#this is the story of how me and her first met ingame

[cakeebly]

Hello everyone!

Thanks lots for the support for my Cassette Beasts Partner VS Archangel (+ Averevoir) series! It is a lot of fun and I love this game so much. I’m playing the DLC now, so expect something coming out for that!

Anyway, this post is just me rambling about the details I put into each piece. Some have more details than others, but all of them have an equal amount of love put into them!

I’ll go in-order of how I met each companion in game!

———

Kayleigh:

For Kayleigh, Meredith, and Viola I re-used the same bricks from the train station and the background to match how they are in game!

All (except for Barkley’s) have a quote from the archangel overlayed as well. Some are easier to see than others.

But for Kayleigh, all the details are in her posing! Her pose is akin to how battles start, with the characters pointing their cassette players at the enemy before transforming.

But her pose also sort of represents her GIVING. She gives you your first cassette, she always is the one giving (which ties into her story with Mourningstar). You do not take from me, you only give.

Also Dorian’s death splatter in infront and bellow Kayleigh in the foreground haha.

———

Eugene:

The background is Mammon’s lair, of course! And he is in a fighting pose, ready to bash in some landlords!

The detail here I want to point out is how I created Mammon. It was really difficult since Mammon is the most abstract, and I have no idea what’s going on for 90% of him, but I am proud of how I made the face and the nose!

I used USD president / USA figures that are on USD to make the face and the nose! I did cutting and editing so it’s more pixelated. I am struggling to remember which specific notes I used, but they’re from two different USD.

———

Meredith:

It might be hard to tell, but my friend spotted it when I showed him this one, there is a record behind Nowhere Monarch! Since Meredith’s quest is about the record, I thought it was a nice touch. I also used Meredith’s posing ingame for her pose here.

Can you tell I didn’t want to draw the second eye?

———

Felix:

I loved Felix’s story so much, hits home as an artist.

The alter posts are in the background here!

Felix is also the only one not holding their cassette tape, since Felix wanted to apologize to Kuneko. He doesn’t really want to fight her, his hand out to her in apology. Used his sad expression ingame for his expression here.

Also Kuneko has glowing nails / claws just because I wanted to. And multiple kunai cause that’s cool.

———

Viola:

Viola my beloved, the first one I drew!

Her’s is a lot simpler, mostly because I wasn’t expecting to make this into a series and I just wanted to draw her. But I still loved how I drew Goodfellow here!

The book is open, reading their stories from Shakespeare’s plays.

There’s also spotlight on both Robin and Viola’s faces! Since that’s how Robin introduced himself and to show how they’re characters from plays!

———

Barkley:

Barkley is the only one not to fight an Archangel in their quest, so there is not glitching effects here! The background is, of course, the cave the fight takes place in.

There’s bones in the background, a leash and treats on the floor.

And of course, Barkley’s bootleg cassette! Barkley’s cassette is also the only tape I did not draw the fully remastered version of for the sticker. This was an accident both in the drawing, and in my game. I forgot to remaster it before fighting Aleph 😅.

I also didn’t meet Barkley immediately because for some reason I thought he was a captain? For the trial quest? I am not sure why I thought that.

———

And that is all for now! I am planning to do two oc drawings for Cassette Beasts, a DLC drawing, and probably an Aleph / final battle drawing!

But I’m not sure how long that will take.

Thanks for all of the love on the individual drawings!! Means the world

[siren-serenity]

ingame voicelines 🌈

what would they say about you? would they murmur sweet compliments or chuckle at your silly mistakes? in which yuu asks these strange students of night raven college about you: and is surprised to find out that they have lovers?

characters: cater diamond, jamil viper, idia shroud, dire crowley, gn!reader warnings: - spoilers for chapter 4! - reader is not yuu! a/n: feedback is appreciated!

"hey hey hey! how are you, yuu? *smiles* have you seen y/n around? i need them for this super cute magicam trend! it's for couples exclusively so i totally need to get y/n and i into this one!...you said they were at the library? okay, thanks!"

"hello yuu *grins* i'm currently on my way to my date with y/n but you said you wanted to ask me something?....'what do our dates look like?' hahaha funny story! so y/n loves sweets, like- seriously loves them. we met through trey since y/n works part-time at his family's bakery. i was so charmed by her beauty that i asked to court them ASAP! they rejected me but gave me a challenge: make them fall in love with me within a month! luckily, with my charming looks and sweet mouth, they accepted!"

"omg look yuu! i need someone to rant to, lmao, so you don't mind if i grab you for a quick five secs? *pauses before getting a nod from yuu* great!! look at this beautiful gift that y/n bought for me the other day! when you press the pendant, it lights up and sends the other person a message! it means you miss them. *the bracelet blinks* OH MY SEVENS!! y/n is so sweet! they're in class but they're able to find time to reply!! *heart eyes* see yuu? y/n is the best s/o anyone could ask for!"

"hello yuu. do you mind tasting this dish? i need to know if i have used the correct ratio of flavoring to balance out the spices since y/n can't handle those...huh? you're asking who is y/n to me? *smiles* they are my lover of almost three years and tomorrow marks our anniversary."

"hmm? 'how did we meet' you ask? well, y/n was actually kalim's fashion designer when it came to the important events he and his parents had to attend sometimes. i met them when they were designing his outfit and i accidentally spilled hot curry on the garment. believe me *chuckle* i was beyond horrified but they were ever so sweet when they accepted my apology."

"oh! prefect yuu, how may i help you? *listening* so you're asking me for dating advice? got your eye on someone in nrc? *laughs* well, my advice is to always maintain communication and don't let things become misunderstood. i learnt that lesson the hard way after my...incident back in scarabia. y/n had to sit me down and i really just- let loose. they comforted me, gave my over-emotional self a quick reality check and by the time the sun was setting, i felt my heart get lighter. *gives yuu a gentle smile* i don't know what i'd do without y/n."

"hahaha! take the L, losers! i got a s/o and y'all dont' LMAOO...*jumps in surprise and shrieks* y-yuu! w-when did y-you arrive? *listening* o-oh? you h-heard everything that i-i said?....shit."

"lmao you're asking me how to get a s/o? newsflash, they came to me! not the other way around! i honestly don't know what part of me did they fall for, but after being together for so long, i don't regret saying 'yes' to their proposal."

"h-huh?! you're a-asking me about w-what do our d-d-dates look like? erm- well, most of the time, we game. like i swear to the sevens, y/n has a magic hand when it comes to the ten-pull summons! like i'm playing this game called we-can't-defeat-the-super-evil-boss-with-the-power-of-friendship-and-love and in just the FIRST SINGLE PULL, they brought home the rarest gacha card ever?! bro they are my personal cheat card!"

"why, good morning to my favorite magicless- I MEAN hello yuu! how can i help you? be quick because i have to get this drink to y/n before it gets cold! see? i'm so generous to my darling, they are so honored to have the one and only me as their lover!"

"where did i meet them? well, at night raven college of course! they were hired as the lecturer for developing 'unique magic' and i fell in love with their uniqueness of their own *laughs heartily* oh, i was such a fool in love."

"hmm...'what do i like most about y/n' you ask? *in deep thought* well, of course i love y/n completely...it's really hard to choose just one...*snaps his fingers and smile* oh! we have this cute ritual every weekend where on the days that our jobs feel like too much, y/n and i will make what you 'youngsters' call a pillow fort! i'll summon some romance books and y/n will make some quick snacks and we'll just read together. sometimes, we'll re-enact some of the book scenes *coughs shyly* BUT we'll not talk about that."

[serenofroses]

Tell me about Jazz and Tau’s relationship?

How did they fall for each other?

I've been meaning to answer this the other day but got occupied with things. but rest assure I haven't forgotten! @magicallulu7 :> I am happy to receive asks about Jazz and Tau. (I think I'm the only one have this rarepair within this swtor community asdfghjkl)

As always, everything I talked about are heavy canon divergent and I don't really follow a lot of ingame canon version.

Ah yes, friends to lovers trope. I live for this.

Jazz and Tau met when they were teenagers at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant a few months before Sacking event took place. Jazz was a new arrival joining the Order under circumstances as the result of head trauma. The first few days she stayed at the Temple's medbay, she felt like a complete stranger due to her disability and being half sith pureblood as she was left out by fellow young students.

Ven Zallow and Master Oteg noticed this and decided to introduce Jazz to someone who can be able to communicate with her and understand her--which led to Tau and Jazz meeting for the first time. Jazz's mood lifted up the second Tau sign to her and spoke slowly for her. The only reason the Jedi Masters choose this was because Tau had experience with deafness and sign languages due to her father being deaf aswell.

They became best friends (alongside with Blizz, T7-01 and a couple of other Jedi).... and unaware the Force Bond was developing between the two. Sacking of Coruscant hasn't soured their friendship as the two helped each other and recover from the trauma of their own. Jazz felt bad about what happened to Tau when she defended her from the Sith while trying to escape, but Tau reassured her it wasn't her fault.

Several years later, their friendship grew stronger despite Tau completed her trials first and left to go into undercover mission while Jazz remained on Odessan to pursue her Trials, though there was feelings for the other started to linger but neither said anything because they believed one doesn't feel the same way.

But, they were both so wrong because the two of them reunited for Jedi Knight story arc (hello chosen ones), since that those same feelings resurfaced. Neither of them knew what to do. Tau cares deeply for Jazz and does everything for her, including fixing her hearing implants, whereas Jazz was mentally screaming about her this because she has a huuuuge lesbian crush on Tau since they started to hang out.

It's doable they began to fall in love for the other around the time when Tau had to rescue Jazz from Darth Angral at the end of chapter 1.

