#next playthrough i get to call the shots

[captainspiggbo]

I'm traumatized. . Playing Baldur's Gate 3 with my bro and he hates spiders. . Naturally we've been killing every one that we find and and and

HE MADE ME KILL KAR'NISS 😭😭😭 I kept trying to drop hints like, "oh uh we might need him later to help us" and he goes, "if he's not a follower we don't, I want that lamp". . . He was just a little guuuuuyyy (⁠ノ⁠ಥ⁠,⁠_⁠｣⁠ಥ⁠)⁠ノ

[div-divington]

The Oceanview Motel & Casino

[sporeclan]

Hellooooo! I’m working on a clangen blog of my own, so I’m going around asking my favorite clangen blogs some questions. I’m happy to get answers to whichever you feel like answering (or none at all if you don’t feel like it!)

What program and file size do you use?

If you use a font, what font is it?

How far ahead do you recommend playing?

Do you have any advice for layouts?

Do you have any tips for lighting/drawing fur?

Do you have any tips for making cats look more unique?

If you do backgrounds, do you have any advice for creating them?

If you use them, where do you recommend finding reference images?

Hi!! :D

1) I use Clip Studio Paint! Unfortunately not a free program, but I'm very very fond of it. Definitely recommend it to anyone who has the money! My file size is about 1680px wide, I believe? With varying heights. I definitely wouldn't recommend doing it that way, but it's what works for me so :')

2) I made the font myself, actually! Highly recommend doing that tbh, it's a happy medium between getting something handwritten looking without having to spend a thousand years writing haha :D There are probably a hundred websites out there that let you make you own font, but I used Calligraphr

3) It depends! For me playing to about 12-15 moons ahead with a minimum of 6 moons works really well with my style and workflow. Makes me able to cobble together these small interpersonal plotlines while also letting me occasionally play and get new drama to get invested in these characters all over again about. But if I were going for something with a major overarching plot, I would probably go a lot further ahead, if not straight up take the playthrough as far as I'd want it/until a game over just to not risk rng screwing with my plans

4) I would suggest looking up comic panelling tips in general for a better explaination than what I can offer, but I'll try to explain my basic process :'D I mostly go by heart, but I do like to sometimes follow this rule of thumb I like to call the 'Z'

When we read text, we learn to go from left to right, then back to left at a slight diagonal to get to the next line. By following that simple shape when placing characters and especially text, it makes it flow much more naturally to us. And when your pages flow well, you get to break that flow when you want a scene to feel more tense! I tried doing that with the last two panels of the page above and I really liked how that came out :D

Another couple of tips is 1) try not to make the panels too uniform 2) if you want to use two panels for one scene, slanting the side of a panel can make it feel like they flow into each other better, like matching two puzzle pieces if that makes sense 3) small overlapping panels are great for reaction shots and so fun to do!

And lastly, don't be afraid to break the panel border!

It can add a lot of momentum and impact if used right! Plus it's so fun to do <3

5) No sorry, I don't do lighting/shading in my comics at all :'D

6) I have a couple posts here and here describing my own process a bit! But otherwise I'd like to refer to whisper-cats' response to this same prompt, it's pretty in depth and I think they give some really solid advice here!

7) Not particularly, just find a style that works for you the best. I don't do a lot of backgrounding, but when I do, it's in this lineless limited palette style because that's just my favourite kind of background to make

I do highly recommend trying to limit how much time you spend on a background. Don't burn yourself out on one panel because then you'll never wanna finish the whole page!

And for 8), I dont use references so sadly I can't give you any good recommendations there either :')

I hope any of this made sense, lol! Good luck with your blog!

[its-been-rose]

So I spent like 2 hours on this

Anyways, let me explain:

Methodology: to make this map I watched an unedited playthrough of the game and marked down how long it took to get from one scripted event to the next. I then inserted in the known times/save points the game gives you at certain intervals. I then calculated at what time each event would take place given how long the game takes to actually play, and then put those numbers to correspond with the actual in- game clock. All times marked with a ~ are approximate.

What I found:

The game is actually pretty much in real time, with some exceptions. There are some timeskips. If you’re playing a speedrun, you’re gonna come in at like 3:30, and the game ends roughly at 4 am ish. This means that if you do everything super fast and don’t waste any time, the game timeskips about half an hour here and there. I tried to account for these timeskips where they occur in my map like adding two minutes when Roddy’s song is skipped. Some sections also take a bit longer than the in-game time. For example, the time from Maurice to Virginia to Eugene to Murphy is much longer irl than it is in-universe, meaning no matter who is doing what kill, they are BOOKING IT from victim to victim.

Who did what: so my choices of who did what kill rely on two things: one, proximity to the confirmed kills/scripted events, and two, my own personal headcanons for who did which. I will now put the game’s timeline in order as well as who did what. Please keep in mind anything happening within KFAM like ponty’s calls or the little Peggy q and an after Maurice or Forrest being the rizz king to Sandra are not included.

~11:40 pm: sheriff Matthews is killed (Marie) (I didn’t put an actual time on the map for this because i don’t know if it’s right or not but in my HEAD, Marie started her attack at George’s TOD)

~11:55 pm: whatever the opening cutscene is (Henry)

~12:04 am: Leslie is attacked (Marie)

-Marie recovers from being shot at by the Sherriff and tased by leslie

~12:25 am: Sandra is attacked (Marie) (Sandra’s excact location is unknown but I put her by what is presumably a parking lot by the football field near the river running route.) (Sandra is not seen getting into her car because Marie takes a longer time to actually get into the parking lot due to being injured)

~12:25 am: Henry slashes the fire engine tires and makes his way up to Maurice.

~12:47 am: Maurice reports a break in (Henry)

-Henry is locked in the archive for like 10 minutes

-Marie drops off the tape on her way to get Henry

-when she breaks him out, they hear Murphy acting a fool, but Marie tells henry to stick to his current target before going up to the maze.

~1:20 am: Marie calls Virginia because she has the phone and sends Henry on his way (Virginia’s location is also unknown so I just guessed)

~1:35 am: Henry goes to attack Virginia but is scared off by the frat. Immediately books it to Murphy.

~1:40 am: Eugene is attacked (Marie)

-marie, on her way to the graveyard, sees the teens going to the murder house and watches

~1:53 am: Murphy is attacked (Henry)

-Marie sees the prank unfolding and slips into the group

~2:15 am: the teens are attacked (Marie)

-Marie spends a few minutes at the graveyard visiting George and recovering from getting a bookshelf tipped over on top of her

~2:32 am: Forrest spots the whistling man outside KFAM when going to retrieve LRH (Henry)

~2:43 am: Marie and Henry meet outside the gas station to regroup (optional? Idk)

~2:45 am: the bomb is detonated (Marie)

-Henry goes back to KFAM to hang out outside as the last victims are personal to his mother.

~3:10 am: Ricky is attacked (Marie)

~3:18 am: Jason is stabbed in the woods (Marie)

~3:25 am: Casey calls KFAM now inside her house

-Marie kidnaps Teddy on her way to the school gym

~3:45 am: Henry enters KFAM and locks Forrest in the producer booth

~3:46 am: Interview with Teddy begins (Marie)

~3:58 am: Peggy confronts Marie

Thoughts? Do you agree or disagree? What would you change? Do you think this was a complete waste of my Sunday evening? I’d love to hear your thoughts!!

*edited to add: I changed Virginias location to make at least a little more sense lol

[vashtijoy]

something suggestive about balls: pool table proxy wars in akechi's confidant, rank 7

There's only one thing you really need to know about rank 7 of Akechi's confidant, and it is this: it happens on the day of the incriminating murder phone call.

