#just...not enough for a full story yet aha

[corishadowfang]

19 and/or 32?

(For this)

19. What headcanon do you always include in your stories?

Answered that one here, haha, but for another one: poor Ephemer seems to be doomed to be a lethal chef in everything I write.

32. Which fic would you most like to write a sequel to?

Fallen Stars--though not in a "full-on sequel" sort of way. There's just a lot to explore after the story's over, from how the crew (and Scala) recovers, to how they rescue the Dandelions, to the ripple effects everything that happened had on canon, that it feels like something that'd be fun to explore--but because of HOW MUCH time there is to cover, it would probably work better as a bunch of one-shots or short series.

[nightlyrequiem]

alrighty sooohhh this might be worded oddly since im used to requesting certain writers who use certain words to describe 'y/n', so, like, forgive me if it sounds confusing or like, out-of-place 😭

could u do a Valeria oneshot with reader, her partner, whos also a big, hardened criminal, -- who runs another cartel, -- not a rivaling one, just a different one, which was forced to alliance themselves with Valerias cartel, after her and reader made themselves official

They're both big, mean cartel mamis, who have killed people, without second thought, not even a blink of an eye -- two women, making old men cry and piss themselves on the regular, -- yet, when reader and Val are together, they're just two appreciative softies

Total power couple in public btw. They're both covered in tattoos, wearing expensive clothes, earning more and more respect from more and more people as their empires grow,

when in private? Thats a completely different story. You got the jist, though.

Again, i apologize if this is worded wrongly/strangely, ive adapted my writing style to certain people, and physically cannot write in any other way without feeling weird about it .. aha. Giggle, giggle.

much love, traveling anon, aka, girlscout

-🐾🍪🏕

Don't worry, this was worded very nicely! This was pretty fun to write. I do enjoy some violence. Especially when it's being done by women. One dangerous woman is great, but two? Oh, I'm certainly swooning. This is one of my few works to have two drafts. I hated the first one and scrapped it. Much more pleased with the final product ^-^

Tags/Warnings: Violence, Some Gore

The Snake's Nest

Valeria slams her fist into the side of a man's head. He roughly hits the brick wall of the alley and crumples to the ground, clutching his face. His cheekbone no doubt shattered. You watch impassively as Valeria aggressively grabs ahold of his shirt and hair, hauling him away from the wall. She forces his face into the concrete. You kneel down gracefully.

"Why are you crying?" You ask softly. He did this to himself, yet he dares to cry. Your head tilts. He looks up at you, the whites of his eyes are pink with agitated blood vessels, either from the number of drinks he's had, the crying, or from the beating he's taking.

"Please!" He cries out. Begging for your mercy. Incorrectly assuming that you're the more merciful of the two. That you'll call of your guard dog, unaware that you are far worse. He's lucky that it's Valeria and not you.

You stand back to your full height. The man continues to squirm and incoherently sob out pleas. Valeria lifts one strong leg and brings it down on his head hard. You don't flinch at the violent cracking that occurs. His scream is cut off and distorted. She brings down her foot again and again until he goes silent. You turn your head and make eye contact with his friend. forced to crouch in the corner and watch. His face is haunted by what he's just witnessed. He will be left alone. Forced to pick up his friend's pieces and attempt to put them back together. You look back at the man on the ground with Valeria standing over him like an angel of death. You don't think there's strong enough glue to fix him now.

You take ahold of her soft hand. Brushing your thumb over her bruised knuckles. You two walk out of the alley. Your shadows split and morph together under the yellow streetlights. Valeria owns these streets, but you run them. With your combined forces you exert total control over everything. Eyes and ears are everywhere whispering their secrets to you. You and Valeria are separate but one in the same.

You were carefully nurturing the seedlings of your own cartel when Valeria was taking over hers and striking fear into the heart of Las Almas. She had what you wanted. Power, respect, and fear. You planted a few red herrings in her territory to give her a mystery to solve while you expanded your organization. You did whatever was necessary to succeed. Who it harmed didn't matter to you. You grew and grew. You got big enough that the small red herrings didn't matter to Valeria. She sent her men to sniff around your territory and routes. Not a show of outright aggression but a subtle threat from her to you.

For months you danced around each other. Trespassing but nothing more. There was a fragile peace between the two of you, one you intended to shatter. You quietly built-up strength in preparation to take over Las Almas and eliminate her and her cartel. The DEA was an unpredictable variable though. They began cracking down on the drug market. An infestation of them nested in Las Almas and its surrounding areas. Posing a genuine threat to the both of you. Your plans were put on hold, and you took the initiative to approach her with an offer of allegiance. Tempting her with territory and more firepower.

You two met on a burning Tuesday morning. You were to meet with El Sin Nombre at a local cafe. Instead, at your designated spot sat a woman. It took you five minutes to approach her. At first you were irritated that El Sin Nombre didn't respect you enough to meet you himself, but you swiftly figured out he was a concept and not a person. That she was The Nameless.

You intended to use Valeria as a way to take down the DEA without drawing too much attention to yourself. However, overtime you began to respect her. She was cold and calculating. She wasn't the type to waste her breath with meaningless threats. If you failed to be useful, she didn't waste her time in getting rid of you. Overtime she slowly dug her way through the ice around your heart and wormed her way inside like a little parasite. The sun had risen and finally set on the DEA. There was no reason to cradle the connection between the two cartels any longer but neither you nor Valeria made the first move to cut contact.

Your strictly business relationship flowered into something more. Something personal. The same hands that pulled teeth and put bullets between eyes lovingly traced the edges of her tattoos. Whispered sweet nothings into her ear at night, your legs coiled together like snakes after coitus. No one had ever treated you gently. Never kissed your hand or made you soup when you were sick. Those things were reserved for girls who were soft like velvet. Pure and kind. Not violent women with serpentine tattoos. Who sunk their teeth into the throats of others. Not until Valeria. Who bared her throat to you and bit back.

She clasped heavy gold chains around your neck with as much tenderness that one might do with a daintier piece of jewelry. You slid expensive rings onto her fingers with unspoken promises. 

The night isn't over, and neither is the need for violence. Not that either of you have any issue with that. Normal couples have date nights at the movies. Maybe a nice restaurant. You and Valeria strengthen your bond by inflicting pain and terror on lower life forms. In a warehouse eyes glitter from the shadows. A combination of hers and your own men. Valeria typically takes care of the interrogation and punishment. You have no issue with blood or violence. You take enjoyment it. But the sight of her lips pulled back into a feral snarl, her vicious efficiency, it makes you fall in love with her all over again.

This time however, you take the lead. A tall man, standing at an impressive six-foot-four stares you down in the centre of the room. He was a friend, once upon a time. Your second hand. The only person apart from Valeria you genuine cared about. The only other person you'd be willing to set yourself aside for. You were heartbroken to find out he was taking bribes from a smaller gang and trading your secrets for money. This is personal.

He's doing his best to seem unafraid, but you can see the fear in his eyes. Smell it in the acrid stench of his sweat.

"I'm not going to grovel for your forgiveness." He grumbles.

"I wasn't going to give you the chance to." You reply calmly. He's expecting more words. Maybe a monologue about how angry or hurt you are. You stare at him for a long time, letting the tension build. Higher and higher and higher. Until too many stagnant minutes have passed and with them his moment of understanding. Only then do you act. 

Quick as a scorpion's strike you stick him like a pig in the gut. he hisses in pain and tries to grab you but you're too quick for him. You kick out his knee and dart behind him, ripping your blade from his stomach. He howls like a dog while you hold him by the throat with your bicep. You place the tip of your knife in the squishy bit just under his ribs, in the middle of his abdomen. You struggle to keep the placement as he writhes but you get it right and push in, feeling muscle and skin tear under the steel. His screams echo back at him mockingly as you drag the knife down, tearing him open.

He slumps to the ground in a pool of his own blood. One last pained whine leaving his throat. You stare up at everyone watching. A public lesson. Though you can see that they're more entertained by the show then worried.

Back home you carefully strip out of your blood-soaked clothes. Setting them down in the laundry hamper. You crawl into bed and watch Valeria do the same. Admiring the smooth tan expanse of her back. Of the muscles shifting under her skin. You want to trace the ridges of her spine. She joins you under the covers and rests her face into the crook of your neck. Breathing in your scent. 

[cryptids-lair-of-hyperfixations]

sampo theory — amphoreus.

did anybody else notice that back during "mr cold feet's pop-up shop", the transition screen had references to greek lore?

i'm sure i'm not the only person who noticed, but i've been doing a lot of thinking about it ever since that event happened. what does it mean, beyond pointing towards amphoreus?

no detail is too small when it comes to this game. it has to mean something... and while i'm aware that there is a very good chance that i'm wrong about this one, i had a thought earlier that i just want to share somewhere.

