#the game does do a fun job of justifying why the companions are - while much more capable than the average peasant - low level at first

[couriers-mile]

I enjoy the implication in Origins that Zevran isn't a very good fighter when we meet him and then after Origins he was utterly terrorizing the Crows. All the levels he gained in the Warden's party actually made him a canonically, significantly more dangerous fighter than he was when the Warden met him.

[meggannn]

i'm interested in hearing your thoughts on garrus being shoe-horned into the best friend role if you want to talk about it!

I may not be able to talk about it as much as some people who are super Garrus-critical, but yes I can try!

this really becomes a problem in ME3 more than the other games. basically my understanding of Garrus’s writing in ME3 is that they were well aware that of the fact that he was a fan-favorite, and didn’t want to threaten that, so they made it his crux. they took most of the fandom’s feelings for Garrus and decided to reflect that in Shepard’s relationship with Garrus, but by doing this, they basically ended up pretending a relationship had been there throughout ME1-2 that existed in some player’s heads. of course, Mass Effect is an RPG (well, sort of) so in theory... your best friend could be whoever you want to be, so with that in mind, it’s a little strange for a dev team to go “your best friend is this one character and we will write all of his scenes around that assumption.” unless they really want to play up the fanservice, I guess.

when he’s introduced in ME1, people joke about how they would never not recruit him, but it is a possibility—you could run through the entire game having only met Garrus in the Citadel Tower and never spoken to him again—in which case by meeting him again in ME2, it is a little strange to see that guy you barely remember from the Citadel in the last game show up, but not entirely unwelcome, because at least you, like, recognize him. it’s a little odd how you banter like old friends by making fun of his scars, but what is straight-up bizarre is how in the next game, ME3, Garrus talks about how he was there with you fighting Reapers from the beginning. of course, not a lot of people would specifically go out of their way to avoid recruiting Garrus in ME1, and very few people probably naturally avoided him standing by the elevator in ME1 (which is the only way to not recruit him if you don’t find him in Dr. Michele’s clinic), so the odds of someone not recruiting him in ME1 are low unless they intended to, but it’s still possible.

come ME2, I think they chose to forget that. a few lines have changed in 2 if you don’t recruit him in 1, but not many. remember in ME1, Garrus was an optional squaddie, who had an optional side quest, and his relationship with Shepard there was very much superior/subordinate, or as some people interpret it, more mentor-like. the most personal they get is when they talk about their jobs, the difficulties they face making moral choices, a bit about their families, and Spectrehood. it’s a nice introduction to Garrus’s character but the lines are drawn pretty clear between their roles; by the end of ME1, given the canon dialogue, the closest I’m personally willing to believe of their relationship from helping him deal with Saleon is “subordinate I am fond of,” or post-Saren after Garrus leaves the Normandy, “ally I can call on later.”

and then Shepard dies and is gone for two years. by ME2, when you meet up with him again, I actually find this jump from “subordinate” to “ally/friend” works for my Shepard, but it might not for people who never really engaged with Garrus or even liked him on the SR-1, or those who weren’t thrilled with the idea of him... basically running off to kill as many people as he could on Omega after Shepard got themselves spaced. if you don’t romance him in ME2, he has so little content in ME2: his recruitment mission, post-recruitment convo, loyalty convo trigger, loyalty quest, and post-loyalty convo. if you romance him, you get several more scenes, but compared to other romanceable companions like Miranda or Jack—whose attitudes toward you change the more you talk to them—or even Samara, who you can just chat with while looking out at the stars, Garrus’s platonic relationship with Shepard seems to stall after the Sidonis quest: you gain his loyalty for the suicide mission and then you’re assumed to be all cool. realistically, they could’ve given us a lot of reasons why Garrus might not want to talk—he’s probably still reeling from getting his face blown off and confronting his betrayer again, or if you don’t let him kill Sidonis, maybe he could’ve gotten pissed at Shepard and confronted them—but that’s me trying to justify a lack of content. truthfully there’s very little non-romanceable Garrus content in ME2 to build up that “best friends” angle they want to sell in ME3.

in ME3, you DO get more content that shows how naturally “at ease” he feels working with Shepard: his recruitment mission, longer conversation trees when he joins, more banter from squaddies—including Garrus—on missions, him inviting you to go bottle-shooting, a scene with him after every main mission where he asks you how you’re doing, if you miss Ash/Kaidan, mutual struggles over the burden of leadership, worrying over his family, etc. by this point though, if you didn’t romance him, he’s treating you like his best friend even though he basically ignored you all of ME2. again, you could rationalize that time as his social awkwardness on a Cerberus ship, or him dealing with trauma, but in my friend’s words, it’s really more of bioware telling-but-not-showing that they really wanted you to like this guy but waiting until the last game to give him consistent scenes with the player that reflected that closeness.

on paper, Garrus makes a lot of sense to be close to Shepard, because assuming you recruit him in ME1, he’s been fighting Reapers with Shepard in every game, but also... so has Joker or Chakwas or Tali, for the same reason; so does Ash or Kaidan, for being the only Alliance teammate who was there at the beginning and end (assuming they didn’t both die); so does Liara, for being there every game and only abstaining in ME2 because she was still dealing with the fallout of saving your life (there’s lots of criticism of her being “forced” on the player too and while I agree with some of it, that’s a topic for another time lol). Bioware does introduce Garrus early in each game—I don’t know if this was intentional, because they knew he was so popular so they wanted to give him to the player early—but then he has so little to say in ME2, the game about building relationships, that introducing him early just means he stands around for half game talking about calibrations. a lot of fandom, especially shakarian fans, end up filling the gaps of ME2 with their own headcanons, myself included, to make the relationship development feel a little smoother, but the trouble there is when we start treating it like it was always canon for everybody.

I know it seems weird to complain that such a popular character should’ve had even more content—there are lots of other characters just as or more deserving who got really screwed over (coughs Ashley)—but in my ideal world, they all would’ve had more content lmfao.

[ace-trainer-risu]

oh here! i’ll come ask you for book recs lol. do you have any spooky and/or autumn-y book recs? or just your fave books :)

First of all, I'm sorry this took me SO long to answer. I want to say I've been busy but it's just been general [waves hand vaguely] life.

ANYWAY thank you for asking! I actually don't read scary stuff a lot b/c I'm a wimp, but I have a few spooky/autumnal books up my sleeves! Let's see what we've got!!

1) The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

Let me just start by saying that Sarah Waters is one of my absolute favorite authors ever! All her novels are suspenseful, twisty historical novels with great female and queer characters. Although, fair warning, actually The Little Stranger is like her one novel that isn't queer, but it is VERY good. If you read The Little Stranger and like it, please read Fingersmith and/or The Paying Guests.

The Little Stranger is set in the countryside of post-WWII England and follows a mild-mannered doctor as he becomes increasingly involved in the lives of the family living in the local, increasingly decrepit, possibly haunted mansion. Think Downton Abbey but creepy. Strange things keep happening inside the house, from dog bites to mysterious sounds to creepy black spots. Literally just typing that gave me goosebumps. It seems like someone may be out to get the family, but who...or what? Is it simply the ghosts of their own painful memories, or is something more? Sarah Waters is excellent at lush, intricate historical detail, and she leans into that here to create an atmosphere of slowly building dread and horror and mystery.

That being said, as a person who isn't normally a fan of horror, I don't think this book is too scary. It's more of an atmospheric, psychological horror than a jump-scare, bloody horror. It's not a book that will give you nightmares (probably), but you might lie awake thinking about it.

Also. Pro-tip. As a haunted(?) house story, the house is obviously fairly central to the story. Dear fellow Americans, keep in mind that the British refer to the floors of a building differently than us. For Americans, the ground-level floor is called the first floor, the floor above that the second floor, etc. For the British, the ground-level floor is the ground floor, and the floor above that is the first floor, etc. There's all sorts of creepy references to characters hearing noises above them on the first floor, but I was just like, Why are they always in the basement?

2) Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia

This and the above are two very different books, and yet they are both set in the mid-1900s and both are about weird, creepy, maybe-haunted houses. What can I say, I like gothic fiction.

After our heroine, Noemi, receives a bizarre, borderline incoherent letter from her beloved cousin, she sets out to visit her in the literally decaying mansion she resides in with her husband and his new family deep in the countryside of Mexico. All Noemi wants to do is persuade her cousin to come back home with her, but her cousin's new in-laws are very determined not to let that happen...or to let Noemi leave either. Secrets abound in the bizarre house and even creepier nearby cemetery, and soon Noemi finds that she too is suffering from bizarre dreams and visions...although, are they just dreams?

This book is so weird, but in such a good way? I read it for a book club and every week we had increasingly bizarre theories about what was going on, we were googling alchemy and fungi and St George, and some of our theories were even right. Although definitely not all. Another very twisty one that keeps you guessing.

In terms of scariness, interestingly I think there's more overtly creepy and horrifying moments in this novel than The Little Stranger, but I found TLS more overall scary? But that may be because I read it quickly, which I think is the ideal setting for suspenseful stuff, and I read Mexican Gothic over a longer amount of time since it was for a book club. This one does have some more typical horror elements to it, but I don't think it's more creepy than terrifying.

3) The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

I listened to this one as an audiobook and the audiobook is excellent so would recommend that, but have no doubt it would also be great to physically read.

