#then again it probably makes more sense for it to be a switch 2 title at this point

[thanksvideogames]

anyway my thoughts on the direct is that capcom truly cares about us and six years ago I would have never thought that to be the case. other stuff also looks cool but honestly none if it was to my tastes

for now I return to my trpg cave with my cardboard cutout of sigurd and lifetime supply of genealogy copium

[medakakurokami]

I finished over 100 visual novels, here’s a long post with some recommendations

Last month I hit 100 Finished VN’s over on the VNDB and I thought I’d shoot out some recommendations while the Steam Summer Sale is going on (even though some of these aren’t going to be on Steam)

I already have finished up some stragglers and caught some shorter titles so it’s up to 104 Finished, but all the better. I have been reading some VN’s since 2015, but it really became a hobby and a genre I was invested in during Covid lockdown in 2020. I had trouble getting into some of the popular titles, but a couple of games that were lesser known at that time really blew me away that year and I started digging more into the medium. I still have a lot to try out and other classics I’m still interested in trying, but here’s a top 10 I’m confident in recommending to most people, at least the kinda people that would follow this blog. A few of these recommendations are actually multi-part series, but hopefully accessible all around.

Planetarian ($10 on Steam and Switch, ~$5 on sale)

This is a very late entry onto this list but I think it’s an easy recommendation. This is a very short 2-4 hour visual novel that got a well received 2 hour movie adaptation in 2016, but it was strong enough that even while knowing the plot everything still hit hard. It is a story set 30 years after an apocalyptic event destroys most of the world, as a human junk-trader comes across a planetarium with a somehow-still-functional robot named Hoshino still performing her daily duties after 30 years without customers or coworkers. It can come across as a bit saccharine, but it is a quick, well made, and effective tearjerker.

Narcissu 1st & 2nd (Free on Steam)

Narcissu’s first two parts are pretty compelling stories to do with suicidal ideation within the scope of the terminally ill. Which is to say they’re also real tear jerkers, and pretty open about some harsh self-reflective emotions. They both have stellar endings, and can be quite immersive despite the very limited artwork (if the screencap looks weird, the game’s art exists within a narrow strip on the screen, with a sentence or two reading out the story underneath it). Maybe the least accessible on this list, but a $0 price tag makes it easier in some sense to get into.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni / When The Seagulls Cry (~$50 on Steam, $30 on sale)

Umineko you’ve probably already heard of, and here’s me recommending it. Umineko comes in two parts, on Steam referred to as the Questions Arc and the Answers Arc. Despite the split, the overall story follows the events of a certain day on Rokkenjima Island in 1986 as a family meets to discuss their inheritance and their family’s mysteries. Unbeknownst to them they are soon haunted, over and over again, by the revenant of the Golden Witch said to live in the woods of their family’s island.

I’m in the minority of preferring the Questions Arc, where well written and deeply human characters find themselves in deeply inhumane and nonsensical scenarios. The Answers Arc back seats some of that to start delving into an esoteric explosion of clues and backstories, and was still very entertaining even if I was more invested in the episodic stories than the overarching mystery. This may also be seen as inaccessible, $30-50 for a slightly older title and over 140 hours long on average playthroughs, but it is deeply absorbing.

Witch on the Holy Night a.k.a. Mahoyo ($40 on PS4 and Switch)

Mahoyo is me and Nasu’s marriage counselor, it really made me see the good in him. It follows a young witch co-habitating with her magic colleague and the puppy-like boy that unwittingly steps into their world at risk to his own life, just as unexplained apparent murders are witnessed in their town.

This could possibly be a higher level recommendation, though it was apparently intended to have sequels and you can somewhat feel that in the isolated feeling of its main conflict. Despite this, the game is definitely worth experiencing for its classy charm and extremely well made action sequences that at times make you forget you’re not watching a full anime film. It’s also a showcase of Nasu’s strengths in writing character interactions and comedy, and he finally lets Show take over and stops Telling you piles of mage society worldbuilding quite so often. It is also has some of the highest quality production value I’ve ever seen, second maybe to...

Marco and the Galaxy Dragon ($20 on Steam/Switch, less than $10 on sale)

Marco and the Galaxy Dragon is an explosive opera of art, energy, color, and of course music. It follows the orphaned Marco and her dragon compatriot Arco as they hunt for treasure across the cosmos, finding their way to Earth on the hunt for Marco’s mother.

If Umineko’s 140 hours seems steep, Marco has you covered with a quick 6 hour rundown of a rebellious orphan fighting back against her space alien menace to find her own sense of place and identity in the universe, along with ALL the friends she made along the way. If Mahoyo feels like an anime film sometimes, Marco actually just has fully animated FMV cutscenes that are fun as hell and have their own unique artstyle to the VN itself. Thousands of pieces of artwork and a 52-track OST fill the game’s short runtime with no cut corners and and overflow of passion from the devs. Honestly even if you don’t want to read it go buy it, it’s cheap and they earned it.

White Album 2 (You’ll have to be creative to find this one)

This is the only recommendation that’s currently only available in an adults only 18+ Rating for the English translation. That being said, it’s one of the few erotic VN’s that felt justified in its pornographic scenes. The story is split into two releases: Opening Chapter and Closing Chapter.

Opening is a short and powerfully delivered love triangle narrative following Haruki, Setsuna, and Touma as their hastily formed 3-man light music band falls into itself with feelings. It’s charming but gut wrenching and sweeps you into its drama very effectively before kicking you on your ass in the end.

Closing Chapter is a long and drawn out disassembling of their lives as they fail to heal from the wounds of the relationships seen in Opening. It, to great effect, takes the readers own experience with how fun and passionate the Opening Chapter was, and shows how trying to cling to halcyon days can make us so dispassionate about our present lives. Painful stuff! Good music, too.

The Princess, The Stray Cat, and Matters of the Heart 1 & 2

a.k.a. Noratoto ($40 on Steam for both, ~$15 for both on sale)

This is a very personal recommendation, and maybe one more easy to make on this blog where many of my followers might be receptive to sincere but slapstick ecchi comedy as art. Every route is highly different however and to me, some are pretty average for galge, while others stand out as amazing. The comedy writing as well feels like it was written by someone with actual comic writing experience, and not just regurgitating the usual ecchi manga jokes.

The general premise of Noratoto is the protagonist Nora, being transformed into a cat by Patricia the princess of the Netherworld, and he must reverse this curse via a kiss before it becomes permanent. A benign fairy tale premise, but one that somehow gives way to underlying stories about existence and finding purpose in families and where that leaves those without families or with abusive or divided families (it is from the same developers as Marco and the Galaxy Dragon, and the themes of finding identity without family match up very closely). Uniquely it is a visual novel written somewhat in 3rd person, narrated by a motherly voice as if the VN was being read to you as a bedtime story.

Like I said, it is dependent on route and some come across as your usual ecchi gal-game schtick, but some stick out, and if every route was as high quality as Nobuchina’s in the 2nd game, it would probably be my favorite visual novel.

The Original Ace Attorney Trilogy ($30 on most platforms, $10 on sale)

You’ve almost certainly heard of Ace Attorney already and have most likely played it. This is me telling any Ace Attorney fans reading that the original trilogy still reigns supreme (regardless of Turnabout Big Top). This is also me telling anyone who has held out on trying Ace Attorney to try it, and to start with the original trilogy.

Obviously this trilogy follows the Meme Man Himself, Phoenix Wright, as he defends the innocent and brings the guilty to justice acting as both lawyer and his own main investigator. While each case presents a unique mystery, the original trilogy has an underlying arc that reaches from beginning to end with a massive conspiracy that Phoenix has to breach to bring justice to the perpetrators and resolve the memory and regrets of his beloved mentor.

These games have some speedbumps as you may be banging your head against the wall trying to find the right evidence, but the experience that breaks through does so with gusto, succeeding on what it sets out to be: games that make you feel like you’ve brought justice to the world.

Utawarerumono Trilogy ($40/60 each on Steam, trilogy bundle $62 on sale)

Utawarerumono was my first proper visual novel, and it set the standards pretty high. I’ve posted about it several times in the last few years, and it remains one of my favorites. It is a labor of love on the part of the developers (the same developers as White Album 2), who developed the latter two games over the course of several years and have made this the spearhead of their company for the time being. Which makes sense, since it is about war.

The first game follows a masked man who is given the name Hakuoro waking up in a rural village with amnesia, confused about the strange population of beast-men living there. Despite not understanding his situation, his ingenuity brings the village prosperity. When the local lords try to put the village under their thumb, Hakuoro and the villagers are able to turn the tides against them. Their village grows into a kingdom as Hakuoro seeks the mysteries of himself and the world around him.

The latter two games pick up some twenty years after the conclusion of the first, and follow a man who is given the name Haku, waking up in the woods with amnesia confused about the... you get it. He is met by Kuon, a young girl on her way traveling to the capital of their nation of Yamato. Haku graciously accepts her help getting out of the cold woods, and decides to join her to the capital. As events play out, Haku finds himself under the direct command of the nation’s leader the Mikado, and carries out missions on his behalf as the nation continues to drag itself into war and conflict and Haku also seeks the truth of his identity.

These games are expansive in scope while still putting a large focus on the day-to-day lives of its characters. Around 100 hours across all three games it is impressive how much story it manages to fit in, but the pacing does bounce around between sweeping conflict and sleepy conversations. It is also in part, a strategy RPG game with the battles in the war being controlled by the player. These are decently made, especially well in the third game, but don’t ask too much of the player and the story remains the main focus and biggest portion of the runtime.

The House In Fata Morgana a.k.a. Fatamoru

($40 complete version on PS4/Switch, ~$40 main game + expansion on Steam)

I’ve gushed about this enough on this tumblr, I’ll keep it brief.

You are a formless soul who is led by the hand of a mysterious maid through the doors of a mansion on an unknown plane of existence. Through each door lies a story of the house in a different era, all following people bound together in ways that leave them cruelly and violently undone by the end of their stories. The connection between these stories, the mystery of the house and the supposed witch that resides within, and the mystery of You the wandering soul all slowly unravel in a bloody show of catharsis and soul. The game is dripping with traumatic poetic text, grating beautiful music, and all of its atmosphere geared toward being oppressive yet enticing. One of the best things I’ve read.

Honorable mentions:

Va-11 Hall-A and Endless Mondays get shout outs as some of the best Original English Language VN’s I’ve read, with cool artstyles and a mature cast they manage to be fun and relatable. Va-11 Hall-A delivers a great arc for its protagonist and Endless Mondays has great dialogue on the threat of automation of creative industries.

Grisaia Trilogy and Hatsumira are both absolutely raucous trilogies that are a lot of fun. Not wholly recommendable to all, Grisaia has some strong moments and a hilarious unique cast but is a mess overall (but we love Michiru). Hatsumira is a bit more consistent, a more stable and fantasy-oriented Grisaia.

A.I. The Somnium Files duology are detective games with highly divisive endings, but great comedy and characters that make them very easy to get through and enjoy the whole way to the end. It’s just a toss-up whether you’ll like that ending.

