#then i think u just didnt understand the basic premise of so many of the characters

[realian]

the slurs in homestuck aren't even the problem lmfao.

[yume-fanfare]

hi i am that anon from like 29th Dec (last dang year) who said i read ur tsuki no hime and loved it and that u understand Aizou. i have read more of ur stuff since then and now i NEED to ask you for writing advice, on both characterization and general writing tips since I didnt mention it before. Sorry about that! i just forgot i sent an ask and i do not get notifs at all (or does anon asks not get notifs?) Also, ART STUDENT! That's why the nice art and art leaning!! I feel smart for sensing it

oh yup, tumblr doesn't send notifs for anon asks! but i'm glad you did see the answer anyway

this post is hideously long, so answer under the cut!

so, on characterization: it is mostly a matter of what would they say, rather than what you want them to say. the joke about "the characters do what they want to" instead of what the writer wants is pretty much true if you want them to be in character lol (that's why sometimes a little bit of OoC isn't too bad)

checking the source material is the most important thing: look at prior similar interactions the characters have had and how they reacted

this is kind of hard with LIPxLIP, as there aren't that many translated texts about them but with honeyworks the most canon and reliable thing to use as reference are the mvs. the mvs are drawn in a way that can pretty much be understood even if you don't have the lyrics, and sometimes it's even better if you can't read them, to properly focus on the images better

look at their expressions closely: while aizou is always explosive in his anger, yuujirou often has a more indifferent expression. so, when they fight, aizou is probably the one to blow up first while yuujirou maintains his composure better. it's kind of the classic "this was only a brief passing panel but i am going to expand on it" www

but the thing about fanfiction is that it's always a bit of a character analysis in itself. you don't start writing having already a color-coded folder of possible situations and reactions a character would have for each setting. you just throw the characters in a scenario and then think from there onwards, and eventually you'll be able to have the folder of situations and what you think their reactions would be like. (though, this links back to the prior point, if the characters have gone through a similar situation in canon, use that as guide! plus, finding little references to canon when reading is always fun)

for general writing, i'm going to mostly talk about my own experiences and process! i'm in no way a professional though

the basic is reading a lot. not just books but also fanfic. in fact, since you're writing fanfic, i Encourage you to read fanfic. even if your story ends up novel length, the way of treating the story is different from that of an actual novel. for example, because you're working under the premise that everyone knows the characters already. the general style of fics is different as well.

in fact, the style is the main reason i'm saying this slfkslfkslkf

read a lot of stuff and find a style you like. think of it as sewing together pieces from here and there to make a frankenstein amalgamation: this person's metaphors, the comparisons from here, the descriptions from there

personally, i adore the "long one-shot with a long title formatted (like this)" fics that are mostly feelings and descriptions and as little dialogue as possible, and some that occasionally play with the "show don't tell" rule, and some months ago i read a book whose descriptions amazed me because you could feel what the character was focusing on the most, rather than being general descriptions of the situation (i actually have a lot of thoughts about descriptions but that's a post for another day). but also i really like dialogue and plot-driven stories, descriptions can get boring and before trying to break rules, you have to be really good at following them

but, let's go step by step: developing an idea

for this i'm going to mostly reference the multichap i finished a while ago as an example

i started with just a few vague concepts in mind: non-idol au with aizou who does some sport and likes music but is insecure about his singing and yuujirou who does some music related thing and encourages him to sing in a way that's somehow related to the hozier song to noisemaking (sing), because it's what inspired me to write in the first place

then, from then onwards i wrote down what would happen in the first chapter of the story bullet-point-list-style, including things like the roommates part or the clubs the boys were in (at first yuujirou was in the choir club lol the change was a last second decision that idk why i took) and then bits of dialogue here and there that would be The Turning Points. those first dialogues were for the fight at the end of ch 1, the apology-date in ch 3 and then some vaguely unused ones for the "yuujirou encourages aizou" part, as those were the first key moments i thought of

because, since it's enemies to friends to lovers, an important aspect was character development

not all fics have character development bc not all of them are long enough (if you're aiming for short and sweet then there's no need). but if they do, i recommend you write down how the character was at the beginning of the story and then how they were at the end and then fill in the middle later, think of what those key turning points that made the character change were (the more little things you add, the more gradual it'll be)

samishigariya illustrates this very nicely: the song starts and finishes with the same lines, but the ending ones feel more light-hearted. the beginning has pre-arisa ken and pre-getting-along-with-yuujirou aizou, when they were the lonely people the title mentioned, and the ending, when they're not lonely anymore. the in between can be seen in depth during the other songs: ken before arisa was a playboy who didn't take love seriously, but after meeting her he realized that games were not all there was to love; and aizou used to be quite cranky and high-key a loner, but then he "meets precious things and knows of love". i will not elaborate on that because this isn't an aiyuu post but Oh You Know

for the fic, aizou would go through that same process, more or less: someone who doesn't really form meaningful connections with people but who, in the end, would end up having quite a bunch of people who care about him as his relationship with yuujirou advances too

since the relationship was the main focus, i wrote a very simple outline for how it would develop throughout 5 hypothetical chapters that was just: 1. civil w each other but mostly bad > 2. bad > 3. half friends > 4. pining > 5. date

and then with that in mind and the bullet point list, the final basic outline ended up like this:

