#i’m so!!!!!!!!!!! close!!!!!! to beating it on this playthrough

[lavampira]

emerges from hades covered in blood

[its-jaytothemee]

Tonight...And Every Night - Chapter 6

Pairing: Astarion x Tav, Halsin x Tav; Astarion and Tav POVs

Word count: 1,506; Chapter 6, Tav then Astarion POV

Rating: Mature

Read on AO3

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Summary: Tav fails to convince Astarion to reject the Rite of Profane Ascension and refuses to help him complete it. He leaves her and the party, but regrets his choices later. Angsty and fluffy, POVs from both Astarion and Tav.

Tags: Angst, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Spawn!Astarion, Angst w/ Happy Ending

Author's Note: This was inspired by my playthrough where I somehow failed all of the persuasion checks for Astarion after the Cazador fight, leaving me obviously devastated. Finally getting to some soft Halsin moments...my favorite!

Tav must have drifted off at some point while she was laying in Astarion’s tent. She woke to Halsin softly shaking her shoulders. Slowly, she sat up and took in her surroundings again. The pain she felt from today was still a crushing weight on her shoulders.

“I thought I might find you here.” He said gently, taking her hand in his. “Everyone has been very worried about you.”

She gave a small nod in response. Truthfully, she didn’t know what she was doing here other than punishing herself with the memories. Echoes of their time here whispered into her ears. It was as if she could hear their quiet laughs shared after everyone had gone to bed, she could hear his soft sighs in response to her gentle touches, she could hear his nightmares being soothed away by her comforting words in the depth of the night.

“I just found myself walking here. I…” Tears started to well up in her eyes again.

“Come with me, my heart. I think you’ve tortured yourself enough for one evening.” He stood up and slowly helped pull her to her feet. He hugged her tightly against his chest before helping her walk back outside.

She paused outside the tent, wrapping her arms tightly around her chest. She took a few deep, steadying breaths as Halsin wrapped his arms around her shoulders from behind. In that moment she was incredibly grateful to have him there with her. He had a soothing presence and his warm arms took away the chill of the evening. They stood there for a moment, looking over the familiar scene.

“Halsin…what’s wrong with me?” She asked softly.

“What do you mean?” He moved his head to the side to look at her.

“I feel so…stupid.” She suddenly felt embarrassed admitting this to him. “I’ve only known him a short time, but I really thought that maybe…maybe…” She trailed off, unable to finish her thought. She took a deep breath.

“I…I loved him.” With that, the tears flowed freely again. “I still love him. And I really thought that he loved me back.”  She turned around to sob into Halsin’s chest.

“Why would that mean there’s something wrong with you?” He asked gently.

“Because I should be furious. I’m angry, but I should hate him, by all rights he should be dead to me.” She barely choked the words out between sobs.

“But I…” she continued, sniffling, “I don’t hate him, not even in the slightest. If he came walking back into camp right now, I would forgive him. I’d comfort him and tend to his wounds and let him share my bedroll. Why do I keep giving people chances to use me? How am I this pathetic?” She buried her face deeper into his chest, her entire torso ached from her sobs.

Halsin pulled away slightly so he could lift her chin to look into her eyes.

“Tav, there is nothing wrong with you.” He had tears in his eyes as well. “You have more love and compassion in your heart than this entire city combined. You give without thought of reward and you love unconditionally. You would plunge your hand into your chest and rip out your own beating heart if you thought it would save someone close to you. There is not a single person here in this camp who has not had their life changed by your infinite kindness, Astarion included. He may not realize it yet, but what you did today was a profound act of love. You saved him from himself, even though you knew it meant you could lose him. It may take a day, it may take a decade, but one day he will realize it.” He paused for a moment, studying her face.

“No one here would dare to call you pathetic, so why do you give that title to yourself?” He wiped away a tear from her eyes just as one fell from his.

“I…I’m no one Halsin, I’m nothing. All of my confidence is a façade, trying desperately to keep everyone together. I have no idea what the fuck I’m doing here. They’ve put their lives in my hands, and today I lost one of them. Who’s to say whether I can keep anyone else from falling? How am I supposed to lead them? How?” Her voice was getting louder and more desperate, her words struggling to be understood through her cries. When Halsin spoke again, his voice was a soft whisper but the agony in his tone matched her own.

“I know something of the burden of leadership, my heart. I understand the doubt that plagues your mind. I have loved and grieved, carried the heavy load of hundreds of lives lost. Yet even I was all but lost until you came to my rescue in the goblin camp. You brought light back into my life, quite literally banishing the shadows that clouded my mind. You saved everything and everyone I hold dear. You are far too modest, my love.” He took her face in both of his hands, pressing his forehead against hers.

“You. Are. Everything.” He whispered, another few tears rolling down his cheeks.

Tav stared into his wise, gentle eyes, desperate to see the person he saw in her. She may not trust her own thoughts right now, but she did trust him. She slowly wrapped her arms around his neck and drew him into a soft kiss. The tears mixing on their faces and dripping onto her chest. She pulled away and let Halsin hold her against him until she finally felt strong enough to stand on her own.

Tav took his hand in hers and was just about to suggest that they join the others around the fire when a strangely familiar voice called out to her.

“He’s right, you know.” The voice was very timid.

Tav and Halsin both spun around, readying themselves for a fight. A figure covered in splatters of blood and wearing a dark cloak stood maybe five meters away from them. The sight of his messy, white curls and tired, crimson eyes paralyzed her.

“Astarion?” She whispered.

***

Astarion finally arrived at the familiar camp. He kept himself crouched low and against the tree line. He carefully observed the figures around the fire, trying to determine if Tav was with them. Not finding her there, he slowly made his way around the camp’s perimeter, taking extra care not to alert anybody to his presence.

He heard some soft voices not far away, as he kept circling he realized they were coming from…his tent? He kept moving, following the sound of the voices he was now able to identify as Tav and Halsin. As he got closer to them, he could hear the sounds of Tav sniffling and crying, but they were muffled. He was finally able to get to a hidden spot where he could see the two of them. They both looked exhausted. Tav had her face completely hidden in Halsin’s large chest, her whole body seemed to shake from her crying. He could only hear pieces of what she was saying.

“I loved him…I should hate…I don’t…forgive him.”

His whole body tensed at those few pieces he caught. Could she really be saying that she would…forgive him?

Halsin was speaking again, but he couldn’t quite make out what he was saying. He was looking at Tav with such a soft expression. Astarion strained his ears, trying to decipher their words when Tav suddenly cried out, louder than before.

“I…I’m no one Halsin, I’m nothing.” He heard her yell through her sobs.

His heart shattered into a thousand pieces hearing her say that. How could she not see how amazing she is? How could she ever think that she was worthless? He listened as she cried into Halsin’s arms, listened as he told her how incredible she was, how he owed everything he had to her. His praises echoing those in Astarion’s heart.

“You. Are. Everything.” He heard from Halsin’s soft, soothing voice. And she was, Tav was everything to him.

‘Go tell her that.’ He thought to himself.

His heart was pounding in his chest, his palms were sweaty. He thought he was ready to stand up and make himself known when he saw Tav pull Halsin in for a tender kiss. His courage faltered, all he wanted was for her to be happy. He wanted her to be with someone who deserved her and as much as he wanted to be that someone, it seemed like she may have already found them. But if anyone was capable of loving two people equally and completely, it was Tav. When the two of them separated from each other, Astarion made a choice. He needed her to know how he felt, even if she rejected him. Knowing all too well that the next few moments could crush his very soul, his very being, he took a deep breath and stepped out of the trees.

[rosewood-multifandom-writer]

DLC Review Part 1: Metal Gear Rising Jetstream Sam (With Spoilers)

What? A DLC review BEFORE the main base game? What’s going on?

There is a reason for that! The Jetstream Sam DLC story is the prequel to the main story. So I thought it would make sense for me to talk about Jetstream Sam on this DLC review the most rather than dedicate a whole section to him on the review on the main story.

