#im completely normal about these two factions

[urethrachr0nicles]

had a (poorly made) vision

[creativebrainrot]

girl help im haunted by demihuman sex

[jessepinwheel]

parex is deliciously dark, love it!

what happens during the coup and who survives it? im picturing three or more assassins after jango (one from the obi-clones, one from death watch, one from the rebellion, others from other factions) all showing up having picked the same assassination time lol

well, you're not entirely wrong. the coup does involve two assassination attempts happening at the same time--one by the obi-clones and the rebellion, and one by death watch

basically what's going on is that every year on empire day there's a ceremony where someone can challenge the emperor for the right to rule. if the challenger wins, then they get to be the new emperor. obviously, because this ceremony takes place in keldabe, the only people who are available to make this challenge are generally high-ranking mandalorians. anyways, the emperor generally does not lose these fights because the emperor is allowed to use the darksaber which is kind of an unfair advantage. basically this is a public way to defend your legitimacy to rule as well as kill people who disagree with you. jango, for all his faults, is still very good at fighting, so this has worked very well for him despite death watch sending people year after year to try and take the throne from him (because if they assassinate him the normal way, right of succession goes down to cody, and death watch doesn't want the emperor to be a clone)

anyways. the very start of parex begins on empire day right after jango kills his last challenger, duke adonai kryze, a leader in the traditionalist movement that basically hates everything jaster and jango have done. they thought that would work because jango was recovering from getting horribly poisoned during the conquest of zygerria, which led to him needing an organ transplant. obviously didn't work out, jango still killed the shit out of adonai, but obviously killing a major leader in death watch and friends shook things up and they decide that they need a new strategy to get rid of jango and seize power for good

in the meantime (I'll get to the coup in a bit don't worry) jango hates the jedi so much that he has a secret weapon developed: a giant space laser that will be able to wipe their entire settlement off the map. this is why he's hankering so hard to try and find where the jedi are hiding because he needs to send the death laser there to kill them all. as you might expect this death laser plays a pretty major role over the course of the story

well, death watch has a plan to seize control of mandalore: they kidnap cody and steal his armor, then use fox (who's brainwashed all to hell by the empire and then brainwashed again by death watch) to identity theft cody and challenge jango for the throne. death watch has been training fox to fight with a lightsaber, so he won't get unilaterally fucked over by the darksaber. the idea is that if he wins, he takes power as the new emperor and acts as death watch's puppet ruler. if he loses, then death watch uses the death laser that they have seized control over, and blast keldabe off the map.

meanwhile, the obi-clones and friends have a more traditional assassination/coup plan, which is to have cin snipe jango in the face on live television, and then simultaneously kill pretty much everyone in the line of succession as well as all the major leaders in the empire, which will cause a huge power vacuum which hopefully leads to mandalorian factions infighting as they are wont to do, causing their eventual collapse. there's also a bunch of jedi and friends who are going to infiltrate the death laser so that keldabe (and all the people inside it) don't get atomized

well, cin gets interrupted and isn't able to shoot jango in the face, and fox is about to stand up and challenge jango, which is when kote makes the snap decision to step up and make the challenge himself. jango, who was under the impression that kote was in love with him, is obviously completely taken off-guard by this. kote lists out all the reasons jango sucks on live television, and jango's like 'you're not a real mandalorian etc' to which kote is like sure I'm not, and strips all of his armor so he can fight jango with just himself.

anyways, kote kicks jango's ass. kote's been sparring with jango and helping him put on his armor for a year now, so he knows exactly how jango fights and this time he's using the force to help him win. with jango defeated, obi-wan takes over kote's body and destroys the darksaber on live television, then beheads jango with his own lightsaber (which jango has been keeping as a trophy for the last fifteen years) which kicks off the coup

after that is chaos. a whole lot of death watch get murdered by their obi-clones including pre. satine kills bo-katan because she found out that bo-katan killed ben. ventress kills her handler. rex has to fight fox and gets his arm cut off. myles gets boba and obi-wan out of the palace. cody gets backstabbed by his obi-clone (but not killed). a lot of obi-clones die though not our named ones (who are still alive at this point anyways). the end result is that obi-wan finally gets out of jango's torture basement, while mandalore is in complete shambles with the entire line of succession taken out and the darksaber destroyed leading to massive infighting and the collapse of all the empire's main enforcement mechanisms

so basically, obi-wan's plan to make 2000 clone sons to help him destroy the mandalorian empire totally worked :)

ask me questions about parasitic extraction, the role reversal mandalorian empire au that I have

[greatwargospel]

My thoughts on the commonwealth BOS

I think the brotherhood of steel is really interesting and is kind of ignored in a lot of ways past the gung-ho militancy, so im posting abou it :). inspired by recently doing blind betrayal and my sister having an oc of a brotherhood member who gets maxson court martialed by the other elders. A lot of this is my interpretation and what ive read on the wiki. Essentially, the brotherhood as it stands in the commonwealth is bad, not only by normal means but by brotherhood means in some regards.

Outsider Recruits & The Codex

The codex, much to my disappointment, is not completely written out rulebook for the player to read in any of the fallout games, so we must take what is given to us. There are two or so different instances where the codex is quoted to reaffirm the isolationist polices of the brotherhood, in both FNV and FO3.

"We do not help them, or let them in. We keep knowledge they must never have" - Elder McNamara (FNV)

Despite it being ruled that outsiders are only allowed to join under very specfic circumstances, the Maxson allows for multiple unimpressive wastelanders to join the faction, following the precedent set forth by Elder Lyons in DC (Despite their iteration looking down on Lyons' leadership as a whole). The reason Lyons had to recruit wastelanders was due to Lyons not recieving as much support from Lost Hills council and other western chapters.

The Chain That Binds

I am really surprised that no one brings up the chain that binds in discussion about the commonwealth brotherhood, especially in reference to blind betrayal.

"Orders are to observe the flow and not skip ranks. A superior may only give orders to his direct subordinates, and not to those beneath them..." - Hidden Valley Terminal Entries (FNV)

As a knight, you are sent to answer to Maxson about Paladin Danse's synthhood, after convincing him you were none the wiser, Maxson gives you a direct order as elder to execute danse. This order skips roughly 12 different ranks that couldve given the order. The issue is that danse is your sponsor and direct commanding officer. The immediate and emergency gap in chain of command causes an issue but i do feel like there were either senior/head knights or paladins that you could be placed in their charge to give you the execution order.

[EDIT: Danse only gives you one mission during the entire BOS questline. Maxson mightve broken the chain the moment he asks you to Fort Strong. The other quests given by the Proctors and Lancer-Captain Kells are more iffy due to them not being your commanding officer but being roughly above rank but in different fields]

Requisitions

Upon meeting Proctor Teagan for the first time in the Prydwen he informs you that you will have to purchase your own...everything from him, rather than it being assigned to you like a regular military. This in itself is not a big issue like breaking a codex rule but more on the difference the commonwealth order between western branches as members traditionally do not have to pay for the services within the brotherhood unless you are an outsider recruit.

"I'm sorry, but you are an outsider. After you're in the Brotherhood for ten years or so I'll be able to do the operation for free." - Dr. Lorri (Fallout)

This can be bypassed once again by extenuating circumstances and the outsider member being a higher ranking member, but due to the BOS allowing more outsiders to join up.

So What?

I am a fan of fallout and the writing and worldbuilding of the brotherhood, so i want to take ceratain aspects and not change them but enhance them, allow maxsons chapter to be fucked. There are certain things that the BOS participates in like harrasing/threatening settlements into giving over crops and looking down upon Lyons attempts at altruism that could be really interestingly handeled, thats just kind swept under the rug. This is just a list of like codex and brotherhood rules that the commonwealth chapter doesnt really abideby though.

[skybristle]

im just gonna dump a ton of starlight thoughts i had from my dms with mac moonsofmachinery because ast is Really fucking hard for me to write and. Idk. What do you think? my brains kinda mush rn but.... shakes her around... a lot of this is disorganized sorry it was very train of thought when i was writing it. @arsonstick come get your thangggg. i cut out what mac said where it wasn't relevant but some of it was important for flow of conversation

I think its very like. Interesting??? How ast went from being so hardworking towards the problem and nobody bothered her [partially because of adversion after maw, partially because of the group being generally a disorganized clusterfuck] but she was basically the only bh iterator who like

Actually. Did their job.Besides sparks but sparks is doing it for fucked up reasons

So im like. Very intrigued by whatever sent it spiraling and its motivations and feelings through it

Especially being rather asocial

If i hadddddd to guess [idk why im talking like this with my own characters it makes sense in my rambling work with me here mac] it Probably has something to do with the triple affirmative and iterator soceity basically descending into chaos

and factions

probably aligned with some fucked up form of sliverism for a time in regards to seeking personal ascension??? Maybe the only way she saw would be to take the old path. A blend of her very traditional and devoted beliefs and all of this new stuff it was introduced to via aurora

And that begins to stir in asts mind and makes a very. Very deadly combination

i think it would be fun too if like the culture of her city really rejected the streamlining of ascension and void fluid these days. Probably believed you had to actually make the pilgrimmage- otherwise you're not REALLY going to the void sea are you?

So maybe i won't move the rift. It would be really cool if there was all of these religious tunnels and stuff baked into the walls of it as you descend down, down, down. Like two pathways of religious ruins damaged by rain in a v shape sort of region if it was in the game

i think the sliver fiasco would have really enlightened her to like. The futility of it all and what she was doing. Inherently seeking a solution kind of went against the very traditional and grounded principles of her ancients- and she DID genuinely believe in her ancients. in some fucked up twisted way by breaking taboo and doing what ast does to whispers and etc etc etc it believes its following what they would have wanted. What silk truly would have wanted for their daughter

Because i think starlight at least in the beginning was seeking the solution, well, for her parents. And believed in their cause of freeing the world after they left. But after sliver left them with no answers whats the fucking point? Which i feel like is the mindset of a LOT of iterators. But. You know. She has weird and strange diseases

Got to imagine talking to basically no-one and being left in asts own echo chamber was. Uhm. Not good for it being sane and normal about it. Like yeah a lot of unstable iterators were effected badly and are also isolated but you know most of them like. Chat to people regularly and have friends and shit. starlight DIDN'T

which is why despite her apathy she gets SO ATTACHED to people who indulge her. Its why she answers to maws beck and call. Especially when maw frames herself as a 'higher power' and starlight is still kind of in a way scrambling after its beliefs in ascension were so shaken

I genuinely like. Believe that starlight did that to whispers with the intention of freeing them. She knew better. They were scared and didn't know themself and were trapped in a body that didn't let them live. Ast had to free them. Ast had to

Maybe the price to pay is some proding, some experimentation, some data points for next time

To it its completely fucking reasonable!! which just goes to show how FUCKED she's gotten

MAC: "honestly the fact starlight thinks ast is doing the right thing 'freeing' whispers makes it so much worse to me than if. it'd just been out of pure maw-like malice

ITS SO FUCKED UP..."

YEAH. AND I THINK ITS EXTRA FUCKED BECAUSE MAW IS MALICIOUS. SHE WANTS TO HURT PEOPLE AND HAS STARLIGHT WRAPPED ALL AROUND HER FUCKING FINGER

MAC: "Dude starlight could've been a fine person given different circumstances, she's not. actively malicious. but god do her actions tend to end in the worst things possi.... ohhhhhh heyyyy wait, sounds like THE ENTIRE PLOT OF BENDING HORIZONS!!!!"

I think starlight seeking aurora originally is like... so interesting too. Ast probably heard MANY of her citizens bitch and whine about albedo but you know. When the gears start turning and she starts diverging. Maybe. Maybe aurora knows something. Maybe aurora can put this all to bed- can make her feel normal and go back to work and be fine and content again. But aurora just opens the fucking floodgates and basically gives it all the sliverist and taboo chats and etc

TO him its like. He doessnt see consequences but also not much direct responsibility in things because 'well anyone can find anything eventually' which. Uhm. Aurora honey starlight would NOT have gone on global had you not gone 'welllll I don't know but all of these people seem to be talking about it :3"

i think starlight genuinely saw aurora as someone with such interesting and open perspective and ast was SO goddamn desprate to be affirmed. and. i mean. Aurora blew it off but Boy Did It Get Affirmed

[idv-hc-center]

happy 100 followers!! can i request smut 19 for jose with a submissive pre surgery trans man reader? man thats a mouthful.. but no harm in being specific right?

dw i don't mind, im more than happy to write for you

19 - "how funny do you think teasing is now?"

warnings: nsfw, unprotected sex, edging

words: 1.2k

nsfw under the cut

Duo hunters matches were almost never taken seriously by both factions. Many times hunters went friendly, or survivors just did anything other than decoding. It was a relief from normally tough matches, not to mention the joy of being able to shoot a hunter with a flare gun.

You were one of those survivors who wanted to do anything other than decode, but right now, you were stuck with your boyfriend, Jose. He was a bit of pain in the ass, saying how you should also treat this kind of match seriously and making you decode with him despite your whining.

He ignored your every protest as he tried to focus on decoding, but you weren't going to leave it like that.