[wherestarsarestillasleep]

second batch of p3p impressions, just met aigis. talk to me abt persona games

-Akihiko is so autism. “hey girl did you know the breaststroke is the most efficient swimming method due to ababaabba” “i have no interest in this information.” autism to autism confrontation

ALSO why is his social link a different arcana than his persona?? Ik in the base game he didn’t have a social link and still had an associated arcana but like, Minato also had a Magician slink and they still gave that to Junpei

also it’s funny that the stat requirement to start his slink has absolutely nothing to do with his own standards

-persona games are so fucking fun and addictive. it’s impressive they’re split into two very different kinds of gameplay and they both manage to be pretty evenly fun and engaging. im way more optimisation brained with this one than 4 and 5 and you can restore your whole partys hp and sp for a fraction of the amount of money you naturally make exploring tartarus and apparently originally if you went to the ground floor tired party members would leave but i guess not in portable so like. It’s just completely viable and optimal to do everything possible in tartarus on one ingame date only in a huge chunk so that’s what i’ve been doing. i was in there so fucking long. the dark "”hour””

-Okay so in persona 5 for the first arc, maybe also the second, you are introduced to ryuji and he fucking rocks. he’s so cool he’s set up to be a really great character i would love a lot and for the duration of kamoshidas palace he is that. also in persona 5 for most of the phantom thieves they have a cool plot focused on them for the dungeon you recruit them and then the writing has little idea what to do with those characters for the rest of the game. the result is ryuji is awesome for one maybe two dungeons and then is replaced by an imposter because his main story focus is over and the priority with his character then becomes making him fit better into the Persona Funny Pervert Bro Character trope which mostly fucking sucks and makes ryuji mostly fucking sucks

Junpei is presumably the character that started that archetype for yosuke and most-of-the-game-ryuji to follow, despite this for the first while he highlights the good parts of that archetype the funny bro who is your friend half and then it got harder and harder to continue liking him as i progressed and then the beach scene was predictably dogshit and added him to the very large pile of persona characters who i have to mentally overwrite significant things about in order to like them

When you first meet him Yukari assumes he’s hitting on you but it seems like no he was genuinely just being nice and concerned about a new transfer student and his social link continues being that he is your bro and he even offers to be your wingman for other dudes with zero jealousy and then his main story dialogue is. not that. And like. I assume he has the same july jealousy arc with the male protag because it is mostly about him generally feeling insecure and directionless but it Really Fucking Looks Worse with femc route when Junpei has more than one case of dialog about how He Should Be The Leader Cause He’s A Strong Man And You Are Girls it looks like THAT’S the main reason he’s so pissy for a while. he does earnestly apologise though. i still want to like him but i hate persona

-YUKARI though yukari is good i like yukari more and more i still haven’t seen as much of her link as some others but she’s thoughtful and outspoken. i dont have as many words to say about her but i like her a lot and that she takes initative on things and called out mitsuru and shuji directly and also apologised for it later as well. also i was very confused for a while why she couldn’t take a single hit when she had the same endurance as Minako that was because she was tired.

-Mitsuru is so cool and pretty and epic. that is all. maybe if you were a Genius she might spend time with you. Fuuka is my friend :). Akihiko is my favourite probably.

Currently Yukari is maybe the least useful party member and fell behind a bit but i like the look of her final skills in the end. Junpei for the last 2-3 boss fights has been almost exclusively rotating buffing everyone else also it is great that he can take a hit. Mitsuru is great for big damage and big heals and I like that Akihiko can passably fill any role you want him to be in at any point

It’s so cool that persona has both constant party members in your actual party members and a constantly rotating party in your personas because fusing newer higher level ones is much more likely than levelling your personas quickly enough to keep up. I made Oberon a while ago and he’s mad good, he’s still statistically up to par with higher level personas and with the skills i have on him he can take any role. in 4 and 5 i didnt pay all that much attention to exploring beyond the basic mechanics but taking deeper advantage of all the very many gameplay options they give you is really satisfying because persona games are difficult enough going out of your way to do all that leaves you well equipped without trivialising, at least this early into the game

-been trying to do all elizabeths requests but 1. i just missed exactly one on accident 2. fuck the golden shadows im not doing that ive managed to enter combat with exactly ONE hitting it from behind and then it had advantage and ran away immediately within battle?? 3. the requests where you get her an item from someone on a specific date i thought that was just the FIRST available date so i missed a lot of those... Also it sucks that enemies only drop items for her requests after you accept the request so I had to go back down floors

-odd that pharos main story link is a couple lower than sees main story link

-winning the low bar of least homophobic persona game. ik i just got past the part with the transphobic scene but i guess they removed it from either portable or femc’s route so I haven’t actually seen that

[hellfireconfessions]

since everyone is confessing their stories and their experience on hellfire, after abit of messing around and laughing at the sheer stupidity of some of these groomers im gonna tell EVERYONE what only a very very small handful of hellfire knows about.

Enviosa, as alot of older members know me and her 'dated' for a little bit, this relationship lasted around 6 months and some people found our relationship cute and super loving which was infact not what was happening, at first i thought it was love at first meet and her seemed to naturally keep finding eachother in game and eventually became friends and now that i look back on it i just feel like i was preyed upon and targeted. i was and am a VERY mentally unstable person i struggle with a multitude of mental disorders and i will admit i was at my lowest point when i met enviosa. at first she gave me all the attention and love i had always craved as a love deprived kid i grew up in a very troubled household and the only way i could ever receive any sort of 'validation' was simply me being groomed by older men online, and of course history repeats itself.

enviosa love bombed me completely trapping me, at first i thought we were simply affectionate friends giving eachother the attention and love we both wanted and needed but i quickly learned i was being stringed along into a very serious relationship being completely wrapped around her finger i did whatever she wanted i did whatever i could to please her and keep her i will admit, my behaviors were toxic but i was extremely mentally troubled 14 yr old and im expected to be the perfect lover? she was 17 going onto 18 she knew the maturity difference she knew what she was doing there is no excuse.

with my toxic traits came extreme jealousy that i still struggle with, i would begin to get to angry my vision would quite literally go white from pure jealousy i remember physically puking from it causing me to lash out at my friends by distancing myself from everyone i knew, i was no longer a member of hellfire i was entirely dedicated to enviosa and her needs and wants and she js happened to play on hellfire.

whenever my jealousy would get bad and i would send her sad paragraphs about how i was feeling actively communicating in a healthy manner instead of trying to help me and find solutions and listen to me i was simply guilt tripped and basically told i was "wrong" and would end up with me apologising for communicating how i felt.

when some close friends found out about our age gap i began to lie and tell people i was 15 turning 16 and it turns out enviosa was already telling people i was 15 turning 16 before i even started doing it, we had literaly conversations about how she wouldnt be able to "touch me for a couple years" once she turned 18 and mentioned "well you consent to everything i say and do" im legally UNABLE to consent? hello?

lets not forget reese, me and envi were having a rough patch (again) and she was either actively STREAMING our conversation to HER FRIENDS a very PRIVATE conversation which was once again about my horrible issues with jealousy and in the midst of believing i was about to lose the 'love of my life' i began to receive very hateful and genuinely horrible dms from reese + another person i will not name. i will be honest and admit enviosa manipulated all three of us making me out to be some monster so i do not entirely blame their actions but they are still accountable for what they said and did.

i would LOVE to also mention how obsessive she was with me communicating how i always had to communicate how i felt and what was making me feel like that ect ect but they would NEVER EVER communicate how they felt till it was the breaking point and would get mad at me cuz she needed space and to js leave her alone perhaps tell me? just mayybbee tell me instead of using INGAME BODY LANGUAGE to tell u how u feel LMAO, in the end of our relationship they began to just treat me like i was nobody the affection was suddenly gone and she was super dry with me i would write literally PARAGRAPHS abt how i feel like our relationship is dying and i feel like u dont care abt me anymore and wanna know what i was met with?? "ok lol…well i do so idk what u want me to do??" she couldnt make time to atleast tell me shes busy or lmk like "hey im gonna be doing this" and would js bascially make me feel bad for missing her.

!!!MASSIVE TW!!! At the end of it all she was super sudden and said i would never listen to her when she voiced her concerns, she was complaining abt things i had done the ENTIRE relationship so i didnt fully understand why and would often forget these things that bugged her and i will admit, it was toxic on my part. she had me begging and begging since it was just a "break" and not an actual break up and she practically led me on as i would ask her if there was still a chance and all i got was "idk" then claimed she didnt wanna say yes cuz she didnt wanna give me false hope as if a idk isnt giving me false hope? after i met my current best friend who was previously wrapped around her finger like reese and i were, she helped me come to the realization that SHE was the problem and not me being and it sent me into a rage, being an angry teen i sent her a longg text abt how this was all her fault and a lot of not so nice things

which i understand wasnt very mature and was toxic but i was once again guilt tripped as she threatened me with her death, saying "ill have to go clean up the blood" which sent me into a spiral i begged her so much to get help and not to do that, "heh i guess its my fault :]" type shi, im still unsure if she was lying or not but if she was actually trying to end her own life i regret trying to help her and i know wishing death upon someone is horrible but she has traumatized me in numerous ways and put me into one of the LOWESTS points in my life.

but thats my hellfire story, i know many people within hellfire didnt enjoy me and thought i was rude ect ect but to those that were my actual friends and to my one freind (my pookie) thank you for making hellfire enjoyable while it lasted.

DISCLAIMER i was toxic, i know i was i wasnt entirely in the right but i was and still am just a kid. reese isnt entirely to blame in that situation it was horrible what they said but again they were lied to.

.

[onlywayleftisup]

YAS THIS DA GOOD SHIT PLS WRITE MORE I WANT TO READ MORE GOOD STORIES ABOUT GOOD KIDS

also forever laughing @ yoln and his kiyahahahas

Meeting Him

I met him on a day where the sky is bluer than summer’s and the sky shines bright enough to dazzle. Appearing behind me out of air, eyes sharp behind the glasses of his spectacles, I had to squint to see him properly because everything he wore screams bright.

“Are you lost?” He asked me.

Lost? I had been to Saint Haven before. I know the streets. Lost in navigational sense, I certainly am not. Feeling lost in life, however, is a different matter. But I am sure this stranger did not mean the latter and I would not burden him with that.

“Um…” I started. The stranger perked up with an expectant face. This is bad. So dallying and answer him. “Um…! I- I am not lost…” His figure settled into a relaxed position but his face showed a hint of being troubled. I could almost hear him berating himself for troubling a stranger.

… Maybe that was just me.

“Um,” I felt a bit useless to start my sentences with an ‘Um’ but I had to do it in order to gain this stranger’s attention. “I may not be lost in directions, but I am currently lost on where to stay for tonight. Do you know which inn is better in terms of quality and rates?” I asked and I am glad for it because he looks relieved that he did not bother someone who does not require any help.

“In Saint Haven?” He asked to confirm, to which I replied in the positive. “Ah… I may not know much because I don’t frequent in Saint Haven usually- but,” he added in a rush, “In my experience, Saint is a good inn. It’s only 5 golds per night and 3 golds per meal. A bit pricey but for Saint Haven’s rates I’d wager it’s the most affordable one.”

For a city like this, that is cheap. But by the jiggle of my pouch, the most I could afford is a stale bread and a night out in the stables. I spent most of the few I had to travel here. I had the suspicions that the carriageman overcharged me but it is too late to do anything about it now and I was desperate. I could not blame him for taking advantage of that. But that still did not stop the tendrils of self-hatred that started to crawl its way up onto me.

Worthless sister!

A failure!

I closed my eyes and willed that memory away. Not now. Especially not in front of a stranger.

