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kindestegg · 2 years

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Analyzing all the differences in the storyboards posted by Yasmin Khudari and the final product! - Part 1: No Collector Edition

Hello everyone!! Today I bring you a different kind of meta post than usual... I'm sure some of you are already aware that Yasmin Khudari who worked on The Owl House has posted quite a lot of storyboards for episodes in season 2B and For the Future as well. I will reblog this post with the link to her site later (as if I believe correctly the issue with posts with external links on them getting shadowbanned still is not fixed).

But for now! Under the cut, I will point out every difference between the storyboards and the final cut and what this could mean! There's a lot of exciting stuff to go through, so much so in fact that I will have to cut this post in half to showcase the Collector related storyboards elsewhere because there is just! So much ground to cover! And the 30 image limit would burst!!! (I know this because I've literally tried.)

(A small side note... I have elected to sometimes to not show picture evidence of things changing because we do have a 30 images limit here and I want to hopefully talk about all the changes!)

Starting with Season 2 Episode 12, Elsewhere and Elsewhen, we have this cute little scene of Lilith cutting some branches out of the way while Luz follows her and does a little twirl. I imagine this was just cut because it wasn't very necessary, but it is cute as hell.

In the final episode, they cut directly to the scene where Lilith is looking at her book showing the Pools of Time entry.

Another subtle difference likely cut for time, Lilith originally would sniff the seaweed brought by her palisman that ended up on Luz's head. In the final episode, this little action is absent.

Something that was not cut but rather added this time! In the storyboards, Lilith only goes "Eh?" when she thinks she failed in finding the time pools, whereas in the final episode, she goes into her whole spiel about how she "triple checked all her calculations, her equipment is first rate". It's possible that while the moments seen before were cut, this was added instead.

There is also another slight divergence in dialogue. In the final episode, Lilith's monologue goes: "Maybe the blood was too dry? Is it not algae blooming season?" Whereas here Lilith wonders if the map was outdated or if the oak was a bit more of a pine before wondering if it's not algae blooming season.

And finally, there is a moment that was also cut from the finale episode where Luz is wowed by the discovery of the prehistoric Boiling Isles, but finds out she can't breathe in there. This would explain why in the final episode she is heard coughing before pulling her head back out.

I do think it's a shame this was cut as it would better explain why she was coughing and would be a neat little nod to the fact the air would have been different in that era of time.

Next, we have another set of boards for Elsewhere and Elsewhen, this time showcasing Luz and Lilith traveling with Philip to the head. I'm excited to get to this one because this has some juicy changes I want to discuss.

And our first change already shows exactly what I mean: there is no mention of The Collector in these boards. Instead, both Luz and Philip are seeking something called "The Song of Stars".

And equally, Luz doesn't refer to it as a "he" who can tell them how to clear the mist, but rather just something that can grant them power.

Is it possible that at the point in time these boards were getting done, the Collector was not yet meant to be a character? Maybe the Song of Stars was rather some kind of powerful spell, something that would grant Philip a power similar to the draining spell.

Smaller detail but just something I thought was cute: In the original boards, Luz did not say "snap snap snap" out loud, so I'm glad that was added in the final cut. It's cute!

But you know what did not make the cut? Philip being a suck up to flatter Luz and Luz being absolutely adorable about it. He calls her crab language "beautiful" and says both her and Lilith are very brave and that they're like warrior princesses, which sure makes Luz happy. Oh, if only her happiness could've lasted.

A blush and happy tears!! My god girl!! I am so sorry your idol turned out to be a douche! You deserved to have kept that happiness!!!

I do have some theories as to why this was cut. Could have been reworked for time, or could have been that they didn't think people may get the reference (this reads like a Xena Warrior Princess one to me at least), or even that it might seem odd for him to have that concept...

I do think the blush here is interesting, we have seen characters in the show blush in contexts that aren't romantic such as when they are embarrassed, looking up to someone or think something is cute. So this isn't too odd, Luz is meeting what at the current time is a big idol for her and he is saying very nice things to her, which would understandably get a strong reaction.

Minor change: Luz goes "what!" in the original storyboards before asking if Philip uses glyphs too. Again, very minor change, but! Cute!!!

Interesting change here: In the original boards, Philip does not comment that it took years for him to find the glyphs and that it was almost as if the world wanted to hide them from him.

Instead, he comments he "didn't realize there was one for light as well".

This is REALLY interesting to me, because it also makes me wonder if the subtle theme of it being ambiguous whether the Titan's consciousness lingered and somehow hid the glyphs from Philip or if he was just that disrespectful and stubborn towards the B.I culture and wildlife that the only way he could rationalize his hardship was through the world being against him... was way less present in an earlier draft of the story.

He also does not comment "a warrior and a scholar, truly impressive" at Luz after she tells him she also found a glyph in a snowflake, just being quiet instead. I think that part may have been added to make more thematic sense with Lilith having a small quiet moment of looking weirded out by Philip's flattery right after.

Another minor detail: Luz also blushes in this storyboard when gushing over teaching Philip the light glyph, but this is absent in the final cut. I wonder if this was done so people wouldn't get the wrong idea, or, rather, if "my idol is so cool" gushing would be considered to be something that wouldn't be worth blushing over.

Another instance of The Collector being replaced by The Song of Stars. I find it funny in a silly way that it's in all caps, makes me think of how RPG games will write important key items or boss characters in all caps.

And that's all for the differences in this episode! But before we move onto the next, I wanted to talk a bit more about the Song of Stars because this all just... fascinates me? Coupled with that one storyboard we have seen from The Owl Beast nightmare that showed what seemed to be three figures instead of one, I wonder if back then they were toying with the idea of the celestial magic opposing earthly magic from the titans and the collectors as a species being the reason why titans are gone, but they didn't think to actually have a collector as a character back then, only have them as some distant threat and adding to the lore. The song of stars could have been some kind of powerful spell or weapon left by then way back when, perhaps even what killed the titans.

Maybe we will know once the series ends and we can ask all about the cut storylines that ended up being discarded in favor of the current one. I certainly want to know!

For, Them's The Breaks, Kid, now, we have one minor dialogue change. Eda adds a "honestly", when she says she thought there'd be more (to her misdeeds). Maybe they took it out because she WASN'T being honest? LMAO.

This is an interesting cut line: In the storyboards, before saying she'll be separated from Lilith, Eda says her parents "will kill her". While we know this is classic Eda hyperbole, I think this is interesting because to me it may have been cut due to the fact that this could be seen as odd when her parents have been shown previously to be pretty understanding... or maybe there is more to the Clawthornes than we think of.

I'm definitely not saying Dell and Gwen would be abusive, fucking hell no, but Gwendolyn has at the very least been pretty overbearing on Eda at times, and has made Lilith feel left out, presumably even before the curse if Lilith's desperation to stand out above Eda is anything to go by. Maybe, even without meaning to, Eda and Lilith's parents were pretty strict about getting them a good enough education and nudging them to join the Emperor's Coven. I mean... where do you wonder their aspiration to it came from?

Or, again, I'm just looking too much into this and this line was cut precisely because this wouldn't reflect Dell and Gwen well.

Small detail, in the storyboards, Eda said "I'll do anything to make up for this" instead of just "I'll do anything". I think it's possible they cut this because it made more sense to imply she'd do anything to stay rather than "make up for" things she wasn't truly sorry for.

More small details! Faust doesn't say "no child is beyond redemption", but rather "no one". This is interesting to me because it would imply Bump's life philosophy extends to adults as well, and in my opinion nods to the goodness in his heart.

Also! In the storyboards Eda doesn't laugh nervously, just raises her hand at Bump.

"IFWOT" also used to not have its name be said in the storyboards when Faust explained it to Eda and Bump, instead he simply called it a "special training program for gifted students of the Isles". I think this was more of a change to let us know of the name really, and it's possible they didn't have the name when it was boarded.

And finally, Faust was I guess supposed to laugh offscreen when he walked away, but this is absent from the final episode. I guess they either thought he might not be the type or they just forgot to add it, after all it would require someone to remember to record the line and add an offscreen sound effect.

Another set of boards for the same episode also shows Lilith and Eda in their studying together.

For starters, instead of Lilith saying "Trials for the Emperor's Coven are just around the corner", she says "The Emperor's Coven will be here *any* day" in the storyboards, which to be fair isn't a big difference, specially since the storyboards afterwards continue the same way with Eda pointing out seven months isn't any day/just around the corner.