"Take it easy, Icarus" — this is very curious to me. we are all obviously aware of the story of icarus, the boy who flew too close to the sun. so... what's it doing in a sampo-centric event? well, there are a few things i can think of. "icarus" could easily be referring to a number of characters, but because this is a greek mythos and we're about to depart to a greek-inspired planet... well, i have to assume our "icarus" is an amphoreus character. so what kinds of things could be considered as flying too close to the sun? maybe something like... disrespecting the gods?

"This must be a trap created..." — this one we cannot really see the full quote. created by who? well, there's no easy answer. greek lore is full of tricksters and traps... but i think it's fair to say that the most well-known trick is the trojan horse. it's the one you're probably gonna think of when you think about this kind of thing. but is that what's being pointed to here, or are we referencing another trap? if so... was sampo tricked? was our fox outfoxed?

"Diogenes' Utopia" — the name of an ingame achievement, namely one underneath the "moment of joy" category; the one directly related to aha the elation. so on top of being a reference to a greek philosopher, a founder of cynicism no less, here it's some kind of meta reference to aha.

okay, that's my thoughts on the quotes themselves. but i had a different thought earlier... namely the first point. while we don't know much about the amphoreus characters thus far, the little bit of information we know about anaxa is that he is a scholar who disrespects the gods.

if we want to say that disrespecting the gods is flying too close to the sun... is anaxa our icarus? if this is the case, why would he be pointed at in a sampo-centric event?

perhaps they have some kind of connection. we obviously know sampo isn't a jarilo-vi native. it's not that far of a stretch to think he's at least visited amphoreus at some point, although i doubt he's originally from there. (i still don't know where i think sampo is from. likely somewhere we haven't heard of yet, i still think kalevala is a red herring.)

i think that's enough rambling from me now. there's a 90% chance i'm wrong about the anaxa part of this, but i just want to get the brain worms out.

[rolameny]

i played through nine sols a second time and now i am going to talk about it. full spoilers!!

this is one of those works that tells you a lot of things about its world from the jump, only without giving you the context to interpret those statements. it makes a second visit so rewarding. going back through and knowing exactly what each monument means / the things yi is talking around.... really really good.

heng is fantastic on a replay. the first time around till you get the final message i thought yi was haunted. i also thought the ji reveal would be that he was heng and not an adult man

"neither of us made a mistake. we both made different choices" says yi, a man who has made so very many mistakes

game so good it makes you go "man i should learn more about taoism so i can better understand its themes"

it's wild how much this game draws on hollow knight and yet stands on its own as a totally different thing. like, mechanically, the jades are charms. the charged attack is a great slash. the full movement kit is monarch wings and mothwing cloak. the geo/artifacts economy. and you're a little guy who can't quite manage to die fighting your way through a series of bosses and some brightly hued corruption to sacrifice yourself at the end. it's just straightforwardly true that RCG pulled a great deal from HK, and it was enough to make me go aha!!! in recognition many times, but it's completely its own thing. own gameplay feel, own world, own story.

own protag: i love the silent protag in hollow knight but yi is such a lovable bitch [affectionate/derogatory]. guy who sucks so bad. guy it took over five hundred years to internalize a single social-emotional lesson.

it's so fascinating watching him react to the different sols. who does he get angry with. who does he make an offer of mercy to. because kuafu is so much the guy who is there i forgot yi also considered lady e the other reasonable person on the council, right up till he namedrops her when yelling at eigong.

the anger and spite to treat goumang as he did!! and even in the true ending you see neither he nor kuafu thought about her. there are some gaps of consideration in the true ending that i think of as "well we don't have time for that but you get it" -- any other potential apemen on new kunlun (peach blossom village is the 95th livestock pen. girl where are the others), the like 300-odd of 100k solarians left remaining in cryosleep who might like to at least live a little on earth before dying. imo the narrative is just skimming over them, we reach the emotional point of it with the people we know (kuafu and the gang). and it would be a whole narrative diversion to grab her. but the true ending makes sure to show us that goumang is still down there, rather than skimming over her fate. even when he grows a little yi still sucks so much dude [affectionate]. and kuafu's passivity coming to the fore here as well!

kuafu is so compelling because he is The Nice Guy but he is absolutely not necessarily The Kind Guy as well. he was just chill with the whole council plan and didn't do anything except be kind of bummed when yi died. (iirc he does just think yi's head did that. could have thought that one through a little more.) at the ending he pushes back against the idea of saving the apemen!

lady ethereal my beloved elizabeth holmes as a lynx furry. there's a fight that made me nod sagely and go Ah, Nightmare King Grimm. here's a place where i felt a little dissonance -- the full screen huge face digital flashing between normal/happy and manic evil laughter is a horror classic but it didn't quite hit it for lady e imo. huge face crying or snarling would have worked better i think, which i say even though i get the manic laughter through panic beat. idk. i love that in her bossfight she is presenting herself as the villain she thinks she is -- she gets out her heaving-est pushup bra for this one. sorry about it, girl. maybe next time if you know you're consigning a hundred thousand people to slow madness within their cryochambers maybe speak up about it.

speaking of people who learned no lessons. ji like okay well i've seen a lot of horror and so i elect to do nothing about it except contribute my cells to possibly the worst cause on earth. i will continue to wander this grotto for five hundred years while it gets worse. 👍 i'm having meaningful discussions about the tao with your man in the tentacle hole and i am not sorry, ji.

i understand the anglo readability argument for transliterating li er as lear but i, the anglophone in the room, did have to look at the fanwiki to understand that we were not dipping into shakespeare for a single guy. 😔

kanghui is such a fantastic element of this game. you get just enough about him to add to the horror of what eigong was doing, and what the jies are doing, and what the fuck is up with penglai to begin with. his inclusion makes ji make more sense to me as well. it's not that ji is a once in a millennium impossibility. it's that penglai is so so so weird. ji and yi pull up little chairs in front of kanghui's torture contraption for immortality group therapy.

like that one post says. CHIYOU best character CHIYOU

the siscon stuff in this game is so funny. [looking at the fengs] gang what's wrong with you [looking at yi and heng] gang what's wrong with you. congrats to the other characters on not having siblings and therefore having slightly more normal psychosexual hangups such as "getting off to body modification and torture."

RCG funding for one million years please 🙏🙏🙏 i know they said it took them five years to make this one but even with that timeline it's crazy that they went from narrative horror game to a genuinely best-in-class feeling Sekirollow Knight. they are so good at this shit.

okay. i have exorcised my thoughts and feelings about this game. playing a twenty-hour game twice in like 2-3 weeks is normal right.

[scramblecat]

okay scramble’s gonna get a lil unhinged with this one. But I already wrote it out for a server and all I gotta do is copy and paste SO:

About the Narrator and his Fears

[Putting it under a cut because it is. REALLY long as in like 700+ words long]

The Narrator is usually really good at keeping his composure when it comes to negative emotions, I feel like. He expresses happiness and excitement often enough, but the only times he cries (as in, voice audibly breaking) are the Zending and the Real Person ending.

So he’s shown to be distraught before. But panic? Full-on panic? There’s also only two instances where this happens, and that’s in the Skip Button Ending, and interestingly, the second time you go to the expo.

Now, the skip button ending is completely understandable. He’s being faced with the idea of being completely and utterly isolated for the foreseeable future, over and over and over again, getting longer and longer each time. Anyone would be afraid if they were in that position. At its surface, it’s a completely rational fear from the get-go.

But the expo? It’s… odd. He goes into the achievement room prepared to pop off with his whole ‘it doesn’t work YET’ thing, and then it does.

In the expo, it’s different. It’s not a high stakes situation, not by any means. But when the achievement machine works against all of the Narrator’s expectations, he panics. But not just in like an ‘ah uhm this is definitely what I meant to happen aha!’ way.

It takes him a moment to realize, but he verbalizes his train of thought, so we know exactly when he does.

The machine didn’t work before —> the Narrator didn’t do anything to it to fix it (implying that he didn’t have any sort of solution for it yet) —> it’s fixed anyways and he doesn’t know how —> someone else might have that knowledge —> there’s someone else here.

And that is the moment where he starts to panic. He sounds almost faint when he talks next, and he has to verbally tell himself to keep his composure— something we’ve never, ever heard him do before.

His breathing gets audibly strangled as he tries to finish his whole pitch, telling Stanley that everything is working as intended to cover up the anxiety he’s feeling. But he stumbles through it, and he finishes it with telling himself to breathe, to regulate the panic.

He straight up has like. A whole anxiety attack in front of us. It’s so UNLIKE him to be that afraid, and that REALLY makes it a moment that stands out.

There IS something that links the Skip Button and the Achievement Machine together— and that is CONTROL. Or, rather, lack thereof.