"Can I at least check if they are friendly?" you complained, following being shocked by the machine after missing the calibration.

"At least two different people got hit already. I don't think they are." he responded in a cold manner trying his hardest to focus on the machine.

You let out a loud sigh when an idea popped into your head. With one hand still on the machine, you put the other one somewhere on his chest. Jose let out an annoyed sigh. "Please just focus on the-" but he was quickly silenced with you pulling him into a kiss.

"You're really that interested in that machine? Maybe we could do something more pleasurable." you chuckled. You were more toying with him than actually expecting him to do something. You knew he wouldn't dare to do anything like that during the match, so you could tease him as much as you pleased.

Jose let out yet another annoyed sigh. He knew damn well what you were doing, and well, it was working. "I swear to God if you don't stop now, I'm going-" you interrupted him once again by brushing your hand past his crotch. "You are going to do what, captain?"

You could see something snap inside of him when you just pushed him away. "Oh! Look, someone got chaired! I think you should rescue them." you smiled at him innocently. And oh, Jose was pissed. He had to take few deep breaths in order to collect himself before leaving. He didn't say anything, but you could see his stare on yourself. Yeah, you were going to pay for that.

Quickly after the match ended, you got dragged by Jose back to your shared room. You got pushed on your bed as he was standing looking at you. "So you think teasing is so funny? Well, we are going to check that." Jose smirked as he went over to you. He quickly began taking off your clothes while kissing every piece of your revealed skin.

He was taking his sweet time with it, leaving marks all over your body but still omitting your more sensitive areas. He was leaving a trail down your chest and then stomach, but when he got to your crotch, he quickly moved up, leaving you whining. As if oblivious to it, he kept kissing you with his hands tracing your body. After some time, you got frustrated and almost mindlessly grabbed his hand, trying to pull it down your crotch, but he quickly pulled it away.

"Oh, is someone already had enough? Well, too bad we are only starting." He chuckled at your helpless attempt and went back to marking your body. After many instances of you whimpering and jerking your hips trying to get any friction, he finally paid some attention to your crotch. He ran one of his fingers across your entrance and smirked. "You are already this wet."

You whined again, trying to rub against his hand for any friction, but he just smirked in response. He pushed his fingers inside you, but the tips of them were barely kissing your entrance. You tried to push down to force them deeper, but he immediately pushed your hips down, keeping you in place. He was toying with your entrance, never pushing, deep enough for any satisfaction, just growing irritation.

At this point, you were a panting mess begging him just to fuck you, but he was taking his sweet time examining your body. With every beg and curse, his smirk just grew wider. "How funny do you think teasing is now?" he finally pushed his fingers deeper what resulted in your cursing loudly. "Stop being such an asshole and fuck me already." you hissed, but when he took his hand away, you let out another whine.

"Okay, I'm sorry, just please do something more..." you squeezed his arm, begging for anything. Jose thought about it for a while before unbuckling his pants. Finally. You thought to yourself, letting out a relieved sigh, but he wasn't done with you.

You threw your head back as you felt him brushing his length against your entrance. You let out a shaky moan when he started to push in, but Jose was taking his time even with it, making you again move against him, trying to push him deeper inside.

"Oh, you want it that bad?" He let out another chuckle before suddenly moving, causing you to yelp. Jose seemed to forget about his revenge as he started to move faster and deeper without any teasing, which resulted in waves of pleasure coming through your whole body.

Your head was completely fogged up, as you continued to moan his name without any care in the world. "I'm close." you shoved your nails into his arm. All this teasing was enough to bring you over the edge, so it wasn't surprising you were already close. But to your surprise and disappointment, when you were about to reach climax, Jose stopped.

He pulled out, looking at your expression change as you whined again. "You asshole..." you panted as you felt your orgasm pass right by you. Jose just chuckled, watching you struggle to calm down.

It was too much. You didn't know whether you wanted to beg him to let you finish or curse him out. Meanwhile, Jose was just smirking at you. When he felt like you were finally over it, he moved closer to you before kissing you.

"If you are going to do that again, I would prefer you just to go." you scoffed. It wasn't necessarily true. You were just pissed.

"Oh really?" you felt him move away before you grabbing his arms to stop him.

"No! Just...uh, let me finish this time." you moved him closer.

"I will think about it." Jose smiled before kissing you to silence your whine and pushed inside you once again.

You moaned but got quickly silenced as he started to move inside you making you gasp for air. Through your lips slipped occasional begs and praises towards him. Quickly you were in the same state you were a few minutes ago before he decided to be an asshole and pull out. This time you just begged him to continue, and to your surprise, he obliged, making you reach your climax.

You threw your head back as you basically screamed his name before falling down on the mattress. Well, that was a lot. You loudly panted as you felt him lay next to you.

"You're such an asshole."

[oswednesday]

the marks i like the most in the magnus archives are ones that arnt physical but a Feeling that leads to compulsion, like the traveler marked by the lonely as they looked out to sea, or jon frightened by that spider thing so that’s what i was going with in backstory but ive been Thinking like whatever statement i write for them i think itll be focused more on the book and less of anything so backstory update:

so its like super obvi that all the other siblings are a bust for the beholding cult’s american branch’s schemes, like m was pre-discarded for not showing promise early on and that intintla disappointment like had lowered the evil expectations of the next set of children, with the one that was like the Best posible outcome like sabotaged by fate and very dramatically stolen away by the closest thing to an enemy faction, so the only one left on the Path is m because theyre that kind of accomidating and thats met with like oh its you thats better than nothing, saving face kinda thing from the haviland branch

the university they go to is like, affiliated with the compound (which is also just a reputable school like if scientology was the Settlers religion its like a really fancy elite boarding school as its face) and the university has basically a beholding avatar pipeline program thats like Library Science that theyre enrolled it, they find out very quickly that how they grew up wasnt normal at all and like their classmates are just like wow you came from There? [rich person impressed voice] so they just make up a completely Rich Person Normal life to have and blend in with their classmates the best they can, they go to their dorm on a friday (the sibling name that became an avatar for the end, its perhaps unrelated to this event, perhaps not) to their roommate like hanging in their shared space

like irrationally taking the blame for it (or maybe not irrationally, like a biggest like I Guess delusional dread of mine is i make people sicker like that, so maybe theres like some passive powers at work here already), they spend the weekend discarding of the body and learning everything they can about this person, they were an art major but were dropping so many classes it wasnt full time and they have few to no social connentions and barely kept up with anything so, m just like fully takes over this person’s life rather than report the death, like they go to the classes and somehow it seems like no one noticed the difference (maybe there’s a statement somewhere about that where someone Did but not the same effect as the not thing) they learn enough through stuff to mimic their texting style keep up with that, it gets so involved they have a separate friend group for them, join an arts club, get in touch with estranged relations via text/email

and all this insane nonsense is going really well until someone from the compound in a different program recognizes them and they just Snap from fear of being exposed (like its totally a none insidious event like you went to fancy school go to the next fancy school), they become like super convinced theyre being monitored like bash up their dorm looking for camera, they take to looking for tracking devices in their body, first in the privacy of their own dorm and then around campus in bathrooms just like digging into their skin looking for it, they have an episode of that where they’re doing that in the hall of the dorm just like their arms gouged open and digging, two people recognize them from the separate lives theyre living, and its emergency care to longer term mental health facility 

so theyre like, okay im going to tell the truth and get better, and the staff treat it like a delusion cause its like an all seeing evil eye god and cults and I Likely Have Evil Magic Powers and i was a rejected messiah and all that, the person whose idenity they assumed just has no records their doctors can find so they go to assume thats all fabricated as well (its just covered up as you do)

on the way to group therapy they just get like dissociatively lost and end up in an old pre-renovation rec room with like faded grinning wall art, faded bright plastics, they cant get out cause the room had been sealed off to start with and a book on like the frozen in time remains of a bookshelf catches their eyes

it’s the cow’s head and they get Nice and Lost in it, when the staff eventually find them their body is like catatonic, everything out from there is the same like a relative comes to collect them, that relative is a house, they get married, there’s the great twisting, then there isnt the great twisting

SO their beholding mark is physically a bunch of scars on their body that the conceptual body doesnt share and the dream body doesnt either, the lonely mark is less literal but def is like martial cuffs links which they can bring into the conceptual body and they do which effects their abilities like even when they dont theres still an Effect 

[vore-scientist]

Fantasy Soap Opera #1: Ice Princess

I honestly don’t know where I will ever put this into a story in it’s entirety so im putting it here... It’s a really weird disjointed infodump. 

No vore or GT sorry, just really weird shit. Nothing that needs warnings. it’s just odd and crazy. 

What are Fantasy Soap Operas? They are Soap Operas that exist in Mystic Woods. People use magic mirrors to watch them performed live*. Each episode is performed for one week, three times a day (note: weeks are 8 days). There is then a 7 day break as the next episode is rehearsed. On the 8th day the episode is performed one more time (well three more times in one day), the next day the new episode starts airing. 

[each show has several casts, usually 4, each one performing two days a week]

*(Magic Mirrors are VERY EXPENSIVE MAGIC ITEMS! With the advent of Fantasy Soap Operas, simplified mirrors were made that can connect to only the mirrors of the desired theater companies, like buying a cable subscription. This is significantly cheaper than a True Magic Mirror which can connect to any mirror and even find/show things where mirrors do not exist if a spell is applied and the right question is asked)

Soap Opera Summary #1: Ice Princess

This is a world much like yours and mine, but always on the brink of calamity thanks to unseen factions that were always fighting. Witches, wizards, warlocks, sorcerers, magicians, and archeologists. 

They are all after The Ice Princess. A legendary diamond unearthed and cut by one of The First Mages. The tales say that it contains unlimited magical power.

But it was just a story...

Until recently, as Archeologists uncover evidence of it’s existence, the magical powers that be all want to find it.

Backstory ( That is slowly revealed in show!!! and of course, in many versions, each time more is added or the story is retold very differently!!!)

The Ice Princess is/was a diamond. The First Mage found it, cut it, and then gave it life, gave it a soul. As the Mage aged he feared his knowledge would be lost! He needed to extend his life. He got progressively crazier and moody, and eventually bonded the Ice Princess to his heart. Either his life would extend and or the Ice Princess would take over, but retain his memories, which achieve the same goal.

Note: the First Mage was one of 6 First Mages, all identical. They were arguing over who would bond to the Ice Princess , but one of them eventually did it in secret. Two of them ended up dead, killed by the Ice Mage who went insane. The other three fled with their notes to the far corners of the world.

Anyways, the process didn’t even work the way The First Mage had hoped. Instead of extending his life it shortened it [note: He was like 30 at the time, the 6 mages were just stupidly worried about the future]. But bonding his soul to the Ice Princess, becoming The Ice Mage, did gain him it, they, something. Clarity. They were going to die soon, but the Ice Princess could live on, it just needed a body that wouldn’t rot away. So The Ice Mage built an automaton, powered by their now crystal heart. Separating the Heart from the Body separated the souls of Mage and the Princess, but not perfectly. So desperate was the soul of the Mage to live on, as the body without a heart used it’s final breaths to install the heart into the automaton. It managed to “leave fingerprints” on the Princess, leaving it with memories, and some of the Mage’s personality. So traumatic was the experience of the soul being torn, the automaton shut down only a few hours after activating. Laying dormant in the ancient Mage Laboratory. So powerful was the magic used to even attempt this feat, the ground had shaken, and the Laboratory sunk into the earth, buried. Volcanoes had risen around it, and lava flowed over top, sealing the laboratory. The land was reclaimed and is a lush jungle now.

A thousand years later, when his siblings made an attempt to find him, they found nothing. No trace. And while they had each individually extended their lives (One by body jumping (evil), one by becoming undead (less evil), one with a terrible curse to live forever in a cycle (no longer evil). Such cycle is undefined as of now). They go their separate ways again.

Another thousand years pass and that’s where the current story really takes place (aside from flashbacks, which more of then not are inaccurate and constantly ret-conned) 

Unbeknownst to the factions, several high ranking members are direct descendents of the First Mages. And some of the new rookies as well.

Several of the factions have members who are in secret relationships, or spies for other factions, or related to people in other factors, or a mix of all of these. Members who are also undead, or monsters, or have ulterior motives of revenge unrelated to the Ice Princess.

Each episode focuses on one faction, rotating through the six, and sometimes pausing to show seemingly unrelated groups, normal guilds like blacksmiths or tailors, people with normal lives who end up falling into the mess of the Factions.

---

Where the show is currently::

A group of rookies, an unlikely friendship of one person from each faction, were each sent to the same jungle on a fools errand. They found each other and keep finding odd creatures, mutated, magical, otherworldly, as they get closer to the center of the jungle. (that’s the recap. But there’s been like 100 episodes of crazy treasure hunting and maps and conspiracies and lies and switching sides and betrayals, red herrings, battles! The new season started with introducing these rookies, or rather, bringing them to the forefront, following them each into the jungle)

Now to the current episode:

Where they find a massive tree growing over the chasm entrance to a cave. Inside is even weirder, plants and animals that are living on magic, not light. The cave starts to be less natural, more constructed.

