#this is supposed to explain her experiences as a pc

[xiu-the-scapegoat]

Fuck It. Xiu Infodump

"And I shall forgive you, absolving you of the sins you committed against me." - Asking Xiu for forgiveness if you pray with them.

Unique stats: Mercy (Nihility at 0) and Compulsion

Mercy is a visible unique stat that is lowered or raised generally in accordance with orphanage Hope. Actions made by the player/player character like calling off pranks against fellow orphans, buying back stolen goods and buns.

Higher Mercy gives you opportunities for free items(produce/foods) or even some money when interacting with Xiu. The player can ask Xiu to pray with them or take their confession. Xiu will hide transformation traits at high Mercy.

Lower Mercy(>75%) gives Xiu a chance to rescue the player from encounters when they scream. This includes the deeper parts of the woods. Depending on current Mercy, Xiu will: - let the person go with a scolding(50-75%) - ask the player for their opinion(25-50%)[which allows the player to choose from the two options, Scold and Punish, which both increase control] - punish them(+trauma -stress) (1-25%) - or Dispose of them(+trauma, stress +control?) (Nihility)

Compulsion is an invisible unique stat rolled daily based on the current stage of Mercy(measured in increments of 20%). Nihility allows for Compulsion to roll 100% which is otherwise not possible. Compulsion increases the chance for Xiu to come to your rescue when you scream.

Mercy becoming Nihility is an irreversible change. This change will increase hard world corruption. Xiu will abandon the Temple and replace the Hookah Parlor master on the first day where Compulsion rolls 100% "I expected to see you here at some point. Inevitability is as life turns. Please refer to me as Izanami from now on." (If love is high, "Izanami" will only charge you half to smoke.)

Pre-gameplay: "Of course, joys and miseries will not last forever, and one will discover them anew in perpetuity." Xiu's mother Audrey(cn Cheung Waisam[慧心]) was a Hong Kong native phd student studying Folklore and Mythologic in England when she took a trip to Dolville to study their peculiar supernature phenomena. After making it though her first Blood Moon with no issues, this absolute gremlin of a woman decided to camp in the forest for the next one, fighting off everything that came between her and research data with a walking stick and a spray bottle of concentrated capsaicin(I realized this was just homemade pepper spray after writing it down) Surprisingly, survived just fine, but did not actually encounter the IW. Returned to town, engaged in a one-night stand to blow off steam and mitigate her disappointment over not finding what she was looking for. Left within a month, didn't realize she was pregnant until after she completed her dissertation and moved back to Hong Kong.

Xiu grew up in a big family there, and despite never knowing her dad, never lacked a father figure since she had uncles and cousins who filled that role. After a certain point, when Audrey thought Xiu would old enough to be emotionally mature about her extended periods of absence (~12), she went back to Dolville to try and continue her research. She didn't want to have to permanently uproot her daughter's life for her own research. Audrey did genuinely love her daughter, and ultimately decided this was the better option instead of taking Xiu with her. (If Xiu could ever find it in her heart to resent her mother for anything, it would be this.)

After a couple years, Audrey went radio silent. Xiu isn't sure if she passed away and no one told her(unlikely), or they stopped letting Xiu contact her. Carrying the same chaotic impulsive problem-solving as her mother, Xiu started saving up money to head to that odd little town her mother supposedly moved to.

It didn't go well.

She wandered around for nearly a week knocking on doors and trying to find her mother. Finding nothing, she eventually gets picked up by Bailey because she feels too guilty to go back to her extended family.

From there? She gets closer to Robin, who first approached Xiu because she had never been out of the confines of the town. Their friendship was nurtured by proximity more than shared interest, but it was enough.

Game start: "...You've got to be kidding me."

Yeah off to a great start, isn't it. Four days later:

She tried to get some lichen. Four hours later:

I feel like there's nothing I can say that explains her painfully horrid game-start than this; not a single consensual first.

Despite this, Xiu takes the experience in stride as best as she can. She goes to Jordan, forks over the £130 to get both pieces of protective gear, and begins her journey through the Temple's ranks. She doesn't really know what she's doing at this point. Make money and survive are very simple goals, so she clings to the idea of trying to save the town from its corruption.

Dating start: Her first proper LI was actually not Sydney, but Avery. Avery offered her something she could rely on: a transactional taste of luxury that she could get her hands on consistently. (Even now, she hasn't had a negative experience with the older woman. Aside from the sacrifice thing.)

Aside from that, she remained a diligent student, tried her best to collect money from odd jobs off Danube, and worked at the temple to try and endear herself to them. Realizing that members of the temple could sleep there, and that the walk from the temple to school was half of that from the orphanage, Xiu decided that it was paramount that she become a nun.

Kylar was the second to become a possible LI, and Xiu has come to have conflicted feelings about them. It's in her job description to forgive them, but it still makes her a little queasy. Kylar kidnapped Xiu at some point, and while her chastity belt protected her from being assaulted, Xiu developed their Stockholm Syndrome trait. They’re very stress-inducing to be around, and keeps ruining her repoire with other students. She did go out of her way to try and earn their parent’s trust though. She took over Robin's debt out of pity, but admittedly finds the other girl a little mentally draining. They're still friends, and Xiu went out of her way to help Robin with her lemonade business, but Xiu avoids the orphanage a lot by staying in the Temple. Has not completed Robin’s Song.

Xiu has always struggled to forgive Whitney. The breaking point really came from her intervening in the other girl’s capture to the Underground Brothel, only for her to pull that shit again within the month. The second time, Xiu kept her mouth shut. Does she feel guilty sometimes? Yes. Does it hang over her head? Not as much as she expected.

Being a diligent student, Xiu spent most of her mornings in the library, where she would relax by spending time with Sydney. This led to their developing relationship, one where Xiu felt comfortable because Sydney didn't have any expectations for her.

It took a couple months and a lot of pain management skills, but they were eventually promised.

Xiu was astonished by the money the Temple could provide her, and even more surprised that by being there when Bailey came to collect, she could refuse him without a fight. Her desperation to save up what money she could led her to being obsessive over her taking confessions.

Having lost her virginity, however, she couldn’t become an angel to mitigate the purity loss that came from purges. It slowly rotted her soul, painfully corrupting her into a demon.

Some time in the future, she was captured by Remy’s goons for the second time, subjecting her to the horrors of the Underground Farm once more. This time, Xiu was far more familiar with the place and escaped much quicker.

The value of milk production for cream buns is the main reason she hasn’t allowed the transformation to fully fade.

She’s become more and more disillusioned though, and is beginning to lose her way. Unless she can buy her freedom from Bailey, she can’t achieve what she really wants.

To leave.

(Though if Syd offers her the opportunity to start a family, that might be enough to keep her here.)

[thankskenpenders]

So I wrote a whole long thing about Amy's tarot cards, but what about, you know... the rest of the Sonic Frontiers DLC? The new alternate story route, the hours of new gameplay, all that?

Having now played it, I'm not sure Sonic has ever had this specific combination of good ideas that make the future of the series look bright, and execution that I fucking hate.

(Full spoilers ahead.)

The good

There's a lot to like here, conceptually.

First and foremost, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy are finally playable in a new mainline 3D Sonic game for the first time since 2006! Seventeen years! We've been begging for this for so very, very long. Nature is finally truly healing from the fallout of Sonic '06. Early on I hedged my bets and expected them to be locked to Cyber Space or something like that, assuming that there was no way they'd be fully playable in the Open Zone. But sure enough, while they're a bit limited compared to Sonic, they're still all full-blown characters with skill trees to unlock and lots of exploration to do.

We also got a more bombastic alternate final boss fight, after the first take on The End kind of underwhelmed. And it's obvious that Sonic Team has listened to our pleas to focus on the 3D platforming over the forced 2D sections, and to reduce the amount of automation in the level design. This update is chock full of Actual Platforming. Wow! I can only pray this means we never get an area as agonizing to explore as Chaos Island again.

Sure, there's still some jank - especially with Knuckles' movement, which is kinda rough. But if this is the stuff they're trying out so that they can refine it further for the next game, then I'm really excited.

On the other hand, good fucking lord is The Final Horizon tedious. And that tedium sapped most of the fun out of it for me.

The frustrating

The new scenario massively increases the difficulty over the base game, seemingly out of a desire to give the hardcore players who were posting speedrun videos and whatnot more of a challenge. It's the Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels of Sonic. This difficulty comes in many forms throughout your playtime, some worse than others, and continues to ramp up over time.

Rather than giving you a tutorial level, the new scenario dumps you directly into a remixed version of the final island and makes you do some fairly precise platforming with Amy, Knuckles, and Tails - new characters with new movesets that you won't have any experience with. You'll also need to find character-specific Koco that give you free levels, because Sonic's friends all start at level one and certain locked moves in their skill trees will be mandatory to progress. They don't even have Cyloop unlocked at the start. And because they're all low level, that means you'd better steer clear of the beefed-up bosses scattered around the map, which will absolutely annihilate Sonic's friends. (I honestly just avoided them and never bothered beating any of them, not even with my high-level Sonic. I have no idea if they're beatable with the others.)

None of this is explained to you particularly well. I spent my first few minutes with Amy wondering why the attack button did nothing, only to eventually think to check her skill tree and realize that I had to unlock her basic attack. If you don't bother to take the time to read through the skill trees, you'll very quickly find obstacles you have no way of getting past with no clues as to what exactly you're supposed to do.

Adding to this confusion is the fact that objective markers often tell you to go half a kilometer into the sky, and you'll have no idea how to get up there because all of the relevant platforms are out of your draw distance. Many objects seem to only pop in for me when I'm within about 60 meters of them, which isn't a long distance for a high-speed open world platformer like this. I was having this problem running the game with high graphics on PC, so I can only imagine how obnoxious it is on Switch. I'd frequently find myself poking around nearby clusters of platforming objects and praying that they'd lead me to a spring, rail, or cannon that would eventually point me in the direction of the floating objective marker.

There were always complaints about the art direction in Frontiers and the way it relies on floating rails and prefab platforms that are visually disconnected from the natural scenery of the islands, but it's even more dire here. The new platforming sections are dense and complex, but they seemingly didn't have the budget to change the topography of Ouranos Island at all, so it all takes the form of these prefabs. It very strongly gives the vibe of a Forge creation in Halo 3, back when there were no blank canvas maps and people just had to make "new maps" by jamming a bunch of shipping containers and barricades together in the sky above one of the default arenas.

I was still more or less having fun, though, despite the jank. It's a big creative swing, I told myself! They're trying stuff out! They're experimenting!

And then I hit the towers.

The towers are agonizing because they're SO close to being great. The logical part of my brain understands why some people love them, but god, I just fucking hate them. The platforming there IS cool! These layouts are cool! The individual challenges along the way are a bit tough, but totally doable. You know what's not cool? Making one mistake and slowly falling 800 meters all the way back down to the ground, forcing you to start over. Because none of these towers have checkpoints. For me, this one decision transforms what should have been a fun set of platforming challenges into a massive, unfun difficulty spike.

I enjoy some masocore platformers, but those are typically games with quick deaths and restarts like Celeste, Super Meat Boy, or VVVVVV. Hell, the Mario games tend to get way more difficult than the average Sonic game, and those are obviously all great. Quite frankly, unlike those games, Sonic Frontiers is nowhere near tight or polished enough to make this difficulty feel fair. Bits of jank that I could ignore in the base game due to its lower difficulty are now matters of life or death. Missing a jump because I boosted off an incline in a way the game didn't like for reasons I don't understand is not fun. Falling off a tower because the camera was pointing in the wrong direction while I was in midair and I couldn't see the next thing I was expected to homing attack is not fun.

And it's such a jarring spike when moving from the base game to the DLC that it feels like the game is suddenly quizzing me on skills it never bothered to instill in me. Maybe if you've spent the last year labbing out the movement tech in this game this is all a no brainer, but for the average returning player it's a kick in the dick.

I'm sure I could've beaten these towers normally if I gave them enough tries. They aren't the hardest thing in the world. But I very quickly decided I had better things to do with my life and turned on easy mode, which adds tons of extra springs and homing attack balloons to make all of the platforming piss easy. I wish there was a middle option between Only Up: Sonic Edition and this extreme hand holding, but when given the choice between the two I gladly picked baby mode. I just wanted to see the story.

(The new Cyber Space levels are also long, challenging, and devoid of checkpoints, not unlike the towers. But I only ever found the entrances to two of them. So I only did two. They're theoretically required, because they give you "Lookout Koco" that you need for... some reason? But in a rare act of mercy, Sonic Team put Cyloop treasure spots that give you free Lookout Koco all over the map.)

As I continued, so many little things started adding up to piss me off. Why do you only reveal like five tiny squares of the map at a time? I would've loved to find all the new 1-on-1 dialogue scenes, but not if I had to do dozens of hard mode versions of the stupid little puzzles and challenges to reveal the whole map. Why does every character need their own unique collectibles? What is this, Donkey Kong 64? Why can't I just grab this EXP for Amy when I find it as Tails? Why can I only manually swap characters by talking to an out-of-the-way NPC unlocked right before the final boss? Why is fast travel disabled? Why are the new vocal themes you hear when playing as Amy, Knuckles, and Tails so monotonous, with a single verse repeating over lo-fi beats ad nauseum? Why is the jukebox feature completely disabled throughout the DLC, even after rolling the credits? Why can't Tails homing attack? Why do I have to wrestle with the camera so much while also holding the jump button to fly as Knuckles and Tails? How many right thumbs do they think I have? Why is this animation for picking up animals in the Cyber Space levels so incredibly slow, and why can I still take damage while it's playing? Why does the stupid starfall event have to make it so hard to see what I'm doing when climbing these towers? Why does this shitty combat trial have a popup that makes it seem like I should be using the Cyloop when the actual strategy revolves around repeated parries? And on and on and on...

The story

What about the new story? Well, there sadly isn't much to chew on here. Most of the DLC has the cast running around and finding different macguffins for arbitrary reasons, as part of some sort of plan to divide up the work on the last island so that Sonic can go train with the spirits of the Ancients and harness the power of his cyber corruption. What the fuck is an Impact Form? I don't know, but Knuckles needs something to do, so go find one.

It's a thin excuse plot meant to make you do platforming challenges around Ouranos Island, with little room for Ian to add any real flavor of his own, even though he certainly tries. Having Sonic meet the spirits of the Ancients who controlled the Titans, who are revealed to directly parallel the personalities of him and his friends, is kinda neat, I guess? It's something. The optional conversations seem to have some fun bits, including both conversations between the supporting cast and additional lore. But again, I only found a few of those because of how tedious filling out the map was.

The writing is also let down by the voice acting - or I guess the voice direction, because I know this cast can do better. Roger's voice continues to be weirdly, distractingly deep as Sonic, which was clearly something that was requested of him just for this game. (For a recent example of him going back to his regular Sonic voice, see this LEGO trailer.) The performances of Sonic's friends are also WILDLY mismatched. This is most clear when they start feeling the effects of the cyber corruption. Knuckles seems to be barely affected at all, Tails sounds like he's moderately hurt and low on energy, and Amy starts completely overselling her pain out of nowhere. The extremely strained performance makes it sound like Cindy's literally being tortured in the fucking booth. I have no idea what's going on over there.

The final challenges

People have debated whether or not things like the towers and the new Cyber Space levels are fair challenges. What's not up for debate is the fact that Master King Koco's Trial is complete and utter bullshit, and I can't believe they shipped this.

Before you can fight the new final boss, the game forces you to do a boss rush of the first three Titans - INCLUDING the pre-Super Sonic climbing sections - with a hard limit of 400 rings. For all three lengthy, heavily scripted fights. Back to back. You can't even cheese it with the leveling system, because you're forced to do this at level 1. This all but forces you to look up speedrun strats for the Super Sonic fights so that you don't run out of rings and fail the trial.

And the real kicker? They changed the parry just for this trial! Originally, you could just hold down the bumpers endlessly and Sonic would ready himself to parry the next attack, whenever that may hit. Now it requires you to do a "Perfect Parry" with specific timing. And you HAVE to hit those parries if you wanna clear this trial and get to the new ending. Miss a few and you're probably fucked. You just have to reset. Time to go through all those fights, all those climbing sequences, all those QTEs, and all those unskippable mid-fight cutscenes all over again. This is by far the most egregious example of the DLC deciding to quiz you on new skills that the base game never required of you, and it's one of the most absurdly unfair things I have ever seen in a Sonic game.

