t until you’re ready, babe.  That’s why I did this.  You told me you were insecure, do you remember that?  This is me telling you that you don’t have to be.”

He did remember telling Marcellus after a few glasses of wine on their third date that he had never been with anyone intimately, never trusted anyone enough to take that step.  After Kaya’s death, he wasn’t sure if he could deal with the thought of letting someone in that close for fear of losing them; he knew he couldn’t go through that pain again.  And Marcellus had already had several partners by the time Tyril met him.  What if he got tired of waiting for Tyril, or he got bored with him and left?  Not only did he dread the heartbreak of it all, but he didn’t need the media to be plastering it all over the place as a haunting reminder for him to relive everywhere he looked.  

“Ty, will you please look at me?”  He did, meeting the gaze of those dark eyes that he had grown so fond of in the last few months.  “I love you, Tyril, and I know you love me, too.  I get it - we haven’t been dating long and you’re scared.  That’s ok.  I only got this as a reminder that you don’t need to be scared with me.  I’m in this for the long haul.”  

Tyril was speechless.  Tears threatened to spill over, but he did his best to blink them back as he stared at the stunning ring in front of him.  He heard his boyfriend chuckle nervously, “Please say something.”

“I don’t know what to say.” he replied, “I’m just shocked.  I wasn’t expecting...”

“For a guy like me to have a sentimental side?” Marcellus said with his usual crooked smirk.

“I suppose, yes.” he said, “I can’t believe you did this!  Nobody has ever done something like this for me.”

Marcellus reached across the table and placed his hand on top of Tyril’s to lace their fingers together.  Looking deep into his eyes as though they were part of one of Nia’s romance novels, he asked, “So do I have permission to officially take you off the market?”

Tyril snorted, but he couldn’t hide his happiness.  “I’m not a prized painting at an auction, Marcellus.  But yes.”

Marcellus leaned back in his seat and combed his fingers through his hair, laughing in relief.  “Oh thank God!  You have no idea how much I was sweating that one.  I wanna kiss you.  Can I kiss you?  Is that alright?”

“If you stop talking.”  With a pearly white grin that reminded him of a cat, Marcellus leaned forward to cup his cheek, which Tyril leaned into as their lips met.  Tyril couldn’t imagine being any happier in the moment.  It just wasn’t possible.

And then Marcellus stopped kissing him and said teasingly, “You know you’re cute when you're flustered.”  Tyril kissed him again to shut him up.

This is the ring Marcellus gives him, just to give you guys a visual.  I really had a good time writing this and hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

[gayregis]

Hi, just wanted to ask, how did you get into the witcher franchise (did you read the books before you played the games or vice versa?). Love your blog, byeeee :)

ty for the ask!! i hope you dont mind if i go too in-depth because i was legit thinking about this earlier today... 

tldr: i played tw3 and liked it, then read the books

i got into the witcher because one of my favorite gaming youtubers was doing a playthrough of tw3 on youtube in around i think september 2017. i liked this specific gaming youtuber for being shit at games and not caring about it... but tw3 was a different game. it felt like the decisions mattered, that there was an actual story here, that when this youtuber made shitty decisions and didn’t really care about the characters involved, i got frustrated because this game seemed really good... so i picked up the game myself and played it though, it was magnificent. not to r/witcher “the witcher 3 is literally the best game created in this history of ever” but it was sincerely good... not only does it have a great story, characters, and graphics, but it is genuinely comfortable to play as a game, even if you’re not great at games (i like playing video games but i’m not good at them when it comes to combat, i literally just would prefer to hack and slash through). so, i played through tw3 and the fact that it made me cry multiple times i found to be really interesting... but it was still just a game to me, it wasn’t something i thought about when i have time to daydream headcanons. i had read i think the witcher (short story) halfway through playing, just to get a feel of what tw3 came from, but from that, i realized the books and the games were incredibly different entitities, and i decided to not read the books until i had finished the game, or at least until i had more free time on my hands (mind i was in high school and was a senior, and during this time was when i was submitting college applications... exceptionally stressful, and the reading/writing part of my brain was absolutely fried from essay writing and reviewing). i was particularly struck by geralt and ciri’s relationship and the isle of mists quests fucked me up pretty bad. 

