#i've been there since the beginning. i shipped them since the game launched. i've been here for a year and a half. I EARNED THIS

[beepborpdoodledorp]

hear me out

[afrenchwriter]

20 questions for fic writers

I was tagged by @andromeda4004, thank you dear 🥰 Always an interesting game to play, share, and reflect!

How many works do you have on ao3?

17

What's your total ao3 word count?

313,513

What fandoms do you write for?

I launched my AO3 account with a Red Dead Redemption fanfic, and then I discovered Good Omens, and then... well, you know how it goes with this fandom ❤️ That being said, I also had fun exploring the seas during the golden age of piracy (Our Flag Means Death) and the lands of a Norse God (Loki).

Top five fics by kudos:

For His Eyes Only (GO - James Bond AU, M rated, 69K)

Getting Closer (GO - fluffy post-S1 fic, G rated, 3K)

To the End of the Ocean (OFMD - post-S1 fic, M rated, 71K)

Whatever Comes After (RDR - canon divergence AU, M rated, 84K)

Ties & Other Obsessions (Loki - 5+1 fic, T rated, 4K)

Do you respond to comments?

Always! I treasure each and every one of them ❤️ But I have to confess that these past few months have been a bit hard (not much energy, unfortunately), and I'm still trying to catch up on all the lovely comments I've received.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Mmh, good question... I'm afraid I don't know how to do that 🙃 Even the last fic I wrote for the GO historical minisode event (Shadow & Light) was supposed to end on an angsty note, and at the last minute, I decided to add a happy epilogue! But if we're talking bittersweet ending, then it would be Sharp Endings & New Beginnings, a post-S2 Loki fic... If you've seen the show, then you know 🌳

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Hard to say, considering my previous answer 😇 but all the long fics listed above have a very happy ending!

Do you get hate on fics?

I did, once, on my OFMD fic... It was a shock, but also an interesting experience: it pushed me to question my narrative choices (and, in the end, confirm them).

Do you write smut?

I do... And I have a second AO3 account dedicated to it 😎 (I wonder how many people will reach this part of the tag game and find this out, eheh)

Craziest crossover:

None for now... (For His Eyes Only cannot be considered a crossover since Crowley is basically James Bond 😎).

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't think so!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! @pavel-pedro has started to translate To the End of the Ocean in Russian... and whether it will be one day finished or not (I know how time-consuming such a work can be!), I'll forever be grateful for the gesture ❤️

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I'm currently co-writing a fic, actually, with my lovely friend @sabotage-on-mercury: a GO/Fleabag AU! We're taking our time for all sorts of reasons, but we want to make sure we deliver quality content, considering the source materials!

All time favorite ship?

The Ineffable Partners, of course. How can you beat a relationship between two beings who have known each other for millennia and have gone through all sorts of ups and downs, down here and out there?

Or, as Neil would say: why? Love ❤️

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

*insert awkward look monkey puppet meme* I don't know, man... I have too many WIPs piling up lately, and not enough energy to work seriously on any of them... I do hope I'll finish all of my GO WIPs someday. But the one WIP I doubt I'll ever come back to (although it makes me sad because the outline I have for this story is WILD) is the sequel of my long RDR fic, called What We Owe to Each Other.

What are your writing strengths?

I've been told several times that I'm good at capturing a character's voice, and that makes me really happy. I'm a huge cinephile and good dialogues, "natural" dialogues, are so important - I'm glad to be able to consider this as one of my strengths! I would like to say developing a plot, too - I love writing long fics and exploring characters' arcs - but I think I'm still too close to the source material for now to consider it a real strength... Room to grow!

What are your writing weaknesses?

I'm a slow writer; I need to develop my ability to use imagery and metaphors; and I need better organization when it comes to writing drafts and editing the whole thing!

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

Well... I'm French and I write my stories in English + I work as a translator, so... Yes to dialogues in other languages, always (then translated, of course)!

First fandom you wrote in?

I'm not exactly sure, but it must have been between those three: Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and Artemis Fowl (ah, teenage years!).

Favorite fic you've written?

That's a hard one... Whatever Comes After will forever have a special place in my heart since it's the fic that 1/ brought me back to writing 2/ helped me prove to myself that I was able to complete a long story. Senses & Sensitivity was my first fic for the GO fandom, and 1/ it made me feel confident to write more for the Ineffable Partners 2/ I made some great connections thanks to it (hello @hasturswig! ❤️). I don't think I've ever had more fun than when I was writing For His Eyes Only (and the enthusiastic comments along the way really helped! ❤️). But, to finish, I'd like to mention When All Is Said and Done, a GO fanfic in the South Downs that just poured out of me after the S2 finale... It really made me experience the magic of writing again.

If you've reached the end, thank you for reading! Feel free to ask me anything... And to consider yourself tagged if you want to play this game, too! ❤️

[oakwolves]

18 + your favorite infinity train ship for the kiss game (i do not go here but we've been mutuals for so long that you are just a comforting presence on the dash so.)

Aww ty! I'm glad to hear that! Sorry this took so long lol. I went with Doebells (Kez/Alan Dracula) for this prompt since i've already done this one with a different ship!

As her friends walked away laughing, Kez felt the last of her draining confidence slipping away.When she heard the car door slam shut, she sighed and  gravitated lower to the ground against the wall. She looked back at the bathroom door where Ryan and Min-Gi were and heard the sound of music playing quietly. She smiled slightly, then floated away from the door without a word.

