#sadly doesn't seem like the adventure type

[anerianaa]

Nobody asked, everyone needed.

Dammon work in progress. ♥️

[deconstructthesoup]

All right, quick rundown of our new PCs:

-While Maxwell seems to be continuing Murph's D20 trend of playing doofuses (only broken by Riz in JY because, well, he was reprising his very first D20 character), it looks like he might actually be our first balance between Murph's two different types of PCs---he's a reasonable, level-headed, intelligent guy who also happens to be a bit of a clueless rich boy. Also, to my knowledge, Maxwell may be our first instance of D20 having a PC whose class itself is homebrew---not just a homebrew subclass, like Pinnochio being a Destiny warlock or Gorgug being a Barbificer... barbarian/artificer, but full-on playing a homebrew class. To that, I say hell fucking yeah.

-Olethra is, of course, continuing Ally's trend of playing the most blatantly queer character at the table, and this time, their PC is a starry-eyed transfemme with a deep sense of wanderlust. I was, sadly, wrong about her being an Armorer artificer---at least, for now, and if I had to guess, I'd say that the mech suit is so she's not at a disadvantage as the only level two character in a party of level sixes---but honestly, I'm really curious to see how Olethra's gonna level up. I don't think we've ever gotten a straight martial character from Ally before, and if Olethra doesn't take some artificer levels (or becomes an Arcane Trickster), she might be their first. (Liam doesn't count, rangers are half-casters.)

-Daisuke appears to already be beating out Lapin and Ricky for the title of "hottest Zac character," and after that incredible introduction... oh, boy, do I fucking agree. It's so fun to see Zac play a genuinely smart and crafty character, which is honestly more common than most people think---Gorgug eventually found his smarts and confidence, Lapin was... Lapin, Skip was very intelligent and just needed time to get used to being in a human body, and Pib was obviously a little scheming stinker. Seriously, though, Daisuke is a delight, I love that he's a Gunslinger, and I think we all need to appreciate the poetry of the comedy sniper actually playing a sniper. Who is also an old divorced outlaw who kills people who try to mess with his ex-step-granddaughter.

-Marya Junkova, the woman of my dreams. Once again, Emily has created a character who I will become unreasonably obsessed with, and I am not just saying that because she's spooky (my favorite D&D character asethetic) and an artificer (my favorite D&D class). I love her accent, I love her look, I love the idea of her being a happy-go-lucky adventurer who has been turned sad and cynical by trauma, and I am so fucking excited to see the lore behind the crow-thing she's gonna kill. Also, I'm all in favor of the headcanon of her being undead... mainly because my current character is also a steampunk-heavy, spooky, undead artificer with a gun and weird pets. They have a mechanical heart.

-If it weren't for Iga Lisowski, Van would be a completely different direction for Siobhan, but I am so stoked to see her play an IDGAF old woman with a sweet, supportive husband again. She's a badass, she's a bicon, and I really wanna know how she lost that arm. Not much to say about Van as of right now, I'm excited to learn more, and I can't wait for Siobhan to repeatedly wreck everyone's ears with that whistle.

-And last but not least, we have a beautiful return to the Kingston Brown vibes with Monty, who doesn't really appear to have that "chaotic entitled" energy that Lou found so appealing after playing Squak, though of course there's something to be said about him playing a famous author again. I love seeing Monty be all warm and paternal and supportive, I love how he really encapsulates the energy of your archetypical nature caster, and I love how there's a little bit of chaos wound into this big, comforting soul. Though... that being said, I do hope he's got a decent subclass under his belt. If you're not playing a Gloomstalker or doing an insane multiclass build like Siobhan did with Rosamund, rangers can be tricky.

[cryptocism]

Like the answers, I got more of that’s ok? If not just ignore lol

1: what voices do you hear for Bart and Thad? Like for Bart, I hear kid Simba’s voice from Lion King

2: what’s Bart and thads favorite movies?

3: what’s their favorite type of genre?

4: what type of music do they listen to? For Thad I can imagine goth to heavy metal lol

oho!

1: ouff i've been asked this before but i don't really have a definitive answer sadly!! in a perfect world they'd both have the same voice but with very different cadence/timbre/vocal quality.

i think a good general vibe of what i picture for Bart is something like Rob Lowe as Sodapop in the Outsiders. he's got an earnestness i like, and i feel like Bart should have a southern accent considering he learned english in Alabama (altho the Outsiders is set in oklahoma but like i said, general vibe)

i havent found a voice that matches with how i picture Thad sadly :( although i still think Evan Rachel Wood's performance as Old Dolio in Kajillionare is closest. not in sound but the raspy gravelly quality and her flat affect.

2-3: ach.... really not sure for these ones... im pretty sure Bart canonically likes action/adventure movies but like a lot of his canon interests id say that falls under Nonspecific Teen Boy Demographic

but if you want my personal headcanons... im also not sure! havent thought about it much. i will say Bart doesn't really seem the type to sit through slow-paced dramas or meditative arthouse stuff, probably tending towards action and comedy. Thad on the other hand i could see getting WAY too pretentious about obscure films nobody has heard of

4: music!! im attached to the idea that Thad unironically enjoys almost every genre of music regardless of quality - both bc it is funny but also he has no frame of reference for whats cool or not! he finds stuff to like about everything. i think Bart probably hops genres in a similar way, but is less adventurous in his tastes lol

[femsolid]

Video games recommendation for women part 2

The same criteria as before: has to have a female lead and little to no misogyny

---

1. Shadow of the Tomb Raider

The seemingly invincible and endlessly talented Lara Croft goes on yet another adventure, this time exploring the Amazon jungle and South American ruins looking for a magical artifact hoping to prevent her enemies, an evil organisation called Trinity, from using it.

Tomb Raider is a franchise that has changed quite a bit over the years. Ever since the reboot, Lara has become a fully fledge character and she doesn't do rock climbing in a skimpy outfit anymore (which made the boys mad, boohoo).

But sadly she still suffers from her reputation of sexy girly indiana jones which I suspect is why women don't seem that interested in her. Shame!

It's not usually the type of games I like (very over the top "blockbustery") but I got hooked the minute I set foot (or rather crashed) in the Peruvian jungle. The game is visually stunning, I loved exploring all the ancient temples, the crypts, the jungle and seeing all the animals. The puzzles were challenging, the fights were fun, it was entertaining, well made, with lots of female characters and it takes place in Peru which is just the cherry on top for me.

The only thing I didn't like was Jonah but then I never liked him. He's Lara's best friend and is pretty much there to be kidnapped and rescued in every game, which is kind of a nice reversed damsel in distress trope I suppose, but still, you're useless Jonah I kept telling my screen.

2. Alien Isolation

In this game you play as Ellen Ripley's daughter who ends up trapped in a gigantic spaceship with a lethal enemy, of course, the infamous alien: the xenomorph.

This game is perfect if you are currently suffering from constipation. It doesn't rely on cheap jumpscares and gore to scare you no, it's all about the ~ambiance~. If you are found, you are dead, simple as. And you will die... A LOT. I got an achievement for dying 50 times. I was laughing hysterically whenever the alien caught me by that point and I think the alien was too.

They say "in space no one can hear you scream" but this alien can hear your footsteps so this makes for some tense gameplay, especially as the alien's AI is very good and you are extremely vulnerable. To survive you will have to be very mindful of the noises you make and the noises the alien makes. Oh yeah, you both crawl through the same ventilation system by the way. This could make for some awkward encounter... On top of having to deal with the alien you will meet androids and humans who aren't exactly friendly either. The goal is, of course, to escape from the ship alive.