there were scraped ideas and ideas that made it in later, but i believe having a simple outline, a bare skeleton to add things to, is important. stories need continuity, development requires a prior buildup

it's especially important in multichapter fics where you post as you write, you need to have a more or less clear idea of what's going to happen because you can't ignore scenes you've already posted

shorter stories don't need it as much, you can think as you go, but it's still helpful to know where you're going with things to avoid getting stuck

and, on getting stuck: don't be afraid of deleting things. if you can't figure out how to continue things, then delete the situation and start again. it might feel like you'd be wasting time but in the end, it is so much better than being stuck on the same scene for weeks

in fact, you don't have to write in order. jump to the next scene and you'll figure it out later. you Can write the scene you want to write and then build everything else around it

it's normal to write a scene and then realize it would make more sense later in the story, or that it would be better if you added another scene earlier, or sometimes you just find it easier to jump from one part of the story to another. rely on your outline to keep track of what you've written, what you have left to write and what's the best way to arrange your story. make your story understandable

which bring us to editing

there's a lot of much better posts on editing stories, but yeah ctrl+f is your best friend: don't repeat yourself too much. and be sure to vary sentence and paragraph length, as well as sentence structure, to give dynamism to the writing

now, i've mentioned before the show, don't tell rule, but i'm going to talk a bit more about it because it's quite important

once again there's a lot of posts that explain more in depth what it is, so i'm not going to expand too much on that, but, very basically, try to avoid things like "then some time passed and they became friends". explain it: what happened exactly? how did they become friends? if it's important, show it to us, instead of summarizing

since things like these make the story longer, it also gives room for more development and proper explanation for things that happen

for example, the fic was originally going to start with them already in the room, and the whole situation would have been explained in a single paragraph somewhere, but by actually adding the scene where they first arrive to the dorms and argue with the lady at the main desk, the story flows better and it let me actually describe their first meeting

and uuuhhh i think that's all? this took super long to write i hope i didn't forget any super basic stuff lol

i want to add that for enemies to lovers i greatly recommend this post bc it's super good but yeah i think that's basically it, if you have any more specific questions just shoot me an ask

[madokasoratsugu]

im new to shokugeki and i dont care about spoilers, why is it bad?

a no joke answer bc u deserve this:

tl;dr Shokugeki sucks because it lost its direction halfway through the story, and when Tsukada (the author) realised that he’d bitten off more than he could chew with such a huge cast of characters.

long answer:

here’s the thing. Shokugeki started out good. 

it mostly played off the usual shounen tropes: a challenger would appear, but then they quickly joined the friendship circle, rinse and repeat. but with such a wide cast of characters with differing goals and personalities plus the high stakes of only the top 10% graduating, it made it easy to bank on the character interactions and friendships, which is what the first half of Shokugeki did, heavily so. and it worked ! 

it was a simple set up (protag aims to beat his dad in a cook off, goes to cooking school, meets friends and foes ! a tournament arc ! fun and shenanigans ! yay!), but Shokugeki did it good. it didn’t subvert any expectations, just did according to what it set out to do. nothing felt exaggerated beyond the typical manga stuff, and everything achieved was earned with hard work. with the occasional fluff and friends thrown in, it became a comfy mix for a good shounen manga.

if anything, id say that half the success came from the character’s relationships themselves - the plot wasn’t anything special, but the genuinity that the characters and their friendships and goals (shared or not) were treated with were wholesome and fun.

which is why it was so fucking jarring when it derailed by throwing aside half of its cast and completely stagnating all character development for the remaining half.

(insert infamous Central Arc expulsion joke here)

if you’ve started/are intending to start, id say its the most obvious after the Moon Banquet Festival Arc/beginning of Central Arc. the writing started getting sloppy, as did the handling of the characters. ive mentioned this before, and ill stress this again: i honestly believe that Central Arc is when Tsukada realised what a big miss steak he did in creating such a huge cast, and in the face of Shokugeki’s then success, made some poor authorial choices to keep the hype going (both plot and character wise).

for characters: half the cast was rid of via expulsion, including very competent chefs (which had no proper in canon explanation on how the fuck that happened) who happened to be fan favourites. i mean, Hayama Akira ? fuck, Nakiri Alice, anyone ? plus any poor remaining characters got shafted in lieu of Souma, hard. this became more prominent as the Arcs slowly go on, the ones of which took the worst brunt of it being Takumi and Megumi.

(what do u think is worse. your fav never getting a cameo or your fav being part of the forefront team but constantly getting fucked over because Souma didn’t get the spotlight of the chapter yet. vote now in the replies.)

for plot: higher and higher stakes were introduced that again, just didn’t make sense !! in Central Arc, Souma was expected to win against Eishi, the best chef in his entire school. when two arcs prior he just lost a cooking contest to two of his peers (placed third), and one arc prior struggled to beat Kuga in ticket sales (even then he didn’t win because his cooking was better, so. wasnt even a win on the cooking front). there was no build up ! NOT EVEN A TRAINING ARC. he just went straight from the bottom rung of the ladder to the fucking ceiling. super different from the first half of the series when everything would be shown in careful detail (best example i can think of off the top of my head being the Shokugeki against Mimasaka in the Autumn Election Arc).

also: in the midst of introducing Erina’s character arc and backstory, Tsukada seemed to completely forget (or maybe just didnt know how to link back?) that he’d already established an overarching plotline: Souma’s quest to best Jouichirou. so when Souma began overthrowing these foes that are his seniors said to be leagues ahead of him, the suspension of disbelief was stretching waaay thin. but hey ! its a shounen manga ! we can forgive this much (sarcasm). 

then Tsukada introduces Asahi. mother fucking Asahi. who is basically introduced by beating Jouichirou without breaking a sweat, but oh boy did he break the suspension of disbelief right then and there and completely toss the plot into the fucking fire. because there’s no end goal anymore ! the one thing that our main character has been working so hard for ? non existent. pointless. this no name (at that time) character has done it, pack your bags boys, let’s go home.