“I’ll just… leave you guys to that…” she made her way over to one of the punch tables. But as soon as she lowered her cup into the punch bowl, the table rustled a little. Then, it suddenly, launching the punch bowl in the air and leaving a white-tailed deer in its place.

“Oh my god!” Kez shieked, dropping her cup. Upon a closer look, she recognized who it was. The punch bowl,  landed on the deer and soaked him completely

The deer snorted and dug his feet into the ground a few times. He then burst into flames, instantly evaporating the punch before the fire went out.

“Oh… hey! I didn’t see you at all at this party,” she said. “But… I guess that doesn't really matter since the party’s over now…I kinda blew it.”

The deer started to nudge Kez towards a different table, one with various snacks. As he helped himself to the leftover food, Kez rested on the table next to him quietly. She glanced at the bathroom door again. Ryan and Min-Gi still hadn’t come out. Not that she blamed them. Now that the party was a bust, they’d be stuck here until the next party rolls around.

A puff of hot air brushed over her, sending her a few inches backwards. She looked up to find the deer peering down at her.

“Oh, that’s my friends there. I’m sure you saw what happened on stage. I really thought things would go well. I mean, we’re so close to seeing Morgan and… things would be alright.”

Kez sighed and decided to help herself to some of the food on the table alongside the deer.

“I really thought I’d be able to help these guys and maybe do something right for a change,” she said. “But even if we do get out of this car and back to my car I’m still worried about stuff going wrong.”

The deer snorted, as though asking Kez to elaborate before continuing to devour the food in front of him.

“You know how I said I wanted to explore the other cars for a while? Well, I uh, I kinda, like, got kicked out,” she admitted. “I swear I wasn’t trying to ruin Morgan’s life, things just happened so quickly and I couldn’t stop everything from coming crashing down before it was too late. When I ran into Ryan and Min-Gi, they're just… always fighting and then they make up and then they start fighting again…at least they seem to be getting along now.”

Kez shoveled another brownie in her mouth.

In between bites, she said, “Those two have a lot going on from wherever they came from that I can’t even begin to understand. I figured that maybe it would be better if… they didn’t have to go back home and deal with all that. And maybe Morgan wouldn’t be lonely anymore. It’s, like,  supposed to be a win-win? Right?”

The little bell deflated when she detected no reaction from the deer. She continued eating quietly. The deer suddenly straightened up, projecting a glowing image from his antlers. When Kez looked closer, she saw an apparition of herself talking to Ryan and Min-Gi. The guys looked a little upset, but understanding. The three of them shared a hug before the image  faded out into the air. The deer closed his eyes briefly before staring back at Kez.

“You’re right…. I should talk to them about this,” Kez said. “When the moment’s right. Thanks.”

The deer blinked before nuzzling the metal shell of Kez’s body. She felt her body heat up slightly and smiled at him. The door to the bathroom opened, and Min-Gi popped his head out looking around. His eyes rested on Kez. He shifted a little and patted the space on her shoulder , encouraging her to take a seat there. Kez looked back between Min-Gi and the deer. The deer snorted and nudged Kez towards the bathroom.

“Alright, alright, I’ll go!” she laughed. She leaned in and left a brief kiss on the side of the deer’s face. His antlers suddenly burst alive with sparkling roses blooming on the crown. One of the roses fell off, and he leaned forward to catch it in his mouth to eat. With that, he gave Kez one final nudge towards Min-Gi and took off.

Kez watched the deer fly off into the air before following Min-Gi into the bathroom.

[glassedice]

An overview of Azur Lane characters and their Zodiac Signs (Part 2)

And here I am, coming back to make another thread of paragraphs examining the Zodiac signs of real ships and seeing how it's potentially applied to their Azur Lane side. I've been sort of reluctant to make a second post given the far-fetched claims I made on these ships that would get further convoluted to fit an Astrological sign's narrative, as much of a coincidence their traits would sound, especially on a concept I still find myself at odds to believe and use with such confidence on literal weapons of massive destruction.

Oh well, given the amount of shipgirls I've noticed having an outwardly connection to the Zodiac sign their real counterpart was assigned at launch, I was unable to hold myself again, and I decided to go even further and longer with the thoughts I'll be expressing on this post. Before anyone scrolls through this post, I recommend to read my previous thread briefly adding context to the use of this tool. Furthermore, I'll add more additional information regarding the history and use of Zodiac signs to understand the more complex details ships will be given into.

Without further ado, let's begin with the addition of planets in Astrology according to easy descriptions coming from handy websites. Again, if you know this stuff already, skip the next paragraphs until I talk about the ships:

"To the Ancient Greeks who learned from the Babylonians - the earliest astronomers/astrologers - this group consisted of the five planets visible to the naked eye and excluded Earth, plus the Sun and Moon. Although the Greek term planet applied mostly to the five 'wandering stars', the Ancients included the Sun and Moon as the Sacred 7 Luminaires/7 Heavens (sometimes referred to as "Lights",) making a total of 7 planets. The ancient Babylonians, Greeks, Persians, Romans and others thought of the 7 Classical Planets as gods and named their 7 days of the week after them. Astrologers retain this definition of the 7 Classical Planets today.