The lab has been found! The automaton activated by the presence of other lives, and spotting one of the rookie Wizards, attacked, convinced they were their sibling come to steal their heart. Turns out that rookie is one of those direct descendants who just didn’t know. They are lauded and a bunch of people love and hate them for their famous lineage (so far, no other descendants have been revealed, that comes later, most of the backstory is completely unknown. Right now it’s 1 First Mage though pieces of a story about some love between the diamond and the mage and soul bonding is being pieced together).

Escape the Lair: The terrible automaton tries it’s best to kill the rookies, and does kill the sorcerer (who will rise as a undead thrall), maims the archeologist (who slowly becomes infected with some magical disease from the wound). Getting out is very difficult as crystals are springing from the walls ceiling and floors, but they make it out, only to find every nasty beast converging on the cave. They escape and the massive tree uproots itself to try and snatch the fleeing people, but falls into the cave. It cannot get out, but it also effectively is guarding the hole.

They get back and within each faction they are celebrated. They do not mention the others, they tell it as if they were alone.

The episode ends with the reveal that The rookie of The Warlocks is actually one of the original First Mages. But after so many cycles they stopped trying to retain memories and just, lives new lives. They dont remember. They remember now, but do not show it. They are given a few days off to recuperate, and go to The Mages, as they are secretly sleeping with a head magician. they do have sex that night. The Magician notes that they seem different, they did things tonight they had never done, it was like they slept with a different person]. They reveal who they are and kill the magician. (end episode. Note: that magician does not stay dead, and comes back for revenge!)

-----

If you are still confused at the airing schedule for the show I made a kinda calendar that shows how a month of episodes works out (about 2 episodes per month, example if the first day of the month was also the first day of the week). A checkmark means the episode airs that day, at three different times. 

months all have 32 days

[fipindustries]

i finished warbreaker

i have lots of thoughts on the matter, let’s break it down into parts

the book itself

not as good as mistborn. perhaps aesthetic preference, perhaps mistborn had three books to fully develop into a complex intricate world, perhaps i just really fucking like victorian gothic.

there is a line between “not explaining everything to the reader but let it be known that there is more to this world” and “tease interesting story beats and do nothing with them”. im afraid that warbreaker errs on the latter.

specially with it’s magic system, there is so much more that could be done if someone wanted to fully explore the limits of what can be done with it. i liked the idea of a world filled with relics of a distant, more powerful and more dangerous past, when ancient magicians tried to break the system and munchkin their way into a better world and all they got as a result was world war I. it reminded me of the treatment HPMOR has with objects such as the erised mirror or the deathly hallows. This world seems ripe for a singularity and i would really like to see how that would look. but we didn’t get that, in fact we barely got a few glimpses of it, and even that, only near the end of the book. i don’t want these elements just as a twist or a quick reveal of how deep this would could go if we only bother explore a bit further, i want to actually explore all this dammit. but that is not the conceit of this story so i can’t fault it for that.

overall 7/10.

now let me go a bit more in depth about...

the writer

brandon sanderson is very much a worker writer. a guy who won’t spend months and years nursing an idea into perfection like, say, neil gaiman, but rather he just sits down a writes a novel and he corrects it and then he publishes it and then he moves on to the next thing, rinse repeat. the strength that comes with it is that you get to develop a lot of experience and practice this way, you get to live comfortably off your work and your readers have a bountiful trove of books to plunder through. but there is, i feel, a bad side to this.

usually when you are this kind of relentless writer your novels will tend to be... how to put it?

is like all your books will have [intresting plot] that will involve [complex characters] within [careful worldbuilding], and that is it. not a lot more, not a lot less. All the elements to make [good novel] will be there, and indeed it will be a [good novel]. Yet, to me, a truly fantastic book is something that has to feel unexpected, not just in the plot, which very well could have all sorts of meandering twists and shocking turns, but the execution itself. @nostalgebraist said it in his review of too like the lightning:

I could, perhaps, try to convey what is good about this book by listing everything it does well; by telling you that, for a great range of things readers might want out of a novel, this book does them, and with impressive execution too.

But there is another thing, beyond this, where one says instead: "I don't know what you're doing, not anymore. You have passed into a territory not found on my charts, where you move through hoops the like of which I have never seen, and perform feats of magic that leave me unable to say what the trick was, if indeed there was a trick at all. I am not testing you anymore. This is a different kind of interaction. You have me in your clutches. More, please."

all of this is specially interesting to me when i compare branderson with wildbow. And i think the comparison is fair considering wildbow is also very much a worker writer, in fact he might be the poster child for worker writers all around the world, sorry stephen king.

i used to complain that wildbow’s prose didn’t have a whole lot of flavor to it. That he only wrote, again, [good books] with [interesting characters] within a [intricate plot], because that is all you can really do when you are writing serially with no editing, no revision, no items, fox only, final destination.

but now i have to revise that assessment. i think what was actually happening was that i have been tasting wildbow for so long that his flavor grew dull to me. i got so accustomed to reading him and nothing else that i forgot this is not the normal standard style of writing. wildbow manages to imprint a level of raw, visceral emotion to his narration of the like which i have not found in sanderson. on top of that his worlds feel a lot more alive, whatever problems the protagonists are facing, they are never the one problem the whole world cares about and is dealing with in their own way. in a sanderson book (as far as i have seen, admittedly, i have only read two series of his) there is the one conflict, the one doomsday scenario. it might be broken down into smaller, discreet issues, but is all the same plot. in wildbow there is not limit to the different, completely unrelated problems, multiple factions, multiple villains, multiple plots, yes, even multiple doomsday scenarios.

of course that is the advantage that comes when your story doesnt have to be shorter than the chrysler building when physically published. and i will say this for sanderson: is nice reading a book that can actually get it’s point across and move things along and be done with it, all in the span of one book.

to conclude

brandon made me appreciate wildbow a lot more. It also made me appreciate the fact that im kind of finnicky when it comes to books.

as of lately im starting to feel more and more the huge investment in time and effort that can be reading a whole novel, time and effort that i should very much be investing on other things. so if anything rubs me the wrong way at any point, no matter how petty it might be, i will immediately discount points. i will not enjoy a book unless it gives me something not only well done but actually mindbogglingly spectacular. problem is that to find (and get into) those books is a huge investment all it’s own and i don’t want to give up reading just because a novel doesn’t pass my arbitrarily high standards.

so yeah, branderson is as good as people led me to believe, and not a single bit more.

[shanny-tired]

Old Friends

“Maybe I will visit Naz. It has been awhile since I have had her cooking. Farewell, little one.”

The words Shanaris spoke after what she felt was a job well done held true. A few nights passed, and Shanaris was in Moonglade during something of a downpour. Shanaris loved rain, but not when it ended up drenching her hair and ruining what could usually be hours of work. Regardless, she kept moving. Luckily where Naz resided had its own roof-- it was the public shelter for visitors after all. Those who wished to intake the sanctity of Moonglade and see what true peace is like usually end up staying for more than a single day. Since not many wished to enjoy a pleasant nap in a barrow or tree, a longhouse fit for multiple people held furnishings suitable for the spoiled. No doors or windows, everything was open. It meant to still give a natural experience with more modern comforts.

Shanaris strolled on in, not entirely drenched thanks to the canopy that covered a majority of the grove. Naz stood there, cleaning cups. A vibrantly blue troll with signs that dipped into primal natures but still held such a sophisticated sense of self; for a troll at least. It only took a moment for Naz to notice Shanaris. She snapped her head up to catch the elf walking toward her. She smiled, setting the cup down and leaning against the table.

“Shanaris! Ain’t seen ya in awhile. Y’smell different, mon. No more jungle?” Acute senses as ever.

Shanaris shook her head, softly chuckling as she took a seat in front of Naz, resting her hands on her knees. Her head bowed, 

“Naz, keen as ever I see. I relocated due to the state of the world. Un’goro is far too close to Silithus, and I am sure we both know how things continue to escalate in such a land.” 

Her head shook, as if to shake away such a thought. 

“I missed you Naz-- not just for your cooking this time.”

Naz hummed with a grin by the compliment, but such was quick to falter when thoughts returned to the subject that the world was in a state of crisis over. 

“Azeroth in hurtin’ Shan. So many of us were killed, or worse, with the Legion attacks. Now with that sword pokin’ out like an orc at the sight o’ meat, and the two factions at it again, there are even fewer around. Moo’s and Trolls be supportin’ the Horde while the elves and fur rugs support the Alliance. Only gonna get worse. ‘Ole teach said there a darkness comin’. Been here to protect Moonglade since I started this path, I ain’t gonna let blue or red try to disrupt what’s been a sacred land for thousands of years.” 

With confidence she pounded at her chest. Shanaris’ chuckle was brief from the display given.

“Been practicin’ my skills. I can do some pretty crazy stuff since before the Legion invaded. Cookin’ skills and druid skills. Loa blessed me to be great and damnit I’m gonna. Met a pretty cute dude along that ride. Took awhile to convince ‘im to not be such a pride-baby. ‘Horde this, Horde that’! Stuff is tedious Shan. Still a fighter n’ all, but he been protectin’ Darkspear villages instead of heavy stuff. What about you huh? What’s y’take on all this mon’?”

Shanaris took a breath, amazed that Naz had been so busy in only a few years. In made Shanaris remember that not all took things as slowly as one of her own longevity would. Her hands began to idly fold and braid strands of hair as she spoke.

“I have seen the sword do more than tear the world in two once more. Druids, be they weaker or more susceptible to nature’s cries, grow mad from the pain Azeroth is in. I only hope you and those I know do not involve themselves too deeply with this war. I intend to stay away from it. Pandaria seems to be untouched by the two factions, and it is where I will be staying now. Maybe Kalimdor will be a home once more...but not for years it seems.” 

Shanaris sighed, and Naz followed thereafter. A sense of gloom peeked out from within the elf. To her, the people of Azeroth were hopeless. Avarice and hate flood the land to create war without care for the lands around it. Shanaris gripped her melancholy thoughts and buried them back just as the rest of her emotions.

“All is not totally doomed however. Despite the world, I think... I am happy.”

“Whoa there mon’. Happy? Where’d y’put Shanaris? The Shan I know wears that cute grumpy look ever since we were still little tree witches.” Naz chuckled, obviously on the ride to make a lighter atmosphere as to not keeps things entirely serious. Shanaris rolled her eyes, but not due to complete annoyance of Naz’s jests.

“Oh be quiet-- content then. I am content. Children, peaceful settlement. I could retire from everything right now if I wanted and live the rest of my days in peaceful solitude.”

“Why don’t ya then? Y’always been talking about taking it easy. Already cut ties with the Circle from what I heard.”

“I still have to protect things. Once nothing I cherish needs protection then I will rest. That...reminds me-- two favors?” Shanaris asked with a bit more emotion in her voice than the norm.

“Sure, whatcha need mon’?”

“The first is a meal. Your specialty. One for me right now and the other sealed and packed for the trip-- a little surprise for someone. I have told them about your cooking and it even made me hungry for your food.”

“Easy! Ain’t gettin’ much customers as of late so I’m expecting some coin in return for this.”

“Of course. Money is hardly an issue for me.” 

Naz took a state of bewilderment, “Sheesh, gotta figure out where ya workin’ nowadays if you can just toss money like that. What’s the second favor?”

Shanaris’ lighthearted, at least for her it was such, expression faltered. “My father. He lives in Darnassus. Normally Trolls would not be welcomed but we as druids and yourself as a member of the Circle can enter with permission. I will give you as much gold as I can carry if you just...ensure his safety during the coming tides. I already lost my mother, I do not wish to lose my father as well.”

Naz slowly nodded her head, a hand reaching over to place onto Shanaris’  shoulder. “I ain’t had much family, but we’ve been knowing each other for so long y’pretty much family to me. I’ll make sure your Papa is all safe and sound, don’t even gotta pay me, but I want ya to visit more-- help me out around here sometime. Y’got kids and you don’t know how to cook yet? Idiot.” 

Naz released Shanaris’ shoulder, but the elf was quick to take Naz’ hand in her own. She placed the hand to her forehead, a gesture familiar to Naz and Shanaris. It was the symbolic manifestation of the trust and friendship Shanaris had for Naz. None other alive save for one had the same amount of acceptance as Naz. if such a thing was comparable to another gesture, it would be the same as an embrace.

“Thank you.” Shanaris stated with a softness layering her natural tone of voice. She released Naz’s hand and returned her own back to its previous placement.

“Don’t worry about it Shan. S’what friends are for.” Shanaris grinned, an genuine grin that nearly forgot it had its place on the elf��s face. It was faint, an ember that sparked into the smallest flame to grant wamrth on a cold visage. Naz dipped her head in a nod before turning around and heading to the kitchen.

“Three Specials comin right up!”

“Wait-- I only asked for one.”

“I’m hungry too mon’! Could use a bit o’ eating!”

“Of course.”Shanaris sat in silence for few minutes before moving from her seat, and around the counter. She joined Naz in the kitchen to help, if not make conversation to further catch up on their past dealings. Even after Shanaris received the meals and the pairing ate their share, conversation remained.