Also something interesting, when giving Eda her question, Lilith specifies a potency the Leadfoot potion would have. Does this imply that potions can be mixed with varying potency, making some purposefully weaker or purposefully stronger? Maybe as a way to create balance?

Also it is barely a real difference, but I thought it'd be criminal to not let you all know Lilith is described to be "slightly envious" in the storyboards when stating that Eda is correct lol

She also had EEE on her dialogue before saying "imagine us both getting" on the storyboards which I'm sad didn't make it in!

Also there was no dialogue for Lilith pointing to the clock in the original storyboards! I'm guessing they added "look we're gonna be late" as a way to clarify what pointing anxiously at a clock meant lol

The storyboards then cut to way later in the episode, with Raine having transferred to Hexside and Eda meeting them in the cafeteria. Another slight dialogue change is Raine used to simply say their parents were surprisingly cool about it, rather than they hated the cold on the knee like they do in the final product.

It is very faint, but there is also a cut frame of Eda blushing at Raine while smiling here. Very cute!

Raine also used to take a sip while saying "give me the rundown of this place" while cutting that sentence in the middle and going "blegh" because of the taste, rather than in the final cut where they say the full sentence and then take a sip.

I think this may have been cut simply because it made the pacing of the dialogue way too awkward.

And finally, Raine used to laugh at Eda commenting on how much she liked the apple blood, which I think is just cute.

Next up, Labyrinth Runners! We have three different sets of storyboards for this one to get through!

First of all! After Bump takes a fighting stance, the coven scouts look at each other and shrug, which was cut in the final version. Guess they'd usually not think much of Bump huh...

Another set of storyboards shows us a pretty different look at the scene where Adrian has Gus held inside the gym: First of all, for some reason this set of boards is missing all of Adrian's dialogue, which makes it hard for us to infer just how much changed about that from the storyboards to the final cut, but we can see a glimpse of a different storyline with Gus' one line in all this:

"I'll never join your coven"... does that mean, originally, Adrian would try to force Gus to join the illusion coven, and Gus was resisting because he probably figured out by now getting coven sigils is bad news? But then again, I can imagine this was cut and quickly reworked into something a little less convoluted and more straightforward: Gus wouldn't know yet just how bad joining a coven is and about the draining spell, and Gus DOES specialize in illusion, so it could look odd that he is resisting this much.

There's another set of boards of when Hunter wakes up at the infirmary, and sadly this one is also missing dialogue. But we can still infer some differences!

First of all, after Skara tells him it's not an illusion and he is in the healing homeroom, Hunter opens his mouth briefly, maybe speaking words of relief or just sighing in relief really.

Also minor thing: it's a bit hard to tell with how these storyboards are with missing chunks, but it seems like Willow would have walked up to Hunter to defend him without him having to have brought up Gus' breathing exercise.

And for the last board in this, uhm, I don't... think this was meant to make it into the final cut but. LOL. LMAO.

Moving onto King's Tide!

Originally, we would've seen Luz use her safe fall spell when dodging Belos' attacks!

Also, instead of saying that it took him years to figure that (combining glyphs) out, Belos instead says it took him years to "harness their strength"... and he does NOT say anything about it being almost as if the titan was hiding it from him. Hmmm. Perhaps, more fuel to the fire of the theory that back then, there was no subtle implication of either the titan's consciousness lingering or Belos attributing his own disdain and lack of care to the titan?

This also curiously alters the next bit of dialogue: he still says "though you're still decades away from beating me", just earlier. And soon after, he says "that was almost impressiv-" getting cut out when Luz sends fire out at him. Not gonna lie, I almost wish this was kept because I like the idea of Belos getting cocky and immediately getting blasted, unable to finish his sentence. But oh well!

Speaking of dialogue differences!

Here, Philip says "And I'm giving you a chance to be saved, Luz. To go home!" instead of "And despite our differences, I want to help you, Luz. I can send you home." I consider this more or less the same, really, but it is an interesting change. He leans more on the saving aspect here.

And there is a pretty big cut scene also with how Luz responds to "I don't want to see another human life destroyed by this place".

Here, she snaps that he's the one destroying things, and wonders what it is all for, and then asks "what do you think they DID to you?"

Only after this, in the storyboards, does she go on to her "you're such a hypocrite" lines.

To me, this is a bit of a shame for having been cut out, because I feel like it brings up a good point about how Philip self justifies his wrongdoings by believing that the Boiling Isles residents are all inherently bad by the way they simply are, and that this divergence he cannot understand could somehow justify the drastic violent measures he takes.

I think it could have been this was cut for time, or maybe the crew thought this addition would be a bit confusing for some audiences to understand the implications it is trying to set up. It IS indicative of a bigger exploration of Philip's psyche after all.

Another incredibly interesting change: in the storyboards, Luz used to not have the petrification spell continue crawling up her, and is able to shake it off okay. I imagine they changed this to maybe make the situation look more dire and up the stakes a little, otherwise the scene might be too stale and anticlimactic with just Luz being able to keep talking and not having time ticking down on her life.

She also shuffles to her feet and is able to stand up while facing him, while in the final episode she can't get up due to the petrification spell still crawling up on her. Not gonna lie, I almost wish we did get this one, because the way she controls the situation with Philip here kind of feels more satisfying like this, while in the final product, you're busy going "shit shit shit LUZ OH NO".

She also used to cry a lot more on the boards when begging for the deal... I wonder if they added the petrification continuing really to just hammer home the desperation and make her crying have a "reason", though uh... hot take, I think she has reason enough to cry considering the Draining Spell threatening to kill everyone.

Also! Belos used to "chuckle" as the boards call for it when he was about to shake Luz's hand, but he doesn't do so in the final cut.

And finally for this batch: there's a small cut moment of Belos saying "you" with pained effort at Luz after she fucking booms him and gets the sigil on him, and she fucking STARES back with the most ominous badass look. I'm kind of sad that didn't make it in. Yeah it's minor but I like every time it's very clear Luz is being a thorn on his side and he is actually really fucking bothered by it actually.

Next batch of storyboards for this ep shows the fight with Belos on the bridge! First difference I can think of is that Luz was supposed to say "Philip" very quietly before getting jumpscared by him showing up behind her. It may have been cut similarly just because of them not getting audio for it or something or it not being necessary.

Bigger dialogue change: Instead of saying "we don't belong here", Belos says "I wanted to save you", which adds more fuel to the fire that they used to put a lot more emphasis on Philip's psychology of seeing himself as the one who gets to decide who is saved and seeing himself as a savior and martyr, and also someone done wrong by the demon realm.

I can't really know for sure why this was reworked and why more emphasis was put on rather Philip seeking to relate to Luz in their humanity. A lot of these boards seem to put even more emphasis on them as foils, standing up as equals against each other, and I do kind of lament we lost that? I mean, don't get me wrong, I can totally see that STILL lingers in the final product, but it feels way stronger in these.

By the way, if you're wondering, Luz does not say "I'm nothing like you" here either, it just cuts right onto Willow grabbing Belos with vines.

Also! When the gang shows up, they used to have no dialogue about how they're here to help and all, just cutting to Luz saying "you guys!!" (in the final product, she says "You guys are literally the coolest"). I do like the final product more, it's cute and adds more I think.

This one deserves to get shown: there's a cut little moment after Amity covers Luz where they look at each other and blush and it is! So cute! Why did it not make it in!! WHAT! Just because it "isn't the time to be gay"? Bullshit! Yuri time is all the time!

But for something that wasn't in the boards but made it in! Hunter protecting Willow was added in the final product!

And that is it for King's Tide... and so I ask that you tune in next time for when I analyze the For the Future boards!! I am VERY excited to get through those, specially because even between the roughs and cleans for a scene, there's so many little differences!!! And I want to talk about it ALL!!

#the owl house #toh analysis #storyboards #toh storyboards #luz noceda #emperor belos #philip wittebane #eda clawthorne #raine whispers #sorry for tagging all these characters but theyre all pretty relevant here!#commander's orders

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morningstargirl666 · 8 months

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I just finished reading through The Big Bad Wolf and have loved it. I can’t wait for more!! Any updates or news?

