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khunyuki · 5 months ago

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"I am not going to fall in love, Yuu. Not until we find a way home"

Sypnosis: You made up your mind not to fall in love the moment you arrived at Twisted Wonderland with your bestfriend, Yuu. With plenty of responsibilities on your shoulders in both worlds, do you even have time for romance? At least that's what you thought... Until a certain someone's actions caught your gaze.

Oneshot Pairing/s: Idia Shroud x reader

Note/s: My no. 1 fav Idia <3 I love youuuu

Masterlist: TOC

As a magicless student at an all-boy's school like Night Raven College, there are a lot of things you can't do nor can't relate to. The very fundamental thing in this world is magic and that's something you don't have. Being unable to use magic in a magic school has more cons than pros but can you complain? No cuz being in NRC is the only way to keep you, your bestfriend and monster cat safe. That's why it comes as a surprise to you when you found out that there are a lot of people who can't use magic themselves. It's part of the norm so you feel at ease and confident enough to face challenges you normally don't encounter. Magic isn't everything as humans can always adapt to whatever situation they face.

Be it in Twisted Wonderland or your world, there's something that will never change. The inventions created, interests shared, hobbies formed, and many more. It may deviate from your own world but it is essentially still the same. While you can't relate to using magic in your everyday lives, can't properly attend classes like flight, nor can you use it to protect yourself and your friends, there's still something you know you can relate to.

*ping**ping**ping*

Your phone chimed repeatedly as someone seems to have barraged you with text messages. You turned it on to see the person you have plans with that day, your senpai, Idia Shroud.

Gloomurai: Y/N-ssi, raid starts in 10. wer r u?

Gloomurai: come over already

Gloomurai: hurry up

Gloomurai: gonna to start w/o u if ur 2 slow

You looked at the time on your phone, 4:51pm. One minute has already passed so you gotta run. You have plans to play that popular MMORPG at his room where you can use his spare computer.

Nickname: okiokii

Nickname: running as fast as I can

You typed as you literally ran as fast as you can from your initial location at the courtyard to the hall of mirrors so you could get access to Ignihyde. You take twists and turn without getting lost as you always go there to hang out. Once you arrived, you entered without knocking as you know you're the only one he's expecting aside from Ortho.

"Hey, Idia! I arrived in...7 minutes. Wow that's a record"

You cheered as you weren't late yet panted from the sprint. You greeted the owner of the room who was sitting in front of his own pc. There you could see his bright blue hair burning eternally so clearly in the darkness of his room. He turned to face you and pointed at the desktop beside him.

"I already booted the game in your pc"

"Really? Thank you~"

You sat beside him and true to his words, your game is indeed open. Your character can be seen standing besides his inside the screen.

"No prob"

He pulled the strings of his hood as he tried to hide his face from you. While he can hide the blush on his face, he cannot hide the pink tinting his hair. As you started the raid, you couldn't help but think.

Should you try to get to learn Idia more deeply?

Introducing Idia Shroud

Idia Shroud is the introverted housewarden of Ignihyde. After arriving in Twisted Wonderland, you immediately searched for animes, mangas, and games unique to that world. Due to your immense love, you decided to approach him out of your own volition with the help of his little brother, Ortho. He thought you were one of the normies pretending to like anime but you soon became close friends when you expressed everything you know with the same excitement real otakus have.

Your Relationship

Your first IRL interaction is at the board game club. It was awkward for him but you didn't care because he was entertaining you back. You soon became inseparable as you two are often in your own world. He even went as far as to set up an old spare pc so you could play together at the comfort of his room. When it comes to your interests, it was only you two who got along so it wasn't a question how fast you became the bestest of friends.

Observations

It's probably a month after you arrived at NRC when you met. You just finished adjusting to your now life, hastening the process by encountering your very first overblot. You noticed him as soon as you found out about him that you didn't care about what he thinks of you.

Listed below are things you find interesting about him:

Idia has a unique personality

Idia has been frowned upon by people due to his interests in anime and have developed a sharp tongue in his own defense. You could definitely empathize with him regarding that as back in your world, you have also faced challenges due to your interests. You chose to keep it to yourself at the start but have learned that you shouldn't let other people's words bother you. That's why you could understand his defensiveness when you tried to get close to him at first.

He's always so confident behind the protection of his floating tablet or the screen. He would say sassy remarks, insults or whatever is on his mind but when you meet face to face he couldn't even speak a word. You knew he was suspicious of you for trying to get close to him but your relentless pursuit made him crack. He'd berate you for the wrong information you share and correct it. He'd either be rapping his words or muting it so low on he can hear it.

As time passes by, no longer would he say such mean words to you. He's always excited to hear the continuation of the animes you've watched from your world. He would even unleash his keyboard warrior when someone tries to berate you. To others, he may seem weird or creepy but he's actually really kind once you get to know him.

Most of the time, he's pessimistic about himself so you would always tell him otherwise. Even if what he says are true, you still like him and want to be his friend. You'd do your best to comfort him by being by his side and not judging him. Idia isn't a people person nor does he know how to comfort others but if you're not feeling well, he'd try his hardest to make you feel better in the way you can. Like when he offered you to play games with him to release all your stress or simply watch your favorite series together. He won't ask you what's wrong and you appreciate it as he gives you the space you need.

Idia gets flustered really easily

Idia doesn't believe in the compliments you throw his way but when he does, he'd be a blushing mess. As his friend, you didn't like to see him so pessimistic so you'd compliment him whenever you can. All of it are genuine though as you really does think he's a great person that deserves to hear good words.

The way he easily turns red makes you want to tease him. You won't tease him by lying or insulting him, you'd tease him by saying great things about him just to get a reaction. You'd praise him for the little things like when he wins a game he's been grinding for a while. You'd do anything just to see his face, ears and hair turn pink once more.

Idia seems to give you special treatment

You could see this in the way he treats you differently from the others. Mainly because you're close friends that secretly like each other (you admit this but won't act on it). The treatment becomes even better due to you and Ortho getting along really well. You know how harsh Idia's words can be to others and it's in great contrast to his gentle interactions with you. Most of the time, you'd be the only person he'll talk to in the room which others don't really like as he takes most of your attention away. He's definitely smug about it.

If your friends invite you to something you know he'll like, you'd invite him as well. If he doesn't agree, you'll tell him the contents of your trip once you get back. If he does agree to join, you'll keep your attention on him so he won't be left out. If he's feeling unwell, you'll take care of him and move him away from crowds. So he'd repay you by paying for all your expenses for that trip, even the souvenirs or merch that you want.

He knows of your inability enjoy the things you really want to do due to the financial constraints of Ramshackle. That's why he specifically built a pc setup in your dorm and his room just for you as a gift. In your dorm so Yuu and Grim can also use it, mainly for academic purposes, and in his room so you could play together since his internet connection is better. He'd even go as far as to lend you money so you could pull for your favorite gacha banner, or gift you those expensive armors in matching pairs for your characters. It's a bit too much for you as you felt like you're taking advantage of him and his feelings so you reject it but then you'll suddenly see the thing you have your eyes on and he'll make an excuse saying it's your advanced/belated birthday gift.

Idia's intelligence

This is definitely one of the your favorite things about him which leaves you in awe every single time. You remember how he got offered an internship by Olympus Company and how he's being offered by other sponsors for his genius. His talent and expertise in engineering and gaming makes you admire him. Also how he made Ortho when he was just 16, something so complex and hard that you thought many people needed to work on was something he did by himself. You are definitely mindblown by his talents. Add to that when he told you the reason he's allowed to stay in his room during classes as he's practically in charge of NRC's security.

Dilemma

You knew that from the moment you heard about him and sought him out that you will like him. You can clearly see how he likes you too everytime his hair turns pink around you. The two of you have this sense of comradeship and understanding you cannot find with others. Your interests are aligned which brings you so much joy in this world.

If you weren't trying to go home, you would've made the first move already but unfortunately that wasn't an option just yet.

You decided to just keep these feelings to yourself as soon as you realized it. Even if it was unfair to him, all because you like him yet couldn't pursue him.

Conclusion

It's been months since you became friends with Idia. Your blatant interest in him was something you try to keep to yourself yet still uncontrollably express. You like him so much that when you saw him just standing so defeated, like he just accepted that he cannot change anything. That he'll be stuck at Styx forever, his curse has no cure, his brother lost, his friends aware of what he's done, him being all alone in this world. You hated it.

Yuu, Grim and the other kidnapped overblotted boys were finally starting to leave the underworld after giving him words of encouragement, expecting him to come back to school soon. You stayed behind to talk to him, getting closer to his lonely figure.

"The rest are leaving. You should go with them"

His voice that resorted to muttering again hurts you, as you can feel the pain hiding behind it. You took his hand in yours and squeezed it, wanting to share your warmth even just a little bit.

"I will wait for you Idia"

You gave him the gentlest smile you could muster as you gazed tenderly at his eyes. His eyes moistening at something he feels like he doesn't deserve. Your affection was overwhelming and he craves it. It hurts but he loves it at the same time.

"So you have to come back to me"

You leaned forward to kiss him on the lips. It was just a peck that lasted for a few seconds yet felt like eternity. You pulled back and hugged him tightly to show that he wasn't alone. You could feel him trembling as he also clung to you, not wanting to let go but you have to.

"I'll see you at school"

You let go of him and started to leave, following the rest who went first, giving you two privacy. You could see it in his eyes how the gears have turned where he has something to look forward to. He touched his lips with his fingers, disbelieving that you just kissed and hugged him. You were there waving him goodbye excitedly at the premise of meeting him again.

He has to go back. Because you'll be waiting for him.

It's a promise

=•=•=•=•=•=•=•=•=•=•=•=•=•=•=•=•=•=

Note/s: I didn't seem to do well even though I love him so much😭 I'll do better next time. Anyways is this an observation or a drabble cuz it's mixed😂 Pls give me ideas🙏

#twisted wonderland #twst #disney twst #twisted wonderland x reader #twst x reader #twst idia #idia shroud #twisted wonderland idia #idia x reader #idia shroud x reader #yukikhun

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probablydidrpgideas · 4 months ago

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hi! maybe not what you usually reply to but, question about how to navigate difficult players when I (DM) have DID.

2 out of my 4 players are really stubborn when it comes to which kind of characters they want to bring to the table, and they tend to recycle their characters a lot - something that's really frustrating for me, because it makes me feel like my campaigns aren't worth making a brand new character. they want to bring characters I don't think are really fit for the campaign but won't budge

now, most of this is my problem with not being able of regulating my emotions, but it also comes to my DID. dissociative amnesia makes it really hard for me to even remember what they want to bring to the table, some alters have different opinions and inner fighting is fairly common, especially because some alters are introjected from the campaigns I'm currently bringing so they have very strong opinions on how to do it.

I don't know if you have some thoughts about it but I'll appreciate anything!

Hey! Thanks for the ask. Not used to those here, lol.

Now, prefacing that I do not know how your DID works, nor how your campaign/their characters work...

It sounds like you might need to work more on yourself than on your friends. And I do NOT mean that harshly in the slightest.

Those strong opinions are valid -- lord knows I get very particular about how I run my campaigns, and I have found so much success from working with my fiance on duet campaigns where I'm the DM and they're the player. But the issue is... D&D is not a game with a Ruler and Players; it's a game with multiple players, with one who is In The Know.

You're not in control, and that's something that has to be acknowledged as a DM. You know the story -- the characters, setting, goals, etc -- but you are not the story writer. Or at least, not alone. The other players are the ones who determine how the story goes, and you collaborate.

That has been a really hard thing for me to accept, honestly (particularly when I was a player -- @probablyquestionablerpgideas has some horror stories from college of how I acted when I felt like I didn't have agency over my character. Therapy has also done me wonders for my actions as both a player and a DM and I cannot recommend it enough if that's something accessible to you). D&D is collaborative. Your players are there to write the story with you -- however that may look.

So, for instance: you believe their characters don't fit into the story well. So make them fit. What would drive these specific characters to be in this campaign? Plan that with them. It's not that your friends aren't dedicated enough to your story; it's that they have characters that they love, and they want to share those characters with you again, and again, and again. Just in new situations! So, find ways to make it work.

That also doesn't mean completely bending over backwards to fit their character someplace they don't belong. But work together on it. If someone comes to the table of your space cyberpunk story with Dresil Throgdour the Noble Background Paladin Dwarf of Torm, that's clearly a bit of a shock... But what if Dresil is an NPC from the latest hit MMORPG that, through a mysterious computer virus, has taken real form and must find his way back home to fulfill his quest? That is a far better compromise than, "No, that character doesn't fit, you should make a better one." This gives the player the chance to use a character they love, while it gives you the chance to flex your story-skeleton-building. It's a win-win.

