#that includes non-interactions like standing next to each other

[theredengineapologist]

James and Edward: *standing next to each other, not even really talking or interacting. literally just standing next to each other*

Me: Look! A new addition for the Jameward Relationship Timeline! They're so married <3

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Called to Duty 4

Warnings: non/dubcon, pregnancy, abandonment, and other dark elements. My username actually says you never asked for any of this.

My warnings are not exhaustive but be aware this is a dark fic and may include potentially triggering topics. Please use your common sense when consuming content. I am not responsible for your decisions.

Characters: Captain Syverson

Summary: You struggle to move on from the biggest mistake of your life but find it hard to forget among the whispers of a small town.

Part of the Backwoods AU

As usual, I would appreciate any and all feedback. I’m happy to once more go on this adventure with all of you! Thank you in advance for your comments and for reblogging.

The bank is as ever anxiety inducing. On pay day, you go down to cash your check then give most of it right back, parsing it out for your various expenses. At the end of it, you have even less than the month before. You don't get it. Thing's only seem to get worse; not just money, but your body. Every day you wake up, you feel even more crummy than the last. 

Your hopes of a treat at the cafe are dashed. You give a longing look as you walk by and peer through the window. You can smell cinnamon and coffee. You're strict non-caffeinated, doctor's orders, but a decaf would be amazing with one of those cinnamon buns. Ugh, damn, why are you torturing yourself? 

You turn to continue down the street but barely dodge out of the way of another pedestrian. He makes sure you can't pass as he mirrors you, sidestepping to block your way. You sigh as you step back and look Sy in the face. For a big man, he sure can sneak up on you. 

"Hey," he flips up his dark sunglasses, "how're you feeling?" 

You stare up at him defiantly, not quite bold enough to glare. He hasn't done anything wrong, he's just persistent. It isn't his fault he reminds you of that spoiled deadbeat. Or that your emotions are volatile, one moment teary eyed, the next blazing hot with rage. 

"Fine, thanks for asking," you shrug, "Sy, I gotta--" 

"I owe you a cookie," he points to the cafe window at his shoulder. 

You blink. You remember the cracked shortbread. You forgot about that. The mention of the sugary treat makes your stomach growl and your mouth water. 

"No, you don't--" 

"I do," he insists, "I don't like to carry 'round debts. Let me buy you one." 

"I got it free," you say, "it's not a big deal." 

"It is to me," he counters, "I was heading in anyway." 

You stare at him. You really don't get this man. You're no longer so sure that Thor sent him to check up on you, not since your last interaction. In fact, the wingman seemed more spiteful of him than you. You look across the steeet to the pharmacy then back at him. The aromas wafting out with each swing of the door have you ravenous.  

"I can't stay long, I gotta work," you say. 

His cheeks twitch, as if he tamps back a smile before it can bloom, "after you." 

He gesture behind you to the door. You turn and lead the way. He reaches past you to open the door before you can and you enter ahead of him. The din within is lively and the air is warm from the crowd and the employees steaming out orders behind the counter. 

"Wanna find a seat?" He suggests, "you should rest." 

You open your mouth to argue but think better of it. You'd rather not stand in the clustered line. You nod and head off to claim the table by the window. There isn't much left. 

You pull out the chair and brace your back as you sit with a sigh. You glance over and find Sy watching you as he stands in the queue. His gaze makes you want to wilt, instead you turn your attention out the window. 

Not even Thor looked at you like that. Don't be silly. Sy is just being a dutiful guy, helping out the town slut in her time of need. You won't be duped. Not when you can hear your name being twisted on tongues at that very moment. 

You sit and wait, wring the strap of your small purse. You watch the street. If it wasn't for the people, Hammer Ford would be serene. 

A plate clinks in front of you and a porcelain mug as well. It isn't a cookie and you can smell the herbal tea's rosy flavour. You peer up at Sy as he gives an apologetic look. 

"Cookies are still baking so I got you a cinnamon bun," he says. 

"And tea?" You add. 

"Can't have one without the other," he says, "no coffee for you." 

"Yeah, I... I know." 

You could laugh. He suggested before he's been reading things about pregnancy. You just can't picture him with a copy of What To Expect When You're Expecting.  

"Thank you," you smile as best you can. 

"Gotta get mine, be back," he excuses himself and marches back to the counter. 

You look down at the gooey iced draped spiral. You really shouldn't. Not only accept his misspent generosity but indulge in the excess sugar. Yet your hormones won't let you resist. You can at least wait until he's sitting down. 

He returns with a black coffee and a rather colourful donut. They don't match. Bitter and sweet all at once. He sits and takes off his hat and sunglasses. 

You put your purse to the edge of the table and rest your hand on your stomach, doing your best to resist the animalistic need to tear apart the dessert. His eyes follow the movement and you quickly drop your arm. You don't even think when you do it, it's just a habit. 

"You-" he begins. 

"Wh--" you find your voice at the same time. 

You both stop, hesitant. He nods and gestures to you, lifting his cup as he watches you intently. That's new too. Thor never listened much, only talked a lot. Besides, you weren't exactly together for the conversation. 

"Sy," you clear your throat and sit forward as much as you can, "why are you following me around?" 

His brows form a vee, "I'm... it's not... I'm tryna help." 

"Okay, but why?" 

His eyes flick up to the ceiling and his cheek ticks as he gives the question genuine thought. When he looks at you again, his face is set, "because I want to." 

"You want to?" 

"Yes, I'd like to take care of you. And the little one, if you'll let me." 

You can't help your snort, "we hardly know each other." 

"Isn't for lack of trying," he taps his fingers on his mug. "Aren't ya gonna try the bun?" 

"I will," you assure him. He's trying to distract you and it's close to working. The cinnamon is driving you mad. "A baby is a lot of work and... I'm not your responsibility. I know Thor is your friend." 

"Was," he interjects.  

"Sure," you accept his decisive declaration, "but that doesn't mean you have to worry about his mistakes." 

"Mistakes? I don't think so," he says. 

"Well, it's not exactly planned," you scoff, "Sy, really I don't feel right about you doing so much." 

"Wouldn't feel right not doing it," he shrugs his burly shoulders. 

“But why?” You nearly exclaim. You just want to know why he cares so much, about you? 

He leans forward, elbows on the table, “they talk about me too, ya know? Since I got back from... serving. They say I’m f—crazy, or whatever. It wasn’t easy or nothin’ over there but I’m not nuts. Not like they say. Just like you’re not some slut, forgive me for saying it out loud.” 

You look down at the table and exhale. So he hears as much as anyone else about you. At least he’s honest. At least he isn’t joining them. You purse your lips and reach for the cinnamon bun, unable to restrain yourself any longer. 

“For what it’s worth,” you raise your eyes to meet his, “I never thought you were... unwell, or whatever they say.” 

His cheeks pinch, another suppressed smile, and he tilts his head, “I’m only happy to hear you think of me.” 

[hnowu]

Made a pressure OC, because why not?

More Info (including their document!) can be found under the cut! 🕺

Text reads (from left to right:)

-Scales around gills + Very fine, short “fur,” almost feels like flesh

-(next to two scars) Bullet Scars

-(next to an image of one of the spines) Produces a Non-Lethal venom that causes mild skin irritation via small barbs

-(Next to a crude drawing of the tail) Extremely thick, feels almost smooth like a fish’ tail.

They’re partially bioluminescent! Because of the glowing, they are blind in that eye — the multiple eyes on their other side give them poor depth perception. Generally, their eyesight is considered poor and they are nearsighted.

If you get close, they will also move in close to get a gooood look at ‘ya.

They’re also quite scary to encounter in a dark room, you know?

Text, from top to bottom:

-Can be found within the Oxygen Gardens and rarely within different parts of the blacksite

-Can be considered a “neutral” character, even friendly at times

-You feel rejuvenated after interacting with them! (Petting or being near them for a certain time provides a small regeneration health boost: 1 health every ~10 seconds for 5 minutes)

-Small chance for them to have an item to gift to you.

Text reads:

The Lionfish Z - 56 - Codename: “Lionfish,” real name: “Kylin Kierra” is a large feline-like entity; it is characterized for its “werewolf-like” movement and bright red appearance. It should be noted that despite their heavy appearance and large size, they are incredibly lithe and light-footed: mild caution should be considered when approaching or being approached by Z - 56 as they may become unpredictable. Z - 56’s exact height is unknown as their height would fluctuate with their posture — their shoulder height averaged about a stud above an average-height human on four legs and more than double the height while standing on two.

Curiously, Z - 56 can be considered docile, or, in special circumstances, friendly. Many faculty members reported that they tolerated or even liked being pet, and could produce a noise akin to a purr or rumble. Additionally, members reported feeling happier following direct or close proximity; many operatives also reported a creeping “uncanny valley” feeling if staring directly at the face of Z - 56 for a prolonged period, or if Z - 56 was staring at them.

If Z - 56 is approached, extra care should be taken to avoid touching the spines that line their back — each spine produces a mild venom that can cause mild skin irritation. No deaths or major injuries have been reported after coming into contact with Z - 56.

In early 2015, Z - 56 was selected as a test subject in the second round of experiments to give humans gills using DNA strands from a Lionfish, an axolotl, a sturgeon, a mantis shrimp, a tiger shark, and leopard seal. Z - 56 was also selected as a test subject for additional features — using DNA strands of several large feline species as well as breeds of domestic cats. Whilst the experiment was successful, Z - 56’s malformations, physical and mental, were considered irreversible and thus Z - 56 was given the Z as well as the MR-P classification. Because of the malformations, Z - 56’s mental state declined and is akin to a “hyper-intelligent domestic cat” and it should be noted that regardless of Z - 56’s docile nature, Z - 56 has the potential to be incredibly dangerous. Z - 56 lost their ability to speak but can write short sentences if given the option. Z - 56’s vision had also degraded and they were possibly blind in their right eye.