Hi! So happy to hear you loved it! ❤️✨

I'm currently in the process of editing/rewriting TBBW right now! I've also outlined chapter 36 and started writing some of the dialogue, but I'm hesitant to start writing it in its entirety because I feel like I'm going to end up changing a lot of TBBW and want it all up to date before I fully commit my attention to the next chapter. I'm not changing anything plot-line wise, but I am making tweaks to the lore, character development, etc. It's still the same story, but now that the first 35 chapters are written, I find I'm going back and adding bits that you'd normally see in 'filler' episodes. Anything and everything that develops characters, relationships or lore - or even just there simply because I find it fun and enjoyable. I keep reminding myself that writing these first 35 chapters was me stuffing sand into buckets and now, with time to edit, I can finally make the sandcastles: carve turrets and staircases, mount flags and add seashells, adding every scrap of detail that will ultimately make this story come alive.

For example, chapter 5 on its own, has 6.5K of entirely NEW unseen content added to it so far (it's not posted yet, nor are any other edits for TBBW, so don't get too excited). And that's not counting the scene between Sam and Kiera on the phone, which has been re-written completely for the most part. There is also at least one more new scene I still want to write. If the chapter gets too long, it might mean splitting it in two and re-organising the chapters again, like I did for chapter 11 and 12 a while ago when I edited them.

Chapter 5, I hope, is an outlier and most chapters won't have as much done to them. Chapter 1 is edited and finished, yet its mostly the same except for grammar corrections. Though Chapter 2 has a deeper insight into Klaus' mindset - particularly his pure dislike for doppelgangers - purely because it's fun for me, as well as highlighting the development of his character between The Little Wolf and the start of TBBW. There's also going to be an extra canon forwood scene at the end of that chapter, as I want to develop them more, in preparation for when I destroy the relationship in the future chapters after 35. But who nows - all the chapters centered around the Mikaelson Ball I'm eyeing hungrily, my mind whizzing with a few ideas on how I might expand on them a little bit. I also want to focus more on the hybrids, which until now I've kinda ignored.

I know it may be a little disappointing, to hear the next chapter update is a long way off yet. But I don't want to rush this. I want to savour it, every single second. And who knows, by the time you get chapter 36, you won't just be getting a 20k chapter - you'll be getting a 50k bonus update of brand new content as well, sprinkled throughout the first 35 chapters. The word count is going to be over 400k by the time I update the next chapter, probably closer to 450k, I'm almost sure of it.

I can't promise when the next chapter will arrive, but I can promise this:

It will be worth the wait.

#tbbw #the big bad wolf #klaroline #klaus x caroline #klaroline fanfiction #fanfiction #morningstar writes #caroline forbes #klaus mikaelson #chapter 36 #anon ask #ask and you shall receive #i am aware this story is hella long #i don't care #i really don't #there's not rush to this story no race #i'll get to the klaroline when i get there #and it will be epic #in the meanwhile we have family fluff and angst for your delight #world building and lore #enemies to lovers #when i said I'm rewriting canon i meant it #this is what it would have been if klaroline were the main stars of the show #this is what it would be if the writers weren't cowards #every issue you have ever had with that show #i no doubt share them #and i am making it RIGHT #you can pry this fic from my cold dead hands but I am fixing the wrongs canon wrought #and I am doing it while having the time of my life #can't ask for more

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soulsisterif · 3 months

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Progress Update

Ooops, it's been a while, hasn't it? Time flies when you have to deal with the consequences of your poor decision-making skills. But I digress.

Last week was a bit of a mess IRL, and I also had to work on my "day off", meaning I didn't have the time or energy to post here. I did, however, keep working on the game so let's see what's new:

• Customization is the thing that took most of my time this week. You can now select your skin tone, eye and hair colour, hair-length, favourite and least favourite trait, and whether or not you wear glasses.

You can also select your job. I tried to add a little bit of everything, but if you got any suggestions I'm open to them.

• Lots of new flavour text throughout the game. Age, height, shy/bold, emotional/chill... You can find different scenes and reactions depending on those.

• I made the Shy/bold and Chill/Emotional stats a little more permanent than the rest, in the sense that there will be less choices to increase or decrease those two than the others. Since they're the most important in the way the romances develop you'll chose at the beginning of the game how your MC usually behaves and then the writing will reflect that, though the Chill/Emotional will be expressed more with inner dialogue and in the MC's confessionals than in actual interactions, particularly if you choose to play a Phlegmatic MC.

I think that's the best way to get a fairly consistent character portrayal. You can still choose bold options with a shy MC, or to have an emotional outburst with a Chill MC, but they'll be treated as an OOC reaction, as they would in real life. And, of course, you can still choose your individual dynamic with an RO.

• I added achievements. Just for fun. As of now, though, I don't think you can get any of them in this first chapter so maybe I'll just keep them hidden until they're available. Some are kinky, by the by.

• There are now saving slots available. Use them wisely. Or not

¯_(ツ)_/¯

• The scene where Dawn explains the basis of the show and what you, as contestants, can expect. About this, I'd like to ask you all about what you want to see but I'd rather talk about it in more detail, so I'll try to write a post tomorrow and find out what you'd like. If not tomorrow, I'm off on Wednesday, so, see you then.

(There will probably be a poll. You're probably sick of those, I'm sorry!)

Also, I have a few asks unanswered. Whoever sent them, know I'll try to get to them next week. I'm excited to have been asked my first "Tumblr classic" XDDDD

#if #interactive fiction #soul sister #sapphic #progress update

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tineymang · 4 months

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this isnt the kind of post i usually tend to make (though ive been trying to be less self conscious about that kind of thing lately) but i wanted to post about a new eos playthrough ive been doing! ive always thought it was very fun attention to detail that you get unique dialogue whenever you lose in dungeons and bosses, but ive never really seen all of it before because i either just dont lose or i reset after i lose because i dont want to lose my items dfgjjd

But this is where my latest eos playthru comes in! may i present my two girlfailures nymph the lumineon and sumi the absol of team omens :] i am going to be intentionally losing in every dungeon and to every boss simply to see what happens! i have no idea if anyone else besides me is interested in this, but i figure i may as well share if anybody was! (going to put this under a read more because i get the feeling it is going to be long)

(also one thing to note i only used skytemple randomizer to change the starter pokemon to lumineon and absol, the rest of the game is entirely vanilla! the added portraits also come from the pmd sprite repository :])

i also figured id add additional dialogue options onto this too! most the time you get railroaded into picking the right option, but theres some extra dialogue regardless! this one is if you say no when the partner asks you to help (which made me feel pretty bad)

and then theres asking >Wh-what should i do?

>But you can't just...

>But I have no memory...

>But I'm sure I was a human...

(and then picking either option leads into the normal dialogue continuing)

and then theres losing in beach cave! i tried losing separately to the zubat and koffing boss battle, but the same dialogue repeated then.

i like the attention to continuity that partner recognizes beach cave as a mystery dungeon, considering theyre also the one that brings it up later to the hero :] also sumi why are You saying ow i was the one that was slowly beaten to death by a shellos (it took like 5 minutes)

next, returning boss fight dialogue!

apparently zubat and koffing get lost in beach cave, which is very funny to me considering it is literally the shortest dungeon in the game dfgjdjg makes you wonder why they even went in there to begin with....

and with that i have hit the post image limit... i get the feeling i will need to break this into a lot of posts

#pokemon mystery dungeon #pmd #pmd eos #explorers of sky #mang posts #my junk #is this a bit out of pocket from what i usually post here? yes #am i also having a good time? yes #ive been trying to make myself more comfortable with the idea of like.#just talking about the things i want to talk about on here #ive been holding myself back for many years but now i will be so autistic #and by god i Will post about my random experiments i do in video games that matter to nobody but me #i may be cringe but i am free

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elvenbeard · 1 year

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3 hours into update 2.0.0....

I love it xD But also, I'm a little bit overwhelmed, but UUUURGGGHHH there are some real gems in there already 😩

So, I didn't start a new playthrough for time reasons and went right in with my post-ending save. There was some initial fuckery with my wardrobe outfits that seems fixed now though after unequipping everything and remaking the outfits xD Custom tattoo and scar mods work just fine though and I might test these next few days what other mods do :D I'm really happy about the tattoos though at least :3

Some Bugs

Also, someone desperately needs to send the NCPD some funds cause....