“-iss?” My attention snapped back to reality. The stranger’s brow frowned in concern as he peered at me. “Miss, are you alright?”

…Yikes.

“Yes!” I cut. “Yes, I’m alright!” He did not look convinced. I sweated. I was about to insist further before my eyes fell on the noticeboard behind the gentleman. Before I knew it, my mouth has already opened to ask, “Do they post bounties on that?”

The stranger looked taken aback with the sudden change of topic but by following my gaze and the look of understanding that fell on his face, I reckoned he caught on and tactful enough to not mention my financial status in public.

As we walked to the noticeboard (or more to I rushed towards it and he followed behind me), he replied to my last question. “Yes they do post bounties on this. The latest one has been posted by the Court Sorceress Kayleen about a cyclop that has been terrorising the villagers. There has been reports on missing people that has ventured into that place. Lots of adventurers have gone taking up this challenge but noone has been successful to bring it down yet.” Taking the bounty off the board, I nodded. This is it. First step to self-retribution.

“I’m going.”

“Miss, I disagree.”

“I have to disagree on your disagreement.”

“Miss-” The gentleman stumbled a step on a small rock in his rush to stop me. “That place,” he huffed, “is dangerous! At least let me come with you.” He pled.

It’s an angel sent down from Heavens.

“Okay.”

—

“Kyahahahahahahah!”

Thud.

“Hyahahahahahah!!”

Smash.

Roars dying down to wet gurgles.

…

Somehow this angel did not sound angelic anymore.

—

“That was a big success!” I cheered after we delivered the cyclop’s eye for the Court Sorceress as a proof. “Isn’t it, Mr. Bjolne! You’re so strong!”

Bjolne looked sheepish. “Ah no, I’m not. I was just in a very… advantageous situation against that cyclop.” He then took out a gold pouch and handed it to me. “This is your share of that bounty.” I took the weight of it and gave a frown.

“This is too heavy.” I announced and gave him a suspicious look. “This is heavier than 25 golds. Much much more heavier than 50 golds even.”

“I insist.”

So he did gave more!

“I resist!”

“Miss Pugnasonic-” he started. We both gave a pause after that. The flashback of telling him my current name was too embarassing to recall. My cheeks gave a flush. “I insist.”

“No thank you! How many did you put in there?”

He looked troubled. “… 2000 golds?”

I can feel my head started to spin at that revelation.

“I insist.”

“No thank you…! I resist!”

…

As we went back and forth, the cycle of fate started to spin to our oblivious state.

[macgyvertape]

So how’s Trials of Osiris now?

I’ve been wanting to do a follow up to on my essay “Trials of Osiris has been corrupting Guardians with Darkness“, and I figured no better time than when Bungie made a lot of changes to Trials gameplay.

No leak info or spoilers beyond week 1 of s15, this season’s Trials weapon is available in game from turning in last seasons bounty. I’ll cite like (this) the name of the lore, it can all be found on ishtar-collective since I’m having issues with links.

 to recap: before Stasis and before Savathun!Osiris, Trials was a corrupting influence related to the Darkness, affecting both Ghost and Guardian, and driving them try to perma-kill each other.

What I find fun about this storyline, is that it has shifted from being about creepy unknowable Darkness into a story about the clash between Guardian’s use of darkness powers vs faith in the Light, that’s clearly meant to continue the themes from Seasons of the Drifter and Opulence. Bungie isn’t going to put this plotline ingame, so IMO it’s fine all the lore implications are obscure.

thesis: in universe characters directly list the obvious parallels for Shayura “"You're no better than the Dredgen ," he says ... "…or Malphur ."” (SW, Shayura's Wrath) but also Shayura is set up as a foil to Aunor Mahal.

Since Season of the Chosen where the Trials Armor lore detailed Shayura’s descent into some degree of madness from 3 points of view; the lore has mentioned that while Savathun!Osiris is interested by guardians being corrupted by Darkness they aren’t the cause of it, and didn’t know of it till Saint-14 brought it up (In Memoriam Shell) (IH, Igneous Hammer).

Basically Shayura’s belief that the Traveler wants her to do this, and her willingness to kill Guardian is her own (PAB, Pyrrhic Ascent Bond) (Shayura's Wrath). Although there is confirmed final death for a Hunter in Shayura’s Wrath lore, it is implied that she has killed an unknown amount of Stasis users “Fragments of Ghost shells are scattered atop the console” (PAB)

There is an additional trophy “the Human skull sitting in the middle of her command console. Its hollow eye sockets stare back at her” (SW) following Shayura’s attempted murder patterns, I’m guessing that skull was her fireteam member Aisha who is one of the few humans mentioned in the context of Shayura’s breakdown, and who “betrayed” her by using stasis. Further evidence would be that Shayura’s story was told from the 3 points of view of her fireteam: the only point of view since the Shayura Wrath lore has been from that of Reed-7(Reeds Regret).

side note: it doesn’t seem like Shayura is treating her Ghost well either. “A Ghost reduced to little more than a bare sphere of metal, deprived of a shell” (SW)

Dredgen Yor:

It’s hard to make direct comparisons with Dredgen Yor, most of his lore is from D1, and contradicts in points where it seems like it was handled by different writers. The other point of similarity besides being infamous and reviled for murder of other Guardians is the lore being clear that they suffer from the emotional toll of endless war.

Shayura:

"Can Guardians be unfit for duty?" Shayura wonders aloud, her voice muffled by the tabletop.

"I mean…" Aisha replies. Her hesitation has a palpable sting. (PAG, Pyrric Ascent Gloves)

Yor:

To Rezyl, the Captain was already an afterthought. ... Rezyl’s attention had shifted to the unknown, but inevitable, battles to follow.... Rezyl was growing tired of small wins, however meaningful. (Rezyl Azzir - War Without End)

It’s not the same emotion, but it’s not often Guardians doubts in their role in such a way. You could say Shayura is the Light version of what Dredgen Yor was, but while the Darkness encouraged Yor (Ghost Fragment: Darkness 4), I HIGHLY doubt the traveler is encouraging Shayura the way she thinks it is. (Pyrrhic Ascent Boots)

Taking the the ending words of "I killed an agent of the Darkness," Shayura says, ... .Bile rises in the back of Shayura's throat."They come in many forms." (SR). I don’t think its much of a stretch to think the lines refer to her as an agent of darkness as well.

Shin Malphur:

Shin Malphur and Dredgen Yor, have a fair amount of parallels, especially considering Shin Malphur = Dredgen Vale twist, but it’s unclear how widely known that twist is in universe and if that is what the dead hunter was referring to.

Shayura’s Wrath item text “"But here you are. This is truly a beginning…" —Shin Malphur” (SW) parallels Dredgen Yor’s last words “But here you are. This is truly an end” (Ghost Fragment: The Last Word 4)

it’s heavily implied Shin is speaking to Shayura, but do I think Shin Malphur would be helping Shayura? Not unless Bungie is planning on changing his characterization yet again. There are obvious surface parallels: two solar wielding vigilantes who hunt Guardians who wield Darkness and love extra-judicial murder (Source: too many pages to count where Shin talks about culling those who have gone too far into the darkness). But Shayura’s zealot belief in the Traveler and her crusade against darkness wielders are the opposite of Shin’s beliefs of using both Light and Dark:

“the building of a new world, one where absolutes cower to the might of compromise, where Light tempers dark and the dark opens new insight into the Light's many undiscovered gifts.” (Nothing Ends: The Long Goodbye)

“the shadows of dark power that tempt us are not inherently evil. In fact, they are simply another tool to be used if we hope to bend the unknown to our will, an impossible feat we must learn to master if we wish to push back the ever-aggressive tide of extinction.“ (Nothing Ends: The Liar's Trap)

I think in the end Shin Malphur is more of a contrast than a comparison to Shayura, I’d also be suprised if Bungie brings him back as they’ve had him give his retirement twice now (Letters from a Renegade, Nothing Ends)

Aunor Mahal:

both are/were members of the Praxic Order, both strongly oppose Guardians using power of darkess.

A key difference is Aunor still has faith in the Vanguard while Shayura does not (Pyrrhic Ascent Hood). Shayura is what the fandom who only listened to Drifter’s side of the story thought Aunor was, someone more than ready to kill Guardians and Ghosts.

While Shayura only consideres execution, Aunor has faith in rehabilitation

“You're costing us Ghosts—means to fight enemies of humanity. These Guardians represent more than potential Dredgens” (The Warlock Aunor: The Salt Mines).

Following the Trend of other corrupted Guardians like Sola or Trestin, whom Aunor confrots; I’m expecting to see Aunor eventually confront Shayura, it seemed implied in the Igneous Hammer lore.

Side note:

Even before Guardians used stasis, its clear there was a ramp up from when Gambit appeared with Guardian’s going too far with the darkeness to the Guardian and ghost corruption seen in Trials

 “will face Praxic justice. Perhaps exile. We haven't had to lock anyone up in decade“(Message from Aunor VIII)

to

"It's affecting Ghosts now too. We should bring them back to the City. This makes five." (Temptation's Hook). “ You think she'll be lucky number…  how many are we up to now? At this point, the only chance I'm giving them is the chance to kill me first” (The Messenger)

Shayura mentions she was locked up and escaped (SW), and it’s clear that the Praxic Order is stretched thin

“Aunor scowled. She was perhaps the most diligent of the Hidden ...Each time they met, she seemed a little gaunter than before. A little testier" (IH)

Aunor’s morals and loyalty to the Vanguard are some of her defininging characteristics and I don’t see that changing. But if this storyline continues in Witch Queen then I see things hitting a breaking point.

[eyepatchdate]

I saw this bouncing around my dash and decided to fill it out myself for fun :)  I decided to not double-list any games, and I tried to mix up the companies I used too so that the list would be more unique.

Long post, so I’m doing a readmore for my longwinded part lol.

(read more)

Favorite Game: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords - I could talk about this game forever.  How it tears apart the Star Wars universe from within, how it creates a compelling story while challenging the usual themes, etc.  I could talk for ages about the characters and how their motivations slot in place, and how this game lends itself to interpretation and analysis alongside roleplay.  It’s just a wonderful game, one I deeply love and will always love.  It’s a game that isn’t afraid to have you talk to other characters for twenty or thirty minutes at a time and honestly I’m always riveted at every line.  This game deserves the cult fanbase it has, but I think there’s a lot the fanbase misses in appreciating this game.  (Note...gameplay is a little janky and a community made mod restores a lot content that was cut before shipping-the game wasn’t properly finished).

Best Story:  Fallout New Vegas - It’s the setting that makes the story here, and all the moving pieces and factions alongside the main conflict really make this game stand out.  There’s so many little pieces to find along the way in the world and the way the main quest splits based on who you want in power feels important--and you are choosing a future for this whole region.