In the Skip Button Ending, yes, he’s scared of being alone. He makes many discoveries about his thought processes and how he works in that solitude, and realizes that talking isn’t his main purpose— it’s telling a story. Telling a story TO someone. He doesn’t feel like he has a purpose otherwise. And that’s the big root of the isolation part.

But otherwise? He spends the first few skips desperately looking for a way out. He panics when he can’t touch the room around him, when he realizes he’s trapped, and that he can’t do anything about it. He’s lost his control.

And it’s the same thing with the achievement machine. He THINKS he has complete control over the Parable and its contents. He really does. And then, something— or someone— fixes the machine for him. And all at once, his perception of what he can control comes absolutely crashing down on him. In that moment, he’s having a LOT of huge realizations:

He doesn’t have the control he thinks he does

He doesn’t know how much control he actually HAS, and it could be NONE

He and Stanley are not alone in the Parable, and are being watched

Whatever being is watching them has more power than he does, and could very well strip all of his control away from him

These realizations— that last one especially— are fucking terrifying to him!

The Narrator is obsessive about maintaining control over the events that transpire in HIS PARABLE, and the only times he shows negative emotions are when he cannot control a situation. It most often presents itself in annoyance at the very least, or a complete breakdown at its worst. And it’s all because he needs that control. He’s fearful of the idea that he can’t control a situation, because it makes him feel helpless and weak. He’s USED to having control, and when it’s taken away from him, he has no idea what to do.

He’s desperately trying to keep up this facade of ‘this is all fine and working as intended’ in front of Stanley after Stanley gets the achievement, even though it’s clear that he’s barely holding it together. His entire perception of his own control has collapsed in on itself, and has given in to one of his worst fears. And he’s really, really shaken up by it.

The Narrator’s greatest fear has been shown to be a lack of control. It’s quickly followed by the fear of isolation, obviously, but the fear of helplessness/weakness is present all through the games.

And THAT, folks, is why the Narrator freaks out in one (1) ending that nobody ever talks about!

[rotonalhaitham]

Alhaitham - Romeo, save me... (SFW)

Oho watch out for more taylor swift lyrics as the title for my future posts wink wink

Ehh this isn't based on the song (Love Story) , I just think it'll be cool to use as the title aha

Warnings : uncomfy events (random drunk man trying to touch you) but alhaitham to the rescue, angst and comfort

(reader has female pronouns)

Mondstadt — your hometown. It has been awhile since you've embraced the fresh air of Mondstadt. Ever since Lisa took you with her to Sumeru and met the love of your life —Alhaitham, you didn't got the chance to visit home for months and years.

You and Lisa, along with your lover planned a vacation on Mondstadt, and here you are now, taking a late evening stroll. Alhaitham had to run some errands even being away from the Akademiya.

Walking near the tavern, people were cheering and the clanks of wine bottles were heard from the Angel's Share.

Everything was going just fine, until someone grabbed you from your arm. You were shocked and started to panic, trying to get the grip loosen. The drunkard didn't let go, instead he dragged you to a small and dark alleyway.

You tried to scream for help and fight the grip of the drunk bastard, but your strength wasn't good enough. Your voice was too faint for people to hear because of the loud noises coming from the tavern.

"Hey! Let her go."

A familiar voice interrupted. It was Alhaitham. You felt a little relieved, although the grip on your arm was still tight.

He really is your Romeo to save you, your tears can't fall just yet. You're still shocked from what is currently happening.

You saw big hands gripping the drunk man's arms. In which the man finally let go of you, scared of Alhaitham's presence and tight grip. Alhaitham looked at the man with burning eyes, anger was showed.

"No one touches my girl."

He said, threateningly. The man panicked and quickly tried to ran off. But Alhaitham can't just let him get away without kicking his ass, and so he balled his fist and made sure he punched the man hard to knock some sense. The man didn't got time to react, his nose bleeding from the punch he deserved.

Feeling contented, your lover let the man ran away. He's sure he'd never do such thing again, especially to you.

After the bastard ran off, Alhaitham quickly turned to you with a concerned look. He embraced you and placed a kiss on your forehead.

"Babe.. You okay? Hope he didn't do anything to you. Or else.."

His voice, still hinted with anger from what had happened.

"I'm okay now... I'm just glad you're here, 'Haitham."

You started to sob on his arms. Tightly hugging him like there's no tomorrow. Having your boyfriend close felt alot more safer, neither of you wanting to let go of each other.

"Hush now, I'm here. I'm sorry I couldn't prevent this, but I promise, I'll never leave your side and I'll never let this happen again."

His voice was shaky, his heart shattered after hearing your sobs. He felt guilty and blames himself for not being there. He loves you so much, your sobs and cries are the last thing he would want to hear and see.

He kissed your forehead once again and wiped your tears on your cheeks. He leaned on your forehead, his eyes full of worries and guilt. He whispered..

"I love you so much. Don't ever forget that, okay? Now let's go home..."

[notmxverick]

HSR OC info: Zyta Lisowski

Zyta Lisowski - 5* Occupation: Double-dealing artifact hunter, thief, relic agent. Faction: Belobog, Wildfire, Masked Fools, Penacony Birthday & Age: April 10th (25-30) Height: Around 157 cm (Topaz's model, idk how tall she exactly is)

»【Alignments】«

Element: Imaginary Path: Elation/Nihility (still can't decide) Lore Path: Elation

»【Game mechanics】«

Tags: Buff, Debuff, FUA, Break Role: Amplifier

Description: Zyta empowers follow-up attacks (FUA) for herself and her allies. Her kit revolves around boosting FUA damage, improving shield-breaking efficiency, and adding random elemental versatility with her Aftertaste ability. She excels in team compositions that capitalize on frequent follow-up attacks and strategic shield-breaking.

»【Story line】«

(yes the shortest summary I can write)

Veleska Zyta was born on this Polish based planet called *Veleska* (self made planet). It was pretty much a pieceful planet. She lived with her parents Radoslaw Lisowski and Lidia Lisowski on a farm, since the planet was full with rich agriculture. Both of her parents used to be members of the Masked Fools. Her dad, Radoslaw, was a well known smith, amongst the people in their town, especially Masked Fools. He used to forge little trinkets for Zyta and organized together with her mom treasure hunts around their farm.

At the time, their homeplanet was protected by the IPC in exchange for the planet's crops and stuff. Veleska already had some problems before the beginning of Zyta's life. It had only one last layer of atmosphere and it was soon gonna rip which will lead to massive radiation and billions of dying people. Zyta was around 10 years old when that happened and her parents were just rich enough to buy one ticket for her to leave the planet on time. The IPC had left their planet with all of their crops right after announcing that there is nothing they could've done to prevent the massive solar flare from ripping the last layer. Since then Zyta developed major hate towards the IPC's. The way they just left her people to suffer made her blood boil.

Penacony Zyta was an orphan and a street thief after she left Veleska. She didn't want to go to an orphanage and the whole city was something completely new and loud to her since she was a farm girl. In her free time she went to local funfairs with stolen coins. It was her only entertainment at the time and it became her hobby to play those games.

She met Mr. Reca near a funfair once and went to pickpocket him. Reca caught her and wanted to pay her back for what she did but instead her memories started flashing through his mind about her loss, cuz like memetic entities can probably do that shit so..... He decided to take her in instead. Since then she started living with him. Reca sent her to school which was not fun for her at all. She had problems making friends, didn't want to study. That soon changed as she got more confident. She was a bold yet quiet child, she eventually started obeying him, learn manners and see him as her new dad.

Travelling era Zyta was old enough (around her early 20s) to start travelling on her own. She loved to study more about history of planets and ancient relics. She visited planets like Kalevala, Salsotto, Amphoreus, etc. On one of Epsilon's planets, she found Aha's mallet (a giant hammer) and Zyta was extremely drawn to it, claiming that the hammer called out to her.

IPC era Zyta's hate for the IPC didn't subside one bit throughout her years (she was in her mid 20s or sum) and she decided to apply there for a job. She worked there as a waitress at first, doing sneaky malicious activity, until Aventurine caught her red handed and made her his ally since they both shared hate for the IPC (they became partners-in-crime and lovers). He upgraded her into an Artifact Recovery Specialist, giving her more acces to places for authorized workers. Bit by bit, Aventurine and Zyta started to cause little sabotages to the IPC. While he was keeping it small, Zyta started to get more bold in her plans and actions, wanting to destroy the IPC as quickly as possible and for good. This lead to them into fights. Originally, Aventurine wanted to make her one of the Stonehearts, but her hate was too big so she refused to get more into whole corporation and prefered to stay loyal to her Masked Fools.

