#lets play?

[lazodiac]

So, let’s say you’re an RPG protagonist in a middle-tier PS2 era game, and you’ve been given a choice. You can either sit and be happy with your false happy ending, or you can risk it all and decide to Do Something About This.

This is the scenario Lyner Barsett finds himself in, at the end of Act 2 of Ar Tonelico.

It’s a weird thing for him. He’s spent the entirety of the game going around the world trying to solve the one(1) task his dad asked him to do at the start of the game, and one thing led to another and now he’s helped a cyborg magical girl pop idol put an ancient super virus being (who is also definitely a cyborg magical girl pop idol) to sleep. However, the consequence of this is… a third, only somewhat related cyborg magical girl pop idol was put to permanent sleep (believed to be death) to do so.

This is interesting for a couple reasons.

First and foremost is that hey; this is the first time Lyner actually makes a choice in his entire adventure! He’s given a happy ending and an implied idyllic life and all he has to do is let a character who is sort of important to him (she was his boss, much like his dad, but nice instead of a jerk) stay dead. And if that doesn’t sit right with him… well, it’s time to get up and Do Something About It. There’s something really interesting about that to me, that our hero is finally given some agency and the choice is to… potentially make things worse, because he just doesn’t want someone he knows to die.

It’s got that classic RPG vibe that I do like, and the implicit fact that there IS a choice to have that false happy ending really helps build on that false feeling. As you may have seen in another post, the “false” happy ending is actually pretty solid. Everything is solved and the only sacrifice is one(1) magical singing robot girl, and also all of the actual singing magic is turned off. Feels like a decent trade to save the day; hell FF6 did that and everyone loves that one! But by having it be a Choice, by telling the player “you can choose this, or not”, makes the false happy ending feel that much more unsatisfying, because you know it's not the true ending.

So Lyner chooses that no, this isn’t the way things should go. Aurica, the love interest (in the route we took anyway) is willing to help. Lyner’s her man and damn if she’s not going to help him do whatever. She taught him how to have agency in her life, so she’ll follow him to the ends of the earth. Dear ol’ Dad reveals there is a way to do it, we just gotta find a specific hymn crystal that’ll do it- with the implication that it’ll wake up the ancient virus lady as well but hey that’s a bridge we’ll cross when we get to it.

So, we go to pick up our friends to help us out. Sure it’s been a couple months, but they are our buddies and helped us save the world and junk, so why not right?

Radolf is busy being bishop. He’d love to, but… church, man.

Krusche is busy building an airship for her new employer. She’d love to, but… job, man.

It’s fascinating looking at this. Two of the three non-magical girl characters DO want to help, but not enough to upend their own happy endings. That’s interesting! They also assume Lyner’s “news” is that he and Aurica are getting married, implying they’re busy thinking about the future. And why wouldn’t they right, the world is at peace. They’re in their happy ending. And they don’t even really KNOW Lady Shurelia, the one who sacrificed herself to save the world.

This is… disappointing, for Lyner, so we go and find the final of our party members, Jack, who has been touring the world with Misha, the alternative love interest and second magical girl of the party. Jack is the one most likely to join us; after all, he’s an adventurerer. A wandering gunslinger. He’d absolutely be game for this sort of thing.

The conversation starts similar, Jack having presumptions about the news, and Aurica interrupting his interruption to cutely scream “NOOOO!” to the expected “are you getting married” thing.

Except Jack is confused. He was gonna ask if we had a new ruin to explore.

Then, when we tell Jack our plan, he tells us straight up that he “does not want to bring Shurelia back” and then fucking books it before we can get a word in edgewise.

Huh. That’s unexpected isn’t it. The one most likely to assist with this has literally less than zero desire to help, while the ones who have less reason to help DO want to help… but can’t.

There is something genuinely interesting about all this to me. This feels pretty counter to what I expected of a “let get the gang back together to get a proper golden ending” sort of scenario. Jack’s cageyness as well is pretty compelling- of the party he’s only non-magical girl who’d realistically have a chance to MEET Shurelia, it wouldn’t be impossible for him to WANT to save her, and as a wandering gunslinger type it feels like his kinda jam… and yet he doesn’t. Not only does he doesn’t, he explicitly is AGAINST it.

My read is that he’s made the realization I did above; waking up Shurelia puts us right back where we were at the end of Phase 2. Mir, the virus, very alive and very trying to kill us and not able to be stopped. There’s some, problems if that’s the case, so it could be something else but… who knows.

Either way, this is pretty interesting! I’m curious where this’ll go next! RANDOM SIDE TIDBIT: During this sequence if you revisit the old man who teaches you how to do the game’s crafting mechanic, he just screams “GRATHMELD” at you and nothing else. It’s really funny to me (see below).

[cheddar-baby]

heres my advice to any followers i have who are young. Don't delete things when you think you've outgrown them or they're cringy. If you make youtube videos just private them don't delete them. Save your files, you can bury them in multiple sub-folders if you think they're cringe now but DON'T DELETE THEM! It doesn't feel like it now but years in the future you will look back fondly at who you were and wish you still had those things.