Favorite Art Style: The Witness - This game is peacefully wonderful with its visuals.  There are wonderful nature scenes and nests of wires and panels spreading in various parts of the island that are fascinating to look at.  The environment is half of the gameplay in most areas, so it’s important to look around even though exploration is not really the gameplay.  You find puzzles in the world, even in nature, and it’s fascinating.  The colors are bright and beautiful.  There is even a map in the middle of the island inside of a lake that helps you track your progress if you notice it (it isn’t like a normal ‘map’).

Favorite Soundtrack: Shin Megami Tensei IV - I love video game soundtracks, but SMTIV is something special.  The music booms in ways that make you really understand the atmosphere of the world, and there’s a great mix of different kinds of tracks for different places.  I love the tracks for the other worlds you enter, and the themes of the different routes are done so well.  Some of the music draws from past SMT games, but the remixes done for this game really are stunning to me, and there’s so many fantastic original tracks.

Hardest Game: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream - I love this game but I literally never touch it without a walkthrough, which is why it gets to be the hardest game on the list, despite being a point and click adventure game lol.  Also just emotionally this game is challenging too, but I definitely mean this more in terms of getting a ‘perfect run’.

Funniest Game: The Stanley Parable - Trying to make this list has taught me that I don’t really play many ‘funny games’.  I don’t know if a game where multiple endings demand that you kill yourself should count as a ‘funniest game’, but it is also a game where the narrator tells you to stare at a fern and memorize its features, so....it counts.

Game I Like that is Hated: RWBY Grimm Eclipse - I’ve been playing this game since it was in early access and have loved it the whole time.  I find the gameplay soothing and fun, and I like playing the different characters.  It’s a game I play to chill out and just enjoy some fun battle mechanics.  It’s a fun game and I’ve spent over 100 hours in it, so I hope I like it, lol.

Game I Hate that is Liked:  Nier Automata - Neither this game’s gameplay or story impress me, and the fact that you have to replay basically the same stuff from a more boring-to-play-character’s pov in order to SEE all of the plot is a huge damper on the experience.  The story, to me, someone who engages with a lot of robot-focused fiction, is far from impressive or new, and it hardly engages with genre specifics at all, let alone in a new or interesting way.  I view this game as ‘a story with robots in it’ rather than ‘a story about robots’, which, to me, is a detriment.

Underrated: Nevermind - This game is amazing and very unheard of--and when it is heard of, it has been marketed incorrectly.  Nevermind seems like a horror game, and does market itself as one a bit, but it’s much more than that.  It’s more about trauma, recovery, therapy, etc.  This is a game that is so mindful about the topics it engages in that I am impressed by it every time.  It’s heavy with symbolism and character, despite lacking conversations or other similar game mechanics.  This is a lovely game that I really wish more people knew about-`p5-all of the patients are so interesting, and the focus on recovery and mental health is impressive.

Overrated:  Fire Emblem - I sort of mean this as the series as a whole really.  I have enjoyed the entries I have played somewhat, but I overall consider the series much less impressive than I was led to believe by others.  The gameplay especially is not impressive to me in any regard, even though I sometimes do find myself enjoying it.  The stories are alright, but many of them are weighed down by the gameplay and as a writer and person who likes to analyze writing, it’s very hard to do so when it isn’t able to fully exist under the chains the gameplay forces on it.  There are ways to mix gameplay and story well, Fire Emblem has not really done that in any of the entries I’ve played.  That being said, I don’t regret playing them, and I will occasionally replay, but I consider them mediocre games at best.

Best Voice Acting: Devil Survivor 2 - I love the voice acting in this game.  I feel like all the characters are really suited to their voices, and it’s really easy for me to visualize their voices.  They really bring the game to life and make both the dramatic and the funny scenes more enjoyable.

Worst Voice Acting: Jedi Knight Jedi Academy - I love this game, I really do, but some of the voice acting is janky.  Some of it is okay too--I think Kyle Katarn’s voice actor does fine, and some of the others I like NOW but hated when I was a kid, but the male protagonist voice in this game is just awful.  Which is bad when Jennifer Hale is the female voice actress lol.  His performance is passable though unless you’re playing darksided--the darksided ending to the game lacks all punch when you’re playing the male protagonist.

Favorite Male:  Battler Ushiromiya from Umineko no Naku Koro Ni - He’s the protagonist for most of the visual novels and I adore him utterly, especially once you move past episode 2.  He’s a wonderful character who I care about deeply.  I love his drive and how he fights--he’s someone who is easy to cheer for.  He matures well throughout the series and his character development is just wonderful.

Favorite Female:  Naoto Shirogane from Persona 4 - I really like how Naoto fits so well in the game, especially for being a final recruit--oftentimes the final recruit of Persona games (post 3) have a bit of a more difficult time feeling right with the group.  Naoto works really well though, and I love her struggles and story as well.  I think the difficulties she has concerning living as a woman in her field hit very deep to a problem that has existed for a very long time.

Favorite Protagonist: Connor of Daventry from King’s Quest 8 Mask of Eternity - I’m like, one of four fans of this character in the world, lol.  KQ8 is not a very well liked game and it does have a lot of issues, both with age and with how much of a departure it is from the series prior to it.  It’s strange to take a puzzle adventure game and make it a hybrid with what basically is a shooter, and it doesn’t really work.  Add to that the fact that you spend most of your time in the game without anyone around to talk to and it leads to this really polarizing and weird experience.  For me, Conner goes through what I would consider to be the ‘Ultimate Nightmare Scenario”.  Everyone in the world is turned to stone except him (and he survived out of mere chance) and so now it’s up to him, practically alone, to save the entire world.  There is no game lonelier than this.  I adore him for his bravery in the face of it, and how he just picks up to do what must be done because someone should do it, and if no one else can, then he will.  I also really love how he apologizes to people who are encased in stone while he takes money from their houses to help him on his journey.  I really do think he went back after the game was over and gave everyone heaps of gold to pay them back with interest lol.

Favorite Village:  Oakvale from Fable - The first Fable is the only one I really like, and it was one of the games I played when I was little, so the hometown in the game always meant a lot to me.  I like how you grow up there and how your tragic backstory is there--and then how you get to return to the town years later after you’ve come into your own, and you can see it completely rebuilt.  I like to spend a lot of my time in this town, just wandering around it and playing the minigames.  Even though I have a house in every town, Oakvale is where my hero calls home.

Most Hated Character:  Merril from Dragon Age 2 - I don’t really want to lay into how I feel about Merril, but what I will say is that it was suggested to me that I totally ignore her when playing, and I did so.  I only met her for her quest, dropped her off in town, and literally never spoke to her or interacted for the rest of the game.  I had a much better experience for it, honestly.  She appeared after I made my choice in the end of the game, which felt weird since I hadn’t spoken to her in several ingame years, but other than that, the game was totally fine without her.  I sort of just wish you could kill characters in DA2 the way you can in DAO, then I’d just do that, tbh.  It doesn’t suit very many (or any) of the characters I rp in DA2 to keep her around or support her in any way.

First Game I Played: Mixed up Mother Goose Deluxe - I’m not actually sure if this is the FIRST game I’ve ever played or not, but it’s one of the first I played alone as a kid.  I really loved it--this is probably what created my love for point and click adventures, and the game was very silly and fun.

Favorite Company: Bioware - I’ve always been a sucker for Bioware games, ever since Knights of the Old Republic 1 was my favorite childhood game.  I love how they do stories and party members, and while I’m not a fan of all of their games, I really love what they’ve made and their style of storytelling and character driven plot.  Even though sometimes their stories get cliche, I think the suit video games well and most of my early gaming was within their games.

Hated Company: EA - Bioware truly only started to go to shit after the EA acquisition, so I fucking hate EA.   I know Bioware had issues before EA too, but I definitely don’t think EA has helped the situation whatsoever.

Depressing Game: The Beginner’s Guide - I relate to this game as a creator and a writer, and it affects me deeply because of the story it tells and the questions it raises.  It makes me reflect on how I think of myself as a creator, and it reminds me of friendships I used to have.

Creepy Game:  The Path - God, I love this game.  It’s just aimlessly wandering around and finding symbolic scenery and watching your current character comment on it.  Then, you go off to find your girl’s wolf, and each one is different and unique to her, and you watch it ‘kill’ her--and facing her wolf is the only way each girl can truly mature.  Whenever you get to grandmother’s house, the camera switches to first person, and your eyes keep closing, so you can only see while clicking to move.  It forces you to keep moving so that you can see, but since you are moving, you only get to see things somewhat vaguely.  It’s got a great atmosphere, and I love the symbolic storytelling.

Happy Game: Eastshade - This game is so sweet.  There’s some drama around to with many of the quests, but I like this as an rpg without combat, and I think this would be a really good kids game.  There’s a lot to see and explore, and the game was made to be really pretty so that you want to paint several aspects of it.  It’s really lovely to just wander around in this game and bike around the area, painting anything that suits your fancy.  As long as you don’t finish the main quest, you’re free to wander, and materials do respawn, so you essentially can infinitely paint once you get far enough.

Favorite Ending: Virtue’s Last Reward - I love the questions this game asks and where the ending goes.  It thematically ties together--the whole reason the game itself exists is to get the attention of a ‘higher being’--the player, essentially.  I love how it plays with that concept, and even though the final game in the series doesn’t entirely pick this idea up where this game left it, standalone this game is stunning in how it comes together.

[imorphemi]

I can’t see a reason

To try to fight for meaning

But you give me reason

To know I still have meaning

ya i love this song way too much

Anyways, someone said they wanted to know about my kids, so the rest of you are gonna deal with it >:3

Feel free to ask questions about them too!

So, Roane and Rina! Roane is the first skykid I created, originally just supposed to represent me in general ingame, but gradually he got his own story. Roane is a Rhythm kid, born around the start, reborn sometime after it. He's very friendly and sweet, though does have a slight nervousness around new people. Roane loves music and spends quite a lot of time practicing. He's always saving up candles for the chance that the next traveling spirit would have an instrument he doesn't have. He has, somewhat of a family. He and four other kiddos woke up together in Isle and just decided to stick together.

Rina is the second skykid, created to give Roane a friend, because this is Sky. You can't have a skykid without friends how dare you. Rina is, in fact, a Lightseeker kid. She's extremely shy and gets scared pretty easily, but is very smart. She likes to hang out around Vault and looking up everything she can about the fallen civilization, among other things. However, she gets tired easily and needs sleep. Roane often carries her around after he convinces her to rest. The scar of hers is made by one of the krills in Graveyard (she was there because she wanted to make a map of the place and fell). Her mask was cracked very badly so she started wearing the owl mask instead.