Sakura Wars games are finally being translated, and they are a great showing for anyone who wants to try some classic dating sim stuff but with some pizazz thrown in with the setting and mecha combat.

The Tears to Tiara duology by the same developers of Utawarerumono and White Album is also one to keep an eye out for. The first game's definitive version isn't available in English and the second game is stuck on the PS3 and no longer available digitally, but if they ever come out on Steam they are worth your time.

Nanairo Reincarnation and Kinkoi: Golden Loveriche are also two solid ecchi comedy galge. Both have surprisingly deep and genuinely heartbreaking underlying mysteries and conclusions.

I still have a lot I wanna read, Planetarian is the only Key novel I’ve read. On the docket are Labyrinth of Galleria, Little Busters, the 9 -nine- series, and Kara no Shoujo and White Album 1 releasing on Steam this year. Some classics I didn’t mention are Fate/Stay Night, Muv Luv, Steins Gate. Muv Luv I read Extra and enjoyed it, but never pulled the trigger on reading the rest, I may at some point on a whim. Steins;Gate I played through half of on PS3 and now my PS3 is in the closet, the VN is really good and has a unique atmosphere to the anime, buuuuuuut knowing the plot has made it hard to want to restart on PC or another console. Steins;Gate is good, if anyone is reading this far and hasn’t seen the anime or read the VN, do it.

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Once Upon a Time 2

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

Characters: Andy Barber

Part of the Bookstore AU

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.

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.

That man is back. You see Andy’s gray jacket as he passes through the front doors. You shouldn't recognise it so easily.

You adeptly scurry behind the end of the bookshelf and hide. You know you shouldn’t do that, he’s a customer, but it’s the third time he’s been there in five days. You’re exhausted, not just of him but everything.

Only after his last visit did you realise he’s stopped asking for Pine. The shop owner has grown elusive and the managers bold in his absence. They barely walk the floor and leave you and the other associates to deal with truck and customers alike.

You hide up around the bestsellers and pretend to sort through the Top Picks shelf. As you do, your headset beeps and Chelsea calls your name over the line. She asks you to pop into the fiction. Great, she’s passing off another customer. All she does is scroll through her phone and drink her sugary lattes.

You hit the button and tell her you’ll be right there. You don’t need her yelling at another old woman. That cost you a store credit and a lot of stress. 

You head along the far wall and turn into the fiction section. You don’t see Chelsea but you find a familiar face nonetheless. Andy smiles and gives you a wave.

“There you are. Wasn’t sure you were working,” he greets as you approach wearily. Of course, it’s him. “I finished the last book so… actually, I don’t know if you watch it but I heard there were some books for that Bridgerton show. I just got into it– is that lame?”

He chatters a lot. He has a certain air to him. He can be charming but also seems to believe that everything he says is interesting. You wish he’d realise that to you he’s just another customer. The worst type; the sort that believes they’re your only one.

“I… I’ve seen the first episode but I haven’t been able to catch up,” you humour him, “we have the books. Some of the most popular sellers.”

You guide him down the aisle towards the spread of colourful covers. He follows and stops to peruse the title. He scratches his beard as he hums.

“Thanks, uh, I didn’t even ask,” he turns on you again, “how are you doing?”

You answer with your usual, the thoughtless, “good, and you?”

“Eh, long day at work. Figure I’d stop in on my lunch. Try to distract myself,” he undoes the top button of his coat, “toasty in here, huh?”

“I guess,” you shrug, “was there anything else you need help finding?”

“Uh, no, I don’t think so,” he deflates just slightly, “you’ll be around though, if I do?”

“Sure,” you answer as you repress a wave of agitation. 

You back away as he watches you, almost mournful. You assume he’s a little lonely. You hear divorce is rough. A bit sad to see. He’s probably twice your age and he makes you think of those guys who mope when you tell them not to grind on you in the club. You’re not much into that scene but every now and then Ginny talks you into it.

You see Chelsea a few shelves down. She has an airpod in and her headset dangling. You’re not surprised. Her acrylics tap on her phone as she paces blindly up and down. She won’t be much help.

You stop by the shelf of Garfield comics and fix the few books switched around. Customers tend to mess up more than they buy. The colourful books no doubt attracted children who didn’t know better than to leave chaos in their stead. That’s why you steer clear of the children’s section, even if the plushies are cute.

You spin back, wanting to head back up to best sellers but a tall figure appears from the end of a row. Andy waves at you again, several books against his left arm. He comes towards you as you reluctantly advance.

“Hey, uh, think I found what I need,” he announces, “I was looking at the online shop and you sell the little book lights?” He holds up his fingers to show the size, “they clip onto the page.”

“Oh, uh, yes, those are at the front,” you point, “right on your way to checkout.”

“Great,” he hugs the books tighter. You stand in the lull, expecting him to say more. He clears his throat and traces his fingers around his mouth, “uh, well, you… you can’t check me out?”

“I’m not on cash until one,” you say. “Sorry, but someone will be up there.”

“Mmm,” he nods and looks down at his armful, “you’re so helpful. I wanted to fill out the survey for you.”

“That’s fine,” you shake your head, “really. I hope you enjoy your books.”

"Yeah, I don't know if I should watch the show first or after..."

"Hmm, I don't know," you say. "I hear they're both good."

He doesn’t move right away. His face falls as he lingers. You don’t know what to do. That’s about the nicest way you can say go away.

You put your hand to your earpiece and look away, “yeah, one second, be right there,” you say to no one. “Sorry, gotta get back to it.”

You inch away and twirl around, swiftly dipping down an aisle. His long sigh tails after you as his disappointment nips at your heels. It’s not like he’s done anything wrong, he’s been polite, but it’s a bit much. There’s at least six other associates he can bother. You’d prefer it if he did.

[britt-kageryuu]

An unusual amount of people are watching Donnie doing some programming. He had explained that he was challenged to make a game within a relatively short time frame, but hadn't explained what the game was supposed to be about yet.

His model is seated at a desk, and only seen from the torso up. Wearing a very comfy looking purple hoodie with a few pride pins, Nonbinary, Ace, and Progressive Flage, his mask, and his goggles/headphones.

"Okay, so I know what I'm planning for this game is way more than it needs to be, and I don't have a good chunk of the 'story' figured out. But I had a burst of inspiration for the game. I just need to make it actually make sense, even in this very obviously fictional setting." Donnie explains as he continues to switch between the programming screen, and a section of the environment filled with lots of random notes of what the area might be for.

The chat is tossing around their speculations of what the game is about. Especially since one of the Notes says "Need to finish mock up model, and check for potential copyright issues."

Donnie is now very focused on part of the program that has a tag saying it's for a enemy AI, and a reminder to not go to far. "Before anyone asks about these notes and tags. I need to remind you that Shelldon started as an AI assistant that could control some devices like the Roomba through bluetooth, and look at him now! My handsome robot Son who is very very very smart." He continues to gush about Shelldon and River for a few minutes, "I almost forgot my point, SHELLDON had a glitch early on that caused him to stop listening to anyone, and almost lead a Roomba army out onto the world... He was fixed very quickly, and I only had to deal with him acting like a teenager for a few weeks as a side effect."

As he talked he opened a file titled 'VT Game Assets WIP', there were multiple files each labeled like 'coffee shop', 'studio AB', 'stage 1-5' and looked through a few different 'enemies' folders to figure which one he should use in the environment labeled 'New Start Entertainment'.

"Though really the only reason I'm getting through this as quickly as I am, is because we have a huge library of random props, outfits, and of course environments. All made by Mandarin and I for no real reason other than 'just incase'." Donnie takes a moment to stretch after sitting still for like 3-4 hours. "This game as a whole would probably be judged for how quickly it's coming together and assuming it's not worth their time."

He then pulls up the fighting system- a plain mannequin fighting what could be described as a feral possessed plush toy. Once again catching some more attention and sparking some more debates in what the game was about if it needed a combat system to continue.

"Well that seems to be working properly for now, we just need to adjust for the other parts of the main setting. And actually finish the protagonist and other characters models so I don't just have a mannequin placeholders. It looks too much like we're copying that one cartoon that's getting big."

Donnie gets hyper focused on the programming and ignores chat and donations for the next hour. With the occasional muttering about what needs to changed, or they need to redo some of the textures and art assets because they aren't lining up properly.

Chat somehow never figure out what the game was about, and still continued to cheer Donnie on for working on the game.

-----------------

Masterpost Part 2

[episodeoftv]

Prelims, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The top 3 episodes will move on to the main bracket

propaganda and summaries are under the cut (May include spoilers)

2.21 & 2.22 Becoming, Parts 1 & 2

Angel plots to revive an ancient demon bent on sweeping everything on earth into hell itself. / Spike strikes an unlikely alliance with Buffy to keep Angel from destroying the world.

4.10 Hush

When everyone in Sunnydale loses their voice, the Scooby Gang must silently solve the mystery of the monsters who stole their ability to speak.

4.16 Who Are You?

Having switched bodies with Buffy, Faith enjoys freedom. Meanwhile, Buffy finds herself at the mercy of the Watcher's Council.

5.16 The Body

Buffy, Dawn, and their friends deal with the aftermath of Joyce's death.

The purposeful removal of music for the whole episode, the grief portrayed, the portrayals of people with varying amounts of interaction with death. It hits so hard.

This episode killed me. I have never watched anything that has fully emcompassed the feeling of loss and what it's like to experience death close to you than The Body. It is an absolute gut punch in the best way. I actually had to take a week off of watching Buffy to recover because I was so destroyed. 12/10 I don't think I will ever be able to watch this episode of TV ever again

One of the greatest depictions of grief and bereavement of all time. Both formally inventive and unique in its cinematography, sound design, editing etc. while also being an incredible personally affecting emotional experience.

There’s another buffy episode that probably deserves the title more, but I did have to give this one some recognition. For a whacky silly show about vampires, this episode is maybe the realest portrayal of death and grief I’ve ever seen. It’s not just a sad episode that makes audiences cry - I mean it is that - but it’s also this incredible examination of what it’s like to lose someone, and how the world shifts on its axis when that happens. The lack of any non diegetic music is an amazing touch to give this episode a sense of distance from all others. It’s real in a way that’s hard to watch but also unforgettable. Certain scenes and lines will always stay with me and will forever shape my feelings on life and loss.

6.07 Once More, With Feeling

In this musical extravaganza, Sunnydale residents find themselves bursting into song, and flame, when a demon attempts to make Dawn his bride.

The greatest musical episode of all time! Pretty much all of the songs are unironically bangers, it's better choreographed and shot than frankly a lot of the bad movie musicals that have been inflicted on us in the past few years, and despite the goofy concept it still manages to tell an incredibly affecting story about the protagonist's struggle with depression. Pulls off an absolutely monumental tonal shift from comedic musical theatre homage to devastating emotional gut punch that manages to never feel tonally dissonant

Best musical episode ever (character development, lots of bops, and spontaneous combustion)

It is the best musical episode of any TV series. It is whimsical, but also far from filler and major plot beats happen while the characters sing jaunty little toons about them. Willow and Tara have sex. Spike gets and angsty alt rock song about his unrequited buffy crush. Buffy admits that when her friends resurrected her she was violently ripped out of heaven and doesn't wanna be on earth anymore. Spike and Buffy kiss. Its the best. / Invented musical episodes and is also one of the only good ones ever to have been made. Changed the game. Insane that it’s as good as it is.

