#no combat so far so that’s a major dub too

[blebo-blorp]

i haven’t played very far through the main story but Disco Elysium is like. the perfect game for me. like yessss let me walk around and have an internal monologue about every object in this bookstore. let me stand in the middle of the street for 30 minutes while talking to myself.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

August 6, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Aug 07, 2024

Today Vice President Kamala Harris named her choice for her vice presidential running mate: Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota. Walz grew up in rural Nebraska. He enlisted in the Army National Guard when he was 17 and served for 24 years, retiring in 2005 as a command sergeant major, making him the highest-ranking enlisted soldier ever to serve in Congress, according to the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.  

He went to college with the educational benefits afforded him by the Army, and graduated from Chadron (Nebraska) State College. From 1989 to 1990, he taught at a high school in China, then became a social studies teacher in Alliance, Nebraska, where he met fellow teacher Gwen Whipple, who became his wife. They moved to Minnesota, where they both continued teaching and had two children, Hope and Gus, through IVF. 

Walz became the faculty advisor for the school’s gay-straight alliance organization at the same time that he coached the high-school football team from a 0–27 record to a state championship. The advisor “really needed to be the football coach, who was the soldier and was straight and was married," Walz said in 2018. 

Walz ran for Congress in 2005 after some of his students were asked to leave a rally for George W. Bush because one of them had a sticker for Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry. Walz won and served in Congress for twelve years, sitting on the House Agriculture Committee, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.

Voters elected Walz to the Minnesota state house in 2018, and in his second term they gave him a slim majority in the state legislature. With that support, Walz signed into law protections for abortion rights, supported gender-affirming care, and legalized the recreational use of marijuana. He signed into law gun safety legislation and protections for voting rights, and pushed for action to combat climate change and to promote renewable energy. 

Strong tax revenues and spending cuts gave the state a $17.6 billion surplus, and the Democrats under Walz used the money not to cut taxes, as Republicans wanted, but to invest in education, fund free breakfast and lunch for schoolchildren, make tuition free at the state’s public colleges for students whose families earned less than $80,000 a year, and invest in paid family and medical leave and health insurance coverage regardless of immigration status. 

While MAGA Republicans are already trying to define Walz as “far left,” his votes in Congress put him pretty squarely in the middle.  His work with Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan to expand technology production and infrastructure funding in the state was rewarded in 2023, when Minnesota knocked Texas out of the top five states for business. The CNBC rating looked at 86 indicators in 10 categories, including the workforce, infrastructure, health, and business friendliness. 

Walz checks a number of boxes for the 2024 election, most notably that he hails from near the battleground states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania and comes across as a normal, nice guy. He favors unions, workers’ rights, and a $15 minimum wage. He is also the person who coined the phrase that took away the dangerous overtones of today’s MAGA Republicans by dubbing them “weird.” As a student of his said: “In politics he’s good at calling out B.S. without getting nasty or too down in the dirt…. It’s the kind of common sense he showed as a coach: practical and kinda goofy.”

Walz is also a symbol of an important resetting of the Democratic Party. He has been unapologetic about his popular programs. On Sunday, July 28, when CNN’s Jake Tapper listed some of Walz’s policies and asked if they made Walz vulnerable to Trump calling him a “big government liberal.” Walz joked that he was, indeed, a “monster.” 

“Kids are eating and having full bellies so they can go learn, and women are making their own health care decisions, and we’re a top five business state, and we also rank in the top three of happiness…. The fact of the matter is,” where Democratic policies are implemented, “quality of life is higher, the economies are better…educational attainment is better. So yeah, my kids are going to eat here, and you’re going to have a chance to go to college, and you’re going to have an opportunity to live where we're working on reducing carbon emissions. Oh, and by the way, you’re going to have personal incomes that are higher, and you’re going to have health insurance. So if that’s where they want to label me, I’m more than happy to take the label.” 

Right-wing reactionary politicians have claimed to represent ordinary Americans since the time of the passage of the Voting Rights Act—on August 6, 1965, exactly 59 years ago today—by insisting that a government that works for communities is a “socialist” plan to elevate undeserving women and racial, ethnic, and gender minorities at the expense of hardworking white men. 

Historically, though, rural America has quite often been the heart of the country’s progressive politics, and the Midwest has had a central place in that progressivism. Walz reintegrates that history with today’s Democratic Party. 

That reintegration has left the Republicans flatfooted. Trump and J.D. Vance expected to continue their posturing as champions of the common man, but on that front the credentials of a New York real estate developer who inherited millions of dollars and of a Yale-educated venture capitalist pale next to a Nebraska-born schoolteacher. Bryan Metzger, politics reporter at Business Insider, pointed out that J.D. Vance tried to hit Walz as a “San Francisco-style liberal,” but while Vance lived in San Francisco as a venture capitalist between 2013 and 2017, Walz went to San Francisco for the first time just last month. 

Head writer and producer of A Closer Look at Late Night with Seth Meyers Sal Gentile summed up Walz’s progressive politics and community vibe when he wrote on social media: “Tim Walz will expand free school lunches, raise the minimum wage, make it easier to unionize, fix your [carburetor], replace the old wiring in your basement, spray that wasp’s nest under the deck, install a new spring for your garage door and put a new chain on your lawnmower.” 

Vice President Harris had a very deep bench from which to choose a running mate, but her choice of Walz seems to have been widely popular. Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who are usually on opposite sides of the party, both praised the choice, prompting Ocasio-Cortez to post: “Dems in disconcerting levels of array.” 

Harris and Walz held their first rally together tonight in Philadelphia, where Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, who had been a top contender for the vice presidential slot, fired up the crowd. “Each of us has a responsibility to get off the sidelines, to get in the game, and to do our part,” he said. “Are you ready to do your part? Are you ready to form a more perfect union? Are you ready to build an America where no matter what you look like, where you come from, who you love, or who you pray to, that this will be a place for you? And are you ready to look the next president of the United States in the eye and say, ‘Hello, Madam President?’ I am too, so let’s get to work!”

Pennsylvania is a crucial state, and Shapiro issued a statement offering his “enthusiastic support” to the ticket. He pledged to work to unite Pennsylvanians behind my friends Kamala Harris and Tim Walz and defeat Donald Trump.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[taxus-fraud]

I hope that this second Rainbow Six Siege collab happens after the Destiny 2 one, because, given that both those games use our Earth to establish their setting, it makes the Destiny collab much funnier in the context of occurring between two crossovers with a far more grounded setting.

From Doctor's perspective, you have a group of "humans" from a world called "Earth" who show up on Terra through some sort of interdimensional travel. They have some fancy technology and unusual equipment, but overall they're not too different from Terrans. They're well-trained soldiers and acclimate just fine to the culture.

Then you have a Guardian show up. They say they're a human from a world called Earth, so make the reasonable assumption that they shouldn't be too different from the other guys. This turns out to be entirely incorrect. They casually warp reality with an unknown kind of cosmic power. They die and come back to life over and over with seemingly no negative consequences. They constantly dance for no reason at all. When asked to describe their combat skills, they recount multiple instances of fighting and killing Gods, then turning them into weapons. Their equipment baffles and frightens a majority of the R&D department in the ways it seemingly defies the current understandings of physics, and yet the Guardian insists that they get many of these weapons by randomly finding them on the ground.

From what they say about their home, you deduce that, since the first humans arrived here, Earth has reached some kind of golden age not unlike that of Aegir, brought about by a cosmic entity dubbed 'The Traveler' arriving to their solar system and accelerating their technology and understanding of the universe to heights you couldn't fathom.

Then another group of humans from Earth shows up on Terra. You brace yourself to be faced with even stranger people and shown more unnatural wonders of technology. Nope. More guys from Team Rainbow. Entirely normal guys with the same kind of equipment and experience as the rest of that team. They don't know anything about a Traveler, a Golden Age, or any Guardians.

And you're just left sitting there, eternally wondering what the hell is up with Earth such that there's some kind of undead, god-killing turbo-freak running around, fighting an endless battle against hordes of unfathomable armies from beyond the stars, all while being apparently entirely disconnected from the rest of the people on Earth

[at-liberty-news]

Mutation & Modifications: Part 3

Welcome to the final part of Mutations and Modifications. We know it's taken a long time to arrive. This time we're going to wrap up any straggler details about our foes, then focus more on the environments that the fierce battles take place in.

As the SEAF continues to put pressure on our various enemies, the units among them that previously made up the majority of their forces have slowly whittled down as less prominent enemies have begun to overpopulate in comparison. Helldivers have learned to begin expecting even more Hive Guards, Devastators, and Chargers but far fewer Bile Titans or Hulks than before. 

Along with these shifts in populations is a reduced ability for our enemies to survey their own holdings as effectively as before, leading to fewer hostile patrols, especially in regions where Helldiver sightings are few and far between due to elusive "solo" Helldivers going it alone, often leading to the enemy underestimating the surveillance necessary for the region. Despite this reduction, it's still difficult to go far without running into them.

The constant fighting hasn't just affected our enemies and us; it's affected the planets and ecosystems, too! Planets already prone to seismic tremors have seen them grow in scale. The fire tornadoes roaming the more hellish planets in the galaxy have become even more erratic and unpredictable, with their accompanying dust kick-up often obscuring vision for miles!

A particularly well-known and hated plant by the SEAF, often dubbed the "spike plant" for simplicity's sake, has even been declared endangered due to its frequent impromptu use as an explosive both by and against Helldivers! This invasive species exploded violently when damaged and was capable of inflicting deep fatigue and even deeper wounds that could lead to a bleed-out in minutes. 

With its population so thoroughly diminished, a close cousin of the plant has begun to take its ecological place. While very similar, this newer "spike plant" does not cut nearly as deep, avoiding the fatigue and bleeding its predecessor caused, but it has a much more complex self-defense mechanism, enabling it to explode three separate times. Truly, a fascinating example of the toll that war can take on the environment.

Additionally, planets that are often struck by ion storms have begun to see far more intense, though beautiful, sights from them. Although these changes don't seem to have any ramifications for combat, some citizens are concerned about the timing of a galactic uptick in ion storm activity so soon after the creation of the Meridian black hole.

And speaking about the work of Federation scientists, super-uranium has begun cropping up more often than previously recorded or predicted. Although this is good news for Super Earth, it left many researchers wondering how their projections could have been so far off and where all this previously undiscovered uranium could have come from.

Finally, planets often known for their fog and low visibility have recently seen a shift towards clearer skies! Although it's not entirely clear how or why this is happening, we do have a quote from an anonymous Helldiver on the topic:

"Aw, well, y'know, we been shootin' so many bullets an' lasers an' bombs at things, and blowin' up the whole place that alla the fog an' mist went and flew away, cause we wus pushin' it away with the force o'our guns affectin' the wind patterns, you know?"

Thank you, anonymous; we're sure that for our viewers, that clears up a lot. And thank you, viewers, because we're at the end of this segment. While we still have plenty to report on Super Earth's own armament changes, we'll dedicate that to a segment of its own.

Give 'em Hell, Divers!

[deusluxuria]

A whole bunch of Doppio headcanons because ehh

( Spoilers: Part 5 / Golden Wind / Vento Aureo )

( Warnings: abuse, stalking, christianity )

( Note: These HCs are based around another HC I have that Doppio does not have DID, but rather Diavolo is an obsessed stalker from Sardinia, a childhood classmate of Doppio's, who became so attached to Doppio to the point of having cosmetic surgery to look almost exactly like him. )

-He was never named by his mother. The priest who adopted him gave him the first name "Domenico" and the priest's last name "Voltolini." Diavolo was the one who gave him the nickname "Doppio," as a way to claim ownership of him and to dub him an extension of himself.

-Loves guns and tanks. Maybe even too much. He uses guns and other weapons for a majority of combat, more than his Stand. He can use King Crimson to quadruple-weild, and even though he can throw a mean punch, King Crimson's arms are way stronger.