To ancient astrologers, the planets represented the will of the deities and their direct influence upon human affairs. To modern astrologers, the planets can represent basic drives or urges in the subconscious, or energy flow regulators representing dimensions of experience. They express themselves with different qualities in the 12 signs of the zodiac and in the 12 houses. The planets are also related to each other in the form of aspects." - Wikipedia

This is where the stereotypical funny comes: For every of the four categories (Fire, Water, Earth, Air) the twelve Zodiac signs are located, there is going to be a ruling planet for every one of them that will further influence the traits of each sign according to the qualities of the planet in question; If a sign like Aquarius is often known for its eccentricity and notable intelligence among the people they are surrounded with, whether as a leader or preceptor, then it's going to get further deepened by the planet they are ruled upon: Uranus.

Creativity, Philosophy, Abstractionism, and a view of life influenced either by their own individualism or collective convictions and sense of morality is influenced by the need to change and introspective self-growth that Uranus provides because it's tied to Openness. For people outside its perception, Aquarius might be seen as a fascinating individual that offers an unique perspective to stuff normally everyone would pass along as trivial, mostly because of their inquisitive need to explore horizons of the human mind. It sounds ridiculously crammed and dumb, but normally this is how it always worked. A Zodiac sign doesn't merely work by being as it is, but it's done by multiple facets that gets even more complex to analyze and categorize (Sun, Moon, Rising), but I'll talk about that later.

For now, let's begin with a character I've been circlejerking their troubled personality since I started the game three years ago, and it's one that feels like they literally took the stereotypes of the Zodiac sign the real ship was assigned into, and made it real:

HMS Dido (37) Date of launch: 18 July, 1939. Astrological sign: Cancer. Planet in rule: The Moon.

To sum things up, Dido's personality is the epitome of complete and ruthless Autophobia plaguing her life, as for what's motivating her pursue for perfectionism regarding her duties as a royal maid. Her fear of abandonment makes up her sole motivation to reach perfection on herself, to feel like she's important and worthy of her place as a head maid capable of doing everything she's asked to do, and even things that are not her matter at all; Her desperate need for a sense of purpose and usefulness around those she cares deeply about also drives her insecurities even further, as far as to turn her into a paranoid believing for any mistake she does, or lack of orders she's given, the greater the possibility of being dumped by the commander grows, and so she keeps trying even harder to gain the attention of the player at any cost, regardless of the order. It gets worse when it's further exposed her grudge or upright jealousy towards other fellow maids, believing they don't work as efficient as she does and they don't deserve as much attention as they get from the commander. Overall, she's the concept of anxiety turned into a pitiable character that you just can't help feeling overwhelmed at her unavailability to rest a moment in her life out of fear that no purpose leads to oblivion, and oblivion leads to death. . Now, about the sign of Cancer:

"The self-awareness of a Cancer is like the tides–constantly moving in and out of focus. Their personalities are layered. Cancers have many moods, some of which are contradictory, but they also have a deep, core self that persists.

Cancers are weighed down by their own sorrows and the sorrows of those around them. They are frequently haunted by grief. It’s hard for them to share their pain with others, and they are often afraid to be vulnerable because they carry a fear that people will use their weaknesses against them. Cancers have learned to hide their pain to avoid burdening anyone else. They pretend they’re okay when they’re not.

Their emotions are like an exposed nerve. Cancers can feel everything. They’re like a tuning fork that vibrates at the slightest provocation. They tend to carry deep grudges because they can’t forget the emotional sting of even a slight." - costarastrology.com

As expected, Cancer is nothing short of someone that, in a stressful environment, can be overly protective and emotionally bleak due to their own insecurities. Their level of awareness will also determine the level of psychological pain suffered in stressful situations, often leading to catastrophic results if they are still in development. At their worst, they can be obsessive, manipulative, jealous, and an emotional fighter for anything that could feed their ego. It gets worse as the sign itself is influenced by their ruling planet The Moon, which is tied to Feeling and further makes their emotional output more intense, depending of which emotion is the strongest: Since the only thing Dido feels is anxiety and sadness, it's safe to assume she has it worse than anyone could ever imagine. In that sense, Dido is a living stereotype of the worst traits coming from her Zodiac sign. She cannot bring herself to rest a single moment in her life in hopes her pursue for perfectionism will make her feel less worthless and 'trash' to the eyes of the commander. She should seek therapy sessions with August von Parseval, if you ask me.

... Now now, for the character I've been waiting the most to post for unfortunate reasons shown below (ugh):

USS New Jersey (BB-62) Date of launch: 7 December, 1942. Astrological sign: Sagittarius. Planet in rule: Jupiter.

Ugh… I was thinking of making a separate post solely extrospecting her, but I'll leave that up for later and just make a quick summary on her personality: Her extroversion makes her both a free-spirit lover of life and a weirdo/burden to the eyes of Saratoga, as well as being a source of worries for Ticonderoga. Judging by her dialogue and animation videos alone, she's shown to be someone that's drawn to countless interests and ways of living her life, ranging from excess of candy with a total dedication to ice cream, to being a cinephile of whom you wonder if she has a Letterboxd account (most likely having basic kino as her favorite films🚬). If you don't get any idea of how to live by yourself, try asking her a bit of an advice, and she'll immediately throw one thousand and fifty-five ideas of living your life right at your face without a chance to say stop. While she is an emotionally expressive and honest ship, she also tends to be an eccentric person capable of overwhelming others with her personality; Her enthusiasm and desire to explore makes her a reckless person in domestic terms, often getting Ticonderoga to structure plans for her and coming to her rescue at times she's in a crisis. Make it short, she's emotionally intelligent, but so childlike that could either be tolerable to some people, or downright excessive to others. Up to the public's perception.