In late 2015, Z - 56’s, the “Kylin Kierra” case, was reopened following the wrongful conviction of ███████, and no new evidence was recovered, leaving Z - 56’s conviction in place. Kylin Kierra was legally considered deceased following the report. After the experiment concluded, Z - 56 was permitted to roam the Oxygen Rooms.

Z - 56 was euthanized following the Blacksite’s original lockdown. They were believed to be deceased for ██ months before reappearing on CCTV footage within the facility. It is unknown if Z - 56 has interacted or will interact with EXR-Ps.

Here’s a size reference, too!

[duckiemimi]

the end.

i feel…content. which shouldn’t be surprising considering i’ve reached the ending, but you see, i keep a little document to log in everything that passes through my mind each chapter and i’ve typed in a lot, still as soon as i reached chapter 271, my mind was quiet. this is a lie—it wouldn’t be me if i had nothing to say, but the point still stands. i liked chapter 271. a lot. cue emotional end-of-the-movie soundtrack.

i also wasn't lying about the document. i picked up with a reread of chapter 268, but my biggest gripe was with chapter 269. this chapter was...strange. it was as if gege was using his characters to communicate his frustrations instead of exploring how everything would've affected them individually, or even (in gege fashion) moving onto the next thing entirely. this isn't totally out of the ordinary considering there have been other instances where it seemed like he was speaking through a character, but it felt even more jarring considering there was nothing to explain now that everything's said and done. it almost seemed like he was self-aware but couldn't help himself from writing the chapter this way, because these were also my sentiments while reading:

this chapter is so dense with information that we could've gone without. gege kept revisiting the past arc as to justify some of the writing choices he made, using maki to channel the voice of a frustrated audience. considering the long-winded discussions on why alternative plans wouldn't have worked, instead of a "say sorry and make up" chapter, the overexplained writing reads insecure. defensive, even. it seems like the collective pressure from fans and publication caved him in, but i wish he stuck to his guns instead of trying to clumsily fill fringe plot-holes with old cement. i hope this experience didn't kill his confidence in his capabilities—gege’s circumstances were rough as it is from what i know.

the new shadow school exposition dump and the scene where mei mei kills the school head felt rushed, too. which begs the question, why even include this? the earlier portion of jjk had an emphasized narrative on the fault in their system and anti-traditionalism, so perhaps this was gege trying to close circles. what i don't understand, though, is why introduce a new system at the end to ultimately kill it when residues of the old system still exist, the kamo and gojo clans being the biggest examples, two of the big three clans with the most influence in jujutsu society. even mei mei acknowledges that the death of the school head would mean the survival of the kamo and gojo clans, and likely their political clout. was something like decentralization not the goal here? yes, monopolies and tyrannical coups are undesirable, but that last scene was handled rather messily. but perhaps it was all a set up for mei mei's characterization. which begs the question, (again) why?

"the world ended but the earth kept spinning," is how i'd describe chapter 270. despite all the questions i had for past chapters, chapter 270 felt hopeful. it's the type of chapter you could easily picture in an ending-credit montage following the characters in the aftermath, which gave me a laugh. what stood out to me in particular was the reveal that cursed spirits are now public knowledge, meaning jujutsu is no longer a secret. that also pulled a dumbfounded laugh from me. i actually like the fact that we weren't given the nitty gritty of how society rebuilt after sukuna, particularly jujutsu society. timeskips at the end don't usually need that much explanation for them to have good impact. also, who is that next to takaba?

ending on a mission felt warm. i missed the way our main three used to work together, and maybe it's been a while, but it seemed like their chemistry got a lot better. or maybe the world got a lot brighter. and ohhh, that glimpse into how the jujutsu system works now was such a treat, especially seeing sorcerers and non-sorcerers interacting so well with each other! that conversation with gojo that yuuji had also felt warm. the conversation mahito, the ferryman of the styx, had with sukuna also felt warm, even if the change in heart felt like whiplash. i could probably churn out a couple more posts gushing about chapter 271 if prompted, but for now i say despite all the protruding bones i've picked at, i love the jjk's ending.

wow. it really is the end. for the six years of jjk's existence, i've only been there for four, but if i were a tree, you could cut me down in half and see four rings colored differently from the rest. thicker, richer. there'd be debates among scholars on which world-changing event made this happen, but the tree knows. rings become ink on paper.

anyway,

thank you to gege for creating jjk, and i'm sorry if there have been things i've said that were unsavory. now. i've never really given myself the chance to pat myself on the back for catching onto things, so allow me to be a little big-headed here. yes, i am going to list out some of the things i got right:

jujutsu no longer being a secret (i talked about this here and here);

yuuji's flashback to his conversation with gojo instead of a letter (this one is a little more minor, but here);

sukuna's humanity, despite how he seemed to be for a majority of the story (i talked about this here and here); and

a hopeful ending instead of a last-man-standing one (to be frank, most of my posts about jjk have this outlook, and though i was a little headass in this post, here it is anyway).

alright, petty-time over. but, yea! thank you so much for reading jjk with me! despite everything, it was fun!

[gubbles-owo]

i adore seeing brazillian miku make the rounds, and by extension all the other regional variants that proudly showcase all these rich cultures. it's super sweet (while also demonstrating just how malleable miku is as an icon!) but i suppose it's also brought a long-standing personal frustration to the forefront of my mind again, namely... i don't really have a heritage or culture that i can call my own. be warned, stupid american white girl rambling under the cut lmfa o

so yeah im like. "white", or whatever. it's critical to acknowledge that "whiteness" is ultimately a contrived social construct meant to elevate those to a certain class above others in order to oppress and silence those who did not fit this construct. it's fucked. the definition has changed and morphed over time, blurring those included into some homogeneous mass devoid of any real culture, but its purpose remains much the same. so in order to break down this shitty concept of "whiteness", i break down my roots into components, right? a more detailed, nuanced set of backgrounds and traditions that all define me as a unique being, yeah? it just kind of... doesn't work in my case. my own heritage is.... murky. my father's side of the family reportedly includes a mix of things— welsh, german, fuckin english— but all of those were rattled off once by my father in a tone bereft of confidence, pausing for long periods between each as he struggled to recollect any of the details. so very broadly some sort of "western europe" deal, but not much specific beyond that. i cannot recall any particular traditions or anything from his side of the family that were drawn from these various cultures. here's the real kicker: my mother? adopted. legally could not dig up who her biological parents were until legislation allowed it... after their passing. for the longest time we had zero fucking clue where she really came from, the circumstances of her birth and subsequent adoption, all of that. the non-biological maternal grandparents i grew up with at least had their own strong ties; my grandfather immigrated from france after WW2, and my grandmother and her family from poland around much the same time. they spoke their respective native languages alongside near-flawless english, and god, during large family gatherings around christmas and whatnot i ate the best goddamn perogies i probably will have ever had in my life. but see, that's the thing... that's the only time i ever really had those. or had all that much cultural interaction, really, were confined to those transient blips of holidays and events. it was all with extended family that i barely knew because i only ever got to see them once or twice a year. somehow they all knew my name, but i never knew theirs. it felt so... distant. like i was observing a warm and loving family behind a thick wall of glass. it's not like they ostracized me or anything, i just. felt so hopelessly out of the loop. my mother never learned of her true background until very recently. lithuanian, as it turns out. at least for her mother, no clue where her father was from. so in a way, lithuanian is the single one hereditary thing i can point to and say "yeah, i guess that is technically me," but it's not like i grew up around it. i never met my biological maternal grandparents, or Anyone biologically on that side. i know nothing about the culture or the language or their traditions. perhaps if i had grown up with some of that it would've felt more core to my being, but learning so late after the fact feels... almost pointless? like what am i supposed to draw from this?? -------- An idea introduced to me at one point was the idea of region as culture. but augh. oouuggghhh we are opening a nasty can of worms here. (thanks tumblr for nuking this next paragraph for no fucking reason, so u get a screenshot, sry):

algonquian. quinnipiac. pequot. mohegan. connecticut. those sure ain't names carried over from england unto unclaimed soil that's for fucking sure. thanks the horrific methods of colonialism, the place i grew up and hold dear to my heart is, ultimately, built on tainted soil. how closely can i really hold onto any of that when it is built up on the very names of those that were eradicated?? god it is all just so fucked. yeah, i know, fuckin, "privileged white girl whining" here. and you'd be correct. i'm not holding the short end of the stick here, and it's necessary to acknowledge that. sure, i can stake claim to "gay" and "transgender" and "chronically ill"— but my heritage, and the ground on which i've lived all my life, is absolutely not one of them. what our dumpsterfire of a country did to the indigenous people that once thrived here is just... absolutely fucking horrific. ------- to be clear, i don't think there's anything inherently wrong with mixing cultures. like i'm not really on about some """purity""" shit where i have to have One Single Background; i'd say it's probably good and healthy to have different things to draw from! but i dunno, there's a point for me at which it all feels so fractured that it's impossible to derive any sort of identity from it all. where do i come from? what am i?? and at the end of it all the only really thing i can say for myself is.... "white". and i fucking hate that. it feels as if trying to further adopt traditions of any of these aforementioned cultures feels like some sick and twisted form of cultural appropriation. it feels wrong. it's theft. to tie it back to where this post began, how would i design a fuckin miku to represent where i'm from? and i just... don't have an answer. i have nothing. i remember a poll going around here on tumblr that was like "which of these languages would you want to learn?" and while i considered picking smth and rbing it i just could not pick one that didn't somehow feel wrong. the closest from that list i could answer was like... danish. why? not because i have any ties to denmark. but because there is a single prog metal band from denmark that is incredibly important to me. but they don't even sing in danish!! all of their lyrics are in english!! i don't even know what the language sounds like!! in fact i keep mixing it up with dutch!! fucking hell my uncultured ass needs to learn a Lot of things. i just wish i had roots that i could be proud of, rather than confounded by and ashamed of.