That vehicle doesn't look like it should be allowed in traffic (this happened twice, and I was cackling xDD honestly just a really funny little bug that's probably gonna get fixed somewhere down the line xD)

But yes... Man the new skills and perks and cyberware and EVERYTHING is so fucking cool, but also so fucking overwhelming when you're already level 42+ and have everything at your disposal all at once xD But I was so excited to see all the different new Kiroshi options and how cyberware is tied to skills like... damn. And the strongest quickhacks really need a fuckton of RAM... as they should. And I still need a fuckton of practise in terms of using them, but I'm really excited to get the hang of it all somewhere down the line :D

They didn't forget about the LIs!!!

But then this:

When I read this in the patch notes, I was so fucking excited xD Hell yeah, a good reason to go to the apartment apart from sorting through my inventory xD Some more Johnny interactions!

AND. A DREAM COME TRUE WITH ONE OF THE DIALOGUES!!!

I was always a bit sad that Johnny had no comments whatsoever on V's relationship with Kerry, when he did with some of the other LIs, so this already made my evening xDD and one of the big perks of jumping in with my post-ending save to already get to see and hear this now :DDD Not gonna spoil what he says but... yes XDD It fits, I figured. And I hope the other LIs get something similar because it's glorious xD

Vehicles and Radio

In regards to vehicle handling... I can definitely feel a difference with my go-to bike! Like, it still has its weaknesses, but also feels a lot more stable in other regards, less flimsy and "heavier" like they described it in the patch notes. I love it a lot. I didn't try vehicle combat yet, although I did get randomly attacked in the badlands by some NPCs once, which was very fun XD I almost had a heart-attack, but it did feel like something that could happen. Sadly didn't manage to get my revenge in time, but next time!!

I like the new radio stations, but didn't hear every song yet... but also, and I think some others already said that, they don't really add much new in terms of sound and genres. Nothing that isn't already there in some shape or form. But still nice to have something new to add to the rotation.

Leveldesign

And as I was driving around, I randomly stumbled right into Dogtown :DDD well, not quite but, damn, that was an impressive moment:

The faction of the guards was labelled as "Test" though xDD Close but, not quite... Figure that's also a little bug though.

Overall... I fucking love how they integrated it into Pacifica o.o It's insanely impressive, huge and rundown and maaaaaan.... I cannot wait to explore behind the walls!!

Also, random little thing... I feel like the clouds looked nicer? But that could be me not paying much attention/ rain being rare-ish in Night City.

Not Dogtown but North Oak, obviously. But... idk o.o The light shining through like that looked so fucking cool and realistic, but I really dont know if maybe this wasn't already part of the Pathtracing update and I just never noticed it like this before XD

And lastly... I discovered whose nooks they added to the Columbarium. Right in the feels.

Cannot wait to discover more little details as I go but URGH yeah. The tiny little Kerry convo already made it worth it for me XDD And Viktor <3 And the Autofixer shop is so cool! And aaahhh I cannot wait to see what's gonna come with PL :333

#cyberpunk 2077 #phantom liberty #phantom liberty spoilers #cyberpunk 2077 spoilers #elven plays cyberpunk 2077 #spoilers

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viperwhispered · 4 months

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Those fic writer asks kinda got me thinking about my fic writing process, too (as inspired by diodellet's reply).

So, ramble time.

I guess I would mostly describe my writing process as sort of top down iterative thing?

Like, I definitely do messy first (and even second) drafts. I put down general ideas, some bits of text if I do already have some ideas for a particular scene, but mostly I try to get the basic structure together. What happens next, what's happening in this scene (and what's the point of it), stuff like that.

So the first draft might have some actual prose to it, and even prose that makes it to the end of the editing process, but often the sentences are shorter, or cut off, or have like three different alternatives. But in there might be some more refined exchanges (I tend to be kinda dialogue first a lot of the time), or bits of description there. Almost like points of (relative) clarity in the mud.

Typically, if I don't know what I want to do at a spot exactly, I leave it open to figure out for later and move onto the next bit. Of course, sometimes I need to figure out a direction before I can do that - for example, whether someone would be antagonistic or amiable in the previous scene certainly can affect what would happen after, and stuff like that. But in general, I jot down what I can, and leave difficult bits to be something I come back to later.

Now, I wouldn't say there's necessarily a definite point where I could call the first draft done and perhaps move on to the second. Like I said, it's very much an iterative process, and different parts of the work tend to get worked on at different times, depending on when I find solutions to my questions.

Typically, however, when I feel like I've got the structure down, I start focusing on the parts I've marked (I do a lot of comments but also formatting etc. to note the things that still could do with some work). Basically, it's multiple passes of going through the notes, dwindling them down.

Like, for any given part of the work, the structure would be something like: what's happening here in general > alright what's being said or done here > alright how exactly are they saying or doing it > what's the best word choices here.

Of course, in practice, all these levels muddle together, and different parts of the work will be in different stages. But as I go through the passes of the work, ticking off my notes, sorting out the parts that I've identified as needing work, I usually go down more and more into detail, until the final pass(es) are about particular words, sentence flow, or things like that - things very specific to that particular location of the work, rather than the larger, more overarching things.

So, depending on the length of the work, it may be that I only read through the whole thing once I feel like the structure is down. Then I go through the pinpointed things, until I have no more notes left, and read through the whole thing when I post it.

Again, not a hard and fast rule, and of course sometimes when looking at a particular, it is helpful and important to "zoom out" and look at the whole, and remind myself of everything that's happening around the particular spot I'm at. But in general, I don't really read through the whole thing, from beginning to end, all that much. Partially because I'm trying not to tinker endlessly, partially because I'm trying to make sure I don't end up just working on the first part of the work and neglecting the end of it.

So, it's been quite some time since I did long, multipart work, but I definitely did plot things out in advance, at least to get a general idea of what was coming, then again did multiple passes, adding more and more detail, going deeper and deeper from the level of general story or themes to the level of the text itself. For a shorter work, maybe most of it comes out at once, but even then if I'm stuck on a particular point I do try to just mark it up and move forward to get back later.

Years ago, on some forum, I remember describing the writing process as finding a big bead or pearl (a central scene, motive or idea) and then working on finding the complementing things around it to turn it into a proper necklace. Lately, however, I've been more willing to allow myself to just do that one big pearl: make it a drabble, just post the concept without prose, whatever.

In a way, it's kinda freeing, not telling myself it has to be long and "proper" to be worthwhile. There's always gonna be more ideas coming than I have time to write, after all, and especially nowadays I really want to make sure I'm doing this for fun and not for any sort of must or should or have to.

I say, pretending I don't feel the impending deadline for that fic that I've been kinda thinking about writing for my birthday - I had soo much time left when I first thought of it and now there's like couple weeks until my birthday. Time sure has been sneaking past me.

ETA: oh yeah, I wanted to mention it somewhere but forgot, there have also been those times when I've kinda just splurted out fic straight onto a discord channel. Definitely less refined than what I'd consider my "proper" way of writing, but I guess this is to say that sometimes I have been known just write without the edits and revisions and stuff.

#ner talks #dunno if this is of interest to anyone but it was kinda fun to think about

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lutiaslayton · 1 year

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It’s coming.

Hellooo, just giving you all a little update and teaser regarding the event I have mentioned for a while, and which is finally about to begin!

Yes, it is finally time. To reply to an earlier reblog I saw some time ago: yes, I guess we are going to Dracula Daily the Layton novels now. Or at least I will try to keep this up for as long as I can. I am very much hyped too 👀

The Eternal Diva novel will be cut into about twenty parts,

so this will be a twenty-week journey (unless one part happens to be extremely short, then maybe I’ll merge it with the previous or next one for example). And after that, hopefully by then the transcript of another novel will have progressed enough to start all over again with a different story! So far, a French friend (who doesn’t have a tumblr) is helping me make a transcript of the Illusory Forest novel; so fingers crossed, as this might be the next in line! Yep, for those interested in my theories, it is the very same novel that I’ve talked about for so long, and it is arguably the craziest of all. Just the way it starts is an absolute roller-coaster.

Also, I lied. Updates are going to be on Mondays now.