The other benefit of this is about the memory. It's pretty easy to forget Generic Elf Noble Paladin of Torm. It's a lot harder to forget MMORPG NPC who has been sucked out of his life and only has a few dialogue options because he's still learning how to talk without his coding. It creates a far more rich landscape of characters.

Lastly, please communicate with your players so they know what's up. Not necessarily that you have DID -- they do NOT need to know your disorder, nor do you EVER need to disclose that -- but an inconsistent DM is frustrating, to say the least, as much as an inconsistent player would be. Even just explaining, "Hey, just so you all know, I really struggle with my memory, so it would be helpful if you all could help keep track of things like important character details you want me to use, or even just tracking which characters you've met." Be kind to yourself! You're a traumatized person who's been through a lot. You deserve some kindness and are worthy of compromise on their parts, too.

And I wish you luck on general DID things like working on better communication and compromise with your alters. My parts and I have gotten a LOT better in that regard, but I'm one of the lucky ones with fairly good communication that we honed for fucking years. Tips and tricks:

Notes. Notes everywhere. So many journals.

Figure out what make your alters lash out and fix that for them. Turns out, one reason our persecutor was so judgemental and hateful fucking constantly (other than, yknow, trauma) was that she didn't have any fucking clothing of her own. Getting her an outfit for her to wear when she was fronting made things infinitely better all around, because it was one less thing to argue about.

When you can't fix the problem (no, we won't get surgery to make us look different, parts), find work arounds (but we will happily get a binder and packers and boxers).

That's just a little bit of guidance. I hope any of that helps. Good luck DMing!

#did #d&d #dungeons and dragons #dissociative identity disorder #cdd #complex dissociative disorder #ttrpg #rpg advice #asks #anon

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northwest-cryptid · 18 days ago

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Mabinogi is a game plagued by veteran players saying shit like "why are no new players signing up? The game must be too complex!" While at the same time perpetuating the most toxic "community" I've ever seen full of "guild interviews" and shit that turn the game into a social nightmare and practically a second or maybe even third job for any regular casual person who just wants to enjoy an MMORPG. The culture has become so much and I don't say this to just vent, I say this because I've been saying for a long time that there needs to be a change in the way the mabi community outwardly presents iself; because I DO know some chill cool people in the community; but not nearly as many as the toxic people. So fuck it, I am going to dedicate myself to raising those voices, being the change I want to see; and hopefully being able to help some people get into what is honestly a fantastic game with one of the WORST communities I've ever seen if I'm being entirely honest.

Here's the one thing I really want to say about all of this though, if you read/hear about any of the dumb shit I say players do; and you think "I have literally never done any of this nor do I think like this??" Great the shoe doesn't fit, don't wear it; you're not one of the bad eggs then! That's good and trust me when I say you'll probably come up when I talk about the people who I actually think make this game and community worth being a part of. Because yea there ARE good, chill people out there. However I cannot overlook the absolute entitlement of the bulk of the playerbase because "Not All Milletians" are weird about this game.

If you think I'm being dumb about this I need you to consider that, in 2024:

a player (friend of mine) was approached about being new, upon confirming they were new they were given some mid-high end gear and gold; only to be told they were "indebted" to a guild because they accepted said gear. They were then told if they just blocked/ignored the individual that they'd be reported for scamming them. A new player who doesn't know any better being told that they'll be reported and banned because they are "indebted" to people who gave them free shit is fucked up, especially to tell them they have to work off their debt by joining a guild and participating in end game raids and shit? What the fuck.

I was approached personally and asked if I played the game "religiously" when I said I really enjoy the game and play often, but wouldn't put it that far; I was told that I wasn't worth the waste of time to even talk to. Because I don't take the game seriously enough if I don't "play it religiously." Yea alright.

I've had players new and old who insist on being "right" about the meta, and thus unprompted and unasked; will info dump about mechanics I understand fully as someone who has played this game literally since the NA beta. I politely explain that I know this and didn't ask for a lesson; only to be told I'm being rude because I should be grateful to be taught how to play the game. Again, I didn't ask. I cannot emphasize the condescending tone used to explain mechanics. Mechanics I didn't even get wrong? Nor that were even apparent for what we were doing?

I was referred to as an "archer fag" by a stranger for saying I enjoyed Alchemic Sharpshooter.

I saw a post on tumblr where a player literally said, in the year 2024 that "our guild is closed..." which is fine, but then... "but another guild who's friends with ours has interviews right now!" As if this is just a normal everyday thing that is sane for an MMORPG.

I joined a guild on an alt where I didn't explain to anyone that I'd played for as long as I have, and they; without talking to me about it at all paired me off with one of the other members of their guild for a "mentorship program" where I was to do weekly shadow missions and dungeons with this "more experienced player" to learn the game. This would have been fine if it was something I asked for or even wanted; but again unprompted; I didn't even know the guy they decided to pair me off with.

Upon joining most guilds I've been instructed to join discord servers and "be active in the discord server at least once a week or we will kick you." Your guild, your rules sure; but come on man I just want to play an MMO.

Like, this is the new player experience? We're all on one server now, and when I go looking for people who are welcoming to new players I find a lot of recruitment for guilds and "rush to the late game" type stuff. I find nothing for casuals, I find next to nothing for chill people who just want to enjoy an MMO. The community around Mabi is terrifying, and worse off; I literally have been told I'm "suspicious" because I will openly and enthusiastically engage with NEW players but I tend to be fearful and stay away from veterans who I don't already know. Can you blame me when so far my experience with other long time players has been so bad?! I hate that you have two options, you either silently put up with the way a lot of veteran players act; or you get ostracized and shunned for "being a hater" or whatever if you speak out about the problems with the community.

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5point1--blog · 6 months ago

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what doesn't kill me gives me exp

introductory writing sample — cw: blood, violence

"Kafka, it's almost day reset. If I don't get my dailies done in the next ten minutes, I won't be able to claim the rewards." There was a whiny undertone to the young woman's complaint. The Stellaron Hunters had been out on a mission all morning and afternoon, and it was now system time 16:48:21. Part of being a hacker and a gamer was having a good memory; a certain amount of bandwidth in Silver Wolf's head was taken up to memorize the times associated with reward resets in her games. System time 17:00:00 was rapidly approaching, with not a second to waste. Surely, Elio's script could accommodate a measly few minutes to speedrun daily commissions?

Of course, nothing was stopping Silver Wolf from spending lavishly on ingame currency to make up for whatever she might have missed, were the day to roll over. However, to her, it was about the principle of things: keeping up her daily gaming streak to get the max amount of rewards, and feeling like you actually earned your gacha pulls. What's the fun of tossing exorbitant amounts of money at a game she would eventually beat in totality and grow bored of immediately? It's the challenge and the effort that matters. Funnily enough, this line of thinking also aligned to her view of life as a whole. Life to her was a game, and she'd long since maxed her level on Punklorde before Elio found her. Now, being able to traverse countless worlds and meet millions of NPCs and likeminded gamers meant she was living the dream.

System time now read 16:49:51. Silver Wolf did not even wait to consider Kafka's response, nor did her eyes peek up at the chaos ensuing before her (though she did wish Sam and Blade would pipe down a bit; her wireless earbuds were out of charge and all the combat noises in real life were drowning out the OST to her game). It's not like she could have exactly helped with the brute force work anyways - that was not Silver Wolf's expertise. Her deft fingers rapidly tapped across the screen of her phone, equipped with state-of-the-art processor to make switching between games and running multiple games within the screen easy. AFK daily rewards, collected; MMORPG commissions, completed; FPS battle pass rewards, claimed. Silver Wolf tabbed in and out from game to game. This was but a fraction of her true skill - support through technological means, even though it was now used for something that the rest of the Stellaron Hunters would consider "meaningless." Not to worry, she wasn't dead weight - the next time a security system needed to be bypassed, there truly would be nobody better for the job (as long as you don't mention Screwllum's name).

System time read 17:00:04. She was able to complete all of her game dailies except one. Really, by now she should have known to step away from the action so blood wouldn't get on her screen and murk up the display - that was precious time wasted to wipe it off and continue her missions. "Sam! Come on, I was on my last NPC dialogue!"

That was the last thing that poor fellow that now lay lifeless on the ground heard. It was almost a pity her "only" contributions to this mission were all the intricacies of getting the team from point A to point B, including intel collection and manipulating basically anything electronic in the vicinity for the benefit of the end goal. Still, a 5.1 billion credit bounty doesn't get put on your head without you doing something serious to warrant it. Criminal? Maybe so. Look at it from a different perspective - she just chose the villain class on this save of the game since it had the most story paths, that's all.

#NEW POST: what doesn't kill me gives me exp #[ me when i'm in a competition to choose the most unserious post title and my opponent is tumblr user @5point1 #➔ @5point1: advance dialogue

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csmeaner · 2 years ago

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A heads up mod this will be a long post sorry in advance. The bird hoarder here, I am more than happy to respond to any type of question that you all have for me, this even goes for the mod. I will try to answer them to the best of my knowledge. Before I do I did look into the medication for me and the side effects do worry me; I will try to look for something to help me with this that doesn't have everlasting side effects. (1)

Directly to your question about me interfering with others' happiness; I had to read it over and over again, to think of a response to this. I have to confess, the thought never came to mind, I'm not saying as if I didn't think about others, but that type of question can go both ways, for hoarders, someone with only 1-5 cs and even FTO. (2)

Let me clarify, when I first got my browbird I already hindered someone's happiness because of my very first claim, it could even go both ways, if someone claimed before me, they just hindered on my happiness. So it's never a win-win game. The sad truth is, no one else will really think about your feelings when they claim something for themselves that just goes for everything (3)

not just cs, no one cared about me and my struggles with life when all I wanted was a DS Light after 3 years of its release. In general, at the end of the day, these are just images on the internet, you don't know my life struggles, nor do I know yours. I know I'm not a saint, never will say I am, but there are a lot far worse people out there than me hoarding images. (4)

At the end of the day no matter what we do, somehow or in some way, we will affect other people around us; most of us don't even realize that we did anything to hurt said persons. I know many will not agree with my response but I will say thank you for allowing me to have a voice here and to be able to express my own opinion. Thank you Mod for letting me have a voice to share my side and point of view on things. <3 (End)

no problem man i always genuinely appreciate when people give a more indepth explanation of things as it’s never always black or white but tumblr asks never leave enough letters to do so.

im honestly of the idea that if someone having a design you dont is actively harming your life then it is a personal problem and a symptom of something much more than just cs and you should seek help. this stuff is a hobby albeit costs way too much but is not meant to be important in the slightest. for people that do like hoarding try a MMORPG or video game since you can hoard as much as you want or just learn to find the root of the cause and stop trying to add more because it becomes very hollow at a certain point

you literally can not please everyone so focus on your own stuff first

#general #dont even know if this makes sense for my commentary but i do agree with whats being said and think its well written

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allycryz · 4 years ago

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Nerys Eluned: Canon Jobs

Background

Nerys spent her childhood with a community of Duskwight in the South Shroud until she was twelve. Her parents moved first to the Central Shroud, later to the East. Prior to ARR, she had never left the Shroud.

Her father handled her academic education with a bent towards reading and history. Her mother took on the more practical subjects: how to hunt, forage, stay out of trouble; where the Duskwight could move freely and where they should avoid.

There were always chores and odd jobs for children, especially needed when they left the relative safety net of The Cavern in the South. By her fifteenth nameday, this turned into steady work. She excelled in mostly physical jobs for merchants, farms, and outposts.

Nerys off-and-on entertained the idea of becoming a soldier, but never felt called enough to take steps. Once she reached her 20s, she had two main goals: make enough gil to live and to have fun when she wasn’t working. Nerys broke up her share of bar fights and dealt with fending bandits off merchant caravans, so again the idea of being a soldier or Adventurer came up.

The catalyst is a rough break-up that also ends a lot of her friendships. It is not that becoming an adventurer is a solution to any of the problems she faced. But in the wake of this big change, she took a long look at everything and decided she wanted something new. That leads her to Gridania and the Lancer’s Guild.

Disciple of War and Magic

Lancer/Dragoon

Meta Note

FFXIV is my first MMORPG. Prior, I have always been primarily a “solo play on my own at my own pace” kinda gal. But my friend said it was really fun and I love the FF franchise, so there I went. I wasn’t sure what class to do, was thinking Fighter until I learned it was a tank class.

My only other major online game experience was Overwatch where I was a Lucio main. That was a rarity for me: I tend to have a tougher time with caster/support classes and prefer playing as a rogue or sniper in most games. As rogue wasn’t an option, I asked my friend what she thought and she suggested Dragoon.

There were three options in Gridania: Conjurer, Archer, Lancer. Although Nerys later tried her hand at the other two, Lancer appealed her as someone who wasn’t afraid to get into the thick of things.

She ended up taking well to it and her fellow guild members. The guild was very much “here are a few techniques, go out there and figure it out” which matched up with her way of doing things.