Easy mode does make this trial easier by making the timing window for Perfect Parries much more generous, but that's all the help you get. It's still easy to lose time failing to parry Wyvern's hard-to-read animations, or to lose rings by getting hit on the climb sections, or for things to just fuck up because these fights were always kinda jank. I gave it a few shots. I looked up guide videos. I tried the Quick Cyloop and stomp combo strat that seems all but mandatory. But I quickly decided that, again, this wasn't a worthwhile use of my time. It just sucks. And I really, REALLY didn't want to overwrite all my fond memories of these Titan fights, some of my favorite setpiece moments in any Sonic game, with memories of this shit ass boss rush.

So I cheated! And if you're on PC, you should too.

With the worst hurdle out of the way, I turned cheats back off and moved on to the new final boss. It was pretty cool. It's much flashier than the original fight against The End, that's for sure. It's still kinda annoying, and it requires you to do very specific shit without properly telegraphing it, but it's nowhere near as bad as the preceding challenges. I was hoping for one last new metalcore song to go with the new fight, which we sadly didn't get, but at least the new version of I'm Here is good.

The ending is... mostly the same, with a couple altered scenes that don't really change anything in the long run. But overall the new finale was pretty good. I just wish it hadn't been such a slog to get there.

Closing thoughts

Sonic Frontiers: The Final Horizon wants to be three things:

A patch that adds a new alternate ending that was probably supposed to be in the base game in the first place.

An experimental take on making Tails, Knuckles, and Amy playable again, presumably testing things for the next game. And...

An official Kaizo Sonic Frontiers mod for the sickos.

The thing is, the people showing up for #1 and #2, the main things that Sega hyped up about the update, are not necessarily going to be down for #3. If they had announced some uber-hard new Cyber Space levels for the arcade mode or whatever, I'd be like, neat! And then not play them. I would never touch Master King Koco's Trial if it was an optional challenge. I would leave that for the sickos. But instead, they made the hardest content mandatory for anyone who wants to see the new Good Ending where the final boss gets an actual budget.

I'm mostly left in a state of shock that it shipped like this. I cannot believe they playtested this and decided this was the state The Final Horizon should be released in. That this should be the note Frontiers ends on. That this should be how we remember those Titan fights. That this should be the lingering taste in our mouths as we wait however many years for the next 3D game.

Armchair devs always love to say that things would be "easy to fix," but like... there really would be easy fixes for the insane difficulty and general tedium here! Add a few more tutorial popups explaining what the game expects of you with Sonic's friends. Give the Cyber Space stages and the towers a couple checkpoints. Give the combat trials more generous time limits, especially on the lower difficulties. Remove half of the map puzzles, and make the ones that remain uncover twice as many squares. Skip the startup animation for Knuckles' glide. Let me turn on the goddamn jukebox. Since so much of this update was designed around fan feedback, I can only pray that Sonic Team is still listening, and that they tweak at least a few of these things with a balance patch.

But still, after those many, many paragraphs of complaining... this still somehow makes the future of 3D Sonic seem pretty promising?

Sonic's friends are FINALLY playable again, and the focus is back to proper 3D platforming, rather than railroading players into awkward forced 2D sections in what's otherwise an open world. These are the things that they hopefully want to carry over to the next game. The difficulty? Well, that's just because it's the postgame DLC that's supposed to be the toughest challenge in the game. It's just an unreasonably cruel one of those - an example of how designing and balancing for a vocal minority of your fanbase can really hurt your game. But Sonic Team is onto something here, and I hope that they can learn the right lessons from this expansion and not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

[jokertrap-ran]

BAD MEDICINE ~Infectious teachers~ [PC GAME] Kashu Remu (Chemistry) Route Translations (Part 13)

MC’s name is retained as the original MC name Kawana Hina.

* Words within ‘   ‘ are spoken in English – *Spoiler free : Translations under cut!

Prologue / Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 / Part 7 / Part 8 / Part 9 / Part 10 / Part 11 / Part 12 / Part 13

Hina: (I’ve not spoken to him since then…)

Hina: (But…)

———————————————

Kashu: Hey, hey~? Are you still mad?

Hina: …

Kashu: Hey~ Hey, I said~

Hina: …

Kashu: Why won’t you talk to me? Hey! Heeeey! HEY!!!

Hina: …

Kashu: Oh? Why did you look away from me? What’s that supposed to mean?

Kashu: Is it the same reason why you’re not answering me? Hey, answer me!

Kashu: You do know that it’s against the school rules to ignore a teacher when they’re asking you a question, right~?

Hina: (He really hasn’t the slightest inkling that I’m actually mad at him!)

⊳Choice: Sigh

Kashu: Oh, she speaks. Hina: (Ah, I slipped. Aegh, damnnit.) Kashu: Hey, heyy~ Why did you do that? Did something happen? What's that supposed to mean?

⊳Choice: Remain silent

Kashu: Hmm? What? Cat got your tongue? Hina: No… Kashu: Well, looks like it's working just fine~ So, what was that all about? Hina: It's none of your business!

Hina: *Sigh*…

Kashu: Oh, that was a big sigh! Your happiness is going to fly away if you’re giving such a big sigh. Come on, suck it back. Breathe it back in so you don’t lose it!

Hina: (And who do you think is the cause of that sigh…?)

———————————————

Kuzuha: Haha, what do we have here? Looks like a cat clinging to its owner, don't you say?

Hina: Oh… Kuzuha-sensei.

Kashu: Huh? Kakeru-kun~ Wait, no. Kuzuha-sensei.

Kashu: Ahhh, this is so troublesome. Kakeru-kun it is. There's no one else here but her anyway.

Kazuha: No way. You're a teacher, at least act the part.

Kashu: Okay~ So what's up? Need me for something?

Kuzuha: Not you. Her.

Hina: Huh? Me?

Kuzuha: Yeah. Though, it looks like you’ve successfully become his favorite.

Hina: Did I really…?

Kuzuha: Well, you ARE his favorite experiment subject.

Hina: …

Hina: Does it look that way?

Kuzuha: That’s what it looks like to me.

Hina: I see…

———————————————

Kashu: Ohh~ There goes the bell.

Hina: Wha-!? Uh oh, I need to get back to the classroom!

Kuzuha: Sure.

Kashu: See you later~

Hina: Please excuse me!

Hina: (See you later? Does he still plan on hanging around me…?)

———————————————

Hina: Phew… Thankfully, I managed to get quite far without coming under Kashu-sensei’s radar.

Hina: (Although, I do feel like I’ve put in more effort than it’s worth to remain unnoticed…)

Kuzuha: Sup.

Hina: Kuzuha-sensei…? Oh, hello- Wait, no. I mean, bye!

Kuzuha: Be careful on your way home— not.

Hina: Huh?

Kuzuha: Say, aren’t you giving Kashu-sensei the cold shoulder? You’ve never done that before, so I’m here to ask if something happened between you two.

Hina: Well…

Hina: Say, Kazuha-sensei. Could I get some advice from you?

Kuzuha: Hm? What, so something really did happen between you two? Sure, spill.

Hina: Actually…

———————————————

Hina: —And that’s the gist of it.

Kuzuha: Ah… what a turn of events. It sounds almost as if it’s something right out of a fairytale.

Hina: Um, Kuzuha-sensei…? Are you saying that…

Kuzuha: Well, you’re talking about Kashu-sensei here… and there’s frankly not much I can do about him.

Hina: Right…

Kuzuha: However…

Hina: What?

Kuzuha: He doesn’t care much for others. In fact, he isn’t even interested in people.

Hina: …I see.

Hina: (I’m painfully aware of that. He’s only ever interested in the data he collects.)

Hina: (That being said, he has absolutely no interest in the individuals who provide him with said data either. Which would explain what happened the other day…)

Kuzuha: Usually, someone like you, whom he has already gotten all the data he needs from, would no longer be of interest to him.

Hina: …Huh?

Kuzuha: Yet he’s still obsessed with you. Now, don’t you think it’s odd of him to do so?

Kuzuha: Why’s he so desperate if he’s that uninterested in you? When he’s not supposed to care?

Hina: He’s desperate…?

Kuzuha: He seeks to know why you’re ignoring him.

Hina: Isn’t that because he finds it odd that the subject of his experiments, who should be following his every word, has refused to play along with his tune?

Hina: (Ugh, saying this out loud feels like a stab to my own heart. It’s making me feel even more depressed now…)

Kuzuha: Did you know that experimental subjects are easily replaceable for someone like him?

Kuzuha: So, I don’t think that’s what he’s all hung up about.

Hina: Is that so…

Kuzuha: I can’t quite figure out why, but I’m certain that he likes you a lot.

Kuzuha: But, well, he's not exactly the most self-aware when it comes to understanding things of that nature. In fact, I'm sure the thought has never once crossed his mind.

Kuzuha: If you don't understand it yourself, then chances are that he doesn't either.

Kuzuha: So there's really not much advice I can give you. Good luck, though.

Hina: Thanks… I'll try my best.

———————————————

Hina: …Kashu-sensei has no idea that I'm mad at him, nor does he know how much he'd hurt me.

Hina: But, he's interested in me despite not being aware of it himself… And if what Kuzuha-sensei said is true, then that's an extremely rare occurrence for someone like him.

Hina: (I don't really understand it myself either, but…)

Hina: …Why's it that I'm getting all concerned about him now that I have this information…

Hina: (It's odd, really. I'm mad at him, and I should be saddened about this entire situation.)

———————————————

Kashu: Hehe… hehehehehe…!

Kashu: Oh dear~

Kashu: How naughty~ You've gone and done something you shouldn't have again, didn't you?

———————————————

Hina: Huh…? W-What’s this? Wait, but why?

⊳Choice: I won’t run anymore.

Kashu: Oh? What's with that look on your face? What's this supposed to mean? Hey, why are you reacting like this!? Kashu: Fufu, I knew it. Hina: Um… Can't you remove the handcuffs at least? Kashu: Nope. Of course not. This is a punishment after all. It is, isn't it, Sacrifice-chan ♪

⊳Choice: Why am I handcuffed!?

Kashu: Well, that's because you did something bad, didn't you? Kashu: And bad girls have to be punished. Right? Sacrifice-chan ♪

Hina: W-Wait a minute! I haven’t done anything wrong!

Kashu: Huuh~ Did you already forget about what you did? Aww, but that’s fine ♪

Hina: What!?

Kashu: That doesn't matter~ Because the only thing of importance here right now is that you're going to be punished by me, Sacrifice-chan ♪

Kashu: Say, what does it feel like to be linked to me through handcuffs? What are your thoughts on it? Doesn't it feel nice?

Kashu: I quite like it~ But we're only linked by one hand.   Kashu: I'm sure it's a whole new experience to have both hands handcuffed.

Kashu: Hehe, it's a nice sight to behold, don't you think? Now, where should I inflict the first cut?

Hina: C-Cut!? 

Kashu: Of course~ Look, I've even prepared a special knife just for that!

Kashu: Hmm, maybe I should start with the leg? So that you can't run away, of course ♪

Hina: No… Get away! Stop!!! 

Kashu: Ahahahaha~ Stop? No can't do~ 

Kashu: After all, I'm having so much fun!

———————————————

Hina: It was all just a dream…?

Hina: (I'm not handcuffed, and my legs are perfectly intact. Plus, I'm in my room…)

Hina: A dream… That was a nightmare, alright.   Hina: (Ew… I'm all drenched in sweat thanks to that. Guess I'll drink some water and get out of bed since it's already morning.)

Hina: *Sigh* Talk about starting the day on the wrong foot…

Mother: Huh? Wait-

Hina: Morning, mom. What, did something happen? 

Mother: I think not! You're going right back into your room and under your covers!

Hina: Huh? Wait, but why?

Mother: You're running a fever. See? I knew it! Your forehead feels hot to the touch!

Hina: Ehh?

Mother: I'll call the school to inform them that you'll be absent today, so go back to bed, understand?

Hina: …Okaaay…

———————————————

After that…

I was stuck in bed nursing a high fever for a few days. 

I thought that I could sleep it off, but it didn't seem to do the trick. I felt like I'd been in bed for an entire week at least. 

———————————————

Hina: Ugh… Again…? Not that nightmare again…

Hina: I'm already fatigued by the fever but this nightmare's just adding on to the exhaustion I'm feeling…

Hina: (But why do I keep dreaming of him? And they aren't nice dreams of him either…)

Hina: I wonder what he's up to now…

Hina: (Wait, what am I doing thinking about him now! I'm still supposed to be mad at him!)

Hina: (I should be…)

[hyperfixated-clown]

HELLOOOO I am here for one (1) spicy ask please!

Ominis and f!MC doing some sneaky spicy semi public stuff? if you're comfortable with that!

Oh, I love this one...I may have rambled a bit, but I hope you like it. Also, can I just say that I love your TikToks, Posie is so pretty, and I wish I was playing on PC so I could experience these companion mods too.

Sexual Content - Minors do not interact

It had started as a game of sorts between them. How far could they push one another before things got too heated.

Y/N had been the one to initiate it as Ominis, while he still had baser urges, was a gentleman through and through. She started by scooting closer to him in class, her leg lightly resting against his. Her fingers brushing his as she wrote her essay. Her breathy gasps during the warmer months when she would proclaim to him that their classroom was too hot.

The day she pushed him too far was when she wore a skirt that was much too short, her thighs bare, the only thing on her legs were the school sanctioned knee-high socks. She smiled while she put her plan into action, they were seated next to each other at the very back of the class. No one would hear them as long as she was quiet. "Ominis, my quill fell under the table. Do you think you could grab it for me?"

"You're asking the blind man to grab something?" he snorted.

"Yes...I'm aware of how it sounds, but it fell just between us here and, well, you're taller. I'd have to get up and it would cause a bit of a scene." She explained while grabbing his hand lightly and moved it in the direction of where the quill was on the floor.

He sighed and nodded, leaning sideways next to her on the bench to position himself low enough to duck his head under the table, he felt around for the quill for a moment and re-emerged, she shifted in her seat which caused his cheek to brush against her bare thigh at his ascent and his breath hitched in his throat.

"Something wrong?" she said in a sultry tone, and he could hear the smirk in her voice.

"Are you....not wearing tights today?" He muttered, trying to keep his voice low. He could feel his cheeks grow warm.

"It's much too hot for that Ominis, here, feel how hot I am right now." Before he could react, she grabbed his hand again and placed it directly on her bare thigh. He released a shaky breath as he kneaded her. "See? I'm really hot." she saw him nod in response.

"Yes...I suppose you are..."

"And I'm really, really hot here..." she breathed quietly, placing her small hand atop his larger one and maneuvering him over to in-between her thighs. His fingers grazed something sticky.

"Merlin's Beard! No p-panties either Y/N?!?" he stammered, still trying to keep his voice low.

"For you..." she cooed as she hiked her skirt up even further, allowing him access. "You make me feel hot all over..."

Ominis couldn't believe how brazen she was being, but he couldn't lie, he was thoroughly enjoying every moment of this class now. His fingers swept up through her wet folds and she bit her lip to hold back a small groan. He found her clit and brushed over it gently and she gripped the table to steady herself. He continued his ministrations, picking up speed, rubbing harder and then lightly, effectively driving her over the edge. She couldn't hold back her sounds anymore.

"Oh God..." she cried out while everyone in the class turned around to look back at the two and her eyes went wide, she raised her hand and waved it around frantically. "P-Professor! I-I uh, I have a q-question! Oooh!"

The professor cleared his throat. "Ahem, ah yes Miss Y/N?"

"I ummm, may I be excused?" she grinned goofily.

"Well, I suppo-"

"Great! Thanks!" She stood up suddenly, Ominis removing his fingers from her before anyone could see and she ran out of the room.

Ominis sighed, a sizable bulge straining against his trousers now. He was going to have to deal with this alone later.

[au-wannabe-the-very-best]

For Wild Man and Wild Miss again.

Now I’m wondering how this au affects the relationship between the Pearl Clan and Jubilife. Like, I’m imagining the PC would warn them of anything they think is particularly dangerous, like Ingo and Akari and their pack in the icelands, but then Ingo just wanders in a day later, introduces himself, and tells them he’s happy to trade with them and also “please don’t catch any of the zorua or zoroark like you would normally. They’re scared of humans, and kidnapping their family even temporarily will not make them like you. Also have you met my lively daughter? Let me tell you how we met.” Does the PC know Ingo does trade with Jubilife? Do members ever see him and/or Akari there but they can’t do anything but leave because Jubilife is neutral territory and they’d be kicked out for starting a fight?

Also, more specifically, what if one day Gaeric tried to talk about that time he was defending a child against a zoroark when the Wild Man attacked and whisked the zoroark away. Rei hears this and puts two and two together.