-Despite being highly skilled with weapons, he overuses ammo and gets overzealous. He's definitely not someone who can "just injure" an opponent, unless it's by accident. He's very prone to frustration and rage (i.e. in canon, the fight with Risotto where he completely loses it and screams while banging King Crimson's fists at the ground and the empty air), which means strategy is not always viable.

-Can wildly swing from being gentle and friendly to being snappy and snarky... to being all-out violent and aggressive. People who have witnessed this range are usually in awe. Especially since he typically comes off as kind, silly, and even shy. Some know him as being fun to be around, others know him as a cataclysmic mess.

-Loves guns but also practices knife-throwing, archery, and swordfighting. Most of what he did for school involved hands-on experience instead of learning math or writing essays and whatnot, and his favorite subjects involved learning how to fight. He also knows how to make traps and use bombs.

-He was taken in by Tiziano & Squalo after accidentally getting involved in a fight between Passione and a street gang. That's how he initially joined Passione, before The Boss noticed him and promoted him to the Assassination squad. Tiziano & Squalo still consider him like a son.

-Doppio was with the Assassins for a few years before Diavolo chose him as an informant.

-Risotto was very nice to him, even protective, but most of the others were terribly mean to Doppio, particularly Formaggio (whose favorite thing is to target people he sees as weaker than him, whether younger or of smaller stature -- Doppio is older than him, but definitely smaller), who often made accusations that a scrawny guy like Doppio who won't even use his Stand must only be in the mafia because "The Boss likes you in his bed too much to fire you."

-It wasn't the reason why Doppio stayed, but other members of Passione certainly got the vibes that Doppio was sleeping with The Boss. Sleeping around in the mafia is commonplace, but no one else had ever been in the same room with The Boss or heard his voice. Which is why, when the other mafiosi found out Doppio had daily phone calls with him, and his body language and tone of voice had sensual implications (according to them), they started to resent Doppio and assumed he was in on the horrible ways the other mafiosi were treated by The Boss and that Doppio had no objections to the abuse.

-Before the other mafiosi started spreading rumors and resenting him, he brought by far the most light into the organization. He's playful and loving, and cares about his fellow mafiosi way more than Diavolo ever could. It was common in the Assassin squad for a scenario like: Risotto going to get a mop to help Doppio after he used way too much laundry soap, only to come back hearing laughter and seeing that Doppio had started a friendly fight with the others of running around throwing laundry suds at each other. Sure, the other mafiosi were fun and laughed together plenty, but it just wasn't the same without Doppio.

-Pesci has an intense crush on him. The two would've been able to connect about how they were both stuck in toxic, co-dependent situations with a superior (Pesci's being Prosciutto who has only decided he's better than his brother). To Doppio, the crush was obvious, and he once kind of snapped at Pesci and said, "I bet you're like all the others and you think I'm some soft, cute, innocent sprite or whatever, but if you knew anything about me, you'd want nothing to do with me outside of business. I'm just as rotten as everyone here, maybe worse. I've known plenty of others like you, and you're all only interested in one thing, and it involves some illusion of me that doesn't exist. Look around you and realize where we are. Wake the fuck up and realize that people like us will never know love, only emptiness and hedonism. There is nothing on the other side of infatuation for us; there is only indulgence to distract from the suffering."

-Doppio does secretly speak to a therapist. But only about his substance abuse, dangerous promiscuity, other self-destructive problems, and his lack of prospect or life goals. It never really helped because Doppio never brought up Diavolo, his own involvement with the mafia, Trish, or the fire that killed the priest and wiped out his hometown. Those things, mainly Diavolo, were major causes of the problems he talked about.

-There was a different boss of Passione before Diavolo, who murdered the old boss around the time Doppio joined. Tiziano and Risotto were the first to notice something had changed. But as no one was allowed to know the Boss's identity besides his informant, anyone who had suspicions about a change had to stay quiet. It was only when things in Passione started becoming unbearable that Risotto admitted his theory to his team. That's when Gelato & Sorbet tried to find The Boss, which resulted in their deaths. Risotto then deeply regretted saying anything, though circumstances had become so dire that the two likely would've made that act of resistance anyway.

-Diavolo had ordered Doppio to kill Sorbet & Gelato, who were another two of the assassins who had always been nice to Doppio. Doppio stayed as collected as possible while carrying out the attack, but after he was done, he spent a long night bawling his eyes out and couldn't eat for days.

-When Diavolo promoted him to informant, he subjected him to what Doppio would call "extremely violent hazing rituals" to test if he was strong-willed enough for the position. It was essentially just days of nonstop torture. Diavolo would never admit to Doppio that he would've chosen him no matter what, and that he'd put him through the torment for his own enjoyment.

-Doppio already had endured a great deal of extreme bullying as a child (though it became less obvious after the priest, who adored him, found out and raised hell about it). So he was already wired with learned helplessness. This is a huge reason why he pretty much let Diavolo treat him however he wanted. If Doppio had survived after Diavolo's death, it would take Doppio a long time, and a lot of help, to realize that he hadn't deserved Diavolo's abuse. But realizing in the first place that it was abuse would hit him like a ton of bricks.

-Wasn't nearly as religious after his hometown burned to the ground, but sometimes when he's particularly stressed he'll still make the sign of the cross or say his Hail Mary's (i.e. after nearly getting in a car accident). As he'd say, "You can take the man out of the Italian Catholic home, but..." Although, Doppio's attachment to Catholic symbols and ideas are mainly because they remind him of his adoptive father, who would've taken a bullet for him. While the priest was very open-minded and understood the importance of children having freedom of ideas, his religion was one major way he expressed his love. Doppio has a tattoo over his heart of the rosary the priest wore, and one on his back of the chapel their home was connected to.

-Has other tattoos, mostly of guns and gun-related things. But then there's his tattoo sleeves, which Diavolo copied. Except, Doppio's sleeves are of vines and floral motifs inspired by the priest's decor in his childhood home, and Diavolo's were closer to resembling octopus tentacles and reptilian details.

[doubleddenden]

Okay so I've been playing Star Rail and I'm gonna do a lil amateur review because I do that sometimes

Here's my take

1. I like it. I got it for pc and it's fun when I can play it.

More under the cut

2. It is free to play with micro transactions, however I've not spent any money on it and I find it quite playable and easy to get into. That being said, I started with a lot of free stuff from starting so early and codes, so my experience may have differed if I started later.

3. It's a turned based RPG akin to JRPGs like Digimon Cyber Sleuth, Persona 5, etc, but a little easier to comprehend combat wise

4. Story and setting so far is something sort of like a mix of Star Ocean- specifically 4 with the planet hopping- or Rogue Galaxy, with... well, a LOT of mystic, techno, scifi, and religious babble. Enjoyable tho. I love space trains so much. It's dumb but classy. There's also a LOT of optional lore you can collect and read to really help you get immersed if that's your thing, and characters will have a lot of dialogue to give you more world building lore too. That being said, they do kinda just toss you into the ocean with really complex shit right out the gate with no vuild up- I've been told that having SOME knowledge of the Honkai Impact series can build upon what's given, but it's not entirely necessary.

5. Graphics are great, I like the art style and how polished everything looks. Art style works for the game and it looks gorgeous. I do think the NPCs kinda look plain, but that's about expected.

6. Music is passable. Not really finding any ear worms just yet, though. The summoning music and the train music are great though.

7. It might be me and my somewhat shit connection, but I experience lag and disconnection sometimes. This can get pretty frustrating

8. Characters are fun and have fun dynamics with each other. I already dig The Trailblazer, Dan Hung, and March 7th's dynamic- I will say, wtf is this name? Like I know why, but still, not just March, March 7th specifically is her name. Is her full name Saturday, March 7th, 5023 AD?

9. Voice acting is... decent enough. I play English dub because I have reading difficulties due to unmedicated ADHD, before anyone starts screaming at me to change languages. There's some strange takes or line reads sometimes, sometimes the voice will read something different from the text, and there's a couple of voices I wish would just sound... different. But the majority is passable to really good. I've also heard some unexpected voices- you could say they are TRASH, but I find them TASTEful.

10. Character design is pretty fun imo- definitely a bit of Genshin style, but it is by the same people so you kind of expect that. But they're fun to look at, have fun weapons and moves, and have great art. My one complaint would be similar builds and designs for some characters, but that's minor and also expected. But I will say, I do prefer a good anime style over indie cartoon or realistic style, so to me I think it's great.

11. The menus are... very complex. Easy to lose track and get lost in. I swear the pause menu rearranges every time I open it.

12. It shouldn't need saying, but: It's not Genshin Impact- that's fine actually. In fact it's great, turn based rpgs are really fun, especially JRPG styled, which i like to play (Dragon Quest 11, Digimon Cyber Sleuth, Persona 5, Pokémon, etc). While I do like exploring open worlds and having a lot of freedom and real time fighting, sometimes it's nice to have a simpler point A to point B system with smaller maps, and especially nice to have auto battle. There's a bit of carry over from Genshin, but i think it works for what's given. I do miss my emergency fo- I mean, my adorable best friend Paimon, but she and all my other Genshins are Impacting in the other game while I Rail some Sta- wait I'm not finishing that sentence.

13. It is gacha. You kind of expect it- some people won't like it, I kinda like it to some degree, but I do got issues. Basically watch your spending- again, I haven't felt the need to, unlike some games that feel like you have to to get anything done. But it definitely would help to speed things along if i were. When you get a good character, it's a nice feeling for me, personally. That being said they do give you 3 pretty good ones right out the gate, and you do gather in game materials to help you summon at a fair pace anyway, so you're rolling decently enough to get something out of it.

Overall an 8/10 so far. I wanna keep playing, but unfortunately this damn meat mech that is my wretched bodily prison of my soul requires sleep, and I have things I have to do.

[annaizscribbling]

Alright let's gooooo.

My personal style dubbed Victorian Widowcore is a blend between historical inspired details and modern clothing. It's filled with black lace, heavy boots, odd necklaces and Edwardian inspired hairstyles. I wear 'regular' emo clothes fairly often, but the style most heavily associated with me and the one I feel the most like myself is this one.

Blouses

I don't wear many dresses, mostly because of my job, but they go just fine with the look, I just prefer pants.

The majority of the tops are black lacy shirts with high collars and often puffed sleeves, or sleeves and collars with frills. These are usually see through, and paired with a plain black undershirt beneath it. I like the ones with floral patterns, but anything complicated and vintagey will do perfectly. If it looks like wearing a black doily, you're doing something right

Other options include loose satiny white shirts, plain black blouses with puffed sleeves, tops with vintagey details like rustic gold buttons, intricate necklines, high frilly collars, ruffles, long coats, and shirts that flare out at the hips to give that hourglass illusion.

Pants.

For pants I keep it simple, black jeans, usually high waisted, occasionally paired with a black belt. Often tight jeans, but black loose dress pants can compliment a tighter top quite nicely, the contrast looks good.

Shoes

I actually steer away from the historical inspiration for my shoes. Usually, I pair my outfits with combat boots. Doc martens of various sizes, floral boots, heeled boots, really any clunky black combat boot, especially with skinny jeans. But of course, dress shoes, tennis shoes, or heeled booties look quite nice too. I just enjoy combat boots and the mix of elegant vintage clothes with them.

Hair

I personally have pretty long hair, I recently shopped off like 7 inches, but it still comes down to my middle back. While I do wear it down and let my natural curls do their thing, but for work and convenience, there are options.

An Edwardian inspired updo, much like a messy bun with braids

Just the messy bun

Tight low bun with curls framing face

Simple braid down back

Claw clip.