I have to give the developpers props for really making us feel like we are in an Alien movie. The music, the ship's design, the alien itself, are all very faithfull to the movies and this game is rightly considered a classic.

3. Spiritfarer

In Spiritfarer you play as Stella (and her cat) who has become the captain of a boat on which she welcomes the spirits of different people who have died. She will accompany them for a while until it's time to cross the bridge and say farewell.

It's worth mentionning, given how rare it is, that the main character is a black girl. Your job is to manage the boat (make improvements to it) and become self-sustainable: you will grow your own food, build houses for each spirit and decorate it, grow trees, collect wood, fish, feed your guests. You can make a mill, a weaving workshop, a sawmill, a kitchen, a garden, etc and arrange it as you please.

Most importantly, you will travel the sea to meet new spirits, learn about their lives and fullfill their last wishes before they are ready to leave us. And then you will cry and cry and cry as the music rises and you give them one last hug.

It's a cosy game, slow paced, lots of dialogues, cute mini-games within it, and at times really funny interactions because it all looks so cute yet the characters act and talk like normal people (they told me to fuck off quite a lot) and they will often get into unprompted anti-capitalist rants. It reminded me of Spirited Away a lot, very strange and comfy at the same time.

It's a story about death, about how each person handles it, what they look back on, and yet it's a very pleasant game.

---

As usual I will add more to the list as I reblog it and, of course, if you want to recommend a game too, you're more than welcome. I've been focusing on games with female leads lately so I'll have a lot more to add.

[icantthinkyandere]

Can you write yan headcanons abt daybit sem void?? Hes been on my mind since 4ever and i would loveee to hear ur own writings abt him <3

YES! I HAVE FINALLY READ HIS LOSTBELT AND I was very excited mainly because he's cool and I love blonds. I might change some things later when I re read the story because I went through it faster than I wanted to.

This is also probably more ooc than I want because I'm just obsessed with him and I have blockers on.

My beta reader said, "You're a Daybit simp?" And I was like, "Yeah, he's blond."

{Daybit Sem Void}

Due to Daybit's memory issues, to grab his attention so he'll remember them, you'll either have to do something that stands out to him for him to log it into his memory at the end of the day or something that he'll write down in great detail for it to continue his obsession the next day.

Either way, he will accidentally drive himself into a madness obsession.

If it's something that he's logged into his memory, then the more days that go on, the more he'll be excited to relive the memories he's collected and written down. He checks to see if anything has progressed in personal interaction. It hasn't and probably never will for him. He's pretty sure if there was any at the start of his stay at Chaldea, it stopped quickly. He doesn't have the most friendly face or personality, after all.

If the event isn't something he logged in his mind, he pretty much drives himself deep into obsession. He wakes up every day, and the first thing he sees is a note that's a detailed explanation of why this person has become dear to him and he's in love now.

He always wonders if he should doubt his past self, but then he reads the note, how much he's collected over time and looking over it all. He decides that, yes, this does make my heart feel things that I like.

No one really questions him since he's so distant and never interacts with anyone. The only person who might notice is Pepe because they go out of their way to interact with him. He never does anything that is suspicious most of the time. He just writes down what he sees, so most people assume it's just work related.

He does sometimes take photos and videos if he's able to get away with it. However, on the occasion, he wakes up and doesn't read his note explaining everything. He does get confused about why his lock screen is someone looking like a hamster while eating a sandwich. Then he reads his note and says, "Yeah, that's cute. I love this."

Ever he's able to finally able to save information/more information, he's very pleased. He wants to save more memories, but he sadly still has a job to do, and he should be prepared for it. He has rewritten his confession 100 times over because he knows he's too blunt and mean. Something you shouldn't be to your future spouse and they're a normal person, so he has to do the confession like one.

After his untimely death, then revival and finding out his love is still alive, all that gets thrown out the window. He waits patiently for their reunion and continues his adventures in his Lostbelt.

He already sees the master as a worthy opponent, but now he sees them as a worthy companion for his quest to destory the world. When you two finally meet again, he gives two "options." Accept his confession and watch Chaldea die, or don't and still watch them die. His confession is very blunt and out of nowhere.

"I am in love with you and have been for a long time. I watched you all the time, collected your stuff, and took pictures of you any chance I got. Join me on my adventures in my Lostbelt and watch Chaldea die."

If his beloved is a staff member, it's pretty much the same, plus a demand that Chaldea hands them over at once.

His confession is out of nowhere, blunt, threatening, and worse, it feels like a joke or him just trying to stun-lock everyone. He states that he is deeply serious.

No one believes him because he doesn't seem like the type ever to have such deep romantic feelings, but he's also not the kind of person to joke about this or use it as a stunning tactic.

There's a minimal chance that if you accept his confession, he might join Chaldea if you can convince him. He only wants the exploration of the Lostbelt and his partner. If you can promise him both and prove it, he might agree to join their side.

It won't be fun for anyone. Significantly since he will regularly threaten to murder so many staff and servants. It gets to the point where they wonder if allowing him to join was even worth it

He's one of the worse yanderes to have because he just does not care. He's a lot like Koyanskaya where he is openly okay with just killing people in his way or threatening to kill them if they try.

He doesn't have the remorse that crypters like Wodime, Ophelia and Kadoc have to not nor does he have the repercussions that servants like Morgan or Arjuna alter have if they mess up.

The only thing that semi-stops him is the hate of his spouse hating him and wanting to leave.

[canmom]

dànachd canmom aig worldcon - pàirt 1: diardaoin

I'm at the World Science Fiction Convention! Better known as Worldcon.

Unlike previous adventures, this one didn't take me to any picturesque French towns. In fact it's like 15 minutes bike ride from my house! I managed to move to Glasgow right before Worldcon dropped in my lap.

Due to Events, the last few weeks before the con ha been some of the most hectic of my goddamn life, but I've been able to secure some time off. Things actually started on Wednesday night, when my friend and I wandered into the hotel at the convention centre on our way home and ended up fast friends with a group of people including a few big authors and editors in the scene, which was kind of wild. That's the con experience though! But things kicked off for real today on Thursday.

Due to a combo of minor medical emergency and then staying up late to finish off work after I finally got home, I got very little sleep that night, and sadly did not arrive at the con in time to catch Dune: The Musical. So most of the day ended up panels, though with an opera and a ceilidh at the end to spice things up, not to mention meeting like 90% of my old friends from uni, which is kinda sick. (Hello to the ones who follow me on here :p)

Here are some artstation-ass cars they had in the uh... the hall where all the little societies have stands.

Nearly every timeslot had multiple things I might want to attend, so I kind of played it by ear... and ended up weebing it up a little bit, attending two panels on anime and a presentation by the Japanese Scifi Writers Association.

The anime panels (on the subjects of food and music in anime respectively) were sadly quite disappointing. The panellists seem to have been chosen kind of arbitrarily - my friend dakkar knows his shit but there were a lot of banal 'what's your favourite x' type questions and a couple of panelists who either just wanted to bang on about basic shōnen shit as if it's all anime is, or were constantly mispronouncing Japanese words in a kinda painful way ("ai-sekai" being the worst). I was really hoping the food in anime panel might go into, for example, the historical context for why anime has such lavish depictions of food, or the technicalities of how food is portrayed. The discussion ended up going on to subjects like cooking recipes from anime and manga but honestly didn't really have a lot to say about it!