[rassilon-imprimatur]

Something I only realized recently is that Lawrence Miles’ Interference, on-top of the many, many things it set out to do and say, is retconning the entirety of Goth Opera into a Faction Paradox plot. 

One of the cooler parts of Lawrence Miles’ mythos-breaking duology is the revelation that several organizations and cults encountered by the Doctor and the Time Lords were all actually creations (and “jokes”) of the Faction. Amongst them are two of Gareth Roberts’ villains, the Luminous (Tragedy Day) and the Order of the Rectangle (The Plotters), the latter being a hilarious retcon and explanation of the novel’s very noted (though intended) historical inaccuracy. Even more interesting is the mention of the Faction creating a Cult of the Black Sun, which truly could be no other than the Order of the Black Sun, the brotherhood of Green Lantern pisstakes who faced Gallifrey in one of the first of the early time wars. 

However, there’s another scene where Sam experiences propaganda created by Faction Paradox, and she witnesses Rassilon and an unnamed Omega placing the containment shells on the entry points for the Yssgaroth, progenitor of the Great Vampires: 

THE ENGINEER [defensively]: They’ll work. In a couple of thousand years, you won’t be able to tell that from any other planet. [Indicates the black sphere on the screen.] The only risk is if someone blows it up. Those things have still got followers in this universe, remember. Half the Council still thinks they infected you. 

[RASSILON rubs his neck. He looks uncomfortable.] 

RASSILON: I prefer to think of myself as ‘inoculated’. And we’ll just have to look after this planet’s wellbeing, won’t we? The same goes for all the other shells. We’ll make sure we keep monitors here. Get some of our agents to keep an eye on things.

While this scene was already doing a bit of revising and retconning of Virgin New Adventures ideas (The Pit, in this case, something which Miles would do more of in The Book of the War), I think it’s meant to be giving a clue about Goth Opera. 

In the novel by Paul Cornell, an old friend (and, I think, implied lover) of the Doctor, Ruath, has become obsessed with the Great Vampires, even going as far as to join the Cult of Rassilon the Vampire: 

“In a certain volume of those works of legend, there is a marginal illustration of an owl being overcome by a bat. Now, the owl is of course a bird associated with Rassilon, and I needn't explain the significance of the bat. The story itself dealt with Rassilon's battle with the vampires, how he defeated them using his bow-ships, and cast them into eternal darkness. Translating from old Gallifreyan, you can read between the lines, work out certain riddles that older translators have entered in the text. What it all comes down to is that before overthrowing the Great Vampire, Rassilon took something from him. Genetic material. In the most direct way possible, by being bitten by him!"

A Chancellery Guard passed by. Concentrating, Romana just nodded to him. 

"But that means - " 

"Yes! Lord Rassilon was a vampire towards the end of his life! That's why Time Lords and vampires share ninety-eight per cent of the same genes, why so much regeneration technology is similar to natural vampire traits. Of course, I couldn't keep this discovery to myself." 

"Of course." 

"So I sought out other students of the Undead. Together we found that inside the Capitol, in the ducts and serviceways where none but the workers go, there are vampire shrines even now. Tiny bands of heretics have kept alive the cult of Rassilon the Vampire.”

Adding to this theory, Terrance Dicks’ Blood Harvest and Cornell’s Blood Invocation (a comic “prequel” to Goth Opera) both show that many of the Great Houses (that’s not just me blending DW and FP terms as I typically do, Dicks was one of the first authors to normalize the term!) were tainted with vampirism during the Eternal War, and that some bloodlines actually managed to survive in the depths of the Citadel. 

I think there are two pretty cool interpretations we can glean from this. Firstly, Ruath and the Cult are completely wrong, and the Fact sowed the story into Gallifreyan history for the shits and giggles. Secondly, Ruath and the Cult are right, and the Faction was making the ugly truth known (for the shits and giggles). 

And really, I think the ambiguity is cool as hell. While Time Lord regeneration in many sources (such as Zagreus or The Crystal Bucephalus) was created by Rassilon, other sources, such as Titan comics and televised Who itself, implies that the base ability is a natural evolution that Rassilon later “perfected” (explaining how IM Foreman’s order and presumably the Eremites were able to create a version of the Rassilon Imprimatur). The Book of the War, on the other hand, continues to play with the idea that something vampiric exists within the Time Lords, placing the idea in our heads of the Mal’akh grotesques (the babwyns for readers of The Adventuress of Henrietta Street) are the result of early regeneration experiments with the Yssgaroth taint. 

Faction lies or Faction truth? I can’t decide which is the better option! 

(NOTE: The super beautiful element about Miles’ retconning the Order of the Black Sun, and therefore Star Death, 4-D War, and Black Sun Rising into Faction Paradox meddling is how it transforms Gallifreyan history. In that version of the story, without the Order’s agents attacking Gallifrey, Omega would not have been lost in the black hole, Rassilon’s rise to power would have happened differently, and the directional units for TARDISes would not be discovered. This turns all of Gallifrey history (and timeship history!) into a bootstrap paradox... to the undoubted snickering in the Parliament of the Eleven Day Empire.)

[jazzmckay]

fallout 2 liveblog, lads. got distracted with things and took awhile to finish this post up but it is finally here

this is incredibly excessively long. fo2 is like 5x the size of fo1 and i just ramble a lot more this time too

seriously i just popped the text into word out of curiosity and this is 10.5k ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

- the beginning is so vastly different from fallout 1 and its great. there are a couple cinematics, including a chilling introduction to the enclave, and an introduction to the elder of your tribe, in contrast to the one with the overseer in fallout 1. super cool, feels fresh. also the upgraded game engine is def noticeable. starting in a tribal village instead of a vault is rad

- so, fallout 2 is not messing around. the TUTORIAL kicked my ass so bad i ended up restarting it lmao i was able to figure out what i was supposed to do alright but the combat was brutal until i got a technique down. also this was my favourite part:

- early fallout games, a summary:

- checking out everything in arroyo was nice. tons of little things to do and people to chat with, some of which are stated to be relatives of the chosen one which is neat. i already feel more connected to home here than i did with vault 13 in the first game, while still feeling like character creation is fully up to the player; they arent IMMEDIATE relatives, its just a “this is a family and community” feeling without forcing certain close relationships. real good. it doesnt force you to act a certain way because of relationship bonds, but it does make arroyo feel like home

- most notable things i did in arroyo: rescued a dog named smoke from some geckos. bless. the geckos kicked my ass pretty easily too, i ended up sneaking past half of them to get the job done; fought some sentient plants in the shaman’s garden. interestingly, these are similar to the plants you find in vault 22, zion, and big mt. how did big mt.s death plants get over here

- off to the first town; klamath! i helped a guy guard his brahmin. i bought everyone a round at the bar. nearly got killed by some more geckos

- also stumbled into a crashed enclave vertibird (fun fact, in fallout new vegas, one of the enclave remnants members, daisy whitman, says that the only time she ever crashed a vertibird was by klamath so we can assume this is hers), complete with some corpses. one of them had a keycard on them and i have no idea what thats about but im guessing itll be important eventually?? guarding the vertibird was a damaged robot

- between that and this quest ive got to kill some “rats of unusual size” im starting to encounter all the references fallout 2 is known for

- its time to d-d-d-d-d-d-d-duel

- the rats ALSO kicked my ass. everything is kicking my ass. normal rats are fine because you can manipulate their action points but anything bigger than that is tough and the boss itself, was REALLY tough especially because i only had one gun and the gun only had one bullet

- so, i took a break and went back in town to pick up my first companion: sulik! he’s really awesome i love talking to him. my charisma is 7 so i think that means i can have 3 companions but theres way more than that in the game and i want to travel with all of them at least a little but i have a feeling im not going to want to ask sulik to leave hes my good pal. 

thanks, small child

- anyway sulik and i ended the rats it was good. other than this one mishap:

- got to the den which was initially pretty unsettling. in the time between fo1 and fo2, jet has been invented and most unnamed npcs in the den are addicted to it. there’s a slaver guild on one side of town. also, all the kids in the den try to pickpocket you when you pass them. atmospherically, fo2 is a lot lighter than fo1, but the subject matter is much more mature. that said, i started going around and picking up little errands i could do for people and theyre all very nice. not as scary as i thought it would be. i rescued a guy from the slavers and got a new companion: vic! when im much better equipped, i am coming back here and killing the entire slaver guild, no doubt about that, but sadly i still have barely any decent equipment for myself, let alone anything to equip my companions with

- theres a ghost hanging out in an old house and she wants her locket back. ghosts exist in fallout. cool. got the locket and she turned into bones, which i then went and buried in the town graveyard. i checked out all the other headstones and they were incredible here are some of my favourites

- a guy in the junkyard is willing to sell me a car if i bring the right parts. i can have a CAR 0: definitely dont have the parts OR the funds yet but...... im coming back for this car

- while heading for vault city, i discovered modoc, a quaint farming town going through some struggles due to a drought and a farm up north that is apparently run by ghosts and is decorated by dead bodies. wild

- lots of the quests here required some sleuthing and running all over the map talking to people but i think i got it all figured out. turns out the bodies are faked to scare people away and the ghosts are just some people living underground under the farm. i managed to resolve things peacefully and now i think modoc will be okay, yay!

- i got myself into an eating contest, also, here’s the eventful part of it. i will let anyone reading this experience what happened for themself

this reminds me of the time mass effect tells you just how many balls krogan have

- continued on to vault city and man just. a real roller coaster of an experience. at first, vault city looks like the most safe and stable settlement ive seen in fo1 or fo2. its very clean and organised, its well populated, it has good defences, has a more elaborate (reminiscent of the old world) social structure etc. a GECK was used here and id say part of this areas purpose in the game is to show you what youre actually trying to do for your village

however, vault city is full of self-righteous, bigoted, slaving assholes. “outsiders” are kept outside the bounds of the inner city until they can get a day pass and theyre searched before they can go in during the day, if they make it that far. there are slaves but the people claim its not slavery and get mad if you call it such. i hate these people. 

and they sent me off to a ghoul inhabited town because the power plant the ghouls live in is infecting their water and its pretty understood they want me to kill the ghouls and destroy the plant or whatever. no sir. 

- so yeah vault city sucks BUT I RAN INTO companion number 3: JOHN CASSIDY!!

hello soon-to-be father of one of my all time favourite fallout companions!!! welcome to the group

- headed up to the ghoul town, gecko, to see about this malfunctioning power plant. its so good and refreshing after vault city, i love this place and all the people in it so much. here comes a lot of screencaps of chats i had with some lovely ghouls.

harold again!!! and since fo1, he’s gained the famous tree, herbert, or bob or whatever. 

this ghoul, lenny, came from necropolis and also saw the vault dweller. i believe hes a potential companion but i couldnt ask him to join, either because i already have 3 or maybe my reputation in gecko isnt up yet. hes excellent though and i will come back for him when i have a convenient chance to leave a current companion somewhere safe

i love this

ghouls are so good

relatable, my dude!!! also you can play that card game with this chap. i did so and won. now i have two sets of cards. im the king of games

idk why but this is so fucking funny to me. that ghouls in general can just go on an epic power nap and be assumed dead. and that this ghoul in particular just wanders off and sleeps for ages. i got a quest to find him. he was at the den and in a coffin and one of the citizens was convincing people to pay to see a “mummy” and honestly? honestly. this is one of my favourite fallout quests across ALL games, maybe. its so funny. heres a bit of it:

you tell woody to leg it and he just thanks you and bolts. incredible

- I GOT THE CAR (feat. vic, cassidy, and sulik)

- we drove in the car down south. i’m aiming for ncr territory because a) i think thats where the main questline advances and b) im ready to see tandi again, who at this point is like 96 years old i think. super excited. however, new reno is on the way so i thought id pop in and check it out real quick, not intending to stay and do anything yet but then SOMEONE STOLE MY BRAND NEW CAR.