Makeup

For my makeup, I switch between a more historically inspired simple makeup with attention to blush on the apples of my cheeks and a dewy soft look without much sharp contour. I still use eyeliner and may tint my lips

My more dark look, which involves heavily blended very dark eyeshadow, in either grays and blacks or an assortment of dark browns. This will include sharp eyeliner wings and soft eyeliner along the bottom lash line. Blush and contour for some color, and highlights around the eyes. A red lip may be added as well. Lots of shimmer on top of the dark colors

Jewelry

I adore wearing vintage and vintage inspired jewelry. Most of my accessories are odd and unique, made by me, inherited, or found, so they aren't super easy to recreate, so I encourage y'all to try and build your own stories through your jewelry

Examples of my own include A delicate cameo necklace found in an old box, a twisted rose necklace gifted by a friend, a bronze crown necklace I glued together with discarded pieces I found while working at a warehouse, a pirate necklace from Disneyworld, old pearls, an ivory and gold necklace from a long deceased relative passed down to me, my initials on a sliver choker gifted to me from a friend now moved far away, tons of key necklaces I made from key charms I purchased and cord from my grandmother. Antique gold earrings, small glittery silver half hoops, glass ruby vampire-y earrings from a thrift shop, handmade bracelets from an old teacher, odd matching found second hand. And many more

If you can't tell ... I really love my jewelry

That's about it actually, that's my aesthetic, clothing wise at least. My room follows the theme but that can be for another day

One note and I will go into immense detail breaking down my personal aesthetic and how to achieve it

[kirfluffbon]

can u tell me about ur ocs

i would love to 💕💕💕💕 i have way too many though so lets just go with uhhh five (w/ really sloppy sketches for visual reference)

jean-étienne is the first of “ocs made for a series i loathe that are now their own thing”. he’s got a prettyboy face framed by baggy eyes, a perpetual scowl and a nose that’s been broken many times over. he’s over four hundred years old with a fuming short temper and chronic asbestos poisoning. probably a witch. despite his finely-aged pessimism and habit of constant complaining, he’s full of genuine love for life and romance and humanity. very sentimental and fond of cooking and folk arts. adores kids and wishes he could have some of his own, but can’t have any due to the nature of his kind. due to the lockdown he can no longer stand on the coastline and yell obscenities towards france

a*brey is the second of “ocs made for a series i loathe that are now their own thing”. they have an ombre undercut and under eye circles sunken deeper than ravines and they are annoying. their favourite thing in the world is themself. severely allergic to eye contact. speaks several languages. listens to dad rock. loves sports but is hilariously bad at them. dresses like a really gay business major (derogatory). they have a pet bingus. had a hardcore goth phase once and is severely humiliated about it. friend to raccoons. nobody likes them. i love them. if i had a nickel for every character i played in the category of “vain gnc blondies who get relentlessly mocked for eating mud” id have two nickels. moving on

this is kithral neiaseniket, younger twin. he’s a starry-eyed ancients paladin who’s a human golden retriever. praise the lord of the red sun! he’s the camp cook and is obsessed with trying new things, in a figurative and literal sense. his cooking is wicked good but you should never ever ask what it is. (don’t get him wrong, he’s more than happy to tell you! but you’re better off not knowing, trust me) a loud and clingy and emotional drama queen. god help you if you lay a hand on his face or his hair wrong. has a pet giant elk. he is already your best friend forever no takebacksies. loves his brother.

this is koko neiaseniket, older twin. wears glasses bc he’s nearsighted from squinting at the tiny smudged text in crusty old books so much. he’s a herbalist-in-training and accidental warlock. fascinated by magic and the arcane and the planes of existence. wields a whip for whenever he’s in a pinch but prefers using cantrips far more. prefers to stay out of combat and mind his own goddamned business most of the time but unfortunately for him he is often put in situations. gets seasick very very easily. loves his brother.

veikko ilmarinen has 69 mental illnesses and is banned from most public spaces 💔 an artificer, i.e. a magical mechanic - if you so much as refer to him as a ‘greasemonkey’ he won’t hesitate to snap at least one of your wrists. has many many siblings, and is the youngest out of all of them. severe severe workaholic. dislikes being talked down to bc of his age. possesses an “”interesting”” set of “”morals””. is chilly and blunt and super mean to 99% of the people he meets, but has a broad childish streak. likes small toys and plushies. has the vibe that he’d be voiced by eric in a 4kids dub. huge sweet tooth; his favourite food is caramel cardomom sticky buns with pearl sugar. an aasimar - his angelic transformation has an eyespotted moth motif. his hairclip is an animal.

[genshin-djinn]

Sinae Unicornis Act 1

I went into Ganyu’s story quest with a low bar set for it to jump over. As long as it was better than Albedo’s, I wouldn’t be disappointed. And hey, I wasn’t. Not because the bar was low, but because this story quest was very fun.

Warning: this post contains major spoilers for the entirety of Ganyu’s story quest! If you haven’t played through the quest yet I would recommend not reading this post because there are lots of spoilers and some of it will not make any sense.

the characters

The characters were possibly my favorite part of Ganyu’s story quest. I absolutely love seeing playable characters and named NPCs during other characters’ story quests and Ganyu’s was full of them.

Firstly, we need to talk about the character who was unequivocally the most important NPC in Ganyu’s story quest... the Hydro Fatui Skirmisher. He was perfect and I love him. He just wanted to pick fresh berries on his morning off and ended up getting attacked by some randos who thought he was doing wrong just because of his loyalty to the Tsaritsa. The game’s been giving the Fatui NPCs a lot more personality as time goes on— they now have idle animations, voicelines, and some of them even have names— and I love it. This perfect hydro man was just the icing on the “sympathetic villains” cake.

Another awesome character featured in Ganyu’s story quest was my favor— uhhh, my second fa—- no, uhh.. one of my favorite adepti, Cloud Retainer. I want to see more of her. She’s fantastic. I’m really confused about her relationship with Ganyu in the past, because it sounds like she looked after Ganyu when the latter was a kid, but Zhongli says that Ganyu’s the Adeptus who’s been working for Rex Lapis for the longest. Maybe Cloud Retained knew Ganyu from before she made the contrast with Rex? I dunno. Her stories about Baby Ganyu were so fecking cute and revealed a little bit about Ganyu’s adorable past.

Another Adepti we saw in Sinae Unicornis was, in the words of Paimon, “that cold- hearted loner”, Xiao. It was nice to see a little corner of Xiao’s caring side— while he’s pretty blunt about it, he does want Ganyu to be happy and acknowledge both her Adepti and her human sides. It’s also pretty adorable to see Xiao caught off guard for a second— he isn’t quite sure what to do for Ganyu’s second trial, so he gets flustered and makes something up. It’s gonna be a real test not rolling for him during his banner, because the more I see of him the more attached I get.

The next character I desparately have to talk about was the real MVP of Sinae Unicornis, Uncle Tian! I was absolutely delighted to get backstory for the slightly sus fisherman who looks after Childish Jiang. It was so fun to hear an old man call Ganyu “onee- sama” in the Japanese dub,,,, and the idea that Tian’s known Ganyu since he was young enough to call her “older sister” is really cute. And kind of upsetting. More on that later. Now, *stares pointedly at Jiangxue*, if only we could get some backstory on another mysterious fisherman...

the combat

Ganyu’s story quest had a really nice balance of combat and story for me. The two trial run trials were well- designed to showcase Ganyu’s abilities.

Cloud Retainer’s trial was a lot harder than Xiao’s for me because I kinda suck at aiming, especially when my eyes kept drifting to the ticking timer above Ganyu’s head. But even though at one point I didn’t notice the correct path forwards for a solid 30 seconds, I still managed to finish the trial in one try. It was kinda difficult, but not too hard.

Xiao’s trial was a neat demo of Ganyu’s cryo abilities. Even though I refuse to roll on any banners until Hu Tao’s, she fit right into my team of Diluc, Xingqiu, Kaeya, and Zhongli. Ganyu in a team comp seems to reeeeally want Pyro and Hydro units with her, plus maybe a cryo user for the cryo damage boost inside her circle. She’s like Amber but way better.

Side note: I haven’t looked for any sort of meta info on Ganyu yet, but during her trial run her ult energy regeneration was really weird. It took her a long time to get her first ult up, but right after I used it her next ult was up off cooldown, and the ult after that was ready before her circle had even ended. Idk what’s going on there but her ult seems to do something with energy regen.

Ganyu

Sinae Unicornus showed us a lot about Ganyu.

Not that I knew anything about her before it.

Ganyu is a polite, kind, and respectful person. She overworks herself to the point of falling asleep standing up and likes eating Qingxin flowers. But her story quest shows another side of Ganyu— a side that’s learned a lot from being alive for thousands of years. Ganyu is incredibly good at her job and has picked up a lot of tricks over the millennia. She observes what those around her do and learns from them. She has a severe, cold side to her that makes her all the more efficient in her work. Ganyu’s is the second Adepti story quest we’ve gotten so far, and oh by the archons she and Zhongli are such great strategic players.

Ganyu is also lonely. She’s in between two worlds, and can’t be fully a part of either. When she’s with mortals, she’s an Adepti, and when she’s with Adepti, she’s a mortal. There’s nobody in the world that Ganyu knows of who is truly both and neither like she is. The mortals around her admire her, the Adepti around her seem to see her as young/ lower in rank than they are. So of course she would take solace in befriending Aether, someone who’s also not quite a mortal or a god.

In a way, Ganyu’s story quest almost ties into Albedo’s. They’re both “inhuman” in a way that isolates them from others and turns them into lonely individuals. This loneliness and isolation brings them, consciously or unconsciously, closer to Aether. This one similarity also brings attention to the differences between Albedo and Ganyu— Albedo is neither human nor god, while Ganyu is both.

I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but I think putting Ganyu’s story quest right after Albedo’s was a very nice touch.

ending thoughts

Sinae Unicornis was a very decent story quest. It was no Carmen Dei, but I’d say it was on the level of Jean’s and Mona’s. And,, ,,, it made me value Albedo’s story quest a tiny bit more. I love Ganyu, I think she’s adorable, and she seems like a pretty good versatile unit. She’s risen through the ranks of my favorite Genshin characters and is probably in the top 10. Despite all of these complements I will unfortunately not be rolling for her.

The next story quests we get shoooould be Xiao’s and Hu Tao’s (ofc I wouldn’t complain if Qiqi, Keqing, Fischl, Bennett, Barbara, Noelle, Sucrose, Chongyun, Diona, Xinyan, and Ningguang also got story quests...). I’m extremely excited to see Edgy Boy again and to finally meet my favorite funeral parlor owner. I’m also hyped for the events we’ll get before 1.3– hypostatic symphony and multiplayer Liben should be coming up soon. and then.... 1.3!

[thegoodomensdumpster]

I WATCHED GOOD OMENS IN FRENCH SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO

and it wasn’t that bad. Here are my thoughts, barely edited as I wrote most of them while watching the show.