(might i note that at this point, Shokugeki was also uuhh nothing like the slice of life comedy it originally was. it became an action-psychological mix that just…doesnt work. and i mean. of course it wouldn’t. there was no foreshadowing, the villians can’t be taken seriously because 1) theyre also teenagers for fuck’s sake 2) Azami’s just a creep, plain and simple. he has no depth. no one cares about an antagonist who’s bad at just being bad.

the themes it began with was completely set aside for really badly written character backstories and angsty edgey bs that i still don’t understand why Tsukada thought would work in retaining hype. especially when considering how pure the premise was.

i honestly also think that its the Blue Arc + Dark Chefs Arc when Tsukada actually realised that his plot had gone haywire, since volume sales were dropping hard and fans clearly hated the direction the series had gone in. but instead of trying to reign it back in, he decided to just let it run buckwild because he just didn’t know how to fix it.)

to rub salt into the wound: so many promised resolutions are shoved into the background, done offscreen, or worse yet, forgotten ! scenes that fans have literally been waiting for. Souma VS Erina Shokugeki. Souma VS Takumi Shokugeki. Nakiri Alice coming back to the series and actually fucking cooking again.

(im sure that there’s more that lead to its downfall but like. shrugs. this is mainly to me why it sucks: it had A Lot going for it (im not ashamed to admit that at one point i actually genuinely believed it could be one of the next Big 3 on Shounen Jump), and it just didnt live up to any of it for no other reason other than Tsukada mixing elements of a story that didn’t work well together, tried to force them to work, and did nothing to fix it when it didn’t.)

so our plot is gone. so are our lovable characters. so is the slice of life comedy that drew most people in in the first place. the potential that it had is now dust. what does Shokugeki have left that makes it unique, that makes people love it ? here’s the answer !

nothing. 

that fact kicks you in the teeth every fucking time you remember how good the first half of the series was. 

then that fact dropkicks you when you realise that Shokugeki no Soma literally started on a 90degree drop into a dumpster fire when the series was at the apex of its popularity and plot buildup.

that’s why it sucks.

[macbookpro-hard-drive]

Yes do tell

ok so i dont remember the like... exact name of it but basically the premise was a guy walks up to a lady sitting on a bench (they dont kno each other at all) and hes like will u take my heart and shes like what no and the entire like. scene is just him telling her how devoted he’ll be to her and so forth and so on

and he asks her one last time and she takes his heart and hes like “can i have ur heart?” and shes like lol no and leaves

and im like. bro this could have been a good thing if u didnt write it so WHINY and fake deep

like. it happens, i know - unrequited love is a bitch. ive dealt with it waaay too many times. and offering ur all to someone and not getting anything in return also hurts like hell

but like... this dude is harassing this random woman to take his heart and expects her to reciprocate when she finally gives in and takes his heart, even tho he isnt owed shit because he literally harassed her into accepting his heart.

i wish i had a copy of the script on-hand with me because i cant remember all the specifics but it was just... it was so whiny. hes like ill please u during sex and blah blah and i was like wasnt this guy like. 17 when he first wrote this script. is he ok.

plus since then ive learned that 1. this dude is vaguely sexist while he thinks hes “woke” (he understands how women can, no matter how nice they know some dudes are, feel terrified of being taken advantage of, and then he turned around and complained when men werent “represented well enough” when the play we had read was about the women and how they had been treated by the men in their lives, shining the spotlight onto a female shakespearean character while reducing three guys down to very basic traits (one being literally called “rude boy” and the other reduced to their first initials)) and 2.hes... very touchy with a lot of ppl and im sure if u said “hey, stop” he would but like... bro, one of those girls has a bf and shes very obviously flirting with you and you know she has a bf, if she wont stop then you fucking should, trust me, ive been there and its awful

im basically sitting here like this is... not a good script. i vaguely like the premise but the fact its 1. super whiny (i.e. the ‘nice guys ALWAYS finish last’ feeling it gives me) 2. between two complete strangers and portrays the woman as being a bitch for rejecting him 3. im gonna be honest and say its written by a cis straight white dude so i automatically am a bit wary due to the subject matter, and it was definitely not written while consulting any women so :/

im not even gonna talk abt the director bc i have... too much to say abt her and i wasnt present to watch it be directed but i did reread the script two or three times so

[jaron360]

All the odd

already answered 5, 15, and 25 over here

okay so with the last ask i had a song by aviators and tanuki as well as another artist for each answer, but im gonna be omitting tanuki this time both because it wont take as long and because they dont really have enough songs for all this.

still putting it all under a read more though lol cause its still rly long

1:A song you like with a color in the title

Aviators - Black Holes: really catchy song with great harmonies that are fun to sing and also the song that made me fall in love with the major VI root chord