- getting my car back cost me almost all my money. god damn

- anyway i took off right after to the ncr and then vault 15 to move along the main story. once again, the khans are causing trouble and really the only option is killing them. i guess the khans change a lot between the early games and new vegas. certainly explains how frustratingly anti-khan the ncr is in new vegas though. in rare ncr playthroughs i get so mad about how the ncr treats a potential alliance but. man, i know the history now. getting to see where faction tension came from helps, especially since in new vegas you mostly hear about bitter springs, not all the crap that happened before that to make the tension more two sided. im still mad at the ncr and think they could stand to be more civil after what happened at bitter springs but its still interesting to know how things progressed. the khans caused trouble in the first two games but eventually chilled out and the ncr still hasnt gotten over it

the fight with the khans was VERY difficult. lots of them had automatic burst fire weapons id never even seen before this point and it took a handful of times to get it done to my satisfaction. BUT this is where i encountered my first sniper rifle, my preferred weapon in the first game, and it proved just as useful this time around

- i looked up how long i had before all the dream sequences (id only gotten the first by this point) because i was anxious about the “time limit” and it turns out i have all the time in the world to mess about so main questline went on hold. time to drive around to all the places i bypassed earlier and return to other places to finish things up. also it occurs to me that the chosen one had probably never even seen a car before leaving the village?? they just fucking buy a car and cruise the wasteland in style despite having no prior knowledge of cars. i cant believe the companions willingly get into the car with them. other than sulik who i imagine is down for whatever. i love sulik

- stopped in broken hills and hit someone with my car. remember how i literally just said that the chosen one doesnt actually know shit about cars

broken hills is great, its super mutants, ghouls, and humans all living in peace and the sheriff is marcus, who you see in jacobstown in new vegas!! you also find out marcus’ backstory a bit more. in nv he does talk about naming jacobstown after a friend but you get the longer version here, which is that jacob was actually w/ the brotherhood of steel and they were fighting each other but so evenly matched that they ended up just talking and becoming friends. everyones very nice and its a neat town. theres a scientist with a scorpion hes experimented on to make it smarter and stuff and you can test your own intelligence, agility, and perception against it. i won agility and perception but failed to beat the scorpion at chess rip. the main quest here requires getting something from new reno though so i moved on. ill get back to it on the way back south

- dealt with some raiders i wasnt properly equipped for earlier (the first time i checked them out i barely made it past the many many traps and the scorpion den). went back to vault city to let them know the raiders were dealt with. they made me a citizen after i fixed the power plant in gecko and tbh i hate that the npcs here call me citizen now i hate this place lmao that said, i left vic here, in his daughters shop. as far as i know, companions will just wait exactly where you leave them even if you never come back, they dont actually return to any kind of daily routine but in a roleplaying sense i like the idea that ive parted ways with vic here so he can try to work on his relationship with his daughter. after that, i went and got lenny, the ghoul from gecko whod been in necropolis when the vault dweller blew through. cassidy keeps says he smells. shut the fuck up, cassidy. also vic used to complain about sulik and that is why hes the first to get cut from the crew, js. 

- finished up a couple things in gecko and modoc then headed for the den. got a monty python reference special encounter

i got too caught up in it and forgot to screencap the last question oops. but they asked for the prerequisites for a specific perk, and the potential answers were various levels or agility points. i think i guessed agility 6 but i was wrong and i died lmao

- got back to the den and killed all the slavers finally. feels good man. the citizens seemed pleased. one of the bar owners even paid me for it

- suddenly started getting this mysterious message even though i was standing in the middle of the street and my cursor wasnt even on “tell me about things im pointing at” mode. i have no idea what this means

- went down to redding. the first thing i see is this kid

- as if that werent enough, a bartender and a shopkeep both refused to properly speak to me and kicked me out of their places just for having a ghoul in my party. redding is on my shit list

- its a mine town and i was asked to help get one part of the mine up and running again. theres a chip missing and also the mines are full of “critters”. it turns out redding is kind of the place where the politics between multiple factions starts to become more noticeable. there were hints of it between vault city and ncr, but redding is a small town with literal gold mines underneath it, and the chosen one gets to decide who to put in charge of the mine once they get it back in working order: the crew that wants redding to join the ncr, a faction thats aiming for expansion and prosperity and ruling out as much criminal behaviour as they can, or new reno, a vice city ruled by a bunch of competing families living in casinos and bars. considering the one time i went to new reno my car was immediately stolen i think id be in favour of the ncr side even if it were the ncr as they become in new vegas. there has been an undertone of “the ncr wants to bring as many towns into the fold as possible and enforce their laws across all of the state” in other places, but you get more of an active say in it, here. a precursor to the major mojave changing choices you get to make in new vegas

- i got a bit ahead of myself there with the politics and rpg game design talk. i didnt even mention yet that the critters in the mines were aliens

yeah. THOSE aliens. at first i thought it would be just a little easter egg and the rest of the critters would be a mix of rat variants or maybe id finally see some deathclaws but nope its all aliens

they were kind of reminiscent of deathclaws though. they were certainly on the perceptive side and while they didnt hit as hard as a deathclaw, it was easy to get swarmed by a lot of them and still take lots of damage fast. for the first time while playing the classic games i had to pull a stealth move. i do it occasionally in new vegas but kind of felt like in these old games going in alone was a quick way to die. but it worked wonderfully. i left my companions on one level of the mine and then me, my sniper rifle, and my mediocre but decent enough sneak skill went and cleared out the rest with no trouble at all. aim for the eyes and all that. im not sure how sneak criticals work in these games but theyre effective

also i inspected one of the corpses just in case there would be more flavour text and just

fair enough.

- once i finished up small quests in redding, i continued to new reno. i kind of still didnt want to do anything there tbh it all kind of seems like Bad Karma stuff going on here. but i needed that one part in order to help out broken hills. pretty much got the thing and left again, just like last time.

- finally got a deathclaw! in was in the mine where i fixed the broken hills air purifier and it was called “lesser deathclaw” which makes sense because i killed it in one shot. a very easy first deathclaw encounter

- after finishing up most of the broken hills stuff i went back to the ncr because id literally only done the main quest and then taken off again. except everyones like “well we have this problem but dont ask me about it youll need to talk to this specific dude” and I Cannot Figure Out How To Get To Him

- so instead i drove west until i hit san francisco just for the hell of it. i just wanted to know where it was. and also i want to get into the brotherhood asap for power armour and special stat implants tbh but the brotherhood dude asked me to fucking infiltrate navarro alone and im not super prepared for that, first of all, and second of all i really feel like anything to do with the brotherhood and enclave is solidly “act 2″ stuff and this is fallout so you can do whatever you want but for the sake of a good First Time Playing story progression it makes sense to finish the whole vault 13 geck thing first u kno

- but those ncr quests were bothering me and so i went back and continued trying to figure out what i was missing, which ended up being that im just. allowed to ask the guard to be let in. i could have sworn the previous time i tried to interact with someone on the other side of a force field i got the “you cannot get there” message so i just ASSUMED... BUT. not in this case, it seems. before i even got to that though i did the caravan run for him thats available through a merchant in town and thought that would be fine and easy and might make working for the dude easier. in the first game, i escorted a caravan once and we just had to kill one pack of raiders and that was it. nothing to worry about. [freeze frame] little did i know this would be the worse mistake i ever made

- first of all i got the second dream sequence just as we left ncr. pretty sure im still several months away from the last of them but it did remind me that Time Is Advancing, SECONDLY there were like 6 encounters along the way and two of them had super mutants & abominations, one of them had multiple deathclaws (tough ones this time), and the others were raiders and such. it was all i could do to keep myself and my companions alive, especially against the super mutants holy fuck. after a truly harrowing journey, we made it to the caravan destination, redding, and we were without the car. i never thought i would miss the car so, so much. walking from redding back down to ncr took FOREVER and the encounters were near constant. once again, keeping everyone alive was not easy. cassidy especially was having a lot of trouble; one of the encounters included him getting absolutely swarmed by centaurs and having to run out of combat while saying things like “my heart is giving out!”. HARROWING. eventually we made it to new reno, which is about half way between redding and ncr to do some trading and take a damn breather, but we still had just as far to go and time was ticking faster than it had since we first got the car. everything happens so much. i think overall, this took like 2 months. before the brahmin run i was like “i have SO MUCH time” but after the brahmin run i was like “okaaaay time to get back to the main quest then i guess”. not to mention that i felt like doing something Different after that, so in the end i never even went to talk to that one dude

- so!!! vault 13. the vault has new inhabitants and i love them

hell yeah!!!! they were all so nice and cute. i was even allowed to go into the deathclaw mother’s cave and talk to her, though my companions had to stay outside. there were some humans living here, including a mother and daughter who’d found safety with the deathclaws, a person who’d been at vault 15 before and i had a pleasant talk with, and a terribly depressed man whom the deathclaws were trying to help, even by way of medication. these deathclaws are so good they are So Good. 

- and here we have...... a new companion!!! hello there pal

i had to leave lenny behind in order to recruit goris, but how am i to resist a deathclaw friend? i figured vault 13 with all these lovely deathclaws would be a perfectly safe spot to leave him for the time being [cue dramatic irony if anyone reading this has played the game themself]

- i offered to help the deathclaws fix their computer, because the voice recognition was broken. popped over to new reno, got the thing, went back, the deathclaws love me

- i went right to arroyo with the GECK and discovered that my entire village was killed or taken by the enclave! ay! i already kind of knew this is what happens no matter how long you take getting back with the GECK (ive read that even if you speed run to vault 13, you still always get the last dream sequence after that says everyones dying and even so it wouldnt really matter because the enclave ends up being the problem, not the lack of water and food rip). in retrospect, i guess this means theres no point in rushing and its beneficial to stick around in places and gain as much xp as you can to level up. i suppose if you dont get the car as soon as possible youd run out of time a lot faster. but even if the outcome is the same i still Feel Bad for not going faster in a roleplay sense, you know so its fine im glad i continued as soon as i felt prepared and equipped to do so. in these classic fallout games i certainly felt more compelled to advance the main questline for the sake of the people waiting for me waaay more than, say, the main questline in a game like skyrim. dragons are rising all over the place and killing tons of people and the fate of the realm rests on the dragonborns shoulders? yeah ill be there in a year leave me alone. i like that the urgency in fo1 and fo2 is felt honestly even if you have a lot of time left or the enclave will show up and ruin everything no matter how long you take

- since i was already so far north, i came back south by way of another round trip through the towns with decent merchants to unload some more inventory because im constantly overloaded, cassidy is constantly overloaded, the car trunk has no space, i need to Stop Hoarding. at vault city, goris told me he sensed his pack was in trouble and said he needed to leave. i didnt really think that much of this, just thought it might be a minor thing. it was not a minor thing. 

- since goris left and lenny was also back at vault 13, i stopped in broken hills to recruit marcus. we went back to san fransisco, i left all my companions with the brotherhood guy who wanted me to solo infiltrate navarro and took off on my own

- cue me making the following hard save:

- as expected, the road to navarro alone was not easy. the first time i did it, i encountered centaurs that heavily irradiated me before i was able to kill them all on my own, and then an enclave patrol that just obliterated me. the second time i did it, i encountered the cafe of broken dreams special encounter!! which means i could get dogmeat from the first game :D unfortunately i couldnt keep him. the whole point of this trip is to be without companions, after all, but the cafe stayed on my map so i can go back for him if i want to

- finally got to navarro and was able to convince a guy at a gas station that i was a recruit. he gave me a password, but then when i tried to go inside, he got all “this is private property, leave”. idk what i did wrong but whatever i killed him. it didnt turn anyone hostile because they werent close enough to see or hear it. i think maybe the greeter was directing me elsewhere and i just missed it? it was nighttime, so its possible the darkness made me not see it properly. to reference the enclave remnants quest in new vegas again, one of them (i think its cannibal johnson) mentions the sergeant finding a recuit out of uniform and im assuming thats implied to be the chosen one. i figure there was a way for me to get in on the ground level where that incident would have happened, but instead i went down into the basement and geared up there instead

- infiltrating navarro ended up being on par with exploring the glow. theyre both atmospheric and scary as hell, just in different ways. the glow is more environmental, more “if my rad-x wears off ill probably die of radiation poisoning within a minute”, and navarro is more about being undercover, more “if i say the wrong thing to the wrong person i might reveal myself and be alone against an entire base of enclave soldiers”

- but i pulled it off okay. the first person i encountered was suspicious because i wasnt in armour but when i said i was new they told me to go gear up in the armoury, like i mentioned, which gave me my first suit of power armour and also a bunch of other goodies. i released a trapped intelligent deathclaw, got put on guard duty by the sergeant (who patrols around and will force you back into place if he sees you somewhere else. it was very scary), aaaaand.........

dog dog dog dog!! his previous owner was super shitty and had a soundproof lab because he ran gross experiments. he disabled the robodog for biting him and you can find a part to fix him and also kill the scientist (thanks to the soundproof room no one else is hostile) and take k-9 with you instead :D my dog now, asshole

- here are the overly cautious save files i made while navigating navarro and feeling like things would go bad any second

- got back to san fran, gained access to the brotherhood bunker which is super small, just an outpost really, but it had brotherhood power armour which i immediately passed on to sulik because i desperately want him to make it out of this game alive. and it also had the special stat implant computer and i was able to take charisma right away. i think i must have picked the module up in navarro? i didnt know what it was when i grabbed it so i didnt take much note of it. i didnt even know that in this game you need the modules in order to get the stat upgrades. but boosting my charisma by one did indeed allow me another companion, so i was able to bring everyone with me even though i also had k-9. also the computer had a kind of ai named “ace” and told me they were lonely. god damnit :( ill come visit u as much as i can, ace. they said some really sad stuff about artificial intelligence developing mental disorders god i didnt ask for these feelings

- then the enclave showed up and killed my new brotherhood friend while i was out shopping. enclave can you fucking stop

- decided to go back to vault 13 bc i wanted goris back but the old military base the vault dweller blew up was on the way, so stopped there first

- there were a ton of wolves around and at first they didnt mind me passing through so i got right up on the door and all the rubble from the explosion and then suddenly the wolves all swarmed together and attacked us. wolves nooo

- marcus threw a flare at the wolves. my throwing skill across both games has been very bad and also im stubborn and cant be bothered to equip flares so this was literally the first time id ever seen a flare in use. incredible. thanks marcus for showing me this mechanic i refuse to use myself

- the military base was full of rats, super mutants, and some dead enclave soldiers. we fought through the first two levels but left the third alone because my companions had been taking some heavy hits and were kinda soaking up my stimpacks. didn’t really matter, i got another set of power armour and another stat implant module so i feel like i got the best the military base had to offer for the time being. i can go back later if i really want to. gave the power armor to cassidy. marcus cant wear armor, being a super mutant, and ofc k-9 cant either so i officially had enough power armour for every member of the party who could actually equip it

- made it back to vault 13 to discover that the enclave came by and slaughtered all the deathclaws. ENCLAVE. STOP. all thats left are blood stains on the floors. im so sad. goris was still alive, though, and luckily so was lenny. i was worried for a second that the map would be effectively reset somehow and hed be gone but he was still there. i left marcus with him so they can pal it up in a nice vault that is. now. all theirs. :( and took goris back with me instead. 