EP 1

OK i like god’s voice so far

possibilité d’embarras gastrique is a good formulation, I wonder if it’s the same in the book ( I think I kinda need to read it in french now...)

aghghdhgs « primo-délinquants »

of course subtitles don’t match the audio for a variety of technical reasons but when you get things that have very different underlying meanings i find it… not good This one about Crowley being evil / a demon : subtitles : « c’est ton travail » - « it’s your job » audio : « c’est dans ta nature » - « it’s in your nature » i mean dang

crowley sounds like a little shit asking az about his sword

« T’AS FAIT QUOUA » - he just loses his shit (kinda giving me some le coeur a ses raisons vibe)

ok crowley sounds very nerdy when he tries to explain that he took down the phone network, i think i actually like this voice acting

ligur sounds… very suave (im a little ill at ease)

crowley getting called mon chou by satan freddie mercury is a thumb up from me

i see the part where aziraphale speaks japanese wasn’t dubbed over and we can still hear michael sheen. it’s a bit disturbing considering french aziraphale has a higher pitched voice (and he sounds soooo much more anxious than sheen, give this angel a xanax )

“sandwich bœuf cresson” ( beef and cress sandwich ) deirdre really who makes this kind of sandwiches

im being reminded that the chattering nuns prepared little cut outs for their explanation about the antichrist switch… such dedication to useless crafts (it made me laugh on my first viewing and it’s still funny to imagine that some of them either ordered or built these things themselves just so they could make this two minutes long presentation for the most important act of their satanic nun careers)

retire-toi vil démon infernal, créature des abysses XD i swear az doesn’t sound even remotely convinced when he is saying the « get thee behind me foul fiend » line in french, it’s just too over the top for credibility, it sounds like it’s straight out of some super intense dnd session

they still can’t say bouillabaisse (which, like, weird because french, but still valid). nice touch is crowley couldn’t say soupe de poisson (fish stew) either and said poupe de soisson (sish ftew)

warlock mah boy how can you be a teenager and not like dinosaurs

c’est un dinosaure un nullosaure plutôt - apply burn heal

La façon dont warlock s’est exclamé « C’EST NUL » m’a fait penser au nain de naheulbeuk

the english version has nothing on french speaking aziraphale for the second hand embarrassement during the magic tour. it’s over 9000 i literally hid my head in my jumper when he was presenting harry the bunny. Horrible experience, 0/20, would not recommend

EP 2

oooh agnes has a lovely voice !

why is young newton having such a quality dub for the three sentences he has to say

dick turpin’s name is jesse james (tbf dick turpin is not known AT ALL in france, i discovered him reading good omens)

shadwell is pure chaos (as expected). No particular accent for him though, the chaotic energy was probably enough. Would have made me laugh if he had like, a chti or a marseilles accent.

aziraphale is so fucking stressed out by crowley’s driving i thought he was gonna explode

« tu es un gentil garçon » => « you’re a nice boy » said az to crowley DANG THAT’S SO INFANTILIZING AZIRAPHALE YOU’RE TALKING TO A DEMON FROM HELL NOT TO PINOCCHIO

ARGH FIRST MON ANGE OF THE SERIES i’m hit straight in the heart

anathema’s mom doesn’t have a spanish / latino accent at all when talking in spanish…. why...

dog being called toutou is definitely adorable (it’s basically « doggy » but way cuter imo)

tickety-boo has become ça gaze. that’s valid. it’s corny but i still use it unironically from time to time so ... i stan

EP 3

« je répands la fomentation » « i’m here spreading foment » « quoi tu fais des crêpes au froment ?????? »  « what you’re making crêpes with wheat ??? » love the fact that we shoehorned in one more ref to crêpes

az called crowley mon cher camarade, unintentionnal communist propaganda ftw

« pas de repos pour les… bah, pour les bons » « no rest for the… good »  – az was so deflated about the ineptitude he realized he was saying, he felt zero percent commited to his sentence

i was wondering how they would play aziraphale not being able to speak french in the bastille and they opted to have him stutter a bit and say to his executionner « excuse me i’m anxious » XD

« vous êtes le 999e aristo à mourir par mes soins. Mais vous êtes le premier en costume beige » « you’re the 999th aristocrat I’m going to kill, but the first one in beige attire » yeah i guess now that az isn’t english anymore his most noticeable feature is his cream aesthetic

« c’est au cas où ça tournerait en eau de boudin » « j’ADORE le boudin » => « in case it all goes pear shape » - the literal translation featuring food in french is « turning into black sausage water ». I don’t know what pear shaped inspires to english native speakers but the mere mention of boudin always make me giggle, it’s such a funny word and such a funny food

OH !!! no terrence rampa for the tv series, we’ve got anthony J. rampa. Rip terrence petit démon parti trop tôt :’(

« tu roules trop vite pour moi rampa » SERIOUSLY i know we can still infer « rouler » (here as in driving, but literally rolling) as a metaphor for their relationship but you could have said TU VAS TROP VITE that would have been so much better argh

has anathema got an emergency stock of potteries to break in case of emotionnal crisis ?

« Rampa, un démon très futé, il m’oblige à redoubler d’effort » « crowley, a very clever demon, he forces me to make double the amount of effort » oh so admitting you’re making an effort there aziraphale ? :))))))

dang i really want to know how shadwell said that major milk bottle died because not only did he die in combat but aziraphale’s reaction is a bit intense, it must have been quite a tale (this could be a crack fic prompt : «The Epic Tale of the Death Of Major Witchfinder Milk Bottle, by Sargent Witchfinder Shadwell» )

des sorcières et des phénomènes sorciéreux x)

CROWLEY CALLED AZIRAPHALE DUCON ?????? EXCUSE ME ????? #NotMyCrowley #CrowleyWouldNeverDoThat  #CancelAnthonyJRampa2K20  => ducon would be an insult, the gathering of du and con, con being a very nasty but common swear word, and associating it with du- makes it extremely patronizing. it’s like « absolute pathetic digraceful moron +++ ». thanks i hate it *frowny face *

EP 4

l’apocalypse c’est pour aujourd’hui juste après le goûter : it could be translated as « apocalypse is scheduled for today right after tea time » except that « goûter » is not quite tea time but rather the little sugary snack kids take when they come back from school and that most adults drop out of (i haven’t and i’m sure az hasn’t either). thanks aziraphale for having exclusively food related notion of the time because tbh same

ligur has no right to be this sexy between ariyon bakare and his french voice actor that’s just not allowed

radio crowley’s voice vs french ligur’s voice, who has the sexiest voice : FIGHT

(jk french agnes nutter’s voice is by far the sexiest)

gender neutral doesn’t ‘quite’ exist in french but pollution has been assigned a female voice actress and masculine pronouns (i’m saying it doesn’t quite exist because officially we have no gender neutral, but it’s a serious wip among lgbt+ circles to the point where it’s started being used in a few medias)

hastur « en attendant qu’un plombier vienne » / « while waiting for a plumber to come » does hell have a special plumber unit or do demons have to call on human plumbers for their pipes damages ? Dang hastur having to call a human plumber for hell’s plumbery is another damn good writing prompt for a crack fic

Michael is called Michel in the subtitles but Michael in the audio *shrug emoji*

EP 5 

to get a wiggle on has become « il faut qu’on se remue les fesses », literally « we need to shake our butts » like, yes, se remuer les fesses is a common expression to say « we need to act in order to get things done » but it really casts the image of people shaking their booty to some music and obviously crowley thinks the same Weirdly enough I have almost nothing to say for that episode. Sorry. But we’ve discovered most voice actors and actresses so far and no bit of dialogue really struck me as worth discussing or pointing fingers to mock it.

EP 6 

« on va BROUTER quelques derrières » - « we’re gonna lick some butts » OK THIS IS UNQUESTIONNABLY FAR SUPERIOR IN FRENCH THAN IN ENGLISH you thought LICKING butts was good ??? you really thought that ???? AZIRAPHALE HERE SUGGESTS TO GRAZE BUTTS. TO NIBBLE THEM. TO EAT THEM. TO. MUNCH. ON. THOSE. BUTTS!!!! not just licking, guys. This is as serious step beyond licking. (oh yeah he should have said « botter » instead of brouter btw, which is really just kicking, fyi)

« moi je crois en la paix, pétasse ! » wow, language, pepper (fyi i think « pétasse » is far far worse than « bitch » even if it means roughly the same, pétasse is almost never used while bitch is rather common, so it’s a swear word +++)

Dagon sounds like she’s got a nasty cold. #GetDagonIbuprofen2K20

I can confirm that Crowley offers Aziraphale to not just stay at his place, but to move in with him. « tu peux t’installer chez moi si tu veux ». omg they were roommates.

Bad translation strikes again : i don’t know why, but the french dub doesn’t have the « tickety-boo » / « ça gaze » being referenced as Rampa / Aziraphale is being knocked down, which is… a real mistep. It was narratively significant and I’m quite mad the translators missed it.

The Jesse James explanation from Newt has become very nonsensical, instead of the neat and to the point pun « wherever I go I hold up trafic » we’re getting a circonvoluted « because it’s a crime to mechanic’s diligence ». I’m not judging that one too hard, I have no idea how to make it better, and that’s probably how it was translated in the book as well thirty years ago, but it definitely doesn’t have the same impact. On the other hand, it definitely IS a very bad joke that doesn’t even deserve a chuckle, so Anathema’s embarassement really matches the audience’s (aka mine).

OVERALL :

I wasn’t convinced by Crowley… I mean, Rampa’s voice at first, but as the nerdiness showed up it really grew on me. I still think that french dubs have often problems with some voice inflexions every here and there, and for instance in Rampa’s case it was when he was annoyed or frustrated ( at the Globe when complaining about horses and Shakespeare’s plays that aren’t comedies, and also when discussing Azirphale’s magic tricks, it’s like… there is a step between having the right amount of grumpy complaining and overdoing it that is overlooked. It’s overacted, it should have been a bit quieter imo. I don’t mean to criticize voice actors too hard either but as an audience watching french dubs this is a very recurring problem and it always feels off to me. It’s actually one of the main reasons I avoid french dubs whenever possible.)

I have a hard time judging Aziraphale’s voice dub because it clashes so much with both the idea I had formed with it when I read the book and Sheen’s delivery that I just… kinda filtered it. It was too high pitched for me, and too anxious (though for this last point I must admit it could be funny at times, but I’m not fond of this character portrayal). The rest of the cast was rather good, nothing to complain about. There wasn’t anything stellar either, but everything that needed to be conveyed was and it was professionnal. It was also very homogeneous, no voice really struck me as being way too bad or way too good compared to the others, so it was really consistant.

So I don’t have much to complain about overall despite a few wonky translations here and there, BUT there is one thing I felt very robbed of : Crowley calling Aziraphale « mon ange » happens only once, when giving a lift to Anathema, and I’m almost certain they translated it that way because otherwise the joke about Anathama mistaking them for a couple wouldn’t work. So, they were forced to make it that way. The rest of the time Crowley calls Aziraphale « l’angelot », and despite being literally translated by « little angel », it feels sarcastic more than anything else ( the « L’ » in front of « angelot » is part of the reason why, it creates some distance, the other reason being that this word in itself has a very corny vibe and people being affectionnate to each other wouldn’t use it as a term of endearment). So, that’s a shame.

I like the English dub much much MUCH better than the French, but the french wasn’t nearly as bad as I was expecting it to be. The voice actors and actresses were quite good, the dialogues mostly faithful and endearing despite a few really missed steps. It really had its moments. Props to brouter des derrières, that one was fantastic.

[incompletionism]

Hands On with... The Outbound Ghost

“Back after so many years?” booms a mysterious voice as we’re transported to an otherworldly realm, filled with glowing orbs that speed towards the titular spook of The Outbound Ghost, “I wonder how you’ve changed.”. Whoever they are, they could just as easily be talking about the Paper Mario series that inspired the game.

Originally an RPG spinoff of the core Mario games, the Paper Mario games soon became a strong series in their own right, characterised by witty dialogue and 2D sprites in a papery 3D world. As the series went on, the games began to move away from their stat-based RPG roots and closer and closer to puzzle/action/exploration hybrids.

This, plus the introduction of new and often intrusive gimmicks in each subsequent entry from Super Paper Mario’s flip mechanic on-wards, alienated a lot of the series’ original fans.

Fans of the first two (Paper Mario on the N64 and The Thousand Year Door on the Gamecube), have since taken matters in their own hands, most notably 2020’s Bug Fables, but with The Outbound Ghost’s Kickstarter coming to an end tomorrow, I thought it was time I took at this promising successor to TTYD’s throne.

The demo (Currently available on Steam!) begins with a car careening down a quiet country road at night. Suddenly, the screen cuts to black and we hear the shriek of tires before a ghost steps out of the flaming wreck.

A cute, blue-glowing 2D sprite that wouldn’t look out of place in a Paper Mario Ghost Mansion, the nameless ghost wears a simple, often neutral, expression and a little tuft of hair. This baby-faced apparition reminds me of Casper the Friendly Ghost just a tad, and the thick white borders around this and every other character sprite calls to mind the borders of stickers, which fits the paper theme well.

Although the first impression of it is consumed by fire, I have to say now that the world in this game is gorgeous. Each individual blade of grass wafts in the breeze and makes the world feel like our own, rather than a series of dioramas. Whether that’s going to be a bridge too far for fans of Paper Mario’s handcrafted world, I’m not sure, but it certainly means this would not run on the N64, and I have to confess that my laptop struggled at times, which makes me question how well it’ll run on the Switch.