Oh my god this book...it's more thriller than horror, but I think it fits the brief. There were multiple moments listening to this book that I literally gasped or said "OH MY GOD!" out loud, and there are moments which are very creepy and horrifying. There's a particular scene in the backyard... Again, incredibly suspenseful and twisty. And the character development and character psychology is just! really really good! There's also really interesting and knotty feminist stuff which is a lot more complicated and nasty than some of the "girlboss" stuff which is popular right now.

Super minimal summary: All you really need to know is that it is a sci fi novel about a scientific researcher trying to pick up her life after her marriage has imploded, only for everything to go BATSHIT WRONG. Trust me, that's all you need to know, it's better to go into this not knowing what's going to happen or what to expect. I had no clue what this novel was about when I started it, and holy shit. Very good book, absolutely recommend this if you want some super suspenseful, creepy sci fi that will make you say "oh my GOD" repeatedly.

Okay, shifting gears a little now b/c autumn isn't just spooky, it's also cozy and restful and daydreamy!

4) The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker

This isn't maybe a cozy book per se, but it's a great book to cuddle down with on a dreary day and lose yourself in. If you've ever asked yourself, "What would it be like if you crossed Pride and Prejudice with Howl's Moving Castle except the wizard was way worse but somehow still sexy" - then you should read this book! I actually came across this book b/c I was like, I wanna read a book that's a portal fantasy but for adults, and this book was like OH here's everything you wanted.

It's about a grad student, Nora, who has totally stalled out on her dissertation and is at a shitty wedding when she accidentally wanders through a portal into a beautiful, fantastical fairy world. At first, everything is amazing and literally perfect...but surprise surprise, not all as is it seems, and soon everything goes to, how should I put it, shit. Nora escapes, but rather than returning home, she finds herself trapped in a far more dreary realm. But not one without it's own charms and it's own magic, and Nora finds herself the student-slash-sorta-captive of the crochety, sexy, maybe-killed-his-wife magician Aruendiel* and she begins to learn magic herself.

Unlike the above books, this is not a fast-paced, twisty book, and I think if you go into this expecting high fantasy along the lines of Game of Thrones, you may be disappointed. It's not really a typical high-fantasy novel, it's more of a cross of an 18th/19th century realist novel, a fairy tale, and a fantasy novel. But if you want that, then it's REALLY good! I loved this book! And the magic in it is so cool, something about the way its described feels so visceral and real and like you could really do it if you just tried hard enough. There is a romance and it's totally, intentionally hashtag problematic, but it's very laid back, very slow burn, so I think even if you aren't a person who digs romance you can still enjoy this. If you're looking for a feminist-leaning fantasy novel that you can just sink into and lose yourself in, this is the perfect book. You will long to magically fix broken plates.

5) The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry by C.M. Waggoner

Honestly I can't even justify why I think this one is an autumn book. It simply is. It's autumn colored in my head. It is the coziest book I have ever read about necromancy and crime. Also I just want to recommend it. This is another one that I listened to as an audiobook and it's also a good audiobook, for those who are interested. But it also means I will not be able to spell absolutely any of the character's names.

This novel follows Delly, an enterprising young scoundrel of a fire witch with a teeny tiny gin habit as she attempts to support herself and her hot-mess of a mom in the roughest neighborhoods of Fantasy-City-That-I-Can't-Remember-The-Name-Of. Lice...gate? When Delly comes across an advertisement for a bodyguarding job for young women for a hefty fee, it seems like the answer to definitely not all but at least some of her problems. She accepts, along with an interesting assortment of other sorcerous young ladies, including a wonderfully bitchy Absentia (my love), a young woman who can turn into a boar, boar girl's necromancer mother, and the very sexy part-troll Winn, who in my imagination looks like Gwendoline Christie and talks like Miranda Hart. Which. Perfect woman. Winn being a fine, wealthy young lady, Delly can't help but think to herself that it wouldn't be such a bad thing if Winn happened to fall in love with her and carried her off to be rich and spoiled the rest of her life.

Of course, things quickly don't go to plan, and soon Delly and her companions find herself caught up in wicked schemes of murder, drugs, and an undead mouse named Buttons who says BONG. I love Buttons SO MUCH.

This book is just a silly romp of a novel which worms into your heart and your brain. It's fun and cute and gay, and also it made me cry. I haven't stopped thinking, "Not quite regulation hammerball" since I listened to it like half a year ago.

Also, while I'm here, this novel is set in the same world as and features a few of the same characters as Unnatural Magic. Which is also a hell of a book. Literally the best bisexual relationship I have ever fuckin read. It's a winter book tho, so I simply can't go into it here.

Aaaaand...that it's! Happy autumnal reading :)

[coeursetcolores]

H’aanit, the Hunter: Chapter 1

WARNING! Spoilers ahead for Chapter 1 of H’aanit’s story in Octopath Traveler!

Animal buddies! Yay!

Hunting! Boo!

Animal companions helping to prevent invasive species and overpopulation from harming the ecosystem! ...What?

Yeah, this isn’t the typical hunting story about primitive alpha males going out to kill animals for sport. No, here we get an actual explanation for why, even if we don’t want to do it, sometimes we have to hunt.

And who better to explain it to us than the fair hunter of the Woodlands and her loyal snow leopard companion?

Actually, H’aanit’s the first character I really learned about. I was watching a video about beast partner charcters and she came up and my interest grew from there. The more info I got, the more I wanted to see her, so in a way, H’aanit helped convince me to want to play the game. So thank you, H’aanit.

And H’aanit herself? Well, I just want to say, at least for the time-being...

H’aanit is best girl.

That is the truth.

Yes.

This is nothing against the other girls, I think they’re great too. But H’aanit is just a step above everyone else. She’s brave, resourceful, dedicated, kind, beautiful, strong, wise, loyal and she has a snow leopard best friend! What’s not to love?

And I just love hearing her talk. It’s like listening to someone read Shakespeare to you and it’s a nice way to distinguish her from the others.

Overall, H’aanit is a really nice take on the hunter stereotype: she’s not doing this for fun, it’s for the well-being of everyone. She strictly does her job for population control and to keep the balance of nature steady; only going after absolute threats to the ecosystem and never doing more harm than necessary. She respects her hunts and only ever really takes pleasure in sparring with other people. She does her best to understand others and even sympathizes with the Ghisarma while not excusing it’s actions and killing it to keep it from hurting anyone else.

And Linde is a snow leopard. Do I need to go on?

(Though I am worried if it’s okay to take her to all these different climates; is that safe for snow leopards?)

She’s strong and firm, but still kind and gentle. And I love it.

I also really love her playstyle; to the point where I’ll admit that I used her as a crutch. She’s got long-range, short-range and an animal companion she can use for support. Along with any others she can pick up along the way (for a limited amount of time)! Woman’s a flat-out game-breaker.

Speaking of Capture, it may take a lot to make it work, but it really comes through in a pinch if you’re party’s missing a type of attack to exploit enemy weaknesses. And you can get more support skills when you’re running low on items/MP!

Provoke, is fun. Setting your animal companions off on anyone in town for glory! ...Unless you lose. It’s like Pokémon! But against people! So better!

S’warkii is like a setting right out of a storybook, it’s almost like a play scene. It wouldn’t be out of place to see fairies or nature spirits running around the place. The forest is calming yet you feel a slight sense of fear; it’s a good reflection of how H’aanit feels. She feels at home in the forest, but she still knows that there are things out there she should be wary about.

Z’aanta, for the little bit of time we saw him, is also really enjoyable. Watching H’aanit badger him is so much like seeing a long-suffering daughter chide her carefree father, but you know they still love each other. And I’m all for mentor’s having a playful side! In that brief flashback, you really come to understand them both and you can easily sympathize with H’aanit’s desire to save him.

The Ghisarma is physically terrifying. As was the fight. You know what wasn’t? The fact that it didn’t bring anyone else to the fight! And this actually feels like a fair fight! It’s completely reliant on physical skills, but it’s not a brute. It can reflect your attack damage, which, when you have one of the biggest damage dealers in the game, could cost you dearly.

I know I said it before, but I love how H’aanit sympathizes with the creature but doesn’t excuse it’s actions. I really think it’s important when dealing with villains with tragic backstories to not ignore what happened to them and to acknowledge it may have had a part in why they do the things they do, but it doesn’t justify them. Bad things happen to everyone, but it’s how you choose to react to them that determines who you are.

With all this wisdom picked up throughout this chapter, I think we’re ready to go look for Master.

[fallout-lou-begas]

Questions for OC Creators

Shamelessly stole this from @tarberrymentats​‘ post because I’m always a sucker for behind-the-scenes character inspiration and meaning stuff, so if you steal this in turn, feel free to tag me!

(I’m also stealing Halk’s usage of lovely art by @yesjejunus​ for this one ��)

Agnes Sands, Courier Six of the Mojave Express

A) Why are you excited about this character?