- travelled back to san fransisco. i still hadn’t done much in either san fran or new reno. i know i missed a companion in new reno but from what ive heard i wont like him nearly as much as the crew i have now. if i could take another on, id would be marcus or lenny still, so. also i think you can get a robobrain as a companion from a location you only get through a quest but im not sure?? what that is. its fine. again, i really like the crew i have. 

- the captain of the ship that will take the chosen one to the enclave wont chat unless you get some reputation, so i talked to a fella who gambled away his spleen while drunk. yep. another amazing quest, honestly.

not quite on par with the ghoul mummy quest, but its up there man. its up there.

- NOW the captain is willing to chat and tell me what to do to get this ship going. it requires a couple things from navarro and vault 13, and fuel. luckily some of that was already done. unluckily, simply getting fuel proved to be on the complicated side. the main faction of san fran has all the oil and obviously they wont just hand it over, i had to do some stuff for them. they wanted the same item the brotherhood dude wanted and since brotherhood dude just made a copy, i still had the original and could immediately pass it over. cool. the second thing they wanted was for me to kill the leader of the enemy faction. im not normally the type to go in guns blazing without seeing if theres something i can do for the other side and maybe resolve things peacefully, but the hubologists are. unsettling. and remind me of the children of the cathedral from the first game. i did try talking to the leader first and his only offer was to get me to kill the shi leader instead and i wasnt about that so. had some fun shooting my way out of there

- the shi allowed me to have the fuel and now all the citizens in the streets have much nicer floating dialogue. before it was stuff like “are you a spy?” and “leave us alone” but after taking out the hubologists its stuff like “guess youre alright after all” and “you did a good thing for us” so i guess..... thats good. still not sure if there was a peaceful way of handling things or if it really was simply “pick a side” but from the reaction, i think i made an okay decision

- to install the parts on the ship i had to go below deck and found a shit ton of aliens, centaurs, and floaters. it was a real pain in the ass tbh, these enemies are only hand to hand combat so they swarm you and you cant MOVE and its so hard to see whats going on bc the outlines all overlap. they suck. there was a lost person down here as well that i could help back up to the deck

- and with that all squared away, off to the enclave oil rig!

you got it, cassidy. there’s my endgame crew: sulik, cassidy, goris, and k-9. mightve been a good idea to bring marcus instead of k-9 but. dog. his damage output isnt the greatest but sometimes he knocks people over which can be helpful.

- there was a terminal right inside that i could use to disable some defence systems but anything more than that was above my skill level, it seems, and i got locked out. i took a staircase down to the next level and found my tribe as well as the inhabitants of vault 13 whod been there before the deathclaws took residence. we shot our way through a ton of enclave soldiers and scientists but luckily it seems that defence disabling i did meant some robots on this floor never attacked

- that said, i still lost goris almost immediately on this level. while most of the robots had been disabled, the turrets were not and they sure can do some mean damage. one of them took goris out in one hit. rip deathclaw friend

- i couldnt free everyone right away, the leader of the vault 13 folk told me the best bet would be to disable the power generator 3 floors below.

- the next floor down included a maze with electric floors. it was. troublesome. after a couple attempts i ended up leaving my companions outside the maze and working through it myself until i was able to get rid of the electric floors, at least, so we werent all constantly taking damage while i figured this crap out. there were two supply rooms on either side of the maze as well so i got some more useful items AND another geck. ive got two now, incredible. for some reason the guards in both siderooms werent armed at all??? i pretty much stood in the doorway which allowed only 2 of them to get close enough to attack and even then they were punching and kicking which isnt very effective when your opponent is in advanced power armour so. that fight was more time consuming than stressful or anything

- after that is a floor with very powerful enclave soldiers protecting the president. in contrast to the unarmed losers on the previous floor, these guys had energy weapons and miniguns and shit. did not go well the first couple times. i ended up doing kind of a cheese thing which was going down alone, getting a sneak critical on one guard, and then sneaking back up the staircase, ending combat. eventually enough guards were coming over to investigate that sneaking was no longer possible so that method only worked a couple times but after that i brought my companions down with me and we worked our way through everyone whod been alerted. 

- then i stopped to do some healing maintenance before figuring out the best and safest route to the president and............. the game crashed. this was the first time either classic game crashed on me. i dont think it liked me spamming “heal yourself” dialogue with cassidy or something. or maybe its completely unrelated. i HAD been bouncing up and down staircases a lot so maybe the frequent loading was unappreciated

- so we had to redo some of the fight but luckily id been saving a lot bc i wasnt sure if my weird tactics were gonna get me in a rough spot haha

- met the president. killed the president. killed the presidents vp and secretary. fun times. its at this point that you get the most clear idea of what the enclave wants to do: kill every mutant, but not just full mutants but anyone who has been exposed enough to the outside world with all its leftover radiation that theyre “less than human” so basically they want to kill the entire world except themselves and the people who were still in vault 13. it seems to me at this point, most vaults have either opened naturally, been forcibly opened, or have metaphorially or literally self-destructed so yeah good plan, enclave. there is no one left by your shitty standards and also get over yourselves, mutants are the Best. have you seen lenny and marcus? have you?

- when dealing with the pres i tried out a new gun i got off an enclave guard and holy shit

im not as accurate with it as i am with the gauss rifle but damn

- you can convince a scientist in this area that what theyre doing is bullshit and to give you the fev cure and also cure your village/the vault 13 inhabitants before flooding the oil rig with fev to kill everyone else. this seems like its a really handy and useful thing to do but on this particular run, both cassidy and i died and when i went through the next time, this scientist joined in the fighting and i wasnt able to talk to him again. oh well

- the next floor had the power generator. i put an explosive near it and took off. the path back up to the top floor drops you in an area i never bothered to clear on the way in and we were Obliterated. i tried a few times but seriously this floor was tough as hell. i started doing the stealth thing alone again and that is when i discovered that if you dont have your companions with you, you can just walk through most areas because youre in enclave power armour. i am a Fool. everything could have been so easy!!! i could have left everyone chilling on the top floor, gone off to take care of stuff in simple style, and waltzed back out to the boss fight. but it was too late. i had to reload pre-destroying the generator anyway so this time i did indeed leave my companions in peace while i took care of it and it was so much easier. god. goris could have survived this easily if id done this in the first place. oh well, next time ill know exactly what im doing i guess. 

- so with the countdown going and only the frank horrigan fight left, i talked my way into getting an enclave group to join my side. youre supposed to be able to access the terminal here to get his own turrets to turn on him as well which presumably makes for an easy fight but OF COURSE this is the computer i fucked with when i first arrived and got locked out of. i had the enclave group support but let me tell you. they were not the most effective. they were a distraction at first, but i still only made it out of this fight with almost no stimpacks and one less companion. cassidy died here, unfortunately. in the middle of the fight i had to loot his corpse for all the stimpacks id given him because i needed them for myself, it turns out. it really was tough, and i also ended up using chems for the first time. i dont like using chems in fallout, generally, but i was willing to take whatever edge i could to actually finish the game

- a couple of the enclave people on my side survived, and sulik and k-9 were ok as well. we headed for the exit with about 5 minutes left on the countdown to destruction. classic fallout protags really have a habit of blowing shit up

rest in pieces!!!!!

- cue ending slideshow. to summarise: the arroyo villagers and the remains of vault 13 used the geck to settle a new community together, the den, modoc, and san fransisco simply prospered well, gecko was taken over by vault city because i optimised the power plant and i suppose that caught vc’s interest but vc ended up withering away themselves and were taken over by the ncr so i hope that means my ghoul friends were eventually free again, redding joined the ncr as well, broken hills dispersed peacefully (and we know from nv the super mutants from there settled happily in the mojave), ncr and vault 15 did well and expanded, the vault 13 deathclaws were unfortunately killed by the enclave and the end card kinda blamed me for it :(, new reno stayed exactly the same because i never bothered to do much there oops, and while there were no ending cards for it, we know from nv that the ncr took over navarro pretty shortly after the enclave oil rig fell. 

- and there you have it! sulik, k-9 and i were deposited back on the docks of san fransisco and i now have the option of finishing things i didnt do before (like new reno) and/or exploring around gaining levels until i either reach 99 or im bored. i will check out new reno and prob go chat up some of the major characters who may have new things to say now that the enclave is gone and TOTALLY NOT get distracted for ages by fallout week and replaying the entirety of fallout new vegas which was really great now that ive played both classic games. oops- anyway, picked up lenny and marcus from vault 13 since sadly, my party was halved by the oil rig adventure. in future playthroughs i think it would be kinda cool to assemble all the companions and leave them hanging out in vault 13 when theyre not with me like how you can send everyone to the lucky 38 in nv

- started driving around to places with good merchants again because as always i am overencumbered. i lost some good shit on the oil rig when cassidy died because sulik and i could not carry it :( first stop was ncr for selling shit and checking in with tandi. she wouldnt speak to me and her bodyguard/secretary dude also told me to fuck off. kind of thought they would be willing to comment on the enclave deal but i guess not, fine.

- then back to vault city, where i DID get new dialogue about how awesome i am and was also instructed to go log my exploits in the vault 8 terminals. i put my pip boy in the terminal and got some behind the scenes info as well as a cheeky hint to go look at a certain other terminal which, when interacted with, gave me so much xp i instantly levelled up. i did it twice more and levelled up even more. what the heck. incredible. all this levelling up would have been even better if id had marcus and lenny with me because especially marcus has not travelled long enough with me to completely level up BUT EARLIER ID TRIED TO BARTER and the people CALLED FOR THE GUARDS and everyone WENT HOSTILE because i had a super mutant and a ghoul in my party HEY VAULT CITY JUST A REMINDER I HATE YOU

- whatever. i decided to drive around unlocking the rest of the map even though im pretty sure there are no new locations, it just looks nice to have it all coloured in properly. got some combat encounters on the way and prior to dealing with the enclave i tended to skip ones that seemed too dangerous but now im like COME AT ME this party is 3 ppl in power armour, a cyber dog, and a super mutant, with guns that will disintegrate you. TRY IT

- one of the encounters i got was this fucking incredible thing:

this person just kept saying “oil can” over and over so i grabbed the can off the ground, used it on them, and then they opened up dialogue to thank me, saying theyd been stuck there for ages, and then walked off. lmao what a wild encounter. curious that theyre in enclave armour. did they find the armour and not have training in proper use and management? is this a former enclave employee that just fucked up? who knows

- speaking of former enclave i totally forgot that when i went back to ncr i talked to a doctor there and got new dialogue to ask if he knew about the enclave and it turned out to be dr henry, one of the remnants and eventual residents of jacobstown o: i DID notice they had the same name but i assumed henry would have been at navarro like the rest of them. turns out he had a falling out with the enclave before everything went down and the remnants left to the mojave together

- based on the end clip, i wasnt sure if id find my village in arroyo or not. the voiceover described the new settlement as “miles away from their old home” or whatever but that might have been about the vault 13 ppl specifically, which arroyo IS far away from. also its not like the settlements that disbanded or anything in the slideshow already look like that post-storyline so really i did not know what to expect or if i could actually access my people again. unfortunately, the bridge to arroyo was still destroyed and everything still looked pretty bad up there. so i guess we do not get to know where everyone eventually went

- i still had an outstanding quest in broken hills as well. first of all, a sentient plant wanted to be moved to a different garden which was a simple thing but required a shovel that i didnt have at the time. it was p funny, i went up and immediately used the shovel and the plant was like “dude dont just start digging me up give me some warning first” IM SORRY. but yes i talked to the plant and then moved him and then he gave me a hint on how to defeat that scorpion at chess that i was playing against ages ago. also, one of the ghouls in broken hills is the son of set, the ghoul leader of necropolis from the first game. if you get him a bunch of stuff he’ll eventually tell you the location of some “treasure” that ends up being bottle caps, the currency of the first game. kind of weird that they went back on the bottle caps as currency thing in fo2? i wonder why. glad the new games have caps again. but anyway the chosen one was not amused by getting caps instead of money lmao the caps were in a well so you have to enlist some help and then you get so riled up about it being caps instead of money you forget to help the guy back up

- OKAY. NEW RENO.