I was not ready to post yesterday, Sundays already have their Layton-related weekly event, and since I am too impatient to wait until next week, I thought I might as well make this a thing for Mondays instead. Gotta end the first, universally depressing work day of the week, with something uplifting, am I right? :3

I am going to give you a warning, though: as much as I’d like to keep the translations as close to the originals as possible, I am also, unfortunately, a fanfic writer, and the novels’ writing style is very different from what I usually write. Also there’s some weird stuff such as verb tense consistency in Japanese… Ohhhhhhh dear this part is such a nightmare. You can have verbs in the present tense and others in the past tense in the same sentence. You can have a sentence in the present tense and another in the past tense right after. I hate this. I hate everything about this.

So, I will try to restrain myself (because if you already took a peek at SLS, you already know what my writing style is really like), but I sometimes couldn’t help but add a sentence or two, cut a sentence into multiple ones, make the dialogue less robotic and more lively, that sort of thing. For example, if there’s a lot of dialogue going on and on without any narration in-between, I might sometimes add a sentence or two just to break it up a bit and make the scene sound less static. That sort of thing.

I will try my best to make it sound similar to what the official game translations did, in the end! The Japanese dialogue is usually rather bland and repetitive, but the official translations added a lot of details and quirks that are completely absent from the original text, but which also make the characters feel like, you know, themselves as we know and love them.

So here’s a reminder that if you want to know what the real Japanese text says, do NOT take this fan-translation series as a reliable source. I spent months writing a transcript of the real novel precisely so that people willing to know what the original Japanese text says (including me) would be able to check it out and compare, regardless of what anyone else translating it will say. Even without speaking Japanese, you can copy-paste the Japanese sentences into a translator such as DeepL, and so you’ll be able to see which parts exactly are in the novel, and which parts I pulled out of my magic hat. The “9/10 accuracy, WhatTheHeckIsThis/10 readability” translation is going to take a LONG time to make, but it will also come eventually (though don’t expect much before at least something like 2024).

So now, with all that being said:

See you all tomorrow at 6PM (France time) for the first chapter of our reading journey!

Though if you have preferences for how you would rather see things (e.g. better time that fits the majority), then I am open to suggestions! I can easily rename a tag or reschedule my queue.

#eternal diva novel #so if we have Sycamore Sunday what should I call this other event #guess we might call it... uh... Eternal Monday?#holy shoot no that sounds so dreadful forget it #monograph monday? yeah no that's not good either #layton's book club #still nowhere near a good name but that's better than nothing #and since there's at least three other novels that are even longer we might as well make this a common tag #lutiasreplies

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animelover20 · 3 months

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My roommate has been playing the game (Hades) for months, and let me try it a round until I died in a small boss fight, it was so much fun! I saw your post about it and wanted to know if you have a favorite character in it, and what designs are your favorite?

You can honestly just say whatever you want about the game if you want to air out more thoughts! The game is just so gorgeous and seem so well-written

Fuck yeah I get to ramble more about a special interest of mine.(I was so happy to see this,thank you😂❤️)

Anyway. My favourite character would definitely be Thanatos,he's so cool and I think they really did him justice compared to other iterations. But my favourite character design is Dionysus😁 it's very close between him and Thanatos and I think they're both written near perfectly but I think dio's is a lot more fitting to his actual myths whereas Thanatos is slightly inaccurate as he's typically depicted with a sword not a scythe. HOWEVER HE HAS A SWORD ON HIS BELT WHICH IS SUCH A COOL DETAIL AND DEFINITELY A REFERENCE TO THIS!!

Dio on the other hand has his thyrsus(the stick with the pinecone) and it is an item that has been associated with him for ages, he can be seen with it in statues and art of him and it's extremely important that he has his thyrsus hence why I actually prefer his design over Thanatos(his is still pretty accurate don't get me wrong but dio's is just done a little better)

Another thing i like that they did with dio's design is make him androgynous as fuck and how I see it he's like a fucking sandwich (decently feminine face, masculine torso and fem as fuck legs. Aka androg sandwich.) it's also historically accurate because one of his epithets/titles is fucking androgynous.

However this is rarely seen in his depictions which is actually a shame.

I really love dionysus and his gimmick within the game aswell because it is ridiculously funny to make your enemies have a hangover mid fight😂 this comes with a downside tho as you have to have only one stack of hangover(if you inflict it by attack don't get something else that causes hangover.) this is because for some reason the stack of hangover overwrites with the most recent.

So say if you have something that does 1 hangover damage on the attack and 20 hangover damage on something else then if your constantly using your attack which you most certainly would be doing, you're actually overwriting the other 20! Even if it's higher. Which is bullshit as fuck but I still like his gimmick a lot lmao.

Moving on from Dio I also love how some characters have lil references to actual mythology even if it's not outright stated. It makes the game feel more alive and it just makes me love it even more.

Adding onto this they actually made a whole system to determine dialogue😃(I mentioned this briefly in the post but I feel like adding on a bit more.) they made a whole priority thing so that when zag(mc) completes am important/story relevant task, like escaping or defeating a boss the dialogue regarding this event gets prioritised the next time he talk to someone within the house. And I think it's fuckin amazing.

The only issue with that last part is it's very easy to overwrite some other important dialogue and even whole storylines at time(which is a pain) but it happens very rarely and typically fixes itself.

It really is a well written game and even in the different areas you can really see how much thought they put into this game.

Thank you so much for giving me an opportunity to ramble😂

thanks for the ask. also🫴❤️

#thank you so much actually #this was really fun to ramble about #i would've done it in my original post but i didn't think many people would see it #i hope you like my answers even if my reply is a bit long😂❤️#thank you for the ask!#hades game

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thisliminalspacedaydreams · 3 months

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Hey, Mar! Since you've reblogged my post about the ask game, I thought I'd give it a shot.

I've read a lot of your amazing fics, but the first one was Echoes in Eternity and I will always love it, so I wanted to ask numbers 2,3 and 17 about that one.

Answer what you're comfortable with and have a nice day!

Hi!

Oh my god Echoes in Eternity my beloved first jump into fanfiction as an adult. My hiatus child. My forgotten baby in the corner. Actually this might bring me back to it. Let's go have a snoop!

2- What is your favorite paragraph from EoE? Is there a reason it’s your favorite?

I actually got a little stuck with this story a while back, and introducing Panville gave me so much energy and passion. This passage (the first paragraph, but the entire thing actually) is still vividly imprinted in my brain. I would write it very differently now, but I think you start to see my special voice come through here, and it’s really special to me 🥹.

3- What is the most amount of research you’ve done for the smallest detail? What was the detail and how much time/effort went into researching it?

For EoE, I planned so much. I have 2 entire notebooks of information about gladiators and gladiators fights and working in the roman army. I read Gladius: The World of the Roman Soldier, The Gladiators - Historical Novel: A Tale of Rome and Judea, and I read a book about ancient fighting techniques. I’ve never really used much of it, because I ended up not expanding in the way I thought I might do, but the entire gladiator/werewolf system was fully fleshed out before I even started the story. I started researching in June and started writing in September. I have… so many notes on the Hogwarts Gladiator system, I could write a “The world of EoE” sidefic.

I think I really had this illusion of grandeur when I started, that it would be a book in 3 parts, and I just didn’t think that I’d… lose interest? I easily read big fics (150K+) and kind of thought that EoE would be that, and that I would spend a LOT more time in the Dome having Hermione really get into the ranks and the entire system. But then I just wasn’t really… I could tell I wasn’t going to be able to finish, that I would lose interest too fast, so I made a few changes. I still plan on finishing the last 2 chapters, half of one is already written. But it’s hard to wrap up a story you’re no longer fully involved in, especially when you know there are a lot of people waiting for that update. I don’t want to disappoint, so I’d rather take my time.

17- What does your editing process look like?

I have a lot of flaws as a writer, but my two main ones is that I don’t know how to write a satisfying ending (finishing anything is not a habit of mine), and that I don’t know how to write a scene either.

I often tend to write the entire dialogue, with the most basic, boring stage direction “he looks”, “he shrugs”, “he turns”, and then I go back and try to make it bearable for you guys.

Green and I also tend to send each other bits and pieces of stuff and go “does that even make sense”, because we tend to get lost in metaphors.

I also put a lot of placeholders because I’m French and can’t always remember the word I’m looking for.

And sometimes I have stuff like this and it’s up to me to then remember what the hell I was talking about:

Scene : “You think I didn’t know about your sneaking into my library?” “Library?” “Books.”

