#solo capstone

[bottomvalerius]

This is a draft from months ago BUT before kinktober I was pecking away at this Sam POV-memoir experiment (almost like Moomin Papa’s Memoirs LMAOO) and these are some of my fave little blips thus far LOL

[callahanisms]

apt.

unfortunately i don't really drink so i don't know any drinking games. so this fic is based on the song's ✨vibes✨

not beta read. first draft is my final draft mentality. uhhh based on promos and nothing else so if this becomes outdated next week i'm so sorry

pairing: ash x gender neutral! reader

word count: 2.1k words

accompanying bot: 🍻

You weren’t a heavy drinker. Not like you could be one anyways, considering you were deemed the designated sober friend for tonight. Not that you minded. You were more than cautious about drinking at a frat house. It was Essex’s only Asian frat and you had been invited by your friend Myung-Jun, or “MJ” as some of your friends call her. In all honesty, Essex had little diversity—an unshocking reality for 2021’s “Most Liberal College in America” which explains why Greek life was still mostly led by the historically white fraternities. The doors to the party were open to everyone because everyone at Essex liked to party.

Except your friends, for some reason.

You wanted to go with other people you know, outside of darling Myung-Jun. She was sweet and super into this guy at the frat and you didn’t want to end up third wheeling. But all your friends had other plans.

“There’s an event tonight at the antiracist research center. And as the events coordinator, I have to go. I organized it. I’ve been working on this for months!” is the excuse your friend Apinya gave you.

“I have homework.” was the excuse you got from three of your other friends.

“I have to stay at the lab to work on this report.” was Whitney’s reasoning.

“There’s an event at the KJ house tonight. Sorry.” Multiple of your friends were going to the KJ House tonight.

So essentially, it was just you and Myung-Jun and her friends, most of which you just met. And first meetings were always a little awkward, even at parties. You’re only nursing some Sprite in the red solo cup when Myung-Jun walks over, giggling. “(Y/N)! (Y/N)!” She says, her arm around the shoulders of a girl with shaggy dark hair, high cheekbones, and pouty lips wearing a denim jacket. “Oh my god! Are you having fun?”

“Yeah. I’m doing great.”

“You looked so lonely over here, so I thought I’d bring someone to keep you company!” She pats the girl’s shoulders. “(Y/N), this is Ash. She’s Talia’s friend.”

“Talia? Like…Talia Tran the philosophy major who already has an idea for what her capstone is going to be? That Talia Tran?” You ask.

“I mean…that’s one way to put it.” Your heart nearly stops hearing her voice. You can’t describe it exactly without letting someone else hear it. But her voice is warm, smooth and there’s a slight hint of a rasp. She clears her throat. Her cheeks are pink. “But yeah. Talia Tran. She’s cool.”

“You should’ve seen her! We taught her how to play APT. She can really hold her liquor!”

Ash shrugs. “I barely feel anything.”

“(Y/N) on the other hand, is a lightweight.”

“I-I’m not!” You feel your own face heat up with embarrassment. But it was true. A lightweight and depending on the day, you either got sleepy or really giggly. The first option didn’t exactly make drinking outside of your home or a friend’s place safe.

Myung-Jun looks between you two, smirking. “Ash is also single.”

Ash looks over at the slightly shorter girl. “Okay. Outing me as single already.”

Myung-Jun only giggles before walking away, leaving you alone with the attractive girl. She looks nice beneath the blue and purple lights of the fraternity house basement. “She does this a lot. When she’s drunk, she tries to matchmake. Unfortunately it actually seems to work.” You explain. It hasn’t worked so far, mostly because you didn’t want another situationship. Your last one ended pretty badly and left you laying in bed for the remainder of the year. It being winter probably didn’t help.

“How long have you two known each other?” Ash says, raising the volume of her voice so you can hear her over the loud music and people singing and dancing to it.

“Ring Ding Dong.”

Definitely fits the vibes.

Ash glances back, slowly moving towards you. The denim jacket is grazing your knuckles. She looks at you curiously with her eyes. “Since high school. She also ended up moving from the city to the suburbs like me. So we became friends in a school where everyone’s known each other since they were in diapers.” You also raise the volume of your voice as you talk to her.

“And you both went to Essex together? That’s cute.” Ash leans towards you, glancing down at your cup. “What’s your poison?”

“I prefer weed. A good edible. Not much of a drinker.” You take a sip. “It’s Sprite.”

“Honestly smart. I think I took too many shots of soju. I started hating the taste of yogurt.”

“That’s like the worst flavor!” You can’t stop the small laugh that leaves you and your lips from curling into a smile.

“It’s not. It’s very underrated. But honestly, I had enough for tonight.” She takes your cup and presses it to her lips.

If it was a man who did that, you would hate them immediately. But here was Ash, taking your cup and taking a sip of your Sprite. It was weirdly attractive, in a drunken sort of way. Of course, she might be a little tipsy, which would explain the lack of inhibition. Sober people usually don’t take other people’s drinks. “How do you know I didn’t mix it with anything?”

Ash looks at you up and down. “MJ told me you’re the designated sober friend for today.”

“That I am. But some people don’t like being sober friends.” You take the cup from her hand. You can’t help but admire how…relaxed she is. You’d probably be a bit of a mess if you weren’t sober. Some of these parties could be overwhelming. “Some sober friends end up more wasted than the people that brought them out.”

“Okay well…you’re not wrong. That’s happened on more than one occasion.” You finish up the Sprite and set the cup down on a flat surface. It wasn’t your house. They’d clean it up anyways.

“It smells too sweet down here.”

“That’s from all the people vaping inside.”

“Do you want to get some fresh air?”

Your heartbeat picks up a little bit. “Yeah. Sure.” You swallow your saliva, letting Ash take your hand and guide you through the dancing people, up the stairs, and out of the frat house.

Her hand was soft and the silver rings on her fingers were cool to the touch. You want to look at them more closely, feel the intricate designs and study them, ask her about how she got them, how long she’s been collecting jewelry. She was a silver girl it seems.

The air outside tastes better. It’s more crisp and you’re able to breathe without issue and needing to deeply inhale for some semblance of oxygen. But the air bites back against you through your thin clothes. Goosebumps form on your skin and you involuntarily shiver. It was supposed to be warm today. But you could never trust the weather app, could you?

“Now we can talk without yelling at each other.” She says, leaning against the wall of the house besides you.

“And breathe. Finally.” Your hand slides into the pocket of your pants and you could feel the joint inside of its tube. Pre-rolled of course. You didn’t have time to roll while working on your midterm papers. And you’re tempted to light it.