Gaeric, in the games is a likable enough guy. I imagine nobody in the clan really dislikes him. Imagine his surprise when this Galaxy Team kid blows up at him and angrily tells him about how that experience looked from his perspective.

Jubilife is very firmly in neutral territory, so even if they don't agree with certain practices of the clans, they don't do anything about it, and it's generally agreed that they should make no comments on how the natives do things. Likewise, the Pearl and Diamond clans both agreed to not start anything within Jubilife. So, yes, while some Pearl Clan members recognize Ingo, they don't actually do anything about it other than trying to warn some of the people in Jubilife about him.

Of course, Jubilife is free to make their own opinions, and Ingo quickly proves himself to be a very friendly man. He's polite and would immediately drop what he's doing to help another person if they so request it, and he likes to brag about his little daughter to anyone who will listen.

It's hard to take anything the Pearl Clan says seriously when the guy they're trying to warn people of is some dude who shoves his daughter in everyone's faces and proudly announces that she can count to 20 all on her own, now, isn't she the smartest?

As for Gaeric, he definitely does keep that story up his sleeve to talk about sometimes, and he would absolutely get a nasty surprise when he tells it anywhere near Rei. The idea that there's anyone who's actually friends with The Wild Man is just absurd to a lot of the Pearl Clan. They didn't expect that there were people in Jubilife who actually likes him and his "daughter." They believed that Ingo is only ever there for purely business purposes.

Of course, Rei blowing up at Gaeric would be brushed off quickly. Gaeric will believe that Rei's just not that great at telling an illusion from reality, especially since Rei's just a kid. And the people of Jubilife would be forced to apologize for Rei's outburst because, again, this is neutral territory and nobody is supposed to aggravate the tentative relations they've built. Gaeric is a Warden, after all, which means he has high standing.

This isn't to say that the civilians of Jubilife would disagree with Rei's outrage. They've babysat Akari many times in the past. They remember her being brought through the gates, bloodied and crying and whimpering. Finding out the one responsible is someone deluding themselves into thinking they did an honorable thing over unfounded superstitions would put a sour taste in a lot of mouths. And that someone has political immunity. It just leaves a sense of tension, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. No one can speak up, no one is allowed to explain it.

On a different thought, I find it very funny that Ingo is just unintentionally a political time bomb. He's just going about trying to exist, take care of his daughter, etc, meanwhile he's somehow caused the most tension between the Pearl Clan and Jubilife without even doing anything. By being likable.

[forensicated]

01x02 - A Friend In Need

This episode (and the one after) was shown out of sequence when it first aired (unless you lived in London). This is because of a Technician's strike against Thames TV. It was shown after The Sweet Smell Of Failure (London aired a Minder repeat in the same time slot for those 2 weeks)

(This appears to be before they used the Isle Of Dogs area as Canley when showing maps.)

Superintendent Brownlow asks Roy for his opinion on 3 recent bomb hoax phone calls. Roy believes they're pranks, however, the Commissioner and Home Office are both applying pressure on Charles to treat them as potential terrorism; especially as two of them were made to Jewish restaurants.

Roy is reluctant to step on Bob's toes as he has been investigating them since they began. Charles assures him it's no reflection on Bob, it just needs to be seen - by the higher-ups - like it's being taken seriously hence a Detective Inspector over a Uniform Sgt. Charles is also aware Bob has had a heavy workload of late and that he has a graduate probationer, PC Higgins, attached to him. 

Roy smirks and is told off by Charles for his refusal to have Higgins in CID for a few weeks, warning him that Higgins could be his governor in 10 years given the accelerated promotion his 'type' are getting. ('Type' being university graduates but the obvious disdain in both men to this thought is wonderful!). "I don't care how you do it but get it done."

Also unimpressed with the graduate is probationer Jim who tells him he just had to watch and listen in his first week. "But with you of course it'll be different. Work experience I suppose." The well-spoken Higgins agrees, telling the gathered officers that he'll be attached to an outer division for the next week and then to Police College for a few years. "And then come back as Sgt I suppose" June drawls. "Destined for high places are we?" Taffy laughs. "That's the theory."

Jim tells Higgins that he's lucky he's been placed with June as she's a good copper and 'one of the best'. June is visibly unsettled by her ex Dave Litten approaching them. She tells him to go and "park his arse" at Ted Roach's table rather than squeeze onto theirs. Taffy and Jim tell Higgins that it's something he's going to have to get used to. "If it's not Ackland Vs Litten it's Galloway Vs The Rest Of The World." 

Unmoved, Dave asks "Henry Higgins." ("It's Derek actually...") what he thinks of Sun Hill. He thinks it's quiet for an East End station and he expected more to be going on 'outside'. The officers explain it's not always like this and to treat it as the lull before the storm. They joke that they wouldn't be surprised if Roy had made the hoax calls himself to keep them on their toes. Dave tells them he's already had a run-in with him that morning, muttering about something. Higgins asks if that's what Roy is usually like and, sensing a wind-up, Taffy tells him: "No, not really. Nice quiet chap when you get to know him. You can always knock on his door and ask for a quiet cosy little chat. Very accessible. Especially towards the uniform branch. Father figure you might say."

"Father Figure" Roy is tearing into Bob after reading the file on the hoax calls and accuses him of cocking it up. "You don't bloody listen, do you? You're as pigheaded as ever!" Bob shouts back, warning him they need to be tactful and can't just crash bang wallop into it. Ted and Mike are hilariously making no secret that they're enjoying the show when Roy slams the door to his office. Roy snaps that it's just a prank and claims Bob has inflamed the situation by treating it with kid gloves and in doing so Bob has got no MO and no leads. Bob points out that he's been rostered on the early turn when none of the owners are available. He's bound by procedure and he has to treat each call as real and can't take shortcuts. He reminds Roy that Uniform don't have the luxury of getting cases passed up half worked on with evidence and lines of inquiry found like Roy and CID do. "Don't worry Sarge, the CID - as usual - will sort it all out. Know what I mean?" Bob warns him that when he falls from his high horse and needs help, no one will lift a finger, least of all him. "Get the violins, Robert." He snaps before the men place a bet on Roy cracking the case within 2 weeks.

A fourth call has come through, this time to a Greek restaurant. Tom Penny speaks to the owner and asks him if he's positive it's a hoax. The caller says they've cleared the restaurant and searched it. Tom tells him to double-check thoroughly to make sure. (Cor, imagine doing that now! I was even surprised when they had staff involved in searching the cinema with them in episode 143 but I can imagine that was partly due to having the person who was placing bombs involved in the search). He warns them not to touch anything suspicious and that they'll send the bomb car over. He then arranges for CID to be informed.

Mike tries his hardest to speak to men who mostly only understand Greek and want to go home that Roy is on his way and that no one can leave. Ted is... Ted. ❤ He only stops eating when Roy appears.

Ted tells him it's the same as all the others and that nothing has been found. Roy tells him he can leave and take Mike and uniform with him as he and Dimitri - an old friend - are going to go over everything. "Even if it takes all night."

"Your public is waiting for you out there, God help them!" Bob dismisses uniform from the briefing, placing Higgins and Jim together. Jim hasn't learnt all the bad habits of the others yet so he is partnering them together despite Jim being a probationer himself.

Mike and Ted are in bright and early to continue working on their cases. They're very amused that, come 9.20am, there's still no sign of Roy, nor did he write anything in the book about the case. He finally makes an appearance a few minutes later - paler than usual which is quite some doing.

Mike goes to make him a black coffee whilst Ted finishes dressing him, warns him to take water with his Ouzo and the boys try to find their boss some aspirin to dull his whimpers.

"The things I do for this job." Roy pouts before telling Ted he's found the specific phone box the calls came from as there are roadworks audible in all the phone calls and it's the only one that has had roadworks happening nearby all week. He suspects it's a way for 2 men to avoid paying their bills when eating out by getting a friend to ring and make a bomb threat. Through his investigation, Roy has found 2 men in particular who requested the bill at each restaurant just before the threats came in and they had to evacuate. Being the 80's, there's no one at BT to speak to over the weekend so Roy tells Mike and Ted to visit every local eatery to ask them to keep their eye out for 2 men making large orders and behaving suspiciously. He wants them to call the station so that officers can catch those responsible.

Roy tries to relieve his hangover by dunking his face in cold water much to Bob's amusement. Bob mocks him and his 'for the sake of the job' excuse and says he has no sympathy for him. He does however help him locate the towel dispenser when Roy misses it by a mile and almost faceplants into the wall... even if it is empty!

Mr Rutherford arrives at the station and insists on speaking to Roy about the bomb hoaxes. He gets riled when Rutherford implies that the police aren't doing much and directs him to "the thirteenth hole at the golf club" to speak to Brownlow.

The two men [one being Perry Fenwick] in question for the bomb hoaxes speak to their 'friend', a gullible magazine seller on the high street. He is oblivious that he's being set up to take the wrap should the police become involved. They slip him a few quid and ask him to make a call to a Chinese restaurant at approximately 2.30pm.

Roy takes his mood out on uniform by reading through the report book, first bollocking Taffy to redo his crime reports, then telling Bob he wants to see Hollis. As he does, a frequent flyer drunk called Lampton tries to make a donation to the police widows and orphans. "Charity, Dear Sgt, begins at home. And I'm beginning to feel like I live here." "I think I'll stick to vimto..." Higgins remarks after seeing Lampton out. "Me too!" Jim adds - if only you did, Jim!

Lampton finishes his bottle and places it in the gutter. Jim asks Taffy if he's nearly finished as there's only 5 minutes left. Taffy says he'll be 15 minutes and to get him a drink and he'll meet him at the pub. (The barmaid, Sadie, guests in several episodes over series 1 to 4. Cheryl Hall who goes on to play Smithy's mum. If only she'd been called Sadie and not Pauline it could have been a nice nod 😉) By the time Sadie serves Jim, they've already been paid for by Lampton. When he arrives, Taffy is horrified that Lampton brought them drinks and tells Jim they're leaving. Sadie asks Jim to remove Lampton, claiming he's his responsibility as he's drinking with him. Taffy explains it's a disciplinary offense to associate with a criminal on bail and they need to leave before the drink is misconstrued as a bribe. Jim feels bad but Taffy says Jim can do what he wants but he's not losing his job for a drunk. Jim wrestles Lampton out and tries to take him home.

At the Chinese restaurant, the suspects have arrived and work their way through the menu. At 2.15pm the older one asks for the menu again. The younger one groans and says he only wants a coffee as he's full up. Just after half 2, their friend makes it to the call box but the phone line has been cut. He hurries into a nearby shop to make a call. The shop assistant asks what he's doing, startling him. He runs off before he can end the call, leading to the assistant speaking to the person on the other end. Now sure of what is happening, the owner of the restaurant gestures to a waiter who alerts the other staff. Panicking, the older suspect shouts out that there's a bomb and there's a stampede of people to leave the restaurant, causing people to get hurt. The chefs leave the kitchen, entering the main room with huge machetes, looking for the suspects!

Outside Jim is trying to escort Lampton home as people scream and run from the restaurant. He has to leave Lampton - who drops his wallet in the confusion and runs over to take charge. At the station Tom and Reg are sorting the ambulance and police response to the restaurant. "[The staff] have caught the bomb hoax pair..." Reg smirks when he's asked for another ambulance. Roy hurries to the scene and congratulates Jim, telling him the two suspects will live - just - after their run in with the staff.

The next morning, Bob asks for volunteers to take Higgins out for his final shift...

No one volunteers so Bob asks Higgins who he wants to go out with and he replies, "With the hero of the moment, Sergeant. Carver." Unfortunately for Jim however, Lampton is in the front office to make a complaint, alleging that Jim has stolen his wallet.

Roy is in a buoyant mood which doesn't dim even when catching up on station gossip. "All that good work gone to waste." he sighs before laughing at Bob calling the Chief Super in on a Sunday. Bob explains he's hoping Lampton will come to his senses when he realises the importance of what he's accusing Jim of before it can go any further. Roy tells Bob that he knows where he is if there's anything he can do. "Esprit de corps." (Team moral) Bob sighs.

Brownlow reminds Lampton he was "under the weather' when he left the station and that he could have misplaced the wallet. Lampton insists he had it when he left and in the pub only for it to be gone when he returned home. "Who else could it have been? He took me home - why should he do that?" No good deed goes unpunished, JimJim. Lampton asks Charles what happens now - will the police sub him as he needs 'groceries' (ha!) Charles tells him he's jumping the gun and that he needs to speak to Jim and uniform. If he's satisfied there's a crime then he'll call in CIB.

No one believes Jim is guilty other than Lampton but it has to be looked into. Bob gives Jim a subtle heads-up whilst Taffy speaks to Brownlow. "It's not what you've done, it's what they think you've done!" Bob is more disappointed than anything, telling Jim he keeps making stupid mistakes and that he's a policeman, not a social worker. Jim is near tears, telling Bob that he's never taken anything from anyone in his life. He admits he felt sorry for Lampton because he has a problem. Bob tells him he's not the only one with a problem and sighs, telling him he's stupid enough to do it again.

Ted and Mike discuss Jim and they watch Taffy enter the canteen. Ted tells Mike that Taffy might be up for disciplinary if the Chief Super sticks to the book. Ted teases Taffy by calling him a 'Scab' (Taffy had swerved the uniform group staring silently at him and moved to sit alone before Ted spoke) and asks what happened. Taffy sighs and admits that each time he opened his mouth he seemed to drop Jim further in it. Charles had asked if Jim had ever mentioned being short of money. "Oh god..." Mike sighs.

Higgins is annoyed at being called in too as he wants nothing to do with it. "It's not going to do my career any good." "Right born leader of men you are." June drawls. Roy asks Bob how things are going and Bob admits the Super thinks Lampton is trying it on. As they chat an elderly lady makes a fuss at the front desk. Bob asks her to wait and then when she continues to complain he asks Higgins to deal with her. Lucky for Jim she's very honest. She's handing in Lampton's wallet! Bob has to pay up on the bet after Roy cracked the case in well under a fortnight. However, instead of keeping the money, Roy hands it to Jim and tells him to create a hamper of food for the lady who handed the wallet in. "She won't get a reward from Lampton will she and she's not got two pennies to rub together." Bob is absolutely gobsmacked at Roy's generosity. "I never thought I'd see the day, Detective Inspector Roy Galloway - Social Worker?" "Oh piss off!" Roy scoffs and hurries to the safety of his office.

[the-boiling-bisles]

NEW PROMO LETS GOOOOOO

And because I am completely normal about this show, I'll dive in and give my thoughts and predictions for the finale based of this

First off I find it interesting how most of clips seem to be in what will probably be the first half of the finale, we see a shot or two of an impending fight, but we haven't gotten to that point yet. It's understandable that they wouldn't want to show too much beforehand, so I'm glad we're not getting spoiled for the whole plot.

The storyline I'm getting from this is that after the team teleports and Stringbean is revealed, the collector separates Luz from the others (probably turning them into puppets), which makes sense considering they do NOT like Luz. He threatens her or puts her in danger in some way, and then Eda+King end up intervening or are possibly summoned by the collector since they know of their supposed betrayal. We see their reunion in the end bit, but how they end up there is a little unclear.

Then we get to the games bit. It's self explanatory, the collector is very upset, and decides to put the original trio through all sorts of torturous games and challenges as a means to take out his anger and frustration over their belief that King isn't his friend anymore, and that Eda and Luz took that away from them. We go through the games, and after being fed up or being given an idea from Belos-Raine, he decides to trap them in their minds. That's what I think those orbs are.

I personally think that grom could be weaponized here in some way, or maybe it's the state of mind all the puppets experience, being trapped in their own insecurities and fears. Or maybe it's just an illusion idk lmao. Anyways this takes us to the bits with Luz as Belos, as well as Harpy Eda in front of the Conformatorium and King in front of some ornate door (I would use pictures if I could but I'm posting this on my PC and it's six years old and ready to die). Each of these characters will go through mental hurdles and face old memories, insecurities, and fears, just for the chance to "Wake up".

While Eda and King's mindscapes are still unclear, Luz' has been shown quite a bit in this promo so I'll mainly be focusing on that. The obvious first thing to notice here is that Luz is dressed as Belos, most likely reflecting how she feels about having helped him reach the collector (even though that insecurity was mostly resolved in ttt, I doubt she's fully gotten over it yet). Although I could also see it as a form of parallel between the two humans who got lost in the boiling isles with big dreams, or both honesty. When they show the petrified civilians she'll most likely believe that it was all her fault, and fall deeper into the hole of blaming herself for everything. When her friends show up though, part of me wonders what role they will play in her nightmare. Everyone is dressed in different outfits ranging from S1-S2, but there doesn't seem to be any true correlation between them. They could be the manifestations of their voices from the outside trying the encourage Luz to triumph past the spell thing she's under, which would explain why they're turned into puppets (as seen by amity's hand in the first frame).