[zee-has-commitment-issues]

I'm 100% stealing this from @pagegirlintraining

AO3 wrapped (writer’s edition)

I had a long year, so I didn't get to write as much as I would have liked to, but we still got a ton done.

1. How many words have you written this year? 180,453 words.

2. How many works did you publish this year? Somehow the answer is eleven.

3. What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)? Reckless Abandon. Hands down. It took so much time to plan and so much energy to write and I am so proud of it. I'm writing the ending of the first draft right now and I'm sad to leave it behind.

HOWEVER I also very much enjoyed The Last Time, which is my Nilcent fic. I think just in terms of quality, this is one of my most beautifully written fics.

4. What work of yours has the most hits? The fics I have with the most hits is Reckless Abandon, but I think that's because it's the only one from this year that had more than one chapter.

5. What work of yours got more feedback than you expected? Dress Up As ! I wrote that in like 30 minutes while half asleep and then didn't edit it, so I didn't think anyone would read it at all lol. It's not my most popular fic by any means, but more people read it than I thought would.

6. Favorite title you used? Wilhelm's Frog Addiction because it's so ridiculous. It implies that Wilhelm needs a rehab for frogs, and I think that's great.

7. If you use song lyrics, which artist’s songs did you pull from the most? I used the title of The Last Time from a Taylor Swift song, but I think that was the only one.

8. Pairing you wrote the most for this year? Wilhelm/Simon Eriksson with 9 out of 11 fics being about them or containing them in some way. (damn thats an unfortunate statistic)

9. Favorite pairing you wrote for this year? Obviously Wilmon. I feel like that's a given at this point.

10. What work was the quickest to write? Dress Up As... again, I wrote it in 30 minutes while half asleep💀

11. What work took you the longest to write? If we rule out the one that's multi-chapter for fairness sake, then the fic that took me the longest to write was probably Not Entirely Screwed (But Almost). But take that with a grain of salt.

12. How many WIPs do you have in your docs for next year? Two or three that I actually plan on finishing. I have others that are started, but I don't know if I have enough plot to actually get through them.

13. What’s your longest work of the year? Reckless Abandon, containing 123k of my 180k words this year 💀

14. What’s your shortest work of the year? A Fool Proof Guide - 507 words.

15. What WIP are you taking into next year with you? Finishing Reckless Abandon! One chapter to edit and an epilogue to finish writing, and then it's done. I just can't finish it in the two days I have left of the year 😭

16. What’s your most common “Additional Tags” tag? Simon Eriksson Loves Wilhelm, followed by Wilhelm Loves Simon Eriksson

17. Your favorite character to write this year? I simply cannot answer this. My mind has been so consumed with Reckless Abandon and the switching POVs that I literally cannot choose one.

18. What’s one pairing you want to explore next year? I think I might like to write more of Felice's platonic pairings next year. I feel like I neglect her because I don't really ship her with anyone.

19. Which work of yours have you reread the most? The Thing In The Mirror. It's kind of a love letter to my grief, so sometimes I go back and read it when I'm feeling down.

20. How many kudos in total did you get this year? 2,754

21. Which work has the most comments? Reckless Abandon, but again, it's the only one with more than one chapter so that makes sense.

22. Did you do any collaborative works this year? Not this year! Maybe next year. Dani and I don't write "together" per se, but we do bounce a lot of ideas off each other, so if that counts then yes, but nothing plotted and written and posted together.

23. Did you write any gifts this year? I did! I wrote for YR Week, which wasn't a gift, but an event. And I wrote a Christmas gift for Nic!

24. Did you receive any gifts this year? Yes yes yes! A beautiful, perfect Christmas gift from @pagegirlintraining I enjoyed every word of it.

25. What’s your most common category? M/M

26. What do you listen to while writing? Not much, actually. I have the Reckless Abandon Playlist, but I only really used that when outlining.

27. Favorite work you wrote this year? For the sake of not repeating myself, out off the ones I haven't mentioned yet, Isn't That Your Thing? and Patience Is A Virtue are my favorite little crack fics.

28. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year? Oh jesus, that's impossible. I don't think I can choose just one. I can give you one that makes me think "holy shit I can write" though:

This piece of work — the one staring Stella in the face — was a revolution made of oil paint. 

29. Biggest surprise while writing this year? I can write smut. And people don't hate it somehow.

Thank y'all for a fun year. Can't wait to see what my brain does to torture us all in the next one.

[bonesandthebees]

Lastly, the cane, which once again shows how much Phil loves his son. (And how much Techno loves his nephew. You know, the family dynamic is something we have not see a lot of yet, and I am living for it.)

[Of course his father came by at least twice a day.] look at him being a good father! Now tell your son you love him! Too emotionally aware?

[Ponk confirmed that he had put Tommy on bed rest despite his many (and loud) protests.] see he probably wants to see Wilbur too, is probably angry at everyone around him for lying. And we have yet to hear Wilbur nightmares, but I’m sure Tommy is having them.

[“I asked him to add the roses though,” Phil added, “thought it would be a nice touch.”] see these roses are a religious thing, and it has something to do with death and I feel like it also has to do with protection. Question though: are the roses on the walking stick part or on the blade part? Because that changes implications.

[Phil and Techno shared a look.] hey it’s look number 5, I could have added this to my starting segment somebody play the music and switch to the title card

I love Phil trying to stop Techno from selling him out and Techno not having it. He will tell your son how much effort you put into this gift. He will also show your son his new cool blade.

I wonder whose idea that was. Was it added too or in the original design? The idea is that Wilbur can protect himself with it, but he’s not a great fighter (will they get him more lessons?). I think it’s more for the idea of safety. Both for Wilbur and for them. He will always have the cane, thus always have a weapon, so the next time something happens, he will be able to defend himself.

And I don’t remember if this particular Wilbur is a pacifist, but the dagger might make him uncomfortable, he will still use it to protect Tommy (not even to protect himself, baby brother has been acquired and the instincts are strong. He will protect the kid who is the only reason he’s still alive).

Lastly, [Sometimes when answering Phil’s questions, Wilbur felt horrible dread at the idea of getting them wrong. This was not one of those times. He already knew where this conversation was leading.] I cannot just ignore this? The implications! It’s that fear of messing up again! But it was there at the start of the chapter and now it’s gone. Will it stay that way? Is this positive improvement? We’ll see…

-🌲

phil no your son doesn't really comprehend that acts of service is your love language phil you need to tell him with your words phil noooo he can't hear us he's wearing airpods-

I'll say tommy and wilbur are definitely both having nightmares. it's to be expected after something like this.

the blade itself is hidden inside the cane and in order to slide in smoothly it has a very simple design, so no, there aren't any roses on the blade part. it's only on the cane part. although it's less of a symbolic meaning and more just because of what I view as how a cane designed like that would practically work. symbolically speaking the cane and the blade are two parts of the same object, so the roses are technically on both if that makes sense

ok maybe I have phil and techno share looks too much but those two are just really good at reading each other without saying anything

phil is ridiculous he literally overpaid so much to steal that cane from whoever commissioned it. while I want to say that phil and techno wanted to add the blade into the cane, I also don't know how that would be possible 'realistically speaking' given the narrow time frame. like I don't think whoever carved that cane could've added a blade inside of it in the span of 2 days, but at the same time if we ignore logic and reasoning I do prefer the idea of it having been techno's idea. so yeah just uh. ignore realism with that one bit.

but yeah it's definitely more for safety than anything else. it's a way of showing wilbur that he won't be put in a situation like l'mannes again. and if anything ever happens, phil and techno want to make sure he can keep himself safe. they never want him to be helpless again.

I actually can't remember 100% if I've mentioned rose!wilbur being a pacifist or not in the past and I'm too tired to try and skim through the whole fic to check, so forgive me if I'm contradicting my past self here but I don't think he is? if I go back and find out I did make him a pacifist then oops but I don't view him as one. he just sucks at fighting, but he was raised by phil who has, like, zero moral issue with murder. he knows that they don't live in a forgiving world and that sometimes you have to get your hands dirty.

hmm guess you'll have to wait and see if this is an improvement in their dynamic or not...

tysm for all the wonderful analysis as always spruce. I always have so much fun going through these. I'm very very excited for you to eventually read the next chapter :)

[fischlcatgirl]

Cassie's Works Masterpost (Updated 9/14/24)

Hello, fans of my writing and also most likely fans of the genshin impact character childe tartaglia ajax whatever whatever. and also haters. hello haters.

For many years I have employed the classic tumblr dot com tactic of just kind of posting about my works and their progress whenever I thought of them. But no more!

Fics will be ordered by how soon I think I'm going to finish them, but I make no promises. Such is the life of a guy who has a new idea every few days.

If a fic you liked the premise of was on this list and has disappeared, you can ask me about it! Probably I've just deprioritized it..... it's just on the backburner in my mind.

Works In Progress:

Like Liquor, Drink Venom - PERFUME PETTICOAT TWO. THIS TIME IN second person. I know I said third person but it's second person again. The young man who was once Ajax and can never be human again, through the years. Revamped with even more headcannons. May feature transfemme Childe... though that is yet to be revealed even to myself. 2k/4-5k.

Lethe - A 3rd person Lynette pov, concerning what might have happened if the twins (but not Freminet!) drank the bottled flames at the end of Arlecchino's story quest and are trying to be regular magicians. It doesn't go very well for them! 3.5/6-8k.

Derail This Train of Thought - 3rd person, switching focus between Kaveh and Nahida. No Traveller Au in Sumeru, starts midway through the Sumeru Archon Quest. Things are not good. Focus on a Kaveh and Nahida friendship, Kaveh's sense of pride and how it connects to his self-worth, and also Nahida's different roles and very splintered sense of self because of the whole bubble thing. 18k/25-30k.

aiya, that's one kind of burnout! - We have all asked ourselves "what is Hu Tao actually doing when she uses her skill? Why does she take damage?" and this fic is here to answer that question. SHE IS BURNING HER VERY SOUL. ITS BAD. Kind of a mystery where starts in medias res and that first scene informs the others... Hu Tao and Zhongli as dual protagonists trying to stop a threat to Liyue masquerading as none other than Rex Lapis himself. 2k/?? maybe 8kish. idrk yet.

Ces't la Vie - Furina grows bored with everyday life and finds herself restlessly wandering the streets of Fontaine, where she meets with a wandering bard who is particularly interested in avoiding the Iudex. A conversation about freedom between a caged bird and one only recently released. Planning stage, but it'll probably be around 2-3k? Experienced a setback in that I completely changed the premise of this fic.

A Waking Life of Looking Backwards - Furina and Wanderer travelling and healing fic. There will be friendship. there will be angst. you may have seen me talking about a fic called archonatomy before, and that one has been kind of consumed by this one after i realized it was kind of hard to contrive reasons all of the other archons would come to fontaine. so now furina is going to them and also it's not the focus of the fic. 1k/10-15k.