Plus… I got Metal Gear Rising because I thought it was more worth it than Lollipop Chainsaw Repop. I mean… it’s also a 2013 game, and it did not need a remaster. 🤷🏽‍♀️

So now, this is the official start of the Metal Gear Rising Review Trilogy. In the words of Samuel Rodrigues, aka Jetstream Sam, Let’s dance.

Gameplay (4.5/5):

Just like when I play as Vergil, I feel powerful when playing as Sam. Even though I’m sucking hard.

Samuel plays very differently from Raiden and is unique. With big pros, there are big cons. And I think it’s a fair trade.

For instance, holding the “Y/Triangle” button will charge up a powerful attack when you successfully fully charge it up, BUT it can and will leave you very vulnerable to any attacks. Another is his taunt, which makes him more unique (because neither Raiden nor Blade Wolf have taunts) which will enrage the enemy, but will make them act reckless and then you can easily slice them up, which makes for a good high risk high reward feature depending on who you are.

Unlike Raiden and Blade Wolf, he can double jump and dash forward in midair.

Like Raiden, he can use Sub-Weapons, like grenades and rocket launchers.

Now here is a personal nitpick of mine: Taunting is impractical in battle, and it’s worse than leaving yourself vulnerable while charging up an attack. Nitpicks aside, Sam’s gameplay is so much fun. In fact, his gameplay is just as fun as Vergil’s from Devil May Cry. I went through the first playthrough without having to use his taunt at all.

The VR missions just like in the base game are designed to test your skills and abilities and best for those wanting a big challenge other than story mode’s hard mode or the most challenging mode.

Story (5/5):

The story lines up nicely with the main story and feels plausible. Armstrong and Monsoon are expecting Jetstream Sam to arrive to attempt to take them out, just like he did a few drug cartel members plus the dude who killed his father (more will be expanded upon in the base game review), and Sam arrives on his motorcycle at Denver, Colorado, and slices two police officers in half after taunting a couple of them.

The first boss is Blade Wolf (Wolfy), where Sam appears to pity Wolf a little even saying that the orders Wolf is given are stupid and tells him (in a mix of sarcasm and genuine advice) to think for himself. After the fight, Sam decides to tell him straight up, that Wolf is being forced to follow these orders. It really shows just how close Wolf got to Sam off-screen after Sam joined the Winds of Destruction.

He also encounters Monsoon and is forced to fight off Metal Gear Ray with that epic Rules of Nature song playing and then Sam explains himself further, saying that he is there to take out people like the people involved in Desperado. But that is jumping ahead a little.

Sam, with the player knowing Sam’s true motivations and intentions (not me still accidentally making a Vergil joke lol), goes up and beats the final boss of Sam’s storyline, Armstrong. Collective Consciousness plays as Sam gets concussed a lot (because I suck, even with Auto Assist Parry lol) and Armstrong disables Sam by stabbing his shoulder to the point where Sam couldn’t even hold his sword anymore. Armstrong then offers Sam a job.

Not seeing any other choice, Sam laughs sadly and agrees to work with Desperado.

Then… the rest of his faith is sealed in the main story.

Jetstream Sam Himself:

Samuel is a man from Brazil who has taken out cartel members and uses a High Frequency version of his late father’s sword which he uses as both a tragic keepsake and his main weapon. He CHOSE to go down this path, and in the case of this storyline, it was for revenge. He wanted to take down evil organizations besides Cartels, like Desperado.

And I’m gonna talk about that a little more, because Kevin’s codec calls on Sam expands on Sam’s background, where his father owned a dojo

This is where I then start making parallels between Sam and Raiden, because Sam is willing to take down evil organizations like Armstrong’s because he believes that Armstrong is just like every evil organization, with Armstrong sitting back in his comfy office, letting innocent people die for his benefit.

Whereas Raiden is looking to take down Desperado through illegal means (just because what Desperado is doing is legal does not make it right), Samuel tries to take down Desperado from the inside out.

When it came down to Armstrong, Samuel also found Armstrong’s reasons for his villainy to be a load of bs and was ready to kill him right then and there. But… you know the rest of the story.

Sam is “offered” the job after getting disabled, and Sam looked defeated when Armstrong offered his hand and the job to be Desperado’s fighters. He is laughing, yes, but laughter sometimes comes from being nervous or in Sam’s case, being overwhelmed with sadness or defeat. He did not have a choice at that point. Plus, if he refused, he was as good as dead either way.

Jumping ahead before the base game review, Jetstream Sam’s theme “The Only Thing I Know For Real” does state at the end of the song, “looking downward from this deadly height, never realizing why I fight.” Sam does die, not fully knowing why he fights towards the end of the main story.

Off screen wise, Wolf does take a liking to Sam and has a positive relationship with him, in contrast to the negative relationship Wolf had with Mistral, which I will expand upon my Blade Wolf centered review.

But Sam in my opinion is one of the best written rival characters in gaming right next to Shadow the Hedgehog and Vergil. Those three are who I think of as the best rival characters in all of fiction.

As a character, Samuel Rodrigues is one of my favorite characters in Metal Gear Rising next to Raiden himself and Blade Wolf. He gets a 5 out of 5 in terms of character.

Overall?:

This DLC is the best addition to the game, and it shows more of Sam’s character from HIS perspective. When playing from Raiden’s perspective in the base game, Raiden and at first the player themselves cannot get a good read on Sam’s motivations and why he’s doing what he’s doing.

Metal Gear Rising is available on Steam. As of this post, it’s 40% off, so instead of spending $30 on it, you would instead spend $18, either way, I think it’s worth it. I mean, $30 for a 2013 game is already better than remastering said 2013 title that ran on the same consoles Metal Gear Rising ran on (like the PS3) and selling it for $45 or $60.

My expectations for Blade Wolf are high after playing Sam’s story.

[ofoceansandtombsanew]

a/n: you made it through the character and magic guides, the wiki page and even the reddit post and i hope you had fun doing it! my goal was to make the first few things feel like you were an actual player for seraphim even if it is a bs otome game for a genshin fanfic while also getting the exposition dump out of the way so it doesn’t bog down the actually written chapters. so while you don’t have to read it all, it certainly helps add to the experience i think!

TAGLIST (ask to be added or removed):  @etherisy​

Bold couldn’t be tagged.

prologue; fuck hard mode masterlist | next chapter

“You’re combing too hard,” you tell the maid tersely.

The maid smiles but there is an unmistakable mirth in her eyes at your pain, “I’ve been with my lady for years now,” she coos, voice sickeningly sweet. “I know how you like your hair to be combed best.” 

So [First] tolerated this too? 

Even when this world was nothing but an amusing game for you to pass the time, when trinkets of information like this appeared in Hard Mode it always amazed you. [First] was a cruel antagonist and yet she’d easily tolerate the mistreatment of her father’s duchy in the same breath. But you can’t bring yourself to sneer at her; not then and especially not now. “Yes, well people can change,” you shoot the maid a sharp look in the mirror. “Comb my hair gently. If you still need critiques, I’ll be happy to demonstrate your performance. Take a seat here, I’ll comb your hair and show you as an example.”

“T-that isn’t necessary at all, my lady! I’ll comb in a manner you find more enjoyable,” the maid stammers and you hum in satisfaction.

The hell was wrong with the sadists that made this game, you fumed. Fucking sexists. Scaramouche gets a tragic backstory and gets to live in Normal Mode because he’s a pretty boy but [First] has to die in all the endings?!

Or be miserable, another part of yourself reminds you and you can barely hold back a grimace.

[First]’s marriage to Diluc when the player chooses a Secret Love Interest isn’t anything close to a happy ending.

You close your eyes and hold back a sigh. When you proudly declared on twitter that you would be trying to finally beat Seraphim’s Hard Mode, this isn’t what you meant. But apparently the gods of the Isekai genre and the reckless driver that hit you with their car had other ideas.

When you open your eyes, it isn’t your face that stares back at you.