“So what are you studying?”

“Is that the question we’re starting off with?” You turn your head to look at her.

“It’s college. We all start with that question. What’s your name, what are your pronouns, where are you from, what are you majoring in.” Ash puts her hand out.

You roll your eyes. But you tell her anyway. Your name, your pronouns, where you’re from, what you’re majoring in at Essex. She doesn’t interrupt you, she just watches you with curious eyes. You fail to notice how her eyes glance down at your lips while you’re talking, too busy looking at other things because eye contact was uncomfortable. You soon end up going on a small tangent. About what, you don’t exactly remember because you mostly remember the biting chill of the wind.

“Sounds rough. I’m sorry your situationship was an asshole.”

You have to stop talking, looking at her. She’s looking at you with those big eyes of hers. Beneath the porch light, they look dark blue. Had you been talking about your situationship? “Yeah…I just…wish they were better.” You huff, crossing your arms over your chest. Your hands rub your upper arms, trying to get some friction going to warm yourself up.

Ash slowly slides her jacket off. “Here. Take it.”

“What? But aren’t you…” You look at what she’s wearing beneath the jacket. A baggy Depeche Mode shirt and a black compression shirt beneath. “Wouldn’t you also be cold?”

“I’m used to it.” She shrugs. “Come on. Take the jacket. Don’t be stubborn.”

The jacket does look cozy. So you take it, your fingers brushing against her own, and you place the jacket on your shoulders. “It’s a shame. If I was your situationship, I wouldn’t leave you for another average white guy.” She takes a step closer and you can feel her body heat.

“Really?” You raise your eyebrows. “I don’t know. People love average white guys. That’s the whole point of the white boy of the month trend!”

Ash clicks her tongue against the roof of her mouth. “People are…shortsighted, I guess we’ll say.” Her hand cups your face. You blink. Shivers run down your spine. “They don’t realize they have someone awesome in front of them.”

“And…are you…” You lean closer. “Are you saying…you’re not shortsighted?”

“I’m just saying…I appreciate people as they are.”

Your brain can’t process the sudden physical sensation of warmth against your lips. Ash’s lips on yours, her hand holding your face in place so she can set a sensual rhythm. Your stomach churns, your heart feels like it’s going to burst from your rib cage. When you breathe in, you can smell the scent of bergamot and sweet oranges lingering on her clothes. It’s a little overwhelming actually.

The kiss itself is overwhelming.

You pull away, breathing heavy, face hot. You might collapse. Ash looks at you, your lips parted, and there’s a flash of disappointment in her face. “Shit. I’m sorry.” She says immediately, pulling back. You already miss her body heat. “I shouldn’t have assumed—”

“No! No!” You grab her other wrist and pull her back towards you. “I…Sorry. I just…I haven’t kissed someone in a while.” You swallow. “A-And…” Ash looks at you expectantly, but there’s a sad expectation reflecting in her eyes. It’s as if she’s expecting you to reject her.

Who would reject her?

“You’re the first person in a while. And I…I liked it.”

Those sad expectations leave her eyes, replaced with a sparkle that mixed hope and suggestion. “So…do you want ano—”

You kiss her again before she can finish her question. You add more pressure to the kiss and some more passion. Ash melts beneath your touch, pulling you closer with one hand resting on the side of your neck and the other resting at your hip. She enjoys that you taste of Sprite. Her teeth gently bite down on your bottom lip and pull, causing you to gasp. Your back stiffens from the shiver that runs up along it, your hands beginning to slide along Ash’s sides. Your other hand goes to the back of her neck, gently wrapping some of her hair around your finger.

Ash finally pulls away, her breathing heavy, her chest moving up and down. “Do you…want to get out of here?” She asks.

“I…” You think back to your friends. “I shouldn’t—”

“You absolutely should!”

Both you and Ash nearly jump. You both look, seeing Myung-Jun taking a hit from her vape and blowing. “MJ! H-How long have you been out here!” Your voice cracks as you speak, only furthering the embarrassment of getting caught making out with a girl you just met.

“Sorry, sorry. I didn’t want to interrupt.” The Korean girl giggles. “Go have fun (Y/N). Just text me when you get back to our dorm. If you get back.” She raises her eyebrows suggestively.

“I’m…W-What about you? And being your sober friend?”

“(Y/N), I’m smarter than that. We have multiple sober friends. Besides, Kimberly and Bela are here. They can take care of me.”

You furrow your brows, thinking. “Since when…” You shake your head. “Okay. Fine. Text me updates okay?”

“Okay~” Myung-Jun winks at you, taking another hit from her vape and then sauntering back into the frat house.

You lean your head against the wall of the house, groaning a little bit. Ash can’t help but let out a small laugh. “Don’t look so embarrassed.” She says.

“I’m not embarrassed.” You look down at her.

“I think your face says differently.” Ash grabs your hand, intertwining her fingers with yours. And you let her pull you off the wall and take you back to her dorm.

You ended up submitting your paper late. Thank god for having a chill professor.

[aihoshiino]

chapter 156 thoughts

Chapters Since The 143 Kiss Happened And Went Entirely Unacknowledged And Unaddressed Count: 13

Aqua Hoshigan Status: N/A

I'm gonna be real with you gamers I don't have a lot to say about this one LOL. Typically these Mem chapters come at the top or bottom of volumes as transitions between phases of the story so getting one slap bang in the middle of what will be volume 16 is a little jarring, as are the contents of it. Despite making up 1/3rd of the current B-Komachi, Mem is pretty underutilized across the whole manga so while it's nice to see her be given a proper arc capstone chapter all to herself, it feels underbaked. I almost suspect that the beats of this chapter may have been intended to serve as the bones of a Mem mini-arc at some point but with only so much time to spare before the manga ends it was crammed into this one chapter. Without any room to breathe, none of its beats hit.

Mem and Frill being friendly enough for solo hangouts is cute, though! One of the things I did like about the Movie Arc was the way it mushed the wider supporting cast together into a more closely knit social circle and I like seeing that reflected in moments like this. It helps add to the sense of them being people living their own lives who have things to do outside of dealing with Hoshino Family Drama.

The story swinging back to deal the elephant in the room that is Mem's real age is also potentially juicy but - say it with me, folks! - lacks the build up it needs to really be worth taking seriously. Prior to this, Mem's age has mostly been played for laughs when it has come up with no real indication that it's something the manga wants us to take seriously. In that way, the slightly blase framing of it here does better suit as a resolution than suddenly taking it deadly serious was but it does just end up feeling like something Akasaka added to the manga not because he felt it was an important part of the story but because it was next on his checklist of things to tie off before the manga ends.