We know this for several reasons:

It can't be locked for the name change ("family-name-kun" to "given name")—Akechi never calls Joker by name in conf 7. In fact, unless I miss my guess, he never calls Joker by name during the confidant at all, other than when you say hello in Kichijoji—probably because his term of address changes on 10/31;

Futaba will later tell us the call was recorded "a few days" after she bugged Akechi's phone on 10/29. From 10/29 to 11/2 is four days;

Given the importance of confidant 7, especially the rivalry discussion at the end, it's inconceivable that it happens before Joker hears the phone call. He goes there in full knowledge of what Akechi is, and what he intends.

Lastly, 11/2 can be summed up as "absolute chaos":

First, Akechi meets you on the train platform before school. He tells you he "won't be seeing you privately like this any more", once your deal is concluded—well, of course not, you'll be dead.

But this chat is so important that it appears to have two forms, unlike all the rest of Akechi's train platform appearances. One, the one I got in my playthrough, is quite gentle in tone. The other is much less so, much more dismissive, almost third semester in its bluntness. Assuming they're both in game, I'd guess the first is if you have the confidant levelled, and the second is if you don't. It's not legacy dialogue from vanilla P5; this scene looks to have been added for Royal. IDK, I don't know what triggers the two different chats, or if the other is even in game—but I'd like to.

If you haven't yet been to the hideout since 10/29, Morgana will force you to go after school. That's to say: you must have done Akechi's first hideout meeting, the first hideout of the Sae's Palace mission, by this date;

Last of all, Akechi texts you in the evening, for confidant 7 and its violent change in tone. "After all, losing doesn't sit well with either of us. Am I right?"

If 11/2 isn't the day of the phone call, I'll eat a nest of wasps.

boys and their toys

So. Joker walks into Penguin Sniper for confidant 7, in the a. full and b. very recently acquired knowledge that Akechi is a two-faced killer who's gleefully planning his murder. And what does he do?

Akechi has a lot of revealing things to say about balls in this scene, but we're not really here for him. Because look at how Joker is standing.

[screenshots below the cut, yo]

That's his usual "I have a pool cue" stance, with the cue held in front of him. Here he is doing it with the squad (plus one traitor):

See the difference? When he's with the others, Joker's facing the table—like you would at a billiard table, like Akechi is doing in the picture at the top. But in the confidant, when he's just learned exactly how malicious Akechi's intent is, Joker's not facing the table at all. Joker is facing Akechi. And that means he's keeping that cue firmly between them—whether as a shield or an impromptu weapon.

Now, like we said before, that's a standard pose—if Joker is holding a pool cue, he will hold it in that way. But it's the strange angle he's standing at, facing Akechi and not the pool table, that turns it into a message of sorts.

What happens next? Akechi leans down to take his shot, laying out his extended listen-I'm-going-to-murder-you-soon-and-I-haven't-fully-rationalised-it-yet metaphor all the while. Joker's eyes follow his to the table to watch. But he never turns to the table. He stays facing Akechi, and he still keeps the cue between the two of them:

The next thing is that you answer his question—"Hm, that sure sounds like a psychotic breakdown to me"—and Joker uses his hand to gesture....

... but then he gets the cue back between the two of them again, lickety-split:

The next thing that happens is that Akechi—probably deliberately, as part of his extended metaphor—misses his shot. The two of them pause to stare at the cue ball—in the Japanese text, Akechi has explicitly mentioned it as the ball you strike that starts everything unpredictably rolling. But Joker still keeps the cue between them, and still hasn't turned to the table:

(BTW, here's our old friend the sad sprite—there are some really interesting uses of it in this scene, that are worth watching out for.) But now we get to the point. "But even knowing all of that, you're still not going to quit, are you?"

Their eyes meet; the cue is still between them....

You can say "I've made up my mind" or "I won't miss my shot"; both mean, essentially, "fuck you"; both get the same result.

But now. Only now, as Joker goes to take that shot, does he finally turn to the table, exposing himself to Akechi. (coughs)

He nails it. And then they head out into the street to talk about rivalry. But take a look at their positions now:

Note that Akechi has not moved; only Joker has moved. But now the picture looks different. Now, it looks like Akechi is the one defending himself.

Joker has moved in and taken his shot, dropping his defence and opening himself up to attack in the process. Akechi hasn't moved or altered anything he was doing, yet now he's on the defensive.

And Joker's shot was successful, of course. Just like it will be on 11/20.

this is reaching, you should be ashamed

I see your point! Let's go back in time and have a look at confidant 2, for comparison. Here are the boys in happier times:

See? Joker is facing the table. Even though he's talking to Akechi, and looking at Akechi, he's turned to the table.

Here's another. This one's more dubious because of the angle, which means he does have the cue in front of him—but again, you can see Joker is pointed at the table, not at Akechi:

Funny you should say that, kid. Rank 7 Joker is on to you.

[razorblade180]

While I love Amber dearly as she is, I got curious - if you could upgrade or entirely change her kit to put her on a five-star level (or alternatively, as strong as she could be in the lore of how you view your Genshin playthrough, with all her training and seniority), how would you do it?

I feel like somewhere on this blog I’ve talked about a supportive Amber before but the second half of your question is thought provoking in a new way.

What sucks is in a lot of way, Lyney really took main mechanics of Amber.💀

For the sake of keeping her identity, the bow stays. I’m thinking unique enhanced charge shots that are the size of one of Tighnari’s burst arrows. What makes them special is not only would the size make it easier to hit enemies close together, but the arrow is piercing. We’ll call them Scouting Arrows

Rework her skill to be a better Baron Bunny that has a stronger taunt and doesn’t get flung away to create more opportunities to hit multiple enemies. By either using the skill or hitting more than one enemy with a single arrow, the time to charge the next arrow essentially doesn’t exist at all; that way it creates a sharpshooter style of combat I think an Outrider would be an expert at.

Her burst would be a reference to the WEBTOON and let’s call it Flaming Vanguard; she’d create a pyro shield and lose her enhanced charges, but gain an infusion on her normal attack arrows for a short time that are weaker than charge shots obviously but stronger than normal arrows. Her skill would also temporarily changes to a scatter shot of flaming rocks in front of her. (I’m never getting over that)

When the burst state ends, if the shield wasn’t already destroyed, it will vanish and Amber gains a single free enhanced shot with a multiplier that’s higher than her other enhanced shots called Outrider’s Arrow; her cooldown on her next Barron Bunny is also reduced. Cause, y’know…

She can keep her gliding passive. As for her second passive, considering Ganyu exists, I think it would reasonable for Amber to gain a crit dmg bonus whenever facing multiple enemies, but gain a crit rate buff instead when there’s only one. That somewhat helps compensate for the fact in boss fights she wouldn’t have the opportunity to sharpshoot as often since there’s only one enemy to hit.

So in essence, a mid to long range DPS with a core play style that shows her proficiency in archery as well as her job as Outrider; with an elemental burst that shows her personality by Amber being able to temporarily rush into the frontline when other party members need help.

I’m feeling silly right now so I suppose I’ll think of constellations.

C1 Team Player- When Flaming Vanguard state ends, the rest of the party gains an atk buff based on total atk

C2 Double Trouble- Two charges of Barron Bunny and Scatter Shot! (I know she has that in game, and honestly it’s too good to not have that in this hypothetical)

C3 Outrider, the One and Only- Normal attack talent increase

C4 Survival Expert- Scatter Shot and normal attacks performed in Flaming Vanguard independently grant a certain amount of pyro damage bonus up to a certain amount. The bonus ends after firing an Outrider Arrow.