Of course it was the Villainess.

It’s never the main character. You’re no Lumine.

It’s rarely a side character. You’re definitely no Raeliana.

It’s always, always the Villainess. I salute thee, otome isekai protagonists of anime and manhwas past.

You closed your eyes again.

“You must be excited to see Lord Ragnvindr at the luncheon today, my lady,” the maid pulls you out of your silent resignation and you feel your anger flaring all over again.

“Oh yes, I certainly am, he’s my beloved after all,” you offer what you hope is the face of a woman in love. Your maid gasps as if she just saw the devil incarnate instead. Fuck him, this is all his fault. No I’m not being irrationally mad at the wrong person.

Who cared if Diluc used to be your favorite love interest when you were just a teen on her first playthrough of a new and popular otome game, Seraphim. He definitely kick started your love for long-haired anime men and his princely vows of eternal love to Lumine made your eyes water when you watched the cutscene.

Yes, he did all those things but only after he publicly humiliated his fiancée by dumping her in front of all of high society. Diluc then killing [First] after she justifiably freaked out was just the icing on the cake.

When you began your first attempt at Hard Mode, your heart went out for the lonely little girl who only wanted to be loved but only received scorn in return. You wanted her to reach a happy ending with even just one of the characters in the version of the game that took place before Lumine appeared on the scene.

But this is my life now, you open your eyes once more and take in what you can see of the room’s reflection in the mirror.

A large and spacious bedroom, cluttered with potted plant after potted plant. Monsteras, philodendrons, succulents were among the various plants to grace this space. This room was [First]’s heaven on Earth in the duchy. She tended to each plant daily, lovingly imaging the day she could leave the wretched estate behind for a life with the one she fell in love with all those years prior.

But this is my life now, you reaffirm. And like hell am I gonna go begging for crumbs if I’m stuck here.

You deserve better than that.

[First] deserved better than that.

Fuck Hard Mode.

If this was your life now, there was no way you were going to play by the rules.

If no one wanted [First] around then fine. 

You will happily leave.

next chapter; the luncheon masterlist | next chapter

[thebaldursmouthgazette]

Okay so I’ve finished the game, here’s my spoiler free review:

This is possibly the best game I’ve ever played and I’m not kidding. Sure it has flaws, but they’re all fairly small and are vastly overshadowed by the quality of the game as a whole

The pacing is a little weird right at the beginning while everything gets introduced, but this settles down quickly and once it does it’s perfect for the rest of the game.

The stakes feel as high as they should, fighting gods. It feels like a challenge and never stops feeling like a challenge, and that makes your wins so much more satisfying

Your team is a team, and they’re as close to each other as they are to you. They aren’t just people all in the same place whos only connection is you, they help with each others personal quests, they have conversations in the lighthouse, they form meaningful connections with each other and your allies. They feel like real people and a cohesive team.

The side quests aren’t filler. Almost all of them are of vital importance either to the main plot or to your allies who are helping you. They all feel like they’re important enough to do while you’re dealing with the main story. I never once thought “why am I doing this shit, the worlds ending” and I don’t think I’d feel any desire to skip them on future playthroughs

You feel part of your faction. There are a couple of instances where I felt a little more reactivity to that would be good (I’m talking like maybe two times where they clearly didn’t bother to record an almost identical line to account for me being a part of the faction, nothing important), but for the most part you feel part of it and it really gives you a grounding in the world.

The emotional beats hit hard. There was a part where I actually sobbed. And I am not exaggerating. I do not mean I was a little sad. I mean I went through multiple tissues and had to have a break for a moment. I have never outright sobbed at a video game before

There were a few things that could have been better, I think a couple more choices should have carried over (though not as many as I thought before. I mean it would be nice, but not necessarily needed and the improvement wouldn’t necessarily justify the hassle of a whole worldstate system) but the absence of them wasn’t game ruining.

One of the character storylines felt a bit out of place, and another made a somewhat bizarre plot decision, but the rest were really good.

I also feel like the characterisation of the inquisitor could have been better, and I know it was never going to be right because BioWare can’t read our minds and make a game for each individual, but I did at one point start questioning if I’d set my world state up right because of what my inquisitor was saying (I had). But again this wasn’t game ruining, I can just pretend she said something else.

Despite a few very nitpicky problems, overall this was a really amazing game. I enjoyed every moment of it, and it was not the solavellan game I was worried it would be. Just about every criticism people had of inquisition they listened to and solved, from the villain being too weak to the filler “gather these shards” and “save a druffalo” quests being a bane on everyone’s existence. They took that all in and made a really strong game with it.

Also: you know when they kept dropping earth shattering revelations and called them “minor spoilers”. They were right. Holy shit were they right.

[chibishortdeath]

Started playing Fear and Hunger recently and this guy is pretty silly. I like that he likes bugs, that’s a green flag in my book, bugs are great.

Nothing in this post in particular is mature, but the game itself is, it’s a pretty dark horror game, so I’ll be putting some content warnings in the tags so any talk about the game on my account can be filtered out easier!

Some thoughts about the game under a cut :3

I haven’t played as Enki tho, I picked Cahara because he’s easier and it’s my first playthrough, and he’s pretty cool too. I really love the character and monster designs in this game. The art is super cool :3. I’ve had the worst luck this run tho oh my god; I started the game took like two steps and immediately got blindsighted by three dogs. All the enemies in the first left entrance area spawned in the first room. Two elite guards spawned in the room past the prisons instead of the usual one. Moonless would not spawn for like a solid few reloads and then ended up on the bottom of the map instead of the top where they usually are. I talked to Nosramus (love them, they’re great, they were off screen the whole conversation tho whoops) and immediately afterwards got the crow mauler text and had to leave the room. Got D’arce and promptly ran into a yellow mage and lost my arm! It’s been wild and I’m even just playing on easy mode 💀💀💀!!! My computer also kinda sucks and lags sometimes, but yeah! The game is fun!!!!! I have no idea how far I am in it, but I’m almost to where Le’garde is captured. My whole strategy has been fuck around and find out and it’s working XD!!! I kinda expected it to be scarier, but that might be because I’m a little used to horror as a genre in general, but it’s a nice balance of spooky atmosphere and usual RPG action stuff in a way that comes off sincere and not like edgy for the sake of being edgy if that makes sense. It’s cool :3

Anyway there’s a lot of games I’ve started recently and haven’t finished so I guess I’ll be playing those for a while. I still need to beat CV64, I’m just currently stuck on the uh gear platforming section with the bomb. If you know, you know 💀💀💀. It’s hard. I also have to beat Curse of Darkness, but I’m really close to the end in that one I’m just getting all the random side rooms and stuff. Raising more innocent devils besides my main team just to be able to open a door is a little tedious tbh, but eh it’s an excuse to play the game for longer so I’ll take it. But yeah, hopefully life actually lets me beat all these games so I can talk about them more (TwT ;).

[ambrosearietes]

We (and by that I mean myself) demand more headcanons cuz they go hard asf😈

i have so many i’m gonna break these up by character. i will only do like the major ones. these are not all my headcanons just my big ones.

ADAM

despite living in slavic countries for most of his life, adam speaks english with a british accent because he learned it from anthony. he can also do a perfect american accent because he played WAAAAAAAYYYYYY too much fallout

adam is autistic (this one actually is canon, i mean come On dude) but also has ADHD and C-PTSD

scrawny because he was malnourished during his time as d-class. very insecure about it.

he and sylvester sloan know each other through anthony. i mentioned that sloan babysat adam occasionally, i was completely serious. he let adam watch star wars and adam literally wanted to BE luke skywalker.

yeah luke was his gender awakening

uses she/her to refer to his younger self from before anthony saved him as a coping mechanism— in reality he’s trying to deny that it even happened to him in the first place.

smokes weed when the team is off. calvin does not approve.

marries harvey in every stardew valley playthrough.

romances halsin in baldur’s gate 3.

cracked at fromsoft games.