One day, she decided to take matters into her own hands, end the IPC's monopolization, which would also lead to Aventurine's downfall. However Aventurine stopped her on time due to his massive luck, saving his own ass while she gets thrown into jail. He caused her a massive debt, loss of all of her belongings and life in prison. Zyta was destroyed and despised Aventurine so much for it. Meanwhile, Aventurine started feeling so bad for her and decided to hire specialists and professionals to remove all of the articles outside of Penacony's internet and professionals to help her escape prison. He is basically the one that sent her to Jarilo-VI, where the place wasn't really influenced by the IPC so much, and couldn't easily find her. He wanted to give her a chance to start her life over without him.

Jarilo-VI She arrived there completely broken with little money. She had no choice but to start farming money by stealing from rich people at the Overworld. She met Captain Gepard on her first week, fell head over heals and tried hard to impress him, despite his stoic demeanor. She created a double life within her: a legal relic agent to the captain, but a relic hunter and thief in reality. They hit it off ig and started dating without him knowing how much lies she is putting into their relationship. Meanwhile she met Sampo, who kept interfering with her plans, including her heists. At some point, she decided to work together with him (becoming partners-in-crime again) just so she gets some good amount of money. Overtime they had become very close, until she revealed to him that she was dating Gepard. Zyta noticed that he was getting more distant at that point.

Meanwhile, Gepard started noticing some odd behaviour in Zyta and slowly got suspicious of her. He usually just brushed off that feeling because he was blinded by her love. Gepard soon realized that she has lied about everything and what person she actually really was. He also found out about her past with the IPC by going through the Penacony's internet. A bunch of things happened, he caught her and sent her to prison. Zyta became once again broken and lost.

Despite Sampo acting all distant and stuff, he heard about the news and felt the urge to save her. Not only because it would worsen their business plans, but also because he started to realize that he genuinely cared for her. He pretended to be a Silvermane Guard for days to try and help her escape prison. He confessed his feelings soon after that. This gave her hope and started enjoying time with him as true parnters and Masked Fools.

(This all happened before the in game trailblaze missions started. I still need to plan what roles she has during those trailblaze missions.)

»【Trivia】«

- Zyta's weapon is a giant hammer that is known as Aha's Mallet. It is believed that the hammer was crafted by the Aeon of Elation itself. - Zyta will get a boss form called *The Laughing Conductor* when Aha decides to finally make her one of its emanators. - Zyta's full name is *Zyta Roza Lisowski*. *Roza* is the name she used when she worked as an IPC worker. Roses are her favorite flower too. - Zyta has a sensitive stomach when it comes to travelling. Her nightmares about the loss of her homeplanet and parents keep reminding her as she travels throughout the galaxy. - Zyta loves foxes and cats. - Zyta's biggest insecurity is being flat-chested. Uses extra push-ups to feel more confident in her looks. - Zyta has her own special mask, but that is unfortunately still at Aventurine's place. - Zyta has picked up some smithing skills from her father when she was little. This came later in handy with her relic work.

»【Voice claims】«

- EN: Cristina Vee (voice of Yayoi Kusakabe, High rise invasion) - JP: Sekine Akira (voice of Thelema, HI3)

»【Love Interests】«

- Zympo: Sampo x Zyta (current lover) - Avenyta: Aventurine x Zyta (former lover) - Zypard: Gepard x Zyta (former lover)

I might change some things in the future but this is what I have for now. I hope y'all enjoyed this <3

[artheresy]

I have not forgotten the draft regarding "How I would write Clouds Leave No Trace", it still lingers its still there

Im still thinking about how my least favorite parts are Yanqing's characterization, The way the world around Jingliu treats her like she's normal when clearly she's not, The way there's such an effort into putting Yingxing and Dan Feng on the same level of guilt for every single thing that it makes Blade's desire for revenge feel nonsensical and out of no where when he has good reason for it, The way that they don't do more to play up the HCQ's dynamic especially in the normal areas thus making caring about their tragedy a struggle if you haven't done all the "prerequisite reading" (even tho the quest should make the players care more and want to read instead of requiring the opposite), The way that they literally mention Bailu and Blade crossed paths but never show us that scene DESPITE all of the importance placed upon Baiheng and Yingxing's friendship, Did I mention My Massive Problems with my boy Yanqing's characterization in this quest versus what we see of how he's affected both before and after it?

Oh and of course, to mention Jing Yuan not really feeling like he has as much significance being in this quest despite being apart of the HCQ and Jingliu's disciple because yet again, they especially don't do enough to develop on screen (but also not enough in the readable text too) his connections to the rest of the HCQ (which in general if you ask me, makes it a lot harder to be that sad at the moments they clearly want us to feel sad for him over the HCQ)

I could go on and on about the problems of Hyv not fully giving the audience a reason to care for the HCQ's tragedy by the way they are barely shown on screen, shoving it all in readables and character stories and relic lore. Even their legends get barely any screen time to build up to when we hear about the fall out.

Also again, not kidding about Jingliu and the world's perception around her. She is described solely in the beginning as bringing a chill to the room, but she's clearly very intimidating, if you ask me she seems very clearly unstable as well and yet when they waltz around in a populated area with no attention getting drawn to them or suspicion or anything. I also call Massive Bullshit on Bailu being like "Wow but she seems so normal and kind, there's nothing about her at all that could make me think she's marastruck 😲!!" When if you ask me, that whole scene could have been used in a much more meaningful way to make a connection between Bailu and her resemblance to Baiheng Specifically in a way I will further elaborate on in my full post about it BUT YEAH Jingliu deserved so much better with this quest, so so much better

And even just small details get me like Jingliu leaving first from Scalegorge Waterscale, then Jing Yuan, Yanqing and Ren leaving? Like if you ask me, let Jingliu leave with Jing Yuan and Yanqing like they're escorting her (idc about any "She was already turning herself in!" There are a number of reasons to be cautious, not solely of her, and keep her in their view) and then talk to and have Ren leave last.

I am still thinking about it, that post still haunts me daily, I have grown to like the quest but my problems with it are so strong and so clear that it's like AHA I CANT STOP THINKING ABOUT IT

[literalite]

literally just me talking about edit stuff because im in a mood

these r what i would call like my base level of ingame edits (i dont reallyyyyyy count my cas screenshots as edits unless i spend an actual amount of time actually working on them rather than my usual blur+chromatic aberration+sharpen combo) theres usually very little? or like no actual basis in the characters "canon" or lore like its just done to make them look nice. right. or like its fun lighting practise for me really. theyre usually pretty simple in execution like in the two examples there its just plain yellow background for sunny and the neon cross for vin so i have to put a little extra oomf into it because the backgrounds are like not super detailed so theres less of an "interest" factor from that so the sims themselves have to look REALLY good to make up for it. the ones i end up happy with though usually look really dynamic so it balances out

so these are more sort of abstract edits to me bc they have a basis in the oc lore or themes or whatever and most of my ocs have at least one or two visual markers (in the examples lucari or even just ari specifically gets a fair amount of celestial/sky imagery, i handled the colours here a bit sloppily but its meant to be blue and purple which are ari and luca's text colours, heiya's emphasis being on her muscles and scars and the clouded solar eclipse, redacted gets a lot of water/reflective surfaces/birds/rainbow flares?? and also lightning but that isnt being used in this specific one and sunny gets a fair amount of fire/smoke stuff as well as emphasis on primary colours like his more blue toned edits r usually in his darker stages of his life while warmer yellows means more positive stuff, red usually is just for uhhh violence oriented stuff) and like none of these are Actually happening. right. redacted isnt actually ever in that position with that era of hair in the water with the birds and sunny was set on fire at 13 not as an adult and they certainly never had a portrait of his family like that. but its symbolic, it means Something even if you as the viewer doesnt know it yet 😅 or ever aha

OKAY LOL I PRESSED POST BY ACCIDENT LOL but these are my full lore edits or something likr theyre totally rooted in the background of the ocs. like these are scenes from their lives for real. obviously i fiddle with lighting angle composition a tinyyyy bit to make for a more pleasing or dynamic image at the end but if my ocs all got dedicated like. movies or shows these would be ripped straight from the scene. i take creative liberties with some stuff but in essence these could be story posts (like the 3rd example with idris/redacted is literally in the story itself in one of the posts) the difference is usually amount of images in the post and orientation of said image/s. to me an edit stops being an edit when it has more than likeeeeee 4 images and then i will usually keep that bulk all in landscape or maybe one as portrait for emphasis. edits will be 4 or less and mostly in portrait because i want the less images to take up more room on the dash. the backgrounds for these will usually be way more complex like ill build a mini set or use existing sets for each one. i just think that ingame edits have a lot more capability than you might think (u dont have to go into blender for every little thing promise 🙌🏼) its just like. u can do a lot with this game i swearrrrrr just treat it like an art medium. im serious

ALSO the song almost always is sooo relevant to the edit i swear its not enough to sound good. i have to be unwell about it as well and it has to make sense with what im showing u

ok thats my random unrequested ted talk for the day im going to go home now bye thank u for reading if u did that 😁

[bitegore]

🍄♻️🤔

🍄Describe your wip/one of your wips in the format of “_ + =__”

okay for the sake of my fucking sanity i am NOT going to presume I get any real wiggle room here. or i will do another 400 line proof. because it is fun but oh my god it takes so long.