This can really be felt in the way this chapter really fails to dig into why Mem even had to lie in the first place - there's the off-handed acknowledgement of Mem wanting to be an idol and her age potentially being a barrier in that regard but it doesn't actually dig into this premise of Mem's age being a problem. In a series whose proclivity for infodumping about the ills of the entertainment industry is practically a fandom joke at this point, it feels uncharacteristically restrained for it to not take this opportunity to talk about how this attitude is born from fetishizing, commodifying attitudes about youth and supposed 'purity' and the ageism and misogyny many adult women in the entertainment industry all over the globe have to deal with.

In general, OnK has been pretty toothless the last few arcs when it comes to the cast having to actually navigate the industry's toxicity. The way Ruby's struggles with idolhood are held up as comparable to Ai's is one major symptom of this that I'll probably go into at some other point, but we also see this in characters like Kaburagi and Shima-D too - despite being objectively pretty scummy individuals in terms of both their behaviour within the industry and their interpersonal relationships, the note the manga seems to have ended on for both of them is a sort of 'aw shucks he didn't mean none of it' wishy-washiness where it's unwilling to hold them accountable.

This toothlessness adds to making everyone's immediately acceptance of Mem's lie ring so deeply hollow. No scandal, no negativity, no nothing. An utterly frictionless resolution that feels as though it added nothing to the plot point it was tying off. Again, it would feel weird for this to become a big dramatic beat when the story has so consistently treated it like a joke but this half-baked conclusion leaves me feeling lukewarm at best.

To not end this on a sour note, I will say I really like the note this ends on of Mem deciding to shoot for university and I like Ruby finally giving Mem even a shred of props for the backbreaking amount of work she put into B-Komachi's growth. Appreciate Mem more, you little gremlin!!!

Speaking of Mem's JD dreams though, I've heard some speculation so far that Mem shooting for university is an indication that she's also going to be leaving B-Komachi but… eh, I disagree. Mem talks about how much the group means to her and her revealing the lie here feels like a step to try and protect her place in B-Komachi and ensure she can keep performing with them.

Break next week to no one's surprise… did y'all know the volume 15 release in Japan says volume 16 isn't dropping until December? Wild.

[mischief-night-ghost]

When my autism became MCR related i dove into that shit mad hard, within 6 months of actually listening to them nonpassively. So much so that:

1. I named my university senior capstone voice recital after the album "may death never stop you"

2. The last song I sang at my senior recital was "welcome to the black parade" to signify the death of my university self, but for myself to remember my life will carry on. (To note: I was supposed to die before 21, so I was lost on what I really would do after university)

3. I wore a black parade jacket and did the guitar solos with my kazoo (pictured)

I have to credit my love for this band to my friend Avery. They had me listen to "na na na" at one point when we were about 15-ish, and at that point I was like "eh.. they're okay".

Then when I moved out to university I started *actually* listening to them (while still listening to twenty one pilots and Bastille, my first 2 loves) and then my whole everything became about them)

So.. yeah. Love MCR. Maybe an embarrassingly higher than average amount... But hey, I found some form of joy in this god awful world.

[gravesung-moving]

DRAKARTH CONSERVATORY for Arcane Excellence and the Drakarth Archival Preservation Society (called the Archive for short) are technically one and the same. The Archive came first, with the Conservatory built next to it by arcane researchers who wanted to mold from each generation an upper echelon of societal perfection: soldiers, politicians, researchers to lead the charge into every new era. Drakarth, crowned by its star arete student and its globally-recognized faculty, stands as an institution to strength that, if you can survive it, guarantees a successful life.

Key phrase: if you can survive it. Not all is well here, and the people who uphold Drakarth's ideals would do just about anything to keep their secrets buried.

Be careful, now, and don't follow the moths.

STRUCTURE & EDUCATION.

Honor, virtue, reason and might are the four tenets of what Drakarth sees as excellence. Each class attends three years of school: the honing year, the building year, and the trial year. The honing year is spent on basic training, though its true purpose is weeding out those with outstanding potential from the crowd. During finals at the end of the year, all of the freshmen are pulled solo, in pairs, or in threes for individualized Surprise Tests made to test their weaknesses and push them to their limits. These can be anything: 1v1 tournaments, grueling survival challenges, written exams, dungeon delves... the list goes on.

By the end of year one, less than ten percent (80-100) of the students pass their trials and continue on. The rest are shunted into Drakarth's sister schools and outer universities for lower-intensity studies. The ones who pass are called CENTURIONS, and even if they don't graduate top of their class, the title in itself is incredibly prestigious.

Year two, the building year, is spent exploring what makes each student special. Their advisors craft and constantly adjust custom curriculums that balance the student's strengths and weaknesses within the four tenets.

It's supposed to be individualized, that is. The academic system fails so many young people, and Drakarth is not only no exception to this, but a stunningly cruel example of it. (hiii jupiter.) Some of the students who are rejected, or who drop out mid-year, are literally never seen again by their peers. No clue where they went, no contact, nothing. No one seems to think this is weird. They just couldn't cut it, you know.

Third year: tournament arc! Students spend their time fine-tuning the skills they have built over the last two years and training for a schoolwide capstone tournament after finals. These serve as a display of Drakarth's newest exceptional stock to interested parties: military, government, scientific agencies, like sports recruiters coming to games.

Being top of the class each year is a high enough honor in itself. At least, from an outside point of view. Those in the school, the faculty and staff, and the attached families know the truth: there is one particular honor that everyone is chasing.

There is an opportunity every year for someone to be awarded the title of ARETE. For the last two decades, that opportunity has come and gone: the Conservatory and Archive staff simply haven't seen a student who exemplifies the four tenets at an outstanding, better-than-perfect level.

That doesn't stop every student from shooting for it, though.

Drakarth's arete is treated somewhere between a political hero and a messiah. They become the face of the Conservatory and, to an extent, the country it resides in. They attend conferences and war meetings, make speeches to young hopefuls, fight in wars — essentially, they go where the society needs someone to look up to.

LAYOUT.

The Conservatory itself is built from a set of old stone buildings, their architecture Gothic with a twist of occasional surrealism and a focus on open space. At the entryway, flags bear the school crest: two eagles locked in combat in front of a crossed pen and sword, framed by the area's native wild roses. The eagles represent might, the pen represents reason, the sword represents honor, and the roses represent virtue. 