That’s a shame, as The Outbound Ghost’s controls feel like they’re better suited for a console than a PC. Even though it uses the classic WASD/arrow keys and you have some kind of crystal that allows you to dash with the space bar, one glaring example of this was when equipping a shovel. Each of the four slots were at 45-degree angles, which was not the most intuitive thing to navigate with four directions, but would be a breeze with an analogue stick.

Also easier with more than four directions to move in are what I call the “faint and have an out-of-(non)body experience in a weird purple dimension where orbs and a mysterious voice just won’t leave you alone” sections. Two of these appear in the demo, and both of them award you with a Brave or Timid soul (represented by a yellow or blue puddle in your inventory) based on how many orbs you let hit you. This feels rather counterintuitive considering the bullet hell sections, which involve dodging projectiles heading your way as usual.

Fans of Danganronpa and Undertale will recognise the bullet hell mechanics well - you control an icon representing you (a mini silhouette of our spirit here) and do your best to dodge a series of obstacles coming your way. These take the place of turn-based combat in The Outbound Ghost and come between dialogue options that slowly fill the meter at the top of the screen.

The only example of this in the demo is a scene involving helping an Outbound resident through the stages of grief over her death. On each turn, you have the choice of three verbs along the lines of Insult, Console, and Explain to best respond to their current stage.

Common sense usually serves you well here - don’t insult an angry person to reason with them, for example - but the choices being coloured Red, Purple and Green does muddy the waters a little. None of the dialogue exchanged in this segment is actually seen, which does detach you from the impact of your choice, even if there’s only one right answer to progress.

I’ve been keeping things light on plot so far, but I’ll divulge a bit now. After you leave the aforementioned car wreck and head into the town of Outbound, you encounter the local (deceased) teen detective, Michael McFly, who suspects you of murdering the entire town some time ago.

You play as the accused ghost, who conveniently has forgotten everything about themself except their name, which is where you come in. As far as immersion goes, a lot of RPGs go the “amnesiac protagonist that you can name” route, but most offer a canon default name (think Chrono in Chrono Trigger) or easter eggs for certain names, neither of which I could find here. However, the ghost is referred to exclusively with they/them pronouns, so absolutely anyone can put themselves in the spectre’s proverbial shoes.

Outside of regular world traversal and picking up everything not nailed down, there are a couple of other mechanics revealed in the demo that I haven’t mentioned yet.

A couple of times, you’re faced with a locked door or gate and have to collect enough lockpicks to complete a slide puzzle, which involves getting cylinders of metal out of the way of a key so you can push it to the lock. Later puzzles involved tilting a 3D box (officially dubbed the girabox) to fit a square peg into its respective hole, so I imagine the full game will push puzzles even further.

Beyond that, star-shaped pads appear on the ground towards the end of the demo, allowing you to traverse the way back to the town with a spot of platforming. A Cards section can be found on the game’s menu, which will be part of the Spades n Souls minigame in the full game.

Over the course of 30 minutes, the demo introduced me to the majority of characters and possibly locations, but I have the feeling that a lot of the game will be spent fleshing out each of their backstories.

Utterly charming and a sight to behold, The Outbound Ghost is certain to make waves next year, but I do wonder which platform it’ll be at home on. Initially aiming for the Switch and PC, the lower technical capacity of the former and the unsuited control scheme of the latter do suggest that its stretch goals of PS and XBox will be the superior versions. But then, it is being ported to phones too, so hopefully I’ll be proven wrong when it releases.

The Kickstarter has a hair under a day of funding left to go, so jump in now if you want to support the project. Do you think this game will be the answer to the question “Where’s my Paper Mario?” or will the lack of traditional RPG elements alienate fans of the series?

[danceofsins]

ASHLEY WILLIAMS is a BISEXUAL MERCENARY that works with NEUTRAL (LINS) and some say HE looks awfully like RYAN REYNOLDS. The DEMON-WITCH HYBRID (FIRE) is 1213 years old and has been said to be CHEERFUL & OPTIMISTIC and CHILDISH & OBNOXIOUS. Let’s see what they bring to Maladh…

⇘ ⇘ ⇘  NAME: Ashley “Ash” Williams ⇘ ⇘ ⇘  AGE: 1213 ⇘ ⇘ ⇘  GENDER: Male ⇘ ⇘ ⇘  HEIGHT: 6 ft 2  (188 cm) ⇘ ⇘ ⇘  SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Bisexual ⇘ ⇘ ⇘  ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: Aromantic ⇘ ⇘ ⇘  SPECIES: Demon - Witch Hybrid (Fire) ⇘ ⇘ ⇘  PROFESSION: Mercenary ⇘ ⇘ ⇘  D.O.B. : 1st April 823

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FACTS

- Fluent in Gaelic, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Latin and Welsh - Is TERRIBLE at normal magic, basic spells are beyond him. - Illusion Magic on the other hand... He’s very adept - Loves to fight and does know various combat techniques.  - Favourite drink is a bubblegum daiquiri or candy floss Daiquiri (has a major sweet tooth) - Obsessed with Glitter and Skittes can be bribed with either. - is afraid of ducks ⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯

HISTORY It was in a brief period of history where Demon-Hybrids were encouraged. In the depths of Glencoe, the williams clan settled. They would actively summon demons to possess their women to then birth demon-witch hybrids. That was how their Father was brought into the world and how Ash and his twin Ross were brought in as well. The Williams had a lot of land. There they cultivated plants for potions and even kept magical creatures. The land was well protected and wanderers would get lost in the woods that surrounded their land. They did not have the best relationship with the rest of the witches that lived in Scotland at the time but they were self sufficient as a community. Still are to this day.

Ashley had a lot of expectations of being the oldest twin. He is expected to take over as family head. Have his own family and pass on the tradition. Ash was never a fan of tradition. Nor was he a fan of behaving. He skipped classes constantly and was dubbed the treickster in their wee community. No one was safe from his pranks growing up, and it was how he learned to use Illusion magic. He would also venture to nearby villages that had regular humans and would prank them too. This did not go down well with his father and he would come back to a beating. 

Eventually, when Ash was old enough, he left and took Ross with him. Though Ross was more sensible, he went with his twin to keep an eye on him. Though his father sent ment to track them down and drag them back. This has happened many times. Soon enough Ross took the hit and decided to stay. Hopeing that by having one of them maybe they can placate their father. This pissed Ash off and he was about to destroy the family home when Ross managed to stop him. Told him to see the world now that he couldn’t.

So Ash was on his own, moving from town to town living a vagrant life. Though at least this way he could be unapologetically him. His life has taken him many places and the thing he liked to focus on the most was fighting. He often got in fights for winding up the wrong person or flirting with the wrong person. So he learned to fight and found he rather enjoyed it. So travelled far and wide learning from those willing to teach him different combat skills.

Ross eventually called him to Maladh, a city where Ash did not need to hide what he was either. Ross has settled there with the family and though he knows Ash won’t patch things up with dad he wants him to be slightly more involved with his own family. 

[hwalovs]

Humanities Wings | San

Pairing; San, Reader Warnings; Mentions of gore and death, Attack on titan Au! San’s a baby boy, You’re a fat bitch oops Genre; Angst, fluff Word count; 2k Summary; San decides to drop in while you’re doing paper, taking it upon himself, he decides to bring up an event from the recent expedition. 

A/n; i wrote this randomly while re-watching attack on titan edits over bts’ Not Today. 

The sun from the large window behind you wasn’t casting light in as it once was, and the soldiers once in the training grounds below were inside the mess hall eating the same boring food they got everyday. 

Your back and neck hurt, pains shooting down to your legs and hands cramping from the continuous paperwork Hongjoong insists you have to do as the captain. Commander Hongjoong was a great guy, the perfect person to be called Commander, truly. He had a stern gaze, did what was best for the rest of the regiment, and always knew when to call it quits while on expeditions outside the walls. 

You were the captain of the Special Operations squad, a squad containing soldiers that were more talented than the others; stronger, faster, more intelligent during expeditions. Your squad was the first made, you always picked between the top two from the top ten soldiers fresh from training. It wasn't a surprise that you’d lose one or two members from your squad every expedition. Always having to add a new person or two every spring after the most major expedition in the winter. Between the 5 members on your squad, one was never killed, always making it back by your side with only a scratch or two. His name was Seonghwa, top of his class and extremely skilled in all categories. 

Being said Captain of the Special Operations squad, it made you extremely important in the regiment. Being dubbed ‘Humanities Wings’ and Hongjoong’s closest friend. 

The other squad leaders didn't mind not being on top, they were all ranked by talent, the lowest being Squad Wooyoung. Wooyoung and his squad focused solely on experimenting and collecting data on the titans that lurked outside the walls surrounding the cities. Above him was Squad Yunho, Yunho was a quiet, gentle giant. Being one of your close friends and always giving the best hugs, he always lost the most squad members while on expeditions, some leaving a mark on his heart more than others. 

Last but not least, the man that came a close second to you, was Squad San. San was dubbed ‘Humanity's Strongest Soldier’ and with good reason, he was once a criminal in the underground city, fighting everyday to live. You were the only one that was able to beat him in hand to hand combat, which made his ego deflate just a little every time. His squad barely had any casualties, maybe once every two years. He got to choose his squad members just like you did, but got to choose from the top ten, not the top two like you. 

Glancing to the top of your desk, there laid a large bulky yellow envelope. Inside contained the two patches from the fallen in your squad, you reached up and grabbed said envelope. Opening it and holding the two bloodied patches in your hand while leaning back in your chair. One belonged to a new recruit, she looked scared before the expedition, and screamed bloody murder while being chewed in half by a titan. She hesitated going to kill it, causing her own doom. The other belonged to a boy you picked a few years ago, you didn't think he’d die, you blocked off how he died in your memory. 

Leaning down and opening the last drawer on your desk, you dropped the patches in, letting them lay with the other patches that already occupied the space. Sighing, you grabbed an empty sheet of paper and began writing a letter to their families, saying how they served humanity strongly and bravely. 

A knock at your door took your attention away from your writing, saying a quiet and rough “Come in,” before looking back down. 

The sound of the door opening echoed throughout the room, clicking of the uniforms leather boots against the floor coming closer to you before you heard them sit down in a chair in front of your desk. 

“You’re going to permanently form your neck like that if you continue to sit like that,” You sighed, looking up and meeting eyes with San. 

“I cant write sitting up straight like you can, you idiot. Now, what do you want? I have paperwork to sign and letters to write and send out before dinner,” You replied back, looking over his attire. The light brown cropped jacket every soldier is required to wear is nowhere to be seen, most likely propped up on the back of his office chair down the hallway. The cravat he wears around his neck blends into the crisp white shirt he wore. Contrasting deeply against his pale, yet healthy, skin. Usually after expeditions, every squad leader is assigned a mountain of paperwork, taking their attention away from social events, like meetings with their squad, and food, causing the usual glow they give off to fade into a pale color. 

“Just came to check on you- after all, you are my favorite squad leader,” he says while giving you a wide smile. His pearly white teeth on display, you glared at him, lips turned down into a sneer. 

“I’m your captain, higher ranking, you better remember that.” 

“Oh, I remember. I just really, really, like to tease you,” he said, arm coming up to drape over the back of the chair, leg coming up to cross the other. You shook your head slightly, sighing out softly before leaning back down to continue writing. 

Some days, San would bring in a book and sit down on the sofa, which was positioned along one of the walls in your office. He’d sit and read until you were ready to go eat, you always thought nothing of it. Other days he’d come in with arms full of packaged sweets and two cups of tea, exclaiming how you needed to cook off and to replenish your sweet supply so he wouldn’t have to worry about his own supply. He’d drop all the sweet on your desk abruptly, yet carefully put down the two elegantly decorated cups filled full tea. Each time he brought a cup, it would be different for you, yet the same for him, always black tea for him. 

“I was worried about you this time, you know,” he broke the silence, speaking softly. The pen scratching against paper stopped suddenly, breath coming short. Never, ever did you like talking about expeditions. It was a waste of time thinking back to how your comrades died gruesomely, grieving over people who you weren’t close to. San notices when you stop, not bringing your attention back to him.