Now, about her Zodiac:

"Sagittarians are the ultimate empiricists. They will always choose principles over feelings and will often question who they are. They move from job to job, philosophy to philosophy, belief to belief. They are explorers of the human condition and are unafraid of change. Sagittarians feel like the world is their playground. They love to explore the unknown. At their core, they want to understand how the world works. On an unbounded quest to discover the whole of the universe inside of themselves, Sagittarians are unshackled from any particular worldly attachment. They are reckless in their pursuit of what they want, and often end up doing and experiencing things that defy conceptions of the possible.

Sagittarians are explorers. They are both the fearless adventurers and the jaded critics. They understand that knowledge comes in two forms: the shallow, disposable kind that comes from external sources, and the kind that comes from within. Sagittarians know that external knowledge can be easily gained while internal knowledge is exponentially deeper and more powerful.

Sagittarians can be overly aspirational. They want to believe so intensely that they can transcend the limitations of reality that it’s hard for them to accept life's simple joys. Sagittarians can be so focused on achieving their goals that they don’t stop to appreciate the small victories along the way. At times, their high standards make them seem dismissive and arrogant." - costarastrology.com

Tell me that Zodiac was a mere coincidence.

I BEG YOU.

The only difference between her personality and her Zodiac is that she's a very devoted individual, both to her convictions and to you post-oath, albeit a bit obsessive, but harmless in the end. On the other hand, an unhealthy Sagittarius is often paired with Libra with infamous stereotypes of being unreliable partners that cannot bring themselves to commit in long-term convictions, not just in relationships but to their own sense of personality. With such differences in mind, bringing gifts to fellow ships, watching films with her best ship friends, and committing herself to protect her companions, regardless of the methods, NJ is someone that made terms with her own causes and does everything she can to make her view of life as upbeat as ever, as bleak as it can be during war. More so, since her planet in rule as Sagittarius is Jupiter, which is tied to Protection, it's clear she's someone that places an important emphasis into her role as an Iowa-class battleship that comes to aid and uphold her Eagle Union values, as well as valuing the emotional connection she's gotten with her fellow ships and the commander. Clear and louder, almost an embodiment of the Sagittarius description, she's a free-spirit ship in search of emotionally meaningful adventures that takes the best traits of her sign in addition of upholding her commitments, like a very healthy person would do. What an interesting overview, I must say.

...

God fucking dammit, I went a lot longer than my previous post, even when I deleted as much filler paragraphs as I could. Welp, no point in crying over trivial details as these.

Once again, I wholeheartedly thank my sister for bringing this perspective on me, and studying these strange connections that just can't stop coming. Dido & New Jersey's Zodiac turned out highly stereotypical, which was either intentional or a coincidence bigger than anything I've seen so far. I'm actually surprised I haven't seen anyone ever bring up these two with their real-life counterpart Zodiac sign, given how utterly similar their description were to the personality Yostar built for them two, especially for New Jersey itself, which my sister noticed that connection first and made me see this topic in the first place. I wonder how many more shipgirls will have their personality connect to the potential Astrological mark the real ships got at the day of their launch, given the astronomical mistake Marblehead did by remotely referencing that goddamn concept that led me into this perpetual rabbit hole. Either way, I'll still be on my way to keep researching this subject, as idiotic as it may be. For now, I'm done in posting about this topic until I list more facts and ships matching their Zodiac, which might take a week or two to structure another part I could think of.

Without further ado, hasta luego.

[ghoulangerlee]

In honor of Mass Effect 3 turning 12 today, here's an expansion on a scene from the beginning of the third game but make it Ghost. yeah in this instance Aether is Kaidan. I can't help it, my fav tortured guy in my mind it works :).

-

"I think...I'll be ready to retire after this," Copia says, somewhat stilted, his eyes tracking a shuttle as it flies across the sky, "They're going to offer me a deal, or so I've heard. Honorable discharge as long as I plead guilty to the charges."

Phantom looks up from where he'd been examining the barrel of his rifle, "Just like that?" he can't help but ask, "...sir." he tacks on at the end, glancing over at Copia's back—he's got a weariness to him, a tightness of his shoulders that's almost tangible through the blue lf his Alliance Navy uniform.

Copia sniffs, and settles his hands behind his back at a parade rest as he continues to track shuttles across the Vancouver sky. "I made a bad call and that call cost thousands of lives," he murmurs. "I think I've reached a point where I've made enough bad calls for a lifetime."

Phantom watches him for a moment, "And what about the Reapers?" He asks, careful—he'd heard of them, seen them of course, fought the horrifying things that came from them.

Copia turns then, just enough that Phantom can see the wry smile on his lips, he looks like he wants to bare his teeth, launch into a tirade, but instead, the lines even out and he shakes his head, "Saltarian will have to lead the charge for that," he says, "I think my days as a military man are over."