The two first met when Roane faceplanted on the ground next to her when Roane was doing a quick candle run through forest and scared Rina very badly XD

Charm and Corrode will come up, sometime later :3

[xenoglossy-but-also-fishing]

LFRP: Amandine du Aubrieault

The Basics ––– –

Age: 25

Birthday: 12th Sun of the 6th Astral Moon

Race: Elezen.

Gender: Female.

Sexuality: Asexual/grayromantic.

Marital Status: Single.

Physical Appearance ––– –

Hair: Something like deep-gray with black streaks. 

Eyes: Violet. 

Height: About average, for an elezen, she would say. 

Build: Lithe.

Distinguishing Marks: Other than a mark going through her right eyebrow, she doesn’t have any visible scars or marks.

Common Accessories: Her staff if it counts as one, her ear cuffs. Normally wears a necklace and bracelet. A small pouch on the inner side of her coat with gods know what inside of it. 

Personal ––– –

Profession: Usually just says ‘mage’ and leaves it at that.

Hobbies: reading, spending some time with friends, going out once in a while to enjoy herself. Learning about new and exciting things. 

Languages: Eorzean, Ishgardian, a sentence or two in Hannish that she learned from a friend.

Residence: Ishgard. 

Birthplace: Ishgard, presumably.

Religion: Worship of the Fury. 

Patron Deity: Halone, the Fury. 

Fears: Dying without ever knowing the truth that evades her, seaweed, the actual truth that she is trying to find.

Relationships ––– -

Spouse: Doesn’t have one. 

Children: N/A

Parents: Reauriene du Aubrieault: adopted mother, deceased. Amandine has no idea on who her biological parents were.

Siblings: Only one that had died before she could really ‘know’ him. 

Other Relatives: None that she’s interested in keeping contact with. More than likely alive.

Pets: None. 

Traits ––– -

* Bold your character’s answer.

Extroverted / In Between / Introverted

Disorganized / In Between / Organized

Close Minded / In Between / Open Minded

Calm / In Between / Anxious

Disagreeable (depends on the first impressions, really.) / In Between / Agreeable

Cautious / In Between / Reckless

Patient / In Between /  Impatient

Outspoken / In Between / Reserved

Leader / In Between / Follower

Empathetic / In Between / Apathetic

Optimistic / In Between / Pessimistic

Traditional / In Between / Modern

Hard-working / In Between / Lazy

Cultured / In Between / Uncultured

Loyal / In Between / Disloyal 

Faithful / In Between / Unfaithful

Additional information ––– –

Smoking Habit: Tried it once, hated it, never bothered trying much afterwards. 

Drugs: The Fury said drugs are a big no-no. …Probably. Anyways, she has no interest in them. 

Alcohol: More of a social drinker. Usually drinks only wine, even at that. 

RP Hooks ––– –

Ishgardian - Amandine was raised in Ishgard for nearly all of her life. Up until two years ago, she had never even stepped foot outside of the Holy See. If your character happens to be Ishgardian as well, then perhaps you may recognize her from somewhere, like running into each other while shopping or by sitting together in church. 

Out From the Rumor Mill - There was a minor rumour that had started up at some point, two years ago. A terrible illness had taken over Reauriene du Aubrieault, and just as suddenly as it had come, she passed in her sleep. The family attempted to keep it covered, yet such things have a habit of getting out.   

Made more difficult when the apparent heir of the house did not take up her mother’s title, instead going to the aunt, instead. Combined with talk from those employed to the family that said Amandine was being cast from the family on several suspicions of heresy, and having potentially poisoned her mother to claim the title… made no better by her just-as- sudden disappearance. Mayhap one with a good memory and keen eye could recognize this wayward daughter of the Aubrieault family.

Out on the Road - contrary to how the story of many Ishgardians vanishing without another word after being suspected of heresy would usually go, Amandine did not suddenly join a merry band of heretics, or get flung from the edge of Witchdrop. Consciously aware of the latter being a distinct possibility, however, she left Ishgard behind one snowy eve and started off on her own into the great world beyond— she would live out her days as an adventurer, free to go where so ever she chose, to do as she wished. Could it be that you met this bright-eyed adventurer once? She was quite often seen sulking in Gridania after a disappointing pay for her efforts.

Looking For - most things! Friends, rivals, enemies, frenemies… and maybe romantic-esque things, though that one is a little more unsure. (Also probably worth mentioning I don’t do ERP. I’m willing to go with fade to black, but actually like… rping that kinda stuff out is a big pass.) 

I’m up for discussing ways that they might know each other, anyways! There’s bound to be some interesting ideas we can brainstorm up.

Contact Information  ––– –

Heya! So, there are pretty much three easy ways to find me— tumblr, discord, or just in game in general. 

I can be found on @yafaemi​ (my main blog), or here, on xenoglossy. This is my side blog for- you guessed it- Amandine. Feel free to shoot a message! I usually have access to tumblr from either my phone or computer.

Another is discord. You’re more likely to get a quicker answer on discord to be honest, I usually have my discord open. My discord is rory#4178, if you want to get in contact for anything! 

Then there’s ingame. All of my characters are on Mateus in particular, I don’t really have alts anywhere else. This is a bit more of a gamble, since I might not be on in general. Though, if you do happen to see either Amandine Aubrieault, Aurora Rivers, or Oliver Elysande running around on Crystal, feel free to say hi! It’s more than likely me, unless I have twins that I don’t know about. And if I do have twins I don’t know about, well… that’s cool, too. I guess.

I’m usually free during the afternoons every week during normal times, and pretty much all day every day during… not normal times. Being this specific time. But ya, we can probably work something out! My timezone is EST. I live in Canada, if that makes it more specific. 

Anyways! Before I forget to add it, here is Amandine’s carrd info as well!

[tumblunni]

What do you guys think about the names Dustin and Darcy for my protagonists in Let's Go?

Cos i really wanted to play the co op mode thing by myself, just so i can pretend this role in the plot is filled by two siblings and have a bit of fun roleplaying that. But i dunno yet how the co-op works and whether you'd be able to customize the avatar of the second player or if its just the default trainer? Or can you only play co-op if you have two separate games? Im planning to buy the other version anyway once i get more money, so it could be fun to play my first version with sibling one and then the second playthru is sibling two's turn to shine!

Oh and the whole reason i wanted to do this is cos i wanna try out the customization features to make some ocs now that there's no competitive online stuff unless you pay a subscription fee (LOL NO THANKS). Like..i always felt like i HAD to make my character me in xy/sumo/usum, otherwise its like lying online? But of course i cant actually make me because theres no nonbinary option or even remotely ambiguous outfits for either gender. And you cant have wild hair colours while i dye my hair 24/7 irl lol. Its silly cos like 95% of the gym leaders and other characters ingame have anime hair colours yet the player has to be normal? So yeah i cpuldnt really enjoy making this innacurate defanged version of myself yet i didnt feel like i was allowed to just make up a new character either. Closest i could do was give myself white hair like my old trainersona when i was 12, lol. I mean i guess thats my 'real hair colour' underneath the dye right now, if you think about it that way?

OH GOD PIKACHU CAN HAVE A LITTLE TUXEDO AND BOWLER HAT HOLY FUCK IM SORRY TO INTERRUPT THIS BUT I WAS WATCHING THE IGN REVIEW AND THEY SHOWED PIKA BOWLER HAT PLEASE GO GOOGLE THAT VIDEO JUST FOR THAT 1 SECOND OF NEW FOOTAGE OF MY BEAUTIFUL CLASSY BOYE

okay where was i

Yeah! I think sibling trainers could be a good and unique way to handle a rival! Like having them be your sibling already establishes that rivalry. But it can be a soft and nice rivalry! I wanna go with that fun version rather than the full on angry exaggerated sibling rivalries you often see in kids media. Like i know that some people legit dont get on with their siblings and some people can even have a very gary esque full on rivalry thats sorta 'love to hate' or like..tsundere pretending you hate them. But personally i never had experience with that, i can never relate to those 'tfw u hate ur sibling and theyre always an asshole but lolll u love them anyway' posts. I only got to live with my little sister for a little while due to the catastrophe of abusive parenthood that was my childhood, and i lost contact with her forever when she was very young so i doubt she'd even remember me. *sigh* But like i don't think i only love her so much because i miss her! People say newborns and toddlers are the most bratty so like you'd think if i was gonna ever find her 'annoying' i would have done it back then. I was always just mega proud of her and whenever she'd be 'bratty' i'd be cheering her on and trying to protect her from mom. And when she'd try and pull pranks on me or practise play-fighting or whatever i was just like 'lol thats legit funny' and taking play-falls so she felt better about herself. Like we didnt have much power in that household so i felt like encouraging her pretending to be a wrestler would help her feel like she had some sort of control in some part of her life i guess? And just i wished i was allowed to roughhouse and run around and be all 'unladylike' and just enjoy BEING A KID when i was a kid, yknow? I always had legit fun being with her and legit enjoyed it and was legit proud and legit never annoyed. I just dont understand 'yeah she's annoying but i love her anyway'. I was only ever her rival as a play-rival to help encourage her to like.. Enjoy the things she enjoyed. Feel like someone else cared. I only ever acted like 'ha ha baby stuff yeah sure i hate hanging out with my sister" cos i thought i was SUPPOSED TO. I always felt so guilty doing it and so dissappointed cos id rather hang out with her than be a boring stereotypical teen tbh. I dunno, maybe this isnt typical for siblings and its just a sign of how badly we were raised? I was just real fuckin lonely and absolutely loved having a family member who loved me for the first time since my grandma died. Same reason i always used to act all 'i am too cool i totally am not soft for my lil sister' around my lil sister's dad. I really wanted him to love me too! I used to say swear words at him cos i thougjt he would thibk i was Cool And Adult?? I have soooo many cringe moments from that phase of my childhood. Man it hurts to think that i never actually did get to become that positive influence that protected my sister from my mum and let her know she was loved. Cos i was sent to live with my dad when she was like 5ish? And never saw her again and now im too scared to try and reach out to her again because 1: she probably doesnt even remember me, 2: theres a chance she believes my mum saying i was some horrible asshole who abandoned the family, 3: even bigger chance that contacting her could mean my mum finding me again and big fuckin risk of further abuse. Plus the awkwardness of introducing my trans self when she'd remember me as her sister and all. Sigh! All i can do is hope that her cool dad eventually got custody of her, and that he didnt turn out to be a secret bastard like when i met my own dad. He seemed good, but then again i was just a lil kid and my dad seemed good at first. Sighhhhhh...