I don't think any of the other clips related to Luz go past her nightmare sequence, so now let's talk about some random tidbits in this promo that are intriguing.

Belos seems to have left the collector after they began their challenges, and from the clip with Raine it seems like he wants to get back to the heart in his throne room. Some people think that Raine is trying to stop Belos, but I believe Belos is trying to smother them so that they can't fight back. Call me crazy but I feel like he's going to try and possess the whole titan. That scene with Eda and King with a background of goop and blue eyes seems to be their reaction to it. I don't think he'll be successful in his attempt, but man who even knows anymore with this show.

Glyphs are really important, especially in this episode. With the exception of palisman there is almost no usage of staff magic/spell circles in this trailer, it's all glyphs. Which probably means that those capable of producing their own magic naturally will be affected by some event in some way, probably some more collector magic stuff. What I especially like though is how much we see the light glyph emphasized in this trailer, it's the original and also very special to Luz, so seeing it as her "light in the dark" to wake herself up is really cool and I hope we get to see more like that. I'm also really excited to see the hexsquad using glyphs, those fight sequences are going to be sick I can already tell.

The Eda and King transformation part really caught me off guard. I can only assume that after dealing with their mindscapes like Luz, they were able to become better versions of themselves, King especially. I believe their transformation could also tie in in some way to that guy in the in-between we saw at the beginning of ftf. Oh my god I forgor about that guy.

HEAR ME OUT but if Belos is actually trying to possess the entire titan and that guy is the soul/spirit of said titan, could we see an intervene with Luz where she is able to communicate with him and therefore save the isles, this definitely does not make sense rn but I'll cook that a little more I promise.

Questions, little thoughts, and more

-Who will the final battle be between? (Or will there be a final battle at all?)

-I NEED A WITTEBANE BROTHERS FLASHBACK PLEASEEEEEE

-Someone pointed out that there was a flapjack statue/mountain thing in the background of Luz nightmare scene with the hexsquad and I'm not okay

-Since Amity was capable of moving her hand while in puppet form, does that mean it's possible to break the spell?

-Luz is finally getting the spotlight she deserves, I liked that we gave other characters attention in these past two episodes but Luz needs her time to shine for this finale

If you somehow managed to get to the end of this, thank you! These take a little while but I love getting to write my thoughts on this stuff down for people to see

[bitemedotmp3]

“ i’ll sleep when i’m dead. “ whatever that means, coming from someone who doesn't Stay dead...

"It's just an all-nighter, no need to be a martyr about it."

"It should be done by now. It's holding things up."

"Oh noooo, the quarterly reports are gonna be in shambles!" says Uzi, spinning around in her office chair. Thank goodness for 24-hour PC cafes. "We should just take ourselves offline so we won't need to live with the shame."

J shoots her a venomous look. "Can you be irritating somewhere else? And what's this 'we,' you don't-"

"Blah, blah, here. Just chug one of these." Uzi rolls a small can over to J's desk, and the taller drone regards it with distaste.

"Battery acid? The JCJensen worker drone manual expressly warns against consumption of this substance, due to the damage it can cause to internal systems," she says, turning back to the screen. "In terms you can understand, it'll corrode your battery."

Uzi rolls her eyes. "The manual says a lot of stuff I don't care about. Look, it's just one can, and our internals are all fucked up anyways, thanks to you-know-who. I drink this stuff all the time-"

"Explains a lot," mutters J.

"-and I'm mostly totally fine! Trust me, one can of this and you'll be good for like, four more hours."

J's eyes flick from her laptop monitor, to the can, and back. "I don't need it."

"You sure? Sunrise is in a few hours, don't wanna be stuck here when the humans start rolling in..." Uzi looks to her phone, raising her brow. "Weather report says clear skies today. You'd be here alllll day."

A single bead of digital sweat rolls down J's visor. "For the love of- Fine."

She snatches the can from the desk, pulls the tab, and downs it in one go. "Ugh, the taste," she says, sticking her tongue out. "And you like this swill?"

"You get used to it."

"I certainly hope not."

Uzi goes back to only half-paying attention, but over the span of the next few minutes, J... changes. Her eyes are a bit wider, her posture is a bit straighter, and she's typing a lot faster. "You good over there?" she asks.

"Ah, it's... It's noticeable!" says J, with a manic expression Uzi hasn't seen before. "Perhaps I was too quick to brush off the benefits of a short-term enhancement like this, especially if, as you've said, the rate of damage is actually lower than reported, because while I don't enjoy taking actions that could void one's warranty I suppose it's not really as big a concern if JCJensen: in Spaaaaaace! (Trademark) doesn't technically exist anymore and doesn't exist in this city either."

"Dude, what's with the run-on sentence?" says Uzi, scooting back a little. "Maybe you should've started with half a can."

J just shakes her head. "No, no, this is fine, I'm operating beyond one-hundred-percent efficiency, and without overclocking any systems! I've already finished this month's report, I'll get to work on the next month's because I might as well while I'm already here and even if the month hasn't started I can simply predict the trends and then make corrections as needed because humans are frankly fairly predictable in situations like this and this city doesn't experience huge market fluctuations since it's mostly a closed-off space."

"Ssssssssure, I'll just... leave you to it," says Uzi, hopping off her seat. She wasn't lying about the sun rising in a few hours, and this hopped-up version of J seems too focused to be interesting company.

"Good. You've been distracting me for the past forty-five seconds, and I could use the silence."

Uzi eyes the can still on the desk- it's the same stuff she usually drinks, right? Maybe disassembly drone systems just react differently? "Yeah, yeah, don't let me keep you," she says, giving J a lazy wave before leaving.

Furious typing still sounds behind her as Uzi leaves the building. Well, it's time for the old standard: shrugging her shoulders and telling herself Not my problem! Whatever happens to J is between her and the aluminium can.

[rainbowgod666]

This. This is a point that should be brought up as much as possible

Look, i get it. I was born in

F i v e

and my autism meant that i saw the world differenti as a kid. A girl wanted to play soccer? She looks kinda bulky. Lets put her in either defense or as a goalkeeper! Gay people? I mean its weird. But they're not harming anybody so whats the deal if theyre different?

And then i grew up

And my best life years were sweeped by COVID-19

I saw family memebers die or get ill, but mostly nothing bad happened

We all have our internalized trauma, im lucky 95% of it is just me looking at them and going "yeah i need to go to the psychiatrist" and the reaction is always "dude how much anxiety is there (points at me) and why?", its really healthy i swear

Started doing analysis on "adults" and the result was always the same

Constantly screaming regardless of mood. They look at your/others toys and go "so much money spent...". You try doing anything on the PC/Phone? Its harmful! But alas, they never explain why. And even when they do, they dont seem to "make a point", so to speak. You never know for WHAT theyre gonna get angry, but after all this time the protocol is the same: Assume they will get mad. They never do when they should anyway

Adults are almost "backwards" in a way. Maybe its my personal experiences but i LITERALLY almost cannot imagine for the life of me two adults talking WITHOUT screaming at eachother like dogs.

Its TIRING. Ok? Like yeah I gotta do homework and all that but after im done WHAT, exactly, should i do? Like i can do some errands to "get my ass up from that chair" (which kinda makes sense, luckily for them) but after that? "Draw a little bit" yeah sure, but heres the thing. ALL THE THINGS I WANNA DRAW ARE SET AS "WORK", im not "playing" anymore, no its classified as "work" so you finally

Shut Up.

This is why "the current generation" listens to you in any way. Because we all collectively want the adults to Shut Up And Sit Near Us While Were Playing. This isnt limited to families! Look at america in LITERALLY ANY WAY, even just- taking a fucking compass and figuring out Where Is America According To Where I Am, and what do you see?

Violence, and all scholars here at tumblr can attest to the "Violence for Violence is the Rule Of Beasts". We are DESPERATE.

The common Man is ANXIOUS when it shouldnt. Look at all those posts that say "we may be lazy pieces of shit, but to our ancestors we are all the highest of kings" and think to yourself: How, and i can't stress this enough, The Fuck did we end up like this? You may reference the "mouse utopia" experiment but other than that the material is pretty fucking sparse

We all have had those times at school with yugioh/bakugan/beyblade

Where are they now.

Huh?

...

E x a c t l y .

Not to reference H:TP, but we're sick and in pain. We literally cant do this anymore. Growing up was supposed to be either cool or Just A Thing That Happens. But now?

Its that one scene in rick and morty where theyre having a massive breakdown, and that scene describes how puberty has been going for what im guessing is Anybody Young Enough to Be Almost Out Of It. Its already annoying that youre more hormones than human at that point, but nowdays? The world is an endless tornado of crack crap and malfunctioning "head honchos" that might as well have no heads at all! Its the downward spiral that EmpLemon talks about (its kind of his thing anyway like mine is being an all-encompassing stain on all fandoms that i know of) and yet, AND YET-!

Nobody is doing ANYTHING ever. We have problems like inequality global warming and all that, and the supposed "best state" is contorting itself into the reason there is a Separation Of Church And State section in the "how to make a country" rulebook because they think that "undesirables" (either LGBTQ people or addicts that genuinely want some help) want to turn their children into undesirables

Ironic. The "think of the children" motto is exactly the one thing we shouldnt have done to those poor kids.

They will live sheltered, unhealthy lives where their every whim is fulfilled regardless of what it IS. And once they go out in the real world they will think the others are the weird ones just because they dont bow to them. Even more ironic is this entire thing boils over into the concept of the Karen. A hateful being that is entitled to everything, but alas she is just what happens when a spoiled child isnt "fixed"

Do we... deserve this?

Is humanity just THAT fucked up, or we still have a chance... no because- i have looked at america for a long time. The so called "patriots" are some of the foulest people imaginable, and yet the "debauched godless deviants" are just guys that are Plainer Than White Bread but oh they have a rainbow pin so theyre gonna go to megalovania super hyperspace radioactive hell or something

The chain is gradual and month-based

For adults is perfect child - whining teen - useless adult

"My childhood was so awesome. Kids today don't even know!"

Isn't a flex.

It's a lament.

More people should understand that.

[juliepinsononline]

by Stephanie Sloane

It took three auditions, but Julie Pinson finally found a home in Salem

It's Friday afternoon, and Julie Pinson has just finished taping an episode of SOAP TALK (see sidebar). The neighborhood is familiar to her--PORT CHARLES taped here-- so Pinson suggests a restaurant nearby to chat. Turns out, it's too late for lunch, so we walk down Vermont Avenue in the Silverlake district of L.A. and happen upon a noisy diner, where there is no air conditioning (it's in the 90s) and the waiter thins he's a comedian. But easygoing Pinson doesn't care. We sit, despite the head and the loud '80s music blaring, to discuss the long road that eventually lead to Salem.

Pinson hit the soap scene in 1997, when PORT CHARLES debuted to much fanfare. "It was a great experience, especially the very beginning because it was a brand new show," she recalls. "We were in People magazine. We were on the sides of buses! I remember driving around L.A. in my piece-of-crap car, and I came to a stop sign and there's my big old face on the side of a bus. And it was like, 'Hmmm, what's wrong with this picture? I'm in a piece-of-s**t car, and my face is on the side of a bus and in People magazine.' So, it was a great experience, very fun. All of us interns started together, and we bonded right away."

Pinson's PC stint came to an end when her alter ego was killed during the "Secrets" murder mystery. Being the "fifth chair" threw the actress for a loop. "It was a big surprise: I was shocked," she admits. "It was really sad: I didn't want it to end. I wasn't ready to go. I'd been playing Eve for five years. I was friends with the character: I liked her. And I had to stop being her." At the time of Eve's demise, because of PC's shooting schedule, Pinson filmed the exit months before it aired. That put the actress in a delicate situation in terms of looking for new work.

Julie with her family in 1976.

"It was difficult because the storylines were taped like three months in advance at this point, so they killed me and then I was supposed to be quiet for three months and ABC did not want me to get another job in that period," she explains. "But at the same time, they weren't paying me either, so, you know, I still went out and looked for work."

One of the places she auditioned was at DAYS, to play Billie. The actress had tried out for the role once before, a year after Rinna's 1995 departure. Krista Allen was cast. In 2002, Rinna reclaimed the role. Finally, two years later, Pinson won the part outright. Looking back on the process, she feels that she joined the cast at the right time. "If I had gotten Billie right after PORT CHARLES, I may not have appreciated it as much or maybe I wouldn't have stayed very long because I wanted to see what it was like out there," she reflects. "I saw it, and I hate it. I don't like to audition at all. I don't like being out there and since PORT CHARLES, I've hd work, but it hasn't been a steady job and that's what everybody wants in this town. So, it was really humbling going out there and thinking I'm gonna take the world by storm because I did this soap opera and then I go out there and nobody knows who you are. People in the night-time world rarely watch soaps, so it was a humbling experience and I was so ready."

Click on image above to see larger pic!

But because this was her third go-round with the NBC sudser, she didn't get her hopes up. "I wasn't as excited as in the past because the last time I auditioned for Billie was right after PORT CHARLES, and I kind of thought it was in the bag and then Lisa decided to come back and there goes the job," she grins, "So, this time around, I was cautious. What if they didn't want to have somebody that looked like Lisa? What if they wanted to go in a totally different way--I wouldn't have gotten the job." But when she did, she was thrilled. I felt like this was where I was meant to be, because if I didn't get it this time, then it was never gonna happen," she explains. "So, when I finally got the job, it was just so sweet."

And her experience so far has made it worth the wait, she reports. "My first day, I was running through a jungle, and I got shot by a dart and then Peter Reckell [Bo] wakes me up and I got to kiss him," she says. "I'm having the time of my life. I think this is the best I've ever felt."

And she wants it to last, "I'm hoping to be there forever," she exclaims. "As long as they'll have me, I would love to be there. I'm so happy. I think it's just the beginning. I'm looking forward to the wonderful things they have in store for Billie."

The Billie Club

"I get the comparison all the time," Pinson says. "I've been geting it since I was on PORT CHARLES, and it's flattering." In fact, Rinna is responsible for Pinson's current hairdo.

"The first time I went on SOAP TALK, I had long hair and after the show was over, Lisa took me aside and said, 'I just had this epiphany. I don't know what it is, but I get this kind of psychic thing every now and then and I just have one about you. If you cut your hair short, you're gonna get work again.' I said, 'But Lisa, if I cut my hair, I'm gonna look just like you again.' She said, 'I don't care. You need to cut it. You'll work.' So, I cut my hair and soon after that I got [Y&R]."

Rinna has been equally supportive of the role reversal. "I saw her at the SOAPnet fall lunch party, and it was really funny because the two of us walked in around the same time together down the press line," Pinson recalls. "Harry [Hamlin, Rinna's husband] looked at both of us and couldn't figure out which one was his wife. And Lisa was so gracious and said, 'I'm so happy for you, congratulations. I think it's great, all for the best.'" The two even cooked up a funny intro for Pinson's recent SOAP TALK appearance."We played a joke on the audience," Pinson explains. "Lisa and I switched roles. I sat in her seat as the talk show host and she came out, pretending to be me!"

Did you Know:

• The single actress was once engaged to Billy Warlock (ex-AJ, GENERAL HOSPITAL; ex-Frankie, DAYS)? "We're very friendly. He's a wonderful guy. I wouldn't have been engaged to him if I didn't think so."

• She's bought herself a pink KitchenAid mixer to celebrate nabbing the role of Billie? ($50 went to the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation.)

• Her favorite show is The Food Network's BAREFOOT CONTESSA with Ina Garten?

Thanks to KatLucas for the scans. For more on the Peter Reckell Group the contributer runs click on the image or the link above :)

[onlygamemedia]

GTA 6 Lucia Nude: Decoding the Bikini Girl Theory

GTA 6 Lucia Nude: Decoding the Bikini Girl Theory

The gaming community is abuzz with speculation following the release of the GTA 6 trailer, and at the center of attention is the enigmatic "bikini girl." As the internet attempts to unravel the mysteries surrounding this character, we dive into the depths of GTA 6 speculations, from graphics comparisons to character analyses. Let's unravel the GTA 6 Lucia Nude theory and separate fact from fiction. The Internet's Fascination with Naked Lucia in GTA 6 The GTA 6 trailer has ignited a wave of curiosity, especially concerning the unidentified character in a bikini. Theories and speculations have flourished, with many drawing parallels between this mysterious figure and the game's supposed protagonist, Lucia.