Nerys is still processing everything that happened with Foulques of the Mist; angry with his choices while also understanding what he went through as a fellow Duskwight. It is a bit of a relief when Alberic becomes her new mentor and she can get away from everything. Not to mention: Coerthas is a place she has always wanted to go to. Her father’s lessons included their sweeping history as well as their poetry and stories.

Of course, things go sideways almost immediately. The Eye chooses her as the second Azure Dragoon and her first encounter with Estinien is anything but friendly. Things settle on that front for awhile and her primary concerns become the Primals and Garlemald. And having a small foothold in Coerthas is a boon when she, Cid, and Alphinaud travel there in search of the airship.

When Estinien suggest they partner together, she is hesitant given their previous encounters but feels drawn to help him. She agrees. That all comes crashing down after Nidhogg reveals to Estinien how Alberic’s actions lead to the loss of his family. Nerys has to step in to fend him off. The next time she sees him is in the Intercessory with Aymeric. Though he assures her he is not there to fight, she is on her guard.

She never expects that Ishgard will become the place she calls home. Nor that she and Estinien will become friends and then something more, eventually becoming lovers after he rescues her from Elidibus-Zenos. But it does and they do, and even when they both give up the title of Azure Dragoon, she feels called to protect and serve her adopted homeland. For the sake of the Fortemps and Aymeric and Lucia and Hilda and Ysayle, but also for people like Alberic, Estinien, and Heustienne who made her the warrior she is today.

Note About Armor: Nerys has her preferred aesthetics and the traditional Dragoon armor doesn’t quite fit. She prefers her own style and her concession is armor that pays tribute to the heritage of the position without being an exact copy (pictured, not her only armor set in canon or meta-wise).

That said, she is aware of when statements need to be made. Nerys isn’t a political creature in the way Aymeric and Alphinaud are but she understands that politics are a part of everything.

For certain missions and meetings she garbs herself in the traditional manner: needing to remind the Alliance of her strong ties to Ishgard, making the Heaven’s Ward realise how badly they erred in imprisoning Aymeric when both Azure Dragoons show up.

Meta Note:

Once I got to Level 15, I joined...all the Guilds in Gridania. And for a while worked on leveling Archer, Conjurer, and Rogue while also making progress with Lancer/Dragoon and MSQ. Eventually I switched gears because I wasn’t progressing fast enough in the story and focused almost exclusively on Dragoon.

For story purposes, Rogue doesn’t quite fit into Nerys’ story though I think Thancred has definitely introduced her to that crew.

Archer

Archer never quite suited Nerys, as someone who prefers to get close to the action. She does have a great deal of respect for her fellow guild members and Lewin; and she remembers what she learned when ranged combat is needed.

Conjurer

Nerys’ aether control as a Dragoon is excellent. But for whatever reason, she could not quite translate those skills to conjury.

She kept on for some time because in her mind, a good warrior would have healing skills at her disposal. Eventually, a conversation with E-Sumi-Yan brought her to accept that she might better serve others in a different way.

What she did gain was an affinity for the element of air, likely tied to her role as a Lancer/Dragoon. This becomes vital when she saves Haurchefant at The Vault, although it does not go as well as she would have liked.

(She also had a foray with the Arcanist’s Guild that was about as long as Tataru’s.)

Meta Note:

Disciple of Hand/Land: I have levels unlocked in all the DoH/DoL, the following four make the most canon sense and are the ones I have progressed in the most.

That said, canonically she dabbles in everything because she is naturally curious and wants to be self-sufficient in all things. Most of the guilds know her. The following four know her the best and it’s where most of her focus has gone.

Disciple of the Land

Botanist

Nerys was drawn to the Botanists’ Guild because of her upbringing. She knew much of the Shroud and its treasures already. What she found–as she became an adventurer–was that these skills help immensely on the road.

It’s also a centering profession. Nerys needs activity to bring her out of her own mind, especially as responsibilities and dangers pile on. She can go lose herself in nature, either for her own needs or on commission (and often both).

Having grown up foraging ingredients to cook with, her Botanist career also ties into Culinarian role.

Disciple of the Hand

Culnarian

Nerys grew up cooking alongside her mother, so she had a base of knowledge going into the guild. Still, through Lyngsath and the rest she discovers a whole world of new ingredients, recipes, and techniques.

As a hunter and a Botanist, there is no end to the new ingredients she find to experiment with.

Leatherworker

Nerys fell into leatherworking when she was scoping out all the guilds in Gridania (around the time she took up with the Archers and Conjurers).

It stuck for a few reasons: the resources were fairly easy to come by from her hunts; it is another centering activity; and she is a bit of a clotheshorse. If she has to wear specific gear as a Dragoon, she can add her own pretty details to the leather pieces.

Weaver

This is a culmination of the other jobs: uses resources from other things she does (botany, hunting, and leatherworking), a craft that pulls all her focus into one thing, and satisfies her clotheshorse desires. She knows she can put pretty details into her everyday armor/gear and make more formal clothes that make her feel good.

(Whenever she is dealing with A Thing, she will get her hair done. Of course she needs clothes that work with the new look, even if it’s a temporary updo.)

When it comes to leatherworking and weaving, there a plus to taking guild commissions: it has to be perfect and meticulous and good quality but it is not on the level of say...if you fail this task, a primal will temper all these innocents. Nerys is drawn to help people but it's nice to do that for something that is not saving the world. (Of course when she makes any type of armor or working clothes, she is sure to make them well so they protect the wearer.)

She is not advanced enough to make her own gowns for formal events held by the city-states or the Ishgardian High Houses. One day she would like to be able to do so. Until then, Eorzea has plenty of dressmakers ready to help.

Outfit Note: I ended up choosing a mix of the Scion and Best Man’s clothing, thinking of how you can never go wrong with a suit. It’s crisp, always in style, and she looks great in it!

#nerys eluned #duskwight elezen #duskwight warrior of light #elezen #dragoon warrior of light #ffxiv #dragoon #botanist #weaver #leatherworker #culinarian #long post #ally writes

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hesesols · 4 years ago

Text

Into the WILD

Day 16 of Ichiruki month 2020

Trapped inside fantasy MMORPG. Send help please?

Rating: T

FF/ao3

The first thing that strikes him as odd is that the ground underneath him is dewy soft. Not that the carpet in his tiny student accommodation isn't soft. It just isn't as soft by comparison and doesn't smell so strongly of grass and urgh- he hates pollen with a vengeance.

It makes his nose itch like mad and –

Wait!

Last time he checked summer was already over and the northern hemisphere was entering early autumn.

Brown eyes open in alarm.

The sun is in his eyes as he sits up and he's lying in a sea of golden tulips and ruby red camellias, blades of grass and crushed flowers under his fingertips.

He isn't alone.

There are others next to him. Each one garbed in unusual medieval clothing- intimidating-looking armours with spikes and brightly-coloured capes, fur-trimmings and equally garish-looking armbands; brandishing weapons that range from claymores to wooden staffs. Everyone seems to be in more or less the same state of disbelief and wide-eyed amazement at their new surroundings.

Where are they?

And holy shit! Is that a real-life armoured bear?

"You look like you could use a hand there, Kurosaki."

"Ishida?"

Ishida or at least who he assumes to be Ishida- his annoying cousin of sorts and fellow guild member- stands in front of him, offering an outstretched hand. Ichigo recognizes the voice but those pointy ears, the gleaming ivory bow that stands at a grown man's height and strange cleric-like clothing- those are definitely new. He grabs hold of it and pulls himself up, wiping at the grass stains with a fierce scowl before turning to the strange elf-like creature.

"What are you wearing?

Uryuu snorts, "I could ask you the very same question, Kurosaki."

Ichigo glances at the midnight black armour he has on- light weight, extra resistance to magic and +25% endurance to all physical attacks- wait, where did that come from?- the reassuring weight of Zangetsu in his hands-

He blinks.

Name: Zangetsu. Also known as: Sword of the Moon, Cursed Fang. Status: Legendary. Raid item from the Sacking of the Gollum King's Palace at Hueco Mundo. The mythical black blade forged by the Grandmaster Yhwach over the Fires of Sokyouku for a full year and a half in preparation for the Conquest of the Soul King's Throne (see also Conquest of the Soul King's Throne). Grants the wielder—

Reeling from the surprise, he falls flat on the grass.

How the hell did that just happen? How did all those words and background information just pop into his head unprompted? Almost like they're in a fantasy RPG gam—

"What's going on?"

Uryuu's smile is grim and sardonic, sliding the half-moon glasses up the bridge of his nose before he tells him, "Don't freak out but I think we're inside the game."

"Anything?"

Uryuu shakes his head.

Ichigo sighs. The lines of communication are down and no one has been able to log back out into the real world since they first entered.

"This doesn't make any sense at all!"

10,000 WILD players across the world and different servers who were online and active at precisely 12 midnight that day somehow found themselves transported into the game world and trapped there as their game character persona.

They're calling it the Lockdown.

No one has a clue as to why they were the only people affected, nor do they know how they came to. One minute they were logged in, playing the game as usual; the next thing they know they're lying flat on their asses in this strange new world strongly reminiscent of the game world of WILD, as their respective game characters.

He's one of the lucky ones he thinks. As a human Swords Master, there isn't much alteration to him besides the clothes and the muscle bulk added to his physique, unlike Chad who woke up as a bear armed to the teeth with a war axe and metal gauntlets. It wouldn't have been a pleasant wake up call for anyone, much less someone who wakes up trapped inside a fantasy MMORPG.

"What about Keigo then? Have you managed to locate him yet?"

Uryuu's eyebrow twitches. The pale blue glow from his hand falters for a fraction of a second when his attention shifts to shoot his guild leader a nasty glare.

Ichigo growls before mumbling out an apology to the raven-haired Cleric. He knows of course that Uryuu is trying his best and really in a strange new world that seems equal parts deadly and fascinating, the best is all they can do.

He's just … frustrated over the lack of answers and to make matters worse, one of their own still remains unaccounted for. Out of all the guild members who decided to switch servers during the Lockdown, it just had to be Keigo- scatterbrain extraordinaire. He wouldn't trust Keigo not to get sold on some crazy-ass get-rich-quick scheme in the real world, let alone in this virtual reality full of bloodthirsty monsters just waiting to make a nice dinner out of unsuspecting players.

The double doors to his studies are suddenly pushed apart, jolting him out of his thoughts. Orihime stumbles in barefooted and narrowly avoids tripping over the trail of her druidic dress robes in her excitement. Her cheeks are flushed and the pretty flowers in her flower crown bloom and blossom in magnificent shades of pinks and violets as she makes her announcement.

"Kurosaki-kun! I have his location!"

Ichigo jumps to his feet.

Finally!

It's the first piece of good news he's had since he found himself stranded here with the rest of his guild members.

"So where is the idiot then?"

Behind her, trails Tatsuki- their resident cynic and Shield Maiden who purses her lips and informs both him and Uryuu rather miserably, "You're not going to like this. He's in the Forest."

Ichigo resists the urge to face-palm as he sees Uryuu rubbing at his temple.

"Keigo must have been on his way back to HQ and decided to take the shorter route," Uryuu rationalizes things- as the team tactician he excels at it, "he couldn't possibly have known."

That's right. Keigo couldn't possibly have known that he would get sucked into the game and be left standing in place of his game character.

Tatsuki gives a derisive snort, "Doesn't make a difference. A level 25 Bard like him can't possibly survive the Forest of Hueco Mundo alone. He's going to get himself killed. The Forest is no man's land- level 70+ Hollows and player killers aren't warded out."

All eyes turn to their orange-haired team leader.

"What do you want us to do?"

Call it instincts but Ichigo has a nasty suspicion that player death in their new world would also mean certain death in the real world. The thought makes him nauseous and for obvious reasons, he isn't too keen on testing out the theory himself.

Keigo may be a pain-in-the-neck and downright insufferable at times but damn it! He's one of them. He's their pain-in-the-neck and they can't just leave him there.

In the real world, Ichigo Kurosaki may be just an ordinary university student bogged down by studies but here in WILD, he's a guild leader, it's his job to look after his guild members and he pledges to make sure that every single one of them makes it back home to the real world in one piece.

Ichigo heaves a loud weary sigh, grabbing the sleek black katana by his side.

"Let's go get our idiot back!"

"I told you we should have gone left instead of right!"

Tatsuki can feel her skull throbbing. She should have just stayed behind with Chad and Orihime.

"Stop yelling at me! It's not my bloody fault that you're so fucking incompetent that you couldn't get a better map!"

"Oh so I'm the incompetent one?! Never mind I was the one who organized the rations! We would have starved to death days ago if I hadn't triple checked our provisions!"