Owl City - Vanilla Twilight: im considering vanilla a color idk if it actually is supposed to be in this case or not but anyway this is a really sweet song and i like it a lot

3:A song that reminds you of summertime

Aviators - Fantasy: i mean the song doesnt actually really have anything to do with summer and is actually rly sad but just the way it sounds feels like a summer song

A Day To Remember - Another Song About The Weekend: linking the acoustic version because its better. again nothing really to do with summer but just the sound and it reminds me of like road trips for some reason

7:A song to drive to

just like??? listen to a song u like? idk i dont rly get what a driving song is. initial d soundtracks idfk

9:A song that makes you happy

Aviators - Red: again linking the acoustic version because its better lol. just a really uplifting song about supporting each other and spreading love

Miike Snow - Genghis Khan: this is just that good gay shit. super catchy and i love it

11:A song that you never get tired of

Aviators - Meet You At The End: really emotional and catchy and also the reference to his old song Friendship during the bridge was a big wow moment for me when i first heard it lmao you shouldve seen me

Daft Punk - Harder Better Faster Stronger: really all i can say is that i could listen to it all day. just great melodies and a great beat and everything

13:One of your favorite 80’s songs

aviators didnt exist in the 80s lmao

Queen - Who Wants To Live Forever: such a damn beautiful and moving song i love it so much

17:A song that would sing a duet with on karaoke

Aviators - I Could Believe You: about a person haunted by the ghost of their abusive partner. that second verse is just so fun to sing and singing this whole song with someone would be a great time

and i cant for the life of me think of another one lmao sorry. something from a musical or something

19:A song that makes you think about life

Aviators - Waiting Games: a song thats basically like “life sucks and at this point im really just waiting for death.” yeah,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Tanuki - Mercy: didnt say i wasnt gonna include any tanuki songs heh. really poetic and thought provoking song about depression

21:A favorite song with a person’s name in the title

yeah so uh avi hasnt written a song with a name in the title

also ive never really cared for any songs that have names in the title that i can think of (other than genghis khan but i already listed that one)

23:A song that you think everybody should listen to

Aviators - The Far Side: just some real great synthwave. also a really cool premise if you read the description. awesome vocal melodies especially in the chorus. just so many good things to say about this song

Muse - Uprising: even though muse has other pieces i love more, everyone should listen to this song because REVOLUTION

27:A song that breaks your heart

Aviators - This Is Not The End: particularly when that alternate chorus hits toward the end. the songs about a brother who loses his sister to cancer

Linkin Park - Breaking The Habit: (warning that the video has some pretty disturbing imagery) this is probably my favorite linkin park song and its just really heart wrenching

29:A song that you remember from your childhood

i guess i started listening to aviators in middle school which is technically childhood but im still not gonna count it

Green Day - Holiday: i remember hearing this song on the car radio all the time as a kid. always loved it and now im old enough to understand what it actually means and really appreciate it

i love talking about and sharing music so thank u!

[mattelektras]

hi i am new to comics and i'd like to know how did you even start reading them and like,, how do you choose what character to read, where to start with them, what ORDER to follow (if you even follow them) because i really want to read more and more but idk many characters, i don't want just to read the "popular" ones + i never know where to begin ?? wish i knew a little about a lot of chs so i could pick one to read haha. what are your recs? and how do you pick issues/volumes to read? ty

i got into them through movies and tv i think?? like when i was little i watched stuff like teen titans, b:tas, dd 2003, and justice league unlimited to DEATH. so i had kind of.. prior attachments to characters like wonder woman (i had one w raven but when i actually read comics it wasnt the same??). but then my dad used to read n collect comics when he wasnt an Old Man so i read TONS of old stuff just for the sake of it like i cannot tell you how much weird old shit i have in my comics collection. captain carrot crossover w teen titans anyone????

thats how i got into silver sable because i basically started with a ton of obscure old comics. i dont know how else i would have fell in love with her because they never use her in anything so thanks @ dad @ god

ANYWAY as for how i personally get into them:

if you’re in a situation where you really dont know where to start, i think team books are a good go to?? you can experience a lot of different characters at once and get a feel for what/who you like and who you dont. and then if you want to be more specific in the KIND of team books you read, think of it in terms of what kind of characters do you like in general?? like do you like antiheroes like xforce, straight up heroic kind of ppl ie the justice league or the avengers, teams that stand for a bigger meaning like the xmen, teen heroes like the teen titans or the young avengers

like for me... i like murder teams so i read xforce/dark avengers/secret six

wiki pages never fail. it’s kind of the same process as above like... search the dc antiheroes category or the marvel women category etc

a lot of sites like comicvine have a recommended reasing section for a lot of characters. as well as wiki pages having an ‘appearances’ section that lists every issue they’ve ever been in. which is good for if you have an ultimate fav because you can read EVERYTHING and love them even more. like.... i would be willing to bet i’ve read every elektra thing??? give or take like 5 issues. and thats how i did i. but it’s also good for more general reading because you can see which series a character was in a large chunk of

eg. when i wanted to read more about rose wilson after seeing her in.... i think it was blackest night, i looked and saw that she’d been in the majority of teen titans vol 3, so i read it

for a bigger name character, i would recommend reading their solos (naturally). like search comixology for batman/captain marvel/iron man etc and the first things that come up will be their solos, and the description of that run will usually give you an idea as to how important it is in the character’s narrative 