Agnes was an opportunity to create what felt like a very unorthodox OC, and it’s an opportunity that has certainly paid off. She’s not young, and she’s not a particularly pleasant or easygoing person to be around, but she’s also not the endearingly tragic loner type or a badass army-of-one. She’s not “spunky” or “fun” and isn’t the kind of Fallout character who’s necessarily motivated to do every quest, meet every companion, accomplish every thing. She’s not an important person; being an important person is anathema to her, and the looming, overarching themes of It Keeps Right On a-Hurtin’ are these ideas of the hard limits on unlikely heroism, and how you really can’t fly that far on circumstance and luck. I’m very excited for everyone to see how it goes when the going gets tough.

Furthermore, the design and writing process for Agnes was very informed by finding justifications, reasons, and origins for all of her personality traits, skills, and various hang-ups. The result is a character that feels, to me, so deeply real and well-rounded and alive, that Agnes is a person who has lived every one of her 34 years of age, and that in each of those years were key developments that molded her into the person she is. When I write her, I feel like I know her because of how intimately I’ve researched and come to understand the life she’s led. I don’t want to say it comes effortlessly, but there’s a very genuine, sculpted depth to her character that I’m proud of, and it forms the bedrock of It Keeps Right On a-Hurtin’.

It is also very important to me that Agnes is a trans woman, and is a trans woman who looks the way she does with a strong jaw and a big nose and long face and a wide body and hairy arms and so many other “masculine” features, because I wanted to create a character with a very real, visceral, visible transness to them, and for this transness to be a meaningful part of her character that informs her relationship to other people and the scarce world of the Mojave Wasteland instead of just an auxiliary character trait. She is no less of a woman for existing the way she does, but I simply wasn’t interested in creating a character or interpreting the Mojave Wasteland in a way that wouldn’t meaningfully grapple with what it really feels like, to me, to be a trans woman.

B) What inspired you to create them?

Many of Agnes’ character traits actually come from mechanical and specialization decisions that I play in game. I often joke that Agnes “just plain sucks,” but it’s true that in my Fallout: New Vegas game, I have encumbrance set to a measly 25 lbs without backpacks (necessitating her shoulder-slung duffel bag), use a directional flashlight instead of the Pip-Boy light (necessitating the shoulder-mounted flashlight), play with dramatically decreased total S.P.E.C.I.A.L. and skill points per level (which is why she’s so bad-to-average at most things except key specialties), and so on. This was the most obvious level of inspiration, and much of Agnes’ personality and backstory is reverse-engineered to justify the aspects of her character suggested and represented by her mechanical stats.

C) Did you have trouble figuring out where they fit in their own story?

Epiphanies have come over time, but ultimately I more or less hammered out Agnes’ whole “story” upfront. I have a detailed character bible saved away that covers not only her entire life pre-courier, but the story beats of her experience as the courier thrown into the center of the events of Fallout: New Vegas and the seismic geopolitical power plays leading up to the second battle of Hoover Dam. So, uh, stay tuned for each new issue of IKROAH!

D) Have they always had the same physical appearance, or have you had to edit how they look?

I wouldn’t say that I’ve meant to meaningfully change her appearance over time, but as I’ve been working on the comic, I’ve simply gotten better at drawing and the result has been an Agnes that more consistently looks like how I want her to look. One deliberate change to her appearance has been that her hair is a lot fluffier and voluminous than it used to be, just because a few other peoples’ fanart of her would be like that and I really liked how it looked.

E) Are they someone you would get along with? Would they get along with you?

Hard to say. Agnes has such a defensive, prickly, and particular personality and is so shy and anxious that she’s someone very hard to get along with in general, regardless of who you are. Cass could only ply her through a combination of drunken genuineness and total embarrassment that razor-cut right to her trauma. I don’t think I’d have the...audacious wherewithal to be that blunt with her if we’d just met. The best case scenario is that she imprints on me as a younger trans woman and feels compelled to look out for me because if there’s one soft spot she has, it’s that.

F) What do you feel when you think of your OC (pride, excitement, frustration, etc)?

Pride at the amount of work I’ve put into developing her and crafting her story so far, pride at how it’s been such a rewarding and enjoyable vehicle for getting so much better at art and writing since this summer, and occasionally sadness just because, man, I really let her fucking have it sometimes, huh.

G) What trait of theirs bothers you the most?

Her solitary lifestyle made it necessary to find a way to write Cass into the story, just so that there would be some more dialogue while she traveled. She has a lot of interpersonal flaws, her habit of going from totally reclusive and private to hollering mad with no steps in between would certainly be off-putting to me especially. She gets a bad, sad, crying kind of angry, and she doesn’t get there quick but she goes get there suddenly.

H) What trait do you admire most?

She has a dedication to her and a commitment to what she’s good at. She understands the value of stability, good work and a good job. Sometimes this value is so much to her that it keeps her stagnant, and she’s very much a person who’s stuck in their ways in so many regards, but there’s a resilience to her that may not be obvious at first, but that she simply wouldn’t have gotten this far or survived without.

I) Do you prefer to keep them in their canon universe?

Agnes’ story is so tailored to the source material of Fallout: New Vegas that I thought that transplanting her into other AUs would be difficult, but it’s actually been pretty seamless inserting her into the a modern AU with a few friends called Courier House, where instead of being a courier, she kept up her medical training and works as an EMT. That also spun off into a modern zombie AU, which is just fun and tragic in a lot of juicy ways.

I also have a lot of thoughts on an AU in which she makes it to the Commonwealth, in which she’d become Nick’s partner at the eventually-renamed Valentine and Sands Detective Agency, helping to solve cases of burglary and theft, B&E, and advises on various security concerns. She’d also get extremely invested in tracking down missing children. There are a lot of parallels and dramatic development potential between Agnes Sands and Nick Valentine that I’d kill for more time to explore one day.

J) Did you have to manipulate or exclude canon factors to allow them to create their character?

I didn’t have to, no, but I chose to and at least filled in some holes. My theory on transitional health care in the wasteland is all my own (the Followers are the primary manufacturer and distributor of hormones, which can be inefficiently synthesized from Auto-Docs so they’re not impossible to find but are considerably rare) and I’ve taken some liberties in the IKROAH canon so far for convenience, such as Primm never getting taken over by convicts and the Cassidy Caravans buyout offer being a letter at the Mojave Express instead of something she’d have had to get personally from Alice McLafferty later on. Expect a lot more little twists like this in the future.

[firstagent]

Review! Digimon Adventure: (2020) Episode 45: Activate, MetalGarurumon

In this episode, for some reason Gabumon decides he wants to run around a track. For some reason this leads to MetalGarurumon. These reasons will not be given.

If you had asked somebody familiar with the trappings of shounen anime but clueless about Digimon what was going on with this current string, they’d confidently tell you the show’s been waiting for the manga to advance the story farther to know how to proceed with Millenniumon’s inevitable revival. Like Angemon’s return and the random appearances by BlitzGreymon and Ponchomon, getting MetalGarurumon doesn’t change that. If anything, it makes the lack of story progress even more annoying. Now they’re falling so far behind they have to burn major evolutions in perfectly average filler material. Nothing about it is egregiously wrong and any spotlight on Gabumon is welcomed, but don’t leave this with any impression that the show is doing anything but spinning its wheels.

As much as we like seeing Gabumon take a star turn, it’s a version of Gabumon we’re woefully unfamiliar with. We get Gabumon as Yamato’s loyal companion and his playful rivalry with Greymon, but the obsession with running? That’s… new. Maybe that’s the reason Yamato and Garurumon did nothing but run through the plains for multiple days back when plot was happening to Taichi. When an episode is going to feature somebody, it’s best when the logic behind it tracks. Sora’s adventure with the Pomumon and Koshiro’s visit with Gerbemon didn’t need any explanation. Here we arrive at a racetrack and Gabumon is suddenly possessed by Sonic the Hedgehog.

This sudden character attribute we just learned about drives the entire episode. The introduction to Machmon is now more confrontational, which is the only way you’re picking up on his problem. Machmon, and the problem itself, is as fine a character and as fine a dilemma as what we’ve gotten used to in this run, where his willingness to open fire on his opponents is chalked up to his competitive streak rather than a more sinister influence. After demanding a clean rematch, Yamato, Koshiro, and Taichi investigate while the others trip over each other trying to have any presence. With the exception of MetalGarurumon, it’s the same routine as always, and hangs on a main character doing something totally arbitrary.

At least within the confines of this episode, Gabumon’s characterization is enjoyable. We’ve gotten moments here and there where the kids are allowed to be kids, and the essence of all this is giving a Digimon a chance to indulge himself with a run around a racetrack. It’s that preservation of fun that bolsters Gabumon as much as anything, and the suggestion that Machmon isn’t having fun troubles him more than being rammed into and shot at. Yamato is very much the supporting player here, following Gabumon’s lead with an admirable devotion and getting into enough trouble to prompt WereGarurumon to evolve. It’s nice to see it play both ways. With Yamato’s hesitance to provide unnecessary help well behind him, we’re left with a healthy, loyal, and ultimately kind of dull relationship.

Does it justify MetalGarurumon? So far the only thing we have to go off of is WarGreymon’s first appearance. From that, the only criteria are the understanding of a tight bond, and the need for a little more power. That seems more like a Champion-level prerequisite. The crest factor is present, sure, and Yamato going to bat for Gabumon, who fights to help Machmon, qualifies. In this context, with nothing on the line but a single Digimon having a rough decade, the stakes don’t justify the pomp. It also doesn’t help that the crest attributes haven’t been formally introduced yet. Technically, we have no idea that Taichi represents courage and Yamato represents friendship! Really the only bit of consistency is that new evolutions don’t seem to have much point to them and centering an episode’s conversation about one is foolhardy.