[invisiblequeen]

Noe Bodi Gameplay: Day 36, Part 2

Here we are! Zavier St. Tompkins (@westonsims00) and Rhea Moya (@fl0pera) have arrived at the Romance Festival for a first date.

Other notable guests included:

Simeon Silversweater in an outfit that i did NOT curate for him...

Noemy Ortega (@beebeesiims) painting next to Rain Drop (@riverofjazzsims)....

And Donna Richmond (@elysiantrait) passed out on the ground, possibly from all the exciting activity she got up to back on HER first date.😑

Back to the lovebirds. They sipped Sakura Tea to get them in the mood--as if Zavier needed it; this man was on a flirty high the whole time!

The pair took to the dance floor and waltzed their way around the ground murals quite gracefully.

Look. At how. They stare at each other.

"This will be! And everlasting love!" I sang as I watched them end the dance with a perfect pose.

Only soulmates could have so much chemistry on the dance floor.

Zavier was so happy he threw her flower petals!! They were legit the only ones who were this lovey-dovey with each other, everyone else was either awkwardly dancing or standing by the tea without drinking it.

They were so lovey-dovey, in fact, that they caught the eye of the Love Guru.

When they sauntered over to him, Zavier jokingly asked about his romantic future, certain that the Guru would answer favorably.

But--

And Zavier did not like that at all.

Rhea's smile kind of froze in place as she watched Zavier engage in a back-and-forth with the Guru, as if any of this was supposed to be taken seriously. Zavier, meanwhile, gone off the sakura tea, was feeling personally attacked, and started wondering if the Love Guru was warning him that the union he had just found led to heartbreak.

And in perfect (or horrible) timing, look who also showed up to see the Love Guru! NOEMY ORTEGA (@beebeesiims)

She was given a much more hopeful prediction, which made her smile and made the couple next to her tense up.

Noemy, who had no inkling of their situation, greeted them both with a warm smile. Zavier, feeling petty, turned and congratulated her on "what a happy happy life you're gonna live! What's it like to have a non-bleak destiny? What's it like to have a destiny?"

(can you tell that this situation has brought up some things?)

Noemy, who was not blind to his undertone, kept it pushing with kindness.

Rhea, who could only focus on Zavier's "charmer" smile, did not like this interaction at all. She stomped away rather quickly.

Which left Zavier alone to be properly chastised by his new acquaintance.

"How do I get past 'Bleak' when you got to have 'Great'?"

"It's only bleak if you MAKE IT BLEAK, dummy."

"Holy shit, you're right, thanks, nice to meet you, gotta go BYE!"

Don't be too mad at him, guys, he's been burned by legit psychics before.

So he decided to make it up to Rhea by secretly lighting one of the festival fireworks she'd been waiting to see.

Considering the fireworks were supposed to be lit at the END of the festival, she picked up on the signal and awkwardly moved to where he was still standing over the fire thingy.

With nothing but sincerity, Zavier looked her straight in the eye, and apologized for freaking out at the Love Guru. He INSISTED that he wasn't flirting with Noemy.

Rhea, in turn, apologized for thinking he would actually flirt with someone in front of her like a DUMMY, even though he was being a dummy. He's just not THAT kind of dummy.

"We make our own destiny, right, Z?"

"Yeah..."

"...and I'm about to fulfill mine right now."

❤️🥹💕

They shared their first kiss at the Romance Festival, with fireworks sparkling all around them, and fireworks sparking between them.

AND THEN THE GAME CRASHED.

[previous] - [next]

[ashweather]

Daily RPG Readings

Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, Part 2

Alright, for day two we'll be going over pages 28-39, ending at the heading "Role of the Narrator." This is less than what I wanted to cover each day, but I think its warranted for this section because the next 11 pages are extremely dense, and I have a lot to say about them.

We start off strong, with "Rolls, Investigation, & the Eureka! System." First there's a quick definition of what separates an investigation roll from a non-investigation roll, which is crucial because only investigation rolls grant investigation points and thus contribute to earning a Eureka! (the player resource, not to be confused with the game system itself). I feel this distinction warrants its own section in my overview, as earning Eureka! Points and gathering information is so crucial to the system functioning properly. This distinction could probably stand to be bolded with the next few paragraphs, in my opinion.

Without having seen it in play, I'm cautiously optimistic having investigation rolls be distinct from non-investigation rolls and linking the core momentum mechanic to only investigation rolls. I can see the logic in it - the game wants to be about mystery solving and gathering information, so it rewards that kind of gameplay more heavily. On the other hand, there is a slight risk of action-heavy sequences starving PCs of resources and throwing off the pacing of a longer game. I think it will work out, but I'm very interested to see how it actually works at the table.

Next, a conveniently bolded section covers the core gameplay loop of Eureka, and is noted to be extremely vital for all players to understand. To summarize: the Narrator (GM) describes a location in detail along with any points of interest, investigators see major details without needing to roll (but may need to poke around to find hidden details), and investigation rolls are made about specific clues or points-of-interest when the PCs interact with them in a meaningful way.

That's a reductive description, but I have more to say about it than I really want to outline here (seriously I could write essays about perception and information management in RPGs). I'll stick to the basics: I really, really like that PCs explicitly don't need to roll to notice obvious information. I'm hooting and hollering that we explicitly don't need rolls to get obvious or basic information about specific points of interest. I'm jumping out of my chair and yelling the name of my favorite sports team about the game pointing out that multiple different skills may be used to learn different things about a given point of interest, depending on interpretation.

Anyway this philosophy of information reminds me of GUMSHOE except more explicit about putting the things I like into rules text. I would perhaps like a note that red herrings should be sparing, because players rarely need help coming to wild conclusions based on spotty evidence, but this is a matter of opinion.

Now we learn about the results of an investigation roll at each degree of success, including how many investigation points (abbreviated IP going forward for brevity) are earned towards a Eureka! Point. A Full Success gets a lot of information and 1 IP. A Partial Success grants less information (or a consequence) and 2 IP. A Failure grants no information, but does give a generous 3 IP. We are also told to write down Failures on the character sheet for future use. Once an investigator gains 15 IP, they gain a Eureka! Point, the Eureka systems main reward for PCs and a potent resource. Eureka! Points can be spent to gain information from a previously failed investigation roll OR they can contribute extra odds of success to a non-investigation roll.

I always think granting resources for roll failure is a good idea, because it encourages players to think of 'bad' rolls as potentially exciting paths for the narrative to take rather than as 'losing the game' Since Eureka! Points are such a potent resource, it gives players something to look forward to no matter what the outcome of a roll is. I also love the incorporation of the mystery trope where a previously mysterious clue turns out to be a key piece of information later, once the characters put it into its appropriate context or think about it more deeply. Also, writing down Failed rolls encourages players to dip their toes into note taking and gets them into the habit of ruminating over previously acquired information, which is great for a mystery game.

I think Character moments granting IP and Eureka! adding odds of success to a non-investigation roll are great utilities too, but this section is getting away from me so I'm going to leave it there for now.

Lastly, we have an Example of Play for investigation, which is always an extremely helpful tool for players to be able to see the rules in action. In the scenario, two 1930s detectives are following the trail of a gang of bank robbers and have found one of the suspect's place of employment. We start off with a failed Charm roll that grants 3 IP, demonstrating that Interpersonal skills can be used for investigation just like any other, as long as its in the service of gaining information. The Narrator describes the immediate area, and one of the PCs notes a lack of points of interest (footprints) without needing to roll. The Narrator does not highlight this until the player asks about it, which encourages players to be smart, ask questions, and poke around.

Without giving a play-by-play, we get more investigation rolls demonstrating the various degrees of success for investigation rolls and how they move the narrative along. A Eureka! Point turns the first failed Charm roll into a success, resulting in a climactic moment where hidden compartment underneath a desk is revealed. The PC pushes the desk aside, and there is a note here that even if someone might have difficulty moving this desk in the real world, it is an inappropriate time to call for a roll because failure does not have stakes and would not be interesting (I'm hooting, hollering). Finally, the scene culminates in the beginning of combat as one of the NPCs attempts to stop the investigators in their tracks!

I think the example of play given serves its utility well and shows off the strengths of the sytems. No notes (yet, I might refer back to this later).