THIS IS SHALLOW BUT I GO ON LOOKS... i love bizarrely white haired characters. i dont know why but if theyve got naturally white hair with no explanation for it then im in. so whenever i see a cover w a white haired character on i read it and its worked out pretty well for me ngl??? silver sable as mentioned, i read all the spiderman stuff i’ve read because of black cat, i read vol 5 of new warriors because of namorita having white hair and then i read backwards and LOVED everything and now theyre one of my favorite teams.

its always easiest to love a character that you relate to. so maybe look into characters that are you sexuality or your gender or your race. like comics can be a very diverse medium sometimes, and then other times, the complete opposite. so it can mean a lot when u find a character you relate to on such a personal level

some reading order places that i know of

marvel/dc (good for events/crossovers)

marvel/dc plus lots of other stuff.i’d say i use this one most because its good at separating eras so you can avoid reading old shit when you dont wanna

reddit, despite being reddit, has a huuuge collection of rec lists

my comic recs tag

most of the time, if you google [character] reading order, someone somewhere will have made one!!

if i find a new character i want to read about i usually do a bit of rec list hunting and then a bit of figuring it out by myself?? like see what the biggest events of their narrative were and where they happened, read the obvious stuff to get a general feel for them, and then if im really into it, read the less important stuff?? so i’d say the process is read a rec list. see what happens > read the descriptions/summaries of the longest runs/most well known solos

for keeping up with stuff weekly, i tend to have a few favourites that i read by the issue, and then a lot of other stuff that i enjoy but dont keep up with?? i like 2 binge it every 5 issues or so and then if it gets really good i graduates to being kept up with

i keep track of what’s coming out each week w this site 

aaaand then, i keep up with previews to see whether or not a character i care about is gonna be in anything so i can make sure i read it. eg. i dont generally read amazing spiderman, but silver was in the most recent arc as i found out from the release of the cover, so i immediately knew i was gonna be into it for a few issues

and then also solicits, where descriptions usually give away what’s gonna be worth reading for the month

the best advice i could probably give would be dont overthink it??? who cares if you dont read it chronologically. in my experience, even if you do, there will always be stuff that doesnt make sense because comics are just.... like that. and half of the time, not understanding a reference to earlier stuff isnt gonna impede your comprehension of what you’re reading. most likely its gonna be little things and then later on when you read filler issues you’ll be like oh!!!! thats what they were talking about!! eg. i didnt read civil war until WAY after it happened, but i read stuff surrounding it and because the basic premise was explained in what i read, i didnt feel out of the loop??

so like... dont let any of that put u off. long ass rec lists can be daunting because you just think have i really gotta read all that shit!!! but 90% of the time.. making your own way works just fine, maybe just use recs as a guideline along with other resources 

[tumblunni]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa tfw u have another game idea AGAIN i think my brain hollowed itself out for more idea space at the expense of everything else like ability to actually create my ideas or ability to remember to eat :P

this kinda isnt a NEW idea, its just something floating around in my brain that ive now got more of a concrete idea for, i guess? playing Oxygen Not Included reminded me of it and made me feel maybe people would actually be interested in it, yknow? and its probably not something i could ACTUALLY make, cos it’d require like.. a lot of my own programming. not really easy to just make in a helpful gamemaker enginey thing like rpgmaker. tho it is an rpg... kinda...?? ehhhh im not feeling very good today, sorry my writing is... bad

ANYWAY WHAT WAS I SAYING

Well the idea I has was for kind of a roguelike tower climbing rpg, like Azure Dreams or Persona 3 The premise would be that there’s a mysterious underground civilization, trapped for generations with no memory of the surface world. Between them and sunlight is this potentially-infinate magical labyrinth that nobody has managed to make it through. (At least as far as anyone knows. Everyone wants to believe that friends who dissappeared in the labyrinth actually made it to the other side, rather than.. well.. the other side.) So the game would be about tackling this labyrinth in multiple short sessions. My favourite genre: roguelikes that actually have some form of progression in them! Even though you’re dying a lot, you retain a small amount of what you gathered each time in the form of townbuilding progressyness and ~friendship routes~ and ~ETCETERA~!

But then after playing Oxygen Not Included I kinda have a burning desire to see a game that has the good bits of that and not the... Frustration. To say its a roguelike without progression is understating it, gahhhhhhhhhh! Roguelike sim game of 8 hour game sessions that get destroyed cos of one stupid mistake and you have to be all perfect and lucky and YOURE ALWAYS STARVING and gahhhhhhhhh THIS IS MEANT TO BE MY GAME IDEA NOT VENTING ABOUT THAT GAME Anyway I was thinking how it’d be really cool if a game like that actually DID have a sense of progression. And an actual end goal. Like.. if you were actually digging towards the surface! With periodic savepoints and characters that dont die so easily and have more personality to them and you get all attatched! I already got all attatched to my dumb sim characters and then just got really upset how they kept dying and the game seemed to not give a shit :P