Thing is, beyond that, there isn’t much else to talk about. Other than Yamato, Koshiro is the only one with any real presence in the episode, even taking the random race jobs into consideration. The track and Parasimon’s presence are vaguely referential, but hardly to the point of nostalgia. If they were playing that card, the Grand Prix would be populated by someone other than a brand new Digimon and Parasimon would be going after a train for the third time in franchise history instead of a motorcycle. You can squint and see how elements of this episode could be highly enjoyable. Put them together and it continues to be a mediocre slog.

My Grade: C

Loose Data:

One easy fix for both Gabumon’s sudden enthusiasm for racing and everyone else’s lack of relevance is for all of them to get caught up in the excitement of a top racing facility and wanting to do a lap. It’s actually a little weird that Agumon and Patamon at least aren’t interested in giving it a go.

Why is anyone surprised that the race format is anything goes? The Grand Prix did exist in-universe, and even out of universe the short and the game don’t lend themselves to pure tests of speed and maneuvering. Hell, you can get away with half this stuff in NASCAR!

That upside-down fire-attack-as-thrust maneuver to save Machmon from the wall? Somebody in the writer’s room thought of that in their sleep and were dying to work that into an episode.

Yamato, Koshiro, and Taichi say something menacing about the big turn at the end being the key to unraveling the mystery. Other than its obligatory place for the dramatic finish, it has nothing to do with unraveling the mystery.

If the Lilimon cheerleader outfits on the girls weren’t enough of a hint that they were desperate to find something for the other characters to chew on, putting one on Takeru clinched it. Remember that someone in the cast had to have suggested it, someone had to make Takeru wear that, and someone had to prevent Yamato from coming to his brother’s rescue. That someone is obviously Mimi.

See reviews of every Digimon episode at Digimon: System Restore! Support the site by joining our Patreon!

[randomidiocyncrazies]

going into more detail about the P2/P4/P5 Persona Q idea, I’m thinking of breaking the cast into the following chunks:

P2 IS: Tatsuya, Lisa, Eikichi and Jun (separated from Maya in Xibalba)

P2 EP: Maya, Ulala, Baofu and Katsuya (before Tatsuya officially joins the party but after the P1 party member leaves?)

P4: entire IT (cultural festival like in PQ, or after fighting the culprit)

P5: all PTs (before Casino heist like PQ2)

Having the P2 cast all come from the EP timeline with Lisa, Eikichi and Jun getting accidentally involved & regaining their IS memories works too, but the storyline would have to revolve around that + Tatsuya’s reaction to justify introducing that plot element imo, cause it’s A LOT to deal with. Also if the overarching plot is centered on P2 (particularly the IS party members), then why are the P4 and P5 casts involved? Also while I think it’d be interesting to re-introduce Philemon and Nyarlathotep to the Persona setting and have them play a bigger part—especially since Nyarly isn’t banished until the end of EP—their involvement might skew the plot too heavily towards P2? (although I admit the “nobody remembers this adventure” ending of PQ games would work especially well for Lisa, Jun and Eikichi here) 

tbh PQ had quite a lot of nods to P2 IS (the clock tower, school mysteries + moving statue urban legend on P4-side, and the true form of the main antagonist). I kinda like the idea of the setting being a fake school like PQ, with details of the school influenced by the persona users when they arrive, but the story might have to be tweaked a bit (different final boss probably, and maybe bring in more themes in P2/4/5). 

potential themes

I liked that PQ and PQ2 had plots that were ultimately about the new characters, since it justifies their inclusion (and i think it’s a bit unfair if the game focuses too much on the cast of a particular game). I have mixed feelings about some of the execution of PQ and PQ2, but I do appreciate the intent behind it. I do think reinforcement of the games’ themes could help make the overarching story more cohesive, so here are some potential themes with P2, P4 and P5 in mind:

rumors, gossip and the role of mass media are important in all 3 (4) persona games here: P2 antagonists manipulate various media to generate rumors, and in turn manipulate rumors to bring about the end of the world; the Midnight Channel in P4 reacts to local gossip and it’s about the casual dehumanization of individuals through media (mostly TV); in P5 people’s perception of the PT is literally a plot point, and the game reminds you of the PT approval rating almost constantly

(distorted) memories is primarily a P2 thing (”worse than death\ forgotten”, Nyarlathotep’s manipulation of Jun and Philemon’s deal to the IS kids, Tatsuya’s ‘sin’) but it could work with the mystery aspect of PQ games. Distorted memories arguably lead to distorted self-perception (P5), and uncovering the truth is P4′s jam

as mentioned in the previous post, the tension between P5′s teenage rebellion and P2 EP’s adult guidance could be really fun to explore and incorporate into the plot. Persona games are about coming of age, but with EP there’s also a secondary theme of guiding the younger generation and fully grappling with adulthood—the heroines of PQ and PQ2 are quite young, but I can potentially see the new character(s) being a little older here (maybe 17-18?)

stroll ideas

Of course the reason why this idea exists in the first place is all the potential interactions between everyone! There’s just so much potential with all the different dynamics and topics they can discuss :3 Here are a few ideas:

Stomping Grounds: P2/4/5 discuss where and how they bust Shadows. P2 “we had to sleep in dungeons sometimes!!!” is incredibly envious that demons aren’t running around the real world for the others. P2 and P4 are jealous of P5 for not having to repair/replace ruined clothes (”you just think about cool clothes and they appear on you?!” “man we should try that in Xibalba...” “it’s really not that simple! Morgana can explain it better, but basically it’s our mental image of rebellion” etc etc).

Lisa’s Brutal Makeover Corner: Teddie gets jealous when Lisa demonstrates her makeup skills on Jun and wants to get dolled up too—he won the Yasogami cross-dressing pageant after all! He has to be the prettiest!!! 

Butterfly Effect: several P4 and P2 characters try to use P5 cast’s knowledge to their advantage, but is stopped by the detective trio to prevent potential time paradoxes

Say It With Flowers: Jun and Haru (and Yukiko?) discuss flower language, share gardening tips, and swap demon/shadow intimidation tactics. Everyone around them is slightly afraid of their enthusiasm on the topic...

Fashion Gurus: Eikichi and Yusuke have a discussion about ~aesthetics~ and comment on their companions’ styles. Kanji is roped into the argument

Fashion Gurus Strike Again: Ulala, Ann and Rise discuss latest fashion trends and comment on the others’ fashion choices

The Audiophiles’ Alliance: Futaba and Yosuke chat about headphones and the greatest bops (with Futaba lamenting she can’t make him eat his words because the song she’s thinking of doesn’t exist yet in his time). Eikichi—aka the great Michel-sama—senses a prime opportunity to get some new fans... 

Strangers in a Familiar Land: Lisa and Ann get into how people tend to act... weird about them due to their foreign looks; Teddie, on the other hand, loves the attention his human form gets from the people around town (and the girls conclude that Teddie would probably get into trouble in a big city)

Everybody Loves Kung Fu Fightin’: Makoto, Ulala, Lisa and Chie show off their moves and swap training tips. Lisa and Chie talk about their favorite martial arts movies and convinces the others to check them out

Big Bro’s Worries: Katsuya and Yosuke complain about their younger brothers, while P4 and P5 protags are slightly smug that they don’t get that much trouble from their sisters, especially P4 protag 

Velvet Room attendants

Since P2/4/5 all have multiple Velvet Room attendants, they’re gonna double up on some jobs to avoid over-crowding:

P2: Demon Artist: he’s in charge of the Workshop. Unlike the other attendants he’s human, so Margaret and the twins are probably intrigued/unsettled by him and Marie might also be curious as someone else who also stays at the Velvet Room but isn’t really an attendant

P2: Nameless & Belladonna: they handle the healing service. They can sense something unusual with the P2 cast due to the split timelines, but it has no bearing on the plot. I’m on the fence whether to include a healing service at all, but if there is one I think it suits them, since their music is supposed to put guests at ease

P4: Margaret & Marie: like their PQ and PQ2 roles, Margaret manages the Persona Compendium and Fusions, and Marie handles skill cards

P5: Caroline and Justine: the twins handle the quests, since Margaret does the fusions. Caroline enjoys ordering the persona users about

[you can find more on this AU tagged under PQ Triple]

[dream-girls-evil]

Ratched: Episode 5 Reactions

Party Planning

The red light stands for DRUGS

Ohh he’s meeting Mildred! On the outside this def looks like a date.

Ooh Mildred changing the game now that she’s got all the leverage.

Poor eclair didn’t deserve that

“This is about the lesbians, isn’t it?” Yes, always.

I almost feel bad for Bucket. Almost.

Oh is she gonna know Mildred put him up to this? Guess not.

Basically throwing herself a promotion party lol but yay a DANCE!!!

Is she planning to have Edmund do something to prove himself insane? Oh yep lol

Omg Mildred no this is too cruel don’t get Bucket’s hopes up 😂😂😂

“You’re a woman again” okay that’s laying it on a little thick

Haha Mildred finally dropping the pretense with Hanover. I love it.