CALVIN

bisexual, he just doesn’t realize it.

calvin is a gamer. he had adam build him a setup. they play together. adam beats his fucking ass in everything and makes fun of him for it.

really, really bad habit of bottling his emotions (which is why olivia keeps dumping him)

was ~19 when he got arrested for the stuff hyun-ki mentioned. vehicular manslaughter while driving under the influence is considered a felony charge.

grew up in the midwest. talks like a midwestern dad.

his aunt owns a horse ranch. calvin REALLY likes horses as a result.

he once promised adam to take him to meet his horse and teach him to ride after everything. poor guys :(

he and aaron would have had a father-son relationship.

he was a very “difficult” child due to him not being believed about his mother’s death. he had no idea how to cope with it. often got into fights, which is why his aunt ended up sending him to boarding school. she got a lot of calls even when he was there because calvin just. got into a fuckton of fights.

he didn’t go to therapy until the insurgency MADE HIM go to therapy.

legally can’t drive. doesn’t give a fuck.

he would occasionally let adam just lay on top of him like a cat. he thought it was platonic. like just guys being dudes.

would be a good father.

if he saw his dad again he’d shoot the guy without any hesitation.

blames the foundation’s negligence for his mom’s death.

likes planes a lot.

OLIVIA

sees adam as her little brother. they’re extremely close by O5-3’s chapter. she’s rather protective and very quick to defend him.

adam taught her to play dungeons and dragons and gives her book recommendations. she plays a halfling life-domain cleric/college of swords bard (multiclassing)

loves mystery novels.

adam introduced her to stardew valley. she usually marries leah.

bisexual. does not know this.

easily frustrated with calvin because calvin is terrible at communicating his feelings. calvin is trying to work on this. it’s going terribly. despite this, calvin is very affectionate with her and she does how open he is with that.

very relationship-centric person. this is mostly because she didn’t get much characterization in twie.

keeps a sketchbook. mostly doodles flowers.

her and sophia would have gotten along amazingly.

likes to dabble in poetry.

would romance wyll in bg3

huge fan of law and order. adam questions her taste in television shows.

if she had procreate she’d be fucking unstoppable.

i don’t have much on her bc characterization is so lacking :((

would have gladly taken sam (O5-11) with her back to the insurgency. deeply regrets that she didn’t. she thinks about sam a LOT, it genuinely haunts her. like she will try to sleep and she’ll just hear that gunshot and want to throw up.

VINCENT ARIANS / ANTHONY WRIGHT

i don’t remember if i mentioned this in the last post but vincent is a cat person. had a cat named mira. she was a calico.

insomniac.

in his ‘ideal world’ he would have lived with aaron and been able to raise adam.

very, very envious of people with ‘normal lives’.

we don’t know much about what vincent did in the foundation— the dialogue from O5-13 at the end of the children matches up with what he tells aaron in the apartment scene so i assume vincent was felix’s predecessor and felix held another number. as for what he did, we do know he was, like, an ACTUAL engineer who designed bombs at some point (stated in O5-5’s chapter); he could have been in charge of security.

it’s implied he had a second-in-command type position under aaron and likely was on the first delta command before his first ‘disappearance’, unless he wrote the summa modus operandi then just vanished off the face of the fucking earth for a while.

records of vincent are next to impossible to find within the insurgency as he worked so closely with the engineer and they don’t even know who the engineer was.

aaron thought vincent was dead until he received reports of anthony wright working with calvin.

anthony and sloan were good friends and out of all members of delta command during the way it ends, he respected sloan the most. anthony would have considered an actual relationship with him if he wasn’t like “no, i’m probably gonna disappear again or just straight up die soon anyway.” anthony was right, he did in fact die.

sloan knew who vincent arians was, he just had no idea that anthony and vincent were the same person.

genuinely, anthony wanted to die.

adam gave him a reason to live outside of vengeance.

GENUINELY sees adam as his son. he’s a bit harsh on him during TWIE because he never wanted adam in the insurgency at all. he and adam had a conversation at some point where anthony expressed this and told adam he wished the latter just went to a good college and worked in programming or IT.

would not have been able to kill calvin had he made it to the end. would also have not been able to kill aaron.

frederick traumatized this man just as much as he traumatized aaron, vincent just absolutely refuses to acknowledge it.

sophia knew about vincent’s love for aaron and may have even encouraged it.

if his love for aaron was reciprocated, they likely had a relationship while aaron was with the insurgency and tried to be secretive about it but felix carter just “I know what you are.”

he would be very sweet as a lover. very sappy. hopeless romantic. given who he was in love with, are we even surprised?

cigarettes are part of how he started aging again.

the insurgency kind of knows he’s older than he looks, they just say he’s in his fifties because he looks like it, but even TWIE says he’s been around as long as anyone can remember. likely, vincent surfaced as anthony wright around the same time that sylvester sloan joined the insurgency.

his plan in case anyone saw any old photos of vincent and noticed that he looked eerily similar to anthony was to say that he’s vincent arians’ grandson and that his mother was arians’ daughter.

vincent had no children, but he did like being around kids.

during his years with the foundation he’d often lock himself in his lab just to cry. aaron often checked in on him.

frederick repeatedly called him aaron’s dog as a joke that vincent found very not funny. vincent/anthony isn’t really big on dogs because of this.

if anthony saw adam today he’d be immensely proud.

if anthony had made it to the end he would have tried to make aaron tell him why he left. aaron would not have been able to tell him.

anthony was a bit scared of how much like aaron calvin is.

would have liked O5-11 if they met.

AARON SIEGEL / O5-1 “THE MAN WITH THE INFINITY GUN,” “THE FOUNDER”

if you claim to be frederick’s #1 hater and you’re not aaron siegel then you’re fucking lying.

very sappy romantic, similar to vincent, but only with sophia. she thinks it’s adorable. he just really loves his wife a lot.

cannot let go of anything for shit. if he was at the scene of vincent’s death he would have tried to bring him back.

had a very weird father-child relationship with sam.

tolerated most of the other O5s at best, especially rufus (O5-6) and valerie (O5-7).

felix has always been his favorite aside from sophia (and vincent during the insurgency days)

borderline personality disorder

capable of straight up hanging up on frederick. this annoys the absolute fuck out of frederick.

PETTIEST BITCH IN THE WOOOORRRLLLDDD he’s like a fucking crow

sees mortimer (O5-5) as family because he’s the grandfather of alison chao, at least in other realities. mortimer gets along well with aaron.

very easily sent into overstimulation, it’s unknown why. he’s only ever perfectly calm in a sensory deprivation chamber.

extremely pale.

lives at overwatch. often falls asleep at his desk or on the fucking floor.

wreck of a man, but a surprisingly exceptional leader when he actually feels like leading instead of letting valerie handle things.

the other O5s don’t even know much about him.

visits san marco as much as he can.

FREDERICK WILLIAMS / THE ADMINISTRATOR

obsessed with the string theory, literally discovered it before the idea was even conceived.

had a wife and daughter, both died horribly. his daughter was extremely young and he’s a tad bit obsessed with the idea of bringing her back. driven by grief but also the fact he’s just a Bad Person in General

extremely manipulative (canon), but also just likes to fuck with people.

sometimes he doesn’t even call aaron or calvin he just speaks into their heads.

sometimes he’ll just call them and ask shit like this. aaron would hang up on him but calvin can’t.

can manifest however he wants, he usually chooses the phone.

reality bender (canon) and extremely powerful at it. like it’s lowkey concerning.

god complex.

totally the kind of guy to go “no don’t kill me im just a girl”

adam ivanov as the engineer would beat the shit out of him if given the chance.

what aaron described in the apartment scene was literal psychological torture. aaron was not the only person he subjected, just his favorite punching bag.

aaron, near the end of his life, got him a world’s worst boss mug and kept it next to the phone. calvin got a second one just to drive the point home.

a bit obsessed with antediluvian anomalies (project paragon). talks to calvin about them extensively.

hated vincent for no real reason he was just a bitch.