The ballroom, where public-facing functions and schoolwide formals take place, resembles a modified cathedral without pews. Along the back wall, where altars may sit, the leftmost refreshment table bears stacks of wine glasses filled with red, white and bubbly varieties. The center table is adorned with savory hors d'oeuvres, and the rightmost table shows off sweets and pastries of many types: tiny cakes, croissants and canele and cups of custard, spiced honey cake and filled buns, and more. The food and drink items seem to replenish themselves. 

The Archive, directly adjacent to the ballroom, is two floors high and three floors deep. The ground floor acts as a public library for basic arcane knowledge. The second floor acts as the Conservatory’s private library and study space. Underground levels are for artifact storage and Archive property that is only accessible with a research permit and an approved written request detailing what exactly will be used or studied. 

There is definitely not an ancienty secret society involved. There is no eldritch deity of forbidden knowledge sealed under the Archive. Don't follow the moths.

The school training grounds take up about a football field's worth of outdoor space, different sections of the field set up for different types of training. A large dirt square provides space for hand-to-hand combat; dummies of different materials provide resistance to elemental damage for spellthrowing; one entire half of the field is for sports rather than combat. Things do get mixed up sometimes. 

This field is also cleared out when it comes time for end-of-year trials, challenges that test the might, honor and knowledge of each year's students. Most don't make it out of them alive. That's just how things are. The trials with the most fanfare are Tournaments, which are the capstone of Drakarth's graduating class. The students are placed in small groups and pitted against what is essentially a public dungeon crawl. Those who succeed receive a magical artifact and graduate from the Conservatory, some with honors and some simply good at surviving. 

And, of course, there's the college town. Drakarth is out in the countryside, but establishments, homes and businesses have been built around it over the centuries as many alumni and their families end up teaching after they graduate. Favored by Conservatory students is CODA, a lounge that transitions from a cafe to a classy bar in the evenings.

Questions?

graphic template credit

[dyketennant]

Omg I just saw your post where you pitch to be go s3 show runner and you wrote a hypothetical s3 script?!? omg! Are you at all able to share it? Ik you mentioned that you co-wrote it with others, so I understand if you are unable to share it if you don't have permission, but would you be able to tell us some snippets of what's in it? That would be so awesome!

i've had multiple people ask me variations on the same question so i'm answering it in one post rather than responding to each individually!

yes, i'm allowed to share it — it wasn't a group project or anything, it was a solo project for a class where the professor (who later became my capstone advisor) gave us a lot of freedom to do what we wanted.

because this was for a class specifically on womens' relationship with power in media, the part of the script i wrote (plus what i did my research around for the actual class work part) was around anathema and how she grapples with her identity as both a witch and a descendant of agnes nutter. thus the way i framed the script originally was very "i promise this is relevant to the class and not just me trying to write about a hyperfixation" (it very much was)

if im going to share what i wrote i would want to go back and polish some parts of it, plus maybe add to it (depends on if people want to see it as-is or if they'd like me to write in what i imagined the end of the "episode" would be; didn't get the chance to finish it because it was finals season and also i was already making my professor read 20+ pages of script).

i would like to at some point! if you were following me last year, you may remember i posted about this project some while i was working on it, and people seemed interested in reading it then. so i'll keep y'all posted ig :)

(and ofc nanny is in it as well because i love her and in fact it's my favorite scene of the whole thing. so here's a snippet for you)

[tenma-the-mad]

Spoiler-Free Review of Destiny 2: The Final Shape from a 10-Year Veteran Player:

Despite the server issues that plagued release day, this expansion was absolutely fantastic.

The PvE experience of the legend campaign/raid had interesting plot line & character arc culminations and perfect difficulty levels (Those Hands Got Hands) even after Contest mode. The return of Cayde-6 and Zavala’s struggle had real weight to them, and Crow had some great development too.

The subsequent grinding of quests, fragments, and patterns post-campaign had many quality of life improvements to make the experience more enjoyable overall.

We got seamless transitions in quest missions, rewarding solo/co-op events (no more Two Tokens and a Blue), and some incredible exotic weapons and armor.

PvP still needs some work and we’ll see how it develops as people gain mastery over their Prismatic builds. I’ll probably be trying to grind my way back up to Ascendant this week or the next, but so far the new ammo system in Competitive feels much more natural than the terrible box-only system implemented midway through last season.

All in all, 9.5/10 the best Destiny 2 expansion and a worthy capstone on the Light & Darkness saga.

This has been your spoiler free review. See you starside Guardians, on whatever Frontier comes next.

[mantisgodsdomain]

We know that Solo Run is probably better-known atm as far as our ISAT aus go, but we need to post more about Capstone AU. Mirabelle builds at least human-adjacent bodies for her friends in Solo Run once she's past the House phase of having to build bodies on a time limit and Capstone is just fucked up creatures all the way down.

[emmalovesfitzloved]

An Essay on X-Men’s Krakoa Era

Reflecting on the Krakoan Era, it's challenging to express my overall feelings, especially considering its anticlimactic conclusion. Nevertheless, documenting my thoughts now might help me see if my perspective changes in the future.

Few comics have thrilled me like HoX/PoX did. Each issue was a whirlwind of excitement, and the peak moments remain unmatched within the era. While I have favorite individual issues, such as S.W.O.R.D. #3, Hickman's introduction to the Krakoan Era stands out as a near-unparalleled body of work.

Dawn of X was inconsistent. Despite high hopes for Hickman's solo run, there were significant highs and lows. Issues like X-Men #4, #7, and #11 stood out, but others, like X-Men #3, were disappointing. Hickman's run mainly laid groundwork for other writers, which, though not bad, wasn't what I anticipated.

Brisson’s New Mutants was forgettable, only serving to introduce the Goblin Queen, who later became vital in Ayala’s run. Hill's Fallen Angels had high concepts but lacked character depth, leading to its early cancellation, though it did set the stage for Wells’ Hellions.

Howard’s Excalibur, mainly setting up the X of Swords crossover, felt like it was biding time until the event. Duggan’s Marauders, especially post-issue #21, also failed to impress. Percy’s X-Force and Wolverine, spanning the entire era, suffered from a lack of editorial direction, though they might be viewed more favorably in the future.

The six initial titles were serviceable but often underwhelming. The collaborative effort behind the launch masked many of their weaknesses. In the second wave, Duggan’s Cable, William’s X-Factor, and Wells’ Hellions were standout titles, making the loss of X-Factor particularly disappointing.

Reign of X felt like a reset post-X of Swords, with Ewing's S.W.O.R.D. launching strong despite crossover disruptions. Ayala’s New Mutants consistently delivered, but her Children of the Atom was lackluster. Spurrier’s contributions were solid and crucial to the era.