[desertowlet]

Anya would probably play some of her music during the more difficult days on the ship, good thing the Captain Curly has taste at least.

[foreignemotion]

blah blah blah colour theory but jayce went from piltover’s pure and golden boy dressed in white to being in mourning black for all that he’s lost (“my partner died in that room”)…

[k-eke]

LET ME PLAY!!!!

[cringengl]

if we look at the original timeline (aka annabeth and percy being born in 1993) then 2009 was a big year for annabeth bcus not only did the battle of manhattan take place and she finally started dating percy, but also minecraft came out and i think that would be a big deal to her

[artistmarchalius]

I had this dumb idea going ‘round in my head so I let it out as a quick comic.

NEXT

[fermentedrice]

[durgestarion] kissing the murder puppy 🐶

[draculings]

an incredibly sensitive instrument.

[catmask]

does anyone have like an anti aesthetic. like something you look at and can recognize as a complete fashion/interior design/artistic movement and understand it but it makes you shudder seeing it. i am not talking like “its morally bad” “its poorly structured” like just sheerly devoid of joy for you actually invites a repulse response.

[notherpuppet]

Ball is (after)life *badum tsk* 🥁

[bet-on-me-13]

The cult of...Danny Fenton?

So! Way back when Danny first moved into his new neighborhood in Gotham, he had some trouble controlling his Powers. The different Types and Levels of Ectoplasm in the air when compared to Amity had thrown off his control.

He was used to being in places where his Ectoplasm meshed well with the Atmosphere, like a Water Balloon in a Pool, but in Gotham that analogy would be closer to a Water Balloon in the sewers. It was too different from what he was used to to fully control his Powers.

So it's understandable that he messed up a few times and his neighbors found out about his Abilities.

They took it well at first, Danny wasn't going to go Rogues or anything, and he never used them maliciously, but eventually they got curious.

They asked what his limits were, how he got them in the first place, and what the hell the Ghost Zone was. The answers "None Really", "I died and was reborn", and "A Collective of every Afterlife at once" did spark some interesting reactions from them.

Most importantly, a few of them joked about him being an Eldritch God that they needed to worship. He was good enough friends with them that at that point they felt comfortable pranking eachother, so they did just that.

Danny woke up one day on his birthday, and saw all of his friends and neighbors surrounding the makeshift Throne they had made and put him on while he was asleep. The entire day they chanted stuff like "The Great One requires Ms. Smiths Apple Pie for his day of birth!" And "The Great One Wishes for us to sing the Ritual Song! Happy Birthday to You! Happy Birth-"

After his birthday, they kept up the joke.

It didn't help that his powers had evolved Again! And now he could bestow abilities onto his friends. The jokes they made about their God granting them Supernatural Powers to rule the world with were insufferable.

Then, one day while he was just resting at home, watching a movie on his TV, he felt a Pull at his Core. The same kind of Pull whenever he was being summoned. But why would they summon hi- Oh Shit! It's Mr Jenkins Party today! He was supposed to meet them at the Warehouse they used for special events an Hour Ago!

He quickly accepted the Summoning, but was met with a suprising sight. His Neighbors all tied up in a pile to his right, a spilled table of party food to his left, and right in front of him, Batman and his Family watching him with wary eyes.

Slowly, he opened his mouth. "...so, did you come for the party or..."

[artist-rat]

some epilogue vibes (an excuse to draw some hugs. and my durge so many times)

[redsray]

I love the idea of the Wayne kids dropping extremely vague and disturbing comments during galas. Especially when in uncomfortable situations or if they're just bored. They pull out things from their nightlife too. Other times they just make shit up.

Socialite: Oh, dear, your cheeks look so sullen! Who sucked the life out of you?

Tim, dead serious: An old man with a goatee.

Socialite: Uh... what?

Dick: Once I broke my knee so badly that I swear I could see part of the bone sticking out.

Socialite: Good lord. How on earth did that happen?

Dick: Just clumsy gymnast things ^^

Socialite: The white streak is certainly a bold fashion choice.

Jason: I saw someone get decapitated once, so I could be doing worse in terms of what's on my head, yknow? At least I have one.

Socialite: What's your favourite colour, sweetie?

Damian: Red.

Socialite: Oh that's lovely!

Damian: Like the blood of my enemies.

Socialite: Oh.

Socialite: You must be new to these kind of events.

Duke: Uh, yeah, they're kind of scary. But I've had worse.

Socialite: Worse.

Duke: Well I've been left on top of a skyscraper before with no way down just to 'get over my fear of heights' so, yes.

Socialite: You don't talk very loud, do you? I can barely hear you.

Cass, with a straight face: If I spoke any louder every glass in the room would shatter.

Tim, behind her: I can vouch.

[cosmicallyavg]

the gasp i gusped when i just opened one of my words with friends games