[mr-bas00nist]

Okay so I'm gonna try request this...

Raiden (cyborg) x boyfriend male cyborg who's a caretake at one of the children hospital and got absolutely wrecked because he was protecting a kid from a bully nurse/doctor/other caretaker?

They're neglecting and beating kids that are too much to handle and reader caught them doing so.

Basically how would Raiden react to finding out reader had to have an emergency surgery because he was badly "hurt" while protecting a child from an angry guy with a fire extinguisher.

Maybe I'll be bolder with my requests in the future, but we'll see.

Thank you for the opportunity to request something~ ❤️

I have genuinely never played any MGS with Raiden because after Phantom Pain I strayed away from it. I had to watch like a whole playthrough to gauge his personality lmao which is why this request took so long. But here’s a little drabble! :)

Protecter

⚔-Raiden x Male! Reader

⚔-Cw: Mentions of abuse, blood and that’s all!

You were considered a protective man. At least, you’d like to think so. There were few things you wouldn’t do for loved ones or people who needed protecting. Today was no different.

When you saw one of the kiddos getting hurt it made your blood boil. How could someone do that to something so innocent and sweet? So you rushed in, putting yourself in the line of fire. Each slam of hard, cold metal of the fire hydrant against you hurt like a bitch.

Which is why it sent you into intensive care. Which is also why Raiden was now standing there reprimanding you. You sat back on the bed, hands under your head as you kept your eyes closed listening to him. It got on your nerves when he yelled at you like you were a little spoiled brat.

“How could you be so stupid? At least go in with a weapon of sorts,” he would say. You sat up with a grumble pulling out the IV that gave you blood back. “If you came here to berate me then you can leave Raiden.” You spoke bluntly.

He seemed surprised. Not used to you speaking up and out at him. “I’m not ber-“ he tried to explain. “Yes you are.” You cut him off. He glanced away for a moment but sighed. He crossed his arms as he sat up staring down at you.

“You did good.” He admitted in a soft tone. This was new. He sensed your confusion. “I don’t want you to get hurt like this. What if you died?” He questioned to which you just stared in disbelief.

“I won’t bother you any longer. You get my point. Just be careful.” He was about to walk out the room when you spoke up with a laugh. “Since when did you care?” You joked. He rolled his eyes before leaving the room.

“I’ll see you when you get out.” You heard his smooth voice ring back to you in the hallways.

A/n: We’re back. Sorry it’s so short! I didn’t want to like fully describe reader getting his ass beat or the kid😭🙏🏽. But hopefully it was sufficient! And sorry for any ooc lol.

[vigilskeep]

Hiya, do u have a carrd or anything with info on your ocs? I love reading about ocs n all that crap but the tumblr search function is like actually evil. Keir seems super interesting but it’s like killing me trying to find posts to recap his lore 😭

i don’t i’m afraid!! it’s just his enormous mess of a tag as the lore built up... i might make something sometime??? i hadnt thought abt it tbh. in the meantime feel free to ask me any and all questions even if it’s something i’ve probably already said, i love going over this stuff and will do so forever if even slightly prompted. on that note, if it helps, here is a briefly condensed version:

keir is a red personality (aggressive/direct) non-mage hawke. i did his full playthrough as a warrior, i sometimes talk about switching him to rogue, but the only really important thing is that he’s a reaver and will bite you for real

he’s a man of few words, extremely blunt and threatening to the point of being absurdly over-the-top with pretty much all strangers, and much softer but still bluntly earnest with the small group of people he considers his own. he considers himself first and foremost a protector and would do anything to keep those people safe. his father malcolm was a strict man who raised him to do this and he accepted that wholeheartedly. consider him a guard dog. killed his first templar in defence of the family aged 15

he adores and idolises magic and fiercely supports mage freedom, though ultimately he would absolutely sacrifice a wider “cause” if doing so would keep his mages safe. fortunately or unfortunately, he can’t do that because the two are inextricable

he’s a proud fereldan and cares very little for kirkwall (hates kirkwall. hates kirkwall. someone please get him out of here) and its nobility, which tends to show in his appearance and behaviour. long braided hair, the streak across his nose is kaddis, and takes his mabari, silla, absolutely everywhere

he’s elf-blooded via his father, who was the bastard son of a fereldan elven servant girl and an orlesian chevalier who was with the occupation

his playthrough has circle mage bethany. he adores her and he would do anything for her but her acceptance of her fate and disillusionment with his overprotectiveness meant they had an increasingly strained relationship. it was because she was trapped that he couldn’t leave the city. once he was champion, meredith essentially had a knife to his sister’s throat whenever she wanted his compliance, not to mention the looming threat to anders and merrill, making those three years the worst and most terrifying in his life

he romances anders! friendmance and they escape kirkwall together in the end. not always easy but he really loves him, justice half included. there’s a lot of lore here ummm if i mention the “and they were housemates” timeline, that’s my silly mutual pining alternate version of events where anders moves into the amell estate for safekeeping before he and keir actually get together. if i mention aura hawke, that’s the potential daughter i occasionally hc for them

he had previous relationships with morrigan (in lothering as young 20-somethings) and merrill (during act 1). you cannot keep him away from those romanceable mages

he’s still close friends with merrill. isabela is his best friend. he has a complicated, semi-antagonistic friendship with varric, who was really closer with anders but now after the fact doesn’t want to remember that. he deeply respects and is friends with fenris. he did rivalry with sebastian, but in an agree-to-disagree way where they considered each other friends nonetheless until All That happened. he had a more genuine rivalry with aveline though still coloured by their trauma bonding

i THINK those are the main beats of his lore but he’s my most discussed and developed dragon age character so i’m sure i’ve missed some of the assorted junkyard of thoughts

[anotherwvba]

Learning on the Job pt. 4

As the day wore on, fighters and hopefuls came in and out of the WVBA Gym. It was a veritable symphony of thuds, grunts, cheers, and gripes. In the center ring, Gemma was now sparring alternately with Skye and Mika under the watchful eyes of Coach Maxwell and Dudley Bruce. Glass Joe was on the treadmill trying to warn people away from a napping trainee, while Disco Kid and Cutie Hondo were showing new signee Jon Adamski around the gym and introducing him to people with varying degrees of success.

Meanwhile, in a corner of the gym, Razor Sharp was on the speed bag. She was a force of nature. She danced around the bag, keeping its rhythm flowing for strikes from all angles. She had the flair and showmanship of a star. From all around the gym, eyes fell on her and the bag. She knew and she loved it.

As Razor drew stares and gazes with her incredible bag work, Luna Doll approached a neighboring speed bag, ready to start her own workout. Luna was as precise and quick on the speed bag as she is with a controller, something viewers of her streams knew all too well. But as focused as she was, Luna found herself stealing glances of Razor’s performance on the bag next to her.

Taking a quick break, Razor took a moment to hydrate and grabbed her water bottle. Most of those watching her went back to their own training at that point, but Luna caught a glimpse of the bottle, the word RAZOR boldly emblazoned across it.

“Yo,” Luna stopped her bag as she spoke, “you’re Razor Sharp, ain’t ya’?” Her tone was friendly and warm, as usual, but had a touch of challenge to it, like she was putting her quarter down on the arcade machine to call ‘next’.

Razor turned, sizing Luna up with a smile, “That’s me, girl! Philly’s finest in the flesh.” Her brash and braggadocious nature came through, but certainly good-natured. “And you’re Luna Doll, the stream queen herself. Loved your ‘Shadow Hearts’ playthrough. Pretty cool stuff.”

“Thanks! I can’t believe you watch,” Luna’s face lit up at the recognition. “You know, I gotta tell you, debuting against each other? It’s like a dream. I’ve seen you in action before and you’re amazing! It’s like you were born for this… which kinda makes sense. B-T-W, big fan of your dad.”

A mischievous quality came through Razor’s grin, “Appreciate it. Our fight’s gonna be lit, something really special. For me, anyway. Kinda like a good public workout.”