“Trust me” Honestly why tho

Oooh who is this lady? She’s mean but she’s right, the way he’s holding that violin is terrible.

Oh, apparently she’s Ondine Duquette

Or Charlotte Wells? ...I see what’s happening.

Love an inaccurate portrayal of DID (sarcasm)

Mmm does Mildred know Hanover has a thing for her? (I think he does at least, or did) Cuz it’s pretty bold of her to touch his face like that.

Aw she’s on her date with Gwen!

Love how straightforward Gwen is and the communication here!

Oh Gwen was in love with a nurse who was killed in the war? That’s coincidental. And Mildred understands it.

Her companion!!! I’m excited but nervous. People might talk.

Lenore’s Arrival

Lenore and Petunia! They look so out of place here XD poor Louise

“The wallpaper hurts my feelings” I’d be lying if I said I’d never felt that strongly about wallpaper

Can’t believe she just invited Mildred to tea, but this is clearly a woman who’s used to getting what she wants.

Oh nice, she just wants Mildred to take over the job XD unfortunately, I think Mildred has other plans. She needs him, though not indefinitely. She’ll probably kill Hanover anyway once she frees Edmund, tie up loose ends. But there’s no harm in pretending to go along with Lenore’s wishes.

Oooh Lenore just got REAL angry about the money Mildred asked for. Guess they’ll be enemies!

Aw Betsy!!! She’s so nervous and so happy!

Hypnotherapy...this should be interesting

A RED-LETTER DAY FOR BETSY BUCKET

Fffff he’s trying to hypnotize his way out of a date. This is a new one 😂

Aw Dolly. Stop bonding with the bad man. He’s just using you.

HE DOESNT LOVE YOU

Ew I don’t like Mildred being alone with Edmund while he’s naked

Do we really trust him to hurt himself and not, you know, everyone else? Mildred does, apparently. Hope she doesn’t regret it.

Oh Charlotte...

AND THEY MADE HER NOT PRESS CHARGES

If only it really was as easy to get rid of trauma as snapping your fingers

Omg Hanover crying because he helped someone. This guy is so interesting, honestly. He does genuinely want to help people.

OMG LOUISE AND BETSY ARE FRIENDS?! Please tell me they just complain about Mildred all the time.

Okay so Betsy’s a little delusional lmao her retelling of Hanover’s reaction to the gifts is...quite altered

Omg they’re dancing this must have been the most fun scene to shoot on the whole show

“I’ve never seen you look so happy” I ship them

HA I knew they just complained about Mildred together

Lenore is there LENORE IS RIGHT THERE

Ohhh he’s breaking down. Little does he know that Mildred is the one who brought Lenore here.

Ahhh now he’s holed up at the hospital where Mildred is the only one who can reach him.

I think Lenore likes Mildred’s nerve now

The Dance

Mmm why do I feel like Charlotte might end up stealing Edmund’s thunder?

Poor Betsy. Hanover’s off to get drugged up.

Oh, he’s REALLY out of it. Jon Jon Brione is such a great actor.

So much for everyone ignoring Edmund lmao

She’s a PEACH

MMM Betsy’s onto Gwen and Mildred

Aaand Harold is distracted

Omg Dolly looks so pretty!!! Hope Edmund doesn’t kill her

Oh NO they’re planning on running?! I have no idea which plan he’s going to follow. I’m so nervous.

Oh their little clandestine handhold I cri

Betsy you are getting ahead of yourself a little

Omg causing a scene nooo

NOOO BETSY

Damn Hanover came outta nowhere with the rage

And now Gwen and Mildred have left to comfort her and NO ONE IS WATCHING EDMUND

Mildred’s sense of empathy really does strike at the oddest times and in the oddest ways.

Okay Edmund didn’t try anything while they were gone but this is definitely not going to go according to Mildred’s plan.

Noooo Harold!!! No one even got to tell you they’re lesbians 😔

FUCK GWEN NO

Duuude Dolly is excited by this. And I legit can’t tell if Edmund is playing at being freaked out by Gwen or it’s genuine.

Thoughts and Theories

Well, that was a packed episode! I really do feel bad for Betsy Bucket lol, she may hate Mildred and act like a hardass around her, but then she turns into such a sweet and silly woman. I’m kind of living for her friendship with Louise, too, although I know it can mean nothing good for Mildred, who doesn’t realize she’s surrounded on all sides. We haven’t even flashed over to Louise rifling in her room during the dance, yet. I wonder what, if anything, she’ll find. But if she does find something, how will Bucket react? I think her opinions of Mildred might have changed after this incident. Speaking of which, while I get what they’re trying to do by having Mildred go all empathetic and feminist, it feels really out of place to me. I know she didn’t expect Hanover to go off like that, but she hardly likes Bucket, and more than that, humiliating and disempowering her would actually serve Mildred’s purposes. Especially if Bucket quit over it. If the whole point of getting them together was to keep Bucket distracted, then surely getting her out of the hospital altogether would be even better. Perhaps I could believe that she saw the opportunity to get on Bucket’s good side by comforting her if it wasn’t so clearly an emotionally-driven choice, and one she was conflicted about. She chose going after Bucket over watching Edmund. That’s a pretty interesting brand of empathy and overconfidence.

On to Edmund, the whole Bonnie-and-Clyde thing was definitely a surprise, but mostly because I’m like...literally what is the plan here? How long do they think they’ll be able to survive on the run? Edmund himself is hard to get a read on, because we don’t get a whole lot from his perspective, but knowing Murphy, I’d wager that he does genuinely have some attachment to Dolly, if only because he’s lacking a sympathetic female figure in his life. He has Mildred of course, but seems very impatient and displeased with her plan and how she tries to control him. I think this whole escape is probably a combination of that frustration and impulsiveness and how he and Dolly really feed off each other’s romanticized idea of how it will all work out. It’ll be interesting to see where they go from here and whether they turn on each other or not. I really still can’t tell whether Edmund is really upset about Gwen being shot or not, but at this point I’m wondering like, why would he need to pretend? Dolly is clearly exhilarated by the whole thing (also unexpected). Their argument is over whether or not Gwen was “fair game,” which sounds to me like Edmund is similar to Mildred in that he really needs a way to justify his murders, which could be interesting, it’s just not the direction I thought we were gonna go with him. We’ll see, I guess!

[yanara126-writing]

Storge (Family Love)

Edér gets to meet his niece and has a heart to heart with Francesca.

-

Read here or on Ao3 (2412 words)

Have fun! Comments always welcome! :)

-

It was nice sunny afternoon, all the necessary jobs were taken care of for the day, and Francesca sat comfortably on the grass in her giant garden. Park really. With a content smile she watched the turbulent happenings before her. The air was filled with loud shrieks and giggles, some thumps and the occasional soft growl. It was a scene Francesca had never imagined, and even less imagined to enjoy. But somehow this was the happiest she’d ever been, nothing to do, nothing to take care of, not even really someone to share it with. Though that would admittedly change soon. Edér had never been one to waste time if there was the possibility of petting something soft. And Lupa was very soft.

Francesca grinned when Lupa once again caught Vela in their little game of tag, knocking the five-year-old over with a careful nudge in the back. Vela shrieked again and broke out into uncontrollable giggles when Lupa licked her cheek.

When she heard steps coming up behind her Francesca didn’t bother turning away from her daughter, she already knew who it was. The fresh grass crunched a little as the newcomer sat down next to her, stretching his feet and groaning gratefully as his joints cracked. Only then did Francesca look over to him, the smile not leaving her face as she watched her friend blissfully stretch.

They didn’t break the silence for a while, only watching the child and wolf play together, soaking in the warm afternoon sun. Edér was the first one to fill the silence, though he was more awkward about it than Francesca would have expected.

“So, a mum, ey?” Francesca snorted at his comment and laughed a little. They hadn’t seen each other in almost a year, this was the first time he’d met Vela as her daughter and she’d expected some questions, but it seemed the whole situation hadn’t sunk in for him quite yet.

“Yes, a mum,” she told him, a bit of her usual sarcasm bleeding into her voice as she turned to him. Edér nodded awkwardly, still watching the small orlan play excitedly with the much larger wolf.

“Never took you for the type,” he remarked, the question implied, and turned to her as well. This time Francesca laughed out loud. It was incredibly hilarious to her that he would speak such truth from her soul and didn’t even know it.

“Neither did I,” was what finally made it past her laughter, and she found Edér staring at her with a smile of his own.

“Then how come you went through the trouble of adopting this one?” Said one was currently attempting enthusiastically to ride Lupa, and though the wolf didn’t mind letting this strange, bipedal pup, she was also far too big for Vela to truly climb on, resulting in continues falls on her bum. That didn’t stop the valiant little orlan though and repeatedly tried, her little tongue sticking out of her mouth in concentration. “Can’t have been easy to convince them to hand her over.”

No, it truly hadn’t been. But the endless diplomatic talks had been easier to endure than the constant aching of not doing anything, not she knew how to explain that to Edér. Or anyone for that matter. Her smile faded a little, melancholy setting in as she remembered the sleepless nights spent in confusion over why she couldn’t stop thinking about that child she had seen only once for a minute.

Edér was still looking at her expectantly when she surfaced from the memory and she sighed. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to tell Edér, in fact Edér was probably one of the few people she would spill all her secrets to and not regret it, but that didn’t make organising her thoughts any easier.