((Felyx + Taran)(Rex + Haven + Taran) + fake dating)^spite = fireworks

♻️A scrapped idea for your current WIP(s)

not sure it qualifies as a "wip" because I haven't actually decided to pull it out of the graveyard of abandoned-works out-of-progress yet - call it a wip-aspirational or something lol - but the more I poke at Haven and Taran's actual story the more fun I have thinking about siccing Rex on the two of them. In like 2020 or 2021, so, a good while ago at this point and at a time I'd describe myself as "rusty" I started working on whatever the worst version of a meetcute is (ending in the equation above) lol. If I recall correctly my endgame then was that the three of them would fall into a stable orbit. I think that's kind of silly now. They're not that kind of people.

other scrapped idea, same story: Rex and Taran were meant to get along. That's not happening. It's a lot funnier if Rex and Haven (both deeply, deeply difficult people to get along with who hate accommodating for other people) can find a way to coexist pleasantly but Taran, resident NormalGuy who is extremely accustomed to unpleasant asshole bullshit, genuinely cannot get over Rex's various fuckeries beyond, like, the civility of "I recognize that you are living in my house now because the other person who lives here really likes you, and I don't want to have a screaming match in my own fucking kitchen." I tend to make Rex tolerable to speak to when I write him on his own because it's narratively difficult to use a protagonist who will just spit anything handed to him in someone else's face, but in this particular setup he is actively attempting to get Taran's genuine actual hatred on purpose because he's under the impression that's the goal and he's having fun with it also, so it lets me just make him a huge cunt asshole too which is more fun than having him show any scraps of humanity anyway :D

ok let me come up with something you have actual interest in lol

The Rex & Casey conversation fic I was working on ran into an unrecoverable roadblock (I decided the premise needed work) and has to be restarted in a different place with a slightly different version of Casey (tragic!), so one of the things I had to scrap to keep it rolling is Rex commenting on the color of the sky. It's really sad for me because I always think it's funny when you have a guy In a hell dimension like "damn... this place is weird.... the sky isn't bright red, it's eerie". But I can't justify The Story bringing Rex into The Real World as a Plot Element now that I know more about how it works, so I

......

Aha. Well. Actually. I can't justify Alan using The Story to bring Rex into The Real World, because I know how he works. Might have fixed my opinion on my own premise.

We'll see, I'll sleep on it. It needs to cook longer anyway. I also realized (aw2 spoilers) (for serious) (skip this paragraph now if you havent at least finished the first run of the game) if it happens in The Story In The Real World it's got to be situated between Saga's first time going through the loop with Alan and the Final Draft, but I still haven't found enough time to watch t full playthrough of Final Draft, so I'm sure when I hit Zane's part in there and then endgame I'll know a bit more about the direction I want to take.

🤔What’s a story you’d love to write but haven’t even started yet

Anything like that I have, either it's so busy being a concept I cannot write it yet, or I've started it just to make sure I won't forget it XD so it's hard to come up with. And most of the concepts are less "this is the kind of story I want to write", so much as "this is the kind of effect I want it to have". You know. I want to write something ~mind-bending~ or I want to ~do talking animals but cool~ or whatever.

A lot of words to say I'm drawing a huge blank on this question.

I think - and this is something I keep approaching with different stories but not leaning into, because, frankly, I'm the first line of concept-check for myself, and i get bored - I'd really like to try a story that works as one extended record-scratch. You start at the very end, in a scene that means basically nothing to anyone, and then in the events of reading the entire rest of the story you get more and more context until the very end of the book is the exact same scene as the first part, like, down to the description, and then it just loops infinitely. Something you could read spiral-binding style so it doesn't really have a "start" or an "end", just points between chapters with cardboard so you can close it anywhere, if it's a physical book. you know, some experimental shit.

Unfortunately I find time loops boring as hell to write. This would be ONE loop, so it'd maybe be better, but I'm still kind of burnt on being willing to touch another timeloop from how badly I did not enjoy the one I wrote for an exchange like two full calendar years ago. And also I do have other things to be doing.

That's also not a story! That's a plot structure! I might as well say I want to write The Hero's Journey for all it really tells you 😂 at my heart I'm a parodist, I'm going to need to see someone do it wrong and decide to do a better job than they did to really get a fire lit for an actual narrative here. I do love me some themes of insurmountable stupid bullshit you put yourself into on purpose because you decided you could surmount it and then discovered you couldn't, and some futile attempts at some stupid shit for retroactively-really-dumb reasons that weren't worth it, so it'll have that. as seasoning. because what is a permanent stable timeloop but one person committing suicide over and over? I'm only really able to approach the properly frozen-in-sequence ones as either Hand Of God (boring) or Sunk Cost Fallacy On Steroids (fun! interesting! miserable in a slightly unusual way!) so...

....well, it's going to have to keep simmering, because I like what I've got in the broth, but there's no meat in there yet, only spices. It would make a terrible meal right now. But it answers the question, I think.

[loderlied]

i am so sorry for the amount i am about to send you. general 5, 8, and 9. story specific 1, 5, 10, and 11? you dont have to answer all of them lmao

zeke’s story will never be at full potential without the durge stuff and you didn’t ask for any durge related ones so i will just pretend that he’s still the most specialest bhaalbabe ever just as a companion lol. i’m gonna excuse this self-indulgence by reminding myself that i heard that default durge was supposed to be a companion early in development? anyways.

5. Are there any instances where your Tav can permanently leave the party, depending on player character actions?

surprisingly it would be pretty hard to get rid of him once you invited him to travel along with you. i wrote a little fic about this scenario a while ago and he’s just a massive self-centered dick when you recruit him but he’s also so insanely confused. not even mentioning the memory loss, he’s a sheltered, paranoid, stressed to hell and back guy who’s being exposed to a new environment and he’s clinging to anything that makes his confusion a little easier—zeke doesn’t know a life without being led by someone, so even if he thinks your leadership is lofty he’ll probably stick around for a while at least, even if you don’t exactly want him around, like a cockroach infestation.

8. What do they say when the Player Character asks them to stay in camp?  How about when the Player Character asks them to come adventuring again?

“Pah, y-you think you and your sorry excuse for a brain up there would survive for A SECOND without my expertise? S-Suit yourself. “ *looks away from player pouting*

“Aha, aha, look who’s here again! Knew you’d crawl back to me. Yes, I suppose I could consider coming with you… Just say the words ‘You were right, Zeke.’ and my mastermind is at your side again. He-Hey! Wait! Don’t leave! For fucks sake, I’m right behind you…”

9. Does your Tav have any escalating conflicts with one of the other companions, like Lae’zel and Shadowheart’s knife-fight?

oh god of course. it’s zeke hello. first off we have karlach.

act 1: i think after you’ve traveled with them both for a bit and have beaten the “paladins”/she has revealed her backstory, you get a scene in which you approach zeke like usual but see that his eye is completely blue and bruised, and if you press him he says “that brute devil attacked him for merely trying to have a conversation with her. his fault really, for assuming that she’d be good at anything but mindlessly bashing people’s heads in” (wild statement to make with 6 cha lol) if you then question karlach about it you find out that he was actually incessantly pestering her with questions about her past, completely disregarding her trauma or or discomfort. (this is because his like brain like. tingling? at the gortash mention but he doesn’t know that yet so neither does the player)

act 2/3: so, i haven’t used karlach beyond act 1 yet because i attacked the grove with zeke, so i can’t include anything about her personal quest, but i think they’d sort of. hesitantly grow together over act 2, only for that to get shattered on the big reveal tm at the coronation. there’s so much that can be said about this and i’m already rambling like crazy so i’m gonna summarize: karlach gets super duper fucking pissed, but also is probably smart enough to notice how gortash hurt zeke, not how he hurt her but not any less cruel, when zeke’s mental health starts to deteriorate after reuniting with him. so you can keep them in the party for a while longer together—until zeke straight up tries to murder karlach for being a threat to gortash in a weird panic attack induced mania. he will not have anyone steal his kill. you can either kill him then, let him kill karlach, or knock him out and send him away, but you cannot keep him in your party if you don’t kill karlach.

uugh yikes. shart time!

these bitches are also fighting tm. zeke in the early days essentially sees her as a rubik’s cube to solve, a way to distract himself from his own memory loss by seeking recognition in hers. so while his pestering of her is out of genuine interest, it’s certainly not any less annoying.

zeke also has a complicated relationship with shar. he can get behind the “shadows” aspect, loves those as a stalker, but he has the chronic need to solve mysteries, uncover secrets, know everything, so sharrans are obviously not to keen on him lmao

1. How does your Tav advise the player character when it comes to the Dream Visitor?

zeke is incredibly distrusting of. well. anything really, so he will advise you to be wary, but he is also smart enough to realize that what they’re saying about them being the only reason they’re protected from the absolute is most likely true, so he tells you to keep them around for as long as they’re useful.