“Excuse me?” That comment hit Luna like a game over screen and her friendly expression darkened. “What do you mean by ‘public workout’?”

Razor’s confidence never wavered, her smile securely in place. “Means you’ve never had a fight, not a real one. I step into the ring, I’m not like your influencer friends. They playing tag. I’m starching chicks. You ain’t ready for what I’m bringing.”

Pride and determination overcame Luna. Her eyes flared, but she held her temper in check. “Just ‘cause I fought influencers before I came here doesn’t mean I don’t take this seriously. Those fights were real. We weren’t playing games. We were trying to put each other on the canvas. So, you best not sleep on me, girl!”

“Hey, chill,” Razor shrugged and put her hands up. “Ain’t saying you didn’t scrap. I’ve seen what you’ve done. It’s cool and all and it took a lotta guts. But this? Me? This is the big leagues, baby, and, like you said, I was born for this. You ain’t built for a beatdown, giving or receiving.”

Luna heard the challenge in Razor’s voice and smiled. It wasn’t out of amusement, though. It was ‘game on’. She stepped a little closer toward Razor, “We’ll see, Razor. But I’mma tell you right now, you treat me like anything other than another pro and I’m gonna flip the script on you, Baby Sands.”

Closing the distance between them to mere inches, Razor’s smile broadened, her voice dropped. She was loving this. “Let’s keep this 100, aight? You best be ready to catch a beating, girl. I’mma send a message to the whole damn Circuit and that message is gonna be you, out like a light, flat on your back.”

“Oh, girlfriend,” Luna met Razor’s gaze with her own, her smile bright, too. Unfazed and unflinching. “Stay cocky. Keep underestimating me. ‘Cause I can’t wait to prove you wrong. Just one thing… don’t blink, baby. You do and you’ll wake up on your ass wondering what happened.”

And there it was. Challenge laid out and accepted. Bring your best or pay the price when the bell rings. Luna turned back to her bag, finding her rhythm driven by a newfound purchase. Razor moved on to the heavy bags to continue her own training, but just couldn’t help herself as she called back loudly over her shoulder, the whole gym hearing her.

“Hey, Hitmaker! By the time I’m done whooping your ass, you gonna wish you stuck to boxing with TikTokers and Twitch streamers. It’s a lot safer than stepping to me, baby!”

Luna’s response was a barely there smile and words only loud enough for herself to hear, drowned out by the rhythmic sounds of her speed bag. “Game on, Baby Sands… game on!”

Star Mika is an OC belonging to @cyrah-is-cool101 and is used with permission. Jon Adamski is an OC belonging to @punchout-ispunched and is used with permission.

[imustbenuts]

Kiran is luck itself Part 2. Brief analysis of the absent mechanics in FEH.

If you’ve read part 1, welcome back. If not, here’s a brief ramble about the Luck stat in FE and its absence in FEH anyway. Stat mechanics ramble.

Luck stat in FE outside of FEH is actually a gainable stat when characters level up, but is not present in FEH. And neither is the Dex stat, but I’ll talk about this later. 

Overall, luck is… not really an important stat, but it kind of is, too. It doesn’t give a unit a tremendous consistent edge enough to fuss over it, but it does mess with 4 things significantly. These 4 things are:

Hit rate

Critical hit rate (Receiving and inflicting)

Avoid (magical evasion)

Dodge (physical evasion)

Luck also affects certain skill’s % to trigger such as Miracle and Armsthrift. 

An example from FE: Three Houses

According to fandom.com, luck in most games will increase both hit and evasion by 1 point, and reduce enemy crits by 1. But if one looks closely at how the formulas work, stats like Atk/Mag/Spd are far more important in determining the ceiling of how hard a unit can hit, which thus determines how viable they can be in a playthrough. Having a high luck character with meh stats isn't great since they tend to fall behind a lot due to inconsistent RNG, or unreliability.

So overall Luck can be overall summed up as the most useless-useful stat. It's just… better to be there and not be abysmally low, basically.

Another important stat for this topic is the Dex stat. This stat affects hit rate and crits chance. This stat is named 技 (waza, Skill) in JP, which is very apt. No matter how lucky a person is, if they can’t even draw their bow they are not going to get very far.

So. That’s like 250 words to explain 2 stats which doesn’t exist in FEH. And I think I’m being Captain Obvious here, but that’s because… Having dex and luck is going to add a layer of complexity that ultimately wastes the player’s time for what amounts to a F2P predatory gacha game.

….

Oh wait that’s not it. Wrong script. (Who says that when they’re over analyzing a F2P gacha game anyway, looool)

I mean, for my analysis about Kiran’s luck, their luck here is clocking so high that things like hit rates, dodging, crits, and skill procs become consistent rather than random RNG. It's overwritten all units' luck. It’s so high that, while having proficiency and skill in the use of a weapon is ideal, it’s not critical for survival under the OoH’s banner. It’s so high that heroes can feasibly walk into a battlefield in swimsuits and floaties and yet beat the shit out of enemies and walk away with a ‘teehee’. 

It’s so high that the game doesn’t even bother with logging the stats for our use. That skills which might only proc once in someone’s playthrough can now be consistently proc’d in 4 hits. Or less with skills.

But that luck still has its limits. 0 damage is still 0 damage and no luck can salvage that. 

I think this is why the writing in FEH gives the braincells to Alfonse and not Kiran. Rather than the tactician going "let's go to the ancient temple for a mcguffin", it's the lord, Alfonse who does it. Kiran tags along like 3 lucky cats in a trenchcoat in stories, and seem to rarely do anything by themself, which may imply that they’re keeping their head low which helps hold back the effects of that luck. (And subsequently limit the fate breaking aspect of it all)

(There’s also a common Japanese saying of, “the nail that sticks out gets hammered down”, so there’s some degree of characterization possibly going on in the main story here, but that’s not the point of this analysis.)

In my part 1, I gave a very very brief overview about their luck being present in the story, but those points aren’t the entirety of it. I left out a lot of stuff to not inflate the words. I hope people apply this theory for funsies and see how deep this could potentially go. Bc it really goes.

Anway, that’s all for now. Thanks for reading!

[whentheleahvesfall]

How about 4 and/or 7 for the pmd ask thing? :3

Woo, first time I’m taking a crack at this so do expect scuffedness ahead, but let’s see what I can do!

What did you name your hero and partner characters? And why?

In most of my main PMD playthroughs, I would often stick to my main name and go with a default nickname that would come in my head because my younger self was very by-the-numbers, and my existing copies still have my irl name on there as it felt similar to the RPG spirit when I played games like Skyrim and KOTOR, before eventually then settling down on the OC names I got below. I guess I begin giving the rundown of all my OC names, starting with my first PMD game.

Super:

Cormac is based on my irl self, so he shares my name as I thought it would help for immersion, but looking more into it and I realised that my name has a lot of meanings like “son of the raven” and “legendary charioteer”. However, there was one meaning out of pure random spite that I happened to look up and my name had a relation to “tree trunk”, which immediately made me think to the Tree of Life and its role in the story. Whilst the hero’s background as a warrior who fought Dark Matter felt honestly really cool to have as that’s my own first name, my take on his character being that he grows vengeful to those around him and being angsty and very self-doubtful also goes to how it can relate to “corruption”, which I would eventually imagine as the reason why he has his scar over the right eye.

Sprout came from my partner in PSMD in my one and only playthrough of the game which was just simply Bulbasaur and “Bulbs” in Rescue Team DX, before I eventually went with it due to the cabbage dino having a plant on his back (he’s such a dork) and how he sprouted as being a kindred spirit into the reincarnation of Mew that he’s known as today.

Explorers:

Harmony (Explorers Hero) is what I’d like to have if I eventually get around to playing and beating EOS via emulator, but in my mind he would become the deuteragonist of my PSMD fanfic that I think I probably want to rewrite at some point so I have a clear goal in mind where I’d like to take it. His name is supposed to be irony due to Cormac’s only existing harmony scarf and his species as a Riolu of being able to sense aura, but I wanna write the both of them being a one-sided into a temporary two-sided rivalry before they become equal and shared friends.