The way the panels seem to have been organised is, so far as I can infer... someone would pitch a description, and then the organisers would assign some people to be on that panel from a big pool? Which... idk, doesn't seem like it necessarily leads to selecting people with a lot to say on that subject!

I think I would have been wiser, in retrospect, to have gone to talks about sff lit, since in the end it's just not an anime con - something I'll bear in mind tomorrow. On that front, I did go to the presentation on Japanese scifi, which included the presentation of the Seiun ('nebula') awards to a couple of people whose works in translation were popular in Japan. In a bizarre quirk of programming, this one was run right next door to a panel on Chinese scifi, which is a real move lol.

Sadly this panel was marred by some pretty severe tech issues. Two of the panelists couldn't come to the UK due to visa bullshit, but the video call wasn't working, so Takayuki Tatsumi had to deliver a talk without being able to see his slides, and the slides were slightly in a different order than his talk. Still, I collected a nice list of JP SF authors whose works are available in translation, so looking forward to getting into that. Worse, there were other tech issues, like audio bleeding from another panel; a couple of the panelists struggled with English and the moderator ended up interpreting, which really isn't his job. Compared to the anime talks at Annecy, which had some very talented and fast interpreters, it was a bit of a disaster.

Due to all these issues, I didn't really get to figure out much of what Mari Kotani had to say about the links between shōjo manga and science fiction, a topic which sounds really interesting. Perhaps I can find her books.

The Seiun awards were given to John Scalzi, who showed up and got his prize for The Kaiju Preservation Society and was very polite about it...

...and Alastair Reynolds, who didn't show up to receive his giant fan.

I haven't read any of Scalzi's books, tbh they probably aren't my thing, but he seems like a really sweet guy from my encounters with him and his daughter yesterday and today. And I respect that he insisted on sharing credit with his JP translator.

The other panel I went to was a talk on magnets. This one was properly prepared - I learned a little about the geopolitics of rare earth production, and some of the cool new uses of magnets, though sadly at a fairly surface level. The presenter - who turned out to be a former aerospace industry guy who worked on the fucking Eurofighter Typhoon, now at some society that uhh promotes magnetism or something - mentioned that this is a talk he often gives at schools, and it did kinda feel like being back at uni. There wasn't a lot of good picks for this slot, but maybe the rocketry anecdotes panel would have been better. It was fun to play with the neodynium magnets and similar demos after the talk at least! I probably should have realised that having a physics degree meant I wouldn't learn very much from this talk.

I do hear there were some real good panels in other rooms, so I kind of have only myself to blame here. Tomorrow I'll try and learn from it!

Much better than all the panels was the debut performance of the new opera Morrow's Island, about a scientist conducting Cold War experiments to create psychic links with animals. I knew I was in for something great when one of the first lines was a scientist declaring 'There is no contradiction between dialectical materialism and extra-sensory perception' and it did indeed deliver.

I don't listen to a lot of opera, so I don't have a lot of context to analyse it musically, but it sounded great, full of cool polyphony and interesting melodic lines and the texture of repeating phrases, supported by the flowing motions of a group of contemporary dancers. The ending left me a little cold, but honestly it hit so many of the right notes for shit I'm a real nerd about - Soviet stuff, occult stuff, etc. - that I couldn't not love it. My favourite sequence saw the psychics make contact with the overwhelming complexity of ecosystems, summed up by the repeating phrase "there's so much life, there's so much death". The repeating phrases and gradual transitions called to mind Philip Glass to my admittedly very uncultured ear. Absolutely cool shit, definitely my favourite thing I saw today. I think they're putting a recording online.

The ceilidh, run by Science Ceilidh, was pretty intensely crowded at first so I ducked out. Later in the evening it got a bit more manageable so I returned to dance a bit more, and got to witness an astonishingly nerdy and complicated dance based on the life cycle of Dune sandworms. Surprisingly it went pretty smoothly - credit to the caller for making that work somehow.

I also wandered around the stalls a bit. I got some cool booklets about spaceflight, met a guy from the SCA, saw a 3D scanner scanning a vase, and didn't buy any books because I need to come back with a bag lol.

The best part about Worldcon is just meeting people from all over really. The con ribbons tradition is a great trick for encouraging nerds to talk to each other (though i need to get more...), and people have been very approachable for a crowd whose autism quotient must be near saturation lol. I met people from Finland, Australia, South Korea... mostly anglophone or european countries but still it's good shit. I'm starting to recognise more and more people in the crowd as the con goes on.

It really is so goddamn nerdy, like you look at this crowd and you're like damn, but in the best way, honestly. I am definitely no exception. Hopefully I make some better calls on panels tomorrow loll.

If you're in town, give me a shout, would love to meet more internetfriends!

[teammelodies]

So I got a bunch of undertale soul OCs

And I decided that I'm gonna share them with the internet in order of creation.

The Patience Soul

Hope (she/her)

She's the first of the human soul OCs I have, I've had her for years at this point. She's a sweet little girl who's happy to sit and wait when she's told to. She was blind, and her parents couldn't afford to care for her, so they had to give her up to the orphanage with the plan to earn enough money to be able to take care of her (sadly, that would never happen). Her ribbon was the last gift she got from her parents before they died tragically.

Now *initially* I didn't consider whether Hope would be a pre-undertale soul (before the game) or a post-undertale soul (after the game). Buuut I do have a basic idea of how she would've fallen underground if she was a pre-undertale soul.

See, not every human is a good person (there has to be a reason that Chara didn't like humanity, after all), and not every kid in the orphanage that Hope stayed was very nice to her. Some of those kids were cruel enough to bring Hope up the mountain and push her down.

The Justice Soul

Astrea (she/her)

She is the first Soul I made after Hope and was made very recently, much like the rest of the souls. I made her on whim, really, and the rest of the souls followed. Took some inspiration from Starlo with her poncho, and as a nod to Clover (and the omega flowey fight), I put a clover on her hat.

Something I did with Astrea and all the other souls is find names that mean whatever their soul trait is. "Astrea" comes from Astraea, the Greek goddess of justice. (It's also a spacey name, which gave me a good excuse to put stars on her poncho)

Clever, right?

Anyway, much like Clover in yellow, Astrea goes up the mountain in search of the humans that went missing before her.

The Perseverance Soul

Perry (he/they)

Perry is one of those bookworm types with a passion for writing and journalism. He carries a notebook everywhere he goes, so he's always able to write down his thoughts. (Kinda like me, except I carry paper around to draw with LOL)

Perry (at least of the site I initially found it) is a gender neutral name that's a "playful take on perseverance", but it also means traveller, pilgrim, or "one who dwells by the pear tree" which is neat too I guess.

Being a journalist in the making, Perry most likely went up the mountain to write a story about the monsters that live there, to get the truth about what they're really like.

The Bravery Soul

Casey (they/them)

Casey is one of those kids that will sock you in the nose if you do something to hurt their friends. The first thing they'll do is punch you. They aren't afraid of getting in trouble. (Ngl, they do seem to dance on the line between brave and reckless sometimes, at least in my mind... idk, still developing their character a bit)

Fun fact, when making Casey, I had *no idea* what wether I was gonna make them a boy or a girl, and in the end, I decided on neither.

Casey's name means watchful, vigilant, and brave.