“It’s hard to explain.”

“What, harder than the secrets of the gods?”

“Well, I suppose not,” she chuckled. “But it’s gonna be a long story.”

“I’m not going anywhere. And from the looks of it, neither is she.” Francesca looked over to Vela and found her daughter, who had apparently given up on her endeavour for a wolf mount, now trying to teach Lupa tricks. The wolf however was playing dumb, just calmly looking on and intentionally doing the wrong trick, which Francesca knew, because these tricks had been among the first she had taught her companion. Shaking her head amusedly Francesca saw that she really wasn’t getting out of this.

Buying herself some time she leant back onto her hands, staring into the sky, debating where to start and burying her fingers into the soft earth.

“You know I’m from Old Vailia. I was born and raised there, but my father was a traveller from the White. That’s how I got my white hair.” To emphasize her point she picked a loose strand of hair and thoughtfully twirled it between her fingers. “My mum was a huntress, and a traveller as well, that’s how they met. They liked each other and decided to stick together for a while. But it didn’t turned out quite how they planned, since my mum got pregnant. They talked about it and then agreed to settle down for a while together. Not much later I was born.” The story felt wooden to her, impersonal after so many years away from her birth place. Not home anymore, home was here now, in her keep, with her daughter.

“They stayed in a small village, mum opened a butchery since she couldn’t really hunt anymore with me around. And then, two years later, my little sister was born. And mum died.” A sigh left her lips again before she could stop it. It didn’t hurt anymore, it had been a long time ago and she didn’t even remember her mother, but still she had never stopped quietly stopped asking herself what might have been. But it was pointless, both because it was over, and because in all likelihood she would’ve grown up with only one parent either way.

“I’m sorry.” Of course he was. Edér’s sincerity never failed to bring a smile to her face, so now as well.

“Don’t be. It is what it is.” She shrugged at him. It’s not like her mother’s death had been anyone’s fault. Death in childbirth was a risk every woman took when bearing a child, and her mother had known that. She cleared her throat and turned away again, continuing the story. “My mother’s loss was of course a blow for my father, but it also meant that now he couldn’t leave anymore, and I think that struck him even harder. He had a toddler and a new-born to take care of alone now and couldn’t just leave to travel or return home again. And Old Vailia was never home for him.”

Suddenly she realized just how the story sounded and quickly added: “Don’t get me wrong, he was never abusive, or even neglectful. I’m sure he loved me and my sister or he wouldn’t have cared enough to stay either way, but still I don’t think he ever quite forgave us for trapping him in a place so foreign to him.” Again she trailed off a little, remembering her father’s unhappiness that only ever showed when he thought they weren’t looking.

“As soon as I was old enough to hold a bow, he taught me how to hunt, skin an animal, all you need to survive on your own. I helped him bring in the meat to make the money we needed as soon as I could, and my sister apprenticed to a local seamstress. It wasn’t easy but we made do. When I came of age I left, so my father had one less mouth to feed. I became a mercenary. I might not be very good in close combat, but you might know that I make a pretty good scout.” She shot Edér a sly grin, wriggling her eyebrows a little. Her gave a smile in return, but didn’t answer, still waiting for her to finish the story. Fair enough.

“I sent home some money for a while. Father always wrote back to tell me it’d arrived, and then one day he wrote me that my sister had gotten married. A city boy, pretty rich from what he said, so my sister was provided for. That was the last letter he sent me. I stopped sending money then.”

“So you don’t know what happened to him?” Edér’s voice was coated with a strange mixture of disbelieve and empathy, and with a start Francesca was reminded of how desperately Edér had searched for answers about his brother. An unfamiliar feeling of shame rose in her, and she could only nod in agreement. “Well, what about you’re sister? Wouldn’t she know where he is.” Of course he had to ask. And she couldn’t deny him the answer, no matter how hot the same suddenly burnt. What would he think of her for it?

“I never asked her.” She mumbled the words under her breath, almost hoping he wouldn’t hear them. But he did, disbelief shaping his face so much, Francesca felt the need to justify herself, though she certainly didn’t want to. “I still write her, I know she’s alive and well taken care of, she has a son of her now.” Her nephew that she’d never met. “But we never write about father.”

He still didn’t understand, but it seemed he didn’t feel like trying anymore. “Okay, okay. So how does this relate to you adopting the little pipsqueak?” And wasn’t that the question of all questions. But she’d much rather debate this than spend anymore time on her father and she scrambled to find the proper words.

“I never… I never felt quite right in Old Vailia either. I was an outsider, a stranger to my own people.” Again her fingers found their way to her hair. She was fine with it now, even a little proud of it, but as an adolescent she had wished many times for her sister’s darker shade. “So Vela’s fate… struck cord with me. I’d never been one for love really, it had seemed such a silly concept growing up, and my surroundings were only proving me right, but this baby, Vela… I couldn’t forget about her. About a child as out of place with her people as I was, even if she didn’t know it yet.” And she hopefully never would. “I couldn’t sleep again for a while. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t just move on. She wasn’t in danger anymore, her brother would take care of her, but still I couldn’t. And one day I just decided I couldn’t leave her there.” She looked back to Edér, her story essentially finished.

They sat in silence for a few seconds, only looking at each other and both just processing. Suddenly a loud yell of triumph shattered the moment and Francesca and Edér whirled around. What they found was Vela sitting on Lupa, having finally managed to climb on somehow. With one hand she was waving in their direction, euphoria more than visible on her face, with the other she pulled on the wolf’s fur to stay on, and Lupa patiently let her. Vela shrieked again when Lupa started walking over to them, slowly and carefully, but for the little orlan it was still the most adrenalin inducing ride she’d ever been on.

Francesca grinned broadly and got up, watching her daughter come closer, almost bouncing on the wolf’s back in excitement. Silently she promised Lupa an extra piece of meat tonight.

Once they were in reach, Francesca reached out and pulled Vela off her mount, throwing her into the air a little and catching her again, both laughing all the while.

“What a brave rider you are!” Vela giggled again, obviously still too full of adrenalin to do anything else. “But now I have someone to introduce to you.” Francesca turned around a little to put Edér into Vela’s field of vision and pressed her close. “Meet your uncle Edér. He was busy for the last year, but now he’s very excited to meet you.”

Edér blinked once, but then immediately complied, a broad grin splitting his face, even as Vela still seemed a bit unsure of the big man before her.

“Of course I am! I have to meet such a mighty warrior that has tamed this wild beast, right?” Vela grinned now as well, clearly fond of the flattery as she wildly nodded her head in agreement. Lupa on the other hand just snorted. She was more than used this human’s antics by now. “Would you perhaps let me pet you mighty steed, princess?” That made Vela a little insecure again, and she glanced up to Francesca, who gave her an encouraging nod. And so Vela looked to Edér again and gave him a very serious nod and permission to pet “her mighty steed.”

Said mighty steed had a different opinion though. As Edér bowed down a little to brush his hand over her fur, and sly glint, much like her master’s, appeared in her eyes, and before Francesca could warn him, Lupa had already leapt onto him, causing Edér to tumble to the ground, a giant wolf sitting on his chest.

“Good to see you again too, girl,” he coughed breathlessly, the considerable weight on his chest doing nothing to discourage him from petting the wolf. Francesca was laughing again, more than familiar with scenes like this already, but she stopped soon when she saw Vela’s face, who didn’t seem quite so amused at the situation. Not wanting to upset her daughter, she whistled for Lupa... who promptly ignored her, happily staying on the warm, silly human who thought he could tease her. Francesca whistled louder, with an insistent undertone impossible to overhear, and Lupa reluctantly got up again and trotted over.

The tense situation over, Vela seemed happier again, and Francesca decided to have a talk with her later just be sure. Edér pulled himself up from the ground, coughing once again, before happily saying: “Well that was a fluffy welcome!” Turning to Vela he added: “And thank you for your permission, princess!” which lifted her spirits even more.

The introductions made, and the sun slowly sinking over the horizon, they started to make their way back to the keep and towards dinner, laughter still hanging in the air behind them.

[retphienix]

I'm going to let out some of my feelings on New Vegas under the cut, but let's start with some more optimistic talk based on what's about to happen.

We're going to play through New Vegas (again for me) in an attempt to re-evaluate it since I harbor such strong negativity towards it despite recognizing all it's accomplishments and improvements over F3.

To start, I adore the intro cutscene. I just do.

I wish it didn't jump to the slideshow mid-way through, but I can understand it non-the-less.

It's fun to see the factions doing interesting things, or even just actions that add character to a faceless organization.

We get the NCR partying it up and drunk, giving off vibes of "modern" military personnel on leave or taking a moment of reprieve. We also get to see the Legion acting like a small raid force and clearly using some stealth tactics as they attack quietly in the night.

To end it off we get to see Benny and the Khans, and aside from showing how strange Fallout engine models look scaled up for a cutscene (because the Khans look like crap), this was good stuff. I especially love the Courier's view swinging towards the weapon as they acknowledge the danger they are in.

Okay, let me get some things out in the air on this one.

I'm starting this playthrough with some baggage.

I really don't like New Vegas. Like at all.