SO UMM YEAH WOW I MADE MYSELF SAD

Anyway the point is that whenever i write siblings i'd rather write 100% unapologetic super loving love cos its wish fullfillment for me. This is also why in/cest shipping is a massive beserk button for me, good wholesome family relationships are REAL FUCKIN IMPORTANT and how DARE you corrupt that shit! Some people would fuckin KILL to have that wholesome family!!

Anyway lol thats why i'd like a Wholesome Rivalry for these sibling ocs! Like they challenge each other to contests along the way just for fun, and they react all 'wow my sis is the BEST' when you beat them, so hard feelings at all. And you dont JUST do rival stuff but also sometimes just hang out and have fun cos you missed each other. And if anyone threatens your sibling then THAT is the only time you see the Serious Sibling Power! Rival moments: ha ha lol bet ya cant beat me ooo im a scary villain LOL I CANT KEEP A STRAIGHT FACE HAHA! Giovanni punches your brother: *stony cold death glare from hell as tricksy prank sis turns into an unstoppable vengeance engine* Oh, but also the only other time they'd be serious is in their final battle together! Like most of the 'rivalry' is just competing to make the adventure fun and to help each other get stronger. But if sis/bro ever actually legit said they really want to fight to find out who's the best, and its like..important to help their self confidence, then i think bro/sis would respect that and go all out. Taking a fall and letting them win would be the most disrespectful thing of all! Oh, but i do think there would be one kind of battle like that during the story? Like in one of the more low stakes faux-rival fights the sibling actually does try and let you win, and the challenge is to try and lose against all odds. High stakes super failure battle!!! Imagine the evil team in the background like 'wtf' as these two run the most aggressively slow race of all time! XD

Oh and i kinda thought about different personalities for the two of them based on who you pick? Like i did like that aspect about brendan/may in RSE compared to other 'unpicked option becomes rival' characters in later games that didnt even have one personality let alone two. It just sucks that the personalities they decided to give them were 'female rival is super self concious and thinks youre better than her because youre a boy' and 'male rival is super ego and thinks he's better than you because he's a boy'. Boooo!

So instead of that the personalities i was thinking for these two would be less sexist lol. Male sibling Dustin is basically Wally so far? I need to develop him a bit more to make him a bit distinct, i mean its not like every single shy dude is identical. I'm thinking maybe mix him with all the wasted potential in Brendan? Like in the game they slightly hint at him having the ONE non stereotypical trait of liking cute teddy bears, and that made me think about how much better his whole plot would have been if it actually criticized his sexism and said that he only behaves that way cos he's overcompensating for being bullied for being 'feminine', yknow? And then in the manga they actually DO write him as super feminine, and even as a contest star who loves fashion and dressing up his pokemon! But then GAHHH they present it as some sort of fuckin 'character flaw', like he's shown to be selfish and superficial because of it. And the backstory is that him and the female protagonist used to be 'normal' until a traumatic event. Brendan was a Natural Fighting Prodigy until he saved his female friend from a wild pokemon and was so traumatized that he never wanted to fight again, while she wanted to learn to fight so she'd never need to be protected again. But this is not only presented as Wrong Ways To Be Gender but also like.. Fighting their natural instinct which still comes through?? Like male protag hasnt fought in YEARS yet whenever he's forced to fight he's just magically better at it than female protag who's been practising all these years to become his equal. Ha ha silly girl you can never achieve that! All you get is this patronizing 'well if you just tryyyyy girly things im sure you'll like it' plot and then you get rescued by him in the end because OF COURSE you do. Sigh! I cant believe they made me hate that pairing even more than the games did! So yeah i dont really wanna write Dustin as a jerkass who's secretly got synpathetic motives of internalized homophobia/sexism, cos i feel thats a plot very specific to my perceptuons of Brendan and id basically just have to make Dustin a clone of him and he wouldnt be able to shine on his own merits. Instead i'm just thinking of writing him as a 100% sensitive soul, and he still faces predjudice for not being that bigoted idea of an 'ideal man' but really the fact he doesnt bow down to their demands proves that he's the bravest person here.

And then I'm thinking maybe the female sibling Darcy is the older one and is a bit "gary ish"? Like eitjer way you still have a friendly and loving siblingness, but she's a bit more of a sass who is tsundere about admitting she loves her bro. But i dont think she's the cold or grumpy sort of tsundere, more like a trickstery tomboy? Bombastic loki jock sis! She can only be a bit abrasive with her bro cos she wants to teach him to be tough even when she's not there to protect him. But sometimes she can mess it up and make him feel like he has to change his personality in order to be tough, rather than letting him know she supports him in being "unmasculine" and just wants to help him find the confidence to stand up to people who bully him for it. Like she feels like she is 'weaker' than him in the sense that she worries too much about what people will think if she expresses her real emotions, yknow? Like theyre both suffering from toxic masculinity! He's suffering from the standard form where men who are too 'soft' are beaten down into that mould. Ans she's suffering from the problem where 'masculine' girls feel like they have to be '100% masculine' in order to be allowed to be themselves at all. Like back when i was a kid and before i came out as trans i always used to try and pretend to like sports ans like..cliche macho shit where you Cant Admit You Care About Your Friends and also i wasnt allowed to like ANY feminine things at all. I had to either follow the stereotype of femininity entirely or follow the opposite stereotype, i wasnt allowed to just reject stereotypes and like what i actually like. So yeah me realizing i wasnt really a girl has led to me embracing more 'girly' things than back when i thought i was one! So i think Darcy would have a similar arc but like..the cis equivelant? Just finds people who arent such judgmental pricks and stops having to conform to either of those stereotypes in order to keep fake friends who dont really give a shit about her. She can have a plot about both forced feminine and masculine stereotypes being equally limiting, rather than that shitty 'being masculine is a prison uwu every woman will be happier embracing her love of makeup' shit. That dominant narrative just made me feel like i was somehow wrong about myself whenever i didnt like 100% Of Sports All The Time, i must be somehow girly if i liked even ONE girly thing yet i needed hundreds of proofs if i wanted to be masculine. And like i wasnt just allowed to be neither! I wasnt allowed to like parts of both! I wasnt allowed to BE GODDAMN TRANS!!! So yeah i dunno if i'd go whole hog and make this character a trans man or a nonbinary person tho? I think she's just actually a cis girl who happens to be sporty and brash and likes a lot of 'masculine' fashion and hobbies. And she's just been made to feel self concious about it, as if she cant possibly REALLY be that unless she likes Every Single Boy Thing and wins at Every Single Challenge. Does anyone else remember that shit too? The girls have to win Every sports game against the boys in order to be 'one of the boys' but if you lose even one of them it somehow proves that you're inferior. Even though the boys lost 50 billion games to you and that doesnt prove theyre inferior! Like man she has sooooo many 'gary rivals' in her school life, thats why she loves going on this adventure with a kind brother rival who actually respects her! So her resolution would just be her staying the same but being more confident about it and saying fuk u to those fake friends. Same as her brother's plot, just they both face different specifics to the way this sexism affects them, yknow?

Oh but yeah when i did finally learn about LGBT stuff and realize i was trans it was Big Amazing cos even in the rare stories about Its Okay To Be Yourself it still left me feeling weirdly empty when the girl decides that yes she does wanna be a girl in the end. So i get that these plots might come off as queerbaiting if i write them badly? I need to make sure to make it clear that these characters 100% want to be seen as this gender and its just other people being fuckfaces and trying to define what their gender has to mean. I think maybe i'll try and mitigate this potential misunderstanding by adding different sorts of lgbt content. And, well, also cos i just want lgbt content in all of my stories because i am lgbt, of course! I'm 100% sure that Darcy is gay, and i think also maybe possibly Dustin is trans? Like, his plot is about being mocked for being a 'feminine' boy, but its also even more personal for him because he's a trans boy and he feels like he needs to change his personality in order to pass/he isnt really real because his personality doesnt fit the stereotypical image of a man. Like if you'd looked at the two of them back when they were identical twins, you probably would have expected Darcy to end up being trans if you were the sort of person who believes those basic ass stereotypes about 'boys who play with barbies and girls who play with trucks'. Or i mean maybe its the other way around and Darcy is a trans girl who still has a 'masculine' personality according to stereotypes? Or even both of them are trans and both face being told that they arent real because they dont fit the perfect stereotype of a trans person according to cis perceptions? Or maybe i'm overcomplicating things with all of this and it'd just muddy the message i guess. I might just keep it to them both being cis but also both of them like girls. And i can always apply my trans and other LGBT headcanons to other characters along their adventure.

Anyway LOL im rambling too much!

[anyway-i-love-vanderwood]

Anon requested what romancing Yoosung in the MMO AU would be like, and so, I deliver a rough sketch of a design and the rough sketch of a route!

You are a profoundly busy college student juggling both school and work, so you haven’t had time to try Mystic Message Online - an incredibly popular virtual reality mmorpg - though you’ve heard your friend from school gushing about it basically non-stop since you met him. Said friend’s birthday is coming up though, and he’s ALWAYS wanted you to play MMO, so you decide that… hey, why not pick up a copy, level up a character a little, and then surprise him on his special day by telling him your screen-name so you can play together? It’d make him happy, and said friend is pretty cute, anyway. You can take a little bit of a break from work to have fun with him.

You go to the store and, by sheer chance, are awarded a special, milestone promotional code that will give you a number of rare items, along with a fully leveled character to try the game out with. Sounds great, right? You get home, launch the game, put on the special VR headset that makes everything feel so real, and put in you code.

after a flash of light, something weird happens.

You find that you’re logged into a max-level character with an inventory full of strange items, including a peculiar letter that you open up and read. All it says, in a loopy, elegant script, is you are the key that will unlock this world, and it promptly vanishes after you’ve read it, dissolving into particles that are carried off by the wind.

You don’t have much time to think about that, though, because you are IMMEDIATELY besieged by messages in the guild chat, one of them being from Shooting Star.

[the rest is under the read more!]

At first, Yoosung is so hopeful. He really thought, from the bottom of his heart, that RIka couldn’t be dead. There’s no way! So this has to be her, right? Returning after two years, coming back after having accomplished some mysterious work? She was always getting obsessive over things, always dropping her entire being into her job. She was always fascinated with innovation, so she just - she just -- she just did something drastic as a way to take a sabbatical, right?

Because she knew it was the only way she wouldn’t be disturbed...?

But it becomes immediately clear that, while you may be accessing Rika’s character, you definitely aren’t Rika... and Yoosung - or, as you know him, Shooting Star - becomes your staunchest proponent. He can tell you’re a sweet, gentle, generous person right off the bat! There’s no way you could be some kind of conniving hacker. While the others bicker about what to do, he offers to help you get acclimated to the game, and - as he’s done for so many newbies in the past - Yoosung gives you a tutorial.