But yeah its not like I can just completely copy that game, lol. Even if I wanted to, I dunno how to program a simulation type engine thing from scratch! So i was thinking like.. a regular roguelike randomized dungeon generator actually IS possible in Rpgmaker, so I dunno.. I could find a way to make that work with some kind of ‘you are actually creating the dungeon’ type thing. i really like the idea of being able to dig your own path through the thing and have it permenantly etched there forever. I was thinking it could be an awesome idea if in the postgame you could come back to the now-empty labyrinth after everyone’s escaped to the surface, and be able to walk through it and have a big ol nostalgia trip. One that’d be unique to every player! And like.. maybe even be able to see changes, like it being reclaimed by nature and flowers? And you could upload a dungeon seed for your own personal dungeon, so that other players could play it, and that could be the postgame replay value~!

game name ideas i guess Catacomb Crawl Boundless Down

and I was thinking the protagonists could be two kids and be a grumpy older sibling who’s a jerk to their well-meaning-but-immature lil sib, but loves them deep down, and has to learn a lesson about becoming a more responsible sib, and etc like.. yeah.. basically inspired by over the garden wall i didnt really like that show, and i felt bad about it cos everyone was telling me it was a masterpiece. alas! :P aaanyhoo they’re not very developed yet, except older sib being a bit of a comical greedy coward type of person and lil sib actually being quite wise but always underestimated. Like, they have more common sense than their big sib even though they are a lil naive sometimes cos theyre so optimistic. Both sibs get each other into trouble pretty often, but they balance out perfectly to save each other each time! And lil sib is kind of a pushover who just obeys big sib unquestionably and can never stick up for themself when big sib is being all ‘ugh ur so immature im totally better'. They’re just like... the sort of person who’s so scared of their friends leaving them that they let anyone hurt them as much as they want as long as they stay. Very relateable to Bunni! Also they sorta try and pretend to be the dumb sidekick and class clown. Cos again theyre worried if they disagree or try and stand out too much then their sibling will hate them. Quite often their ‘dumb mistakes’ are actually the older sib’s fault, and they’re stuck like ‘AAAA I CANT TELL THEM TO STOP COS ITD BE OUT OF CHARACTER. I NEED TO BE THE CUTE BABY.’ And its all super complicated cos older sib acts like they resent them for never growing up too, its like.. cant ever win. This whole thing has kinda turned them into an anxious mess deep down. part of big sib’s whole redemption arc would involve them having to realise that their actions arent harmless, and treating such a young child this way actually has a permenant effect. And like... big sib doesnt know how to take care of little sib on their own because they’re immature themself! Being able to admit that instead of trying so hard to be all fake ultra mature and infallible, thats another big character arc. As well as aknowledging that lil sib is indeed growing up and becoming someone intelligent and independant. And realizing that the reason they keep putting them down is so they can try and deny that, and the reason they’re denying it because theyre JEALOUS! Jealous that little sib might have their emotions more alltogether than them, scared that their emotionless facade of perfect big sibness will be broken, and scared that without that they’ll have nothing left. Need to become more comfortable with trusting and relying on your lil sib, need to actually talk to them about this stuff, yo! Ideally I’m gonna try and write it in a way that doesnt make big sib seem like a completely hateable villain. Their backstory is gonna involve being from not exactly the nicest family, and both struggling to escape what they’ve been shaped into. And trying to learn how to take care of each other as a real family, when they have no real frame of reference for what real love looks like. And also climbing a bigass tower to save humanity from being entombed underground, but that’s comparatively easy, lol! But yeah the idea is that big sib kinda absorbed more of their bad parents’s ideals, and like... they love their sibling so utterly and deeply because they just did not know what family love felt like until they came along. And it really REALLY hurts them whenever they realise they’ve been subconciously being neglectful or hateful towards the lil fella, but theyre so distracted by like.. the greed of being free now. And doing anything and everything, drunk on that freedom! And not really being capable yet of caring about other people when they havent even learned how to care about themself. They keep being all decadent and delinquent and it seems like theyre egotistical but still deep down they HATE themself and this is all just like a ‘fake it til you make it’. And its so easy to get caught up and go too far to try and put on this facade, and they feel they cant really vent their real feelings to anyone. Cos they’re super cynical dont trust anyone except sibling loyalty like. Only way to survive! And like... cant talk about it with the sib either, because little kid wouldnt understand, and if they do then that means theyre not little anymore. They dont wanna ruin lil sib’s childish innocence cos like.. that innocence is their only reason to live. Innocent stupid bastion of family love, came into their life and gave them the courage to deal with those shitty parents gahhh! And part of them ‘knows’ that the only way to love anyone is to be deluded and innocent. You have to be too stupid to realise that the world is awful and everyone sucks and loving people just gets you hurt! And big sib is toooootally smart cos they know that life is meaningless. But they’re entertained by seeing a stupid person stupidly believe in optimism. Totally. Thats the only reason they wanna protect that innocence. Totally. sooooo basically imagine a very mentally ill mess of a preteen that’s curled up in the corner crying perpetually within their own mind, while on the outside they’re all HA HA I’M AMAZING, BITCHES And also imagine that bunni is able to write good enough to explain these damn characters aaaa im very tired im sorry