Howard’s post-crossover work lost my interest, and her X-Corp series failed to captivate. The first Hellfire Gala was a storytelling highlight, while Ewing’s Guardians of the Galaxy crossover added value to the era’s narrative.

The lead-up to Hickman’s Inferno saw cancellations like William’s X-Factor for the Trial of Magneto, which didn’t align with Inferno as intended. Inferno itself was a fitting end to Hickman’s run, setting the stage for Gillen’s rise.

Gillen’s Immortal, Ewing’s Red, and LaValle’s Sabretooth series were post-Hickman highlights. Gillen’s Immortal distilled his earlier work, while Ewing and Spurrier continued building on their respective stories.

Duggan’s era was mixed; his Cable run was excellent, and early X-Men issues were strong, but later work suffered due to crossover interruptions and inconsistent quality. The A.X.E. event, while a capstone to Gillen’s Eternals, disrupted Duggan’s X-Men narrative with little to no consequences to the Krakoan Era.

The final phase, Fall of X, included many filler issues but also some gems. Spurrier’s work with Kurt and Ewing’s strong finish stood out. Overall, despite the bloat, 61% of the nearly 725 issues from the Krakoan Era remain cherished.

In terms of the overall lore and mythos of Krakoa, it's still dubious whether it had a significant impact. Few characters really stood out, as the era was driven more by plot than by character development. Historically, the X-Men have thrived on rich character narratives that created a soap opera effect. However, this era focused more on showcasing what characters could do rather than exploring their interpersonal relationships, which were deeply underdeveloped.

Standout characters like Professor X, Destiny, Emma Frost, and Magneto, primarily members of the Quiet Council, were given prominence, while 90% of the rest of the X-Men were underutilized. This is disappointing, as the era's format seemed perfect for deep character-driven stories. Characters like Jean Grey, Hellion, Cyclops, and Legion, among others, had opportunities for development that fell flat. The era lacked consistent and balanced character narration and plot development that made earlier X-Men stories compelling, marking one of its weakest points.

As we move forward to the next era, "From the Ashes," the general sentiment I believe is emblimised across the fandom is mixed cautious, optimism and excitement. Fans hope for a return to the tight, cohesive storytelling that characterized the best of the Krakoan Era, with a renewed focus on character development and innovative plots. The hope is that the lessons learned from the highs and lows of the past years will guide the creative teams to deliver stories that resonate deeply with the readers, balancing epic narratives with intimate character moments.

Krakoa Forever.

[dustedmagazine]

Fontaines D.C. — Romance (XL)

Until now, being a fan of Fontaines D.C. was pretty easy. The exhilarating way in which they burst to life with 2019’s Dogrel helped galvanize a renewed broader cultural interest in post-punk, exacting as it was in its marriage of youthful observation and acrimony alike. Their turn to the significantly moodier A Hero’s Death was timely in both fortunate and unfortunate ways, musical growth as a mile marker for the darkness that was 2020. The powerfully dense Skinty Fia was another signpost indicating they were on a steady but stable path despite the Glastonbury and Fallon and CNN appearances, despite the Grammy nominations, despite the skyrocketing success. You didn’t have to squint to see the band of “Nabokov” was still the band of “Big.”

The “constant process” of songwriting the group lives by has continued apace right from the off; they’ve been doing a career speed run from beautifully wayward Rob Doyle characters on Dogrel to probing the depths of the Irish soul and expatriatism on A Hero’s Death and Skinty Fia (to say nothing of frontman Grian Chatten’s solo full-length as more than just a personal aside). The through-line of their homeland was always there regardless of whether they lived in Dublin or London or on the road or anyplace else — just as James Joyce left only to spend his whole life writing about Ireland, so, too, did his apostles a century removed leave only to end up singing of the very Dublin City their name wouldn’t let them forget.

Romance is a conscious divorce from that, an attempt to think and write from a less Irish perspective. There’s nary an “In ár gCroíthe go deo” to be found; the closest you’ll get is “Horseness Is the Whatness” lifted from (where else) Ulysses. In the run up to Romance’s release, the band made a point of saying they took inspiration this time around from Italian cinema like The Great Beauty and Japanese manga like Akira. There was American nü-metal and English trip-hop afoot. The “Starburster” video offered a visual makeover straight out of a prime-era Prodigy performance. The influences are far-reaching, the ambitions greater (or at least more diverse) than ever.

The craic here is that the results are Fontaines’ Achtung Baby (or, later, Absolution and Holy Fire) moment, a star turn or a shark jump so divisive and egregious, it couldn’t be ignored by longtime fans. Call it a clean, empty room worthy of mere morbid curiosity and little more; call the “spiritual form” Chatten has espoused a gleaming, gormless, soul-sapped skyscraper that uncouples the quintet from its past; call the songwriting dumb and deprived of the depths The Lotts allowed for; call it a misstep; call it a failure.

… Or call it the band’s capstone on its ascendancy of capital-R Rock. It’s true, you’ll have to squint a lot harder to see the studied studio effort of “Starburster” in the raw live band of “Big,” but if you’re gonna be big, you gotta shoot for the rafters. Say what you will about the emotional reaches of A Hero’s Death and Skinty Fia, but neither possessed the immediacy of Dogrel and its singles, though strong, belied a more texture-forward approach. Less individual tracks were capable of standing out.

No such problems exist with Romance. The Metallica-aping opening riff and punching electronics-assisted kick of the title-track tell of new territory setting you up for something much larger-sounding than any of the previous three records, but that’s aided by a refined, popcentric approach. Some of this is down to Fontaines’ desire to do more in the studio that may not necessarily have translated live, but switching to producer James Ford (originally half of Simian Mobile Disco but now probably best known for his work with Arctic Monkeys, Blur, Florence and the Machine, Haim and others) is more indicative of the expectations — the band is leaning all the way into Wembley-size grandiosity here. It’s called Romance, for God’s sake.

How you feel about that, and about this record, will be directly attributable to your tolerance for bold moves and grand gestures. Whether it’s the short, muscular radio rock of “Here’s the Thing” or the soaring, string-assisted “Desire” or the amniotic Mellotron of “Sundowner,” the album has something for everyone in a relatively tight timespan. There’s something to be said for pacing here, too: What could have been a messy tracklist ends up flowing naturally from crashing to composed and back again, which does much to further the record’s cause despite Chatten’s admittedly more anonymous, universal lyrical efforts.