[jsungshine]

could we get a list of your ocs that are friends/close, we need more internal karaverse interactions 🙏

❥𓂃🪩⋆˚.•📁✩‧₊⋆ kara !

omg YES I WILL I LOOOOOOOOOVE THE KARAVERSE EEEE. ao imma focus on cross group friendships cause each group has their own dynamics and that’s a different post. i also don’t wanna add romantic relationships so this is all just friendships for now.

so our main group is heeyoung , minji and taeji, the fucking chaos triplets. jen is a recent addition the squad but she’s really fitting in with them i love it. mimi joins them every now and then but she’s quite a solo person but when she’s there they have fun. they get in a lot of shit together but they’re so fun and fresh. a sub division of this group includes the boys like james of triptych, jisung and hyunjin.

taeji is especially close with james since they’ve known each other since their trainee days. taeji , james and jeongin are a very close trio.

next is our party girls sora, kelsey and kiera. calling them friends is even a stretch they kinda just are around each other and go out together. sometimes they hang out with minchae she’s an npc oc i created that is jangmi’s ex childhood best friend. she’s a model and actress and gets the best drugs so they hang out. non of them really like each other but are a lot more involved in each others lives than they will admit.

sora and sol are one of the closest pairings in the karaverse. they’re like brother and sister and adore each other. he really is her support system and so sweet. they used to include fin a lot in their friendship but ever since their breakup they obviously are back to being a duo.

a fun little group stella, mila and nova. the three of them are very close and i looove them cause they’re all so different but mesh together so well. they’re literally the coolest people you’ll ever meet. they’re so like aloof and mysterious ugh so sexy.

next is our artsy gays; mila , stella , dayna and arin. they love to frequent galleries and go to fun exhibits not super close but hangout a decent amount.

next we have akiko and trin. theyre a cute lil duo , trin is a lot more quiet and doesn’t stand up for herself but luckily she has akiko. they’re joined at the hip and in basically in love with each other i’m obsessed fr.

iris used to train at cube and so she’s close with vivid but she’s one of sora’s best friends. they liked each other as trainees but decided to just stay friends and that was the best thing they could’ve done honestly because they make amazing friends.

lastly there’s jangmi and minseok as well as jangmi and sam from triptych. minseok and jangmi were mcs together and jangmi fell for him but he’s in love with his bandmate jun so they’ve become really good friends. jangmi has struggled with friendships and through minseok she met sam and they are instantly clicked. she decided that they’d ignore their romantic interest in each other to focus on their friendship because it means so much to her.

honorable mention to jinah bora and jade. nothing significant but like at parties they interact a lot

that’s all the significant ones i can think of. obviously they cross paths a lot at like parties. lemme know if you want all the romantic relationships or like people they hate too cause this was so fun lmao yayyy

find my ocs here; @alwaysvivid , @nct-krown , @inter-stellar-jyp , @karaverse , @p0ppingjelly

[myewcraft]

Wildfolk Update

This pseudo update serves as a replacement/overhaul of villagers. The primary goal is to make interacting with "villagers", known now as wildfolk, significantly less of a chore and hopefully more fun.

Wildfolk

Wildfolk are humanoid animals that completely replace villagers in the overworld. Wildfolk come in multiple different species depending on the biome their village generates in.

Blubberfolk - Cold non-mountainous biomes like snowy plains or taigas, based on walruses

Merfolk - Ocean or swamp biomes, based on fish

Featherfolk - Temperate biomes like forests and plains, based on birds

Slitherfolk - Hot biomes like deserts and badlands, based on snakes

Mountainfolk - Mountains, based on alpacas and rams

Cavefolk - Very rarely underground, based on beetles

Trading

Wildfolk trade by being thrown emeralds, like throwing gold to piglins, which they will exchange for items based on their job. For example a farmer would give the player a large bunch of crops when given an emerald.

Wildfolk do not accept anything other than emeralds, which means that emeralds are far more rare as they can't be obtained from trades like they can in vanilla.

Jobs

Wildfolk can have jobs just like vanilla villagers, with their job being determined by a job block. In the list below the job block is put in parenthesis next to the jobs name, and the bullet point below it is what a wildfolk can give in exchange for an emerald.

Farmer (Composter)

Crops; only way to obtain your first corn, which can then be planted and grown by the player.

Butcher (Smoker)

Raw and cooked meat, leather and feathers.

Cartographer (Cartography Table)

Maps to structures and biomes. Tries not to provide the same map twice.

Cleric (Brewing Stand)

Golden apples, or potions.

Fletcher (Fletching Table)

Tipped arrows or more rarely enchanted crossbows and bows.

Librarian (Lectern)

Enchanted books and bookshelves.

Mason (Stonecutter)

Stones; like normal stone, diorite, or terracotta.

Lumberjack (Woodcutter)

Logs. Usually of local types but more rarely of farther biomes.

Tailor (Loom)

Colored wool.

Blacksmith (Anvil)

Iron, coal, copper, and more rarely enchanted iron equipment.

Engineer (Autocrafter)

Redstone, redstone components, and mechanical brains.

The wandering trader is a unique wildfolk job that is not assigned by a job block. Instead there is a small chance each morning for a wandering trader to spawn, with its species being random instead of based on the biome they spawn in. At night, right around when the player is able to sleep, wandering traders will despawn.

Wandering traders provide items from their travels when given emeralds. These items include saplings and logs from biomes outside the current biome, mob crates of various mobs, flowers from other biomes, and some hard to get blocks like coral, sea lanterns, and froglights. They have a much wider trading pool than other jobs making trading with them much more random.

Zombiefication

The chance for wildfolk to become a zombie wildfolk when killed by a zombie can be modified using a gamerule. Whether or not wildfolk are even targeted by zombies can also be disabled or re-enabled with a gamerule.

When a zombified wildfolk is cured, they will show their appreciation by giving the player an emerald. They will not provide another emerald for being re-zombified and re-cured unless they have spent a minimum amount of time as a villager before becoming a zombie again.

Design Goals

Vanilla villagers have a problem in that they make getting certain resources much easier as long as you are willing to engage is lengthy and tedious trading processes, essentially encouraging boring gameplay. Needing to trade large amounts of sticks in order to get a mending book for instance just isn't really fun despite being the most efficient way to do so.

Wildfolk instead make trades less common due to emeralds being harder to get but more substantial as each emerald gives a large chunk of materials. In a sense each emerald is like a goodie bag with loot that can be influenced by choosing which wildfolk job you want to trade with.

This encourages more of a gameplay style where instead of trying to outright replace collecting certain types of items by trying to mass produce emeralds like vanilla encourages, instead you will find emeralds naturally in your time playing and can choose to trade them in order to get items you might need more of at the moment or don't enjoy getting.

[inchidentally]

(screencapped to stay out of the tags)

I'm going to be bundling my other tricky asks as always in one post under a cut but this one as actually a learning curve for me as someone who doesn't really follow Max stuff.

I genuinely hadn't realized just how much time Lando had spent with Max privately and non-F1 weekend related. I'm not esp a Max fan which would explain me missing a lot but I did know they had a pretty solid friendship that dated more closely to his friendship with George and Alex - but damn that's way more time spent with Max than any other driver this season!

what's funny too is that Max is actually super happy to be physically affectionate in a flirty way with other guys similar to how Lando is. Carlos is only like that with certain guys, namely Charles and guys his own age that he deems as "pretty". but as someone who pulled shippy shit from any car|ando interaction I can honestly say that the "ooh they touched in a sexy way!" stuff was just how Lando is with guys. Carlos firmly has Lando in the little brother/friend space and literally says he thinks Lando is "cute" and that it's weird when people ask them to kiss. and yes, they have dinner sometimes and travel on the same plane sometimes to the next race - but just this season Lando did that with Daniel and Oscar and Max as well.

so surely Max including Lando in all this personal life stuff and spending time together online and in Monaco during the winter break is a HUGE threat to car|ando? I genuinely can't and don't want to try and understand the larry mentality of RPF but if I had to guess then it's something as wild as them considering Max as already part of a major RPF ship (|estappen or maxtie|) that's supposedly ALSO taking place under cover of all these "fake" girlfriends? man I wish I could remove the terms "beard" and "escort" from these people's vocabulary.

I've also got an ask that apparently charlos causes rage for both |estappen and car|ando bc they have an agenda that Charles and Carlos hate each other but then keep getting infuriated when Charles mounts Carlos or Carlos won't stop touching Charles' thighs or they try to kiss for the millionth time. akgfsakfgaf how exhausting must it be keeping these theories going I caaaan't

but returning to your ask yea fact is that Lando is way closer and more of a friend outside F1 with Max than Carlos. they meet up probably the same amount during the drivers parades as car|ando and sometimes even get handsy. but I guess somehow that's different ?? even when Lando has teased that RB would be his only temptation away from McLaren and Christian Horner wants to en plein air fuck Lando ???

from what I can tell, Daniel was never considered a threat to car|ando which continues to be bizarre bc purely objectively again, I would say he's more of a friend outside F1 to Lando than Carlos. not by a whole lot but Daniel and Lando share road trips and private flights and Lando fits into Daniel's friend group really well. I guess maybe since Daniel's just widely loved in fandom in general there was less motive to try and tear down his relationship with Lando?

that's true, I also seem to recall starting to see this anti-landoscar BS starting around Japan/Oscar's contract extension. I suppose if I were trying to look at it through their angle then the Japan and Qatar double McLaren podiums coming right after Singapore - including Oscar's extension - would be seen as some kind of "insult" ? I guess Oscar went from being cute and non-threatening to suddenly cockblocking the Carlos back to McLaren pipe dream (that Carlos would literally only do as a fifth or sixth option and only if Ferrari gave him the boot lol). especially since Lando insisted on being crazy happy about the double podiums instead of I guess wistfully thinking of how much he wishes he could play second fiddle to Carlos getting the only non-RB win of the season instead of trying to idk help his team and himself in the standings.