Tatsuki grimaces as the feel of exhaustion creeps in as does the unbearable chaffing on her thighs. It wasn't just the lines of communications that were shut off with the Lockdown. It turns out the Portals- their main means of transport have also been disrupted and that means that the full distance between Karakura and the Forest had to be covered by good old-fashioned horse-riding.

They've been riding nonstop since they left Karakura, trading horses with NPCs in the farmlands nearby to push ahead at a gruelling pace and rescue Keigo as soon as possible. It is a noble cause but the trade-off for the weeks' long worth of hard-riding leaves the three riders surly and sullen. This virtual reality that they're trapped in certainly feels real enough, right down to hunger pangs and sore muscles.

Chaffed thighs, bland food, little sleep and the heat (the sheer humidity was making her hair frizz) made for horrible traveling condition and it seems that both Ichigo and Uryuu are about to hit their respective boiling points.

She rolls her eyes, tugging at her horse's rein to halt.

"Both of you need to shut up before –"

A sudden rustling in the bushes nearby draws their collective attention and sure enough from the depth of the overgrown bushes, a Hollow emerges. This one seems more reptilian in features, flickering pink tongue and all. Something jumps at the back of her mind but Tatsuki ignores it.

The Guide is nothing more than a useless collection of WILD lore and trivia.

She doesn't need a lecture on Hollow classes and their special attacks to know that the only good Hollow is a dead one.

With a loud battle war cry, she unsheathes her blade and leads the charge, throwing herself against the beast.

Ichigo leaps through the dense foliage with Zangetsu drawn and bloodied in his hand. Despite Tatsuki's misgivings about his foolhardy plans and recklessness, the woman is just as bad with her own brand of battle lust, leading the charge like a crazy berserker.

All hell literally broke loose the second they stormed through the clearing. The sheer number of the Hollow horde overwhelmed them and forced them to break formation and the three of them took off in different directions in a bid to divide the remaining Hollows' attention.

He ducks behind a tree to catch his breath. Having lost sight of both Uryuu and Tatsuki during their retreat, he is in a sour mood and more than a little embarrassed that a level 98 Swordsmaster like him is being forced back by a horde of weakling Hollows in level 50s.

"Psst. Ichigo."

Ichigo grips Zangetsu tightly, eyes nervously darting at his surroundings. He could have sworn that he heard Keigo's voice. Well it's either that or he's officially losing his mind.

"Over here."

A head pops out from the bushes next to him and Ichigo reacts accordingly- nearly slicing the newcomer's head clean off his shoulder and Keigo almost becomes a casualty of friendly fire before Ichigo sees through the heavy layer of disguise and stops the blade mid-swing.

"Keigo?"

The bard is barely recognizable with his slashed and dirtied tunic, patches of dirt and dried leaves covering his face.

"The fuck you doing- sneaking up on me like that! I could have killed you!"

Keigo couldn't have cared less. With a loud wail and snot running down his face, he throws himself at his saviour and professes his undying gratitude in between hiccups and tears.

"ICHIGO! I knew you would come for me! I never doubted for a second!"

"Get off me! You stink!"

The happy reunion doesn't last as the roar of a Hollow and heavy footsteps of a lumbering giant still their movements. Ichigo pushes Keigo away from him and readies his blade, but even his quick reflexes are no match for the suddenness of the attack.

"ICHIGO!"

The Hollow's swipe knocks the air right out of him and sends him flying. The tree trunk of a young sapling snaps in half as his back connects painfully with it. The pain disorients him and he is enough of a doctor's son to recognize the signs of concussion. Also, he thinks he might have cracked a rib (or two) as fresh blood- metallic in taste gurgles past his throat.

His vision clears in time for him to see the Hollow- a Dragon class one with beady yellow, thick, iridescent scales covering its front and gigantic wings sprouted at his back, rearing up for another charge.

This time at Keigo, who is down on his knees- eyes wide with fear as he scrambles to get away from the advancing Hollow.

There's no time to think. Ichigo pushes everything he has- the very last spurt of HP and MP within him towards Keigo, taking his place before the monster with gapping mouth, awaiting certain death to come.

"Out of the way!"

His eyes snap open just in time to see a small lithe figure, sunlight reflecting off the bone white armour- so bright that he squints, leaping through air and landing gracefully on the Hollow's back. A glint of light flashes yet again and before his very eyes, one of the Hollow's tattered wings is cut off, an arc of blood spurts high into the air and the Hollow's roar of anguish follows.

"Are you deaf or stupid? Get out of the way!"

Ichigo doesn't hesitate. With Keigo tucked under his arm, he pushes past the pain and sprints for the clearing.

With them gone, the mysterious stranger makes quick work of the beast, easily dismantling its other wing before diving for the kill; sinking the white blade somewhere between the soft scruff, flabs of excess skin free from the scaly armour.

Ichigo watches in silence as the dying monster screeches in pain, a swan's song in roars of fury before it topples over with dead eyes, a fine cloud of dust from where its body fell.

With the urgency of the situation gone, he focuses on the newcomer. Sheathing Zangetsu as it becomes apparent from the markings and sigil on the stranger's shield and helmet that he is a Paladin, one dedicated to the path of the light. They're in safe hands- for now at least.

"Where did you come from?"

The Paladin regards him oddly.

"What do you mean?"

"Princess!"

Half a dozen of swords are suddenly drawn and held under their throats by what seems to be a band of armed knights. Their armours gleam with the same bone-white shine and the leader of the men- a tall redhead with inked markings across his forehead approaches them with a fierce scowl and the intent to kill.

Next to him, Keigo yelps.

"The fuck!" Ichigo curses. His chest hurts, he's barely standing on his feet and now this?

Can this day get any worse?

"Watch your mouth, you punk!" The redhead growls threateningly, "You're in the presence of the Princess."

Amber eyes narrow. Did they think he's stupid? There's no one vaguely even female in their company unless—

The Paladin removes his helmet and a cascade of black hair- dark as the night pours forth. Apple cheeks, soft petal lips and elfin features curtailed somewhat by the iciness of her stare and her unsmiling face.

Their eyes meet.

Oh!

The short stature suddenly makes so much sense. Ichigo gulps.

"They're Heroes, Renji."

Renji scowls and gives them a dirty look.

Ichigo's eyebrows knot in confusion. "Hang on- what do you mean by Heroes and how are you a princess? Royalty isn't a job class and Paladins don't call themselves Princesses. I don't care what level you are, that's not allowed by the game admins."

The smile on the woman's face- Ichigo doesn't know what to make of it, but he thinks he's about to be made into a fool of epic proportions, especially when she pushes past her armed guards and tilts his face up by the chin with the tip of her white blade.

Smirking with dark violet eyes gleaming, she tells him, "That's because I'm not a Hero. Look closer."

Sure enough- when Ichigo focuses his gaze at her, her presence is shrouded in golden aura. The Guide pings- very belatedly and most unhelpfully, he might add.

Name: HRH Princess Rukia of the noble house of the Kuchiki, heir apparent to the throne of Seireitei. Status: NPC

He bites his tongue.

"B-But- but NPCs aren't sentient," Keigo blurts out.

Ichigo turns just in time to see him give out a pained yelp, being pummelled by the angry redhead, "Oh I'll show you how non-sentient my fists are!"

He winces. That looks like it would hurt… a lot. But Keigo's an idiot with thick skin, he'll live.

Rukia- her name rolls off his tongue easily. He refuses to even entertain the idea of addressing her by her royal title. For starters, a princess isn't supposed to be a Paladin, or know how to fight or use a sword, or look this good while having him at her mercy.

He gulps when violet eyes narrow at him.

"And you? Do you think that NPCs are non-sentient beings too?"

Ichigo is a fast learner and gives a quick shake of his head.

"Good-" her lips curve into a smile, hair dipping low to tease at the contours of his face as she whispers into his ear- "Because this NPC just saved your life. I'll show you just how deadly I am with my sword before you dismiss me as just another background token NPC."

The sword tip leaves his neck.

"Now, hold still."

That's all the warning he gets before a green glow is emitted from her hands- smelling faintly of mint and something fresh he can't quite name. He shuts his eyes, letting the healing magic wash over him, knitting most of his superficial cuts and wounds back into place.

When the light fades, his chest still hurts but at the very least he feels a little less light-headed and breathes a little easier despite the pain.

He wants to thank her- both for her healing and her timely rescue from the Hollow but she refuses to meet his eyes.

"Renji," she barks at her captain of guards who immediately stands to attention.

"Take them with us. He needs a proper healer. I can't set his broken ribs."

"It's Ichigo!" he calls out, interrupting their conversation and earning himself a hard glare from Renji but Rukia's gaze is almost thoughtful.

"Can you still ride, Ichigo?"

He nods.

A horse is brought to him under Rukia's instructions and as soon as he is properly mounted with Keigo seated behind him, the woman sounds the horn, black hair unbound and flailing in the wind as she leads the company into a gallop.

"To Seireitei!"

FF/ao3

Review, like, comment or reblog to send some love my way pretties~~~

I have a thing for fantasy AUs. Can’t you tell? Click on link for rec list of some off-main Isekai/Game animes. I have a special place in my heart for them.

#ichiruki #ichiruki month 2020 #irmonth2020 #ichiruki month #into the WILD #fanfic #mine #Day 16: video games #sentient rights for NPCs #Fantasy AU #Isekai AU #Tatsuki deserves to kick some Hollow butts

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sassaetcie · 4 years ago

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The Molten Charcoal Chapter 3 (Idia x Silver fic)

So here we go again lmao

The whole night must have been fresh and cool for all of NRC for sure, even for Twisted Wonderland, actually. The corridors were still full of darkness, and probably peacefully mixed with them until the break of dawn. Still, I could get a grasp of them until before meeting Trey and Jamil... Not after. Did... I actually meet them at all? I... couldn't have met them, right? I probably was tired... Yes, for once, I was exhausted because I had walked too much, that's all... I couldn't possibly have met them. ...But then why didn't I feel the frost again? The biting air wasn't there anymore when I had rushed into the corridors. This temperature wasn't trying to beat up the fire. The ice had disappeared. Because I ran. If my sparks were becoming arson, there was no way for the surroundings to survive, after all. Though... I wouldn't have escaped from "nothing". So... it must have happened. I... met Trey and Jamil. Why would have I to run? I didn't cultivate this aspect of my body for obvious reasons (lol), and using the runaway option was only increasing my body temperature. SO I SHOULDN'T HAVE RUN. But I may have dreamed of that part too, right? There was no way... There was no way "this" was so good... no, well-done in a dream. There was no way for "it" to be so frightening. Suffocation. Suffocation. Suffocation. SUFFOCATION. SUFFSUFFSUFFSUFFSUFFCalmdown. Calm down, everything's alright, I'm in my room, I'm just writing... SuffSuffSuff. No, it's alright. I will have a pretty cake for Silver... It will be hella good and pretty cause Trey made it, right? But I need to do... SUFFSUFFSUFFSUFFSUFFSUFFSUFFFSUFFF. FUCK FUCK FUCK. I CAN'T DO THIS. THERE'S NO WAY. I'M FUCKING GOING TO FALL OF MY BROOM. NAH, I WON'T EVEN BE ABLE TO CLIMB ON IT. THAT'S... Calm down, that's alright, I still have time. I still have time. I have to meet Silver... But if I can't get the cake, that's alright... But Trey could tell Riddle about it?! No, no, no, I shouldn't think about that... I don't want the red pest to come to my door and behead me... Guillotine Man should stay in his dorm... He will stay in his dorm for sure if I don't cause any troubles... But I never... I guess Vil and Guillotine Man are somehow ashamed that I stay in my room and don't act for the school... Fuck... I don't want to go to PE... It's so boring and useless... And it's already dawn... I should take a nap... Like really... What the fuck is going on... I need to sleep or I'm just going to collapse during the class and bring shame on Ortho and Trey's trust... But I could avoid the class this way... Why did I even accept... Suff... Suff... Suff... That's getting better...? I guess the heat went out for a moment... I should really take a nap...

[Started Recording at : 10 am : Third? Day]

An unpredictable event occurred. Actually, it was not that unpredictable. Certainly, unpredictable could have been cut in two when it comes to this "situation". Unpredictable did not possess the event neither the flow of time, as it could for sure not, but rather took place in a person nobody even expected to be unpredictable. The fact it was unexpected was not unexpected in itself, but rather unexpected because this person had been predictable so far. Thus, the cogs and gears were not going crazy so far, neither were the flames and water. Idia was not that bad a case in itself. But what could have led him to this blazing lesson? The sun was observing him more than any students, after all. His deadly brethen had not shown his face for a long time, although remembering each time Idia got outside would be a mess. The lonely star so craved by all was pouring all of his heat down to the ground. Shroud tried to grip the Hair with His hands. It only flows away all around the fingers, running away from the line they should have drawn.