But generally speaking I’ll sit down, write the entire draft of the next chapter in one go, and then spend either hours, days or weeks adding in the forms to make it pretty.

Thank you for the ask and for bringing me back to Echoes 🥹 my beloved forgotten child.

#echoes in eternity #mar answers asks #asks #dramione #dramione fanfic #fanficwriter #writing asks

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lunarriviera · 9 months

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2023 ao3 wrapped

last year @programmedradly and i asked each other some questions, rather than try to field the entire thing. so we did the same thing this year! and here are my answers. i had a wild little annus mirabilis and somehow posted more work than i ever have before, so there was lots to choose from.

•

3. What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?

tragically, one of my dead doves: the wu xie/li cu fic “you bear your scars, you've done your time.” no one reads it because it's an age-gap pairing, and it's inherently tragic (post-sha hai fucked-up wu xie). it has 17 whole kudos and it fought for every one. but like a lot of my badwrong pairings, it's honestly some of my best writing. i wrote it fast and the action scenes are solid, the dialogue is good and even funny, and the sex scenes are miserable and scorching. oh well, they can put it in my norton critical edition after i'm dead lol.

5. What work of yours got more feedback than you expected?

readers seemed to like the pingxie kissing fic, which was funny to me because it's literally just…kissing. (i wanted to put in plot and/or sex but mumble was very stern with me: “this is a KISSING fic.”) i guess we all are still battered by canon and just want wu xie dozing by the carp pool and getting kissed.

6. Favorite title you used?

“the subtle fire," with its title from the calamus poems by walt whitman; all its subheadings are from whitman too. sadly otherwise this was the year of taylor, and i exhausted midnights and all the vault tracks. new year's resolution: moratorium on fic titles from tay.

8. Pairing you wrote the most for this year?

somehow there were 18 dmbj fics. 😳 pingxie won out with 9 fics, followed by 6 heihua fics and then a smattering of rare pairs (not to say dead doves lol). there were 5 under the skin fics; at this point i post one of those like every two damm weeks because i'm down that bad.

10. What work was the quickest to write?

probably either of my drabbles—a little rpf prose poem for zhu yilong/unnamed photographer (still my most beloved pairing) or shen wei smoking a cigarette and zhao yunlan being horrified (and a little turned on).

11. What work took you the longest to write?

without a doubt, the 31k guardian fic i just posted. i got freaked out by its complexity and dropped it for a year, and then had to TOIL over all the canon details, because i didn't remember ANYTHING apparently (zhang shi who? fu you? li qian? what?). it took for fucking EVER to finish and i will NEVER write such a plotty monster again. the worst part was when ma gui randomly said, “oh there's a fifth hallow” at which point i was like “there's a WHAT NOW.” ironically that turned out to be the title. i hate characters that TALK and SAY SHIT.

15. What WIP are you taking into next year with you?

the pingxie epic 😭 i'm not sure if i even can ever finish it because it involves google searches like “recent tomb discoveries china” and “can you survive c4 explosion.” also it'll be another dead dove because it starts with wu xie divorcing bai haotian, and the iron triangle being broken up. and that's just the beginning. everyone will hate it, and instead read cute fics about liu sang being a fox, probably.

17. Your favorite character to write this year?

it's gotta be du cheng from under the skin. he embodies what is turning into my favorite character archetype, Big Dumb Hot Cop. so butch. so loyal. so stupid. just a blast to narrate. wu xie and hei xiazi have similar idiot energy but are also paradoxically very intelligent so that's more challenging. (writing xiaoge's dialogue is difficult as fuck. he can't just say "wu xie" ALL the time.)

28. Favorite work you wrote this year?

possibly, after everything, the end (for me) of the zhu yilong/unnamed photographer series. other people may keep adding to it but i needed to let them go. they exist in such a liminal unsettled never-together bittersweet place for me and i felt grateful to have spent time with them, as weird as that is to say. i'll always love unnamed photographer, and his aesthetic yearning. MY ONE RPF SHIP THAT WENT CANON. 😭

29. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

indulging myself and submitting a few:

Even Huos had to sleep sometime, or hang upside down, or whatever it was they did to restore themselves. [x]

•

Once he has him flat on his back again, with breathtaking pragmatism Shen Yi drips lube all over him, sinks down on him and then rides him so hard Du Cheng sees not just stars but entire constellations. [x]

•

Xiaoge kissed his hair. "Hold still," he said, and Wu Xie could do that, no problem. He fell asleep that way, curled against Xiaoge’s naked skin, and dreamed he was watching Xiaoge plant moss in the moss garden, in impossible colors: turquoise, bright orange. A richly saturated luminous violet. [x]

•

Xiazi added so much condensed milk to Xie Yuchen’s coffee that he finally had to arrest his hand forcibly. “Stop trying to give me diabetes.” Xiazi’s smile was worse than the cloying milk. “It’s to match the sweetness in your soul, my little flower." “Oh my god,” said Xie Yuchen faintly, as Geya listened, to all appearances visibly entertained. “What do you want? Because I assume you want something. Money? Work? Is this a hostage situation?” Xiazi just smiled harder, but at least he put the milk down, in favor of giving Xie Yuchen another pain au chocolat. “Why does he get all the pastry?” Geya said, sounding disappointed. “It’s to build his strength,” Hei Xiazi told him, and the patently, horribly uxorious look on Xiazi’s face made Xie Yuchen want to hit someone.) [x]

•

Xiao Hua manages to bite back a tart comment about how challenging it is to keep looking younger than forty when one’s companion will never look any older. It takes more than expensive rose hip and argan oil and ceramides; it takes never skipping the gym, and always skipping dessert. It means going to bed at nine-thirty when he’d rather stay up reading, and above all it means not letting Hei Xiazi know about any of these little maneuvers, lest it not seem effortless. [x]

•

As Wu Xie started enthusiastically laying out the details—and why was he awake at this miserable hour?—Hei Xiazi pulled the pillow away from his face and started gently hitting Xie Yuchen with it. “Wu Xie, let me call you back later,” he said, arresting the pillow’s movement with one hand. “I have something I have to deal with here.” “Sure,” said Wu Xie, cheerful. Then: “I bought Pangzi an espresso machine, and he taught me how to use it! Xiaoge’s not here, I wish he’d come home. I had five cups! You should take Hei Xiazi with you, just in case things get complicated. They might. Get complicated, I mean. I'll tell you all about it. When will you call me?” Xie Yuchen fought not to laugh. “After sunrise, probably. Drink some water. And tell Pangzi I’m going to kill him.” [x]

•

Su Wan seems lost in thought for a minute. “I always thought maybe one day I would like guys, but I don’t.” Li Cu elbows him. “What about Hei-ye?” Su Wan looks horrified. “Yali, no! What a thought!” “Okay, okay,” says Li Cu, and drunkenly tousles his hair. “Calm down.” Yang Hao puts out his hand for the bottle. “Hei-ye is pretty cool, though,” he says, which is high praise from him. It’s true. They sit without saying anything for a moment, in silent contemplation of Hei Xiazi’s inarguable coolness. [x]

•

The things about you that other people find unsettling, those have somehow never bothered Wu Xie. You’re spooky, Hei Xiazi told you frankly, once. I am too, but I drown it out by talking. You’re so silent, our little Yaba Zhang. People are afraid of you. Xiazi had been right, and you knew it. But Wu Xie has never been afraid of you, not even once. You think about the first time you came back from behind the gate, how furious and desperate he’d been to know why you hadn’t come straight back to him. Demanding answers, wanting to know why you went, what you saw. And you remember gazing back at him, still mute with the magnitude of it. He could never have understood, but no one could, not even Wu Xie whose intelligence shone as clearly as an aura around him, glowing, burnished—still innocent, still young enough to be passionate. Whereas even at the time you felt every single one of your hundred years lying on you like a burden, like fallen trees pressing you into the loam, the moss, the muck. [x]

•

He’s still half-asleep, is the only thing that could possibly explain why Zhao Yunlan ducks under some low-slung branches and strolls right up to the water’s edge only to see Shen Wei, stripped naked, hip-deep in a pool of still clear water, combing through his unbraided hair with his fingers. Why is this a surprise. What was he thinking. And above all, why is he still walking towards him on automatic, as if drawn toward him, as if not caring whether Shen Wei would see him or stop— Shen Wei startles and looks up, motion arrested. He’s bent at the waist, rinsing bits of dirt and bracken from his hair, skin glowing like wet marble, and Zhao Yunlan suddenly wants him so badly he couldn’t make a fist if he had to. Shen Wei smiles, and Zhao Yunlan will never get enough of that smile, artless and full-hearted. All he can do is smile back, helplessly. [x]

#ao3 wrapped #2023 ao3 wrapped #ao3 writer #i have committed an act of fanfiction #thanks for a fabulous year everyone!#dmbj #heihua #pingxie #sha hai #mystery of the abyss #under the skin #镇魂 guardian

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calidrisminuta · 1 year

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Orsterran Cuisines (from CotC)

OK! Finally done! Since I’m attempting to write again - and my next writing project has a foodie theme - I’ve been checking all the NPC dialogue in Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent for mentions of cuisines, dishes, foods, rare ingredients, or anything connected to cooking. Some of the Memoirs mention food, too, so I included them as well.