Flurr (Explorers Partner) essentially begins the trend of being trying to think of a name for the characters as I was unsure of where I wanted to go from the main three I had in my mind, but I guess her name came from Zelda and the “Flurry Rush” ability Link is able to perform in the games, and her rapid nature to attend to Harmony’s ever-increasing sass is what lead me to I think picking her name. She’s also my only female partner character so my mind went “AWWWWW YEAH, HERO X PARTNER TIME” and headcanon flurrfy comments were born. These two goofballs I gotta draw, and also I NEED to draw Flurr’s design, I do wanna imagine what she looks like <3

Gates:

Cormos is again based on my irl name but the last two letters are changed, but he’s my hero and he’s a Tepig. Tepig was the first Pokémon I ever used in any Pokémon game for a starter due to a leant copy I got from one of my older stepbrothers and the rest is history. His name I eventually decided to go with on an as-of-yet started playthrough of KOTOR 2.

Tusk (Gates Partner) came from one of the Club Penguin villain characters you find as the main antagonist of Card-Jitsu Snow and I loooovvveeed playing that as a kid. Often I’d spent upwards of tens of hours playing the parties and virtual worlds and the fact that Tusk is an Axew makes it so much better as it’s as close to a walrus-like creature you can get from the game’s available starters XD

Rescue Team:

Scrald and Planker (Torchic and Totodile Hero and Partners) only came to my head when I wanted to try writing a story prompt for the Hero and Partner week that took place earlier in the year, and because my canon playthrough simply just used my irl name and Bulbs from an OC PMD team I made aggggeeesss ago, those two names popped into my head and they’d eventually stick. Scrald’s name is based on what I imagine is his firey personality, often liking flamed berries and getting very flustered whenever someone tries to help in or puts their confidence in him, often flailing his feathers about without a basic care in the world XD Planker came from the snapping jaws he has when he too gobbles up food, so if they ever went to the Expedition Society or Wigglytuff’s Guild, the two would probably compete in food completions to see if one of them could outlast the other by one-upping them.

Spoiler alert: they both fail.

A lot.

But on the plus side, come the fugitives arc, Scrald (when not eating) becomes the most insecure fire type one has ever laid eyes upon. I like to imagine it much like Harmony that since his name sounds like the move “Scald”, that he’d be feeling warm on the inside whilst they travel to see Ninetails. Only it’s more like “Screw this!” and it being cold. Poor hero has it tough in those games, and that’s where his personality is based on. Planker is more of a blank slate for me, so eventually I’d like to flesh him out, but my brain go brrrrrr

How do you interpret the future trios relationships to each other?

I think all of them ship each other and Dusknoir and Grovyle have something called B E I N G G A Y when special episode 5 comes around, whilst Celebi is being mischievous pink cabbage gremlin with the time travel abilities to play ring-a-ring-a-rosies with the funny ghost man and has to endure his 6+ long hour cardio session of flying around before his Sableye lackeys can even do a thing. If I’m gonna be perfectly honest, seeing yours, Scribz’s and some other people’s perceptions of the future trio have permanently altered my brain to not see them as nothing more than three peas in a squished pod and you can’t change my mind, they’re all poly-coded and love each other that much.

That took a while to write lmao, but thank you for the ask!

[delta-orionis]

Tuesday Again No Problem 4/2/24

I feel like this is one of those weeks where I was extremely busy but accomplished very little...

Listening

Earlier this week I felt compelled to go back and listen to some of the songs by AURORA that were featured in that Sky: Children of the Light concert from a while ago.

This song in particular is one that I'd love to create a music video for if I had the skill or patience.

Because I have Rain World on the brain, it brings to mind a slugcat (Survivor and Monk in particular) who are just focused on survival but slowly start to become aware of exactly why the world around them functions the way it does.

Watching

My Well There's Your Problem marathon continues. The most recent episode I listened to was this one about the Y2K Bug:

(Again, it's kind of cheating for me to put a podcast with slides in the watching section, but I haven't really been watching anything else...)

Reading

Fallow this week.

Playing

I'm back to playing Rain World.

I was putting off beating the Artificer campaign, so I finally said "fuck it", and killed the Scavenger king in a very anticlimactic way by just chucking a singularity bomb at them.

In other news, I started a Hunter playthrough. I'm going to admit up front that I cheated in extra cycles for myself because I know for sure I will not be able to beat the game in under 25. To be honest I kind of wanted to do a relatively normal run where I can take my time and also be a carnivore.

Oh, and I have slugpups unlocked, so I keep finding the little guys everywhere. (They're hard to keep alive, unfortunately...)

My adventures have so far included...

Getting bullied by squidcadas,

Watching vultures beat the shit out of each other,

And witnessing one of the strongest enemies in the game get electrocuted to death right in front of me.

I finally reached Five Pebbles today. I got to him by climbing The Wall by way of Chimney Canopy, which isn't the route I usually take. I also made the (probably foolish) decision to take the long way out and go through his interior to access the Underhang. That might have been a bad idea, but Five Pebbles is one of my favorite areas in the game and I didn't want to miss an opportunity to pass through it. The Underhang sucks, though. If I get too frustrated I might just go back up through the inside (since fast travel isn't available for Hunter).

Making

I haven't made much progress on my crochet projects this week. I am getting close to finishing that granny square tote bag, though. I started the tedious process of weaving in all the loose ends.

I've also been revising that post I mentioned last week about trying to estimate how big Rain World's iterators are. My initial estimate was WAY too big, I think, and I've been debating even keeping it in the post at all. For the sake of clarity it might be best to delete it, even though I went through the trouble of making some diagrams for it... I'll think about it some more.

In addition, I’m continuing to worldbuild for my iterator OC. I made a rough layout of their facility grounds:

The idea is that they sit on top of a mountain, where their rain freezes into several glaciers which flow down to the base. At the base are twelve dams which collect the water, arranged like a big clock.

This “clock” is broken up into six sectors which serve different functions, and have analogues to the regions from the game (noted above in parentheses). I’d like to make a more polished map, maybe some time in the future.

I also posted some doodles the other day (featuring the same OC being smacked in the face)

--

This coming week, I'm traveling to the path of totality for the April 8th solar eclipse. Because I'll be traveling, I can't imagine I'll have much to report in terms of the Tuesdaypost, but I guess we'll see.

[pink-strawberry-kissess]

Saw your post about how hard it is to characterize Ada and I just had some thoughts:

For Ada especially. When going back to OGRE2’s writing there were literally unsubtle exposition that Capcom throws right into the players face with how Ada views herself and her wants as character “I know I’m not capable of caring about anyone, but I don’t want to lose you” to “I really wanted to escape with you Leon, escape from everything”. So I feel like Ada does want to leave the Spy life, but can’t. Hopefully Capcom remembers this and decides to expand on this in a future game.

And with Resident Evil I feel a big part of the game is the concept of scenarios. Obviously there is the “official” canon, but I feel different scenarios are still in the realm of what the characters would do. In OG Leon A/Claire B, in the scenario where she saw a Claire fighting the tyrant she would absolutely help despite not knowing her, so this popular belief she’s the type to only help Leon or anyone for her own gain is false.

The epilogue card of her you get after beating OGRE3 where she cries after what she went through in Raccoon city, who’s to say that not the type of feeling/reaction she still had when they basically still kept Leon’s epilogue. Maybe she still does after every difficult jobs she takes on. “I’m just a Woman who fell in love with you” and “A woman looks at herself in the mirror” Capcom emphasizes a lot of the difference between Ada the woman vs Ada the spy. Even at the end of Separate Ways when her helicopter flies away, she takes off her playful mask she uses with Leon, closes her eyes to let out huge sigh and stares off into the sun with such a melancholic expression. I feel like Ada’s vulnerability has always been on display for people who paid attention.