GTA 6 Graphics Comparison Comparisons with previous Rockstar Games, such as Red Dead Redemption 2 and GTA 5, reveal the exceptional character rendering in GTA 6. The graphics advancements, combined with the meticulously crafted GTA 6 map, promise an unparalleled visual experience for players. Unveiling the GTA 6 Map The expansive and intricately designed GTA 6 map adds another layer of excitement to the upcoming game, hinting at a rich and immersive gaming environment. GTA 6 Lucia Nude and Partner Speculations Beyond the bikini girl, gamers are engaged in uncovering the identities of Lucia and her partner, rumored to be named Jason. The quest to identify the actors behind these characters adds an extra layer of mystery to the unfolding narrative. GTA 6 Online Speculations As players eagerly anticipate the release of GTA 6 Online, speculation is rife about the potential features and gameplay dynamics in the multiplayer mode. The online component is expected to offer new dimensions to the GTA experience. GTA 6 on PC Release PC gamers are anxiously awaiting news about the release of GTA 6 on PC. The demand for a PC version is high, and the community is eager to know when they can join the immersive world of GTA 6 on their preferred platform. Hidden Meaning in the Trailer Song The search for hidden meanings extends to the song featured in the GTA 6 trailer. The gaming community is actively dissecting lyrics and melodies in the hope of uncovering clues about the game's storyline. Speculations on GTA 6 Price As with any highly anticipated release, speculations about the pricing strategy for GTA 6 abound. Gamers are keen to know what the cost of entry will be for this much-awaited installment in the Grand Theft Auto series.

GTA 6 Lucia Nude or Just The Bikini?

GTA 6 Bikini Girl Theory

The heart of the speculation revolves around the theory that the bikini girl in GTA 6 is Lucia. Observations of moles and freckles have fueled this theory, leading to discussions about Lucia possibly being undercover. Addressing Discrepancies While the theory is compelling, there are discrepancies, such as differences in eye color and hair textures. However, these differences may be explained by the possibilities of colored contact lenses and the use of hair products or wigs. Implications for GTA 6 The GTA 6 bikini girl theory opens up possibilities for enhanced player customization. The theory suggests that players may have greater control over character features, signaling a potential evolution in the GTA gaming experience. Mission Scenarios Speculations arise about in-game scenarios where Lucia may need to go undercover for a mission. This could add a dynamic element to the storyline, impacting Lucia's relationship with her rumored partner, Jason.

Is The Lucia Nude in GTA 6?

Lucia's Character Arc Considering the theory that Lucia might be living a different life after accumulating wealth, questions arise about the impact on her relationship with Jason and how this narrative arc fits into the broader GTA 6 storyline. Conclusion of GTA 6 Lucia Nude! In conclusion, the GTA 6 trailer has sparked intense speculation and excitement within the gaming community. From the captivating graphics to the mysterious bikini girl, players are eager to unravel the mysteries of GTA 6. As we await official revelations, the speculation around Lucia and the evolving narrative adds to the anticipation for the game's release. Click the link to watch the official GTA 6 trailer

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

- Is Lucia the girl in the bikini? - The GTA community is actively theorizing that the bikini girl in GTA 6 might be Lucia. Observations of moles and freckles have fueled this theory. - What are the discrepancies in the bikini girl theory? - Discrepancies include differences in eye color and hair textures. However, these variations could be explained by the use of colored contact lenses and hair products. - When will GTA 6 be released on PC? - The release date for GTA 6 on PC has not been officially announced. PC gamers are eagerly awaiting confirmation of when they can immerse themselves in the GTA 6 experience. - What could the implications be for player customization in GTA 6? - The bikini girl theory hints at enhanced player customization, suggesting that players may have greater control over character features in GTA 6. - How might Lucia's character arc impact the GTA 6 storyline? - Speculations about Lucia's character arc include scenarios where she goes undercover for a mission, potentially impacting her relationship with her rumored partner, Jason, and adding dynamic elements to the narrative. Click the link to check out more GTA news! Read the full article

[godofwar3downloadforpc]

God of War 3 Full Games

No matter whether you're getting one more strategy sport before bombastic Marvel experience, some thing becomes connect to be able to contract your eyes. Kratos, Gaia, also additional Titans clamber Mount Olympus to obliterate the Olympian gods.[N 1] Poseidon kicks off the assault touching them, except ends up being destroyed through Kratos, grounds the oceans to help overflow Portugal. Accomplishing Olympus' peak, they attempt for you to assault Zeus, although he beats them off the mountain. As Gaia clings towards the mountainside, your lover refuses to conserve Kratos, thinking him a pawn for that Titans' retribution. It can be too potential which Kratos and Atreus end up being reunited some way, to help chief from an additional journey inside a different world. Once more, we suppose that's less likely adopting the separation of which taken place towards the end associated with Ragnarok.

Prior to Zeus may stop him off, Kratos is saved by the prophecy regarding Pandora throughout a journey straight into his / her mind and body. With the aid from your hearts involving Calliope plus his spouse Lysandra, Kratos forgives himself or restoring mindset combined with the might regarding anticipation. He presses Zeus' heart back to his or her human body after which it defeats him near end, generating a file regarding lightning to the atmosphere. As with preceding games, Idol involving Fighting III is set within the alternate side regarding ancient Portugal populated with Olympian lords, Titans, heroes, along with other figures through Ancient greek mythology.

Hercules becomes Kratos' older half-brother, also the a couple finally know the other into combat. Hercules thinks that Kratos ends up being Zeus' favorite, In which i'm able to Download The almighty regarding Fighting 3 and dislikes their brother since happens that. He's over-confident inside his / her talents and it is always seeking a tougher obstacle.

Even so, Kratos reached his / her resolve, one that concluded in very much personal development also education. Every increase on the Lord connected with Rivalry team lost their head with the sight with the Blades involving Chaos, Kratos's signature bank God of War 3 PC Download artillery he / she obtained from the Traditional globe already turning up with Midgard. For that reason, overshadowing various other Ancient greek objects, in addition to very likely trigger lovers in order to overlook the famed Cutting tool of Olympus.

The Future Large Thing in Goodness Tied with Fighting 3 Processor or perhaps personal computer Download

In the 2010 Increase Online video media Online game Honor, Lord associated with Battle III was presented "Ideal PS3 Brave" as well as "Paramount Artwork", while using spirit Kratos earn the most significant Badass" prize. The game was likewise nominated How to Download God of War 3 pertaining to "Competition of the 12 months", "Finest Motion Venture Video game", "Greatest Unique Count" in addition to "Character on the Calendar year". Lord involving Struggle (2018) ended up being generated with May 20th, 2018, as being a Playstation 4 exclusive.

He or she roars he hath the girl almost nothing (a callback to the addition of the subsequent activity). Athena reappears, calling in which Kratos replace what exactly the girl considers he / she assumed coming from Pandora's Field. Any time Kratos explains to the woman's it had been empty, the girl won't suppose this kind of, explaining that when Zeus sealed the wickeds from the earth within the envelope following the Opening Big Battle, your woman positioned the power involving desire inside it likewise. When foreseeing to this would finally ended up being opened, Athena then recognises any time Kratos kicked off the field to help defeat Ares, the bads drained along with slowly distorted the deities while Kratos ended up being filled with optimism, which usually have been obscured through the guiltiness along with malfunctions regarding his or her ancient. The lady demands Kratos to return the ability involving expect while using plan associated with verifying her own control over Greece.

Thises a payment in order to how much the sport carry out proper to the level i always performed don't forget plenty of this stuff when I begun engaging in God involving Warfare III once again, performing from dawn to finish in a session (typically I place this stuff out). All right, totally -- however simply for those 17 12 months old as well as big, as the over-the-top gratuitous violence, erotic designs and also robust vocabulary process this specific online game occurs mainly certainly definitely not used for jokes. On the other hand, for the people Wherever i'm able to Download Spirit involving Conflict 3 who require visceral actions, Idol involving War III transfers the goods, and also the limits are only while awkward and also approachable because past The almighty of Fighting competition for your PS2 and also PSP. The Religious Possessions end up being marvelous products of which the moment found yourself on the Goodnesses could instantly be gotten concealed in many apartment inside competition. They can be really valuable, nevertheless when you finally trigger a Religious Person, you may not really be capable of receive any Trophies with the total participate in because of.

They flow with the unlocked blowing wind on her deceased along with go on with their combat on the inside your ex chest. Kratos impales Zeus against Gaia's cardiovascular system while using the Cutting tool connected with Olympus, Exactly where i am able to Download God of Hostilities 3 killing the woman as well as apparently Zeus. Believing Zeus to be empty, Kratos ends up being struck by Zeus' astral kind, exactly who rids him connected with his / her weapons with capacities.

[imsobadatnicknames2]

@zotesaintofrenown @cannibalcaprine

Gleeblor is a word OP coined to refer to any statement about ttrpg game design or play culture that is perfectly self-evident (often to the point of not even being worthy of an explanation) for people who are broadly familiar with ttrpgs as a medium, but that people whose knowledge of and experience with the medium is exclusively limited to D&D 5e treat like you're talking crazy incomprehensible nonsense at them.

This is the post that originated it, where OP likens the experience of making a post about something that seems completely self-evident and having 5e fans show up to act baffled by it to the experience of being an alien trying to explain alien concepts like "gleeblor" to a human being.

This post was, in turn, made in reference to a different post by tenleaguesbeneath which i think is a perfect example of gleeblor, where they complained about the concept of Challenge Rating in modern D&D because the existence of a mechanically codified way to balance encounters around party level in turn codifies the assumption that most or all potentially hostile groups of creatures that the PC party encounters during the game must be balanced so that the PCs can win against them in a fight with very little to no risk of any deaths on the PC side (the way they put it, the existence of CR makes it so that you might as well replace the "habitat" entry for every creature in the Monster Manual with "a fight to the death with the player characters, which it is supposed to lose")

To be clear, this assumption is not universal to TTRPGs, it's not even universal to D&D! In pre-WotC editions of D&D there was no mechanically codified way to balance encounters around party level, and instead the assumption was that the GM would populate their adventure with whatever creatures they thought made sense for the environment, and it was up to players to be on the lookout for any encounters they probably have no chance at beating in a straight fight, and exercise their player agency to either avoid them, resolve them peacefully, find some sort of tactical advantage to give themselves better odds, or even just flee mid-fight.

The notes were full of responses by 5e-only players completely failing to grasp that what OP of that post was saying was that they disliked CR because they disliked the expectation in modern D&D that encounters must be balanced so that PCs can fight and defeat anything they come across, and instead interpreting it as OP saying that they disliked CR because it was a bad tool for creating balanced encounters, leading them to leave responses like "I agree! CR sucks at balancing encounters, here's how to fix it" or "Okay I get that CR sucks but how are you supposed to balance encounters instead?", because the assumptions that modern D&D makes about the concept of Encounters were so deeply ingrained in their way of thinking that they didn't understand that "having balanced encounters" is not a thing that is universally required, desirable, or even compatible with all RPGs. Participating in that discussion was what motivated OP of this post to make her gleeblor post and eventually coin the word gleeblor.

One of the funnier manifestations of gleeblor is Pathfinder players: I'll make a post about how D&D will color people's expectations of what RPGs can be like and create a very narrow set of expectations about the medium, and inevitably some Pathfinder player will be like "haha yeah those D&D players should really broaden their horizons, Pathfinder fixes all of their issues," and my friend. I'm sorry to say this but you are not immune to gleeblor and in many regards where it comes to expectations of playstyle created by the game, your favorite game is in fact just another company copying D&D's homework and slightly altering the wording.

[bad-decisions-club]

Sunless Citadel Campaign Arc Recap

6 Sessions (+1 retrospective) 

( https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_wOqvAZAsjkM9PW8bJh6t64nTJeGnL8s )

PCs: Sharrog, Clarion, Hyacinth, Calder, Echo

NPCs: Barnabas, Meepo, Irky, Belak, Yustial(??), Calcryx

Monsters: Giant spiders, Twig blights, Gulthias tree, zombies

Notable Items: Shatterspike, special apples, Undead-controlling-whistle

Synopsis:

It all starts when our PCs, Calder, Clarion, Hyacinth, and Sharrog, get hired to investigate a mysterious Sunless Citadel. Accompanying them is the dwarven guard Barnabas. 

On their way to the local town, Oakhurst, the group is attacked by animated undead plant monsters, twig blights. At the town, they gather info, finding out that there are both goblins and Kobolds in the supposed Sunless Citadel. The goblins occasionally come and sell mysterious fruits in town. Also, our group is not the first to try and explore the citadel. The locals will pay for the recovery or proof of death of the other adventurers, as some were locals themselves.

The PCs and Barnabas head out, leaving a very hung over Sharrog behind in town to catch up with them later.

The group finds the citadel and battles past giant spiders to get to the part of the citadel controlled by the Kobolds, where they meet Meepo. Meepo is distraught as he was the caretaker to the Kobold’s baby white dragonling, Calcryx, but the goblins stole her away in their latest raid. He is now banished from the rest of the Kobolds for his failure. The group adds Meepo to the party, against Barnabas’ disapproval.

After negotiating with the Kobold leader, the group ventures further into the Citadel, where they meet the goblin Echo, another PC, who has just escaped death by giant spider with the party’s help. Echo explains that he was forcibly dragged back to the Citadel and is not allied with the rest of the goblins. He joins the group, which upsets Barnabas so much that he leaves to go set up a camp outside the Citadel.

They explore further and fight goblins and hobgoblins. One of which carries a message for Echo. The team manages to free a captured Gnome, Irky, who is the last remaining member of yet another adventuring party. The group finds the room where the goblins have stashed Calcryx, and through use of magic items, subdue her and bring her back to the Kobolds.

Meepo is welcomed back by the kobold leader, Ustriel, but he rejects her praise and stands up for himself. He leaves that night to camp with the rest of the group outside the Citadel. It is strange that, upon returning to the camp, Barnabas is nowhere to be found, while some of his gear is still there, and there is no sign of a struggle.

Echo tells the group of the message he received, a challenge to a duel, and how he is the heir of the previous war chief of the goblins. His father was killed by the current leader, a Bugbear named Durn, who is actually working under the Druid Belak. As Echo recalls, Belak focused mainly on his experiments in the lower levels of the Citadel.

The group agrees to go with Echo to the duel, but when they arrive, to no one’s surprise, Durn flakes on the duel and sets all of his warriors to attack Echo. The group jumps into combat, and they are victorious, with Echo landing the killing blow on Durn. Notably during the combat, Clarion used a new item, a magic whistle, to summon an undead minion to his side.

With Echo now the war chief of the goblins, the group stays in their part of the citadel for the night, preparing to confront Belak in the levels below.

The next morning, the team delves deeper and confronts Belak. He is working on the Gulthias tree, using its fruit to spread his undead blights. He has the lost heroes under his control as undead-vine puppets along with the missing Barnabas, who has also been infected with the vines.

After a very, very long battle the team manages to defeat Belak and his minions.

Barnabas tries to pull the vines out of him, but the process starts to kill him. The team uses the single fruit left from the Gulthias tree to heal him.

On their way out of the Citadel, Echo directs the goblins to leave, intent on escorting them to Calder’s family lands. The team also explores the rest of the citadel, including the cold-room-of-bad-decisions, where they kill the undead troll within.

The team returns to the town of Oakhurst and it is revealed that Barnabas is a king and was the person behind the group being hired in the first place. Also, Sherrog finally shows up, ready to head out and find that Citadel.

[plounce]

a player character had two birds in her head — not in her throat, not in her chest — and the birds would sing all day never stopping. the player character thought to herself, one of these birds is not my bird. the birds agreed.

[crescentblossom66]

A Corruption in Time

TRIGGER WARNING FOR: BLOOD AND GORE AND MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH, WHICH IS DESCRIBED IN DETAIL

This is a creepypasta inspired story. For those that don't know, a creepypasta was a scary story about either lost episodes of tv shows or a glitched game, of course they were all made up. The most notable example of a creepypasta was 'Ben drowned' a stroy detailing the horrible things that happened in an allegedly haunted copy of 'The legend of Zelda Majora's Mask'. So I decided to present you with this, have fun reading

I should preface this by saying that I didn't tinker with the game in any way, heck I don't even know how to code or access game files. This all happened with the regular downloadable copy of the game on steam, no mods were installed, as I wanted to experience the game as it was intended, so I have no idea how the game ended up the way it did. I also didn't have any of the DLCs, I wanted to buy them, but the Nyakuza Metro DLC didn't even exist at the time of the events, and I completely forgot about the seal-the-deal DLC.