anyway summary: protagonist is a jerk, Character Development: The Game, you will cry for little sib whom is basically like penny from inspector gadget also I was thinking maybe this could be the one and only time I do the Amnesiac Protagonist Cliche Setup. eeeexcept not really?? well i mean I think it’d work cool if these characters were new to this setting, but I wouldnt actually do 100% amnesia thing I was thinking more like... they are the only two people who came from the outside world. And they just can’t remember how they got here, they wake up trapped in this place and everyone thinks theyre crazy for talking about being from somewhere aboveground. So you have an even more desperate motivation to escape compared to everyone else! I mean of course everyone wants to return to the surface, but its been so long that no-one remembers what it’s like, and so many attempts have failed that they’ve all given up. So you can act like a beacon of hope and lead the people even though you’re just a child. Like, this is about a morally bankrupt trash protagonist being dragged kicking and screaming into heroism, lol And of course we can have some good ‘ol mystery amnesia reveal type plot thingies! But without having to have a protagonist who’s COMPLETELY clueless, and a game beginning with no direction whatsoever. Its more like a ‘trapped in another world’ story except its the same world just a few thousand miles underground, lol. And revealing how exactly they got there and what they’ve forgotten is gonna be a plot, yes, but also there’s the bigger mystery of what on earth this doom labyrinth is and what caused these poor people to be trapped in it! And what they’ll even find when they finally reach the surface again, will it really be the sort of paradise they’re all hoping for? also many tears for sad dysfunctional tiny family of awkward childrens, ye also (hopefully) fun dungeon gameplays

so yeah bunni is tired and delirious and rambling Thoughts at you dunno if anyone was interested in any of this, but there you go!

[theroyalromance]

Favourite Choices Books

I rmb seeing someone do this a while ago but I dont rmb who :$ whoops sorry, but i thought it would be fun to rank my favourite books too :D (however there are some newer books that I dont have an opinion on yet and I think imma rank them at the end for which I’m most excited for).

warning: spoilerrrrrrrrrrrs,

The Old Books

1) The Crown and the Flame 1&2

Fantasy books are one of my favourite genres

annelyse is my wife

whitlock is my child

kenna and dom are such wonderful friends

like what friend would die for me tbh

i think theyre cute as romantic partners too

but annelyse4lyfe

also kenna is so badass i love it <3

dragonssssssssssssssssssssssssss

honestly when whitlock done killed the man, my heart broke ):

2) The Freshman

you dont understand how many times i replayed this book lol

i basically played every route

i have a lot of the diamond choices ;]

i spent all my diamonds so that zack could get a man  and abbie and tlyer could get together T_T

i wanted them to be happy

and i genuinely really enjoyed this story

kinda sucked how u couldnt actually turn anyone down until the last chapter

i picked james 1st if ur wondering 

3) Rules of Engagement

this is a little too high on the list lol

tbh i think the premise of this story is a little lame

like talk about a shitty grandmother???

dont u love ur grandkids

dont u wanna give them a comfortable life when ur gone and cant care of them anymore

why are u forcing them to get married/date/get tattoos (i kinda understand forcing the party twin to be more serious but the rest is kinda ridiculous)

like u dead

u cant live vicariously through them

but i dont think the story is poorly written and i do enjoy playing it

although idk whats gonna happen with the MC dating 3 guys at once

like i know the bartender dude knows

but do the rest of them?

will they be okay with it?

will it blow up in our face?

4) Most Wanted

i didn’t really enjoy this story :(

i dont ship sam and dave

Cassandra was coo though

So was the trio in the detective department??

5) The Freshman 2 

I was unhappy with this book for a million reasons

james hates liars but u basically lied to his family for him (so he already knows ur capable of doing that)

i just really didnt think he had a right to be mad at the MC =/ cause it wasnt her secret to tell

like if anything it says a lot about the MC’s loyalty

which was already proven when she LIED TO UR PARENTS FOR U

i hated how the MC was forcing kaitlyn to come out

i felt like the MC was a really shitty friend in this book

I really just didnt enjoy this book :/

i ended up not replaying to see what dating other characters would be like

The New Books

1) Haunting of Braidwood Manor

I love reading scary stories

as long as the MC isn’t deliberately trying to get herself killed lol I think I will really enjoy this book

yknow like how in scary movies the protagonist is always doing stupid shit that gon get them killed LOL

2) Endless Summer

If you can’t tell by my love of scary stores, I have a thing for stories that are like “dont know the whole truth gotta find out” (which i guess is strange cause I didnt like most wanted)

quinn is rly cute lol

diego is rly cute

pls let him date the male MC

3) Love Hacks

I know this is kinda low on the list but I’m super excited for this story too!

As long as you don't actually have to end up with Mark I’m gucci :D

i got my eyes on Brooke LOLOLOLOLOL

but ur supposed to go on a date w/ 10 guys

so maybe someone else will come along

either way, i really liked the dynamic b/w the friends

i’m not looking forward to breaking up amy and mark though

like i dont mind if they like had an intervention and said like “hey ur relationship isnt healthy, u guys should maybe call it quits, or work on ur problems, u know fighting in front of friends isnt healthy and all”

but if its like a stupid plan that’s gonna hurt mark and amy i’m not down =/

4) Freshman Book 3

I know I said I really like Zig so far, and he could be new potential LI as I no longer like any of the other 3 (as romantic interest as least)

I guess I was just too bummed out by the 2nd book I’m not looking forward to the 3rd book anymore.