C5 Favonious Hardwork- Talent level on burst increases. (This would effect shield absorption and Outrider Arrow conversion multiplier since it’s already getting the benefit of increased dmg from leveling charge attacks)

C6 A Granddaughter’s Oath- Shooting a Barron Bunny will now automatically detonates it. Deploying a Barron Bunny instantly gains one Outrider Arrow. Upon detonation, gain another Outrider Arrow.

Unintentionally this kit has not only made Mondstadt’s god of wind one of her best teammates in mob situations, but her and Collei would do well in a burning team alongside characters like, Sucrose, Emilie, and even reverse melt Kaeya. Not my intention in the slightest but hey, that works out pretty well in a satisfying way.

By the way can you tell that after nearly four years Amber is still easily one of my favorite characters?

[aku-soul]

WARNING P5R SPOILERS AHEAD GO PLAY THE GAME FOR YOURSELF AND SKIP THIS POST IF YOU DONT WANNA BE SPOILED

So anyways I finished persona 5 royal a couple days ago, here's my thoughts:

Absolutely amazing game, I loved it so dang much and I'm so sad it's over. And now, onto the character reviews

Ren Amamiya (protag): It's me! But man do I feel even worse for what he had to go through. Seriously, going to jail twice, temporarily losing his memory and hoping that he would get stuff right... Dude the scene where akechi shot me gave me chills it was done so well. I was seriously about to cry thinking I messed up. Also, if I was joker at the end of sem 3 after I graduated I would immediately come back to leblanc because coffee dad duh.

Sojiro Sakura: HE CALLED ME FAMILY, COFFEE DAD CALLED ME FAMILY OH MY GOD BEST DAY EVER. I love dad so much. It was so sweet when he cried after I left, that almost made me cry too.

Ann Takamaki: Yeah she sure does exist, uh huh. I barely interacted with her... I don't think her phantom thief outfit helped at all with that issue.

Morgana: Congrats on finally becoming human for a while dude. Also him being part of the velvet room was not something I expected. At all. Also when he was about to disappear I almost freaking cried what the hell. You can't do that to me game. AND THEY DID IT TWICE. Those scenes made me realize how much I actually care for morgana the cat (cue "I AM NOT A CAT")

Futaba: SISTER SHE IS MY SISTER! I am going to feel so weird when I romance her for completions sake... I love the bond her and I have as siblings. She did such a good job growing up within such a short amount of time, I am so proud. Also holy hell was she smart with the akechi phone thing. No wonder she did something so out of character in that moment.

Makoto: I am going to beat up Eiko's boyfriend so hard. I never finished her story though, I got up to level 8 with her. Eh whatever there's always next playthrough. Her heals are pretty good, to bad I hardly ever use her.

Igor (both false and real): Dude I could not get over the real igors voice, please give me back the fake igors voice that one sounded so much better seriously. Also I checked and igor is indeed voiced by dad from fe3h love that. The boss fight for him though freaking sucked, like can you please stop giving my cat lust with your gun, seriously?

Haru: I'm gonna be completely honest, I didn't start her confidant till like 5 days before the final battle because I thought I'd need her for true ending (I thought true ending required all confidants, better save than sorry). Honestly, no real opinion on her. She certainly does exist. I wonder if the vegetables she grows are any good... If they're for sp that'd be nice because sp recovery items are so hard to come by.

The twins (and lavenza): Dude I nearly cried when I had to execute the twins, it felt so sad. But hey, at least I got lavenza out of it. I'm guessing she's the one who wrote the list then. Also her avatar in persona 5 tactica is so cute.

Ichiko: Drunk aunt type. I got close to finishing her storyline but didn't. Whatever. I hate how she's an option for romance but my harem bois aren't??? What is this atrocity.

Kawakami: Yeah look I don't care if you're getting threatened by the mafia or loan sharks or whatever. Please stop texting me "Hello master!" when you said yourself you don't want the history on my phone to be available. I only got two things in because my god am I super uncomfortable with calling my teacher up for maid services...

Hifumi: If I didn't hc joker as super gay for my harem bois (I will explain who those people are later) she'd probably be the one I'd ship him with. I like her a lot honestly, she might be my favorite romanceable option.

Tae Takemi: Her ex boss fucking sucks, get off your high horse dude. At least we managed to change his heart and get her back on track. I'm hc'ing miwa chan as continuing to visit Tae even after she gets better and eventually following in Tae's footsteps and helps out around the clinic.

Iwai: GUN UNCLE GUN UNCLE. Him giving me a gecko at the end had me tearing up. He considers me family too oh my god. Also hell yeah I got a cousin out of that deal. I love uncle Iwai so much.

Mishima: I maxed him out and then promptly forgot about him. Seriously, when the scene of him petitioning for signatures happened I immediately thought "oh shit yeah mishima is a person who exists". Sorry mishima...

Yoshida: Yeah, I started him and that was about it. I really don't care about him at all if I'm being honest. I will have to eventually level him up though... Next playthrough

Shinya: Woo younger brother alert. I'm so proud that he gave back the money he took from other kids and apologized too. Good job Shinya, you did good.

Maruki: Ugh his character arc was so good. Dude the 2/2 reveal broke my heart I was so tempted to take the offer, but I knew I couldn't. But dude. Why are you a taxi driver at the end. What is the reason for that what.

Ryuji: HAREM BOI NUMBER ONE BABY!!!! The numbers don't matter it's just when we got introduced to em. I love him so much. In tactica I was able to "marry" him and I was so excited that I took screenshots. Dude when he saved us in shido's palace and we thought he died I almost cried. I love Ryuji so much.

Yusuke: HAREM BOI NUMBER TWO BABY!!!! He is so gay I love him. At the end when he gave me his painting I teared up. I absolutely love him so much. A great addition to the harem bois. Best artist boi.

Akechi: WHY MY GUY FUCKING WHY! HAREM BOI NUMBER THREE!!!! You were the reason why I was so tempted to take Maruki's offer, don't treat your life as if it was nothing. Also you don't hate me you love me admit it. Robbie Daymon does such a good job on everday akechi I love it so much. I leveled him up as soon as I could. Also because of the ending he's still alive and no one can change my mind, I *need* him to be alive. Dude I bougth tactica and the dlc just so I could see him again. I love akechi so freaking much. Also his official va and joker's official va made a cover song together and it's so good I am obsessed and I have seen some good things made out of it.

I think that's all? If anyone wants me to give my opinion on anyone else I will. Anyways back to playing tactica and once I finish that it's onto strikers

[roxtron-gt]

yippee first time posting about this game but i thought it might be interesting to talk about one of the main things i observed on my playthrough, When I started the game it quickly became noticeable there didn't seem to be anybody around who knew or cared about Sissel. Even though you couldn't talk to Lynne in the beginning there was at least some sense she may have known him, considering she was next to his corpse after all.. so it kinda led me to get attached to her off that possibility they were friends. I didn't consider the possibility she was involved, considering when the game starts she's introduced with an assassination attempt, and when you use the phone to see who's behind it, it looks like Sissel was on their list as well. At the time I assumed whatever the circumstances were, they were probably together during it, at least working together in some sort of way for them to both become targets. Then after talking to her and finding out she didn't know Sissel at all, or at least not before tonight, it kinda ruined the only connection I thought Sissel had. Right back to square one. The longer the game went on I just kept wondering, why does nobody seem to care? Even by the time they found the body, it's not like anyone seemed to miss him or had any family members to call, nothing.. The only other hint I had to go off was Jowd and his painting, getting attached again thinking they might've cared about each other, only to end up shot down again. (not to mention the identity confusion.) Even when we learn about Yomiel we don't even find out about his connection to Sissel until the end of the game. For the majority of it, they're both alone. That's what got me. I initially connected all this to Sissel, it is still upsetting even from that perspective. After all once he died Yomiel just left to go on with his revenge plan, while I'm sure he was definitely upset about it, it's unfortunate that the only person who cared about Sissel didn't even stick around long enough for him to know he was cared about by anyone at all until the very end. But it definitely amplifies the feeling Yomiel felt this whole time. It kind of made it easier to connect to him once we started learning more about him, knowing that if he is the same person as the body we assumed was Sissel, then he wasn't really missed or cared about much either. Sure, his motivations seemed a bit ridiculous, blaming literally everyone but himself, including a literal child, but the knowledge we had to go off of at the time never really made me hate him, it only made me view him as a threat, but with the little knowledge we had at the time there wasn't quite enough yet to make him really seem evil? In retrospect, of course the things he did/planned to do were horrible, but considering all the twists and turns of this game, I knew there had to be more to it than that. I don't really know if I have a bigger point to this, it's all just unfortunate circumstances, but I thought my observations throughout the game were kinda interesting, hopefully worth noting.