Fallout 3 is one of my favorite games, Fallout 1 was so fantastic a playthrough that it got me excited about Fallout again (I've yet to play Fallout 2 but you better believe that's coming up at some point) and Fallout 4 is unbearably disappointing but offered me plenty of fun for my trouble.

I'm in the minority on this and I completely understand why.

I see all the gameplay mechanics that add depth and I LOVE them.

I see all the differences in the writing and I LOVE them.

I see the improvements to the factions to add depth and I LOVE that.(mostly, I love the attempt)

I see Hardcore mode and, while some have switched to complaining that it's far too simplistic, I had a total BLAST playing through this game on the hardest difficulty with Hardcore turned on.

I see the companions and how they are objectively the best to the point where I'd do anything to reunite Veronica with her girlfriend from the DLC or to steal Arcade away to a new land altogether.

But I just get so hung up on this game.

I've completed it every which way, I've grinded the achievements that forced me to play the game differently than I usually do, I found out unarmed is the most broken weapon-type in the game because Ballistic fists are unbalanced as heck and I loved it.

But I get so hung up on the things I don't like, despite how few they are, they are important things to me.

For one, the factions. I like that they are more complex but I just hate every single one of them.

I get that that 'can' be realistic, and I love “shades of gray” morality options that let me choose who I agree with despite the drawbacks, BUT EVERY FACTION IS UNLIKABLE, EVIL WITH FALSE “Good” IDEALS, OR THEIR DRAWBACKS ARE UNBEARABLY LAZY AND DULL.

I really, really don't like how Fallout 4 handled factions and yet I can still go "Yeah, I'll side with the Minutemen despite their synth problems because they are the moral ideology I agree most with" or "-with the Railroad because despite their human life devaluation issues I most agree blah blah".

Fallout 4 had two "too problematic for me" factions in the form of the Neo Nazi Brotherhood that goes entirely against what Fallout 3's brotherhood were (yes F3 had a simplistic "too good" brotherhood, but they were limited to that chapter and THIS racist chapter IS that chapter so that's just inexcusable), and the Institute who fail due to poor writing and lack of explanation (oh you're the GOOD guys who will SAVE us with technology? You have hidden synths wandering around all over for intel? THEN WHY DO YOU BLATANTLY POISON AND KILL PEOPLE TO STEAL THEIR IDENTITY WHEN YOU LIVE IN AN AGE WHERE YOU CAN JUST THROW A SYNTH SOMEWHERE WITH A BS BACKSTORY AND YOU KNOW THAT WILL WORK OUT JUST FINE??? You're murderers, not the good guys, screw off.)

The thing is, I was able to find factions I agreed with despite their flaws in 4, and 3 made it easy by not doing a good job at all and just giving you a good and bad choice (fair enough).

NV? It tries so hard to have diverse and interesting factions but I honestly think they got too distracted with adding flaws that they forgot to make any of them likable.

NCR are bureaucratic idiots who overexert (Bureaucracy as a flaw, in itself, is utterly lame and dull), follow the flaws of the US government (at least that's interesting) and can best be "agreed" with based on the fact that they support farms. But they even abuse that from what I remember.

The Legion have an entire in-universe explanation for why they look like a bunch of stupid cosplayers and I remember it being summed up as "I read a book, I like military tactics from the Roman empire so here we are!".

If Legion's entire goal is unifying the world under one flag then they could have been literally ANYTHING, but no, they are cosplayers with no deeper meaning beyond "I want slaves, don't respect culture if it isn't my own, and read a military book about rome".

That reason is utterly ridiculous and uninteresting. Anyone who tried to organize something like this would have success in their area (remember something about uniting some tribes and tackling opposition weakest to strongest to divide and conquer) but then they'd just fall apart because you're trying to run a racist little slave army while killing farmers, a revolt or dude in power armor is going to stomp you out realistically.

House is fine. Like, yeah. He's fine. He's gray morality, isolation is his goal, I don't "agree" with him but he's someone I COULD agree with if I was playing that kind of character.

So NV leaves me with either playing NCR because "Well, they suck completely, but hey, maybe they can do some good?", House, or take control on my own and use my own imagination to decide what happens to the area once the credits are finished (since you can’t experience any of those changes you would have instated, afterall. Though that itself isn’t a complaint because I understand the actual cost that would entail to add to the game, but the fact that my best option is this means I would have liked the option to make my lack of “good” choices felt “acceptable” because I could at least instate change etc)

So there's one major complaint out of the way, the factions all being either completely incompetent, stupid, or unlikably bad morally.

The next major complaint I had was the world itself.

I HATE IT. I HATE THIS DESERT WASTELAND OF BOREDOM.

I know some of you have probably heard a variant of that complaint! Something along the lines of "It's just empty desert and there is nothing to see" and you scoffed and you said "This idiot isn't looking in the right places" but you know what!

THERE IS A REASON THIS COMES UP IN PEOPLE WHO DON'T LIKE NEW VEGAS.

It's because, yes, there is stuff to see! But the LAND and WORLD look so barren by design (despite the things that are there) and it all looks so boringly dead and bland that even once we find interesting places it's all desaturated in our heads to the point where we go "ah. cool. is there anything to do in this boring hellscape."

Everything looks the same and it is a huge drain on the eyes.

This world is the most boring thing to look at. I hate sandscapes, I loathe exploring literal desert land. You have to shove more variation in there.

Fallout 3 worked with its separation between "empty" wasteland, "colonized" wasteland, "empty" cityscape, and "populated" cityscape.

You could go to these different types of places and feel a different environment around you.

New Vegas has two places. Empty desert that you sometimes find a shanty town in, or Vegas which is just casinos so who cares beyond gamblers.

It's so monotonous and boring.

The most exciting areas are your starting area (at first, because it hints that you'll find tons of strange working towns to spice up the desert instead of the reality of emptiness), Vegas if you're into that sort of thing, the NCR outpost with the Ranger monument, and Artillery tribe.

Fallout 3 had a green filter over everything and some people complained, I didn't care in the slightest. But with this brown filter over a brown sandscape I felt like it emphasized the color palate too much and made what was already boring to look at even worse.

Off topic, but throwing that in.

All said, maybe I'm exaggerating. But my time with New Vegas left me feeling like the overall politics were either utterly stupid or painfully unlikable, and knowing that made every other questline or story point feel meaningless because I wasn't invested in any character or organization involved.

When every major player is unlikable, I stop caring. So I ended New Vegas feeling like, for all it's writing and smaller stories, they messed up the factions so badly that I couldn't care about any of it.

So when I stop caring I decide to explore the world, and while it DOES have things in it, they painted over that fact by making every area look the same with their brown desert crap. It needed more cities or towns, more "outer" Vegas, and just more variety in general.

And if they couldn't justify a reason that would lend variety to New Vegas, then guess what? Maybe VEGAS is a boring as heck place to put your post apocalyptic game.

*sigh*

Since that rambling, lacking substance as I'm typing from emotion and not diving far enough in for details, rant is done-

(I really did go off and cut some of this because of that. Sad when you consider I got this fired up and I only listed two reasons, poor factions [in terms of morality and not being annoyed with their designs/lore] and the world looking terrible to me because I hate deserts)

-I am going back in to  try it all again.

[lilixbetty-blog]

Chapter 3. Part1 (Page 5-8)

Pop leads us through the staff entrance of the hotel, dishing out instructions, pointing to the serving area and ensuring that we’re aware of the type of clientele.

Bottom line: posh.

I can deal with that. Once I’d checked on Nan, she virtually pushed me out the front door and chucked my black Converse out after me before she went to get ready for bingo with George at the local oldies group.

‘Never leave anyone with an empty glass,’ Pop calls over his shoulder, leading on, ‘and ensure all empties are delivered back to the kitchen so they can be washed and refilled.’

I follow Veronica, who’s following Pop, listening intently as I pile my heavy hair up and secure it with a hair tie. It sounds easy enough, and I absolutely love people-watching so tonight could be fun.

‘Here.’ Pop stops and thrusts a round silver tray at both of us, looking down at my feet. ‘You didn’t have any black flats?’

Following his line of sight, I look down and pull my black trousers up a little. ‘These are black.’ I wriggle my toes within my Converse, thinking how much more my feet would hurt if I were wearing anything else.

He doesn’t say any more; just rolls his eyes and leads on until we’re in a chaotic kitchen space where dozens of hotel staff are flying around, shouting and barking orders at each other. I move closer to Veronica as we continue walking. ‘Is it just us?’ I ask, suddenly a little alarmed. All of the frantic activity suggests a lot of guests.

‘No, there will be the agency staff he uses, too. We’re back-ups.’

‘Does he do this a lot, then?’

‘It’s his main income. I don’t know why he keeps the cafe.’

I nod thoughtfully to myself. ‘Doesn’t the hotel provide a catering service?’

‘Oh yes, but the type of people you’re about to feed and water call the shots, and if they want Pop, they’ll have Pop. He’s notorious in this game. You have to try his canapés.’ She kisses her fingertips, making me laugh.

My boss shows us around the room where the function is being held and introduces us to the many other waiters and waitresses, all looking bored and inconvenienced. This is obviously a regular thing for them, but not me. I’m looking forward to it.