then there was the crazy mood swing when Lando and Carlos went to dinner after Mexico and flew to Brazil together (with Rebecca) - to the rage when it turned out that Lando hanging out in Brazil for a day or two after the race wasn't car|ando bc Lando went to Cali almost immediately for sponsors meetings while Carlos and Rebecca both posted pics and video of their private holiday together that went right up until the day before the Vegas race. I definitely saw the uptick in car|ando agit prop after that whole shebang bc then Carlos wanted Rebecca at the "car|ando cup" and kept checking in on her. the hatred towards her truly took on a whole ugly and dark turn after that.

it is still so damn weird that Oscar/landoscar is the target that it is for them though. I have another ask where in some F1 group Christmas art the artist depicts Lando interacting with Carlos and not Oscar and ??? it's a drawing??? and I'm assuming they don't rate Lily's existence as security for car|ando since apparently any woman can be conveniently written off as a fake gf. but Oscar doesn't play gay with Lando and he didn't push for a bromance and generally keeps himself to himself unless Lando wants him around! he's a Lando fanboy but he's not even hardcore pushing content of him and Lando on his sm! the poor guy is literally just standing there catching strays bc of a mainstream bromance that has nothing to do with him

I'm sorry anon this went so wide of what you were saying but genuinely I used to spend so much of my time on car|ando accounts and it's slowly turning into a larry "they are looking to each other" edit type fandom ;__;

but fr why does Oscar get put in the "we hate the real life girlfriends" category ?????? I genuinely laugh bc it's so insane why isn't he like Max or Daniel why is he That Fake Bitch Standing In Our Ship's Way and they aren't is it bc he's prettier and serves natural cunt afglajfgalgfslafg

[mincedpeaches]

Genuinely curious but is it okay to ask why you don't like ko/bd esp compared to other canon tf ships? (I'm personally neutral abt them since i only watched tfp as a kid & when they appeared in idw i was just 🤷 )

Is it okay to ask? Anon this is you and me right now

It’s been many years since I’ve watched the show, so I’m going to put a disclaimer on everything I’m recalling in this post by saying that I could be recalling incorrectly, but also I remember I specifically tried and FAILED to put my shipping goggles on for KOxBD when I did my tfp rewatch back in (oh lord) 2015 after not having watched the show since it aired. And I was only REAFFIRMED in my stance that: Oh. There’s nothing interesting here. They genuinely read as coworkers to me. There is no compatibility to expand upon that seems interesting. I do not get it and it does NOT compel me.

Knock Out as a character before Breakdown dies was presented as wholly selfish and self-interested. The way he is presented in fan works with Breakdown is almost always antithetical to that. One of the favorite KOxBD crumbs people I remembered people liking; the “this was so much easier with Breakdown around” line when Knock Out is trying to wax his back, read more to me about how Breakdown’s absence is an inconvenience to him. There didn't seem to be any deep affection there, no pinning - nothing really even hinting at anything more. Knock Out is a sultry character by nature but I swear he flirted more with Optimus than he did with Breakdown. And meanwhile Breakdown was hitting on Arachnid lmao. Which to be fair, I’m not going to pretend that a man hitting on a woman has stopped me from shipping them with another man, but again, there was nothing with his dynamic with Knock Out that provided anything interesting to expand upon. I recall him having next to no thoughts on it outside their battles. His somewhat affable demeanor when he talked to the Vehicons wasn’t even really seen in the show with Knock Out as far as I remember. He died before anything could even hope to be interesting with them.

And then MEANWHILE in fanon world, it feels like its yaoi clichés all the way down. Which makes complete sense if you believe there’s nothing interesting in their dynamic to start with, since yaoi clichés can fill in the pieces when you want to slam two hot guys together and stand in for their personalities.  Granted I haven’t bothered to read any fanfiction with them in the spotlight (that I remember) and the clichés I’m picking up were mostly gleaned through fanart, but it all goes back to there not being an interesting enough dynamic for me to want to read fanfic in the first place. Compare to my tfp underdog ship, Knock Out/Starscream where the KOxSS moments seem so plentiful and interesting. Type in “Knock Out Breakdown” into youtube. You get a video “Knock Out and Breakdown teaming up”, a five minute video where they hardly even talk to each other, with Knock Out giving Breakdown the FYI that he left a battle with all the gravitas of a coworker saying sorry that he’s leaving you on shift but he’s clocking out for his smoke break.  

But type in ��Knock Out Starscream” and you get “knockout and starscream being disaster ‘friends’ for 11 minutes” (air quotes included) where they microaggress each other, scheme together, interact as doctor/patient, scheme some more, try to beat each other up, trade barbs non-stop, BUMBLE their way through fighting zombies, and betray each other all the time. It’s soooo much fun. And hell, this video has the best KOxBD moment as far as I’m concerned, with the whole “you’re no Breakdown” line when they’re having their moment hiding from the zombies. But that line, like most KOxBD, felt like a barely there conjecture within the show. I didn’t get to see how Breakdown compared to Starscream such that Knock Out would say a line like that. As far as I recall, even with my yaoi goggles on, Knock Out and Breakdown in the show barely DO anything together.

And in the end I’m mostly 🤷 about it too - except for SOMEHOW the ship is popular enough to be winning tf yaoi polls left and right, getting them in IDW as a real couple, getting people to fanon Wildbreak as their child because he kinda looks like them, and having people mention Knock Out’s name in relation to Earthspark!Breakdown even though ES!Breakdown feels more G1 inspired and has his GREAT thing with Bumblebee, and I’m just like. Enough. Be serious.

[seandwalsh]

If it’s not too much to ask, could you provide a rundown of Mario and Peach’s relationship throughout the history of the games — any developer insights and supporting material included if applicable? Their interactions have never failed to make me smile; I feel like every moment between them, no matter how simple, elevate my enjoyment of the games.

Do you have a favorite moment? For me, I think the ending of the first Paper Mario is my definitive Mario and Peach moment. Everything from the music to the scenery to how innocent it plays out perfectly encapsulates their relationship.

While other series, like Splatoon or The Legend of Zelda tend to have a greater focus on their worldbuilding and backstory, I think Mario’s greatest strength when it comes to its lore is its rich characters and how their relationships come together. You don’t follow the same main cast in The Legend of Zelda for more than a game or two at a time. With Mario, well - he’s always the same Mario. He’s familiar, and his personality is so strong that he continues to be the Mario we know, no matter the medium. It seems that Mario’s current primary developers, Yoshiaki Koizumi and Kenta Motokura, feel the same way:

"No matter what worlds he takes on, Mario remains Mario. Maybe this is strange but I find that fact very comforting,"

[Source: Yoshiaki Koizumi, Director and Producer of the Super Mario series, CNN Business, September 2020]

“…you can take Mario, or a Mario franchise character, and put them in pretty much any situation and it makes it okay. […] Mario carries it off.”

[Source: Kenta Motokura, Designer and Director of the Super Mario series, GameInformer, June 2017]

“Mario himself is a very strong character, so wherever he is he is strong enough to stand alone and be a good character. And even if he's next to a dinosaur, he's Mario!”

[Source: Kenta Motokura, Designer and Director of the Super Mario series, Metro, June 2017]

That’s not to say that Mario doesn’t have quite in-depth worldbuilding and backstory as well, but I think these characters are greatly understood by the people who work with them while largely being overlooked, misunderstood or written off by fans.

This is why relationships, like the one shared between Mario and Peach, can be such a highlight for players.

Mario and Peach, while not explicitly dating, are absolutely smitten with each other.

In fact, it seems that Mario instantly fell in love with Peach the moment he saw her, when she kissed him in Super Mario Bros.. Mario was so in love with Princess Peach that, according to the team behind Donkey Kong (Game Boy), it’s what caused Mario to break up with Pauline:

“Apparently the land of mushrooms is somehow in the vicinity of Donkey Kong's stomping ground that appears at the end [of Donkey Kong (Game Boy)]. Around that point, he meets Peach, and probably starts to have a change of heart [about Pauline] (laughs).”

[Source: Shigeru Miyamoto, Producer of Donkey Kong (Game Boy), Game Boy Donkey Kong Wonder Life Special - APE Inc. Official Nintendo Guide, June 1994]

“After that, Mario became famous, so Pauline must have gotten dumped (laughs).”

[Source: Masayuki Kameyama, Director of Donkey Kong (Game Boy), Game Boy Donkey Kong Wonder Life Special - APE Inc. Official Nintendo Guide, June 1994]

Paper Mario in its entirety is certainly a great example of Mario and Peach’s relationship. While the ending where they watch the fireworks is a highlight, the intro also showcases her attempts to spend time with Mario, eagerly awaiting him in the upper parts of the castle and wanting him to accompany her to the balcony.

“Oh! By the way, Princess Peach has been waiting for you.”

[Source: A Green Toad Girl, Staff of Princess Peach’s Castle, Non-player Character in Paper Mario (Nintendo 64), February 2001]

“I think Princess Peach has been looking forward to seeing you since this morning, Mario. She's been restless... hee hee hee... How cute...”

[Source: A Pink Toad Girl, Staff of Princess Peach’s Castle, Non-player Character in Paper Mario (Nintendo 64), February 2001]

“Oh, Mario! You came to the party to see me! You're so sweet! Thank you!♥ I was just resting a bit. It gets tiring, greeting all those guests out there! Nobody will bother us here. Shall we relax and chat, just the two of us? It was a lovely day today, so I'm sure it's comfortable out on the balcony right now. Would you accompany me, Mario?”

[Source: Princess Peach, Ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom, Non-player Character in Paper Mario (Nintendo 64), February 2001]

She gets worried about him while she’s kidnapped:

“I wonder what Mario is doing right now... I wonder if he's hurt... I'm so worried about him!”