[pink-vigilante]

Blood Red

Summary: Ever since my first Persona 5 playthrough something had always stuck with me. What if Ann actually had killed Kamoshida?

Not really sure if this is going to be a series or just stay a one shot yet, if you would like to see it continue, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Ao3: Blood Red - Pink_Vigilante - Persona 5 [Archive of Our Own]

Ann POV

The fucking coward. Before we could land the final blow, he grabbed that stupid crown and ran. Anger seethed through me like I’ve never known. It was all I could feel; this festering red feeling within me. All I could see was fucking red. The cloak Kamoshida wore, the red of the curtains, the red rug, and even I was red. It was all consuming. 

We ran after him but he didn’t get very far. He stopped dead in his tracks on the balcony, frozen in fear staring over the edge. A similar edge Shiho had been made to stare over. Only she didn’t freeze in fear, she was forced to go over with no other choice in sight.

 “What's wrong, not running away? Why don't you run? Aren’t you a great athlete?” Mockery dripped from my words. Kamoshida’s breathing was ragged and he turned towards us, panic and desperation clear on his face.

“It's always been like this…” He took a few stumbling steps backwards, closer to the balcony rail. “All those goddamn hyenas forcing their expectations on me! I'm doing this all for them! What's wrong about demanding a reward for that!”

“Now you're making excuses…?” Skull scoffed, “We’ll do something about that distorted heart of yours.”

Kamoshida let out a pathetic whimper and glanced behind him once again. If the castle was supposed to be the school and we were at the top, then I would bet he had a pretty damn similar view to what Shiho had. This was different, no matter the outcome Shiho was brave, Kamoshida was worthless trash. I stepped up from my place between Skull and Joker.

“Scared? Right now, you’re seeing the same view that Shiho did.” I took a few more steps towards him, and like predator and prey, he only cowered away more. “I’m sure she was scared too… except she had no choice but to jump…What will you do? Will you jump?... or would you rather die here?”

I could feel it, this thing inside me. Growing, wanting to be released, set free. How could he? How dare he? This adult whose job was to protect, nurture, and help kids grow. How could he do the things he did to Shiho, Ryuji, Akira, the volleyball team, the track team, and me? Mona stepped up beside me.

“Do you wanna finish him off? It's your call.” 

I glanced down at him. Finish him off? Wait- what was I thinking? Steal his treasure, that's what he meant. It's what the four of us had agreed on.

“No, please wait! I beg you!” Kamoshida was down on his knees. He held the crown close, wrapped up in his arms and hunched over it. He sobbed as he desperately clung on to his disgusting desires. 

Beg? After the things he did? He can’t possibly believe he deserves forgiveness? Can he?

“Just forgive me!” He wailed. 

“SHUT UP!” I couldn’t handle it anymore. This anger was because of him. This anger that was forcing its way out. “I bet everyone told you the same, But you… you took everything from them!”

*CRASH* 

The sudden heat wave even surprised me. The fire ball had hit the wall next to the balcony, next to Kamoshida. My anger had turned the red curtain to black and ash. All I could hear was my ragged breathing and the gasps of my teammates. They each took a hesitant step forwards and Kamoshida let out a long shaky breath. 

“I accept defeat…you want this? Take it.” Kamoshida chucked the crown forwards and Joker stepped up to catch it. The leather of his gloves quieted the ringing of the gold as it had flung through the air. Kamoshida looked utterly defeated. 

“Go ahead and finish me off…You do that… and my real self will go down too…You have that right since you’ve won…”

That’s all the permission I needed before I sent another fireball flying through the air. 

“ANN!” I felt a hand grab my shoulder and pull me back. Suddenly all I could see was Skull’s mask. He had a hand on either shoulder holding me in place, but he wasn’t looking at me. His eyes were wide and focused on the scene behind me, he looked horrified. I felt his hands slacken their grip and I took the opportunity to look at what he had been focused on. The second I did he strengthened his grip again forcing me to look at him.

“N-no! Don’t look!” That’s when he crouched down, eye level with me. 

But it had been too late, a split second had been all that I needed to see, for the carnage to be seared into my brain. His skin was charred and melted off, muscle and bone on the wrong side of his skin. His body had been forced back into the railing; the impact on his head had been bad enough for chunks of his brain to stick to walls and floor. Limbs in awkward unnatural angles and facial cartilage gone…

“Oh my god…” Mona’s voice carried over in a whisper. No one moved, frozen in shock from my actions. No one knew what to do, everything had gone quiet for a moment, But only for a moment. 

Everything started to rumble like an earthquake. 

“Shit!” Skull yanked me to the side before a chunk of stone could come down on me. 

“Mona what's happening?” Joker shouted over the loud rumbling.

“The palace is disappearing! We need to go! NOW!” 

I watched for a second as everyone started to run, Joker, ever the true leader, turned to look at me.

“Panther! NOW!” he snapped me out of my stupor and I ran. The palace was crumbling down all around us. I felt like I couldn't run fast enough, my legs were burning as I desperately ran. We were almost half way out when I finally caught up to the group. The red lined hallways seemed never ending. Red like the anger I had felt, red like the fire I released, red like Kamoshida’s blood. 

Skull cried out in pain and I turned to see him down on the ground gripping his leg. Yellow. Stark blonde hair right in the middle of all the red, breaking it all apart. God what had I done?

“Ryuji!” I cried out to him, the sound of my own voice felt foreign. Before I could start making my way towards him he stopped me. 

“I’m alright!” Then with a grunt he was back on his feet, “Come on!” He grabbed my wrist and ran. We ran and ran and ran and ran.we didn’t stop running until we were suddenly in the alley near the school and it was all gone. Heavy breathing, a quiet pitter patter, and the sounds of students walking by was all there was to be heard. 

The red had gone grey and I felt like I could finally take in a full breath. So I did, I took another and another and another and another. A pair of hands found my shoulders again and I looked up to see black. Joker. 

“Ann, look at me. Slow down, take a deep breath.” Joker spoke slowly. 

My lungs were on fire and my knees gave out beneath me. Everything was blending together and I couldn’t focus. Wait? Had we really escaped? Wasn’t the palace technically the school? Were we trapped? Had Kamoshida won in the end? 

Suddenly I was warm and there was a gentle rumbling. Joker had his arms wrapped around me and my ear was pressed against his chest. He was speaking, but his words didn’t reach me. All I could hear was his heart beat. A steady thumping against my ear, it was all I could focus on. Everything else was too much. It was the one thing keeping me grounded. In that moment all my energy left me and I slumped against him, intently listening to the rhythm of his heart. It was then that my eyes landed on the Shujin Academy logo on his jacket. He was no longer Joker, this was Akira. We did it, we were out.