- i went to talk to this myron bloke ive heard so much about since i know hes a possible companion and god he annoyed me so fast

- this is the first time ive ever pissed off a talking head enough for the animation to change to their “angry” face i think. i once pissed off killian darkwater in the first game but i have no idea what id done to cause it since it was after id already worked with him and it wasnt nighttime or anything i think it was a bug idk but with myron i was intentionally smartassy with him bc he was just SO ANNOYING and also hes the creator of a drug that has fucked up a lot of people and he doesnt seem to even understand what hes doing?? or care??? not to mention hes got slave labour. when i saw that going in i was kinda feeling like id be more likely to kill him than ask him to join my party (which was already full anyway, i really had no intention of bringing him along) but huffs i dont think theres a quest attached to that kind of thing so it would probably just be considered assault/murder and maybe get more people hostile than im willing to deal with. so. i just left

- so that aspect of new reno sucked as expected but then!!! THEN!!! i became a BOXER! i convinced a guy named stuart little to hire me as the lone woman boxer, he gave me a list of nicknames to choose and i decided on “hurricane” and then i beat the hell out of a guy

this is the second guy i fought, after id gained some popularity and i fucking killed the dude. i killed him. i was really scared for a second that id have to fight the entire room but they didnt even care, accidental death is just something that happens in this line of work sometimes i guESS?? okie doke. but after literally murdering a man in the ring i decided to take a break from boxing

- theres a dude in new reno that i spoke to once ages ago and im not actually sure what his deal is but i talked to him again since last time he passed out and it looked like hed finally got back up. he had new post-game fourth wall breaking dialogue and he gave me a book that acted a lot like the terminal in vault city, it gave me a shitton of xp AND levelled all my skills to 300%, which is the highest they can go. holy shit?? im just. as op as possible now. nothing can stop me.

- so with my newfound opness i decided to start working for whichever of the new reno families seemed the least shitty. the wrights are by far the easiest to talk to; the bishops are practically impossible to communicate with in any meaningful way, the salvatores arent bad but sure do have twitchy trigger fingers, and the mordinos seem sketchy as hell in general and are the ones already mostly in charge. the wrights wanted me to investigate the murder of one of the familys sons and it turns out one of the other families poisoned him. then they sent me to the sierra army depot to look for weapons, presuming there might be a fight with the other families. the wrights seem nice enough, all they really want to do is protect their family, not necessarily fuck everyone else over so. alright. and i really wanted to get to the sierra army depot one way or the other

- it ended up being even cooler than i expected. its surrounded by turrets which didnt stand a chance now that im op as hell, and the doors are super sealed shut so i got to fire a massive howitzer gun at it to blast them open. i felt really cool

- inside are lots of robots but again, 300% science skills means hacking everything without problem. this place has a LOT of amazing loot. most of it is useless to me now but i did pick up a lot of stimpacks and other drugs that are valuable and weightless so why not. i also found a cookie. doesnt seem to have use but hey, i have a cookie now.

- turns out an ai here wants to get out and see the world, and tasked me with making a robobrain body for it. this involved finding biogel and looting other robobrain corpses and such for parts. also there are terminals where you can literally harvest a variety of brains and other organs. i know robobrains and other splicing was being done at big mt. but it looks like a lot of that stuff was happening here, too. ive got a human brain in my inventory now, as well as an eyeball that i can use to give me retinal scan access. im not sure why the eye is just. there. actually. ALSO there are holodisks you can pop into your pip boy to learn about some old world shit and it was actually fascinating. it was all great but as a canadian and a lore gremlin, this was my fav part

there is SO MUCH going on here. so much. god. all the info in these disks was incredible. the entire location was really fucking interesting and i loved searching and reading everything. i saw something about like. viruses/plagues and stuff on one of the terminals but i couldnt see everything before it shut down, im gonna have to reload a save or just. keep it in mind for future playthroughs i guess. amazing

- but back to the ai thing. i assembled “skynet” a robobrain body and was able to recruit them. unfortunately i already had a full party, so theyre still chilling there. eventually ill need to drop off a couple companions at vault 13 or something and grab not only skynet but dogmeat, who is still at the cafe of broken dreams on my map, just waiting for me to return.

- so when i went back to the wrights, they said i was now part of the family and i got to take a name with them just like i did when i became a boxer. there were a lot of really good and funny names available, but since i tend to prefer long range weapons and stealthy combat, heres what i went with

- id had a quest for the salvatores but didnt finish it before becoming part of the wright family and now when i go back to them, theyre pissed and attack me haha WELL ALRIGHT i guess that makes sense but i think that also means im pretty much done with new reno already. i suppose if youre methodical about it, you could work for all the families until the end of each branch, like you can do with the factions of new vegas until you piss them off too much by working with others etc but i did not plan anything going in. its cool though, i like the wights well enough. theyre the only family that didnt outright threaten me or something so its all good. too bad i dont get to see how this would change the slideshow card for new reno in this playthrough. next time, though

- and thats it for real now!! as far as i can tell, ive done everything still available to me unless its something bad karmaish that im not interested in doing in this particular playthrough

- another random thing: since i did a lot of driving around the map just because, a fair bit of time has passed in-game and my age went up. the game actually kept track of how much time has passed and acknowledged my birthday. thats actually SO GREAT

if you read all of this, thats p incredible. this is long as hell. thx ily

that was really a wild ride and i loved it. its so much bigger than fo1, such an enormous expansion, both in gameplay and in lore. the world really does develop massively between both games, and i found the tone shift to be very interesting. the first game, in my opinion, is definitely post-apocalyptic, as the name calls it, and even dystopian. its very dark and creepy feeling, and the music really backs that up. some of the music tracks are creepy as HELL (”the vault of the future” always creeps me out, especially when it plays in vault 22 in nv god and “city of the dead” really does make you feel the way the title suggests). the first game nails a desolate wasteland atmosphere incredibly well. 

the second game, though, is what id call post-post-apocalyptic. there are a lot more proper settlements with a lot more people to talk to and do quests for. in the first game, shady sands is smaller than modoc, the tiny farming village. in fo2, ncr territory is massive and incredibly well off, with vegetation and force fields as security and shit. people are making it work, in fo2. but the further we get from the old world, the more things change, too. tribal culture is a thing. many mutants of the wasteland have settled down well, now that theyre away from the influence of the master. post-war chems have been invented. slavery is a new problem. people have been able to survive well enough that theyve gone back to age old ways of being shit to each other. people do things not to survive but for profit or fame or just because they want to. you, the player, can have sex on multiple occasions in multiple ways for multiple reasons. the world is full of so much again! the first game is about survival and power struggles and adapting to a new status quo. the second game is about living, and about people. theyre both remarkable in their own ways and do such a good job setting a tone both times. honestly, i dont think i can say, at this point, which i liked better because they were both the best at being what they are. maybe after time and more playthroughs ill settle into a favourite but for now all i can say is both of them were so solid in unique ways.

gameplay-wise i definitely found fo2 more challenging, though once i upgraded to advanced power armour and a gauss rifle it felt like i was at the top of the food chain. something i love about fallout games is you usually start out so squishy and end up godlike, which makes you feel like you progressed as a character while progressing through the story and get to constantly do more and more awesome, badass shit. they also improved some mechanics with the companions that made life a lot easier which was great. my only complaint is that there isnt a single female companion. at best you can argue that certain characters dont have a gender (k-9, skynet, technically marcus as a super mutant but really all the mutants get gender coded anyway, i dont recall there being a mutant who wasnt blatantly male or female aligned, so,,) but pretty much katja is the only female companion across both games. but i suppose ill let it slide bc in new vegas they give us an incredibly diverse selection including both a gay man and a lesbian so alright alright. they improved majorly.

anyway. i already want to replay both games lmao. since i did character creation mostly based on what would make life easy and a more blank slate in terms of personality since i like to go into first playthroughs just doing whatever i feel like at any given time, i might like to actually craft a specific kind of character and do some more serious roleplaying. nice

thanks for reading.... again... since i failed to stop talking after the first time i said it. [finger guns]

[kylandara]

Im just gonna talk on one of the points incest/marriage. I have to ask, do you guys think she'd be bothered by the incest. If she had grown up normally in Westeros she would literally have married Viserys. Jon on the other hand is a complete unknown for me.

There are a few reasons I think he would marry Daenerys

1. I hate it but DnD are pushing for the love angle as of season 7 end, can't sidestep that no matter how much I dislike it.

2. I know he grew up in the Stark household, but considering there were two uncle/neice marriages in that history of the Starks and he would have learnt about them in his history lessons. For me he might just justify this reasoning to the other Lord's on why he wants to marry the woman he has come to care for.

3. Which lead me to: I am of the faction that believes D will get pregnant. His absolute loathing of fathering a bastard when he was young will fuel this decision to marry.

4. And fourthly I don't believe in political Jon namely because I don't think DnD are smart enough. It would be shocking story telling, but I feel like D is one of their faves and it would also go against the feminist image / rah rah girl power thing they have going. This would make Dany look like a dumb character.

Just my two cents no one asked for 😂

I feel bad for Daenerys: A Spicy Take

So I definitely subscribe to the Dark Dany/Jonsa theory, but sometimes I’m like….damn, nobody feels bad for Daenerys?

Daenerys is about to:

1) Learn that she doesn’t have the strongest claim to the Iron Throne

2) Find out that her boyfriend is her nephew

3) Meet the man who killed her Daddy

4) Find out she burned her boyfriend/nephew’s best friend’s Daddy

5) Possibly get tricked by Jon or Sansa

6) Betrayed by Varys

7) Possibly betrayed by Tyrion (whatever he discussed with Cersei)

8) Betrayed by Cersei

That’s a lot to dump on someone at once. We’re all missing what would be natural here: a complete emotional breakdown. The brain and the spirit can only handle so much bad information without starting to fall apart. I expect some rage crying.

And then the next morning, everybody would expect her to clock in at work to fight the Night King. Excuse me? If I’m Dany, I’m having three emotional breakdowns before breakfast. I had sex with my nephew! Sex. With. My. Nephew.

But unfortunately, they do not have therapy in Westeros. No hotline. But we do have dragons! ….Uh-oh Dany.

If Daenerys has an unusual emotional outburst, it’s kind of inevitable. But this is why we shouldn’t give emotionally unstable leaders access to nuclear weapons. It’s risky.

#TherapyNotDragons

[travelinghermit]

I awoke this morning slightly confused and unsure for a few seconds where I was. A common occurance while travelling especially when I was so used to waking up in Envigado for three weeks and now im in some strange town in the foothills. Once it was clear where I was I then felt the unbearably annoying feeling like I had been dreaming the night before but couldnt remember what. Yet It wouldnt really matter whether I could remember or not because for once my reality is better than my dreams as I realised the agenda of the day. Which was to ride my motorbike through some gorgeous scenery along a mostly empty road.

I am currently in Quidbo the capital of the Choco. I have been driving for two days now and im about half way done the Choco loop im calling it. This route is completely unnecessary in regards to getting to Ecuador but as I was planning my route the night before departure I noticed the only main road that goes in and out of the Choco and it connects with Medellin and the loop ends perfectly where I am going south so I had no choice. I knew so few people go to the Choco in the first place and I already knew that the scenery would be out of this world and thankfully I was right.

Through the 125 or so kilometers that were in my way the morning I set off. The road is about 50/50 in quality. Some parts are smooth as butter as im zipping in and out of turns like nothing and then the road would suddenly come to an end and the rock, gravel, mud, and dirt would come into play. Each element I stated would be more prevalent than others along various moments of the ride but nothing detered me. The only thing that I thought was strange as I went deeper and higher into the Choco was that either Colombian Military or FARC soldiers were stationed it seemed every couple kilometers or so but then they would disapear for a while then come back out. I dont know what faction the soldiers belonged to but either way they didnt stop me or give me any trouble. Some gave me thumbs up, smiles, or nothing at all. I tried to acknowledge them with a nod as I passed.

Something so weird happened along the trip from Ciudad Bolivar to Quidbo today. I left Bolivar in the morning around 845 and had my rain jacket on, at about eleven I felt it get hot so I took it off but nothing crazy, then about an hour or so before arriving in Quidbo it was sweltering hot somewhere in the high 20s near 30s. I now have sun burns on my arms and hands. No way I could have prepared for such a radical shift in weather after the mild rain the day before. But the ride today was magnificent with the beautiful weather. It really makes the colours pop out of the scenery, something I wish I could have seen more of in Vietnam but we went during the cold season. The terrain is very similar to Vietnam, almost feels like im getting flashbacks.