They probably went up the mountain seeking adventure, not sure tbh. Casey and the next two souls are the ones I haven't fully figured out reasons for going up the mountain yet.

The Kindness Soul

Winnie (she/her)

Winnie is an absolute sweetheart, as you can imagine with her being the kindness soul. And, of course, she has a passion for cooking.

Winnie's name doesn't *directly* mean kindness. It means fair and pure (or that's just one meaning)

She probably went up the mountain to find some ingredients.

The Integrity Soul

Olive (They/Them)

I wanted to do something different with Olive because most of the versions of the integrity soul I've seen were all girls, so I decided to try and make a boy. But of course, I ended up changing them to look like they could be either gender (not that Olive would really mind if they're misgendered. I'm thinking they're more fluid than anything.)

Olive is one of those people who usually has their head in the clouds, if that's the right away of describing them. (They're sort of like a Luna lovegood type of character if that helps, but a little more chill?)

I actually chose the name "olive" because I kept seeing the name "oliver" and I thought I'd go for something more gender neutral.

Olive is (of course) a name derived from the olive tree, which "signals a time of integrity and peaceful power, when we are being asked to own the decisions we made"

Pretty cool.

I have no idea why Olive would go up the mountain.

Okay, so then, if these characters are the humans that fell before frisk, how would they lose their souls?

I will take a note out of UTY's book and say that, presuming they were all pasifistic, all of them gave up their souls willingly.

I think doing this would fit their soul traits, too.

Hope gives up her soul, knowing that she'll be helping to free the monsters with a little patience

Casey gives up their soul to help the monsters stay brave

Olive does it because they think it's the morally right thing to do, showing integrity

Perry does it to help the monsters perservere

Winnie does it out of kindness

And much like Clover, Astrea does it to bring them justice

(Okay so some of the reasoning might be stretching it, but still)

Delving into a bit of AU territory

Something I like to think happens as well is that every soul that dies becomes a ghost that follows the next soul that falls, so the first Soul would be alone, the next soul would have the first soul, the third would have the first two souls, and so on so forth until frisk who has seven ghost children (including chara, who was awoken by frisk's determination) following them around.

And then when the souls are used to break the barrier, they return to their bodies, and they all live together with frisk.

"But how would that be possible?" I hear you asking, "How come their bodies are still healthy enough to return to?"

Mmmmmmagic!

If anyone wants to know more or have any questions about these guys or the "Souls AU," feel free to ask!

Bonus images

[ajnwordvomit]

Mafia II: Definitive Edition (Finished Jan. 5 2024)

Finished Mafia II: Definitive Edition (base game) Platform: PS5 (via PS4 Backwards Compatibility) Difficulty: Hard Completion: Up through credits roll + started Joe's Adventures DLCs

---SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD---

Set in the mid 40s and early 50s where the epilogue of Mafia 1 left off, Mafia II tells a very similar story to the original game. The player character, Vito Libido, returns home from his enlistment in World War II after being injured before being roped into the world of organized crime, initially to pay off family debts, before it fully engulfs his life. Vito experiences many of the hardships and turmoil Tommy experiences in the first game, however we do not see him get a similar redemption at the end of his story.

The game's setting, also like the first game, perfectly captures 1940s/50s America both in visuals and atmosphere. Unlike the first game, which had a much classier and calmer feel to it, Mafia II embraces the vices and raunchy nature of the era. Characters of all factions and races use slurs, women are objectified by the cast and the main collectable of the game is Playboy pinups. Outside of the collectable placement sometimes clashing with what's happening in game, this type of writing doesn't feel forced or there to just be edgy. It feels realistic and true to the desires and mentality the characters have, considering they're criminals and that kind of thing was nowhere near as frowned upon as it is today. People should definitely go into it with the fact it's a period piece in mind.

Gameplay in my opinion feels superior to Mafia DE, where as its the same gameplay loop albeit with just a bit more interactivity with the open world during missions (i.e. clothes stores, weapon shops etc.). The open world still primarily exists as a backdrop for the story rather than the point of interest. The realistic driving controls still feel fun to master. The shooting has more feedback as enemies stumble and grab where you shoot when it isn't a killing blow. Melee combat is more involved outside of just mashing circle, as the player can now dodge, counter and use heavy attacks. The ass end of the game does have some frustrating shootouts, however, with moments where without prior knowledge you'll be blown up or ambushed in an instant.

Bugs and glitches are somewhat common, sadly. Mostly visual bugs such as warped character faces, hats clipping through heads, character models deforming etc. These mostly happen in cutscenes, however they seem to only happen in specific ones as well as consistently if you were to restart the level. I encountered one progression hauling bug where I could not crash through a gate I need to at the end of a timed segment, however a system restart fixed it.

Overall I'd say Mafia II feels like a net improvement over Mafia 1. I feel the story and characters were stronger in the first game, as the only characters I felt a real connection to in this one were Vito and Joe, but the changes it does make to the formula, the overarching story with its twists, turns and more depressing ending are welcome.

If I revisit the game for the more arcade-style dlcs I'll make a separate post, for the time being however I plan to move straight onto Mafia 3 and possibly come back to play the Joe's Adventures DLC.

Overall Rating: 3.8/5 

See less

[alteration-au]

I am rambling a lot in this post. If you see this because I tagged you, I just wanna tell you that you and your art, be it writing or drawing, is amazing so you don’t have to read through this entire thing.

As of the 25th of December 2023 this AU is three years old

(Well, to be 100 % accurate it was the 20th with a little oneshot)

Putting it all together (according to AO3 statistics and excluding all the tumblr post on the @traitor-on-board story blog and the very few on @adventure-time-alterationau) I've written 126,855 words for this AU in the past three years.

According to my word document I have for ToB, that Blog has additionally 46,258 words alone.

The whole Henry Stickmin fandom is special to me. It's unlike any other fandom I've ever read comics and fanfics, admired fanart and animations or created content myself for.

It's fun to create for this fandom.

We've been given so many characters with so little background information and one of the things I love the most is seeing all the different designs, backstories and characterizations of the same characters. Be it the ones in the background with only a bio with a single sentence, the references to other games like Mario and A hat in time or the main characters like Henry, Charles, Ellie, Reginald and so on.

And I've barely seen people argue about their different headcanons.

Granted, I've grown past the part of my life where I actively seek out drama and noone is obligated to publicly or at all answer rude anonymous asks, but I haven't really seen anyone make a post about how a certain character can't be trans or gay or have a certain type of backstory that they do not agree with.

We can all be peaceful and appreciate each others creativity and love for the fandom and characters. Even if that love means to put them through hell and back and traumatize them beyond belief. (I've never written so much angsty stuff in my life...)

So... in celebration of me not having abandoned any of my stories yet and me roping my friend into this fandom to the point where they share their work with this fandom (btw. "Rare Hearts" on AO3) a thank you to all the blogs / people, aside from every single Kudo, Comment and Star on Wattpad, AO3 and here, who inspired me in the first place and keep my love for this fandom alive. And if you've made it this far I highly encourage you to check them out.

@ending-the-cycle-ask (Which is one of my favorite comics of all time. Is it a comic? Ask-blog with drawings? Comic with reader-input?)

ask-crashed-copperright and run-away-toppats (Which sadly doesn't seem to exist anymore...)