My lungs finally expanded fully and my eyes went from the Shujin Academy logo up to a worried Ryuji. He was crouched down next to us with his head tilted at a downward angle. 

“There you are,” he let out a sigh of relief, “you finally with us?”

I numbly nodded my head at him, not attempting to move from my spot at all. I could feel Akira’s hands softly running up and down my back and a small gasp escaped me when I finally registered the light rain hitting my face. 

“Hey, c’mon…” Ryuji grabbed my arm just above the elbow and gave a gentle tug. 

Two sets of hands started pulling me up. I let them guide me to my feet. feeling completely numb. A stark contrast to how I had felt thirty minutes prior. I wanted to confirm that we did it, but I couldn’t bring myself to speak. I didn’t speak and I didn’t move, I could feel the hands hesitate to let go once I was on my feet. I took a single stumbling step and the hands came right back, not letting go this time.

“What are we gonna do man?” Ryuji whispered “He’s– well… and I- I really don’t think she should be alone right now…”

Akira took a deep breath to respond, “I–”

“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!”

All of our heads snapped towards the commotion. A few students started running down the stairs from the front gate of the school, others gathered to see what was going on. Voices on top of voices trying to figure out what had happened. 

“KAMOSHIDA– HE- HE STARTED BLEEDING FROM HIS EYES! HE COLLAPSED! I THINK HE’S DEAD!”

[pumpkinmetaphor]

🥘😱😁🙌 for the ask meme! Sits in your inbox with my big rainbow swirly lollipop

side note I hate that it's called an ask meme. This isn't a meme. What's so funny about it. It's so stupid there's nothing intended to be funny why are they calling it a meme this is like when I was 7 and would ask my dad if I could play videogames so he'd go on YouTube and put on a video playthrough of a game thinking that's what video games meant

☝️🤓 um ackshually...

The term "meme" originates from Dawkins's "The Selfish Gene" and is defined as a "replicator" and a "unit of cultural transmission." So a meme is not defined by how funny it is, a meme is defined by being passed on and changed and adapted and propogated and disseminated, now almost entirely understood in the context of online media. So an "ask meme" is called that because it's a cultural unit (understood by Tumblr culture, specific niche, specific demographic) that is being passed around and changed etc. Quote: "Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches. Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperm or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation."

(dragged out via cane before I can start talking about Baudrillard)

ACTUALLY ANSWERING NOW

🥘What wip are you most excited about?

Aside from the new chapter dropping in the next hour or two? Chapter 11. Other than explicitedly chapters of Okay, Cupid! would be probably a side one-shot I have that functions as a chapter 11.5.

😱What's your greatest fear as a fanfic writer?

2 things. One, that people would feel something I've put a huge amount of time and effort into writing and THEY'VE put a huge amount of time and effort into reading jumps the shark at the last hurdle. I've been sitting on Chapter 9 for a while, and will probably be delayed with each chapter going forward because, despite planning this all out in like May 2023, I keep being like "oh no...what if this is the final cringey ooc straw for the reader?"

Two, I teach. I don't particularly fear my students finding my ao3 as much as I fear them finding my tumblr through my ao3 or any of my writing from when I was a preteen or a teenager. I also have less of a fear of them finding my fic and thinking eurgh she's so cringe lmao and more of a fear of them finding my fic and being like "this is poorly constructed and ill conceived, and you think you can grade our essays?" I wake up in a cold sweat.

😁What makes you happiest? New fic comments, kudos, bookmarks, user subscribers, story subscribers, or Tumblr asks?

All of these make me very very happy. But my heart does soar whenever I get a comment. I do read my bookmark comments, appreciate my kudos, and enjoy Tumblr asks once I get over the initial sense of dread upon seeing the notification and thinking I'm getting hatemail. But I sometimes just reread my ao3 comments to myself, kicking my feet. Helps me get over the aforementioned fears that I'm going to start producing garbage.

🙌What's a line or paragraph of yours that you're proud of?

You're going to have to wait and see some of them in the next chapter. BUT. I'll pick one or two bits that I think are my magnum opus from Okay, Cupid! Even if my writing for Homestuck is probably better tbh.

If "Kyoya and Kaoru went to see Venus in fucking Fur on Valentine's Day" has no automatic gigglers, then I'm dead. Sometimes you've got to laugh at your own jokes.

likewise, out of anything I've published for this fic so far, this entire scene with Akito was my favourite to write

kyokao equivalent of "you wear fine things well" in my head. Way to make it awkward. I struggle a lot as someone who worked as a scriptwriter and an animator to get actions and physical expression across in writing. This is one of the only parts I'm actually satisfied gets the physical action down without being overly clunky. Imo!

[moonglide]

Echoes of wisdom hours 10 & 11

-spoilers for the end of the gerudo quest, and most of the hyrule castle quest.

-previously on: moon's eow playthrough

-AAAHHH WHY THE FUCK ARE THERE THREE LINKS???

-this concludes the segment about the last entry.

-okay so with some clever manuevering, i killed them. had to distract them with moblins and then take them out individually.

-oh i got a bow! guess that makes sense. will the next one be bombs???

-oh i have to be in hero mode to use the bow. lame. zelda is totally an archer.

-i only knew half of the two statue puzzle so i just guessed. and it worked.

-mole guy. i'm a little scared because i've seen people talk about this guy

-guess i'm just too skilled. that wasn't that hard. i used albatrosses or whatever they're called.

-ok so yeah the restored parts of the world are definately just copies. how can i still be standing on gerudo sands in the still world if it got put back?

-no extra triangle? i just get reduced cost on certain echoes? huh? are those echoes gonna be useful in the castle or something?

-ok tri. you want me to go back to lueberry's? joke's on you, i was about to go there anyways to upgrade my sword.

-i ship lefte and wright. i also headcannon that lefte is right handed and wright is left handed.

-OH GOD the rift has overtaken castle town.

-love how when the soldiers are freaking out wright just takes charge. he's actually a really good leader. he boosts morale, is decisive, helps out his soldiers. it's great.

-down, you say? guess i'm taking the well.

-ohhhh we get to go through the castle again! but backwards!

-there's magic evil soldiers? ok. guess they'll die.

-guess they won't die. what? why are they so strong?

-OOOHHHH it's so it can be a stealth section like the beginning of the game!!!!

-got caught and it took me to a pocket dimension. is that why they one shot everything? they're just being teleported?

-ok so apparently you can place water blocks as long as they're connected to the ceiling. the more you know.

-fell off the roof. got stabbed by guard. there's like two darknuts and a moblin in here. guess i'll die. that's death #6

-impa????

-wait she has a diary

-read the diary, i'm not crying you're crying. god impa did you have to punch me in the feels so much?

-ok but also this is the same cell with the hole in the wall. impa you are a ninja. you could have figured something out.

-man imagine what it must be like for zelda in these underwater tunnels. she can't see through walls. she doesn't know where the next pocket of air is. terrifying.

-diff stealth section. landed on this guard's head. from the ceiling. bro turns around and i teleport off.

-hey remember when i asked if the echoes with reduced cost would be useful in the castle? they were useful in the castle.

-death 7 from that room with the ball-and-chain darknut.

-oooh high jump amulet!

-i teleported back but forgot to open the big chest. now i gotta go back again.

-wait am i just straight up fighting the king and left and right???

-oh it's ganon. and he's an echo. i still think ganon from the start of the game was an echo.

-first phase went well. was low on hero mode mana so had to send birds to fight for me

-second phase went well. could get mana from the flaming keese, so i could actually stab him.

-i'm so disappointed in myself. i'm actually so disappointed. i died to magic tennis. how did i die to magic tennis???? it's so simple!! i was too close to him and so when it sped up i couldn't react. i'm a fool. i'm pretty sure i have to start from phase one. whatever.