“You shouldn’t have gone after him, you know, you both couldn’t die. Seonghwa would’ve been fine-“ 

“He would’ve died if I didn’t do what I did, he would’ve been torn apart and devoured if I didn’t push him,” you glared hard at him, he knew he shouldn’t be talking about it, he knew that you always get harsh and close yourself off anytime he brings up a close death to young Seonghwa, you always managed to save him. 

“How do you know? Maybe he was luring it so he could make a clean kill, maybe-“ you cut him off once again,

“Wooyoung checked his gear when we came back, it was broken, must have locked up when he went in for the kill. If I didn’t do what I did, he’d be dead right now. My best- my top soldier would be dead, and I cannot have that,” you stressed out, finally looking up to San. His lips pursed, looking down to the floor and grimacing slightly at how dirty it was.

“I know you did what you thought was right, but it would’ve cost you your life. Don’t you see that? The regiment would’ve lost their best soldier,” San said, his voice rising slowly as he continued. You narrowed your eyes, leaning back once more. 

“And what if It did, hm? I bet you’d be damn happy if I was gone, at least you wouldn’t have to fight for my title anymore,” you sneered, voice staying level. Sans featured morphed then, eyes narrowing and mouth opening slightly while scoffing. He rose from the chair, slamming his hands down on your desk, a loud ‘bang’ resonating around the room.

“My god, (y/n), you really think this of about some damn title?! I almost had a heart attack when I saw you go after him, I almost lost you. And for the love of god, I am not fighting for your title. I think you rightfully deserve it, not me. I came in here to tell you that I was worried and I was happy you’re alive, but you’re always that bitch aren’t you? Making everything about everybody else,” he yelled, you sat in shock, San never yelled at you like this. 

“Let me worry about you for once! Let me care about you because I want to, not because we’re comrades.” He stated, pushing up from your desk. He ran a hand through his dark hair, pushing it back from his eyes. 

You felt your chest contract then, heart dropping at what he was saying. Your stomach did a few flips, taking in how his eyes were full of hurt and anger. Have you taken it too far this time? 

Silence filled the office, his gaze casted to the floor. Either he was trying to find something to say, or waiting for your reply. 

“You know I don’t want anybody to worry about me, not with our line of work, San” you said softly back, finally finding your words. He chuckled softly, hands finding his hips. He looked back at your, red beginning to rim his eyes. You felt a bolt of worry shoot down your body, mind blurry and feet getting cold from blood loss. 

“Then I guess I should’ve found a different line of work, huh?” He sounded so hurt, so lost. 

“What did you come in here for, San, really,” you spoke softly, the thought of being any louder scared you, for the first time something scared you. 

“I came to talk to you, about this,” he gestured between you both, “but it seems like you don’t feel any type of way I do,” voice cracking, San takes a step back. You stand suddenly, and his eyes shoot up to yours as if you suddenly screamed out. You rounded your desk at the speed of light and wrapped your arms around his middle. You could feel his breathing stop, he didn’t move. 

You and San, captain and squad leader. There were unspoken feelings from between you both, you did take note in it all, in all of his hints. From the way he glanced at you during meetings, the way he sorted the candy so that you got all the good kind. How his brows furrowed when you took it too far during training, how he seemed close to tears when he saw you get smacked out of the air like a fly on an expedition years ago. How he would be the one waking you up when you slept in, making sure you got the best looking bread and the hottest soup during meals. How he would offer to take some paperwork so you didn’t have to overwork yourself.

“You never know what another person feels, San,” you began, cheek pressed against his chest. 

“I didn’t say anything since I wanted to protect us both, I didn’t-don’t-want to start anything if it means one of us will get hurt in the end,” his check collapsed with a sob, taking in your rejection hard, beginning to pull away. You quickly tighten your grip, fear lacing your veins. 

“But that doesn’t mean I don’t feel anything for you, because I do. I feel for you as strongly as you feel for me, but the last thing I want is for you to grieve over me,” finally he wraps his arms around you, holding you tightly against his chest. 

“I could protect you, we could protect each other, we could make it work,” he pleaded, tear dropping from his nose to your cheek. You felt your eyes get hot, you never cried. 

“I just don’t want to lose you after this,” he whispered softly, leaning his chin on top of your head. 

You knew it was wrong, wanting to start something with him when the possibility of death was inevitable, but the never ending thought of having him, holding him, finally basking in the feelings you kept locked away in a cage so long, felt too good to let slip away once more.

“Okay” 

A\n; oops

[spinji]

50 Games in Quarantine (Part 2: My Busted Ass Nintendo DS)

Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded

WHOOOOO boy I can see why this entry in the franchise has been kicked down five stories worth of stairs by the community. Story-wise it’s…it’s Kingdom Hearts. It’s convoluted, it’s complicated, and it directly impacts the major entries in the series so study up. The way Kingdom Hearts is written has never bothered me because of how fun the gameplay is. BUT that is exactly where this game’s problem lies. This was when KH started getting a bit too cute with the skill tree system. It’s the DS so of course combat is going cramp your hands to shit. But you don’t get to be comfortable with any battle systems since ever world changes up either the boss fights or the entire level. The Wonderland boss took me TWO HOURS because I was still working out the controls for it. The cutscenes on my 1.5 remix is enough for me. 3/10

Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days

We’re not done with this series by a long shot, buckle up. While re:Coded is frustrating 358 is just kind of…dull. I do enjoy that we got a story with Roxas and the organization, but the mission system makes the game feel like a slog and extremely limit your exploration. Also, your level ups take up inventory space…. I’m get real fucking sick of your stat systems Nomura. 6/10

Cooking Mama

This may be one of the oldest DS games in my possession outside of the nintendogs game that came with the system itself. It’s old enough that my mother wrote my name on it in case it got lost. That’s how far we’ve gone back. Looking back on it now though…it’s pretty bare bones. Cooking each of the meals boils down to the same 12 minigames with a few more that only show up maybe twice in the whole game. It was great for me to relax with as a kid but now the game does not hold my attention to be much fun playing. 5/10

Boing! Dokomadake

Fucking uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh mushrooms. 3/10

Winx Club: Mission Enchantix

Okayokayokay! Hear me out here! This game is fucking great! I admit that part of that is nostalgia blindness because the 4kids dub of Winx Club is my childhood with season 3 being my favorite. I remember trying to track this game down for years after getting my paws on it through gamefly. When I finally did I didn’t put it down for entire weekend. A decade later and I just did the exact same thing! I do think you need the context of Winx Club for a game like this because not only covered season 3 and ONLY season 3 but it also cuts the story to ribbons with most plot points mentioned in a single dialogue box followed by a bit crushed clip from the show. The story mode isn’t all that exciting, I beat it on hard and only died to three endgame bosses. But the real gold is in the arcade games. Each game is an interesting take on its respective genre and works well for each of the characters they represent (Musa’s is a rhythm game, Techna’s is a big brain puzzle, etc) but just…stuff like needing to change between instruments in a rhythm game or a time-based match-3 game. You don’t see that often and when it comes to DS licensed games they did not need to go this hard. 10/10

[simonsaidthat]

First Time Reading All of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, 4th Best

Trying to catch up on JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure so that I can even the playing field with my friends, I’ve decided to list off which Parts I’d be genuinely interested in seeing the Anime versions of. So far my ranking includes:

8th Place: Phantom Blood (Part 1) 7th Place: Battle Tendency (Part 2) 6th Place: Stone Ocean (Part 6) 5th Place: JoJolion (part 8)

I said this one was a toss up between itself and JoJolion, but ultimately I think having a less bizarre continuity than Part 8 helped tip the scales in it’s favor.

Part 5:  Vento Aureo/Golden Wind

(Because this one is the latest to have an anime adaption, and I have at least one friend who has not finished watching the series, I’ll try to keep spoilers to an even greater minimum.)

One of the problems I had stated concerning Stone Ocean was “it’s reverence for Part 3″ trying to be a direct sequel to Part 3 or at least try to elevate the “Legacy of Part 3″, which burdened itself onto the story of Jolyne Kujo who had nothing to do with DIO or his posthumous plans. It isn’t even really about Jolyne reflecting on the relationship with her father. The entire story is kinda weighed down by the continuity of being a JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.

Part 5′s Golden Wind on the other hand strangely isn’t. It’s not trying to be a sequel to Part 3. It just... kind of ends up being another Part 3.

You’d think that that the story of Giorno Giovanna, the son of the major antagonist for 2 separate JoJo Parts would have a greater focus on his complicated legacy, being technically a member of the Joestar family. Or for there to be one character who had met DIO somehow recognize Giorno as the vampire’s offspring, resulting in a brief period of mistrusting the main hero.

But nothing really comes from being DIO’s son. There’s lip service to the audience about “Nature vs Nurture”, but ultimately as far as I can tell, the sole purpose of having Giorno be DIO’s son, is solely for the Audience’s benefit and for the Author’s justification of having a Joestar protagonist without skipping too far into the future.

And to be perfectly honest, Part 5 is all the better for it.

The lesson I learned through reading Part 6 was that too much continuity causes a lock-out for potential new readers if they just want to jump into any one of the individual 8 parts. So the less continuity there is, OR the less the story actively cares about the continuity, the quicker it’ll be to just enjoy the ride.

(References are safer and not the same as continuity).

As far as the Continuity of Part 5 is concerned, it starts with a cameo from the previous entry to serve as the point of view until the story is comfortable focusing in on the protagonist, then the cameo character is completely dropped, never to be seen again. Giorno is the son of DIO but his lineage is never meaningfully brought up in the story, and the Golden Arrows established in Part 4 as a means to grant Stands to individuals are brought back to justify an entire organization spread out across the country to have enemy Stand Users.

Incidentally the application of the Golden Arrows are fairly straightforward in Part 5, with a great “initiation” ritual that makes the organization feel grander, but I still think the Golden Arrows as a concept are a step in the direction of “over-thinking things”. 

(While there are explanations for Stand Powers in Part 7 and 8, the origin becomes less of a focus and people can “just have stands” for narrative expediency. I’m sure by Part 9 or 10 we’ll finally just have X-men “mutants”).

The last thing I’ll say about Continuity is that Golden Wind probably fairs best among the entire JoJo Anthology (second only to Part 2 being a direct follow up on the story of the Stone Masks and Vampires as established in Part 1), and even though there are few characters with direct connections to previous Parts, it treads through familiar enough ground to become probably “the best version of itself”, or at least the “best sequel series”.

What I’m trying to say is: Part 5 is an argument in favor of advancing the continuity of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure... but Part 6 is an argument against it, resulting in the Part 7 soft-reboot.

But even if Part 5 is the “Best version of itself”, maybe even the “best JoJo”, if we’re talking the culmination of all these stories from Parts 1-5; I don’t know if I liked any of the characters.

When writing about Part 2, I said that Joseph, Caeser and Lisa Lisa had the best group dynamic/personalities, and I said that Part 8 had my favorite Stand Powers, but I think Part 5 has the best “Team of Stand Users”. To be clear I’m not saying I like any of the individual members of the Hero Team, or that the Hero Team has a better dynamic than the Trio in Battle Tendency; but as a group, a gang, a unit, a party, an armed force, a team, the hero cast of Golden Wind might be the most strategically cohesive and complimentary group of mercenaries of all 8 JoJo’s.

Like most JoJo’s will have a dedicated healer in the Party, but we’ve also got 2-3 Fighters, 1 Extreme Heavy (that was so broken that the Author had to kick the character out of the story) and 2 different Support/Reconnaissance members with their own unique fields. 

They display the best visually engaging teamwork during combat, but outside of it I thought they were kind of “amusingly obnoxious”. Their dynamic/relationship to each other kind of reminds me of the O.G. Ninja Turtles from the 80′s Cartoon (this was probably the best compliment that I could have given them when it was sort of intended to be a criticism).

Also, and I feel like this is kind of a cheap shot, but I think their clothes are dumb. Granted Josuke of JoJolion is still the silliest looking JoJo, but Giorno is definitely a close second.