It was quite fruitful, really! A lot of towns don’t make mention of food at all (Theatropolis, Rippletide, Berecain, Sufrataljah, Donescu, Clearbrook, Victors Hollow, Flamesgrace or Emberglow), but there are some really nice ones in various places, mostly in Valore and Grandport. I can only check from my current point in the story (which is up to date as I type this post), but I’ll be checking in future in case any more get added.

On to the list, then! I’m not used to Tumblr, so apologies if it’s not formatted correctly.

Atlasdam: Crimson Crab Pie (Capable Culinarian), and River Fish (Liquor-Loving Fisherman)

Grandport: Stewed Fish with Quatrait (Mentioned in bio of Woman from Quaragosa)

Also Grandport: Mossy Cave tortoise garden salad, Giant Sheep a la tomato stew, River Bean Vichyssoise, and White Grape Muffins, all mentioned by the Fastidious Housewife.

Shepherds Rock: Sheep’s milk cheese and grape wine (Jocular Soldier)

Sunshade: Cactus Cocktail (Tavern Patron Comparing Drinks, Working Dancer)

Valore: Raisins (Long-time Resident), Powder that “Tastes really good on chicken” (Powder Seller), Crushed Nuts (Ruffian Chef), and Rosso’s Favourite Powder “Valorian Mustard, and the Sunlands legendary Sufra Masala” (Rosso)

And finally I’cirlo: Alpaca dishes (Tavern Keeper)

There’s also a couple from the Memoirs: Steamed shellfish, using the leftover juice to make a soup (Trish and Barrad memoir)

Plounder Carpaccio, Saucy Shrimp, (Fish - Clearbrook’s Claim to Fame memoir)

Armor Eater Tomato Stew, Shaggy Spider Meat, (Yugo’s Gourmet Diary: I’cirlo)

So there we are! I know there’s more, and I’ll be adding to this list as I find it. Hopefully it’ll help anyone else with adding details to their fics, or just for appreciation of the depth of worldbuilding in CotC. At least by putting it here, I won’t be able to lose it when I’m looking for info when I’m writing!

*****Editing to add some contributions from @blazlngblade, after a quick collab over on Twitter. Thank you so much for the help! Since some of these aren’t in the Global version yet, I’ll edit this again to update it when necessary. :)

Ember Mushroom Pie: Crispy pie crust, snowy cream filling, ember mushrooms (Frostlands/Emberglow)

Rinyuu’s Stew: Wild boar meat marinated in alcohol, vegetable (Frostlands)

Rinyuu’s Cream Pie: Ember mushrooms (Frostlands)

Cave Mint Stuffed Chicken: (Frostlands/Flamesgrace. Lianna’s dish)

Shrimp Stock soup and anything with the Phantom Crab: (Trish’s dishes)

Herb roasted chicken stuffed with intestines: (Riverlands/Magg’s Tavern)

Magg’s Bean Soup: (Riverlands/Magg’s Tavern)

Magg’s Strawberry Tart - made with bright red wild strawberries (Riverlands/Magg’s Tavern)

Magg’s Rainbow Trout Carpaccio with shrimp sauce (Riverlands/Magg’s Tavern)

Crab shell seared with fat (Coastlands/Grandport Markets)

Seared Whirlpool Flounder (Coastlands/Grandport’s Tavern)

Herb Grilled Killer Chameleon (Cliftlands/Cragspear)

Sauteed Demon Goat (Highlands)

Unnamed Eastern Sweets (Mentioned in Sarisa’s Traveler’s Story)

Orsterran made Eastern Bento Box - Honeyed fish teriyaki with white rice, chicken fried tatsuta, stewed river beans.

Edit #2! Just scanned through all of @scholarlycait‘s Letters from a Cait Scholar for foodie mentions, per a wonderful idea from @legendaryandroid. I found four, so here they are! :)

Emberglow/Flamesgrace stews

Cave Mint tea

Reaper Crab Salad - a popular dish in the Coastlands

Cave Tortoise moss and embershroom stir fry - Frostlands Dish

Edit #3:

Mentioned by Bargello’s Crew:

Pasta with tomatoes, Rabbit Soup, and White Grape Juice

From OG Octopath Traveler:

Gigaswallow Soup. The Gigaswallow comes from a remote location and is very rare, as are its eggs. Called “One of Orsterra’s delicacies”

Valore (Hell):

Veal Saute (LeRuiz Chef)

Panini (Mighty Turilli)

Milkwine (Buttermilk) - from W’ludai’s Traveler Story.

Herbal Bread (Bowman in Shepherd’s Rock - from Dorothea’s Story) Apparently contains medicinal herbs in it.

Plum bread (Dorothea’s Traveller Story, Shepherds Rock)

Flying Fish Teriyaki, Marinated and deep-fried Cetus Maximus, stewed river beans in sweet sauce - Yugo’s Gourmet Diary - Theatropolis.

River Beans: The specific type is Phaseolus Lunatus - Lima beans!

Züsbaum, Per one of Isla’s letters, it grows in the Frostlands and its leaves have a sweet flavour. A tea made from them has a taste distinct from sugar. Many monsters love them, so picking the leaves is a monumental challenge, but many say it is worth the risk.

Herb Wine: a drink from the Frostlands - remember to drink in moderation, Isla says!

Berry pies: a favourite of Elrica’s.

Snow Beets: From OT1, but from the Frostlands. Naturally sweet.

Embershroom cooking method: (From Isla’s letters) “In Emberglow, the city which glows like dying fire against the night, the people harvest embershrooms. The name comes not only from the place it’s found, but also the way the mushrooms are prepared - embershrooms are cooked by roasting them slowly over the embers of a bonfire. In snowy regions, it’s im-purr-tant not to waste a single spark.“

Alpaca Cheese: from the memoir between Pia and Varkyn. From I’cirlo. It’s distinctive aroma can put some people off, but it does go well with wine.

Ketchup apparently exists in Orsterra, too. Isla mentions the condiment in one of his letters.

Catnip Juice. Another thing Isla mentions. Possibly a kind of wine for caits.

#Writing #octopath traveler cotc #octopath cotc #octopath traveler champions of the continent

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emberwood-if · 2 years

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small update (11/24/2022)

I am almost done with the first draft of chapter two! I knew the coding would be pretty intense but I didn’t realize how branch happy I am. Every time I finish a sequence of dialogue or add in some internal monologue I just want to keep writing more choices and more branching options which makes the story more meaningful and detailed, but a one page scene could be, like, four pages of just coding so I’ve been trying to find a balance of adding what I want but cutting things out that are not exactly needed to progress the story.

On top of that, Chapter 2 is nothing like chapter 1 in the sense that it expands the world into the town of Emberwood and we meet all types of side characters and such. Chapter 1 and the prologue were easier because it felt very contained, but Chapter 2 is when the antagonist comes into the picture and MC is thrown headfirst into the drama of these side characters and the main plot, so I’ve been really careful in making sure every piece is in its rightful place (hence the slow coding). This is a story where, depending on your choices, you may not get all the information or different information, which can make me feel the sense that I’m writing two separate main plots ahaha it’s fun, but a lot of work. (This also explains my inactivity, I’ve just been focusing on writing for now)

I’ve finally implemented the stat system and have fixed the relationship stats and all the bugs in chapter one, and have added a bit more to thicken the scenes. this update will be the last time I touch the prologue and chapter one lol. I am a bit of a perfectionist who is never satisfied soo yeah bad combination. 🫣

Alex’s rival route will be added in chapter two, while Dani’s will probably be chapter 3/4. There’s been a lot of hidden stats added, a lot of overlapping relationship stats and personality changes and such. I’ve been really proud of the work so far! I hope you guys like it !