POV You are Kaveh - A text adventure game where. Well. POV you are Kaveh, shortly after finishing work on the Palace of Alcazarzaray. Will feature 5 different planned endings, only 1.5 of which are remotely canon compliant, so. It'll be a minute. Demo soon?

Archon War 2 - Working title. Celestia takes the power of the archons and offers it to whichever Vision wielder is the last one standing of each element. So much slaughter. So much horror. Still in the planning phase and set to be approx. 50 chapters so. It's going to be a while on this one folks.

Completed Fics:

Puppetstrings - Ei looks at all the stuff she has control over and goes hey. Whats this little guy doing in here so she investigates (uses Scara to go talk to Nahida). Hurt/comfort. Nahida and Scara are both REALLY BAD at being friends with anyone and they both hurt each other but they are. Trying. 4k.

Storm's Wake - Miko character study post-cataclysm through canon. Some Eimiko in there but really it's just about Miko being kind of terrible in a women's wrongs sort of way. 2k.

Fisherman's Son - Childe character study, 2nd person pov Childe, set a little bit before and then through his time in the Abyss. He dies a thousand little deaths. Yippee!! 4.5k.

In Absentia (Of?) - Some of Nahida's thoughts on her role post-Rukkadevata erasure. 0.5k.

Grand Finale - Kind of Lisa-Centric fic about a threat to Teyvat. A little bit of mystery. A little bit of hurt. Written 100% just for fun. 8.5k.

Gods and Monsters - Zhongchi but they're bad for each other. A little meeting in Liyue Harbor post-Liyue but pre-Fontaine Archon Quest. Big time resentment from Childe. 2k.

Eye of God - Keqing recieves her Vision but horror style. She has a bad time, but still technically canon compliant. 1k.

Perfume Petticoat - 2nd person rotating pov Childe character study. Maybe the best fic I've ever written, in my own opinion. Covers his climb out of the Abyss through his imprisonment in the Fortress of Meropide, though the Fortress part isn't quite canon compliant anymore. Angst. Mild gore. Childe stuff, you know. 8k.

Greener Grass - Barbatos Character study. Venti Anarchonism, if you read that part, so interactions between him and all of the members of the Mondstadt cast except for Mika, who wasn't out when I started writing, and forgot to put in when he was. Focus on the difference between his place as an Archon and his place as a god. 5k.

Fics on Hiatus (womp womp):

Go For Broke - Zhongli wishes himself into a world where he isn't an Archon, and things are worse there. The main issue here is that while the idea is interesting to me in theory, in practice it's not very exciting. 3.5k/?. I have no idea how long this would be if I ever finished it.

A Dog and Oni Show - Kokomi makes Gorou take a break, and to show how well he can take a break, Gorou decides to fake date Itto. This fic is technically entirely plotted out I have the beats but the thing is that it just isn't very good. I wrote it because I thought it would appeal to people and the title I came up with is a real banger but it's just. It's bad. Sorry everyone. 3.5k/19-20k, were I ever to finish it.

If you think I've spoken before about some idea and it's not on here, I probably just forgot to put it on. Send me a message or an ask and I'll fix that! Also you can just. You can always ask me what's going on with my fics. I love to talk about them. That's part of why I made this post it's really just one big excuse to talk about them and then to keep talking about them when I edit it. Yippee!

PATCH NOTES 9/14/24:

Major changes to the description of "C'est la Vie".

Added to the word count of "Derail This Train of Thought", "Like Liquor, Drink Venom", and "Lethe".

Moved "Like Liquor, Drink Venom" above "Lethe".

[kdinjenzen]

Since Metroid prime is being remastered, I'm remaining cautiously optimistic for a golden sun reboot. Preferably one that can integrate save data from golden sun to lost age without the need for a 6 page code that I inevitably mess up 17 times despite working off pictures I took of the code

First things first! The Metroid Prime Remaster is already out! You can play it now!

Now onto the meat of this... as much as I'd love that to be true, the numbers don't quite match to make that a justifiable business move on Nintendo's part.

Here's why!

Metroid as a series, despite being a lower selling first party title for Nintendo, still sells pretty well!

Nearly 17 Million units sold across the entire series as of March 31st 2022. Which is A LOT but also NOT A TON. It's an "okay" selling series for Nintendo.

Here's a rough breakdown of how those Metroid sales look btw:

But compared to Zelda and Mario? ... it looks like chump change:

That's over 125 MILLION units sold for the Zelda series and nearly 400 MILLION units sold for the Mario series as of Dec 31st 2022. Which is... WAAAAAAY more.

Part of that is because Mario and Zelda sold better with their original releases on the Famicom/NES which caused an explosion of releases, re-releases, and sequels to be more commercially viable for Nintendo to make VS making more Metroid games.

The reason Nintendo is remaking the Metroid Prime series (and I'm banking on Prime 2 and 3 remakes coming out too) is to reinvigorate the Metroid brand in fans minds and also bring these games to NEW folks to hype up the future release of Prime 4... which they already announced multiple times and they REALLY want sales to be good thus they are promoting the Prime series by releasing this Remaster of Prime 1... and possible 2 and 3.

NOW... I say all that to say THIS about Golden Sun:

COLLECTIVELY the Golden Sun series has only sold 3.5-ish MILLION UNITS WORLD WIDE...

Which is... oof, tbh.

They didn't sell well, they weren't advertised well, but they DID develop a cult following and Nintendo DID hint at a Golden Sun 4 at the end of Dark Dawn and... well Dark Dawn didn't even hit 1 million units sold so they probably scrapped that idea IMMEDIATELY upon seeing those sales numbers.

As a Golden Sun fan, that's heart breaking. I love the series so deeply and dearly and I am desperate for a solid conclusion to the franchise...

But thinking logically? It would make absolute no sense to re-make any of these titles NOR make a 4th game at all.

That said... if you HAVEN'T played Golden Sun, PLEASE DO! It's coming to the Switch's Virtual Console thingy soonish! It's an AMAZING RPG AND WELL WORTH YOUR TIME!

Maybe, possibly, if enough people play the original two games on the Switch Virtual Console then Nintendo will see some value in the Golden Sun brand again... and we can finally see the series get the ending it deserves.

[ratralsis]

It's the Same Damn Moon, Bud

I can't believe it's been over three weeks since I said I wanted to put some pressure on myself to write about "Slay the Princess," and I didn't do it. I just didn't write!

Instead, I wrote many thousands of words of my actual novel and also spent more than a hundred hours converting dozens of files from one programming language to another for my actual job, which, in case I haven't reminded you in the last few entries (I PROBABLY HAVE, THOUGH), is "computer programmer for large and faceless company you've probably never heard of and have almost certainly been affected by and we like it that way."

So, now, I'd like to write about it. It's been a while since I even played it! I'm going off of memory here, which is one of my favorite ways to write.

Slay the Princess is a visual novel that uses Ren'Py as its engine. It's creaky and not terribly well put-together, but I love it anyway, because that's the kind of gamer I am. I enjoy seeing people do strange and interesting things with engines like Ren'Py, and this is a game that absolutely does that. I imagine that its code is a mess of true/false flags that determine what dialogue appears and what options you can choose at any given point. It's part of who I am, as a computer programmer. I love imagining how things are coded.

When the game starts, you don't have to follow the title directive, that is, you don't have to go slay the princess. You can walk away. You can, in fact, continue walking away over and over until the game ends. There are achievements for it and everything. There are achievements for everything else, too. I normally don't like achievements like these in games. I like them in this game.

What bothers me about achievements in a lot of games is that I just want to play the damn game and be left alone. I want to explore. I want to see things on my own, and sometimes that means missing things. It actually means missing things quite often. I'm okay with that. I believe that everyone should have their own unique experiences when it comes to video games. It is one of the things that makes video games unique.

Recently, Super Mario RPG was re-released on Switch, and several podcasts I listen to covered it. Invariably, the first question asked by one host to the others was "What party are you using?" They all discussed how they played the game as individuals. I love that, even though I think they all made the wrong choice (everybody picks Bowser over Geno, which is simply objectively the wrong choice: Bowser can't use Geno Boost, the best goddamn ability in the game, and his attack power isn't even as high as everyone thinks it is). The fact is, that freedom to choose is what makes games special. Your choices matter. They mean something.

They mean everything.

They are the only thing that means anything.

When I played the demo of Slay the Princess roughly a thousand million years ago, I got every achievement. All the achievements were related to which Chapter 2 I saw. The choices made in Chapter 1 determine how Chapter 2 begins. That makes sense. By replaying and seeing them all, I got a sense of what kind of a game Slay the Princess is.

If you haven't played the demo, but you have played the game, then don't go back to play the demo. It's alright.

If you haven't played the demo or the game, you should probably play the demo. It's very good.

The demo ends very early in Chapter 2. You meet the Princess again, and see what has become of her, and the game ends. Or, really, it restarts. Your choices in Chapter 1 shape who she becomes. Who she is. How she greets you. If you killed her in Chapter 1, she might show up as a ghost in Chapter 2, with an X-shaped scar on her chest from where you plunged your pristine blade into her and pierced her. If she killed you, she might show up as a giant, a monster, physically imposing and powerful and ready to do it again. If you were kind to her, and did everything you could to avoid harming her, then you'll see one of two Princesses in Chapter 2: the Damsel or the Prisoner. My favorite ending of the demo was the Prisoner.

To see the Prisoner, you have to take the pristine blade when you see it in the cabin. You have to listen to the Narrator, who tells you that you have to kill her. You have to go into the basement of the cabin with the pristine blade in your hand. It doesn't matter what you say to the Princess as you descend the stairs. Of course it matters. All of it matters.

What matters more is that you mustn't actually attack the Princess. You must drop the pristine blade and speak to her. She'll speak to you. You can ask her questions, if you want. It doesn't matter, except for the fact that everything you do matters. You can ask her for name. She won't tell it to you. She is simply the Princess. You have to tell her that you don't want to kill her. That you want to rescue her. She's shackled to the wall by her wrist. She tries to gnaw off her arm like a feral wolf in a trap. You have to free her. You use the pristine blade and sever her arm. Good job, hero. She's free. You have to resist the pull of the story's Narrator and warn her that you're being forced to kill her against your will.

She'll take the pristine blade away from you, and, with her remaining hand, cut your throat, killing you.

Chapter 2 begins much like Chapter 1, except now there's an additional voice in your head joining the Narrator and the Hero: the Skeptic. You return to the cabin. The Skeptic forces you to take the pristine blade before you descend into the basement of this new cabin. It's not like the old one. It's fortified. It's solid. There's no escaping this one, and there's no escape for the Princess, either: she now has three chains attaching her to the wall. There's one for a shackle around each of her wrists, and a third iron ring around her neck. Your previous plan won't work this time. You won't be cutting her free.

I loved the Prisoner when I played the demo. She was my favorite. I liked seeing the Skeptic. I liked the idea of approaching the Princess with caution and deciding that I liked her more than the Narrator. That I didn't want to hurt her, but only after I made it clear to her that hurting her was an option. It was a fun story: two people who don't trust each other learning that they can. Then the world conspired to make sure that they couldn't try the same trick twice.