-IDIAAAAAA SHROUUUUUUD! SO YOU HAVE FINALLY COME TO STRENGHTEN THIS BODY OF YOURS! YOU HAVE BEEN CHARMED BY MUSCLES, THE NEED TO HAVE MUSCLES, THE MELODY OF MUSCLES!

-I just came cause it's my responsibility as a Dorm Leader, kinda... Ortho will have less work, lol.

The sleeve barely scratched his dusty or soft or dreamy or melting cheek. Was it moving on its own...? The hand seemed to have disappeared, now. It moved before grasping the broom barely beneath his... feet, clothed in some shoes like he should have worn for such a lesson. They took some steps before the yellow, almost closed eyes, refusing to face the infinite sun and its bright, shiny sky, probably. The green, quiet grass kept on dancing under the wind regular flying, but he could not touch it. His hands swipe up some sweat already telling him to run away and seek for lakes, but he had to face this fire. For whatever reason he had... Or was Idia acting on whim "once again"? This whim was a very special one, after all. ...Or was it a forfeit for some failed raid in a MMORPG?

The broom awoke once either the boy or the blaze took it. The wood and straws gather higher than usual, and his hands barely remained hanged above the ground. They... were flying. Idia was not above neither falling down. He was simply, absolutely, definitely, hanging on. The white ash hands did not fuse with anything they grasp, if grasping could even be known to them. Yet the blue hair kept on pushing him upwards. It was... abnormal. The hues of blue, made out of burning oceanic, as hard as a ghost was, as transparent as the wood was, flickered in the sky. The blue and blue could fight one day for sure. The Shroud's flames kept on pushing away the wind even if Idia tried to climb on the ordinary yet magical broom. Yet His fingers were brushing what seemed to be a breeze, catching it before clinging on the tool like he had never done it.

-GOOOOOOD! THAT'S REALLY NOT BAD FOR SOMEONE WHO SKIPS ALL OF MY CLASSES, MR SHROUD! YOU BETTER BE PRESENT STARTING FROM TODAY!

The broom barely let him fall, this Ignihyde's leader barely fell from the broom. Both of them were yet to be hurt, and plagues and pain had no more to do with them, if they ever had. The simple, carved by times and mistakes, tool, was lying among the infinite grass field from which his semi-owner had never tried to escape. There was no escape to the neverending ground, neverending ground rejecting again and again this huge amount of fire, united before him, and divided from him. The smouldering curse was floating behind him, above his face. Even the scorching one was far from the fusing, since it hated it so much. It was the one behaving the Scorn in front of this "fusing". The "hair" could not be cut. Could not be dyed. Could not die. Could not fade. It was the one asking for others to fade and die. The boy somehow wrapped by the fire which did not burn nor die stood up again, on his legs, again.

-Hehe, Idia~ You look so dreamy and at ease today, you're so cuuuute~!

A certain light appeared and disappeared, along a noise that should have been away if reality was to be taken care of.

-...Huh, Cater, what the...

The light and its sound had hit him. He rubbed his eyes one, two, three, four times, and this number was not unknown to him while he did it. One. Two. Three. Four. And the phone had shone on him, on his body and flames, one, two, three times. His being froze on the spot, even if the burning strands kept on flowing. The yellow eyes disappeared, then appeared again. The reality they displayed certainly was not going away. Thus, should they disappear among his two hands? No one had the same hair as him. Even if his whole face were to vanish, the Shroud Crown would remain. Cater Diamond took another picture, as Ashton Vargas was looking away, even if a blue-haired student, a red-haired student, a gray-haired student, a yellow-haired student, a blue-eyed student, a red-eyed student, a gray-eyes student, a yellow-eyed student were watching, even if... Idia would not move. If he were to run away, someone would have to get really disappointed, at least.

-Mr Diamond, can you stop bullying my Big Bro, pleaaaaaase? ;v;

-But Idia is like so pretty in the daylight~~~ C'm'on let me just take another pic and I'll give you plenty of sweets, or I can take a pic of you too, cuties pies are so popular~!

-Please, Mr Diamond, I'll ask you to stop, my Big Bro isn't feeling good at all when he was succeeding in something he had never succeeded before. :(

-C'm'on, just one another and I'll put cute filters on the old piiiiics, I promise~

-I am very sorry Mr Diamond, but if you keep going like this, I might have to reach the protocole end.

-Eeeeh~ What do you mean, lil' Ortho~ Is it like making a cute face and begging for your brother's life~

-I will have to [eliminate] the problem. Laser beam can be used.

-Okaaay~ I'll stop, then, sorry lil' Ortho, I was really mean to you~

-Apologize to my Big Bro. And delete all of your pics. We may have to sue you for copyrights if you don't, and you're taking pics in the middle of a class, you're a bad student, Mr Diamond~! :D

-Idiaaa, I'm so sorry, I really hope you won't hate dummy dummy Cater~

The human made of prothesis was a shield of attached limbs. They could have been falling down. Yet he stood as a whole in front of the "brother". His fractured hair barely reached the curse of his semi-creator, but all of the blessed, electronic, lights could hide him when united. The heat was probably spreading up to this point... Or more likely, reversing itself. Ortho's feet were anchored deep in the ground. He was handling movement and kinetic so far.

-I'm really sorry Idia~ I'm really going to cry in my room uuuh~ I'm so dumb, sowwy~

-The lesson has ended, Mr Diamond, you should go back to Heartslabyul Dorm. Or should I call Mr Rosehearts...

-No~ Really, that's alright~ Sorry for the troubles~

Cater's smile went away along himself, even if his fake light and heat were not vanishing as easily. His curly orange hair following him as a fluffy fireball lacked a part of it, even if none strand could hinder his eyesight nor brain. His hands could obey a supportive mind, following them to put neverending green so far, emerald one day, around his eyes of his. He was not full of flames, though. But his flesh colored lips were both of water and fire, even if pink or magenta nails were to touch them to arrange a smile. Was this expression another set of crowns he had to wear? He was no longer here to check if it were the case or not. The others had left as well, and Vargas was probably running somewhere else, if this somewhere was still useful to describe. He probably had to run until what was known to teach aliens about the Way of Muscles if they were not that much into it.

-Are you alright, Big Bro? :(

-Y-y—yeah... Thanks for saving me... I'm just so stupid... I was... just... daydreaming... I wasn't fully awake and I just really thought it was a dream, something bad could have occurred, I'm sorry, you could have been hurt because of me and...

-No, no that's okay, Big Bro! You tried really hard to come here, right? Even if you were daydreaming, you didn't try to stay in your room during what was supposed to be your "dream", right?

-W-well... Yeah... There's a reason, though... That's not because I want to unsconciously go outside or shit like that...

-Don't worry, I wasn't about to quote Freud, Big Bro! :D

-Thanks, I would have been coerced to u-update you if you did.

Shroud tried once more to draw his sleeves out until they covered the hair which did not belong to him, however belong to him. Ortho was probably the only one witnessing the scorching waterfall, among all of the quiet universe. But that was already too much. Not enough to trigger the curse. "Not enough". Too much. Ortho and crowds were equal in a sort.

-I... don't want to go and see Silver anymore, O-Ortho... I-I'm... sorry...

-You will go, Idia. You need to talk to him and I can't cancel it anymore, you know? :(

-Y-yes, I know but... I'm already scared of Cater talking to me only a few minutes... and a date i-i-i-isn't supposed to l-l-l-last only a few m...minutes, right?

-Yes, Big Bro. But Cater makes you uneasy because he is "fake", right? Silver is very likely not, since you were not afraid of him... or are you afraid of people knowing what they want more than behaving in a certain way, and ready to anything to get what they want?

-I... don't really know... I just feel like Silver... I just feel like I may understand him... or that he may understand me? One or the other way round...

-Then, everything will go smoothly!

-I'm just... worried... Silver may actually have forgotten about me and think I'm weird... Or maybe I'll say a bad thing without noticing and I will make him angry or sad...

The cold hands, away from the fire for a long time, touched Idia's ones. His whole system was probably facing the curse, like it has always done. His body made of white and black un-flesh could survive against the ominous glowing.

-You'll be able to defeat this one fear, Big Bro! You still have a lot of days left, and I'll be watching over you so that you can make the most of them, okay? Test a lot of stuff, nothing will happen to you, I promise. :D

-But it will slow you down in your studies and you may have to skip some lessons if I were to try... no, no, no... I will just go to the date, okay...

-If you are happy in the end, then I'd rather skip some classes and finish my full year without worrying for you!

-H-huh...

-Of course that doesn't mean I want to get rid of you, okay? I just want to answer your concern when it comes to my results. I will be alright.

-Y-Yeah, sure, so will I, then...

[Ended Recording at : 11:30 am : Third? Day]

#twst #twst fanfic #twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland fanfiction #idia x silver

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expshared · 5 years ago

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this season was kind of whack, but at least we had Eizouken

Heya Camp is just kind of a lazy reminder that Yuru Camp exists, and will continue to exist in the future. You remember these characters?? OK good, just making sure. That said, did I immediately feel the tension release in my entire body when I heard the OST? Duh. Did I sing “it’s coffee time” to the ending not knowing these were the incorrect lyrics? The entire time.

I don’t know what to do with Isekai Quartet because like, objectively, I should hate it. I do not enjoy like 2.5 of the shows involved, and the addition of Shield Hero was not a welcome one. Turns out it doesn’t matter anyway because it was just Isekai Quartet and also Naofumi is Sometimes Scowling in the Background and that’s about as much of him as I want to see anyway. And yet? I do enjoy this Disney Channel Original Crossover. There’s something inherently fun about watching these characters from disparate shows interact with each other, and no matter what the original stakes were in their respective series, they’re all just doing homework and getting part time jobs and that shit’s funny when a big skeleton man is doing it.

After its first episode, Asteroid in Love was kind of a slog. This is your typical seasonal CGDGT show, and apart from that, I really can’t think of anything to say about it. I didn’t learn anything about the Extremely Niche Topic these girls are doing, and it wasn’t even that gay. Disappointing.

I was really looking forward to Toilet Bound Hanako-kun because I am a big fan of the source material, but I was pretty let down by this adaptation. It seems that they prioritized the art style and the color scheme above everything else, but that essentially just meant the entire project ended up being colored manga panels. I wanted to see them move around! There was not a single moment of animation that justified it being an anime. You might as well have been watching a PowerPoint. I can’t think of anything nice to say. Let’s move on.

Bofuri is my power fantasy. I want to play a video game so cluelessly I break it into tiny pieces and bumble into being the most powerful player in the world’s nicest MMORPG. Maple turns powercreep into powersprint. What Bofuri lacks in character development or plot, it makes up for in outrageous Maple feats. She holds the entire world in the palm of her hand and she doesn’t even know it. She named her OP pet turtle Syrup and then turned into an alien abomination unknown to the world and went on a killing rampage. This anime was Maple Crossing Online. Love you, Maple. Wreck shit, Maple.

If My Favorite Idol Got Into Budokan, I Would Die walks a thin line and what separates it from being a slobbering idol otaku engine preaching how Cool it is to Be an Otaku and an Idol Show Watamote is the fact that Eripiyo is a girl. That’s it. If you took her and replaced her with your average Joe Schmoe-san, this show would be insufferably creepy. Every time I was waiting for it to topple over, Jenga-like, it managed to right itself and straddle the tightrope. It’s not a particularly subtle piece of media, nor does it do what I was hoping it would do and engage in any sort of conversation about the obsessive nature of idol otakudom, but you know what it does a good job of doing? Portraying being an idol as a job. Just some adults putting on underground shows and selling the same CD of like two songs over and over again. I was also hoping it would address what happened to Eripiyo, maybe talk about why at the beginning she’s dressed like an office worker and apparently gives that all up to follow this kinda-shitty idol group, why this fanatic escapism is preferable, or even maybe address how gay it is? Not in the cards, though. Honestly Budokan was, despite itself, pretty enjoyable? There are some great background lesbians. Also can we talk about how consistently good the production values were on this show? Why did this have such great dance sequences? Why did this look better than Love “Has More Money Than God” Live? Actually no I take everything back this show was kind of just Idol Otaku Watamote

Hey, let’s talk about the other idol show airing this season: the completely unhinged 22/7. This show is Whack. This show operates on an entire different plane of reality. I know nothing about the actual band, so I came into this blind and oh my god. Hey guys, the plot of 22/7 is that a Wall tells some girls to form an idol unit. A sentient Wall whose orders absolutely must be followed. Why? Dunno! What happens if you don’t follow its orders? Never elaborated on. (Actually, is this a reference to Pink Floyd? I have no fucking clue.) In any case these eight girls, summoned by a letter from the Wall, are all invited to become an idol group, and then they’re magically an idol group. It’s unclear how they become successful, how they book gigs, who’s keeping the lights on at the agency, how they’re getting paid, who HR is, how their gorilla man agent found this Wall and determined that all its directives Must Be Followed, but shit, man. What follows in 22/7 is a one-member-per-episode serial that quite frankly stumbles far more often than it succeeds. One girl’s grandma died and that’s why she came to Japan. One girl had a traumatizing experience where she got lost in the woods for a week and it broke her family apart and now things just suck forever. These things are equal. One poor girl’s entire episode was about how she didn’t want to put on a bathing suit for a photo shoot and how uncomfortable she felt about it, but in the end she was made to apologize for dragging her feet for so long and takes her photo for a pin up. Yuck. Gross. Bad. The only valid girl is Jun, end of discussion. None of this even holds a candle to the finale-- wherein the girls are directed by the Wall to disband, and, defying an order for the first time, the girls return to their agency and throw shit at the Wall until it breaks down. It’s revealed that the Wall isn’t supernatural-- behind it are tv monitors, photos of the girls as children, records of their activities. A person or people are behind this. Why??? Are they being groomed?? Is the Wall a metaphor for the Industry? I’m so concerned. The girls aren’t, though, because after a little side eyeing, they ascend a staircase and wow! A Stage! Our fans are all here for our reunion tour! And then they’re fine and I guess their idol group is back together or something? Did I mention the stage where they perform? It’s at a zoo. I can’t tell if this is the most scathing condemnation of idol culture I’ve ever watched or just completely oblivious. The characters don’t engage in any sort of thought about what they’re being put through, but they are performing their final song, the lyrics of which are about how life is just too hard to keep on living, at a zoo and I don’t think you can have that sort of thing happen unless you’re trying to make a point. Right??? RIGHT?!? Dance and sing, monkeys.