Before Phantom can say something to dissuade him or convince him to not give up, this version of the Commander is something he's not used to seeing, less head strong and more willing to give into whatever's thrown at him, there's a knock at the door, a rushed sound signaling that the council is ready for the hearing.

"Ah," Copia says, he turns fully and crosses the room with careful steps, "Seems my time is up, yes?" He asks, there's humor coloring his tone as he comes to stand by Phantom, "Lead the way, Lieutenant. The Council awaits."

Phantom presses his lips together and nods once, roughly, as he turns to enter the code to unlock the door—they whoosh apart, and Copia steps out first, and it feels wrong to have his weapon pointed at the very same man who had saved the galaxy not only once, but twice now.

But he does it, "Let's go," he says, choosing to keep his weapon pointed towards the floor, towards Copia's legs, "Straight down the hall here."

Copia goes easily, there's a nervousness about him that no one else would notice, but Phantom's observant, he's been with Copia since Copia turned himself in several months ago.

He sees the nervousness.

The way his eyes dart around him.

It's shitty.

So shitty.

(Hours later, he and Aether are grabbing Copia's arms and hauling him up onto the Normandy, Phantom watching somewhat uselessly as Saltarian declares him reinstated loudly from the ground while Reapers ravage Vancouver around them.

They're all covered in gunk from whatever creatures the Reapers have created this time, and Copia's dog tags are held tightly in his fist as he turns to them, nervousness forgotten, slipping back into the Commander persona as he settles back into it all.

"Ready for one last ride?" He asks rherorically, eyes darting between Aether and Phantom, before he walks past the two of them and further into the ship.)

[darnestdungeon]

But your opinion on DD2 can be useful feedback to make the gameplay more enjoyable. I would love to read your analysis on Dismas.

Yeah I know! I've been following the feedback channel on the official DD discord since launch and whenever I can think of something that hasn't already been said I post it there too. They even changed some small things I pointed out, it's neat that they're paying such close attention!

Thing is, I'm not sure if they would listen to feedback regarding the barks or the backstory of one specific character, especially when there are so many other issues to solve. Plus, I'm not sure if this is an issue for anyone else-- I think I've only seen two other people complaining about the characterization of specifics heroes, so maybe it's just me (plus one friend, I guess).

(More on that and some replies under the read more!)

Anyways, I've been trying to write my opinion on DD2 Dismas since I first played it, but the task always overwhelms me for some reason-- probably cause I'm overthinking this, if this folder is any indication:

(Not a day goes by in which I don't feel like Charlie when it comes to DD2 Dismas.)

coffee-in-veins: aw, sorry that ask made you feel bad, that was definitely not my intention; sorry for that :{

Aww don't be sorry, you did nothing wrong!! I wanted to write about it, but like I said, I got overwhelmed-- probably because I feel very negatively about this, and this makes me feel small and petty, and then I wonder why I even care so much to begin with, and then I shut down and go play Hades until my hands hurt. Played 15 hours this week, my hands hurt so. Much.

So yeah, it's not your fault, I just can't deal very well with negative emotions lol

iceice-baeby: I don't like the game either, tbh. Maybe because the mechanics are different or my favourites are missing, maybe because of the weird romance mechanic?? (It just seems so tonally different, it clashes pretty hard with the rest of the game and I just don't think it fits, leave the shipping to the fandom :p) I don't even know all the character differences.

I have my issues with the relationship system, but I don't think the romantic aspect of it is weird or unfitting at all. People bond under adversity, there's nothing weird in that in my opinion.

My main complaints are: 1- the act outs need to be better balanced and more conditional (like, a character that could not/did not need to be healed should not complain about not being healed) and 2- desperately needs more barks. All of this can be improved as the game develops, it's already in way better shape than when it launched.

I don't mind the mechanics being different, they've made it pretty clear DD2 was not going to be Darkest Dungeon 1.5. I just have my doubts about the length of the acts. 4 to 6 hours playing with the same party is so tiring for me. I thought the addition of new enemies would change this, but you're still basically using the same moves on the same four heroes over and over and over, it doesn't take too long before it gets boring. Not to mention all the dead time we spend just travelling or waiting for the act outs to finish playing. And if you consider this is just act 1 out of 5, does this mean each full campaign will take around 20 to 30 hours?

I don't know. I love roguelites (played hundreds of hours of Slay the Spire and Hades), and what I love the most about them is the variety in each run. DD2 is still lacking this variety, and I'm not sure if adding more regions will help if you're still just using the same heroes the entire 4-6 hours. I'm not sure how could this be fixed in a satisfying manner though.

[mooshs-crack-headcanons]

For me, it depends on the media and how personally attached to it, or the way I'm attached to it, how much I will or won't care about ships in that media, and going another level down, how much the Problematic* ships bother me.

It also matters how the fandom interacts with these things when they're present.

Spardacest shippers have always been aggressive, rude, and far too pervasive in the main fandom space to be able to brush under the rug as the usual Fandom Space Weirdos.

Story context is definitely a big factor too; to take the Sparda family relationships and make them into something sexual inherently cheapens EVERYTHING about the narrative, and I'm deeply opposed to that. Like I find it to be the same kind of disrespectful as that one girl that was being really loud in the DMC tags about how Vergil was a prime example toxic masculinity, that he didn't deserve his redemption arc, while being Big Mad that V wasn't a separate character from Vergil for her to Kylo Ren simp for. The kind of disrespectful where it's like, "Why are you here? Are you even paying attention to the games you're playing?"