He’s helpful, encouraging, sweet, informative, and during a stressful situation, he makes you feel miles better....

....but he also almost immediately starts comparing you to Rika.

“It’s kind of funny, that’s something Rika would say!”

“Keep this up, and you’ll be as good as Rika someday!”

“Good choice - Rika always liked using items like that!”

It makes you feel weird, but you don’t say anything, figuring that this is just a temporary state of affairs....

Until you get a panicked message from guild chat asking you to try logging out. You fail, predictably enough.

No one can log out.

Yoosung, perhaps to the reader’s surprise, immediately freaks out. You’d think this would be his dream come true, wouldn’t you? He’s doing badly in school, he spends more time in MMO than real life - but he immediately begs Seven to find some way to contact the outside world. He needs to talk to his mom! His dad!

His crush!

(his crush? you repeat to yourself, shocked. well, of course it made sense. of course. of course a cute, nice, wonderful, supportive boy like this has - has feelings for someone...)

Yoosung is miserable, but he also knows he can’t show a sad face to you, so he tries to smile and do his best in the world he wishes he could share with someone else.

Rather than trying to investigate how to get out of the world, Yoosung puts on his Paladin gear and goes out trying to help people. There are plenty of lost, scared, players - some are even kids who have been separated from their families! - that he needs to go help. That was what the RFA was supposed to do initially, right? Help people?

He’s a knight that protect’s other’s smiles! The other, smarter people can figure out how to get everybody out. He’s going to make sure they’re ok now. Thinking that this is a valiant mission, you accompany him, all the while trying not to fall too hard for him. He - he likes someone else, and... he keeps... treating you like you’re his cousin.

Like you’re Rika.

You have a long road ahead of you...

Events and story arcs -

Stray Children - Almost immediately, Yoosung gets embroiled in the affairs of the Cherry Hill, which despite the rather unassuming name, is one of the major cities in Mystic Message Online - and the one housing the RFA’s guild hall. Chaos immediately overtakes the city as players panic due to being trapped in the game, which particularly affects the youngest players, who are easy to abuse and take advantage of. You and Yoosung’s first order of business is to protect these players, and through your combined efforts, end up instating the “mentorship program”. You organize a charity society that finds higher level, more experienced players that are willing to “adopt” younger players and be their ‘big siblings’, basically. This helps form partnerships and bonds in a world where so many people have been cut from their friends.

You end up interacting with many of the children, and you and Yoosung have numerous interactions where you act a lot like parents. He jokes that you’d be awesome to raise kids with.

I’m Not Rika! - Fed up with how much Yoosung compares you to Rika - and how weird you feel, having another person’s appearance - you ask the rest of the RFA for advice. Zen JUMPS ON THE CHANCE TO HELP GIVE YOU A MAKEOVER, and the two of you go out to change what you look at!

Yoosung gets mad, saying that they SHOULDN’T BE CHANGING RIKA’S CHARACTER, but Zen fires back that YOU ARE STUCK LIKE THIS, FOCUS WHAT’S IN THE PRESENT, YOOSUNG.

...He apologizes to you, and says that you look really nice.

Cherry Blossom Viewing - Cherry Hill is so known because, in the middle of the city, there’s a hill with an enormous cherry blossom tree that’s rumored to be over a thousand years old. Since Day Zero happened near the beginning of March, about a month after, the Cherry Blossoms are ready to view... And Shooting Star decides to take you!

The players of Cherry Hill have banded together to create a festival, and you and Yoosung helped with the party organizing. The two of you have put a lot of work into helping the town come together, and under the cherry blossom trees, you see it come to fruition...

Seeing the falling petals makes Yoosung worry is this is only temporary peace, but you encourage him, saying that you’re with him 100%. Even if things do get hard - and the murmurings of hardship are stirring, as Mint Eye Cultists are recruiting among the players and promising them power if they swear a pact to the organization - you can handle it together!

Yoosung thanks you. You’re the best comrade-in-arms he could ever ask for! He feels as close to you as he did to Rika!

DAMMIT YOOSUNG YOU THOUGHT CHANGING YOUR APPEARANCE WOULD HELP THINGS

Dungeon Bungle - Seven is becoming more and more certain that the secret to what’s going on is contained within the game, and that it has something to do with you. You, Seven, and Yoosung go exploring some of the new areas added by the update, hoping that something will... happen because you’re there. While you’re exploring, Seven sees something that he wants to look over, and he asks for some quiet while he does it.

You and Yoosung leave, and start talking about... various stuff as you wait. Somehow, you end up getting on the topic of Yoosung’s crush.

This boy is clearly head over heels with how he goes on and on and ON about them, and you’re, uh, despondent but encouraging. T-This is only temporary, after all! You’re sure that.... you’re sure that there’ll be someone else out there for you...

You go take a walk, wanting to pull yourself together, when you’re captured by an ambush of Mint Eye cultists. Your distress call is heard by Seven and Yoosung, who immediately rush in to help you.

With their aid, you manage to escape, and Yoosung hugs you, telling you that he’s not letting you out of his sight! He already lost RIka, he can’t lose you too!

...While this should make you happy, somehow, it doesn’t...

I AM NOT RIKA -  After your encounter with the Mint Eye cultists, Yoosung is starting to stifle you. He wants to support you, he wants to protect you, and you know if you’re ever going to get over him, you need some alone time! When you say that, hey, maybe you need some space, he says that when he gave Rika some space, he missed her killing herself! He’s not going to let you suffer alone!

You emphasize that YOU. ARE. NOT. RIKA, stop comparing me to her! Much like in the canon game, he gets advice from everyone else (who basically all tell him, yeah, Yoosung, ur being dumb), and he apologizes again, saying that he will stop. Things get a lot better between you two - which, namely, means more domestic - and you fall harder for him instead of getting over him.

Shit! He likes someone else!

Festival of Starlight - Autumn approaches, and with the coming solstice, the players start preparing for an ingame holiday called the Festival of Starlight. It’s a week-long celebration of the harvest and a feast before the coming winter, and everybody hangs star-shaped lights up in the cherry trees around town. You and Yoosung go together, and during the night, when you’re looking up at the sky, Yoosung laughs and says that it’s getting harder and harder to keep track of time now. It’s just passing so fast! he wonders... he wonders if he’ll spend his next birthday in the game, too.

You’re like - next birthday???? Wait, has he already had one ingame? And he’s like, oh yeah, it was a few days after Day Zero! He was so caught up with other things that he forgot about it.

wait.

a birthday

a few days after Day Zero? when is his birthday.

March 12, he says, the same birthday as your cute friend who got you to play Mystic Message Online in the first place.

where does he live, you ask. where does he go to school?

He’s confused about your sudden interest in his real life, since the neither of you have really talked about it (since sort of painful to talk about a life you were ripped from...) But he answers your questions, and it’s your town. And your university.

Shooting Star, you ask. What is your real name.

“??? I haven’t mentioned? It’s Yoosung Kim!”

you realize you haven’t mentioned your real name either, and under the night sky, surrounded by a million lights, you tell him, and  Yoosung Kim realizes that, this entire time, he has been standing right beside his crush.

[teechew]

How you came up with Fahoras Character/her design= Like, I adore her design! Especially her facial tatoo (It looks nightelfish and yet is different)! *-*

Hello !Fahora has a bit of a long story so... At the very beginning I had a draenei DK - Ashazel. I was still new at WoW and DK was the shit at the end of WotLK. Along a dungeon I met with a nelf DK and, tank and heal ragequit we decided to wait for new players. To set the mood I put up a cooking fire and he came sitting down and we roleplayed a bit. Long story short the both character went into a relationship and had a baby (BARE WITH ME I WAS NEW AT WOW AND THE LORE OK !!)Fahora was born. She was played by a third friend back in the day and she looked different: pinkish skin (like daddy), white hair (like mommy) but she was already an half draenei-nelf. To simplify the think the friend played her as a nelf, because she was going to be a druid.After some month the others players stopped playing and I ended up alone. Loving the story of Ashazel, Glorius and Fahora I didn’t let them being forgotten and redesign them a bit.I gave each of them a proper lore-correctish story and changed their appearance. Also I had a LOT of white hair character back in the day so I changed Fahora so she wasn’t so... “human” and gave her a blue color sheme.For her tatoo I always regretted ingame how the nelf face tatoo aren’t “delicate” enough. Fahora’s one is supposed to be a dragonfly in thin, tribal lines.Back in the day Fahora was played as a confident, slithly spoiled young woman with a “normal” mind. But Oh so often does people liked to remind us that “draenei arrived on Azeroth only 6 years ago, they cannot have a young adult kid!!” (you know, casual “yer a special snowflkes nianiania bullshit)So when I redesign their story I change all that so Fahora young age would shown and explain also why she’s older. To then realized that whatever I did people were never happy with her simply because she was a half blood so I say fuck it, don’t play with me then!I am currently writting a devellopped story for Fahora but I can give you a quick resume.Ashazel, elemental warrior ; came on Azeroth with the Exodar. Met with friendly neigbour nelf Glorious, druid tank ; and started a relationship. They married, got a baby and WotLK rolls in, they’re sent to the northendr war where they die. Baby fahora is raised by grandma but at the beginning of Cata she got kidnapped by cultist (I keep remember how in the wow comic book they said halfblood were “special” for old gods) but they couldn’t use her as infant so they used fel to grow her faster (like the orcs did to their own children)Mom and dad, now DK, comes in and save her.Since then she follows a druid formation but, being tainted by the fel, she doesn’t do very good in heal -where her professor tries to force her to be because it’s always more appreciated plus the fact she has horns, how she’s supposed to be “special” for nelf -  but due to her draenei heritage she excel to arcane magic (it’s in draenei lore they have a natural sensibility with arcanes)So now she’s a very young child in a young teenage body and it fits her childish, crybaby spoiled personnality much better. She has a way more mature approach to death than most child since well... her parents are dead after all but she’s in very good relation with them - she’s just jealous that they’re always out fighting instead of spending time with her.Plus : draenei -> naaru - > elune is a naaru ? -> elune created the boomkin -> arcane druids are boomkin. And all the “star child” aesthetic for Fahora fits perfectly.Like I said i’m writting a full story for Fahora and this is only the introduction. she got adventures during pandaria/WoD ect... Hope it answered your question ^^ Like I said her creation was a bit ... special xDHere some very old art:her parentsher first appearance

[oumakokichi]

Hello! I just wanted to say that i'm a big fan of your metas! But anyways, i wanted to ask if you could maybe tell me more about what's known of Maki? Like, how big her character development is and how you interpret her personality. And i'm really curious about her ingame backstory! Sorry if it's a bit much, i'm just really curious^^'

Thank you! And don’t worry at all, it’s not too much. Ireally enjoy getting to answer these kinds of questions!