Perhaps nothing epitomizes this more than the instant classic “Favourite.” Frankly, it struck me as an idiotic decision to release the closer as a second single, especially one like this that's destined to become a setlist staple; who does that, and why the fuck would you spoil the ending before we’ve had a chance to take the full ride? But hearing Romance in full, the decision now comes across as a calculated power move, a nod of supreme confidence as the record spends its duration turning from dark to light: Yes, we know exactly what we’re doing and where we’re headed, and though you may be reluctant, you really should come with us. To drive it home amid a Smithsian strum and the most gorgeously open-hearted love song they’ve yet written, right at the end of the album’s final bridge, an auld turn of phrase slips in worthy of Grian’s best: But if there was lightning in me / you’d know who it was for. Color me a romantic, but I know who he means — and if you’ve ever loved this band, you do, too.

Patrick Masterson

[tonicolomba]

Mx. — Card Game Design

Overview:

“Mx.” is a card game about identity. Players build characters with body and equipment cards to outscore their opponents, but the rules for scoring change with each identity card.

Tasks:

Game Design, Illustration, Player Testing

Tools:

Adobe Illustrator, Clip Studio Paint, InDesign, Paper Prototyping

Team role:

Solo Developer

Project Length:

4 Months

Research & Ideation:

The concept for “Mx.” originated from the tension between queer gender identity and video game character creators, which I concurrently researched for my Capstone paper.

Sources of inspiration:

          •   Bargain Quest           •   Bears vs. Babies           •   Consentacles           •   Uno

“Mx.," from its initial conception, was a character-building game where players each scored according to different rules, but harmonizing these two aspects required exploration.

Playtesting:

Initial playtests utilized a small group of testers playing 2-player matches, who I assisted throughout gameplay. With early playtests, I wanted to learn:

          •   Which style of picking up cards created the most player engagement           •   Explore viability of a graveyard mechanic           •   The most satisfying overall ruleset           •   The optimal number of cards in a deck           •   The best ratio of card types

Later playtests utilized more players and more variations in player count. Throughout tests, I offered no intervention nor assistance to players, instead observing how they interacted with the tools provided. Throughout these playtests, I wanted to learn:

          •   How easily players understand the rulebook                 ○   Fix grammatical errors                 ○   Add instructional visuals to the rulebook           •   How players interrupt the rules                  ○   Rework the verbiage of confusing action cards           •   Opportunities to fine-tune the deck balance                 ○   Add more action cards that enable player-to-player interaction                 ○   Add more action cards that allow the player to refresh their hand                 ○   Add the option for players to discard cards on their turn                 ○   Add wild cards                 ○   Add more identity cards

Rulebook Mockup

Mockup template by lcd2020 on Freepik.

Illustrations:

Exploration

Finalized Style

Card Layout Design:

Initial Design

Design Feedback

          •   Lack of visual clarity                  ○   Reduce border thickness                 ○   Scale down the illustration size                 ○   Increase amount of negative space           •   Distracting background                 ○   Darken the background                 ○   Reduce the contrast and texture of the background                 ○   Increase the contrast between the illustration and background           •   Unclear iconography                 ○   Redesign the icons                 ○   Utilize simplification           •   Poor text readability                  ○   Create a dedicated section for text                 ○   Change font

Credit to Nancy Nowacek, who helped me pinpoint design flaws and develop methods to overcome them.

Iterated Design Mockup

Mockup template by mockup free.co.

Outcomes:

          •   Published “Mx.” on drivethrucards.com           •   Experienced the process of game development from ideation to publication           •   Utilized multiple softwares towards one unified end goal           •   Managed a small budget of $200             •   Created and maintained a production schedule            •   Displayed “Mx.” at the 2023 Visual Art & Tech “Outdoor Voices” Exhibition

Post-Mortem

As a capstone project, this card game was the culmination of what I learned and accomplished throughout my undergraduate art studies. Through this project. I experienced the full, unique scope of solo game development.

Credits:

My mentors: Diana Bush and Nancy Nowacek.

My playtesters: Andy Steele, Benjamin Steinwurtzel, Chris Chan, Joshua Jensen, Kyle Forrester, and Savnick Patel.

[mywifeleftme]

67: Crow44 // Crow44

Crow44 Crow44 2013, Stones Throw

Great press release fodder on this one: Crow44’s Desmond Pierce is (or perhaps was) an elderly bedroom musician in North Yorkshire who self-released at least 25 (oddly Egypt-obsessed) albums starting in the ‘90s before he was discovered by DJ and internet crate digger James Pants, leading to a self-titled compilation EP on the venerable hip-hop label Stones Throw. Pierce apparently played in a Yardbirds-y R&B band in the ‘60s, but I don’t know if there’s really a name for what he does as a solo artist—too much funk in it for dream pop, too eerie to be New Age. Like fellow cult rediscoveree Bobb Trimble, it’s best perhaps to simply say that Pierce’s vision of psychedelia is idiosyncratic. He seems informed by ‘80s synth pop and soft rock, but his affection for cheapo-sounding electronic instruments like the Omnichord, which would’ve come across as hopelessly dated in the ‘90s, means a lot of his stuff would fit nicely on a chillwave playlist (or even as a beat for a Yung Lean-type rapper). The overall feel is woozy, like taking Oxys while watch Inside Out in a movie theatre.

Sometimes that wooziness rankles; the childlike vocals and droning melody of opener “Love You to Death” is both intriguing and kind of irritating to listen to in the way a lot of outsider-tinged music tends to be. When everything clicks though, Pierce proves himself a masterly arranger. “If You’re Feeling Down Part I,” a twinkling Lennon/Nilsson-y ballad of crystalline delicacy, is as beautiful as anything psych’s old masters ever produced (insipid lyrics par for the course). Its finest touch among many may be the ambiguous note struck by its violin’s minor melody—in contrast to the song’s glassy-eyed sweetness, when the violin swells it evokes discovery and melancholy. Like a touch of acidity in a dessert, it enhances the overall flavour immensely.

I’m not aware of any further releases by Crow44 since this career-spanning compilation, which means (at least for now) that it serves as a tidy capstone to a career otherwise (well) spent tinkering away in obscurity.