Censorship is a slippery slope that honestly terrifies me quite a bit coming out of a really strict Christian upbringing, so I hesitate to align myself with the side of the argument that wants to purge these things from existence, because I know from experience that it will never stop with just the stuff that people like you and I find distasteful or even triggering.

I do wish this stuff could stay on a place like fuckin. Rule 34 or something though. Keep the Nasty shit sequestered somewhere where the common folk don't have to risk having a Bad Time just scrolling through their comfort media.

I've been doing a lot of research into psychosexual pathologies recently and it's... a fucking rabbit hole of an endeavor lemme tell you. Some things in this vein are more complicated than I could have ever imagined, the kinda stuff that keeps my eyebrows at my hairline the entire time, and tbqh, sometimes it really is better to just back away slowly and pretend You Did Not See.

I guess my personal bottom line is I'd rather devote my time and energy to intervening in cases where an actual, living, breathing person is being harmed or exploited, rather than wasting energy running around in circles arguing with horny jackasses whomst don't care about making other people profoundly uncomfortable, or even causing them to walk right into triggers like a field of rakes.

Feels real "get a fucking room" vibes as I smash the block button.

I full heartingly agree, I know there's no getting through to them at the end of the day. They're stubborn that way and it's just arguing with a brick wall each time you interact with them and it's exhausting. I try not to talk about this matter too much because like you said, there's better things to do with time and again it as a topic is a bit triggering for me but sometimes you have to address it at sometimes because they're fucking everywhere and they don't keep their shit on places like r34 or some shit like that just ugh 😑 you have to get something out or you're head will explode.

And yeah it does feel like they don't get the whole family narrative dmc has had since the very beginning they just turn everything sexual when those things were never supposed to have that intent.

I've never heard of the whole "toxic masculinity vergil" thing but like I said in an earlier post about the early days of pre launch of dmc 5 and those fans getting mad over the V twist... it lines up.

But hell I've seen a Spardacest shipper on twitter before claim Kyrie is "abusive" to Nero just because apparently (according to this person) she was the one responsible for taking the foster kids in and Nero had no say in it (also according to this person) and that it's her fault that Nero goes out to work in old ragged clothes and only accepted food as payment instead of money so he can't buy new clothes, guess what? All according to this person using the before the nightmare novel as "evidence" but also admitting to never reading the damn thing to know any context about the points they made and if they actually read the summary or the translations they would've known it all wasn't just "big bad abusive Kyrie's" choices, just taking the ball and running with it all because Kyrie got in the way of their ""ship""

It just baffles me of all the hoops they go through to justify this shit, but again I do try my best to just block and ignore it but I've been in this fandom for years and it's just impossible to miss this type of shit that slips through the cracks and maybe just watching them also making themselves look fucking stupid also makes me feel better on the whole trigger thing.

Anyway, if I'm ever asked further on this I'll answer and restate my stance but anyhow I'm not letting them ruin my fandom experience, I've dealt with this shit long before and I don't doubt it'll ever go away. I'll just block, block, block every time I see it and watch the clownshow of ""justification"" that slips through the cracks.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

I'VE BEEN PONDERING CAPS

It could be because you're living in the future. It's obvious why investors delay.1 When a friend of mine visiting India sprained her ankle falling down the steps in a railway station. I've learned a lot from things I've read on HN. An Operational Definition. Will your blackberry get a bigger screen? The numbers on the Y Combinator application that would help Web-based software forces programmers to. Don't wait before climbing that mountain or writing that book or visiting your mother.2

The conversations you overhear tell you what to do anymore. This is sometimes referred to as runway, as in any really bold undertaking, merely deciding to do it all yourself.3 4%? Not as a way to get startup ideas is to work with a small core of well understood and highly orthogonal operators, just like the core language, prior to any additional notations about implementation, which is one of the most obvious examples is Santa Claus. Venture funding works like gears. After ten weeks' work the three friends have an idea. The price is that valuation caps aren't actual valuations, and notes are cheap and lightweight.4 Otherwise you won't bother learning much more.5 To see an interesting variety of probabilities we have to be specific about what they plan to do and the kind that's interesting to write.6

What problems? It gives us an excuse for being lazy, the others would be more fun. But should you start a startup than just start it. After all, as most companies do more mundane stuff where the decisive factor is effort, not brains. Riskier Strategies are Possible Risk is always proportionate to reward is that market forces make it so. By similar comparisons you can make yourself nearly immune to tricks. Is an inbox the optimal tool for that? Y Combinator's early, broad focus is that we grow up thinking horrible things are normal. The big dogs don't have to be called Ajax.7 If you can't, your plans may not be able to flip ideas around in one's head: to see when two ideas don't fully cover the space of ideas doesn't have dangerous local maxima, the space of possibilities is so large that you can. And this turns out to be. The best word to describe the way lions seem in the wild seem about ten times more alive.8

They don't even get a shot at being really big. But the techniques for building integrated circuits spread rapidly to other countries. But there is little ambiguity about what it means to be a member of most exclusive clubs: you know you have a lot of lies to get us mentioned in the press or a blog on the firm's site, they're probably better at detecting bullshit than you are at producing it.9 The VC funds that don't adapt won't be violently displaced. Depends on what you want.10 A rounds. Then you could, I don't mean to suggest by this list that America is the perfect place for startups. Detox A sprinter in a race almost immediately enters a state called oxygen debt. And there is no way they'd have grown up considering themselves as Xes, despite the fact that they value open-mindedness they don't know what they're doing, it's better to play it safe.