also (i have 2 files lol) in the file where im dating kaitlyn I picked the I’m not gay option and yet... the MC is still considered gay if u state that Zig is hard not to notice (she like says shes looking for someone female) and if ur not dating kaitlyn ur considered straight too which bummed me out more than the other thing

but i guess that would be hard to code

i did appreciate how i could say i’m not exclusively interested in girls though

[galimatios]

t/a rambles 2

back on my bullshit part 2

lysander - Yesterday at 10:36 PM LSHDKA DSCREAMS AT U god where to i start ok well. basically its supposed to be like this coming of age new adult type thing extremely loosely based on the story of siddartha gautama which i didnt even like do on purpose i just realizes it was similar

but alex in this au goes by kreutzer (its his alias in lots of aus also his middle name) and he is the prince of a country called koel which basically occupies modern day mongolia and korea

the premise is that his mother the queen was assassinated and he is next in line for the throne but another assassination attempt is made on him during the ceremony and his personal servant rescues him in the nick of time

turns out the entire court was conspiring to overthrow the monarchy

so kreutzer is forced to abscond with his servant or the rebels will find and kill him the servant takes him to a traveling circus he has connections to, so he csn b safe and literally everyone in the circus is some kind of fugitive or criminal! which is fun bc at this point early on in the story kreutzer is extremely... black n white thinking.. judgmental... like javert from les mis bc when he was living at the palace he was extremely sheltered and overprotected by the queen who he loved dearly but the queen was also a tyrant he never had any knowledge of this bc his mother taught him that might makes right and that criminals are criminals and should be shown no mercy lest theyll bend every rule until it breaks so now hes living w a bunch of criminals and hes forced to come to terms not only w his inflexible world view but like... the fact that these people are people and not just dirty criminals

that life threw shit at them and they turned to crime to survive or otherwise wwre fucked over by circumstances and slowly he becomes like more aware of his own privilege and more understanding and also. he becomes aware of his mothers tyranny too that ones a tough pill to swallow for him bc likw i have it set in the book to where he turns himself in to save one of the circus performers he comes to think of as a little brother (this is a long and involved thing i can explain also) and the coup leaders torture him and present him in essentially kangaroo court and hold hearings against his mother where victims of the queens tyranny tell them what happened to them bc of her and force him to listen (: theres an underlying theme of what should one do when faced w oppression whether its being oppressed or being the oppressor i unintentionally made it super political which i swear wasnt my intention i just plugged my ocs in and oh lain is a shitty queen

shes not actually shitty but she was a tyrant and also fucking paranoid probably bc she lost a previous child to ... another... assassination attempt.. tbh thats also prob when the king died but she hated him so w/e theres two characters i accidentally made into like martin luther king vs malcom x skhfjshds i love them both sm god lydia is the matriarch of the circus troup and herself a performer- a water mage who dances

her sister is lilya who is a fire mage along with  alex's servant (alan/calisto) who is... hell bent  on revenge bc mages and magic users were basically persecuted to shit n back lydia is very pacifistic but maybe TOO passive while lilya is... shes action but she can be blinded by her own anger anyway fun side fact but alan was supposed to assassinate alex/kreu but the idiot falls in love w him as in all aus and fucking betrays everyone on his side for alexs sake bc loving alex is like the first thing hes ever felt strongly abt he just kinda went along w the training and the coup leaders plans to infiltrate the royal court he didnt really.. feel strongly abt it despite everything but he found a purpose and hes ... doing some shitty shit to ppl who trusted him LOL helping the prince escape instead of killing him like he was supposed to anyway alan dies bc obviously his side is fucking pissed at him and not well either the hearings and torture totally break alex but lilya who's overseeing the mock trial is like something... isnt right she thought she was waiting for the day shed be able to witness the royal bloodline dying forever but after reconvening w her sister and talking about how alex had been staying with her all this time (there is a huge argument) lilya thinks this guy is innocent. he cant be blamed for the wrongs of his mother and decides to rescue him its loaded bc i think lilya was actually responsible for lains death so heres your mothers killer rescuing you but also your mother killed her family indirectly and u cant do anything abt it alex! lysander - Yesterday at 11:00 PM at this point they go back to the circus and hide out of the country for a while until the rebellions govt starrs taking a turn for the worse it reminds me of like how communist revolutions were started bc the proletariat had legitimate issues with the upper class but then like they go to the extreme(edited) and start literally culling innocent middle class people thats basically what happens and that's... also not right! so alex gathers up his own force feels like its his responsibility to right the wrongs of his mother and he takes back the country w his own force but instead of reinstating the monarchy he puts the sisters in charge in a newly instated democracy or something basically moral of the story is that people arent perfect but everyone has a reason for doing what they do and i want to address that like that democracy will not be perfect either bc blah blah quote some old white guy "if all men were angels we wouldnt need govt" or something but its a step in the right direction rather honestly it was mostly supposed to be oc angst fest but it turned into political commentary over the yrs BUT i didnt touch on a few good side stories that happen before the novel god how does Alex even react to lilya fufk thats so fucking loaded shes your moms killer your mom was also a killer shes also lydias only family and youve grown close to lydia over the time youve spent at the circus she also rescued you but she still killed your mother who you still love so much how does he even. reconcile those feelings esp the part where his beloved mother was hated and also hurt so many people its so hard to accept that both those things arent mutuallt exclusive ofc its so easy to decide you hate someone and denounce them but i dont want to write abt that thats not interesting esp since my issue w everything these days is that people cant seem to reconcile ppls good and bad parts like theyre all only one or the other when the reality everyone is varying amounts of both holds my head lain isnt a good person but her reasons for being terrible... ultimately were borne from something VERY real and VERY understandable anyway this is: morally ambiguous ocs the novel