-death count: 8.

-fave monster: albatrawl. with this guy i can use cloud of bats but better, because they can take a hit, and attack faster, and are stronger. two strong birds is still better than four weak bats.

[jazzmckay]

started davg today! haven't made it very far but im enjoying it :>

commentary and screenshots below, including ~female presenting n*ps~ lol

spoilers, obviously

my girl fuckin blinked right as i took the shot cant believe this shit. get a load of her tits tho

im playing a female qunari rogue with the shadow dragon backstory. playing a they/them calls to me SO hard, and i will 100% be doing that in my second playthrough. i just already had an idea for this character and was gonna do it in dai but never got even close so! now shes a rook instead lmao

speaking of they/thems, i chose my first lavellan for the inquisitor and did a TERRIBLE job of making them in vg's character creation. someday ill redo them while having a dai screenshot as reference bc this feels like it doesnt look like them at all. mostly the eyes and cheekbones are super wrong, alas, i was getting impatient to actually start the game by this point, id already been in cc for a million years. i also couldnt find the option to choose their class so theyre listed as a hunter instead of the keepers first whoops

my first choice was to beat up a whole bar instead of talking things out :)

my second choice was smashing every pot i came into contact with

tevinter is absolutely gorgeous. im enjoying the wilderness and fade stuff that comes after too, but i hope it isnt too long before i get to see more big active cities. all the magic built into the architecture, sometimes in ways that feel so modern while still being medieval fantasy, is fascinating

a good boy.... best boy. so cute

mythal?

always love murals and statues and shit in these games. l o r e

im still struggling to get a hang of the controls--there are so many attack styles that i can barely keep it straight, before even getting into the abilities. i do enjoy this kind of combat a lot though. it reminds me of witcher 3 combat, which i really love, its just gonna be a hot minute before i'm no longer bumbling around like a dumbass lmao

the solarric really be solarricing dude love them sm. doomed yaoi... also there's already so much to pick apart with solas gosh. AND even tho ive only seen their outlines, ghilly and elgar look super cool. im looking forward to learning more about the connection with the darkspawn. have been curious about that since playing return to ostagar in origins and seeing what looked like a darkspawn-made altar to ghilan'nain

favourite status update ive gotten so far:

i'm digging neve the most. i feel like im betraying an old friend when i support her over harding but :( neve

also since im playing a female rook, the party feels SO "varric and the girlies" right now. ladies ladies ladies. full squad of women constantly since varric got stabbed (lets go doomed yaoi lets go). we love to see it. and theyre all so pretty ;w; harding sitting on the couch with her legs tucked up all cutely.... girl thats illegal. i wanna scoop her up into my strong arms

(theyre also cool characters, i just got distracted with queer thoughts sry)

had to stop right after the ogre fight. looking forward to whats coming up next!

[talesofthedm]

Confessions

The bastard Astarion confessed his feelings on this playthrough sooner than I thought he would so I had to do research and take notes (i was already taking notes, lets be honest).

Anyway, this is my sleep deprived attempt at writing out the Act 2 romance confession. It combines dialogue from both the standard romance confession, the variant if you defend him from Araj, and also a really bad pun (I like puns. Astarion does not.)

Im definitely going to rewrite/edit this at some point when I start like actually writing out the full fic of my playthrough, but that's pretty much to remove some added context/change it out/not be sleep deprived when i edit.

There is a reference to a previous fic i wrote (here), but you don't need to read it for context (but I am here for the shameless plug).

Tav is Freya (she/her), Gloomstalker Ranger/Assassin Rogue. Brief description of a scar she has.

Excerpt:

Astarion buried his nose into her hair and breathed in, trying to memorize it all. The sound of her heart, the tickle of her breath, the smell of sweat and dirt and too-cold river water and whatever perfumed soap she used that was rapidly fading with the passing days. He laced his fingers at the small of her back, feeling the warmth of her skin from where it peaked under her shirt. He just wanted to hold her there, for a while… for an eternity if he could.

TW: brief mentions of just Astarion's past with... all that, and mentions of blood. No actual descriptions, just dialogue.

Gods, when did life become so complicated? They were no closer to finding a way to kill an immortal than before (which was to say, not at all). Instead, they found the entrance to some disgusting, fleshy pit that they all collectively looked and went ‘no.’ The only thing of note the entire day was that damned drow woman with her sultry voice that kept pushing and pushing and insisting… She had half a mind to help her spill some, seeing as how much she seemed to love blood.

She must have been pacing—stomping—back and forth and lost in thought when he called to her.

“Freya?” Astarion asked, tinged with worry. Perhaps he thought she’d have another breakdown, spend the next half day sleeping while they huddled in a corner trying to protect her unconscious body. “Do you have a moment? I think we need to talk.”

She was suspicious, to say the least. He was never one to “talk,” as much as it seemed that’s all he did. When she turned to face him it suddenly became a possibility. Dread. Horrible, gnawing dread at the base of her stomach. It was quiet and deafening at the same time.

He bounced on his feet, as if preparing to run and never look back. True true fear in his eyes.

She all but ran over. “Are you all right?”

“I, uh, wanted to thank you…”

And then she was confused. “For what?”

“For what you said while I was in front of that vile drow,” as if it was so obvious to say, so plain to see. She at least understood his disgust. “I spent two hundred years using my body to lure pretty things back for my Master—" She supposed, on a certain level, she knew. She’d seen the missing persons cases. She’d see the patterns.

But the tension in her body relaxed. There was no threat, no worry that she could soothe beyond watching him squirm at the very idea of a thank you. The corner of her mouth turned upward, enjoying his mild discomfort at having to deal with people.

“What I wanted, how I felt about what I was doing, it never mattered.”

And then it all came tumbling down again, further and deeper than before. Freya felt sick, felt guilty, felt wrong. Her mind shot towards the memory of her first night with him. The tieflings, the party, the shitty wine, and her stringing him along as he so blatantly tried to flirt with her. Let’s take a rain check, she said, once she had her fill of the vampire’s failure to get in her pants.

And then she did her rounds.

And then she talked to Halsin.

And then he told her there was no cure and the only hope was a perilous mission into the shadowcursed lands for a maybe and a hope.

And then the previous weeks’ worth of shit landed on her at once. She was angry and stressed and she needed to direct that somewhere. She wanted to get blackout drunk and hunt; to stalk and maim and rip out some unsuspecting animal’s throat with her bare teeth if it came to that.

And then she remembered Astarion standing there, bottle of wine in hand. What are you doing? He half demanded, half asked. It’s raining, she replied. She all but dragged him by the collar to the outskirts of camp and had him fuck her against the tree until she forgot anything but his name.

Her breathes came fast and shallow with each thought. Freya wrapped her arms around her torso, hoping to keep her meal down and hoping he would think she was simply crossing her arms as she was pulled back to the present situation. “I know,” she whispered.

“You… you knew?”

“I’m not dumb, Astarion.” Her eyes narrowed, believing him to be insulting her. She’d deserve it.

But he was simply dumbstruck. “And you still tolerated me? Still let me seduce you?”

“It was fun,” she shrugged—as if the simple motion could throw away the silence of camp and the churning feeling in her gut… She normally loved the silence. Why was now any different? “I slept with you because it was fun… the risk of death—the constant threat that if I blinked the wrong way or smacked my head in just the right spot that it would somehow—somehow dislodge the magic. That I’d be gone in an instant…

“It was fun. And it was mindless.” Freya blinked away tears before they fell.