[Source: Princess Peach, Ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom, Non-player Character in Paper Mario (Nintendo 64), February 2001]

Later on, we even learn that Princess Peach keeps a photo of Mario beside her bed, which she reacts to with a heart emoticon:

“A photo of Mario.♥”

She even gets embarrassed about it when Twink points it out.

Generally, the game makes an effort to highlight Mario and Peach’s love for each other beyond most other games in the series:

“Do you know of a place called Shooting Star Summit? It's near this castle. It's such a romantic place... It's definitely the best place for a date. Trust me. Maybe you ought to, you know, ask the princess to go there...”

[Source: A Toad, Resident of the Mushroom Kingdom, Non-player Character in Paper Mario (Nintendo 64), February 2001]

“Does Princess Peach have a special man in her life? She's such a lovely lady... Whoever she loves must be very special indeed...”

[Source: A Green Toad, Resident of the Mushroom Kingdom, Non-player Character in Paper Mario (Nintendo 64), February 2001]

Princess Peach has a very specific view of love, which she has actually expressed before in-game:

“Love... How do I explain? Love tells you when you want to be with a person forever. It makes you feel happy just to see that person happy, smiling...having fun. When you love someone, you will do anything to help when he or she is in trouble.”

[Source: Princess Peach, Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom, Playable Character in Paper Mario: the Thousand Year Door, October 2004]

It’s pretty clear that when she says this, she’s thinking about Mario, between his obvious outwardly happy nature or his willingness to do anything to help her when she’s in trouble. This is reflected in Peach’s own actions in Super Princess Peach, when she saves Mario from Bowser’s clutches. It’s clear from her actions across various games that Peach would do anything to help Mario, and she’s comforted by him even in times of peril.

From taking Mario on a romantic vacation in Super Mario Sunshine, to talking about how caring he is with her paper counterpart, to her team name with him being “Cutest Couple” in Mario Party 5 and Mario Party 6, it’s clear that these two have a strong, devoted and loving relationship with one-another.

But when it comes to my personal favorite moment between them, I feel that my answer is quite a controversial one.

My favourite moment between Mario and Peach is the ending of Super Mario Odyssey.

Now, now. Put your pitchforks away. The main issue with this is that people tend to completely misinterpret the meaning behind this ending, and while I’m not going to go into too much detail here, I think it’s important to understand the intended themes of Super Mario Odyssey.

“[Super Mario Odyssey] is a journey following Mario to save Princess Peach, one of his most [beloved], so we wanted to make this an epic journey.”

[Source: Kenta Motokura, Director of Super Mario Odyssey, Vice, June 2017]

“Mario and Peach's relationship has been a big part of the games for a long [time], and in this game we're getting deeper into it!”

[Source: Kenta Motokura, Director of Super Mario Odyssey, GQ, October 2017]

“I've always thought that Mario carries a bit of a torch for Peach. I think that's true even back in the 2D Mario games. If not, he wouldn't be wasting his time rescuing her over and over again. [As for if Peach feels the same way,] The heart of a woman is a mystery.”

[Source: Yoshiaki Koizumi, Producer of Super Mario Odyssey, GameInformer, June 2017]

It’s clear that Super Mario Odyssey’s story exists to highlight the intricacies of the relationship between Peach and Mario in ways that hadn’t been explored previously. This is why the ending of Super Mario Odyssey is so excellent to me.

“The ending of Super Mario Odyssey is the culmination of an adventure both magnificent and personal. An upbeat song plays in the background while the scene unfolds: the joy of being reunited with someone you've missed, the slight embarrassment that comes with thinking of the one you love, Mario and Bowser's open honesty, and Peach's independence. Through the theme of marriage - which had never been addressed in the series before we see another side of Mario, Peach, and Bowser. The relationship between the three looks like it'll continue for years to come. The odyssey they've embarked on is far from over!”

[Source: Kenta Motokura, Director of Super Mario Odyssey, The Art of Super Mario Odyssey, September 2018]

Mario finally makes his feelings known to Peach, through a proposal, but he does so in the worst possible way. Peach refuses to marry Mario because he was acting immaturely. Mario cannot handle losing control of a bad situation and often makes rash decisions. While the latter is sometimes a positive trait for him, in this instance it’s a flaw which caused him to fight Bowser for Peach’s hand. You can hear Mario grunting while attempting to push Bowser out of the way and get Peach to accept him.

This is not the Mario that Peach knows. It is not the Mario that she loves. Peach had just been kidnapped from her home, dragged around the world and almost forcefully married to a man she’s romantically repulsed by. She was rescued by the man she loves in the nick of time who was finally about to make his move and propose to her, before Bowser barged back in and ruined the moment, and Mario started acting irrationally. She was fed up, and rightfully so.

So she turns down Mario’s proposal, and leaves. Peach does not turn down Mario’s proposal because she doesn’t love him - it’s abundantly clear that she loves him very much - she turns him down because it was the wrong place, at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons.

However, her love for the Mario she knows still rings true. Their relationship is so strong that even after all of that, they quickly recover, as is illuminated through Peach’s forgiveness. She takes a breath and calls out to Mario, inviting him to come home with her. It’s a showcase of the love they share for one-another, one more potent than we’ve seen before anywhere else. A truly well-crafted study of these characters and the intricacies of their interwoven lives.

[ultimateaclrecovery]

Japan Day 6 Hakone!

Today we traveled to a mountain town called Hakone.

We got to see mt Fuji on the train and honestly the train ride of just having a full two hours to sit and not do anything was really nice

Then we saw an ad for the Hakone open air muesuem and it was really cool! Highlights including the foot bath, giant fried egg that you could stand on, a stained glass tower, a hilarious interactive display where they put your face on a digital artwork in the museum background and a Picasso room.

We then got to take a gondola up to the mountain top and down to the lake where we got to take a pirate ferry boat across!

And then after some brief chaos with the bus system (it just never came) and taking a taxi (that also went to the wrong place at first) we finally got to check in at the Ryoken and enjoy our private onsen. We also got to enjoy this many courses traditional dinner. There was a lot of sea food and my boyfriend kept trying to get me to keep trying it so I didn’t have the best time. But the non sea food parts were very good and everything was super pretty.

Overly long and tmi travel diary

We get up early to catch a two hour train to Hakone. My tummy is just a little a bit upset this morning. Between travel, stress, being on my period, and lots of new food it’s been through a lot. I also feel like I haven’t been pooping enough. But they could just be not eating enough for how much walking we’ve been doing.

The train is really nice and we get some lovely views of the sun rising over the mountains. I update my travel diary, take a nap and then we get to see a view mt Fuji through the window. It is impressively taller than everything else around it.

We transfer to a smaller train and then a another mountain train. And then it’s a cable car.

5000 yen for Hakone free pass for transit. I am down to 1000 yen in cash. (Really 3000 as I later find another 2000 yen note in my pocket that I didn’t see before)

5000 yen for Hakone free pass for transit. I am down to 1000 yen in cash. (Really 3000 as I later find another 2000 yen note in my pocket that I didn’t see before)

We see an ad for Hakone open air museum and decide to get off a stop early and go see it. (I think I paid by credit card, 1200 yen each including a 200 yen discount from our Hakone passes).

The museum has a couple galleries where you can’t take pictures (although my bf tried) but mostly it’s big outdoor sculptures. There’s a fun star maze and some garden areas, and the whole place is set up with a great view of the surrounding mountains. I love the Picasso room. I hadn’t realized he did so many ceramics. We stop at a foot bath where we get a towel out of a vending machine for 100 yen. It’s small but a surprisingly nice towel and is branded to make it a souvenir. There’s a big tower made of stained glass that’s really fun. And a fried egg sculpture that you can stand on! I deeply love getting to stand on or interact with art.

After the museum we go grab lunch at a little road side restaurant. Ignoring the delightful ninja cafe next door full of authentic delicacies such as spaghetti and ninja ice cream.

Foot bath and a vending machine towel for 100 yen from Anthony

I get pork ginger and rice for lunch in the card.

After lunch we take the ropeway (hanging cable car) to the top of the mountain. On the side of the mountain are a bunch of thermal vents venting steam. You can see the yellow sulfur deposits around it. Supposedly you can get a black egg cooked in the sulfur water that adds seven years to your life, but we don’t get it.

We spend a little time at the top looking at the mountain and then head down the other ropeway to the lake. And then we get to ride a pirate ship!

The pirate ship we get is called queen ashinoko and is gold and red. We take it across the lake. I love all the sights and being on a boat and my bf tolerates it and enjoys the view. It does get a little chilly but is otherwise a delight. I see a lady take a bunch of silly titantic esque photos on one of the interior balconies. Sometimes it’s such a delight to watch other people live their best lives.

After the ferry we try to get on a bus to go to our hotel but it’s super delayed and the lines are insane so we give up and hail a taxi. Anthony impresses the taxi drive with his handful of Japanese and good pronociation and they have a good chat. The taxi ride ends up being just shy of 5000 yen which is more than I thought it would be (and we get a little turned about by the directions. Anthony gave the hotel name but written in English and just said like Japanese so we go to a bit of the wrong place first and then have to give the actual address which gets us to the right place.

We head into the rykone and They take your shoes and give slippers. The ryokan has a very traditional feel. We are shown where our private onsen will be and then to our rooms. Our rooms have yakata (?)robes in them to wear around. Mine is pink and my bfs is blue. They both have blue overcoats. We head down to the onsen before dinner. The sun is starting to set and the view is really pretty. The leaves are mostly either green or fallen but it’s still so peaceful. We shower first in the attached shower and then step into the sulphuric mineral water. It’s so cloudy and so hot but also feels so good. It would be better if it were like five degrees cooler but it’s still lovely. We hang out for a bit stepping in and out to cool off as needed. They’ve also put a thermos jug of cold water which is perfect.