5. How do they react to the Player Character taking their first tadpole power?

asks you how it feels to be one step closer to squid town, then dismissively waves his hand and probably makes a comment how it’ll be fine: there’s not much up there to burrow into anyway. if your approval with him is high he’ll still say that line but sound notably different—louder, more venom, stuttering a lot more, trying to overcompensate for his clear worry for you.

10. How do they react if the PC licks the dead spider in the Gauntlet of Shar?

wants a bite! zeke is a full body investigator, meaning that he’s not above licking and sniffing everything that seems even mildly intriguing to him lol

11. What do they say if the PC tries to force them to go up on stage with Dribbles the Clown?

you don’t get approval or disapproval, when you first prompt him to go he remarks something along the lines of “of course you’d pick me! not like the audience would cheer for any of the other losers in our party” but when you actually force him he’s really nervous lol “o-obviously every good comedian re-rehearses their jokes before! wh-what? no i can improvise, it’s just- well- i’d be at an obvious disadvantage…” and so on lmao

[boobiestarplanet]

a few grammar mistakes i see a lot online (especially in fanfic)

disclaimers:

i’m not an expert, so it’s possible some info is wrong

i might oversimplify certain things to get the point across

rules are meant to be broken! whether you follow all of these or not is up to you. i just think it’s important to be aware of certain rules so that when you do break them, it’s deliberate and actually adds something to the writing (i.e. a run-on sentence to convey a character’s chaotic thoughts, etc.)

this is not meant to be a formal guide of any sort. i wrote it off the top of my head and lots of it is written in a silly tone (very silly at times)

okay let's go

tense

to put it simply, tense refers to the time in which your writing takes place: past, present, or future. unless you’re changing tense intentionally for a flashback scene or something, keep it consistent! here’s an example of a paragraph with inconsistent tense:

Character A sighs. “Are you serious?” they asked. “There’s no way someone would just forget what tense they’re writing in.” They shake their head disapprovingly and continued their rant. “Besides, that barely counts as a grammar issue!” Character A yells.

see how the verbs don’t match? the green words are written in the present tense, and the red ones are written in the past tense. you can choose whatever tense fits your story best, but keep it consistent! i’ll go with present. here’s the fixed version:

Character A sighs. “Are you serious?” they ask. “There’s no way someone would just forget what tense they’re writing in.” They shake their head disapprovingly and continue their rant. “Besides, that barely counts as a grammar issue!” Character A yells.

comma splices

to know what a comma splice is, you need to know the difference between independent and dependent clauses. the terms are pretty self-explanatory: an independent clause can stand on its own as a full sentence, while a dependent clause can’t. a comma splice occurs when you link two independent clauses with a comma. here’s an example of a paragraph with several comma splices:

Character B walked in, they sat on the couch next to Character A. They realized that it was really hot in the room, they decided to open a window. They assumed their friend hadn’t even noticed the heat, Character A was always like that.

oh boy! three comma splices! how can we fix this? i’m glad you asked! there are three ways to fix a comma splice:

split it into two separate sentences

add a coordinating conjunction (don’t worry if you don’t know what this is, we’ll get into it in a second. (oh, huh? was that a comma splice right there? yep! a great example of how these rules don’t have to be followed in casual writing!))

replace the comma with a semicolon

okay. i think it’s time for a quick mini-lesson.

conjunctions

you might know them from the schoolhouse rock song, but what the heck actually is a conjunction? simple! it’s a word that joins clauses. coordinating conjunctions join two independent clauses, so those are the focus here. there are seven coordinating conjunctions: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so. okay! back to the main lesson!

comma splices, cont.

let’s fix that example paragraph using the methods listed.

Character B walked in. They sat on the couch next to Character A. They realized that it was really hot in the room, so they decided to open a window. They assumed their friend hadn’t even noticed the heat; Character A was always like that.

aha! now you know why they were color-coded! i bet you were wondering, weren’t you? well now you know!

possessive adjectives and contractions

a possessive adjective is an adjective that denotes possession (duh) and a contraction is when you combine two words with an apostrophe to shorten it. sounds simple enough, right? well what if i told you there’s a good chance you don’t know the difference as well as you thought?

your vs. you’re

let’s start with the one people always talk about: your and you’re. your is a second person possessive pronoun, while you’re is a contraction of the words you and are. here are both of them used correctly in a sentence:

You look like you’re really enjoying your meal!

notice how the sentence would still be correct if i replaced you’re with you are? an easy way to remember the difference is that with the contraction, the apostrophe replaces the missing letter(s).

their vs. they’re

we’re excluding the third triplet, there. sorry there. there, there. anyway, it’s the same as the last one. their is possessive, and they’re is a contraction of they and are. here’s them in a sentence:

Their artwork looks really great; it’s clear they’re a skilled artist.

callback time! notice how i avoided a comma splice by using a semicolon instead of a comma? of course you noticed. you’re so smart. i’m so proud of you. i love you. anyway! you can tell my example sentence is correct because i can replace they’re with they are and it would still make sense, but i couldn’t do the same for their.

whose vs who’s

this one might be tricky, but just apply the same logic as before! remember that the apostrophe connects the words in a conjunction. therefore whose is possessive and who’s is a contraction of who and is. example sentence time:

I don’t know whose textbook that is, but it must be someone who’s really smart.

you get the pattern: i could replace who’s with who is and it would still make sense. okay, are you ready for the next one? the final boss? let’s go. its vs it’s.

its vs it’s

twenty minutes ago, this one might have left you scratching your head, but now you have the tools to conquer it! i bet you can tell which is which! remember the apostrophe! drumroll, please… that’s right! its is possessive, and it’s is a contraction of it and is. coming up with these example sentences is harder than it looks, you might need to give me a second… okay, i think i’ve got it. huh? what’s that? you noticed a comma splice? good for you! you’re improving so fast! now, are you ready for the example sentence? here goes:

It’s hard to think of example sentences; its difficulty can’t be understated.

i know, i know. that one was kind of pathetic. i even had to pull out the old semicolon again. whatever, can you at least appreciate the effort? thanks. remember the apostrophe thing. i’ll see you in the next section.

punctuating dialogue split between two paragraphs

what? that’s such a specific title. okay, uh… fuck it, let’s start with an example this time. this one will have a mistake and you have to catch it. i’m bringing back characters a and b. i kind of miss them.

“Character B! It’s so nice to see you again!” Character A exclaimed. They leaned back in their chair and crossed their legs casually. “Hey, did I ever tell you about how I met Character C?” Character B gasped. “No! I’ve been wondering for a while; do tell!” “Okay, okay,” Character A giggled. “So, I was chatting with my friend, Character D—you know Character D, right?” Character B nodded. “Right, so I was chatting with Character D, and they were like, ‘I have this friend I think you’d like,’ and I was like, ‘Really? Who?’ and they were like ‘I should totally set you two up on a blind date,’ and I was, like, freaking out. Obviously I said yes.” “So then Character C and I met up at this coffee shop, and we just immediately hit it off! I’d never clicked with someone so perfectly before. It was amazing.”

whoa! new characters jumpscare! anyway, did you catch the mistake? did i throw you off with the dialogue within character a’s story? the issue was actually at the end of paragraph three! since the speaker is the same in both paragraphs, those quotation marks at the end are actually unnecessary! it makes it confusing and hard to tell who’s talking. here’s the correct version:

“Character B! It’s so nice to see you again!” Character A exclaimed. They leaned back in their chair and crossed their legs casually. “Hey, did I ever tell you about how I met Character C?” Character B gasped. “No! I’ve been wondering for a while; do tell!” “Okay, okay,” Character A giggled. “So, I was chatting with my friend, Character D—you know Character D, right?” Character B nodded. “Right, so I was chatting with Character D, and they were like, ‘I have this friend I think you’d like,’ and I was like, ‘Really? Who?’ and they were like ‘I should totally set you two up on a blind date,’ and I was, like, freaking out. Obviously I said yes. “So then Character C and I met up at this coffee shop, and we just immediately hit it off! I’d never clicked with someone so perfectly before. It was amazing.”

note how i kept the quotation marks at the beginning of the following paragraph. it might look weird, but i promise it’s correct! you know, this section reminds me of an even simpler mistake i could talk about. are you ready for the next section?