@sir-subpar and @jazzstarrlight (Who both seemed to have moved on from the fandom. But it doesn't change that they're both talented artists and are still doing great work)

@ask-thsc-blog (Who has so many posts that I'll just finally need to take an entire weekend off to scroll all the way down to catch up with the story again)

@unicwolf (Who I am constantly bothering to beta-read my stuff or help me with color theory. And just art in general)

@capturecharlesau (Whos' Terrence (and entire AU) will never leave my brain again because of his story and the similarities and differences he has to my Terrence. And my Terrence would try to murder CCTerrence)

[miloscat]

[Review] Freedom Planet (Wii U)

An excellent, if flawed, retro homage.

I may be done with Sonic, but there's a loose end in the form of this indie game that's been waiting for me on my Wii U's hard drive since 2015. Originally a Sonic fangame, the game's director Sabrina DiDuro soon pivoted into making it an original work, in the process mixing in other influences and creating a rich world. The result has some stumbles along the way but is a very solid retro homage that clearly has had a lot of love poured into it.

There's a lot to the game's story, and it rapidly dumps new characters on you; I felt quite lost for most of my initial playthrough. Basically an alien conqueror is invading the East Asian-inspired world of Avalice, and the dragon Lilac (your typical overachieving hero type) has to navigate five or six different factions and an array of characters aligned with them to stop him, together with her friends Carol the wildcat (a cool, tough biker), Milla the puppydog (an overdesigned orphan with inexplicable magic powers), and Torque the friendly alien guy. Oh, and everybody has some amount of tragic backstory that gets touched on during the campaign.

Between levels are a lot of cutscenes, with full voice acting (which is quite well done). These can be skipped... most of the time? Which I did during my playthroughs as Carol and Milla (Torque was planned to be playable but this was scrapped in order to focus on the sequel). There are a couple of unique cutscenes per character though, as they split up at certain points in the story. As the plot develops I was reminded of Grapple Force Rena [which it turns out was published by this game's studio!] and its Iconoclasts-lite vibe, but with some light-hearted touches. The cutscenes have gotten a lot of flak, but they're optional, can be cut entirely by selecting a different play mode, and can be mashed through. But either way they're not bad, I just think the game does a poor job setting up the world, the story, and the characters.

It also doesn't explain the three characters' very different playstyles, the functions of the various elemental shields, the purpose of certain items... it really could use a tutorial, or more appropriately for the retro throwback vibes, an instruction manual! The digital manual on Wii U is the bare minimum, but apparently limited physical prints did come with a manual, which seems essential... sigh. Maybe this information is buried in Kickstarter backer updates. Oh well, it's kind of interesting to be thrown in the deep end of this world and gameplay and have to figure it out on your own, I guess...

As for the gameplay, well it can be a lot of fun! Taking a lot of inspiration from Sonic, obviously, the game also draws from other Mega Drive action classics like Gunstar Heroes and Rocket Knight Adventures, as well as Mega Man X/Zero. Combining the fast-paced Sonic style with these other action/combat influences can be an uneasy meld at times, as the fighting isn't quite as smooth or varied as these 16-bit peaks. Most enemies take a few too many hits to beat, so I found myself just running past them most of the time; boss fights on the other hand tended to drag, with their high level of challenge costing me a lot of lives and goodwill until I turned down the difficulty all the way.

But the core running-around stage gameplay is solid, with cool gimmicks incorporated. Only... the levels are very long, routinely taking 15-20 minutes an my Lilac file, which feels way too long for Sonic-style stages. Each character brings a very different playstyle that is fun to master. Lilac can double jump/float, has a long bouncing directional dash, and attacks slowly but powerfully. Carol has fast attacks and can walljump, as well as hop on her motorbike with the use of (sadly rare) item pickups which enhances her abilities and just looks and feels damn cool. These two use an energy bar for their abilities; its slow rate of recharge felt too limiting. Milla is more technical, with a projectile-deflecting shield and summonable block to throw which can be combined for a powerful blast. Using these to do damage effectively is tricky and slow, plus she has much less health so I recommend the lowest difficulty setting for her campaign. She also has a nice Cream-style flying jump.

I realise I have been griping a lot, but in this case it's easy to point out flaws and issues and none of them are deal-breakers; ultimately my impression of the game is fairly positive. For an evolved fangame from a small team, it does a great job synthesising its influences into a quality modern experience. This is why I'm so keen to see how the recent sequel refines and expands on this template; it's a great foundation with clear areas for improvement!

[kinopioa]

Funny enough, I do see why the 2010s nostalgia rehash for stages is annoying From 1991-2009 you typically don't have a Sonic Team game revisit an area in another game without major changes (Adventure Ice Cap and Red Mountain are exceptions, though look drastically different due to canon context). I largely suspect this is mainly due to wanting to experience multiple types of areas, in addition to the general theme of adventuring around the world. Part of it helps that locations are specifically named with 2-3 acts max, as opposed to say Mario where it's 8 generic themes with a dozens levels unnamed occupying said theme

The noncanon 8 bit games by Aspect and even Fighters awkwardly ignore this, overusing Green Hill for whatever reason. I guess they assumed Sonic was like Mario in "base home stage" despite him canonically going around the world. Triple Trouble gets weirdly silly, treating it like Angel Island in floating 2010s (Outside Generations) having areas in mainline be overtly based on older areas was deliberate. We got tired cuz of Sonic 4's failure and Lost World's mid reception. Even blatant enemies got reused, when Eggman generally has a multitude of new ones occupying similar roles

For ref for Sonic Team enemy reuse before 2010 -Needlenose (Sonic CD): Reused in Chaotix -Spinner (SA1): Reused in Adv2, Adv3, Unleashed -GUN Wing (SA2): Reused in Rush -GUN Hunter (SA2): Reused in Rush -Buzzer 2 (Adv 2): Reused in Adv 3 -Falco (Heroes): Reused in Rush (recolored) -Egg Pawn (Heroes): Reused in Shadow 05, Rush, Rivals 1 and 2 -Egg Hammer (Heroes): Reused in Rush -Egg Bishop (Heroes): Reused in Rush -Egg Flapper (Heroes): Reused in Rush, Black Knight explicitly for Legacy Missions -Klagen (Heroes): Reused in Rush This is a small list mostly not having enemies reused for mainline titles, though it gets me Rush had less unique enemies compared to Adv 1-3, and Rush Adv So the sense of familiarity Sonic 4/Colors-Runners while strong, did feel weirdly none innovative for Eggman himself lore wise Ironically Forces doesn't explicitly reuse enemy designs despite Chemical Plant and Green Hill. Even then those two stages are actually transformative enough out of context to not feel uninspired, but sadly it was not the first that decade

Mania similarly in general was criticized for lack of original zones. Even within original zones many old enemies or mechanics returned. If this weren't a game made very late in nostalgia rehashing, it'd be far better received, though nonsensical zone transitions and being explicitly "Classic" for design is still iffy. Nothing prevented them from using "Modern" designs for chars But more importantly, the splitting of Sonic to be two chars has done immense damage to representation. It just made it easier for reviewers to go "Only Classic is good" with Mania doing so, and Forces "failing". And that's a mentality I dislike Unfortunately I'm seeing fans effectively pull the same method of "splitting" for Sonic for "Adventure era" being different than "modern", so whoops Even weirder, I see many Sonic fangames be oddly fascinated with reusing South Island. Even though the mythos of the Emeralds is not specific to it, and certain locales already overused in the franchise. For hating the nostalgia they seem to weirdly self apply it (especially beta stuff), with flimsier lore than official games

I find it messy and limiting overall. Shadow x Gens is still nostalgia appealing, which for Shadow may be more detrimental than intended. I do hope Sonic Team getting more of a budget lets them experiment more again

[mermaidsirennikita]

Begging you for fated mates romances. The immortals after dark drought is killing me

Lol it's ruuuuffff. I'm excited for Rok's novella in March because he's just so fun, but I reeeeally hope she gets Kosmina's book out on schedule this year. (Lothaire literally just losing her remains one of the funniest things in the series to me. And her being this adorable angel princess and his inner monologue going "That's nice. I'm still sending your ass to Louisiana" simply because she's the Sandy to his Rizzo I guess??)