Smile Down the Runway was another show completely divorced from reality. So you got your main character, Chiyuki, whose thing is that she’s Too Short to Be a Model at her father’s very prestigious modeling agency. Which, like, is valid! Let’s see some variation in the modeling industry. Let’s shake it up. Let’s lead the charge for alternative models with bodies outside of the very narrow requirements of the fashion industry. What’s that, Chiyuki? You have no interest in that? You want to be a Hypermodel? I don’t know what that shit is, I think you made it up. Our other protagonist is Ikuto, the destitute, put upon, bobcut boy with a dying mother and 3 younger siblings who is trying to pursue his dream of becoming a fashion designer. Are you beginning to sense the problem here? There is a fundamental imbalance in the presentation of these characters’ goals and situations. Also? Emotions are at an eleven, always. Characters are always acting as if they’ve just seen someone get murdered in front of their eyes even when it’s like. There’s a messed up seam. They are constantly being mortified, crushed, and having their dreams ripped away. One time, two different assholes offered Ikuto magical mom-fixing blood money when he was struggling to come up with funds to pay off his medical debt at the cost of giving up his spot in the fashion show. Wildin’

Haikyuu didn’t exactly come in like a lion, but I’m sure it’ll be more organic upon rewatching. We were laying the groundwork for much of this season so I’m expecting it to payoff later, but the beginning definitely lagged. Every time Haikyuu hints at a women’s volleyball tournament, I want a volleyball anime with girls. Man, those ten minutes we got with Kiyoko? Those were great.

I don’t have too much to say about Somali and Forest Spirit. Abe’s “Make Children” agenda feels at least a little more like a narrative choice in this anime, and I enjoyed Somali and the Golem’s relationship and their travels were in equal turns harrowing and heartwarming. And I did tear up at the end so you got me there, anime.

In/Spectre has some balls being an anime. It’s existed as a light novel and a manga and those are both superior mediums for it because let’s put all our cards on the table here-- In/Spectre is a show about talking. Five whole entire episodes take place in a car. The finale is winning an argument in an anonymous 4chan chatroom. That said, I have such a fondness for In/Spectre. I think Kotoko rocks. I think a show willing to do nothing but talk at you for two hours is badass. Sitting through this anime is like watching a podcast. I think the show engages in some great dialogue about human nature and how we prefer stories that are theatrical, narratively-driven, and have a logical cause-and-effect, instead of the truth, which is more often than not grim, and disappointing, and illogical. I like that Kotoko’s only function, in-story and out of it, is to bullshit so hard she invents alternate realities. Anyway In/Spectre is good.

There’s no praise I can lavish on Eizouken that hasn’t already been said. It’s powerful, it’s strange, it’s energetic, and it’s packaged with such love. It’s repurposed the CGDCT template into something deeply affecting. It’s an anime for people who love animation. I hope everyone watches Eizouken.

#animoose and mango #chitchat paddywhack #long post /

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yentotajaan · 5 years ago

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💖😍🙃

💖 Who are 3 people your character thinks are talented?

In no particular order:

1. Tariev Sul’rah. One of Yen’to’s few close friends. Yen’to admires his ability to wield both aether and steel in equal measure. He was particularly surprised to discover Tariev had affinity for thaumaturgy and showed it off to great effect at a few Spellstone Tournaments, despite the fact it tends to burn his hands. He can also fight with sword, axe, and bare handed. He even won a Grindstone tournament once. Yen’to may or not may not be a little jealous of his repertoire.

2. Kora Arbreaux. Similar to Tariev, she has shown skill with both weapons and magic. Conjury, swords, and daggers specifically. Yen’to’s lack of magical talent perhaps gives him a bias towards those without such a handicap. She has gotten far in the Grindstone tournament consistently and is not shabby at the Spellstone Tournament either.

3. Drake Sunspear. Relatively recently hired cook for the Shroudrose Teahouse and frenemy co-worker. Yen’to gives him a hard time for being a flirt, but the man knows his way around a kitchen. Often makes desserts alongside Raisan Arcmantle, but his savory dishes are to die for. Yen’to fervently hopes the menu get expanded because of Drake. Yen’to does not have to like someone to be able to appreciate their abilities.

😍 Who are 5 people your character finds attractive?

Preface: Five?! Attraction for Yen’to is centered around personality rather than looks, but appearance is still a factor. How someone makes him feel emotionally is key. In no particular order (or is it?):

1. Kora Arbreaux. Hyur midlander. May be somewhat obvious by this point. Reserved in personality and has martial skill that appears to match or exceed his own without being boastful. Is also quite cute with tomboyish short, red hair. Her past is still something of a mystery, which also intrigues him. Her subtle and subdued sense of humor matches his own. Yen’to finds a lot of common ground with her. Neither confirming nor denying crush status.

2. Faye Covington. Hyur midlander. Exceptionally beautiful with a wit sharp enough to cut steel. Has no obvious combat ability, yet her demeanor implies she is not to be underestimated if opposed. The epitome of a proper lady, even when displeased she shows grace and poise. Yen’to has yet to see her truly angry... and the thought scares him. She is also his boss and already engaged so any attraction is more like platonic admiration.

3. A'sharah Rahz. Miqo’te Sun-seeker. An acquaintance of Yen’to and friend of Tariev. Doesn’t act like how Yen’to feels most Sun-seekers typically act. Manages to juggle both raising a kid and heading up a Hingan trading company. Not afraid to get her hands dirty. Her skin has a lovely tan that shows she loves the sun as much as Yen’to hates it, yet is alluring to him.

4. Lethe Greatmountain. Miqo’te Sun-seeker. Another friend of Tariev’s introduced to Yen’to. Grew up in Limsa Lominsa like him and has a dry sense of humor. Also allegedly a capable fighter even though he has to seee her in action, although she does sometimes do the field work portion of her port authority job (i.e. arrests). Being willing to poke fun at Tariev along with him is a plus.

5. Fu Qalli. Au ra xaela. Long time bartender at Yen’to’s favorite hangout, Bar Saisei in Shirogane. A member of the Qalli tribe, her speech is filled with melodious intonation and a rythym that mesmerizes Yen’to. Despite the fact he barely understands a word she says since she is a walking thesaurus and he swears half the words are made up. Also more like admiration since she is in a relationship (multiple).

🙃 Is there a character concept you’d love to try out?

Several, but I should probably only list one. Over the years in other MMORPGs I have largely either played bratty rogues or do-gooder paladins/fighters. The concept of a venerable scholar/mage intruiges me. Someone who is older and learned and focuses primarily on research and magical ability. I don’t think that type of character shows up enough and is far from what I usually lean towards. Perhaps the character would even act as a teacher or mentor in a student setting.

Tagging mentioned chars: @tariev @fair-fae @outoftheshade @nightswithasharah

#ask #character study #balmung #bring it on

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lapsedgamer · 5 years ago

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Death Stranding (PS4)

Death Stranding is the culmination of four years of anticipation and, for me, mild concern. Hideo Kojima was taken from the height of his career at Konami and the more-is-more excess of Metal Gear Solid V, and thrust in to an environment where he had - seemingly - far fewer resources at his disposal but not even the slightest hint of oversight. The years of development steadily revealed a director who was in no way financially constrained, and whose Hollywood aspirations seemed to be more heavily indulged than ever. Yet to actually sit down and play the end result is to meet a new kind of Hideo Kojima game, one that is markedly different in tone and style, which indulges his need to spell out every bit of world-building and research but which provides a structure where that content can actually be appreciated, one where gameplay expresses theme and cinematic flourishes are a garnish and a dessert rather than the core of the experience. This is perhaps the most Hideo Kojima game yet, but it is also one of his most creatively successful.

Death Stranding opens in media res in the style of the best science fiction, dropping the player in to conversations full of of unexplained but curiosity-piquing terminology that invite you to sit, listen, interpolate and reason out how the story world must work. It is, if anything, too mysterious - the player is thrust in to a mission of nation-spanning importance without a grasp of some of the more important character relationships that are supposed to motivate it - but it cultivates the mindful, steady, curious mindset that is the primary tone of the game, and it sets the you up for the explanations and background reading that will turn from a trickle to a steady flow as you progress.

The gameplay cultivates a similar sense of patient contemplation and constant observation. Sam Bridges’ movement in the game world is engagingly tactile but demands a steady and considered awareness of the terrain and his own current state. The left stick does not merely direct Sam across the landscape in the fluid, effort-free manner of the modern third-person adventure but very noticeably shifts his centre of balance. Run down-hill at a clip and you’ll feel his front-heaviness start to get away from you; ease back or even pull back on the stick and he’ll continue to descend at speed for a time but with his body more strongly centred over his scampering boots. Stride across widely spaced broken boulders and you will become conscious of the need to alternate left and right movement to balance out Sam’s inertia, lest he begin to pivot off in to a spiral and eventually crumple on to one side.

In time, this becomes second nature but never becomes automatic. The game doesn’t demand the constant, finicky persistence of a Bennett Foddy game, but nor can you simply set your eyes on the horizon. It’s the closest a game has come to the sensation of a good hike, your brain absorbed by the task of placing your feet while devising the best route across the terrain towards your ultimate goal in the distance. Even when the game gives you equipment and upgrades that make traversal easier, these are balanced such that you are using your focus in a different way, not abandoning it entirely. A rope may allow you to abseil down a precarious cliff-face and skip a lengthy walk, but the abseil itself - and any subsequent climb back up - needs care, lest you knock your backpack cargo on an overhang and send it plummeting to the ground below. Bionic legs that automatically assist your balance on rough terrain come with a dramatically reduced cargo-carrying capacity which will tempt you not to use them. Vehicles all come with jump buttons, not to greatly enhance their manoeuvrability but because of the absolute certainty you will wedge them, and their un-carryable tonnage of precious cargo, in between some boulders. (Their turning radii are even tuned so that you need to consider the best line to follow on paved highways.)

Movement itself is at the bedrock of the game’s hierarchy of goals. Your medium-term objective in Death Stranding is always a cargo delivery from one place to another, which must be completed according to certain conditions of volume of goods, speed, or cargo damage. Individual deliveries can then be manually threaded together, in the manner of Elite or any MMORPG fetch quest, in to an overall plan, which will boost your standing with multiple customers in an efficient manner. To play Death Stranding is to be conscious of the relationships between structures in space and the topography upon which they lie, and to exploit them to the best overall benefit.

This is game design and a tone which almost entirely reject conventional ideas of mastery and excellence. In Kojima’s other games, success depended upon acting with skill, speed, and excellence, but Death Stranding consistently rewards persistence, thoughtfulness, and planning, and denies you the opportunity to achieve a friction-free, graceful effortlessness. Even the game’s finale ranking system is grindable; Kojima simply does not care whether you reached your grade by doggedly completing a thousand shoddy deliveries or dramatically resolving one hundred excellent ones. A great Death Stranding player is not to be found weaving through the landscape like a death wind as in Metal Gear Solid V, but standing patiently in a river waiting for their stamina to rebuild, or contemplating the long way down a mountain rather than the swift, risky descent of a cliff face.