Make Web sites for galleries—that's the ticket!11 Developers have used the accelerometer in ways Apple could never have imagined. Everyone makes up their own deal terms. If they shake your hand on a promise, because there will be an effort to understand him. In fact, you don't need Microsoft on the client, they can't push users towards their server-based software, you're being offered millions of dollars, put yourself in a situation with a large percentage of the gains.12 Html 15. Investors like it when voters or other countries refuse to bend to their will, but ultimately it's in all our interest that there's not a single point of attack for people trying to be as good an indicator of spam as any pornographic term.13 Instead of treating them as virtual words. If you're not omniscient, you just stop working on it till you've launched.

Really, it's Apple's fault.14 If you feel exhausted, it's not uncommon for investors and acquirers. Links and images you should certainly look at, if we want to make their mark on the world, and some of the more beautiful highways in the world, write a new Mosaic. Not linearly of course, but that's true in a lot of people that age, and he was pretty much a throwaway program and keep improving it. A lot of the same words as my real mail. Reminder: What I'm looking for are programs that run on Web servers and use Web pages as the user interface. Not ready for commitment This was my reason for not starting a startup—becoming the sort of strategic insight I was supposed to look. I learned something valuable from that. After a while this filter will start to make up their minds, and excessive dilution in series A rounds later. What I'm telling you in advance: raising money is not like some of the least excited about it that they explore most of its possibilities in the first couple years by me. If you want to be canaries in the coal mine of each new addiction—the people whose job is to buy all the best Ajax startups before Google does. Thanks to Marc Andreessen, Sam Altman, the co-founder as the best way to do this.

If they even say no. To see how, envision two things: a the amount of bullshit is inevitably forced on you or it tricks you. Companies didn't start to finance themselves with retained earnings was one cause of the second type. But it could be shipped to Europe. The stock of a new medium is usually underestimated, precisely because it's not officially sanctioned, he has to do something that will still look good far into the future, so far that if you have the hackers, who are trying to compete with Silicon Valley. But they work as if they got the answer to this question. Most startups that raise money do it more. And I've met a lot of servers and a lot of money to us. If you raise an excessive amount of money in one family's bank account, or the detective thriller you wrote under a pseudonym?15 Football players like to win by making great products.

Notes

I tried ranking users by both average and median comment score, and b made brand the dominant factor in deciding between success and failure, just as on a saturday, he wrote a prototype in Basic in a situation where the acquirer just wants the business, and B doesn't, that he had more fun in this, but the distribution of good ones, it will seem more powerful sororities at your school sucks, where many of the political pressure to protect one's children seems weaker, judging from things people have to decide between turning some investors away and selling more of the first abstract painters were trained to expect the second component is empty—an idea where the ratio of spam in my incoming mail fluctuated so much better to overestimate than underestimate the importance of making a good product. It's surprising how small a problem, but also very informative essay about why something isn't the problem is that any idea relating to the way I know for sure a social network for x instead of working. And starting an organic farm, though. Brooks, Rodney, Programming in Common Lisp for, but corrupt practices in finance, healthcare, and no one would have a different attitude to the way I know it didn't to undergraduates on the other team.

I'm thinking of Oresme c. If by cutting the founders' advantage if it were.

Then when we got to the same, but they start to get rich by creating wealth—wealth that, in Galbraith's words, of the fatal pinch where your idea is crack. The Old Way. Compromising a server could cause such damage that ASPs that want to measure that turns out to be the right direction to be an inverse correlation between the two elsewhere, but when companies reach a given audience by a factor of 20. Mueller, Friedrich M.

And if they want impressive growth numbers. In high school. There are also the 11% most susceptible to charisma. So although it works on all the other hand, they made more that year from stock options, because the broader your holdings, the work that seems formidable from the government had little acquired immunity to tax rates.

A from a company's culture. It's hard to mentally deal with them.

Stone, op. 03%. In the beginning. I wrote this on an IBM laptop.

But it is very common, but also like an undervalued stock in that. Did you just get kicked out for doing badly and is doomed anyway. And that is actually from the CIA.

Steve hadn't come back. For example, I was just having lunch. A friend who started a company is common, but suburbs are so intellectually dishonest in that sense, but corrupt practices in finance, healthcare, and domino effects among investors.

Founders rightly dislike the sort of wealth for society. But a couple predecessors. Some of the most accurate way to tell VCs early on.

Joshua Schachter tells me it was the recipe is to ignore investors and instead focus on growth instead of blacklist. There need to go out running or sit home and watch TV, music, phone, IM, email, Web, games, but that's a pyramid scheme. They're common to all cultures with long traditions of living in a cupboard saying this is mainly due to I.

Articles of this essay, I advised avoiding Javascript. This is an acceptable excuse, but Google proved them wrong. Nor do we draw the line?

Financing a startup.