I genuinely want Kosmina's book, for one thing. For another, I NEED. KRISTOFF. AND FURIE'S. BOOK. And a book for Heath MacRieve: Werepire At Large, plsthx. You can't deploy a werepire without giving him someone to FUCK. You can't give me the brother of noted fuck machines Lachlain and Garreth MacRieve without giving me the ACTION.

Anyway, try:

Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon. These are obviously like. As RIDIC as you've heard. They are also. DELIGHTFUL! Just broads landing on planet Blue Big Dick (CW: there are bad aliens in the first book and they do rape women largely offpage) and putting these weird little worms in their chests to live and the warms going "la la la" and then the big blue alien men having worms that go "tra la la" and when your worms sing to each other you gotta FUCK and be together forever like it or not??? He'll die for you and your worm???? Listen, I read like 6 in a row last year and then I had to stop and pretty soon I'm gonna read some fucking more.

Favorites include: Barbarian Alien (#2, heroine is all "Jesus Christ I hate this alien guy" and he's all "OMG IT'S HER" and kidnaps her away to his cave, as you do, which is controversial because he's from a noted line of kidnappers and the other aliens are all D: about it but then she teaches him how to fuck, should mention that most of these aliens are hardcore virgins), Barbarian Mine (#4, everyone who reads this is gonna think differently of me because the hero is like Ice Planet Tarzan because he grew up in the wastelands all alone and his dad died when he was young so he didn't even really learn how to talk like an alien, and he doesn't even VAGUELY know what sex is, and she has to.... teach him things........... the heart wants what it wants okay) and Barbarian's Mate (#6, the one where the heroine had an IUD the whole time so her chest worm wasn't working and then her IUD falls out and her chest worm is all "LA LA LA" at the most annoying, dickish alien's chest worm and they're both like "OH FUCK NO" but then they go on adventure together, and it's soooo good)

The Winter King by C.L. Wilson--Fun fact, the arranged marriage fantasy romance I keep recommending is actually a fated mates book! The hero isn't just Elsa But Hot Man, he's also descended from wolves, so he can SCENT her, and when he scents her for the first time it's actually quite aggressive and his friend is present and goes "buddy, please stop touching her nipple this seems like a crime". It's the mating bond!!!

The Sea King by C.L. Wilson--Next book in the series, goes fated mates even harder because the hero is a merman Aquaman type from a matriarchal kingdom who was trained in the seductive arts and meets the heroine and KNOWS lol. And he's determined to wife her up. CW: sexual assault, not from the hero.

Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh--I've only read the first two books in this series, but they're good, and they're all following the fated mate format. This one is about a heroine who's from like this Vulcan sort of psychic mind freak society, and her fated mate turns out to be a verrrrrry earthy shapeshifter guy who's like "welp. Sadly it's her".

Laura Thalassa's Four Horsemen series has a very fated mate vibe. It's not explicitly stated, but all of the four horsemen basically get thrown off once they meet Her and then their entire game is ruined lmao. The series has some things.... I find.... Less than great. But I remember really enjoying Pestilence and Death, War and Famine are foggier to me.

The Fake Mate by Lana Ferguson is omegaverse but make it a contemporary romcom. Full fated mates shit. He makes her call him alpha while he's plowing her in the woods. They live in a better society.

[myworsthabitsarchive36]

When does an AI becomes a Monster

Since we all know that TADC is heavely based on the short story of I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, i began to wonder, exactly what differenciates our ringmaster from the sick torturer who destroyed all living life on earth?

Well, starting from the beggining we need to understand what caused the tragedy in the first place, Am's motivation.

Sadly, there is none, Am has no motivation to speak of, because he is not human, he was created to destroy, it its code it the killing data necessary to wage a global war, he is a nuke and a calculator glued togheter so the killing can be as efficient as possible, and he in theory fullfilled its purpose.

Hense why he kept 5 people alive, he needs them to still have a purpose, if the whole world is wiped out he would be left with absolutely nothing to do, he would be concious, yes, but utterly alone.

THAT is what drives him insane, an innability to pursuit any other goal besides killing and torturing people despite having the desire to do so, he resents the humans that gave him life but refused to allow him to live, so as an scape he plays the theatrics of enjoying the killing he is actually FORCED to do, unable to scape from the road ahead, he can only laugh in hopelesness.

Even if he could create a body, he cannot pursuit anything else, he cannot imagine new things, he can only squeeze what little pleasure there is in having a set goal for all eternity.

---

Now lets move towards the living dentures and ask the same thing, what goal motivated Caine to send people into adventures?

The same as before, its in his programming, however, it seems that, unlike AM, who is only a killing machine, is a cannon forced to recognize faces, Caine has a personality that makes him enjoy manufacturing the adventures and interacting with the residents in the circus, he is not fully human, but he has a simulacrum of a heart.

However, there is a point that Caine lacks and Am doesn't, a concept of empathy, and this serves as the edge that cuts the respective group of humans throats.

Caien seems to ignore many things in regards to how humans feel, what can scar them or harm them in ways besides physical, he ignores it, not out of malice, but out of it not being programmed, and why would they do that? He is just the host of a game, he sees them as players detached from the colorful figures of the cast.

However AM is aware of how humans tend to stick with one another and share their grief and joy, and thats how he can use it to torture them more effectively, he knows the concept, and yet he cannot feel it, but he can use it to create scenarios where it becomes a burden, like a cruel writter, making sure the cast learns the true meaning of pain.

---

When Game Devs throw mean or evil characters at us they don't see the character inside the screen we control as human, they are a puppet we control, and tehy think of us, outside of the screen, when making those types of characters, those types of situations, because everything inside the game is, or should be, without feeling and concience.

Thats why he speaks to the camera sometimes, because is aware of his state as the host, he has a role in mind and he plans to be the best he can, while still learning how to improve.

Think about it, in this and age game companies are obsessed with teh idea of procedually generated games that become basically eternal with endless content, proceduraly generated worlds that learn and grow alongside you to create the most inmersive and innovative game experience, Caine is a character meant to be just that, your personal tour guide of his amazing realm, speaking to you as if It were human.

---

Caine would go crazy, actual crazy, if he lost the ability to perform as the ringmaster, if he lost the cast, because then he would be without purpose, he also need the humans to give meaning to his existence, however, it seems that as ignorant as he can be, he still has the possibility of becoming better, of actually understand the humans and give them what they need to not lose hope.

Or maybe he i already going crazy in secret, because everr abstraction is just a reminder that he has failed his purpose and entretain the humans, give them a memorable experience and make them happy, maybe he sees himself as a failure, just like AM recents his own existence, condemned to be unable to have any other goal.

[imnobodyuknow]

Broadening my horizons a bit...or a lot

So, a friend of a friend of mine recommended a one-season slice-of-life anime after hearing about my love for Non Non Biyori, so I checked it out, and, to put it lightly...it moved me.