67/365

[minnarr]

hey there! i hope that you’re doing well:D

this is. a weird thing to ask, and potentially time consuming, so by all rights feel free to ignore.

so, i found you through ao3 (your solo works are just— absolutely perfect, now i have the urge to rewatch the movie for the umpteenth time😂), and it says in your bio that you studied a history and literature degree.

so i’m in high school, and i… will have to apply to universities in a couple months, but i don’t actually know what i’d like to study. i know that i want to be a teacher (different from an office job, i know), and being a history teacher sounds like something that i’d be happy with/hopefully fairly good at. but— well, only one person in my family has ever completed a degree, and it was a business degree lol. i don’t know anyone who studies history and can’t attend open days (i live in the southern hemisphere, planning to study in the northern).

so— if it’s not too much trouble, this is me asking what it’s like? (i’m only familiar with high school history, and my country’s education standards are definitely behind places like the uk, so i don’t even know if that counts for much - we do a lot of worksheets and write some essays, with minimal reading/notes.)

i know that english lit isn’t something i’d be interested in - do i love writing? with all my heart. do i enjoy literary analysis? …not really - but history is something that i’ve been wondering about, and what i think i’ll apply for when i have to.

i really just want to know more about it. for example, there’s something called… historiography, i think, that’s come up in my research? people who studied history seem to detest it, but is it a) as horrible as all that and b) a huge part of the curriculum? what sort of tasks did you do for the history part of your degree: was it, assignments, essay writing, etc? is there a lot of reading? what sort of things can you do with a history degree (if teaching doesn’t work out, i don’t know if there’s a demand for history teachers as there is for maths, for example) — and would you recommend it?

is it a difficult degree, or one of the easier ones, or somewhere in between? and— oof, i know this is an awfully specific thing to ask, but what would a typical task or assessment have looked like? no specifics, ofc, this is the internet, but like… for example, an assessment we did last year was “write a source-based essay on what extent the new deal was successful” — could i have some kind of description like that, if you remember?

again— no pressure to answer! this is a very long and kind of all-over-the-place ask, and i don’t want to take this much time from someone i don’t know— i’m just curious, and in a bit of a panic as the application dates draw closer lol. but again, no pressure (and also — thank you for sharing your fics with us! your qi’ra voice is amazingly on point, and you write everyone from solo in a way that makes me think you went into the gffa and met them all)

i can only answer with my own experience: i went to a smallish university in the US, with a very small history program that isn't exactly the college's focus but had some excellent professors.

i had no idea people seem to detest historiography—anon, i think it's so neat. that's where history really came alive for me. historiography is just studying how history is/has been written. sources, methods, lenses, ways the consensus has changed. one of the capstone courses in my program was a theory class where we had to write a historiography paper over the course of the semester, and i got so much out of that. this isn't quite a historiography, but if you want to get fired up about the process of history, may i recommend silencing the past by michel-rolph trouillot? it's part about how history is made (and places in the process where voices get left out), part history, with a dash of biography, shortish and extremely readable.

i really can't answer to whether it's a huge part of the curriculum where you'll end up—curriculums vary where I'm from, and my particular school didn't place much emphasis on theoretical grounding—but imo it's important to understand not only what happened but how we came to our current understanding, how we can continue to try to understand the past.

once i got to upper level courses (again: US; the last two years of our four year degree, roughly, focus on our actual major), the emphasis was entirely on reading and writing essays. i had one teacher who gave exams, and lectures of course, but essays formed the bulk of my big grades. there is sooooo much reading. so much. i never quite learned to read at that volume, and more ended up learning the art of the productive skim. i wrote an apparently good paper on the communist manifesto and hard times having read maybe 30% of hard times. probably don't be me.

i have no idea about the job prospects for history majors; i never intended to do history as a profession, only as a thing worth learning along the way of just getting Any Bachelor's Degree. i work in accounting now and am perfectly happy with that.

re, difficulty and assessment, again i suspect that this is going to vary in the US and be next to useless if you're looking at, say, the UK. but i can describe my experience! i would not call my program difficult, largely because it played to my strengths (I'm a good essay writer) and gave me a ton of flexibility—few required courses, and my degree required non-history electives so my lit minor basically fit into that space. (i don't know if there's a point to doing a minor, but i was already deeply in the lit major social space).

the typical class structure in my upper levels was that we'd have assigned readings and lectures or in-class discussions, then about three papers scattered through the course of the semester. most of these were based on the assigned reading, just to assess how we used and analyzed what we were given. the only variation on this was my capstone classes, both of which were built around writing a research paper by the end of the semester, and the two classes that made us do an interview and write an "oral history." (scare quotes because i really don't know much about the methods of actual oral history).

so one professor would say, "using documents xyz and book a [all assigned readings], discuss Topic. i want to see you discuss authorship of the documents and these facets of the topic." with another prof, in the communist manifesto/hard times paper mentioned above, we were asked to discuss how these sources approached the "social question" in 19th century Europe, and given some suggestions to help us think about it.

also worth noting: i don't know how it is elsewhere, but my understanding is that with my undergraduate degree, i am definitely not ready to actually be a professional historian. if i wanted to, it would be a base to build on with graduate work, where you learn to actually *do* history.

i don't know if any of this is helpful to you, but best of luck, and i hope you land somewhere you're content with! and also, i am glad you enjoyed the fics.

[hautsreadsmarvel]

A fourfer quartet of decidedly un-thrilling issues!

We’re really hitting our stride now.

Third Ant-Man story (1958)

I’m not going to cover the plot on this one. Stupid commie spy plot, villain is literally called “Comrade X”, and ComX is a woman disguised as a man - which in conjunction w/ these stories being super heavy on the anti-communist Cold War propaganda, is probably (definitely) supposed to be a “moral fallibility” permitted by the dangerous ideology of the second world. If it weren’t for the following notable aspects, I’d have just skipped covering this story outright:

Ant-Man is a famous hero in the city who always shows up mysteriously when needed. This is because he has ant informants in every part of the city, including the police precinct.

Shrinking and unshrinking formulas are now gases he can inhale to make the transitions easier.

Inspired by the difficulty he had in his first and second adventures climbing up and down from the window… (to the wall…) he built this nifty contraption. I love diagrams like this. There was a similar diagram explaining his helmet in the prior issue, but since it relies entirely on handwavium physics it’s not as interesting.

Pictured: a thin pane of glass is sufficient to block the electronic telepathy ants use to commune w each other. Try it at home!

Much like asbestos is used against the Human Torch, DDT gets used against Ant-Man. DDT’s health risks were not widely known (at least in the States) until 1962, and it wasn’t banned until 1972. (You or your loved ones may be entitled to financial compensation…)

Fourth Thor story (1952)

Thor fights a time traveler from three centuries in the future (or two and a half centuries from our time, I guess). In the future, humanity exists in a peaceful state and has no weapons; but the Tomorrow Man, a guy who is villainous for villain reasons (you wouldn’t understand), decides to abduct a cobalt bomb from the now to hold his world hostage.