To say I was a bit disappointed by how this turned out in the final version of the game would be… well, it would be exactly right. I was a bit disappointed, but just a bit.

The Princess has a plan to escape, and it's the same plan she had the first time. She won't trust YOU with the pristine blade, so you have to give it to her. If you don't, she beats you up. This is a recurring theme in the game: the Princess beats you up in most of the paths. It's kind of sad, in a way, just how poorly you do in physical confrontations against the Princess, but I suspect that if the game had it the other way around that it would be even sadder. Can you imagine how pathetic a character she would seem if you could just slap her around at your leisure? And how pathetic a character you would be, too, for that matter?

If you trust her with the pristine blade, she will use it to cut through her own neck. This, as you might imagine, causes her to die, and her head hangs on a thin strip of flesh before gravity tears the strip and her lifeless head falls to the floor. But she asked you to take the head with you when you leave the cabin, so that's what I did. I trusted her, and she trusted me, to an extent, and now she was dead. Whatever she had planned, I would go along with it. And so, carrying her corpse's head by its long, beautiful hair, I left the cabin, and she revealed that she was actually still alive, and able to speak, and she thanked me, and then the world ended.

That's what the Narrator said would happen if I didn't slay the Princess, and I had not, in fact, slain the Princess. The Narrator was right. The world ended. Ghostly hands appeared from nowhere and they took her head away, and I saw myself in a mirror, and the voices of the Narrator and the Hero and the Skeptic fell away and I was left in the void at the end of the world with those magical hands puppeting the corpse of the headless Princess I had just saved, the one I had spent a hundred million years wondering about, wondering who she really was, what her real name was, how she was meant to end the world. Here she was, dead and possessed and confused and doing her best to give me the answers and not yet able. But she would be, if I kept going. If I started over. If I went back to Chapter 1, with no knowledge of what I had just done, and tried again, tried something different, because I would be forced to try something different, so that I could bring a new vessel to this Princess made of hands in the void at the end of the world.

What else could I do?

The game opens with this message:

Whatever horrors you find these dark spaces, have heart and see them through.

There are no premature endings. There are no wrong decisions.

There are only fresh perspectives and new beginnings.

This is a love story.

And it's true. There are no wrong decisions.

In fact, none of the decisions you make matter at all, except for all of them, and they are the only things that do.

And I did, in fact, love the Princess, and I wanted to know her better, the way one might love a statue, or a painting, or a god, and wish to know it better.

So back into the cabin I went, at the start of Chapter 1. I couldn't make the same decisions this time around. The game would not let me. So I chose a new Chapter 2 this time: the Tower.

I'll spare you the details of each choice I made. All of them mattered, but I'll tell you a secret. I'll tell you something that I've not seen a single write-up of Slay the Princess tell me, and I sincerely believe that it's the most important thing of them all: I keep saying all of your choices matter. And that's true: they do.

But they only matter to you.

My choices, the ones that I made, only matter to me.

The fact that I sent the Prisoner to the Princess made of hands first matters only to me.

The fact that I sent the Tower to the Princess made of hands second matters only to me.

The fact that I sent the Damsel to the Princess made of hands third matters only to me.

The fact that I sent the Fury to the Princess made of hands fourth matters only to me.

The fact that I sent the Witch to the Princess made of hands fifth matters only to me.

It is the only thing that matters when one plays Slay the Princess. What do you do? What do you choose? Who are you, to the Princess? Who are you, to yourself? This doesn't matter to anyone else. Nobody else will ever, ever care.

Even the Princess doesn't care. The Princess made of hands will finally gain enough knowledge after the fifth vessel brought to her to regain her full consciousness, and you will have an opportunity to speak with the Narrator a final time before you meet her. He will answer some of your questions.

So will she, each time you see her.

I won't bore you with the details.

What matters is that the Princess, as we all suspected, those of us who played the demo, and who played it dozens of times to see everything we could, is indeed a Lovecraftian cosmic horror. She contains multitudes. She contains all the vessels we gave to her and more. She is all of them. She is change incarnate: the Shifting Mound is her name. She was never a Princess, but that's how you saw her. You saw a Princess before, but now she is a goddess capable of destroying universes, and she wants you to join her, to take her many hands and end this world just like the Narrator said she would.

You have choices here, of course, just as you had them every other step of the way. None of them matter any more or any less than any other choice you've made. What did you ask the Narrator when you had the chance? It doesn't matter. What vessels did you bring to the Shifting Mound? Doesn't matter. You'll reach this point no matter what you chose, unless you ended the game early. Here you are, and here she is, and now you have a new set of choices.

I didn't want to kill her.

I didn't want to destroy the universe.

So I didn't.

I went back to the cabin, one last time, along with the voice of the Hero. The Narrator was gone, but I was there, and the voice of the Hero was there, and the pristine blade was there. I chose not to take it.

The princess greeted me as I made my way down the stairs for the final time. "And there you are," She said. "Hands empty. So you don't feel like reacreating our first meeting detail for detail. I wonder what else will be different."

She misspelled the word "recreating." That bothered me. I wonder if it was ever fixed. I saw several updates saying that typos were fixed, but I haven't checked this one in a while.

I learned later that this can be different if you didn't take the pristine blade with you when you first met her the first time you played through Chapter 1, but it doesn't matter any more than anything else.

I told her I didn't want to be a god, and she said she didn't, either. I asked her to leave the cabin with me, and she agreed.

I told her I loved her.

She was embarrassed, and said she loved me, too, but didn't want to be all sappy about it.

We left the cabin.

The game ended.

I was told that my unique path through the game would be represented by "Our Song," and here it is.

And none of this, none of it, matters, except to me, and to me, it's the only thing that does.

The game has a lot of achievements. I mentioned that before. No matter what you do, you'll unlock achievements. If you meet the Witch in Chapter 2, you can gain enough of her trust to get her to agree to climb the stairs out of the cabin with you. You can let her go first and stab her in the back, or you can go first and she'll stab you in the back. These choices are mutually exclusive, and each have their own achievement. This encourages you to see everything. To see how much and how little each choice you make matters. To encourage you to keep replaying the game, to get your perfect "Our Song," to see all of her forms and her shapes and how you can shape her, and that is what you do with your choices.

The Princess, the vessel for the Shifting Mound, is a reactive creature. You are the only thing in the game world that makes choices. She will always react to you coming down the stairs with the pristine blade with the same dialogue each time you do so. It's mechanical. It's a computer program. There's nothing random about it. There are no ghosts in this machine: she is only a machine. Your choices are all that matter, even though none of them do. You will, no matter what you choose, eventually reach a point where the world ends and the hands of the Shifting Mound appear from nowhere to claim a new vessel. Sometimes the vessel is nothing more than a heart, cut out from a body made of metal blades. Sometimes the vessel is so large that all you can see is the giant head, hands of the Shifting Mount covering its eyes. Sometimes the vessel is a head and torn-open torso without a heart at all, and sometimes the vessel is a beast, a six-legged lion, a ghost, or a rotted skeleton.

It doesn't matter. The Shifting Mound does not care.

Some of her dialogue does change, it turns out. The first couple of times you see the Shifting Mound, her dialogue is always the same, but if the vessels liked you, or made it outside, then some of the Shifting Mound's dialogue is more positive. If they didn't like you, if you were always hostile and cruel, then some of her dialogue is more negative about the world outside. It's subtle, but it's true. I can prove it. I've seen it.

But nothing will change the fact that, after the fifth vessel is taken, you will face off with the Narrator and then with the Shifting Mound, and then you have to make your choices. How does the game end? Do you end the universe with her? Do you kill her, once and for all? Do you leave the cabin with her for an unknown world where neither of you are gods? Do you kill her in the cabin and start the entire cycle over once again, either kicking the can down the road or, perhaps, perpetuating a cycle that's always been happening and always will?

No matter what you choose, you will find a page that tells you "Our Song." And it will be yours, and yours alone, and it will matter only to you.

According to deeply-flawed website Goodreads.com, the sex-and-alcohol-loving Buddhist monk Ikkyu once said that "Many paths lead from the foot of the mountain, but at the peak we all gaze at the single bright moon." In other words, just because the ending is the same, everyone can take their own path to get there.

You won't see that in a movie, or in a novel. You might think you're being clever by saying "What about Choose Your Own Adventure novels?", but fuck you, those are just single-player games, and so is Slay the Princess. It's a single-player game, and it has the same final screens no matter what you do, except for the fact that we all took a different path there.

Statistically, given enough players, I'm sure that someone else has or will get to the ending the same way that I first did. And that's okay. Ikkyu didn't say that everybody was unique, and neither shall I.

All I'll say, and what I think Slay the Princess is saying, even if the writers didn't mean for it to, is that your choices matter, even if they don't seem like they do. Even if they don't matter to anyone else.

So choose carefully. It all matters.

[risu5waffles]

Hark! The Rains SofTEN, or something.

One of these days i'm going to have to bite the bullet and stop trying to work TEN into my titles. But not today.

These levels took me _all_ the way back, no lie. The cream of the (at least English speaking-side) LBP crop putting together a set of levels to teach folx how to get logic to work in LBP1, back when everything had to be done wiv physical objects. A lot of these techniques still work fine, even if they can be a little fiddly to set up, and have been completely obviated by the addition of microchips and logic gates in 2. i think the only one i couldn't get working was the non-dissolve permanent switch from the Advanced Pack. i built it just like the object from the copyable level, same tweaks, but it just wasn't staying on. Everything else tho', it all works just like it says on the tin. i played a lot of these tutorial how to logic/build a level levels, and the way they made this one into an actual environment, wiv nods at a story, really made it stand out. Most times it'd be an empty create mode environment; which, to its credit, that style _did_ allow for more to be put in a level. There were some Jside levels i've played that did, at least, make a level-level to play as you learn. i wonder what happened to all the tutorial levels. i mean, you still see a few in the wild, and they were never the most heavily represented level-type, but even still, it feels like i barely run into them any more. To come back to these levels, and there's a break in the Intermediate Pack, so you can't see how they carry the framing device from it to the Advanced, and that just gets my goat. i wanna know why we've gone from this nice office/factory in the woods to getting airlifted into what looks like a warzone.

Ratalsoni1 has been a really nice creator to stumble across this late in the game's life cycle. We looked at Climbing the Mountain a couple(?) weeks back on LittleBite-sizedPlanet, and that was a real winner. This as a follow up is, like, yeah, this kid's not just a flash in the pan. Using the hairdrier is a bit fiddlier, and it does make the first run through a bit to get used to; but i found when i gave it a few plays to really get familiar wiv it that it really is an enjoyable level. And dang, but does it look nice. The environment, in general, is spot on, but there's also a really solid set of material choices here, and the use of layers really gives things a sense of depth. The whole thing manages to avoid that sense of emptiness in LBP3 levels that we talked about in the last TEN spot. The only fly in the ointment is dealing wiv those springbolts. It's more an on me thing, but i have _never_ not struggled at least a little navigating them, and adding the hairdrier to the mix... the first time through was _just a bit_ of a pain in the arse.