Astarion stilled, a beautiful statue. The words he himself knew but had refused to think or say aloud…

He swallowed the lump in his throat. “I know…”

”Were…” She hesitated, scared of his response. She couldn’t look at him or even stand near him… but she also couldn’t run from him. “Were you even attracted to me?” Her fingers reached up of their own accord, tracing the edges of the burn across her cheek and nose. “Or was it all a lie?”

He laughed. He laughed. At her… at her disgusting face… Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes. Of course she was a game. A pawn to be sacrificed and used the moment the opportunity arose. Her mind wandered to the game of Lanceboard Raphael and Mol had been playing. What was he guarding in exchange, she wondered. The worst of it was the timing. He had waited for now—when she was too tired to fight and scream and simply be angry—to do this.

Astarion watched, the slightest of smiles on his lips at the mere thought of that question. Was Freya, someone so deadly and terrifyingly aware of everything and everyone around her, truly this stupid? “Of course I was attracted to you. Look at you, for goodness’ sake!”

He reached out, gingerly taking her callused and scarred hand in his own. Freya was frozen in place, unable to meet his eyes until he lifted her chin to look at him. “You’re a vision,” he whispered. “And youre so much more than that…”

The whispered words. The softness in his eyes. The implication that she would forever and always be her own person where he was nothing more than a body to be picked over and used like carrion for harpies. She blinked away tears as rapidly as she could, refusing to let him see her like this. Losing.

Freya was suddenly very aware of the silence in camp. The passive noise—the rustling of sheets, of Gale’s quiet snores harmonizing with Karlach’s significantly less quiet buzzsaw, of Wyll’s tossing and turning as he failed to find a comfortable position that account for his new horns—it had all turned to bated breath.

The bastards.

Astarion averted his gaze from hers, it suddenly burning. He dropped the hand from her chin and instead used the energy to hold on to her even tighter. “I don’t know what to think. I don’t know what I want.

 “I care about you. Deeply. And—and I—I don’t know if I want a friend or—or a lover or—” he stopped himself, knowing full well that he started to ramble but was stuck vomiting the words that had been eating away at his brain more than the tadpole. “I just know I want you in it. In my life… Whatever that means.”

He was searching, pleading, begging for a response of any kind from Freya. Even if its rejection. Because anything is better than silence. Than waiting. That was the worst part; waiting for the mark, waiting for the starving pit in his stomach to dull enough to function, waiting for Cazador to drive the blade in and carve out his flesh.

Waiting for Freya to break the silence he knew she loved so much.

Freya took a tentative step toward him. He felt her arms snake around his waist and press herself into his chest. She was careful, a movement he would maybe mistake for hesitation and nervousness if he didn’t know her so long. It was like she thought him fragile, made of glass. That he would shatter the moment they moved—and perhaps he would.

That’s what he was really scared of, he realized. Her pitying him.

Even still, even for just a fleeting moment, he was willing to indulge. He was willing to accept the lie and just hold her there and pretend; like everything else in their relationship is. Was.

Astarion buried his nose into her hair and breathed in, trying to memorize it all. The sound of her heart, the tickle of her breath, the smell of sweat and dirt and too-cold river water and whatever perfumed soap she used that was rapidly fading with the passing days. He laced his fingers at the small of her back, feeling the warmth of her skin from where it peaked under her shirt. He just wanted to hold her there, for a while… for an eternity if he could.

He continued. “You could have asked me to do the same—to throw myself at her, what I wanted be damned. But… you didn’t. And I’m grateful.”

“I don’t want you to think you have to do anything you don’t want to…” she whispered into his shoulder, barely audible. “You make your own choices now—for better or worse”

He held her closer, speaking into the top of her hair. “It would have been so easy to bite her… To just go along with what I was being told to do. A moment of disgust to force myself through and then I could have just carried on, just like before!” He waved his hand in that flippant wave, a dead laugh bubbling up from his throat as if it was a humorous anecdote.

And then more silence. More waiting. More torture.

Freya tightened her hold around his waist, as if signaling her willingness to stay for a moment longer. “How often were you disgusted by your targets?”

“I tried to pick beautiful people where I could, but there were so many over the years. After a while you stop caring…

“My entire reason for existing was to seduce anything with a pulse. And every instinct I have tells me that nothing’s changed. That I’m still just a means to an end—!” His grip tightened more, bordering on painful but not quite. It wasn’t possessive. It wasn’t protective. He was desperate. Astarion shifted his weight, burying his head into the crook of her neck.

A few tears finally left Freya’s eyes. Guilt and sadness that she had made him feel this way—that she was no better than all the people in his life before her. A means to an end. A confirmation that he was nothing but a tool to be used and tossed aside at a moments notice.

“You made me see I never stopped thinking like I was still his slave, even in freedom. But I’m more than that… More than a thing to be used.”

Freya spoke as if compelled, not in control of her own voice or thoughts. She hated the silence now, and she would not let it exist. “I care about you.”

Astarion pulled away suddenly, his entire body tensed like a pressed coil. It left her afraid that she had said the wrong thing, that he would run into the shadows and never come back. “Really?”

What she didn’t expect were his eyes. Searching, pleading, begging once more. What made matters worse was the spark of hope in them. She didn’t want to lose it, squash it. She wanted to save it, keep it, make it shine as brightly as the sun he lost so long ago and only recently rediscovered… she wanted him.

He was already smoothing away the tears, just as he had done in the House of Healing. It was refreshing, the coolness of his skin against hers.

“You’re worth a great deal to me, no matter what you’re going through…” she spoke between sobs. “For as long as you need, no sex, no midnight romps. Nothing.”

Astarion couldn’t help but break into a smile, the tips of his fangs peeking out. “Ha! Well that almost sounds like a challenge…” It was absent minded, another flippant response to distract away from something.

But he was giddy. He felt… happy. The excitement overtook him, like he was suddenly privy to the greatest secret in Faerun. His chest felt lighter, fluttering. He could take her, spin her, sweep her away to the farthest corners imaginable and just be. No expectations. No script. No plans or threats or empty promises…

“Honestly, I have no idea what we’re doing.” He took one of her hands in both of his. “But I know this: this is nice…”

Freya wiped away the last few stray tears. “We could be an absolute disaster together…”

“I supposed it cannot be much worse than when you dropped a building on my head,” he chuckled, pulling her to him once more and resting his chin atop her head. “But you’re serious about this? About… us?”

“Dead serious.”

“Five seconds into this relationship and I already want to break up with you.”

Freya hummed into his shirt, pleased with herself.

[hughjidiot]

Total Drama Level Up: Chapter Five Sneak Peak

ETA on chapter five of Total Drama Level Up will be sometime next week. So here's a sneak peak for anyone interested.

On the other side of the warehouse, the seven Turtles rode off: Nichelle and Caleb to the south, Julia and Raj to the center, and the remaining three into the north. The low rumbling of wheels and tires on cement echoed as Zee, MK and Lauren looked around, carefully scanning the skatepark set pieces for any glowing lights and finding none.

“We should probably further split up if we want to cover more ground,” Lauren said after a few seconds.

“Good call, but let’s not go far,” Zee said, nodding in one direction. “I’ll check over that-a way.”

He angled his body to turn, pushing himself along the ground to give him more speed as he rounded a free-standing wooden wall.

“I’ll check this way,” MK said, steering her bike towards a cluster of smooth metal picnic tables. As she rode off, out of the corner of her eye she saw Lauren gliding along next to her. “Hey, you got any idea where they hid those t-shirt canons?”

Lauren shook her head. “’Fraid not. They must’ve placed those while I was messing with the equipment.”

“Damn. Ah well.” MK kept pedaling towards the picnic tables. She noticed that Lauren was still rolling in the same direction with her. “Thought we were splitting up. Did you uh, need something?”

Lauren hummed and shrugged. “We’re partners now, right? This the part where we get to know each other, or…?”