Because of this, i will likely be looking for beta testers sometime this week or the next :) and they will become the first people to read chapter two, woo!

Also, we’re almost at 1.5k <3 thank you! With all the convos I’ve had with you guys and stuff, it doesn’t feel like I made my intro post just two months ago, it always surprises me how enthusiastic you guys are ! Thank you :,)

that’s all for now. Nothing too interesting but yeah, bye bye <3

#emberwood #interactive fiction wip #interactive fiction #interactive novel #update #authors note #interactive game #choice script #if game #text adventure #writers of tumblr

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the-stray-storyteller · 8 months

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Havenpoint

Warnings : None (I think)

Prev Chap Next Chap First Chap

Taglist : @anonymousfoz@holdmyteaplease (tell me if you want to be added or removed)

Note : this chapter and any chapter after this hasn't been beta read or edited which means it will have shitty grammar, a lot of spelling errors, annoying dialogues and overall just be shitty.

______________________________________________________________

Chapter 13 : The Stranger Anne Gray

We weren’t getting much work done in detention. We had worked diligently for only half an hour. Then we split into groups, spending our time in pleasant leisure.

Aidene had brought her homework with her, I promised myself I would do the same next time. Roy and Valentina had struck up a conversation, their body language looking a bit too friendly. I walked towards a corner and sat on a dusty table idly scrolling through social media stalking my classmates, and occasionally staring out the window beside me.

I looked over the phone to see Penelope walking over to Aidene. I strained my ears to listen to their conversation. The broad-shouldered girl was asking Aidene to repeat the story once more, this time with more details and less flourish. Aidene’s eyes drifted to me and caught me eavesdropping, she smiled playfully and winked. I snapped my eyes back to my phone but my concentration was not there.

I lost myself in mindlessly going through apps and games. The scrolling lights of the phone cast a glow around me. Forgetting the videos and posts I saw in a snap. Because of this hypnotised state I almost didn’t notice Aidene.

The girl had sat down beside me having left Penelope’s company. Her smile revealed dimples on the side of her cheeks and I could see the soft splatter of freckles across her nose.

“When did you colour your hair?” I asked. Her hair which had been partially purple now held more prominent patches of electric blue, the lilac colour having dulled out. “The colour was coming off so I just went over it yesterday night.” She ran a hand through her hair showing off the new coloured ends. The coffee-brown roots of her hair looked tawny under the afternoon sunlight coming through the window. The coloured ends almost glittering. “Why didn’t you bleach it before colouring? Or maybe wait for the colour to wash off?” I looked at the patches of washed-out purple. “Well, I use hair chalk so I don’t need to bleach it and waiting for it to go required too much patience.” I hummed in response. Aidene’s tone sounded distracted. I put away my phone, she wasn’t here for small talk.

“What did you want to say?” I inquired. “Well-” she started nervously tucking a stray strand behind her hair, “- Penelope knows who might have the key to the trapdoor. She wants you to go with her.” “Why?” I hissed making Aidene flinch. “I don’t know. She wants you both to go. The rest of us will stay back and cover for you both if a teacher comes.” “Okay,” I snapped out, not happy with the answer, “But why can’t she do it alone? Why does it have to be me?” “I don’t know but it's her terms if we want her help.” I let out a groan, looking away from Aidene. I could feel her pleading glances.

I asked myself why I was helping Aidene with this conundrum. Maybe it was because I wanted to know why she broke into my dorm. Maybe I was helping her because she was the first one to willingly be my friend. However, every time we came close to finding an answer there would be a hungry tug at my ribs, something that wanted more and at the moment it was back.

I turned my gaze towards her, she was studying Penelope with a cool unreadable look on her face. I studied the lines of sunlight painting her chestnut skin. The shadows cast by her nose and the glinting earring.

“I will go,” I conceded. Aidene gave me one of her brightest smiles before wrapping her arms around me. She pulled me in closer before letting me go. “Thanks,” she breathed out relieved, “I don’t know how long it will take you both to get the keys but if you miss dinner. We will meet tonight and try to open that trapdoor so tell Penelope to be ready. I will tell Valentina the same.”

The school’s hallways were draped with the final light of the day, casting a warm glow across the haunted halls. Through the large windows, I could see wildflowers sticking out brightly among the overgrown field of grass. I counted the lockers we passed by and put my full attention on watching a fly buzz around. I did everything except strike up a conversation with Penelope.

We had been walking around the school building in silence looking through doors for the past two hours searching for someone I didn’t even know.

By now the halls were empty and the sky had turned a dusky purple threatening to turn black any minute. I frowned, feeling the temperature of the place drop, my skin bursting with goosebumps.

“Who exactly are we looking for?” I ground out. “Gabe Hughes,” Penelope popped her head into another empty class, “He is the caretaker of this school. Makes sure the cleaning staff, kitchen staff, groundskeeper et cetera are doing their work properly.” “Do I get a description of this person?” “Old and fat and-” she smiled maliciously, “right there.” She pointed to a veranda, it opened up to face the sports ground. Intricately carved wooden poles holding it up, vines with sunset-coloured blooms invaded most of the ceiling. I kept forgetting this building used to be someone’s home.

My eyes landed on the set of keys he was swinging back and forth on his finger, their metallic shine holding my attention.

Penelope stalked towards him, I followed not wanting to be left behind. The wooden floorboards creaked under my weight. The man was too immersed in humming an off-tune song to notice us making our way towards him.

I took a deep breath and walked towards the man. All I had to do was come up with an excuse to get the keys. Perhaps something about forgetting my notes or project in a class. It was a faulty plan but it was the best chance I had.

I walked towards him as casually as I could, taking in the details. He was a big man and a bald spot circled his head. The boards screeched as he shifted his weight from one foot to another. My heart beat wildly against the silent late evening. He was admiring the dark horizon of the forest, he was yet to notice our presence. I opened my mouth to ask him for the keys but Penelope pushed past me.

She marched forward, unrelenting. With one swift movement, she plucked the keys off his fingers. With the keys clasped tightly between her fingers she broke into a sprint.

I stumbled after her, struggling to not trip over the rocks sticking out of the ground. We both ran into the dark fields and I could hear the man’s angered yells behind us as he struggled to chase us down.

We ran through the dark evening. I struggled to follow Penelope, barely being able to see her silhouette. I felt my lungs burn and my legs starting to give out. This was the furthest I had ever run in my life. We must have taken a turn somewhere because we were now facing the dorm buildings, they were a warm yellow light in the distance. I looked back warily.

“Don’t worry,” Penelope panted out, “He can’t run, probably gave up after running fifteen feet and I am pretty sure he didn’t see our faces.”

I plopped down to the ground, feeling the overgrown grass prick me. My heart was a sledgehammer against my chest. My legs had turned to lead and my throat was itchy with thirst. My breaths came out heavy and fast. “There had to be another way. One which did not involve this much running,” I complained. “This was the quickest way.” she shrugged and sat down beside me.

I looked up at the night sky. The wildflowers around me had a light scent to them, honeyed and soothing. The stars were droplets of silver against the sky. I wondered if I could reach out and make the prettiest necklace out of those drops. My stomach grumbled, interrupting my thoughts. The hunger clawed making me feel nauseous.

“We can’t get dinner now. We best get back to our dorm,” Penelope said. I turned to look at her. I couldn’t see much in the dark but I could feel her sharp eyes on me. I felt her thoughts press against me. “Anything you want to say?” I prompted.

Penelope stood up brushing the grass and dirt off her pants. “Do you really trust Aidene?” I stayed silent. “What I am trying to say is she seems a bit unpredictable to me. Seems a bit dangerous doesn’t it?”

I idly picked up a golden dandelion from the ground. Penelope started to head back to the dorm when she got no answer from me.

I had more reasons not to trust Aidene than I did to trust her. She was a complete stranger, an enigma. Yet here I was, somehow. A thing slithered inside me hissing in anger as I walked back to the dorm twisting the dandelion around my fingers till all the petals had fallen out.

#Havenpoint #writeblr #writers #my writing #damn its been way to fucking long #nearly 4 months to be exact

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