then around later 2017, i was really enjoying tw3, and had finished tw3′s base game and hearts of stone, and was now making my way into blood & wine. i was just playing it like normal, then came the part when geralt met regis. at first i wasn’t too interested (i mean, i was, but in the story of blood & wine, not in the books) until the little journal text pop-up appeared on my screen. you know, the one about quests you just received, or characters you just met. it was going through the motions of saying i finished this quest, picked up this new one, i was all like fine, fine, okay, alright, and then it just fucking puts regis’ long-ass name on the screen taking up a good amount of my FOV and i am immediately like, what? what the fuck? who the fuck? that’s the name? of the guy we just met? that guy??? he didn’t seem like someone with a name like that? who the fuck IS this guy.

so i head over to the wiki page for regis. i thumb through the basic information, i’m pretty interested, this quest stuff to find ciri sounds interesting. i decide to give the witcher books another try, because i have more free time now and am way more invested as everyone here as characters. also, i want to find out more about yennefer, because she was being badmouthed by everyone i saw online, and i wanted to read more about her and see if she was really so bad (spoilers: she’s not at all, the internet is just misogynistic).

i don’t think that i’m going to actually really care about these books, i just want more flavor and explanation about how in hell a witcher met a vampire and these two somehow became friends. so, i don’t care about reading them in order. i go online and find fan translations of every book, i open baptism of fire and i just start reading the bit about the fish soup. i’m suddenly just laughing my ass off, really interested in who these other characters are, milva and cahir, and how dandelion seems to actually be the best friend to geralt that he was said to be in tw3. i also notice immediately that geralt... oh my god, geralt’s such a cranky bitch. i’m SHOCKED at how annoying geralt is. i realize that this is probably what geralt’s been like, this whole time, and tw3 just gave me a sterilized version of him. i’m trying to decide if i like this change or not, at first i HATED it... but then realized it actually gave him a character, where in tw3 he feels a little more... empty, waiting for the player to project a personality onto him.

so, i just read all of the hansa bits of baptism of fire, skipping over anything i don’t understand. i am saddened when i can’t find any more, so i move onto tower of the swallow. and then lady of the lake. “oh, so that’s why geralt was surprised to see regis in blood & wine...” feeling at a loss after reading stygga, i start at the beginning and make my way through the books chronologically, like they should be read. i soon realize that this series really isn’t about killing monsters at all, and i’m thrilled. i thought the series was just going to be about geralt killing things in a swamp and reporting back to whoever hired him, like in tw3... and i was wrong. this series is about personal connections! relationships! ... and fatherhood. [see read more for personal junk]

i can’t remember when i started disliking tw3. it must have been around the time that i finished the books (im using the word finished loosely... i still havent finished some scenes because theyre too violent to read and continue with my day in peace, and i also read tos/lotl by skipping around, so i never got the full experience of reading them as full novels).

i just distinctly remember returning to my tw3 new game+ save after rereading the fish soup scene, and thinking about how lonely the game felt... i just felt so dispairingly alone, this loneliness that i hadn’t felt while playing before, that i had to put the game down. i returned to the game again, but i had just reread edge of the world... and i felt so alone again. 

so reading the books ruined tw3 for me, not out of malicious intent, but just because i think i realized geralt isn’t meant to be the lone wolf. the novels center around him and his family and friends, and i just genuinely missed that when replaying tw3. plus, i began to realize a bunch of things, like ciri’s scar is supposed to be bigger, geralt’s supposed to wear his hair in a headband, yennefer’s hair is actually curly, dandelion’s supposed to actually be in the game. there were so many inconsistencies with the characters i had imagined while reading the books that eventually i just stopped playing tw3 (i already played it once, so nbd) and got really into the books. 

sometime later i saved up like $80 to buy the paperback versions of the books (UK versions including season of storms) because i knew i was in really deep lol and i wanted the official translations super badly, also we were doing an assignment in class that allowed us to do something with our favorite book, but we needed to have it in-person and not as an e-book, so it was the perfect excuse. much time spent on hansa headcanons later and... here we are today.

a read-more, because this is more personal. 

the witcher series picked me up at an eerily appropriate time. two things in it stood out to me: 1) geralt’s relationship with ciri 2) regis’s alcoholism. 

i distinctly remember an event where i started crying in front of my parents because my dad was being so absent in my life or maybe it was because they were arguing, something like this... and i remember referencing tw3 isle of mists quest actually by saying “i shouldn’t have to learn it (good parenting) from a video game” ... lol. it wasn’t an epic burn from a 17 yo, but it was just a painful remark made in anger. i still think back to it because of how first watching geralt hug ciri made me feel and how i was actually really bitter because i was jealous of ciri for about a week after completing the quest. then i kind of pushed it out of my mind and didn’t think so much about it, until the night i mentioned it.

in late march of 2018, something very bad happened in my family. that’s probably the best way to describe it. the situation ended in my parents finally separating. my mom and i were pretty afraid and lost after that. after i had collected my thoughts and everything and went back to as “normal” as i could, about a month later, when the creative part of my brain finally began to function again and wasn’t inhibited due to fear, i clung to the witcher more than i did before... and this time, actually particularly to regis, because guess who has a whole redemption arc relating to not being alcoholic and being a genuinely good person who speaks gently and heals the vulnerable?