Alright, now that that's out of the way let me begin to explain the strange things that happened when I decided to download A Hat in Time again after 4 years had passed between me playing it initially.

I was finally setting up my new PC and got Steam back on it to play my favorite games again, when the box art of A Hat in Time caught my attention. I remembered how much fun I had playing this game and decided to redownload it immediately. When it finished downloading, I got a notification that the steam cloud files got corrupted, and that due to this, all my save data was gone for good. Well, I wanted to play the game again from the start anyway, so that wasn't too big a deal. I booted the game and everything went normal at first.

Made in Unreal engine logo, created by Gears for Breakfast, all normal. Hat Kid's ship came and flew by, and the starting menu appeared. I pushed A (I was playing with an Xbox 360 controller, don't think it mattered, but thought that I should mention it regardless.), and I was greeted by...nothing. Normally Hat Kid is supposed to be striking a pose on this screen while you select your save file. I didn't think anything of it, as I hadn't started a completely new file in ages. After selecting File 1, everything played out more or less like it should, aside from the fact that Hat Kid's hat was not on the nightstand and also didn't land on her head like it normally did after she faceplants on the ground. Hat Kid just got up, yawn and went on with the day, unlike me who tried to remember if she got her hat later or something.

Now that I could control Hat Kid, I exited the bedroom and went to the main room of her spaceship. I should mention here that she controlled like normal, aside from the fact that I couldn't use her hat ability, which was kinda bad, as you can probably imagine. I just went up to the screen that showed how far away she was from her home planet, she activated it and then it started to knock on the glass. Without hesitation, I made Hat Kid walk over to the Mafia Goon and the cutscene played. Strangely enough the little “How rude!” Didn't play after she closed the window to stop the Mafia, but the rest played like it should. We lost the time pieces and plummeted down to Mafia Town.

That's when the first real strange thing happen, the title card from the level showed up, it depicts Hat Kid running away from little crows, one Mafia Goon points at her, while another rolls a meat on a bone in her direction, meanwhile Hat Kid turns around afraid, while running away. Now Hat Kid was just...missing, it appeared like they were chasing nothing. This became a theme with all the title cards, Hat Kid was just missing in them.

Nevertheless, I, along with the Mafia Goon, landed in the back alley, Hat Kid struck her normal landing pose and on I was to explore Mafia Town, still hatless. That's when I found out that there were no yarns, no matter where I looked, even places that I KNEW should have one, were completely empty.

I was a little freaked out by that, but thought that it would be a nice challenge to try to play through the game without hat abilities.

One strange thing I noticed was that none of the Mafia Goons would talk to me, not even the ones that played a game with you only to punch you in the face weren't interacting with Hat Kid. Speaking of not interacting, they wouldn't even look at her, Hat Kid looked at them, but they never looked at her, even when I placed Hat Kid right in front of their faces.

Due to me skipping the tutorial, I didn't get Mustache Girl to tell Hat Kid not to stalk her. I wondered if she would have reacted, because what happened at the fountain left me thinking that something was indeed very, very wrong with this game. The cutscene with Hat Kid and the Mafia Goon that had the umbrella played, however he didn't react to Hat Kid and the alien girl just waved her hands in front of his face, equally as confused as I was. He was supposed to push her away, which would have resulted in her snatching his umbrella and pointing it at him, while he freaked out.

First, I didn't remember Hat Kid just waving at the Mafia, even MY memory told me that was wrong. Second, now I was really contemplating just reinstalling the game and trying again, but my curiosity got the better of me. After beating up the distressed Mafia Goon, he dropped the time piece, at least all of that was still normal. I got back to the ship, and had Hat Kid switch on the energy for the kitchen and main room again, which caused the telescope to appear. I entered the kitchen and rotated the camera around to check if anything was wrong in the room, the only thing of note wasn't the surroundings, but Hat Kid herself, she looked a bit...dull in her color scheme later on I'd learn that it was far more serious than that. She also looked distressed like she does when Snatcher appears before her or when the bomb is tied to her.

To make it easier for me to gather my thoughts, and to make it easier to read, I'm going to explain level by level from here on.

Mafia Town Act 2: Barrel Battle

The level started out normal enough, Hat Kid landed near the market, Mustache Girl screamed for help, just as usual. I made Hat Kid move toward the stack of barrels, where the Mafia Goons captured the blonde girl. That was where it turned weird again, the Mafia didn't react to Hat Kid arriving and Hat Kid tapped her foot for a moment, as if she was waiting for something to happen before she just sighed and the cutscene ended. Confused, I simply tried to attack one of the big men, who yelped in pain and then turned as if to look who had attacked him.

I got a cutscene that I didn't even know was in the game, the Goon continued to look around and then spoke.

“Mafia trying to teach lesson, don't interfere...nobody is here, but Mafia got attacked. What's going on?” He looked visibly spooked. Without my button input, Hat Kid attacked the guy that held the red-hooded girl and she scampered off to safety. “Mafia is being attacked by g-g-ghost, AAAHH!” All four just started to run away, that was when I regained control, I chased down the fleeing Mafia Goons and reclaimed the time piece, by beating their leader, which concluded the level. The small scene with Mustache Girl at the end didn't play at all and I was simply brought back to the spaceship.

Now that level confirmed a theory I had from the interaction with the Mafia so far, they seemed to be unable to see Hat Kid. She could still interact with the world around her. Curiously, not much could harm her either, it became more and more clear that whatever it was, was only effecting Hat Kid and not the other characters in the game.

Mafia Town Act 3: She came from outerspace

This level made me question things even more, I thought that with Hat Kid being covered in mud, the Goofy Mafia would just run away form her, likely just seeing the dripping mud, however he didn't react, not even with the mud and the eerie glowing eyes was she able to get a reaction out of him.

Hat Kid seemingly had given up on trying to get the attention of the people around her and the cutscene just showed her looking up onto the platform where you'd get the time piece from the Mafia member. I just decided to go with it and climbed across the banners and platforms until I grabbed the time piece. When I came back to the ship, Mustache Girl didn't show up, not that I could have used her advice anyway, not being able to use hat abilities and all. Hat Kid didn't react to that sequence break at all, however she still had that concerned look on her face, like she knew or felt that something was very wrong.

Mafia Town Act 4: Down with the Mafia!

When I got to the the Mafia HQ, the Goons were still attacking Mustache Girl, without being prompted to do so, I proceeded to attack the Mafia. After I killed the first of them, the others once again panicked, spouting some nonsense about ghosts. Mustache Girl seemed to shiver for a moment before jumping down, “How did they...eh, doesn't matter, time to mess with the Mafia a little.” She walked right past Hat Kid, who only made some kind of pouting noise, while I moved her over to the switches that opened the entrance to the HQ.

Upon entering, I for once wasn't assaulted by the Mafia throwing cans at me for no reason. The cutscene with the Mafia carrying the time piece through the doors still played, so did the rest of the level pretty much. I got the key, opened the door to the freezer, went through the vent, and ended up in the hallway. No Goons were send my way, probably because no one could see Hat Kid approach in the first place. When I arrived I had to attack the Mafia Boss instead of him jumping out of his chair to attack me after giving me a speech about how glorious he was.

“What was that?! Some invisible intruder, wants to pick a fight with me? Alright, let's settle this Mafia style!” With that the fight went more or less the same, dodging his shock attack, jumping over the daggers, getting on top of the Mafia Ball to get a hit in, nothing new. The little interaction between the boss and Mu played out a bit differently, he didn't say anything while Mustache Girl said something about him having lost his marbles for fighting something that wasn't even there. Where was a certain uncertainty in the way she spoke though, as if she was trying to convince herself. After the fight the scene was vastly different though, the Mafia ran away from the unknown entity that just beat their boss into goo, while Mustache Girl only looked at the time piece and...ran away. She didn't pick it up, she only looked at it, and bolted away with a terrified expression on her face. Hat Kid then picked the time-altering object up with a smile and I got brought back to the loading screen.

I wondered how the fifth chapter would play out, now that Mustache Girl didn't know about how the time pieces worked and seemingly started to avoid them entirely. Cooking Cat also didn't show up to talk about relics after I returned back to the ship, but I still remembered that they triggered the purple time rifts.

On that note I will tell you that those and the blue ones hadn't change, so I won't have to go over them.

Mafia Town Act 5: Cheating the race

A level that would normally be all but almost impossible without the time-stop hat, but due to the Mafia not even seeing Hat Kid, I could just snatch it away and didn't have to even play the level. A bit boring if I'm being honest, but I never liked that level that much anyway.

Mafia Town Act 7: The Golden Vault

Another level that played more or less the same, the interesting thing was, that I had tried to select Act 6 before, but somehow I was unable to select it for whatever reason. Instead, I just decided to do Act 7, thinking that maybe I would be able to select it after. Another weird thing that I didn't remember happening in the game was that the alert for a new time rift showed up right after Hat Kid returned to the spaceship. The strangest thing about that rift was that it was neither purple nor blue, it was red.

Still confused, I checked where to find that rift, hoping that I didn't get too vague a picture...looking at you blue alpine skyline rift. It appeared to be on the clock tower, where Mustache Girl normally waits for you to find a way up to her in the tutorial. Easy enough to find I thought, and went there to check out what those red rifts had in store for me.

Now this is probably where you'd think something bad was gonna happen, but those red rifts were actually quite interesting, but something about them was indeed disturbing.

Mafia Town: Red Rift

Hat Kid landed in same out of place zone as with the blue rifts, just some white platforms with water effect, just that the secondary color on the platforms was red instead of blue and so was the background. Next to Hat Kid were a Mafia Goon, the Mafia Boss, Mustache Girl and Cooking Cat. Thinking that maybe I could talk to them and they'd have some interesting dialogue, maybe wondering where they were or something, That wasn't the case, however...I could pick them up. Considering that at the time I didn't even have the DLC that was a bit odd.

Just like in the first DLC, I could make a stack with the characters and it appeared that that was what I had to do for this level. Another thing that I noticed was that all of them were slightly transparent, I wondered why that was at the time, I got my answer later...much later.

So, with my mission now clear to me, I made Hat Kid walk from one platform to the other. It was pretty straight forward until I heard a strange noise and stood still for a second.

That was when I saw something following me. It was about the same size as Hat Kid, and moved similar to her, however it was a bit taller and undefined, and looked more like a jumbled mass of red pixels. It did exactly what I did when I was in the position it was in, if I jumped over a gap, so would it. For simplicity's sake I will refer to this...pixel mess as Red Kid.

Hat Kid gasped when I made her stop to get a better look at the thing, she seemed to outright panic, shaking and motioning for me to get moving, by pointing forward with her free hand. So I did, the level itself wasn't very difficult, just some long leaps that could be cleared without the help of the sprint cap, which I was thankful for, otherwise my play-through would have ended right there. The only thing that made things hard was the teetering either to the left or to the right, due to the stack of people the young girl was carrying.

At the end was no time piece, but a portal that Hat Kid proceeded to throw the characters into without my input. Red Kid stopped only briefly and jumped down at the end of the platform, which completed the rift. Back on the ship, I checked if now I would be able to play Act 6 and found that I could. I wasn't ready for what awaited me.

Mafia Town Act 6: Heating up Mafia Town

Again the level started out just like normal, the Mafia asked Hat Kid to switch off the faucets that the lava comes out off. I realized something was very, very off however, when I tried to attack the faucets to turn them off. To put it simply, nothing happened. I tried and tried again to switch off the endless stream of lava, I even went to another faucet, just in case I had to switch them off in a distinct order or something, but nothing happened.

When I stopped to contemplate what to do, I noticed that the lava was slowly rising, the rather comical bouncing of the Mafia after they got burned by the lava was also replaced by them getting slowly engulfed instead, I watched in shock and turned the camera away after a few seconds, unable to watch the goofy crooks die so horribly. I knew this game could get dark at times, however, this was clearly NEVER in the game!

I tried to find out what my objective was now, most of the faucets were completely submerged in lava by now, even Hat Kid reacted by panting and wiping her forehead when idle, adding to the tension I was feeling. I needed to find away to stop the lava from rising, but I couldn't do anything!

That was when I spotted Mustache Girl in the clock tower, sitting there with her legs pulled to her chest, staring into the boiling lava below with tears in her eyes.

“H-How? H-How could this h-happen? I j-just wanted to get rid of the Mafia-” Mustache Girl wiped her face with her sleeve, “-Now EVERYONE will....All of us will.....” She buried her head in her hands, crying louder. Unlike me who pitied the girl, Hat Kid's expression showed anger mixed with disappointment. Making me think that she knew that the red-hooded girl was the one who doomed the island.

With nothing to do but to climb higher to escape the red, burning liquid, I moved Hat Kid to the cannon and jumped to the HQ, hoping that it would not reach that high. Soon Mu followed and so did the remaining Mafia that had survived until now. Some looked like they were burned by the lava, their character models were charred in some places like the shoulder and a couple of big smoldering spots on their backs. I felt bad a little, even though they were just character models, I still kind of felt bad for the guys.

“What's going on?!” The Mafia Boss, now in the jar, I should mention that he wasn't in the red time rift, came outside, followed by Cooking Cat. Both looked distressed, Cooking Cat's ears were flat on her head and she had pulled down her hat and was kneading it with both hands, while the jar was completely motionless.

With sheer horror, I noticed that the lava kept rising and was now even starting to take over the plateau everyone thought they had found shelter on. I made Hat Kid climb onto the building using the awnings, only Mustache Girl followed her.

Writing out the next thing that happened still chills me, I know that the characters aren't real, but...those screams, those terrified screams of pain and terror, I'm not lying when I tell you that I can still hear them in my nightmares...

Hat Kid was apparently also unable to take all of this, the blue-eyed girl sat down and started to cry, no one able to hear her silent sobbing but me...I felt terrible for her, call me a crybaby, but I really felt for her. First no one can see her and now, all those people died around her.

The red-hooded girl continued to cry and quietly sat down on the roof next to Hat Kid, looking at the ground while the lava slowly crept toward her, threatening to end her, just like it had ended the lives of everyone else in Mafia Town,

“How could I be so stupid...All I wanted was for them to leave...and now, and now-” She trailed of and looked up briefly before looking back down,”I'm going to...” the poor girl was trembling horribly, while I watched on helplessly. I couldn't do anything to save them, I felt like I failed Hat Kid and the people in Mafia Town.

When the lava reached Hat Kid, she didn't react at all, the girl looked at herself confused. For a moment I was a bit relieved at that but was torn right out of my brief moment of respite by loud, terrified shrieking once more. I only caught a small glimpse of the red girl, before I forced myself to look away. It was too horrible to watch...Her clothes caught fire as the lava reached her ankles.

That scene went on for what felt like hours, but was only around a minute in real life...a minute I and Hat Kid spent in hell.

That was when she got teleported back to her ship. Physically she appeared to be alright, but most certainly not emotionally.

I was about to just close the game when a cutscene played, the screen that showed the progress toward Hat Kid's home planet, showed static and Hat Kid went to check it out, still wiping away tears. I felt so bad for the girl.

The static showed a gray, humanoid shape, it spoke in a distorted manner, very low-pitched and quite eerie. “ You can't save them!”

That was all it said. Hat Kid looked shocked and confused and a little frightened. What did he mean with 'You can't save them!'? Who were we trying to save? What was up with this game!? I only wanted to play a nice platformer that I hadn't played for a few years, and now this! No, I didn't sign up to play a disturbing horror game, where a kid is forced to watch people die! No way in hell!

When I went to close the game window, however, a pop up window appeared.

Do you really want to have them all die?

Hell Yeah! No, I have to save them!

I stared at the screen blankly for a moment. Did this game honestly think that I would fall for that! If I uninstall and reinstall the game, I can play normally again, and don't have to deal with this horror. I clicked on 'Hell Yeah' and another box popped up.

So you don't care what will become of the birds, Snatcher and the minions, and the nomads? You're fine with knowing that you killed them, even though you could have tried to save them?

Nothing would please me more! I was only joking!

I would love to say that I just closed the game regardless, like a sane and normal person, but...I felt bad. I wanted to at least try to prevent them from dying. I know it's a stupid reason, but I wanted to see it through.