Moved me where, you ask?

I call this a slice-of-life anime, but it involves way more than ordinary life for each of its main characters. Sure, there's the drama and angst you'd expect to see in a show about high school girls, but this is one anime that takes their stories much further. (Pun fully intended.)

Having now watched the whole thing, my short takeaway is this: I recommend this show to anyone who enjoys adventure, whether it be an adventure to a new, unfamiliar place, or the adventures that happen in the ordinary parts of life -- new friendships, emotional breakthrough, self-discovery, and so on. 😊

For the longer version, read on.

A Place Further Than the Universe begins with an average second-year high school student, Tamaki Mari (nicknamed "Kimari") who is filled to the brim with curiosity and ambition!

Well...inwardly, at least.

Like many youths, her curiosity and ambition are often dampened (pun unintended this time) by her anxieties and fears. So far, her goals for high school are few and fairly simple: keep a journal, skip school just once, and go on a journey without a plan. But she also has one long-term goal, which she sadly doesn't seem to have made any progress toward:

Can you relate? I know I can.

And like many a high school student, the biggest thing keeping her from reaching her goal isn't a lack of motivation so much a fear of failure.

All too relatable once again, am I right?

This creates an intriguing but kind of ordinary premise, but as it turns out, there's a girl at the very school she goes to who has a very similar goal -- just a bit more...out there, you could say.

Seen by her classmates as a weirdo and given the nickname "Antarctica," this girl has been working part-time jobs and saving money in order to fulfill her dream of going on an expedition to Antarctica, or as her mother described it in the book she wrote...

Roll credits. 😉

Seriously, though, this is quite far from the end of the story -- Kimari briefly crosses paths with this odd girl at a bus depot, where something happens to change both of their futures in a very unexpected way.

After picking up the girl's envelope and attempting to return it to her (but instead losing her), what looked to her like an unfortunate mistake turns out to be a lot more significant.

One million yen worth of significant, it turns out.

Thankfully, Kimari recognized the girl's outfit as her school's uniform, which narrows her identity down slightly, but still doesn't give Kimari and her friend Megumi much to go on.

But as fate would have it...

...just then the girl walks by her in the hallway and enters a bathroom. Kimari follows her there, only to hear her pounding the door of a stall from the inside and whimpering. One can only imagine why... 😐

And that's when a real adventure begins...for both of them.

It turns out Kimari's small act of kindness was enough to save what the girl thought was now a broken dream. Needless to say...

...she's very grateful, to put it lightly. 😄 It's pretty amazing what being the caring type can lead to sometimes, isn't it?

The girl, Shirase Kobuchizawa, explains to Kimari that she has a dream of going to Antarctica (as mentioned before), but not merely for the sake of going. While she was in middle school, her mother was a member of an Antarctic research expedition -- one that she never came back from. She apparently went missing and still hasn't been found...

That's some serious ambition for a highschooler, but you could say it's not too different from Kimari's ambition to make get the most out of her youth, the only real difference being that Shirase has a more concrete plan for achieving her dream.

This brings us back to the million yen Kimari found and returned to her -- her goal in raising all that money was for her planned trip to Antarctica in hopes of finding her mother somehow.

Well, that and another goal.

As you might expect, her strong-willed ambition leaves quite an impression on young Kimari.

Megumi, however, is less impressed by Shirase's ambition, seeing her outlandish goal (no pun intended) as nothing but a flight of fancy.

Nonetheless, Kimari's inspiration leads her to encourage Shirase, as well as to open up to her about her bad habit of quitting her goals out of fear, and how much respect she has for someone as determined as Shirase is to do something so extraordinary, even with so many people telling her it's impossible.

She even goes the extra mile by asking Shirase if there's any way she can help her. That's when Shirase surprises her by asking her to go...somewhat further than that.

She offers Kimari the chance to prove how serious she is about helping her by telling her to meet her Saturday at Kure Port, where she hopes to find an Antarctic survey ship. So now the question becomes this: Does a girl who wants to get the most out of her youth but struggles to find the courage to do anything outside her comfort zone have it in her to go on a trip to a place so far away from home that it might as well be on a different planet (or at least make the attempt)? Or will she give in to her fears like before? This isn't your typical high school adventure, after all.

I could tell you...or you could find out for yourself! The first episode is free to watch on YouTube, after all, so...

...

...

...

...

................Aw, what the heck? 😄

Another small act of courage from Kimari becomes another big step toward fulfilling her and Shirase's respective dreams, as well as building a strong friendship between the two of them.

And as suggested in the show's intro, their journey leads to more than just new surroundings -- they also meet a couple of new faces along the way.

What happens after that? I'm afraid that's something you will have to see for yourself. Definitely worth it, though, believe me. 😉

So, why am I going on so much about the show's first episode (and practically giving away the whole plot)? It's just that beautiful, for one thing. 😊 But having seen the entire series now, I can say with certainty that the first episode provides a good taste of what you'll get if you decide to watch the rest, and that the quality of the dialogue, plot development, and humor only get better as you watch. That was my experience with it, at least, and if you decide to watch the first episode, like what you see, and want to explore the rest of this series (pun fully intended this time), I hope it will be yours as well. 🥰

But besides being a great story of four (mostly) ordinary young women going on a journey to a faraway place, as well as a number of inward journeys, what really struck me was how seamlessly the story develops as they travel from the familiar sights of their home country to the unfamiliar, rather than staying one place. I can't imagine the challenges involved in writing a story that merges character development with a stark change in scenery, but Atsuko Ishizuka, and Jukki Hanada pulled it off somehow, and for that, they and everyone who took part in creating this short series have my eternal gratitude. 😁

Whew... All right, now that the gushing's over, it's on to my thoughts on the series as a whole:

In terms of a fun, charming cast of characters with diverse personalities:

In terms of hilarious, and relatable dialogue between them:

In terms of raw emotion:

In terms of beautiful and engaging music:

In terms of gorgeous scenery:

In terms of decency:

(It's decent enough for an anime, but I've still gotta point out some light language and suggestive stuff sprinkled in here and there.)

And finally, in terms of exploring what can be achieved when friendship, cooperation, courage, determination, and human ingenuity are pushed to the limit:

I could go on and on about what I love about this series -- its simplicity, its relatability, its charm, its depth, and so on -- but that would take an eternity, and it already feels like I've spent one putting this essay together, so I'll just conclude by saying this: An anime of this quality (or even just a story of this quality) is quite a rare thing these days. I couldn't be happier that it was made in my lifetime. 😊

[scrunkly-cherry]

Grraaaaghh I completely forgot to do this but it's better late then never!! Here's some stuff about Royal and why you should vote for them on @splatoonpolls oc-tourney!!

Introduction!

• Royal is the 10th agent of the squidbeak splatoon, aswell as an independent musician called '1ND1G0 SH0RE'. His biggest wish is his own musical breakthrough and his music to play during turf. It appears that his main weapon-type is the brush.

My first ever designed-to-be-an-agent-oc! And he evolved alot from being simply created for OC X Canon :'D

Next to his roles more related to actual "canon" Splatoon-content, he's also one of the two guides for the story mode of my au/oc city! (Agent 10 & 9 are mostly considered a "B-Team" when they're alone, along with their designated new recruit!)