I’ll say this though, Part 5 character designs might be the most... “Araki”, of all 8 JoJo’s as well (lending further to the idea that Golden Wind might be “Peak JoJo”), and even I’m not entirely sure what that means. Like, all the Men have transitioned from being impossibly bulky to androgynous thin, everyone wears some degree of revealing clothing, their gunman in tiger pants looks like he’s wearing a ball of Ham on his head, it’s kind of distracting.

Of the characters that I might like, the closest I can think of is Bruno Bucciarati and Doppio, the former being the cool-headed, mentor type (the Piccolo of the group) and the latter for... okay I genuinely like Doppio, but he might just barely be spoilers for the production of the English Dub of Part 5, so I won’t say any more.

I like their pet turtle-and-living room.

I’m admittedly a little disappointed in the main villain though. He’s perfectly functional for getting the story where it needs to go, but I kind of wish there was more to him than what seemed to be just a reveal of what he finally looks like. And honestly outside of his hair colour, I wish the villain looked more like Trish, maybe even being a female villain or Trish herself. I don’t know, something to help justify why his paranoia locked himself away so completely that no one knew what he looked like, only for the audience to finally see his true form and... it’s just another dude. A JoJo, androgynous dude sure, but still just a dude.

Golden Wind might be the most Clever, most Cohesive chapter in the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Anthology. 

...it’s just not as fun as some of the other entries.

(Also could we maybe not have a stand that impregnates a woman to manifest a robot baby to attack the hero when your stand could instead be, I don’t know, a robot baby that attacks people without the r*pe?! Is that so hard to ask?)

[geneticmisfit]

TIMELINE. 

HIGH SCHOOL:

Freshman Year

-DECEMBER OF 2015 -Gains his powers after being bitten by a radioactive spider during a class trip to Doctor Curt Connors’ lab in Empire State University. -Spends the Christmas Break discovering and learning about his abilities, makes his First Suit out of some old pajamas.

-JANUARY 2016

-Being a kid and wanting to make a quick buck with his abilities, he enters a wrestling competition against Crusher Hogan.

-It’s the classic wrestling origin. Peter gets swindled out of money, a burglar steals money from the fight manager, Peter lets the Burglar go out of anger and spite for the manager. -Uncle Ben is murdered, Peter goes after the assailant and is horrified to discover it is the same Burglar he had let go earlier. -When you do the things that I can, but you don’t, and then the bad things happen, they happen because of you. -Guilt stricken, he realizes the importance of Power and Responsibility and starts to fight crime, initially stopping small crimes, petty robberies, etc.

MARCH TO JUNE 2016:

-Rumors of an Insectoid-Man spread quickly throughout the underworld, it is initially believed to be a Lie made by crooks who want to dodge blame, but more and more YouTube videos of a man in a red and blue pajamas doing extraordinary feats quickly kills that possibility. -At the recommendation of his teachers, Peter starts interning at Connors’ Lab in ESU, it allows him to get a closer look at the kind of spiders that bit him, and leads him to discover that the irradiated spiders are a project Connors is working on under the funding of Oscorp. -During his crime fighting, he unknowingly halts several of The Big Man’s jobs. -Frequently swings into and stops the crimes of Alex O’Hirn and Flint Marko. -He runs into his first Out of the Ordinary Bad Guy when he ends up fighting Stilt-Man, instead of going for his legs he just punches him out cold.

CIVIL WAR INCIDENT - JUNE 26TH 2016

This is where the first of the several big canon rewrites comes in. For starters, the Airport Fight happens in New York instead of Germany, and Tony does not recruit Peter for his cause or give him the new suit. What happens is as follows,

-Peter sees the news of The Winter Soldier’s attack on United Nations. ( For the purposes of this rewrite, let’s say Bucky gets extradited to the U.S. for interrogation and trial and he is held in the same SHIELD base Steve woke up from his coma or whatever ) -Peter and Ned argue about Spider-Man not going for Stilt-Man’s legs during their fight. -Hearing the news of JFK suddenly closing down and rumors of people spotting ‘Very Serious Government People’ , Peter puts the two and two together and leaves abruptly, heading to the Airport in hopes of ‘Auditioning’ for the Avengers, because that’s what you do when you are a 15 year old with superpowers. -Beginning of the airport fight and Steve and Tony’s argument happens the same, majority of the fight happens the same way. -Peter, as Spider-Man, jumps into the fray during the Line Up. He immediately swings to Tony’s side because Iron Man is the hero he idolizes the most at that point in time. -Tony and Peter banter, with Tony not wanting a kid there and Peter being a dumbass kid and wanting to impress Tony. -Peter does not fight Steve, he is only there to take down Bucky and Prove His Mettle as a superhero. -The entire sequence with Bucky and Sam versus Spidey happens as shown. -Seeing Giant-Man appear and grumbling himself about the whole Stilt-Man argument still, Peter realizes he can go for Scott’s legs to take him down and does the whole AT-AT takedown move. -Gets knocked back onto the ground like in the movie, Tony goes to check on him to make sure this dumbass kid didn’t get himself killed, seeing he is alive and well, Tony is impressed but he tells Peter to go home. -Bedroom scene occurs as a post-credits scene, it becomes less about Tony recruiting Peter to his side and more about figuring out what the deal with this Spider-Man Kid is, leaves the suitcase with the Stark Suit as he leaves, says they’ll be in touch.

HOMECOMING - END OF AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 23RD 2016 / SOPHOMORE YEAR

-Peter turns sixteen in August 10th. -The movie happens largely the same -a Film by Peter Parker and the Limo Conversation naturally doesn’t happen considering the afromentioned changes to Civil War. -Tony does not save Peter from drowning, Peter gets out of the lake on his own.     Reason for this change is that this scene makes Tony way controlling and uncaring towards Peter? Which, compounded by the following scenes, really paints Tony in an awful light. It also makes it more impactful that the next time, and thus the first time, Peter properly interacts with Tony since Civil War is in the direct aftermath of the Ferry Fiasco when Tony comes to collect the suit. They are then both valid in their arguments in that Peter has let the Stark Suit’s abilities get to his head and act way reckless than he should, ( Stark Suit thus serving the same narrative purpose as the Symbiote Suit ) but it also makes Peter valid in that Tony has been completely ignoring Peter ( at least on the surface / from Peter’s point of view ) until it was too late. -Rest of the movie unfolds as shown. -Toomes is Peter’s first proper Super Villain.

OCTOBER 2016 - MAY 2017

-Toomes’ arrest causes his Alien Weapons empire to fracture and for alien tech to be more readily available to the highest bidder ( In the movie it seems like Toomes really wanted the sales to be more gradual and under the radar ) -Shocker breaks away from Toomes’ crew and ends up joining the Enforcers, working for Hammerhead, who works as the Right Hand Man for The Big Man. -Spidey’s encounters with the Enforcers leads Peter to learn about the existence of The Big Man. -Phineas Mason is still at large, Peter dubs him ‘ The Tinkerer behind Toomes ’ toys ’ because he does not directly know who he is but highly suspects his existence. -A Mysterious Benefactor starts bankrolling experiments for Super Mercs, armed with the alien tech, with the, initial, goal of ‘distracting’ Spider-Man from the Finer details of The Big Man’s organization (if he’s too busy fighting Super Villains, he’d be too busy to stop Illegal Shipments ya kno). -Alex O’Hirn undergoes the procedure to become the Rhino, having the experimental alien armor fused to his skin, and only able to perspirate through his face. It is due to this fact Peter manages to take him down the first time, ‘ overheating ’ him to get him to pass out. -During this incident, Spidey gets Rhino to spill the identity of the Big Man, one L. Thompson Lincoln, aka Tombstone. -It is also during this time Spidey has his first run-in with Captain George Stacy. -He goes to visit Tombstone to tell him he knows about him, promptly gets his ass kicked and high-thwips it out of there.

THANOS INCIDENT - MAY 2017

Welcome to the Big Canon Rewrite Number Two, here, Peter does not go to Titan. First part of his appearance happens as shown, with Peter seeing the giant Q ship up in the sky and sneaking out of the bus to help Tony and co. fight the Aliens, but after losing Strange to the ship’s tractor beam, he stays on Earth and helps with the clean-up in the aftermath. Maybe even bumping into a few Defenders while doing so wink wink nudge. As a result, he does not get the Iron Spider-Man suit, sorry Marvel’s toy department.

ENDGAME - DATE UNKNOWN

Okay here’s the deal, it literally does not matter how long it has been since they’ve been blipped. Literally anyone important to a plot has been Conveniently Snapped, only reason there is a five year jump is so they can age Cassie so she can become Stature in Ant Man 3, and have Tony have a family for the Drama of it. Literally that’s the only reason, there is a reason why Far From Home makes a joke out of it. So for the purposes of sanity, let’s just say they were snapped throughout the duration of the summer and they conveniently get brought back at the beginning of the school year. -This means Peter is a part of the Final Fight but in his Stark Suit instead of the Iron Spidey suit, he also does not activate Instant Kill (why the FUCK would he, Russos!!!!!) I don’t care either way about the hug, so that’s up in the air, but he definitely does not cling onto Tony’s body lmfao nah. It is nevertheless very upsetting and near-traumatic for him to see someone die in front of him (again!)

JUNIOR YEAR

SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER 2017

-Peter is now seventeen. -And he’s got PTSD like a motherfucker lmfao. -Getting turned into dust and coming back has everyone rattled, so the Criminal Underworld is working overtime. - Captain Stacy comes to Midtown to teach about Criminology, and also to keep an eye on his kid considering the circumstances. -Silvio ‘Silvermane’ Manfredi, head of the Maggia, is also due to be released on parole by the end of the year, so various Mob factions are trying to prepare themselves. -As a result, schematics to make more Rhino-like people hit the market, Spidey and O’Hirn actually end up teaming-up together to destroy the schematics, resulting in a three way fight between them, Hammerhead, and the Manfredi mob. -Hammerhead’s recent repeated failures shakes Tombstone’s faith in him. -The Enforcers get fancy schmancy Combat Enhancement Suits, courtesy of The Tinkerer, and Spidey has to deal with them. -Hammerhead stops the Enforcers’ getaway attempt in secret, signaling a rift between him and Tombstone. -Manfredi is released right before Christmas.

JANUARY 2018

-The Gang War(tm) begins in full force. -Spidey’s hands are full navigating the powder keg of a situation, with Tombstone and Manfredi vying for control, with Hammerhead planning something behind the scenes.

FEBRUARY 14TH 2018 -Hammerhead arranges a meeting of the factions in Metropolitan Opera House, without Tombstone’s knowledge. -Once revealed, Tombstone does not take kindly to this disobedience. -Hammerhead reaches his breaking point and attacks Tombstone. -Silvermane decides to take both of them out to eliminate the competition fully. -Silvermane, in a mechanical combat suit of his own (because comics bebey) attacks Tombstone and Hammerhead, resulting in a three way fight. -Spidey arrives and has to fight the three of them. -After a long and exhausting battle, Spidey prevails, Silvermane is arrested once again, L. Thompson Lincoln is publicly revealed to be The Big Man of Crime, and Hammerhead is nowhere to be found. -Tombstone posts bail, but Captain Stacy tells Spidey that his crime empire is crippled and there is a power vacuum. One that a certain Wilson Fisk will take advantage of soon.