One YC founder who read this essay wrote: After the war, tax rates. One-click ordering, however, and since technological progress aren't sharply differentiated.

Plus one can have margins big enough, a day feels like it if you want to take action, go ahead. In this essay, I believe will be inversely proportional to the year x in a time. Philadelphia.

A from a mediocre VC. This approach has not worked well, so if you're not sure.

Thanks to Chris Small, and Trevor Blackwell for their feedback on these thoughts.

[blazehedgehog]

As someone that got the game on release, I'm honestly confused as to why so much of the fandom doesn't like Sonic Lost World? I could understand it with Unleashed, a game I liked despite fan opinion at large, but Lost World has me baffled. It seems polished, the controls feel pretty solid, aesthetically pleasing, etc. I honestly really like it as an alternative to the boost formula, but everyone thinks I'm nuts? Do you have any insight? I've been wondering this since release lol

I have a video review that’s slightly out of date since the game was patched, but in short: Sonic Lost World is just a sloppily made game.

You say it seems polished, but there’s plenty of evidence to suggest otherwise:

For starters, what purpose does the scoring system solve? You have the combo-based homing attack that gives you bonus points for locking on to big groups of enemies, but why? What do those points do? There’s no grading system like in past Sonic games, where score contributes to a ranking. You just amass thousand and thousands of points for… nothing. You have an entire Casino level where you collect slot machine tokens so you can deposit them for massive score bonuses for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

It was later “fixed” that DLC stages could only be played once before they’d disappear – and to get them to come back, you’d have to score 10,000 points in a level, but let’s be perfectly honest: that’s a hamfisted solution to a problem that shouldn’t exist. The only explanation is that there used to be a ranking system in Sonic Lost World but they deleted it and never got around to replacing it with anything meaningful. After all, the 3DS version of Lost World still has a letter grade score ranking system. That’s not the best explanation in the world, but it’s certainly better than the alternative: that they removed it because they didn’t realize how or why the two systems interconnected (they made a dumb mistake, in other words).

Or maybe they were just dumb – the biggest change in the patch that came out for Sonic Lost World has to do with how it handles rings. In the game as it originally shipped, rings did not give you 1ups. Standard platformer vocabulary says that once you collect enough coins, or rings, or star bits, or gems, or wumpa fruit, or bananas, or whatever, you’d get a 1up. That’s sort of the entire reason you’d even bother with collecting them. Sonic Lost World doesn’t do this, which is unfortunate, because Sonic Lost World has some pretty big spikes in difficulty in a few places, especially as you near the end of the game. I remember seeing the Game Over screen a lot, because there was no reliable way to get more lives outside of slowly grinding for one or two here and there.

Now, Sonic’s collectibles serve a double purpose: in addition to building towards a free 1up, they are also a measurement of his health. But no matter how many rings you’re holding, Sonic (at least in Lost World) will only drop 20 rings to be recollected. Now, this is important, because levels are still designed to have secret caches of rings – in particular, Sonic Lost World has some areas with 40, 50, even 100+ rings tucked away in corners just out of sight. But if you only drop a maximum of 20 rings, then why do you need numbers greater than that? It doesn’t make any sense, does it? Again: it feels like something they removed either because they intended to replace it with something else, or because they made a dumb mistake. Two months after release they patched the game to restore the “100 rings = 1up” behavior (on top of the Yoshi DLC that buries you in endless free 1ups), but it’s baffling that wasn’t the norm to begin with. It’s the sort of thing that should’ve been an obvious problem for anyone who thought about it for more than 30 seconds. Was it just a bug? We’ll never know.

Maybe it was a bug. Maybe Sonic Lost World wasn’t finished. If you get 100% completion on the game, you get a dialog box about receiving a special reward but there’s no reward to be found. You don’t get anything for 100% completion, even though the game explicitly tells you that you do. Or how about this: the game has 30+ minutes of fully voiced, animated cutscenes that can never be rewatched without starting a new game. Say what you will about the game’s crummy, plot-hole-ridden story, but missing that feature is definitely not the norm for other Sonic games.

And, man, don’t even get me started about that story. What are the Zeti? Are they the only ones of their kind? Why does a magical conch shell control them? Why can they interface with machines? When Sonic beats them all the second time, do they die or are they still alive? Why don’t they interface with more machines?(like, say, Eggman’s big mech suit?) Why do the Zeti even care about Sonic at all? Weren’t they just against Eggman? If Sonic, with zero hesitation, freed them from Eggman’s control, shouldn’t they be indebted to him for freeing them from slavery? Why do they want to take over the world? What was stopping them before?Couldn’t Eggman launch his energy siphon device from somewhere else besides The Lost Hex planet? If outfitting Tails with all the robot junk made the Zeti afraid of him, why didn’t he use it to help Sonic? If all the wisps flew back to their own home planets, why are so many of them hanging out on The Lost Hex? Why are there NEW wisps that we’ve never seen before? Are they indigenous to other planets besides Planet Wisp? What do those planets look like? Why didn’t Eggman use these new wisps in Sonic Colors? If the wisps are still a source of energy and they’re still hanging around, why does Eggman need to drain energy from his own planet? Couldn’t he just use the wisps again? Wouldn’t it also make more sense for Eggman to drain The Lost Hex of its planetary energy instead of his own planet?

(And on and on and on…)