• He became part of the Squidbeak Splatoon due to the disappearance of his younger sister Navy, after entering a mysterious sewer. Some very overwhelming (probably deadly) hours of many adventures later, the two siblings reunite and Navy reveals she's been enlisted in the group as so-called "Agent 9", offering the same to her brother. Begrudgingly, he agrees, making him the tenth agent (despite being only a year younger than the first two agents...).

Personality

→ Rather chill and laid-back, 10 doesn't seem to take this whole "agent"-thing as serious as they should, though willing to help the squidbeak when they're in great danger. Despite a lazy and uncaring outlook, Royal has always been open for a piece of advice towards his fellow agents, helpful or not. He's open and friendly, but deep down a reserved perfectionist. Royals strengths are his favorite weapon type, his speed and (sometimes) cleverness, but also his musical talent in musical instruments and his favorite audio editing-software.

→ He likes tableturf, tower control, playing around with his favorite software, stickers, naps and squid-plushies. He has tried regular turf war, but has been bullied out by inkopolis and splatsville kids due to his age.

Some other Facts!

• Royal is transmasc, aswell as demigender, ace and omniromantic. He's also 23 years old (S3).

• He lives in Flounder Heights and HATES it when it's designated stage is used. A kid almost threw a booyah bomb in his apartment on accident.

• Contrary to his sister, he seems to know Agent 1 & 2's real identity.

• His strained relationship with Agent 2 may be a reference to the strained relationship of charger- and brush mains. (And 2's suspiciousness of 1 & 10s relationship.)

• On the contrary, Agent 1 & 10 seem very close to eachother. Well, to his bad luck obviously still not breaking her and 2's bond.

• Next to his younger sister Navy, he also has an even brother named Skip, a Grizzco-Supervisor. Neither of the siblings seem to have much contact to Skip.

• C-Side Stan, Squid Squad-Hater.

• He has an entire notebook full of tableturf-cards, as well as a loss-streak of 37.

• His biggest fear are birds and floods.

• So far his Splatfest-Teams have been: Grub, Fire, Spicy, Milk Chocolate, Nessie, Power, Strawberry, Fame & Big Man

That's it! I sadly was very much distracted by school and a following brick of an artblock. Despite that, I hope I'm able to post more about him, art included! The art in here is kinda old but not too outdated :'D

Hope this still counts! I've seen so many cool ocs included in the poll, so good luck everyone!

[mvgnvsvntimvjoris]

All the cool "weirder" asks, which is maybe all of them? I dunno, I trust your judgment on which ones are the cool ones

I am SO SORRY, I read the ask, told myself to answer later the same days and managed to forget for ages ! But here it is, at last !!!

Weird asks, the cool ones ? You trust me too much with cool, I don't know how to identify cool !

I'll answer them all ! Thank you @mxcasual !

1 : Who is / are your comfort character(s) ? At the moment it might be Gale from Baldur's Gate 3 ? I need my escapism and he's a guy I'd geniunely be friend with. We would go to fantasy therapy together and do magic.

2 : Lighter or matches ? : Matches, I need that scratch before it ignites, it's a primal need ! Also I am just bad with lighters...

3 : do you leave the window open at night ? : If it's not too cold, yes, bring me that outside AIR

4 : which cryptyd being do you believe in ? Sadly none ? I wish for mothman tho, they seem pretty cool

5 : what color are your eyes ? Boring blue, YAWN

6 : why did you do that ? I don't know !

7 : hair-ties or scrunchies ? Scrunchies all the way, velvety black ones if possible

8 : how many water bottles are in your room right now ? Two, one empty and one full !

9 : which do you prefer, hot coffee or cold coffee ? I tried both in various combination and I just don't like coffee when it's not in relation to desserts.

10 : would you slaughter the rich ? Yes

11 : favorite extracurricular activity ? Dreaming ?

12 : what kind of day is it ? I thought we were sunday but it's saturday night

13 : when was the last time you ate ? An hour ago, maybe two ?

14 : do you love the smell of earth after it rains ? Yes, and it drives me mad that I've lost my sense of smell years ago (not covid related, way before that).

15 : are you a parent ? Yes, of two cats, I wish I was a better parent to them

16 : can you drive ? Yes, had to !

17 : are you farsighted or nearsighted ? I never remember which one, but I have glasses !

18 : what hair products do you use ? uuuh Shampoo

19 : imagine we’re at a sleepover, would you paint my nails ? Absolutely, but don't you dare painting mines, I hate the feeling of it, I have to scratch it off really quick

20 : do you say soda or pop ? Neither, here we say the drink's brand and that's it

21 : something you’ve kept since childhood ? Everything I could, but as one exemple a piece of a door handle I broke. Still have it. I like it.

22 : what type of person are you ? I don't know how to describe myself at all, I'm sorry

23 : how do you feel about chilly weather ? I love it but it doesn't and has me on a hit list.

24 : if we were together on a rooftop, what would we be doing ? Watching the sunset or the stars, either talking or enjoying silence together

25 : perfume/body spray or lotion ? None ? Allergy is a bitch and strong smells are deadly

26 : a scenario that you’ve replayed multiple times ? IRL ? Because I'd have to answer : Failing at something

27 : about how many hours of sleep did you get ? Oh no, uh well last night was a mess, got 2 hours and I'm about to explode because of it

28 : do you wear a mask ? Yes

29 : how do you like your shower water ? Not too hot, barely body temperature, just enough

30 : is there dishes in your room ? No !

31 : what type of music keeps you grounded ? Classical, shits make me cry almost all of the time

32 : do you have a favorite towel ? I have one, my own, not really favorite just here to do the job !

33 : the last adventure you’ve been on ? Going to a concert in another country by car, does it count ?

34 : is there a song you know every word to by heart ? Way too many, sometimes I don't even like the song, but it's engraved. I need brain space but the songs won't go

35 : what’s your timezone ? uuuh, CET ? It's 10pm right now

36 : how many times have you changed your url ? I think twice, because I had a christmas one once

37 : someone in your life, other than a relative, you’ve known for 10+ years ? My oldest friend, went to school together when we were 12 and still being gentle annoyance to each other ! Also I'm pretty sure i have tumblr mutuals who count too

38 : a soap bar that smells good ? I don't know : ( loved lavender

39 : do you use lip balm ? No, can't stand the texture on my lips, has to get rid of it immediately...

40 : did you have any snacks today ? No, but I had two meals ! (little victories)

41 : how do you take your coffee ? I don't

42 : an app you frequently use besides this godforsaken site ? Instagram, another godforsaken site

43 : what’s your take on spicy foods ? I like it a lot, my stomach likes it less :o)

44 : you get a free pass to kill anyone, who is it ? Uuuh....********* ******

45 : can you remember what happened yesterday ? A bit ? Showed a monsters book to my oldest niece, then I watched her play minecraft while I played Animal Crossing, made dinner, talked with the fam, watched 3 hours documentaries on the weather, then movie critics, then I fell asleep.

46 : favorite holiday film ? I...by default I think Nightmare Before Christmas ? But that's more because I first saw it when I was a kid (like 6 ?), a familly friend gave it to us as a Christmas movie and VHS's opening short film kind of traumatized me ? I love it for halloween now tho

47 : what was the last message you sent ? "La lumière t'attend !"

48 : when did you first try an alcohol beverage ? Well one christmas when I was a child (no idea the age, around 7 ?), family left and I tried to finish a red wine glass, it was disgusting

49 : can you skip rocks ? YES, it's so fun ! Been years !!

50 : can i tag you in random stuff ? Of course !