This one has a few notable scenes as well, but they don’t make the story better. Quite the opposite:

I’m going to cry - maybe from laughing too hard, maybe from raw loathing. This is some real “Serbian Artillery is Guided by God” shit. “American ICBMs are Tested by Thor”.

In what feels like the stupidest and most protracted asspull new power of the comics so far, Thor demonstrates his ability to ring up Daddy Dearest, who informs him that he just fucking forgot he could time travel. Once again, the incredibly stretched science-babble regarding a new power of Thor’s is just too dang gibberish to even put in the Marvel physics textbook.

I do like the coloring done w Odin and the way Thor's hammernado is drawn. Silver linings.

Not pictured, but the era of the Tomorrow Man does in fact have weapons (why are there guards if there’s no violence in the 23rd century? Where did the delta-electron gun come from? Giant robots with smashing fists are definitely weapons!), contradicting the narration in the first part of the issue. Six comic book pages may be the shortest introduction-to-retcon lifespan of a plot point, ever.

I said I was going to skip solo Human Torch issues

And we’re basically not going to cover this one. However, it does introduce “the Wizard”, a recurring super-inventor who, having already proved his “mental superiority in countless ways”, now seeks a capstone achievement: to become a villain and defeat… wait, he just wants to defeat the Torch? Wouldn’t… wouldn’t beating all the Four together be even better? Ok, whatever. This issue involves the following foppish foibles: a ring-sized “atomic-powered” electric saw, the Wizard escaping from an underwater safe by causing a pressure explosion while still inside it and somehow being unharmed, an “atomic-powered” drill vehicle, an asbestos cell, a technological suit to imitate the Torch which involves an asbestos-lined inner layer, the phrase “law and order”, the Torch arbitrarily revealing now that he’s had the ability to flare in temperature hard enough to burn thru asbestos whenever he wants, the Wizard arbitrarily doubting the existence of telekinesis (when magnetism so far has been shown to basically just be tk), the Wizard forgetting that Johnny has an invisible sister… and all that without getting into the actual plot! Yeowch!

“Incredible Hulk” (1962, issue 4)

Welcome back to the Rick Jones show! The show where the only character is Rick Jones. His Stand, a close-range fighting type called “The Hulk”, was awakened by an accident involving the mysterious cosmic rays…

The Hulk shows off his signature thunderclap for the first time, the authors realize Banner and the Hulk need to return to the cast so another blast of gamma rays first gives Banner control of the Hulk (but it is implied this control is difficult to maintain and will slip over time), and de-hulking now seems to fatigue Banner, adding a sense of mortality and doom to this story. Finally, the Hulk is starting to get interesting!

How unfortunate it is that there are two stories in this issue - and that the second story is a real kick in the groin!

Aside from the Hulk letting a grenade explode harmlessly in his clenched fist, this story is drab and dull because… it’s another Red Menace! Worse, the commie masquerades first as an alien invader, which is already starting to drag, but is not nearly as boring and infuriating as outdated political propaganda for the American empire (FROM THE HALLS OF MONTEZUMA TO THE SHORES OF TRIPOLI).

Also, the Hulk has a wider hearing range than normal humans I guess, which lets a dog whistle cannon debilitate him.

Take me, Tomorrow Man, to an era far from here.

[afamer112a-jhwang]

Blog Assignment #6

As the final week of the class comes to an end, I’d like to take a moment to reflect on everything we have learned and gone over. I have read and watched content that I would have never even sniffed if it wasn’t for the enrollment in this class. There were so many interesting moments, scary moments, and poignant moments. What I appreciated about this class the most is how history and storytelling were always intertwined. From The Birth of a Nation to Get Out, there has always been a piece of Black history that shaped how the story was crafted. Many times, I would be surprised by the events and experiences of the past, like the creation and origins of zombies which compelled me to write my final about. It really puts things in perspective about how the plight of marginalized groups can produce profound works of art, like flowers blooming after a forest fire. These moments were definitely my favorite aspect of this class.

Besides Jordan Peele’s Get Out and Us, my favorite piece of work that we covered in class has to be Night of the Living Dead, not only for the content but the context. During a time with so much civil unrest and social upheaval, Romero’s decision to cast Duane Jones showed a monumental shift in the culture, transforming his movies about zombies into an iconic piece of cinema that stamped its place into the hall of fame. The social and political commentary that sprung from this film was a joy to learn about and experience nearly half a century later.

During the last week, it was a joy to watch my fellow peers’ creative pieces of work. The amount of effort, creativity, and courage to showcase their short films was a fun capstone to this class. One of the works that I enjoyed watching was Karis Francis’ short film because of her involvement with theater and film. Her solo act in writing, directing, and editing, combined with the actor’s costumes and acting skills really showcased what we have learned throughout the course. Overall, everyone in this class did an amazing job. 

These past 10 weeks have absolutely flown by. Thank you to Professor Tananarive Due and all the TAs that made this course possible, and hopefully the professor’s directorial debut gets accomplished, it would be awesome for me to experience after taking this course.

[gollumpanties]

Hey I saw your tags on the FFXIV post but didn't wanna tag you directly incase you weren't comfortable with that. But I wanted to let you know that nearly all main story content including the 4 player group dungeons can be done by yourself using the "duty support" feature which will let you go into the dungeon with NPCs that are story relevant.

The only exceptions are the capstone fights called trials which are 8-player bossfights (though for a majority of the free trial expasions youll get enough experience through the main quests that you can solo them by queuing the fight unsynched at your highest level) & the raid stories which are separate from the main quests but related to the story (besides 1 that's required to have done by the end of the 2nd expansion because the story ties directly into the 3rd). So if it's anxiety at playing with others- it's rare that you have to! And you can turn off free company (guild) invites at any time ^^

If you have any questions about it I'd be happy to answer, or talk in general. If you'd rather not, that's okay too I just wanted to give you some info 😊

oh haha no problem!

oooh the duty support feature sounds like a thing i would absolutely use all the time. give me all the npcs, yes.

honestly? more than anything else it's the concept of random overworld messages that makes me back out. like in eso, i got approached in the opening area by a very nice person who was like "oh, i see you're new! would you like me to help out with anything or show you where some helpful stuff is?" and i said "no thank you actually! i'm just figuring things out and messing around!" and they went "okay cool! have fun! :)" and left... and i immediately thought oh god am i gonna get more messages like that? and just the idea of fielding genuine and friendly offers of help was enough to make me tap out. 😭

so uh. i think if there was a way to block all messaging and have it pop up a notice like "this user doesn't accept in-game communication" then that would fix the issue for me? but i feel like that's somewhat antithetical to the concept of mmos. 😅