Alpine Skyline Chapter 1-4

After I so naively decided to continue playing, I checked where I could go to next and found that strangely enough the only area I could go to was the Alpine Skyline. I didn't even have the 14 time pieces required to enter the area, but it wasn't like I could go anywhere else. The gates for Subcon and Dead Bird Studio weren't open.

Wait.....how was I even supposed to GET to the Skyline, never mind even getting to the telescope! I had no hook shot! The hook shot badge was in the second level of Subcon Forest! I tried and tried to make the jump from the room with the washing machines over to where the telescope for the alpines was, thinking that maybe something was in that room that could help me, but I just couldn't make the difficult jump. Was that finally where I couldn't proceed any further because the game became to broken to continue? I did what everyone does in such a situation; backtrack out of desperation. I went to the main room of the spaceship, but couldn't find anything there that could help me, I had a couple of rift tokens though, so I decided to give that a shot, maybe I could get hat flairs, or maybe something changed there.

I did get something out of it, believe it or not! It was a strange badge that looked like the first dweller mask you get, the one with the fox head and the green glowing eyes. Oh, I should mention here that the badge seller appeared to be the only person in the whole game I could interact with. So far I had the no-bonk badge and pon magnet. The scooter- or the fast hatter badge obviously wouldn't have helped me considering my non existent hat. I had all three slots for badges, hoping that maybe I'd find something that could help me. Before I left him he said something I don't remember from the game, “You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?” To which he produced a strange green badge that did nothing once I equipped it, shrugging it off, I removed it and swapped it with a badge I could actually use.

Now the badge I got from the machine in the main room worked the same as the dweller mask, the green aura appeared and I assumed that I could enter the lab, now that I had the dweller mask and low and behold what do I find, the hook shot badge! At least I could proceed now, I equipped both, the dweller mask badge and the hook shot badge, and thus I could actually enter the Alpine Skyline chapters.

I walked up the long mountain path to the top and hit the weird spinny things. Then I made my way up through the clouds to the Skyline that, just like Mafia Town at first, looked pretty normal, No changes. That went through literally the whole Skyline though, so I can actually sum most of it up here.

The nomads couldn't see her, so I never received any directions form them, which wasn't too bad as the Alpines are quite big, but fairly easy to navigate through. The Birdhouse and the Lava Cake were quite easy and I only struggled a little in the Windmill, due to the lack of the sprint hat that can help you with some of the longer jumps there.

Before I went to the Twilight Bell, I noticed something again, I already said that Hat Kid looked...off a bit, now it was even worse, she was very visibly transparent now, and looked just...sickly. I figured that it had something to do with the whole nobody-can-see-Hat-Kid thing, but I had no idea what to make of it. She still controlled like normal, but appeared more pained, like something was hurting. I felt bad again for making her go through all of this, especially now that it seemed that whatever it was was causing her pain. Pushing my concerns aside, I pressed on, making my way to the Twilight Bell, that would have been all but impossible without my newly acquired dweller badge.

The real problems started when Act 5 rolled around, and the pollen were released. Before that though I got a pop up that another red time rift had appeared. It was strange, because normally you'd have to leave the Skyline to have any time rift appear, I had already cleared both of the blue ones and the purple one, and the pop ups for them came after I returned form the Windmill and the Twilight Bell and had assembled the relic for the alpines.

Alpine Skyline: Red Rift

The location of the rift was very easy to discern, it was on the knife of the Lava Cake. I found it strange that I could still explore normally, as Act 5 follows right after the last of the 4 levels was cleared. The red time rift looked the same appearance wise. The difference was that this time, I had to carry out lightly transparent versions of a nomad, a goat (I have no idea how she managed ot carry one of those. Well, she carried a walrus in the DLC sooo...), and a Lazy Paw Gang Cat.

Just like before, movement was a bit weird, due to the stack, but I managed alright. A couple of seconds in, I heard the weird noise again and when I turned the camera to look behind me, Red Kid was after me once again, this time I could actually make out something like a hat that they were wearing, but nothing else.

The stack teetering almost threw me off one of the platforms once, especially the fast spinning ones that rotate made it very difficult to jump on safely. I fell a couple of times, thanks to me being garbage at timing jumps right sometimes. All in all it was harder than the first, but still easily manageable. At the end I lost control of Hat Kid again, as she shoved the three characters she was carrying through the portal. Red Kid stopped again briefly, and this time they spoke: “You can't save all of them.”, with that taunt, they jumped off into the bottomless, red abyss, and thus the red rift ended.

Alpine Skyline Act 5: The Illness has Spread

This is where things took a turn for the worst again, go figure. I braced myself for the worst, and started the level. The title card displayed (Again without Hat Kid in it), and I had a bad feeling already. I hoped that it wouldn't be like Mafia Town where everyone died a cruel death that still shakes me to the core to this day when I think about it.

Tightening my hold on my controller, I made Hat Kid move through the dark despair that awaited us both, the three icons that displayed the location of the flowers showed up, and I made my way to the first one. I went with the one near the Birdhouse, avoiding the fire and the thunder of the lethal environment around me. When I got to the platform where it showed the huge plant, getting to it was exceedingly easy, thanks to it not realizing that Hat ´Kid was there to destroy it. Foolishly, I thought that this would be a piece of cake, that all I had to do now was break the flowers and I'd somehow find the time piece after.

My rude awakening out of that sunshine and rainbows daydream happened the moment I made Hat Kid attack the plant...only for it to do nothing, absolutely zero damage, not a scratch or any indication that I did anything. I tried again a couple of times and my hand started to sweat the more it became apparent that, once again, I couldn't do anything.

Hat Kid made a noise of confusion, before the big plant released another cloud of purple pollen. I didn't know what to do, so I just moved around aimlessly, trying to find a hint to something that I could do. When I got back to the small mountain where Hat Kid always starts out form, I could see the damage the pollen had done, houses had burned down all the way to the foundation, and fire and had spread to the point that I had to carefully jump around to not have Hat Kid lose health by stepping on it. Suddenly Hat Kid recoiled and did the animation she does than Queen Vanessa speaks for the first time, she crawled backwards and I had to turn the camera to see just what had scared her so much, due to the dense smoke. I wish I had just turned Hat Kid around and left, but I was too curios and as we all know; Curiosity kills the cat.

I saw the normally territorial, but otherwise harmless, goats chase after the nomads on a platform just below, the huge animal kicked on of the nomads to their doom down the huge mountain, his friend however met a worse end. The nomad seemed to plead for his live, bowing and folding his hands in prayer, but the huge herbivore showed no mercy. I was so glad that I for whatever reason turned Hat Kid around, so she didn't have to look at the horrible scene that unfolded. It still sickens me to this day and honestly I almost threw up when I saw the huge goat stomp on the small nomad, the loud crunch of his spine breaking echoed through my speakers and made my blood ran cold. Even thought blood is pink in this game, it still shocked me to the core to see the bloody mess that had once been a nomad. Hat Kid was crying and visibly distressed, and I couldn't blame her. I moved back, careful to not turn the young girl around. I have no idea if she was programmed to react to all of this or even if this whole scenario was coded and had been in the game before and I somehow accessed it or something, but whoever I have to 'thank' for this mess, I would like to send to a psychiatric ward. This was waaaay too messed up for a kids game.

The level ended when the whole area was full of pollen, so much so that I couldn't see Hat Kid anymore and just stood still in order to not fall off any cliffs. It just suddenly...ended. I wondered if any of the nomads escaped or if the goats killed all of them.

I got brought back to the ship and didn't move for a solid half an hour or so. First Mafia Town, now the Alpine Skyline. This cutsy platformer turned into a Silent Hill game faster than Sonic gets through Green Hill Zone. When I finally got the courage to grab the controller again and to move on, I noticed that Hat Kid was even more translucent, whatever was happening to her was getting worse it seemed.

I thought about just quitting then, but what Red Kid said at the end of the red rift, stuck with me. “You can't save all of them.” Were they referring to the characters Hat Kid tossed through the portal? Were they safe on the other side? It motivated me enough to see where I needed to go to next and I found that the gate to Subcon Forest was now open.

Subcon Forest Act 1: Contractual Obligations

I made my way over to Hat Kid's bed room, still reeling a bit from the horrifying events that continued to flash before my eyes. The first couple of acts for both Mafia Town and the Skyline were more or less tame, and Sucbon proved to be no exception to that rule.

I entered the creepy forest and started my way toward Subcon Village, where the fire spirits were. On the way, I half expected to actually still be captured by the net, but it didn't trigger at all, however I triggered a cutscene a bit further ahead near the bridge where you'd normally find an eyeball enemy that you needed to destroy to get a yarn, but as you know, no yarn for me. In place of the yarn, I got a cutscene that featured two minions talking to each other. The topic turned out to be one of the time pieces, apparently it fell into the bonfire that the fire spirits dance around. Hat Kid listened in, more like stood technically in plain sight, but the minions were also no exception to the No-one-can-see-Hat-Kid rule. I kind of hoped that, given the paranormal and occult themed forest, someone here would react to poor Hat Kid, whose appearance was more akin to a wraith than an actual alive kid.

I didn't waste any more time and moved Hat Kid over to the entrance of the village. I noted that she seemed to move a bit slower than normal, it could have just been my imagination, at least I thought that at that point in the game. When I arrived I obviously didn't get that scene where Snatcher makes sure that you're doing your chores, but it still zoomed in on the fire spirits and even showed the time piece that had fallen in the fire. I knew what I had to do, and was thankful that I at least could still pick things up, given that I had trouble attacking the plants, I had been worried about that. It didn't take me all that long to throw the paintings into the fire and extract the time piece. Before I could go and grab it, one of the fire walls disappeared and Snatcher appeared in the village and started to talk to a minion. I'm going to paraphrase here, sorry, I can't remember what he said exactly anymore.

“Did...did you managed to get rid of those annoying fires that stopped me from getting to parts of my forest?” He looked a bit confused, I'd be too if the thing that kept me trapped suddenly disappeared without cause.

“...Yeah?” The minion cowered in fear, probably hoping that telling his boss that he did it would be a good idea.

“Why didn't you do so earlier!? Well, it doesn't matter, get rid of the other ones too, now that you're at it.” Hat Kid appeared to pout after the Minion just blatantly took credit for something she did.

“...Thanks.” With that the, soul-stealing ghost vanished back in the ground, leaving me to finally claim the time piece.

Subon Forest Act 2: The Subcon Well

When I got back to the ship, I didn't realize that I missed something at the time. The levels in Subon usually needed to be unlocked by stepping into Snatcher's traps, with him now being unaware of Hat Kid strolling around in his forest, I could have easily gotten locked out of the rest of the levels. Thankfully, the corruption or whatever unlocked the rest of the levels aside from Vanessa's manor. That boded very ill.

After I entered the level and was brought back to the Snatcher's stump, I started by getting rid of the fire spirits in the swamp, which I could do earlier than normal, thanks to already being in possession of the hook shot badge. I got another cutscene where two minions talk about the well and that their boss wanted it to be cleaned. All in all not much of a big change here. I went inside the well, broke the ice that clogged it, and found the time piece. I decided that I would open up the other areas by getting rid of the fire spirits though. After all the death I'd already seen, I was far more uncomfortable than the first time I played the game, that I had to get rid of them.

Subcon Forest Act 3: Toilet of Doom

Yet another level mostly the same, it appeared that the outhouse got possessed differently this time, Hat Kid still had her soul after all. The fight went well enough, I got hit a couple of times, due to forgetting that the shock waves the toilet created, tripped you. The only other thing that change, was that a minion got praised for destroying the wretched bathroom appliance, to which Hat Kid shrugged again.

Subcon Forest Act 5: Mail Delivery Service

This one shared a fate with Mafia Town Act 5, due to Snatcher not being aware of Hat Kid, I could just grab the time piece without even needing to deliver the mail, not that I could have done so without the sprint hat.

Subcon Forest: Red Rift

The red rift showed right before I braced myself for the 4th act of Subcon, this time it was placed near the entrance to the manor just across the bridge where the destroyed tower or something is, it took me a while to realize where it wanted me to go. Awaiting another tougher platforming rift, I went over to the glowing orb and entered. Same deal as before, no explanation necessary, I think. I had to pick up a Minion, a Fire Spirit, a dweller, and of course Snatcher, strangely, no Queen Vanessa. I had only 2 health this time though, and due to the stack and Hat Kid's more sluggish movement that I mentioned earlier, I had quite a bit of trouble getting through the spinning platforms and the gear tower things. Red Kid's shape became even more defined, they looked like a boy with short hair and a coat that flowed sightly when he moved, which was the only way for me to tell what it was.

After some very tight jumps and lots of anxiety on my part, Hat Kid finally managed to get the people she had been holding through the portal at the end. Once again, Red Kid stopped.

“Why won't you just give up and disappear!? Just stop struggling already!” He exited by leaping away again. I got back to the space ship with Hat Kid looking confused. Was he the one who put me and Hat Kid through this traumatic nightmare? If so, why? What did he gain by doing that? With noting left to do, I tried to open act 4 again and this time I could access it. I took a deep breath and braced myself.

Subcon Forest Act 4: Queen Vanessa's Manor

Of course the scariest level in the normal game was also the trigger for an even scarier event in this weird corrupted, or glitched, or whatever you'd call it game. I had already been dreading this level, not only because of the strange and horrifying event that I already had to go through, but also because just like with Mafia Town's Act 6, it was kept for last without me being able to select it prior to completing the others.

I was honestly relieved and disappointed when nothing of real note happened at first, everything went normally. Some Minions once again opened the act by explaining that they saw one of the time pieces fall near the manor and emphasized that they would NOT go over there, under no circumstance, a sentiment that I kind of shared, but had to fight against.

Reluctantly, I made my way across the bridge and through the little ice puzzle to the wide nothingness that stretched out all around the manor of the ice queen. I avoided those nasty ice statues at the front because I remembered that you had to enter the manor from the basement. I sneaked around and the door to the cellar opened and I made Hat Kid jump right in.

Kind of random, but the title card for this act without Hat Kid in it was somehow very eerie, just and empty nothingness through the open door the blue-eyed child would have peeked through if this had been a regular version of the game.

This level had one of the biggest changes to the original, so far most of the levels played the same aside from the invisible Hat Kid thing, but now this invisibility caused something worse to happen, I already found it strange that the red rift appeared before I even had access to the final chapter, the reason was pretty weird.

I maneuvered my way through the house as usual, and almost got a heart attack when I opened the door to the hallway and found the shadowy figure of Queen Vanessa just walking toward the kitchen door. Hat Kid did her little skidding animation upon seeing her, while I almost dropped my controller. This may just be the only instance in the game where I appreciated a person not being able to interact with me, even Hat Kid looked relieved.

This relief didn't last long however, I needed to go to the kitchen to open the door on the left side of the hallway and the door that let to the room with the piano was locked, so I had but one option. I carefully moved Hat Kid past the queen and opened the door to the kitchen, which seemed to make the red-eyed apparition recoil.

“What?” She then followed me through the door and I opened the fridge foolishly, in hindsight I should have waited for her to turn around or leave, as that led to Vanessa being even more confused and upset, which further doomed the already pretty miserable citizens of Subcon. “What is happening?!”

Hat Kid was freaking out and so was I, due to the shadowy mass now trailing the purple-clothed child everywhere I made her go. She followed me up the stairs and into the bedroom, watching as I did what you regularly do in this level. I noticed that she started to shake more and more, I assumed it to be out of fear, but no....it was out of fury. “Stop playing tricks on me, my prince. I know you're here.”

I don't know what delusions she was conjuring up as I got the key and entered the attic. At the top I found and opened the treasure chest and that doomed Subcon.

Remembering all of this sends a chill down my spine as I'm typing this. But I'll promised myself that I'll see ti through. I just hope that I can get some answers to why my game ended up this way.

When Hat Kid opened the chest and claimed the time piece, something else fell out...a wilted, old bouquet, the flowers it was made out of preserved forever under a thick layer of ice. “You came back to me...just to get this back for her, didn't you?” Anguish and spite laced the words of the cold queen, before it switched to sadness and then anger. “I thought you came back to see me, but now I understand...-” Ice started to spread under her and toward Hat Kid, who I had no control over yet again, as she jumped onto the window sill, her eyes wide with fear as the ground started to shake.

“YOU'RE NOTHING BUT A FILTHY CHEATER!!!”

That was the line that made Hat Kid bolt, she jumped through the glass and started to run back in panic, the ice spreading behind her, as I gained control again once she landed on the ground outside. I panicked, I panicked as the view turned around and I could see the ice encase the whole manor, turning it into a huge ice crystal. The ice kept spreading at a rapid pace, and even though I had no sprint cap, Hat Kid still ran, she ran as fast as her little legs could carry her, as all I could see was the ice behind the space traveler.