We rinse back off and head back to our room for dinner.

Dinner will be served in our room and is a traditional set meal.

It starts with appetizers and is mostly fish which makes me sad. I knew this was likely that I wouldn’t like a good portion of it but it still makes me sad. The plates and the way everything is presented is so lovely. I try to focus on how fun it is and not how gross all the fish is. I get talked into trying a piece of the raw tuna and it’s awful. I also try a piece of sushi, the first bite is okay but when I take the second bite I realize that the first bite had way less fish in it and I Gag a little and almost throw up. I also try one of the little fish eggs since my bf claims they are mostly salty and not fishy. False. Very false and very gross. Combined with new and questionable vegetables I’m way past my limit of new food. Luckily there are some things that I like too. There’s a beef dish that is so delicious and comes with the cutest little wedge of cheese.

There’s also a hot pot like thing with pork and milk that is so cool and delicious.

We get sweet pudding for dessert.

After dessert we go have more onsen time. It’s fun to be in it at night with it being all dark. Unfortunately it’s too hot to really cuddle in the onsen which bums we out.

We head back up to the room and watch Japanese tv before bed. We get to see some sumo wrestling, a cooking show and some weird childrens tv show. I get a little sad because I had such high expectations for this part of the trip and then I didn’t get to cuddle or do more than cuddle and didn’t like a lot of the food.

It’s a traditional style hotel room so it has two twin beds. We push them together(I push mine into his) but it’s not really what I wanted. I take a moment to cry a little in the bathroom and I feel a bit better. It’s hard when you feel disappointed in something you feel like you should really be enjoying.

[brinefathomcaves]

Feb 13: The Obelisk Puzzle

A pentagonal obelisk stands in the center of this dusty, otherwise-empty room. There is an image carved into each face of the obelisk: A snake, a skull, a chalice, a boat, and an eye. The obelisk can be rotated in place, though it’s difficult. Currently, the snake is facing the closed door to 1.66 and a vertex is facing the open doorway to 1.62.

The doors (including the raised one to 1.62) both consist of a stone slab with a lever next to it. If a lever is pulled while the obelisk is in the wrong position, any open doors will slam down and the room will fill with poison gas.

In order to open a given door, the obelisk must be rotated so that a vertex is pointing to that door, with the opposite face matching the symbol on the (outside of) the opposite door—the eye for 1.62 or the snake for 1.66, and then the lever next to the first door must be pulled, raising that door like a portcullis. When one door is opened in this manner, the other shuts. 

The obelisk is currently positioned correctly for the door to 1.62.

(Non-key rambling under cut)

Ugh, I hate trying to physically describe puzzles. I hope this makes sense; it's so hard to translate my mental picture into something that other people can understand well enough to interact with correctly.

[red-justice]

Out of the Abyss: Session 1 Retro

TL;DR: A retrospective on my first Out of the Abyss session, detailing what I prepped for session 1 + the campaign in general, what happened, and what I learned as a DM.

Table of Contents:

How I Chose Out of the Abyss

My Prep Process

Running Session 1

Retrospective

Conclusion + What's Next

How I Chose Out of the Abyss

Let's start at the beginning. I've been feeling itchy to run more games, and been playing with the same groups of people more or less for the past few years. My Friday Planescape game just wrapped up after 3 years, my Thursday campaign is coming up on 3 years, and I just started a new Sunday Auroboros campaign with my husband and some friends I know well. I need fresh meat players. So I turned to /r/lfg, as one does.

The group I found wanted to play an existing module, preferably one that was dark and difficult, in line with Curse of Straud, which they had just finished. I offered them Tomb of Annihilation, Descent into Avernus, Out of the Abyss, and Dungeons of the Mad Mage. They chose Out of the Abyss.

This is the first time I've actually ever tried to run some written module or adventure, so I've got a lot to figure out, and one of my goals with this game is to learn how I can most effectively use and adapt pre-written content to my games.

My Prep Process

I started where I usually start, which is the Table of Contents. Out of the Abyss is an older adventure, and has absolutely zero context. Each chapter is simply its own adventure arc. So I pulled up /r/OutoftheAbyss for some help and skimmed through some of the pinned resources to get a feel for the big picture considerations other DMs called out (such as having TEN NPCS TO RUN all game as they accompany the PCs everywhere).

I used that to create my usual Campaign Overview Doc for the players. I separately discussed some of the potential content warnings for this campaign to ensure everyone was onboard. After that, I started my normal campaign prep process (creating tables of potential monsters CR 0-4, creating rollable tables, collecting encounter and location ideas, identifying thematic treasures, etc). More on that another time.

THEN I actually started reading the campaign book.

Chapter 1 opens with- your players are captured by drow and want to escape the outpost they are in. The area seems fairly self-contained and like it might take a few sessions to escape, so I did not bother reading any further ahead.

Some things I picked up on from reading through the book + the posts on reddit from other DMs (in no particular order) were:

I need to get players to roll for resources based on the days they've been here at the start.

I need to review the NPCs and decide who I might want to get rid of quickly, and who I want to keep.

Other DMs pointed out that the chapter gives good background on the drow drama at the outpost, but it was hard to incorporate that into play.

Other DMs pointed out that the included map wasn't a good scale for a battle map at all.

Other DMs pointed out it can be quite deadly to start at level 1 as suggested, given how the area is designed and that the players start out with no weapons, armor, or magic.

There were some high level suggestions, but not a lot of help from the module on how to run the chores the players need to do as prisoners for RP interactions and seeing the outpost.

I ended up spending way more time than necessary creating a Map of Velkynvelve for session 1 because the few maps I could find weren't quite my map style (and it's kind of like the thing in school where if my blue pen ran out of ink half way through my lab report I had to rewrite everything in black ink from the start because I can't stand to have mismatched ink colors, nor can I stand to have non-consistent map art aesthetics don't come for me).

You may notice I did not bother making all the rooms in the Stalactites. I could not be bothered to make more bedrooms.

I told my players they could start at level three, because you're supposed to hit level three once you escape anyway, and even with their gear it would be a deadly series of encounters for them.

I also went through the NPC descriptions and other DM comments about them, and decided that Ront, Eldelth, Sarith, and Shuushar could go unless the players really glommed onto them for some reason.

I had already taken care of monster stat blocks previously but had to do a bit of a day-of scramble to upload the token art (this always happens to me) for the players and the monsters and the NPCs. However, with Token Maker + google, it wasn't that bad.

I also tried feeding ChatGPT the descriptions of each area, and asking it to create read-aloud text for me to give the players, which I placed on the GM layer of the map in Roll20 (more on that later in another post, I think).

Running Session 1

(Yes, we did my normal session 0 first).

I started by having each player roll the dice to see how many days they had been there, as the adventure module suggests, and had them introduce their characters (appearance + explaining how they got captured in that order). I added them to the Roll20 map as they were introduced, and then described the overall outpost (high up on the wall of a larger cavern, made of pocket caves and hollowed out stalactites, only accessible via the elevator basket which they were brought up in). From there, I described the cave they were being kept in, and the magical wards.

I then transitioned to "present time" in game, with the arrival of the daily serving of mushroom soup. It was a game time decision to say that Ront likes to push and shove everybody else out of the way to be in front of the line, and my brand new player (who never played any TTRPGs before), latched on. Ensue "Soupgate":

Soupgate (as explained to a friend):

The players and a bunch of NPCs are prisoners of the drow in a filthy cave, deep in the underdark. They are fed once a day a small bowl of mushroom broth ladeled into clay pots and passed through the bars to the prisoners. Renfri, a female high elf wizard with 4 arms (don't ask), got in a shoving match with Ront, a male orc who always bullies everyone and pushes to the front of the line. Miraculously she won and got the first bowl.

In a fit of petty bullying in response, Ront then proceeds to steal the bowl of soup from Stool, a baby miconid who is also imprisoned with them. Stool cries about it because he is hungry. Ront dares anybody to do anything about it. Renfri manages to swipe both bowls back from Ront with a lightning fast Sleight of Hand check (is now holding 3 bowls of soup), and before Ront can react, Caladan, a tall human bard with curly blond hair and unsettling blue eyes, intervenes. They get in a shoving match, and Anders, a white-haired male Aasimar fighter, and Prince Derendil, a quaggoth convinced he is secretly and elf prince who was polymorphed, join in. Everyone is throwing unarmed strikes, except Derendil, who has fucking claws and teeth, and manages to shred through 21 points of Ront's HP in a single round.

Ront runs away from Derendil as the drow captors intervene. Ilvara, the drow priestess asks Caladan who should be fed to the spiders in punishment. Caladan points at Ront, who has been paralyzed from crossbow bolts coated with drow poison when the guards broke up the fight, and he is unceremoniously dumped into the webs of the giant spiders the drow keep at pets outside. The players give Stool Ront's soup and everybody watches as Ront is eaten alive.

-

After this, I realized I had fucked up, as I had not had any of the players roll to see what goodies they had found in their time at the outpost, nor had I really mentioned or set the scene for the various chores and other areas of the outpost. I plopped them straight into the cave where they were being kept as prisoners (with dynamic lighting, so they couldn't see the rest of the map). I told the three players who had been there the longest they could roll to see if they had snagged anything, and they came up with: 1 gold coin, 1 living spider the size of a tarantula, and a piece of flint that could be used as a makeshift knife. The players also had two crossbow bolts that had been shot into the cave at Ront to paralyze him with the drow poison. So they were feeling optimistic about what they had!