[greyias]

So. I finally finished Onslaught yesterday. Have been happily chattering away my thoughts in private (mostly my squee), but still trying to get enough brain together to make a post summing up my thoughts properly.

(sorta)

Overall:

Love Arn and Tau. Just so everyone knows, I’ve would die for Padawan Nickelback. My precious boy. Their whole arc in Onslaught, from the awkward introductions, to the struggles they have over the course of the story hits me right in the Master and Padawan feels. I am a sucker for that dynamic it seems, no matter the era.

JAKARRO. DEEFOUR. MY BOYS. I will love you and squish you, and keep you safe from here on out. Also, I promise to actually bring Jakarro with me on a future toon to see what his flavor text dialogue is on Mek-Sha, etc. I just had to bring spyhubby with me on the first time. Because spyboy.

Speaking of Spyboys -- NOT ENOUGH SPYBOY. I mean, I knew his and Lana’s role would be greatly reduced going into this but geez. They could make it a little less obvious there was a divergent point regarding him at the end of Nathema Conspiracy. Granted, he could have been in every single cutscene and snarking constantly and I’d still yearn for more. Because I am a greedy person like that. But they could have balanced some of the scenes where Lana’s present and give him just a little more dialogue. Let him react at her unrelenting snarky Sith act. Don’t make me write filler fic giving him more meaty scenes Bioware -- I’ll do it! Don’t think I won’t!

That said, I did appreciate what we did get. Being able to bring whatever companion we wanted to certain cutscenes was nice (even if said companions were uncharacteristically silent), and allows me to at least imagine them there and their reactions. Also, I loved some small but appreciated moments, like the minor flirt line while leaving Mek-Sha, and hearing Theron on the radio during the Corellian flashpoint. Especially his fond exasperation as he tells us to save the day while he’ll go rescue our peeps. And of course that bit at the end, him being happy to go party on General Daeruun’s dime (a socializing spyboy?? In my expansion?? it’s more likely than you think!) -- and then deciding he wants a more private party after just one kiss. Just... 

♥︎

There was also something else I noticed. On my first playthrough of new content, I like to explore the various dialogue options just to kind of see the differences in dialogue. On the very last cutscene (which was such an imposition to watch over and over again, oh noes, my OTP has kissed again, oh noes, it’s made Lana an uncomfortable third wheel again, oh noes what will we do? Play it again? I think so), there’s something really interesting I noticed, relating to the big decision, at least on a goody two-shoes LS Knight.

If you choose to remain independent, Lana’s super relieved because thank god she really doesn’t want to have to redecorate the base (please Bioware, give her an HGTV show. She’ll glower at all of the bright colors people want to paint their walls), but the Outlander looks fairly neutral. You know, the default expression the characters go through cutscenes with? She’s just like “this is fine”

But if you choose to join the Republic...

She. 

Can’t. 

Stop. 

Smiling.

Like, this just made my heart so happy. My baby girl is just overcome with joy at it all. Being able to rejoin the Republic. Being able to rebuild the Order. Smooching her hubby. Getting the rest of her crew back. She’s happy. After all of the angst that she’s been put through over the course of the game, they actually let her smile over a well-earned happy ending. And its just so well-deserved, especially after the extended angstfest of the tr8r arc.

Smile on you dorky little Jedi. Smile on.

And then I logged off for a bit. Logged back on. Played around in Iziz some, stole a bunch of loose change people were just leaving out in the street. And then finally decided to play through the epilogue. Officially welcome Scourge and Kira back in the fold. Sure they’d set us up for future plot, and everything was going to be okay. And then.

Um.

I was not expecting that epilogue. Like I knew the basic gist of what was coming. But. Erm. I didn’t realize it was setting up the next portion of the story quite so much. Nor was I expecting the major feels it suddenly drowned me in. So much so that...

This happened this morning. We’ll see how long it takes to get finished. But... OOF. Guess Bioware couldn’t give my dorks an obnoxiously happy ending for too long.