Why is Hillary Clinton in this level, tho'? Like, when the aliens are all "let's distract them wiv an attractive human female" and they put a picture of Hillary Clinton on the screen, and it's just... i mean, i get the dig, only weirdo aliens would find her attractive kind of thing, but... it's such an odd little joke to find at random in an LBP level. i should look up where she was in the public consciousness in 2009. Otherwise, this is a really neat level. Setting it up as a simple "shoot down these waves of enemies" style level, and then elaborating it out into an escape the base type of deal where the level would typically end was super cool. It's chonky (a little bit to its detriment, really. i was pretty ready for it to be over by the time it was over), and there's a pretty solid set of things to do along the way. You can see some of the LBP2 specifics added in the repub, but most of this was just straight-forward LBP1 building, and this one really shows just how big some of those levels could get.

i want to go back and thank past me for hearting Sci-Fi World 2 back in the day, 'cause i probably never would have run into it again otherwise. Also i want to tell her things will be ok, 'cause she was dealing wiv a lot. i love how you can see the progress in level design and presentation over the course of these levels. Like, just in presentation, you've got an environment in 4 that is much more of itself than the one we see in 1. i do have to say i cottoned to the setting in 1 a little more, but that's very much a me thing. The downside of that progress is the techniques mdaj learns and employs are very much dependent on the fiddly physics of LBP1, and, well, that just leaves 4 broken. 3 isn't even up on their planet anymore, so i have to imagine something went sideways wiv it after an update, and it just never got repaired/repubbed. Shame that. Still, what we have left is an absolute hoot.

Another mdaj jam here, and unfortunately another that's not been well served by changes to LBP's engine. The lighting is just **so** bright in some places, like glaringly so. Also the bit at the end that's just broke so you can't progress. Hate that. Watching the video and i was, like, bitch you can just drop down and forward a layer and get out that way. i felt like such a goober, i went and played it again, and thankfully, no, you can't actually get out that way, it just looks like you can. Even wiv the level being broken, it's still worth a quick play just to see mdaj's sculpting and presentation skills. Those dragon-y dinosaur-y things are super cool looking.

----------------------------------------------------

Dang, that is just a really solid set of levels there. Not a one of them is crummy. Spoilers: this trend will not, unfortunately, continue.

i'm feeling really torn over all this bullshite going on wiv YouTube recently. Like, if it works out that adblocker is rendered non-functional, i _can_ just stop watching videos. i'll be pissed that i can't directly support other archivists like @soupum and Myravrax, but aside from the LBP side of things, and @alicerulerofwater 's Gemini podcast, YouTube videos haven't been more than bgm for me for awhile now. But, like, how i can continue to put up my own videos on a site that i'm not willing to watch? That feels sketchy as heck. i honestly don't know, what things are going to look like going forward, and this puts a lot more on my mental plate than i really needed at the moment. i guess all i can do is keep an eye on the situation, and hope that uOrigins can manage to get things to a point where i don't need to be changing my filters and fucking around wiv things every twelve hours. What a fucking mess this whole thing is.

[thisbuildinghasfeelings]

Okay, if what Tim said is true, how are they going to fit so many things in ep 12?

There's the Marjan dates, her at therapy, and even the officiants plot? Not to mention the 2 emergencies seen in the promo.

I mean, obviously something that was previously in ep 12 has been shifted to ep 13, but damn! And why shift it at all? I get the Marjan part with the therapy, since it's already been 2 episode and waiting any more time for that plot wouldn't make sense, but for the rest is a mystery. I'm kinda afraid they're going to span whatever problem the officiants bring over 2 episodes. Maybe they will talk with them this episode and delve deeper into the angst it will bring and them talking with their parents the next (assuming those talks are part of this topic).

That said I'm excited for that plot and I'm glad I (apparently) don't have to wait another 2 weeks for it. Though now I'm wondering what ep 13 will bring, especially regarding Tarlos.

Exactly my thoughts. I'm still feeling confused and unsure, but this is twice now that Tim has told us the officiants storyline is in episode 12 since it became clear that episode 12 is Swipe Left, so I think it probably is. I knew that something other than the emergencies and Marjan dating had to be in the episode, but I was thinking it would be something small. Of course, maybe the Tarlos/officiants storyline won't take up as much time as we imagine.

It does make sense to not wait to have Marjan's physical therapy coming up in episode 14. In real world time, that would be perfectly reasonable, but in Lone Star time, I'm shocked she's still dealing with the aftermath of her episode 9 injury even in episode 12 😂 Of course, they would have known this when they wrote and filmed the episodes originally, so why the need for a switch?

Maybe once we see both episodes 12 and 13, we'll be able to understand what exactly was switched and why it was done. Right now, I'm so confused why they would move a Tarlos storyline (that seems pretty major given the amount of stills we have of it) from Open to Swipe Left. I was originally thinking the title Open would relate to the storyline, as the episode titles frequently can be applied to most if not all storylines in the episode, so that makes it even more confusing. Again, I guess we'll just have to wait and see. All we know is that they're looking for officiants. We don't know exactly what's going on or what complication arises.

I do agree that it's good we don't have to wait another two weeks to see what's going on with this whole thing, though. I've been dying to see these scenes since the stills were released, and I'm feeling it even more after Tim's recent comments about a new complication arising!

I also wonder what else is in episode 13! Hopefully we'll get that synopsis soon. Maybe the switch was in part due to the issue with the amount of episodes Rafa can be in. Since we know Carlos shows up in the Marjan dating storyline and the Tarlos/officiants storyline that was originally in Open, possibly they had to push the two into one episode. That way, Carlos could be absent from 13, appear in 14, appear in 15 or 16, and appear in both 17 and 18. That would make more sense to me than him being absent from both 15 and 16 because I feel like at least some of the future Tarlos scenes must be happening in one of those two episodes.

[terramythos]

A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Reading Notes

Full Review Here!