Which brings us to theme, and the first time in many years that Hideo Kojima has successfully communicated his game’s ideas through the gameplay itself. The core concept of connection is clearly expressed in the delivery-based gameplay, which as I’ve mentioned forces you to consider the spatial relationships between locations. The cargoes themselves tell stories about subtler connections: who might be sending which objects to who tells you about their collaboration, cooperation, and perhaps even attitudes. These connections are made concrete by your ability to build structures in the world, with each bridge or ladder or road speaking to the links between the previously-isolated denizens of the United Cities of America. These connections are in turn shared between the different players: structures and even misplaced cargo and vehicles from other players’ worlds will appear in your own, and vice versa, to be exploited, improved and recovered towards your now-shared goal of reconnecting America.

The game reinforces at every stage that you must collaborate to succeed. Structures are expensive, particularly in the early game, but by sharing with others you can create a better, less-frustrating and more survivable world. Hiking through the snow and rounding a hill to find another player has built a refuge for your cold, wet, hungry Sam is like spotting a warm cafe window on a cold and lonely evening. You will be rewarded for, and you can reward, this altruism: the sending kudos every time I come across a rope or ladder has conditioned me to smash the like button on every social network I use with a ubiquity and enthusiasm that I was sure had been washed away by cynicism. This may be the best and most positive argument yet that games have the capacity inherent in all art to influence people’s thoughts and behaviour.

Kojima’s newfound emphasis on thematic gameplay has not tempered his love of narrative exposition, but it does fit Death Stranding better than his previous, more action-oriented games. The opening couple of hours and the finale are exposition-heavy cut-scene-fests in a universe full of vaguely human ciphers with motivations that are relatable yet communicated entirely through exposition. (There’s some remarkable Hollywood talent here doing its best to sell it, but the scenes focused on each character are, enjoyably, completely incongruous with each other, like a low-key Spider-Verse treatment.) But for the bulk of the game, all eighty contemplative hours of it, the player is left largely to their own devices, with the scene-setting and research-regurgitation coming almost entirely in the form of text dumps. In Death Stranding, more than any Metal Gear Solid game, there is time to mentally unpack the ideas about human connections Kojima is lecturing you about, and a setting and goals that actively encourage you to consider the implications. As narrative fiction it’s unsubtle, with cloth-eared dialogue and a bias towards expressing its ideas verbatim rather than through the characters, relationships, or even much of the plot, but viewed as part of a game, and of this game, it actually works well.

There is actually an idea I’ve been toying with, since Tim Rogers made the case that Hideo Kojima writes non-fiction, that perhaps he is a creator of edutainment games: that the nearest analogue of something like Death Stranding or Metal Gear Solid 2 is not Stalker or The New York Trilogy, but Crystal Rainforest or Granny’s Garden, or I guess Where On Earth Is Carmen San Diego (we never had that here, but we got the TV show), a game where you’re given a great deal of non-fiction knowledge in an enjoyable, interactive environment. True, Death Stranding lacks quizzes to test you on your acquisition of the knowledge, but I think that’s probably the least important part of any edutainment game’s design. I made the joke recently that Hideo Kojima spent one hundred hours reading about the words, concepts, and objects related to the English word “hand”, and by golly he’s going to make you sit down and do the same thing, but I’m not sure it was entirely a joke, or that it’s particularly negative for the game to work this way. Perhaps Death Stranding is the world’s greatest multimedia educational experience. Perhaps Hideo Kojima should just start giving TED talks and get it all out of his system.

Death Stranding is entirely itself in a way only an indie game or a Hideo Kojima production can be, and was destined to be divisive. Its patient, mindful pace and resistance to streamlining are bound to frustrate those who approach games as sport, and its needlessly convoluted plot and casual disregard for narrative will turn off those expecting an interactive movie from the supposed master of the form. But the past few months of going for long, productive hikes in the mountains, surrounded by ghosts and rewarded by lectures about puzzling scientific curios, has been a genuine pleasure.

A modern classic.

#death stranding #kojima productions #ps4 #hideo kojima #edutainment

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mysterious-prophetess · 5 years ago

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Why Sonic the Hedgehog and Detective Pikachu worked and why Warcraft didn’t

I bought Sonic on digital because I did actually enjoy the film. It was the second to last film I saw in theaters. The last being the well meaning but clumsily executed Onward. It got me to thinking as to why this film based on a game series worked and why others didn’t. Video game adaptations have a reputation for being terrible or just plain cheesy at best. See the infamous 90′s Super Mario Brothers film for the really bad end of things versus the 1997 Mortal Kombat. For the most part they deserve their reputation as other films based on games tended to fall on the cheesy but fun end of things, where the Mortal Kombat films ended up, and the really bad end where that abomination of Satan Mario film ended up.

With the last two years of movies we’ve gotten two live action/digital hybrid video game based films that were actually considered good all across the board. Detective Pikachu and Sonic the Hedgehog. We already know about the near miss Sonic had but I have to admit even with nightmare fuel design, the characters were enjoyable even if the plot was basic due to the target demographic being kids. We nostalgic adults were a secondary aspect. So why did these two films aimed at children work but the more “serious” fantasy style film for Warcraft fall flat on its face is what I want to get at with this post.

It’s not a lack of human characters on screen as Warcraft did have those (and I even grew attached to the mage apprentice guy since I play mages in WoW when I play WoW). Nor was it a lack of familiarity with their world. Sonic the Hedgehog might have had that going for it but Detective Pikachu didn’t and it still worked. It’s not even having less to world build with as, once again, Detective Pikachu takes place in the Pokemon world which has (over the years) built up its own lore and legends with each new region. I believe it comes down to the execution, characterizations, and choices in what story to tell.

I’ll start with the characterizations. With the Warcraft movie, I liked the main orc guy--Durotan--far more than any of the human characters with the exception of the mage apprentice. Notice how I actually remembered his name versus I cannot recall any of the humans? The main human they had us following? I was bored by him. The almost human looking half-orc woman was also boring to me as was any and all of the supporting cast.

In contrast, with Sonic the Hedgehog we had human characters like Tom, his wife Maddie, and the Deputy as well as the Crazy man who was the only who knew Sonic was real at first. With Detective Pikachu, Tim and the titular Pikachu play well off one another and Lucy also was a fun character and all them had personalities that were distinct and memorable. Whereas the main human man-Lothar maybe?-had the gruff father thing going on but I can’t remember much else about him. I can’t remember his goals, his reason for being in the plot other than “really good at being a knight.” Whereas Durotan? I know he was there because his world was dying and he was trying to find a path for a better life and whenever he thought his people were going astray, he tried to do something about it, even if it ended up costing him his life. One half of the story was not nearly as engaging as the other.

I’m not going to pretend the characters or dialogue in either Detective Pikachu or Sonic the Hedgehog were perfect, however they were memorable and distinct.

On the next topic, the story they chose to tell. In the case of Sonic the Hedgehog, the story they chose was one of finding where one belongs, family and something to stand up for. A tried and true plot--even a formulaic one at that. Yet, it worked. Detective Pikachu, on the other hand, lucked out in being adapted from a story driven adventure game in the first place. Yet, the mystery at the core of its plot was easily adapted for a different medium and centered on grief as well as finding oneself/one’s place in the world. Then there was Warcraft and their very ambitious choice to adapt the backstory that was used to set up the original rts games. I can guess that, with how successful Lord of the Rings had been--as well as The Hobbit films and Game of Thrones, they figured that making a film like it would be a good idea. The problem is, this backstory was far too much for a movie to get through satisfactorily. Hence why the sides were uneven in their abilities to be engaging. This film was a franchise baiting one, hoping to spawn sequels and because of that it was so top heavy that it failed in being interesting enough for the stories that would follow.

e.g. how Thrall rose to prominence amongst the Orc Horde.

Both of these categories lead into the final of the three. Execution. In execution, Sonic the Hedgehog and Detective Pikachu were able to keep their stories and worlds more streamlined partly because their target demographic being children likely necessitated this and partly because by keeping their stories simpler they also had to keep their worlds and world building simple to match. Thus thanks to characters who were memorable and simpler stories, they were able to nail their execution to make wildly entertaining films that all ages can watch. Warcraft in its ambition was unable execute all the things it had to accomplish to make a movie that would work as an adaptation of a game and as a film in its own right. In going so big, the execution ended up haphazard. Thus we were given human characters who really not all that well fleshed out, a rushed plot that felt incomplete while also overly complicated. It also didn’t take into account the biggest part of the Warcraft series was the fact that World of Warcraft is an MMORPG. Which means all but the hardest or hardcore fans would have had more attachment to their own experiences playing WoW than the backstories to the various races or of either faction. e.g. I never paid too much attention to stories whenever I would play on either side as a human, night elf, blood elf, drainai, death knight, etc. Didn’t matter to me. Not really. My own experiences dominated my play time in dealing with the quests (fucking morlocks), game system, and other players. Therefore, Warcraft had to overcome the fact that games are ultimately shaped by player experiences--a concept called half-real by Jesper Juul a major figure in video game studies. Not that the Sonic the Hedgehog movie or Detective Pikachu film didn’t have to also overcome this issue when it comes to video game adaptations, their choices in what stories they chose to tell helped mitigate this issue. They managed to alter things enough for adaptation purposes as well as making it accessible for all audiences and that’s where Warcraft fell flat.

They were trying by going with the origin story of the Horde vs Alliance Faction War to set up the world but, it was still very much inaccessible because of the other things they prioritized in this adaptation. Lord of the Rings touches on the first conflict with Sauron, but it doesn’t prioritize it. Imagine if Peter Jackson had attempted to adapt The Silmarillion before he would then do The Hobbit and then and only then have gone on to do The Lord of the Rings. I can tell you that we’d have never made it past The Silmarillion because it’s that dense and full of back story. The Hobbit (which should have been two films at best) would have been ok to start with but comparatively speaking The Silmarillion is more on par to what this story Warcraft was trying to tell.

Basically, what I’m getting at is Warcraft could have worked as a film franchise, but this particular story was not the one to tell first. This is because it was too dense, too complex, and not accessible. Origin stories can work, see Sonic the Hedgehog, but it’s something that cannot be bogged down by trying to do everything. In trying to make a world for future films, they failed to make a film that felt like it had much more than its world. You can even have non-Earth worlds, see the way Detective Pikachu handled the Pokemon World. Therefore, it failed in characterizations for half their cast, in choosing and accessible story, and thus lead to a bad execution over all.

By following K.I.S.S (keep it simple stupid), Sonic the Hedgehog and Detective Pikachu, were able to pull off their executions as both entertaining films and accessible films and work as adaptations; Warcraft in not doing that, in attempting to be like The Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones (despite having only one film vs a trilogy or a series) failed.

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ryqoshay · 5 years ago

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How did u think of the username ryqoshay?

The tl;dr version is that I was tired of Ricochet typically being taken in the games I was playing years ago and decided to rework it into something a bit more unique. And she grew into something more.

The full story will be under the cut as my trips down nostalgia lane tend to run long.

Ricochet started off as a character I created for a story I was writing years ago based on games I played as a child. The games were not electronic, rather based around physical toys and the characters and events were made up on the spot by my friend and I.

While our games generally focused on battles and conflict between two established groups, the story I decided to write focused more on the characters of the protagonist group and their interactions. Worth mentioning here that the focus group was a crew of mercenaries as it will come into play later. I realized that the current cast was comprised mainly of front line fighters and wanted to flesh out the team with some back line and support members; medical, recon, intel, etc.

Enter Ricochet. I liked the idea of taking a stereotypical stoic and battle-hardened sniper character and turning it on its head by making a hyperactive, adorable little girl. A character whose slightly warped idea of cute included heavy weaponry and thus treated her gun like a teddy bear, even going so far as bringing it to bed with her.

The name itself had a dual meaning as it referred both to how she was always “bouncing off the walls” and an intentionally ironic reference to a typically undesirable outcome for a sniper. Her given name at the time was Rebecca; Becky is fine, but don’t call her Becca or Reba.

I don’t recall if I addressed her parents in this iteration, but Rico entered the team under the care of Tackleberry. Yes, that Tackleberry; he was my friend’s favorite character from Police Academy, though I believe what I’ve turned him into maintains only the name and obsession with weapons. I already had him as the former legal guardian of another character, so I figured giving him someone new to oversee would be fine.

Then I stopped writing that story. And it remains on indefinite hiatus to this day.

City of Heroes was released and a friend convinced me to join. I was drawing a blank in character development when I stumbled across the Assault Rifle/Devices build and Rico jumped up out of my memories. The name Ricochet was taken so I tacked on -chan to the end as I was quite addicted to anime by this point in my life. This also gave me the excuse to weeb out and insert random Japanese words into her speech patterns as her linage was now half Japanese and half U.S. born Caucasian.

I designed a diminutive, blonde girl sporting high twintails and a dark purple flak jacket outfit with black accents. Her short backstory described a her as having two heroes for parents and wanting to live up to her family legacy. And as said parents were still around, Tack dropped out of the picture.