“You expecting us to braid each other’s hair while we gossip about boys, or some crap like that?” MK asked flatly. She shook her head. “We may be in an alliance, but don’t think that makes us friends. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I don’t do the whole ‘buddy’ business.”

“Oh?” Lauren kept smiling as she quirked an eyebrow. “You seem to get along just fine with Julia.”

MK snorted. “That’s ‘cause she’s cool, unlike the rest of you losers.”

“Heh, it was fun watching the last seasons back and seeing her mess with everyone,” Lauren admitted.

By now the girls reached the picnic tables, spaced randomly apart and sitting at different angles. The girls rode between them, watching to see if any were glowing.

“So question, from one girl to another,” Lauren said, “what’s the deal with you and Julia anyways?”

Now it was MK’s turn to look at her quizzically. “Deal? We’re friends, what else is there to know? We make a sick team and ran the island for most of season two.”

“And you’ve been hanging out in person after season two,” Lauren stated.

“You haven’t been stalking us again, have you?” MK asked right away, giving her a slightly-disturbed look.

Lauren rolled her eyes. “Oh relax, I’m talking about your Let’s Plays and livestreams. Heard through the fandom grapevine about your gaming channel and checked out your horror playthroughs. Loved your Sweet Home VII series by the way, very nice work.”

~~~

“Check me out @mkplays,” MK said in the confessional closest. “What? If Chase, Emma and Julia can shamelessly promote themselves then so can I, dammit.”

~~~

“Oh.” MK blinked in pleasant surprise. “Well thanks. Yeah, turned out me and Jules both lived in the greater Toronto area so we… started hanging out. There some law of reality TV against contestants keeping in touch?”

“Not at all, I know for a fact a bunch of us do. But from what I’ve seen on social media at least, only a few go out of their way to meet up in person, not counting the Hockey Bros of course. Bowie and Raj, Caleb and Priya, Ripper and Axel, you and Julia…” Lauren trailed off and shrugged again. “Just an interesting pattern I noticed, that’s all.”

With that Lauren finally veered away from MK, rolling off. MK brought her bike to a stop, a perplexed look on her face.

“… the hell she talking about? Pattern?” MK muttered. She ran through the list of names in her head. “I mean those other three are just-”

Her eyebrows shot up as realization struck like a speeding freight train. She narrowed her eyes at the back of Lauren’s head.

Lauren gave a brief glance over her shoulder, her smile morphing into a smirk for a fraction of a second.

[peemanne]

Disco Elysium Review: REACTION SPEED [Medium: Success] - "Uhm... Uh..."

wow hey that's not yakuza is it wowzers wowza

Yeah the game was like, really really really good so I really wanted to write something about it. Haven't done anything in a while I have to be honest so that's another reason for me to thank this game. Thank you, game

This review contains MINOR SPOILERS (but they're all out of context so honestly uhhhh you should be fine)

Reviewed on May 29, 2024. Last completed on May 26, 2023

Completed on PC

Rating: 10/10 (5 Stars)

Disco Elysium fans be like: "Oh, damn! Good thing I stocked up on healing items and quicksaved earlier! There's a really tough paragraph ahead!" It's me. I'm Disco Elysium fans.

It's hard for me to try to properly put into words how much I adore everything about this game. Every little detail, every single aspect, each and every one of those 1.2 million words in the script combine to grab you by the hand and wisp you away into its world.

This game's writing is seriously just something else. It's beautiful when it needs to be. Disturbing and haunting at times. Its comedic timing is perfect when it wants to. It's utterly heartbreaking when the time comes. The characters are all memorable, with even the seemingly insignificant side characters carrying with them bottomless depth. The amnesiac we play as oozes personality out of every alcohol-stained crevice, and carries himself through no matter which path you decide to take. Your inner monologue with your "stats" talking to you was a stroke of genius, and it does so much to inject life into every little thing you do. From hyping you up to sing karaoke, to telling you to lick spilled spirits on a table, to composing yourself to take a vital shot at an adversary, to trying to convince an old war vet to surrender their sandwich. Every little thing you do is painted before your very eyes, and you get to appreciate all of its stunning writing even more with the whole experience being fully voice-acted. Seriously, the prose in here is insane. Really inspires an idiot hobbyist like me.

And haha yeah I really enjoyed playing through this book alright alright, but I really must stress that Disco Elysium makes FULL use out of the game portion of "Computer Role Playing Game". The gameplay elements do an amazing job of bringing everything together. Your skills dictate which ones influence you the most, and which ones you're gonna hear from, further influenced by whatever ridiculous outfit you end up wearing. Not only is the skill system a great way to illustrate to the player their skills returning to them after the whole amnesia thing, but this does a lot to separate each playthrough from the last. One playthrough you'll have Encyclopedia inform you on some awesome fun facts about the chair you're sitting on, as you make use of Drama to crack open the man you're interviewing like a can. In the very next, you'll have Half-Light tell you to sucker punch a child who called you a homophobic slur. You experience the lives of almost entirely different men every time you hit "NEW GAME", despite most of the major points of the story remaining the same (and obviously the fact that you're still playing the same actual guy). But the biggest strength of the gameplay is how expertly it weaves everything together. It feels like even the smallest, most insignificant of checks will come back later to influence your next course of action. Lifted some weights in front of your partner to maybe show off a little earlier? Now you get a +2 advantage on your roll if you want to do a 360 spin kick on the head of a beefed-up racist guard. Messed up a pickup line really badly on a girl you met just after waking up? Ah, that's gonna be a -2 when you're trying to keep yourself composed when her name happens to get thrown in during an interrogation. The game will remember everything you say and do, no matter how insignificant it may seem at first. Even your check fails can open up new paths for you to take. I found myself not save-scumming as often as I thought I would, simply because messing things up would sometimes give me much funnier results than if I just succeeded as normal. I didn't find myself doing what I did for some arbitrary good or bad ending to aim for, I found myself doing what I felt like I would do. No, I found myself doing everything based on what I felt like my character would do, which might be the ultimate win for any RPG.

Most of all, Disco Elysium is a deeply human experience. This isn't a power fantasy where you play some untouchable god amongst men, you play as a broken, alcoholic man who drank so hard he can't remember what money is. Even with your physical skills as high as you can make them, the game makes it abundantly clear that you're still out of shape. Even if you're playing the whole thing sober, its characters still point out that you've downed barrels before and that you could probably break at a moment's notice. Even with Composure and Volition in your corner, keeping you up and letting you open your eyes every morning, you'll still get your heart broken again and again as memories start to resurface. And I love how the side cases never feel like lower-effort detours, but rather supplement your character, like you're simply walking through life. At one moment you'll be talking to your distractingly gaudy tie, and the next you'll try to talk a guy who yells "HARD-CORE!" at the top of his lungs whenever you approach him into becoming a communist. One second you'll repeat the same sentence over and over in front of an important ambassador like a broken record as your skills try to get you working normally again, and the next you'll try your best to tell a woman her husband's been found dead. And this game isn't afraid to get ugly: there are some downright horrific things showcased in its plot.

But after all of it, you get back up again. Your partner extends a hand to you. You put the bottle down and stretch your arms. Despite everything that's been thrown at you, every thought that's raced through your head, every rock thrown at your body, you keep living. It's a new day, and you've got a damn case to solve.

Sunrise, Parabellum.

[goodoldfashionedengineer]

My next DBH Playthrough will be called "Fumbling and Tumbling" meaning, I'm gonna try my hardest to mess up literally everything.

I don't know which route I want to go in The Hostage:

Lie about the gun and get shot, Software Instability decreases

Don't move and fail to reach Emma and watch her and Daniel fall to their death, Software Instability increases