When she talks about Luis in Separate Ways, “His history betrays an enthusiasm I once shared.” Makes u think about a young version of herself who had an enthusiastic outlook on life, but clearly something she experienced destroyed that. I’m sure she saw a lot of that in Leon when she first met him too, I’d like to think after their experience together it he brought back some of her positive outlook on life.

And I know it’s popular that Ada is super but when she says to Krauser, “I don’t like it when men play rough” I think she totally means it, if anyone is gonna be soft with her it’s gonna be Leon 😂

Even her in Umbrella Chronicles “it is important to remain calm and collected even in the most extreme situations” is why she’s so good at her job. It’s funny bc when I watch playthroughs of RE2R so many people are always like “how is she so calm?!” when she first shows up. She likely does have an initial panicking but can turn it off immediately to focus. Staying calm is such a big part of her section too, once Mr. X arrives, all of a sudden people panic and can’t think straight enough to remember her hacking tool they used less than a minute ago lol

Sorry for all the random thoughts I had to get out, even though this is what I feel I still love seeing other peoples interpretation of Ada, so when you ever do Ada’s POV I’ll be interested to see!

this was long so it took me a while to get to lol

one of the characterizations i don't see often talked about is the fact that it's likely she was forced into a life of crime from a young age and needed it to live. most people who are normal would see this as a form of abuse/trafficking/or just taking advantage of her. i see it as interesting if she choose to use that, to her advantage and using those same organizations that tried to use her. it makes more sense and gives her a sense of agency on why she double crosses people. she does it to whoever she sees is "the lesser of two evils."

and when she comes across people like leon who are genuinely good people, especially in re2 (albeit a bit naive, since leon still was appealing to authority example: chief irons, and how he still works for the government (corrupt) for many years)

I feel like Ada’s vulnerability has always been on display for people who paid attention.

this is literally why i think that people who do not pay attention to ada completely misunderstand her as a character. she's not an easy character to read, and it's so easy to just label her as some dumbed down "spy lady with no feelings" type of stereotype. like genuinely i think ada antis just lack critical thinking skills and media literacy because i've seen the worst takes about ada. and they're always rooted in

they didn't actually pay attention to the story

they didn't even play ada's campaigns

they didn't try to view ada's story from an unbiased perspective

they still think carla is ada in re6

or they're being outwardly misogynistic

or they're being racist

or both or all of the above

if people can't see in re4r that ada has several moments of vulnerability, then i just have no faith in people lol

the characterization of ada in separate ways is so needed for remake separate ways, i just need to see more of what she's like behind the facade of "ada wong, the mercenary." we've always seen glimpses of it because we actually pay attention lmao. but yes we need more

i think to think that she's so detached from her personal self sometimes she even scares herself. she definitely does when she cares for others and cares about leon. she's an incredibly multi-faceted but also flawed character, and we love that. give us women that make mistakes and then have to live with it. have her develop and change. have her self reflect on her choices.

but yeah tysm for this!

[thesilliestrovingalive]

Headcanons for Marco, Tarma, Eri, Fio, Nadia, Trevor, Ralf, and Morden

I know I haven't played Metal Slug 6 and 7/XX yet (I watched playthroughs of the two games though!). However, I couldn't help to include Ralf on this list because I had a few good ideas for him. I looked into the fandom wiki entries of Trevor Spacey, Nadia Cassel, Ralf Jones, and General Morden to make my headcanons fit their characterisation. There is a bit of interpretation involved when it comes to Trevor, Nadia, and Ralf.

Marco

He has major depressive disorder and some buried trauma

He has a habit of bottling up his emotions

Marco’s nightmares often involve some sort of war caused by Morden or the death of his friends.

He struggles with making friends

Tarma

He's a bit of a hothead, a trait that gets on the nerves of Marco, Eri, and Clark, but Fio, Trevor, Nadia, and Ralf find it endearing.

Tarma is great at giving people hugs

He secretly carries around a toy version of SV-001, which was a gift from his father.

His father is American and his mother is Japanese

Tarma is the kind of person to try whatever piqued his curiosity

Eri

She’s quite outspoken, showing no fear in telling others off and voicing her opinions.

She loves drinking vodka and secretly carries a flask full of it with her.

Fio

Despite being a brave soldier, she’s deeply afraid of bugs and often flees to Tarma or Eri to kill them. (psst @rossimercenary I stole your headcanon idea for Fio hehehehe)

Fio likes to play card games with Eri when they’re both not busy with an important mission.

She carries Peppino with her, so she can hug or talk to her teddy bear whenever she needs emotional support.

Nadia

Whenever Nadia doesn't want to do something, she creates a distraction to avoid doing it.

She has nicknames for everyone! For example, she likes to call Trevor "Trevie" and Fio "Fi-Fi".

Nadia is not fond of Eri's outspoken and bitter attitude

She enjoys playfully teasing Tarma about his hot-headedness and Marco about his overly serious nature.

She’s very close friends with Trevor

Trevor

Trevor frequently assists Marco with computer-related tasks, especially when it involves security software.

He’s an expert at security programs, so he uses it to his advantage to plan out enemy positions and cause distractions.

Trevor sometimes plays a part in Nadia’s schemes in avoiding certain tasks, taking the distractions to dramatic heights.

Out of everyone, he has the most respect for Marco, mostly because of their shared fondness for technology.

Ralf

He views the people he works with as family and will do anything to protect them. For example, if Eri was insulted by a Rebel soldier, he’ll beat them up and force them to apologise or shoot them directly in the head.

According to his fandom wiki page, Clark is his brother-in-arms and they always go to battle together. So, I’m thinking that he would be pretty devastated if he lost Clark as he literally viewed him as the brother he never had.

When Ralf is not participating in tournament fights and busy with mercenary work, he likes to play arcade games with Clark.

He enjoys training new recruits to enhance their melee skills.

General Morden

He has a weakness for whiskey and maple syrup

Although he may not always show it, he genuinely cares deeply about his soldiers.

He carries around a photograph of his deceased wife and daughter.

Despite Morden’s numerous defeats and moments of humiliation, he uses them to learn from his past mistakes and continue moving forward with his desire to achieve world dominance.

[i-rate-horse-games]

starshine legacy playthrough part 4.0

Chapter 4 - Alex!!!

level 1 - bad behavior

SHE BLEW UP THE PRINCIPAL’S CAR??????? I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT CRIME THAT IS

haha yeah she’s like right on top of you, one could say haha

i too was alive during a time when kids who were girls would just casually call each other girlfriend but i want to Believe

got a fun glitch where as soon as this very white girl showed up alex launched into the dialogue she’d already done while in a different room, which includes her brother calling for help again even though we’ve just reached him! sure hope this doesn’t mean i’m missing what was supposed to happen here (i did)

usually when someone walks up to you and says “i bet i can beat you in a horse race” it’s hostile but alex said “you’re on!!” so maybe these two will be friends? that’s cool! also you can’t tell from this screenshot but while she was talking katja’s model wasn’t anchored by her feet so instead of leaning side to side dramatically her feet slid side to side underneath her lol she’s reeaaaally good at moonwalking

alex is really good at research!! she read 9 books and wrote 3 essays in one day??? i had 3 chapters of 1 textbook to read during an entire week and i never even opened the book…

level 2 - the race to scarecrow hill

so cool… so if the other girl was the dark princess, maybe this is the light princess? it would be so cool if she wasn’t evil… and alex is gonna turn out to be the warrior, right? knight and princess??? eyes looking emoji

everyone else’s horse is named something fancy but alex’s horse is named tin can?? perfect

the moon is tOO CLOSE IT’S GONNA CRASH

augh i took a wrong turn during the race and did a whole loop of trail that i didn’t need to..

welllll i took the Right turn and now that way’s blocked and i gotta find another route anyway?? tuahgh…

well according to the map, ending up in the water treatment plant with fish in it means i’m on the right track, but MAN i am SO LOST

part 4.3