I liked Rico so much I started translating her over to other games as well as using her name in my overall online presence, as small as it was then. Ricochet itself was pretty much always taken, so I often had to modify the name in some way, be it by adding -chan or shortening it to Rico or whatever.

Then came the game changer; City of Villains. It came as no surprise that Ricochet was taken, but I was getting tired of using -chan and my other methods, so I decided to create something new. This would be the first time I used Ryqoshay, an intentional misspelling of Ricochet for a character.

Since CoV allowed a short backstory like its predecessor, I knew I had to come up with an in-universe reason for the name change; I also still fancied myself a writer, even though I hadn’t really written much in a while. I figured a villain might do well with a more tragic backstory than a hero, so I offed her parents. The character limit didn’t allow for specifics on the where, when, why and how, but I made sure to mention that she took the first letter of their names - Yuri and Quentin - to rename herself Ryqoshay.

It was at this point, Ryqo also finally received a family name, Bouteillevoix, and with it, a change in linage to half Japanese and half French. I don’t recall the specifics of how I settled on Bouteillevoix iteself, but I do remember liking the dissonance of an outspoken character bearing a name meaning “bottle voice” as if it were to be contained in some way.

For her aestetic design, I swapped out the black for white in her outfit to use the Dark Is Not Evil and Light Is Not Good tropes; dark purple remained, however. This also meant her hair went from blonde to black. And her twintails went from high to low in an attempt to appear a bit more mature, though she maintained her high energy personality.

Also, while not mentioned in her in-game bio, Tack was able to reenter the picture as a Commando, the highest level Summon of Ryqo’s Mastermind power set.

While I wasn’t actively writing stories about her, I was certainly fleshing her out as a character with notes and whatnot. Quentin and Yuri also got some attention as I ended up designing alternate dimension versions of them for me to play. And as the alt-oholic I am in MMORPGs, I also came up with some alternate dimension versions of Ryqo herself; Ryqoshot, a lonewolf gunslinger using the Corrupter’s Assault Rifle power set and Ryqoaraignée, an Arachnos Crab Spider build who was more closely aligned with Arachnos than her other versions.

With all of the alts I was creating, I decided to use the game’s guild mechanics to pass stuff among them. Thus, Ryqo’s Roughnecks was born, named after Rico’s Roughnecks of Starship Troopers fame. Joining members included L4t3ncy_0, a mechanical Mastermind; Recipere, - Rx for short - a thug Mastermind who kept her crew alive with healing powers; Yozakura, a ninja Stalker serving as Ryqo’s bodyguard and Vivian Sexon, a dual-wielding Brute and villainous translation of a dual-wielding Scrapper from my CoH days.

Not long after, a friend invited me to join a game of D&D. The team needed a door kicker so I brought in Vivian as a brutish barbarian with a split personality, Sanguine, taking control when she raged. My intended two paragraph introduction quickly turned into two pages, which eventually turned into twenty and started translating over other Roughnecks; Ryqo included.

Ryqo dropped her sniper rifles in favor of a more theme appropriate bow and arrow. L4t3ncy_0′s call sign was changed to Nullsiver Luna and she became an artificer who struggled against the world’s tech limits. Recipere, not surprisingly, took on the role of a cleric. Yozakura kept her ninja trappings, but started playing by the Bodyguard Crush trope as I was deep into yuri shipping at that point thanks to the likes of Lucky Star and others.

Even after the game stalled out, I continued to work with the DM to build their world in which all of their games took place. The Roughnecks gained a permanent place in the timeline, extending both before and after Ryqo’s time as their leader, as well as a permanent base of operations, which eventually grows into a full fledged township later at the behest of Ryqo (spoilers should I ever get around to posting these stories.)

My online presence was growing and with it, Ryqo. She became my main when I returned to WoW, a Blood Elf Hunter running around with a giant Devilsaur as a pet; yes, she would think it was cute. (She was changed to Human when I followed by guild to another server that needed more Alliance players.) My Demon Hunter main in Diablo 3 was named Ryqoshay, as a surprise to absolutely none of my friends at the time.

Aion was a strange exception insofar as I wasn’t fond of the Ranger class for my primarily solo playstyle. I still made said ranger and of course named her Ryqoshay, but my main in that game was a Chanter known as Ameliorator, a more fanciful version of MedKit, the character for whom Tack was a legal guardian in the story mentioned above. However, I still played out the Ryqo persona on the forums because I enjoyed it and I’d long forgotten Med/Ame’s personality from that old story.

When Love Live started to take over my life and I found Sukutomo, I went with Ryqoshay as my screen name for reasons I don’t fully recall. I started this tumblr account as a way to post some “Idolsona” stuff where I translated Ryqo into a LL style idol, along with Yoza, Luna and a newer Roughneck, Flash Pyre. And when I started writing my fics, it was easy to use the account I already had here and then keep the name when I went over to AO3.

Hindsight being 20/20, I probably should have chosen Nico as my primary icon, as her appearance is closer to Ryqo’s than Maki’s, even if she wears her twintails high like Rico instead of Ryqo’s low tails. Neither Nico nor Maki have grey eyes as I’ve given Ryqo, so that wouldn’t fit, but none of the LL characters do thus far. That said, Maki prefers purple more than Nico and Ryqo isn’t much a fan of pink, so maybe that played into things? Perhaps someday I will commission one of my favorite artists to draw Ryqo as I envision her and start using her as my avatar, someday… maybe.

Also worth mentioning that NicoMaki has had a heavy influence on how I envision Ryqo and Yoza, and vice versa. Heck I’ve directly translated some NicoMaki doujin into scenes for my D&D story and sprinkled some RyqoYoza stuff into HtHaN. With HtHaM being a more D&D’ish setting, I may very well steal some stuff from my D&D story for it. Perhaps Luna or Vivian might make an appearance? I’ve already referenced Ryqo when Maki remembers hearing stories of an 11 year old girl taking over a mercenary guild. As always, I shall follow where my µ’s muse leads.

In conclusion, while Maki - with Nico very close behind - may hold a position as my favorite fictional character not created by me, Ryqo easily tops that position as my favorite overall; yes, the fact that I created her absolutely factors into this bias. There are reasons I don’t bring her up often - beyond using her as a screen name, posting through her persona on a few forums and the Idolsona thing - not the least of which include a fear of her being labeled a self-insert or Mary Sue or whatever, as I’ve seen some decidedly distasteful reactions to such characters online. But there is also the fact that the bulk of her development has been within a world not designed by me, but by one of my DMs, and I would want to ensure they would be fine with me posting stuff about said world; I’m sure they would be fine, but I haven’t gotten around to asking. Perhaps someday, I might post more about Ryqo. Perhaps writing more of HtHaM will inspire me to take my D&D story off hiatus, dust it off and have a talk with my DM about posting it. In the meantime, I will continue to use her namesake for my online and in-game presence because she is a character I hold very dear.

If you’ve read this far, thank you for joining me in my journey through nostalgia. And I hope this sufficiently addresses Anon’s question.

#Ryqo's Q&A

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batsupes-love · 5 years ago

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Legend of Valors Echo

Part 1 Superbat playing an online MMORPG

Clark sank into his seat at home in his minuscule apartment and stared at the screen. Finally he'd saved up enough to upgrade his gaming rig and accessories that were a necessity. Even a capture card for streaming should he get up the nerve to record and post it to one of those streaming websites. It was the game itself that had him grinning.

Sure, it was an older game and he'd been playing it since his high school days, albeit only on weekends and with all the settings set to their lowest specs.

Yet the game, for him, remained a gateway to an illusionary world where the characters weren't human - even though they were played by humans, save for the NPC's.

Clicking on the game to load, once he'd finished set up and downloading all the essentials for the computer and online activity itself, he clicked on the icon on the desktop to start up the game.

He blinked as the loading screen was no longer black with a slightly lighter shadow. This time, because he was able to set the specs to their highest settings and still maintain a frame rate that he'd never dreamt of before he watched the running icon. In the shape of his most famous character in chibi form.

In Legend of Valors Echo he could be anything and anyone. Well, within the games parameters anyway. He'd long ago chosen a female avatar. In part because it helped to keep his identity a secret, though he'd run into countless other players who'd admitted that they weren't the same biological sex as their avatars. But he'd always given ambiguous answers whenever anyone asked him.

As his character loaded into the little village of Kokoro that he'd used hard earned in-game currency to start up and build he glanced to the right hand side to see if he'd gotten any messages.

Clicking on his inbox, he'd received a few.

"Hey Kala, I've sent you a birthday gift. Hope you like it. - Barall Fassh"

He grinned as he opened it and found a red gemstone. Rubayous. "Thank you, Barr." He'd been in need of one for his next project in black smithing.

The next message was from another of his guild members.

"Hi, Kala, happy birthday. Thought you might appreciate this gift. - Viktori Burg"

Clark, as Kala in game, opened up the box and blinked. Yellow ribbons. One of the rarer ribbon colors. He wasn't sure why, but he was happy to have them. They'd go well with the new outfit he was planning on crafting for his character.

"Thank you, Viktori."

"Greetings Kal, I hoped to see you on your birthday, but it looks like you won't be signing in. So I got you a gift and hope you'll consider my earlier offer. - Trytinion Agua."

Clark shook his head. Exhaled a sigh. "Thank you, Agua, I appreciate the gift. But as I've told you, my heart belongs to another." Yet it couldn't. It was a game after all. He'd have a better time connecting with the Justice League members, but none had come forth with their identities as yet. It was perhaps a bit too new.

He wondered if maybe he should send that gift back. A pink pearl. Well, at least it wasn't pink kryptonite. No one knew about that one. Not even Batman. He just imagined the ribbing he'd get if what it did to him came to light. Although it had once proven useful to use when he went deep undercover. Of course he'd gotten quite a bit of unwanted attention from uncouth womanizers. He shuddered as he recalled.

There were other gifts. Even one from the Princess of Honor Kingdom. She'd started playing the game around the same time as him. So too had one other. The loner of the game who tried not to join guilds or parties for any quest. And somehow they always had the best gear anyway.

Walking through Kokoro Village, he went to the blacksmith forge to begin his task. Once he had his character, Kala's, new armor finished then the next quest he'd take. At least the game kept updating even after all the years it had been around.

When he heard a whoosh coming from the speakers, he chuckled. Pressed a button on the filter of his microphone so that Kala would come out sounding more female than him upon giving a giggle.

"Ah, my Moonlit Knight, what goth bring ye to my humble village? Tis a rare treat indeed for ye to grace me with thy presence." He never knew if he was speaking accurately, but no one had yet tried to change anything. It was simply his character and accuracy was not what any of them were after. The game was an escape. One he wished he could indulge in more, but between his duties as Superman and as a reporter there wasn't enough time.

"I wished only to see what has kept you from signing on, Lady Kala."

Kala placed her hands on her hips and stood akimbo, just as Clark made her do via the commands on the keyboard and mouse.

"Ye know I prefer to just be Kala, Moonlit Knight."

"I do know. Will you have time for a raid?"

"Once I've finished this armor, good knight, then yes. Why?"

"I require the aid of a mage elf."

"One of the new quests?" Kala asked as Clark clicked on the screen and got her to start a fire and use heat resistant gloves to hold onto the tool which held unheated metal. Placed it over the heat and waited a time so that it'd be hot enough to be malleable.

"Yes."

"You, good knight, must be sore livid that you need to enlist help at all."

"I prefer to work alone."

Clark chuckled and it came out a giggle from Kala. If his online gaming friend were to meet his colleague on the League he wondered how they'd get along with their similar trust issues and lone wolf personalities.

"Your metal is going to start melting, Kala."

Clark blinked and then had his character remove the piece from the fire and set it carefully on the anvil. Picked up a hammer and began to do detail work. "Thank ye for the warning, good knight. Do tell me about the quest whilst we wait."

The Moonlit Knight crossed his arms over his chest and grimaced. "There are seven trolls, thirteen black dogs, four krakens, and then a new boss at the end. No one has gotten to the boss as yet."

"Do ye think just the two of us can manage to get to the boss?"

"I believe so. You are the highest level mage in all the game."

"I am surprised to hear that, considering I've had less time as of late."

"Why is that?"

"Work for one."

"Boyfriend?"

Clark felt his face heat up and clicked a button so that his character did to.

"Alas, no, it has not been in the cards. What of ye, do ye have a girlfriend?"

"I do not. Nor a boyfriend."

"I had no idea ye were bi." He had Kala finish the detail work and then set the material into something that would cool it off and set it.

"It doesn't upset you?"

"Why should it? Go where your heart doth lead ye."

"I don't know about outside this game, Kala."

Clark had Kala stare into the Moonlit Knight's eyes. The knight always had a helmet on that kept his features from truly being seen.

"Be there someone in the game that has caught thy eye?"

"You."

#Superbat #Batsupes

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