As far as Maki goes, she’s a really excellent character inmy opinion! She’s certainly flawed—her lack of impulse control, her coldness,and her legitimately ruthless behavior winds up getting the whole group intotrouble on more than one occasion. I have perhaps a few problems with how her growthand development is handled at times, and I wish that so much of it wasn’tcontingent on Momota, but I’d still say that by Chapter 6 especially, Maki hascome a long way.

I’ll try discussing what’s known about her and the ways inwhich she grows and develops under the read more! This will involve spoilersfor pretty much the whole game so be careful if you want to avoid gettingthoroughly spoiled!

I’ve mentioned before in a few meta posts but I’m honestlyreally pleased with the fact that Maki wound up being a survivor, even thoughher survival has been a point of contention for many fans. I’ve always beeninterested in seeing a character who was used to taking orders or not thinkingfor themselves making it through to the end, and Maki is the closest we’vegotten to that.

Like Mukuro and Peko before her, Maki is someone who’s beentrained since childhood to be a human weapon, someone who does what she’s toldwithout thinking about it and has never been allowed to think or want thingsfor herself. Like both of them, she views herself in very inhuman terms: sheflat-out tells Saihara after getting to know him and Momota a little betterthat she honestly considers Kiibo more human than herself. Her in-gamebackstory is, of course, entirely responsible for this, which is an interestinglook at how the remember lights and assigned in-game backstories can still haveheavy consequences on the characters’ self-perception and tendency to behave acertain way.

Maki was scouted to become an assassin from a young age inher in-game backstory. She grew up in an orphanage and doesn’t remember much ofanything about her life before going there, not even her own parents’ faces. Afew scouts came to the orphanage one day under the guise of “playing” with thechildren; the truth however was that children with no families or loved onesto miss them would make the best potential recruits to mold into trainedkillers, and they were all young enough that it’d be easy to teach them not totalk back or question orders.

Maki was the only one who met their requirements and wastaken away from the orphanage in order to start her assassin training, allwithout any personal say in the matter. This lack of personal say-so anddecision-making is the primary recurring theme among her backstory. It’s thislack of choice in her own life that jumpstarts her entire character arc ofdevelopment, because right from the beginning, she’s someone who feels that she’snot allowed any choices in her ownlife. Most of her role in ndrv3 revolves around gradually getting a taste ofchoice and freedom and making both good and bad decisions accordingly, as shebecomes rather intoxicated with the idea of falling in love with Momota out ofher own free will.

At first, it’s clear that she’s rather uncomfortable withMomota’s attempts to befriend her (and to a lesser degree, Saihara’s, since he’sless insistent about it). Similar to Togami, she’s very much the character whotries distancing herself from the group completely in the first few chapters.Because she thinks of herself as a “tool” only good for killing, there’sundeniably a large degree of self-loathing and resentment. Her refusal to getclose to people isn’t only because she’s not a trusting individual by nature,but also quite simply because she doesn’t think she deserves to get close tothem in the first place, as Momota points out after the Chapter 5 trial.

But given time, she does warm up to the idea of makingfriends and (most importantly) falling in love. After acknowledging the factthat the one remaining question about her old life at the orphanage is “howwould things be now if I’d never left,” she definitely seems to come to termswith the fact that the killing game might well be a situation in which she can “startanew,” so to speak. She’s the SHSL Assassin and her talent makes her aterrifying force, to be sure, but since she’s no longer working for anyone ortaking orders from anyone, the idea arises that she can actually, legitimatelychoose her own path in this scenario, despite how bizarre and messed upeverything around them is.

This unprecedented level of choice in her life leads to asurprising amount of reckless impulsiveness from her. Many people in the fandomstill, I think, regard Maki as someone meant to parallel Kirigiri because they’reboth essentially the main female leads of their respective stories, but I don’tthink this comparison quite works. Where Kirigiri unarguably has a very coolcomposure that can’t often be broken, Maki’s seemingly cool façade is brokenquite easily. Her coldness is very surface-level, and under that surface shehas a dangerous temper which can provoke very dangerous, real consequences.

Ouma tries to out her talent to the rest of the group withvery good reason: she has killed before and she is prone to killing again. Herinstinct, because of the ruthless training she went through and because it’sall she’s ever known, is to resort to violence and murder whenever things startgoing astray. And that makes her a very real risk in something as dangerous asthe killing game. But the danger she poses to the rest of the group often getsdownplayed because no one wants to believe it; they instead choose to believein the whole “blind optimism trust your friends without ever doubting them”routine which is ultimately what leads to such horrible consequences in Chapter5 in particular.

I personally really, honestly like the fact that Maki is soreckless, impulsive, and flawed. Her flaws, including her coldness andimpoliteness to others, as well as the very real threat she presents to therest of the group, are often highly praised qualities in male characters, and I’mglad to see them in a female character for once, even though it is sad to seeher receive so much hate in the tag.

Maki can be frustrating sometimes but that’s exactly whatmakes her a good character. There arethings that could perhaps have been handled better in her arc though, and oneof the things I wish had been more addressed was the fact that she was cold andruthless enough to intentionally attempt to get everyone killed in the Chapter5 trial—sadly her treatment of them in the trial gets almost completely brushedunder the rug after the fact, again because most of her actions are attributedto revolving around Momota.

But I would have honestly really enjoyed seeing a few pointsof contention in Chapter 6 at first between Maki and the rest of the groupsince she did, very knowingly, try to kill all of them, and that would haveadded another layer of impact to her decision to try and sacrifice herself forthe sake of the “hope” choice in the Chapter 6 trial. It would have made for aninteresting sort of atonement arc, rather than the narrative trying to act asif she had nothing to really atone for because her intentions were “in theright place.”

Still, the fact that she’s one of the first “tool/weapon”characters who actually makes it all the way to the end as a survivor, and thefact that she’s so unconventional to the usual “main female  DR lead” trope is highly enjoyable. Maki’sbrusqueness and even her impulsiveness is one of the things that keeps the plotprogressing the way it does, and she’s definitely a good character in her ownright. She messes up, she makes big mistakes—and she pays for it, as the consequencesin Chapter 5 show.

The “reveal” in Chapter 6 about how all of the characters’memories, thoughts, and even romantic feelings were “all Tsumugi’s doing” andpart of her “scenarios” hits particularly hard with regards to Maki. As someonewho was only just beginning to find her own sense of self and come to termswith her past and the ways in which it left her feeling permanently scarred andmessed up, the idea that all of this too was just her following someone else’swhims is too much to bear. Even when she thought she was acting on her own forthe first time, even those feelings were just “part of someone else’s scenario”(they weren’t, but that’s what Tsumugi wants her to think anyway).

She’s motivated to stand strong and put an end to thekilling game not by either hope or despair in the end, but by Saihara’s firmreminder of Momota’s last words, and of his promise that the experiences theylived through really did have meaning. Even if they’re all fictionalexistences, even if their memories or backstories were implanted by someoneelse, Maki is done with having others decide her life for her; her feelingshave real meaning to her and that’s all that really matters in the end. And it’ssuch a satisfying conclusion to her character arc to witness, considering I don’tthink it’s something she would have been capable of coming to terms with priorto Chapter 6.

Anyway, there’s a lot to talk about with Maki—she’sextremely interesting, flawed, and developed, and I probably haven’t eventouched on everything there is. I hope I was able to get some of my thoughtsacross though. Thank you so much for stopping by, and again, it’s always reallyfun to be able to answer these sorts of questions!

[beast-queen]

Fallout!

send me a fandom and i’ll tell you…

Fallout (4)

Fake Fallout fan here, I’ve only played Fallout 4 yikes. But I am sure New Vegas is better. 

the first character i ever fell in love with:

Preston Garvey! I actually have no idea how I found out that Preston is a character in this game since I wasn’t even invested in Fallout before him, but I found out he exists and got really into both him and the franchise. I honest to God don’t remember how it happened. 

a character that i used to love/like, but now do not:

Cait. I mean before playing I really wanted to date the irish girl with a very sad backstory but can kick my ass, however walking around with her ingame and all made me become uninterested and neutral and I don’t know why. 

a ship that i used to love/like, but now do not:

I don’t ship many canon things? I don’t ship canon things at all so far so can’t really say. 

my ultimate favorite character™:

Preston Garvey (however his position is challenged by Nick Valentine, Hancock and X6!)

prettiest character:

Piper! I love her and she is so beautiful! I think Curie is her competition but I cannot choose, they are both really pretty! (and Preston in the Silver Shroud armor)

my most hated character:

I mean, I don’t like Maxon at all but I can’t say I hate him? I hate fanon Maxon, but I haven’t met the canon one in depth yet. 

my OTP:

Everyone’s Sole Survivor/Their romantic interest(s) of choice!my ss Tracie/Preston

my NOTP:

The good thing in rpgs is that everyone usually ships their character with others and rarely they ship canon characters together, so I can rest easy knowing 

favorite episode:

Erm it’s a game so.....

saddest death:

Eh like if I don’t mod X6 I will cry when he is dead even thought I won’t see that happening, but otherwise from the canon deaths its a strong tie between Kyle Long and that teenage girl that ran away from home cause she was pregnant and died in that cabin. 

favorite season:

I guess favourite game? It will probably be New Vegas, but I haven’t played it so can’t say yet. 

least favorite season:

I don’t plan on playing fallout 1 & 2 even if they are good so there is that. 

character that everyone else in the fandom loves, but i hate:

Maxon. Why do you all love Maxon? What does he have? except a really nice lootable coat.

my ‘you’re piece of trash, but you’re still a fave’ fave:

Deacon most definitely. I mean okay he is actually not a piece of trash and I don’t like the wording. Also in this category goes “you kind of support the people I hate but I still love you” and the winner is X6. 

my ‘beautiful cinnamon roll who deserves better than this’ fave:

PRESTON GARVEY!!!! AAAAAAA!!!! He deserves better than what fandom does to him and he deserved a personal quest and a lot more lines, he is a faction leader aaaaaaaaa. And X6 deserves better than what Bethesda gave him. And Hancock deserves better than to be treated like nothing but a drug addict womanizer. And Danse deserves better than the lack of a resolution to his story. And--

my ‘this ship is wrong, nasty, and makes me want to cleanse my soul, but i still love it’ ship:

None! 

my ‘they’re kind of cute, and i lowkey ship them, but i’m not too invested’ ship:

If I tried really hard I probably would find some NPCs I ship, otherwise, like I don’t know.