Once I got to Quibdo I found a hotel room which im paying nearly double for a eve shittier room I was staying in Yesterday. Its not just the accommodation the meals here are also pricier than Medellin or Bolivar. A good reason to get back on the road tomorrow. Anyway after I was pretty wiped from the ride and the heat so I layed down for a bit then got I out for a walk around the city. Theres nothing great about Quibdo, theres not much to do but I just like how its different from the rest of Colombia that ive seen. The people are predominantly African so just roaming the streets makes me feel like im far away even from South America. The Choco is known as the poorest region in Colombia, could’ve fooled me in the city there are tons of busseling shops, just normal people doing what people do. Maybe those stats come from a overwhelming native population that choose to live simply in the outskirts of the Choco I dont know. I met a guy who offered me a ride on the river on his boat. I said no at first then I thought screw it lets try it. I overpayed and the experience wasnt great. He took me to a small village with literally nothing to see and the people couldnt seem more unimpressed by my sudden appearance and the river was just a river. Oh well.

Tomorrow we continue on.

[survivordivergent]

EPISODE 1 (PART 2) - “WHY U NO MORE ACTIVE DO U WANNA DIE” - PAYTON

okay so this game is actually a little scary bc essentially it's starting over. Like im treating these people as newbies that Ive never played with before and that's scary. Im comparing to Malaysia, which started off so well. I had a solid alliance literally in the first hour of that game. And the tribe itself talked all the time. Here? Candor talk, but not a lot. And pms are like, dead. Im so afraid of bringing up an alliance with anyone bc I dont want to play hard just yet. Im trying to just be agreeable anf likeable. I'm working on those acting skills for you, Jenn!  Anyway, I think we have a decent shot at immunity. Our faction we created, though ironic considering the theme of the season, is solid. If we can avoid tribal this round, I'll work on forming stronger bonds with the others, specifically Jill. Anyway, I'm done talking for now..

I like the Amity tribe for the most part. Kyle seems like a very solid person. We've had preliminary chats and I feel like I can trust them. That's super important on a four person tribe. I also like Will — we've talked about speed running video games, which is something I watch on YouTube to kill time at work.

Kyle and I have agreed to swap info RE: idols. That's the best I can hope for right now — that, and trust. Which is why I intend on being fully forthcoming. You need a ride or die in these games.

I haven't talked to Betty yet, which is a shame. But when you're on a four person tribe, you take any weakness you can get. I just hope the same holds true with Kyle and Will.

It's been very hard to stay in character. I've had to avoid four things that are distinctly me:

1. Starting sentences by dropping the subject (e.g., Can't believe this vs. I can't believe this) 2. Overt Canadianism — I've been using 'huh' instead of 'eh' and dropping u's in words where they CLEARLY BELONG 3. Endless use of the em dash — — — 4. Excessive emoji use.

Even still, I'm paranoid that I'm being too me. I thought being an "English major" would give me good cover to use full sentences, but I definitely didn't think through the fact that I'm one of the only ones to use proper punctuation and capitalization in TS, anyway. It's also why I'm not as talkative or as jokey as usual. I really don't want a bad pun to accidentally slip out, because that's more or less a giveaway.

*Moments Later*

Good/bad/ugly kind of day.

Good: Kyle and I traded idol info. We worked together on the Erudite clue and found the first hidden blog. Appears to be blocked until we get the next clue, though. But that was definitely a show of good faith and I'm glad Kyle can be trusted.

Bad: I got sweet nothing at the Amity idol. Like, not even remotely okay. No usable info at all. Bleh.

Ugly: Kyle and I are the only ones talking in tribe chat. Which, like... no? We've got a group challenge to do??? Kinda hard to incorporate everyone when everyone's not around.

I want a new tribe.

Me @ this entire tribe: 

Like actually though, how do I contact their real accounts and tell them I'd like to talk to them? This whole checking in for five minutes every 10 hours while Drewlissa does the comps thing isn't working. Or actually, sadly, I guess it is working, but it should probably stop before I cry.

This comp is due in seven hours or so and, aside from picking a name, I've gotten no help at all from my tribe. It's mildly ironic that we're doing a laid-back faction, because the amount to which everyone else is so laid back is really stressing me out.

It reminds me of team projects in high school, where the person who cared least always did the least amount of work. I've never been that person. I can't do that. It bothers me that I can't in this case, but it's just not wired into my genetics. And since I haven't heard from Will or Betty (WHOSE NAME I HAD TO DOUBLE CHECK JUST NOW) since the first day... it's stressful, dude. I don't want us to go to tribal first. But then again, would it really be a bad thing?

Yes, probably. The person who sticks out is usually the first to go and, by virtue of ACTUALLY TRYING TO DO THE CHALLENGE, I'm the person who sticks out on this tribe. Fuck me. I'm going to do the written part, but I refuse to do the Photoshoppy bit. Someone else has to do that. Pat is always the one who volunteers to do the artsy stuff. Ed is much more comfortable with written words than graphics. So Ed's passing the buck on that one task.

If nobody else does it, we're getting a super shitty Paint edit. And we'll deserve every bit of scorn that's heaped on us. And while Ed will be dismayed, Pat will be laughing his ass off because if people aren't invested or trying, they don't deserve nice things.

Ed is really trying to embody the ideals of Amity tribe. Kindness. Peace. Giving freely, trusting that you will be given what's needed. But Ed can only give so much before he reaches his breaking point. Peace, kindness, absolutely. Ed's been pushing in the tribe chat, but with a smile on his face and in a non-confrontational way. All I can hope is that Will, Betty and Kyle see fit to give freely, too, in the next seven hours.

Easily the most frustrating thing I've run across in my ORG career. Including being blindsided on three separate occasions and being booted because I alerted an ally that the minority was gunning for him.

Lemme see if I can knock this out before Survivor starts.

So things are still very quiet at Amity, the only person really active other than me is Ed. So I got to talking to Ed, and he suggests that we work together for now, which I don't have an objection to because he seems pretty cool. Ed and I continue talking and we end up helping each other find idols. We made a deal that I'd find the Erudite idol, and he'd find Amity. I'm hoping that Ed is holding true, at least for now, because he really doesn't have a reason not to.

Then there's Betty who went completely MIA for a day but apparently it was because she was studying. I talked to her a bit the first night but the conversation ended when I said I was craving meatballs.

And there's Will who I talked to for a bit the first two nights but we're starting to lose touch, so I'm gonna have to fix that soon.

For the most part, I just want to make sure I have strong enough connections with everyone on my tribe so that if we happen to lose a challenge, I have flexibility.

I don't think I'm gonna try to ally with anyone. I'm considering ways to play my game, hopefully by being charismatic. I think if anything, Jill is my best route. She seems mature, level headed, and she speaks to me. I talk to her and Eliza equally, though Eliza seems a little naive almost? But I wouldn't vote her off first. She did good for us in reward, and had really good ideas in Immunity. I think Peter is just... not a good click. I think he got a bad mix for a tribe and I think he is busy with college. But it's not that I don't like him, I do! I just really want to get to know him more. So I'm hoping we are in the top two. Whew. Oh boy.

There's.... five factions isn't there... uh... I meant top three. Yep.

So as we are waiting for immunity results, I am talking to Payton. I fully believe we did a great job with this challenge and I think we have a pretty good chance of being one of the winning tribes for this challenge. If it were to happen that we do in fact lose (in which case I can't WAIT to see these other factions because they must be L I T!) I mentioned to Payton that us two and Eliza have been closer to each other than Peter. At least from what I can tell so far. And I think mostly I say that out of challenge performance and overall presence. This is still an awkward game to navigate with everyone being a fake person. None of us are online or social that much and we all know we are 'getting to know' fake people. It is a lot of effort to put in and it seems like everyone mutually agrees it's not totally worth it. This is at least how I am interpreting everything as of right now

Now is probably an appropriate time to make a confessional since I just got voted the FUCK out of Panem.

Okay, so hi! My name is Jaiden Hantz, but for all intents and purposes, I am now Danielle "Barbie" Quinn for Survivor Storybook: Divergent.

Immediately, I'm placed on the Dauntless tribe and I'm already thinking about how I can make some iconic and memorable moves under this brand new identity. I'm definitely adding rocks at the top of the list because, you know, Survivor Storybook STILL has yet to have a rock draw occur in the series! And Barbie succeeds at everything Jaiden fails at (so no, I will not be getting first boot or eighth place. I will be winning).

I think I'm making a TON of rookie mistakes in terms of concealing my identity. I think that I've made it extremely clear who I am because I have a certain set of mannerisms with my language, my typing, and pretty much everything else I have going on. I'm also in the middle of hosting another season, so it's incredibly difficult to give 100% of my time to this season. Although being voted out of Panem tonight literally frees up a huge portion of my schedule, I need to begin to systematically eliminate my entire tribe. Venturing out through this game alone without the assistance of my tribemates is such a Dauntless thing to do, lmao.

I also need to begin to formulate a better backstory for myself. I'll be as realistic as possible, and I'll leave small little information notes about who I am as a person. I say that I attend college (university), but that I live at home with my mom and dad and sibling. I haven't determined whether or not to name this sibling, but I'll go ahead and just say that it's my sister because I already have one of those. I need to become more active on my Tumblr blog (which is my next order of business after submitting this confessional) and make it seem like I'm truly a normal person.

Right off the bat, my first targets would be the other Danielle and Otto. Danielle is literally the most inactive person on our tribe, while Otto and I have talked so much and I have been super wary about the bullshit I've been feeding him. I also need to go through my actual skype and delete contacts with the people who I do not talk to frequently that COULD be on this season, as they would be the first to notice if Jaiden signs off of Skype and then shortly after they notice on their other account that Barbie is online; but that we are never online at the same time. I think that this helps conceal my identity better, and I know that "identity" is going to be a large issue for me as time goes along because I do have super noticeable characteristics in my gameplay and language. Otto would pick up on some of these things faster than anyone else because he gives me such a strong vibe of someone who is unbelievably intelligent, and that intimidates me a ton.

I'm hoping that this journey does change a lot about how I play Survivor because I need some harsh improvement. I'm taking some of the lessons I learned from Panem and applying them to this game, so expect me to "pop off" on others less, but strategize and bond with others more. I really am playing this game to finish up and complete my Survivor Storybook experience because it's time for this icon to retire or something.

It's also super weird that I've played in this series four whole times??? Agrabah, Raccoon City, Panem, and now Divergent. Weird. And unlike the other four time player, I'm not a complete and utter flop!

We won immunity!  Thank god.  I feel like I am in trouble with this game. I'm so busy with hosting my own season that at the end of the day this challenge completely slipped my mind. If we were going to tribal I know it would be my neck on the line. Although Geo hasn't really done anything either. I pretty much only talk to Melissa now.

WE DID THAT I'm in love Bless Riley for picking Nelson Mandela because the judges full-on nutted at that.

I can't believe we lost to fucking Mattel. And it's kind of hard to know where yo went wrong when one judge's feedback is 'No.' and 'Nah.' Go to hell, "Indiana." Your alias isn't an excuse to be a rude dick who provides no rationale for low scores.

Anyway, full credit to Erudite and Candor. They definitely knocked it out of the park and I don't think any of us should have come close to touching those two at the top. And while I'm bitter as hell about having to do the challenge with only two of us, STILL kicking ass, then losing to goddamn Barbies...

Actually, let me back up some because I just remembered my last confessional. Kyle came through in the clutch and did some really good stuff in the comp. If I'm going to heap scorn on those who deserve it, I should definitely praise those who deserve it too. And Kyle helped out a LOT. Couldn't have done it without him.

(Slight aside, I feel super awkward using pronouns in this season. What if 'Kyle' is a girl? Or 'Betty' is a guy? I'm trying to avoid them as much as I can but sometimes they slip out.)

Anyway, this vote should be relatively straightforward. Neither Will nor Betty were present for that comp, but Betty hasn't said more than a few words in the tribe chat. At least Will has been around, and helped us quite a bit in reward. Whereas the only thing I've heard from Betty is that the reason they weren't around is that they were studying. Which is fair, but... if they had time to send me that message, did they not have time to check the tribe chat and see that Kyle and I were asking for input?

So, it's looking like Betty. Hopefully Will's on board and doesn't split the vote for the sake of being funny. And hopefully Betty votes, period. Although it may be better if they don't? Doesn't seem like they're especially engaged, anyway.

Fucking Mattel. Are you serious. A faction based on a PLASTIC DOLL?! How is that even logical? I'll give them kudos for the leader, which is funny. But the anthem? Too easy. The Headquarters? Literally copy/paste. (I realize ours isn't much better, as it was just an art filter applied over top of an image. But theirs got 138 points. Ours got not even half that. That's total garbage.)

And for that matter, how do we rate 1's across the board for the name, Indiana?? Just because you don't like the name doesn't mean effort didn't go into it. Doesn't mean it's completely incohesive with our theme. Doesn't mean it's not creative. Rate us low on overall appeal, fine, but that was some grade-A bullshit.

And ditto with the anthem. Fuck right off, that was inspired. How is it any less cohesive with our idea than Barbie Girl or We're In This Together???

God. I'm really upset about these results. We deserved better, but it's clear that one judge didn't care to judge based on the given criteria. And that one judge's scores were enough to put us at a significant  disadvantage. It's really hard to well in a comp when the criteria we're given for success aren't the ones that are being judged.

supposedly danielle is getting voted out 2nite bc shes never online. i think thats the best thing for us to do. hopefully the three of them didn't actually click up to vote me out. Hoping 4 the best tonight!