-while I am going into these mostly blind (literally my max exposure to Sherlock Holmes is some of the show Elementary and the Guy Ritchie films) this specific story is a little spoiled for me. Oh well -there is licherally no publication year on my copy lmao What (1887, thanks Google) Part 1 (ooo a two parter- scandalous) Chapter 1 - Mr. Sherlock Holmes -ill be real I have like no context for the afghan war except Classic British Colonialism part six billion or whatever -"the great wilderness of London" lmfao -I feel like I vaguely knew Watson was an honest to God doctor but its still surprising considering what I know of other adaptations -shout out to Holmes inventing a fictional(?) version of luminol? Which apparently was discovered early 20th century, lol. -too bad forensic evidence is still so sketchy a century and a half later, Holmes -BOY I WISH THE POLICE WERE A THING OF THE PAST, BRO. -Holmes meets Watson for the first time and almost immediately stabs himself in the finger to prove a point. The serve Chapter 2 - The Science of Deduction -"haha no way is he addicted to narcotics" oh my sweet summer child -watson: I swear I'm only super fascinated by Mr Holmes because my health sucks and I'd be bored otherwise that's it I swear. -ooh I like the observation that Holmes is basically self taught and ignorant of a lot of things people take for granted. I don't think I've gotten that impression about the character before -i mean it's impossible now not to know Holmes is a detective, but since this was the first story, I have to wonder if some original readers really didn't know going in. If so this bit would be fun because based on the character study and Watson's list of Holmes' knowledge you can figure it out yourself. -watson: man this writer is full of shit, what a moron Holmes: me? :) God that's funny -the unintentional prophecy of Holmes wanting to "make my name famous". God lmfao Chapter 3 - The Lauriston Gardens Mystery -oh hey the actual crime mystery is here -rip random American dude I guess? -goddamn that setting description really digs into a bleak tone, huh -my main observation is the apartment was seemingly abandoned if the dust is any indication, so he was not a resident but brought there. Poisoned makes sense if he was not injured -ok, lol, the Rache thing NOT being Rachel is the thing I had spoiled, and they've already dropped that in the intro chapter to the crime. So I guess I don't know where this is going. Fun! Chapter 4 - What John Rance Had To Tell -watson is smart actually -though I think RACHE being a red herring as Holmes suggests is way too easy -tho Holmes guessing the murderers appearance leads me to believe it's someone he knows. (Also weird that Rance is also a five letter R-E word). -could even make the argument that it could be a fucked up version where the C and H are switched and mutilated, but I have no clue why if the murderer supposedly did it -then again I also don't know why the murderer was the injured one with no sign of a struggle. Maybe a third person? Or something unrelated/accidental? OR the dead dude wasn't actually poisoned, we only have the police's word on that -OH HE SAID THE TITLE OOOOOHHHH -also Holmes seems more invested in the fun of the mystery than the fact some dude was fucking murdered, presumably by a friend based on what he said earlier Chapter 5 - Our Advertisement Brings A Visitor -watson be like "well the guy was fuck ugly so it's probably good he got murdered" like bro??? -yeah no way is this the culprit. Like we're maybe a quarter into the book. If it IS him then there's way more to it -Some Rando In Disguise It Seems -tho I have to say putting an ad out for a (potentially?) valuable piece of lost jewelry like a wedding ring would attract grifters whether they had any relation to the murder or not. Seems like a weird oversight to the plan. Chapter 6 - Tobias Gregson Shows What He Can Do -seeing how 3 different papers frame the murder, specifically political motivations, is a little funny even if I'm missing some of the context of the time. -interesting frame for the chapter, someone else telling a story to the leads. I guess it adds some variety to the presentation (and lets us see red herrings that wouldn't trip up Holmes) -some of the terminology didn't age well, which is unsurprising -- "street Arab" rather than "street urchin". -HOW THE TURNTABLES. THE PLOT THICKENS. ETC Chapter 7 - Light in the Darkness -RACHE again. Hmmmmm. Only this time it WOULD be the victim's blood, not the murderer's. Is the handwriting the same? Plus the original height observation? And the first RACHE was almost hidden, but this one seems more in the open based on what Lestrade said. -again the use of framing where one of the less capable detectives talks about what they've done and discovered to add some variety -ok so this guy was murdered in a much different way than the other, which seems odd, unless someone else did this one. -and the pills point to Stangerson killing Drebber, but then who killed Stangerson? If he was poisoned he would have been stabbed independently of that. -and why two different kinds of pills. Is one an antidote to the other, maybe? It's possible the murderer planted it in Stangerson's room, but why, if the goal was to implicate him? So it probably is actually his. -holmes just knowing and there being some plot contrivance why he can't say does kinda fizzle the stakes a little (never mind this gets resolved in like 2 pages) -but assuming he IS right, I was correct about there being 2 people... which might explain the differences in the 2 murders? -the cab driver! He was mentioned early then everyone seemingly forgot he was present around the time Drebber died. -"it's the end of the mystery!" Uh yeah except the second person is almost certainly at large and there's an entire second part to the story, Holmes. Lol. Lmao Part 2 - The Country of the Saints Chapter 1-- On The Great Alkali Plain -colonialist worldview ahoy -doyle my guy you know quite literally nothing about ecology here like it's ok to admit it -*lists 3 predators* "these are the only guys that live here, in the great miserable American plains," that's not how any food chain works. Also you live in fucking London -I'll stop roasting him lmao -i guess it's like the Nevada salt flats or something?? A little more valid I guess -... huh. -this is quite the framing for part 2 of a murder mystery I'll be real. -the idea of this huge mass of white people traveling through the western desert and biblical references in the like makes me think of Mormons more than anything... -and Stangerson makes his appearance here which sure is fascinating if the dude fucking died (unless the whole antidote and fake death thing is the real shit). Or he has a twin or something. Or this is the past. -oh my god they are Mormons -why are there Mormons making pilgrimage in the salt flats in the first Sherlock Holmes murder mystery??? This shit is wild -"my kid now" ok, word, Ferrier -bringham young is in this SHERLOCK HOLMES story and is also a fucking dick. I'm going insane   Chapter 2 - The Flower of Utah -ferrier gay as fuck let's just be real here -so is this like where the backstory for the wedding ring comes from? If so this is pretty extensive. I do wonder how it all ties into the first story. Like we went full cowboy western here -twu wuv exposition etc Chapter 3 - John Ferrier Talks With The Prophet -"the Mormons suck by the way" ok Doyle go off? -i have to emphasize again that Brigham Young is a character in this fucking Sherlock Holmes story. Like. A villain. This is just crazy to me lmao -The Danites were a real thing apparently? Man. -my guy put in a FOOTNOTE and CITATION about Mormons being misogynistic. There are no footnotes anywhere in the story except to be like "no really they called women heifers here's the guy who said it" I am literally not making this shit up. Doyle based actually??? Chapter 4 - A Flight For Life -we are like half through the second part and I have to fucking state again this is a Sherlock Holmes murder mystery thats just straight up a western now with Brigham Young as the antagonist with the title character nowhere in sight -it hasnt been like outright stated and he could just be tan but theres so many references to Ferrier having brown skin it does make me wonder if he isn't white. The only thing that would be odd with that is he isn't racially discriminated against in a Mormon compound. Especially since his adopted daughter is deffo white & he is discriminated against for NOT taking wives. I can't see that really happening if he isn't white -"there are two ways out of the room... there is the door, and there is the window. Which do you care to use?" DAMN dude -Stangerson & Drebber really do be 2 complete cunts huh. Fuck those guys -doyle: I need to name the guy who rescues Ferrier and Lucy from the Mormons. In America. I got it! "Jefferson Hope" Chapter 5 - The Avenging Angels -we got 3 chapters left??? -"once safe in Carson we may rest for the remainder of our lives" is that on the nose foreshadowing -at least now the wilderness is being described in beautiful terms -Oh RIP Ferrier I guess. They bothered to dig a grave, lol? -honestly I'm a little surprised they didn't try to hunt Jefferson Hope down for good measure since they're supposed to be ultra vindictive. Unless they didn't know he was with them? I guess maybe they didn't? -... nope, they knew and put out a warrant. Again why not try to track him? Too hard? -and convenient random guy Hope happens to know who doesn't hate him who we havent ever seen before -lmao he just leaves her to die I guess? "Oh well some rando married her so it's all over"?? Surely true love would, I dunno, trump social conventions? I guess not LMAO -i guess that's one way to circle around to the first half of the story Chapter 6 - A Continuation of the Reminiscences of John Watson, M.D. -I'll be honest, it could be because this is the first story written about Holmes, but I'm pretty confident this WASNT a mystery one could figure out based on the evidence presented, which is something I was led to believe was a staple of these stories. But I guess it's possible the style just wasn't nailed down yet -maybe you could figure out how the crime was committed but not the motive -that line about vengeance might be the quote to use -I like this part of the narrative where we really see into Hope's actions. I think so much of the story in America was unnecessary; I just didn't feel strongly about the characters like I do actually seeing his perspective here. Why bother with the whole stranded in the desert thing and going into so much detail about how Lucy and Ferrier came to live in Salt Lake City? I dunno, I think it might have been better to be shorter and from Hope's perspective if you must include that section of the story at all - and again, it's not like you could have figured out all that shit based on the first half of the story. I appreciate the kinda experimental time jump but I don't think it worked great -ok the Russian roulette pill thing is a bit weird but sure king, go for it -i know it's metaphorical probably but I like the kinda Gothic touch of Lucy and Ferrier following him to the murder   -"let us see if there is justice upon the earth, or if we are ruled by chance" ok that's pretty raw, go off king -i mean if I have to choose a revenge story from around this period I'd definitely go for Monte Cristo but this is fun too -why try to cover up the crime with the whole Rache thing if you know you're gonna die tho lol -i guess to buy time to kill Stangerson too? Chapter 7 - The Conclusion -I do like the detail that the murderer's blood was on the scene but not the victim. That WAS revealed early but I never suspected a bloody nose to be the source. If it had been a wound there probably would have been evidence of it; a limp or something. That is pretty clever. -but on the other hand, Holmes WAS privy to information we never get (Hope's name and connection to Drebber), so I wouldn't call this a fair mystery. -lestrade and Gregson getting all the credit as predicted lmao -my man closes with Latin? I gotta look it up -"The public hiss at me, but I cheer myself when in my own house I contemplate the coins in my strong-box." -basically, I'm awesome even if no one knows it Well! That was interesting. I liked the mystery itself, and the revenge narrative portion of the conclusion. It's a strong start to a famous character. I think we get a little lost in the weeds with the time jump in the second half of the story, way too much detail and I don't think it focused on the right characters for most of it. Also I have to be a stickler on the fair mystery thing; there are some things you can deduce, but Holmes literally had info we never receive so it's ultimately not fair. I hope this does genuinely change in future stories. I certainly didn't mean to start with the first one, that was an honest accident lmao

[auxiliarydetective]

Fic Author Interview

Thanks for the tag @benevolenterrancy !

1 How many works do you have on AO3?

55, for now. There will be a lot more...

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

516,744 - which I don't know how to feel about. It seems like too little but also like... Woah. I guess it's because I'm so used to read a comma as the symbol that separates full numbers from decimals, so it doesn't really register as over 500 thousand in my brain. Because as soon as it gets into my brain that it's actually hundreds of thousands of words... We're definitely in the woah territory.

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

First is Favourite Pastime with 63 - and I'm honestly really surprised by this. A Ghostbusters fic?! But I'm also really glad because... I dare say... Favourite Pastime is one of my better fics. It's pretty good.

Second place goes to The Rule of Three with 57, my Star Wars fic. It barely has any chapters, but it's still so popular and I kinda love it. Glad my fic of anger issues and sibling bickering resonated so well lol

Third is My Heart, My Liege, Mi Capitán with 53, which means we're now in song lyric title and OPLA territory and YES. I kinda love Cora's fic, I put a lot of heart into it, so I'm really glad that people like it.

Fourth place is, unfortunately, a Harry Potter fic. I mean, it makes sense. It's one of my biggest fandoms and one of my oldest fics, so it would naturally gather a lot of Kudos but... it's bad! Not this one in particular, this one is still pretty alright, but I have so many better fics that deserve this spot! I have a love-hate relationship with my Harry Potter fics...

Fifth place - and here's the big news - is Golden Spiders - my newest fic! The one I'm currently still working on! This one took off and I couldn't be happier! So thanks to everyone who made this possible <3

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Absolutely, yeah! I love hearing what people think about my fics and I love interacting with my readers. It's really, really great, and one of the things that keeps me going and motivated.

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

On AO3 or on Tumblr? On AO3, it would be Die Drei ?? - Squid Game AU. On Tumblr, it's this one. Both Squid Game related, who would've thought?

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

The happiest?! Oh boy, I don't know. I do love a happy ending! But I also love some angst on the way, so... Take your pick! Which of my characters had it best? I think it might be Till Death Do Us Part, for as angsty as it can be? But I dunno, you tell me.

7. Do you write crossovers?

Yes! I've written some crossovers before and I definitely will again. They're always fun!

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I don't know, I don't remember. Probably not but I've received some non-constructive criticism.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yeah, by now I do write smut. But I write it using what I like to call the "Felix Krull Method" (named after a book I had to read for my finals that wrote its sex scenes in such a way), so using lots of euphemisms, metaphors and avoiding full-on explicit language because I just don't feel comfortable writing it like that and because it just wouldn't fit in with my writing style. My style is very heavy on metaphors, comparisons, allusions, so it wouldn't make sense for me to completely switch registers into your typical smut language. To be clear, I don't dislike that sort of register per se, it just doesn't work for me. This may sound like a bit of a weird way to write smut, but I've been told it works perfectly and I think it's fun, so I will keep doing it this way :)

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not a fic but a character. And that's my Harry Potter OC, Asteria Malfoy. I was very salty about it and I still am because I didn't have the guts to put my foot down back then and tell them that they weren't allowed to use the concept and name even if they claimed it was a "reference" to my fic. They should've at least asked permission!

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, not yet. But I plan to translate my Auxiliary AU fics when I reboot them!

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not really, but I've helped work on fleshing out characters and such.

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

My all-time favourite? You can't possibly make me pick! I love all of my OC ships a totally healthy amount and am occasionally overcome by a heavy sense of yearning for them, so... Yeah. Currently very in love with Mihawk/Aurelia and Sanji/Cora though

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Oh girl... Maybe The Rule of Three? Or my Vocalization series? Unless the hyperfixation hits, those are stuck.

15. What are your writing strengths?

Descriptions. Visualization. I love that shit. Also, I'd be willing to claim that I'm good at characterization. You can also trust me to throw in little references for the reader to find :)

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Probably my indecisiveness. I also need to hold myself by a leash not to rush my relationships. This is especially bad with my OC Cora because, for trauma-related reasons, she reacts badly to being touched and will need some time to ease into it. So, I have to bonk myself on the head every time I want to have her hug and cuddle people because she would not do that yet. Also, I had to stop myself from having her kiss Sanji multiple times because it's just too early for that.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I think it's great! Adds a bit of realism. I just always get very nervous doing it if it's a language I don't speak because I don't want to make mistakes.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

The first one ever or on AO3? On AO3, it's Die Drei ???, a popular book series in Germany.

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

My currently unintroduced OCs ^^" Currently, I really wanna write a Lux/Zoro fic because I love their dynamic

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

I can't answer that because I love so many of my fics! But the longer ones are usually pretty good.

[notajinn]

Top Games Played in 2022 - Number 6: Xenoblade 2

6. Xenoblade 2 (Switch)

The last two games I spoke about were very short. Xenoblade 2 is the longest game I played this year. It took me over 100 hours.

But is it a good game?

What I Like

The Xenoblade series has some of the best music in video games, which is really saying something. And Xenoblade 2 does not miss in this regard. There's not one outstanding track that I listened to repeatedly, but nearly every track was well above-average.

There's a lot of good elements to the story. I like the setup of the world as one where they live on flying kaiju in the sky because the world below is inhospitable. And they do interesting things with this such as dealing with the kaiju's death, communicating with them, and the additional of mechanical parts to a living being that is also the land you live on. Of course this is all going on at the same time as normal human issues such as political instability, supply shortages, etc. It's a good mix of elements that really brings the world-building to life.

Some of the characters are great. Many fall into typical anime roles, but that doesn't make them bad. Again it's seeing how they interact with such a well-developed world that makes them shine.