please for the love of god make a new paragraph when the speaker changes

a very professional title, i know. but it gets the point across! please for the love of god make a new paragraph when the speaker changes. i’m begging you. here’s an example of what not to do:

“Hey, is that Character D?” Character A asked. “Woah, I think it is! Hi, Character D! It’s been a while!” Character C said. “Hi! It’s good to see you—” “Wait. Sorry to interrupt, Character D, but do you notice something?” Character B said. “It’s like…” Character A widens their eyes and speaks. “It’s like all this dialogue is in one paragraph…”

that was physically painful to write. do you notice how hard it is to keep track of the speaker? even i don’t know who was speaking half the time, and i wrote it! i guess i have to fix it now. damn. here goes, i guess:

“Hey, is that Character D?” Character A asked. “Woah, I think it is! Hi, Character D! It’s been a while!” Character C said. “Hi! It’s good to see you—” “Wait. Sorry to interrupt, Character D, but do you notice something?” Character B said. “It’s like…” Character A widens their eyes and speaks. “It’s like all this dialogue is in one paragraph…”

there! now you can easily tell who’s speaking. it might look like a lot of paragraphs, but i promise it’s better than the alternative.

hyphens and em dashes

sorry if there are any en dash fans out there but i don’t really care enough to mention them. sorry. anyway! what the heck is a hyphen and what the heck is an em dash? they’re these: - and —. a hyphen is used in phrases like vise-versa, hand-me-down, and trick-or-treating. an em dash is entirely different. it can be used to emphasize a nonrestrictive clause (you don’t really need to know what that means; it’s easier to show with examples than explanations) or to indicate an interruption or change in sentence structure. if that doesn’t make sense, that’s okay. here are some examples:

This sentence uses— Huh? Sorry. I got distracted. This sentence uses em dashes—those long, horizontal lines—to emphasize a phrase. It draws more attention to what’s inside the dashes than, say, parentheses—though parentheses are also a lovely form of punctuation.

can you tell i love em dashes? i love em dashes. i think i have the energy for one more section. oh wait oh fuck this one is a doozy—

gender

wait. huh. why would i write about that. rewrite that title.

grammatical gender

ohhh okay. this one i get. so! we don’t really have grammatical gender in english, so— wait. that could be more clear. rewrite that title.

grammatical gender of loanwords

okay! much better! couldn’t you have just said that the first time? geez. anyway, let’s use words from french as an example. why? parce que je peux le faire. tais-toi. if i want to talk about someone’s husband-to-be, i’d use the word fiancé. however, if i want to talk about someone’s bride-to-be, i’d use the feminine word fiancée. if i want to talk about a man with light hair, i’d use the word blond. however, if i want to talk about a woman with light hair, i’d use the feminine word blonde. if the gender is unknown or nonbinary, people tend to default to the masculine form, but it depends on the person. compared to the other things mentioned here, this one isn’t really that important, and you can totally ignore it if you want. if i make another post like this, i might end that one with a contentious point too, just for fun. i’d like to probably talk about split infinitives ;)

[tobiasdrake]

We have our missions. Let's make the most of it.

And by that I mean Story Time.

Garl will persuade Malkomud to help us. Zale will bottle Zephyr. Serai will rematch the Hydralion, but this time it's personal. And I get to singlehandedly slay the terrifying lava monster that the council's so afraid of. We're good to--

Wait, what about Resh'an?

Technically, you're not. Attacking Strife was the only part that Fleshy knew about and retaliated for, but you aren't technically allowed to even be here at all. We've been full-scale cheating since the moment you opened the door for us.

That's not a complaint. I'm down for more cheating. I love cheating when the recipient is an asshole. Just saying.

Oh, that is super-cheating. There's putting a hand on the scale, and then there's throwing out the scale and leaving a sticky note that reads "Measures fine to me" in its place.

Starting with Team Zale. I am not here, but I'm with them in spirit. We've seen this type of crystal structure in the Moorlands before but never quite figured out how to crack it. Looks like Zale's going to have to solve that problem, because that's clearly Zephyr right there.

Unfortunately for everyone who is not my team (scientifically proven to be the best team), they're going to have to deal with the Garl problem we had back on Wraith Island. I took Yoyo's Eye with me, so I get to see HP totals and weak points, but y'all just have to deal.

Flying through jetstreams looks extremely fun and I'm jealous. However, we have more important business to attend to because it's Story Time by proxy.

Those are the guys who came up with the elemental ritual that Garl's now cooking up. They've been mentioned a couple times now; The Sleeper's fable lamented their absence for this exact reason, and Yoyo's got one of her prophecy books about them.

So the Ovates created the golems. But the golems know Resh'an as their master. Is he an Ovate? Did he create the Ovates and was involved enough in their society that their workings know and revere him? There's a piece of my understanding still missing here.

The early days of travel golems must have been wild. How many lives do you think were sacrificed on the altar of slight miscalculations or errors in the trajectory alignment?

Oh, Khukharr is uniquely self-aware. That's good to know. Probably because his task isn't just about playing catch with people's lives. He also has to hold up an island for some reason.

What would happen if was submerged in the floodwaters? It has that barrier.... Would the barrier have kept the water out, allowing the Acolytes to use the place for cultivating Strife but leaving us no avenue to interrupt them?

Or would it have flooded completely, destroying Clockwork Castle and everyone inside of it, and forcing the Acolytes to choose a different location for Strife's cultivation? One where we would not have access to Cael's Eclipse Cannon, and thus would be slaughtered by Strife immediately?

Aha, and that's where Resh'an comes in.

"It needs to be sentient but I can't figure out how to make that happen. I guess someone will solve it eventually. Next project: Colossal sky people who have to somehow navigate an itty-bitty living space. It will be hilarious."

A task they now perform. Implication that the Council is lateral to TIA/Fleshy and all the Solstice stuff. Eclipse magic is super strong for reasons nobody quite knows yet but that TIA eagerly capitalizes on. TIA and Fleshy are multiversal immortals waging conflict across the myriad realities TIA broke up. And the Council are supreme terrestrial authorities. None of these are beholden to any of the others; They simply are.

Still need answers on what the flood's about. It's been mentioned repeatedly but. Like. Why was there a flood? What happened to cause the sea level to rise, and why could it not be avoided or prevented by any means despite extensive future sight?

I imagine every timeline probably has something to that effect.

That closes out the question of how the Ovates and TIA relate to each other. They don't; TIA just happens to have Khukharr's allegiance because he took the project on as a contract assignment.

Though the fact that they were carrying out visions from a dream feels eerily similar to how Mooncradle was constructed, so I don't think it was by coincidence that the Great Eagle just happened to come by and finish Khukharr for them.

Okay but from a historical perspective, I think we can safely assume that it did.

I mean. Khukharr's been dead for 150 years but he's still standing, is the point. His corpse is still supporting Mesa Island long after his passing. So I think we can call that a resounding success. 12/10 Vastly Exceeds Expectations.

Given how hard it was to persuade him to let us onto Mesa Island, we can also conclude that his stubbornness warrants the title as well.

This fable is about Khukharr but, really, it's about the Ovate statues as a whole. A nice lump summary of the throwers, Khkuharr, and the Cloud Giants.

Though it leaves me wondering if the Cloud Giants are AI. The myth said they had trouble creating sentience but also that they made the Cloud Giants, who seem to be sentient. Unless they aren't sentient....

Fuck, are we doing all this to earn the approval of ChatGPT?

[icharchivist]

As a Belial stan, I admit I fell for him because I saw a stupid meme that was my first introduction to him and Gbf in general, then couldn't get him out of my head, but the more I learned about him, the more I grew to love him

And I can confidently the atrocities only add to his character

The fact that he chose to cope with what happened to him by just digging his heels in and making the bad choice every step of the way like someone going for an evil run in a video game, despite tons of evidence pointing to him having the capacity to care for people (unlike Lucilius who checks a lot of boxes for sociopathy), it just. He's so awful and so hot and all the little things that make him Belial, including the tiny little quirks like collecting rare stuff and enjoying cicadas, they just make him so

Belial

It's difficult to put into words, but the way everything comes together just makes him such a compelling character. Also the balls and his tits. I'm not gonna pretend I'm a saint here

But they didn't have to go so hard on him and still they did! He could've just been horny and not tragic, or just tragic and not horny

But they went that hard and because of that he's now living rent-free in my head until the end of time

Anon you summed it all SO well!!! Honestly, pretty based Belial Stan experience.

I feel like Belial is extremely hard to sum up because there's a lot about him that's like... He's charming, so you kinda humor him when you read along the atrocities, but therefore, it leaves you just vulnerable enough that when he reveals why he's like this - all the tragedy that motivates him, and all the ways he specifically chooses to make himself worse as a result no matter how much pain it brings up - it genuinely hit like a truck.