Adrenalin kicked in and I tried to tilt the camera forward again, but I was forced to watch the ice spread as it covered the trees, the rocks. I almost dropped my controller entirely as an insane cackle echoed through the forest and almost made Hat Kid trip.

I only saw something dark and red run past Hat Kid as she entered the village, I hadn't even realized we had made it there already. The cold magic reached the blue-eyed kid, and once again, she wasn't affected.

Again I was powerless, again I couldn't do anything but watch.

That was when the view switched and I could see dwellers and minions slowly freeze to death, while they flailed around in a panic, and begged for it to stop, but to no avail. Hat Kid started shaking, the cruelty on display in front of her becoming too much to bear. My attention was drawn to the distance. Red and purple flashes lit up the horizon. I didn't want to go there, but I had no choice it seemed.

When Hat Kid arrived the ice was spreading up a shocked and terrified Snatcher, I turned Hat Kid around again as he slowly stopped moving and joined the ranks of the endlessly suffering ice statues. The evil cackle from the queen gave me goosebumps and I flinched when she simply shattered the ice sculpture of the tormented ghost. The insane laughter continued, while Hat Kid sat down and pulled her knees to her chest, before she started to cry. That was when it ended again and I simply got brought back to the ship.

It scares me how good the human is at adapting to things, as I was slowly getting used to these horrifying stuff that I had to bear witness to. I realized that I could see through Hat Kid now, even to me she was slowly turning invisible. Only one more chapter, only Battle of the Birds remained. I dreaded what the corruption would do to my favorite characters of the game, but I found out soon enough.

Battle of the Birds Act 1: Dead Bird Studio

Just like all those times before, I entered the first level of the Chapter. Neither the owls nor the penguins acknowledged Hat Kid, nothing new there, and both directors were to busy with the usual spiel of yelling at each other. The cutscene played and I sprinted up toward the vent, not even trying to talk to either of the directors' subordinates. The level proved no challenge, you know why by now. At the end, I simply found the time piece for the level, maybe because I couldn't interact with DJ Grooves and the Conductor.

Battle of the Birds Act 2: Murder on the Owl Express

The interesting stuff happen from this chapter onward. Murder on the Owl Express was there things got really strange. It started the same way, only that one of the owls was talking with the Conductor and the yellow bird told the express owl that he had to go to front of the train to get something. With nothing better to do, I followed the brown owl and witnessed him getting questioned by the crows. One asked him what his favorite sting of numbers and letters was to which he replied with ABC123.

Another question was about his pet's pet name, Pecko actually made me smile a little, which I appreciated after the ordeal in Subcon. It was a bit strange not being the main character in a game for once, given that all I could do was follow the owl to the front, there he picked up the detective costume and got a call about his uncle's sister, Owlina, visiting.

The owl that I had trailed for the past 2 minutes then went on his way to find the clues on who committed the murder, after he had quite the panic attack, due to the other owl lying in a pool of blood, it seems that my owl friend also couldn't tell that it was a mere set up. The important part was that he then just stopped after leaving the room with the blood and hid in the corner, shaking like a leaf.

Hat Kid just looked at the owl, a bit surprised, she hardly paid any attention to things around her anymore, if it was because of her getting more transparent, or due to the horrible things she had to see, I didn't know. I decided that it was best to just find the files and go form there, so I did. Thanking the game for still letting me pick things up at least, I grabbed the files and after I got the one that implicated the presumed dead owl from the cafeteria, the button that lowered the platform to reach the room where you'd find Hat Kid's file wasn't even there, so I simply walked back to the room the detective owl was in. Hat Kid threw the files toward the owl, which hit him in the head.

I wondered what would show up on the movie recordings for a moment, floating files that made their way through the whole train, more like a horror movie than a thriller. In the end the Conductor asked the owl, who the murderer was and the owl picked one of the suspects at random and just blurted out that the other Express Owls did it, which they then confirmed. That concluded this level, I had to look around for the time piece, and found it outside on the little balcony of the caboose.

Battle of the Birds Act 3: Picture Perfect

This time around Hat Kid landed on the big moon set, and we were following a moon penguin who was tasked with establishing a big fan club for himself. He did the endorsement scenes mostly on his own, I helped with pushing the dog cutout from the fountain, which was literally the only one of those that I could do. The others were just the penguin guessing incorrectly at the card game, and him answering with ranch when it came to the way he preferred his tuna sandwiches.

The best part about the level came from when I noticed that the penguins weren't taking pictures of their comrade, and I found one of their cameras near the area you land when the game starts. For a few minutes I actually forgot the pain and suffering the game had put me and Hat Kid through, and I had fun photographing the little moon penguin. It even showed the fedora-wearing bird in the photos that I took of him, the controls for the camera were the same as with the camera badge. All of this came to a sudden end though when I got the time piece as it popped out of the balloon, and the alert for a red rift appeared.

Battle of the Birds: Red Rift

I found the rift near the end of the Dead Bird Studio, right behind the big plastic award. I wondered how hard it would be this time and wasn't disappointed on the difficulty front, I had ONE health, if I screwed up here I wondered if I could even attempt the level again, or if I ended up killing the characters if I messed up. I really needed to concentrate this time. I made Hat Kid pick up the birds, which consisted of the two directors, an express owl, a moon penguin and a crow.

As you can imagine, moving around with a stack of five birds was really hard, fighting against the constant swaying while landing safely on the platforms was near impossible, given my horrible skills in this game. Red Kid, whose shape was now clear, was even more determined than ever to catch up to the little girl I controlled. I had never seen that character in the game before, at the time I was desperately trying to figure out who he was, not even Hat Kid seemed to remember him.

I was so happy once Hat Kid tossed the flock of birds through the rift, Red Kid stopped once again and only glared at the blue-eyed girl for a second before he left. I breathed a sigh of relief after that stressful rift, and I knew that the area I had to go to next would not be as pleasant as 'Picture Perfect' had been, after all following the red rift was only the untimely demise of the remaining cast, the other rifts before made that abundantly clear. I knew that 'Train Rush' and 'The big Parade' would not end well.

Battle of the Birds Act 4: Train Rush

Train Rush...oh where do I begin with Train Rush. This was by far together with the parade the most traumatizing act in the whole game...I honestly don't even want to open this can of worms, but by now you're probably just as interested to see what happened as I was during all this. This morbid curiosity that led me to continue through this whole ordeal...The human truly is a strange creature, that never seems to be able to know when to quit.

I landed on the balcony of the caboose, and entered after the Conductor told the owl that his next movie was gonna be the bomb in a good way...No Conductor...This bomb was bad on so many levels.

The owl pulled the trigger for the bomb, and immediately after the yellow bird stopped talking before telling him to get to the front to turn it off, he faltered, just like in the movie before. Hat Kid panicked and tried to get the hysterical owl to move, of course it did nothing. In my panic, I thought that maybe I could have Hat Kid switch it off, we could interact with objects so far, so where was at least a chance! I made my way through the exploding train carts, screaming and yelling followed Hat Kid as she ran.

I made it to the front, jumping and trying desperately to press down the switch, which didn't budge in the slightest. I yelled and cursed at the thing, while the clock kept ticking away the life seconds of all owls on board. 10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1 Good bye

“Good bye.” Right before the loud explosion destroyed the only train on the planet, a weak low whisper broke the silence in the room, what followed after I could only tell from the wind shield. The train tilted to the left after the explosion send the wagons in the back off the rail, which caused the others connected to them to get flung off as well. Hat Kid fell toward the left, due the control room digging itself further into the sand, as the wheels spun around to find the traction they had lost.

That was when the shock wave created by the explosion in the back reached the front. The owl, just like Hat Kid, ended up being tossed around by the violently shaking train. He hit the control panel rather hard, a sickening crackling noise barely leveled itself above the cacophony of other noises in the chaos, but I heard his bone snap before he crumbled to the floor. It felt like hours before everything came to a stand-still, it was almost completely silent after what felt like an eternity, broken cables swinging around and fire burning somewhere in the distance were the only things I could hear...that and a creaking noise...How I wished that Hat Kid was able to interact with people.

I gasped when I noticed that the old owl I had presumed to be dead slowly got up hissing in pain. Hat Kid moved over to him, trying to help the wounded bird. He yelped when he tried to move his right wing, and almost slumped back down. He survived! I couldn't believe it!...but of course this wasn't the end of this, this game was cruel and unmerciful. It only toyed with me, making me believe that one of my favorite characters could actually survive.

The same loud creak replaced the quiet hisses of the owl with gurgling noises as a pipe broke off and impaled him. Hat Kid shrieked and started to tremble once she realized what had happened. Blood poured out of the owl's beak and from the huge wound in his abdomen, at least he appeared to have died the moment it hit him, as he didn't struggle to free himself. I felt nauseous when his limp body sank further and further down, impaling the dead bird more and more due to gravity, that was when I finally got my act together and made Hat Kid leave.

The owls didn't have it any better. As I walked around the literal train wreak, I could see that most of them had perished in the explosion, some had been crushed by large objects or debris, while others were looked singed and burnt. One particular owl broke my heart, he tried desperately to drag himself through the hot sand, as he slowly bleed out from a large, gashing injury on his side. I lost control once Hat Kid fell to her knees and cried, once again broken by what happened around her. That was when we finally returned to the ship.

Battle of the Birds Act 5: The big Parade

When I came back to the spaceship after everything once again simply faded to black, I cried together with Hat Kid, I just couldn't help it this time, call me a cry baby, but seeing all of owls meet such a terrible end made me sick even if it is just a game, I really connected with these characters the first time I played the game, so seeing all of this just tore at my heart. The two quarreling bird directors were my favorite characters and now one of them died with Hat Kid and me just a few mere steps away form him, it made my hands shake and I still had one more level to go through, one more level of agony. I was determined to see it through to the end though, I had been through enough of this already, so I deserved some closure. With that in mind I entered Act 5, and prayed that it wouldn't end nearly as bad...You already know what I'm about to tell you though, of course it ended in huge calamity.

Just like with all the levels before it, the first few minutes nothing was wrong, the penguin put on the parade costume and started to roam around the set, while the band of owls followed him. The bad stuff started when the DJ interrupted the parade for a moment and sent the penguin to turn on the pyrotechnics, the floors stayed electrified longer than in the original version, which didn't effect Hat Kid, but made it hard for the other dancing penguins to not get electrocuted.

My unease solidified more and more as I watched them struggle, Hat Kid appeared like she wanted to help the penguins and tried to interact with them, to no avail. The DJ told the star of the show to switch on the fireworks...and that was when things went from bad to worse...far worse.

In the original I already hated those fireworks, that behaved more like homing missiles, but after this I swore to myself that I'd never launch another one of those at new years out of fear that it will trigger this dark memory.

The homing missiles didn't chase after Hat Kid, they instead targeted the penguins and objects closest to them. The very first rocket hit a building, making concrete rain down on the gathering below the stage. Screaming once again echoed through my speakers as penguins got hit and either were terribly injured or got electrocuted by the floors that now had an electric current run through them nonstop, due to one of the missiles hitting one of the buttons.

No matter where I looked, all I could see was pain and suffering, once again I couldn't save Hat Kid's psyche, she had to watch the penguins jolt and twitch as the electricity slowly killed them. One small explosion after another made my skin crawl and my eyes water yet again. Hat Kid screamed out loud as I unfortunately jumped right toward the little area where DJ Grooves stood during the parade, and two missiles were headed right his way. The kid seemed to want to warn the panicking DJ, trying to get his attention, trying everything in her power to stop him from meeting the same fate as his rival and countless others met before him. It was for naught.

The sparkling, highly explosive objects that were meant to spark joy to those that watch them combust in the night sky now only sparked sheer terror as the first one hit the turntables, sending boiling hot shrapnel at the tall penguin's face, he shrieked in pain, as his jacket caught fire from machine breaking around him. For better or for worse the second missile ended his suffering fairly quickly when it stuck him in the back and made him slump over. The missiles continued to wreak havoc, but both Hat Kid and I were paralyzed, unable to turn away form the smoking feathers and the still slightly burning red jacket. The always dancing and moving penguin now laid eerily still, his star-shaped shades were teetering at the end of his beak, threatening to fall to the now empty street below at any second.

We were only brought out of our stupor when the screen went black once again and we found ourselves back in the spaceship. I couldn't even process the events as the little girl suddenly screamed in pain. At first I thought that it was due to all the mental trauma. Damn that red boy! Speaking of the devil.

“You may have saved them, but you won't be able to save yourself!” With that threat, the screen went black once again and I landed in what appeared to be yet another red time rift.

???

This rift was more or less like the others, the first thing I noticed was poor Hat Kid, she was almost completely invisible to me now, I almost had to make my way through it, only knowing by the camera always being centered on her. The blue-eyed girl moved painfully slow now and did the little panting noises no matter if I was standing still or not. I got uneasy, not sure what I should do, but decided to just try and get through the rift. Red Kid spawned again, and this time it happened, this time Red Kid caught me, and Hat Kid did lost her last health and she fell to the ground.

“Finally! Now I can finally exist! Sorry, Hat Kid, but it had to be done.” Red Kid finally got his normal color, he had short black hair, a red jacket, a brown hat, and a white shirt with something printed on it. Some blue, tribal-looking tattoos were painted on his face and he had purple eyes. With strain in her voice, Hat Kid finally named the boy that I had labeled as Red Kid.

“T-Timmy?” He looked shocked for a moment but composed himself.

“So you do remember me! The sidekick you abandoned, and doomed to non-existence!” Hat Kid tried to move and get up, but only fell back down.

“Why? I wasn't the one who did this to you.”

“I just want to live, okay! I've been stuck in endless darkness for so long, while you had a nice, adventure and made lots of friends. I was jealous!-” The sound effect and the little poof, that happened when you switch hats played, and the brown hat, was replaced by Hat Kid's iconic top hat.

“All I had to do was steal the thing that linked you to this world, that made you the main character. Now that I have it, you'll fade away and end up in obscurity just like I was before. Now I can go on adventures and make friends. Don't worry, I won't forget you...but the others will.” With that he jumped away and left the girl on the floor.

This was it? This was how this gruesome game ended...with Hat Kid fading into nothingness? Again where was nothing I could do to help, I had to watch as she slowly faded completely. I opened the menu to find something, anything that could help. That was when the green badge the badge seller gave me caught my eye. I hurried to equip it and now it did something. Hat Kid seemingly faded back in a bit, she regained all 4 hit points and her movement was back to normal.

I ran through the parkour, determined to confront Timmy and get Hat Kid's hat back. Of course I felt a little bad for the poor boy, especially now that I know that he was scrapped in beta, maybe someone in the team put this story line in because they were upset that he was cut...what a sadistic asshole, making the player and Hat Kid go through that!

The rift ended on a huge round platform, that practically screamed 'Boss Battle', and I was right. As soon as I got there, Timmy opened a portal that showed the spaceship and the planet in the background. Timmy noticed Hat Kid approach and ran toward the portal, ready to jump in.

“You won't stop me!” He yelled, but the purple-clothed girl was having none of it, she send the hook shot and grabbed his jacket, pulling back. He growled and thus I had to battle the upset boy.

This battle was like fighting Hat Kid from the normal game, if she were an enemy. He could run very fast, due to the sprint hat, and he could slow down time with the time-stop hat. Thankfully the green badge gave me some health recovery every 30 seconds or so, which at least gave me a fighting chance, I still struggled to stay alive. I'm really bad at describing this battle, sorry, but everything just turned into a blur as I was so focused on the fight. I didn't want to lose and potentially kill Hat Kid, and have her drown in darkness forever.

I beat him after what felt like at least half an hour, and he skidded across the floor much like Mustache Girl does at the end of the battle in chapter 5. Hat Kid walked over and retrieved her top hat from the beaten Timmy, who started to fade, now that he had lost the hat.

Now I was back in control, two choices presented themselves, either leave Timmy here to fade into obscurity again, or take him through portal together with Hat Kid. As I said before, I felt sorry for him, he just wanted to exist, live and have fun, go on adventures and make friends. His actions were horrible and caused a lot of pain and trauma, but I felt bad, even though he was technically just a video game character that was scrapped.

I picked him up and just like the other characters I threw him through the portal, jumping in with Hat Kid right after. The screen faded to black and I ended up back at the title screen. I switched the game off right after, but not before selecting new game to see if it had returned to normal, which I think it has now...the only difference was the option the game gave me after I selected a file...

Start a new game as

Hat Kid Timmy