LATE FEBRUARY - JUNE 2018

-Spidey is basically doing clean-up duty in the aftermath of the Gang War(tm) -He is trying to find where Hammerhead is, but comes up empty. -All Spidey can find are the rumors that he went back to his old employment under the Maggia. -He takes down last of the known Manfredi fronts before preparing for his Europe trip (it’s the restaurant fight from the FFH trailers)

FAR FROM HOME - JUNE 2018 -Happens largely the way it is depicted in the movie -He does not have the Iron Spider Suit still, in case you forgot. -Smaller differences being Peter being pegged the ‘New Iron Man’ less because of his ‘Mentorship’ under Tony and more because people are just fucking desperate for a new Big Hero, which is where Mysterio comes in. -He sees Ben’s grave instead of Tony’s during the Mysterio Fun Tour of Trauma, Zombie Iron Man still comes out of it tho because Symbolism ( not because Tony is a new Uncle Ben figure, but because it represents Peter not always being able to save everyone, even though Tony’s condition was out of his hands.) -BIGGEST DIVERGENCE: Unless plotted, I generally DO NOT recognize Peter’s identity being outed. There are two options / variations I could go with                    -Peter IS claimed to be Spider-Man, but after a Movie’s worth of adventures, he enlists the help of either a skrull or Chameleon (Dmitri the Bus Driver in FFH) to have Spidey appear in the same room as Peter and re-establishes his secret identity.                    -Mysterio just brands Spider-Man as a menace and that’s that. In any case, this leads to..

SENIOR YEAR

SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER 2018

-Peter turns eighteen. -Branded as a menace, Spider-Man is now disliked and hunted by most authorities. -Captain Stacy, however, does not believe Mysterio and is one of Spidey’s few friends still left in the police force. -He also makes numerous remarks towards Peter and Spider-Man that suggests he figured out his secret identity on his own. -Anastasia Kravinoff arrives in New York with the intention of Hunting Spider-Man. -At the same time, Mac Gargan is hired by The Mysterious Benefactor to undergo the Super Merc procedure to hunt Spider-Man. -Kraven has her first encounter with Spidey, in which she manages to tear off a piece of his suit that she later uses to track his scent. -Mr Harrington’s class trip to Bronx Zoo is promptly ruined when Kraven shows up tracking Spidey’s trail. -The publicized skirmish in the Zoo attracts the attention of Gargan, now in a mechanical suit with a long, poison-tipped tail, stylized after Gargan’s favorite arthropod, which easily earns him the nickname ‘Scorpion’. -Spidey manages to escape, but barely. -It all comes to a head in New York Botanical Garden is a totally epic final showdown. -Maybe Rhino gets involved too and it’s a full on Survival of the Fittest in the jungle. -Peter gets stung by the poison tail but manages to shake it off. -He gets speared in the thigh at least once during the battle. -Scorpion and Rhino get imprisoned in the Vault, Kravinoff gets arrested as well but she posts bail and gets out scot free because she’s got Powerful Connections(tm)

JANUARY - MAY 2019

-Doctor Connors achieves a breakthrough on his Cross-Species formula -He tests it on himself, and initially achieves great results by regrowing his arm. -Over the following weeks, however, more and more side effects start to show by patches of green scales on his skin, increased aggression and hostility and occasional lapses in intelligence. -Around March, he has his first Lizard transformation. -Peter suspects it’s Connors, but he does not figure it out until April. -With each transformation, Connors stays as Lizard longer and longer. -I am basically ripping off the plot of the first TASM movie. -Peter and Gwen manage to synthesize an antidote. -Connors has a similar goal as to his movie counterpart, but he decides to Unleash the Lizard virus on top of Empire State Building. Because a) King Kong reference with Lizard climbing the antenna, and b) Connor going from Empire State University to Empire State Building, it’s a fun progression. -Spidey and Lizard fight on top of Empire State, with George Stacy coming to Spidey’s aid. -Spidey manages to administer the antidote to the Lizard, reverting him back to Connors who retains no memories of his actions as the Lizard. -Stacy gets injured by Lizard and before succumbing to his injuries, tells Peter to keep Gwen safe and ‘out of it’. -Lizard’s true identity remains unknown to the public, but Connors decides to relocate his family to Florida to get away from the noise of the city. Before leaving, he tells Peter to seek out his old colleague Otto Octavius if he wants to further his studies.

END OF MAY 2019

-Peter Parker graduates Midtown School of Science and Technology. -He applies and is accepted by Empire State University. Peter does not consider any other college as he wants to stay in New York for obvious reasons.

FRESHMAN UNDERGRAD

SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER 2019

-Peter is nineteen. -He starts his studies in ESU -He is still not the Most Popular -Peter reconnects with Harry Osborn (they are Old Childhood friends and Harry used to be in Midtown for the first year but then he went to Europe, as you do.) -Spidey is still branded as a menace and hunted, though not as ferociously as before as the public’s opinion starts to turn positive ever so slowly. -The Mysterious Benefactor has Alistair Smythe build robotic spiders to hunt and slay the Spider. Like Spider Slayers. Catchy name huh. -Peter has various encounters with Slayers while trying to figure out who is behind them -He eventually discovers it’s Alistair Smythe and tracks him to Oscorp. -Smythe unleashes the Ultimate Spider-Slayer, The Black Widow to try and stop Spidey once and for all. -Fight spills to the power plant, an Oscorp employee who is currently working on the plant, Max Dillon, gets caught in the crossfire and gets electrocuted. -Spidey manages to take down Smythe, Dillon is hospitalized. -Norman Osborn publicly denounces and distances himself from Smythe ( he’s The Mysterious Benefactor if you haven’t caught on yet ) -Norman profits both from making Super Mercs and Spider-Hunters for various factions behind the scenes, and for building housing units to hold said Super Mercs and Spider-Hunters, Vault is his creation. -He is also a terrible dad, but he does genuinely care for Harry, go figure. -Harry starts taking Gloublin Green, an experimental enhancer, to boost his academic and athletic life, as his body is regularly failing due to a hereditary disease (NOT the Goblin disease, the one Harry’s mom had in the PS4 game) -Max spends Christmas in the hospital and gradually transforms into Electro. -Black Cat drops in to give her Christmas Greetings by saying the mob is salvaging the parts from Spider-Slayer fights to re-arm themselves, also notifies him to the existence of a new Big Man consolidating power. -Peter thinks it’s Hammerhead, the only loose end from the previous Gang War, and starts his investigation into him. -Peter discovers Hammerhead leads the Maggia now, having quickly climbed through the ranks after the fallout of the last Gang War.

JANUARY - MAY 2020

-Harry joins the ESU football team, his performance enhanced by The Green. -Electro is Born and he’s Angry -He blames Smythe for his condition and tries to attack Oscorp, not knowing that Smythe is imprisoned. -Spidey arrives and fights him, fight eventually spilling to Times Square -Is it obvious I’ve started ripping off TASM 2 yet or.... -Electro is arrested and sent to Ravencroft for rehabilitation. -The news of a new Big Man starts making the rounds. -Harry’s Green Juicing gets bad, he starts blacking out.

SOPHOMORE UNDERGRAD

SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER 2020

-Peter is twenty. -He starts interning for Otto Octavius after Doctor Connors’ suggestion. -Flint Marko returns after a long absence in the streets, Spidey learns that Marko left the life of crime when he fell in love and got married, but returned back into it once he learned his baby was born with a disease and he needed the money for surgery. -Bet you didn’t expect me to rip off Raimi in this. -Marko is offered money to undergo a Super Merc experiment of his own, inspired by the Elementals Mysterio faked back a few years ago. Experiment uses bio-electricity generated by Electro, but it goes ‘wrong’ and Marko is turned to dust. -Sike he can control it, he’s Sandman now. -Spidey and Sandman fight, once Peter learns of his motives, he tries to get him to stop. -Marko is told to stop the movement of an oil tanker so the new Big Man can siphon it dry. -Spidey and Marko fight on the tanker, tanker explodes, Marko expresses remorse for he only wanted the money and not to hurt anyone, so he helps usher the ship crew to safety and contains the explosion, turning into glass due to the heat. -Sandman is presumed deceased, but he survived and just blew away gently in the wind. -Maybe he’s out there somewhere who knows.

JANUARY - MAY 2021 -Norman discovers Harry’s Green Usage, he gets Harry to stop. -Stupid boy drinking the Green instead of inhaling it like his dad did I mean what -Harry discovers the Green exacerbated the progression of his illness. -Spidey meets Yuri Watanabe, who is the lead detective and later Captain who is after the Big Man and the Mob. -Peter discovers the identity of the actual new Big Man, it’s Wilson Fisk, quickly filling the power vacuum after Tombstone’s defeat. -Spidey and Fisk fight, with Fisk seriously injuring Spidey and him having to swing away.

JUNIOR UNDERGRAD

September - December 2021

-Peter is twenty one. -As Harry’s illness progresses more and more, he and Peter’s friendship is strained, Peter is unaware of the illness.   -Norman starts winding down Super Merc experiments as he turns his focus into curing Harry. -He also readies for a mayoral run because he’s nothing if not a multitasker. -Harry wonders if Spider-Man’s abilities can cure him, wants a bit of his blood, Spidey is like ‘ew no wtf’ -Great Harry hates Spidey now. -Desperate, Harry springs Electro out of Ravencroft to sic him on Spidey and make him bleed. -Electro is like ‘Sure’ but once freed, he immediately goes to the Vault to try and kill Smythe. -You just can’t trust bio-electrical beings nowadays. -Spidey fights Electro in the Vault. -Electro cuts the power to the Vault and releases a bunch of inmates, but Spidey stops him before he can cut the power that holds the more super powered inmates. -Electro is imprisoned in the Vault.

MARCH - MAY 2020 -Yeah Peter had a quiet winter for once can you believe it. -Norman is elected mayor of New York, using his role in the building of the Vault to boost his approval ratings, motherfucker was playing the Long Game. -Norman revives his old genetic experiments to find a cure for Harry. -Devil’s Breath experiment is resurrected. -Harry’s condition worsens, Norman decides to send him to ‘Europe’ to heal. -In truth, Harry is in Oscorp in ‘stasis’. -Spidey’s attention turns yet again to the rising gang activity, he channels his focus into taking down Fisk.

SENIOR UNDERGRAD

SEPTEMBER 2020 - MAY 2021

-Pete turns twenty two. -He spends most of the year working on his thesis like a good nerd. -Spidey is occasionally tipped toward Fisk fronts by a Mysterious Goblinafactor -Norman wanted to bust into the Crime Scene being the Goblin and taking over the Big Man’s turfs but Fisk beat him to it so he has to be content with just being the Mayor for the time being -Goblins am I right. -He’s also the one who supplied Silvermane with his own armor. -Also the one who maaaay have broadened the rift between Hammerhead and Tombstone by sabotaging Hammerhead’s plans behind the scenes. -He is the Big Man behind the Big Men if you will. -Anyway back to Peter -Turns in his thesis, graduates ESU. Strength of his thesis is what convinces Otto to have Peter also come into work with him in the Brand New Octavius Industries. -Norman is content to just play the Mayor and let Fisk be as Spidey and Yuri gather more and more evidence.

POST-GRAD / INSOMNIAC’S SPIDEY STUFF -Events of the game happen broadly the same -Fisk is taken down, Mister Negative enters the scene, Devil’s Breath Incident happens and Spidey gets his ass thoroughly kicked by Sable, etc. etc. -Otto turns into Ock. -Ock facilitates the Vault Breakdown (MCU got a Raft up and running and it ain’t in NYC sooo, Vault it is) and forms the Sinister Six. -However instead of Vulture being part of the Sinister Six, it’s Kraven. She’s back for a proper rematch. -Unless plotted, May does not die from exposure to the virus, she just gets really messed up and hospitalized, but she gets cured later. -Events of the DLC happen largely as shown as well, Hammerhead techs himself up, Yuri goes Wraith, Sable kicks Spidey’s ass again but also grows a Heart. Aw. -Osborn resigns in disgrace, but as luck would have it, Fisk and Li’s arrest leaves a nice Goblin-shaped hole in the criminal underworld for Gosborn to fill. -Norman discovers Harry’s ‘cure’ is sorta sentient.

WILL GORMAN GOSBORN FINALLY FACE OFF WITH SPIDER MAN? WILL SPIDEY LEARN THE REAL MASTERMIND BEHIND EVERYTHING? WILL HARRY GET GOOPED? WILL PETER FINALLY DISCOVER WHY KIDS LOVE THE TASTE OF CAP’N CRUNCH?

ALL THAT AND MORE, NEXT TIME ON, THE SPECTACULAR ADVENTURES OF THE AMAZING SPIDER MAN!