‘Ready?’ Veronica places a final glass of champagne onto my tray. ‘Now, the trick is to hold it on your palm.’ She picks up her own tray, her palm underneath in the centre. ‘Then swing it up onto your shoulder, like this.’ In one fluid movement, the tray glides through the air and lands on her shoulder, without even a chink from glasses touching. I’m fascinated. ‘See?’ The tray glides back down from her shoulder until it’s at waist level again. ‘When offering, hold it here, and when you’re moving around, keep it up here.’ The tray swishes through the air, landing on her shoulder perfectly again. ‘Remember to relax when you’re on the move. Don’t be stiff. You try.’

I slide my full tray from the counter and position my palm in the centre. ‘It’s not heavy,’ I muse, surprised.

‘Yes, but remember when empty glasses start replacing full glasses it’ll get even lighter, so bear that in mind when you’re transferring it up and down.’

‘Okay.’ I swivel my wrist, taking the tray up to my shoulder with ease. I smile brightly, taking it back down again.

‘You’re a natural.’ Veronica laughs. ‘Let’s go.’

Transferring the tray back to my shoulder, I swivel on my Converse and head towards the increasing sound of chatting and laughing that’s coming from the function room.

On entering, my eyes widen, taking in the wealth, the gowns and the dinner jackets. But I don’t feel nervous. I feel stupidly excited. This is people-watching at its best.

Without waiting for any prompt from Veronica, I lose myself in the growing crowds, presenting my tray to groups of people and smiling, whether they thank me or not. Most don’t, but it doesn’t dampen my mood. I’m in my element, and I’m surprised by it. The tray glides up and down with ease, my body shifts effortlessly through the masses of wealth, and I dance back and forth to the kitchen time and time again to restock and redeliver.

‘You’re doing good, Betty,’ Pop tells me, just as I’m leaving with another trayload of champagne flutes.

‘Thank you!’ I sing, keen to get myself back to my thirsty crowd. I catch Veronica across the room, and she smiles, encouraging a further beam from me. ‘Champagne?’ I ask, presenting my tray to a group of six middle-aged men, all kitted out in dinner jackets and bow ties.

‘Ah! Bloody marvellous!’ a stout man gushes, taking a glass and handing it to one of his companions. He does this a further four times before taking one for himself. ‘You’re doing a fine job, young lady.’ His free hand moves toward me and slips into my pocket as he winks. ‘Treat yourself.’

‘Oh no!’ I shake my head. I won’t take money from a man. ‘Sir, I get paid by my boss. You really mustn’t.’ I try to retrieve the note from my pocket while holding the tray steady on my palm. ‘We don’t expect tips.’

‘I won’t hear of it,’ he insists, pulling my hand from my pocket. ‘And it’s not a tip. It’s for the pleasure of seeing such beautiful eyes.’

I immediately blush bright red, stumped for anything to say. He must be sixty, if a day! ‘Sir, really, I can’t accept it.’

‘Nonesense!’ He dismisses me with a snort and a wave of his chubby hand, before returning to the chatter of his group, leaving me wondering what the hell to do.

I scan the room but I can’t see Veronica to ask and Pop is nowhere in sight, so I quickly offload the remaining glasses before heading back to the kitchens, finding Pop tweaking canapés.

‘Pop, someone gave me this.’ I slap the note on the counter, feeling better already for confessing, but my eyes bug when I see it’s a fifty. A fifty? What’s he thinking?

I’m even more stunned when Pop starts laughing. ‘Betty, you star. Keep it.’

‘I can’t!’

‘Yes you can. These people have more money than sense. Take it as a compliment.’ He pushes the fifty towards me and continues arranging the tiny flatbreads.

I don’t feel any better. ‘I’ve only served him a glass of champagne,’ I say quietly. ‘It hardly justifies a fifty-pound tip.’

‘No, it doesn’t, but like I said, take it as a compliment. Put it back in your pocket and get serving.’ He nods at my empty tray, reminding me that it is, in fact, empty.

‘Oh! Yes, sure.’ I fly into action, stuffing the obscene tip in my pocket, ready to dispose of it later, and reload my tray before quickly making my way back into the crowd. I avoid the gent who’s just thrown away fifty pounds and circle in the other direction, halting at the back of a red satin gown. ‘Champagne, madam?’ I ask, flicking a gaze across to Veronica. She nods her reassurance once more, smiling, but I don’t need it. I’m nailing this.

I turn my attention back to the satin-adorned woman, who has glossy Red poker-straight hair falling to her pert bum. I smile as she turns towards me, revealing her companion.

A man.

Him.

J.J.

I don’t know how I prevent the tray of freshly filled champagne glasses from falling to the floor, but I do. I don’t, however, prevent my smile from falling. His lips are parted again, his eyes stabbing at my flesh, but there’s no emotion on his exquisite face. His dark stubble is absent, leaving nothing but perfect tanned skin beneath, and his dark hair is a little less tousled, instead falling in perfect waves to the tops of his ears.

‘Thank you,’ the woman says slowly, taking a glass and pulling my eyes away from the strange man. A huge, sparkling, diamond-encrusted cross is suspended from her delicate neck, the brilliant stones nestling just north of her breasts. I’ve no doubt it’s real. ‘Would you like?’ She turns to him, holding up the glass.

He doesn’t say anything. He just takes the glass from her perfectly manicured hand, all the time keeping his shocking blue eyes on me.

He’s not at all receptive, and far from warm, but there’s something strange burning inside me as I gaze at his face. It’s something I’ve never experienced before – something that makes me feel uncomfortable and vulnerable . . . but not frightened.

The woman helps herself to another glass, and I know it’s time for me to leave, but I can’t move. I feel like I should smile, anything to break the staring deadlock, but what usually comes so naturally to me is completely failing me now. Nothing is working, except my eyes and they’re refusing to break from his.

‘That will be all,’ the woman prompts harshly, making me jump. Her delicate features are screwed up in annoyance and her dark eyes have darkened further. She has a stunning face, even if it’s scowling at me right now. ‘I said, that is all.’ She steps between me and J.J.

J.J? I decide right here and now that he is a mystery, one I can’t help wanting to solve. I say nothing as I finally swing my tray back onto my shoulder and slowly turn, walking away, feeling compelled to glance over my shoulder because I know he’s still staring at me and I’m wondering how that might be going down with his girlfriend. So I look, and it’s as I suspected – steely blues burning holes into my back.

‘Hey!’

I jump out of my skin, the tray tumbling from my hands, and I can do nothing to stop it. The glasses seem to float down to the marble, champagne trickling slowly from the flutes, the tray spinning in mid-air until it all comes together in a collective crash on the hard floor, silencing the room. I’m frozen on the spot as broken glass dances around my feet, seeming to take forever to settle, the piercing, drawn-out noise ringing through the quiet space around me. My eyes are cast downward, my body tense, and I know all attention is pointed at me.

Just me.

Everyone is looking at me.

And I don’t know what to do.

‘Betty!’ Veronica’s panicked voice snaps my despairing head up, and I see her hurrying towards me, her brown eyes concerned. ‘Are you okay?’

I nod and kneel to start collecting the broken glass, wincing as a red-hot pain shoots through my knee, and the material of my trousers is sliced through. ‘Shit!’ I pull in a sharp breath, tears immediately pinching the backs of my eyes. They’re a combination of pain and pure embarrassment. I don’t like any attention on me, and I do a good job to avoid and repel it, but I can’t escape this. I’ve brought a room full of hundreds of people to an eerie quiet. I want to run away.

Don’t touch it, Betty!’ Veronica pulls me up, giving me an all-over assessment. She must conclude that I look ready to break down because I’m quickly dragged to the kitchen, removing me from my audience. ‘Jump up.’ She pats the counter and I lift myself, still fighting back tears. She takes the hem of my trousers and lifts up until my wound is exposed. ‘Youch!’ She flinches at the clean slice and steps back, looking up at me. ‘I’m shit with blood, Betty. Was that the guy from the cafe?’

‘Yes,’ I whisper, shrinking when I see Pop approaching, but he doesn’t look annoyed.

[finallygaveintothesirencall]

#the game does do a fun job of justifying why the companions are - while much more capable than the average peasant - low level at first#Alistair has only been a Warden like 6 months and didn't finish Templar training before that#Morrigan has powerful magic but has been isolated in the wilds with her much more powerful mother to take care of things#Sten is a trained warrior but he was nearly killed. still managed to murder a family. then spent 20-30 days in a cage with no food or water#Leliana is a skilled Bard but she could either be rusty from hiding out in a cloister for a while or hiding some of her skills#Wynne is a senior enchanter and by the time you can actually recruit her you're probably at least like lvl 6 or 7#so she's no pushover when you actually see her do stuff. and could be even stronger if she didn't just recover from dying#Oghren is usually prooobably the last recruited bc Orzammar is meant to bounce low level players off and send them elsewhere#he is the companion most likely to be met at higher levels so it makes sense that he's an ass-kickin warrior when you meet him#though again he might be a little weaker if you came earlier and the fact that he's been banned for a while from fighting#and has instead just been sitting around getting wasted accounts for that#radio chatter some very fun tags from @couriers-mile

I enjoy the implication in Origins that Zevran isn't a very good fighter when we meet him and then after Origins he was utterly terrorizing the Crows. All the levels he gained in the Warden's party actually made him a canonically, significantly more dangerous fighter than he was when the Warden met him.