I genuinely think the built up was really brilliant, because he's so entertainingly bad at first that you don't expect just how hard it's going to hit you when it happens.

I saw Belial in memes and people talking about him and stuff, and i found him particularly amusing and pretty charming, so i admit i was interested from the start. (also i had a dream of kissing him like, the day before i unlocked wmtsb in the story, which was coming out of NOWHERE because i hadn't met him yet at this point. This didn't help me going through wmtsb.)

And everytime he was being The Worst on the screen, even when he would genuinely make me angry, i still found him too charming to completely hate him. I was just obsessed with the way he talked and was taking the situation.

And ironically i remember that for a short instant, i got EXTREMELY pissed at him after he stole Sariel's wings and started to tell Sandalphon it was his fault Lucifer died, and for a brief instant i was feeling pure, unfiltered rage.... but then it led to his monologue, and then to his fake suicide, and i remember this was genuinely the moment where i was so distraught because of the quick succession of emotional highs i couldn't even try to keep up a sort of playful dislike anymore. I was just, so genuinely shocked by the absolute emotional roller coaster, that i was just there begging "please please it can't be happening please where is he, no, please no, don't let him be dead"

So when he reappeared and planted a bomb on us, almost killing us, instead of being mad, i was FULL OF JOY because i was just "aha! classic Belial! love you!!!" (and then of course the recontextualization of the Sariel incident made me fully at peace with him in the end.)

And it's so. so interesting to me because i wouldn't have Belial any other way. I love that he's a horrible person, i love that he makes all the worst of choices, but i also love that he is motivated by an honestly pretty sad backstory in itself, and that we saw enough of him to know he /is/ kind, deep down. He just choses not to be because he's the king of self sabotage.

It's SO difficult to put into words and even more so to put into words for people who haven't experienced wmtsb. You can take some of his scenes out of context, the sillies, the horrors, the serious, the sweets, the sads, all of them, but nothing would ever equate just experiencing the way the story is told and getting enthralled by all of that in quick successions of one another while this fucker also dares to be charming and sexy as fuck.

And honestly, learning that Belial literally came from the fact the writers were facing a writer block, and they took a risk with him because the only thing that could unblock them during the writing process of this tragedy was to be able to have a villain they could just put all sort of heavy but funny scenes on, really made it all even more of a tour de force. By 000 Belial is such a complex character that it's just. incredible to think this guy almost didn't exist, both because of the circumstances of his existence and the fact they almost veto'ed him for how sexual he is.

Worth it, truthfully. And now the guy lives rent-free in all of our minds and we're out there talking in depth about him at every turns.

oghh. He's just so fascinating but i somehow just feel like he needs to be Experienced to be Understood. This is what makes us Belial Connaisseurs, if you will. truly, one of a kind.

[drafty-castle]

I’ve taken up knitting and crocheting and sewing and spinning (wool, not bike) to try to cut down on my phone addiction. My hands need something to do or else I start skin picking and reaching for the phone. By brain needs something to occupy it, so I put on a podcast or audiobook (not the tv, because I need to be able to watch my hands currently), which I figure is similar enough to the stories told around the bonfire/hearth back in the day to count as historically adequate.

Am I good at any of these hobbies? Not really. Not yet. I’m still new and - at least for knitting - have mostly been using the same skein of yarn to make as long as scarf as possible before screwing up and taking it apart and starting over. I’m mostly just practicing the hand motions over and over (and over and over) to set the muscle memory. The one thing I’ve sewn so far I ended up having to completely take apart multiple times as I sewed in arms inside out or gussets upside down.

But that’s not the point. Repetition, practice, is what makes someone good at something and I’ll eventually get there. But the reason this works for me where other “distraction” techniques have not is that I can see a daily skill increase and/or my time spent ends with a tangible object created by my own hand. Something I can touch and see and point to and go “Aha! I made that!”

And the nice thing about fiber crafts is it can be as expensive or as cheap as you want it to be. Starting off, you don’t need more than the basics - a sewing needle, thread, and cloth for sewing; a pair of knitting needles and yarn for knitting; a crochet hook and yarn for crocheting; a drop spindle and wool for spinning (you can actually make one out of a #2 pencil, a rubber band, and an old CD). None of this is expensive to start off with. Most can be found at a thrift/second hand store - though probably not the drop spindle.

I’ve literally practiced knitting with a pair of chopsticks and some parachord because that’s what I had on hand while sitting in my car outside the ER. I sat in the viewing room at the funeral home after my mom died hemming the skirt I planned to wear at the funeral the next day just so I had something to do with my hands and focus on that wasn’t my phone, a little bag of notions at my feet. I used a pre-cut square of quilting cotton to make a heating bag full of rice for my migraines.

My point is, if you’re taking baby steps on breaking up with your phone, starting a new walking habit may be too much and not provide anything tangible to show for it. If you’re completely burnt out and doom scrolling is your response to the stresses of the world, fober crafts might be a better coping mechanism. With practice it relies on mostly muscle memory, you don’t have to be up on your feet after a full days work, and you can feel the pride of achievement when creating something with your own hands - something missing in much of our society.

Other options if you do want to move about: gardening, walking, adopting a stretch of your neighborhood and picking up trash/litter, cooking, singing, bird watching.

I wish it was easier to talk about mobile phone addiction without sounding like a boomer

[whitewarrior02]

White's After-Gaming Archive - Entry #1: I Don't Know What I'm Doing

To be fair, who does?

Greetings, my name is White and, as the entry title implies, this was a spur of the moment decision to record some of my thoughts after one of my numerous gaming sessions. I'll try not to make them boring.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Currently Playing: Genshin Impact, Zenless Zone Zero, Palworld

So first I should premise this with: I am sick, and whatever I am sick with has been kicking my butt something fierce. As such, most of what I've been doing has just been some busywork in most games. Dailies and the like. HOWEVER, I do have some thoughts of substance.

Genshin-wise, I am doing some clownshoes nonsense that is neither efficient nor practical, but it is something I am doing nonetheless. See, I only started playing in May of last year. [God, I have to start referring to 2024 as last year, ugh.] As such, I am behind on. Many A Thing. One of which is character story quests. So, in my catching up I noticed that completing one stage of the quest grants full Daily Commission progress. "Aha!" I thought to myself. "Surely, then, if I just slowly chip away at character stories I can avoid having to do the busywork dailies!" But honestly, it would probably just be faster to just. Do the dailies.

Ah well.

Four remain anywho; Chiori [ugh], Arlecchino, Sigewinne and Emilie. I'm... not in a rush to start Chiori's, she rubs me the wrong way.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Apart from that, Zenless! The cooler younger sibling of the Gensh. Dailies here are quick, though there's arguably more to focus on than Genshin. My current struggle is the ffffffffffffffffffFRIGGIN' DISKS THAT WON'T DROP. [Though I suspect this is a common occurrence in Hoyo games]

Lemme explain. See, much like Genshin you need to do combat challenges to get items to boost a character's stats and make them viable at a high level. In Genshin it's artifacts, in Zenless it's Drive Disks. ISSUE: each challenge has two sets that can drop and the drops are randomized for each completion. I recently got Miyabi, great character, currently underpowered, need Woodpecker Electro disks [Critical Hit Rate]. Woodpecker Electro also drops with... I think it was Soul Rock? Either way, Defense based disk set, useless to me since I have One [1] Defense character and wow I just noticed the brackets in Tumblr's text editor are misaligned that makes me mad.

Look at this crap.

Anyways, I have gotten a total of 6 Woodpeckers over the course of 4 days. Challenge completion grants you 6 drops per run. Everything else is Soul Rock and I'm gonna bite the deployment board at Scott Outpost in half.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lastly, Palworld- y'know this has honestly just kind of become a weekly report instead of like, a one session afterthought. I'll try and be brief.

Uuuuhhh, yeah, Palworld. Base #1 is doing good, pretty much self-autonomous now. Made sure to put everyone on low-work mode so they aren't stressed out and overworked. Base #2 reeeally needs some Pals at it but I haven't even finished creating the new main building yet. It looks cool though! Gonna build my way into the sky and get ...smited? Smotten? Hold on what's the past tense of smite.

...that... I mean it's Merriam-Webster but that still sounds wrong. Smited it is. You can't stop me Merriam and/or Webster. Anyways I'm gonna get Kadingr'd like I'm Finé at the end of Symphogear. The wild pals around Base #2 seem to want it bad enough, it could happen.

Aaaaand that's 'bout it. Entry #1 complete. Sorry for rambling, but I warned you it'd be my thoughts. This train of thought is specialized on off-roading and by anything it WILL go off-roading whenever available. You can't stop it. We go at full-speed BABEYYYYY

Still don't know what I'm doing, White