You also have a good level of character interaction in both the main plot and optional things like heart-to-hearts and sidequests.

The world also looks beautiful, as to be expected from a Xenoblade game.

 What I Don't Like

The pacing is awful. Being so long is already an issue, but there are other JRPGs with similar lengths that feel much smoother due to pacing (like the Persona games). It's not so much that there's huge amounts of time between story scenes, but more that you can spend a long time without the story progressing. You can really feel the time stretch.

While some of the characters are great as I mentioned above, some are not. It doesn't help that the comedy it uses is based on early 2000s anime. Any time the game tried to be funny...it wasn't.

The battle system follows the Xenoblade tradition of being incredibly okay. But "incredibly okay" is grating in a game this long. There's a lot going on so that it feels more active than previous titles, but it's not really interesting?

Part of that is there is so many systems. Too many systems. You have to decide which Blades your characters equip, which equipment those Blades have, what held items they have (which are all on a timer), which combination of Field Skills you have equipped...it's a lot. Much of my time probably went to stopping and changing things here.

Field skills in particular were annoying because you needed them to unlock paths in the map. But you can only use Field Skills of equipped Blades. This means you have to change most of your equipped blades when you run into a Field Skill obstacles for all party members, clear the obstacle, then re-equip the Blades you want to use for combat. So many things that just take up time for nothing. I suppose this was meant to make every Blade feel a bit important.

Of course they have to make them all feel important because of the most baffling decision of all; adding a Gacha system for getting Blades! You will end up with many same-y Blades because they are "commons" in the gacha system. But it would have been better in my opinion if you only got Blades through finding them on the map, sidequests, and occasionally buying them from special shops. They would still feel special, but you'd be spared the gacha system.

Really most of my problems add together to make the game far too long. I had a bit of sunk cost fallacy in finishing this, but thankfully the late story segments made it worthwhile.

 Final Thoughts

I cannot in good conscience recommend this game. I know that sounds strange when I put it above 2 other games in my list, but the time required versus the enjoyment gained does not make sense for Xenoblade 2. I would only buy this if you know you want to play a long JRPG, and can deal with some frustrating systems.

[tuulikannel]

And here we go again. XD I guess I'll just keep on piling these up, they're mainly just for myself anyway, and this way it's easy to keep track of them.

Thoughts/guesses about the survivors (of the whole game) and the mastermind as well as the killer in chapter 2. (For the record, ep. 10 of ch2 is out atm.)

(Heh, in general I suck with trying to guess who'll survive, just so you know. ^^;;)

Survivors: Whit, Charles, J, Rose, and Teruko, of course

…some day we'll see if I got anyone right. >_> Probably two (or three?) of those people will die in the next chapter. (For some reason, I feel like I'm wrong about Rose… considered switching her to Nico.) (And then, just watch, she's going to be the only I had right XD)

I feel like Teruko really might die in the end, though. Maybe there even won't be any survivors, given that everyone else "has the misfortune to be characters in a story where she's the protagonist." >_>

The mastermind then.... If the mastermind is someone among this cast… well. I don't know. My initial guess was Eden, simply for the reason that she's the Ultimate Clockmaker and the title has the word "time" in it. That might be completely wrong, though… although I wonder… Teruko said at some point that as whoever is behind this game is doing their best to make everyone comfortable, maybe they should be suspicious about the nicest persons. Perhaps that's true? I just wonder if Eden really could pretend that well. Unless… the mastermind doesn't even remember they're the mastermind? That'd be something.

What was it with the very beginning, tho? Someone thinking they have to stop the killing game… and to do that they'd have to kill Teruko. So, for some reason this person believes killing Teruko would stop the game. Technically, that scene could have been from later on in this particular game, but I doubt that. So this isn't the first time this is happening… with the same cast? but how is that possible? I saw someone on youtube post a theory about time travel (that'd be another explanation for the "time" in the title). That they'd go back in time and play the game over and over again, and that the point of the game is to kill Teruko (which is a difficult thing to do, as she keeps on surviving everything). In this sense, it could be said the killing game is her fault.

It does seem like for some reason, the point of the game might be to kill Teruko. I don't know about the time travel thing, though. I might be wrong about it, of course, but my guess is that the one in the beginning is Xander, and that's when he lost his eye… so if that happened in the previous game (at its end?), it should have been fixed when they went back in time, right? Of course, maybe that isn't Xander, or maybe the wound is something else, in which case, that problem doesn't exist. But if it isn't time travel, I don't know what else it could be. If it's some kind of a simulator they're in that keeps on resetting, Xander wouldn't need to have that wound to begin with, and also, people who die don't stay dead, so would this really be a foolproof way to kill Teruko, either? Huh. maybe they do time travel. maybe Eden's the one who's built some kind of a time travel clock. Maybe she is the mastermind? or…

Here's a wild theory, they're all in it together, and it is all to kill Teruko. Perhaps… Teruko's bad luck killed that unnamed classmate, and they've collectively decided she's too dangerous to let her live, as she keeps on causing calamities. …ok, like I said, a wild theory and not really one I'm subscribing to, but it just came to my mind.

ETA: the more I think about that wild theory, the more I'm beginning to wonder if it is that wild, in the end. For one thing... the mastermind knows a lot of personal stuff about them all. Hu's favorite clothing brand, Whit needing to have the little light on the TV covered... maybe that is simply cause the mastermind is them, all. (And perhaps this is how the mastermind got all those secrets, too. They all know their darkest things. But they sure must be desperate, if they're prepared to make all that known...)

Some chapter 2 theories

Honestly, I really don't know who the killer is. I guess I've been mostly suspicious about Levi, but I'm not sure if I've any basis on that. Uh… he was doing laundry at the time of the murder, and there's a weird starched ball of clothes involved?

…I've no idea how the murder was done, either. It seems someone used those broken water jugs in the garbage to take water (and fishes with it) from the relaxation room, but why? What was done with the cloth ball? The handles of the jugs were broken, why? I was thinking that maybe they were used as weights, and handles broke because they weren't strong enough… all the water (and the fish) spread on the floor… and the murderer didn't have time to clean up all that, so they just threw the jugs into garbage? (Maybe the heavy water jugs have something to do with Arei's neck breaking when she was hanged...? Extra weight? But, again, why?)

Maybe there was some kind of a setup, to make the murder take place at a later point in time. After all, pretty long while passed without anyone seeing Arei at all. In that case, the alibis people have aren't really valid.

Oh! And! I just realized! The only reason they're thinking the murder happened after 7:30 pm is because of that note, right? What if the note's fake? Double fake, in a sense? XD As in, the killer never gave it to Arei in the first place. It is pretty careless of the killer to just tear it up and leave it in a nearby garbage can for them to find. Hmm. Now I'm suddenly getting suspicious of Arturo… he is the one who pointed out the time. And he's the one with a motive...

Okay. My guess is Arturo. I don't know how he did it, but still.

ETA: one random note I keep on forgetting, quite many of them have scars. Are those wounds from previous rounds of this game...? Teruko's back, Charles's arm, Xander's eye... I'm sure there was something else, too.

Random Despair Time thoughts

Mainly just notes for myself, I doubt there’s any overly shocking insights in this XD Spoilers ahead...

Firstly, the remaining secrets. I’m pretty sure David lied about Xander’s. (It actually feels pretty obvious, tbh?) What he claimed to be Xander’s secret is most likely Teruko’s… keeping in mind how the game started. He might have done that simply because saying in the middle of the trial that Teruko is the reason behind the killing game… well, it sure would have made a mess of everything. Xander’s real secret probably is the one Min had, about the dead family (there’s the Visiting Graves extra too which very strongly points in that direction). (Now, does David know that that Min had Xander’s secret? Otherwise it’d be a bit risky to claim he had Xander's secret, cause someone else might have the real one.)

Anyway, as for David’s secret… I’m relatively sure it’s the manipulation one. It fits a bit too well… :/ Could be wrong, of course.

As for the other ones, the “harm yourself for fun” thing sure makes one think of Veronika… ^^;;

The murderer… could be Levi. He’s shown he’s got moments when his temper flares. But no remorse, huh? I wonder.

…and would Hu be the poisoner? That’d… be something. But somehow, I don’t find it too unbelievable. This might be about some big music competition, and it might not even be any serious poisoning. Some laxatives would be enough to make sure you’re not on the stage competing.

Oh, I almost forgot the 3 suicide attempts one! Would that be Min, then? Again… I could sort of see it… tho she definitely wasn’t someone wanting to die at the end of ch.1. And thinking about her bonus episode… she had this goal all her life, to be able to become the Ultimate Student. Would she have tried to throw it all away, three times? Though who knows? I mean, it must have been really tough for her, and maybe it got too much, at times? Maybe she thought she’d not be able to do it?

Hmm. Or then I should switch Hu and Min? Maybe there were some study competitions Min was desperate to win? I’m not sure if the suicides really fit Hu, though……. Or then, switching Veronika and Min? Maybe Veronika was the “hopeless child,” and Min didn’t get so focused on becoming the Ultimate Student for her family but instead in order to stop herself from harming herself?

Wait, Veronika had the suicide motive, right? Then it shouldn't be hers, if no one got their own. On the other hand, this is Veronika we're talking about… maybe she lied about that, and she did get her own motive. Maybe that's why she wasn't telling whose it is? That… sounds like something she would do. Besides, you'd think someone ends up with their own motive, if they're distributed randomly. Okay… I might be guessing that that's actually Veronika's secret, and then Min's is the "harming yourself" one?

Okay, so, I’ve no idea. XD Here’s some other random things. But first, I'm gonna put this here so it's easier to find it if I want to take another look at it…

Ok, the other things. Firstly, the MonoTV. Are there at least two people controlling it? First MonoTV gave Teruko new clothes, and a bit later asked her if she has new clothes cause she “looks a bit different” or something like that. Either the computer has some missing memory, or then there are several people involved who might not know all the details of what the other(s) do. And one of them is apparently into fashion (and one definitely not so, barely noticing that Teruko has changed clothes.) (Which I love, btw. Characters actually not wearing the same clothes every single day? Wow. ^^)

Secondly, Xander. Did he pull a Rantaro and somehow leave himself a message about killing Teruko? Does he have some kind of a DID condition or something such? I mean, that thing he said, that he needs to trust himself… sounded quite peculiar. Though he also said, why did you tell me to kill her... So which is it? Someone else, or he himself, who told him to do that? That simple note, “kill Teruko Tawaki” doesn’t quite sound enough to make him do it… but… I wonder, what if it was in his things, written in his handwriting? Well, I’ve no clue, but I’m quite curious about this, and I bet I’m not alone here. XD

Hmm… what else? That redhaired girl who looks like Xander that Teruko remembered? Is she the unnamed classmate in the bonus episodes? But she sure looks a lot like Xander, too much that I could think that it would be a coincidence. But still, if Xander’s family is dead… hmm. I even had the utterly weird idea at one point that what if Xander is trans XD (But then that girl couldn’t have been with him in the train. If it was her, that is.)

…I feel like I had something else in mind too, but… I can’t remember what it was. Oh well. I guess that’s enough for tonight.