They began to plot about how to escape at this point, and I had a few of the NPCs interact with them a bit more (I'd already had Jimjar make bets with people about the outcome of the fight with Ront, and Eldeth threw out a few comments about Ront as well) to give some suggestions about what was going on at the outpost and discuss the relationship drama between Jorlan, Shoor, and Ilvara (key drow NPCs).

I then followed it all up by saying that a few hours later, the drow on duty showed up again and called two NPCs and one PC, Esme, to clean up the kitchen. This happened to be the player with the spider (she decided the spider was chilling in her cleavage lol), and one of the other characters told her to "find more spiders". She took this literally and found two more spiders in the kitchen, but did not even think to try to steal any kitchen knives (LOL).

Meanwhile, the other players concocted a plan to have Renfri try to steal a key from the guard when they brought back Esme from the kitchen. The backfired spectacularly when the Sleight of Hand check, and then the Performance check to pretend it was a shove from another prisoner, got a 4 and a 6. The guard called for help, and now there are orders to be extra vigilant when opening the gates to the cave.

Realizing that I had fucked up the outpost interactions and not wanting the players to be stuck in the cave for several sessions, I had Jorlan, who one of the NPCs had previously told the players about, escort a PC to empty the chamber pots at the waterfall (this is the point where I remembered to tell the players there was a waterfall... whoops). The player took the bait and made a sympathetic comment about Ilvara and Shoor, who Jorlan has relationship drama with. I skipped straight ahead to Jorlan offering to break the characters out, as is suggested as an escape route option.

As soon as they were all reconvened, the plotting began in earnest for the next day's prison break. The players were primarily scared of the Giant Spiders outside, and spent a good amount of time debating the wisdom of jumping into the webs and then into the water below. They discussed the "whistles" the drow used to call them (I made this up in response to a player question about how the drow control the spiders), and decided they wanted to steal one and have the artificer enchant it to emit the sound so they could throw it in the opposite direction as a distraction. It seems like a decently good idea to me.

Roger the Pocket Spider

Because players, however, they decided they wanted to test if the Giant Spiders would respond to their "pocket spider" touching the web. I told them they could make an Animal Handling check to shoo their spider through the bars on the gate towards the giant webs outside, and with a roll of 16, that was successful. THEN they wanted to call the spider back. I told them it was a DC 20 (Esme had a +2), and to my surprise, she passed the check. Pocket Spider has been named Roger. The other two spiders have not proven their loyalty and are therefore not deserving of a name, but the players have vowed to put them to the test soon.

-

I called it there at just under 4 hours, and told the players next session they would initiate the prison break!

Retrospective

All in all, I think it went pretty well, but I had some frustrations and disappointments.

Firstly, I think I would have benefited from a bullet-point list flow of session plan. I tend to do this for logistics-heavy sessions with a lot of downtime, or at the start or end of campaigns. In this case, I would have done the following:

Have each character roll a d10 for days since arrival.

Have players introduce themselves in order (appearance and how they were captured) and roll a d20 to see what they've found in their time here.

Description of the outpost.

Scene 1 with NPCs (insert details I should have planned here).

Scene 2: split players into groups for labor around the outpost (insert details I should have planned here).

Return to cave and give players time for planning/discussion. NPC interaction as warranted.

Optional NPC scene ideas (insert details I should have planned here).

Close when players are about to initiate prison break.

Secondly, a narrative flow plan like the above reveals where I may need to do a bit of extra planning or description. Soupgate was pretty good, but unintentional. It was a riff off an idea I read on the subreddit where someone suggested having Serith stand up for Stool to Ront's bullying, because I realize I had nothing prepared. I wish I had planned a few interactions to show off the other NPC prisoners as well as lay the ground work for the relationship drama between the drow (versus what happened with Buppido just "telling" the characters).

I mentioned above I forgot to tell the players about the waterfall, because I didn't write out an outpost description ahead of time and was scrambling to put one together on the fly. This is a KEY FACT because the players need to use the water to safely escape 100+ feet down the cliff without use of the elevator into the pool below.

Thirdly, the players missed out on opportunities to explore the outpost and find more resources as a result of my lack of planning. As an alternative (and maybe even in addition) to having better scenes planned to explore, I wish I had set up with map WITHOUT dynamic lighting and left the tokens on the GM layer so they players didn't know where the enemy was. I'm finding with heist adventures (and that's what this is), giving the players the whole map is really helpful as a tool to encourage creativity and facilitate player (not character) planning.

I do think I did a good job letting the players know during character creation and in Session 0 that they would not have access to their equipment and magic in the opening sessions. I am glad I did this all ahead of time above table as it prevented people from feeling disappointed, frustrated, or upset they couldn't do stuff, and the players were focused on creative problem solving about escape, because they knew it was the focus.

I also successfully killed one of the NPCs I had flagged, and hope to kill the rest in the escape.

Conclusion + What's Next

All in all, I think it was a successful session and the players had fun! They are looking forward to next week, as am I, and there were two really standout moments of Session 1: Soupgate + Roger the Pocket Spider.

I ended up spending a lot of time rereading the material in the book however, and it didn't stick very well or get translated fully to the right tools I needed. This included the read aloud text I had on the map which was NOT helpful - I want to make a separate post about that entirely.

I want to continue to improve on my ability to skim and translate the key information I need from the module into the best format for me.

I need to sort out the best format for myself for NPC reference info. I found a great NPC summary sheet I actually really liked and referenced a lot during the game from /u/PurpleVermont on reddit, and I want to try that out for my NPCs in some of my other games to see if that's the right info amount for me.

I should probably learn how to do voices at some point. At least a little bit.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

ideal scenario is that i like thinking about this like, essential short story adventure where winston and tuk hook up w/a couple [that bachelorette party] members, and as a foursome/quartet because they have these parallel stories of two pairs of friends who are like "sure i'd have sex with you if things aligned for that" and now are living that short story about expanding a dynamic & becoming closer friends for the end of it (of course billions only wrote winston as standing next to tuk next episode, instead of rian as he's often written to be standing with incl in a previous finale, to shove him out of the path of getting material and let taylor have confusing nonresolution w/rian based on this proximity and coincidence instead. but who can't say that that, And winston next not even trying to sit with tmc in the last finale appearance which at this point is probably for the best and instead again hanging out with tuk and then ben, isn't about having been closer for whatever all happened there in obtaining casual sex together)

and they can have perpendicular stories of also just having some nice chats and enjoying other interactions together such that maybe it's just fun for this one night of crossing paths, maybe anyone stays in touch at all, who even knows, if winston or tuk are dating anyone it's probably only going to come up again in how they were last dumped for being too much effort for how unepic they are, so godspeed to offscreen unmentioned dating. but just friendly acquaintanceship, or again this one-time spontaneously crossed paths night's acquaintanceship, is also a lot of fun. and why not imagine that winston "he's not allowed to not feel self-loathing or, by doing basic things like talking or initiating Or oppositng anything, Not operating as though he's too low in a social hierarchy here to be allowed thusly" type of material where his spontaneity, vivacity to bon vivantocity, self-assurance that is apparently arrogance/aggression to every who thinks he ought to be self-effacing instead, etc, is actually just a social success in other less wretched non-work situations, and his personality is taken as a contribution to the proceedings even before anyone takes up his proffered contribution of himself as a potential sexual partner. and lending confidence to tuk as like one person who won't, at any given time, go into hostile mode with him or even like take up the position of issuing this criticism, which is an inherently elevated (over tuk) one when it's a unilateral thing. such that tuk's personality can be a potential contribution as well. and winston and tuk's Friendship Developing Moments can be happening then, too, b/c Maybe they've hung out outside work on their own aleady, but also maybe they've never really been interacting with a larger group outside work, such that that group is less likely to include some people, or entirely people, who will suddenly go sicko mode on either or both of them. and then meanwhile, who knows anything abt this bachelorette party, could be already a cohesive friend group who all see each other all the time, or people who see each other more infrequently meeting up on this trip, or a mix; could be fun and chill or something so scheduled/demanding it's kind of like a work trip, or fluctuate....and of course zero info abt the individuals such that imagining anything abt them is entire OC territory, and i'm bad at that, or at coming up with stories, so not exactly a lot of details here from me but godspeed if two of them unlock another tier of friendship here b/c like parallel to winston and tuk, they're like hmm okay so we're mutually down re: potentially having a foursome here, and spending some time away from the larger group

(or of course the scenario that tuk and winston can also have that moment but just as putting "and/or: a threesome?" as an option, and that tips the scales for someone who might've otherwise felt more indecisive like "hmmmm casual convenient hookup, or spending more time out & about like this / whatever other activity...." but then is like oho Well, if it's a threesome, i'll seize that opportunity, sure....such that then maybe afterwards [winston and tuk hanging out together] happens sooner, if the third member feels more third wheel about things lol, since now they'd be the only two who already know each other. like ooh who knows, round n+1 in the aftermath just one on one (and/or i mean, maybe another thing the third party's still around for, re: further casual sex opportunities that don't just fall into your lap every day), and/or talk, watch tron together, go back out on the town even. where the conclusion of this truly is the essence of "it Is easy to imagine that winston and tuk are real Genuine Friends for the implicit further offscreen time spent together outside work / interactions between them here. and fun" and with that flair of "and give that a juxtaposed parallel in it being the same for a couple bachelorette attendees, why not, good for them"